Real Life In London, Volumes I. and II.: Or, The Rambles and Adventures of Bob Tallyho, Esq., and His Cousin, the Hon. Tom Dashall, Through the Metropolis; Exhibiting a Living Picture of Fashionable Characters, Manners, and Amusements in High and Low Life (1821)Badcock, John, active 1816-1830
General
Real Life In London, Volumes I. and II.: Or, The Rambles and Adventures of Bob Tallyho, Esq., and His Cousin, the Hon. Tom Dashall, Through the Metropolis; Exhibiting a Living Picture of Fashionable Characters, Manners, and Amusements in High and Low Life (1821)
Badcock, John, active 1816-1830
London (England) -- Social life and customs -- 19th century
“He is a branch of one of the most ancient families in the kingdom, and
can trace his ancestors without interruption, from the days of William
the Conqueror. His political career has been eventful, and perhaps has
cost him more, both in pocket and person, than any Member of Parliament
now existing. He took his seat in the House of Commons at an early age,
and first rendered himself popular by his strenuous opposition to a bill
purporting to regulate the publication of newspapers.
“The next object of his determined reprehension, was the
Cold-Bath-Fields Prison, and the treatment of the unfortunates therein
confined. The uniformly bold and energetic language made use of by
the honourable Baronet upon that occasion, breathed the true spirit of
British liberty. He reprobated the unconstitutional measure of erecting
what he termed a _Bastile_ in the very heart of a free country, as
one that could neither have its foundation in national policy, nor
eventually be productive of private good. He remarked that prisons, at
which private punishments, cruel as they were illegal, were exercised,
at the mercy of an unprincipled gaoler--cells in which human beings were
exposed to the horrors of heart-sickening solitude, and depressed in
spirit by their restriction to a scanty and exclusive allowance of
bread and water, were not only incompatible with the spirit of the
constitution, but were likely to prove injurious to the spirit of the
23~~people of this happy country; for as Goldsmith admirably remarks,
“Princes and Lords may nourish or may fade,
A breath can make them as a breath hath made,
But a bold peasantry their country's pride,
When once destroyed can never be supplied.”
“_And if this be not tyranny_” continued the philanthropic orator,
“_it is impossible to define the term. I promise you here_ that I will
persevere to the last in unmasking this wanton abuse of justice and
humanity.” His invincible fortitude in favour of the people, has
rendered him a distinguished favourite among them: and though by some he
is termed a visionary, an enthusiast, and a tool of party, his adherence
to the rights of the subject, and his perseverance to uphold the
principles of the constitution, are deserving the admiration of every
Englishman; and although his fortune is princely, and has been at his
command ever since an early age, he has never had his name registered
among the fashionable gamesters at the clubs in St. James's-street,
Newmarket, or elsewhere. He labours in the vineyard of utility rather
than in the more luxuriant garden of folly; and, according to general
conception, may emphatically be called an honest man. “But come,” said
Tom, “it is time for us to move homeward--the company are drawing off I
see, we must shape our course towards Piccadilly.”
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