Part 14

"What must the people in the country think of all this? What a mass of absurdities and contradictions! What madness it all appears to be! Good insurrections; constitutional attacks on the government! Plots which the prime Minister has been urged to adopt in order to save the nation! What can the people at large make out of such a strange medley? The sons of Corruption it is who have made the medley. They wanted a Plot. The mad riots in the city afforded them a pretext, and they have put the words PLOT and INSURRECTION into Mr. Preston's mouth in order to favour their views. Now, let us see how a plain tale will put them down and expose their malice to the world.

"About sixteen years ago, a Mr. SPENCE, a schoolmaster in Yorkshire, conceived what he called a PLAN for making the nation happy, by taking all the lands into the hands of a just government, and appropriating all the produce or profit to the support of the people, so that there would be no one in want, and all would live in a sort of Christian Brotherhood. This plan, accompanied with some political remarks, he published in 1800, for which he was pursued by a Criminal Information Ex-Officio, by the present Chief Justice, who was then Attorney-General. When brought up for trial I was present in the Court of King's Bench. He had no counsel, but defended himself, and insisted that his views were pure and benevolent, in proof of which, in spite of all exhortations to the contrary, he read his pamphlet through. He was found guilty and sentenced to be imprisoned for I forget how long. He was a plain, unaffected, inoffensive looking creature. He did not seem at all afraid of any punishment, and appeared much more anxious about the success of his plan than about the preservation of his life. After he came out of prison, he pursued the inculcation of his plan, appearing to have no other care; and this he did, I am assured, to the day of his death, always having been a most virtuous and inoffensive man, and always very much beloved by those who knew him.

"We have all seen, for years past, written on the walls, in and near London, these words, "SPENCE'S PLAN:" and I never knew what it meant, until, a little while ago, I received a pamphlet from Mr. Evans, Newcastle-street, Strand, detailing the Plan very fully. This Mr. Evans, I understand to be a very worthy man, and his pamphlet, though I do not agree with it in opinion as to many of its propositions, contains some interesting observations, and breathes a spirit of benevolence throughout the whole.

"Mr. Preston and the Watsons appear to have been followers of Mr. Spence; and the 'plan' of which Mr. Preston is said to have 'confessed' the existence, is, as you will see, 'Spence's Plan,' and nothing more; and nothing more, no, not a hair more, will Corruption's sons, with all their torturing and twisting, with all their falsehoods and affected alarms, be able to make of it! Thus, you will clearly perceive, that the 'confessions,' as they are called, of your correspondent, Mr. Preston, are no confessions at all. You will clearly see, that Corruption's Press has foisted in the words insurrection and plot; for, unless you see this, what sense is there in the words good and constitutional? What absurdity to believe, that a man, and a guilty man, too, would talk about a good insurrection and about a plot that was constitutional, and which plot had been going on for eight years, and had been communicated to Mr. Perceval as the only means of saving the nation! But, strip these lying accounts of the words insurrection and plot, and leave the word plan, and then the whole, however wild in itself, becomes perfectly consistent; and such, you may depend on it, and no other, has been the 'confession' of Mr. Preston.

"The Courier of Monday last, in pursuance of its endeavours to keep the scent of a plot from cooling, has these remarks: 'Whether the plan of the rioters was to commence in the morning or at night, is not ascertained; but from the declaration of Preston, who charges young Watson with precipitancy, it appears that the operations were not to commence till dark. Preston still maintains a high and indignant tone; he talks more enthusiastically than before of the extent of the plot, and adds, that not less than three hundred thousand persons were enrolled in the cause. Hooper, who states Preston to be the instigator and great mechanist of the conspiracy, has declared that the two Watsons, himself, and Preston, were in concert together in Spa-fields on the morning of Monday.'--Now, I dare say, that it will finally turn out, that Hooper has said no such thing as is here stated. But here again you see, that the words plot and conspiracy are used instead of the word plan, and this is manifestly for the base and diabolical purpose of causing the people to believe, that there has been a conspiracy against the government, and that all the Reformers are enrolled in this conspiracy! But be you well assured, that these eager efforts to excite alarm will fail of their purpose, and that the workers in them and their abettors will come out of the attempt covered with infamy, though nothing can produce in them any feeling of shame.

"In the meanwhile the Spenceonians are posting up, all about, the prospectus of this plan, and as if for the express purpose of preparing the way for their own everlasting disgrace, the owners of the Corrupt Press are publishing this very document, which I insert here as taken from the Courier of Monday.

