Selected Political Writings of John Thelwall: Journalism and Selected Writings on Elocution and Oratory, 1797-1809 9781851969289, 9780429349713

Table of contents :
Cover
Volume 1
Cover
Half Title
Title
Copyright
Contents
Acknowledgements
General Introduction
Bibliography
Chronology
Ode to Science. Recited at the Anniversary Meeting of the Philomathian Society (1791)
An Essay towards a Definition of Animal Vitality (1793)
King Chaunticlere; or, the Fate of Tyranny (1793)
Political Lectures (1794)
Fraternity and Unanimity (1795)
John Gilpin's Ghost (1795)
Prospectus of a Course of Lectures (1796)
An Appeal to Popular Opinion (1796)
Editorial Notes
Volume 2
Cover
Half Title
Title
Copyright
Contents
Tribune, volume 1 (1795)
‘Examination of Mr. Pitt’s Statement of the flourishing State of our Commerce – From the Lecture on the BUDGET’
‘On the Probable Consequences of Continuing the Present System of Ambition and Hostility – From the First Lecture on the Nature and Calamities of War’
‘No War Just but a War of Self Defence’
‘Narrative of the Proceedings of the Messenger, &c. on the Seizure of J. Thelwall’s Paper; with his Examination before the Privy Council; Treatment at the Messengers, &c’
‘Tax on Hair Powder. From the Lecture on the Budget’
‘Historical Strictures on Whigs and Tories – From the First Lecture on the Distinction between Party Spirit and Public Principle’
‘Lecture on the System of Terror and Persecution Adopted by the Present Ministry; with Animadversions on the Treatment of Joseph Gerrald’
‘On Prosecutions for Pretended Treason’ (conclusion)
‘The Address of J. Thelwall to the Audience at Closing his Lectures for the Season’
‘Continuation of the Narrative of the Proceedings of the Messengers, &c’
Tribune, volume 2 (1796)
‘On Allies and Alliances; with Strictures on the Faith of Regular Governments’
‘On the comparative Estimate of the Slave Trade, the Practice of Crimping,and Mr Pitt’s Partial Requisition Bill’
‘On the Importance of Avoiding Personal Factions and Divisions Among the Friends of Reform’
‘On the Causes of the Late Disturbance’
Tribune, volume 3 (1796)
‘The Connection between the Calamities of the Present Reign, and the System of Borough-Mongering Corruption’
‘A Further Enquiry into the Calamities Produced by the System and Usurpation and Corruption (Fourth Lecture)’
‘A Further Enquiry into the Calamities Produced by the System of Corruption (Fifth Lecture)’
‘Godwin’s Pamphlet’
‘A Further Enquiry into the Calamities Produced by the System of Usurpation and Corruption (Eighth Lecture)’
‘On the Revolution in 1688’
‘Civic Oration on the Anniversary of the Acquittal of the Lecturer’
‘The First Lecture on the Political Prostitution of our Public Theatres’
‘Farewel Address’
Editorial Notes
Volume 3
Cover
Half Title
Title
Copyright
Contents
'The Phenomena of the Wye, During the Winter of 1797-8', Monthly Magazine (1798)
'A Pedestrian Excursion through Several Parts of England and Wales during the Summer of 1797', Monthly Magazine (1799-1801)
'Prefatory Memoir', Monthly Magazine (1802)
Elocution and Oratory: General Plan and Outline of Mr. Thelwall's Course of Lectures (1803)
'A Letter to Francis Jeffray [sic], Esq., on Certain Calumnies and Misrepreservations', The Edinburgh Review (1804)
Mr Thelwall's Reply (1804)
Editorial Notes
Volume 4
Cover
Half Title
Title
Copyright
Contents
A Letter to Henry Cline, Esq. (1810)
The Vestibule of Eloquence (1810)
Results of Experience in Treatment of Cases of Defective Utterance (1814)
Selected Writings from the Champion (1819–20)
Panoramic Miscellany (1826)
‘Funeral of the late Thomas Hardy’ (1832)
Editorial Notes
Index

Citation preview

THE PICKERING MASTERS SELECTED POLITICAL WRITINGS OF JOHN THELWALL

CONTENTS OF THE EDITION

VOLUME 1 General Introduction Early Political Pamphlets and Lectures, 1793-1796 VOLUME2

Selections from the Tribune, 1795-1796 VOLUME3

Journalism and Selected Writings on Elocution and Oratory, 1797-1809 VOLUME4

Late Journalism and Writing on Elocution and Oratory, 1810-1832 Index

SELECTED POLITICAL WRITINGS OF JOHN THELWALL

Edited by

Robert Lamb and Corinna Wagner

Volume 1 Early Political Pamphlets and Lectures, 1793-1796

I~ ~?io~;~;n~~~up LONDON AND NEW YORK

First published 2009 by Pickering & Chatto (Publishers) Published 2016 2 Park

Limited

by Routledge

Square, Milton Park, Abingdon,

Oxon OX14 4RN

711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa busines Copyright © Taylor & Francis Copyright ©

2009

Editorial material Robert Lamb and Corinna Wagner 2009

All

rights reserved, including those of translation into foreign languages. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Notice: Product are

corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

or

used

BRITISH LIBRARY CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION DATA

Thelwall, John, 1764-1834 Selected political writings ofJohn Thelwall.

(The

Pickering masters)

1. Thelwall, John, 1764-1834 2. Political science England Early works to 1800 3. Elocution 4. Oratory 5. Radicalism England Early works to 1800 6. Great Britain

Politics and government 1789-1820 II. Lamb, Robert III. Wagner, Corinna 320.9'41'09033 I. Title

ISBN-13: 978-1-85196-928-9 (set) DOI: 10.4324/9780429349713

Typeset by Pickering & Chatto (Publishers) Limited

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements General Introduction Bibliography Chronology

vii ix xxv xxxiii

Ode to Science. Recited at the Anniversary Meeting ofthe Philomathian Society (1791) An Essay towards a Definition ofAnimal Vitality (1793) King Chaunticlere; or, the Fate ofTyranny (1793) PoliticalLectures (1794) Fraternity and Unanimity (1795) John Gilpin's Ghost (1795) Prospectus ofa Course ofLectures (1796) An Appeal to Popular Opinion (1796)

1 9 31 37 97 101 113 133

Editorial Notes

173

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We are very graceful co a committed and enthusiastic group of fellow Thelwall scholars: in particular Greg Claeys, Penny Corfield, Judy Duchan, Ken Johnson, Jon Mee, Steve Poole, Michael Scrivener, Jasmine Solomonescu and Judith Thompson, from whom we have learnt much. At Pickering and Chatto, Michael Middeke,Julie Wilson and Paul Lee made the process much easier than it might have been through their professionalism and their indulgent patience, as various submission deadlines clashed with our other commitments. For speedy assistance with some of the typesetting and for discussions about materialism we are indebted to Darren Wagner. For help in obtaining some of the texts with the minimum of fuss we thank the staff at the British Library and the University of Glasgow. Special thanks to John Barrell and Iain Hampsher-Monk for their support, guidance and willingness to assist with various last-minute queries. We dedicate these volumes to chem as a small return for their mentorship.

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INTRODUCTION: THE MANY LIVES OF JOHN THELWALL

I. Thelwall's Lives In the autumn of 1795, John Thelwall almost killed the King. On 29 October, the opening day of the British parliament, crowds had gathered to witness the royal procession as it made its way through St James's Park and down Parliament Street to the House ofLords. George Ill's state coach was met with shouts protesting the policies ofWilliam Pitt's Tory government, the ongoing war with France and the hugely inflated price of bread. Suddenly, as the coach drew out of the gates of the Park, at the end of Great George Street, a missile - likely a stone or a marble but thought by many (including George himself) to be a bullet - shot through the carriage window. The report that this was an attempted assassination gained further currency when later that day the carriage, this time sans monarch, was nearly smashed to pieces by another violent mob. 1 It may be that the government had been awaiting such an event. An outburst ofviolence from the people justified the introduction of the 'Two Acts' or what came to be known as the 'Gagging Acts; two pieces of draconian legislation - The Treasonable Practices Act and Seditious Meetings Bill - intended to vanquish the reform movement by restricting political meetings out ofexistence and conceptualizing treason as a thought crime. 2 But what was the root cause of these extreme measures, perceived at the time to be a flagrant violation ofthe history of British liberty traceable back to the Magna Carta, and has since seemed to be an embarrassing constitutional aberration (at least until the first years of the twenty-first century)? For historians now, this question cannot be adequately answered without attention to the broader context that frames the events of 29 October 1795 and the subsequent state response: to the seismic force still being felt from the French Revolution and the 'Jacobin' reform movement it then inspired in Britain. Yet for many in the 1790s, the answer was far simpler. The chief architect of the failed assassination and chiefvictim of the proposed legislation was one person: John Thelwall. For the loyalist newspaper the True Briton it was plain that

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'the authors ofevery outrage committed by the mob' were 'constant frequenters of Mr. THELWALL'S Lectures' 3 After all, only three days earlier Thelwall had addressed an enormous crowd of, by all accounts, between one- and three-hundred thousand people at Copenhagen Fields. There, it was rumoured, pamphlets had been distributed that called openly for regicide. When the legislation was debated in Parliament, Thelwall's name was mentioned directly and he regarded himself as the target of it. It seems that at this time he was the most dangerous person in the country. But late 1795 is just one of a number offlashpoints in an extraordinarily polymathic career. Indeed, Thelwall's life (1764-1834) - or perhaps 'lives' - reads like a series ofthrilling narratives and the events recorded in his autobiographical writing, his poetry and his journalism are so remarkable and often so tempestuous that he seems the hero-narrator of, at different times, an eighteenth-century novel of sensibility, a work of nineteenth-century social realism or even a twentieth-century espionage film. As a youth, Thelwall had been drawn to the lure of the arts but familial obligation and financial difficulty forced him into the daily grind of the workaday world. A succession of apprenticeships was ended when, as a legal clerk, he was sent to serve a warrant at the house of an honest but debt-ridden family, an event he later claimed was the catalyst to his taking up the cause of political reform. Although burdened with asthma and a speech impediment, he became renowned as a public orator, captivating audiences at mass outdoor meetings with a vivid rhetorical style, memorably described by William Hazlitt as that of 'a volcano vomiting out lava'. 4 As one of the most visible and voluble opponents ofgovernment, he became a target ofPitt's Tory administration, which did everything in its power to make his life miserable - something they succeeded in doing, even if they failed in their apparent quest to end it. In 1794 Thelwall was charged with high treason and dragged off to jail to spend arduous months of imprisonment in the Tower and at Newgate, his home was ransacked and his books and personal effects confiscated. After fighting a hard-won battle in court and press he was eventually acquitted by a jury ofhis peers. On the day ofhis release he was jubilantly carried through the streets of London as a hero of the people. Still drawn to the call ofpolitical action, but continually pursued by loyalists and spies, he continued to lecture at his rooms in Beaufort Buildings, London. Although constrained by the government's newly implemented gagging laws, prohibiting political association, he refused to give up advocating democratic principles at his assemblies. Instead, he cleverly buttressed ostensibly politically neutral subjects like ancient history with lessons on republicanism. He also took to carrying a gun for protection.

Introduction

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Exhausted, harassed, and motivated by Samuel Taylor Coleridge's letters recounting the glorious 'simple life' he was then living at Nether Stowey in Somerset, Thelwall sought a more retired existence. Following a walking tour of the Southwest and Wales, farming, family and poetry in the Welsh countryside. However, three years of the simple life - with its droughts, suspicious neighbours, financial difficulties and finally the death of his beloved eldest daughter - became enough to drive him from his rural retreat back to urban life. Largely in response to the distinctly anti-revolutionary public mood of the late 1790s, Thelwall refashioned himself yet again. The turn of the century marked the beginning of another phase ofhis life: in 1801, he stepped up to the public lectern as a self-described Professor of Elocution. He became an advocate for speech-impaired individuals, gave lectures on elocution and oratory and after 1808, opened the doors to his Institution for the Cure of Impediments of

Speech, Instruction ofForeigners, Cultivation ofOratory, English Composition and Polite Literature, and the Preparation of Youth for the More Liberal Departments ofActive Life. Never one to leave his politics far behind, however, he argued that through proper treatment, individuals previously written off as hopelessly nonfunctioning 'idiots' could become useful, active citizens. Through all these episodes in Thelwall's life - if we can indulge the literary analogy just a little further - he appears to us as a Renaissance man, a polymath who was as comfortable trading poetry with such literary luminaries as Coleridge and Wordsworth as he was addressing the Physical Society at Guy's Hospital, London. He also has the air ofthe Romantic hero about him: much ofhis poetry reflects the personal tragedy and despair that mark portions of his life. He has much in common, too, with those working-class heroes ofpage, stage and screen - those figures who refuse to give up the good fight or to sacrifice principles in their struggles against arbitrary authority and public indifference. Perhaps above all, Thelwall appears as the model of the self-made hero: largely self-educated, he spent his career fashioning and re-fashioning himself This, it must be emphasized, is not to say that he was politically inconsistent. Unlike most of the early supporters of the French Revolution who abandoned the cause of reform in the mid- l 790s, he did not become politically disaffected, even in the face ofintense government opposition and anti-revolutionary sentiment. Rather, he adapted to a tumultuous and hostile political climate in ways that allowed him to maintain not only an unwavering commitment to his political causes but to find increasingly subtle ways ofkeeping them always before the public eye. Yet for all this, John Thelwall is today practically unknown.

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IL Political Theorist Indeed, to say that his legacy has been one marked by scholarly neglect would be a gargantuan understatement. This neglect is especially striking in relation to his late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century peers. In comparison to the poetry of Wordsworth and Coleridge, the politics of Paine, Godwin and Wollstonecraft; the social criticism of Hazlitt and Lamb; and the demotic campaigning of Cobbett and Hunt, which has been consistently republished and reinterpreted in historical, literary and political studies, Thelwall has been virtually ignored.5 There are doubtless several reasons for this, many of them related to wholly contingent matters of academic interest. But one possible explanation concerns the very nature of Thelwall as a writer. Whereas it is possible (with varying degrees of imprecision) to reduce the political philosophies of the other most influential thinkers of the 1790s to substantive ideological positions, it is not so with Thelwall. If describing the thought of Paine as 'liberal', of Godwin as 'anarchist', ofWollstonecraft as 'feminist' is at all plausible, Thelwall's writing simply resists such categorization. The collation and publication of the material that comprises this collection should provide compelling evidence of this as well as an illustration of the sheer range and suppleness of his political arguments. The title of the collection is in one sense misleading in that it contains more than what would typically be described as his 'political' writings, where political is understood narrowly, to include issues of only juridical or legislative significance. But it should quickly become apparent that if the term 'political' is understood more capaciously, to incorporate all areas of enquiry in which relations of power and domination are contested, the title befits the contents perfectly. There is more ofi:en than not a political aspect to Thelwall's writings, not only when the subject is the economic oppression of the labouring poor or the rights that individuals hold against governmental authority, but also when he engages in debates about ostensibly purely scientific matters or when he catalogues his observations about rural life. Thelwall's political writing shows his immersion in a number of different philosophical traditions, including that of civic humanism, natural rights and utilitarianism. The commitment to civic humanism - and corresponding belief that a political community requires virtuous citizens - is manifest most vividly in Thelwall's disdain for luxuries and the corruption they create and perpetuate. Luxuries have a dual function in his political analysis: on the one hand their very existence as commodities provides indisputable evidence of the moral debilitation of an inegalitarian polity and on the other the fact that individuals regard them as objects ofdesire is an obstacle in the way ofpolitical reform. This concern is personified in the figure of 'Timms' - one of the 'messengers' who

Introduction

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detained Thelwall on his arrest - who is described as in fact a member of the lower orders (the 'discarded valet of one of our nobility'), who nevertheless furnishes his house with all the 'ornamental luxuries' he is able to acquire. The effect of such debased tastes is to render him 'a bigot in religion, and a slave in principles'.6This concern with luxury also poses Thelwall with a dilemma when faced with the prospect of a tax on hair powder: how to react to a measure that will have the effect ofpenalizing those who indulge their vanity so brazenly, while at the same time providing the government with further economic resources for their illegitimate war with Revolutionary France.7 Thelwall's political writing also reveals a clear commitment to the natural rights tradition. Much political argument in Britain in the 1790s centred on the issue of 1688 and what it meant: what the 'Glorious Revolution' entailed in terms ofthe relationship between sovereign and subject. 8 Part ofBurke's project in Reflections on the Revolution in France is to undermine Richard Price's contention that 1688 established the rights of the people to 'choose' and, if necessary, 'cashier' their sovereign. But several prominent writers - most notably Thomas Paine in Rights ofMan - were not prepared to prize this (or any) historical event as a measure of the validity of theoretical claims. Paine was extremely blunt in his declaration that nothing that happened in 1688 had any authority over subsequent generations and that the reason for this was the existence of inviolable individual rights held by every living human. 9 The assertion ofan ahistorical universal moral standard vitiated any political theory that tried to appeal to the past as authoritative. Paine's position is wholeheartedly endorsed by Thelwall when he discusses the issue. 10 Thelwall also defends an 'equality of rights' and notes that, like Paine, an individual's mere existence is enough to secure their rightful possession. These writings show that he is committed to universal rights, entitlements that guarantee equality of treatment for labourers, though not, as he is consistently keen to stress, any 'levelling' ofproperty. Interestingly, as well as grounding several ofhis claims in assumptions ofnatural rights, Thelwall also shows a markedly Godwinian, utilitarian commitment to justifying his arguments on the basis of nothing but human happiness and welfare. The writings herein reveal Thelwall's striking intellectual debt to William Godwin on a variety ofissues. The two were friends and Godwin had played an important role (albeit one difficult to measure) in the treason trials of 1794 with the publication ofhis 'Cursory Strictures', which attempted to comprehensively undermine the charges against the accused. The intellectual relationship between them has been noted before, yet is occasionally played down by those straining to restate caricatured and oppositional representations oftheir thought based on their different political activities or personal conducts. Among the most striking Godwinian themes in Thelwall's political writings are a commitment to human progress and perfectibility and an emphasis on human welfare

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and happiness as the measure of moral and political right. Thus, for example, he argues that democratic enfranchisement should be extended on the basis that it will result in the 'permanent happiness of the country' 11 and describes instances of war as justifiable only insofar as they are 'politic', which he in turn defines as 'productive of the happiness of the people'. 12 Thelwall's writings - though never presented as a single political philosophy - fuse these different theoretical traditions in interesting and innovative ways.

III. Journalist and Orator The lectures contained in the second volume were composed during one of the most tumultuous years in Thelwall's life; what one commentator has termed his 'great moment in history'. 13 After his dramatic acquittal and corresponding rise in fame and notoriety, he quickly seized the political initiative and began lecturing twice a week from his base at Beaufort Buildings on the Strand from February 1795. The lectures were taken down in shorthand and then revised by Thelwall for republication in his weekly twenty-four page periodical the Tribune. From its inception in March 1795 it allowed him a forum to express his indignation - and to rouse the indignation of his audience - about a variety ofpolitical issues. Though it did occasionally include political poems, songs or anecdotes, the majority ofspace was devoted to reproducing his orations on topics of the day. In the early lectures that took place in the spring of 1795 (in Volume 1 of the Tribune), the recurring theme is the war with Revolutionary France, which was proving an increasingly expensive enterprise for the British government, partly because of the financial costs of engaging the support of the fickle states of central Europe. What made the matter of raising revenue for a controversial war - the justification for which had failed to convince many and that had lasted longer than its advocates had anticipated - especially tricky for Pitt was the way in which the economic impact had been felt by the population at large. Britain had borne witness to nationwide riots in protest at rising food prices caused by food shortages and the additional costs of maintaining war makes it difficult to imagine a situation in which John Bull would be more likely to crave the 'rights ofman' if those rights were to include cheap bread. 14 In light of this Thelwall is at his most confident and most theoretically and rhetorically dexterous as he doggedly chips away at the case for war, suggesting by turns that: the only justifiable wars are those fought in self-defence and thus, ipso facto, that this one is unjustifiable; that the war has suddenly depopulated the nation and subjected its forces of defence to numerous 'horrors' and thousands of deaths; and not only that public money is being wasted, but that the waste of money is equivalent to

Introduction

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'despotism' and that recent events in France show that despotism leads eventually to Revolution. But Thelwall uses the Tribune not only as a platform to monitor and criticize the policies of Pitt's government and the impotent opposition of the flailing Whigs, but also to discredit it by recalling, indeed, re-enacting, the events of the last year. Seeking to maintain the spectacle of the acquittal of Thelwall and the other members of the London Corresponding Society (LCS) in the public mind, he describes in painstaking detail the treatment he received when arrested on suspicion oftreason the previous May. His interrogation by the Privy Council is restaged for full dramatic effect: his captors are goons, government stooges who treat him with contempt, offer him no food, deny him the visits of his wife and young child and even object to his use of the term 'Citizen' as a mode of address; Pitt is petulant and irritable in his questioning, characterized by his continued failure to hear what Thelwall says to him and his demands that it be repeated, indicative of his deafness when faced with the voice of the people; Thelwall, by contrast, is fearless and bold, marked by his disinterestedness, fortitude and good humour, the combination of which is revealed in his jibe that were he to have the Secretary ofState in his custody, he would at least provide his guest with something to eat. He reminds his audience that the government that claim to be so keen to preserve property actually confiscated his belongings and never returned them and contrasts their professed desire to defend liberty with the manner in which they incarcerated him for months in Newgate, with only a 'daily sprinkling ofvinegar'. There is a sharp break between the lectures that comprise the first volume of the Tribune, published in 1795 and those of the second the following year, marked by his retirement to the Isle ofWight for the summer to convalesce from health problems that he traced to the appalling conditions ofhis imprisonment. The summer of 1795 proved a difficult one for the reform movement with internal divisions and by the time Thelwall had rejoined the LCS (from which he had withdrawn because he had felt moved to choose between it and his lectures), it was the movement itself that was the subject of his lectures, with the 'friends of liberty' solemnly warned about the dangers offaction. The nature ofaforementioned intellectual relationship between Godwin and Thelwall makes the spat between the two in late 1795 (documented in the second and third volumes of the Tribune) particularly fascinating. The traditional characterization of their disagreement - which centred on Godwin's criticisms ofboth Thelwall personally and the LCS politically in his pamphlet on the 'Two Acts' ofwhich he was also critical - is one that juxtaposes armchair philosopher against firebrand activist; the former either betraying the radical tenets of his work or revealing its bedrock conservatism and the latter sacrificing reasoned argument and careful thought for political ends. Such a characterization is

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unsatisfactorily simplistic. Indeed, what Thelwall's writing in response to Godwin reveals is not only his concern to refute some of the less measured, gaudier claims advanced against him but also his conscious attempt to intellectually wrestle with the arguments of his friend and take care to offer a justification for his political involvement and the utility of his oratorical campaigning both in terms of its content and form. The sense of spontaneity and impulse is retained in the published versions of the lectures, with Thelwall glorying in both the applause and the hisses his arguments provoked. He openly calls on the 'spies and hirelings' 15 in his midst to come forward and challenge him in public during what must have been mesmerizing political oratory and theatre - though, as he put it 'a theatre ofinstruction; not a theatre of mischievous inflammation'. His oratorical style which as mentioned above, was described by Hazlitt as a 'volcano vomiting out lava' and by the Norwich lawyer Thomas Amyot as akin to the ravings of 'a mad Methodist Parson' 16 - must have electrified the regular audience of five hundred that paid the sixpence admission fee. Afi:er 1795, Thelwall's journalism has less volcanism and more quiet introspection. His series of articles for the Monthly Magazine, which recall his peripatetic wanderings from London to Wales, are however no less penetrating than the journalism ofthe Tribune. In fact, Thelwall's dexterity is perhaps most impressive in these short, little-known writings. In terms ofrhetorical style, he employs everything from the subtlest innuendo to outright speechifying. In terms ofcontent, the astuteness ofhis sociological analysis, his descriptions ofagrarian culture and representation ofnational consciousness anticipate Cobbett's much-loved Rural Rides (1821-32). And as is the case with Cobbett's travels through the English countryside, Thelwall's pedestrian excursions are distinctly political: his observations about village life, architecture, gardening, amusements, house paint and food and drink are also commentaries about political economy, property ownership, agricultural decline, education, religious tolerance and the politics of aesthetics. When he encounters a convent ofyoung English Catholic novitiates in Salisbury, for example, he demonstrates his technique of weaving travel narrative with political polemic. Sandwiched between more typical descriptions of the gothic exterior of the convent and the paintings he discovers inside the chapel, are penetrating remarks about religious intolerance, education and the possibilities and limits of free choice. 'Far be it from me to be the advocate of intolerance', he writes, but toleration should not allow individuals 'to enchain the consciences' of youth 'with oaths that prohibit the progress of inquiry, and institutions that annihilate the free agency of reason'. 17

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IV. Scientist One is struck, upon reading Thelwall's medical and scientific writing, at how confidently he enters into debates on subjects that would seem to be outside his sphere of expertise and extraneous to his rather consuming political interests. This rhetorical confidence should remind us not only of the breadth of Tuelwall's pursuits - many of which have been overlooked - and also of the way in which those pursuits overlapped. Of course, the dividing lines between disciplines were not as firmly drawn in the late eighteenth century as they are now, and politics and science were two closely and complexly interconnected spheres of enquiry. Like some of the surgeons whose lectures he attended in the early 1790s at Guy's Hospital in the Southwark area of London, Thelwall's interest in the more unorthodox ideas in the fields of medicine, anatomy and natural philosophy was closely allied to his democratic inclinations. 18 In his published lecture An Essay, Towards the Definition ofAnimal Vitality

... in which Several ofthe Opinions ofthe Celebrated john Hunter are Examined and Controverted ( 1793), he strides bravely into a controversy that galvanized

and polarized the most notable scientists and physicians ofthe day. The question of the 'vital principle; or the source of human life, divided the medical world. Although this was not always a clear-cut divide (the perspectives on the question of the source of human life were varied and overlapping), scientists tended to fall into two camps: that of the more conventional, conservative vitalises or the rather more radical materialists. Vitalises argued that the vital force could not be reduced to biological processes; instead, they identified a transcendent mind separate from the brain, and an immaterial soul separate from the material body. Thelwall aligned himself with the opposing view of materialists who located thought and feeling in physical bodies, elements or processes. Thelwall's essay challenges the idea, as forwarded by the renowned vitalise John Hunter, that blood was the source ofvitality. Thelwall instead proposed that scientists would discover that a biological material such as an electrical fluid is what animates matter, bringing it to life. In this respect, Thelwall has much in common with the eighteenth-century associationism of David Hartley19 and the materialism ofJoseph Priestley. 20 Thelwall's Essay also anticipated early nineteenth-century debates that centred around the vitalise John Abernethy (a student of John Hunter), who argued that since dead and living bodies displayed the same 'organization' or structure, life had to be 'superadded' to the body, and the more materialist-minded William Lawrence, who argued that life depended as much on the organization and physical functions of the body.21 Although Thelwall's 1793 Essay was positively received by the Physical society, increasingly, the type of materialism advocated in his early scientific forays was perceived as politically threatening. Just how threatening is indicated by the

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fact that Thelwall's second lecture, on 'The Origin of Sensation', which sought to explain the 'phenomena of mind' as originating from 'principles purely Physical, was shouted down. 22 The kind of threat materialism posed is indicated by the title of the 1820 pamphlet, The Radical Triumvarite; or, Infidel Paine, Lord

Byron, and Surgeon Lawrence, colleaguing with the Patriotic Radicals to emancipate mankindfrom all laws, human and divine. Materialism is here aligned with

atheism, debauchery and the type of democracy that had brought France to her knees (tellingly, the vitalist Abernethy was vocal in the campaign against the 'pernicious tendency' of 'French anatomists'). 23 That the source of human life could be the same as for other living creatures was seen as much of a levelling force as republicanism was. Materialism toppled the hierarchy implicit in the eighteenth-century model of the cosmos as a chain of being, so famously articulated in Alexander Pope's Essay on Man, thus rendering the entire social and political status quo as equally susceptible to such collapse. If human life - secure and untouchable in its category as divinely created - had become the proper material for the microscope's lens, then the very structure of society was at least as susceptible co such probing analysis. Some years following his experiences at Guy's Hospital, Thelwall wrote these words: 1his is no place to speak of the difficulties that obstructed the early progress of my design: the prejudices I had to encounter; the hostilities I had to defeat. One unmanly and disgraceful conspiracy, it became necessary to expose to public indignation: for it left me no alternative - bur the bitterness of a personal controversy, or the total abandonment of my project. I was obliged, indeed, to fight my enemies upon their own ground: - an embattled and organized host! - myself a solitary stranger. I did fight, however: What could I less? My Family and my Science were at stake. I fought, and I triumphed: and I will have the charity to believe - that, by this time, my antagonists, themselves, are more ashamed of their contest, than of their defeat. 24

One would assume that this language, which describes conspiracies, controversies, battles, antagonisms and contests, would have been uttered during Thelwall's earlier incarnation as a political polemicist. This passage reads like the rousing oratory of an outdoor rally; it sounds like the angry discourse of the unjustly imprisoned patriot or the indignant response of a lecturer threatened by loyalist mobs under the influence of more than their loyalty. However, these words were not written in the heat of political battle in the 1790s, but appeared in an 1810 treatise on the causes and treatments of speech impediments. The 'Science' he refers to here, which seems far-removed from the dangerous materialism of his former days, is elocution - which he defines as the science and art of communicating thoughts as well as 'the feelings, imaginations and the passions' that attend them. 25

Introduction

xix

So what became of Thelwall's political radicalism when he re-entered the public sphere as a Professor of Elocution? We have described how Thelwall fashioned himself into various incarnations - as political activist, lecturer, farmer, poet and scientist, among others. This practice of 'self-fashioning' as scholars have noted is crucial to Thelwall's project. Andrew McCann uses the term to refer to the disciplinary, corrective aims ofThelwall's elocutionary practice. McCann argues that Thelwall's project was a disciplinary one, as it endeavoured to fashion individuals into modern subjects according to 'the norms ofpublic conduct [and] communication'. 26 In some sense, this is true: Thelwall's post-1800 writing on elocution is noticeably moralizing, with words like 'restraint', 'regulation' and 'decorum' appearing often. We should be aware of how part of Thelwall's transformation into an elocutionist is a way of distancing himself from his radical politics: his series of lectures on elocution emphasize the 'civilizing influence' of refined and cultivated speech and at least part of the purpose ofhis lessons on oratory is to foster politeness in his patients and students. Yet we should not underestimate the degree to which Thelwall's interest in elocution is motivated by his radical politics. There is great continuity between his early political thought and his later theorizing about speech and language. Thelwall's elocutionary pursuits are never ideologically neutral. After 1800, Thelwall may make statements about having resigned his role as politician, but these statements should be seen as obligatory in an intensely reactionary climate, particularly ifone is seeking a public hearing on any subject. 27 We should not fail to see how Thelwall's recognition of the 'performative' qualities oflanguage (to borrow the twentieth-century linguist J. L. Austin's term) was deeply buttressed by a certain kind ofpolitical worldview. 28 Speech might communicate thought, but it was as much an action for Thelwall as a vehicle for conveying information. His texts reveal a profound awareness of the degree to which everyday practices of identification, medical classification and diagnoses determined the life prospects of the individual. He argued against the widespread practice of labelling any kind of speech impediment as a 'constitutional deject: a term, which, at once, with great convenience, covers ignorance, and excuses neglect' and, he writes, consigns individuals to lives of 'effortless despair' and 'to consequent vacancy and imbecility of mind'. 29 For Thelwall, language has the potential to be democratizing in numerous ways. He vehemently rejects, for example, the view of excellence as hereditary or bestowed by nature, and argues that excellence is a result of education and opportunity whilst debility often arises from prejudice and a resulting lack of resources. 30 One of the most significant features about his elocutionary theory and practice is his insistence on considering both the physiological and the cultural, psychological reasons for speech difficulties. His diagnoses were often

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startlingly pioneering. He rejects what we would now term nativism or biological determinism: in place of diagnoses which simply viewed (dis)abilities as native or innate, he proposed that we identify much more bodily and intellectual phenomena as acquired. There is clear continuity, then, between his views of people as largely 'creatures of surrounding circumstances' - a statement made in the 1790s - and the principles that grounded his elocutionary project. 31 The politics of the earlier Thelwall can be seen even more clearly in an 1803 outline of a course oflectures on elocution and oratory: the listed topics, as might be expected, include enunciation, accent and gesticulation, but there are also lectures on how elocutionary training must be an integral part of a woman's education. He echoes Mary Wollstonecraft's argument, made some eleven years earlier, that the practice of enfeebling women's minds through false refinement was detrimental to all ofsociety. If a woman was allowed access to education and conversation, instead of rendered into a 'fashion-mongering' creature fit only for 'pickling and preserving; she would then become man's 'Intellectual Partner' - thereby increasing the 'Prospects of the rising generation'. 32

V. Historian Thelwall was not overly nostalgic for the past nor was he interested in trying to recoup the nation's 'authentic' history. He condemned blind adherence to the prejudices and precedents of'barbarous antiquity' and was glad to leave behind 'the night of gothic ignorance'. 33 He condemns those who subscribed to what he calls the 'retrospective system' that is, those who remain bound by the institutions and customs of the past. 34 Yet his interest in and his knowledge ofclassical, medieval and early modern history is more than noteworthy. Not only did he give public lectures on these subjects, he also set his Arthurian romance 'Ihe Fairy ofthe Lake and his budding historical epic 'Ihe Hope ofAlbion; or, Edwin ofNorthumbria, in the Anglo-Saxon world. Yet this was not an indulgent, escapist, utopic or wistful excursion into the past. He clearly rejected a Burkean view of history as contiguous with the present. The past should not be used to subjugate succeeding generations or to constrain their liberties by making them obedient to the prejudices of their long-dead forebears. Instead, he saw in history a transformative potential: it could be said that he made the past answer to the ideological demands of the present. Many of his texts strategically re-enact the past in order to make statements about contemporary political questions. Thelwall's democratic politics were intimately connected to his ideas about language; in turn his politics and language were intricately bound up with his view ofhistory, and specifically his views about England's Saxon past. Part ofhis historical project was to trace the etymology ofcommon English words that car-

Introduction

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ried great political weight. In one ofhis Tribune lectures, for instance, he informs his audience that: King, then, is an old Saxon word, or rather a contraction of an old Saxon word. It is derived from the word konning, which was sometimes pronounced kenning, and sometimes cunning - and from cunning or kenning - ken and King. Thus, then, in reality, King means the cunning man'.

In such a way, Thelwall appropriates and redefines the term 'king' by defamiliarizing it; that is, by removing this seemingly simple term from its familiar, everyday context. He thus urges his audience to view the term with fresh eyes and to reconsider the relation between the word's origin and its modern meanings. Like other 1790s radicals, he applies similar treatment to words like 'community', 'liberry: 'national identity', 'justice' and 'equality': part of the process of deconstructing, redefining and appropriating these terms for the cause ofreform includes tracing their evolving meanings from their origins. As he was to say about his elocutionary project, 'the knowledge of words leads to the knowledge of things'.35 Language, then, lay at the heart ofhis politics. By demonstrating that words are not static, he suggested that by extension, neither were the customs, conventions and institutions they upheld. Language and politics were equally susceptible to foundational change. Another ofThelwall's historical strategies was to close the distance between past and present events, so as to reveal for his audience the ideological trajectory ofpolitical struggle through the ages. Thus on the legitimacy of hereditary monarchy, he observed that the plain and simple fact is, chat Kings, according to our ancient Saxon constitution, and according to the original meaning of the word, were persons ofeminence, chosen to fill the office of first magistrate, on account of their superior wisdom - real or supposed ... I will venture to affirm that, legally speaking, the crown ofthis country never was hereditary, till the revolution inl 688. 36

This type of historical mapping raises such questions about the relationship between past and present. If hereditary monarchy had only become established as recently as 1688, would it be possible to re-establish a non-hereditary or elected monarchy? Was the 1688 expansion of monarchical power a usurpation ofconstitutional law? Moreover, Tuelwall's historical reading implicitly prompts even wider questions: What other checks on arbitrary power had since been lost? Which other incursions on the people's constitutional rights had been made? Were there other legal protections that Britons were in danger oflosing? What other examples from the past could guide current attempts to reform Britain's political institutions and to circumscribe governmental authority?

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As was mentioned above, the government's 'Two Acts' of 1795 rendered verbal and written words open to the charge of inciting treason and forbade political meetings of more than fifi:y people. 37 This legislation, specifically targeted at figures like Thelwall, presented him with two choices: either to give up political lecturing or to lecture on subjects outside the realm of contemporary politics. He chose neither option. Instead, as his 1796 Prospectus ofa Course of Lectures, to Be Delivered Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, in Strict Conformity with the Restrictions ofMr. Pitt's Convention Act outlines, he embarked on a course oflectures on the subject of classical history. The chronological and geographical distance between ancient Rome and modern Europe allowed him to address urgent political questions through the tissue ofhistorical remoteness. Thus he lectured on the overthrow of royalty, but he spoke of the ancient Tarquin kings (and certainly not the house of Hanover). He could lecture on how the rapacity of the Roman aristocracy inspired a discontented public to demand popular representation, yet never mention how disaffected Britons were likewise disgruntled with their debauched and dissipated social 'betters'. He could compare, too, the democracies of ancient Athens and Sparta with those of the modern world - but he was careful to refer to American and France only, and not Britain. The worlds ofAnglo-Saxon England and classical Rome and Greece were both familiar and unfamiliar. As a result, Thelwall could apply his methods of fashioning and re-fashioning to history. In such a way he invoked the past to serve the present. History should not be consulted 'for precedents', he wrote, but rather mined for material to inspire our 'speculations' and to provide 'landmarks to direct our course'. 38

Notes 1.

2. 3.

4.

5. 6. 7.

For a rich and riveting account of this and similar events involving British monarchs and their troublesome subjects, see S. Poole, The Politics ofRegicide in England 1760-1850: Troublesome Subjects (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000). State Trials, XXIV, 36 Geo.III.c.7&8. True Briton (3 November 1795). For a comprehensive discussion of the loyalist and government reaction to the events of29 October, see J. Barrell, Imagining the King's Death: Figurative Treason, Fantasies of Regicide (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), pp. 551-603. W Hazlitt, 'Essay XXIV, On the Difference between Writing and Speaking', Plain Speaker in P. P. Howe (ed.) Complete Works of William Hazlitt, 21 vols. (London: J.M. Dent & Sons, 1930-4), vol. 12, pp. 264-5. There are, ofcourse, exceptions. See the list of further reading. Thdwall, 'Continuation of the Narrative of the Proceedings of the Messengers, &c', Volume 2, p. 93. For a discussion ofthe broader politics ofhair, see J. Barrell, The Spirit ofDespotism: Invasions ofPrivacy in the 1790s (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), pp. 145-209.

Introduction

8.

9.

10. 11 . 12. 13. 14.

15. 16.

17. 18.

19.

20.

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For a discussion of how the 1790s reform movement was theoretically stymied by the centrality of 1688, see I. Hampsher-Monk, 'On Not Inventing the English Revolution: the Radical Failure of the 1790s as Linguistic Non-Performance' in G. Burgess and M . Festenstein (eds) English Radicalism, 1550-1850 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007). As Paine puts it 'every age and generation must be as free co act for itself, in all cases, as the ages and generations which preceded it', 'Rights of Man' in P. Forrer (ed.) The Complete Works ofThomas Paine Volume 1 (New York, 1969), vol. 1, p. 251. Thelwall, 'The Lecture on the Revolution of 1688', Volume 2, p . 225. Thelwall, 'On the probable Consequences ofcontinuing the present System ofAmbition and Hostility: Volume 2, p. 15. Thelwall, 'No War Just but a War of Self-Defence', Volume 2, p. 26. M. Scrivener, Seditious Allegories: john Thelwall andJacobin Writing (University Park, PA: Penn State University Press, 2001), p. 182. For a sketch of the nature of the riots and their place within wider eighteenth-century protests, see J. Stevenson, Popular Disturbances in England, 1700-1832 (Harlow: Longman, 1992), pp. 114-43. 'Godwin's Pamphlet: see Volume 2, p. 239. P. J. Corfield and C. Evans (eds), Youth and Revolution in the 1790s: Letters of WilliamPattisson, Thomas Amyot and Henry Crabb Robinson (Stroud: Alan Sutton, 1996), p.138. See Volume 3 of this set, p. 35. A concrete instance of the connection between science and politics can be seen in the lives of the two physicians who influenced Thelwall, Drs Astley Cooper and Henry Cline. Both supporters of the French Revolution, Cline testified in Thelwall's defence at the 1794 Treason Trials and held a yearly dinner celebrating the acquittal for treason of reformer Horne Tooke; Cooper stayed in Paris in 1792. For more on the interrelation of poetry, medicine and politics in Thelwall's writing, see J. R. Allard, "'Great Vital Organs''.· Thelwall's The Peripatetic, Radical Materialism and the Body Politic'. in Romanticism, Medicine, and the Poet's Body, (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007), pp. 63-85 David Hartley (bapt. 1705, d. 1757), philosopher, physician; author of Observations on Man, in which he refuted mind-body duality and the idea of free will. Hartley applied Newtonian science to his explication of the functioning of the human body and the process by which ideas are formed. He rook up Locke's notion of the mind as a 'tabula rasa'. Borrowing Locke's phrase, he argued for the 'association of ideas' - not that ideas are pre-existing, but that through neurological processes, ideas are formed when such things as sensory stimuli and emotional impressions are fused into new and increasingly complex compounds (which Hartley terms 'decomplex' actions) . In other words, the mind was mechanistic, and could not act independently of the brain and other biological elements. This fusing of the intellectual with the biological would seem to cast Hartley as a determinist, and in large part this is true, but he also emphasized human choice in the performance of'decomplex' acts. Joseph Priestley (1733-1804), scientist, political reformer, theologian and natural philosopher. Priestley was philosophically and scientifically aligned with Hartley. His Doctrine ofPhilosophical Necessity ( 1777) and Free Discussion of the Doctrines ofMaterialism and Philosophical Necessity (l 778) proposed a type of mechanistic determinism. Priestley worked simultaneously on theological and political studies whilst carrying on

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21.

22. 23.

24. 25.

26. 27.

28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38.

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scientific experiments, which resulted in the discovery of ammonia gas, nitrous oxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide and, most importantly, oxygen. The extent of Lawrence's materialism is much debated, and critics have often pointed to his identification of 'vital properties; which he defines as 'sensibility and irritability' as indicative of his vitalism. On this debate, see S. Ruston, Shelley and Vitality (Houndmills, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005), 'Introduction' and ch. l. Alier this event, Thelwall withdrew from the Physical Society. J. Abernethy, Physiological Lectures, Exhibiting a General View ofMr Hunter's Physiology, and ofhis researches in Comparative Anatomy, delviered before the Royal College of Surgeons, in the year 1817 (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown, 1817), p. 52. See Volume 4, p. 12. See Volume 4, p. 33; for more on Thelwall's elocutionary practice, see J. F. Duchan, 'The Conceptual Underpinnings ofJohn Thelwall's Elocutionary Practices' in S. Poole (ed.), Radical Romantic and Acquitted Felon: Essays on john Thelwall, 1764-1834 (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2009). A. McCann, 'Romantic Self-Fashioning: John Thelwall and the Science of Elocution; Studies in Romanticism, 40 (Summer 2001), pp. 215-32, p. 217. In the 'Memoir' that proceeded his Poems Written Chiefly in Retirement, Thelwall writes that 'The Man, and not The Politician' now stood before the public and that 'The Lecturer and Leader of Popular Societies is now no more' (p. ii) . He insists that 'the politician should be forgotten' and that the public consider him 'only as a candidate for poetical and moral reputation' (p. ii). He absolutely refuses, he writes, 'to vindicate [his] public conduct' from any 'misrepresentations, for political discussion would ill accord' with his role as family man-farmer-poet (pp. ii, xlviii). He claims that though he remained 'unchanged in his opinions; he refuses to address political issues as he fears for himself, 'his unoffending family' and for the general state 'of the public mind' (pp. xxxiv, xxxv). For more on this and the politics ofThelwall's self-presentation in general, see C. Wagner, 'Domestic Invasions: John Thelwall and the Exploitation of Privacy; in S. Poole (ed.), Radical Romantic and Acquitted Felon: Essays on john Thelwall, 1764-1834 (London: Pickering and Chatto, 2009). J. L.Austin, How to do Things with Words, 2nd edn, ed.J. Urmson and M. Sbisa (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975). See Volume 4, p. 65 SeeVolume4,p. 169. Seep. 63. See M. Wollstonecraft, A Vindication ofthe Rights of Woman (1792; Oxford: Oxford University Press 1999); see also Volume 3 of this set. See Volume 1, p. 124. See Volume 2, p. 52. SeeVolume4,p.119. See Volume 2, p. 255. State Trials, XXIV, 36 Geo.Ill.c.7&8. Thelwall, 'The Rights ofNature' in Claeys (ed.), The Politics ofEnglishjacobinism: Writings ofjohn Thelwall, p. 463.

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

Works by Thelwall Orlando andAlmeyda: a Legendary Tale (London: 1787). Poems on T-arious Subjects, 2 vols (London: John Denis, 1787). Ode to Science. Recited at the Anniversary Meeting ofthe Philomathian Society, June 20, 1791 (London: Samuells & Richie, 1791 ). The Rock efModrec; or the Legend efSir Eltram (London: W. Bent, 1792).

An Essay towards a Definition efAnimal Vitality in which Several efthe Opinions ofjohn Hunter are Examined and Controverted. Read at the Theatre ofGuy's Hospital January 26, 1793 (London: T. Rickaby et al, 1793).

The Peripatetic, or Sketches efthe Heart ofNature and Society in a Series ofPoliticoSentimentalJournals, 3 vols (Southwark: Printed and sold by author, 1793)

Political Lectures, Containing the Lecture on Spies and Informers and the First Lecture on Prosecutionsfor Political Opinions, to Which is Prefixed a narrative offacts relative to the recent attempts to wrestfrom the people the palladium ef their naturaland constitutional rights, Liberty ofSpeech, vol. 1 (London: D.I. Eaton, 1794). PoliticalLectures, No. 1, On the Moral Tendency ofa System ofSpies and Informers and the Conduct to be Observed by the Friends ofLiberty and the Conduct to be Observed During the Continuance efSuch a System (London: for the author, 1794).

Political Lectures No. 2, Sketches ofthe History efProsecutions for Political Opinion: with Strictures on the Late Proceedings efthe Court efjusticiary in Scotland (London: for the author, 1794). Poems Written in Close Confinement in the Tower and Newgate, Under a Charge ofHigh Treason (London:]. Ridgway et al, 1795)

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john Gilpin's Ghost: Or the T¾zrning Voice ofKing Chanticleer: An Historical Ballad: Written Before the Late Trials and Dedicated to the Treason-hunters of Oakham (London: T. Smith, 1795). The Natural and Constitutional Rights ofBritons to Annual Parliaments, Universal Suffrage, and Freedom ofAssociation (London: J. Symonds, 1795). PeacefulDiscussion and not Tumultuary Violence the Means ofRedressingNational Grievance. The Speech ofjohn The/wall at the GeneralMeeting ofThe Friends of Parliamentary Reform called by the London Corresponding Society and Held in the Neighborhood ofCopenhagen House (London: Printed for J. Thelwall, 1795).

The Speech ofjohn The/wall at the Second Meeting ofthe London Corresponding Society at Copenhagen House. November 12, 1795 (London, 1795). The Tribune, a periodical, 3 vols (14 March 1795-25 April 1796). The Rights ofNature Against the Ursurpations ofEstablishments, being Letters to the People ofBritain in Answer to the RecentEffusions to the RightHonourable E. Burke (London: H. D. Symonds&]. March, 1796). Sober Reflections on the Seditious and Inflammatory Letter ofthe Right Honourable E. Burke to a Noble Lord (London: H. D. Symonds, 1796). An Appeal to Popular Opinion, against Kidnapping andMurder including the late Atrocious Proceedings at Yarmouth, 2nd edition, Including apostscript containing a particular account ofthe outrages at Lynn and Wisbeach (London: F.S. Jordon, 1796).

Prospectus ofa Course ofLectures to be Delivered every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday during the Ensuing Lent, in Strict Conformity with the Restrictions ofMr. Pitt's Convention Act (London: H. D. Symond's, 1796). An Address to the Inhabitants ofYarmouth, on the Violent Outrage Lately Committed in Their Town (Yarmouth: F. Bush, 1796). 'The Phenomena of the Wye, During the Winter of 1797-8', Monthly Magazine, 5 (March 1798), pp. 343-6. 'The Phenomena of the Wye, During the Winter of 1797-8', Monthly Magazine, 6 (May 1798), pp. 20-1. 1798-1800: Various short articles in the Monthly Magazine: Vol. 5 (March 1798),pp.177-9 Vol. 5 (May 1798), pp. 343-6 Vol. 5 (June 1798), pp. 418-21 Vol. 6 (July 1798), pp. 20-1 Vol. 6 (November 1798), pp. 323-4 Vol. 6 (December 1798), p. 409

Select Bibliography

xxvii

Vol. 9 (July 1800), pp. 529-34 Vol. 10 (September 1800), pp. 127-30 'A Pedestrian Excursion Through Several Pares of England and Wales During the Summer of 1797', Monthly Magazine, 8 (August 1799, pp. 532-3; September 1799, pp. 616-19; November, 1799, pp. 783-5;January 1800, pp. 966-7). 'A Pedestrian Excursion Through Several Pares of England and Wales During the Summer of 1797', Monthly Magazine, 9 (April 1800), pp. 228-231. 'A Pedestrian Excursion Through Several Parts of England and Wales During the Summer of 1797', Monthly Magazine, 11 (March 1801), pp. 123-5. A Pedestrian Excursion Through Several Pares of England and Wales During the Summer of 1797', Monthly Magazine, 12 (September 1801, pp. 103-6; October 1801, pp. 198-200; November 1801, pp. 305-8).

Poems Chief/,y Written in Retirement (Hereford: W.H. Parker, 1801).

The Daughter ofAdoption: A Tale ofModern Times, 4 vols (London: R. Phillips, 1801).

Selections and original articles, read and recited in illustration ofMr. The/wall's lectures on the science andpractice ofelocution (York: A. Bartholoman; Wakefield: Printed by Rowland Hurst, 1802)

Poems Chief/,y Written in Retirement. The Fairy ofthe Lake, a Dramatic Romance; Effusions ofRelative and Social Feeling: and Specimens ofthe Hope ofAlbion; or, Edwin ofNorthumbria: An Epic Poem (Hereford: W.H. Parker, 1802). The Black Bowl; or the Tears ofEboracum, Feb. 3, 1208 (York: A. Bartholoman, 1802).

'J. Thelwall's justification', Monthly Magazine, 13 (1802), pp. 344-7.

General Plan and Outline ofMr. The/wall's Course ofLectures on the Science and Practice ofElocution Delivered and About to be Delivered (Birmingham: J. Belcher, 1802).

Element in the Science ofElocution. Volume 12, Part 2 ofRees, Abraham The New Cyclopaedia: or, Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences: Formed Upon a More Enlarged Plan of Arrangement than the Dictionary of Mr. Chambers, Comprehending the Vt,,rious Articles of That Work, with Additions and Improvements, Together with the New Subjects ofBiography, Geography, and History, and Adapted to the present State ofLiterature and Science (Philadelphia: R. Carr and]. Conrad, 1802).

Elocution and Oratory: generalplan and outline ofMr. The/wall's course oflectures, on the science and practice ofelocution; delivered and about to be delivered, in

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the principal cities and towns ofEngland, Scotland, etc (Manchester: R. & W. Dean, 1803) 'Mr. Thelwall and Mr. Gough on the voice', Monthly Magazine, 17 (1804), pp. 9-11. 'Case ofa child blind and speechless, apparently from the operation ofthe inoculated small-pox',Monthly Magazine, 17 (1804), pp. 516-19.

A Letter to FrancisJeffrey, Esq., on Certain Calumnies and Misrepresentations in the Edinburgh Review; the Conduct ofCertain Individuals on the Night ofMr. The/wall's Probationary Lecture at Bernard's Rooms Edinburgh and the Ignorance ofthe New Critical]unto ofthe SimplestElements ofEnglish Composition and English Grammar, with an Appendix, Containing Outlines ofa Course of Lectures on the Science and Practice ofElocution (Glasgow: printed for the author by John Turnbull, 1804). Mr. The/wall's Reply to the Calumnies, Misrepresentations, and Literary Forgeries, Contained in the Anonymous Observations on his Letter to the Editor ofthe Edinburgh Review: With a Further Exposition ofthe Ungrammatical Ignorance ofthe Writers and Vindicators ofthat Defamatoryjournal (Glasgow: W. Lang, 1804). 'On Cutting the Bridle of the Tongue', The Medical and Physical journal, 14 (1805), pp. 256-9.

Mr. The/wall's Introductory Discourse on the Nature and Objects ofElocutionary Science; and the Studies and Accomplishments Connected with the Cultivation ofthe Faculty ofOral Expression: with Outlines ofa Course ofLectures on the Science and Practice ofElocution (London: Ponterfact, 1805). 'Letter to the editor', Medical and Physicaljournal, 13 (1805), pp. 450-5.

The Trident ofAlbion, an Epic Effusion; and an Oration on the Influence ofElocution on MartialEnthusiasm; with an Address to the Shade ofNelson, Delivered at the Lyceum, Liverpool on Occasion ofthe Late Glorious Naval Victory. To Which is Prefixed an Introductory Discourse on the Nature and Objects ofElocutionary Science (Liverpool: G. F. Harris, 1805). 'On difficulty ofspeech: Medical and Physicaljournal, 15 (1806), pp. 172-5.

Selections and Original Articles, far Mr. The/wall's Lectures on the Science and Practice ofElocution; Together with the Introductory Discourse and Outlines (Birmingham: J. Belcher & Son, 1806) A Monody, Occasioned by the Death ofthe Right Honorable Charles James Fox (London: Printed for the author, 1806). 'On the Musical Properties of English Syllables', Monthly Magazine, 23 (1807), pp. 28-31.

Select Bibliography

xxix

'Correction of Mistakes in Relation to Abbe de l'Eppe', Monthly Magazine, 24 (1807), pp. 442-5. 'Further Particulars of the Public Exhibition of Pupils at Mr. Thelwall's Institution for the Cure of Impediments ofSpeech',MonthlyMagazine, 24 (1807), pp.41-2.

Mr The/wall's Plan and Terms ofTuition, etc.: Institution for the Cure ofImpediments of Speech, Instruction of Foreigners, Cultivation of Oratory, English Composition and Polite Literature, and the Preparation ofYouth for the more LiberalDepartments ofActive Life (London, 1808). 'On the Treatment of Impediments and of the Deafand Dumb', Monthly Magazine, 25 (1808), pp. 202-5. 'Historical and Oratorical Society at Mr. Thelwall's Institution', Monthly Magazine, 28 (1809), pp.152-7.

A Letter to Henry Cline, Esq. on Imperfect Development ofthe Faculties Mental and Moral as well as Constitutional and Organic and on the Treatment of Impediments ofSpeech (London: Richard Taylor & Co, 1810). The Vestibule ofEloquence ... Original Articles, Oratorical and Poetical Intended as Exercises in Recitation, etc. (London: J. McCreery, 1810). 'On the Application of the Principles ofMusical Proportion in the Treatment of Impediments ofSpeech', Monthly Magazine, 30 (1810), pp. 104-8. 'Mr. Thelwall's reply to Mr. Smart',Monthly Magazine, 30 (1810), pp. 301-3.

Selectionsfor the Illustration ofa Course ofInstructions on the Rhythmus and Utterance ofthe English Language: with an Introductory Essay on the Application of Rhythmical Science to the Treatment ofImpediments, and the Improvement of our National Aratory; and an Elementary Analysis ofthe Science and Practice ofElocution, Composition, etc (London: J. McCreery, 1812). 'Defence of Mr. Thelwall on the Criticisms Against his Three Publications in the Monthly Review: New Review, 1 (1813), pp. 689-93.

Results ofExperience in the Treatment ofCases ofDefective Utterance,.from Deficiencies in the Roofofthe Mouth and Other Mal-conformations ofthe Organs ofSpeech, with Observations on Cases ofAmentia and Tardy and Imperfect Developments ofthe Faculties (London: J. McCreery). The Poetical Recreations of The Champion, Literary and Critical which have Appeared in The Champion Newspaper (London: Champion Press, 1822). 'Mr Thelwall's lecture on the enunicative organs and formation of the literal elements', Monthly Magazine, 60 (1825), pp. 113-17. 'Critique ofErasmus Darwin', Monthly Magazine, 60 (1825), pp. 5-8.

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Selected Political Writings ofJohn Thelwa/l Volume 1

'Mr. Thelwall's Lecture. On the harmonic qualities of the literal elements, and their classification according to their musical and other inherent properties', Panoramic Miscellany, 1 (1826),pp. 41-7, 193-8, 347-54, 635-42, 796. We have not included short pamphlets of excerpted material from The Tribune here, nor the many articles, impossible to list here, that Thelwall wrote for the The Biographical and Imperial Magazine (London, ed. Thelwall, 178992) and The Champion (London, ed. Thelwall, 1819-1821). We have also listed only lifetime publications, rather than modern editions ofhis work.

Works on Thelwall Allard, J., Romanticism, Medicine, and the Poet's Body (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007). Allard, J., John Thelwall and the politics of medicine', European Romantic Review 15: 1 (2004), pp. 73-87.

Allen, S. B., 'William Godwin's Infuence upon John Thelwall', Publications ifthe ModernLanguageAssociation, 37 (1922),pp. 662-82. Anon., 'John Thelwall: Obituary Notice' The Times (19 February 1834), p. 5.

Cestre, C.,john The/wall. A Pioneer ifDemocracy and Social Reform in England during the French Revolution (London: Sonnenschein & Co., 1906). Claeys, G. (ed.), The Politics if English jacobinism: Writings ofjohn The/wall (State College, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1995).

Cone, C ., The EnglishJaco bins (New York: Scribners, 1968) Gallop, G., 'Ideology and the English Jacobins: The case of John Thelwall', Enlightenment and Dissent, 5 (1986), pp. 3-20. Gibbs, W., 'John Thelwall and the Panoramic Miscellany', Notes and Queries (1928), pp. 386-92. Gibbs, W., 'Unpublished Letter from John Thelwall to S. T. Coleridge', Modern Language Review, 25 (1930), pp. 85-90. Grumbling, V. 0., 'John Thelwall: Romantick and Revolutionist' (unpublished dissertation, UniversityofNew Hampshire, 1977). Haberman, F., 'John Thelwall: His Life, His School, and his Theory ofElocution', in R. Howes (ed.), Historical Studies ofRhetoric and Rhetoricians (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1961), pp. 189-97. Hampsher-Monk, I.John The/wall and the Eighteenth-Century RadicalResponse to PoliticalEconomy, Historical Journal, 34 (1991), pp. 1-20. Jeffrey, F., 'Thelwall's Poems',Edinburgh Review, 2 (1803), pp. 197-202.

Select Bibliography

xxxi

Jeffrey, F., 'Observations on Mr. Thelwall's Letter to the Editor of the Edinburgh Review' (Edinburgh: D. Willison, 1804). Johnston, K., The Hidden Wordsworth: Poet, Lover, Rebel Spy (New York: Norton, 1998). McCann, A., 'Politico-Sentimentality: John Thelwall, Literary Production and Critique of Capital in the 1790s', Romanticism, 3 (1997), pp. 35-52. McCann, A., Cultural Politics in the 1790s: Literature, Radicalism and the Public Sphere (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1999).

J., Romanticism, Enthusiasm and Regulation: Poetics and the Policing of Culture in the Romantic Period (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003).

Mee,

Murphy, M., 'John Thelwall, Coleridge, and the Ancient Mariner' Romanticism, 8 (2002), pp. 62-75.

Newton, J., The Trial at Large ofJohn The/wallfor High Treason (London: H. D. Symonds, 1795). Osterheld, H., 'John Thelwall's Polyvocal Politics', Eighteenth-Century Studies, 36:1 (2002), pp. 122-05. Pollin, B. R., 'John Thelwall's Marginalia in a copy of Coleridge's Bibliographia Literaria', Bulletin ofthe New York Public Library, 74 (1970), pp. 73-94. Poole, S. (ed.),john Thelwall:Radical Romantic and Acquitted Felon (London: Pickering& Chatto, 2009). Rockey, D., 'The Logopaedic Thought ofJohn Thelwall, 1764-1834: First British Speech Therapist', British journal of Disorders ofSpeech, 12 (1977), pp. 83-95. Rockey, D., 'John Thelwall and the Origins of British Speech Therapy', Medical History 23, (1979), pp. 156-175. Roe, N., 'Who was Spy Nozy?' Wordsworth Circle, 15 (1984) pp. 46-50. Roe, N., Wordsworth and Coleridge: The Radical Years (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988). Roe, N., 'Coleridge and John Thelwall: The Road to Nether Stowey' in Gravil, R. and M. Lefebure (eds) The Coleridge Connection (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1990), pp. 60-80. Roe, N., 'Atmospheric Air Itself: Medical Science, Politics and Poetry in Thelwall, Coleridge and Wordsworth' in R. Cronin (ed.) 1798: The year of the LyricalBallads (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998), pp. 185-202. Roe, N. The Politics ofNature: William Wordsworth and Some Contemporaries, 2nd ed. (Houndsmills: Palgrave, 2002).

xxxii

Selected Political Writings ofJohn Thelwa/l Volume 1

Scrivener, M., 'John Thelwall and the Press' in S. Behrendt (ed.) Romanticism, Radicalism and the Press, (Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press, 1997), pp. 120-136. Scrivener, M., 'John Thelwall's Political Ambivalence: Reform and Revolution' in M. Davis (ed.) Radicalism and Revolution in Britain, 1775-1848 (Houndmills: Palgrave, 2000), pp. 69-83. Scrivener, M., 'John Thelwall and popular Jacobin allegory, 1793-95', ELH 67:4 (2000),pp. 951-71. Scrivener, M., Seditious allegories.-john The/wall andJacobin writing (State College, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2001). Scrivener, M., 'John Thelwall and the Revolution of 1649' in T. Morton and N. Smith (eds) Radicalism in British Literary Culture, 1650-1830 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), pp. 119-32. Shaw,}., 'John Thelwall and the Revolution of 1749' in Morton, T. and N. Smith (eds) Radicalism in British Literary Culture, 1650-1830: From Revolution to Revolution (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002). Smith, E., The Story ofthe EnglishJacobins: Being an Account ofthe Persons Implicated in the Charges ofHigh Treason, 1794 (London: Cassell, Petter, Galpin &Co, 1881). Thelwall, C. B., The life ofjohn The/wall (London: J. Macrone, 1837).

Thelwall, R., 'The Phonetic Theory ofJohn Thelwall' in Asher, R. E., and E. J. A. Henderson (eds) Towards a history ofphonetics (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1981), pp. 186-203.

Thompson, E. P., 'Hunting the Jacobin Fox' Past and Present, 142 (1994), pp. 94-140. Thompson,}., 'An autumnal blast, a killing frost: Coleridge's poetic conversation with John Thelwall', Studies in Romanticism 36: 3 (1977), pp. 427-56. Thompson,}., 'John Thelwall and the Politics ofGenre, 1793-1993' Wordsworth Circle 25:1 (1994), pp. 21-4. Thompson, J., "'A Voice in the Representation": John Thelwall and the Enfranchisement of Literature' in Wright, J., and T. Rajan (eds) Romanticism, History and the Possibilities of Genre (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), pp. 122-48.

CHRONOLOGY

1764 1773 1777

Thelwall is born in Covent Garden, London (27 July). His father Joseph Thelwall dies. He takes his first job as a shopkeeper (aged fourteen), in the family business. 1780 He is apprenticed to a tailor. 1782 He contacts the artist Benjamin West, seeking an apprenticeship with an artist, but due to his family's decreasing finances, he begins a threeand-a-halfyear apprenticeship to attorney John Impey. Publishes Poems on Vtzrious Subjects. 1787 Thelwall enters politics as a poll clerk; begins affiliation with the radi1788 cal Westminster MP John Horne Tooke. 1789-91 Edits Biographical and Imperial Magazine. Marries Susan (Stella) Vellum (27 July). 1791 Attends lectures at Guy's and St Thomas's Hospital. 1791 Delivers lecture 'Toward the Definition of Animal Vitality' to the 1793 Physical Society at Guy's Hospital. Publishes the autobiographical, philosophical travelogue, The Peripa1793 tetic (April), joins the London Corresponding Society (October). Daughter Maria Thelwall is born. 1793 Along with twelve other reformers, he is charged with treason; begins 1794 a nine-month stay in Newgate prison and The Tower. Treason trials; all defendants are acquitted (December). 1794 Publishes Poems Written in Close Confinement While in the Tower. 1795 Son Sidney Algernon is born. 1795 Lectures at London Corresponding Society outdoor meetings, one of 1795 which is captured in James Gillray's cartoon 'Copenhagen Fields'. 1796 Publishes The Rights ofNature. 1796 or 1797 Second son, Hampden is born. 1796-7 Tours England on a classical history lecture series.

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xxxiv

1797 1798 1798-9 1799 1801

1801 1801 1810 1816 1818 1818

1825-6 1834

Selected Political Writings ofJohn Thelwa/l Volume 1

Thelwall walks from London to visit Samuel Taylor Coleridge at Nether Stowey, Somerset and William Wordsworth in Alfoxden, Somerset (July); publishes his journey in the Monthly Magazine. Retires to a small rented farm at Llyswen, in the Wye Valley, Wales. Widespread crop failure. Six-year-old daughter Maria dies. Publishes Poems Chiefly Written in Retirement and Daughter ofAdoption ( as John Beaufort). Begins his career as elocutionist. Embarks on lecture tour on elocution and oratory, spending time in northern England and Scotland. Publishes A Letter to Henry Cline, a treatise on elocution. Susan (Stella) Vellum dies. Thelwall marries Cecil Boyle, an actress thirty years his junior. Takes over editorship of The Champion (until 1821). Edits Monthly Magazine and Panoramic Miscellany, literary and political journals. Thelwall dies of apparent heart failure in his sleep at Bath, England, while on a lecture tour and is buried there (February).

ODE TO SCIENCE

Ode to Science. Recited at the Anniversary Meeting ofthe Philomathian Society; June 20, 1791 (London: Samuells & Richie, 1791). As the tide page indicates, Ode to Science was written for the anniversary of the Philomathian Society, 20 June 1791. When it was published

meeting pamphlet,

it

was

with 'The

as a

the Song, Sung Same Occasion' (not included in this edition). This is one of the earliest of Thelwall's overtly political compositions: he had only officially entered the political realm the year before, when he supported John Home Tooke in the Westminster election of 1790. Although the Ode is perhaps not dazzling in terms of poetic achievement, it is an important document as it testifies to Thelwall's early slim

partnered

by Brother Webb,

on

interest relationship politics in the

between

The Philomathian met

and science.

debating clubs that fortnightly to discuss political and philosophical issues. Although relatively Society

was one

of several London

little is known about this society, in his Recollections, John Binns, the Irish radical and one-time member of the London of his time

as a

twenty-one in number and that, in 1793, members included but the philosopher William Godwin and the writer Thomas himself,

strictly limited not

only

Philomath in the

Corresponding Society recalls something 1790s. 1 He records that club membership was

to

Holcroft. Binns

humorously recalls how, when Godwin and Holcroft gained a

reputation for being among the most diffuse and tiresome of speakers', the adopted a rule that no speaker could have the floor for more than fifteen

society minutes. To enforce this minute

hourglasses.

rule, a

From the

committee

scant

was

evidence

formed

we

have,

to

purchase two fifteen-

we can

also surmise that

the

Society was at least somewhat mixed in terms of social background. Godwin's Prospectus for a 'Select Club' he planned to form in the mid-1790s indicates his

preference for a more eminent group of debaters, which would include lawyers, medical men and key Whig parliamentarians. Yet, the fact that Binns was a plumber and that Thelwall was not yet established in his political career in 1791 points to a wider membership in the Philomathian Society.

intellectuals,

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2

Although he only joined the society in 1793, Godwin's journal furnishes us with a sense of the topics of debate. As William St Clair helpfully summarizes, the themes included: original depravity versus political institution, crime, legislative power, bloodshed, treaties, a God, prostitutes versus parsons, theatres, utility of religion, fame (several times), love, marriage (several times), capital punishment, free will (many times), gratitude, suicide, self love, property, ballot, means of reform, connection of free states and despots, tribunes, soldier versus priest, Church and State, Caesar. 2

We can add two more topics to this list: the diarist and lawyer Henry Crabb Robinson recorded how, on two of the occasions he attended the Philomathian Society in 1796, the members debated whether 'the actions of men form a part ofthe plan ofprovidence' and what was 'the analogy between natural and moral diseases' 3 It is easy to imagine how such issues - no doubt very similar to those that would have been debated when Thelwall attended - would have galvanized him, provided an arena for him to hone his fiery oratorical style and provided superb training for his days as a political lecturer.

Notes 1.

2.

3.

J. Binns, Recollections of the Life ofJohn Binns:

Twenty-nine Years in Europe and FiftyThree in the United States, (Philadelphia: by the Author, 1854), p. 45. 'Prospectus for a Select Club; MSS Oxford, Bodleian Library:AbingerDeposit, C 606/2; see also William St. Clair, The Godwins and the Shelleys, p. 92 (St. Clair records the Pro-

spectus as located at 532/4). H . C. Robinson to his brother, 12 December 1796, MS Dr Williams Library, University of London.; transcribed in St. Clair, The Godwins and the Shelleys, p. 92.

ODE TO

SCIENCE. RECITED AT THE ANNIVERSARY MEETING OF THE

PHILOMATHIAN SOCIETY, JUNE 20, 1791. TOGETHER WITH THE

SONG, SUNG BY

BROTHER WEBB, ON THE SAME OCCASION. BY BROTHER THELWALL. At ne quis modici transiliat munera Liberi, Centaurea monet cum Lapithis rixa super mero Debellata: monet Sithoniis non levis Evius, Quum fas atque nefas, exiguo fine, libidinum Discernunt avidi. HOR. - That none may surpass The freedom and mirth of a temperate glass, Let us chink on the Lapith~'s quarrels so dire, And the Thracians, whom wine can to madness inspire: lnsatiate ofliquor when glow their full veins, No distinction ofvice or ofvirtue remains. FRANCIS.

LONDON: PRINTED FOR THE USE OF THE MEMBERS, BY SAMMELLS AND RITCHIE, ALBION-BUILDINGS, BARTHOLOMEW-CLOSE.

MDCCXCI. -3-

4

Selected Political Writings ofJohn Thelwa/l Volume 1

ODE FOR THE

ANN IVE RS ARY OFTHE

PHILOMATHIAN SOCIETY,1 I. I. IF, Inspiration, from the radiant sphere, Where, at the threshold of the immortal throne, Thou pourest the high instructive theme, Warbling in seraphic ear Those sacred truths revealed to thee alone; W hile, from thy laurell'd brows, effulgent, beam The glories wh ich thy state transcendant prove First of the hii:rarch train ! chiefheir of H eavenly love ! I. 2.

I£ Inspiration, from this radiant d ime,

Thou e'er, attentive to sublunar strain, Wert by the bard enamour'd woo'd H is raptur'd fancy to sublime, And teach his feeble pinion to attain The awful height of thy beatitude, Now, Inspiration, now, my bosom fire, While Science's hallow'd praise reverberates from my lyre.

1.3 Yes, star-crown'd Science, awful Maid! (Lov'd sister of the genuine Muse, My theme invokes) who in the shade Where philosophic Thought retires, And, as the sombre scene inspires, The moral due intent pursues, To trace what laws great nature's plan controul, And heav'n-ward lift the all-admiring soul: Yes, star-crown'd Science, awful Maid! Who, or within this hallow'd shade Were first conceiv'd, or on the hoary height Of some stupendous rock, sublime, W here C ontemplation loves to climb, And, through the still domain of n ight,

Ode to Science 'Eye the blue vault; and moveless pole,2 (Round which the stars apparent roll) With daring thought, intent ro solve What worlds round blazing worlds revolve; What systems beyond systems dwell, More than numeric arcs can tell! Which angel eyes, perhaps, behold In boundless vision circling roll'd: Systems round systems infinite appear, And in the never-ending circle join To form the great eternal year: Yes, hallowed Science, awful, and divine! Thine is my votive theme; the praise, the triumph chine. ILL 'Twas thou, 0 Science! from barbaric Night That roused of old man's wretched race, And heaven-ward rear'd the grov'ling soul To claim its sov'reign right; That bad'st his savage solitude give place To social Joys, and Reason's calm controul. Thou giv'st the virtuous mind, and, Science, thou The god-like form erect, and soul-illumin'd brow. IL 2. Each comfort too chat soothes the social state; Refinement's arts, and all the joys oflife, To thee, benignant pow'r! we owe. You wrest the shafts of angry fate; Subdue the raging billows hostile strife, And ward the angry bolts avenging Tempests throw: Thine is the healing balm, the naval tower, And thine the temper'd rod's conducting power. IL 3. Tho' Traffic, proud of sordid ore, Ungraceful to a parent's fame, Pretend to scorn thy hallow'd Lore; Yet, wrapt in dulness while she lies, Or plung'd in avaricious joys, The fauchful Muse shall loud proclaim To thee, all-bounteous Science! thee, alone, She owes whace'er supports her boastful throne. Who planned the oar? the masted ship, That wafu her o'er the subject deep? Who caught to mark the pilot stat? The compass whose, chat guides her course afar? 'Twas Science plann'd the oar, the ship,

5

6

Selected Political Writings ofJohn Thelwa/l Volume 1 That wafts her o'er rhe subject deep. 'Twas Science mark'd the pilot star: Science the compass form'd that guides her course afar. Thus Science every realm explores, Thus Science weds rhe hostile shores; From clime to clime, from strand to strand, Wafu every boon ofevery land; Gives freely to rhe frozen Isle The bounties of the fervid soil; E'en Nature's stern decree controuls, And joins, at will, rhe distant poles; And, bounding o'er rhe barrier main, Blends distant worlds in Traffic's chain. Hence e'en the genial board proclaims her praise; Hence on rhis day our Goblets brighter shine, And Joy smiles forth wirh brighter rays. Then, hallowed power! benignant, and divine! Thine be rhe votive theme; rhe triumph, Science, thine.

Ill. I. Such, Philomathians, such rhe bounteous power To whom we consecrate our humble shrine; To whom our humble vows are paid: To whom awhile the genial hour To dedicate, in friendly Mirrh we join: Yet, e'en in festive Mirth, her sacred aid Invoke, ro bid our festive transports rise Above rhe sordid herd, profane, ofvulgar Joys.

Ill. 2. Hail Philomarhians ! then; and may the name (As wirh prophetic joy my soul foresees) Thro' distant ages hallow'd shine. Hail Candidates for guiltless fame! Who Learning's bloodless palm aspire to seize, Whose triumphs make no widow'd heart repine, But trophies leave to rouse succeeding yourh To deeds by Wisdom priz'd, by Virtue, Honour, Trurh.

Ill. 3. Nor on this day should be forgot What names your former triumphs grac'd: Ah! snatch'd by too severe a lot, (By heedless Pleasure snatch'd away Who quench'd the bright etherial ray.) Their race curtail'd, their Fame effac'd, Design'd rhro' distant ages ro proclaim The Glories of rhe Philomathian name.

Ode to Science 0 WYNNE! 3 0 POLLARD !4 form'd to move Our admiration - pity- love! That, skill'd to please with sterling sense; This, pour the rapt'rous stream ofwinning Eloquence. O! suffer one unknown to fame, (Who kindles at each honour'd name) To weep your faults - proclaim your praise, Ere yet the Memory ofyour Worth decays: 0 suffer o'er your grassy bier To shed a younger Brother's tear; Oblivion's shades awhile controul, And vindicate each 'lumin'd soul; And seize the hour, in act, to own A rival's merits, as his own, Can to the Muse's son appear As sacred, and his rights as dear. Yes, let the blazon'd monument of rhyme (0 that the Trophy might endure!) atone For cruel Fate's malignant crime, That to your ashes grants no honoured stone, To make your mental stores, your promis'd glories known. IV. I. But other Worthies - other Hopes arise, To spread our Institution's lasting praise, And dignify the rising age. These, rul'd by more indulgent skies, Shall live to grasp fair Learning's hallow'd bays, And stemming hostile Envy's serpent rage, Shall Admiration's grateful voice engage. These, taught by past examples, shall descry The covert rocks, and Pleasure's syren lure defy. IV. 2. The Bar, for manly Eloquence renown'd, Its rising Glory's nurt'ring School shall bless, And spread our Institution's fame; The while our Worthies, civic-crown'd, Shall forward to its proudest Honours press. Nor less from us the polish'd Arts shall claim. 0 that the partial Muse, with sacred flame! Might thro' this panting breast as certain glow, And twine with laureate Bays your bard's aspiring Brow! IV. 3. Then, hail! ye Philomathians, hail! Who, in your Academic shade, With social Friendship's genial gale

7

8

Selected Political Writings ofJohn Thelwa/l Volume 1 Would fan the latent sparks of Worth, And call the fires of Genius forth; Of Genius never doom'd to fade! Oh! may the Triumphs of this festive day, While Mirth and Friendship wafi: each care away Still firmer knit the cordial tie, And still an added spring supply To virtuous Emulation, and the aim Which animates, with force confest, Each genuine Philomathian's breast, To win, or merit, wreaths ofvirtuous fame. Meanwhile, let Mirth and Pleasure flow; Unbend awhile the mental bow. Let Wine, and Wit, and Jest, and Song, Wing swifi: the rosy hours along; Let Fancy blithe, her pinions plume, And Humour grace the jocund dome, But chieflet Friendship, void ofguile, Appear, with heart-expressive smile; 'Till, inmate ofeach worthy breast, Gay Transport reigns, a blameless guest, And (guided still by Reason's mild controul) This truth by Philomathians may be shewn, That even Pleasure's mantling bowl, 'Mong Learning's friends, a higher zest can own Than e'er was yet received from Sensual draughts alone.

AN ESSAY, TOWARDS A DEFINITION OF ANIMAL VITALITY

An Essay, Towards a Definition

ofAnimal Vitality in which Several ofthe Opinions of of Guy's Hospital Rickaby et al, 1793).

Hunter are Examined and Controverted. Read at the Theatre

John January 26, 1793 (London: T.

Throughout his life, Thelwall had an abiding interest in anatomy and physiology. He became a member of the Physical Society in the autumn of 1791 and attended meetings from then until 1793 at Guy's Hospital School in Southwark, London. One could easily imagine that he would relish the spirit of debate and progressive thought that characterized the society in those years. His Essay, Towards a ofAnimal Vitality is the printed lecture he gave at the society's monthly

Definition

meeting on 26 January 1793. His intellectual and oratorical abilities had earned him an invitation to give this address, and by all accounts he was impressive: the paper

allegedly inspired

animated debate for weeks and

garnered

Thelwall

an

appreciative letter of thanks from the Society's secretary.

Throughout the

text, Thelwall refers to the lectures of the

highly influential

surgeon and anatomist John Hunter (these lectures would later be published A Treatise on the Blood, Inflammation, and Gun-Shot Wounds). As Thelwall

as

indicates footnote, himself, in

the a

he did

a

of

not

later

gain

a

fame

condition from Thelwall's

as

but referred

attend Hunter's lectures

friend'. This friend is

very ingenious fellow reformer and member of the London notes

most

to

likely James Parkinson,

Corresponding Society (he would

the surgeon who identified Parkinson's disease

as a

distinct

palsy).

Essay

is

a

rather defiant and

daring critique

of the idea,

as

expounded by Hunter, that the vital principle the source of human life was located in the blood. 1 For the materialist Thelwall, life could not be located in the blood itself, nor could it be super-added to the body through the blood. Rather, life was inherent in the biological organs, that is, the material or

matter of the body. Thelwall's challenge directed specific medical was

alone, but

not

at

the

tenets

and as he puts it rationality and reform

importantly, dogma, superstition, 'overzealousness' supported emphasis more

that

to

such

tenets.

His

on

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Selected Political Writings ofJohn Thelwa/l Volume 1

10

within the scientific realm reveals how Thelwall's challenge to the medical establishment mirrored his challenge to the political status quo. The connection between politics and science was made, too, by the more conservative members of the medical establishment. In the increasingly reactionary political climate of the mid-l 790s, Thelwall's fate as a speaker on topics of physiology and anatomy was brought to an abrupt end. A second paper he gave in 1793 on 'The Origin of Sensation' met with a much less glorious reception.2 His attempt to account for the 'phenomena of mind ... upon principles purely Physical' was construed as a politically and ethically dangerous act. His biography gives a revealing description of the sensation he caused: One of the physicians, and several other leading men of the hospitals, who never before showed their heads in the Society, came down in a body to interrupt the discussion; and from the language and vehemence exerted upon the occasion, one would have thought, that the existence of all theological and political institutions, had depended upon the agitation of a question ofphysics 3

There is something distinctly ironic about this statement: the security of theological and political institutions was unquestionably threatened by the materialist philosophy Thelwall promoted - that was, in fact, precisely the point of his paper. As might be imagined, the members at Guy's were keen to protect those institutions: they eventually voted Thelwall's paper down. Consequently, Thelwall withdrew from the Physical Society and did not produce an explicitly medical text for another nine years.

Notes 1. 2. 3.

For more on Hunter and this debate, see the section on 'Science' in the 'Introduction' to chis volume. 'Memoir' to Poems Chiefly Written in Retirement. C. Thdwall, Life oJThelwall, 2 vols (London: J. Macrone, 1837), p. 106.

AN

ESSAY, TOWARDS A DEFINITION OF

ANIMAL VITALITY; READ AT THE

THEATRE, GUY'S HOSPITAL, January 26, 1793; IN WHICH

SEVERAL OF THE OPINIONS OF

THE CELEBRATED JOHN HUNTER ARE EXAMINED AND CONTROVERTED.

ByJOHN THELU/ALL, MEMBER OF THE PHYSICAL SOCIETY, &C. FELIX, QUI POTUIT RERUM COGNOSCERE CAUSAS. VIRGIL.

LONDON: PRINTED BY T. RICKABY; AND SOLD BY G. G.J. ROBINSONS, PATERNOSTER-ROW; DEBRETT, PICCADILLY; AND COX, ST. THOMAS'S STREET, BOROUGH. 1793. [Entered at Stationer's Hall.]

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AN ESSAY, &c. READ TO

THE PHYSICAL SOCIETY. INTRODUCTION. Mr. PRESIDENT, AS my sole motive for becoming a member of this society was the pleasure I always derived from the enlightened conversation of gentlemen of the Medical Profession, and as I have hitherto attended to the science only as a matter of entertaining curiosity, and not as a pursuit to which I have any present intention of devoting myself, I might, perhaps, without encountering the censure of the candid and considerate, have endeavoured to excuse myself from the execution ofa task to which the nature of my pursuits must necessarily render me so inadequate. But, as I am no friend to privileges, and would have every member of society endure his proportion of the public burrhens; and as, above all, I would wish to exclude the idle drone from the hive of science, I felt myself called upon to perform the part allotted by our institutions, and to give every gentleman that opportunity of canvassing and controverting my opinions, which, with respect to theirs, I have occasionally exercised mysel£ I have discarded, therefore, as far as possible, the timidity naturally attendant upon the many disadvantages under which I labour, and launching into a new and untried region, have brought my little tribute of physical knowledge, or rather speculation, to the general fund; confident only in the hope, that the smallness of its value will in some degree be compensated by the cheerfulness with which it is contributed. My Theory will no doubt be found, in many respects, defective, from the want of more general information in the sciences of Anatomy and Physiology; and may, perhaps, be erroneous in others, from the misapprehension of scattered facts, imperfectly collected, without the concatenation of circumstances by which they might be elucidated and explained. But such as it is, I am sure the society would pardon its imperfections, if they knew the numerous avocations among which it has been digested, and the small proportion of time I have been enabled to devote to its composition.

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I make these observations, not to abate the ardour ofcontroversy, or restrain the keenness of investigation. It is from that ardour, from that keenness, and not from any vague conjectures in this essay, that edification is to be expected by the society; and so far am I from wishing to shelter my hypothesis behind the screen ofany personal consideration, that I should neither be displeased at being convinced that I am wrong, nor backward in acknowledging my conviction. Reputation is not to be expected from so transient an attention as I have been enabled to pay to this subject; nor can there be any disgrace in the failure of an attempt, which is the result rather ofnecessity than of choice. In short, candour ofjudgment, and not indulgence in investigation, is what I solicit from the society; and for that I shall not solicit in vain. It is necessary, however, before I proceed to my subject, to premise one remark. I do not here profess to delineate a perfect system. I have entitled my paper an Essay, and as such only I wish it to be considered. I shall not therefore be expected to demonstrate every proposition, or to draw out every part of my theory with amplitude and perspicuity. This, I believe, is what has never yet been done; nor, from the limits of our present knowledge, can it rationally be expected of any hypothesis upon this subject. The Anatomical Physiologist himself is frequently lefi: to wander in the regions of conjecture. The functions of almost every organ may be traced farther than the existence of such organs can be detected by the minutest enquiry: Analogy, therefore, is ofi:en called upon to supply the place of Demonstration; or the more easy expedient is appealed to, of passing over in silence what cannot be readily accounted for. Many of the conjectures, it is true, which the imperfection of the senses, or the deficiency of observation, has rendered necessary to professors, have gathered confidence from the great authorities by which they have been sanctioned: yet let it not be forgotten, that it is not in the nature of authorities to change conjectures into proofs. Let us remember also, that reason is the greatest authority ofall; and that when systems clash, and demonstrations are not to be had, we ought not to consider who is the author of this, or who of that opinion, but which it is that involves the fewest absurdities, or is best supported by analogy, and the correspondence of the general laws of Nature.

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ESSAY, TOWARDS A DEFINITION OF ANIMAL VITALITY IT is an apparent paradox, but it is not therefore the less true, that those ideas, or phenomena, that are most familiar to us, should frequently be the most difficult to explain. This is particularly the case with the subject of the present Essay. Life is a tenn so constantly recurring, and, indeed, as one would at first suppose, an image so perpetually presenting itself to our senses - and the difference is so striking, between the pale insensate corpse, and a living being, with all the expressions, actions, and attributes with which, in the higher scale of animals, he generally offers himself to our eyes, or our imaginations, that a vulgar observer would sneer at the philosopher who should suggest the difficulty of ascertaining in what vitality consists: yet where is the student, who, upon serious examination, has found himself satisfied with any thing that has been said upon the subject? Does not the greatest anatomical philosopher, even of the present enlightened age, tacitly confess the confusion of his ideas in this respect, when he declares that, 'From an examination and survey of animal matter when dead, only we gain an idea of living animal matter'; and that 'as from life only we gain an idea of death, so from death only we gain an idea of life?' 1 Before we can possibly derive any sort of information from this antithesis, it is necessary that we should be instructed how life and death may be accurately discriminated; for how are we to make comparisons between objects which we are unable to separate from each other? But even this has never successfully been attempted; for though there are certain signs (as putrefaction, &c.) by which the death of the animal may be demonstrated; yet, as it is not even pretended that putrefaction is the act ofvital dissolution, - or, in other words, that the body which is not putrid is necessarily alive - death must have taken place, independently of any such change; and we are, therefore, just as much in the dark as ever with respect to the ultimate test by which the presence oflife may be ascertained. Treatise afi:er treatise has been written on the Vital Principle; theory has pulled down theory without end; and the gross contradictions which have marked the opinions of the greatest characters upon the subject, might induce one to think that, even with respect to the general idea, we are still entirely at a loss; that we are seeking for an imaginary something - a phantom of the brain, which, perhaps, has no real existence: and, indeed, if the tenn is to be literally understood- if this Vital Principle is to be considered as a distinct or independent essence, separable from the effects and actions by which the state ofvitality is

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to be ascertained, I am not sure that this conclusion will be found to involve as much absurdity as is included in the contrary opinion. I am well aware that there are some, who, from the first blush of this observation, may be inclined to smile, and consider it as the ne plus ultra of scepticism: but the philosopher will do well to keep the distinction between a vitalprinciple, and the state of vitality, constantly in his mind: the former properly meaning a living CAUSE - the latter simply a modification or effect, to which the name of life is given, and which may be the result ofa co-operation ofother causes, neither of which need, in themselves, ofnecessity be alive. - In other words, to contend for the existence ofa Vital Principle, is to contend that there is superadded to organized matter a distinct something, in itself alive, by which the vital functions are carried on; while, on the other hand, the State of Vitality need not of necessity be construed, as meaning any thing more than the condition of the animal body during the continuance of those functions. Now - that there is a state of animal existence, that may properly be called the State ofLife, and be put in direct contradistinction to that ofDeath, and that upon the previous induction of this state depend all the higher functions of the sensitive being, are certainly among the most self-evident of all simple propositions. Nor is it less certain, that there must be an exact and precise moment (nay, fraction, or, ifI may so express myself, mathematicalpoint ofa moment), in which this state oflife ceases, and that ofdeath begins; though whether that moment can ever be ascertained by any sensible and positive mark of discrimination, is matter ofconsiderable doubt: but if this Vitality is to be considered, abe origine, as a Principle, (by which, physically or philosophically speaking, I conceive is always to be understood, a simple, elementary, andfirst natural cause), and not, as itself, an effect ofthe co-operation ofother principles, or natural and pre-existing causes, I own, for my own part, I must be rather slow in yielding my assent; and, while I bow with respect to superior judgments, must claim the prerogative ofexercising myown. Egypt, Greece and Rome are, it is true, against me: - the ancients and the moderns - Aristotle and Plato, Plutarch, Moses, and John Hunter; and yet against this host of Giants I presume to lift my pigmy lance, and brave the unequal combat. 2 The most ancient of the opinions transmitted to us upon this subject, I believe, is that of the Egyptians, which considers the Soul (or living Principle) as a kind of shadow, or aerial substance, diffused through every part of the body, animating every limb, and partaking of all its proportions. Man, according to them, consists of three pans - a gross perishable body - an intellectualprinciple, or intelligent mind, by which he is elevated above the brute creation - and an image, or soul, exactly resembling the body in shape, in magnitude and feature, upon which animation, and all the functions of the animal

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frame depend; and in which, also, they conceive the intellectual principle to be enshrined. That these were considered, in the proper meaning of the word, as distinct principles, is evident, since they are treated as being capable of independent existence - the soul, or vital principle, continuing many of its functions afi:er its separation from the body; and the mind, or intellectualpower, afi:er the final separation, being sometimes consigned to a different residence from the soul. This opinion (which still, with some slight variations, continues to be popular among Divines and Moralists, and has been mangled and metamorphosed even by our philosophers themselves) was adopted by the Greeks, was infused into the subtile and intricate philosophy ofAristotle, dilated upon by the divine genius ofPlato, beautified by the sublime invention of that most ancient of their poets and philosophers, the immortal Homer; and, at length, was taught by Plutarch to the Roman World, in the following manner: 'Man', says he, 'is a compound subject, but not of two parts, as is commonly believed, because the understanding is generally accounted a part of the soul; whereas it as far exceeds the soul, as the soul is diviner than the body. Now the soul, when compounded with the understanding, makes REASON, and, when compounded with the body, makes PASSION; whereofone is the source or principle of pleasure or pain - the other of vice or virtue. Man, therefore, properly dies two deaths; the first makes him two of three, and the second makes him one of two'. 3 This hypothesis has certainly beauty and ingenuity to recommend it to our imaginations; and is also, to my conceptions at least, somewhat more comprehensible than those systems which refer the operations of gross matter to immaterial agency. It is, however, like all the speculations of the ancients upon these subjects, unfounded in experimental enquiry, and unsupported by facts or observation: yet St. Paul, (who derived much of his inspiration from the ancient poets and philosophers) has given it the sanction ofhis authority, by dividing, in distinct terms, the triune man into Body, Soul, and Spirit.4 This being the case, it is not at all surprising that modern philosophy should have been more anxious to frame such systems as were reconcileable with this tripartite division, than such as might be consistent with known facts, or maintainable on the grounds ofreason; and that we should accordingly find this theory so stoutly defended to the present hour, with the slight alteration only of transposing the soul into the place of mind or spirit, and substituting Vital Principle in the place of soul. Some philosophers, however, by considering the immaterial essence as the animating principle, and others, by considering the animating principle as the only medium of intelligence, have reduced human existence to a two-fold nature: I, for my part, shall simplify the subject still farther - and, regarding man as differing from other animals rather in the extent than in the

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nature of his powers, shall consider him, together with the inferior tenants of creation, in an individual point ofview only; as consisting of a simple organized frame, from the susceptibility and presence, or the non-susceptibility, or absence ofstimuli in which arises the whole distinction between the living body and the dead. Wherever there is a perfect organization of the animal substance, there, I conceive, we have the susceptibility (or, as it may, perhaps not improperly, be called, the PRE-DISPOSING CAUSE) of Life: whatever may be that specific stimulus, by which such susceptibility may be disposed to be excited, that, I conceive, must be admitted to be the REMOTE CAUSE, or agent by which Life is to be produced: from the intimate combination of these results, that meliorated or altered state of the organized frame, which may be considered as the PROXIMATE CAUSE; and the Vital Action, as it may properly be called, or the power by which the vital functions are performed, being the ultimate effect of these cooperating causes, is, in reality, as I humbly presume, to be considered as that Life, or Animal Vitality, for which, under so many denominations and imaginary forms, the Philosopher and the Medical Professor have so long been seeking. Such is the general idea, which, upon the simple principles of materialism, I have formed oflife; and so to define this idea as to account for the phenomena, without appealing to the fanciful creations of the visionary brain, or abstruse and unmeaning terms ofpretended science, is the task I have undertaken. But before I enter more particularly into the subject, it will be necessary to bestow some consideration on another theory that has lately very much amused, and, according to my judgment, misled the scientific world - The theory, I mean, of the Vital Principle being resident in the blood. This doctrine, in all probability, had its origin in the remotest antiquity; since the fatal consequences that result to the animal frame, from the spilling of this important fluid, must have been frequently observed, especially in the ages ofbarbarism and violence, long before the faculties ofman were sufficiently improved for refined speculations, or philosophical researches into nature: but the prejudices ofignorance have sometimes been ascertained, and morefrequently adopted, by the luminaries of science and the world; and this hasty opinion (for such to me at least it appears) has not wanted supporters among those who will long continue to claim the applause and admiration of mankind. And first, I must particularize, that this doctrine has received the direct sanction ofthe great Jewish Law-giver (or whoever was the author of the Five Books of Sacred History generally ascribed to him) in the following, among a variety of texts of a similar nature - 'For it is the life ofallflesh; the blood ofit is the life

thereof: therefore I said unto the children ofIsrael Ye shall eat of the blood of no manner offlesh:for the life ofallflesh is the blood thereof; whosoever eateth it shall be cutoff.5

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I am very well aware, that the sublime language of Revelation is not always to be interpreted with philosophical precision - the enthusiasm of divine inspiration frequently elevating the style of the holy penman to a degree of poetical hyperbole, which would be perfectly unintelligible to the cold perceptions of reason and enquiry, if it were not for the friendly appeals of the commentator to mystical allegory, and metaphorical elucidation: but as the doctrine here quoted is merely illustrative of the simple mandate, that the Jews should not eat of the blood of animals slain for their sustenance, there can be no doubt of its being intended to be literally understood as the opinion of Moses, that the blood is absolutely the Vital Principle. For this opinion, I am very much inclined to suspect, that no better foundation will be discovered than the acknowledged fact, that when the blood, or any very considerable portion of it, is drawn away, the vital functions of the animal will cease: but, unfortunately for this theory, these functions will also cease, without the proportion of this fluid being at all diminished: and as there are also several other parts entering into the composition of the animal, which, if subtracted, even in part, resign the body to inevitable destruction, we might as well say, that the stomach thereof, or the kidneys, or the liver thereof, is the life thereof, as that the blood is to be so considered. Nay, from what we are now acquainted with concerning the nervous system, there would be much better reason to suppose, with some later philosophers, that the life of the animal is in the brain, rather than in the blood, since so much of the latter may be lost without essential injury, while the former cannot receive the slightest wound without bringing on immediate dissolution; and though, upon serious reflection, there is every reason to believe, that the fatal catastrophe is produced as much, at least, by the consequent extravasation of the blood, as by any immediate susceptibility of injury in the substance of the brain; yet this does not weaken the argument, since it is evident, that it is not the loss ofblood from the vessels which is the real cause of the mischief (for much larger quantities may be drawn from the same part by mere external wounds, without any alarming consequences); but that the injury produced by the extravasation results from the consequent oppression on the organ, by which its active energy is restrained and benumbed, and, ofcourse, its vital functions will be stopped. From this, and a variety ofother considerations, it is evident that the brain is, at least, more vital than the blood, since the compression of the former is more dangerous than even a very considerable deduction of the latter. But it might, perhaps, be objected to the whole of this reasoning, that many animals have life, which have neither brain, nor kidneys, nor liver, nor, strictly speaking, even stomachs; for I know not how the simple cavities of the leech or polipus can, in strict propriety, be considered as stomachs.

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This objection being founded in truth, it is necessary that we should give it its utmost force, and admit it as a demonstration, that animal life neither consists in, nor is absolutely dependant upon any one of these particular organs: but as it will be admitted, that though they have not these, they have some other organs, which, as far as is necessary for the performance of their functions, supply the place of these, the cases will still be found to be in some degree parallel - for, strictly speaking, many of the most imperfect animals have no blood (at least, according to the general idea which is given of it in the descriptions of anatomists), there being, perhaps, as much difference between the ichor, which supplies its place in several classes ofinsects and reptiles, and the compound fluid, which, in the more perfect animals, we call by the name ofblood, as between this ichor and the sap ofvegetables, and a variety of other simple juices of animal or vegetable substances. If, therefore, the Vital Principle is to be sought in the circulating fluids, we ought rather to say, that the SERUM thereofis the life thereof, than the BLOOD. But as I am informed, that the immortal Harvey6 upheld a doctrine similar to that I am combating; and as so great an authority as John Hunter has thought proper, in some degree, to sanction the opinion, it is necessary to treat it more at large, and to abandon the cursory observation of the Jewish Law-giver, for the more elaborate and practical researches of the British Anatomical Philosopher. I have said, that John Hunter's Theory sanctions, in some degree, the opinion of Moses; for I think it very doubtful, whether he means to carry it to the full extent, and to assert, that the Vital Principle is peculiarly, or originally, in the blood. The Editors of the Encyc. Brit. it is true, (title BLOOD, vol. iii. p. 313), evidently understood him in this manner, as will appear from the following quotation: 'The uses of this fluid are so various, and of such an important nature, that some have not scrupled to affirm the blood to be actually possessed of a living principle, and that the LIFE ofthe whole body is derived.from IT. This opinion wasfirst broached by the celebrated Harvey', (this I have already shewn to be a mistake*), 'the discoverer of the circulation: but in this he was never much followed; and the hypothesis itself, indeed, has been pretty much laid aside and neglected, till oflate that it was revived by Mr. J Hunter'. After which are quoted the six arguments, (which I shall presently endeavour to examine) as advanced by that great professor, to support this broad and unqualified opinion: but, in the manuscript copy of his Lectures, which I have principally made use of, he begins the subject with the simple assertion only, that the blood 'is endowed with a principle oflife, in itself, equally with the solidparts'.7 *

Vide p. 13. ofthis Essay, where it is shewn to have been the opinion of Moses, &c.

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Now, whether all or any, either of the particular fluid or solid pares,* possess

in themselves (chat is co say, either separately, or absolutely) a principle oflife, I do

not at present enquire, because it seems to involve the general question, (which must be referred to its proper place in my Essay); namely - Whether life itself is to be considered as a distinct and positive essence, or, simply, as the result of a particular harmony and correspondence of the whole, or aggregate combination, preserved and acted upon by a particular stimulus? On chis subject, indeed, it is sufficiently evident chat I have the misfortune to differ from the illustrious authority before me; but as I am now examining the doctrine only of the Vitality of the Blood, it is but necessary for me just to observe, chat as nothing more is directly asserted in the proposition, than chat the blood of the living body is equally alive with the bones and ligaments, and muscular fibres, &c. of which such living body is composed, it does not seem to lie considerably in the way of my theory; because, if in other respects I can but substantiate my opinion, the difference will not be very great, whether we admit the blood as participating in the Vitality, produced as I shall endeavour to shew, or consider it as nothing more than a specific fluid, giving nourishment to the various substances, and conveying co the different organized pares the necessary stimuli, by which Life or the Vital Action is to be produced or sustained. Nay, when he afterwards proceeds co assert, chat 'Blood is not only alive itself, but also, by circulation through every part of the body, becomes the means of, and carries Life to, the ocher pares'; I do not yet perceive the absolute necessity of entering the lists upon chis part of the subject, because he does not palpably assert, chat the Life co be conveyed is, suigeneris, or originally in the blood; but only chat chis fluid is the agent by which the Vitality is communicated to the respective parts; and it is my intention to admit chat the blood, in the more peefect, and the serous fluid, substituted in its place, in the less peefect animals, is the appropriate medium, by which alone the stimuli necessary for the production and sustainment of Life can be absorbed and properly diffused through the organized frame: and, indeed, several passages might be produced to countenance the suspicion, chat chis justly admired Lecturer so far agrees with the Theory I mean to enforce, as to admit chat the Vital Principle is, at least, sustained and reinvigorated (if not absolutely generated), not independently by the blood itself, but from something imbibed in its passage through the lungs; for he acknowledges, chat 'Before blood is capable ofgi,ving life', (in other words, according to his own theory, before it is alive), 'it must have circulated through the lungs, where it undergoes some essential change. Perhaps: continues he, 'it is then in its second state, or vivification'. 8 • I treat the word parts here, not as alluding to limbs or proportions, but as referring to the separate and different species of substance ofwhich the body is constituted - as bone in contradistinction to muscle, muscle in contradistinction to nerve, nerve to membrane, and the like.

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It is obvious to remark, that if the blood is not 'in its state ofvivification' till it has passed through the lungs, Vitality cannot be the property of the blood itself, but only a consequence of some action, or superaddition, acquired in its passage through that organ; and, consequently, that the Vital Principle (to use the language of those philosophers who consider Life as a separate essence) is to be sought, not in the blood, but in that subtile element, or whatever it is, which is imbibed by means of the respitory system. But (if it is not presumption for me to say so) there seems to be some degree of obscurity - perhaps, if I were speaking of any man but John Hunter, I should venture to say contradiction, in the doctrines of the Lecturer, upon this subject; for he immediately afterwards denies that the blood derives its Vitality from its passage through the lungs, in the following words: 'Perhaps it might be thought that Life is given to the Blood in the Lungs in consequence of the heat applied there, as heat is supposed to act upon the Egg; but it must be remembered, that Life is notgiven to the Egg by heat, only action produced by it: By which it should seem that he means to be understood as considering the Vital Principle to be a property efthe blood itself(so long as it continues in its perfect state) independent of respiration; and that this action of the Lungs is only necessary for the purposes of circulation, and the production of action in the other parts of the frame, by the distribution of this principle. And yet, if the Egg be alive (which, let it be remembered, I do not positively admit), how can this be? since (previous to the alteration taking place, from the application of heat, during the period of incubation), it contains no blood whatever; and, consequently, if the Vital Principle be in the blood, must be alive without the principle of life - a paradox, which, perhaps, it would be a little entertaining to hear the advocates of this doctrine explain. Not, however, to dwell upon so ambiguous a passage, there are, in the Lectures of this truly great man, sufficient foundations for the opinion apparently entertained by the Editors of the work above quoted, as well as by several of his pupils and admirers - namely, That he means to represent Vitality, or, according to his own expression, the Vital Principle, as residing originally, and in an emphatic sense, in the blood, and derived from it to the other parts ofthe system. He even, in the clearest manner, affirms its superior vivification over the nerves in particular: for while these, according to one of his aphorisms on the Vitality ofthe Blood, are not concerned in 'conveying life to parts, but only direct the motions of the parts: the blood is explicitly affirmed not only to 'convey life to the other parrs: but to be absolutely 'the living support of the nerves themselves': by which it is evident, that we must understand not only that the nourishment of these sensitive organs, but even their Vitality, is derived, not from their organization and the stimuli (of which they are, perhaps, the important repositories, or reservoirs), but from the Vital Principle peculiarly resident in the blood, and

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deposited there for the purpose of being communicated and diffused to other parts. These other pans then being dependant (according to this theory) upon the blood, not only for their support and enlargement, but, also, in an immediate view, for their Vitality, it is clear that if the system of the Lecturer does not go the whole length with Moses, of saying that the blood of the animal is the life thereof, at least that he supposes Life, ofitself, and independent of any particular action or stimulus to belong to, or be a property of, the blood; while to the rest of the animal substance, it only belongs in a secondary signification, as being imparted by the blood. And this, perhaps, we are the more bound to consider as his real meaning, as he maintains the doctrine of its vitality even after coagulation; and even delivers it as his opinion that this phenomenon 'is owing to an action of self-preservation in the blood, or to an effort for its continuance'.9 So that, according to this position, and the arguments that follow upon the circumstance of coagula becoming vascular under particular circumstances, we are not to consider the vitality of the blood as the consequence of its state, condition, and harmony, with the otherparts*of the body, but to look upon it as a principle inherent in it, and equally a property of it, whether in one state and situation, or another - whether in its vessels, or in a state of extravasation - whether in a fluid or a solid form - a circumstance attributed to no other of the component parts ofthe animal frame: these being considered as having no other principle of life, but what they immediately derive either from the blood, or from their harmony with the system in general; whose resources must cease before any material change in their nature and substance can take place. And yet, if this argument is properly sifted, I question whether it will make much for the Vitality of the blood, in any point ofview whatever. For as no similar change in any other fluid was ever brought forward as an evidence of a Vital Principle in such fluid, I cannot see that any phenomena, that would not be considered as a proofofVitality, or of an effort of selfpreservation, in any other instance, should have such stress laid upon it, for such purposes in the case before us. With respect to the generality, probably to all, of the fluids capable of congelation, it might, perhaps, be objected, that they afford no parallel example of permanent change of structure; as they are capable of resolution to their original form, which blood is not. But petrified substances, in which the change is permanent and entire, might at least be said, in this respect, to have as good a claim to the attributes of a vital principle and action of self-preservation, as the blood, which is here said to metamorphose itselfinto something else, in order to continue its existence. Besides, if the coagulation of the blood be an action of its Vitality, and an effort ofits Vital Principle for its preservation, how comes it that •

Vide Note, page I9.

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it will coagulate afi:er having been frozen; for John Hunter admits, that what he calls the Vital Principle of the Egg, is destroyed by freezing; and, indeed, nothing is more injurious to vitality of every kind, than the frigorific process: and yet Mr. Hewson 10 informs us, that blood may be completely frozen, and preserved in that condition (as other dead animal substances may) for a considerable time; and yet, afi:er it is again reduced, by an increase of temperature, to its fluid form, it will coagulate just as usual. Having thus examined the general state of the question, I shall proceed to review the six arguments brought forward upon the authority of the lecturer, in the Encyclopedia, in support of the opinion previously quoted - (vide page 18 ofthis Essay.) For the more ample statement of these, however, (not to swell my Essay to an unnecessary length; by quotations from a book, which is in the hands ofevery body) I shall refer to the work itself With respect to the first of these, derived from 'the power which the blood possesses, ofuniting living parts', it is to be remembered, that this is only the case in those instances where blood is immediately supplied by the parts to be united, and where, consequently, from its temperature, its assimilitude to the parts with which it is to enter into combination, its glutinous texture, and a variety ofobvious reasons, it may naturally be supposed to form the best cementing medium; and the healing ofwounds, by other applications, which have evidently no Vital Principle, appears to me sufficient to shew, that this is no proof of Vitality. All that is requisite, in either instance, being to keep the living parts in contact, and exclude the air, and other injurious, extraneous particles, till Nature has a sufficient opportunity ofexerting her restoring powers. The blood, yet warm, and fluid from the wound, may naturally enough be expected to enter intimately into the different portions of the severed parts; and all further injuries being thus prevented, it is neither singular nor strange, that the separated vessels should again unite, from the attraction of similar particles so frequently observed, when circumstances are favourable to the experiment; and that the stream of blood, driving towards its usual course, should at last find its way again through the coagulum formed by the blood thus bound up with the injured parts, and complete their restoration. - 2 and 6. Exactly upon the same principle I account for the phenomenon from which the second argument is drawn; namely - That 'coagula of extravasated blood will become vascular': for this, I believe, is never the case, except when the coagula come in contact, or nearly in contact, with arteries previously formed. This, therefore, seems to prove nothing more than that coagulated blood, when preserving a proper degree of temperature, from its situation, is the proper medium, or soil, into which the arteries may strike and ramify - all living pans, perhaps, having a tendency to grow and enlarge, so long as sufficient stimuli are supplied, and the proper medium is presented. For my own part, I cannot but observe, that all

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the preparations I have seen, intended to support this argument, have only suggested a process similar to that observable in vegetation, where the moist earth, in contact with the roots of plants or trees, supplies the proper medium into which the fibres are stimulated to extend their growth. And hence it is, that I find no difficulty in accounting for the junction of the testicle of the cock, to the liver of the hen, into whose abdomen it had been introduced, as mentioned in illustration of the first argument; 11 or, for the vascular appearance of the coagulum, found between the separated parts ofthe fractured os humeri, 12 upon which the sixth, or rather the reiteration of the second argument, is founded. - 3. As for the third argument, drawn from the power of the blood, to preserve an equal degree oftemperature in the living body, during the prevalence of different temperatures of the atmosphere - I shall at present make no other answer to this, than by observing, that if the Theory I am about to suggest is well founded, that will be sufficient to account for this phenomenon, without appeal to any other hypothesis: for if the air may be admitted to be sufficiently impregnated with the same specific stimuli in the coldest, as well as in the hottest day, there can be no reason why the blood should be expected to have a lower degree of temperature on the former than on the latter - whether it be admitted to be possessed of a Vital Principle independent of such stimuli, or not. - 4. As for the 'Blood being capable of being acted upon by a stimulus', - this is saying no more than may be proved of a variety of things that have confessedly no pretensions to life whatever: and as the only particular effect which is instanced as produced by the stimulating influence on the blood, (namely coagulation), would never be admitted as a proof of life in any fluid whatever, it cannot, as far as I am able to discover, be made any use of in illustration of the point in question. 5. The fifi:h argument, that 'the blood preserves life in different parts of the body; is equally applicable to the Theory of the Lecturer, and to my own; for, whether it be considered as retaining in itself the Vital Principle, or being the sole medium through which Vitality can be produced, we must equally admit its importance, not only in preserving, but in diffusing life: I shall therefore only observe, that the collateral part of the argument, which asserts, that 'when the nerves, going to a part, are tied, the part becomes paralytic; is, I believe, overthrown by later experiments; and that sensation only, and not the power of acting the muscles, is interrupted by the ligature of nerves. Upon this, however, (as I certainly do not mean to rob the blood ofits vital honours, to bestow them on the Brain and Nerves), I shall not at present enlarge; but shall conclude what I have to say upon this subject, by observing that, perhaps, the whole doctrine of the Vitality of the Blood (in whatever point ofview it may be taken) originated in the mind of the Lecturer, from observing the important offices it performs in the sustainment and reproduction of parts confessedly and palpably alive. Now, that the nerves (for example), as well as every other part of the animal body, are nourished by

An Essay, Towards a Definition ofAnimal Vitality

25

the blood, is sufficiently evident, and that, but for such nourishment, these parts must, by exhaustion, lose their Vitality, is equally obvious; but that the fluid, nourishing and sustaining a living part, must of necessity be itself alive, is what I cannot readily admit, because it seems to contradict the known laws and phenomena of nature. Air and water are the proper and necessary nourishment of plants, without which vegetation must quickly be exhausted and expire; but no one will, therefore, contend, that air and water are alive: nor will the difficulty be removed, by objecting, that air and water are only the food ofplants, and that the nourishment ofthe vegetable is immediately derived from the circulating sap, as that of the animal from the blood; for as no digestive process can be assigned to the plant, air and water must be the immediate nourishers of the sap; and, consequently, the conclusion must either be, that the living sap is nourished by air and water, which are not alive, or that the sap, which is not alive, nourishes the living plant; which, with respect to the argument before us, is just the same: in short, it might as well be maintained, that whatever supports a sensitive part must itselfbe sensitive; or that nothing but nerve should nourish a nerve, or muscle but muscle, &c. which would drive us back to the obsolete opinion of those philosophers, who maintained, that all things contain the component parts of all things; and, in short, would even compel us to appeal to the doctrine of an ancient sect ofAtheists, who, to get rid of the necessity of a Deity, insisted upon the original and eternal Vitality of matter, and accounted for the growth and nourishment of living things, by arguing, that the particles that nourished them were themselves possessed ofa living principle. If, however, we abide by the mode of reasoning suggested by the known phenomena ofnature, a much more simple theory will present itself, in the evident tendency of small accumulations ofmatter (when placed under favourable circumstances) to assimilate, and even identify themselves with the larger masses to which they adhere, or with which they enter into combination; which will sufficiently account for the nourishment and growth of the living body, without attributing Vitality to the blood, by which it is sustained. Having thus taken as briefa survey as the nature of the subject would permit, of some of the principal opinions, that have, at different times, commanded the attention of the scientific world, I shall proceed to the professed object of my Essay; namely - to consider of the Definition. Of this undertaking the difficulty must be readily admitted; or, should pride or petulance be inclined to deny it, the subterfuges to which the most ingenious ornaments of medical science have been driven, would furnish a sufficient reply. Some have given it up entirely, and satisfied themselves with a negative test, instead of a positive definition; asserting, that the only criterion of its absence is putrefaction: but these cautious maxims, though they may be adopted, for security, by the practitioner employed in the benevolent labour of snatching from premature dissolution the pale victims

26

Selected Political Writings ofJohn Thelwa/l Volume 1

of accident or despair, will not satisfy the spirit of the philosophical enquirer: he, indeed, may frequently be compelled to wander in the gloom of doubt and negation; but his active mind will scorn such sullen darkness, and pant for the glorious prospects oftruth and certitude; to which, however, I have not the arrogance to profess that I shall conduct him. By some it has been contended, that life consists in action, or excited irritability; by others, simply in organization: but both of these would admit a variety of instances, that can lay no claim to any sort of Vitality, much less to that sort of Vitality which is the subject of the present paper: with respect to the former, I need only instance, that parchment, leather, thread, &c. may be excited to considerable action by either heat or moisture, as may also a variety oflight bodies, by the application of electricity: and, as for organization, this I consider to be no other than that arrangement ofdissimilarparts, by which a harmony and com-

munication ofthe whole is produced, so as to enable it to preserve itselfin a given state, and resist its own dissolution. This, therefore, is very inadequate to our idea

of life; for matter will continue to be organized when LIFE has ceased; as it also, I conceive, must be organized before LIFE begins; in illustration ofwhich, I should rather be inclined to quote the instance of the Egg, which (with all the deference due to the high authority ofJohn Hunter) appears to me to be organized, though not alive, previous to incubation: I conceive also, that many bodies may be considered as organized, that were never intended to live at all. To those, however, who wish to consider life as entirely dependant on Organization, I submit the following Definition: That perfect harmony oforganizedparts,

by which the animalfame is rendered soJar susceptible oftile proper stimuli, as to have itsfunctions, or any ofthem, induced upon such stimuli beingapplied: and this

the Society will be kind enough to keep in their minds, as what I mean, when I come hereafter to speak of Specific Organization. - Others have considered Animal Life as consisting in the performance of the Animal functions: but this definition would exclude, from all pretensions to Vitality, many beings, which common sense must admit to be alive; for an animal may certainly live, when it neither does, nor can perform, all its functions; and, as for ascertaining which may be dispensed with, and which may not, this, I believe, has never been successfully attempted. The definition ofJohn Hunter appears to me particularly vague and unsatisfactory. 'Life; says he 'does not consist in any modification ofmatter: it either is something superadded to matter, or else it consists in a peculiar arrangement of certain fine particles ofmatter, which, being thus disposed, acquire the properties of Life'. The Disciples of this justly celebrated man must pardon me, if I am inclined to smile at this definition, or rather indefinite description of Life, and to declare, that I never in my life met with any thing more completely incomprehensible. 'Life does not consist in any modification ofmatter'; and yet,

An Essay, Towards a Definition ofAnimal Vitality

27

perhaps, 'it consists in apeculiar arrangement of certain.fineparticles ofmatter, which, being thus disposed, acquire the properties of Life!' What is the.fineness ofthese particles ofmatter, but a modification ofmatter? - What is the peculiar arrangement - what the disposition of these particles, but a modification of matter? In short, is not this telling us, in other words, that Life positively is not a modification ofmatter, but that yet, perhaps, it is a modification ofmatter? As for the other position, that Life consists in something superadded to matter, I had once occasion to controvert this incomprehensible axiom at the Lyceum, when, all of a sudden, a sneer went round the Theatre, and a hundred mouths were filled with fury against me, as though I had stood up, in the presence of the Pope and his Cardinals, to deny the doctrine of the Trinity. I shall venture, however, once more to assert, that the spiritual allusions of this sentence are too fine for the gross conceptions of my material organs. According to my dull comprehensions, matter and vacuum stand precisely in the same degrees of contradistinction as something and nothing; and, in the former case, as in the latter, it is impossible for me to admit the negation ofthe one, without, at the same time, acknowledging the affirmation of the other. - Where there is not matter, there there is vacuum; - where vacuum is not, there there must be matter. Those effects, which are not produced by the operations of some modification of matter, or, in other words, of something, must of course be produced by some modification ofvacuum, or, in other words, ofnothing; and how vacuum, or nothing, can be so modified as to produce Life, I leave to the consideration ofthe Metaphysicians. It is evident, however, that this is not what the Lecturer means; because, though he denies the modification of matter, he admits the superaddition of something. - But what is this something that is not matter? - Is it Spirit? I certainly do not think it the part of a philosopher absolutely to deny the existence of every thing that he cannot demonstrate; but, as contradictions are not to be admitted, I must, for my own part, maintain, that if there is any such thing entering into the animal composition (though our senses have never yet been capable of taking cognizance of it) as Spirit, having an existence separate and distinct from organization, and that gross perishable kind of substance we call body, that such Spirit, however subtile, however refined, must still be material: and then, indeed, the absurdity vanishes - because that more subtile matter can act upon that which is more gross and inert, we have sufficient evidence in the action of air, and of the electric fluid. And that this (a fine and subtile, or aeriform essence) is the real and genuine meaning of the term Spirit, about which divines and philosophers have so long been contending, is, I conceive, sufficiently demonstrable, not only from its etymology, but also from the common application of the word in the other senses in which it is still retained: as, for example, - by the spirit of any distilled or fermented fluid, we always mean to express that more subtile and volatile principle (the alkohol of

28

Selected Political Writings ofJohn Thelwa/l Volume 1

the chemists) mixed with, and diffused through such fluid, and whose materiality (notwithstanding its superior subtility) is no more to be questioned that that of the grosser parts of the fluid with which it enters into combination. In short, it will perhaps be found, that all Nouns, immediately or arbitrarily derived from Verbs,* whether of the same, or any other language, still retain, in a considerable degree, their paternal signification; and spirit must, perhaps, be admitted to bear no other meaning than the Latin spiro (to breathe), from which it is confessedly taken: or, ifwe must needs make a distinct living existence ofit, then can it possibly mean no other than a vital aeriform substance, diffused though the frame, and giving animation to the respective parts. So that, at any rate, this something superadded to matter, can only be a more refined species of matter added to that which is more gross; and, of course, it constitutes that very modification which the Lecturer denies. - It has been stated, in defence of this passage, that by some thing superadded, no more is meant than some quality; but this would by no means mend the matter, since nothing can be added but what has a previous and separate existence. Two things brought together may, it is true, occasion the existence of a third, different from both; but this third is not added, but produced. Now qualities have no separate existence, nor can they even be conceived in the imagination, otherwise than as connected with the things ofwhich they describe the shades or attributes: they are, in fact, solely and purely, modifications of matter, and, consequently, this interpretation involves all the absurdity and contradiction ofwhich I have before complained. But it is much more easy to find fault with the definitions of others, than to frame such as are not faulty: I shall proceed, therefore, to my task with caution; and, beginning with a general, proceed to a particular definition. - Life then, in the animal, we will say, is that state ofaction, by which thefunctions, or any ofthe functions, efthe animal are carried on. This definition, it is true, neither points out how the action is supposed to be induced, nor the state of the animal previous to the induction: I proceed, therefore, to add, that, previous to the existence eflife, the body must have attained a SPECIFIC ORGANIZATION; and that Life, or, in other terms, the Vital Action, is induced by the application efproper stimuli: thus, then, life in the animal is that state ef action (induced by specific stimuli upon matter specifically organized), by which the animalfunctions, or any efthem, are carried on. To the whole of this, I know, may be objected, the assertion of that great man, whom, with such repeated arrogance, I have ventured to * The natural mode of derivation seems to be of the Verb from the Noun; this being evidently likely to proceed in the first rude attempts atlanguage: but there are many words now in use, which must have come to us in the contrary direction - as Heaven, for example, which still retains, simply and absolutely, the meaning (that which is heaved or lifted up), which it brought from the parent verb, to heave.

An Essay, Towards a Definition ofAnimal Vitality

29

oppose: namely - That Life may exist without matter, being in 'a state of action, and the property of self-preservation may alone be present, Life being at the same time present in its full force'. To the solitary instance, however, brought in support of this assertion, I must reply, that the life of the Egg is by no means obvious to my understanding; for, although the Egg be so far organized as to be endowed with the principle of self-preservation; so, also, are various fruits, &c. whose Vitality, I suppose, after they are plucked, will not be contended for.* In short, it does not appear to have any one property or attribute, which, in any other substance, would be deemed a sufficient test of Vitality, till the stimulus ofheat, being properly applied, so meliorates the arrangement ofparticles, as to induce the specific organization essential to the susceptibility and production of Vital Action. - By this, then, it will appear, that I consider the preliminary principles oflife to be a specific organization and a specific stimulus; the perfect contact ofthese to be the immediate cause, and life itself to be the state ofaction produced

by this union.

It will now be expected, that I should give an opinion upon the nature of the stimulus required. But, in order to do this, I must first premise, that I consider the Blood, independent of its nutritive power, as the specific medium by which the stimuli must be conveyed to the different parts of the organized frame, so as to produce the Vital Action. This Blood, then, in its passage through the Lungs, collects a something, which generates a specific heat (for it is evident, that heat, unless thus generated, will not answer the purpose), which it diffuses through the whole vascular system, and then (exhausted of its vivifying power) returns again to the lungs, to exhale whatever noxious particles it may have collected, and to inhale a fresh portion of the same vivifying principle. But what is this something - this vivifying principle? - Is it atmospheric air itself? - Certainly not. The coats of the arteries, and the membranous linings of the cells of the lungs, forbid the access of such an element; besides, it has been proved by experiment, that in the arteries of the living body there is no air. Something, however, it must be, that is contained in the atmosphere, and something ofa powerful and exquisitely subtile nature. If, then, we look upon the component parts ofour atmosphere, what can we discover so competent to the task - so subtile, so powerful, so nearly approaching to that idea of an ethereal medium, which some philosophers have supposed necessary to complete the chain of connection between the divine immortal essence, and the dull inertion of created matter, as the electrical fluid? - that principle, whose presence, under such a variety offorms, is constantly presenting itself to the researches of the philosopher! - whose agency, in so many phe• Some, perhaps, will contend for the life of the kernels, seeds, &c. I, however, should content myself with contending for their specific organization; by which, upon the application of proper stimuli, they are rendered susceptible of Life.

30

Selected Political Writings ofJohn Thelwa/l Volume 1

nomena of Nature, we are daily detecting! and which, perhaps, will one time be discovered to be the real principle by which all heat and action are originally generated and maintained!

FINIS.

KING CHAUNTICLERE

'King Chaunticlere; (November 1793).

or,

the Fate of Tyranny', Politics for the People,

Hog's Wash,

8

inflammatory oral anecdote, narrated by speech Capel Debating Society in November of 1793. Later that month, the radical publisher and pamphleteer Daniel Isaac Eaton subsequently published the anecdote in the eighth number of his Politicsfor the People, or Hog's Wash (the subtitle of which is a clever play on Edmund Burke's description of plebeian Britons as 'the swinish multitude'). For

King

Chaunticlere made its debut

or

Thelwall in

a

to

the

as an

Court

periodical his trouble, Eaton was arrested and held in coming to trial on the charge of publishing

Newgate a

for three months before

supposed libel.

The

prosecution

claimed that

King Chaunticlere, which recounts the death of a tyrannical a was rooster, thinly veiled imagining of the death of George III. Eaton was admirably defended by the lawyer John Gurney, who claimed it was actually the

barnyard prosecutorial satire

on

party who

were

fantasizing

certainly, if this was a eventually acquitted by a jury occasion, he changed the name

sedition. For,

anyone, it must be Louis XVI. Eaton

was

of his peers on 24 February 1794; to mark the of his shop to "Ihe Cock and Swine.' For his part, Thelwall commemorated this

victory with the this volume).

Although

1795

publication ofJohn Gilpin's

Ghost

(which appears later in

the claim would later be made that Eaton embellished

or

exaggerated

the story of King Ghaunticlere, the text likely captures the substance of Thelwall's anecdote. The allegory of the barnyard tyrant draws loosely on the chanticleer figure found in Chaucer's 'Nun's Priest's Tale' and Caxton's

'Reynard suggested, it may also be derived from a 1793 fable that cast France as a gamecock, which appeared in the Morning Chronicle. On the night of its delivery, the Capel Court Society was debating whether it was life, liberty or love that inspired humans to action. Thelwall's anecdote was a claim that humans are most motivated by life. to an debater's response opposing In support of his claim, the debater (who was later described as having a Jerry Sneak kind of deportment') had conveyed the story of a slave who, although in the process of being tortured to death, still raised his arms to protect himself the Fox.' As

John

Barrell has

1

DOI: 10.4324/9780429349713-3

Selected Political Writings ofJohn Thelwa/l Volume 1

32

against the empathetic blow of an ally who wished to shorten his misery. 2 This, the debater had claimed, provided clear evidence that humans desired life over all else. In rebuttal, Thelwall drew on his ideas about physiology (as articulated in the two previous texts in this volume) in order to differentiate between voluntary (or conscious) action and involuntary (or habitual) action. Once again fusing politics and science, Thelwall gives a double-edged explanation for the slave's reaction. On one hand, his body was simply performing an 'action of the nervous system';3 on the other, he was spontaneously performing a habitual act. For certain, he was in no way making an informed, conscious decision. The same effect could be seen, Thelwall explained, in the case of the barnyard tyrant, King Chaunticlere. Even when his head had been cut off, he continued to strut and swagger. Like the slave, he was a product ofconditioning - only in his case, he had been conditioned to be arrogant and dictatorial. The people who he terrorized had also become habituated to certain forms ofbehaviour, except that they bowed, they cringed and they cowered at the feet of the dictator. Still there was room for rebellion here, for as powerful as such cultural conditioning might be - to the point that behaviours appeared instinctual - humans could choose to resurrect their love ofliberty. How such a message was received that night at the Capel Court Debating Society we can never know for certain, but according to the account given in Thelwall's biography, the analogy drawn between 'brute' and 'human' tyrants 'was told with such an irresistible spirit of humour, that it at once put an end to the argument, and was received with shouts oflaughter and applause'. 4

Notes 1.

2. 3. 4.

'The Grand Alliance; Morning Chronicle (13 August, 1793); see Barrell, Imagining the King's Death, p. 106. C. Thdwall, Life oJThelwall (London:]. Macrone, 1837), p. 108. Ibid., p. 108. Ibid., p. llO.

KING CHAUNTICLERE; OR,

THE FATE OF TYRANNY: An Anecdote, related by Citizen The/wall, at the Capel Court Society, during the discussion ofa Question, relative to the comparative Influence of the Love ofLife, ofLiberty, and oftheFair Sex, on the Actions ofMankind.'

WE have been told, Citizen Chairman! by a learned orator, who seems very fond of life, and who has drawn so depraved and contemptible a picture of human nature, that one must almost be ashamed of having lived to witness it, that the love of life must certainly have the strongest influence on the actions of mankind. And to prove this, he tells us a cock and bull story ofCaractacus, 2 at Rome; who, when he had lost his liberty, thought it was better to have life and love, with a prospect ofregaining his liberty, than to die, and have no prospect at all. He has told also another melancholy tale ofa poor tortured slave in the West Indies; not remembering, that ifthis love oflife, or rather, thefear ofdeath, for the distinction is evident, which he is such an advocate for, did not rather restrain than influence the actions ofmankind, they would soon, by becoming acquainted with the real nature of that principle I am supporting, learn to strike unanimously for liberty, and slavery and torture would be no more. This poor kidnapped negro, we are told, (for there are pressgangs to make men slaves oflabour as well as slaves of war) having had his hands and feet chopped off, by order of his tyrant masters, on account of some seditious attempt to regain his freedom, was afterwards put into a large frying pan over the fire, that he might expiate, by his tortures, that impious love of liberty which he had the audacity to entertain. In the midst of his torments, we are told, that one ofhis companions, more compassionate than the rest, rushed towards him, and, aiming a blow with his cudgel, would have dashed out his brains, had not the poor mutilated wretch conceived (such, is the curious reasoning that is offered to us by the tame advocates oflife without liberty) that the tortures of the frying pan were preferable to instant death, and therefore lifi:ed his poor bleeding stumps, with sudden terror, and broke the force of the blow. Now, if this magnanimous advocate for the .fryingpan ofdespotism, had happened to have reflected a little on the physical laws of the animal frame, he would have known that this motion of the arms was merely involuntary, and -33-

34

Selected Political Writings ofJohn Thelwa/l Volume 1

that neither love, nor fear, nor liberty, nor any other preference of the judgment, had any thing at all to do with it - it being natural to all animals, after they had been long used to perform certain actions in consequence of any particular stimulus, applied either to the sight or any other of the senses, to continue those actions, by mere mechanical impulse, whenever the usual objects are presented, without ever reflecting what it is they are doing; just as men, of base and abject minds, who have been long used to cringe and tremble at the names ofkings and lords, for fear they should be clapped up in bastiles, or turned out of their shops, continue to cringe and tremble, when neither shops nor bastiles happen to be present to their imaginations. But in order to set this difference between mental and muscular action,3 in a clearer point ofview before you, I will tell you, Citizen President, alittle anecdote concerning a youthful exploit of my own, - You must know then, that I used, together with a variety of youthful attachments, to be very fond of birds and poultry; and among other things of this kind, I had a very fine majestic kind of animal, a game cock: a haughty, sanguinary tyrant, nursed in blood and slaughter from his infancy- fond offoreign wars and domestic rebellions, into which he would sometimes drive his subjects, by his oppressive obstinacy, in hopes that he might increase his power and glory by their suppression. Now this haughty old tyrant would never let my farmyard be quiet; for, not content with devouring by far the greater part of the grain that was scattered for the morning and evening repast, and snatching at every little treasure that the toil of more industrious birds might happen to scratch out of the bowels of the earth, the restless despot must be always picking and cuffing at the poor doves and pullets, and little defenceless chickens, so that they could never eat the scanty remnant, which his inordinate taxation lefi: them, in peace and quietness. Now, though there were some aristocratic prejudices hanging about me, from my education, so that I could not help looking with considerable reverence, upon the majestic decorations of the person ofking Chaunticlere - such as his ermine spotted breast, the fine gold trappings about his neck and shoulders, the flowing robe of plumage tucked up at his rump, and, above all, that fine ornamented thing upon his head there - (his crown, or coxcomb, I believe you call it - however the distinction is not very important) yet I had even, at that time, some lurking principles of aversion to barefaced despotism struggling at my heart, which would sometimes whisper to me, that the best thing one could do, either for cocks and hens, or men and women, was to rid the world of tyrants, whose shrill martial clarions (the provocatives to fame and murder) disturbed the repose and destroyed the happiness of their respective communities. So I believe, if guillotines had been in fashion, I should have certainly guillotined him: being desirous to be merciful, even in the stroke of death, and knowing, that the instant the brain is separated from the heart, (which, with this instrument, is done in a moment,)

King Chaunticlere

35

pain and consciousness are at end - while the lingering torture of the rope may procrastinate the pang for half an hour. However, I managed the business very well; for I caught Mr. Tyrant by the head, and dragging him immediately to the block, with a heavy knife in my hand, separated his neck at a blow: and what will surprise you very much, when his fine trappings were stripped off, I found he was no better than a common tame scratch-dunghill pullet: no, nor half so good, for he was tough, and oily, and rank with the pollutions of his luxurious vices. But that which it is particularly my duty to dwell upon, as applicable to the story of the poor mutilated negro, is the continuance of the habitual muscular motion after (by means of the loss of his head) he was no longer capable of knowing what he was about. In short, having been long in the habit of flying up, and striking with his spurs, and cuffing about with his arms - or his wings, ifyou please (for anatomists can tell you, that arms are only wings without feathers, and wings are nothing but feathered arms) he still continued the same hostile kind of action, bouncing, and flapping, and spurring, and scuffling about, till the muscular energy (as they call it) was exhausted; so that if the gentleman had been there, with his club stick, attempting to knock the mutilated tyrant down, he might have concluded, every time that he flapped up his wings against the stick, that this effort of King Chaunticlere proceeded from the conviction that life was worth preserving even after he had lost his head: which, in my opinion, would be just about as rational as supposing that it can be worth preserving to that man who is writhing about in thefrying pan ofdespotism. This story was received with almost unanimous applause, as was also the whole speech, till Citizen Thelwall, alluding to the wonderful exertions, which Liberty was stimulating the French to make against the whole united force of Europe, he was interrupted by some of the members of the committee; and though, upon appeal to a shew ofhands, five or six to one appeared in his favour, the chairman refused to hear him; declared the society adjourned, and quitted the chair. This produced considerable confusion; and, on the part of the committee, much insolent abuse; and even an attempt from one individual to do personal violence to the speaker, by coming behind him, and attempting to fling him down. Notwithstanding which he continued to harangue the people; and was at last conducted away with shouts of triumph by the greater part of the company. On the evening of the next debate the following resolutions were unanimously agreed to. - 1. That the free discussion of political opinions, in public assemblies, is an invaluable and constitutional right of Britons, which must be defended with the most jealous caution, and transmitted inviolate to our posterity. 2. That in every public Debating Society it is the undoubted right of every individual, paying for his admission, to deliver his sentiments freely; and that it is the duty of every chairman to support such speaker, as much as if he were

36

Selected Political Writings ofJohn Thelwa/l Volume 1

a member of the committee of this society. 3. That this right was invaded, and this duty violated on the evening of the last debate, both by the chairman and committee of this society. 4. That the charges and insinuations in the posting bill, distributed by the said committee, relative to that debate, are partly false, partly impertinent, and altogether unprincipled, and calculated to promote disturbance, and prevent the public exercise of the right of free and impartial discussion. S. That the chairman be called upon to make an apology, in the name ofthe committee, for the indecent violation ofthe duties oftheir station, and the respect due from them to the public. The chairman was accordingly compelled to beg pardon publicly of the society before the debate was permitted to proceed. These circumstances are important to be generally known; since they prove, that notwithstanding the false appearances which have been artfully assumed by intriguing and interested individuals, pretending to more authority than they have, there is no power in this country that can openly and legally interfere to prevent the freedom ofpolitical discussion, ifindividuals will have spirit enough to assert it.

POLITICAL LECTURES

Political Lectures, No. 1, On the Moral Tendency ofa System ofSpies and Informers and the Conduct to he Observed by the Friends ofLiberty and the Conduct to be Observed During the Continuance ofSuch a System (London: for the author, 1794). Political Lectures No. 2, Sketches ofthe History ofProsecutions for Political Opinion: with Strictures on the Late Proceedings ofthe Court ofJusticiary in Scotland (London: for the author, 1794).

truly unfortunate that we can never experience the

It is

drama of Thelwall's

lecturing rooms.

of Thelwall's

Even if there

writing

as

were

substance

to

William Hazlitt's characterization

'tame and trite and tedious' and

distinctly lacking

in

anything like Edmund Burke's rhetorical mastery or Tom Paine's forthrightness, Hazlitt was forced to admit (somewhat reluctantly, one suspects) that Thelwall's was

'electrical' and

1

The Two Lectures is among those texts that convey this type of energy, as well as the danger, that could be involved in attending the lectures in the mid-1790s. These documents are crucial to our

speech

'powerful'.

understanding of Thelwall's career in the year of his treason trial, for they impart a sense of his oratorical style, provide a glimpse into the culture of debate, and also impart something of the antagonism he faced from loyalists, spies and

government officials. These lectures also give of how determined he us a sense

find

strategies to cope

with government

The Two Lectures have

a

was

to

repression.

slightly more complicated publishing history than

many of his other writings. They were first published separately and according 2 to Thelwall, sales were extraordinarily rapid and extensive.' The first lecture, On the Moral Tendency ofa System

and

fourth

ofSpies Informers, through edition published together pamphlet and

was

went

a

with the third edition of the

as one

second Lecture on the Sketches ofthe History ofProsecutions for Political Opinion. As is the

policy of Pickering Masters editions, we include the

first edition of the

first lecture here. This first edition is, as Thelwall himself observed, in tone, which may

partially explain why

it

'gave

so

much

more

umbrage

to

strident

the

ministers' lecture, who declared it 'to be full of violence'. 3 In the

however,

we

have chosen

to

case

of the second

include the third edition here

as

it

was

published

DOI: 10.4324/9780429349713-4

38

Selected Political Writings ofJohn Thelwa/l Volume 1

after Thelwall's acquittal and contains 'A Dedication to the Two Independent Grand Juries'. At any rate, most of the changes Thelwall made between the editions were relatively minor, particularly in regard to the second Lecture. Generally, he tidied the text, spliced longer paragraphs, and removed a few ofwhat he referred to as 'intemperate expressions'. In the case of the first Lecture, a few substantial amendments were made between the first and fourth editions: where these have occurred, we have noted the changes in the endnotes. The first Lecture demonstrates Thelwall's knowledge of the law and his ability to 'work' within its bounds: it performs the role of establishing the legality of his meetings. In this text Thelwall also casts himself and the radicals known as the Edinburgh Five - Joseph Gerald, Maurice Margarot, William Skirving, Thomas Muir and Thomas Palmer - as following in the tradition of political martyrdom. He aligns their struggle to establish and protect civil liberties with the efforts of such diverse historical (and persecuted) heroes as Voltaire and Boethius. He continues something of the same tactic in the second Lecture, Sketches ofthe History ofProsecutionsfor Political Opinion. This text is worthy of particular notice for its engagement with the past. Throughout his career, Tuelwall's wide reading of British history- from the age ofAnglo-Saxon democracy to the era of Cromwell, from the Restoration to the Glorious Revolution of 1688-9 - provided a platform from which to speak of contemporary politics. He used historical precedents to agitate for constitutional reform, to illustrate his opinions on revolution, and to provide models of civic humanist virtue. He quotes at great length from the first volume ofA Complete Collection ofState Tri-

als and Proceedings for High Treason and Other Crimes and Misdemeanors from the Earliest Period to the Year 1783, in order to draw analogies between England's

earliest martyrs for liberty and the friends of liberty currently being prosecuted by William Pitt's government. The State Trials also allow him to demonstrate how the history of political corruption and power mongering is closely bound up with the history of religious persecution and intolerance. He argues that the exercise of the same type of arbitrary power that produced the trials of Protestant reformers of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries was acting in the trials of late eighteenth-century reformers.

Notes 1.

2.

3.

W Hazlitt, 'Essay XXIV, On the Difference between Writing and Speaking'. The Plain Speaker in P.P. Howe (ed.) Complete Works ofWilliam Hazlitt, 21 vols (London: J M Dent & Sons, 1930-34), vol. 12, pp. 264-65. (Ofcourse, we disagree with Hazlitt's view of1helwall's writing). in C. Thelwall, Life ofThelwall (London: J. Macarone) p. 125. Ibid. p. 125.

POLITICAL LECTURES (No. 1)

ON THE

MORAL TENDENCY OF A SYSTEM OF

SPIES AND INFORMERS, AND THE

CONDUCT TO BE OBSERVED BY THE FRIENDS OF LIBERTY DURING THE CONTINUANCE OF SUCH A SYSTEM. BY]. THELWALL' Every Ministring Spy That will accuse and swear is Lord of you, Of me, of all, our Fortunes and our Lives. Ben Jonson's Sejanus. 2

LONDON: PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR, AND SOLD AT THE LECTURE-ROOM; AND BYD. I. EATON, NO. 74, NEWGATE STREET, 1794. -39-

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INTRODUCTORY NARRATIVE3 LECTURES upon political or miscellaneous topics are so much a novelty to the town, and the attempts which have been made to prevent their delivery, as well as the public countenance they have met with, have been so flattering, that though the size of the present pamphlet will scarcely justify the formality of a preface, I have thought it necessary to introduce it with a few observations on the circumstances which induced me to adopt the present plan of public amusement and instruction. This I believe I cannot commence in a more proper manner than by a briefhistory ofan event which took place about sixteen months ago, but which has never to this hour been fairly and impartially stated: I mean the suppression (or undermining) of the Society for free Debate, just at the time of issuing the famous Proclamation of Nov. 1792.4 Ofthis Society I was one ofthe acting members, that is to say, one ofthose who were accountable for the rent and disbursements, who received the profits, and who took upon themselves the responsibility for the questions brought forward. The Society had, at different places, been in existence for near half a century; and during that time, though a variety of political topics, both of a temporary and general nature, had been discussed with the utmost freedom, the legality of its meetings had never been called in question, nor (except in an individual instance, during the discussion of the Regency Bill when the Lord Mayor for the time being sent his marshalman to suspend the question, and which suspension the audience rejected with becoming indignation) had the least interruption to the debates been attempted by civil magistrates, till about the close of the season which terminated in April 1792; when the dancing master, from whom we hired the use of Coach-Makers Hall, after repeated indications of terror and alarm, informed us, that, on account of the threats which had been directed against him by certain persons in authority, he could not venture to renew his agreement with us, unless we would covenant not to bring forward any questions of a political nature. As the committee were not much inclined to be dictated to by a dancing master in the selection of their questions, and as for my own part I had formerly withdrawn from the society on account of the frivolous subjects with which it had disgraced itself, and had only rejoined it upon an implied condition that none but political questions should be debated, we instantly rejected the disgraceful conditions, and withdrew to the King's Arms in Cornhill, where the debates of the ensuing season were held. At the commencement of that season I was not indeed present, being on an excursion in Kent, for the restoration of my health, and having, during that excursion, occasioned a public meeting to be called, and a debate to take place in Canterbury, a few days before the entrance of Mr. Pitt into that city; and upon which occasion the decision of four or five

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to one 'that, in the then situation of France, a Republican government ought to be preferred to a limited monarchy', gave such serious alarm to the aristocrates, that I am told whole troops of soldiers were poured into the place as soon as I had turned my back upon it; and dreadful denunciations of vengeance were thundered against me by the assembled corporation as soon as I was known to be out oftheir power. When I returned to London, however, I found the public mind was all awake. The fate of the great criminal ofFrance was in agitation, and, together with the barbarous manifesto of the Duke of Brunswick,5 furnished eternal topics of conversation and debate; and the discussions of the society in which I resumed my place, partook of all the animation which from the state of politics was to be expected. In the midst of all this animation, however, I appeal to the frequenters of those debates, whether the utmost good order was not generally observed, and whether, though expressions ofpopular disapprobation were sometimes called forth by the illiberal violence and personal abuse of the aristocratic party (for it is curious that this party constantly so loud in their charges of violence, should always be the foremost to practice it,) whether the utmost impartiality was not conspicuous in the conduct of the chairman, and usual speakers of the society. The abilities and the decisions, it is true, were almost uniformly on the democratic side, and the doom of the institution was therefore sealed; threats and denunciations, in the names ofpersons in authority, were spread abroad against it; and private intimations were conveyed to me of the consultations held upon the subject. Affairs were in this posture when, on the discussion ofthe last question, 'Whether the neutrality ofthe maritime powers ofEurope was to be attributed to their approbation ofthe French Revolution, or their dread of introducing similar consequences among themselves?' an individual, too much in the habit of disturbing public societies, surrounded with a clamorous party of associates, tried the patience of the audience to such a degree with a torrent ofscurrility and personal abuse (such as calling us, and particularly myself, by name,Jacobins, agitators, assassins, traitors, and villains) that, in spite of all the efforts of the chairman and the committee to protect him, an attempt was made to turn him out. A scuffie and considerable confusion ensued; so that no further discussion could take place upon that evening, and the question was accordingly adjourned. I mention this circumstance, because some have attributed to this accidental or premeditated riot,6 for I do not pretend to determine which it was, the subsequent suppression of the society: the fact, however, is, that the scheme had been long in agitation; and as it took place just at the same time that the proclamation ofalarm was published, it appears as though it were a member of the general plan - one of the ways and means for exciting terror and apprehension throughout the country, disappointing the hopes ofparliamentary reform, and hurrying the affrighted people into a war with France. Be this as it will, meetings and City councils were assembled, and the wise heads of the cor-

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poration were laid together to concert our immediate dispersion; and as these cabals were not unknown to me, and as I was conscious of the legality of the meeting, and resolute in the pursuit of my object, I went on the ensuing Thursday evening with a strong expectation of being obliged to contend against the magistracy ofLondon for the right ofpolitical discussion, in such a manner as to bring the question to an issue in a court ofjustice. Sir James Saunderson,7 however, had taken his measures more craftily: he had sent for the dancing master of whom we hired this room, had tampered either with his fears or his venality, and induced him to stick up a bill in the forenoon, declaring the society adjourned till further notice, and to refuse admittance to us and our company, upon condition that, the meeting being thus disappointed, a guard of constables should be granted to preserve him and his premises from popular indignation. It is curious to observe that notwithstanding the underhanded manner in which this adventure was atchieved, SirJames had the address to procure himselfto be thanked by the Common Council, as ifhe had suppressed the Debating Society by his open authority: though nothing could be further from the truth: and so confident was I that he had no such authority to exert, that I strained every nerve of diligence and invention to procure another room in the city where the debates might be continued: conscious that the liberty of speech, and of the press, are the vital organs of all that is valuable in our Constitution; and without the exercise of which Freedom can in no country in the world, especially in a mixed monarchy, maintain its ground against the encroachments of power and prerogative. My attempts were however fruitless; and though I offered, at several places, to the amount even of Twenty Guineasfor a single Night, yet some had been threatened with the loss of their licences, others that their houses should be pulled down, and all refused. The next expedient was to assert in as public a manner as possible the right of political investigation, and to shew the public that this right had never openly been called in question by persons in authority; and it was with this view, more than from any hope of obtaining a room, that I caused the following advertisement to be printed on a large posting-bill, and ordered it to be stuck up about the metropolis.

'VINDICATION ofthe LIBERTY ofSPEECH Whereas an illegal and oppressive combination ofdivers persons, yet unknown, has taken place, to annihilate the greatpalladium ofthe British constitution, the liberty ofspeech; And whereas, by means ofthis illegal and oppressive combination, the owners ofcertain rooms have been over-awed or seduced, by some secret means, to refuse the letting oftheir rooms to persons intending to exercise the constitutional right of.free debate: - this is to give notice, that having taken the advice ofseveral consellearned in the laws, upon the question; and beingsufficiently satisfied by them

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ofthe legality and constitutionalfoundation of the right ofpolitical discussion, I am resolutely determined to assert and vindicate this invaluable right of.freeborn Britons, in whateverplace the opportunity can begained; and I do hereby advertise allpersons having rooms within the city ofLondon, capable ofholding.from two to five or six hundredpersons, that (taking all legal andpecuniary responsibility upon myself) I am willing to give the sum oftwenty guineas, (to be paid before entrance on the premises)for the use ofany such roomfor one night, upon application to me, JOHN THELWALL. No. 6, Weston-street, Southwark'. The men, however, who undertook to post this advertisement, were treated with so much insult and personal violence, by persons evidently set to watch the streets for such occasions, that they were obliged to desist and bring the bills back again to me, after very few of them had been distributed. In the mean time I had written to Sir James Saunderson the following letter, and caused it to be delivered at the Mansion-house.

Sir,

'To SirJames Saunderson, Knt. Lord Mayor ofthe City ofLondon.

I take the liberty of writing to you upon a subject which, as it must necessarily become the theme ofpublic investigation, ought certainly to beproperly understood: and I have delayed my enquiries till my mind has become cool under the impression ofthe injury and insult I have received, in order that I might address you with the calmness due to your official character, in how equivocal a light soeveryourpersonal conduct may, in this respect, appear. I am one of the members ofthe committee by which a society (sanctioned, in every respect, by the letter and spirit ofthe British constitution, and established in its rights by long continued usage) is conducted; and who, at the beginning ofthis season, agreed with Mr. Bourke, upon the payment of certain legal and valuable considerations, for the use ofhis room in Cornhill, on night in the week, for the purposes ofthat society, during the winter. This being the case, I considered that, by the laws ofthis land, I was joint tenant ofthe room so hired, for the weekly night agreed upon; and that every tenement being, in the language ofour boasted constitution, the CASTLE ofits tenants or occupiers, those tenants must have an undoubted constitutional right to.free, peaceable ingress and regress to and.from that castle, together with such lawful persons as they shall choose to introduce or invite. What then was my surprise, when going, on Monday last, to meet the company whom, in concert with my colleagues, I had lawfully invited to the room we had so hired, I found the doors of our castle closed against us, and guarded by a mob ofconstables, armed with the staff of that very man's authority who, a few years ago, as Chairman of the Quintuple Alliance,8

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signed many ofthe boldest resolutions which that association adopted, and by his frequent attendance and strenuous support, gave his sanction to publications much more likely to be offensive to persons in the respective branches of Government, than any thing that every came from the society he was thus endeavouring illegally to suppress. But I am unwilling, notwithstanding thefallacious representations in the resolutions ofthe Common Council to bring an accusation against any gentleman till I am thoroughly acquainted with thefoundation upon which it stands; and I should be much more happy in an opportunity to defend, than a necessity to reprobate, the conduct of one who once pretended, at least, to be the friend ofLiberty. I expect, therefore, ifnot in candour to us, at least, injustice to yourself, thatyou will explain to me, and to the society, the circumstances ofthis affair, that we may know how much ofthis violation ofpublic andprivate rights is attributable to the ChiefMagistrate ofthe City ofLondon, and how much to the timidity ofMr. Bourke. I am, Sir, An Englishman by birth and spirit, JOHN THELT½1.LL. No. 6, Weston-street, Southwark, 1st Dec. 1792'. To this letter, ofcourse, I received no answer. And as from the first I had been deserted by all my associates; who had by this time been, one by one, to the great man at the Mansion-house, and made their peace, I found myself incompetent to encounter, single-handed, all the expence and trouble of the further prosecution of the question for the present. However, still penetrated with the importance of the right, so jesuitically invaded, I determined to seize the first opportunity ofreviving the exercise of that right; and ofvindicating the insulted claims of Reason. In the course of that winter another Debating Society was opened, at the Globe tavern, in Fleet-street, by some young students of the law who by a dishonourable compromise, relative to the questions that should be brought forward, and the sentiments that should be permitted to be delivered, (they called it, however, a Society for free and impartial debate) obtained permission from the Lord Mayor to open their mouths for other purposes than those of eating. To this society I went three orfour times, and as often disdained the servile shackles with which this base compromise endeavoured to restrain the faculties of Britons. Every time I was opposed, and personally abused by the timid members of this prqfessional committee; and every time I was supported by the sense and spirit of the people; who, notwithstanding the timidity and alarm which appeared to be so generally diffused, still loved the man who would venture to tell them bold truths, and would not suffer him to be insulted.

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From this time the question of the right of political discussion appeared to sleep, till about the beginning of November last, when a question concerning the love oflife, the love ofliberty, and the love of the fair sex being agitated at Capel-court, I went, for the first time, to that society, and delivered the speech, for publishing an extract from which (the story of King Chantecleer) Citizen Eaton was confined three months in Newgate;9 being unable to find bail to the enormous sum of two thousand pounds; and which was, after all, by the good sense ofan independent jury, found to be no libel. 10 Shortly afi:er the delivery of this speech, being then on the committee of the London Corresponding Society, and it being necessary to provide for the support of our delegates; I offered for the two fold purpose of instruction and encreasing the requisite subscriptions, to give a course ofpolitical lectures every Wednesday and Friday, admitting the members (who are mostly men in a humble situation oflife) at a low price, leaving it open, at the same time, to strangers, and appropriating the whole receipts to the support of the said delegation. This plan was accordingly pursued for two or three months, and with such success that, without any advertisement, or public intimation whatever, sixty or seventy persons ofboth sexes, frequently assembled together and honoured the lectures with the most flattering applause. This had not gone on long, before I received intimation that a trap was laid to ensnare me: that in the room adjoining that in which I delivered my lecture, a party of Mr. Reeves's associators, and their fit companions, the Bow-street runners,1 1 were to be concealed; from whence, like so many cats upon the poor harmless mouse of a lecturer, they were to bounce forth on the first expression, which they, in their omnipotent wisdom, should deem seditious, and drag him in merciless indignation to Newgate. Some of my friends endeavoured to persuade me not to go at all; some advised me to take Blackstone's commentaries for my lecture; and some to read a chapter from the bible: nay some learned authorities endeavoured to persuade me that it was high treason to attempt to instruct his majesty's liege subjects, and that I should certainly be hanged. My own mind, however, was presently made up; and I composed for that evening, and delivered in the presence of some of Mr. Reeves's honourable associators, who were in reality present, the lecture 'On the moral tendency of a system of Spies and Informers: which, with some additions and alterations, is here presented to the public. The success of this experiment induced me to wish for a proper place where the lectures could be more publicly delivered; and being informed that I might have the use of the long room at the Three Kings in the Minories, I immediately bargained with the landlord, and billed the town with my advertisements. The worthy successor ofthe worthy Sir James Saunderson, who had promised 'to walk in his steps, to fear God, and honour the king, 12 was immediately alarmed; mar-

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shalmen and constables were dispatched all over the metropolis to tear down the bills, and an embassy was sent to the Three Kings to forbid the meeting; the landlord was, however, persuaded, when the time arrived, to stick to his agreement, for that night only; and notwithstanding the pains that had been taken to prevent the meeting, the lecture was attended by near two hundred people, and was received with unbounded applause. As, in the mean time, I had been offered the use of the room at the Park Tavern, in the Borough, either for the purposes of POLITICAL DEBATE or LECTURES, I posted the town with another bill, announcing a debate on the following question for the ensuing Monday - 'Which was to be considered as the more destructive in its principles and conduct, the present, or the American War?' The alarm of our sapient magistrates was now greater than ever. The bills were pulled down as fast as they were put up: and violent threats were denounced, which were carefully conveyed to me on Sunday morning, that if I dared to hold the meeting, I should most assuredly be taken into custody: to this I replied by sending advertisements to the papers to supply the loss of my posting bills. The landlord was next threatened with the loss of his licence; but with as little effect. A numerous company assembled: and among the rest a banditti of about twenty profligate and disorderly wretches (officers of the police) from Union Hall, together with a reverend magistrate wrapped and muffied up in his great coat to direct their operations. In the face of these I took the chair; avowed myself to be the sole responsible cause ofcalling the meeting, gave a narrative ofthe circumstances contained in the former part of this introduction and called the attention of the company to the question. Upon this the captain of the banditti (I do not mean the magistrate - He like a prudent general kept aloof from the affray, and dispersed his orders by his aide de camps) the captain of the banditti made a curious speech, of about three lines, in praise ofkings, and concluded with 'wishing destruction to all the world'. The keepers ofthe peace thought it thus a proper signal for them to begin their part, and they accordingly with one tumultuous roar bellowed forth 'God save George our king', &c. which they regularly resumed every time that any body attempted to speak to the question: filling up the pauses with all the insult that vulgarity could devise. The indignation of the company rose at this behaviour; and the experiment might have proved a fatal one, ifI had not had influence enough to keep the insulted friends ofliberty in order, and prevent them from attempting to turn the rioters out. In the midst ofall the turbulence and insult of this banditti I kept my chair and my temper till the usual hour of ten; when I declared the meeting and the question adjourned to such future time and place as hereafter might be found convenient; observing that the legality of the meeting was established beyond dispute, since the banditti of police officers and cutthroats who attended, and who had sufficiently displayed the hostility of their wishes, had not dared to exert even the

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shadow of authority against either the meeting or myself The ruffians seeing the meeting thus in danger of dispersing without their having been able to produce a riot, began to proceed to personal violence; attempted to overturn the elevation upon which my desk and chair were placed; and extinguished the lights. It was then that a gentleman who was present went in quest of a magistrate who was sitting all the while below; and, asking him if he meant to sit there while murder was committed by his runners, insisted upon his interference to restrain the riotous insolence of those wretches; to which he replied, with considerable agitation, 'that he had sent the constables up stairs' (the very desperadoes who made the disturbance!) - 'what could he do more?' Finding however that he had to deal with a man who was not to be trifled with, he was coming up stairs, just as I had closed the meeting, and, surrounded by my friends, who had thrust the peace officers out ofthe way, that they might preserve the peace, was retiring from the scene ofconfusion. I then demanded ofthe landlord a private room in which myself and my friends might regale ourselves, till the strangers had dispersed; lest by our departing all together a riot might ensue. This however the magistrate would not permit him to grant; but he informed me that he would order the constables to attend me and keep the peace ifI thought it necessary. To which I replied that his constables were the only riotous persons in the meeting, and that - ifhe suffered any of that banditti to come after me, he must answerfor the consequences; for J would not. The company however took that care of the peace which the magistrate refused to take: for, blocking up the staircase in a mass, they kept the wild beasts raging in confinement in the room, till they thought we had time enough to disperse to our own homes. Such is the conduct of the peace officers of the Borough; and such the deportment of the magistrates of that paltry sinkhole of meanness and timidity! It happened that before this the landlord ofthe Three Kings had sent requesting me to give my lecture again at his room: being in fact very well pleased with the custom it brought to his house. The lecture was accordingly delivered there again, on the Wednesday following, to a very genteel and overflowing auditory; and was again received with very considerable applause. On the evening of the former lecture a council of corporation had been held at a silversmith's in the neighbourhood: on the present occasion a grand consultation was called at the Mansion House, at which I am informed Sir James Saunderson attended, to assist the divan and his councils. Violent measures, I am told, were proposed; and the whole assembly were disposed for war; till two ofthem, a little more sagacious than the rest, observed that as the law was on my side, they might perhaps burn their fingers if they interfered. It was accordingly unanimously determined, - 'That the city marshal with the whole posse of city constables should repair at eleven o'clock to the Three Kings, and prevent the

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landlord from drawing any more beer and serving any more punch to such of the company as had staid to supper'. They did not, however, stop there. Licensing day was approaching, and a message was sent to the landlord, in the name of the Lord Mayor, and certain Alderman, informing him that if he dared to permit my diabolical Jacobin lectures against Spies and Informers, and such like worthy personages, to be delivered any more in his house, his licence should infallibly be taken away. The landlord promised submission; and sent a messenger to me informing me of the circumstance; and my lecture was accordingly advertised in the public papers to be held at No. 3, New Compton Street, Soho. When lo! Lifi: up your voices, - 0 ye citizens ofLondon; and applaud the prudent valour ofyour chiefmagistrate! - the great Paul Le Mesurier 13 seized the opportunity when the enemy was not upon the field to display his prowess and authority. The whole train ofconstables and marshal men were summoned to a man, and at the head of this formidable body, afi:er having suffered two successive meetings to be held without venturing to interfere, forth issued the high and mighty potentate to rout the company from a place where it was notorious that it would not assemble. With what kind of feelings must every being of common sense reflect upon this mummery ofwould-be-thought authority? The fact is, that the legality of political discussion cannot be controverted in this country; and time-serving magistrates, however they may bounce and bluster, know that it cannot, and therefore wish to intimidate where they cannot controul. But in this they will also be disappointed; and the time is close at hand when not only political lectures, but political debates also, will be established on a foundation which will set the mock importance of these meddlers at defiance.14

POLITICAL LECTURES, &c. CITIZENS! THE subject of the present discourse is not perhaps one of those that promises the most ample entertainment; and ifl had called you together merely to amuse you, I ought rather to have selected some of the most striking passages from 'Hudibras: or 'Don Quixote', or Mr. Burke's sentimental romance of'Antoinetta, the falling star of chivalry; or Priests and Pensioners in the Suds, at the News of the French REVOLUTION'. But this is no season for indulging the idle sallies of imagination: the hour is full ofperil and dismay; the womb of Time is labouring with great events; and now, ifever, every good citizen, every real friend to the peace, the prosperity, and above all the permanent happiness of mankind, is called upon to found the sol-

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emn alarum that rouses the noble energies of the soul, that shakes off the sullen lethargy of indolence, and, chacing the idle phantoms of pastime and frivolity, calls up that serious, awful train of contemplation, without which it is utterly impossible that we should acquire the sedateness of character, the improvement in knowledge and true wisdom, and the advancement towards the perfection of truth and fortitude, which all ofus, ere long, may have reason enough to wish we had attained. In short, this is a season for enquiry and instruction, not for pastime and jocularity; and it is therefore that I assemble you together in this public manner, to stimulate you to enquire into the nature ofyour rights as Britons and as men; and to investigate the nature and causes of that unhappiness which we cannot but feel too sensibly, however ignorant we may be of the sources from whence it is derived. 15 Penetrated with the truth of this representation, and aware of the precipice upon which we stand, and to the very verge ofwhich the persecuting violence of an overbearing and desperate faction is endeavouring, so precipitately, to urge a half-awakened nation, I have renounced myselfthose pursuits of taste and literature to which, from my boyish days, I have been so fondly devoted, as to sacrifice to them the flattering prospects of affiuence and worldly ambition, which a lucrative profession presented before me; and have devoted myself, whole and entire, to the service of the public; a sense ofwhose injuries is the only stimulus of my conduct, and whose happiness alone I look forward to, as my dearest, and my ultimate reward. Sportive lyre! whose artless strings, Brush'd by young Affection's wings, Playful Fancy hov'ring round, Whisper'd ofi: the varied sound Sportive lyre! from hence adieu: Nobler thoughts my soul employ: Nobler objects rise in view, TRUTH and glorious LIBERTY. Rous'd by these, my glowing soul, Pants a nobler height to gain; Pants for glory's PATRIOT goal, Where the daring Virtues reign; Pants to hear the graver muse Wake the loud enthusiast shell, Whose notes heroic pride infuse, And bid the soul with ardour swell. Nobler ardour! virtuous zeal! Parent ofeach generous deed! Guardian of the public weal, For which the valiant joy to bleed! Thoughts like these, from hence alone, Shall this glowing bosom own;

so

Selected Political Writings ofJohn Thelwa/l Volume 1 Thoughts that lift the soul on high, To make its own eternity; And with Meonian rapture swell The chords ofFame'.s immortal shell.

It is, however, a fortunate circumstance in the constitution of man, that, flattering as those pursuits may at first appear which are to be considered merely as amusive, the more serious objects of mental exertion furnish, in reality, a fund ofmore lasting and genuine satisfaction; and that happiness is never so perfectly attained as when, careless of the mere impressions of pleasure, we pursue, with ardour and perseverance, the path of duty, and seek for Wisdom, where, wedded with eternal Truth, she sheds her mingled radiance through the regions of the intellectual paradise. 16 It is mind alone, the bold and active exertion of the rational faculty, that opens the living fountains of genuine and lasting happiness, and pours the continuous tide offelicity through the heart ofman. To trace these fountains to their sources, to shew their immediate connection with wisdom and virtue, and diffuse (as far as I have the power) their fertilizing streams through the little paddock of every man's private feelings and capacities, and thus nourish the neglected blossoms of social kindness and universal benevolence (the natural productions of a genuine system of enlightened politics) is a task, I believe, not ignoble in its nature; and which, if properly executed, will have a tendency to render you better members, not of the community only of which you constitute a part, but of the world at large, which it is your duty also to love and benefit, whatever State Hypocrites may preach to you, from selfish motives, about hostile interests, patriotism, and natural enmity. 17 - Natural enmity! - natural enmity! - As if the great law of nature, the arrangements and revolutions of seasons and elements, from which the bounties of the earth proceed, and all the delights and gratifications of which our senses are susceptible, should render TWO FAMILIES OF FELLOW CREATURES, whose powers, whose capacities, and the ends and objects of whose existence are the same, the necessary and implacable enemies of each other, merely because a fancied line upon a map, or a little dirty pool oftroubled water separates them from each other. - Natural enmity! - Ye statejugglers! ye sanguinary hypocrites! Ye far-clad priests ef Chaos and Devastation! who abuse our intellects, and inflame our passions, by your unintelligible jargon! can ye not perceive the absurdity of your doctrines? 18 ls it not conspicuous that all enmity between man and man is in itselfunnatural?- a direct violation of the great precept of Nature - 'that man should seek his own felicity by labouringfar the happiness ofall mankind?' - Yes, ye do perceive it. Half stupefied as ye are by the opiate drugs of hoary-headed PRECENDENT! and an indolent veneration for the saws and prejudices ef a BARBAROUS ANTIQUITY, still through the fogs and mists of your political dotage, the half-opened eye ofPride and Ambition cannot but see this TRUTH:

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- that if there are descriptions of beings who can be considered as the natural enemies of any country, they must be those who, though bred within its bosom, have been fostered in the scorpion nest ofvicious and irrational distinction; and who, nurtured with passions and sentiments inimical to the FREEDOM and true EQUALITY of man, usurp an unjustifiable dominion over it, and endeavour to destroy its liberties, and monopolize its blessings. This they cannot, one would think, but see as plainly as we do; and happy would it be for them, and for the universe, if their eyes were still further opened, and encountering, with the steady and penetrating glance of unprejudiced enquiry, the objects of their unfounded terrors, they had discovered (as, ifthey would calmly investigate, they certainly would discover) this additional truth, that even their own real interests (I mean their HAPPINESS) would be ultimately advanced by yielding to the just wishes ofthe Friends ojLIBERTY and MAN. But this is a degree ofpolitical illumination too strong at present for their weak optics, and instead offortifying themselves with resolution to meet the full ray of reason, they choose to turn with pretended blindness from the truth already discovered, and to expose the cowardice and imbecility of their minds, by a vain endeavour to trample out the light of political enquiry, lest the holy flame should guide mankind at large to the discovery of their real interests, and urge them, with one united effort to annihilate that most profitable of all the various branches of the nefarious trade of courts - WAR! - that European slave-trade! - that detestable traffic in the blood and anguish of our fellow-creatures! But hold - Caution is the subject of my story; and it is necessary that I should, by my example, as well as my precept, endeavour to convince you of the deep sense I have of the necessity ofprudence, in this age of spies and informers, treachery and cabal - 'When', as Ben Johnson expresses it, 'Laws are made to serve the placeman's will; When sleeping they can save, and, waking, kill; When Public Justice borrows all her powers From private chambers; that in fact create Laws, judges, counsellors, yea prince and state'. 19

When every coffee-house 20 is filled with party hirelings and venal associators, the pimps and lacqueys ofcourtiers and court expectants; - when anonymous letters are sufficient to blast the peace and destroy the personal security of the best and worthiest members of the community; - when even your own house and your own table furnish no longer a sanctuary and an altar where it is safe to offer up the free incense of friendly communication - when the very domestic who eats your bread stands open-mouthed, perhaps, behind your chair, to catch and to betray the idle conversation ofyour unguarded moments;2 1 - when every skreen conceals some myrmidon of oppression, lurking, like a beast of prey, and whet-

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ting his hungry rage in savage silence, till the unguarded moment in which he may rush on his devoted victim; - in short, when every key-hole is an informer, and every cupboard ought to be searched, before you unbosom the painful story ofyour wrongs, lest you should be brought unhappily within the iron fangs of - LAW I think they call it, not for what you may have uttered only, but for what the perjured hirelings, by whom we are so frequently surrounded, may think fit to lay, upon the slightest suggestion, to your charge. - Hirelings, who 22 - - - - - - - - - - - - - 'can lie, 'Flatter, and swear, forswear, deprave, inform, Smile and betray; make guilty men; then beg The forfeit lives, to get the livings; cut Men's throats with whisp'rings; sell to gaping suitors The empty smoke that flies about the palace; Laugh when their patron laughs; sweats when he sweats Be hot or cold with him; change every mood, Habit and garb as often as he varies', 23

And fell their fellow-creatures and their friends, to buy his empty favour. At such a time as this, the most guarded caution is evidently necessary, both in our conduct and expressions; and that this caution on the one hand may not degenerate into tameness and inactivity, nor be frustrated, on the other, by the nets and snares of wicked and designing men, it becomes more than ever requisite, for ourselves, and for society, that we should cultivate, with tenfold diligence, every species of political and constitutional knowledge; because it is by such means alone that a fund of intelligence and copiousness of idea can be obtained, that may enable us to utter our complaints with sufficient perspicuity, without at the same time trespassing on the boundaries of legal propriety, and exposing ourselves to the malice of the harpies that are hovering aloof, ready on the first opportunity to devour us. It will be seen by the tone and substance of this Caution, that I am far from wishing to intimidate you. If a season can be imagined, when it is peculiarly necessary to increase rather than diminish the ardour and fortitude of the human mind, it must undoubtedly be a period like the present, when INQUISITORIAL ASSOCIATIONS and every species of ILLEGAL CONSPIRACY and Cabal, (wrapped in the flimsy veil of pretended veneration for monopolized property and obsolete institutions, but revealing, through the thin disguise, the clenched hand and thirsting dagger of POLITICAL ASSASSINATION) are plotting the destruction of Truth and Virtue, and mediating the annihilation of our remaining liberties. At such a period, I should ill deserve the attention and confidence evinced by your attendance here, should I endeavour to check your virtuous zeal in the cause of liberty, or damp the ardour with which I have the

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happiness to observe so many of my fellow citizens engaged in the cultivation of their minds, and in the grand enquiry into the rights and duties of mankind, which it is the business of this course oflectures to promote. 'We that know the evil, Should hunt the palace rats, or give them bane; Fright hence these worse than ravens, that devour The quick, while they but prey upon the dead'.24

I am conscious, Fellow Citizens, that it is by the privilege of speech alone, and the consequent communication of idea from man to man, that we are distinguished above the brute creation, and rather than relinquish the free exertions of this noble attribute, I would fly to the woods and wilderness of Africa, live on the precarious bounties of Nature, and climb the giant tree of the forest, in quest ofits wild productions. 25 Come then from your lurking corners, ye tools of perjured treachery - ye spies, ye dark assassins, ye venal associators for the most detestable purposes - come forth, I say, if in your dark retreats the voice ofmanly indignation can reach your ears - come forth. Bring all the terrors of your chains and dungeons, and all the malice of your inquisitorial inventions: ye shall not daunt the soul that virtue fortifies, nor prevent me from uttering the truths which conscience tells me are important for man to know. - If we have RIGHTS - (for it seems in the present day this must be made a question) - If we have RIGHTS, it is necessary we should know in what those rights consist, that we may guard and protect them with the most jealous caution. -Ifwe have NONE, (the popular sentiment with certain pretended admirers of our GLORIOUS Constitution) it is important that we should know that also; that we may sit ourselves down in patient resignation, and prepare to hug whatever chains our masters may at any future period, in their most gracious mercy, be inclined to throw upon us. - At any rate then, as we would wish to be peaceable and virtuous members of the community, it is necessary above all things that we inform our minds by diligent cultivation: that we enquire into the nature and obligations of our own existence - dive, as far as our intellects will permit, into the discoverable laws of the universe, compare the different parts of the whole system, and endeavour to discover what link in this vast chain is filled by man - what are his duties, his powers, his capacities, how far he is improvable by knowledge and exertion, and what are the proper pursuits, in which, as the result of these premises, he is bound most sedulously to engage. These are the proper, the fundamental enquiries, in which it is the duty of human intellects to be engaged; and without some attention to these, blundering instinct may sometimes stumble upon rectitude - but VIRTUE! - the rational, the sublime principle of VIRTUE! - the sole prerogative of man, and

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without which he were nothing but an upright brute, can never, by any possible contingency, be acquired. Nor are these enquiries the most important of our duties only; they are also the most delightful of our pleasures. Employed in the pursuit of these, man feels and enjoys the noble superiority of his nature - his faculties expand, his heart dilates, his fine senses acquire a keener sensibility- he looks abroad on the universe, and every part of it expands and brightens; while a crowd of splendid wonders rush upon his imagination, to which the mental eye oflgnorance is for ever closed. - He looks in the face of his fellow creature; and he feels indeed a brother - or a part rather of his own existence; another self - He contemplates in every individual the faculties of sufferance and of enjoyment, and feels one nerve of sympathy connecting him with the whole intellectual universe, and giving him an intimate share in all the blessings which he hopes, by his exertions, to impart to the human race. PARTY distinctions and PARTY cavils - I mean the nominal distinctions of PERSONAL FACTIONS: for differences of opinion relative to fundamental principles, and objects really essential to human happiness, deserve more serious and respectful mention. - Party distinctions, and party cavils, the offspring of ignorance, prejudice and servility, vanish before his expanding intellect; and National Animosity itself appears with all its native absurdity and vice before him. Peculiarity of feature is no longer a stimulus to malignity and injustice, nor does peculiarity of opinion excite his horror: the native of Gallia and the professor of Mahometanism are regarded with the same benevolence as the man ofhis own sect and country; and the sooty African need lift his fettered hands no more to remind him that he is A MAN AND A BROTHER! - He enfolds the universe in one large embrace, and the sphere ofhis enjoyments being thus expanded, he finds an eternal source of rational gratification in contemplating the felicity, or labouring to mitigate the calamities of his fellow creatures. Such are the delights ofintellect, and the.free communication ofidea between man and man, and such are the beneficent effects which this freedom of communication cannot fail of ultimately producing, wherever it shall be sufficiently indulged: for selfishness and enmity are but two of the innumerable forms of error - and error itselfis the consequence only of that ignorance, which nothing but the free and fearless intercourse of mind with mind can ever by expected to remove. What then must be the ignorance or the interested depravity of those beings, who, by a system ofinquisitorial persecution, would annihilate this intercourse, so fraught with benignant and delightful tendencies? Are they afraid that, by bursting the narrow boundaries within which the pride offamily partiality, and the egotism of national prejudice, have so long confined our affections and our benevolence, we should trample down the enclosures that secure their monopolised advantages; and that the soil of exclusive privilege, manured no longer by the blood of our contentions, and watered no longer with our tears,

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should cease to bring forth its abundance ofhonours, pensions and emoluments, upon which they so long have fattened, while we have starved? - Or has that piety- that deep and lively sense of RELIGION - that fervour of devotion, for which the Courts ofEurope have so long been famous, stimulated their conduct in this particular - and are we to suppose that (fearful lest that paradise of felicity into which the unrestrained improvement of human intellect might in time convert this hitherto contentious globe, should withdraw our meditations from that better world which is promised unto him that sojourneth in sorrow and afBiction) they have therefore, in kind anxiety for our future salvation, devised this method of checking our temporal improvement, and perpetuating the ignorance, the misery, and asperity of the world? Whatever be the object, the end is to us, in this world at least, calamitous to the last degree, as our starving manufacturers, and the widows and orphans ofour countrymen slaughtered in a ridiculous crusade to restore the lost despotism ofFrance, too well can testify. But whatever efforts spies, inquisitions, and informers, may make to deprive us of the intellectual intercourse which it is so natural for the heart ofman to yearn for, let us keep the glowing prospect ofits probable consequences constantly before our eyes, and endeavour to realise a picture not less estimable to reason than delightful to the imagination. For my own part, so barren a wilderness would this world appear, if deprived of those delights which intellectual intercourse and the free communication of idea can alone impart, that ere I would endure existence in this condition of that mute shell-fish, gasping on the shore, to which some late associations have endeavoured to reduce us, with my own right arm I would rid myself from the incumbrance, and rather sink into non-entity than remember that I once was man. It is not the free communication of sentiment, then, that I wish to restrain - it is the imprudent, the unguarded, the intemperate manner ofexpression, into which indignation sometimes betrays the best intentioned individuals. 26 Let us enquire into the nature ofour rights, but let us enquire with deliberate firmness. Let us be anxious to learn and to discharge our duties, but let us remember that of those duties, violence or intemperance is by no means to be accounted one. Let us remember that as PEACE is better than the SWORD OF SLAUGHTER - This, also, is one of the self-evident propositions which the sagacious luminaries of a certain honourable assembly have thought fit, in their rage for paradox, to call in question; and who, therefore, when tranquility might have been preserved by candid negotiation, preferred the bullying haughtiness which could not but terminate in war: - But we are a Swinish Multitude, 27 who can neither participate in their motives, nor understand their logic: - All that we know about it is, that our troughs are empty, while the purses of our OWNERS appear to be swelling every day with the price of those of our diminished herd who already have been sold and butchered. - Let us not forget, then, that as PEACE is better

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than the SWORD OF SLAUGHTER, so reason is better than turbulence and invective; and that though an honest indignation may be permitted now and then to indulge itself, it ought always to be so restrained by the curb ofprudence, as to be able to look Law and Justice steadily in the face, and say, Behold, I have not trespassed upon your commands. 28 'We must abide our opportunity, And practice what is fit as what is needful'. 29

There is also another - better motive than that ofprudence, to prompt us to this moderation in our deportment - Benevolence! - the kind and candid feelings of the heart! without which a pure and enlightened freedom never can be enjoyed, never can be understood. Anarchy may rage where asperity of soul triumphs in all its bitterness, but where personal hatred, and the burning desire ofvengeance usurp dominion over the hearts of men, genuine liberty, and the tranquil happiness which liberty ought to secure to us, never can be hoped. Reason and the pure spirit ofphilosophy, are essential requisites to this state of social independence, and these will teach us to consider, that every action, however hostile to the sacred cause we are pursuing, is the unhappy consequence of errors resulting from the circumstances by which the actor has been surrounded; and that consequently, instead of stirring up the gloomy passions of the soul, we ought to pity the instrument while we redress the evil. But to return to the subject of personal precaution. To guard, in all possible instances, against illegal oppression, is perhaps more than an active citizen can be assured of: but if the friends ofliberty must suffer for their exertions, let them keep at least the law and constitution, ifpossible, upon their side; and the eyes of mankind, at last, will open to the oppression, and the nation will do them justice. Let us not advisedly, give such a triumph to our enemies, as to suffer the reasoning part of mankind to side against us. Let the peaceable diffusion of knowledge be our serious object; and truth and reason be our only weapons; for, depend upon it, that as it is the business ofthe friends ofdespotism (and such Jam afraid we have among us) to create disturbances, that they may have pretences for their oppressions, it is the part ofthe advocates ofliberty to preserve tranquility and order, that the justness oftheir cause may be discovered. Truth and Liberty love the light - the clear and uninterrupted light of reason - for why should they be afraid to be seen? But Falsehood and Tyranny wish for darkness and confusion: the turbulence of a rumbling chaos: because their deeds are too evil for impartial investigation. Let me not, however, while I am thus recommending prudence, be thought an advocate, or even an apologist for a species of ingratitude which is at present but too prevalent among us. Whatever regulations we may lay down for the direction of our own conduct, let us remember that with respect to others we are to judge them only on the principle of their intentions; and if a friend of

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liberty, transported by his zeal for the public cause, should trespass sometimes upon the boundaries of prudence, and betray himself into the power of some officious coffee-house keeper, 30 or association spy, let us not forget, that if we have reason to believe his intentions towards the public happiness were good, we ought to love him, for his zeal and intrepidity at least, how little soever we may applaud his discretion; and, instead ofmeanly abandoning him in the hour ofhis misfortune, and joining in the cry ofhis accusers, we ought to console him under his sufferings, by every soothing act of friendship, and blunt as much as possible the shaft of hostile revenge. Others may be inclined to venture more than we, or may not see the danger with so keen an eye - or they may think the public cause in want of stronger exertions than we see the necessity 0£ Is it their vice, if they become the victims of these mistakes? or are we the proper censors that should award an increase ofpunishments? Let us be just, Fellow Citizens! while we live; let us be grateful, whenever justice will permit, and let us remember that scarcely any thing has a greater tendency to decrease our reverence for T/irtue, than blindly confounding together, in one common censure, the errors of indiscretion, and the malignity ofvicious principle. There is also another reason why we should be sparing in our censures in cases ofthis description - namely, the foundation there may be to doubt whether the victims of state prosecution, which the present system of spies and informers (unparalleled in the former annals of this or any ftee country) has doomed to languish in gaols and dungeons, have all of them, in reality, been guilty even ofthe charges that have been exhibited against them. 'Every ministering spy, That will accuse and swear, is lord ofyou, Of me, of all our fortunes and our lives. Our looks are called in question, and our words, How innocent soever, are made crimes; We shall not shortly dare to tell our DREAMS, Or rhink, bur 'twill be treason'. 31

With respect to our thoughts, indeed the ATTORNEY-GENERAL, I am told, has admitted, upon a late occasion, that a man is at liberty (glorious liberty, indeed!) to think what he pleases, provided he does not communicate his thoughts to others; (this is British, constitutional liberty, I suppose!) and as Swift and other Tory writers32 have upheld the same liberal doctrine for this century past, perhaps our wise and virtuous governors will be graciously pleased to condescend so far as to afford us the same kind ofmental toleration - so long at least

as they shall be in possession ofno secret by which they can learn our thoughts previous to their communication. Something of this sort was indeed attempted, about fifteen months ago, by several members of a certain immaculate assembly: our

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looks being in reality called in question, and a seditious meaning being applied even to our very smiles; so that, in the midst ofour other ALARMS, with which the nation was harassed at that period, I am informed that certain lovers of wit and pleasantry were in horrible apprehension lest it should be made CAPITAL to laugh withoutpermission ofhis MAJESTY'S MINISTERS!! Upon the subject of dreams, the sapient conquerors of venison and turtle - the huge bellied NESTORS to the west of Temple-Bar carried the point, as I am informed, to still more serious extremities; and a man was absolutely taken up and carried before their worships for the crime of dreaming sedition!33 The case is singular enough; but it deserves attention, on account of the knotty points involved in the discussion; and I shall therefore report it at large, not doubting that the learned Judges of a future century will regard it with equal veneration, and refer to it as of equal authority with any thing contained in Blackstone,34 Strange, 35 or Plowden! 36 or even that great oracle oflegal science, 'Coke upon Littleton' itself.37 The fact is, that much about the time when the genial warmth of ministerial patronage quickened into existence, a new race of reptiles, called FIFTY POUND MEN, (a swarm oflocusts oflate but too familiar to us) a certain publican, living at no great distance from Snow-hill, and keeping a house not very unlike the sign of the Three Butts, being suspected of having read Tom Paine without the worshipful permission of the Lord Mayor, or Court of Aldermen; one of these said FIFTY POUND MEN began to imagine that by watching with sufficient assiduity, he might be able to seize a lucky opportunity of shewing that he was not distinguished by the beams of courtly patronage in vain, but that he was burning with the sacred thirst of atchieving something that might perpetuate his name so long as SPIES, EAVES-DROPPERS and INFORMERS should demand the love and gratitude of mankind. He accordingly took a lodging in the house ofhonest' Tankard; and as Fate, propitious to his wishes, would have it - where should his bed-room be, but immediately adjoining to that of his suspected host. I shall not dwell particularly upon the intermediate cares and anxieties of this virtuous moucharde; such as the pains he took to place the head of his bed immediately against the thin partition, so that not a whisper might be lost, - the tedious hours of expectation, which, night after night, he spent in wakeful diligence; and the pains he took to drill holes through the wainscot in convenient places, so that he might be enabled to see the dark conspirators, whoever they should be, that polluted, as he doubted not, with their nocturnal visits, the privacy of his den of treason. Suffice it that we pass to the particular incident so deservedly memorable among the glorious events recorded by MR. REEVES's ASSOCIATION. It happened one night, that our redoubted FIFTY POUND MAN having heard, among a select little company (to the key-hole of whose room he had

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been applying his loyal ear) something dropped in conversation about FREEDOM and REFORM, and being confident therefore that some dreadful plot must be forming against our happy constitution, he stole up slily to his bed, as the company was dispersing, and began to meditate on his expected REWARD. Unfortunately however for his diligence, he had that day been receiving his quarterly payment (remember I do not say at the TREASURY); and indulging the careless hilarity ofa soul conscious of its own virtue, had made rather more free than usual with honest Tankard's punch and porter; so that in the midst of all his pleasing meditations, he fell asleep before either the conspirators or the host came up stairs. He had not slept long, however, before he was awakened with the expected exclamations of treason and sedition. He roused himself from his bed, and put his eye to the accustomed hole - but all was dark: his ear was, however, applied with more success, and he heard distinctly uttered, 'Away with him to the guillotine; take offhis head at once; don't let any ofthose rascally aristocrates escape'. This was enough - The fifty-pound man thought himselfcertain ofpreferment, and keeping the secret close till he had an opportunity of disposing of it to advantage, he slipped out in the morning, procured a warrant, and dragged the affiighted Tankard to the seat ofjustice. Well, the grave Divan was assembled; the great armed chairs were seated, and the great bellies of the aldermen demanded the admiration of the meagre multitude: - for, you must know, that whereas in Westminster-hall the most conspicuous objects are frequently the large wigs that are elevated above the bench; so, at Guildhall, the most striking features in the picture, are the big bellies that fill with so much magisterial dignity the great armed chairs. - And to deal plainly with you, I do not know why a belly as big as a tun should not be as much revered and trembled at as a wig of the dimensions of a bushel. Well, the portly bellies were assembled, over which the useless excressences, called heads, just made their diminutive appearance: the culprit was put to the bar, and the charge was made; a party of loyal associators was assembled to express their indignation; and the sentence was already more than half manufactured in Mr. Reeve's mint; when lo honest Tankard being put upon his defence, it turned out to be nothing but a dream. He had gone to sleep with the newspaper in his hand which contained the account of those wicked sans cullottes having taught the new French bow38 to the innocent, upright and unequivocating Louis; and his busy imagination presenting the scene before him, he had uttered in his sleep the ejaculations which caused the alarm. Luckily for Tankard he was a married man; and, his good woman being sent for, and agreeing in her narrative with that of her husband (for she also had been awakened by the strange exclamation), and the candle burnt down into the socket, and the newspaper, which was found by the bedside, confirming the whole account, some of the great bellies were for dismissing the affair immediately. One of Mr. Reeves's associators, however (a

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young barrister, very desirous of preferment!) affirmed chat there was evidently malice propense in the circumstances of the dream; and chat as the malice propense in every case constituted guile, he could not chink their worships justified in dismissing the affair so lightly; nor did he doubt but chat if the books were searched with sufficient diligence, some act, or case, or opinion, would be found, especially if they looked back to the happy and ever to be regretted reign of the Stewarts, which, by a liberal construction, would extend to the CRIME OF DREAMING SEDITION. The case appeared entirely new; the whole divan was in confusion; some scratched their heads and hummed 'God save the King', in articulate whispers; others sunk into a brown study; and others hemm'd and ha'd, and stared in each other's faces; while the clerks, busy as so many bees, and anxious to shew their attachment to King and Constitution, tumbled over the four and twenty folios of acts of parliament, and thrice four and twenty folios more of indexes, reports, cases, and abridgements; but, wonderful to say! upon the subject ofdreaming all was silent - though there seems to be no subject wich which the authors ofthese books, judging from their soporific qualities, might be supposed co be more perfectly acquainted. In short, after spending three-fourths of the day in hunting for rules and precedents relative to seditious dreams, after twisting and straining every thing chat came in their way, and caking the learned opinions of all the great law officers of the court and city, it was unanimously decided, chat there being no case in point, it would not be prudent to punish the seditious dreamer for the first offence; and honest Tankard was dismissed, upon a solemn promise, chat he would never dream sedition any more. But co return from the levity of chis digression, and resume the more serious tone of moral reprobation to which the subject is so well entitled. It is one of the curses of the infernal system of these associators, chat it has a direct tendency to debauch the morals of the community, and destroy every principle of honour, honesty, and truth, chat ought to link man with man, and secure the happiness and advantages of the social union; and consequently to introduce every species of moral depredation - false accusation, perjury, and subornation of perjury; and, in short, every abominable vice which treachery can devise, and malignity carry into execution. Nor let it be suspected, chat chis assertion is founded in prejudice, and the aversion which difference of political sentiment is but too apt to breed in the bosoms ofmankind. The facts upon which it is to be supported are to be traced with too much certainty, in the records of chose despotic countries in which the system has, in former periods, been established; (and in none but despotic countries, let it be remembered, was it ever before attempted to be introduced); and the circumstance itselfof chis depravity is to be accounted for with sufficient facility, ifwe are all acquainted with the principles of the human character, and the seeps and gradations with which vice treads upon the heels of vice, blacken-

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ing in its progress till it sinks, by imperceptible degrees, into the lowest abysses of infamy and degradation. For vice no more than virtue is the offspring of an individual effort; and it is only by progressive steps that any considerable distinction, either in one or the other, is to be produced. The distance, however, between the SPY or INFORMER, and the PERJURER, is not very great. The necessity of confidence in our communications and transactions with each other, and especially in that intercourse offriendship and discourse which is the source of all the comforts and improvements of the social union, is obvious even to the most ordinary intellect; and, accordingly we find, that the sacred principle resulting from this necessity is one of the first that is adopted by the rude beginnings of society; and even savages and barbarians themselves would look with horror upon the wretch who, in violation of the first law of society, should lay traps to betray his countryman or associate into unguarded conversation, with a view ofrepeatingit to his disadvantage; or should betray in any manner whatever the sentiments he had overheard, or which had been directed to him, in the confidence ofsocial communion. What then, in the present state of social improvement, when the moral feelings of mankind may naturally be expected to have attained a keener sensibility, and, consequently, when efforts of such greater profligacy must be requisite to suppress these feelings - what must be the depravity of that wretch, who, submitting himself to an office ofwhich savages themselves would be ashamed, should prowl from place to place, from lurking hole to lurking hole, and from circle to circle, to overhear and betray the conversation in which the honest and unsuspecting part of his fellow-creatures may occasionally indulge their feelings; and can we wonder, when hardened to this degree of depravity, by the vicious encouragement held out by one part ofsociety, for the ruin and destruction of another, ifthey should advance one step further in the path ofvice and infamy, and, to gratify an inveterate malice, or encrease the wages of their iniquity, bring forward accusations destitute efallfoundation in truth, and sacrifice on the alter oftheir infernal idols, all whom personal resentment or party rancour may have rendered obnoxious to their machinations. That such has been the conduct of informers in other ages and countries cannot be denied: the page ofhistory affirms it. And that it has, in more instances than one, been the case with respect to the victims now confined in our Bastilles, I have, for my own part, no sort of doubt whatever. And how should it be otherwise? From an informer to a perjurer is but a single gradation; and who that had already advanced three pans of the way to the devil, would refuse to take another step to make himselfmore secure of the reward?3 9 I do not mean directly to charge with the crime of designedly encouraging perjury and false accusation, the persons who have set on foot this detestable system - though men who are anxiously engaged in the pursuit of their own private interests or ambition, are seldom very nice in the means of their attainment

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- and many of chem, like the SEJANUS ofBEN JONSON, might not perhaps blush co whisper in the ear of a trusty confidant, 'Tell the words You brought me, th' other day, of Silius:

Addsomething to them'. 40

But whether such instructions were ever communicated or not by Mr. Reeves and his associators, or by the treacherous and insolent SEJANUS ofchis country, before whose nigh-expiring dignity they bend their minds in such dishonourable servitude, is not the question to society. We must look to the consequences of measures, not to the nice shades and discriminations ofprogressive turpitude in the characters, of men: and it was their duty, as the grand movers of the infernal engine thus set to work, for the accomplishment of a purpose in itselfdiabolical, - (the annihilation of political truth - the restraint of the benign progress of intellectual improvement) to consider, before the experiment was adopted, what were the mischiefs to the morals and happiness ofsociety, which were likely to be effected by its operations? Had chis subject been fully and fairly considered; had all the consequences been duly reflected upon, of tearing asunder the ties and moral obligations between man and man, violating every bond and principle of confidence, and setting neighbour against neighbour, and.friend against.friend, co way-lay and ensnare his confidence, and violate his privacy, for purposes of political treachery; I am scarcely inclined co believe, chat a being so profligate could have been found (even among the governors of chis degraded country) as co have been the author of so monstrous an innovation: an innovation worse than every thing which the authors of it pretend to dread - which introduces, wherever it is adopted, a system of ANARCHY of the most deplorable nature - an ANARCHY OF MORALS! ten thousand times more destructive - more devastating than the most absolute POLITICAL ANARCHY chat ever existed: - The fact being, chat political anarchy is no further in reality an evil, than as the moralsystem is vitiated and imperfect; while, on the other hand, if the principles ef morality are once overthrown, nothing like political security and peace can possibly be expected in any state. But, alas! the dog-star of alarm rages in our political hemisphere; and our intellects, already impaired by the vices ofluxury and dissipation, are unable to resist the infectious mania: and behold to what a deplorable state ofdegradation we are already subjugated; 'We that (within these fourscore years) were born Free, equal, lords of the triumphed world, And knew no masters, bur affections, To which betraying first our liberties, We since became the slaves to one man's pride And now to many'.41

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I shall not at present enter into the enquiry concerning the proper deserts of those by whom a system of this description may be introduced or supported: - It would be a painful task. I am more desirous of informing than of irritating your minds: more anxious to impart the wisdom that softens to benevolence, than to inflame the passions that urge to coercion and revenge. My system of philosophy leads me to consider men, in a considerable degree at least, as the creatures of surrounding circumstances; and consequently to attribute less of criminality or guilt to their actuating motives, than the generality of those who are mere spectators of their actions - or perhaps sufferers by them, are inclined to suppose. I am a stickler for PRINCIPLES; not the advocate of MEN and PARTIES: - an opposer ofvice and TYRANNY; not the personal enemy even of the OPPRESSORS. - If others, judging from the warmth of my expressions, or, perhaps, from the narrowness oftheir own souls, cannot believe these professions, I pity them; I am not angry with them: I look into my own heart, and I believe I know my motives! 42 Putting therefore, the deserts of individuals entirely out of the question, I shall observe that since we have the misfortune to live in an age and country in which profligate associations have introduced such a system among us, we have the better reason for deporting ourselves with peculiar caution; that we may battle, if possible, those detestable machinations by which every friend of liberty and mankind is hemmed and environed round about. In the midst of our caution, however, let us not mistake cowardice for prudence. The fact is, if we love liberty, and would pursue it, Rashness itself is not so far removed from Prudence as are panic and timidity. Had we never fled from our post during the alarm spread by a certain proclamation; had we, with peaceable, but steady resolution, opposed our sentiments to the inquisitorial associations ofparish officers and sordid merchants and moneyjobbers - the present calamitous war had been avoided; and the hopes of parliamentary reform had not been frustrated. We excuse ourselves, it is true, and hide our timidity, by talking about the times; and thus countenance, in some degree, the pretences of the ministerial faction, by supposing that there can be times in which the discharge ofour duties to society can be improper. But all times are in reality the same, if we have the virtue to make them so. 'Times? - The men, The men are not the same; 'tis we are base, Poor, and degenerate from th' exalted strain Ofour great fathers. Where is now the soul Ofgodlike Cato? he, that durst be good, When Caesar durst be evil; and had power, As not to live his slave, to die his master? Or where the constant Brutus, that (being proof

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This picture, although the resemblance is but too near, is not, however, entirely applicable to the present posture of affairs. Our race of heroes is not intirely extinct; the last ofBritons is not yet mouldering in the grave. Still we have a GERRALD44 and a SINCLAIR,45 who, unawed by the persecuting hand of power, have bravely repaired to the unrelenting tribunal ofScotland, to receive - not the dubious issue of an impartial trial, but the certain severity ofcruel sentence; and still we have a MARGAROT, - 'a SECOND SYDNEY! ' 46 bravely suffering - (if suffering that can be called which is endured with such heroic cheerfulness) the accumulated ignominy of dungeons, fetters, and invective calumny; and with a patriotic firmness, that puts to shame the boasts of ancient virtue, encountering the full malignity of an UNCONSTITUTIONAL SENTENCE, which is to banish him for fourteen years, among felons and malefactors, to the distant and inhospitable shores of New Holland, for proposing; under the common name of Britain, a more intimate union between the southern and northern portions of the empire. And I hope and trust that, in so glorious a cause, there are hundreds - thousands who will step forward, whenever opportunity shall permit, and expose themselves to equal danger, in a cause of so much virtue, utility, and glory. Yes - glorious and enlightened patriot! whose voice has ever been uplifted, whose interests have been so generously neglected, and whose personal liberty, and loved endearments of thy native home, have so cheerfully been sacrificed for that sacred cause which shall flourish by thy persecution, and triumph by thy martyrdom! - Yes - glorious patriot! there shall be found - and the tyrants of the earth shall see it and shall tremble! - there shall be found (the hour is at hand that shall verify the prediction) thousands - and tens ofthousands ofenlightened citizens, who, warmed to generous enthusiasm by thy virtues, and emulous of thy distinguished, they unsullied fame, shall avow to the very teeth of thy oppressors, the incontrovertible truths - the generous and magnanimous principles, which have pulled down upon thy undaunted head the hatred and the inflexible vengeance of an insolent, treacherous, and unprincipled faction - a faction, once the pretended advocates of those very doctrines which they now denounce and per-

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secute with such unblushing impudence, - such sanguinary and insatiate fury! The voice ofgeneral indignation already begins to articulate, in tones indeed 'not loud, but deep'; - tones that express the internal agitation of the soul, and are prophetic of the audible murmur that must soon awaken the attention of those who at present pretend to regard our reasonings, and our remonstrances with contempt - FALSE ALARMS, and INQUISITORIAL ASSOCIATIONS, may appal awhile a wondering and deluded nation: but, 'O BRAVE BRITAIN! there is life in't yet!' - the spirit of a people so enlightened, and once so full of the generous pride ofliberty, as the inhabitants of this country, cannot be long suppressed; the genuine voice of the nation must soon be heard - I need not tell you within the walls of what assembly it is NOT to be expected to resound. - The real voice ofthe nation must soon be heard; and the promoters of UNCONSTITUTIONAL OPPRESSION must tremble at the shout. Then shall thy manly virtue, illustrious Margarot! meet with the applause it merits, and thy return to this insulted country shall be as glorious to thyself, and as triumphant to thy friends (I mean the friends of Liberty- for they can be no friends to that sacred cause who are not friends to thee!) as thy departure is in reality disgraceful to those short-sighted enemies who now exult in thy persecution. CITIZENS! This is not the rant of inconsiderate enthusiasm, but the result of some acquaintance with the generous feelings of the hearts of Britons; some absolute knowledge of the progress of popular sentiment, - and of the existing state of opinion among a people whom some would guide and direct (I ought to say drive and harass) without any other acquaintance with their dispositions than such as may be imparted by SPIES and EAVESDROPPERS: a set of wretches who have an interest to deceive, because their salaries depend upon keeping their employers in good humour. (Who ever pays a lackey for unwelcome tidings?) Neither is it the cant offaction - the purchased fable ofsome venal tool of Party. I am a SANS CULOTTE! - one of those who think the happiness of millions of more consequence than the aggrandizement of any party junto! or, in other words, an advocate for the rights and happiness of those who are languishing in want and nakedness! (for this is my interpretation of a sans culotte: - the thing in REALITY which Whigs PRETEND to be!) All factions therefore do me the honour to hold me in equal detestation; and would be as far from trusting me, as I from being the tool of their ambition. - Neither is it the ebullition of private partiality. Between this GLORIOUS MARTYR and myself there have existed no private bonds ofgratitude and attachment - no other tie or connection than that which has been created by the consciousness that both were pressing forward with disinterested zeal, in different departments, but in the same common cause ofpublic happiness and virtue. Even a political intercourse has scarcely subsisted

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between us - my name having scarcely been enrolled in the lists of the society of whole confidence he has shewn himselfso truly, and so eminently worthy, before the eventful epocha ofhis mission to the Convention at Edinburgh. But the events of the last four or five months have drawn forth the exertions ofthe friends ofliberty, and shewn the characters ofmen, both the MOCK Patriots and the REAL, in their proper colours. It is within that space of time, that my attachment for the SYDNEY OF THE BRITISH CONVENTION has blossomed, grown, and ripened. The intercourse between us has been no other than that which the world has witnessed; and the private communion, even ofepistolary correspondence, has never subsisted between us - both having been too busily employed to find time for soliciting and cementing individual attachments. 47 I speak of him, then, only as I have seen him in his actions; and I have seen his actions through no other medium of partiality than that which is natural to two men, pursuing, by correspondent means, the same important object, in which they are mutually convinced the happiness and virtue of mankind is intimately involved. Contemplating him through this medium of his public conduct, and adding to these considerations, the heroic cheeifulness, the manly serenity of deportment, which I saw him so consistently and so unaffectedly display, I own I cannot hear the name of Margarot, or call his image to my remembrance, without feeling a glow of enthusiasm, which convinces me that there is no true patriot who really knows his worth, but who would cheerfully share with him the fate which he is going to encounter. For myself, I hope I see the path that honor and virtue have chalked out before me; and that my mind is fortified with sufficient resolution to pursue whatever conduct the future combinations of events may dictate as most essential to the public service: but, if ever the time of despondency should come (though I confess at present I discover no symptoms of its approach) when the sinews ofpatriotic exertion may relax without criminality, and leave the hopeless cause of British Liberty to the blind dominion of Chance; rather - ten thousand times rather, would I go a voluntary, a self-willed victim to a similar transportation, and enjoy, amidst the inhospitable regions of New Holland, the society of a MARGAROT and a SKIRVING, a MUIR, a PALMER, a GERRALD, and a SINCLAIR,48 than remain, in the midst even ofprosperity and luxury, an inhabitant ofa country, which, without some strong, some marked and general expression ofdisapprobation and resentment, could submit to their unmerited exile. In the mean time every individual may do something in the service of the cause for which these glorious martyrs are suffering. We have Virtue and Reason on our side; and these, if their friends are at once active, vigilant, and prudent, cannot fail of ultimate triumph over the arts offalsehood and corruption. Let us speak truth, then, with boldness, and cultivate it with incessant diligence; but let us speak with all the caution we are masters of; that as our views are

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peaceable and honest, our conduct may, ifpossible, escape calumny and misrepresentation, and may shun the fangs ofthe harpies that would devour us; and this not because we shrink from oppression and persecution (for to suffer injustice in a good cause is, in fact, a glorious distinction) but because whenever ignorance and misery are so prevalent as we now behold them in this unhappy country, the real friend of mankind has duties of an active nature calling incessantly for his benevolent exertions, which cannot be duly attended to and discharged within the gloomy confines ofa prison. Not that I mean to insinuate, that even in a dungeon a philosophical and enlightened patriot need be entirely useless to society. Mind! mind! - that almost omnipotent faculty of man! superior to the malice ofpersecution - defies the chains and dungeons of the oppressor; and while the body still languishes in confinement, makes to itselfwings, and, scaling the walls and barriers that vainly endeavour to enslave it, scatters its emanations far and wide. The resources, the consolations, the functions of this divine principle, are so innumerable, that it is scarcely possible to devise a situation where life can be supported, in which, if we do not find some means to benefit mankind, and to enjoy ourselves, it must not be attributed to ourselves: to our want of fortitude, of activity, or of virtue. Voltaire, in the solitary dungeons of the Bastille, from which he never expected to be released, wrote his celebrated poem the Henriade;49 Boethius, in a confinement equally cruel, and in constant apprehension of the executioner, composed his Consolations ofPhilosophy; 50 Epictetus, the philosopher,51 and the fabulist /Esop, 52 in the condition of personal slavery, kept their minds still in freedom, and produced the immortal works, which, to the end of time, shall continue to benefit the world. In short, there is no condition, but a state efindolence and luxurious dissipation, that may not be rendered useful: - no situation so abject, or so hopeless, in which the philosophical mind may not create to itself resources: and though no man would wish to be driven to these expedients, yet, rather than stalk about in useless inanity, meet my fellowcreatures, and look them fearfully in the face, without daring to exchange with them the sentiments of my heart, I would court the chains and dungeons of my oppressors, where, to my fellow prisoners, or to my solitary walls, I could communicate my thoughts with freedom. For it is better, according to my judgment, - ten times better, to be immured oneself in a Bastille, than to have the Bastille put into one's mouth to lock up one's tongue from all intercourse and communication with one's heart. But there is, perhaps, in the generality of instances, a guarded and cautious mode of delivery, which frequently (by expressing no more than what is really meant, and directing our indignation against the oppression, rather than petulantly singling forth particular individuals whom we may suspect of being the oppressors) has more desireable effect in removing the prejudices, and allaying the apprehensions, of our antagonists, than all that 'sound and fury', frequently

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'signifying nothing'; but which is apt to lay us open to the snares of the enemy, and disappoint the important objects we have in view. This maxim, however, I beg to be understood, as intended to restrain our passions, and correct our intemperance only, and not as curbing in any respect the free spirit ofreason and inquiry, which it was ONCE the boast of the BRITISH CONSTITUTION to patronize and encourage; and, without the ample indulgence ofwhich it is impossible that any human effort should conduct us to the sublime principles of truth and virtue, from which, and from which alone, those blessings and that wisdom are to be expected, which smooth the asperities ofthis world offoibles and imperfections, and which may perhaps conduct us, in the end, to a height ofintelligent perfection, peace, and universal love, ofwhich hitherto (thwarted as we are in the best exercise ofour capacities) we have never been enabled to form even the most distant idea. 53 Then, perhaps, shall the party cabals, the hostile views, and national enmities which have hitherto destroyed the tranquility, interrupted the communications, and thinned the population of the habitable globe, be removed and annihilated for ever. Glory shall alone be placed in intellect and virtue; and the only strife between man and man shall be who shall best deserved the love and admiration of his fellow creatures - or, in other words, who shall diffuse the blessings of his exertions through the widest circle, and be- not the greatest DESTROYER, but the greatest BENEFACTOR ofthe world. Nor let us regard as visionary this glowing picture of the future advantages of cultivated intellect: for if, as no one can doubt who is at all acquainted with the history of the world and the discoveries of modern navigators, man was originally a savage, little better than the brute creation, and, if under all the disadvantages of restraints and prejudices which confined the spirit of enquiry to a few individuals, and a few objects only, he has arrived, by the mere force of associated intellect, to his present state ofimprovement and civilization; what but cowardice and irrational bigotry can lead us to suppose that he may not still go on to further improvements and meliorations of his condition, and that a spirit ofenquiry, still bolder and more unrestrained, may not be productive of effects still more visible and important to the human race. Come then, divine and eternal principle of TRUTH and JUSTICE, animate the bosom of thy votary with the enthusiastic love of thy essence, which may prompt him, through every danger, and every intricacy, to pursue and to discover they immutable decrees! Guided by thy sacred light, let me seek with diligence the happiness ofmy fellow-creatures, and labour incessantly to disperse those mists of error and superstition, from which their vices and their miseries have hitherto proceeded - Bring with thee, 0 thou first and chiefest object of my adoration! bring with thee, as thy handmaid, not as thy dictator, the guardian principle of PRUDENCE, to protect me in my researches, that ye may preside

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together over my future conduct, and bless me with your united favour: - but if, indeed, one ofyou must sometimes be dismissed, let Prudence be the victim, and, whatever be the effect to me, let TRUTH be my tutelary divinity for ever! 54

FINIS.

POLITICAL LECTURES, (NO.II)

SKETCHES OF THE

History of Prosecutions FOR

POLITICAL OPINION; WITH

STRICTURES ON THE

LATE PROCEEDINGS OF THE

Court ofJusticiary in Scotland. THE SECOND EDITION. To which is now added,

ADEDICATION TO THE TWO INDEPENDENT GRAND JURIES who rejected the malicious Attempts of Persecution for the Suppression of these Lectures. BY J. THELWALL

Alas, poor England! what will become of time, if thou look not the sooner into thine own Privileges, and maintain not thine own lawful Liberty? PRYNN'S Harangue from the Pillory. STATE TRIALS.

LONDON:

2, 74, NEWGATE-

PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR; AND SOLD AT THE LECTURE-ROOM, NO. BEAUFORT-BUILDINGS, STRAND; AND BYD. I. EATON, NO. STREET. MDCCXCIV.

[Price Six Pence.] -71 -

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TOTHE TWO RESPECTABLE GRAND JURIES OF THE MANOR AND LIBERTY OF THE SAVOY, Who, by their spirited Adherence to Truth andJustice, and their Determination to be directed by the Evidence of their own Senses, baffied the insidious Machinations of the Tools of a STATE INQUISITOR, and rescued the Author from the disappointed Gripe of Persecution, this Second Edition of a Lecture upon a Subject, at least eminently interesting and important, is dedicated, by their grateful Fellow-Citizen, Thursday, May 8, 1794 JOHN THELWALL.

It may not be amiss briefly to state to the public the occasion of this Dedication.1 At the Court-Leet of this district, held on Thursday, the first of this month, an officious informer, in the neighbourhood of the Lecture-room, presented a copy of the former edition of this Lecture to the Grand Jury, and wished them to make it the foundation of a prosecution for libel. The Jury, however, refused to be make the tools of so malignant a design, and observed, with becoming dignity and independence, that they were not, in matters of such importance, to be taken by surprise; and that the book, ifit did contain any libellous matter, ought

to be repeatedly read, and maturely deliberated upon by the jury, before they pronounceda censure upon it that mightsubject the author to such serious consequences.

This attempt was accordingly unsuccessful. Mr. Reeves, however, the worshipful Steward of the district, 2 did not suffer the matter to drop; and a new grand jury, for the ensuing year, being sworn in, his charge, as I am informed, consisted almost entirely of animadversions upon 'the seditious Lectures in Beaufort-buildings; which, he said, must not be permitted to go unnoticed; they being in reality much more dangerous than all the tumbling-houses* in the metropolis. They were calculated', he affirmed, 'to inflame the public mind against every thing great and glorious in the British Constitution'; (such as Spies, Informers, sinecure Placemen, Pensioners, unnecessary wars, inordinate taxation, and the like!!) 'and that I had even agitated the passions of my auditory to such a degree, that they jumped upon the benches, and cried out, with one voice, No King - no Parliament, and no Laws!' But the business was over done. The dose was too strong. The good sense of the jury, nauseated at the very scent of the absurdity; and the charge ofnuisance •

Some representations of nuisances of this sort had been made .

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being brought by the same loyalgentleman, as had presented the pamphlet, and being supported by the voluntary testimony of a Mr. Scott, a brandy merchant in the Buildings, the jury determined, this being an affair upon which every one might have an opportunity offorming his own judgment, that they ought themselves to be witnesses to the fact, before they pretended to decide. The court being, therefore, held over, by adjournment, to this day, (Thursday, May 8,) the foreman and other jurors attended at the Lecture-room during the two intervening nights, to make their observations. The result was, that being perfectly satisfied of the legality of the meeting, and the good order with which it was conducted, they returned the following answer - 'On hearing and duly considering the complaint of several of the inhabitants of Beaufort-buildings, respecting the Lectures delivered by Mr. Thelwall, the Jury are ofopinion, that they cannot present the meeting at the said Mr. Thelwall's Lectures as a public nuisance'. This was a very unexpected stroke to certain honourable protectors of the LIBERTY and PROPERTY of placemen and pensioners; for infinite pains had been taken, by canvassing from house to house, to collect a heap of complaints together; and Mr. Steward Reeves, after an awefulpause, that excited the tender feelings ofthe assembly, began, with some hesitation, to remonstrate that sixteen respectable GENTLEMEN in the neighbourhood had complained of nuisance, upon oath; but the foreman replied, in his former language, that the Jury had maturely considered the whole of the circumstances, and that THEY FOUND NO NUISANCE. It is worth while, perhaps, to observe, that the foundations, or rather pretences for the charge of nuisance were, that upon the lecture nights, four or five hundred people went up and down my stairs; and that a number ofpersons collected about the door, who behaved in a rude and improper manner, and that therefore there might be a riot. The good sense of the Jury could not but observe the tendency ofthis might-be evidence: since ifa man is to be indicted, because it is possible a riot may hereafter happen at his door; he may by and by, by a similar mode ofcalculation, come to be hanged, because there is a possibility that murder may be committed by some desperado under his window. That persons of both sexes have assembled round my door, and behaved ill enough, I readily admit. But I appeal to these alarmists - these pretended lovers of peace and order, who made this the foundation of their complaints, whether they do not know that these were their own servants, who, ifnot sent for the purpose, were, at least, permitted by them to stand, for three hours together, in the street, insulting every body that came in and out, with all the malice ofvulgar ridicule. But these Gentlemen may now, perhaps, find time to look to the affairs of their own houses and families, and keep their loquacious lacqueys at home; and if they do not, the vigilance and impartiality of a respectable grand jury may teach

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them, that every man's castle is to be alike defended; and that chastisement is to fall not upon the insulted, but upon the offendingparty.

