The Works of Thomas Hood; Vol. 01 (of 11): Comic and Serious, in Prose and Verse, With All the Original IllustrationsHood, Thomas
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The Works of Thomas Hood; Vol. 01 (of 11): Comic and Serious, in Prose and Verse, With All the Original Illustrations
Hood, Thomas
English poetry -- 19th century; English wit and humor; Humorous poetry, English
It is scarcely possible for you, my dear Charles, to conceive the
difficulties and anarchical manifestations of turbulence, which
threaten and disturb your old birth-place, poor Stoke Pogis. To the
reflecting mind, the circumstances which hourly transpire afford ample
food for speculation and moral reasoning. To see the constituted
authorities of a place, however mistaken or misguided by erring
benevolence, plunging into a fearful struggle with an irritated,
infuriated, and I may say, armed populace, is a sight which opens a
field for terrified conjecture. I look around me with doubt, agitation,
and dismay; because, whilst I venerate those to whom the sway of a
part of a state may be said to be intrusted, I cannot but yield to
the conviction that the abuse of power must be felt to be an overstep
of authority in the best intentioned of the Magistracy. This even you
will allow. Being on the spot, my dear Charles, an eye-witness of
these fearful scenes, I feel how impossible it is for me to give you
any idea of the prospects which surround me. To say that I think all
will end well, is to trespass beyond the confines of hope; but whilst
I admit that there is strong ground for apprehending the worst, I
cannot shut my eyes to the conviction, that if firm measures, tempered
with concession, be resorted to, it is far from being out of the pale
of probability that serenity may be re-established. In hazarding this
conclusion, however, you must not consider me as at all forgetting
the responsibilities which attach to a decidedly formed opinion. Oh,
Charles! you who are in the quiet of London, can little dream of the
conflicting elements which form the storm of this devoted village. I
fear you will be wearied with all these details; but I thought at this
distance, at which you are from me, you would wish me to run the risk
of wearying you rather than omit any of the interesting circumstances.
Let Edward read this; his heart, which I know beats for the Parish,
will bleed for us.
I am, &c.
H. J. P.
P.S.--Nothing further has yet occurred, but you shall hear from me
again to-morrow.
_Another Account._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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