"'The following hand-bill, it is stated, was circulated through the Metropolis yesterday, and excited much apprehension:--

'SPENCE'S PLAN For Parochial Partnerships in the Land, Is the only effectual Remedy for the Distresses and Oppressions of the People. The Landholders are not Proprietors in Chief; they are but the Stewards of the Public; For the LAND is the PEOPLE'S FARM. The Expenses of the Government do not cause the Misery that surrounds us, but the enormous exactions of these 'Unjust Stewards.' Landed Monopoly is indeed equally contrary to the benign Spirit of Christianity, and destructive of The Independence and Morality of all Mankind. 'The Profit of the Earth is for all;' Yet how deplorably destitute are the great Mass of the People? Nor is it possible for their situations to be radically amended, but by the establishment of a system, Founded on the immutable basis of Nature and Justice. Experience demonstrates its necessity; and the rights of mankind require it for their preservation.

To obtain this important object, by extending the knowledge of the above system, the Society of Spencean Philanthropists has been instituted. Further information of its principles may be obtained by attending any of its Sectional Meetings, where subjects are discussed calculated to enlighten the human understanding, and where also the regulations of the Society may be procured, containing a complete developement of the Spencean system.--Every individual is admitted, free of expense, who will conduct himself with decorum.

The Meetings of this Society begin at a quarter past eight in the evening, as under:

First Section, every Wednesday, at the Cock, Grafton-street, Soho. Second ............ Thursday, Mulberry Tree, Mulberry-court, Wilson-street,Moorfields. Third ............. Monday, Nag's Head, Carnaby-market. Fourth ............ Tuesday, No. 8, Lumber-street, Mint, Borough.'

"This is the Plan! This is the plan, the plot, the conspiracy, and the insurrection scheme! And, what an impudent, what an incorrigible, what a hardened impostor, must this writer be, who can tell the public, that this hand-bill excited much apprehension! Apprehension, I believe, indeed, in him and his associates and encouragers; for it furnishes the clue to unravel all their falsehoods and to expose them to scorn and to detestation; but, it is calculated to excite 'apprehension' in nobody else. The public indignation is fast collecting and winding up to a high pitch; and it only waits the result of the present examinations to pour down upon the heads of these corrupt instigators to fury and bloodshed. A gang of spies and informers, in one of Beaumont and Fletcher's plays, who, after long and wearisome contrivances to discover a plot and to get the reward, just at the moment when they are expecting to see their victim swing and to pocket the blood-money, are sent away abashed and confounded by the discovery that it was a Cod's Head and not that of the Sovereign, against which he had been plotting. Not less complete would be the confusion of these corrupt writers, if it were not that they are destitute of every feeling that can lead to shame or remorse.

"Monstrous, however, as are the baseness and malice and cruelty of these men, they are, I think, still exceeded by their folly. The main object of all their endeavours, is, very clearly, to render you odious and to put you down; and, if they had been created for the express purpose of exalting you, it would have been impossible for them to labour to that end with more zeal or more effect. Your manner of conducting the second meeting, the way in which you carried on your communications with the government, the punctuality and decorum of your proceedings, the language and matter of your Resolutions and Petition, and the effect of these, very justly entitled you to a large share of public applause; but, the blows which these ferocious writers have aimed at your life have excited an interest in your favour such as no human being could have thought possible, and in the tide of which are completely drowned all your momentary errors and indiscretions, which, besides, having arisen from an excess of zeal, were not calculated to be long held in remembrance. Some very good, but very weak and timid people talked of your violence, while they seemed to overlook the violent thing which you attacked; but in the minds of all good men there is an inherent abhorrence of baseness like that which has aimed its murderous sting against your life, and, in the present case, this abhorrence has overpowered all the alarms of the good and timid people in whose breasts what is called your violence had excited such alarms. "The vipers have the mortification to perceive this, and their rage is increased accordingly. They see your portrait, from three different hands, setting them at defiance in the print-shop windows. They hear your speech and resolutions cried through the streets, and sold out of shops in several separate editions. They hear the taverns and public-houses filled with talk about you. They have contrived by their endeavours to implicate you in a 'treasonable conspiracy,' to excite a strong feeling of some sort or other respecting you in every human breast. And this is their way of putting a man down! They have, even by the use of their own columns, made your name familiar to the very water's edge of these islands. They have made you the only one of your kind; there is now but one Mr. Hunt in the world. Your ambition must be a cormorant indeed, if this does not satisfy it. No longer ago than Monday, they very seriously announced, that 'Hunt was SEEN, in his Tandem, going towards his home on Thursday last!' They seem to think that the public is much more interested in your movements than in those of the Prince Regent or of the Queen. I should not wonder if they were to have a 'Court News Writer' to give an account of all the movements of your body; and, after what I have seen within these ten days, I do not despair of seeing them announce, that 'on Monday, Mr. Hunt took the diversion of shooting till three o'clock. On Tuesday, Mr. Hunt went to inspect his barns, and was graciously pleased to express his high approbation of the ingenious mode of laying the crab-stick on upon the sheaves of wheat. On Wednesday, Mr. Hunt gave audience to several tax-gatherers, to whose importunities he did not listen with an overstock of complacency.' And so on, day after day. Why should I despair of this, after what I have seen? Your Tandem is become far more renowned than the Bulletproof coach, and your horse Bob, is far more famous already than the charger of old Blucher.