POLITICAL LECTURES, &c, Prosecutionsfor Political Opinions. CITIZENS! THE art of drawing indictments, and contriving innuendoes, and so manufacturing libels', says Mr. Gurney, in his manly and eloquent defence of Citizen Eaton,3 'is indeed a curious art'; and, as it has lately flourished in a very extraordinary degree, it may be worth while to enquire into the history of its rise and progress, and the means by which it has attained its present celebrity. Did the plan of this course of lectures, and the necessary attention to variety permit, I should be desirous of doing this in a very ample manner, so as to lay the whole mass of iniquity before the public eye in one collected view; being thoroughly persuaded that the complete prospect of the folly and wickedness of prosecutions for opinion and popular investigation, and the consequent misery in which they must of necessity involve so many of the most virtuous of mankind, would convince every candid mind, of the immediate necessity of putting a period to a system which never did, nor ever can be rationally expected to answer the purposes of those by whom it is adopted. But this is a task much too elaborate to be attempted on the present occasion. The records contained in so many immense folios of state trials, the historical facts with which those records are connected, and the innumerable trials which propagate the seditions, and will perpetuate the memory ofthe persecutions ofthe present reign, are not to be compressed into a single lecture, or even into the small course oflectures into which it is my purpose to divide this subject. The slightest sketch, however, if I should be fortunate enough to be at all judicious in my selection, or pertinent in my remarks, cannot fail ofbeing eminently useful; especially as it will tend to illustrate, in a considerable degree, what is the real difference (if any) with respect to POLITICAL LIBERTY, between the present situation of this country, and that in which our ancestors were placed in the disgraceful and tyrannic reigns of the Stewarts. It will shew us, also, in some degree, what were the boasted advantages of the REVOLUTION in 1688; and what provisions, necessary to the enjoyment of a RATIONAL FREEDOM, were neglected at that memorable period. In looking over the records of these events, the first circumstance which must strike even the most superficial observer, is the vast disproportion

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between the political prosecutions of ancient and modern times. Reign after reign, and year after year, teems with increasing fruitfulness of persecution. The evil is constantly extending: - spreading itself (if such a transition of metaphor may be admitted) like an inverted pyramid, and threatening, if the progress should continue in a similar ratio, to eclipse entirely the light of rational enquiry, and leave to the ignorant and affrighted crowd beneath nothing but the gloomy shadow of an ill concerted structure, ready every instant to crush them with its enormous weight. From the commencement of the reign of Richard I, to the death of Mary, a period of one hundred and eighty years, the State Trials present us with but five instances of political prosecutions; and the first of these is against the ministers of a weak and obstinate prince, for sequestrating the royal revenues, and turning to their own personal interest, and that of their relations and dependants, those public treasures which ought to have been devoted to the protection and happiness of the people: a crime not always enquired into with the keenest avidity, nor chastised with the sincerest indignation. In short there is reason to believe that if offences of this nature had always been scrutinised with the same severity which we have known to be exercised against seditious allegories and libels against game cocks,4 the records of political prosecutions might have been swelled to thrice their present bulk, and the decrees ofvindictive justice might have sent to Botany Bay or to the scaffold some of the most arrogant ministers that ever commanded the implicit confidence of a venal House of Commons. The reign ofElizabeth alone, a period ofonly five and forty years, exhibits a black collection of eleven important trials; among which we have some as disgraceful to the English character as any that stand upon record - some recent examples oflawless persecution alone excepted. Among the shining transactions of this reign, so eminently extolled by the zeal of Protestant writers, we may particularly mention the trials of Mary, Queen of Scots (whose greatest crime against her cousin Queen, at least, was that of really excelling in all those graceful accomplishments of mind and person to which the coarse and arrogant Elizabeth so ridiculously pretended) and the persecution and capital condemnation ofJohn Udall,5 a Puritan minister, for feloniously publishing his opinion (for libel was not then in fashion, and felony was the denomination of crime he was charged with) concerning the religious establishment of the times. James I. who commenced his career of tyranny with procuring the illegal condemnation of that great ornament of letters and his country, Sir Walter Raleigh, whom, several years after, he dispatched by a legalized murder, did not fail to improve upon the example which his cousin queen had set him. Nor did baby Charles, as his father used so accurately to call him (for his character

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never attained the steady consistency of manhood) resign the dear prerogative of political prosecution: so chat we find the Scace Trials in thirty-five years, co the 14th of Charles the First, swelled to more than double the extent of all which had preceded during the space of two hundred and twenty-four years, reckoning chose for libel and sedition only: for I exclude chose of a less political nature, though they arose, also, as in reality all crimes and prosecutions do, from the particular vices of the existing government. Soon afi:er chis (in the year 1640) prosecutions began to change sides; and from thence to the unhappy RESTORATION in 1660, Mr. Gurney would have found no occasion to complain chat political prosecutions were alone directed against chose who 'reflected, or were supposed to reflect upon the regal or aristocratical branch of the constitution'; and chat 'if a man would but exalt these, at the expence of the democratical part, he might libel the constitution with impunity'. 'THE MAJESTY OF THE PUBLIC', had for once its jealous guardians and avengers. 'The sacred rights of the people' could no longer 'be insulted, degraded, and vilified' with impunity, while for every 'sarcasm chat fell on the power and authority of kings or nobles', the thunder of 'ministerial vengeance was instantly hurled at the head of the unfortunate offender'. 6 Democracy triumphed for a while over the tyranny of courts; ministers experienced the day of retribution; and the ermined robes, and sanctimonious trappings ofJudges and ambitious prelates, could no longer protect chem from the punishments to which their official libels against public liberty so justly entitled chem.7 It is co be observed, however, co the honour of these times, chat actual offences against the order and happiness of the people, were the only objects of state prosecution; and chat no inquisitorial divan searched for innuendos, and concealed libels, in every little tale and pamphlet. The magnanimity of Cromwell in chis particular, might put to shame (if their cheeks were liable to blush) the petty jealousy of hereditary princes. 'If my government is made to stand', says he, returning to Harrington his Oceana, a work written in vindication of chose Republican principles which the usurpations of Cromwell had overthrown, 'it will never be shaken with paper bullets'. 8 Cromwell was a man of sense, and had some foundation for chis manly confidence. Though a usurper and a hypocrite, who, afi:er bringing the tyrant to the block, had the art and management to frustrate the virtuous designs of the brave Republicans of chat era, yet his reign was unsullied by any act of folly and oppression. Public justice was never administered with greater purity, nor public happiness better protected, than under his administration. He had therefore but little to fear from libels and seditious pasquinades, which must always have truth upon their side, ifwe expect chem to cake effect. 'In no time', says Burnet, who is no very partial witness, 'the Highlands were kept in better order than dur-

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ing the usurpation'. He might have said the same of the whole empire. 'There was good justice done, and vice suppressed and punished; so that we always reckon those eight years of usurpation, a time of great peace and prosperity'. 9 The true reason this why the State Trails exhibit, during the protectorate, no single instance ofprosecution for libel or seditious conversation. The cavaliers, indeed, agitated the country with repeated struggles, to restore the golden calf of their idolatry; and the common crime of all governments, I mean the infliction of a violent death, fell upon the necks of some few whose inveteracy to the system then established, would be satisfied with no medium between the block and the final overthrow of the power against which they attempted to rise in arms: but, in other respects, the administration of Cromwell was not only equitable, but honourable and happy. In short - It is no libel, I hope, against our happy government, though it is certainly a truth - that, whatever monarchists and divine-rights men may inculcate to the contrary, in plays, romance books, and mock histories, even usurpations (I speak not of usurpations effected by foreign mercenaries) are generally more favourable to the spirit ofliberty, and the happiness of the bulk of the people, that the regular succession of hereditary monarchy. The usurper is generally promoted by some personal merit; the consciousness ofwhich elevates his soul above the mean and paltry jealousies, from which so many acts of tyranny and oppression will be found to originate. Besides, being unfortified by any of the superstitious prejudices which rivet the attachment of a people to their hereditary sovereigns, they are obliged to court that popularity, by the wisdom and generosity of their proceedings, which the others lay claim to, by virtue of their royal begetting; and to supply, by attention to the public welfare, the deficiency of legal title. Add to this, that a considerable part, at least, of the people, must have given their consent and assistance to the elevation ofthe usurper, while the hereditary DOLT may take possession of the seat ofpower, in open contempt of the whole; and may fortify the superstition that upholds his divine authority with the wealth extorted by his rapacity from the labour of those whom he oppresses. - Let me not, however, be mistaken, as an advocate for usurpation. The price is always greater than the change is worth; and of all the different kinds of regal government, I own it to be my opinion that hereditary monarchy is the best. From the restoration of Charles IL the evil I am investigating flourished with increasing malignity. He promised, indeed, a general indemnity; but no sooner was he fixed in the seat of power, than he began to employ all the engines of despotism for the destruction of the friends of liberty, and to glut his kingly appetite for vengeance; so that many of the very persons who had been most instrumental in his re-establishment, soon began to repent them of the evil they had brought upon the country. 'When the Earl of Southamp-

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ton', says Dr. Burnet, 'came to see what he was like to prove, he said once in great wrath to Chancellor Hyde' (who had been one of the chief instruments towards the King's being restored without treaty or restrictions) 'it was to him they owed all they either felt or feared; for, if he had not possessed them in all his letters with such an opinion of the King, they would have taken care to have put it out of his power either to do himself or them any mischief, which was like to be the effect of trusting him so entirely'. Burnet's Own Times. 10 From this time we must drop all pretence of individual enumeration, and count the political prosecutions of the times, not by the numbers who suffered by them, but by the unwieldy volumes that record them. Party waged war against party, and faction was glutted with the blood of faction, and two huge folios of a thousand pages imperfectly record the persecuting tyranny of the House ofStewart. Yet even in the times of these lawless tyrants I have met with no single instance of transportation to the antipodes for fourteen years for writing or for speaking in favour of political reform. To these William III. 'upon whom: says Gerrald, 'as upon a mendicant our ancestors bestowed the crown of these realms' 11 added another of these enormous volumes; and the same spirit of faction and persecution still continuing, we find the close of the reign of George I. marked by the completion of the sixth of these stupendous monuments ofpolitical tolerance and proscription of human reason. I make this calculation from the edition of the State Trials only which was laying before me at the time I was preparing this lecture. But upon comparing them with the page of history, and the notes and references I thought it necessary to appeal to, I find it to be far from a perfect collection; and that, ifI had time and opportunity to make a more correct statement, the growing enormity would be still more glaring. But were we to extend the calculations to the present time, what would then appear the magnitude of the evil? Were we to enumerate only the prosecutions for political opinion - for libel and sedition, during the last four and thirty years - nay, were we only to bring in one collected mass the proscriptions and prosecutions, the trials, fines and punishments, the discord and ruin among families, the distress and misery, nay in some instances, death - the worst of all deaths, the murderous diseases of a goal - which have been inflicted upon individuals during the last eighteenth months, the tale would I am sure be too monstrous to be borne in silence; and the reflection of the nation would be awakened to the pursuit of some adequate remedy to so enormous an evil. The latter part of this task appears to me, I own, to be of such considerable importance that I cannot but seriously recommend it to the attention of some person who has leisure and opportunity to collect the necessary materials; and I will be bold to say that such a catalogue of political and moral depravity as these proceedings would present, has never yet been exhibited in any

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period of British History; nor could a publication be produced that would so deeply affect the public mind as the inquisitorial history of Britain, from the first proclamation against the writings of PAINE to the condemnation of JOSEPH GERRALD. 12 To return more immediately to my subject: it is natural to the human mind, upon observing this disproportion of events at different periods, to enquire into the causes of such disproportion; and the question naturally resulting from the preceding statement, or delineation of the general outlines of this history is, how it should happen, that, in proportion as the world has grown civilized and refined, the malignity of persecution for opinion should have apparently increased, and Government should have held out increasing terrors to retard the benign progress of human intellect. I am aware, Citizens, and I wish to take no undue advantages, that there is some delusion in these appearances - that the records of earlier times are not so well preserved as of those that are more recent; that military executions, at former periods, frequently prevented the necessity oflegal condemnations; and the sword was frequently drawn to decide those differences of political opinion, which now vent themselves in a libel, and terminate in a sentence to Newgate, or Botany Bay. Attached by no prejudices to the manners and institutions of antiquity, and uninfluenced by any desire to impose upon you by the cant of old-fashioned moralists, about the degeneracy of a world, which, in reality, I believe has been constantly in a state of progression and improvement, I am ready to admit the force of these arguments, and to concede, that when men are too ignorant to communicate their thoughts, and improve their intellects by political investigation, they resign themselves to the sole dominion of their passions, and bearing oppression with an abject spirit till human sufferance can endure no longer, they speak no sedition but with the pike or battle-axe in their hands, and publish no libels but what are written in the blood of their oppressors. When this is the state of society I grant that prosecutions for libels must of necessity be rare; but tumult and rebellion must be proportionately frequent. And as privation and negation are essentially the same, and may tend but too naturally to the same lamentable consequences, I would make this an additional argument for exhorting those who are in power to relinquish their mad project of suppressing the progress of free enquiry, did I not know that such a project must of necessity prove abortive, and that 'the press is, in reality, an engine sufficiently subtile to elude the malice of the most vigilant police'. 13 But the argument concerning the turbulent ignorance of the times can apply only to the first of those periods into which I have divided my statement. The age of feudal violence and personal slavery had terminated before the ascent of Elizabeth to the throne, and the thick clouds of ignorance were

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beginning co disperse from the minds of a considerable portion of the people. A new complexion of affairs begins to display itself co the historian in the reign of Henry VIL a faint dawning of which had made its appearance in the times of Henry IV. and Henry V. but had been inveloped again by the storms of civil war chat raged between the houses of York and Lancaster. This, as it gave a different turn to the pursuits and prospects of the subject, called forth a different sort of exertion in chose to whose exclusive privileges and enjoyments chis expansion of intellect threatened to be hostile. 'About chis period', says Hume, at the beginning ofhis history ofthe succeeding reign, 'the minds of men, throughout all Europe, but especially in England, seem to have undergone a general, but insensible revolution. Though letters have been revived in the preceding age, they seem to have been chiefly cultivated by men of sedentary profession; not had they, till now, begun to spread themselves in any degree, among men in the world. Arts both mechanical and liberal were every day receiving great improvements. Navigation had extended itselfover the whole globe. Travelling was secure; and the general system ofpolitics in Europe was become more enlarged and comprehensive. In consequence of chis universal fermentation, the ideas of men enlarged themselves on all sides. In England the love offreedom, which, unless checked, flourishes extremely in all liberal natures, acquired new force, and was regulated by more enlarged views, suitable to chat cultivated understanding, which became every day more common among men of birch and education. A familiar acquaintance with the precious remains of antiquity, excited in every generous breast a passion for a limited constitution, and begac an emulation of chose manly virtues which the Greek and Roman authors, by such animating examples, as well as pathetic expressions, recommend to us'.14 Then it was chat the altered and improved condition of human intellect, induced chose state jugglers whose oppressive privileges were likely to be shaken by the growth and exercise of these new faculties, to invent a new species of crime, and declare it an offence against society for rational beings to exercise chat understanding which God or Nature bestowed upon chem as their distinguishing characteristic. Then it was, to adopt the masterly and accurate language of Mr. Gurney, 'when the invention of printing had introduced political discussion, and when seditious publications (chat is to say publications exposing the corruptions and abuses ofgovernment, and the profligacy of ministers) made their appearance', chat the first systematic attempt was made to circumscribe the progress of the human mind. 'The controul of the press was placed in admirable hands, a licenser, the king's Attorney General, and a court of inquisition called the Star Chamber. The licenser was to stifle in its birch every thing obnoxious to the ministers. Bue if anything happened to escape his hands, then the Attorney General, by his information ex officio, carried the

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unfortunate author or publisher' (frequently author, publisher, and printer altogether) 'before the board of inquisitors, who never failed to administer a sentence, adapted by its severity', (as they weakly imagined) 'to deter others from similar efforts to enlighten the people. It was in that infernal inquisition, that the purity of the law oflibel was debauched': for 'the ancient law oflibel', as Mr. Gurney had before observed, and as in the progress of this examination I shall prove, 'did not differ from other criminal law. It was there that the monstrous maxim was first broached that truth could be a false, scandalous, and seditious libel!!!' 15 The iniquity however, in a considerable degree defeated itself For not only does the human mind, when not debauched and enervated by long continued luxury, revolt with forceful indignation from the oppressions that would chain its faculties - not only does the natural elasticity of the human character generally rise with an energy proportioned to the attempts that are made to depress it, but the violent and bare-faced injustice of the Star Chamber roused the general indignation of the people, and 'the intolerable oppression of this inquisition brought on its violent', I cannot say untimely 'death'. 16 And notwithstanding the sanction which has been given by a large majority in the House of Commons to certain late proceedings, such, ere it is long, I have but little doubt, will be in some measure, the fate of the court of justiciary. From all ranks of people the murmur of indignation begins already to be heard; and the more the point is investigated the greater will be the detestation: for never yet have I met with an individual, nor heard of one (out of the House of Commons) how full soever of the bitterness of invective againstjacobins and levellers, who would libel his understanding by advancing an argument in favour of these unprecedented sentences. Public opinion is in fact the pillar of every species and department of government; and a court of judicature (I will not call it a court of justice) regarded with such sentiments as these sentences have inspired cannot long continue a court ofjudicature to any effective purpose. When judges, in an enlightened age like this, depart from the moderation, the temper and humanity so essential to their station, farewell to the respect and veneration without which their office is but a vacuum, and themselves are non entities. Deprived of these, the ermined robe and ensigns of authority are converted into the trappings of a buffoon, and all that was intended to command our reverence provokes our ridicule and contempt. On the other hand, the characters and conduct of the sufferers cannot fail of making an impression upon the public mind eminently favourable to the cause for which they suffer, and ultimately disgraceful to those who are the authors of their condemnation. The eloquent pleadings of MUIR, the gentle manners and unblemished life of PALMER; the honest simplicity ofSKIRVING, the cheerful fortitude and inflexible perseverance of MARGAROT, and the

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torrent ofmanly and persuasive eloquence which roused all the noble and generous feelings of an admiring audience at the trial of GERRALD 17 cannot fail of inspiring the sensations that are due not only to the individuals who have submitted so cheerfully to this martyrdom, but to the juries also that could shut their ears against conviction, and the judges who could declare from the bench that 'the purity oftheir principles was an aggravation oftheir guilt'. 18 The firm and disinterested manner in which the latter of these virtuous and gallant Citizens, together with that estimable young man Citizen SINCLAIR, with the fate of the other four before their eyes, and without the shadow of an expectation of escaping the same inhuman sentence, went back again from London to encounter the malice of their persecutors, will also have its weight with every generous mind; and will assist with ten-fold energy to secure the ultimate triumph of liberty, and of these her proven champions: for in defiance of all the rancour of political prejudice, it is impossible to behold such conspicuous magnanimity of principle and conduct without feeling the heart attracted towards the individuals and the cause in which such magnanimity has been displayed. Citizens!

You will pardon me, I know, for the length of this digression, and rather applaud than censure me for seizing every opportunity of doing justice to the characters of those whose persons are destined to endure so much injustice; and who in the midst of sufferings which would sink the guilty authors of their oppression into feminine weakness and despair, have displayed to every individual who has beheld them that manly fortitude - that heroic cheerfulness which impresses the sublime conviction that it is guilt and weakness alone that can in reality be punished; and that to suffer in the cause ofliberty is not sufferance, but TRIUMPHANT GLORY! It will be the business, Citizens, of the comparative statement in this course oflectures to shew you that the abolition of the Star Chamber did not effectually remedy the evil. That 'unfortunately some ofits practices survived it'. That the whole of the mischiefdoes not consist in 'the Attorney General's being still allowed to carry his information ex officio into the court of king's bench'; that 'the doctrines of the Star Chamber', though somewhat palliated and disguised, never were compleatly laid aside; - that within the last four and thirty years the whole destructive force of them has been revived, to the great vexation of every advocate of freedom; and that the late libel bill, so violently opposed by the law lords and judges, and so extolled by a parliamentary party, though certainly a step in the progress of improvement, is far from being a complete antidote to the oppression, or from 'assuring and confirming to every Englishman' a full, fair, and impartial trial 'by a jury of his equals, when accused

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of having written or published a libel'. 19 The line of investigation I mean to pursue will also I believe convince you that the rousing of the human faculties from the long lethargy of the middle ages was the real cause why government was first stimulated to invent the crimes of libel and verbal sedition; that the prosecutions for these supposed crimes have increased in a direct ratio with the improvements of human intellect, and the wider diffusion of political truth; and that consequently, the enormous growth of prosecutions for political opinion within these very few years is a convincing argument that the principles ofliberty are more generally diffused, and more perfectly understood than in any former period of history. At first a few favoured sons of science and philosophy, only- 'men of genius and ofenlarged minds, adopted the principles ofliberty, which were as yet, pretty much unknown to the generality of people. Sir 'Matthew Hales', says Hume, in his history of James II. 'had published a remonstrance against the king's conduct towards the parliament during this year. (1604.) The remonstrance is drawn with great force of reasoning and spirit ofliberty; and was the production ofSir Francis Bacon and Sir Edwin Sandys, two men of the greatest parts and knowledge in England. It is drawn in the name ofparliament; but as there is no hint of it in the journals, we must conclude either that the authors, sensible that the strain of that piece was much beyond the principles of the age, had not ventured to present it to the house, or that it had been rejected by them'. 20 And remonstrances were not rejected in that reign by the purchased majority of a minister. In the reign of Charles I. the light had diffused itself somewhat further; and a great majority of virtuous and intelligent gentlemen in the House of Commons were animated by a strong desire of liberty. By the weight of their property and interest, as well as by the popular arts which they cultivated, they urged on the people to designs they were not competent to comprehend, and principles by which they were not prepared to be regulated. Of the persecutions of this reign which helpedforward their designs, I shall speak at large hereafi:er; suffice it to say at present, that though Cromwell's usurpation checked in some degree, the progress of political illumination, these principles ofliberty still continued to extend themselves through a wider and a wider circle; and though increasing prosecutions continued, from the restoration, to mark this progress, yet so long as the effect continued to be circumscribed to a particular class, the gentler arts of corruption were relied upon, as of greater efficacy. But now the great mass of the people is quickened into mental existence: the sparks that have successively been struck off in the different struggles and contests for the emoluments of this corruption have flown throughout the whole circle of society; and though the degrees of warmth are dissimilar, there is scarcely an individual, especially in towns and cities, where men are pressed together so that minds can come into contact,

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that is not in some degree animated with the desire of political enquiry. To enquire, Citizens, is to know that 'LIBERTY is preferable to SLAVERY' ;21 and that every being is in reality a slave who is doomed to incessant toil without the privileges of a man: without a voice in those regulations of the country by which his life and industry are to be disposed of: without equality of rights and importance in the political scale. When this shall be generally understood, (and the violent persecutions of the times may convince us that there are some who apprehend we are advancing rapidly to that period) then will the nation, politically speaking, be incorruptible (for who shall be able to corrupt a whole people?). - Liberty shall triumph throughout the country, and the despotism of courts and ministers shall be no more.

Citizens! You need not be told that the present persecutions that are directed against us are meant to avert this glorious and happy period. But let us be undaunted, be active, and vigilant. - Let us seize upon the occasions as they present themselves, and we shall turn these very persecutions to our advantage; and the measures that were intended to prevent, shall hasten the triumphs of Truth and Reason. In support of this opinion I appeal to the experience of history; and if an impartial statement of facts should demonstrate that the opinions against which the persecutions ofpower have been directed have ultimately prevailed - and that the persecutors themselves have been frequently the victims of their own intolerant malignity, though private friendship may regret the sacrifices that must be made, public virtue will have but little to fear for the event of a struggle in which the cause of liberty may be involved; and the friends of tyranny and aristocracy but little foundation to exult in the severities inflicted upon their opponents. 22 The first attempts made in this country for the purpose of stopping the progress of inquiry, were those which, in the beginning of the fifteenth century, were instituted against the Lollards, 23 or Protestant reformers of the times. And though these were of the nature of religious persecution, and my lecture professes only to treat of prosecutions for political opinion, yet I choose to begin with these, not only because, equally an enemy to tyranny in every shape - to the despotism of the pulpit or the despotism of the throne, I am unwilling to neglect any opportunity of exposing the intolerance of either, but because I consider religious persecution as a part only of the system of state craft and oppression: every established system of religion, from the beginning of history to the present time, being nothing more than a species of political imposture ; - a system of artifice to restrain the faculties of the people, and keep them in obedience by bugbears which their rulers have almost uniformly

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despised. For proof of this assertion it is not necessary to digress so far as to appeal to ancient history, and to remind you how strictly the philosophers and statesmen of Greece and Rome conformed to the external worship of their respective countries, and how completely they despised them in their hearts. The records of modern times are sufficient for my purpose: and we need but look back to that very age of the Stewarts, into the infamy of whose government it is my professed intention to enquire. Several curious facts illustrating the truth ofthese observations, with respect to the continental princes of those days, are recorded by Burnet, under the title of 'Some passages of the Religion of some Princes'. - 'I will here', says he, 'tell some particulars with relation to Germany, that Fabricius, the wisest divine I knew among them, told me he had from Charles Lewis, the Elector Palantine's own mouth'. He said, 'Frederick II. who first reformed the Palatinate, whose life is so curiously writ by Thomas Hubert of Leige, revolved to shake off Popery, and to set up Lutheranism, in his countrey: but a counsellour ofhis said to him, that the Lutherans would allways depend chiefly on the House ofSaxony; so it would not become him, who was the first Elector, to be only the second in the party: it was more for his dignity to become a Calvinist; he would be the head of that party; it would give him a great interest in Switzerland, and make the Hugonots of France, and in the Netherlands, depend on him. He was, by that determined to declare for the Helvetian confession. But, upon the ruin of his family, the Duke of Newburgh had an interview with the Elector ofBrandenburgh about their concerns inJuliers and Cleves: and he persuaded that Elector to turn Calvinist; for since their family was fallen, nothing would more contribute to raise the other than the espousing that side, which would naturally come under his protection: but, he added, that, for himself, he had turned Papist, since his little principality lay so near both Austria and Bavaria. This that Elector told with a sort of pleasure, when he made it appear that other Princes had no more sense of religion than he himselfhad'. 24 And that the same political considerations mingled themselves at least with the religion of James, is evident from the following passages in Hume, (Hist. Eng. vol. v. p. 520 and 523). 'The more he knew the puritanical clergy, the less favour he bore them. He had remarked in their Scots brethren a violent turn towards republicanism, and a zealous attachment to civil liberty; principles nearly allied to that religious enthusiasm with which they were actuated. He had found, that the same lofty pretensions which attended them in their familiar address to their Maker, of whom they believed themselves the peculiar favourites, induced them to use the utmost freedoms with their earthly sovereign. It had frequently been the practice ofpuritanical clergymen to form together certain assemblies, which they called Prophesyings; where alternately, as moved by the Spirit, they displayed their pious zeal in prayers and exhorta-

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tions, and raised their own enthusiasm as that of their audience, to the highest pitch, from that social contagion which has so mighty an influence on holy fervours, and from the mutual emulation which arose in those trials of religious eloquence. Such dangerous societies had been suppressed by Elizabeth; and the ministers in this conference moved the King for their revival; but James sharply replied, - If you aim at a Scottish Presbytery, it agrees as well with monarchy as God and the Devil. There Jack and Tom, and Will and Dick, shall meet and censure me and my council. Therefore I reiterate my former speech: Le Roi S'avisera. Stay, I pray, for one seven years before you demand, and then ifyou find me grow pursie and fat, I may perchance hearken unto you; for that government will keep me in breath, and give me work enough'. 25 It was therefore that both this monarch and his unfortunate successor were so bigotedly attached to the hierarchy. Bishops are convenient tools to mould mankind to subordination and monarchic government - necessary steps in the ladder of despotism; while Presbytery has a greater tendency to inspire ideas of liberty and equality.* It is, therefore, also, that succeeding monarchs have always displayed so favourable a disposition to extend the principles of toleration to the Roman Catholics, whose religion prepares them for slavery and implicit obedience, and have regarded with so jealous an eye the encroachments of the dissenters, the very foundations of whose faith have a tendency to provoke enquiry. If the dissenters therefore understood their own interest, they would relinquish all appeals about religious differences to the government, from which they have nothing to hope, and apply themselves solely and strenuously to the reformation of political abuses; conscious that when the rational principles of liberty are once established, no man will be pestered with religious tests, or branded with exclusions on account of the articles of his faith.

* Burnet has thus characterised the Presbyterians and Independents of James the Second's time. ' The Presbyterians', says he, 'liked the civil government, and limited monarchy. But, as the Independents were for a commonwealth in the state, so they put all the power ofthe church in the people, and thought that their choice was an ordination. Both were enemies to this high prerogative that the King was assuming'. Of all religious sects the Independents are the firmest friends of political liberty. Fanatics and Enthusiasts are impatient enough, it is true, of that despotism, which refrains their own particular opinions; but they are generally too much blinded with religious (or political) bigotry to cherish the true republican principles of toleration, equality, and impartial freedom of sentiment and enquiry. Among the distinguished actors in the Revolution, that brought Charles to the block, the only true republicans were the Independents and the Deists. The Presbyterians were for fettering and restoring royalty; and the fanatics were the willing tools of Cromwell's usurpation. And thus in France, if fanaticism and superstition should revive (and I own, to me, there appears but too much probability of it) Monarchy may indeed by effectually abolished; but tyranny, under some new shape, will still continue to ravage that devoted country.

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The persecutions then, Citizens, ofthe Lollards and Reformers, with which the war between opinion and authority commenced in this country, ought not to be passed over in entire silence; the more especially as the investigations, provoked by these early champions for individual judgment, may be considered as the seeds and germs of those more liberal enquiries which have since shot forth and blossomed. - Begin but to enquire, (no matter how ridiculous the subject) and the human mind (especially if it has the good fortune to meet with a little persecution) will never fail to make such exertions in the pursuit as will ultimately direct it to the proper point. For many centuries, from the final overthrow of the Roman empire, Europe had been sunk in the most profound ignorance. What little learning and science yet remained in the world, had retired to Constantinople and Alexandria; and had left this fairest portion of the globe to the dominion offeudal tyrants, who disdained all knowledge but of the destructive arts of hunting and ofwar, and priests, who were incapable of interpreting the jargon which they read: the blasphemous absurdities of which were dignified with the name of Religion. But when the morning star of literature, that harbinger of the light of reason, began once more to make its appearance in the western horizon, mankind began to awake and look about them; and the people of this island, who (since their subjection to the Norman robber and his banditti) seem to have been sunk almost below the common standard of mental degradation, began, as well as their neighbours, to perceive the innumerable abuses with which they were surrounded and incumbered. At the dawn of enquiry, it is not at all surprising, that the attention should have been directed, in the first instance, to the subject of religion; - that the first struggles, ifI may so express myself, of infant liberty, should be to burst the swaithing bands of superstition that confined its limbs, and, incumbered with which, it would have been impossible to have grappled with the monsters of tyranny and despotic arrogance that were hovering over the cradle to devour it. In short, religious tyranny was at that time so extensive in its operations, and mingled itself so much with every concern and function of civil life, that it was impossible but this should be the earliest object of reformation. As Sir John Brute says of marriage - Priestcraft 'had debauched their five senses. Every thing they saw, every thing they heard, every thing they felt, every thing they smelt, and every thing they tasted, had priest in it'. 26 John Wickliffe and his followers, the first of the English reformers, were also the first objects of legal persecution for opinion. They began to flourish towards the end of the fourteenth century; and so early as the eighth of Henry IV. 1407 ofthe vulgar :£ra, we have a prosecution upon record among the State Trials, against master William Thorpe, a priest, for attempting to break a way through the thick clouds of ceremonies, prejudices, and popish superstitions,

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and let in the light of human reason (as far at least as he understood it) upon the deluded faculties of his countrymen. The offence he was charged with, was of a very heinous nature; almost as bad as asserting, in these days, that Kings are not always patterns of divine perfection; that 'tyrants, who destroy the peace and happiness of the world', ought to be sent to the guillotine; or that (if reason is appealed to, in preference to superstitious prejudice) some things may be found, even in the British Constitution, which it is possible to alter for the better. The accusation was, that 'The thirde Sonday after Easter, the yere of our Lorde MCCCC. and Seuen, William Thorpe came vnto the Towne of Shrewsbury, and thorow leaue graunted unto him to preache: He said openly in Synt Chaddis Chirche in his sermone, that the sacrament ofthe altare after the consecration was material brede'. - That is to say, that it was not converted into the real body ofJesus Christ: - or in other words, to borrow an illustration from the Tale of a Tub, that a piece of brown crust is not a fine shoulder ofmutton. 'And that ymages shulde in no wise be worshiped. - And that men should notgo on pilgremages. - And that priestes have not title to tythes. - And that it is not lefullfor to swere in any wise. - And that when the Archebishop had red thus his rolle, he rolled it up agein, and said to me', (for we have the trial from his own pen) 'Ys this holsome learninge to be among the people ?' 27 - for 'hinc ill£ lacrymt£!' as Gurney so properly exclaimed, in answer to Mr. Fielding's lamentation, that political truths should be sold in twopenny pamphlets.28 - This is the cause of lamentation with the state hypocrites of every age and profession, that information should be disseminated among the people. Men whose elevated situations render them too wise to practise what they know, may improve themselves in political science; and bishops and cardinals may be as great infidels and atheists as they please; but that truth should be disseminated upon political and theological subjects among those who have an interest in emancipating themselves from priestcraft and state jugglers - this is the crime! - this is the abomination! and dungeons, fetters, and transportation must be prepared for those who venture upon the audacious experiment. That Thorpe, who was himself a priest, should preach against the lawfulness of tythes, was a proof of purity and disinterestedness of principle, which, to a being ofthe smallest candour and liberality, must have rendered him an object of esteem. But the archbishop of Canterbury and his brother inquisitors (like Judge Jefferies upon the trial ofSidney, and the judges of the court ofJusticiary in a more recent transaction) 29 could discover that the integrity of his principle was an additional provocation of his crime, since the man who is actuated only be a selfish ambition may be bought over as soon as he is dangerous, but he who is prompted by a virtuous conviction will be found to persevere to the end.

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Thorpe, who appears to have been a man of considerable eloquence, for his time, defended himselfwith a great deal offorti rude; and appears from the following, among other passages, to have had a due contempt for those trappings of vanity and ostentation which establishments, either religious or political, are so apt to substitute in place ofprinciple and sound morality. 'But I said, Sir, lusty men and worldly louers delyte and couete, and trauelle to haue all their wittes quickened and sharpened with diuerse sensible solace: but all the faithful louers and folowers of Christe haue all their delyte to heare Godde's worde, and to understond it truely, and to worke therafter faithfully and continually'. 30 He was, however, consigned to the custody of the inferior inquisitors, 'was led forth, and brought into a foul unhonest prison', where he languished and in all probability died; for he was never heard of any more. 31 The priestly politicians or politic priests (for all political persecution is priestcraft and superstition, and all priestcraft and superstition is political tyranny) having once dipped themselves in the guilt of inquisitorial vengeance, were not easily appeased. Like the young tyger, having once tasted of blood, their raging appetite was never to be satisfied with the inhuman banquet. Six years afterwards ( 1413) the very commencement of the reign of that ferocious butcher of the human race, the boasted Henry V. was stained by the inveterate persecution of the virtuous Sir John Oldcastle Lord Cobham; 32 a persecution the guilt of which lays fairly at the door of this idolized assassin,* since it was commenced and carried on under the auspices of his express consent and approbation. The bishops accused, and the King remonstrated; but Oldcastle had the seditious and rebellious firmness to assert his opinions even in the presence of Majesty. Henry knew that priestcraft was the necessary crutch of royalty, and that the rebel who dared to question his theological infallibility might in time have the blasphemous presumption to question also his political omnipotency: for when enquiry is once begun who shall determine its boundaries? He gave him up therefore at once to the inquisitorial fury of Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury, and the rest of the loyal associators for the protection of the LIBERTY and PROPERTY ofthe church: - for churchmen as well as placemen and pensioners have their exclusive liberties and properties to defend against the innovating doctrines of reason and reformation. On the 25 th Sept. in this first year of Henry V. Cobhan was condemned to excommunication and the Tower, for refusing, among other things of a like description, to declare 'that after the sacramental wordes be ones spoken by a priest in his masse, the material bread, that was before bread, is turned' (hocus pocus!) 'into Christes very body; and the materyall Wyne, is turned into * See, at the battle ofAgincourr, his inhuman order for cutting the throats of all the prisoners. But necessity sanctifies massacre, when practised by the Lord's anointed. The imminent danger of a whole people cannot justify it in a republic, though practised against notorious traitors.

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Chrystes very bloud; and so there remayneth in the sacrament of the aulter, from thensforth, no materyall breade, nor material! wyne, which were there before the sacramentall wordes were spoken'. St. Tri. vol. 1. P. 41. 33 Cobham, however, with that independent spirit which is the fruit of disinterested conviction, appealed to the people in a PLACARD, which he procured to be posted about the town; and which had considerable effect upon the public. The ASSOCIATORS endeavoured to combat this with forged confessions34 and other pious frauds, so consistent with the general spirit of the bigoted upholders of establishments and ancient abuses. 'And when they perceyued that polycye wolde not helpe, but made more and more against them, than sought they out another false practyse'. (Mark, Citizens, I pray you, this great prototype of modern politics! this strong coincidence between the popery ofthe conclave and ofthe cabinet!) 'They went vnto the king with a most greuouse complaint lyke as they did afore in his father's tyme, that in euery quarter of the realme, by reason ofWickleues opinions, and the said lord Cobham, were wonderful contentions, rumours, TUMULTES, UPROURS,

confederations, dissencions, diuisions, differences, discordes, harmes, slaunders, scismes, sectes, SEDICIONS, perturbacions, parels, UNLAWFUL ASSEMBLIES, variaunces, strifes, syghtinges, REBELLIOUSE RUFFELINGS, and dayly INSURRECTIONS!!!!' St. Tr. vol. 1.p. 48. 35

Behold, Citizens, the sources of the enlightened politics of ministers at the close of the eighteenth century! Admire no longer the inventive faculties of your heaven born Minister! This is the original: the proclamation of Nov. 1792, was but the translation! Wonder no longer where Sir James Saunderson, and his patron found their plots, their treasons, and their insurrections. They found them not it is true in our streets or villages, in our commercial cities, or our provincial towns, but they found them in the records of former persecutions, among the lying inventions ofthe ENGLISH INQUISITION at the

commencement ofthefifteenth century.

One of these pretended insurrections, according to loyal report, took place in St. Giles's fields. - 'The complaint was made vnto the King of them, that they made a greate assemble in Sainct Gylkes Felde at London, purposing the destruction ofthe land, and the subuercyon ofthe commonwelth. 36 As the King was thus informed, he erected a banner (saith Walden) with a crosse thereupon, as the Pope doth comonly by his legate, whan he pretendeth to warre against the Turke; and with a great nombre of men entered the same felde, where as hefound no such company'. (Like the dreadful insurgents that were to have planted the tree of liberty on Kennington-common, or the more recent rebels ofBlackheath, they had put on the cloke of darkness, and become invisible; and the loyal heroes who, armed cap-a-pee, had issued forth to scour the infected country of heretical sedition, after turning over every stone, and

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searching under every dock-leaf for the lurking incendiaries, returned with no other advantage than the appetite they had gained by their excursion in the fresh air.) 'Yet was the complaint judged true, because the byshoppes had spoken it, at the information of their priestes'. lb. p. 49. 37 But the parallel is not completed; and I shall continue the quotation, that I may shew you the antiquity of the marriage - or rather concubinage between church and state: a concubinage which has been subject indeed to some occasional incontinences - (the State, for its own convenience, changing its holy mistress upon particular emergencies!) but which has been uniform in its principle - the mutual pillage and oppression of the people! - 'The church (they said) was hated; the diocesanes were not obeyed; the ordinaries were not regarded'; &c. 'the lawes and liberties of holy church' - for when was there a tyrant or persecutor to be found who could not talk of constitutions, laws and liberties, at the very time when he was trampling all liberty under foot, by his lawless authority? 'The lawes and liberties of holy church', (the laws that declared bread and wine to be flesh and blood - and the liberty ofpersecuting every body who dissented from the opinion) 'were troden vndre fote' (not of the swinish multitude, that epithet was reserved for a more enlightened age!) 'the Chrysten fayth was ruinously decayed'; (they had their cry of Atheism too!) 'God's service was laught too scorne; the spiritual jurisdictyon, authorite, honour, power, polycy, lawes, rytes, ceremonies, curses, keyes, censures, and canonical sanctions ofthe church were had in vttre contempt. - This would be (they sayd) a destruction to the commonwelth, a subuercion to the land, and un utter decay of the Kinges estate ryall, if remedy were not sought in tyme. - And this' (continues the writer of the trial) 'was their policy, to couple the Kinges authorite wyth that they had done in theyr former councell of craft, and so to make it thereby the stronger'. 38 And what do you suppose, Citizens! this remedy was that was to be sought in time? - The King called a parliament together in a great hurry, at Leicester; and the people were plunged into a mad and unjustifiable war against France, whose avowed object (for the cabinet of Henry the Fifth had courage and sincerity enough to avow its object in the first instance) was to impose a monarch upon that country whom the people neither desired nor would accept. And thus we see that the project of stopping the progress of political enquiry, by plunging into scenes of unjustifiable carnage, and depopulating the towns and villages, and wasting the treasures of the country, in order to disappoint the seditious views of reformers, and advocates for the rights of man, has the recommendation of considerable antiquity, and is by no means attributable to the sublime invention of the present cabinet. 39 War, however, was not to be confided in alone. Persecution for opinion was renewed with increased avidity. An act of parliament was passed, prohibiting by sanguinary penalties the reading of the scriptures in the mother tongue,

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(that is to say, the diffusion of information, such as it was, among the people) and declaring all such seditious persons as should so read 'heretykes to God, enemies to the crowne, and most errant traitors to the lande'. 40 Besides this, it was enacted, that no sanctuary, nor privileged ground should shelter them, though they were permitted to thieves and murderers; but that if they persevered in these rebellious practices, they should first be hanged for treason against the king, and then be burned for heresy against God. CITIZENS! I could mention to you, also, another reign in which murderers have not only been pardoned, but pensioned, while even justice could not be obtained in behalf of those who had been found guilty of enlightening the people. Cobham had offended beyond all hope of mercy. He had carried his sedition to the most extravagant extent: for he had not only exposed the corruptions of the clergy, but had been twice the occaison (once in the days of Rich. IL anno 1365, and again in those of Hen. IV. 1410) of a bill being brought into parliament to reform some of the abuses which their wasteful pride and extravagance had introduced. This bill had been introduced again in the parliament of Leicester, and was pressed with considerable firmness; - for parliaments were not always so complaisant as the present; and the fury of the establishment was encreased by the danger that threatened these profitable corruptions. Persecution raged in every part of the country; false alarms were disseminated, and armies led into the fields to disperse seditious meetings that never had any existence but in the inventive brains of state jugglers; innumerable victims were immolated; and emigration was appealed to by crowds, who disdained submission to the prevailing tyranny, and preferred abandoning their country to relinquishing their principles. In the mean time Cobham escaped out of the Tower of London in the night, and fled into Wales; where he remained four years, shifting from place to place, till he was betrayed by the pretended friendship and affection of lord Powys. This noble Judas, seduced by lordly gifi:s and promises, sent his friend and guest a prisoner to London, where on the 14th of Dec. 1418, he was convicted of heresy and treason; for which, on the 25 th of the same month, he was burned alive. CITIZENS! The noble constancy of this martyr deserves perpetual admiration; and though I hope mankind are now too far advanced in the pursuits of reason and philosophy to throw away their lives, or even their breath, upon theological disputes and subtleties, yet as even the creed of lord Cobham was TRUTH, compared with the monstrous and tyrannous absurdities of the existing establishment, it may shew us the impotency even of the most inhuman tortures to suppress the progress of human reason, or subdue the manly and heroic spirit that pants for the goal of mental or political liberty.

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The cruel preparations for his torments could make no impression of terror upon him, nor shock his illustrious constancy; and unawed by the approach of death, he continued to exhort the multitude, at the place of execution, to persevere in that pursuit of truth for which he suffered. 'In him', says the record, 'were seen united the fearless spirit of a soldier, and the holy resignation of a true Christian'. 41 Such, CITIZENS, was the unconquerable ardour with which Britons, even in ages comparatively barbarous, contended and suffered for those partial truths which in the dawn of enquiry they had discovered. Shall we then, when the full meridian rays of truth and philosophy are bursting upon us, be less animated by the invigorating warmth? Could not the utmost malice of the inquisition - the gibbet and the consuming fire check the progress of enquiry into the meaning and interpretation of a few obscure texts of scripture? and shall fines, pillories, and imprisonments, - the dungeons of Newgate and the inhospitable regions of Botany Bay intimidate those who are contending, not for a text or a fragment of a particular book, which may have been a thousand times interpolated and altered, and whose origin, no individual can accurately trace, but about the sense and context of the whole authentic and indisputable volume of nature? - Not whether this shall be called bread and that be looked upon as wine; but whether MAN or BRUTE shall be written in the title page of that book which is to record the history and decide the happiness or misery of countless myriads of our fellow creatures. The doctrines of Wickliffe, and the sentiments of these brave reformers triumphed in the end over the fury of their opposers. And though the progress was slow, it was only so in proportion as the means of diffusing information were few and feeble! The engines of truth are now encreased an hundred fold, and the advancement of human mind is proportionately rapid. 'If we do not silence the press', said cardinal Wolsey, 'the press will silence us'. Fortunately for mankind the press cannot be silenced. Placemen and pensioners may associate for ever; inquisitions may be established, and the Nilus of corruption may pour forth its monster broods of spies and informers; but wherever the press has once been established on a broad foundation, liberty must ultimately triumph. It is easier to sweep the whole human race from the surface of the earth than to stop the torrent of information and political improvement, when the art ofprinting has attained its present height. Already has tyranny been driven by this powerful engine from many of his strongest holds. The infallibility of the priesthood - the divine right ofkings - the doctrine of non-resistance - the unqualified veneration for birth and title - the bulwarks of religious intolerance - all these once supposed impregnable fortresses have either yielded in their turn to the irresistable artillary of reason, or continue at present to make the feeble resistance. Press forward then, Citizens,

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with zeal and ardour, and be assured of approaching victory. Examine boldly the fortifications that are thrown up against you, and you will find them still more unstable in their foundations and more untenable than those you have already passed. Formerly religious enquiry was to be the exclusive mystery of a few interested traders: the priests and jugglers initiated in the sacred calling. Our spiritual salvation was to be wrought we knew not how; by prayers and masses which we could not comprehend; by the hocus pocus of the priest behind the curtain: and he who presumed to diffuse theological information among the people was a disturber and an enemy to society. Now it is admitted that in matters of religion, so as he have but some, every man may enquire and think for himself; may take care of his soul in his own private way, and read what opinions he things fit. But though the veil of the sanctuary is rent in twain, the curtain of the cabinet must be kept entire; and the political popes and conclaves must remain undisturbed and unquestioned in their sanctum sanctorum. As for your souls, indeed, the higher powers have found that they must leave those to your own management, but the welfare ofyour bodies and temporal concerns are to be resigned implicitly to the care of cardinals Pitt and Richmond, 42 to whom (for the sake of the trinity) Loughborough has of late been added. Placemen and pensioners are the priests and confessors of the time, to whose eye alone the volume of political revelation is to be unfolded; and he who has the seditious presumption to expound a single text to the multitude, of teach to the great body of the people the elements of that science in which the happiness and prosperity of the great body of the people are involved, must expect the storms of ministerial vengeance and the thunders of the royal vatican. But shall these intimidate and stop us in the glorious career of truth and virtue? - No citizens! the champions for the rights and happiness of mankind shall vanquish these as they have vanquished former difficulties; but as truth and liberty have acquired additional energy in their course, they shall be surmounted with greater celerity. The names of Gerrald and Margarot, ofSkirving, Muir and Palmer43 shall resound continually in our ears; and, fired by their illustrious example, we will press forward till our brows are crowned with the wreaths of victory; and our memory shall be embalmed with theirs, by the gratitude and admiration of mankind. FINIS.

FRATERNITY AND UNANIMITY

Citizen The/wall, Fraternity and Unanimity to the Friends of Freedom (London

1795)

Fraternity and Unanimity was published as a four-page pamphlet in 1795, but it first appeared in one of Thelwall's Tribune lectures. It is transcribed from the last lecture of the season, Saturday 20 June 1795, and subsequently published in number fifteen of the Tribune as The Address ofJ Thelwall to the Audience at Closing his Lectures for the Season.' That this small extract from the Tribune was published separately testifies to its momentousness. This is an official public notice ofThelwall's decision to withdraw from popular political associations and to embark on an independent career as a lecturer. On one level, this pamphlet betrays the intense pressure he experienced in the aftermath of the 1794 Treason Trials and the degree to which debilitating health problems caused by his incarceration lingered and threatened the continuance of his public appearances. There is something worth remarking on in the way Thelwall informs the public of his decision. In Fraternity and Unanimity, but even more explicitly in the larger Address, he essentially asks his audience not only for support of his decision, but also their approval of his motives. This is in line with the philosophical and political principles he promoted in his lectures: political virtue required sincerity and transparency, as well as correction and self-sacrifice. That he makes clear that one of his reasons for leaving off the London Corresponding Society is to protect his family from further hardship as a result of his public role is also revealing. Throughout his career, he would emphasize his domestic virtues as part ofhis advocacy of a republican model ofcivic virtue.

Notes I.

See the entire address in Volume 2 of chis edition.

-95-

&

Fraternity and Unanimity CITIZEN THELWALL, 1 FRATERNITY AND UNANIMITY To the Friends of Freedom. A VARIETY of but

misrepresentations having

taken

place,

some

perhaps

from

from mistaken motives, of the circumstance of CITIZEN malignant, the THELWALL'S withdrawing himself from the Popular Societies; more

following explanation particular, of the

reasons

for his conduct in this

delivered on the

last Lecture Night of the former Season, and published in the 15th number of the

re-printed and distributed in the present form, for the purpose of still extended circulation, and is recommended to the candid consideration of

Tribune, is more

ALL GOOD CITIZENS. Of his sentiments of respect and admiration for the Societies, many instances might be extracted from the same Work. Extract from the

Pages

TRIBUNE, No. 15.

332, 333, and 334.

CITIZENS, one of the first reflections that suggested itself to my mind from the late trials, and which was also confirmed by the judgment of all those on whose

opinions I two

objects

When

that it was necessary to make my choice between the Tribune, and political Associations. consider the arts and machinations that were made use of to

could rely, was this we

connect which had of reality together upon the late trials, in

circumstances

connection whatever

that

endeavoured

no sort

2

for sentiments

they hang Hardy charged with delivering, in my lectures, and private correspondence, and to hang me for the transactions of Hardy at a time when I had no sort of connection with him or his society, it appeared to be important, both to my own safety and that of others, that I should give no crown lawyers an opportunity of involving, by legal sophistry, any political Association in the guilt, if guilt it may be called, of the sentiments that may be delivered from this place: I could not be ignorant that the more popular my exertions in the public cause might happen

which I

to

make

the

was

me

public

the

desirous those, who wish to suppress all truth and chain ignorance would be for my destruction.

more

mind in

I know that

and

to

unconnected with any projects or associations, of truth, I stand upon a rock which they cannot shake;

standing here,

adhering to the cause

and that all their attempts against it must only render it the more firm. The laws of my country are clearly and decidedly in my favor; and honest juries shew an

enlightened determination not to be misled by the sophistry of crown lawyers, nor the inflammatory abuse of treasury scribblers and the garbled Reports of DOI: 10.4324/9780429349713-5

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interested alarmists. They will not violate those laws which they are impannelled to defend, to court the favour or shun the defamatory insults of a minister. I balanced therefore between the two pursuits. I found a necessity either of relinquishing the popular societies, or of relinquishing this Tribune; and, upon serious examination, I thought I perceived that my individual exertions could be more important to the cause ofliberty in this place than in any society whatever. I therefore quitted the societies, not from any desertion of the cause, not from any change of principle, not from any opinion that political societies are dishonourable or unlawful - I am convinced they are legal; I am convinced they are just; I am convinced that they are important; and that in many postures of society they are the only things that can save a nation from inevitable slavery and destruction. But considering the necessity ofputting aperiod to all their pretences for making ridiculous charges of High Treason, and conspiracy, and hashing up mock traitors, by the dozen in a dish, some of whom, as in the late cases, had never seen each others' faces or heard of each other before, I found it necessary to cut the thread of connection between the Tribune and the popular Associations. I therefore withdrew myself from them, and chose this as my only field of exertion in the cause ofliberty: convinced that a bold, decided, and active mind, determined to pursue the cause of virtue (and by virtue I mean the happiness and welfare ofthe human race) a [mi]nd trusting only to itself, and independent of the humours and sentiments ofothers, may in some circumstances of society, do more service to the cause ofliberty and justice, than can possibly be done by the same individual, when mixed with other persons whose wayward passions may sometimes thwart his activity, and by whose imprudences he may perhaps, by means of such complicated charges as have lately been brought forward, be sacrificed at the sanguinary altar ofministerial ambition. I will honestly confess to you, Citizens, that there is also a motive which has had some influence in determining my choice: for I ought to have no motive which I am ashamed to state to the public. Ifit is an honest motive, I despise the ridicule which dishonest knaves may throw upon it. If it is an improper motive, let it be known, that its impropriety may be detected; and that I may be benefited by the animadversions of my fellow citizens. I have a family to support; a family that perhaps may be growing continually upon me: one that I believe would have been larger by two individuals at this time, if the cruel persecutions of the present Administration had not bowed down an aged mother to her grave, and murdered the infant in the womb. It was necessary then for me either to abandon, in a considerable degree, the public cause, or to seek some way by which my personal interests could be united to the interest of the public. Such an union I believe is not dishonourable; and if I know my own heart (which I will not be too sure that I do - for it is certainly

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frequently too true 'that the heart is deceitful to itself above all things') - but if I know my own heart, there is no motive can compel me to sacrifice the general to the particular feeling.

FINIS.

JOHN

John Gilpin's Ghost:

Or the

GILPIN'S GHOST

Warning Voice ofKing Chanticleer: An Historical Ballad:

Written Before the Late Trials and Dedicated to the Treason-hunters ofOakham

(London: Smith, 1795). T.

Like many satirical texts, John Gilpin's Ghost is a work of paradoxes. It is a treatment of distinctly frightening events. It was written before Thelwall's

comical arrest

It is

for treason, yet somehow escaped being seized with the rest of his papers. expression of Thelwall's irrepressible humour, his fearlessness and

an

pluckiness, fact, picture but it also reveals the fears of a hounded

of Thelwall from the radical

John

Binns

man.

provides

a

the

we

revealing backdrop

to

In

get the

'hauntingness' of this poem: John Thelwail was one of the boldest political writers, speakers, and lecturers of his time. In his lecture-room, in a debating or political society, or at his desk, he was yet, in private, he was one of the most timid alarmists I ever associated with. If he

fearless;

or an a-la-mode beef-shop, he would conceit that one-half had Government spies in them, whose especial business it was to watch and report, as far as possible, all he did. Going home at night, he would prefer to walk in the middle of the street, and took special care never to go down dark

went

into

an

oyster-house,

of the boxes in the

or narrow

Of course, be

at

least

room

1 streets, for fear of assassins'

we can never some

know how

truth here:

accurate

someone as

this

harassed

description is, yet, there must Thelwall could hardly avoid

as

feelings of paranoia. Hie sense of being watched, pursued and haunted

even

into the most

private John Gilpin's and domestic of spaces

Ghost, the

underwrites this text in many ways. In

hypocritical loyalists live

in

Oakham, the

town

where Thelwall and

Stella

were married in 1791. His private correspondence to his brother-in-law (who resided in Oakham) is intercepted and opened. The characters', too, are an amalgam of fiction and reality: they are Thelwall's real-life enemies (the loyalist hack writer William Combes (or Combe) and Lord Winchelsea, a virulent anti-

Thelwallian who evicted poem in which the

politics. The ghost

some

of Thelwall's relatives from their farm. 2 This is

of private life is

a

security by the spectre of deeply the of King Chaunticleer is, however, greatest incarnation of threatened

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Selected Political Writings ofJohn Thelwa/l Volume 1

102

suspicion and fear in the poem, but it is the loyalist Oakhamites he haunts. He is the dead king who sounds a warning to the enemies ofliberty, to other kings, to tyrants in any form, and to the Attorney General specifically. He is the return of the headless King Chaunticleer ofThelwall's earlier tale, but here he has thrown off his habitual behaviour to recite a republican message, not unlike Thelwall's own.

Notes

1. 2.

J. Binns, Reminiscences, p. 44.

G. Claeys (ed.), The Politics ofEnglish jacobinism: Writings ofjohn Thelwall p. xx.

JOHN GILPIN's GHOST; 1 OR,

THE WARNING VOICE OF

KING CHANTICLEER: AN

HISTORICAL BALLAD: WRITTEN BEFORE THE LATE TRIALS, AND DEDICATED TO THE

TREASON-HUNTERS OF OAKHAM. BY]. THELWALL

Risum teneatis amid?

HOR.

LONDON: PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR And published by T. SMITH, at the Sign of the POP-GUN, Corner of Porrsmourh-Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields. 1795. [PRICE SIX-PENCE]. -103-

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PREFACE GOOD wine, says the proverb, requires no bush; and good poetry, it is said by the critics, should require no notes. But when a tavern is opened in a new situation, it may be necessary to hang out a sign; and when poetry is written upon a local subject, it may not be amiss to say a few explanatory words by way of preface. This little Ballad will not, however, require much introduction; especially to those who are acquainted with the inquisitorial proceedings of the last two or three years. The occasion ofit is simply as follows - An extract from a speech delivered by me at a debating society, having been printed by Eaton, in his Politics for the People, under the title of King Chanticleer, or the Fate ofTyranny, that intrepid bookseller was, in consequence, a third time indicted for sedition, and, as the public well knows, was a third time acquitted. 2 Shortly after which, I took an opportunity ofsending, by a passenger in the Stamford stage, a small packet of books to a brother-in-law who resides in Oakham, the county-town of Rutland,3 containing, among other articles, some copies of this ludicrous story, and of the still more ludicrous indictment to which it had given birth. But a conspiracy to intercept my papers had been formed by the great men of Oakham (particularly "Mr.john Combes, attorney at law, 4 and agent to Lord Winchelsea; 5 the Rev. Mr. Williams, who afterwards displayed the critical accuracy ofhis optics by swearing to my T's and h's, in consequence ofhaving seen me sign my name to the register of my marriage, and Mr. Apothecary Berry, who swore he would sell his whole estate but he would hang me!) and these books, by some accident or other (being left at Biggleswade, 6 the place where the passengers stop to change coaches) fell into Combes's hand. The Oakhamites were in consequence all in a flame. Nightly meetings were held at 'the Crown: which is the principal inn at Oakham; the house of my brother-in-law was broke open, and rifled of papers, books, letters, &c. and lawyer Combes was posted to London to acquaint the GREAT MAN in DOWNING-STREET with the wonderful discovery. These particulars gave rise to the following ballad, which was written before the late arrests for High Treason. The copy being in the pocket of an old waistcoat, escaped the general pillage; and has therefore the fortune, good or bad, which I must never expect for any other of the manuscripts written before that time, of coming before the public. It may perhaps excite an innocent laugh at the expence of those who have laboured so ridiculously hard - to make me and my connections, according to the old adage, 'laugh on the wrong side of our mouths: With respect to the fiction of Gilpin's Ghost, introducing for the sake of machinery, it is perhaps an act ofjustice due even to an enemy to declare, that it means no reflection upon the birth or family of Combes, about which I neither

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105

know nor care any thing whatever. Add to which, that I despise birth and family too much to make any circumstance of that kind an object of satire. I know no difference between legitimate and illegitimate - noble or simple - the republic ofletters acknowledges no distinctions but between vice and virtue, wisdom and stupidity. But the conceit aboutjohn Gilpin having struck my imagination, the fabulous anecdote about Fetter-Lane became indispensible, to connect the machinery with the historical pares of the ballad.

Beaufort-Buildings, 28 th Sept. 1795.

JOHN GILPIN's GHOST; OR, THE

WARNING VOICE OF

KING CHANTICLEER. PART I. YE men of Oakham, one and all, So valiant and so witty, Oflate for treason all agog, Attend unto my ditty: A ditty which the bard I ween In pillory may rue; For it a libel must be deem'd Since ev'ry word is true.

I'll shew how johnny Gilpin's ghost

His dearest son awoke; And how that son thto' darkling air, A wond'rous journey took; And how the Lords ofOakham's town, All men of high degree, Apothecaries, men oflaw, And those that 'squires be! How these, and such like gallant men Assembled at the Crown, Lest Sans-Cullotes, with pop-guns arm'd, 7 Should beat the Sign-post down.

106

Selected Political Writings ofJohn Thelwa/l Volume 1 That Sign-post which so long h as stood, The wonder ofeach lour, T ill with seditious p aper balls, Tom Paine kick'd up a rout. (Since when, ah woe ! ah well-a-day! Howfoolscap has abounded!) And crowns, and mitres eke to boot, And sign-post Dukes confounded. Then wonder not, ye Oakham men, Nor scratch your heads to know Why rhose who gaudy sign-posts love Should with such fury glow. Bur listen to the tale I tell, Nor let a word be lost, How Lawyer Combes was lately wak'd ByJohnny Gilpin's ghost. 'Twas at rhe solemn hour of night, W hen all lay still in bed ; Except rhe Swin ish Multitude, W h o grunt for want of bread For bellies full, as Berry knows, Dispose us men to sleep, W hile gnawin g hunger oft is found The eyes agog to keep. 'Twas at rhat h our, when doctors grave, And keen attornies too, Their ruin'd clients, in rheir dreams, And murder'd patients view, When Gilpin, in his winding sheet, At Combes's feet did stand: 'Awake; he said, 'rhou man oflaw!' And wav'd his shadowy hand. 'Ah!' who art rhou?' the lawyer cried, All as the spectre pale; 'Some client, sure, who gain'd his suit, 'But died for costs in jail! 'Or some poor famish'd wretch I ween, 'Compell'd the town to flee, 'Because he could not stand a suit 'Against my Lord and me. 'And must I issue, join, so soon, 'Before the courts above,

john Gilpin's Ghost 'From which no writ of error I 'Can ever hope to move?' 'Not so, my son; with solemn voice The spectre made reply; 'No tipstaff stern, from heav'n dispatch'd 'With special capias I, 'Not yet, I ween, for thee array'd 'The winged jurors stand, 'Nor God Almighty's Clerk in Court 'Yet bids "hold up thy hantl'. 'But here thy loving father stands, 'Thy father all so kind, 'Who rode so fast through Edmonton 'And left his wig behind. 'That father who, one night in cups, 'To loving spouse untrue, 'Was led astray up Fetter-lane, 'And bless'd the world with you. 'From Mistress Gilpin's jealous eye 'I kept thee close conceal'd; 'And, pleas'd to see the thriving hopes 'Thy early youth reveal'd, 'I put thee to a man oflaw, 'In hopes to make thee great; 'And since, alike alive or dead, 'Have watch'd thy growing state. 'And now a tale I come to tell, 'If ghosts can read aright, 'Shall make thee dear to Billy Pitt, 'And great asjoey White:8 'That Billy Pitt, and joey White, 'The people's joint salvation! 'Who all the cash, and all the spies, 'Command throughout the nation. 'For, know, from London's wicked town, 'To mar your bless'd condition, 'A dreadful lot is on the road 'OfTREASON and SEDITION!!!

'All from a wicked wight it comes, 'Who gives in London Lectures, 'And fills the heads of common folks 'With strange and new conjectures.

107

108

Selected Political Writings ofJ ohn Thelwa/l Volume 1 'H e tells them, commonfolks are men, 'And should like men be treated; 'Nor, like a swinish multitude, 'By wealthy knaves be cheated. 'H e tells them, too, 'tis very hard 'On them and all their neighbors, 'That Lords, and Dukes, and Kings, should eat 'The profit oftheir labors:

'Or that they should be tax'd and tax'd '(Which he to prove is willing) 'Tillfor two-pennyworth ofbread 'They're.forc'd to pay a shilling! 'Ye priests and lawyers, how your pride 'Must soon come tumbling down 'Should e'er these new French principles 'Arrive in Oakham town! 'Then h aste, my son; arise, with me 'To Biggleswade, rep air, 'Ere yet my sh adowy essence melt 'Before the morning air.' H e said, and seiz'd h im in h is arms, Nor for an answer stopp'd ; And Lawyer Combes, by Gilpin's ghost, At Biggleswade was dropp'd. The morning breaks, the coach arrives, The lawyer p ricks his ears, Ransacks the basket, boot, and seats, But not a book appears. Then did he rave and stamp, and forth A special capias draw; And swear against his father's ghost He'd bring a suit at law. While thus despairing, round he star'd, And search'd on every side, Beneath an old dame's petticoats He something strange espied. "Tis here, 'tis here; I have is fast; With eager joy he cried "Tis here, 'tis here; the echoing walls Of Biggleswade replied. The p romis'd prize, with trembling hand, H e drew from its retreat ;

john Gilpin's Ghost Then back return'd to Oakham town Upon a courser fleet. And all the while as he did ride, He counted on the gains, Which Oakham's sapient Gothamites Would give him for his pains. And to himselfhe thus did say 'I'll next to court, I vow, 'And to the mighty Billy Pitt 'Will make my humble bow. 'Who knows bur, when this feat is told, 'Great Pitt may deign to smile; 'And with a little sinecure 'Reward my faithful toil. 'Or, should the Inquisition want 'Another helping hand, 'Why should not Combes's humble name 'With White's aspire to stand?'

END OF PART FIRST.

JOHN GILPIN's GHOST &c. PART II. NOW to the Crown with one consent All Oakham's heroes fly, Resolv'd the Sign-post to defend, Or in the conflict die: For Fame, upon market cross, Did tell the wond'rous tale Of Lawyer Combes and Gilpin's ghost, All as the ashes pale. First, blustering Berry came, renown'd For bolus, draught, and blister, And from sedition vow'd to purge All Oakham with a clyster. Next, Williams, trembling for his tithes, His royal zeal display'd.

109

I IO

Selected Political Writings ofJohn Thelwa/l Volume 1 H e rose; he flew; nor even stopp'd To kiss his buxom maid. No more he pants to greenland sh ade And bushy brake to run, And at his fav'rite Woodcock there To point his carnal gun That Woodcock as a partridge plump Tho' sland'rous laymen clatter, What priest might not at such a bird Permit his mouth to water? But now at other game he flies, With loyal zeal so warm, With maudling Haley by his side, And flagelation Orme. This goodly trinity ofpriests (Three persons, one in mind! ) Ran to the Crown, in pious h ope A Mitre there to find. And there full many a loyal wight, With motives just as p ure, They also met, resolv'd to make Their loaves and fishes sure. Says Williams, 'In the book 'tis said, 'As all divines agree,

' TheSwinish Multitude must crouch 'Before the pow'rs that be. 'These pow'rs that be, ifl right I read, 'Are King, Lord, Placeman, Priest, 'Who by this rule are privileg'd 'On others' toil to feast. 'And right it is; for, should the herd 'Have all their labour brings, 'They'd live as well as priests themselves, 'And grow as wise as kings. 'Then Church and State, in wedlock join'd, 'Should awe the world no more; 'N or crowns nor mitres longer swing 'At every ale-h ouse door.'

john Gilpin's Ghost He spoke; with awe the prostrate crowd Their oracle rever'd; And once, at least, in all his life, His congregation heard; For Balaam's stick was hung aloft, As once in days ofyore, And open forc'd that mumbling mouth, Which never op'd before. And now, from Biggleswade remrn'd, Came lawyer Combes in haste, And all before their haggard eyes The fearful packet plac'd. 'Tis op'd with many a mutter'd spell To bless the Crown from harm, And keep them all (Godspeed the pray'r!) From vile Sedition's charm. When lo! a feather'd hero bounc'd, A mangled sight, ro view, And stretch'd his headless neck and cried

'Cock - cock-a-doodle-doo!'

And still he spurn'd and flapp'd his wings, And shook his spurs ofsteel, While trembling joints and haggard looks, The council's fears reveal. For thus prophetic flow'd the strain That pierc'd each wond'ring ear, While priests o'er tythe-pigs, fees and dues, Bequeathe'd the parting tear.

'Ah, well, ye servile crew, may ye

'My clarion shrill bewail, 'Whose scream ill-omen'd but forebodes 'A more disastrous tale. 'My crowing speaks the envious light 'That soon must clear the sky; 'For kingcraft's, priestcraft's night is past, 'And Reason's dawn is nigh.

'In me behold the fate ro which

'All tyranny must bow, 'And those who've long oppress'd the poor 'Shall be as I am now.'

111

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Selected Political Writings ofJohn Thelwa/l Volume 1 He spoke - they would have stopp'd his voice, And kept him close confin'd; But ah! he 'scap'd their anxious care, As flits impassive wind. And still he stalks abroad, the fate Of tyrants to display;

Nor can the Attorney General's self The headless spectre lay.

PROSPECTUS OF A COURSE OF LECTURES

Prospectus ofa

Course ofLectures to be Delivered every Monday,

Wednesday and

Saturday during Ensuing Conformity of the

Convention Act

It is

with the Restrictions

Lent, in Strict

Mr. Pitt's

(London: H. D. Symond's, 1796).

significant that

the title page

to

the

Prospectus ofa

and Friday,

delivered every Monday,

Course ofLectures,

to

be

during the ensuing Lent, in Strict

Wednesday, Conformity with the Restrictions ofMr. Pitt's Convention Act contains, unusually, an exact date of publication: 2 February 1796. This date signals the end of one of Thelwall's phase lecturing career and the onset of another. By Pitt's Act, Thelwall is referring to the notorious two acts which are mentioned consistently throughout these volumes that outlawed political association and free speech. Forced to give up the Tribune lectures, Thelwall embarked upon a 1796-7 lecture series on classical history. But this Prospectus also announces it else: is one of his declarations of an intention, to use Michael something Scrivener's apt phrase, 'to satisfy the letter but defy the spirit of the Two Acts'. 1 Part of his pragmatic plan of defying the spirit of the law is demonstrated by the handbill we have included here. The Life ofThelwa recalls how a war of bills of the of his was routine lectures: on one occasion he recalls, the part advertising Mayor sent constables and marshalmen all over the metropolis' to tear down

Convention

...

2

his bills. On another occasion,

as

recorded in the Tribune lectures,

paste up Thelwall's handbills was arrested for his trouble unable to read the content of the bills. to

Part of Thelwall's defiance is embodied

clearly in

even

a man

hired

though he was

the subtext of the

Prospec-

he quotes at length and in verbatim from the statute prohibiting political meetings in order to reveal the absurdity of legal rhetoric. In doing so, he tus:

demonstrates

his conversance with the law and his ability to strategically operate within its confines. Thelwall goes on to outline his plans to shift the subjects of his political lectures from figures like John Locke and James Harrington to Socrates and Plato. As he intimates in the text, it may be almost High Treason to consult' modern-day reformers like Joel Barlowe and Tom Paine, but he can

expatiate

over

histories of the classical world, as recorded by Livy and Tacitus high in the cause of Liberty, and Tyranny and Corruption

'till every heart beats

DOI: 10.4324/9780429349713-7

Selected Political Writings ofJohn Thelwa/l Volume 1

114

stand revealed in all their horrors'. Thelwall also dispels any notion that he is spouting hot air in defiance of the law, for not only does he end the Prospectus with a list of lecture subjects, he addresses such practical details as the cost of those lectures.

Notes 1. 2.

M. Scrivener, 'John Thelwall and the Revolution of 1649'. p. 120. C. Thelwall, Life ofThelwall, p. 130.

Prospectus OfA Course OfLectures

Every Evening dun·ng the Difcufii011. of

Lord Grenville's Bill,

At the Political Lecture- Room, BeJufortBuildings, Strand,

JohnThel,vall

,vill exercife that expiri11g Pri,.rilege of once_frce and valiant Britons, the LIBERTY OF SPEECH, b,~ animad-

verting on the Occurrences, ProjectsandCo'!ffiiraciesofthe prefent MOAIENTO US ~

CRISIS.

Doon open at 7 o'Clock. Begin at 8 pre ci fely. Admittance 6d.

. The Speech delivered at.Copenhagen-Houfe; the Tribune (pubIHhed weekly); the \'indication of the ~atural and ConfiitJl~al Rights of Britons; Political Lectures, VoL I. Part I. and otller Publications of the LeS,Qter,. may ~e had· of all .Jht patriotic Bookfdlers, aad at the .U&re-R001Q..; . . Bltl'tONS, who with for Information, be expeditious; for a Fodliight bertec u, inay be High Treafon to felL a

l'oliuul Painp\let,

115

PROSPECTUS OFA

COURSE OF LECTURES, TO BE DELIVERED EVERY

MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, AND FRIDAY, DURING THE ENSUING LENT.

IN STRICT CONFORMITY WITH THE RESTRICTIONS OF Mr. PITT'S CONVENTION ACT. By JOHN THELWALL

It is not the part of a good Citizen to violate, from individual caprice the provisions ofageneral Law; but it is his duty to embrace

every opportunity which the Legislature has not prohibited, of promoting principles conducive to the happiness ofmankind.

LONDON: Feb. 2, 1796. Sold at the Lecture Room, Beaufort-Buildings; at SYMONDS'S, Paternoster-Row; EATON'S, Newgate-Street; and SMITH'S, Portsmouth-Street. [PRICE SIXPENCE.]

-117-

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THOUGH I have given this little pamphlet the title of a Prospectus, it is not my intention, neither is it at this instant in my power, to present the reader with an analysis of the subjects to be treated, and the arrangement to be pursued. If my lectures were to be delivered to a small and select class of students this might, perhaps, be both proper and requisite; but to be enabled so to proceed would require more elaborate preparation than is, I believe, consistent with the attempt to deliver a popular course oflectures. There are persons, I am aware, who are of a different opinion; and who suppose that the correct phraseology, and measured harmony ofperiod, which it is perhaps impossible uniformly to combine in extempore eloquence, give a decided preference to the written over the spontaneous oration. But the arguments on the other side appear to me to have superior weight; and this speculative opinion has been equally confirmed, not only by general observation, but by the specimens produced by its opponents, and my own individual experience. It may perhaps be true, (though of this I am far from being convinced) that when correctness and animation are combined, that which is most delightful in the closet will also be most satisfactory 'in theatres and halls of assembly'. But where is the man who can give to the delivery ofwritten eloquence the ease, the fire, and the variety of extempore effusion? and where the English audience (cold and phlegmatic as we are said to be) which would deem the most classical precision, and the utmost elegance of language, sufficient compensations for the absence of these attractive qualities? Allured by the variety of the characters, the splendor of the embellishments, the interest of the narrative, and the strong emotions of passion which dramatic representations so frequently inspire, we flock, it is true, to the theatre, and listen again and again, with increasing rapture, to the sentiments of our immortal bard. But how comes it that, with all these advantages, we cannot endure, upon the stage, even a speech of forty lines? that many of the most beautiful passages of Shakespeare have been of necessity curtailed? and that, notwithstanding all the embellishments of the most harmonious rhyme, and the varied sweetness of versification, the fine odes in Mason's E{frida 1 tire the ear? The truth is, that, in speeches of any length, it is impossible for the reciter to avoid that measured cadence, that formal coldness and monotony, which is the consequence of speaking from the head, instead ofyielding to the impulse ofthe heart. Add to which, that the grand charm oforal eloquence consists not only in the correspondence of the tone ofvoice with the subject matter, but in that powerful harmony of feature and gesticulation - that electric animation ofthe eye, which, varying its expression with every transition of rising passion, prepares the minds of the audience for the sentiments about to be delivered, and anticipates the impressions those sentiments are intended to inspire. But in the recital ofa long speech this effect is never, I believe, produced to any emi-

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nent degree; on the contrary, even in most successful experiments that I have witnessed, the eye is every now and then turned inward, as it were, to search the memory for some epithet or expression which has partially escaped. The gesticulation and utterance become accordingly embarrassed; and the consequence is, that, although the auditors in general may not discover the cause of their disgust, attention flags, and the vivid impressions inspired by genuine animation fail to be produced. Nay, so complete, in my judgment, appear the advantages of spontaneous delivery, that if, after having agreed upon the plot and fable, and delineated a correct outline of the business of each respective scene, it were possible to collect a sufficient number of actors of real genius, to enter into the different passions, and sustain a characteristic and unwritten dialogue, I cannot but suspect that the impressions produced, even from the stage itself, would be so much more vivid and delightful, that the written drama would go out of fashion, and Shakespeare himself be transferred from the stage to the closet. But whether this conjecture be extravagant or no with respect to the drama, I can have no sort of doubt as to the superiority of spontaneous delivery in those cases, where the orator is to appear in his own character, to give utterance to the genuine sentiments of his own mind, and the real passions of his soul. I have tried various experiments: and I dwell the more particularly upon this subject, because, if my experience, in this respect, is of any value, I wish others, who may tread in the same path, to be benefited by it. I have read from printed books, and commented as I went on, I have written my lectures, and read them. I have got them by heart, as it is called, and recited them . I have sometimes drawn out my materials into an elaborate syllabus; and sometimes merely devoted the last quarter of an hour or twenty minutes before I ascended the tribune, to the arrangement of such ideas as I had collected together by previous contemplation and research. Nay, some ofmy most popular, and, what was less to have been expected, some ofmy most methodical lectures, (where the subject from frequent meditation had become familiar to my mind,) have been delivered without so much as a single note, or any kind offormal preparation. This last, however, is an experiment rather to be apologized for than recommended. It is trusting too much to the animal spirits and accidents of the moment. It exposes the orator to the greatest of all dangers - that of being too easily satisfied with his own exertions; and if he does not use the precaution of having his speeches taken down, that he may contemplate his defects at leisure, the frequent repetition of this practice will infallibly prevent him from attaining any considerable degree of excellence. The plan I propose, and that which, during the last season, in particular, from finding it most successful, I have principally followed, is to sketch the

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lecture the day before, or on the day in which it is co be delivered; and co be copious or sparing in the preparatory notes, according to the nature of the subject. When the argument principally turns upon calculations and historical facts, chat require minute accuracy of statement, or chronological order, the skeleton cannot well be too elaborately made; in other words, the subject cannot be too methodically arranged, nor the references too strongly marked. But, when general principles are to be discussed, provided they have been previously well digested by the lecturer, and the mind is well stored with the necessary ideas, the outline indeed should be so far sketched as to secure a regular connection to the discourse, but the shortest and least elaborate preparation is always the best. In both cases the clothing and embellishments ought to be left to the time ofdelivery: for chat language will always be most emphatic, which the warmth of the moment supplies (provided the orator habituate himself to correct, and occasionally elaborate, composition in his closet); and chose tropes and metaphors will always be most fascinating, which, springing spontaneously from the collision of passion and fancy, are sketched, perhaps with a rude, but with a strong outline, and exhibit, in glowing colors, the heat and rapidity of their conception. Such being the plan I intend to pursue in the delivery of these Lectures, it is evident chat chis prospectus cannot go much into detail with respect to the subjects co be created on the respective nights: neither do I believe chat it is desireable, in any point of view, chat chis should be done, any farther than is necessary to remove the apprehensions of the public as to the penalties of a lace Act of Parliament, entitled 'An Act for the more effectually preventing Seditious Meetings and Assemblies'.2 Certain clauses of chat Act having threatened the infliction of severe penalties, not only upon any person who shall deliver, but upon chose, also, who, under certain circumstances, shall attend the delivery of Lectures ofa particular description, therein specified, it becomes necessary, if I would avoid the mortification of talking to the empty benches, chat I should clearly demonstrate to the public, chat the Lectures I am about to deliver do not come within the description ofthe Act ofParliament, and that consequently, both the Lecturer and the Auditors will in this respect, be precisely in the same situation as though no such Act had ever been adopted by the Legislature. In order to place chis in the clearest point of view, I shall, in the first place, quote so much of the Act of Parliament as relates to the subject ofpublic Lecturing and Debating; and afterwards, by contrasting together what it is chat is prohibited, and what it is chat I am about to do, shall prove beyond all question, chat although I cannot, under the restrictions of chis law, deliver again the Lectures which I have already delivered, I can, nevertheless, securely, pru-

Prospectus OfA Course OfLectures

121

dently, and legally, deliver those which I am about to propose; and that the Auditors will be in no more danger of fine or prosecution for attending them, than the pupils at a course of chemical lectures, or the frequenters of a parish church or methodist chapel. The part of the statute which relates to the present subject begins at the bottom of the seventh page of the copy PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE HOUSE, 4 th Dec. 1795; and in page 25 of Symond's Abstracts.* The subject thus begins at the twelfth clause. 'And whereas certain houses, rooms, or places, within the cities of London and Wesrminster, and in the neighbourhood thereof, and in other places, have of late been frequently used for the purpose of delivering lectures and discourses on and concerning supposed public grievances, and matters relating to the laws, constitution, and government and policy ef THESE KINGDOMS, and treating and debating on and concerning the same; and under pretence thereof lectures or discourses have been delivered, and debates held, tending to stir up hatred and contempt ofhis Majesty's royal person, and ofthe government and constitution ef this realm, as by law established: Be it therefore enacted, by the authority aforesaid, That every house, room, field, or other place where lectures or discourses shall be delivered, or public debates shall be held, on or concerning any supposed public grievance, or any matters relating to the laws, constitution, government, or policy efTHESE KINGDOMS, for the purpose of raising or collecting money, or any other valuable thing, from the persons admitted, whether such' house, room, field, or place where lectures or discourses shall be delivered, or public debates shall be held, on or concerning any supposed public grievance, or any matters relating to the laws, constitution, government, or policy ofTHESE KINGDOMS, for the purpose of raising or collecting money, or any other valuable thing, from the persons admitted, whether such' house, room, field, or place, shall be opened or used for any such purpose alone, or for any such purpose together with any other purpose, or under whatever pretence the same• shall be opened or used, to which any person shall be admitted by the payment ofmoney, or by tickets sold for money, or in consequence ofhis paying or giving, or having paid or given, or agreeing thereafter to pay or give, in any manner, any money or other thing for or in respect of his admission into such' house, room, field, or place, unless the opening or using of such• house, room, field, or place, shall have been previously licensed in manner herein-after mentioned, shall be deemed a disorderly house or place, and the person by whom such' house, room, field, or place shall be opened or used for the purpose aforesaid, shall forfeit the sum of one hundred pounds for every day or time that such• house, room, field, or place, shall be opened or used as aforesaid, ro such person as will sue for the same, and be otherwise punished as the law directs in cases of disorderly houses; and every person managing or conducting the proceedings, or acting as moderaror, president, or chairman, at such house, room, field, or place, or therein debating, or delivering • Symond's Abstracts ofthe Two Bills, &c. To which are added, The Bill ofRights, the Coronation Oath, and Magna Charta. The very associations in this pamphlet cannot fail of recommending it to general attention.

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any discourse or lecture for the purpose aforesaid, and also every person who shall pay, give, collect , or receive, or agree to pay, give, collect, or receive, any money or other thing, for or in respect of the admission of any person into any such• house, room, field, or place, or shall deliver out, distribute, or receive, any such ticket or tickets as aforesaid, knowing such house, room, field, or place, to be opened or used for such purpose, shall for every such offence forfeit the sum of one hundred pounds to such person as will sue for the same. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That any person who shall at any time hereafter appear, act, or behave him or herself as master or mistress, or as the person having the command, government, or management, of any such' house, room, field, or place as aforesaid, shall be deemed and taken to be a person by whom the same is opened or used as aforesaid, and shall be liable to be sued or prosecuted, and punished as such, notwithstanding he or she be not, in fact, the real owner or occupier thereof. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That it shall be lawful for any justice orjustices of the peace, or chiefmagistrate respectively, of any county, city, borough, or place, who shall, by information upon oath, have reason to suspect that any house, room, field, or place, or any parts or part thereof, are or is opened or used for the purpose ofdelivering lectures or discourses, orfor public debate, CONTRARY TO THE PROVISIONS OF THIS ACT, to go to such house, room or place, and demand to be admitted therein ; and in case such justice or justices, or other magistrate, shall be refused admitt ance to such house, room, field, or place, or any part thereof, the same shall be deemed a disorderly house or place, within the intent and meaning of this act ; and all and every the provisions herein-before contained respecting any house, room, field, or place, herein-before declared to be a disorderly house or place, shall be applied to such house, room, field, or place, where such admittance shall have been refused as aforesaid, and every person refusing such admittance shallforfeit the sum ofone hundred pounds to any person who shall sue for the same. Provided always, and be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, that it shall be lawful for any justice or justices of the peace, or chief magistrate respectively, of any county, city, borough, or place, where any such' house, room, or other building shall be licensed as aforesaid, to go to such' house, room, or building so licensed, at the time of delivering any such lecture or discourse therein as aforesaid, or at the time appointed for delivering any such lecture or discourse, and demand to be admitted therein; and in case such justice or justices, or other magistrate, shall be refused admittance to such' house, room, or building, the same shall be deemed, notwithstanding any such licence as aforesaid, a disorderly house or place, within the meaning of this act; and all and every the provisions herein-before contained respecting any house, room, field, or place, herein-before declared to be a disorderly house or place, shall be applied to such house, room, or building, so licensed as aforesaid, where such admittance shall have been refused as aforesaid; and every person refusing such admittance shall forfeit the sum of one hundred pounds to any person who will sue for the same. Provided nevertheless, that it shall be lawful for two or more justices of the peace of the county, city, town, or place, where any house, room, or other building shall be, which any person shall be desirous to open for any ofthe purposes aforesaid,

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by writing under their hands and seals, at their general quarter session of the peace, or at any special session to be held for that particular purpose, to grant a licence to any person or persons desiring the same, to open such house, room, or other building, for the purpose of delivering for money any such lectures or discourses as aforesaid, on any ofthe subjects aforesaid, the same being clearly expressed in such licence, for which licence a fee of one shilling, and no more, shall be paid, and the same shall be in force for the space ofone year, and on longer, or for any less space of time, therein to be specified; and which licence it shall be lawful for the justices of the same county, city, town, or place, at any general quarter session of the peace, to revoke and declare void and no longer in force by any order of such justices, a copy whereofshall be delivered to or served upon the person to whom the said licence so revoked shall have been granted, or shall be left at the house, room or building, for which such licence shall have been granted, and thereupon such licence shall cease and determine, and be henceforth utterly void and of no effect'.

The above clauses, together with one relating merely to the manner in which the informer is to sue for the penalty, and some provisions in behalf of the Universities and public schools, contain all that relates to the subject of Lectures and Debating Societies. The provisions relative to numbers, requisitions to magistrates, power of dispersion, and the like, in the earlier parts of the act, relate purely and simply to meetings 'holden for the purpose, or on the pretext, of CONSIDERING OF, OR PREPARING ANY PETITION, COMPLAINT, REMONSTRANCE, OR DECLARATION, OR OTHER ADDRESS, TO THE KING OR TO BOTH HOUSES, OR EITHER HOUSE OF PARLIAMENT, FOR ALTERATION OF MATTERS ESTABLISHED BY CHURCH AND STATE:' as will be evident to every one who discharges the duty he owes to himself and his country by an attentive perusal of this very extraordinary statute. With respect to Lectures and Debates, it is matter of no consequence whether they are attended by ten people, or ten thousand; and what would be illegal in the latter case would be equally so in the former. It is essential, however, to mark with some degree of accuracy what it is, and what it is not, that is forbidden by this act: for although it is not the part of a good citizen to violate, from the dictates of individual caprice, the provisions of a general law, (whatever may be his opinion of the government by which it was made) it is certainly the duty ofevery friend of Liberty to neglect no opportunity which the Legislature has not prohibited of promoting those principles which he believes to be conducive to the general happiness of mankind. In short, nothing (except intemperate violence) can be so injurious to the public cause, as that cringing timidity with which we so frequently meet Oppression, as it were, halfway; and when a part ofour rights is violently taken from us, forbear, with what is miscalled prudential caution, to exercise even

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those that remain. This is, in reality, courting slavery. It is saying to the Minister, You have over-rated the courage, spirit, and intelligence of the nation. Your invasions of public liberty are too tame and cautious. You were fearful lest the present burthen should be intolerable; but our necks are formed for a heavier yoke; and though there are bounds to your presumption, there shall be none to our servility: take, therefore, as our gift, the little liberty you had left us, and let us become ENTIRELY THE THING YOU WISH US, though you had not the courage to attempt to make us so. If this should be the conduct of my countrymen, with respect to these Bills, at least they shall not have to reproach me for the example. I will not, in my present disposition at least, violate the Law; but I will continue to obey the dictates of my own conscience, and promote the important cause ofpopular discussion in such ways as the Law has not yetforbidden; and perhaps it will be found upon serious consideration, that the field is yet ample, and the harvest promising. It will be seen, at first sight, and indeed it was observed during the discussion of the subject in Parliament, that even such lectures as I have formerly delivered might be repeated under this act, provided the auditors were neither admitted by the payment of money, or by purchased tickets: and, ifI were so disposed, I believe it would be no difficult matter to evade this part of the Act. But I will submit to no subterfuge. That which I do, I will do openly. I have not been educated in that school where men learn to reject with disdain the salary to which they are entitled from their employers, and compensate themselves for this sacrifice to their independence by the wholesale plunder of their country. But though I am too little enamoured of the character of a swindler to imitate the practice of obtaining money under false pretences, it is, on the other hand, undoubtedly my intention, in an open and manly way, to reap an emolument from my exertions. And this, I believe, is nothing more than justice: for although in occasional sacrifices to the public cause, when the exigencies of the times demand them, I hope I shall never be backward, yet I confess that my patriotism is not pure enough to comprehend the disinterested logic of the Attorney General and Chancellor of the Exchequer, that 'it is disgraceful and immoral to receive emolument from our public labours'. 3 He who would deliver a course of lectures worthy of the public attention, must direct his whole time and faculties to the subject. And as it is neither in my power nor my inclination to devote myself to so arduous an undertaking without the prospect of remuneration, the subjects of my lectures must be so selected as not to fall within the description of the act. Nor will this create much difficulty: for whether the framers of this Bill found it impossible to invent pretences for totally abolishing all discussion on the principles of government and the important facts of history, or whether they were startled at the idea of restoring entirely the night of gothic ignorance, certain it is, that

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though much is prohibited, there is much of considerable importance which can still be legally done. If the reader will be kind enough to return to the foregoing quotation, and attend to the passages printed in Italics, he will find that the things complained of in this act, are 'Lectures and Discourses on and concerning supposed public grievances, and matters relating to the laws, constitution, and government and policy of these kingdoms'; that the 'houses, rooms, fields, or other places', thereby subjected to licence, or metamorphosed into 'disorderly houses or places', are those in which such lectures or discourses are delivered; and that the persons threatened thereby with fine and penalty are those (and those only) who deliver such discourses, or pay for, or are assistant to, the delivery of such lectures, discourses, or debates, 'on or concerning such supposed grievances, or matters relating to the laws, constitution, government or policy of these kingdoms'. And though to persons unused to the tedious formality of legal composition, (one ofwhose characteristic attributes it is to fatigue attention with verbose tautologies, till the disgusted mind can no longer pursue the meaning) the expression 'or under whatever pretence the same shall be opened or used', may, at first blush, appear somewhat more general and comprehensive, yet, upon the slightest examination, it will be found that the words such and the same, marked in the quotation with asterisks, (*) uniformly refer to the previous description - that is to say, to 'houses, &c. where lectures shall be given on supposed public grievances, or matters relating to the laws, &c. of THESE KINGDOMS'. It follows therefore of course that, with respect to all other subjects, the right of public lecturing, and the freedom of popular discussion, stand precisely where they did before Mr. Pitt's Sedition Bill passed into a Law. 4 All therefore, that the lecturer or the debater is enjoined by this Act ofParliament, is to avoid mention of this country, its grievances, its laws, constitution, government, and policy; and provided he does this (which most assuredly I shall) he may discuss the principles ofLiberty and Justice, and expose all the vices and horrors of Tyranny and Usurpation. The corruption of Rotten Boroughmongers he must no longer expose; nor may he argue upon the necessity of parliamentary reform. But the treasures of antiquity still lay open before him. Still may he expatiate on the energies of Grecian freedom, dwell with glowing rapture on the wisdom and virtue of the Republics of elder times, and trace, with instructive eloquence, the causes of the growing majesty ofancient Rome, and the degeneracy, luxury, and venality, which destroyed its liberties, and undermined its empire. Locke, Sydney, and Harrington 5 are put to silence and Barlowe, Paine, and Callendal' it may be almost High Treason to consult: but Socrates and Plato, Tully and Demosthenes, may be eloquent in the same cause. A sentence from Rapin7 might condemn the orator to a penalty of one hundredpounds; but he

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may expatiate with impunity on faces recorded by Xenophon and Thucydides, and may dwell upon the histories of Livy and Polybius, of Sallust, Tacitus, and Suetonius, 8 till every heart beats high in the cause of Liberty, and Tyranny and Corruption stand revealed in all their horrors. Nay, ifmodern story invite him with more attractive charms, the orator is still at liberty to discuss even the subject of the French Revolution, and expatiate on the advantages and the errors of chat memorable event. Such being the ample range which is still indulged to the faculties of Britons, it is evident chat the difficulty is not so much how to find a subject for the exercise of their eloquence, as how to choose from such a wide variety. If popular attraction were alone to be considered, the election would immediately be made. There can be no doubt chat, at chis time, the very name of the French Revolution would inspire the most general interest. But I have reason to believe chat there are other subjects which will be more instructive; and though I shall occasionally illustrate my discourses with all such facts and references as are not forbidden by chis act, chat is to say, with whatever does not 'relate co the laws, constitution, government or policy of these kingdoms', I have determined, for a variety of reasons, to cake for the foundation of my lectures, the important events of Roman History. The classical scholar will immediately perceive, and, if I am able to do any thing like justice to my theme, the public will soon be convinced, what a magnificent variety of the most interesting subjects chis plan lays open to investigation. Perhaps there is hardly an individual topic, important for the cause of Liberty, which might not be embraced in such a course of lectures; and with chis advantage, chat it is impossible for calumny and party malice to represent such disquisitions as inflammatory or seditious; since rightly to understand the history of the ancient world, and to elucidate the principles of Grecian and Roman policy, has ever been regarded, not only as admissible, but as praise-worthy, by all the regular governments of Europe. Even the old despotism of France, never discouraged investigations of chis kind; and VERTOT, MONTESQUIEU, 9 and several of the most distinguished writers who flourished under the tyranny of the BOURBONS, derived a considerable portion not only of their reputation with the people, but of countenance and patronage among the great, by enquiries of a similar description. In short, it is scarcely possible to conceive, among nations in any degree enlightened, a despotism so jealous and ferocious as to prohibit the study of general history, or the investigation of the facts and principles connected with the government of the ancient world. Certain it is, chat chis act of parliament proceeds to no such despotic lengths, and chat the subjects I have chosen can be created with the same freedom as before the recent alterations had taken place in the constitutional law

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of the land. The only operation of the bill in this respect will be, that the magistrates of the district will have a right to receive a little insight into the facts and principles of ancient history, without paying for their admittance: a clause of which my old friend REEVES, and my kind neighbour EDWARDS, 10 will not, I hope, neglect to take advantage! The power of the magistrates in this respect will, however, be no greater over my lecture-room, than it is, at this moment, over every room, house, or tenement throughout the nation; for the reader will perceive, by turning to the third of the before recited clauses, (p.10.) that 'any justice of the peace, &c. who shall, by information upon oath, have reason to suspect that any house, &c. is used for the purpose of delivering lectures, &c. contrary to the provisions ofthis act', is authorized to go to such house, an demand admittance; and in case such justice, &c. shall be refused admittance', the house is to 'be deemed a disorderly house', and every person refusing such admittance is to forfeit one hundred pounds. Among the novelties of this Bill, certainly not the least remarkable is this of suspicion upon oath. It is in reality arming the magistrate with an arbitrary right of harrassing whomsoever he pleases with all the vexatious tyranny of domiciliary visits. Do you wish to perplex your virtuous neighbour, to gratify private animosity, or indulge your political rancour - do you wish to disturb his peaceful slumbers, to terrify a pregnant wife into convulsions, or to alarm with perhaps mortal fears a sister or daughter, languishing on the painful bed ofdisease? -you have nothing to do but to hasten to some litigious magistrate, and (secure in the self-evident proposition that AFFIDAVIT OF SUSPICION IS LIABLE TO NO PROSECUTION FOR PERJURY) swear that you suspect, or swear something that will authorise him to suspect (and who shall answer upon what grounds a Ii tigious magistrate, and such there are, may choose to suspect) that a company are assembled to hear lectures or discourses, 'contrary to the provisions of this act', and such magistrate is authorized to proceed immediately to the house, without further ceremony, demand admittance, ransack the premises, and fill every apartment with dismay: - be the hour of day or night whatever it will - no matter - his suspicion is his warrant ofauthority; and ifhe is refused admittance, every person so refusing him is to be fined 1001. and subjected to all the disgraceful penalties incurred by keeping a disorderly house. But this clause, so tremendously formidable to the security of domestic peace, is of no sort of consequence with respect to my lectures. In a private family the very circumstance of the abrupt appearance of a magistrate is of the most alarming nature; and terrors and apprehensions are, with respect to the female part of such family, the almost inevitable consequence. But in a room open to all comers, where a crowded audience are assembled, either for

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instruction or entertainment, a magistrate is a guest no more formidable than any other person; especially when, as in this case, he is vested with no other authority than to sit down silently, and listen to what goes forward. And that this is the case there needs no further evidence than the perusal of the clauses previously quoted; and of this specific cause in particular. He may listen to the lecture, indeed, without paying for it; and if it were of the description prohibited by the act of parliament, he might, like any other informer, bring his action for the 1001. penalty. But he has, in this case, no discretionary power of dispersion or interruption. Having thus shewn that the Lectures I am about to deliver, namely,

LECTURES ON CLASSICAL HISTORY, do not come within the descriptions of the Act of Parliament, and consequently that they will neither require a licence, be open to legal interruption, nor subject either the lecturer or the audience to fines and penalties, it only remains to say a few words relative to their purposed duration and the terms of admission. With respect to the former of these, repeated experiments have convinced me that incessant exertions of this kind, periodically continued through a whole winter, are more than a constitution like mine can bear. My first course oflectures, begun in November 1793, and continued without interruption for more than five months, reduced me to a feeble skeleton, and might perhaps have terminated in a decline, if the minister, anxious to preserve me from such a catastrophe, had not provided for the restoration of my health, by a country lodging, in the Tower. 11 My second commenced on the 6 th of February, 1795, and closed on the 12 th of June: 12 and such was the emaciation and injury to my lungs, in particular, which the exertions of this course produced, that a retirement ofbetween two and three months, in the most delightful, and most salubrious part of the country, was inadequate to my perfect restoration. In the midst of sickness, and the calls of other duties, of the most importance, I believe, to the public cause, I have since delivered a still more elaborate course, which kept the mind perpetually at full stretch till the passing of the two bills cut the string, and relaxed for a while the almost broken bow. From these reiterated shocks my constitution is yet but imperfectly restored; and for the deductions which a repetition of such efforts must occasion, both from the enjoyments and the duration of life, no degree ofprivate emolument can atone. Nothing, therefore, but the pressure ofthe most extraordinary public duties can call upon an individual for such incessant labour; and I have accordingly determined that my seasons for lecturing shall from henceforth be shorter, and my vacations longer. The present course will consist ofno

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more than twenty lectures, which, commencing on the I 0th of February, and being continued every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, till the 25 th of March, including the whole season of Lent, will be comprised within the space of seven weeks: after which it is not my intention to lecture any more till autumn, when, in all probability, a course of similar duration will be delivered. This alteration of my plan subjects me to the necessity of another; which (though with the candid part of mankind it will require no apology) I shall briefly explain, to obviate the cavils of those who seem to suppose that they have a right to dictate the price at which others shall dispose of their talents and exertions. The fact is, that, at the time of my emancipation from Newgate, those friends who reflected upon what I had suffered, and were conscious of the incumbrances which persecution must have heaped upon me, almost unanimously advised me to advance the price of admission to my lectures : a circumstance which, if there were no other reason, would be justified on the single foundation of that enormous increase in the price of every article of comfort and necessity, which makes it the duty of every individual (whether he labour with his head or his hands) to demand a proportionate encrease in the wages ofhis industry! My attachment to the laborious classes of society, and my desire ofnot precluding them from the means of political information, disposed me to reject this advice. Experience, however, has convinced me that I was wrong. The frequenters of my lectures, with very few exceptions, have been generally of that description to whom it can be matter oflittle consequence whether they pay a sixpence or a shillingfor their evening's entertainment. But the most important circumstance is, that the price of admission furnished the minister with one of his strongest arguments for suppressing the lectures; for although HE, who never opens his mouth, without swallowing thousands of the public money, treated it as part of my crime that I made a livelihood of my politics (or, as he was pleased to call it, of my sedition), yet the argument most acceptable to the prejudices of those in whole hands all power of legislation rests, was, that the lecture-room was frequented only by the lowest orders of society, and the lectures (of course) were mere faragoes of inflammation and sedition, which none but what they contemptuously call the most ignorant and dangerous of mankind could be expected to attend: an argument which, though, even upon their own ideas, destitute of all foundation, in point of fact, derived plausibility from mere external evidence. But I have another reason for increasing the price of admittance, which must have been decisive of itself - namely, that the whole receipts of two such short courses as those to which I find it necessary to confine my annual exertions, would, at the former price of admission, scarcely pay the enormous rent ofmy premises, and the very heavy expences which inevitably attend these lee-

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tures. I have formerly stated these expences at four hundred a year. Upon more accurate calculation I find them to have exceeded that sum. And though my two last courses have freed me from embarrassments, and, what is of considerable consequence to a studious man, have in some degree enlarged my library; yet, upon winding up my accounts, I find that I very considerably overshot the mark when I said, in my last lecture, that I should retire with 130 or 1401. in my pocket. Casual observers first exaggerate the receipts, and then set down all for profit. They will be surprised to hear that my carpenter's bill for enlarging and fitting up my lecture-room amounted to above ninety pounds; and that the little improvements, &c. which I have thought necessary for the ensuing season, and the many expensive books indispensibly requisite for such a course as I am about to give, together with advertisements and other expences, will have cost me between fifty and sixty guineas before my doors are thrown open to admit an auditor. I have said thus much to preclude the cavils of those who, when they can find no other ground of condemnation, would fain accuse me of getting too much money by my labours. I do not mean, however, to relinquish the principle, which it would not be very consistent in any advocate ofLiberty to deny, that, where the purchase is optional, every man has an inherent right to fix a price upon his own exertions.

Thefollowing will be among the earliest Subjects treated in this Course. l . INTRODUCTORY LECTURE - The importance of the study of History in general; and of the Roman history in particular. 2. GENERAL STATEMENT OF THE SUBJECT OF THE ENSUING LECTURES - A brief review of the rise, progress, and decline of Roman grandeur - its obscure beginnings, unprecedented triumphs, and unparalleled degeneracy. 3. The Mixed Government, or (in modern language) the Limited Monarchy, of ancient Rome. 4. The abuses of kingly power, and the arbitrary usurpations that led to the overthrow of Royalty. S. The arrogance, rapacity, and usurpations of the Roman Aristocracy; and consequent depression and misery of the People. 6. The sedition of the sacred Mount, and the appointment of the tribunes of the people - or introduction of popular representation into the Roman Government. 7. The defects of the Tribunitian institution, or popular representation in Rome; its abuses, corruptions, and decline; with strictures on the dis-

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tinctions between the Democracies of the ancient and modern world - illustrated by the examples ofAthens and Sparta - of Rome - ofAmerica and France.

FINIS.

AN APPEAL TO POPULAR OPINION

Appeal to Popular Opinion, against Kidnapping & Murder; including Narrative of The Late Atrocious Proceedings, at Yarmouth. Second Eition: With A Postscript; containing Particular Account of The Outrages, At Lynn and Wisheach (London: J. S.

An

Jorndan, 1796). The last

pamphlet that brings two separate texts An Appeal to Popular Opinion, against Kidnapping and Murder and A Narrative of the late Atrocious Proceedings, at Yarmouth together with a postscript entitled A ParticularAccount ofthe Late Outrages atLynn & Wisbeach. Although our policy has been to include the first edition of texts where possible, we have chosen this combined edition for the reason that Thelwall made no changes between the editions, but added the important postscript (entitled simply 'narrative' in this edition). Like the Two Lectures which appear earlier in this volume, An Appeal, A Narrative andA Particular Account provide a fascinating glimpse into the roughand-tumble world of provincial lecturing in towns gripped by fear and suspicion and presided over by a loyalist majority. One marked difference, though, is that there is very little political, philosophical or historical argument here: these texts are documents of a struggle simply to speak in a public space. More than that, these are testaments of how radicals and reformers had not only the government to fear but regular citizens who were willing to cause them physical harm. text

in this volume is

a

reads these texts, it is difficult not to think of William Godwin's characterization of Thelwa's lectures as rabble-rousing and disruptive. 1 Yet, it As

one

equally hard not to think, too, of the irrational violence of state-sanctioned Church-and-King mobs. (That mob violence could so easily be triggered was seen in the 1791 Birmingham riots, which resulted in the burning of the homes of the scientist and dissenter Joseph Priestley and other members of the scientific Lunar Society). As Thelwall points out, there is an expectation that the lecture hall be protected from both criminal intrusion and from government (as any other private space would be entitled to), as long as it abides within recognized law. 'I understand it to be an established principle of British is

interference

jurisprudence, magistracy that the

is bound to protect the citizens in the exercise of every function which the legislature has not prohibited,' Thelwall writes in this

DOI: 10.4324/9780429349713-8

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pamphlet, and yet the violent disruptions of his lectures by government hirelings and Church-and-King mobs demonstrated chat 'anarchy' was 'sanctioned by magistracy itself' so chat the individual had 'no security.' Indeed, his descriptions of quite vicious physical attacks both on himself and his audience reveal how, in some ways, his dream of a free exchange of ideas had become impossible in the reactionary environment of mid- l 790s Britain. It is also worth noting, though, chat one of the stops on Thelwall's tour was Norwich, known for its tradition of liberalism, rational dissent and intellectual enlightenment. According to Thelwall, he received a warm welcome there, but his visit to such a place must have only emphasized the uncertain future of radicalism. As scholars have detailed, many of the political activists and correspondents of Norwich were themselves grappling with the choice between the intellectual, philosophical enlightenment of a William Godwin and the persistently activist, popular politics of Thelwall. For all the congeniality of his allies, the trouble chat accompanied his tour to Norfolk must have also drawn attention to the fact chat other individuals were choosing a complete retreat from radical policies alcogecher. 2

Notes 1.

2.

W Godwin, Considerations on Lord Grenville's andMr. Pitt's Bills (London: J. Johnson, 1795). See P. Corfield and C. Evans, Youth and Revolution in the 1790s.

AN APPEAL TO

POPULAR OPINION, AGAINST

KIDNAPPING & MURDER; INCLUDING

A NARRATIVE OF THE LATE Atrocious Proceedings, at Yarmouth. BYJOHN THELWALL.

SECOND EDITION: WITH

A POSTSCRIPT; CONTAINING

A PARTICULARACCOUNT OF

The Outrages, At Lynn and Wisbeach.

London:

Printedfor J S. Jordan, No. 166, Fleet-Street,

And Sold by the Booksellers of Norwich, Yarmouth and Lynn. 1796. PRICE, ONE SHILLING AND SIX-PENCE.

-135-

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ANAPPEAL &c. Introduction There is, perhaps, no single point of view, in which the affairs of Britain can, at this time, be regarded, which does not exhibit a prospect, more melancholy and alarming, than has ever existed since the aera of the Revolution. A mad and profligate system of continental politics has exhausted the resources of the nation, has drained it ofits population and energy, and, what is still worse, has 'slain the mind' of the country - has destroyed the proud zeal of boasted liberty, which once elevated the character of the people; and by associating them with the slaves of tyrants, and in the cause of tyranny, has rendered them degraded in their own eyes, and contemptible in those of Europe. The vaunted superiority of British valour is no more: Britain has lost her liberty; and it has been proved, that nations are only valiant in proportion as they are free. France, once the object of our scorn, has become our terror. She slept in slavery, and we scoffed at her weakness. She felt the Promethian torch of Liberty, and she has shown her giant might. She burst her chains, and Europe confederated in arms to bind them on again: a fourth part of her own children proved rebellious to the holy cause of Freedom, and another fourth were necessarily employed to keep the rebels in check; and yet, with the remaining half, renovated France has vanquished the whole continent; and Britain, whose profligate ministers brewed the infernal storm, stands upon the brink ofher yet unravaged shores, pondering, with anxious expectation, over the fate in which she may be involved by the next explosion. Yes; the storm thickens; cloud gathers to cloud; combustion to combustion. The interior of France is no more distracted. The banditti of La Vendi are no more in our alliance. The bayonets of Britany are turned against us. The pikes of the Chouans, and the scythes of the no-longer deluded peasants point, with threatening impatience, towards our shores; and a swarm ofprofligate and desperate emigrants are waiting, perhaps, for an opportunity to make their peace with their country, by plunging the sword into the bosom that fostered them. In the mean time, the irritated Republic encloses us with a moon-like battery; a narrow sea is all that separates this enervated, dispirited, and exhausted nation from the legions which have broken in pieces the disciplined phalanx of Germany, and trampled in the dust the military glory of centuries; and on this precarious element the navies of France, Spain and Holland combine for our humiliation. At home the sinews of power are torn asunder. - Our population is exhausted, our manufactures are palsied, our commerce is threatened with annihilation, our public credit is shaken to its foundations, our specie is vanishing, paper circulation maintains its standard wi th difficulty, our loan contractors are reduced to every shuffiing

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expedient to fulfil, or to postpone, their engagements with Government, and the funds themselves, if not 'in the gulph', are, at least, 'on the very verge of bankruptcy'; while the public creditors behold with terror, that, if they should dare to associate or meet for the purpose of devising means for the security of their property, the ministers and their myrmidons are armed with authority to disperse them by proclamation, or pay off their demands by military execution. At the same time, the state is diseased in every pore. Order and government exist no longer to any beneficial purpose. Taxes, it is true, are levied, malcontents are dragooned, highwaymen are hanged, and magistrates are protected by troops of guards, and carriages made bullet proof; but the peace of society is not preserved; nor is the life, the property, or the privilege of the Citizen protected from fraud or savage depredation. The police is organized into a complete system Espionage, and spies and informers are marshalled and stationed in every district: but while opinions are fettered, crimes go free; and in every class and situation of society are to be found daring banditti who act, in the broad face of day, upon the maxim promulgated from the treasury bench, and, confiding in the connivance or the impotence of magistracy, 'exert an authority beyond the law'. To what insults and depredations is not the country subjected? And what can be the source of this horrible depravity? We talk of civilization; but the most dreadful barbarism prevails. Twenty four millions of money are annually paid for government; and a most enormous debt is contracted by our legislators and rulers; the prisons are crammed, and gibbets are incessantly groaning; and yet Westminster Justices are filling huge octavoes with catalogues ofincorrigible offences; and provincial mayors behold, by the long hour, banditti of plunderers and armed assassins committing every attrocious depredation upon promiscuous multitudes of men, women and children, and suffer them at last, to retire, uninterrupted in martial array, chaunting the songs of victory, and bearing the trophies of their premeditated violence, in triumph to their ships. 'There is something rotten in the state ofDenmark' 1 - some vital disease in the very bowels of the system, when such things can be acted: something I fear which nothing less than complete renovation can eradicate. The renovation, however, may come even from the inveterate obstinacy of the malady itsel£ In the mean time, palliatives may be sought, but I fear they will be sought in vain. In the instance ofthe particular symptom which gives rise to this pamphlet, I understand a partial remedy of this kind will be attempted. A court of law will be applied to for redress, by some of the injured parties. I am glad it will be so; because such application will at least give publicity to the facts, and place an authenticated statement of the affair upon record. But further than this, I

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feely confess, chat I despair of justice in such a case. If justice were administered with an even hand, such events never could cake place. And where they can cake place, what is the meaning ofgovernment and civilized society? To talk of compensation in a court oflaw, is mockery and insult. There is no compensation for broken limbs, for kidnapping and murder. And if there were, how is it to be sought? Several of the persons, injured in chis wicked outrage, are fortunately men of considerable property: but would they have been less entitled to redress if they had been labourers and mechanics? And yet how would such men have been able to advance their hundreds - perhaps thousands, for the prosecution ofpublic depredators, or conniving magistrates? For my own part I confess, I must leave to others, who can afford to purchase it, the costly luxury oflegal justice, while I, with democratical frugality, appeal to the more accessible tribunal ofpublic opinion.

NARRATIVE The nation is, I cruse, by chis time aware, and the advisers of chose measures are evidently not ignorant, chat the lace Aces, by which our constitutional liberties have been so alarmingly invaded, are totally inadequate to the suppression of chose principles of Truth and Political Justice, which animate the soul and direct the labours of the sincere Reformer. Political Associations are, in reality, rather organized than prohibited. More than forty-nine persons muse not, it is true, meet together for the discussion of grievances in church and state, or to petition for the repeal of any obnoxious laws, without the controlling censorship of a Magistrate: but every village, town, and street, may have its society of forty-nine; and these may legally confederate together, by deputations, committees, and sub-committees; and if the delegations are but so organized and divided, chat more than the specific number do not meet together, there is no legal impediment to prevent the whole nation from being combined in one grand political Association, or Corresponding Society, from the Orkneys to the Thames, from the Cliffs ofDover to the Land's End, in Cornwall. Whether the exigencies, or the spirit of the nation, will produce so grand an affiliation, time must reveal; but I will venture to pronounce, chat it would not be the less powerful for being divided into sections of forty-nine. In the mean time it behoves us, in all states of society, and especially in the present, to consider what are the means of public instruction; and if much is taken away from us, to make a diligent application of whatever may still remain. In chis respect, also, we shall find chat some very valuable provinces of political information still lay open before us; and chat if the minds of our fellow Citizens do not continue to be improved in the principles of Legislation, and a knowledge of the arcs and corruptions of Governments, it muse be from

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the want of courage on the one hand, and curiosity on the other, and not from any moral impracticability or legal prevention. Reason may be said, it is true, to be curbed and restricted in her career; but the speed of the generous coarser is rather urged than impeded by the bitt; and perhaps the philosopher would rather rejoice than repine at being compelled to abandon personality for principle, local prejudices for universal philanthropy, and temporary feelings for the steady and immutable dictates of Nature: and such is, in some degree, the case with the moral and political instructor, who prohibited from speculating on the events and practices of his own time and country, is necessitated to pursue his principle through the regions of ancient and foreign history. The question is then no longer of Pitt or Fox, of Paine or Brunswick; 2 but of right or wrong, just or unjust, wise or unwise. Partialities and Resentments lose their force; the mists of passion are dissipated, and the temple of truth is seen through a clearer atmosphere. Such are the circumstances under which we are placed by the new Acts, 3 with respect to oral investigation. Every man who will take the trouble to make himself acquainted with ancient or foreign history, may discuss, with the utmost freedom, every political principle, and every question connected with the good government and permanent happiness of the human race. He must not apply his arguments, it is true, to this particular country, nor illustrate them by the flying reports and occurrences of the day; but ancient history will abundantly furnish him with illustrations, much more interesting to the strong and noble feelings of the heart; and if the Orator is at all adroit in the management of his subject, he will find reason to exult in the many and grand advantages for the display of genuine and impassioned eloquence, which historical discussion possesses over the local topics to which our public speakers have hitherto confined their attention. In conformity with these reflections, the bills had no sooner passed, than I determined to resume my station in the tribune, and having, in my 'Prospectus of a Course of Lectures', &c. shown the legality of such an expedient, to illustrate by example, the doctrine I had laid down, and once more to break through the charm of timid silence, which the wizard arm ofministerial terror had imposed upon the nation. To me, indeed, if I may be allowed to say so, this experiment particularly belonged. In the great struggle of Freedom against power, every man should chuse his particular province, and fight his particular battle: and, though he should at all times be ready to render assistance wherever it may be required, he should take especial care that his own post is not undefended. The province in which my tastes, my habits, and the circumstances under which I have been placed, seem to have enabled me to be most usefully employed, is the vindication of the sacred LIBERTY OF SPEECH: and if I am disposed to indulge the proud boast of having twice, with unas-

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sisted effort, recovered this important station, when apparently subjected and destroyed by municipal intrigue, and ministerial usurpation, it may abate the edge ofenvy to recollect the dangers, the difficulties, and the heart-aches with which my laurels have been reaped, and still must be maintained. There was another reason, also, which particularly called upon me on this occasion. It was evident from the tenor of the Bills alluded to, and from the gross and slanderous misrepresentations of my conduct and sentiments reiterated during the discussion, from the treasury bench, and by the treasury scribblers, that a principal object with the first advisers of these measures was to stop my tongue entirely, and consign me to ignominious silence, with a load ofobloquy upon my offending head. It was my duty, therefore, as much as possible, to prevent the liberties of my country from being wounded through my sides; and, ifI must, indeed, be silenced, to drive those men who are afraid of the truths I utter, to avow at once their object and their fears, by enacting, in direct terms, 'that John Thelwall shall open his mouth in public no more'. Till they have been thus explicit, I trust I shall find means to propagate my principles: for I feel an honest confidence, that my principles are such, as not even the present administration would venture at once fairly to state and openly to condemn. They are principles, indeed, which corruption must, of necessity dread, but which corruption does not dare to publish to the world, in prohibitory Laws and Parliamentary Debates: for such is the moral beauty of truth, that she need but be seen in her native simplicity, to be admired by all but those who have an interest in upholding deformity, vice, and imposture. Such is the reason why the apparently unbounded power of the ruling faction has so frequently been impotent in its resentments: for what they wished to destroy, it was impossible to condemn; and being obliged to depend upon the bugbears of misrepresentation, they have been bewildered among the monsters themselves created; and, striking at their own pageants, what wonder if their blows have not reached their intended victims. The nature of the Course of Lectures I determined to deliver under this new arrangement, was sufficiently explained in the 'Prospectus' before referred to, and its legality was so evident that, though I never dissembled that my object was to instruct my hearers in the principles of Government, and the nature of political institution, the Magistrates, the Crown Lawyers, and the Government Reporters acquiesced, and left me to the uninterrupted pursuit of my plan; and, if report says true, the great Divan itself, after solemn deliberation, admitted that my Law was found, and my interpretation of the statute incontrovertible. Having established my point in London, I was persuaded to turn my eyes towards the provinces, and accepted an invitation to the city of Norwich, 4 where a course of two and twenty lectures has been delivered to an audience,

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composed of all the different classes of society, and, with a degree of impression, surpassing any thing I have ever witnessed before, in any place, or upon any occasion. My stay in this City was also endeared by the intercourse of a most agreeable and intelligent circle of society, and the flattering conviction that the prejudices so artfully excited against me, were regularly diminished in proportion as my real sentiments and feelings became more generally known. In the mean time I was not indifferent to the general interests of liberty, and the importance ofpolitical associations in particular, in the surrounding neighbourhoods; and I neglected no opportunity that offered of meeting any legal number of the friends of freedom, for the purpose of explaining the restrictions and provisions of the late acts, and pointing out to them under what circumstances they might still associate, and what means were still left for the promotion of the great work of Parliamentary Reform. With a view to this object I paid a short visit to Yarmouth, where two parties were formed, one in the morning and the other in the afternoon, for the purpose ofmeeting me; each of them consisting of less thanfifty persons. At the latter of these some people were present, who have been generally ranked with what is called the moderate party: nor were these the characters least pleased with the sentiments I endeavoured to enforce. In short, they were men of real moderation; and the circumstance is not, therefore, surprising: for there is not a term in the English language which has been more wickedly abused than this. Moderation of temper is certainly a most excellent quality, and no man can be a friend to human liberty, who does not preserve it with benevolent solicitude; but moderation of principle is sheer nonsense: or, more properly speaking, rank hypocrisy. In plain fact, every principle is either right or wrong; and between right and wrong there is no mid-way, no moderation! But what is most remarkable is that the moderes in principle are, in general, most sanguinary in their sentiments, as to the means of attaining their object. This is not extraordinary, for men, not measures, are their concern; and those who wish only for a change of parties, may make their way through the blood of a rival faction; but the man of principle knows, that destroying the oppressor does not remove the oppression; and that revenge is not reform. Add to which, that the man who is well-grounded in a consistent principle, feels a necessary confidence in the omnipotency of reason, and has nothing to wish but that argument should have full scope. The mere word moderation has, however, an inseparable charm, and the epithet 'violent' so frequently, though unjustly, applied to the thorough-paced reformer, has, undoubtedly, alienated many a sincere and worthy man from the party of truth. In proportion as we come to be better understood, these delusions will be dissipated, and it will be found who are the true friends of moderation - the genuine advocates of peace, good order, and humanity. In consequence of the impression produced by this

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visit, I received a second invitation to Yarmouth, and had now the satisfaction to meet several persons, who had not before mingled in our conversations; and who, from their characters, connections, and influence in the town, were looked up to with respect by the inhabitants in general. Two or three evenings having been spent in this private manner, a mingled feeling of esteem and indignation, as in several other instances that I might mention, was excited by the contrast exhibired between the sentiments and feelings evinced in my conversation, and those which a base and interested misrepresentation has usually ascribed to persons of our way of thinking, and to myself in particular; and a desire was pretty generally expressed that my sentiments should be more publicly delivered. I accordingly consented to change my subject, from English to Roman history, and to illustrate my principles to any number of persons that should chuse to assemble; the persons above alluded to being of opinion, that there was no probability of any attempt towards disturbance, among the people ofthe town; and who could suspect that in a place, protected by two regiments of soldiers, a corporation of grave magistrates, and a regular police, a body of sailors could have deputed from on board the ships of war in the roads for the purposes of tumult and outrage? It will be naturally supposed, that I was in some degree gratified to find that curiosity was rather inflamed, than satiated by this compliance; and that I readily assented to the proposition with which it was followed, that I should shortly return to the town, and deliver a Course ofLectures on Classical History there: especially when this invitation was accompanied with the offer of a warehouse belonging to one of the principal merchants in the place, and a liberal subscription to fit it up for my accommodation. To have refused such an invitation, would have been inconsistent with the zeal I have always professed for the spread ofinformation. Several ofmy friends at Norwich, it is true, were apprehensive that some personal violence would be attempted by the rancourous aristocrats, who it was suspected, might find in the vessels laying in the roads, fit instruments of their diabolical vengeance. I was, however, disposed to believe, that such attempts surpassed the profligacy of the British character; and, taking only the precaution of being constantly armed, I obeyed the summons ofduty, and repaired to a place, where every circumstance had convinced me, that if there was some danger to be encountered, there was much good to be done. The state of society in Yarmouth is indeed one, in which great advantage to the cause ofliberty is to be expected from any undertaking that may tend to provoke discussion. There is, indeed, as might be expected, a great deal of torpor and lethargy among the people; but there is at the same time less vulgarity and brutal licentiousness than I have ever seen before in any sea-port town. (It is to be remarked, however, that it is but very lately that ships of war have

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been in the habit oflaying in the roads.) There is, also, a sort of comparative equality in the condition of the inhabitants. The links of the progressive chain of society are not yet broken. There are no towering and gigantic fortunes on the one hand, and but little want and abject wretchedness on the other; and there is a good body of decent substantial families filling up the intermediate space between the merchants and the mechanics. Into such a state of society, particular circumstances may occasion it to be long before a knowledge ofjust and liberal principles finds its way; but when such principles are once adopted, through a society so constituted they must of course be rapidly diffused. The only circumstance unfavourable to the cultivation of just notions of liberty, is the influence of the corporation. This institution is, of course, an aristocratic confederacy of alarmers and alarmists: and, what is still worse, from the character and situation of its members, it is of necessity dependent upon the faction in power, and has, therefore, a two -fold interest in terrifying the people from the pursuit of knowledge by the cabalistic yell of 'Innovation and Anarchy!'* Their influence is, however, confined to the artificial advantages of their corporate character. As individuals, they have little of that sway or interest which arises either from capacity, education, personal attachment, or even property; and the families most beloved for their good qualities, most esteemed for their understandings, and most powerful by the extent of their commerce and connections, are in actual opposition to this constituted club, and obnoxious to them on account of the more liberal system of politics, to which they have uniformly leaned. In short, such is the state of society in Yarmouth, that the principles of liberty need only to be understood, and they must be immediately adopted: for they are in perfect unison with the interests ofalmost every individual in the town, their reverences of the church, and their worships of the corporation alone excepted. Such was the view ofthe subject which occasioned me to accept with eagerness the invitation, and even to give Yarmouth the preference over some other more populous places to which I had been also invited; especially, as at that time, it being the height of the watering season, and the town full of company, from a variety of different quarters, I thought it probable that the principles I was anxious to promulgate might spread through a wider circle from such a centre, than even in a place where a larger audience might be expected: a calculation, in which the attendance of the three first evenings proved I was not erroneous. To Yarmouth, accordingly, I again repaired; and my Lectures were announced by the publication of the following bill, which was posted in the most conspicuous parts of Town, and distributed among the inhabitants; *

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Selected Political Writings ofJohn Thelwa/l Volume 1 'Lectures on Classical History, illustrative ofthe Principles ofLegislation andPractices of Governments; in strict conformity with Mr. Pitt's Convention Act. 'At the Lecture Room, on the Tf'alls, in the Southend, Yarmouth, on Monday, August 15, 1796, john Thelwall will commence a Course ofsix Lectures on the History, PoliticalInstitutions, and Revolutions ofRome. 'The Lectures will be delivered on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.' - &c.

That considerable animosity was excited in the breasts of the high-toned aristocratic party, by the publication of this bill I have no doubt: for I have been too deeply injured by the oppressors, ever to expect to be forgiven; and the tools of corruption need but half an eye to discover that it is impossible to descant with freedom upon any subject of history, or of morals, without unveiling the system of fraud and usurpation, and, consequently, endangering their trade. But whatever might be their animosity, it is evident that their party in the town was very small; for I walked about the streets in the most public manner, without the least insult, both before and afi:er the Lectures were commenced; and even afi:er the outrage at the Lecture Room had been committed. In short, it was evident that among the town's-people there was not the least disposition to tumult; and that ifwe could have procured a Room in the center, or the inland part of the Town, it would have been impossible for all the priests and excisemen in the place to have occasioned any disturbance or interruption. But our situation towards the sea, subjected us to many inconveniences and insults; and at last to most atrocious outrage. A plot ofmost unparalleled atrocity was formed, against which it was impossible for us to be guarded; because it was impossible for us to suspect, on the one hand, that a project of such mad and diabolical wickedness could have entered into the heads of any set of men; or, on the other, that the police of any civilized town could have suffered it to be carried into execution. Where, or with whom, the plan first originated, or to what extent of wickedness it was intended to be carried, is not yet accurately known. That it was intended to carry me offis certain: but whether I was to have been murdered, or only transported to Siberia, further investigation must ascertain. To the Commander of one of the Ships ofWar, in the Roads, the plot is already traced; and it is now known that he had it in agitation for several days; that he invited some military Officers to join in the undertaking; and that upon their refusal, he determined to execute it himself. This ruffian, Captain Roberts, of L'Espiegle, (whom I have since seen, and who had the audacity, in the hearing of some persons in company with me, to threaten a repetition of the outrage) stands positively charged with making a formal harangue to his crew, issuing his orders for the attack, sending offhis men in the ship's boats, to the number offive or six and thirty, (who were joined by others on the shore; the whole gang consisting, as has been ascertained, of about ninety persons) giving them directions with

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respect to furnishing themselves with bludgeons and other weapons for the purpose, and sending some of the inferior officers to command them. The banditti, thus armed, thus authorised, and thus marshalled (after having had each as much brandy as he would drink,) set forward upon this honourable expedition, chasing and chopping at every person in their way. One man in particular, who was standing near the door, narrowly escaped with his life: for one of the officers chopped at his throat with a cutlass, and cut through the knots and folds ofa silk handkerchiefwhich was tied about his neck. They then attacked the door in a body, knocked down the door keepers, and rushed into the room. The scene that ensued has been very accurately described in the Courier ofthe ensuing Monday; and as I shall have occasion hereafter to refer to that narrative, I shall here insert it entire.

From the Courier, Monday, August, 22, 1796 Yarmouth. - 'On Friday evening last was exhibited at this place, a scene of tumult and sanguinary wickedness, the most daring and atrocious which has ever disgraced even the present ;rra of ferocity and terror, without excepting even the riots of Birmingham and Manchester. Hitherto the utmost fury of a Church and King mob had never gone further than the demolition of a few houses, and a threat against the life of some obnoxious individual. To attempt the indiscriminate massacre of a peaceful assembly ofupwards of two hundred people, men, women and children, who were violating no law, and disturbing no man's comforts or possessions, would have called a blush upon the cheek even of the Septembrizers of France. 5 If there is any such thing as justice left in the country, this affair must be made a subject of public inquiry; and if the assassins and conspirators are not brought to condign punishment, to talk any more of the laws and liberties of Britons, will be adding insult to oppression. 'The history of the transaction is as follows: Thelwall, who has been for some time delivering a Course of Lectures on Classical History, and particularly on the Laws and Revolutions of Rome, at Norwich, received a strong invitation from several of the principal inhabitants of Yarmouth, to repeat a part ofthem, at least, in that town. Mr. Hurry, one of the first merchants in the place, having lent one of his warehouses for the purpose, and several gentlemen having entered into a subscription to fit it up in a proper way, Thelwall accepted the invitation. 'On the first and second nights, which were on Monday and Wednesday last, a party was formed, consisting of two or three Clergymen, some Officers of the Militia (most of them disguised in coloured clothes,) a fellow employed to look after the Emigrants, and a hanger-on or two (place expectants) of Government, who attempted to breed disturbance in the Lecture Room, while a parcel of boys without, instigated by a Naval Officer, who offered them five

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guineas if they would pull down the house, co-operated with the detachment within, by all the noise and uproar they were capable of making. The disturbers, however, were put to complete confusion, by the firmness, general concord, and discreet good-humour of the company, and were, at the same time, made the objects ofso much ridicule and pastime, chat they were obliged to abandon chis mode of attack: and at the same time, a new entrance being made through an adjacent building, the noise of the people without was effectually excluded. The third night arrived, and a tremendous night it was. Upwards of200 auditors, of both sexes, and of all ages, mostly very genteel people, assembled, and the Lecture proceeded for some time with the utmost tranquility. 'Of all who had been remarked for their interruptions and expressions of disapprobation on the former evening, Cammon Money6 was the only person present; who, when the lecture had been going on for about a quarter of an hour, took out his watch to observe the time, and immediately departed, not without some rude expressions of insult and contempt to the person who kept the door. About five minutes afi:er chis a great disturbance was heard at the door, and in rushed a desperate bandied of about ninety sailors, as their numbers stand ascertained by regular depositions. These desperadoes, drafi:ed from the different ships of war in the roads, and armed with bludgeons and cutlasses, afi:er having cue and knocked down the persons who guarded the door, and even the mere gazers who happened co be loitering about, poured in among the audience with the most wild ferocity, dealing their blows indiscriminately upon man, woman and child, who, totally unprepared for resistance, were knocked down across the benches with terrible wounds and bruises; and a scene of fashion, gaiety, and pleasure was instantly metamorphosed into one of carnage and horror, of fractured heads, and garments covered over with blood. A general massacre seemed to be inevitable; no means either of defence or escape presented themselves; and the ruffians, not satisfied with knocking people down, reiterated their blows as they lay prostrate at their feet. 'In the midst of chis scuffie, the lights were knocked out by some of the desperadoes; and darkness and horror, shrieks and groans, clashing ofweapons and resounding blows filled the room. 'Ac length some people without, tore open a pair of large folding doors, which had been formerly the only entrance to the room, but which had been fastened up chat night, for the reasons before-mentioned, and the people began to rush out through the bludgeons of the murderers, some of whom pursued chem to the walls, scattering and knocking chem down; while others, recollecting at last, the principal object of their fury, began to cry out, 'Where's the parson? damn him, where's the parson?' The Lecturer, however, had taken the opportunity of the bustle at the great door, which opened cowards the sea, co rush out at the small door, by which the ruffians had entered. Bue the danger

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was not yet over. Six or seven of the ruffians were keeping watch at the door, and by these he was immediately seized, but it is remarkable, that the only violence they shewed towards their prisoner, was that ofgrappling very hard to prevent his escape, to effect which he struggled very resolutely. 'Two ofthe fellows, it seems, immediately went round to their companions, to inform them that the victim was seized; but in the mean time some of the town's-people collecting, and recognizing him, exclaimed, "It is Thelwall, - let us rescue him!" and immediately rushing forward, knocked down the fellow who was on the right hand, and grappled with those who were on the other side, endeavouring to drag him towards the sea. At the same time, T. clapping a pistol to the head of the most resolute of them, and exclaiming, "Offer the least violence, and you're a dead man!" the banditti let go their hold, and he escaped to the house of Mr. Norton.' [Among the persons to whom I am indebted for this rescue, I am happy to particularize Mr. T. Hurry Jun. and two of the younger Mr. Palmers; and it is but a tribute of justice to say, that I never saw any thing more gallantly executed in my life. The ruffians had all of them formidable bludgeons; the persons who rescued me, few in number, were most of them entirely unarmed, and none of them provided with any thing more than a small walking stick; yet my name was no sooner pronounced, than they rushed forward, with one mind, and with an enthusiasm truly admirable, and grappling with the desperadoes, disentangled me from their gripe.] 'At length, the company being completely dispersed, the ruffians procured a light, and roaring out "God save the king", with great ardour and exultation, proceeded to plunder and destroy; and hats, shawls and great coats in abundance, were carried on board the frigates from which they had been detached, together with general articles of value, which lay stowed up in a detached part of the warehouse. As for the books from which the lecture was delivered, and which consisted of the "Roman Antiquities of Dionysius of Halicarnassus", "Plutarch's Lives", and Moyle's Treatise on "the Lacedemonian Government";7 they were torn into a thousand pieces by these new inquisitors of literature and public instruction. 'The first persons who escaped from this long conflict, applied immediately to the mayor, then at the assembly, for assistance to suppress the riot; but, instead of being attended to, one of them was threatened himself with commitment, and one of the persons in company with this chief magistrate indecently exclaimed, and met with no rebuke, that "it served the people right; and as for the damned lecturer, he hoped they would beat him to pieces". At length the mayor slightly answered to one of the applications that was made - "Well, lord Spencer8 may send the soldiers if he pleases". But as it is well

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known, chat the military cannot act without the presence of the magistrate, lord Spencer was obliged co decline making use of chis verbal permission. 'At length, the rioters having effectually gratified their vengeance against the Lecture Room, began to mark out private houses for destruction, and their shouts announced the very house in which the Lecturer had sought for refuge as the next object of destruction. Their threats, however, were not put into immediate execution; and at half past nine o'clock, (an hour and a half later than usual) the signal guns, which call all hands on board, relieved the town from the agitation in which it had been kept for near two hours. 'It is believed chat in the darkness and confusion, the ruffians actually murdered one of their own gang, and carried him just expiring on board. Bue except chis be true, no actual murder was committed, though one fine youth of about fourteen, an only child of one of the inhabitants, has received contusions on the head, of which, from all present symptoms, it is concluded he must certainly die. [This is a mistake, I believe; he is not the son of an inhabitant; but a visitor in the town. In ocher respects the statement is but too accurate; and so alarming are the symptoms, chat I understand, the physician who attends him has declared, chat he will not pronounce him out of danger these six weeks.] 'Forty-one persons (I believe it ought to have been between thirty and forty) were very materially wounded; among whom are Christopher Atkinson, Esq., M. P- Hollocks, Esq. of Cambridge, one of the officers of the militia, and the collector of the customs at chis place; many ochers, both men and women, have received lighter injuries. Bue, notwithstanding the explicit depositions which have been made against some of the rioters, the mayor has refused to grant warrants against chem. 'The inhabitants have had several meetings. It is resolved to continue and countenance the Lectures, which will be repeated chis evening. We may therefore expect to hear more from Yarmouth; but we hope for intelligence of a more peaceable kind.' This account is so far from being exaggerated, chat it has been more than substantiated by the particular depositions of many credible witnesses: but as the family of the Hurrys and other respectable inhabitants of the town, have taken up the affair with great spirit, and determine to make it a subject oflegal enquiry, I forbear, in delicacy to the parties, to enter further into the minutiae, till the Courts ofLaw have done their office. The affair, however, was, as might be expected, made the subject of a sort ofpaper war. The truth, as is generally the case, was too disgraceful to the aristocratic party to be endured; and the most slanderous falshoods were invented to cover a part of the infamy; and chat the reader may be the better enabled co form an impartial judgment, I shall insert these accounts in my pamphlet

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also; referring him for further confirmation of the preceding statement, to the Cambridge Intelligencer, and the Bury and Norwich Post. The editor ofwhich latter paper was himself a spectator of the whole transaction. It is, however, necessary for me first to observe, that it was immediately resolved by the persons who had particularly countenanced the lectures, not to abandon them in consequence of this outrage. They had observed nothing in the sentiments I delivered, or the subjects I investigated, hostile to the peace or morals ofsociety; and they justly decided, that to be driven by bludgeons and cutlasses from enquiries, which neither the laws of society nor those of virtue prohibited, would be to surrender even the little liberty which is left us, and advertise to the world, that our oppressors have nothing to do but to cudgel us, and we shall of course submit. We therefore determined to go on; and one of the inhabitants of the town (a man whose virtues and intrepidity, I will venture to prophecy, will rescue his name from oblivion, and one day confer essential benefits upon society) published the following address. 'TO THE INHABITANTS OF YARMOUTH, 'FELLOW-TOWNSMEN, 'While force is used for argument, and brutality for reason, despotism may dictate, and tyrants may exult: but when passion is exhausted, and prejudice put away, the still, small voice of conscience will be heard, and atrocity be regarded with the horror it deserves. The outrage against justice, against law, society, and humanity, lately perpetrated, at THELWALL'S LECTURE, against our peaceable and well-disposed Fellow-Town's-men, against their unoffending wives, sisters, and children, will be told with execration, and long remembered with abhorrence; and its authors (all ofwhom the unveiling hand oftime will exhibit to public odium) will be classed amongst the most despicable and cowardly assassins of the eighteenth century. While posterity read the account, they will marvel, that some human beings should be so immersed in wickedness, as to attempt to vindicate, much less applaud the transaction. Yet, Fellow-Town's-men, strange, inconsistent, and brutal as it may appear, there are persons, even in this town, who applaud an action, which Robespierre 9 himself would have blushed to have planned! A band of ruffians, armed with cutlasses, bludgeons, pipestaves, and other destroying weapons, knocked down the door-keeper, and burst into a room, in which were two hundred persons peaceably and legally assembled, and cut, beat down, and maimed men, women, and children promiscuously, having, on their entrance, extinguished the lights, that neither the softness of sex, the feebleness of age, nor the innocence of childhood might check their ferocity: and only the bursting of the great doors prevented that assassination in the dark, which their employers and instigators even now contemplate with malignant satisfaction. Happy do I feel myself to

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announce, chat afi:er the strictest enquiry, I find not one of the company was murdered; though many are so much injured, as to render their recovery a work of time. It will, doubtless, afford satisfaction to many, to let chem know the affair is in a train oflegal investigation. Look up, then, with confidence, to a period, not very distant, when ignorance and villainy shall cease to triumph over legality and innocence; and "when the Wicked shall go away into Punishment, but the stedfast in Heart shall be made glad". A TOWNSMAN. 'August 22, 1796. 'THELWALL'S friends have requested him to go on with his Lectures: in consequence of which, he will begin at half-past five o'clock chis evening, and continue chem on Wednesday and Friday next, at the same hour. It is wished the frequenters of the lectures may attend early, chat by uniting firmness and discretion, the triumph ofpeaceful reason over brutal violence may be effectually established'. The reader may, indeed, well be surprised to hear, chat any human being should applaud such a transaction; but his wonder will increase when he hears, chat some of these applauders were to be found among the members of the corporation themselves, and chat ochers were sanctified with the holy fables of religion - the meek preachers of the gospel of peace, forbearance and mild morality. Nay, what is most curious, one gentleman of the former description cook upon himself co be loud in reprobation of one of the town's people, for "having dared (for the preservation of his own life) twice to present a pistol at a king's officer", whose cutlass was uplifted for his destruction! So chat according to these loyal gentlemen, if the men who are hired with the people's money to defend the country, chuse to turn their swords like murderous assassins, against the breasts of chose who feed chem, and the magistrates do not choose to interfere for our preservation, we are to submit without resistance to our fate - to stretch forth our unresisting necks, and exclaim, with loyal humility, "Cut our throats, good sirs, we pray you, if it suits your pleasure; for you are King's Officers, and licensed therefore to murder us poor subjects when you choose". The bill I have above quoted produced the following answer: which, if report says true, was produced by the inventive genius of a reverend divine of Norwich. I shall only observe, chat the whole of the narrative is such a monstrous string of falshoods, as nobody but a priest could have put together: and the reader will observe, chat the narrator himself confesses (so accurate, so certain is his intelligence) chat he does not know whether the sailor, whom he has conjured up, called out for a loyal song, or indulged himself in hissing.

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'TO THE INHABITANTS OF GREAT YARMOUTH. 'FELLOW-SUBJECTS, A virulent hand-bill having just made its appearance, in which the voice ofpassion seems to prevail over the dictates of reason, permit one of your sincere friends, though not one of your Fellow-Town's-men, to warn you against the injurious informations which it contains. Were you to listen to the flourishes of oratory, and the ravings of declamation, you would be taught to believe that a horrid plot had been formed to assassinate two hundred of the inhabitants of this town, who were legally and peaceably assembled in attendance on an innocent lecture. How far any assemblies can properly be termed legal and peaceable, where, as it is well known, in defiance, or in evasion of the laws of the realm, such doctrines are disseminated as have a manifest tendency to undermine the established government, and consequently to unsheath the sword of domestic discord, I leave it to the consciences of those who attend them to determine. That these doctrines may be concealed under the mask ofhypocrisy, is so far from diminishing, that it aggravates their criminality, and every loyal subject sees with sorrow and indignation, that those pernicious opinions on Politics and Religion, which have ruined a neighbouring kingdom, carried fire and slaughter through the world, and produced a train of evils, from the recital of which humanity recoils with abhorrence, are still preached in this happy country, not indeed with the manly hardiness ofopen effrontery, but under the specious veil of classical allusion - a veil, by which folly and ignorance alone can be deceived. Such is the light in which Mr. THELWALL and his Lectures are generally considered by the many loyal inhabitants of this place. A person, whose conduct has rendered him so notorious, and whose encomiums on the present government of France, have led some people to suppose him a pensioner of that country, makes his appearance in this peaceable and loyal town, and advertises his Lectures on "The Practices of Governments." What is the natural result of such a proceeding? A glow of loyal and virtuous indignation is excited. At one ofhis Lectures, a sailor calls out for "God save the King!" or hisses what he conceives to be seditious language. He is insulted and threatened to be turned out. He makes his retreat in the best manner he is able, and moved, perhaps, partly by personal and partly by public motives, he returns to his comrades, and forms a party for the purpose, I believe, ofseizing the Orator, and conveying him aboard a Man of T¼r. The party is formed, and at his next Lecture, they rush into the room, and make their way towards the Preacher. False to the heroism he inculcates, he immediately sinks down from his pulpit, and himself extinguishes the only lights in the room, thus saving his own person, and exposing those of his audience. A tumult then ensues, in which several people are wounded, and the accommodations of the Lecture-Room overturned. Many

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people have since regretted, that instead ofattacking the audience, the crew had not succeeded in theirfirst design ofsecuring the Lecturer, and pressing him, for a time at least, into the service of his king. This account, I have reason to believe, is more accurate than any that has yet been given of a transaction, which has been represented (perhaps by one of the sufferers) in so atrocious a light. 'Now, God forbid! That any man should attempt to justify an outrage against the laws of his country, or to rejoice in the sufferings of innocence.

[Compare this with the regret expressed above. - Phaugh! How I scent the holyfox in this unsavory odour ofhypocrisy!]

Such a conduct would, indeed, be but too similar to those French models, which Democracy has held up to our imitation. But it is not inconsistent with reason or charity to maintain, that whatever riots take place at Lectures, the general spirit of which is so well understood, the Lecturer himself, and those who sanction his harangues, are to be considered as their primary cause. They draw down that vengeance on their heads, to which, however unjustifiable in its mode, a more loyal conduct could not possibly have exposed them.

[Precious sophist! He who dares to exercise his rights, contrary to the inclinations ofhis oppressors, is accountablefor all the wickedness which those oppressors, in the rancour oftheir hearts, may thinkfit to perpetrate against him!] 'This, my friends, is an important period. It is a time, in which no good subject ought to disguise the real sentiments of his heart. Let him avow them openly and firmly, but with that charity which true religion inspires. While the audacious enemy threatens without, let him guard against the insidious foe within; and let him mark those who walk contrary to the spirit of the British constitution, that he may avoid their example. Let him not, however, be alarmed. The great majority of the people of this country, are attached to their religion and their king. Democracy raises its voice among us, and endeavours to gain converts to its cause, but its proselytes are comparatively few. Would to God they were all re-converted by reason and religion, that they might express their gratitude to heaven, for the blessings they enjoy under the British monarchy, and join hand and heart in its defence against the encroachments of the common enemy. If "England to herself will prove but true", she may defy the world in arms, and preserve her constitution inviolate to the end of time. 'One advantage, my friends, may perhaps be derived from Mr. THELWALL'S visit to this town. He may be considered as the touchstone ofpolitical opinions. He draws the line between loyalty and disaffection; for I defy any of his adherents, in whom the madness of democracy has not stifled the voice of conscience, to lay their hands upon their hearts, and say, that they are the real friends to their king, and the constitution of their country.

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'With a perfect conviction of the general loyalty and good sense of this town, and with a sincere attachment to its inhabitants, I beg leave to subscribe myself,

'The determined Enemy ofSedition, 'A.nd theirfaithful Friend and Fellow-Subject.' 'A.ugust 23d, 1796. 'God save the King.'

An abridgement of this bill was inserted in the Norfolk Chronicle and the Norwich Mercury. The latter, however, had the candour readily to insert the following answer in their ensuing paper. 'TO THE EDITOR OF THE NORWICH MERCURY. SIR, It is evidently the duty of a newspaper to be a vehicle of information, and as it is the business of the conductor to state Facts as they are, according to the evidence he can collect, I take it for granted, that you will disdain to make yourself a party to defamation: and that having been betrayed into a statement in which my name is coupled with several direct falshoods, you will be eager to do me justice, by inserting my reply. With respect to the narrative in general, I shall only observe, that it is abundantly disproved by the oaths ofcredible witnesses; but with respect to that part which relates to the putting out of the lights, I think myself called upon to say, not only that I did not put them out myself, but that, if the writer of the article had ever been in the Lecture Room, he must have known, that it was impossible for me to put them out, as part of them were not only at a great distance from me, but also considerably out of arm's reach, in point of height; add to which, that the ruffian who committed this part of the outrage, has been identified by a servant ofone of the Mr. Hurrys, who has deposed that he saw him knock out the candles with his bludgeon; and that afterwards, when the great doors were burst open, (by which alone the whole company was preserved from massacre) he saw the fame fellow dealing his blows upon the women who were shrieking and endavouring to escape. JOHN THELWALL. Aug. 31, 1796. As the Norfolk Chronicle inserted both the accounts, and lefi: the reader to judge for himself between them, I did not think it necessary to take any notice of the circumstance in that paper. All that is to be required of a public print is, that it should be open to both sides of the question, in as much as relates to facts at least. But ifthe reader is fond of audacious fiction, he may find in the Star, an

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account still farther removed from truth than chat of his 'faithfulfellow subject' above inserted. Their calumnies and misrepresentations did not, however, turn me from my course. I knew chat it was my duty to persevere; and chat if I did not finish the course I had promised to deliver, I must show myself unworthy to be a champion of the cause I had espoused, and must expect to be attacked in the same brutal manner wherever I might afterwards attempt to lecture. I therefore sent a formal notice to the mayor, and continued my course to the end of the time proposed. This letter, which the reader will find inserted in the address to the people of Yarmouth, produced the following curious hand-bill. 'TO MR. JOHN THELWALL. SIR, Were you a man of the least humanity or feeling, had you really the welfare ofyour country or the good of chis town, in particular, at heart, your conduct, in the present state of affairs, would have been widely different from what it is. In preference to a continuance of your Lectures, you would, for the sake of the peace and quietness of the place, have retired with a consciousness of having acted the part of a wise and considerate man, whose eagerness to prevent tumult and disorder was far superior to the false ambition of highest applause as a public orator. Bue how do you ace on chis crying occasion? Instead of caking steps chat would have reflected honour on your understanding and sen sibility, you write a most insolent and menacing letter to the Chief Magistrate of the town, publish hand-bills, by no means calculated to appease the passions, or convince the reasons of your opponents, and rather than give up your favourite theme, savagely declare your determination of supporting your Lectures by force of arms. Humane resolution! to risk the plunging of both your country and countrymen in all horrors of bloodshed and murder. If such be the principles of a Roman orator in defence of French democracy, I thank my God, I am a poor, but loyal, ENGLISHMAN.' Yarmouth, 24th August, 1796. How far my readers will acquiesce in the reasoning ofchis 'Englishman'; and how far the conduct he recommends would have furnished matter of triumphant exultation to the loyal advocates of anarchy and massacre, I must leave chem to determine. I shall only observe, chat against me, the charge of publishing handbills was just as true as the accusation chat I put out the lights, or, as the assertion chat my letter to Sir Edmund Lacon 10 was 'insolent and menacing.' The hand-bill, signed 'a Town's-man: was neither written by me, nor by my desire. I am not a

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town's-man ofYarmouth; and I am not in the habit of assuming characters which do not belong to me. If I had written it, I should certainly have signed it with my own name; for it would have done honour to any head or heart by which it might have been dictated. But it appeared to me to be most consistent with decorum, to take no public notice of the affair till my Lectures were concluded, when, of course, I should be better able to decide as to the terms, in which it was proper for me to address the public. In conformity with this resolution, my Lectures were closed on Friday, 26 th • I quitted Yarmouth the next day, and returned to the friendly, the intelligent, the beloved society ofNorwich; whence, on the Monday following, I wrote the following Address, which has been printed and circulated in the town, where this unprecedented outrage was committed.

llnbabitant.s of !Jarmoutb!

Hitherto I have forborn to address you on the subject of the late brutal Outrage; thinking it proper to reserve my animadversions till all possibility of a repetition was passed away. - I therefore took no other notice ofthe insult which your town, your police, your persons, and the very character ofthe nation at large have received, than merely to apprize your Mayor of the contempt with which his authority had been treated by a lawless banditti, and formally to announce the continuance of my Lectures: that, if illegal, he might interrupt them by official interference; or, iflegal, be prepared to protect me and my auditors against future depredations. This intimation could not, however, escape the aspersions ofcalumny: and an anonymous writer, who slanders the nation, by assuming the signature of 'Englishman; accuses me of'writing a most insolent and menacing letter to the chief magistrage', and 'savagely declaring my determination ofsupporting my Lectures by force ofarms.' But as of this letter I have, fortunately, preserved a copy, properly attested, I shall here introduce it; that the public may not only judge how far it displays a disposition 'to plunge both my country and countrymen into all the horrors of bloodshed and murder'; but, by comparing, in this instance, the accusation with the demonstrable fact, may be enabled to determine upon the degree ofcredit due to the narratives published on the other side ofthe question. The letter is literally as follows:

'SIR, I understand it to be an established principle of British jurisprudence, that the magistracy is bound to protect the citizens in the exercise ofevery function which the legislature has not prohibited. "That which the law does not forbid, the law authorizes", is a maxim familiar to every constitutional lawyer: and that the magistrate should protect every man in the enjoyment of his lawful privileges, is evident from the very nature and institution of magistracy. Nay more, as, in civilized society, no unauthorized individual, or set of individu-

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als, is to be permitted to take the law into his own hands, you must be aware, that it is the duty of the magistrate to protect even the supposed violator of the laws from tumultuous attack and murderous violence. It cannot, however, at the time, be a secret to you, that on Friday night last a peaceful assembly of two hundred people (men, women, and children) was attacked in my Lecture Room, by a desperate banditti of about ninety persons, habited like sailors, and armed with bludgeons and cutlasses; who continued their depredations, uncontrouled, for considerably more than an hour, to the great danger of the lives of all, to the actual injury of the limbs of many, and to the considerable loss ofpersonal property. 'I think it, therefore, my duty, formally to apprize you, that, conscious of the legality of my conduct, and considering the FUTURE diligence ofthe civil power, I shall, this evening, at half past five o'clock, continue my Lectures; a prospectus of which, for your more complete satisfaction, I take the liberty of presenting to you. You will perceive, Sir, by the act ofparliament, quoted in this prospectus, that the law has made sufficient provision to secure the admission of magistrates into any place where they may suspect that any thing illegal is going on. In Westminster and in Norwich these hints have not been neglected. In both those places, the Lectures, I am here repeating, have been probed with the most scrutinizing observation: and, in both those places, their admitted legality has secured their protection. 'Trusting that, for the future, the same consequence will follow in this place, I am, Sir, your's, in due respect to the peace and good order of society, 'JOHN THELWALL', Aug. 22, 1796.

'To the right worshipful the Mayor

OfGreat Yarmouth.'

Unprincipled effrontery may call this letter insolent and menacing; and accuse me of a determination 'to plunge into the horrors of bloodshed and murder', because I did not flee from the town as soon as the arm ofviolence was upreared against me: but I trust, that the line of conduct I pursued, has proved at once my eagerness to prevent commotion, and my determination not to be scared, by kidnappers and assassins, from the exercise of those rights, of which it has not yet pleased a corrupt and tyrannical administration to deprive us. At the same time, I have lefi: the Lectures to speak for themselves, to the end, without inflammation on one hand, or concession on the other, that those who had the curiosity, the justice, or the courage to enquire or judge for themselves, might perceive how far the sentiments I promulgated, justified, in any moral sense, a

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line of conduct in my antagonists which the outraged laws ofthe country must condemn and punish. Yes, fellow-citizens, the laws must punish! I speak not in the spirit of revenge: 'vengeance is not mine'; it constitutes no part of my morality: nor shall I, for my individual part, appeal to any tribunal but that of public opinion. But if those to whom the guardianship ofthe laws is entrusted, do not make the offenders responsible for this outrage, - law, and civil justice, and government are no more; anarchy is sanctioned by magistracy itself; pillage and assassination become the order of the day; our houses are no sanctuaries; our persons have no security; every man is warned that the dagger is at his throat, and that he must be prepared, as in times of most savage barbarism, by personal force to defend himself against personal violence. Think not this language too strong for the occasion: the confessions of the vindicators of this outrage justify it to its utmost syllable. For my own part, I affirm, that the account, inserted in the Courier of Monday last, is correct and faithful; and I believe no man of credit or respectability will sign his name to a contradiction of any circumstance there affirmed - unless, indeed, upon accurate examination, the persons, seriously hurt, should prove to be rather more or less than the precise number specified. But suppose, for a moment, that the handbill, published August the 23d, - signed 'The determined Enemy of Sedition', &c. an abridgement of which has since found its way into the Norwich Mercury - instead of being, as it is, an impudent farrago of designing and atrocious falsehoods, were true from beginning to end, what is the result? Why, that 'Lectures on Classical History' are illegal, because the crimes of Greek and Roman tyrants (according to this curious vindicator of things as they are) bear so strong a resemblance to the virtues of our present government, that to expose the former, is a libel ('under the specious veil of classical allusion') upon the latter; and therefore it is to be 'regretted, that the crew' (a banditti of ninety armed ruffians!) 'had not succeeded in their first design of securing the lecturer, and pressing him, for a time at least, into the service of his king!' And how does this 'faithful subject', as he calls himself, know what was the 'first design' of this banditti? Is he principal, accomplice, or confidential counsellor in this desperate project to kidnap, transport, perhaps murder, an individual, who, if he had violated any law, might easily have been brought to justice, without making the captain of a pressgang attorney-general against him, and empanelling eighty or ninety sailors for his jury? If this advocate for kidnapping, this instigator to the repetition of atrocities, hitherto unparalleled, really feels a confidence in the facts and arguments he has advanced, let him stand forward, by name, and avow them; instead ofmuffiing himself from view, in the sable cloak of secrecy, and striking, like the ruffians he vindicates,

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in the dark. Such an avowal might lead, perhaps, to further discoveries relative to the project - so much boasted of by persons who pretend to be as well acquainted with the intentions of the banditti as himself - of impressing me, not into the service of his majesty, but of his majesty's good ally, the empress - of carrying me on board a Russian ship, and transporting me, perhaps, to Siberia 0 madness of profligate malice! - And are these the extenuations upon which our enemies have the impudence to rest their cause? They did not intend, it seems, 'to murder two hundred of the inhabitants of the town:' - they only meant, they say, to kidnap the man who had the audacity (or, as they sometimes call it, the 'hypocrisy!') to illustrate, by acts of ancient history, 'The Principles ofLegislation, and the Practices of Governments'; to drag him, with merciless violence, from every endearing tie of relative connection, bury him in a floating hell, or transport him to the inhospitable extremities of a barbarous empire; there, far from the tears of a helpless wife, and the cries of his little infants, to ponder, at leisure, upon the equalprotection, and equaljustice, ofthe boasted laws ofBritain! Germs of my love! sweet nurslings of my care! know ye the unequal destiny ye are born to? - Laws are decreed, and halters are prepared to punish you for the least offence which penury, or intemperate passion, might provoke; but your father may be seized by the rude hand of violence, and your helpless infancy be deprived of its sole support, while ye, poor little orphans! stretch forth your hands in vain, and the shameless assassins glory in their guilt - secure in the audacious plea, that they meant to murder no man but myself But no, poor innocents! ye may yet sport in happy ignorance; and when the light ofknowledge beams on your riper years, ye shall reap the harvest ofyour father's toil, and enjoy the protection of just and equal laws! In the mean time, let Britons reflect upon their situation: for not over me alone, but over the nation, the bludgeon of massacre is reared. If I could be kidnapped, or destroyed in this manner, with impunity, what individual is secure? - The cruel system of press warrants has long been decried by every humane and rational man; but, if they can thus be made instruments ofpolitical oppression and revenge, lettres de cachet, 11 and all the detestable appendages of that old despotism we have been so long labouring to restore in France, were mild, humane and moderate. - I am obnoxious to the present administration. - Nature, I thank thee that thou hast made me so! - and while they act upon their present principles, may the blood flow back to my recreant heart, may mankind loathe, and all animal existence shun me, when I cease to be obnoxious to them! - for their ambition has fallen like a pestilence on man and beast, has undone my country, has desolated Europe; and the four quarters of the globe have groaned under their domination! - But who can answer that

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he may not, ere long, become obnoxious also to the same, or to some other administration, and be dragged by their myrmidons on board an English or a Russian man of war? To assail the life of the king is only hanging, drawing, and quartering; but, according to these loyal anarchists, to fall under suspicion of satirizing the minister by historic fact or 'classical allusion', is to be instant transportation and death. To the petty falsehoods in this farrago of profligacy and folly, I shall not deign a distinct answer. Some of them contradict themselves; and others have been already contradicted by the oaths ofcredible witnesses; whose testimony, I understand, will be shortly published in a court oflaw. The stuff about my putting out the lights myselfis so contemptible, that I might rest satisfied with observing, that my crime has always been, not the extinction, but the diffusion oflight. The fact is, every individual who has ever been at the lectures knows, that it would have been impossible for me to have put out the lights, had I been so disposed; some of them being considerably out of arm's reach in point of height, and nearly at the opposite end of the room. It is the misfortune of these gentlemen not only to be destitute of all regard to truth, but of that discretion also, which might prompt them to print only such falsehoods as are not easily detected. I leave them, however, to their inventions; while I enjoy the proud confidence of having discharged my duty with firmness and sincerity. When the minister and his party thought fit, by an act of the legislature, to prohibit me from lecturing any longer 'on the laws, constitution, government, and policy of these realms', I determined to lecture for the future on the laws, constitution, government, and policy of other realms; conscious that the principles of truth may be as well illustrated by the facts of one history, as of another: nor do I see any more 'hypocrisy', or want of 'manly hardiness', in this, than there would be in continuing to wear one's shirt and breeches, when government had stripped one of one's coat and waistcoat. Unawed by the threats ofpower, unabashed by the fears or prejudices ofmy fellow citizens, I have persevered in this new path, and have proved that the empire of reason, though invaded, is not destroyed: and when, in the last paroxysm of despair, tyrannical Faction appealed to brutal Violence, disdaining alike to imitate, or yield to, the turbulence of my opponents, I have continued my course to the period I had proposed; and am now, in obedience to the calls of duty, and the invitations of friendship, preparing to repeat, in other circles, the important truths which oppressors may dread, but nations will rejoice to hear. Inhabitants of Yarmouth! lay these things to heart, and awake to the true interests of humanity! - Let those among you who attended my lectures, bear testimony to the doctrines I have delivered. The tools of corruption and the supporters ofpriestcrafi: will naturally be averse to the exposition of such facts as I have felt it my duty to select; and some persons, even of independent and

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ingenuous minds, may not be prepared to assent to all my principles; for, in the wide ocean of political inquiry, how few can steer exactly in the same track! - but the most prejudiced of my hearers cannot deny, that I have diligently inculcated the doctrines of peace, of public and private virtue, of humanity, justice, and benevolence. Liberty, I confess, is the deity of my constant adoration; because, I am convinced, that it is by Liberty alone that these principles can be promoted. Feeling this conviction, it is not the imputation of jacobinism, nor the terror of bludgeons and cutlasses, that shall drive me from my course. For defence from the latter, I must trust, as heretofore, to my presence of mind, my courage, the zeal of my friends, and my own good fortune; and as for the former, I can only repeat the sentiment, lately delivered among you, in my digression on the fate of Poland, - 'If, by Jacobinism be meant the system of blood and terror, established under the dominion ofRoberspierre, 12 there is no aristocrat in the nation, who detests Jacobinism with half the ardour which I feel and cherish: - but, if by Jacobinsm, be intended an attachment to the principles of Liberty - 0 that I had been a Pole to have died for Jacobinism, and have manured my country with my blood, when I had no longer any other means to do it service!'

JOHN THELWALL.

Norwich, Aug. 29, 1796. Such are the circumstances ofthis outrage, as far as they have yet come to light, on the one hand, or as, on the other, the legal enquiry, at this time pending, renders it proper to descend into particulars. A great body of evidence is collected, bringing home many of the facts to some of the actors, and involving others in very strong suspicion: but this I leave to its proper place, and dwell only upon such circumstances as are necessary to give the public a general idea ofthe atrocity of the attack, and to clear my own character from the aspersions of ruffians, who, having been twice disappointed in their attempts to murder myself, in the desperation of their malice, endeavour to assassinate my fame. I trust, however, that both my life and my reputation will weather the storm of their persecutions; but certainly, the latter shall never be sullied, nor the former preserved, by a base desertion of the principles I have espoused, or the voluntary neglect of any opportunity of tearing off the mask of state hypocrisy, and exposing the horrors of tyranny and corruption. And O ! that I could rouse the whole intellect of the country to join with me in this important labour! There is no other way to meliorate the condition of mankind. Misery is diffused through too large a circle - it is too various - too universal to be any longer relieved by the petty detail of private benevolence, or the insolent ostentation of public charities. Such palliatives belong to ages of compara-

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tive happiness: the evil must now be relieved en masse. And how is this to be effected, but by the general diffusion of information? The fabrics of oppression will fall. The cement is exhausted; and already do the disjointed stones begin to totter. Be calm - be watchful and you shall see them fall - fall by their own weight. They want not a single hand to push them down. But if mankind be not informed - if a body of just principles be not widely diffused, what scenes of desolation may arise out of the ruins. Not he then who prevents, but he who promotes, discussion, is the friend of peace and good order. It is the business ofthe philanthropist at all times, but in such times as these in particular, to instruct, because to instruct is to humanise mankind. Let us seize, then, every opportunity which new laws, and new constructions of the law, have yet lefi: open to imbue the minds of our fellow citizens with the principles of justice, social order and legislation; and, though attorney generals may impeach, and gangs of hired ruffians may assail, let us not be afraid to wield the keen sword of truth, and advance the strong shield of reason. Thus armed, we shall be superior to the malice of our enemies; and death or life be alike the assurance of victory. The worst that can befall us in the struggle is better than the best we can enjoy without it. Once only we can die: and that once is certain. But glorious shall it be for that man, and happy for his posterity, who falls, however early, in the brave struggle ofliberty, rather than prolong a wretched existence in slavery and dishonour, and wait the consuming tortures ofdisease. In this struggle of reason against oppression, I repeat it - if we discharge our duty, the victory is certain: the price with which it must be purchased, alone is doubtful. If, in the late descent ofBritish Pirates upon the British coast, I had been kidnapped or murdered, as the ruffians designed, tyranny and corruption would not have had an enemy the less. My name and my suffering, my ashes, or my empty tomb, would have been loud and eloquent in the condemnation of the present system: the tears of my widowed wife, and the cries of my little orphans, would have done more than lectures on classical history can hope to do; and outraged humanity would have shrieked through our streets for vengeance. But blood-gorged oppression, drunk with its own ambition, and stung to madness by reiterated disappointments, rushes headlong to destruction! The transaction I have narrated surpasses, it is true, in point of daring wickedness, any thing that has yet been attempted by the tools of aristocratic Anarchy; but in its principle there is nothing new. 'God save the king', it is true, has been made the war-hoop of tumult and civil commotion; but Birmingham and Manchester, and the theatres of Edinburgh and Lynn, are not yet forgotten. The hired protectors of the country have assailed the people with brutal violence, and replied to peaceful argument with the sabre and the bludgeon, while the magistrates have looked on with indifference, unwilling, or unable, to enforce the laws of order and protection. But has not Mr. Windham, 13

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from the Treasury Bench, publicly upheld the anarchic doctrine of exerting an authority beyond the law?* Our coasts have been ravaged by his Majesty's sailors, and the plunder has been carried on board his Majesty's ships, co be divided, in triumph, among the domestic invaders; But have not our houses been previously plundered by his Majesty's messengers of books, prints, and manuscripts of all descriptions from the novel and the love sonnet to the physiological dissertation? And have not the privy council refused to restore the plunder to its rightful owners ?t Oh! Justice! Justice! thy sword, it seems, is yet keen enough, when greatness would have thee strike! Bue what is become of thy boasted equal ballance! But we Reformers ought not to be protected. Laws were not made far us - but against us! We 'have nothing to do with the laws but to obey chem!' We reasoners - we members of corresponding societies, and lecturers on classical history - we are turbulent, dangerous men! - commotionists and incendiaries! - promoters of tumult! - foes to the public peace! - patience! patience! when will daring falsehood learn to blush? Have we not met in our thousands, and our tens of thousands? Yee when did we ever make the lease disturbance? Did we not meet in immense crowds at Chalk Farm, 14 and did any tumult ensue? - on the contrary, did not the minister prosecute us for high treason, for quoting passages from the state trials, and constitutional maxims from the very statute books of the realm? And was it not proved by the witnesses for the crown, themselves, chat we were advocates for peace and reason? Did we not meet again, in countless multitudes, in Sc. George's fields, at Copenhagen House, and in Mary-la-bonne fields? 15 And did we not reason like men, resolve like Britons, and depart again co our respective homes, without even the slightest commotion or disturbance? Bue when - when I say, has a church and king-mob been assembled without perpetrating crimes and atrocities? When have the tools, the hirelings, the dupes of aristocratic corruption met, * This is not the only instance, in which the language and deportment of the War Secretary have been such, as might easily be misconstrued into a commendation of anarchic violence, as the debates of the three last sessions, and the facts, recorded in Holcroft's 'Letter', &c. sufficiently prove. I will add one instance more, on the authority of two witnesses, whose testimony, in this respect, it is difficult to discredit. During the Election at Norwich, I was assaulted in an outrageous manner, in the Hall, in the presence of several magistrates, (when no persons but the corporation, and their immediate dependents were present) by a dignitary of the Church, several ruffian peace officers, and some butchers, apparently brought up stairs for the purpose. These loyal Windhamites, after knocking me twice down, despoiled me of my hat, in the scuflle, which was preserved as a precious trophy, and hung up in the Hall, like the Spolia Opima in the Temple ofJupiter Feretrius, Mr. Windham, conversing upon the affair the next day, and speaking of me with great bitterness, is said to have fixed his eye upon the hat, and pointing to the tenterhooks on which it was stretched, to have exclaimed, with great emphasis. - 'There's a Part!!!' Much has been said of Mr. W's. talents, his capacity, and his attainments: but if this anecdote be true, his mind is degraded, as his politics are detestable. Shylock, wetting his knife, presents not an image of more sanguinary depravity. t See Correspondence with the Privy Council, at the end of the first vol. of the Tribune.

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in a tenth, a hundredth part ofthe numbers above alluded to, without marking their progress with pillage, brutal violence, bloodshed, and desolation? Britons, awake to truth and reason! Learn to distinguish between the real, and pretended friends of peace and good order. Rulers of the land, awake to timely reflection! Abandon the system of terror and persecution. Let justice by more steadily administered; and no longer, by sheltering the perpetrators of loyal outrages, (for so is the word abused!) 'teach bloody instructions, which being taught, return to plague the inventors.' Bawsey, near Lynn, Sept. 7, 1796.

POSTSCRIPT Since the publication of the first edition of this pamphlet, other outrages have occurred, the disgraceful circumstances of which bear too strong an affinity to the Yarmouth Invasion. Some particulars relative to these have already been inserted in 'the Morning Post' of Tuesday, Sept. 20, and 'Cambridge Intelligencer' of Saturday, Oct. I. I think it, however, my duty, to lay before the public a more regular and detailed account of these very extraordinary events; since every thing connected with the administration of justice and preservation of the peace is certainly of some consequence to a country, which pays so dearly for the advantages ofRegular Government. The reader will judge for himself; but, for my own part, when I put together the whole history of these outrages, I cannot but imagine that I discover the connecting links of the series - I cannot but conclude that the brutal conspiracy which has degraded the character of our seamen below the level of Buccaneers and Algerine pirates, originated with higher authorities than the commanders of two or three frigates and sloops of war. The system of terror is still to be supported. Proclamations of alarm have been tried and tried, till they are as uninteresting 'as a thrice told tale'; Spies and Informers, though by no means disbanded, have lost much of their formidable importance, since the friends of liberty, by the progress of valuable information, have become more temperate and more prudent. An instrument was wanting, less hackneyed and more formidable, against which no temperance could guard, and no prudence protect: for reason is a crime which Corruption must suppress, or Corruption cannot long exist! What was to be done? Reevite associations 16 were to be succeeded by associations of bludgeon men; tumult and anarchy were to be organised in their districts; and soldiers and sailors, who ought to defend us from foreign enemies, were to be selected as instruments of internal commotion. The man who dared to investigate the principles of government, and expose the horrors of tyranny, was thus to be hunted down by two legged

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bloodhounds, and the bludgeon was to silence what no jury could be expected to condemn, nor crown lawyer could venture to impeach. Hitherto, however, the logic ofviolence has been as unsuccessful as the logic of the Scots and Mitfords;17 and as far as relates to me, at least, will rather serve to stimulate than prevent investigation: for, though I am of opinion that the friends of freedom ought neither to appeal to violence, nor wittingly to provoke it; yet if, as soon as the bludgeon is upreared, we shrink from our duty, and forego our rights, we are lost indeed; and all that remains for us, is to call upon the mountains of oppression to cover us, at once, and hide us from the perils we dare not face. The reader will perceive, that the former part of this pamphlet was written at Norwich. There under the hospitable roof of an intelligent and valuable friend (an ornament to the most liberal of the learned professions) 18 I spent a few days in happy relaxation from the fatigues and dangers of my political warfare. But every faculty of reason is now held upon too precarious a tenure, and the necessity for diffusing its influence is too pressing to suffer the sincere advocate of reform to indulge his personal feelings in long intervals of retirement, however pleasurable. Before my last excursion to Yarmouth, I had received a strong invitation to Lynn, which was repeated, during my residence there, in such terms as the man who stands pledged to the diffusion of an important principle is scarcely at liberty to neglect. The state of society was described (very truly I believe) as one in which politics were much discussed, the minds of men much balanced, and the principles of many undecided. It is in such circles that most advantage is to be expected from discussion. Let but curiosity be awake - let but the disposition to enquiry exist, and the missioner convinced of the truth of his principle, will be more eager to exert himself to an audience in which there are many unbelievers, than to a throng of zealots of his own persuasion: inasmuch as to spread conviction is ofmore importance than to be assured of applause. Under these impressions, I accepted the invitation, and once more ventured myself in a sea-port town. On Thursday, Sept. 8, I, accordingly, began a course of four lectures of Roman history, at the Globe Inn, Tuesday-Market. The admission, as in London, was a shilling; tickets being issued also, at six-pence, for the accommodation of the poorer classes. Ofthese, however, there was but comparatively a small attendance. In Lynn and its environs, the spirit ofliberty is principally confined to the middling ranks. In formation has been but sparingly diffused. The principle ofassociation has not yet been cherished among the mass; and consequently there exists among them but Ii ttle ofthat noble enthusiasm which blends together the love of order, and the contempt ofservile submission. 'The meeting was, however, both numerous and respectable; and, saving the pres-

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ence of a clerical spy, there was not a single exception to unqualified applause.'* Among the auditors were several professional men: and it is but justice to observe that the general deportment even of the clergy, was widely different from that of their brethren at Yarmouth; that they displayed not the slightest disposition to excite disturbance; and, though priests, did not forget that they were citizens: that is to say, men bound to conform to the rules of civilization and humanity. The first Lecture went off with the utmost tranquillity, both within and without. But on the second night, when an audience still more numerous and respectable was assembled, a gang of ruffians, composed in a great measure of sailorsfrom on board the merchant ships, with the press-gang at their head, created a great disturbance without; while about half a dozen ruffians belonging to the gang, broke forcibly into the room. 'A person of the name of Taylor, one of the Lynn associated loyalists', took this opportunity of calling aloud for the song of 'God save the King', and was strenuously seconded by these bravos; who, at the same time, exhibited every disposition to tumult and outrage. The most turbulent of them were therefore forced out of the room again, and driven down stairs by a part of the audience. The disturbers without now became more outrageous than ever. The windows were broken, and brickbats and large stones were thrown in volleys at the audience, who were, however, preserved from actual mischief by letting down the curtains. I was that night engaged to sup at the Globe, with a party of inhabitants of the borough, and farmers of the surrounding villages. This was communicated to the mob by a military surgeon, who had been a principal ringleader in the disturbance; and the supper room was also attacked, not with stones only, but with fire-arms also; but fortunately without any other mischief than the breaking of a few panes of glass. We did not suffer these outrages to spoil out conviviality, or to alter our conduct; and afi:er the business and the enjoyment of the evening were concluded, I returned to Bawsey, accompanied by a firm and respectable band of that independent yeomanry, which will still, I hope, prove the defence and the deliverance of Britain. Conscious of the legality of my lectures - conscious also, that if they had not been legal, the law, not the bludgeon, ought to have been employed against them, I determined, before I gave my next lecture, to write to the magistrates, give them an account of the outrages which had been committed, and demand their protection. Just as I was about to execute this resolution, I received a letter from a most valuable and reputable inhabitant, which, as the reader will perceive, rendered such application still more necessary. The chief magistrate himself was out of town. I therefore wrote the following letter. * See the account in Cambridge Intelligencer, signed W.C. and written by a respectable inhabitant of that place.

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'To the Worshipful the Deputy Mayor ofLynn Regis. 'SIR, 'I HAVE just received some very serious information, which in the absence of the Mayor, I think it my duty to lay immediately before you. 'A gentleman of great respectability in this town writes me word, "That he has this moment heard Mr. Robson, at Mr. Bagge's, declare that he knows of the crews of two ships who are determined to attend at my lecture this evening, for the express purpose of rioting". Such a declaration coming from a person whom I understand to be in the service oftwo ofthe magistrates ofyour corporation, you will, I dare say, conclude demands some notice; and I trust that you will immediately cause Mr. Robson to be interrogated as to the authority he has for making it, that, ifbaseless, the apprehensions ofthe town may be immediately dissipated; and, ifwell founded, proper means may be taken to prevent such outrage. 'I trust, Sir, (and the country at large will, I dare say, give the same credit to your loyalty) that, if there had been any thing illegal in the meetings I have called, you would have discharged, without delay, the duties of your office, and suppressed them, by the peaceful interference ofthe civilpower with which you are invested: and to the authorized interference ofmagistracy I should certainly have been docile and obedient; for loyalty (properly defined, i.e. obedience to the law) is a maxim I have always supported. I rest assured, therefore, that the same solicitude will be displayed by you in the impartial determination to suppress, or (as in the present instance must be easy) to prevent, any tumult or violence, from whatever quarter it may be mediated, and under the colour of what pretence soever it may be disguised; and that, as the meetings at my Lecture Room, at the Globe Inn, are strictly legal (as, indeed, your own conduct has tacitly confessed them to be) you will, thus warned, protect both me and my audience from ruffians and assassins, and exercise that strict and equal reciprocation of justice and protection, for which alone Government was instituted, and without which what is called Government would, indeed, be only authorized anarchy. 'Before I received the above intimation, I had determined to write to you, Sir, upon the subject of the outrages perpetrated on Saturday night; when a gang ofdisturbers surrounded the house for several hours; broke the windows of the Lecture Room, and threw large fragments of brickbats among the audience, to the hazard of their lives; and afterwards, while my friends and my selfwere at supper, in another apartment, broke the windows of that also, and even (as we had reason to believe, from the noise of the report) endeavoured to fire a gun, or horse-pistol, or some such engine of destruction, through the casements. I am sorry to add on the credit of several respectable witnesses, that these lawless rioters were instigated and encouraged by a surgeon belonging to one of the fencible corps, a body of men raised, as we are told, for the express purpose of preserving the peace, and suppressing all attempts at riot or com-

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motion. But I rely with confidence on the future diligence of the magistracy ofLynn; and trust that it is perfectly unnecessary for me to use any arguments upon the horrid consequences that may result, if the practice is once sanctioned ofletting loose armed banditti of sailors and depredators to hunt down what are called obnoxious men, like wild beasts; and thus introducing, in fact, that very system of blood and anarchy, which, detestable as it was during the revolutionary struggles of a neighbouring country, would be still more horrid, and less pardonable, in a nation, where regular, constituted authorities exist, in the plenitude of power, and in which upwards of twenty millions of taxes are annually paid for the protection and advantaged of settled government. 'Hoping that some immediate notice will be taken of this application, I remain, Sir, 'Yours, 'In equal respect for the Rights of the People, and 'The Security of the Public Peace, 'JOHN THELWALL.' 'P.S. That the temper and spirit ofmy principles may be the better understood, I take the liberty of accompanying this with a copy of my address to the inhabitants of Great Yarmouth. 'Sept. 12, 1796.' This letter was delivered by a friend into the hand of the deputy Mayor; and it is reported that a council was called upon the subject. Be that as it may, no evident precautions were taken on the part of the Corporation, for the preservation of the peace. The sailors, with their gang, were again there. It should be observed, however, that the mob seemed to have been tutored, from some quarter or other, to be more prudent in their mode of attack; for their proceedings bore much more than the appearance ofsettled conspiracy, looking out for its victim, but keeping itself out of the way of danger. That is to say, they fired no guns, flung no bricks nor paving stones, neither did they attempt to break into the room. They satisfied themselves, during the Lecture, with making a most turbulent noise without; and when the company was dispersing, they thronged round the door, examined every body that passed, and hustled some whole countenances they took it into their heads to dislike. In the mean time I retired through another door, between two of my female auditors, crossed the marker-place, and arrived in safety at the house of my friend. But the affair did not terminate here. The depredators were rather encouraged than depressed. It was notorious that the magistrates had been apprized of the intended outrage; and it was notorious, also, that they had taken no precautions to prevent it. What was the necessary conclusion in the minds of the

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rioters? That the magistrates were not unwilling that such outrages should be perpetrated, or (in the language of the writer in the Camb. Intel/.) that they regarded them as 'just and necessary riots', and that therefore the disturbers might proceed with impunity to whatever lengths they pleased. Accordingly on the last night a still more desperate attempt was made. The pressgang, with a reinforcement of sailors, several of whom were disguised in smock frocks, and a train of disorderly persons, to the amount of about two hundred, again assembled. About twenty of the most desperate of these rushed upstairs, knocked down the door-keepers, and were forcing their way into the room, thinking no doubt to emulate the exploits of their brethren at Yarmouth. But the audience manfully repelled them, and drove them down stairs again; but not till they had seized the door-keeper, whom they dragged into the street, plundered and threatened to murder: a threat which, perhaps, they would have executed if he had not, with great difficulty, escaped again into the house, and hid himselfin a closet. During the remainder of the Lecture, which was near an hour, the uproar without continued with a degree if turbulence which one would have thought impossible, in any place where the name of magistracy had been ever heard. When the Lecture was over, I requested the audience to keep together; and pledged myself, if they would submit to my advice, for the general safety. I informed them that the Magistrates had been already applied to by the landlord of the house,* and had promised to come if they were sent for; that I would accordingly send and demand their protection; and if this protection was not granted, we would put the female citizens under a guard of safety in the house, and march out in a body, prepared to defend ourselves; and see who would dare to attack us. This was unanimously approved; and a proper messenger was dispatched. In the mean time one of the auditors having been down to reconnoitre the rioters, returned into the room, and inconsiderately called out that there was no danger, and that the company might disperse in perfect safety. The circumstances which induced this premature confidence, he had himself detailed in the account so ofi:en alluded to, in the Cambridge paper. It seems that, on his appearance in the street, some ofthe rioters had attempted to hustle him; but he, behaving with great intrepidity, and not being the man they particularly wanted, they made a faint ofdispersing till he had returned into the house. The audience, relying on his report, immediately descended the stairs, while I was depositing my books and papers in a place of security, and taking the precautions necessary for my health, before I quitted the Lecture-Room for the open air. Seeing the Mayor's beadle in the passage, and hearing that the Deputy Mayor, the Mayor elect, and the officiating Town Clerk were in the house, any further precaution was deemed unnecessary, and the company dispersed. The same circumstances • They had been also applied to in a very spirited way by the author of the account in the Camb. Intel/.

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imposing the same delusion upon me, I went out, also, in company with only three friends; expecting, of course, to find a proper guard of constables around the door, to keep off the rioters, and preserve the peace. But that which ought to have been my safety was the real source of my danger. These conservators of the public peace, had brought with them not a single constable; nor did they even desire the mob to disperse; but marching into a private room, they began to amuse themselves with the terrors of the poor door-keeper, who was brought forth to them from his retreat; after which they sat themselves down in magisterial state, arranged the pens, ink, and paper before them, and gravely observed that if any body had any depositions to make, they were ready to take them. In the mean time, at the door of the room in which this farce was acting, the beadle ofthese most excellentMagistrates, was in close conversation with one of the rioters, to whom he pointed me out as I passed, crying out 'that is the man'; while the chiefclerk of Mr. Bagge, the Mayor elect (the person whose threat about the sailors is mentioned in the letter to the deputy Mayor) stood at the corner of the inn, and by his hisses pointed me out afresh to the banditti. The ruffians, thus sanctioned, pursued me and the friends between whom I walked, (in the very hearing, and under the very nose ofmagistracy) with the most outrageous turbulency, till they came to a pile ofpaving stones, which they began to shower upon us, with dreadful imprecations, and threats of murder; while at the same time, a band offifty chosen ruffians, armed for the occasion, who had waylaid me, at the corner of a lane* I had to pass, rushed from their lurking place to conclude the * With the particulars of this last-mentioned circumstance I have been made acquainted, while this sheet was at the press. I shall, in this note, present them to my readers, in the words of my correspondent, 'It appears, that on the last night of your lecturing at Lynn there certainly was an intention of assassinating you. I have heard from several persons of credit (and indeed it is the general report) that a gang of 50 fellows, armed with clubs, &c. laid wait for us in ButcherLane, which communicates with the south-east corner of the Tuesday-Market-Place; and that, as we turned the corner of the Market-Place into High-Street (being then opposite to the end of the Butcher-Lane) this gang of desperados rushed out, and joined the mob which followed us; I believe the ruffians who pressed so close behind us were a part of that despicable clan. 'Many of the Lynn aristocrats cannot forbear expressing their resentment at -, -, and myself, for accompanying you from the Lecture-Room that evening; as they intimate, that but for our being with you, the design would probably have been carried into execution. Nay; some of the most violent have not scrupled to say, that the above-mentioned friends and myself ought to be hanged for our conduct that evening:' that is to say, for one having taken me by the right arm, and another by the lefr, while the third walked behind me, to protect me from murderous violence!!! This is aristocratic moderation! This is love of order, and abhorrence ofJacobinical violence!!! And who and what were these moderate gentlemen, to whom I am indebted for these humane notion of justice and good order? W.C . in the Cam. Intel . has well described them. 'All the petty instruments of power', says he, 'were in active motion . Were it necessary, I could mention twenty corrupt expectants of ministerial bounty, who publicly wished Mr. T. to be torn to pieces: I cannot blame them. They have reason to hate me. I have treated with silent contempt an invitation to join their corps; and I have done, and am doing, all that lies within my power to destroy the system which dooms thousands to perish that they may wallow in idle luxury. The people are to be blamed; who destitute of all generous attachment to those who endeavour

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mediated tragedy. The shops were almost uniformly shut up; the night was dark, and the streets ofLynn are neither watched nor lighted; so that a banditti of two hundred ruffians, armed with bludgeons, and supplied with these missile weapons, might easily have executed their threats; and without doubt would have executed them, if one of my friends, just as the storm was at its height, had not perceived a shop-door standing open, and dragged me in. From hence we retired by a back door, into a distant street, and got home without further molestation. The blood hounds, disappointed of their prey, assailed the house where I had taken refuge. 'The door was attempted to be forced. Many of the windows were demolished; and the most horrible oaths were openly denounced by these friends of blood against the friends of reason. While the rioters were attempting to break into the shop, the master of the house came home, and although he most positively assured the ruffians that the object of the search was flown, they continued in tumult and outrage - till they were called off by those miscreants who spurred them on. While this horde of assassins were thus committing devastation on the doors and windows - a tradesman waited on the magistrates before-mentioned, with a recital of the atrocious deeds that were then transacting . - Upon which Mr. Alderman Bagge said 'that he was not compelled to be tied to Mr. Thelwall's arm'; and Mr. Alderman Freeman (the Deputy Mayor) assented to the proposition.* Another tradesman meeting them, as they were returning home from the Globe, and informing them what was going on, one of them decently replied, 'Good God, Sir, do you suppose we are to be traversing the streets all night.' 0 rare police! 0 excellent corporations!!! The next morning I set off, according to appointment, for Wisbeach, where, as I had a few friends, from some ofwhom I had received pressing invitations, I purposed stopping one night; after which it was my intention to pass a day or two, among some relations, in Lincolnshire, and then to proceed to Sheffield. t The report of this intended visit had made a great stir at Wisbeach. On one side the friends of discussion had endeavoured to hire the theatre, that they might induce me to lecture; and on the other side, the Corporationists stuck up the following Bill: to serve them, crouch at the footstool of oppression, and forget a gallant ancestry that bled for freedom. If the nation were not more than half emasculated, these filth-born reptiles, spawned in the stagnant lake of corruption, would not dare to uplift their viperous crests, and spit their poisonous venom in our way. * Cambridge Intelligencer. t At Sheffield, my engagements in London did not permit me to stay more than a few days; and as no proper room could in that time be procured, I did not lecture there. But as soon as a fit place can be provided, I shall shew both Colonel Justice Aythorpe and Mister Michael Angelo Taylor, that I neither want their licence nor aurhority to lecture on Classical History whenever, and wherever I chuse.

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'KING AND CONSTITUTION. 'Inhabitants ofWISBEACH, - A certain Preacher ofSedition is coming among you. - Beware of his doctrine - let not curiosity tempt you to be a seeming approver ofwhat every true Englishman must heartily despise. 'O Lord our God arise, scatter our Enemies, 'And make them fall; 'Confound their politics, frustrate their knavish tricks. 'On thee our hopes we fix, 'God save us all.' One of the great men of the place, also, having publicly said that he would give five guineas to any persons who would make the same disturbance there as had been made at Yarmouth, it was thought important that the friends of reason should not appear to be deterred by threats; and I accordingly consented to stay a night longer than I intended, that a Lecture might be given: and as no convenient room of sufficient size could be procured, a bowling green in the neighbourhood, the landlord of which had been deprived of his licence, was hired, and the lecture was to have been delivered early in the afternoon. The corporationists, however, tampered with the landlord, promised him a renewal of his licence, and persuaded him to refuse his premises. Great eagerness to resist this species of oppression was displayed by several of the principal inhabitants of the town; and after a variety of expedients had been devised, and found impracticable, the present resident and proprietor of the Castle (a noble mansion, built by Thurlow, the secretary of Oliver Cromwell) where I was hospitably entertained, during my residence in Wisbeach, sent a private invitation, at about four o'clock, to a few friends, and among the rest to the magistrates; and by about six, near a hundred persons were collected in the drawing room. Nearly twice as many more, pressing for admittance, were obliged to be refused, for want of room. The castle is surrounded with walls, at a considerable distance, and no hired mob could therefore actually annoy us. Just as the company were dispersing, however, a mob collected, led on by a detachment of the military with drums and fifes (bellowing out 'God save great', &c.) who insulted some of the people as they departed, and continued to alarm the town with noise and tumult and outrage till one or two o'clock in the morning; at which time they began to break windows and levy contributions on the inhabitants; calling out to them to throw down money on the drum head, and terrifying them into compliance with imprecations and the clashing of drawn swords. The magistrates were applied to at the commencement of this business, but did not interfere. The officers, however, were not equally inactive. They plied

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the riotous soldiery with drink; as did, also, the loyal gentleman who had been so forward with the offer of his five guineas. It is worthy of remark, that these outrages were evidently perpetrated entirely by hired and instigated ruffians; for both in Lynn and Wisbeach, I walked the streets in the day-time, both alone and in company, in the most public manner, receiving many marks of attention from the populace, but not one single insult. To this may be added the circumstance of the strange coalition (at Lynn) between the sailors of the merchantmen and the pressgang. At any other time, the former of these would not have dared to appear on shore, lest the latter should take them in hold: nor is it likely they would then have ventured into such company, unless authorized by some persons, whose sanction they were aware would be a sufficient protection.* Foolish men! desperate conspirators for your own destruction! when ye, who should prevent such outrages, and set examples of reverence for the laws ofpeace and order, shall have instructed these blind instruments of vengeance in the anarchic system of murderous depredation, how soon may ye (by some sudden turn of fortune, or unforeseen political disaster) become the victims of the very ruffians ye have trained! But the voice ofprophetic council is ofno avail. Rulers and people appear to be deaf alike to complaint and to exhortation. The former hurried onward by a desolating and imperious ambition, rush with insensate fury into projects and systems that lead to their own destruction; and the latter lost, in fatal lethargy, relinquish enquiry, and forego the post of duty: instead of asserting the genuine principles of political justice, and preparing their minds to profit by the ruin with which the fabrics of tyranny are threatened by the hands of their own pretended supporters, they seem disposed supinely to abandon every thing to blind fatality, and rest their hopes upon unsought changes, which though, perhaps, inevitable, can only lead, while such dispositions prevail, through woes and trials unutterable, not to genuine liberty, but to varied oppression. Where - where - if this mad violence on the one hand, and this criminal supineness on the other, continue - where is manly reason to cast the anchor of sustaining hope? - or, rather, whither to spread the sail for consolatory refuge.

Beaufort Buildings, Oct. 19'\ I796.

FINIS. * The writer of the article in the Cambridge Intelligencer, adds the following P.S. to his: 'Since writing the above, I have unquestionable evidence that Woolley, the master of the pressgang before mentioned, gave permission on the day of the riot, for many sailors to be on shore, who for fear of being pressed, kept on board their ships:

VOLUME I

Ode to Science 1.

2.

3.

4.

Anniversary of the Philomathian Society: Thelwall composed this ode in 1791 for the London Philomathian Society, a debating club that, according to the radical John Binns, allegedly allowed only twenty-one members to convene at its meetings to discuss philosophical and political issues. Besides Thelwall and Binns, its members included the philosopher William Godwin and the playwright Thomas Holcroft. See J. Binns, Recollections ofthe Life ofJohn Binns: Twenty-Nine Years in Europe and Fifty-Three in the United States, (Philadelphia, PA: John Binns, 1854), p. 45. 'Eye the blue vault': These lines are from Book VIII of Alexander Pope's translation of Homer'sllliad. The lines are as follows: As when the moon, refulgent lamp of night, O'er heaven's pure azure spreads her sacred light, When not a breath disturbs the deep serene, And not a cloud o'ercasts the solemn scene, Around her throne the vivid planets roll, And stars unnumber'd gild the glowing pole, O'er the dark trees a yellower verdure shed, And tip with silver every mountain's head: Then shine the vales, the rocks in prospect rise, A flood ofglory bursts from all the skies: The conscious swains, rejoicing in the sight, Eye the blue vault, and bless the useful light. john Huddlestone Hynne (bapt. 1742, d. 1788), writer, historian and pugnacious participant in debating societies. He was notorious for his irascibility and heated debating style. On one occasion, he roused such opposition at a debating society meeting that an ensuing physical altercation resulted in lasting damage to his tear ducts. Although hampered by a permanent leg injury (as a result of being run over by a hackney coach), in later life he would painfully make his way from his modest garret lodgings to the debating hall to the offices of his editors in Paternoster Row. Pollard: unknown, assumed to be a member of the Philomathians.

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Notes topages 13- 23

A n Essay Towards a Definition ofAnimal Vitality 1.

'From an examination andsurvey .. .living animal matter': The scope and longevity ofthis debate and to the controversies inspired by John Hunter's views, here is the observation of an anonymous reviewer for the Edinburgh R eview, made some years later in 1814: Those who are not much conversant in physiological studies, will probably be surprised to learn, that physiologists are not yet agreed as to the precise grounds even of that most familiar of all classifications - the arrangement of Bodies into Living and D ead; and that, in the whole science of vital economy, (if so we may venture to call it), there is not, at this moment, a term which is used with grater ambiguity than the term Life (p. 384). For more on this debate in subsequent decades, see the introduction and chapter one of Sharon Ruston, Shelley and Vitality (Houndmills and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005). 2. Aristotle and Plato, Plutarch, Moses, andjohn Hunter: Thelwall links John Hunter with ancients who believed that a divine, or vital, spark animated the human body. 3. a compound subj ect ... two: Quoted from Plutarch's 'On the Face in the Moon; inMoralia 943A; see the Leob Classical Library edition, Plutarch's Moralia, vol. 12, trans H. Cherniss and W . C. Hembold (Cambridge, MA : Harvard, 1957), pp. 197-9. 4 . yet St. Paul .. . the triune: l Corinthians 15:45-6. 5. For it is the life ofall.flesh: Leviticus, 17:14. 6. H arvey: W illiam H arvey (1578-1 657), det ailed the circulation of the blood in h is 1628 Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis et Sanguinis in Animalibus (An Anatomical Exercise on the Motion of the H eart and Blood in An imals). 7. blood ... solid p arts: Hunter's A Treatise on the Blood, Ieflammation, and Gun-Shot J#unds states that blood 'would seem to be the most simple body we know of, endowed with the principle of life. That the blood has life, is an opin ion I h ave st arted for above thirty years...: J. Hunter, A Treatise on the B lood, Inflammation, and Gun-Shot J#unds (London : p rinted by John Richardson, for George Nicol, 17 94, p. 77. 8. it is then in its second state, or vivification : Thelwall refers to Hunter's contention that 'the body dies without the motion of the blood upon it' and his suggestion that the lungs imbue the blood with 'the living principle' (Hunter, A Treatise on the Blood pp. 86, 91 ). 9. 'is owing to an action ofself-preservation in the blood': this is from Parkinson's shorthand note from Hunter's lecture on 'Blood; which reads: 'This disposition to coagulate is a sign of the existence of the living principle in the greatest degree and greatest power'. Parkinson (ed. ), Hunterian Reminiscences, p. 6. See note 7 above. 10. M r. H ewson: William Hewson (1739-74), anatomist, physiologist and surgeon, often referred to as 'the father ofhaematology, isolated 'fibrin; the key component in the process of blood coagulation. l I. thej unction ofthe testicle ... to the liver ofthe hen: The passage from 'Blood' in the Encyclopedia B ritannica describes how 'having taken off the testicle from a living cock, he introduced it into the belly of a living hen. Many weeks afterwards, upon injecting the liver of the hen, he injected the testicle of the cock; which had come in contact with the liver, and adhered to it.' See 'Blood' in the 'New Edition' of the Encyclopedia Brittanica, 18 vols, (1787) . 12. os humeri: the sh oulder bone. Sir Astley Cooper is credited with the first medical description ofa posterior shoulder dislocation (1822).

Notes to pages 33-9

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King Chaunticlere 1.

2.

3.

An Anecdote ... at the Capel Court Society: this tale, which Thelwall gave in a speech co the debating society, was recorded by Daniel Isaac Eaton. Although Thelwall's widow Cecil claims chat Eaton embellished or exaggerated che story, it likely captures the substance of his meaning. The protagonist of this allegory, Chaunticlere, also makes a subsequent appearance in Thelwall's 1795 'Gilpin's Ghost' (seep. 103, below) . The allegory of Chaunticlere draws loosely on the chanticleer figure found in Chaucer's 'Nun's Priest's Tale' and Caxton's 'Reynard the Fox' and perhaps a 1793 fable in the Morning Chronicle that case France as a gamecock ('The Grand Alliance', Morning Chronicle, 13 August 1793, see J. Barrell, Imagining the King's Death), p. 106. The radical publisher Daniel Isaac Eaton published 'King Chaunticlere' in the eighth number ofhis periodical Politicsfar the People, or Hog's Wash, in November 1793, for which he was subsequently indicted. After being admirably defended by John Gurney (see below) and acquitted by the jury, he changed the name ofhis shop co 'The Cock and Swine' and hung a new sign, which portrayed a cock crowing over a crowd ofpigs, co match. For more on chis see D.

I. The Trial ofDaniel Isaac Eaton,far Publishing a Supposed Libel, Intituled Politicsfar the People or, Hog's Wash (London 1794); Barrel, Imagining the King's Death and Scrivener, Seditious Allegories. Caractacus: also known as or Caractatus (c. AD IO - after AD 50), was a historical Brit-

ish chieftain. Legend has it that he led the British resistance against the Romans, was captured and imprisoned in Rome, and was then released when the Romans recognized his virtues. Many narratives circulate around chis figure, for example, the Welsh antiquarian, poet and forger Iolo Morganwgwrites of how Caractatus (whom he calls Caradog) introduced Christianity co Britain. this difference between mental and muscular action: such statements are clearly grounded in Thelwall's interest in science and physiology and specifically his materialise views. The automatic, purely physical reaction of the tortured man - the product of a long history of social conditioning - parallels the human tendency co remain passively complicit in the face of their domination.

Political Lectures I I.

POLITICAL LECTURES ... SPIES AND INFORMERS: this lecture was reprinted

2.

four times, the lase ofwhich was published together with the third edition of the second lecture on the History ofProsecutionsfar Political Opinion. Most of the changes Thelwall made were minor: generally, he tidied the text slightly, spliced longer paragraphs, and removed a few of what he referred co as intemperate expressions. There were very few substantial amendments, but where they do occur they have been noted in the footnotes below. BenJonson's Sejanus: This quote is taken from Sejanus His Fall (1603), one of Ben Jonson's two tragedies. For this play,Jonson had to answer to charges of sedition (of which he was acquitted), as authorities identified an allegorical representation ofJames I in the play's portrayal of an immoral monarch and his vice-ridden court. The play recounts the rise and fall of Lucius Aelius Seianus, the one-time favourite of, and second-in-command co, the Roman emperor Tiberius, under whose tyrannical rule the court became deeply corrupt.

176 3.

Notes to page 40

INTRODUCTORYNARRATIVE: this narrative was preceded by rhe following advertisement in rhe fourrh edition: ADVERTISEMENT.

I SEND into the world a fourrh edition ofmy First, and a rhird ofmy Second Lecture,

4.

rhat it may be judged how far rhe character given of rhem in the Report of the Secret Committee ofrhe House ofCommons is consistent wirh truth. If my persecutors had not added to the injustice of detaining me seven monrhs in close confinement, upon a groundless charge of High Treason, that of wirhholding my manuscripts, and other property, now I am acquitted, I might have added to them some orhers that have never yet been published: for it is a curious fact rhat they were in possession, mostly in my own hand writing, of all the notes of all rhe Lectures I ever delivered, rhough it was not thought fit to bring one of these notes in evidence against me: A tolerably strong presumption that rhey did not themselves believe the monstrous absurdities which their perjured spies were to swear against me. For rhough rhese notes, generally, contained only the sketch and outline, yet if rhe Lectures had really been so treasonable a nature as was represented, it is something extraordinary rhat no marks of this treason should be found among rhe memorandums. Wirh respect to rhe Lectures now republished, it may perhaps be objected, by rhose who are more enclined to cavil than examine, rhat the present edition does not exactly correspond to the former. Those, however, who take the trouble to compare rhem, will find rhe variations consist principally in corrections of rhe stile (which, in rhe former editions of rhe first Lecture, was certainly very defective) and not at all in rhe political sentiments, or any rhing that relates to the innocence or criminality of rhe compositions. There are undoubtedly some few expressions of intemperance, and some of levity, which my cooler judgement does not approve. Those I have reprinted verbatim: because I wish my country not only to have an opportunity of judging how far I am innocent or guilty, but how far my persecutors had any foundation for that charge of guilt upon which they fought for my life. But wherever rhe impartial examination of this question is not concerned, I do not think myself called upon to perpetuate bombast, or to withhold the pruning knife from exuberances which were the consequences of hasty composition. The corrections will be found principally in the first Lecture, and those who give rhemselves the trouble to compare it wirh the small edition, which is still in print, will find rhem to be of the nature I have described. Upon the subject of Political Prosecutions four Lectures have been delivered; but wherher rhe other three will ever make their appearance depends upon the decision of rhe previous question-Whether a man who has unjustly prosecuted for High Treason, forfeits thereby all claim to his own property? Beaufort Buildings, Dec. 27th, 1794. Proclamation of 1792: this could actually refer to several proclamations, for on 19 November, France declared an Edict of Fraternity wirh revolutionary movements in orher nations; on 13 November, the government declared its support for the United Provinces (of the Netherlands) against French invasion; on 20 November, rhe newspapers proclaimed rhat rhe founding ofJohn Reeves's Association for Preserving Liberty and Property against Republicans and Levellers.

Notes to pages 41- 5

177

the barbarous manifesto of the Duke ofBrunswick: The Brunswick Manifesto, which was issued in Paris on 25 July 1792, warned the French people not to resist the invasion of the Duke's Prussian army. The manifesto declared the Duke's intention 'to put an end to the anarchy in the interior of France, to check the attacks upon the throne and the altar, to reestablish the legal power, to restore to the king the security and the liberty ofwhich he is now deprived and to place him in a position to exercise once more the legitimate authority which belongs to him.' Since Louis XVI had the Manifesto published, it was construed as evidence of his siding with the enemies of the French nation, a fact that further infuriated the Assembly and resulted in panic and mob violence in Paris. 6. premeditated riot: in the fourth edition, Thelwall added this footnote: It is now past a doubt that this riot was premeditated; since, on the night ofmy arrest, J¼lsh, the well known itinerant confidant of Gentlemen high in office, told me, in the course ofconversation, that the person who occasioned the disturbance at the King's Arms was taken there by him. 7. SirJames Saunderson: Lord Mayor of London. He prevented the 26 November meeting of the Society for Free Debate happening on the pretext that a disturbance had occurred at the previous meeting of 19 November. According to government documentation, that disturbance was actually caused by the government spy James Walsh and his associates. As Mary Thale notes, this was part of a wider programme of repression initiated by Pitt and his government. Through Saunderson's actions, a debating society that had held peaceable meetings for almost fifi:y years, ceased to exist. See M. Thale, 'London Debating Societies in the l 790s: The Historicaljournal, 32:1 (1989), pp. 57-86. 8. Chairman ofthe QytintupleAlliance: this label refers to Prime Minister William Pitt who, in the 1780s, had been one of twenty-two reform-minded MPs from London, Westminster, Southwark, Middlesex and Surrey that formed an association, which had as one ofits goals, the implementation of more representative government by ending borough-mongering. The reformers of the 1790s liked to remind Pitt of his earlier liberality and later apostasy. Horne Tooke, for instance, made much of this in his state trial for treason. 9. the story ofKingChantecleer: seep. 33 in this volume. 10. no libel: the fourth edition contains the following footnote to this section: It was made part of the charge of [text damaged] against me, [text damaged] of the prosecution, and of the incongruity and absolutefalsehood ofthe innuendoes: for the story is a literal fact. It was told to illustrate the difference between muscular, and what is called voluntary action; and the embellishments, without intending to fix the similitude upon any individual in particular, were introduced to shew the striking resemblance between all tyrants, whether of brute or human species and to point out, as Mr. Gurney, upon the trial, affirmed, that "The sooner they were got rid of the better; for they are generally too bad to be mended." Whether there is not a better way of disposing even of these pests ofsociety than by holding up the example ofpublic murder (for every execution in fact is such) I will not now enquire: but certain it is, that if it be treason to declare that tyrants ought to be put to death, the great majority of the friends offreedom [which I should hope is the majority ofpeople of this country] are traitors to all intents and purposes. As for the affirmation that tyrant and king are synonymous terms, and that it is impossible to mention a tyrant, even though it be tyrant game Cock, without alluding to our own mostgracious Sovereign-these are libels so gross, that none but a state prosecutor could have the audacity to publish them. 1 1. the Bow-street runners: considered to be London's first professional police force, they were attached to the magistrate's office and were financially supported by government.

5.

178

Notes to pages 45-8

They were founded in 1749 by the author Henry Fielding, originally numbered just eight and were based around Bow Street, bur extended ro several other areas by an Act of Parliament in l 792. 12. The worthy successor: In 1793, Paul le Mesurier replaced Sanderson as Lord Mayor of London. 13. Paul le Mesurier: see previous note. 14. The fourth edition of this pamphlet contains the following 'POSTSCRIPT to the Fourth Edition' (Thelwall's own copy in the British Library also contains appended handwritten notes relating to his arrest): AS I am now about to send a fourth edition of this Lecture, together with a third of the second, into the world, it may not be amiss to continue the narrative of the opposition which has been made to the establishment of this important right-the public investigation ofpolitical subjects: a right ofwhich, during the period of inquisition and alarm, I have been the individual asserter, at the repeated peril of my life; and which I pledged myself to establish, or to fall a victim in the attempt. The right is established, debating societies are again conducted without interruption at each end of the town; and it may therefore be amusing to some to trace the whole history of the contest. While my Lectures were continued in Compton-Street, several attempts were made to intimidate and interrupt me. The former was, however, impracticable, and all attempts at the latter, within the Lecture-room, were frustrated by my care to calm the irritation, and prevent the resentment of the audience. It was therefore resolved to make an attempt, from without, of the most atrocious nature. Bur the agents were not sufficiently secret, and it was disappointed. The landlord of a public house in the neighbourhood having told some of his customers, that a young gentleman of the name ofJenkinson, "(To whom related now avails us not, From whom descended, or by whom begot)" had hired a room in his house for the entertainment of fifty bludgeon-men who were to disperse the people at my lecture-room, the conspiracy got wind, and means were taken to frustrate it. For my own part, my only precaution was to render my hat crown cudgel proo£ and to carry in my hand a short tuck stick to defend myself in case of extremity. Several friends, however, unsolicited by me, posted themselves in different parts of the neighbourhood, and sent out their scouts to observe what passed. At about nine o'clock, the ruffians began to assemble in a very tumultuous manner at the door; when my friends suddenly making their appearance from all parts, they took to their heels in great terror; revenging themselves for their disappointment upon such straggling individuals as, to use their own language, they suspected of being Thelwallites. One of this banditti was taken into custody by a respectable shopkeeper in the neighbourhood, whom they had treated with brutality. I need not add, that the magistrates took care he should not suffer too severely for his frolic. This was not the first time that bludgeons had been provided for the purpose of confuting my arguments. Shortly after the affair in the Borough, one of the police ruffians who had been the most active on that occasion, was boasting about it to that respectable magistrate Sir••**; and, upon being asked if they did not some of them get kicked down stairs, replied that they had sixty or seventy good fellows, armed

Notes to page 48

179

with bludgeons, ready to do the business of the d-d Jacobine rascals if they had resented. I understand that the worthy magistrate declared himself ready to prove this circumstance on the late trials ifit had been thought important. Shortly after the affair in Compton-street, I opened the lecture-room in Beaufort Buildings, where I was attended by avery respectable audience, encreasingevery night in number, till the room, spacious as it is, became too small for their accommodation. The subject with which I opened was "the impossibility of attaining either public or private virtue, without the full indulgence of the liberty ofspeech and ofthe press." A subject, as chose who were present will remember, in the discussion of which I dwelt very copiously upon the importance of Ben\evolence, and all the virtues of private life; and the inseparability union between these, and a genuine system ofpolitical liberty. Yet chis lecture, which even persons who do not agree with my general politics, have applauded for its candour and morality, was one ofthose upon pretended quotations from which the charge ofhigh treason was attempted to be supported. Lectures in favour of Liberty, in the neighbourhood of Mr. Reeves, and upon the estate of the Attorney General, it may easily be supposed were a species ofheresy not to be endured. Accordingly at the Court-Leet of the Dutchy of Savoy, held on Thursday, the first of May, an officious informer, in the neighbourhood of the Lecture-room, presented a copy of the second Lecture to the Grand Jury, and wished chem to make it the foundation of a prosecution for libel. The Jury refused to be made the tools of so malignant a design, and observed, with becoming independence, chat they were not, in matters ofsuch importance, to be taken by surprise; and that the book, if it did contain any libellous matter, ought to be repeatedly read, and maturely deliberated upon by the jury, before they pronounced a censure upon it that might subject the author to such serious consequences. This attempt was accordingly unsuccessful. Mr. Reeves, however, the worshipful Steward of the district, did not suffer the matter to drop. A new Grand Jury for the ensuing year being sworn in his charge, as I am informed, consisted almost entirely of a declaration upon "the seditious Lectures in Beaufort-buildings; which, he said, must not be permitted to go unnoticed; they being in reality more dangerous than all the tumbling-houses' in the metropolis. They were calculated;' he affirmed, "to inflame the public mind against every thing great and glorious in the British Constitution;" (such as Spies, sinecure Placemen, Pensioners, unnecessary wars, inordinate taxation, and the like!!) "and chat I had even agitated the passions of my auditory to such a degree, chat they jumped upon the benches, and cried out, with one voice, No King-no Parliament, and no Laws!" But the dose was too strong. The good sense of the Jury, nauseated at the absurdity; and the charge of nuisance being brought by the same loyal gentleman, who presented the pamphlet, and being supported by the voluntary testimony of a Mr. Scott, a brandy merchant in the buildings, the Jury determined, this being an affair upon which every one might have an opportunity offorming his own judgment, that they ought to be witnesses of the fact, before they pretended to decide. The Court being, therefore, held over, by adjournment, to Thursday, May 8, the foreman and other jurors attended at the Lecture-room during the two intervening nights, to make their observations. The result was, that being perfectly satisfied of the legality of the meeting, and the good order with which it was conducted, they returned the following answer-"On hearing and duly considering the complaints of several of the

180

Notes to pages 48-50

inhabitants of Beaufort-buildings, respecting the Lectures delivered by Mr. Thelwall, the Jury are ofopinion, chat they cannot present the meeting at the said Mr. Thelwall's Lectures as a public nuisance." This was a very unexpected stroke ro certain honourable protectors of the LIBERTY and PROPERTY ofplacemen andpensioners; for infinite pains had been taken, by canvassing from house co house, co collect a heap of complain[an]cs together; and Mr. Steward Reeves, after an aweful pause, chat excited the tenderfeelings of the assembly, began, with some hesitation, co remonstrate chat sixteen respectable GENTLEMEN in the neighbourhood had complained of nuisance, upon oath; but the foreman replied, in his former language, chat the Jury had maturely considered the whole ofche circumstances, and chat THEY FOUND NO NUISANCE.['] le is worth while, perhaps, co observe, chat the foundations, or rather pretences for the charge ofnuisance were, chat upon the lecture nights, four or five hundred people went up and down my stairs; and chat a number of persons collected about the door, who behaved in a rude and improper manner, and therefore there might be a riot. The good sense of the Jury could not observe the tendency of chis might be evidence: since if a man is co be indicted, because it is possible a riot may hereafter happen at his door, he may, by a similar mode ofcalculation, be hanged, because there is a possibility chat murder may be committed be some desperado under his window. Thus frustrated on every hand, the enemies ofpolitical investigation had recourse again co their old expedient-an attempt co produce a riot. A swarm of police officers attended the ensuing night, together with two coal-heavers, who interrupted the Lecture, by beginning co roar out the good old Song. I had the good fortune, however, not only effectually co restrain the indignation ofthe audience, and over-awe the rioters, but even co make zealous converts ofthe two deluded labourers; who, after having joined very loudly in the applause chat was given co the Lecture, departed with many imprecations against their employers for having "misrepresented the good sort ofgentlemen so, and misled chem into such a "business." On the Tuesday after chis I was apprehended on a charge of treasonable practices: and it is a little curious chat the Lectures which many thousand people have attended, which the magistrates, by conniving at attempts of violence and practicing underhanded intrigues, instead of exerting their open authority, have tacitly confessed co be legal; and which Grand Juries have refused co present either as libels or nuisances, should be made pare of a charge of high treason upon the single testimony of a perjured spy, of the most notorious and profligate character. The wickedness ofchis attempt, however, has secured the triumph of Reason. The eyes of Britons are opening. They see they have rights, which, if they have courage they may vindicate; and the popular prerogative, if I may so express mysel£ of free investigation, will not I trust be shortly again disputed. No. 2, Beaufort Buildings, Dec. 27th, 1794. • Some representations of nuisances ofchis sore had been made. 15. derived: In the fourth edition, Thelwall deleted the text from the end of chis sentence co the beginning of the next paragraph, which begins 'le is, however, a fortunate circumstance' (he also deleted the poem). 16. the path ofduty ...paradise: in the fourth edition, chis pare of the sentence reads: 'the path of duty, and seek for Wisdom, where, wedded with eternal Truth, she sheds her mingled radiance through the regions of the intellectual paradise.'

Notes to pages 50- 5

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17. It is mind alone ... natural enmity: Thelwall substantially alters this passage in the fourth edition, by deleting much of the text and in its place writing: To illustrate this by a course ofPolitical Lectures, is a task, which, ifproperly execured, could not fail to render you better members, not ofthe community only to which you belong, but of the world at large, which it is our duty to love and benefit, whatever State Hypocrites may preach about hostile interests, patriotism, and natural enmity. 18. Natural enmity .. .your doctrines: in the fourth edition, Thelwall tempers the stridency of this passage by shortening it to: 'Natural enmity!-How long are our intellects to be abused by this unintelligible jargon?' 19. 'When; as Ben Johnson expresses it ... prince and state: Thelwall misspells Jonson's name here and either misquotes or quotes from a faulty edition ofJonson's 'A Panegyre, on the Happy Entrance of James, Our Sovereign, to His First High Session of Parliament in This Kingdom, the 19 of March, 1603'. Lines 99-106 of the text read: Where laws were made to serve the tyran' will; Where sleeping they could save, and waking kill; Where acts gave licence to impetuous lust To bury Churches, in forgotten dust, And with their mines raise the panders bowers: When, publique justice borrow'd all her powers From private chambers; that could then create Laws, Judges, Consellors, yea Prince, and State. 20. When every coffee-house: in the fourth edition, this paragraph begins with an extra sentence: 'From these private chambers proceeds a system ofinquisitorial tyranny never equaled but in the degenerate days ofRoman slavery, under the administration of Sej anus and Rufinus.' 21. unguarded moments: in the fourth edition, Thelwall adds the following footnote: 'See the case of Mr. Muir.' 22. Hirelings who: in the fourth edition, this phrase is replaced with the longer passage: 'Citizens! The boasted freedom of Britons is no more; and every man ofintellect and virtue lies at the mercy of the pimps and lacqueys of courtiers and court expectants. Wretches that-' 23. 'Hirelings ... as he varies': from the opening discourse of Act 1 of Ben Jonson's Sejanus. See note 20, above on Thelwall's political interest in this particular play. 24. 'We that know ... the dead': from Act 1 of Ben Jonson's Sejanus. See previous note and note 20, above. 25. Rather than renlinquish...productions: in the fourth edition, Thelwall replaces the reference to Africa, with one to Newgate, as follows: 'Rather than relinquish, therefore, the free exercise ofchis noble attribute; lee us brave the dungeons of Newgace and the inhospitable regions of New Holland; for better are these with fortitude and virtue than palaces and luxuries with a base and abject spirit.' 26. best intentioned individuals: the fourth edition contains the following footnote to this passage: I insert the following note written in the margin of a former edition by a philosophical friend, because reflection has convinced me that the doctrine is partly true: "No. You recommend caution, but it is not wanted. You tell us to look before and behind

182

27. 28. 29.

30. 31.

32.

33.

34.

Notes to pages 55-8

for spies before we speak, bur we need only look to ourselves. In telling the truth it is scarcely possible there should be danger; bur we express sarcasm, resentment, contempt and vengeance: these are not truth, bur falsehood. Our danger almost wholly lies in our vice. Boldness, and not caution, would remove it, the boldness that excited us to conquer our own mistakes. Here lies the radical falsehood ofyour lecture." Swinish Multitude: also see note 6, to Tribune, vol. 1, in Volume 2 of this set. commands: the fourth edition ends this paragraph with an additional sentence: 'Nor must all the warmth of the heart be at all times uttered.' 'We ... what is needful': Ben Jonson, Sejanus, Act 1. The full passage is ripe with political meaning: We must abide our opportunity: And practise what is fit, as what is needful. It is not safe t' enforce a Soveraigns Ear: Princes hear well, if they at all will hear. coffee-house keeper: the fourth edition contains the following footnote: 'Case of Pigot and Hodgson.' 'Every ministering spy ... treason': from Ben Jonson, Sejanus, Act 1. The full passage has much to say about political tyranny, corruption, the loss ofliberty and the practical definition of treason and crime under a deceitful government: Well, all is worthy of us, were it more, Who with our Riots, Pride, and civil Hate, Have so provok'd the Justice of the Gods. We, that (within these fourscore Years) were born Free, equal Lords of the triumphed world, And knew no Masters, bur Affections; To which betraying first our Liberties, We since became the slaves to one Man's Lusts; And now to many: every ministring Spy That will accuse, and swear, is Lord ofyou, Of me, ofall our Fortunes, and our Lives. Our looks are call'd to question, and our words, How innocent soever, are made Crimes; We shall not shortly dare to tell our Dreams, Or think, bur 'twill be Treason. Swijt:Jonathan Swifi: (1667-1745), satirist, essayist and political pamphleteer (first for the Whigs and then for the Tories); famous for sharply incisive and politically astute writing on government, as found in such works as Gulliver's Travels, A Modest Proposal, The Battle ofthe Books and A Tale ofa Tub. the crime of dreaming sedition: Thelwall is mocking the fact that according to British law, it was high treason to 'imagine' the king's death - a legal idiosyncrasy that allowed the government to see potential regicides everywhere. See Barrell, Imagining the King's Death. Blackstone:William Blackstone (1723-80), legal writer and judge, he established English law as an academic discipline at Oxford and became the foundation Vinerian professor ofcommon law. He published the greatly influential, widely-acclaimed 2000-page Commentaries on the Laws of England, 4 vols (Oxford: Clarendon, 1766-9). This work of legal scholarship - arguably the most important ever published in the nation's history - depicted England's constitution and laws as part of the natural order of things as well

Notes to pages 58-64

35.

