Hunt, Henry, 1773-1835; Social reformers -- Great Britain -- Biography
Cranidge, Brownjohn, and others, stood firmly and staunchly by me, and
Mr. Cossens, one of Sir Samuel Romilly's committee, I found also to be
a staunch friend; and I believe this was the only friend I had amongst
them: almost all the freemen that he brought up to the hustings polled
for Romilly and Hunt, but all those of Sir Samuel Romilly's voters, who
were under the influence of their masters, were ordered to give plumpers
for Sir Samuel Romilly, and all of them were canvassed to do so. Such,
however, as had the spirit to follow the dictates of his conscience,
voted for Hunt and Romilly; almost all the London voters did this,
although they were urged to vote for Romilly alone.
During this contest, if it may be called one, the notorious Captain
Gee was a very active partizan of Mr. Davis's; he headed a gang of
blackguards, a set of second-rate prize-fighters, amongst whom was the
notorious Bob Watson. This gang used to annoy the voters of Sir Samuel
Romilly most infamously. Watson used to come into the box, where ten or
twelve of Sir Samuel Romilly's voters were assembled waiting to poll,
and with the assistance of two or three more of his gang, backed on by
Captain Gee, he would hustle and drive them all out of the box, and
prevent them from giving their votes. At length, Sir Samuel was
induced to snake a serious remonstrance to the Sheriff against such an
unwarrantable violation of the freedom of election, and he called upon
the Sheriff to have Watson taken into custody, who had actually been
assaulting several of his voters in the presence of the Sheriff.
Although Mr. Sheriff had been an eyewitness of these proceedings several
times before, yet he felt that, now his attention was thus publicly
called to the subject, he could not connive at them any longer; and as
Watson had been laying about him in the most outrageous manner, in which
he had the audacity to persevere, although called upon by the Sheriff to
desist, Mr. Sheriff ordered his constables to take Watson into custody.
Two or three of these guardians of the peace made a faint attempt to
obey his orders, but Watson beat them all off, and set them at defiance.
Sir Samuel remonstrated again; the constables were called up, and they
informed the Sheriff that, notwithstanding there were fifty of them in
the Hall, yet they dared not seize Watson. Mr. Sheriff, turning to Sir
Samuel, said, "there you hear, Sir, what the constables say, what can I
do more than I have done?" This pusillanimous speech made Watson ten
times more violent than he was before. I confess that my blood
boiled at hearing such language from the Sheriff; and although I was
not personally concerned, as Watson had not touched one man that had my
colours in his hat, yet I felt disgusted and angered to see such partial
and indecisive conduct on the part of the Sheriff, who actually
turned round and appealed to me to know what he should do? I replied
indignantly, "why, commit the constables, and seize the daring violater
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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