"Oh! the fools! Could not the settled reputation of being the most consummate of knaves content them? Was it necessary, in order to satisfy their ambition, to stand unrivalled through the world for folly as well as for knavery?

"Gratified, however, as you must be by these demonstrations of the impotent malice of such men, I hope, and indeed, I am sure, that a more gratifying consideration with you will be, as it ought to be, that these vile men have added to your power of serving your country, and which you will now be the better able to serve, because, having given such ample proofs of earnestness and resolution, you may safely moderate your zeal without risking any imputation of a want of that super-excellent quality. That quality, in which so many men are deficient, you possess to a redundance. Guard against this excess in future: take in a little sail, and add a little to your ballast: exchange a little of the courage of the lion for a little of the wisdom of the serpent: give up a little, and only a very little, of the stubbornness of the oak, for a little, and only a very little, of the pliancy of the reed: do this, and trust to the folly and knavery of these stupid and malignant wretches to make you a great man.

"The situation of the country is becoming day after day more and more perilous, and there can be no relief without a radical cure. The Prince in his answer to the City of London (which I shall fully notice by and by) confesses, as he well may, the existence of national distress and difficulty. These are important words, and especially the last. This is a great change produced since the beginning of last session of Parliament, when the wondrous prosperity of the country was a prominent theme of the Speech, and when your Wiltshire County Member, Mr. Paul Methuen, congratulated the House, that this country bad become the pillar of legitimacy all over Europe! Alas! how soon things have changed! Misery is a greater teacher than Messrs. Lancaster and Bell both put together.

"The Spitalfields subscription swells at a great rate, and, as a means of immediate relief, I am glad it does, though I shall always contend, that whatever degree of good may thereby be done, is due to you more than to any other person, and more than to all other persons put together; for, it is impossible that the misery should not have existed before the first Meeting in Spa-fields; and why, then, was it not before relieved? Mr. Buxton must have long known the facts which he so eloquently and so affectingly described; and why did he not then describe them sooner? The miserable sailors have long been perishing about the streets with hunger and cold; and why, then, has no measure of relief for them been adopted until now? I do not pretend to say, nor do I believe, that the greater part of those who now so freely subscribe, did not before feel for the unhappy sufferers; but, this I am quite sure of, that it was your first meeting and your petition which roused their feelings into immediate action; I do not say, nor do I believe, that the greater part of the subscribers had no real charity in them; but I defy any one to say, that their charity, which before lay dormant, was not quickened by your exertions. One of your flags, or rather of the flags of the Meeting, which had on it 'FEED THE HUNGRY,' 'CLOTHE THE NAKED,' was called by the Courier 'a standard of rebellion;' but, it is a standard under which the subscribers have hastened to range themselves; for they are serving out soup and old clothes in all directions! But, this very Courier, after the first Meeting, expressly stated, that the people in and near London, were not in want. He said, that, though work had fallen off and wages had been lowered in the country, it was not so in London; and he called the poor starving multitudes mutinous, lazy, and rebellious. He charged them with designs to overset the Government, and plainly and distinctly asserted, that they stood in no need of relief! How quickly he changed his tone! And how clear is that change to be traced to you!