36.

37.

38.

39.

40. 41.

42. 43. 44.

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as produces of national history, like 'an old Gochie castle, erected in the days of chivalry, buc fined up for a modern inhabitant' (Blackstone, Commentaries, 3.268). Strange: Sir John Strange (bapt. l 696 d. 1754), judge, longstanding MP for Tomes, Devon, appointed master ofche rolls in 1750. The compilation ofhis Reports ofAdjudged Cases In the Courts ofChancery, King's Bench, Common Pleas and Exchequer, which was published at his death, was an important legal work. Plowden: Francis Peter Plowden (1749-1829), lawyer, historian, legal and political writer, author of chejura Anglorum: the Rights ofEnglishmen (c. 1793) and che Historical Review ofthe State ofIreland ( 1803) and several anti-Pict pamphlets. He was called co che bar at the Middle Temple in 1796 when che restriction disallowing Roman Catholics from pleading cases was repealed. 'Coke upon Littleton': Sir Edward Coke (1552-1634), lawyer, legal writer, colonial entrepreneur and politician, whose writings on the English common law were definitive for three centuries. As attorney-general he prosecuted several trials for treason, including chat of Sir Walter Ralegh. As chiefjustice ofche king's bench he exercised great political and legal influence. In 1628 Coke published che Commentarie upon Littleton (thereafter referred co simply as Coke on Littleton) which addresses property law as well as ocher topics oflaw. Among Coke's more positive legacies is his defence of Magna Carta against unchecked monarchical power, and his advocacy of individual liberty and judicial independence. French bow: the following footnote is added here in the fourth edition: The levity ofchis expression muse be admitted co be perfectly inexcusable. Whatever may be the crimes of the individual; the privation oflife is no proper subject for a jest; it is a cruel and dire necessity: and ifJustice muse have its victim, Humanity ought co shed the tear. Bue I republish these lectures co shew the foundations of the charge brought against chem; and am not therefore at liberty co strike out the exceptionable passages. reward?: Thelwall inserts the following footnote here in the fourth edition: This reasoning was exemplified upon my Trial, by Taylor, alias Roberts, whose whole testimony was a tissue of barefaced forgeries and misrepresentations, the greater part of which could have been confuted by persons who were in court when he gave his testimony. One of the things nearest co truth chat he uttered was chat which predicted the approaching dissolution ofdespotism throughout Europe: yet, the passage co which chis referred had been taken down by Ramsey, the shore hand writer, who happened co be present when the Lecture was delivered; and he has declared chat it was essentially different from what chis worthy confidant of gentlemen high in office represenced.-My Council, however, were of opinion, chat, having proved two distinct perjuries against him, co enter into a confutation of particulars, which, if true, would have amounted only co sedition, and therefore had nothing to do with a charge ofHigh Treason, would have been an insult co the understanding ofche Jury. 'Tell the words ... to them': Ibid. ' 1fe that ... to many': Ibid. Jfothers...my motives!: Thelwall removed chis sentence in the fourth edition. 'Times? ... ofall that race': Ibid. Gerrald: Throughout chis section, Thelwall apostrophizes che members of the 'Edinburgh Five' or 'Scottish Martyrs' and their associate Charles Sinclair. Joseph Gerrald (176396), attorney and LCS member, was arrested in December 1793 for participation in the Convention in Edinburgh. He was known for his role as a delegate at the Edinburgh Con-

184

45.

46.

47. 48.

Notes to pages 64-6 vention and for his feisty style. He was skilled in the use of historical precedent to argue for contemporary reform. He used his knowledge of Anglo-Saxon law to argue for the modern necessity of public conventions and in his three-hour speech at his trial, to urge legal reforms. He was sentenced to transportation in March 1794, which eventually took place in May 1795. He developed tuberculosis and was an invalid from his arrival in Australia in November 1795 until his death the following March in 1796. Sinclair: Charles Sinclair, an Edinburgh Convention delegate from the Glasgow Societies, was instrumental in instituting new convention procedures, including adopting the title 'Citizen' and using the name 'British' convention (Goodwin 299). He was indicted, but the case against him was dropped. Margarot- a 'second Sydney': Maurice Margarot (1745-1815), wine merchant, founding member and chairman ofthe LCS and member ofthe 'National Convention' held in Edinburgh, which led to his trial and conviction for treason. Another member ofthe Edinburgh Five, Margarot was sentenced to fourteen years in Botany Bay, but in reality spent sixteen years in exile, likely due to his protests against corruption in the colony and his agitations for prison reform. At any rate, he was the sole martyr to return to England. Upon his return, he immediately campaigned the Home Office for the return of funds he had entrusted to Thomas Hardy (but which had been impounded when Hardy was himself arrested for treason in 1794). Whilst this demand was successful, his claim for compensation for the additional two years he served was not. Margarot was known for his eloquence, pugnacity, intelligence and the colourful figure he cur in court, dressed in his 'French fashion'. 'Second Sidney' is a reference to Algernon Sidney (1623-83), politician, critic of absolure monarchy and author ofDiscourses Concerning Government who was convicted and execured for treason. (Thelwall also named his son Algernon Sidney). Interestingly, Kenneth Johnston refers not to Margarot, bur to Gerrald as fancying himself a 'second Sidney: in 'The First and Last British Convention: Romanticism, 13:2 (2007), pp. 99-132, p. 128. The intercourse... attachments: Thelwall removed this sentence in the fourth edition. Skirving ... Muir ... Palmer: William Skirving (d. 1796), political reformer, farmer. Skirving was involved with the Association for the Abolition ofPatronage and a Repeal of the Test and Corporation Statutes before becoming a founding member and secretary ofthe (Scottish) Society of the Friends of the People ( 1792). He was a delegate to the movement's Scottish conventions, at the first of which he proposed that the Scottish radicals should join with English reformers. He was indicted for sedition together with Margarot, Gerrald, Sinclair and another reformer, Alexander Scott. Acting in his own defence, he was found guilty in January 1794 and sentenced to fourteen years' transportation. He died from dysentery in Port Jackson on 16 March 1796. Thomas Muir (1765-99), political reformer, advocate, founding member and vicepresident of the Association of the Friends of the People in Edinburgh. At the 1792 Edinburgh convention, he read out a printed address from the United Irishmen, a circumstance that led to his arrest on a charge of sedition on 2 January 1793. He was eventually sentenced to fourteen years' transportation on 31 August 1793. In 1796, he escaped Australia on an American ship, whereupon he began an almost unbelievable series ofadventures. He crossed the Pacific via Hawaii to Nootka Sound, Canada, where, afrer a skirmish with British ships, he was captured by coastal aboriginals. He was rescued by a Spanish ship, taken down the coast to southern California, where he crossed Mexico and took another Spanish ship to Havana. He then embarked to Cadiz on a Spanish frigate on 25 March 1797 bur before he could reach land the ship was attacked by two Royal Navy warships on 26 April. He was horribly wounded in the melee and lost his left eye

Notes to pages 67-76

49.

50.

51. 52.

53. 54.

185

and part of his cheek. He was so disfigured that the British could not identify him until an old school-friend recognized his Bible. He was then sent on shore with the wounded Spanish enemy. The Spanish then identified him as the English enemy and imprisoned him. The French finally intervened and after several months, he was released and arrived to a hero's welcome at Bordeaux in late November 1797 and then as the feted guest ofthe Directory in Paris. His wound had become infected by this time, however, and at the end ofJanuary 1799, he was found dead. Thomas Fyshe Palmer (1747-1 802), a privileged, educated, Anglo-Scots, Unitarian minister and theologian, his order of the printing of a thousand copies of a 'Friends of the People' address led to his arrest, trial and sentencing to seven years transportation at Botany Bay. Neither public demonstrations nor the intervention of friends like Charles Fox, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Lord Lauderdale and Lord Stanhope could overturn or lessen Palmer's conviction and he was shipped our in February 1794. After serving his sentence, he set off on the return voyage to Britain, bur died ofdysentery on the way, in Guam. Voltaire ... Henriade: Frarn;ois-Marie Arouet (1694 - 1778), pen name Voltaire, French Enlightenment writer, deist and philosopher; hugely influential figure for revolutionists, used satire to criticize religious dogma and political corruption and to advocate civil liberties. The Henriadeis a long Virgilian epic poem. Boethius ... in his Consolations of Philosophy: Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius (AD 480-524/ 5), Roman Christian philosopher, was executed on suspicion of conspiring with the Byzantine Empire. Whilst in prison awaiting execution, Boethius composed what is largely a Socratic dialogue, Consolation ofPhilosophy, which elevates the spirit of philosophy as a force more powerful than political adversity and personal hardship. Epictetus: (c. AD 55-135), a Greek Stoic philosopher, who taught that by determining between that which we can and cannot control or have power over, we could have greater mastery over our own existence. the fabulist ~sop : John Barrell and Jon Mee make the point that in the eighteenth century, ~sop's Fables were ofi:en put to political use, including in this decade, by such radicals as lhelwall, D. l. Eaton and Thomas Spence. See Barrell and Mee, Trialsfor Treason and Sedition, 1792-1 794, 8 vols (London: Pickering and Chatto), vol. 1, p. 300 and especially editorial notes 353-4. to a height of intelligent perfection: in this section and in adjoining sections, lhelwall's debt to Godwin is striking; in this case, he articulates Godwin's ideas about human perfectionism. Come then.. for ever!: This final paragraph is absent in the fourth edition.

Political Lectures II l.

2.

3.

the occasion ofthis Dedication: this section is missing from the third edition. M r Reeves: John Reeves, (1752-1829), barrister, writer, founder and chairman of the Association for Preserving Liberty and Property against Republicans and Levellers at the Crown and Anchor tavern in the Strand, on 20 November 1792. Branches of this association sprang up across Britain in 1792-3, and their popularity and anti-revolutionary fervour earned Reeves the Savoy Manor Stewardship (1794-1 802). Mr Gurney ... defence of Eaton: Sir John Gurney (1768-1 845), judge, successfully defended the bookseller Daniel Isaac Eaton in an action for libel (see headnote to King Chaunticlere above). He was also defence counsel in the state trials oflhelwall, Thomas Hardy and John Horne Tooke that same year and in the treason trials of Robert Thomas

186

Notes to pages 77-8

Crossfield (who was charged in rhe popgun plot of 1796) and Arthur O'Connor (in 4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

1798).

libels againstgame cocks: see King Chaunticlere in this volume. John Udall: (c. 1560-92/3), religious polemicist, for a work heavily critical ofecclesiastical practices, he was indicted for writing 'a wicked, scandalous libel' (rhe statute of 23 Elizaberh). Although many associates petitioned the queen to lower his dearh sentence to banishment, she refused to sign the pardon and Udall died in prison. reflected ... unfortunate ojfender: from John Gurney's speech, see Barrell and Mee, Trials for Treason and Sedition, pp. 49-50; reprinted in J. Barrell and J. Mee (eds), Trials for Treason and Sedition, vol. 1, pp. 309-10. See note 3 above. condemned them.. .It is to be observed: between the end of his paragraph and the beginning of rhe next, Thelwall inserted rhe following substantial section in rhe rhird edition, wirh a furrher footnote, as indicated: It must be admitted that the prevailing party did not enjoy their triumph wirh rhe most uniform moderation. - I pass without censure rhe punishment of rhe Judges and ministers of Charles; nor can I perceive how any man can be an advocate for any degree ofLiberty whatever, or even a friend to the present family on the Throne, who condemns the execution of Charles himself; whatever he may rhink of rhe manner of conducting the trial. For what is to prevent that Monarch from becoming absolute whom neither the aggregate nor representative body of rhe people can control or punish? and by what tide does rhe house of Brunswick hold the British Sceptre, if it had not been forfeited by the tyranny of rhe Stewarts. [Here Thelwall inserts rhe following footnote: 'I shall treat these subjects at greater lengrh when I deliver (as I intend shortly) rhe Course of Lectures prepared during my confinement in the Tower.'] But the succeeding prosecutions were not all of them equally justifiable. Liberality will condemn the treatment and execution of Hamilton; and it is impossible to peruse the Trial ofJohn Lilburne, without admiration of the virtue and energy of the man, abhorrence for rhe extravagant (rhough by no means singular) profligacy of the Judges, and contempt for the usurping and intolerant spirit of the existing Government. The erection (afi:er rhis acquittal) of a Revolutionary Tribunal, to try political offenders, without the intervention of a Jury, it is impossible to reflect upon wirh patience. It is sufficiently characteristic of that Coercive Liberty which the usurping fragment of a House of Commons, then remaining, was desirous of imposing upon rhe Country. In short-the fact is incontrovertible, that the Government then established had not rhe approbation of rhe majority ofthe people; and when that is rhe case, legalized murders, and illegalprosecutions must be the consequences. Opinion is rhe sole prop of all Governments; and when rhe sentiment of approbation fails, rhe sentiment of terror must be inspired-or farewell to the tottering fabric. Add to rhis rhat the intolerance of religious sects, and the visions of Fanaticism had poisoned the judgment and imbittered the spirit of the Republicans (as they called rhemselves) of rhe day, and we shall wonder no longer at rhe imperfections oftheir rheory, or rhe deformities of rheir practice.] 'If my government ... paper bullets': James Harrington (1611-77), political rheorist, wrote the anti-Hobbes treatise The Commonwealth of Oceana, which promoted classical republican ideas and proposed a model commonwealrh that, although hierarchical,

Notes to pages 79-86

9.

IO. 11.

12.

13. 14. I 5.

I 6. 17. 18. 19.

20. 21.

187

emphasized equality and popular sovereignty: in Harrington's commonwealth, authority depended on consent. Whilst Oceana was being published, Oliver Cromwell ordered it to be confiscated, but then restored the work to Harrington, who added a dedication to Cromwell in 1656. 1n no time ... prosperity': Gilbert Burnet (1643-1715), Bishop ofSalisbury, historian and author of a history of his times, from which Thelwall quotes loosely: G. Burnet, Bishop Burnet's History ofH is Own Time: with notes by the Earls ofDartmouth and Hardwicke, Speaker Onslow and Deans Swift, 2nd edn enlarged, 6 vols (Oxford, 1833), vol. 1, p . 112. 'When the Earl...entirely': from Burnet, Bishop Burnet's History, vol. 1, p. 163. William III ... upon a mendicant': this passage is quoted from J. Gerrald, A Convention the Only Means ofSaving Us from Ruin, in a Letter Addressed to the People of Great Britain, 3rd edn (London: D. I. Eaton, 1794), p. 9. from thefirst proclamation: Largely in response to the popularity ofPaine's Rights ofMan and the popular political associations that proliferated as a result, the government issued a royal proclamation against seditious writings on 21 May 1792. In the same month, Paine's publisher J. S. Jordan was arrested, and after some months of a fierce government propaganda campaign against 'Mad Tom; Paine was himself tried and found guilty in absentia. 'the press ... vigilantpolice': not traced. About this period, says Hume: this long quote is from volume five of David Hume's 6 volume The History ofEnglandfrom the Invasion ofJulius Caesar to the Revolution in 1688. Then it was ... 'seditious libel!!!': The Stuarts are being condemned here for the great number of unconstitutional cases it brought before the Star Chamber. In this section, Thelwall quotes from (but adds his own italics and exclamation marks) Eaton, The Trial ofDanielIsaac Eaton, p. 45-6; reprinted in Barrell and Mee, Trialsfar Treason and Sedition, vol. 1, pp. 305-6. the intolerable oppression ... death: Thelwall quotes from Eaton, The Trial ofDaniel Isaac Eaton, p. 46; reprinted in Barrell and Mee, Trialsfar Treason and Sedition, p. 306. Muir ... Gerrald: On the Edinburgh Five, see note 46, to Political Lectures above. thejudges who: in the third edition, Thelwall expands the sentence slightly to read: '... and the judge who, like another JEFFERIES, could declare.. .'. assuring and confirming to every Englishman ... a libel: quoted from Gurney, The Trial of Danielisaac Eaton, p. 46; reprinted in Barrell and Mee, Trialsfar Treason and Sedition, p. 306. Matthew Hales ... rejected by them: from vol. 5, note C of Hume, The History of England. LIBERTY is preferable to SLAVERY: The famous and much-debated passage from Hume's Whether the British Government Inclines More to Absolute Monarchy, or to a Republic, is worth quoting at length here: It is well known, that every government must come to a period, and that death is unavoidable to the political as well as to the animal body. But, as one kind of death may be preferable to another, it may be enquired, whether it be more desirable for the BRITISH constitution to terminate in a popular government, or in absolute monarchy? Here I would frankly declare, that, though liberty be preferable to slavery, in almost every case; yet I should rather wish to see an absolute monarch than a republic in this island. For, let us consider, what kind of republic we have reason to expect. The question is not concerning any fine imaginary republic, of which a

as

188

22.

23.

24. 25. 26.

27.

28.

29.

Notes to pages 86-90

man may form a plan in his closet. There is no doubt, bur a popular government may be imagined more perfect than absolute monarchy, or even than our present constitution. Bur what reason have we to expect that any such government will ever be established in GREAT BRITAIN, upon the dissolution of our monarchy? If any single person acquire power enough to take our constitution to pieces, and put it up a-new, he is really an absolute monarch; and we have already had an instance of this kind, sufficient to convince us, that such a person will never resign his power, or establish any free government. [Hume refers to Cromwell here] Matters, therefore, must be trusted to their natural progress and operation; and the house of commons, according to its present constitution, must be the only legislature in such a popular government.... If the house of commons, in such a case, ever dissolve itsel£ which is not to be expected, we may look for a civil war every election. If it continue itsel£ we shall suffer all the tyranny of a faction, subdivided into new factions. And, as such a violent government cannot long subsist, we shall, at last, after many convulsions, and civil wars, find repose in absolute monarchy, which it would have been happier for us to have established peaceably from the beginning. Absolute monarchy, therefore, is the easiest death, the true Euthanasia of the BRITISH constitution. opponents: the third edition includes this footnote: The matter of this discourse was originally delivered in one lecture; but after it was drawn our in its present form, it was delivered as two; and the second began with the persecution of the Lollards. the Lo/lards: A group of religious and political reformers who, from the mid-fourteenth century to the English Reformation, demanded the reform of the Roman Catholic Church, believing that piety should be emphasized over church hierarchy, and Scriptural authority over the authority ofpriests. Somepassages ... he himselfhad, from Burnet, Bishop Burnet's History, vol. l pp. 25-6. See note 9 above. The more he knew ...enough: Hume, History ofEngland, vol. 5. As SirJohn Brute says ofmarriage: Thelwall is referring to a character from J. Vanbrugh, The Provok'd Wife: A Comedy (London: Printed for J. Brindley et. al., l 753). The passage, from Li, p.7, is as follows: 'What cloying meat is love, when matrimony's the sauce to it! Two years' marriage has debauched my five senses! Everything I see, everything I hear, everything I feel, everything I smell, and everything I taste, methinks has wife in't.' tyrants ... people: from T. B. Howell (ed.), A Complete Collection ofState Trials and Proceedingsfor High Treason and Other Crimes andMisdemeanorsfrom the Earliest Period to the Year 1783, with notes and illustrations, 21 vols (London: T. C. Hansard et. al, 1816) vol. l,pp. 175-220,p.186. hinc illlacraymae: 'hence those tears' (Latin). Thelwall is emphasizing Gurney's argument that the government was most concerned with the cheapness of the pamphlet, believing that accessibility was part of Eaton's crime. See Eaton, The Trial ofDaniel Isaac Eaton, p. 35, Barrell and Mee, Trialsfor Treason and Sedition, p. 295 and n. 353. Judge Jefferies upon the trial of Sidney: George Jeffreys, first Baron Jeffreys (1645-89), judge, ChiefJustice of the King's Bench, 1683-5; presided over the treason trial ofAlgernon Sidney, the most renowned ofthe Rye House plotters (for more on Sidney, see note 46, to Political Lectures). During the trial Sidney challenged Jeffrey's rather shaky legal knowledge, particularly over the necessity of having two witnesses to treason (there was only one). Bur, according to Jeffreys, who famously pronounced 'scribere est agree', or 'to write is to act' (see State Trials, 9.889), Sidney's unpublished 'Discourses' were effectively

Notes to pages 91- 7

30.

31. 32.

33. 34.

35. 36.

37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43.

189

a second witness. In less than half an hour, the jury found Sidney guilty and Jeffreys pronounced the sentence ofdeath. continually: in the third edition, this sentence is followed by one that does not appear in earlier editions: 'This very defence, however, was blasphemy ro the m itred apostles of the time.' But I said ... anymore: quoted from Howell, A Complete Collection ofState Trials, vol. 1, pp. 175-220, p. 220. Sirjohn O/dcastle Lord Cobham: (d. 1417), soldier, knight and a Lollard who was found guilty ofheresy (and thus treason), for which he was executed. He was the first layperson of prominence to be publicly accused ofheresy. that after ... were spoken: quoted from A Complete Collection of State Trials, vol. 1. pp. 225-68, pp. 242-3. confessions: Thelwall inserts the following footnote here, in the third edition: 'N.B. As this was first published more than eight months ago, it could have no possible allusion to the Confession of Watt the spie! !!' 'And when ... INSURRECTIONS: Ibid., p. 251. commonwealth: Thelwall includes the following footnote in the third edition: It is remarkable that among the modern advocates, as they call themselves, for our ancient Constitution, Republicanism, or attachment to the Commonwealth, should be considered as High Treason, though all the ancient writers uniformly agree in calling England a Commonwelath, and regard the King only as the Chief Magistrate of that Commonwealth; not as the proprietor ofan Imperial Crown-a jargon unheard of till the unfortunate period of the Restoration! 'The complaint ... priests': Ibid., p. 252. 'And this ... stronger': Ibid., p. 251. cabinet: in the third edition, 'cabinet' is replaced with 'minister.' 'hereticks ... lana: Ibid., p. 252. 'In him ... Christian': Ibid., p. 255. Richmond: in the third edition, Thelwall replaces 'Richmond' with 'Hawkesbury'. Gerraldand Margarot, ofSkirving, Muir andPalmer: on the Edinburgh Five, see note 46 to PoliticalLectures, above.

Fraternity and Unanimity l.

2.

Thelwall includes the following postscript to the third edition: P.S.As the notes ofmy Lectures {and indeed all my manuscripts - the labours ofmy life) are stillin the hands ofgovernment; and as I have twice applied, withoutgetting any sort ofanswer, far their restoration, I cannot promise the immediate publication ofthe three discourses that ought tofallow this. But as it is a subject ofgrowing importance, it is not my intention that its continuance should depend on the uncertain recovery ofmy papers. The seven months ofleisure and retirement with which it has lately pleased the Minister to indulge me, has enabled me to render myseifstillfurther acquainted with the essential facts; andas soon as the completion ofmy promised Narrative permits me to return to the subject, it shall be resumed - perhaps with advantagefrom the delay. H ardy: Thomas Hardy (1752-1832), shoemaker, radical and a founder of the London Corresponding Society. The Bow Street Runners arrested him on 12 May 1794, the first in a line ofsuch arrests (including Thelwall's) and after questioning he was remanded to the Tower ofLondon on the charge ofhigh treason. Whilst imprisoned, his house was attacked

190

Notes to pages 103-24 during a cdebration ofLord Howe's naval victory over the French and his heavily pregnant wife had to be pulled through a back window by neighbours. As a result ofher injuries, she died on 27 August whilst giving birth to a stillborn baby. At the end of October Hardy was taken to Newgate and formally arraigned on treason charges, to which he pled not guilty. He was expertly defended by Thomas Erskine and the jury found him not guilty. On his rdease, his coach was drawn through the streets by crowds ofcelebrating supporters.

john Gilpin's Ghost 1. 2. 3.

4.

5.

6. 7.

8.

John Gilpin: the character is a comical linen-draper in William Cowper's 'The Diverting

H istory ofJohn Gilpin.' King Chanticleer, or the Fate ofTyranny: reprinted in this volume. On Eaton's acquittal for publishing it, see the headnote to that text. Oakham: Thelwall's mail to his brother-in-law (which contained King Chanticlere and details of Eaton's indictment) was intercepted in Oakham, the town where he and his wife Stella were married in 179 1. While rhis satirical ballad was published after his trial for treason in 1795, it was written before it and somehow escaped being seized with the rest ofhis papers. great men of Oakham: Among Thelwall's list of Oakhamites is the loyalist William Combes (or Combe, 1742-1823), satirist, historian and hack writer. For at least the early 1790s, Combes was on the Treasury payroll, earning £200 per year from Pitt for such pro-ministerial writings during the Regency crisis and in the aftermath of the French Revolution as his Letterfrom a Country Gentleman to aMember ofParliament on the Present State ofPublic Affairs ( 1789), History of the Late Important Period; from the Beginning ofhis Majesty's Illness (1789), and Word in Season to the Traders andManufacturers ofGreat Britain (1792) . Lord Winchelsea: virulently anti-Thelwallian and, according to Greg Claeys, had some of Thelwall's family evicted from their farm for reading Thelwall's writings, G. Claeys, The Politics ofEnglishJacobinism: Writings ofJohn The/wall (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1995) p. xx. Biggleswade: a market town in Bedfordshire. pop-guns: this is a mocking reference to the 'popgun plot' of late September 1794. This was aplan, allegedly hatched by members ofthe LCS, to assassinate King George III with an airgun that would fire a poisoned arrow at the king whilst he was pottering around the grounds at Windsor or sat in his box at Covent Garden Theatre. The details and subsequent arrests for this plot immediately preceded the October treason trials, a fact that was not lost on the opposition, some members of whom suggested the government had manufactured some of this plot. See Barrell, Imagining the King's Death, ch. 14, 'The Pop-Gun Plot: A Tragicomedy by Thomas Upton'. Joey White: Joseph White, the Treasury Solicitor, was instrumental in extorting and publicizing incriminating information against Thelwall at his trial.

Prospectus ofa Course ofLectures 1. 2. 3.

Mason's Elfrida: William Mason (1724-97), poet of the 1752 historical tragedy Elfr-

ida. An Act ... Assemblies: one of the infamous Two Acts'; see 'Introduction'. Attorney General and Chancellor ofthe Exchequer: John Scott, first Earl of Eldon (17511838), Lord High Chancellor, presided overthe treason trials; William Pitt (1759-1806)

Notes to pages 125-39

191

simultaneously held office as Prime Minister and as Chancellor of the Exchequer, from 1783 to 1801 and then from 1804 until his death. 4 . Mr. Pitt's Sedition Bill: commonly referred to as The Two Acts, see 'Introduction' in this volume. 5. Locke, Sydney, and Harrington: On Locke, see note 19 to the Introduction of this volume; on James Harrington (1611-77), political theorist, author of the anti-Hobbes Oceana, see note 46 above. 6. Barlowe, Paine, and Callendar: Joel Barlow (I 754-1812), American poet, radical pamphleteer and diplomatist, member of the London Society for Constitutional Information, author of Advice to the Privileged Orders ( I792 and 1793). For Paine, see note 12 to the second Political Lecture, above; James Thomson Callender (1758-1803), political writer, journalist and radical; member of the Edinburgh Friends of the People, author of the antiwar, anti-imperialist The Political Progress ofBritain and friend of Thomas Muir. In the mid- l 790s, he fled to America, where he put his vitriolic pen to work on such political figures such as Washington and Alexander Hamilton, as well as other journalists, including the expatriate William Cobbett. 7. Rapin: Paul de Rapin de Thoyras (1661-1725), army officer and historian; author of Dissertation sur les Whigs et les Torys ( 1717), praised the mixed system of government (parliamentary and constitutional) of the Saxons and describes how, since then, English history has struggled to achieve liberty by establishing the correct balance between the 'prerogatives' of the crown and the 'privileges' of the people. 8. Socrates ... Suetonius: Thelwall's point here, in listing these classical philosophers, historians and political writers, is that although they were critics ofwar and corrupt government, the distance of time makes them all 'safe' subjects for lecturing. 9. VERTOT, MONTESQUIEU: Rene-Aubert Vertot (1655-1735), French historian. Charles-Louis de Secondat Montesquieu, baron de La Brede et de Montesquieu (16891755), French Enlightenment figure, political philosopher, author of The Spirit of the Laws, in which he outlined his theory of the separation ofgovernment powers; interestingly, there are some points in common between Montesquieu's ideas and that of the classical historian Tacitus, whom Thelwall lists above as one of the 'safe' writers under Pitt's (on climate and national identity for instance). 10. REEVES ... EDWARDS: see notes 4 and 14, to Political Lectures, above. 11. country lodging-. on Thelwall's 'lodging' in the Tower whilst awaiting his trial for treason, see note 45, to Political Lectures, above. 12. My second commenced: Thelwall was moved from the Tower to Newgate.

I. 2.

An Appeal to Popular Opinion, Against Kidnapping & Murder There is something rotten in the state ofDenmark: oft-quoted phrase from Shakespeare's

Hamlet. Pitt or Fox, ofPaine or Brunswick: Thelwall makes the point, as he does elsewhere, that politics must be a question of principle, not political faction or party. In other words, politics should not be about supporting either the Tory Prime Minister Pitt or the Whig Leader of the Opposition Charles James Fox; nor should the question be about choosing the popular hero, Tom Paine, or supporting the notorious defender of monarchy, the Duke of Brunswick (see note 5, to Political Lectures, above). It is possible, too, that 'Brunswick' may refer to the royal family in general.

l 92 3. 4.

5.

6. 7.

8.

9.

Notes to pages 140-9 the new Acts: on the 'Two Acts; see 'Introduction; and headnote ro Prospectus ofa Course ofLectures, above. the city ofNorwich: in the 1790s, Norwich was a centre of radicalism and dissent. Norwich was the Many reform-minded families and acquaintances met, corresponded and contributed to the Norwich's radical journal the Cabinet, including members of the Pattison and Amyot families, William Enfield, William Dalrymple and Henry Crabb Robinson. See P. J. Corfield and C. Evans (eds), Youth and Revolution in the 1790s: Letters ofWilliam Pattisson, Thomas Amyot and Henry Crabb Robinson (Stroud: Alan Sutton, 1996). Septembrizers ofFrance: refers to the waves offear and violence the surged through Paris in late summer 1792. The September Massacres, as they quickly became called, were initiated by several things: political confusion, the failure of the Constitution of 1791, the storming of the Tuileries, the weakness of the Legislative Assembly, the growing extremism and power of the newly-formed Paris commune, the Brunswick Manifesto and news of the Prussian Army moving toward Paris (see note 5, to Political Lectures, above). Among the acts of violence were the brutal slaying of a group of priests being moved to the L'Abbaye prison; mob attacks ofprisons in which prisoners - male and female, adult and child - were slaughtered; and the rape and mutilation of the Princesse de Lamballe (friend of Marie Antoinette and sister-in-law to the Due d'Orleans). Cammon Money: may refer to John Money (1739/40-1817), a balloonist and military theorist. the books.from which the lecture was delivered: these tides give us a sense of how Tuelwall could discourse on contemporary political subjects by lecturing on classical history. 'Roman Antiquities of Dionysius of Halicarnassus; Dionysius of Halicarnassus (60 Be-after 7 BC), Greek historian and rhetorician; the methodology of his early Roman history, Roman Antiquities, would have attracted Thelwall: Dionysius used historic examples to illustrate philosophic principles; similarly, 'Plutarch's Lives' or Parallel Lives, the great work of Greek historian Plutarch (46 AD-120 AD) uses biographies of famous Greeks and Romans to illustrate human virtue and vice; in An Essay on Lacaedemonian Government (1698), the radical Whig Walter Moyle (1672-1721) gave a positive portrayal ofLycurgus's Sparta, a nation that owed its stability and liberties to the checks and balances built into its ancient constitution. lord Spencer: George John Spencer, second Earl Spencer (1758-1834), politician and first lord of the Admiralty to the office ofprivy seal. Although Spencer had been a Whig and supporter of the opposition leader Charles James Fox, the course of the French Revolution impelled him to join William Pitt's Tories in 1794. That same year he unsuccessfully attempted to persuade the Austrians to increase their campaign in the war against France. By December, he had taken over the office of the privy seal, where he demanded navy officers recognize the civilian authority of his office. Robespierre: Maximilien Frarn;ois Marie Isidore de Robespierre (1758-94), a key figure of the French Revolution. He was one of the most popular orators in the Convention and his carefully prepared speeches often made a deep impression. His panegyrics on revolutionary government and his praise of virtue demonstrate his belief that the Terror was necessary, laudable and inevitable. It was Robespierre's belief that the Republic and virtue were of necessity inseparable. He reasoned that the Republic could only be saved by the virtue of its citizens, and that the Terror was virtuous because it attempted to maintain the Revolution and the Republic. However, he took his principles to extremes and became a powerful force in the Terror of the mid-l 790s, which saw immense numbers of French citizens sent to the guillotine

Notes to pages 154-64

193

10. Sir EdmundLacon: Sir Edmund Knowles Lacon, (1780-1839), second Baronet ofGreat Yarmouth, Norfolk. At the time ofThelwall's visit, Lacon would have been High Sheriff ofNorfolk. 11 . lettres de cachet: to many observers, these were the definitive symbol of the entwined nature of political tyranny and familial degradation under the Old Regime in France. Through these legal orders - which bore the king's signature - individuals could have family members and acquaintances arrested and jailed for an indeterminate period of time. Lettres de cachet demonstrated how, under the authority of corrupt laws and the sanction of a distant father-king who cared little for his subjects, family members were entitled, even encouraged, to persecute their own flesh and blood. As one pro-revolutionary British pamphleteer wrote, 'It was not uncommon, to see sons or daughters, actuated by the unnatural ambition of appropriating to themselves a fortune .. . to confine [their parents] for life, on the false pretence of insanity.' By the same means, 'a troublesome husband or an unpleasant wife' or 'an inhuman mother, jealous of the growing beauty of her daughter' could rid themselves of inconvenient family members. M. du Fresnoy, An

Address to the National Assembly ofFrance; Containing Strictures on Mr. Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France (Cambridge: J. Archdeacon, 1792) in Claeys, vol. 2, pp.

30-58, p. 40. 12. Robberspiere: a perhaps purposeful misspelling of Robespierre, see note 123, above. 13. Mr.Windham: William Wyndham Grenville, Baron Grenville (1759-1834), prime minister (1806-7), cousin of William Pitt, friend of Edmund Burke. During his reign as leader of the House of Lords and Foreign Secretary (1791-1801), he became satirized for not only his anti-Jacobinism, his part in Britain's questionable war policies against France and the Treason Trials, but also for his dumpy appearance, his sizeable head and even more sizeable backside, which earned him the moniker 'Bogey'. Wyndham famously called Thelwall 'an acquitted felon'. 14. Chalk Farm: The famous open-air meeting at Chalk Farm, north Camden in April 1794, organized by the LCS, attracted 2000 petitioners for parliamentary reform. This meeting preceded the May arrests ofThelwall, Horne Tooke and others as well as Pitt's 'Two Acts.' Also see 'Introduction' to chis volume. 15. St. George's fields ... Mary-la-bonne fields: Ocher LCS rallies were held in St. George's Fields, Southwark in June 1795 and an allegedly 150,000-200,000-strong meeting at Copenhagen House, Islington in November 1795 and at Marylebone Fields in 1795. The Copenhagen House meeting is represented in James Gillray's 1795 caricature 'Copenhagen house; which portrays Thelwall delivering a fiery oration from the platform. The reformers John Gale Jones, Joseph Priestley and William Hodgson are also represented. 16. Reevite associations: See note 4 to Political Lectures, above. 17. Scots and Mitfards: possibly this refers to the Mitford family, an ancient family of Scotland, who had their land unfairly confiscated and after generations of agitation, finally had their land returned to chem. 18. an intelligent and valuablefriend: possibly William Alderson of the Alderson-Opie family.

THE PICKERING MASTER S

SELECTED POLITICAL WRITINGS OF JOHN THELWALL

CONTENTS OF THE EDITION

volume 1 General Introduction Early Political Pamphlets and Lectures, 1793–1796 volume 2 Selections from the Tribune, 1795–1796 volume 3 Journalism and Selected Writings on Elocution and Oratory, 1797–1809 volume 4 Late Journalism and Writing on Elocution and Oratory, 1810–1832 Index

SELECTED POLITICAL WRITINGS OF JOHN THELWALL

Edited by Robert Lamb and Corinna Wagner

Volume 2 Selections from the Tribune, 1795–1796

First published 2009 by Pickering & Chatto (Publishers) Limited Published 2016 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business 2009 Copyright © Taylor & Francis2200 Copyright © Editorial material Robert Lamb and Corinna Wagner 2009 All rights reserved, including those of translation into foreign languages. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. british library cataloguing in publication data Telwall, John, 1764–1834 Selected political writings of John Telwall. – (Te Pickering masters) 1. Telwall, John, 1764–1834 2. Political science – England – Early works to 1800 3. Elocution 4. Oratory 5. Radicalism – England – Early works to 1800 6. Great Britain – Politics and government – 1789–1820 I. Title II. Lamb, Robert III. Wagner, Corinna 320.9’41’09033

ISBN-13: 978-1-85196-928-9 (set) DOI: 10.4324/9780429349720

Typeset by Pickering & Chatto (Publishers) Limited

CONTENTS

Tribune, volume 1 (1795) ‘Examination of Mr. Pitt’s Statement of the fourishing State of our Commerce – From the Lecture on the BUDGET’ ‘On the Probable Consequences of Continuing the Present System of Ambition and Hostility – From the First Lecture on the Nature and Calamities of War’ ‘No War Just but a War of Self Defence’ ‘Narrative of the Proceedings of the Messenger, &c. on the Seizure of J. Telwall’s Paper; with his Examination before the Privy Council; Treatment at the Messengers, &c’ ‘Tax on Hair Powder. From the Lecture on the Budget’ ‘Historical Strictures on Whigs and Tories – From the First Lecture on the Distinction between Party Spirit and Public Principle’ ‘Lecture on the System of Terror and Persecution Adopted by the Present Ministry; with Animadversions on the Treatment of Joseph Gerrald’ ‘On Prosecutions for Pretended Treason’ (conclusion) ‘Te Address of J. Telwall to the Audience at Closing his Lectures for the Season’ ‘Continuation of the Narrative of the Proceedings of the Messengers, &c’ Tribune, volume 2 (1796) ‘On Allies and Alliances; with Strictures on the Faith of Regular Governments’ ‘On the comparative Estimate of the Slave Trade, the Practice of Crimping, and Mr Pitt’s Partial Requisition Bill’ ‘On the Importance of Avoiding Personal Factions and Divisions Among the Friends of Reform’ ‘On the Causes of the Late Disturbance’ Tribune, volume 3 (1796) ‘Te Connection between the Calamities of the Present Reign, and the System of Borough-Mongering Corruption’

1 7

15 26

27 36 41 51 71 85 93 115 129 147 163 177 191 197

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Selected Political Writings of John Telwall, Volume 2

‘A Further Enquiry into the Calamities Produced by the System and Usurpation and Corruption (Fourth Lecture)’ ‘A Further Enquiry into the Calamities Produced by the System of Corruption (Fifh Lecture)’ ‘Godwin’s Pamphlet’ ‘A Further Enquiry into the Calamities Produced by the System of Usurpation and Corruption (Eighth Lecture)’ ‘On the Revolution in 1688’ ‘Civic Oration on the Anniversary of the Acquittal of the Lecturer’ ‘Te First Lecture on the Political Prostitution of our Public Teatres’ ‘Farewel Address’ Editorial Notes

211 227 239 243 255 271 291 309 317

TRIBUNE, VOLUME 1 (1795)

‘Examination of Mr. Pitt’s Statement of the fourishing State of our Commerce – From the Lecture on the BUDGET’, Tribune, 1:2. ‘On the Probable Consequences of Continuing the Present System of Ambition and Hostility – From the First Lecture on the Nature and Calamities of War’, Tribune, 1:3. ‘No War Just but a War of Self-Defence’, Tribune, 1:3. ‘Narrative of the Proceedings of the Messenger, &c. on the Seizure of J. Telwall’s Paper; with his Examination before the Privy Council; Treatment at the Messengers, &c’, Tribune, 1:4. ‘Tax on Hair Powder. From the Lecture on the Budget’, Tribune, 1:4. ‘Historical Strictures on Whigs and Tories – From the First Lecture on the Distinction between Party Spirit and Public Principle’, Tribune, 1:8. ‘Lecture on the System of Terror and Persecution Adopted by the Present Ministry; with Animadversions on the Treatment of Joseph Gerrald’, Tribune, 1:12. ‘On Prosecutions for Pretended Treason’, Tribune, 1:12. ‘On Prosecutions for Pretended Treason’ (conclusion), Tribune, 1:13. ‘Te Address of J. Telwall to the Audience at Closing his Lectures for the Season’, Tribune, 1:15. ‘Continuation of the Narrative of the Proceedings of the Messengers, &c’, Tribune, 1:14.

Te lectures included below come from the three collected volumes of the Tribune, Telwall’s weekly periodical that was frst published in March 1795 and remained in regular circulation until it became a victim of government censure in April 1796. By some accounts, between fve- and seven-hundred people paid sixpence each to pack into the Beaufort Buildings twice a week to hear Telwall basking in the glory of his increased popularity and notoriety following his acquittal at the treason trials. Tese lectures, delivered throughout 1795 to an audience that had increasingly broadened out to include the middling classes, are characterized by stinging, passionate indictments of Pitt’s government: chas–1–

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tising it for pursuing the war with France, accusing it of violating the liberties of British ‘citizens’ and blaming it for the rise in prices and poverty. He was suffciently committed to his oratorical performances to remove himself from the London Corresponding Society fearing that his continuing involvement would compromise that activity. Te Tribune became the perfect vehicle for Telwall to consolidate the success of his lectures and also reach out to an audience that were unable to attend them: 1,000 copies were printed weekly and sold for three pence, reaching out to those who could not aford to buy a ticket for Beaufort Buildings. Tey were taken down by a shorthand writer – the lack of which is the reason for the absence of the opening lecture of 6 February on the ‘liberty of speech and the press’ – and then revised by Telwall for publication. In an advertisement, he explained that achieving and maintaining a high circulation was his objective and though doing so would ensure that the expenses of the printer and shorthand writer would be satisfed, any signifcant proft remained unlikely and was in any case irrelevant to his enterprise. Tat said, a ‘fne edition’ of the periodical was also sold for sixpence for those willing and able to pay more. Te frst collected volume contained lectures from 14 March to the closing of the season on 20 June 1795 as well as Telwall’s letters to government authorities regarding the seizure of many of his belongings at the time of his arrest – possessions that included not only manuscripts and books but also numerous portraits, none of which were ever returned to him. It was sold for four shillings and sixpence in ‘common’ form and seven shillings and sixpence for the luxury version. Since the lectures that comprise the frst collected volume took place mostly in the spring and early summer of 1795, it is unsurprising that the main themes addressed concern Britain’s war with Revolutionary France and the unwelcome efect its continuation was having on the domestic economy. Among other things, the budget announced by Pitt in February, committed the government to loan £4.6 million to Austria in return for military support against France. Telwall relentlessly lambastes the Prime Minister for misleading the public over the state of the economy and expresses grave concerns about the debt under which the country ‘groans’ and the alarming number of bankruptcies announced weekly in the press. When tackling the war, Telwall’s case against it is made on several grounds, focusing on the human cost apparent – the depopulation by ‘sword’ and ‘disease’ – as well as the fnancial cost and includes an ominous observation that the waging of illegitimate wars that pay no heed to the public interest exemplify the kind of despotic behaviour associated with the ancien regime. For him, the only just war is one of ‘self-defence’ and his prophetic critique is intended to warn the government and incite the indignation of his listeners and readers. Te legitimacy of the Tory administration is further called into question by Telwall’s determination to recount in vivid detail the circumstances of his arrest the previous

Te Tribune, Volume 1

3

year, including his examination before the Privy Council. With clear relish he recollects his interrogation, keen to emphasize the twitchiness of Pitt and the lamentable combination of incompetence, cruelty and disregard for due process on the part of the state authorities. At the end of the frst volume, Telwall provides further evidence of the injustice he sufered at the hands of the government: his letters to frst the Secretary of State and then the Privy Council are included as documentary proof of his attempt to recover his property. Te Tribune thus aforded Telwall an excellent opportunity to preserve the image of the ‘acquitted felon’ in the public mind, highlighting the failure and mistakes of the government. So, on the anniversary of the arrest, he lectures on the concept of treason and its recent history and boldly asserts that because the defnition of treason is the act of betrayal, the real traitors are ‘found in that class of men who are themselves the prosecutors for treason’ because they have betrayed the trust of the people.1 Towards the end of the volume, he includes the lecture that closed his season in June. Te closure was motivated by his desire to recuperate in the summer months and to fulfl important familial obligations and the lecture concludes by restating two themes that run throughout the volume: the connection between happiness and liberty and the refusal to embrace political moderation, as such moderation will likely mean a ‘midway path between vice and virtue’.2 Te selections from the three collected editions of the Tribune we have included below comprises less than a third of the whole. Having such a limit makes the choice of what material to include and what to omit a frustrating and, to some extent, an arbitrary one. Tis situation was eased only very slightly by our decision not to publish lectures that had already been included in Gregory Claeys’s Te Politics of English Jacobinism: Writings of John Telwall. In compiling these lectures we were conscious of trying to present at least three diferent aspects of Telwall’s writing: his response to immediate political events, such as the war on France and the Treasonable Practices Act; his more abstract theorizing about the nature of liberty and justice and thoughts on the purpose of political associations; and, fnally, the lectures that were most performative, which provide both a glimpse of his distinct oratorical style and demonstrate how he used theatrical politics to his rhetorical advantage. We certainly hope that readers are not fully satisfed with this portion of Telwall’s journalism of the mid-1790s but that their considerably whetted appetite will encourage them to investigate in its entirety.

Notes 1. 2.

See below, p. 68. See below, p. 91.

THE

T R I B U N E, A PERIODICAL PUBLICATION consisting chiefly of the POLITICAL LECTURES of J. THELWALL

taken in short-hand by w. ramsey, and revised by the lecturer.

VOL. I. To paint the voice, and fx the feeting sound. HAYLEY.

LONDON: PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR, AND SOLD BY THE FOLLOWING BOOKSELLERS: D.I. EATON, Newgate-Street; SMITH, Portsmouth-Street, Lincoln’s InnFields; and BURKS, Crispin-Street, Spitalfelds 1795. –5–

THE TRIBUNE, NO. II.

Saturday, 21st March, 1795. … ‘Examination of Mr. Pitt’s Statement of the fourishing State of our Commerce.’ – From the Lecture on the BUDGET.1

CITIZENS, It is very well known that among those persons, who call themselves politicians, the frst object of calculation is revenue, by which their war and their projects may be carried on. It is very well known, that the lives of individuals are considered only in a secondary point of view: that they only calculate how long they can get money enough to procure men to be slaughtered at their command; and consider but little the groans, the anguish, the miseries, of those poor wretches who are devoted to destruction, and whose families they leave to still worse destruction behind them. If this is the case it is of some importance to state what situation they stand in, even with respect to their own system; to shew them how near they are towards exhausting those resources which are to them of the utmost importance. For if they should chuse to argue thus, ‘It is true the population of the country is considerably thinned; it is true that the sword has wasted many, that pestilence and disease in foreign climates has wasted more, that many have perished through the hardships and calamities to which they were exposed in this country, and that thousands and tens of thousands yearly fy from these shores to America, to avoid their portion of the inconveniences of the present ruinous system; but still we can raise Revenue, still we can bring money into the public Exchequer, by which we can hire men to cut throats at our bidding; and so long as we are served it is a matter of very little consequence in what country the individuals are born who are murdered for our pastime and aggrandisement.’ If, I say, they should argue in this way, it is of some importance to remind them in reply how long those pecuniary resources, so much dearer than the lives of human beings, may last. Remember the state of the public revenue, and know that however afuent, however powerful, however magnifcent in resources a country may be, however willing the inhabitants of that country to spend their –7–

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Selected Political Writings of John Telwall, Volume 2

last guinea, their last shilling, still the last guinea and the last shilling is all that you can have, and when they have spent the whole you can have no possible means of obtaining more. It will be of importance, then, to shew the very rapid accumulation of that public debt under which we groan.2 I say, under which we groan, for it is my intention to prove in the course of this lecture that Revenue is supported by the groans of those who are doomed, in consequence of the ruinous system we pursue, to labour without end, and procure no comfort to themselves and family by that labour. Citizens, I shall not now expatiate upon the cruel system of war in general; I shall not attempt to paint to you all those horrors which belong to a system of this kind: neither shall I attempt to bring before you, on the present occasion, all the peculiar aggravations with which the present war is attended; the infamy, the false and shufing pretences with which it has been accompanied; the precipitancy and pride with which it was rushed into; the vain boasting with which it has long been bolstered up; and the failure of every project by which those boasts have been supported. Neither shall I dwell, in particular, upon the depravity and wickedness of one country interfering with the internal concerns of another, and endeavouring to prevent any set of people from forming for themselves such a constitution a they themselves think ft. Neither shall I at present call your attention to the inconsistency of those who support this measure. I might, it is true, if I were so inclined, by animadverting on the constitution of Corsica,3 and the manner in which that constitution is said to have been formed, and comparing it with the doctrines and principles held up by those who have occasioned that constitution to be adopted, shew how themselves practically deny the very principal they have laid down; and afrm in the most open way every doctrine which those who have maintained the cause of liberty have endeavoured to uphold; that they have ratifed the universal right of the great body of the people to form their own government, to enfranchise themselves from one, and set up another; and that they have laid down that right as resting upon the system of universal sufrage: that is, the right every individual has of forming a representative government in which he himself has collaterally a voice equal with that of any other individual in the country. Citizens, Te ravages and depopulation produced by this war, as I have already observed are not the main object of this lecture, my present intention is to consider the waste of Public Revenue, the rapid manner in which, by exertion afer exertion foolishly directed and still more foolishly conducted, we are exhausting the power of the country, and drawing rapidly towards that situation in which the expences and the corruption of the system under which they live can no longer be supported.

Te Tribune, Volume 1

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Citizens, It is very true that the Honourable Chancellor of the Exchequer upholds a doctrine in the House of Commons, totally inconsistent with that sort of conclusion which it is my purpose to draw. But you are to remember what have been the doctrines and what have been the sentiments of that being during the last two or three years in particular. You are also to call to your recollection what sort of proof they have endured when they have been put to the test of experiment; and if you fnd that in every individual instance, when he has tried the experiment, the result has been diametrically opposite to the theory he has laid down, I shall then have a right to conclude, that you have no great reason to place any confdence in his professions and plausable stories, however able he may be to dress them up in the semblance of truth; however prompt to support them with bold assertions. If he set out with telling you that the English army would march to the gates of Paris, and is now almost in a paroxysm of despair lest the French army should be at the gates of London: If he promised you, at the very outset of the war, that in all probability that war would be terminated in the frst campaign, and if we are now at the beginning of the third, and he is telling you (truly) that fve times the resources are necessary now that were requisite when he frst commenced: If at the outset of the war he also promised you the wealth, the advantages, the exclusive possession of the whole West India settlements; and if it should appear to you that the result of the experiment has been that Sir Charles Grey4 and Admiral Jervis5 and two or three other individuals have in reality procured considerable and ample fortunes for themselves, but that the mass of their followers reaped no other harvest than the yellow plague, which, with great difculty, was prevented from being imported into this country, and raging with infectious pestilence among us also: If it should appear to you that in the present prospect of afairs (and I refer you to the ministerial papers) the strong probability is, not only that the islands we have captured, but our own islands also, will be ultimately seized upon by that people whom we threatened to strip of every thing; but who, if we prosecute this mad crusade any longer, are likely to strip us of every thing: – even of the independency of our own country. If all this be true, there is very little foundation for trusting to the boastful confdence of this man, when he tells you that the resources of the country are still equal to the protection of this war; that the purse of the nation, like the widow’s cruise in sacred writ, is inexhaustible; and the more you drain from it the more will be found at the bottom. He tells you it is true that the commerce of the country is in a very fourishing situation. But if this be true, how come the manufacturers of the country, upon which that commerce depends, to be in a situation so deplorable? How is it that notwithstanding all the depopulation that has taken place by the sword, notwithstanding all the depopulation that has taken place by diseases springing from the inclement season and the miserable

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condition of those who had not wherewithall to repel the inclemency of that season – neither comfortable food, proper clothing for their limbs, coals for their grates, nor glass to their windows to shut out the bleak and bitter winds; – how is it, that notwithstanding this depopulation, the most fortunate of those manufacturers who still remain can scarcely ever procure full work; and when they do, generally receive but two thirds of the pay they used to receive? – how comes in that so many hundreds and thousands of families in Spital-felds, in Norwich, and other manufacturing towns are totally deprived of all employment – are crying in vain for bread; and that you are obliged to raise large contributions in every corner of the kingdom – to do what? To protect the lame, the blind, the deaf, the dumb? No – but to aford half a meal to those individuals who still possess the power and the disposition to work; and who would, if the country had been wisely governed, have been able to have earned a plentiful subsistence for themselves and families: to have received much better pay, while at the same time every individual of the higher classes might have received encreased instead of diminished profts, from their labours. Tat manufacturers should decline and yet commerce increase appears almost as reasonable as that the whole surface of the earth should be buried under the ocean, add yet every species of vegetation be produced in greater abundance than before. But he tells you, that you are not to listen to arguments, you are not to listen to the sophistical declamations of men who persuade you that you ought to be discontented; that you are unhappy: for I tell you, says he, that you are happy; and I will prove it you. And how will I prove it to you? By shewing the quantity of enjoyment which you at this time possess? by shewing you that you and your families are well clothed and fed? by shewing you that you can keep comfortable houses over your heads, and that there is no danger of being turned out like vagabonds because you cannot pay the rent? – No; I cannot give you these demonstrations but I can give you better: I can set down so many fgures upon a piece of paper; and then, if you will not be convinced by the sacred truths of arithmetic, in opposition to all your feelings and sensations, then you are a grumbling, factious, Jacobinical set of people – a swinish herd – you ought to be muzzled with proclamations; you ought to be prosecuted for sedition; – you ought to be hanged, drawn, and quartered for high treason. Now for the proof of the fourishing state of your commerce, says this profound expositor of Cocker’s Arithmetic, look at the situation of your export trade; and you will fnd that at this time it is in as fourishing a situation as it was, even in the best periods, previous to the war. For in 1792 the commerce in British Manufacturers amounted to £18,342,000. In 1794 the exports amounted to £16,301,000. Te Foreign Merchandize in 1792 amounted to £6,563,000. and in 1794 it amounted to £8,868,000. So that the total of the exports in 1792

Te Tribune, Volume 1

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was only £24,905,000; while in 1724 the total of the exports was £25,169,000. Tus, then, according to his mode of argument, though the demand for British Manufacturers has avowedly declined upwards of two millions, the state of the commerce in this country is more fourishing than it was before you entered into the war; and therefore men are nothing at all, and money is every thing, you ought to continue the war to all eternity, because, though you lose your population, you increase your wealth. But, Citizens, if you will permit me to argue precisely in the same manner that the Right Honourable Chancellor of the Exchequer chuses to argue without your permission, there is no absurdity upon the face of the earth that I will not demonstrate. I am content, as he is content, to select nothing but facts from which I draw my arguments; but permit me to select such facts only as I please; and boldly assert that these are the whole of the facts, and there is no conclusion, however contradictory to common sense, that I could not prove. Especially if I had at my back so large and dead a majority of your representative, as they are called, as that gentlemen possesses, to cry – Hear! Hear! Hear! – are very bold assertion which fatters their prejudices and supports their interests. Grant me these advantages and I will prove to you that the blackest Raven is whiter than the driven snow, and that Pitt is an intelligent and upright minister. But, Citizens, suppose we investigate a little the delusions of this statement. I am not prepared to afrm whether, in this account of the exports are included the articles exported for the accomodation of the armies of Europe – the armies of Britain – the armies of our good and faithful Allies of Prussia, and of Austria – of the DISINTERESTED King of Sardinia – of the cordial Duke of Tuscany – and all the humane Princes and pious Prince-Bishops of the Germanic Continent – and ultimately, indeed, for those of France itself. – If, among the boasted exports, these are to be taken into the calculation, (and be it remembered that these are most assuredly entered as exports, in the books of the Custom House) we shall fnd a very easy way of accounting for a very considerable part of this extraordinary exportation. For, certain it is, that the quantities of commerce and manufacturers of a particular description, which have been sent out of this country, is such as so exceed all belief in those who have not had the good fortune (as I had during a part of last summer) to be, in some degree, spectators of it. But this, be it remembered, is an exportation that brings no return; and, consequently, is so many millions added to the losses and calamities, not to the resources and profts of the nation – so much to be deducted, not so much to be added in the calculation of our capacity to continue the present war. Tese things, however, are wrapped up in the veil of political mystery. Tey are not meant for the eye of the swinish multitude.6 And therefore, it is that the account is stated in the gross; and you are lef to rout out the particulars if you can – if your appetites are keen enough and your snouts are competent to

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the task. Te minister knows well enough – (It is the most important part of his trade; and if he had not been in the secret, it is impossible he should have kept his shop open so long) – He knows when to be perplexingly explanatory, and when impenetrably concise – when to throw down your lumps you cannot digest, and when to fritter it into wafers which you have not time to pick up, or beat into whip-syllabubs to amuse your eyes. And, therefore, it is that in the present instance, when speaking of your exports he carefully avoids particular enumeration. He gives you a lumping pennyworth at once, and then shines away about your happiness and his generosity to prevent you from investigating the materials of which it is composed. But, Citizens, to put this entirely out of the question – Let us remember another thing, namely, that the advantages of commerce do not depend entirely on the export trade. He should not only have told us what was sent out of the country; but he ought to have given us some hint (and I think he would have done so if it had suited his purpose) of what had been sent into the country in return. But here is the diference – If he had stated the import commerce, he could have stated only the amount of those cargoes which arrived safe in port; and the endless catalogue of raptures must have been deducted. But in stating the exports only, he was at liberty to calculate upon the gross amount of all the cargoes shipped by our merchant, whether they arrived in safety at the place of their destination, or were conducted under the tricoloured banner, to the ports of Toulon or Brest. If then we have been sending abroad every thing which the industry of former years has produced (and I have already shown you that it could not be the production of the last year that was thus exported) if that which has been sent out during the last year has not been returned by some equivalent, then the greater the exportation the greater the calamity; the greater the misery, the scarcity, the want, the desperation of the country. And why, let me ask – if the commerce of the country was so fourishing – Why has there been such a multitude of bankruptcies weekly recorded in the Gazettes? Why but because neither the specie of the country which is sent so liberally to continental despots, nor the exports of which so pompous a display is made, are repaid either by the gratitude of those despots, or by the returns of foreign commerce, so as to support even the ordinary circumstances of internal trafc. And how should they be returned? Te former is swallowed up in the insatiable vortex of German pride and tyranny; and the profts of the latter, from the superior energy of the republican marine, have found their way to the treasury of the convention. Let me observe then, Citizens, that unless those who boast of the fourishing situation of the country can state to us the returns that have been made for the commerce that has been exported, but little triumph will attach to them in consequence of the large exports partly occasioned by the frequent captures of

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the enemy, which reduce the merchants of this fourishing and happy country, though they are to be paid but once, to execute their orders twice, in consequence of which the double exports are entered upon the book: a circumstance which while it aggravates our calamities, has furnished the minister with the means of boasting of our prosperity and resources. And let it be remembered, that the vaunts which have been made by ministers of French Convention, that they should march to London in apparel procured by English merchants, victualled with provisions supplied by the English Government, and armed with the cannons, bayonets, and muskets, which the English themselves had forged, was not in all respects an empty boast. I shall not dwell upon the innumerable stores which have been captured in the struggle upon the continent. But let us remember that frequent statements have been made to the public, the authenticity of which may be established by searching the books at Lloyds, that more than twice the number of vessels captured from the French by the English, have been captured from the English by the French. Such is the excellent manner in which our commerce is protected, such the glorious fruits which the monied interest reaps for its blind attachment to the present minister! Nay, I state the diference too coldly. Te loss is not to be estimated by this numerical diference. Te vessels we have thus lost in predatory warfare, have been mostly capital merchantmen, fraught with valuable cargoes; while those which we have captured, in return, were principally small craf of little value; the important parts of the French commerce sailing generally in large feets, with strong convoys, under the wing of their whole naval power, and thus arriving safe in their ports in defance of our boasted empire of the ocean. While our invaluable merchandise – the treasure of our fouls! – But the contrast is too degrading. I forbear to conclude the picture. It might be too painful to the sensibility of our wealthy merchants: a set of men for whose wisdom and humanity I have certainly the most profound respect.

THE TRIBUNE, NO. III.

Saturday, 28th March, 1795. On the probable Consequences of continuing the present System of Ambition and Hostility. From the First Lecture on the Nature and Calamities of War.7

I Know very well that, even in the most superfcial manner in which this subject can be treated, there are many persons without these walls, and perhaps some few within, who may think this a very improper enquiry for an individual like myself to enter into. For it cannot but be known to you, that it is held out, by those who are the advocates of a system of corruption and delusion, that ‘those who pay ought not to enquire into the reason of the expenditure; and that those who bleed should never investigate the nature of that quarrel in consequence of which their blood is shed.’ But the friends of reason and of justice will hold a diferent opinion. Tey will be ready to agree with me, that it is, at all times, not the right only, but the duty8 of every individual to enquire into the nature of those transactions he is called upon to support; and that every individual, before he expends his property, ought to have some view of the application that is to be made of that property; and, before he rushes into scenes of slaughter and desolation, ought to be well assured that the principle for which he is contending is such that the happiness to society and to result from it, will more than amply repay all the desolation and all the scenes of horror which are to be produced. I am aware that to maintain doctrines of this kind – to afrm that man has rights, and that it is his duty to enquire into the nature of those rights; – to afrm that man is a moral agent; and that, therefore, it is his duty to enquire into the manner in which this agency is to be employed, are principles and doctrines which, in the present day, are stigmatized by the name of jacobinism. However, Citizens, though I never was particularly inclined to idolize that name, yet, if the distinction is to be drawn, if, as Montgaillard9 has afrmed; – there are to be but two parties, and every one who is not a friend to the ancient despotism and tyranny of France, is to be branded as a Jacobine: – if we either must wish for the restoration of the tyranny, and the establishment of something like it among ourselves, or we must be called Anarchists and Jacobins, I will put up with the insult: I will – 15 –

DOI: 10.4324/9780429349720-3

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be called an Anarchist or a Jacobine; for I know very well they are not names but principles that constitute the real value of the human character; and I never can uphold as a principle ‘the enormous faith of millions made for one.’ If, then, it ever was the duty, if it ever was the interest of the people to investigate the operations and proceedings of the government under which they live: – if it was ever right to enquire which is to be preferred, the peaceful reign of reason, arts and sciences, or the desolating dominion of war and slaughter, surely it is a ten-fold duty, it is a ten-fold interest, at this time, when we refect under what a weight and accumulation of burdens we groan; and how many calamities and disasters have blasted, at once, the prosperity and the same of Britain. Let us then make some little enquiry into that ruinous system of war and desolation under which we, at this time live; if life, indeed, it can be called, to that mass of people, so large a portion of which are shivering in want and wretchedness, and are doomed to untimely graves; not absolutely, it is true, by the griping fangs of famine, but by those debilitating diseases which are the consequences of the want of proper sustenance. We have long been amused with egotistical tales of British glory, national grandeur, and commercial prosperity. Tese pompous words, like the maxims and oracles of an ancient superstition, have been uttered from behind the sacred curtains of the cabinet: they have been dealt abroad by the high-priests of the house of representatives, and have been echoed again by the artizans drooping under their labour, and the peasants pining for want in the midst of that plenty they produced. From nation to nation, from shore to shore, these pompous egotisms have been re-echoed. National vanity has not been the peculiar property of any people; and the arrogance of Britain has been equalled, at least, if not surpassed, by the adulating vanity of the old despotism of France. Hence suspicious envy and rival animosities – Hence have two nations, two courts, I ought to say, and their deluded followers, been precipitated into mutual hatred, and scenes of cruel carnage, to gratify that vanity which had so insidiously been inspired. Hence comes the monstrous doctrines of natural enmity, and the supposition that every country which approximates towards another must necessarily be the enemy of that country; because its grandeur and prosperity (by which little more is meant than the splendour of courts and the power of ministers) might rival the grandeur and prosperity its neighbour. What has been the blessed consequence? Te old despotism of France depopulated her regions in a vain struggle for the universal sovereignty of the continent. Britain also has depopulated her country by an equally ambitious and ridiculous attempt at the exclusive empire of the ocean. And thus these two great boasters (the general disturbers of mankind!) would grasp the sovereignty of the universe: the one by her myriads of marshalled slaves, the other by her empire of the ocean. What has been the result? Look, in the frst instance, to the country whose ambition we have so

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long blamed, while we have been so fatally blind to our own. Look what were the fruits to the Gallic monarchy of this monstrous scene of war and slaughter, with which is so long embroiled and depopulated Europe. See the sinews of the state exhausted; see that grinding oppression which fell upon the lower orders of society; see that embarrassment of fnances which resulted from this continued struggle; and behold, at last, between its accumulated burdens, its vices, and follies, this fabric of gigantic despotism falls crumbling into the dust, amidst groans and carnage, and all the miseries that arise from disorganized society: – miseries, however, not to be considered, in general, as the crimes of those who immediately produced them, but of those whose monstrous vices – whose barbarous ambition – whose system of war and oppression rendered convulsion necessary as the only means of national salvation. Te people, when driven to desperation, will act from the dictates of despair. Revenues, when exhausted, must be productive of explosions fatal to those who have exhausted them. While absolute ignorance reigns, it is true, a spunge may be applied; and we have seen that France has in this manner, more than once retrieved herself. But when information and enquiry are afoat, a government that means to perpetuate itself, must cultivate frugality; frugality can alone be supported by a system of peace; and a system of real peace cannot be continued but by consulting the happiness and welfare of the people, and regarding the prosperity even of the lowest orders of society. Te old despotism of France, either unhappily or happily for mankind – But why do I doubt? why do I speak with sceptical difdence upon such a question? Why not afrm at once that the old despotism of France, unhappily for itself indeed, but happily for mankind, was blind to these great and important truths. A little more moderation in the rulers of the last half-century might have kept France in slavery to this day; might have prevented those explosions, it is true, and those calamities under which the nation has lately groaned; but it might have procrastinated, generation afer generation, and century afer century, a degree of subjection on the one hand, and tyranny on the other, to which I shall not scruple to say, no being possessed of moral and intellectual faculties ought ever to submit: and from which (be it sedition, or be it high treason) I cannot but rejoice to see mankind emancipated. With respect to England let us see what is the harvest which it has reaped from manuring the feld of glory with its blood, and sowing it with its treasures: from pursuing with mad infatuation the ‘bubble of sanguinary reputation:’ a bubble, it is true, which monarchs and courtiers may enjoy amidst the plaudits of a theatre, or the adulation of a palace, but which the peasant, and the artizan must ‘seek in the cannon’s mouth;’ and which when he has obtained, enables him to leave to his widow and orphans, no other legacy than beggary

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and wretchedness; no other dowry than the bitter fragments of charity that fall from the proud man’s table. Much has been said by historians of the triumphs of British arms, her glories in continental wars, and her magnifcent exploits by sea. We have not, it is true, heard many of those plaudits during the present war; but in former exploits of this kind, our ears have been tickled, our imagination infated, with pompous details of myriads slain in the feld of battle, and thousands, and tens of thousands of our fellow beings blown in mangled fragments through the air, or strewed like wrecks over the surface of the ocean. But what have been the fruits of those triumphs? what have been the profts of those glorious exploits, which humanity so much exults in? Look to your heaths and villages, your manufacturing towns and trading cities. See in every populous street, obscure hamlet, and solitary cottage, what happiness, what triumphs on every countenance. Behold the aged and infrm solacing themselves in ease and plenty; and the young and vigorous banqueting on all the harmless luxuries of the earth; enjoying every delight and every comfort which glory and honour and such big sounding words, if they mean any thing, must certainly include. Alas, alas! Wherever you turn, behold the sad reverse! – behold the melancholy efects of these victories written in other characters. If you will compare the condition of the lower orders of society, by considering what, in former times, was the degree of proportion between the prices of labour and the prices of provisions, you will see that all these triumphs have to the great body of the people brought nothing but a plenteous harvest of wretchedness, and misery. To the mass of the people, I say, (and facts will bear me out) no other fruits have been produced from these sanguinary labours, but misery and dejection; but ignorance and want. Tey, therefore, have but little reason for glorying in these mighty triumphs, or for hazarding their lives in support of this depopulating system. Would not this view of society lead one to suspect, either that there has been a great deal of vain boasting in those reports of triumphs and successful achievements, with which the page of former history has so infated the breasts of Britons? or else, that this glory is in reality nothing but a bubble, – a painted vapour, which, like the rainbow in the fable, tempts the deluded shepherd to fy from hill to hill in quest of an imaginary treasure, while the wolves of power seize upon his little fock, as the proper reward of his infatuation? Perhaps both these statements are in reality just. At any rate it is evident that, whatever may be the pompous language that is held out to us, this system of war and glory, instead of a project of national advantage (and by national advantage, I mean advantage to the great body of the inhabitants of the nation) is an evil of most enormous extent, to remedy the efects of which calls for all our energy, and all our unanimity. I say, Citizens, it is our duty to take this subject into considera-

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tion. And I also say, that if we consider what the state of Britain is at this time, and what was the state of France previous to that explosion which destroyed the monarchy and aristocracy of that country, we should fnd that aristocrats and royalists, if they could see their own interest instead of irritating the public mind by persecution, instead of aggravating the burthens and calamities of the people by an obstinate perseverance in this ruinous war, would ardently join in the endeavour to avert a similar catastrophe from the government of this country, by the only means by which it can be averted, – by restoring the country to peace, and immediately throwing a large portion of the burthens already contracted from the shoulders of the common people to the shoulders of those placemen, pensioners, and contractors who have been so long enriching themselves by this horrid trafc. For we must admit that similar causes will produce similar efects. If, therefore, the despotic Constitution of France was overthrown – and I am glad it was overthrown – [Tis sentiment was interrupted by a burst of enthusiastic applause.] Yes, Citizens, I avow that such is my abhorrence and detestation for despotism, that I rejoice in its overthrow in France. And there are some other despotic governments (I mean the superstitious tyranny of Turkey, the barbarous despotism of Morocco, the capricious cruelties of the Japanese) – which I should rejoice to see involved in the same fate. Nor would it grieve me much if the pious, orderly, and regular government of Russia, and the other conscientious Partitioners of devoted Poland, were on the verge of a similar catastrophe. I should be happy indeed if this overthrow in other countries were attended with less violence and fewer crimes than it has been in France: and I should hope that it would be so; because the example of the errors of France will be an awful warning to other parts of the universe; and when they shall choose to struggle for their liberty, they will have less of the illiberal spirit of suspicion, less intrigue, less disposition to slaughter and violence; more philosophy, more information, more experience, and, therefore, more temperance, more benevolence, and a more thorough conviction that principles and not men are the objects of attention. For men are but machines performing,10 under the inevitable laws of necessity, precisely the part which under circumstances exactly similar any other individual must inevitably have performed. And if men are not voluntary criminals – if their crimes are only the inevitable consequences of the systems under which they have acted, what justice – what necessity can there be to stain a holy cause with cruel vengeance, and infict a wanton punishment upon individuals, when the system is no more that produced their crimes. If, I say, then the despotism of France was overthrown on account of the abject misery into which the mass of the people were plunged by the profigate expenditure of the public money in foreign exploits and crusades, and the eventual embarrassments of the revenues of that country, it is the duty of ministers

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to take care that the orderly, benevolent and just government of England is not overthrown by a system of war and taxation inevitably tending to reduce the people and the revenues to the same calamitous situation. And yet, Citizens, much as this duty and this prudence should press upon the heart of every refecting man, what is the conduct of those in power? Consider how frequently shock afer shock, paroxysm of this frantic mania, this lust of war and glory has followed during the last century, and how debilitated the frame of this country has become in consequence. And yet the paroxysm of the disease is again upon us; and there seems not to be one political professor of the healing science inclined to examine how many more attacks of this voluntary disease the fbres and stamina of the country will endure without being shaken to dissolution. Citizens, when I frst began to deliver political lectures to a smaller circle than I have now the happiness to address, this subject occupied a considerable part of my attention; and I fnd (by looking over one of the few fragments which escaped general pillage of the 12th and 13th of May last)11 that I then endeavoured to state what the circumstances were under which we at frst engaged in this ridiculous crusade. I fnd I then stated that we commenced a war of the most alarming complexion with a debt of between 260 and 270 millions already upon our shoulders; with an annual taxation of near seventeen millions, and with a population which, though it appeared too large, considering the monstrous waste and consumption of those monopolists, who for destroying the liberties of the country are rewarded by its luxuries, yet scanty indeed considering what the country, properly cultivated, is capable of supporting if sheltered by the laws of liberty, truth, and equality: – I mean equality of rights, equality of opportunities for turning the faculties of the individual to advantage. If, Citizens, these arguments deserved any weight at that period, let us refect a little how considerably this weight is now increased. Let us remember the gigantic strides which these evils have made during the two short years in which we have been engaged in the present war. Let me recall to your minds some of those facts which in the course of the present season in have submitted to you. Let us remember, that during the last summer 80,000 individuals emigrated from England, Scotland and Ireland to the more happy and inviting shores of America; and that therefore the decrease of population, during these two years, by emigration alone, in all human probability, (particularly if we consider how during the last three months, accumulation of difculty has been heaped upon accumulation, how distress has been added to distress, and insult ofered in aggravation to insult,) we cannot calculate the whole depopulation from this source, at less than 160,000 useful inhabitants. Let us add to this the depopulation of famine and the sword. If you consider the immense armies that have been sustained on the continent; if you consider the expeditions to the West Indies, glorious and

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proftable to this country indeed! if you consider that even aristocrats allow that 247 ofcers lost their lives in that expedition, and calculate the general ratio with respect to the men; if you consider how small a portion this armament bears to the whole, and if you call to mind that the present number of troops on the continent bears a very small proportion indeed to the numbers that were sent at the very opening of the frst campaign, notwithstanding that month afer month, and week afer week, the youth of this country have been drained in hundreds and in thousands to recruit our armies, I think that my calculation of the depopulation by military and naval expeditions cannot be extravagant if I estimate it at 250,000 individuals. I know this calculation will appear very large, and I know very well that the human mind must be so flled with horror at the aggregate idea of 250,000 massacres – (for I can give the murders of an unnecessary war no better name) that your minds will be but little disposed to admit so large a calculation: but I believe I have not rated it too high. Consider then, that this depopulation is of the most serious kind; that our armies are mostly composed of men from that age when youth begin to increase the species to that period when they cease to be useful to the country in this respect; that you are therefore taking away the heart and sinews of the country; and that the men you slaughter in your ridiculous crusades might have doubled the population of the succeeding ages – as well as the present quantity of the necessaries of life. When you take all these circumstances into consideration you will palsied with terror and apprehension at the probable consequence. For consider, putting together the emigrations and the slaughters, you have an amount of 410,000, four-ffhs, (that is to say, 328,000) of which, at least, must have been the most efective members of the state, either for productive labour or necessary defence. Now you will consider, that the population has never been reckoned higher than twelve million. I take the three countries into consideration. Ten you will consider that of this population you are only to reckon one million and a half as efective men: that is to say, men capable of bearing arms for the repulsion of foreign interference. You have, therefore, a positive diminution in two years of nearly one fourth of the efective population of the country; and full one fourth of those individuals upon whose manual exertions we can depend for the necessaries and comforts of life: for the calculation of efective men is taken in all the ranks and classes of society; but some of these ranks and classes are employed only in destroying, not in producing the necessaries and comforts of life. I stated to you also, Citizens, on the last evening, that from 264 millions and an half our national debt was increased to 334 millions and an half. I gave you then the documents by which the fact was proved. I have stated also to you, from documents equally authentic, that the annual burthen was increased from something less than seven million to almost thirty-two millions and an half. Such then are the burdens under which we at present uphold the doctrine, that war is

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to be continued and depopulation to go on; that, though beaten at every point, though disappointed in every undertaking (not from the want of energy in the people, but from the want of virtue, justice and wisdom in those by whom the people have been deluded!) though disappointed in every expectation, though disgraced in every efort, though obliged to appeal to bribery and corruption, instead of the open and manly exertions in which this country used to pride itself, mixing, with Machiavelian art, in all the intrigues and vices of Italian politics; – notwithstanding all this, still we are told we are to go on; the government of France is not to be treated with; we are to carry sword and fre to the gates of Paris. Mark, Citizens, how these political mountebanks out-herod Herod. Laugh no more at the pompous boasts of Katterfelto,12 or the project of the Bottle Conjurer. Te Conquest of France has been advertised by the chief juggler of the day; and the credulous world has thronged to the exhibition; but when the seat was to be performed, the conjurer, as usual, escaped at the back door. ‘Te conquest of France!!! – O! calumniated crusaders, how rational and moderate were your objects! – O! much injured Louis XIV. upon what slight grounds have you been accused of restless and immoderate ambition! – O tame and feeble Cervantes, with what a timid pencil and faint colours have you painted the portrait of a disordered imagination!’ Such was the exclamation of the great oracle of Oppostion – the Demosthenes of the British senate,13 in his letter to his constituents of Westminster. Prophetic exclamation! How completely confrmed by every subsequent event! Yet still we are to persist; and though like a crab we have been travelling backwards for two whole years, we are still to keep our eyes upon the gates of Paris! and still in imagination to rout the Convention and destroy the myriads of armies they are pouring into the feld. But it is not only this accumulated weight upon our shoulders that impedes us; we are palsied, also, upon another side – look at the diferent situation of our allies: think of Holland for whose sake we are told we undertook this war – Look at the Scheldt. Will the Brabanters and the Dutch quarrel now whether the Scheldt shall be navigated? Will one side of the river co-operate with us while we are defending the other? Alas, the two banks are equally hostile; and to the right and the lef, those whom you called your fiends and treated like the worst of enemies; those whom you fought for, and those whom you fought against, are combined against you; and perhaps the navy of Holland, which sunk into such contempt under the torpid reign of the Stadtholder, may recover its wonted energy under a republic; and joining the navy of its new ally, may show the world that Batavians are the same people they formerly were; that it was the government alone that had become lethargic; and that freedom restored them to their wonted valour. And if for so many years, in former periods, they alone kept the navy of this country at bay, refect a minute whether by your haughty deport-

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ment, refusing to treat because it is the people and not the Stadtholder that sends the ambassador – refect, I say, what may be the consequences – if the navy of Holland unites with the navy of France; the nautical skill of the Dutch with the republican enthusiasm of the Gauls! should their united thunders be directed against the shores of this country. I own I do not look with that bold confdence upon the event which your rulers would pretend, while inwardly they shake with coward palsies. Holland detached from your side! Brabant, then wavering, now confrmed the friend of France! Tuscany, whom you plunged into war, whether he would or no, extricating himself by an honourable peace, granted with magnifcent generosity by that enemy whom we pretend to say is so treacherous that we cannot treat with them! Russia still slumbering over her promises and her treatises; fattened and satiated with the massacres of Warsaw; and exhibiting without a mask that regular and orderly government of which she is the consecrated head! Prussia receiving your money, but never furnishing the stipulated troops! accepting your subsidies with one hand, and with the other signing the preliminary articles of negociation with your enemy! Such is the picture of Europe! Such are the allies who are still to be treated with, and trusted afer repeated acts of the most fagitious treachery; while another country, from which you have not, in its present form of government, experienced any treachery whatever, you are told it is not to be treated with at all, because if it happens to break a peace forsooth, it will not be broken in that regular and orderly manner of which the diplomatic faith and consistent virtues of the old established governments have given you so many curious specimens. But still we have one hope. One wooden leg afer another with which we have attempted to prop up our decrepid cause, has, it is true, been broken and thrown away: but still we have a crutch on one side. We can lean upon Austria: and though we do pay a little dear for the support, yet it is better than to sufer an entire overthrow – Of what? Of our territories? No. Tey are only endangered by continuing the war. Of our prosperity? No. Te minister takes care that nobody shall share with him the honour of destroying that. It is the windmill of cabinet infuence whose overthrow is dreaded; the vanity and wild projects of our heaven-born minister! Yes, Citizens, we stand, it is true, upon the fckle hope of German faith. Te Empire, the Emperor – Hear the sounding name, ye crowds! adore the wonderful charm! Remember that even breach of faith ceases to be treachery when gilt by this pompous title! Remember that though repeated experience has shewn you the faithlessness of those who wear it, and though all the facts of history shew you the open sincerity of republican government – yet such is the magic power of this word emperor – and indeed of every other word that implies but royalty, that the very breach of faith proves you ought still to trust; while experi-

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ence itself can furnish no reason to conclude that you ought ever to confde in a country branded with so atheistical a title as Republic, Te Emperor’s promises, such as they are (though he seems to have modesty enough not to be extremely explicit in them) are still to be relied upon; and thus, crippled in your alliances, weighed down by debt, weakened by depopulation, we are to repeat our crusade; to rush once more into the feld of slaughter; and sacrifce at the altar of this infernal Moloch the husbandman and the manufacturer, whose labours might administer to the comforts and felicities of life. And all for what? To sooth the vanity and superstition of the monks and cowardly aristocrats of France, who monopolize the confdence of our minister and pour into the ears of our rulers that poison of despotic treachery which has already brought to the scafold their own unfortunate sovereign, who was weak enough to imbibe its infuence. For these, and their visionary prospects, we are to pursue the most expensive, hopeless, and ridiculous war ever undertaken in Europe: not excepting the crusade that lef so indelible a stain upon the intellects of the 14th century. If however one grain of refection still remains in Britain; if we are not entirely intoxicated by the mania of alarm, let us pause a little and survey the precipice upon which we stand. Still thy rude voice a while thou brazen trumpet, ere again thou provoke mankind to deeds of cruelty and wickedness! Silence awhile the dreadful thunders of the all devouring cannon; and let Reason uplif her powerful voice. For what purpose are we thus going to bathe our falchions in the blood of our fellow-men? For what reason are we to expose our bosoms to their destroying swords? Suppose you could succeed, my Countrymen! would your taxes be lessened? Would the commodities of life be procured at a cheaper rate? Would you – I put aside for the present the calamities and miseries you sufer during the struggle: Would you fnd yourselves in a situation more comfortable and happy? Would the wants of nature be better supplied? Would the innocent luxuries of life be enjoyed in greater abundance? Would your minds be more unshackled? Enquiry be more free? Would science – and above all, the science of political amelioration raise up its head with greater triumph than it did before? Alas! Alas! these are circumstances I fear never entered into the calculation of those who have plunged us into the present undertaking. Tese are calculations for metaphysical Jacobins and those who are mad enough to suppose that man has unalienable rights, and that one human being has as just a title to improve his faculties for the happiness of himself and family as another. – Such visionaries as these may enter into calculations of human happiness and human knowledge; but the enlightened statesman soars above them. His eye, sublimed above the clouds of common life, rolls in golden and beatifc visions; and dwells upon the sublimities of places and pensions; upon the heaven of power and emolument. Tere he bathes his luxurious fancy; wantons in the prospects of coronets, titles, stars, and coloured ribbons; and leaves to such insignifcant beings who think

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about their fellow creatures, the idle speculation of what is good or what is ill for man. But, Citizens, though placemen and pensioners may not think ft to enter into such calculations, it is worth your while to do so: and you ought to do it for yourselves. For if you will not enquire into your own rights, how can you expect that others will be so superfuous as to enquire them for you. If you do not value your own prosperity, why should others? If you do not think it worth while to make calculations upon your own happiness, why should others who have no connection, no common interest with you, trouble their heads about it? Tey can be more happily employed in counting their places, their Chancellors, their Tellerships, their Lord-Wardenships, their Treasuryships, their sinecures, and their patronages. And, therefore, if you will not enquire into your own rights, why blame others for not enquiring into them for you? How can you expect, that which you will not do for yourselves should be done for you by placemen, pensioners, and proprietors of rotten boroughs. To stimulate to this enquiry is the object for which I call you together in this place. Remember it is not from listening to lectures, it is not from frequenting now and then a debating society, it is not from turning over the leaves of a book, that you are to expect improvement and wisdom. Your minds must labour if you expect them to be benefted. Your minds must labour if you wish to discover that truth which, assisted by benevolence, may redress the wrongs of your fellow citizens and yourselves. If you will idly listen with implicit confdence to any man, it matters not who he is – whether priest, prime minister, or political lecturer. You may listen, it is true, to the doctrines of another; but if you make not use of your own reason to enquire and investigate whether they are true or false, you may be afected indeed with warmth and petulance, but will never attain the true philosophical light of truth and benevolence.14 Scrutinize every thing you hear from every one; and most of all, every thing you hear from me. I am a man, subject to all the passions and delusions of human nature; all the frailties of passion are upon me; all the ignorance which the prejudices early inculcated in the present system have a tendency to produce: and I have had many disadvantages in the pursuit of knowledge, under which many of you, perhaps, have not laboured. Tink not, therefore, that I wish you to take for granted every thing I tell you. You must have your knowledge not as the parrot has his by rote; but from the labours of your own minds; from the feelings and conviction of your own hearts. Tese will, I believe, conduct you to this conclusion, that war is equally a calamity to the nation that makes it, and the nation against whom it is directed; that the system of war has plunged this country into innumerable calamities; and that the overthrow of that system, the return of reason, and the permanent happiness of the country, can only be secured by a full, fair, and equal representation of the people in the Commons House of Parliament.

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…

NO WAR JUST but a War of SELF DEFENCE. From the Same. CITIZENS, A war of absolute defence is the only war that can be justifed: What criminality then must attach to those who are engaged in a war of a directly opposite nature. ‘If the life of one man is not to be taken away but on a principle of self defence, or on the previous conviction of his guilt by a calm and sober appeal to reason, how much more does it become us scrupulously to weigh in the balance of the sanctuary the causes for which we embark in a complicated war, in which the kindred blood of thousands of our fellow creatures is poured out like water by the unfeeling arm of a mercenary soldier?’ – Gerrald.15 Citizens – I do not mean to confne my animadversions to the war in which we are at present engaged. Principles and not men should be the objects of attention – the general system, not the individual instance. It matters little that you should put a period to the present war, if you are not convinced of the madness and turpitude of war in general, and determined to difuse those benevolent and generous principles of peace and amity which may prevent fresh calamities of this description, from falling again immediately upon your heads. No war can be just that is not politic; and by politic I mean productive of the happiness of the people; for how can that be good which does not secure the general happiness of mankind. No war can be politic but that which is engaged in for the real and actual defence of the Parent State; because, though it is good and right to exert all the energies with which we are endued, for the preservation of the individual, or the community, all wars for frivolous pretences (and I call all the ambitious schemes of courts and cabinets frivolous) however successful or triumphant, must cost more than they are worth; and the sole glory and triumph that you obtain is to see so many mutilated beings stalking through your streets, or flling your hospitals, and reminding you of the thousands of your fellow men, who have been slain in battle, but who might have been increasing the prosperity and real wealth of the state, if they had been employed in producing the comforts of life, instead of destroying each other in a ridiculous contest.

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THE TRIBUNE

Saturday 4th April, 1795. Narrative of the Proceedings of the Messenger,16 &c. on Te Seizure of J. Telwall’s paper; with his EXAMINATION before the PRIVY COUNCIL; Treatment at the Messengers, &c.

EARLY in the morning of Monday the 12th of May last Citizen Hardy17 was apprehended and his papers seized by warrant from the principal Secretary of State for the Home Department. It is unnecessary to dwell upon the circumstances of his arrest, they having been already published and disseminated. At the same time Daniel Adams, Secretary of the Constitutional Society, was also taken into custody, together with his papers, upon the same authority. Tese circumstances, of which I was informed three or four hours afer they had taken place, did not very much surprise me; as I had received very positive information on the Friday preceding that eight warrants for High Treason were made out, and that the names of Hardy, Richter, Lovett, and myself, were among those against whom they were directed. Afer such a confrmation of the truth of my intelligence, it was not easy to doubt of its correctness; and I was seriously advised to destroy my papers at least, if not to conceal myself. I had, however, some little knowledge of the Law of Treason; and I was clear in my mind upon two points, – First, Tat I had never been engaged in any transaction that came within the pale of that ofence; and Secondly, Tat prerogative, in England, was admitted not to extend to the seizure of papers upon any charge of a less serious nature. I took, therefore, the proper means for summoning an extraordinary meeting of the delegates of the London Corresponding Society for the ensuing evening; and then, without troubling my head about my papers, spent the day, with my family, at home, and went in the evening to the play. On the day following I spent the morning as usual in study, dined with a party of friends, with whom I was previously engaged; and returned home time enough to meet the Committee, at which the attendance was unusually thronged. To this meeting I read, and expounded, to the best of my ability, the Law of Treason, as laid down in Blackstone’s Commentaries; and compared this with the – 27 –

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conduct and case (so far as we could be acquainted with it) of Citizen Hardy. Afer which some resolutions were moved by me, and afer some unanimously adopted. – Tese Resolutions were in substance as follows: – 1st. Tat it appears to this Committee, that no person can be legally apprehended and his papers seized, in this country, but upon a SPECIFIC charge of High Treason. 2d. Tat as far as this Committee is acquainted with the conduct and deportment of Citizen Hardy, there does not appear the slightest foundation for charging him with that crime. 3d. Tat as far as the conduct of Citizen Hardy shall be found to be, as this Committee believes it entirely to have been, legal and constitutional, we will support him to the utmost of our ability. 4th. Tat this Committee proceed in the most solemn manner to such of the divisions of the London Corresponding Society as are now ftting to communicate to them the preceeding resolutions, and conjure them not to discouraged or alarmed by the violent proceedings of government, but to pursue, with unabated ardour, the object of their institution. In pursuance of this last resolution we rose in a body, at a little afer eleven o’clock, to visit such of the divisions as were then ftting expecting the result of our deliberations. Te members of the Committee, &c. went out before me; while I looked into the parlour to inform my family where I was going. I was then following to join my comrades; but before I got out of the buildings, I was met near the door by Walsh, an itinerant spy, and fve or six other persons, several of whom were wrapped up in great coats, &c. Wa. Mr. Telwall, I believe [ofering his hand.] T. Te same. Upon which the rest (among whom were Tims and Schaw the Messengers, King, Secretary to Dundas,18 and Carpmeal, one of the Bow-Street Runners)19 came up. Tims. Ten, Sir, you are my prisoner [Tapping me on the shoulder.] T. Very well, Sir, You will permit me, I suppose, to go home and tell my wife and family where I am going: and at the same time let me see your Warrant. Tims. O yes; you may go home, Sir. We accordingly turned back, Harry Eaton let us in, and Burks, one of the Members of the Committee, and now Secretary of the Society, entered with us; and was a very diligent observer of all that passed. It was, however, with some diffculty that I could get permission to enter the parlour, where Mrs. T. my mother, and a friend, were sitting. Having got in, I again demanded sight of the Warrant, which, afer much shufing and delay, was brought by Schaw. Tims put it into my hand; and I read it aloud, observing, that I never had the pleasure of feeling one of those pretty things before. It purported to authorize the Messengers, taking

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with them a Constable, &c. to apprehend Mr. Telwall, of Beaufort Buildings, for treasonable practices, &c. T. Mr. blank Telwall! – How do I know this is meant for me. Tere is another Mr. Telwall. Te warrant ought to specify the name. [I might also have objected to the competency of the charge; the law being explicit that the specifc Treason must be charged in the warrant. Tims. You are Mr. Telwall of Beaufort Buildings, I suppose. – Tere is no other Mr. Telwall of Beaufort Buildings, is there? – Now, Sir, give me your Keys; for I must have all your papers: T. I have no keys – [which was true.] Tims. Ten, Sir, I must break open your drawers. T. You must execute your warrant. But take care you do not exceed it; nor do any wanton injury to my furniture I tell you truly I have no keys – I make use of none. Tey then rummaged all my pockets – Tims took my pocket-book; and Carpmeal took my penknife. About the indignity of this personal search I remonstrated; but in vain. Upon my person nothing was found but a few memorandums of a private nature, which Tims put in his pocket. He then began to rummage the drawers in the parlour, where he found two or three printed letters, some lecture tickets, and some impressions of the portrait of Margarot20, which he put into his pocket. Tey were then, (some of them) going to other parts of the house. T. Wherever you go, I insist that I may go with you, to see what you take; and that you do not exceed your Warrant. With this they at frst made a shew of compliance, taking me all over the front house; where nothing was found; there being, in reality, nothing to fnd. As they went up to the back house there was a great knocking; they refusing to permit the door to be opened. We supposed, as was the case, that it was the wife of the friend who happened to be in the house with my family; and I desired that she might be informed from the window the reason why she could not be let in. Tims, upon this, immediately insisted that a coach should be called, and that I should be carried away. – A coach was called accordingly, and Tims, Carpmeal and Walsh took me of: Tims having frst informed my wife that she and the child might come and see me, but not a soul besides. H. Eaton. Shall I let Citizen Bonney21 know where you are? T. Certainly. Te word Citizen put the Messenger in a rage; and I was hurried into the coach. Te window was down, and Baxter and two or three more came up to the side of the coach. Baxter. God bless you, my dear fellow. [putting up his hand.]

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T. And you, my good fellow. [shaking hands.] Do not be intimidated, for I assure you I am not. Baxter. Where are you going? T. To Tims, the Messenger’s in Crown-street, Westminster. By this time the messenger, &c. had got into the coach; and with great ill humour and alarm, pulled up the windows, and ordered the coachman to drive of. Tims talked about political occurrences; and I requested him to drop the subject; saying, that situated as we were, it was improper; that we might fnd plenty of topics to amuse ourselves with; and spend our time pleasantly together; but politics I must beg leave to decline. To the propriety of this he readily assented. – I forget whether this was in the coach, or at the Secretary of State’s ofce. Five or six people (positively not more) running afer the coach, the messenger pretended to be afraid to go home; so they took me to the Secretary of State’s ofce, in Downing-street, where I was detained a couple of hours at least, and given to understand that I should stay all night. During this time, a tall thinnish man, a little pock-fretten, I think, and rather sallow in his complexion, who was treated by all present with great submission, and who I since understand to have been a very great man in the diplomatic world, came into the back ofce where I was. Lord – . What he is here, is he? Tims. Tis is Mr. Telwall, Sir, I was obliged to bring him here, for there were so many people running afer him that I did not dare to carry him to my own house. Lord – . Aye, aye, this is a proper place for men who have a parcel of people at their heels. T. [turning round and looking up at him, without uncovering]. Pray, Sir, what is your name – may I ask? Lord – . My name is a matter of no consequence. T. Certainly! Only I wish to know who I am indebted to for this very obliging remark. Lord – . I only mean to say, that men who have a heap of people running afer them are best in a place of security. T. It is a crime, then, to be popular. His Lordship stalked away: and I turned on my heel, repeating ‘Te man resolved and frmly just Adheres unshaken to his trust. To’ storms and tempests round him roll, Unmov’d will stand his dauntless soul, Not would the wreck his mind appal, Should the whole world to swif destruction fall.’

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One of the Attendants. Aye, aye, that may be said in a great many diferent cases. T. True: and happy is he who can apply it justly. Pray who was that gentleman? Tims. We cannot answer that question. Tat is a person of very great consequence. T. So I perceive. It was now between twelve and one o’clock. I had made no supper, and began to be very hungry. T. Pray am I to be kept here all night without any supper? – If I had the Secretary of State in my custody, I would give him something to eat, at least. Apologies were made for the delay; and, afer waiting about an hour longer, a proper guard having been provided to allay the fears of the messenger, (who seemed very uneasy at having such a wild beast as a Jacobine to take care of ) I was, at last conducted down stone staircases, and along endless passages into Crown-street, and immediately to the place of my temporary destination. Some of the persons present seem to have been very expeditious in giving an imperfect account of the conversation with the ‘person of very great consequence;’ for the next day it was reported in one of the papers, that, being taken before the Secretary of State, I treated him en Cavalier, and kept my hat on, as denying his authority.

SECT II. Narrative of the Proceedings of the Messenger and his Attendants, relative to the Seizure of Papers, &c. Tims, having thus, in spite of my remonstrance, taken me away before my papers were seized, the house was lef to the dominion of Schaw, the other messenger, King, private secretary to Dundas, and some Bow-street Runners, their coadjutors. Here they remained till four or fve o’clock the next morning. Nor was ever a more indiscriminate pillage committed under colour of legal authority (if legal it could be called) than that to which my house was subjected. Tey did not, indeed, absolutely take the furniture of my rooms: tho cumbrous, old fashioned lumber which satisfes the wishes, because it administers to the necessary accommodation of a Democrat, would hardly have rewarded them for the trouble of procuring wagons to carry it away: but every manuscript was seized, upon whatever subject – Poems, Novels, Dramas, Literary and Philosophical Dissertations, all the unpublished labours of ten years’ application – Successful or abortive it matters not – they were the fruits – Te creations of my own industry, and therefore were more absolutely my property than the estate of the landed gentleman or the stock in trade of the manufacturer. Whether they are worth six-pence, or six thousand pounds is of no importance. If such plunder is

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to be countenanced by the mandates of a Secretary of State, what intellect will be active? what property can be secure? It is difcult to conceive how the members of any government can have the assurance to talk about the protection of property, and yet refuse to restore the plunder thus impudently seized by their own ofcers, and under the colour of their authority. But they did not stop at manuscripts. Some hundred copies of my publications were also seized – some of which were on subjects the most distant from politics: and from no one of which did they think ft to quote a single passage incrimination of me. And thus, at a time when my family could receive no support whatever from my exertions, were they deprived of the only resource that could any way supply the defciency – the sale of my former labours. But if the indiscriminate plunder of manuscripts and publications appear a wanton stretch of authority, what shall we say to their seizing upon a considerable part of my library. As even the catalogue of my books has been stolen by these executioners of the mandates of the Privy Council it is impossible for me to state the whole of my loss: but among the books of considerable value which I have thus lost, are Godwin’s Political Justice, and Darwin’s elegant Poem the Botanic Garden. Two books, to replace which alone, the reader will recollect, will cost me near four pounds. To this catalogue of robberies I must add a very large collection of Copperplates – consisting of three volumes of book prints – portraits, historical pictures, and landscapes; together with several loose prints of diferent value, and a fne proof impression of Sharpe’s folio portrait of Tomas Paine. Tese efects were taken away in three or four coaches; and that they might preserve them entire for their new proprietors, they made free also with a trunk, and several green cloths that covered my tables, to pack them up in. Te pictures were in the study in my back house, all but some portraits of Margarot, which were in my front parlour. I had reason to know where the others were; for I had, on the very day of my arrest, bought some new plates and added them to the collection. Te print of Tomas Paine was between the leaves of Johnson’s folio Dictionary; where also Mr. Schaw, or his coadjutors, must have found the unsent, unfnished letter to Allum of America, which Tims, who was not present when it was found, swore upon my trial that he found in the pocket of Richter.

SECT. III. EXAMINATION before the PRIVY COUNCIL, &c. Te next day I was brought before the Privy Council; and while I was waiting in the anti-chamber, I saw Tims take a parcel of loose papers out of his pocket, from which he selected my pocket book, and a few other articles, with which he went

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into one of the adjoining ofces, and shortly returned with them tied up with a piece of tape or string, I forget which; and with a pen in his mouth. – In the course of this narrative I shall relate some other circumstances of the careful and orderly conduct of this being, upon whose oath it was thought ft that the lives of Britons should depend. When I frst went into the Privy Council it appears, that my conductor had not been cautious enough in waiting for his cue. Te actors, indeed, were all assembled, but the machinery was not ready; and, afer much bustle and confusion, I was ordered to withdraw awhile. In about a quarter of an hour I was called in again, and beheld the whole Dramatis Personae intrenched chin deep in Lectures and manuscript, some mine and some not; all scattered about in the utmost confusion. Te Chancellor was sitting at the far end of the room, Dundas near the door; and Pitt was standing at the far side of the table, behind the persons who were seated there. As there was more stage efect than dialogue in this scene, I shall endeavour to preserve the spirit of it, by marking in italics the passions and gesticulations of the actors. Attorney General. [Piano]. Mr. Telwall, what is your Christian name? T. [Somewhat sullenly]. John. Att. Gen. [Piano still]. How do you spell your name? With two l’s at the end or with one? T. With two – But it does not signify – Att. Gen. [Interrupting] With two, do you say? T. With two – But it does not signify. [Carelessly, but rather sullen, or so]. You need not give yourself any trouble. I do not mean to answer any questions. Pitt. What does he say? [Darting round, very fercely, fom the other side of the room, and seating himself by the side of the Chancellor]. Lord Chancellor. [With silver sofness, almost melting to a whisper]. He does not mean to answer any questions. Pitt. What is it? – What is it? – What? [fercely]. Att. Gen. He says he does not mean to answer any questions. Pitt. [Afer a pause, abruptly]. He had better consider of it. – He had better take time and consider of it. – Give him a little time. Att. Gen. [Mildly]. Mr. Telwall, you had better consider. T. I have considered, and I shall answer no questions. You need not give yourselves any trouble. I shall not answer. Att. Gen. [With great assumed politeness and humility]. It is no trouble, Mr. Telwall; it is my duty to ask you. You live in Beaufort Buildings, I think? I made no answer, but kept my eye upon the CHANCELLOR and PITT. Lord Chancellor [in a half whisper in the ear of Pitt]. He won’t answer.

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Pitt. [Afer a pause, with a mixture of petulance and embarrassment]. He don’t know what’s against him. – Better let him see what’s against him. Here, [reaching across the table] here let him see this paper. Shew him this paper. [Vide the Second Rep. Sec. Com. H. of Commons. Debrett’s edit. p. 24 and 25.] – Now, Mr. Telwall, do you know you are apprehended for treasonable practices, and that this paper was found upon you? I made no answer. It was a paper rejected by myself and all the Committee to whom it was referred; but I did not chuse to fx it upon the person it originated with. Att. Gen. Do you know any thing of that paper, Mr. Telwall? I made no answer. Pitt. [Very petulantly]. Read it to him. Let it be read. [It was read accordingly; Pitt keeping his eye upon me, with great ferceness of deportment.] Now, Mr. Telwall, it behoves you to account how that paper came to be in your possession. I was not of the same opinion, and therefore, made no answer. Att. Gen. Mr. Telwall, can you tell how you came by that paper? T. I am bold in the consciousness of innocence; but I shall answer no questions. Pitt. What’s that? – What’s that? [to the Chancellor.] Chancellor [half whispering in Pitt’s ear]. He says he is bold in the consciousness of innocence; but he will answer no questions. Pitt [fdgetting about upon his seat. His lip quivering, and his whole countenance convulsed with rage]. A strange reason that, for answering no questions, Mr. Telwall. – A strange reason, being bold in conscious innocence. – A strange reason for not answering. T. If I answer this, you will expect me to answer other questions; and it is no part of the law or constitution of this country to answer interrogatories to a Privy Council. Lord Chancellor [very gravely]. You do not come here to answer to the laws and constitution of your country, Mr. Telwall. [I ought to have asked what a Briton should answer to but the laws and Constitution of his country; but the fact is I was a little sulky, and did not think of it.] Pitt. What was that? – What was that? Lord Chancellor [with his usual sofness]. He says it is no part of the law or constitution of this country to answer to interrogatories. – I tell him he does not come here to answer to the laws and constitution of his country. Att. Gen. Were you at Chalk Farm, Mr. Telwall? [I made him no reply, but shook my head, and laid my fnger on my lips.] Att. Gen. Were you at the meeting at Chalk Farm?

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I made no answer. Te question was put to me again, and I turned round, and began to contemplate a drawing in water-colours, of a ship, that hangs over the fre place. Att. Gen. He won’t answer. Lord Chancellor [as usual, in Pitt’s ear]. No: its of no use: he won’t answer. Pitt. Don’t ask him any more questions then: – Don’t ask him any more. Its only putting him on his guard. Mr. Telwall you may withdraw. Exit T. cetera desunt Te scene was now shifed again to the Lobby – What passed, therefore, among the great actors behind the curtain, I cannot say. A great deal, however, appeared to be transacting around me, in dumb shew; and among the rest I observed, that King, the secretary of Dundas, took my keeper Tims aside, and appeared to give him some instructions with great emphasis of gesticulation. From the deportment of the Privy Council towards me, in which certainty, I had observed very little that, according to my judgement, was confdent either with good manners or humanity; and from the manner in which I had treated their questions, which certainly was not very likely to conciliate them, it immediately occurred to me, that the dirty, vexatious spirit of revenge, by which little minds in great situations are generally directed, had prompted them to order that my wife and infant should be permitted to visit me no more. – Tis suspicion was shortly confrmed. – Mrs. T. brought my little babe to see me the next day; but was turned from the door with the heart-rending intelligence that neither of them could be permitted to enter. Te same day (14th May) Henry Eaton (who had lived with me ever since I had been in Beaufort Buildings) was taken before the Privy Council; and examined. Te spirit and shrewdness of this boy were highly credible both to his heart and understanding; and I should be wanting in justice if I omitted this opportunity of acknowledging the fdelity of a youth whose unrewarded services, during the whole time he lived with me, had no other stimulus than zeal and disinterested attachment. On the present occasion, this zeal and attachment, assisted by a courage and presence of mind uncommon at his years, were particularly useful: for, in spite of philosophy, the husband and the father still cling to my heart; and to be debarred entirely the conversation of one with whom afection (not the laws) was the bond of union, and to be forbidden the sight of the little innocent which, almost from its birth, had been regularly the frst object to which I turned my waking eyes, was far more painful than all the rigour of a jealous imprisonment. An account of this boy’s examination, as far as his memory could retain it, was printed the next, or succeeding day, in the Morning Post: a paper which,

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from the frst of our prosecution to the last, had the spirit and virtue to vindicate our cause in the most direct manner. …

TAX on HAIR POWDER. From the Lecture on the Budget.22 THERE is one tax proposed by our enlightened Premiere that gives me great pleasure. I mean the tax upon that luxury with which people choose to furnish the outside of their upper stores: a fashion which originated, we are told, with two dull and miserable mountebanks, at a public fair in France; and who having racked their stupid imaginations in vain to excite the laughter of their gaping auditor, at last frizzled up their hair in a phantastic manner, and plaistered it over with four and grease. Te conceit pleased, and Fashion, ever fond of absurdities, carried the fooleries of a brace of low bufoons into the court of a great monarch. Tere is a particular reason why I approve of this tax. I think it is the most democratic thing that has been thought of for a long time; so mush so that it almost leads one to think there is some truth in the assertion, that the measures of the present minister are in reality intended to promote that spirit of democracy which he pretends to be so anxious to suppress. At any rate it is one of those taxes which I think every real friend to the happiness and welfare of mankind will refect a little before he pays: and I will tell you why. Much as I am attached to that manly simplicity which the worthies of the ancient world displayed; superior as I think the Roman or the Grecian head, superior as I think the simple habits of antiquity to the phantastical absurdities of modern dress, simplicity is not the only object of consideration. What is this superfuous ornament? What is it produced from? Would not that which you suppose decorates, but which I think most ridiculously disguises you, contribute towards the support of those who fnd it so difcult to procure subsistence at this period? Are you not wasting, at any rate, in unnecessary ornament, that which might feed the hungry and sustain the weary. Suppose, for example, every individual wearing this superfuous ornament, instead of wearing it, were to distribute its real value, in bread to the hungry poor, and put the superfuous price which he pays for the spoiling of this four into his pocket; let me ask if he might not fnd plenty of indigent individuals, by relieving whom he could purchase for himself a more noble satisfaction than this paltry superfuity can aford? Ten, Citizens, there is another point of view in which it is to be considered. Every guinea paid for this tax goes to prolong the present war. Te less productive the taxes, the sooner you must have peace; for if the speculations with respect to fnance fail, the sinews of the war are gone. Well then will you pay your guineas towards the abolition of freedom in France. – Do not be frightened, Citizens! I think I may venture to promise you that the ghost of French DOI: 10.4324/9780429349720-6

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Freedom will never haunt your pillows. You may try to do it if you will; but, if I have any portion of that divine inspiration which Mr. Brothers23 possesses in such miraculous abundance, I will venture to prophecy that so desirable a thing as the restoration of the old despotism in France never will be efected, either by English arms or English gold. Te question, therefore, is not whether you will abolish the freedom of France, but whether you will prolong the groans and sufferings of your own country. If you believe that the prolongation of this war is only a prolongation of the calamities of Britain, then I think it is fair and honest for every man, by every mean that has no connection with hostility, no violence, no turbulence, to throw every impediment he can in the way of the prosecution of the war, which he believes to be unjust, cruel, and destructive. Well then, suppose I should tell you a way by which you may dispose of your guinea better, and be four or fve guineas a year richer, in consequence of this tax. Te generality of those who have their hair dressed pay, I believe, about fve or six guineas a year for dressing it: I am putting the aristocrats out of the question, who pay half a guinea a time. I say nothing to them; because I know they will not pay attention to my argument. – Well then, Citizens, there are at this time languishing in cells and dungeons, upon charges of High Treason (and such charges of High Treason!) Citizen John Martin;24 for he is still in confnement, without any provision whatever, where he has not even an apartment allowed him, nor coals to keep him warm, but what he procures by that charity, which the tears of his wife may obtain from the casual humanity of strangers. Tere is also poor Smith.25 I pretend not to prejudge whether he is guilty or innocent. I tell you only the fact. I have my opinion, and always had from the frst – but Citizens, there is this man also lying in an unwholesome dungeon in Newgate, where he is, I believe, at this time expiring of the disease he has there contracted, and he has a numerous family without any means of support; – his own support is taken from him in consequence of his confnement; and the sale of a few little penny and halfpenny pamphlets in a little shop, the corner of Portsmouth-street, is the only resource of his wife and family. He has twice applied to men, too great for me to name, for medical assistance in his disease; and has procured no answer. – [He has since been removed to an apartment less miserable and had medical advice.] Tere is a Citizen Le Maitre,26 (whose spirited and sensible examination appeared, some months ago, in the Morning Post) locked up in a place by some called the Bastille: and as bastille means nothing but a place of solitary confnement, I shall not quarrel with the name. – Tere is also a Citizen Higgins,27 in confnement upon the same sort of charge. And there are other patriots in confnement under charges of sedition: though neither the lawyers themselves, nor the devil, their great coadjutor, could ever tell what sedition meant. Tere they lie languishing without the necessaries of life.

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Now suppose every patriotic individual who intended to pay a guinea for dressing his hair was to leave of that superfuity and pay the guinea in some generous subscription, not for their relief; that would be something like High Treason perhaps; but for the relief of their wives and families. You will then have done an act of benevolence which, I believe, your hearts would refect upon with pleasure, and be four or fve guineas a year in pocket into the bargain. Te following Speeches in the Debate upon the Powder Tax, contain information of so important a nature, that every individual appears to be called upon to disseminate them as widely as possible: Unless, indeed, we admit the doctrine of the Chancellor or the Exchequer, that the people ought to be kept in ignorance of their own situation. As the Speeches are copied from that violent Ministerial Paper (Te Times) there can be no room to suspect exaggeration in the statement. Mr. Dent said, that instead of exempting the army from the Powder Tax, he had hoped the Honourable Gentleman would have prohibited them the use of powder, or rather four; for as powder was 15d. per pound and four but 3d. they would consequently use four. Te army of Great Britain at this time was 150,000 men, and allowing a pound a week each man, made 22,800,000 pounds annually. Te consumption of the best wheat, also, in starch, from which powder is made, amounted to 17,500 quarters; if his information was correct. A great quantity was consumed in the heads of servants; as he believed most of their powder came from the drudger boxes in their master’s kitchens. At this time the country was not abundant in wheat; the crops had failed; and the prospect of the next harvest was not very cheering. From the late rains and bad weather, much mischief was to be apprehended, and at the same time we could not gain any stores from Poland; which heretofore had been used to supply us with wheat. Add to this, that the French were our competitors in other markets, and consequently lessened the import into this country. He had also been informed (probably the Chancellor of the Exchequer knew it also), that there was not sufcient corn in this country to last beyond July, at which time 60,000 quarters were expected from Canada. Te situation of the poor was at this time to be deplored; they paid nine-pence for a quartern loaf, which a short time back cost only six-pence; and this, perhaps, from wages of a shilling per day. Meat they never could get at its present price, and even scarcely a sufciency of bread alone. With all these circumstances under his eyes, he had hoped the Honourable Gentleman would have prohibited the use of four in the dress of the army for at least a year.

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Mr. Pitt objected to the irregularity of this conversation. He thought it dangerous in the extreme, and would tend to excite commotions, if those statements were to be disseminated. He denied any knowledge of such a scarcity of corn prevailing. Te following little article, copied from the Telegraph, as the calculations are more particular, will place the propriety of wearing Hair Powder in a still clearer point of view: and as the facts are unquestionable, it is hoped that no friend to the oppressed and indigent orders of society will longer disguise himself with that ridiculous ornament. ‘Te military force of Great Britain, including foot, horse, militias, fencibles, &c. in England, Scotland, Ireland, and elsewhere, amounts to about 250,000 men, each of whom is supposed to waste upon his head a pound of four per week: 250,000lbs. a week make no less than 6,500 tons weight a year – a quantity of four sufcient to make three millions, ffy-nine thousand, three hundred and ffy-three quartern loaves, and to supply 50,000 people with bread for twelve months. ‘Tis calculation proves what a good efect the total abolition of the use of Hair Powder might have upon the price of bread; but when you add to the above a calculation of the four which will be used by persons privileged under the new tax, whose numbers cannot be fewer than 500,000, it will then be found, that there are 750,000lbd. of four used per week for the hair, which would make in a year 19,500 tons, or nine millions, four hundred and eighteen thousand and ffynine quartern loaves; a quantity of bread sufcient for the use of one hundred and ffy thousand men, women, and children. ‘From the above statement we are authorised to say, that it would be more for the honour of our legislature, and the beneft of the nation, to prohibit the use of four, or powder for the hair, altogether, than to lay a partial tax upon those who use it, for the purpose of prolonging a war which has been too long continued, and the efects of which the people of this country so severely feel.’ Who afer reading these facts, can do otherwise than admire that honest and respectable member of the House of Commons, John Martin, who with every grain of powder combed out of his head, stood up, and afer vindicating the dignifed simplicity of the human form, in opposition to the ridiculous foppery of fashion, declared, that ‘though as a measure intended to support the war he reprobated the tax; yet as a means of preventing the unnecessary consumption of four, at a time of such alarming scarcity, it has his hearty concurrence and support.’

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Tere is another circumstance relative to this interesting subject, which deserves some enquiry. It is reported, upon pretty good authority, that an American merchant waited upon a certain great Oeconomist and Calculator, and informed him that he could supply him with a large quantity of corn at a given price. But he was answered with great hauteur, that no corn was wanted in the country; that rumours of scarcity had been artfully spread abroad for the purpose of enabling merchants to be extravagant in their demands; but that the country was in reality very well supplied. Tis, however, was nothing more than one of those commercial tricks, very common between traders, when they wish to bear one another down in their prices, and which the Calculator had learned from having been for the last twelve or thirteen years chief managing clerk in a very great counting-house; for shortly afer he sent a message to the merchant, that he should be glad to have the corn on the terms proposed. But ‘If you will not when you may, When you would you must have nay.’

Te corn was already disposed of to the agent of a foreign country; and in all probability may ultimately fnd its way into the ports of France. No person surely will blame an agent for making as good a bargain as he can for his employers; but while so large a portion of the public revenue is swallowed up by placemen and pensioners – and when the wicked and ridiculous project of starving the people of France, has brought our own nation to the very brink of famine, ought the subsistence of millions of people to be thus coquetted with, that a self-opinionated arithmetician – an ofcial adept in the rule of three – may have a chance of boasting that he can outwit the Jews of ’Change Alley at a bargain!

THE TRIBUNE, NO. VIII

Saturday, 2d May, 1795. Historical Strictures on WHIGS and TORIES. – From the FIRST LECTURE On the Distinction between PARTY SPIRIT and PUBLIC PRINCIPLE.

AMONG the innumerable evils which have been entailed upon mankind by party names, there is one which deserves particular attention; namely, that they have a tendency to perpetuate divisions between one body of individual and another, long afer all the principles which were in agitation between them have dies away; and thus by creating the appearance of distinction where, in reality, it does not exist, delude the public mind, lead it from the investigation of general principles to the contests of individuals, and make them, instead of virtue, the objects of adoration. I do not mean, Citizens, to contend with you, that while governments continue to be constituted as most governments at this time are, that society can be expected to exist without such distinctions. I am very well aware, that while corruption shall domineer, and tyranny overwhelm, there will necessarily be lines of distinction between the great body of the people and their rulers. One part of the nation will be advocated for the rights of the people, and the other sycophants to the power that can reward their adulation. I am sure, that while this system lasts we must always have some who will idolize authority and be advocates for the prerogatives of rulers; while others, I hope, we shall always have who will stand forward as champions for the imprescriptible rights of man, and maintain, with frmness and ardour, the duty of government to promote the general happiness and welfare of the human race. ‘Tere is no city,’ says Machiavel, ‘but is divided into two factions; because the nobles always seek to command and oppress the people, and the people to save themselves fom obedience and oppression.’28 And the most revered of ancient historians, by shewing us that the same character prevailed in the aristocracy of ancient Rome, as Machiavel ascribes to that of modern Italy, lead us to conclude that the vice is in the institution and not in the particular individuals. ‘Avarice and insolence,’ says Tacitus, ‘are the common vices of the great.’ ‘Pride and arrogance,’ – 41 –

DOI: 10.4324/9780429349720-7

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says Patercullus,29 ‘are natural to nobility.’ And Montesquieu, though himself a member of the aristocracy, fnishes the picture by describing ‘ignorance, indolence, and contempt of civil government’ as the ‘natural characteristics of the nobles.’30 It is evident, therefore, that while society is so organized, parties, in one sense, that is to say, contentions of opposing interests must continue. While such systems exist it is in vain to look for that unanimity which proceeds from languor and indiference on the one hand, or from a universal spirit of liberty on the other. It is only when governments are so constituted either that nothing but despotism and doctrines of despotism can be promulgated, or that the interests of the governors and governed are united together that such unanimity can prevail. I will not pretend to say under what particular forms of government the latter may be expected, for the future, best to fourish; but certain it is, that, if we regard the history of mankind, we shall fnd that those which have been farthest removed from the government of an individual, and have tended most to the republican system, have been those in which this virtuous concord has most prevailed; and in which the most glorious efects have consequently been produced to mankind. It is not my duty, however, to point out modes and forms of government. It will be more instructive, perhaps, to keep the eye fxed upon that state of society, which, in theory, we ought to enjoy in this country, to compare how far this theory and the practice agree together, and what are the pernicious excrescences which have grown out of the government to the detriment of this theory. As long as this country has been distinguished by any spirit of enquiry or liberty, it has been divided regularly and uniformly into two parties. At frst we had no other division than that which resulted from one party supporting the individual authority of the sovereign, and the other maintaining the power and the equal prerogatives of the aristocracy. Te contentions of the aristocrats of former periods, who were the only persons who had power or light enough to contend, have been marked with great approbation in the pages of history; in some instances perhaps with more than they deserve, compared with the present state of political illumination, but certainly not more than they merited, considering the state of society in which those exertions were made. I refer you particularly to those contentions which took place during the reigns of John and Henry III. – contentions which, though really in support of aristocratical privileges, with very few exceptions, produced what has been considered as the foundation or ground work of the British Constitution. I shall not enter into the merits of the Magna Charta. It is a melancholy task to investigate the merits of departed friends! I shall not, therefore, enter into the merits or defects of that great instrument, as it is called, of our liberties. It

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is enough to observe that it formed a barrier between two great parties in the nation; one of which was sometimes prevalent, and sometimes the other. We fnd, however, that they agreed uniformly in one principle, namely, to keep no faith while they had the power in their hands to break it. Sovereigns and nobles vied with each other in the arts of treachery and perjury, and all the powers of the priesthood assembled to give countenance to their proceedings. Tey stood with lighted tapers in their hands, and swore to observe the provisions of the Great Charter and Charta de Foresta, they threw down their candles, and with solemn imprecations wished that the souls of those who should violate them might so expire and stink in hell (such was the elegant language of the times) as the tapers stunk and expired upon the earth. But no sooner was the sword hid in the scabbard, no sooner was the armour hung in idle trophies in the halls of the respective Barons, than the Charters were violated, the provisions of liberty, such as they were, repealed; and the sovereigns, once again, such is the infatuated thirst of power which particular ofcers create, aimed at arbitrary dominion and attempted to support it by mercenary troops and alliances with foreign despots like themselves. Te barons, not more nice, when they had got the king entirely in their power (as sometimes happened) continued to rule, in his name it is true – for ministers, you know, can make use of the name of the sovereign when they have usurped all the power to themselves! – Tey continued to make use of the name of the sovereign, but grasped to themselves the power; and oppressed at once both the prerogatives of the crown, and the rights and liberties of the people. Tese parties difered, in some degree, from the factions of the present day. It was not a mere struggle who should be in place and who should be out. One party contended to support an absolute despotism over the whole, and the other struggled for the emancipation of a class. Tey had one thing, however, in common with modern parties. Tey had no frst principles, no great lights of truth and virtue to guide and direct them; and they were therefore totally indiferent about the interests of the great mass of the people, any further than as it was necessary to hold out to them some shew of favour and advantage to persuade them to be subservient to their views. In later periods other struggles have arisen. Te accession of the family of the Stuarts, happened at a period when mankind were considerably enlightened. Enquiry had gone abroad; and there were some persons who could read and write, aye, and understand what they read into the bargain, who were neither priests nor nobles. Enquiry getting thus abroad, the mass of the people began to feel a disposition to attain a degree of liberty for themselves, and we soon had the appearance of parties formed upon something more like principle than any thing evident in the former parts of our annals.

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I shall not dwell upon passages of history so well known. It will be necessary only to call your attention to the names, the description, and the nature of the parties which existed at that period. We shall fnd that in the distinctions of Whig and Tory, whatever may now be the case, there was, originally, an actuating motive in one diferent from that which prompted the other; and that they were not, in the frst instance, merely nick-names for two factions mutually struggling for the attainment of the same object. Citizens, we shall fnd that Whig and Tory, originally meant, in this country, precisely the same as Aristocrat and Sans Culotte now mean in France. I know very well, Citizens, that I have been tried for High Treason for calling myself a Sans Culotte, and that some who are called Whigs are not very well pleased at the term. To such Whigs I may be expected to make some apology, before I endeavour to prove that, if they mean any thing when they talk of Whiggism, they have no right to fnd fault with those who boast of their Sans Culottism. But apology is not the language of the advocates of truth, and if I can convince them that the thing is as I state, it is not for me to enquire, whether they will be pleased or displeased with the conviction. Bishop Burnet informs us, that the origin of this title of Whig, is to be traced to Scotland. He tells us, that the South West countries of Scotland, not containing a sufcient quantity of corn for the consumption of the inhabitants, and the Northern portions of the country producing a larger quantity than was necessary for their consumption, a great fair was held at Leith, to which the inhabitants of the Northern part used to convey their grain, where the Whiggamors of the South, that is to say, the drivers of Whiggams, or wagons, used to come to purchase the corn wanted in their respective towns and villages. Now it happened, that some how or other, these Whiggamors, coming to Leith, happened to pick up something besides the grain which they came to buy. Tey happened to pick up some degree of intelligence, relative to the oppression of their country, (feeling enough of it themselves) and the causes of that oppression, and to contract thereby a desire for redress. Afer the defeat of the Duke of Hamilton’s army, the ministers, I mean the preachers of that part of the country, animated the people to seek a redress of their grievances; and they accordingly went to the amount of 60,000 to Edinburgh, where they were headed by the Marquis of Argyle. Tis was aferwards called the Whiggamore insurrection; and by way of abreviation, the insurrection of the Whigs. And the Aristocrats, by way of fxing an odium upon the advocates of liberty, called them all, in terms of contempt, Whigs, or persons so poor and wretched, that they were obliged to drive their own teams to market. Tus the title at frst fxed upon the common people of Scotland, became aferwards to be applied to all persons, of whatever rank or condition, who were advocates for those people. From Scotland it travelled in time to England, and eventually

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supplanted the name of Roundheads, by which the partisans of the Parliament were at frst distinguished. Tus, then, by Whigs, is meant nothing more than the common people, or advocates for the common people. Now let us see what is the meaning of Sans Cullotte. Te wretchedness of the common people of France under the old despotic government is well known. It was very common in the streets of Paris to see numbers of poor half naked beings shivering in want and wretchedness. Hence they came to be called Sans Cullottes: that is to say, people so wretched as not to possess a pair of inexpressibles to conceal their nakedness. Precisely in this sense was the term Sans Cullottes made use of at the beginning of the present revolution. Te enlightened friends of mankind, however, soon began to refect that there was no great crime in being poor, and therefore thought it no shame to be considered Sans Cullottes themselves. Warmed with generous feelings they disdained to see these poor beings trampled on earth; and then treated with ignominy and insult because they were so trampled. Tey felt a common interest with their oppressed fellow Citizens, and claimed fellowship with them. We are Sans Cullottes also, said they; we uphold the principle that the multitude was not made for one or two individuals; but that government was instituted for the beneft of the multitude; and that, therefore, the Sans Cullottes ought to be so provided for and protected by the constitution of their country that distinctions so odious and contemptible might be wiped away. Tus terms of reproach became converted into expressions of public virtue and principle; and men were found in all ranks and departments of society, who were not ashamed to acknowledge that the human being shivering in want and nakedness was still one of his brethren: and that it was his duty to labour for his emancipation from such misery. Citizens, Another defnition of the term Whig, which some historians have insisted upon, is somewhat diferent. It will bring you, however, to the same point, and shew you that the principle of defending the rights of the lower orders of society was all that was meant by this name. Tere was a particular sort of butter milk in Scotland, the general food of the lower orders of society, which was called Whig, whence Whig-eaters and Whigs – a name equally descriptive of the lower orders of society, who were guilty of the abominable crime of being only able to obtain four butter-milk for their food and sustenance. Now, Citizens, having shewn that by Whig, or Sans Cullottes, or Swinish Multitude, nothing more is meant than the common, that is, the great mass of the people, let us see what is the origin of the word Tory. We shall fnd, I believe, that it resembles pretty much the idea that most people at this day begin to entertain of Aristocrats: – I do not mean by Aristocrats those men who, from never having considered the subject, and not understanding, in reality, what the principles of either party are, have been led by the visionary ravings of Burke and Wynd-

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ham, to suppose that Sans Cullottism means cutting throats, and that Aristocracy means preserving property. Such infatuated dupes deserve our pity, but are not entitled to our reproach. Tories, then, was a name given in the time of the Stewarts to the party at frst distinguished by the title of Cavaliers, – supporters of royal prerogative, supporters of the absolute dominion of a few over the great multitude. Te word Tory was a name originally belonging to an Irish banditti; a set of robbers who infested the mountains of that country, and committed all sorts of depredation upon the property of those who happened to fall within their power. Tat is to say, whenever they could get an opportunity, they levied taxes upon the people without waiting for their consent, or that of their representatives. Tese Aristocrats of the woods and caves becoming so powerful as to foment an insurrection and rebellion in Ireland, and the kind and his court being suspected of conniving at that insurrection, and being, by his agents the Cavalier Party, the prime mover of it, the name of Tory, by way of retaliation for the name of Whig was given to all the supporters of arbitrary authority, who believed they had a right to take the money out of the people’s pockets without the sanction of genuine representation. Tus Whig originally meant a poor man, or an advocate of the rights of the poor; Tory meant a plunderer, a robber; one who thought that a few have a right to commit indiscriminate spoil upon the great mass of mankind. Tus, Citizens, these names are in reality as ancient as the frst struggles between the people and their governors upon principles of liberty in this country. And you may see that they did originally convey some sort of meaning. For a considerable time, however, the old distinctions of Cavalier and Roundhead continued to be more familiar in England. Te time when the names of Whig and Tory were pretty universally admitted on this side the Tweed is supposed, by Rapin, to be at the period of the unfortunate restoration of Charles the Second. I say unfortunate restoration. It has frequently been called the happy restoration, and glorious restoration; but let us not be abused by terms and epithets. Unhappy indeed must it be for any country which, afer a long and unavailing struggle for liberty, has a monarch restored to absolute despotism, uncurbed by any of those restrictions which the friends of virtue and humanity would wish to prescribe. Te intrigues of Hyde, aferward Lord Chancellor, and Monk, Earl of Albermarle, whose name has been so sounded and idolized, together with a few partizans, occasioned Charles II. to be restored without compact or conditions. So that afer so many years of struggle and commotion, the country was tricked and cheated by a few individuals into the relinquishment of every advantage which those struggles and commotions ought to have secured. What the con-

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sequence was, we know full well. Te country had aferwards that to do again which it had done better before; and afer struggling, year afer year, with the imperious despotism of Charles was obliged to drive James II. and his posterity out of the country for ever. At the time when the party names I have been speaking of, were generally and universally adopted I am afraid a very considerable diference had taken place relative to the real meaning of the distinction. Te Tories, it is true, still continued to resemble those great and worthy characters of Ireland, from whom they had taken their name. Tey still continued to plunder the people in so remorseless and shameless a manner, that were it not for the recollection of recent examples, we should not be able to persuade ourselves that ministers could be found with profigate impudence enough to attempt, or people who were so tame as to endure it. I am afraid, however, that those who continued to call themselves Whigs, did not preserve their principles in the same vigour. I cannot say that during the struggles with Charles and James, there does to my eye appear much of that disinterested virtue which had bloomed forth in the character of Hampden who sealed his principles in blood, or those great and immortal colleagues whose struggle in the holy cause of liberty will command the admiration of mankind, so long as history shall remain and curiosity explore its page. Afer the fall of Sidney, at least, the names of Whig and Tory began to be little more than distinctions of two parties who were mutually struggling for the attainment of the same objects – places of emolument and distinction. Te characters of these two parties have been so ably sketched by the pen of Rapin31 that I shall take the liberty of quoting his own words, ‘Were you to rely on what is said by both, nothing is more just, more equitable than the motives by which they are actuated, namely, the glory of God, the honour of the king, the public good and the welfare of the nation. For my part, if I speak my mind, it is my belief that, as they are all men, interest is the main spring of all their actions. Since the two parties were formed each has earnestly laboured to gain the superiority over the other because this superiority is attended with posts, honours, and dignities, which are conferred on their own members, by the prevailing, in exclusion of the contrary party. Tis made King William say,’ – for the Dutchman had some penetration. He understood pretty well, that as it was better to have a Crown than a Stradtholderate, so also it was better to have a place under that Crown than to have no place at all. ‘Tis made King William say, that if he had places enough to bestow he could soon reconcile the two parties.’ Indeed, Citizens, when we consider the very constitution and organization, if I may so express myself, of parties, it is impossible such distinctions can have any permanent meaning connected with principle. For mark their language. Tory families! Whig families! as if principles, as well as estates, could be entailed by a piece of parchment, or man could take the inheritance of virtue as he takes a fam-

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ily name! How can it be supposed that any house, as it is called, generation afer generation, century afer century, should be more inclined to favour the rights and liberties of mankind merely because the ancestors of that House maintained those principles of old? – as if virtue were only an exhalation of putrid efuvia from ‘dead men’s bones, and dust of rotten ancestry.’ Citizens, men of penetration have long seen through this mask of faction. Tey have long seen that Whiggism and Toryism were, in reality, nothing but stalking horses of aristocratical ambition. Whig and Tory had become so notoriously mere words of empty import, so early as the year 1711, that Dean Swif, though himself an adherent, in some sense, to the Tory faction, observes, ‘By this time all disputes about those principles which used originally to divide Whig and Tory in justice to have been so too; provided we could have found out more convenient names whereby to distinguish lovers of peace from lovers of war.’32 I shall not pretend to support in this place the insinuation of Swif, that the Tories are friends to peace and Whigs to war: but I will say that if we are to have party distinctions, I could wish for such as have some meaning. Lovers of peace and lovers of war are certainly of this description. I hope, however, if this rational distinction does take place, I will be founded upon principle, and not upon family compact. I hope also, as the eyes of the people seem to be opening, that we shall soon fnd none in the party of the friends of war but the Ministerial Cabal, their Commissaries and Contractors, who are fattened by the general ruin and desolation. But, Citizens, it cannot be concealed, that all parties have supported the system of general carnage; nor can it be otherwise so long as things are constituted as at present. So long as war can create a wide and extensive patronage; and one man, by means of corruption, perverting that which is called a House of Representatives, into a mere ‘expensive chamber for registering the edicts of a Minister,’ can grasp that patronage in his individual hand, so long will every man who shall be frmly fxed in the seat of power, wish to plunge nations and continents into war, that he may reap the harvest of wealth and power which war creates. Accordingly we fnd, that the Whigs had no sooner placed their idol, William III. upon the throne, than this nation was plunged into a crusade almost as mad as the one in which we are now engaged. Two partition treatise were signed between this Royal Republican, this Stadtholder metamorphosed into a King, by the summer sun of Britain, like a grub into a butterfy in the month of May! – Two partition treatises were signed by this Dutch Saviour of Britain, and other Sovereigns of Europe, to divide the kingdom of Spain; to fx the succession of a country to which they had no right; and to force Kings and Constitutions down the throats of the people of that country. Tis ambitious project sowed the seeds of incessant war; and the swords of the contracting parties were alternately

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turned against each other’s bosoms, as seems likely to be the case among the still more frantic crusaders of the present day. In the reign of Queen Ann too, we fnd our famous Whigs, our lovers of the rights and liberties of the people, obstinately persevering in the war of the Grand Alliance, till the exhausted treasures, and miseries of the country roused a general indignation against the very name of Whiggism, and rendered popular, for awhile, the monstrous doctrines of Toryism. – Hence the wretch Sacheverell became popular by blaspheming common sense, and publicly upholding ‘divine right’ and ‘passive obedience:’33 And when doomed to punishment by the sentence of the law, (for this is an argument which Whigs can use as well as Tories: – they also can answer by prosecution, and refuse by punishment!) we fnd this very Sacheverell, by doctrines so preposterous, swelled into dangerous importance, and made the idol of the giddy populace. But the triumph of Toryism was of short duration. Te Whigs returned to power, and maintained a general ascendancy till the present Sovereign happily came to the throne. It must be admitted, Citizens, that the Whigs certainly had done important services to the House of Brunswick; that it was by means of these Whigs that the settlement in their favour was made, and the present illustrious family were seated on the throne. It has, however, happened, from wise and benevolent motives I make no doubt, that during the present reign the Whigs have enjoyed but little power or confdence. Te Whigs have, therefore, been enemies to the system of war, which procured them no places, no pensions, and no patronage. But, Citizens, it is evident, that the pacifc principle does not really belong to a particular set of men. I have never found any frst principles or elementary doctrines laid down by one party in direct contradiction to the doctrines of the other. I have found them opposing particular measures, and contending with all the warmth of interested zeal, that the party in power abuses the administration and government of the country in a way in which they would not abuse it if they had the happiness to be in the same situation. But to what principle have they pledged themselves? What object have you seen them stedfastly pursue? Has not party afer party amused you with hopes of reform, and when they came into power, have they not totally abandoned every project upon which they had built their popularity. Party enthusiasm, however, has continued to be nourished; and many individuals even of considerable intelligence, have mistaken this party enthusiasm for attachment to liberty. Hence the names of Wilkes and Liberty and Fox and Liberty, have been echoed from mouth to mouth, as if the men were the chief objects of our veneration, and liberty nothing but the domestic waiting in their train. Te conduct, however, of persons formerly members of what is called the Whig Party, has, I believe, in a considerable degree, opened the eyes of the nation. We have seen Burke, so indignant against the wicked attempt to curb the spirit

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of American liberty, the frst to raise the war-whoop of Faction, and enforce the necessity of plunging all Europe into war, to destroy the same virtuous principles in France. Yes, we have seen this individual once so loud in behalf of liberty and the Rights of Man, brandishing his dagger in political phrenzy,34 and out ranting the maddest hero that ever strutted in a barn, in execration of the very name of Freedom, while Wyndham, Elliot, Portland, Spencer, joined in the chorus of apostacy, and applauded his ravings. What principle did Whiggism ever uphold which the leaders of Whiggism have not abandoned and reprobated? Consult the furious declamations of this Burke; consult the metaphysical phrenzies of Wyndham; and the childish longings of Portland for a bit of ribbon.35 Consult, if you please, the conduct of Fitzwilliam36 – popular as a particular circumstance may have made him in the sister kingdom! – See this temporary idol of an infatuated nation coalesce, for the short lived dignity of mock royalty, with a man whom he held in the utmost indignation, and at the very time when the conduct of that man was more suspicious than ever, and then lament if you can that the dreams of his ambition should end so soon in degradation and insult from a being who seems to have entered into a conspiracy to degrade the aristocratic character below even what the advocates of democracy would represent it. Citizens, if you could have any doubt that places, emoluments, and distinctions are the only objects for which those parties have been contending, this must convince you – As soon as all hope of getting into power by other means has vanished, what do they do? Why, at the very time when these men whose strides to arbitrary power they have so frequently denounced, are taking a stride more gigantic than ever entered the imagination of any minister, for above a century, you fnd them making compacts and agreements with these men, and accepting the very scraps and fragments of places – the very ofal from the full banquet of ministerial insolence; grasping at any thing they can get, and on any terms; and consenting to seal the compact of their copartnership in the blood of patriots and reformers. In short – What has been the conduct of all parties? Have they not uniformly succeeded one to the other, and pursued the same measures when in place which they reprobated when out? Has any administration, for half a century back, nay, for a century, granted any one advantage to the people, but what has been extorted by hard and determined struggles, and usurped back again as soon as the public mind is quieted? Leave them then and their unintelligible squabbles to themselves; and fx your eyes upon nobler objects. Principles alone and not particular measures ought to occupy your attention. Tere can be no good practice which does not spring out of good principle, for principles are the stamina of society, and individual actions are only the smaller ramifcations produced from their commanding energy.

THE TRIBUNE, NO. XII

Saturday, 30th May, 1795. Lecture on the system of terror and persecution adopted by the present ministry; with animadversions on the treatment of Joseph Gerrald.37

CITIZENS, every person who has made use of the least refection must admit that there is in the human mind a considerable tendency to progressive improvement: that the individual always commences feeble and ignorant, and gathers strength of mind, as well as limbs, in proportion to his exercise and experience. It is true that, afer a given period, even the mind, much earlier with respect to the body, is observed to go backwards again towards decay. Old age and debility creep frst over the limbs and then invade the intellect, and bring us, in the last stage of our lives, to a second degree of childhood. Tis is not, however, the case with society. Te aggregate of human existence has no decay, no old age; and the tendency of the human mind, considered in the aggregate, is to perpetual improvement. We may observe that human institutions, indeed, are subject to decay; because human institutions growing, at the time when they are frst founded, out of the necessities of society, cease to be necessary when the state of society is diferent, and when the progress of human intellect has made considerable advances. Just as the go-cart is necessary for the child, but no person would think of compelling the full-grown man to follow the go-cart all the days of his life. Tere is another reason why these human institutions are liable to decay. Te improved intellect of society is sometimes, though not always, shared in common by the rulers and by the governed. When this happens to be the case, all is well. But when the agents of the institutions become wiser than the institutions themselves, and the body of the people are kept in ignorance, these agents fnd out means of making that which was originally intended for the public good a mere matter of advantage to themselves; and thus, preserving an exterior semblance, when they have destroyed all the virtual excellence of those institutions, they bring on the absolute necessity of overthrow: if timely reform does not remove that dire necessity. – 51 –

DOI: 10.4324/9780429349720-8

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But though these circumstances afect human institutions, the human mind, as you will see, is not under the same predicament. Tere is an eternal renovation of youth, of ardour, of activity; and, consequently, there is a universal tendency towards perpetual improvement. I grant that the whole of this reasoning does not appear practically to apply. If we observe superfcially the events of history, we shall fnd that though, in theory, the human mind is heir to the improvements of the former generation; and though every advancement in the state of society, though it was the mountain to which former ages travelled, forms the level plain from which the succeeding generation is to start, to attain a higher goal of intellectual improvement; yet we cannot deny that history presents us with many instances of a retrograde motion in the political and intellectual revolutions of nations. Tis, however, will be found to arise principally, if not always, from some one of the following causes – Either, frst, from eruptions of barbarians, overthrowing the establishments of civilized societies; or secondly, from those disasters to which the general system of nature at times is subject, such as plagues, famines, inundations, and convulsions of the physical elements; or, thirdly, from the usurpations of tyranny. – Tis last is by much the most frequent cause of the retrograde motions of society; and is sometimes efected by individuals grasping at thrones and dominions to which they had no pretence of legal right, but much more frequently by those who are upon those thrones grasping at a power and authority to which those thrones are not by the proper institutions of society entitled. Tese are, as I have observed, the usurpations that are by far more common than the former; and in the preface to a work written by the late King of Prussia,38 (who was certainly, in these respects, a very tolerable judge) I mean the Anti-Machiavel, we fnd some very pertinent refections upon this head; which, as I have royal authority for the publication, I suppose it can be no treason to quote. ‘As the temptations,’ says he, ‘to which a King is liable are very powerful, it requires a more than ordinary degree of virtue to resist them;’ and he very well observes, that ‘inundations which ravage countries, thunder and lightning that reduce cities to ashes, the pestilence which lays the whole provinces waste, are less fatal to the world than the vicious morals and unbridled passions of Princes. Te plagues of Heaven continue but for a time; they only ravage some countries; and these losses, however grievous, are nevertheless repaired; whereas the crimes of Kings entail a lasting misery upon whole nations.’ – ‘How deplorable,’ continues the royal author, whose conduct was aferwards so excellent a comment upon his text. – ‘How deplorable,’ says he, ‘is the condition of that people who have every thing to fear from the abuse of majesty! whose properties are a prey to the avarice of their Prince, their liberty to his caprice, their repose to his ambition, their safety to his perfdiousness, and their lives to his cruelty!’. With

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respect to the perfdiousness, he lef the comment upon that to be written by his successor! Such then are the causes of the retrograde movements of society. But, barring these, we must be blind indeed if we do not see a perpetual tendency to progressive improvement in the intellect, and, I believe, in the virtues of mankind. Every new discovery, every fresh event, is a source of extensive improvement: slow, indeed, in its operation at frst; but aferwards rapid and important. Te institutions of society, thus, by the improvement of intellect, will every now and then be growing unft for the state and condition to which the mind of man has arrived. In the frst instance we fnd, as I have observed before, that those institutions grow out of the necessities of society. But nothing can be more pernicious to the happiness and welfare both of the individuals who attempt it, and mankind at large, than to endeavour to perpetuate those institutions, when, on account of the altered condition of man, they become, instead of necessary, injurious. Tus it is that the enlightened part of the community are always looking forward to an amelioration of their political circumstances: and if the enlightened intellect of man were lef to its free progress – if calumny and persecution did not attempt to arrest its steps, peaceful and happy would be the advances which men would make; and each succeeding generation would look back with admiration upon the liberality of that which preceeded it, while it felt an honest exultation at having towered to greater heights of virtue and perfection. Benevolence and wisdom would not only yield to this improvement, but would stretch forth the hand of government to help it forward. But self-interest and rapacity stimulate too ofen those who happen to be vested with power, to a directly opposite conduct. An inclination to tyrannize, a disposition to monopolize the advantages of corruption, too frequently leads the statesman, instead of enlarging the boundaries of freedom in proportion to the improved intellect of man, to resist that improvement by contracting them within narrower spaces. Tus the stream of popular sentiment and improvement, the strong current of increasing liberty, in proportion as the waves are swollen, is dammed up with fresh restrictions, and embanked within a narrower channel, till at last, impatient of restraint, it bursts its boundaries, and spreading, like an inundation, sweeps before it at once the tyrannous restrictions that have been erected, and the deluded beings who erected them. Perfectly consonant with this observation is the experience which is to be derived from all the former facts of history. Persecution is no new invention. It has been tried again and again: and has ofen been fatal, indeed, to the virtuous reformers who frst propped the persecuted cause; but has never failed, ultimately, to secure the triumph of the principles thus ridiculously opposed;

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and has frequently brought down a terrible vengeance upon the heads of those who have wielded the intolerant sword. Let us look back upon all that history unfolds. What was the frst reception of Christianity in the world? And if we look to the page which records the merits of that institution (whatever particular opinions individuals may have, they are always to do justice to the cause of which they are speaking!) – if we look back to that institution, we certainly must admit it to be one of those that had, to a considerable degree, the happiness and welfare of mankind at heart: the amelioration of the general condition of man; and particularly the uplifing of the trampled plebeian from the dust, and restoring him to that independence which belongs to the genuine system of liberty and equality. In vain, therefore, did the cruelties and calumnies of the imperial despots or Rome, and their servile coadjutors, persecute the dawning spirit of Christianity. It had too much political truth in it, not to make impressions upon the hearts of mankind; and these impressions, instead of being efaced, were rendered infnitely more powerful in their operation in consequence of the persecutions directed against it. Many an excellent and worthy creature, struggling for the advancement of what he believed to be truth, fell a victim to tyranny and persecution. And though lying monks have since disgraced their tales, by fabling allegories, and by ridiculous visions, I cannot but think that I discover in the fall of many of these martyrs, strong symptoms of that virtuous spirit which prompts the present exertions of the advocates for the principles of liberty and the freedom of human intellect. Tey fell: but Christianity triumphed. I shall not trace the abuses that soon crept into an institution which, virtuous in poverty, became corrupted by being taken under the wing of power. Tat would be a digression. But I shall observe, that the same instructive lesson is to be drawn from afer records, as from those early ones to which I have now referred. Look back to the progress of the reformation. When human liberty frst burst forth from that torpor in which it had lain so long, the frst struggles were against priestly tyranny; by which every faculty of mind and body was enslaved. Priestly tyranny had its pretended liberties and properties to defend; and the sword of persecution was wielded by the feshy arm of those who ought to have been all spirit, purity, and tolerance, and to have remembered that they were paid for fghting battles in the other world and not for wetting the daggers of assassination in this. Tirty years of war deluged the continent of Europe, in this struggle between rousing intellect and the depressing tyranny of priestcraf. In proportion, however, to the persecution, the energy of the advocates for reformation increased; and the blood of the martyrs was again the seed of the church, as it is called; but I shall say the seed of human liberty. Priestly tyranny fell: nor could it be propped,

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nor could the course of free enquiry be restrained, in this country, by the persecuting fury of a Bonner, or by the perpetual fames of Smithfeld, any more than by an age of tyrannous warfare among the despots on the continent. Tus then we see, that, with respect to what is considered as connected with religious questions, persecution was never capable of ultimately disappointing those views into which liberal and energetic minds had entered. If we look to the civil history of mankind, we shall fnd the same moral written. I shall not travel for these examples beyond the boundaries of my own country. It cannot be new to any person who listens to me, and, therefore, it need not be particularly animadverted upon, that once in this country the absurd doctrines of the divine right of Kings, passive obedience, and non-resistance, were fulminated from the pulpit, and thundered from the cabinet of the country, in order to support those doctrines against the innovating fury of those who began to discover that man had rights; and that government was instituted, not for the beneft of an individual, but for the beneft of society at large. Persecution again drew the sword from the scabbard, where political and religious institutions have seldom sufered it to sleep for any considerable time; and we fnd fctitious treasons, pretended plots and conspiracies, Courts of Star Chamber, and every species of persecution and illegal inquisition was adopted to crush the daring spirit of truth, and annihilate the growing reason of Britons. What was the efect? Te struggle was long. Te struggle, in many respects, was melancholy. Sometimes one party prevailed; at other times another. But the persecuted party never lost its energy by persecution; on the contrary, the energy increased. Charles the First fell; Charles the Second was restored, it is true, and the doctrines of divine right were attempted to be extended to a still greater degree than ever. Till this time the usual language with philosophers, lawyers and historians wont to be the Commonwealth of England. It is the constant language of all our old constitutional writers, who considered the King as no other than a president with regal powers; the frst magistrate of the republic of England. Tis language was now, however, thrown aside; and judges were found (for, if you refer to the State Trials, you will fnd that there have been some judges in this country who could make most curious speeches, and lay down most curious doctrines, whenever it would suit the purposes of the court who employed them – I say Judges were found – Chief Justices of the Common Pleas, and Chief Barons of the Exchequer, to broach new fangled doctrines about the imperial crown of Britain, and the unquestionable authority of the King. Not, say they, that we mean to set up an absolute despotism. Te king is to govern according to the laws, though he is not amenable to them: nobody has a right to fnd fault with him: he is to govern according to the law; but if he chooses to violate that law, nobody has a right to call him to account: a doctrine, by the way, which these judges had not

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the merit of inventing; for it was invented by James the First, who said that ‘every good King was bound of conscience to administer justice according to the laws of the land, but, at the same time, it was nothing less than blasphemy in a subject to question his omnipotent power; for he had no bond, no restriction but the conscience that inhabited his royal bosom.’ Te doctrines of divine right were revived, enforced, and aggravated, at the close of the reign of Charles the Second; and during the reign of James the Second attempts were made to subjugate this country entirely: And as they had not then learned the secret of buying Parliaments, they attempted to do without them. Yet, in defance of their Court of perverted law, in defance of their inquisitions, in defance of the pillory, the halter, and the gibbet, the friends of man persevered and conquered. Russel39 fell, and Sidney40 fell, and a many a glorious patriot fell besides: but the cause for which they bled triumphed at last. Passive obedience and non-resistance, and the divine right of Kings, were laid together in the grave: nor do I believe that all the howlings of Burke, the metaphysical ravings of Windham,41 no nor the plausible verbosity of Pitt, will ever arise them from their graves again, or obtain them to be acknowledged once more in this country. But to tell the truth no wish is entertained at this time to revive these exploded doctrines. Tere is another doctrine, new and curious indeed in its nature, which ministers think more to their interest and advantage; and consequently more to the glory and happiness of the nation, to maintain ‘by fre and sword and desolation:’ namely the infallibility of ministers, the divine right of 162 oligarchic proprietors of the rights and sufrage of the nation. Tese are the sovereigns of the day; and to speak one word against the rotten boroughs of East Grinstead and Old Sarum, is the highest of high treasons, and is to be punished with fnes, imprisonment, transportation, and death. But, Citizens, the usurpations and despotism of ministers will no more triumph than the despotism of the Church of Rome triumphed, than the prosecuting spirit of the Roman Emperors triumphed, or than the doctrines of divine right and passive obedience triumphed, in the wise and virtuous times of the lamented Stuarts. Ministers indeed may bring forward, as they please, their new inquisitions; but the enlightened spirit of the people will not be suppressed. Te improved intellect of man calls for an improvement, not for an increased corruption of the systems of government. Men who are wiser must be governed by more wisdom and moderation, not pressed and trampled down with an increase of burdens and usurpations. Almost the whole country begins to perceive that the boasted check which the Commons House of Parliament was intended to have upon the other branches of the constitution is done away. Tey know very well, that it is a farce to talk of the representation of the Commons House of Parliament, when 162

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rich landholders, nobles and others, can return a decided majority in that House which calls itself the Representatives of the People. And it is, therefore, that for thirty years back considerable agitation has occasionally taken place in the public mind upon the subject of Parliamentary Reform. Tis, however, has uniformly been resisted by the Ministers who happened to be in place. Te party out of place has now and then lent it some little assistance while they found there were no other means of acquiring popularity; but as soon as they either got into place, or were likely to get into place, they have always abandoned it; and the wishes of the people never have been complied with. But what has been the consequence? Why, an increase in the demands of the people: not a diminution. And whereas in former times a small reform would have been accepted as sufcient, I have no doubt that almost every individual begins to look forwards to annual parliaments, to universal sufrage: because continued discussion has convinced them that every man has rights to defend, and, therefore, ought to have the means of defence; that pure representation is the only defence these rights can depend upon; and that a representation for the whole ought to be a representation of the whole. Tey discover also, that, according to the theory of our constitution, they have an absolute right to those annual parliaments and to that universal sufrage, the former of which has been particularly proved as to the reign of Edward III. as you will see in my ‘Vindication of the Natural and Constitutional Rights of Britons.’ Tey elected their members for every session of parliament; and if two sessions of parliament were held in one year, then they elected their representatives twice during that year; and sent them, with their instructions in their pockets, dictating to them how they should vote. In other words they were guilty of the high Treason of over awing their own servants and representatives. But, Citizens, the present administration have not been satisfed with merely resisting the wishes of the people, they have adopted persecution against those individuals who have had the boldness to speak for their rights. And mark the steps by which they have advanced. First, they began with prosecuting for libel and sedition, though both of them are things which no law has defned; of which no act has fxed the limits; which are not to be found in the best constitutional authorities. Libel, in reality, means nothing more than little book. And why a man should be prosecuted for publishing a little book, any more than a large book, I can fnd but one reason: namely, that large books give but little information, and that little books frequently give a great deal. As to sedition, the lawyers themselves are not agreed even upon the defnition of it. Tey freely confess they do not know the meaning of the word. And one of the judges of Scotland – Oh, excellent and virtuous judges of the Court of Judiciary! how shall I mention you without pouring forth, in gratitude, your

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praises! But, however, my esteem for your virtues is not greater than my admiration for your wisdom; and, indeed, I think such virtues and such wisdom ought always to go hand in hand! – One of these judges then, being asked by one of the seditious panels at the bar, what was the meaning of sedition? replied, ‘Why, my lords, does not the panel know that sedition is a very great crime in all the countries of the world? – It is a monstrous crime – it includes all other crimes, my lords. It is – it is – it is – it is – in short, it is sedition.’ Citizens, upon the strength of this very eloquent illustration, we know that they proceeded to transportation for seven and for fourteen years, against characters upon whose conduct, public or private, not one imputation of scandal can be laid: men whose talents were an ornament to their country; whose virtue, whose independence, and disinterestedness, were even still more conspicuous than their talents. But this was not enough. Transportation for fourteen years did not suppress the rising spirit of enquiry. Men have discovered that they have rights; and feeling a deep conviction of this, they feel also that without the enjoyment of those rights, neither their country nor their lives are worth their care. Te next step, therefore, was to prosecute several individuals for high treason, for opposing the projects of ministers, and disputing the divine right of the holders of rotten boroughs. An attack upon these rotten boroughs was called an attack upon property; just as if human intellect could be property; as if the sufrages of mankind could be property; as if any individual can possibly have a right of voting for millions without, at the same time, possessing the power of crushing and destroying those millions – loading them with what burdens, oppressive taxations, and impositions, he thinks ft, and, in fact, treating them in every other respect like beasts of burden. By these prosecutions, however, (though they have been too successful in their attempts with respect to sedition) they were able to efect nothing more than to destroy their own spies. – Perhaps some of these poor deluded Gentlemen, those confdants of Gentlemen high in ofce, may be here at this time. But let them take warning by the fate of Watt and Jackson, and remember how perilous a thing it is to enjoy the confdence of the present administration! Citizens, in a ministerial paper which gives an account of the trial of Jackson, there is a paragraph which justifes this classifcation. Te reporter says that on the trial of Jackson ‘Mr. Cockayne’ – if there are any Gentlemen of the law here they know that man pretty well, I dare say. I was once in the profession myself; and I remember what sort of reputation he then bore. However that is neither here nor there, you know. When we want facts we must take them from the best authority we can get; and when ministers want high Treason and can get no respectable evidence of its existence, they must hang up their men upon such testimony as they can procure. – ‘Mr. Cockayne, an Attorney of London, deposed

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that he had been for a series of years the law agent and intimate friend of Mr. Jackson, who a few years since went to France, as the witness understood, to transact some private business for Mr. Pitt, where he resided for a considerable time. Soon afer his return, Mr. Cockayne said he called on him, and told him in confdence that he had formed a design of going to Ireland, to sound the people for the purpose of procuring a supply of provisions, &c. from them, for the French, and requested him (the witness) to accompany him. Having accepted the invitation, he immediately waited on Mr. Pitt, and discovered to him the whole of Mr. Jackson’s plans. Te Minister thanked him for the information, and hinted that, as the matter was to become a subject of legal investigation, it would be necessary for him to substantiate the allegations; but this Mr. Cockayne wished to decline on the principle’ – You fnd principle is here made use of in the true ministerial sense – with whom principle and interest are controvertible terms – ‘on the principle that, if the prisoner should be convicted of high Treason, he should lose by it £300.’ – He should lose £300!!! – Why you know, Citizens, it would not have been very modest to say, Mr. Pitt, you must give me 300l, or I will not hang this man. Perhaps neither Mr. Pitt nor Mr. Cockayne had the brass to stand the brunt of such a proposal: ‘he should lose by it 300l. in which sum he was then indebted to him. Tis objection was soon removed, by Mr. Pitt agreeing to pay him the money, provided he would prosecute to conviction; and the witness accompanied Mr. Jackson to Ireland, for the purpose of making himself acquainted with his proceedings.’ Citizens, I tremble for myself – I tremble for you. What security is there for the life of any man, if a villainous spy chuses thus to fx a price upon his head, and say to a Minister, ‘Such a man owes me 300l. Pay me that sum, and I will hang him for High Treason!’ – Who knows how soon you or I may be in debt to Mr. Cockayne, at this rate? I dwell upon this subject a little copiously, to oblige the ministerial scribblers, who wish to be furnished with a few hints; as it appears: for, in another very respectable paper, of this day, called Te Times, I am invited not to pass over the afair in silence. And, as I have a high respect for the writers of that print, who have earned their bread, for years, by diurnal slander and assassination, I will not fail to indulge their wishes. But I should do them injustice, if I were not to quotes the words of their invitation. – ‘Some of our modern Lecturers’ say the editors of this respectable print, ‘might make some atonement for their past political lectures, if they would give the public an oration on the causes of Parson Jackson’s suicide; and point out the bad efects of insidious attempts to subvert the constitution. Tey might also make a few comments on the treasonable conduct of Hamilton Rowan, and the republican sentiments of the united Irishmen; shewing to what purposes their views tended. And if they gave a sketch of the character of Napper Tandy, another

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seditionist, who fed to America, it would serve to strengthen the family piece, and warn the public of the danger of following the principles of such men.’ Tis challenge I accept, as far as relates to the person tried: every man, who professes the least respect for the laws of his country, might have the decency to be silent as to the others, against whom there is no legal evidence whatever. With respect to Jackson, I admit, in the frst instance, that if the charge (standing at present upon the individual testimony of a man who says he is not bribed, but that he was to secure to himself the payment of £300 by the conviction of the culprit) be true, that it called for the severest animadversion of the law. He who introduces a foreign foe into the country, destroys the liberty and independence he pretends to promote, and damns the good cause in which he pretends to be embarked. I shall not animadvert particularly upon the character of the witness; I shall only observe, that it is the general fate of those who boast of ‘the confdence of gentlemen high in ofce,’ that no person who is not high in ofce would condescend to be seen in their company. I shall add, however, that I have always thought that in Ireland, as well as in England, the life of an individual was held so sacred, that it was not a single oath that would take it away, however respectable the deponent might be. Surely existence is but a frail tenure, indeed, in an age of spies and informers, like the present, if one man’s life is not worth two men’s oaths, however pure in moral character, however free from the taint of suspicion! But as these famous Times writers, or time-servers, or whatever you please to call them, talk about suicide, would it not be worth while to enquire frst of all whether it was a suicide or not. Did Jackson poison himself? Let reason speak: for we have no facts or documents. Would not a man, who meant to destroy himself, have waited frst the issue of the motion that was making, upon such strong grounds, to arrest the judgement, and reverse the verdict? Would the man who afer all stood under the recommendation of the jury for mercy (a recommendation not very ofen neglected) would such a man (for they say he was a man of considerable intellect) have laid the destroying hand upon himself till he had seen the certainty that there was no other means of escaping an ignominious execution? But there are persons in these countries who have studied Machiavel with other views than to confute him. Tere are persons whose whole conduct shows us that they have treasured the wicked system in their hearts: and one of the things recommended by Machiavel is to put a man privately out of the way whom it might be dangerous to expose to public execution. I charge no particular individuals. I know not who has had access to, or who the care of Jackson. I know not by what accidents, particular catastrophes may sometime take place; but this I know, that in the decline of the Roman empire,

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when spies and informers were publicly patronized, poisoning and assassination were also exceedingly common. Dead men tell no tales: but some men have been found who, in their last moments, have revealed fatal secrets; and considering what multifarious transactions Jackson has been concerned in – considering that he has sometimes been editor of a newspaper, and sometimes a writer of scandalous and scurrilous controversy, – considering that he was a very useful servant to a great Dutchess – considering that he was engaged in a variety of services, some of which were not very honourable, there might have been some of his employers unwilling that he should tell all he knew. At least it would have become the writers of ‘Te Times’ to have ascertained facts, before they had dared to broach the insinuations which have appeared in diferent papers under that name. But the wretch who, pending the preparation for the trial of twelve men – trials in which, perhaps, the lives of thousands were involved, could publish in his newspaper that scandalous and profigate libel called ‘Te New Times,’ in which the individuals to be tried were represented perpetrating, in convention, the most detestable transactions – in which the individual now speaking to you was represented as giving orders for rapes and massacres, for burning villages, and plundering towns, and thus attempt to poison the minds of the Juries that were to decide upon their lives – the wretched prostituted editor of such a paper, must be capable of any thing; nor can we ever be surprised at any thing he does or says, or ever expect him to blush, ‘– unless, in spreading Vice’s snares, He blunders on some Virtue unawares.’

But I will suppose that Jackson did destroy himself and that he was really guilty of all he was charged with: what, then, is the conclusion to be drawn? In the frst place we are to conclude, that there is a wide diference between the frm and manly conduct of a man sufering for principle, and the wretch who takes bribes from both parties; and conducts himself according to the expediences of the moment, as he supposes most favourable to his individual interest. It would teach us also, that the being who has once prostituted himself so much to be a spy and agent of Pitt, has no alternative, no hope, no dilemma, but either to be hanged like Watt, or swallow poison like the unfortunate Jackson. Te halter and suicide are the only resources of these poor spies; and yet such is the miserable condition into which the burdens of the country and the luxury of the times have brought us, that heaps of poor beings, with this dreadful alternative before them, march upon this forlorn hope, under the command of the great general Reeves, and with so excellent a pay master as the present Chancellor of the Exchequer.

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But though, spies and informers have met the shaf of death, freedom and virtue have had their scars: On the manly breast of patriotism the would is still rankling; and the tear of humanity is called, not only for the poor wretch who falls a victim to the crimes into which poverty and ignorance have led him, but for virtue, genius, and transcendent talents, and a fortitude of independence, of which few instances are to be found in the annals of the human race. Te mild, the meek, the humane and benevolent Palmer, has been followed into exile by the eloquent, the manly, the enlightened Muir. Te simplicity of Skirving, and his untainted honesty could not preserve him; and Margarot, whose mind, frm as our rocks, and upright as our masts, – daring in virtue, and vigorous in intellect, opposed the growing corruption of the times – is gone to the inhospitable shores of New Holland, amidst felons and caitifs of the worst description, to lose, in worse than solitude, those talents which might have enlightened thousands and benefted successive generations. But this is not all. Te cup is not yet drained to the dregs. More of bitterness must be tasted. Gerrald, too, whose transcendent mind, and virtues equal to his intellect, challenge the love and admiration of all who know him; he whose vast stores of genius and science command reverence from the frst sages of the time – who is revered by all who know what merit and learning are, and esteemed by all who have a nerve for exalted friendship. – Gerrald, whose unblemished life – unblemished I say: for what are the little extravagancies of a young man of genius, born, not for the narrow circle of a family, but for the universe – and who, dissipating only what was his own, lays no burthens on society to replace it? – Gerrald, this great, this enlightened character, who, in the 35th year of his age, has attained a degree of mental excellence that very few, even of those who stand recorded for their talents, have attained at the maturest periods – Gerrald, also, is sent, not to Botany Bay, to enjoy the converse of those godlike patriots sent before him – this were something like humanity! – no, but to that solitary speck of earth, Norfolk Island, where his only companions must be wretches cast out from society for the meanest and most despicable of crimes, or savages whose untutored minds and ferocious manners exclude all the comforts and alleviations of human intercourse. Citizens, it is difcult to do justice to such a character as Gerrald’s. When we speak of superior excellence, our minds toil with anxiety to reach its merits, and frequently swell into bombast, for want of remembering that we cannot do complete justice to the talents of another, unless our own are of equal magnitude. I shall not, therefore, attempt to toil through the paths of panegyric; but shall read to you a faint and feeble, yet, in some degree, a just sketch of the talents of this martyr, printed this day in the Morning Chronicle. ‘His mind,’ says the writer, ‘grasped various branches of science, and digested them all. Te best scholars, the profoundest metaphysicians, and the ablest pro-

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fessors of politics and the law of nations, will be the frst to confess the soundness of his classical knowledge, the acuteness and extent of his reasonings, and the accuracy of his information. His eloquence had equally the power to charm and astonish; terrors of his invective. With all this, his temper is not less entitled to our praise. He was placable and generous to an extreme. Te magnanimity of his spirit, and the purity of his sense of honour, could only be completely understood by those who had made them the subject of personal observation. His defence, delivered before the Court of Justiciary, at Edinburgh,’ – which, Citizens, I recommend you all to read with the greatest attention. It will shew you the diference between the intellects of this champion of liberty and of those who sat in judgement upon him. It will enlarge your minds with the fruits of profound research, into the genuine principles of that liberty which glows in his breast, and which I am sure will for ever continue to glow there, though it must glow where not a breast can receive beneft from its warmth, nor an eye be cheered with its light. ‘His defence, delivered before the Court of Justiciary, at Edinburgh, is a master-piece in acuteness of reasoning, purity of composition, and dignity of sentiment. I am aware that the various excellence I ascribe to him would seem like a romance, if Gerrald had been a man unknown to the world. But almost every eminent scholar and statesman in Britain knew his merits, and know that I say less than the truth; because I do not know how to tell the truth in its full extent. ‘Having fnished his education and his travels, he came to England, the country which seemed best adapted to the display of his talents. Alas! those talents are crushed, perhaps, for ever, by the fagitious act of men who were incapable of understanding them, or understood only to hate them.’ Such is the man who is now sent to ignominious exile. But it was not hatred only that stimulated the men who sent him. Tey were goaded, also, by fear. Alas! what is the condition of a country in which talents, united with intrepid virtue, a power of discovering truth, and a determination to abide by its decisions, can be dreaded by those who grasp the helm of power. But, Citizens, this man is not only transported, like a felon, he has been treated with aggravated cruelty. Why, for thirteen or fourteen long months, was such a man to be kept stretched on the severish rack of apprehension? Why, if the door of mercy, as it is called – I should call it justice – was for ever to have been shut against him, why was he not sent, together with those companions, who were not gone from the coast of Britain when his sentence was pronounced? Why was he to be moved from dungeon to dungeon, from the Tolbooth to Newgate, and from Newgate to the New Compter? Why was he for ever to be racked with promises that his sentence was never to be carried into execution? Did they expect that the proud virtue of Gerrald could have been shaken? Had they hopes that he would disgrace the cause of Liberty by

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mean concessions? If such were their hopes, I glory in his transportation; for rather would I see, – much as I love, much as I esteem him, greatly as I adore his virtues and intellects, much rather would I see him thus sent to inhospitable regions, than have seen him exposed to the still more cruel ignominy of submitting to crouch beneath the footstool of a Pitt or a Dundas, and accept of mercy, upon dishonourable conditions, from the hands of men who are not worthy to unloose the latchet of his shoes. But it has been said that there was another motive: it has been said that if the prosecutors, in the late trials for High Treason, had been successful, they were to have tried him over again, in England. Tat they thought transportation not enough; and that he was to have been one of the innumerable victims that were to have made the streets of this city fow with blood, to complete the parallel between Pitt and Robespierre. Whatever might be the reasons for which he was kept so long, the manner of his removal, at last, deserves some notice. It is not many weeks since I went to visit him, in consequence of hearing it whispered about, that he was to be sent of immediately. I found him unconscious of such rumour, but apparently almost in the last stage of a disease, that, if not relieved in time, must have swept him of in a few days. I found this great man, this light of the universe, unattended, uncomforted, unsuccoured. No hand to administer to his disease, but the person employed, by government, to attend the prison. I do not even know the name of that gentleman, and therefore can mean no disrespect to him; but I would not leave such a man in the power of any person employed by the present Ministry. I procured him other assistance; and I had the pleasure, in some degree, to see him out of the jaws of absolute danger, but in that state of health which made his friends think proper to apply to Mr. Dundas to know whether he was to go or not, that proper preparations might be made for his accommodation. It was on the 6th of April last, I understand, that this precaution was taken, and the answer of Mr. Dundas was (they state the fact in the Chronicle of to-day, which agrees partly with the account I had from Gerrald himself ) that there was no intention of sending him at present; and, if it depended upon him, he would not be sent at all. Yet so short a time afer comes the mandate of authority. Gerrald goes down upon the summons, and is immediately double-ironed, like the vilest felon, and dragged away without even permission to go back again to his room, and kiss the little lips of his sweet babe, that kept him company in prison. He was scarcely permitted to speak through the grate to a fellow prisoner, and give him some directions as to the things he lef behind him. Away he was hurried, and the frst notices his friends had of it was from its being announced on the Monday in the public newspapers.

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Such is the man whom the humane, the virtuous, the pious – for they talk of religion, as men generally do when they are disposed to do such actions! – Such is the man whom these virtuous Ministers have treated in this ignominious manner. For what? For opposing the Sovereign on the throne? For disturbing the peace of society, and exciting rebellions and insurrections? For committing depredations upon public virtue and justice? No; but for doing that which no law forbids, no statute proscribes, no previously adjudged case (if adjudged cases were in reality any authority!) had warned him to shun; and for doing it with an eloquence which is persecutors could not rival, and with a power of reason and facts to which they could not reply. …

Te LECTURE ‘On Prosecutions for Pretended Treason.’ Delivered on Wednesday the 13th of May, 1795, the ANNIVERSARY of the ARREST of the PATRIOTS. CITIZENS, this being the anniversary of the arrest of the Patriots, who some time since were implicated in a factitious and ridiculous charge of high treason, it appeared to me that some sort of notice should be taken of the return of a day so important, in the event, to the progress of liberty, but once so threatening, to the existence even of the very shadow of British freedom. I therefore chose for the subject of this evening, ‘Prosecutions for Pretended Treason.’ It was my intention to have gone pretty largely into the history of these prosecutions in this country, particularly during the reigns of the Stuarts; reigns which some persons, dignifed with ofcial situations in this country, seem to have studied with minute attention, drawing, as it were, all their precedents from those reigns, and the ill counsels given by the ministers of that unfortunate family. I meant to have laid before you a great variety of interesting and entertaining particulars: as the subject is, indeed, of a very curious nature, and well worth our serious attention; and as, during my confnement in the Tower,42 I was naturally let to the consideration of facts of this description. While I was in that confnement, therefore, I made very copious notes and extracts from history, and from the State Trials, that they might furnish me with matter for a course of Lectures in this place, upon this branch of our political history. But to those notes I have had no time to refer. Eminent as my duties are in this situation, I have been called upon by a duty of a superior nature, to the discharge of which neither my conscience nor my feelings would permit me to be inattentive.

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You will remember, that on the last Lecture-night I took the liberty of proposing to you a subscription for our beloved and persecuted fellow-citizen, Joseph Gerrald. I did not then think ft to announce my intention of setting of the next morning to see that virtuous and persecuted Patriot, whose amiable manners have won the hearts of his fellow-citizens, as his talents have commanded the admiration of mankind. I did think proper to mention it at that time, because I did not know what jealousies might continue to haunt him; and therefore went as private as possible, lest I should be deprived of the solitary satisfaction which was lef me, of seeing once more that beloved and respected patriot, who is going to distant and inhospitable regions, for exerting those virtues and talents which illumine his heart, for the beneft of mankind; and because he would not prostitute his understanding to aristocratic usurpation and ministerial corruption. I have the pleasure to inform you, that that collection, with which I set of without delay, amounted to 16 guineas; the receipt for which I now have in my hand, and which is ready for the inspection of any Citizen who wishes to be satisfed upon that point. I had another reason also for my journey. I wished that some memorial of that great man should be lef behind him, for the instruction of his country. I wished to procure the means of decorating these walls with the bust of that revered patriot; that, fxing my eye frequently upon the image of his countenance, I might be inspired with similar virtues, and endeavour to imitate those talents which he so transcendently possesses. For these reasons I have been to Portsmouth, from whence I am but this instant returned. I have but just had time to wipe the dust from my weary brow, that I might take my place in this situation, and submit my thoughts to you upon this important subject, with such arrangements as could be made during my journey. But, there is one circumstance relative to this visit, which I shall not do justice to you and to society if I pass over in entire silence: though it is something like digression. Of the deportment of Citizen Gerrald I shall give you some idea at the conclusion of my Lecture; but when I am speaking of my journey, I ought to observe that I have been deceived, and am now agreeably undeceived, relative to the state of the public mind in that part of the country I have visited. In order that no barrier might be thrown in my way, to prevent my seeing the Citizen, I have hinted that I thought it necessary, at first, to keep my journey as private as possible. I found, however, that these precautions were not as necessary as I supposed. I found that in Portsmouth there are upright, enlightened, and virtuous magistrates, who will not suffer the peace to be distributed by any factious set of beings, who may choose to bawl out

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‘Church and King,’ for the purposes of inflammation and tumult, and to destroy the peace and property of those who happen to differ from them in political or religious opinion. I found, also, that the seeds of liberty are not only sown, but have spread to a considerable degree, in that aristocratic town; the centre, as it is, of so considerable a portion of patronage, and, consequently, of dependence. Instead of meeting in every house jealousy and animosity, I found a great number of persons anxious for an opportunity of shewing their affection and attachment to those principles which have been lately so much persecuted; and for that cause in particular which occasioned my visit to that place; so that while many strangers found it difficult to obtain accommodations at any price, my friend and myself, on account of our principles and the object of our embassy, were cheared and welcomed by persons of all descriptions, from those of the learned professions down to the simple mechanic and labourer: and were received and entertained with a hospitality that bore more resemblance to the welcome of old and intimate friends, than the greetings and civilities of strangers. I do not mean to represent these as the unanimous sentiments of the place; but they are sufciently so to procure protection to any individual whose good intentions may carry him to that part of the country; and I own it gave me great pleasure to perceive that the gall of animosity in the opposite party is either transmuted into the milk of human kindness, or else is kept in awe by the shame which never fails to result when Malice is checked in her career, and sanguinary Cruelty is disappointed and unmasked. Such having been the manner in which I have been employed, since I last met you, I hope to experience your candour, for any defciencies in the lecture of this evening; as the only preparation I have had, was made by quitting the coach at a time when others were taking their refreshment, and indulging myself in a solitary walk; that I might collect a few of the ideas that foated in my imagination. To proceed, then, to my subject: Prosecutions for high Treason, as is well observed by the author of the preface to State Trials, have, in all ages, been the fatal engines so ofen employed by corrupt and wicked ministers against the noblest and bravest Patriots. It is a little important, therefore, in order that none of us may be made the tools of such nefarious designs, that we consider a little the meaning of the word Treason. Many of you may, in the diferent periods of your lives, have to decide upon the existence of your fellow Citizens, perhaps upon the liberty and salvation of the country; let me therefore, invoke you seriously to consider the proper meaning that ought to be attached to those terms that sound so dreadfully in our ears; that you may not be in danger of being abused by mere words, when it

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is the spirit, the soul, the motives and the consequences of action upon which the juror ought to decide. Treason then, Citizens, as the derivation points out, is the act of betraying. Tis is, it is true, a very general defnition. And, perhaps, in the frst instance, it is best to begin with general defnitions; and aferwards proceed to the particular. Treason, then is, the act of betraying; and accordingly we talk in private conversation of traitor to his fiend, traitor to his trust, treachery to a mistress – a benefactor – an employer; in short, in all the situations in life, in which confdence can be reposed, we talk of treason and treachery. Tis defnition, however, it is my present duty to apply to the system of politics; and then we shall fnd that Treason, politically speaking, means betraying the trust reposed in the individual by the country, or betraying that country to the injury and destruction fom which it is the duty of the individuals to preserve it. Now when you consider this defnition, which I believe must universally be admitted to be just, one refection must present itself to your minds: namely, that, generally speaking, the traitors are to be found in that class of men who are themselves the prosecutors for treason. Tey are the men in whom trust and confdence is placed; they are the men who have the power of betraying, ruining, and destroying the country: they are the men who, if you consult the history of every country in the world, have been continually and perpetually undermining and destroying those constitutions, and those countries, which, with hypocritical plausibility, they pretended to uphold and to revere. Tis is treachery indeed. It is betraying a trust; it is deceiving the minds of the public; it is, in fact, inficting the basest, the deepest, and the most detestable would that the arm of the assassin can possibly aim. Te petty murderer, who meets his merited reward at the gibbet, has destroyed an individual, has overthrown the peace of one family: but the minister who, for his selfsh ambition, to gratify the rapacity of his dependants and relations, and to monopolize all places, power, and trusts into his hands, betrays the interest and happiness of his country, murders by wholesale; and the millions that strew the plains of foreign countries, with whose concerns he had no right to interfere, constitute the smallest part of the guilt that stains his polluted conscience! Citizens, this crime which, in England, is called Treason, has been variously denominated and described by diferent countries in the world. It is not necessary for me to make an ostentatious display of that sort of learning which any man may acquire by half an hour’s consultation with his dictionary; and, therefore, I shall not run through a list of these various names; but I shall just simply instance the descriptive and energetic name which has been given of it by the French republic: observing, at the same time, that, among the many advantages resulting from some of the transactions and proceedings of the French revolution, (for I never gave an unqualifed approbation of the whole)

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we may particularly notice a renewed energy of soul and expression, by which that country has shewn us the power which liberty gives not only to the arms, but to the language of people: enabling the one to mow down ranks of those who have less interest in the struggle, and the other to compress the meanings of volumes into a single word. Tey have called this crime of Treason Patricide! – or murdering the Country. Now citizens, this is, I believe, giving, in one word, a description more copious and more energetic than will be found in all our treaties of the law of treason put together. It is striking at the vital existence and happiness of the country: not that which ministers call the existence of the country, – the continuance of power in the hands of a few individuals who have erected themselves into an arbitrary Oligarchy. No: but the continuance of freedom, happiness, and the possibility of maintaining the great body of the people in equal rights, equal laws, and the distribution of equal justice. This is the existence which the real traitor aims to destroy. And what treason, what crime can be so monstrous, as the crime of that individual who mediates so detestable an assassination? That this was the original meaning of the word Treason in this country might be proved by a variety of documents, if I had time to refer to them. I shall notice, however, only the first in the collection of ‘State Trials;’ and which took place in the reign of Richard the Second, when Tresillian and other Ministers and Judges were tried for High Treason, for monopolizing to themselves the wealth and power of the country; employing it to the maintenance of mercenary forces, to coerce the people; and dissipating those revenues which ought to have provided for the security, happiness and abundance of the nation. Citizens, I know of few things more important, than that we accurately defne to ourselves the limits and bounds of the terms we make use of; and the train of reasoning into which I have fallen, seems to make it necessary that I should chalk out to you a distinction very important, though hitherto not very particularly attended to; I mean the distinction between Treason and Rebellion: a distinction which exists in nature, and which is of the most important kind: for treason can only be practiced against the happiness, safety, and security of the country; but rebellion may be practiced against an usurper who is destroying that country, but who, as he grasps the power, may consider himself as having the right to destroy those who would restrain the arbitrary exercise of his authority. Te rebel is not of necessity a traitor, nor of necessity is the traitor a rebel. Tey are frequently united together; but I think a recurrence to a few historical facts will shew you a very material diference. When Harmodius and Aristogeiton slew the tyrant Pisistratus, did the Athenians consider those heroes as traitors to their country, because they were

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rebels to the usurper, who called himself their prince? On the contrary, we fnd that their fame was celebrated in odes and poems; and Mr. Pye,43 the present poet laureate, has thought ft to translate one of the odes, which was written upon that occasion, by the Grecian poet Symonides: and he does it, he tells you, for this express reason, that such compositions ought not to be lost, as they keep alive the spirit and love of liberty; the writing and signing of that ode having caused the Athenians aferwards to follow up the example, and get rid of other usurping tyrants in the same manner. Citizens, if I recollect rightly, for it is some years since I read the poems of Mr. Pye, that poem begins and ends with the following stanza: ‘Eternal honor’s deathless meed, Shall, lov’d Harmodius, crown thy deed, And brave Aristogeiton’s sword – Because the tyrant’s breast ye gor’d.’ [To be concluded in our next.]

THE TRIBUNE, NO. XIII.

Saturday, 6th June, 1795 Te LECTURE ‘On Prosecutions for Pretended Treason.’ Delivered on Wednesday the 13th of May, 1795, the ANNIVERSARY of the ARREST of the PATRIOTS.

[Concluded fom our last Number.] THUS, we fnd, then, that neither the Athenians of old, nor Mr. Pye, our most loyal poet laureate, considered it any act of Treason to destroy the traitor who usurped authority to which he was not entitled: though certainly it was rebellion, according to every construction which can possibly be given the word. When the thirty tyrants usurped dominion over Athens, was it treason to remove those tyrants, and restore the purity of the Athenian constitution? It was rebellion indeed: for to rise in arms against the ruling power must always be rebellion. I shall show you by and by that ministers, in the present day, think it is rebellion and treason too, to rise, not in arms, but in words, against them, or any of their measures! If from Greece we travel to Rome, we shall fnd other examples, not less important, as to the distinction which I am laying down. – (I shall take care by and by not to be misunderstood, relative to the object and meaning of these arguments.) – Citizens, when Tarquin, the limited sovereign of Rome, became the ravisher of the virtuous Lucretia, when he usurped prerogatives that did not belong to him, and when oppression and tyranny ravaged the country, it was rebellion, indeed, in Brutus, when he stirred up the people to resist the tyranny, and ‘drove the Tarquins from the gates of Rome.’ But was it treason to restore the country from the gulph of tyranny and perdition into which it was fallen? Tere is not a man, who has one spark of British ardour lef in his bosom, who will pronounce such blasphemy against reason and liberty? It was rebellion to resist the usurping decemvirs – that oligarchy that trampled on the rights of Rome! – but, instead of being treason, it was virtue. And when Caesar lorded it over the senate, and, with a venal pack of senators, who ought to have stood up for the liberties of – 71 –

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the people, but who were his creatures, his tools, his hirelings, and dependants – when, by their assistance, he laid the liberties of Rome prostrate at his feet, did the second Brutus, did Cassius, that ‘last of Romans,’ who rose in rebellion against the usurper Cesar, act the part of traitors, or of virtuous citizens? I believe, we shall admit that they were not traitors, who restored, or attempted to restore the purity of Roman liberty; but that, in reality, the men destroyed in this, and all the other instances I have mentioned, were themselves the traitors: that tyrants and usurpers are the worst of traitors; and that, if it is virtue to obey virtuous rulers, if it is just and right to obey legal and constitutional mandates, then must it be always virtue, right, and justice, to resist and oppose those tyrants and usurpers whose sanguinary violence depopulates the country, or whose projects of selfsh ambition deprive the nation of its support and freedom. Akenside,44 in his Poem on ‘Te Pleasures of Imagination,’ supposes, falsely I believe, that the most sublime image that can possibly be presented to the mind is that Brutus rising from the stroke that laid the tyrant prostrate at his feet. ‘Look then abroad through Nature, to the range Of planets, suns, and adamantine spheres, Wheeling unshaken through the void immense, And speak, O Man! does this capacious scene With half that kindling majesty dilate Ty strong conception, as when Brutus rose Refulgent from the stroke of Caesar’s fate Amid the crowd of patriots, and his arm Alof extending, like eternal Jove, When guilt brings down the thunder, call’d aloud On Tully’s name, and shook his crimson steel, And bad the father of his country Hail! For lo! the tyrant prostrate on the dust! And Rome again is free?’

Citizens, I do not approve, though the laureat Pye, and the whig Akenside have done so, passages that have such a tendency to excite a sanguinary disposition. I would have the powers of genius and reason employed to increase the kindness, nor the bitterness of the heart; – to allay the furious passions and resentments of mankind, not to stimulate to violence and slaughter. I have not therefore quoted either the translation of Pye or the poem of Akenside, because they meet with my entire approbation; but because they shew you that it never has yet been thought, by men who think at all, that those two terms, so frequently confounded together, were one and the same; but, on the contrary, that they have regarded resistance of oppression as a virtue of the frst class, and thought that every thing ought to be encouraged and disseminated that would dispose man-

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kind to such resistance. I also maintain, that resistance of oppression is the frst of virtues; but I would resist it, not by the dagger, but by reason: I would go slowly to work from circle to circle: I would disseminate the light of truth and benevolence; and I am sure that, when mankind can be persuaded to lay aside their artfully excited terrors, and to enter calmly into investigation, Liberty will want no poignard to enforce her doctrines, nor no buckler to guard her bosom against those furious foes who at present detest her, only because the artifces of a few individuals have prevented them from contemplating her features! I think myself, however, entitled, from the observations I have just brought forward, to conclude that, as the men who were destroyed were usurpers and tyrants, the rebellion of those who destroyed them was not Treason. But, Citizens, I will tell you (for that is the more important part of my subject) how I suppose a man may be guilty of treason, without falling into rebellion: a thing which is much more common. And here permit me to observe, that my object in marking this distinction is to dissuade mankind from committing treason, not to persuade them to commit rebellion; for rebellion, though another crime, is, generally speaking, a crime of monstrous magnitude; because it involves the peace and tranquillity of society, and gives a few upstart leaders, whose minds are infated with a desire of power, too frequent an opportunity of making tools and instruments of those whose situation in society renders them the stepping stones and ladders of the ambition of deluding hypocrites. I do not therefore wish to persuade you to commit rebellion; but I wish to persuade other persons to cease to commit the greater crime of Treason. I will tell you then, and I will illustrate as I go on by historical instances, how I conceive that men (if Ministers and Courtiers may be considered as men) may commit the crime of treason without being rebels, – I consider, when Caesar gifed to himself a power to which he was not entitled, and thus attempted to enslave his country, that he, though not guilty of rebellion, was guilty of Treason of the highest kind. I men to say also, that when Agrippa, Maecenas, and others, advised Augustus to seize the sovereign power, and thereby to annihilate entirely all hopes of Roman freedom, that these advisers, though they did not rise in rebellion, were guilty of High Treason also; and that their treason was not a wit the less detestable because they advised him to preserve all the forms of the Roman constitution, while he destroyed the whole of its spirit and excellency. I mean also to say (proceeding to events of a more recent date that, in France, for example, the destruction of the Bastille was certainly an act of rebellion; that the opposition made by the people to the interference of foreign mercenaries, employed by the then existing government for their destruction, was, also, an act of rebellion: but I mean to say, at the same time, that neither the one nor the other of these was an act of treason; but on the contrary, considering the situation of France at that time, that they were acts of salvation, to which France owes

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what she yet possesses of liberty, and the means which are at this time almost completely in her hand) of obtaining a degree of liberty more happy and glorious than any thing that has yet been conceived or thought of. Broglio with his mercenary troops at the beck of that power which was then undoubtedly possessed of the supreme authority, was marching to Paris, to crush the friends of liberty, and annihilate the States-General. Te Parisians heard of it, and were frantic with apprehensions for their dawning liberty: they ran to the Arsenal to provide themselves with arms, never thinking at frst of taking the Bastille, or suspecting that they were capable of so doing; but the cruel behaviour and treachery of the governor urged their fury, even beyond its frst intention, and, happily for the universe, the Bastille was laid a smoking ruin upon the earth. If I were standing up as an advocate for these men, defending them by legal quibbles against the charge of rebellion, I know I must be tongue tied – I should have nothing to say. But if I were pleading for them upon the charge of reason, I should say, Bring as many such traitors as you will before a just tribunal, charged with such actions, under such circumstances, and, instead of fetters for their legs, they must be furnished with crowns of laurel. Tey were the saviours, not the betrayers of their country: and if a foreign mercenary force can ever be permitted, at the nod and beck of any Minister, or any Monarch, to be brought into any capital, to enforce the commands of despotism, farewell to every thing like liberty, – farewell to every thing like humanity, – farewell to civilization! – Tis world is a wilderness, where one great elephant may stalk from place to place, and, with his huge proboscis, mow down every thing that might administer to the comfort and felicity of mankind. But if this was Rebellion without being Treason, let us see, in the next instance, what was Treason in France, though not Rebellion. – It was Treason in those detestable sycophants who stood behind the curtain (and there is but too frequently some whispering fend, behind the curtain, disturbing the repose of nations, and poisoning the ears of princes) – when they advised the King to give a hypocritical sanction to decrees which they meant aferwards to advise him to violate; when they advised the King, afer having most solemnly sworn to support those decrees, to add perjury to treachery, and shameless efrontery to both, and declare himself destitute of every principle of faith and honesty. – Tose men were traitors both to their Country and their King! and calamities enough they have brought upon both, which sophists may endeavour to lay upon other shoulders, but which are chargeable, in the frst instance, to them, and them alone. Tose men however, and that woman, who advised the fight of the unfortunate Louis XVI. were not guilty of rebellion, but they were traitors of the worst description; and if it were possible for me, in any situation, to applaud the severity with which crimes are sometimes pursued, I should be

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almost inclined to say – that they deserved the fate which they eventually met. – [A hiss.] I am much obliged to the Citizen who has thus interrupted me! But, as I am sure the sentiment is unexceptionable. I perceive that I must have made some mistake in the expression. I will repeat, therefore, the idea I meant to convey. – I mean to say, that those evil counsellors of Louis XVI. who advised him to ratify decrees which he did not mean to fulfl; who advised him to swear to the constitution which he meant to violate; who advised him aferwards to violate that constitution, and leave the paper upon his table in which he declared himself to be a hypocrite and a perjurer; who advised him to fy to foreign nations, in hopes of leading foreign armies against his country, – that these counsellors, these vipers let me call them, though they were not rebels, were traitors of the worst description. – Tis is my meaning. Tis is what I meant to express before. Tis, I believe, I have expressed tolerably accurately now: and if any scribes of the Treasury think they can make any thing of it, I will endeavour, as nearly as possible, to repeat it again to those – I was going to say Citizen Spies, but – Gentlemen Spies, I mean. Far be it from me, Citizens, to infame your minds against any individual; but, as I know that every night there are gentlemen of that description, I wish to tell them fairly and openly, that if any persons whatever wish to take down any part of my words, if they will signify their design, either in the manner just now signifed, or any other way, I will repeat the idea to them. And I will do more: I will shew them the diference between the honor of a plain common man, the simple descendant of a London tradesman and the daughter of a poor country farmer, and the tinsel honor which belongs to persons who were trumpery titles and trumpery decorations. I will shew them that instead of hiring, like a person of the last description, 50 bludgeon-men to knock out the brains of a man hostile to my sentiments, I will protect even his rude, intemperate, and ungentlemanlike conduct, from the indignation which some might think it merits. No man, however improper his conduct, shall meet with an improper return of it here. His person shall be protected; the freedom of his sentiments shall be protected. If he is a deluded individual, I will endeavour to remove his delusion by candour: if a designing individual, I will shew him how superior the smallest of the friends of liberty is to the malice of such designs. Citizens, I shall now proceed in my task of making these distinctions, and shewing you that there may be treason without rebellion, and that this Treason is most frequently committed by those individuals who are so ready to charge others with being traitors. I shall proceed to illustrate this by facts from the history of our own country. You will remember that Charles the First not being wise enough to know how to buy parliaments, and the parliament under Charles the First being disposed to support the rights of the people, there consequently arose what is called

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a rebellion in this country. (Remember I am not going to justify the last act of the Rebels, as they are called. I do not justify sanguinary punishments in any instance whatever!) But, in consequence of the disposition on the part of the ill advisors of Charles the First, to usurp arbitrary power, and the disposition on the part of the Parliament to support the liberties of the people, what is called a rebellion took place in this country. Now, in this instance, I think we shall fnd that the Treason did not lie in the people and parliament of England, though they are called rebels for defending themselves against the armed force which Charles, by the advice of his ministers, assembled in order to make himself absolute; but that the Treason was in the Ministers, who advised him to abdicate his rightful crown, by attempting to usurp a tyranny and authority to which he had no claim. I say that the principle traitor was the apostate Wentworth, who, while he was in opposition, pretended to be faming patriot, a friend to the liberties of the people, and an advocate for a reformation of corruptions and abuses; but who, as soon as he became minister, became one of the most violent persecutors of every thing that looked like liberty; and though I do not commend nor excuse the trial of Lord Straford (the title with which his prostitution was purchased) yet I contend, that those who advise a King to exercise a power which the laws of the land do not vest in him, are traitors to the kind and to the country, and do thereby advise him to abdicate the throne on which the constitution has place him;--do actually advise him to un king himself, and renounce those privileges and prerogatives which, but for his unjust usurpation, he might still have continued to enjoy. I mean to say, also, that the advisers of Charles the Second and James the Second, who as they were also ignorant of the art of efectually buying parliaments, took it into their heads to persuade them to do without any parliaments at all (which is pretty nearly the same thing you know!) though they did not rise in rebellion against the royal authority, were also traitors to their country, and to those two unfortunate monarchs. – I say two unfortunate monarchs: for though the frst of them (as some say) died a natural death, yet his reign was one continued source of vexation and misfortune; and might hold up a striking lesson to all monarchs – that when they attempt to grasp more power than they are entitled to, they grasp at thorns whose sharp and unpoisoned mail will rankle in the hand that attempts to grasp them. I shall now just observe, in a brief manner, that these natural distinctions have been too frequently confounded by the arts of courtiers and sycophants. In the frst place, it has been common, by the assistance of metaphor and fattery to represent the person of an individual and the happiness and existence of a whole country to be one and the same thing. I admit, I afrm that the safety, the security, and tranquillity of the individual or individuals who constitute the chief magistracy of a country, are incorporated with the happiness of society; and that

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he who invades the life of such magistrate or magistrates, whatever be the form of the constitution, commits an ofence of a very heinous description against the peace and happiness of society. I think it necessary to make this observation that my intentions may not be misrepresented. I wish you to understand accurately the nature of crimes and ofences. I do not mean to persuade you that any thing that is criminal is virtuous; or, which is frequently attempted in another place that, things really virtuous and just are criminal. But I mean to say, that though it is a high crime to assail the magistracy of a country, that the magistrate and the country are not one and the same thing: and that on one life ever yet was, or ever can be, as estimable as the life of twenty-four millions, or seventeen millions, or seven millions of individuals of which the population of any particular country may consist. Tis is a sort of fattery paid by sycophant writers to increase their own importance in the eyes of those they fatter. But this is not all. Did the encroachment and metaphor stop here I would not have troubled you with so many animadversions upon the subject. But, having, in the frst instance, identifed, by a fgure of speech, the whole nation in the person of the Prince, they next confound the minister of the Prince with the Prince himself; and then call it high Treason to oppose the measures, designs, nay the contemplations of that courtier who, by arts the most hypocritical, may happen to have seized upon the helm of power. Mr. Gibbon,45 in his ‘Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,’ – a work which, though perhaps not entitled to so unqualifed an approbation as has sometimes been given, must be admitted to be full of profound research, and useful refection, particularly alludes to this last species of treason – an attempt to identify the person of the minister or favourite with the person of the Prince, and to punish the opposition made to such minister as an ofence against the sovereign; and very justly considers it as the last stage of despotism. – (You will remember, Citizens, that at the time Mr. Gibbon wrote this refection, the late accusations for high Treason had not been brought forward – nor had it ever been whispered in Britain that a disposition to oppose measures that had been hinted by a minister, could be considered as Treason in this country. You will please to observe that, in this country, this last species of Treason has been very jealously guarded against; and it was for this reason that the 25th Edward III. was made; for so many things had been charged to be Treason, that bore no resemblance to that crime, that an act was thought necessary in that Parliament, to defne the two principal species of Treason to be compassing and imagining the death of the king; and actually levying war against the king. Having laid down this in so clear and distinct a manner, our ancestors weakly thought that they had done sufcient. But it was not long before attempts were successfully made to extend the limits of the law of Treason. Tose limits the good sense of the people has occasioned them to refer to again and again; and the same

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limits have been again and again declared to be the boundaries of the crime of Treason; and again and again (whenever artful, hypocritical, and alarming ministers got possession of the seat of power) under frivolous pretences, have been extended to a most exorbitant degree. Queen Mary, on account of her religion and intolerance, has spoken of with a degree of severity which is certainly as much as she is entitled to; she had one merit, however, which ought not to be forgotten; she expressed, by public act, her detestation of making words Treason; repealed all the encroaching statutes that had been made; and again fxed the limits of Treason by the 25th Edward III. Tose limits, however, since that time have been occasionally extended and again restored: and we have, at this time, to lament two statutes, fabrications of the present minister, (the Alien Act, and the Traitorous Correspondence Act) by which those sacred boundaries are once more violated. But this is not all. It is to be observed, that since the revolution, ministers not thinking ft to alter the law of Treason as ofen as they wished to extend the limits, have induced their judges to appeal to fctions and evasions; by which they have efectually done that which they did not openly dare to avow. Accordingly we fnd that though the 25th Edw. III. expressly says, that to compass and imagine the death of the King shall be high Treason, and that to levy war against the King shall also be high Treason; making them, thereby, two distinct species of Treason, and clearly evincing thereby that merely conspiring, or imagining, to levy war, was no Treason; yet they have procured many judges to declare, and to pass sentences upon that declaration, that though to attempt to levy war is not Treason under the head of levying war, yet that it is still Treason under another distinct species: namely, that of compassing the death of the King – just as if our frugal ancestors, whose acts were seldom longer than this bit of paper, would have spent their time and words in declaring, that to levy war should be high Treason, if they had meant and understood that even the very idea of such a thing would be an act of high Treason, of the description which they had already previously declared; namely, the compassing and imagining the death of the King. – But let us now return to the times of Charles he Second, by whom it is notorious that an attempt was made to establish an absolute despotism. If we wanted proof of this, we need only appeal to the alliances formed by the cabal, and other ministers of Charles II. their constant hostility to every country that attempted to gain or to preserve its freedom; and their connections with the despot of France, and every other despot on the continent, who would oppose the principles they wished to eradicate. Now, Citizens, there is a curious circumstance relative to the history of Charles II. namely, that every six or twelve months produced a conspiracy, which, being begotten in the imagination of ministers, was propagated in Parliament, while there was any Parliament, and aferwards in the Privy Council (when Privy

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Councils became every thing and Parliaments nothing), was aferwards disseminated through the country by infammatory hand-bills and proclamations. In consequence of these, imaginary traitors, never hearing of such plots and conspiracies till they were indicted and brought to the bar to be tried for them, were time afer time dragged, at the peril of their lives, before judges who knew them to be innocent, to hear the scandalous harangues of Serjeants and Attorney-Generals, who knew that the men they were arraigning were innocent and virtuous, and that they themselves, and their employers, were the persons who ought to have stood at the bar and been tried. If any one doubts whether I have given a faithful account of these plots and conspiracies, let him turn over the pages of Rapin’s History. Tese facts, which stand recorded upon unquestionable authority, (otherwise they could not have been believed by those who live under the present administration) mark, beyond the possibility of mistake, the designs and objects of the ministers by which these plots and fctitious conspiracies were fabricated: and woe to the nation that shall witness their repetition. Yes, Citizens, in this reign of Charles II. in which these false conspiracies were hatched, there were also many real conspiracies; but they were conspiracies among those persons that were endeavouring to destroy the pretended conspirators. False plots, and false conspiracies, are necessary things for those who have real plots and conspiracies of their own to conceal/ I would not wish to press the subject too closely; but have we not also had false plots and conspiracies in the present day? Has not the present immaculate minister disseminated his alarms, like electric shocks, from one end of the country to another, to every individual who imagined he had a stake in the country? – as if every man that has life and exertion had not a stake, or ought not to have a stake in the country! – Has not the present minister, by those excellent conductors, warrants for high Treason, proclamations, and reports of secret committees, conveyed his electric shocks of alarm through the country, till the whole deluded mass of the people shook with convulsions before him? much to the amusement, no doubt, of the manager of the machine, though little to the health and beneft of those upon whom he operated. Nay, it is said, that there have been individuals who have had the audacity to attempt to keep up the reputation of their quackery, by charging the juries of this country with being conspirators, also, against the laws and constitution they were called to defend, because they would not hang the men whom they thought ft to accuse. Yes, if we are not strangely abused, indeed – if our credulity is not most terribly tricked, by those retailers of intelligence, the reporters for the diurnal prints, persons have stood up in public assemblies, and declared that the acquittal of the felons, as they call them, was a proof of the extent to which the conspiracy had spread.

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Tese words are detailed to us as the words of men whose professions of attachment to the Constitution ought to have prevented them from insulting that part of the Constitution, which, I make no scruple of saying, is worth ten thousand times more than all the rest of the Constitution put together: I mean the great and invaluable right of TRIAL BY JURY! But, Citizens, in the midst of these false plots we have, also, had real plots and conspiracies. I remember, a few evenings ago, having the pleasure, or imagining that I had the pleasure, of seeing, in this room, the high and mighty inquisitor, Mr. Reeves. – Te sight of this being inspired me with some inclination to let him know that his inquisitorial presence did not daunt the friends of liberty. I, therefore, took the liberty of announcing, at that time, that I should, on a future occasion, lay before this audience an exposition of the plots and conspiracies of Mr. Reeves and his associators.46 And, if ever I should see a tall, gawky, shufing fellow, who has been idolized very much in this country, and whose principal claim to that idolatry seems to be his talent of shufing and apostacy! – if I should have ever the happiness to be in company where that right honourable maypole happens to stalk in, I will greet him with the promise of an equally just dissection. At present it is my duty to proceed with my exposition of the plots and conspiracies of Reeves. – I speak his name without disguise, that his followers and retainers may be at no loss in their report. I shall not dwell particularly upon the character of the honourable institution of which he is the founder; nor the baseness, when it was frst opened, of signing the name of a person, as secretary, who never had been within the walls of the meeting. I will mention, however, a little anecdote to which this circumstance gave birth. Te gentleman went to complain to Reeves of the insult put upon his name by introducing it into such company, and found the whole society, consisting of four or fve actual members, assembled. Tey immediately apologised; and said, as they were very much in want of a secretary, they would be very much obliged to him recommend them one. to which he is reported to have answered immediately, ‘Why, here is Mr. Reeves, who is a bustling active man, he will do very well, I should think, for a secretary; and then, perhaps, you may chance to get a respectable man in the chair.’ But, sof: I ought to speak of Mr. Reeves with fear and trembling; for he is chief magistrate of the district, and I have not yet forgot the maxim of Homer: – ‘Tough we deem the short-liv’d fury past ’Tis sure the mighty will revenge at last.’

Tis chief magistrate (the man who was to be the judge) about thirteen months ago, when I frst began to lecture here, went from house to house, begging of persons to come and complain to him of my house as a nuisance. Having

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so done, Reeves, with ffeen or sixteen persons, attended at his courtleet – some to complain of nuisance, and others to declare it was no nuisance at all. Mr. High Steward Reeves took his chair, authoritatively, and swore in the witnesses to be examined against me; when, seeing that these and the jury had withdrawn together, I put the following question: ‘Pray, Mr. Chairman Reeves, am I not to be at liberty to call witnesses also?’ ‘No, Sir, you cannot. – Who are you, Sir?’ ‘My name is Telwall. I am the person complained against.’ ‘No, Sir. I shall take care that justice is done. But you cannot call any witnesses.’ ‘Pray, Sir, am I to be permitted to be heard in my own defence?’ ‘Not by Counsel, Sir, Afer the verdict you may say what you please to me yourself. But I shall not hear you at any considerable length.’ So you see, the man who is to sit as judge, frst of all goes and begs people to come and accuse. Afer having got persons to accuse, he tells the accused he shall not be at liberty to call any witnesses in his defence. Tat he shall not be at liberty to say any thing in his defence, till afer the verdict; and then he may be permitted humbly to beg and pray in mitigation of fne; but not to speak at any considerable length, lest (I suppose) his defence should happen to become sedition. I should think this enough to convince you of the situation of the magistracy of this country. But this is not all. Mr. Reeves charged every individual of the ofcers under him to take me into custody, when I came into Court; to commit me (without any warrant whatever) to be the round-house. Afer which, perhaps, I was to be sent on board a ship – being an able-bodied man for a sailor! – or sent of to some of the solitary isles of Scotland, as many persons have been – as Lady Grange, for instance, was. All this, had the frst step succeeded, might have taken place with ease. For, if he had power to take the frst step, he might have had power to take the rest; and who should have said him nay? What then preserved me? – Why there was not a beadle or parish constable throughout the district, who had the hardiness to execute such an order; and they told Mr. Reeves that they would not execute it. Tese are the men who associate to protect liberty and property; and who, under such pretences, enter into conspiracies to seize the person of an individual without legal authority, though under the mask of magistracy – for magistracy is one thing, law another. If this is protecting liberty, make me a galley-slave at once! If this is protecting order and civilized society, strip me naked, and turn me into the wilderness with savages, for I am sick of such order and civilization! Citizens, when this would not do, within less than ten days a charge of high Treason was trumped up. I was dragged from my house; my premises were plundered; not only my manuscripts, the whole labours of my life, but my books, my

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collections of prints, and the very cloths from my tables were seized, to pack the pillage up in. Application afer application has been made to the Privy Council; evasive answer afer evasive answer has been given; and my efects are not returned. (Tis is protecting liberty and property!) At last I am referred to Mr. Joseph White, the honourable Solicitor of the honourable treasury; and Mr. Joseph White says, ‘You may tell Mr. Telwall I have nothing of his, and nothing shall he have of me.’ Tis is protecting property! my books, my manuscripts of all descriptions, in prose and in verse! – whether there is a syllable of politics in them or not; – many of them the labours of years: all are to be seized, and withheld, because I have dared to question the wisdom and integrity of the most perfdious apostate that ever existed. Yet these are the individuals who have the impudence to tell you they associate for the protection of liberty and property. Tey ought to tell you that the associate to pillage and plunder. I meant to have gone further, and read some documents relative to these facts. But I dare not keep documents in my house. I may be taken up for high Treason again, perhaps; and my papers may again be taken, as they were before, lest they should enable me to prove my own innocence, or the guilt of my accusers. For mark the consequences of this seizure of papers. It does not only furnish the materials of accusation but it takes from the person accused the means of proving the falshood of the charges, however barely forged. Tus, on the late occasion, the Privy Council knew, the Attorney General knew, (at least they must have known, if they had read my papers, which afer my house had been pillaged of them it was their duty to do) that the whole of the evidence of Taylor,47 and other persons brought forward on the trials, was entirely false. It was proved again and again that the persons accused were the very reverse of what they accused them of being; and I can assign no reason for witholding our papers and property, but the fear we should be enabled to prove these circumstances. But this is protecting liberty and property: Tis is preserving the constitution. – Such protection! O, Citizens! would I could see that quiet, that tranquil, but that determined spirit of enquiry among you, that you would hear and see before you judged! that you would know the truth before you pronounced! – You could not then be deluded by such ridiculous pretences; you could not be made the dupes of such artifces as these. But let me not lose again the tranquillity of my soul! – I was in hopes that the scene I had beheld, had entirely allayed those irritable feelings which youthful intemperance is but too apt to indulge, Let me not, when the sting of indignation and the consciousness of injury urges my temper – let me not infame your minds with similar feelings! – I am to blame: I have spoken with more warmth

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than either the circumstances or the authors of my injuries are worthy of. – Let me turn to that picture of philosophy which I have beheld on board the transport which is to convey our beloved fellow-citizen to the solitary inhospitable region of Norfolk Island; where even the converse of those friends, sent before him, cannot soothe his melancholy hours. Let me keep before me the virtuous, the godlike fortitude, with which he bears his wrongs; and blush at the recollection that while he with unmoved philosophy bears to be wasted across the tempestuous ocean, into a long, lingering, disgraceful exile of fourteen years, I have sufered a little, paltry pillage, committed by paltry individuals, upon my labours and my little property, to hurry me into an intemperance so unworthy of the principle I would inculcate. O Citizens! could you have been with me – could you have seen what I have seen, and heard what I have heard, how would you lament the degeneracy of Britain, that could sufer such a man as Gerrald, in such a cause, to be sent into exile, in execution of such a sentence! I met, when I visited him, not the dejected countenance of an exile; but the chearfulness of a philosopher. Te health which had been impaired by his close and rigorous confnement, was considerably renovated, by the salubrious breezes of the sea; and the cheerfulness and vivacity to which his genius gave so peculiar a charm, again animated his countenance. I shall not attempt to picture to you the whole of those feelings which nothing but friendship can conceive; and friendship only when it is kindled by such exalted talents, and more exalted virtues. But I cannot forget that he lef me one bequest; which is not only mine; but is your’s also. It is a bequest to every friend of liberty. I had parted from him the third and last time that I went on board the vessel. I had come half down the ladder, by the side of the ship, that was to convey me into the little boat and take me back to Portsmouth; when, with some agitation of countenance, he called me back. – ‘My friend,’ says he (the tear standing in his eye) ‘look to my little Girl: let her not be forgotten.’ I had intended to have mentioned her to him; but the heart full of innumerable sensations, all crowding forward at once, will ofen happen to forget the most important. I returned. I enquired of him what could be done for her; and ofered her the protection of my house, so long as oppression should leave me one. – ‘No, no,’ says he, ‘my friend; I hope that is not necessary. I believe that her situation is not, at present totally uncomfortable; but countenance her – countenance my little babe: she is the vital drop that warms my heart. It will be the balm of my soul to refect that the friends of liberty have not deserted her.’ I would not then disgrace the manly scene before me with a tear: but now, it is no shame, it is no reproach to let them fow down my cheek, while I conjure you, whatever fate may fall upon me, whatever may be the lot of the few particular friends that were dear to his heart, forget not, Britons, forget not, during that

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long, long fourteen years of banishment, of fourteen years it is to be!) that Joseph Gerrald is in exile for his zeal in the cause of liberty; and that Joseph Gerrald has an infant Daughter, who may, perhaps, want a friend, and call upon the name of that country which he has served at the peril of his life, for that support which the Father can no longer yield. Having fnished this brief appeal, he turned cheerfully round; and ‘As for myself,’ says he, ‘bear witness how impossible it is for the little malice of my persecutors to punish me. Tey may punish themselves by the attempt; but as for what they call sufering, to me it is triumph, and not disgrace.’ Such are the feelings and sentiments that animate the heart of the true patriot: and while such feelings and such sentiments remain, persecution may triumph for a while, but liberty must be ultimately successful.

THE TRIBUNE

Saturday, 20th June, 1795.

Te Address of J. THELWALL to the AUDIENCE at CLOSING his LECTURES for the SEASON. FRIDAY, June 12th, 1795. HAVING fnished the general sketch or outline of the history of Apostacy; and in that hasty and imperfect manner which the pressure of time, and the copiousness of the subject would admit, glanced at some of the innumerable characters whose biography that history would include, I hasten to another part of my subject, which the particular circumstances under which I stand this evening have occasioned to press more immediately upon my heart. Tis, Citizens, is the last time I shall have the pleasure of meeting you in this place, for the present season. I am going awhile into privacy and retirement; and you will, many of you, ere long, be seeking for health and recreation in other scenes. Let us, then, before we part, have a few words relative to the nature of this undertaking, the objects to which I wish to draw your attention, and the means which I conceive the friends of liberty ought to adopt for the promotion of that cause of general happiness and general virtue, which must always go hand in hand, and which alone I hope will ever continue to be the actuating motive of the conduct, and enquiries of the Friends of Liberty. In the frst place let me say a few words upon the reasons of this adjournment. Te thronged attendance upon this and the recent evenings will convince those persons (however unwilling to be convinced) who have hitherto employed themselves in invective and abuse against every individual, however humble, who has attempted to support the cause of liberty, that I do not close these Lectures because my venom, as it has been called, is exhausted, and public curiosity no longer awake to my eforts. But there are various reasons why my present exertions should not be continued without intermission. – 85 –

DOI: 10.4324/9780429349720-10

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It is neither good for your health nor for mine, that during the whole of that hot weather, which we must now expect, we should so frequently be cooped up within the walls of this place. I feel also the necessity of some retirement. I pant for the long lost pleasures of the rural scene, for the vigour produced by the rustic exercise, for the cottage, the thicket, and the rill, and the healthful inspiration of the vernal breeze; nor will the man who has been so incessantly before the public as I have been, be suspected of misanthropy when he confesses that he hungers and thirsts afer solitude and obscurity. Since the time when I escaped, by the virtue of a British jury, from the charnelhouse of Newgate, I have never had any opportunity of enjoying that relaxation which was necessary for the restoration of my health. And when you consider the infamous manner in which I was used when in Newgate – crammed in a hole where one breath of air wholesome could never gain admittance, and where the only substitute was a daily sprinkling of vinegar; when you consider that for several weeks I was thus immured, and debarred all possible resources of exercise and cleanliness, you will not be surprized to fnd that I have not recovered from the injuries my health sustained in that noxious dungeon. I think it necessary therefore to seek, for awhile, the shades of retirement; which though they may appear, for the time, to draw me from the path of public duty, are perhaps necessary in more points of view than one, to ft me for the pursuit of that duty with more vigor and more efect. For health is not all I expect from this retirement: I feel that there is a necessity for the man who stands forward in so public, permit me to say so important a situation, to investigate political subjects that may involve the opinions, and consequently the peace and happiness of thousands, to retire occasionally from the busy haunts of life to that retirement where lonely, deep, and serious meditation may eradicate the views perhaps inherent in his nature, and confrm him in those great truths, which before he can propagate with propriety he must thoroughly understand. It is from my deep conviction of the necessity of these occasional relaxations of busy and popular exertion, that I have frequently been led to consider, that one of the most fortunate and happy circumstances of my life – because I believe it was a circumstance which will assist towards my future utility to my fellow beings, was the confnement I experience in the Tower and Newgate. No kindness it is true was intended. But if the mind has received a proper bias, it will extract utility even from the persecution and malice of the bitterest enemies. Tat which was intended to bow down my spirit to servility and terror, and fnally my neck to the stroke of the Executioner, gave me an opportunity to cultivate that frmness and strength of mind which can never be cultivated but in some degree of solitude and retirement. I had an opportunity if investigating, with more seriousness and abstraction than I could ever before have the means of

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indulging, many of the sentiments which in the warmth of youth I had adopted, perhaps, without a sufcient degree of enquiry. I used the opportunity in a manner, perhaps, which few would have expected, and certainly my persecutors would not have wished. I struck with greater boldness into many of the new and dreaded felds of enquiry; and the efects were widely diferent from what the common speculations of mankind would lead them to expect. I had an opportunity of confrming myself in certain abstract principles: Principles which I believe I shall continue to venerate as the most dear and excellent things to which the human heart can be attached – because those principles, properly applied to the condition and circumstances of society; are the only guides to permanent virtue, and consequently to the permanent happiness of the human race. I had there an opportunity of confrming myself in many of those opinions which I had before adopted, and upon which I had acted with an enthusiasm of conviction which had drawn down upon my head the hatred of the interested and the persecution of the powerful. I had an opportunity, also, of detecting some erroneous passions and emotions which had sometimes perhaps perverted my feelings, and which tho’ they had never seduced me into the approbation of violence, had mixed perhaps too much of asperity and personal resentment, where all ought to have been philosophy and benevolent enquiry. I feel therefore the importance and necessity of frequently recurring to retirement and meditation; that I may not be blindly impelling you to principles and modes of conduct the justice of which I have not duly weighed; and that you may fnd this place, as far as my capacities will enable me to make it so, a theatre of instruction; not a theatre of mischievous infammation; and that truth not irrational heat and pell mell violence, may be the consequence of your attendance round this Tribune. Te meditations which led me to consolidate my opinions upon matters of politics, have also had an infuence upon a part of my conduct, which it was always my intention to explain, and which I think I cannot better explain than in this public manner: namely, that which some persons may be inclined to consider as apostacy in me – my withdrawing myself from the popular societies. Citizens, one of the frst refections that suggested itself to my mind from the late trials, and which was also confrmed by the judgement of all those on whose opinions I could rely, was this – that it was necessary to make my choice between two objects – the Tribune, and political Associations. When we consider the arts and machinations that were made use of to connect together upon the late trials, circumstances which had in reality no sort of connection whatever – that they endeavoured to hang Hardy for sentiments which I was charged with delivering, in my lectures and private correspondence,

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and to hang me for the transactions of Hardy at a time when I had no sort of connection with him or his society, it appeared to be important, both to my own safety and that of others, that I should give no crown lawyers an opportunity of involving, by legal sophistry, any political Association in the guilt, if guilt it may be called, of the sentiments that may be delivered from this place: I and could not be ignorant that the more popular my exertions in the public cause might happen to make me – the more desirous those, who wish to suppress all truth and chain the public mind in ignorance would be for my destruction. I know that standing here, unconnected with any projects or associations, and adhering to the cause of truth, I stand upon a rock which they cannot shake; and that all their attempts against it must only render it the more frm. Te laws of my country are clearly and decidedly in my favour; and honest juries shew an enlightened determination not to be misled by the sophistry of crown lawyers, nor the infammatory abuse of treasury scribblers and the garbled Reports of interested alarmists. Tey will not violate those laws which they are impannelled to defend, to curt the favour or shun the defamatory insults of a minister. I balanced therefore between the two pursuits. I found a necessity either of relinquishing the popular societies, or of relinquishing this Tribune; and, upon serious examination, I thought I perceived that my individual exertions could be more important to the cause of liberty in this place than in any society whatever. I therefore quitted the societies, not from any desertion of the cause, not from any change of principle, not from any opinion that political societies are dishonourable or unlawful. – I am convinced they are legal. I am convinced they are just; I am convinced that they are important; and that in many postures of society they are the only things that can save a nation from inevitable slavery and destruction. But considering the necessity of putting a period to all their pretences for making ridiculous charges of High Treason, and conspiracy, and hashing up mock traitors, by the dozen in a dish, some of whom, as in the late cases, had never seen each others faces or heard of each other before, I found it necessary to cut the thread of connection between the Tribune and the popular Associations. I therefore withdrew myself from them, and choice this as my only feld of exertion in the cause of liberty: convinced that a bold, decided, and active mind, determined to pursue the cause of virtue (and by virtue I mean the happiness and welfare of the human race) a mind trusting only to itself, and independent of the humours and sentiments of others, may in some circumstances of society, do more service to the cause of liberty and justice, than can possibly be done by the same individual, when mixed with other persons whose wayward passions may sometimes thwart his activity, and by whose imprudences he may perhaps, by means of such complicated charges as have lately been brought forward, be sacrifced at the sanguinary altar of ministerial ambition.

