At this period there were many elements of discord in the social community that were acting upon a large and dangerous portion of it, to the prejudice of the Government.[15] Besides the Thistlewood gang, justice was about to dispose of Mr. Orator Hunt and his myrmidons, then awaiting their trial. Sir Charles Wolseley, a baronet, and Joseph Harrison, a preacher, were under prosecution for uttering seditious speeches.[16] Sir Francis Burdett--a more popular tribune--was also at variance with the laws for a scandalous attack on Ministers; in short, every day seemed to bring to light some source of mischief which could not fail to add to the uneasiness of the responsible servants of the Crown. A general election stirred up other noxious ingredients, and during the spring of the year everything seemed to betoken a coming convulsion. At this time the following communication was written:-- [15] Lord Sidmouth's intelligence led him to expect daily a revolutionary movement.--"Life," by Dean Pellew, vol. iii. p. 325. [16] The minister of religion exceeded the democratic baronet in the violence of his denunciations of the ruling powers, a fair example of which may be found in the following _morceau_:--"Kings, princes, dukes, lords, commons, parliaments, archbishops, bishops, prelates, rectors, high-constables, constables, sheriffs, deputy-constables and bailiffs, are all corrupt, and the time is near at hand when they will be upset. The people should rise _en masse_ to suppress such a tyrannical Government as the one of this country, and it will not be long, but very soon, that it shall be overturned, and many a bloody battle may be fought, and many a one incarcerated in prison, before it shall be accomplished." LORD GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM. March 29, 1820. Hunt's conviction is beyond my hope, though it would certainly have been no easy matter for any jury to acquit him, even under the charge such as it is. His motion for a new trial is, I imagine, nothing more than the sort of last resource at which defeated men, whether at elections or trials, always love to catch. It would have been a dreadful thing indeed if it had been established by the result of that trial that the Manchester meeting was, under all its circumstances, a legal assembly.