"But, in the general subscription for the poor creatures of Spital-fields, you see only a small part of the effects of your labours. There have been meetings in almost all the parishes of the metropolis for similar purposes. Large subscriptions are going on in every direction. Just as if the poverty and misery were not as great a month ago as they are now! Great indeed they are, and they are producing symptoms so horrible that one sickens but to think of them. Amongst others, take the facts described in a placard now sticking against the walls. 'PUBLIC NOTICE.--United Parishes of Saint Andrew, Holborn, above Bar, and St. George the Martyr, Queen's Square. At a meeting of the overseers held this day in consequence of MANY PERSONS DESERTING THEIR FAMILIES,--It was resolved, That, in future, all persons, who desert their families, whereby they become chargeable to these parishes, or when the reputed parents of an illegitimate child abscond, such persons shall be advertised in the public papers, or in posting bills, with a full description of their persons, residence, and calling, and other particulars, and a reward offered for their apprehension. And all inhabitants harbouring persons for the night, for the like purpose, will be prosecuted accordingly.'

"To what are we come at last! And this is the age of our glory, is it? This is the situation we are in, when immense sums are voted for the erection of monuments to commemorate the deeds of the last 25 years! This is the state which not to be proud of, Mr. Vansittart said was proof of baseness in an Englishman! It is in this situation of the country, that Pitt Clubs have the insolence to hold their triumphal carousals!--Shall we never see these men in sackcloth? These insolent men, while wallowing in wealth, do not reflect on the pangs which must wring the poor man's heart before he can so far subdue the feelings of the husband and the father as to make him "desert his family;" or, if they do reflect on them, they must be more cruel than the storms and the waves. The labouring men in England, generally speaking, are the kindest and most indulgent of husbands and of parents. It has often been observed by me, that they are generally so to a fault. If a boy or girl belonging to them behave ill towards their employers, their father and mother are very hard to be convinced of the fact.--I have often to remonstrate with them upon this subject, and to remind them of how much more indulgent they are to their children than I am to mine. 'Aye, Sir,' said a very good woman to me a little while ago, 'but your children have their belly full of victuals.' The answer was a silencer. And this is the true cause of their indulgence, and of their excessive affection too. They see their children in want; they grow up in continual suffering; they are incessantly objects of compassion over and above the love which nature has implanted in the parent's breast. Their obstinate perseverance in justifying the conduct of their children upon all occasions is a fault; but it arises from the most amiable of human weaknesses; and though it may, and often is, injurious in its effects, it is the least censurable of all the frailties of the heart.

"If I have here, as I am sure I have, given the true character of the English labourer, as a parent and a husband, what must that state of things be, which has rendered the desertion of family so frequent an offence as to call forth a hand-bill and placard such as that which I have quoted above? And, in a state of things like this, are men to be called promoters of sedition, because they endeavour to point out the real cause of this horrible evil, and also endeavour to point out the remedy? Aye, but in doing this we point at the same time, to the weight of taxes; and we cite Mr. Preston in support of our doctrine, who says, that every poor man, who earns eighteen pounds in a year, pays away ten pounds of it in taxes. Mr. Preston's words are these:--'Every family, even of the poorest labourer, consisting of five persons, may be considered as paying, in indirect taxes, at least ten pounds a-year, or more than half his wages at seven shillings a week?' And, in another place he says: 'It should always be remembered, that every eighteen pounds a-year paid to any placeman or pensioner, withdraws from the public the means of giving active employment to one individual at the head of a family; thus depriving five persons of the means of sustenance from the fruits of honest industry and active labour, and rendering them paupers!

"What! is this rebellious on the part of Mr. Preston? He is a lawyer of great eminence. A Member of Parliament. A man of great landed estate. Could he write and publish this from rebellious, from treasonable motives? What he says is certainly true; and is he not to say it, because the saying it may be disagreeable to those who live upon the taxes thus collected? Is it not clear, that, if the money, which the labourer and journeyman now pay in taxes, were to be suffered to remain in their pockets, they would not stand in need of parish or subscription relief? And, if this be not true, why does not some one of the numerous tax-eating tribe attempt to prove it to be false? Have not they their full share of the press at their command? Aye, and more than their share. The sons of corruption are spreading about answers to me at a penny each, and some of them are given away. There must be money, somewhere, found for this. The sums necessary to do it must be very large too. Are they not content with this superiority? I have no means of giving papers away. They say that my writing is trash; they call the Letter to the Luddites seditious trash; they say that I am an ignorant fellow, a shallow man, and so forth. Why, then, are they in a passion? Why not laugh at me and my trash? Why name me at all? Why break silence after so long a period? They are continually vowing that they will never notice my trash again; but their hatred, like the love of the swain, returns the next hour with more ardour than ever, and scatters their vows to the winds. The most furious amongst them is a Sinecure Placeman, who writes in the Times newspaper, and upon whom the droppings of my pen seem to have the same effect as the crumbling of blue-stone or lump-sugar on the proud flesh of a galled jade. He winces and dances, and kicks and flings about at a fine rate. Amidst his ravings he swears that he will cause me to be hanged; and if he should not succeed, he would, I am sure, if he had any decency, finish his career by tucking up himself, and that too in his ribbon of the order of St. Lewis.