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I will honestly confess to you, Citizens, that there is also another motive which has had some infuence in determining any choice: for I ought to have no motive which I am ashamed to state to the public. If it is an honest motive, I despise the ridicule which dishonest knaves may throw upon it. If it is an improper motivate, let it be known, that its impropriety may be detected; and that I may be benefted by the animadversions of my fellow citizens. I have a family to support; a family that perhaps may be growing continually upon me: one that I believe would have been larger by two individuals at this time, if the cruel persecutions of the present Administration had not bowed down an aged mother to her grave, and murdered the infant struggling in the womb. It was necessary then for me either to abandon, in a considerable degree, the public cause, or to seek some way by which my personal interests could be united to the interest of the public. Such an union I believe is not dishonourable; and if I know my own heart (which I will not be too sure that I do – for it is certainly frequently too true ‘that the heart is deceitful to itself above all things’ – but if I know my own heart, there is no motivate can compel me to sacrifce the general to the particular feeling. Abiding by that determination – and when I do not abide by it I shall no longer have your countenance, I shall no longer have the cheering reward of your approbation – but abiding by that principle I do not feel myself at all disgraced by acknowledging that this theatre of investigation is the source of my subsistence, and of the subsistence of that family which is dependent upon me. It is a subsistence however that appears to me the most glorious independence. It is the unsolicited price of the free exertions of my intellect. It is perfectly voluntary on your part. It is neither extorted from your charity, by supplicating importunities, demanded by the imperious voice of the tax gatherer, nor extorted by litigious collectors of oppressive tythes. No man is obliged to hire me to propagate what he does not approve, nor to pay me for forging the fetters he must wear; neither do I let myself out for hire to maintain all sides of all questions, and determine the weight of each of argument by the weight of fee. Whatever advantage I receive, is an advantage of the fairest reciprocity. It is a voluntary exchange of your countenance, and your rewards for the exertions which I make; and for your opinion of my integrity and zeal in your service; and tho’ it is impossible that periodical eforts should be uniformly successful, the growing popularity and thronged attendance of these rooms forbid me to suspect that my labours have generally failed of bestowing satisfaction. Such a compact then – such a reciprocation; I belive to be the most honourable means and the most independent, by which an individual can hope to reap a livelihood by the exertion of his faculties.

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I feel however the danger of my situation; – I am conscious of moral mischiefs, to my own mind in particular, which are too likely to grow up from the situation. I hope I shall keep these dangers constantly before my eyes, that I may avoid splitting the bark of my independence, and endangering the shipwreck of that which is the dearest treasure I have, my moral rectitude, upon those rocks of delusion, interest, and passion, which may unfortunately obstruct my course. I am aware that in a situation like this, the mind is sometimes apt to become infamed, to lose sight of principles, and dwell too much personalities; – to sufer passion to snatch the reins from reason and to foster prejudice and resentment when truth and justice ought to be the only objects. I hope, whatever there may have been of that conduct this season, will be corrected in retirement before the next. I trust there is less of it this season than in that which preceded; and I trust also, that there will be still less when we meet again. ‘Else why live I an age of civilization, if I am not to refect upon the errors of my own conduct and feelings as well as those of others; and by that means endeavour to attain to virtue, wisdom and utility?’ I feel also the danger and the temptation of being carried by the tide of popularity from the direct course of independent principle. But I feel at the same time a settled conviction, that I ought rather to court your hisses than your applause, when that applause is only to be obtained by following, instead of directing the current of opinion; by courting your approbation, instead of frst looking to the approbation of my own heart, and propagating any opinion but that which I am convinced from my soul is the opinion of truth and virtue. To fortify myself in these convictions, I retire awhile into obscurity. Ere I go, however, let me recommend to you to investigate with the most scrupulous exactness every opinion and sentiment you have heard, either from my lips or the lips of any other individual. Remember – no man can deserve implicit confdence from himself, much less from a numerous auditory. Remember, that hearing and reading are no further useful than as they furnish materials for your own serious refections and meditations. Opinions, to be useful to you and mankind, must be the result of ratiocination, of examination and re-examination. Sentiments of genuine liberty must be the result of laborious reasoning, and must spring from deep rooted principles. To be efcacious they must be felt and understood, and not like the babbling of a parrot, who repeats the words, but understands not the meaning they are intended to convey. Let me advise you also to consider the state and posture of society we exist in. It is an alarming crisis; and no man can possibly determine in what sort of condition, or what circumstances we may meet again, at the end of that recess we are going to enjoy. Let us, then, fortify our minds with virtue, and with principle.

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Let us restrain the angry and turbulent passion of our souls. Let us cultivate a benevolent afection for each other: even for those who difer from us in opinion; and let us labour by kind and gentle means to turn those from their error who may be treading in the path of vice; or detect, if we can, the errors and vices into which ourselves have fallen. Above all things let us adhere to the principles of moderation. But let these principles be properly understood. For when it is properly understood, moderation is virtue; though as it is too frequently used it means the most contemptible of vices. If by moderation you mean a compromise, a midway path between vice and virtue, I despise your moderation as I despise the cavilling of a sophist who would destroy the energy of my intellect, instead of leading me to the conclusions of truth and reason. But if by moderation you mean a steady adherence to the mild principles of justice – a determination to weigh and consider every sentiment before you adopt it, to be infamed by no factious principles, to be missed by no party attachments, but to do that which is just, and never more; always taking care that we do not let violence and intemperance snatch from our hands the reins of reason, then I am the advocate of moderation – the votary of her power, and the champion of her cause. Yes, this genuine moderation, so conducive to general happiness and virtue, is the object of my supreme admiration; I only love liberty as it appears to me to promote the virtue and happiness of mankind; and if liberty will not promote this happiness and this virtue, take your liberty, for I will have none of it. And if you could persuade me – it would be very difcult I believe – but if you could persuade me, that the despotism of Turkey could promote the happiness and welfare of mankind more than the principles of liberty and equality, I would be the enemy of that liberty and equality; because I am convinced, that all our endeavours should be directed only to promote the happiness and welfare of the human species: that welfare and that happiness which ought to be the dearest objects of every man’s pursuit. Te happiness of mankind then should be our frst object. But let us deeply enquire whether that happiness can be secured without liberty. If it cannot, let us brave dangers and persecution; let us stand, if I may repeat the simile, like the Spartan at his post, and defend our land-mark to the last: and though the slaves and agents of oppression should heap rubbish afer rubbish, persecution afer persecution upon us, there let us stand till we are buried beneath the growling heaps, leaving the monumental pile to all posterity, as a trophy to stimulate their virtue, and awake in their bosoms a correspondent fame in the cause of liberty; a cause to be for ever loved, because the cause of liberty is the cause of justice and of human happiness.

THE TRIBUNE

Saturday, 13th June, 1795.

Continuation of the Narrative of the Proceedings of the Messengers, &c. [Concluded fom Number IX.] IN the early numbers of this work, I began my promised Narrative of the Proceedings of Government relative to the late prosecutions. It will not appear surprising, in the hurry and fatigue which must necessarily arise from preparing and delivering two Lectures a week, and correcting and superintending a weekly publication, that I should not have found time regularly to continue it. It appears, however, an act of duty to my readers not to close the volume without bringing this narrative to a conclusion. I proceed, therefore, in the same hasty manner in which, under my present circumstances, I am necessarily obliged to execute whatever I undertake, to perform this obligation. Te examinations being concluded for the day, I was conducted back to the house of the messenger, where I continued to be treated with that insulting mixture of afected kindness and jealous restriction, which might be expected from ignorant hypocrisy. Te character of this man, however, I saw through in an instant, and one of the frst requests I made to him was, that he would forbear to talk to me upon the politics of the day; as it was totally improper, in our situation, to enter upon any such subjects. To this he immediately assented, and at frst pretended to be very desirous of avoiding every thing of that description, though it was every now and then conspicuous enough that he was laying snares to trepan me into imprudent expressions; and, during the three last days I remained with him, he took such particular and repeated pains to lead me, from whatever subject we talked upon, into the very topic, and the parts of that topic, which it was most my duty to avoid, that I could not but suspect that he had received particular instructions upon the subject; and I was frequently obliged to repel his questions by the most indignant reproach. Once in particular, he introduced a man to sup with us, whose face I never saw before, but whom I understood to be a serjeant in the Guards, whose business it was to sleep in the house for my better – 93 –

DOI: 10.4324/9780429349720-11

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security. Tis was not of itself a circumstance which displeased me; for I have some faith in physiognomy, and when I looked in his face, I had no doubt, nor have I still any reason to doubt, that my new companion was an honest, though an ignorant man; and I never objected, even when at liberty to chuse my company, to the society of such a man, whatever might be his situation in life. On this evening, however, while the glass was circulating, Timms contrived to introduce the subject of the condition of the lower orders of society. Tis is a topic with respect to which my heart has always been warm; and from the art with which it was introduced, I am convinced that he had been tutored by persons better informed, as to my passions and feelings, than he had the opportunities or the penetration to be. Upon such a topic there appeared no danger in expatiating. I always have thought, and I never have disguised that opinion, that the poor are oppressed; that they are kept in brutal ignorance, for fear they should free themselves from oppression; and that there is a most wicked and scandalous disproportion between the encrease in the price of labour, and the price of the necessaries of life; and I made no scruple to assert this in pretty round terms. Te wretch had watched his time. He saw that I was warm; and supposing me entirely of my guard, put some question to me about the purposed Convention, and the poor taking things into their own hands; or something of that kind – the terms of which I do not now quite remember. I remember, however, that it was a question of the most suspicious and improper description; and that I turned immediately towards him, and looking in his face with the utmost contempt and anger, asked him whether he was not ashamed to put such a question to a person in my situation! – I had several occasions to use this language to him. – Yet this wretch had the audacity to swear that I used to indulge myself, at his table, in very guarded conversations; and that I told him, if I had been fourteen days longer at liberty, I should have had so many friends around me, that it would have been difcult for Government to apprehend me. It is scarcely possible to conceive any thing more absurd and improbable than this story: yet as improbable stories are sometimes believed, because it appears equally improbable that they should be invented, it may not be amiss to shew out of what slender materials they may sometimes be composed. On the night of my apprehension, while I was yet waiting at the Secretary of State’s ofce, the gentlemen clerks, and others who were in attendance, pretended to condole with me upon my situation, which I (desirous of marking as strongly as I could my contempt for my oppressors) repelled, sometimes with jocularity, and sometimes with gay indiference; and among other things I remember to have said, that ‘I did not care much about it: though, to be sure, if I had been at liberty a fortnight longer, it would have made thirty or forty pounds diference to me; which, in my present circumstances, would have been of some importance.’ – At another time, while Timms and myself were at dinner, he told me, that it had

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been intended to apprehend me in my Lecture Room. ‘I am glad you did not,’ said I, gravely, ‘It might have been a dangerous experiment.’ Tese were the only foundations for the ridiculous fabrications. To remain in the power of a being of whom one has formed such an opinion as I had conceived of Timms, must be sufciently tormenting; and it was rendered the more intolerable by the afected, canting, hypocritical civility, with which his tyranny was interlarded. Let the reader picture to himself an ill-tempered, mean, and illiterate tyrant (the discarded valet of one of our nobility) deriving consequence from a house furnished with every article of ornamental luxury, and a table supplied with costly viands; yet as gloomy and restless as he was consequential; a bigot in religion, and a slave in principles; – let him imagine this being intrusted with sole and absolute dominion over a man whom he pretended to commiserate, but whom it was evident he both feared and hated; and to whom, in the struggle between malice and hypocrisy, he alternately made an ostentatious display of his kindness and indulgence; and of his power, if so disposed, to load him with chains, and fetter him to the foor, or the bed-post. – When the reader has pictured all these circumstances to his imagination, he may form some idea of the frst stage of the mild and benevolent system of imprisonment for pretended Treason. But this was not all. Tere was another circumstance relative to this close custody, which, if it had long continued, must have committed me to the still closer custody of the grave: that is to say, the total exclusion of circulating air. Excluded from all exercise by day, and shut up every night in a small room, whose only window was not only secured with shutters, bolts, bars, and bells, but also with a thick double curtain, which (in spite of my remonstrances) was constantly let down, and jammed close against the wall with a heavy table, so as to exclude every breath of air. I was thus literally parboiled in my own perspiration; and reduced, in the course of a week, to such a state of debility, that, but for my timely removal to the Tower, it would have been impossible that my health should have supported the assault. Two days before my removal, Mr. Ford48 called upon me, and told me, in the presence of Timms, Tat, ‘as in seizing my papers, which were very numerous, the Messenger had taken not only those of a public but of a private nature; the latter should be restored to me without delay, and he would give me his honour that nobody had seen them but himself.’ He then asked me, ‘Whether I would have them sent to my own house, or to the Messenger’s?’ – I replied, it would be some satisfaction to me to see what was returned; and I, therefore, wished them to be sent to me. Upon which he shewed me his seal, and told me, ‘that I might have the satisfaction of knowing they came from him to me, without being subjected to the curiosity of other persons, that he would send them sealed up with that impression.’ Yet when I enquired of the messenger, at night, how it came that my

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trunk had not arrived from Mr. Ford, he told me, with more insolent rudeness of tone and manner than he had ever before assumed, that it had been; and that he had sent it to my house, for that he would not have his room littered about with a parcel of papers. Whether, therefore, it was really returned as Mr. Ford sent it, or whatever impertinent curiosity might have examined its contents, I cannot say; but when I came, afer my trial, to inspect the efects returned, I found that all my fair copies and complete manuscripts were missing; that none of my prints or similar articles, so scandalously taken away in the general pillage, had been returned; and that the whole of the efects, thus ostentatiously delivered back, consisted of some private letters, the notes of four or fve of my lectures, a few domestic memorandums, and some blotted fragments and imperfect copies of my unpublished works. So that, in fact, every valuable article is still withheld; and I am yet to learn, whether any part of the plunder is to be restored. Afer being six days tormented by the hypocritical politeness and jealous tyranny of this keeper, I was happily relieved, by being sent to the more tolerable confnement of the Tower; where, notwithstanding the jealous restrictions and insults to which were at frst subjected, I found my situation comparatively comfortable; for my room was large, airy and pleasant, and the warders, to whose custody we were committed, with only one or two exceptions, were civil and attentive, and discharged their duty in a manner that does them credit. To this Bastille we were removed with the most jealous secrecy. And although my wife was present when the coach that was to take me away came to the door of the messenger, no sort of intimation was given to either of us, where I was going; nor could I get any information from my conductors, till the direction taken by the carriage let me into the secret. To the Tower then we were committed; and the frst information I received was, that I was neither to be permitted to send for my books, nor have the privilege of pen, ink, or paper. Tis intimation of a severity so monstrous and so unexpected, struck, for the frst time, a momentary damp to my soul; for as I could not persuade myself that the Minister would have the impudence to try us for High Treason, I expected that our imprisonment would be long; and from the iron bars, massive door, and the centinel planted with fxed bayonet at the entrance of the room, I conjectured that it was to be solitary. Te pang, however, was but momentary. A proud exultation in the cause I sufered for rushed upon my mind: I envied my fellow prisoners their share in the honour of such a persecution; and ambition mingling itself with my enthusiasm, I breathed a fruitless wish that I might have stood alone in a struggle so glorious, and so important. I recollected also, a conversation I had held several years before with a friend, of more facetiousness than delicacy, upon the subject of my youthful peculiarities, and in which, with a sort of prophetic fight of imagination, I had pictured myself as excluded in some dungeon; without either books or pen and ink, and

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asked what I should be likely to do with myself under such circumstances. – ‘Do with yourself !’ replied my friend. ‘Why, you would dip your fnger in your own excrements, and scribble poetry on the wall!’ Te conceit at frst provoked my risibility; but it let me into a train of refection productive of sensations much more consolatory and important. A crowd of expedients rushed upon my mind; a nail which I picked up in the room appeared to be a fund of inexhaustible amusement and utility; and I felt a deep conviction that there was no possible situation into which a man of active mind can be plunged in which he may not fnd means not only of improving himself, but eventually of benefting his fellow beings: a conviction attended with sensations which the proudest of my persecutions might have been envied. It was not long, however, before I found that my confnement was not to be as solitary as I expected; for that the centinel, with his fxed bayonet, not being deemed a sufcient guard for so desperate a rebel, two armed men were, also, to be placed in my room night and day. I was informed, also, that perhaps, upon specifc application to the Privy Council, I might, in time, be permitted to send for some of my books. It happened, also, that the person in whose house, or tower, I was lodged, had formerly been a bookseller, and had some few articles of his former trade still in his possession; and of him I ventured to borrow some volumes of Shakespeare’s Plays: neither myself, nor the Warders who had the custody of me, supposing that any thing more was meant by the restriction, than that nothing was to be brought into the Tower which had not frst been inspected by the Privy Council, or its agents: nor either of us ever suspecting that the safe custody of a traitor could be afected by his reading ‘Macbeth,’ or ‘As you like it.’ – But we were miserably mistaken. I was detected reading a play-book without permission of Government; the Warder was reprimanded, and the books ordered to be withdrawn; and it was near a fortnight before the repeated and spirited remonstrances of my wife could procure for me the indulgence (so it was called) of perusing any book whatever, or having the use of pen and ink. But this was not all I had to complain of. Te perpetual and insulting visits of the military were such as constantly to remind me that I existed no longer under what have been called the wise and humane laws of England, but that I was, in reality, submitted to all the jealous tyranny of a military government. I was visited almost every morning by the ofces on duty in the garrison; some of whom were insolent boys of sixteen or eighteen, who, having no pretensions either to the dignity of the citizen, or the urbanity of the gentleman, aspired to consequence by the rudeness and haughtiness of their deportment. Tree times a day I was also intruded upon by serjeants and corporals; and every two hours the centinels came bursting into my room, with their arms in their hands, without the least warning, staring in my face with the most insulting rudeness. And, to

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crown the whole, a serjeant of the Guards was appointed to attend, whenever my sister, my mother, or my wife, came to visit me, to be a spy upon our actions, and note our conversation. Te insolent deportment of this man was no small aggravation of the jealous tyranny with which we were guarded. Our friends were not permitted to see us, without orders from the Privy Council; and this favour, with respect to me, was only extended to my nearest relations, twice a week, and for only two hours at a time; and to have a surly fellow of this description seated close by our sides, listening to every word, and insolently rebuking myself, my sister, or my wife, if we did not speak as loud as he wished us, was a degree of aggravated despotism which no law has authorized, and to which no Briton ought to submit. – Te spirited deportment of Citizen Martin, however, rid us, as I understand, of this military interference; the visits of ofcers and soldiers were laid aside, and the ofce of watching and listening was transferred to one of the warders, in the absence of the gentleman gaoler. But though the person was changed, the vexatious jealousy was not to be laid aside, and even when my apothecary, the respected Mr. Wilson, procured an order to see me, partly on account of a temporary derangement of my own health, and partly to satisfy my mind as to the health of my wife, whom the fatigues and anxieties to which she was exposed had thrown into a situation of the utmost danger, not even he was exempted from the general restriction, though medical men, even under the most barbarous despotisms, have always been regarded as privileged in this respect, and I was of course obliged to forbear many of those enquiries which, under such circumstances, it is natural I should be desirous to make; but which, however important to his peace, a husband will not be disposed to make in the hearing of a third person. Such then were the circumstances, during out continuance in the Tower, of that treatment which Mr. Dundas says was no punishment, and of the lenity and indulgence of which Mr. Pitt thinks ft ostentatiously to boast. – For ten days or a fortnight I was debarred the use of books, pen, ink, and paper; for about seven or eight weeks I was never permitted to go out of my room for exercise, or for air; during the whole of that very hot weather which prevailed during a part of the last summer, my only alternative was to be closed incessantly within this apartment, or to snatch an occasional breath of air on the little leads, at the top of the round tower in which I was confned; and where the intense action of the sun, refected from the metal, was such as with difculty could be supported; and, as there were three of us, Hardy, Horne Tooke,49 and myself, who were alternately to enjoy the breezes on this sunny height, no two of us being permitted to bask there at the same time, the intervals were short, during which we could partake even of this indulgence. At length a fresh order was obtained at the request, I understand, of some of the prisoners, but which was extended in its operation to all, further indulging us with permission to walk round the ramparts of the

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Tower, guarded each by his respective warder, who had the strictest injunctions not to sufer us to speak either to each other, or to any other person. Before I quit the subject of the military, I ought to observe the very diferent manner in which they deported themselves, at the beginning, and towards the latter end, of our imprisonment. At frst they seemed solicitous of every opportunity to insult us; and even carried the expression of their abhorrence so far as to level their musquets at us, when we appeared at our windows, and to maltreat every person who testifed the least afection towards us: – a circumstance which surprised me not a little, till I heard from one of the warders that, among the infernal fabrications which had been so industriously circulated to infame the public mind against us, a report had been very successfully propagated among the soldiers, that a part of our detestable conspiracy was a plan for surprising the Tower by night, marching immediately to the Irish barracks, where the soldiers were lodged, and massacreing them all in their beds. Te eyes of the soldiery, however, as well as of the people in general, became opened, during our confnement, to the infamous artifces of our persecutors; and when, towards the latter end of our imprisonment, we were permitted to walk about the ramparts, they shewed us every mark of civility and attention, and even turned people out of the Tower who attempted to ofer us any kind of insult. At length, afer we had been kept fve months in suspence, unable to conjecture, and those who best understood the laws of the country were least able to devise, what our persecutors could possibly intend to do with us, a special commission was made out to try us for High Treason, which was opened on the 2d of October with a speech from Chief Justice Sir James Eyre,50 which, for the new and extraordinary doctrines it contains, and the strain of plausible eloquence with which those doctrines were insinuated, will long be remembered by the lovers of English liberty: – A speech which, without any portion of Mr. Brother’s prophetic spirit, I venture to foretell will at least be heard once more in a court of justice, to the great edifcation of the country in general, and of the bench and the bar in particular. I shall not animadvert upon the indecent violation of what have hitherto been regarded as essential regulations with respect to the Grand Jury. Tis has already been better done than I could possibly do it, by Citizen Martin, in his very excellent pamphlet, ‘An Account of the Proceedings on a Charge of High Treason:’ – a pamphlet which I would recommend to the perusal of every Citizen. Neither shall I make any comment upon the decency of lumping together, in one indictment for conspiracy, twelve persons, several of whom had never seen each other’s faces, nor heard each other’s names. – Sufce it to say, an indictment for High Treason was found, the whole charges contained in which were of so vague and desultory a nature, that they would not have justifed a common Justice of the Peace, understanding the duties of his ofce and the laws of

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the country, to have granted a warrant for the apprehension of any individual. Yet the indictment had been drawn with special care, and the crown lawyers had made of their case all that could be made. – Te plain fact is, that, though there are nine counts in this curious instrument, there is no one direct overt act charged in any one of them; and for this reason, that the prosecutors knew they had no overt act to charge, and therefore dwelt upon generals, – thinking perhaps, at the same time, that general charges (good sweeping clauses) were best calculated to establish a general system of Terror and Execution. Of the indictment in which I was included, together with a list of between two and three hundred jurors, and two and three hundred witnesses, I was served with a copy on the 13th of October, ten days before the day of arraignment, and my counsel and solicitor were then permitted to have free access; as was also my wife, the person in my family whom I pitched upon as best qualifed (from her fortitude, as well as her afection) to be employed as my confdential agent in this trying situation. Ten days preparation being allowed to us, by act of parliament, from the service of the copies to the day of arraignment, (exclusive of that day, and exclusive, also, of the intervening Sunday) we expected, of course, that those ten days would not be broken in upon by the prosecutors; and that we should not be moved till the morning on which we were to be arraigned, or at any rate till the evening preceding. But we were mistaken. At nine o’clock on the night of the 23d, when the gentlemen gaoler came to lock me up, I was informed that we were to be removed to Newgate at six o’clock the following morning. Tis was, to me, a very considerable inconvenience. My wife and myself had been writing all day, till seven or eight o’clock, when she departed; and I had still some instructions to prepare, which my solicitor deemed important, and which I was to have got ready against eight or nine o’clock the next morning, when she was to come for them, and assist me in writing other letters and instructions to persons who were expected to be useful in my defence. But it now became necessary for me to neglect every other consideration in the preparations for my departure; such as packing up my books, papers, and other efects; and when my faithful agent was on her way, punctual to her appointment in the morning, she had the mortifcation to meet the procession, and to see her husband conducted into the abode of felons and murderers, where she had a fresh routine of ceremonies and delays to go through before she could be admitted again to visit him. Nor was this all. When I came to the coach that was to bring me from the Tower-gate, the Sherif, Eamer, refused me permission to send for my books and papers, which I had packed up, but which I had nobody at my lodging to bring for me. Mr. Sherif Burnet would fain have insisted upon that act of justice, but Eamer obstinately refused: the consequence of which, and of other delays resulting from this circumstance, was, that even on the day of arraignment my books

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and papers had not come to hand. And yet I am told that, during a late canvas for the vacant gown (some persons objecting the treatment of the state prisoners, and myself in particular) this gentleman, or some of his friends, chose to afrm that I had written a letter – to thank him for the particular kindness and attention which he had paid to me. Tere was circumstance, however, attendant upon this removal, which I own was highly gratifying: I mean the deportment of the populace, who, as our removal at that time was perfectly unexpected, were of course a mere promiscuous multitude, and might therefore be considered as representing pretty accurately the general feelings of the country with respect to us. But, as this circumstance was faithfully detailed the next day in the Morning Post, I subjoin the account from that paper: – –

Removal of the State Prisoners to Newgate ‘At ten o’clock on Tursday night, when the gentlemen gaoler came to lock up the prisoners in the Tower, they were informed (having had no prior intimation whatever) that at eight the next morning the Sherifs would be at the gates of the Tower to received them, and convey them to Newgate. Accordingly, within half an hour of that time, the Sherifs arrived; and Horne Tooke, Kyd and Bonney, Joyce and Richter, Telwall and Hardy, were conveyed in three coaches to their new place of destination, attended by a strong guard of constables. ‘Notwithstanding the great precaution of secrecy, the crowd, however, soon became very great; and the strongest animation of feeling and sympathy was visible in almost every spectator’s countenance. Some could not even suppress the expressions of their regard, or prevent the warmth of their hearts from becoming conspicuous, not only in their looks, but even their tongues. Much to their credit, however, whatever might be the feelings of the crowd, they kept them within the bounds (not of afected inanity, it is true, but) of the most perfect real decorum; which sufciently shewed that the secrecy and precautions that had been observed were perfectly unnecessary, and that neither private afection nor popular attachment was likely to induce the Friends of Liberty to injure their cause so much, and perhaps the prisoners themselves, as to attempt to impede the course of public justice. – If the persons, whose trials are this day to begin, are guilty of conspiring to kill the King, and to introduce a scene of anarchy and massacre, those who have been hitherto deluded by them ought to have an opportunity of being convinced of the mistaken opinion they have hitherto been led to entertain concerning them; and we hope there is yet so much of the British character lef, that no Jury can be selected that will pass upon them, without the fullest conviction of their guilt, in the full extent and real meaning of the charge. If they are innocent, it is good that they should have an opportunity of proving

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their innocence; since their virtue will be ten thousand times more glorious for the ordeal it has to pass through. ‘Te prisoners retained all that chearful fortitude (or, as some of the venal scribblers in the Treasury prints have called it – criminal levity) which has uniformly characterized them during their confnement; appeared to talk with great gaiety to each other, and to the attendants in the coaches; and bowed and smiled with a gaiety, evidently unafected, to those who saluted them from the streets and windows as they passed. ‘It was highly gratifying to those who venerate the real character of the British nation, to see the manner in which they parted from their former keepers at the Tower gate. Te mutual expressions of cordiality proved, beyond a doubt, that however rigid (and we cannot help thinking some of them uselessly so) the restrictions may have been that Government thought necessary to lay them under, they have been attended with all the sofening circumstance of civility, on the part of those who were entrusted with the immediate execution of those orders – a trait of character which, we hope, will long continue to mark every department of the executive power in this country.’ Morn. Post, 25 Oct. 1794. Whatever little comfort might have been enjoyed while we were in the Tower was now entirely gone: and our accommodations were such as would leave an eternal stain upon the humanity of the country, which subjected even the vilest and basest rufans to so miserable and murderous a confnement. Richter was absolutely confned in one of the condemned cells, and I in the dead hole, or charnel-house – the common receptacle for the putrid carcases of felons who die of diseases in the jail. At my frst entrance into this place, I was struck at once with disgust and surprise. I had heard of cells and dungeons, and had pictured them to my imagination: but a place so vile, so flthy, and so abhorrent to all the feelings and senses of man, I never had beheld or conceived. Tere was a window, it is true, of six panes of glass at the top of the room, but there was a high wall about six feet beyond it, so that the portion of light was so small there was but one spot in the room where I could see to read or write even in the middle of the day; and as this window would not open, and the door, on account of the situation, could never be lef open, a breath of air (even such air as circulates within the walls of Newgate) was not to be had. Te ceiling and the upper part of the walls had once been white-washed, but they were now nearly of a colour with the chimney; the lower part had also been wainscotted; but the greater part of the wood had perished from the dampness of the place; and, all on one side, the bare bricks grinned with a sort of sepulchral horror, that might have persuaded me (had I been inclined to indulge the terrors of imagination) that I was already dead and

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buried. Tere was indeed a tolerable bed in the corner, hung with old, flthy, tattered curtains of red and white check; but all the rest was one consistent association of the utmost wretchedness. In a dark corner stood a shattered deal table, under which my coals were thrown in a heap, and upon which my victuals were to be placed; and, to complete the whole, though the foor was of the colour of soot, and in many places clotted with old hereditary flth, standing up in hillocks sometimes thicker than my fst, it was nevertheless fooded with wet, under pretence of having just been washed. Tat my feelings were shocked at the frst view of this den of horrors, I cannot deny; but those principles which had enabled me hitherto to preserve, not only my serenity but my cheerfulness, did not desert me. Te proud consciousness of sufering for truth and virtue rushed instantly again upon my soul, and I set myself down immediately to write a little sonnet ‘THE CELL,’ which appeared the next morning in the ‘Post,’ and is now, together with the other little scraps of poetry to which my situation gave birth, published in a separate pamphlet. I had scarcely fnished this little sketch, when the Sherifs, &c. entered; and Mr. Sherif Eamer began to make a thousand polite apologies for not being able to furnish us with better accommodations (every word of which I knew to be false); and thence proceeded to condole with me upon the circumstance of my confnement, and display his tender feelings, by assuring me how painful a thing it was see any Gentleman in such a situation. Of this civil insolence of triumph, which the tools of ofce, throughout every stage of the proceeding, shewed such a disposition to display, I shewed my contempt, as usual, by a cheerful indiference, equally civil, but more sincere. I told Mr. Sherif Eamer, that ‘very likely their uneasiness upon this subject might be greater than ours; that, for my own part, I was very careless about the place I was confned in, for that a man’s happiness must spring from his mind, not from the situation he breathed in; and that I had no doubt that it was all for the best.’ Te voluble vivacity with which this was uttered, appeared to shock Mr. Sherif Eamer very much. He lifed up his hands and eyes, and turned away, as though I had uttered blasphemy; and, as plain as eyes and gesticulations could speak, seemed to reprove the ‘criminal levity’ of my deportment. Te fact is, that nothing was so ofensive to our persecutors, and their agents, as our cheerfulness and gaiety. It was a contempt of their power and authority so marked and so impressive, that it was impossible for them patiently to endure it. Tis their low assassins of the quill (the scribblers in their diurnal prints) pretty openly confessed, by their scurrilous abuse. But their more exalted and more discrete agents revealed it in another manner: – they afected, indeed, to fear that our indecorum should hurt us in the public opinion; but their fears were evidently of another kind: – they could not but perceive, in this deportment, an omen or the downfall of that system if corruption they are so desirous to support: the

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plain and simple fact being, that when sufering for their principles are so deeply grounded in the conviction of their truth and propriety, as to despise the utmost malice of their persecutors, and, by their cheerfulness and fortitude, to display that conviction to the world, it is impossible that those principles should be beaten down. Tyranny and persecution may rage for a while; but, if the apostles of truth deport themselves with becoming frmness, the gibbet and the consuming fre can only assist the propagation of those opinions they were intended to exterminate. But, whatever might be my own indiference about the place I was confned in, it will not be surprising that the feelings of my faithful scribe, when at length the obtained admission, should be considerably afected. In all former stages of this trying afair, whatever might have been her internal feelings, she had always appeared before me with a countenance of such cheerfulness and fortitude as took from separation half its anxieties; but when she beheld me thrown like a dead dog into a hole so vile, the heart can better conceive than the pen describe, the sensations that must have been inspired: – sensations not likely to be alleviated by the alternate howling, swearing, and obscenity of the female convicts, when walking perpetually under my window, deprived me of the possibility of enjoying even one moment of tranquillity and silence. Tis circumstance, and a conviction that the publication of facts is a sacred duty which every citizen owes to his country, determined me to remonstrate, on the day of arraignment, against the barbarity of our treatment in this particular; and it happened that most of the prisoners had determined to pursue the same conduct, as will be seen from the following quotations from the proceedings of that day, as reported in Ramsey’s edition of the State Trials, published by Symonds. – [In Gurney’s edition, the proceedings previous to the day of trial are totally omitted: an omission which, in justice to the public, it is hoped he will remedy by an appendix, as those proceedings are fraught with matter for important observation.] Afer the proceedings on the arraignment were over, Citizen Bonney began as follows: ‘Mr. Bonney. – My lords, will your lordships allow me a few words before we quit the bar? I assure your lordships, that if I had been arraigned for any known and certain treason, for murder or for felony, I would ask no favour of your lordships; but when I stand before you upon a case in which (and I believe I have your Lordship’s opinion in my favour upon the subject) if the facts charged against us should be proved, there would be great doubt as to the law. In such a case I trust I make no improper request to your lordships, when I solicit that we may be allowed as many of the little comforts and conveniences of life (to which we have been accustomed,) as may be consistent with the security of our persons. Your lordships I am sure will agree with me that such a situation in which a man can neither sleep by night, nor cast his eye upon a ray of comfort in the day, is not the

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best adapted for the necessary preparation of his mind for so important a trial as mine: – and yet, my lords, such is my situation. I beg not to be understood to intend the smallest insinuation against the sherifs; their language and their countenances when the visited me yesterday in my cell, sufciently convinced me of the concern they felt at not being able to aford me better accommodation. As it may be some days before my trial can come on, my request to your lordship is, that I may be remanded to the custody of the governor of the Tower, where I have been treated for two and twenty weeks with the greatest humanity and attention. ‘L.C.J. Eyre. – I doubt the court cannot say any thing to it. If it should turn out that your trial should be postponed to any considerable length of time, it will be necessary for you to make application elsewhere for indulgence. ‘Mr. Bonney. – My lord, I cannot ask Mr. Erskine or Mr. Gibbs to visit me in the situation in which I am. ‘Mr. L.C.J. Eyre. – I dare say the Sherifs will do all they can for your accommodation; but, as to you ordering you back to the Tower, I think it is not within the proper authority of this court. Te application must be made elsewhere, if you wish that to be done. ‘Mr. Gibbs. – Mr. Bonney, I dare say you will have nothing to complain of. ‘Mr. Richter. – My lord, my case is precisely the same as Mr. Bonney’s. In that situation it will be impossible for me to think of requesting the visits of Messrs. Erskine and Gibbs, or indeed any persons who have been accustomed to the comforts of life. ‘L.C.J. Eyre. – I have no doubt but the Sherifs will do every thing that it becomes them to do. ‘Mr. Telwall. – My lord, in addition to the circumstances mentioned by the other prisoners, I will take the liberty to say a few words. Te situation in which I am, though deplorable beyond any thing that ever before entered my imagination, should not be a subject of complaint with me, if I were alone concerned; but men, whose connections have been used to some of the decencies of life, have persons coming to see them, whose feelings may not be supported with that fortitude which the consciousness of persecuted innocence inspires in the breast of the individual. I should wish therefore that some general regulation be made, not only with respect to one or two individuals, but with respect to the whole; at least that we should be in some place where one mouthful of fresh air may be admitted in the course of the day, in order to prevent those pernicious efects which may be produced upon the health of persons who have been used to diferent accommodations; and that the few friends who may visit us may not have the anxiety and distress of mind, which they must necessarily feel, so cruelly aggravated by beholding the very wretched manner in which we are at present provided. For my own part, I would not notice this; but there are others whose

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feelings it is a duty to have some tenderness for, and who cannot be expected to possess that fortitude which I fatter myself the circumstances of my situation have enabled me to acquire. ‘Mr. Baxter. – I wish to state, that the circumstances complained of are not peculiar to two or three prisoners: they are general to all. I should therefore hope it will not be inconsistent with our situation, that we should be better accommodated; and that we might be permitted, at least, to walk in the open air two or three hours in the day. ‘Mr. Richter. – Tis was allowed us in the Tower during the whole day. ‘L.C.J. Eyre. – I can only repeat my recommendation to the Sherifs, and the Sherifs assurance that you shall receive as good accommodations as the place will aford you, and the nature of your situation will permit.’ Yet this assurance was so far from being followed up by any performance, with respect to any person but Citizen Bonney, who was removed to a small room on the State side, that we remained in our miserable dungeons, just the same as if no promise had been made. Te Sherifs, indeed, waited upon me, to let me know that, if I chose, he would turn some one of the persons confned for seditious practices out of his apartment into my dungeon, that I might be accommodated at his expence: – a mockery to which I could only reply, that ‘It did not square with my ideas of justice, to turn other men out of their accommodations that I might turn myself into them.’ – Te fact is, however, that this was not necessary; for the prisoners for sedition proposed of themselves a plan, by which three or four decent rooms on the State side might have been furnished for our accommodation: but to this proposal it was not thought ft to attend. Te only indulgence, therefore, which we obtained, was permission to walk in the square yard of the State side: an indulgence which, for two or three days, we enjoyed pretty freely, till Timms and another messenger happened to pay us a visit, to enquire afer our health; when, behold, the next day fresh orders came down to restrain this indulgence to two hours a day, under restrictions so vexatious, that it was hardly worth acceptance. Tis confnement, which lasted better than four weeks, under circumstances totally excluding every requisite for health, – where dampness could be repelled by an enormous fre, – where cleanliness was impossible, and light excluded, – where even the disgusting necessities of nature were obliged to be compiled with in the same close hole in which I slept, sat, and eat my food, – and where the total want of atmospheric air was supplied by daily lustrations of vinegar, – brought upon me a complaint in my bowels of the most malignant complexion, of which I continue to feel the occasional efects even to this day. At length Bonney procured a Habeas Corpus to remove him again to the Tower, and I took possession of the room which he lef, and in which my beloved

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fellow-citizen, Gerrald, had been confned before his removal to the New Compter, and Citizen Muir previous to his departure to Botany Bay: – circumstances which induced me to refect how much Genius and Virtue are frequently consigned, under the present system of coercion, to those dungeons which it is pretended are built for the punishment only of the most profigate and abandoned of the human race. Will it not appear extraordinary, afer the recital of these facts, that any member of the Government should have the assurance to boast of the humanity and kindness with which we were treated. Yet that this boast has been made in the most public manner appears from the debates of that assembly generally called the House of Commons, in which Mr. Pitt is reported to have afrmed that the confession of the prisoners themselves bore testimony to the humanity and kindness with which they have been treated: a falsehood so unqualifed as few men but Pitt could have uttered without a blush. Having, afer all this oppression and injustice, been acquitted of the ridiculous charge of High Treason, I imagined of course that the property seized in my house, under false pretences, by the agents of my prosecutors, would be returned. How far this expectation has been realized, will appear from the following Correspondence with the Privy Council, &c. SIR, I Hereby desire you to restore to me the books, papers, collections of prints, and other property, taken out of my house, by his Majesty’s Messengers, on the night of Tuesday the 13th, and morning of Wednesday the 14th of May last. I am, Sir, Your’s J. THELWALL Beaufort Buildings, 12th DEC. 1794 To this I have received no answer. I, therefore, on the 17th, sent a second demand; having been informed, in the interval, that Mr. Ford had declared that Mr. White had orders to return my papers upon my sending for them. Copy of a letter lef at Mr. White’s ofce, on the 17th Dec. at six o’clock in the evening, by J. P*****. SIR, I Hereby desire you (once more) to restore to me the books, papers, collections of prints, and other property, taken out of my house by his Majesty’s Messengers, on the night of Tuesday the 13th, and morning of Wednesday the 14th of May last. Te decision of a Jury of my Country entitles me, I conceive, to the full restoration of all my property; and the injustice of withholding it

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appears the more fagrant, as many articles (and, books of considerable value, and manuscripts, the labour of years) were seized and detained, which could never have been supposed, for a moment, to have any connection with the alleged Conspiracy. JOHN THELWALL 2 Beaufort Buildings, 17th Dec. 1794. To Mr. White, Solicitor for the Treasury. To this, however, in spite of repeated applications, I could get no answer. I therefore wrote, in the next instance, to Mr. Ford. Copy. To – Ford, Esq. Secretary of State’s ofce, 2d Feb. 1795. SIR, I Take the liberty of requesting that you will inform the bearer by what means I can procure the restoration of my papers, printed books, collections of prints, and other property, taken out of my house, by his Majesty’s Messengers in May last. I should not have given you the trouble of this application, if I had not twice applied to Mr. White without being able to procure any answer. J. THELWALL 2 Beaufort Buildings, Feb. 2, 1795. Secretary of State’s, Feb. 3, 1795. SIR, IN answer to your letter of the 2d. inst. in which you desire to know by what means you can procure the Restoration of your Papers, and other articles, which were in May last taken by his Majesty’s Messengers, I am to acquaint you that every application for that purpose must be made to the Lords of the Privy Council. I am, Sir Your obedient servant, &c. RICHD. FORD. In consequence of this intimation, I applied to the Privy Council accordingly. J. THELWALL takes the liberty of applying to the Lords of his Majesty’s most honourable Privy Council for the restoration of his books, papers, collections of copper-plates, and other property, taken from his house by his Majesty’s Messengers, on the night of the 12th and morning of the 13th of May last. J. THELWALL No. 2 Beaufort Buildings Feb. 7th 1795.

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1795. – Memorandums. Saturday, Feb. 7, 1795. – WENT to the Privy Council with a letter from J. Telwall, requesting his books, papers, and copper-plate prints. J.K th Monday, 9 . – Called for an answer, and was informed that the opinion of the Attorney-General was wanted upon one point, and that they supposed that might be attained, and the books, &c. returned by that day week. J.K. Monday, 16th. – Called at the Privy Council. – Was informed that the two Messengers who seized Mr. Telwall’s books, &c. were gone abroad, and that the Privy Council did not know which books, papers, &c. belonged to Mr. Telwall, as they had more beside his. J.K. st Wednesday, April 1 . – Called at the Privy Council. – Was informed that the books, papers, &c. were not yet sent there, nor any orders respecting them. J.K. Tat they did not know which books, papers, &c. belonged to me, and which to any other of the persons arrested, I readily believe: and indeed it is totally impossible, from the manner in which they were seized, that either they, the Messengers who seized them, or any other person, should have known with any tolerable accuracy. And hence, perhaps, rather than from actual intention, we may account for the perjuries of the Messenger, who, upon my trial, swore to have found upon the person of Richter a letter, which never was out of my possession, and which another Messenger must have found in my study, between the leaves of Johnson’s folio Dictionary, and to have found upon my person another letter (the direction torn of) which I never saw, and from a person I never heard of. With respect to the frst of these papers, however, there is one very suspicious circumstance which ought to be noticed: namely that, as this was an unsent, and even unfnished letter – and as it was neither written in promotion of, nor in relation to any alleged conspiracy, it is notorious that it was not admissible evidence. Te circumstance, therefore, of the Messenger supporting it was found upon the person of Richter was a lucky mistake, as this was a proof of publication; and as, therefore, without some such mistake, this letter (upon which, and particularly upon the avowal of my republicanism which it contains, it is evident that all the hopes of my prosecutors were built) could not even have been read upon the trial. Tese circumstances, relative to the seizure of papers, if the present inquisitorial system is to go on, are of the highest importance to the lives and liberties of Englishmen; and as the perjury, with relation to the letter to Allum (had it been, in reality, any evidence of treason) would have equally implicated Richter and myself, I, therefore, subjoin the scandalous injustice and negligence, to say no worse of it, with which every thing dear to man and to society is put to hazard by the agents of the present cabinet.

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Hampstead, 7th June, 1795. DEAR CITIZEN, HAVING heard you mention some curious particulars, that fell under your observation, relative to the conduct of the Messengers, as to the paupers, &c. seized by them, and their neglect of all precaution as to the means of ascertaining them, I will be much obliged to you if you will communicate them to me, without delay, in writing, as I am at this time publishing an account of my Correspondence with the Privy Council upon this subject, and as they will equally illustrate some gross perjuries of the Messenger, upon my trial; and a curious confession of our prosecutors, that they have no means of knowing the books and papers of one person from those of another. I am, in civic afection, Your’s To Citizen J. Richter J. THELWALL. Citizen J. Telwall, Beaufort Buildings, Strand. St. James’s Place, 7th June, 1795. DEAR CITIZEN, I HAVE just received your letter of this day, and take the frst opportunity to answer it. I must frst mention that I have been this morning employing myself in writing a letter to the Privy Council, in order to obtain a restoration of the property of which I have been deprived by their authority, (though, from the account in your letter, I fear some other means must be resorted to for that purpose) and then proceed to state the circumstances of the seizure of my papers, &c. as well as the precautions which the Messenger and his assistant thought proper to take to identify them. Afer I had been shewn the warrant, they both employed themselves, at the same time, in diferent parts of my room, in seizing written and printed papers, and books of all descriptions, which they then threw together, indiscriminately, into one heap, without any mark to ascertain by whom they were taken, or in whose possession they were found. Nor was any account whatever taken of them; nor would Timms sufer a friend of mine to be in the room at the time. On observing this, I asked Timms, ‘If he would not mark them.’ He replied, ‘No not now: I shall give them to Mr. Ford to examine frst, and shall then mark such as he desires me to identify.’ – Here I could not help refecting on the very unaccountable negligence which was shewn as to the identity of papers, which were to form the support, if not to lay the foundation of a charge of the highest criminal nature known to the law, and by which the fortune, life, and honour, of the individual were to be destroyed. And though I did not think ft to pursue the subject any further at that time, I determined to watch narrowly the steps which were to be taken respecting them. – Tey were then tied up in silk handkerchiefs, and taken with me to the Treasury Chambers, in a room leading to Mr. Pollock’s

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ofce. Shortly afer this, Timms lef the room, and Kennedy, his assistant, soon followed him; leaving the papers behind them in the room with me: some other persons being casually present. Tey soon returned, and Timms took the papers away with him, leaving Kennedy with me. In less than fve minutes, however, he came back without the papers; I immediately asked, ‘If he had marked them?’ He answered, ‘No, not yet, Mr. Ford is now looking them over.’ Shortly afer this, I was taken into another room, where I was lef with Kennedy alone for the greater part of the morning; and, in about two hours, Mr. Ford, with Timms, came in. Te former returned me some of my papers, which I now have, and which have no mark whatever upon them; and the latter had my port-folio, containing letters from some of my friends, with copies of my answers; and also a small red leather book, containing an account of the conduct of a Committee of the Society*, which he informed me were to remain in his possession, as he had marked them. Tese, however, together with those which had been returned to me, did not amount to one half the quantity they had taken from me: and, indeed, Mr. Ford told me, while I was in the Council Chamber, that there were a good many others which were intended to be returned to me, as soon as he could look them out†; but although, during our confnement, I applied several times for them, I never received them. I need not make any observations on the presumption of a man’s attempting to verify, by his oath, the identity of papers which were to bring to hazard the life, fame, and fortune of a fellow creature, which were not only seized by himself, Kennedy having taken part, but on which he made no mark whatsoever, by which he might ascertain them, sufered them to be overhauled by a third person, out of his presence, for at least an hour and a half. Every unprejudiced man will draw his own conclusion from the facts, as I have stated them, and will be able to account for the extraordinary testimony given by Timms, ‘that your letter to Allum was found by him in my pocket;’ which, however, it is scarcely necessary to tell you, I never saw or heard of till I had an account of his evidence. – But an obstinate, if not a criminal, persisting in his own statements, will never surprize those who have remarked that consequential arrogance which appeared to me, during the short period I had occasion to know him, to be the most prominent feature in his character. As I believe I have omitted nothing in this statement, and am conscious of having added nothing to the truth, you are at perfect liberty to make that use of it which you may deem the most proper. I remain Your sincere friend and fellow-citizen, J. RICHTER, Jun. * Committee for preparing a plan for the new Constitution of the Society. † I think he added, ‘from the multiplicity of papers before me.’

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Having illustrated this honourable confession of his Majesty’s Most Honourable Privy Council, I resume the thread of my Correspondence. To the Lords of his Majesty’s most honourable Privy Council. WHEN I last applied to your Lordships, relative to the restoration of my papers, books, collections of prints, and other property taken from my house, under colour of the authority of a warrant from the Secretary of State, on the evening of the 12th, and morning of the 13th of May last, I received for answer, afer many delays, if your answer was correctly reported, that the Messengers who seized these efects being out of the country, it was impossible to know my papers from those of any other person. Understanding, through the medium of the public prints, that both the Messengers are now returned I therefore renew my application, and cannot but recal to the memory of your Lordships the situation in which the liberty and property of the people of Britain are placed if, afer a man having been arrested and kept seven months in close confnement, upon an unjust suspicious, has been pronounced innocent by his country, and, afer the Judges from the bench shall have declared, (as the Chief Baron Macdonald did to me declare) Tat he has ‘been acquitted in the most reputable of all manners, by the verdict of an attentive Jury,’ he is not only to be branded by members of the government as ‘a felon,’ and a person stained with ‘moral guilt,’ but his property (the larger part of which the warrant itself did not authorize the seizure of ) is to be with-held from him, as a punishment for not having been guilty of the crime he was charged withal. – I cannot but add that it is a debt your Lordships owe both to justice and your own regulations, to shew that you do not connive at the almost indiscriminate plunder which, under colour of the authority of government, has been committed upon my premises. Beaufort Buildings, (Signed) J. THELWALL April 6, 1795. To this remonstrance, afer repeated applications, Kennedy at last brought me an answer, that ‘Mr. White had orders to select, and return, my papers; and that I must apply to him. I therefore wrote as follows: SIR, IN consequence of my application to the Privy Council, I am instructed to apply to you for the restoration of my books, papers, collections of prints, and other property, taken from my house by his Majesty’s Messengers, and others, under colour of the authority of a warrant from the Secretary, on the night of the 12th and morning of the 13th of May last. I therefore desire you to deliver the said articles to the bearer. J. THELWALL To Mr. White, Beaufort Buildings, 23rd April, Solicitor for the Treasury. 1795.

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MEMORANDUM. Saturday, 25th April, 1795. THIS day called on Mr. White, Solicitor for the Treasury, No. 6, New-square, Lincoln’s Inn, and delivered into his own hands a letter (signed J. Telwall) requesting the restoration of the books, papers, copper-plate prints, &c. which had been taken out of Mr. Telwall’s premises by the King’s messengers, &c. and that they might be delivered to me. On reading the letter, he threw it down, and in a surly manner asked me, What I meant by bringing him this letter? – I answered , Te letter explains itself: I was desired by the Privy Council to apply to you for Mr. Telwall’s property, and it is in consequence of their orders that this application is made. He replied, ‘Well, Sir, you may tell Mr. Telwall that I have nothing belonging to him!’ Wit. J. KENNEDY. To the Lords of his Majesty’s most honourable Privy Council. I TROUBLE your lordships once more upon the subject of my property taken from my house on the 13th of May, 1794. under colour of a warrant from Mr. Secretary Dundas, and never yet restored, although the verdict of my country entitles me to the restoration of the whole; and a considerable part was of that description which there could be no pretence, whatever, for seizing. I am to inform your lordships, that, in consequence of the answer I received to my last communication with you upon this subject, I wrote to Mr. White, the Solicitor for the Treasury, stating that I was instructed by your lordships to apply to him for the restoration of my books, papers, collections of prints, &c, but that, instead of having proper attention paid to my demand, my messenger was treated with great rudeness, and dismissed with the following answer: – ‘Well, sir, you may tell Mr. Telwall that I have nothing belonging to him.’ Tis was on the 25th ultimo; and since that time I have had no further information, whatever, concerning any part of my efects, nor any thing that indicates the least intention to return them. I request your lordships, therefore, to satisfy me upon this subject. – Whether I am to consider myself as having any right to my own property, or any expectation of its being restored to me? or, Whether my books are to furnish the libraries, and my prints to decorate the apartments, of the Messengers and Bow-street Runners, and my family to be deprived of all advantage which might result from the disposal of my former labours? J. THELWALL. Beaufort Buildings, 18 May, 1795. To this letter I have not been able to obtain any ofcial answer whatever; nor has any part of the stolen property been restored to me, nor, as I understand, to

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any one of the injured parties. Yet none of the ‘Associations for the Preservation of Liberty and Property’ have stood forward, to ofer us their assistance towards brining the plunderers to justice. • Te length to which the Narrative and Correspondence has extended, and the applications made to the Lecturer to print the FAREWELL ADDRESS with which the Season was concluded, renders it necessary to publish an APPEN­ DIX on Saturday next, with which will be given Title, Preface, &c and No. III of the Political Songs.

TRIBUNE, VOLUME 2 (1796)

‘On Allies and Alliances; with Strictures on the Faith of Regular Governments’, Tribune, 2:20. ‘On the comparative Estimate of the Slave Trade, the Practice of Crimping, and Mr Pitt’s Partial Requisition Bill’, Tribune, 2:22. ‘On the Importance of Avoiding Personal Factions and Divisions Among the Friends of Reform’, Tribune, 2:23. ‘On the Causes of the Late Disturbance’, Tribune, 2:29.

The second volume of collected numbers of the Tribune was published in early 1796 and was sold at five shillings for the common edition and nine for the finer alternative. Thelwall begins the collection with a preface that shows him very much on the defensive, determined to address the charges raised by William Godwin in his ‘Considerations on Lord Grenville’s and Mr. Pitt’s Bills’, published in November 1795 in response to the ‘Two Acts’. As mentioned in the general introduction to Volume 1 of this edition, Godwin’s pamphlet – though deeply critical of the proposed legislation and steadfastly defensive of the value of free speech – cast political associations as a danger to social order and seemed to single out Thelwall’s lectures as a source of substantial menace. The response in the preface captures the anger felt at this perceived betrayal as Thelwall rebukes Godwin and attempts to reject his criticisms: partly by demonstrating the value of his oratory and partly through representing his friend as an airy intellectual whose life of ‘domestic solitude’ blinded him to political truths. Thelwall later revisits the dispute in more detail after an exchange of letters, with an essay entitled ‘Godwin’s Pamphlet’ that appears in the third volume of the Tribune included below. Of the four lectures included below from volume 2, two were delivered prior to the closing of his lectures in June. ‘On Allies and Alliances; with Strictures on the Faith of Regular Governments’ was a lecture from late May and continued the central theme of the first volume: the ‘causes and calami-

– 115 –

DOI: 10.4324/9780429349720-12

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ties’ of war. Herein, Thelwall criticizes the tendency of governments to act only on the basis of short-term calculations of selfish interest, establishing treaties with particular nations while forgetting the common interest of all. The target is of course the British government who had strategically sought out a number of diplomatic relationships with other European countries in the hope of undermining Revolutionary France. By pointing to the always transient and usually damaging nature of such international alliances, Thelwall aims to vindicate his own claim that the only just wars are those of self-defence. ‘On the Comparative Estimate of the Slave Trade, the Practice of Crimping and Mr Pitt’s Partial Requisition Bill’ was originally delivered in late February, so predates the lectures of the first volume. It responds directly to parliamentary debates about the slave trade, in particular the claims that gradual abolition is the most expedient solution, as advanced by Henry Dundas (1742–1811), first Viscount Melville, and that the slaves themselves are happier than the poor of Britain, as advanced by Sir William Young (1749–1815), second Baronet, in his appendix to Bryan Edwards’s An Historical Survey of the Island of Saint Domingo (1801). Thelwall denies both suggestions and makes the case for immediate abolition in the name of justice. The other two lectures took place in a different context. Thelwall had sought a temporary retirement over the summer, believing that escape both from his exhausting oratorical performances and the metropolis would improve his suffering health. He moved to the Isle of Wight and returned to his lectures with renewed vigour in September. However, the summer months had been a somewhat factious one for the various groups associated with the reform movement, something that was of concern to Thelwall. Thus, in the first lecture of the autumn season, he abandoned his plan to speak about the nature of liberty through a critical discussion of David Hume, to instead directly address ‘the growth of a disposition to envy, faction, and division’ that had come to characterize the ‘friends of liberty and reform’.1 This performance was clearly intended to rally his audience and raise their confidence as he outlined the main purpose of the reformist cause, whilst also being careful to stress that the cause of ‘universal equality’ that he supported was not one of levelling property. In what was presumably quite an effective warning, Thelwall pointed to the chronic factionalism that defined revolutionary France and the terrible problems such a situation enabled. The other lecture from the autumnal course included here, ‘On the Causes of the Late Disturbances’, sought to lay the blame for any violence and tumult to have plagued Britain in recent years at the corrupt and unrepresentative polity and the widespread poverty it has facilitated rather than at the reform

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movement. In making this argument, he invokes the authority of Francis Bacon and the example of the irate loyalist mob that burnt down the property of Joseph Priestly.

Notes 1.

See below, p. 164.

THE

T R I B U N E, A PERIODICAL PUBLICATION consisting chiefly of the POLITICAL LECTURES of J. THELWALL

taken in short-hand by w. ramsey, and revised by the lecturer.

VOL. II. ‘If my Lectures had been of that seditious and treasonable complexion which they have described, it must have been easy to have checked me in my career, and brought me to punishment, without putting a gag upon the. nation at large, and annihilating the boasted liberties of the country.’ PREF.

LONDON: PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR, AND SOLD BY THE FOLLOWING BOOKSELLERS: SYMONDS, PATERNOSTER ROW; RIDGWAY, YORK-STREET, ST JAMES’S; AND SMITH, PORTSMOUTH-STREET, LINCOLN’S-INN-FIELDS. 1796. – 119 –

PREFACE.

AS little alteration has taken place in the conduct of this Volume, except what was announced in the Advertisement in the First Number, it would have been perfectly superfuous to trouble the reader with further Preface or Introduction, if the singular circumstances under which I am placed, and the malignant calumny to which I have been exposed did not call upon me for some animadversion.1 To the slanderous aspersions, however, of certain leaders I shall not deign any particular answer. Men, whose trafc is corruption, and whose stock in trade forgery and misrepresentation, however high in rank, or dignifed by ofce, are beneath the serious attention of an individual whose rank is his integrity, and whose ofce the propagation of principles conducive to the general happiness of mankind. To enter the lists on the score of character with such men, were degradation; and to suppose that their assertions have so much credit with mankind as to require elaborate refutation would be an insult to the understanding of the country. It is sufcient therefore to observe, that their own conduct gives them THE LIE DIRECT: for if my Lectures, delivered upon the average of last season to an audience of 430, and upon the average of this season of 520 persons, one night with another, had been of that seditious and treasonable complexion which they have described, it must have been easy to have checked me in my career, and brought me to punishment, without putting a gag upon the nation at large, and annihilating the boasted liberties of the country. But they knew that my Lectures were not treasonable; they knew that they were not seditious; and they knew that they were therefore the more formidable. Tey would have been glad to have made them appear such, no doubt: and they have an ingenious train of spies and informers, with memories as convenient as those of their employers: but these were of no use – for I had a short-hand writer, and my real language and sentiments were therefore capable of proof. Terefore it was that the existing laws were inadequate to THEIR purposes; therefore it was that even Lord Grenville’s new-fangled treason and sedition bill would not sufce. Tey know that when perseverance and honesty are opposed to powerful corruption, and when men of any intelligence are embarked in the public cause, so long as they – 121 –

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are permitted to speak at all, they will fnd some means, even under the most severe, ambiguous, and iniquitous laws to publish such truths, and propagate such sentiments, as will ultimately be fatal to their oppressors, without exposing themselves to the condemnation of an honest jury. Terefore it is, that afer proclaiming that this shall be treason, and that shall be transportation, another law is framed to make it felony and death to speak, or even to meet, at all, but under such restrictions as are totally inimical to the independent spirit of Britons, and subversive of the provisions of the Bill of Rights.2 If there are any persons so obstinate in their prejudices as to suppose that these arguments are not conclusive as to the base manner in which, for sinister purposes, my doctrines have been misrepresented, let them appeal to the evidence of these Volumes, which, unlike the Reports of Secret Committees, shall contain no garbled accounts, no false colourings, no sophistical glossaries or misrepresentations, but shall continue to be published, in regular weekly numbers, till the whole of my Lectures are before the public, with such revisions only of stile and composition as the short-hand transcripts of extempore efusions must of necessity require. But I have been assailed from another point. In the midst of that storm which the malice and the terrors of ministerial corruption had raised around me, calumny and foul misrepresentation have been poured upon my head from a quarter, where, at such a time, and under such circumstances, it was least to have been expected. Not that I mean to insinuate, that the author of the pamphlet alluded to [Considerations on Lord Grenville’s and Mr. Pitt’s Bills; by a Lover of Order] was ever an approver of the Lectures. Te visionary peculiarities of mind, which, in the midst of all its daring excellencies, mark the ‘Enquiry Concerning Political Justice,’ cannot have escaped the observation of the attentive reader; and in the midst of all the singularities with which that valuable work abounds, nothing is perhaps more remarkable than that it should at once recommend the most extensive plan of freedom and innovation ever discussed by any writer in the English language, and reprobate every measure from which even the most moderate reform can rationally be expected.3 I knew from this singular work – I knew, also, from the frequent friendly conversations I have enjoyed with the author,4 that he was hostile to every species of popular association; and it is but justice to observe, that he has frequently endeavoured to dissuade me from continuing my Lectures, by arguments, strong and convincing I suppose to him, though to me they appeared visionary and futile. But I little expected the malignancy of a public attack, at a time when, even if such an attack had been merited, no possible advantage could accrue to the public; when the doors of my Lecture Room were on the very eve of being closed by the strong arm of authority; and when of course, the only efect such conduct

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could produce, was to infame the prejudices already so artfully excited against an individual, whose only crime was having vindicated, in an age of persecution and arbitrary usurpation, that Liberty of Speech which for more than a century has been considered as the distinguished birthright and peculiar privilege of Britons. But if an attack, at such a season, from such a quarter, was a matter of surprise, how was my astonishment increased at the extravagance and fury of that attack? What was my astonishment when I saw the man, whose private professions of esteem for the powers of my mind, and the purity of my motives, had so frequently increased my confdence, and roused the honest ambition of my soul, stand forward to accuse me at the bar of the public as ‘an impatient and headlong reformer,’5 who made it his occupation to stir up ‘all the malignant emotions of the human mind,’6 and bring the passions of the audience ‘into training’ for revengeful destruction, and lamp-post massacres? What was my astonishment when I heard this friend, this philosopher, this transcendent pattern of candour and moderation, whose liberality can fnd an excuse for the sanguinary clauses in Lord Grenville’s bill, treat those doctrines of general humanity and benevolence, so incessantly enforced in these Lectures as ‘saving clauses,’ – compare me to ‘Lord George Gordon preaching peace to the rioters in Westminster Hall;’7 and fnally, by way of climax, assimilate me to the villainous hypocrite Iago, who afer practising every artifce to awaken and to infame the groundless suspicions of Othello, shelters himself from the suspicions of the abused and deluded Moor by advising him ‘not to dishonour himself by giving harbour to a thought of jealousy.’8 Tese passages, malignant enough in themselves, become more insuferable from the recollection that the writer of them, not very long ago, reprobated another person in strong terms, for seeming, in a distant way, and in a private circle, to hint something like the charge of duplicity which they so strongly and so publicly contain. What signify, afer this, the ‘saving clauses,’ (to hurl back the contemptible charges in the teeth of its inventor) of talents ‘arrested in their growth,’ and original ‘purity of intentions.’ Tat my talents, be they great or small, have not been arrested, the growing reputation of my Lectures, and the class of auditors by which they have lately been attended, is sufcient evidence; and a comparison of my present with my former public actions will put the matter beyond dispute. And as for my intentions, if my principles are not at this time sound and good, it is of no consequence how pure they were when I ‘commenced my career;’ since, on this side of the question at least, the world will regard, as it ought, not what a man was but what he is. I have the consolation, however, to fnd that the prejudices excited against me, except in a very narrow and interested circle, have declined, in proportion as the notoriety of my conduct and my principles have increased. In short, if ministers

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had not found, that the longer my Lectures contained – that is to say, the more opportunities people of all descriptions had to hear and judge for themselves, the more general the conviction became of the propriety of my sentiments and the justice of my cause, they would never have thought it necessary to adopt such strong measures for the purpose if shutting my mouth. But it was necessary for the argument of the ‘Lover or Order,’ to represent the system of political lecturing as inimical alike to genius and principle. I am not therefore, surprised that he should persuade himself that my ‘talents had been arrested in their growth,’ and that the ‘uncommon purity of my intentions,’9 had degenerated into the designing villainy of Iago. But as for the latter I know my own heart. I know also that the world will one day do it justice. And as for the former, though I am aware how common it is for authors to ‘lay the fattering unction to their souls,’ yet Mr. Godwin must excuse me if I bow not with implicit reverence to an opinion of which the success of my undertaking is so far from furnishing the evidence. But let us examine a little the objections of this singular writer, to the system of political lecturing in general; since, as in all probability, the time is not very distant when my lectures will be resumed, this is the most important part of my subject: and if it should be found, as I believe it will, that these objections are chiefy without foundation, that if admitted they would go to restrict the wide difusion of all science, and that the few that have any sort of validity, are more than counter-balanced by the important advantages which can no otherwise be so certainly obtained, the Public will have more reason than I can have, to deprecate the attempts that have been made to rob them of this species of entertainment and instruction. ‘Whether or no Political Lectures, upon the fundamental principles of politics, to be delivered to a mixed and crowded audience,’ says the Lover of Order,’ ‘be entitled to the approbation of an enlightened Statesman, it is somewhat difcult to pronounce.’10---Difcult to pronounce whether a mixed and crowded audience ought to be instructed upon the fundamental principles of a science upon which the happiness of that general mass, from which a mixed and crowded audience must be composed, more than all other sciences depends! – Genius of common sense and honesty! if the great mass of mankind – the mixed multitude, of which society at large, as well as the generality of crowded audience, is composed, are not to be regarded as the mere dupes and instruments of a few political professors, what can be so important as to generalise, by the most expeditious means, those maxims and principles by which the science of politics can be rendered most subservient to its great end – the interest and happiness of the whole? But ‘It is not,’ continues the author, ‘for the most part, in crowded audiences, 11 that truth is successfully investigated, and the principles of science luminously conceived.’ Perhaps this is true: particularly with respect to the latter part. But is it in crowded audiences – is it in his Tribune that the Lecturer conceives his prin-

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ciples, or investigates his subject? It is there indeed that he propounds the one and illustrates the other: but if he has any regard either to his duty or to his fame, nay, if he expects, for any continuance, even that poor popularity which consists in the applauses of a promiscuous audience, however illiterate and ill-judging, the mere delivery of his Lectures will constitute the smallest part of his labours: his principles will be conceived, his subject digested, and his materials arranged in the silence and solitude of the closet; and every hour of his life, every scene he beholds, and every circumstance that occurs will furnish matter, which his observation will be perpetually seizing, and his refection applying to the important object of his investigation. Tere are some advantages which debate undoubtedly possess over the system of lecturing: It is more probable that both sides of the question should be fairly stated in open debate than in individual animadversion: misrepresentation is more easily detected, and falsehood more readily exposed*. But the advantages of lecturing are much more numerous and important. Te sentiments delivered by the professor are never of necessity the transient dictates of the moment, conceived in the warmth of passion and debate, and provoked by the desire of conquest. His temptations to pervert facts for the sake of argument are much less powerful than those of the debater; he is not so frequently obliged to bring forward his conceptions in so crude a state; and that he has the means of more lucid arrangement, and of compressing a greater body of information into his discourse, and thus combining together the advantages of elaborate research and popular enthusiasm, must be evident to the candid enquirer. If I am asked what assurance we have that he will use these advantages? I answer that he must either make use of them to a considerable degree, or else his popularity will be so short-lived, that his errors can be of small importance to society. His reputation is not to be supported with the same facility as that of the popular debater. He has no casual variety to depend upon; no alluring expectations of new faces and new names to hold out to the public; no contradiction to rouse him, no rival to stimulate, and no foil to set him of ! Every thing depends upon his diligence and exertions; his situation is so conspicuous as to submit him to an ordeal of uncommon severity ; and if he does not give to his discourse a variety and solidity which nothing but great industry, an independent originality of mind, and a mass of well-digested principles can furnish, no charm of voice, no elegance of person, no grace of action or, fow of modulated periods (if he were fortunate enough to possess all these advantages) can support his popularity through a dozen lectures. But, perhaps, I may be told that the objections of my antagonist relate not to the lecturer, but to the audience. But even in this point of view, the argument * When the Lectures are aferwards published, as in the instance under consideration, even this objection is obviated; and the Lecturer lies completely open to refutation.

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is as futile as in the other; and if indeed, it were of any validity, it would apply as forcibly against every other species of lecturing as against political lectures: for two hundred raw pupils from the country, and I have seen more in the lecture-room of Mr. Cline,12 are as efectually a crowd, aye and a mixed crowd, as fve or six hundred. Every successful professor, of whatever art or science, delivers his lectures, even on subjects the most abstruse, to a mixed and crowded audience; and the teacher of anatomy, of chemistry, or of politics, however confdent of his own powers would equally betray his ignorance, if he expected that the crowd of students who attend his discourses, will either successfully investigate or luminously conceive the principles of his science in the theatre where they are assembled. It is quite enough if the attention is so far roused and the memory so far impressed as to furnish the materials of that refection from which, and which alone any real solidity of judgement can result. Te lecturer, generally speaking, can expect no other immediate efect than to fx conviction where it was dubiously entertained, to shake the prejudices hostile to his system, and so far to interest the imagination as to compel a large part, at least, of his auditory to revolve his arguments in their minds till their truth or falsehood shall be rendered evident. He must consider himself, in short, not so much as the reaper who goes into the feld to collect the harvest of opinion, as the sower, whose business it is to scatter the feed; and though part of this feed must be expected, from the perverseness of the soil, to fail of taking sufcient root, yet, if he performs his task with judgement, the harvest, though distant, perhaps, is certain. Nor are these objections applicable only to ‘Teatres and halls of assembly;’ they must be extended also to the conversations that pass ‘in the domestic tranquillity of the fre side:’13 for it is not in conversations or debates, whether of the select few or the mixed multitude, that solid opinions are formed: these must undoubtedly be digested in the solitude of the closet. But, in defance of all the folios and quartos that were ever written, the closet would be as fruitless as the tomb, if it were not for the materials that debate and conversation furnish. It is by conversation that the mind is quickened and the obstinacy of dogmatic confdence sofened: it is in ‘mixed and crowded audiences’ – ‘in theatres and halls of assembly,’ that the real lover of his species must principally expect to inspire that generous sympathy – that social ardor, without which a nation is but a populous wilderness, and the philosopher himself only a walking index of obsolete laws and dead-lettered institutes. I wish not to bear too hard upon my opponent: the literary and political world has obligations to him which I hope will not be soon forgotten: but let any man compare together the terms of friendship and reciprocal esteem upon which, for the last two or three years, we have lived, and the time, circumstances, and complexion of this attack, and then judge whether I am guilty of illiberality when I appeal to this very pamphlet as a proof how great and how dangerous a tendency the life of domestic solitude led by this singular

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man, and his scrupulous avoidance of all popular intercourse has to deaden the best sympathies of nature, and encourage a selfsh and personal vanity, which the recluse philosopher frst mistakes for principle, and then sacrifces it to every feeling of private, and sometimes of public justice? for what milder construction can possibly be put upon the frst twenty-two pages of his pamphlet, and upon those passages in particular which relate to my Lecture, than the author, in his extreme anxiety for the reputation of candour*, overlooked every consideration of justice to a friend assailed by all the persecuting bitterness of powerful malice? Supposing the Lectures had been as pernicious as the ‘Lover of Order’ represents them, what good end could he at such a time propose by his invectives? Tey were about to be closed as it appeared for ever. Te minister had clapped the ponderous key of his authority in the door: and the whole strength of his irresistible majority was exerted to turn the massive wards, whose bolts, it was supposed, were to lock me up in silence and obscurity for ever! Was this a time for a philosopher and a friend to choose for his attack? Was this a time for candour to swell the torrent of prejudice which interested calumny had poured upon my head? and by such passages, such unfounded misrepresentations, as this pamphlet contains, to prejudice the moderate and infame the irritated against a man whom the minister had so evidently devoted to destruction? It is not, however true, that there was any foundation for considering my Lectures in that point of view in which this ‘Lover of Order’ has placed them: and the perusal of these volumes will prove my assertion. Tey are not farragoes of personal invective: they are neither ‘adapted to ripen men for purposes similar to those of the Jacobin Society of Paris,’14 nor to bring the passions of the audience into training for lamp-post massacres. In short, they were not the lectures of ‘an impatient and headlong reformer;’ and, in proof of this, I need only appeal to the fact, that my warmest and most numerous friends will be found among those frm but moderate advocates of liberty who join enthusiasm of principle with the sacred love of peace and order; and that the bitterest of my enemies may be found alike among those bigoted aristocrats, whose prejudices have prevented them from ever hearing me, and the sanguinary and infuriated, perhaps hired, advocates of violence and commotion. To sum up all: I felt as the ‘Lover of Order,’ himself express it, that to accomplish a peaceful and efectual reform, ‘Tere must be a consent of wills, that no minister and no monopolist would be frantic enough to withstand;’15 and I was not fantic enough, though the ‘Lover of Order’ is, to suppose that this consent of wills---this ‘magnifcent harmony, expanding itself through the whole commu* Te reader will judge how justly the claim of candour supported by hunting for dishonourable motives, for doctrines ‘persuading men to unbounded and universal benevolence,’ (p. 21) when promulgated by one party, and fnding excuses (p. 45) for the most tyrannical clauses in measures brought forward by another.

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nity,’16 was to be produced by writing quarto volumes, and conversing with a few speculative philosophers by the fre side. I therefore endeavoured to give my Lectures the form most conducive to general attraction. But though the form was for this reason popular and miscellaneous, and though I had not always time for the most accurate and scientifc arrangement, I fatter myself that, to the attentive reader, these Lectures will appear to be, not the loose declamations of an impetuous demagogue, but in reality ‘Lectures on the Fundamental Principles of Politics’: and that the Lectures of the present season in particular, will be admitted to contain a connected series of well-founded and digested facts, the proper investigation and application of which are absolutely essential to every friend of reform who wishes really to know what are the miseries and corruptions that call for redress, and the means by which that redress is to be procured. Hence it will be found, though I have varied my titles as much as possible, that the public might not be led to suppose, that I was repeating the same lecture again and again, that the discourse of each successive night, till the introduction of the two obnoxious Bills, rose, in tolerably exact progression from the facts and principles of the preceding, so as to form one regular and connected treatise: an advantage which will undoubtedly be felt much more sensibly by the reader than the hearer, but which, even to the casual attendant, was not without its uses, as it occasioned every individual lecture to be, in reality, better digested and arranged.

THE TRIBUNE. NO. XX

THE FIRST LECTURE ‘On ALLIES and ALLIANCES; with Strictures on the FAITH of REGULAR GOVERNMENTS.’ Delivered Wednesday, May 27th, 1795. [Note. – Tis and the ensuing Tribune are properly to be considered as concluding that Course of Lectures on the Causes and Calamities of War, of which the frst four were delivered at the beginning of the season; and for which see Vol. I. NO. 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7.] CITIZENS, THE subject for the present evening is, Te modern system of allies and alliances; with strictures on the faith of regular governments. Tis subject is exceedingly extensive. Tere are various points of view in which it may be treated. And, perhaps, if we trace things to the foundation, in whatever point of view we consider it, we shall be inclined to doubt whether alliances, such as are generally formed between nation and nation, are more absurd in their principle or more dangerous in their practice. Te enquiry, from the manner in which I fnd myself disposed to take it up, divides itself into two heads: frst, the political infuence of these compacts between Government and Government; and second, their operation in a military point of view. On the present evening I shall enter into an investigation only of that part of the subject which relates to the operation of these compacts upon the political liberty, and civil rights of man. What relates to the operation of alliances in the feld of battle I shall defer till another evening – When I shall, of course, be led more at large into the characters of the present confederated powers of Europe; and into some speculations on the probable catastrophe of the present war. In the frst place, Citizens, I shall examine the arguments upon which the system of alliance is justifed, and shall consider how far these arguments may be opposed by others of more serious importance to mankind. And, perhaps, when we enter seriously into the investigation we shall be obliged to confess that alli– 129 –

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ances are, in general, little other than combinations of particular governments, to oppress and plunder not only the people of all other countries, but even of their own. Te real principles of justice, I believe, and also the real principles of policy, would teach us to observe a conduct exceedingly diferent from that which has been followed by the Courts of Europe, not only during the present time, but for centuries back. I believe we should fnd that Justice would dictate to us to do all the good in our power to all the nations of the world; that policy would point out to us that the best things we can do for ourselves is really to promote the happiness and welfare of all the existing nations in the universe; and that our best way to do that is to form no particular alliances, compacts, or treaties, with any nation, or any set or body of men whatever. It is necessary, for the happiness of mankind, (and it must be admitted as soon as examined) that animosities of every description should be laid aside; that human beings should consider each other as friends and as brothers; and that they should seize all opportunities of advancing that fraternal felicity which nothing but such principles and such convictions can promote. But it is evident, if you form combinations of alliance at one time, which are to dictate to you at future periods, the events of which you cannot foresee, that you must be frequently led to a direct violation of this principle. Compacts, in their very nature, inevitably proceed upon the short-sighted principle of self interest – or more properly of sordid jealousy and exclusion. Tese combinations, therefore, set out, in the frst instance, upon the narrow and unjustifable project of promoting the interest of a few, in opposition to the interests of the aggregate of the world; and the strong probability is, nay almost the certainty, that the progress of events will shortly render the execution of these compacts even more unjust and impolitic than at the time of the frst adoption. Courts, however, have paid very little regard, in the practice, to the grand rules, either of moral conduct or national policy. On the contrary, all the cabinets of Europe have been perpetually endeavouring to foment animosities and aversions between the people of their respective nations; and to draw the Courts themselves into a closer union of compact and mutual understanding. Tese combinations among the diferent rulers of diferent parts of the universe, have for a long time gone on without exciting any degree of jealousy or enquiry among the people. A sort of lethargic confdence seems to have taken possession of the minds of men, and induced them readily to believe the tales of artful jugglers and hypocrites, that those entrusted with the management of public afairs certainly must understand better, what is for the public good than the public themselves; and that therefore they were only to repeat by rote, as parrots, the lessons put into their mouths by their rulers, without considering what were the ideas afxed, or whether they conveyed any ideas at all.

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But, Citizens, I believe this is not precisely the case at this time. A spirit of enquiry has gone very widely abroad: a spirit which I do not think all the exorcisms of priests, the persecutions of ministers, or even the machinations of the arch inquisitor Reeves himself, will ever be able to lay. Te fact is that people begin to discover this truth, that ALL THE PEOPLE OF ALL THE NATIONS OF THE EARTH HAVE ONE COMMON INTEREST AND ONE COMMON CAUSE, which it is their duty zealously to promote, the machinations against which they are called upon anxiously to watch, and vigilantly, nay, if necessary, BRAVELY to oppose. Tis interest – this cause, is the preservation of LIBERTY, PEACE, and UNIVERSAL JUSTICE! Tis cause, which can fourish only by suppressing the malevolent passions, and cultivating a disposition to universal benevolence, if ever it triumphs, annihilates at once the systems of nationality and cabinet alliances, and unites the people of all climes and latitudes under the peaceful banner of fraternity. If this statement is seriously and coolly considered; if we strip ourselves of the animosities of faction and the attachments of party; if we take away from this system the miscolouring and misrepresentations with which those who cannot controvert is principles, have endeavoured to culminate its supporters, I believe it will bring immediate conviction to the heart of man. For who can doubt, for an instant, that all national aversion, and hatred to persons, on account of the sects, their opinions, nations, climate, language, or colour, are hostile to those generous and noble feelings of philanthropy, without which peace cannot be preserved, and the general intercourse and happiness of mankind cannot be promoted? Let us enquire then whether alliances (even abstractedly considered) have a tendency to promote this disposition so desirable for the happiness of the universe. Let us consider also – and perhaps it would be well to consider this in the frst place – whether, even if alliances could be admitted in themselves to be good, alliances upon the present principle of Machiavelian policy, are of that description which would be desirable. Admitting, for the instant, that alliances ought to be tolerated, what ought to be their object and principle, and what is the nature of the alliances that are generally formed? Do they arise from the people of the contracting – or rather the contracted nations, mixing and confederating together, and arguing with each other upon their respective views and interests, and learning the real dispositions and qualities of each other’s hearts, and thence entering into such compacts and treaties as grow out of their conviction of mutual utility? Or do they in reality grow out of those cabals and confederacies which a certain set of honourable spies, called consuls and ambassadors, carry on, frequently to the disgrace of morality, and the destruction of every virtuous, candid, and liberal principle which ought to be cherished in the human heart?

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If the seed is bad let us not expect that the fruit will be good. If you sow night-shade in your felds, not bread but poison will be your harvest! If you sow treachery, venality, intrigue, and selfshness in you national intercourses, do not expect to reap friendship, faith, and national advantage, for your harvest can only be disappointment, contention, and the sword. Te plain and simple fact is, I believe, that the people are always kept in the dark, as to the real objects of the all alliances at present formed between the courts of Europe. Tey are anxiously prevented from knowing, not only what were the motives, but what are the objects; and are hardly ever acquainted with the real tenor of the compact. Tere are, it is true, certain general articles with which you are to be acquainted, and upon the faith of which you are to pay your money – 4,600,000 pounds,17 perhaps, at a time! But if any over inquisitive individual should indulge a dangerous disposition to know more than Ministers think ft to reveal, he is silenced at once by some member of the political priesthood, who scruples not to avow with the true air of diplomatic mystery, that there may be secret articles behind the screen, but warns the profane enquirer not to approach with impious interrogatories the sanctum sanctorum of cabinet confederacy. So that while you believe you are paying a nation to fght your wars, and defend your interests abroad, you may, perhaps, be hiring foreign mercenaries to cut your throats at home. But, Citizens, I am, for my own part, much inclined to believe that alliances, conducted upon whatever principle, will be found injurious to the happiness and welfare of nations. I have always seen, during that little intercourse which I have had with the world, that the quantum of advantage produced by the individual exertions of any given number of persons, each toiling and labouring separately, has been very superior to the quantum of beneft or advantage produced by the same number of person bound together by compact and combination. And accordingly, it has been very justly observed, that when Pope, Swif, Arbuthnot, and Gay, united together18 to compose a particular work they all four, clubbing their wits, wrote a great deal worse than any one of them ever did when he trusted to his own individual genius and imagination. It is so in every thing to which the physical or mental powers of the individual are any way competent. Whatever can be done by an individual is always better done single-handed, than when the same thing is attempted by several person combined together. I not mean to say that there is no beneft and advantage in mutual exertions and labour. Tere are certain things which are beyond the strength, which are beyond the longevity of man, which it would nevertheless be very useful to society to have accomplished. And there are certain undertakings which, in a great measure, depend, and very properly depend upon numbers and combination chiefy for their success; and, therefore, it is necessary for persons to enter into combinations when any such work is to be undertaken. But I mean to contend,

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that when the business is not of such a nature that it requires a larger potion of physical strength, a larger portion of longevity, than can be commanded by an individual, nor is of that kind to which united sufrage is requisite to give it the stamp of justice and the capability of success – when neither of these is the case, the individual does better to trust to the powers, the energies of his own intellect and capacities, than to strengthen and fortify himself, as he supposes, but in reality to debilitate himself, by depending upon the untied eforts of other persons. Te question then is – whether the interests and concerns of nations are of that description that they require a combination of several nations together, or whether they are of that description that the individual nation can execute them by depending upon itself alone? For it must be observed, that, in many respects, nations resemble individuals, and the arguments that will apply to the individual will frequently apply to the nation, considered as an aggregate individual also. I do not mean to say that this is universally the case. Whoever argues by simile is in danger of falling into sophistry. And therefore let me warn you, whenever similitudes are ofered to you, from this or any other place, to examine what are the particular features and accompaniments of the things compared. For there are points always at which they do, and others at which they do not touch. But, with respect to the general principles I have laid down, I believe you will fnd, that the individual body and the social body do exactly agree. Tat is to say, that whatever can be done by the individual nation, will be better done by that individual nation than by any combination and alliance of various nations; and that combinations, and alliances of various nations, ought only to be encouraged when the undertaking is of that description that, in the nature of things, an individual nation could not accomplish it. As would be the sublime projects of Dr. Darwin19 (if indeed they can be regarded as practicable at all) for ameliorating the condition, and correcting the climates of the globe which we inhabit. But there is another point at which I suspect the comparison does not touch. For tho’ there are certain undertakings for which it is advantageous for individuals to combine, there are strong reasons for supposing that there is none, certainly there are very few objects that it is for the welfare of a nation to pursue, but what it can pursue and accomplish by its own individual exertions. In short, putting out of our calculations the benevolent visions of philosophers, and considering the characters and pursuits of nations such as they hitherto have been, I am much inclined to suspect, as you never can produce the same intimate connection between nation and nation as between individual and individual, as you never can produce the same mutual intercourse of mind, and thorough comprehension of the views and objects of each, so we shall fnd, that all those undertakings which cannot be accomplished by an individual nation are of that description that it is a great deal better never to undertake at all. For nothing but disgrace, ruin and infamy generally have attended, or I believe ever

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can attend, undertakings of so extensive and complicated a nature as to make national confederacies necessary to their conduct. But there is one circumstance in which this parallel, between individuals and communities, certainly very closely agrees; namely, the energy, the vigour, and resources of intellect, which, standing independent of all other supports, has a tendency to generate in the character. Te man who trusts to friends, to promises, and to professions, to extricate himself from embarrassment, or to attain the advantages he looked for, generally meets with nothing but disappointment; and, at last, afer trammelling himself with inefcient obligations, is lef to the pursuit of his original object in a worse condition than he set out, with mind stripped of half its vigour, and imagination clouded, a judgment embarrassed, and a spirit deprived of that keenness and ardour with which, if he had always been in the habit of depending upon his own individual exertions, he would have been able to have pressed forward to the attainment of his wishes. Is it or is it not so with nations? Consult the facts of history. Consult, if you will, the analogies of reasoning. – I believe abstract reasoning would convince you, that the arguments are still more potent with respect to the nation that the individual. But, if you love an easier task, turn over the pages of history, and see whether facts do not bear me out in the assertion I have made. Tell me, ye historians – (I will endure interruption if any man can tell me such an instance) what great, what noble, what glorious achievement ever was accomplished by a number of nations, even petty little states, so small that their numbers would hardly people a second-rate city in France! – if you want the glorious atchievements they have accomplished, turn to the histories of the little states of Greece; consult the histories of Athens and Lacedemon, those names for ever glorious – for ever dear to the heart that pants for liberty! those small but magnifcent Republics, which, like stars in the political intellectual frmament, will shine for ever as examples to mankind, and light us in the path of excellence. Tink of the great exploits of Leonidas, of Temistocles, of Epaminondas – think of the glorious struggles of Termopoly, of Salamis, of Marathon – think of the astonishing atchievements which throng in the historic page of Greece and of Rome! Consider, also, the unconquerable energy displayed by the Arabian tribes, under Mahomet, and the early leaders of that religion, which, by the sword of unassociated valour, was established over so large a portion of the earth; not by the numbers, not by the potency, wealth, or resources of the tribes who made those conquests; but by that unity, that individuality, if I may so express myself, which knit and combined the little bands of heroes and the enthusiasts together, and occasioned them to have but one head, one heart, one object and pursuit. But, whenever alliances have been made, we have always found that the nations thus allied have becomes enfeebled. We have histories and records of alliances innumerable. If I were to go largely into them, I should foretell a part

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of that which is to be the subject of my second lecture. I shall, therefore, neither dwell upon the crusades of ancient nor of modern times, at present; but shall refer them to their proper station in the second branch of my enquiry. I think I have said enough, and every individual will be able to recollect enough, to prove my position, that nations, as well as individuals, are enfeebled by extraneous dependencies – by alliances, treaties, and combinations. Tere is another part of the mischiefs, however, of those alliances which must not be passed over in silence. It is their inevitable tendency to spread the mischiefs and the ravages of hostility through a much wider circle than could otherwise be afected by the rival interests, the mistakes and passions of mankind. Alliances have been fruitful sources of calamity. Tis part of the established system of regular Governments, alone, has done more to ruin and depopulate nations, than all the gloomy passions that ever inhabited the breasts of men; nay, than the ambition of Princes and Ministers themselves would ever have been able to accomplish without this powerful engine. Te hostility which grows between nation and nation, but for this might be settled by the contest between the two parties. But the system of alliance difuses the mischief from pole to pole; and if two neighbouring nations choose to contend about the navigation of a river, the possession of an inaccessible rock, or a barren mountain, the consequence is, that the fames of war are to be kindled from nation to nation, the whole universe is to be disturbed, the peasant of every clime is to be torn from his useful occupation to the feld of death, and the matrons of the most distant nations to behold ‘their infants quartered by the hand of war.’ It has been pretended, however, that small countries, or countries of but little political force, would not be able to protect themselves, and would consequently be trampled upon by their more powerful neighbours, if it was not for this system of alliance. Let us enquire what sort of foundation there is for this observation: or rather, let us enquire what sort of efect has been produced, in this respect, by this boasted system of justice and generous protection. If security to the weak has resulted from these confederacies, of which Courts and Ministers are so fond, there is then some colour of vindication; altho’ I contend, that the principles of justice and sound policy would produce this efect still better without any such alliances. Justice would dictate to me, that if I am a strong man and my neighbour is weak, I am not to sufer another strong man, merely because he is strong, to break into my neighbour’s house and destroy him. I do not mean to say, that you are not to lend assistance to those who are absolutely wronged. I only say, you are not to make alliances and combinations, by which you agree that, however a quarrel may begin, whoever may be right, whoever may be wrong, (for this is always the sense, though not the express wording of every treaty of alliance) you are to make yourselves a party in the quarrels and

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projects of your ally, by whomsoever insulted or whomsoever he may insult. It is the alliance, not the principle of justice of protecting the weak against the tyranny of the strong, that I censure: And though there was no treaty of alliance between the Court of St. James’s and the Court of Warsaw, yet if one half of that wealth squandered in this country against the liberty of France, had been spent to protect the Poles from that destruction which a combination of despots has brought upon them, I should have gloried in the magnanimity of a nation which had stepped forward to save an oppressed and a virtuous people from the jaws of tyrannous destruction: I should have rejoiced the more in the conviction that they did it from the dictates of their honest and virtuous hearts, and not from the compulsive, or supposed compulsive circumstance of there being a treaty of mutual assistance between the respective powers. But what stronger argument can we have of the impotency and absurdity of these treaties, than the very circumstance of the fate of Poland? Te Court of Prussia enters into an alliance with the Court of Warsaw, by which they bind themselves to mutual protection and good friendship. Yet, by and by, true to the Machiavelian maxim, that ‘a Prince is never to observe his promises any longer than it is to his own interest,’ forth steps the virtuous and pious representative of the regular Government of Prussia, to make an alliance with the still more humane, pious and virtuous representative of the regular government of Russia, and the sapient, the just and magnifcent representative of the regular government of Germany, and they make a fresh compact, and a fresh alliance – for the protection of Poland? No, for the division of Poland, with whom this self same King of Prussia, this juggling mountebank in gold and purple – this King of threads and patches, had formerly made a treaty of alliance and support. But it ends not here. You have only got to the fourth act of the farcical tragedy. In all probability the ffh is now in rehearsal; and by and by we may have a treaty between the Emperor of Germany and the Empress of Russia, against this self same King of Prussia, with whom hitherto they have been in alliance, that they may, for the better preservation of the balance of Europe, beat him out of the share of the plunder. Yet such are the allies we subsidize! Such are the powers to purchase whose faithful assistance, we strip the poor labourer of ever comfort and necessary of existence, make his marriage bed a curse, and turn the fruitful issue of his love into plagues and scorpions, harrowing his imagination, and piercing his ears with the cries of want. To one of these precious allies, in the midst of all our national distresses, 4,600,000 pounds are to be lavished; how much we are to give to the other is yet, perhaps, a secret behind the curtain of the Cabinet; but which we shall one day or other be acquainted with to our cost. Such are the regular governments upon whose faith we can depend, notwithstanding the frequent example we have had of their unqualifed treachery. In the cobweb fabric of their promises

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we consent to weave the destiny of further years of tremendous hostility, and of thousands of industrious families; upon the frail trust of such a thread we hang our trembling hopes; and, with no better security, consent to prolong the miseries of Europe, and to perpetuate that famine, scarcity, and desolation, so large a portion of which we have already distributed not only among ourselves, but to all surrounding nations. But what are the pretences for alliances? One of these pretences – and a very favorite one indeed, in this country, is the preservation of the balance of power. So you see, frst of all, we describe power by a metaphor, calling it a balance and then realize the dream of our own fancy, and at the expence of the lives of thousands, and the happiness of millions, plunge all Europe into confusion, in order that we may break a piece of power away here, and throw it in there, to preserve the equipoise of these imaginary scales. O convenience of metaphorical logic! If it suited the purpose of these sophistical reasons, they would fnd that any other sort of simile was equally descriptive. Te British constitution use to be described as a triple balance, and many fne declamations have been made by political jugglers upon the basis of this ridiculous metaphor; but projects were formed for which this triple balance would not answer, and Judge Eyre, fnding that this metaphor, instead of supporting his new fashioned theory of High Treason, changed hocus pocus, the balance into a wheel: put the poor British Constitution to the rack, ( – poor Constitution! – it had been mangle enough already!) and then, to show his knowledge of physical, as well as metaphorical science, he tells you, that any thing that presses upon the circumference must injure the centre: though we know very well that a centre is in its nature immoveable, and that whatever violence is committed upon the circumference, can only alter the direction of velocity of the converging points, while the centre inevitably remains uninfuenced. However, a wheel or a balance, or a sword, or a halter, are any of them metaphors sufciently capable of extensive application, to answer all the purposes of political reasoners. Having got the power in their hands to proceed at will to fnal demonstration, who shall dispute the intermediate gradations of their logic? or deny that a metaphor is as legitimate a basis of sound argument as a syllogism or a self evident fact? – Te rack at such times is just as good an emblem of justice as a pair of scales; and it matters not whether you adopt the one or the other; while the sword is ready to dispatch the individual whom neither the balance can weigh down nor the rack subdue. Having made the power of Europe a balance – a balance it should seem of a hundred scales! Each government supposed itself Briarius (the giant with a hundred hands) that could uphold them all; and, accordingly, it has always been thought necessary, by one or other of them, to keep the world plunged in wars to support the metaphorical equipoise. But if we ever could be blind enough to suppose that the jugglers who talk of this balance of power were in earnest, we

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ought to be very much obliged to them for their late conduct, which certainly must have opened our eyes, and convinced us that they never had any meaning, nor ever meant to have any meaning, unless it was that the people were to be put in one scale, and the individuals who compose the government in another, merely to show how light the former are in the estimation of the latter; and how immediately they, with their emptied pockets, kick the beam, weighed down by the pondrous mass of revenue, places, and patronage, in the courtly scale. Te balance of Europe! Will any person believe, if in this balance there had been any real meaning, that it was not more destroyed by the partition of Poland, than the navigation of the Scheldt? Is it more dangerous to the safety of Europe, that Savoy should be added to the French Republic, than that so large a portion of Poland should be afxed to the immense empire of Russia? – whose ferocity and ambition, whose rapid strides of usurpation, and whose faithless conduct must have convinced mankind that the real object of her pursuit is the subjugation of Europe! the slavery of the civilized universe, over which her barbarians are to be established as military governors, to restore the reign of ignorance and ferocity! Another pretence for alliances, (a more modern pretence) is the preservation of order and morality. Citizens, in what do order and morality consist? In destroying towns and villages? In depopulating nations? In laying felds and vineyards waste, and then raking the ashes together, to spread them decently over the graves of a few great victims, whose power and grandeur could not preserve them from the stroke of justice, when the wickedness and indecency of their conduct had shaken, to their foundations, the venerable structures of prejudice and superstition that once protected them? If this is what is meant by the preservation of order and morality, then indeed are the present confederates against regenerated France, at least in their intentions, most orderly, most moral, and most pious! – then, indeed, have alliances and royal combinations most frequently, and especially in the late instance, advanced the cause of order, and of that moral distribution, upon which so intimately depends the felicity of the world. Te Iö Kings, Courts, and Cabinets! – Iö alliances and royal confederacies! for the promised millenium is itself at hand! But if, by order, we mean the establishment of peace and justice; if, by morality, we mean that system of benevolent conduct, which promotes the general welfare and happiness of mankind, what order, I ask, what morality can be promoted by a band of depredators, under whatever titles or distinctions, uniting themselves together to break into a country, with whose concerns they had no right to interfere, to spread desolation through nations that did not choose to adopt their system of politics. – I know but one system of order and morality: and that must spring from the heart; from enlightened understandings, directed

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to the pursuit of principle; from a determination to promote the peace, the happiness and welfare of mankind, and, as the best means of advancing these, to resist the encroachments of tyranny and usurpation, under whatever forms or pretences their encroachments may be made. Another of the pretences for alliances and combinations, in the present day, is the preservation of religion. And here, at least, it must be admitted that the advocates for these alliances in this country, have certainly shewn a great disposition to impartiality and justice. So that they may but be employed in protecting religion, they care not what religion it is. Popish, Protestant, Greek, or Mahometan, it is all the same. So that it be but some one of those systems long established in regular government (and who shall deny the praise of regularity to Governments of the Grand Signior or the Czarina?) it matters not which. We are now very busy in protecting, and restoring the hold Roman Catholic Religion, and we know, a little while ago, that England (I mean the ministry of England, for the people you know, in these matters are non entities) were flled with just as anxious a desire for the dominion of Mahomet, as they are now for that of the Pope: just as ready to draw the sword to preserve the religion of the Ottomans, as now to preserve his Holiness in the chair of infallibility, and restore the great hats of the Cardinals to that dignity from which they have been hurled by the atheistical revolution in France. But suppose we are serious for a minute upon this subject, and ask ourselves, whether we can possibly be guilty of a greater absurdity than, in one instant, to fall down on our knees, and worship a being, whom we say is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient, and at the very same time, by drawing our swords to fght against his enemies, (admitting, for the instant, that such a being could either entertain or sufer enmity) to confess that we do not believe he is able to take his own part, or enforce his own will? Tese are the pretences upon which alliances have been made. But those who are acquainted with the history of Courts (and indeed they have been exceedingly busy in publishing expositions of their own history of late) those at all acquainted with the history of Courts know that pretence is one thing, the real object another. Now, Citizens as I have all possible respect for the Administration and Senate of this country, I shall not say one word about their motives: which I take it for granted, are the very best that they are capable of conceiving. But I believe it must be admitted, whatever is the case with the Cabinet and Court of Britain, that, with respect to the Cabinets of many countries, the real object of these alliances has been TO STRENGTHEN THE HANDS OF GOVERNMENT AGAINST THE PEOPLE! to support those individuals who have seized the Administration, or abused the Sovereignty of their respective nations; to fortify in their past and meditated usurpations; and to enable them to pour foreign mer-

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cenaries into their countries, and menace and overawe, and, it necessary, dragoon the people, who might be otherwise unwilling to submit to their propositions. Tat this has been the case with some of the nations of Europe, I shall proceed to show. Let us remember what was the case with Brabant. Brabant imagined, as I suspect every nation will now and then imagine, for there is no accounting for the strange conceits that sometimes get into the heads of men – the Brabanters, I say, imagined that they had RIGHTS! that they had a claim to independence! that they were not a parcel of brute beasts, a swinish multitude, who were to be driven, and whipped, and slaughtered at the will of their Lords; but that they had a right to vindicate and assert the ancient laws and liberties of their country, if they were wise enough to improve those laws and liberties, for their own advantage, as their ancestors before them improved the elder institutions, and reformed the elder abuses that existed in their days. You know the history of that struggle. Brabant was upon the brink of accomplishing its object; and the tyrant who refused to govern by the laws was about to lose his government altogether. Alliances, however, were formed with diferent Cabinets of Europe (and, O! shame to speak it, with that of Britain among the rest!) which convinced the Brabanters that they must relinquish the chimerical ideas of rights and privileges, and peaceably submit themselves to the wisdom, the virtue, the moderation, and justice of the regular and established usurpation. Brabant, however, you will recollect, though disappointed then, has since attained her object; perhaps not so well as she would before; because a nation always does best without the assistance of foreigners, however just and generous these foreigners incline to be. Holland, also, thought it had a right to settle its own government. Te Batavians remembered their ancient independence, so bravely purchase, and once so wisely established; and they did not very much like the idea of being governed by an individual, who was evidently the subject of another of the crowned heads of Europe. Tey therefore took it into their heads, that as they had a constitution which authorised them, whenever they chose, to dismiss or set up a Stadtholder just as they pleased: a Stadtholder being, in reality, no part of the ancient constitution of the Batavian States – Tey thought they had right to appeal to the ancient laws, and redress the oppressions, usurpations, and grievances under which they groaned; and they began seriously to think of setting about the business. But no, says the Stadtholder: You are combined together, and you are disposed to get rid of me; and you tell me you have a legal and constitutional, as well as a natural right so to do. I will not dispute the matter of right with you: it is not convenient to me, at present, to refer to histories and constitutions; but I will let you know that there are other Princes and Potentates in Europe who understand a logic of another sort; and with whom I am in alliance and combination; and with a Prussian army, and a British feet, I will drive you like a rebellious herd before me, or tumble you into your own dykes, like so

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many frogs, till you croak for mercy, and hide your heads in Orange peel to get out again. – So much for Dutch and Austrian alliances. Te old despotism of France had its alliances also, and the French people being bit, in their turn, by this same mad dog, love of liberty – for its astonishing how this dreadful canine infection runs from man to man, and from nation to nation, so that, dreadful to think! it may, perhaps, in time, disturb even the Pope in his Vatican, dismiss the Grand Signor from his seraglio, and infect the beautiful nymphs and emasculated Eunuchs with metaphysical notions of the rights of man. France began to think of its rights, and to set about reforming the abuses of government. Aye, say the King – or rather the Queen, for he, ‘good easy man,’ give him but his beef steak and bottle of burgundy, would not trouble you with speeches, if you did not, as you do with other automatons, make the speech for him, and compel him to do whatever you desired. Aye, aye, says the Queen, that is all very well, and my good man shall appear to agree with it. But I have great relatives, and my German alliances shall back and support us, whenever I see good that the royal puppet should break his oaths and promises. Tey shall convince you, that bonds and constitutions are paper; and that while we are amusing you with fair promises, our allies, but your open enemies, were furnishing us with the means of crushing you at pleasure. Tus, by infernal arts and machinations, the ofspring of alliances and family compacts, was France interrupted in that career of virtue and philosophy, in which she set out. Yes – I repeat it – that career of virtue and philosophy! – for though the spectacled lunatic of St. Omer’s, at the very commencement of the Revolution, fulminated his anathemas, and with his diabolical howlings against the National Assembly stigmatised their holy labours; look at their maxims of virtue, humanity, justice, and then blush, ye combined Courts and Ministers of Europe; blush at those wicked hostilities, and still more wicked intrigues, by which you have driven them from this peaceful career of intellect, to use the destructive weapons of force and violence. France, also, was interrupted in her career, by foreign alliances, by combinations of foreign Courts, that refused to explain the nature of their compacts. But France had too much energy, too much intellect, too much enthusiasm to be disappointed even for a time; and though she chose an alternative which has been dismal, in many respects, in its consequences, and was plunged by an infernal faction into excesses, at which nature shudders, yet she has taught one great and important lesson to the world, that a nation bent upon enquiry and improvement, may sometimes mistake its way, may sometimes, by the arts and the malice with which she is surrounded, be plunged awhile into tumults and mischief, but will persevere not only to the fnal accomplishment of her own virtuous objects, but to the downfall of those whose criminal artifces, or ambitious usurpations, would blast her harvest, and cloud the prospect of felicity and glory.

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See then, if it is not digressing too far, what has been the consequence to those who formed those fatal alliances. What has the Emperor got? You will tell me, perhaps, 4,600,000l. of English money. But this getting will be to him no gain; not that I believe he will ever pay you one shilling of it again, or ever be able so to do. But what has he got in point of power and grandeur? Let the Brabanters answer you that question. What has the Stadtholder got? A snug retreat on the banks of the Tames; and a Dutch fair, represented in pantomime at Frogmore, may, perhaps, convince him of the gratitude of his Master, but will poorly atone for the forfeit revenues of seven wealthy Provinces, with all the regal splendours of the Hague. But behold the consequences of Machiavelian policy! You may destroy the poor deluded puppets, whose grandeur you would exalt over the rights of man; but human intellect, when backed by human energy, is invincible: and woe to those who are frantic enough to oppose its career. Citizens, we may remember, that about eighteen months ago, we were also menaced with something like a friendly alliance of this sort in England. A fortunate disease visited some foreign troops in the neighbourhood of our coast, and they were humanely landed upon the Isle of Wight. Tis was only accident, to be sure; but then it served, you know, to feel the pulse a little. Tanks to the state of intellect in Britain, the pulse of the nation vibrated as it ought. Te glorious energy of Stanhope roused the country to a sense of its danger; and the resolutions of the Patriotic Societies, I shall venture once more to assert, conspired with the speech of that noble Citizen, to chase the Hessian and Hanoverian barbarians from our coasts: and to the latest hour of my life I shall exult, that, at the peril of a disgraceful death, I contributed, by penning some of those resolutions, to save my country from that scene of desolation and mischief, which I am sure will take place, whenever foreign mercenaries shall be marched into its bosom, to coerce the people, and dragoon them into submission to any minister, whatever may be the pretences with which a measure so diabolical may be coloured over. Hail! hail! ye fetters, chains, and dungeons! – Hail! scafolds, halters, and axes! you were meant, it is true, as the brands of infamy, and the punishments of guilt; but when tyranny and oppression reign, – when attempts are made to subjugate a nation by bands of mercenary cut-throats, ye lose your terrors in the patriot’s eye – ye are then the badges of virtue, and the passports of eternal glory. Citizens, it has been rumoured, that such a design is again in contemplation. But I do not believe it. I think the minister of this country has learned a lesson which will prevent him from doing such things again. So long as Britons are ruled by Britons, I trust that they will use no weapons but reason and enquiry, however great may be their burdens. But I have not faith enough in human patience to suppose, that they will bear to be dragooned by foreign mercenaries; that they will yield their throats to Hessian of Hanoverian butchers and sufer themselves

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to be trampled into submission by any foreign interference: nay, I confess that my pacifc principles do not go so far as to wish that they should. Te manly spirit of this nation will, I hope, be displayed in peaceable and tranquil exertions: for I am sure of this, that no important reformation, no change or amelioration ought to take place, except when there is a unanimous and manly resolution to demand it: and when there is that manly and unanimous resolution, it will require no artillery to enforce it, no bayonets to accomplish it. But when a government is supported by foreign troops, it is then no longer a question of argument. Silence or resistance are the only alternatives. Citizens, there is a good maxim among men of moral feelings, as to common plunderers. If they meet a highwayman, or footpad; if he demands their money, they will rather give it, than take away the life of a fellow-being, however depraved; but if he proceeds to violence, they must even, if they can, kill him in their own defence. In the same manner, I think the probability is that though the people sufer their money to be taken away by foreign mercenaries, they will not sufer themselves to be dragooned by the admission of them into this country; and if they would, all I can say is, that the modern inhabitants of this island are no more Britons, than the present race of slaves who inhabit what once was Greece, are Athenians and Lacedemonians. Be this as it will, with respect to our money, it must be admitted, we have parted with it pretty freely: for Britain having rather too large a quantity of these golden globulæ fowing through its veins, the political quacks have been very solicitous to apply the lancet; and not a high German Doctor of them all but has occasionally held the bason. How much the better we are for these applications, I do not pretend to determine; but our great State Physician, our political Sangrado, seems determined to persevere in the practice. But all this is done to support the reputation of regular governments. To regular governments, notwithstanding the repeated instances we have had of their perfdy, we are ready to lend our assistance, and our money. With republican innovators, we are not willing even to cease the monstrous contention of slaughter and desolation; though we cannot produce one single instance of breach of faith in any of those governments, at this time existing, that are worthy of the name of Republics. Has America broken her faith with any of the nations with which she has had any alliance? On the contrary, peruse the transactions on the bands of Miami; and then read the treaties between this country and America: consult also the rights of nations, and then answer me, Whether the irregular – the fantastical republican government of America, or the regular government of Great-Britain, can most justly be taxed with violation of its faith. Has the republic of France in any one instance notwithstanding all its wild changes, broke its faith, or violated its compacts? No: on the contrary, in the report of Gregoire, relative to the Rights

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of Nations, observe what magnanimity, what principles of justice! – so sublime, I am bound to say, as never before were propagated by the government or public assemblies of any nation in the world. Hear them, in the very moment of triumph and victory, when all the nations of the earth were in a manner prostrate before them – hear them consecrating the equal rights of nations, and declaring, that ‘sovereignty is the right of ever nation;’ that ‘it depends not upon its power, upon its riches or population;’ that ‘a dwarf is a man as much as a giant,’ and has the same rights; and that ‘sovereignty is as much the right of the little province of Sant Marine as of the gigantic republic of France.’ Turn also, if you please, to the republican government of Switzerland. Has Switzerland been less distinguished for its faith than the other governments of Europe? Quite the contrary: No nation has preserved a more unblemished character than that republic, in which, to a considerable degree, at least among many of the Cantons, the principles of liberty and equality are established: that republic in which (as the late King of Prussia declared with a sort of involuntary applause) ‘ever individual is at once a peasant, a citizen, and a soldier.’ Away then with the absurd pretences, that you can have no faith in republics; and that you are to seek for it only in the regular governments of aristocracy and monarchy. But they ask you, What signifes making peace with France, in her present state? What security can you have for a permanent peace? What do these regular governments mean by a permanent peace? Would not one suppose, from this language, that, before the republican phrenzy broke out in France, Europe was always in a state of harmony and friendship? Tat these regular governments, with their compacts and alliances, might quarrel once or twice, perhaps, in four of fve hundred years; but that their usual practice was to observe their treaties, and keep the peace inviolate, from century to century? – But what has been the fact? Consult the records only of our own country for the last hundred years, and you will fnd that, of that period, more than half has been devoted to war and desolation; that we have been fve times at war with France¸ and six times at war with Spain, as I have shewn in a former lecture; that some of these wars have lasted eight or ten years together; and that it has been a long tranquillity indeed, that has sufered you to be six or seven years at peace. War afer war, scene afer scene of contention, has ensued. No pretence has been too frivolous, no object too contemptible, to be the ground of hostility. – Te plain truth is, that these Regular Governments (that is to say, the Ministers who act under them) have an interest in keeping the world perpetually in war: that it is the people who bear the burden, but the governors who are enriched by the plunder. In short, the regular governments of Europe have hitherto shewn themselves to be consistent in but one principle – a principle which is indeed laid down by Machiavel as the fundamental axiom without which no regular govern-

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ment can possibly exist; namely, that they should neither keep peace, faith, nor compact, any longer than it is to the advantage of those by whom that compact is made. And hence it is that one universal system of slaughter and devastation has been incessantly pursued; nor is it easy to foresee when we shall get to the end of this dismal chapter. Such, then, are the principles of faith and pacifcation among these regular governments. I leave it to your serious consideration, whether this is a picture to encourage you to persevere in war, till destruction and misery overwhelm you in one common mass, rather than trust to the yet untried faith of the French republic, however various it may be in its occasional formation, or whatever may be the internal factions which at present distract it; and which are not to be wondered at, when we consider the monstrous abyss of guilt, oppression, and contaminating corruption, from which they have been struggling to get free.

THE TRIBUNE. No. XXII.

An Enquiry into the Truth of an Assertion frequently made in the ‘Honourable HOUSE of COMMONS,’ Tat the CONDITION of the COMMON PEOPLE IN THIS COUNTRY, is WORSE than that of WEST INDIA SLAVES.20 Te Second Lecture ‘on the Comparative Estimate of the Slave Trade, the practice of Crimping,21 and Mr. Pitt’s partial Requisition Bill.’ Delivered Friday, February 27th, 1795. CITIZENS, THE number of facts connected with the subject, which I am this evening to resume, occasioned me, in my former lecture, to run rather more largely into detail than was at frst my intention; and, therefore, compelled me to leave untouched, or but slightly touched, many of the most important arguments that relate to this very momentous question. It appeared to me, therefore, not amiss to resume it this evening, and to endeavour to investigate those parts of the subject which I, for want of time, hurried over too much or totally omitted, on the last evening. On that evening I began with some refections upon the general character of Europe; and was particularly led to condemn the avarice and cruel pride with which it arrogates to itself the right of enslaving the other portions of the globe. My business, on the present evening, is to make a more particular application of those arguments to the character of the nation, a portion of whose population I am now addressing. And, on this occasion, I wish, from those feelings of vanity every man has, with relation to the country in which he was born, that I were able to draw a picture in which nothing but the most pleasing lines and amiable colours should obtrude themselves upon the eye. I wish it were possible for me to delineate a character in which every thing should excite admiration and applause. I am afraid, however, if I discharge my duty, by dealing fairly with my countrymen, it will be impossible to have so grateful a task, on the present evening: for – 147 –

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tho’ the spark of reason has not only fallen upon the British bosom, but its fame has extended to a considerable degree, so that there is a great disposition in the minds of the people at large, to benevolence and magnanimity, yet I cannot be blind to the operation of those circumstances, which have a tendency to introduce, and, thro’ a very wide circle, have positively difused, characteristics of a very diferent description. I cannot be so blind as not to perceive, that, for a very considerable time, an illiberal, monopolizing, and rapacious spirit of commerce has difused itself among the people; and, backed by those corruptions that have crept into the government of the country, has tarnished the character of Englishmen. In short, the over eager pursuit of opulence among one class of people, and the consequent depression of the other, have produced a notion among us totally subversive of the feelings of justice and humanity – a supposition that nothing is respectable but wealth; and consequently, an hardened cruelty, or at least an insensibility of disposition, so inveterate as nothing but avarice and rapacity ever can impart to the human character. If there had wanted proofs of the existence of these qualities, in this country, the debate in a great assembly of yesterday, would furnish me with abundant argument to substantiate the position I have laid down. Let any man but cast his eye, in the slightest manner, over those arguments which were used, in opposition to a benevolent and humane motion in that assembly, and then let them tell me, whether virtue and enlightened generosity are, in reality, the only traits of character by which the present generation of Britons are to be handed down to posterity! Citizens, I shall take the liberty of entering into a serious investigation of those arguments; because it will shew you, to what retreats the friends of slavery are driven for shelter, and how hard they fnd the task of supporting their system of enslaving one portion of the human race, to support the luxurious vices and sensual gratifcations of another. A learned Alderman has observed, that this abolition, the abolition of the slave trade, ought never to be assented to – why? – not because slavery is just, not because we are entitled to the limbs, livers, and progeny of the poor blacks, by means of the divine right of our white complexions: no, this he does not attempt to prove: but, says he, the consequence of such abolition would be the loss, to this nation, of the West India Islands. If I meant to enter very fully into this part of the enquiry, I am not at all afraid, but that I should be able to prove to you, because if has been repeatedly proved, beyond reply, that this efect would not result. But such a discussion would, I believe, be perfectly superfuous, in more points of view than one – for this is a part of the argument which, notwithstanding the boasts of some, the grand exploits of others, and the confdence of many, I am much inclined to suspect, will not be urged many successive years: for, notwithstanding some apparent successes, and

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‘Te fne yellow harvest we have got,’

If we look at the condition of our islands, and the energy of the enemy, and consider the resources which, by our perseverance in the system of slavery, we give to that enemy in those regions, I am inclined to believe, that the West Indies will be lost; not by the abolition of the slave trade, but by that cruel and rapacious obstinacy, with which we determine not to relinquish that inhuman trafc. For, if we will not relinquish, there is another nation in Europe that will abolish it – will tear it up and destroy it, root and branch, with the powerful arm of liberty and equality; and with it will go, I have no doubt, or at least soon afer it, the whole of that system of colonization, whose soil is corruption, and whose manure is blood. [A feeble hiss.] I am delivering opinions, Citizens, not wishes. I do not call you together to invoke Deities to further my prayers, or fulfl my prophecies. I call you together to listen to opinions, which I am convinced are the opinions of truth. With my wishes, be they on one side or be they on the other, it would be impertinent for me to trouble you: and, therefore, I cannot but conceive, that marks of illiberal disapprobation must arise from a trembling conviction that these are but too well founded; and the calamity, if a calamity it is to be considered, will be traced to the mal-administration of those, who, having no other way to preserve their popularity, send their emissaries into every public meeting, to disturb the tranquillity of investigation. I, however, am very doubtful at least, whether the loss of colonies is, in reality, any calamity to any country. But if it were, is justice therefore to be sacrifced? Are the sacred principles of truth and liberty to be immolated at the altar of interest? And, for the sake of wealth and aggrandizement, are we to persist in those practices, whose cruelty calls aloud for redress, and for the defence of which we have no other argument, but interested necessity, the tyrant’s constant plea? Yes, says the learned Alderman, you are: for, if you loose your colonies, there is another consequence behind; a consequence, connected with that disposition of rapacity which I have been obliged to acknowledge, in some degree, to be characteristic of my country, the loss of great part of our revenue, which would, ultimately, endanger the existence of the country. Te existence of the country! the existence of the country! How long are we to be deluded by unmeaning cant? How long has party afer party, administrations and oppositions, rung the changes upon those words in our ears? But where is the individual who has told us what he means to convey to our minds by this pompous phrase? What, does the air of heaven depend upon our revenue? Do our streams derive their salubrity, and our meadows their fertility, from our revenue? Do the seas, that wash our shores, and waf to us the tribute of the world, depend upon our revenue? Or, is the aggrandizement of parties – the

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wealth of factions – the general fruit of this revenue? – Is this, I say, the existence of the country? And will mankind be annihilated when Ministers can no longer cover their tables with the wealth of a province, and fll the senate, and every department of an intricate system, with their creatures and dependents, the hungry consumers of this revenue! – But, fimsy as this argument is, it is not true. Te revenue is not benefted by colonization. I stand in fear of no contradiction when I say this: and I do not say so, because the nature of this lecture precludes contradiction; but I fear no contradiction from the world, when I afrm that Colonies do not assist the revenue of a country. Tey assist patronage, it is true, dependants upon Courts and Ministers they assist; but they injure the real revenue: for there was never yet a Colony, whose revenues equalled the expences of its government. And as for their secondary operation upon the revenue, by means of their commerce, the genuine spirit of commerce abhors monopoly and restraint, and the example of America might convince us; that the best way to increase our trade is to make our Colonies independent. But, upon what principle, let me ask, is the idea supported, that to revenue we are to sacrifce the cause of liberty and humanity? Alas! the very argument stamps, with deep conviction, the justice of that character which I felt it my melancholy duty to assign to Britain. – Yes, it is my duty to convince you that such is the degraded state of our national character; because, till you are convinced of it, you will not lend your virtuous and peaceable eforts to wipe the stain away. Behold the consequence of this rapacious avarice. Every thing is to be sacrifced to revenue; without which the wages of corruption cannot be paid. Every thing is to be sacrifced to the interest of a few monopolizing traders; because, unless monopoly goes on to an extravagant length, the extravagant projects of corruption cannot be supported. It is only by the growth of monopoly, that great revenues can be easily collected; and, therefore it is, that wealth is to be held-up as the idol of our adoration; that we are to bow down, in reverence, to every thing splendid; and that measure afer measure is to be adopted, project afer project is to be carried into execution, to keep those who are poor still poorer, to push them further down the ladder of society, to confne all favour and preferment to a few wealthy and powerful families, and to make it difcult for any to acquire but those who have already too much. But to illustrate still further this principle of rapacity, and to shew you its curious efects upon the rational as well as the moral faculties of it advocates, let us proceed to the curious arguments of that most honourable gentleman, Mr. Secretary Dundas. He is, you know, an advocate for the gradual abolition of this trafc: a man of moderation: that is to say, one of those who, not having the virtue to act right, and fnding the wrong to be no longer tenable, endeavours to frustrate the cause of justice, by fnding out a middle path between the two.

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You will remember, Citizens, that in conformity with this system of moderation, about three of four years ago, when every guard and fence of the advocates of slavery was beaten down; and the friends of liberty began to exult in the prospect, that this great fortress of tyranny was about to surrender to the irresistible artillery of reason, Dundas stepped forward with his unexpected proposition of gradual abolition, and, under pretence of a capitulation, induced the advocates of justice to raise the siege. It was proposed by him, that the measures for this gradual abolition should not take place till the end of four years.’ Four years, he told you, was a period that would make no very considerable diference to those who remained in chains and bondage – four years longer continuance of a trafc, admitted to be a perpetual scene of rapine, blood and cruelty, could be no great injury to the cause of humanity. Just as he told you, on another occasion, that seven months closeconfnement was no sort of punishment whatever. ‘Another reason,’ he says, ‘for giving four years to the planter was, that he might have some time to furnish himself with slaves, and not sufer a stagnation or bankruptcy in his business by a total stoppage.’ Can men repeat these words, and yet be ignorant of their import? Can they lay down, afer laborious examination, doctrines like these, and not shudder at the consequences? Has it not been proved to you, that the annual consumption (for it seems that human beings are to be spoken of as stock in trade!) – that the annual consumption of Africans in our West India Settlements, is no less than 60,000. Multiply – for, if we consider men as property, we must subject them, like other property, to rules of arithmetic, and strike our balances of debtor and creditor with the coldness of commercial precision. – Multiply this 60,000 by four, and you fnd, that 240,000 Africans were to be sacrifced to the moderation of this humane Secretary – for what? – why to prevent the bankruptcy of a few West India monopolists. What then – is this the enlightened and generous spirit so ofen boasted by Britons? or is it that spirit of rapacious avarice, that regards the lives of mankind, the happiness and liberties of thousands, as trifing circumstances, compared with the hurling of a few wealthy individuals from that rank which their opulence has given them, and casting them, for a while, into the humble ranks of life they have so long been in the habit of despising. But mark, Citizens, I pray you, the progress of this gradual abolition. Te four years being nearly past, the same most humane and generous pleader comes forward and tells you, that a longer time is necessary now than was requisite at the former discussion. Tough only four years were requisite four years ago, ‘more than four years are requisite now;’ and he thinks that the abolition ought, at present, to be ‘deferred indefnitely.’ Tis puts me in mind of an anecdote, in ancient history, of one Simonides, a poet and philosopher, who was consulted by the tyrant under whose dominion he lived, about the opinion he entertained of the existence and nature of God. Simonides, at frst, required two days to

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consider it; two days were granted, and when they were expired, the Monarch expected a reply. But, instead of answering the question, he required four days more. Four days more were granted, and at the end of these he came, not with his reply, but with a request of six days longer; and, at the end of those six days, he requested an indefnite time; ‘because,’ he said, ‘the more he considered of the nature of the Divinity, the more puzzled he was to give an answer to the question.’ And so, in the same manner, we have a great and mighty statesman, who fnds the same growing difculties upon a leading question of benevolence, as the ancient philosopher and poet did upon the leading question of theology; and he tells you, afer having had four years to consider upon the question, that he is less determined in his own mind when the Deity of benevolence shall begin to be acknowledged and worshipped, than he was when he told you, four years ago, that four years only were necessary before the temple should be built. But another reason why he now thinks a longer time necessary than at frst is, that in war the planter has not the same opportunity of providing slaves. Citizens, we have heard of a variety of trades; and we have heard of a variety of species of cattle in which traders may deal. In some parts of the world they are very famous for dealing in black cattle; with some, no cattle are in such repute as the golden calf; and there are other countries in which the cattle are all white. Now it happens, that while the trade of war continues, the trafc in white cattle admits of a quicker return, and, in consequence of modern improvements in the way of carrying it on, is discovered to be more proftable than the trade in black. Tus then, during the continuance of the war, it is not quite so easy to procure black slave for the plantations, as it is to procure white slaves for the ships of war, and the ranks of a devoted army: and, therefore, you are told, upon the old system of bringing forward one piece of iniquity in justifcation of another, the slave trade is to be prolonged till the return of tranquility shall enable the planter to get such a stock of human cattle as may satisfy his conscientious desires. If gold is thus to be admitted as an equivalent for life, if trade is to be set up as a thing of more advantage and consequence than humanity, and justice, can we be surprized that, in the same assembly, doctrines should be preached so abhorrent to the feelings of mankind as those I am about to recite to you? Can we be surprized to hear members, in that same assembly, declare that ‘liberty,’ – hear it Englishmen, if you can, restrain your indignation and hear it with patience! ‘that liberty is not the unalienable right of man!’ What is liberty then the birthright only of Britons? for it has been called the birth-right of Britons, even by those borough mongers who swindle us out of the inheritance, and then threaten us with the halter for appealing to the title deeds. Is not liberty the right of all human beings? Or is the period come when right is changed into wrong? Are Britons also to be considered as implicated in this new doctrine? And are they also to be taught that their liberties are not unalienable? Tat they may be stolen

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by violence, or taken away by fraud, and that he, who has once been a free agent, may be reduced to the condition of a slave? Are we surprized to hear in the same assembly, also, ‘that it would be inhumanity to the people of Afica, to leave them to the savage liberty; and that nothing could exceed,’ – Mark, Citizens, the curious argument, ‘it is not right to leave the Africans to the possession of their savage liberty, because nothing can exceed the joy and consolation which the Negroes, in the West India Islands, experience, upon the arrival of a fresh cargo of slaves from Afica: and to rob them of this would be to deprive them of one of the greatest sweets of life.’ And is this true? Have civilized and enlightened Britons sunk the simple character of savages so low, that they, also, can exult in the chains and torments of their fellow beings? And feel a wicked consolation, in the midst of their own suferings, by fnding that others are rendered as wretched and as hopeless as themselves? If this malignant disposition is, in reality, generated in the breasts of Africans, by the oppression with which we have treated them, what becomes of the curious argument which Mr. Alderman Newnham, thought ft to set up. Citizens, I am no adept in theological questions. I do not pretend to speculate either upon the world above or that below. I am satisfed with the sphere I move in. I am sure I can do no beneft in any other. But divines, I understand, have upheld the doctrine that, if it were possible for a man to get into heaven, with the passions of demons and fends in his bosom, still he would be miserable; and heaven, itself, would to him be worse than hell. Mark, however, the very diferent doctrines of the pious Alderman, whose words I have before quoted, ‘he hoped that the slaves would have their reward, in another world, for any sufferings they meet in this life: but while the life of our trade depends so materially upon their slavery, he would never agree to their emancipation.’ Citizens, I cannot answer for the faithfulness of reporters, but the newspapers have given me this as the logic which this honourable gentleman – for ‘they are all honourable men’ – used in the debate of yesterday. But let us compare this with other doctrines that have been held in the same place, and then let us consider what are humanity, liberty, and justice? We have been told, by some of the honourable gentlemen in that assembly, that our commerce was to perish that our constitution might live. Now we are told, that humanity must perish that our commerce may live; and that we must never think of emancipating millions of our fellow beings, so long as the success of our trade depends upon their groans and bondage. What then – is humanity only a third-rate virtue? Alas! how blind have been those philosophers and moralists who have hitherto considered it as the frst, the only virtue; and who imagined, that nothing was excellent but only in proportion as it grew out of, or was conducive to this great object! We are now told that it is a virtue of the third degree. Tat humanity is to yield to commerce,

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and commerce, in its turn, is to yield to the security of the emoluments of placemen and pensioners, to the sacred rights of the proprietors of rotten boroughs! Citizens, another argument that has been made use of, deserves also considerable attention. Te argument is derived from the dreadful consequences of enquiry and discussion: those Jacobinical weapons with which some late infamous conspirators, ‘who,’ in the language of the Solicitor General, ‘carried their criminal enthusiasm so far as to wish for the establishment of universal peace and fraternity,’ endeavouring to efect their diabolical purpose. An honourable member tells you, that ‘the discussion,’ not only the abolition, but the simple discussion, ‘may be attended with the worst consequences; as it would add a spark to the general confagration that now rages in Europe.’ I know not what ‘these honourable men’ mean by the general confagration that rages in Europe. If by confagration they mean the war and violence at this time raging over the whole continent, let them throw their censure upon the Minister whose intrigues produced that confagration. If by confagration they mean the light of political enquiry, I hope and trust the friends of liberty, unawed by threats or prosecution, will fan the sacred fre, will continue to cherish it, and keep it alive, altho’ their own blood should be necessary to feed the fame; and that they will never neglect it till its sacred light has beamed into every eye, and warmed every heart in the universe. Not such, however, are the sentiments of those ‘honourable men’ who constitute the infallible majority of that honourable House. O, the enquiry is certainly a shocking enquiry, echo they. It is a dreadful enquiry at this time. You must not touch the subject at this period, the terms liberty, justice, slavery, will ring in your ears for ever, and lead to speculations and principles which at such a time are horrible. True, says Mr. Secretary Dundas, rising with the whole weight and patronage of Scotland upon his shoulders; true, says he, heaving and straining under that accumulation of places and emoluments, under which he has the misfortune to groan; true, the subject is horrible: ‘the islands are already in a state of sedition; and if liberty is given them, it is probable they will use their liberty in a very improper manner. Let us think also of the situation of the afairs at home;’ (let us consider in what a ticklish situation our places, pensions and emoluments are at this instant.) ‘Even conversation on the subject, now, can only excite confusion and agitation; and, therefore, I wish that the motion had never been introduced.’ And then he proceeds to shew another excellent reason, the necessity of subordination, why the House of Commons should not proceed with the enquiry till they know the pleasure of the House of Lords, which has now been three years nodding over the business. If the House of Commons does not venerate the House of Lords, perhaps the people will not venerate the House of Lords, perhaps the people will not venerate the House of Commons. Such is the inter-

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pretation – the plain English of his argument – for I quote not these as his words. I shall read when I quote: when I make interpretations I deliver them extempore, as my own. Tis is the true interpretation of his argument in reprobation of the animated and generously indignant language of Mr. Whitbread,22 who with a courage and independence worthy a representative of a free and generous nation, reprobated the tardy indiference of the Upper House on this great question. But mark his words, ‘Te honourable gentleman, in pledging himself to bring forward the motion, over and over again, if he knew it vain to do so, and that their Lordships would be against it – he must say that the gentleman meant mischief; to excite tumult, by provoking a fuitless discussion.’ Te author of this motion is a man, who, except upon one question, has always uniformly voted with our present upright, heaven-born, and heaven-instructed Minister: yet Mr. Dundas says, ‘if the honourable gentleman wished to give the alarm, that justice had not been done by Parliament in past years, he stirred the embers of sedition.’ How came Mr. Dundas to suspect, that the conclusion from the arguments in yesterday’s debate would be that justice had not been done by Parliament? I fnd no such accusation from those who argued for the abolition. If I recollect right, there is in an old proverb – something about a guilty conscience – I refer, however, to the better memory of my audience. But if we are to admit this sort of argument, let us consider awhile the situation in which we shall be placed. You must not agitate, in the House of Commons, a question upon which the Lords have shewn a disposition to put a negative; you must not meet in popular assemblies to deliberate upon ‘subjects which are in the contemplation of the Legislature;’ you must never repeat a petition once refused; and therefore, the refusal of the legislature, like the laws of the Medes and Persians, is to be considered as irrevocable; and it is sedition to attempt to agitate a question which they shew a disposition to lull to sleep. What then is become of your right to petition? What is become of your right to remonstrance, if even your representatives must not press a disagreeable subject upon a confding House of Commons, without being charged with stirring up the ember of sedition? Sedition is a new crime lately started up among us, and like Jacobin and Buggaboo may be applied to any thing that the speaker fears or hates. Search me, ye lawyers (for I see there are several present) search me your precedents, explore your voluminous statutes, tumble over your high authorities, and shew me a defnition of this crime, which, like the serpent of Moses, swallows up every thing that comes in his way; or converts to its own semblance every thing that is disagreeable to the Minister. We weakly imagine that we once had rights. If we had, they cannot be annihilated by a vote, nor suspended by a nickname. If we have rights, surely we have a right peaceably to investigate them; to remonstrate again and again; to agitate the question to day, to-morrow, this year, and next year, and again and again, till

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the mind of the legislature receives that light which may be struck out among what they call the dregs of the people, by which they may be induced to tread in a new path, and may alter the resolutions they may have rashly taken. But this new doctrine of the passive obedience of the lower to the upper house, and of members in opposition to a ministerial majority, this doctrine that we are to bow down, with implicit reverence, and entrust every thing, without a murmur, to the superintending providence of the Lords in Parliament assembled, calls to my mind some circumstances which, though not generally known, are worth attention, relative to the manner in which the agitation of this question originated. Te fact is, that many of those who frst started the question, had no sort of inclination that it should ever be so seriously attended to; – that it was, in short, a mere parly job. In order, says one, to keep the popular attention from grievances at home, let us enter into an enquiry respecting oppression abroad. Let us impeach, year afer year, season afer season, and Parliament afer Parliament, a man whose only crime is having obeyed with zeal the masters whom he served, and whose system, iniquitous as it is, is not only sanctioned, but cherished and encouraged by the existing government. Let us talk, also, of the rights of black men, lest the rights of white men should be too much discussed. Let us go to Afica and the West Indies, that while the attention is engaged in things abroad, things at home may go on to our liking. But their opponents were longer sighted than themselves. Tey saw thro’ the thin disguise, and determined to fght the enemies of liberty with their own weapons. Tey saw that, with proper management, the discussion of this question might lead to the discussion of principles, which aferwards they could apply to practice at home; and thus, as I have been told by a very valuable character, whose name I shall not mention, because he has already sufered enough from the iron hand of oppression, – sufce it to say, I have been told this by one of the foremost of the agitators of this discussion, that the cause of the poor Africans was made a mere stalking horse by both parties; many of the frst, and apparently the most zealous promoters of the cause, having no other view than to promote their respective designs at home. In such a project, it is not easy to conceive which party must inevitably be worsted. And now that the supporters of old abuses, perceive, too late, the consequences, they want to crush the enquiry entirely; because they fnd that, instead of distracting the popular attention from grievances at home, it has riveted their attention to the principles from the neglect of which all abuses spring. But Sir William Young,23 with arguments as brilliant, and as weighty as if they were just come fresh from the mint, contradicts the language of Mr. Dundas, relative to the seditious disposition of the islands. He fnds another argument to build upon, and therefore proceeds without ceremony to pull down the argument of his friend: and thus, says one of these honourable gentlemen, in reply to the other gentleman equally honourable. ‘Te slaves are very loyal to their Mas-

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ters!’ – We understand now, it seems, what Courtiers mean by loyalty. I thought it meant respect and obedience to laws fairly made and impartially executed. But Sir William Young conceives loyalty to be a blind and implicit obedience to those, who think proper to lash us when we dare to murmur. ‘Te slaves are very loyal to their masters; and (this argument is worthy some observation and attention) ‘there are no peasants in this country more happy than the negro slaves.’ What, Citizens, is it an argument to prevent us from doing justice to the slaves in the West Indies, that the people of this country are reduced to a situation equally deplorable with those negroes, whom they half despise, and half pity. But this is thought too cold by the learned Alderman whom I have so ofen quoted. He says, ‘I afrm that the condition of the negroes is happier than that of the poor among ourselves.’ Citizens, I know not whether this is one of those statements which the orator thought self-evident, and therefore did not deem necessary to pursue any further; or whether it was one of those sudden rays of light and truth, which burst in upon the mind sometimes in the heat of investigation. But supposing the latter to be the case, I am rather inclined to think, that if this opinion had suggested itself a little earlier, when he was preparing the brilliant speech by which he hoped, no doubt, to recommend himself to some fresh contract, or little bonus, he might have pursued the argument much further, and thus continued his oration – ‘Nay, Mr. Speaker, so incontrovertible is this argument, that it might not only be supported by the actual experience of every honourable member of this honourable house, but I have absolutely written documents and calculations in my pocket by which I could demonstrate it to this honourable house: nay I can produce proofs from the writings even of the jacobinical advocates of the abolition of the slave trade themselves to support me: – for if this honourable house will turn to the work of one Citizen Wadstrom,24 on Colonization, page 12, this honourable house will fnd these words. As to the trafc of the slave trade, as the Whites practice every fraud upon them in the quantity and quality of the goods delivered, and in trepanning their persons, the blacks cannot carry on equal trade on equal terms, without resorting to similar practices. As to the injustice, cruelty and rapine, which, at the instigation of the Whites, they practice on one another, they are not more disgraceful than the well known trades of crimps and kidnappers, and press-gangs.’ (Te consequences of all which, as this honourable house well knows, falls entirely upon the lower orders of society). ‘All of which,’ he continues, ‘are carried on without foreign instigation, in several European countries, and even protected or connived at by their governments.’ ‘Nay, Mr. Speaker, it would require no great eloquence to convince you, that the parallel between the two situations is much more close than this honourable house would at frst suppose; nay, and that wherever there is a diference, that dif-

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ference is in favour of the blackamoor negro slave. For are not the people of this country suddenly seized and carried to crimping houses, just as the blackamoor negroes are in Afica? where they are kept as long as pleases their masters, or till they can fnd an opportunity to dispose of them! Are not the common people in England, like the blackamoor negroes in Africa, treated with hard labour, little kindness, and less food? Are not those who are kidnapped and doomed to fght for us, will-they nill-they, punished with stripes and blows, as this honourable house knows very well? And are they not crammed down into miserable holes, and dungeons, and all that sort of thing? Sufer me to call to the attention of this honourable house the miserable situation of poor Englishmen – in crimping houses, and press-houses, and tender-holds, and I am sure this honourable house will then perceive that the blackamoor negroes ought to be very well contented so long as white Englishmen, whom this honourable house knows are of the same fesh and blood with this honourable house, are treated in such a manner. Nay, and for matter of that, if we were to do any thing for these here blackamoor negroes, those there Jacobins might, perhaps, say rightly enough, that, if we are to be reforming, we ought to begin reforming evils at home, before we go abroad: for charity begins at home, says one of our wise old ancestors; and if this honourable house does not respect the maxims of our wise old ancestors, how should the people, you know? And so, as I was saying Mr. Speaker, I will prove to this very thronged representation of the people, that the impress holes, and the dungeons of crimping-houses, and the tenders, and all that, are worse than any thing the blackamoor negro slave experiences. For I am enabled to assure this honourable house, that poor Englishmen, when they are impressed, are thrown into a place called the hold: where they are kept, day afer day, to compel them to enlist, upon bread and water just sufcient to keep life and soul together; and, if they lie down to sleep, the rats, that run about the hold, disturb them by gnawing and tearing the hair of their heads. I am glad, however, the our wise Minister is about to tax powder; for poor men will not now be in so much danger of having their hair gnawed of in these most miserable dungeons: because why? there will not be any powder and pomatum to tempt them. Whereas the rats, now, sometimes eat their hair, and sometimes their ears, so that when the poor men are induced to enlist, they look as if they had been in the pillory. And, Mr. Speaker, to keep up the parallel, and show this honourable house, that the condition of those blackamoor negro slaves, on the West India islands, is not worse than the condition of the lower orders of the people in this country, I shall ask this honourable house, What is it but slavery, to toil fourteen or ffeen hours a day; and afer that, not to get a decent subsistence for their wretched families? What does this honourable house think slavery is? Does it not consist in stripes and bondage? In the whole produce of your labour going to those who have not toiled with you, and nothing but wretched ofals lef for you? What is slavery?

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but having no rights, no power to mend your condition, nor no power to getting redress from the laws: which this honourable house very well knows, while law is so dear and wages are so low, no poor man can possibly get in this country. Nay, Mr. Speaker, is it not admitted, that the principal diference between freemen and slaves consists in the one being governed by laws of his own making, and the other by laws made by his masters: because why? we all love ourselves best: and they who make laws will always make them for their own advantage: and they who have nothing to do with making the laws will have no advantage at all. Now, it is well known to this honourable house, that the common people in England have no more share in making the laws than so many blackamoor negroes; and therefore, that they are slaves. And as, here in England, those who toil and bleed for us, are robbed of all their rights because they have so toiled and bled; now what is this but slavery? And, therefore, what necessity can there be for abolishing the slave trade, when the blackamoor negroes are no worse of than our own people. For what though we have a Commons’ House of Parliament, is it not very well known that the common people have no right to vote for them? And, therefore, Mr. Speaker, one set of people making laws by which another are to be governed will-they nill-they, makes them slaves; and as the slave trade goes on here as much as in Afica, with this diference, that the slaves, who are seized and sold by crimps and press-gangs, and the like, are sold not to work in plantations, but to be shot at, in a war, in the success of which, if success were possible, they can promise themselves no advantage whatever.’ Such Citizens is, I suppose, the sort of argument which this learned Alderman would have made use of if he had had time for that consideration which the subject demands. He might, also, perhaps, have animadverted upon the pending requisition bill. He might, if he had chosen, have animadverted upon the unconstitutional powers vested by this bill in the hands of Justices of the Peace: such as the clause that ‘Justices of the Peace for the several divisions, are to hold a Court of general session, for hearing, as the last resort, the appeals which may be made from the respective parishes;’ by which, without any trial by jury whatever, the liberties, and ultimately the lives of our fellow citizens, in the lower orders of society are to be determined upon. Of the same despotic complexion, he might have said, is the clause, ‘that petty sessions are to be held, to receive the return of the parishes to such orders, and to attest and inrol the men to be raised; and for hearing the appeals of parishes, &c. against the proceedings of regulating ofcers;’ and this, which is, perhaps, the most extraordinary of all, that ‘if returns of men, for any parish or place, shall not be made within three weeks afer the service of the order by the Constable or Tything-man, the Justices, in Petty Session, may summon the Churchwardens and Overseers, making such default, to appear before them; and if it does not appear to the satisfaction of such Justices, that such default has been unavoidable, and hath not happened

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by wilful neglect, they are required to fne the Churchwarden,’ without trial by jury, without examination of witnesses in open Court, ‘they are required to fne the Churchwarden, in the sum of thirty pounds for each man!!! to be levied by warrant and distress on the goods and chattels of such churchwarden, &c. and Overseer. If the Churchwarden neglects to attend the summons, as above, he may be fned any sum from twenty pounds down to fve pounds,’ without trial by jury; without any sort of trial whatever. By the arbitrary will of the Justice of the Peace, he may be ‘committed to the common goal, without bail or mainprize, for a space not more than a month, nor less than a fortnight.’ And, all this for not being sufciently vigilant in crimping, buying and inveigling those poor slaves, called the common people of England, into the worse than plantation drudgery to which this bill consigns them! It might be asked, What are the reasons, why these clauses receive not the same revision which others, which bore less hard upon more opulent classes, have received. Te answer is obvious, the revised clauses afected a set of men, who not only have representatives, but infuence and weight and whose complaints could not be treated with contempt. But as for these unaltered clauses, they are parts of the general system. Justices of the Peace are appointed by the Crown; and it is necessary, every now and then, to be vesting additional power in their hands, that hey may keep the lower classes of people in order; who, if they had the Jacobinical right of trial by jury, might have justice done to them, when it would be more convenient for the exigencies of the state (that is to say, the exigencies of Ministers and placemen) that they should be hurried on board a tender, or thrown into a dungeon, without any opportunity of vindication. For this it is that power is to be vested in Justices, to send on board the tenders all whom they think proper to determine ‘have no visible mode of subsistence!’ And thus any man, who has rendered himself obnoxious to these petty Deities, without possibility of redress, may be seized and hurried on board a tender, to toil and bleed, at once a Briton and a slave. I am aware, Citizens, that many other arguments might also be adduced, to prove the truth of the position, that ‘the condition of the lower orders of the people in this country is as bad nay in some respects perhaps worse, than that of the poor Aficans, who are doomed to slavery in our West India islands’: who toil for the luxuries of others, but want themselves the necessaries of life; who furnish the nectar that enlivens our banquet, but who pine in sorrow and hunger; drink their own tears, and eat (at the known peril of the most barbarous punishments) the tops of the green plants which their own toil has reared. Yes, Citizens, I know it is not only in the West India islands, where misery pines, where groans are heard, where anguish sobs in the cheerless gale, and breaks the silence of the joyless night. No, in the wretched cabins of the poor artifcers of this country, I have seen myself famine and disease, shuddering

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under the mouldering roof, and crouching over a few mouldering embers that no longer emitted one ray of comfort. Go, Citizens, to that part of the town where our weavers once resided in cheerful abundance; but where now want, nakedness and misery unspeakable, throng every street, and make each tenement a pest-house. Tis I have witnessed, myself, before the iron hand of power tore me from the sphere of my active exertions in behalf of my fellow citizens. How must that afiction have been aggravated during that season whose severity has reached even the joints of afuence and grandeur, through folds of ermine and double wadded doors. How many of these poor being must have fallen victims to that piercing season? Te bills of mortality may represent them, perhaps, as dying natural deaths; but famine, miserable famine was the real cause of those diseases which brought them to their miserable end. Relieve this slave-trade then, ye friends of humanity! – Abolish unnecessary war; abolish unnecessary places and pensions; let not one hundred and sixtytwo borough mongers consider themselves for all, ought to represent the whole population of the country. O Wilberforce,25 if thou art indeed that man of humanity which thy zeal in the cause of the wretched Africans would lead us to believe, seek not so wide for objects of thy benevolence; nor expect that redress can begin in the western hemisphere. Te seed, the root of the oppression is here; and here the cure must begin, If we would emancipate our fellow beings, in whatever part of the world, it is not by becoming ourselves the slaves of a Minister that so noble an efect can be produced; if we would dispense justice to our distant colonies, we must begin by rooting out from the centre of corruption and oppression by which that cruelty and injustice is countenanced and defended. Citizens I am warm. I cannot withhold my honest indignation. I cannot ‘see the suferings of my fellow creatures and own myself a man,’ without feeling the boiling blood rush round my heart in stronger tides. Let me not, however, by an imprudent warmth, stimulate you too far. Judge me, thou Posterity, who, without the passions and prejudices of the present day, shalt view my actions and shalt read my heart – I wish not to rouse to violence. I would warm your hearts with a holy fame; I would awaken the settled glow of humanity, not impel you by the volcanic explosions of anarchy and bloodshed. I detest, I abhor alike the assassin’s knife, whether openly brandished by usurping power, or hid under the cloak of conspiracy.

THE TRIBUNE. NO. XXIII.

ON the Importance of avoiding personal Factions and Divisions, among the Friends of Reform26 – Te introductory Lecture of the Autumnal Course; delivered by J. THELWALL, Wednesday, September 2d, 1795. CITIZENS, IT is with great pleasure I meet you once more, under circumstances, I believe, considering the state of the public mind, still more auspicious to the cause of liberty than those under which we parted. During the last season, the anxiety and zeal with which, in common with thousands of my fellow citizens, I was prompted to labour in the public cause, became so far injurious to my health, that my life was in danger of falling a sacrifce to my exertions. I come now before you with my health in some degree recruited, ready to repeat those exertions; wishing not by them to make myself any thing, but desiring to make the cause of liberty and the triumph of human felicity all in all, both to myself and you. Citizens, you will permit me to bespeak your candour. Te exertion necessary to address you, at the opening of a season, is much more considerable than those, who have not been in the habit of public speaking can suppose. Even this short recess occasions me to come before you again with that trepidation and anxiety, which the importance of the cause I am labouring in, is well calculated to increase. Tere are always great advantages to be encountered on the renewal of any exhibition, of any kind, afer a vacation; and which must particularly operate when every thing depends upon the mind and exertions of the individual; and when he is to trust to the moment for that expression with which he wishes at once to bring conviction to the judgment, and rouse the amiable feelings of the soul. Tis difculty is still more increased from the impediments thrown in the way of mental preparation, by the attention I have been obliged to pay to the enlargement of the room, and the arrangement of the accommodations necessary for the throngs of auditors, who honour this place by their attendance. I – 163 –

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trust, therefore, you will listen with candour to the eforts I make this evening, and that you will pass over those defects which result from the circumstances under which I stand, and attribute them to the right causes. Another disadvantage I labour under, upon this occasion, results from my having been induced, by particular circumstances, to make some alteration in my plan. It was my intention to have commenced this course with a very diferent subject from that which I am going to bring before you. During my recess my time has been, of course, divided between contemplating those beauteous scenes, which abound the part of the country I retired to, viewing the state of society, (calamitous and miserable enough, indeed, even in the midst of that Eden of fertility!) and in directing my mind to those pursuits which might better enable me to do justice to the arduous situation in which I stand. Tese circumstances co-operating together, with the accident of having devoted some serious attention to the political works of Hume, and particularly my having fallen, in this course of reading, upon his essay on eloquence,27 induced me to chuse, as an introduction to this course of lectures, an enquiry into the natural connection between eloquence and liberty, and a refutation of some of the sophisms which that ingenious philosopher introduced into that essay, not very friendly to the cause of truth and liberty. I had occasion, however, as soon as I came to London, to change this plan. I had the mortifcation to observe, that among the friends of liberty and reform, there were strong symptoms of the growth of a disposition to envy, faction, and division, against which every true friend to the rights and happiness of mankind will be anxious to set his face. I am well aware, and you will easily perceive, that nothing can be so fatal to the progress of liberty as a spirit of this kind; and that, therefore, there is nothing which it is so important to expose in proper colours, that it may become the object of hatred and avoidance to those who, but for thus contemplating it, might be deluded to be the tools of personal faction, when principles, and not men, ought to be the objects of their attention; and when the happiness of millions, and not the quarrels and contentions of rivals or calumniators, ought to engross the faculties, and call forth the energies of the human mind. Citizens, I am not desirous of infaming but of healing divisions, and I will admit that a disposition to suspicion, which is one of the chief causes of those factions, into which the advocates for the cause of liberty so frequently split, does not always, as at frst sight one might be led to suppose, proceed from the worst and basest of motives that actuate the human mind. Tere are generous qualities in the characters of men so nearly allied to certain vices and foibles, that it is not found a very difcult matter, amongst the agents of corruption, to turn the very virtues that should warm our bosoms into scorpions to sting our peace; and, instead of sufering them to be conducive to our happiness, to make them instruments of our destruction. If we consider the real character of

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the principle of liberty, we shall fnd that it is naturally connected with a certain degree of jealousy. Te great importance of the principle we are contending for, occasions a thousand anxieties relative to those whose exertions we look up to for the promoting of its success: as the tender mother suggests a thousand fears and apprehensions, relative to the welfare of her babe, while the hireling regards, with perfect indiference, all those probabilities of injury and danger with which the little cherub may appear surrounded: So, frequently, in our anxiety and zeal for the cause of liberty, in our conviction of the great importance of promoting that principle, we are apt to have our minds perturbated with a thousand needless apprehensions, and frequently to glance the eye of suspicion at the actions of our fellow citizens, when, if we had the cause less at heart, this feeling might not be so prevalent. I am, therefore, ready to make some apology, for those who may be active in disseminating suspicions: but I wish it to be remembered how far this apology ought to go. We may excuse – we ought to applaud the man who weighs every circumstance, who scrutinizes every action, who dives to the very bottom of the soul of any individual, or set of individuals, before he reposes that confdence in them, which, if they are unworthy of it, they may hereafer abuse to the injury of the cause: but there is a wide diference between caution and calumny; between jealous circumspection, and the factious spirit of cabal and ferocious denunciation: one may be excused from the good qualities of the heart or soundness of judgment which frequently produces it: the other, if it does not proceed from the worst of dispositions, must certainly result from the blindest infatuation; and I warn every friend to the cause of liberty, at the same time that he keeps the Argus eye of jealous scrutiny upon the conduct of every man, at the same time that he anxiously forbears to repose any more confdence in any man than results from the necessity of the circumstances under which we are place may require, – I warn every friend of liberty to avoid that malignant disposition to calumny, suspicion, and denunciation, which has disgraced the otherwise glorious revolution of France; has brought to the grave so many virtuous and enlightened characters; has annihilated so much intellect, that might otherwise still have been fashing light, truth and conviction through the universe; and has occasioned that country, afer all its struggles for the glorious principle of equality, to go backward, instead of forward, in the career of truth and justice; and to relinquish some of the most noble principles that were ever propagated for the felicity and moral advancement of man. Citizens, this disposition to jealousy which actuates, and which under proper regulations, ought to actuate the breasts of those who are zealous for the cause of liberty, has not escaped the observation of the tools of ministerial corruption. Te spies and agents of the infernal system of despotism veiled under the semblance of law and constitution, despairing of success from other eforts, conscious

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that, like all men engaged in a bad cause, every step that they take to extricate themselves from the difculties into which they are plunged, will but embarrass them still more; – conscious that every efort they make to crush the cause of liberty, and extinguish the light of human reason, does but recoil upon themselves, and, like the fail in the hand of the unskilful thresher, destroy – not the brains, it is true, but the heads of those who wield it; – fnding that their attempts to destroy the advocates of liberty, have but promoted the cause, and that, by stretching too far the string of despotism, they have so destroyed the energy of the bow of power, that it will twang no more, as usual, nor drive home the darts of persecution to the hearts of those whom they wished to destroy – Conscious of this, they have changed their mode of conduct; and being no longer capable of deluding themselves with the expectation of success, by exertions in the open feld, they skulk behind the walls and bushes of pretended patriotism, and thence attempt, by covert arts and secret machinations, treacherously to destroy those who, invincible in the truth and justice of their cause, laugh at the malice of open persecution, and defy the storms of their arbitrary authority. Panic struck also at beholding, and who so blind as not to behold, the rapid difusion of the principles of liberty through every rank of the community, they feel themselves called upon for still stronger exertions at a time when their folly and their injustices has palsied the arm of ministerial authority, and occasioned the once omnipotent hand of corruption to sink listless by the side they wish in vain to defend: feeling this they appeal to their last resort – they attempt to divide those whom united they cannot prevail against, but whose attachment to the cause of human happiness it is impossible for them to forgive. ‘We have knit ourselves together, say they, in one phalanx; distinctions of Whig and Tory we have buried in oblivion; and, thus united, with the legible proclamation on our foreheads, that we never had any other principle than the principle of getting into place when out, and keeping in when in – With this proclamation, engraved in brass, and stuck upon every frontlet, we have armed ourselves with lawless arrogance, and with this weapon and this impenetrable helmet, we wish to protect ourselves in the places of power and emolument, which, at the expence of almost thirty millions of taxation upon the groaning people, we have monopolized to ourselves: but it is in vain that we have made our citadels so strong, it is in vain that we have thus armed to defend them; the multitude are a swinish herd no more; they have learned to walk erect; they have discovered that they have intellect; they have discovered that they have rights, and the starvation to which we have reduced them, disposes them to demand those rights; we must, therefore, set them together by the ears among themselves, as quickly as we can, – induce them to hate each other, and cut each other’s throats – or, at least, to blast each other’s characters, and disgust each other with the thankless pursuits they are engaged in, or else farewel to all those gold visions

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of hereditary places and immortal pensions with which we have delighted our imaginations and flled our cofers. ‘Strong in a just cause, vindicated by the zeal of honest advocates, and rendered triumphant by the intrepidity of upright juries, these champions for the rights of man will prevail, say they, against the sacred immunities of places, pensions and emouluments, if we do not fnd some other means for their destruction. Ye Taylors, ye Lynams, ye Grove’ss, and ye Goslings,*∗ bring us no more your reports of what this patriot does, or that patriot means to do; even your forgeries and falsehoods, (though we know you are as ready to swear to falsehoods as to truths,) even these will no longer avail: ye must adopt another plan; ye must scatter the poisonous seeds of suspicion in every breast, and sow division between patriot and patriot; and if any little personal diference happens to arise between them, or any misapprehension or suspicion, you must infame it into the rancour of party hatred and factious animosity; and then, perhaps, we may have an opportunity of enjoying our golden situations a little longer, and the system of corruption may last our day, – which is long enough for us, you know: for by courts and courtiers there is one maxim, at least, of one philosopher, which is always revered and held sacred – When we are gone, let the world be consumed with fre: it is no matter to us; all our concerns are settled!!! ‘Let us then destroy the characters of the men whose lives we cannot destroy: let us calumniate those whom we cannot move; and if we can neither fnd juries corrupt enough to do whatever we bid them, nor assassins who are bold enough, or cunning enough, to wreak our revenge in secret, at least we will stab that which is dearer than life to the generous mind – we will endeavour to send the honest and upright advocate of Truth and Liberty abroad into the world, under the semblance of a monster, as bloated with vice and corruption as we are ourselves.’ Citizens, for such designs it is but too easy to fnd engines. Tere are, and there always will be, men whose zeal and enthusiasm is greater than their judgment; and these may be for a while deluded. Tere are, and there always will be, other men whose minds are full of envy, malignity, and personal animosity; and to these a hint is sufcient. And there are, and always will be, others who, without having either done of sufered any thing for the cause of liberty, aspire to the reputation of being the only good patriots, by denouncing every person who has done or sufered any thing, and holding up to hatred and derision every one who happens to have that share of public confdence and afection, which they know they have not the ability, or virtue, or courage to procure by their own exertions. Such individuals will always be ready to seize upon the slightest pretences for sowing divisions and creating factions: not because they themselves really sus*

Tis last mentioned wretch was in the room when this was delivered

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pect, or at least not so much as they pretend, the men against whom they direct their fury; not, on the other hand, that they really wish to prevent the cause of Liberty from triumphing; – not that they are corrupt enough to mean to play the game of the Minister, but merely because they wish for that popularity which they do not like the trouble of procuring by honest and proper means. To these men ‘trifes light as air are confrmations strong as proofs of holy writ;’ and there is no accident of the convivial hour, there is no individual circumstance in the history of any man’s life, so insignifcant that they will not seize upon to weave the web of calumny, to blast his reputation and destroy his exertions, whenever it happens to suit with their malignant caprice, or be conformable to their views of their narrow ambition. But though such dispositions exist in some few bosoms, and though the passions of those are frequently communicated, by a sort of contagion, to the most excellent of human minds, the real friend of Liberty and man will not be driven from the course of exertion, by all the calumnies and jealousies of Faction.28 Others may be factious, but the true friend of Liberty will rather be the victim of Faction himself, than lend his assistance to disseminate those seeds of division which he knows must be injurious to the cause of Truth. For it is not personal popularity that is sought by the real friend of Liberty: no, it is public good; and he deceives himself strangely indeed, who can imagine that he ever was seriously attached to the cause of public happiness and virtue, who can sufer any degree of injustice or persecution to drive him from a steady perseverance in those principles, without the establishment of which the happiness of mankind never can be advanced, nor the calamities of the human race removed. Tere are other dangers, however, which result from this factious spirit – this disposition to suspicion and jealousy, against which it is proper to warn the friends of Liberty. Te man who feels himself goaded with unmerited reproach is in danger of losing his temper, and being stimulated to rashness, which may be pleasing to those to whom otherwise he would be too wise to render himself subservient. He may be urged, perhaps, in his zeal to prove how unjustly he has been reproached, to acts of imprudence, which may be friendly to the views of those spies and tools of Oppression, with whom guarded caution, mixed with activity and zeal for the public cause, constitute the highest crime: because it renders the assiduous champion of human rights, who unites those equalities, superior to their little artifces, and places him out of the reach of their base misrepresentations. It is therefore against imprudencies of this kind, that I would particularly warn those who may be calumniated, or who may have the misfortune to be thwarted in the prosecution of those pursuits of liberty and justice, in which they are engaged. Tese are dangers of which those who frst stimulate to disseminate the principles of suspicion are well aware: and there is no doubt, but

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this is one of the objects for which calumny is frequently employed: because it is frequently seen that warm and generous minds fall into this snare, and lose the guard of prudence that they may get rid of those suspicions, which, instead of being thus thrown of their guard by them, they ought to treat with contempt, or to repel with the frmness and dignity of conscious innocence. But there are dangers of a more alarming kind proceeding from this disposition to envy and suspicion: and I am very much mistaken, indeed, if (not forgetting the artifces and intrigues of the allied courts and cabinets of Europe) these are not among the principal causes of those excesses and cruelties, which have brought a stain upon some part of the revolution in France. Yes, I am convinced, that most of the crying acts of injustice that have sullied the French revolution, are to be traced to this suspicious and factious disposition which I have thus endeavoured to represent in proper colours, that you may abhor and avoid it: and I cannot persuade myself but that, if this principle of suspicion had been early eradicated, that we should never have heard of the wanton excesses of Robespierre and his party, whose principles I must for ever revere, though I abhor their practices, so opposite to every thing which those principles, well digested and deeply felt, are calculated to produce. Had mankind, in that part of the world, experienced the advantage of a regular and gradual introduction to the principles of truth, liberty and humanity, which we, in some degree enjoy; had the scorpion malignity of suspicion, generated by the base and treacherous corruption of the court, been early exterminated from the Gallic mind, it is impossible that a principle the most benignant, the most glorious that ever warmed the human breast, should have been so disgraced as, for one period, we behold it in that country. I dwell not upon these excesses with a view to shock you from the principles of liberty. Europe is becoming rapidly convinced that it was not the principles of liberty that produced the mischief, but that the evil fowed from passions and dispositions the most inimical to that sacred cause. Te principles of liberty are the principles of benevolence: for I don’t understand what liberty means, if its object is not to promote the happiness of mankind, and difuse through all ranks an equal proportion of rights, felicity, and protection. But let us observe the progress of suspicion: let us observe the history of the rise and fall of the respective factions. If two sets of men difered but a hair’s breadth in principle, the high-fown enthusiasts immediately denounced the moderates as royalists, and advocates for federalism; while the moderates, if such extravagant suspicions can be called moderation, reverted the denunciation, by calling out on every side, that those violent enthusiasts were in the pay of the courts in alliance against the liberties of France; and that they only wanted, by the excesses, to disgrace that cause in which they pretended to be so warm.

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If we examine impartially, we shall soon fnd that neither the one nor the other of these denunciations had any basis Te Brissotines29 were not advocates either for Royalty or Federalism: they were not persons who attempted either to restore or modify the fallen despotism of France: they were pure, they were zealous, they were generous republicans: and, if a doubt could have existed before, their conduct in the hour of death proved them to be such, in defance of the calumnies that were heaped upon them. Nor can common sense, for one moment, believe that the energetic exertions of the Jacobins, those vigorous eforts of courage and intellect, with which they roused the nation to an enthusiasm unparalleled in the history of man, and drove the combined powers life chaf before the whirlwind, were meant to support the cause of the allied despots of the continent, by depriving them of their dominions, and reducing them to the most degraded state of terror and humiliation. Let us then fairly and impartially admit, that men may difer from each other in opinion, without having corrupt and rotten hearts. Let us admit that even the most furious aristocrat may perhaps be deceived and deluded; and that he wants nothing but a little serious argument and investigation, to convince him of the error of the principles he has adopted: that even he, perhaps, has a heart warm and glowing for the happiness of his fellow beings, though he is unfortunately ignorant of the means by which the happiness of those fellow beings can be promoted. Still more, let us believe that it is possible for a man, or set of men, to difer from us with respect to some particular measures, without immediately concluding that he or they must of necessity be hostile to the liberties and rights of man, and wish to trample under foot those sacred privileges of which every man, by the very circumstance of his manhood, is entitled; and which it is impossible for any set of men whatever to deprive him of the right of enjoying, however they may take from him the present possession. But there is another reason why we ought to be careful of these dispositions to split into factions and divisions. What signifes, to you or me, what may be the diference in the particular parts of the system which you or I may have adopted; if there are grievances, mischiefs, and oppressions which we are all of us convinced ought to be remedied, let us seek, by united, peaceable and justifable methods, for the ameliorations of society in those respects, and leave the adjustment of more minute diferences to the time when they become more important. Let us not split into fancied parties. Let us not give each other nicknames. Let us not distinguish this man as a this-ite, or the other as a that-ite: Let us remember, that not factions, but the great body of mankind, ought to be the object of our attention; and that their’s is the cause that we ought constantly to labour to promote. But of this we loose sight immediately that we put those contemptible ites at the end of names; as if we were the adjuncts of some particular man, whom we have been weak enough to make our leader: not remembering that principles ought

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to be our only leaders; and that men are nothing any longer than they promote those principles which are favourable to the happiness of mankind. Unfortunately, from losing sight of this great truth, the revolutionists of France have also lost sight, to a certain degree, of the grandest of those principles they have been so long struggling to establish. I shall not enter at large, upon this occasion, into the investigation of the plan of government now before them. Tis will be more proper to be treated upon, when I come (as in a few evenings I shall come) to consider the indefeasible right of annual Parliaments and universal sufrage. But let it be remembered, that the true advocates of this universal sufrage, the true champions of the real and just equality of man, the true champions for the abolition of the odious distinction between citizens and low people (so odiously restored by the last plan of the constitution in France)30 brought themselves to disgrace, but the cruelties engendered by faction and suspicion; and brought, by these means, some degree of odium upon the principles they supported: and thus France, afer a struggle of so many years, seems in danger of losing, by its factions and suspicions, the glorious principle of universal equality. – I don’t mean equality of property. No man was ever wicked enough to put that into the heads of mankind, till Reeves and his associators made their appearance among us. He and his colleagues were the incendiaries who broached that doctrine; and if it should unfortunately (which I hope and trust it never will) sink into the hearts of the common people; they are the guilty wretches who, at the bar of this country, ought to answer for all the massacres and mischiefs which so absurd an idea has a tendency to produce. It is not then this rufan principle of equality, it is the real, the just principle of equality, which says that all men – as Paine has beautifully expressed it, in that glorious and immortal work lately sent by him into the world – all men by the right of their manhood possess, and to which ‘their persons are their title deeds.’31 Tis is the sort of equality – an equality of rights, for which I stand up as the advocate: the equality which says that the man, who produces every thing by his labour, shall be as well protected as he who enjoys every thing by the advantages of his ingenuity, or the accidents and circumstances under which he is placed. Tis is the principle of equality that I defend. Tis is the principle of equality, which I could almost drop from the bottom of my heart a tear of blood to behold, that the people of France are upon the eve of relinquishing. And relinquish it, according to this compromising constitution they will – at least in theory, though the framers of the plan have glossed it over with expedients, in the hope of rendering it palateable. If therefore, fellow citizens, you are really advocates for the rights and happiness of mankind – if you really believe that fundamental truths ought always to be adhered to; that expedients should be lef to shufing knaves, and frst principles be the land marks to direct the virtuous advocates for the happiness of the

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human race – if you really wish to promote the cause of liberty – if you wish that the crops, produced by your luxuriant soil, should no longer be sent to feed Hessians, Austrians, Croats, Bohemians, and Hanoverians – if you wish that emigrant locusts should no longer devour the fertility of this country – if you wish that the consequence of your industry should be plenty, that the consequence of plenty should be universal and equally difused happiness – if you wish that those calamities under which we groan should be removed; that famine should be driven from our doors; that inordinate taxation should no longer be heaped upon our shoulders, to support in idle luxury and splendour those tools of corruption, placemen and pensioners – if you really wish to promote your own happiness, and that of your fellow beings, dismiss from your minds the sordid principle of unfounded suspicion; avoid, by all means, splitting yourselves into factions and divisions; let Candour, the best anchor of Freedom, keep you to your moorings; and when you do sail forward in quest of public happiness, let Humanity and Justice be the pilots that direct your course, and Unanimity and Benevolent Feeling be the mariner and the gale that direct and waf you to your port. If, Citizens, you will thus adhere to the great compass of principle and reason – though I pretend not to be God Almighty’s nephew – though I cannot pretend to point out the oak under which I have lain while the dove of inspiration whispered in my ear, yet I will venture to predict, the day is not distant when the condition of Britons must be improved. Knowledge is widely difusing itself among mankind; the principle of Liberty has had a most rapid spread indeed, during the last six or eight months; mankind begin to feel, in diferent parts of the country, as they ought; and I have been astonished to observe how numerous the advocates of Liberty are, even amongst those ranks and conditions of life in which we have been generally used to expect nothing but a servile compliance with the corruptions of aristocracy, and the usurpations of ministerial tyranny. Shall we then relinquish this great pursuit from personal motives? Shall we render ourselves unworthy of the liberty we seek, and thus lose the liberty we wish to obtain? or shall we, uniting heart and hand, press boldly forward, by just, spirited, and peaceful exertions, towards the accomplishment of our object – towards the attainment of that liberty to which I trust all from their hearts are attached? And if there are any who now hear me, or who may hereafer hear the doctrines that I have this night delivered, who feel (which, under the restraints of principle, it is justifable to feel) an emulation and ambition to obtain the applauses and afections of their fellow-citizens, let them take from me one short and simple lesson. – ‘It is in vain that we make disputes about interest and duty. If we wish to live among persons of enlightened intellect, we shall fnd that interest and duty are one; that he who labours to promote the general happiness, brings to his own heart a satisfaction greater than any selfsh exertions ever could

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produce; and that he who, instead of looking for popularity, looks to the promotion of public happiness, intelligence and virtue, will earn eventually a more durable reputation, than envy, cabal, and jealousy, ever were capable of obtaining. Let us not forget that the reputation obtained by intrigue, the popularity purchase by denunciation, suspicion, faction, jealousy, and envy, is short-lived indeed, while that which is obtained by principle and magnanimity will last for ever. – Te fame of Marat32 fourished but for a day, because built upon faction, violence, and injustice; but the glory of Tomas Paine (who has built his reputation upon principles and integrity, and an unfeigned zeal for human happiness) stands upon a rock that never can be shaken. So long as the tongue of man can articulate the names of those heroes who have benefted mankind, so long, in defance of persecution, will the name of Tomas Paine resound throughout the world: for though I may not, nor perhaps any other of his admirers, agree with all that he has said in all his works, or the precise manner in which he has sometimes treated his subject, yet, whoever observes the tenor of his writings and conduct, must admit ‘this was a man of principle, who laboured for the promotion of the happiness of mankind; who kept himself aloof and independent of all faction: – this therefore is the man who has built himself a solid and lasting reputation, because he fought for that reputation alone by promoting the happiness and welfare of man.’ ***Te following Passages constituted a Digression in the Second Lecture, but they belong more properly to this, and are therefore here introduced. I have spoken thus far in general terms; because it is the general cause, not the particular feeling that principally actuates my mind. Considering however, the industry with which, during my absence from town, calumny has been employed against me, it may not be improper to make a few brief observations upon that subject: at the same time I shall carefully avoid all personalities and retaliation; as my object is to prevent, not to increase dissention; and as it is a part of my system to have no personal quarrels, and to cherish no animosities against any man who is labouring in the public cause whatever may have been his conduct to me in particular. It is not difcult to perceive the source of these misrepresentations. Tere are undoubtedly many well-meaning, but indiscrete men, who are angry with me for withdrawing myself from the popular society; a measure, the motives of which I fully explained in the concluding lecture of the last season*∗; and which the doctrines enforced from this place sufciently prove to have sprung from no departure from those principles of liberty to which I have so long been pledged. It was also easy to foresee, that a situation like this could not be occupied with*

See Tribune, Number XV.

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out exciting the envy and jealousy of those who have not magnanimity enough to look with complacency upon the good fortune of their fellow-citizens. Alas – those who envy me the applauses and emoluments of this situation, know but little of the cares that surround it. Tey perceive and exaggerate* the external advantages; but they know nothing of the internal difculties – the constant labour, the perpetual anxiety, and the sacrifce of health, strength, and social enjoyment, which it demands. If those things had been considered but ever so slightly, surely it would not have been difcult to fnd a reason, why a little retirement, in a distant part of the country should have appeared desirable to me, without inventing the paltry story of my having accepted a pension from that caitif-minister who formerly attempted to pension me with a gibbet and an axe. Citizens, I was not now to learn that calumny is the inevitable attendant of all active exertions; and that he who wishes to beneft mankind in any way whatever, must be content to receive, as part of his wages, not only the hatred and malevolence of those whose corruptions he would undermine, but of others also whose factious intolerance cannot bear the slightest diference of opinion from the infallible standard of their own judgment. It is not unknown to me – it ought not to be unknown to any man that whenever we engage in any eforts to ameliorate the condition of mankind, if we escape the halters of aristocracy, we ought not to be sure that we shall escape the guillotine of faction. I am not therefore astonished, that my back was scarcely turned, – that I had scarcely reached the scene of my retirement before suspicion lifed its serpenthead, and I was branded as a pensioned apostate who had abandoned his post, and abjured his principles. Tese suspicions, however did not prevent calumnies of a very diferent nature. And it is curious to compare the contradictory fabrications which were invented by the violent supporters of opposite principle who seem in a manner to have formed a coalition in this respect – or rather to have conspired together to place the poor bark of my reputation between the Scylla of ministerial and the Charibdis of democratic persecution. To the scurrilous forgeries of ‘the Sun’ and ‘True Briton,’33, I shall make no reply – It is enough to say, that it was in ‘the Sun’ and ‘True Briton,’ that they were published. And to confess the truth, I have always had so much vanity as to be gratifed rather than hurt at the abuse which ministerial hirelings lavish upon me. A report which has passed through a diferent channel ought not however to be passed over in * Te emoluments of the lecture room (if in this age of persecution a situation in which a man stands up to speak the truth could be regarded as permanent) when the incumbrances produced by three years persecution and disappointment are cleared away, would, it is true, be more than suffcient to satisfy my simple wants. But those who count over the gain by an exaggerated calculation of numbers, little suspect that my expences, independent of house-keeping, &c. are little short of 400l. a year.

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silence, because it will exhibit in just colours the fdelity for which those gentlemen called spies are so famous, and shew you in the clearest point of view how much justice there is in the government of any country, upon the foundation of their testimony, putting their fellow-citizens in jeopardy of their lives. It will perhaps be entertaining to hear, that while I was in the Isle of Wight, struggling with the attack upon my constitution, information was actually lodged by some of those virtuous spies – that I was at the head of the riots, pulling down a crimping-house in St. George’s Fields. If you ask me the authority for this anecdote – I tell you that I have aristocratic authority. Mr. Ford, of the Secretary of State’s ofce, has himself declared, that they received such information, while I, forsooth, not knowing what my spectre was doing in St. George’s Fields, was 70 or 80 miles from the spot, and scarcely capable of stirring across my room. – A pleasant counterpart this for the report that I had retired from public duty upon a pension of three hundred a year. Citizens, I will not make any boasts either of my abhorrence of violence, on the one hand, or my abhorrence of corruption on the other. Te man whose actions do not speak in his favour, deserves no credit for his professions: but this much I will venture to assure you, that whether I ever head a band of incendiaries, or become the humble servant of Mr. Pitt, I will never be bought for three hundred a year, nor hanged for pulling down a crimping-house. But let us dismiss this grating subject: let us dismiss (if the warmth of youthful exultation will permit) let us dismiss all egotism – all personal feelings. Let me exhort you also, every one who may hear me, not, by misrepresentations and ill-founded suspicions, to stir up personal factions and divisions, so hostile to the cause of real freedom. Let us unite heart and hand, and struggle together in the great cause of human happiness; and, if we must have rivalry among us, let this be the struggle of our rivalship – not who shall most defame, but who shall most merit – not who shall engross, but who shall deserve, the largest portion of the approbation and afection of mankind.

THE TRIBUNE, NO. XXIX

...

ON the CAUSES of the LATE DISTURBANCES. Part the First. Including Strictures on the Opinion of Lord BACON,34 that the Poverty and Misery of the People35 is the principal Source of SEDITIONS and TROUBLES. I NOW, Citizens, proceed to illustrate the axiom, that ‘PARLIAMENTARY CORRUPTION AND MINISTERIAL AMBITION ARE THE ORIGINAL SOURCES OF ALL THE CALAMITIES AND DISTRUBANCES THAT AFFLICT THE NATION!’ I shall begin this subject with observing, what appears to me to be an ample justifcation of his enquiry, that Violence is the twin brother of Ignorance; and that both are engendered by Misery, and nurtured by Corruption! In order to illustrate this, let us consider awhile the nature of the late disturbances, and recollect who are the men that have been engaged in them. Have they been the frequenters of political Lectures, of the members of political associations? – We know from facts the contrary. Reformers have proved themselves to be no rioters; and we have seen, by the melancholy occurrences at the Old Bailey, a few days ago, that the very men employed to support by coercion the present system of government, are those among whom the unfortunate beings have been found, who were foremost in expressing, in an improper manner, their detestation of certain practices of an oppressive nature, and to express, by violence and fury, their impatience and sense of their wrongs. I allude to the unfortunate Drummer, whose life, it seems, is to atone for the injuries he has committed against the peace of society: a poor being actuated, perhaps, by an honest and laudable motive; but unfortunately plunged so deep in ignorance, as not to know the manner in which such motives ought to have directed him to act. Yet what is the conduct of the scribbling retainers of this coercive system? – What is the conduct of those diurnal retailers of slander and defamation – which call themselves news-papers – as if falsehood and calumny could ever be – 177 –

DOI: 10.4324/9780429349720-16

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new, when Corruptions and Injustice bear the sway? – We fnd them anxiously and busily employed in base attempts to turn the attention of the people from the real sources of their grievances, to the unfortunate agents and traders, who are sufering at least their share of all the miseries of the nation. Citizens, if you persuade mankind that the miller, the mealman, the butcher, the baker, are the causes of the dearness of the necessaries of life, what will be their conduct? Tey will see the objects of their resentment at hand; and these will become the victims of their mistaken rage. But the fact is, that it is not individuals – it is mistaken institutions, false principles, and the delusions of Corruption, that have reduced the great mass of the people to that melancholy situation into which they are plunged. It is therefore not by disturbance, not by violence, but by reformation, that these objects must be efected. To this political melioration let us then direct our attention. By a conduct opposite to this, these disturbances, these dispositions to violence, have been considerably cherished and fermented by the advocates of the present administration: nay, a part of the system of some of these supporters seems to have been (with what view it seems not difcult to divine) to foment among the people a disposition to outrage. Witness the commotions at Manchester, at Birmingham, and other aristocratic parts of the country – commotions that were evidently excited and encouraged by those very individuals whose duty it was to protect the inhabitants in the peaceable possession of their opinions and property. Let us remember the very inadequate compensation that was given to that excellent experimental philosopher Priestly,36 who, afer all the labours of a well-spent life, is driven to seek, in trans-atlantic regions, that asylum which the laws (rather let me say those who have grasped the administration of the laws) of this country would not aford him. Let us remember also, that afer Citizen Walker, and Citizen Cooper, had been attacked in their own houses by the lawless insolence of a Church-and-King banditti, the only recompence they received was, that one, by a cruel combination of aristocratic intriguers, was driven into banishment, and the other, on the evidence of a profigate wretch, who confessed that he had been bribed to take away the life of this Citizen’s man, was accused of high treason, and tried for a fctitious conspiracy. Can we wonder, Citizens, if, afer this, persons thus schooled in violence should change their depredations? Can we wonder that there should be found those who were hardy enough to follow the precedent thus set them, to the destruction of peace and order; and that those who frst encouraged this spirit of turbulence, should tremble at its efects? I remember, Citizens, at one of the meetings of the Friends of the Freedom of the Press, Mr. Grey, in a very animated manner, described the absurd encouragement that had been given to people, assembled in a tumultuous manner, to burn the Apostle of Liberty,37 Tomas Paine, in efgy, afer having frst carried

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the mock victim about the streets, with a bladder of bullock’s blood for a heart, that they might prick it, and give the surrounding spectators an idea of a fellow-being bleeding to death beneath the assassinating fury of the multitude – I remember Mr. Grey, afer describing the disgraceful scene, exclaiming with a sort of prophetic feeling, ‘O weak and deluded men, thus to stir up the malignant passions of a deluded multitude! How will ye answer for the consequences! How will ye be assured, that, in the revolutions which so rapidly take place in popular opinion, the sanguinary dispositions ye are thus endeavouring to excite may not recoil upon yourselves. Perhaps the time may not be distant, when those who have taught this lesson may be the victims to it; and repent, to late, that turbulent malignity they have take so much pains to encourage!’ – If we turn our attention to the loyal town of Birmingham, shall we not fnd this prophecy is partly verifed already? Having wreaked their vengeance on those who refuse to think upon religious and political topics as they dictated, they have now thought that they might do the same on those that did not choose to sell provisions at the price they demanded them. – But it is not to one or two, it is not to half a dozen places that these disturbances have been confned: and we cannot but have reason to dread the dangerous consequences which may result to the peace and tranquillity of society, from the still remaining seeds of these commotions. – Citizens, if people are not to be shewn that reason is better than violence, and peaceful enquiry better than turbulence and the sword, however we may lament these delusions, however sorry we may be to fnd that mankind cannot perceive that the calamities of a nation are not to be amended by pulling down a mill, or gutting a crimping-house, violence must be expected, whenever popular distress prevails. Let us see, then, if there are no means to prevent these calamities. If there is something in the state and policy of the country that can be proved to be the cause of these disturbances, surely we ought to pity, rather than abhor the disturbers, and to wish that, instead of punishing these individuals, we could fnd other means of removing the occasion of the evil. Finding, as we must fnd, that insurrections are never produced in any country, without a gloomy and ferocious opinion having frst been produced in the minds of the people, that they have nothing to lose by their imprudent conduct. Let us then review the state of society, and endeavour to develop the cause of the evil; and then consider how we are to procure the remedy. We shall soon fnd, I believe, that though coercion seems to be one of the readiest ways of correcting ofences, yet that it is never the best; that bodies of men, of whatever description, who have been decimated by the arm of chastisement, are not the better for such severity; and that, by such punishment, we aggravate, not remove, the evil we wish to cure.

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Tis is not a Jacobinical sentiment, Citizens, from the school of French philosophers. It is a maxim laid down by one of the greatest philosophers of this country, Lord Bacon of Verulam, who (in his Essays, page 77) says, ‘Neither doth it follow, that because these Fames are a sign of Troubles, that the suppressing of them, with too much severity, should be a remedy of Troubles.’38 – Citizens, we have found that it is no remedy. Our gaols have been crowded, and Botany Bay has been people with individuals who were ornaments to society, and who have been subjected to cruel punishments for ofences without a name; and we have poor unfortunate beings languishing under cruel sentences, upon charges of the most frivolous kind. Witness the heavy sentence passed upon poor Watson, for being proved to have sitten in the same box at an eating-house with a person whom a French emigrant spy swore to have delivered a hand-bill to him – and poor Barrow, a young man of education, of parts and expectations, not only now languishing in confnement, but reduced to such misery by persecution and hard treatment, as to depend for his support upon casual charity. Have their punishments so damped the rising spirit of the people, as to lead us to expect that contentment and tranquillity are to be restored by such coercion? If you want further illustration, look to a neighbouring country: take a short review of the state of Ireland. Are coercion and punishment, persecution and dragooning, from this picture, so devoutly to be wished? A Conventional Bill was passed, to prevent the people of Ireland from meeting peaceable together, to seek a redress of grievances. What was the consequence of this Convention Bill? their own statement shall be my reply; they tell you that plans of treason have grown up, in secret holes and corners, under the name of defenderism; do you want a more conclusive argument, that when you prevent the progress of reason and investigation, you drive mankind to projects of violence and distraction, which never else would have entered their heads. When these lurking discontents, then, are afoat, throw not the individual into the gloom of concealment and fear. Let him speak his griefs in the wide circle of society; let him see the honest faces of his fellow beings; and he will blush at the idea of harbouring intentions hostile to the peace and happiness of man. He will be obliged to use his reason instead of attempting violence, and thus by free, open, and manly investigation, though a herd of venal Ministers may be hurled from their seats, yet peace, happiness, and virtue (the fair fruits that ripen on the tree of enquiry) will impart their chearing infuence through the land. But, Citizens, this is not all. Severity will recoil on those who make use of it. When you employ force and coercion, the instruments of the system so unwisely adopted may do you more mischief than you dreaded, even from those against whom these instruments were employed. On this, if report says true, we have a very melancholy instance in the transactions that have taken place relative to the soldiery in Cork. Soldiers were frst enlisted for what is called the internal

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defence – that is to say to support the system of coercion at home, and these it appears were aferwards obliged to embark on board certain vessels, contrary to the terms on which they were enlisted, to carry on the system of coercion abroad – To this the troops demurred; the Government became alarmed, at the turbulence and threats of its own favourite agents; and other soldiers were obliged to be poured into the city, to coerce these instruments of coercion, and compel them to embark. What (if report is to be trusted) has been the consequence? Te very troops brought into Cork, to compel these soldiers to depart to a foreign country, become the scourges of that city and its afrighted neighbourhood – and humanity shudders at the recapitulation of their excesses. Te Morning Post of yesterday states the circumstance I allude to in brief – that ‘the most shocking atrocities have been committed. Rape, pillage, murder, and every cruelty, are said to have been practised on the peaceable inhabitants.’ Tis intelligence rests, it seems, upon the credit of the Irish papers; it has been detailed not only in the Cork Gazette, but also in the Hibernian Journal: and in the Morning Chronicle and Telegraph they have given a much fuller account than I have stated. Te Times have to been silent upon the subject; they presume this day to contradict the report they gave yesterday; and the Briton just pretends to doubt it. But it is scarcely possible, that a paper, printed in so small a city as Cork, where the inhabitant of one part could not long remain ignorant of what passes in another, could have admitted so circumstantial an account as is there given, if there were no truth in it. Be this as it will, whether this part of the instance can be supported by good evidence, or whether it cannot, the general reasoning, which is more to my purpose, is not afected. Nothing can be more evident than that violence has a tendency to beget violence; and that coercion is an instrument which, like the fail, is apt to recoil upon the heads of those who use it. So that those who foster the system, frequently, in the end, are the victims of the errors they have adopted. Let us then, Citizens, wisely conclude that redress is better than punishment: and that all pretended cures, that do not eradicate the evil, are in reality aggravations rather than remedies. You stife, by quackery, for a while, the fame of disease; but, if the glowing embers remain behind, it will burst out again; and the relapse is more dangerous than the original distemper. Nay sometimes, from mismanagement, the Doctor himself is the worst part of the disease. So in political cases, if there are existing grievances in the country, if there are real calamities, and those calamities are deeply seated in the corruptions which have stolen in and contaminated the vitals of the Constitution; let us be well assured, that so long as you refuse to reform those abuses, though gallowses should be erected in every street, you only compel those whom you wish to coerce, to make you still go on further in violence and coercion, till, at last, your system becomes so odious in the eyes of mankind, that humanity can tolerate it no longer.

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Lord Bacon, whom I quoted before, has a very emphatic observation in the aforesaid essay, which is very much to my purpose; and therefore I quote it to you: and some persons may, perhaps, be more disposed to pay attention to the maxim when it is presented in the language of a philosopher of the sixteenth, than in that of a political lecturer of the eighteenth century. ‘Te surest way,’ says he, (p. 80) ‘to prevent seditions (if the times do bear it,) is to take away the matter of them; for if there be fuel prepared, it is hard to tell whence the spark shall come that shall set it on fre.’39 And, to shew how unwise it is to trust to any of these imperfect and quack remedies, (whether of coercion, or what not,) which produce a temporary suppression of these discontents, without removing the causes of them, he also very justly observes, (p. 82.) ‘Neither let any prince or state be secure concerning discontentments, because they have been ofen, or have been long, and yet no peril hath ensued; for as it is true that every vapour or fume doth not turn into a storm, so it is nevertheless true, that storms, though they blow over divers times, yet may fall at last, and, as the Spanish proverb noteth well, the cord breaketh at the last by the weakest pull.’40 Let us then remember that, if coercion had ever been successful, yet we ought to consider the sedition as stifed, not as quelled; and the very success of the system would be a sort of argument against its continuance. If then it be only by removing the causes of discontents that seditions and troubles can be prevented, let us proceed to enquire what these causes are. In doing this, I shall have to dwell in particular on the picture of the condition of the lower orders of society. I shall then trace this misery to its immediate cause – the inadequate rewards of labour; the scandalous disproportion between which, and the prices of the necessaries of life, I shall shew to be rendered still more calamitous to the common people, by the decline of that system of liberty and hospitality which was once the boast of the English nobility and the great proprietors of the land, ere every claim to liberality and real grandeur yielded to the inroads of Corruption, Luxury, and Licentiousness. I shall aferwards have occasion to take into consideration the national debt, and the constantly increasing burthen of taxes – lately been thought high treason to assail. Te disgraceful system of Rotten Boroughs will not pass without its share of animadversion in this discussion; – a system which has done so much towards debauching the morals of every class of men, from the most wealthy aristocrat who revels in luxurious splendour, to the poorest peasant who toils like a slave in the felds to support the imperious grandeur that tramples him in the dust. – I shall then endeavour to point out the connexion between them, and the tendency which all these causes have had to produce fermentation, instead of tranquillity, in the public mind. I shall also endeavour to shew, that, if immediate reform do not remove the danger, we are on the brink of calamities still more grievous; – calamites from which, I believe, we have no other means to redeem ourselves, than by

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promoting a thorough reform in the representation of the people, and procuring a restoration of the popular right in the appointment of their respective agents of the constitution. You will perceive, at once, that it is impossible I should go through the whole of this extensive subject in one night; and it may be taken or granted, that there will be considerable inequalities in the manner in which I shall handle the respective parts. No man can periodically command that energy of mind, and fow of spirits, necessary to give full force and expression to the ideas he wishes to inculcate; but, from the mass of materials which I have collected, I think I may venture to promise thus much, – that each of the Lectures, into which I shall divide this subject, will contain at least some facts not unworthy of your attention, and which may tend to throw some degree of light on the subject I am treating. I proceed, then, immediately to consider the part of the subject intended for the present evening; namely, the immediate Cause of the existing Disturbances. – Tis immediate Cause, I believe, we have found to be the distresses among the lower orders of the community; for so, according to the present system, we are to regard those worthy and excellent members of the community, the real pillars of the state, by whose toil we are fed, and by whose valour we are protected. Tat the distresses and misery of the people are the principal causes that produce disturbances, is a fact which has been discovered and laid down by the philosophers of elder times. Bacon, in particular, (p. 80.) says, that ‘the matter of seditions is of two kinds – much poverty, and much discontentment.’41 – of modern aristocrats. Our drivers would persuade us, that the only way to keep the labourer in proper subordination, is to keep him poor and miserable. To retain the wretched low-born herd in a state of absolute vassalage, is the only way, say they, to preserve the peace; and they can only be so retained by penury and ignorance. But how is this illustrated by present experience? It is long, I believe very long, since so general a disposition to turbulence has manifested itself among this common herd, as they are called; and yet it is equally long, I believe, since so large a portion of them went with hungry bellies. For further illustration, let us look again to Ireland. Is not Ireland, according to ministerial accounts, in a state yet more alarming?42 and yet Ireland is in still greater ignorance and misery than England. In short, if it were not for the extreme assurance with which these doctrines (or arguments which in reality amount to these doctrines) are frequently advanced, by unfeeling Greatness and its rufan retainers, they would not be worth the formality of refutation. For if it is really true, and I should suppose nothing less than a Prime Minister could have the blindness to doubt it, that a tradesman would be better pleased with the government of the country, when he is getting rich under its protection, than when war and taxation are driving him to bankruptcy, and his family to a workhouse,

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how is it possible that the discontents of the people should be proportioned to the causes they have to be well contented? And if these maxims of state, so incessantly reiterated by Pittites and Burkites, Peevites and Wyndhamites, are indeed supported by the experience of mankind, how came that foolish dreaming philosopher, Lord Bacon, to be held in such esteem? And how comes it that, in the midst of this general misery that devours us, the people are so far from being the tame and complacent beings they are wished, that English soldiers can no longer be trusted to keep Englishmen in order – nor Irish soldiers, Irishmen – nor Scotch, Scots; but that you must juggle and shufe them together, like a pack of cards in the hands of swindling gamester, in hopes that the knaves of one suit may knab the better cards of another? But let us return to this sometime-thought philosopher Bacon. Tis same foolish dreaming politician says (Essays, p.31.) ‘And if this poverty and broken estate, in the better sort, be joined with a want and necessity in the mean people, the danger is imminent, and great. For the rebellions of the belly are the worst!’43 – Te rebellions of the belly the worst! – Strange delusion! – Why, it should seem that this supposed philosopher Bacon would not have been able to understand the sublime policy of reducing ten millions of people to the brink of famine in one country, in order at once to pinch and wring all sedition out of their stomachs, and efect the starvation of twenty-four millions more in another. Again, this same musty philosopher, among other things, seems as if he were bent upon the mad and foolish project of persuading ministers that it is dangerous to levy too much money upon the people by the imposition of taxes. Tis part of his argument, however, if it ever had any weight, must have less and less every year – less, for example, this, than the last; for though the demands have become so much greater, yet there is reason to believe their actual levy will be somewhat less; and, if things go on in their present career, I believe, by and by, we shall have no cause of complaint of this sort: we shall pay no taxes at all, having nothing lef to pay them with; for you know, Citizens, I have frequently had occasion to shew you, that, however freely John Bull may bleed, and however patient an animal he may be, he cannot possibly have more blood taken from his veins than there is in them. Bacon, however, goes on to observe, that ‘the causes and motions of sedition are innovation in religion;’44 – or, he might have added, political exclusions on account of religious opinions. – ‘Taxes, alterations of laws and customs’ (such for instance, as making Truth a libel, and Argument high treason, in open defance of the statute of the 25th Edward III. the only Law of Treason to which we ought to pay any attention!) ‘the alterations of customs,’ (such as the introduction of systems of inquisition, that fll every house with spies, and every corner of the streets with informers, and thus subjecting a once free people to the most detestable slavery of the worst parts of Italy!) ‘Alterations of customs; breaking

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of privileges; general oppression; advancement of unworthy persons,’ – (such, for example, as making a mere Wha wants me? one of the principal ministers of state; or a sleepy-headed booby of a lord, who cannot say Boo! to a goose, even when he sees his own shadow in a looking-glass, First Lord of the Admiralty, ‘At that damned board, where yet he ne’er could learn Of ships the diference ‘twixt the head and stern.’

merely on account of family relationship. To these causes, Bacon adds ‘Dearths, Disbanded Soldiers,’ and the like. Now, Citizens, of the circumstances thus mentioned as causes of seditions, troubles and insurrections, a great part, at least, appear to exist in this country at this time. I think, therefore, if these axioms are all put together, the conclusion will be, that the way to restore peace to society is, not to string men together by dozens, who never saw each other’s faces, in indictments for imaginary treasons – it is not to make Pop-gun Plots45 and Game-cock Seditions46 – it is not by these, but by timely and radical reformation of existing abuses, that peace and tranquillity are to be restored: and, though you may keep the common people ignorant of principles, and the true means of redress, by these coercive measures, you cannot keep them ignorant of the extent of the evil, inasmuch as relates to the misery they sufer. It is a great mistake of ministers and aristocrats to suppose, or pretend, that seditious declaimers can make men believe they are miserable, when in reality they are happy. I should like, for my part, for the curiosity of it, to hear the man whose eloquence could persuade a man who had just flled his belly that he was still very hungry; or could convince the peasant, who was half famished, that there was no occasion for him to taste food. – As for punishing seditious declaimers, as they are called, for pointing out the causes of the calamities, (which indeed is all that argument can do,) you might as well punish the physician for pointing out to his patient the causes of his disorder, as if the discovery of the origin were in reality the creation of the disease. A few disturbed imaginations may, perhaps, be agitated here and there – a few fantastic individuals may be found, who will credit falsehoods, because dressed in the garb of declamation: but these are too few, too fighty, and too frivolous, to give any rational alarm; and I believe it is equally impossible for all the declaimers in the world to make the people believe they are miserable, while they are living in ease and abundance, as it is for all the eloquence of the Treasury Bench to convince them that they are happy and fourishing, when they are in a state of absolute starvation. But it is said, that it is clear that these seditions proceed from mere infatuation and artful delusion, because they always begin with the ignorant and common people, who are evidently most easily played upon. – Hear what Dr.

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Davenant47 says on this subject: ‘the common people are the frst to complain of misgovernment, and the frst to feel the bad efects of it; long wars are carried on at the expence of their blood; heavy taxes pinch them most; revenues are mismanaged at their cost; they soonest feel the decay of trade, and the nation’s poverty.’ Pol. Works, vol. 2. p. 57. Tis was the language of an honest Member of Parliament, at the beginning of the reign of Queen Anne:48 for then we sometimes had an honest Member of Parliament: and though I believe there are many political errors in his writings, yet they breathe this sort of conviction, that the way really to enrich the country is not to throw-all advantages into the hands of a few individuals, but to make the majority comfortable and happy: and that having thus laid the foundation of general prosperity, you may then build your superstructure of national grandeur, without fear of its tumbling into ruin. Do you want any evidence of the truth of the passage I have just quoted? If you do, let me appeal to the city of Norwich; that once fourishing mart of trade and manufacture. Te number of inhabitants is estimated at only 40,000, and yet 25,000 of these have been obliged to claim relief from the hand of charity; the poor rates are twelve or thirteen shillings in the pound. Remember, it is upon the middling orders of society that the great burthen of this oppression falls; it being very easily proved that, in every large city, the rich furnish a much smaller proportion of the maintenance of the poor than the middling orders; because the rich live together in the same neighbourhoods, while the poor and middling orders are huddled together, and therefore the parishes in which the rich are not to be found, are those in general which have the heaviest poor’s rate to pay. But this rate, heavy as it is, is not the whole of the burthen. Tere have been voluntary subscriptions, also, to a very large amount, to aford charitable relief to the poor of this city. But what is this which we call charity? What is this ostentation of humanity which enrols our names in lists of subscription and builds palaces for the reception of our poor? What do we do more, afer all, than a partial act of Justice? What do we more (to confess the fact in plain and simple terms) than render in ostentation a pretended charity, a part of that compensation to useful industry, the whole of which we are called upon by justice to aford? – It is the duty of every member of society to see that the laborious classes of mankind are enabled to maintain themselves, in comfort and abundance, by their labours; and shame, shame on that Being who can call himself a man, while, wallowing himself in wealth and superfuity, he sufers those from whose labour every thing is derived, to pine in abject penury and distress. Short of this, all that we call charity is insult; and even this is nothing more than justice. I remember I was once talking to a friend of the charity and benevolence exhibited in this country, when stopping me with a sarcastic sneer, ‘Yes,’ says he, ‘we steal the goose, and we give back the giblets.’ ‘No,’ said the third person, who

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was standing by, ‘giblets are much too dainty for the common herd, we give them only the pen feathers.’ But Norwich is not the only place in which this misery prevails; in the parish of Mary-le-bone, as I am informed by an inhabitant of that district, seven hundred and ffy families, no one of which ever received charity before, were obliged to claim relief from the contributions set on foot there, during one week in January last. Now if this is not an instance of growing misery and calamity, I should be glad to know what is. Nor is the evil of a partial nature. Let any old man, who has been used to view the state of society for years, call to his recollection the very diferent appearance which the children of labourers and mechanics wear now from what they did in former times. Let me send you, for example, to the east end of the town – to the neighbourhood of Spital-felds. Even in my short remembrance, bare-foot ragged children loitering about in that part of the town were very rare: and I had some opportunities of observation; having been in my boyish days intended for a trade connected with the manufacture carried on in that part of the town. Citizens, this wretchedness is not confned to children only: for, to the honour of human nature be it spoken, for one instance of an inhuman unfeeling parent you have at least ten who will debar themselves of the common necessaries of life, that their children may have such comfort as their scanty lot will aford them. I remember the time, myself, when a man who was a tolerable workman in the felds, had generally, besides the apartment in which he carried on his vocation, a small summer house and a narrow slip of a garden, at the outskirts of the town, where he spent his Monday, either in fying his pidgeons, or raising his tulips. But those gardens are now fallen into decay. Te little summer-house and the Monday’s recreation are no more; and you will fnd the poor weavers and their families crowded together in vile, flthy and unwholesome chambers, destitute of the most common comforts and even of the common necessaries of life. Tis, it is true, is in part to be attributed to the caprices of fashion and the decline in the consumption of silk goods. But it arises still more eminently from there being no set of men in the representative branch of the legislature, who feel it their interest, and particularly duty, to look to the condition of the common people, and preserve a just proportion between the price of their wages and the price of the necessaries of life. Tey are languishing in misery, want and distress! But methinks I hear some great and mighty ruler, or some friend of these great and mighty rulers, demand what business have these wretches to make holiday every Monday? I answer, just as much as those who put the question have to make holiday every day in the week. – I know very well that there must be gradations in society, but the more imperceptible those gradations the better; and certainly I could wish to see none so low, so lost in the depths of misery and

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oppression, that no comfort or enjoyment is lef to them; even the consequence of their amelioration should be that none should be lifed so high as to be out of the reach of responsibility or justice. I wish not to impress any ideas of equalizing property; but I wish every man to feel that the blush of shame and conscious guilt should rise on his cheek, when he wallows in luxury at the expence of those but for whose labour neither luxury nor abundance exist. Citizens, I shall not dwell upon details at this time; nor delineate the pictures of misery I have witnessed. Let me employ the few minutes, during which I shall detain you, in removing from your minds some of those prejudices which are so frequently played upon, in order to prevent the humane, and benevolent from exerting themselves with generous enthusiasm in behalf of this oppressed and injured part of the community. We are told, forsooth, that the miseries and calamites of the lower orders arise from their own untoward dispositions – that their profigacy, drunkenness, and luxury are such that amendment is impossible. Oh Citizens! Citizens! can this charge possibly be examined for a moment and be believed? Are you really so lost in prejudice as to suppose that there exists any diference between man and man, but that which springs from the accident that lifs one on high and depresses another? Could the poor labourer have been put to his own free choice, he would, perhaps, rather have been the ofspring of some of those high and wealthy potentates, who now look down upon him with contempt. But he was born to a situation which made labour necessary for his subsistence: and if he has fallen upon times that make labour dishonourable – if he has fallen upon times when misery is the portion of the labourer, these are his misfortunes not his faults! Citizens, that there are particular vices which belong to the lower orders of society, for the sake of argument, I will for a moment admit. But if it be so whence does it proceed? Does not the very statement point out their degradation and depression as the cause of these vices? – Remove then the cause and the efect will cease. But this depravity, it is said, is constantly increasing; and the present generation, so loud in their cry for reform, are more depraved, as individuals, than any that have gone before If it be really so – if we are really to consider the laborious classes of the present generation as more profigate than those of preceding ages, let us ascribe the phenomenon to its real cause – to the corruption among those who direct the government of the country, and the consequent increase of misery among the people; and let us remember that this, instead of an objection, is an additional argument in favour of immediate reform. But, Citizens, let us compare these classes with the higher orders of society; and I believe the labouring poor will fnd no occasion to blush at the comparison. Look frst of all below you, Citizens; and then look above: nay look as high as you please. Cast your eyes to the very top of the ladder; and tell me what

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reason you have to believe that those, who stand upon the very highest spokes, have any original advantages, either of intellect or virtue, over those who hold all safe at the bottom. If no evidence of such original diference exist, the immediate conclusion is, that any subsequent diference, if real, must spring from the neglect and depression we are endeavouring to rectify; and, consequently, that we ought to lend all our eforts, heart and hand, to prevent mankind from being thrust below as we now behold them. Let us then, Citizens, disdain that narrow-minded prejudice, which frst of all reduces men to misery, and then reproaches them with crimes which that misery produced. Remember that it is our duty to promote the happiness of our fellow beings, and to give them the opportunity of living in more comfort, of receiving more information; and that thus we shall improve at once their individual happiness, and those moral feelings from which the happiness of others may be improved. No man make use of the argument I have just attempted to controvert, but he thereby confesses, that the only way to prevent mankind from being profigate and depraved, is to mend their condition in society; and this amendment can, I believe, only be efected by a reformation of the political abuses that have crept into our constitution; and restoring to the people their unalienable and constitutional rights of annual Parliaments and universal sufrage.

TRIBUNE, VOLUME 3 (1796)

‘Te Connection between the Calamities of the Present Reign, System of BoroughMongering Corruption’, Tribune, 3:33. ‘A Further Enquiry into the Calamities Produced by the System of Usurpation and Corruption (Fourth Lecture)’, Tribune, 3:36. ‘A Further Enquiry into the Calamities Produced by the System of Corruption (Fifh Lecture)’, Tribune, 3:37. ‘Godwin’s Pamphlet’, Tribune, 3:37. ‘A Further Enquiry into the Calamities Produced by the System of Usurpation and Corruption (Eighth Lecture)’, Tribune, 3:40. ‘On the Revolution in 1688’, Tribune, 3:41. ‘Civic Oration on the Anniversary of the Acquittal of the Lecturer’, Tribune, 3:46. ‘Te First Lecture on the Political Prostitution of our Public Teatres’, Tribune, 3:48. ‘Farewel Address’, Tribune, 3:50.

Te third and fnal volume of the Tribune was published in April 1796 (and sold for fve shillings in common and eight shillings in fne form) and was a compilation of the remainder of Telwall’s 1795 lectures with a small number of exceptions that were omitted, for reasons given in the ‘Farewel Address’, included at the end. In that same address, he acknowledges that his original intention was to include lectures from their beginning in February 1795 right up until the fnal passing of the Bill meant to suppress them. Instead, in part for reasons of his ailing health – the worsening of which he documents in his lecture of 7 October – the lectures only go as far as the Bill’s introduction. With the exception of ‘Te First Lecture on the Political Prostitution of our Public Teatres’, which was originally delivered in April, the other lectures included below each date from the fnal months of 1795. ‘Godwin’s Pamphlet’, which dates from early 1796, is not a lecture and is a rejoinder to Godwin’s

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response to the ‘Preface’ of volume 2, included above. Te context for the lectures is the combustible political atmosphere immediately preceding and following the attack on George III’s state coach on the opening day of parliament and resulting clampdown on the reform movement ushered in by the Two Acts. Te three 1 October lectures that are included here – each of which were delivered before that defnitive incident – tackle the same theme that dominated those of the previous month: the imputed connection between the calamitous state of the public fnances and spirit and the corruption of the existing political system. In these works he pours scorn on the notion that the English and French must be considered natural enemies and seeks to capitalize on the resentment prompted by the continually rising food prices amidst the near-famine conditions being experienced by many. But the fifth lecture below (‘A further enquiry into the Calamities produced by the System of Usurpation and Corruption – Thelwall’s eighth lecture on the topic), took place the day after what he describes as the ‘indecent outrages’ that marked the opening day of parliament. He is quick to voice his opposition to violence and states his unequivocal belief that peaceful political activity is the only way to ensure successful reform. He even suggests that the people who are most likely to behave in such an unruly manner are those disconnected from political associations such as the London Corresponding Society: Those who belonged to no particular association, who are too poor, too unlettered, too ignorant, and too unfortunate to be concerned in any associations of this kind, are always, in all countries, the beginners of tumult and insurrection. For when they feel the gnawing tooth of hunger at their vitals, when they see a family which ought to be a blessing become a curse, and dare not enter into virtuous union with the fair partners of their hearts, will they not thirst for vengeance?1

In the next lecture, delivered on the anniversary of the Glorious Revolution, he discusses its political significance. He provides a robust rejection of Burke’s interpretation of 1688, suggesting instead that it was a revolution of ‘principles’, one that enshrined ‘the Rights of Man’. In addition to this, he is keen to raise the spectre of the contemporary forces used by the government to thwart the liberties bequeathed by the revolution, making reference to the spies of the Reeves Association and the fateful destination of Botany Bay. Thelwall’s oration on the anniversary of his own acquittal in December 1795 strikes a more sombre tone, as Pitt’s Bills head towards the House of Lords, as does his ‘Farewel Address’, which nevertheless does sound a note

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of defiance as he recounts his accomplishments over the course of such a tumultuous year.

Notes 1.

See below, pp. 251–2.

THE

T R I B U N E, A PERIODICAL PUBLICATION consisting chiefly of the POLITICAL LECTURES of J. THELWALL

from the commencement of the second course in february, 1795, to the introduction of

MR. PITT’S CONVENTION ACT. taken in short-hand by w. ramsey, and revised by the lecturer.

VOL. III. Strike: but hear!!!

LONDON: PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR, AND SOLD BY H.D. SYMONDS, NO. 20 PATERNOSTER ROW. –––– 1796.

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THE TRIBUNE, NO. XXXIII.

VOLUME THE THIRD. Te Connection between the CALAMITIES of the PRESENT REIGN, and the System of BOROUGH-MONGERING CORRUPTION. LECTURE THE FIRST – including a Sketch of the important Services, and trifing Rewards of Messrs. PITT, DUNDAS, and CO; with hints on the SCIENCE of APOSTACY. Delivered Wednesday Oct. 7, 1795.

