Hunt, Henry, 1773-1835; Social reformers -- Great Britain -- Biography
"And, therefore, as the only mode of doing justice to
the petitioner and to the public in a case of such singular
atrocity, your petitioner prays your Honourable House
that he may be permitted to prove (as he is ready to do)
all and singular the aforesaid allegations at the Bar of
your Honourable House, and that if your Honourable
House shall find the allegations to be true, you will be
pleased to address his Royal Highness to cause the aforesaid
Magistrate to be dismissed from his office.
"And your petitioner shall ever pray.
"H. HUNT."
The day of the third Spafields meeting arrived, and I drove to town in
my tandem, and put up at the British Coffee-house livery-stables, in
Cockspur-street, where I had for several years before gone with my
horses. My trunk was, as usual, taken into a bedroom, where I meant to
change my dress previously to my going to the meeting. I had first to
walk into Fleet-street on business, and when I got there, I saw _nine
pieces of artillery_ drawn over Blackfriars-bridge, which proceeded
up Fleet-market towards Spafields, attended by a regular company of
artillery men from Woolwich. I had called on Major Cartwright as I drove
into town, and he informed me that he had heard, from good authority,
that a Cabinet Council had been held on Saturday, and that LORD
CASTLEREAGH _had proposed to disperse the intended meeting by military
force_, but that the other Cabinet Ministers had opposed this measure,
and that at length CASTLEREAGH retired, muttering vengeance, and adding
that he would take the responsibility upon himself. The Major spoke with
great earnestness and feeling, while, if I recollect right, I treated
his information rather lightly, saying, that if they killed me I hoped
the Major would write my epitaph. When, however, I saw the artillery
pass up Fleet-market, in a direction for Spafields, the place of
meeting, I began to think more seriously of the matter; but, as I was
about to do that which my conscience approved of, and as I knew that I
should not violate any law, I returned towards my inn, certainly in a
serious mood, yet determined to do my duty. Not one man that I knew in
the whole metropolis would or did accompany me. I called at Cobbett's
lodgings, in Catherine-street, and asked the young ones, rather
sarcastically, if they meant to attend the meeting? to which they
answered, that their father had left positive orders that they should
not go over the threshhold of the door that day. When I got to my inn,
in Cockspur-street, I ordered my servant to get my horses ready, and I
went to my bedroom to put on a clean shirt, but I was surprised to find
that my trunk had been removed. I rung the bell several times before any
one came; at length the _Boots_ appeared, instead of the chambermaid,
and I demanded the reason of my trunk being removed. He either knew or
pretended to know nothing of the matter, but said he would inquire.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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