"The truth is, that these men and their assistants and encouragers see their certain doom in the enlightening of the people. They see clearly enough, that conviction must follow facts and arguments like mine rendered familiar. They see that I am uniting the mind with the muscle of the country; and, above all things, they see, and they tremble at, my incessant, and I hope, successful efforts, to convince the labourers and the journeymen, that they are men who have rights, and that the way to obtain those rights is to pursue a peaceable and orderly conduct. They hate every one who dwells upon the miseries of the country; for, to them, it is confusion to acknowledge that misery exists. The Courier asserted, only the other day, that there was no suffering in or near London, and abused the people for complaining! Such men would kill you or me or any man who talks of the people's sufferings. They call the complaints of hunger sedition. These writers are like the wretch, who, unable to force his poor worn-out and starved horse to drag his load along any further, took out his knife and cut his throat. And, I have not the least doubt, those men would see one half of the people's throats cut in order to reduce the rest to silent submission. The following case, taken from their own accounts of Wednesday last, will serve as a specimen of what is going on in London. This is dying quietly, according to the recommendation of Mr. Jabet's Old Townsman, who gave such just offence to the people of Birmingham. 'Between twelve and one o'clock on yesterday morning, a poor fellow was found in a passage in High-street, Bloomsbury, by Sullivan and Hogan, the watchmen of that district; he had taken shelter for the night. They requested him to walk on to his lodgings; he did not answer, but walked towards Monmouth-street, and they walked the contrary road. Between two and three o'clock they again found him lying upon a step in the same street; they asked him if he had no lodgings he tried to answer, but could only move his lips, which gave no utterance. They raised him upon his feet to assist him to the watch-house; he walked a few yards, and from weakness fell upon his knees. They got him upon their shoulders to carry him to the watch-house, but before they arrived with him he appeared to be dead. The watchman took him to the workhouse, and called up the house surgeon, who examined the body, and said it was useless to bleed him, or use any method to restore him, as he was quite dead. The deceased is apparently about fifty years of age, the most complete picture of human misery, having no linen upon his back, and his bones almost through his skin. By his dress he appears to be a workman out of employ. He has not been OWNED.'--Look at this, ye vile miscreants, and then say, whether it was a crime to call a meeting of the distressed to petition for relief! Hundreds must perish in this way. Only five days ago I saw more than twenty sailors on Westminster Bridge, neither of whom had any linen on, and some neither shoes, stockings, nor hat. But, the numbers who have perished and who are perishing from the diseases occasioned by want are not to be counted. And yet, it was a crime in you, and the sanguinary sons of corruption called for your instant execution, because you obeyed the call of the distressed to hold a meeting of them in Spafields! Not to have obeyed that call would indeed have been a crime; but, it was a crime of which your nature was incapable.

"I now come to the City Petition and the answer of the Prince Regent. This is a very important matter, and, therefore, I shall insert the documents themselves previous to making any remarks on them.

"'ADDRESS AND PETITION.

"'May it please your Royal Highness,

"'We, his Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Commons of the City of London, in Common Council assembled, humbly approach your Royal Highness, to represent our national sufferings and grievances, and respectfully to suggest the adoption of measures which we conceive to be indispensably necessary for the safety, the quiet and prosperity of the Realm.

"'We forbear to enter into details of the afflicting scenes of privations and sufferings that every where exist; the distress and misery which for so many years has been progressively accumulating, has at length become insupportable--it is no longer partially felt, nor limited to one portion of the empire--the commercial, the manufacturing, and the agricultural interests are equally sinking under its irresistible pressure; and it has become impossible to find employment for a large mass of the population, much less to bear up against our present enormous burdens.

"'We beg to impress upon your Royal Highness, that our present complicated evils have not arisen from a mere transition from war to peace, nor from any sudden or accidental causes--neither can they be removed by any partial or temporary expedients.