CITIZENS, I SHALL stand in need this evening of a very considerable portion of your indulgence and forbearance: and it is necessary for me to request of you that degree of silent attention which is not in general requisite. It is rather unfortunate that when my subject calls upon me for the greatest exertion I should be the least capable of that exertion. Te plan of my lectures which I have laid down will make them almost every night (if health and spirits permit) more and more interesting: because I shall be getting more and more into those important facts which will, I make no doubt, convince even the most inveterate aristocrat of the necessity of radical reform. But though this be the case with respect to that necessities of exertion, and though, having such characters to treat as Messrs. Pitt, Dundas, and Co. I wish to do all possible justice to that respectable frm, yet it is not in the power of any individual to command the accidents of nature. Health cannot be bought by popular applause, and the exertions I am so incessantly making are not the most friendly to the preservation of that health. Te plain truth is, that my exertions in this place have occasionally subjected me to very severe inconveniences; and that I labour, at this time, under very considerable misfortune in that way; and should certainly if prudence had alone been consulted, not have attempted to address you upon the present evening. – 197 –

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But I know the situation in which I stand. I have sold myself to the public. I am no longer my own property; and I am obliged to make exertions inconsistent with my health, that I may not give malignant calumny an opportunity to lif its voice, and propagate again those base suspicions, which artful and designing men began to disseminate, the instant my back was turned, when my health rendered some repose necessary. I come before you this evening, therefore, rather to apologize for not lecturing, than to deliver a lecture. I feel, and indeed my medical friends have told me as much, that any considerable exertion in my present state of health, might be fatal to my very existence. I shall therefore of course appear to very great disadvantage; because if I were to give full scope to my animal spirits, I might prevent myself from shortly, at least, being able to appear before you. Having made these observations, I shall proceed, in a brief manner, in the frst instance, to re-survey, that part of the ground over which we have already passed. You will remember, then, Citizens, that in my former lectures I have taken particular notice of the burdens, which have occasioned the distresses of the industrious orders of the community; and the very low depression of the middling orders of society. You will remember what I have proved in the course of the preceding lecture. – I make use of the bold word proved, because what I have stated I have substantiated upon facts drawn from aristocratic authorities, from the authority of men by no means friendly to the cause of radical parliamentary reform, though, at the same time, they are obliged to state the facts which prove that reform necessary. I have proved, then, in the frst instance, that during 35 years of the present reign, the poors’ rates have increased considerably more than they did during 200 years of any former period of British history. I have proved to you, also, that the burdens, more generally called national, have proved in an equal ratio: that from the end of Charles the Second’s reign, to the end of the reign of George the Second (a period of 85 years)1 the annual taxes only increased from two millions to seven; but that from the end of George the Second to the 35th of George the Tird (a period of 35 years only) they have increased from 7 millions to upwards of 20 millions annually: that is to say, notwithstanding the boasts of the fourishing state of our commerce, notwithstanding the boasts that are made by placemen and pensioners of our great prosperity and great success (and certainly no period was ever so prosperous or successful to them!) – notwithstanding these boasts, we (that is to say, the people, who ultimately pay these taxes) are absolutely going to ruin, beggary, and bankruptcy, eight times faster than we ever went forward to the same misery before. But, Citizens, let us consider the present fury of our political Jehu, and what is even this political gallop of eight to one? You will fnd that instead of gallop-

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ing at the rate of eight to one, the prospect before us is that we shall fy at the rate of 16 to one for the future, as the evil extends, its fan-like fgure, and inclines more towards the horizontal line; and our burdens are now accumulating to so inordinate a degree, that we cannot be far removed from that period when the whole of the real revenue of the country – that is to say, the whole earnings of productive labour, must be swallowed up by the immoderate taxes levied upon the people, to support a parcel of prostituted wretches, who call themselves great ministers, but who, in fact, possess no other talent of greatness than that which sends others, in lower situations, to the gallows, that of plundering mankind with the greatest adroitness. It appears also from the facts I have stated, what was the progress of the national debt from the Revolution to the death of George II. – a period of 72 years. (You will remember, that before the Revolution we had no national debt: our ancestors before that time were honest enough to pay their own debts: we are now scoundrels enough to mortgage the happiness, the liberties, and the lives of posterity, to all eternity, to pay the debts contracted by our extravagance!) From the Revolution then to the death of Geo. II. (a period of 72 years) you will fnd that the national debt had only arisen to 81,600,000l. the fact being, that (as no degree of profigacy ever gets to the highest extent in the frst instance) though they began the funding system – the trade of loans – that is to say, the practice of committing robberies upon posterity, immediately afer the Revolution – Yet, in the frst instance, they paid a considerable part of the national burden, by assessments levied at that time, and only borrowed a part of the sums necessary for the expences of their wars and corruption. In Queen Anne’s reign they borrowed a larger part, and afer that a still larger; – and so they went on, from time to time – from administration to administration, till, at last, Ministers found it more convenient to borrow the whole, as they call it – for you know there are certain cant phrases which prevail among persons of certain descriptions; and rogues of every denomination have their peculiar language. And indeed, at this time, almost every pick-pocket, footpad, and highway robber has too much refnement to call his trade by the name of stealing; and they, also, as I understand, make use of the cant phrases – borrowing, raising contributions, and the like! Tus then our ancestors paid a part of their debts by their own proper means; and only borrowed the remainder; but as they went on they found it more convenient to borrow the whole, than to pay any part of it themselves. Tey thought it sufcient if they could pay the interest; and even that will by and by, perhaps, be thought superfuous; for we have found Ministers already who have begun the more convenient method of borrowing one year to pay the interest of the preceding. Tus then, Citizens, it is not surprising, that in the last thirty-fve years, that is to say, in less than half the time in which the debt had grown to

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eighty-eight millions and an half, an addition has been made of 210 or 212 millions more. Good God! 210 or 212 millions, all accumulated during thirty-fve years, by the precious administrations which have succeeded one another in one reign!!! Tus, Citizens, have we altogether accumulated a debt of upwards of 300 millions: for which, and for the interest of which, that is to say eleven millions per year (independent of taxes for defraying the other expences of Government, and supporting the profigacy and waste of placemen and pensioners) we have mortgaged the lives, the labour, and the liberties of our children, and our children’s children to all eternity. Citizens, we have heard moralists declaim with great severity against the practices of barbarous nations, who are said to expose their children to be devoured by wild beasts, or to sell them into slavery. But I would like to know, whether the Africans, who have been thought a set of wretches, who ought to be kept in chains, and made slaves from generation to generation, in our West-India Islands, because some of them are so lost in brutal ignorance, as to sell their children and relatives, or any other set of barbarians, about whom we have related (perhaps invented) so many monstrous tales, do in reality surpass this funding system? Do we not by this profigated practice, in reality, sell our children, our grandchildren, and all their progeny (as far as our power can extend) to the end of time? Do we not, I say, thus sell them to misery, and to absolute slavery? For what is it but misery and absolute slavery, when men are doomed to work from 12 to 14 hours a day for six days, at least, out of seven throughout the year, and afer all, to be able to get bread and water only for themselves and families, and not enough of that? Yet this is the case with the whole of the country labourers, in particular; and to a considerable degree even with the inhabitants of great towns. For I have proved, from authentic facts, that the former are not now enabled, but the wages of their industry, to get as much bread alone as would sufce the man, his wife, and one child. If this is not slavery – miserable slavery! I must seek a new dictionary: for I know nothing so miserable as toiling to all eternity without getting a comfortable subsistence – nothing so slavish as to drudge all one’s life, that others may reap the whole beneft of that drudgery. Such is the brief recapitulation of the facts already stated. Te question that results from these facts, is, What is the cause of this misery and slavery? Inordinate taxation. What then is the cause of this inordinate taxation? What is the reason that, year afer year, the growth of this taxation becomes more gross and abominable? To this I answer the cause is to be traced to the usurpation of borough-mongers, and the consequent system of corruption, which though introduce almost immediately afer the Revolution, was frst methodized by Sir Robert Walpole,2 has been considerably improved by every administration that has existed during the present reign, and was brought

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to perfection by those honourable men – right honourable, indeed, they are – Messrs. Pitt, Dundas, and Co. Citizens, I know very well that it is the duty of a man, standing before the public, not only to make assertions, but to give proofs of these assertions. In support then of this assertion, I proposed to you, on a former evening, frst, to prove the proportionate growth of corruption, and to shew you that it had kept pace and gone hand in hand with the necessary and actual connection that subsists between this corruption and this inordinate taxation. Both of these I touched slightly upon in my last lecture. But it is necessary to treat them more amply, and it was my intention to have treated them this evening. Tat ample kind of treatment, however, which I intended, I shall not now be able to aford them. I shall observe to you, however, that on the last evening particularly the growing and open profigacy with which this corruption was carried on was sufciently explained. Te next thing to be considered is, the extent to which it has spread. Upon this point a great number of facts might be stated to you: and that I might be able to state them to you, I have been at considerable pains to procure a pamphlet, published in the year 1780, intitled, ‘Facts,’ (without any name, but which was, in reality, the joint production of Lord Shelburne,3 the late Dr. Price, and John Horne Tooke) – a pamphlet which, from the history it contains of the extent and progress of this corruption, is particularly worthy of your attention; and about which I shall relate a little anecdote, as it will shew how unwilling even the most faming pretenders to patriotism sometimes are that this corruption should be fully unmasked to the people. Lord Shelburne had, it seems, a very great desire of becoming Prime Minister of the country: but he perceived, at that time no means of attaining this post of honour but by the most faming hostility to the existing corruption of government. Under this impression, this book was compiled; but, while it was in the press, a prospect seemed to open itself of the probability of Royal favour; and he accordingly sent for Horne Tooke, and told him that he would be much obliged to him if he would suppress the publication; for, upon further refection, he did not think it proper that such facts should be publicly stated. To which, Horne Tooke, who is not to be easily hoodwinked, immediately replied, ‘Since the hour that these facts were collected and put together, I have never had a moment’s doubt of the propriety of publishing them; and as therefore I have collected them together, and put them into this form, you must excuse me if I declare that the pamphlet shall be published with all possible expedition.’ From that day, I understand that Horne Tooke and the Lord Lansdown never had any sort of intercourse. So much, then, for your faming patriots, who, while they think they have no way of getting into power, but by riding upon your shoulders, profess to be your humble servants; but the moment a dawn of hope opens

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to them of the better things to be expected from royal favour, they perceive how seditious and treasonable a thing it is to publish facts, and expose the corruption from which they in their turn, are likely to reap the profts and advantages. Just so the soi-disant fiends of the people: – I wish I could speak of them in better terms: for there are men among them whose individual qualities, every man who has a heart must reverence. But it is the curse of faction, that the better a man is in his real character and private feelings, the more fatal instrument he becomes of public ruin and oppression, the instant he enters into such league. Faction, despicable faction! must for ever destroy the virtues of the human heart: for the very bond of faction is the sacrifce of individual judgment to the will of the party to which they are linked: but it is only by adhering with upright dignity to the convictions of our own understandings, and pursuing the straight line chalked out by that conviction, that we can possibly expect to attain to any degree of virtue. Your friends of the people then, at the moment when, fushed by the victory of the late trials (for undoubtedly a victory it was to them as well as to us and to the nation) when they expected (and some of them I know expressed their expectations in no very ambiguous terms) ‘Tat the time was not very distant when his Majesty would be obliged to take Mr. Fox and his party into power whether he would or not:’ they came to a resolution to adjourn all considerations upon the subject of Parliamentary Reform. Tis will shew you, that during the reign of corruption, there is little to expect from party combinations; and that every thing must be fought for by your own exertions; by the independence of your own minds; but the courage with which you enquire and state your opinions, when you have enquired; and by the manly determination to be ultimately satisfed with nothing less than the complete restoration of your rights. Shifing the power form hand to hand is doing much for the persons into whose hand the power falls; but nothing for the nation. If we may be permitted to borrow an illustration from ‘Æsop’s Fables,’ it is only driving of the swarm of fies, already partly satiated, to render yourselves a prey to a fresh swarm, more hungry, and consequently more devouring than the former. With respect to the particular ‘Facts,’ which from this work I meant to have stated to you, as I had some difculty in procuring it, and could not get it till this day, and as there are a variety of circumstances, which, before I state to you, I wish to trace, not only to the year 1780, but from 80 to 95, I must adjourn the consideration of these important circumstances till my next lecture. But, Citizens, permit me just to observe to you, in the meanwhile, that there is not any great necessity, for the satisfaction of a few obstinate minds, to trace these facts very particularly; because generally known circumstances will satisfy us of the enormous growth of this corruption. Let us consider what is the present state of the country with respect to power, place, and patronage.

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Let us recollect, that notwithstanding placemen are now increasing an hundred fold, that they swarm year afer year, like bees, or rather indeed like wasps and hornets that annoy those industrious bees, and devour their honey – but though the number of these dependents upon court infuence – that is, the number of persons to be maintained out of the public purse is thus increasing, let us recollect the monstrous accumulation of places, in defance of this circumstance, so frequently grasped by single individuals, or single families. Let us recollect the Bevesfords in Ireland, the Dundas’s in England and in Scotland (for England, Scotland and India must submit to the powerful genius of this man, who grasps in his great imagination all the corners of the world) and would no doubt prove to you that it is for the welfare and happiness of mankind that he should enjoy the patronage of the Antipodes, the Poles, the Equator; and the Temperate Zones. Let us recollect, also; the Pitts, the Chathams, and the Grenvilles, and the monstrous train of places, pensions, and dependencies, which hang upon this family alone. Citizens, it was observed by Davenant – who wrote at the time of King William and the Queen Anne, and who marked in a very strong manner the growth corruption was making, even in those times, and, with excellent sense and strong perception, has marked what must be the catastrophe of that corruption, delineating, by prophecy, that exact state of degradation to which this country is at this time reduced – It was observed by Davenant, that since the introduction of corruption, a considerable change had taken place relative to the flling of places. Formerly, says he, the difculty was to fnd men enough ft for the ofces that were to be flled; but now the case is altered, and the principal difculty seems to be to fnd places enough for the men who are thought ft to be put into them. But by the great improvements that have taken place in the science of politics, both these difculties are now efectually done away. It is found that almost any man is ft for any ofce he can be put into; and that there are not only plenty of ofces for every man who wishes for one, but enough also, to give them away by dozens and scores, to every individual who can prove that he has sufcient pliancy of principle to deserve them; and brass enough in his countenance to vindicate the peculations belonging to them. With respect to the Bevesfords, I shall not be very particular in my enumeration; for I am not very well acquainted with the afairs of Ireland: but it has pleased the Earl Fitzwilliam, in his great wisdom and virtue, to take care that we shall not be totally in ignorance, on this side of the water, of the manner in which business is transacted there: he has particularly delineated the power, infuence, and patronage of this Bevesford family; which (forgetting the Pitts and Dundas’s on this side the channel) he has the boldness to say, grasps more places, pensions, patronage, and emoluments, than ever were accumulated in one family before.

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But what is the situation of that great statesman Henry Dundas. I think I shall by and by prove to you what a very great statesman he is. You know I have only promised, in my advertisements, to give you an imperfect history; and certainly an imperfect one it will be. If I were to enumerate all the places of this political elephant – for nothing but an elephant could bear upon his shoulders such a weight – It would break the back of either ass or horse! – If I were to enumerate all the places and patronage he upholds, the night would pass away, the morning would break upon us, and the night would close again, before we should have fnished them all, and the &c’s. &c’s. &c’s. which attach themselves to this once great luminary of the Scotch Bar, and now great oracle of the British Senate. I will just mention to you, however, some few of them; such as Secretary of State, President of the Board of Controul, Treasurer of the Navy, Lord of Trade, Keeper of the Signet in Scotland, Patron of all Scotland, Patron of all India, and holder of the leading strings to his Grace the Duke of Portland! With respect to Pitt, I shall have an opportunity of being a little more, and only a little more, ample; having more facts relative to him; tho’ very far indeed from that collection necessary to display all the grandeur of that sublime and august personage: a personage whom one of his express advocates calls, by obvious implication, King of Britain! For he says, he consented to bring forward (tho’ against his own judgement) the motion for paying the Prince’s debts, ‘rather than expose the country, in these perilous times, to the danger of another interregnum.’ So that, according to this – please to remember, tho’ the efgy of Geo. III. is printed a the top of your statutes, yet it is not King George III – but King William IV. that reigns in England at this day. Citizens, in a little publication, called the Patriot, which, I believe, never had so wide a circulation as it deserved, I fnd a list of some of the places which this man holds; and I happened, from turning over a little Pocket Atlas, to fnd two more, which they did not seem to know of, and which I have added to the list. However the list is still very imperfect. Here then follows an imperfect history of ‘the disinterred family;’ or, in other words, a list of some of the places, pensions, and emoluments, held by Mr. Pitt and his immediate relatives and connections. First of all, you know, Mr. Pitt is First Lord of the Treasury, with an avowed salary, per annum, for that place, of 4,000l. As for the &c. &c. &c’s. the little articles, which he knows very well, I daresay, if he understands his business – and it is a pity he should have been at the trade so long and not understand it – as for these &c’s. with which he knows so well how to augment this 4,000l. it is impossible for me to detail them in this place. He holds also the place of Chancellor of the Exchequer, with a little compliment of 2,000l, a year more. Ten follow two, which are omitted in this list, Lord of Trade (and the merchants and under·writers will say he has taken a most lordly care of the trade of this country, no doubt!) and Commissioner of the trade of India. I do not know the exact value

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of these places; but I suppose no one would think of insulting a Chancellor of the Exchequer and First Lord of the Treasury with any thing of less value than 1000l. a year. I have therefore set these down at 1000l. each. Tese are places held during pleasure; but to these are to be added Warden of the Cinque Ports, 4,000l. per annum for life. Ten come the places that are, and have been, held by his relations. ‘Cousin of Buckingham,’ three years Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, upon a salary of 20,000l. a year. – Cousin Grenville, Secretary of State, with a salary of 10,000l. a year. – Brother of Chatham was First Lord of the Admiralty, for several years, with a salary of 5,000l. a year. He has now swabbed (not the deck, for he knew nothing about them, but) places with apostate Spencer, and is content to receive the nation’s money under a diferent pretence. Cousin Pitt, the General commander in chief in Ireland, 3000l. per annum. – Brother in law Townsend, Lord of the Admiralty, 1000l. per year. Tese are places during pleasure. Now follow a list a places for life. Cousin Grenville, Remembrancer of the Exchequer in Ireland, 3,000l. perann. – Ditto keeper of the Parks, 3000l. per annum; and surely you cannot think this too much for taking care that the grass is well mowed, and the walks well swept. – Brother in law Elliott, Remembrancer of the Exchequer of England, 3,000l. per annum. – Father in law, Sydney, Chief Justice in Eyre, 3,000l. per annum.’ I do not pledge myself that all these temporary places continue in this family. I am not sure that some of them have not been removed changed and for other places, perhaps more convenient. But it is a matter of no consequence what chopping and changing there may have been. – Tis shews you the inordinate and grasping ambition of the clan; and may explain to you the causes why taxes are so heavy, and why we cannot aford to pay the labourer wages proportionate to the price of provisions. Te accumulation of ofces and salaries in his own person, you see, is not enough for a Minister now. Every stick of wood upon which a hat can be hung, if it claims relationship to him, has a title to the frst ofces and emoluments in the State. You can, therefore, have no doubt of the disinterested sincerity of his patriotism. He would not deign to bring a Bill into Parliament, for the payment of debts, contrary to his own conviction and judgment, if it were not from the pure disinterested desire of administering his services to a country he loves so dearly, and whose health he is so continually drinking with Brother Dundas, upon Wimbledon Common. He would not preserve these ofces by such compliance, if it were not absolutely necessary, as the only way ‘to avoid exposing his country, at such a conjuncture, to the danger of another interregnum.’ Now for the titles: things which were once supposed to confer some dignity, but which can now be lavished upon any cousin or relative of a Minister, or upon any person capable of doing the dirty work of that Minister. Cousin Temple, Marquis of Buckingham; Cousin Grenville, Lord Grenville; Father in Law Townsend,

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Viscount and Baron Sydney; Father in Law Elliot, Lord Elliot; Uncle Pitt, Lord Camelford; Brother Chatham, Knight of the Garter; Cousin Buckingham, ditto; Pitt, the General, Knight of the Bath; Lord Fortescue, who married one of the Cousin Grenvilles, a Viscount and an Earl; Lord Carysfort, who married another Cousin Grenville, and an Earl; Mr. Neville, who marred another Cousin Granville, the Barony of Braybrook in reversion. Such then, Citizens, are the trifing rewards or a part of the trifing rewards, conferred upon these worthy families. Now let us, if you please, examine what are their titles to these rewards; and, having so examined, I shall apologize for not continuing any longer those exertions which I assure you I fnd to painful to myself. I shall observe, however, by the way, such is the height to which corruption has grown, that notwithstanding all the patronage thus attached to ofce, notwithstanding the numerous places a man can thus grasp, a Minister is not content, but must make a bargain with his Prince, before he accepts these ofces, upon the terms of his dismissal. Te bargain Mr. Pitt made was, that resign when he would, he should have 5,000l. per year settled upon him, for his services, for life. Now, Citizens, what have the services of these families been? As for the services of the Bevesford family, we know in the glory of the last: namely, prolonging the reign of intolerance for speculative opinions in matters of religion: preventing the Catholic emancipation from taking place: the blessed fruits of which are, that Ireland is at this time, from one end to the other, in a state of commotion; and that perhaps this country may be threatened with another American war, and another amputation of this boasted empire. As for Dundas, nobody can doubt that his services are great and important as his rewards, if they do but remember the indefatigable zeal with which, year afer year, administration afer administration, no matter who was in or who was out, he was ready to undertake whatever business was put upon him; proving thus, at once, the profundity and the versatility of his talents and principles. Tus we fnd him in North’s administration, a supporter of the American war – In Rockingham’s administration a friend to peace. In Shelburne’s administration turning to the Shelburne principles – if we can fnd out which these are. We fnd him, in short, never out of place, except for a very few weeks, from North’s Administration to the present day. Te time that he was out was during the coalition Administration; who thought they had disgrace enough to bear upon their own shoulders, without saddling themselves also with the disgrace of employing a ‘Wha wants me.’ We fnd him, however, coming in again under the administration of Pitt, the boasted reformer. Surely we must admit, the superior genius of that man whose talents are so versatile, that he could ft himself to the views and humours of so many administrations – a man whose power and talents are so great that each administration joyed, in regular succession, to drink their claret and Tokay with him at Wim-

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bledon, and digest the fate of Europe with their dinners at his table, must have a mind as capacious as the rewards that have been heaped upon him. Tese are proofs of his talents; the services he has performed are written in our tax table, in so legible a character, that the boy who never saw a horn-book can nevertheless read them. But let us consider what are the particular services of Pitt, and we shall then fnd that all other services shrink before them, as the stars fade away when the sun makes its appearance in the morning. Te frst of the great services performed by this man was sneaking in the dark, up the back stairs, to save his Majesty from the disagreeable necessity of opposing his royal veto against a bill, then in danger of passing through both Houses. Te next service was also an act of grace to Leadenhall-street; when through a tender and loving afection towards the great East-India Nabobs, he shut up all our windows and kept us in perpetual darkness, that we might, for a few months buy our tea a little cheaper than we did before: this being perhaps the only thing he was ever likely to have the power of doing to please the ladies. But alas, the poor dear things were sadly let down: the immaculate boy disappointed ALL their expectations; and by and by the only persons who reap any advantage from this dismal commutation were found to be the East-India Company, who being, through him, secured in their monopoly, are able to demand what price they choose. Te consequence is known to be, that you must pay from six to eight shillings a pound for the same tea that you would buy form 20d. but for this monopolizing corporation. Another of the services which Britain must remember for ever with gratitude is, the extension of the EXCISE LAWS; those benefcial restrictions upon the too insolent liberties of men who, while they can consider their houses as their castles, will always be inclined to consider themselves as somebodies, and to doubt whether ministers are really God-almighties, – O! there is nothing like breaking their spirits a little. A young colt before you mount him, must be tied by the hour to a whipping-post, in order to be broken in, as it is called; and if a nation is to be ridden, with any comfort to the rider, it must be tied and broken in also. Tus then it is undoubtedly right, that the exciseman, or somebody else, should have the prerogative of breaking into as many houses, at all hours of the day and night, and keep the keys of as many peoples’ workshops and closets, to prevent their having the use of their own utensils, as possible. Tese excise laws have also another very excellent tendency; that is to say, they tend in a particular manner to the total ruin and destruction of the little trader, and thereby promote a sort of monopoly in favour of those rich traders, whose returns are so extensive, that they can aford to bribe the higher ofcers of this excise; and then by having the exclusive opportunity of cheating and defrauding the revenue, they can aford to sell many articles cheaper in their shops, than a little trader can even make them.

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Tere is another circumstance which entitles this minister undoubtedly to great praise and gratitude; namely the establishment of a wise and excellent system, by which, politically speaking, he is enabled to realize the fable of Argus, and to exercise at one time 100,000 eyes. Tose eyes, it is true, are not all of them very good. Tey sometimes happen to see things that never were, and remain blind to things that are! Tey happen to sleep also, sometimes, and see visions, and then put them upon him as realities: But the eyes are as good as his memory; and so they do very well together. You will perceive that I allude to the system of spies, inquisitions, and informers. Let us however do justice even to an enemy; there is one serious service which he did both to the King and the people: I mean the bold and decided manner in which he acted upon the question of the regency. It is no small wound to the refecting mind, to think that our general plan of politics is such that the best men are frequently obliged to perform the worst part: and that the vindication of justice can sometimes rest upon the interested exertions of the basest of mankind. I own, Citizens, when I think what the men are on the one side, and on the other, I am afected with grief and indignation at this despicable system of faction warring against faction. When I consider that such men as Fox and Sheridan, and some of their coadjutors, should stand forward in support of sentiments little short of the absurd and exploded doctrine of divine right; and that the vindication of our constitutional liberty should have devolved upon such beings as Pitt, Dundas and Turlow! – I own I cannot but almost be inclined to drop a tear over the departed virtues of my country when I see, from such examples, that it has no hopes of being preserved from the usurpations of faction, but by occasionally throwing itself into the arms of the most degenerate and worthless of mankind. Yet let me do justice to the man, whatever were his motives, his conduct upon that question appears to me to have been consonant at once to the principles of the constitution, and the natural principle of liberty – and when Burke, the faming hero of the dagger, was raving aloud with Jacobinical fury, that the Almighty, in his vengeance, had hurled the King from his throne, I own it was with considerable satisfaction, that I perused the manly sentiments which were dictated by the opposite side of the House. Having done this act of justice to the man, let me also do another act of justice to truth, by confessing that, whatever motives might actuate him then, he has since compensated, more than 100 and 1000 fold to the Prince of Darkness, for that one departure from principles which that Prince would wish, I suppose, to uphold. If for that once he was the saviour, he has been ever since, the scourge and plague of this devoted country. At that time it was that he seemed to obtain a power of towering to something like sovereign dignity: and he is very much disposed, it should seem, never

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to let that sovereignty depart again from his head, till he has involved the country in universal misery and ruin. But his grand merit is that of having reduced political apostacy to a science: and most certainly this science he has carried to the utmost perfection; as ever one must be convinced, who beholds the skill and efrontery, though not the success, with which he so lately endeavoured to prove his former patriotism to have been High Treason, and thereby to destroy all those who had the hardihood to persevere in the principles which he had been so forward to propagate. Such appears to me to be a just, though slight sketch of the astonishing merits by which those exalted individuals have attained the trifing rewards of power and emolument which they at present enjoy in this happy and fourishing country.

THE TRIBUNE, NO. XXXVI.

A further enquiry into the CALAMITIES produced by the SYSTEM of USURPATION and CORRUPTION. Lecture the Fourth. Containing the First Part of the PICTURE of the HORRORS OF WAR. Delivered Friday, October 16th, 1795. CITIZENS, IF there be a truth more clear than all others, it is this, that the whole human race has but one common interest: namely the promotion of the general welfare. Without entering into any profound speculation relative to the views and object of human existence, one need but be told to feel, with irresistible force, that the chief and proper pursuit of every human being is happiness; and that, as it constitutes true and genuine wisdom in the individual, to pursue this happiness with the utmost prudence and discernment, so is it a degree of virtue equally great to pursue, with equal solicitude, the general happiness and welfare of the human species: the particular and the general duty difering only in this, that what is mere prudence, when applied to the individual, becomes godlike virtue when applied in so large and liberal a way as to enfold the whole universe in one large embrace. If this be, as I believe it is, a position which no sophistry can overthrow – which no details of garbled and misrepresented facts can possibly counterbalance in the scale of reason, then have we much occasion to be astonished at the general conduct and language of the human race. When we hear men talking of natural enemies, of nations whose local situation renders them hostile to our happiness, and whose throats it is therefore a duty to subject to the butchering edge of war, we ought, surely, to use a little refection, before we sufer ourselves to be infuriated with a baneful enthusiasm hostile alike to ourselves and our neighbours! Surely it is worth while to enquire whether, in reality, instead of natural enemies all the people of all the diferent nations under the sun be not upon the general plan and interests of nature, the proper and necessary friends – 211 –

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of each other? Ought they not to be linked together – and would they not, if they were wise, be so linked in one common league of amity and protection for the promotion of their mutual happiness and welfare, and the reciprocal supply of their diferent wants and imperfections? Would not, by such reciprocation, each individual be able to reap a larger harvest of felicity than can possibly be in the power and enjoyment of that selfsh being, who labours single-handed for himself, and not regarding others, by others is not regarded. Nay, would not the advantage of such reciprocation be greater than the most successful oppressor ever reaped by his oppression, even supposing that his breast could be always callous to the suferings of the oppressed. To pursue this general happiness one would suppose, a priori, must be the general wish and universal desire of mankind: and, perhaps, to pursue it, is a desire which never was eradicated entirely from the human breast. But there are, unfortunately, delusions, which frequently pervert the human judgment, and prevent us from pursuing with consistency, the most obvious maxims of wisdom and interest. Else, who so dull as not to perceive that this general happiness can only be promoted by a system of amity and peace? Are not that plenty, that security, that intellectual expansion and felicity which can never be expected to be found but in the lap of peace, advantages so considerable that one must blush to think that any human being should be so blind as not to perceive how excellent a thing it must be to direct the faculties of the human race towards the security, instead of the violation, of these enjoyments. But alas, Citizens, in this respect, undoubtedly, speculative reason and practical knowledge stand in opposition to each other: that is to say, the machinations of an interested few have generally driven mankind into a course directly opposite from that which unclouded and disinterested reason would have dictated. Instead of peace being universally courted by the human soul, the history of the universe is one continued narrative of ferocity and carnage – of struggles of ambition, strife, hatred, fury and desolation – from the contemplation of which reason recoils, and human nature shrinks with instinctive horror. In short, though there is no calamity which can possibly be conceived, no degree of misery to which the human being can be subjected that is not necessarily produced by this system of war, – yet war! war! war! has been the eternal order of the day ever since man has had a hand to uplif in slaughter, or to record in words or symbols the history of his malignant frenzy. By this the child is robbed of the parent who should have guided him to manhood through the paths of virtue, and have installed the principles of truth and justice. By this the wife is robbed of the hope and comfort of her heart – is doomed in early youth to widowhood and fruitless lamentation; and that beauty which should have gladdened the manly soul of a worthy and proftable member of society, is consumed, at the silent tomb, in tears and anguish, to the neglect, perhaps, of those infants whose

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orphan eyes look up to her for protection, and are answered only with wailings of despair and shrieks of horror. – O ‘child of misery baptized in tears!’ what is thy future prospect of atonement? – What is the inheritance purchased by a father’s blood? – Cheerless calamity and rayless ignorance! – Life without hope! – a world without a friend! By this system of war, also, the aged parent, whose white locks should command our reverence, whose enfeebled joints worn out, perhaps, in promoting the best interests of his fellow beings, furnish, one would suppose, irresistible appeals, not to the compassion, but to the justice of mankind – that justice which ought to prevent the possibility of a being thus worn out in useful labour, draining the last bitter dregs of life amidst the aggravate calamities of famine, and the privation of every hope and comfort! – By this system of war he is robbed of the assistance of that useful arm which returned, with kindred justice, that assistance imparted in the years of helpless infancy. Robbed of this prop he droops neglected and forlorn: and spite of the ostentatious charity of the country, residences are no longer to be found capacious enough to give shelter to all the hoary heads expose, in the last feeble extremities of disease, ‘to bear the pelting of the pitiless storm!’ By this, arts are destroyed, manufactures languish, the improvements of human intellect are suspended, and every virtuous energy of the human mind is rooted up, to plant in the place of those powers and accomplishments which dignify the human character, a dark and savage enthusiasm, a lust of blood more ferocious than that of the tyger, and more intractable than that of the Hyæna. Te beast of prey pants not to tear the quivering limbs of his victim except when stung by hunger’s raving pangs, But the tool of ministerial or royal ambition destroys for sport, and gazettes and proclamations trumpet forth these multiplied deeds of infamy, call them glory, and gild them with the claims of virtue, because they are too enormous to be classed under any description of vice for which human invention has been able to fnd a name. Let us refect – O my fellow citizens! parts of my existence! portions of that animated frame of nature, of which every one who thinks himself an individual whole is a blasphemer! – Ye dear compatriots! limbs, nerves, and portions of this great system of intelligence and sensation! refect awhile – Call home your scattered thoughts and distracted passions. Let sympathy and meditation banish for awhile those sordid cares and sensual dissipations that enslave us, and let reason stand arbiter, while I exhibit to you imperfect pictures of WHAT MAN IS, and WHAT MEN MIGHT HAVE BEEN. Picture to yourselves the desolated scene which every corner of the universe presents: felds drenched in gore – towns depopulated and cities laid waste – harvests trampled down and villages deserted! sterility (even in the happiest and securest regions claiming, half partnership with culture) and penury and wretch-

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edness drinking the vital spirits of two thirds, at least, of the human race. Such is the rude outline of the present picture! – Such are the fruits of glory and of war. But think awhile – think what might have been the condition of mankind, if this desolating system had never been adopted – if peaceful arts had been cultivated with half the diligence devoted to those of war: – if the improvement of a grateful soil, if the extension of useful arts had employed our constant attention, and the expansion of that mind, which is, in reality, the true and only existence of man: – for without mind what were we but useless efgies, less durable and therefore less valuable than the Parian bust or statue which exhibits the fabled form of some Grecian deity? If all the energies were thus employed in promoting the happiness of the human race that have been employed for its destruction, nay, if all the resources that have been exhausted in reducing Europe to a state of famine and depopulation, had been expended in cultivating the earth, in turning barren heaths, and winnowing sands into felds of fertility and cultivation, (and desert sands themselves will yield to human culture, nor is the spot to be found, on the whole surface of the globe, so really barren that human labour and ingenuity cannot make it productive!) how might these resources have transformed this wilderness of a world we inhabit, in which scarcely one fourth is yet tolerably cultivated, into an Eden of felicity! How might joy and fertility have smiled around us! How might population have increased and multiplied, while famine and penury should have been words to be met with only in the fabling pages of a romance, like Giant and Incubus in ancient legends, which amaze our imaginations without alarming our credulity. Let us consider what smiling prosperity might have been disseminated to every individual; while perhaps the toil of an hour or two per day, a mere recreation of healthful exercise, had been all that, at this time, would have been requisite to be endured by any individual in the pursuits necessary for his subsistence. So might the other portions of the day be devoted to the improvements of intellect: while our surly passions (the children of this martial system) being exterminated from our breasts, and our minds no longer being harassed with the tormenting cares and anxieties by which we now are doomed to earn a scanty sustenance for ourselves and our families, an incalculable longevity might have been added to our other innumerable blessings; and we might no more have considered as fables all that has been told us of the protracted youth, and lengthened span of existence ascribed to the golden æra. Citizens, is this picture, think ye, a mere fight of imagination? Have I drawn a scene of fabled felicity, which no human wisdom, no human virtue, no human powers of intellect could have realized? If you think so, I will tell you how you may be convinced of your error: Turn over the pages of history, and read the catalogues of murders with which dignifed heroes and titled conquerors have blotted the annals of the human race. Tink of the monstrous devastations which have spread their fame! Tink how many fertile felds have been laid waste; how

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many villages have been destroyed, how many millions have fallen victims to the famine and pestilence bred by the warlike system! Recollect also what a tendency there is in the human constitution to increase in population, to spread wider and wider the circle of civilization, and to multiply the arts and improvements of life. Consider also, how very large a portion of human labour, nay, of the human race is at this time consumed by the luxuries and vice of those orders of society by whose ambition the system of war is promoted; calculate likewise the immense sums that are annually, monthly, nay daily and hourly expended in mad and absurd crusades to destroy the opinions, to root out the faith, or to exterminate the liberties of mankind; and then I believe you will be convince at once, that what now appears by a fabulous creation of the heated brain might have been the real condition of the universe, if this system of war had not checked the growth of intellect and virtue, and blighted the hopeful buds of human improveablity. Well then, Citizens, what are we to conclude from this? are we to conclude that neighbouring countries are the natural enemies of each other, that is to say, that from the very constitution of nature, they have a necessary interest in destroying one another? or that ambitious rulers, sanguinary heroes, and rapacious war-ministers are the only natural, or to speak more properly, the unnatural enemies of their respective countries? Te fact is, that the man who is, in reality, the enemy of any country is thereby an enemy to all. He may talk of his hatred to Frenchmen, of his hatred to Republicans, of his hatred to Infdels! but if he hate any thing that bears the shape and stamp of humanity, he is the enemy of the whole human race; and as such ought to be considered, in a more serious point of view than the tyger and the hyena, to whose ferocious appetites I have already alluded. How comes it then that nationality has so long abused our understandings? how came it that at one period of our history we were in the habit of calling every man a Frenchman that was not an Englishman, and considering every man whom we called a Frenchman as an enemy or a wild beast? How comes it that we are still instructed to consider every Frenchman as the natural enemy of this country, unless he be the avowed supported of the most abominable despotism that ever disturbed the tranquillity of the world? Natural Enemies!!! – Citizens, I know not hardly what sort of construction to put upon these fanciful syllables – these superstitious denominations – this cabalistic jargon! – I will not talk of ideas: the purposes of tyranny and superstition are best served by making use of words that have no ideas annexed to them: and therefore it is that this unmeaning cant – this contradictory nothingness – this mystical nonsense has been invented. What is this nature? Tell me ye sophists, ye who frst abuse our ears, that you may aferwards abuse our understandings, and then, by way of climax, deprive us of our rights and our existence! tell me, I say, ye juggling sophists, what do you

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mean by nature? Do you mean to create a fourth deity to add to your Trinity? Do you mean to represent to us, under the denomination of nature, some undescribable divinity whose laws you pretend to propound, though you pretend not to know the volume in which they are written? If this be the sort of meaning, or no meaning, which you afx to the word nature, I confess you come forward with a logic so subtle that I cannot answer you – because I cannot comprehend you. But if, by nature you mean the deductions and calculations drawn from the harmonized system of the universe – the laws of general interest deducible from what I call nature, that is to say, the phenomena of the world, then do I say that natural enmity is nothing more than a contemptible and unintelligible afectation of speech, a false metaphor, in which the epithet and the substantive are at war, and destroy each other. Nature is the whole; and the law of nature (if we admit such language) must be laid for the good of the whole. Now enmity is the hostility of parts; and it can never be for the good of the whole that the parts should be tearing each other to pieces; it never can accord with nature, that is with the system of general happiness by which the welfare of all nature is to be promoted, that enmity should subsist at all – or in other words, that the right hand should struggle to destroy the lef. How comes it then, that we have been so long abused with this cant about natural enmity? how comes it Citizens? It comes from this – A few artful individuals, who have more understanding than honesty, and more cunning than either, have grasped to themselves a degree of power and infuence which gives them an apparent interest diametrically opposite to the happiness of the great body of mankind. Teir interest is to monopolize to themselves as much as they can. How is it to be done? No individual arm is strong enough to grasp nine-tenths of the produce of every man’s industry. For the ferocious rufan who should attempt such pillage by his single authority, we should fnd a title that would doom him to the punishment of the gibbet. Some sort of system was necessary therefore, by which these cunning plunderers could make that which is in itself so infamous apparently honourable to themselves, and glorious to those whom they could make the instruments of their rapacity. Hence came the sounding words glory, renown, patriotism, the honour of our country, the feld of triumph, the laurel of victory, and all the fne phrases which are in reality but so many splendid veils thrown over the hideous feature of rapine and murder to conceal from the world at large the fend-like horrors of their distorted countenances. Te late King of Prussia, to whom the world has undoubtedly several obligations, has, among other services, been very forward in stripping of the veil which used to cover the sanctuary of the Cabinet. It is very true, that this great hero of the modern world, did not mean that all mankind should reap the beneft of his labours. Generally speaking, he wrote only for the illustrious few – a favourite courtier, or a nephew, or perhaps a favourite of a worse description! But somehow

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or other it happened that those instructions, meant only for the use of cabinet ministers, and embryo monarchs, have found a way frst from ministers of state to their secretaries, and then from their secretaries to their clerks, and from the clerks of these secretaries to the humble dependents upon the clerks of the clerks of the secretaries: and hence, somehow or other, these works have got occasionally abroad, and tumbled into the hands – I should say the troughs of the swinish multitude. Now one of these books, written for the use of the Prince Royal, now King of Prussia,4 is at this time concealed within the traiterous walls of No. 2. Beaufort’s Buildings: a friend was kind enough to lend me a copy, as I understand, of an edition, of which only four copies have been printed in the English language, by that lover of literary curiosities, the late Lord North.5 Tis book certainly contains some curious facts, sentiments and manners, and among the rest a defnition of politics, which ought to have accompanied those fne sounding words glory, patriotism, and the like already mentioned. Tis monarch seems to have understood, or to have thought that he understood what politics were as well as most people, and he tells us that a variety of words have been invented for the purpose of glossing certain actions that were rather too gross to be mentioned in plain language. Tus, for example, he tells us, that cheating, villainy, and plunder, are terms so dishonourable, and actions so base, that no man will patiently bear that they should be applied to him: and therefore, says he, the term politics has been invented, which is only a courtly phrase to describe those qualifcations with less grossness. I should be very sorry to repeat the observation with which he follows up this defnition; but considering that I have royal authority for it, and knowing that we ought always to bow down with implicit veneration to every thing bearing the stamp of royalty, I will give it you. Tis word, says he, was chiefy invented in compliment to us, who are kings; it not being very decent to call us scoundrels and rascals. – Dropping, therefore these ofensive words, I shall observe, that the system of politics, has undergone many revolutions: for in defance of all the sublime and beautiful logic of Burke, and all the subtle metaphysics of Windham, so long as the world exists revolutions will be going on, and neither nations nor words, nor systems of philosophy, nor women’s caps, can escape them. – What is the universe but a scene of eternal revolution? What is fre to-day, may be earth to-morrow; and what is earth today may to-morrow mount in the element of fre, which in the revolutions of matter shall spread into air, condense into vapour, fall in some shower, or fow in some fertilizing stream to feed the freshening verdure of the feld; that grass eaten by some ox or cow may be transformed into a beef-stake, and the next stage in this eternal revolution may metamorphose it into the muscle, or perhaps into the tongue of a political lecturer.

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Citizens, not only in the physical, but in the mental universe is this phenomenon to be observed: In fact our minds are in a continual state of fuctuation and change – or in plain and simple language, or revolution: and every man who can accuse himself of the crime of thought will lay his head upon his breast and confess that he remembers many strange revolutions that have taken place in his own mind. Tere are but two sorts of beings who will deny this – those who think that their subtilties and politic artifces can be promoted by the pretence of infallible consistency, and those who are too stupid to have any thoughts at all. Among these revolutions then of the intellectual world, have been many of considerable consequence in the system of ambition or politics. Ambition is indeed the original word. Alexander the Great6 is, I believe, one of those kings in favour of whom the word politics was never invented. Tus, then, the ambition, or politics of rulers, of whatever denomination, has difered very considerably in diferent periods, and parts of the world. Alexander the Great thought that all glory, honour and ambition, consisted in being always either at the head of an army, or getting drunk afer victory among his courtezans; his fame is founded upon destroying the human race in person, with more avidity than any other rufan of his time. – Te ambition of another great monarch, Darius of Persia, was of a more politic kind. He gratifed his kingly lust of fame, by sitting in security in his own palace, amassing together the wealth of his plundered subjects, and enjoying the luxuries of the earth. Tis rapacious spirit of grandeur, however, never acquired so much reputation amongst mankind, as the glorious pursuits of murder and desolation; and therefore it is that the histories, poems, and romances of every description which are put into the hands of youth for the purpose of debauching their understandings, and corrupting their hearts, always display the ravages of Cæsars and Alexanders, in all the glorious colours that inspire enthusiasm, and incite the destructive desire of imitating their crimes. Tat such dispositions are frequently implanted by the perusal of such books I myself can witness. I remember, in consequence of the history of Alexander falling into my hands while I was very young, being deeply stricken with that detestable lust of murder and devastation, called heroic fame: and if fortunate circumstances had not turned my attention to the fne arts, and thence to literary study, these sanguinary sentiments might have urged me at this moment, perhaps, through scenes of cruel carnage and desolation, to seize the blood-stained prize, and crown my brows with widows’ curses, and with orphans’ tears! Tese poems, and these histories, and still more the venal train hired to pour the poison of adulation into the royal ear, age afer age perpetuated this martial enthusiasm, with some variations, however, in the particular colouring. At one time the rage was only for conquering kingdoms, and then giving them away again; in order to show the perfect disinterestedness with which your great

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heroes cut the throats of their fellow beings. In other instances plunder was the sole object, and the throats of men were only cut that the conquerors might plunder their houses, sell their children and domestic slaves, and expose their wives and daughters to violation. By and by the lust of extended dominion seized the human character, and instead of temporary plunder, a regular system of pillage, that is to say, of tribute, subsidies, and annual contributions, proclaimed and rewarded the prowess of the conqueror. To this succeeded the system of the Barbarians, as they are called, who overthrew the Roman empire – and who fought not only for fame, for plunder, and for conquest, but for a home. Tey brought their wives and children in their train, and where they conquered they settled; seizing at the same time, the property, the possessions, the persons of the vanquished. Of this system, these Barbarians, if they could have read, might have found an example in Holy Writ. Tey did pretty well, however, without the example; and we fnd that the system of ambition of these Goths, Huns, and Vandals, Barbarians as they were, was rather more rational than any of those that preceded. Te savages who inhabited sterile countries, and whose climate was severe and comfortless, burst like a torrent upon the felds and vineyards of more genial climes, and more cultivated nations, in which their families might be sustained by moderate industry, and instead of wandering from place to place might enjoy the sweets of a settled habitation, and the comforts and luxuries matured by a warmer sun. Ambition next assumed another character, more soothing to the youthful senses, and which cannot fail of inchanting, even now, the imagination; nay, some imaginations can be youthful even amidst the frost of sixty; and Burke, while numbering the white hairs that have not yet fallen from his brow, can talk of the age of chivalry like a boy of twenty; or armed cap-a-pee by fanatical prejudices, not with lance in wrist, but pen in hand, can mistake windmills for giants – ‘full of light, and splendour, and love.’ Tis age of chivalry had a tincture of the most despicable superstition – a superstition which – ‘worshipped a cruel and revengeful Being, and drew him always with his thunder round him, and ripe for the destruction of mankind!’ a superstition which supposed, the way to merit the eternal rewards of Paradise, was to plunge the sabre into the bosom of every being who dared to suppose that the joys of Paradise, instead of being derived from playing on the harp, and signing eternal hallelujahs, consisted in sporting with black-eyed damsels under bowers of amaranths and roses. It must be confessed, however, that this spirit of chivalry tended much to awaken the energies of the human mind, and though at frst these energies were ill applied, let but the mind be properly roused, and all will ultimately go well. – Tough you may blunder a while in the intricate paths of error you will break

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your way though at last; and the temple of truth and happiness will be discovered. Tis discovery once made, the enthusiasm which once misled, will become the great guide of liberty, happiness and justice. To chivalry also we are indebted for some obligations which the heart of man will not readily forget. It emancipated the female sex from the degraded state in which they had too long been held; and thus ultimately redeemed half of human intellect from that oblivion in which, to the injury of the whole it had been lost. But though there were particular characteristics in this species of ambition, not equally detestable with the others, the radical vices were the same in all. Tey were only so many diferent shapes in which the artful few contrived to make the deluded multitude the tools of their monopoly and usurpation. ‘But the age of chivalry is gone,’ says the oracle of St. Omer’s,7 ‘that of sophisters, œconomists and calculators has succeeded.’ It is a little strange, methinks, that moonstruck supporter of the most infamous system of calculation that ever existed, should be the frst to pronounce so faming a philippic against this system. Yes! the age of calculation has succeeded to the age of chivalry. Pounds, shillings, and pence are dearer to the corrupt minister of a corrupted country, than the happiness and existence of his fellow beings. In the safe retreat of the cabinet, instead of the dangers of a camp, the modern votary of ambition decides by algebraical fgures, and the cold propositions of arithmetic, upon the destruction of one portion of the universe, the depopulation of a second, and the famine, slavery, and misery of a third. Yes! the age of calculation has succeeded. Human passions, or human happiness, are no longer worthy the study of the politician. It is vain to think of what would be productive of human happiness – it is vain to think how the prosperity of millions can be advanced; a better system of calculation, more important to the state, occupies all the mediations of the statesman, namely, how he should be enabled, by continuing the war for another campaign, to have a pretence for borrowing 20 or 30 millions more, to be spent in contracts and patronage, for which he is to pawn us and our posterity for ever; but by which he is not only to have the advantage of gratifying all his commercial friends, whose claret, champaign, and burgundy he drinks at their loyal banquets, with fresh loans, douceurs, bonuses, and lotteries, by which he is to plunge the people into still greater ignorance and debauchery. Aye, aye – Let the monied men have the profts of lotteries, and let the labourer and mechanic be debauched by such expedients; for if one the common people become as moral as reformers wish them to be, the farce is at an end, down drops the curtain, the gaudy puppets of corruption play their antics to themselves, and the people pay no longer for such diversions. Nor does the calculation terminate here. Your modern statesman can demonstrate, by any of the rules of arithmetic, how much is to be derived to himself by all the patronage of armies – navies – contracts – commissions, &c. how much is to be disseminated and ramifed

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through 100,000 diferent channels to enable him to delude and mislead such a portion of the people, and to infuence so many virtuous and independent members of a certain honourable house, which shall be nameless, as may render his domination as permanent, at least, as the system under which that domination is supported. Tere was once, Citizens, some foundation, at least, for supposing that the men who formed ambitious projects had some principle of honor and honesty about them – the man who risks his own life, confronts every danger, and shares every hardship – who, though decorated with pompous titles, wraps himself up in the same coarse rug with his fellow soldiers, and throws himself upon the same hard ground, under the common canopy of heaven, leads one to suppose that an honest, though blind enthusiasm, and not a base and sordid selfshness, is the source of his error. But the sneaking, cold hearted calculator who, in the security of the cabinet, adjusts the average price of human blood, and plans campaigns in which famine and devastation are to ravage whole continents, or who issues, amidst the excesses of a luxurious table, his savage orders for the devastation of one portion of the world, and the starving of another, excites something so like contempt in our breasts, at the same time that he provokes our indignation, that it requires every exertion of philosophy to avoid that absolute detestation which one would wish never to entertain against any individual whatever. He who thus devotes to destruction those whose hardships he has not the intrepidity to share, has not even the excuses of the hero. Te latter is an open highwayman who risks his life in his vocation, while the other is like a dark assassin, who gets behind a hedge, or a wall, to shoot you as you pass, and possess himself of the pillage in safety. Such, Citizens, is the history of the revolutions of ambition – the faithful description of the diferent stages through which glory has passed during her career on earth. But in the midst of this variety there is one common principle to be found – namely, the aggrandizement of a few individuals, and the monopoly of that which ought to be participated in freedom and happiness by the whole: in other words, the desire of reaping not only the proft of their own particular talents and faculties, but of monopolizing all the advantages of the talents and faculties of others. Shall I descend to further particulars? Shall I shew you the monstrous depravities of heart into which mankind have frequently been led by this selfsh and detestable ambition? Shall I call to your minds how the human character has frequently blackened from crime to crime – that from open murderers we have become assassins; that from assassination we have proceeded to mix the poisonous drug in the bowl of pleasure; and how, at last, in the grand climax of human wickedness, conspiracies have been formed to starve whole nations in order to eradicate principles which threaten the world with regeneration, and monpoliz-

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ing tyrants with the overthrow of that power they have so long abused. O system of horrors! what words shall paint thy detestable enormities? – It is not enough that mankind are to fall under the edge of the sword – it is not enough that the diseases of a camp are to help forward the business of destruction – the gold of one country wrung from the excessive industry of its population, is to be sent to adjoining countries to purchase insurrection – to sow the seeds of treachery – to perpetuate the reign of infamy and intrigue, and to aggravate factions to increasing rage, that the crimes thus purchased by our bribery and corruption may be urged, by the very purchasers, as reasons against the adoption of those principles, which this base system of corruption is carried on to overthrow! Even this is not enough – the climax is yet to come. Britain was once supposed to have an open and generous character; and the basest and most abandoned individual, whom the vices and corruptions of the great had robbed almost of the form of humanity, if he bore the name of Briton, disdained to strike a prostrate enemy, or to repeat the blow when his antagonist lay bleeding at his feet. But this trait which still marks the individual – for it is curious to observe how long the human character will sometimes resist the vicious infuence of its government! – Tis trait, which still remains deeply rooted in the heart of the individual, is, alas, exterminated from the national character. – Not having the open, manly courage – for who has open, manly courage when engaged in a bad cause? – not having the open, manly courage to meet a people fairly in the feld, who are struggling for that dearest, best, and only boon of life, liberty! – the vital spring of human existence! – not having this courage, and knowing that our gallant soldiers turn with abhorrence from such an unnatural struggle, base arts have been used – a vile conspiracy, whose magnitude alone conceals its horrid infamy, is entered into to starve 24 millions of human beings!!! – starve 24 million! Canst thou stop here, Corruption? If base designing malice could execute a scheme so damnable! can savage policy expect to draw the line, and say thus far shall the devastation go, but it shall proceed no farther? Canst thou, wild framer of a plan so hateful! be mad enough to hope that the dreadful consequences would not spread even to that people whom thou hast made unwitting instruments of such wickedness? Couldst thou suppose that France could be starved and destroyed, and Britain not sink into the same vortex? If thou couldst it is plain proof, indeed, that your calculations extended no further than the rule of three! – that thou art ignorant of the physical as well as the moral laws of that universe to which thou art a shame, and thy exaltation is a disgrace. Nay, thy ignorance stops not there. Didst thou but even know the springs of commerce – that darling system which plunders the universe for revenue to distribute among thy dirty parasites and base supporters – didst thou but understand even the spirit of commerce, thou wouldest perceive that it is impossible to starve one country, without bringing famine upon every country that approximates. Te merchant is no respecter of

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these distinctions – tell not me of the merchant of this country, or the merchant of the other – He has no country – Interest is his native land – gold is the vital spring of the commercial constitution; and his attachments are determined, not by a line upon the map, but by a piece of scribbled paper; and the particular chamber of his best afections is frequently designated by a black patch, with a white scrawl in it, at the corner. Tis is the country of the merchant. Wherever, therefore, he can get the largest proft; be it in the land of friend of the land of foe, there he will take his commodity. Tus when you starve a neighbouring country, the stores that should feed your own people will, somehow or other, fnd the way into that country; because a better price can be made of them there than at home. Tis is not all. You throw the torch of destruction into the granary where the fruits of human industry are hoarded, and burn it; or perchance it is foating in some vessel; and least it should fall into the hands of the enemy, you scuttle it, and it is sunk to the bottom of the ocean. Is it your enemy’s bosom only that you gall by this conduct? Are you ignorant that every grain of wheat, of which you rob your enemy must inevitably rob yourself half a grain? Are you ignorant that it is better for your enemy to take those necessary articles than that they should be thus destroyed? Do you not know, that it is even better for your enemies to be in abundance, while you are in want, than to share the famine with you? because, in the former instance, all other countries will pour their supplies into your market: but, if your enemy share the distress, your market can be only half supplied; for they have the same mercantile temptation to hold out as you have. You cannot fetter the spirit, though you may debauch the soul of commerce. You cannot cut its wings. – It will fy though the air, scud under the waves, elude your policy, and fnd itself a mart. Nor does it stop even here. Could you monopolize all the granaries of the universe; could you make yourselves abound in this honest wealth – (honest wealth dishonestly obtained) what would be the consequence? Is there no efect produced by famine, but famine itself ? Is not the concomitant of want contagious disease? and do you not know that, even within the walls of this city, during the last winter, hundreds of human beings fell prey to the contagious diseases which the want of a sufcient quantity of the necessaries of life produced? Well, then, suppose your fne golden dream of the misery, and ruin and desolation of France – of famine stalking through every street, with shrieks, and groans, and madness in her train, blasting their felds and vineyards, sweeping down their villages, and depopulating their cities – What then? – Contagion would have followed, and that contagion, in all human probability, must have seized upon the vitals of the country inficting this barbarous punishment: for punishment, it seems, is now to be the reward of virtuous principles and exertions. Tese projects, however, have been disappointed. France will not be starved; France will not be beaten down. Te prostituted leaders of the rebellious sec-

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tions, purchased with the gold of coalesce cabinets, – those leaders, at heart, I believe, corrupt and intriguing royalists, making use of deluded republicans as the instruments of their base designs, may rise, in ill-timed insurrection, against the usurping Convention (also, perhaps, in some of its parts, corrupted by the same means) and thus by an ill-timed struggle, may postpone a while the glorious triumph of liberty; but it will be but for a while. Even now, conquest, fame and glory, spread their golden wings over the cause of liberty, truth, and justice! Tey must triumph: the expiring pangs and struggles of despotism, superstition, and falsehood, may be many and severe, and their last agonies may produce occasional eforts of strength and energy: but, if I mistake not, the doom is sealed; Truth must prevail; and the invincible arm of Virtue shall beat down the systems of corruption that have so long been desolating the universe, and destroying the vital happiness of mankind. France has at last weathered the storm of famine. Take from your American merchants an account of their present expectations in this respect. Tey will tell you, that in the French markets, they cannot ever get, at this time, for large cargoes, a greater prince than the corn was bought up for in America; and therefore, knowing how wise and excellent an administration they have to deal with in this country, they very prudently throw their cargoes, every now and then, in the way of the British cruisers; in order that they may have the happiness of being taken, and brought safe into an English port; where, be their cargoes what they will – be they eatable or be they not – be they ft for one swinish multitude, or even unft for another, a good sound price will be paid with all expences of freightage, and 10 per cent. profts to the adventurous owner, as a reward and compensation for the misfortune he has met with in not being able to reach his destined port. But do not suppose, Citizens, that the American is the only man wise enough to have learned the beneft of being captured. A very little while ago, I received the particulars of an act of dexterity practised by a Dane upon the English coasts. Tis Dane fnding that his corn would not have so good a market in France, as he imagined when he shipped it, cruises of one of our ports, till he meets an American vessel. ‘how came you here?’ says the American, ‘you will be taken:’ Why that is the very thing I want,’ say the Dane. ‘Is it so,’ says the American; ‘then I will take care that you shall not want it.’ Away goes the American and gives information that a Danish vessel is cruising in the neighbourhood, loaded with corn for France. Out whips the revenue cutter; and the willing captive is brought into port where he gets 10 per cent. upon his goods, and all expences of freightage. Tus ends, then, the project of starving France; and whenever any country has an individual in it, that is base enough to form the project of starving another country, and when that country is so lost to humanity, as to sufer a minister to attempt to execute such projects, may the aim be disappointed, and may the catastrophe (with respect to the country threatened) be the same as in this

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instance! O that I could rationally add – may that ofending country however escape the punishment it deserves. But it is in vain, it is absurd to wish for contradictions: and the country that dares be base and profigate, enough to uplif the arm of violence against the principles of truth, liberty, and justice, must take the consequence: – for sufferance is only to be avoided by virtuous principle; and he who departs from principle must receive the dreadful punishment which belongs to unprincipled conduct!

THE TRIBUNE, NO. XXXVII.

A further Enquiry into the CALAMITIES produced by the SYSTEM of CORRUPTION. Lecture the FIFTH. – Containing the Second Part of the PICTURE of the HORRORS of WAR. Delivered Wednesday Oct. 21, 1795. CITIZENS, WHEN I consider the magnitude and importance of my subject – when I recollect what a monstrous association of horrors and miseries has, from generation to generation, been introduced among mankind by the devouring system of military ambition: I blush to recollect how faint a picture I have been able to present you. I have touched, it is true, upon some of the private calamities which come home, in many, many, melancholy instances, to every man’s business and bosom; I have endeavoured to awaken your sympathy for the widowed wife, the orphan infant, and the helpless parent, robbed in his declining years of the prop and stay of his age, and lef to all the anxieties of paternal fondness, and the miseries of surrounding penury. I have endeavoured to describe to you some part (small part indeed, have I been able to describe) of the miseries which through every department of society, through every connection dear to the heart of man, must inevitably be produced, and has so long been produced by this mad system to which we are devoted by our rulers. But, Citizens, when I review this picture, I fnd that I have touched only, in feeble shades, some of the less-important groups; but that the most interesting fgures still lie hid in the great mass and body of calamity; and that the features of horror, misery, and desolation, which constitute the gigantic enormities of the Monster, War, have scarcely been presented, even in outline to your imagination. How shall I treat this subject with the weight and gravity it deserves? How shall I conjure up to your imaginations the thousands, tens of thousands, and hundreds of thousands of human beings (possessed of the same capabilities of pleasure and pain as ourselves) who are doomed by these mad pursuits, to – 227 –

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quit every endearment of life, to renounce every pleasing, every useful, every ornamental art, and march, in trim and gaudy array, to the feld of inevitable desolation, where miracle afer miracle must work in their behalf if one ffh part of them return alive to their country, even with maimed and mutilated limbs, sad trophies of the triumphs (perhaps of the disgraces) of their country! Te imagination of Homer has rioted in all varieties of torment and misery to describe and decorate, with the charms of versifcation, the varied wounds by which the life of the human being may be destroyed; but where is the power of language that shall describe the smart and anguish of those wounds, the continued torture, the grinding misery of the poor wretch writhing upon the ground, amidst thousands of his dead and dying companions. How shall imagination picture the suferings of this throng of miserable victims, weltering in blood, trodden beneath the hoofs of horses, and then perhaps lef to languish in the feld, exposed to the pitiless bleak air, night afer night, day afer day – no gentle hand to pour the healing unction in the wound, no kind commiserating friend to soothe the last hours of departing existence, and close, with kind solicitude, those eyes grown dim by the approach of death. Oh, Citizens! how shall I conjure up even the faintest images of the innumerable horrors which these poor beings must experience? How shall I awaken in your minds the terrors – the aficting anguish which must rend the soul of the poor wounded wretch, when, perhaps, some fury, veiled in the semblance of woman’s form – some harpy who follows the camp for plunder, sprawls over the feld of death, ranging from place, seeking what may be gleaned amidst these horrors, and, with the rugged poniard in her hand, dispatching the miserable wretches, whom the sabres of the enemy had but half destroyed! Such is the cruel and rapacious fury, engendered by this system of war! To so much worse than fend can it transform the sex, which in its sofness and simplicity can melt the most obdurate, and soothe the most ferocious heart! But the feld of slaughter exhibits a small, small part of the horrors of war. – Tis is but a single picture in a gallery, every department of which is flled with scenes of woe and misery unutterable. Te hero dying in the confict of battle, may perhaps soothe and cheer his mind – when fghting in a good cause, at least – which I am sorry, to say, has not always been the case with the English hero! – When he is bravely struggling to vindicate the liberties of his country, not to destroy the liberties of another, some consolation, some alleviation may take from his wounds the smarting edge of anguish, and enable him to endure with fortitude and composure the bodily afictions to which he is subjected. But these are the slightest of the sorrows and hardships he must experience. Te midnight march is his, through rain, winds, and storms; all the warfare of inclement seasons – the painful watch by night, where nothing is to be seen to cheer his imagination but scudding clouds, perhaps, and fog-bred meteors, and

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nothing to be heard but hollow winds, and wolves that prowl for their expected prey. Meanwhile drear desolating solitude cradles his fancy in its bed of thorns, and flls his bewildered mind with painful recollections of friends and relations, whom, perhaps, he is to see no more; but whose remembered fondness, knocking importunately at his lonely breast, force open the doors of nature, and let in regret and keen afiction! – Perhaps the big tear of anguish rolls down his cheek, and he exclaims, with bitter and half-stifed sighs, ‘What had I to do with your quarrels and your contests? your views of ambition, or your schemes of national aggrandisement? why – why should the infants to whom I have given life, expire beneath the gripe of pretended charity, immured within the walls of a dungeon, called a workhouse, and eating the bitterest bread of vile dependence? Why should the loved object of my afections lose a husband in the prime of youth, and I the endearments which that loved object was wont to aford me, that here, beneath this sable canopy, where increasing dangers and difculties, I may repeat my painful vigils, while shivering anguish creeps through every joint, and the denunciation of death hangs over my head if I dare to seek for necessary shelter, or taste in the embraces of sleep the sweet forgetfulness of that anguish to which I am doomed?’ But not the midnight watch, not the weary march, not the dreadful scene of confict and of death constitute the only scourges of the military life. Famine, meagre famine, stares in the faces of the harassed host upon every new disaster. – Unwholesome food, and the consequences of heaps of men, and animals of all descriptions, being shut up within the narrow confnes of a camp, or perhaps within the walls of some besieged town, awake the fend Contagion from his den, and Pestilence destroys those whom the sword and the fatigues of the campaign might otherwise have spared. Here lingering diseases are incessantly bred – here misery arises in all its shapes, while no opportunities of comfortable alleviation can be aforded, and thousands upon thousands, nay, in process of time, millions upon millions, of our fellow beings sink untimely into the earth – that earth which, were governments wise, and governors virtuous, and were a good system of policy established in the nations of the world, would have been cultivated and improved to tenfold fertility and happiness, by the very hands which are thus mouldering beneath the war-polluted turf. Still, still melancholy conviction cries out to me that I have done but little, towards exhibiting the calamities of war; and that my picture is still coloured with too dead and faint a hand to present to your minds a real representation of the detestable and abhorrent system I am decrying: a system nursed by ambition, fostered by rapacity, and perpetuated to increase the power, patronage, and corruption, of the most venal and most contemptible set of beings that ever cursed the earth with their detestable machinations.

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Te catalogue of horrors closes not with the mischiefs brought upon those who fall victims to this system. Tose who survive these accumulated hardships too frequently return into society like scorpions let loose to sting its bosom – like mental pestilences, spreading vice, licentiousness, and barbarism, in every breast that has the misfortune to come near enough to imbibe the contagion. I mean not – justice, truth, and humanity forbid! I mean not to throw reproach upon the character of the soldier. – Whatever results from a system in itself reproachful, belongs to the system and to those who are its prime movers; not to the unfortunate beings who are made the reluctant agents of this wickedness, and are themselves the greatest suferers by its continuance. I venerate the generous enthusiasm of the man who dare oppose his breast to the poniard of the real enemy of his country! I abhor – I abjure for ever, and deny the claims of manhood to that wretch who, when the real interests of his country call, is not ready to shed his blood in defence of justice, liberty, and truth; and to purchase, even by laying down the price of life, the redemption of his country from slavery, or its security against hostile invasion! I pity also the unfortunate youth who, robbed, by a profigate war, of that honest profession by which he used to obtain subsistence for himself and family, and oppressed by inhuman task masters, who at once destroy our trafc and double those taxes which the trafc is bound to pay – I pity the poor unhappy youth thus doomed, merely from the want of bread, to enter into the ranks of an army, going to fght in a cause which he himself abhors: and such has been the case, at particular periods of the British history, with a very large majority of those soldiers who have been doomed, at the nod and beck of a minister, to fght against the liberties of the human race. But though I venerate the patriot hero of the frst description, and though I pity the unfortunate victim of the second, yet justice does not permit me to shut my eyes and against the light of truth, or to conceal from those who listen to me, the immoral infuence of this system of ambition and war upon the human character. What are the passions that must be generated in a camp? What are the passions that must be generated in the feld of battle? We have many vices in our decalogue; we have many hundred thousand crimes (real or supposed) in those huge volumes of contradiction called the ‘STATUTES AT LARGE;’ but which of the vices, mentioned in either the one or the other, can be put in competition with that gloomy ferocity of mind, that inhuman lust of fury an devastation which constitute the virtue of a soldier in the feld of battle, and must, therefore, become a part of his habitual character. Picture to yourselves the scenes in which these poor unhappy beings are engaged: I remind you again that I am not angry with the individual; he is the instrument, and not the cause. If I am assassinated, indignation is not directed against the dagger which is made the instrument of

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my destruction, but against the rufan arm that wielded it: and man becomes, in many cases, only the dagger, or instrument of that political arm, which, strung by ambition, and urged by the rage of avarice and rapacity, destroys the human race and makes one portion of mankind promote the destruction of another. – But, Citizens, when the implement has received its stamp and shape, its uses are, in a great measure determined. Te dagger is no implement for domestic convenience, nor the plough-share for havoc and destruction: and when we contemplate the mould in which the soldier has been fashioned, we shall be obliged, I am afraid, to confess that his character must have received a stamp unfavourable to those peaceful virtues which insure the happiness of society. Can he have done otherwise than have imbibed deep traits of fury and licentiousness in consequence of those scenes he has been engaged in? Picture to yourselves an army, a huge association of men who pride themselves in having been the frst to set fre to the hay-ricks of the enemy, to throw whole villages into confagration, to have pillaged and destroyed the whole country through which they marched, and lef desolation and dreary solitude ‘to muse the praise’ of their heroic actions! Paint to yourselves – [for I will take no notice of the licentious scenes of a camp. Tose lesser vices of profigacy and debauchery, so naturally bred by people being placed in situations where they have no hope of permanent, peaceable, and virtuous enjoyment, I will pass over; for they are trifes in comparison with what I am speaking of. I will speak only of those gloomy and ferocious passions, those dispositions and habits which transform the human being into a fend, and destroy, in some instances, almost the semblance, as well as the essence of humanity!] Paint to yourselves, then, the ferocity of a battle – think you are transported to those scenes of hostile strife, where some town or fortress is taken by storm – where some city, fercely besieged, and bravely defended, is at last carried at the point of the bayonet: an expression made use of with such cool indiference by those who recite the history of battles; but which, if you conjure up to your minds the scenes of horror and cruelty that are included in it, would freeze up the blood in your veins, and lead you to wonder at the frenzy of mankind that can thus fnd honor, glory, and distinction in laying millions of their fellow beings bleeding upon the earth, and then trampling over their dying carcases that they may have a fresh opportunity of wreaking their savage thirst of human gore upon fresh ranks of devoted victims! Tink of the scenes which ensue. It is not every fend, it is true, that like Suwarrow – (a name that sounds in my ears like the shrieks of murdered babes and matrons!) – It is not every fend that can, in the present period, glut his inhuman thirst of blood with the indiscriminate massacre of man, woman, and child! It is not every Emperor, or Empress, who can issue infernal mandates to spare neither sex nor age. Tis heroic virtue, I grant, belongs only to one or two of the civilized and orderly governments of Europe. But barring all orders of cruelty like these – barring all

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purposed, all meditated cruelty, except the master key of human passion, so as to be able, on the moment, at the lifing of a fag, or the beating of a drum, to call home the furious and enraged spirits of a triumphant soldiery, compel them to stop in the career of victory, desist from revenge and carnage, and restore at once that humanity to their bosoms which, in the midst of the sanguinary confict, has been so fercely banished? – and that too at the very time when the rewards are glaring before their eyes, for which they had encouraged one another, in their songs and convivial hours, and which had formed the watch-word to rouse their enthusiasm and urge them to the feld of slaughter! Tink, then, of the scenes of pillage – But what in pillage? – It is a detestable thing, it is true, to invade the property of others: but it sinks – it loses all its enormity in comparison of the vices before us – when the sanctity of every retreat is violated, and the husband, perhaps, falls beneath the assassinating knife, while the loved partner of all his joys and endearments is compelled, by brutal violation, in his very sight, before his expiring eyes, upon the very couch that witnessed the chaste endearments of connubial felicity, to writhe under the grasp of an infuriated monster, half man and half fend, roused to every detestable passion – But I cannot fnish the picture. Imagination must supply what words cannot. Oh, Citizens, language is not to be found, nor colours to represent the monstrous devastations, cruelties, and inordinate horrors of this system of war, carried on to gratify the ambition of a few, to indulge the private pique of a paltry courtier – perhaps to satisfy the revenge of disappointed appetite: as this country once plunged into a war with France, because the favourite, perhaps the most contemptible species, of one of our profigate kings, had his addresses rejected by the Queen of France as an unft paramour for her hours of wantonness. Citizens! Citizens! If I were now describing to you the conduct of men in the ages of barbarism and ignorance – if the picture only related to antediluvian savages, or even to the ferocious barbarians who burst from the confnes of the North, and deluged the Roman Empire, it would not be strange. Tat savage ferocity should be the concomitant of barbarous ignorance, is what we are led to expect. But we boast of our refnement; we boast of our wisdom; we boast of our progress in the fne arts, which are capable of giving a polish to every enjoyment; we have added ‘the Corinthian capital to the pillar of polished society.’ How comes it, then, that we still retain those dispositions of Gothic barbarism. But if we are astonished to fnd that there is yet any thing remaining of this barbarous system, how must our astonishment be increased when we fnd that, in proportion as we are growing in what we call refnement, we are also increasing in the frequency, extent, and duration of this savage practice. Nay, it would even appear, from the calculations of statesmen, from the harangues of pretended politicians, and the declarations of a certain assembly, that all the use of this polishing and refnement, and the improvements in every art and science,

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was only that they administered to the improvement of the system of war: or, in other words, that all refnement and all science consisted in cutting one another’s throats more expeditiously than savages and barbarians could pretend. What art, what invention, is there that has not been pressed into the service of this inhuman trafc? nay, what art or science is there that does not seem, by courtiers at least, to be prized in proportion as it can be rendered serviceable to the art of war? Te Miner delves the earth for metals, and the Chemist toils in his laboratory to produce compositions to enable us to destroy, in an instant, as many of our fellow beings as in the rude and barbarous ages of society would have furnished the havock of half a day. Every profession, every art, mechanical or scientifc, is rendered tributary; and year afer year, century afer century, reign afer reign, and administration afer administration, the system has been carried on with greater avidity; with increased extravagance and profigacy in the manner of conducting it, and increased frivolity with respect to the pretences for which it has been undertaken. How comes all this? Citizens, it arises from this circumstance, that government has become a system of juggling and intrigue, and war has become necessary for patronage, and revenue – for the creation of fresh places, pensions, dependencies, agencies, contracts, commissaryships and the like. Hence war has been found the best trade and merchandise that a minister can deal in. Formerly people went to war upon pretences fimsy enough, it is true, but they always had some pretence. Te hero had some expectation to enrich his country by plundering his enemies. (It was not then found out that a minister could enrich himself better by plundering his own country!) Te Savage supposed that the possession of the banks of a certain river would enable him and his tribe to maintain themselves with more ease and in greater abundance; the hunting tribes had not wood and forest land enough to range in, and, therefore, they lifed the hatchet, and sounded the war-whoop; the Arab also, to this day, repays himself for the fatigues and dangers of his predatory excursions by the booty he brings home to his tents: but under the present system of civilized Europe, who is mad and foolish enough to expect, by making war to all eternity, to bring home plunder and pillage enough to repay the loss of blood and treasure (for it seems blood can be paid for as well as treasure) which are expended in the dangerous confict: nay, so sure are they that these are not the means by which wealth is to be brought into the country, that the heroes who plan these wars and crusades, always take care to have no share in the execution of them themselves. While war was made for plunder, the captain of the banditti marched at the head of his plunderers to secure the largest share of the booty; but, at present, those who plan these scenes of plunder and devastation, know they shall have the largest share of the booty by sitting close and snug in the cabinet at home, without knowing anything about the confict but what they learn from reading

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a gazette over their cofee, or their bottle. In some country or another of Europe, perhaps at his very time, two beings, who are never sober, and who carry a pipe of Tokay in their noses, and a dozen of Champaigne in the their brains, are setting themselves down together to plan a campaign, issue orders for a siege, and direct the route of an army in its march – to – to – what place shall I say? I will not call it Paris that would look as if I alluded to certain sapient persons in this country – but to direct the operations, we will say, of a march to the moon: for that would be a project quite as likely to succeed as some that have been formed. Well, they have formed their plan for this march to the moon, then, we will say, and hiccuping to one another they begin to enquire which is the best road to reel by in this invasion. Why, says one, attack the moon on the north side, by all means. – No, says, the other, attack it in the south, against the world – or suppose we attack it in that there queer bay that we discovered the other day by the help of Ned’s glasses. But in the midst of this conversation, in comes a grave, pale-faced, lawyer-looking man – with a wig so large that his face can hardly be seen between the curls, who, afer turning his coat, sits down to put them to rights. ‘You are mistaken,’ says he, ‘you are not to attack either by the south or the north, – nor are you to depend upon cannon, pike, or gun. You must attack in the centre – I will furnish you with arms, and, if you listen to me, you shall carry the moon, like a suit in chancery, with a quirk, a trick, and a quibble. But fll your purses – fll your purse, lads – for you must see on both sides, that the counsel employed against you may plead your cause. No matter, you know – the people – the people must pay the fees. Tey are the clients that always pay but never gain – and thus you may expect to take the enchanted island of the Moon.’ But the winding of a gazette-horn awakens them in an instant from their dream, and they fnd every thing frustrated and disappointed. Ruin, disgrace, infamy and contempt have swallowed all their schemes. Te whole business is to begin afresh; and the people are to be plundered again, that a fresh campaign and the sacrifce of fresh myriads of human beings may repair their blunders. But, Citizens, it is almost time to return from the moon, and seriously to resume our subject. How comes it, then, that reign afer reign, administration afer administration, and year afer year, the rulers of the earth become more and more fond of this system of war. I will tell you, Citizens, it is from this simple reason, that the system of war has become more and more proftable? I hold here, in my hand, some facts and calculation, taken principally from a pamphlet which I recommend to your serious perusal, entitled ‘Facts addressed to Landholders,’8 &c. written, as I before informed you, by the joint eforts of Lord Shelburn, Dr. Price,9 and John Tooke, and other documents collected from the minister’s budget, by which I can prove that every war, and every year of war, though the burden becomes more calamitous to the people, and more disgraceful to the character of Britons, – this self same system of war becomes more proftable, and productive of more grandeur,

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power and emolument to the rulers of the nation; and that of course the more it becomes necessary for you to put a stop to the system of war, the more determined your ministers will be that it shall go on: because it cannot be expected, while the people are stupid enough to support them in opposition to their own interests, that they will be so stupid as to refuse to be so supported. I fnd, Citizens, from comparing these facts with facts stated by Hume, in his Essays, 10 that the system of war is, at this time, six times as proftable to the minister as it was ffy years ago: that is to say, that the patronage and the emoluments, in other words, the expences of war, are six times as great as they were then. Hume has estimated the patronage of the army and navy at one million per year. It has now grown to between fve and six million per year; consequently there are fve of six millions in this department at the disposal of the minister of the crown, to increase the torrent of corruption, and sweep with more rapid force from the surface of the country, the little remaining virtue and independence which were lef among the higher circles. It is too late, Citizens, at this hour of the night (even if your patience would permit, my health would not) to enter particularly into these calculations: but I will call upon you seriously to consider what it is you are about, and whither you are going. I call upon you to refect and weigh in your minds, whether a few plain and simple facts – such indeed as are almost known to every individual who hears me, will not demonstrate this truth – that where the scourge of the universe, the annihilation of intellect, the destruction of the middling and the depression and ruin of the lower orders of society, is the banquet of ministers, it can only be by the united eforts, by the enlightened determination, by the frm, the manly and yet, at the same time, the peaceful and virtuous exertions of the great body of the people that such a system can be terminated. Let me dismiss you then, Citizens, for this evening, with a solemn appeal to your reason and moderation. Standing in this place, I am obliged to speak to you strong and monstrous facts. I commenced this course of Lectures with little else than a detail of facts: and such a detail of facts never in any former period of English history could have been brought before an audience. I have trespassed frequently, no doubt, upon your time and patience, because I knew it was necessary to have a broad foundation upon which my principle should rest; and that laying this foundation in facts, and rearing upon those facts the strong pillars of principle, I might be enabled to found a temple of Reason and of Liberty, at least in speculation, upon which you perhaps might improve, and under which your posterity might live in happiness through unborn ages. But, Citizens, when I recollect the nature of the facts that I have been able to discover of the human character – when I refect how prone we are to the detestable and contemptible spirit of revenge – when I consider how seldom we reason, and how frequently we give the reins to passion and resentment, I am

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obliged, every now and then, to call home your scattered thoughts and to curb and restrain the passions which these facts have such a tendency to awaken, that I may impresss deeply upon your remembrance the object to which I wish to direct you. I do not stand here to say infammatory things, and then shelter myself behind the pretence of wishing for nothing but peace and tranquillity: I scorn such arts and evasions. In the strong holds of the Tower, in the dungeons of Newgate, at the bar of the Old Bailey, I have never shrunk from the principles that actuate my soul. I shall not here begin the base arts of hypocrisy which there I disdained to practise. It is not therefore from caution, but from principle that I invoke you not so far to mistake me as to suppose that I mean to rouse you to personal animosity or violence. I know that violence is not half so great a crime in the eyes of those I speak against, as plain fact, bold and determined principle, and a clear determination of mind to abide by the conclusions to which that principle will lead. Tis I know to be the most dangerous of all things. Te danger I wish to ward of is your danger – the danger of the public cause – not mine. I have thrown my life into the public stock: I consider myself as a man too resolutely determined to speak the truth, to think that his life is worth an insurance. I have made up my determination that either the minister of this country shall stick my head upon a pole, or I will spoil his trade of corruption and desolation. I will use my reason till the sabre or the halter stop my throat. All the caution that I wish to impress upon your minds relates to the public cause: and I conjure you, by all that is noble in the name of man, by all that is dignifed in intellect and virtue, by all that is dear to you in the universe; by the love of those sweet babes which may cling to your knees and ask from your hands the boon of liberty and an enlightened education, that liberty may be understood and enjoyed – I conjure you by all these to bear it for ever in you minds, that reason, and not tumult, is the medium through which political amelioration must be obtained. If your calamities were only the inclosure of a few felds – if those who injured you were only a private combination of thieves and robbers, there might be some pretence and expectation that redress should come from the violent exertions of manual strength: but your situation is diferent: It is not men (though there may be some whom it is impossible not to despise!) It is not men that ought to be the objects of your attention: it is principle. Corruption is your misfortune; and you cannot, by wreaking vengeance on the head of a few individuals, remedy that corruption. Tere is no redress for you but in a peaceable, but thorough reform in the system of your representation. Do not, at this time, when famine is gnawing at the vitals of so many worthy individuals, when so many wrongs and so many insults, have been inficted upon the nation – do not listen to the voice of a few violent enthusiasts, who perhaps may be spies to those who think that there is no silencing the public opinion but

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by establishing a military despotism; and that there is no establishing a military despotism without a pretence of riot, tumult, and confusion: be not deluded by such men. If violent spirits – whether the dupes or the successors of the Lynams, the Groveses the Goslings, and their long train of perjurers and assassins who enjoy the confdence of gentlemen high in ofce – or whether they be individuals stung by their own private wrongs, or their mistaken sense of the subject before them – If violent spirits would urge you to rashness, sufer them not to draw you from the direct line of reason and investigation; and I hazard nothing by the prophecy, when I say, that if we act with prudence, and avoid commotion there is no power on earth can make the present system of corruption last to the close of the present century. Do you not see that it is preying upon its own vitals? Do you not see the shifs and artifces it is obliged to appeal to: even that military which it wishes to depend upon it is obliged to crimp, kidnap and trepan; and afer all, one part must be employed to dragoon the other, when any expedition is to be undertaken. When corruption is driven to such shifs, and is obliged to resort to such subterfuges as we have witnessed, we know she is on her last legs. Do you not perceive that you are going on headlong to a sort of bankruptcy? that you are obliged in part to borrow principal one year to pay the interest of the year preceding? Well, then, Citizens, by and by the stockholders themselves, who have hitherto been the links in the chain, which have bound and fettered us down, will become the peaceable and manly instruments of our emancipation. Tey will fnd how infamously they have been cheated and deluded; and that it will be better to reform the corruption, and let the sacred institutions of rotten boroughs fall, than that all the property of the country should be thrown in to confusion, and thousands and ten of thousands of families be reduced to misery who had been used to the comforts and enjoyments of life. It is the nature of corruption to eat itself up. Let the corruption eat away then; and the friend of liberty and of the human race shall receive the beneft. Aye, of the human race; for though I have talked of patriotism, I mean not patriotism in the paltry sense in which perhaps I should fnd the church warden of the next parish my rival. I mean not the happiness of a district: the Spaniard, the Frenchman, the Afican, are all my brethren; and I disdain the happiness that can be conferred upon a few at the expence of the rights, the welfare, and the felicity of the whole. With this sentiment let me dismiss you: let me invoke you to love reason, to love liberty, to love in short human happiness, for if you can fnd any thing that will promote human happiness more than liberty, let me beg of you to abandon liberty and pursue this new discovery – for liberty is but the means – not the end. But I, for my own part, am convinced that the only means by which the happiness of the human race can be secured, it by the difusion of

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liberty – and that the only means by which this liberty can be obtained is by the steady and determined exertions of the intellectual faculties of man.

THE TRIBUNE, NO. XXXVII

…

GODWIN’s PAMPHLET. HAVING this day received the following note, I take the frst opportunity of complying with the request with which it is introduced. Indeed, inasmuch as it is intended as an answer to my Preface, I conceived it to be an act of justice to the author to give it insertion, that, thus, in all probability, every person who has read my Censure, may read, also, his Defence. But upon this principle how is the ‘Lover of Order’ to do justice to me? and what recompence is this mode of explanation for the odious impressions which his former language must have a tendency to produce in the minds of his readers? Tose who peruse these volumes will know, without any acknowledgments, or explanations, that my Lectures bear no evidences of that character which the perusal of the pamphlet in question is calculated to suggest. But, I repeat it, my bitterest enemies are to be found among those whose prejudices having been infamed by such misrepresentations as I complain of in this instance, will neither read nor listen to any thing that comes from me. How shall such readers be informed that although Mr. Godwin has said all these bitter things, he did not mean them? and that if he had been at ‘leisure,’ when he wrote his pamphlet, to consider what he was saying, he should have recollected that I was neither like ‘Lord George Gordon preaching peace to the rioters in Westminster Hall’, nor ‘Iago, conjuring Othello not to give harbour to a thought of jealousy?’11 But though the ‘Lover of Order’ cannot do me justice for the hasty calumny, which, however it was meant, his pamphlet cannot fail to convey to the public; and although the pamphlet still continues before the public, with all its aggravating passages unsofened and unexplained, I shall neglect no means in my power to do him justice. Let him speak therefore for himself. ‘Te writer of the pamphlet subscribed A Lover of Order, which is animadverted on in the Preface to the Second Volume of the Tribune, requests the insertion of the following remarks in some subsequent number. – 239 –

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‘Tey have two objects: ‘Te frst, to disavow any purpose of imputing sinister intentions to the Lecturer. I have delivered my ideas upon the general impropriety of such imputations, with as much precision as I was capable of. In p.15 of the pamphlet, I had occasion to animadvert with freedom upon the London Corresponding Society and the Lectures of Mr. Telwall. It happens that the paragraph here referred to stands exactly in the interval between those two subjects. I conceive at present that the similes of Iago and Lord George Gordon, which have given ofence to the Lecturer, are not so free from the possibility of being wrested and misapprehended, as the illustrations I might have chosen at a moment of perfect leisure, and if it had not been necessary to produce the pamphlet (if it were to be produced) with extreme rapidity. But I am persuaded that, by the person who will attentively consider the similes, and the paragraph referred to together, they will neither be wrested nor misapprehended. When I styled the Lecturer’s exhortations to benevolence ‘saving clauses,’ I meant nothing more than to express my opinion of their inefcacy, and that the anger he excited would constantly get the better of the benevolence. I have always entertained an opinion more than usually favourable of the character of Mr. Telwall, and have never been sparing in expressing it. ‘My second object is to say a few words as to the supposed unseasonableness of my animadversions upon the Lectures. Te Lecturer, it seems, would have had me trust to appearances. Tey were about to be closed,’ he says, ‘as it appeared for ever.’ Preface, p. xvi. I am not apt to trust to appearances. I had not that faith in Lord Grenville’s and Mr. Pitt’s bills, as to suppose that they would put a close for ever to every thing that I might regard as intemperate or dangerous in the partisans of liberty. I considered them as incapable of producing any thing more than a short suspension of hostilities.12 I considered them as ‘an unwilling homage, that the too eager advocates of authority were paying to the rising genius of freedom.’ [Consideratins, &c. p.86.] Of consequence, I believed that this was a time in which it was peculiarly ‘to be desired that an individual should be found, who could preserve his mind untainted with the headlong rage of faction, whether for men in power or against them; judge, with the sobriety of distant posterity, and the sagacity of an enlightened historian; and be happy enough to make his voice heard, by all those directly or remotely interested in the event.’ p. 1, 2. ‘It seems I have a higher opinion of the importance of the Lectures than is entertained by their author. He thinks I ought to have been prevented from delivering my sentiments to the public respecting them, by considerations of ‘friendship and esteem.’ Preface, p. xv. I, on the contrary, believed that the public stake in their tendency, whether benefcial or otherwise, was of more moment than to be superseded by those principles of gentlemanly decorum, which will perhaps never endure an examination in the courts of morality and reason. I

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acted in this instance, with that preference of public to private considerations, which it is the object of the Lectures to recommend.’ WITH respect to this last paragraph, I must observe, that it very considerably misrepresents the passage alluded to in my Preface. However the writer and myself may difer as to the means of reform, there are certain principles of politics and morality upon which we are very well agreed, and particularly upon those maxims which defne justice as the sole basis of virtue, and the promotion of the general good, as the sole criterion of justice – My complaint against the ‘Lover of Order,’ is not that he has sacrifced ‘friendship and esteem’ to public justice, (when such sacrifce is necessary, it is baseness not to make it) but that it was the tendency of his retired habits ‘to deaden the best sympathies of nature, and encourage a selfsh and personal vanity, which the recluse philosopher frst mistakes for principle, and then sacrifces to it every feeling of private, and sometimes of public justice;’ and my accusation is explicitly ‘that the author in his extreme anxiety for the reputation of candour, overlooked every consideration of justice to a friend assailed by all the persecuting bitterness of powerful malice.’. Te fact is, that the means of doing justice to these Lectures have never been embraced by the ‘Lover of Order.’ He has attended but twice, once before my commitment to the Tower, and once since my acquittal. He says, however, that he had looked through such of them as were published: but even if he had read them through, he would have been but ill qualifed to judge of the general efect upon the audience, without witnessing that uniform solicitude with which I calmed every rising irritation, and protected from every species of resentment even those spies and hirelings who frequently insinuated themselves into the room, for the express purpose of insulting the Lecturer, interrupting the discourse, and irritating the passions of the hearers. In the printed copies the greater part of these occasional digressions, as well as of those clauses in reprobation of all personal animosity and revenge, interspersed almost in every Lecture, are omitted, to avoid those repetitions of sentiment, which, though justifed by temporary circumstances, would be not only unnecessary, but tedious and disgusting in the closet. Te ‘Lover of Order’ would also have learned by such attendance that the refection upon public speakers ‘bartering the tone of their own minds for the tone of their auditors,’ p. 19. was by no means applicable. So far from it, that the constancy with which I persevered in sentiments hostile to all violence and revenge, converted many of my earliest attenders into bitter denunciators, and occasioned the complection of my audience to be so considerably altered as could not fail to demonstrate to every impartial observer that the infexibility of principle, and not the prejudices of the hearers, gave tone to the sentiments delivered from the Tribune. Tat the popular Lecturer is expose to strong temptations in

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this respect is undoubtedly true: but my eyes were open to the danger, and my jealousy was accordingly on the watch: and, though I was careful to avoid the imperiousness of the dictator, and to disclaim all pretences of infallibility, let these volumes be my witnesses, that I did not forget that I occupied the place of an instructor, and that it was accordingly my frst duty, to examine my own heart, and respect my own opinions. I love the approbation of my fellow citizens, I confess; but I have not forgotten that he who sells his principles for applause, is as base as he who barters them for a place or a pension. Te pamphlet in question has been noticed in a very candid and impartial way in the Critical Review;13 and it is evident that the writer of that article understood what is said of the Lectures in the same point of view as I have. Te following passage, with an exception to the antiquated prejudice which exalts the duties of fiendship over those of justice, exhibits, I conceive, a very just critique upon the exceptionable passages. ‘HAVING thus analysed the work, we shall point out one or two to us apparent inconsistencies in it. In speaking of the meetings. of the London Corresponding Societies, he overlooks entirely the tranquillity, good order, and decorum which their advocates boast have prevailed in them, and hurries us back to the riots of Lord George Gordon. Without pretending to enter into the motives or the propriety of the former meetings, as impartial men unconnected with either, we cannot but think that insinuations on the possible efects of a meeting, without stating that meetings had been held without producing such efects, or seeming likely to produce them, are acts of injustice to the Society which called the meeting. ‘But if the writer’s zeal has thus apparently hurried him too far, in speaking of the Corresponding Society, we must confess that there appears something still more extraordinary in the language used towards the Lecturer of Beaufort Buildings, if the writer (as has been said) was, till he published this pamphlet, the Lecturer’s fiend, and was received by him with open arms. Te Lecturer could scarcely have been treated in such a manner by his greatest enemy; and at a time when the opinions of the public are much divided concerning him, very strong facts indeed ought to have been alledged in proof of the author’s assertions; and even then the voice of fiendship might have urged something in mitigation of the ofence. If the insinuations are false, Iago’s conduct, and that of the writer, claim equal reprobation; but we speak as men who respect the sympathies of friendship, and are not initiated into that philosophy, which would teach us to reject some of the best feelings of human nature.14

THE TRIBUNE, NO. XL.

A further enquiry into the CALAMITIES produced by the SYSTEM of USURPATION and CORRUPTION. Lecture the Eighth. Containing the Conclusion of the Animadversions on the PROGRESS of the WAR SYSTEM; and a general Application of the Operation of the preceding Facts in producing the Irritation that led to the indecent Outrages committed on the First Day of the Present Session of Parliament.15 Delivered October 30, 1795. CITIZENS, I Am this evening to fnish one of the most important branches of the present enquiry; and also to conclude that part of my course of Lectures which relates to the grievances produced by erroneous systems of government. I shall aferwards have occasion to go at large into the means by which those grievances may be redressed. You will please to observe, that although there are certain traits of character in which all wars, at all periods, have agreed; yet there are other circumstances which make the wars of one period very importantly diferent from those of other times. I have marked already some of those varieties which have characterised former wars. But there is a very particular circumstance distinguishing the present war, which though in some points of view, it renders it more hateful and odious than any that have gone before, yet in another point of view, is to be considered as a kind of palliation. Te present war may undoubtedly, in a considerable degree, be considered as a war of principles: not a war of country against country, but of one set of principles against another. In short every thinking man fnds his country not in a particular spot of land, but in the specifc maxims and sentiments which he has adopted, as best calculated, in his judgement, to promote the happiness and welfare of the human race. In this point of view, perhaps, a considerable degree of respect is due to those who have lost their lives in the present contest on either side: for though, above – 243 –

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all things on the face of the earth, I venerate that man who, abjuring tyrannical force, submits every thing to the investigation of human reason, and abides by the ultimate decision of the majority of wills; yet, next to this man, who acts upon the true and genuine principles of philanthropy, I admire the man who maintains at the peril of his existence the dictates of his own conscience, however illuminated, or however deluded. Men are not, in general apt to throw away their lives upon discussions of this kind without some sort of conviction. Tere have been (it is true) in some periods, and there are still – for the principles of the whole human race do not change at once – if they did, neither religious nor political creeds could be the sources of rancorous wars. – Tere have been men in former periods, and there are some, it is true, at present, who consider war as a trafc; and let themselves out to the trade of glory – that is to say, of massacre and assassination: – hired bravoes who glory in the livery of death, and outvie the murderers of Italy in proportion as those are greater scoundrels who destroy mankind by thousands than those whose poniards take of a devoted individual. Tat such men have engaged on both sides during the present contest, there can be no doubt. Soldiers of fortune will always be found, so long as war shall be considered as an honourable vocation. I believe, however, that there is less of this at present than at any former period; and that the bulk of those who venture their lives on either side are sincere in their attachment to the principles they support, though their conclusion on one side must have been drawn from the examination of too small a number of facts – or, perhaps, from the early misfortune of taking for facts the dogmas and prejudices inculcated in their infancy by their grandame, their nurse, or (which is still worse) their priest. But though in this respect, we have less abhorrence for the individuals engaged in this contest, there is another consideration which makes this war of principle more terrible and more odious than any other war that can be waged. We know from the theological contests of former times – what Gibbon called ‘the exquisite rancour of theological hatred,’16 to what degree of furor, animosity, and revenge, contests arising from opposing principles will drive mankind. Nor is political enthusiasm less powerful than the religious: and, hence, the present war (on one side at least) may be considered as a war of extermination. It is an attempt, not to subjugate a particular country, but to exterminate all those who hold particular principles. Citizens, there never was perhaps a greater absurdity than an attempt like this. Extermination, in any of its shapes, is not now as easy as in former centuries. Tere have been times it is true, when a conquering army, spreading itself like a deluge over a devoted land, massacred its inhabitants, violated their wives, and sold the children into slavery abroad, or retained them in personal bondage at home. Such was the conquest of the Saxons over the Britons, by which the very

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language of the island was exterminated, or, at least driven into a few barren mountains, rendered inaccessible by the kind austerity of nature, where the shattered bands opposed the fury of the invader, and preserved the scanty relics of British independency. (See note at the end.) But the character of mankind is considerably altered. – Every revolution that takes place, every invention of art of science, sweeps away some traits of human character, never to be again restored. Sometimes they sweep away the good, much more frequently the odious and vile; for even the vices of revolutions, which are certainly not the least odious of all vices, are transient, while their virtues and advantages are permanently benefcial to mankind. Tis change in the character of man has rendered it impracticable for the same species of extermination to take place now, as in former periods. Men go not now in whole nations or tribes to seize the land they invade, and plant their wives and families in the cultivated spots to which the barrenness of their native country has driven them. But the extermination of nations is much less difcult than the extermination of principles. Principles take a deep root, to which it is impossible to lay the axe of tyranny. Tat superstitious and tasteless bigot Pope Gregory, notwithstanding all the zeal and intolerance which he exercised against the works of ancient genius, found it impossible to exterminate even the writings of Virgil and Homer, and those other poets and philosophers whom he stigmatized with the title profane. Altho’ there were no opportunities of multiplying the copies of those works to the extent to which works are now multiplied, yet all the infallible power of the Pope himself could not reach those works of genius, which still, and I believe ever will be the admiration of mankind. If the omnipotent power of God’s vicegerent could not exterminate a few manuscripts, how are we to exterminate principles contained in printed books, translated into all languages, and spread over the whole surface of the earth? What government is lynx-eyed enough to search all the crevices and corners in which the books containing those principles may be hid? What inquisition is sufciently active to prevent those books escaping its Gothic ravages? Supposing a whole nation could be put to the edge of the sword, or that 24 millions of people might absolutely be starved to death – would this accomplish the object? No, Citizens, truth when once discovered is immortal. Tere is no power on earth – no combination of powers that can possibly destroy the knowledge that has once been known. Not only is it ‘impossible for men to unknow their knowledge, or unthink their thoughts,’17 but if you could destroy every man who has read and adopted those principles of political truth, which have thrown the tyrants of the earth into such a fever of apprehension, still the work would be incomplete; those principles, bursting with the irresistible force of truth upon new generations, would revive, and ultimately prevail. We are not, therefore, to

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wonder, that though the war has been carried on with such obstinacy, so little efect has been produced. But, perhaps, the governors of the diferent countries, combined against the new lights and liberties of France, felt a secret conviction that these principles could not be exterminated. But they might argue thus: – though they cannot be exterminated, we may be able to over-awe the people adopting those principles, and prevent their being carried into execution. Tis expectation is almost as absurd as the other. What? – is it possible for a generation of men to have a deep felt conviction of the truth of certain principles, and yet be prevented, by coercive power, from acting upon those principles? No: the history of the universe convinces us that this is totally impossible. Look back through the whole mental progress of mankind, and see if any thing like it has been efected. When Christianity was opposed by the tyrannical superstitions of the ancient world, the maxims and principles of Truth and Liberty incorporated in that system – the maxims of Equal Justice, which uplifed the labourer in the feld to an equality with the sovereign upon his throne, triumphed over all the fury of persecution, and Christianity was established in the midst of fames, racks, and executions, and all the cruelty of an enraged and tyrannical Aristocracy. From this great æra, turn you eyes to more recent events of the same character. When the idolatrous superstitions and tyrannical maxims of the church of Rome, and its legion of tributary despotisms, had extinguished, for a while, the principles of Equality, which the original religions implanted, and still bears upon its page, up start the Lollards, Wyckliftes, and reformers. Te fres of persecution blazed again; gibbets, and axes, and military executions, appeared in every corner. But the fres of Persecution were in reality the beacons of triumphant Truth, and Tyranny and Bigotry expired in their own blaze. Te fact is, Citizens that the heart-felt conviction of truth inspires an enthusiasm in the human character which is perfectly unconquerable; for when a man loves his principles better than his life, he will rush forward, though thousands of deaths and torments thwart his course. Tis very enthusiasm not only immortalizes his name (for that were a trife) but creates thousands and tens of thousands of admiring advocates and imitators; and his very ashes become the seeds of frm and persevering Principle, that destroy, at last, the tyranny to which he falls a victim. But suppose, Citizens, we could admit, for a minute, that it is possible to over-awe and intimidate mankind; yet would it be impossible for the present confederacy; and for this plain reason – Tey are themselves not true to their own cause. Te habits of state intrigues and cabinet cabal are so deeply implanted in their minds, that, though they believe their own existence at stake, yet they cannot forego the inveterate desire of outjuggling each other. Tey indeed profess, in their manifestoes, a great and zealous attachment to one general principle;

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they take care, however, not to tell you what this general principle is; and indeed, to our dim vulgar eyes, it appears as if this general principle was diferent in every one of those general associators. Certain however it is, that they always abandon the general for the particular interest: though this, perhaps, may be considered as a proof of their consistency: For, as veneration for antiquity is part of their profession, they conceive, no doubt, that they are bound, in veneration for their royal ancestors, to keep no sort of faith or good fellowship one with the other. Tus our most illustrious brother of Prussia, and our most illustrious brother of Germany, are engaged in the same contest together, and struggling, for the love of the holy religion to which they are so sincerely attached, to exterminate French atheism, – and, for the love of that royalty to which undoubtedly they are equally attached, to exterminate the republicanism of France: yet no sooner does our brother of Prussia see an opportunity of overthrowing the ascendancy of our Imperial brother in the Germanic Body, but he makes a separate peace, and then attempts to grasp at the patronage of the Empire, and transplant the sovereignty from the House of Austria to the House of Brandenburgh. Tus also we fnd that those great naval powers, Spain and England, pledged themselves to persevere in the same good cause. Yet England did not very well like that the Spanish ships should come into play, and learn a part of her naval trade; and Spain, jealous of the consequence of the navy of France being destroyed by the navy of England, take the frst opportunity of deserting the sacred cause, makes a separate peace, and leaves brother of England, and all the rest of the brotherhood, completely in the lurch. But the most curious and the most melancholy circumstances produced by this system is the strange and unparalleled disagreement which has taken place between the Duke of Bremen, the Elector of Hanover, and the King of Great Britain. Tese three great and mighty potentates have undoubtedly bound themselves to each other, by every tie which regular governments could devise, that they would persevere in the same principle, and abide one by the other for the attainment of the same great end. Accordingly alliances and subsidies have taken place between them, with all the necessary formalities of the diplomatic system; and the money of the King of Great Britain has been paid into the hands of the Elector of Hanover, upon condition of the Elector of Hanover faithfully bringing into the feld the number of men of which those subsidies were the stipulated price. Yet, by and by, while the King of Great Britain is most steadily resolved to persevere in the present honourable, glorious, and virtuous crusade, behold, the Elector of Hanover makes a separate peace, and the Duke of Bremen is appointed ambassador to treat for a general peace among all the belligerent powers. Tis, Citizens, is undoubtedly one of the most lamentable circumstances which has of late years taken place, and reduces Europe to a dilemma in which it never stood before: – a dilemma so distressing, that I know but one possible

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means by which it can be got over. If the Duke of Bremen, in his high diplomatic character, would but entreat the King of Great Britain to follow the example of the Elector of Hanover, I am convinced that an end would be put to this unhappy diference, the political Trinity would once more be acknowledged in unity, and peace would be established in every nation of Europe. Yes, Citizens, it does appear to me that the general peace of Europe might in this manner be preserved: because I think it has been proved, again and again, that British Gold is the cement of the confederacy – that the war, in reality, originated in the British cabinet – that the war has been kept alive by the wise measures of that cabinet, and the still more wise liberality of John Bull, who has parted not only with his money, but the necessary articles of his own subsistence, rather than the sacred cause should be abandoned. It remains only, then, for the cabinet of St. James’s to acknowledge ‘that France is as capable of reserving the accustomed relationships of peace and amity with the King of Great Britain, as with the Elector of Hanover,’ and an end would be put to a war, so disastrous as to acknowledge no parallel, in all the pages of all the histories that ever were written. But we are told that such subjects ought not to be discussed by us common folks, at this time. We are taught by ministerial writers, and particularly those oracles of ministerial wisdom, ‘the Times,’ and ‘the True Briton,’ that our reason was given to us for no other purpose than to be extinguished; or, at least, that the only use a man ought to make of it is, to teach him how to put his scanty bit of bread into his mouth, and how to forget that it is so scanty. Nay, those very wise and sapient writers have endeavoured to persuade us (for what falshood, what infamous calumny have they not attempted?) that the lamentable events of yesterday (which no man regrets more than I do) have been produced by ‘tolerating treasonable lectures and seditious societies,’ in which men have impiously dared to use their reason, without licence from Pitt, Dundas, or Portland. But let us consider awhile the real characteristics of these melancholy events: and I give them that epithet from my heart; because it has been always a maxim with me, that the best way to secure the triumphs of Reform, is to preserve the most inviolable regard to peace and good order, and to avoid all that violence by which pretences are furnished to a corrupt and vicious administration, who want nothing but pretences to lay prostrate at their feet every remaining security of the people, and to establish a military despotism, for the support of their power, and the promotion of their aggrandizement. If these lectures are treasonable, why does not the paragraph writer appear before the Privy Council, and make oath of treason I have committed, that I may be brought to immediate and condign punishment? If the societies are seditious, why does not some one of the host of crown lawyers point out the act of Parliament they have violated, or the maxim of our constitution which they

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have trampled upon, and proceed to arraign them accordingly? But, perhaps, the crown lawyers, and writers for ‘the True Briton,’ have got a law, and a constitution, the maxims of which our ancestors knew nothing about, and which is to be found in no part of our voluminous statute-books. If they have, then, perhaps, of their sedition, and their treason, I may be guilty. And I will tell them something more, – that, in all probability I shall continue to be guilty; because I neither can conform to laws which I do not know, nor will conform to any laws but what have been made by legally constituted authorities. – [A hiss; and a cry of ‘Te gentleman wants to be enlightened? He is not yet enlightened! Citizens, I have heard of some people who are born blind; I have heard of others who have been made blind by bad nurses and foster mothers; and I have heard of some other persons who have been struck blind, from having been always used to dark holes and corners, and at last coming into too much light at once. I know not to which of these three classes the Hisser may belong, or whether he come within the description of the old adage – ‘None so blind as those that will not see.’ But, be this as it will, I pray you, sufer not yourselves to be irritated. I am more alarmed at the intemperance of those who think themselves Friends of Liberty, than at the illiberality of those who declare themselves it enemies. Let the friends of Liberty behave with good order, and depend upon it the friends of Corruption are not many enough, in this company, to create that disorder to which they have so much inclination. To return to my subject – Let us consider what foundation there is for the impudent assertions of those hired assassins and calumniators – (perhaps it is sedition to call the writers of ‘the True Briton’ by their right names!) – let us see whether it is likely that political lectures, and political associations, are the causes of this phrenzy; or, whether there are not causes more powerful and evident. Let those who have been in the habit of attending these Lectures, say, whether the doctrines of Violence are here inculcated, or whether a zealous and anxious desire has not always been displayed to demonstrate the impotence and absurdity of all attempts to redress your grievances by tumultuous proceedings. Let the societies answer for themselves. I will say thus much for them, however, – that I have seen nothing in their proceedings which bore the least resemblance to encouraging violence and tumult. Te plain truth is, Political Lectures are not the cause of these disturbances; nor are Political Associations; but this is, in reality, the true and genuine cause: – Tis, Citizens, is a halfpenny loaf, purchased on the 2d September 1795, and which weighs two ounces. Tis, Citizens, and the political ignorance which ministerial scribblers are so desirous to perpetuate, is, in reality, the cause of all the tumults and disturbances that have disgraced this country. Many of you remember the time, when a halfpenny roll was a breakfast for a man who had not a very extravagant appetite. What will this atom of bread do

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towards the poor man’s breakfast now? and yet, what is the increase in the price of labour? Is it increased a ffh? Citizens, you know it is not. – Tere are person who now hear me, who remember when the same quantity of table beer, which is now bought for 16s. or 18s. was purchased for 6s. and yet the father of a Citizen, now in this room, made a very handsome fortune by his brewery, at that time. Such are the consequences of the system of infamous corruption and unnecessary war, and the consequent oppression which, year afer year, has been increasing in this devoted country. – Is it necessary, then, to look further for the causes why magistracy (even in its highest functions) has lost its reverence? and why an irritated and unrefecting populace breaks out into occasional tumults and excesses? Tese unhappy disorders also arise, in a considerable degree, from the infamous and slanderous misrepresentations of ministerial writers. During the last two months, one might, from ‘the Times,’ and ‘the True Briton,’ have picked out a little volume of slanderous lies, which seem to have been written for the mere purpose of exciting tumult, and sacrifcing innocent men, to promote the interest, and secure the indemnity, of a corrupt and selfsh administration. Who are the men that have perverted truth, and misrepresented facts, the true statement of which is of the utmost importance to the peace and preservation of the country? Te ministerial scribblers, ‘the Times’ and ‘the True Briton.’ Tey are the men who, by the most gross and fagitious misrepresentations of the returns of the Corn Market, have attempted to throw the people into confusion, and persuade them, by exciting an ill-grounded suspicion against the unfortunate dealers, to destroy the mills, and break the shops of the bakers. Yet we see that the bakers, so far from making greater fortunes than they used, in many places have shut up their shops, hung them in mourning, and let their ovens grow cold, because they could no longer get a living proft. – Te cause of this mischief, says the Political Reformer, is in your parliamentary misrepresentation – for representation it is not. – But no! say the writers for these ministerial prints. It is no such thing. Te corruption of the constitution is, in reality, the beauty and perfection of the constitution; and if you destroy that corruption, and introduce reform, your King will go, your House of Lords will go: for it is only – . Such is the conclusion from their argument! – It is only by corruption that King and Lords can be supported! Citizens, if rufans, calling themselves vindicators of the constitution, uphold doctrines like these, what is the conclusion? Te plain faculties of plain working tradesmen cannot understand how deformity can be a beauty. Tey cannot understand how the soundness of our constitution can possibly consist in that corruption which destroys the very essence and spirit of it; and when they hear the defenders of government uphold the doctrine, that if you oppose the corruption, you would destroy King, and Lords, and Constitution, the conclusion they too unhappily and frequently draw is, that King, and Lords, and Constitu-

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tion, must be evils: For how, say they, can that which is sound be destroyed, by destroying Corruption? – Tese misrepresentations of fact and argument excite the fury of the people; not the peaceful and rational argument, that it is only by peace and reform that what is good and excellent in only by peace and reform that what is good and excellent in our constitution can be preserved. Citizens, I grow warm upon this subject. I have a deep interest in it. I have staked all that is dear in existence, and my existence itself, upon its success; and, in the ardour of passion, I forget that I am but the shattered feeble remnant of a man, partly destroyed by the corruption and wickedness of a daring administration who, upon a charge which they knew to be groundless, crammed me into a common receptacle for the putrid carcses of felons, where my constitution was undermined, and the seeds of a disorder sown in my vitals which every strenuous exertion brings back upon me. I forget this cannot help that warmth which exhausts my spirits. Pardon me therefore if I do not always preserve that uniformity and animation which should give life to these Lectures. But, Citizens, there is another consideration which will shew the fallacy of these ministerial arguers in still stronger colours. Let it be remembered that the most ignorant of mankind are always the most prone to violence and commotion. Savages, who are totally destitute of cultivation, revenge every insult by murder; and attempt the redress of every grievance by war and depredation. Te enlightened philosopher applies to his reason, he traces fst of all the calamities, and having found out causes, endeavours to fnd the most lenient means of redress and amelioration. What is the savage by a man of ignorance? What is the philosopher but a man of enquiry and knowledge? Will enquiry and knowledge then make man more of a savage? or will it make him more a philosopher, and consequently a lover of peace and order? Te fact is, Citizens, that in proportion as mankind are ignorant, they are always tumultuous. In proportion as they are enlightened they are temperate and moderate in their actions; and though the vehemence of sentiment, and the ardour of social passions may sometimes transport them into warmth of expression, their hearts lose not the tender sympathies for their fellow beings, which make them regard violence as an exertion only to be appeared to for defence, not as an ofensive measure. Tus the philosopher will defend his life when attacked by savage force, but he will never himself attack with any thing but argument and investigation. Tose who belonged to no particular associations, who are too poor, too unlettered, too ignorant, and too unfortunate to be concerned in any associations of this kind, are always, in all countries, the beginners of tumult and insurrection. For when they feel the gnawing tooth of hunger at their vitals, when they see a family which ought to be a blessing become a curse, and dare not enter into virtuous union with the fair partners of their hearts, will they not

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thirst for vengeance? And perhaps the poorest peasant feels the fne force of love with as much ecstacy as the most luxurious noble; and when nature knock at his heart, and he dare not open his breast for her reception – when the sympathies of youth and the delightful tenderness of passion stimulate him to an union, and he recoils from the picture of a beggared, ragged partner, and a starving brood of children what are the emotions he is likely to feel? Will he not be indignant? Will not those tender passions yield to gloomy and ferocious resentment? and will he not, as his tumultuous revenge dictates, seize the frst opportunity of getting rid of the wrath over-boiling in his bosom? though perhaps the victim of it is as much a suferer as himself, and as ignorant of the causes of the mischief ! When the man who for 20 or 30 years has followed a thriving business, and has been getting a little comfortable support for his family, and beholds at last, by the blasting artifces of corruption war and taxation strip him of all the gainings of former years, and throw him who has spent his life in industry and œconomy into the same situation as the drunken profigate to whom he used to make his example a lesson of morality, will he not also feel a gloomy resentment and indignant passion boiling in his breast? If so, what means have you to pervert him from insulting the laws and assaulting the magistracy under which he lives, but by political association, and the consequent argument and investigation which cannot fail of convincing him, that violence is not the way to redress: because violence can only destroy individuals, while the mischief exists not in individuals but in the system. Tese are circumstances which, as Bacon has observed in a more concise, but perhaps in a more emphatic manner, are the causes of the beginnings of seditions, troubles, and insurrections. Who are the traitors then? Te men who prevent the investigation of these causes, aggravate their tendency to mischief, widen the breach in the social system, and pour the poison of corruption into the political would till it rankles to phrenzy and breaks forth in desperation. Tese are in reality the traitors. Not the people who petition are the traitors; but they are the traitors who prevent the petition from being heard: not the people who remonstrate are the traitors; but they are the traitors who pouring the unction of fattery into the ears of the Chief Magistrate, or perhaps sealing them up by court intrigue, prevent him from attending to the remonstrances of an aggrieved nation. It is not unlikely, Citizens, that those men who have practised all these artifces lay the fattering unction to their own souls that they are in reality loyal men, and good citizens, and supporters of king and constitution: but it if had not been for the infammation produced upon the public mind by attempting to make truth high-treason, and all argument a crime, such events as took place yesterday never could have happened.

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Te people of this country are not a banditti of rufans and assassins. Tey are a thinking and refecting people. But if you will prevent men from thinking, you must expect the consequences of their inconsiderate violence. Open, open then the portals of truth; and let every man have access to the temple and peruse the volume of reason and justice. Ten shall you fnd that men will employ their minds in improving the social condition of human nature, instead of employing their hands in rendering it worse! Open the sluices of reform, and let the waters of purity wash away the defling flth of corruption, injustice, and oppression. Ten shall the fertilizing stream, watering the political garden of the universe, bring forth the fruits of plenty, and the blossoms of felicity; and man shall be too busy, in numbering his enjoyments, to commit depredations on the rights and happiness of others! But if you will not reform, – I am repeating in this sentence almost the words of the father of the present minister – ‘If you will not reform for the people in time, the people will at last reform for themselves with a vengeance;’ and if they should be driven so to reform woe to those that drive them to such desperation. Nor was this the sentiment of Lord Chatham18 alone. Te courtly Chesterfeld, struck with the prospect of the consequences of the corruptions of government, declares, that the trade of kings, priests, and lords, before the century closed would cease to be as good as they had been. Was Chesterfeld a Jacobin? Was lord Chatham a Jacobin? Te fact is, the strong voice of reason has been long crying but that reformation is necessary, and that nothing could preserve us from commotion but a speedy compliance with this necessity. In short, Citizens, the maxims of political truth have been long making their way to the minds of philosophic individuals; and though few men at the frst dawning of any political, moral, or physical truth, do, in reality, perceive the full length to which it will lead, yet the principles we are discussing are not new. Te conclusions that we draw from those principles are not the invention of what is called Jacobinism. But when you give to truth and justice an odious name the name ceases to be odious any longer; and Jacobinism, by the impolitic proceedings and persecutions of our rulers may become as honourable to those who bear the stigma, as the cross was rendered by the aristocratical tyrants and usurpers of Judea, who destroy ed the great reformer of Gallilee, who frst broached, in that part of the world, the doctrines of liberty and equality. To conclude, Citizens, not they who argue are the traitors, but hose who say that argument shall no longer be attended to: for this is, and always must be, the inevitable consequence – when you make it dangerous for men to argue, or to enter into peaceable associations, men of conspicuous talents will withdraw themselves, but gloomy and ignorant enthusiasts will come forward in their places, who, having no principles of justice and reason in their minds, and being

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debarred the opportunities of free enquiry, will present no petition but at the point of the pike, and make no remonstrance but with the battle axe in their hands. Tat such calamity may never fall upon this country is the anxious wish of the man who now addresses you; and he knows no way to prevent such calamities, but by permitting free, bold and manly investigation; and changing the present borough-mongering system for a full, fair and free representation of the people in the Commons House of Parliament. NOTE. See p. 129 [p.245]. Tis Lecture was several times interrupted in the delivery by an individual – not unobserved, nor entirely unknown, to the Lecturer, who, as several dirty agents of administration have successively attempted, seemed particularly desirous to excite confusion. Te animadversions called forth by one of these interruptions I have inserted (p. 134[183].) But the argument in this place appeared too important to be so broken in upon. I have therefore omitted in the text the admonition occasioned by an interruption in this place. But as it will tend to illustrate both the views and the discretion of the FRIENDS of GOVERNMENT, to mark the passages at which they were most sore, it seems proper to inform the reader, that the paragraph in praise of those brave BRITONS WHO DEFENDED THEIR INDEPENDENCE among the mountains of WALES, was no sooner uttered, than it was followed by a loud, though solitary hiss. Te following animadversions which this stupid illiberality occasioned will tend still farther to shew how far my manner of treating my subjects had a tendency to bring the passions of my auditors ‘in training for destruction,’ and lamp post massacres. – I am very glad the gentleman took this opportunity to hiss; because it shews that he is nothing but an ignorant hireling, sent here for the express purpose of hissing. Nay, not even a hireling who could have been employed by any administration possessing three grains of common sense could be so stupid as to hiss a man for stating a mere historical fact. (Another solitary hiss; Very loud and long indignation in the audience. – and a cry of ‘point him out!’) No, heaven forbid! Point no man out! I wish not to instigate any fury against individuals. I hope no person will notice him. I perceived from whence the illiberality came: but let it pass. Remember that the poor unfortunate being whom the calamities of the country, and the miseries produced by the present war have reduced to so abject a state of wretcedness that he could hire himself to such prostitution, is an object of your pity, not of your resentment. Such depravity ought to be an additional argument with us to persevere by manly and peaceable enquiry, for the restoration of that happiness we have lost, and that independence of soul upon which Britons once prided themselves.

THE TRIBUNE, NO. XLI.

THE LECTURE On the REVOLUTION in 1688. Delivered on the ANNIVERSARY, Wednesday, November 4th, 1795. CITIZENS, YOU assemble this evening to commemorate one of the most important events that have taken place during the whole period of British history: this being the anniversary of the landing of king William19 in this country. You are not, however, to suppose that it is my intention to entertain you with a long panegyric upon the character of the Prince of Orange. Te fact is, Citizens, that I am but a lame sort of an orator at panegyric: nor have I yet found many instances, in the lists of royalty, that are calculated to inspire the enthusiasm necessary to make panegyric palatable to the hearer. And when I consider William III. in his individual capacity, I am not inclined to bow down with much more implicit veneration to him, than to his predecessors, or some of his successors. William III. undoubtedly was the instrument of a very important change in the afairs of this country: a change in some respects very excellent; in others, I will have the boldness to say, unfortunate and erroneous. William III. also, makes a very conspicuous fgure in the history of Europe: and there can be no doubt but that there were many traits of greatness in his character. But, as it happens that all men have their defects as well as their virtues, so it happens, also, that a person does not cease to be a man when he becomes a king. I think I observe certain parts of the character of this hero which do not entirely justify all the applause and approbation which party men have sometimes lavished upon him. Be this, however, as it will – be his virtues or his defects whatever they may, we do not assemble to discuss the merits of men, to extol individuals into demi-gods, and then fall down and worship the idols we have set up; but, to pay our devotions to the divinity of PRINCIPLE and TRUTH – a divinity of more real value than all the pageants that have ever strutted before our eyes, for their own gratifcation, and the terror of their oppressed and deluded worshippers. – 255 –

DOI: 10.4324/9780429349720-23

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I conceive that, in the present æra, few persons can be found, in any country, who are extremely anxious about the name of their chief magistrate; or who bow down with implicit veneration to one family, in preference to another. We shall therefore, I dare say, entirely agree with that sentiment, so ably supported a session or two ago in the House of Commons, Tat we should have been totally inexcusable, if we had spent the blood and treasure of this country, at the period of the Revolution, for no other purpose than to pluck down one race, and set another in its place. It was for Principle we were contending – or else we were contending for nothing; for it is only by an amelioration of the principles upon which government is conducted, that any advantage can be communicated to the people: and if we plunged into tumult from any other motives whatever, we should lack that good understanding which an ancient fabulist gives to the ass, who, when the trumpets were sounding from the walls on one side, and from the invading army on the other, was conjured by his master to quit this feld, lest he should fall into the hands of the enemy. ‘What, master,’ says the ass, with eloquent brevity, ‘if the enemy should take me, will he put three panniers upon my back?’ – ‘No:’ replies the master, ‘your back is only made for two.’ – ‘Why, then, I carry two already,’ replied the logician, ‘and it is matter of very little consequence to me, whether I carry your panniers, or another man’s!’ It was for principle, then, that our ancestors contended, at the Revolution in 1688. It was for principle that they plucked down the house of Stuart, and exalted, frst the house of Orange, and then the house of Brunswick, to the throne; because they entertained a zealous and virtuous expectation that those houses would be instrumental in supporting those principles which the detestable Stuarts endeavoured to annihilate and overthrow. Such, I believe, were the feelings that actuated the worthy part of the leaders of the famous Revolution: and by this Revolution there were accordingly principles established, which must for ever be dear to the hearts of Britons. By this Revolution was overthrown the absurd and ridiculous doctrine of ‘the right divine of kings to govern wrong;’ – by this Revolution was annihilated the pretence that kings are God’s vicegerents; that from heaven they derive their authority, and are responsible for the exercise of it to heaven alone. By this also was established another principle, glorious and important to the last degree! – a principle which though the advocates of Corruption would destroy all the conclusions which result from it, and all the benefts to be derived from it, yet, in reality, they do not dare openly to disavow! namely, that the sovereignty of every country is, impresciptibly, and inalienably, in the people; and that therefore they must at all times, as they have the power, have the right, also, when their own preservation makes it necessary, to exercise the sovereignty, delegated, but never absolutely given away, because given away it cannot possibly be.

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I know, Citizens, that this is a language unpleasant to courtly ears. Tis is one of the truths which, though Blackstone20 and other sycophant writers have been obliged to acknowledge, yet at the same time they would fain persuade us, ought never to be propagated to the people, upholding thereby the old ridiculous maxim by which all the barbarous and destructive superstitions upon the earth have been supported, that those who have intelligence are to use, or rather to abuse, that intelligence, to the excellent, benefcent, and just end, of keeping all mankind besides themselves in ignorance: – in short, in misleading the multitude by phantoms, while they grasp to themselves the solid and substantial benefts of this world. By this Revolution was also established the principle, which has since been trumpeted forth by that learned authority the Lord Chief Justice Eyre, that the sovereignty must always be exercised for the happiness and welfare of the people; and that it is only for the welfare, happiness, and protection of the people, that any sort of power or consequence should be delegated, even to the chief magistrate himself. Such principles it is glorious to see acknowledged by the acts and deeds of great nations, and stamped with the seal of historical authority. It is glorious to live at a period when events have taken place, which no one, without proclaiming himself an enemy to the constitution of his country, can pretend to stigmatize, that render these principles incontrovertible! From this principle resulted another, at once demonstrated and exercised by the Revolutionists of 1688, namely, the right of the people, whenever their happiness is invaded, their liberties are trampled upon, and their security is attacked, of recurring to their natural sovereignty, and changing the government which no longer pays respect and veneration to their rights and happiness. Is there a man who will be bold enough to say, that this is not a right of Britons? If there a man who will be bold enough then to say, that this is not a fundamental principle of the British constitution? If there is such a man, will he also be bold enough to take to himself the consequences which result from that denial? Let him recollect, that thereby he slanders the Revolution, calls William III. a usurper, upholds the divine right of the house of Stuart, proclaims, in fact, that the poor dreaming old woman of a Cardinal at Rome there – ‘Cardinal of York,’ I think they call him – is King of this country; and thus, as far as is in the power of words, commits high treason against the house of Brunswick, now established on the throne: for there are but two possible means by which any government can pretend to have been established. Either it must have been by hereditary right, tracing that right to its fountain, in divine appointment; or else it must rest upon the foundation of human right. And what is this foundation of human right, but the congregated voices of human beings, proclaiming the conviction of their understandings, and the decision of their wills?

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Here, then, I think I may rest, with justice and propriety, as upon a pillar of adamant, the admiration which I pay to the Revolution in 1688. Upon this foundation, as upon a rock, I build the fabric of my attachment to the principles of that Revolution: and it is upon this foundation alone that I can possible be said to be a supporter of the house of Brunswick, or an advocate for the title, by which, under certain conditions, the descendants of that house still hold the crown. I say, under certain conditions: for when the people of this country changed the line and regular succession of their government, they adopted, under certain restrictions and regulations, a fresh hereditary succession. Mr. Burke indeed, tells us that, at the period I am now speaking of, the people of this country (that is to say, the CONVENTION which placed William III. upon the throne, and passed the Act of Settlement, by which the present family have happily succeeded) did thereby give and bequeath, decree, make over, and renounce, with all the legal formalities, which, if it were worth while to take up your time, it were easy to enumerate, all the rights, privileges, and immunities, of the people of this country, from thenceforwards, and through all successive generations.21 So that, according to Mr. Burke, the Revolution in 1688 was not a glorious revolution of Liberty, but an odious and detestable revolution of despotic, arbitrary, and tyrannical Usurpation, annihilating, at one stroke, the natural, and theretofore constitutional liberties, not only of the people, but of their children, and their children’s children, through all successive ages: Britons having lost thereby the right of human intellect; and being condemned to hug their chains, and bless the hand that bound them. But by what right, let me ask you, did the Convention of 1688 exercise the authority which they then did exercise? or by what right could they exercise the authority which Burke tells us, falsely, they attempted to exercise? Whatever authority they exercise, I conceive, must have originated, in this, as in the former case, either from a divine right, or else from a human right: that is to say, they either exercised this right by divine inspiration, or else they exercised it by that sort of privilege which every human being necessarily bears about him – the privilege of humanity, to which he is born, and for which, as Paine most emphatically expresses it, ‘his person is his title deed.’22 Now, if they exercised it by divine right, how came they to pretend to pull down the doctrine of divine right? Upon what better foundation did they build the divine right of the Convention, than their opponents built the divine right of the house of Stuart? Or, were there two divine rights – a sort of polytheism in politics? and did the two divine rights bufet one another, like Homer’s gods, to decide to which the sovereignty should belong? – If, on the other hand, their power originated in human right, (that is to say, the right of that intellect which man possesses) then it inevitably follows, that the right they possessed to alter the settlement, and correct the institutions of their ancestors, must have devolved to their successors, to alter their settle-

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ments, and correct their institutions: for if I had a right to undo what my father had done for me, certainly my children must have a right also to undo that which I do for them; or else you must admit this absurdity, that there is a particular period of time at which human nature arrives at unalterable perfection, ascertainable and demonstrable to the common understandings of mankind, and that the Revolution having taken place at this precise moment of absolute perfection, our ancestors had a consequent right to bind, in the chains of their infallible determinations, us and our posterity for ever. In short, there is so gross and palpable an absurdity in supposing that Englishmen, in 1688, had a right to recur to frst principles, and that Englishmen, in the year 1794, have not a right to the same recurrence, that it does not deserve any serious examination. Nay, our ministry themselves, who are incessantly abrogating old laws, and making new ones, (nay, who, as it were easy to prove, arrogate to themselves a right and power of altering the constitution of the country) do themselves overthrow the arguments of Mr. Burke, and prove that, according to their judgment at least, one generation of Britons have a right to undo what another generation had done for them; and that they have not inalienably resigned all pretensions to the right of making new provision, according to the exigencies of the times. Either upon these principles, then, of inalienable right, or else upon no principles at all, the Revolution in 1688 was established. And if we appeal to the writers who stepped forward to vindicate that Revolution, and to the arguments adduced by its supporters, we shall fnd that they all of them lead us to conclude, that it was upon those principles that the Revolution was efected. Whether you appeal even to Blackstone himself, who certainly was not exceedingly anxious to propagate doctrine of Liberty and Equality, or to any author who has written in vindication of the Revolution, you will fnd these principles, either explicitly laid down, or clearly inferred. In short, the greatest advantage resulting from that Revolution is, that it paved the away for the fair and manly discussion of principle: it broke through the chains and fetters which the despotism of the Stuarts had attempted to impose upon the powers and intellects of men, and laid open the feld of political discussion, by which the reasoning powers have been increased, the understand improved, the human character lifed to more exalted excellence; and from which, I make no doubt, a degree of happiness, virtue, and liberty, will ultimately triumph throughout Europe, which will cast at the most humble distance every thing that has yet entered into the imaginations of those who have been honoured as wise legislators – the best benefactors of mankind! Upon such principles then – the principles of the RIGHTS OF MAN – the principles of Justice, of humane and liberal Equality, was the Revolution in 1688 founded. Upon such principles was William III. placed upon the throne of this country; and happy would it have been for the present, and for all preceding

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generations, if such excellent and frm provisions had been made as would have prevented usurping and ambitious ministers, by a system of corruption, at any future period, from violating those principles, and pilfering from the people the happiness and advantages which those principles were intended to communicate and insure. But unfortunately, at the Revolution in 1688, one thing, necessary for the security of all the rest, was neglected; namely, a full and fair reformation in the Commons House of Parliament. Hence, it is that, though excellent provisions were made, and excellent principles laid down, (in terms rather vague and indefnite, it is true) relative to the restrictions upon the executive branches of the government, yet these principles and provisions, being lef to no better guardianship than a representation, open to all the usurpations of Boroughmongering Corruption, have not produced the efects intended. It is true, that a provision was made to secure the people from the mal-administration of the executive power, by rendering the ministers and advisers of the crown responsible for every measure that should be adopted. Tis provision was made by the 12th William III. chap. 2. in these words: – ‘All matters and things relating to the well-governing of this kingdom, which are cognizable in the Privy Council by the laws and customs of this realm, shall be transacted there; and all resolutions taken thereupon shall be signed by such of the Privy Council as shall advise and consent to the same,’23 thereby, as it was observed in the speech of Mr. Wharton24, from which I quote this clause, – ‘thereby guarding, as far as laws could guard, against that accursed engine of Despotism, a CABINET COUNCIL, or that more accursed engine of Tyranny, an interior Cabinet!’ – a secret spring, or wheel within a wheel, by which the operations of government are with impunity misdirected, to the advancement of the individual power and ambition of particular men, and the destruction of the rights and happiness of the whole. At the same time, our ancestors ‘proceeded to establish the principle of fair, and fee, and fequent election of the representatives of the Commons House of Parliament, as may be seen by a reference to the acts passed in the frst, second and third years of William and Mary,’ But unfortunately, fair, fee, and fequent, are words which may very frequently, though not very family, be applied to any meaning which interested individuals choose to put upon them. A parliament elected once in seven years, is a parliament fequently culled, in comparison of one that shall be elected for seventy; and a parliament that has no other sort of coercion on its mind than the coercion of Corruption, may be considered, perhaps, by some, as fee, compared with the parliament that shall be absolutely under the controul of a military despotism. Nay, a parliament may, by some, be supposed a fair parliament, that fairly represents all the proprietors of rotten boroughs throughout the country, although the voice of the people should be no more heard within that assembly, than it is in the divan of Turky.

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Citizens, if we peruse the boasted acts in institutes of this country, from Magna Charta to the present time, we shall be obliged to acknowledge that one of these two circumstances had a considerable share in framing all these instruments: Either the persons who occasioned them to be drawn up and adopted, were so eager to obtain the acknowledgment of a principle, that they neglected the means by which the enforcement of that principle could be secure; or else they only meant to ‘ cheat the deluded people with a shew of Liberty, which yet they ne’er must taste of,’ and every precaution fro securing the realization of which they therefore criminally neglected: for though we fnd innumerable declarations about free, and fair, and equitable distribution of justice, we seldom or ever meet with any sort of defnition of the meaning which those words ought to convey, and the manner in which the advantages of them are to be secured. – When you tell me I shall have a fair trial, the judge, who is to decide upon my fate, will be sure to tell me that my trial has been exceedingly fair; and therefore, by so declaring, you in reality declare nothing at all. I remember, Citizens, when Reeves – the Association Reeves, I mean – the busy-body fellow there, who has been politically defunct for some time, but whose ghost, of late, has begun to stalk about the streets, in the semblance of a wild Indian, with ‘tomahawk’ in his hand, hewing down every thing civilized and liberal that comes in his way! – when this Reeves, in his political life-time, wanted to iudict me, forsooth, for keeping a disorderly house, and he thought the fairest way was to try me in my absence, without letting me know that I was accused. I happened, however, to hear of the proceedings, and I went accordingly into the court, where he sat as High Steward and Judge of that sublime district, called ‘the duchy of Savoy, part and parcel of the duchy of Lancaster.’ I heard the jury very formally sworn, and I heard the witnesses very formally sworn, also; afer which it was thought very fair, that the witnesses and the jury should be sent out together into an adjoining room. Not understanding that mode of trial, I thought it might be fair to ask for a little explanation: so, ‘Mr. Chairman Reeves,’ said I, ‘am I not to be permitted to call witnesses also?’ – ‘What are you, Sir?’ said he, pursuing up his eyes. ‘My name is Telwall.’ – ‘O! very well, Sir! Do not trouble yourself ! I will take care you shall be fairly dealt with! You shall have compleat and full justice, depend upon it! You may rely upon me for that!’ Now, I own I am not very fond of relying implicitly upon any man; and to tell you an honest truth, Mr. High Steward Reeves is the last man in the world I would rely upon, if I wanted justice. Nor did his conduct, in this respect, mend my opinion. ‘May I not also call witnesses?’ I repeated. – No, Sir, none. ‘May I be permitted to speak in my own behalf ?’ Not, by Counsel, Sir. ‘May I in my own person?’ Not to any length, Sir. Afer the verdict, you may address ME! – So I was frst to be tried and cast, and then, afer the verdict was brought in against me, if he could have found a jury to make themselves so ridiculous, I was to enjoy the

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honourable British privilege of making a supplicatory address to Mr. Steward Reeves, to beg he would not put too heavy a fne upon my little weak shoulders. Now this, in the duchy of Savoy, part and parcel of the duchy of Lancaster, may be called a free, fair, and full trial: but from such trial, kind stars deliver us! In short, if legal and constitutional provisions are intended to be of any use to the people, it is necessary to have them explicitly declared, and guarded by some pure depository, subject to no infuence by that of the people themselves. Te declaration of the right of free, fair, and frequent parliaments, might be made with a very fair and honest meaning; but our ancestors were mistaken, if they expected any solid advantage from a principle so vaguely laid down, and so weakly guarded: and though a triennial bill was aferwards passed, the persons elected under that bill, took it into their heads to vote that the country was in danger, and that therefore they, and all persons elected afer them, should sit for seven years, instead of three. So you see that one of the things taught by that practice of this free, full, and frequent representation, is, that if you are delegated by any particular person to transact any particular business for him, the consequence of such delegation is, that you may snap your fngers at him when you please, and, by authority of your own vote and determination, continue to transact business in his name, but for your own advantage, so long as it shall accord with your own will and pleasure. A smooth way of settling business this. Te aristocracy of the Royal Exchange like it very well in politics, perhaps; but I wonder how they would like it in their own counting-houses! But they will tell you, perhaps, politics are of less concern than settling the business of their counting-houses: for if any defalcation took place in this respect, their great and wealthy families, who resided in palaces, and ride in gilded coaches, would be ruined; while political defalcations only afect the base and servile multitude – a set of beings upon whom such great characters ought not to humble themselves so much as to cast away a single thought. Another provision made at this Revolution is also excellently attended to, (to wit) that ‘no person having any place of proft under the King, or receiving a pension under the Crown, shall be capable of serving as a member of the House of Commons.’ Tis provision is made in very explicit terms: but where are the restrictions for preserving its inviolability? And mark, Citizens, – if you do not guard your principles in a frm and manly way – if you do not, in clear and decided terms, lay that principle down, and fortify it by explicit, unequivocal, clear and determinate laws, it is a matter of no consequence what provisions you make, relative to the subordinate branches of your government and legislation. If your principle is loosely guarded – if your foundation is corruption, the whole of the superstructure is in reality nothing more than an ill-jointed mass of ruinous materials piled together, but neither cramped nor cemented, and which those who have an interest in its destruction, can push down, and hurl into the dust,

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whenever they have planned, in their own imaginations, an edifce more favourable to their own power and grandeur, to erect upon its ruins. How many of the 558 representatives of the people who now have an honourable seat in St. Stephen’s Chapel would be lef there, if every man who has place, pension, or emolument from the court were taken out of it? I am prepared to decide how many would be lef; but I remember meeting with an instance, some little time ago, of a motion for an enquiry into this subject, which was lost, of course, by a very large majority; and when it came to be sifed, who were the persons that voted with the minister, it was found that there were but nine in that whole majority, that could have sat in the House of Commons, if this provision of the glorious revolution had been attended to. Another provision was, ‘Tat Juries should be fairly taken without partiality, and should act freely without infuence.’ 1st W. and M. c. 2. But, Citizens, here too, unfortunately, we have some neglect to complain of in those who framed the provisions. Juries, say they, shall be taken impartially: but have they secured the manner in which that impartiality may be guaranteed. It is true, in the most grand and important instance, some excellent provisions have been made to counteract the tricks and artifces that may be used to pack juries, and make false pannels: but speaking generally how are you assured that your juries are thus fairly and impartially taken? Who takes them? and how are they taken? Are the whole of the persons capable of being called upon juries put upon separate ballots, hustled well together, and taken out promiscuously, in the broad eye of day, where every body can see that there are no tricks played? or are the lists, in reality, made out by persons who are the nominees of the minister, and dependant upon him for the honours of knighthood or other benefts, real or supposed, which may be obtained by taking care not to ofend persons in power? Citizens, I could a tale unfold, relative to tricks and artifces frequently played upon jurors – I could mention to you facts innumerable that would shew you the horrible infuence frequently exerted. I could give you the names of jurors who have not only been tampered with before trials came on, but have aferwards been discarded by great families for pronouncing verdicts according to their consciences. But it is not necessary to dwell upon this subject – for, thanks to the enlightened spirit of Englishmen, thanks to that manly intrepidity – that determinate and honest principle, which even ministerial corruption and cabinet intrigue cannot exterminate from the British breasts, in defance of all the machinations of courts, when great and important questions come to the decision of 12 plain simple men, whatever infuence may have been used, whatever arts of seduction may have been practised, whatever interests they may appear to have, they will say by their conduct – Are the liberties of our country – are the lives of our countrymen at stake? We care not for your infuence. We will pronounce a bold, honest and manly verdict, according to the conviction of our

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consciences; and prove that we are not to be made instruments for the destruction of that freedom we were impannelled to defend. – When I come to speak on the next evening upon the event in which the original of that picture is so deeply interested (pointing to the portrait of T. Hardy) and in which you were I believe, scarcely less deeply interested yourselves, I shall have an opportunity of expressing my thoughts more fully upon the subject of British juries, and therefore it is not necessary to dwell longer upon it now. Another of the provisions made was that ‘excessive bail should not be required; that excessive fnes should not be imposed; and that illegal and cruel punishments should not be inficted.’ Now, Citizens, we can all of us, I daresay, form some kind of idea, in our own minds, what excessive bail is; When we hear that in the case of Eaton, bail was demanded to the amount of 2,000l. for publishing a story about cutting a cock’s head of – when you fnd innumerable instances of the same kind which I could mention to you, you will be inclined to think these instances of excessive bail. But how can you prove, in a court of law, if you should come to act upon the principle of responsibility, that they were excessive. Te judges who demanded such bail never thought it excessive, of course. I dare say, they will tell you, that they were excessively moderate, and considering the enormity of the crime of guillotining a game cock, even in a speech or a story-book, it is surprisingly lenient that the publishers of such stories should be sufered to be bailed at all. You may also have some ideas about excessive fne; – and when a man has a fne imposed upon his shoulders, much greater than himself and all his connections together were ever worth, you may think this perhaps excessive, inasmuch as it could be imposed for no other purpose than inficting that which the law and constitution of this country expressly prohibits, perpetual imprisonment. But how will you prove this excessive? I dare say the Attorney or Solicitor-general could either of them make a speech of from nine to fourteen hours to prove that there was no sort of excess in it; and that any man that should dare to talk of ‘German hog butchers,’ or any thing of this description, ought to be so fned; and that it was very kind, moderate and merciful indeed, that he was not hanged, drawn and quartered at once. You have also some idea, perhaps, about cruel punishments; and you would think it a cruel punishment, I suppose, to transport a man for 14 years to Botany Bay; to tear him from every connection of his heart, and every friendly feeling, and send him in fetters, like a felon, to those inhospitable regions, for having dared to explain what the constitution of the country was under our Saxon ancestors, and contended that if our ancestors had a right to improve upon the constitution of their ancestors, we have a right to improve upon the law and constitution of our ancestors also. But I dare say the Lord Justice Clerk, and all the other virtuous, upright, pure and enlightened judges of the Court of Justiciary in Scotland, could bring forward demonstrative arguments

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to prove that it was no cruelty at all – but on the contrary that it was mildness, mercy and moderation, prevented them from hanging the culprits up like dogs! In short, Citizens, mere vague terms are nothing. When principles assume the garb of law and constitution, every thing should be so clear, so perspicuous, that there should be no possibility of misinterpretation: because the men who have the power of interpreting are the very men who have also an interest in perverting the laws: or who at least will continue to think that they have such interest, so long as vain and deluded man shall suppose that there is more happiness in tyrannising over his fellow-beings, than in promoting their liberty and advancing their happiness. Another provision of this revolution was, that ‘thenceforward the Judges commissions should be made to be held so long as they should worthily deport themselves, and that their salaries should be ascertained and established:’ in order that they might be rendered independent of the Crown. But Citizens, who was to decided upon this worthy deportment, the People, or the Crown? and what avails the determinate salary of the judge, if that judge can have a pension, sinecure, or other emoluments held at the will of the king or his ministers, in addition to this acknowledged salary? What become of the settled limits of this salary, if his boy of nine years old, or his infant in leading stings, can have places conferred upon him of many thousands per year? We have heard, it is true, of very fne things about the step that was taken at the beginning of the present reign, to increase the independence of the judges. But while corruption is at the helm, reform may be pretended, but real improvement can never be produced. Te circumstances above alluded to render it impossible that any thing like independency should exist upon the English bench; and a historian of the present reign, has placed in a proper point of view the fallacy of this pretence. – Decadery Hist. of Geo. III. vol. i. p. 8I. ‘Tough the commission of the judges continued in force, during their good behaviour, yet, like all other civil ofcers holding of the crown, they were obliged to renew their commissions, at the accession of every new sovereign: a circumstance, which plainly indicated, that their power expired at the demise of the crown. At the instance of the sovereign, who was willing to lay some foundation for popularity, an act was passed, by which their commissions and salaries were secured fom any accidents, but their own misbehaviour or death. Had the quantity of their appointments been fxed, and not been lef to the caprice of the ministry, there would have been more ground for applauding this as a patriotic step. Teir independency would have been perfectly established, nor could they, like the lord Chamberlain, or the master of the horse, be considered as servants of the crown, but of the public. But this parliament was too courtly to go a single step beyond the orders received from above, or to pretend to rectify any defect, in a proposal sanctifed by the royal name. Te consequence is that our present judges discover no more independance than those of former periods.’

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Citizens, it is in this courtliness of parliament that the calamity rests. Te defect of the revolution consists in the unhappy neglect of purifying the representation in the Commons House of Parliament. If this representation had been purifed – if the original constitutional principle of the country had been appealed to – if annual election and universal sufrage had been secured to the people in such terms as set all subterfuge at defance, whatever corruptions or errors might have crept into the administration of the law, or into any other department, in consequence of the vague manner n which certain provisions were worded, would have been removed, as fast as the evil had made its appearance: because then the interest of the representatives and the interest of the people would have been one; and elections would have returned so frequently, and the number of electors would have been so great, that corruption could not have been practised, nor artifces found out by which those two interests could have been put in opposition to each other. All that we want for the security of our happiness, all that we want for the rendering perfect the work that our ancestors began would be accomplished, if this were in reality adopted. I annual election, and universal sufrage purifed that fountains of legislation, then should we fnd that those general axioms which declare such excellent principle, would soon be followed up by other provisions, which would render it impossible that those principles should be abandoned. If at the period of the revolution this reformation had taken place, no member of the House of Commons could have had an opportunity of standing up in that assembly as MR. (once CITIZEN) WHARTON did, to declare ‘that this provisional responsibility of the Privy Council no longer remains; that the election of the House of Commons is neither fair nor fee, nor fequent; that this provisional independence of its members is gone, and that the House at present swarms with person having places for proft under the king, and receiving pensions fom the crown; that juries are not fairly and impartially taken; that they do not act feely and without infuence; that excessive bail may be and has been required; that excessive fnes may be and has been imposed; that illegal and cruel punishments may be and have been inficted; and that the Judges are not independent of the Crown; that pensions may and have been granted to some of them, and that lucrative ofces may be and have been conferred upon others; by which means it cannot be said that their salaries are ascertained and established.’ Citizens, Citizens, you have a House of Commons whose clerk has been obliged to register the motion made in consequence of this declaration upon its journals – a motion which proves – incontestably proves how necessary a reform must be in that House; since, though not one soul stood up to contradict a fact so clearly, so boldly, and so positively stated, or who had a word to say against the truth and justice of either his arguments, his assertions, or his conclusions, yet but 14 persons were found to countenance the enquiry, which a charge so serious

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and so important required. All, all almost lifed up their voices to scout and discard a motion whose truth they knew, and whose investigation they dreaded! You have a House of Commons that has also been obliged to register upon the same journals, an express declaration that ‘seats in that house are bought and sold as notoriously as standings for cattle at a fair.’ You have a House of Commons I say that has been obliged thus to record upon its own journals the public avowal of its corruption; and yet you have in that house men who have the efrontery to below out persecution, death, and destruction to all who dare up-lif the manly voice of reason, and say to the promoters of this corruption – ye deluded rulers of the land – ye infatuated men, whither are you driving? Will you plunge the people of this unhappy country still deeper and deeper in the abyss of ruin, by your corruption? and will you not, at least from prudence, if not from principle, awake ere it is too late, from the heedless trance in which your luxury and rapacity have plunged you? Will you not remember that, though philosophers may reason, though enlightened men who feel for, and understand the real happiness and welfare of their country, may wish to use the force of argument alone – though those persons who really understand the principles of liberty may abhor and detest all violence, that all men will not be philosophers; and that passion and misery may thwart the benevolence of enlightened philosophy. If you will be going on at this rate, regardless of the manly voice of reason and exhortation, think – think at least of the danger there is, that a frantic, uninformed, and deluded multitude, may attempt by violence that which nothing but reason can accomplish, and thereby plunge both themselves and you into miseries, at the very contemplation of which the heart of every virtuous man drops tears of blood! ‘For my own part, Citizens, I declare from the bottom of my should I abhor and detest all tumult and violence; I wish for peaceful reform – I wish the happiness of my fellow-beings – and if I knew the violence which I could stop, if I knew the projects of a tumultuary nature which, at the hazard of my life, without abandoning my principles, I could prevent, I would face all dangers to prevent such rashness. I not only wish for reform by peaceable means only; but I am convinced that violence, tumult, and insurrection, would give pretence to rufans, who only want pretences, to rob us of the little liberty which remains; and establish the full dominion of their tyranny over us. Tese declarations, Citizens, these principles spring not from fear of danger. Te most violent rufans scorn not death with half that frmness with which the genuine philanthropist despises it; and I fatter myself, though I am small and weak in frame, though I have none of those gigantic proportions which distinguished the fabled heroes of elder times, that the spirit within this breast shall never abandon the principles of liberty, and that torments and death shall not drive me from the cause of reform, of justice, and virtue. But though we despise the violence that may be exercised against us, let us use no violence against oth-

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ers. Let us exert our reason – let us endeavour to rouse the torpid energies of intellect, not the violence of insanity. Let us endeavour to convince our countrymen, that they must have reform or they must be ruined. Let us shew them that disease and famine are grinding the entrails of those from whose industry we derive every comfort and enjoyment; and let us call upon those who from intellect or situation are able to push forward the cause of reform, to join heart and hand in a work so virtuous and so noble. If these things are treason, bring you axes, your gibbets, your executioners, we shrink not from your vengeance – we defy your power. Tese are, I believe, the principles of genuine liberty – these are the feelings of real heroism. Let me then, though I would rouse your ardour, persuade you to adhere to the principles of reason, not to seek redress by tumult, and commotion. A few unlettered and uninformed men, who have never had the advantages of political cultivation, have already furnished some pretexts to ministers to execute views and objects which, without some such pretence, they would not have dared to attempt; and already is the Tomahawk of tyrannic faction uplifed against us: nay, at this very moment, while we are assembled together to celebrate the revolution of 1688, a band of infammatory and seditious rufans are threatening us with a counter revolution. Yes, a band of seditious and infammatory rufans! for what so seditious – what so infammatory as the papers and paragraphs of those hired assassins – those slander-mongers for ministerial newspapers, who call out for murder and assassination – denounce their victims by name – fll the country with lying accusations, and dare to say that any person who, even in his professional character, shall venture to plead the cause of those who may be accused and tried, shall be marked as traitors also, and pursued by hatred and punishment? What are these but rufans? Is not this infammation and sedition? or something worse? Is it not sedition, also, to attempt to infame the passions of the populace against their magistrates by calumnious and notorious falsehoods. – Yet what is the conduct of these ministerial scribblers? We all know that a considerable scarcity of the necessaries of life prevails in this country – we all know that the Parliament are going to take this circumstance seriously into consideration – we know from the speech of Mr. Pitt, that the present Lord Mayor has made repeated applications to the Privy Council upon the subject, and displayed the most laudable anxiety to procure redress for the poor. Yet the True Briton has the profigate insolence, in its paragraphs, to charge the Lord Mayor as the cause of the present dearness of these articles: and to invite, in pretty direct terms, the populace of this town to treat him with violence and indignity on the approaching Lord Mayor’s day. What, Citizens, do the writers for ministerial papers call out for tumult? Do they invite violent? Do they preach rebellion? Do they persuade the people to attack the constituted authorities of the country? and are we at a loss to seek

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for causes for the late unhappy tumult on this side of Temple Bar? Tose who fnd themselves stimulated to voice may but too naturally be inclined to take such advice as a sort of absolution for outrages of another kind; and knowing the innocence of the party thus accused, may rashly conclude the fault lays with another equally innocent. Te fact is, the profigate and shameless system of war, the devouring corruption, the injustice which results from the common people having no voice in the representation of the country – these are the sources of the distresses they labour under. Yet from distresses, and these infammatory exhortations of ministerial scribblers, we are threatened that the means shall be worked out of what may properly be called a counter revolution. Mark what they have threatened us with? Tey threaten us in the frst place with a bill to prevent all meetings and assemblies of the people for purposes of political discussion – they threaten us also with another suspension of the Habeas Corpus act – they threaten us with another act of parliament to make whatever they shall think ft to call sedition, transportation for 14 years to Botany Bay, on this side the Tweed, as on the other. Tey threaten us with another act to alter the law of treason, and violate that great palladium of the British constitution, the statute of the 5th of Edward the Tird – a statute whose wisdom and efcacy have been recognized reign afer reign, and period afer period; and every judge, minister, or king, who has attempted to invade it, has been handed down to execration: while many of them have been also handed up to the scafold! Tough the men who threaten those things call themselves advocates of British liberty, are they the friends of the revolution in 1668? Are they the friends of the British constitution? Why talk to us of revolutions, of changes, of innovations? – I tell you, Britons, if these four acts of parliament pass, a revolution is by them efected: a revolution by which all that we call liberty in this constitution is entirely destroyed; and, with an exception only of the trial by jury, an absolute despotism is established over us – a despotism from which it is in vain to expect peaceable and rational relief: for it is a despotism that at once seals up your mouths, extinguishes your reason, and leaves you no manly, no temperate means of redress. Citizens, I know not for what purposes these threats have been held out to us. Tey were perhaps unworthy of notice, since they come only form the lowest hirelings of faction; and I conclude that the legislature of this country cannot possibly have in contemplation any one of these four most infamous and detestable measures. Perhaps they were held out by the hirelings of corruption to feel the pulses of the nation, and know how they would beat with respect to arbitrary usurpation. I will tell you, Citizens very explicitly, how my pulse beats upon the question. If despotism is to be established, it shall not be established over me. It tyranny and ministerial usurpation are to supplant the best provisions of the British constitution, I will not be a Briton, nor wear the badges of slavery and

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oppression. I will say more – If the people of this country are so tame, so lost to every sense of justice to themselves and their posterity – so lost to all remembrance of the glorious exertions of their ancestors, as to sufer the Constitution of the country, and all the advantages of the Revolution in 1688 to be overthrown by the hands of ministerial tyranny and corruption, they may hug their chains, but I will not. I will do all that man can do, all that the temper, the spirit, and the courage of the times will bear me out in, and if the country has not spirit enough to display a marked and manly opposition to the most direct usurpation over its rights and liberties, much as I have reprobated emigration, I will seek in trans-atlantic regions, a better country, and, under the republican government of America, seek for that freedom which will no longer remain in Britain. But I do not believe that the people of this country are tame enough to endure four such acts of parliament*. I do not believe that the government of this country is bold enough or profigate enough to have in contemplation the passing of four such acts. Tey cannot but remember the history of past times. Tey cannot but know, that when men are no longer permitted to use their voices, madness and desperation too frequently succeed; and, their voice being gone, they begin to feel whether they have the use of their hands.

* I am happy to fnd that in this calculation I was not deceived. Two Bills were brought into Parliament, not indeed grasping at all the objects above enumerated, but (in their original form) sufciently obnoxious to every sentiment of liberty. Te people felt and acted as they ought. Tey were not tumultuous; they were not intemperate; but they were frm and manly; and though their success was not equal to their wishes, their triumph was far from inconsiderable. It was the triumph of popular reason, over ministerial force; and may tend to shew the Alarmists on both sides, that public opinion, when rationally direct, and peaceably concentrated, must be omnipotent. All that is requisite for the remedy of abuses, the resistance of encroachments, and the overthrow of that corruption which exhausts the cornucopia of British industry to pamper luxurious usurpation, and glut the dogs of war, is, that we learn to understand our rights, peaceably associate to maintain them, and frmly assert our opinions.

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THE TRIBUNE NO. XLVI.

CIVIC ORATION on the ANNIVERSARY of the ACQUITTAL OF THE LECTURER [Dec. 5th.] Being a Vindication of the Principles, and a Review of the Conduct that placed him at the Bar of the Old Bailey. Delivered Wednesday December 9, 1795. CITIZENS, WHEN the Bills now pending before the House of Lords, were frst introduced into Parliament, I had very little expectation that they would continue in agitation so long, and I therefore undertook, what I should not have undertaken had I foreseen these delays, to lecture during their discussion every night. I have found, however, that these exertions, were more that my strength could bear, especially as the circumstances in which I was placed, and my desire of promoting the public cause in all possible shapes, rendered my Lecturing in this place the smallest part of my labours. I had the satisfaction, it is true, of perceiving that my eforts were not thrown away; and this gave me nerve and strength to bear up under exertions which otherwise I could not have supported. I say those exertions have not been thrown away; for it is not by mere external circumstances that we are to judge of success or failure. Whether the impending bills are to be adopted or not, is not the only question at issue. If the bills had been adopted without a spirited opposition from the people, the downfall of British liberty would have been complete, despotism would have been the attribute of the cabinet, and to have talked again of the freedom of Englishmen would have been an insult upon that departed spirit which once animated the breasts of our ancestors, but of which, by the tameness of our submission, we should have proved that we inherited no singled spark. If, therefore, we have raised the public spirit, we are not to despair of ultimate success, how much soever, for the present, the minister may carry every thing before him: for we cannot be so ignorant of what is called representation as not to know that it is in the power of the minister to carry every measure he chooses to run the risk of carrying. I, therefore, never had very sanguine expectations that any strong impressions would be made within the walls of an assembly where confdence is the general order of the day, and supporting the projects, views, and ambition of a minister, is called defence of the British constitution. DOI: 10.4324/9780429349720-24

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Te exertions, however, which the people, awakened to a due sense of their danger, have made, deserve the attention of every individual; and he must be indeed lost to the principles and feelings which ought to warm a patriot’s heart, who can repine at any loss of health or comfort he may have sustained in assisting that spirit of order and intrepidity which has shewn that the people are indeed the worthy descendents of a race of men, who in the feld, and on the scafold, shed their blood rather than abandon their principles. I could, therefore, without repining, still have continued every species of exertion if nature had not absolutely failed, and rendered it impossible for me so to do. Strength cannot be commanded; though spirit and animation may. Te principles of virtue and justice will breathe the one into the bosom of man, but they cannot pour the other into the veins. I was therefore obliged to suspend my exertions, and to suspend them longer than I at frst intended. I meant to have renewed them on Monday evening, imagining that I should by then have recovered strength enough to return to my duty in this Tribune: but Monday called for exertions of a still more important kind; and fnding that I had not strength for both situations, I could make no question, whether I should meet the friends of liberty here, where it is my interest to meet them, or where I should be more useful, tho’ I had no individual interest in attending: for though I hold it good and right, that every man should fairly consult his own interest, where the public cause is not injured by such consultation, yet I would eface that man from the tablets of my afections who could sufer his private interest to come in competition with his public duty. I regarded it therefore as a great and important duty to my country, to pledge myself to measure which I knew to be right, and to take the responsibility of principles which have eternal truth for their basis and liberty for their object. I was taken therefore from my sick bed to the public meeting, and I rejoice that I was so: I rejoice that we have given another proof that the classes of society who are stigmatized as tumultuous depredators, can meet in incalculable numbers, go through so much business with so much order, stay so many hours patiently upon a spot, be brought to such a sentiment of enthusiasm and genial unanimity, and then separate quietly to their own homes, to enjoy the consolation of a well spent day, not sullied by one act of irregularity, by one insult, or by one sympton of tumult or violence. Tey tell us that the great body of mankind are not ft to be entrusted with their rights. Not even the minister himself has the audacity to say, in plain and direct language, that man has not a right to liberty and protection: but he tells us that the common people are lost in ignorance, lost in vice; that they are incapable of order; that they have not intellect by which that order is to be preserved; and therefore that to entrust them with the personal exercise of their rights would be in reality to violate the peace, and endanger the security of society. Now mark

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the competition: let any candid man, I care not of what party – I care not in what prejudices he might originally have been educated – let any individual who is capable of ten minutes cool recollection, I care not from what class of society, compare together the conduct of diferent bodies of men, and see on which side the edge of this argument cuts keenest. I will not exultingly appeal to the meeting at Groce’s-Hall; I will not recal to your mind the disgraceful vulgarisms, the bear-garden vociferations, the blows, the violence of those who called themselves the friends of property and order at that meeting: I will only call back your recollection to the meeting at Merchant-Taylor’s Hall, which has been called one of the most respectable meetings that ever was held. What then was the conduct of the merchants, bankers, and traders, who met at Merchant-Taylor’s Hall? Was not Mr. Favell25 treated with so much rudeness and violence that he escaped with difculty from personal mischief ! Was not every man who held up his hand against the resolutions which the commercial connections of Mr. Pitt brought forward, treated with insulting grossness? – Were not threats – was not opprobrious language – were not mean distortions of face, which would have discredited Bartholemew fair, exhibited by the frst merchants in the city? I will not name them, though I could; for I marked them – I will draw a veil over the failings of men who one day or other may refect how much they degraded the dignity of human nature. Compare this conduct with the conduct of the thousands tens of thousands, without exaggeration, who attended the meeting at the Jew’s-Harp House; compare the conduct of the persons who taking possession of large halls, and proud in their opulence, arrogate the sole right of opinion, with those honest and industrious labourers who assembled together in such multitudes without committing one act of depredation, listened to the sentiments delivered to them with the silence of a marshalled army, and afer adopting the resolutions proposed, returned to their homes with the tranquillity of Arcadian peasants, who had met upon some festival to celebrate the returns of an abundant harvest, rather than crowds assembling under the smarting goads of oppression, to testify the strong feelings which as men they entertained, and to which as rational beings they had a right to give a tongue. Are these the men, fellow citizens, are these the men who are too ignorant to be entrusted with their rights? – Are these the men whom you fear should commit depredations upon your property? Are these the men whom you tremble at as plunderers and assassins? Are these the men to protect yourselves against whom, or rather to deprive whom of their natural and constitutional rights, you league yourselves together with an administration the most corrupt that ever existed in the world? with men who have taken more bold and daring strides within a few years to the violation and abolition of our constitutional liberty,

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than ever was taken by all the ministers of the House of Stuart put together – nay, than all the usurpations of Oliver Cromwell added into the bargain! Is it then to rob these poor men of their rights that you consent to abandon so large a portion of your property in unnecessary taxation? – Had you rather be at the mercy of such sycophants as surround those pools of corruption, the scenes of ministerial cabal and intrigue – Would you rather, I say, surrender all your liberties and all your rights to those ministers, than grant to these people such laws and such an exercise of their rights as would ameliorate their condition, lif them and their poor infants from misery, and enable the industrious labourer, by the sweat of whose brow you eat, to reap from his labour the comforts that should recreate him in the short hour of relaxation? Citizens, I have gone into a digression from touching upon this string: I cannot well avoid digressing when such a string is touched. I know there is, at this time, but one powerful enemy to the liberties the happiness, and the peace of the country. – Prejudice is that enemy: an enemy cherished by that mistaken pride which occasions men of diferent classes and descriptions of society to keep themselves aloof from those whom they conceive to be their inferiors: forgetting that he who bears the stamp of humanity is a man and an equal: and that superiority alone belongs to virtue and well-applied talents. Break through these bounds – lay prostrate these prejudices – unlock the proud portals of your hearts, and let your poor neighbours in. Tere is room enough for all: and if you consult your own happiness you will be anxious that the chamber shall be full of guests. Tere every human being ought to be present when you propose regulations from the public. When you talk of happiness, you ought to mean the happiness of all: when you talk of prosperity, you ought to mean the growing comforts and advantages of all: when you talk of protection and perseveration of peace, you ought to regard as much the peace and protection of the cottage as of the palace; and to be as anxious that the laborious tenant could sleep in tranquillity upon a well-covered bed, as that lords and mighty potentates should be undisturbed by the clamours of rufans, whose violence their splendour may sometimes allure. Act upon these principles, and you will feel no more dread of restoring mankind to their rights: be dictated to by these rules, and you will no more be afraid that universal sufrage would produce universal anarchy. You will no longer think it wise to surrender your own liberties, in order to prevent the common people from enjoying the exercise of theirs. Tis principle has, I trust, been long impressed upon my mind; and as I profess upon this evening to give you a vindication of the principles, and a review of the conduct that placed me at the bar of the Old Bailey, let this be the test by which you try both me and my persecutors. If you perceive that the principles of those of the opposite party are more friendly to the happiness and general welfare of

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mankind; cleave to them: it is your duty. If, on the contrary, you should fnd that my principles and conduct are more likely to promote the general happiness, cleave to the principles that I deliver. All I ask is, examine fairly for yourselves: trust not the second-hand reports of hired assassins, who though they have not the courage to wield the dagger, have the baseness to stab with the pen. Judge for yourselves; dismiss the prejudices which great names have imposed upon you; and then see whether the principles of the London Corresponding Society, or the principles of the Society at the little white house on Wimbledon Common are most worthy of your approbation. On the anniversaries of the acquittals of Tomas Hardy and of John Horne Tooke I delivered lectures in commemoration of those events. Another acquittal was added to these in the same series of events, and it appeared to me that, though it would be too much like egotism to trace precisely the same path with respect to myself that I had done with respect to them, yet there was something, perhaps, like afectation, in passing entirely over the subject. I therefore determined, on the last Saturday evening, which was the anniversary of that acquittal, to have entered into a vindication of the principles for which I was prosecuted, and for which, if they are wrong principles, and principles are proper subjects of prosecution, I ought to be prosecuted again, for I have not abandoned them. Ill health prevented me at that time, and I now come to perform the task. I have laid down in my exordium the principle upon which mankind ought to act. It will be for you to judge whether this is the right principle, and whether it has been the actuating principle of those men with whom I am connected; and, if it has been, whether there was any justice in the late persecutions, or is any justice in the persecutions of the present time: – for this is a persecution of a much more bitter kind than many of you are aware of: – a persecution that will cut of the very means of subsistence from hundreds, yea from thousands; and annihilate the property of others, who by an ex post facto law, are to be deprived of the resources of which former exertions had put them in possession. What then are the principles upon which mankind ought to act? Are they – or are they not the principles of universal benevolence – the principle which teach us to regard the welfare of the whole human species? – Need I argue this part of the subject? Citizens, Tere are many maxims and many sentiments which in my early youth I adopted from education which experience and reason have taught me to abandon. Tere is one principle, however, among many, that is to say, the principle I have just laid down, which I had the good fortune also early to imbibe, which I have never seen reason to forego. I abandoned a lucrative profession, fattering at once to any popular talent I might possess, and to every ambition which the youthful mind could entertain, because that profession appeared to me radically vicious; to be a system of intrigue, of chicane, of sophistry, and of plunder; which bears the venerable name of law, but which is nothing but one

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continued series of fraud. I looked for principles and I found quirks and quibbles. I found a few good maxims indeed, hid beneath huge piles of contradiction and absurdity: but consistent principle I could not fnd. I looked again for justice, and the security of civil and natural rights; but I found chicane, cruel oppression, falsehood, peculation and swindling, stamped with the venerable name of authority. I found that the rich man could make use of this instrument to destroy the poor; and that the poor man, against whom, perhaps there was no real pretence of justice or equity, might be crushed beneath its weight, and doomed by it for the sin of poverty to the horrors of a jail: that an individual, whose only blame was the negative vice of not having fortitude and resolution enough to starve while he could obtain a little bread upon credit, – that this poor being, full, perhaps, of virtue, full of noble sentiments, weighted down with afection for a family too numerous for him to support, under the cruel circumstances in which society had placed him, must be thrown into a miserable jail to swell the grandeur and consequence of the vendors of Justice!!! Tere must he languish like a common felon: – nay worse than any felon ought to be treated. It is enough, surely, for the greatest ofence to deprive a man of life. Cruel treatment, and the damp, unwholesome gloom of odious dungeons, whatever pretences national egotism may fnd to support the boast of a humane system of jurisprudence, are a species of torture afer all. Yet the poor individual, who had been guilty of no crime whatever, is to be surcharged with a weight of law charges, fees of ofce, and perquisites of courts, to swell the consequence, to repair the carriages, to pay for the ermine and scarlet robes of the professors of this science, as it is called; and there (poor miserable debtor!) is to languish in cheerless desolation. I confess, Citizens, I soon found a conviction, that I must either get rid of my principles of never get my bread by such a profession; and I therefore abandoned it, and cherished those feelings, as I ever will, because they are the only feelings that distinguish man from the brute. Tey are the bonds of society, the links of social happiness and virtue, and without these, however great, however afuent, however proud we may be, we shall be nothing but a band of depredators living upon the spoil of human happiness. Te same principles that induced me to abandon this lucrative profession, led me aferwards to join the London Corresponding Society. I had learned in two diferent schools – the school of the law, and the school of personal misfortune, that mankind are regarded in the present state of society, not according to their virtues or their useful talents, but according to the property they possess; that luxury and rapacity are at once the title deeds of respect, the patents of precedency, and the admitted claims of power. Te swindler in his elegant apparel riding in his coach, or living in his palace, is welcome to every man’s table, and receives the homage of the circle of Society in which he falls. For him the door of preferment is open – he may become a magistrate – a minister – a peer. He may

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oppress his poor, honest, industrious neighbours with impunity, and his very varlets – the meanest ministers of his lascivious vices, may insult and trample them in the security of his protection; and yet he will be received and esteemed in the best company. But I have seen talents that might have illuminated the universe – virtue that might have warmed the world into benevolence, treated with scorn, because the shoes of the possessors were a little fractured, and their coats had not the gloss of novelty upon them, but like the principle of the wearers, were somewhat out of fashion. Popular discussion, which some people seem to suppose so very unfriendly to the principles of order and good government – Popular societies, which Mr. Pitt was once so very fond of frequenting, that he might learn how to display that glossy eloquence which was to be useful to him in the day of power, but which, since power has been obtained, he has become so anxious to suppress, lest they should open the eyes of mankind, and detect the fallacies of his nefarious conduct – Tese societies were to me a school at once of youthful emulation, and, I believe, of virtuous instruction. I fairly confess that I learned in them my alphabet of political and intellectual truth. Open discussion, and the course of reading and enquiry it stimulated me to pursue, soon convinced me that in the institution and distributions of society there were radical errors which gave to men of property a consequence to which mere property never can be entitled; and which depressing the great body of the people, made every accumulation of national wealth an accumulation of national calamity and misfortune. I had soon occasion to refect, that the very words grandeur, dignity, power, afuence, political consequence, and the like were nothing more than pompous sophisticated terms to describe the beggary, want, and ragged wretchedness of the great body of the people. Led, from this conviction to make further enquiries, I soon perceived that the real evil was that a few grasped to themselves all power and right of making laws, and that practice, consonant to what theory would have suggested, proved, that those who make laws will make them for their own advantage; and will be very anxious to persuade those who have no infuence in making them that ‘they have nothing to do with the laws but to obey them.’ It wanted not the holy infation of a pair of lawn sleeves to reveal this: neither ghost need have come from hell, nor saint from heaven, nor bishop from the – pulpit, I was going to say – but I forgot that bishops seldom get into the pulpits – I ought to say, nor bishop from the House of Peers, to tell us that as soon as any set of men get it into their power to dispose of the rest, so soon will they become monopolizers and tyrants; and so long as this monopoly continues, so long will the great body of the people, thus precluded from all opportunities of vindicating their natural rights be deprived of every comfort and advantage. Do you want proofs of this? Look to the general complexion of society – trace the footsteps of travellers over the whole universe, and tell me whether every country,

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every town, and every village, in torrid or in temperate zones, is not eloquent in support of this important truth. Where liberty fourishes – that is to say, where the people are consulted in making the laws, or have a voice of restriction and censorship, there, I will grant, as in other governments, bad laws are sometimes made; and those bad laws again repealed: In other governments bad laws are very frequently made, but it is very seldom that any but good ones are repealed. In these free, that is to say, popular governments, however, bad laws are sometimes made one day and repealed another; but the laws in general have always a just bearing towards the equal distribution of the advantages which accrue to the state. I say the equal distribution of advantages; and, mark my meaning: I do not mean an equalization of property.26 We hear, indeed, of one country where this equal distribution, or rather annihilation of property took place: the little Grecian republic Achaia. Historians tell us, indeed, that it was a happy country; a truly magnifcent country; – that small as it was, it frequently held the balance of justice between the surrounding nations; and that its reputation for inviolable integrity was such, that all the nations of the earth were anxious to have their quarrels settled by the arbitration of this republic. But we know nothing of its institution; we know not by what means this absolute equality was efected. As far as I am capable of judging, the only consequence that could be produced by an attempt at this sort of equalization, in the present state of society, would be havock and assassination, equally destructive to the security of rich and poor. Having said thus much, I think I shall not be suspected of being one of Reeves’s associators for propagating the notion of levelling property. When I speak of the equal distribution of advantages accruing to the state, I mean that when the rich merchant, the great landed proprietor, and higher classes of society, are enabled to enjoy more luxuries, and live in greater pomp, the tendency of the laws and institutions of society ought to be such, that the labourer also will have his proportion of the advantage; eat with more comfort, sleep in a better cabin, and be enabled to give his ofspring a better education, and a better knowledge of their rights and duties. I soon perceived, and I am now still further convinced, that the very reverse was the case in Britain. I challenge every man who hears me – and I am not speaking to an unenlighted and uninformed auditory – I can perceive countenances, many of which I know, and in many of which, though I do not know them, I can read the lines of intelligence and education. I know that many persons listening to me are not of my political creed; that some are even hostile to those pursuits of reform to which I am pledged: but I challenge any man who hears me, and I will bear interruption with patience, to detect my fallacies, if the statements I am about to make are not accurate. I challenge them to turn over the history of the last 400 years, and deny, if they can, this bold assertion – that during the whole of that 400 years, the condition of the lower orders of the community, that is to

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say, of the industrious poor, has been growing worse and worse. I challenge any man to contradict this truth, that 300 years ago a man could earn four times as much bread and meat and beer, four times as much comfortable cloathing, four times as much of all the comforts and necessaries of life, by the produce of one day’s labour, as at this time. – You tell me, perhaps, that I am misled by the mere knowledge of the growing price of the necessaries of life, and do not consider the growth of wages which common people receive. Citizens, I am not so deceived: I have probed the evil to the bottom: I say not one word to you now which I have not proved in former Lectures, from authorities the most unexceptionable – from aristocratic writers: from historians, calculators, and printed documents of those very periods to which I allude: and I aver, that when a man got only twopence per day, he could, with that twopence, buy four times as much bread and meat and beer, as he can with the price of a day’s labour at this time. What is the consequence then? Mr. Pitt has abused our understandings and our patience with insulting panegyrics upon the happiness, prosperity, and glory of the country. He tells you our situation is improving, our credit is growing. Suppose it were: that credit is a bubble by which the rich man, perhaps, may for a while banquet his imagination; and by means of which he may procure an enlargement of his luxuries; but it is air too thin for the poor man to feed upon: he gets no part of the advantages of it. If he gets but a fourth part of the necessaries by his labour which he formerly got when the glory and happiness of the country was so much less, then I say he has reason to curse your honour, grandeur, and opulence, from his very heart, and pray for that state of beggary and bankruptcy, which your folly and desperation is bringing, perhaps, faster than you suspect. Mistake me not, however, I am not desirous that a nation should not be fourishing, great, and opulent. I love the splendour or arts, and the refnements both of science and innocent luxury; and I exult when I behold splendid buildings – till my exultation is checked with the painful recollection of the means by which this splendour is procured. By what means have these stately palaces been built? I cannot help exclaiming. Are not the stones, as it were, the bones and limbs of those lower orders of society worn out in incessant toil? Is not the cement the blood of those who have been sacrifced to rapacity and ambition? I know, however that the country might, in reality, be in a state of much greater grandeur; the arts might be better rewarded, science be better improved, and every thing useful and ornamental to mankind might be advanced to a much greater degree, by that liberal distributive principle of which I have spoken, than they can possibly be by the present system of corruption, venality, peculation and depredation, which the minister is carrying on, and which – (mark me, I pray you, I have no enmity to the man, no personal revenge) and which every minister must carry on, however pure, however virtuous his frst intentions, till

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you have a radical reform of that system of corruption which compels ministers to be scoundrels, that they may keep their places, When these principles were impressed on my mind, by comparing various facts, I thought I perceived where the evil lay. I thought I perceived one great maxim of political justice which, if recurred to, would put an end to all the miseries and misfortunes of the country, and promote our rival grandeur and prosperity. Tis I thought to be a constitutional maxim. It was a maxim, it is true, of that constitution established at the revolution of 1688; not a maxim of that constitution which Mr. Pitt and his adherents have been fabricating by new treason laws, penal statutes, extension of excise laws, and the destruction of every privilege of the people. Te maxim was that laws to be binding upon all, should consult the beneft of all, and that laws to beneft all, must be made by the consent and appointment of all: for as man, like all other animals, has a principle of selfishness in his mind, it follows, of course, that whoever make laws will do the best in their power to make such as are most for their own advantage. It follows then, of course, that if the laws are made by only a part, the advantage of only a part will be consulted: but, if they are made by the consent of the whole, this very selfshness compels them, to the best of their judgement, to make such laws as are impartial and just: because it is only by impartial and just laws that the beneft and advantage of the whole can possibly be promoted. Tell me not then of the fallibility of human reason. Reply no more with that stale stuf which the advocates for existing abuses are always bringing forward – ‘O you would subject the world to the dominion of human passions: human nature is full of prejudices; and if you entrust the formation of laws to the great body of the people, the laws will be dictated by passion and prejudice.’ Very true, take the whole of your premises for granted. But if laws are to be made in such a manner, that human passions, prejudices and errors, are to have no share whatever in the making of those laws, will you be so good as to tell me, by what sort of beings those laws are to be made: Not by men, of course. By whom then? By the brutes? Te elephant with his proboscis, and the boar with his tusks would, perhaps, make almost as god legislators: as those huge Bohemoths of the political world, the lawyers, with their probosces and tusks, the reports, commentaries, institutes, and the like, with which their jaws are armed: but if the aristocrats approve these sweeping statutes, let them alone be resigned to their dominion. Who then are to make them? Are they to be made by God? Citizens, we know nothing of any such Being but through the intelligence of the human organ. If we believe in the existence of such a Being, we must admit that man is, in reality, the organ of his will: Vox Populi, vox Dei! the voice of the people is the only voice of God that we have ever heard or shall ever hear. In fact you are in this dilemma: laws must either be made by men with all their passion and prejudices about them, or by some being not human.

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Te bishop of Rochester,27 perhaps, would pretend that the 10 commandments are laws sufcient to govern a great empire: which seems a necessary part of his argument: for then indeed he might say, that these laws not being made by the people (that is to say, by men, but by God) the people, that is to say, men, have nothing to do with them but to obey. But if we want more laws than these (and if we do not why do we not burn the statute books) then we must be satisfed to have our laws made by men, taking them to be such imperfect, prejudiced, and impassioned beings as we have always found them. But mark who these arguments come from. Tey come from a set of men who, I suppose, by libelling the understandings of every body but themselves, mean to insinuate, that they have no prejudices, no passions, no errors of their own, and that therefore if the laws are made by them, they must be perfect both in wisdom and virtue. Has Mr. Pitt no passions, no appetites? I do not mean to appeal to the female citizens.28 His passions in this respect, it must be admitted, are kept in excellent decorum: the only prejudice he ever shewed in their favour was to give them a cup of tea a little cheaper than before, and he did that in so bungling a manner that the East-India Nabobs were soon the only gainers in their favour that he shut up the windows with a commutation blind, and lent the veil of darkness to the blush of love.29 So much for the immaculate, heaven-born minister. I dare say the fair Citizens would rather have a minister of more mortal clay, whose services would not be of such a maukish warm-water description. But, Citizens, though he may not have the passions of gallantry, look in his face, has he no passions less worthy of a great statesman, and less consistent with that clearness of head, that coolness of judgment, and that moderation of temper, without which it is impossible for any man to be a great minister or a virtuous man. Go to the Bacchanalian orgies, if you please, at that little white house alluded to before; remember the fgure he and his dear colleague have sometimes made in the senate of their country; and then let me ask you – what foundation have these men to the claim of infallible judgment – to exemption from all those frailties and appetites that lead men astray? Have we not reason to believe that in the midst of scenes of festivity and riot, plans of wars, campaigns, and military projects have been formed, which being begotten in inebriation, have reeled over half their course, and then fallen in stupid debility, sprawling in the mire of disgrace, to the infnite gratifcation of their enemies, and the confusion of their friends. Do we not know that the senate of our country has waited till the fumes of tokay and champaign could be partially discharged from the brains of those men who say we ought not to be consulted in making our laws because we have passions and appetites, and are subject to all the prejudices of human nature. But, Citizens, the real question is this: – admitting, as the basis, that all human beings are full of prejudice and passion, is it better that your laws should be made under the auspices and subject to the censorship of the great body of the

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people, who, though they have passions and prejudices, have an interest in doing right? or should they be made by a set of beings who have the same passions and prejudices, and who, in addition to these, ofen will conceive, and sometimes have an interest directly opposite to the general happiness? Tis must be the case with all monopolists. Te interest of a part may be hostile, and, in many instances, must be hostile, to the interest and welfare of the whole. Te interest of a cabinet, for instance, always must be that a country shall be at war; because war increases patronage, encreases power, encreases military establishments, by which the liberties of the people can be trampled down, and the authority of ministers promoted. In short, war makes the situation of ministers, in every way, more advantageous; and extends the circle of their patronage an hundred fold. Terefore it is the interest of ministers that you should always be at war. But what is the interest of those whose property is to be destroyed, whose industry is to be suspended, and whose lives are to be sacrifced by war? Ask the poor wretch who lies bleeding upon the earth what interest he had in the quarrel for which his blood is shed! Ask the poor widow weeping over the fatal paper which bears to her the intelligence of her husband’s death: – mark her anguish when she beholds those orphan babes who have lost a father and protector, and who are to be thrown upon the wide world to earn their bread by cringing beggary, and receive, as a boon, the scanty pittance of charity; ask her what interest she had in that war which has deprived her of all comfort, all support, all the pleasures and domestic hopes of conjugal virtue? and then tell me, if you can, that the interest of the minister and the interest of the people are one. If I were to choose between the two, I would prefer even all the mad extravagance of rude, unshapen democracy itself, to those laws and institutions which are made by a minister, assuming to himself all the state of a Grand Vizier, and reigning in all the mystery of a Turkish divan, whether he executed his will by a troop of Jannissaries,30 or of soi disant representatives of a disfranchised people. With such beings confdence may supply the place of principle, and the desire of promoting their own particular interests and ambition may appear better than the approbation of the people, or the welfare or mankind. To look for equal laws, therefore, from such a source, is to look for more than human virtue. But though I say this, I do not wish for the wild, ungoverned fury of crude democracy. Tough I shrink not from the name of Democrat, I know that an absolute, unqualifed democracy can only exist in a very small territory: because a democracy in reality means a government in which the people themselves, in their aggregate capacity, possess the actual exercise of the governing power: the whole people being convened together to give their sanction to all laws and regulations. I believe that large multitudes are incapable of making laws wisely and justly. I am sure they are incapable of deliberation and preparation of business. I never yet saw a literary production food for any thing but what was framed in silent meditation

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and retirement. It may aferwards be adopted and submitted to the consideration and judgement of as many people as you choose; and popular approbation can alone give currency to its claim or merit; but it must frst have been mature in privacy and retirement. So in legislation there must be a deliberative faculty to prepare, a compressed wisdom to digest, as well as a general will to adopt: and, in large states, this general will cannot decide by actual accumulative right; because all cannot be assembled. I am, therefore, in the strict and proper sense of the word, an Aristocrat; that is to say, I am for an aristocratic government, such as the philosophers of old have defned. Consult the wisest writers of antiquity. Tey tell you that an aristocracy is the best government. What do they mean by an aristocracy? A government, they tell you, by the wisest and the best. But they had not found out the way in which this government of the wisest and best was to be truly instituted. Tey thought, I suppose, that the few speculative philosophers educated in their schools must be the wisest and best; and that when the certifcate of their college was shewn, all mankind were to acknowledge the qualifcation. But the truth is, that to have a government of the best and wisest, you must appeal to popular election, on the principle of universal sufrage: for who can have so much right to be considered as the wisest and the best, as those whom the united voice of a nation has chosen and elected as such, and, therefore entrusted with the government? Tus, then, is the principle of universal sufrage a realization of that perfection which the ancients dimly descried, but which they knew not how to establish. Nor is it necessary to prove to you that every man elected by popular choice is sure to be the best and wisest man that could be pitched upon. It is sufcient that mankind will be disposed to elect such persons, because it is their interest so to do. I believe in 9 instances out of 10 their judgments will be tolerably right: and where they are not, annual election will give them timely opportunities to correct the error. In short, however imperfect this criterion, there is no other to which we can appeal. Popular assent is not infallible, but it is, afer all, the only test of truth we can come at; and, therefore, though fallible, we must be content with it; and all we have to do is, to keep it as clear as we can from the interference of corruption, and to dissipate as fast as possible, the clouds of ignorance. Tat our present mode of election insures us always the wisest and the best, no man will pretend. Take any of the Parliaments which have existed during the last 50 years (the present excepted) and no man will pretend that the members have been all the wisest and best that could have been found. No man, I believe, can be so hardy as to say seriously that the senate of any country, in which the general voice was consulted, would not have been flled with a greater number of wise and good men, than the present system ever assembled at any one time (the present Parliament alone excepted) within the walls of St. Stephen’s.

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Tese are convictions and principles which a series of enquiry has impressed upon my mind. Parts of these convictions and principles were in my mind when I frst united with the London Corresponding Society. I perceived that the happiness of mankind was neglected; that the advantages of a few were preferred to the welfare of the whole, from a due respect not being paid to the sufrages of the people: that the voice of the nation had not a faithful organ, such as our constitution designed, and such as our constitutional writers describe when they (and Blackstone in particular) afrm, that ‘laws to be binding upon all must have the assent of all;’ that ‘no law can be made in this country, without consent of the King, the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and the Commons in Parliament assembled;’ and when they lay it down, as a general principle, that ‘taxation without representation is robbery.’ Let me ask how many millions in this country may, at this rate, consider themselves as robbed every time the tax·gatherer comes to their doors? I conceived that the popular societies aimed at a reform in the Commons House of Parliament: and the frst society to which I belonged, the Borough Society, held out no other object; and, therefore, approving its principle I joined it. – Te use that was made of a sort of grammatical inaccuracy in one of the declarations of that society during my trial at the Old Bailey, I shall not dwell upon. If our liberty is such an empty bubble that a man’s life may be put to the hazard, because he has not, with critical acumen, examined the force and bearing of every substantive, adjective, particle, adverb, interjection, and the like, which happens to be introduced into a paper in favour of which he holds up his hand, woe to the poor man that has not studied Lowth31 and Lilly32 – and farewell, say I, to British Liberty. Afer the dissolution of that society, the next I joined was the London Corresponding Society. To that society I zealously attached myself, because I perceived in it a body of good principles; which to me are dearer than all the grandeur and wealth which makes men so proud, but which never yet contributed to make them wise or virtuous. I do not say, because a man is rich, he is neither wise nor virtuous: but I will say that if the rich man is wise and virtuous, he would not be less virtuous and wise if he were poor. His virtue and wisdom I esteem; not his property. Woe to that country in which too much veneration is entertained for property: not that I would have it violated; I would have the most insurmountable barriers placed round it. I know such barriers, taking men as they are, to be absolutely necessary for the preservation of peace and order – for the protection of the lives of mankind. But no respect for opulence! – It is one thing to place a barrier round property; another to put property in the scale against the welfare, and independence of the people. If any thing can make property insecure, it is the wicked folly – the overweaning pride – against the rights and happiness of

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the many. If you once impress the terrible notion that laws are made – not for the advantage of the many who earn, but of the few who enjoy the property, you hold out a temptation so strong as almost to amount to a justifcation for the violation of that property. I have no objection to any man’s greatness; his wealth; his power; or his grandeur: but I remember an excellent discrimination of Horne Tooke’s upon this subject, – at one of the meetings of the Friends of the Liberty of the Press – ‘I have no objection that other men should be greater and more powerful than myself. But if they make their greatness an instrument to destroy my littleness, by God (said he in his emphatic manner) I would brain them as I would a maddog.’ Tis is the voice of nature. It is expressed, indeed, with bitterness. But so long as mankind have energy, sooner or later oppression, if continued, will work up every mind to this bent. For my own part – I am anxious to impress the sacred love of order; and as one of the frst principles of order, every man’s just possessions must be regarded as inviolable. At the same time I feel no difculty in declaring that if men of property will be so mad, so profigate, as, in language and conduct, to say ‘so long as we preserve our property, you shall have no rights,’ I will answer, ‘by God I will have my rights, and you shall not make your property a strong box to lock them from me. I do not wish to touch your property: but you shall not, therefore, rob me and my fellow-citizens of that which is more valuable than all the property in the universe.’ Te way to protect property is to make just and equal laws. Te way to protect property is to make men see that it is to their advantage that property should be protected: and I believe all just and fairly acquired distinctions of property are in the present state of human intellect promotive of general happiness. Tey increase industry. Tey stimulate to acquisitions which otherwise would be neglected; and therefore tend to the improvement of society. Tese principles I have zealously upheld. Tese principles I defy any of the base, hired, ministerial scribblers, who spit the venom of their calumny against me, to fnd one spot or period of my life that has belied: and it is easy to learn whether my boast be well founded. I was born near this place.33 My residence can be traced, with ease, during every part of my life; and if there had been any disgraceful particulars in my history, the industrious malice of faction need not have been confned to general abuses. Tere have been times in which poverty and misfortune frowned upon my youth; and in which I had to struggle with the bitterest disadvantages to which an independent spirit could be subjected; when without a profession, (for I could not eat the bread of legal peculation) I had to support an aged mother, and a brother robbed of every faculty of reason. Yet upon all these embarrassments, when a debating society and a magazine brought me together but about 50 or 60l. a year, I look back with the proud consciousness of never having

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stooped even to a mean action. Search then, probe me to the quick: and if you can fnd one stain upon my character, think me in reality a plunderer and an assassin: but if you cannot, what will you of a profigate administration, with more vices upon their heads than I have words to speak them – what will you think of their assassins, and the black epithets and calumnies with which they have so incessantly pursued me. But it is criminal, it seems, to receive an emolument from the exertions I make in this place. Let those who make the charge shew whether it be more honourable openly to receive the wages of public instruction, or by apostacy, oppression, and corruption to plunder a groaning country? Tese, then, are the general principles that have actuated my conduct. Tese principles, I believe, are perfectly irreproachable. Do you call upon me to afrm that every part of the conduct with which I have pursued these principles has been equally blameless? I will not assert any such thing. I am at this time a young man; and not free from the intemperance of passion, and the levity natural to the youthful character. I will not pretend that I have always been free from those imprudent passions which kindle into fery indignation at the oppressions of the times. I will not say that every thing I have done in furtherance of these principles has been as well digested as, with my present experience, I could wish. When our beloved associates – when those men of mind and virtue, whose names I will cherish with veneration, so long as ‘memory holds her seat’34 – when Gerald, Margarot, Muir, Palmer, and Skirving were doomed to Botany Bay without having violated one law or principle of our constitution, it was natural, though it was not wise, for men who revered their talents and their virtues, to indulge the British vice of intemperance – for it is a British vice, and we are too apt to be proud of it. – It was natural that, under such circumstances, our blood should boil; and that we should say angry things, and pass vapouring, intemperate resolutions. But the minister knew that the ‘very head and jut of our ofending went but to this – no further!’35 What, then, is that administration which wishes to hang every man who makes use of an intemperate word against them? But they have been disappointed; and what do they now attempt? Tey attempt to pass laws, which will make all those things treason which they endeavoured to make treason before without any law whatever. Te minister introduces two Bills. What are they? Bills that subject a man to all the penalties of High Treason who shall publish, or even write, without publishing, any dissertation which approves any form of government but the existing government of the country. Read Lord Grenville’s bill – ‘to compass, imagine, invent, devise, or intend to deprive or depose our sovereign Lord the King, his heirs or successors from the style honour, or kingly name of the imperial crown [the language invented in the time of Charles the second] of this realm, or any

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part thereof, shall be guilty of High Treason.’ How is this to be proved? According to the simple and honest law of Edward III. the much more restricted treason was to be proved by some open deed. But how are these new-fangled treasons to be proved? Mark, I pray you,--’And it such person or persons, such compassings and imaginations, inventions, desires, or intentions shall express, utter, or declare, by any printing, WRITING, preaching, or malicious and advised speaking, then every such person or persons shall be adjudged guilty of High Treason.’ Well, then suppose I write a treatise in which I give a preference to republican government; and as it is not high treason yet, I will tell you that, if I were writing a speculative treatise, I certainly would give that preference! – Being an Englishman, I uphold the constitution of England; not because Englishmen should prefer what is English (Virtue is as good if it comes from France, or the Antipodes, as if it were born in England) but because in England there is a constitution established, which, if realized by a fair representation of the people, is capable of securing the happiness of the nation: and having a decided abhorrence of tumult and violence, I reprobate the man who would plunge into commotion for speculative opinions. Terefore, though if I were an inhabitant of a country that had the misfortune to have a constitution to make, I would certainly give my vote for a pure representative republic; yet living in a country that has a constitution, which, though according to my speculative, if you please, visionary theory, not the best that mankind, I say – realize that constitution and I am satisfed, and will uphold it. Te welfare of mankind is my object, not particular modes or shapes of constitutions. But suppose I should write a speculative treatise (and why should general speculations be restrained) afer this bill of Lord Grenville’s is passed, it would not want a speech of nine hours to shew that such a book is high treason. Hume might have been hanged for his ‘Idea of a Free Commonwealth,’ as Godwin has shewn36 in his ‘Considerations’ – Te future venders of that work may be hanged, drawn and quartered, as Coleridge has shewn in his ‘Protest.’ Tese bills, however, have for their principal object, the destruction of all those who, actuated by free and generous principles, endeavour to produce a reform in the representation. Well, then, Citizens, what are we to do? are we to abandon our principles? I say no: we are not to abandon our principles: and though I am not ready to plunge into tumult and violence – though I do not wish to see the sword unsheathed, yet I certainly do wish that every constitutional exertion should be made to get rid of those bills. I recommend therefore to all men, to exert themselves in every legal way to bring them into general discredit. I know they need but be fully and fairly investigated, and the general voice of the nation will be against them. I know, also, when there is a general consent of wills, no minister, and no band of monopolists, will dare to withstand the national voice: and that therefore, ultimately, though they should now pass,

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you will be eased of them, and of the ministers who dared to form them, and parliamentary reform will be the inevitable consequence. Tis is my advice as to the general. As to the particular, I cannot be ignorant that these acts are made in a very considerable degree with a view to my destruction. I know also that the time will come when, in consequence of the persecutions I have endured, and the temper, permit me to say, with which I have faced those persecutions, I may be an instrument of some service to the liberties and happiness of my country. I shall not therefore give the minister an opportunity to destroy me upon any trifing contest. I have here maintained myself in decency, and cleared away the incumbrances which former persecutions had brought upon me. With something less than 100l. in my pocket I shall retire from this place, for the cultivation of my mind; and carrying the consciousness of my own integrity into retirement, maintain myself by the labours of my pen. Having been so long seeking for my country, and having endured so much persecution in that search, I think I shall not be accursed either of selfshness or pusillanimity, when I say, that I shall now wait till my country seeks for me; and that when my country does seek for me, she shall fnd me ready for my post, whatever may be the difculty or the danger. POSTSCRIPT. Saturday, 26th March. Te Reader will perceive by the conclusion of the preceding Lecture, what was the plan I had chalked out for myself: and he will be perfectly aware, from the circumstances that have since occurred, that my conduct has been the very reverse: that instead of retiring from the feld I have been still exposing myself in the front ranks; nay, that deserted by friends, and assailed by enemies, I have been hardy enough to sustain the combat of political investigation almost alone. Te truth is, that the bills were scarcely passed when one of those valuable friends whom correspondent zeal in the holy cause of human liberty has attached to me, suggested, that although, ‘Lectures on the Laws, Constitution, Government, and Polity of these kingdoms’ were prohibited by the Convention Act, yet that as the bill was ultimately altered, no other species of lectures were put under any restriction, and that therefore I might still, with the utmost propriety, give a Course of Lectures on Classical History; and, in treating the grand subject which such a course would embrace, might investigate all the principles of Government, all the vices of oppression, and all the mischiefs of tyranny and corruption, with as much efect, perhaps, certainly with more feedom, than under my original plan. I had no sooner cast my eye over the Act, with reference to this opinion, than I perceived it to be one of the clearest cases that could possibly be conceived. Lectures on the Laws, Constitution, &c. of these kingdoms are, it is true, prohibited, and the prohibition is accompanied with a penalty of 100l. for each Lecture, to be sued for by any common informer. But with respect to Lectures on any other subject, the law remains just as it did

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before this act was passed. Tis discovery immediately dissipated every idea of retirement. – To keep alive the spirit of political discussion, and above all, the discussion of principles, is the object most important to the cause of reform. Tere was something to be done: something of importance: something which I knew would not be done unless I did it: something also which would shew how vain it is to restrain the progress of intellect; how difcult to prevent determined minds form promoting the principles of truth and justice. I entered, therefore, with zeal into the project; I rejected ofers of literary engagements, which were pressed upon me with the utmost solicitude, and the certain profts of which would have been greater than any I could expect, under all circumstances, from my course of Lectures; and, though my health was exceedingly shattered by recent exertions, prepared to renew those exertions in a manner (in point of necessary study and preparation at least) much more laborious than ever. In endeavouring to render this undertaking worthy success, I spared no application; nor, as far as my circumstances would permit, any expence. Tis last, is to persons not used to undertakings of this kind, perfectly incalculable. During my former Lectures, the enormous rent of my premises, (which is 13l. a year, beside all taxes) the heavy burthen of advertisements, and the necessary precaution of a short-hand writer, had occasioned my expences, during the preceding course to amount to 330l. without including the books which from time to time it was necessary to procure. But for the course I was preparing, this last was an article so heavy as can scarcely enter into the imagination of that class of readers for whose beneft the cheap edition of the Tribune is printed and circulated. Tere is scarcely a book to be consulted upon this subject that does not cost two, three, or four guineas. I was not, however, to be intimidated by consideration of selfsh prudence. I embarked my little stock in what I regarded as the public cause, and afer a respite of six weeks, with a mind full of ardour, and with health imperfectly restored, I embarked again on the ocean or enquiry, steering a new course, but keeping still the same port in view. How I have succeeded in this undertaking, I shall shew more at large in an ensuing number; in the meanwhile I have fought a great battle! – I have obtained a proud victory. Mine indeed are the scars – but the fruit of the contest is my country’s.

THE TRIBUNE, NO. XLVIII.

Te First Lecture on the POLITICAL PROSTITUTION of our PUBLIC THEATRES. Delivered Wednesday, April 1, 1795. CITIZENS, I HAVE one admonition particularly to give you on this evening. It is upon a subject which I wish you would always have present in your minds, namely, that if any person should attempt any interruption, your best and most efcacious way of disappointing such malice will be to suppress your own indignation. I believe there are two or three persons present who have some design of creating disturbance: but leave them entirely to me; and I fatter myself I shall be able to frustrate their conspiracy. Citizens, Few circumstances of my life have ever been more fattering to me than your extreme candor and indulgence on the last evening, when the state of my health rendered it impossible to exert myself as I wished. I cannot at present boast of complete restoration. If there should be less animation, therefore, less freedom of mind, than there ought, you will, I dare say, attribute it immediately to the right cause. Te subject of my present discussion is the political prostitution of public theatres. Tis subject, Citizens, will strike you as being widely diferent from those which I have been generally in the habits of treating. Variety is indeed one of those allegorical mistresses to whom I profess a strong inclination to pay my court: and perhaps few of you will be sorry to have your attention relieved a while from the horrors and calamities of war, by the investigation of a subject which cannot but awaken in our minds ideas of taste, of literature, and genius. Te subject however is a proper one, if properly treated, for a political lecture; for it is connected, in a considerable degree, with the morals, the manners and interests of society. Indeed, if we consider seriously any subject whatever, though it may seem to the superfcial observer as far removed from politics as the equator from the poles, we shall fnd, if it is a subject that has any mean– 291 –

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ing or connection whatever with any principle of common sense or morality, that it is in reality a question of politics. For though our rulers would persuade us that politics is a science with which the mass of the people have no sort of business or connection, yet it is in reality the root, the stem, if I may so express myself, of all morals, of all manners, of every thing that can afect the interest, the good conduct and happiness of society. Even our very amusements are intimately connected with the political system: and (to change my metaphor) if our grand political system is corrupt, that corruption will fow through every little meandering rivulet which should water even the pleasure-grounds of private recreation, or nourish the fowers that decorate the path of life. I assure you, my Fellow-Citizens, my design in choosing the present subject has no connection with envy or malignity. Against persons connected with the theatres I have no animosity. I respect the profession; I respect the science. I am convinced that it is extremely important to the morals as well as the amusement of mankind. I have no desire but to rescue it from the tyrannical fangs of that corruption, vice, and prostitution, under which it has so unhappily fallen. Among the particular reasons that have induced me to fx upon this subject, perhaps is to be regarded the circumstance that it is considerably connected with a most important part, of the history of my short life. Tose Citizens who marked with attention the proceedings at the Old Bailey, will remember that one of the articles of accusation against me, was a conspiracy to applaud and encore certain speeches in Venice Preserved. Tis circumstance may have had some share in drawing my attention to the consideration of the subject of dramatic exhibition; but farther than this, ‘I know no personal cause to prick me on.’37 But to turn to another reason, more important – the considerable efects of public amusements on the taste, feelings, and morals of society. History is replete with instances of the connection between the amusements and the morals of mankind, from the earliest periods to the present time. Cicero, in one of his epistles, gives a striking instance of this, in describing an exhibition at Rome in the time of Pompey. In this description you see the corruption and depravity of the country, which having been sown in the ambition and rapacity of the few, had been manured by the luxury, pomp, and extravagance, which prevailed in every part of their degenerate manners, and were now over-running that declining republic, like luxuriant and noxious weeds, and choaking with their fatal growth every seed and shoot of simplicity, taste, and reason. While Rome retained her purity and energy, genius was invited to decorate her exhibitions with the passions of nature and the exploits of patriots. Virtue and public spirit were at once commemorated and inspired. But when corruption began to sap the vitals of that country, the theatre was changed into one monstrous puppetshow of splendid exhibitions, in which the mind had no share; and pageantries at which the heart of the refecting man sickened. Instead of human beings stung

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with aficting passions, or bravely sufering in the cause of virtue, animals of all sorts were brought upon the stage. Steeds capered, oxen bellowed, elephants were slain by the javelins of public combatants; and every thing but mind was exhibited for the amusement of the people. Citizens, we might turn also to periods of English history, which equally illustrate the connection between public exhibitions and the morals of the people. Who can regard the state of the theatre in the time of Charles the Second, without refecting on the share those exhibitions had in promoting and supporting that profigacy of manners which, like a deluge, spread over the country, and swept away every thing like public principles and private virtue? Ten was every frequenter of the theatre doomed to hear sentiments replete with immortality, seasoned, it is true, with all the salt of wit and genius, but not therefore the less disgraceful to the character, or fatal to the morals of the nation. Tell me then whether public exhibitions are not ft subjects of serious investigation? Citizens, treating this subject historically, I must observe in the outset, that the theatrical amusements of the Roman world had a feature worthy of some part of your consideration, that is to say, they were presents made by wealthy men who were candidates for ofce, to the great body of the people. Tey were not in Rome, as in England, paid for by those who went to behold them, but were given, as we are told, by great men, who, wishing to trample on the deluded and misguided multitude, condescended to treat them one day, that they might plunder and oppress them another. Plays accordingly were not performed every day in Rome, but for three or four days, and frequently for weeks together, at stated periods. On public festivals, at the times of the election of magistrates, and all such proper occasions, the great aristocrats presented the people of Rome with a sort of prototype of the corruption and servile conduct which distinguishes the general elections of this country. Tus then in Rome the public theatre was made a vehicle of public prostitution, and an engine of ambition, by those who wished to raise themselves to eminence and aferwards to spurn that multitude whom, while it served their purpose, they pretended to fatter and caress. In England they have learned to do the same thing in a more frugal manner. Tis, you know, is an age of œconomy; we are blest with an œconomical minister, and an œconomical parliament; and every thing they do for the good of the people and themselves, they take care to do it at the cheapest rate. Tus at our public theatres the doors are not thrown open by the profusion of the great to invite the multitude and extort their gratitude; but by the prudent device of a monopoly, and the sapient intervention of a Lord Chamberlain,38 all the benefcial purposes of political prostitution are as efectually answered. Two theatres only are admitted in this great town. It is true it is found necessary, every year, to enlarge those public edifces; but to sufer a third to grow up in any part of the town would be an invasion it is said of the sacred rights of

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property. Citizens, I repeat it, I mean nothing invidious to individuals. I speak of the system of monopoly, not of men; and monopoly in all its shapes I must reprobate and abhor. As for theatrical exhibitions in themselves, I venerate them more than all the mock realities, or real mockeries, of St. Stephen’s Chapel. And as for the proprietor of one, at least, of the theatres, though I lament that his fne talents should be held in the trammels of party, I esteem fancy, his brilliant wit, his erudition and his varied powers, but I revere also that patriot virtue which, in spite of faction, he has so ofen exerted with such intrepidity in behalf of liberty, truth, and justice. Nor shall I ever forget the man who in the very teeth of power bearded that high and mighty minister, who ‘bestrides this narrow world like a Colossus, while we sorry dwarfs creep under his huge legs, and peep about to fnd ourselves dishonourable graves;’39 I cannot forget the man whose erect attitude, frm countenance, and unfaltering voice, compelled the wretched minion of perverted power to refresh his memory, and recollect (with faltering and hesitation) those important circumstances which he was so anxious to forget. But while the system of corruption continues, while the system of monopoly, its necessary concomitant, prevails, the most brilliant talents will not always resist the infection, or see as they ought the force and beauty of those broad, moral principles of justice which the general tenor of their feelings would otherwise prompt them to uphold. Can it be conceived that any three or four men can have a right to purchase, or that any set of men can have a right to sell the exclusive privilege of amusing or instructing the public? Every man has a right – an imprescriptible right – (for I am not afraid to uphold the doctrine of the imprescriptible rights of man) of pursuing his own advantage, and the beneft or amusement of his fellow citizens, by the exercise of such talents and faculties as nature, education, or accident, may some how or other have furnished. He therefore who has talents to produce a dramatic performance, and can persuade men to act it, according to my conception, has a right so to do, and the sanction of popular attendance ought to be the only licence to his theatre. Te feld of emulation ought to lay open for the display of those talents which he possesses; instead of their being nipped in the bud, by the cold, frosty breath of monopoly, before whose blighting infuence every exertion drops into decay and annihilation. Tis monopoly is equally insulting to the town and oppressive to genius. It infects the morality and justice of the whole country. It has the power of confning any species of instruction and amusement within a narrow compass. It has the power also of dictating the particular sentiments to be uttered, the opinions that are to be propagated, and the factions, however despicable, to which all talents are to be prostituted. Tus we see dramatic energy, whether among writers or performers, dwindle away. Look at the energetic compositions of those ages, when the theatre was free. Behold the fimsy insignifcance of those compositions now brought forward

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to ‘fret their hour upon the stage, and then be heard no more.’40 Tink of the strong energetic powers of mind displayed by the performers of former periods; the legends of whose wonder-working art still live, and make us sigh in vain for the talents that might produce the same vivid impressions. See now the drawling laboured readers, the mechanical measures of lines and syllables, the limping halting rehearsers of murdered sentiments, the tedious hunters of quaint accents and new readings, duller than the village harbingers of Sternhold,41 who have no resource to extort a clap, or prevent the audience (spectators I should say) from sleeping but a few starts and fne attitudes directed to the second gallery. Is the human mind altered? Are not men the same now as they were ffy, sixty, an hundred or two hundred years ago? Is there any reason why theatrical exhibitions should formerly have produced such wonderful efects as stand on the records of history? and that now all should be so faint and languid? Is there any reason why the captive tragedians of Athens, by merely reciting the impassioned verses of Sophocles,42 should melt the hearts of all around them to compassion, and be crowned with the applauses of thitherto obdurate enemies, and restored to liberty? – while at present, the mad ravings of the tabernacle should be more impressive, more potent in stirring up the passions of the hearer than almost any thing we hear at our public theatres? It is true we have seen some women performers of splendid talents. Te inimitable vivacity of a Jordan,43 the strokes of native humour, or of pathos with which she representations abound, the sensations she imparts, the power with which she speaks, may be pleaded as an exception to the general censure. Te expressive energy of a Siddons,44 her strong gusts of passion, and forcible appeals to the heart, may be also opposed to my arguments. Nor shall I deny the claims of a Farren45 to ease, to elegance, or even to a degree of merit, which if not actually entitled to the praise of fne acting, is certainly very little below the standard of excellence. But these are only exceptions to the general rule; and all is fat or frothy besides. What is the reason that we have fallen into insignifcance, and that we should make such small approaches towards the excellence of former times? Citizens, the answer lies in the one word, monopoly. Monopoly is the answer also to be made to the question respecting the cause of the depravity, the false morality, the slavish maxims and sentiments daily and hourly, thrust down our throats at theatrical exhibitions. Having taken this general survey of the degeneracy, and the cause of that degeneracy in the British drama, I shall proceed to investigate this subject historically; convinced, though the enquiry may not appear equally interesting with some other topics, that it is not without utility. I shall endeavour to trace the history of the ancient drama, and to show you by what means the governors of the ancient world made it the vehicle of corruption and depravity. I shall aferwards, by comparing the history of the ancient and modern stage, endeavour to show

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the importance of reforming the system by which the Teatres are at this time so considerably shackled. Citizens, you must remember that, in the religion of the Greeks and Romans there were no preachers – no bodies of men set apart for the purpose of instructing (that is to say deluding) the people. Tere were priests it is true; and they had their functions; but these priests were not distinct sets of men, separated from the body of the people merely for politico-religious purposes. It was the business of these priests to superintend the solemnities and superstitions of the times – to appease the angry deities, for deities it seems could be angry, by oferings and sacrifces, and regaling their nostrils with the rich efuvia of a roasted lamb, or a broiled calf. Tey were also to repeat the oracles, which the divinity revealed; they were to sing forth their praises in hymns; they were to superintend the mysteries of their religion (for every religion when it becomes an establishment has its mysteries of course); they were also to consult those books of wisdom, the entrails of slaughtered oxen, to fnd when battles were to be fought, and when peace was to be made. O that the ox were but killed in this our country, whose oracular entrails might show us, by their augury, when peace is to be made! – But though they had great festivals – (the ancients, by the way, were more fond of festivals than fasts: and to tell you the truth, I believe they were right. I think there is but one good reason for fasting, that is, it being a diffcult thing to get any thing to eat.) – But though they had their festivals, their ceremonies, their sacrifces, their oracles, their hymns, the augurs, their mysteries, yet they had no national professional teachers of unintelligible dogmas – no black-gowned retailers of the people prostrate at the footstool of power. Tey had no set of men hired to subscribe thirty-nine articles which they did not understand, and aferwards to stand up in a sort of tub, with their chins over a velvet cushion, like Jack in a box, to preach doctrines diametrically opposite to the articles they had subscribed. Tere were refnements in policy of which they had no idea. It was however, necessary in some way to supply this defciency: for instruction is necessary for mankind, as ministers, when it suits their purpose, know very well; and as we I trust shall always remember; for I do not mean by anything I have said to disapprove any mode or shape of instruction, whatever be the particular sentiment of opinion promulgated. I do not wish to deprive any person of the right of hearing or teaching what he thinks right. Enquiry is not only the right, but the duty of man. I only blame those institutions, which, under colour of assisting enquiry, have for their fundamental object the suppression of all enquiry. Which pretend to instruct, but only endeavour to teach us how to be more ignorant than ever. But, citizens, although the nations of the ancient world had no seventh day in the week set apart for the purpose of hearing a man whose opinions no one was to call in question, by any token of contradiction, or disapprobation, yet they had their philosophers, their schools, their instructive institutions, from

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which their enlightened and powerful minds difused the ray of genius and science around. Tey had their Gymnasia – their schools for all sorts of exercises, whether of mind or body; where their youth were trained to strength, to activity, to wisdom and to virtue. Tese, as our accounts run, were frst instituted at Lacedemon, and contributed, in no small degree, to create, and for many hundred years to preserve the energy of the Spartan character. Tey were aferwards adopted and improved by the rival states of Greece, particularly Athens, and fnally by victorious Rome. Athens seems to have improved very considerably upon the plan. Mind and body were both attended to by each of these magnifcent, though diminutive states: but Sparta appears to have been most solicitous about the body, Athens most attentive to the mind. Athens, in short, appears to have been a portraiture in miniature of what Republican France promises to be upon the gigantic scale. She had her schools and academies of all descriptions; and her public tutors of every kind, from the dancing-master and lute-player to the professors of the most abstruse branches of science and philosophy. Hence the energy and variety of Athenian talent – hence those gay sallies of fancy and those daring fights of imagination – that sublimity which awed, and that levity which amused the world. Among the principal of these Athenian gymnasia were, 1. the LYCEUM, or school of ARISTOTLE, the founder of the Peripatetic philosophy, so called from this philosopher, delivering his lessons to his pupils while they were walking about, that health and intellect might be promoted together. While perambulating with him beneath the spacious porch, his scholars were thus taught to soar into the regions of science and enquiry, and by the bold exertions of intellect to enlighten their hearts, improve their faculties, and extend their power and inclination of serving their fellow men. 2. Te ACADEMUS, of Groves of PLATO, the founder of the Academic sect; and 3. the CYNOSARGES, where ANTISTHENES founded the philosophy of the Cynics: a word at present generally applied as a term of aversion and reproach; as Christian once was, and Jacobin now is: but stigmatizing a name does not prove that all who bear it are therefore justly odious, even although some of them may have behaved in a manner disgraceful to themselves. Cynics, Christians, and Jacobins have each in their turn, conferred considerable benefts upon mankind; although the frst have sometimes degenerated into four misanthropes, the second into juggling tools of tyranny and superstition, and the third into anarchists and assassins. Tese diferent sects of philosophers all delivered their instruction in that way, which, by interesting the imagination, leaves the most durable impression on the memory. In short, they were all, not dull droning schoolmasters, but animated Lecturers. Oral instruction difused its animating infuence throughout the circle of auditors; and social sympathy went hand in hand with instruction.

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Mark the fruits this oral instruction produced! See at one period assembled together, within the narrow boundaries of a little city – little in comparison even with some of the provincial cities of France, but whose name still strikes us with majestic ideas, and flls our hearts with veneration! See assembled in this little city, a larger number of men of talents, and understanding than ever existed together in the largest kingdom or monarchy of the whole habitable globe. – Immortal Sages! Ye noblest benefactors of mankind! Unworthy as I am to lif my soul To thoughts of your beatitude, or hope, In this degenerate superstitious age, To emulate your glories, and revive Tose awful traits of unassuming wisdom, Tose precepts, whose simplicity of thought Evinc’d the true sublime! O! let me, yet, Indulge my raptur’d fancy for a while With your high converse; and the fond idea Sate with the glorious vision, as I roam Forgetful of the world, its systems vain, And all the crude conceits of bigot Folly, Whose rage embroils and thins the human race! And thou, majestic Athens! thou blest nurse Of Arts and Knowledge, Liberty and Taste! Under whose fee invigorating laws Te giant-soul of heav’n-enlighten’d man (Uncramp’d by tyrant badges of distinction, Which virtue own’d not, nor which merit claim’d) Swell’d, tow’ring swell’d, to due proportion’d strength, And lef the pigmy slaves of future courts With base despair to wonder at its greatness, And mourn their fall, degenerate! PERIPATETIC.

Tis instruction of these philosophers, it must be acknowledge, was confned within a narrow circle. We cannot give to the ancients the praise of that wide and generous difusion of knowledge which some nations have aspired to of late. Tere seems to have been a select and chosen few only who were to be initiated into the philosophy and science of the respective schools. Te Swinish Multitude were to be kept without the pale of knowledge; for fear, I suppose, that they should scrub themselves too hard against the forbidden tree of knowledge, and, shaking down the fruit, should eat thereof, know right from wrong, and good from evil; and become as wise as their masters. Teir schools however, contracted as they were, certainly extended a considerable degree of science, taste,

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and virtue, through the Athenian Republic. Te annals of that country, and a variety of anecdotes on record, are sufcient to shew us that the mass of the people were not in a state of total ignorance; that they in some degree understood, and jealously guarded the rights of man. Te rulers therefore began to suspect that some engine of a more powerful nature than dogmas of obscure philosophy, and pageants of a sensual religion, was necessary to operate upon the public mind. Te engine they wanted was found in dramatic exhibition. Tis species of exhibition was invented in the frst instance by the priests; plays being exhibited on their great festivals, as a part of their religious ceremonies. At frst, we are told, a single speaker, smeared with the lees of wine, and a chorus, or band of singers, composed the whole of the dramatis personæ; and we may be assured that the performances in other respects would be equally coarse and imperfect. But in time we fnd the powerful minds of Eschylus, of Sophocles, and Euripides, exhibiting all the energies of genius and sentiment in those charming scenes which have contributed to the delight and instruction of ages. Statesmen soon saw the importance of this engine. During the earlier times of the Athenian Republic, the use that was made of it was generous and noble; at least according to the generally received notions of the world. Tey inculcated, through the medium of these performances, a veneration for their native land and compassion for the distressed, and excited the auditors to virtue, by impressing the general moral of distributive justice. Teir vanity, and their policy also, led them equally to inculcate an attachment and veneration for the laws and customs of their particular country; but their favorite theme was the virtues and heroic deeds of their forefathers, which were held up to their admiration with all the aids of fction and poetic embellishment. I do not mean to be understood as applauding the system of those sanguinary philosophers (if such terms can be reconciled together) who make virtue to consist in war and slaughter; still less do I approve the prejudices inculcated in those theatrical exhibitions, for the purpose of disposing the people to blind attachment and submission. But if these were the purposes to which the theatre was applied, during the purer periods of the Athenian Republic, let us see what was the conduct of it when a corrupt Aristocracy raised itself on the ruins of the democratic constitution. No sooner had the thirty Tyrants, assisted by the Spartans, laid prostrate the liberties of the people, than they erected a system of the most cruel despotism. Persecution, corruption, and inquisition became the order of the day; as they always must wherever Aristocracy or Oligarchy usurps an unjust dominion. Ten was every power and energy of genius prostituted to the vile purposes of the ruling faction. Ten did the theatre become indeed corrupt. Te drama, which was designed for the instruction of mankind, was made an engine to slander virtue and destroy the best advocates for the happiness and rights of the people. Te

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most memorable of the victims to this perversion of the drama was the great, the truly glorious Socrates: a man whose wisdom and whose virtues will receive the admiration of mankind, so long as virtue and wisdom are capable of inspiring those sentiments. Citizens, You will presently see that it was not at all astonishing that Socrates was selected as a victim to the tyrannical oppression of these oligarchic usurpers, who, while they pretended to support and venerate the laws, and called upon the people for that veneration with threats of punishment and death, trampled themselves upon every principle of law and justice, and rioted in the ruins of that government and constitution which they pretended to uphold. – Such has been the conduct of tyrants and usurpers in all ages. Law and constitution, peace and order, are incessantly upon their lips; but their hearts are full of corruption and oppression, cruelty, arbitrary violence, sanguinary ferocity, plunder, and the worst anarchy of capricious domination. Citizens, Te character of these men, known by the name of the thirty tyrants, thus usurping the authority of the senate and people of Athens, is drawn in a masterly and brief manner by one of the writers of the life of Socrates; and the picture is, at this time in particular, worthy of some attention. ‘Tese cruel monsters,’ says he, ‘under the pretext of punishing rebellion and treasonable ofences,’ (you see it is not only in this country that the charges of treason have been considered as the most efcacious engines for the destruction of those patriots who dare to reprobate the conduct of men in power) – ‘Under the pretext of punishing treasonable ofences, they robbed the most upright men in the republic of their property and their lives. To plunder and proscribe, the latter of which they did openly, the former more like assassins and murderers, were deeds which characterized their government.’ MENDELSSOHN’S Life of Socrates, p.xxxv. By which plundering like murderers and assassins I suppose we are to understand the sly and apparently legalized plunder of unnecessary taxation; of aids and contributions, frittered into innumerable divisions, and levied under innumerable false pretences, till the people paid perhaps, though imperceptibly, at the rate of sixteen or seventeen shillings in the pound. Tese, according to my author, were the deeds that characterized a government of ‘Tyrants,’ or ‘Monsters,’ than whom ‘the most cruel enemy could not have committed more barbarous outrages.’ Ibid. Citizens, You will not be surprized that such a government – a government composed of characters like these – a government of insolent aristocrats, who had usurped to themselves the power of the senate, and domineered over the country, without either consent of the people or real constitutional authority – a banditti armed with pretended rights and exclusive privileges – you will not be surprized that such a government should be desirous of destroying, at any rate, such a man as Socrates, when you learn what sort of man Socrates was.

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Tese rulers were perhaps of illustrious families – perhaps they had divine ancestors – they had perhaps long titles, and bead rolls of hereditary honor; and rank and family were with them, perhaps, synonymous, or perhaps paramount to virtue and justice. Or perhaps they might some of them be upstart adventurers, lifed at frst on the shoulders of popularity, will they were high enough to grasp the golden reward of apostacy, and with the tragedy of oppression conclude the mock spectacle which began with the farce of patriotism. Tink with yourselves how detestable to these men Socrates must have been, who was, in plain English, or rather in plain French, nothing more nor nothing less than an upright, downright SANS CULOTTES. Yes, I say, Citizens, that Socrates was a Sans Culottes; and for aught I know he was in reality the founder of that most worthy and excellent sect of philosophers. But, citizens, I do not mean by Sans Culottes such beings as have been created by the distempered imagination of that Melpomene in breeches, Edmund Burke. He indeed, in the famous dagger scene, exhibited at our grand Teatre Nationalle, made a most frantic and pathetic speech, harrowing up alike the feelings of auditors and brother comedians, to convince us that daggers were principles, and the prince of darkness the only true sans culottes. Neither was Socrates such a sans culottes as flled the imagination of that great metaphysician Windham; nor such a sans culottes as was painted upon a certain occasion by the great, the grave, the consistent, the patriotic Serjeant Adair.46 He was not a sans culottes according to the defnitions of those whose imaginations can dwell upon nothing but scenes of massacre, desolation, and anarchy. He was a true sans culottes. He was an advocate for the rights, happiness, and liberties of mankind – an upholder of the genuine principles of liberty and equality. He was also a sans culottes by birth: and those great personages could not but look with disdain upon the person, and with rancorous envy upon his popularity, whose father was a stonemason, and whose mother a midwife; who spent the frst thirty years of his life with the mallet in one hand and the chisel in the other, and was remembered by many of them in his leathern apron. It is impossible to suppose these great men should endure that such vulgar, low-lived, swinish beings as these, should have the same or superior talents, more virtues and popularity, than their own high mightinesses. Te rulers, who were for monopolizing to themselves every honor and advantage, could not but be expected to think that ‘men who had a parcel of people running afer them were best in a place of security:’ and what place so secure as the grave? But, Citizens, this philosophic, this intelligent worker with the mallet and chisel, had not only to answer for the crimes of low birth, wisdom, virtue, and patriotism. He had vices of a deeper die, and more terrifc magnitude. He was an enthusiastic lover of truth – a promoter of wisdom – a difuser of light and virtue among the great body of the people. Te light of his knowledge was not hid under the bushel of learned mysticism. It shone abroad upon all mankind.

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He seemed to think that the lowest members of society had a right to know the diference between virtue and vice, between justice and oppression, between tyranny and good government. We cannot be surprized that a sans culottes of this description should be detested by aristocrats of the description before specifed. He promulgated truth to the people at large. He brought, as has been said, philosophy from the clouds to dwell in the habitations of men. He dragged science from the cobweb cells of the pedant, and carried it to the manufactory – into the workshop of the artifcer, and the resorts of the labourer. He difused the light of science and virtue among all mankind; because he was convinced that all mankind were his brethren, and that they could not lose the claim of brotherhood by poverty or wretchedness; that nothing could rob them of that brotherhood but crimes, and that all withholding of the rights of that brother hood was oppression. Citizens, he ‘began,’ we are told, ‘to oppose sophistry and superstition with success, and to teach his fellow citizens wisdom and virtue. In the open streets, in the public walks, and baths, in private houses, in the work-shops of artists, or wherever he found men whom he thought he could make better, he entered into conversation with them, explained what was right and what was wrong, what was good and what was evil, &c.’ MENDELSSOHN, p. xii. He was not afraid to contradict every forgery and imposition. ‘He adhered to the maxim – Tat every false tenet or opinion which led openly to immorality, and was consequently contrary to the happiness of the human race, ought to be reprobated, and its pernicious consequences exposed to public ridicule, in presence of the sophists, the priests, and the common people.’ ibid. p. xv. Here were church and state, of course, upon his back at once. Priestcraf and the 30 tyrants must have gone to wreck ding dong, if such sedition as this had been tolerated: and great generals, and army agents could have been no better of. For if he laid open to the multitude whatever was contrary to the happiness of the human race, in what colours must he have painted the usurping oligarchy! How must he have exposed the juggles of hypocritical priests! How must he have described the pernicious consequences of the system of war! In short, what bitter things must he not have said of that government, which trampled upon the liberties of Athens! Nor could the lawyers, or, as they were then called, the sophist, have been more in his favour. ‘For the corruption and venality of the times, and, in particular, the mean avarice of the sophists, who sold their poisonous instructions for ready money, and employed the most shameful arts to enrich themselves, at the expence of the deluded people, were circumstances which compelled him to oppose the prevailing passion for gold, by the utmost disinterestedness of conduct himself.’ MENDEL. p. xiii. In short, ‘Te happiness of the human race was his sole study. As soon as any opinion of superstition occasioned an open violence, the invasion of the NATURAL RIGHTS OF MEN, or the

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corruption of their morals, no threats or persecution could prevent him from declaiming against it.’ MEND. p. xxxii. With doctrines like these we cannot be surprised that he rendered himself odious to men whose crimes I have already described, and whose eminent situations made them jealous of all popularity. Tey could not but be convinced that if he proceeded with these seditious doctrines, he would drag them and their vices to public view, and make the people too wise to submit to their abominable dominion. Such was the infexibility of the man, that he dared to oppose, you fnd, whatever could be regarded as an invasion of the natural Rights of Man. Here is sans cullotism with a vengeance; and in every part of his doctrines, as handed down to us by his disciples (for he has lef us nothing of his own upon record) these principles are to be found. No length of prescription, no pretended fundamental maxim of religion or state, no threats of power or prosecution could deter him. He was a champion of the Rights of Man, and opposed even the most venerable institutions and opinions, when humanity and justice were violated by them. Now you will, I am sure, be convinced that such seditious dispositions, such treasonable purposes as these, could never be countenanced by such a regular, consistent, orderly government as the oligarchy of Athens. We fnd accordingly, that they were determined to try him for high treason. Sedition was not enough. Tey knew that the existing laws as they stood were not sufcient for his destruction, or in other words, the people’s minds were not prepared to put just such constructions upon the existing laws as their Attorney-General might think ft to maintain. And now to shew you how this long digression, as it appears, is connected with the subject. Determined upon the destruction of this great good man, the faction in power made use of the prostitution of the Teatre as an engine to efect those detestable purposes, as I shall presently shew you, by traducing his character by base and slanderous misrepresentations; while Critias, his former friend and pupil, whom he had ofended by telling him boldly of his vices, together with Charicles, were appointed to fnd grounds of accusation against him. In other words, they appointed a select and secret committee, to make a special report upon their new-fangled law, or pervasion of law, by the assistance of which, together with the infammation of the public mind, they might be able to prove that truth was sedition, and argument high treason. Tey were a secret committee, it is true, of only two. But two bears as tolerable a proportion to thirty, as twenty-eight to fve or six hundred. Nay, perhaps certain committees, in other countries, might be essentially as select as this – committees in reality of two or three, to whom all the rest were mere puppets; these the only actors, the bell-wethers of the fock, who whenever they tinkled their little canister were certain that the rest would cry baa, and follow.

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Citizens, these accusers, we are told, could not fnd a law to answer their purpose, and therefore they made one. And what do you think the law was? It was not a proclamation – no – it was a law made in a regular, solemn way. It was, ‘that no person should teach rhetoric.’ In other words, they prohibited Socrates from giving any more lectures. ‘Tey found that Socrates transgressed against them in words:’ – that is to say, he spoke bold truths – he cultivated reason: and how should tyrants endure truth and reason? Ten it was that words became high treason in Athens. But let us see the complexion of his ofence. ‘Socrates transgressed against them in words, and had let it be variously reported, it was wonderful if shepherds made the herd which was entrusted to their care, grow small and more meagre, and yet should not be accounted bad shepherds; but it was still more wonderful, if the guardians of a state made its subjects grow fewer and worse, that they should not be accounted bad guardians.’ MEND. p. xxxvi. Wonderful treason, indeed! Tus if the tyrants had plunged the country into an unnecessary and mad crusade, and reduced it to beggary and want, according to their law, and construction of law, this would be no crime in them, but it would be a crime in any man who should lay down any axiom or principle of reason by which their wicked conduct might be condemned. Tus were laws made, not for the beneft of the people, but to preserve the governors from being responsible to any principle of reason or justice. In consequence of this, the Sans culottes SOCRATES was called before the aristocrats CRITIAS and CHARICLES. ‘Tey summoned him before them, shewed him the law, and forbid him to enter into conversations with young people.’ ibid. Socrates, it seems, wished to obey them if he could; but he thought it necessary to understand them. ‘Is it permitted,’ said he, ‘to ask questions? For this prohibitory law is not sufciently clear to me.’ – ‘Yes,’ they ‘answered. ibid. p. xxxvii. But it was aferwards added, that it was totally forbidden that he should discourse with the young. ‘Tat I may know also how I am to conduct myself in this particular, said Socrates, inform me how long men are to be accounted young? – As long as they are not entitled to a seat in the Senate, answered Charicles; that is, until they arrive at maturity of understanding, to wit, at thirty years. – If I should purchase anything, returned Socrates, which a young man under thirty years has to sell, may I not ask him how dear it is? – Tat is not forbid thee, said Charicles; but you ask many things which you know: from such questions in future refrain. – And answers? continued Socrates. If a young man asks me where Critias or Charicles dwells, may I not answer him? – Yes, certainly, said Critias; but mingle not in your discourse old thread-bare maxims and allusions to belt-makers, carpenters, and smiths.’ (Tey neglected, it seems, to give him any warning about button-makers and hog-butchers!)---’Probably, replied Socrates, I must also avoid communicating the ideas of justice, holiness, piety, &c. which I have been used to illustrate by those examples, &c. – Perfectly right, answered

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Critias; and above all things,’ take care you don’t talk about Game Cocks.47 – O no, no – I mistake – it was not Game Cocks. Game Cocks they had no objection to, nor Bantums either – but ‘above all things speak not of Shepherds. Mark that well, or I fear you will also make the herd smaller.’ MEND. p. xxxviii. &c. ‘Socrates,’ we are told, ‘regarded their threats as little as their absurd law which they had no right to pass contrary to reason and the law of nature. He continued his eforts in support of virtue and justice with the most unwearied zeal. Te tyrants never dared, notwithstanding, to make a direct attack upon him. Tey therefore attempted bye ways.’ MEND. p. xxxix. Tey endeavored to implicate him in their own crimes; but in vain. Te sans culottes Socrates was no Burke, no Windham, to put of his patriotism as he changed his cloak, to shif from one side of the house to the other as suited his convenience, and take his bitterest enemies to his bosom for the sake of a place or a pension. Every art was therefore practised to infame the public mind against him, to misrepresent his character, and impeach his morals. Among the rest, we are told, that the priests, sophists, and others equally venal in their profession, who must have felt Socrates a thorn in their side, hired the comic writer Aristophanes, to expose him to public ridicule and hatred.’ Accordingly, in his comedy, or farce of the Clouds, that bufoon represented the light of science, the illuminator of the world, in the most ridiculous point of view, and thus slandered him to his fellow-citizens, in order that he might fall a more easy prey to the arts and machinations o f those enemies who wished his destruction, because he was virtuous, wise, generous, and brave. For when these qualities meet together in the character of a public instructor or reformer, the consequences of the illumination he disseminates among the people must be the shaking to their very foundations the corruption and tyranny he opposes. Tus, Citizens, we fnd even in the early periods of history that the theatres have been not only considered as powerful engines to improve and instruct the people, but that they were also made use of as powerful engines to bring virtue into discredit, and to mislead and delude mankind; and thus to support that tyranny and oppression which nothing but delusion can perpetuate in any country. Unfortunately Socrates was not tried by a jury of his equals. Athens, enlightened as it was, had many imperfections in its institutions, which modern experience can readily descry. Te system of representation, upon which this country frst blundered, and which America frst realized, was unknown in Athens; as was also that glorious institution Trial by Jury: and Socrates fell. Te frst great advocate for the Rights of Man – for that general difusion of knowledge, the principles of which are now likely to be disseminated among all mankind – fell beneath the tyrant arm of that oppression which he was so anxious, by peaceable, by rational, by virtuous means, to reform. Te example of his sacrifce

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– the sacrifce of virtue and wisdom on the altar of pretended treason, has since, it is true, been repeated in many a despotic country, and many a country boasting the forms, but wanting the pure spirit, of a free constitution. He is however one of the most illustrious examples that stand upon record, of a man sacrifced by the arm of what is called law for endeavoring to enlarge the boundaries of human science, and bring happiness to the great body of the people. Such were the purposes to which the Grecian theatre was sometimes perverted, when it fell under the dominion of corruption. I shall not now endeavor to trace its history in another country, nor bring to mind the degrading picture which the enquiry would exhibit. Te Roman theatre (like the Grecian) while the pure principles of liberty could charm – while republicanism, and its concomitant virtues and energies prevailed; – (it is no crime, I hope, to commend the virtues of a republic) – while those principles remained uncorrupt, the theatre fourished; but it fell into degradation when tyranny began to exercise its horrors, and glorious Republicanism was changed for the gaudy crimes and debility of Empire. When Caligula, glutted with blood, and bathed in licentiousness, wished that all Rome had but one neck, that he might smite of every head at a blow: and when Nero, at once a tyrant, a fdler, and a bufoon extorted the approbation of his subjects by fles of pikemen and praetorian banditti, the theatre became a scene of disgusting depravity. Nay, even in the times of Pompey, when a corrupt oligarchy was paving the way for the horrors of the succeeding tyranny, the theatres had lost their manly and rational character; had degenerated into pageantry and bufoonery, and exhibited nothing but what debauched and efeminized the gaping spectator. I will not pretend that in this country such scenes of licentiousness and vice are exhibited, as sometimes disgraced the public theatres of old: but I am authorized in saying, that every exertion is used to make our theatres a vehicle of political corruption, not less insolent and scandalous than it is contemptible and degrading. It is impossible for me at this time of night to enter into this part of the investigation; I must therefore refer it to another opportunity. But, Citizens, I pray you, keep in your minds the virtues and the fate of Socrates. Remember the deep contrition, anguish, and remorse of the Athenians, when reason returned, and the recollection that they had spilt the blood of the friend of all mankind haunted their imaginations. Remember also the parallels that are to be found in the ages of corruption in this country. Remember that while the Muse of Dryden was prostituted to misrepresent the facts of history, and propagate from the stage every delusion, and every sentiment that was base, sanguinary, and slavish – while in tragedies, comedies, prologues, and epilogues, he ofered the incense of genius at the shrine of tyranny, and branded with infamy every thing that breathed the spirit of virtue and liberty – remember that during

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the infatuation inspired by these and similar artifces, Sidney fell the victim of his virtue – the scafold was stained with the blood of Russell; and patriot afer patriot felt the keen axe of sanguinary Tyranny. Te repentant tears of Britain, it is true, as of Athens, blotted out the attainders of those virtuous men from the records in which they had been enrolled: but no tears could recal from their tombs those virtuous patriots, who lived for freedom, and for freedom died.

THE TRIBUNE, NO. L.

FAREWEL ADDRESS. CITIZENS, I HAVE now brought to a conclusion the third volume of this work. If health, and other circumstances, had permitted, it was my intention to have completed the collection to the time when the fnal passing of Mr. Pitt’s Convention Act put a period to my ‘Lectures on the Laws, Constitution, and Government and Policy of these Kingdoms.’ But a variety of considerations compel me to relinquish this design. While these lectures continued, they aforded me a decent subsistence, which enabled me to indulge my desire of difusing political information, by publishing this work upon a plan which, though attended with considerable expenditure, could yield but a scanty interest, even by the slow and distant returns of a very wide circulation. But the press, formerly but an auxiliary, must now be my chief dependence; and my attention must necessarily be directed to publications more conducive to literary reputation and personal emolument. Tis circumstance alone would not, however, have had sufcient weight to induce me to abridge my plan, if I had not been decided by others of more imperious necessity; and, particularly, by the circumstance of the confnement to the metropolis, and the regular application demanded by a periodical work, being totally inconsistent with every hope of frmly re-establishing my injured health. Tese considerations will, I trust, furnish a sufcient apology for my deviation from the letter of my promise, which was, that I would continue the periodical publication of the Tribune till the whole of the Political Lectures were before the Public; especially when it is considered, that the spirit of that promise is already fulflled: my professed object being, that the public might be enabled to judge how far the doctrines and sentiments in these discourses merited the abuse with which they have been branded by ministers and the tools of ministers; and how far they are in reality of such an alarming nature as to justify that abridgement of constitutional liberty, to which the country has been recently subjected. Tat judgement the public is now perfectly enabled to form: for I have brought down the lectures to the time when the Bill for their suppression was introduced into – 309 –

DOI: 10.4324/9780429349720-26

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Parliament. Tis collection, then, with only three or four unimportant exceptions, contains the complete series, from the commencement of the frst course afer my acquittal form the charge of High Treason, to the time when the grand hue and cry was raised in the Houses of Lords and Commons against their supposed seditious and treasonable tendency. Tese exceptions, and the treasons that infuenced me in the omission, I shall particularly specify, that the public may be satisfed that no motive at all connected with their imputed criminality was consulted in the suppression. Te frst course commenced on Friday the 6th of February, 1795, with an enquiry into ‘the moral and political importance of the liberty of speech and of the press.’ But I had not then engaged a short-hand-writer; and that lecture, of course, could not be published. Te three ensuing lectures were a recital of the defence intended to have been delivered at the bar of the Old Bailey; and are accordingly before the public, in my pamphlet entitled, ‘A Vindication of the Natural and Constitutional Right of Britons to Annual Parliaments,’ &c. On Wednesday, March 20, the recent death of my mother preventing my appearance in the tribune, Citizen Hodgson48 delivered, in my place, a very sensible discourse on the Constitution of this Country; which, however, as being in no respect my composition, I have not included in the collection. Te only omissions, therefore, I have to account for to the public, are 1. Te lectures ‘On Bigotry and Fanaticism,’ delivered on Good Friday (April 3) and the Wednesday following. 2. Te lecture ‘On the Orders of the Privy Council for presenting Emigration’ (April 24th). And 3. Tree lectures ‘On the Diference between Party Spirit and Public Principle,’ delivered on the 15th, 20th, and 22nd of May. Te second of these articles was omitted, because, before the transcript came from the shorthand-writer’s, the grievance complained of was removed; and there appeared no particular excellence in the lecture itself to entitle it (under such circumstances) to be rescued from oblivion. Te frst had been passed by for a while to make way for lectures of more temporary nature: and as the matter of these two discourses is in some degree detached, and three more have been delivered on the same subject, during my course of Lectures on Classical History, I feel disposed to work them up, altogether, into a distinct treatise, and submit them at some future time to the world, in another form. In withholding the Lectures on Party Spirit, I have been actuated by a motive of a diferent kind – a motive which, perhaps, the petulant and headstrong may disapprove; but which is, nevertheless, I believe, perfectly consistent with those principles of Sans-culottism which I still continue to profess with unabated ardour and sincerity. My hearers will remember, and indeed the title will sufciently indicate, the tone and complexion of those lectures. Tey contain, I believe, nothing but what the situation of afairs, and the conduct of the respective parties fully justifed: but, if I am not misinformed, they occasioned some soreness to men, who have since, upon one grand

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question in particular, acted with a degree of spirit and frmness which entitles them, in common justice, to a degree of indulgence for past failings: and whoever shall attentively peruse the debates of Friday, the 8th inst. upon the subject of ‘Barracks,’ and Monday the 12th, upon the ‘Slave Trade,’ will, I think, admit with me the probability that some of these men are really disposed (at least for the present) to lend their support to principles more consistent with the interests of liberty than those half-way measures, and shufing evasions, which were formerly, and I think justly, the object of such sever animadversion among real reformers. I may be mistaken in these favorable opinions; and certainly I am not at all disposed to part with that jealous watchfulness, which, in spite of a constitutional disposition to trust and confdence, the conduct of political leaders has compelled one to adopt. But I believe, so long as this scrutinizing jealousy, as to conduct, is observed, it is both wise and generous to give men credit for a good motive, so long as they are acting well. At any rate, I am convinced that any hostility to these men, at this time, would be equally unwise, as to the public cause, and unjust to the individuals. Between confdence and attack there are may degrees of choice; and it is, I believe, a salutary maxim, never to confde in any man or set of men, but when the situation of afairs makes it absolutely necessary; but at the same time, never to attack, but when there is a clear and evident failure of public duty. It is upon these considerations that I lay, for the present, upon the shelf the lectures on the diference between party spirit and public principle; that if certain individuals animadverted upon therein, should realize the expectations they have lately raised, these strictures may sink into oblivion; but, if the reverse should be the case, they may come forward, at a proper season, with such additions as the circumstances of the times may render necessary. Having thus far discharged my duty to the public, by putting them in full possession of the documents necessary to decide the question at issue, I trust I may be excused, under all the circumstances of the case, for delaying the remaining parts of the work, till leisure and ft opportunity enable me to send them into the world in some convenient form, and in a more correct state, than the hasty publication of the preceding pages would admit. Tat the collection should be completed at some period or other, is certainly my serious intention: several reasons rendering me far from desirous that the remaining lectures should be suppressed. Tey are, I believe, in several points of view, the best that I have delivered. Tey do not indeed contain that mass of facts which I sometimes fatter myself will bestow a sort of permanent value upon the latter half of the second, and the former of this third volume; but they have, I believe, the advantage of entering more boldly into the discussion of principle, and breathing more enthusiasm than almost any of the preceding. Indeed, from the circumstance of being delivered on the spur of an awful and momentous crisis, and upon a subject which had excited universal interest and agitation, they might naturally be expected to have more of pas-

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sion – more of that fre of expression, and that rapid energy of conception and arrangement, which constitute the soul of oratory. In short, (to compare small things with great) they are the ‘Philippics’ of my humble collection; and I must be insensible indeed to the voice of popularity, if I could wish them to be buried and forgotten, while the rest are abroad and remembered. But the question that produced those lectures will undoubtedly be revived. It is not, depend upon it, gone to sleep for ever. Tat revival will be a proper time for the publication of my remaining volume; and, at that time, if other indispensable engagements do not intervene, that volume shall make its appearance. In the mean time, all that the Minister, all that the Attorney General, all that the advocates for the late Bills can wish, is presented to their inspection; and an important question is at issue before the public. If the lectures delivered, during the preceding year, at Beaufort Buildings, are really of that seditious, infammatory, and treasonable nature, which the minister and his adherents have represented, what must be the deserts of the fagitious individual by whom they were delivered? – What must be his audacity – nay, his folly – his madness, not only in taking such precautions to render every word that he uttered susceptible of the most positive proof, but in bringing all these proofs to the bar of the public, and challenging investigation, in the very teeth of power? If, on the contrary, these lectures are not of the complexion which the minister and his tools have so vehemently described – If, instead of treason and sedition, they contain only the principles of reason, truth, and justice – If, instead of provoking to violence and commotion, they enforce the principles of peace, humanity, and good order – If, instead of stirring up hatred and dislike to his Majesty’s person and government, they only expose the peculations and mal practices of those worst traitors and enemies to their King and Country, a corrupt, profigate, and sanguinary administration, what must the public conclude with respect to those ministers? – What will posterity – [nay, let us hope that every thing will not be lef to posterity! – let not us be to our descendants an unproftable and accursed ancestry, bequeathing to them nothing but the necessity of remedying the mischiefs produced by our supineness!] – what must the present generation (as soon as it has opened its eyes) say to the men who have thus slandered an innocent individual, and held him up as an object of terror and abhorrence, that, through his sides, they might stab the constitutional liberty of their country, and, under pretence of suppressing his supposed dangerous and illegal doctrines, lay prostrate the dearest rights and privileges of the people? Tis is no personal question. It is of considerable magnitude to the public. Under such circumstances, to shelter myself from enquiry were base and treacherous cowardice. I have not so sheltered myself. Te public are entitled to the whole evidence. Te whole evidence lays before them: all, at least, that can be of any importance as to the decision. Of some few of the earlier lectures, it is true,

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extracts only are printed; because in the earlier lectures, in particular, there were many feeble passages, not worth preserving. It is only by practice, application, and the habit of revision, that we are able to give to oral efusion the consistency and unity essential to a printed discourse. Te rest, it must also be admitted, have undergone some slight corrections; but these alterations are either merely critical, or have been adopted not to sofen, but to increase the force and strength of the expression, and supply the defects which tone and gesticulation might cover in the delivery: and as the original transcripts from the short-hand writer’s notes are persevered in my library, these are, also, according to present practice, within the reach of Government, if the authenticity of the printed copies should be called in question. Have I not a right, then, to expect – nay, to demand, that, these documents being thus fairly produced, and my responsibility to the laws (if indeed I have ofended them) thus facilitated, the unjust restrictions laid upon the intellectual freedom of my unofending country should be instantly removed, and the vengeance of the Minister (if vengeance for these Lectures can be due) should be directed against my devoted head, and mine alone? I now take leave, for the present, of the Political Lectures, and shall conclude this volume with a few particulars respecting the undertaking in which I have been more recently engaged. In my little pamphlet, entitled ‘Prospectus of a Course of Lectures in strict Conformity with Mr. Pitt’s Convention Act,’ I have sufciently explained the nature and legality of this undertaking; and perhaps it may not be improper, in this place, to insert the following passage from that publication. ‘It is essential to mark with some degree of accuracy what is and what is not forbidden by this act: for although it is not the part of a good citizen to violate, from individual caprice, the provisions of a general law, (whatever may be his opinion of the government by which it was made) it is certainly his duty to embrace every opportunity which the Legislature has not prohibited, of promoting principles conducive to the general happiness of mankind. In short, nothing (except intemperate violence) can be so injurious to the public cause, as that cringing timidity with which we so frequently meet Oppression, as it were, half way; and when a part of our rights is violently taken from us, forbear, with what is miscalled prudential caution, to exercise even those that remain. Tis is, in reality, courting slavery. It is saying to the Minister, ‘You have over-rated the courage, spirit, and intelligence of the nation. Your invasions of public liberty are too tame and cautious. You were fearful lest the present burthen should be intolerable; but our necks are formed for a heavier yoke; and though there are bounds to your presumption, there shall be none to our servility: take, therefore, as our gif, the little liberty you lef, and let us become ENTIRELY THE THING YOU WISH US, though you had not the courage to attempt to make us so.’

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‘If this should be the conduct of my countrymen, with respect to these bills, at least they shall not have to reproach me for the example. I will not, in my present disposition at least, violate the Law; but I will continue to obey the dictates of my own conscience, and promote the important cause of popular discussion in such ways as the Law has not yet forbidden; and perhaps it will be found upon serious consideration, that the feld is yet ample, and the harvest promising.’ Pa. 13, &c. LECTURE I. Te importance of the study of History in general, and of Roman History in particular. LECT. II. Te rise, progress, and decline of Roman grandeur. Its obscure beginnings, unexampled triumphs, and unparalleled degeneracy. Including a review of the consequences of corruption. LECT. III. Te Regal Government (or limited Monarchy) of ancient Rome; its advantages and defects with strictures on elective and hereditary Royalty; and a digression on the Constitution and fate of Poland. LECT. IV. Further Animadversions on the Regal Government; and the subserviency of Priestcraf to the usurpations of prerogative: with digressions on the Republican Governments of America and France. LECT. V. Te abuses of Kingly power, and arbitrary usurpations which occasioned the extermination of Royalty. LECT. VI. A refutation of the pretences for depriving the Romans of their natural and Constitutional right of equal universal sufrage; with a further exposition of the arbitrary usurpations which led to the abolition of Royalty; and parallels between that event, and the Revolutions in France and Holland. LECT. VII. Te Expulsion of the Tarquins; wth Refections on the principal Revolutions which have produced the Overthrow of Regal and Monarchic Governments in the Ancient and Modern World. LECT. VIII. Te Folly and Wickedness of the Confederacy of Kings to overthrow the Roman Republic, and restore the Tyranny or the Tarquins. LECT. IX. Further Animadversions on the Combination of Kings for the Restoration of Despotism in Rome: with a Digression on the Destruction of the Military and Naval Armaments of Xerxes; and the Causes that rendered the little Republics of Antiquity victorious over the greatest Monarchies. LECT. X. Te Arrogance, Rapacity, and Usurpations of the Roman Aristocracy, and consequent Depression and Misery of the People. LECT. XI. Te Commotions produced by the Tyranny of the Government, and consequent Emigration of the People to the Sacred Mount: including a Vindication of the Right of Popular Association. LECT. XII. Te Defects of the Tribunitian Institution, or Popular Representation of Rome; its Abuses and Corruptions. LECT. XIII. Te Fasti and Superstitions of Ancient Rome.

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LECT. XIV. Te Causes and Consequences of the Seditions of Rome; with an Enquiry into the Circumstances that produced the diferent Character of the Roman and the French Revolutions. LECT. XV. A Continuation of the Enquiry into the Causes and Consequences of the Seditions of Rome: with Refections on the Suppression of Popular Discussion. LECT. XVI. Te Diference between Ancient and Modern Democracies, illustrated by the Examples of Athens and Sparta – of Rome – of America, &c. with a particular Reply to Burke’s Calumnies against the French Revolution. LECT. XVII. A further Vindication of the French Revolution against the fanatical Ravings of Edmund Burke. LECT. XVIII. Corruption and Tyranny the real Causes of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: with an Enquiry into the Circumstances that have subjected Nations to Overthrow by Foreign Invasion. LECT. XIX. and XX. Further Animadversions on the Fasti and Superstitions of Ancient Rome; with an Exposition of the juggling Impositions and Forgeries of Priestcraf, and their Subserviency to the Ambition and Rapacity of Tyrannical Rulers: exemplifed by instances selected from histories of all Nations, except THESE KINGDOMS – upon which, (and which alone) it is now unlawful to lecture. Spies and Emissaries were, according to practice, employed to attend these lectures. I have the authority (at second hand) of the Secretary of a Secretary of State, for afrming, that two reporters were regularly stationed on the part of Government to keep close watch upon me; and several abortive attempts (which furnished excellent matter of pleasantry and digression) were made to disturb the company and discompose the lecturer; but the whole course was completed, according to the original proposal, without the least attempt at legal interruption.

NOTES

Volume 1 1.

2.

3.

4. 5.

Lecture on the Budget: this lecture was a response to Pitt’s 1795 budget, which was announced to and approved by Parliament on 23 February, and concerned the continuing and costly war with Revolutionary France, of which Telwall was a dogged critic. In this lecture, his criticisms concern not issues of just cause or of the ‘horrors’ sufered by those directly involved, but rather its efects on the British economy and on domestic living standards. One of the main purposes of the budget was the approval of a £4. 6 million loan to Austria in return for the deployment of 200,000 soldiers, mostly in the Rhineland to increase pressure on the French who had successfully invaded the Netherlands and replaced the Republic of the United Provinces with the Batavian Republic. For discussion of the political context surrounding the war fnances, see J. Mori, William Pitt and the French Revolution, 1785–1795 (Edinburgh: Keele University Press, 1997), pp. 205–236. public debt under which we groan: national debt had become an important political issue in mid- to late eighteenth-century Europe, with an increasing number of thinkers raising worries about the problems it posed for the civic health of societies. Notably in his essay ‘Of Public Credit’ David Hume suggested that ‘either the nation must destroy public credit, or public credit will destroy the nation’. Te scholarly literature concerning this has grown considerably in recent years, but a useful and incisive discussion of the key issues at stake can be found in I. Hont, ‘Te Rhapsody of Public Debt: David Hume and Voluntary State Bankruptcy’ in N. Phillipson and Q. Skinner (eds), Political Discourse in Early-Modern Britain (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), pp. 321–348. Worries about controlling it in Britain were exploited by numerous radicals in the 1790s, the most famous of which was probably Tomas Paine in his ‘Decline and Fall of the English System of Finance’, in P. S Foner (ed.), Complete Writings of Tomas Paine, 2 vols (New York: Citadel Press, 1945) vol. 2, pp. 651–74, published in France in April 1796. ‘on the constitution of Corsica’: in 1794 Corsica became aligned with Britain against France and in June a Constitution was established, which contained a number of progressive elements including the enfranchisement of all property owners. Sir Charles Grey: the frst Earl Grey (1729–1801), who led an illustrious military career in the late eighteenth century, notably in the American War of Independence. Admiral Jervis: frst Earl of St Vincent, John Jervis (1735–1823), who was made an Admiral in 1795. – 317 –

318 6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11. 12.

13. 14.

15.

16.

Notes to pages 11–27 ‘swinish Multitude’: a reference to the unfortunate description used by Edmund Burke in his Refections on the Revolution in France to describe the British lower orders, which was pounced on by reformers and used relentlessly to evoke the image of an oppressive, inegalitarian polity. ‘Lecture on the Nature and Calamities of War’: the theme of this lecture is again the war and the debt Britain was amassing in the course of prosecuting it. Herein, one of Telwall’s suggestions is that it was the ‘profigate expenditure of the public money in foreign exploits and crusades’ by the ancien regime that led to the French Revolution. For a discussion of ‘credit’ as a context for understanding late eighteenth-century France, see M. Sonenscher, ‘Republicanism, State Finances and the Emergence of Commercial Society in Eighteenth Century France’ in M. van Gelderen and Q. Skinner (eds), Republicanism: A Shared European Heritage, 2 vols (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), vol. 2, pp. 275–92. ‘not the right only, but the duty’: these claims – that the free enquiry of individuals is a ‘duty’ rather than a ‘right’, that entitlements over property are not absolute and that the happiness of society is paramount for assessing individual actions – are all prominent in William Godwin’s Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (1793) which was a huge infuence on Telwall’s political thought. For a useful discussion, see B. Sprague Allen, ‘William Godwin’s Infuence upon John Telwall’, Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, 37 (1922), pp. 662–82. Telwall’s copy of Godwin’s work was among the possessions seized by the government at the time of his arrest and was never returned to him. Montgaillard: Jean Gabriel Maurice Roque, Comte de Montgaillard (1761–1841), secret agent afliated with diferent factions in post-revolutionary France and author of État de la France au mois de mai (1794). He came to England in 1794 but was quickly deported as a spy. ‘men are but machines performing’: such a commitment to the ‘laws of necessity’ is again prominent in Godwin’s Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, illustrated by his declaration (in book 7, chapter 1) that ‘the assassin cannot help the murder he commits any more than the dagger’. ‘12th and 13th of May last’: the dates of the arrest of Hardy, Telwall and others under charge of treason, at which time much of Telwall’s property was confscated. Katterfelto: Gustavus Katterfelto (d. 1799), Prussian-born public entertainer or conjurer and self-professed medic and scientist who achieved some notoriety in Britain in the 1780s. ‘Demosthenes of the British senate’: a reference to Charles James Fox (1749–1806), leading Whig politician and opponent of Britain’s involvement in the Revolutionary Wars. ‘the true philosophical light of truth and benevolence’: the prizing of benevolence is another markedly Godwinian theme (see Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, especially book 4, chapter 8). Gerrald: Joseph Gerrald (1763–96), attorney and LCS member, arrested in December 1793 for participation in the Convention in Edinburgh. He was sentenced to transportation in March 1794, which eventually took place in May 1795. He developed tuberculosis and was an invalid from his arrival in Australia in November 1795 until his death the following March. ‘Narrative of the Proceedings of the Messenger’: this lecture provides a personal account of Telwall’s arrest on the charge of High Treason in May 1794, the seizure of papers and

Notes to pages 27–41

17.

18. 19.

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possessions from him by government authorities and his questioning before the Privy Council. Citizen Hardy: Tomas Hardy (1752–1832), shoemaker and founder of the London Corresponding Society. See Volume 1, note 45 to Political Lectures for a more detailed account. Dundas: Henry Dundas (1742–1811), infuential member of Pitt’s Cabinet, at this time Secretary of State for War and one of the government’s main hate fgures for reformers. Bow-Street Runners: the Bow Street Runners were an embryonic London police force founded by Henry Fielding and based at his ofce in that location, but extended to several other areas by an Act of Parliament in 1792. Margarot: Maurice Margarot (1745–1815), founding member of the LCS and member of the ‘National Convention’ held in Edinburgh, which led to his trial and conviction for treason. His sentence was transportation to Australia where he died in 1815. See Volume 1, note 46 to Political Lectures for a more detailed account. Citizen Bonney: John Augustus Bonney (d. 1813), attorney and member of the Society for Constitutional Information, who was also arrested in 1794 under suspicion of ‘treasonable practices’ but was acquitted. ‘Tax on Hair Powder… Budget’: among the measures announced during Pitt’s February 1795 budget was a tax (of ‘one guinea a head’) on hair powder through a system of licences. Intended as a tax on luxuries to fund the war efort, it proved more controversial than Pitt might have expected with both its victims and those who disapproved of its purposes. For a thorough discussion of the issue and its signifcance, see J. Barrell, Te Spirit of Despotism: Invasions of Privacy in the 1790s (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), pp. 145–209. Mr Brothers: a reference to Richard Brothers (1757–1824), self-proclaimed prophet and ‘Prince of the Hebrews’ who was arrested for treason in March 1795 and later declared insane. For a discussion of him in the context of government anxieties about treasonable behaviour, see J. Barrell, Imagining the King’s Death: Figurative Treason, Fantasies of Regicide (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), pp. 504–547. Citizen John Martin: John Martin, attorney and member of the LCS arrested for treason with Telwall and others. Unlike the rest of the accused, the charges against Martin were not dropped until May 1795. poor Smith: John Smith, bookseller and LCS member, who was charged with High Treason in October 1794 because of his involvement in the so-called ‘popgun plot’ to assassinate George III with a poisoned dart (see Volume 1, note 7). At the time of Telwall’s lecture he was still imprisoned, but would be released on bail in May 1795 before his trial and eventual acquittal in December of that year. Citizen Lemaitre: Peter Lemaitre, watchcase maker and LCS member. He was arrested in September 1794 in connection with the popgun plot, in which he was allegedly to have assumed the role of marksman. He was charged in October 1794 but later acquitted. He was subsequently arrested in 1798 for his involvement with the United Englishmen and though charged with treason was never tried, though he was not released from his imprisonment until 1801. He later wrote a history of the popgun plot at the invitation of Francis Place. Citizen Higgins: George Higgins, chemist and LCS member, whose role was to supply Lemaitre with the poison necessary to kill the king. ‘Tere is no city … oppression’: Niccolò Machiavelli, pivotal Florentine political writer during the Renaissance. Te quotation is from his Te Prince, ch. 9.

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Notes to pages 42–56

29. Tacitus … Patercullus: Publius (or Gaius) Cornelius Tacitus and Marcus Velleius Paterculus; Roman historians, the work of the former in particular has long been identifed as authoritative. 30. Montesquieu … nobles: Charles (baron de) Montesquieu (1689–1755), French political philosopher and social critic who, as Telwall points out, was part of the nobility. Te quotation is from his De l’espirit des lois, Book 2, Section 4. 31. the pen of Rapin: a reference to Paul de Rapin, French historian of Britain, author of Dissertation sur les Whigs et les Torys (1717), which praises the mixed system of government (parliamentary and constitutional) of the Saxons and describes how, since then, English history has struggled to achieve liberty by establishing the correct balance between the ‘prerogatives’ of the crown and the ‘privileges’ of the people. 32. Dean Swif … war: Te novelist and essayist Jonathan Swif (1667–1745) was at diferent times afliated with both Whigs and Tories. Te quotation is from his Te History of the Last Four Years of the Queen (1758), p. 7. 33. the wretch Sacheverell … obedience: Henry Sacheverell (1674–1724), Tory clergyman who became notorious for his politicized sermons that suggested that British subjects owed ‘Absolute and Unconditional Obedience’, which prompted Whig anger and a trial and successful conviction (and three-year sentence of suspension from his post) for ‘seditious libel’. 34. brandishing his dagger in political phrenzy: Tis is a reference to an incident in the House of Commons in December 1792 (memorably caricatured by James Gillray in ‘Te Dagger Scene, or, the Plot Discovered’), when Edmund Burke dramatically produced a dagger to illustrate the threat posed by French Jacobinism. 35. the childish longings of Portland for a bit of ribbon: William Henry Cavendish Cavendish-Bentinck, third Duke of Portland (1738–1809), opposed the French Revolution, becoming the leading fgure of the anti-Foxite Whigs before joining Pitt’s government as Home Secretary in 1794. 36. the conduct of Fitzwilliam’: William FitzWilliam, fourth Earl FitzWilliam (1748–1833), leading conservative Whig who followed the anti-Foxites led by Portland. FitzWilliam was later appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, but lost this post abruptly in February 1795 for his political involvement with Irish Whigs. He was eventually reconciled with Fox. 37. the treatment of Joseph Gerrald: Tough Gerrald was sentenced in March 1794, it was not until May 1795 that he was put on a ship leaving Gosport for New South Wales. He had spent over a year in between those dates in Newgate. 38. King of Prussia: Frederick II (1712–86) of Prussia, who had a reputation as a person interested in philosophy and culture, and rejected the doctrine of the divine right of Kings. 39. Russel: Lord William Russell (1639–83), executed Whig politician accused of conspiring to kill Charles II in the ‘Rye House Plot’. 40. Sidney: Algernon Sidney (1623–83), politician, critic of absolute monarchy and author of Discourses Concerning Government who was convicted and executed for treason for his involvement in the plot against Charles II. 41. metaphysical ravings of Windham: William Windham (1750–1810), Whig politician who quickly abandoned an early enthusiasm for the French Revolution for a zealous opposition to it. He held this view alongside hostility towards the case for parliamentary reform, in reference to which he suggested during a parliamentary debate in March 1790 that no one should attempt to repair a house during Hurricane season.

Notes to pages 66–121

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42. during my confnement in the Tower: Telwall spent fve months in solitary confnement in the Tower of London prior to his trial. During this time he composed his Poems Written in Close Confnement (1795). 43. Mr. Pye: Henry James Pye (1745–1813), poet laureate. 44. Akenside: Mark Akenside (1721–70), poet and physician. 45. Mr. Gibbon: Edward Gibbon (1737–94), historian, author of the highly successful and infuential six-volume Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, published incrementally between 1776 and 1789. 46. plots and conspiracies of Mr. Reeves and his associators: a reference to John Reeves (1752–1829) and the Association for the Preservation of Liberty and Property against Republicans and Levellers that he founded, which was a state-sponsored organization designed to galvanize loyalist sympathizers and thwart reformist movements. 47. the evidence of Taylor: John Taylor was a government spy and witness at the trial of Telwall. As John Barrell points out, Taylor was particularly unconvincing in this role, due in part to his recent imprisonment for bigamy, Barrell, Imagining the King’s Death, pp. 395–6. 48. Mr. Ford: Richard Ford, chief magistrate at Bow Street in charge of the surveillance of radical political activity. 49. Horne Tooke: John Horne Tooke (1736–1812), philologist and middle-class reformist campaigner who was a leading fgure in the Society for Constitutional Information. He was arrested under suspicion of treason in May 1794 and held in the Tower and Newgate before his acquittal at trial with the rest of those charged in November 1794. Telwall had earlier served as Tooke’s assistant in his unsuccessful attempt to be elected to parliament in 1790. 50. Chief Justice Sir James Eyre: Sir James Eyre (1734–99), Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, who played a central role in the treason trials which began with his attendance at the Privy Council (documented in this lecture by Telwall), in front of which the defendants were frst questioned. At the trial, Eyre’s charge to the grand jury recommended a capacious (if vague) understanding of treason and expressed the view that those charged could be thought to be guilty of it. Of the many written replies to Eyre’s charge, the most famous was Godwin’s ‘Cursory Strictures on the Charge Delivered by Lord Chief Justice Eyre to the Grand Jury October 2, 1794’.

Volume 2 1.

the malignant calumny to which I have been exposed … animadversion: as alluded to in the General Introduction (in Volume 1), in response to the government’s ‘Two Acts’, Godwin composed a pamphlet entitled ‘Considerations on Lord Grenville and Mr. Pitt’s Bills’ (1795), which was published anonymously, the author identifying himself simply as a ‘Lover of Order’. In terms of the substance of the argument, Godwin provided on the one hand a highly critical account of the legislation, which he regarded as an unjustifable attempt to curtail individuals’ rights to freedom of expression and on the other, an indictment of political associations and the dangers that such bodies pose to reasoned philosophical refection. Both of these themes were central to his Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, in which defended an inviolable right to a ‘sphere of discretion’ for individual conduct and argued that (even non-revolutionary) political associations were a cause of violence and a force incompatible with social progress. Nevertheless, Telwall viewed the pamphlet as unnecessary, unjust and directly aimed at his own person; the

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5.

6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.

13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18.

19. 20.

Notes to pages 121–47 last of these claims is probably true. On encountering it, Telwall was unsurprisingly apoplectic and, afer an exchange of letters, this preface was his frst published response. Tough he acknowledges the sentiments expressed are similar to those in Political Justice, he rejects Godwin’s insinuations and accusations about the threat posed by himself and the London Corresponding Society, notes the considerable disutility of the timing of publishing such an essay and, perhaps most interestingly, speculates that its misguided claims arise from leading a life of ‘domestic solitude’ and ‘fre side’ philosophical refection, one divorced from the cut and thrust of real politics. another law is famed to make it felony and death to speak … Rights: a reference to the curtailment on public meetings dictated by the Seditious Meetings Bill. reprobate every measure … expected: Tis refers to Godwin’s consistent denial of the utility of political associations and rejection of revolutions as a means to social change. Te latter of these sentiments was strengthened in the revised, second edition of Political Justice published in November 1795, partly in response to the violent turn taken by the French Revolution. For a sophisticated discussion of these changes and how best to explain them, see Mark Philp, Godwin’s Political Justice (London: Duckworth, 1986), pp. 120–9. fequent fiendly … author: a point made by Godwin in his frst written response to Telwall’s letter about the pamphlet. Godwin’s two letters on the subject are reprinted as an appendix in Charles Cestre’s John Telwall: A Pioneer of Democracy and Social Reform in England During the French Revolution (London: S. Sonnenschein, 1906), pp. 203–4. ‘an impatient and headlong reformer’: from W. Godwin, Considerations on Lord Grenville’s and Mr. Pitt’s Bills: Concerning Treasonable and Seditious Practices, and Unlawful Assemblies (London: printed for J. Johnson, c. 1795), p. 17. ‘all the malignant emotions of the human mind’: Ibid. , p. 21. ‘Lord George Gordon preaching peace to the rioters in Westminster Hall’: Ibid. , p. 21. ‘not to dishonour himself by giving harbour to a thought of jealousy’: Ibid. , p. 21. ‘uncommon purity of my intentions’: Ibid. , p. 21. ‘Whether or no Political Lectures … pronounce’: Ibid. , pp. 16–17. ‘for the most part, in crowded audiences’: Ibid. , p. 17. Mr. Cline: a reference to Henry Cline (1750–1827), surgeon and friend of Telwall’s, whose trial he gave evidence at. He would also become one of Telwall’s main interlocutors on issues of elocutionary theory. ‘in the domestic tranquillity of the fre side’: Godwin, Considerations, p. 20. ‘adapted to ripen men for purposes … Paris’: Ibid. , p. 22. ‘Tere must be a consent of wills … withstand’: Ibid. , pp. 17–18. ‘magnifcent harmony, expanding itself … community’: Ibid. , p. 17. 4,600,000 pounds: this is in reference to the aforementioned 4. 6 million pound government loan to Austria. when Pope, Swif, Arbuthnot, and Gay, united together: Pope, Swif, Arbuthnot and Gay (along with Henry St John and Tomas Parnell) formed the Te Scriblerus Club in 1712, which became a vehicle for collaborative work. sublime projects of Dr. Darwin: a reference to the work of Erasmus Darwin (1731–1802), physician, philosopher and poet. CONDITION of the COMMON PEOPLE … SLAVES: the standard position in early to mid-eighteenth century political and economic thought was actually the reverse of this. Tinkers like John Locke (Second Treatise of Government §41) and Adam Smith (Wealth of Nations, book 1, ch. 1) both argued that the poorest member of a ‘civilized’

Notes to pages 147–73

21.

22.

23.

24.

25.

26.

27.

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29.

30.

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society such as Britain enjoyed superior material conditions to a King in a savage territory. In the 1790s, this claim was challenged by Paine in both Rights of Man, Part Two and Agrarian Justice. the practice of Crimping: Crimping was the practice of coercing – either by force or fraud – individuals into working aboard ships and usually involved crimping-houses that ofered liquor and prostitutes to entice potential victims. Te practice provoked much anger and ofen the revelation of the presence of such houses to the public led to riots and looting of the premises. indignant language of Mr. Whitbread: Samuel Whitbread (1764–1815), Whig politician and supporter of the abolition movement, religious toleration and parliamentary reform. Sir William Young: (1749–1815) politician and colonial governor who had fnancial interests in the sugar trade and campaigned for an alternative to Wilberforce’s proposed abolition of the slave trade on economic grounds while also claiming that the slaves that he had encountered were not forced to endure cruel or overly difcult conditions. Citizen Wadstrom: Carl Bernhard Wadstrom (1746–99) Swedish writer who was part of the British Abolitionist movement and author of the two-part An Essay on Colonization, particularly applied to the Western Coast of Afica, with some Free Toughts on Cultivation and Commerce (1794–5), which advanced economic as well as moral arguments for ending the slave trade. Wilberforce: William Wilberforce (1759–1833), politician and leading fgure in the Abolitionist movement in Britain, which had lost some momentum afer the outbreak of war with France. Factions and Divisions, among the Friends of Reform: while Telwall was convalescing on the Isle of Wight, the summer of 1795 had been quite a tumultuous one for the reform movement in terms of internal splits, with some divisions leaving the LCS to form their own factions. For discussion, see Albert Goodwin, Te Friends of Liberty (London: Hutchinson, 1979), pp. 368–71. attention to the political works of Hume … eloquence: a reference to David Hume (1711– 76), in particular his essay ‘Of Eloquence’, in Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary, Volume 2 (Edinburgh: A. Kincaid, 1742), in which he argues that ancient societies were more eloquent than those of modernity, but that it is not the rhetoric but the stress on philosophical style that should be emulated. the real fiend of Liberty … Faction: Telwall’s attempt to contest the defnition of ‘real’ and ‘true’ friends of liberty may have been prompted by the secession of Joseph Burks’s division (including John Baxter) from the LCS, to form the more politically extreme ‘Te Friends of Liberty’ in the summer of 1795. Brissotines: ‘Brissotins’ was the name occasionally given to the Girondin political faction in post-revolutionary France. It refers to their leading fgure Jacques Pierre Brissot (1754–93) who rose to prominence before being guillotined. the last plan of the constitution in France: the French Constitution of 1795 (ratifed in late August) established the Directory, consisting of a fve-member executive and a bicameral legislature. It would last until the ascent of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1799. ‘their persons are their title deeds’: Paine, ‘Dissertation on First Principles of Government’ (1795), in Foner (ed). Complete Writings of Tomas Paine, vol. 2, p. 577. Marat: Jean-Paul Marat (1743–93), high profle French journalist and politician, whose campaign against the Girondin faction contributed greatly to his fame but ultimately led to his assassination by Charlotte Corday.

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Notes to pages 174–217

33. scurrilous forgeries … Briton: Telwall was a frequent target for loyalist newspapers such as the Sun and the True Briton, which had been established by the government. Both were at this time edited by John Heriot. 34. Lord BACON: Francis Bacon (1561–1621), English philosopher and statesman. 35. Poverty and Misery of the People: A combination of poor harvests, the cost of the continuing revolutionary wars and the failure to successfully utilize the standard failsafe intake of Canadian wheat resulted in soaring bread prices and near-famine for the impoverished and this, in turn, lead to a series of riots throughout England. 36. that excellent experimental philosopher Priestly: Joseph Priestly (1733–1804), philosopher, scientist and key Dissenting fgure who lef England for America in 1794. His home and church in Birmingham were (along with several other buildings) immolated by a mob of rioters in July 1791 in response to the support he and others had expressed for the French Revolution. 37. to burn the Apostle of Liberty: this refers to the practice of burning Paine’s efgy following his conviction in absentia – brought about by the publication of the second part of Rights of Man – was a popular one in several towns and villages, see F. O’Gorman, ‘Te Paine Burnings of 1792–1793’, Past & Present, 193 (2006), pp. 111–55. 38. ‘…should be a remedy of Troubles’: Francis Bacon, ‘Of Sedition and Troubles’, Essays, Civil and Moral, 15 (1601), p. 77. 39. ‘…shall set it on fre’: Ibid., p. 80. 40. ‘…by the weakest pull’: Ibid., p. 82. 41. ‘…much discontentment’: Ibid., p. 80. 42. Is not Ireland … in a state yet more alarming?: as the republican United Irishmen grew in popularity in the 1790s, reactionary Protestants were encouraged to fear a growth in Catholic power. Sectarian violence became more frequent, culminating in the ‘Battle of the Diamond’ that took place in Armagh in September 1795, which directly led to the establishment of the Orange Order. 43. ‘…the rebellions of the belly are the worst’: Bacon, ‘Of Seditions and Troubles’. 44. ‘the causes and motions of sedition are innovation in religion’: Ibid. 45. Pop-gun Plots: See note 25. 46. Game-cock Seditions: this is a reference to the controversy surrounding Telwall’s recitation of a poem entitled ‘King Chaunticlere’ in which a game-cock (thought to be a thinly veiled representation of George III) loses its head on account of its tyrannical conduct. See Volume 1, note 4 to Political Lectures for further details. 47. Dr. Davenant: Charles Davenant (1656–1714), politician and economist. 48. Queen Anne: Queen Anne (1665–1714) of England, Scotland and Ireland, last monarch of the House of Stuart.

Volume 3 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

a period of 85 years: Charles II’s reign ended in 1685 and George II’s in 1760. Sir Robert Walpole: (1676–1745), Whig politician, ofen regarded as the frst British Prime Minister, though that actual title was not yet in existence at the time. Lord Shelburne: William Petty-Fitzmaurice (1737–1805) second Earl of Shelburne, frst Marquess of Lansdowne and British Prime Minister between July 1782 and April 1783. Prince Royal, now King of Prussia: Frederick William II (1744–97). the late Lord North: Frederick North, second Earl of Guilford (1732–92), Prime Minister between 1770 and 1782.

Notes to pages 212–57 6.

7.

8.

9.

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11. 12.

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16. 17. 18. 19. 20.

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Alexander the Great: Alexander III (356 bc–323 bc), ancient Greek King of Macedon and enormously successful military commander, who apparently indulged in some amount of bacchanalian revelry afer military victories. the oracle of St. Omer’s: this mischievous reference to Burke’s declaration in Refections on the Revolution in France recalls the false accusation made by Sir William Bagot in the House of Commons that he had received a Jesuit education at St. Omer’s, a rumour that his opponents sought to exploit. In fact, Burke’s education was remarkably religiously diverse, with periods at Catholic, Quaker and Anglican institutions. Facts addressed to Landholders: Tis refers to ‘Facts addressed to landholders, stockholders … and all the subjects of Great Britain and Ireland’ (1780), written by Horne Tooke and others, which focused on the fnancial corruption associated with the British war efort in America. Dr. Price: Richard Price (1723–91), philosopher and author of A Discourse on the Love of Our Country (1789), which argued that the principles enshrined by the Glorious Revolution of 1688 guaranteed a number of inviolable rights for the people of England, including the ability to ‘frame a government’ for themselves. Price’s work was the main target for Burke’s Refections on the Revolution in France, which, among other things, argued that the political events of 1688 had established no such rights. facts stated by Hume … Essays’: Hume, ‘Whether the British Government Inclines More to an Absolute Monarchy or a Republic’ in his Essays, Moral, Political and Literary (1741). ‘Iago, conjuring Othello not to give harbour to a thought of jealousy’: Godwin, Considerations, p. 21. short suspension of hostilities: though the Treasonable Practices Act was originally thought only to be a temporary measure to deal with the immediate threat to George III, it did in fact remain active until 1848. Critical Review: this refers to an anonymous review of Godwin’s Considerations in Te Critical Review; Or, Annals of Literature; Extended and Improved by a Society of Gentlemen (London, 1796), pp. 447–52. best feelings of human nature: Ibid., p. 451. A further enquiry … Parliament: this lecture took place the day afer the state opening of parliament, when George III was thought to be the victim of an assassination attempt. Te royal carriage had been confronted by a jeering mob and a window broken by what many claimed was a bullet; later the coach (which the King had vacated) was smashed to pieces. Pitt’s government was to use this event as a justifcation for the ‘Two Acts’. Telwall’s concern herein is to challenge the view that political associations are the cause of such violence and suggest that the real explanation lies in widespread and increasing poverty. the exquisite rancour of theological hatred: E. Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 8, ed. W. Smith, 8 vols (London: John Murray, 1862), vol. 3, p. 81. ‘impossible for men … thoughts’: Tis is a not quite exact quotation from Paine, Rights of Man in Foner (ed.), Complete Writings of Tomas Paine, vol. 1, p. 320. Lord Chatham: William Pitt the Elder (1708–78), frst Earl of Chatham, Prime Minister from 1766 to 1768. king William: William III (1650–1702). Blackstone: William Blackstone (1723–80), judge and legal writer whose work Commentaries on the laws of England was a hugely infuential analysis of the common law. See Volume 1, note 34.

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Notes to pages 258–86

21. through all successive generations: this recalls Burke’s contention that ‘so far is it from being true, that we acquired a right by the Revolution to elect our kings, that if we had possessed it before, the English nation did at that time most solemnly renounce and abdicate it, for themselves and for all their posterity for ever’. Burke, Refections on the Revolution in France, ed. C. C. O’Brien (Harmondsworth and New York: Penguin, 1968), p. 104. 22. ‘his person is his title deed’: Paine, ‘Dissertation on First Principles of Government’ (1795), in Foner (ed.), Complete Writings of Tomas Pain, vol. 2, p. 577. 23. All Matters … same’: this quotation is from the Act of Settlement 12 & 13 Will. 3 ch. 2 (1701). 24. Mr. Wharton: John Wharton, MP for Beverley, who had proposed the establishment of a House of Commons committee to examine whether and how the liberties established by the Glorious Revolution in 1688 had been eroded. A speech he made to Parliament in 1793 – subsequently published by the LCS as Extracted fom the Morning Chronicle. June 1st 1793: Te Speech of John Wharton, Esq; MP in the House of Commons on his Motion of the Constitution (1793), which recalled the liberties associated with 1688 was popular with reformers and had been referred to by the ‘Scottish martyrs’ at their trials. 25. Mr. Favell: this could be a reference to Samuel Favell, who acted as treasurer of the London Revolution Society at its inception in 1798. 26. I say the equal distribution … property: Telwall was consistently careful to make clear that he was against the equalization of property ownership and ‘levelling’. His most sophisticated writing on issues surrounding property ownership and distributive justice is contained in the third letter of Te Rights of Nature. For discussions, see I. HampsherMonk, ‘John Telwall and the Radical Response to Political Economy’, Te Historical Journal, 34 (1991), pp. 1–20; G. Claeys, ‘Te Origins of the Rights of Labor: Republicanism, Commerce, and the Construction of Modern Social Teory in Britain, 1796–1805, Te Journal of Modern History, 66 (1994), pp. 249–90’; R. Lamb, ‘Labour, Contingency, Utility: Telwall’s Teory of Property’, in S. Poole (ed.) John Telwall: Radical Romantic and Acquitted Felon (London: Pickering & Chatto, forthcoming). 27. the bishop of Rochester: Te Bishop of Rochester at this time was Samuel Horsley (1733–1806), a consistent opponent of the reform movement and political radicalism. During the debates in the House of Lords about the Treasonable Practices Act, he argued that the British public ‘had nothing to do with laws, except to obey them’. 28. female Citizens: Pitt was unmarried and his political opponents sought to make capital out of his apparent chastity and rumours of his homosexuality. 29. His passions … blush of love: this passage refers to Pitt’s India Act of 1784 that brought the fnancially imperilled East India Company brought under government control. 30. Jannissaries: Formed by Bey Murad I, the ‘Jannissaries’ were an elite infantry unit of the Ottoman Empire, created in the middle of the fourteenth century and disbanded in 1826. Tey were characterized by a strict disciplinary ethic, which at times required them to be celibate and beardless. 31. Lowth: Robert Lowth (1710–87), Bishop of London, Professor of Poetry at Oxford and noted grammarian, whose A Short Introduction to English Grammar (London: J. Hughes, 1762) was highly infuential. 32. Lilly: William Lily (1468–1522), grammarian and an infuential contributor to Te Royal Grammar (ofen referred to as ‘Lily’s Grammar’). 33. born near this place: Telwall was born in Covent Garden, a short walk from the Strand, where the Beaufort Buildings were located. 34. ‘memory holds her seat’: Shakespeare, Hamlet, I. v. 96.

Notes to pages 286–310

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35. very head and jut … further: Shakespeare, Othello, I. iii. 80–1. 36. as Godwin has shewn: see Godwin, ‘Considerations’, especially pp. 61–7. 37. I know no personal cause to prick me on: this is a reformulation of Brutus’s declaration that ‘I know no personal cause to spurn at him’, Shakespeare, Te Life and Death of Julius Caesar, II. i. 38. Lord Chamberlain: Amongst the powers held by the Lord Chamberlain (from 1737 until 1968) was the granting of licences to plays in London. Te position was at this time held by James Cecil (1748–1823), frst Marquess of Salisbury. 39. bestride this narrow world … fnd ourselves dishonourable graves’: Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, I. ii. 40. fet their hour …then be heard no more: Shakespeare, Macbeth, 5. v. 41. Sternold: Tomas Sternhold (d. 1549), author of metrical psalms. 42. Sophocles: (496 bc–406 bc), Greek tragedian playwright who is thought to have written over one hundred plays. 43. Jordan: Dorothy Jordan (1761–1816), highly popular actress who appeared regularly at theatres in London (most notably Drury Lane and Covent Garden) and throughout England. She was mistress to the Duke of Clarence (later King William IV) from 1791 until 1811. 44. Siddons: Sarah Siddons (1755–1831), tragic actress who became known in particular for her portrayal of Lady Macbeth – whom she was determined to convey in a sympathetic light – which led Charles Lamb to suggest in 1812 that ‘we speak of Lady Macbeth, while we are in reality thinking of Mrs S’. 45. Farren: Elizabeth Farren (1759–1829), Drury Lane actress. 46. Serjeant Adair: James Adair (143–1798), Judge and Serjeant-at-law, whose political views included a commitment to the abolitionist movement and an ambiguous attitude towards issues of political radicalism and at diferent times expressed both support for and criticism of the Two Acts. 47. Game Cocks: see note 46 to volume 2, above. 48. Citizen Hodgson: William Hodgson (1745–1851), physician and member of the LCS who was tried and convicted for proposing a toast to the French Republic in 1793. While being held in Newgate, he composed his best known political work, Te Commonwealth of Reason (1795).

THE PICKERING MASTER S

SELECTED POLITICAL WRITINGS OF JOHN THELWALL

CONTENTS OF THE EDITION

volume 1 General Introduction Early Political Pamphlets and Lectures, 1793–1796 volume 2 Selections from the Tribune, 1795–1796 volume 3 Journalism and Selected Writings on Elocution and Oratory, 1797–1809 volume 4 Late Journalism and Writing on Elocution and Oratory, 1810–1832 Index

SELECTED POLITICAL WRITINGS OF JOHN THELWALL

Edited by Robert Lamb and Corinna Wagner

Volume 3 Journalism and Selected Writings on Elocution and Oratory, 1797–1809

First published 2009 by Pickering & Chatto (Publishers) Limited Published 2016 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business 2009 Copyright © Taylor & Francis2200 Copyright © Editorial material Robert Lamb and Corinna Wagner 2009 All rights reserved, including those of translation into foreign languages. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

british library cataloguing in publication data Telwall, John, 1764–1834 Selected political writings of John Telwall. – (Te Pickering masters) 1. Telwall, John, 1764–1834 2. Political science – England – Early works to 1800 3. Elocution 4. Oratory 5. Radicalism – England – Early works to 1800 6. Great Britain – Politics and government – 1789–1820 I. Title II. Lamb, Robert III. Wagner, Corinna 320.9’41’09033

ISBN-13: 978-1-85196-928-9 (set) DOI: 10.4324/9780429349737

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CONTENTS

‘Te Phenomena of the Wye, During the Winter of 1797–8’, Monthly Magazine (1798) 1 ‘A Pedestrian Excursion through Several Parts of England and Wales during the Summer of 1797’, Monthly Magazine (1799–1801) 15 ‘Prefatory Memoir’, Monthly Magazine (1802) 57 Elocution and Oratory: General Plan and Outline of Mr. Telwall’s Course of Lectures (1803) 91 ‘A Letter to Francis Jefray [sic], Esq., on Certain Calumnies and Misrepresentations’, Te Edinburgh Review (1804) 107 Mr Telwall’s Reply (1804) 157 Editorial Notes

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‘Te Phenomena of the Wye, During the Winter of 1797–8’, Monthly Magazine (1798).

Te ‘Phenomena of the Wye, During the Winter of 1797–8’ appeared serially over two issues of the Monthly Magazine in the summer of 1798. Te Monthly Magazine was a reform-minded, anti-ministerial dissenting journal, whose contributors included the philosopher William Godwin, the political economist Tomas Malthus, the essayist William Hazlitt, the Norwich Unitarian William Taylor, and a founding member of the Society for Constitutional Information, Capel Lof. Te publisher of the magazine from its date of inception early in 1796 until 1824 was Richard Phillips and the literary editor was the writer John Aiken (brother of the dissenting poet Anna Letitia Barbauld). Phillips and Aiken were only too happy to provide the cash-strapped Telwall – now a farmer in Wales – with work of a more literary nature. Like most journals of this era, the Monthly Magazine was encyclopedic, a miscellany of poetry, publishing announcements, political news, obituaries, commercial and agricultural reports, philosophy, literary criticism and scientifc articles on an extremely wide range of topics. Te main purpose of the journal was the difusion of knowledge and the promotion of intellectual debate – aims which, as might be imagined, appealed greatly to Telwall. When the Monthly changed owners in 1824, Telwall took over the editorship. His position would last only until November of 1825, when he was dismissed by the new proprietors. Tis would also be the last year of the journal’s existence. In January 1826, the Monthly Magazine was reborn as the Literary Magnet (readers were informed that ‘Politics’ had been ‘carefully excluded’ from the new periodical). How intimate and how long (thirty years) had been Telwall’s intellectual relationship with the Monthly is indicated by a poem he wrote, addressed ‘To Maga’. ‘Tey tear thee from my arms’, he mourns, Tey’ll deck thee out in trim array, More gaudy to the eye, –1–

DOI: 10.4324/9780429349737-1

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Selected Political Writings of John Telwall, Volume 3 But steal the inward worth away Tat did thy charms supply.1

Tis elegy demonstrates the congeniality Telwall found with the Monthly. As his articles demonstrate, he had an outlet for his wide variety of interests and a place to express his ‘rambling’ thoughts. Te articles we have included here are very diferent from Telwall’s mid-1790s journalism; it could be said that they present a somewhat ‘chastised’ Telwall who was recovering from a series of acute disappointments. In 1797, the owners of the local Courier in Derby had ofered him the editorship of the newspaper. Telwall had moved his family to Derby in anticipation of his new position, but as he recalls, the ‘paper was assailed’ with ‘vehemence of hostility’ and the owners withdrew their ofer.2 At this stage in his life, Telwall was already exhausted by the hostility he experienced at his lectures (on a trip to Norwich in 1797, he had found even that relatively liberal-minded town much less hospitable than in 1795). As a letter from Derby to the London reformer Tomas Hardy indicates, he was feeling increasingly marginalized: Something or other I hope and trust the Londoners continue to say about me– & if my enemies cannot invent a lie malignant enough, let them go to my friends and they will help them out’.3

Te sensation of betrayal was compounded still further that same year. Afer the disappointment of Derby, Telwall had embarked on a summer walking tour of South West England (recorded in Te Pedestrian Excursion). His destination was Coleridge’s rustic retreat at Nether Stowey on the coast of Somerset. He initially found a ‘scene of enchantment’ in the picturesque countryside with both Coleridge and Wordsworth: they were, he wrote in a letter to his wife Stella, ‘a literary & political triumvirate’.4 Yet, disappointment again ruined this scene. He was shadowed by a spy, the cottagers began to view him as an object of suspicion and his friends became rather less welcoming. As a result, Telwall decided to retreat further still, to become a ‘Recluse’ farmer on the banks of the River Wye, in Llys Wen, Wales. From there he recorded his observations for the Monthly Magazine. Notes 1.

2. 3. 4.

Panoramic Miscellany (1826), p. 84; afer leaving the Monthly, Telwall launched a new magazine, the Panoramic Miscellany (see Volume 4). Te elegy ‘To Maga’ was included in the frst edition. It is worth noting that Telwall dated the poem to coincide with his dismissal (16 November 1825). J. Telwall, ‘Prefatory Memoir’, see p. 59 of this volume. J. Telwall to Tomas Hardy, Derby, 19 May 1797; see Appendix; also quoted in E. P. Tompson, ‘Hunting the Jacobin Fox’, Past and Present,142 (1994), pp. 94–104, p.107. J. Telwall to S. Telwall, 18 July 1797, Pierpont Morgan Library, MA 77 (17).

Te PHENOMENA of the WYE, during the Winter of 1797–8. THE enchanting beauties of the River Wye,1 of such parts at least as lie between Ross and Chepstow,2 are by this time pretty generally known among the lovers of the picturesque. Tey have acquired a due celebrity from the descriptions of GILPIN,3 and curiosity has been infamed by poetry and by prose, by paintings, prints, and drawings, still they have been rendered a subject of universal conversation; and an excursion on the Wye has become an essential part of the education, as it were, of all who aspire to the reputation of elegance, taste and fashion. But artists in general are a sort of butterfy race – they expand their wings only in the genial rays of the sun, when the rose is in bloom, and zephyrs play with the foliage of the grove. In those chilling months, when vegetation is at a stand – when the bleak rock casts its long shadow over scenes of equal sterility – when the rivers are turbid with descending torrents, or locked in icy fetters, and the mountains are covered with a veil of snow, they remain wrapped up in their cocons, shrinking from the blast, and strangers to the stern magnifcence of Winter. Tis, in the professed artist at least, is not very wise. Nature, to be understood, should be studied in all her varieties. To know how to cloath her to the best advantage, we must strip her naked. Te anatomy, if I may so express myself, of woods and hills, is as essential to the landscape painter, as that of the human form to the historical branch of the art; and the leafess grove, the dismantled hill, nay, the very gloom of night itself, when nothing is discernible but the mere outline of surrounding mountains, may furnish more important lessons to the observant artist, than even the fnest pictures of Poussin and Claud Loraine.4 With this last refection I was particularly impressed at the latter end of last Autumn, during a nocturnal walk in the neighbourhood of Builth.5 Te night was dark and comfortless – no moon, no star in the frmament; and the atmosphere was so thick with vapours and descending showers, that even the course of the river was scarcely discernible. In short, nothing was visible but a sky of most sullen grey, and one vast sable mass of surrounding mountain, skirting on either side the sinuous valley, and prescribing in every direction the bounds of vision. Never before was I so deeply impressed with the power of mere outline. Here were no diversities of tint, no varied masses of light and shadows; the whole picture consisted of one bold, unbroken, but eternally diversifying line, and two broad masses of modifed shade – ‘No light, but rather darkness visible;’6 –3–

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and yet the eye was feasted, and the imagination was flled with mingled impressions of sublimity and beauty.7 Neither is it with a view to study only, that these diversities of nature should be consulted; the picturesque of Winter has characteristic charms of its own, with which the generality of artists seem but little acquainted; but which, nevertheless, are as worthy of the imitation of the pencil, as the luxuriancy of Summer, or the mellow lines of Autumn. Tis is distinguishingly the case in rocky and mountainous countries. Where the scenery, indeed, is more level, and nature deals but little in the great of outline, the gaiety of Spring, the wanton drapery of Summer, or the rich colouring of Autumn, are necessary to disguise the same monotony of uninteresting slopes; and the eye sickens at the prospect of leafless plantations and level tracts of snow. But where the permanent parts of the landscape are well disposed – where the wildness of nature is unsubjugated by art – and rocks and mountains, hanging forests and sudden precipices, deep irriguous vallies and precipitous rivers, dingles, cascades and headlong torrents mingle in rich diversity, the charm depends not upon the accidents of tint or decoration: every change of season has its correspondent graces, and nakedness itself is but beauty without a veil. Scenery of this description may be compared to those superior orders of shape and feature which constitute the perfection of the human form; in which transparent tints and the most perfect symmetry, are graces of inferior magnitude, and beauty itself is the smaller part of loveliness – where the whole countenance beams expressions, every feature has its animation and character, every line is descriptive of some kind or elevated passion, and every glance, every gesture, every motion is eloquent of sympathy and intelligence. Such are the forms that owe not their attractions to the wardrobe – the charms that never cloy – that fade not even in the winter of old age – the sublime of human nature! Of the character I have described is the general scenery in the neighbourhood of the Wye. It abounds with character – always picturesque or romantic, and frequently bound together. Gardens and pleasure grounds have little to do in the creation of its attractions: diversities of foliage are but secondary considerations. Its rocks, its mountains, its dingles, its precipices, constitute a more permanent and a superior charm; and still more the intricate meanders of the river, and the eternal diversity of its bed and current – here deep, majestic, slow – there muddling and brawling over a wide expanse of pebbles – and now again foaming over ragged strata of projecting rocks, or eddying round the huge fragments that have rolled from the neighbouring mountains. In dry weather this interesting river shrinks to a comparative rivulet, and the pensive wanderer who saunters by it side, admiring, through its transparent stream, the successive strata of sand, of gravel, and of rock, over which it fows, has his ear regaled in a few hundred paces with all the varieties of plaintive sound, from the faintest mur-

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murings to the sullen roar. At other times it will suddenly swell to a boisterous and overwhelming the valleys wherever it fnds an opening between the hills, and exhibiting one continued scene of terrible and tumultuous grandeur. Tese circumstances produce a charm so independent of those accidents and minuter beauties which constitute the attraction of less majestic scenes, that you might even fell every tree, and exterminate every shrub, without destroying the sublimity, or even the beauty of the scene; for the river and the mountains would still remain, the solid features of the landscape would be yet unaltered; and, like the mere sketches and outlines of a superior master, would command the admiration of every judicious beholder. Tis being the case, it will be readily concluded, that in every season of the year, the Wye and the surrounding country have their appropriate charms. My frst visit to these parts was in the middle of Autumn – a season, if the weather had been fne, the most favourable of any to the lover of the picturesque;8 and having seen the country adorned with all the mellow tints of a luxuriant and decaying foliage, it might naturally be expected, that when I aferwards returned, at the latter end of November, I should be somewhat dissatisfed with the chilling nakedness of Winter. Tis, however, was so far from being the case, that I had not been long at my little cottage (situated on one of the fnest curves of this romantic river) before I was convinced that, in such a country, Winter has as many varieties as Summer; and that her phenomena, not always less beautiful, are certainly more sublime. Heavy falls of snow, that whitened over the mountains, no sooner began to melt, than the river swelled to a turbid and boisterous torrent; the rage and awful impetuosity of which cannot be conceived by those who are acquainted only with the torpid serenity of English rivers. Te grandeur of this scene was considerably heightened by the rains which succeeded at the close of November, and during a considerable part of the ensuing month. Such torrents, indeed, as were poured upon us from the clouds, during this season, are unprecedented, as far as I can understand, in the memory of man. Te efects were proportionate to the cause. Te river was repeatedly swoln, and enraged (twice in particular) to a degree never before remembered, except on the melting of the severe frost in the month of February 1795: on which occasion, as I understand, was exhibited one of the most tremendous scenes that ever was beheld. Rails, land-marks, trees innumerable, and even sheep and cattle, were borne down by the rapid torrents from the mountains, or whirled away from the meadows and lowlands by the infuriated course of the river; whose plantations were shattered, and several bridges were entirely swept away. Vast shoals of ice, mingling and crashing with the general wreck, increased the [con?]fusion of the scene, and the din and uproar of the torrent; and, in short, from the account I have received from my predecessor in this little farm, (earthquakes and volcanos excepted), a more sublime picture of desolation could hardly be imagined. Te inundations

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of this Winter were not quite so destructive in their career. Tey were not, however, without their sublimity or their terrors; and once in particular, our whole valley seemed threatened, as it were, with a universal deluge. Trough some of our roads our horses were obliged rather to swim than to wade; and, though my cottage stands higher by several yards than the river has ever been known to swell, even in the most dreadful foods, we were not free from inundation from another quarter: for the water that poured from the mountains, not being able to fnd sufcient vent through the little dingle that divide my orchard plot, fooded the whole road, spread itself over the surrounding green, and found its way into all the apartments of the ground foor. At the same time, a mill that stands on the Radmorshire side of the river, was overwhelmed almost to the very roof, and the inhabitants were obliged to escape to the higher neighbourhood for safety. In the mean time, the phenomena were very grand; and, wrapped up in a large rough coat, I enjoyed the interesting scenes from an elevated alcove, which overhangs the river, and commands, at one view, an extensive reach of it serpentine meanders above, and a most peculiar and romantic curve below: along the former of which the torrent came pouring in a rapid and majestic course, while through the other it huddled along, foaming and dashing and raging against the banks, tumbling from rock to rock with a deafening roar, and whirling, in it impetuous eddies, fragment and limbs and trunks of trees, which it had torn away in its course. In the mean time, the dim perspective of hill beyond hill, and mountain towering above mountain, in all the varieties of the picturesque and romantic form, the general haziness of the atmosphere, the occasional rays of the sun tingling with transient glow some rock or pasture, or hanging wood, and the vast masses of heavy vapour sailing through the air, completed the sublimity of the scene. Nor is refection embittered by dwelling upon the consequences of these foods; for the savages they commit are more than compensated by the good which they distribute. Te wood that is thus born down furnishes a supply of fuel to the surrounding cottagers; who, on these occasions, plant themselves on the banks of the river, with hooks in their hands, mounted upon long poles, and fsh for the log as they are swept along. I am credibly informed that, by means of these heavy foods, and the icicle frost, of which I am to speak hereafer, this species of logfshing has been so proftable to the poorer people of the town of Hay,9 that there are few of them who are not by this resource supplied with a sufcient quantity of fuel for the consumption of the whole winter. At the same time, wherever the inundation has room to spread, a more permanent advantage is dispensed to the country at large: a cheap and invaluable manure is spread over the meadows; and encreasing fertility is the consequence. Tis advantage, however, is not without its alloy. Instead of a coat of manure, a thick stratum of pebbles and coarse gravel is sometimes thrown up by the torrent; and I am informed, that some meadows belonging to a farmer in Herefordshire, have been very materially injured in this

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manner during the present winter. Circumstances of this kind however are rare; but the manuring is universal; and in this country, at least, where our low lands are almost uniformly converted into pasture, inundations are always favourable to the farmer. Nor are our high lands without their share of the beneft: for the practice of fooding is generally adopted amongst us, and there is scarcely a hill but what, in a wet season, may have its verrows (or sluices) opened almost to the very summit, and be fed by the fertilising stream. Lyswen, March 2. J.T. (To be continued.)

For the Monthly Magazine Te PHENOMENA of the WYE, during the Winter of 1797-8. (Concluded fom page 346.) IN the phenomena hitherto described, there is nothing absolutely peculiar to the present year. Tey occur, in a smaller degree at least, almost every winter. I come now to describe a spectacle more singular and more splendid, I mean the icicle frost that ushered in the month of December. Tis very curious phenomenon was introduced by a heavy fall of melting snow, which took place in this part of the country, on Wednesday, the 29th of November, and was succeeded, on the following day, by a cold and drizzling rain, which continued to fall, without intermission, for three successive days, freezing as it fell, and incrusting every object with icicle upon icicle, till nothing but frost work was to be seen. On Sunday the rain was suspended; a sharp and unmitigated frost succeeded, and the serene and cheerful transparency of atmosphere, with which it was accompanied, revealed a scene of novelty and splendour not to be equalled even by the extravagant fctions of necromancy and fairly land. Mountains and valleys, orchards and hanging forests, pastures, hay-ricks, and roofs of houses, all were incrusted alike, and presented one wide landscape of the most beautiful crystal. But the tints of nature, (such as the season can boast) were rather shaded than concealed, and the transparent veil that was thrown over them, only increased their beauty. Te young wheat that had ventured its green blade above the earth during the milder part of November, was still conspicuous through the ice that incrusted it; and the sheep that wandered about over the slippery pastures, might behold the grass which they were forbidden to taste. Te woods and orchards, in the mean time, were so laden with icicle, that

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but for the transparency of this wintry foliage, (if I may so express myself ) they would have been as impervious as in the full luxuriancy of summer. But the most splendid of all the objects presented to the eye, during this remarkable frost, were the evergreens, and particularly some towering and majestic frs, whose dark hair-like leaves were incrusted over in the most beautiful manner, and whose spreading branches bending beneath the load; exhibited a magnifcent succession of glittering festoons, not to be imitated by any of the puny eforts of human art. In the midst of this scene of splendid novelty, the Wye itself did not lose its share of attraction. In many places even this rapid stream was nearly frozen over, and shoals of ice foating down the contracted channel, and crushing among the rocks, produced a sort of wild and awful music, that harmonized with the magnifcence if the scene. Upon the whole, the eye, perhaps, was never presented with a more magnifcent spectacle. Fortunately, however, it did not long continue; if it had, whole focks of sheep (particularly on the mountains) must inevitably have perished for want of food. Even as it was, summer, in some degree, will mourn its ravages. Te orchards, wherever they were at all exposed, have been cruelly shattered; and the woods and plantations have sufered in a still more considerable degree; the weigh of icicle tearing down whole limbs and branches; and, in many instances, entirely breaking of the tops, so as to mar the future growth of the timber. Even whole trees, where they happened to stand in a reclined position, as soon as the earth began to sofen with the approaching thaw, were torn up by the roots, by the enormous weight of ice that loaded their branches. Te hanging groves at the Priory Walks, near Brecknock, which, pursuing the romantic curves of the Hondy,10 constitute a principal beauty of that fairy scene, exhibit a mournful picture of desolation: and I passed the other day through an extensive plantation in Radnorshire, belonging to Mr. WILKINS, member for the county, the injury sustained by which, is estimated at a sum of 500l. In disasters of this kind, however, the consolation is, that they necessarily fall upon such persons as are best able to support them. Te ruin of an extensive plantation, or the confagration of a splendid mansion, makes a fgure, it is true, in the chronicles of the year; and when the mercantile genius of the nation has reduced the damages to a calculation of pounds, shillings, and pence, the ruin appears prodigious; and sympathy is immediately excited. But if we calculate, as we ought, the quantum of human misery, and consider the dross of trafc as an inferior consideration, we should fnd that calamities of this kind are, in reality, less to be deplored than the ruin of a cottage, or the destruction of some poor labourers’ little crop of leeks and potatoes.

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Te Monthly Magazine SIR, I Send you a few loose refections on subjects descanted upon in the last number of your entertaining and instructive Miscellany. Mr. Erskine on the House of Commons11 – Your readers will undoubtedly feel themselves much obliged to you for the publication of this paper; which at once throws so much light upon an interesting branch of our political antiquities, and places in so fair a point of view the consistency and character of a man whose virtues (notwithstanding a few foibles, and one unfortunate prejudice) are scarcely inferior to his talents. We see, by this collegiate exercise, that the patriotism and love of liberty which have distinguished his forensic and parliamentary exertions, are not to be considered as the cant of the pleader and the partisan, but as the genuine efusions of a noble principle early imbibed and well digested. Tat the rights of mankind are prior and paramount to all constitutions, and that ‘there is no statute of limitation to bar the claims of nature,’ are truths beyond the narrow pale of technical science and authority; and that ‘freedom upon English principles’ includes the right of ‘all who are the objects of the law, to be personally, or, by representation, the makers of the laws,’ is a principle too broad and general to answer the mere purposes of any personal faction. It is, perhaps, on account of the energy with which Mr. E. has enforced the convictions resulting from the former of these principles, that the more lawyers, the dull detailers of cases and precedents, have endeavoured to depreciate his legal knowledge. Because he was capable of looking beyond their stumbling blocks, they imagined that he did not know where they were placed. With respect to the latter, it is worth Mr. E’s while to consider whether it does not establish a national claim to representation on a much broader basis than that to which, in concert with a respectable knot of political characters, he has lately pledged himself. It makes (as just principle necessarily must make) persons not property the frst object of government, and the basis of all just legislation. Tat, in the historical reasonings of this dissertation, Mr. E. is strictly correct, I have no doubt; and his exposition of the source of that unmerited idolatry that has been paid to Saxon institutions, is equally acute and candid. If it were not for the frequent detection of those miserable shifs and sophistical subterfuges to which the advocates of liberty are driven, when they want the boldness to face frst principles, one should be really astonished to hear the champions of human rights so loud in their commendations of those Saxons, among whom private conspiracies furnished the personal protection which ought to have been derived from public justice; and the mass of the people were held in a vassalage as abject as that of a Spartan helote, or a West India slave.

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When I was young in inquiries of this nature, and fred with enthusiasm by the panegyric which every where presented themselves upon these wonderful Saxons, who, in the midst of barbarism and ignorance, seemed to have surpassed in practical and systematic liberty all that had existed in the times of Grecian science and philosophy, I inquired of a person well known in the political world for the zeal with which he has circulated these panegyrics, and contended that we ought to be free, because the Saxons were so, in what treasuries of knowledge a satisfactory account of these wonderful institutions was to be found? Tis information, I concluded, no one could be so able to furnish as himself; and I was not a little mortifed at fnding all my inquiries evaded or repelled by general refections, that ‘a man cannot have knowledge without labouring for it;’ that ‘the best way to understand any subject, was to read every thing that came to hand,’ &c. observations which, however just in themselves, I have since found reason to conclude, were artfully intended to get rid of a subject which that celebrated politician well knew would not stand the test of persevering inquiry. Te fact is, that, with respect to our Saxon ancestors, but little authentic information has been handed down. Even that little, however, is enough to convince every impartial reasoner, that the cause of equal justice would be the very reverse of being promoted by an adoption of their political system. It was a system of usurpation, violence, and oppression. And, indeed, how should it have been otherwise? Te Saxons, like all the German nations, derived their plan of government from that fountain head of feudal tyranny, so fnely described by Tacitus in his ‘Manners of the Germans;’12 and, notwithstanding all that has been so frequently reiterated in praise of the institutions of those savages, they were, in reality, nothing but a crude hash of tyranny and licentiousness; the leading principle in the composition of which was, that the many were made for the few. In the words of Mr. E.13 ‘the lords, indeed, were free; but, for that very reason, there was no public liberty.’ National Debt. – Your correspondent GOURNAI (p. 258) observes, that a considerable part of the taxes levied in any country must necessarily be derived from the labour, that is to say, be ultimately levied upon the laborious poor of that country. I believe he might have gone much further, and have proved, that, at least, till the taxation becomes so excessive, that either the poor can be pinched no closer, without being pinched to death, or that the very circulation of the produce of labour is to a considerable degree restrained; the laborious poor pay all the taxes of a nation, for they produce all; and all that is paid in taxes is a part of produce; while, on the other hand, all but the labourer have means (till the arrival of these crises) of shifing the burthen from their shoulders to those beneath. If the history of the progress of rent-rolls, revenues, and luxuries, is consulted, this will be illustrated most fully. Tis statement necessarily gives rise to some important inquiries. – What right could any set of ministers have (or could

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even the whole body of community have) to contract what is called a national debt? Can this, or any other country (meaning thereby the population of such country), be said, in reason and equity, to owe one single shilling to any set of persons claiming to be public creditors? If I burthen my estate with debts, it is right that my heir should pay them, because, if I leave him my debts, I leave him property wherewith to discharge them; and he is no further responsible than my efects will go; and if he does not choose to be subject to the trouble and inconveniences of the transaction, he may, by refusing to accept the estate, avoid the incumbrance of the mortgage. But the mass of the people (by whom it is evident the interest of what are called public debts are eventually paid) inherit neither estate nor property from their ancestors; why, then, should their industry be burthened with their debts? My conclusion is, that the property is responsible, not the people (for the proprietors have been parties to the bargain, and the estates have descended with the mortgages upon them). Te fund-holder has therefore a right to foreclose the mortgage, because thereby he enforces payment from his real creditor: but he has no right to receive the interest, as he now does, because it is levied in taxes upon those who owe him nothing. Circulating Medium. – It is truly astonishing, that, afer so much has been said upon this subject, it should be so little understood, and that men of penetration and refection should still continue to confound together the property of a country, and the medium by means of which that property is transferred from hand to hand. Will it never be understood that money, whether paper, or gold and silver, is so far from being the whole, that it is no part of the wealth of a nation? that it is, in reality, nothing but the counters or signs by which that wealth is designated, as by fgures and ciphers on a slate; and that, as a small number of the latter are sufcient, by means of repeated use, to cast up and settle the largest account; so a small quantity of the former, by means of the arithmetic of circulation, is capable, also, of paying the most enormous debts, provided the party is but in possession of property to command such circulation. Inattention to this subject produced one of the fundamental errors in Paine’s work upon fnance14 – a pamphlet that may be regarded as a phenomenon in the hemisphere of discussion, inasmuch as it arrived at a conclusion which is truth itself, by premises, almost every one of which are palpably erroneous. Having calculated the quantity of bullion supposed to be in the bank, he supposes this to be the sub total of the dividend it can make to its creditors, not considering that if it had no other property than the money in its cofers, banking must always have been a losing game; and that if it has such other property, this must bring back into those cofers to-morrow, &c. part, at least, of the money it pays out today. Similar is the error of your correspondent CARACTACUS (p. 266). ‘If the national debt is to be discharged, through what circulating medium shall we discharge it? Not by the paper, large as it is, now in circulation, much less by the

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specie; nor, indeed, by both united.’ And why not? In this very passage, where he talks so much about circulation, the writer forgets that any such process as circulation exists. Te question, in reality, stands thus: Is all the property of the nation equivalent in value to the amount of the national debt? If so, and the proprietors are disposed to pay it, the debt may be as easily, though not quite so quickly, discharged, by a circulating medium of 500l. as of 500,000,000; for the medium must, of necessity, return to the proprietors as ofen as they want it, till the commodities themselves are exhausted. Te difculty of discharging the national debt, then, arises from a very diferent reason than the want of a medium of exchange. Waste Lands. – Your correspondent AGRICOLA (p. 269) says, ‘Tere is no land, either in Scotland or England, which has its surface at all covered with herbage, that ought not to aford at least sixpence an acre, in the year, to the landlord.’ I submit the following questions to his consideration: – Can there be, in common justice or common sense, any such thing as property in land, but that which arises from the improvement of labour and cultivation? Is it expedient either for individuals or the community at large, that one man who will not cultivate should preclude another who would? On what pretence, then, should any landlord exact even sixpence a year per acre for waste land? Would it not be a desirable thing that an act should be passed that upon all wastes, the cultivation of which should not at least be commenced by a time specifed, any persons (under certain regulations for prevention of tumult and contention) should be permitted to take possession of a specifc quantity (four or fve acres for example) for a given number of years, or for life, upon condition of building a cottage, and bringing the ground into immediate cultivation; the waste ground in the parish or district, to be let out again in the same small lots at moderate rents, and the produce to form a fund for the education of the children of husbandmen, cottagers, &c.? Tis last idea was suggested to my mind by a circumstance of which I was witness during a late visit to Hereford.15 Walking on the castle-hill with an inhabitant of that city, he directed my attention to one of the neighbouring hills, now in a state of high cultivation even to the summit, informing me at the same time, that when the estate frst came into possession of the present proprietor, the whole hill was a perfect wilderness; and that the means he had adopted to bring it into its present state, was to build several small cottages at convenient distances, and let them out to labouring men, on leases of twelve or fourteen years, at very moderate rents, together with as much surrounding land as the cottager would undertake to cultivate. By this means a beneft has been conferred upon several poor families and upon the public; and a considerable reversionary property has been in a manner created to the proprietor and his family. Among the Welsh mountains many little patches are to be met with, that have all the appear-

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ance of having been brought into cultivation in a way not much dissimilar: and even at this instant, through the branches of my orchard, I perceive the smoke rising from a little cottage on the brow of one of those rude eminences that overhang the Wye, in happy illustration of my subject. Te venerable labourer, whose evening’s mess is now preparing on that spot, possesses about ten or twelve acres around his humble shed, including his garden and his orchard, which he holds under three diferent lords of manors, for the term of his wife’s life, at the moderate rent of seven shillings a year to each. Tere he keeps his cow, and his four or fve sheep; and did keep, till very lately, his little rugged Welsh poney, on which he rode to his work of a morning, &c. But the Welsh colt died about a year ago, worn out before his master; and the grey-headed ruddy-faced hind has discovered that he can do without him. I shall just observe, that this allotment is too large; it is too much for the spade, and not enough for a plough; and the tenant lacks inducement to bring even the half of it into proper cultivation, which is a loss to the community, and no advantage to him. Te part, however, which he has cultivated, and the barrenness of the hill around, suggest much better plans for the improvement of our wastes, than any that the board of agriculture, or our virtuous house of commons is likely to attempt. May 19, 1798. ***

‘A PEDESTRIAN EXCURSION’

‘A Pedestrian Excursion through Several Parts of England and Wales During the Summer of 1797’, Monthly Magazine (1799–1801).

Te historian E. P. Tompson describes the ‘Pedestrian Excursion’ as ‘unremarkable’ and characterizes Telwall’s authorial attitude in this text as ‘ambivalent’. In terms of style, Tompson claims that the ‘Pedestrian Excursion’ presents ‘conventional rehearsals of the ‘romantic and picturesque’’.1 Indeed, like ‘Te Phenomena of the Wye’, this series for the Monthly Magazine recalls something of William Gilpin’s hugely infuential 1782 Observations on the River Wye, a text which combines the factual and the ideal to produce picturesque descriptions of landscape. Telwall’s essays are also part of a tradition of travel writing, recalling Laurence Sterne’s 1768 A Sentimental Journey (which also infuenced Telwall’s wonderfully digressive and heterodox text, Te Peripatetic). It is also somewhat reminiscent of Mary Wollstonecraf’s A Short Residence in Sweden, Norway and Denmark (1796), a narrative that combines personal confession, landscape description, sociological observation and cultural history. Yet for many readers, the ‘Pedestrian Excursion’ will be rather more rewarding than Tompson’s characterization suggests. For its time, the Excursion, which appeared serially over several issues of the Monthly Magazine from 1799–1801, was certainly more innovative than has been acknowledged. In the descriptions of cottage life and rural scenes, Telwall anticipates Cobbett’s much-loved Rural Rides (1821–32) by more than twenty years. Like Cobbett, Telwall’s sociological and cultural observations – about everything from architecture, gardening, the colours of house paint and the English diet – are distinctly political. But more than that, his commentary about local and national identity, about art, about the rise of political economy and the impact of ‘progress’ is insightful, ofen surprising and at times belligerent. One of the pleasures of this writing is Telwall’s voice, which is at once confdent, contentious, indignant, introspective, wistful, hopeful and persuasive. His discursive range varies from seemingly objective reportage to impassioned polemic. – 15 –

DOI: 10.4324/9780429349737-2

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In addition to this, the ‘Excursion’ is signifcant for its place in Romantic history. Te ostensible reason for this journey in the summer of 1797 was to visit ‘an invaluable friend’, the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who was then living at Nether Stowey, Bridgwater, on the Somersetshire coast. As we have noted in the introduction to the ‘Phenomena of the Wye’, Telwall had just experienced the disappointment of relocating his family to Derby, with the intention of taking up a newspaper editorship that came to nothing. Seeking a change of scenery from ‘public turmoil’ and his seemingly ‘vain efort to redeem a Race’2 he set of with his ‘travelling companion’, a shoemaker from Hampshire, J. Wimpory. In Lines Written at Bridgwater in Somersetshire, on 27 July 1797, During a Long Excursion in Quest of a Peaceful Retreat, he makes painfully clear that the ‘philosophic amity’ he found with Coleridge and Wordsworth was short-lived – he was soon set upon by spies and suspicious residents. He laments a year of miseries Of storms and persecution, of the pangs Of disappointed hope, and keen regrets3

Tis year of miseries sends him and his family to the Welsh countryside, where between farming duties, failed harvests, the death of his daughter, Maria, and battles with landlords and axe-wielding neighbours, he produces Pedestrian Excursion and other articles for the Monthly Magazine, composes poetry and writes Te Daughter of Adoption, a novel about slavery, colonialism, race and sexuality.

Notes 1. 2. 3.

E. P. Tompson, ‘Hunting the Jacobin Fox’, p. 105. J. Telwall, Lines Written at Bridgewater, Poems Written Chiefy in Retirement (1801), pp. 126–32. Ibid.

A PEDESTRIAN EXCURSION THROUGH several PARTS of ENGLAND and WALES during the Summer of 1797. [Te writer of the following journal has been from his infancy an enthusiastic lover of that moral meditation which rocks and brooks and woodlands, and fragments of old castles and ruined abbeys, have a tendency to inspire. Pursuits, indeed, of a very diferent nature estranged him, for several years, from the indulgence of this propensity. But the general aspect of afairs at length determined him to retire from public exertion, the impressions of early youth revived with increasing force. In the mean time circumstances had produced another species of curiosity well calculated to go hand in hand with a passion for the picturesque and romantic.1 Every fact connected with the history and actual condition of the laborious classes had become important to a heart throbbing with anxiety for the welfare of the human race: and facts of this description are not to be collected by remaining, ‘like a homely weed, fxed to one spot.’ Another motive, not less powerful than the former, conspired in prompting this eccentric ramble. On the Somersetshire coast, and not many miles from Bridgewater, the author has an invaluable friend,2 well known in the literary world, whom as yet he had never seen, but for whom, during the imperfect intercourse of a familiar and confdential correspondence, he had conceived all the afection of a brother. With this friend an opportunity of more immediate and intimate communication of sentiment had been long and mutually desired; and as the family of the journalist was then in Derby, he was determined to take the opportunity, in his way from Somersetshire to that place, of visiting some of the picturesque and romantic scenery of Wales. Te reader is now in possession of the principal motives and objects of this excursion, and will accordingly be aware what sort of information he is to expect. It is only necessary to add, that a companion of congenial mind increased the pleasures of the earlier part of this ramble; but that, afer the frst fortnight, the journalist pursued his way, a solitary rambler, over many a mountain, and through many a delicious vale, where sometimes he wandered an unnoticed stranger, and was hailed at others with the most cordial friendship and hospitality. Te journal that follows is rather a gleaning than the full harvest of those observations which the long-protracted ramble so abundantly furnished: for the nature and a periodical publication demands compression and selection: and – 17 –

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hence the principal difculty in the composition of the following article: many passages and adventures, which, in a detached publication, would have formed, perhaps, the most interesting features of the work, being of necessity omitted. It is hoped, however, that the specimen, such as it is, will not be found entirely destitute of entertainment or information; in which two-fold view it is ofered by the editor’s friend and fellow-labourer in the vineyard of truth.]

ON Tursday, June 29, 1797, we set of at between 9 and 10 in the forenoon, in a heavy shower of rain, with a large umbrella over our heads; being previously determined that our progress should not depend upon the caprices of wind and clouds. As it was our intention to trace the banks of the Tames as far as Windsor, we directed our course towards Fulham Bridge,3 where the eye is regaled with the frst glimpse of rural scenery. Te views from this bridge have certainly some attractions, chiefy however derived from the tranquil grandeur of the river; for the buildings equally remind one of the taste and vocations of a trading city, and the tea-garden stile is conspicuous in the surrounding pleasure-grounds and plantations. A drizzling rain continued to fall: but, considering the nature of the prospect (whose character is rather luxuriance than extent or variety), neither the haziness of the atmosphere, nor the mist which curled along the surface of the water, and gave a grey and sober tint to the surrounding objects, was any disparagement to the scene. Te case, however, was materially diferent at Richmond Hill.4 From this enchanting eminence, where splendid variety constitutes the distinguishing character – where wood and water, and thickly scattered villas, lie stretched beneath to an immeasurable distance, and the rich and decorated expanse is bounded only by the failing powers of vision, the eye demands its fullest liberty, and the strong blaze and transparency of noon, or the warm glow of a cloudless evening, are accidents of colouring (if I may so express myself ) that harmonise with the features of the picture. Tis fnishing, however, Nature was not in a mood to furnish. Te sun tantalised us indeed with a sort of promise; and two or three times a partial and transient beam gave us a glimpse of the beauties we were forbidden to enjoy. But even with these disadvantages, the scene had sufcient attractions to detain us between three and four hours, including the time occupied by our fight and temperate repast at the Plough and Harrow in Petersham.5 By the way – the walk down the hill to Petersham, between the Park and the Hanging Wood, should never be neglected by the picturesque traveller. Te solemn grandeur and shady sequestration of this descending path form a striking contrast to the gaiety and splendour of the scene above. It is, indeed, a charming appendage to this celebrated prospect – wild, sombrous, and majestic – a scene

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for solemn meditation and poetic rhapsody, where, in fact, I could loiter away more days and weeks, than on the commanding summit of the hill itself. Tat pomp of scenery, that expanse and publicity of prospect, which so eminently distinguish Richmond Hill, fascinate, indeed, the occasional observer: but in the picturesque of nature, as in the intercourse of life, it is principally in the lowly vales and shades of sober sequestration we must seek the pleasures that cloy not on repetition. Te poet Gray, whose pocket-book6 was our travelling guide and companion, in his list of scenes and situations, has set down Twickenham with a star of admiration: but certainly we saw nothing there to admire. In fact, the beauty of this place consists in the prospects commanded from the houses and pleasuregrounds on the banks of the river. One of these, the garden of Pope,7 we ought to have had the curiosity to visit: for though, to a lover of the simplicity of Nature, that factitious scenery which surrounds the mansions of opulence has few attractions; yet as what little taste for gardening we have among us, seems to have been introduced by the bard of Twickenham, it is certainly worth while to examine the original model. 8 Te spacious Palace of Hampton Court,9 the favourite residence of William III. with all its modern patches and incongruities, is still a very fne place. Te garden, indeed, is execrable: but the river, and the gay luxuriance of the surrounding country, atone for every defect: and the walk from hence to Sunbury10 (where we slept) may be ranked among the fnest scenery of the Tames: nor is the efect a little heightened by the number of swans, who, sailing round the little scattered islands, in which they have built their nests, give character and interest to the scene. (To be continued.)

For the Monthly Magazine. A PEDESTRIAN EXCURSIONS THROUGH several PARTS of ENGLAND and WALES during the Summer of 1797. (Continued fom p. 533.) ON Friday, June 30, 1797. From Sunbury to the little hamlet of Hereford; much of the road is very delightful, especially the parts nearest to Sunbury; where the winding river, the extensive meadows, the shady walks, and luxuriant plantations, difuse a prodigality of gaiety and verdure. But greeness itself is not green enough for the tasteless inhabitants, some of whom have daubed their houses, and one in particular, the very colonade before his door, with green paint.11

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It is remarkable how ofen absurdities of this kind occur in the country houses of persons long immured in large cities. In London, indeed, where the verdure of nature is excluded by brick walls, and the bright face of heaven blotted out with smoke, greens and blues are acceptable decorations: they form a pleasing contrast to the dingy phenomena around. – But in the country, where every bright and cheerful tint is poured out spontaneously, it is most tasteless insipidity to daub them over one’s house and furniture. Nor is it sufcient that we consult variety: contrasts may be so sudden as to do violence to the eye; and every thing that looks like fnery should be carefully avoided. Gaudiness is no where to be endured but in a bank of fowers. Flaring red bricks make abominable blotches in a landscape; and (to take a fying leap in pursuit of my digression) there are some considerable houses in Monmouthshire (particularly in the neighbourhood of Crickhowel) that may literally be said to blush for the bad taste of their proprietors; being painted all over with a fne delicate pink. Te outside of a rural mansion admits of no choice but dead whites and stone colours (of which the latter should be preferred); and within, greys, and drabs, and more sober browns will harmonise best with the surrounding scenery. Te pleasant hamlet of Hereford is situated in the parish of Shepperton, on one of the fne sweeping curves of the Tames, and commands a noble view of the spacious park and plantations of Oatlands, which decorate the slopes and swells of the opposite banks. Te parish of Shepperton, and indeed the whole country from thence to Staines,12 abounds with fertile and luxuriant pastures: nor are the arable lands at all inferior. Te afuence of nature, and the toil of man, conspire to produce one continued scene of fertility; while from every eminence the mansions of opulence overlook the prospect with exultation. But man, aggregate man, seems little benefted by this abundance. Cottages (none of which have the advantage of a cow) are very thinly scattered; and little farm houses are still more rare. Te few peasants we met looked (as the peasantry of England too generally do) careworn and toilworn; and the children seem to be brought up in the most oafsh ignorance. In short, every thing has the appearance of that desolating monopoly which makes fertility itself a desert. Having breakfasted, at a farm-house at Shepparton, on bread and milk, we proceeded to Staines; where (the weather being fne and the fun very powerful) we loitered away an hour or two with the rod and line; and pursued our route to Windsor. Te enchanting scenery of this route is too well known to stand in need of description. Near Old Windsor, and just at the foot of Cooper’s Hill,13 our attention was arrested by an elegant stone building, newly erected by one of the clerks (as we were informed) or secretaries of Warren Hastings;14 and in which the ex-governor himself occasionally resides. It is remarkable that in the course of my rambles

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I have stumbled upon several elegant villas, in diferent parts of the country, of which I heard a similar account. At Windsor we only paused to enjoy its fne extensive scenery, and call to mind Gray’s15 melancholy ode ‘on a prospect of Eton College;’ and then crossed the Great Park, on our way to Sunning Hill, where we intended to sleep; our object being to regain the straight road to Bristol without delay. Windsor Great Park16 has little to recommend it but the rows of majestic trees at the entrance; which, though planted in straight lines (a direction which nature abhors) have nevertheless a very grand efect. Tese are, however, the only rows of trees I ever beheld with satisfaction; and the pleasure, in the present instance, is only to be accounted for by the vastness of the objects, and that boundless continuity which flls the mind with an idea of something like infnitude: for the line is extended not only along the whole of a very spacious plain, but up the distant hill, over whose summit it appears to curve; so that nothing like termination is discernible. Tat this is the true solution, is evident as you advance: for the efect ceases as the line is shortened: neither is the same pleasurable sensation renewed when, ascending the hill, you behold the same length of avenue in an opposite direction; for the plain lying beneath, and the vista being abruptly terminated by a row of houses, the idea of infnitude is lost, and nothing remains but the disgusting tameness of parallel lines. We arrived at Sunning Hill just as the days was closing; but no beds were to be there obtained; and our accommodation at the Red Lion at Cow-Worth did not atone for the trouble of walking two miles further, along an intricate cross road, in the dark. We procured, indeed, a tolerable supper: but one small bed for two of us in a small room, in which, also, was another bed with two other travellers, repaired but imperfectly the fatigues of the day. In short, the Red Lion is a little inn upon a great high-road, and of course the worst place a traveller can put up at who wishes for frugal and comfortable accommodation. Saturday July 1. We rose at eight o’clock, imperfectly refreshed, and pursued our way, over heaths and moors, to Bagshot, with scarcely an object worthy of observation to relieve the dreariness of the road. Neither was the prospect much improved on the other side of Bagshot; but having refreshed ourselves with an excellent breakfast, of tea and rolls and cream, which did us more good than the sleep of the preceding night, our animal spirits regained their tone; and the vivacity of conversation made the miles pass unheeded under our feet. We canvassed various subjects of literature and criticism, the state of morals and the existing institutions of society. We lamented the condition of our fellow-beings, and formed Utopian plans of retirement and colonisations. On one subject, and only one, we essentially difered – America. I cannot look towards that country with all the sanguine expectations so frequently cherished. I think I discover in it too much of the old leaven. Its avidity for commercial aggrandizement augurs

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but ill even for the present generation; and I tremble at the consequences which the enormous appropriations of land may entail upon posterity. Almost every circumstance I can collect makes me fear for the future, rather than exult in the present. Tis conversation, to ourselves at least, was highly important. It matured and methodised in our minds the project (which before had only foated across our brains in moments of weariness and disgust) of retiring to some sequestered spot, and spending the remainder of our days in rustic industry and philosophical seclusion. Having crossed the Loddon, at Blackwater, from Surry into Hampshiure, the appearances of cultivation increase; and, of course, the road becomes less dreary. At Hartford Bridge we rested ourselves nearly two hours, during the heat of the day; and; resuming our journey, were gratifed by the improving prospects of cultivation and fertility. Of the picturesque, indeed, there was still an entire blank; but the eye reposed with satisfaction on the freshness of the surrounding verdure. About four miles from Hartford Bridge, the hamlets of Murrel Green and Hook are separated by a little transparent brook, which empties itself into the Loddon near Arborfeld: and under which a drain is conducted to draw of the waters from some neighbouring lands. Te state, cultivation, and the fertility of the pastures arrested our attention. But what principally delighted us was the apparent comfort and decency of the cottages, whose little gardens were stocked with useful vegetables, and whose doors and windows were decorated with rose and woodbine. Te only wretched habitations we met with were two tenements made out of one farm-house (the farm belonging to which, in the progress of monopoly, had been united to another in the neighbourhood), and four other s into which a deserted inn (which had been a farm also) was in another place divided. Tese habitations were miserable indeed. Shattered windows, crazy walls, foorless apartments, and neglected roofs, proclaimed the comfortless condition of the inhabitants. From a decent motherly woman, whom we found with a family of young children around her, in one part of the former of these buildings, we learned that rains and snows frequently beat in upon them, and they were obliged to move their beds from corner to corner of the room, in the vain hope of fnding, in some part, protection from the inclemencies of the weather. Tese circumstances are by no means peculiar to the village of Hook. Wherever we met with farm-houses thus divided, we uniformly found them the most miserable habitations in the neighbourhood. How should it be otherwise? Te labourers, who inhabit them, consider their tenure as too precarious, and the premises too large for them to think about repairs; and a crazy old mansion, in which his hedgers and ditchers only are to reside, is an object beneath the attention of an overgrown capitalist.

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A little further on is a plantation of oaks, belonging to Lord Dorchester, planted originally at the distances where they are intended to grow, and protected each by a high circular bank of turf, which gives them the appearance of Christmas brambles stuck in the centre of so many twelfh cakes. I am not woodman enough to decide on the advantages of this mode of plantation; but to the eye, the efect is extremely ungracious. Soon afer turning our backs on this unsightly plantation, we quitted the high road to examine the rustic parish church of Squires. Tis is at present little other than a small barn-like hut. Nothing apparently remains of the old building but a small arched door-way, in the Saxo-Gothic stile, whose venerable antiquity is still conspicuous through the barbarous white wash with which it is daubed over. Hard by we perceived a decent and substantial farm-house, with barns and yards well stocked, and every appearance of prosperity and abundance. And yet we found upon inquiry, that this farm consists but of 160 acres; an extent, in deed, abundantly large, when the population of the country, and the provision and comforts of the mass are taken into consideration; but cheerlessly narrow, according to the monopolising calculations of the age. Tis information made us gaze around with increasing satisfaction; nor could we help deprecating the hour when some four or fve such families as this farm appears to support in respectable abundance, should be exterminated to make room for some mongrel of a squire-farmer, whose hounds and hunters and Bacchanalian revels devour, like a cloud of locusts, the produce of a district. With an old thresher, who was working in the barn, we entered into conversation; and were entertained with the quaintness of his rustic humour. But we endeavoured in vain to procure any information concerning the price of labour, or the condition of the labouring poor. Every question was repelled by some sly rub, or sagacious hint; and his arch gestures, and emphatic half-syllables, displayed the self-congratulating cunning of suspicion. Tis is far from being a singular instance. Suspicious slyness, and jealous reluctance of communication, especially on subjects connected with their respective callings, are too generally characteristic of Englishmen in every rank and condition – characteristics that form an almost insurmountable barrier to the attainment of any accurate knowledge of the general state of mankind, and to every hope of efectually improving their condition. Returning into the high road, we met with a character of very diferent description. His appearance was something, though not much, above the condition of a common labourer. His features, tho’ considerably relaxed by intoxication, bore the stamp of intelligence far above his situation; and this impression was confrmed by his conversation. He was inquisitive, shrewd, and communicative. It appeared that he read several newspapers, and, in all probability, is the oracle of

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every pot-house in the surrounding country. Unfortunately, however, we could no way turn his conversation into the channel we desired. He talked of nothing but Parker and the delegates, of war and of parties. In short, he was too full of liquor and temporary politics, to furnish any information on the subject of political œconomy, and the only information in point we could procure was, that the manor of Squires was the property of Brook Watson. It is painful to refect that, in the humble conditions of life, men distinguished, like the present, by the superiority of intellect and information are generally, like the present, equally distinguished by habits of profigate intemperance. But this ought not to be an argument against extending information – for the vice is the cause of the situation, not the intelligence the cause of the vice. If the individuals whose examples are thus insisted upon, had not degraded themselves by such conduct, either they would never have sunk into the class in which they are confounded; or if (which is rarely the case) they were originally placed there, their talents would have advanced them to circles of society more congenial to their attainments and capacities. If this is denied, then is the case still stronger, and we shall be obliged to conclude, that being hopelessly surrounded by a sort of intellectual desert, and having no resources but their own animal spirits, they are driven into habits of intemperance to supply the defciency of external stimuli. [To be continued.]

For the Monthly Magazine. A PEDESTRIAN EXCURSION THROUGH several PARTS of ENGLAND and WALES during the Summer of 1797. (Continued fom p. 619.) WE arrived at Basingstoke (as the foot-traveller ought always to do at the place where he intends to sleep) time enough to walk through the town, and fx our quarters wherever appearances were most inviting. We had not, however, far to look. A decent, humble, but comfortable house (the White Hart) presented itself at the very entrance of the town; just such a one as the pedestrian may regard as a prize in the lottery. No swaggering post-boy to jostle him from the fre, no powdered waiter to sneer at his dusty garb, no pursey landlady to measure him, with her eye, from head to foot, and inquire for his horses, or his carriage! and, on the other hand, no drunken rabblement from the forge or factory to stun his senses with obscene oaths and low scurrility. Te mistress of the house was a decent housewifely woman, sof of speech, gentle of manners, and (but for a

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few careworn premature wrinkles) somewhat handsome. She was sitting at work in a neat and comfortable parlour, with a fne girl, about 10 or 12 years of age, whose person interested me, but whose subdued look and fxed attention to her knitting needle, excited my sympathy. She looked as if she ought to be given to play, and less to work. I thought so too; but the distributions of society (not her mother) were to blame, and I smothered my sympathy in silence. Having bespoken our beds, we proceeded to explore the town in quest of information; and having entered a considerable linen-draper’s shop, in one of the windows of which a few pamphlets were exhibited, we found no difculty in getting into conversation with the proprietor. From him we learned, that this was the only bookshop in the town; that there was neither public library, circulating library, reading-room, nor book-club; that half of his shop had formerly been appropriated to such purposes; but that it did not answer – ‘the people of Basingstoke having neither time nor inclination to read.’ Yet this is a considerable town, on a great high road, only 46 miles from London; and symptoms of opulence, and consequently of leisure, are conspicuous on every side. Having satisfed our curiosity in these particulars, we returned to our little inn; in the parlour of which we spent our evening so comfortably, that we were hardly conscious either that we were in a public house, or that it was Saturday evening. Te modest little girl, already mentioned, waited upon us with almost obtrusive civility; and two sweet little ruddy babes amused us with their infant pranks. One of these, about four years old, reminded me of my own little girl; and the analogy was completed when I learned that her name was Maria. I seated her on my knee, and kissed her with paternal emotion; and felt how painful it is to be one hundred miles from all that is dearest to the social heart. Having fortifed the inward man with a hearty supper of eggs and bacon, and refruited the animal spirits with some excellent ale, we retired to our neat and comfortable beds, and enjoyed the solid slumber of content. Sunday 2d. We rose between six and seven o’clock; and intending to make some progress before breakfast, called for our bill. If we were pleased with our accommodations, we were equally satisfed with the modesty of the charge. For two beds, two suppers, and three quarts of ale, the whole demand was only 3s. 2d. Had we gone to one of the principal inns, we should not have had one third part of the comfort, and our expence would have been three times as much. Te only object of curiosity at Basingstoke is the ruin of Holy Ghost Chapel. It stands on a gentle hill on the north side of the town, of which it commands a pleasant view. Connected with it is a free school, on a very liberal foundation, the present master of which is Mr. Williamson, curate of the parish. Te ruin has the appearance of great antiquity: but it is neither spacious nor picturesque; and is totally destitute of that venerable mantle of ivy which sometimes gives attraction to the meanest fragments.

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It was our intention to banquet this morning on a breakfast of new milk: a luxury which the inhabitant of great towns is apt to suppose every cottager in the country can enjoy at pleasure. But in many of the most fertile counties in England the very reverse is the case. We walked no less than fve miles, inquiring at every habitation we came to, before we met either with a cottager who could, or a farmer who would, sell us a bason of this beverage. Among the cottagers, indeed, the very mention of milk produced an evident irritation, which convinced us that they had not forgotten the time when this was not thought too great a luxury for the laborious poor. At one of the cottages, in particular, where we repeated our enquiry, the answer thrilled us to the heart. ‘Milk! milk!’ exclaimed the poor woman, with a sort of frenzy of irritation, ‘I have a sick child, and there is not a drop of milk to be had.’ What is the reason of all this? Why, the cottagers keep no cows; scarcely a little cabin is to be found that has a bit of a feld, or privilege of pasture; and the great, monopolizing, calculating farmer has discovered, that it is to his interest to use up his whole dairy in butter and cheese, and feed his pigs with the whey; and as for the children of the poor, they must make shif with parsley, or suet-broth, i.e. a handful of suet or parsley thrown into a cauldron of water, with a little salt, and a few bread crumbs. At length we approached a little house, whose owner furnished us with the article we wanted. But as our sensations convinced us that milk is not as good a breakfast to travel upon as tea, we repeated the experiment no more. We did not, however, neglect to inquire for milk in every neighbourhood we passed through, during the remainder of our journey; and the result of these inquiries was almost uniformly the same. About seven miles from Basingstoke (on the Andover road) you pass through the village of Overton: a long, straggling populous, wretched looking place, where dirt and raggedness stare you in the face, even on that day when all aspire to decency. But the misery of Overton ceased to surprise us, when we learned that it was a manufacturing village; and, turning to the right, beheld two stately edifces (a silk-mill, and a spacious dwelling house) in one of which the multitude produce, while in the other a single family enjoys, what we call the wealth and prosperity of the nation. I mean nothing personal of the proprietor. I know some eminent manufacturers who have hearts that do honour to their species; and this may be a man of the same description. But convinced as I am of the evil of the manufacturing system, as at present regulated, it is not respect for individuals that shall forbid a tongue to my feelings. What is a huge manufactory, but a common prison-house, in which a hapless multitude are sentenced to profigacy and hard labour, that an individual may rise to unwieldy opulence? Te silk-mill in contemplation is, in current language, the principal support of the neighbourhood. It employs a few men who can earn from 9s. to 10s. 6d. per week; a number of women, who may get from 4s. to 4s. 6d. by constant work; and a still greater

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number of children, from 5 years of age to 14 or 15. Tey have 1s. per week during the frst year they are employed, and in addition of 3d. per week every year that they continue at this employment. Te hours are from 6 in the morning to 7 or 8 at night. And what is to become of these children when grown to man’s estate? – so many of them, at least, as survive the contagion of their prison-house, their confnement, and sentence of premature application! In cloth-manufactories, I am told, they proceed gradually from one branch to another, so that there is permanent employment for all: but I cannot fnd that the proprietors of silk and cotton mills can give as good an account of the youth brought up in their seminaries; and, I fear, there is too much reason to believe that the answer I once received, is not without foundation – that the young women turn prostitutes, and the men soldiers and sailors. From Overton to Whitchurch, the road is washed by a beautiful trout-stream (the river Test); on the banks of which is situated the pleasant village of Privic, consisting of small but comfortable cottages, in little rows or neighbourhoods of four or fve, and mostly supplied with a piece of garden ground, that contributes at once to ornament and subsistence. It is impossible to compare the decency and forid cheerfulness exhibited in these little straggling neighbourhoods with the flth and squalid wretchedness that crowd the habitations of poverty in large commercial and manufacturing towns, without refecting how much it would contribute to health, morals and happiness, if its whole population were thus scattered over the surface of a country. Te approach to Whitchurch is very pleasing. Te road lies along the ridge of a hill, with another still higher hill to the right, and on the lef, an abrupt descent; between which and the river Test is a small fertile valley, with a few neat little white-washed houses and pleasant garden-plots. Some hay-felds beyond the river bespoke the richness of the soil. Te town itself forms a pleasant object, not the less so on account of the irregular manner in which the hither end is built: for the thatched and white-washed cottages, with their little gardens around, and their bowers of elder (then in full bloom) rise, one above the other, almost perpendicularly, to the very top of the hill, at the foot of which the principal part of the town is situated. Te principal streets are meanly built with brick, and covered with an ordinary sort of tiling. At the King’s Arms in this town we arrived at one o’clock, and, for the frst time during our ramble, ventured upon a hearty dinner of animal food; which, together with the warmth of the day, so far indisposed us for further exertion, that we agreed to take the outside of the coach for Salisbury. And now farewell to inquiry and observation. Te beautiful country beyond Whitchurch – shady lanes, luxuriant hedges and fertile felds – the magnifcent park, elegant mansion, and trophied gateway of Lord Portsmouth, and the pleas-

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ant little thatched village of Down Husband, all passed like so many meteors, and aforded not the least gleam of intelligence. While other passengers were at dinner at Andover, we took a view of the town, and sauntered round the church yard. But either the roast lamb and four ale at Whitchurch had clouded our faculties, or Andover (at least on a Sunday) is a very uninteresting place: for we found nothing worthy of note. At three o’clock the coach started again; and the country becoming every minute less and less interesting, we were glad to be fying so quickly over it. Te snug thatches and white cottages of the village of Little Anne, indeed, arrested our attention; and, while the coachman stopped to take up another passenger, we were surprised to observe at the door of one of these cottages two young girls very fashionably dressed, with short waists and every appendage of modern taste. Teir manners and deportment corresponded with their appearance; and there was a delicacy and refnement in their speech and air, that ill accorded with the rusticity of the scene: yet they spoke and looked as if they were at home. But there was no time to unravel the mystery. Te lash rebounded, and away we few, over dreary hills partially cultivated, to the sordid looking village of Wallop: about two miles from which we bid farewell to Hampshire, and enter the county of Wilts: afer which the only objects that relieve the dreariness of the way, are a solitary inn, by the road side, and the lofy spire of Salisbury Cathedral, of which you have the frst view at a distance of near six miles form the city. [To be continued.]

For the Monthly Magazine. A PEDESTRIAN EXCURSION THROUGH SEVERAL PARTS OF ENGLAND AND WALES, DURING THE SUMMER OF 1797. (Continued fom p. 785) AT Salisbury, the frst object of our attention was of course the Cathedral. Te outward structure is, perhaps, somewhat too plain for this species of architecture. But the proportions are excellent, and the richness and lofiness of its fne tapering spire cannot be too much admired. In short, it is altogether, I think, the fnest and most perfect building of the kind I have ever seen. Within every thing is grand. Te many-shafed pillars and Saracenic (or Normo-Gothic) arches that divide the nave and circles, are handsome, uniform, and in excellent proportion. Te screen of the choir is more modern; and, together with the adjoining arch on

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each side, highly wrought in the stile of St. George’s chapel, Windsor. When the doors of the choir are frst thrown open and the curtain drawn aside, the efect is truly sublime; nor is it weakened as yon approach. All the windows in the neighbourhood of the altar being richly stained, difuse a sombrous and aweful gloom, which fnely harmonizes with the general style of eth building; and the conception and style of colouring in the principal window are very impressive. Te subject is the Resurrection, by Sir Joshua. It consists of a single fgure, surrounded with rays of glory and a profusion of clouds; with the three crosses on Cavalry at a distance. Te drawing, indeed, like many of Sir Joshua’s is but indifferent. Te eyes have a sunken blackness about them, and the expressions of the countenance, altogether, are far from pleasing. Tere is also a fne sketch from Mortimer above (the elevation of the brazen serpent) vilely degraded by gaudy patches of incongruous colouring. In this part of the building are seen the lofy and slender single-shafed pillars, so much talked about; and which, perhaps, by exciting a sort of confused idea of danger, heighten the aweful impression of the scene. Te Chapter-house is, also, a very fne ruin, worthy of the noble pile to which it is attached. It is to be lamented, that it was not repaired at the same time with the cathedral. But its fortunate escape from the foppery of white-wash almost compensates for all it has sufered by neglect. Te cloisters, also, are exceedingly fne – spacious, and highly wrought in the old forid stile. Tere is, also, another piece of antiquity worthy of observation, on the outer wall at the west end of St. Tomas’s Church. Tis is a curious wooden monument, rather in a mutilated state, carved by the sculptor, whose memory it perpetuates. It is adorned with rude representations in alto relievo, of Abraham ofering up Isaac; Jacobs dream, his ladder, and sacrifce, and his bargain about the striped and ringed cattle; and, in another compartment, with two shepherds, one of them sitting, and the other leaning on a rock. Of this I could make neither head nor tail; though it is the only part the writer of the Salisbury Guide pretends to explain. He calls it ‘the Lord’ (the Angel of the Lord he means) ‘appearing to the shepherds.’ But if this was the story represented, the angel has since fown away; which (being a winged creature) would, to be sure, be no great miracle. Below, on a small entablature, is the following inscription. ‘Here under lieth the body of Humphry Beckham, who died the 2d day of February, Anno 1671, aged 88. His work.’ Tis inscription has given rise to a proverbial joke in Salisbury. When a man prides himself on any particular performance, it is said, in way of banter, to be ‘Humphry Bekham’s own work.’ Monday 3. – Rose at half past six; employed ourselves in making notes, &c. till nine; and then, having breakfasted, sallied forth, in a heavy shower of rain, in quest of further information. In our way we visited the new Town-Hall; a handsome building of light brick, with a portico, and other ornaments of stone. It was

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built at the sole expence of the Earl of Radnor, recorder of the city: the foundation-stone being laid

For the Monthly Magazine. A PEDESTRIAN EXCURSION THROUGH SEVERAL PARTS OF ENGLAND AND WALES, DURING THE SUMMER OF 1797. (Continued fom p. 967.) THE curious collections at Wilton-House17 command, of course, the attention of every traveller who visits this part of the country, as we did, to see and observe. It is certainly, in its way, a most grand and interesting exhibition; and the antiquary and the virtuoso must contemplate it with insatiable delight. It was however, for our taste, somewhat too curious; at least, for so casual a survey. To enjoy it properly, one ought to spend days and weeks in its examination. But hurried as one is from chamber to chamber to get through the whole in a few hours, on has not time to become properly interested in any thing; and object rushes upon object with such rapidity, that the mind is rather stunned than amused; and little is retained but a chaos of indistinct impressions. Te busts and historical statues claimed the largest share of our attention; and could we have devoted to these alone the time occupied by running over the whole collection, we should have been more instructed and less wearied. Tere are several reasons for the interest these objects inspire. As monuments of art, and data for the history of its progress, they must be esteemed by the antiquary and man of taste; by their connection with the memorable events of former times, they recall to the mind of the historian the studies which have delighted him in the closet, and ftted him for the important scenes of publication. Tey introduce him, as it were, to the personal acquaintance of distinguished characters, with whose names he had been long familiar. And where they can be relied upon as genuine resemblances, they ofer to the physiognomist18 a series of invaluable examples for the advancement and illustration of his science. Tere are some in this collection, however, whose authenticity I should be inclined to call in question. I pass over the busts of Achilles, and such like poetical personages. Te chissel has its poetical licence, as well as the pen; and its fctions should be as current in the regions of taste and criticism. But the busts of Brutus, who expelled the Tarquins,19 Collatinus20 his colleague, and Coriolanus,21 should belong to history. Yet, where were the statuaries to preserve their portraiture? When Tarquin the Proud determined to set up the statues of Olympian Jove, he was obliged to send for an artist to

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execute it from among the Volscians:22 and that, long afer the establishment of the Republic, the Romans had no statuaries among them, may be fairly presumed from the circumstance of their erecting columns only, to the memory of those citizens who had distinguished themselves by illustrious actions. Self-love and ancestral vanity made no delay in substituting images in the place of these, when the state of the arts permitted. Painting does not appear to have been cultivated in Rome till the second Punic war; and it was still later before statuary was introduced. Tese, therefore, must be considered also as poetical portraits. But there are others against which no objections will lie in point of time, of whose authenticity, nevertheless, one cannot but entertain some doubt. Te dignifed composure and intellectual power exhibited in the features of Teophrastus23 correspond, indeed, with the character and writings of that philosopher; and the calm benignity and engaging sofness of Didia Clara24 (daughter of Didius Julianus) make one struggle to believe it a genuine portrait, notwithstanding its more than mortal beauty. Te sordid meanness and insensate cruelty that debase the features of Lepidus25 the triumvir; the stupid indolence and barbarity of the emperor Claudius;26 and the bloated, intemperate, licentious, efeminate, mischief-meditating countenance of Nero,27 with his pursed-up, pouting, distorted mouth, and assassin arm wrapped up in his cloak; brand these portraits respectively with the indubitable mark of authenticity. Many others, also, are the very beings a physiognomist would expect them. Even Seneca,28 notwithstanding his open mouth, and the mixture of voluptuousness and intellectual power blended in the lines and solid parts of his face, will pass muster very well. Such, I make no doubt, were the genuine lineaments of the philosopher, whose ‘learning and brilliant genius’ the fagitious but penetrating Agrippina29 considered as ft instruments ‘to make the road to empire smooth and level to her son;’ whose ‘gratitude’ she foresaw ‘would fx him in her interest, a faithful counsellor, and her friend by sentiment; while a sense of former injuries would make him the secret enemy of Claudius*.’ In short, the philosophy of Seneca was not like that of Socrates. It was not of the heart, but of the head; and though it taught him to die with the magnanimity, it could not infuence him to live with the purity, of a philosopher. But, can the man whose mind has been nurtured with the love of Roman liberty, believe that Marcus Brutus30 was a gloomy, sordid, and malignant rufan? Yet, such are the characteristics of the bust of that famous Roman in the vestibule. Scarcely ever did I behold so hideous a contraction of feature. It is assassination personifed. Tere is, indeed, in the Great Room, another bust of this same Brutus, resembling the above in many respects, but not trenched with the same villainous expressions. Yet, even in this, there is little benignity; and we seek in vain for that amiable and philosophical tenderness so fnely delineated by *

See Tacit. Ann. b. xii. f. 8.

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Shakespeare*†, and so generally ascribed to him by historians. What shall we say to this? Are the portraits fctitious? Or have we been imposed upon by legendary panegyrics? For my own part, establish the authenticity of the likeness, and I will believe the testimony of a man’s countenance in preference to his historian, even though he should produce better vouchers than the historians of antiquity generally give themselves the trouble to quote. Perhaps, indeed, our admiration of Brutus and Cassius may have been carried too far. perhaps we wrong the holy name of liberty, when we rank among its champions the conspirators who assassinated Cæsar.31 It is not by crimes that the virtue of a country is to be restored. It is not by executing even a tyrant unheard and unarraigned, that liberty and justice are to be promoted. But this subject would lead to an elaborate dissertation. Te gardens at Wilton are not equal to the house. Tere is, however, a fne supply of water, well disposed; and the noble plantations, the shadowy walks, the scattered islands and surrounding forest scenery, in bright and glowing weather, must have a fne efect. Te view of Salisbury, in which the cathedral makes a prominent feature, from the casino and triumphal arch, is very delightful. Our walk over the house and gardens had already cost us six shillings; and we fattered ourselves, that we had no more exactions to encounter. But, as we were going past the porter’s lodge, a servant stopped us with a fresh demand; informing us, in plain language, that ‘they were all stationed there for their fees, and nobody could come in or out without paying.’ We accordingly submitted to be feeced once more. I am told, that this kind of tax upon the curiosity of travellers is peculiar to this country; and surely it is somewhat surprizing, that the pride and ostentation of greatness should not spurn the illiberal idea of supporting its servants on the alms of curiosity. But there is a nobleman in the county of Derby, who is reported not only to save the expence of wages by this expedient, but absolutely to make a bargain with his housekeeper for half the vails collected by exhibiting his splendid mansion. (To be continued.)

*

Shak. Hul. Cæsar, particularly in Act II. Scene I, and Act IV. Scene iii.

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For the Monthly Magazine. A PEDESTRIAN EXCURSION THROUGH SEVERAL PARTS OF ENGLAND AND WALES, DURING THE SUMMER OF 1797. (Continued fom page 18.) FROM Wilton house we crossed the country to Old Sarum,32 and amused our selves with tracing over its mounds and trenches till eight o’clock. Our intention was to have slept at the public house; which is the only tenement in the neighbourhood of this venerable borough: of the borough itself about half a cartload of stones, in two separate heaps, where the castle once stood, and eth old spreading oak under which the representatives of these stones are chosen and returned to parliament, are all that remains. In our hopes of lodging we were, however, disappointed. Tis house furnishes no accommodation for travelers; and we were lef to the alternative of returning to Salisbury, or proceeding, strangers and benighted as we were, seven trackless miles across Salisbury plain to Amesbury. We preferred the latter; and having devoted another half hour to refreshment and to a subterraneous cavern, lately discovered, in the principle foss, we set of at half past eight for the place of our destination. Tere are seasons when, to some minds, at least, it is pleasant to toy with danger. Such was our present humour. We had heard a dismal tales of people being lost and famished on Salisbury plain; the moon promised us but little light; and we had not proceeded above a mile before the road appeared to be lost in inextricable labyrinths. Te directing-posts were broken of or defaced; and if we deviated from the track, house or human being to set us right was no where to be expected: yet our animal spirits were uncommonly high; and the merriest part of our journey was certainly the walk from Old Sarum to Amesbury.33 In the language of superstition, the omen was fair; and the event was equally propitious. We arrived in safety at a little afer ten, and took up our quarters at a homely inn; – the best, however, we could fnd in the town. Our host was tolerably communicative, but not much informed. He had an abject pliancy of deportment, a sort of ‘alacrity at booing,’ an afectation of great humility, and was superlatively assiduous in his attentions. In short, his countenance and deportment were equally repulsive. A sort of sullen selfshness saddened his brow; and, through the fimsy veil of his fawning obsequious and insidious complaisance, ill-humour and self-opinionated obstinacy were sufciently conspicuous. From the whole of his behaviour we presently anticipated what the morning confrmed, that his awkward courtesies were not to be forgotten in the bill. Tuesday 4. Amesbury is pleasantly situated in a small irriguous valley, on the banks of the Avon. Te hills that surround it have a romantic and picturesque

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efect. Te town is straggling and indiferently built, and has all the appearance of decay. It has been in a much more fourishing condition, especially when the celebrated duke and duchess of Queensborough kept their court at Amesbury house. Te memory of this is traditionally preserved among the inhabitants, who seem to envy the better times of their forefathers, and to repine (not without some shew of justice) that the rents collected from the produce of their industry are spent in distant neighbourhoods, or swallowed up by the prodigal vices of a large city. It would be well for Amesbury, if this were its only calamity. Tere is one of still more desolating nature, in which it partakes in common with the whole surrounding country; I mean, the enormous accumulation of farms. Tere are three or four individuals in this neighbourhood, who rent to the amount of 1000l. a year each: that is to say, so many agricultural canibals, who have devoured their eight or ten families a piece. Te wages of labour are, of course, very low; common labourers 6s. per week, and no victuals; carters and threshers 7s. or 7s. 6d. and a bushel of wheat per week, if they choose it, at the reduced price of 5s. If the family of a common labourer is large enough to consume this quantity, he has, of course, only one shilling per week for house rent, cloathing, drink, fuel, and every other necessary!!! (I shall by and by have occasion to compare this statement with facts collected in neighbourhoods where the farms are generally small.) One happiness, however, Amesbury possesses. It has no manufactory. Te children enjoy, accordingly, the infantile privilege of bounding and sporting at large; and are reprieved, at least for a few years, from the yoke of unremitting toil. Te principal support of the town is the curiosity of travellers: and some little time ago, when the nunnery was frst established there, the number of visitors was very considerable; and Amesbury had a transient gleam of reviving prosperity. But the edge of curiosity is now worn of. Te neighbourhood of Stone Henge is its only prop; which, though inadequate to uphold its prosperity, is sufcient to secure it from dissolution. Amesbury-House is a handsome mansion. Te architecture is simple and elegant. Te apartments are well proportioned; and the drawing room and adjoining chamber, now used as a chapel, would challenge admiration, if they had not been spoiled by a waste of injudicious labour in the carvings and cornices. Te barbarous Gothic faces in the former, in particular, would have been more in harmony with the architecture of the days of our Tudors and Plantagenets. Tis Mansion is, at present, converted into a religious house, under the patronage of Lord Arundel of Wardour. Te pretence for the establishment was, that of furnishing a place of refuge for some emigrant nuns expelled by the French revolution. Had it been confned to this purpose, humanity might rejoice that religious animosities were so sofened, that catholic fanatics could fnd a refuge in a protestant country, to spend the remnant of their days in the peaceful enjoyment of those habits and prejudices they were unable to subdue. But it appears

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that the generality of the persons immured in this nunnery, instead of French emigrants, are English maidens, most of whom have been recently initiated, and several of whom are still in their noviciate. Tis, by the way, is, in more points of view than one, an important fact. It should seem as if those females who knew by experience what it is to be confned to a life of monasticism, considered the dissolution of their convents rather as an emancipation than as sacrilege, and that few were disposed to seek a similar refuge in a neighbouring country. If so, the greater the criminality of the government that sufers such snares to be spread in the way of inexperienced youth. Far be it from me to be the advocate of intolerance. Every individual ought to be at liberty to follow, without restraint or disqualifcation, whatever religion or opinion he thinks ft. Nay, leave but the devotee at liberty to quit her retirement whenever her mind revolts against it, and I see no objection to the building of convents in every district. But it is not liberty, to give to any set of people the means of kidnapping the young, the simple, and inexperienced, into indissoluble bondage. It is not toleration, to sufer designing priests to enchain the consciences of their deluded votaries with oaths that prohibit the progress of inquiry, and institutions that annihilate the free agency of reason, and interdict the feelings and utilities of nature. I say nothing about the children who are educated in this seminary. – Te infant mind must be entrusted to some tutelage or other; and I know not with whom the right of chusing both the instructors and the mode of instruction can be entrusted with so little probability of abuse as with the parents. And as for any undue infuence which the temptation of gratuitous instruction may give to the catholic religion, the only justifable means of counteracting this is, by opening protestant seminaries on the same liberal foundation. Let the nation awaken to a sense of duty. Let us recollect, that the children of the people are the posterity of the state; and that civilised society owes instruction, at least, to all its ofspring, as a compensation for those natural rights which its necessary institutions have taken away. In the chapel are some valuable pictures; but by what matters, the servitor could not inform us, and we were not connoisseurs enough to discover. Te altarpiece (a Beautifcation of the Virgin) is in a very grand stile, both in design and execution; with exception, however, to the fnery, and, according to our conceptions, the incongruity of a part of the drapery. Tis incongruity rendered the subject almost unintelligible to our Protestant imaginations. Te beautiful female in the centre, indeed, from her emblems, and modest matronly appearance, we immediately concluded to be the Virgin. Nor did the scarlet mantle, or the sceptered had, throw us into any perplexity about the person of Jesus Christ. Te manly beauty, the inexpressible mildness, and divine benignity of his countenance were sufcient characteristics. Indeed among the best artists, there is a sort of traditional portraiture of this personage, so that the observant eye can scarcely ever be at a loss upon this subject. But who that venerable old gentle-

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man could be on the other side, with his beard of silver, his triple crown, and pontifcal robe, embroidered all over with gold and faring colours, we could not conceive, and with great simplicity I inquired of the servitor, ‘which of the popes it was meant to represent?’ Alas! I had forgotten, that in the Romish mythology, the Son is King, but the Father is the Pope of Heaven. Tere is another Assumption of the Virgin, at the other end of the chapel, in stile and execution superior to the former. She has a branch of palm in her hand, and seven stars in a radiant circle over her head. Angels are hovering round with crowns of palm and laurel: – ft representations, it may be said, to encourage that lonely enthusiasm which renounces all the duties and consolations of this life, with a view to obtain the rewards of another. Te other pictures are a Christ crowned with thorns; a small landscape, with a St. Cecilia, and cherubim – very beautiful! and the Martyrdom of St. Teresa. Tis last attracted our particular attention. It is in a considerable degree allegorical. Te point of the dart, which is aimed at the martyr’s breast, is metamorphosed into an amaranth; and spirits and consoling angels appear above. Te principal fgure is very interesting, even to such heretical feelings as ours; and her attitude and aged countenance express the utmost sublimity of fortitude and resignation. In this the most sublime province of the art, even more than all other, appears the superiority of the old Italian to the English school. We have had portrait painters in abundance, whose excellence cannot be questioned. Several of our artists design with correctness and even dignity. West34 can display his science in the anatomy of the human form; Barry35 has indubitable skill in composition; the groups of Northcote36 are elegant and expressive; the invention of Fuseli37 has no fault but its excessive fertility; Stodart38 can captivate with the magic distribution of lights and shades; Wheatley and Morland39 are able delineators of rustic life; and Smirk40 is truly happy in the ludicrous and the gay. But Reynolds41 and Opie42 are the only artists of the English School who have any pretensions to the delineation of the sublimer passions: and I think I shall not be accused of antiquarian prejudice, when I say, that even these have produced nothing that, for impassioned sublimity, rivals the productions of their Italian masters. Now I am upon the subject, it is but justice to contemporary merit to say a word or two more on the peculiar excellence of Opie. His fgures, it is true, are always clownish, and his limbs, not unfrequently, mere blocks of wood; but his countenances and attitudes atone for every defect; and by his singular management of the latter, he has the exclusive art of expressing the strongest passions without displaying the features. I shall instance, in particular, the armed head that hangs over the infant Perdita, in his large picture from the Winter’s Tale, and the fgure of Britomartis, in complete mail, releasing Florimel from her enchantment. But he who does not see the tear dropping under the helmet in the former instance; and the stern countenance of the Amazon, frowning

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annihilation upon the vanquished necromancer, in the latter, is destitute both of imagination and feeling. Te number of the religious in Amesbury House, we were informed, were about ffy, including the servitors. Of these, twenty-three were nuns, and eleven novices. Te gardens, &c. are in a very ruinous state. But Chinese summer-houses and diamond walks, and other reliques of the frippery of false taste, prevent the lover of native simplicity from bewailing the neglect. In a picturesque point of view, desolation itself is preferable to the spruceness and afectation of artifcial scenery. In the centre of the diamond walk is a grotto, a favourite retreat, it seems, of the Duchess of Queensborough and the poet Gay;43 and in which, according to the tradition of the neighbourhood, they composed the famous Beggars Opera. Stone-Henge was the next big object of our attention. On the date and materials of this gigantic and venerable ruin, I am not antiquary enough to enter into any dispute; I shall leave it, therefore, where Stukelys44 and other profound inquirers have lef it, in the palpable obscure of learned conjecture. Perhaps, however, it may be worth observing, that, while I was in Derby, I understood, from Dr. Darwin,45 that we are about to be favoured with another hypothesis upon the subject, which, if well supported, is likely to make some noise in the scientifc world. A young man devoted to the study of natural philosophy, by comparing these fragments with some Oriental buildings of similar structure, whose uses are well authenticated in their respective countries, thinks he can demonstrate Stone-Henge to have been a sort of astronomical temple, or architectural orrery; designating the position and revolutions of the planets, and connected with some system of religion, which must, of course, have prevailed in this country at the time when it was founded. Such a theory must refer the origin of StoneHenge, at least, as far back as the time of Druidical superstition; – if not to a date even more remote than the earliest of our authentic records. But perhaps I injure an ingenious discovery by inaccurate representation; and on a subject so curious, I would sharpen, not blunt, the edge of public curiosity. Fonthill and Wadour Castle being the next objects of our curiosity, we proceeded across the plain to Winterton Stoke; where we stopped at about two o’clock, to take some refreshment, and to make our usual inquiries. Tis village is pleasantly situated (like Amesbury), in a little scope or hollow of the plains, and is watched by a rivulet of the clearest water, which, crossing the road at this place, fows babbling along through Berwick St. James, Uppington, and Stapleford, where it empties itself into the Willy. Te generality of the cottages lie by the brook-side, to the lef of the road. By the way, all the brooks and rivulets, however small, that intersect this immense plain, have their banks scattered with villages and hamlets; and the traveller, who should be unfortunate enough to lose his way in this desolate country, will do well to follow the course of the

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frst stream he meets with, and it sill be sure to conduct him to some human habitation. Of fve cottages that lay by the road side, four were in a ruinous and miserable state. One of them is quite uninhabitable, and two others almost tumbling down. Naked mud walls, and crazy thatches, are the order of the day. Te cause of this devastation may be set down in a single word – Monopoly. Farms are rapidly accumulating into a few hands. Tere is one farmer in the neighbourhood who rents between 800l. and 1000l. per year, and a second whose concern is not much inferior in magnitude. Some smaller farms, however, are still to be met with in the parish, which are rented as low as 100, 70, or even 60l. a year; and there are even a few cottage farms with just land enough to keep a cow or two, which have been held in the same families from father to son for several generations. Te mere cottagers have all of them bits of garden, but none of them graze a cow upon the common. However, there is no difculty in procuring milk; a circumstance easily to be accounted for, from the existence of smaller farms in the neighbourhood. Te little cottage farmer never turns his poorer neighbour from his door, who comes with his halfpenny in his porringer or milk for his little babes. (To be continued.)

Telwall, J. (1801a). A pedestrian excursion through several parts of England and Wales during the summer of 1797. Monthly Magazine, 11, March 1801, 123-125. (Continued from Vol. IX. P. 231.) FROM Winterton Stoke, our road conducted us to the neighbourhood of an ancient camp of considerable extent. Te form of it is square, with rounded corners; and the mounds and double foss remain tolerably entire. As we could associate it in our minds with no historical records, and were neither of us any adepts in the art military, it furnished us but little delight, and we passed on to the obscure village of Deptford Batch. In point of situation it was somewhat inviting at this season. A little stream spread fertility through the surrounding meadows, from which the Jolly rustics were mowing one of the fnest crops of hay I ever beheld. All was fertility; and the reader need not be informed of the gaiety that this occupation difuses over the pastoral scene. Te principal farms, we were informed, consisted of about fve hundred acres. Te wages from seven to eight shillings per week. Tis inadequate reward of labour, together with the information we obtained upon the subject of spinning, convinced us that, notwithstanding the temporary cheerfulness difused ‘by the tann’d haycock on the mead,’ the condition of the

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inhabitants was, as in other places, on the decline. Formerly there used to be much employment of this description – the wheel might be heard whirling its cheerful round beneath every roof, or seen at every cottage-door. But Deptford Batch had felt of late years, like every other village, the consequences of that manufacturing prosperity, that progressive wealth and ingenuity which throws the whole family of the poor cottager, with all the weight of their necessities, on his individual exertions. If we would appreciate with justice the advantages of extensive commerce, we must not only turn our eyes upon the palaces of the merchant, but inspect also the cottages of the peasant. Te clack of a corn-mill welcomed us into Willy, which lies upon the fertile banks of the river of that name, over which it has a bridge that we crossed, but not without pausing awhile to mark the silent lapse of the stream, and admire the luxirancy that smiled around us. Te village is large, and, to outward appearance at least, comparatively comfortable. It is mostly built of stone, and the generality of the cottages have a bit of garden. A swarm of children ‘rushing out of school’ informed us that we were in a neighbourhood of some population; and the range of villages scattered along the valley, that opens in long perspective to the right, agreeably confrmed the impression. Te hour was favourable to the emotions these objects were calculated to inspire – it approximated towards evening – the light was sofened, and the shadows were lengthening: circumstances that cherish a pensive serenity, and pre-dispose the heart to the social sympathies of our nature. We contrasted with pleasure the living scene before us to the inhospitable wastes over which we have pursued our way. Most of the farms about this village are large, though there are also some smaller ones of one hundred, of seventy, and of sixty acres. Tere was but one cottager, we found, in the neighbourhood that kept a cow, and he happened to be the owner of a bit of land on which he kept it; the commonage, or, as the people in these parts call it, ‘the cow-land’ being all destroyed. Te greatest curiosity we met in this village was a human being who had the social spirit of communication in him: and this, in the country we were now travelling, was a curiosity indeed: for nothing could surpass the jealous caution with which our inquiries seemed to be answered or evaded by almost every being with whom we attempted to enter into conversation. Te rencounter with this sociable house painter (for such was his profession) was, therefore, so much the more acceptable, and particularly as he appeared to be a man of considerable shrewdness and intelligence. From him I learned that at Baverstock, in the parish of Burford,46 in the same country, there are about twenty cottages. About seventy or eighty years ago, when all the lands in that parish were divided into small or moderate farms, there was but one of these cottages that had not a bit of land attached to it; almost every cottager then kept a cow, and some of them two: at which time such was the fourishing state of the parish, that the inhabitants

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found it expedient to folick the old man who lived in the only cottage that had neither cow nor land, to accept occasional contributions, that they might avoid being rateable to the adjoining parish. But mark the diference – Te farms, and even the parsonage estate, are now all monopolized by one man; there is not a single cottager who has either a cow or a bit of land in the village, and the parish is oppressed with a heavy poor’s rate. Having collected what little information we could in the village of Willy, we pursued our way in a direction almost due south, up the hill before us. From hence we commanded a pleasing view of the valley and scattered villages before described. Te general face of the country now became at once more hilly and more fertile. Large focks of sheep animated the downs, and bleated along the plain below; and, afer we had proceeded some few miles, coppices became frequent, not only upon the sides, but even the tops, of the hills: but not a house was to be seen all the way, till we came in sight of Fonthill.47 Te noble appearance of this mansion, its grounds, and surrounding plantations, as viewed from the bleak and sterile downs, made a very forcible impression upon us. It was a palace and an Arcadia, rising by enchantment amidst the dreary waste, and we promised ourselves a spectacle of united taste and splendour. Two tracks, marked both by wheels and footsteps, across the greensward, branched of from the road, and seemed to point towards this celebrated residence of the most opulent of British subjects. But these we declined, from the supposition that the high road would conduct us to it by a more circuitous perhaps, but probably a more favourable, approach. But we soon found that we were mistaken in our calculations, and were deviating considerably from out way. Some work-people in a hay-feld, to whom we now turned aside, corrected our mistake, and a small foot-path led us to the village, the pleasant approach to which is through a short winding path of fne trees. Te cottages of this populous but scattered village are mostly of stone, the roofs being thatched, and exhibit an appearance of some comfort, in comparison with others that we had seen. Te inhabitants, however, appeared to be immersed in the most stupid ignorance, and scarcely competent either to the answering or the comprehending of the most simple question. All the information of any sort or description we were able to collect from them was, that in our route from Amesbury hither we had pursued altogether the wrong road. We had no sooner entered the park than we were struck with the vast extent, the majesty, the beauty, the taste of the surrounding grounds and plantations. Every thing is in a style of greatness, and corresponding elegance; and, fastidious as I confess myself to be upon the subject of ornamental pieces of water, &c. I could not refuse my admiration to that which spread its sinuous course before

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us. It was not a little smirked-up pond, surrounded with meretricious ornaments, and nick-named a lake; nor a pretty canal pounded up with dams and grotto work, with a clump of trees at one end, and a bridge at the other to conceal its terminations. It is the river Nadder48 itself that is conducted through these grounds; and though naturally but a petty stream, its bed, through the coarse grounds (as far at least as we traced them) is so spread and deepened, and its sinuous windings preserved in a stile of such irregular simplicity, that it assumed, in some degree, the character of a considerable river. In short, it has breadth and continuity, and art has worked upon so large a scale, that, notwithstanding the appearances of neatness, and consequent tameness, about the margin of the stream, one is almost disposed to consider it as the mere work of nature. Te great number of majestic swans that singly, and in groups, curve their long necks, and spread their rufed plumage before the breeze, enhance the beauty of this fne piece of water. When our attention was sufciently released from the contemplation of these objects, to consider whither we were going, we perceived that we were on the wrong side of the river to arrive at the house; and afer in vain endeavouring to obtain any intelligible direction or information from a blundering clown who happened to come up to us, we turned back to the village in quest of lodgings, meaning to suspend our further observations till the morning. At the King’s Arms, however (the frst house in this village we should have come to, if we had come by the right road), no bed was to be had; but we were informed that there was another inn (the Beckford Arms) at the other end of the grounds, in the way to Wardour Castle.49 We not entered the superb pleasure-grounds, through a magnifcent arch of stone that separates the two wings of the porter’s lodge, and were as much struck with the grandeur and elegance of the house as we had been with the water and the plantations. When we passed to the other extremity of the road, through the grounds of Fonthill, we soon found that the Beckford Arms was not an inn for foot-travellers. Te landlady, indeed, would have condescended to have dressed us some supper, and to have furnished us a bed; but there was a sort of contemptuous arrogance in her manner, that seemed so strongly to express the sense she had of the obligation she should confer; that, fnding that the man who shewed the walks and plantations (which were our principal object) was ill of the small-pox, and that the house (whose golden trees and splendid decorations excited only a secondary curiosity) could not be seen till eleven or twelve o’clock the ensuing day, we yielded to the impression of disgust our reception was calculated to inspire, and, declining the important favour, proceeded onwards as far as Tisbury. Here we arrived at about 9 o’clock; and, taking up our quarters at a more humble, but very comfortable, inn, were sumptuously regaled with ham,

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and eggs and sallad, and gooseberry pies, and good wholesome ale; – blessing ourselves that we had escaped the insolent extortion of the Beckford Arms. Tisbury is a very large parish, seven miles long, and three or four broad, and, if our landlord was accurate in his information, contains upwards of 2000 inhabitants, and was burthened with a poor’s rate of upwards of 2000l. a year. Te price of labour seven shillings per week. Tose labourers who had large families had, however, during the high price of grain, and till the commencement of the hay-harvest, and additional allowance from the parish. Te farms are mostly small. Tere are several at thirty, forty, ffy, and from thence to one hundred pounds a year; though there were some as high as 5 or 6 hundred pounds. Tere are several bits of land or cottage-farms let at twenty, ten, and even seven pounds per year. Information of this sort being part of the object of our ramble, we were somewhat lucky in the choice of our inn; for our host, who was tolerably frank and communicative, was tything-man of the whole district, and could therefore answer our questions with some degree of confdence. Te village itself is long and straggling. Te cottages are of stone, and the roofs are thatched. Wednesday the 5th of July. Our frst care in the morning was to visit the church, which is tolerably spacious, is regular in its form both within and without, almost entirely uniform in the character of the workmanship, &c. which is in the simplest and best style of the Norman-Gothic architecture. Te carvings and decorations within bear a strong resemblance to those that support the roof at Westminster Hall; and, perhaps, if I were writing only for antiquaries, it might not be unentertaining to transcribe all the notes that I made upon the spot relative to this pious edifce. In the church-yard is an immense hollow yew-tree, ten or twelve yards in circumference, from the roots of which, near the centre, eight young stems have sprung up, twisted themselves together in a curious form, and, at about the height of two yards, struck into the centre of the principal remaining branch of the parent tree, the hollow of which they almost entirely fll up. Te bone-house contains an incredible number of sculls and thigh-bones. Te face of the country from Tisbury to Bangor is very hilly, but fertile and well watered, and, aided by the general sprinkling of cottages both on the hills and in the vallies, presents a scene both rich and beautiful. (To be continued.)

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A PEDESTRIAN EXCURSION through ENGLAND and WALES, during the SUMMER of 1797. (Continued fom page 125. of Vol. II) BURGER.* At the entrance of this village, we observed some substantial houses and cottages of stone: the latter mostly thatched. Te extensive gardens of the public-house (the Arundel Arms), are ornamented in the Islington stile, with leaden statues; a species of foppery we did not expect in so remote a situation. Being informed that the grounds about Wardour Castle, were open to the untaxed observation of every one who chose to walk in them, we entered accordingly, and pursuing the principal walk to the lef, which is shady and winding, arrived frst at a beautiful, though somewhat mutilated, tri-cornered little altar of earthenware, and then at a sylvan temple in which is a cast of Diana. In pursuing this walk our attention was occasionally attracted by urns, and fragments of buildings that had been sufered to go to decay, and by seats of rude rockwork, that commanded fne openings to the rich champaign spread before us. Of this the summit of a hill to which the meandering paths at length conducted us, aforded a still more extensive view. But the principle object of our search was the ruins of the old castle; whose shattered towers, overgrown with ivy and elder, as they frst broke upon our sight, excited our veneration, but a nearer approach somewhat damped these enthusiastic sensations; nor could we behold without disgust the tasteless patch-work of modern ruins, old walls, and grotto-work, Grecian arches, trim parterres and smooth-shaven green. Here are also some remains of the Mansion that was built soon afer the destruction of the castle, and which, in its turn, was destroyed by the present lord, when he built the present residence. Te lower part of these remains are now converted into a stable; above is a room which we were shewn, and which contains several prints, from subjects taken from the civil war, in the time of Charles I. and also two paintings, one of Socrates instructing Alcibiades,50 the other of his Brother Philosopher, throwing away his Wooden Dish on seeing a Poor Man drink, still more philosophically, out of the palm of his hand. As it was now past fve o’clock we could not see the house: that is to say, the whole of it could not be shewn to us: to those apartments that were at liberty however we had access. Te chapel is, I believe, considered as the fnest place of Catholic devotion in England; and it is certainly very beautiful – it beauty be indeed an epithet reconcilable with that imposing awe, which the decorations here accumulated irresistibly produce. Te paintings, six in number, are mostly copies. Of these ‘Te Marriage in Cana;’51 Te Altar Piece, ‘Christ taken down from the Cross;’ and particularly ‘Te Assumption of the Virgin,’ appeared to us to be the best.

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Among the other paintings that particularly interested us, were two fne Seapieces in the drawing-room, ‘Moonlight contrasted with the efects of Fire,’ and ‘A Shipwreck,’ by Vernet,52 ‘An Old Man,’ by Titian,53 and ‘John the Baptist,’ by Raphael.54 But that which above all arrested our attention, was ‘Joseph of Arimathea55 and the Virgin, begging the Body of Christ.’ Te whole picture, according to my untutored taste at least, is masterly; and that passion and feeling which constitute the soul both of painting and poetry, are here most powerfully concentrated. Te countenance of Mary in particular is perfectly thrilling. I gazed till the whole scene was realized before me, and I felt the artist in every nerve. Te farms in this neighbourhood, if we were rightly informed, like those every where else, are getting into fewer hands. Tere are, however, still some small ones, at aobut 30l. or 40l. a year. Wages from 6s. to 7s. per week. Little or no spinning for the women and children: the latter of which, till they are able to follow the plough, can earn nothing, some of them may then at ploughing-time get 4d. per day. Lord Arundel,56 during the dear season, relieved their distresses by donations of bread; and parish assistance eked out the scanty hire of the labourer. Some few farmers raised the wages during the scarcity, but when the evil was somewhat abated, the wages were again reduced. Te cottagers keep no cows; and a drop of milk is hardly to be procured by any means. From Fonthill to Wardour Castle, our way had lain entirely through crosscountry road; nor was the case altered in our way to East-Knoyle, through which we were conducted, over commons, lanes and farmyards, by a peasant, of whom we enquired the way to Mere. From him we learnt that the farms in that neighbourhood were not in general very large. Few were above 3 or 400, more of them not above 100l. a year; and there were some perhaps (though very few) as low as 50l. or 40l. Te cottagers have mostly a bit of garden; some of them a pig; but none of them a cow; and the farmers understood œconomy better than to sell their [skim?] milk. Wages 7s. per week; in haytime 8 or 9s. in harvest from 10s. to 12 s. Hay-time and harvest usually occupy to gether from 8 to 10 weeks. Te village of East-Knoyle, like all the cottages sprinkled in our way, is built of stone, and mostly covered with thatch. Here we met with another instance of rustic civility. An old man, attentive to our enquiries, conducted us thro’ the churchyard, and pointing out a steep path which we were to attend, and a mill on the summit which we were to leave to the right, gave us one of those clear and distinct directions, so rarely to be expected from the peasantry of this country. From the summit, this pointed out to us, we commanded one of the most pleasing views I had ever seen. Hills and vallies, rich, fertile, and variegated, were seen fnely interspersed with woodlands and cottages, and here and there some prouder mansions; while other hills, dimly

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descried through the mists, bounded the prospect and mingled with the horizon. Beautiful slopes and [dells?] and climes, cloathed with fern and coppice, formed the rough foreground of the picture; and the sky, cloudy, but rather wild and sublime than monotonous, formed a sombre but not unsuitable accompaniment; while a shower of rain gave additional freshness to all the nearer objects, and deepened the emerald tint of the short close turf we tred. Anon the moving curtains of the sky were rent, and the beams of the sun, breaking through the interstices of dark clouds, brightly illuminated the distant western hills, whose mitigated splendours, seen through the misty veil of an intervening shower, gave a fnishing tho’ transient beauty to the whole. One of the distinguishing features of this scene, is the high ridgy hill near Stourhead, with Alfred’s tower on the summit. Evening was now approaching, and we had yet six or seven miles to walk. Yet it was with some reluctance that we quitted this commanding eminence for the downward path that led to Upton. Still, however, both the atmosphere and our own organs were in a favourable state for the enjoyment of the picturesque, and the beauty and fertility of the home-scene, in the lowlands, with their embowered and scattered cottages, seemed to rival the extensive diversity of the bird’s eye prospect. Nor was it long before we again ascended, and regained our former view, with some heightening additions: and now, once more, we descended through a deep slope, fertile and well coppiced, to a little hamlet, called Te Green; and thence, under luxuriant hedgerows and across felds, no less inviting, to Upham, Upton, or Upon (for so variously it is called). Tis is a pretty village of stone, retired and tranquil. But its beauty is all without: and perhaps the advantages of stone built cottages are more to the beholder than the occupant. In one of these, where we went to inquire our farther way, of a poor double-bent woman, who was seated at her wheel, we saw perhaps as much wretchedness as we could well have encountered in the mud-cottages of the fenns of Lincolnshire. Our way was still cross-road – wild, neglected, unspoiled, cross-road – unft indeed for chaises of all kinds, curricles, gigs, or tandems – But then it was variegated – it was wild – it was unfrequented – just such as suited the taste of two excentric pedestrians who abjured ‘towered cities,’ and were sick of ‘the busy haunts of men;’ and away we thridded down pleasant lanes, over stiles, and along faint foot-tracks, by the side of another part of that fne range of hills, whose more commanding views had this day so ofen delighted us. My companion fell into deep musing and pursued the path undeviating; but my spirits were alert. I bounded to the summit, and pursued my way along its short ridge, for more than a mile, to its termination. Te principal scene commanded from this ridge, was the same in which we had twice before luxuriated – but it appeared here with increased advantages of extent, variety and beauty; and as this part of the ridge over-peers the neigh-

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bouring hills, it has the additional advantage of commanding the whole circle of horizon. Alfred’s tower again obtrudes itself upon observation from this new point of vision. West Knoyle, to which I immediately descended, (to join my companion) from the extremity of this ridge, is an extensive though scattered village; but ofered no particular food for our observation. From hence the road winds, over a chain of hills, through narrow lanes, shady and delightful to the eye, with now and then a cottage or two, a farm-house, or a blacksmith’s shop, till coming to a place where the road divides point-blank to right and lef. Here we were at some loss which path to pursue; till luckily catching a glimpse of the church over a stile, we fxed our eyes upon this as our north-star, and directed our course accordingly, over felds and quags, till at last weary and hungry we arrived at Mere; where the circumstance of our being on foot, and perhaps the additions made to our appearance by the last part of our journey, procured us but a cold reception. At the frst inn we applied to the house was full; and at the second (the Angel) the good landlady eyed us with some evident signs of jealousy, before she yielded her reluctant assent to our inquiries. Some cold leg of lamb, however, some lambchops, and a sallad, soon satisfed the cravings of the inward man, and restored us and ultimately mine hostess of the Angel to good humour; and we were sumptuously lodged in an apartment, hung not indeed with modern chintz – nor with ancient tapistry – no; but with cloths, daubed with a profane hunting-match , and a sacred legend in imitation of that once famous cloth of Arras.57 But as Balaam’s ass only brayed and the hounds only yelped on canvas, we contrived to sleep very soundly till nine o’clock. Tursday, July 6. Mere is but a straggling sort of town, indiferently built. Te little cross, or market-house, is a mean edifce; and the greatest curiosity we remarked was publick-house sign, which exhibits a sorry black dog, with a coronet round his neck, and a chain; over which is written ‘Te Old George!’ A manufactory of ticks is carried on here, at which women earn upon an average from 4s. to 4s. 6d. per week – though there are some who get 7s. and even 7s. 6d. Men from 8s. to 9s 6d. It furnishes no employment for children. Labourers in husbandry receive 7s. per week. Te farms are mostly large, from 3 to 7 or 800l. Scarcely any from 50 to 100l. None of the cottagers (as might be expected) have any cows. Having taken our morning repast and our morning lounge, we quitted Mere; and having passed the house of Mrs. Grose (widow of the famous Antiquary), we turned of to the right, to Stour-head, the justly celebrated seat of Sir Richard Hoare.58 Having passed some time in admiring the paintings, (several of which – particularly ‘Te Wise-Men’s Oferings,’ and ‘Te Death of Dido,’ though a copy, deserve more particular notice) our attention was next directed to the gardens, the least interesting object in which (because so theatrically artifcial – for it only performs by command of the turn-cock) is the

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cascade. Barring this foppery, the grounds are in good taste; and the decorations (the Doric temple on the lake, the Chinese bridge, the fne hanging plantations, the arch leading to the grotto, the grotto itself, and the nymph sleeping there, the antique Gothic cross (formerly an ornament to the city of Bristol), the urn, embossed with Bachanalian revels, the temple of the sun, and the pantheon, all deserve their separate portions of attention. In this last in particular, are some very fne statues. Tey are as follows ‘Peace’ and a ‘Diana,’ two casts in metal; a ‘Flora,’ charming from the beautiful simplicity of its drapery; a ‘Hercules,’ truly Herculean; sublime in strength, without bombastic distortion of muscle – (some of our sublime painters of the new school would do well to study it.) a ‘Livia Augusta, as Ceres,’ equally captivating from the beauty of the features and fne representation of the simplicity of ancient drapery. Tese are in marble by Rysbach. ‘Meleager,’ and the ‘Egyptian Isis,’ are in plaster of Paris. Te terrace, an extensive rise, commanding a rich variety of prospect; and Alfred’s tower, a modern triangular building of brick, and of great height, were the next objects of our attention. From the top of this we commanded one of those extensive prospects, which fll the eye with present wonder, abut from the indistinctness of their objects leave but few traces on the remembrance. Afer these birds eye prospects we would gladly have reposed ourselves in some scene of humble sequestration; and Arthur’s vale, of which we had heard talk, as one of the beautiful objects of these extensive grounds, seemed by its name to promise what we wished; but in our search for this, we only lost ourselves in entangling and pathless mazes, and at last were obliged to give over the pursuit. We now crossed a common to Norton Ferris, whence, through a narrow defle, we passed to Maiden Bradley; where we refreshed ourselves with some tea and rashers of bacon; our repast being accompanied with a concert of vocal music, which though not performed in the same room where we frst efectually prevented us from hearing the sound of our own voices. Tis delectable performance was no other than a Cornish song, giving the French and all Revolutionists to the devil, and exalting ‘George the Great,’ with all due veneration, to the skies. Te performers were a company of colliers (not very angelic indeed in their appearance), but they joined in the apotheosis with such Stentorian force of lungs, that I think it may be safely afrmed that never conqueror or mighty potentate had his praise more loudly celebrated. Te sortie from Maiden Bradley, as we directed our course towards the Bath road, presented a pleasing picture, terminating in blue distant hills; but whose principal beauty was undoubtedly derived from brightness and serenity of the evening. Te road continued to be very interesting for the frst three miles, and through the twisted branches of some fne romantic trees aforded several beautiful views. Te beauty of the evening however was over before we arrived at

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Frome (the place of our destination) which we entered at about half past nine, and where we were hospitably entertained by the relations and friends of my fellow-traveller. (To be continued).

A PEDESTRIAN EXCURSION through ENGLAND and WALES, during the SUMMER of 1797. (Continued fom page 106.) FROOME, Somersetshire, Friday. To this place, and all its inhabitants, I was hitherto a perfect stranger. But I was not long permitted to remain so. My name soon transpired. It few from house to house; and I found myself suddenly and unexpectedly in the midst of friends. I was too agreeably importuned to resist the temptation of a temporary delay. Excursions in the neighbourhood were planned; a cheerful party was formed for the evening; and the most fattering attention was paid to my comfort and my welfare. In the morning, we rambled through the romantic dell, called Vales Bottom, into which the various branches of the river Froome empty themselves. Tence their collected waters fow onward beyond Freshford, between which and Bathford they are joined by another stream, and empty themselves into the Avon. In this dell, we visited a cloth mill, where we saw several women waiting for spare-wool, which they spin with the hand, at 2 ½ d. per lb. Upon inquiry, I learned that it was great work to spin two pounds in a day. Te children employed in the factory earn from 1s. 6d. to 2s. 6d. per week; for which, in the summer time, they work fourteen hours in the day. I need not add, their looks were pallid and miserable. Te women who pick knots of the work, earn from 4s. 6d. to 5s. per week, to which may be added the little perquisite of the wool picked of – perhaps, on an average, about 6d. per week more. From hence, we traced the dingle upwards to its abrupt termination or boundary, where, amidst a luxuriant bed of dafodils, the fairies of the fountains may be supposed to repose themselves. Here I was shewn a very curious and mysterious spring, which, I was in formed, fows outward to the river for one half of the year, and inward from the river during the other half: and, it is afrmed by the neighbouring people, always to change its course (without the least respect to the act of parliament that altered the style) on Old Midsummer’s Day. Vales Farm is also another of the remarkables in the neighbourhood of this dingle. Te house was formerly the manor house, and here are still the ruins of an antique parlour, and of a Roman Catholic chapel, now used as a woodhouse.

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Te farm consists only of little better than 100 acres; yet, I was informed, that it paid 60l. a year direct taxes. Having explored this dale to its upper extremity, we now returned to trace it downward, and amuse ourselves with its sinuous appendages, and expanding varieties; among which must not be forgotten its useful lime-kilns, nor its picturesque, half-ruined bridges – still less, the rude old excavation in the rock, to which we ascended, and at the mouth of which, sheltered by a fne screen of coppice wood, we set ourselves down to listen to the murmuring of the waters hastening over their broken bed, and mark the browzing fock, and here and there a cottage that diversifed the sequestered scene. Descending still lower by some ruined and deserted buildings, we came to a considerable fulling-mill, over whose dam (afer all not unfrequently the best of all artifcial cascades, because, in fact, the least artifcial), the wide sheet of water, now swoln by frequent rains, gushing with rude roar, and driving over its steep and craggy bed fnely overshadowed with trees of all growths, presented us with some very interesting scenery, which, if not picturesque, was something more – was poetical, if I may be allowed the expression. Pursuing now our road along the ridge of the dell to the village of Elm, we were presented with a new scene, of which the prominent objects were some iron-mills and cots, overhung by rocky and woody precipices on the one side, and the village itself situated on the opposite bank, under which the river rushed and foamed along; and the correspondent accompaniments of which were new ramifcations of the dingle in the rear, one of which was cloathed and choaked up, as it were, with luxuriant trees and underwood, forming a sort of pent-up sea or torrent of waving foliage, through which the real steam that gushed was rather marked by its murmurings than its obvious course, till it rushed out to mingle itself with the main river. Issuing from this romantic dingle, we crossed some felds to the neighbourhood of a leather-manufactory, and another fulling-mill, to amuse ourselves with the reverberations of a double echo. We now returned to Froome, and devoted the remainder of the day to friendship and conviviality. Saturday 8. Froome. Te early part of this day was devoted to the factories, and to the diferent processes of card-making, carding, and spinning of wool, and other objects that seemed worthy of observation; among which must not be forgotten, the famous cask (at the sign of the Bell, if I recollect rightly) which is about as high as a two-pair of stairs window, and holds I know not how many hundred hogsheads of ale. I need not add to this fact the remark, that Froome is a large and fourishing town. It is built upon very abrupt hills. Te houses are of substantial stone, and the streets are paved, or rather pitched. Manufacturers earn from 10s. to 12s. per week – some more. Husbandmen not more than from

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8s. to 9s. Te church is spacious and neat; but the majority of the inhabitants are Dissenters. Tere are four meeting houses; one Methodist, one Presbyterian, one of General, and one (the largest of all) of Particular Baptists: the Unitarians are few; and of known proselytes to ‘the Age of Reason’59 there are none. Afer dinner, we walked to Longlete, in Wiltshire; a heavy, dull, and tasteless incumbrance, every thing belonging to which is in hideous taste, the Park excepted; and even that is but so-so. Te canal is nothing better than a nasty stagnant pool; and the Aviary no longer contains any thing worthy of notice. But I forget that a great personage is reported to have thought, that this place was altogether a very fne thing. We returned to Froome, to spend the evening with a friend, from whose garden we had a view of the famous white horse cut out on the side of a hill. Sunday 9. Beckington, through which we next passed, is a considerable manufacturing village, well built with stone. In it is a large boarding-school, the master of which was building himself a handsome new house. Rode is another large, but less handsome, village; exhibiting many very mean cottages, and the appearance of much dirt and wretchedness. In the manufactures here, many men, women, and children are employed. Farley, the next place we arrived at, is a little scattered village, but well-built with stone. At the entrance are some good old houses, particularly one, in the spacious garden of which a respectable clerical-looking man was diligently employed in collecting rose-leaves, probably for the medicinal purposes of his good lady, the Madam Bountiful of the village. Te church is a plain, neat, little building. Farley had once a castle, the memory of which is still fragment of the ruin, with the addition of much new work, is made into a farm-house. Te other remains are parts of a very extensive wall, with fragments of three or four towers, of one of which the shell is tolerably entire, and fnely vested with Time’s venerable livery, the ivy; and a chapel, with a painted dormitory to the lef, miserably out of repair. In this are some fne monuments of the Hungerford family: one very ancient; another bearing date 1643: the efgies are cut in white marble, in a good stile of sculpture. Tere are also some curious reliques; the armour of the Hungerford family, and Oliver Cromwell’s saddle. In the vault are several old cofns, and some curious mummies, the leaden cases of which are molded to the forms and features of the respective faces. Hence, by a foot-track, through a country at once wild and fertile, we proceeded to Ivern (or Ilford), which presented a scene of beauty and fertility; the river Froome, here a wide and rapid stream, and fnely embowered, fowing through an antique stone bridge, between two hills, up one of which, by the roadside, the village is scattered. At the front of this picture, just beyond the bridge, between two hills, up one of which, by the road-side, the village is scattered.

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At the front of this picture, just beyond the bridge, are placed two handsome houses, the residences of Mr. Graysford and Mr. West. From hence (entering the county of Wilts) with little deviation from the course of the Froome, a diversifed and somewhat romantic track conducted us to Freshford; the hills that rise from the borders of the stream being on one side fnely wooded, and on the other sprinkled with hamlets and cottages, while the downs, with a range of ruins at the base, terminate the perspective. Freshford. We approached this winding village through a hay-feld, whose abundant crop did not appear much injured by the wetness of the season. At the entrance is an apparently good and spacious inn, built with stone, but which the taste either of the proprietor or the occupant has caused to be painted, to give it the resemblance of faring red brick. Te situation of this village is hilly and the buildings are straggling; but the appearance is altogether pleasingly romantic, and it commands prospects of a fne country. We passed the works of a canal then cutting from Newbury to Bath, to communicate with the Coal-canal, whence the sinuosities of the Froome conducted us to Stoke, a romantic and beautiful little village, scattered from the hill-top all the way down to the water-edge. We now take our fnal leave of Wiltshire, and, following no further the course of the river Froome, mount, by a steep ascent, to Claverton Down, not without some indication in the appearance of the mansions we passed, of the elegance of that fne city we were about to approach; and of which, with all the luxuriant scenery around, we had presently a noble view from Prior Park. (To be continued.)

For the Monthly Magazine. BATH has been too ofen described to need any particular notice here: and, if it had not been so, it is a subject much too copious to be introduced in these brief and hasty sketches. Even a general criticism on the style and arrangement of the objects that rise in succession upon the observant eye in a walk through this city of palaces, would fll more columns than, in a periodical work, can be aforded to the topographical survey of a county. Sufce it to say, we were delighted – we were fascinated – we exclaimed in a rapture – Tis only is worth of being called a city! – all that we have seen before were but congregations of pig sties! We had intended to have passed through Bath post-speed, as through a place of vulgar note (for what were its splendours to us!) and to have hastened to the main point of our destination, and we had made our arrangements accordingly. But what signifed arrangements? We had eyes, and they were masters of us. Our habiliments,

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however, were somewhat out of harmony with the scenery around us: they bore the evident marks of pedestrian toil; while every thing we beheld was stamped with the character of equipage and elegance. We determined therefore to repair to Bristol, whither our portmanteau had been sent from London to wait for our arrival, and then return to see the city of Bath, when we ourselves might be not quite unft to be seen. Accordingly on Monday 10, we took a morning-walk to Bristol by the upper-road; whence, between the second and third mile-stones, we enjoyed a pleasant expansive view of the course of the Avon, the surrounding country, and the city to which we were directing our march. Bristol. At this place (where we arrived about 2 o’clock) we had each of us some friends, with some of whom, afer dinner, we took a ramble to the fne rocks of St. Vincent’s, with the alternate beauty and rough sublimity of which, diversifed as they are in many places by the luxuriant cloathing of weeds and coppice, we were very considerably interested. Hence, also, we commanded some very fne views of the surrounding country; and pursued with our eye the winding course of the river that fows at the bottom of this precipitous chasm, till it empties itself into that fne estuary, the Bristol channel. One thing, however, seemed necessary for the perfection of this scene: it was clearness and transparency of water. ‘Tough deep, yet clear: though gentle, yet not dull;’ can never be applied, even by hyperbole itself, to the Bath Avon. On the contrary, all the way that we had traced it, its waters, in appearance, were mere liquifed mud. To the margin of these waters, however, we scrambled down, that we might enjoy the upward as well as the downward gaze. Here again we experienced sensations of delight, the objects that excited which (as they also are familiar to the tourist) I must not pause to describe. For the same reason I pass over with a hasty dash of my pen, the Wells, the Mall, the shops, and the fne buildings – ‘tier o’er tier, highpiled from earth to heaven!’ that rose upon our view. Upon these, however, we could not but observe the very evident marks of the arresting hand of war – whose trumpets and whose cannon, though not heard in our island, were yet felt through our else growing neighbourhoods; and which here (as at Clifon, as Bristol, as Bath) with a sort of silent earthquake had shaken many an unfnished street and edifce into premature ruin, and rendered the taste of the architect, and the labour of the builder, of no avail. On our return from this excursion, we found ourselves trapped into a very large party; with whom we kept it up, as it is called, till half past twelve o’clock – sad hours for pedestrian hunters of the picturesque and sentimental! Tuesday 11. Be it known, however, to the credit of our temperance, that, afer a sound and refreshing sleep, we rose at half past seven without any head-ach, and, separating to our distinct breakfast-parties, united again at between ten and eleven, in a ramble of observation, with some of our new acquaintance, about the town.

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Our attention of course was commanded, in no secondary degree, by the church of St. Mary Radclif. Tis is indeed the fnest object in the city of Bristol. Te architecture is in the fne forid Normo-Gothic style, lofy and light, yet majestic and solid. Te aisles are beautiful – the proportions are good. It is indeed one of those buildings, the sight of which compels me to lament, that this style of architecture should ever be laid aside; till, recollecting what tame and incongruous specimens have, in these our days, been produced even by the most celebrated doers in this way, I became reconciled to the change, and content that our modern church-builders should shew their bad taste and bungling execution on the models (how poorly imitated) of Greece and Rome, and exclaim, in the enthusiasm of my devotion – Spare! spare the sacrilegious mockery! Let the ghost of departed Gothic architecture sleep undisturbed – uninsulted by such imitations – unprophaned by such comparisons! Tere are not the only refections suggested by our survey of this noble, but time-shattered edifce. We remembered Chatterton60 – his Rowley, and his fatal cup – his premature genius, and his premature fate! We recollected also some later instances – less tragical indeed – but not less eloquent to presageful conclusion. We recollected, that whenever genius has fought for patronage in the second city of this great commercial nation, it has sought in vain. And perhaps to the observant moralist and calculator on existing appearances it ‘may be evident, that it is something more than fancy that traces, in the traits of character connected with this neglect of genius, the fore-doomed decay of the trade and opulence of Bristol; while Liverpool, from characteristics the very reverse, is rising, with incalculable rapidity, to a precedence that appears inevitable. Te Tower of St. Stephen’s – the fragment of the Cathedral – the New-bridge – the Quay (on which, at that time, were scarcely any vessels, except a few West Indiamen and Americans recently arrived), the another visit to St. Vincent’s Rocks, and the extensive scenery of Durdham-Down, occupied our time till dinner, when a pleasant family-party, and an interesting conversation on subjects of literature and science, at Dr. —’s, prepared my mind to enjoy with full zest the beauties of an evening-prospect of Bristol from Brandon-hill. Te evening was devoted to a chearful supper at the Rummer; and it commenced with auspices highly fattering. Te spirits fowed without the necessity of stimulating excess – Hilarity hovered over the hotel, and that sort of freethinking and free-speaking, in which the most opposite opinions chime together without discord, gave wings to the happy hour. But suddenly all was blasted. Te fre-bell jarred its horrible peals in our ears; and all was panic and apprehension. All few to the scene of disaster. Fortunately, the hour was too early for life to be endangered; and the fames, though very furious at frst, were extinguished before their ravages had spread to any thing like the extent that was expected. Te company returned to the place of meeting. Tey endeavoured to resume

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their vivacity, but in vain. Te genii who preside over the social banquet, had fed: they refused our libations – our invocation was rejected – our eforts at mirth only increased the general tedium. We kept it up till one o’clock, in the hope that we should be merry; and retired, at last, to our beds, dissatisfed that we had not been so. Wednesday 12. Having enjoyed a social (almost a public) breakfast, to which some fne passages from ‘Lucan’s Pharsalia’61 and ‘Southey’s Joan of Arc’62 furnished a sort of poetical grace, we proceeded to complete our perambulation about the town. Of the objects that now attracted our attention, I select only that expensive pile of grotesque absurdity – the new church of St. Paul, in Portland-square. Te Gothic Front that presented itself as we approached, inspired me with a sort of hope, that we were going, for once at least, to contemplate a decent modern imitation of that fne, but obsolete, style of sacerdotal building. But, what was our surprise ! when, instead of the long-drawn aisles – the highpeaked roof, and the comparatively narrow body, that harmonises so fnely in the architecture of our ancestors, and give space for that sublime perspective that at once fascinates the eye, and awes the mind to devotion, we perceived our Gothic-spire to be fanked with a short, squab, square, fat-roofed, box, of a body that gave us more the idea (only that it lacked dimensions) of a modern music-room, than an ancient church. With these proportions correspond the back-front, which is in the Grecian style: but the windows again are Gothic. Te inside is equally pie-balled with the out; the pillars, the arched roof, the decorations of the galleries, &c. being all in fne Attic-style; while the part assigned to the communion service is Gothic, with a Gothic arch behind the altar, blended with an Attic-termination, apparently copied from that of St. Stephen’s, Walbrook, in the metropolis. Appearances so incongruous must necessarily have originated in some latent cause out of the customary routine: for certain it is, that the parts and proportions (disproportions, I should say) of the church of St. Paul, Portland-square, Bristol, did not come together by accident; and equally certain it is, that no architect, capable of projecting those parts respectively, could have been mad enough, or stupid enough, to have devised so heterogeneous a combination. Te mystery, however, was soon explained. Two rival architects had been employed by two rival churchwardens, and each had produced his plan in the parochial conclave. Each of the patrons was infexible in the support of his particular protégé; and each of the patrons had his party infexible in the support of his superior science: and the vestry, thus equally divided, was in danger of open rupture and civil-war; to avoid the horrors of which, it was agreed that a compromise should take place between the Athenian and the Goths, and plenipotentiaries were appointed by both parties to arrange the mutual concessions that should be made. From this negociation, originated, perhaps, the most complete solecism in architecture,

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that is any where to be found, even in this land of whims and oddities. To crown the anecdote, economy next stepped in, and, without any attention to breadth or proportion, cut of a part of the intended length of the building, which is now found not to be nearly large enough for the audience it was intended to contain. Afer dining with a family-party, we returned to Bath, in the afernoon, by a return-post-chaise; but not till I had yielded my promise, to the entreaties of some friends, to repeat my visit before I quitted that side of the country. Having spent two more days in contemplating the beautiful buildings, and still more beautiful females, of the city of Bath, and in social reciprocations with a small circle of friends; on Saturday 15, my companion took his farewel of me, directing his course homeward in the Southampton stage; and shortly afer I took my farewell of Bath, thenceforward to pursue my way with solitary step – far from each endearing intercourse – seeking from without for the happiness that was not within, and exclaiming, every time that the smoke of the lone cottage from some sequestered dingle chanced to rise upon my view – ‘When – when shall I be the peaceful lord of such a mansion, and repose me again in obscurity!’

‘PREFATORY MEMOIR’

‘Prefatory Memoir’, in Poems Chiefy Written in Retirement (Hereford: W. H. Parker, 1801).

Tis ‘Prefatory Memoir’ acts as a prologue to Telwall’s 1801 Poems Chiefy Written in Retirement. In the Memoir he shares, in a highly sentimental and intimate language, his experiences from youth to the end of his time as a farmer at Llys Wen in Wales. Tis Memoir signals the end of one phase of his life: it should be seen as part of the process of metamorphosis and transformation he refers to in his correspondence.1 He informs readers that ‘the politician should be forgotten’ and that they only consider his ‘poetical and moral reputation’. His claims to have traded politics for domestic bliss – whether fully sincere or not – must be intended to appear at least partially confessional and repentant. Te private Telwall appears in this text as a distinctly moral individual, as a devoted husband and father and as a domestic and feeling man. He feshes out his familiar and private self with deeply personal accounts of the death of his mother in 1794, of the daily events of married life with Stella and of the death of their beloved six-year-old daughter Maria in 1799. Of course this self-construction of the chastened and apolitical Telwall must be interpreted as partly tactical. Even when, out of consideration for himself, ‘his unofending family’ and for the general state ‘of the public mind’, he resolves to give up politics, he mentions in the same breath that he still remains ‘unchanged in his opinions’. As further selections in this and the next volume show, Telwall’s claim to have withdrawn from active politics and his various eforts to refashion himself into a farmer, a poet, a lecturer in elocution, a speech therapist and a literary editor did not always ofer the protection against intolerance that he may have anticipated. Ofentimes, his opponents would not let him forget his political past. Tere is also plenty of evidence, however, that reveals his own reluctance, or inability, to leave politics behind. Notes 1.

Telwall to Joseph Strutt, from Leeds, 20 December 1801: Birmingham City Ref. Lib. (Archives), Galton MSS. 507/1; see headnote to Elocution and Oratory in this volume; – 57 –

DOI: 10.4324/9780429349737-3

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Selected Political Writings of John Telwall, Volume 3 see also E. P. Tompson, ‘Hunting the Jacobin Fox’, Past and Present, 142 (1994), pp. 94–104, p. 122; see P. Corfeld and C. Evans, ‘John Telwall in Wales: New Documentary Evidence’, Historical Research 59 (140) pp. 231- 239, p. 239.

Prefatory Memoir THE following article is partly copied from the third volume of Phillips’s ‘Public Characters.’ Te facts in the slight sketch there presented being in general faithfully, and altogether candidly related, little more appeared requisite on the present occasion, than some few corrections and enlargements, and some additional circumstances that escaped the researches of the editor of that popular work. In this republication, the third person is still preserved, altho, under the present circumstances of adoption, the narrative will, of course, in every essential point of view, ‘be considered as attributable to the character to whom it refers. But, as he is not conscious that it contains any thing which an impartial biographer would suppress, and, as he is confdent, that the severest scrutiny can detect no omission for which any motive of interest or subterfuge can be assigned, it is matter of slight importance, he conceives, who is the narrator, or in what afnity he stands to the object of his narration. One preliminary observation is, however, necessary. It is Te Man, and not Te Politician, that is here delineated. Te disciple of the Muses; not Te Lecturer, and Leader of Popular Societies now no more. On these topics nothing will here be found beyond what has appeared necessary to connect the series of events. It is not even attempted to vindicate the public conduct of the individual from the misrepresentations of ‘party animosity for political discussion would ill accord with the character and contents of the ensuing volume: and the time is not yet come when the exertions which have been the object of these misrepresentations can be faithfully emblasoned, without suspicion of sinister motive, or danger of infammation. To Time therefore he relinquishes the refutation of the calumnies that, in this respect, have been propagated against him; beheving that the prejudices they excited are already subsiding: and, satisfying himself with living down those slanders, he looks forward, with confdence, to the season when (whatever may be thought of his political theories, or the means adopted for their promulgation) the candid and thinking part of mankind, who judge of the probable by what is proved, will, at least, acknowledge, that it was impossible he should ever have been actuated by the motives, or have aimed at the objects that have sometimes been attributed to him. Not indeed that He pledges himself always to leave the record of these – 59 –

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facts in the present imperfect state. During seven years of his life it has been his fortune sometimes to stand connected, and sometimes to contend, with men relative to whose real conduct and characters posterity cannot fail to be interested; and if other more imperious duties do not prevent, he will feel himself bound to leave behind him (perhaps as a sole legacy to his ofspring) an unsophisticated detail of those transactions ‘All which he saw, and part of which he was.’’

In the mean time (for peace sake – and for the sake of his unofending family) he is desirous that the politician should be forgotten and that, till the prejudices of party shall subside into the candour of unimpassioned appreciation, he should henceforth be known and noticed (as here he is introduced) only as a candidate for poetical and moral reputation. JOHN THELWALL is descended front a Saxon family of that name, many centuries ago settled in the north of Wales. A branch of that family aferwards removed to Crosby in Lancashire, where they enjoyed some landed property. Walter Telwall (the Grandfather of the present John) was a Roman Catholic by persuasion, and a surgeon by profession. He was employed in that capacity in the royal navy (probably in the Spanish war of 1718) and the ship on board of which he served was captured by the enemy. Tis was the commencement of a series of adventures, which involved eventually the loss of his real estate: for the surgeon on board the capturing vessel being killed in the engagement, together with his assistant mate, Walter accepted the vacant ofce, and was guilty (if guilt it were) of curing the wounds of his enemies as well as of his friends. Whether this conduct would, in equity or justice, have involved him in the penalties of high treason, it is not necessary to enquire: certain it is that, thenceforward, he never ventured to lay claim to the inheritance of his fathers. But as the blood was never attainted during his life-time, and as circumstances aferwards arose that ofered a clue to the consequent unlegalised assumption, the property might in all probability have been redeemed, during the minority of his son, but for the selfsh apathy of certain relations, in ‘whom the power and the opportunity of exertion alone existed. Walter did not return to England till afer the restoration of peace. He then settled in his professional capacity at Northampton; married a lady of the name of Hinchlif and about the year 1733 died intestate. He lef behind him an only son, of the name of Joseph, then only two years old, and a young widow who, by a second marriage, and some subsequent acts of imprudence, sufered the personal property (which appears to have been considerable) to be alienated in as irregular a way as the real had formerly been.

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Joseph was fostered by his maternal grand-mother; who then (blind from the decay of years) resided in the neighbourhood of Leeds, in Yorkshire; where he received a classical education. He was aferwards a silk-mercer in London: and in his neighbourhood and sphere of connection, was well known, and well respected, as a man diligent in his profession, punctual in his dealings, and domestic in his habits. In disposition he was frank and cheerful; and tho warm in his temper, mild and gentle in his manners: he passed thro the varied scenes of life without contention – a friend where he could be one; the enemy of no human being. He was several years in partnership with his uncles, the Hinchlifs of Henrietta Street, mercers to His Majesty’s Wardrobe. Tence he aferwards removed to King-Street, Covent Garden; where he died in his 42d year; while the person who is the subject of these memoirs was but about ten years of age. Some time before his death a circumstance occurred which seemed to promise, at least to his family, a restoration of part of the property of which his infancy had been so illicitly deprived. Baron Page (the second husband of his inconsiderate mother) who had procured the irregular transfer of the personal estate, afer a lapse of seven or eight and thirty years, in some start of compunction or caprice, called upon him two or three times, and acknowledged the subsisting relationship. He took some notice of the three then surviving children of his injured son-in-law; enquired very particularly their respective names and ages, and minuted them down in his pocket book. But his visits terminated as abruptly as they began, even without any communication of his place of residence; and neither the property nor the mysterious visitor were heard of any more. Of the three children above mentioned, John is the youngest; and now the only surviving son. He was born on the 27th of July, l764, in Chandois-street, in the parish of St. Paul Covent-Garden; and was baptised and educated in the religion of the Church of England, which both his parents professed: his relation, the present Tomas Hinchclif, gold refner to the Bank, being one of his sponsors at Te Font. His father had a house at Lambeth, where the family mostly resided till within a year or two of the death of that parent. At an academy in that neighbourhood he received the frst rudiments of his education, under the heavy hand of the Rev. Mr. Pierce. He was aferwards some years under the care of the late Mr. Dick, of Hart-street, Covent-Garden; of whose ferocious and brutal severity he was never able to speak but with vehement indignation; and of whom almost all that he learnt was to glory in returning from the severest castigations without a tear. At length, he was removed to another day school in St. Martin’s-lane, where, at frst, he made considerable progress; particularly in a branch of education into which he had put himself forward without consulting his friends. But for some time afer the death of his father, his mind seems to have passed under a cloud; which was attended with a correspondent debility of constitution: and the symptoms

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were considerably aggravated by the usual remedy of pedagogues. Tis was not the only season of his boyhood during which his tardiness and apparent ineptitude occasioned him to be considered as of a slow and even feeble mind. From his preceptor, in St. Martin’s Lane, he was ultimately removed to a boarding-school at Highgate: where, if he got nothing else, he at least recovered his health and his adventurous vivacity. Te latter of these gave him a sort of sway and lead in the school, which, as it was not a little fattering to his vanity, so it ultimately called forth the energies of his mind, in spite of the sottish ignorance of an Hibernian pedagogue, whose only qualifcation as a schoolmaster (his good nature excepted) was that of being totally unft for any other calling. Whatever progress, therefore, he made at this seminary is principally to be attributed to his having been lef, with little restraint, and no terror upon his mind, to follow the bent and bias of his own inclinations. From this censure, however, must be excepted a period of about three months; during which time a young clergyman of the name of Harvey was usher there; his intellectual obligations to whom have lef an indelible impression on his mind an impression ever to be cherished while Memory shall he able to appreciate the past, or Friendship to discriminate its objects. Tis instructor proceeded not upon the usual plans of tuition. He made himself the conversational companion, not the austere dictator, of the youths committed to his care; and, remarkably lax in every thing that looked like scholastic discipline, directed his attention rather to multiplying the ideas, than cramping the limbs or overawing the faculties of his pupils. In reading he suffered them to form themselves into classes; and to choose whatever books they could agree upon and the attention he paid to the management of the voice and lungs (which in the instance of Telwall, were particularly feeble and defective) were not less benefcial to health, than to oratorical, and, ultimately, to intellectual improvement. In short, all that the author of the ensuing volume ever derived from school instruction he owes to Harvey. His other tutors did but impede, by injudicious management, the progress of his mind. Tis young man lef the school sometime before Telwall was taken from it. But he had sowed in the mind of his pupil the seeds of literary ambition. Afer the departure of Harvey, indeed, the shoots appeared to wither but they revived again, in defance of unfavourable circumstances, and the incapacity of those by whom the cultivation should have been assisted. Before he was taken from school (which was some months before he had completed his fourteenth year) he began to enter with so much ardour on the business of business of self-tuition, that nothing but a continuance of the leisure for improvement, and a few properly selected books, seemed necessary to enable him to make considerable progress.

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Tese opportunities were, however, refused. He was called home to diferent scenes and diferent pursuits, and he did not quit the studies he was beginning so much to relish without some remonstrance, and many tears. With respect to the pursuits of life, his frst and very early attachment was to Te Arts; and his father, who formed great expectations of him, from the activity of his mind, had fed his ambition with the hope of making him an historical painter. But his father was now no more; and he was lef in the power of those who were not capable of the same enlarged and liberal views. Sorely against his own inclination, and in violent opposition to every indication of his mind, he was placed behind the shop counter, where he continued till he was turned of sixteen. During this time he occupied his leisure, and, in fact, much of that time which ought to have been devoted to business, in the perusal of such books as the neighbouring circulating library could furnish. In novels, indeed, (which generally constitute the bulk of such collections) he was so far from taking delight, that he had a sort of prejudiced contempt for them; and those of Fielding were almost the only ones to which he could bring himself to give a patient perusal. Plays, poetry, and history, were his favourites and moral philosophy, metaphysics, and even divinity, were not entirely neglected. Tat he might lose no opportunity of perusing these various compositions it was his constant practice to read as he went along the streets, upon whatever business he might be employed a practice which, originating in a sort of necessity, settled into habit, and was not entirely laid aside till his political exertions brought him into notoriety, and produced several remonstrances from his friends on its singularity and apparent afectation. But a distaste for business was not the only cause of his discontent. He had the misfortune to live in a state of perpetual discord with an unhappy brother: whose vehement and tyrannical temper was aggravated by a disease (the epilepsy) notorious for its ravages on the intellectual system, and by the progress of which his faculties, at an afer period, became entirely deranged. Te ardent and independent spirit, who is the object of these memoirs, found the yoke of this tyranny, and the stripes and violence with which it was enforced, utterly insupportable. Circumstances also arose out of some other parts of the conduct of the elder brother, which made the oppressor no less desirous of a separation than the oppressed himself. John, accordingly, turned his attention again to his favourite art; and a painter of some eminence was applied to: but the mistaken economy of his mother made the premium and expences an insurmountable bar. He then made a fruitless efort to get upon the stage: but his written application to the late Mr. Colman was answered only by a moral expostulation against the design, and a declaration that he had no room in his company for any new adventurer.

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It is probable, indeed, that Telwall would not have been so easily repulsed, if he had not been suspicious that his want of fgure might be a bar to his success in the more eligible walks of the profession: for, altho the notions he had imbibed of the kind of morals that generally prevail in professed Spouting Clubs, prevented him front forming any connection with those ranting seminaries, his rage for theatricals was excessive. He was perpetually painting scenes, fabricating theatrical decorations, and rehearsing plays and interludes, at the houses of his young companions – and at his own. In one instance he had infuence enough with his mother to obtain permission for converting the shop (as he had frequently done the school-room) into a stage; where he and his companions, to a considerable audience, performed the Tragedy of Barbarossa, with his own abridgments and alterations. But tho disappointed alike in his views upon the arts and upon the stage, his situation at home was not to be endured; and rather than live in that terrible state of domestic discord which tore his over-irritable nerves, and embittered every moment of his life, he yielded to the proposal of being apprenticed to an eminent master taylor at the west end of the town. Tis was one of those projects of narrow and miscalculating policy by which the dictates of Nature are so frequently violated, and the prospects and happiness of youth are so inhumanly blighted: the specious prospects of pecuniary advantage being substituted in place of those more enlarged and generous views that result from a due consideration of the biases of taste and character; and, by which, eventually, even those interested views would ofen be less efectually thwarted. Te calculation, in the present instance, was that, from the intimate connection between the two trades, the brothers would be enabled to play into each other’s hands, as it is called, and promote each other’s interests! It ended as such projects usually do. Young Telwall had now changed his residence, and his nominal profession; but his pursuits were still the same. Te shopboard, like the shop counter, was a seat, not of business but of study. Plays (particularly tragedies) were perpetually in his hands and in his mouth. From thence he soared to epic poetry; devoured with insatiable avidity Pope’s translation of Homer, and committed several hundred verses to memory; meditating the herculean labour of getting the whole Iliad by heart. His opportunities of study were, however, so inadequate to his wishes, that he even carried a wax taper in his pocket, that he might read as he went along the streets by night. It is not, however, to he supposed that his change of situation was productive of no temporary change of character. While the treaty was in agitation for initiating him in his favourite Art, his hopes, his expectations, his views had been considerably expanded. New scenes had opened upon his imagination: a more liberal establishment, pursuits and studies congenial to his long fostered

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wishes, and the prospect of mingling in circles of society, more correspondent to his taste and turn of mind than those to which he had hitherto been confned, altogether had formed an association somewhat intoxicating; and had peculiarly disqualifed him for the present reverse. So that, at frst, his mind appears to have been stunned by its fall from the height of recent expectations to the depth of such abasement. As his animal spirits revived from the shock, curiosity, for a while, and the youthful love of novelty, stimulated him to mingle, occasionally, in the mirth, and in the amusements of the class of men, with whom he was of necessity surrounded: – and he found the study not entirely uninteresting. To much more gross in their exterior, and less polished in their language and manners, he was far from fnding these men more essentially ignorant than the class with which he had hitherto been familiar. For Condition, so decisive as to the deportment of individuals, does not, by the same scale, dispense intelligence. On the contrary, it will, perhaps, be found, upon accurate investigation, that the manufacturing and working classes, in large towns and populous neighbourhoods, (those, at least, whose vocations are of a gregarious and somewhat sedentary nature) are much better informed than the thriving shopkeepers of our trading towns and cities. Te former have their common hive, as it were, to which each brings his stock, however small, of intellectual attainment, where it grows by copartnership, and is enjoyed in common; while the other secluded for so many hours of the day, from all conversation, but what relates to the mere object of his barter, toils, insulated, 1ike the Solitary Bee, storing up his profts in his particular cell: or if he indulges association when the application of the day is over, it is only to relax the overwearied fbre, or renew exhausted stimulus with the pipe, the bottle, or the bowl. It would perhaps excite a smile were the instances of unexpected erudition, which the shopboard occasionally exhibitted to be specifed in this place. Sufce it to say that the experience of Telwall was not singular in this respect. – Te late Mr. Dennis, a well-known collector of books in the metropolis, has been frequently heard to declare, that he has even sold a Greek Testament to a bricklayer’s labourer, with a hod upon his back; but that there was no class of people so rarely seen in his repository as opulent shopkeepers. One thing, however, was lamentably observable: – it was, that the rare and accidental advantages of superior education and attainment, secured to such of these men as happened to possess them, few of the supposed concomitant privileges, of exterior deportment, or of phraseology; and that tho they might display the shrewdness and fuency of remark that result from reading and information, the language of the most erudite was nearly as vulgar and ungrammatical as that of the most uninformed. – So imperious is habitual example. So comparative a nullity is individual attainment, without the quickening infuence of intelligent, and polished society.

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Neither was it found that those who were thus accidentally gifed, (tho not the least able in their calling) were most to be commended for sobriety or application. But the reasons were obvious. Men conscious of superior endowments, submit with impatience to any task which they perceive to be common only to those, who, in such respects, are infnitely below them. Tey submit only when the stings of necessity impel them. On the other hand, they are courted and fattered, by such around them as are capable of discerning their superiority; and are perpetually drawn aside into pleasure and intemperance, by those who are willing to treat them with liquor, for the sake of their company and conversation. In short, it is the insulation of his knowledge, not the knowledge itself, that corrupts the informed mechanic. Generalize the information, and the case is reversed. If universally concurring testimony may be believed, the fshermen of Iceland (where every man is an historian) and the peasantry of Scotland (where national schools difuse a portion of intelligence thro every hamlet) are neither more indolent nor more profigate than those of certain parts of Wales, where scarcely one in ten can either write or read. Add to which, that wherever, in such situations, superior endowments happen to blend, with application and discretion, they soon become transplanted and confounded with those of the classes above: the subordinate stations lose the example and argument of their conduct, and the rule remains to be drawn from those who, perhaps, are only to be considered as exceptions for intellect is of a buoyant quality; and, however depressed, will, generally, fnd its level in society; except where moral indiscretions, or peculiar proscription conspire to hold it down. But the study of the rude page of Human Nature from which these refections are drawn, could furnish only brief occupation to the researches of an active mind, Curiosity was soon succeeded by disgust; and from the characters that surrounded him, and the scenes (both of business and of pleasure) in which they were engaged, Telwall turned indignantly away. Fancy and the Muse invited to more alluring studies and he sought his accustomed solace in the exuberant descriptions of Tomson, or the sublime pathos of the Bard, who ‘Into the Heaven of Heavens presum’d to soar An earthly guest, and drew empyreal air.’

Tese studies were, also, variegated by rude attempts at composition. During the year and half that he continued in this situation, he altered one of the plays of Shakespear; planned an Epic poem (on the subject of Te Julian Invasion) of which he composed some verses; and made considerable progress in compiling a History of England; for which (still remembering his attachment to Te Arts) he made several rude drawings, as embellishment of the more striking incidents: – Circumstances here only mentioned to shew how ill the aspiring activity of his mind conformed to his situation: not from any wish to rescue from merited

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oblivion the early eforts of an untutored mind – too many of which, already, (in the season of youthful vanity and inexperience, – it may also be added, and of necessity) have been rashly committed to the press. Te ill state of his health (for he was subject to frequent attacks of asthma and infammations of the lungs) obliged him to spend much of his time at his mother’s country house: a circumstance very favourable to his elective pursuits: and such was his indignation and abhorrence of his trade, that he considered the return of health as a calamity, because it restored him to the shop-board. At length, weary of sordid confnement, and irritated by one of those mortifying insults to which a lad of his turn of mind, in such a situation, of course, was incessantly exposed, he rose, one evening, suddenly from his work, ran to his master, and telling him, in plain terms, that he could not endure to, stay any longer at such a trade, begged that he would permit him to go home. Te master, in a sudden storm of surprise and fury, gave, his consent; and Telwall departed, accordingly. But he went not to his mother’s house. He foresaw what would be the consequence of such a step; and to avoid those tears and entreaties, which he knew he was incompetent to resist, he concealed himself at the house of an acquaintance, till he had procured from his parent, by letter a solemn engagement not to endeavour to persuade him to return to the situation he had lef. He now made a third efort in behalf of his favourite Art; and waited personally upon several painters of eminence, with specimens of his drawings, in hopes of recommending himself to sonic situation under them. Among the rest he called upon Benjamin West, who received him with a very polite attention, and recommended him, as the most eligible mode of study, not to put himself under any particular artist (who would, of course, require a very considerable premium), but to enter himself at the Royal Academy, procure medallions and casts from the antique, to copy from, observe the manner and execution of different artists, and exercise his own judgment in what might appear worthy of imitation in them all. Telwall would have been very happy to have followed this advice: but, unfortunately, it was not in his power. Te afairs of his family were rapidly on the decline. Te extravagance and misconduct of his brother had run through the whole property, which, at one time, was not inconsiderable, and plunged them into embarrassment and ruin. Te father, when he died, had lef no will; but, in the presence of those friends who attended his deathbed, he directed Mrs. Telwall to dispose of the stock and business altogether; to place the property he lef behind him in the public funds, make use of the interest for the support of herself, during her life – time, and for such assistance as might be requisite for bringing tip and establishing the children, and to divide the, principal equally between the daughter and two sons, at her death.

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Unfortunately no part of this direction was attended to. Te business was thought too lucrative to be relinquished. Te manufacturers being consulted, advised the widow to continue it; and it was continued, till that mismanagement which had been foreseen by the deceased, ran through every thing. And yet, these very manufacturers, when the consequences partly of their own cupidity had taken place, seized upon every thing, by a deed of assignment, and lef the object of these memoirs, who had never been consulted as to the hazarding of his proportion of the property, and was much too young to have been a party in the transaction, absolutely destitute, without any attention whatever to his equitable claim on the property his father lef him. In this hopeless situation, those maternal tears and solicitations, against which he had taken such precautions, nevertheless assailed him: and his resolution (as he had foreseen) was not proof against them. He made another efort to reconcile himself to the disgusting trade he had lef, tho under arrangements of less dependance and subjection. In this second experiment he persevered only a few weeks. Gloom and dejection seized upon his spirits but his resolution assumed a decisive tone. He burst again from his sordid fetters, and determined to endure all the consequences which his disastrous circumstances seemed to threaten, rather than submit to a situation so irreconcileable to his tastes, his habits, and his wishes. It was now that a gentleman of Te Chancery Bar, who had married his sister, persuaded him to turn his attention to Te Law; in which it was thought his talents could not fail of procuring his advancement. Tis proposal had been made to him before: but he had immediately repelled it: preferring even the situation in which, for a while, we have seen him placed, to a profession from which his feelings and principles alike revolted. But he had now no other resource. He had tried the alternative, and found it insupportable. Te objections to the present proposal, accordingly, lost something of their weight; and he sufered his ambition to be roused (as is usually attempted on these occasions – when a generous repugnance is to be overcome) by narratives of the wonderful things that have been done in a profession, whence men have advanced, from scratching parchment in an attorney’s ofce, to dispensing laws upon the bench, or framing them in the senate. His brother-in-law took him, accordingly, into his house; and, by his means, he was articled to John Impey,1 a very respectable attorney of Inner-TempleLane; – the well- known editor of the ‘Instructor Clericalis.’ It was not however for Te Roll, but for Te Bar, that he was designed; though his circumstances were thought to render this mode of practical initiation necessary; and when he gave his consent to the project, it was under promise of being entered at one of Te Inns of Court, to prepare his way for the more eligible walks of the Profession. In this promise the aforementioned manufacturers, when they took the

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efects of the family into their hands, thought it decent to join: but they never thought necessary to fulfl it: and when his Mother, with a small sum of money that aferwards came into her possession, ofered to supply the default, Telwall would not sufer her to make the sacrifce. At this profession, however, he continued three years and a half; studying the Poets and Philosophers more than Cases and Reports; and writing Elegies and Legendary Tales, more frequently than Declarations on the Case. During part of this time, he resided, (together with his mother) in a small house in StaplesInn-Buildings; from whence they aferwards removed to a little rustic mansion at a small distance from the town; which had been built as a sleeping place for his father. Tis was in reality the most miserable stage of his existence – his recent exile and aggravated afictions, in an inhospitable region, excepted. His distaste ‘for the drudgery of servitude’ (to adopt the language, of the frst law book that was put into his hands) ‘and the manual labour of copying the trash of an ofce,’2 was heightened by his abhorrence of the principles and practices of the profession tho, under a man of so fair and honourable a character as Impey, he had every opportunity of seeing them in the most favourable point of view, – In short, it was not the Professor, but Te Profession that revolted his feelings; and he has ever regarded the former as infnitely less censurable than the latter. Ignorant Prejudice, indeed judges by another rule. It perceives only gross efects, in their last stage of operation; and condemns individuals, while institutions are alone to blame. From the period here spoken of, to the present time (with exception only to the season of his sojourn among the rocks and dingles of Wales) it has been the lot of Telwall to associate much with persons of this profession and he has, by no means, found that instances of virtue and disinterestedness are more rare in them than among other men: while, in liberality of sentiment and feeling, they are, perhaps, only surpassed by the votaries of medical science. In short (in the Metropolis and more civilized neighbourhoods, at least) the comparative liberality of their education, and the expansion of heart, necessarily acquired by mingling in the circles of intelligent and diversifed society, counteract the obvious tendencies of the dogmas and chicanery into which they are initiated; and, in spite of the professional trammels, very many indeed, of the Professors of the Law, are ornaments to their country, and to human nature. To those trammels, however, Telwall could not submit. His objections to the profession itself were radical and insurmountable. Prone and habituated, upon every subject, to give unreserved utterance to the existing convictions of his heart, he looked forward, with indignation, to the prospect of letting out his hand, or his voice, to venal pleading: – of making Te Fee and the Brief the major and minor of moral proposition; and enquiring, upon every occasion, not, what was true; but, how the Cause of his client might be best supported. If the end

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was objectionable; the means were even abhorrent. Every part of the rotine thro which, in his noviciate, he was obliged to pass, was perfectly irreconcilable to feelings which he could not prevail upon himself to suppress: – feelings, which his enthusiasm persuaded him (how truly let others decide) were the badges of intellect, and the distinctions of virtue. His unhappiness was, at this time, still further imbittered by an attack made upon his innocence, by a person with whom Impey had entered into partnership; and who, in consequence of the unreserved indignation with which Telwall exposed his infamy, and the publicity of a train of similar circumstances, which consequent investigation brought to light, put a period to his existence with a razor. Tis occurrence completed Telwall’s disgust. He lingered, indeed, at the profession for a few months longer chained down by the anxious entreaties of a mother and a sister: but, at last, he quitted the ofce, in the same abrupt way that he had lef the shop board; and the articles of indenture, were cancelled by mutual agreement. One instant there was, and never but one, when he repented of this resolution. It was, while waiting at the Judges chambers, to pass through the necessary forms of release. During this delay, the peril and rashness of renouncing a profession, so nearly in his power; and the desolation of prospect that was spread before him, rushed so strongly upon his mind, that if Impey, whose conduct on the occasion was equally friendly and honourable, had then happened to repeat his exhortations of further deliberation, it is more than probable, that Telwall would have returned to his misery and his desk. But happily (for so he still considers it) the temptation was not thrown in his way. We now behold him, in his twenty second year, launching into the world as a literary adventurer: without a profession, without fortune, almost without friends; and, what was worse than all, without the advantages of a regular education, or so much as one literary acquaintance. He had an aged mother leaning upon him for support; and, shortly afer, chat very brother, also, whose misconduct had been the ruin of the family; and who, by the progress of his disease, was rendered incapable of supporting himself. Trough all these discouragements, however, he struggled with enthusiastic perseverance. He published, by subscription, in two volumes, ‘Poems on various Subjects;’ which, tho blurred and degraded with innumerable defects, resulting from the disadvantages he had been doomed to struggle with, were acknowledged by the Critical Reviewers, (See Vol. LXIV. Oct. 1787,) to contain ‘indications of an original and bold imagination.’ Tere were other Journals, indeed, that did not speak so favourably; but the claims of feeling and moral tendency were universally admitted: and if these puerile efusions administered not to Fame, they introduced the author to some truly valuable friendships. Among these must not be forgotten the late FRANCES CLINE3 (mother of the

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justly esteemed and celebrated Anatomical Lecturer:) a venerable female! whose decisive virtues, whose superior understanding, and cheerful energies of mind, rendered her frequent conversations equally instructive and interesting; while her solicitous kindness contributed, on many occasions, to the promotion of his interests and welfare. He became, also, a conductor and constant speaker at some of the public Debating Societies; wrote occasionally for Magazines; was appointed editor, of one of those miscellanies – the whole matter of which, indeed, was selected and furnished by himself; and sometimes instructed a pupil or two, at their own houses, in some of the ordinary branches of education. It appears, by his examinations of witnesses, upon Te Trials,4 that, for some years, these various exertions did not bring him in an income of much more than ffy- pounds a year; with which he supported himself, with the incumbrances already mentioned, in a small but comfortable house and garden near Walcotplace, Lambeth; and he continued, even in these contracted circumstances, to enlarge his sphere of eligible connections. It appears, also, from the testimony of some of these (as respectable as ever- appeared in a Court of Justice on such an occasion) that, in the midst of his necessities, his moral character was never tainted even by the suspicion of a dishonourable action. As he became better known, his circumstances gradually improved. His facility, and versatility, of composition recommended him to the notice of some persons who had frequent opportunities of enabling him to turn his talents to advantage: and he was beginning to maintain his family in comfort. As the resources of literary vocation are precarious, this progressive improvement in his circumstances was liable to occasional interruptions. But there was a period of some continuance during which his various engagements seemed to promise an income of between two and three hundred a year. He accordingly thought himself at liberty to follow the dictates of his heart; and, on the anniversary of his birthday, in 1791, he was married to the Stella of the ensuing Poems. Te ceremony was performed at Oakham, in Rutland, by the Rev. Richard Williams; who, in consequence of having seen him sign his name in the register, was enabled, aferwards, to swear, with such critical accuracy, ‘to his Tees and Aitches.’5 Telwall now took up his residence in the neighbourhood of Guy’s6 and St. Tomas’s Hospitals; where he was still accompanied by his mother; who continued to reside with him till the time of her death: an event that took place shortly afer Te State Trials; and which was, probably, hastened by the anxieties of that season. Te progress of that derangement of health and intellect already alluded to had previously obliged him to resign his brother to a situation of more security.

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Several of the pupils who attended the Hospitals were here his occasional inmates; between some of whom and himself there grew up a friendship, which neither time nor the mutations of public opinion aferwards eradicated. One of these, Edwin Le Grand, of Canterbury, (whose early dissolution has been a loss to the profession, and to society) was his companion in many an eccentric ramble; and is one of the characters in ‘Te Peripatetic.’7 Among the professional youth with whom he now associated, were several West Indians and if their conversation and manners did not give him a very favourable impression of the Creolean character, his observation of that efeminate, or rather childish vivacity, that unfeeling and tyrannical vehemence, and that sort of hoggish voluptuousness, so frequently predominated amongst them, produced those Delineations of West Indian Manners, which, in a late anonimous publication, were considered as the sketches of an author, ‘evidently acquainted with other countries and with other scenes.’ His situation, at this time, indeed, was not unfavourable to the study of human nature. It was no uninstructive spectacle to observe the gradations and transitions from the rustic bashfulness of the stripling, just emancipated from the village pestil, to the confdent prodigality of Te Hospital Buck; and no uninteresting one, to mark the progressive improvement of Te Few; who separating themselves from a dissipated group, by habits of application and observance, qualifed themselves to excel in their respective spheres, and bounded forwards to the honours and emoluments of the most respectable of professions. It was about this time that Telwall published ‘Te Peripatetic,’ above mentioned: a medly production of verse and prose, in three volumes; in which he details, at large (under the Character of Sylvanus Teophrastus) several of his juvenile adventures and propensities.8 Te impression made by this work on Holcrof,9 and some other literary characters, with whom the author now became acquainted, occasioned them, repeatedly and earnestly, to advise him to turn his attention to Dramatic composition, and to that alone. Te fee use that had, apparently, been made of some of his former eforts, in this way, gave some countenance to this advice; nor is it improbable that, in his growing state of reputation and connection, he might then have procured, with facility, that sort of introduction which would have secured a fair trial to any work he might have produced of that description. On his establishment in Southwark, he became a constant attendant on the Lectures, of Henry Cline,10 Dr. Haighton,11 and other professors – several of whom presented him with tickets for their respective Courses. He was, also, a frequent spectator in the operating and dissecting rooms; and admitted a member of THE PHYSICAL SOCIETY; to whom, on the 26th of January, 1793, he read, at the Teatre in Guy’s Hospital, his ‘Essay towards a defnition of Animal Vitality.’12 For this (upon the motion of Dr. Maclaurin) he received the follow-

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ing Letter of thanks – the frst that was ever voted to any member upon such an occasion. ‘Teatre, Guy’s Hospital, March 2, 1793. SIR, I am desired, by the Members of the Physical Society, to return you their most sincere Tanks for your excellent and very valuable Essay, towards a Defnition of Animal Vitality, the Abilities you displayed during the discussion, and the instruction which this institution has received from your Assistance in the debates. I am, SIR, &c. GEORGE JOHNSON, Secretary. J. HAIGHTON, PRÆSUS. Mr. THELWALL, Weston-Street, Borough. It was, also, moved, ‘Tat this testimony should be accompanied with a valuable present of Books,’ which was overruled only by a very small majority, on a suggestion of the unfourishing state of the Society’s fnances. He was likewise appointed one of the Committee for revising the Laws of that Institution; and assisted in drawing up the Code, by which it continues to be governed. But when, towards the end of the same year, he presented his second paper, ‘On the Origin of Sensation,’ in which, (without digression or allusion to other topics) precisely the same train of ideas was pursued, and the phenomena of mind were attempted to be explained upon principles purely Physical, nothing could surpass the fury of opposition with which he was assailed. Dr. Saunders, together with several other leading men of the Hospitals, (who, like himself never shewed their heads in the Society upon any other occasion) came down, in a mass, to interrupt the discussion and, from the language and earnestness exerted upon the occasion, one would have thought ‘that the existence of theological and political institutions had depended upon the agitation of a question of physics, among a group of hospital pupils. In short, the paper, afer having been read and accepted, and discussed for three successive nights, was, by the exertions of these gentlemen, voted out of the Society in consequence of which the author also withdrew himself and his example was followed by several respectable members. But this was the smallest of the evils to which he was now exposed, by the rising spirit or party animosity; for, hurried away by ‘the enthusiasm of the French Revolution, he had plunged into the vortex of political contention – the fruitful source of successive anxieties and misfortunes.

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Telwall’s public career commenced at the debating society at Coachmaker’s Hall; a seminary where Dallas,13 Garrow,14 and several others, who have since fgured at the bar, may be said to have taken, their oratorical degrees. When he frst came forward in that assembly he was but about nineteen. From the circumstances in which we have seen him placed, till that season of his life, it is not likely that he should then have attained any very settled principles, or accurately defned ideas, on the subject of politics. With respect to the questions, however, that agitated the public mind (namely, the India Bill, and the dismission of the Coalition Administration) he was a zealous ministerialist; as he was, aferwards, upon that of the Regency, and several others, which, successively, occurred; till the introduction of the Tobacco Act, and other Bills for the extension of the Excise Laws. Te discussions on the subject of the Slave Trade, into which he entered with an almost diseased enthusiasm, led the way to very considerable changes in his political sentiments; as they did, also, in those of many others and, in the new feld of enquiry, which was opened by the events of the French Revolution, he proceeded, step by step, to those sentiments, his active exertions in the dif usion of which are matters of such public notoriety. But the circumstance that frst gave decisive direction to those exertions was the Westminster Election, in 1790. Previous to the commencement of that Election, he had delivered his sentiments, with great warmth, at Te Debating Society, in reprobation of the compact, by which the two parties in the House of Commons had agreed, to share (without contest) the representation of Westminster between them; and he had concluded his harangue with the wish ‘that other Candidates, equally unconnected with both parties, would start in opposition to the compromise; and that the electors would have the virtue to support them.’ Te ensuing day informed him that his wishes, in part, were realised: for he received from the Deputy Returning Ofcer, an intimation that the election would be contested, which was accompanied with the unexpected ofer of an appointment as one of the Poll-Clerks, on that occasion: Te temporary salary (which is four-and-twenty shillings a day) was, of course, no unwelcome consideration; and he accepted it accordingly. – He accepted – but he did not retain. Te celebrated JOHN HORNE TOOKE15 was not, till that time, otherwise known to Telwall, than by his writings. Some of these, however, had secured his admiration: particularly the correspondence with Junius:16 in which he had always considered Horne as no less superior in the force, the justice, and the manliness of argument, than his anonimous antagonist was in the ornamnental graces of metaphor and diction. In short, the enthusiasm of Telwall caught fre from such approximation; and, unsolicited and unallured, he threw up his profitable situation to indulge his ardour in a laborious canvas, and in assisting at the committees of his favourite candidate.

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Tis event, conspiring with the line of enquiry into which his studies (from particular circumstances) had diverged, gave the fervour of his character that decisive direction in which, for the greater part of the ensuing seven years, it continued, almost uninterruptedly, to fow. He withdrew himself from the Debating Societies, in disgust of the frivolous topics, so frequently admitted for discussion; and he did not return but upon condition that their enquiries should be exclusively confned to subjects of history and politics. Conformity with this regulation, soon occasioned the debaters to be excluded from Coachmaker’s Hall. And when the King’s Arms, in Cornhill (to which place the Society removed) was aferwards shut up, (in Nov. 1792) by the connivance of Sir James Saunderson17 and the intimidated landlord, Telwall posted a sort of proclamation, ofering twenty guineas for the use of any room, within the Jurisdiction of the City of London, for one night, that the right of magisterial interference with the freedom of popular discussion, might be fairly tried. No such room, however, could be procured; and when one was obtained in the Borough, no person but himself had the hardihood to take a public part amongst the throng of police ofcers, who neglected no exertion to throw the assembly into the utmost disorder. Telwall, at once chairman and speaker, preserved, however, his own ca1mness and presence of mind, unmoved; and, thereby, prevented any actual riot, for the two hours during which the debate should regularly have continued; but when he was about to conclude and dismiss the company, the disturbers knocked out the candles, and overthrew the table, upon which the chair and desk were placed; and serious consequences might have ensued, if the company had not interfered. A part of these, surrounding the police ofcers, kept them in a state of durance, in a corner of the room, while another party conducted the debater to his own house. Tis circumstance produced the Political Lectures. As Telwall could fnd no persons, who, under the existing circumstances, would engage to carry on any debate, he resolved to revive political discussion in a form that might depend entirely upon his individual exertions. Te progress and termination of these lectures are well known. From an obscure little newspaper-room, in Compton-street, that would scarcely hold sixty auditors; from an audience, in the frst instance, of only thirteen persons, they spread themselves to the premises in Beaufort Buildings, where seven hundred and ffy have, sometimes, been present, and more than twice that number turned away from the door. In the mean time, he became a member of Te Friends of the People in Southwark. He was not, however, one of the original projectors of that Society; or on the Committee by whom the original Declaration was brought forward altho that Declaration constituted the only new ground upon which (afer the acquittals of Hardy and Tooke) he can be supposed to have been placed, for fve successive days, at the Bar of the Old Bailey. It is somewhat curious, all things

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considered, that, when he heard that paper read, he even made some objections to it: for the march of his opinions was deliberate; and he had not then advanced the whole length of the principles he imagined to be there insinuated. Te passages he thus objected to were, however, explained, by a well-known Vetran in the cause of Parliamentary Reform. And, as Telwall was, already, enthusiastically attached to the main object of that institution, he became very active in its support; and strenuously endeavoured to prevent its dispersion, during the season of general alarm that succeeded the proclamations, for the sudden assembling of Parliament, and calling out the Militia. In the month of October, 1793, he became a member of the London Corresponding Society and his connection with some of the leading members of the Society for Constitutional information, rendered him, in some degree, the organ of union between those two bodies of Men. He was, accordingly, appointed one of the Members of time Committees assigned as the basis of the well known arrests, in May, 1794, and of the State Trials in November and December following. Tere is one circumstance, relative to these transactions, too intimately connected with the immediate object of these memoirs to be passed over in silence. It has been seen, already, that, for seven or eight years before the commencement of his political career, Telwall had devoted himself to general Literature. In that time he had accumulated a great number of materials, upon a variety of subjects, both in prose and verse; and, among the rest, two poems, of considerable extent – on both of which, at diferent times, he had bestowed considerable labour. When he was taken into custody, on the 12th of May, 1794, the whole of these papers, together with several printed books, and a large collection of engravings, (landscapes, portraits, and historical designs) and other articles, equally unconnected with the object of search, were, swept away by the messengers and Bow-street Runners: nor have they ever been returned. While he was yet in the house of the messenger, Ford the magistrate (since Under-secretary of State) waited upon him and with great politeness and urbanity of deportment, enquired whether he would wish to have his private papers sent to him there, or returned to his house in Beaufort Buildings. Telwall preferred the former, that he might have the satisfaction of knowing what was returned. Whereupon Ford, shewing his seal, had him take particular notice of it, as the trunk should be sealed up with that impression: and he added ‘you may depend upon my honour, that no eye has seen them but my own.’ Te whole of this conversation passed in the hearing of Tims, the Messenger:18 yet the trunk was never delivered; and when Telwall enquired the cause, Tims gave him to understand, ‘that he did not choose to have his house littered with a parcel of rubbishing papers, and, therefore, he had sent them to Beaufort Buildings.’ Under what seal the trunk there arrived, or whether under any seal at all, it was aferwards impossible to ascertain; for, before the liberation of the owner, the

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wax had disappeared; and his family had been too much occupied with other thoughts to attend to such particulars. Te contents, however, were only some bundles of letters, with a parcel of useless fragments of the foul and imperfect copies of several diferent works. Te books and engravings, all the corrected manuscripts, and every individual thing of the least value, was, somewhere or other, detained: and all applications for their recovery have been unavailing. On the merits of the political question with which this anecdote is connected nothing shall here be said. But assuredly, in the fercest warfare of opinion, the Temple of the Muses should still be sacred: confscation should not extend to intellect and the arts: there should be no war against the mind. Neither shall ‘the secrets of the prison house’ here be told. Five months of solitary confnement in the Tower, and several weeks in Te Common Charnel House of Newgate (this is spoken without metaphor) are therefore, passed over in silence. To the circumstances of Te Trials, that ensued, the exertions of Erskine19 have given an immortality that supersedes the necessity of other record. In the Athenian Eloquence of that accomplished Pleader, and the Spartan Brevity of Gibbs,20 the vindication of the accused will descend to posterity, and he can wish no better Eulogy. But neither the grated chambers of the Tower, nor the noxious dungeons of Newgate, were unconscious to the visitations of the Muse. Immediately afer his liberation, Telwall published, in quarto ‘Poems written in close confnement in the Tower and Newgate.’ Tese, together with the introductory advertisement, are the frst published attempts of the author at correct composition: and they met with a favourable reception: as did also his work on ‘Te Natural and Constitutional Rights of Britons;’ which contained the substance of what he would have delivered, had he persevered in his frst resolution of pleading his own cause. In short, as imprisonment had not diminished the energy of his mind, it is probable that contemplation had given it additional strength and consistency; while the evidence, in his behalf, upon Te Trials, and the liberal zeal of Erskine (not less the advocate of his fame than of his life) had placed him, before the public, in a new and favourable point of view: and if he could then have restrained his political enthusiasm, and confned himself to the more noiseless pursuits of literature, the door of every connection he could have wished, in that way, seemed ready to open before him. But this enthusiasm had been fostered, rather than crushed, by the broodings of solitude and he resumed the pursuits to which his convictions pointed. His only precaution in this respect, was to employ a short-hand writer, to take down every thing he said; as a security ( for the future) against the audaciousness of open Perjury, and the arts of Misrepresentation. Tis precaution produced the publication of ‘THE TRIBUNE;’21 a work in which emolument was never consulted; and the sudden interruption of the sale of which, by ‘Te Pitt and Grenville Acts,’22 occasioned a heavy and

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embarrassing loss – the nature of which will be intelligible enough to those who are conversant with the business of periodical publication. Te suppression of the Political Lectures; his further eforts to revive discussion, under the title of Lectures on Classical History; and the successive interruptions at Yarmouth, Lynn, Wisbeach, Derby, Stockport, and Norwich, are recent in the remembrance of every one.23 At four of these places he narrowly escaped assassination (at the frst, perhaps, the still more terrible fate of being carried to Kamtschatka) by the sailors, the armed associators, and the Inniskilling dragoons, by whom he was successively attacked. And so active was the acrimony that pursued him, that, even on his way to the retreat, to which he shortly aferwards withdrew, having occasion to pass thro through Ashby de la Zouch, to claim a small debt, a mob of soldiers and loose people was hired, by certain zealots in that town, to assail him. Against these he was obliged to maintain his ground, singly, for a considerable time till the Chief-Constable of the place arrived, and took him under his protection. Prior to this, while he was yet in Derby, he was applied to by the late principal proprietors of the Courier, to undertake the management of that paper; a proposal which he readily accepted. But nothing could surpass the vehemence or hostility with which that paper was assailed, from various quarters, as soon as this connection transpired. In short, the proprietors were obliged to retract the agreement; and Telwall quitted the ofce, afer continuing only a fortnight in that situation. Such was the conclusion of his political career; a career in which he had consumed seven of the most precious and important years of life had considerably shattered his constitution by his exertions both of body and mind; and had by no means benefted his pecuniary circumstances: a statement which may be readily believed when it is known, that his political lectures, in Beaufort Buildings, (intervals excepted) lasted but seven months; and that, besides all the heavy deductions (which those, only, who are acquainted with the burthen of advertising in fve or six public newspapers, and the long detail of unapparent expences, with which every undertaking of this kind, in a large town, is unavoidably attended, know how to appreciate,) he had a rent of ₤.132 a year, together with all taxes, to pay for those premises, during the space of three years. As for the ‘Classical Lectures,’ they never, in London, paid the charges. Te premises above mentioned, indeed, had been taken for a variety of political purposes, by certain gentlemen, (some of them of considerable property and station in life) and one of whom made a conspicuous fgure in the House of Commons on a subject connected with this transaction. Tese gentlemen set THEIR NAMES to a subscription towards discharging the rent. It so happened, however, that for the space of time above mentioned, almost the whole weight of the incumbrance fell upon Telwall, who, tho not bound to any such responsibility,

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or any part of it, preferred all the consequent inconveniencies to the alternative of sufering it to fall upon the friend, who, in confdence of this subscription, had taken the premises upon lease. In the hands of that friend (GEORGE WILLIAMS, of Safron-hill,) Telwall, at the conclusion of his lectures, lef all that remained of the receipts, to indemnify him as far as they went; resigning himself and his family to their destiny, under circumstances of pressing necessity and embarrassment. Tis sacrifce, it is true, was a very inadequate provision for the consequences that were yet to follow; and heavy, indeed, has been the burthen, where it ultimately fell. But Telwall, who sufered himself to be the frst victim, and propt the weight, with voluntary shoulders, till he was completely crushed from under it, is, assuredly, answerable neither in conscience, nor in honour, for any part of these consequences; how keenly soever he may deplore them. Te above statement, which can he supported by unquestionable documents, and will be vouched by the ultimate suferer himself, is thus set forth at large, because a report of a very diferent nature has been propagated, by persons who ought to have taken the pains to be properly informed, before they sported with the private character of an individual, whatever they may think of his public sentiments or exertions. For an account of those sentiments the reader is referred to the various publications in which they are contained. Sufce it to say, ‘that in all his speeches, and all his publications, he has uniformly expressed himself an enemy to bloodshed and violence, from whatever quarter they might proceed.’ Tere are many who well remember the ardour with which he repeatedly reprobated the execution of the unfortunate Louis; and the extent (by some considered as visionary) to which, on that, as on many other occasions, he carried his doctrines of forbearance, and abjuration of all that may be called vindictive, or acrimonious justice. His sentiments upon another subject (relative to which he has been much misrepresented) may be seen (as in a number of other passages) in the following quotation from his ‘Sober Refections on Burke’s Letter. (P. 33 and 34, second edit.) ‘I too have laboured – not indeed ‘to discountenance enquiry,’ but to give it a just direction; – to point out to the poorer sort, in particular, of my fellow citizens, smarting and writhing under the lash of oppression and contumely, the peaceful means of redress; to shew them the distinction between tumult and reform – between the amelioration and the dissolution of society – the removal of oppression, and the sanguinary pursuits of pillage and revenge. I trust that the salutary lesson has not been enforced in vain – that whatever calamities may result to society, from the present enormous inequality in the distribution of property, all tumultuary attacks upon individual possession, all attempts, or pretences of leveling and equalization, must be attended with massacres and assassinations, equally destructive to the security of every order of mankind; and afer a long

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struggle of afictions and horrors, must terminate at last, not in equalization, but in a most iniquitous transfer, by which cut-throats and assassins would be enabled to found a new order of nobility, more insuferable, because more ignorant and ferocious, than those whom their daggers had supplanted.’ In these points moral character may be considered as involved: it has not; therefore, been thought proper to pass them entirely over. Not so with respect to his opinions merely political. For these he desires no apology, and he is anxious for no vindication. It is enough for himself, that he remembers them without self-reproach. Tat he retains them in silence, ought to be enough, even for the most prejudiced and hostile. Since ‘the age of chivalry’ humanized the European world, the time is past when mean submissions were expected, even from a vanquished foe – when carnage could not be satisfed without ‘slaying the mind.’ He claims the beneft of this civilization. He expects that it should be extended to the victims of opinion, as well as of the sword: and that he should be permitted to walk in the uprightness of his own convictions, without being hunted, any longer, from society, by a proscription more ferocious than if assassination, or the other crime of Italy, had been proved against him. Some claim to this species of toleration he thinks he possesses from the example of his own deportment for he has never been one of those who make sect or party the test of moral rectitude. He has ever believed, and maintained, that Teories the most opposite were equally consistent with sincerity and moral feeling in the professors. In the pamphlet above quoted, may be seen how he could feel, even for the most bitter, and the most formidable of his antagonists. (See particularly p. 3 to 6.) And, even in the utmost height of his enthusiasm, in behalf of the French Revolution, he is known (in the circle of his friends) to have exerted himself, with some solicitude, and with some efect, to introduce an unfortunate emigrant (a priest, of the name of Hudier) into a line of connection that enabled him to obtain a comfortable support. Yet is there, scarcely, a consideration of private justice, or of human sympathy, that, in consequence of HIS opinions, has not been violated against him. Te ordinary transactions of life have been interrupted – the intercourses of the closest relationship violated and impeded, and the recesses of the utmost obscurity have been disturbed – even magistracy, that should have protected, has been the insidious prompter of hostility and insult; and the post itself has been forbidden to him as a vehicle of confdential intercourse. Te channels of vital sustenance have been dried up: and Friendship (the last stay of the human heart) – even Friendship, itself (a few instances of generous perseverance alone excepted) wearied and intimidated with the hostilities to which it was exposed, has shrunk from its own convictions, and lef him in comparative insulation. ‘Te measure he has meted to others, mete ye, also, unto him.’

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To he does not admit even this maxim to be the boundary line of humanity and justice, (for the frailties of the individual can never constitute Te Rule of Right:) he is contented to abide the test ‘Te measure he has meted to others mete ye again to him.’

ON the conclusion of the transaction with Te Courier, Telwall, tho unchanged in his opinions, renounced all connection with public afairs from a conviction (however reluctantly admitted) of the state both of his own health and of the public mind. He perceived, with anguish, that, from the fury with which he was pursued, every efort he made, instead of producing the Reason he loved, only irritated to the Violence he abhorred. To that violence, indeed, every thing apparently tended. ‘You will drive the Reasoners from the feld,’ he said, repeatedly, in his Lectures, ‘and the assassins will rush into their places.’ ‘In the ferment of halfsmothered indignation, feelings of a more gloomy complexion will be generated; and characters of a very diferent stamp will be called into action. Men who have neither genius nor benevolence will succeed to those who had both; and, with no other stimulus than fury, and ‘no other talent than hypocrisy and intrigue, will embark in projects which every friend to humanity must abhor; and which, while the free, open and manly character of the species was yet uncrushed, never could have entered the imagination)’ – (See, among innumerable other passages, THE TRIBUNE, Vol. 1, p. 25 and Vol. 3, p.140.) Te realization of this prophecy seemed at hand. Te prospect, on all sides, became abhorrent to his nature; and he determined thence forward to lock up his sentiments in the silence of his own bosom; to concentrate his feelings in the private duties of life; and turn his attention towards making, if not a comfortable, at least, a quiet establishment, for his encreasing family. Te assistance of a few friends enabled him to stock a little farm, of about fve-and-thirty acres, in the obscure and romantic village of Llys-Wen, in Brecknockshire: a scene once famous in Cambrian story, as one of the residences of Roderick the Great; from whose White Palace it derives its name. In the election of this spot, so Far as it might be considered elective (for he had already devoted four months to a pedestrian excursion, in unavailing search for an eligible retreat:) Telwall was principally infuenced by the wild and picturesque scenery of the neighbourhood. For the village (embowered with orchards, and over-shadowed by grotesque mountains) is sweetly situated upon the banks of the Wye, at one of the most beautiful, tho least visited, parts of that unrivalled river; and the cottage itself thro the branches of the surrounding fruit trees, catches glympse – while its alcove (elevated on the remains of an old sepulchral tumulus) commands the full view, of one of the characteristic and more-thancrescent curves of that ever-varying stream; with its glassy pool sleeping beneath the refected bank, its rapids above, and roaring cataracts below, bordered

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with plantations and pendant woods, and diversifed with rocks and pastures. Such a retreat could not but appear, to an enthusiastic imagination, as a sort of enchanted dormitory, where the agitations of political feeling might be cradled to forgetfulness, and the delicious day dreams of poesy might be renewed: and as his wife’s brother (who on account of his relationship, had been hunted, by a certain Lord of the Bed-chamber, from his farms in Rutland) accompanied him in this new establishment, Telwall fattered himself that agriculture, under the superintendance of the one, and the visitations of the Muse to the other, might secure that humble sort of subsistence to which he had determined to accommodate his desires. In the choice of this situation he was, also, further infuenced by its remoteness from all political connection. For, determined himself to observe the most inviolable silence respecting his opinions, he took it for granted, that there, where they had never yet been heard of he should be equally out of the way of all solicitations to revive the discussion, and all the animosities they had excited against him. But altho to his resolution he steadfastly adhered, in his hopes of consequent tranquility he was most woefully disappointed. Politics, hitherto unknown in that neighbourhood, were now injected, in their most acrimonious form, into the ears of the ignorant inhabitants, in order to stimulate a vulgar hostility, more harrassing and more irritating than all the open oppressions of power: and the ofciating clergyman of the parish seems to have thought it the duty of his function, to aggravate these hostilities, by the most pointed and infammatory allusions from the pulpit. Telwall’s habits of living, also, so widely diferent from all around him – his fts of abstraction, his solitary rambles, among the woods and dingles, and, above all, the supernatural circumstances of his neither drinking CWRW, [i.e. Ale] smoaking, nor chewing tobacco, had no small tendency to encrease the animosity which the Welsh are apt enough to entertain (without other reason) against every SAXON who intrudes, as a settler, among them. Under all these circumstances, it will not appear extraordinary (to such, in particular, as are acquainted with the state of society in those rude parts) that it should have been believed, in some of the scattered neighbourhoods about, ‘that there was one man at Llys-Wen that could conjure; and that did walk in the woods, by night, to talk with his evil spirits;’ still less will it be wondered at, that he was obliged to take one of his brutal neighbours to Brecknock sessions, for ferociously assaulting him with a pick-axe; or that, during the hue and cry raised by the proclamation afer Bagnal Hervey, he should he obliged to defend his house from the last extremities of outrage, by causing it to be publicly known, that he would put to death the frst unauthorized individual who should presume to set foot upon his premises. Tose, however, who, from immediate vicinity, were compelled, in some degree, to see with their own eyes, became gradually to regard him with less hos-

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tility. And one, in particular, there was, whom he happened to meet, in company with the former occupant of the Farm, when he frst passed thro the village, who, (tho a plain uneducated farmer, and difering, perhaps, in opinion upon almost all those subjects, which, among such as boast of higher cultivation and refnement, are, too frequently permitted to limit the generous sympathies of our nature,) displayed towards him, upon every occasion, that active and unshrinking friendship which, probably, has rarely existed between persons so widely removed in all the ordinary habits of life and intercourse. It is a circumstance somewhat curious, that the afections of this worthy farmer – this untaught votary of sympathy and benevolence! seem, in the frst instance, to have been rivetted by the recital of a Poem (‘ Day of my double birth,’ &c.) which will be found in this collection; and which constituted a part of the amusement of an evening that the sudden swelling of the Wye compelled the reciter and the hearer to spend together. From ‘Teatres and Halls of Assembly’ to a little Village of only twenty miserable cottages – from the friendly, the enlightened, the animated circles of Norwich – from the elegant and highly intellectual society of Derby, to the sordid ignorance of a neighbourhood whose boorish inhabitants hash up a barbarous jargon of corrupted Welsh, with still more corrupted English, utterly indigestible to unaccustomed organs, was another of those sudden transitions by which the faculties are necessarily stunned and stupifed. Te new Recluse, accordingly, (with the exception only of a few transient eforts) resigned himself up, for a considerable time, to mere inanity; and his frst succeeding attempt at serious composition (some specimens of which were handed about among his friends) exhibited only a mournful picture of the soreness and irritability of a mind equally out of humour with itself and with all the world. At length; however, among a bundle of books and papers that had been sent to him from London, he lit, by accident, upon the frst rough sketch of the plan of ‘Te Hope of Albion;’ which had been drawn up before the commencement of his political career, and had fortunately escaped the general pillage of the 13th of May. Te enthusiasm, that had been so long raked up in its embers, immediately burst forth again. Te renovated ardour seized entire possession of his soul; and twelve or thirteen weeks were consumed in utter and absolute abstraction. During that time, fve books of the poem were written; and the whole plan developed thro all its branches; and, but for an unseasonable interruption, in all probability, the frst transcript, or fnished sketch of the whole work, would have been completed before he had laid down the pen. But an event, equally unexpected and unaccountable, arrested his career. In the prosecution of the work, it had been necessary to send to London for some books, particularly such as might illucidate the early periods of British Story. A parcel of these, from Lackington’s, together with a letter of Criticisms, from a literary friend, and another from his

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sister (relative to some accommodations for the approaching confnement of Mrs. T.) was, accordingly (in Jan. 1799) forwarded to him by the waggon; and had proceeded as far as Te Hay – seven miles only from its place of destination. Tere, however, it was pursued, by a King’s Messenger, who, producing his warrant, took it back to London, for the inspection of the Privy Council. Te developement of its contents would have been naturally expected to secure its immediate restoration. But it did so happen, that neither the abstraction of the student, nor the situation of a female, under circumstances that usually excite some sympathy, was thought entitled to such attention; and upwards of a month elapsed before the parcel, or any part of its contents, was restored to its owner: nor was it, even then, accompanied with any apology or explanation. In the mean time, all the furious passions of an alarmed and ignorant neighbourhood were set once more afoat. Calumny and apprehension agitated the country, with renewed violence; the Recluse and his family were again exposed to all the bitterness of vulgar insult; and the calm enthusiasm of poetic meditation was again efectually dissipated. Nor have leizure and tranquility since been permitted for the serious resumption of the work. Neither should it be here omitted that, from this time, the post was no longer a vehicle of confdential intercourse to the author. His letters were broken open and bandied about the country; sometimes for a fortnight together. In several instances, they never came to his hand at all; and his own letters to his friends (all of them on subjects of mere private intercourse) have, also, in many instances, been intercepted and suppressed. Every thing was the sport of wanton and insolent curiosity; and abuses of this kind were practiced with so little decency, that the aggression of Te Secretary of State seemed, at once, the signal and the warrant of authority, upon which every petty ofcer, or no-ofcer, thought himself at liberty to proceed. Shortly afer this, circumstances arose that made it necessary for Telwall to take the active management of the farm into his own hand. Te pen was exchanged for the plough, and he became, not only in theory, but practically and laboriously, a farmer. Tis circumstance, however, but for others, of an adventitious nature, that accompanied it, would have been no insupportable hardship: for Telwall was scarcely less an enthusiast in agriculture, than he had been in polities, and is still in poetry. To such things as had fallen in his way, upon this subject, in a miscellanious course of reading, he had formerly paid some attention: and some degree of knowledge upon the subject he had derived from occasional conversations with intelligent and scientifc farmers, in diferent parts of the nation: and now that the objects of these speculations had become familiar to him, he not only introduced some improvements in the implements and mode of management, not till that time adopted in his ignorant neighbourhood,

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but by his diligence and application, assisted by the practical instructions of the friend above mentioned, soon gave a new face to his little farm. But his agricultural career was commenced under the most inauspicious circumstances. Te horrors of such a harvest as that of 1799, especially in so mountainous a country, can only be conceived by those who have witnessed them – and by those who have witnessed, they will not easily be forgotten. Of these horrors Telwall had his full share; and of the toil (to him unaccustomed) amidst torrents and inundations, with which they were accompanied. Under these exertions, his feeble constitution, more than once, appeared upon the point of sinking. But his cup of afiction was not yet full – He was reserved for what to him appeared a much heavier calamity. From the pecuniary ruin that must otherwise have overwhelmed him, through the devastation of his little property, he was, indeed, rescued by the liberality of a few unshaken, tho distant, Friends; and by the exertions of one, in particular, who, on a former occasion, had not been among the least conspicuous in the zeal and manliness of friendly interference. But one consequence there was (of all possible consequences the most bitter) that no interference of distant friendship could avert. Disastrous as had been every other part of his destiny, in his family he had been, hitherto, particularly happy: and it was the frequent boast of his heart, Tat Nature, in this respect, had made atonement for the malice of Fortune. But, above all, his hopes (and indeed the expectations of all who, from her earliest infancy, had known her) were concentrated in his eldest child – a daughter of most premature attractions, endeared to both her parents by all the associations that can give new force to the afections of nature, and all the dispositions that can render the innocency of childhood thrice amiable. But this child (who, while every other part of the family seemed sinking under the infuence of the ungenial season, appeared, alone, all health and bloom, and loveliness) was suddenly snatched away. Her danger was not perceived till it was too late; and before distant assistance could be procured, all assistance was vain. She died on the 28th of December, a few days afer she had completed her sixth year – and lef her unfortunate parents, amid the horrors of solitude, in a state of mind which souls of the keenest sensibility can alone concieve; which Stoicism may condemn, and Apathy might, perhaps, deride. Tose who have studied the tone of the Author’s mind, in the specimens exhibited in his ‘Poems in the Tower and Newgate,’ would not, perhaps, have expected to see him thus sinking beneath domestic misfortune, but his frmness, under what he considered as persecution, was not insensibility, but enthusiasm; and, perhaps, his character cannot better be comprehended than by a comparison of those Poems with the Efusions produced by this calamity. He will there be seen in his strength, and in his weakness and,

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probably, both will be found to originate in the same temperament – in the same keenness of perception and habits of feeling. It will scarcely be believed, that the anguish and frenzy produced by this calamity should have been studiously aggravated by the contentious insults of a brutal landlord: a being, who, in the course of twenty years that he has been in possession of the farm, has had fve diferent tenants, and lived in perpetual discord with them all. Against Telwall, in particular, this contentious spirit seems to have been accompanied with a degree of rancorous animosity (national and political) that might suggest the suspicion that he had only let him the farm for the opportunity of harrassing and insulting him. Even the death of a beloved child, still lying unburied beneath the roof of mourning, was thought a proper object of sarcastic exultation. – But humanity would be degraded by the delineation of such a character. He is resigned, therefore, without further comment, to the obscurity of a neighbourhood whose ignorance and gross vulgarity alone can form a proper back ground to such a portrait. Tese circumstances, and the fatal consequences, with which unalleviated anguish threatened the declining health of Mrs. Telwall, have produced another change in the pursuits and situation of a man still the sport of untoward destiny. Driven into barbarous solitude, by the inveteracy of hostile opinion: and, by accumulated calamities, hurled back again upon Society he has taken up his habitation in a neighbourhood, whose superior civilization (if it afords him little intercourse) at least, secures his safety, and protects him from insult; and, claiming again his station among mankind, he resumes, from necessity, the character which, if his wishes alone had been consulted, would never have been laid aside. On the renewal of his intercourse with the profession of Literature, he fnds, indeed the profts (always scanty and precarious) almost annihilated by growing imposts: he fnds, also, the press teeming, and, perhaps the public already satiated with NATIONAL HEROICS, which, when his principal work was frst projected, was a desideratum in English Poesy: and, what is more than all, he has to encounter prejudice and hostility in those classes of society, who alone can be expected to have a taste for such compositions, or to give them extensive encouragement. From the most advantageous feld of poetical cultivation, and that for some departments of which, he is perhaps, best calculated, he is efectually excluded: an exclusion indeed, that seems to be most jealously guarded – for there is good reason to believe, that the article which stands frst in the ensuing collection (if, by some mysterious inquisition, the author had not been discovered) would have made its appearance in a much more proftable form. Even the doors of Libraries, public and private, have been closed against him, with a party jealousy not very honourable, perhaps, to the literary character of the Country; and he is driven to the alternative of reading no books but what

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he can aford to purchase, or of cooping up his clustering babes within the confnes of the metropolis, where his friends, at least, are apprehensive, that Revenge might assume the mask of Suspicion, for the incarceration of his person, and the fnal ruin of his family. From this intellectual proscription the present publication (with the unsophisticated narrative that accompanies it) is intended as an appeal. It is the herald, also, of an arduous undertaking, in which he fatters himself, that the glory of his Country is not altogether unconcerned. And if the specimens here exhibitted should evince some progress of mind, some latent energies, which, under circumstances the most unfavourable, have occasionally burst forth, he has still enthusiasm enough to cherish the hope, that there are some who will feel, and indulge, the disposition to remove, at least, a part of those impediments, by which his progress is impeded. – But even independant of that proscriptive species of criticism that will condemn the Poet from hostility to the politician, he is not unacquainted with the almost universal prejudice so inconsiderately sanctioned by Pope, ‘One Science only will one Genius ft.’24

Tis maxim, however, if rightly considered, ought rather to be interpretted to his advantage. For since he has proved so bad a politician as to plunge himself and his family in ruin, for the dissemination of a principle which he thought conducive to the happiness of mankind, it ought to be regarded as an argument a priori in favour of his poetical talent: that species of imprudence (a sort of failing so rare and so fatal in politics) having always been considered as a distinguishing characteristic of those whom Apollo and the Muse inspire. Happy, however, he would be, if all arguments of prejudication could be entirely laid aside; and his work appreciated by the candid and impartial principles of criticism alone: for altho he is not vain enough to suppose that he has nothing to apprehend from such ordeal, he would cheerfully relinquish all the partiality he can hope on condition of exemption from all the prejudices he has reason to apprehend. OMISSION – MEMOIR P. xliii. Afer the end of the frst paragraph, ‘he resumes, from necessity, the character, which, if his wishes alone had been consulted, would never have been laid aside,’ read as follows – Independently, indeed, of these circumstances, some alteration in his arrangements had become inevitable. Whatever may be the supposed emoluments of the large farmer (and, if he holds under an old-standing lease, they certainly cannot, in these times, be inconsiderable) a little farm (of thirty or forty acres) with a modern rent, and modern taxes, is no longer adequate to the subsistence, even of a laborious family, that should perform, within itself, all the operations of culture. Telwall’s family, of course, was not of this description; and, for two

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years, out of three, that he occupied Llys-Wen, his farm was the very reverse of any advantage to him. And it is a fact, not unworthy the consideration of those who believe the scarcity of the last two years to have been entirely artifcial, and the dearth unnecessary, that the whole produce of the calamitous harvest of 1799, afer returning its seed to the ground, (had every grain of it been sold at the advanced prices of that year) would not have paid his rent and taxes alone – without saying a word about the sustenance of his family, or the expences of manure and labour: and yet his crops were certainly not more defcient than those of the generality of his neighbours. It may, accordingly, be concluded that, altho he contrived to keep up his payments, and his credit in his neighbourhood, he was frequently not unconscious of the stings of necessity. It was under a stimulus of this kind, that he put into his pocket the frst chapter (all that was, then written) of ‘Te Daughter of Adoption;’25 and walked up to London to dispose of it, in that state, to some bookseller. In that state, Phillips,26 of St. Paul’s Church Yard, had the confdence to purchase it – and what was still more, he had the liberality to advance the sum demanded for it, on the spur of the occasion; and Telwall returned to the Vale of the Wye to cultivate his farm with the mortgage of his brain. Te series of disasters, however, already enumerated, long delayed the execution of the work; and, at last, when his mind began, in some degree, to recover from its afiction, upwards of two thirds of that novel was hurried through in the course of a few weeks, amidst all the bustle of the deceitful harvest of the year 1800.27 How (in the judgment of contemporary critics) it was executed (in spite of all these disadvantages) may be seen in the Critical and Monthly Reviews, for February and August last. Te most sanguine expectations of the author could not have looked forward to a more favourable reception.* But while the inadequacy of his agricultural engagements thus drove him upon expedients of literary projection, every literary efort served only to convince him of the unsuitableness of his situation. Whatever may have been said by visionary enthusiasts, continued solitude is the grave, rather than the nurse, of mind – more especially a solitude so absolutely rude and barbarous. ‘Some * Te moral tendency of the Work, indeed, has been somewhat questioned: and it is confessed, that the situation and sentiments of the heroine are, marked with some peculiarities. Te abstract moral of the tale, however, is simply this: – ‘Tat the purity of the sexual intercourse consists, exclusively, in the inviolable singleness of attachment but that, nevertheless, whatever be our theoretical opinion of the ceremonial part of the institution, it is an absolute moral duty, in the present state of society to conform with the established useage.’ If his maxim be erroneous, it is an error in the Author’s judgment of so long standing, that he cannot recollect the time when he did not err. But, be this as it may, he trusts there are passages enough in his Book to make ample atonement for an individual heresy; and, that no one will rise from the perusal of his pages, with a heart less disposed to the moral duties and social charities of life. To promote those charities (in their most extensive acceptation) has been the object he has perpetually had in view; and, if, in this respect, he has not failed he is little solicitous about the cavils that may be raised upon disputable points of doctrine.

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learning,’ says Lord Orford, ‘is necessary even for the writer of a Novel;’ and, consequently, some occasional access to authorities. But Llys-Wen is not more completely sequestered from civilized society, than from books. Of the three towns, Builith, Te Hay, and Brecknock,28 that he at the respective distances of twelve, seven, and ten miles from the village, the last only (the centre of the opulence and gentility of those parts) pretends to the very name of a library: and the Catalogue of this consisted only of a miserable assemblage of about 360 articles – of which 283 were novels, and no more than 20 upon subjects of history, or connected with historical investigation. Not even a regular communication is kept up between these towns, and the periodical publishers of the metropolis: so that whatever article might become indispensible to the prosecution of his studies, Telwall had no resource, but to procure it to be purchased for him in London – to wait the tardy conveyance of a broad-wheeled waggon; and, sometimes, pay for the carriage, even more than the original price of the article. In such a situation the talent of authorship was rather a tax than a resource: and when his landlord, in bare-faced contempt of his own written engagement, refused to execute the lease that had been agreed between them, it would certainly have been little less than madness to have fled a Bill in Chancery, for the perpetuation of his tenure: and, indeed, nothing but the stern determination not to be at once robbed and insulted, could have induced him to make those preparations for that measure, which compelled this petty tyrant to submit their diferences to arbitration. Telwall reaped, however, in this respect, the beneft of his frmness: for altho the compensation he recovered was very inadequate to the injury he had sustained, from the shufing conduct of his oppressor; he did, in reality, receive a pecuniary consideration for relinquishing a concern, from which he would gladly have emancipated himself at the expence of half his little property. It ought, also, to be added, that – considering the state of society (or rather of conspiracy) that prevails in those parts – where it is a fundamental point of morals, that,nationalityistogobeforeright,andrelationshipbeforelaw–itwasnosmallefort of virtue, on the part of the Umpire, to do a stranger, and a Saxon, even that degree of justice he obtained by this award. Tus terminated this ill-starred experiment, for uniting together the characters of the Farmer and the Poet: and the object of this Memoir is once more to be considered in the latter of these characters alone.

ELOCUTION AND ORATORY

Elocution and Oratory: General Plan and Outline of Mr. Telwall’s Course of Lectures, on the Science and Practice of Elocution; Delivered and About to be Delivered, in the Principal Cities and Towns of England, Scotland, etc (Manchester: R. & W. Dean, 1803.

‘Metamorphose’ is Telwall’s own word to describe his transformation at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Here is the ‘metamorphosed’ Telwall explaining his change in appearance and outlook to his patron, Joseph Strutt of Derby: You would smile to see me in my metamorphose, for I am really quite transformed. Nothing of the plain out-of-fashioned singularity of the old republican remains, but in my heart – and there it is smothered in silence, except when with a chosen few I can indulge my native energies. In dress, in manners, etc I assimilate myself with all the possible diligence to the fashion of the times, assume the pride and port of a man of some importance, and aspire to the reputation of every aristocratical accomplishment. In short, a persecution would not sufer me to crawl upon the earth, I am trying what can be done by soaring into the clouds. Hitherto I like the experiment vastly. Flying is certainly a more salubrious exercise than creeping – I was not formed to creep. To aspire is my natural motion, and I will indulge it. I will live in the world like a man, who has energies and intellect, or I will not live at all. It is cheering to see how the world has mended upon me ever since I took this resolution: ‘For he can conquer who but thinks he can.1

Tis is obviously a new Telwall in terms of how he presents himself to the world and in terms of his ambition. Tat he uses words like ‘accomplishment’, ‘aspire’ and ‘conquer’ indicate how ambitious his social and professional aspirations are. Tese words also explain something of the purpose and content of the short pamphlet Elocution and Oratory: General Plan and Outline of Mr. Telwall’s Course of Lectures; on the Science and Practice of Elocution. As the subtitle indicates, this is a point-by-point list of lecture topics, which include overtly elocutionary subjects like the use of the lungs. Yet Telwall also discourses on larger issues like the signifcance of the role of culture in the formation of intelligence, – 91 –

DOI: 10.4324/9780429349737-4

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how ‘Moral Science’ could only be ‘rendered useful by popular Cultivation’ and how the ‘Prospects of the rising generation’ were increased due to ‘the expanded intellect of Females in the present day’. Also worth noting is where this pamphlet appeared. Elocution and Oratory was published in Manchester in 1803, but true to his aim of ‘fying’ as opposed to ‘creeping’, this explicit advertisement for his lectures also appears as an appendix to his ‘Letter to Francis Jefray’. Telwall may have transformed himself to ‘aspire to the reputation of every aristocratical accomplishment’ but there is still something of the fghting political spirit of the 1790s here.

Notes 1.

Telwall to Joseph Strutt, from Leeds, 20 December 1801: Birmingham City Ref. Lib. (Archives), Galton MSS. 507/1; see also E. P. Tompson, ‘Hunting the Jacobin Fox’, p. 122 and P. Corfeld and C. Evans, ‘John Telwall in Wales: New Documentary Evidence’, Historical Research, 59 (140) pp. 231–9, p. 239.

ELOCUTION AND ORATORY. GENERAL PLAN AND OUTLINE of

Mr. THEWALL’S COURSE OF LECTURES; on the

SCIENCE AND PRACTICE of

ELOCUTION, Delivered, and about to be delivered, in the principal Cities and Towns of England, Scotland &c. THE nature and object of the present undertaking is, by this time, generally understood: or if, in some neighbourhoods, it should still require explanation, it is presumed that the present Outline will speak sufciently for itself. It will be scarcely necessary to observe that, in the Course of these Lectures,1 no topic is ever permitted to intrude, which, in the smallest degree, can either fatter, or ofend, the prejudices, or the opinions, of any description of persons whatever. Te object is ENGLISH ELOCUTION – and that alone. Te subject being of equal importance to ALL PERSONS in the more educated circles of Society, the Lecturer throws himself, without other pretensions, upon the discernment of the and liberality of an enlightened public. Exclusively devoted, during the last six or seven Years, to the cultivation of Polite Literature, and to the Improvement of his Native Language, in particular, he solicits approbation upon no other basis than the utility of the Science he professes: – and, while endeavouring to awaken attention to an essential, tho neglected accomplishment (to which the Nations of Antiquity were indebted for so large a portion of their Intellectual Glory) he relies, with confdence, on the growing attachment of the Community to the cultivation of every useful Science, for that candid and impartial patronage, without which, Science can never be expanded, or the arts of civilization improved. Te success with which his eforts have been fostered in all the principal neighbourhoods of an extensive tract of Country, from Worcester and Birmingham to the banks of the Tweed, emboldens him to give more general circulation to the extended outline of his plan, and to announce his intention of visiting all the populous Towns of the Nation. 20th. September, 1803. Manchester, Printed by R. & W. Dean & Co. 27, Market-street-lane. – 93 –

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IN an undertaking like the present, where a Science hitherto unexplored, even by the speculative and the learned, is attempted to be reduced to popular demonstration, every successive Course of Lectures may be regarded as a series of public experiments, from which fresh discoveries are to be expected, and additional improvements in the illucidation and arrangement of the materials. Tis outline is not, therefore, to be regarded as a perfect sketch, or permanent organization of the plan. Even in those few neighbourhoods whose Science and Population may demand and encourage the Complete Series, deviations may be found expedient from the succession of materials here presented; and the Oratorical parts, in particular, may be arbitrarily disposed, or materially altered, as fresh subjects of illucidation are presented. But, generally speaking, it is in fragments, only, that this Course of Lectures is delivered. In almost every neighbourhood, the real Students of any Science constitute too small a number to remunerate the exertions of the Public Teacher; and the casual attendance that results from curiosity, the love of novelty, or the hope of amusement, in neighbourhoods of secondary population, must necessarily be soon exhausted. In such neighbourhoods therefore, short courses, only, are proposed: and as it is, alike, more conducive to instruction and to entertainment, to attempt but little, and do that little thoroughly, than to grasp at much and leave every thing imperfect, selection is preferred to the empty pretensions of compression, and the quackery of unintelligible abridgment. It is only in the Metropolis, and in the vicinity of the Universities and public seminaries that the subject can be expected fully to develope itself; neighbourhoods to which the Lecturer turns his eyes with a degree of impatience only restrained by the emulous anxiety that his previous preparation should be commensurate to the importance of his object. In the mean time, something in the form of a General Outline seems indispensible to the accommodation of those who attend the respective Courses. As such the ensuing sketch is presented; and the slight advertisements published at the commencement of every such course, will refer the student to the selected portions of the subject. *** Te Lectures have been delivered in the following places, in shorter or longer courses, as the extent of the population, or other circumstances and arrangements seemed to require. – Shefeld; Leeds; York 12 Lectures; Hull 9; Barton upon Humber; Beverly; Howden; Ripon; Darlington; Stockton upon Tees; Sunderland; S. Shields; Newcastle upon Tyne; N. Shields; Alnwick; Knaresborough; Harrowgate; Wakefeld; Shefeld; Rotherham; Nottingham; Worcester; Birmingham 14 Lectures; Hereford; Shrewsbury; Liverpool 18 Lectures; Warrington; Manchester 28 Lectures; Stockport; Rochdale; Murfled Brighouse; Huddersfeld; Halifax 16 Lectures.

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OUTLINE. PROBATIONARY LECTURE. PART I. GENERAL PLAN OF THE DIDACTIVE MATTER. Object of the Lectures – Oral Eloquence, or the cultivation and improvement of the Vocal Language of Britain. Defnitions – Eloquence – Oratory – Elocution. Comparative advantages of written and vocal Language. Correct and impressive Elocution attainable by all. Distribution of eth subject – Art of Reading – Recitation – Spontaneous delivery. Conversational fuency – Narrative precision – Didactic impressiveness – Argumentative, Deliberative, and Declamatory Eloquence. Indispensable Requisites – Oratorical Graces and Accomplishments. PART II. ILLUSTRATIONS. Readings and Recitals; with Strictures, literary and critical, on the respective Authors, and various styles of Composition. PART III. ORATION. on the Importance of Elocution, in a Moral and Intellectual POINT of VIEW. Superiority of Man in the scale of Nature. Faculty of Discourse his sole discriminating Attribute. Silent Induction not peculiar to the Human Race – Demonstrated from Natural History. Exclusive Improvability of the Human Race – Progress of intellectual – of moral Science. Comparative condition of Man in the savage, and in the cultivated State of Society.

PHYSIOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS OF THE SCIENCE. LECTURE THE FIRST. PART I. DIDACTIC DISCOURSE. On the Organs of Speech – General Division – Vocal Organs (defned) – Enunciative Organs (defned). Origin, and propagation of sounds – of Vocal sounds, in particular. Structure and Ofces of the Vocal Organs – Te Lungs – power, more from management than conformation (living instances – Senatorial – Teatrical, &c) – mal-conformation remedied by Elocutionary exercise – Te Glottis, or Windpipe – fanciful hypothesis of Brydone – Te Larynx – valves, and vibratory cords – their powers improveable by attentive cultivation – Te Roof – Te Nostrils – Cellular and hollow bones in the neighbourhood of the Mouth and Larynx, &c. – Universal importance of Physiological Science – Connection with the subject of these Lectures. PART II. READINGS AND RECITALS, exhibiting the application of the expressive powers of Voice to various species of Elocution; with Criticisms.

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PART III. ORATION – On the Importance of Elocution in a National point of view; as illustrated in the Examples of Antiquity. Attention of the Ancients to this department of Education – Sciences connected with Elocution – Infuence on the faculties of Youth – Constellation of talents in petty states of Greece – Intellectual glory of Athens – of Rome – Intellectual Energy the genuine source of National Glory.

LECTURES THE SECOND. PART I. DIDACTIC DISCOURSE. On the Structure and Ofces of the Enunciative Organs. Te Tongue – the Imputed defects. Back part of the Roof, or Palate – Rough part of the Gums – Teeth – Lips – pliability and sensibility of these the principal anatomical advantage to which man is indebted for the power of enunciation – importance of their due management – to taste and expressive distinctness. Anatomy of the elementary sounds of the English Language; and actions of the Organs by which they are produced. PART II. ILLUSTRATIONS. Readings, and Recitals, exhibiting the diferent degrees of attention to the management of the Enunciative Organs, required by diferent species of Elocution. PART III. ORATION – On the Importance of Oratory to the COMMANDER of ARMIES; and the infuence of animated Elocution in kindling Martial Enthusiasm. False maxims of the present day – contrasted with illustrious examples, from ancient, and more recent times. Enthusiasm more invincible than physical strength – Instances – Comparative inefcacy of mere discipline. Expedients for kindling this enthusiasm – pomps of military preparation – martial Music – Oratorical excitement – illustrations from Roman History – Oratory – and early engine of her Power – Infuence in the Forum – in the Field – Great Characters in any department of life only to be formed by Intellectual Cultivation.

[Additional Lecture:]2 LECTURE III. PART I. DIDACTIC DISCOURSE. Of Pulsation and Remission. Physical necessity of Action and Reaction, in organic, as in mechanic motion – in the Organs of respiration and speech, as in those of vital circulation. Extent and limits of volition in the regulation of this principle; and consequent distinction of syllables into light and heavy, and long and short. Impediments of speech from impotent eforts to counteract this principle. Of the determination of English syllables to light and heavy – of indeterminate syllables. Laws and regulations.

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PART II. READINGS AND RECITALS, illustrating the application of the principle of pulsation and remission to the diferent kinds of rythmus in verse and in prose; with criticisms.

IMPEDIMENTS OF SPEECH. LECTURE THE THIRD. PART I. PRELIMINARY DISSERTATION. On the use, and abuse of the Term NATURE; and the evanescent distinction between the PHYSICAL, and ACQUIRED POWERS of MAN. Mischiefs from vague application, and desultory use of words. Of the term Natural, as applied to defects, and perfections of delivery: Defnitions, etymological, and derivative – Applications. Physical powers capable of expansion by culture – Improvability a part of the nature of Man – Education of the organs of Sense – Infancy – Peter the wild Boy3 – SAVAGE OF AVEYRON4 – Concentration of sensorial power to particular organs, objects, &c. by peculiar habits – Instances. Recipricol action, and re-action, of organic and intellectual powers. PART II. DIDACTIC DISCOURSE. On defects of Organization or natural impediments; and their remedies. Teeth – defciencies and disrrangements – Lips – the Hair lip – Scissure of the Palate – obliteration of the Uvula. Structure and application of ARTIFICIAL ORGANS. Capability of particular Organs to supply the defciency of others – Mental energy triumphant over corporeal defects – Garrick – Handel – Blind Astronomers – Mathematicians, &c. – Omnipotence of persevering enthusiasm. PART III. READINGS AND RECITALS, with Criticisms.

LECTURE THE FOURTH. PART I. DIDACTIC DISCOURSE. On Habitual Impediments – their causes, and respective remedies. – Lisping – how produced – how remedied – Speaking Tick – cause – remedy – anecdote – Snufing – Stammering – Stuttering – Fluttering, or suppression of the voice – origin – admonition to parents and tutors – Process of cure – Instances – from record – from personal observation. Comparative non-importance of early disadvantages – Ld. ASHBURTON5 – DEMOSTHENES.6 PART II. READINGS AND RECITALS, chiefy illustrative of the descriptions of Elocution, best calculated for subduing the respective impediments. PART III. CRITICAL DISSERTATION – On the Phylosophical principle of the Identity of Fitness and Beauty; as illustrated in the necessary connection between Elocutionary distinctness and propriety, and exterior grace and har-

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mony of the Features; with particular application to the ELOCUTION of the FAIR SEX.

EDUCATION OF THE ORGANS OF SPEECH. LECTURE THE FIFTH. PART I. DIDACTIC DISCOURSE. On the Education and Management of the Vocal Organs. Power, or Force – contradistinguished from Loudness – Compass, or variety – how cultivated – Pitch, or key – importance – difculties – measurement of the Eye – sympathy of the sensitive and expressive organs. Tone, or simple Harmony – importance to frst impressions – Contrast of a recent and a living instance – Examples of fexibility – Coarseness, or discordancy an argument of vulgar association – Anecdote: Not a necessary defect, but a habit of evil imitation – evinced from Characteristic tones of Sects – of Professions – Powerful infuence of Association. Mode of culture – Moral Causes more decisive than Physical Structure. PART II. ORATION, on the duties and interests of Individuals, in the more Elevated Classes of Society with respect to the cultivation of this Science. Te Glory of States dependant on intellectual cultivation. Condition of the higher classes in countries where Oratorical talent is precluded – Ancient and modern Greece. Importance to the pursuits of aspiring genius – to the functions, and honours of Civil Authority – to the Magistrate. Exhortation to early attention to the Studies, and Exercises connected with this accomplishment – Opportunities – from the nature of our institutions – from the manly energy of the British Character – from the strength and copiousness of the English Language.

LECTURE THE SIXTH. PART I. DIDACTIC DISCOURSE. Of Modulation and Monotony. Monotony the almost universal defect of English readers – Degrees – monotonous level of the Parish Clerk – cathedral Chaunt – monotonous alternation of syllables – monotony of tune and time. Modulative Variety, or Flexure of Tone – how cultivated – Illustrations – the Lark (from L’Allegro) – the Nightingale (Il Penseroso), &c. Characteristic Intonations. Imitative Cadence. Objections – answered. Range and compass of the human Voice – all Instruments in one – How cultivated and attuned. PART II. READINGS AND RECITALS, exhibiting the imitative tones and modulations of the Voice, as applied to several varieties of description, sentiment and Passion, &c.

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PART III. ORATORICAL DISSERTATION. Or the Causes that have retarded the progress of Elocution in modern times, and in this nation in particular. Fall of the Roman empire – Age of Barbarism and the sword. Restoration of Arts and Literature in the 15th Century. Why Elocution and Oratory not then restored? – Infuence of Monastic Institutions – of the Art of Printing – Substitution of Graphic for Oral Instruction – Exclusive application to Dead Languages – Metaphysical and Aristotelian Phylosophy – Teological Disputation. Immeasurable distance between wrangling Tenacity and genuine Eloquence. Particular defects in the general system of English education – Remains of Monasticism in our Colleges – Inferior Seminaries – Incompetency of Tutors – Inadequate rewards. Exhortation to parental liberality and youthful Emulation.

LECTURE THE SEVENTH. PART I. DIDACTIC DISCOURSE. Of verbal delivery; or management of the Enunciative Organs. Indispensable requisites – Distinctness – Opposite defects – mumbling – thickness – cluttering – mouthing – drawling – how produced, and corrected – Articulation – erroneous defnition of Dr. Johnson – of Mr. T. Sheridan – consequences – demonstrations, and anecdotes – hesitation – interruption – formality – Enunciation – general defnition. Application of the whole to the principles of just delivery. PART II. Critical Examination of the Elocution of the Stage. Origin of the Drama – Importance in the estimation of the Ancients – Infuence on National Taste and Moral Character – Teatres of Athens, and Rome. Critical object of Dramatic representation – Te Drama not a deception, but a living picture – Its Elocution should follow Nature. Peculiarities and afectations – of pronunciation – of cadence – of general delivery – the Cæsural style – the Snip snap, or Hibernian – the formal, and elaborate – the emphatic – the Rant – the Whine – Mouthing. Of impressiveness, and genuine passion. – Of Fluency and Facility. Of Characteristic Intonation – Tones of Age and Youth – of Condition and Character.

LECTURE THE EIGHTH. PART I. DIDACTIC DISCOURSE. On the Critical Graces, and higher accomplishments of Elocutionary delivery. Implication, or vocal combination of words – attention of French Tutors – neglect of ours – pedantic criticisms or mono-syllabic verses, &c. illustrations, from Dryden, Pope, Milton, &c. – Continuous harmony – simile – illustrations from Denham. Unity of the English language from the aspersions of pedantic ignorance.

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PART II. Critical Examination of the ELOCUTION OF THE BAR. – Objects – Characteristics – Requisites – Opportunities, and Inducements – Rise, and Progress of Forensic Eloquence in England – lord Mansfeld – lord Ashburton – recent, and living instances – Comparison of the Ancient Forum, and the Modern Bar – General Defects of the latter – Causes – Aukwardness of modern Accommodations – Of the Ancient Rostrum – Of the Toga, or Robe – Of the diferent Characters of Senatorial, and Forensic Eloquence – Te same Person seldom excels in both – Not applicable to the Ancients – Example of Cicero. Of the Studies, and Accomplishments of the Forensic Orator. PART III. ILLUSTRATIONS of various Species of Forensic Eloquence; and the Elocution applicable to each.

LECTURE THE NINTH. PART I. DIDACTIC DISCOURSE. Harmonics, or the Musical Laws of Elocution. Inattention of modern tutors to this subject – Misconceptions of Critics – Dr. Blair7 – Lord Montboddo8 – T. Sheridan.9 Steel’s Prosodia Rationalis.10 Melody of Speech – Pulsation and Remission – Swell and Fall – Loud and Sof – Accents – acute – grave – circumfex, &c. Measure of Speech – Simple, or general Time – Quantity, or proportion of Syllables – Characteristic Time – Rests or Pauses – continuous pause – pause of cadence – interruptive pause. Musical Bars – Application alike to Verse and Prose. Elocution a demonstrative Science, dependant (like that of a Song) on laws of musical infection and musical proportion. PART II. Critical Examination of the ELOCUTION of the PULPIT. Objects – Genuine Characteristics – the Sublime, the pathetic – clerical accomplishments. Attention among continental preachers. Proverbial Defects of the English pulpit – Exceptions, recent and contemporary. Objections to a more animated system of delivery – Source of these. Causes of general Inanity. Moral Science only to be rendered useful by popular Cultivation. PART III. ILLUSTRATIONS of various Species of Clerical Elocution. – Of sacred Reading – prophetical – historical – Of moral and perceptive Elocution, or Sermon – of Prayer, and devotional Enthusiasm.

LECTURE THE TENTH. PART I. DIDACTIC DISCOURSE. Of Pronunciation. Difculties – Rules – few, incongruous, and ill defned – Usage – arbitrary, and discordant – the Multitude – the Court – the Learned professions – the Literati – the Stage – the Senate. Elements, and principles – Precision – Expressiveness – Grace, or harmony – Analogy, and Orthography – Vindication of the Maxim of

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Dr. Johnson.11 Project of Mr. Elpinstone12 – impracticability – dissonance – Imperfections of our Alphabet. Pronouncing Dictionaries. PART II. ORATORICAL DISSERTATION on SENATORIAL and POPULAR ELOQUENCE; with criticisms on the Elocution of the PRINCIPAL ORATORS of the PRESENT AGE. PART III. ILLUSTRATIONS – deliberative and Declamatory.

LECTURE THE ELEVENTH. PART I. DIDACTIC DISCOURSE. Pronunciation – resumed. Fundamental Laws – Quantity – Poise – Accent. Provincialisms – Northumbrian Burr – Yorkshirisms, &c. Vulgarisms – Cockneyisms – Hibernianisms – Scoticisms – Anecdotes, &c. Barbarisms – Stolecisms – Elision, or Syncope of the Vowel. PART II. ILLUSTRATIONS – Readings, Recitals, and Criticisms. PART III. ORATORICAL DISSERTATION. On the importance of an Elocutionary System of Education. Continental eforts – the Medici. Age of Louis XIV. – Academies – Eulogies – Te French Language not favourable to poetry or Oratory. Neglect, and tardy progress in England – Hume’s Essay. Causes of this defciency – Erroneous system of education – remains of Monasticism in public seminaries – want of proper professors of English Elocution – Inferior seminaries – incompetency of tutors – inadequate rewards – Cultivation of English Elocution exclusively resigned to Students of Scotland and Ireland – literary industry of the former – lively energies of the latter – English Elocution should be cultivated by English organs. Capabilities of our language. Exhortation to emulate the Elocutionary glories of Athens and Rome.

LECTURE THE TWELFTH. PART I. DIDACTIC DISCOURSE. On Accents. General Defnition – an essential branch of Elocutionary Melody. – Distinctions – Infective Accent – Accent of Punctuation – Emphatic Accent. Syllabic Accents – Varieties – the Acute – the Grave – the Circumfective – the Continuous – Ascertainable by graphic Signs – Imperfect state of English Lexicography – Errors of Grammarians, &c. – Dr. JOHNSON – T. SHERIDAN – MASON – &C. BEN JOHNSON! On false Accents in Poetry; with a Critique on the Sonnetteers and Bardlings of the Day. Appeal to the Numbers of Dryden and Milton. Unity and Simplicity of the Principles of English Elocution, as applied to Prose and Verse: to familiar Conversation and public Oratory. PART II. ORATORICAL DISSERTATION. On the advantages of INTELLECTUAL PLEASURES, and LITERARY ASSOCIATION over the

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ordinary pursuits of LEVITY and DISSIPATION. Review of the Customary pursuits and pleasures of mankind – Of Social pleasures properly so called – intellectual cultivation indispensable to these – No parties really social from which Females are excluded – mischiefs from such exclusion, to morals, to intellect, to taste. Elocutionary accomplishment essential to the genuine zest of social intercourse – Te cultivation of this a proper object of youthful association – a source of Domestic enjoyments. Te freside of Intellect and Afection – Te Husband – the Father – the Friend.

LECTURE THE THIRTEENTH. PART I. DIDACTIC DISCOURSE. On Vocal Punctuation; or the Accents and Infections of Voice that belong to the respective Points. Mistaken System of Grammarians – Practical absurdity of the rules of numeric pause – Punctuation a branch of musical accent – marked by the Ancients, with Accents – demonstration of the application of this principle to English Points – Paucity of these, one of the defects of our graphic Language – Defnitions of the existing Points – Connection with numerous Harmony – with the elucidation of the sense – Identity of these in all good composition, whether verse or prose. Erroneous notions of Mr. T. Sheridan – Consequent false system, and practical defects of his punctuation. PART II. ILLUSTRATIONS, Readings, Recitals, Criticisms. PART III. ORATION – On the Importance of Elocution as a FEMALE ACCOMPLISHMENT, and its connection with the RELATIVE DUTIES of Polished Life. Elocution a source of recreation in the convivial circles – Example of the Icelanders – of the Romans. Connection with Relative Duties – Superior advantages over the customary Accomplishments of FEMALE EDUCATION – Moral and Intellectual tendencies of some of these. Tendency of Elocutionary Accomplishment to improve the understanding – by inducing a taste fore the higher beauties of Literature. Objections. Appeal to the Ladies – as Wives (the bosom Slave – the Intellectual Partner) – as Mothers (the notable housewife – the pickling and preserving – the fashion-mongering – the Intellectual Mother.) Duties of individuals dependent on their station in life – on the state of Society – Penelope at her Loom – Lecretia among her Virgins – Cornelia and her Children. Application to the circles of Commercial Opulence. Prospects of the rising generation from the expanded intellect of Females in the present day.

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LECTURE THE FOURTEENTH. PART I. DIDACTIC DISCOURSE. On Emphasis. Defnition. – Varieties – Emphases of Import – of Antithesis (expressed or understood) – Emphases of Coincidence – Of the Complication of Emphases. Importance of these distinctions – Confusion and absurdity from misapplication – Teatrical Anecdotes--&c. with hints to fnger-counting Critics and modern Editors of ancient English Poets. PART II. CRITICAL DISSERTATION – On the intimate Connection between Poetical and Oratorical Enthusiasm; and the power and application of Harmonic numbers in atuning the Organs of Voice and enunciations: With particular Strictures on the Versifcation of Akenside, and of Milton. PART III. ILLUSTRATIONS – Readings, and Recitals, from Paradise Lost, L’Allegro, Il Penseroso, and Te Pleasures of Imagination.

LECTURE THE FIFTEENTH. PART I. ON THE EXTERIOR ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF ELOCUTION. On Physiognomical Expression, or the Language of the Features – Te Countenance should correspond with the Tones – should communicate the Passions of the Orator – An inexpressive Countenance and Argument of Vacancy of Mind – of Coldness and Insincerity. Fashionable Insipidity – Superior Charm and Dignity of Expression and Animation – illustrated by Reference to the various traits of Female Beauty – fascination of Countenances not regularly handsome. Address to the Ladies; with a Digression on Intellectual Attractions – Eloquence of the Eye – No genuine Beauty that is not illuminated by Sentiment, and Feeling. Illustrations – Readings and Recitals. PART II. OF ACTION. Importance – Language of Passion, and Fancy – Power of mere Gesticulation – Pathos of inarticulate Music – Union of these with Verbal Language. Of the Harmony of Feature, Voice, and Action. Gesticulation a natural Accompaniment of Eloquence – instanced in the Oratory of Barbarous nations – in the Deportment of all Persons when strongly excited – Opinions, and Practices of the Ancients – Demosthenes – Hyprides – Cicero. Instances of its Efects from personal Observation – Degeneracy of modern Eloquence from Defect of thrs. Habitual Restraint a chief Cause of graceless, and extravagant Actions. Laws, and Requisite restrictions. ILLUSTRATIONS – Recitals, &c.

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LECTURE THE SIXTEENTH. PART I. RECAPITULATION of the Didactic Matter. Application to all the various species of Elocution – to Prose, Rhyme, Blank Verse, Lyrics, &c. – Examples, from Goldsmith, Pope, Dryden, Gray, Young, and Milton – Exposition of several diferent modes of murdering the English Poets – the sing-song style – the scanning, or pedantic – the popular, or Bellman’s – the ofcial, of gabbling – the drawing, or School Boy’s style. PART II. READINGS, AND RECITALS – with Criticisms on the respective Authors. PART III. ORATORICAL DISSERTATION. On the indispensable requisites for Oratorical and Elocutionary Excellence. Intellectual qualifcations and Attainments – Liberal Studies – General Science – Knowledge of Human Nature – Perception – Descrimination – Taste – Feeling. Powers of Demonstration – Impressive Dignity – Energy – Empassioned Modulation – Enthusiasm. Recapitulation. Concluding exhortation to the reciprical cultivation of the Organs, the Understanding, and the Heart. Transferable Ticket for the complete Course (including the Selections, entire of the Articles read and recited during the successive Lectures) Two Guineas. Ditto for a Course of Eight Lectures (Selections for the Course included) One Guinea. Ditto for a Course of Four Lectures (Selections included) Ten Shillings and sixpence. Selections for the respective evenings Sixpence each, may be had at the Doors of the Lecture Room; also (and of the principle Booksellers) price Seven Shillings, POEMS in RETIREMENT, with Memoirs of the Life of the Lecturer. *** Private Instructions in Elocution, Elements of Criticism, and the higher departments of English Literature. Five Lessons at the Apartments of the Lecturer One Guinea – Entrance One Guinea. Five Lessons at the Residence of the Pupil Two Guineas – Entrance One Guinea. In cases of Natural Defects, or Habitual Impediments, Five Lessons at the Apartments of the Lecturer Two Guineas – Entrance Two Guineas. Five Lessons at the Residence of the Pupil Tree Guineas – Entrance Two Guineas. Reasonable abatements will be made to Families or Classes of three or more pupils.

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CONCLUDING ADDRESS TO A COURSE OF LECTURES AT HUDDERSFIELD LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! – I have now completed my engagements to you, and to this neighbourhood; but the forms of politeness and the feelings of my heart prohibit our separating without a few parting words. With respect to the subject to which I have called your attention, I cannot profess that every thing which relates to it has been fully and amply explained. For this purpose (instead of a Course of fve) ffeen or eighteen Lectures would have been necessary; and it is only in neighbourhoods of extensive population, or where an ample patronage is already secure, that engagements of such extent can be prudently contracted. In my present undertaking, therefore, I have sometimes endeavoured to compress; but more frequently, I have been necessitated merely to select. All that has been promised has, however, been performed; and you will do me the justice to make it known that I have meddled with no subject (even by the most distant insinuation) but that of which I profess to treat. – Te Science of Elocution is my only object; and (tho it has not been usual to regard it in that point of view), I fatter myself I have demonstrated that it is a SCIENCE: – that its foundations are laid in those elements of human knowledge to which the name Science is, indisputably, acknowledged to belong. What are those foundations, then, upon which it rests? Tey are, on one hand – the Anatomy of the human organs, and the Physiological necessities of the human system; and, on the other – the Laws of Musical Infection and Musical Proportion – acknowledged branches of the Science of Mathematics. Tese are the foundations of English Elocution: – the distant extremities – the solid bases upon, which the Art, the Genius, and the Taste of the successful Student, must rest the connecting arch of genuine Oratory. In demonstrating these elements, I have derived little assistance from the writings or the discoveries of other persons who have professed to treat upon this subject. With the simple exception of one penetrating author, frequently quoted in these Lectures, and who brought into the service a profound and practical acquaintance with the Science of Music. I have met with little, in any modern writer, that is not fundamentally erroneous. With this book, I was frst made acquainted by a clergyman of most respectable character in one of the principal Towns of this country, in consequence of the theory I had advanced in my Lectures: and it was no small gratifcation, and no feeble confrmation of the validity of my hypothesis, to fnd that the same conclusions to which I had been conducted by physiological investigation, and mere musical perception, had been attained by another person by habits and studies of so very diferent a description. Tis Author I have since elaborately consulted; and my practice of study has been to try his musical principles by the test of

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physiological experiment; and correct (as in every species of enquiry, we ought to correct) the discoveries of one science by the inductions of another. With this restriction, and with this alone, for all the discoveries, and all the errors I have advanced, I am alone responsible. Some errors, indeed, in all human probability, have escaped me: for where so much is new, it would be extraordinary if nothing were defective. But, of these, none are to be accounted for from indolence of investigation, or from obstinate attachment to opinions once advanced. I have laboured, with honest enthusiasm, to promote a science which I have persuaded myself is of some importance to the intellectual glory of my country; and, in the practical application of my system to the cure of the most obstinate impediments, I have, in some degree, demonstrated the truth of the essential branches of my theory; and, have had the proud satisfaction of ministering to the respectability of individuals, and the happiness of families. Tese are the objects to which I have called your attention. Te encreasing respectability of the attendance with which I have been honoured, is the best reply to those calumnies and misrepresentations, to which every individual who stands in a public situation must be liable: and which, rightly considered are, to be regarded more as a tribute than a fne; as they bring forth the Character they attempted to obscure: and, as calumny, when detected, is metamorphosed into honour and respect. Ladies and Gentlemen! I bid, you now, farewel: – in all human probability for ever. An extensive country lies before me; and numerous are the neighbourhoods of population and intelligence, in which the voice of Elocution may be expected to be heard: and, as neither my time of life, nor my constitutional fbre can render it probable that a profession of such exertion should be long pursued, it is scarcely in calculation that I should pay, in any one neighbourhood, more than a single visit. Be this as it may, my remembrances and my good wishes will be among you; – for you are my Countrymen! and I hope to be permitted (without ofence) to close this address with the only word of allusion to present circumstances in the whole process of my intercourses with you. May the seeds of English Elocution grow and fourish among you, and foster those energies which the exigencies of the times may require. May they extend the intellectual glories, and multiply the resources of Britain! and may they never be perverted (at such a time) to the revival of prejudices, and the renewal of divisions; but may brotherly afection, and brotherly confdence, link and bind us into one family of heroes; and every Briton think and move as with one soul – a soul indisputably British!

‘A LETTER TO FRANCIS JEFFRAY’

‘A Letter to Francis Jefray [sic], Esq., on Certain Calumnies and Misrepresentations’, Edinburgh Review (1804).

Afer the failure of his experiment with rural life in Wales, Telwall refashioned himself and re-entered public life as lecturer in elocution and oratory. In 1804, however, his newfound confdence and enthusiasm in his role as ‘Professor of an Elegant Science’ would be severely challenged. Telwall had been on a lecture tour throughout the north of England and the west of Scotland. Te tour, according to him, was extremely successful: he had received applause and congratulations, and the topics of his lectures were so popular that at times he had to turn people away at the door. But then Telwall encountered Francis Jefrey, the editor of the Edinburgh Review (Telwall most ofen refers to him as ‘Jefray’). It is telling that in his lifetime, Jefrey would hold careers as judge, politician and reviewer: he became a towering cultural fgure whose opinions carried much weight and whose judgments could make or break literary futures. Together with other Edinburgh noteworthies Sydney Smith, Henry Brougham and Francis Horner, Jefrey started the Edinburgh Review in 1802. It was an immediate success, due in large part to the cantankerous manner, eccentric opinions and irreverent style of the reviewers. Troughout his career as a reviewer, Jefrey made many literary enemies; among his most famous targets were, as he famously labelled them, the ‘Lake School’ of Wordsworth, Coleridge and Southey. Te magazine would go on to become an instrument through which middle-class public opinion cohered on culture, politics and social issues. A war between Telwall and Jefrey began when an April 1803 edition of the magazine contained a very brief review of Telwall’s 1801 Poems Written in Retirement. Te reviewer – almost certainly Jefrey – principally targeted the ‘Prefatory Memoir’ appended to the collection of poems. Jefrey scofed at Telwall’s story of how familial and fnancial circumstances in his youth forced him behind a shop counter and into apprenticeships. Not only Telwall’s relatively humble origins, but his political history and his allegedly infated pretensions – 107 –

DOI: 10.4324/9780429349737-5

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were ridiculed. Te review also used Telwall’s life to make larger statements about social aspiration and mobility: LITERATURE opens so obvious and so pleasant a way to distinction, to those who are without the advantages of birth or fortune, that we need not wonder if more are drawn into it, than are qualifed to reach the place of their destination. Te task of ministering to the higher want and more refned pleasures of the species, being both more dignifed and more agreeable than that of supplying their vulgar necessities, multitudes are induced to undertake it without any great preparation; and the substantial business of life is defrauded of much valuable labour, while the elegant arts are injured by a crowd of injudicious pretenders. Te gradations by which increasing luxury accomplishes these seductions, are sufciently distinguishable. Ploughboys and carpenters are frst drawn into the shops of mercers and perfumers, and into the service of esquires, baronets, and peers; the runaway apprentice next goes upon the stage; hairdressers and valets write amatory verses; cofeehouse waiters publish political pamphlets; and shoemakers and tailors astonish the world with plans for reforming the constitution, and with efusions of relative and social feeling.1

As insulting as this type of commentary is, Telwall took further umbrage when Jefrey and his associates allegedly disrupted his Edinburgh lectures by laughing loudly and obnoxiously from hiding places in the hall. Tis double ofence resulted in ‘A Letter to Francis Jefray on Certain Calumnies and Misrepresentations in the Edinburgh Review’. In terms of form, this is a unique text: there are large and numerous footnotes that seem almost to dominate the body of the letter. Telwall explains that the footnotes, which are devoted to revealing errors and abuses committed by the reviewers, were ‘necessary to strip the mask from the features of Afectation, and dismount Presumption from his stilts’. He suggests ‘that the reader would do well to consider them [the footnotes] as entirely distinct, – and either fnish the letter before … the notes, or the notes before … the letter’. Where Telwall responds directly to the Edinburgh Review article, we have included the relevant passages from it in the endnotes.

Notes 1.

‘Telwall’s Poems,’ Edinburgh Review, 2:3 (April 1803) pp. 197–202, p. 197; the phrase ‘efusions of relative and social feeling’ that the reviewer repeats mockingly in the last line is a subtitle to Poems Chiefy Written in Retirement.

A Letter to Francis Jefray1 On Certain Calumnies and Misrepresentations in the Edinburgh Review LITERARY Journals have not always been very candid, or very impartial; – for they are the productions of Men, who have their prejudices; and of Proprietors, who have their interests; yet they have, hitherto, been conducted with some regard to decency and decorum. Tey have been conducted, also, with a degree of secrecy – which, though it shelters the uncandid from responsibility, is infnitely preferable to the ostentatious profigacy that fames forth in the Edinburgh Review. In this new undertaking, all former precedent has been magnanimously despised. It is certainly an experiment as daring, and an innovation as intemperate as ever disturbed the republic of Letters. A set of opinionated, inexperienced and headstrong young men form themselves into a self-contained tribunal of Taste and Literature; – they vaunt of their association, in the most public way; their names are announced, among those names, not one appeared that had yet been distinguished in the ranks of Science and Literature, – they proclaim their intention of sitting in judgment upon those works, exclusively, that had either attained, or deserved, a more than ordinary portion of celebrity. ‘It will easily be perceived’ (they say in their advertisement) ‘that it forms no part of their object, to take notice of every production that issues from the press: and that they wish their journal to be distinguished rather for the selection than for the number of its articles.’ Te real object of this selection, however, was soon conspicuous; for Detraction and Calumny were inscribed almost in every leaf.2 What they wanted in genius, in taste, – and in knowledge of the principles of composition, and the elements of the English Language, these bold adventurers determined to supply – by the presumption of dogmatism, and the virulence of abuse. Works of genius were subjected to their criticism for the evident purposes of sarcastic insult and biographical calumny; and where articles did not present themselves that could furnish sufcient food for their malevolence, excursive fights were indulged, and dissolutory digressions. Criticism ran a’ muck, as it were, among the talents and productions of the age: and scarcely a name that is dear to modern Literature escaped without a stab. – 109 –

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To put their motive, still further, beyond dispute, instead of adhering to their profession of ‘carrying the principle of selection a great deal farther than other Reviewers,’ they even dragged into their ‘Critical Journal’ a work which no other Reviewer would have thought himself at liberty to notice: a work that has never been regularly announced in the London papers; and which, in its present form, it was not the intention of the author ever to have so announced. It had been printed, in compliance with the solicitations of some friends, who were desirous of an opportunity of serving me; and the obscure neighbourhood in which I then resided had not furnished me with those advantages of paper and typography, which the taste of the times requires. Te general publication was, therefore, deferred till occasion should call for, and leizure should permit, a new and more elegant impression: and all the publicity that was given to the book, 3 was an occasional notice at the bottom of the advertisements of my lectures, in the provincial towns that I visited. Tis connection, however, seems to have suggested to the reviewers – the malicious use that might be made of it. How it was used, – with what decency of language, – with what accuracy of statement, – with what fdelity of quotation; and, with what perseverance, the hostility, once declared, ahs been followed up, it is the business of the ensuing pamphlet to explain. In entering into this explanation, I have thought it necessary (in justice to my injured contemporaries, as well as myself ) to examine the literary pretensions of these self-constituted arbiters; to sit in judgment upon my judges, and review these pragmatical reviewers. My plan, therefore, being two-fold, I have thought it necessary to give to the execution a two-fold form. My own particular wrongs, and the insults and injuries I have sustained, seemed to justify, as they excited, the strong feelings of indignation; and to these therefore, I have given vent; – not indecorously, I hope; nor in a strain unworthy the Professor of an Elegant Science. I should, indeed, have reason to blush (whatever my provocations) if it could ever be doubted – whether the Reviewer or the Lecturer had best preserved the language and the manners of a gentleman. But the defamation that strikes at the hopes of a rising family will awaken emotions, in the paternal heart, that can only be expressed in the strains of indignant pathos. Parts, however, there are, in the review in question – (and in many other portions of this presumptuous work) so mean, and so contemptible, in every point of view, as to require another mode of castigation. Afectation and empiricism are objects of ridicule. Demosthenes would not have declaimed on the fooleries of a Jack-Pudding. Yet it may be necessary to strip the mask from the features of Afectation, and dismount Presumption from his stilts. To these purposes are the generality of the annotations devoted: annotations so far from being necessary to the explanation of the text, – that the reader will

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do well to consider them as entirely distinct, – and either fnish the letter before he begins the notes, or the notes before he begins the letter. With respect to the name I have emblazoned on my title page – My authority for this mode of address, I derive from the publisher. I sent to Mr. Constable4 for the direction of the Editor of the Edinburgh Review, and he returned me the name inserted. I wrote, also, a letter to Mr. Jefray; of which the following is a copy. ‘Sir, Your mean and contemptible calumnies, misrepresentations and falsehoods, respecting me, on a former occasion, it was not my intention to have noticed, in any other way, than to have amused myself with the occasional relation of them, in the hours of convivial gaiety: for I had not so despicable an opinion of any part of my countrymen as to believe that such a writer could do me any injury. But the* , on the night of my probationary Lecture, and by which you have, with a base and ungentlemanlike efrontery, endeavoured to injure me and my family, by the most indecorous interruption of my professional pursuits, will oblige me to take some notice of you this evening; which will lay you under the necessity of some public apology, or explanation, or will efectually prevent you from ever again, being regarded in any respectable or impartial society, either as a gentleman, or as a man of common veracity. I shall bear in my hands the proofs of your duplicity, your palpable ignorance, and your gross falsehoods and prevarications, and that I may not, in any respect, be chargeable with the base and cowardly subterfuges that have added to the degradation of your conduct, I herewith, send you a Ticket of Admission for my Lecture of this Evening; that what I have to alledge against you may come, in my own words, to your own ear. I write this under the two-fold impression of your having been Editor of the 3d No. of the Edinburgh Critical Review,†* and of your being also, the person who sculked, with such artful and courageous precaution, under the screen of my platform, on the night alluded to, – so as to escape, at once, from the hazard of my personal observation, and yet be enabled to convey the signals of interruption to the seconds of that disgraceful confederacy. If any part of this supposition should be erroneous, I shall be happy to be set right; and I shall, in such case, be as forward to apologize for my mistake, as I am * I leave Mr. J to fll up this hiatus with his pen, in his own private copy; for adhere to my maxim of saying more to the face of my enemy than I will publish behind his back. † * Tat there was an Editor of this third number we have the evidence of the number itself; in the following notice at the end.*** In editing the article of Charles and Marie, three pages of extract have been omitted, a note added, and a few words altered. If these changes have in any degree destroyed the truth of the criticism or the expression, the Editor requests that the blame may be entirely imputed to him.’

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determined to claim apology for the unprincipled meanness with which I have been injured.’ JOHN THELWALL, RAMSAY’S LODGINGS, &c., 12TH Dec. 1803 No explanation having followed this Letter, I conceive – I have not trespassed on the bounds of decorum in the use I have made of Mr. Jefray’s name. One thing more it is necessary to premise. Not all who have written for the Edinburgh review, are, therefore, included in the censures here bestowed. Some exceptions I have marked, in the occasional notes. More ought, perhaps, to have been added. Of those whose names were inserted in the Monthly Magazine, Mr. Horner5 (I am told) is not longer in the connection; and Mr. Tomas Brown,6 with a prudent reverence for his character, took care to have it announced, in the Magazine already mentioned, soon afer the appearance of the second number, that he had withdrawn himself from any concern in the undertaking. TO FRANCIS JEFFRAY, ESQ. SIR, THE invitation I sent you, on the evening of Monday the twelfh, you did not think proper to accept. Indeed the courage you displayed in the election of your place on Tursday evening, could give me little reason to hope for the satisfaction of being confonted by you: and the tremblings of conscience might dispose you to avoid the hearing of an accusation, which your recollections would, perhaps, anticipate. But, Sir, the afair cannot rest here. Some how, or other, the treatment I have received, must come before the public. Somewhere or other, it must be enquired Whether there are to be no limits to the impudent calumnies, the indecent scurrilities, and the audacious falshoods and misrepresentations of Reviewers, – or to the indecorous confederacies of young Advocates associated to destroy whomsoever such Reviewers may think proper to proscribe? Somewhere or other, it must be answered, Why the conductors of a literary Journal, stept out of their sway, in the month of April last, to inure an individual, by the unprecedented review of a book that did not come within the regular cognizance of their tribunal? – Why they should have interlarded such pretended Review with the grossest misrepresentations, the most demonstrable falshoods, and even the mean insertion of pretended quotations of passages, not in that book to be found? – and Why, resolute in unprovoked hostility, they still pursue me, from the Study to the Rostrum? – from the sequestered haunts of Poesy, to the theatre of Science, and the public Congregation?

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For shame, for shame, Mr. Jefray! – Can you acknowledge yourself the Editor of the Review in question? – or can you shew why you have not denied it? If you acknowledge, – must it not necessarily be enquired – By what strange and sinister motive you have been induced to render yourself the instrument of this calumny, this malignity and injustice? You must be well aware, Mr. Jefray, that your former history, and that of some of your most intimate colleagues, can be no secret in Edinburgh; – that you could have no decent public pretence for volunteering yourselves as my opponents, or as my prejudicators; – and that – (as I never had any personal acquaintance or intercourse with any of you; – and could, therefore, have given you no personal provocation,) you can certainly have none of the ordinary excuses, which the prejudices and resentments of mankind may sometimes furnish, for making yourselves the ring leaders of every confederacy that aims at my reputation; or that seeks to deprive my family of the profts of my exertions. BUT it is not by the voice of Moral Reprehension that the Calumniator is to be reformed. – Her whispers are too faint – Her tones too mild and moderate to pierce the ears and penetrate the hearts of men whose souls are bartered to the fend of malignant misrepresentation; – whose consciences are so sufocated in the bitumen of critical virulence, and whose hearts have become so hardened against all puncture of generous sympathy and human feeling, as to exalt over the last of agonies that can rend the aficted heart; and, from the groans and exclamations of paternal anguish, extract the bitter venom of slandrous misrepresentation. How, then, shall criminals like these receive the chastisement they merit? – Where shall the victim of their calumny seek for consolation and redress? Te nature of the crime dictates the remedy; and where the injury began, the reparation should also commence. If, then, Mr. Jefray, you have erected a Literary Tribunal, to the Tribunal of Literature you have rendered yourself amenable. If you have attacked my character through the medium of the press, through the medium of the press I have a right to seek my remedy. If you have abused the public with falshoods and forgeries, and insulted it by confederacies to impede its deliberations and intercept its judgements, – to the bar of that public I have a right to call you; that those falshoods may be detected, and those insults atoned. I call then, in the frst place, for the Editor of the Review in question; – the Tird number of the Edinburgh Review. You know, Mr. Jefray, whether it is you I call. If so, I summon, with you, those culprit colleagues, by whom the defamation have been propagated, and the more recent malignity assisted. 1. Why, in the frst place, did you step out of the ordinary path of your profession, – and, still more especially, out of the line which you and your con-

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federates, in a more particular manner, had publicly prescribed to yourselves, as the discriminative and essential boundary of your undertaking, to make a pretended Review of a Book, which (in the Reviewer’s acceptation of the phrase) has never, yet, been published? 2. And, having so stepped out of your way, and violated the terms of your own engagement with the public, Why did you, in the second place, proceed to afrm as facts, upon the authority of that book, circumstances, for which, in that book, there is not a shadow of foundation? Why, in such pretended Review, have you attributed to me boasts and ostentatious vauntings not in that book to be found, – or in any book, – or any printing, writing, or speech that ever proceeded from me? – Why have you put together parts of disjointed propositions, in such a way as to make them insinuate conclusions the direct reverse of what the whole would necessarily demonstrate? And fnally, Why have you printed within inverted Commas, as quotations from that book, passages which, in that book, never had any existence? To the frst of these Questions, the public must hear your answer; – or you must remain before them branded, by tacit acknowledgement, as an eager volunteer in the service of unprovoked and unprincipled malignity. To the second string of Interrogatives, something more than a mere answer must be given; – or you will be subjected to the still more grievous imputation of conscious misrepresentation, and wilful falshood: – to the imputation of having lost all claim to the Character of a Man of honour, – or a man of moral honesty, or common veracity: – to the imputation, in short, – and to the consequences, of having lost all claim to the expectation of being believed or listened to, by any gentleman, or any person of common sense, upon whatever subject you may, henceforward, fnd it necessary to open your lips. What, then, is your plea? Will you, – thus publicly questioned, appeal to the subterfuge, – which, when privately interrogated, you thought ft to decline? Will you, – by disavowing he responsible Editorship of the obnoxious number, get rid of a part of the infamy? – or, by announcing, at once, the real author, and proclaiming your abhorrence of the obnoxious article, ENDEAVOUR to get rid of the whole?* – or – Will you, and your critical conclave still make common cause? Will you put yourselves boldly upon your defence? – and venture to call upon me, to prove the existence of these disgraceful misrepresentations? * Even this (though it would show some remains of grace and conscience, from which, afer all, I should be glad to fnd that Mr. Jefray was not exempt,) would not exonerate him from the charge of making himself an accessory afer the fact; and his co-operation with the confederacy at the Lecture, (unless that also, can be denied,) would sufciently connect him, with the general tenour of my complaint, and justify this appeal.

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No, Sir, – to the latter of these resources, it is obvious there can be no appeal. Tat conclave must be perfectly aware, – every individual who compares together the Memoir and the review, must immediately be convinced, that I can turn the accusatory part of every one of my interrogatories into direct allegations; and can prove them all. For the present, however, a single instance shall sufce.* In * To quote all the falshoods, prevarications, misrepresentations, foistings and forgeries this curious piece of Criticism exhibits, would be to transcribe the whole article: for it is a mere tissue of these tropes and ornaments of rhetoric, from beginning to end. In the text, therefore, I confne my observations to a single passage: – which, as a literary curiosity, is, perhaps, unequalled in the annals of impudence and slander. But a brief sketch of the number, character, and tendency of the respective falshoods, which the ingenuity of the Reviewer has enabled him to compress into so small a compass, may, probably, be entertaining to the reader: especially as it will serve to exhibit the wonderful and exquisite ingenuity with which the Writer has diversifed his inventions, and adapted them to the various occasions and circumstances under which it was expedient to exhibit them. What was formerly known be the vulgar name of Lying, in his management, is no longer a coarse and vulgar art. A very Barrington, in his once clumsy calling, he seems to have reduced it to a complete Science; and there can be little doubt – that, when the Common-place-book of this indefatigable student shall descend to posterity, it will develope as complete and classical an arrangement of experiments and productions in this kind, as Linnaeus himself has presented of the three Kingdoms of Natural History: – probably, also, with the valuable addition of a correct table of the exact price (in pounds, shillings, pence and farthings) at which a perfect specimen, of each particular description is usually valued, in the Reviewer’s market. But as the rude productions of nature, when once they are made the objects either of experimental philosophy, or of refnement, generally change their names; – as iron, when refned by the admixture of charcoal, assumes the name of steel, and the sheep is converted into mutton by the science of the butcher and the cook; and, as the improvers of the diferent sciences have frequently been permitted to bequeath their names to the objects of their respective improvements; so, also, in the present instance, to do proper honour to the classifcation we are about to acknowledge, – and, at the same time, to avoid the frequent and awkward repetition of a word that the ears of no gentleman can endure, we shall beg leave to call the particular mode, or fgure of speech, which that word has been used to designate, by the new and appropriate name of a JEFF. Of these Jefs, then, as it appears to us, the various exhibitions of this learned classifcator, present specimens of no less than twelve distinct species: as, for example – 1. Te Jef Major – or direct and unequivocal falshood. 2. Te Jef implicative – or that in which the falshood is only implied. 3. Te Jef interpolative – in which the falshood is produced by foisting some additional word, or circumstance, into a quotation, or statement, in other respects not untrue. 4. Te Jef quotative – the falshood of which consists in making an author appear to say, what he never has said; by marking the forgeries of ones own invention with the distinction of inverted commas. It is useful only to Reviewers. 5. Te Jef invertive – which consists in inverting the order of circumstances, sentences, or parts of sentences; so as to make them suggest conclusions very diferent from what they would authorise in their natural order. 6. Te Jef magnifcative – Tis term very imperfectly describes the beautiful and extensive class of super-hyperboles it is intended to include. Te excellence of this fgure consists in seizing upon some word or circumstance, that occurs but once in a whole book, and describing it as to be found in every sentence, or in every page; – Tus, for example, if, in a Dramatic Romance, a drunken Welchman should happen to be introduced, singing a song in praise of ale – you must call it ‘a Dramatic Romance full of songs about ale.’ Another illustration will be given below: and, indeed, the instances and varieties that might be produced of this most prolifc species are innumerable. Te Critic who aspires to the honour of ten guineas per sheet, should be well

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the third Number of that periodical ebullition of personality, empiricism, and provided with a good assortment of this kind of Jef, in particular; as it is totally impossible that a single book, character, or occasion, should ever fall in his way, to which it may not, in some of its fashions, be adjusted. 7. Te Jef equivocative – of course, consists in the ingenious introduction of the words of truth, under such associations as to make them support the inferences of falshood. 8. Te Jef stradulative – is another very admirable species of this illustrious Genius. Its most distinguishing excellence is the vast agility with which it accomplishes its object; striding, at pleasure, over any number of intervenign circumstances in a narration, or argument, – so as to produce an apparent association between facts or premises essentially disjointed. Excellent use may be made of this favourite Jef, – when either a chain of conclusive reasoning is to be traduced, as in coherent nonsense; a fne strain of morality, to be convicted of licentious extravagance; or the honest struggles of persevering consistency, are to be branded with the imputation of indolent and excentric venality. 9. Te Jef conjunctive – is most useful in quotations. In its most perfect form, it is produced by picking out single expressions, or single sentences (no matter from what distant parts of a book,) and stringing them all together; as if they had been so arranged by the author. 10. Te Jef disjunctive – consists either in relating a part, only, of a story, as if it were the whole; or dashing a full stop into the middle of a sentence; and then breaking suddenly of: – so as to make your author appear to say some very extravagant or ridiculous thing, which never had entered into his imagination. Tis is a very witty Jef; and is of excellent use in turning a serious author into ridicule, or traducing the moral character of an individual. It should, therefore, never be neglected by the Editor, or writers, of any work, that depends, for its circulation, on gratifying the malignant passions of mankind. 11. Te Jef insinuative (or Jef of inference) – is one of the most delicate species in the whole arrangement. It is exemplifed in those instances and masterpieces of apparent analysis, or recapitulation, where no falshood is absolutely told; but, in which, circumstances are so arranged, and the language so dexstrously sophisticated, that a falshood must necessarily be inferred. Tis sort of Jef is very useful in all those cases – where the falshood, to be insinuated, might expose the Reviewer to the danger of being kicked out of a cofee-house, or into a Court of Law. 12. Te Jef of omission – which may, also, be called – the Jef negative, or nuteral Jef, – consists in the entire suppression of such parts and circumstances of a story as cannot possibly be tortured to the purposes of the recapitulator; or, as would confute the calumnious inferences, which he is determined to make. Of the generality of these, illustrations may be found in the article now before us. Of the Jef quotative a very perfect specimen is exhibited and emblazoned in the Text; and, as for the Jef negative, it is so great a favourite with the Reviewer, that he has absolutely appealed to it, in every instance, where any thing occurred which it was the real object of the Memoir to record. Of the other kinds, it is curious to observe with what skilful diversity he has arranged the diferent species, – so as to produce a perfect mosaic of these, his favourite embellishments. Tus, (for example) – in the very frst paragraph of the pretended analysis of the Memoir, – which consists only of fve short sentences, there are four distinct specimens of four distinct kinds of JEFFS – to wit – 1. Te Jef magnifcative, by which the ‘tardiness and apparent ineptiutde’ resulting from temporary derangements of health, and from the gloom and depression that clouded my mind, afer the loss of my father, is quoted as the general characteristic of my boyhood. 2. Te Jef stradulative, by which (striding at once over the circumstance of my settled attachment to the profession of an artist; – for which my father had trained me) he represents, as my frst and favourite project, that appeal to the stage, which, in reality, was a mere transient suggestion of disappointment, when the more eligible mode of escaping from an unhappy situation was denied me. [See the particulars in a future note.] 3. Te Jef interpolative – by which, without the least shadow of pretence, he makes ‘my own consciousness of the want of voice’ one of the motives that compelled me to give up the idea.’

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defamation, which you misname a Review (p. 200),7 afer very decently compar4. Te comes the Jef invertive, in which the only mention is made (and that out of its place) of ‘an unsuccessful attempt to become a painter.’ In this way does he go on, inlaying, tessellating and diversifying, with all the address that characterises his peculiar genius; till, on a ground plot of only seventy lines of analytical abridgement, he has inlayed no less than ffeen diferent specimens of his favourite embellishment. In twenty-six lines more of declamation and criticism, that follow, he has been somewhat more sparing; as, in the whole of that extent, only three distinct and absolute Jefs are inserted. What is wanted in number, however, is made up in magnitude: and one of these Jefs, in particular, (to which all due honour is endeavoured to be paid in the text above) – is an absolute constellation of itself. Nor let it be supposed – that, in this ornamental masaic, it is only of the more modest specimens (such as have already been exemplifed,) that the artist has made his dispositions: Jefs of a bolder splendour, and of more glaring colours, strikingly diversify the picture. Te Jef major itself, indeed, appears to be his principal favourite. Tus, – speaking of my three years residence in Wales, the Reviewer has the following words – ’He was persecuted, he afrms, by all his neighbours.’ Tose who consult the Memoir will fnd, on the contrary, that I have done justice to the kindness and attentions of some of those neighbours; and to the sympathy and friendship of one, in particular; who, all things considered, may be regarded as a phenomenon in the history of social attachments. Again – ’Te author somewhere informs us, that upwards of two thousand copies have been disposed of.’ To what does this word somewhere allude? Certainly, in the book under review, there is nowhere one single word to be found upon this subject. So that we should have, even yet, another species of falsifcation to defne, under the denomination of the Jef transplantive – if all subordinate distinctions were not swallowed up, by the superior claims of the Jef major; under which this noble sally of excursive genius must, unquestionably, be ranked: for certain it is, – most certain! Tat the author has not, any where, said a word about two thousand copies – in writing, speech, or print. In the controversy with Mr. Belsham in the Monthly Magazine, (that controversy by which one calumniator has, already, so completely been put down!) some occasional mention, indeed, was made – of the encouraging extent of the private circulation of this book: but I have, there, only stated a simple truth, which the Reviewer has, here, thought ft to transform into a vain-glorious falshood. But the JEFF of JEFFS – the transcendental – the most triumphant and ingenious of all the instances of the use of this bold embellishment of excursive criticism, still remains to be noticed – ‘He had the honour,’ says the Reviewer ‘of being appointed one of the poll-clerks to Mr Horne Tooke, upon his frst canvas for Westminster.’ – !!!! Now, I never was appointed poll-clerk to Mr. Horne Tooke; nor ever had any connection of pecuniary emolument with Mr. Horne Tooke, or any other political character, in my life: nor is there any such fact stated in the Memoir. Te reader who gives himself the trouble to turn to that memoir will, at once, discover the grossness, and the object of this misstatement. Tere are some, perhaps, who may think that, in this long and elaborate disquisition, (with the customary zeal of commentators) I have carried my admiration of the invention, adjustment and application of these classical descriminations too far: – that I have attributed to genius and scientifc descrimination what – (in some instances, at least) may have originated in accident and mistake. When it is considered (it will be observed) with what haste gentlemen will be apt to write, who hire themselves out by the sheet, and that an Edinburgh Reviewer, in particular, is not supposed to be paid for the attention with which he has perused his author, but for the quantity of fashy dissertation he can pour forth, on the general subject of the book, it may naturally be expected – that his statements and quotations should not be very accurate; and that a part of what are here regarded as ingenious and elaborate Jefs, are, in reality, only hasty misapprehensions and ignorant blunders.

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ing my anxious and determined preference of intellectual cultivation and literary Had the mistatements and misquotations alluded to, been as irregular in their nature, as they are various in their characteristics; – had they been sometimes upon one side, and sometimes upon the other; – now sinning in detraction, and now in favour; this objection might, perhaps, have been admitted. But unity of object, and an admirable adaptation of complicated parts, to one great and consistent end, have always been admitted to preclude the doctrine of blind-fold accident and chance. Where the evidence of these is made distinct and clear, the dance of chaotic atoms vanishes from the imagination, – and we admit, at once, the beautiful system of order and design. Look, then, through the whole catalogue of these supposed mistakes; – examine their general character, – mark their invariable – their universal tendency (even in those instances where the deviations appear most trifing and insignifcant) – how correctly – how dextrously – with what cooperative infuence and harmonious consent, do they minister to the same essential object: – to the degradation of the moral and intellectual character of the individual whose work is pretended to be reviewed. Compare the Memoir with the pretended analysis! – mark with what slight touches of the pen – what bold omissions, and delicate insertions! those very facts and circumstances, which, – fairly represented, would have proved, at least, the disinterestedness, the perseverence, the indefatigable activity of that individual, are made to insinuate the direct reverse of every one of these; and to countenance the mediated charges of ‘precarious principle’ – ‘contempt for honest industry’ – ‘presumptuous vanity,’ and ‘mere forwardness and audacity.’ Add to which – that, if report is to be credited, the supposed cause of inconsiderate haste did not then exist; the contract was not then made, nor the remuneration by measure agreed upon. Te frst three numbers, it is said, were probationary; and the writers were to show – what extent of future remuneration they could deserve: and they did show it: – though their deserts, as yet, they certainly have not got! Tese things considered, the idle hypothesis of blunder and mistake, is entirely out of the question: the unity of the design and the felicity of the execution, rush immediately upon the mind. Even Scepticism itself acknowledges the expansive genius, and does homage to the elaborate science of the arch-improver and clessifcator of the noble invention of Jefng; and my Eulogy is admitted in its full extent. If, unwearied, with the pleasant efort of admiration, the reader should happen to extend his researches a little further, – should he continue the comparison through the Critique and the Poems, – his admiration will probably increase. Whatever may be thought of the Poetry, or the Poet; of the Critic and his Criticisms, the opinion can be but one. Te Science still pervades. Te same creative genius – the same ingenuous design prevails in every part. Jef rises above Jef, in new species, and in new varieties; and new defnitions are demanded to complete the classifcation. In short – Nothing is lef to the improvement of future labourers, or future ages. Te Science, is at once, developed and illustrated through all its minutest parts: and the article in question may be properly regarded as an entire and perfect specimen in its way: – In plan, and in execution, as a very Epic: – In short, (to sum up all in all) as ONE COMPLETE AMALGAMATED JEFF !!! N.B. If any controversy should, hereafer, arise upon the subject of the principal term in this nomenclator – If it should be learnedly disputed – (which, I understand, is not impossible) whether what is here denominated a Jef, ought not, in strictness of gratitude, to have been called a Brom; – and if, in support of such controversy, the SECOND PERSON SINGULAR, in this grammatical conjugation of Verbs Critical, should boldly lay claim to the Criticism on ‘Belsham’s Philosophy of the Mind,’ (Ed. Rev. No II. Art. 21.) in which the beauty, excellence, utility, and propriety of teaching and telling falshoods, are philosophically and systematically maintained, with a sublime obscurity of diction, and an inexplicable involution of construction, truly worthy of such a doctrine; and in which the practical ‘employment of falshood’ (as well as ‘the acknowledged employment of rapine and murder’) are boldly attributed to the DIVINE BEING himself !!! [See 477.] – In such case, I acknowledge, – and, pressed by such presumptive arguments, I should only have a palliative plea in excuse for my inadvertency. I should only have to observe, that such mistakes have been but too frequent in the History of Science and Discovery; – that, from the general imperfection of historical evidence, it is frequently impossible, in such instances, accurately to descriminate between

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pursuit over the callings and professions into which my friends had endeavoured to direct my exertions, to the indolence and vanity of certain females, who prefer the wages and trappings of prostitution to the remuneration of plain work and embroidery, you insert the following pretended quotation; – marked with the distinction of inverted commas, – as quotations in Reviews usually are; and as, therefore, nothing but quotations, certainly, ought to be. ‘Tey have all ‘ardent temperaments,’ like Mr. Telwall, ‘irritable feelings, enthusiastic virtues, and a noble contempt for mechanical drudgery, dull regularity, and slow-paced erudition.’’ Now, Sir, I ask you – In what page, or what edition, of my ‘Poems and Memoirs’ you have found this pretended quotation? – for certain it is, that no such paragraph ever was written by me: and that, in the printed copy of the Book, now before me, I have sought for it in vain. Nay – I will give you all possible latitude. – In what pages, however scattered, can you fnd even the mere associations of substantive and epithet here introduced? Where have I talked of ‘noble contempt,’ or any other ‘contempt for mechanical drudgery?’ – Where have I been guilty of branding ‘regularity’ with the epithet – or the imputation of ‘dulness?’ – Where have I abjured, or insulted, ‘slow-paced erudition?’ No Sir – Not only in words, but in temper and spirit, has this most shameless review falsifed the record pretended to be transcribed. – For much of this fraudulent quotation there is not even ‘the shadow of the shade’ of a pretence; and the whole passage is a complete forgery: – a forgery, perhaps, not cognizable by the Criminal Law of the Country; but, in actual profigacy and atrociousness, not inferior to those, for the perpetration of which, in exercising the functions of your secondary – or your primary profession – (for, really, I do not know whether your proper description be Reviewer and Advocate, or Advocate and Reviewer) you may sometimes, perhaps, have pleaded away the lives of your fellow beings: many of whom, it is probable, might have had better pleas of mitigation and excuse, than the Writer, or the Editor of this can be very likely to bring forward.* the inventor and the adopter of an important improvement; – between the frst discoverer, and the second claimant; – and, that, as Amerigo, who edited the discovery of the Western Continent, has assumed the Laurel of Ages, which should have crowned the brows of Columbus, – by whom the discovery was originally made; so must Mr. B. philosophically content himself to see Mr J. crowned with his ravished honours: – unless, indeed, the ardent and enterprising spirit of this ‘daring experimenter’ (to adopt his own language) should impel him – to tear them from the usurping brow. But whatever may be the issue of such a contest – or, whatever the award of posterity – the consolation is, (to the scientifc world, as to the commercial!) – that, though names may be disputed, or titles changed, the Classifcation, and the Continent will still remain. * An interesting parallel might be drawn, – and, perhaps, a very instructive one, between the forgery of quotations in a Review, and the forgery of a name to a Promissory Note; and, if it were any part of the author’s disposition to wish for the extension of our sanguinary code, it might be

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Te Memoir, indeed, sufciently evinces – that mechanical pursuits were not very congenial, to my habits or dispositions; and, from the same document, it is sufciently evident, that an afectionate father (whose early dissolution has been the source to me of so many wrongs and so many calamities) had trained my infant expectations to far other prospects. I have, also, quoted from the Commentaries of Judge Blackstone8 (‘the frst law book that was put into my hands’) a passage – in which that learned Judge, so emphatically, condemns the practice of subjecting those who are intended for the Bar (as I was, at that time, intended) – to ‘the drudgery of servitude, and the manual labour of copying the trash of an attorney’s ofce.’* no very difcult matter to demonstrate – that, in all moral reason, and just analogy, the penalty inficted upon the one, ought equally to be extended to the other: for, in the essential consideration of motive in the agent, and injury to the object, the turpitude of the Reviewer will be found, at least, to equal that of the Felon of the other description. Both seek to obtain a sum of money, by the forgeries they commit; – both, if successful, perpetrate an actual robbery on the individuals against whom they forge. But, – what comparison in the injury! ‘Who steals my purse, steals trash; ‘Twas mine – ’tis his – and has been slave to thousands: But he who flches from me my good name, – Robs me of that which not enriches him, And makes me poor indeed!’ An essential part of this quotation will not now apply. Even the comprehensive genius of Shakespeare, that ‘Exhausted worlds, and then imagin’d new!’ – Even his sharp prophetic ken, that pierc’d the womb of Nature, and seemed to have discovered, in their very embryons, all the possibilities of human character – of human passion, and of human motive, did not forsee the refnements of profigate cupidity, reserved for this enlightened generation. – Even he did not anticipate, that the art of enriching themselves by flching fom others their good names, would (at the beginning of the 19th century) not only be invented, but be reduced to a regular system, by a confederacy of Advocate Reviewers, organised and incorporated into a regular institution, under the style and frm of ‘the Edinburgh Review, or Critical Journal,’ for the ostensible purpose of sharing among themselves the price of ten Guineas per sheet, for all the forgeries and robberies, of this description, their industrious and licentious pens could perpetrate. * Even this quotation, from a legal authority, the advocate Reviewer could not requote, without appealing to his favourite fgure. See (Edin. Rev. No. 3. P. 198.) Not satisfed with introducing as my own, a sentiment professedly quoted from so distinguished a writer, he changes the words of that quotation; and then, by the dextrous application of the Jef stradulative, immediately, and without the least acknowledgment or warning, bounds over two closely printed octavo pages, – and, by the interpolative assistance of the conjunctive AND, couples it together (still within the same inverted commas) with a part of another sentence: by which means – (among other like honourable advantages) he has the opportunity of foisting upon me, a barbarous construction of period, and dissonant recurrence of words and sounds, scarcely unworthy of some of the constituted authorities of his Critical Judicature. Te whole passage, indeed, now under consideration, constitutes a beautiful specimen of taste and ingenuity; and shews, most completely, the inadequacy of all the elaborate eforts of a former note, to do justice to the wonderful science it discusses. In the present instance we have a perfect specimen of a species of Jef – which, escaping our former diligence – was omitted in the classical nomenclator: – to wit – Te Jef complicative, or that species of sentence which consists, from beginning to end, of a complete texture of diferent species of Jefs, – so intersected, intertwisted and intercalated, as to form one inseparable web of complicated Jeffcation! Te whole passage

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Such are the sole foundations for the pretended quotation, and ceremonial accompaniment of inverted commas – ‘noble contempt for mechanical drudgery.’ But for what remains, even such pretences are not to be found. I have no where indulged myself in any petulent invectives against ‘regularity;’ or in any sort of insinuations against that essential guardian of every talent, and of every virtue. I may be bold to afrm – that neither my writings, nor my life, have shewn it in any disrespect. In cases where my own particular interests, and my own personal afairs, were, alone, concerned, – I may, heretofore, perhaps, at some times, and in the ardour of other pursuits, have paid too little practical attention to its dictates; but I have never felt, afected, or, expressed for this useful quality, any ‘noble,’ or any ignoble, ‘contempt.’ – In my moral conduct (notwithstanding the ‘precarious principle,’ with which the Review has the audacity to charge me) I defy the whole congregated faction of defamation, to bring forward the individual instance (recorded or unrecorded,) in which I have ofended against its rules; and although, in my studies and intellectual pursuits, I had, unfortunately, none of that assistance to which the generality of students have such essential obligations, – yet, even in my character of an author, I fatter myself – that the very worst of my earliest productions (and some of them, I again acknowledge, are, in some respects, sufciently defective) will, at least, evince my desire of paying homage to this indispensable requisite of useful composition. If I have not stigmatised ‘regularity’ with the imputation of dulness, still less have I contemptuously sneered at ‘slow-paced erudition.’ Nothing that corresponds with this will be found in any part of my book. Te thought and the phraseology are of kindred birth: – my feelings could never have dictated the one, nor my ear have endured the other. No. – I venerate Erudition! – even those descriptions of it which minister to the solitary gratifcation of the cloistered and the abstract; of those which are to consists of but eight lines; four of which are printed with inverted commas, as one quotation: – [I use the numeral, in preference to the article, for the accommodation of the Reviewer; who, from some passages of his criticisms, seems not to be aware that the latter is a contraction of the former.] In these eight lines are, thus, inwoven and interwoven, fve diferent Jefs – some of which (even separately considered) will be found to be of a compound nature. As for example, (1.) In the very frst line, (‘He next took to the profession of the law, though this was a profession,’ &c.) the word though is very dextrously made use of to amalgate the Jef stradulative and Jef conjunctive into one indivisible and indiscriminative Jef. (2.) By the assistance of the Jef interpretative, (another distinct species, not heretofore defned) the author is complimented, in line the fourth, with the charge of passing ‘a very idle period of three years and a half;’ which certainly the text, – and still less the context, can by no means authorise. (3.) Te again, the frth and sixth lines present us with the complex, or amalgation, of the quotative and stradulative, already animadverted upon, at the commencement of this note; which, again, in the sixth and seventh lines, is immediately followed by (4.) the still more dextrous amalgamation of the quotative, stradulative, and conjunctive; which, imperceptibly gliding into (5.) the Jef disjunctive, with a beautiful abruptness, completes the whole masterly complication.

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be regarded rather as the badges and embellishments, than the solid advantages of a liberal education: nor is there any part, or species of erudition, (so long as the professor will remember, that it is but a part) which I do not honour and respect. Deprived myself, by circumstances which I could not control, of the early opportunity of cultivating some branches of knowledge, to which custom has directed her chief regards; I have sought with diligence, and seized with avidity, the sprays that were within my reach*; and, with a laborious and persevering diligence, have devoted myself to the improvement of some particular studies – that, hitherto, perhaps, have been to much neglected. Even in the Memoir itself, there is sufcient evidence of my thirst of knowledge, and my avarice of time; and the Lectures, against which an ungentleman-like confederacy has here been formed, would, at least, have evinced a patience of minute investigation, a persevering ardour, and a habit of elaborate application and experimental induction: nor is it uncharitable to conclude, that, the convictions of certain persons, in this respect, rendered those Lectures so much the more an object of prejudication and contemptuous hatred. But I am treading in the steps of evil example, and travelling out of the record. At least, I am anticipating what belongs to another part of my charge. My objects, at present, are the misrepresentations of the Memoir; and, with respect to this part of the calumny, it is sufcient to observe, – that there is not a mode or form of erudition, or any thing that has ever been dignifed with that name, that, in any part of my book, is mentioned with the least derision; or any single expression – that, in the smallest degree, can justify the scofng imputation of ‘noble contempt.’ Instead, therefore, of charging me with despising erudition, it would have been more becoming in those who assume the ofce, and afects the character of critics, to have pointed out some passages in my book, in which I have betrayed the want of it; or in which, what they are pleased to call y presumptuous vanity,’ has afected any ostentatious display, or any arrogant presumption of that which I do not possess. Something of this kind, I shall certainly attempt, with respect to the empirics of this illustrious association†; and upon some, or other of them, – I * It may not be improper to remark – that, during that very three years and a half, which the reviewer is pleased to stigmatise, as a very idle period, it was my almost invariable habit (summer and winter) to read every night till the clock struck twelve, and recommence my studies in the morning, as the clock struck six; and to fll up the whole of the intervals between ofce hours, with the same studious application: – a further illustration of my ‘noble contempt for dull regularity.’ But, afer all, – it is not what the student has acquired, that is the matter of importance to the public, but what he can produce: – not the slowness, or the velocity of his pace; but the goal he has attained. † An instance of such ignorance might be extracted (or, if it is not ignorance, what is it?) from the very paragraph that immediately follows this mass of contemptuous forgery. Endeavouring to discredit, with a single dash of his pen, a Dramatic Poem, expressly written in illustration of Northern Mythology, the reviewer contemptuously observes – (in conjunction with another afrmation,

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believe, upon more than one, I shall prove, before I lay down my pen, the most gross defciencies in that sort of Erudition, which, as self-appointed guardians of English Literature, it behoved them most especially to have cultivated: – to wit – the principles of the English Language, of English Composition, and of English Grammar. But, frst, I must have done with the quotation; and, with a pained heart, I am obliged to recollect – that the sum of wickedness, so industriously accumulated into this contracted vehicle of forgery and defamation, is not yet enumerated. ‘Bad begins, but worse remains behind.’9

Where do you fnd the expression ‘ardent temperaments?’ – Where do you fnd the expression ‘irritable feelings?’ – Where have I boasted of my ‘enthusiastic virtues?’10 Disjuncted, or associated, I can no where recognise any portion of this pretended quotation: unless the mere letters of the alphabet, arranged in whatever diferent order, may be regarded as such portions. Some of the individual words, indeed, will be found in the Memoir; but no two of them will be found together. One passage, I admit, there is – (a passage, however, of several sentences; but connected in subject and in succession; and the only individual passage, of whatever length,) in which my ‘enthusiasm,’ my ‘temperament’ and my ‘feelings’ are all, successively mentioned: and this is, therefore, the only paragraph that can possibly be admitted to have furnished – even a pretence for this association. But – Oh Nature! – oh Humanity! – oh link of Moral Sympathy, that bindest man to man! what a passage is this, to have been made the subject of villanous misrepresentation and exulting calumny? What sort of a heart must that being possess! – to what social or moral feeling can he be susceptible! – of what materials must the original constitution of his mind consist! and by what process of digestion and assimilation must it proceed! who peruses the narrative of domestic afictions, only to insult the suferer with contemptuous mockery! – and, from the last of miseries that can rend the paternal heart, collects only the already noticed in the dissertation on the Science of Jefng,) that it is ‘full of freezing spirits:’ – (that is, there is one freezing spirit, a material agent in the Drama, and one scene in the regions of mist and fost: the Hell of our northern ancestors.) With what other spirits would our learned reviewer have dealt, upon such an occasion? – Would he have peopled the frozen regions of Hela, with bone-fre devils, ‘in fame coloured tafata?’ – or, Would his ‘slow-paced erudition’ have placed there, Ixion upon his wheel, and Prometheus with his vulture; and Tantalus and Sisyphus, and all the appropriate pageantries of classical superstition? Used, and abused, as these unfortunate creations of classical belief have so frequently been, by those pretenders to poetry, who mistake the transcripts of memory for the fights of fancy, and the pedantry of the copyist for the fervour of inspiration, – must they not have stared and wondered to fnd themselves, at last, in a situation so perfectly grotesque?

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materials that may diminish the consolations of intellectual and moral respectability! Te passage in contemplation will be found in p. xlii of the Memoir, in which, afer speaking of the irreparable and sudden loss of the eldest and most beloved of all my children and of her having ‘lef her unfortunate parents, amid the horrors of solitude, in a state of mind which souls of the keenest sensibility can alone conceive; which Stoicism may condemn, and Apathy might, perhaps, deride;’11 some allusion is made to the very diferent strain of composition exhibited in the sonnets and poems, that were written upon a former trying occasion, and those which were produced during the long struggle of mental anguish, by which this calamity was succeeded: and it is observed, that – Tose who had ‘studied the tone of the authors mind,’ in those earlier specimens, ‘would not have expected to see him thus sinking beneath domestic misfortune. But his frmness’ (on the former occasion) ‘was not insensibility, but enthusiasm; and, perhaps, his character cannot better be comprehended than by a comparison of those poems with the Efusions produced by this calamity. He will there be seen in his strength, and in his weakness: and, probably, both will be found to originate in the same temperament; – in the same keenness of perception, and habits of feeling.’ Here, then, (or no where) is the pretence (and the occasion) upon which this callous-hearted Reviewer thinks it decent and proper to accuse me of an ostentatious parade of meretricious sentiment! Such is the passage that has furnished calumnious Malice with the materials of exulting irony, over my ‘ardent temperaments,’ my ‘irritable feelings,’ and my ‘enthusiastic virtues!’12 Here are the substantives, indeed; – but how diferent are the epithets they suggest! Here is the acknowledgement of enthusiasm, I admit; – but where is the boast of virtue? Te whole passage, indeed, – (especially when taken with the context) instead of a boast, is an apology. Te heart-broken father apologises for that weakness, over which, nevertheless, – when the object it deplored is recollected, – even yet, he cannot blush. Child of my heart! – frst ofspring of my love! – dear victim of the afictions to which I have been exposed! – must not the turf lie peacefully upon they breast? – would inveterate malignity even disturb thy ashes; and from the tears that watered they early grave, extract the bitter poison of triumphant defamation! Surely this spot might, at least, have been sacred! Tis little spot the profane foot of calumnious Ridicule might have trembled to approach. Into the anguish this part of the subject has excited, I did not expect to have been betrayed. I was not aware, that, in applying a remedy to recent injuries, it would be necessary to tear open the yet smarting wounds of domestic afiction; or, in vindicating my character from the mingled levity and ferociousness of this attack, to review the bitterest sorrows of my life. No, Sir, – bloated with calumny

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as every line of this pretended review so conspicuously was – the necessity of searching the volume for the pretended quotations, could, alone, have revealed the extent of that inhuman baseness, by which, alone, it could be dictated. But let me turn away from this painful part of the discussion. Let me turn to the only source of consolation, of which the contemplation of human profigacy is susceptible: – to the recollection, – and to the proof, that the profigate calumniator is generally as contemptible as he is base. Yes, – yes, Mr. Jefray, I said it in direct terms: I said it of the Calumniator in general: – He is usually as contemptible as he is base. But of the calumniator by profession! – of him who makes a regular trade and system of defamation, – who calumniates for hire, and lets himself out to journey-work, in this way, for a stated salary, – or to piece-work, at a stated price; – of him it must especially be true: for no mind of any grasp or size, could condescend to the drudgery and infamy of so base a calling. Vanity – (of the sufciency of which, in certain of the conductors, report is rife, and physiognomy is conclusive!)13 may buoy them up, against this observation; and it is not unknown, – that, mistaking the disgraceful avidity of mankind for slander and abuse (even from the mouths of Jackdaws and Starlings,) for homage to their transcendant abilities, they are not a little intoxicated by the scandalous success of their experiment. Yet, most assuredly, Mr. Jefray, in those portions of ‘the Edinburgh Review and Critical Journal,’ that have fallen under my observation, there is little that can be pleaded in exception to this consolatory rule.* * Nothing, in reality: – for although there are articles of some ability, in these Reviews, that deserved a better place, and better company, – in those articles the baseness does not appear. Even in this identical third number, a very able specimen of candid criticism and correct analysis is presented, in the Review of ‘Hay’s practical observations on Surgery.’ It is, in reality, just what a review should be: an impartial statement and candid criticism of the contents of the book reviewed; and exhibits, at once, the unprejudiced discrimination of practical Science, and that simple, yet elegant perspicuity of style, which never fowed but from a well-cultivated understanding, and a polished mind. In these, and in every other respect, it furnishes, indeed, an admirable contrast to the generality of the articles of which the work is composed: articles in which impertinent digression is substituted for analysis; empty pretensions of wit and ornament, endeavour to gloss over the grossest blemishes of construction and grammar; and prolix efusions of afected subtilty, aspire to the honours of philosophical disquisition. Te article, I believe, is the production of a professional gentleman, whose head and whose heart, are, alike, uncontaminated by the iniquity against which I complain; and who (although, in the zeal of professional science, he has occasionally lent his pen to the honourable purpose of giving increased publicity to works of practical usefulness) would disdain to be regarded as a member of this confederacy; or to have his name handed down to posterity, in the muster roll of literary defamation. Te name of Heberden has always drawn my attention to another article – (probably from the same pen.) It exhibit’s the same candour and discrimination, – the same professional science, and the same correct style of criticism and composition, displayed in a more ample feld. [See Heberden on the History and Cure of Diseases, No. 2. p. 467.]

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In point of composition, I suppose it will be acknowledged, that the present article is very far from being the worst that, even this very number of the review contains. Yet, such as it is, the illustration is in point. Te language is worthy of the linguist; – the style is in perfect harmony with the sentiment; his metaphors are as meretricious as his views are prostitute. Take, for example, the elegant fourish with which this forged quotation is introduced – ‘In every page of this extraordinary Memoir, we discover traces of that impatience of honest industry, that presumptuous vanity, and precarious principle, that have thrown so many adventurers upon the world, and drawn so many females from their plain work and their embroidery, to delight the public by their beauty in the streets, and their novels in the circulating library.14 Who can peruse this meretricious farrago, and not immediately refect – that Literature has its stews, as well as Concupiscence; – that there are Brothel Reviews, as well as Brothelhouses of another description; – that the mind can be let out to prostitution as well as the body; and that the same sort of fimzy, fashy bedizement may be made use of, as a signal of trade, in the one instance as in the other? But, of all the signs, and all the attributes of prostitution, impudence, I believe, has always been regarded as the most unequivocal: and surely, in this respect, all who are in the least acquainted with the two reputed principal partners in this convenient establishment, will be ready to admit – that this curious metaphor is not at all defcient. Precarious principle!!! – precarious principle! – Is it Mr. Jefray that makes this speech? or is it the immaculate Mr. Brougham?15 or do they speak it in Co.? or does it only proceed from some of the common instruments of scandalous gratifcation? Pray, good, steady, consistent and upright Gentlemen! do recollect yourselves a while. Turn over, again, the pages of this Memoir, and, then, turn over the pages of your own remembrances; – and tell me, if you can, what proofs you can bring forward of the precariousness of my principle? and what proof you are giving, in this very instance, of the steadiness of your own? Tis note might be enlarged; and the exceptions ought to be multiplied: for there are some few persons of real taste and learning, who have occasionally written articles for this work, who are not of the confederacy (in any acceptation of the phrase) – and whose understandings and style of composition, are equally uninfected with the vices of this empirical school. Te temperate and masterly review of Pinkerton’s Geography, in the ffh number, has all the internal evidence of coming from a pen of this description. It exhibits a manly spirit of criticism an discrimination, and real knowledge of the subject under review; but it breathes none of that insanity of calumnious malice so conspicuous in many of the articles; and in style and composition, it is marked with none of the afectations, and none of the ignorance of grammar and construction that accompany, most conspicuously, the grand specimens of prof igate virulence.

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During the last seven years of my life, it is true, I have abjured them. I am wedded – enthusiastically wedded, to a very diferent pursuit. But have I shifed sides, like a common prize fghter? Have I withdrawn myself from one party, only to display my violence for another? or to excite, or keep alive, a spirit of division and persecution, when the exigencies of the times are crying aloud for an emulous and afectionate unanimity. (?) As a politician, I am absolutely defunct: but I have not started forth, in regenerated wickedness, a slanderer, or a persecutor; nor do I quit my Church Yard, in the ghastly shroud of Criticism, to cross the way of any human being; – to haunt him with the remembrances of things that are past, – or retrace the footsteps of former opinions, – a perturbed and accusing spirit.* In what other point of view, will Mr. Jefray, or Mr. Brougham, or whoever was the Critical amanuensis upon this occasion, think ft to apply this ambiguous accusation – precariousness of principle? Is it to any thing connected with moral conduct? Te evidence of this was before them: – broad, full, and open, it is spread through the Memoir; with such particularity of time and place, as no one could have ventured upon, who was conscious of any thing he had reason to conceal. If I have falsifed – why have I not been confuted? If there is any thing in the book, that, even by inference, can impeach my integrity – why is it not brought forward? And, fnally, Why, in the pretended analysis of my Memoir, is every * A whispered suspicion, I understand, was buzzed about, some few months ago, which, though not immediately connected with the subject of this pamphlet, it may not be improper to take this opportunity of repelling. It was suspected – that the introductory paragraph to an article relative to my Lectures and Address at Halifax, that appeared in ‘the Courier,’ came from my pen. If this had been the case, it would have been an exception to the present statement. But, most assuredly, no single word of that article was written by me, except what was quoted from the printed address: nor have I any knowledge whatever of the Editors, proprietors, or writers of that paper. For their unsolicited insertion of that ample quotation, I am, undoubtedly, much indebted to them. It was an act of gratuitous kindness; and, certainly, with respect to me and my science, as a kindness, it was evidently intended. I confess, also, that I was the more gratifed with this act of civility towards me, because the tone and spirit of that paper so decisively marks it as connected with the ministerial interest; and I considered, therefore, the friendly mention that was there made of my deportment and present pursuits, as an additional evidence that I was no longer, in any shape whatever, an object of jealousy, or of animosity to the governing powers; that satisfed with my positive and complete abstinence of seven years from every subject, or transaction of a political nature or tendency; and seeing me ardently and diligently engaged in a pursuit, which may be useful to many, and can rationally be obnoxious to none, it was rather their wish, that I should be countenanced and encouraged, then disturbed and hunted down. Considering the article as a testimonial of that spirit (which some persons of high respectability in that connection, have, in some neighbourhoods, very openly professed and acted upon,) I again repeat that I felt myself both gratifed and obliged. But, if the mode of introduction could have been dictated by me, I should, certainly, have declined all comparisons. I do not wish to pull down others, to build up myself. I will not become the accuser, even of what I do not approve. I will assail no man, or set of men, unless driven so to do by the imperious necessity of self-defence. My only wish – is to stand by the candid appreciation of my own merits or by such appreciation to fall.

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individual circumstance that relates to moral associations, – to my personal connections, my wrongs, my hardships, my relative attachments, and my studies,* – why is every thing of this description solicitously suppressed? – suppressed, in the pretended review of a Memoir of forty-eight pages, upwards of thirty of which are, actually, devoted to circumstances of these descriptions? Why, in such pretended analysis, has the reviewer omitted all allusion to the difculties amidst which I struggled to support an aged and decripid mother, and a brother bowed down by the visitations of disease? – that mother (fond and afectionate as she was!) whose mistaken calculations had denied me the eligible profession to which my father had destined me! – that brother (that scourge of my disastrous youth!) who had wasted the property that father had bequeathed? Why, I repeat it, was every thing of this description omitted? Did these facts constitute no part of the genuine portraiture of that mind he pretended to delineate? – or, Had the Memorialist, himself, related them too ostentatiously? – No. If he had, the public would have had some notice of such ostentation, through the medium of the Edinburgh Review. Te real fact is, that the pen of the Reviewer was too busily employed in the forgery of pretended connections to fnd time to record the circumstances of those that did, in reality, exist. So much for ‘precarious principle!’ Nor is the accusation of ‘impatience of honest industry,’ more decorous, or more fortunate. Does the critic, really, consider no industry as honest, but that which submits (in the elegant phraseology of his Criticism) ‘to cut out casimere and stitch in buckram?’16 Are the labours of the mind and of the pen all fraudulent and base? – Does Mr. Jefray – Does Mr. Brougham think so? – Or is no literary industry to be regarded as honest, but that which is employed in writing Edinburgh Reviews and Critical Journals? – in selling defamation by the piece! or measuring it out be the ell! And as for presumptuous vanity! – Let any person, acquainted with the genuine spirit of Criticism, and the strength and clearness of genuine English composition, observe the bottled small beer that froths, and fumes – sometimes mantling a little, and sometimes stirring up the very bottom of its foul and disgusting lees, as it pours through this vapouring Review; – and, then, let him compare it (I am certainly presumptuous enough to dare this test) with the style and matter of the poor, despised, unfortunate Memoir; and say where the evidences and characteristics of ‘presumptuous vanity’ most conspicuously appear. * One passage, indeed, that relates to the studious habits of my boyhood, as it happened, in its disjuncted form, to convey a ludicrous idea, has found its way into notice; and presents, therefore, a solitary exception to this general remark.

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But the general spirit of this Review is the best commentary on this part of the charge. Te nature and character of my presumptuous vanity are every where insinuated; – and, indeed, repeatedly stated, in tolerably direct terms. – Te son of a Silk-mercer, and forced, during eighteen months of my boyhood, by calamity and ill usage, into a mechanical trade, – I have dared to aspire at literary and elocutionary cultivation, and to publish ‘efusions of relative and social feeling.’* I have attempted to quit my cast!!! Presumptuous vanity indeed! But, then, – somehow or other, it has happened – that several of those characters, whose names will be ever dear to Literature and Science, have been equally presumptuous, and equally vain. Te poet Gay17 was, also a Silk-mercer; and Prior18 was a ‘Cofeehouse waiter.’ Franklin, the Statesman, the Philanthropist, and the Philosopher – Franklin19 was once a printer’s devil: – aye, and a tolerably poor devil too; and, in the days of youth and hunger, as he has himself described, walked through the streets of a town, with one half-penny roll under his arm, while he devoured another: – A circumstance and a situation, perhaps, almost as degrading, as my devouring the productions of literary genius as I walked through the streets of London! * Such sentiments are worthy of a confederacy who regard ‘poverty’ as a circumstance that ‘makes men ridiculous;’ [See Rev. of Southey ‘Talaba, No,. I, p.67.] and who cannot even mention poverty, without coupling it with vice and prof igacy. See (among innumerable instances of this contemptuous association) in the Review of the Crisis of the Sugar Colonies. (No. I. p. 227.) the impassioned deprecation of ‘that inconsistent spirit of canting philanthropy, which, in Europe, is only excited by the wrongs or miseries of ‘the poor and the profigate.‘ All sorts of canting are undoubtedly detestable; – nor is that least detestable which cants on all sides of all questions, as the changes of circumstances, and the views of ambition, or of interest dictate. If report is to be credited, the Reviewer of this article, is also the author of a heavy book on Colonial Establishments; and was, once, one of the most violent champions for the establishment of a Black Empire in the West Indies; and the sovereign domination of those very Negroes, whom he now considers as ‘the Jacobins of the West India Islands’ – as ‘the anarchists, the terrorists, the domestic enemy – Against’ whom ‘it becomes rival nations, to combine, and hostile governments to coalesce:’ – and with whom to coalesce? – with the republican arms.’--!!! By what licence of metaphor, exclusively admissible in Critics and Reviewers, the Negroes of the West Indies can be considered as the domestic enemies of European Nations, I shall not stay to enquire; – and even a few short months have already decided how wise it would have been in Great Britain (for the purpose of averting of any distant danger from her distant colonies) to have followed the profound advice of these profound politicians, – and employed her navy and her resources, to encrease the power of that Military Republic, whose neighbourhood, and whose ambition present so much more serious a danger, at our very threshold! And these are the upright, and politic Gentlemen – who think it wise and decent to accuse me of precariousness of principle! Poor Negroes of the West Indies! do I strike at you because you are hopeless? No – I leave you, indeed, to your destiny. Miseries enough have already bowed my down in consequence of that enthusiasm which your suferings frst inspired. I have no more sacrifces to make. My own little ones, and the faithful partner of my own afictions claim all my heart, and challenge all my eforts: – and they shall have them. But I leave you, at least, as I found you. I do not swell the tide of your distress. My name is not enrolled in the list of your enemies; nor ever shall.

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O Gay! O Prior! O Franklin! how fortunate were the days of your temerity! Had the Edinburgh Review at the time existed, – had Messrs. Jefray and Brougham then received their missionary delegation from the Grand Lama, would you have had the presumptuous vanity thus to have quitted your Casts? – would the ‘Trivia,’ 20 and the ‘Alma’21 have been ever written? – would the laws of electric phenomena ever have been developed?* * Yes! Exclaims the Reviewer of ‘Shepherd’s life of Poggio’ – Yes, they would have developed themselves, by inevitable ‘steps in the natural history of Man!’ See EDINBURGH REVIEW – No. III. Art. III. P. 44, 45. But the whole of that exquisite specimen of philosophical appreciation and fne writing, in which this wonderful discovery of the self-advancing step of the natural history of man, is developed to the world, deserves particular quotation, and particular comment. ‘Our author,’ says the Reviewer, ‘seems to have cherished a veneration for the subject of his Memoirs, which neither his talents, nor the services which he rendered to the world can authorize. Te plundering of monastic libraries,’ – [Who would not have imagined, from this bold and beautiful fgure, that Poggio, was some victorious general, or some mid-night house-breaker, rather than a peaceful collector of the fragments of classical erudition? But, to proceed – ‘Te plundering of monastic libraries, the searching collections of manuscripts mouldering under heaps of ruins,’ (How richly picturesque! – and what spirit and beauty does the passage derive from the reiterated inserting of the article!) – ‘and the discovering those lights which have since illuminated a great portion of the globe, sound as mighty exploits in the ears of the vulgar and superfcial. Even the cultivated admirer of Old Rome’ – [Who is he? – the Historian of the Decline and Fall? – or is this only one of theose beautiful grammatical fgures, to which the splendid wits of this confederacy are so conspicuously attached? – (the for every)? – But how are admirers cultivated? – and admirers of Old Rome, in particular? Are they planted, in cuttings, under frames, or sown in seeds upon hot-beds? We can fnd nothing upon the subject, in the Gardnener’s Callendar:--nothing in the Encyclopedia Britannica: – and as for our own experience and observation,--we have found, indeed, that admiration can be cultivated; but to the Edinburgh Reviewers we are indebted for the discovery, that admirers may be cultivated also. Te fact is, indeed, important: we are only afraid that they should extend their discovery to the cultivation of slanderers: and indeed, we are but too well informed, that a hot-bed, upon a new construction, and of a new composition, is already provided or that purpose. But what does this cultivated admirer do? ‘Even the cultivated admirer of Old Rome, views with fond partiality; those atchievements, gilded as they are, by the distance of four centuries.’ Here are originality and boldness of metaphor for you! – Where shall we fnd the like? First of all, the verbs plundering, searching, and discovering, by the simple application of the article the are converted into nouns, and made antecedents to the comprehensive term atchievements; – then these atchievements, these plunderings, searchings, and discoverings, are to be gilded; – and who is the artist employed in this delicate operation? – Why they are gilded by distance! Novelty again! – We have heard that Imagination gilds, that Hope gilds, and that Memory gilds; and several other of these allegorical ladies: and, certainly, some of them perform the operation pretty well: – but Distance is, we believe, quite a new hand in the literary guild shop; and it is therefore, no great wonder, if he does his business rather aukwardly. So much for fne writing. And, now, for philosophical reasoning. ‘But in truth,’ continues the Reviewer, ‘the talents required and exercised in these occupations are of no very high order: nor, at the same time, are we to consider Poggio and his associates as possessed of some rare and transcendent endowments, which peculiarly enabled them to efect the restoration of letters. Tat even must be ‘considered as a step in the natural history of man,’ to which the preceding circumstances of progressive improvement and growing curiosity had led the way, and which must have developed itself about this period, had Poggio and his circle of classical compeers directed their labours to other objects.’ We will say nothing, in this place, of the beautiful and perspicuous idea of steps DEVELOPING themselves. Sufcient homage has, already, been paid

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But what sort of doctrine is this, to come from the pen of a Scotchman, and to Scotchmen to be addressed? – to Scotchmen, justly proud of the name of Robert Burns!22 – who though an Ayreshire ploughman, had, nevertheless, the presumptuous vanity to be a poet; and, perhaps, was even so presumptuous, as to write the very best Poetry that Scotland had ever boasted.* I do not mean to draw comparisons. Nothing can be further from my thoughts. But the excellence that these had a right to attain, I had a right to to the splendour of original metaphor. Te novelty of the reasoning – the brilliancy of the discovery – the wonderful annunciation, that the steps of the human mind, and the progress of human improvement will continue their gradations – without the assistance of human agency! – this, of itself, is enough to fll the imagination with astonishment and delight, without the subordinate admiration of tropes and metaphors. Tat ‘the proceeding circumstances of progressive improvement, and growing curiosity, had led the way’ to those researches afer the precious reliques and fragments of antiquity, which distinguished the ffeenth century, we were certainly prepared to admit; and that it was by the operation of these preceding circumstances, that the labours of Poggio, and the other ‘restorers’ of those times were directed to that particular object. All this is perfectly in the way of nature. Nor was the present age in any danger of supposing that ‘the restorers’ acted under the infuence of any supernatural gif or inspection; or, as Shakespeare expresses it, ‘by a divine thrusting on.’ We know very well that ‘in the history of human nature,’ and human discovery, such ‘steps’ and gradations always must exist: and generally they can be traced. Tus, for example, – the generous liberality of spirit that pervaded the age of Queen Anne – (the Augustan age of Britain!) had prepared the way for the admission of Gay from behind the counter, and Prior from the bar of a Tavern, to those circles of rank and fashion, of which their intellects were the ornaments and the pride; and the policy of Philip; and the magnanimity of William the 3d, had prepared also the way for the conquests of Alexander the Great, and the victories of our illustrious Marlborough. All this, and more, there needs no Ghost to tell us. But that the ‘Trivia’ and the ‘Alma’ would have been written, if Gay had continued a measure of silk, and Prior a drawer of wine; – that the precious manuscripts of antiquity, that were ‘mouldering away under heaps of ruins’ would have discovered themselves ‘about this period to the world,’ if those benefactors of literature, who rescued them from this obscurity and decay, had directed their ‘labours to other objects;’ that the battle of Blenheim would have gained itself, if Marlborough and his army had been asleep in their beds; and Greece and Persia have been subdued to Macedon, if Alexander ‘and his compeers had directed their labours’ only to wrestling on the sands, and playing at quoits and whirlbat; – all this we did NOT know; nor is it probable, that we ever should have known it, had the writers of the Edinburgh Review confned themselves within THEIR proper cast, in the Society of intellect; and ‘directed their labours’ to Grub-Street Reports of dying speeches, and to translating, into their own modern and appropriate language, the ancient History of Jack-the-Giant-Killer, and the story of Tomas Hickathrif. * Not even a Scotchman’s reverence for Scottish genius, can restrain the fery indignation with which this Dragon of Criticism guards the Hesperian fruit of genius and intellect from the profane and unhallowed vulgar. Te ashes of poor Burns are, also, to be disturbed, because he has dared to taste; and the monument erected by the liberality of Curry, (because it consecrates those ashes) is to be defaced with malignant spume. Even from the review of ‘Dugald Stewart’s account of Dr. Robertson,’ the Reviewer springs aside, upon his devoted quarry; and the professor is reproached with having employed ‘his pencil’ on ‘the coarse lineaments of the Scottish rustic.’ What immediately follows, is equally curious for the spirit and justness of the criticism, and for the correct simplicity of the language. ‘Te ‘Letter’ (of Professor Stewart) says the Reviewer, ‘which is the only buoyant part of Dr. Currie’s ponderous tomes, and amply displays its powers, by foating so large a mass,’&c. – Te powers of a letter foating a mass!!! – Friends! can you hold your laughter? –

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attempt; and even if it were true, – that, by attaching myself to literature, I was endeavouring to quit my Cast, I trust that we are not yet, so completely proselytised toe the religion and policy of the Gentoos, that my right to the experiment would be denied. But, you are perfectly aware, Mr Jefray, – or whoever was the writer of the article was aware – that even the despicable doctrine of Casts will not answer the purpose of the present proscription: – that to give colour even to this miserable pretence, it was necessary to garbel the record, and suppress the evidence: – which, indeed, has been regularly done, throughout the whole of this pretended review, wherever that evidence could not be distorted to the purposes of wickedness and malignity. It is true, indeed, that the impudence of one generation, and the successive minorities of two more, have stripped to the very bark, that branch of the family (and you would take bark and all) of which myself and my children alone remain. It is also true, that I have had to struggle with all the difculties and disadvantages which these successive circumstances have produced. But this does not alter my Cast: and, if individuals are to be estimated by what is called the antiquity of their families, – and the right of aspiring to literary distinction, were by such estimation to be decided, my pretentions to ofer myself as a candidate, it would, even yet, be somewhat difcult to reject. Carry your researches into the Vale of Clwd, – where the original stock yet remains, that has fourished through countless generations; or extend your professional enquiries into the legal antiquities of the southern part of Britain; and some evidence, might be even there obtained. Nor at the recapitulation of my ancestors shall I have occasion to blush. Of the name of Telwall there stands, I believe, upon record – no rufan, no calumniator, no Jack-of-all-sides, and coward. But I will leave my pedigree to the Welch part of the family: to those who consider themselves as the principal stem: or I will leave it to you, to make out a new one to your liking, and to emblazon it with the heraldry of your own imagination. You may take, if you please, the Boar’s head from my crest, and clap there a pair of sheers, – you may snatch from the mouth its branch of laurel, and put a shred of buckram it in its place: – so long as you cannot degrade my character to a level with this scribbler’s – or charge me with such forgeries and misrepresentations as I have proved against this review, I will not quarrel about families, or scutcheons. It is not upon such grounds that I have taken up the cudgel of controversy; nor for any thing, in reality, that this scandalous Reviewer has written. Had malignant hostility terminated there, I should have disdained remonstrance: I When the metaphor runs mad, and every strained inversion of grammatical fgure, shall pass for taste and criticism, – then – (and not till then) will Dr. Currie believe the permanency of his reputation in danger from the attacks of such reviewers.

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should, in all probability, have been too proftably employed to have spared time for his castigation; and he might have hung himself out, like a Parrot in a cage, to abuse my poetry in set phrases, – or call out Mercer, or Attorney’s Clerk, or runaway Apprentice, or W—, or Taylor, or any other foul name that his mechanical memory could furnish: – he might have compared me to as many prostitutes as he thought ft; – and to prostitutes of any description: – or, to sum up all that could be scandalous and ofensive, – he might even have likened me to some miss-begotten monster, of equivocal race, half Advocate and half Reviewer, – who, infated with vanity, and bursting with venomous gall, hires himself out, alternately, to the bookseller and to the bar; yet maintains the unity of his essence, amid the duplicity of his character, by the consistent facility with which he discharges his virus, either from the tongue, or from the pen, on that side of the question which is likely to reward him best. All this I could have endured, to avoid contention; – and, satisfed with my usual maxim of living down the calumnies I could not but despise, would have ‘kept the even tenour of my way.’ But, if there are no limits to malignity, there must be some to forbearance. If, having defamed me as a writer, Reviewers and Editors should think it a necessity to confederate against me as a Lecturer; – and, to justify their scurrilities as Critics, plant themselves in sculking corners of my Lecture-Room, as ringleaders and signal-posts of most indecorous and unprecedented interruption, – suferance is at an end; and imperious duty dictates another line of conduct. It is no longer an insult they are ofering; they assail me in the vital part. It is no longer an idle calumny they are inventing, – a futile criticism, or a malignant misrepresentation, which may be lef for posterity to answer, or for time to clear; – the spoiling hand of unprovoked hostility, is upon the subsistence and the hopes of my family; and for their sakes, at least, I am called upon to repel the injury, and to exclaim, with decisive frmness, – Here, at least, no man assails me with impunity!

If such has been the conduct of this confederacy, Mr. Jefray, – such must, assuredly, be mine. I am called upon by every feeling, and by every duty; – by the voice of nature, and the cries of afection, to arm myself at all points; – the meek, mute glance of conjugal solicitude, seems to reproach my delay; and my throng of little ones come crowding to my knees, and demand the protection of a father. Such are the motives that urge me to this appeal; – that compel me to keep, no longer, with my calumniators, any sort of terms, and to give them no sort of quarter; to repel their aggressions in every direction: and, by laying bare the infamy of their former conduct, to expose their present motives.

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Te former of these is sufciently proved; or falsehood, forgery, and defamation can never again be regarded as proofs of infamy. If the Reviewers of the Memoir were the Scorners of the Lecture, – If those who have treated me as a vulgar and illiterate being, whose only talent was ‘forwardness and audacity,’ and whose ‘want of voice’23 precluded me from becoming a player, are connected with the prejudicators of my Elocutionary Science, the present is as obvious as the past. And, if, to this, be added – the circumstances under which the Criticism, in the frst instance, appeared, – it will not be a conclusion beyond the bearings of the evidence – that the calumnies of the Review were emanations of a conspiracy against Lectures, a conspiracy to buoy up the calumnies of the Review. Of this identity there are, indeed, some tolerably strong presumptions: nor are the rumoured exultations of the Literary Chiefs, – their ignorant criticisms*, * Some of these criticisms, which are now stalking abroad, in the name, and under colour of the authority of these infallible Arbiters of Taste, are, indeed, most cirious – ‘My system of Elocution, and all that belongs to it, must necessarily be wrong, because Mrs. Esten recites the Ode on the Passions in a very diferent manner from that which I adopted! – and because neither Mr. Kemble nor Mr. Cooke made use of such transitions of voice, or such varieties of modulation as I exhibited!’ Tese objections would, certainly, have been very proper had I stood up, as a professed mimic, to give imitations of those performers. But if, on the contrary, it was my professed object to exhibit the full range of impassioned modulation, and of those imitative fexures, tones and cadences, by which the human voice is enabled, not merely to describe, but to designate and embody the respective passions and emotions, – the very censure of these critics is extorted praise: for it shews me to have accomplished the object I had in view. Mrs. Esten’s recitation of this Ode may be very admirable; and, though I have never heard her recite it, I have no doubt that it is so; for of her dramatic powers, I entertain a very high opinion. But if her object be to describe the respective passions, and mine be to represent them, our modes of recitation must necessarily be very diferent; and yet both may be equally proper. With respect to Mr. Kemble and Mr. Cooke – nobody, I suppose, imagines that the voice of the latter is his particular perfection; – not would the former, I should imagine, regard it as a disadvantage, if the range and modulative variety of his tones were rather more extensive. But the best of the joke is, – that the organs of these most exquisite critics are so delicately susceptible, and their ears so admirably hung – that they positively cannot perceive the diference between the cadences of blank verse and of prose. Afer reading a passage (Edwin of Northumbria) from Hume’s History of England, and giving to it that high commendation to which, in a literary point of view, I have always considered the historian as transcendantly entitled, I took occasion to suggest the very diferent style of elocution, which even the same subject would require, if treated in an oratorical, instead of an historical way; and, in illustration of this, proceeded to recite a speech (the Massacre of Bangor) out of the very poems which these critics, eight months ago, had so very candidly reviewed: – a speech in which a designing Orator sets forth, in a pompous and exaggerated style, the exploits and atchievements of his favourite hero, for the purpose of enfaming the passions of his hearers, and bringing them over to his views. Tis speech being introduced with some extemporary remarks, I glided, imperceptibly, into the recitation; without formally announcing it, with a ‘Here begins a piece of blank verse of my own composing!’ or other clerk like grace: – never suspecting that it could be necessary to inform the critics, at any rate, when I was speaking spontaneously, and when I was repeating; still less that it could be requisite to inform them whether I was speaking in spontaneously, and when I was re-repeating; still less that it could be requisite to inform them whether I was speaking in verse or prose. Tis, however, was a most fatal mistake; for the learned critics, deep read in the structure and melodies of language, actually

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and gross misrepresentations (so completely of a piece with the forgeries of the Review,) very imperfect indications of the same pervading spirit. Rumour, however, does not stop here. Rumour has named both the Editor and writer of the obnoxious article; and Rumour has named – some of the persons who abetted the recent insult. But let us appeal to better evidence. Tell me, then, Mr. Jefray, (for it is said you know) – Who was the individual that skulked behind the screen, at the farther corner of my platform? – the only possible place where his conduct could elude my personal observation: – and What could be his reason for the election of such a retreat? Was it the meek and modest Mr. Jefray himself, – retiring (with his accustomed bashfulness) from the eye of a stranger? – or Was it a late turbulent member of the Speculative Society, – shrinking from himself, and crouching on the stool of penitence, to con over the recantation of former heresies, or rehearse his new opinion? Was it a certain scribbling Advocate, well known for his vanity, his petulence and his gall! – who had chosen this retirement to mediate his morrow’s brief; – and whose nods and winks were only the spontaneous expressions of self-gratulation, on the suggestion of some new sophism, roe the solution of some knotty point? – or – Was it (fnally) the Editor of the Edinburgh Review, – who had chosen that situation, as most convenient for conveying his critical suggestions to his confederates and admirers; – to teach them where to laugh and where to scof, and encourage their violations of decorum? You have an interest in these questions, Mr. Jefray, as well as myself: – for Report has said that it was that very Editor; and, when I enquire of the publisher for the Editor’s direction, he tells me – that You are the Man! Report has, also, told me – that a group of Scofers came in that Editor’s train; – that they sneered and conferred, and conferred and sneered, before they dismistook my recited verse, for spontaneous prose; and have criticised it, accordingly, with great clamour; adding to their various criticisms, a Jef Major, equally curious, – in the assertion – that I had spouted forth this bombastic oration, (as they called it) to show in what a very superior style to that of Mr. Hume, I would have described the historical even, to which both passages relate, had the writing of such history devolved upon me. Had this criticism come from any set of beings but the Reviewers, it might have been passed of, by laying the fault upon the aukward structure of the composition; – which might have been called ‘a parcel of bombastic stuf, neither verse nor prose, and, therefore, equally liable to be mistaken for either.’ But, unfortunately, these very critics, even in the midst of their scurrilous review, have, themselves, done homage to the versifcation of the ‘Epic Fragments’ (from which this speech is selected); and have acknowledged that they ‘were particularly struck with the easy dignity of the language’!!! – With the easy dignity, Reader, of that very identical VERSE which they are now bawling down, as execrable bombastic prose – the very essence of all folly and extravagance! And there are the bell-weathers of the critical fock of Edinburgh!

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persed themselves about the room;--that they found, there assembled, another, smaller group, betraying a congeniality of motive: headed, indeed, by a very different being; – the degenerate ofspring of a literary sire; – the obscure inheritor of a celebrated name! – Tese two parties, it would seem, though holding each other in notorious detestation, coalesced, upon this occasion, with immediate sympathy. Like the positive and negative electricity of two opposing clouds, they rushed together; and I was the victim of their collision. For my own part – much of this extraordinary business could only become intelligible by subsequent rumours and enquiries. I knew nothing of impending confederacies. I was not prepared to expect them. If I had, – or if, when the indignities frst began to be ofered, I could at all have suspected the quarter from which they proceeded, I believe I should not have found it very difcult – to have done critical execution, on these self-constituted arbiters, upon the spot: – that I could sufciently have exposed the ignorance and the infamy of Edinburgh Reviewers, to have spoiled their ready made laugh; and to have barred the infuence of their opinion. But how was it possible that I should be so prepared? Pursuing a profession that is hostile to none, how should I suspect such persevering and malignant hostility? Experience, also, had lulled me into fatal security. During the whole pilgrimage of this course of Lectures – (which has now been continued between two and three years) they have never been encountered with any disrespect. My success has, of course, been diferent in diferent places. Where prejudices have run high, many have stood aloof;--at least, at the beginning of the Course. Where literature and intellectual refnement had made but little progress, my attendance, would, of course, be small: and, in two or three places, of no very high repute, for intellect, for breeding, or for morals, individuals have been found, sufciently malicious, to be active in private hostility; or to expose themselves to derision and contempt, by eforts of public intimidation. But neighbourhoods there are, that have done honour to the liberality of the English character, – and disdained to mingle the feelings of party, with a question of mere science and accomplishment*; and, hitherto, without exception, in those places most * While a gentleman at Beverly thought it worth his while to discountenance my undertaking, by making a public entertainment on the night of my frst Lecture – (although he had actually given a similar entertainment the night before;) – to Barton upon Humber I was invited to deliver a course, which was attended by all the families of any consideration, within six or eight miles of the place. Yet those who are acquainted with the characters of the two neighbourhoods, will know very well that this diference of deportment did not originate in any diference of political sentiment. But I cannot enter upon a subject of this description without acknowledging the candour and cordial good sense of some conspicuous characters in the town of Shefeld; – where these Lectures frst commenced. My plan was no sooner shewn to one gentleman, in particular, – whose property, whose profession, whose abilities, and whose zeal, during the contest of parties, had marked him out as the very leader of those – who(if resentful remembrances were to be permitted, on such sub-

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eminently distinguished for literature and science, my reception has been most equivocal, and my encouragement most extensive! But, in every neighbourhood, whatever the proportion of my success, my Lecture Room has, been sacred fom all indignity. Some solitary lounger might chance, perhaps, to enter, with the sneer of levity fickering upon his lip, or the gloom of hostility upon his brow; – but no organized confederacy every yet had intruded, with a sculking ring-leader behind a screen; and I have, uniformly, had the satisfaction to triumph over such prepossessions; and to fnd – that ‘fools who came to laugh, remained to learn.’ Englishman that I am, I confess I did not expect – that a public Lecturer would have met with less decorous liberality from a Scottish than from an English audience: still less did I expect to have been confronted with a species of interruption and insult, which I am confdent no English audience would have endured. It is true, I have always been given to understand, that I must be prepared in Edinburgh, for what, in London, would be called a cold reception; – Tat, widely diferent, in this respect, from the audience of our English metropolis (who always give the stranger credit for ability, till he has proved that he does not possess it; and, by that means, perhaps, frequently draw it forth, where otherwise it might not have appeared!) the Critics of Edinburgh would pause over my pretensions, and examine them with a curious eye; – that my abilities would be questioned before they would be admitted; and that I must prove my title, before I was to expect their applause. But I had, also, been informed – that their attention, though jealous, would be respectful; – that I should be listened to, with guarded silence, to the conclusion of my efort; and that the decision, though deliberate, would at least be candid. Tus much I had gathered from uniform report; and practical experience had prepared me for such a reception: for, even in England, I had observed more and more of this character, as I travelled further North; and ultimately I had found it highly gratifying: – For, though the discriminating plaudit, is, undoubtedly, cheering; – and though there are passages of great exertion, where the pauses produced by such exhilarating interruptions, may, almost, be requisite to the individual – who is to sustain the double task of entertainment and instruction, during a period of two hours and a half; yet the Lecturer who prides himself more upon his science than his execution, will jects, to intrude) might have been expected to be most hostile, – than, with a frankness that does honour to his nature, he immediately acknowledged the utility of the undertaking; and did every thing in his power to promote my success. To the honour of that part of the country, it must be acknowledged – that no where have political divisions lef behind them a smaller degree of rankling animosity. When I passed through Shefeld a second time, I had the opportunity of meeting, at a public dinner, several gentlemen, of the frst respectability, of all the diferent parties which in that neighbourhood had existed; and the deportment of all was such – as if the name, or the feeling of party had never there been known. Have we less occasion now for such afectionate unanimity?

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consider a deep attention to the best applause; and no acclamation can, to him, be so acceptable – as that which such attention has preceded. Tus prepared, by information and experience, I own that my reception, when I entered the room, was even more than I expected. But I had not been ten minutes upon the platform, before I began to feel – that I was, indeed, in a land of strangers. Te sneering cajolery of groups and couples, skilfully dispersed in diferent parts of the room, gave an air of hostility to the company; and in place of that fxed attention which, in every individual instance, my Lectures had hitherto commanded, the nod, and the sneer, and the meeting of whispering hands, were, every now and then, obtruding themselves on my notice; and though some bursts of general approbation, towards the conclusion of the frst part of my Lecture, seemed to manifest a very diferent feeling from what this pantomime (to me and the confederates, perhaps, at frst, alone, observable) seemed to indicate; yet it was not till towards the latter part of the Lecture, that my eyes were fully opened to the existence of a cabal; or that I discovered of how small a number, the party of scofers was composed. I had perceived, indeed, considerable uneasiness in one part of the room, when (sketching the general plan of my intended course, and speaking of the criticisms that were to accompany the readings and recitals,) I proceeded to explain the acceptation in which this term was to be understood; – and to warn my hearers – ‘that it was not my intention to make this part of my Lectures, a vehicle for captious malignity; or, under the pretence of ‘Strictures literary and critical,’ to entertain them with calumnious Essays on the lives and writings of my contemporaries; – that the nature of my undertaking led me rather to the selection of beauties, than to the concentration of defects, and the exhibition of deformities; – and that far more useful to the progress of literature, was one liberal and genuine criticism, that illustrated a passage of transcendant excellence, and pointed out the reasons and the sources of its perfections, than whole volumes of that snarling, caviling and abuse to which the pretensions of Modern Criticism were too frequently confned. Tat there were persons in Edinburgh to whom this oil would be VENOM, and this honey – GALL, I might, indeed, have anticipated; and I might have suspected the nature of the hostile confederacy, – when, from that very time, the hostility became more prominent. But it was not till the recital of Collin’s24 Ode that the confederacy stood revealed. You will remember, Mr. Jefray, how the commencement of that Ode was received and felt*. You will remember the rising emotion produced by the delin* One of the occasions upon which this laugh was applied, I shall here present to the public; that it may be fairly judged – how far the provocation justifed the outrage. It was in the concluding ORATION – On the importance of Elocution in a moral and intellectual point of view; as

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illustrated in the facts of Natural History, – the stationary condition of the inferior animals, and the exclusive improvability of the Human Race. It is not my intention to quote the whole Oration: indeed, it would not be very practicable; as my Orations are never written. My custom is (in conformity with my own maxim, as a teacher) to make a complete skeleton, or outline, of my argument, with notes of the leading facts; and, with respect to language, to leave every thing but the defnitions, to the feelings and suggestions of the instant. All that I shall attempt, therefore, is to give, in the frst instance, a general idea of the main argument of the discourse, by transcribing the entire notes made use of upon the occasion; and then cloathing, as nearly as possible, in their customary language, the passages that were the particular objects of the afected ridicule. Outline of the Oration Object of the Lectures – Popular attraction to the most important of all Sciences: FACULTY OF DISCOURSE, the sole discriminating attribute of Man – ‘Destitute of this Power, Reason would be a Solitary, and, in some degree, an unavailing principle’ – BLAIR’S LECT. Etymologically, Reason and Discourse are one: FACULTY OF DISCOURSE=the power of communicating our thoughts by defnite arrangements of sounds and characters: REASON=the act of so communicating; Derivative and metaphorical application of Terms: SILENT INDUCTION=the power of remembering, comparing, and drawing conclusions – not peculiar to Man – animal existence not preservable without it: – hence INSTINCT=knowledge fom solitary or uncommunicable induction; REASON=induction fom communication, or discourse. Gradations of instinct – the Swine – the Elephant – POPE. In mere silent induction, some Elephants superior to some Men – Facts from Natural History: Inductive faculty of ingferior animals – ’even the mute Shellfsh gasping on the shore‘ – SMELLIE‘S Philos. Nat. Hist. – Te OYSTER. ‘Inferences – All animals capable of combining and comparing facts, and drawing conclusions from premises: therefore, of individual improvement – instances, Horses, Dogs, &c. Individuals improvable, but Species STATIONARY: – even RETROGRADE from improvements in state of the material universe – Successive disappearance of Bears – Wolves – Beavers, &c. from Britain; Rattle Snake, &c. in America. PROGRESSIVE IMPROVABILITY OF MAN – Savage in his Woods and Dens – Polished Inhabitant of European Cities: Britons in time of Cæsar – German Ancestors in time of Tacitus. SOURCE OF IMPROVABILITY – Faculty of discourse – Communion – Transmission – Perpetuation – Accumulation – Comparison – Revision – Progression – Goal of Science attained by one generation, the starting place of the next: Immorality of Intellect. Not only Science and Refnement from Discourse, but – VIRTUE, the exclusive attribute of Man. Vindication of Human Nature against Cynical and Misanthropical Philosophers. Pretended Virtues of Brute animals – Gratitude and Fidelity of Dogs=to the Assassin=to the Philanthropist=Cavern of the Banditti=Door of the Honest Proprietor. Hostile=to the Mendicant=the Rufan. Mere sympathy of selfshness, not Virtue – Attachment for reward, not Fidelity. Some human beings act upon the same motives: – but not all. EXPANSIVE PRINCIPLE OF HUMAN VIRTUE – from Comparison and Generalization – i.e. from Discourse – Progression of Sympathy: Domestic circle of relative dependence – Friendship – Neighbourhood – the community in which we are fostered – Civilized Society – the Human Race – Posterity – the Sentient Universe – GENUINE VIRTUE – (the comparison and practical adjustment of the varied claims of these) only attainable by Discourse: hence moral importance of cultivation. SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION indispensable to full accomplishment of the objects of this faculty. General Division of Discourse into Vocal and Written – Culture of Elocution connected with progress of both – Comparative advantages: Written – permanency – transmission – precision: Vocal – promptitude – accommodation to active purposes – impressive force – sympathetic excitement. ORAL INSTRUCTION indispensable – Demonstration with Teory: – Advantages of public tuition – emulation – social contagion. RECAPITULATION and CONCLUSION.’ Such are the heads, or outlines of the Discourse: and, perhaps, even from this sketch, the reader may be enabled to discover – Whether there is any thing so exceedingly extravagant, in the general

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design, as to be unworthy of serious attention? – or, Whether it be a texture of such threadbare common-place, as to call for derision and contempt? At any rate, the points of attack (if it had been of any consequence where the attack was made) were not always very judiciously chosen. Te unseconded attempt of the Auxilliary Chief against the apparent paradox – Tat the power of SILENT INDUCTION (of comparing premises, and drawing conclusions) was evidently possessed – even by ‘the mute shellfsh gasping on the shore,’ – was unfortunately defeated by the facts and illustrations, that immediately followed, from Dr Smellie’s Philosophy of Natural History: and although the Critical Corps did not sufer him, again, to remain exposed, without assistance, in the feld, the following passage (upon which the grand assault was made,) will show, perhaps, whether the confederates depended more upon their discriminating generalship, and the natural weakness of the fort, or on their confdence of a mine beneath. ‘But Science and Refnement are not the only advantages that we derive from this exclusive faculty of discourse. By that it is that we enabled to attain – VIRTUE! the godlike attribute of MAN – and of Man alone. I am well aware that to this position there are some who have their objections ready: that there are Cynical and Misanthropical Philosophers in the world, who would shew their zeal for morality, by degrading their species, and exalting the inferior animals. By such we are sent, for examples of every virtue, not to the circles of social intellect; but – ‘Among the beastial herds to range.’ Among the most favourite themes of these satyrical fabulists, are the Gratitude and Fidelity of Dogs. But let us examine these pompous epithets, by which the brute is exalted, for the degradation of the human being. In what does the gratitude and fdelity of these inferior beings consist? You feed your Dog, – you shelter, and you caress him: – and you do well; for he protects your house from the midnight robber, and he guards your steps in the walks of obscurity and peril. But is his daily sop had been ministered by the Assassin, would he not have guarded the Assassin also? – Would not the midnight depredator, the perjurer, of the calumniator be an object as dear to his grateful Fidelity, as the Benefactor of the sentient universe? Would he not guard the cavern of the banditti, (if that Banditti were his feeders) with as ferce a courage, against the ofcers of justice, – as he guards the mansion of the honest proprietor, against the assaults of depredation? Is he not, universally, the enemy of the needy Mendicant, as much as of the sanguinary Rufan? – and exists there among the teachable tribes of these inferior beings, a single animal (if trained and pampered with individual gratifcations) whom this pretended gratitude and fdelity, will not render the traitor and destroyer, even of his own particular species. ‘Is this the principle which, in the human being, we should dignify with the name of virtue? Some men there are, it can not be denied, who act upon no better principle. I wish there were not some, who (like all other animals) too frequently act upon a worse. But these are not the beings we distinguish as the virtuous: nor can Virtue be so defned. VIRTUE is, in reality, an expansive principle – that acts not alone upon individual impression; but soars to generalization and takes the universe in its fold. With passion for its goad, and reason for its rein, it looks beyond itself, (not only behind, but before;) and, even in the reciprocations of kindness, or the pursuits of individual gratifcation, it forgets not the general welfare. Its gratitude is not confned to the personal benefactor; it is extended to the benefactors of mankind. And he who is truly virtuous, will deplore, and restrain, the errors even of a father; will counteract the injustice, even of a benefactor, or a friend; and acknowledge, with veneration, the benevolence that dispenses blessings upon his species, – although it should happen (as, by accident or mistake, it may) – that such general benefactor, to him is personally hostile. Such is Virtue – if I comprehend the term. It has its source, indeed, in individual feeling: for till we have felt we cannot know: but its indispensable constituents are comparison and generalization; which, can only proceed from discourse. Hence from the central throb of individual impulse, the feeling expands to the immediate circle of relative connections; – from relatives to fends and intimate associates; from intimate association to the neighbourhood were we reside – to the country for which we would bleed! – from the patriotic community to civilized society – to the human race

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eation of the passion of Fear: – the swelling murmur and the opening plaudit, which were spontaneously bursting forth. You will remember the admirable address with which the principal character of the under-plot, already described, intercepted that plaudit: – his lifed hand – his apparently cordial hush! hush! – as if anxious that I should not be interrupted! – You will remember, also, how admirably prepared the whole confederacy were against the next emergency; when, a similar emotion beginning, again, to manifest itself, the applausive murmur was more efectually suppressed; and the lecturer and the audience were, alike, confounded, by a forced unnatural laugh, – commenced by this very husher, and instantaneously seconded by about half a dozen more, to whom he passed the signal. Tis expedient answered the purpose so well, that it was regularly appealed to, upon every serious occasion, through the remainder of the evening: originating always in the same quarter, and from the same quarters re-echoed. All this while, the man behind the screen, of whom report has since been so loud, escaped my notice: and therefore it is, Mr. Jefray, that I enquire of you whether you can inform me of him. Once, indeed, I remember to have seen a long chin poking out, from behind the green baize, in a very suspicious way; with an arched eye-brow and a pair of scowling, yet self-complacent eyes above it, and a nose that snufed importance at every breeze. And such a nose, and such a chin, and such a pair of eyes and eye-brows I have since beheld, at the Bar of the Court of Justiciary: and I certainly did observe in those features (and still more in the voice that came forth from among them) something very like unto a painful struggle between afected scorn and conscious agitation, when he who wore them, observed the searching glance, with which, through these exterior semblances, I endeavoured to penetrate into the Man within. If these latter were, in reality, the same identical eyes and nose and chin, so transiently recognised on the former occasion – I know, Mr. Jefray, who was the – to posterity – to the sentient universe: and wherever the throb of sensation can exist, the Virtuous fnd a motive for the regulation of their actions. Such are the expanding undulations of virtuous sympathy – Such are its objects: and in the comparison and practical adjustment of the various claims of these – (which but for discourse could never be comprehended or perceived) does Virtue, in reality, consist.’ Tis is the passage – which, as the climax of my argument, was the object of particular derision. Tis is the passage which in every part was interrupted, – and which, consequently, in many was obscured, by the reiterated laugh – shall I say of contempt, of idiotism, or of malice. I leave it to the public to decide. As for the objections against my style of delivery: they are precisely the same that I remember to have blubbered out against Mr. Erskine, by the coarse lips of Bearcrof; and for which the frst W. PITT (the great E. of Chatham) found it necessary to castigate the dull impertinence of Walpole. I am ready, however to acknowledge – that it was such as cannot be justifed by any thing that I have witnessed of the Oratorical practice of the Scottish Bar.

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lurker behind the screen; and, perhaps, enough is already known to explain why he should so have lurked. Tis part of the subject might then be closed with a string of the simplest interrogatories. Were the leaders of the Review among the audience at the Lecture? Were they among the foremost to prejudice and deride? Have they, since, been equally forward – to exult, to misrepresent, and to clamour? But there is yet another portion of this History that must not be passed over in silence. What were the circumstances under which the curious Criticism on my Memoir and Poems frst appeared in the Review? Te tale is simple. Te conclusion cannot, I believe, be evaded. On the 10th of January last, an advertisement was inserted in the Courant, announcing, in general terms, my intention of delivering, in Edinburgh, during some part of the present year, a Course of Lectures on the Science and Practice of Elocution. Tis was a signal of attack. Ten it was that my unfortunate Poems, and my still more unfortunate Poems, and my still more unfortunate Memoir, were to be dragged from their obscurity, and made the objects of calumnious misrepresentation and rancorous abuse. Accordingly, in the ensuing number of the Review (which was published in the month of April) forth came the obnoxious article; in which every species of hostile prejudice was endeavoured to be renewed, or excited against me. And by whom? – Would Edinburgh have expected it? – Would the Speculative Society have believed it, had it there been prophesied? – By Men – But I will not dwell upon the degrading picture. It is not necessary to fnish the portraiture. Te coarsest stroke of the pencil is sufcient to bring forth a resemblance, where the originals are characatures. And these are the men who single me out, as the victims of their denunciations! Tese are the men who stir up the embers, and rekindle the fames of prejudice, – that the Lecturer and the Lectures, the Individual and his Science may be consumed in the confagration! And what is the vehicle for this profigate barbarity? – Te review of a book, the object of whose author, professedly and obviously, it was – to avoid every topic by which any feeling of this description could be awakened; and in the second page of which, it is expressly stated – that, ‘for peace sake, – and for the sake of his unofending family, he is desirous that the politician should be forgotten; and that – – – – he should, henceforth, be known and noticed (as here he is introduced) only as a candidate for political and moral reputation.’25

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But it was not the spirit, or the tendency of the book, – it was not the character of the contents (either of the preface, or the poems,) that occupied the attention of the pretended reviewer. His jaundiced eye glouted on far other objects. To wound the lecturer by detraction of the author; – or, rather, to pour upon the devoted head of the individual all the phials of wrathful malevolence that the most rancorous wickedness could collect; – this was the obvious motive of the reviewer: and, pretence, or no pretence, – provocation, or no provocation, – this he was determined to accomplish. Terefore it was, that the Prefatory Memoir (notwithstanding the very diferent spirit in which it is written) was to be reviewed as if it were a political chronicle: therefore it was, that an ill-judged experiment to force me, while a boy, into a mechanical profession, – was made the poor pretence for an illiberal sneer at my Efusions of Relative and Social Feeling! – as if the very glance of an eye (even a transient, indignant glance!) upon a calling of that description, necessarily exterminated all such feelings; or, at least, precluded the right to indulge, to express them. Hence, also, the contemptuous misrepresentation of the poems throughout; and the scanty, garbled quotations – which, assuredly, if the general character of the composition had been such as it is represented, might easily have been multiplied to greater efect; – and hence, – to put out of all dispute the connection of the Review with the hostility against the Lectures; hence, the forged confession foisted upon the Lecturer, of ‘his own consciousness of the want of voice.’26 Te want of Voice! – the want of Voice! – Tis was the accusation in the month of April. What is the accusation now? For shame! – for shame! Is there no inconsistency sufciently gross, to call a blush into the cheek of an Edinburgh Reviewer? – Can even shameless efrontery itself look with a steady countenance on these palpable contradictions? When the public mind is to be prejudiced against the frst announcement of the intended Lectures, and invention is on the rack for the forgery of injurious accusations, – then I am to be charged with consciousness of the want of voice. When that voice has been heard, – the scribblers of this same confederacy, would cry me down – for the very opposite reason. Ten – my system of Elocution must be execrable, – my doctrine of physical pulsations and musical proportions must be false, – my physiological distinctions of vocal and enunciative organization must be trash, – my disquisitions on accents and emphases must be ridiculous nonsense, – and my theory of vocal punctuation, and defnitions of the powers and application of the respective points, – downright balderdash! – and these, and every other part of my system ought to be condemned unheard, – – because, I have an EXCESS of voice; and because the infexions and varieties of that voice, are so much more extensive than those of Mr. Cooke and Mr. Kemble, or Mrs Esten!!!27

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Tis from the persons who have accused me of the want of voice! – or rather, have represented me as my own accuser. But, really, I wonder they did not make me accuse myself of the want of a tongue, or of a head; – or of having a cocatrice’s tail, or a serpent’s tooth; – or of carrying two faces, like an Advocate Reviewer; – with a pen in my hand ready to be used as an assassin’s dagger, – and a bladder-full of corrupted gall in my bosom, to supply the absence of a heart. Certain it is that I should have been just as likely to have acknowledged my consciousness of any, or all of these, as the consciousness of many of the things they have attributed to me.* * Of this forgery some notice has been taken in a former note (p. 15): but it may not be amiss to present to the reader, with a complete specimen of the style of analytical abridgment adopted by these Reviewers; by quoting, without abridgement or alteration, some passage, they have pretended to analyse, in immediate contact with the analysis itself. Afer acknowledging (p. 6) my obligations to the only rational tutor I ever had the good fortune to have placed over me; the Memoir thus proceeds-‘Tis young man lef the school sometime before Telwall was taken from it. But he had sowed in the mind of his pupil the seeds of literary ambition. Afer the departure of Harvey, indeed, the shoots appeared to wither: but they revived again, in defance of unfavourable circumstances, and the incapacity of those by whom the cultivation should have been assisted. Before he was taken from school (which was some months before he had completed his fourteenth year) he began to enter with so much ardour on the business of self-tuition, that nothing but a continuance of the leisure for improvement, and a few properly selected books, seemed necessary to enable him to make considerable progress. Tese opportunities were, however refused. He was called home to diferent scenes and diferent pursuits; and he did not quit the studies he was beginning so much to relish without some remonstrance, and many tears. With respect to the pursuits of life, his frst and very early attachment was to Te Arts; and his father, who formed great expectations of him, from the activity of his mind, had fed his ambition with the hope of making him an historical painter. But his father was now no more; and he was lef in the power of those who were not capable of the same enlarged and liberal views. Sorely against his own inclination, and in violent opposition to every indication of his mind, he was placed behind the shop-counter, where he continued till he was turned of sixteen. During this time he occupied his leisure, and, in fact, much of that time which ought to have been devoted to business, in the perusal of such books as the neighbouring circulating library could furnish. In novels, indeed, (which generally constitute the bulk of such collections) he was so far from taking delight, that he had a sort of prejudiced contempt for them; and those of Fielding were almost the only ones to which he could bring himself to give a patient perusal. Plays, poetry, and history, were his favourites, and moral philosophy, metaphysics, and even divinity, were not entirely neglected. Tat he might lose no opportunity of perusing these various compositions, it was his constant practice to read as he went along the streets, upon whatever business he might be employed: a practice which, originating in a sort of necessity, settled into habit, and was not entirely laid aside till his political exertions brought him into notoriety, and produced several remonstrances from his friends on its singularity and apparent afectation. But a distaste for business, was not the only cause of his discontent. He had the misfortune to live in a state of perpetual discord with an unhappy brother: whose vehement and tyrannical temper was aggravated by a disease (the epilspsy) notorious for its ravages on the intellectual system, and by the progress of which his faculties, at an afer period became entirely deranged. Te ardent and independent spirit, who is the object of these memoirs, found the yoke of this tyranny, and the stripes and violence with which it was enforced, utterly insupportable. Circumstances also arose out of some other parts of the conduct of the elder brother, which made the

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Such being the character of the Reviewer in question, – and such being the oppressor no less desirous of a separation than the oppressed himself. John, accordingly, turned his attention again to his favourite art; and a painter of some eminence was applied to: but the mistaken economy of his mother made the premium and expences an insurmountable bar. He then made a fruitless efort to get upon the stage: but his written application to the late Mr. Colman was answered only by a moral expostulation against the design, and a declaration that he had no room in his company for any new adventurer. ‘It is probable, indeed, that Telwall would not have been so easily repulsed, if he had not been suspicious that his want of fgure might be a bar to his success in the more eligible walks of the profession: for, although the notions he had imbibed of the kind of morals that generally prevail in professed Spouting Clubs, prevented him from forming any connection with those ranting seminaries, his rage for theatricals was excessive. Of the circumstances mentioned at the beginning of this quotation, – my early devotion to ‘slow-paced erudition,’ – my unwillingness to be deprived of the opportunities of study, – my remonstrances and my tears; – of the profession to which my father had destined me, and my ardent desire to follow that destination, it will not, by this time, appear extraordinary that no notice whatever should be taken. Having already, dismissed the circumstances of my education, by observing that I ‘was severely whipped at school for a tardiness and apparent ineptitude,’ the Reviewer thus proceeds – (No. III. P. 197.) ‘He was then placed behind the counter, and was beaten by his elder brother, a person, we are informed ‘of a very vehement and tyrannical temper.’ His ambitious spirit, however, disdained this double bondage;’ [What double bondage? – Bondage of ‘behind the counter,’ I understand; but bondage of ‘beaten,’ is beyond my grammar!] – ‘and he soon tried,’ [mark the inversion of circumstances!] ‘like other discontented heroes, in similar situations, to deliver himself from it, by going on the Stage.’ [Grammar again! ‘tried by going, for tried by attempting to go. Te original expression is somewhat less than a line, – I believe, of clear English grammar, – which the abridgement, by vamp and fourish, dilates into almost three, of ungrammatical ambiguity.] ‘His application to Mr. Colman, however, he informs us, ‘was answered only by a moral expostulation against the design;’ and his own consciousness of want of voice and fgure compelled him to give up this idea altogether. He next made an unsuccessful attempt to become a painter,’ &c. Of the moral integrity of such pretended abridgements, nothing need be said. But what are we to think, as grammarians, of the application of the word an – to this only mention of those struggles of attachment to the profession of the Arts, of which the history of my ‘early life’ is full. Is it a slip of the pen? No – for, the same mode of expression occurs in other places. Tus, for example, – we have, in p. 198 of the same Review,’ ‘He read a paper in a Society of medical students, that,’ &c. – instead of, ‘he read some papers in the Society of medical students (i.e. Te Physical Society) at Guy’s hospital, the second of which,’ &c. Compare these passages with one already noticed – (p. 12.) ‘a Dramatic Poem full of Songs about ale,’ – and what is the conclusion? – Are these arbiters of taste and criticism, really, so ignorant of the meaning of these simple words the and a? – and does full of mean one, a mean second, and an – three or four, in the Lexicon of their comprehension? Have they bounded their knowledge of these important parts of speech, by the simple dogmas – that a, and an, and the, are mere articles? – and, considering the articulating and conjunctive portions of speech as the mere pegs and pivots of discourse, have they concluded, accordingly, that a Society, or the Society – a paper, or other paper – an attempt, or several attempts – are modes of expression, in themselves, perfectly indiferent, – since the sentence will run on as glibly with any one of them as with any other? Such mistakes, in Edinburgh Reviewers, are not, indeed, surprising,--when it is recollected that, not many months ago, a learned dissertation of several pages, on the insertion and omission of articles, was inserted in a journal of much greater respectability, which, concluded with the sagacious decision that Te meant A: – in the words of the writer – ‘the means a specifcally:’ a statement (however construed) so far from being true, that while entire unity is the very essence of the signifcation of the article a, there is nothing in the specifc meaning of the that necessarily precludes plurality. A, therefore, may be, in some degree, a vague article, and the a discriminative; but the one

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time of its appearance, it was impossible to doubt the nature of its object. Of that object, I was thoroughly convinced, from the moment I frst beheld it. But I did not suspect that it was the prelude, only, to a more inveterate confederacy. I was not aware that the calumniators were conspicuous members of that professional corps, which, time out of min, has enjoyed the prescriptive right of setting the fashion, or dictating the reprobation, of every thing that is connected with intellectual amusement in Edinburgh; and the contemptibleness of the article, in a literary point of view, precluded the suspicion that such writers could do me any essential injury. cannot be a specifc of the other; nor either specifcally mean the other;’ or ‘mean the other specifcally: as, indeed, the very structure of this period, if it be grammatical, sufciently shows. Mr. Jefray, and his brethren of the ‘double barrelled gun,’ are, practically, I have no doubt, suffciently aware of this. Tey know that it is fully as correct to talk of the fees, as of the fee; – of the proftable professions of Advocate and Reviewer, as of the proftable profession of an Advocate, or a Reviewer. And, if the fee of two guineas should be marked upon a brief, or the fee of ten guineas agreed upon for a sheet of Critical defamation; and, when the work was done, only a guinea should be paid, they would readily, I suppose, discover – that the construction was not grammatical; – nor would either of them, I suspect, (when in the former instance, he demanded another, and, in the latter, nine other of these said ‘yellow geordies’) be perfectly satisfed with the reasoning of his client, or his bookseller, should he confdently reply – ‘Sir, I have already given you a fee, or a guinea; and I can prove to you, from your own writings, – that a and the are convertible terms; and, that a and two, and an and three, or six, or ten, signify the same thing; and that as another, and the other, (according to the same authority are necessarily included in a, you have nothing further to demand.’ Tese retorts, perhaps, might lead them to refect, that though these little words (or, to speak more correctly, these little fying syllables – for they have lost one of the indispensable characteristics of English words) in their present degraded state, are only used as the links and articulatives of discourse, yet, that, if they had not some force and meaning of their own, they could neither articulate nor link; and a very small portion of that ‘slow-paced erudition’ of which they arrogate to themselves the exclusive possession, would, perhaps, lead them to the discovery that – a and an, are the numeral ONE; formerly written ANE; whence, by contraction, an; and, in process of time (as the practice of supplying the enunciative hiatus by the symphonic tunings of the voice, subsided) the a (for the sake of euphony) was omitted before consonants; and an, wherever the ease and grace of enunciation required, was melted into a. Such was the origin, and such is still the power of this article; and those provincials who, to this day, use the numeral only, and say one, or ane, where we should say an or a, though fashion be against them, ofend not against propriety. He, on the contrary, (historian, witness, or reviewer!) who useth the article a or an wherever truth and moral accuracy would not admit the numeral in its place, either falsifes through real ignorance, or makes the semblance of ignorance a cover for his falsifcation. Te, on the other hand, is probably no other than the personal pronoun; used at frst as a personifcation, or apostrophe to the object spoken of, as if spoken to, – but divested, by familiar use, both of quantity and what is vulgarly called accent. Certain it is, that when correctly used, it always designates specifc identity. Tis specifcation is indeed, its marked characteristic; for it applies alike to individuality or to multitude: which, perhaps, may be regarded as an objection to the etymology, by those who do not consider – that this is not the only instance in which singular and plural have become confounded, in words of familiar and frequent use. To talk, therefore, or a Society, instead of the Society, – is, again, either palpable ignorance, – or, it is as gross a fraud as paying a FEE instead of the FEE, in the instances already suggested: an, whether the passages in question, were written by a Reviewer, ro by the Reviewer, either one or the other is fraudulent, or ignorant, or both.

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Under these circumstances, and these impressions, I did not think it necessary to depart from the general rule of conduct that I had prescribed to myself – To enter into no controversies on the subject either of my writings or my life; but, to pursue my Science, with uninterrupted application, and let the bubbles of calumny foat undisturbed, till they burst by their own infation. It is the recent confederacy, Mr. Jefray, that urges me to interrogate you on the subject of the former infamy. – And how degrading, how dishonourable would that confederacy have been, even if it had stood alone. Had I been a common exhibitor – Had the Lectures I profered been the mere vehicle of an innocent, but idle, amusement, – Surely I should have been entitled to a candid hearing. Even in that point of view, I should have had a right to expect – that no hostile cabal should have prejudiced my undertaking; – that no bands of young advocates should have organized and dispersed themselves about my Lecture-room, with their preconcerted signals of insult and interruption, – and an idiot laugh, prepared for every serious occasion, to check the rising emotions of the audience, and disconcert the Lecturer (unused to such brutality) whenever the full possession of his powers was most conspicuously demanded.* If, even in such a case, such conduct would have been unpardonable; – if urbanity and decency would have disclaimed it towards a common player; how much more indecorous must the outrage be regarded, when ofered to an individual who professed to treat of an important Science; whose powers of entertainment, whatever they may be, are to be regarded as matters of subordinate consideration; and the outline of whose plan at least propounds an extent and novelty of important investigation, not to be decided upon, like the style of a Sonnet, or the tune of a new song, by the critical glance of an eye, or a frst impression on the ear.† * Tose gentlemen Reviewers who defend themselves on this ground, reiterate their malignity rather than shew their discretion: for the plea that acknowledges the Reviewers to have been the Scofers, admits the judges were prejudiced: it admits also, in its fullest latitude, the connection between the former and the recent injury: and that connection admitted, demonstrates all the rest. But suppose me degraded to the level they pretend, – and Englishman would not be able to comprehend their plea. To confederate even against a player, a common exhibitor, or a puppit show-man, might be consistent enough among the rabble of Bartholomew fair; but would not, in England, be considered as any feather in the caps of Gentlemen: and if any set of persons, in a London Teatre, had so behaved to an Edinburgh performer, of any description, on the frst night of his appearance among them, as these Edinburgh Critics behaved towards the English Lecturer on the Science and Practice of Elocution, an English audience would have shewn the disturbers a little Teatrical Law. † It is not for me to decide on the accuracy of my own science, or my attainment in my own art. But I may, surely, be permitted to observe, that, in those parts of England which I have visited, I have almost uniformly seen among the attendants of these Lectures, the persons most celebrated for their Literature and their Science; and that by such my system has been encouraged and approved; – by some of them, conspicuous for their oratorical talents in the pulpit, that system has been practically adopted. Some occasional correspondence I have, also, had upon the subject, with persons of high rank and liberal estimation; and their sentiments on the occasion, have not been

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But the prejudication becomes still more fagitious, when it is considered, who the prejudicators were. Should my success or failure have depended upon the fat of those, who had already so calumniated me, in intellect and morals, that my success would have been their condemnation? – or, Are censoriousness and malice so unusual in the world, that it should be necessary for these reviewers to render themselves absolute Servants-of –all-work in the dirty-house of Calumny and Injustice, and to conspire against the Lecturer, because they had defamed the Writer? But waving the palpable evidence of detraction and malice, – let us place these clamorous arbiters on their vantage ground, and examine their literary a little fattering. Even on this very spot, I have been favoured with a very encouraging approbation of the plan and arrangement of my Lectures, from a nobleman of the frst character, and of the highest repute for his virtues and his talents; and whose superior eloquence, in particular, has been acknowledged in the highest assembly. Tis illustrious Orator – instead of prejudicating my undertaking, as these scorners have though ft to do, very politely informs me, that the Prospectus which I enclosed, has been read by him, with as much attention as considerable pressure of business would allow; and that, undoubtedly, my arrangement appears as well calculated as possible, to unfold the principles of the Science which I undertake to explain. He is pleased, also, to add, that he thinks my plan of great utility: that so much is mechanical in elocution, that it is very advantageous to have any principles clearly laid down, by which an individual may, with the greater distinctness, express the result of his observations, study and refection.’ I might, also, add – that (in some of the most essential points) the application of my principles to the cure of the most inveterate impediments, has proved my system not to be altogether a vain and empty theory: that to some whom nature had deprived even of those essential organs of enunciation, the uvula and the well-constructed palate, I have been able (with the assistance of the mechanic artist) to impart the power of distinct and impressive utterance; that, persons who have stammered through their fve-and-fortieth year, have received some advantage from my assistance; that in the instances of younger pupils, the most calamitous impediments have vanished, as by a charm, on the application of the simple fundamental principle, upon which so much of my system rests – the musical proportion of physical pulsations and remissions; – and that I have never met with a single instance of any person who had the least idea of musical infection, either from science or perceptive taste, in which, how dreadful soever the nature of the impediment, the practical application of this principle has failed of its efect: – and I might, still farther, add (as a circumstance, if well founded, of very extraordinary coincidence) that some gentlemen of acknowledged classical erudition, to whom my doctrines have been, both publicly and privately, developed, have been of opinion – that my system of mere English Elocution – for such, alone, I profess it to be – renders perspicuous and clear, many passages and criticisms of classical writers, on the subject of the melodies and pronunciation of ancient languages, hitherto perfectly unintelligible, or exceedingly misunderstood. But I have, upon the present occasion, all arguments that might be drawn from such considerations. I place the question upon the simple foundation of the evidence contained in the printed Outline, which will accompany this pamphlet. I ask of the reader, a candid and attentive perusal; and, when this has been granted, I leave him to decide – Whether the undertaking was of that description of which an opinion was to be formed during the frst ten minutes of the frst Lecture? – or, Whether its approbation or rejection ought to have depended on the likings, or dislikings of a few coarse monotonists of the Scottish Bar (who have most unaccountably usurped to themselves, the undivided right of dictating to the City of Edinburgh, in all matters of this description!) – or, on the opinions which they might conceive, or afect, relative to the too great fexibility of tone, and unusual range of modulative variety, exhibited in the voice of the Lecturer.

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pretensions. By their fruits ye shall know them! – By what they have admitted into their Critical Journal we may appreciate their discernment and their taste. Where then shall I begin? Shall I drag forth to view that mass of impudence, afection and incongruity, the Criticism on ‘Shepherd’s Poggio;’ 28 and expose still further, the puerile pigmy, who aimed the blunted shaf of his malevolence (blunted alike by historical and ungrammatical ignorance) against ‘the too splendid reputation which the ‘Life of Loreuzo de Medicis’ acquired for its author.’ Shall I expose the naked decripitude of the review of Belsham’s Philosophy of the mind?’29 – with its references without antecedents;* – its ‘evils shed abroad by the ‘hand of a master,’ and its ‘charms of novelty for unacquainted students;’ – with its vast increase of happiness resulting from ‘the general adoption of a system of deceit,’ – its reprobation of the idea that there is any thing ‘in the nature of truth that makes it necessarily good;’† – and its assertion, as a principle for early inculcation, that ‘there is a virtuous wrath, we could almost say a virtuous malice‡ and revenge.’ And might I not shew that the reasoning is as despicable as the morals are profigate? – that the statements are as inaccurate as the language is mean? What say you, Mr. Jefray, to whole pages of quibbling against the moral tendency of the doctrine of necessity, concluded with this quibbling concession? * ‘In the preface to this work, it is said to contain ‘the substance of a course of Lectures, which the author delivered to his pupils, upon some of the most interesting subjects which can occupy the human mind.’ It is, however, from the preface only, that we receive this information;’ (what information?) ‘for the most interesting subjects which can occupy the human mind are aferwards treated with the same drousy mediocrity and tameness of sentiment, as if they had related to a fy or a fungus, or to any thing, but the great interests of man.’ Rev. No. 2. Art. 21. p. 475. † N. B. Te main argument of this Cavilling Criticism, is – that there are truths which it is inconsistent with the interests of morality to avow. If this were the case, and if it were a truth – that there is no inherent excellence in truth, would not this be one of the truths most important to be suppressed? – especially if we consider what the Critic further observes (p. 479.) ‘Whatever, therefore, gives ideas of general elevation, tho’ it may not directly suggest any moral motives, is favourable to virtue; whatever gives sentiments more abject, though its practical infuence may not be immediate, is favourable to vice.’ And what more elevating than the sublime idea of the ftness and beauty of truth and unconditional sincerity? If the frailty of our nature and the conditions of society, render it not perfectly practicable, – how inspiring – how enobling to have it in contemplation! – What, on the other hand, so abject and so debasing as the system of convenient falsehood! – But the whole of this article is such darkness visible – such palpable nothingness – such a labyrinth of quibbles and contradictions as nothing but a mind reeling drunk with the unrectifed spirit of disputation could possibly have suggested. ‡ If there be any virtue in Malice, I am sure I can bears testimony for the Edinburgh Reviewers, that they are virtuous enough. As for Revenge, as I never did them any injury, I should not have known how to ascribe that virtue to them, if it had not been for an observation I happened to meet with, many years ago, I believe almost before I was out of petticoats) in a certain philosophical work, ‘the History of Goody two shoes;’ the purport of which was – that, It is easier for the injured to forgive his injuries, than for the injurer to forgive the injured. – Oh! days of blisful infancy when this was hard to be comprehended! – Oh! days that have succeeded, so fruitful of poignant illustration!

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‘We own, indeed, that the actual existence of necessity is of much importance, as being the only source of the power of motives, and, consequently, of all moral education. But truth, and the belief of truth, are diferent;’ &c. p. 482. What! – is the actual existence of necessity the only source of the power of motives! and are not the doctrine and the knowledge of that existence the best stimulants to the application of such motives? What better inducement to the application of remedies, than the knowledge that they have power over the disease? But what is this Truth, – the reality and the belief of which are such very different things – that one may be advantageous to that very morality of which the other is supposed to be destructive? Truth, justly defned, is certifed belief: belief upon evidence and conviction. How then can Truth, and the belief of Truth, be diferent things? How can Truth itself be important to morality, and the belief of truth be pernicious? I am aware, indeed, that, with respect to Truth; as with respect to heat, and many other general terms; there is a licence of speech, by which the efect is substituted for the cause. Tus we talk of mathematical truths, as we talk of the heat of fre: not that the fre is, in reality, hot; – for heat is the name of a sensation; not that a proposition of Euclid is, in reality, True; – for Truth is the name of an impression on the understanding: but heat, in the one instance, and truth, in the other, is the inevitable consequence of the application of the evidence to the proper senses; and, therefore, we say that fre is hot, and that mathematical propositions are true: confounding the impression with the causes, or data, of metaphysical and moral truth, and metaphysical and moral truth itself – (or, as the Reviewer states it, the truth, and the belief of the truth) can, in practical inference, be diferent things, it will remain for those to prove, whose subtilty can show us by what other means than through the medium of belief, metaphysical and moral propositions act. But let us have done with this skirmishing and war of posts, and come to closer quarters. Let us take for our feld the Review of ‘Belsham’s memoirs of George the third’. (No. III. Art. 18.) Nor is it necessary to take it in garbled quotations; or to seek any advantages in the attack. Whole pages may be found, of closely printed matter, in which a single sentence does not occur – that is either sense or grammar. Te Reviewer has outdone even the Historian himself: and surely that was not necessary. ‘By the illiberality, party spirit, and intemperate ardour for the propagation of his political opinions, which Mr Belsham displays, he has forfeited the title of historian, for the more appropriate, though less respectable, name of zealot, or pamphleteer (1). Te bitter and licentious spirit in which he had indulged his pen (2) throughout his former volumes, has now risen to a height (3) more intolerable to the reader, and disgraceful to the writer. It appears that Mr Belsham’s habits

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of writing, like all other evil habits, increase in virulence, (4) in proportion as they proceed; (5) and unless the wholesome discipline of criticism be administered, the press may, at some future day, groan under a still more highly accumulated mass (6) of personal abuse and intolerant zeal. – ‘By stripping these volumes, however, of their title to the rank of history, (7) to which they have assuredly no more claim, than a book of political registers and party pamphlets can pretend to, (8) we have greatly abridged to ourselves the unpleasant task (9) of censure; and by thus bringing their merits and defects to the decisions of an inferior standard, (10) we have allowed greater latitude to the author’s eccentric excursions, (11) and greater indulgence (12) to his violations of decency and propriety. It may be proper, however, to hint, that the former (13) are always observable when a low factious citizen comes under the cognizance of the law; and the latter, (14) whenever a prime minister, a tory, or an alarmist, is honoured by a mention in his annals. ‘Te most cursory and rapid review of the events which these volumes detail, would occupy a pamphlet of some magnitude. It would therefore be totally inconsistent with the plan of our work, to ofer more than a general view of their design and execution (15).’* * (1) Are zealot and pamphleteer, convertible terms? or names of two distinct characters? If the latter; in the old style of writing, it would be ‘name of zealot, or of pamphleteer. (2) Indulging a pen in spirit! (3) Te spirit in which a pen is indulged, rising to a height!! (4.) Habits encreasing in virulence – All habits so encreasing!! – Te virus of a habit!!! (5) Habits proceeding! – What a noble procession it must be!! (6) Te press groaning under a highly accumulated mass!! (7) Not ‘title of history,’ nor ‘title to rank as history,’ but title to the rank!! (8) ‘can pretend to,’ – Eupony itself! What have such writers to learn from Elocutionary harmonics, or the melody of speech? (9) Abridging the task of censure: – and abridging it to ourselves! (10) Te decisions of a standard!!! (11) Allowing latitude to eccentric excursions! (12) Allowing indulgence to violation!! (13) What former? (14) What latter? – But what have Edinburgh Reviewers to do with such vulgar things as antecedents! (15) Te design and execution of events!!! Te world of Ethicks is scarcely more indebted to the Edinburgh Review for the discovery that Falshood, Rapine and Murder are favourite instruments of the Divine Being, in his moral Government of the Universe, and for the consequent invention and classifcation of the noble Science of Jefng, – than is the world of Taste and Literature for the like invention and classifcation of certain noble improvements in the style and grammatical structure of the English Language; which, in honour of the second great luminary of the said Review, might be arranged and specifed under the appellation of BROUGHMIANA. To these Broughmiana (of which the specimen above presents a very splendid constellation) we should be right happy to pay the same distinguishing honour that we have already paid to the Jef; and many learned names of distinction and contradistinction, are already foating in our imagination. But time presses, and our labours must be brought to a conclusion. We must, therefore, satisfy ourselves with selecting a few of these striking beauties; and must leave to the reader the pleasant labour of classifying them, according to his own taste and perspicacity. It is but justice, however, to premise – that our selection must be very imperfect; since but a small portion of these Reviews have been by us perused. Till the necessity of writing the above letter occurred, the only Articles we had ever looked into were – the Reviews of the ‘Memoir and Poems,’ of ‘Shepherd’s Poggio,’ and ‘Belsham’s Geo. III.’ Of each of these due notice is already taken, either in notes or text. Our subsequent acquaintance with this learned production has only

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Shall I go on – through ‘divertissements’ of a ‘medley calling itself Memoirs,’ been indulged, during the intervals of relaxation, while the letter was preparing for the press. From most of the articles we have read, however, some specimens of Broughmiana might be selected. We shall satisfy ourselves with a few. No. I. Art. 2. Dr. Parr’s Sermon. Te wit and elegance of the introductory paragraph will be readily admitted. ‘Whoever has had the good fortune to see Dr. Parr’s wig, must have observed, that while it trespasses a little on the orthodox magnitude of perukes, in the interior parts, it swells out into boundless convexity of frizz, the of barbers, and the terror of the world.’ But for the scrap of Greek, who would not have imagined that this elegant sally had been written by the Doctor’s Barber? and, from the words trespasses on, who would not have concluded, that the Critic of the Comb was making himself merry with a comparison between the smallness of the head and the largeness of the bush behind. But, lo! and behold! the application of the simile, in the ensuing sentence, informs us – that, in the language of the Broughmiana – to trespass on, means to trespass beyond. Again (p. 22.) ‘It is better there should be an asylum for the mad, and a hospital for the wounded, if they were to squander away 50 per cent of their income, than that we should be disgusted with sore limbs, and shocked with straw-crowned monarchs in the streets.’ To what antecedent do the and their refer? to the mad and the wounded? – Do they spend their income? or to the asylum and the hospital? – do they spend theirs? But it is a favourite fgure in this new style of composition, and one of the distinguishing features of the Broughmiana, that the antecedent should be understood: – that is by the writer: – as for the reader, the matter will depend much upon the profundity of his understanding. Mark, also, the ethics. Why should there be hospitals and asylums? – that the Mad may be taken care of, and the Lame be cured? – No: but that Edinburgh Reviewers may not be disgusted with the sight of sore limbs, or shocked with straw-crowned monarchs in the streets! P. 23. – we discover that according to the Broughmiana, infnitude, &c. – ‘A line of Greek, a line of Latin, or no line at all, subsequent to each name, will distinguish, with sufcient accuracy, the shades of merit, and the degrees of immortality conferred.’ Art. 3. Godwin’s Reply – ‘Aware of the very superior manner in which Mr. Godwin’s complaint is now accustomed to be treated, we had great hopes upon reading so far, that a radical cure had been efected; but we had no sooner entered upon his remarks on population, than this pleasing delusion was dispelled, and we were convinced it was a case for life.’ p. 26. From this article to p. 63. the leaves remain unopened. We have just peeped into the Review of ‘Southey’s Talaba,’ Art. 8.) and there, at the very outset, we fnd – ‘Originality, however, we are persuaded is rarer’ (a writer with an ordinary ear would perhaps have written more rare;) and a man may change a good master for a bad one, without fnding himself at all nearer to independence.’ How fortunate that man must be who did fnd himself nearer to independence by such means! We skip again over between 40 and 50 unopened pages, and come to Art. 17. ‘Poems by Mr Opie.’ Te Reviewer thus begins – ‘Tere are, probably, many of our traders who, at some fortunate, or unfortunate moment of their lives, have been tempted to dip their pen in the fatal ink of publication,’ &c. p. 113. Te ink of publication we suppose, is printer’s ink: and we are marvelling with ourselves, what sort of a frestick that pen must be, that in such ink is to be dipped! P. 114. ‘Tere is besides an innocent selfshness, which magnifes to our pride every past exertion, and persuades us, that success is more difcult of attainment, because we have ourselves succeeded. Nor is the penalty, now, the same simple failure, which, in a frst attempt, is scarcely disgrace, because it is scarcely known.’ Tose who are not of the school would fnd it difcult to perceive why the negative of or should be made the copulative of these two sentences. ‘In the tender song of sentiment and pathos,’ (for songs of tender sentiment and pathos) ‘there is uncommon elegance;’ &c. ‘She has attempted the sportive song of humour,’ &c. p. 115. ‘Te humbleness of phraseology and of sound, which he before despised, is now a perfection, which he must studiously elaborate, ‘ p. 117. Compare the sentiment of this passage with the criticisms on the new school of Poetry, in the Review of Southey’s Talaba; and the phraseology, with the criticisms on the style of Dr. Parr.

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– through ‘ravages of the thirsty’ – ‘monks of anarchy’ – ‘boiling bigots,’ and ‘in P. 118. ‘Tere are few pieces in the volume before us, which it ‘ (personifcation) ‘has not afected. Guilt of this kind is, indeed, ofen to be found, even in the coldest productions of age:’ &c. In the English Language, when we studied it, Sin was the acme of ofence against Religion; Crime against Law; and Guilt against Morality; and we should, therefore, have supposed, as it is only against the laws of Taste and Criticism that Personifcation ofends, crime would have been, here, the word; if, indeed, the simple term ofences might not have appeared sufciently. But if the Edinburgh Review continues long to fourish, it is evident, that we shall have a new English Language to transplant from this side of the Tweed: – as, also, a new System of Elocutionary harmony, before an English reader can do justice to such passages as the following – p. 121. ‘and if, as we trust, she will submit to abandon all idle decoration, and to give her whole fancy to simplicity and tenderness, &c. In Art. 18. ‘Phillips’s Public Characters,’ we suspect that the writer meant, in the following observation, to have a sly slap, at some of his own associates of the Edinburgh Review. ‘We suppose the booksellers have authors at two diferent prices; those who write grammatically, and those who do not; and that they have not thought ft to put any of their best hands upon this work.’ What follows seems to be in the same arch-style – ‘we request the biographer will at least give us some means of ascertaining when he is comical, and when he is serious.’ – For biographer, read reviewer; and take as an illustration, the following example from No. II. Art. 6. p. 316. ‘Amelrosa, who imagines her father to have banished her from his presence for ever, in the frst transports of joy for pardon, obtained by earnest intercession, thus exclaims: ‘Lend they doves, dear Venus, Tat I may send them where Cæsario strays: And while he smooths their silver wings, and gives them For drink the honey of his lips, I’ll bid them Coo in his ear, his Amelrosa’s happy! ‘What judge of human feelings does not recognise, in these images of silver wings, doves, and honey, the genuine language of his passions?’ If the writer be serious, we give him joy of his punctuation! We turn back to the Review, No. I. Art. 27. ‘Te Crisis of the sugar Colonies.’ Of the morality and the steadiness of principle,’ exhibited in his article we have already spoken. Passages in abundance might be produced in proof that the style is worthy of the sentiment. Two however shall sufce – two of the metaphorical kind. – p. 217. Sometimes our author labours to express more than his own fertility, or the limited powers of language allow. He then stalks forth upon stilts; and either hides himself in the thick darkness of metaphysics, or strains at a quotation, or fies to the last resource of the wretched – a case in point.’ Can any thing be more grand! Stalking forth in stilts to hide oneself. – Flying in stilts! two cases in point – the last resources of the wretched!!! Broughmania for ever! Again (p. 219) ‘One who is always running afer fowers, will sometimes make a false step.’ – A school-boy would have thought this more likely to happen, when he was running afer butter-fies. But we suppose the writer means, by this passage, to intimate to the initiated, his adoption of the philosophical idea of Dr. Darwin – that the original butterfies were, in reality, only animated fowerets, which, having been blown from their stems, in a storm of wind, in that efort for the preservation of existence which is inherent in all organised matter became, &c. See Notes on the Botanic Garden, &c. Te eye having accidentally fallen upon that beautiful Euphonic repetition of sense and sound (No. II. Art. 9. p. 370) ‘Te immense acquisition of power which the French government acquired by the revolution,’ &c. – it immediately brought to our memory a cluster of similar beauties in No. V. Art. 10. ‘Amadis de Gaul by Southey and Rose,’ – viz. ‘Arcalaus the enchanter had had infuence enough,’ &c. p. 130. ‘Te king, seduced by ambition, is ill-advised enough to force his daughter to this marriage in spite of the advice of his best counsellors,’ ibid. ‘Te necessity of following out minutely the prose narrative occasions an occasional langour in the poem.’ p. 135. In the same article, harmony, and grace are, alike, consulted in ‘distressed damo-whom he fortunes to relieve.’ p. 128. But how exquisitely are harmony, energy, and propriety all concentrated in the following improvement upon Burke! – Te Panegyrist of the spirit of Chivalry had poorly said, that ‘Vice itself lost

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candescent wrong-heads,’ – through ‘homages of manner,’ and ‘therefores,’ that ought to be therebyes; till we ‘disabuse Mr. Belsham of those exaggerated pretensions, to which every sentence of his book proclaims his want of right,’ and come, at last, to ‘no other victory, than that which any man may quickly obtain over delicacy and shame?’ It is not, Mr. Jefray, from any partiality to the Author, that I thus expose the Critic. I despise, alike, the Historian, or the Reviewer, who prostitutes himself to factious calumny, and profanes the temple that should be sacred to Truth, or to Science, with the clamour of misrepresentation and abuse. With your censures of Mr. Belsham, therefore, I fnd no fault; perhaps the greater part of them are half its evil by losing all its grossness!! but the Reviewer thus improves it in quotation – ‘In the old romances we look in vain for the delicacy which, according to Burke, robbed vice of half its evil, by depraving it of all its grossness.’ ib. 121. It is observable that robbery seems to be in very high favour with these reviewers. Poggio plunders the libraries of the Monks: Te Deity makes rapine one of his instruments of moral governance; and now Delicacy commits a robbery upon Vice! In short the Reviewer seems to have plundered the very highwaymen, housebreakers and footpads for metaphors, for arguments, and for ethics; and great has been their booty. Turning back upon the article from which we have thus digressed – to wit, the voluminous dissertation on the Ballance of Power, so ingeniously foisted, upon the public, under mask of a Criticism, on ‘Segur’s Politique de tous les Cabinets de l’Europe,’ we observe, with pain, some things that stagger us so much, that we are almost enclined to carry our panegyric no further; altho’ we have marked with our pencil, as we proceeded, several other very beautiful instances of Broughmiana. Te frst of the staggering passages which we shall mention from this said Dissertation will be found Rev. No. II. p. 381. ‘Te appearance of an Epaminondas can no longer raise a petty state to power and infuence over its neighbour, suddenly to be lost, with the great man’s life, by some unforeseen victory at Leuctra.’ Does this very classical writer mean to represent Epaminondas as having lost his life in the battle of Leuctra, whom all former classical writers have represented as having been slain in the battle of Mantinea? – or Is he really determined to carry his innovations on the grammatical structure of language so far as to render it utterly impossible for any body but himself to understand his meaning. But this is not the most serious cause of our uneasiness. When we fnd, in this same article, the justifcation of that ‘valuable and sacred principle,’ (see p. 370.) ‘the right of national interference,’ extended to a vindication and exultation over the invasion and partition of Poland, (see p. 351.) and hear ‘that the happiest event which has ever befallen the fne country of Poland, has been a dismemberment, wept over and disclaimed upon by those who had no experience of its necessity, or need of its benefts;’ when we hear that ‘Tose benefts have most undoubtedly been the pacifcation of that unhappy kingdom, by the only means which human fancy could have devised for accomplishing this end, without endangering the security of other powers, namely a fair division of the country among the neighbouring and rival powers, and a consequent communion of the inestimable blessings which their ancient subjects enjoyed under a system of peaceful government and regular police:’ – when we hear this atchievement thus clebrated as one of those for which ‘A few useless millions, and a few still more useless lives’ may properly be ‘sacrifced;’ (p. 357.) the language sounds in our ears as so truly Consular, that (considering the past and present history of the reputed writer of this article) we should really be apprehensive lest, at some future day, a second edition might be presented to the great foreign interferer of the nineteenth century, as a panegyric upon his equally equitable partition, dismemberment and pacifcation of those realms; – if, indeed, we were not precluded from such apprehension, by the cheering confdence that there are, in Britain, multitudes enough of better heads and of better hearts than are to be found among the Edinburgh Reviewers, to preclude the opportunity of such prostration.

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just. But the style of those censures – the language of that Review, – is it not below contempt? Is not criticism defled, and language debased by condescending to the analysis of such trash? is there another instance, do you think, in the English Language (if we except some other parts of the Edinburgh Review) in which ffeen errors of metaphor, grammar and construction (and even to this catalogue two more might have been added) are huddled thus together, without the intervention of one single sentence, or clause of a sentence, that has the least pretence to accuracy? And are the publishers of this, the Arbiters of taste in Edinburgh? – Are these the men whose fat is to determine what Sciences shall spread – what refnements shall be cultivated – what amusements shall prevail? And is this the country of Mansfeld30 and of Erskine?31 of Hume,32 of Home,33 and of Blair!34 – Is this ‘the Northern Capital of British Intellect’ – ‘the renowned seat of Science and liberal enquiry’ – which my imagination painted? Be it so. It is not the frst time that my enthusiasm has represented mankind much better than I found them; and, perhaps, it may not be the last: for to think well of their fellow beings (though too frequently such thoughts are the forerunners of disappointment) is necessary to some natures. It is a habit, I confess, to which, in spite of frequent and mortifying experience, I have always a propensity to recur: and, even with respect to you, Mr. Jefray, I shall still be glad to hear any explanation, or any circumstance that may give me reason to form a better opinion than that which, at present, I am compelled to entertain. JOHN THELWALL. Dec. 31st, 1803.

MR THELWALL’S REPLY

Mr. Telwall’s Reply to the Calumnies, Misrepresentations, and Literary Forgeries, contained in the Anonymous Observations on his Letter to the Editor of the Edinburgh Review (Glasgow: W. Lang, 1804)

Mr. Telwall’s Reply to the Calumnies, Misrepresentations, and Literary Forgeries, contained in the Anonymous Observations on his Letter to the Editor of the Edinburgh Review is Telwall’s second publication in the battle with Francis Jeffrey. Like his ‘Letter to Francis Jefray’ (reprinted earlier in this volume), this pamphlet is a response to a scurrilous publication. In this case, Telwall’s Reply is a rejoinder to an anonymously-authored pamphlet entitled Observations of Mr. Telwall’s Letter to the Editor of the Edinburgh Review, which supported the reviewers against Telwall. In turn, that pamphlet (this gets rather confusing) had been published as a retort to Telwall’s ‘Letter to Francis Jefray’. All of these pamphlets were published in 1804. Tis Reply is very similar in style, purpose and argument to the previous letter. Although the author to whom Telwall replies is anonymous, it is clear that he believes him to be either Jefrey or his cohort Henry Brougham. As the subtitle to the Reply – which promises ‘a further exposition of the ungrammatical Ignorance of the Writers and Vindicators of that Defamatory Journal’ – indicates, Telwall’s strategy is to fght the reviewers on the ground of language, literary taste, comprehension and ‘correctness’. On this issue, Telwall excels and appears confdent. He believes, as he states in his ‘Letter to Francis Jefray’, that the public will support him in what is essentially a personal struggle. ‘If you have attacked my character through the medium of the press,’ he addresses Jefrey, then through the medium of the press I have a right to seek my remedy. If you have abused the public with falshoods and forgeries … to the bar of that public I have a right to call you; that those falshoods may be detected, and those insults atoned.1

But arguably, it was something of a mistake to place his personal slights and the details of his private life before the tribunal of the public (a phrase he consist– 157 –

DOI: 10.4324/9780429349737-6

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ently uses). In the Reply he appears hurt, indignant and at times rather shrill, where he might have maintained a more objective or self-possessed tone. His decision to attack Jefrey publicly and in such an impassioned and personal way only steered this war of words further into personal territory. Indeed, the anonymous author of the Observations places the blame for the ensuing public scandal at Telwall’s feet. ‘If Mr Telwall had not, with a rare mixture of vanity and bad taste’, he contends, ‘obtruded on the world a bombastic account of his professions and disgraces, the Reviewers most certainly would never have dragged them into notice’.2 As with the ‘Letter to Francis Jefray’, where Telwall responds directly to specifc passages from the Observations, we have included those in the endnotes.

Notes 1. 2.

See, p. 113. Anon., Observations of Mr. Telwall’s Letter to the Editor of the Edinburgh Review (Edinburgh: D. Willison, 1804), p. 13-14f. For more on the implications of Telwall’s decision to publicize his personal life, see C. Wagner, ‘Domestic Invasions: John Telwall and the Exploitation of Privacy,’ in S. Poole (ed.), Radical Romantic and Acquitted Felon: Essays on John T elwall, 1764–1834 (London: Pickering and Chatto, 2009).

Mr. THELWALL’S REPLY to the

CALUMNIES, MISREPRESENTATIONS, AND

LITERARY FORGERIES, contained in the

Anonymous Observations on his

LETTER to the EDITOR of the

EDINBURGH REVIEW: With a further exposition of the ungrammatical Ignorance of the Writers and Vindicators of that Defamatory Journal. ‘A Lawyer art thou? – draw not nigh; ‘Go, carry to some other place ‘Te hardness of thy coward eye, ‘Te falsehood of they sallow face.’ 1 WORDSWORTH

GLASGOW printed for the author, by w. lang, 62, bell-street, and sold by all the booksellers in town and country.

1804 – 159 –

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When, afer the mature deliberation of six weeks*, a two-penny-halfpenny answer2 to my pamphlet was, at length, announced, public expectation was, undoubtedly, considerably raised. Some persons, indeed, prognosticated that all the wit would be found in the price; and that the parody of two and sixpence Scotch upon two and sixpence English was designed as a master-piece of ingenious ridicule. But the graver part of the public, inevitably, thought, – ‘and I thought so too,’ – that the whole ‘critical fraternity’† must have been laying their heads together, in full conclave, for the production of some pithy sophism, – some master-piece of laconic brevity, which had been pruned and repruned, and compressed and recompressed, till volumes of meaning could be crowded into every page. Nor was it improbable, from the long delay of publication, that these learned Reviewers had taken the precaution of obtaining the assistance of some auxiliary acquainted with the structure of English sentences, and the meaning of English words; and who could be prevailed upon to submit to the laborious task of reducing to order the chaos of their language. Tis expectation, however, the ‘Observations’ efectually disappointed. Brevity3 and compression, indeed, the pamphlet seems to possess: but the compression consists in the closeness and smallness of the types, and the brevity is displayed, not in the rejection of verbiage, but in the poverty of argument and thought. Coolness and apparent composure must, also, be acknowledged among the attributes of this little work: but such a coolness as resembles rather the palefaced tranquillity of helplessness and despair, than the concentrated energy of self-collection, and the serenity of conscious power; – such a composure as might rather become the place of execution, than be desirable in the feld of battle. But if energy is not concentrated, malignity is. If there is little wit in the production, there is wickedness enough; and one short passage of what Mr. Burke would have called – ‘pure, unmixed, dephlegmated, defecated malice,’4 sufciently betrays the nature of that moderation which the writers have so afectedly * I might with the greatest propriety have said eight or nine; for Mr. Jefrey has not scrupled to boast, that he had the address to obtain a sight of my letter (of the frst part of it, at least) in manuscript. How this was obtained, by what honourable means, and who was the intermediate agent in the business, I might detail at length; but I leave it to be explained by Mr. Jefrey, himself; and by Mr. Oliver, who frst undertook the printing, then betrayed, and aferwards insulted his employer. † Of the awful deliberation with which the Reviewers proceed in the discharge of their critical functions, – their deep consultations over the midnight lamp; and their long discussions in congregated assembly, fequent and full, over the very title-pages of the books they are to review, before they venture even to cut open the leaves, we have the following interesting testimony, in the introductory paragraph to the criticism on Godwin’s Chaucer. – ‘Te perusal of this title excited no small surprise in our critical fraternity. Te authenticated passages of Chaucer’s life may be comprised in half-a-dozen pages; and behold two voluminous quartos! Te more sanguine of our number anticipated the recovery of the ‘Boke of the Lioun,’ and the other long lost labours of Adam Scrivenere, the bard’s amanuensis; the more cautious predicted a new edition of the Chest of Rowley, and the Shakespere Cabinet of Ireland. Our expectations were yet farther heightened,’ &c. &c. See Ed. Rev. No. VI. p. 437.

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preserved; and the extent of that ‘charitable’ concern and ‘sincere compassion’ which their superlative humanity expresses for ‘the innocent persons with whom I am connected,’ and on whom my mere ‘distaste for drudgery’ is supposed to have ‘brought’ so many ‘afictions and embarrassments.’5 In other respects, the present literary twopence-halfpenny worth is of the same quality with the customary fve shillings worths vended at the critical warehouse. Te same ignorance of English grammar – the same ‘gipsey jargon’ of incongruous metaphor, and the same deplorable want of acquaintance with the meaning of English words, enter into the texture of these fimsy observations, as degrade the fashy assortments of the Review. Te pervading spirit is, also, the same. Evasion, chicanery, misrepresentation, falsehood and misquotation constitute the essential elements of the work. Te very publication, indeed, in all its diferent stages, and in all its parts, is a practical prevarication: and it may fairly be doubted – whether the ingenuity, or the ingenuousness of the publishers is most to be admired. Tings are afrmed – which, if they were true, could only be known to Mr. Jefrey or to Mr. Brougham;6 yet neither Mr. Jefrey nor Mr. Brougham has thought ft to sanction the afrmation with his name. I am represented as ‘excessively amusing’ by want of ‘information (1.) as to the conductors of the work;’ and yet the title-page to these ‘Observations’ acknowledges my ‘Letter to Mr. Jefrey’ to be a ‘Letter to the Editor of the Edinburgh Review;’ – and (2.) ‘as to the authors of the diferent articles;’ and yet Mr. Constable7 has exultingly proclaimed – that Mr. Jefrey was, absolutely and positively, the author of the essential article; – the Review of my Memoirs. Finally, the said Mr. Constable does not think proper to avow himself as the publisher; yet Mr. Constable transmits these ‘Observations’ to his agents in Glasgow and Greenock; and (as the proft of the printing could not be sufered to go out of the family) Mr. Constable’s father-in-law (the customary printer of the Review) appears, as responsible operator, in the imprint. To such a mode of answering a public accusation it is obviously not necessary to reply: for evidence which nobody avows is no evidence at all; and the defence which the defendant is afraid to acknowledge, if it is any thing, is an acknowledgement of guilt. Such, is the point of view in which this equivocal answer should be regarded. It is the faltering of men who feel that they must say something, while they know that there is nothing to be said: – the stammering of an equivocator, too confused to hold his tongue, yet cunning enough to perceive that it may be expedient to disavow the excuse he is making. But who are the persons to whom these anonymous ‘Observations’ are addressed? Te readers of the seven shilling ‘Memoir,’ so basely calumniated? or of the two-and-sixpenny ‘Letter,’ in which that Memoir was vindicated? So far from confding in a jury of this description, the courageous Reviewers do not even appeal to the readers of their own Review. Time enough had been given

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them, from the publication of my ‘Letter,’ to have inserted their ‘Observations,’ if they had thought ft, in the sixth number of their ‘Critical Journal;’ but alas! – the very title-page of that ‘Letter,’ had an aspect so formidable, that all mention of it was suppressed, even in the boasted Correct quarterly list of new publications. Conscious that they have nothing to hope from the usual judges of literary controversy, my magnanimous opponents appeal to the twopenny-halfpenny rabble; and the high and mighty lords of universal taste and literature refer the vindication of their moral and intellectual character to those whose scientifc lucubrations extend not beyond the brief abstract and the fying leaf, and to whom the smallest piece of silver might, perhaps, appear a price too extravagant for a book. To the depth of their abasement it is not necessary for me to descend. How important soever to the writers of the Edinburgh Review may be the opinion of this particular class of literati, upon the estimation of such, my undertakings will not depend. It may be useful, however, to those good easy people who pin their faith to the sleeve of critical authority, to expose, still further, the degree of credit to which these Edinborough Dictators are entitled; – to guard the unwary against mistaking the audacity of falsehood for the courageous confdence of truth; and demonstrate the full extent to which impudence and cowardice may happen to be associated. Te writers of the ‘Observations, &c.’ begin with declaring – that ‘Tere is nothing that can be thought ‘to require an answer in’ my ‘publication, but the assertion that the success of my ‘Lectures in’ Edinburgh ‘was obstructed by the eforts of a confederacy:’8 – a declaration, however, which they immediately forget; – for upwards of four-ffhs of their little pamphlet is devoted to other matters. Tey then proceed to speak of themselves and their own insignifcance, with a degree of original modesty, which Edinburgh will be much obliged to me for having taught them: for it is sufciently notorious – that their quantum of this amiable endowment was not, heretofore, remarkably abundant. Tat ‘the individuals alluded to’ now ‘possess no control over the public opinion,’ the public has, also, reason to rejoice: for they certainly were never entitled to any such control; and it is equally certain – that it has not been exercised with very scrupulous honour or integrity. Equally certain, however, it is – that, from the peculiarity of the state of society in Edinburgh; – from the preponderating infuence of the corporate profession of the law, and the etiquette by which the members of that profession feel themselves restricted towards each other; – from the lead which the confederates (by means of their pufed-up Review, and other arts of arrogant assumption) had usurped, among their juvenile associates; – and still more, from certain particular circumstances of personal connection, and the peculiarities of my situation, – the ostentatious ofciousness with which these malignant beings

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displayed their hostility against me bad an infuence and a power, which, in no other place, such a confederacy could possibly have possessed. Tat this infuence was seconded, on the night of my Lecture, by the cooperation of another confederacy, has, already, been stated in my Letter: and, perhaps, it is true that all the machinations of Mr. Jefrey and Mr. Brougham might not have been sufcient for the accomplishment of their most worthy purpose, but for the assistance they derived, upon the spot, from that ‘degenerate ofspring of a literary sire,’*9 whom, upon any other occasion, it is perfectly notorious that Mr. Brougham and Mr. Jefrey would have held in sufcient contempt. Tese circumstances considered, the infuence I have ascribed, even to such beings as the ‘individuals alluded to,’ is not so very extraordinary. Te world is not now to be informed – when an individual is to be proscribed (and that individual an unconnected stranger) how easy it is – for those to whom all arts of malignity are alike indiferent, to infame the prejudices of one description of persons, to alarm the timid selfshness of a second, and mislead the judgment of a third. But ‘it is proper,’ say the writers of these anonymous ‘Observations,’ – ‘that those facts, as to which Mr. Telwall has published his conjectures, should be correctly stated by those to whom they must necessarily be known.’ Why, then, do not those persons state them? Why do they not give to such statement the sanction and authority of their names? Are disputed facts to be rested on mere assertions, which the very persons who make those assertions are afaid, or ashamed to own? Let us, at least, have a little of the fesh and blood of personal responsibility. It is too much to expect – that, in such a case, we should be satisfed with a mere stalking phantom of pretended evidence, without form or head; like the ghost in St. James’s Park. Whether Mr. Jefrey, or Mr. Brougham, had the honour of ‘the formation of the dark conspiracy,’10 or who else was the original former, I have no where made any assertion: Te presumptions, however, are, tolerably strong; and of the cooperation there is evidence enough. If, in any of the minute particulars, I happen to be mistaken, Mr. Jefrey should remember – that, before I proceeded to any public accusation, I gave him every gentlemanly opportunity for any mode of private explanation he thought necessary. * It is much to be lamented – that it is not as easy to make Men of Feeling in real life as in the closet; and that the most celebrated and sentimental writers have not always been as successful in the infusion of useful knowledge and moral principles into the minds of their children, as into the pages of their books. I understand that the somewhat inaccurate expression ‘obscure inheritor,’ &c. in my ‘Letter,’ &c. has occasioned some persons to mistake my allusion, and apply what was there said, to the son of a late celebrated medical theorist. To that gentleman I, certainly, did not refer; and, from all share or co-operation in the conspiracy against me, I most explicitly acquit him.

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Whether Mr. Jefrey entered my Lecture Room before or afer what the writers of these observations are pleased to call ‘the frst act of the performance,’ – or how many times he entered, as his person was entirely unknown to me, I have no where pretended to afrm: but certain it is – that if what is now advanced in his vindication be true, his conduct is even more reprehensible than I imagined. If he had not heard any part of what related to the principles of my science, upon that science and those principles, be could have no right to determine. If that science profess to give speech to the dumb, and fuency to the convulsive stammerer, – if I can demonstrate that it is capable of so doing, and that, in some instances, it actually has so done, – is the individual, who has not heard a word of that science, or of the foundations upon which it rests, to hold himself at liberty to judge and to deride, because he dislikes the style of a few recitations, which are merely introduced as a relief to the didactic matter, and seldom occupy more than thirty or forty minutes, out of two hours and a half that are devoted to each Lecture? But certain, also, it is – that some ladies to whom Mr. Jefrey’s physiognomy is perfectly familiar, and who felt themselves much annoyed by his indecorous conduct, gave me a very diferent account both of the time and circumstances of his frst appearance. By them it has been asserted that he came into the room, in the manner described in my Letter, some time before the Lecture began. Whether he went out again, afer he had arranged his forces; and at what time he returned with his chosen ‘friend,’ I leave to the determination of ‘those to whom it must necessarily be known.’ But with respect to the afair of the screen, &c. – thus much I can afrm, of my own knowledge, – Between the time of the insult in my Lecture Room, and the day upon which I sent my private Letter to Mr. Jeffey, I walked, fom mere curiosity, into the Outer Court of the Parliament House (which it seems I have mistakenly supposed to be part and parcel of the Court of Justiciary) and there, (the name of Mr. Jefrey being called over, before the Lord Ordinary) the very identical eyes and nose and chin that I had seen poking forth fom behind the screen, presented themselves to that call; and the person wearing the said identical eyes and nose and chin, did most certainly ‘utter’ in my hearing; and did most certainly know that ‘in my hearing he was uttering,’ not ‘a word’ only, but many words; – some of which were so ‘uttered’ – with such agitation and interruption as might be well accounted for – fom consciousness of the close neighbourhood of an injured individual, by whom it was beginning to be notorious that he was to be called to a public account. Tus far, then, it does not seem very likely – that my ‘physiognomical observations should have been made on a wrong subject*.’ But with respect to that * A slip of the pen, in the haste of composition, gives colour to this supposition of mistake. Speaking of the poking forth of a certain feature, in the act of perking from behind the screen, the circumstance that belonged to the attitude has been inaccurately applied to the feature itself; and

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other ‘subject,’ so insidiously alluded to, in this two-handed answer, – and who, in more senses than one, may very properly be regarded as a ‘wrong subject;’ – with respect to him, also, (if I am not mistaken) I have made some ‘physiognomical observations.’ But as, during the several days that I attended in the said Outer Court, and, aferwards, in the Inner Chamber of the Court of Session, his name was never called, – and as the only overture I ever had of personal introduction to the said ‘subject,’ I thought proper, from moral considerations, to decline, I have not had the same opportunity of ascertaining the correctness of the application. But I, certainly, did see, fdgeting, and lolling, and smirking, among the benches of the said Outer Chamber, a fgure that instantaneously brought to my mind, as in a picture, all the moral and intellectual associations, which the facts I was already acquainted with, relative to the life and character of that ‘wrong subject,’ are calculated to produce: – a fgure, in raiment, half coxcomb, and half sloven; and whose inexpressible phiz exhibited the strangest mixture of childish simpleness and frentic eccentricity: – the wildness of whose eye (afectedly unconscious of all outward things) might, perhaps, have been irradiated with the beamings of genius, if these had not been eclipsed by the glare of vanity; but the insignifcancy of whose subordinate features was only relieved by a sort of spasmodic irritability, and whose twitches and fickerings, occasionally, presented the imperfect imitation of a smile, – while the frequent motion of the lips would infallibly have suggested the idea of muttering idiotcy, had not the scowl upon the brow corrected the impression, by the irresistible suggestion of close design and meditative mischief. Whether this physiognomy does, in reality, belong to the identical ‘wrong subject’ at whom the writer of the ‘Observations’ seems to have aimed this backhanded slap*, I cannot positively determine: But this I know (and Mr. Brougham knows, also,) – that, with respect to previous malice, the supposed germ of the hostile confederacy, the said ‘wrong,’ as well as the right ‘subject,’ had sufciently manifested his spirit, before the Lectures began. Mr. Brougham well knows – that a literary gentleman in Edinburgh remonstrated with the said ‘subject’ I have talked of a long, instead of a lengthened chin. To all the advantage to be derived from the shortness of his chin, Mr. Jefrey is most certainly entitled; and it may, perhaps, be of some importance to those whose forwardness is more conspicuous than their understanding, that their chins, as well as their noses, should not be over prominent. * Tis sinister insinuation is, itself, demonstrative of the pen from which it issued. How these two men speak of each other, what is the kind of afection that subsists between them, and what sort of opinion each entertains of the principles of the other, all who have conversed with them separately very well know. I have, in my possession, a little manuscript, made up of actual conversations, and entitled ‘J. and B. a Comedy, in one Act; with the Humours of Marplot the Bookseller; as performed at the Critical Teatre, Edinburgh;’ &c. – which, if I could condescend to become an editor of penny pamphlets, might be printed on a quarter sheet, and would, I believe, furnish considerable amusement to that class of readers to whom the ‘twopenny halfpenny Observations’ of the reviewers seem principally addressed.

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last in question, as soon as my approach to Edinburgh was known, on the illiberality and injustice of the former attack; to which the said ‘subject,’ – with that unparalleled efrontery in which he notoriously prides himself, boldly replied, by declaring his determination to pursue the Lectures, also, with a similar spirit of hostility. Te mode of hostility, indeed, he did not pre-declare; but the spirit he sufciently manifested: and I leave it to those whose opportunities may lead them to more explicit evidence than the confdence of friendly intimation can authorise in a public pamphlet, to determine for themselves – whether such a declaration from one reviewer, in support of the previous hostility of another, does not amount to a tolerable presumption of the confederating malignity alleged. But why appeal to secondary evidence? Is it not virtually admitted, and even gloried in, that the reviewers were among the foremost of the laughers and scofers11 at the Lecture? And this fact, once admitted, and compared with the tone and tenour of the Review, does it not amount to something more than a mere presumption of the rest? But they did not ‘laugh out of malice,’ but only ‘from the mere impossibility of avoiding it!’ – It was so good a joke! – ‘the Massacre of Bangor’ and the ‘Ode on the Passions’ were so ‘comical!’ – and ‘the whole recitation, indeed, appeared to be so considerably superior to any representation of Sylvester Daggerwood, or Dick the Apprentice,’ &c. that they could not help enjoying the thing. Nay, so highly did they enjoy it, that they were determined to countenance it for the joke sake; and the ‘cessation of the exhibition was a sore disappointment’ to them, ‘and to many friends to whom they had earnestly ‘recommended it.’ Mr. Jefrey, I suppose, and the members of his amphibious fraternity, are not unacquainted with the celebrated legal paradox – that he who proves too much, proves nothing. Now, it happens a little unfortunately for this part of the argument, – that, upon the two succeeding nights, during which the doors of the Lecture Room were thrown open, no one individual of this tittering and scofng junto ever made his re-appearance. Mr. Brougham, indeed, visited the Lecture Room the night afer the undertaking had been completely and avowedly given up; and aferwards amused his friends, and others, (in his customary style of half-hatched metaphor) with a pompous description of ‘the vast void,’ and ‘the cymerian gloom,’ and ‘the sepulchral silence’ that proclaimed his triumphs: but, during the two nights of public invitation (and, to Mr. Jefrey at least, of private challenge) the only persons who did reattend, were of those whose mouths were full of indignation against the unworthy treatment I had received, and several of whom bore ample and positive testimony to all that I have problematically alleged. But a challenge is thrown down that would seem both broad and bold, if there were a name in the glove, that one might know to whom it belonged. If any man with ‘a moderate propensity to laughter,’ says the anonymous writer, ‘can listen

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to these recitations*, as they were that night delivered, with a grave countenance, he is welcome come to believe that the Edinburgh audience laughed out of malice, and not from the mere impossibility of avoiding it.’ To this I may, surely, be permitted to reply – that either ‘men with a moderate propensity to laughter’ are very hard to be met with, in any other place than Edinburgh; or the statement (if admitted) – that it was the audience, and not a mere confederacy, that laughed, would be somewhat satyrical: – for certain it is – that these very articles have been repeated in no less than thirty diferent towns and neighbourhoods of England; and that in no individual instance, had any thing that bore the slightest resemblance either to laugh† or titter, or derision or disrespect been evinced upon such occasions. With respect to ‘the Passions,’ in particular, against which the laughter of the critical conspiracy was especially directed, – very diferent indeed, have been the emotions with which it has been every where received. In several places, – as in Shefeld, York, Halifax, Manchester and Liverpool, it has been again and again repeated; – always with encreasing interest, and encreasing approbation‡. But the last of these places, in particular, it is vain to mention. In vain should I boast of the men of literature and science by whom (through a series of eighteen Lectures) my platform was there surrounded. What are the literary pigmies of Liverpool to the Gog and Magog12 of the Edinburgh Review? – to those gigantic critics who laugh to scron ‘the too splendid reputation of Roscoe’s Lorenzo,’ – who can discover nothing in ‘Currie’s edition and Life of Burns’ big enough for distinct speculation in their dilated orbs, but ‘the single Letter of Dugald Stewart,’ – and who dash down Shepherd, with an iron mace, for not adorning the banquet he had prepared for them, in his ‘Life of Poggio,’ with inscriptions and extracts from the Italian Poems of a man – who, it seems, never wrote a line of Italian poetry in his life!!!§ * It should not be forgotten (though the ‘Observations’ are perfectly silent upon that part of the subject) that the principal force of the tittering assault was directed against the concluding Oration. Te particular passage which was, on that occasion, thought most laughable of all, is now before the public; [See Notes on the ‘Letter,’ &c. p. 86.] and it seems – that even the reviewers themselves are ashamed of this portion of their conduct; – that it surpasses even their assurance to reasert, – that, in what they laughed at most, there was any thing that could justify their laughter. Tis very omission is, in reality, a Reply to all their Answer. † Upon the score of laughter, I except, of course, the Story of ‘John Gilpin’s Journey:’ the only article at which these scofers and scorners found it impossible to laugh at all. ‡ Tis apparent boast may, perhaps, furnish my enemies with another argument of my ‘presumptuous vanity.’ But when a man is attacked, he is obliged to be so much of an egotist as to defend himself; and, as I have not yet thought it necessary – to travel about, from parish to parish, with a beggar’s pass of testimonials in my pocket, my mode of defence, is to refer the intelligent and the inquisitive to those neighbourhoods where they may have better evidence; or where, if I falsify, my falsehood may easily be detected. § See, in the Monthly Magazine, Mr. Shepherd’s Letter upon this subject, and the humiliating confession of the critical tyro – who had been made the instrument of Mr. Brougham’s malevolence

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By such critics may my Lectures for ever be condemned. Let me but escape the infamy of their applause*, and I shall have glory enough. As for the extension of the tittering accusation to the audience in general, it is the cause of the people of Edinburgh; or of those, at least, who were present upon the occasion; and to them I leave it. For my part, however, I shall require much better evidence than any that has yet been presented, before I can be induced to attribute to the inhabitants in general, of ‘the Northern Capital of British Intellect,’ that peculiarity of construction, which such an imputation would suppose; or to believe that those very tones and passages of – voice which, in all other places, have excited the sympathies of terror, of tenderness, or of pleasure, can provoke them only to ridicule and laughter. I am, indeed, the less disposed to suspect any such peculiarity in northern organization, from observing that even the inducement of previous example has not been sufcient to excite the risible faculties either of Glasgow or of Greenock. At the former of these places, in particular, the attendance on the probationary Lecture was remarkably thronged. And, I ask you, Mr. Jefrey (for you cannot but know) was there the slightest indication, in any individual, of a disposition to titter or to laugh, during any part of those very recitals which are said to have been so irresistibly provocative to the risible muscles of an Edinburgh audience? No, Mr. Jefrey, so far was this from being the case, that some of your own nearest relations, who were themselves my auditors, on that occasion, have even taken great pains to persuade a gentleman of my most particular acquaintance – (a man of acknowledged science and indisputable integrity, who is well known to honour me with every public testimonial and personal attention of unshrinking friendship) – that It was totally impossible that you yourself could ever have laughed at any part of such a Lecture; – that I must necessarily have been mistaken; – and that the ill usage of which I complained, must have proceeded fom some other quarter†. in this attack. Why that infatuated youth sufered himself to be made such a tool, and why Mr. Brougham rages with such critical rancour against the Curries, the Shepherds, and the Roscoes, it is perfectly in my power to develope; and should I be provoked to detail the anecdotes connected with these facts, the parties concerned are sufciently aware of the extent to which such detail would demonstrate the personal malignity, the treachery, and the profigacy of the reviewing junto. * Of such infamy, indeed, there is little ground of apprehension. To praise is no part of their vocation; or even to exonerate from censure. ‘Judex damnatur cum nocens absolvitur,’ says the motto of these merciful judges. Upon which the Anti-Jacobin has, accurately enough observed – ‘So anxious are they to escape damnation that they acquit no man.’ † If no derision was manifested on the night of my probationary Lecture at Glasgow, it was not because there were no persons present who would have derided if they could. Te existence of a confederacy among some of the connections of some of the reviewers, could be sufciently proved: but the number and respectability of the attendance overawed the confederates; some of whom were heard to acknowledge to each other that ‘it would not do;’ and others of whom actually joined in the approbation of what they had predetermined to condemn. Yet, afer the appearance of the twopenny-halfpenny ‘Observations,’ the party rallied again; and, to show the consistency and

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Such indeed, but for the folly of these twopenny-halfpenny Observations would still have been the belief of many; and I, certainly, should not have given myself any further trouble to deprive the respectable relatives of a humbled enemy of the consolations of such an illusion. But the laughing and scofng are now avowed: and I leave it to any impartial judgment to determine – whether, in the avowers, such conduct could be justifed. Whoever else might have been privileged to laugh and scof, could the Reviewers have had such right? – Tey had prejudicated before they had seen me: they, therefore, could not be impartial. Considering the nature of my undertaking, nothing could be more obvious than the conclusion – that, if I were the being the review of my Memoir had represented, it was impossible that my Lectures should succeed. Te success of my Lectures would, therefore, have been the conviction of my reviewers: – and the success, in other places, has, indeed, already convicted them. Were they, then, my proper judges? Ought they, who were already in the place of my accusers, (and who were already under indictment, as it were, for having accused me falsely!) to have usurped the seats of judgment? Is the perjured witness to be permitted to pass sentence on the individual his perjuries have defamed? Tese circumstances once stated, I leave it to any one to consider – What was the probable source of titillation in the Edinburgh junto? Whether it is not, at least, as probable – that the joke of crying down the Lectures was the fancy that amused them? as – that the Lectures themselves were the joke? One word more, on the competency* of my critics; and then I have done with this part of the subject. Tey did not understand, they say, what they were to decency of their malice, determined to attack, upon the last night of the Course, that very Article, ‘the Passions,’ which on the frst had been received with such cordial and universal approbation. Tis was, to be sure, most curious: for the Lectures had been delivered during thirteen successive nights, with such encreasing popularity and unprecedented attention, that, during several of the latter Lectures, many persons were actually dismissed from the door, from the incompetency of the Lecture room to contain the numbers that were desirous to attend. Yet, in spite of this open testimonial of public opinion, a confederacy was formed, by persons whom, if I chose, I could name; some of whom are intimately connected with Mr. Jef rey; and who managed their business with so much industry and so much audacity, that they even pressed and entreated persons to join them, on whose malignity they had no reason to rely; and one of the gentlemen so indiscreetly importuned, actually felt himself impelled, as a man of honour, to call upon the very respectable bookseller, who was kind enough to take the trouble of selling my tickets, several hours before my time of lecturing, and inform him of the whole procedure. All the strength that could be collected by this honourable confederacy was, however, incompetent to the purpose. One individual, in himself sufciently insignifcant, and whose name I suppress, from respect to one of his connections, did, indeed, adventure to expose himself to ridicule and derision. But the company was not of a description to be insulted with impunity; and the feeble support which the confederates, afer all their muster, ventured to give to his absurdities only rendered his shame the more conspicuous, and my triumph the more complete. * Tis question of competency, indeed, the reviewers themselves, by their own confessions, have already decided. How can those men be competent to decide upon an elegant science – What

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expect. Tere was not AN individual, indeed, among those whose gravity was aferwards so unfortunately discomposed, who had formed any clear conception of the sort of entertainment THEY were to receive.’ What may be the clearness, or the confusion of intellect in the persons so grammatically described, I do not pretend to know; or by what means I am to convey clear conceptions of the plan of a scientifc course of Lectures to those who do not yet comprehend the simplest concords of grammatical composition. I beg leave, however, to inform the writers of the Edinburgh Review – that my Lectures are not addressed to children (however well grown) on the lowest forms of the twopenny weekly schools; – that those who attend such Lectures – are, at least, expected to have passed through their ‘Horn-books,’ their ‘Primers,’ and their ‘Dilworths,’ and to have made some progress in ‘Ashe’s Elements,’ or the ‘Institutes of Lindley Murray;’ – and that, though it may be rather inconright can they have to intrude an opinion upon the public, in matters of literature and language, who are obliged to acknowledge that their multitudinous inaccuracies, in grammar and construction, have been detected and exposed by a self-educated student, who professes himself to be nothing more than a mere English scholar, and whom they have decried as possessing no other talent than ‘mere forwardness, and audacity.’ Teir mode of confession upon this occasion, is, indeed, most curious. Some of their inaccuracies, they acknowledge, were so gross and palpable, that they immediately corrected them in their new edition. With respect to others, they avow themselves to be still so ignorant, that they must pause, and deliberate, and enquire, before they can trust their own judgments with the decision of – what is grammar, and what is not. But the whole paragraph presents so original an exhibition of the eforts of factitious courage, to give an air of assurance to the very blushes of confusion, that I shall quote their own words, for the more ample entertainment of my readers. ‘Te work has unquestionably many faults, and verbal inaccuracies in great numbers. A few of those which Mr. Telwall has pointed out, have been marked for correction in the Edition which is now in the Press, and the rest shall be amended as soon as the Conductors are satisfed that Mr. Telwall’s profciency in grammar is equal to his zeal for the correctness of their publication.’ It is obvious, then, that the conductors are not yet satisfed that they have detected any want of such profciency. If they could have confuted any of my criticisms – if they could have retorted any of my charges, is not the very tone of this sentence sufcient to evince the avidity of their desire? Would not those men whose most palpable ignorance of the simplest elements of grammar I have exposed in such a cloud of instances – and against whom, in one single paragraph, I have proved no less than seventeen successive errors of construction, without the intervention of a single sentence or clause of a sentence, that is grammatically expressed; – would they not have disputed my premises, if there had been grounds for dispute? or have retaliated, if there had been room for retaliation? Tis slowness to decide upon subjects of grammar, and the meanings and signifcations of English words, will not, however, appear extraordinary to those readers who have observed the frequency with which the said reviewers are impelled to complain of their own unteachableness, and their indisposition to be taught, &c. See, for example, their criticism on ‘Herrenschwand’s Addresse’ (No. I. p. 98.) ‘From this proposition of the subject, we will confess, we did not know very well what to expect, and had read, indeed, very nearly to the end of the book, before we could attain any clear conception of the author’s design in composing it. Tis indocility, which we do not pretend to dissemble, was considerably assisted by the novelty of the jargon,’ &c. To dissemble indocility; and indocility assisted by novelty, are, themselves, such novelties, as will not fail to command admiration; and, together with the accurate construction ‘we did not had read,’ and the elegant and euphonic dilation of verbiage (in composing it) at the end of the previous sentence, may furnish a brilliant addition, to the splendid mass of materials already collected for the illustration of a Course of ‘tittering’ Lectures, on the Beauties and Harmonies of Criticism.

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venient, it cannot be very mortifying, even to my ‘presumptuous vanity,’ that my Lecture Room should be mistaken for a puppet-show, by those learned Critics who do not know – that the noun in the singular must govern a singular verb; and that a plural reference must have, also, a plural antecedent. But of niceties of this kind, these Guardians of Literature have no sort of conception. In the two sentences that immediately precede this curious advertisement of their own ‘ineptitude,’ we have two other blunders, not less gross and palpable; and the next but one, in succession, if not absolutely ungrammatical, concludes with a dissonant and vulgar impropriety (‘must have had the same advantage as to him’ that a boy of eight years old might have blushed at. For the further edifcation of these delectable writers, I will quote their own words; and, by way of helping them to a ‘clear conception’ of their own most original construction, I will mark for them, in distinct characters, the governing words, at the beginning, and the governed, at the conclusion of their sentences. ‘Neither TO those two friends, nor to any other person, had he intimated any design of opposition to the Lecturer, or concerted WITH them any plan of behaviour.’(!!!) Again, ‘Mr. Jefrey came in company with a single friend; and one other person had mentioned, that he would probably be there.’ If Mr. Jefrey and his critical friends do not know the diference between the verb to wend (i.e. to go) and the verb to come; or the distinctive application and governance of the simple words here and there (which the very grossest of the vulgar are never known to mistake) I really do not know how they should be expected ‘to form any clear,’ or even obscure ‘conception of the sort of entertainment’ to be derived from a Course of Lectures on the Science and Practice of Elocution. To persons somewhat better informed, indeed, the obscurity has not been quite so impenetrable: and, though I never before put myself to one-tenth part of the trouble or expence to pre-inform the public mind, certain it is, that in no individual place but Edinburgh, was an audience ever at any apparent loss either about ‘the sort of entertainment,’ or the sort of instruction ‘they were to receive.’ It is, also, very obvious – that the eloquent and illustrious nobleman, whose letter is quoted in my former pamphlet, found it very practicable ‘to form some conception’ both of the nature and the importance of my plan, from the ‘General Outlines,’ – of which so many hundreds were distributed. I leave it, therefore, to the modesty or to the arrogance of my enemies, to boast, or to acknowledge their ignorance in this particular. I now proceed to take some notice of those reiterations of falsehood and misquotation, which, with such unparalleled efrontery, are foisted upon the public as answers to my former accusations. To the whole of these it will not be necessary to reply; – still less will it be necessary to take them in regular succession; – or as the Reviewers think proper to express it, – ‘in a chronological order*.’13 * Chronos, I believe, means Time; and Chronology, a treatise on the succession of Time, – or the Science of the succession of events with relation to Time; and chronological order, the order of

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Te wit of making me ‘tired of the life of a shopman,’ when it is notorious that I never was a shopman; – the renewed misrepresentations – of my persevering attachment to the profession for which my father had destined me, as a mere solitary ‘attempt to become a painter,’ and of the transient glance I once cast upon the stage, in the hour of disappointment and sorrow, as the more settled object of my ambition; – the sinister trick of requiting a part* of my quotation of their own ridiculous criticisms, as an argument of my ‘presumptuous vanity;’ – the trash about ale†, – and about attornies’ apprentices ‘in the lanes;’14 the quibbling about the Welch adventures, and the gratuitous supposition that the brutish ‘rustic at Lyswen’ must necessarily have been a ‘royalist,’ because he ‘assaulted me with a pick-axe’ as I was opening my own watercourse; – all this, and more of the same sort, must be equally unworthy of any serious answer, in whatever order it may occur. Nor would the cutting and shufing about ‘my supposed consciousness of the want of voice;’ or the second edition of the misrepresentation of the afair at the Physical Society,15 be entitled to any particular notice; if it were not for their connection with matters of higher moment. As it is, however, I shall just observe – that with respect to the ‘Essay on the Origin of Sensation,’ the reviewer very well knows – that it could not be any peculiarity of doctrine, or any thing ofensive in the system or sentiments of that paper, which rendered it obnoxious to the Society; because the former part of the same identical system (the ‘Essay towards a Defnition of Animal Vitality’) had, in that very Society, been honoured with the unprecedented distinction of a ‘Letter of Tanks,’ moved by Dr. Maclaurin, adopted by the Society, and signed by ‘Dr. Haighton,’ the President. Te whole transaction will be found p. 22 and 23 of the Memoir; and it will there be seen – that it was not the Essay that was objectionable to the Society, but the Essayist who had become obnoxious to certain individuals ‘who never shewed their heads in the Society upon any other occasion,’ but who ‘came down in a mass to interrupt the discussion.’ Tis event took place in the year 1793; and here terminated my championship upon physical and metaphysical subjects, and all my disquisitions about matter and spirit. But Mr. Jefrey and Mr. Brougham, my inveterate accusers, know very well – that, to a much later the succession of time. Te chronological order of events, therefore, I comprehend; but the chronological order of the paragraphs of a book, or the verses of a song, is not, perhaps, quite so clear; and ‘the chronological order’ of ‘something more than a dozen instances of falsehood’ all committed in the SAME Review, and all at the same time denounced, surpasses my comprehension. * Why did they not requote the whole? and that about the ‘Massacre of Bangor,’ in particular? Surely the reviewers mistaking for silly, bombastic, spontaneous prose, what they had already reviewed in print, as easy, dignifed, blank verse, was not the part of the joke least worth repeating! † Tey would fain, upon this occassion, insinuate that I am a famous ale-bibber; although in the Memoir it is expressly recorded – that ‘the supernatural circumstances of my neither drinking Cwrw, [i. e. Ale] smoking, nor chewing tobacco, had no small tendency to encrease the animosity which the Welch are apt enough to entertain against every Saxon who intrudes as a settler among them.’

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date, it is perfectly practicable to trace them through ‘the Speculative Society’ in Edinburgh, by doctrines much more ofensive to orthodox sensation, and to every received opinion, than any thing that could possibly be comprised in my mere physical disquisition*. So much for ‘Champion of Materialism!’16 As for the two quotations which they have ferreted out, from diferent parts of the Memoir, to palliate the acknowledged forgery of the ‘want of voice,’ – their supposition that a tendency to asthma, &c.17 should preclude the attainment of vocal power, only betrays their deplorable ignorance of the science they have so contemptuously rejected, and of the facts by which it may be illustrated; – and the very passage (p. 6. of the Memoir) from which they have now quoted the phenomena of my original conformation, states the malady only to acknowledge the cure, and to testify the gratitude – which, in this, as in so many other respects, I owe to the judicious management and instructions of the only scholastic tutor to whom my mind has any obligations; and whose elocutionary instructions while they cleared the passages of my voice, and gave strength and variety to its infections, roused the vital organs to more healthful action, and preserved, perhaps, my existence. Having cleared away the less important matter, I proceed to those passages of the defence, upon which my antagonists have lavished all their art. ‘Mr. Telwall’s frst charge,’ say the ‘Observations,’ (p. 6.) ‘is, Tat the reviewers have gone out of their way ‘to attack an unpublished book.’ Tese are their words. But what are mine? In the ‘Advertisement’ to my ‘Letter,’ p. vii.) the position is thus stated – ‘Instead of ‘adhering to their profession of ‘carrying the principle of ‘selection a great deal farther than other reviewers,’ they ‘even dragged into their ‘Critical Journal’ a work which ‘no other reviewer would have thought himself at liberty to ‘notice: a work that has never been regularly announced ‘in the London papers.’ – In the ‘Letter’ itself, this charge is twice repeated. In page 2, the volume is described as ‘a book that did not come within the regular cognizance ‘of their tribunal;’ and again, in p. 5., as ‘a Book, ‘which (in the Reviewer’s acceptation of the phrase) has ‘never yet been published?’ Such are the terms of my Accusation: nor is that accusation answered. All the circumstances stated in the ‘Observations’ (falsehoods and forgeries excepted) only prove – that it was once in my contemplation to have published in the usual way; not that I did so publish. Why that intention was laid aside, is explained in the Advertisement to my ‘Letter;’ and the degree of ‘publicity given * Tey know, also, that they are, even still, very shrewdly suspected of playing false with their present creed; that they have been pretty openly accused of undermining the faith they pretend to espouse; and that there have been some who have not only spied the cloven hoof of atheism beneath the sanctifed garb of this jesuitical Review; but who have even seized hold upon that hoof, and given it some tolerable shakings. I could, if I would, add some testimonies, on the occassion, that have been shaken out of their own mouths: – but I spare them for the present.

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to the book,’ is there expressly avowed. As for the inscription Second Edition. – Afer the frst 500 copies were worked of, a considerable alteration was made in the arrangement of the latter part of the Memoir; and the more perfect copies were, therefore, thus distinguished. If the inscription Tird Edition had even occurred, it would not have been astonishing: for the extent of the subscription having necessitated the enlargement of the impression, that enlargement, was, also, specifed on the titles of the last 500. But the case is still unaltered. Te Reviewer still knew, – that ‘the impression had been ‘disposed of ’ – not ‘by the booksellers,’ as the writers of the ‘Observations’ afrm, but ‘through the medium of ‘private subscription;’ as, in the very document from which they derived their information, is expressly stated. But, yet, continue my opponents, with an air of triumph, – as if they had been convicted of but half a falsehood; ‘Mr. Telwall alleges that the sale in June 1802 had exceeded 1500.’ Now, Mr. Telwall never did make any allegation whatever about the sale in June 1802. But as the substance of this paragraph is foisted upon us, again, in another place, let us bring the two passages together, and dispatch them both at once. ‘It seems,’ say the Observers (p. 10.) ‘that Mr. Telwall only said upwards of ffeen hundred. Te ‘number was quite out of the Reviewer’s ‘recollection, and he could not even tell where he had ‘seen the assertion, till Mr. Telwall kindly directed him ‘to the Monthly Magazine.’ Now, to be sure, we cannot do less than very candidly admit – that when the Reviewers fnd it necessary to quote circumstances that are quite out of their recollection, it must inevitably happen that they will sometimes quote falsely: but, when Mr. Telwall, or any other Mr. is so very, very kind as to direct them to the source of information, what will they do then? – Why, quote falsely still. In the Monthly Magazine, vol. 13, No. 86, published May 1, 1802, p. 344 – 5 and 6, is a Letter dated (not June – but) ‘March 31,’ and signed ‘John Telwall,’ on the subject of a certain calumnious aspersion, published by W. Belsham, Esq. in the ffh volume of his ‘Memoirs of Geo. III.;’ and which said calumny, the said W. Belsham did, in the very next Number of the said Magazine, very openly and amply retract. Now, in this said Letter (p. 345, col. 1.) is contained the only allegation I ever made upon the subject in question; and the words are precisely these – ‘Encouraged by the circulation of nearly 1500 copies ‘of a volume of Poems (prefaced with Memoirs of ‘my Life) through the channels of private subscription;’ &c. I freely confess, that the impudent circumstantiality of the misquotation (at the frst blush of it) staggered me not a little. I began to suspect that I must, myself have been Jefng a little, upon the subject of these said Poems. I knew, indeed, that but 1500 copies had been printed, and that some of them were still on hand; and I was not conscious of ever having intended to impose any misrepresentation upon the public; – but surely, said I, with the book avowedly in their hands;

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and upon a topic already in a train of public enquiry, thus audaciously to misquote again, must surpass even the profigate assurance of an Edinburgh Reviewer! But the document once found, appeased my conscience, though it did not suspend my wonder: and my conclusion, I think, is sufciently established – that the book was dragged into the Review, contrary to the established laws of critical decorum, for purposes sufciently obvious, and the fourish of upwards of two thousand copies, was an artful forgery to gloss over the apparent inconsistency. But ‘6thly, It was advertised as a new publication in ‘the Monthly Magazine for September 1801, and came ‘down in the common monthly parcel for the Review.’ Now, in this little word the, there is another palpable falsehood. Not to tread over again the grounds of etymology, I will appeal to the common sense of any reader, learned or unlearned, whether he does not feel the specifcation and identifying force of the article, in this sentence? Whether by ‘the common parcel,’ &c. he does not immediately and necessarily understand – the common parcel of the month already specifed – i.e. of September 1801? Now – there could be no such thing as ‘a common monthly parcel for the Review’ in ‘September 1801;’ the Review not being in existence till October 1802; and very little preparation having been made for the undertaking, even in the month of April*. But even admitting, in their excuse, that gross and monstrous ignorance of the meaning of English Articles, of which the proofs are sufciently notorious; – admitting, as we must, that these learned critics know not the diference between the and a; even their very ignorance (though, like grace, undoubtedly, it hath sometimes a saving power) cannot shelter them on the present occasion. It could not have been sent down in any ‘common monthly parcel for the Review,’ in the mere ordinary way of new publications, at any time whatever: for no copies of these Poems were ever sent to any London publisher (but in the way of special order, in consequence of previous subscription) till since the publication of my ‘Letter to Mr. Jefrey.’ If, therefore, the copy used by the Reviewer was not, in reality, * Te real state of the case seems tolerably apparent. If the writers were Irishmen (and it is well known that blunders are not the exclusive growth of Ireland) this might be called a Bull stradulative. Te notice in the M. M. (which was sent before the design of general publication was laid aside) so far from being the circumstance that suggested to the Junto the propriety of reviewing the book (ten months before they had begun to dream of reviewing,) must have been hunted out since the accusation of nefarious interference was advanced. Te culprit mind, exulting in a discovery, which, at frst blush, appeared to furnish a plausible pretence of vindication, strode eagerly across the intervening gap of time; and it appears to have been absolutely forgotten that the month of September 1801, was not the immediate predecessor of October 1802: at which latter period, Mr. Constable would, undoubtedly, be in the habit of receiving ‘common monthly parcels for the Review.’ By the way, this propensity of the mind to the stradulative action, is apt to be rather inconvenient. He who is in the habit of striding by design, will frequently stride by mistake; and, perhaps, he will be most likely to do so, when he is most in the dark, and ought to step with the greatest caution. I recommend the consideration of this position to all those students, &c. who are so fond of a disputatious education, as to have substituted the love of argument for the love of truth, and paradox in the place of morality.

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borrowed, – as I suspect it was, in consequence of that advertisement in January 1803, which the Reviewers would have us believe, upon anonymous testimony, that they have never seen, – it must have been obtained by especial procurement; for no public vender of the book has, to this hour, been announced by London advertisement*. Having, thus, ingeniously, disposed of a charge that was never made, – and reiterated an old falsehood in a new form, – the ‘Observations’ thus proceed. ‘Tis, however, is but a prelude. Te main piece consists in charging the Reviewer with having committed something more than a dozen of gross and malignant falsehoods.’ Tis passage, I confess, is somewhat difcult of comprehension. How ‘a main piece’ (that is to say, the play, or dramatic composition, to be performed afer the prelude) can consist in charging Reviewers with falsehood, – the grammatical precision of Mr. Jefrey, and the cool clear-headedness of Mr. Brougham may, perhaps, enable them to explain: but where shall we look for a proper elucidation of the preposition, in the fnal clause of the sentence, – and the consequent beautiful construction – ‘committing a ‘dozen of falsehoods?’ – for though it may be true that the said Reviewers do really keep by them, in their shop, a tolerably good assortment of those said commodities, ready made; a dozen, or two, of which, they can commit, at pleasure, to the custody of Mr. Constable and his printer, to be by them disposed of as the demands and necessities of the trade require; yet cannot I very easily persuade myself that it was the intention of the writers to declare thus much to the public. Concerning the said ‘of,’ therefore, – whether it be really a preposition, as supposed; or the sign of the genitive case of some noun, from which it hath slipped of, into this place, by accident; or whether it be merely introduced, for the sake of euphony, – like fal, lal, la! between the verses of a song, must remain, for ever, an impenetrable mystery. But it is not only in metaphor and grammar that the statement before us is inaccurate. Te main force of my accusation does not consist – ‘in charging the Reviewer ‘with having (merely) committed something more than a ‘dozen gross and malignant falsehoods.’ I have not limited his invention to such narrow bounds, or degraded his science with such vulgar appellations. Whoever will consult the elaborate Dissertation on the Reviewer’s newly discovered science, and the Classical Nomenclature with which it is accompanied [Notes on the ‘Letter to Jefrey,’ – P. 9 to 22.]18 will quickly perceive – that the numerals refer – not to individual instances of that peculiar fgure of speech, for which fortunate association furnished an appropriate name, so sof, and so inofensive, but – to the contradistinctions of the several tribes and classes under which the innumerable hosts of those favourite tropes may be arranged. And, if the Reviewers will have it in plain English, – if falsehood must be the word, and no compromises with *

Te volume may now be procured of Mr. Turgood, Newgate-street, London.

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politeness are to be admitted, – then must I remind them – that, in the avowed and authenticated ‘Letter,’ to which these sneaking ‘Observations’ are shufed into the world as an answer, there still remain so many unconfronted accusations of falsehood, of ignorance, and of malignity, as, even if the allegations here given in were valid, (which they are not) would still be sufcient to bring suspicion and infamy upon every undertaking in which such culprits are embarked*. But it is not necessary to recapitulate the unanswered accusations. Te answers we have (so far from vindications) are aggravated repetitions of former crimes. A few of these will furnish sufcient specimens. – ‘1. Te Reviewer’s frst malicious falsehood,’ say the ‘Observations’ [p. 7.] ‘consists, it seems, in having stated as the general characteristic of Mr. Telwall’s boyhood, that tardiness and apparent ineptitude, which only resulted from bad health, and grief for the loss of his father.’ – [Now, in the frst place, the words that are here marked with inverted commas, as a quotation, – are not my words. – But hear the observations.] – ‘To this there are two answers: 1st, Te Reviewer has not represented this tardiness, &c. as the general characteristic of Mr. Telwall’s boyhood.’ – Has he not? – Te reader shall judge. Te words of the Reviewer are expressly these – [Ed. Rev. No. III. p. 197.] ‘John Telwall was the son of a silk-mercer of London, and was severely whipped at school, for ‘a tardiness and apparent ineptitude,’ as he expresses it, ‘which occasioned him to be considered as of a slow and even feeble mind.’ Now, this is every word that is said, in the Review, upon the subject of my boyhood. All the ebbs and fows of mind, which (for reasons that will be sufciently obvious to every refecting parent) are described through several pages of the Memoir, are passed by in silence; and the sum and substance of my education are compressed, by the Reviewer, into this single sentence. I leave it for the reader to decide – whether it does or does not ‘represent the tardiness, &c. as the general characteristic?’ As for the joke about ‘how long I was whipped, or how long I deserved to be whipped,’ &c. – I shall only reply – that it is very obvious – either that the Reviewer was never * To say nothing upon the subjects of ignorance and malignity, – the pretended abstract of the Memoir consists only of seventy lines; in the compass of which a minute inspection will detect no less than nineteen distinct and provable falsehoods: a fact that necessarily suggests some curious calculations. Nineteen falsehoods, in seventy lines, is just three lines and thirteen nineteenths of a line to a falsehood: a proportion that must, certainly, impose no small tax upon the imagination and invention of a Reviewer. So that, afer all that has been said about the unusual price paid to the writers of these reviews, the remuneration will not be found to be any such mighty matter. Even at 10 guineas per sheet, it will be found – that the average calculation, in the close way of printing adopted in the review, is about seventy lines (and consequently nineteen falsehoods) for a guinea: which, upon close examination, will be found to amount to no greater price than thirteen pence farthing, and one nineteenth of a farthing for each particular falsehood. All things considered, therefore, Mr. Constable will certainly think it reasonable to make some small advance in his terms: – so much, at least as will bring it up to thirteen pence halfpenny: for, certainly, I cannot see how any gentleman can be expected to hang himself up in a falsehood, for less than a common Jack Ketch expects for hanging up the meanest felon.

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whipped for lying, or that whipping is not infallible in the cure of moral evil. But let us proceed to the second answer. ‘2nd, It is rather unfortunate that Mr. Telwall, in denouncing this atrocious calumny to the indignation of the public, should himself have fallen into a little inaccuracy, which we are afaid may injure the efect of his appeal;’ – [I am very much obliged to these sympathizing friends, no doubt, for their solicitude and their fears. But let us examine the grounds of their apprehensions.] ‘for, on looking at* the Memoir, we fnd that the alarming symptoms already mentioned, are so far from being confned to the occasion Mr. Telwall alleges, that they are expressly said to have extended beyond it. Afer specifying the efects of his grief and ill health, Mr. Telwall says, ‘Tis was not the only ‘season of his boyhood during which his tardiness,’ &c. Now, it must be admitted, that if the former pretended quotation had been accurate, there would have been an aukward sort of contradiction between the language of the ‘Letter,’ and that of the ‘Memoir.’ But as the pretended quotation is, in reality, only a fresh paroxysm of that inveterate disease (or, ‘Case for life’) which not even the Reviewer’s own prescription of shaving and blistering, it is to be feared, can ever cure, – it will only be necessary to requote correctly, what here is artfully misquoted, and it will soon be seen to whom the ‘inaccuracy’ belongs. Te passage referred to will be found in the Note on the Classifcation and new Nomenclature already noticed [‘Letter to Jefrey,’ p. 14 and 15.] and is exactly as follows: – ‘Tus, (for example) in the very frst paragraph of the pretended analysis of the Memoir, – which consists only of fve short sentences, there are four distinct specimens of four diferent kinds of Jeffs – to wit – 1. Te Jeff magnifcative, by which the ‘tardiness and apparent ineptitude’ resulting from temporary derangements of health, and fom the gloom and depression that clouded my mind, afer the loss of my father, is quoted as the general characteristic of my boyhood.’19

Here derangements of health are expressly specifed in the plural; and expressly specifed as temporary causes, &c. independently of the circumstance, in the singular, – the state of gloom and depression that succeeded to the melancholy event described. Let any school-boy, that knows but how to construe, parse me this sentence. Must he not read it thus – ‘Te tardiness and apparent ineptitude resulting from [some or several] temporary derangements of health, – and [the * At! – not into – Looking at the Memoir. I have no doubt that it is a very picturesque object, in the eyes of these reviewers; and that they are very fond of looking at it: though, perhaps, they have not always been fortunate enough to see it in the best lights, or to examine it from the most favourable points of view. Tese toes and ats, indeed, to speak gravely upon the subject, are among the terrible stumbling-blocks of our learned Reviewers. In these very Observations, we have ‘a poll clerk appointed,’ by a third party, ‘to a candidate,’ p. 9; ‘concerting with to friends,’ p.4; ‘same advantages as to him,’ p.4; ‘denouncing to indignation,’ and ‘symptoms confned to an occasion,’ in the very passage before us, besides this same inexplicable looking at; and in p.15, we have a miraculous statement of a person being ‘nearly carried of to Kamtschatka at Yarmouth?

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tardiness and apparent ineptitude resulting] from the gloom and depression that clouded my mind afer the loss of my father,’ &c. But here again, perhaps, the Reviewers may plead their ignorance of the principles of grammar. Perhaps they do not know that the word ‘derangements’ is plural; or that the replicative ‘fom,’ in the second member of the sentence, hath any meaning, or any power over the associated conjunction. Perhaps they may not be aware that there would be any impropriety in supplying the hiatus in the frst member, by the singular, a or an, instead of the plural, some, or several. Teir mode of solution (in conformity with the customary construction of their own sentences, in the Review) perhaps might be as follows – ‘that tardiness, and apparent ineptitude resulting from a temporary derangements of health, that clouded his mind, afer the loss of his father, together with the gloom and depression that clouded his mind, afer the loss of his father,’ &c. But I beg leave to observe, that though this may be Reviewers’ Grammar, it will not do for such poor puppet-show exhibitors as Lecturers on the Science of Elocution. If the foregoing specimen may be admitted, as a tolerable instance of the infatuation, I might almost say insanity, with which the Reviewers are attached to the practice of misquotation; the inveteracy of another of the symptoms of their disease. ‘4. Te next falsehood is dignifed with the epithet of transcendental, and, is quoted as an instance of the ut-most limits of human turpitude and profigacy.’ – My language was not quite so strong; and, if it had been, the inaccuracy would be now apparent. Te present reiteration is a sufcient proof – that ‘human turpitude and profigacy’ can go still further. Mr. Jefrey in his review of my Memoir, [Ed. Rev. No. III. p. 199.] had stated that I ‘had the honour of being appointed one of the poll-clerks to Mr. Horne Tooke, upon his frst canvas for Westminster.’ To which, in the Notes to my Letter,’ [p. 17.] I have answered – and answered truly – that ‘I never was appointed poll-clerk to Mr. Horne Tooke; nor ever had any connection of pecuniary emolument with Mr. Horne Tooke, or any other political character in my life: nor is there any such fact stated in the Memoir.’ Part of this accusation and reply, the writers of the Observations restate, (or rather mis-state) in their own way; and having changed ‘fact’ into ‘pretext,’ they think they can trust to their own dexterity in pretext fnding, at any rate; and very boldly reply – ‘Te reader shall judge.’ But how do they enable him to judge? – By quoting, from the Memoir, the passages that furnish that pretext? – No. Tose passages would have informed the reader that ‘Horne Tooke, was at that time, no otherwise known to me than by his writings;’ – that I was appointed poll-clerk neither by nor to Mr. Tooke, or any other candidate; but by and to the ofcer of the crown, – that is to say – the Returning Ofcer, or Deputy High Bailif of Westminster; that, therefore, whatever accidental coincidence there might be, there could be no connection between the speech at

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Coachmaker’s Hall and the appointment in question; and that it not only can ‘be denied,’ but that it cannot be suspected, that I ‘was appointed in consequence of having declared myself zealously ‘for the third candidate.’ Te fact, indeed, is – that I never had declared myself for the third candidate; that I had no suspicion that there was to be even a third candidate; and that I was positively, and in every sense of the word, an entire stranger to the candidate who did eventually present himself; and that, if it had been otherwise, the quarter from whence my appointment came was the last quarter in the world from which, to the friends of such a candidate, any favour or partiality would have fowed. Te Returning Ofcer happened to be the particular friend of my brother-in-law, and my own personal acquaintance; and party and politics had nothing to do in the appointment. But the printer shall copy the entire passage from the Memoir; and the reader shall judge for himself, whether it is not something more than more ignorance of ‘the organization of a Westminster election’ that has produced the reiterated mis-statements of the ‘Review,’ and the ‘Observations.’ ‘Previous to the commencement of that Election, he had delivered his sentiments, with great warmth, at Te Debating Society, in reprobation of the compact, by which the two parties in the House of Commons had agreed, to share (without contest) the representation of Westminster between them; and he had concluded his harangue with the wish ‘that other Candidates, equally unconnected with both parties, would start in opposition to the compromise; and that the electors would have the virtue to support them.’ Te ensuring day informed him that his wishes, in part, were realised: for the received from the Deputy Returning Ofcer, an intimation that the election would be contested, which was accompanied with the unexpected ofer of an appointment as one of the Poll-Clerks, on that occasion: Te temporary salary (which is four-and-twenty shillings a day) was, of course, no unwelcome consideration; and he accepted it accordingly. – – He accepted – but he did not retain. ‘Te celebrated John Horne Tooke was not, till that time, otherwise known to Telwall, than by his writings. Some of these, however, had secured his admiration: particularly the correspondence with Junius: in which he had always considered Horne as no less superior in the force, the justice, and the manliness of argument, than his anonymous antagonist was in the ornamental graces of metaphor and diction. In short, the enthusiasm of Telwall caught fre from such approximation; and, unsolicited and unallured, he threw up his proftable situation to indulge his ardour in a laborious canvas, and in assisting at the committees of his favourite candidate.’

Tat the enthusiasm which could sacrifce twenty-four shillings per day, at a time when that ‘temporary emolument’ was confessedly ‘no unwelcome consideration,’ will be censured by many, I can readily believe; and that, to some, the occasion will be an aggravation of the improvidence. To this I have nothing to reply. Te feelings connected with that transaction, I shall neither vindicate nor explain. I have dismissed all such subjects from my consideration: and it is not my intention even to review the sentiments by which I was actuated in scenes

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that I shall mingle in no more. But, upon the score of moral character, and precariousness of principle, surely Mr. Jefrey must have been driven hard, when he could fnd no better grounds of crimination against me, than to bring forward this solitary circumstance as a proof of hireling venality. But the most curious of all the shufings and jugglings exhibited in these mountebank ‘Observations,’ is the attempt to get rid of the purport and meaning of the unlucky inverted commas, that marked the forged quotation in the Review. It is notorious to many persons in Edinburgh – that, on the frst appearance of my ‘Letter,’ Mr. Jefrey appealed to a very diferent mode of excuse from that which is here advanced: – that he pretended – that ‘the inverted commas had been struck out on the proof sheet; and that the printer had neglected to omit them.’ It seems, however, to have been suggested to him – that this excuse would not hold; for, even admitting the fact, – still the commas could never have found their way into the proof, unless he had frst introduced them in the manuscript; and the very act of striking them out was an acknowledgement of the criminal intention with which they were inserted. Tis mode of defence was, therefore, abandoned. Let us see if he has taken better ground. ‘Te answer is,’ say the ‘Observations,’ ‘that the phrases in question are no where asserted to be Mr. Telwall’s, and that they are quoted only as the cant or slang of a certain description of persons, to whom Mr. Telwall had been previously assimilated.’ Now, as for the quibble that it is ‘no where asserted,’ &c. I have not charged the Reviewer with formally asserting that the phrases were mine; but with quoting them, as if they were mine, in a pretended review of my book. My words are expressly these [See ‘Letter,’20 p. 15.] ‘you insert the following pretended quotation; marked with the distinction of inverted commas, – as quotations in Reviews usually are; and as, therefore, nothing but quotations, certainly, ought to be.’ Now, are the words so marked? or are they not? Is it customary, in Reviews, to mark any thing in this way, but what is meant to be understood as quotation? Is there the least hint, in the Review, that the passage so marked is a quotation from any other author? or is it, in reality, such? But ‘it is not asserted,’ &c. – Paltry quibble! Despicable evasion! Te very circumstance of these phrases appearing, in a pretended review of my book, with the quotative distinction of inverted commas, is, in reality, an assertion that they were mine. It is all the assertion that is usually made, in the case of short quotations, introduced, like that in question, into the substance of the paragraphs of any review. It is, generally speaking, only when entire paragraphs are introduced, that the formality of announcing the page, &c. is observed. In the very article in question (the review of my Poems and Memoir) there are no less than eleven diferent quotations (actual and positive quotations from the work) to which no such ceremonial is observed: fve of which, in all particulars, stand exactly as the forged quotation stands; without any sort of mark, or attestation, or asser-

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tion, but the mere distinction of inverted commas alone: nor is there any other passage marked with commas, throughout that article, that is not, in reality, a quotation. Nay, in these very ‘Observations,’ – though the writer, upon the main, has been cautiously particular, – beyond all precedent of the Review, – are not the words ‘intellectual city,’ in p. 3, – ‘abhorrence of trade,’ and ‘a distaste for drudgery,’ at the bottom of p. 13, – ‘distaste for drudgery,’ again, in the Note, p. 14; Are not all these, though, except the frst, none of them is correctly my expression, or correctly conveys my idea, – yet, are they not all thus marked with inverted commas, without further specifcation, to fx them upon the reader’s imagination as mine? And, although the frst of those passages, in p. 7. of these same ‘Observations,’ which is unaccompanied with any other indication of quotation than the mere insertion of such inverted commas, be not, in reality, mine, nor doth convey my meaning; – yet, I ask any reader, whether he did not understand that passage as quoted there for mine? and whether, (if his ear did not happen to be familiar enough with my cadence, to do me the justice of rejecting it) – whether he did not suppose, from the circumstance of such indication, that mine it undoubtedly must be? – So, necessarily, do these inverted commas operate upon the reader’s mind. But with respect to the controverted passage,21 in the review of the Memoir, I will go still further. I contend, that, even if the inverted commas were taken away, it would still be a pretended quotation of my sentiments and words. Te very structure is quotative: nor is it ‘quoted as the ‘Cant or Slang of a certain description of persons, to whom ‘Mr. Telwall had been previously assimilated;’ but as the Cant or Slang of Mr. Telwall, to whom those persons are compared. Te words are not that Mr. Telwall has ardent temperaments, &c. like them – but, Tey have ardent temperaments, like Mr. Telwall. To him it is that the description is applied; – upon him it is that the ‘sentimental jargon ‘and philosophical gibberish,’ are fathered; and the ‘females who delight the public by their beauty in the ‘streets,’ &c. – are compared with him, as possessing similar qualities, or boasting of the same sophistical virtues. As the Reviewers are still so fond of it, let us quote the whole passage again; and let them borrow the assistance of some boy from the grammar-school, – or any child that happens to have learned to construe, and try whether they can make any thing else of it, than that which I have specifed. ‘In every page of this extraordinary Memoir, we discover traces of that impatience of honest industry, that presumptuous vanity, and precarious principle, that have thrown so many adventures upon the world, and drawn so many females from their plain work and their embroidery, to delight the public by their beauty in the streets, and their novels in the circulating library. Tey have all ‘ardent temperaments,’ like Mr. Telwall, ‘irritable feelings, enthusiastic virtues, and a noble contempt for mechanical drudgery, dull regularity, and slow-paced erudition.’

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Te forgery, then, is established beyond all dispute. Te ‘Observations’ admit that the passage was inserted as a quotation*; grammar demonstrates that if, as a quotation, it must be as a quotation from me. But, even if forgery were out of the question, is not the whole passage in itself sufciently disgraceful? Is it not such as a man should blush to have written? Decency, of course, is a thing not to be talked about, to a being who, in the tranquil retirement of the study, without provocation, or obvious inducement, could write such sentences, and could aferwards requite them, with aggravated epithets of abuse. But is there either wit or common sense in malignity of this description? What could Mr. Jefrey mean by comparing me with ‘females who delight the public by their beauty in the streets, – ‘classing’ me in ‘the gang or corporation†’ of their ‘sect,’ and talking of ‘the sentimental jargon and philosophical gibberish’ of such women, – their boasts of ‘enthusiastic virtue,’ and their ‘contempt of slowpaced erudition?’ How can I be one of ‘the sect’ of women of the town? How can I belong to their ‘gang?’ – ‘Who delight the public by their beauty in the streets’!!!22 How emasculate must be the heart of that being who could vent such cold and silly malice in its anger! – How empty must be the head of that thing that could titter over it in the moment of composition! To the reiterations of ‘presumptuous vanity,’ ‘impatience of honest industry,’ and ‘precariousness of principle,’ very little answer need be made. With respect to the frst; I certainly never was so vain, as to suppose, or to assert, that I had no vanity. I am afraid I have some portion of that, as well as of some other human frailties; but of this Mr. Jefrey may well assure himself – While I can feel and see that I have power to chastise and humble the presumptuous ignorance of such pretenders as the Literati of the Edinburgh Review, I shall never think (as I certainly never did think) that the ‘over irritability of my nerves,’ or the mere possession of ‘enthusiasm,’ or of a ‘temperament,’ (though I may sometimes happen to speak of them) are peculiarities of which there is any more occasion, than there is foundation to be vain. But, again I say – For vanity and presumption, let the Edinburgh Reviewers look at home. Let them remember – the More and the Beam! * Te words are put in inverted commas, to shew that they are not the Reviewer’s words: whose words they originally were, it would not be easy to determine;’ &c. [Obs. p. 12.] Te Reviewer’s words, however, in their present association, they most assuredly are; as every ear that can compare the rythmus with Mr. Jefrey’s style and cadence, will very easily determine. † Grammar and construction again, Mr. Jefrey! Are gang and corporation convertible terms, that they are, thus, convertively conjoined? Of gangs of thieves, &c.; and of corporations of burghers, we have ofen heard; but how would it sound should we reverse the associations? We may, also, say – of the one, Tis Corporation or Body Politic; and, of the other Tis Gang or Banditti: for a Corporation may be defned a body politic; and a Banditti is a gang of thieves: but if Mr. Jefrey were to address the Magistrates of Edinburgh with the interpretive copulation of ‘Corporation or gang,’ I suspect they would convince him of their better knowledge of the English language, by resenting his libelous elucidation.

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As for honest industry – I ask again, – and I ask with unshrinking confdence – When have I been defcient? Trace me through the events of my life; – through the neighborhoods where I have dwelt; – in the study, among my books, seeking for knowledge, and struggling for intellectual improvement, in the midst of most adverse circumstances; – or engaged in compositions, at frst, sufciently humble, and earning with indefatigable efort, the little income – with which I supported a mother and a brother, at a time of life when others of my cast are generally, themselves, depending upon such relations for support: – follow me to the retreat at Lyswen, where I bowed to a peasant’s toil, and (that I might divorce myself efectually from those political agitations, into which, with unparalleled malignity, Mr. Jefrey would drag me back) became a hedger and ditcher upon my little farm: – trace me again in the cultivation and difusion of my present science; and the attention with which I devote myself to those cases of calamitous impediment which it is the glory of that science to relieve; – scrutinize me through all, Mr. Jefrey, and disprove, if you can, that I have been honestly industrious. It is true, indeed, – my industry has not been directed by your advice; nor have my eforts been preceded by those consultations of your superlative judgment which might have disposed you to wish me a more than twofold success. It is, undoubtedly, a great pity – that I had not the early advantage of your superintendence and instruction; – that I had not an opportunity of learning your grammar – so new, and so systematically improved! – your mode of construction – so lucid, and so correct! – your style of metaphor and illustration; and, above all, your steadiness and consistency of principle – so conspicuously displayed in the Speculative Society of Edinburgh, and your new Edinburgh Review. Yet, naked as it stands of these most honourable advantages, my industry, Mr. Jefrey, is still industry; and still, I believe, it is honest: and I have still the ‘presumptuous vanity’ to persuade myself – that if ‘those innocent persons’ with whom I am connected, have no other ‘embarrassments’ to apprehend than are ‘brought upon’ them by my ‘distaste for drudgery,’ they are not likely to be very burthensome to the ‘most sincere compassion’ of Mr. Jefrey and his brother Reviewers*. * See the very ingenuous not of these very benevolent persons; ‘Observations,’ p. 14; the very consistent and modest quotation they make from the latter part of that very review, which begins with sneering at ‘taylors and shoemakers’ for ‘astonishing the world with Efusions of Relative and Social Feeling;’ and the tender commiseration they so anxiously express for the supposed ‘embarrassments of the innocent persons,’ &c. In this latter respect, these very compassionate gentlemen may set their hearts to rest. It must be very consolatory to their feelings to be informed that, at this very time, the ‘innocent’ objects of their gratuitous solicitude eat the bread of competency in the circles of respect and friendship; that they have a father who will teach them an early reliance on individual efort, and a mother who will instil into them, even in the nursery, better principles and better grammar than Mr. Jefrey or Mr. Brougham know. Te Edinburgh Reviewers will, therefore, not be called upon to contribute either to their support, or their education. For another instance of benevolent solicitude, I am, also, much indebted to these Reviewers: I mean the anxiety they so kindly express for the ‘tranquillity of my spirits,’ and the composure of my mind. Of the sincerity of

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‘Tere are severe and vulgar people in the world, besides the Reviewers, who would be apt to call in question the industry of a youth, who before the age of twenty-two, had successively broken his indentures to three regular professions, purely because he had an ‘abhorrence of trade,’ and ‘a distaste for drudgery;’ and who has since lived as an ‘Itinerant Lecturer on Politics, History, and Elocution.’ Obs. p. 15.

Now, in the frst place, I never was three times indented. In the second place, I never broke any indenture in my life; and Mr. Jefrey must be as ignorant of Law, as he is of Grammar, if he can put any such construction upon any fact contained in my Memoir. In the third place, I have no where expressed ‘any abhorrence of trade’ in general; though of one particular trade I have. In the fourth place, the Political Lectures were never itinerant: they never were delivered out of London: – so, that in these six lines, there are no less than four direct falsehoods: and as for itinerancy – I should be glad to know how it can be more indolent, or more disreputable to be an itinerant Lecturer on History, or on the Science and Practice of Elocution, than to be an itinerant Lecturer on Natural Philosophy, like Dr. Moyes,23 Mr. Banks,24 or the late Dr. Garnet?25 – or on Astronomy, like Mr. Walker?26 – or on Botany, like Dr. Smith?27 But, if itinerancy be disgraceful – is not Mr. Jefrey, himself, an itinerant Advocate? and is not Mr. Brougham even more itinerant than he*. their wishes, in this respect, it is impossible for me to doubt. I have, therefore, great satisfaction in being able to inform them – that those wishes had been completely anticipated; that the sof air of Glasgow had efectually removed the malady which the keen blasts of Edinburgh had so unfortunately produced. My nerves must, indeed, have been irritable beyond all hopes of returning sanity, if the medicinal attentions I have experienced had not composed my feelings. Mr. Jefrey may easily be informed how cordial has been my reception in the circles of friendship and hospitality, and how unprecedented the degree of attention with which my public exertions have been honoured. I cannot, indeed, neglect this opportunity of declaring – that, as in no place that I have visited, I ever was encountered with such inhospitable repulsion as in Edinburgh; in no part of the nation, where I was so much a stranger, have I ever experienced such general kindness and cheerful hospitality as in the City and neighbourhood of Glasgow. * I beg leave to remind the latter of these gentlemen – that I never, in the course of my itinerancy, made free with any man’s horse and saddlebags; either at Peebles or elsewhere: nor was I ever in any danger of being pursued by the hue and cry of robbery. Had the adventure here alluded to reached the ears of the Anti-Jacobins, it might, perhaps, have suggested as ingenious a couplet as that in which they have ‘immortalized my suferings.’ By the way, I am glad to fnd (as a symptom of improving taste) that Mr. Jefrey is beginning to open his eyes to the literary merits of a work – which, heretofore, he has afected to despise. ‘Te poetry of the Anti-Jacobin,’ had, at least, the recommendation of genius. It was not a compilation of mere, crude, undigested malignity; and if, in the efervescence of party zeal, at a time when I had absolutely withdrawn myself fom all the contests that could irritate the writers of that miscellany, they pursued me with an unrelenting animosity, which their cooler judgments, perhaps, will disapprove; – I acquit them, at least, from all conspiracy against the language and literature of their country. Teir critical taste was acute and accurate; and he who could be permanently angry with them for such verses as they pointed against me, must either have more gall than I have, or less ‘propensity to laughter.’ I am always disposed to believe – that the man cannot be thoroughly malignant whose wit is more conspicuous than his malice. Te sheer profigacy of unprovoked malevolence, has a necessary tendency to obscure the judgment, and degrade the faculties.

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But the serious part of this charge is, afer all, – that my father (who happened to be a silk-mercer) having designed me for the profession of a painter, – and having excited my ambition, and directed my expectations, by prospects so congenial to my wishes, I revolted, with disgust, from the idea of being made a taylor; and was somewhat impatient of ‘the drudgery of servitude, and the manual labour ‘of copying the trash of an attorney’s ofce.’ And who is it that brings forward this reiterated charge? – Who is the man that, at once, reproaches me with the meanness of these situations, and impeaches my honesty and my industry, because I was indignant of them? Your father, Mr. Jefrey, is not, indeed, a silk-mercer; but, in your own descriptive language, – ‘an attorney in the lanes.’ He educated you for the profession of an Advocate; and, fortunately for you, he lived to see his project realised. But suppose, Mr. Jefrey, afer having excited your ambition, and directed all your wishes to that pursuit, he had been arrested in his career, by the hand of nature; and you had been lef, as I was lef, an orphan: – suppose you had been lef in the power of some relation, who, instead of completing your intended education, had treated you with cruel severity, dissipated your property, and then driven you out to the trade of your uncle and your grandfather; – to shave the chins of greasy porters, and dress wigs, in Glasgow, or in Edinborough, for a penny! – Would not you, Mr. Jefrey, have been indignant at the unexpected degradation, and have sighed for your promised profession? Might you not have ‘abhorred’ the servile trade? – might you have been tempted to throw down the family comb, and have persuaded yourself that there was as much honest industry in writing, or even in reviewing, ‘Efusions of Relative and Social Feeling,’ as in wielding the Curling Irons and the Razor*. Where then, was the indolence or the dishonesty in me – who preferred the toils of literary pursuit to ‘the drudgery’ of the shopboard, or the attorney’s ofce, – or the paternal trade of a silk-mercer? One thing more remains to be noticed; and, then I have done with your ‘Observations.’ It is the cluster of malignant recollections which you bring forward, under pretence of vindicating your unprincipled charge of precariousness of principle; but whose real object is to excite a prejudice against me on the * Even as it is, Mr. Jefrey does not think it at all dishonourable to scribble a little – for his amusement. But not upon compulsion of necessity: – no, ‘not upon compulsion Hal!’ [See Observ. p. 15. ‘It was undertaken more for the purpose of amusement, and of collecting the scattered literature of the place, than from any other motive.’] It is true, indeed, Mr. Jefrey takes, also, (for his amusement!) a salary of L.200 a year, as Editor; and, for his further amusement, it is said, somewhat between one-third and one-half of the quarterly distribution of 10 guineas per sheet; which must, altogether, undoubtedly, be amusing enough: and, considering that all this is really taken and received in the way of amusement, merely; – and not in the way of industry, or as at all assistant towards the maintenance of himself and his family, it is most undoubtedly honest enough, also. But as for those fellows – who, disdaining a shop-board or a wig-block, make science and literature administer to the support of aged parents, brethren, wives, and innocent children, – what honesty or industry can there be in them?

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score of opinions with which I have long ceased to interfere; and to place me in the dilemma of either bowing to your accusation, or reviving the discussion of obnoxious subjects. But dilemma belongs to the guilty and the false; and Mr. Jefrey understands its perplexities. I have a middle course – the course of erect and unofending simplicity. With respect to the pretended championship of Materialism! – as much has been said upon that subject, already, as the nature of the charge deserves. As for the rest; it cannot be denied – that, upon a question that heretofore interested the public mind, I had the misfortune to difer in opinion from the majority of my countrymen: and, for such diference, I have sufered severely enough. For the last seven years, however, – I have taken no part in any public question; but have devoted myself entirely to pursuits that have not the slightest connection with such subjects. Mr. Jefrey, also, has difered as widely as I have: the distinction only is, that he has escaped all penalty. But what is the distinction of our present conduct? – now, that the question is entirely changed, and that other feelings are demanded by other circumstances. He labours, with all his might, to stir up divisions, and renew our party prejudices: as if the enemy at our gates were not foe enough, but we must fght with the phantom of former feuds! I pursue my science, and interfere with no man’s opinions; – give to oblivion the diferences that are past, and rejoice that there is no diference now. As a member of an intellectual community, I labour for the extension of intellect, and for the difusion of an accomplishment to which the most favoured nations of antiquity were indebted for their intellectual distinction. As a politician, I cherish this only feeling – that I am a Briton; and that every Briton is my countryman. Pursuing this line of undisputatious patriotism, and cultivating, with diligence, a useful Science, that ministers, at once, to public beneft, and to the utilities and enjoyments of private life, – I feel, with a satisfaction of which Mr. Jefrey cannot rob me, the subsiding jealousies and the growing respect of the intelligent classes of the community; and I exult in the encreasing confdence – that, whatever posterity may think of that part of my conduct which Mr. Jefrey chooses to re-arraign, the time will come – when (recurring to the exertions of my riper years) neither Englishman nor Scotchman, of any party, will feel any reason to repine – that, on the occasion alluded to, there was an English Jury – to hear, to examine, and to acquit. And now, in what relates to myself, I have done with these Reviewers: – perhaps for ever. I do not promise – that, in what relates to the public, I shall sufer them to escape so easily. Te interests of literature seem to demand – that genius should be emancipated from the tyranny of such ignorant control; and it is still more important that the rising generation should be cautioned against the infuence of that detestable and horrible immorality – which, from time to time, and in unsuspected portions, is systematically infused through the pages

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of this profigate miscellany. Had the Reviewers, indeed, never interfered with me, I am not, at this time, such a Quixote as to have attacked their enchanted castle, or to have summoned these necromancers to the combat; but the lists once prepared, and my lance in rest, perhaps, I may pursue the career. In the mean time, how such men as Professors Robison,28 and Playfair,29 and Hill,30 and Stewart,31 and others of the real literate of Edinburgh, will relish the insinuation about ‘the scattered literature of the place,’ or what honours a venerable Seat of Learning may derive from such scatterings as are gathered into the Edinburgh Review, I leave for the parties to consider. For my part, if I had formed my notion of ‘the Northern Capital of British Intellect’ from that ungrammatical farrago of presumption, ignorance, profigacy and absurdity, which these scrapers of literary scatterings heap up together, in their quarterly compost, I should never have approached that city with the expressions of respect and admiration which those scrapers mistook, in their superlative vanity, for the bowings of submission to them. No: far other were the remembrances by which I was induced to express that veneration. I recollected that REID32 was my frst instructor on subjects of metaphysical enquiry; – I recollected that ADAM SMITH33 had frst unfolded to me the principles of Political Œconomy; – I recollected that it was the Minstrel of Beattie34 that had confrmed my devotion to poetical and literary pursuits; and that the Lectures of BLAIR35 had frst initiated me in the principles of Criticism and Composition. Attributing, therefore, (as an Englishman too readily does) all the honours of Scotland to her acknowledged Capital, I considered myself as a pupil of Edinburgh, although I had never seen its walls; and I approached that city and seminary of knowledge with the feelings that result from remembrance of intellectual obligation: – perhaps, with the superstition with which a devotee approaches the hallowed shrine that he has supposed oracular. But little did I imagine that this rabble of Reviewers had polluted the temple, and profaned the consecrated groves! Little did I imagine – that their’s was the voice that was to be heard in Dodona; or that the tripod of Delphos was their’s. To drop all metaphor – I did not imagine that such writers as the Reviewers could have either infuence or popularity in Edinburgh; and I appeal to the discernment of that famous city – how far it may be consistent with its literary fame, that such popularity and such infuence should, even, be tacitly admitted. JOHN THELWALL. Glasgow, March 9, 1804. W. Lang, Printer, 62, Bell-Street, Glasgow.

NOTES

‘Te Phenomena of the Wye’ 1.

2. 3.

4.

5.

6. 7.

River Wye: Te River Wye, the ffh-longest river in Britain, forms a signifcant part of the border between England and Wales. Its renowned beauty was famously captured by Wordsworth in his famous 1798 poem ‘Lines Written a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey’: How of, in spirit, have I turned to thee, O sylvan Wye! thou wanderer thro’ the woods, How ofen has my spirit turned to thee! Ross and Chepstow: towns that border Wales and England; Ross refers to Ross on Wye. GILPIN: Gilpin, William (1724–1804), writer on art; he was instrumental in locating, defning and describing ‘picturesque’ locations, thereby promoting ‘picturesque tourism’. In such books as Essay on Prints (London: G. Robson, 1768), Observations on the River Wye (London: R. Blamire, 1782) and Observations on Cumberland and Westmorland, 2 vols (London: n.p., 1786), he defned the picturesque as blending elements of the real and ideal and the beautiful and the sublime (on the latter see note 7 below). Poussin and Claud Loraine: Nicolas Poussin (1594–1665), French landscape painter known for his rational, formal style, which emphasized clarity, line and order. Claude Lorraine (1600–82), a French landscape painter and etcher, renowned for pastoral, romantic landscapes, which downplayed human intervention in nature. Builth: Wells, frst a small market town, then a spa town on the River Wye, it lies in Powys, Wales, in an area that was once the county of Brecknockshire. When, afer his 1794 acquittal for treason, Telwall moved his family out of London in search of a peaceful place to write poetry and take up farming, they settled at Lys Wen. All of the towns he mentions in this pedestrian excursion – Builth Wells, Hay, Brecknock – lie within eleven miles of his farm. ‘No light, but rather darkness visible’: from the opening scene of Milton’s Paradise Lost, which describes Chaos, the place where Satan and his angels dwell (1:63). sublimity and beauty: this section and those that follow are profoundly informed by the opposing aesthetic categories, the sublime and the beautiful, as outlined by Edmund Burke in his Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (London: R. and J. Dodsley, 1757) and Emmanuel Kant in his Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime (1764). Telwall seems particularly engaged with Burke’s defnition of the beautiful as that which is harmonious, ordered, balanced, proportioned, associated with smallness and smoothness and inspires afection and comfort. In contrast the sublime is infnite, grand, powerful, awe-inspiring and imposing. Sublime elements in nature include immense mountains, roaring waters and lightning storms. Te sublime inspires passion, – 189 –

190

8. 9. 10.

11.

12.

13. 14. 15.

Notes to pages 4–19 pain and intense emotion, as it inspires feelings of insignifcance and doubt and reminds us of our limits but also our capacity for destruction. As Burke writes, ‘WHATEVER is ftted in any sort to excite the ideas of pain and danger, … is a source of the sublime; that is, it is productive of the strongest emotion which the mind is capable of feeling.’ picturesque: see note 3 to previous text, above. Hay: Hay-on-Wye, a small market town in Powys, Wales, now known best for its yearly literary festival. the Priory Walks … Hondy: Brecon is a market town in mid-Wales, in the Brecon Beacons, intersected by the Usk and Honddu rivers. Te history of the Priory reaches back to the eleventh century, when the half-brother of William the Conqueror built a fortifcation in the town, which included monastic buildings. Tere are still walking paths through ‘the Groves’ and up into the mountains. Mr Erskine on the House of Commons: Tomas Erskine, frst Baron Erskine (1750– 1823), lawyer and Lord Chancellor, renowned for his rhetorical skill and persuasiveness in his defence of criminal and political cases; a popular fgure, he apparently gained the confdence of juries by casting himself as a patriot defending press freedom and the judicial voice of the people, the jury. He became a national celebrity for his animated defences of reformers (including Telwall) in treason and libel trials in the 1790s. Tacitus … “Manners of the Germans”: Publius (or Gaius) Cornelius Tacitus (c. 56–c. 117), Roman senator, historian and author of Germania, an ethnographic study describing the customs and laws of the Germanic tribes that lay outside the Roman Empire. Germania became a key text in late eighteenth-century debates over the origins of British culture and liberties. In the words of Mr. E: see note 11 above. Paine’s work upon fnance: Tomas Paine’s Decline and Fall of the English System of Finance (1796). Hereford: town in the county of Herefordshire, on the River Wye, in the West Midlands of England, 16 miles east of the border with Wales.

‘A Pedestrian Excursion Trough Several Parts of England and Wales during the Summer of 1797’ 1. 2.

3. 4. 5. 6.

picturesque and romantic: see note 3 to ‘Te Phenomena of the Wye’, above. invaluable fiend: Te literary friend to whom Telwall refers is Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who had moved from Bristol to take up cottage life at Nether Stowey, in the Quantock Hills of Somerset. Tey had established a regular correspondence early in 1796, through which they traded criticism, politics, philosophy and plans. One such plan, which grew out of the romantic notion of a pantisocratic community of vegetable-growing and poetry-writing members, had the Telwalls moving to Nether Stowey to join the Coleridge–Wordsworth circle in arcadian bliss. But this plan fell through when a spy also moved to Nether Stowey, and Telwall’s presence became a problem. Fulham Bridge: crosses the Tames in the (then) village of Putney, London. Richmond Hill: Richmond is a London borough, bisected by the Tames, which links Hampton Court Palace, Kew Gardens and central London. Petersham: a village and parish near the Tames, under Richmond Hill. Gray … pocketbook: Tomas Gray (1716–71), poet who late in life (1770) took a walking tour of south-western England. He convinced William Gilpin, who was touring the same

Notes to pages 19–30

7.

8.

9.

10. 11.

12. 13.

14.

15. 16.

17.

18.

191

areas at the same time, to publish his notes in a series of books that fred the interest in the picturesque (see note 3 above). Like Telwall, Gray was very impressed by the Wye valley, from Ross to Chepstow (the very location Telwall had described in the frst two articles in this volume). Pope: Alexander Pope (1688–1744) poet and satirist, the success of his translation of Homer’s Iliad provided him with the capital to purchase his famous villa at Twickenham in 1719, around which he created extensive gardens and an impressive grotto. original model: Telwall’s dislike of Twickenham is worth noting, as there is a politics of landscape at work here. His description of Pope’s manicured lawns as less pleasing than a more natural environment mirrors reservations he expresses elsewhere about what he sees as Pope’s artifcial and convoluted literary style. His condemnation of artifce and extravagance in both language and landscape should be seen as part of the civic humanist disdain for luxury that characterizes much of his political writing in the early 1790s. Palace of Hampton Court: located in a loop of the Tames, in Richmond upon Tames, in the south-west corner of what is now Greater London. Again, Telwall’s preference for the natural parkland that surrounds the manicured gardens, is politically motivated (see previous note). Sunbury: Sunbury upon Tames, Surrey. Hereford … green paint: the motivation for Telwall’s condemnation of what he sees as garishly decorated houses is similar to his views on the extensive manicured gardens of the sweeping estates on the banks of the Tames. Te painting of one’s home in Shepperton … Staines: Telwall is still travelling along the Tames; this area is now part of the county of Surrey. Old Windsor … Cooper’s Hill: Telwall is still following the Tames; Old Windsor is located just south of the town of Windsor and Cooper’s Hill at Englefeld Green in northern Surrey. Warren Hastings: (1732–1818), Governor General of Bengal, involved in struggles for territory and authority between the East India Company, the British government, the warring Maratha states, the Nawabs and himself. When Hastings returned to England from India in 1785, he discovered that many people held him responsible for the mismanagement of British India and the scope of the wars there. In parliament, Edmund Burke passionately accused the East India Company, and Hastings specifcally, of exploitation and fraudulent practices. Probably largely owing to the Pitt administration’s dislike of Hastings and the anti-slavery views held by the public, Hastings was formally impeached in May 1787. Hastings faced a long trial, which fnally concluded when he was found not guilty by the House of Lords some eight years later in 1795. Hastings retired from public life to his Daylesford estate where with his wife, he farmed and read books. Gray: see note 6 to ‘A Pedestrian Excursion’, above. Windsor Great Park: since the thirteenth century, a 5,000-acre deer park, the royal hunting ground of Windsor Castle, lying south of the town of Windsor on the border of Surrey and Berkshire. Telwall’s description plainly praises the park for its ‘sublime’ sweep, which flls the viewer with a sense of infnity. Tis is brought short, however Wilton House: situated at Wilton near Salisbury in Wiltshire, the country seat of the Earls of Pembroke; among the architects who worked on the house are Isaac de Caus and Inigo Jones. physiognomist: In this section, Telwall uses the principles of physiognomy – a hugely popular eighteenth-century visual theory that viewed character traits as manifest in the features of the face – to analyze and assess the portraits and busts of historic fgures, vari-

192

19.

20. 21.

22. 23.

24.

25.

26.

27.

28. 29.

30. 31.

Notes to pages 30–2 ous illustrations and Lavater’s explanation of his project is revealing. See Johann Caspar Lavater, Essays on Physiognomy, trans. Tomas Holcrof, 3 vols (London: G. G. J. and J. Robinson, 1789) Brutus, who expelled the Tarquins: Lucius Junius Brutus, founded the Roman Republic in 509 bc, when he overthrew the last king Tarquin (Lucius Tarquinius Superbus), following the rape of Brutus’s kinswoman Lucretia. Tis part of Roman history was recorded by Livy, whose work Telwall used in his lectures on Roman history. Collatinus: Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus, together with Brutus, was one of the original consuls of Rome. Coriolanus: Gaius Marcius Coriolanus, whose history was written by Livy and Plutarch (see note 7 in Volume 1). He was an aristocratic Roman general whose anti-democratic views and disdain for the people was famously captured by Shakespeare. the Volscians: an ancient Italic people, the point is that Tarquin’s own people were not interested in capturing the physical likenesses of the great for posterity. Teophrastus: Teophrastus (371–c. 287 bc), a Greek polymath who succeeded Aristotle in the Peripatetic school and in the Lyceum and produced voluminous writings on wide-ranging subjects in his lifetime. Teophrastus is an important fgure for Telwall, whose habit of rambling along roads and ‘engaging in the Socratic dialogue of the peripateio’ with passers-by was shared by the ‘authorial alter ego’ he created in Te Peripatetic, Sylvanus Teophrastus, Judith Tompson (ed.) p. 12. Didia Clara: (b. c. ad 153), only child of the Roman Emperor Didius Julianus and Empress Manlia Scantilla, little is known of her other than that she was reportedly a renowned beauty, who married Sextus Cornelius Repentinus, the Prefect of Rome during the brief reign of Didia Clara’s father. Lepidus: Marcus Aemilius Lepidus (d. 13 bc), Roman politician, supporter of Julius Caesar and powerful fgure during his rule. Afer Caesar’s assassination, Lepidus, Mark Anthony and Caesar’s adopted son, Gaius Julius Caesar Octavian, formed the Second Triumvirate, thus marginalizing the senate and ending the republic. Claudius: Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus or Claudius I (10 bc–ad 54), part of his rise to power is due to the fact that he sufered from an unknown disability (perhaps Tourette’s syndrome or cerebral palsy), which likely saved him from being seen as a threat by Tiberius or Caligula. He was politically inexperienced, but he expanded the Roman Empire and oversaw the conquest of Britain. Whether accurate or not, he has ofen been portrayed as dull-witted and easily manipulated, with an appetite for cruelty and blood. Nero: Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (ad 37–68), the last of the fve Roman Emperors, Tacitus and other historians have portrayed him as a tyrant who had his mother and brother executed, a great persecutor of the Christians, and a profigate who ‘fddled while Rome burned’. Seneca: Lucius Annaeus Seneca (c. 4 bc–ad 65), Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman and dramatist, hired by Aggripina to tutor and advise her son Nero. Agrippina: (ad 15–59), a Roman Empress, sister to Emperor Caligula, wife of Emperor Claudius and mother of Emperor Nero, reports of her character varies widely, casting her as ambitious and ruthless or clever and capable. Either way, she was a fgure of tremendous power and infuence. Marcus Brutus: Marcus Junius Brutus (85–42 bc), Roman senator of the late Roman Republic who was instrumental in the assassination of Julius Caesar. Brutus and Cassius … Caesar: see notes 19 and 30 above.

Notes to pages 33–9

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32. Old Sarum: one of the earliest settlements in Salisbury. 33. Amesbury: a town in the county of Wiltshire, eight miles north of Salisbury and very near to Stonehenge. 34. West: Benjamin West, (1738–1820), Anglo-American history painter, his neo-classical history paintings were strongly infuenced by Nicolas Poussin (see note 4 above). West’s most famous picture, Te Death of General Wolfe (1770) combined elements of neoclassical representation with the colour and intensity of Romanticism and the details of contemporary life. 35. Barry: James Barry (1741–1806), history painter famous for, among other things, his series of six murals charting the rise of civilization, executed for the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce. 36. Northcote: James Northcote (1746–1831), artist, perhaps his most successful painting was the modern history painting, Te Wreck of HMS Centaur. 37. Fuseli: Henri Fuseli (1741–1825), Swiss painter and author, although best known for the gothic-romantic Te Nightmare, he was also heavily involved in feeding the taste for ‘literary’ and ‘historic’ painting. He was part of the radical circle of political writers and artists associated with the publisher Joseph Johnson, including Mary Wollstonecraf, who once had a romantic interest in him. 38. Stodart: Unidentifed. 39. Wheatley and Morland: Francis Wheatley (1747–1801) and George Morland (1763– 1804) were both landscape painters known for their portrayal of rural life. Wheatley ofen sofened his scenes of rural life and people into picturesque scenes. Te paintings for which Morland is most known tend to portray a more rustic or ‘authentic’ rural life. 40. Smirk: Robert Smirke (1753–1845), painter, known for his literary illustrations and for his democratic and anti-monarchist views. Tese views are manifest in his representation of one of the attempts on the life of the king, Te Attempt by Margaret Nicholson to Assassinate King George III (engraved by R. Pollard and F. Jukes, 1796). 41. Reynolds: Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723–92), art theorist, portrait and history painter, a founder of the Royal Academy of Arts and afer 1784, the principal painter-in-ordinary to the king. He dominated the late eighteenth-century art world. In his lectures and notes, collected into the Discourses on Art, Reynolds emphasized ‘great style’, intellectualism and dignity in art – a commitment to high art that is refected in his great history paintings. 42. Opie: John Opie (1761–1807), portrait and history painter, for all of his early shortcomings in technique, he had something of the reputation of a self-made genius. As ‘the Cornish Wonder’, he became known for his intense realism and highly dramatic uses of light and dark. Among his work is the famous painting of Mary Wollstonecraf hanging in the National Portrait Gallery and the fve paintings he did for Boydell’s Shakespeare Gallery (which Telwall proceeds to describe). 43. Duchess of Queensborough and the poet Gay: John Gay (1685–1732), poet and playwright, author of the satirical ballad opera, Te Beggar’s Opera (1728), was patronized by the Duke and Duchess of Queensberry. 44. Stukelys: William Stukeley (1667–1765), antiquarian, one of the frst to recognize the historic importance of Stonehenge. 45. Dr. Darwin: Erasmus Darwin (1731–1802), physician, natural philosopher, poet, one of the founders of the midlands Lunar Society of thinkers and industrialists. 46. Baverstock … Burford: northwest of Salisbury, in Wiltshire.

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Notes to pages 40–68

47. Fonthill: Fonthill Bishop, Wiltshire 48. the river Nadder: a clear chalk river, rises in south Wiltshire and passes through Salisbury to become a main tributary of the River Avon. 49. Wardour Castle: much of it destroyed in the Civil War, the castle sits near Tisbury, Wiltshire, ffeen miles west of Salisbury. 50. Alcibiades: (450–404 bc) Politician, orator and military commander in the Peloponnesian War, who appeared as a character in several Socratic dialogues, including the Symposium and Protagoras. 51. ‘Te Marriage in Cana’: Te wedding event at which Jesus Christ is said to have performed his frst miracle, by transforming water into wine afer the latter had run out. 52. Vernet: Émile Jean-Horace Vernet (1789–1863), French painter, known especially for his epic battle sequences, notably of the Napoleonic wars. 53. Titian: Tiziano Vecellio (1485–1576), leading Venetian artist of the Italian Renaissance. 54. Raphael: Raphael Sanzio (1483–1520), hugely important Renaissance artist, whose infuence was lauded in the eighteenth century by Sir Joshua Reynolds and his followers but thought particularly malign by the nineteenth century ‘pre-Raphaelite’ fgures such as Dante Gabriel Rossetti. 55. Joseph of Arimathea: wealthy Judean who (according to the accounts of all four evangelists) donated his burial tomb for the body of Jesus Christ. 56. Lord Arundel: Henry Arundell, eighth Baron Arundell of Wardour (1740–1808), a prominent member of the wealthy Catholic family that had resided at Wardour Castle from 1544 he accumulated signifcant debts towards its refurbishment in the late eighteenth century, part of which consisted in the acquisition of the art collection so admired by Telwall. 57. Arras: historic part of Artois, France, which became a centre of the medieval cloth trade. 58. Sir Richard Hoare: (1646–1718), banker who became Lord Mayor of London in 1712. 59. ‘the Age of Reason’: a reference to the controversial work by Tomas Paine, published in 1794, which mocked much of the contents of the Bible – including the Book of Genesis, the concept of miracles and the status of Jesus Christ – and ofered an alternative, deistic account of Creation. 60. Chatterton: Tomas Chatterton (1752–70), poet who used the pseudonym ‘Tomas Rowley’ and wrote medievalist prose and verse. His suicide through drinking arsenic while in a state of penury at the age of only seventeen garnered him iconic status within the Romantic movement. 61. Lucan’s Pharsalia: Pharsalia is an epic poem written between 61 and 65 ad by Lucan about the war between Julius Caesar and the Roman Senate. 62. Southey’s Joan of Arc: Robert Southey’s 1796 poem in which he expressed his admiration for the French Revolution.

‘Prefatory Memoir’ 1.

John Impey … Instructor Clericalis: John Impey (d. 1829), legal writer, attorney of the sherif ’s court of London and Middlesex; his New Instructor Clericalis, Stating the Authority, Jurisdiction, and Practice of the Court of King’s Bench (1782) and Te new instructor clericalis, stating the authority, jurisdiction, and practice of the court of common pleas (1784), which detailed the functions of those courts, went into many editions.

Notes to pages 69–74 2.

3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

8. 9. 10.

11. 12. 13.

14.

15.

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‘for the drudgery … of an ofce’: From William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, vol. 1, pp. 32–3. Te pertinent part of the passage reads: ‘few persons of birth, or fortune, or even of scholastic education, will submit to the drudgery of servitude and the manual labour of copying the trash of an ofce’. FRANCES CLINE: mother of Henry Cline, renowned surgeon, on whom see Volume 1, p. xxiii and Volume 4, A Letter to Henry Cline. Te Trials: the Treason Trials of 1794, for more on these, see Volume 1, note 18 and Volume 2, note 50. Te Ceremony …Aitches: For more on Telwall’s troubles with the inhabitants of Oakham, Rutland where he married Stella Vellum, in 1791, see Volume 1, note 3. Guy’s: on Telwall’s activity at Guy’s Hospital, where he gave two scientifc lectures, see Volume 1, An Essay on Animal Vitality. Te Peripatetic: Telwall published Te Peripatetic, a mixed-genre travelogue in 1793, see Judith Tompson’s excellently edited version (Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press, 2001), also see note 23 to ‘A Pedestrian Excursion’, above. It was … propensities: see preceding note, and note 23 to ‘A Pedestrian Excursion’, above. Holcrof: Tomas Holcrof (1745–1809), English playwright, one of the twelve reformers indicted for high treason but acquitted in 1794. Henry Cline: (1750–1827), surgeon and lecturer in anatomy, he apprenticed at St Tomas’s Hospital and was a pupil of the famous surgeon Dr John Hunter. Cline later practised and lectured at St Tomas’s and was appointed frst master and then president of the College of Surgeons. Tere is some speculation that his heart belonged more to politics than science. He was perhaps less well-known for his sole publication, On the Form of Animals (1805), than for being a lifelong democrat and deist. Cline formed friendships with Telwall and Horne Tooke, supporting them through their treason trials in 1794 and in subsequent years he hosted an annual dinner at his house in Lincoln’s Inn Fields in commemoration of the latter’s acquittal. Interestingly, he performed the post-mortem examination on the legendary opposition leader Charles James Fox. Dr. Haighton: John Haighton (1755–1823), physician, physiologist and lecturer in anatomy. Essay towards a defnition of Animal Vitality: for this essay, see Volume 1, pp. 13–29. Dallas: Sir Robert Dallas (1756–1824), judge and MP; he became known for his impressive speaking style and knowledge of the law. It was common knowledge that he had learned his speaking skills in the debating society at Coachmaker’s Hall. Dallas was called to the bar on 6 November 1782. Being ‘both a good lawyer and an accomplished speaker’ (Holdsworth, Eng. law, 13.542) he soon acquired a considerable practice in London and on the western circuit. He came to specialize in parliamentary and privy council work, and was engaged in many notable cases. Te frst of these occurred in 1783, when he was retained as junior counsel by the East India Company to challenge Charles James Fox’s East India Bill. Garrow: Sir William Garrow (1760–1840), barrister and judge; whilst early in life he had been a supporter of the whig opposition leader Charles James Fox, in the mid-1790s he became a Pitt supporter and a crown prosecutor in the treason trials. Like Dallas, Garrow had honed his oratorical skills at debating society meetings. JOHN HORNE TOOKE: John Horne Tooke (1736–1812), philologist and middleclass reformist campaigner who was a leading fgure in the Society for Constitutional

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18. 19. 20. 21. 22.

23.

24.

25. 26.

27. 28.

Notes to pages 74–93 Information. He was arrested under suspicion of treason in May 1794 and held in the Tower of London and Newgate before his acquittal at trial with the rest of those charged in November 1794. Junius: the pseudonym (afer the Roman republican hero Lucius Junius Brutus) of the author(s) of political commentary, which appeared in the Public Advertiser newspaper between 1769 and 1772. Junius was sharply critical of among other things, Tories and Tory policies. Although Junius’s identity is not fully known, it is widely thought to have been the politician and political writer Sir Philip Francis (1740–1818). Sir James Saunderson: Lord Mayor of London. He was part of a wider programme of repression initiated by Pitt and his government. Trough Saunderson’s actions, a debating society that had held peaceable meetings for almost ffy years, ceased to exist. Tims, the Messenger: Tims served the warrant for Treason on Telwall, held him and confscated his papers; for Telwall’s account of Tims see Volume 2, pp. 27–36. Erskine: see note 7 to the ‘Phenomena of the Wye’. Gibbs: Sir Vicary Gibbs (1751–1820), judge and politician, junior counsel to Erskine in the 1794 treason trials of John Horne Tooke and Tomas Hardy. THE TRIBUNE: see Volume 2. ‘Te Pitt and Grenville Acts’: otherwise known as the ‘Two Acts’ or the ‘Gagging Acts’ of 1795, these pieces of legislation rendered verbal and written words open to the charge of inciting treason and forbade political meetings of more than ffy people. For more on this see the Introduction in Volume 1. Te suppression … every one: for accounts of these see Telwall’s A Particular Account of the Late Outrages at Lynn and Wisbeach and An Appeal to Popular Opinion Against Kidnapping and Murder, Including a Narrative of the Late Atrocious Proceedings at Yarmouth, both in Volume 1. One Science only will one Genius ft: From Alexander Pope’s Essay on Criticism, 1:60. Te lines are: One science only will one genius ft; So vast is art, so narrow human wit (60–1). Daughter of Adoption: published this Jacobin novel under the pseudonym of John Beaufort in 1801. Phillips: Sir Richard Phillips (1767–1840), author and publisher of democratic sensibilities, he predominantly sold miscellaneous literature and magazines; he was imprisoned in 1793 for selling Tom Paine’s Rights of Man. harvest of the year 1800: a year of crop failure and drought. Builith, Te Hay, and Brecknock: on these towns, see notes 5 and 9 to ‘Te Phenomena of the Wye’, above.

Elocution and Oratory 1. 2.

3.

Course of these Lectures: rather cheekily, Telwall attached Elocution and Oratory to his Letter to Francis Jefray, advertising his lecture series. Additional Lecture: Telwall sent notice to the publisher to add this lecture. Te following lectures are lef as they are originally numbered, so there will are two lectures marked as the third. Peter the wild Boy: (found 1725, d. 1785), a twelve- or thirteen-year-old boy found in the woods near Hanover in 1725, he walked on all fours, ate plants and could not

Notes to pages 96–100

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speak. Once found, he quickly became a source of curiosity and George I had him brought to London. Although he developed a love of music and learned to perform simple tasks, he never learned to talk and was never known to laugh. There has been speculation as to why and how he came to take up living in the forest: he seems to have run away from an abusive home, he may have been an autistic child. The ensuing craze prompted scientists and writers like Jonathan Swift and Daniel Defoe to write on the subject. See Homo Ferus: Between Monster and Model; The Animal Kingdom or Zoological System of the Celebrated Sir Charles Linnaeus, trans. R.Kerr. SAVAGE OF AVEYRON: Victor of Aveyron (also Te Wild Boy of Aveyron), a boy who lived his childhood in the woods before being captured near Toulouse, France in 1797. He escaped twice from his well-meaning captors before emerging on his own in January 1800. His speechlessness and his immunity to the coldness of snow seemed to indicate that even these seemingly biological phenomena were the result of experience, culture and conditioning. Although he had hearing, Victor was taken to the National Institute of the Deaf, where he became the focus of a study to determine what separated humans from animals. Victor came to demonstrate empathy, but never acquired language. See H.Lane, Te Wild Boy of Aveyron (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1975) and R. Shattuck, Te Forbidden Experiment: the Story of the Wild Boy of Aveyron (New York: Kodansha International, 1980). Ld. ASHBURTON: Dunning, John, frst Baron Ashburton (1731–83), barrister and politician, associate of John Horne Tooke; he was a lumbering fgure who sufered from a bronchial complaint, a constant cough and spoke with a strong Devon accent but became quickly known for the forcefulness and efectiveness of his presentation. DEMOSTHENES: (bc 384–322) According to classical sources, as a youth Demosthenes sufered from a stammer, unclear pronunciation and shortness of breath but through perseverance and elocutionary training, he became known as one of the greatest orators. Blair: Hugh Blair (1718–1800), Church of Scotland minister and university professor, although conservative in politics and religion he was a close friend of Hume and held rather moderate views. Blair’s Heads of the Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres, in the University of Edinburgh (1767), once the standard textbook on rhetoric, traces the development of the English language and defines various categories of eloquence. Montboddo: James Burnett, Lord Monboddo (1714–99), philosopher and judge who wrote about many of the themes central to the Scottish Enlightenment, but from an Aristotelian perspective. His linguistic philosophy was expressed in On the Origin and Progress of Language (1773), which provided an historical and philosophical analysis of the evolution of language. For more on Telwall’s views on Monboddo, see Volume 4, pp. 16–17. Sheridan: Tomas Sheridan (1719–88), Irish actor and elocutionist, who (in addition to his A General Dictionary of the English Language (1780) cited here by Telwall), wrote a number of works on grammar and education, including British Education: Or, Te source of the Disorders of Great Britain. Being an Essay towards proving, that the Immorality, Ignorance, and false Taste, which so generally prevail, are the natural and necessary Consequences of the present to defective System of Education. With an attempt to shew, that a revival of the Art of Speaking, and the Study of Our Own Language, might contribute, in a

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Notes to pages 100–9

great measure, to the Cure of those Evils (1756). For more on Telwall’s views on Sheridan, see Volume 4, pp. 205–6. 10. Steel’s Prosodia Rationalis: Joshua Steele (d. 1796), plantation owner and linguist, who wrote An Essay Towards Establishing the Melody and Measure of Speech, to be Expressed and Perpetuated by Peculiar Symbols (London: J. Almon, 1795), which developed a theory of prosody and the melodic nature of speech. It was reprinted in 1799 as Prosodia Rationalis. For Telwall’s views on Steel, see Volume 4, pp. 14–15 and 76–84. 11. Dr Johnson: Samuel Johnson (1709–84), author, lexicographer, key Enlightenment fgure, his famous Dictionary demonstrated how rich, varied and organic the English language was. He recorded how words were used – including terms that were common, coarse, technical or adapted from other languages – rather than attempting to police or regulate their usage. 12. Mr. Elpinstone: James Elphinston (1721–1809), educationist; friend of Samuel Johnson; he argued that spelling reform would enable provincial Britons to pronounce English ‘correctly’, or in a London dialect.

‘A Letter to Francis Jefray [sic] On Certain Calumnies and Misrepresentations in the Edinburgh Review’ 1.

2.

Francis Jefray: Francis, Lord Jefrey (1773–1850), judge, politician and writer; he began to put together his thoughts on politics, in a spirit of philosophical Whiggery bound to meet disapproval from his colleagues, as from his father, at a time of growing conservatism among the Scottish elites. It appeared nowhere more strongly than in the faculty of advocates, which during these years deposed a Whig, Henry Erskine, from its deanship and saw one of its members, Tomas Muir, transported for sedition, afer a trial which the horrifed Jefrey watched from the public gallery. Te Edinburgh Review had an infuence on opinion and taste far beyond its circulation. With others, Jefrey founded Te Edinburgh Review, which popularized, though it also vulgarized, the teachings of the Scottish Enlightenment, and helped to transform them into Victorian orthodoxies. Under Jefrey’s editorship, it also marked an epoch in the history of the periodical. Tough not the frst to bear the title of review, it was the direct parent of the genre as the vehicle of bourgeois culture that it became in the course of the nineteenth century in Britain and other countries. If the genre aferwards declined, it bequeathed to the higher journalism of the modern age much of the same ethos, being clever, probing and irreverent. Altogether, this new type of periodical marked the emergence of a middle-class public opinion, culturally and politically aware, which was now served by an organ that could articulate and promote its interests. Detraction and Calumny…leaf: It was a review of Telwall’s Poems Written Chiefy in Retirement (Hereford: n.p., 1801) that appeared in the Edinburgh Review that inspired an incensed Telwall to write this pamphlet. In particular, the reviewer most targeted the ‘Memoir’ of Telwall’s life that prefaced the collection of poems, and in particular Telwall’s recounting of how familial and fnancial circumstances forced him, in his youth, behind a shop counter and into apprenticeships. To give a sense of how cutting the review was, we have included some substantial passages here from ‘Telwall’s Poems,’ Edinburgh Review, 2:3 (April 1803) pp. 197–202, p. 197: LITERATURE opens so obvious an so pleasant a way to distinction, to those who are without the advantages of birth or fortune, that we need not wonder if more

Notes to pages 109–23

3. 4.

5. 6. 7.

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are drawn into it, than are qualifed to reach the place of their destination. Te task of ministering to the higher want and more refned plwasures of het species, being both more dignifed and more agreeable than that of supplying their vulgar necessities, multitudes are induced to undertake it without any great preparation; and the substantial business of life is defrauded of much valuable labour, while the elegant arts are injured by a crowd of injudicious pretenders. Te gradations by which increasing luxury accomplishes these seductions, are sufciently distinguishable. Ploughboys and carpenters are frst drawn into the shops of mercers and perfumers, and into the service of esquires, baronets, and peers; the runaway apprentice next goes upon the stage; hairdressers and valets write amatory verses; cofeehouse waiters publish political pamphlets; and shoemakers and tailors astonish the world with plans for reforming the constitution, and with efusions of relative and social feeling. publicity … book: see Elocution and Oratory, pp. 57–106. Mr. Constable: Archibald Constable (1774–1827), publisher of, among other things, the Edinburgh Review, a number of Walter Scott’s novels, and the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Telwall published an article in his Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal in 1805. Mr Horner: Francis Horner (1778–1817), politician, Foxite Whig, writer for the Edinburgh Review. Mr. Tomas Brown: (1778–1820), philosopher and poet, produced a very few reviews for the Edinburgh Review. Review (p. 200): Te passage Telwall refers to here and below is as follows: Our author [Telwall] probably is not the frst who has spoiled a good tradesman, by an unlucky ambition of literary or political glory; but he is the only one we recollect who has lef a minute and authentic record of the steps of his transformation, and of the motives and sentiments by which he was successively actuated. In every page of this extraordinary Memoir, we discover traces of that impatience of honest industry, that presumptuous vanity, and precarious principle, that have thrown so many adventurers on the world, and drawn so many females from their plain work and their embroidery, to delight the public by their beauty in the streets, and their novels in the circulating library. Tey have all ‘ardent temperaments’, like Mr. Telwell, ‘irritable feelings, enthusiastic virtues, and a noble contempt for mechanical drudgery, dull regularity, and slow-paced erudition’. Teir performances need no description’ (Edinburgh Review, p. 200). the Commentaries of Judge Blackstone: William Blackstone (1723–80), legal writer and judge who established English law as an academic discipline at Oxford, he became the foundation Vinerian Professor of Common Law and published the greatly infuential, widely-acclaimed 2000-page Commentaries on the Laws of England. Tis work of legal scholarship – arguably the most important ever published in the nation’s history – depicted England’s constitution and laws as part of the natural order of things as well as products of national history, like ‘an old Gothic castle, erected in the days of chivalry, but ftted up for a modern inhabitant’ (vol. 3, p. 268). ‘Bad begins, but worse remains behind’: In the Queen’s Closet Scene of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, this is uttered by Hamlet afer he discovers he has killed Polonius. Te passage is as follows: ‘I do repent: but heaven hath pleased it so, To punish me with this and this with me, Tat I must be their scourge and minister. I will bestow him, and will answer well

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10. 11. 12. 13.

14. 15.

16.

17.

18.

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20. 21.

Notes to pages 123–30 Te death I gave him. So, again, good night. I must be cruel, only to be kind: Tus bad begins and worse remains behind. One word more, good lady.’ ardent temperaments … enthusiastic virtues: see note 7, above. lef her … deride: see ‘Memoir’, pp. 57–90. ‘ardent … virtues!’: for full passage see note 7, above. physiognomy is conclusive: on the widespread appeal of the science of ‘physiognomy’ see note 18 to ‘A Pedestrian Excursion’, above; for more on this disagreement about Jefrey attending and stirring up trouble at Telwall’s lecture see pp. 164–5, above. In every page … library: see note 7, above. Mr Brougham: Henry Peter Brougham, frst Baron Brougham and Vaux (1778–1868), lawyer, journalist, Whig MP, Lord Chancellor and one of the founders, with Jefrey, Francis Horner and Sydney Smith, of the Edinburgh Review. He wrote a copious amount of articles (according to the DNB, more than one hundred by 1810) and was known for his controversial views and sharp, biting tone. At times his scorn verged on outright insult, which invited such responses as Telwall’s (one of the most famous was Byron’s equally satirical poem English Bards and Scotch Reviewers) and caused him to make some very erroneous judgments about literary texts that subsequently received critical acclaim. ‘to cut out … buckram?’: Te passage to which Telwall refers in the Review is as follows: ‘Afer selling two thousand copies of his book, and lecturing upon politics to crowded and intelligent audiences, we are afraid there is no great probability of Mr. Telwall submitting to cut out casimere, or stitch in buckram; though we are persuaded that he was infnitely more useful and respectable in his old occupation, than in those to which he has lately betaken himself. Middling as his poetry is, however, we shall be happy to fnd that it afords him a subsistence; because it is a great deal better than his politics’ (pp. 201–2). Gay: John Gay (1685–1732), poet and playwright, was born to an infuential family, but the early deaths of both parents (by the time Gay was ten) contributed to the family’s decline. As a result, Gay was prevented from attending university and instead became an apprentice to a silk mercer in the New Exchange, London. Prior: Matthew Prior (1664–1721), a poet and diplomat whose youthful difculties were much like Telwall’s: when his father died and the family fell on hard fnancial times, the young Prior was taken from school and put to work behind the bar of his uncle’s tavern. On visits to the tavern, Charles Sackville, sixth Earl of Dorset, observed Prior reading Horace and translating the odes into English, and paid his tuition at Westminster School. Franklin: Benjamin Franklin (1706–90), natural philosopher, writer and revolutionary politician in America; with only two years of formal education at the age of twelve, Franklin was apprenticed to his brother James, a printer, with whom he signed a nine-year indenture. Trivia: refers to John Gay’s bawdy and humorous 1716 long poem Trivia, or the Art of Walking the Streets of London (London: Bernard Lintott, 1716). Alma: Afer his impeachment, whilst kept in confnement (1715–17) by Robert Walpole, Matthew Prior composed the long comic poem, Alma; or, Te Progress of the Mind (1718).

Notes to pages 131–55

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22. Robert Burns: Burns, Robert (1759–96), poet, famous for his use of the Scottish vernacular in poems which were ofen about drink, women and politics; in the 1790s he was sympathetic to the causes of republicanism in France and reform at home. 23. forwardness … voice: the passage to which Telwall refers is from p. 197 of the Review, where his failure to become a stage actor was due partially to his ‘own consciousness of want of voice and fgure’. 24. Collin’s: William Collins (1721–59), poet, whose Odes marked the shif from the Augustan poetry of Pope to look forward to what would become defned as Romanticsm. 25. for peace … reputation: see p. 60 of the ‘Prefatory Memoir’, above. 26. want of voice: see note 2 to Elocution and Oratory, above. 27. Mr. Cooke and Mr. Kemble, or Mrs Esten: George Frederick Cooke (c. 1756–1812), John Philip Kemble (1757–1823) and Harriet Pye Esten (c. 1761–1865) are all wellknown late eighteenth-century actors. 28. Shepherd’s Poggio: Tis very unfavourable review, which has been attributed jointly to Brougham and Percival, of William Shepherd’s Te Life of Poggio Bracciolini (London: T. Cadell and W. Davis, 1802), appeared in the Edinburgh Review, 2:3 (April 1803). Perhaps part of Shepherd’s unpopularity with the Edinburgh reviewers lay with his politics: he was a Unitarian and a supporter of civil and religious liberty, who had paid prison visits to Jeremiah Joyce, one of those charged in the 1794 Treason Trials, and to the Rev. Gilbert Wakefeld (1756–1801), during his imprisonment in 1796–8. 29. Belsham’s Philosophy of the mind: Tomas Belsham (1750–1829), a Unitarian minister and advocate of religious toleration and civil rights; like Shepherd (see previous note), his writing reveals the infuence of David Hartley and Joseph Priestley. His Elements of the Philosophy of the Mind (1801) remained a very popular book on metaphysics and psychology for some time. On Hartley and Priestley, see Volume 1, pp. xxiii–xxiv, n. 19 and 20. 30. Mansfeld: William Murray, frst Earl of Mansfeld (1705–93), judge and politician; although not the greatest advocate of freedom of the press, Telwall mentions Mansfeld here because of his support for religious toleration. His rulings upheld the Corporation and Toleration Acts to the widest degree and he interpreted statutes that limited religious liberty in such a way as to encourage juries to make decisions that efectively nullifed those statutes. During the anti-Catholic Gordon riots of 1780, Murray’s house and library were burned to the ground. 31. Erskine: see note 11 to ‘Te Phenomena of the Wye’, above. 32. Hume: David Hume (1711–76), philosopher and historian, key fgure of the Scottish Enlightenment, known for his scepticism, empiricism, logical positivism and anti-contractarianism. He wrote widely on politics, economics and history. Among his most well-known writings are his Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1777) and the History of England (London: n.p., 1767). 33. Home: Henry Homes, Lord Kames (1696–1782), judge and writer, he shared his scepticism with Hume, which he outlined in Essays on the Principles of Morality and Natural Religion (1751). 34. Blair: see note 8 to ‘A Letter to Francis Jefray’, above.

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Notes to pages 159–63

Mr Telwall’s Reply 1.

‘A Lawyer … sallow face’: this passage is the second stanza of Wordsworth’s poem ‘A Poet’s Epitaph’. 2. a two-penny-halfpenny answer: this was the anonymously authored ‘Observations on Mr Telwall’s Letter to the Editor of the Edinburgh Review’, which was indeed priced at ‘two pence halfpenny’. 3. Brevity: the ‘Observations on Mr Telwall’s Letter to the Editor of the Edinburgh Review’ has sixteen pages. 4. ‘pure … malice’: Edmund Burke, Letter to a Noble Lord (1795–6). Te passage reads: Nothing can be conceived more hard than the heart of a thoroughbred metaphysician. It comes nearer to the cold malignity of a wicked spirit than to the frailty and passion of a man. It is like that of the principle of evil himself, incorporeal, pure, unmixed, dephlegmated, defecated evil. It is-no easy operation to eradicate humanity from the human breast. Interestingly, Burke also referred to Godwin’s theories as ‘pure defecated atheism’. 5. charitable … embarrassments: the passage in the ‘Observations on Mr Telwall’s Letter’, to which Telwall refers is as follows: For Mr. Telwall’s family afictions, and the embarrassments which his distaste for drudgery has brought on the innocent persons with whom he is connected, the Reviewers certainly feel the most sincere compassion. If they were capable of making these circumstances a subject of derision, they would deserve nearly all the abuse which Mr. Telwall has poured out against them’ (Anon., ‘Observations on Mr Telwall’s Letter’, p. 14) 6. Mr. Jefray or to Mr Brougham: see notes 15 and 28 to ‘A Letter to Francis Jefray’, above. 7. Mr Constable: see note 4 to ‘A Letter to Francis Jefray’, above. 8. Tere is … a confederacy: in this section and in the sections below, Telwall quotes from the following passage of ‘Observations on Mr Telwall’s Letter’: THERE is nothing that can be thought to require an answer in this Publication, but the assertion that the success of Mr Telwall’s lectures in this city was obstructed by the eforts of a confederacy. If Mr Telwall himself believe this, he must have a very exalted idea of a conspiracy that could dispose, at its pleasure, of the patronage of this ‘intellectual city;’ and a still more exalted idea of himself, who was thought worthy of being made the object of such a confederacy. Unfortunately for both parties, however, the assertion is entirely without foundation. Te individuals alluded to possess no controul over the public opinion; and it certainly never occurred to them that the lectures of Mr Telwall were of importance enough for them to confederate either for their support or their suppression. the idea of such a confederacy, indeed, must be altogether ridiculous to those who know the place and the persons; but as nothing is absolutely incredible, that only supposes extreme folly in young men, it is proper that those facts, as to which Mr Telwall has published his conjectures, should be correctly stated by those to whom they must necessarily be known. (Anon., ‘Observations on Mr Telwall’s Letter’, p. 3) 9. degenerate ofspring of a literary sire: see p. 136 referred to above. 10. the formation of the dark conspiracy: the passage in to which Telwall refers here and below, is as follows: Mr Jefrey, to whom Mr Telwall has been pleased to ascribe the formation of this dark conspiracy, entered the room on the night of what Mr Telwall calls his proba-

Notes to pages 163–71

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tionary lecture, afer the frst act of the performance was over; and consequently had not the satisfaction of hearing that animated apostrophe to the malignity of reviewers which is said to have produced so much uneasiness in a part of the audience. Mr Jefrey cam in company with a single fend; and one other person had mentioned, in the morning, that he would probably be there also. With the exception of these two persons, Mr Jefrey had not the slightest reason to suppose that he should meet with a single individual of his acquaintance in the course of the evening; and it is an unquestionable fact, that neither to those two friends, nor to any other person, had he intimated any design of opposition to the lecturer, or concerted with them any plan of behaviour. Tere was not an individual, indeed, among those whose gravity was aferwards so unfortunately discomposed , who had formed any clear conception fo the sort of entertainment that they were to receive. Some of them expected a display to considerable oratorical talents; and they of course laughed the loudest. Mr Jefrey was not near the screen during any part of the performance; and though he changed his seat once in the course of the evening, he had all along the beneft of a full view of Mr. Telwall’s countenance; who, according to the common rules of optics, must have had the same advantages as to him. He was not at all in the Court of Justiciary from the time of the lecture till afer the publication of the Letter; and never in his life uttered a word, that he knows of, in Mr Telwall’s hearing. Tere is reason therefore to fear, that Mr Telwall’s physiognomical observations have been made on a wrong subject (Anon., ‘Observations on Mr Telwall’s Letter’ pp. 3–4) 11. the laughers and scofers: Telwall is referring to the claim that though some members of his eighty-strong audience thought his lecture ‘ludicrous’, they maintained their composure and refrained from ‘hissing’ or ‘hooting’ and instead engaged in ‘tittering’: Tose who have had the good fortune to hear Mr Telwall recite the Massacre of Bangor, or the Ode to the Passions, will be at no loss to comprehend the cause of this phenomenon. Te whole recitations, indeed, were inimitable, and appeared to be considerably superior in efect to any representation of Sylvester Daggerwood, or Dick the Apprentice, that has been lately exhibited in this country. If any man, with a moderate propensity to laughter, can listen to these recitations, as they were that night delivered, with a grave countenance, he is welcome to believe that the Edinburgh audience laughed out of malice, and not from the mere impossibility of avoiding it. Afer all, however, it does not appear that those who laughed at the lecture had a worse opinion of it than those who listened gravely. It is uncertain whether any one of the latter ever cam back; whereas, it is an unquestionable fact that the cessation of Mr Telwall’s exhibition was a sore disappointment to several of the former class, and to many of the friends to whom they had earnestly recommended it. (Anon., ‘Observations on Mr Telwall’s Letter’, p. 4) 12. the Gog and Magog: the list of texts in this paragraph all received unfavourable and ofen acerbic reviews in the Edinburgh Review. 13. in a chronological order: Te second part of the ‘Observations on Mr Telwall’s Letter’ addresses, ‘in a chronological order’ Telwall’s list of instances where the reviewer of the original three-page review of his Poems in Retirement, had misquoted him. One of the charges the anonymous author of the ‘Observations’ addresses is Telwall’s claim that the Reviewer has deranged the nautural order of this precious biography, by transposing two of its principal events. He has stated, that Mr Telwall, when wearied of the life of a shopman, attempted to go on the stage before he tried to become

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15.

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17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23.

24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30.

31. 32. 33.

Notes to pages 171–88 a painter; whereas the truth is, that he tried to become painter before he attempted to get on the stage! As this tremendous charge appears from the book to be perfectly well founded, the friends of the Review have nothing for it, but to hang their heads in silent consternation. (Anon., ‘Observations on Mr Telwall’s Letter’, p. 7) about attornies’ apprentices: afer quoting from the passage in Telwall’s ‘Memoir’, in which he describes how he preferred ‘studying the poets and philosophers more than cases and reports’ (see p. 69 above) the author muses: ‘Is there any attorney in the Lanes, that would desire a more complete picture of an idle apprentice?’ (p. 10). the misrepresentation of the afair at the Physical Society: Telwall quotes from p. 10 of the ‘Observations on Mr Telwall’s Letter’; see the Essay on Animal Vitality, Volume 1, p. 9 and the ‘Prefatory Memoir’ in this volume, p. 57. Champion of Materialism: Te anonymous author of the ‘Observations on Mr Telwall’s Letter’ characterizes Telwall as: ‘Te Champion of Materialism, the Orator of Chalk Farm, and the Committee Man of the London Corresponding Society’ (p. 14). want of voice … &c: see p. 134, above. Notes: see pp. 197–200 in this volume. Tus … boyhood: see p. 177 in this volume. ‘Letter’: see pp. 107–55 above. ‘the controverted passage’: Telwall quotes here and below from the ‘Observations on Mr Telwall’s Letter’ (pp. 11–12). ‘females … streets: see note 7 above, where this passage from the Review has been previously quoted. Dr. Moyes: Henry Moyes (1749/50–1807), Scottish lecturer on natural philosophy, political radical, like John Gough (see Volume 4, p. 226) small pox lef him blind at a young age, but he went on to distinguish himself intellectually. Mr. Banks: Sir Joseph Banks, baronet (1743–1820), naturalist, patron, president of the Royal Society (1778–1820), travelled with Captain Cook on the Endeavour. Dr. Garnet: Unidentifed. Mr. Walker: George Walker (c. 1734–1807), Presbyterian minister, mathematician, advocate of religious toleration and parliamentary reform. Dr. Smith: Sir James Edward Smith (1759–1828), botanist, a founding member of the Linnean Society. Professors Robison: John Robison (1739–1805) and his son Sir John Robison (1778– 1843), inventors and natural scientists. Playfair: John Playfair (1748–1819), mathematician, geologist and Professor of Mathematics at the University of Edinburgh. Hill: George Hill (1750–1819), theologian, college head and Professor of Greek at St Andrews, in the common sense tradition, he argued that rationality must be the basis of religious defences against Enlightenment scepticism. Stewart: Dugald Stewart (1753–1828), philosopher, Professor of Moral Philosophy at Edinburgh, key fgure of the Scottish Enlightenment. REID: Tomas Reid (1710–96), natural and moral philosopher, succeeded Adam Smith as the chair of Moral Philosophy at Glasgow. ADAM SMITH: (bapt. 1723, d. 1790), moral philosopher, political economist and one of the most important fgures of the Scottish Enlightenment. As Professor of Logic at Glasgow, he lectured on a wide range of topics, including Rhetoric, jurisprudence, ethics

Notes to page 188

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and theology. He is best known for his Teory of Moral Sentiments (1759) and Wealth of Nations (1776). 34. BEATTIE: James Hay Beattie (1768–90), writer and Professor of Moral Philosophy at Marischal College, Aberdeen. 35. BLAIR: see note 7 to Elocution and Oratory, above.

THE PICKERING MASTER S

SELECTED POLITICAL WRITINGS OF JOHN THELWALL

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CONTENTS OF THE EDITION

volume 1 General Introduction Early Political Pamphlets and Lectures, 1793–1796 volume 2 Selections from the Tribune, 1795–1796 volume 3 Journalism and Selected Writings on Elocution and Oratory, 1797–1809 volume 4 Late Journalism and Writing on Elocution and Oratory, 1810–1832 Index

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SELECTED POLITICAL WRITINGS OF JOHN THELWALL

Edited by Robert Lamb and Corinna Wagner

Volume 4 Late Journalism and Writing on Elocution and Oratory, 1810–1832

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First published 2009 by Pickering & Chatto (Publishers) Limited Published 2016 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business 2009 Copyright © Taylor & Francis2200 Copyright © Editorial material Robert Lamb and Corinna Wagner 2009 All rights reserved, including those of translation into foreign languages. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

british library cataloguing in publication data Telwall, John, 1764–1834 Selected political writings of John Telwall. – (Te Pickering masters) 1. Telwall, John, 1764–1834 2. Political science – England – Early works to 1800 3. Elocution 4. Oratory 5. Radicalism – England – Early works to 1800 6. Great Britain – Politics and government – 1789–1820 I. Title II. Lamb, Robert III. Wagner, Corinna 320.9’41’09033

ISBN-13: 978-1-85196-928-9 (set) DOI: 10.4324/9780429349744

Typeset by Pickering & Chatto (Publishers) Limited

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CONTENTS

A Letter to Henry Cline, Esq. (1810) Te Vestibule of Eloquence (1810) Results of Experience in Treatment of Cases of Defective Utterance (1814) Selected Writings from the Champion (1819–20) Panoramic Miscellany (1826) ‘Funeral of the late Tomas Hardy’ (1832)

1 113 145 175 199 215

Editorial Notes

225

Index

233

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LETTER TO HENRY CLINE, ESQ.

A Letter to Henry Cline, Esq. on Imperfect Development of the Faculties Mental and Moral as well as Constitutional and Organic and on the Treatment of Impediments of Speech (London: Richard Taylor & Co, 1810).

Te longstanding friendship between Telwall and the surgeon Henry Cline (1750–1827) dates from 1788. Cline was well-known not only as a surgeon but also as a democrat. A friend and physician to John Horne Tooke, he visited the reformer when he was held in the Tower and hosted annual dinners in honour of his acquittal at his house in Lincoln’s Inn Fields. Cline also testifed on behalf of Telwall at his trial for treason. Telwall’s Letter to Cline was published in 1810 and serves in part as a biographical account of Telwall’s new career as a lecturer in elocutionary science, as a speech therapist and as a researcher into the causes and treatments of various communicative disorders. One of the motives for his new career was his own speech difculties: Telwall had sufered severely with asthma as a youth, likely contributing to the stammer he overcame to become the highly successful orator he was. Telwall also recalls a very diferent motivation: he had an encounter in 1801 with a friend who advised him to lecture on elocutionary issues as a way to ‘put money in thy pocket, and make thee comfortable again’. As the Letter to Cline shows, this comment led to so much more, for though it proceeds from an initial discussion of the ‘union of physiological and elocutionary science’, this text later drifs to consider wider themes. Telwall’s descriptions of specifc, pragmatic techniques for treating various impediments are most ofen explained in a critical theoretical framework. Telwall points out the political ambition at the heart of all his experiments and investigations in these matters: his goal is ‘to vindicate the right of difusing those principles, that were to give to the Mute, and to the convulsive Stammerer, the free exercise and enjoyment of a faculty, which constitutes the essential attribute of our species’. For him, so-called ‘Hereditary Impediments’ are nothing more than ‘habits of imitation’ and should not be included amongst hereditary conditions that are genuinely debilitating and treatable but not curable – like asthma. –1–

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He questioned the idea that intelligence and ability were biological: a ‘constitutional defect’, he writes, is ‘a term, which, at once, with great convenience, covers ignorance, and excuses neglect’. Instead, he identifes ‘mental and moral causes’ for the conditions. He urges readers to reconsider the relationship between mind and body or between mental and motor (or seemingly purely physical) actions. ‘Idiocy and derangement’, he insists, ‘indicate a failure of correspondence between mind and body’. Once this relationship is understood, difculties can be tackled with education and therapy. His arguments have still wider implications. He begins to problematize the division – which would be critiqued by Georges Canguilhem and Michel Foucault in the twentieth century – between the pathological and the normal. He suggested that such classifcations were misleading and dangerous. He protests against classifying humans like the ‘Wild Boy of Aveyron’ as monstrous beings, rather than as individuals whose speechlessness resulted from a lack of human contact and social conditioning.

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A LETTER to

HENRY CLINE, ESQ.1 on

Imperfect Developements of the Faculties, Mental and Moral, as well as Constitutional and Organic; and on the Treatment of Impediments of Speech. BY JOHN THELWALL, ESQ. PROFESSOR OF THE SCIENCE AND PRACTICE OF ELOCUTION.

London: Printed by Richard Taylor and Co., Shoe-Lane. And sold by Messrs. ARCH, Cornhill; RIDGEWAY, Piccadilly; KENT, Holborn; MACKIE, Greek-Street, &c. M.DCCC.X. –3–

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Selected Political Writings of John Telwall, Volume 4

CONTENTS.

UNION of Physiological and Elocutionary Science, p. 1. Temporary aberration from Scientifc pursuits, 2. Uses of retirement, 3. Discovery of the Physical principle of rhythmus (Milton and Dryden), 4. Numbers of the Paradise Lost, 8. Application of the Discovery to treatment of Impediments – Harmony of utterance and composition – Oratorical utterance – Health, &c. 9. Case of three brothers in Brecknock, with, enunciative Impediments, 11. Treatment and Cure, 13. Causes of delay in more extensive application of the principle, 14. First Idea of a Scientifc Course of Lectures on Elocution, 15. Difculties and Obstructions, 16. Lectures and Experiments in Shefeld, Leeds, York, and Hull, 18. Confrmation of my Teory from Musical Science – Elocution of Greece – Steele’s Prosodia Rationalis, 20. Unreasonable neglect of English Elocution by English Scholars, 26. Consequent inanity and degradation of English Oratory, 27. Application of my principle to the Speechless and the Stammerer, 28. Process of cultivation and developement – Obligations to Professional and Scientifc characters, 20. Complication of tones in the modulation of the human voice, 31. Communication from Mr. John Gough, on the sonorous vibrations of the Chest, 35. Accuracy and Practical consequences of Mr. Gough’s Teory, 40. Experiments in confrmation of the Teory, 43. Resumption of the progress of difusion and developement of the Science, 44. Case of a young Gentleman, at Birmingham with defect of palate and uvula, 46. Artifcial palate – advantages and inconveniences, 48. Elocutionary treatment and remedy, 49. Case of a Gentleman with complicated Impediment, recommended by the former, ibid. Operations on the frænum – Opinion of Dr. Denman, &c, 50. Cases of four young gentlemen in Doncaster with original constriction of fræna, 51. Whether stammering, stuttering, &c. ever immediately ascribable to organic defect or malconformation, 53. How far such defects may be remote or incidental causes of such calamity, 54. Brutality of Schoolmasters, &c. Operation of Terror, 55. Nervous and Hereditary Impediments, 56 and 59. Complication of Moral and Intellectual Causes in certain species of Impediment, and exclusive operation in others, 57. What descriptions of Impediment may and what may not be referred to simple organic causes, 61. Contrast between the phænomena of these and of such as are ascribable to mental embarassment and habitual misaction, 62. Case of a young lady in Edinburgh – Treatment and Cure, 63. Infuence of mental causes – Management of the Passions, Temper, &c. Action and reaction of physical and mental causes, 65. Parallel and connection between certain cases of Impediment, and certain approximations towards Idiocy and degrees or tenden-

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cies to Mental Derangement, 67. Parallel between certain opposite phænomena of Impediment and certain constitutional diseases of excessive and of defective Irritability, 69. Impotency of mere medical treatment of Impediments, 70. Application of the general principle to other cases of defective Developement and partial Derangements of the Faculties; Power of Educational Treatment to avert or remedy such calamities, 71. Recurrence to the subject of Organic Impediments – Operations for the Hare-lip, simple and complicated, 73. Artifcial Palates – Mr. Flood (the Irish Orator) – Hints to Dentists, 73. Elocutionary treatment requisite afer the operation, 76. Developement of the powers of existing organs, and substitution of the actions of one for another, 77. Resumption of more extensive view of the subject – Developement of the organic powers and faculties in general, 78. Indolent despair, criminal negligence and inconsistency, 79. Anecdote, 81. Cases of mere Speechlessness, contradistinguished from those of the deaf-born dumb – Tribute to a Noble Institution, 84. Case of a young female at Maidstone, 85. Case of a Child blind from the alteration of the inoculated small-pox, and supposed to have been rendered Speechless by the same cause, 86. Case of a poor Man, speechless from Epilepsy and organic Imbecility, 99. Contradistinguishing phænomena – Inquiry how far the faculty of Speech the cause or the consequence of intellectual Superiority, 101. Design of a systematic treatise on the distinction of physical and moral Idiocy, 102. Obstructions in the way of such designs – the trade of Literature – prejudices, &c. 103. Further communications from Mr. Gough – Case of a Child rendered speechless by seclusion and indulgence, and aferwards attaining the use of speech, by being placed under new circumstances, 106. Curious instance of moral Idiocy from White’s Natural History of Selborne, 110. Further facts – illustrations from Ancient History, – Savage of Aveyron – conjecture relative to the Son of Crœsus, 115. Case of moral Idiocy, &c, 116. Inadequacy of the mere propensity to imitation for developement of human faculties, 123. Application to parental infatuation, 121. Original diferences of facility and aptitude require diferent modes of stimulus and management – occult causes – anatomical indications, 125. Case of two children rendered speechless to a very protracted age by habit and imitation, 127. Case of permanent speechlessness from temporary deafness, 128. Dr. James of Carlisle – Case of privation of Speech from Epilepsy, 133. Case of general disorganization of the Senses; from the infuence of the same disease, 138. Case of speechlessness in the neighbourhood of Rochester, from complication of physical causes, &c. 140. General and practical inductions from the preceding Cases, 142. Case of Impediment from Amentia, 143. Proposal for treatment of such cases, 144. Conclusion – Motives for the present address, 148. P.S. Opinion on a Case of Defective utterance, from partial Deafness, and supposed Defciency of general Faculty, 151 .

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APPENDIX. Vindication and Illustration of the Rhythmus of Milton – 159. On the improper Elision of the Vowel in the customary modes of printing and reading English verse – 168. Further explanation of the physical principle of rhythmus – Examination of a passage in Steele’s Prosodia Rationalis, on the Cause of the delight received by the ear from such successive sounds exclusively as follow each other in defnite musical proportions – 177. Brief Sketch of an entire Course of Lectures on the Science and Practice of Elocution – 180. More particular Sketch of the Physiological portion of the Course – 183. On the Musical properties of English Syllables, 193. Poise or Tesis and Arsis, 194. Percussion, 195. Loudness and Sofness, 196. Force, 197. Accents: – confused misapplication of the term by modern grammarians, 197. Ben Jonson’s accurate defnition, 2OO. Varieties of English Accent, 201. Dr. Denman on the fatal consequences of cutting the bridle of the tongue, 205. An attempt to ascertain the circumstances under which that operation may be necessary or proper, 207. Correction of certain misstatements relative to the Abbé de I’Epee and his institution for the Deaf and Dumb, 214. On the impropriety of placing the Deaf-born Dumb and persons who have Impediments of Speech in the same seminaries, 224. Sketches of the tone end tune of celebrated Actors, 227. Communication from Mr. Gough on the subject of Cretinage or Alpine Idiocy, &c. 235. Some Account of the Institution in Bedford-Place, and of the Oratorical and Historical Society established in that Seminary, 241.

TO HENRY CLINE, ESQ. DEAR SIR, Te subject to which I am desirous of drawing your attention by this address, is not one that has only recently or transiently occupied my own. Te foundations of my system were laid, many years ago, when your kindness ofered me the opportunity (not usually enjoyed by any but the professed students of medicine) of attaining, under your instructions at St. Tomas’s, some knowledge of the Science of Anatomy; and when the same indulgence was extended to me by Dr. Haighton,2 then lecturing on Physiology at the neighbouring Hospital of Guys. I did not, indeed, at that time, perceive all the applications that might be made

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of the facts and principles illustrated; or suspect that I was studying Elocution, while witnessing the demonstrations and experiments of the Medical Teatre. But the objects impressed upon my mind, and the conversations occasionally enjoyed, with several of those students whose early promise was, even then, apparent, and who have since (by treading in the paths of their enlightened preceptor) risen to the most respectable rank in their profession, gave me an early habit of thinking and of reasoning physiologically: and the advantages thence derived, in what I may venture to call the New Profession, to which I have devoted my maturer years, have been felt, I believe, in no inconsiderable degree. Tey will be felt, I believe, through a much more extensive circle, whenever the general attention shall be properly directed to the nature and application of those discoveries to which that habit has, at length, conducted. Unfortunately, for me, at least, the calmness of physiological disquisition did not, in the frst instance, long continue uninterrupted. Te excentric fre of youth hurried me away to other topics; with an impetuosity, which maturer judgement may regret, though integrity cannot repent of the principle. But the elements of physical science, tho bedimmed, awhile, by the more ardent rays of popular enthusiasm, were not extinguished: and, when events (bitter, for awhile, to the feelings, tho ultimately, perhaps, not unfavourable to the proper direction of the mental powers) – drove me into temporary retirement, former trains of refection were gradually renewed; and the treasured remembrances of anatomical and physiological .facts, mingling with the impressions that had resulted from the oratorical habits of twelve preceding years, and the yet unquenchable devotion to poetical composition (the only solace of my retreat!), led me, if I mistake not, to the developement of some of the most hidden mysteries of the Science of Human Speech. In short, my dear Sir, from the accidental association of this mass of diversifed, and (as it might, perhaps, at frst appear) incongruous impressions, – I was led (in the hour of inductive meditation) to the detection of those elementary principles, out of which arise – the facilities and harmonies of oral utterance: principles! from the neglect, the violation, or the ignorance of which, result almost all the complicated varieties of difculty, obstruction and imperfection, in the exercise of that faculty; and which constitute, also, (for composition and utterance are referable, to the same principles of physical expediency) the natural and universal bases of the rhythmus, the euphony, and the melody of language: – principles! which may, therefore, at the same time, loose the tongue of the stammerer, and enable the literary student to command, and the critic to comprehend, with certainty, the genuine sources of grace and mellifuence – ‘Untwisting all the chains that ty Te hidden soul of Harmony.’3

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I will not detain you, Sir, (however interesting to me, may be the remembrance,) with a detail of the meditations or the feelings of that night, when (cheering the solitude of my rustic hearth – sometimes resounding, and sometimes silently analysing, the exquisite verses at the commencement of Dryden’s4 translation of the ænëid) the frst glimpse of this subject seemed to burst upon me: – when, comparing those verses with some criticisms, in which (with the most strange and illiberal afectation) that great master of mellifuous rhythmus prides himself as enveloping in eternal mystery the secret of his versifcation, I persuaded myself – that I had discovered, not only the critical nature of that secret, but (what was perhaps more than Dryden himself had comprehended) the physical principles upon which the critical application of his secret, in reality, depended. But, tho the particulars of such a detail might be foreign to my present purpose, it will not, I hope, be deemed impertinent – thus generally to mention the peculiar circumstances under which my frst discoveries were made: – discoveries, which, amid the researches and experimental exertions of ten successive years, have led me, step by step, to those systematic eforts for the developement of apparently defective faculties, to which (under the sanction of your respected name) I am desirous of calling the attention of the professional and scientifc world. It was, then, Sir, – with the pen in my hand, preparing for the execution of a long-meditated poetical project, – It was, while comparing, and dissecting, the diferent efects, and diferent principles of versifcation, in those great masters of the epic lyre, our Dryden and our Milton, – for the purpose of ascertaining and methodizing the particular rhythmus I should myself adopt, in the composition of that meditated work, – that I discovered, or thought I discovered, – in the anatomical structure of the organs of speech, and in the laws of physical necessity, under which those organs act, – the efcient sources of the melody of language; and (by retroactive inference) the sources and appropriate remedies of lingual defects. In this structure, and in these laws, I imagined, also, – that I discovered, (and I have since been satisfed that I did discover) the causes why certain combinations and successions of sound, that bafe all the discriminations of mere grammatical analysis, and all ascertainment from the customary rules of quantity, should produce an agreeable impression, – while others, equally undefnable, by the ordinary dogmas of criticism, should be productive of a discordant efect, upon the ear; and why certain modes of efort, in the pronunciation of speech, should give smoothness and facility to the fow of spoken language; while other modes of efort were necessarily productive of dissonance and disgust, and were readily aggravated into absolute Hesitation and Impediment. From the want of knowledge of these principles I believe it is, that so little has been done, with any certainty, towards an efective remedy of the defects of utterance; and, from the same cause, – in conjunction with the habits of silent study, and silent composition, to which the literati of modern times (who know their own language only

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by the eye) are almost universally devoted, – perhaps, it is, that so little improvement is made in the harmonic structure of our language. Hence it is – that so many copies of verses, that look smooth and pretty upon paper, are yet revolting to the ear; and so many elaborate compositions, over which the giant scholars of the day have bent with self-complacency, discourage, by their ear-cracking harshness, every attempt of the reader to give them vocal utterance. Hence too, perhaps, we may be enabled to explain – why the verses of Dryden and Milton will frequently gain so much by the process of vocal utterance, – when the reader knows how to deliver them; while those of Pope (especially if they are delivered according to his own principles, as laid down in the Essay on Criticism) are sure to be equal losers, when submitted to the same experiment. Excuse me, Sir, if with the feelings of a poet, I dwell, awhile, on the mere literary consequences of my discovery; since they were, in fact, the frst immediate objects of meditation, and furnished the food of critical gratulation, before the more important inference of the practical applicability of the sympathy between the perceptive and executive organs, and the consequent operation of the system of musical proportions, under judicious management, occurred, with all its inestimable consequences, to my mind. With respect to Milton, in particular, – and may not a similar observation, with equal probability, be applied to Homer? – it is not unlikely that the blindness of the poet (which necessitated him to compose his verses orally, – or, at least, to recite what he had composed, before they could be transcribed) – might have given an increased portion of that strength, that natural and copious melody, and that variety, to the rhythmus and numbers of his divine poem, which (even if it had no other excellence) would place the Paradise Lost5 in merited supereminence above every other composition in the English language. Certain it is, that, if the fnger-counting critics of our immortal bard had studied the physiological principles of human utterance, instead of seeking for the rules of criticism in their enumeration table, many of those lines which have been condemned as lame and prosaic, would have been extolled as among the most complete and expressive in his poem; and scarcely a discord would have been found in this transcendent series of upwards of ten thousand verses, that was not obviously designed, and for an obvious reason. But it is not alone to the structure of a verse, or the composition of a period, that the physiological analysis of rhythmus and euphony will be found to apply: nor upon such bases do I rest my claims to the attention I solicit. Tis might, indeed, be something in critical estimation; but, if this were all, Elocution must still be lef in the rank of mere accomplishments; and the explanation of her principles could not be regarded as conferring any essential and permanent beneft on mankind. But, if Science and Utility come, hand in hand, with the Graces and the Arts, and Hygeia6 tread the paths that Eloquence has strewn, – if the

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enfranchisement of fettered organs, the supply of organic defciencies, or the substitution of the action of other organs in their place, – f the developement and melioration of dormant faculties, be consequences of the discovery, and health (even in many pf those cases where popular prejudice would least expect) should be found improvable, by the very means that give grace. impressiveness, and harmony to rhetorical delivery; – the medical man and the philanthropist will not be insensible to the value of this new science; and there are thousands, who may be expected to feel a personal interest in its difusion. I did not, indeed, in the frst instance, see so far into the practical inferences of my principles, as to form any settled design of making the Cure of Impediments of Speech a consequent profession. Yet I could not but observe and feel, how much the principle of physiological rhythmus, and the conformity of the volition with its dictates, mitigated the labour of pectoral exertion, and contributed to a healthful and agreeable action of the lungs, during the time of elocutionary exertion; and it was impossible to be long blind to the conviction – that a knowledge of the structure and ofces of the organs of utterance, and the laws and necessities of organic action, while it explained., by analysis, the philosophical principles of lingual harmony, must, synthetically applied, be the best guide to the rectifcation of those ill habits, and the supply of those organic imperfections, upon which the various classes of such Impediments must obviously depend. Te mind thus prepared, – a casual experiment became the germ of that project I have since, by laborious cultivation, matured. A hatter, in Brecknock,7 into whose shop I had occasion to go, having heard that I had been an orator, and probably believing (for such was the superstition of that enlightened neighbourhood) that I was a bit of a conjuror, also, – thought me a proper person, to whom to prefer his piteous complaint, of an afiction that visited his family. ‘He had two as fne boys as ever eyes were clapped on; but their mouths were not made like other people’s mouths: they could not speak.’ I went; accordingly, into the little parlour behind his shop; and the boys being brought to me, afer listening awhile to their strange and unintelligible jargon, I proceeded to examine their mouths. Teir defects were what I should now call purely enunciative: having no mixture of any of the several species of stammering, stuttering, throttling, or suppression of the voice; but consisting in a sort of hideous obscurity of elementary sound. Tey were, therefore, such as seemed to indicate an imperfect structure of the organs of the mouth. Yet the jaw was well shaped, and well hung; and the lips were perfect. Te tongue was evidently not too much restricted by the frænum,8 nor had it been set too much at liberty (a circumstance from which one species of impediment not unfrequently arises) by the ofcious scissors of the nurse. Te upper part of the inner mouth exhibited, indeed, some degree of deformity; which had principally arisen out of the neglected state of the teeth – though not exclusively, for the roof, of one

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of them, at least, was remarkably high and conical. But there was nothing in the appearance of either sufcient to account for the defect. I pronounced, therefore, without hesitation, that their Impediments were merely the ofspring of habit and inattention; and, on setting them to read, and marking the elements in which they were most defective, I soon perceived – that the whole chaos of their speech (for such it very nearly was) consisted in the absolute defciency of one elementary sound, and the imperfection and confused misapplication of two or three more. My frst care, therefore, was to demonstrate to them the positions and actions of the organs by which the imperfect elements were to be formed; which I did with such mixture of grimace and bufoonery, as I thought most likely to impress their rude imaginations. I then gave them, as an exercise, a sentence in which those elements were assembled and reiterated. Tis I made them repeat afer me, again and again, till the imitation was tolerably perfect; and bade them remember it, and repeat it to each other. Tis was the only lesson I ever gave to these my frst pupils. It was the only one they wanted – for they remembered my injunction. Te ridiculous rumble of the passage pleased them. It became their constant may-game; and, up-stairs and down, through the street, or across the felds, it was eternally shouted forth. Te next time I went from my farm to my market town, I found these boys, ‘whose mouths were not formed like other people’s,’ speaking, nevertheless, as intelligibly, as any of the half Welchifcd, half Anglicized people of that part of the country. Tis solitary experiment, though it might have shewn me – that my powers of utility were not all extinct, produced, at the time, no change in my views or my pursuits: I need not explain to you, my dear Sir, (who know the afictions under which I then laboured, and the dejection of mind they had produced) why it was not likely – that, at that time, it should. Te spirit was broken; the bow had lost its elasticity; it seemed as if its spring was snapped, and it was never to rebound again. A principle was discovered, capable of the most extensive application, and its practical consequences were, in part, demonstrated; but the mind was not collected enough to estimate its new treasure, and had not energy to- make use of it, either for personal advantage, or for the beneft of others. But suferance was, at length, exhausted; and, weary of solitude and barbarism, and disgusted with a sordid and proftless occupation, I resolved, once again, to exchange the feld of Ceres, for the garden of the Muses.9 Ten it was, that, issuing forth from my retreat, resolved to confront the prejudices of the world, to see and to be seen again, in my proper character, and assert my title to the exercise and the enjoyment of my intellectual utilities, – Ten it was, that my eyes began to open to a sense of the importance of that connection I had discovered, between Physiological and Elocutionary Science.

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Towards the latter end of the year 1801, I happened to be visiting a professional friend, at Manchester. It was on the very day, when the news arrived of the preliminaries being signed for that short peace, which tranquillized, for awhile, the passions of Europe;10 – which gave to all parties, in this country, time to recover a portion, at least, of their bewildered senses, and to turn some part of their energies, from the brutal contentions of prejudice, and the calumnies of misrepresentation, to the humanizing pursuits of Intellect and Science. My friend was himself a man of a scientifc research: – self-educated and self-raised: and, though his personal utilities are now, unfortunately, extinguished, he had a mind of that communicable energy, which can seldom fail (derivatively, or collaterally, at least) of conferring essential and permanent advantages on mankind. By this friend, a copy was put into my hand of the advertisement of a Course of Lectures on Elocution, – which the Rev. Charles Vincent had been recently delivering in that town. ‘I have reserved this, on purpose, against I saw thee,’ said he, in the characteristic language of the respectable society to which he belonged. ‘Tou must give Lectures on Elocution. It will put money in thy pocket, and make thee comfortable again.’ He was little aware what a string he had touched. Te subject burst upon me, at once, in a food of light; in all its novelty, and all its extent of application; and, my friend, having succeeded in talking me, once more, into some confdence with myself, I resolved – not, indeed, to follow the steps of Mr. Vincent, and amuse a few provincial towns with the temporary expedient of a Course of Readings; but (adopting the title, only, of his Lectures) to commence, at once, a series of theoretical and practical disquisition, that might lay the solid foundations of a permanent and useful profession. Tis is no place to speak of the difculties that obstructed the early progress of my design: the prejudices I had to encounter; the hostilities I had to defeat. One unmanly and disgraceful conspiracy, it became necessary to expose to public indignation: for it lef me no alternative – but the bitterness of a personal controversy, or the total abandonment of my project. I was obliged, indeed, to fght my enemies upon their own ground: – an embattled and organized host! – myself a solitary stranger. I did fght, however: What could I less? My Family and my Science were at stake. I fought, and I triumphed: and I will have the charity to believe – that, by this time, my antagonists, themselves, are more ashamed of their contest, than of their defeat. But when my Institution shall have difused, with more extensive operation, those advantages (already felt by many an individual) which, again, I venture to prognosticate – a more general attention to the principles upon which it is founded, and a consequent conviction of their solidity, cannot fail to secure, – it may be interesting to be informed, how much of stern determination, of anxious confict, and untameable resolution it required, to obtain a hearing for that science, and to vindicate the right of difusing those

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principles, that were to give to the Mute, and to the convulsive Stammerer, the free exercise and enjoyment of a faculty, which constitutes the essential attribute of our species. On the present occasion, such particulars would lead into a length of unnecessary digression. I should even be, already, fearful – that you might accuse me of indulging too far in the garrulity of mere narration, if it did not appear – that the readiest way of introducing to your consideration the principles I wish to establish, is to relate, as they occurred, the circumstances that led to their developement, or assisted in their demonstration. In November, 1801, I commenced my career, as a public Lecturer, in the town of Shefeld, where the general outline of my principles was frst promulgated; and, in the ensuing month, (while I was repeating my Lectures, in the town of Leeds) those principles were brought to the test of a frst regular experiment; not, indeed, in the treatment of a case of actual impediment, but in the removal of an ofensive peculiarity of tone, – the mingled efect of original provincialism, and of an ill habit of reading, contracted at a seminary of the frst respectability, in the neighbourhood of the metropolis. My pupils were sons of a respectable merchant in Leeds: – intelligent, zealous and acute; and my success was so rapid, that I forbear to enter into particulars, lest others should expect, as a matter of course, that celerity of attainment, which is only to be secured by minds previously prepared by high intellectual attainments, and the mingled advantages of the most favourable dispositions, the most lively perceptions, and the most diligent application. In York, and in Hull, my experiments (public and private) were next, successively, tried, – with results that were highly gratifying. Te intervals of professional exertion were flled up by the elaborate investigation of every part of my subject; by rigid self-examination and analysis; by bringing every defnition to the severest test of practical illustration, and the consequent progressive developementof my plan. At the former of these places, I procured the mechanical assistance necessary for the complete removal of a slight impediment (a lisp) – to which I had, myself, been always subject, from the imperfection and irregular position of my teeth. Te operator, I applied to, was the ingenious Mr. Hornor, of York; whose patient attention to every circumstance pointed out to him, as essential to my object, and whose happy execution, in all particulars that were to secure the efect desired, in the artifcial teeth he framed for me, on that occasion, leaves me to lament the distance that divides me from so able an artist, to whose cooperation, under similar circumstances, I could, with confdent satisfaction, upon all occasions, refer. If, in York, I had the advantage of meeting with an excellent operator; in Hull, it was no less my good fortune to become acquainted with the only book from which I have derived any essential assistance, in the improvement of my

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system: – a book, which, in addition to its intrinsic merit, had the recommendation of confrming the truth of that system, in a way that was little to have been expected. Hitherto, my researches into the phænomena and rhythmus of spoken language, had been purely physiological. Of music, my knowledge may be said – to have been merely perceptive. In my boyhood, indeed, I had just learned the notes, and made a brief experiment upon the fute: but I soon found – that I had neither time nor lungs for such an accomplishment; and the language of the Muses, appearing to me mere estimable than their tones, I soon came to the resolution, of giving to poetry all the time I could spare from my then intended profession of the law; and of studying no more of music, than could be caught up, by hovering over the pianoforte of a lady, in the hour of social relaxation, or listening occasionally to the instrument of a professional performer. Te impressions thus imbibed, had, however, been sufcient to convince me (in the hour of recollection, and during the process of comparative analysis) – that speech was, also, a musical science: or, at least, – that the measure of music, and that of speech, had originated in the same principles of organic nature: the latter, from an impulse of physical necessity; the former, from a no less natural impulse of imitative accommodation: and when, afer having partly matured my own system, and brought its essential principles to the test of practical application, I began to look into the theories of others, and glean what was to be collected, of the opinions of the Ancients (the Greeks, in particular, – who seem, of all nations, best to have understood this subject) I met with abundant proofs – that the great orators and celebrated teachers of those elder times, had been of the same opinion: Music and Grammar having been, by them, regarded as sciences so intimately connected, that the venerated character of the grammarian (how diferent from the grammarian of modern days!) always included that of the musician, also. – Let me premise, however, at the same time, (that we may avoid mistakes) – that I most assuredly did not fnd, during that research, any, the least foundation, for the strange and heterogeneous solecism of modern critics arid professors, that there was, among the ancients, any confusion, between the tones and process of the voice, in speaking and in song: – that the declamation of the Greeks ‘was more upon a crying or singing tone;’ or, in other words, that Demosthenes11 squeaked in recitative, or whined out his Philippics in the strain of conventicle enthusiasm. While I was vindicating, in private society, the doctrines resulting from this examination, a clergyman of Hull, to whom I had been introduced, took occasion to suggest, that ‘I had adopted the opinion of Mr. Joshua Steele,12 that the declamation of our stage, like that of the Ancients, might be accompanied by musical instruments.’ – To this he was not a little surprised, when he heard me reply – that, ‘perhaps, it was possible my principles might be pushed to that

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extent; tho, certainly, I should be very sorry to witness such a practical application of them; and that, with respect to any theory of Mr. Joshua Steele, I was so far from having adopted any thing from him, that I had not, till that moment,, ever heard his name.’ Having obtained., from this gentleman, the perusal, and, aferwards, procured a copy of the book (the ‘Prosodia Rationalis’) I was exceedingly interested in perceiving the musical part of my theory completely demonstrated, and a system of notation, for the tones, the qualities, and the proportions of sound, in spoken language, invented and applied. Mr. Steele was, obviously, unacquainted with every thing that relates to the physiology of speech: so much so, indeed, as to have referred that specifc and fundamental diference in the qualities of syllables – (the Tesis Δ and Arsis ∴) which results from the pure physical necessities of organic action, to voluntary taste arid harmonic invention. He had, accordingly, prosecuted his researches on musical grounds exclusively; and it appeared, at frst sight, not a little extraordinary, that we should, nevertheless, have been conducted, thro paths apparently so remote, to the same practical conclusions. Te wonder ceases, however, if we admit (as, upon examination, I have no doubt we shall) that the principles of musical cadence and proportion, from which Mr. Steele derives his arguments and his theory, were, in reality, themselves, adopted (not as has been fabled of old, from the alternate strokes of the larger and smaller hammer, upon the blacksmith’s anvil) but from the natural thesis and arsis of the organ of primary impulse, in the production of the sounds of speech: or, indeed, from that universal principle of action and re-action, which forms the paramount law of all reiterated or progressive motion, organic or mechanical; from the throb and remission of the heart, to the progress of the quadruped or the reptile, and the sway of the common pendulum. As the application of this physiological principle was what I principally depended upon, for the remedy of a very numerous class of Impediments; – or, rather, in the whole range of those several classes, which, without regard to the various organs afected, have usually been confounded, under the common names of stammering and stuttering, a work, that furnished me with new sources of demonstration and illustration, was, of course, regarded as an inestimable treasure: especially as thro the medium of that work, assisted by the perceptive knowledge I had already acquired, and occasional conversation with musical men, it was obvious, I might attain almost all the insight into the Science of Music that was necessary for my particular purpose. But when I became more familiar with my author, I could not but feel both surprised and mortifed, that so fne a specimen of analysis, employed upon so important a subject, should have excited so little curiosity, and have sunk so soon into an almost oblivious obscurity. Te work has now, indeed, become scarce; (I have the gratifcation of having contributed to make it so!) but, at the time I am speaking of, it might have

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been found among old quarto psalmodies, in many a catalogue, marked with the humble price of two shillings, or half-a-crown; and I have since found – that if I had then been in town, and had happened to call at a certain book-shop, in Great Queen-street, I might have rescued some hundred copies, by weight, from the profane hand of a neighbouring cheesemonger. Te afectation of a Latin title, might, perhaps, have contributed, in some degree, to this neglect. Te mere English student, might, perhaps, expect – that it was addressed, exclusively, to the classical scholar; or, perhaps, that it referred to the prosody of the Classical languages; and the Classical scholar, when he opened it, and perceived that it related only to the English language, might throw it down, with contempt: for what interest does the Classical scholar take, in what relates to the principles of English Speech. It is, almost, the only language, of which the English gentleman considers it as no disgrace to be ignorant – or, at least, to have no other knowledge, than what he has acquired by careless and unconscious imitation. ‘It is not a language: It is only a tongue!!!’

Tere is more sense, however, in this vulgar criticism, than the critics are generally aware of. For why should the Latin Lingua, be applied, as an appellation to English speech? Let them keep, if they please, to the pureism of their discrimination: but, whether language or tongue, it is that, by which the great business of life, in England, must be carried on: – by which, the English nation must be ruled, and English gentlemen are to make their way to professional consequence, or senatorial power: and when we see what great things have been done, by the few individuals who have taken pains, efectually, to manage that tongue! – when we have seen this mighty nation, wielded, almost despotically, for twenty years, by a fow of swelling periods, rendered impressive and captivating, by the force of a well-cultivated voice, and the harmony of a well-regulated cadence, – surely, we may expect – that, some time or other, the Measure and Melody of English Speech will be thought as worthy of comprehension and cultivation, as the Prosodies of Greek and Latin authors; and that it may, at least, be admitted to be as inconvenient, if not as disgraceful, for a British Orator not to be acquainted with the rhythmus of the Paradise Lost, as with that of the Iliad or the ænëid. But, if the illustration of our national Rhythmus, and the improvement of our national Oratory, had been my only objects, the fate of the ‘Prosodia Rationalis,’ might have taught me to despair; and I might have lef our young candidates for professional and popular distinction, to follow, without further warning, Lord Montboddo’s13 Drum, [see Controversy with Steele. – PROS. RAT.] and vociferate, in persevering and unimpressive, monotony. But the physiological application of my principle revived my confdence. ‘Surely,’ said I, ‘tho senators, barristers, and divines, may be content to whine, and croak, and scream, in feeble

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and exhausting discord, – harmony will be preferred to absolute Speechlessness; and proportion, to convulsive Impediment; and the Mute, and the Stammerer, will hold what I have to ofer them, in some degree of estimation.’ Encouraged by this supposition, I continued to labour, with increasing application, for the complete developement of my system; – persevering in the plan, upon which I had frst set out, of uniting theoretical study and scientifc analysis with practical experience. Every new course of lectures led me nearer to the full comprehension of my subject; – to the detection of some error, or the supply of some imperfection; and every new pupil became the object of some new experiment, that suggested some important axiom, opened some new feld of enquiry, or illustrated some general principle; and, tho’ I seemed, perhaps, to be making a considerable sacrifce of present interest, by remaining so long out of the metropolis, my system derived advantages from this circumstance, that are beyond appreciation. Te cases were more, various, that fell under my consideration; and the opportunities of comparing opinions, and collecting facts, from scientifc and professional men, were more numerous, than could have been expected from a settled residence in London: – for, in provincial towns, gentlemen, of this description, have occasional leisure, to talk over any subject, that excites a passing, or a permanent interest; and to such the topic of my Lectures was, every where, acceptable. I had myself, also, a degree of leisure, during these excursions, for that refection and enquiry which the novelty and the difculty of my subject required; but which was neither to be hoped nor wished, when my ultimate establishment should once be made: – for here, the professional man (if he be successful) is, for nine or ten months in the year, a horse in a mill; going one incessant round of practical exertion, till mere exhaustion compels him to repose. Among those, to whom, during these excursions, my Science was particularly indebted, I ought, perhaps, to mention a respectable physician (alike distinguished for the attainments of science, and for the amiable qualities of the heart) who is now in considerable practice in the metropolis, but was then professor at Anderton’s Institution, in Glasgow: – a gentleman, whose friendship sustained me, in an arduous struggle; and whose sanction confrmed, while his conversation corrected and improved my Teory. Others of the same profession will be mentioned, and more will be alluded to, in the course of my narrative. But I cannot, in justice to my subject, longer delay to mention my particular obligations to that accurate philosopher and philanthropist, Mr. Gough, of Middleshaw:14 whose papers in the Philosophical Transactions of the Manchester Society, have sufciently evinced the profundity of his researches into the interesting phænomena of human voice; and a part of whose correspondence on the occasion of my Lectures on that subject, at Ken-

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dal, in Westmoreland, was laid before the public, in February, 1804, thro the channel of the Monthly Magazine. To the suggestions of this gentleman, I owe the extension of my theory of secondary vibrations; or of the complication of resounding organs, that respond to the original impulse from the larynx, and strengthen and modify the tones , of the voice: – a part of the discovery so much the more important, as I have since, in the course of practice, had occasion to observe – that the mistaken or excessive action of the chest (the organ to whose modifying infuence my attention was frst called by this philosopher) is one of the occasional sources of Impediment; and of a species of impediment, not less injurious to the general health of the system, than to the grace, the efective energy, and the facility of elocutionary exertion. If, therefore, the correspondence alluded to, has not happened to fall under your perusal, it will not, perhaps, be improper to enclose the following transcript of the communication in question. It was dated Lancaster, 15th November, 1803, – and was as follows:

‘To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, By permission of the writer, I transmit, for insertion in your respectable Miscellany, a communication with which I have recently been favoured by that well known scientifc phænomenon, Mr. John Gough. Te ingenious Essay ‘On the Causes of the Variety of Human Voices,’ communicated, some years ago, by that gentleman, to the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester, is of course well known to a numerous class of scientifc readers, to whom the Memoirs of that once active and fourishing institution, heretofore, presented a fund of rational amusement. Te theory of unisons and secondary vibrations by which that essay so ingeniously accounts – frst for the diferent tones of diferent instruments of the same nominal and apparent structure, and thence, by inference and analogy, for the diversities of tone so remarkable in diferent human voices, must have carried conviction to the mind of every scientifc musician, and every refecting observer of those characteristic varieties which that theory professes to explain. With the speculative theorems of that essay the practical observations of the ensuing letter are naturally and intimately connected: and the judicious observations it contains, receive additional interest from the source whence they are derived. Cut of, in his earliest infancy, from all intercourse with the world of knowledge and observation, through the customary inlet, the organ of sight, Mr. Gough has been induced, by the cooperation of this privation with his ardent and insatiable thirst of science, to cultivate, with extreme diligence, the supplementary faculties of hearing and of touch. Te acute perfection to which

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the latter of these has been improved and expanded, has been sufciently demonstrated by the extent to which he has carried his practical researches into the minutiae of the science of botany; and the exquisiteness of his perceptions in the other kind – the promptitude with which he discovers the stature of the merest stranger by the frst resoundings of his voice (of which I have myself been witness), and the facility with which he recognizes the presence, and discriminates the identity of his acquaintance, by merely listening to their respective breathings, equally illustrate the unprecedented degree of improvement to which he has expanded his hearing faculties: so that Mr. Gough is, in reality, one of those demonstrative instances of the omnipotency of mental energy, who justify the apparent hyperbole, with which I occasionally stimulate the perseverance of my pupils – that where determined efort and enthusiastic diligence are not wanting, the blemishes of physical nature efectively disappear, ‘the blind themselves are penetrating; and the mute have tongues of fre!’ Te communication originated (as will be apparent from the context) from the circumstance of Mr. Gough’s attendance upon my Lecture, ‘On the Education and Management of the Organs of Voice,’ during the short course of Lectures, (eight in number) that I have recently delivered in the town of Kendal, ‘On the Science and Practice of Elocution;’ and the suggestion of the writer is perfectly correct, that his remarks will tend to the improvement of my theory. With that theory however, those remarks are in perfect consonance. In a previous Lecture ‘On the Structure, Physiology, and Ofces of the Organs of Speech,’ which Mr. Gough (the remoteness of whose residence interfered with the regularity of his attendance) did not happen to hear, the secondary vibrations of the human voice through the whole of the cavities and fbres of the head were expressly traced; the respective characteristic tones were specifed, and demonstrated, in their connexion with the respective organs of promulgation and modifcation, (the roof, the nostrils, the maxillaries, &c.) and the practical appeal to the collateral evidence of the sense of touch, by the application of the fnger to the vibrating fbres of the head, during the specifc intonations, was dictated for the confrmation of the fact. Beyond this essential member of the animal frame, I confess, however, that my researches into the ramifcations of the organ of voice had never been extended. Te observations of my correspondent expand the theory through a still wider circuit; and the extension is demonstratively just. Te suggestion of the expansion of sonorous power, and consequent difusion of sound, through a wider circuit, in proportion to the number (not loudness) of the vibrating unisons, and of the application of the powers of volition to the purpose of bringing the respective vibratory fbres into the state of unison required, (which may be extended to every description of enunciative efort, as well as to the theatrical whispering to which it is here applied) will also be found of most

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especial importance to all persons whose professional or public duties call for the emphatic exertions of the elocutionary powers. To such persons, therefore, I have no doubt that the discovery will be highly acceptable; and I proceed accordingly to the quotation of Mr. Gough’s letter. ‘SIR, Te spirit of inquiry, and the valuable observations which enriched your lecture on the education of the voice, encourage me to ofer a few facts and refections to your consideration. Te naked truth is simply this: I am vain enough to imagine myself able to improve your theory of the power of the human voice; and, as the improvement demonstrates the propriety of the rules which you have given to facilitate the attainment of this accomplishment, I have ventured to trouble you with the following thoughts on the subject. Te egress of the voice is generally supposed to be confned to the aperture of the lips; but any person may convince himself, that this notion is ill-founded, by a simple experiment. Let him place the tip of his fnger upon his breast, or the side of his forehead, when he is speaking, and the sense of touch will inform him immediately, that the vibrations of the larynx are not restricted to the compass of the windpipe, but extend to the more distant parts of the head and chest, which vibrate in conjunction with the primary organs of voice. In fact, the upper moiety of the speaker’s body becomes an extensive feld of sound, resembling a drum, every member of which vibrates as of as a stroke is imparted to the parchment covering by the drumstick. Experience shews, that a fxed quantity of percussive force produces sounds, possessing greater or less powers, according as this force is permitted to act upon greater or less portions of vibrating surface. Te notes .of a clarionet can fll a circle a mile in diameter; but if the reed, or mouth-piece, be made to sound, when disunited from the tube, it cannot be heard at the distance of one hundred yards though this instrument evidently produces vibrations in the latter instances, which are equal to those it produced in the former. Let us now substitute the larynx in place of the mouth-piece; also, let the chest, together with the head, represent the trunk of the clarionet; and this easy transition, from art to nature, explains the method whereby the power of the voice is increased: for it discovers the physical causes upon which the secret depends. Tis method consists chiefy in contracting the upper extremity of the windpipe, so as to make the muscles of the larynx rest strongly upon the breath, during its escape from the lungs. In this manner a quick succession of powerful vibrations is produced; and these impulses pervade the superior moiety of the speaker, with a power proportionate to their primitive force. Te upper part of his body is then converted into an automatic clarionet; the efect of which, in respect of distance, arises in part from the muscular strength of the larynx; and

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is derived partly from the magnitude of that portion of his body, which vibrates in company with the primary organs of voice. I have now completed the outline of my theory, by enumerating the physical principles which act in conjunction, so as to enlarge the power of the voice. Should the task of comparing my opinion with facts appear worth pursuing, you may easily confrm or refute the theory by making the comparison: for my part, I shall take notice but of one incident of the kind; and this is, the circumstance of powerful whispering, which you mention in your lecture on the education of the voice. Actors difer from other men, as they use their endeavours occasionally to make their whispers intelligible to the multitude. Tis efort is exacted by the nature of the profession, which requires certain secrets of the drama to be communicated to the audience, apparently in the language of secrecy. Te person who wishes to acquire this difcult attainment, will, probably, fnd the accomplishment of his enterprize facilitated by making a proper use of the following facts. First, if a body is forced to vibrate in consequence of its connexion with another already in a state of vibration, the greatest efect will be produced when the two bodies are in unison. Second, the vibratory faculty of the chest may be altered by varying the pressure of the muscles belonging to this part of the human frame; in the same manner that the vibratory faculty is changed in a drum by altering the action of the braces. It follows from these properties of transmitted sound, that the man will whisper with the greatest efect who can put his head and chest into unison with his larynx, when it is in a state of extreme relaxation. You very justly observe, that the science is yet in its infancy, which teaches the art of giving power to the voice by a judicious management of the vocal organs. Should the preceding attempt advance the infant one step towards maturity, the design of the present letter will be answered. I am, &c. Middleshaw, Nov. 3, 1803. JOHN GOUGH.’ ‘To the observations of Mr. Gough on the sonorous vibrations of the fbres of the chest, I have only to add, that, since the receipt of his letter, I have tried his hypothesis, by the test which he suggests, both in private experiment, and during my public exertions; that, to me, at least, those experiments have appeared sufciently satisfactory; and that the fact thus discovered appears to be an important addition to the means of practical improvement in elocutionary science. If I may be permitted to judge of the success of my own experiments, the application of the suggestion has added, at least, one more to the manageable varieties and modifcations of vocal intonation. Indeed, if the whole of my theory and that of Mr. Gough be not fallacious, this must eventually be the case: as nothing is more clear than that the improvement of any faculty must necessarily depend, in a very considerable degree, upon the accurate comprehension of the instrumentality by

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which the functions of that faculty are carried on; and, as the human voice is not so strictly speaking a single instrument, as a concert of many instruments, whose respective powers and characteristic tones are exceedingly diferent from each other; and as we have, evidently, the power, by the actions, compression, tension, positions, and relaxations of the respective voluntary muscles connected with each and all of these, to direct (partially or intirely) the infuential or secondary vibrations, that respond to the original impulses of the larynx, through one, or other, or several, or all of these, as occasion, or inclination require, he who best knows the respective portions of this automatic band from which the diferent intonations are to be elicited, will, necessarily, be best enabled to command the correspondent tones, which the several passions, sentiments, and combinations of language may require; and every discovery which extends the just theory of vocal vibrations, extends, accordingly, the practicable powers of elocutionary expression.’ –––––––––– Te refections above made are not all those of a practical nature which have arisen out of the communication: still less are the consequences arising from a knowledge of the vibratory power of the chest confned to the improvement of the phænomena of whispering – nor indeed was it ever the meaning of Mr. Gough that such consequences were so to be confned. Tere are evils, both elocutionary and constitutional, that arise out of the too predominant vibration of the chest, as well as inconveniences from not sufciently calling that organ into a state of vibration: for harmony, modulation and richness of voice, as well as power and facility, depend upon the judicious and voluntary apportionment of the characteristic vibrations of the respective organs; and a certain celebrated actor, by a proper initiation into this system, might have avoided that deep pectoralism, or sepulchral tone, which constitutes his greatest defect; while many a young actress, who pumps herself into a consumption, by injudicious labour of the chest, – and many a spouting orator, – by the application of a few simple rules, might make a better system of Elocution conducive alike to health and impressive energy. Perhaps, Sir, it might not be uninteresting to dwell upon the subject of this communication still farther; – to state the circumstances under which the idea was frst suggested to Mr. Gough, and the series of experiments, by which I have verifed his conclusions: – especially as several of these, and particularly those which have been tried with the chest in a state of submersion, and by the contact of several parts of the body with the frames of chairs, and other vibratory substances, are equally curious and entertaining. But such detail would lead me, I fear, too far, from my present purpose. If ever I should fnd leisure and encouragement to publish, at large, the frst, or physiological series of my Lectures, the

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results of these experiments will fnd their way to the public, in their proper order. But my obligations to Mr. Gough are not confned to his. communications and suggestions on the subject of pectoral vibration. I am indebted to him, also, for many useful hints during our conversational intercourse, and the communication, in a more permanent form, of many interesting facts and apposite inductions; – some of which will be quoted in other parts of this letter, and all of which were calculated to throw fresh light upon that important and interesting subject, which, about this time, began to occupy a considerable portion of my attention: – namely, – the Complication of Moral and Mental Causes, in many of those Cases of non-developement both of the Organic and the Intellectual Faculties, which have been generally regarded as purely Physical, or Constitutional. And though I must confne myself, somewhat longer, to the more particular subject of Impediments, it is not my intention to lay down the pen, without suggesting – that it is not only to vocal and enunciative imperfections, but, in a certain degree, to the developement of every faculty, and to many of the diseases and apparent defciencies of mind, that a consistent system of Tuition (founded on the combined knowledge of physical and moral principles – or, in other words – of the organic structure, the passions, and the susceptibilities of human nature) may efcaciously apply. During this pilgrimage of my science, – this journey, at once, of promulgation and discovery, which occupied between four and fve years; and which was extended to almost every considerable town, from Birmingham, and Hereford, to Edinburgh and Glasgow, the truth and efcacy of my general principles were tried – (as they have, also, been – during the four years that I have been here established) in all the variety of application, to every species of provincialism of tone and accent, and almost every description of impediment; as also, to the improvement of the grace and harmony of the voice, in reading and conversation; in dramatic recitation, and the energy of oratorical delivery. Of the Cases of Impediment, some were of a description that had already been submitted, without avail, to medical and chirurgical treatment; in some few, I have found it necessary, to call in the assistance of the operator; and some have been referred to my management, by the advice of medical men of high respectability; whose recommendation, I am authorised in stating, has not been dishonoured by the event. Some cases, also, fell, under my cognizance, and became objects of my enquiry (during this excursion) which from their serious and complicated nature, from the circumstances of the parties, and the time and settled residence, which their proper treatment would have required, were, of inevitable necessity, subject to my observation only; or with which, at most, I could only interfere by passing animadversion or advice. Some, also, (since my residence in London) have been under my private management, which, from

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the nature of the Cases, and certain circumstances of rank and station, may be considered as too delicate for that species of communication, which is to be transmitted through the medium of the press: – Cases that place in the clearest point of view, the connection between the developement of the organic functions, and that of the intellectual faculties. Among the early cases that fall within the description of Impediment, there is one, Sir, in particular, which, I fatter myself, will be more than ordinarily interesting to you: the case of a young Gentleman, then of Birmingham, but now holding a place under the government, in one of the ofces at Somerset House. Tis gentleman (then about seventeen) had, from his birth, a considerable and serious defciency in the organization of the mouth; having a fssure of the roof, almost from the very gums, and a consequent defect of the uvula: the imperfect portions of which (separated, also) clung to the back part of the throat. Tese were therefore, partly from construction, and still more from habit, totally useless, in the pronunciation of speech and regulation of the tones of the voice: and such was the state of his enunciation altogether (if enunciation it might be called) that his own father could not, at all -times, understand him; even when he attempted to pronounce the names of his most intimate friends. You will, perhaps, remember, Sir, that about six or seven years ago the father of this young gentleman consulted you upon the nature of his case, and the possibility of relief. I am confdent that I only do justice to your kindness and liberality, when I premise, that, tho: I was not unknown to you, my new pursuits and professional discoveries were, when (upon examination of the defciency) you gave the opinion, which I understand you to have pronounced, – that it was a case in which there could be no relief. As such, I believe, have all similar cases been, hitherto, pretty generally regarded: and tho I have always cherished a very diferent faith, and, in my public Lectures, had boldly promulgated the opinion – that wherever hearing and intellect existed, mechanic art and elocutionary science might triumph over every other difculty, yet my science was then in its infancy, and my experiments had only been tried in remote parts of the country. So serious an experiment as this, indeed, I had never, then, met with any opportunity of trying. Te father, however, of the unfortunate young gentleman, unwilling to leave any efort untried that might aford a shadow of hope, took him to one of those Dentists who profess to fabricate artifcial organs; and who made for him, a palate and moving uvula of gold; which was, in certain respects, very ingenious; tho, from particular defects, and too much complication in the mechanism, it was very troublesome, and liable to be perpetually out of repair. It was obvious, also, that it exposed the wearer to the possibility of a dangerous accident. From this piece of mechanism, the young gentleman received some assistance; and, what was, perhaps, the principal source of that assistance – (as will be

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probable from the sequel) a degree of confdence that disposed him to efort. My arrival at Birmingham, about that time, and my Lectures there, on the Causes and Cure of Impediments, occasioned the friends of the young gentleman to bring him to me; and a short experiment, tried in the presence of those friends, was so decisive, that I thought I might safely leave it to their judgement (without advancing any opinion myself ) what was the probability of my being useful to him. Te young gentleman continued to attend me, during the two or three weeks that I remained in Birmingham; and, perhaps, I cannot conclude the anecdote more satisfactorily, than by observing – that he has, now, no sort of difculty in rendering himself sufciently intelligible, even to strangers he may occasionally meet with, who have any Impediment in their speech, to advise them to put themselves under my management, and look with confdence for a cure: and this, altho he has long laid aside his artifcial palate, and trusts, alone, to the directions I had given him for making the best use of the organs he has, and so directing the actions of one, as to enable it to supply the defciencies of another. I have, at this time, under my roof, and advancing daily towards a cure, a pupil, with a very complicated impediment, who was recommended to me in this way. It is rather a remarkable coincidence, Sir, that this latter gentleman, also, happens to have been a patient .of yours, two or three years before my establishment in London; and to have been the subject of an operation on the frænum, or bridle of the tongue; the stricture of which had been considered, by all the medical men who had been consulted, as the sole cause of his Impediment; but the separation of which, even under your judicious management, certainly, produced but a very partial relief. Tis is, my dear Sir, the particular case to which I took the liberty of alluding, in my former Letter, when I submitted to your approbation the idea of this public address. And certainly nothing can be further from my thoughts than any insinuation of impropriety in the performance of such operation. I only wish – that all persons, who labour under such imperfections, would consult such an authority, before they have an operation performed. We should not, then, have infants murdered in the cradle (as Dr. Denman15 informs us that they have been) by the scissars of ofcious nurses; nor should we have more serious and irremediable mischiefs produced (as in some instances that I have witnessed), by giving the tongue too much liberty – (I do not mean to speak metaphorically), than ever resulted from its too great restriction. I am perfectly aware, that there are cases in which the operation of cutting the frænum is necessary; and this was certainly one of them; – for the tongue, upon examination, will be found, at this time, in every respect that could have been afected by the operation, precisely in the state the elocutionist would require. When Nature has not placed them in this state, Art must sometimes be appealed to: and I have myself, heretofore,

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caused similar operations to be performed. Two young gentlemen, who were my pupils in Doncaster, were thus operated upon, under my own immediate superintendance, while I was resident there. But I had, at the same time, two other pupils (brethren also – all from the Classical Seminary of the Rev. Mr. Inchbald) who had both come into the world with this same defective structure. Te sagacious nurse, however, had snipped the bridle of the elder brother; and she had done irreparable injury. She had separated too much; and the tongue remained in the mouth, to a considerable degree inert, – suspended in the middle of the cavity, and deprived of some portion of the natural command of motion and position which would, I conceive, have belonged to it, but from this improper separation. Te younger brother had escaped this premature operation; never necessary, Dr. Denman says, for the alleged purposes of nutrition; and never proper, I will venture to add, for any other purpose, during the season of early childhood. Te mouth of the young gentleman who had thus fortunately escaped the presumptuous quackery of the nursery, exhibited a most curious complication of duplicated and reduplicated fæna. It might almost have illustrated Dr. Johnson’s defnition of net-work – ’something reticulated or decussated, with interstices between the intersections;’ and this had, of course, produced some imperfections of early utterance. But Nature had been lef, for a proper time, to her own experiments and operations; and the mind of the young gentleman having been active and vigorous, his faculties alert, and his ambition of oratorical accomplishment considerable, the ligatures had gradually elongated, by exertion; so as to leave little for me to do, when he came under my inspection; and that little, we accomplished, so completely, without knife or scissars, that, during one of my public Lectures, I ventured to put him forward, before a numerous audience, in the Town Hall of Doncaster, as a competent substitute, to pronounce for me the speech of Lord Chatham16 against employing Indians in the American war: and he did so pronounce it, as to justify the hope – that he may, hereafer, deliver, in the most conspicuous situations, with every requisite accompaniment of grace and energy, the equally vigorous sentiments of his own independent mind. But, tho I admit the propriety, and even the necessity, of an occasional appeal to this operation (when the pupil is old enough, and when the experiment has been sufciently tried, to ascertain that the eforts of Nature will not sufce) – ’permit me, Sir, to suggest the opinion, that the most serious parts of the complicated impediment of the gentleman now in question, never did, and never could have originated, actually and immediately, in the constriction of that tongue. I say the most serious parts; for the impediment, as I have observed already, is exceedingly complicated; and there can be no doubt, that the restriction of the tongue would still further increase the indistinctness of his enunciation. But, with respect to the sufocation of the struggling breath, in the

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larynx, the stagnation of all voluntary motion in the lips and jaw, the distortions of the nostrils, – all the revolting phænomena, which continued to mark this particular case, when I frst became acquainted with it; and that still more hideous multitude, that might be selected from other cases that have fallen under my observation; – Tat these, or any of these, had any thing or could have any thing, immediately, to do with the bridle of the tongue, may, I think, be fully and satisfactorily disproved. I believe, also, that it may be equally disproved – both by analogous reasoning and by experiment, that defects of organization have any thing to do with any of the various descriptions of Impediment, generally included under the appellations of Stammering and Stuttering. Tat is to say – that Impediments of this description, do not, and cannot fow, directly or necessarily, from such cause; and, consequently, that no chirurgical operation can possibly be an efcient remedy for such defect. I am ready, however, to admit – that such original mal-conformation, obstructing the ordinary process of utterance, may have been one, among many, remote causes, that have superinduced mistaken and ill-directed eforts of the other organs, vocal and enunciative; and may, therefore, have conduced to that embarrassment of mind, that irritability of temper, and those other mental and moral maladies, with which such impediments are generally, more or less intimately, connected. But the same may be said of the rods and canes of brutal pedagogues; – of the horse’s hoofs of that monster of inhumanity, who had one of his boys placed under the belly of his less irrational animal, and kept him there, till convulsive terror produced a stammering that has aficted him ever since, and destroyed, in a considerable degree, the energies both of his constitution, and his intellects. – Te same might also be said of the brutal and Herculean grasp of the Lancashire labourer, who frst brought on the impediment of another of my provincial pupils, by suspending him, when he was fve or six years of age, over the bridge of a canal in Lancashire, till he was almost dead with terror and convulsive agitation. Yet, surely, it is obvious, that these being the remote, or accidental causes, only, of those moral and intellectual (or, if you please, nervous) efects, which, thus produced, became, in their turn, the immediate causes of the impediments, – neither splitting the canes and burning the rods (however necessary) – nor adorning the gibbet (however just) with the equestrian pedant, or the less brutal hind, could remedy the stammerings they had, originally, been operative in producing. I am arguing, I trust, Sir, in consonance with the philosophy of that school, to which you did me the honour of frst introducing me, when I, thus, endeavour to distinguish between remote and accidental, and immediate and necessary causes; and, since I am upon the subject, I beg leave to push the argument a little further. Nothing is more common than to hear talk of Nervous Impediments, and Constitutional Impediments, and Hereditary Impediments: [I have

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two Hereditary Impediments, at this time, in my house; – one of them has lineally descended, both in the maternal and paternal line, to the third generation: – tho I have, fortunately, pretty nearly completed the process of cutting of the entail.] By all these fne words, the idea necessarily, meant to be conveyed, is, I presume, – that such impediments are the result of an excessive delicacy and irritability in the constitutional fbre: in other words, that they are physical consequences of mere physical causes. Yet many persons who have equal irritability of fbre and delicacy of constitution, have no impediment; and many persons, also, have impediments, of the same, or very similar descriptions, who have, otherwise, no mark or semblance of such constitutional defect. Tis nervousness, then, and this debility, are not the sole, the necessary, or the immediate causes of such impediments. I admit, however; that they are partial and predisposing causes: that certain habits of constitution are more subject to this, as they are to many other maladies and infections: nay, that these physical causes have even an infuence (not inconsiderable) upon those mental and moral causes, which I conceive to be the principal sources of Impediments of Speech; as, also, of many other species of derangement and non-developement of the organic faculties. But every predisposition does not necessarily produce a specifc disease; – nay it is never the producer! – nor, is the disease incurable, because the original constitutional predisposition cannot be entirely eradicated. Remove the proximate or active cause, and you conquer the disease; establish a system, and enforce a regimen, that may preclude the return of such active cause; and your patient is secure. Remove the mental and moral maladies (no matter from what prior circumstances they may, themselves, originally, have sprung) that are, in reality, the immediate causes of so many serious impediments; restore, or produce those essential links of association, between the physical perception and the mental volition, and between the mental volition and the organic action, which either have some how been broken, or have never properly been formed – and the stammerer, the stutterer, the throttler, the endless reiterator, and almost the whole order of unfortunate persons, whose impediments consist in obstructed utterance, are relieved from their afiction: no matter what were the original circumstances that broke, or interrupted those associations: whether disease, or terror, or mimicry, or ligature of the tongue, or defciency of the palate, or headlong impetuosity, or dejection and apathy: whether, in short, the mental embarrassment, that immediately produces this partial chaos of organic efort, spring from any of these, – or whether, from the circumstances of some primary organic defciency, or some moral defect, – tardy developement of faculty, or error of education. Form, superinduce these requisite associations, if they have never yet existed; restore them, if they have been broken: – tranquillize the agitated mind; restrain its impetuosity; check its irritation; rouse it from its lethargy; stimulate its apathy: – Impress the perceptive faculty, clearly and strongly;

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demonstrate, step by step, your theory to the understanding; and interest, at the same time, the imagination; leave nothing obscure or unaccounted for, that the capacity of the pupil can comprehend, or that, from the nature and structure of his frame and faculties, is capable of illustration; give him a system on which he can see and feel that he may depend, – on which you know yourself that dependance may be placed; be confdent, and teach your pupil to confde; and then, with diligence and perseverance, the habit of regular utterance will, progressively, be formed, and the irregular habit will be supplanted: – the stammerer shall become fuent, and the mute shall sing the praises of your art. As for Hereditary Impediments! – what are these (like other hereditary traits of character and deportment) but habits of imitation? – or, if you please, of early, diseased association. If little master hath a papa, or little miss a grandpapa, that stammers, or that gabbles, or that throttles, – is it extraordinary, that the one (even before he can be aware that there is any other or better mode of speaking) should imitate this defect of the person from whom he is constantly aping almost every other action; or that the other should be encouraged in a ludicrous mimicry, that ultimately ripens into an habitual and involuntary caricature, of that which it was originally intended only to deride? Ought such imitations to be confounded with hereditary gout and hereditary asthma, or any of those simple physical maladies, that, having tainted the blood, and diseased the whole material system, may naturally enough be expected, thro the ordinary currents of physical transmission, to descend from generation to generation? Let us rather consider these evil habits of utterance, as accidents and consequences merely personal; – as instances of broken, or rather of diseased association; – as diseases originating in mental and moral causes: and, instead of abandoning them to despair, let us confdently apply to them, as to the former description of similar diseases, the personal treatment calculated to correct and counteract the false, or the confused impressions, that are the sources of all the evil. To make this application, however, in all its requisite extent, is not, and, it is obvious, cannot be, the province of the surgeon or the physician: – tho, in certain cases, the cooperation of these may be useful and even indispensable. Te cure must be looked for in the diligent, and (in serious cases) the constant superintendance of some judicious tutor, familiar, alike, by long study and practical attention, with the phænomena of such impediments, the physiology and pathology of the organs, and the philosophy and the diseases of the human mind. But do I, then, consider all cases of Impediment as complicated with Moral and Intellectual causes? Most assuredly, my dear Sir! with very few exceptions. I consider very many of them, as purely mental and moral: except so far, as, by reaction of the mind upon the physical frame, the vital and organic actions may become diseased by the perturbations of passion and eccentric humour, or the confusion of the understanding. I consider all of them to be complicated with

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mental and moral causes, that do not, clearly and obviously, arise out of palpable imperfections or defciencies of the organs; and that are not obviously confned to imperfection in the pronunciation of the particular elements usually formed by the particular organ which is imperfect or defcient. Such are the impediments that result from the bare lip; from fssure of the roof, obliteration of the Uvula and Velum Palati;17 loss, or ill position of the front teeth; original constriction of the tongue, or excessive separation of that organ. But I am aware – that people, in general, are so far from reasoning in this way, – that nothing is more common than to hear impediments ascribed to physical and organic causes, which may be traced (demonstrably traced!) to habitual mis-action (during the efort of speech) in those very organs that require, for the purposes of life, a more perfect structure and sanity, than elocution ever can demand; and. in which, of course, the consequence of any considerable imperfection or defciency, would be the actual preclusion of vitality: – as the muscles that govern the motion of the lungs, and the passages of the breath in respiration; the bronchia, the glottis, &c. Such, indeed, is the particular case that has led me into this long disquisition. Tis gentleman had, it seems, a constriction of the tongue, that would have prevented him from completely forming the elements represented by our letters s and th, and, perhaps, those that belong to the t, the d, and all the lingua-dental sounds. But this conformation could never have caused him to seal his lips, as it were, hermetically, when he should have pronounced an open vowel, a guttural, or either of the labia-dental elements; nor to have constricted the glottis, and held in the breath, till he was in danger of sufocation, and till exhaustion, rather than volition, released, at last, the half modifed impulse that was only regularly to have been produced by an efort as remote as possible from that which he was making. All these are phænomena I have frequently met with, in cases where there was certainly no malconformation whatever, in any part of the organs of speech. In one instance, in particular, that of a daughter of Colonel ***** of Edinburgh, they were exaggerated to such a degree, that the face would become blackened, the eyes convulsed, and the whole frame agitated to the most distressing extent imaginable. Yet the diligent attention of twelve successive mornings (all that particular circumstances permitted me to devote to this case,) and some particular directions lef behind me, as to her future treatment, were sufcient to demonstrate – that this impediment was no necessary consequence of any constitutional cause; and I had the pleasure, aferwards, of meeting this young lady, in the public rooms at Matlock, perfectly free from every vestige of impediment. I am almost ashamed to state this fact; because, tho this was comparatively one of my early cases, I confess that I have never since been able to do so much,

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in so little time. But mental and moral causes step in to the explanation of this .circumstance. I have never met with so devoted an attention, and so entire a confdence. Te young lady was just at the favourable age of perception and innocent docility; about eleven or twelve; and I had the good fortune to step, so instantaneously, and so entirely, into her confdence, that in the emphatic language of a gentleman, who witnessed a part of the operation, she seemed to have put her whole soul and faculties into my hands, to be moved and directed at my bidding. She seemed, in short, to perceive that I was come to rescue her from the misery of being in eternal solitude, even in the midst of society; and of having the faculties of intellectual enjoyment only to feel that she was prohibited from their exertion; and she never seemed to entertain a doubt of my accomplishing what I had undertaken. But her enthusiasm did not go the fatal length of supposing – that it was to be accomplished, without the cooperation of her own eforts and diligence. It is no small proof of the complication, at least, of intellectual and moral causes, in impediments of speech, that, in almost every species of them, I should have found, with tolerable regularity, the cure to be more or less facilitated, in proportion to the degree of this feeling I have been fortunate enough to inspire. Doubt and fear, dejection and melancholy, lethargic gloom and sullen irritation, and the whole train of distressing emotions, that cloud the faculties and bewilder the understanding, disappear before them; and cheerful composure and consistent efort, the best preparatives for the renewal, or the formation of the necessary associations between the perceptive and the executive faculties, readily supply their place. Nor is it only thro the medium of their infuence on the understanding, that moral causes act. Te temper and disposition of the individual frequently decide the nature of his impediment; and the character of the patient must be studied, – nay the passions of his mind, to a certain extent, at least, must be corrected and regulated, before the confusion of organic action can be completely remedied. If I am asked ‘Whether the clouded mind and moral dispositions I am alluding to, are not frequently to be regarded as consequences, rather than causes of the impediments with which they are associated?’ – I shall answer, at once, that these are not the only circumstances in which physical and moral phænomena run a circle, and become alternately cause and efect. Tis complication is certainly very apparent in the particular case to which I am at this time recalling your attention; and a considerable part of the difculty in treating it, certainly arises from this very complication. In cases where there is an evident mixture of physical or constitutional derangement, it seems to be equally necessary to remove the disease, in order that you may cure the impediment, and the impediment, that you may cure the disease; and where the complication is of a moral description, it appears

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to be equally indispensable to improve the disposition, in order to remove the impediment, and to correct the impediment, in order to remove the moral indisposition. Te consolation, however, is – that, if the whole of the complication be properly understood, and the plan of operation be conducted accordingly, the causes that have acted in a circle, will re-act in a circle, also; and every point you have gained, in one respect, may be used, with confdence, in securing some advantage in the other. Te mind, however, – the state and management of the intellectual faculties, must, in all these cases, be attended to; for whosoever, in the treatment of any impediment (not merely chirurgical) shall be unacquainted with the links of mental and organic association, or negligent of the means of their proper formation and management, will work in the dark; and, if he occasionally succeed, it must be by chance, and not by induction and management. Premise the requisite knowledge and attention, in this respect, and he marches onward to his object, sometimes with a quicker, and sometimes with a slower pace (according to the nature of the ground he has to tread over); but with a geographical – a mathematical certitude. Shall I go further, Sir? Shall I state my conviction, at once, – that there are Impediments of Speech that are of the nature of Idiotcy! – that there are Impediments of Speech that are of the nature of Derangement! – nay, that all impediments that are not the pure and simple results of organic malconformation, have, at least, a certain degree of afnity with one or other of these mental afictions: – that every stammerer, stutterer, throttler, constipator, involuntary confounder, and unconscious reiterator of the elements of speech (whatever attainments or faculties he may, in other respects, possess) is partially, and to a certain extent, either idiotic, or deranged: for what but derangement can it be called, to be constantly doing a thousand things that we neither intend to do, nor are conscious of doing? nay, that are the very reverse of all that is in our intention! What, but a species of idiotcy, is it, to be ignorant of the means by which the will is to infuence the simplest organs of volition, and (without excuse of palsy, stricture, or organic privation) to be unable to move a lip, a tongue, or a jaw? or perform the common functions of our species? – to clinch the teeth, when we are bade to open the mouth! and roll the eyes, when we ought to move the lips! It is curious, also, to observe the various and even contradictory circumstances (all connected with the passions and operations of the mind) under which these convulsive actions, occasionally, take place. I have known some gentlemen whose impediments almost entirely disappeared in the presence of gay assemblages and female society; some, who could never get out a syllable, if there were a beautiful woman in company. Some have but little difculty except in the presence of strangers; – others are never so seriously afected as before their own

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parents, or the persons under whose authority they are placed. I am aware that by those who are for referring every thing to mere physical causation, several of these cases, perhaps all of them, may be readily dismissed with a very specious theory: which is, certainly, a much more easy matter than to fnd an appropriate remedy. We shall be told of certain descriptions of impediment, that are partially relieved by an habitual, or an occasional glass of wine; and of others, that are more efectually treated by withholding every species of stimulating liquor: [I had once, unfortunately, two gentlemen of these opposite descriptions under my roof, at the same time; – one of whom could not get on at all, unless he took his pint of wine with his dinner; while the progress of the other could only be depended upon, while every thing like a bottle and a glass was kept out of his sight.] All these several cases will be bundled up in two parcels, and called diseases of excessive, and diseases of defective irritability: and then, as excessive, and diseases of defective irritability: and then, as far as education and moral treatment are concerned, there is an end of them. It is not my intention to deny that this is, in some instances, an accurate description of one part of the complicated malady in question. It is applicable enough to one half of the revolving circle. But a part is not the whole, in solid reasoning, and must not be so regarded in practice. In fact, many of these phænomena are capable of explanation by reference to moral causes; connected, it is true, in some instances, with constitutional predispositions; but, more frequently, with such as are merely educational. In all of them, the mind is, at any rate, participator in the infection; and it is worthy of remark, that no treatment merely physical (whether it be by the use of wine, or by abstinence, – by sea-bathing, or by the administration of tonics, or of alteratives) ever produces any thing more than temporary relief: for medicine was never yet radical in the removal of diseases of the mind. Te imagination, the judgement, and the passions, require other physicians than the pupils of Galen and Hippocrates.18 If these phænomena were, really, ascribable to mere physical and incurable misfortune, they would demand our silent pity: but if they are really, as I afrm them to be, mere moral and mental diseases, springing out of the mistakes or the neglects of education, and capable of remedy from a more enlightened system of instruction, and from moral and mental regimen, let us exhibit them in their proper light; and not cover, with the apologetic mantle of a false compassion, the distemper that should be medicated and healed. Perhaps the proper treatment of these specifc maladies may lead us to the discovery – that there are other cases, of much more complicated defect, that are of alike nature with themselves; and, in which, the mistake of assigning to physical defect, exclusively, what is, at least, equally attributable to moral and educational causes, is not less injurious and fatal.

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Every apparent ineptitude is not a physical idiotcy; – every non-developement of the faculties is not a consequence of defective organization; – every untoward excentricity is not a constitutional derangement. Tere is a power in educational folly and mistake, to distemper the brain, that might else have been tranquillized to consistency; and there is a power, also, in educational consistency of methodizing the mind, that might else have become bewildered: – and there is, certainly, such thing as confounding faculties that might have been cleared into perspicuity; and of developing those that might have been confounded; as well as there is a possibility of planting morality, where vice might else have luxuriated; or of grafing vices upon the very stock where every virtue might have been taught to fourish. But, before I proceed to a subject so copious and so inviting, as the distinction between moral and physical idiotcy, let me say a word upon that class of impediments of speech, which originate simply in organic defect. To some of these, as to the hare-lip, in particular, in all its hideous complications (as far as relates to the external deformity at least,) the surgeon has been long in the habit of applying an adequate remedy; and several cases of the kind, which had fallen under my own observation, or were furnished me by Mr. Branson, of Doncaster, and Mr. Astley Cooper,19 were noticed in the Course of Lectures I delivered, three or four years ago, at the opening of my present Institution. Nor is it, of late years, more uncommon to apply to the dentist, to remedy (as far as relates to appearances) whatever is defective or imperfect in the teeth. But, Sir, may it not be worth inquiry – whether (even in these cases) every thing is usually done, that is both desirable and practicable. Even when the original defect extends no further than to the deformity of the lip, if the operation hath not, fortunately, been performed in early infancy, will not some improper habits of speech – some ill-directed eforts, necessarily, or probably, have arisen out of the imperfection? which, if not properly attended to, afer the deformity has been remedied, may leave behind some permanent Impediment, or defect of utterance. But it is not unknown to you, Sir, that the deformity of the hare-lip, is frequently complicated with much more serious defciencies; – that the fssure, very ofen, extends thro the upper jaw; leaving, in front, a consequent defect, both of teeth and gums; and thence, occasionally, extends thro the entire roof of the mouth; to the utter obliteration of the uvula. In these cases, for the purposes of speech, it is not sufcient that, by an operation, we confer the grace of human symmetry on the external mouth: the interior defciency, must, also, be supplied; and supplied, upon principles accommodated to the structure (minutely examined) and the ofces (well understood) of the parts, in a state of natural perfection. Tis is, also, occasionally attempted; and, in some instances, has been efected, I believe, with considerable success. I have been informed, upon good authority, that a late celebrated speaker of

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the Irish House of Commons (Mr. Flood)20 had an artifcial roof, connected with an entire, or almost entire, row of upper teeth; the structure and adaptation of which, must have been very perfect, if it occasioned no very marked and ofensive peculiarity of voice, and removed all imperfection of utterance. It is not always, however, that the business is so completely done; nor is such perfection to be looked for, from the tool of the ordinary dentist; who is, frequently, but a superfcial artist, and little acquainted with the principles of science, by which, in such operations, his art should be directed. Nor is it always, in cases of such complicated difculty, alone, that this defciency is observable: even, when teeth, only, are to be supplied, all the circumstances that are requisite, are not always considered; and, perhaps, it will be found – that, even yet, our dentists, in general, have studied but one half of their profession. Tey have attended (some of them at least) with diligence and success, to the diseases and treatment of the natural teeth, and to the means of preventing or remedying deformities in early youth; but, when the decays, or extensive defciencies of nature are to be supplied, – the imperfection of their art is apt to be too apparent. Instead of having well considered the functions, with respect to speech, in particular, which the teeth are called upon to perform, – instead of examining and comparing, with reference to this important object, the mouths of diferent speakers, and being well provided with casts and models of the perfectly formed mouth; – instead of investigating the principles of utterance, and the dependance of tone and enunciation, on the vibrations and aperture of the teeth, and inquiring – what are the particular positions (with reference to the manner of closing, and the contact of the upper and under series) most favourable to clearness of tune, and neatness of enunciation, – they, generally, satisfy themselves, with mere attention to appearances; and, too frequently, if the eye be but gratifed, by the whiteness and smoothness of the manufacture, the breath may whistle thro half a dozen apertures, or the unapproximating edges may bafe every efort of nice discrimination, in the sharper and duller sibilants, without its ever being suspected that the operation is lef imperfect. But, suppose the surgeon, alone, – or the surgeon and the mechanic artist, together, – or the mechanic artist, alone, to have done all that, on their respective parts, the nature of the case requires; – suppose the lip to be reduced to proper symmetry and structure, and the defcient organs judiciously supplied; or, suppose the defective organ incapable of supply, or that, in the opinion of the party, the inconvenience of the artifcial apparatus, would be more than a counterbalance for the advantage, will there not be something yet to do, for the improvement of the speech, which, it is important, should not be omitted? – Will not the natural organs require to be educated to a due cooperation with the artifcial stranger, in the one instance? or in the other, will there not be much for well directed art to accomplish, in enabling the existing organs to imitate, to

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a certain degree, the actions of those that are defcient, and to supply their place? Te Birmingham case, already mentioned, is, surely, a sufcient answer to this question. In short, my dear Sir, – whatever natural or organic cause there may be, for any impediment of speech, – whatever defciency of any of the elocutionary organs, – a part – a considerable part of the imperfection, will, upon experiment; be found attributable to the imperfect developement of the powers of the existing organs; – to the despairing negligence, or mistaken exertions, which have been superinduced by the apprehension, or the feeling of existing imperfection. I do not go the lengths I have heard ascribed to Professor Kant.21 – I do not mean to say – that ‘Speech is a faculty purely mental; and that a man might become an orator, tho he had neither teeth nor tongue, by the mere action of the mind.’ I am no such intellectual philosopher. I trust, alone, to the facts of physical experience, and the inferences of logical induction; and leave the visionary theories of metaphysicians to those who imagine that they understand metaphysics. But, upon the foundations of this experience, and by the authority of that induction, I venture to pronounce – that speech is so far a mental action, – and that the developement of the organic faculties, is so far dependant upon mental impression, and educational culture, that few persons are at all aware of the extent of improvability in the respective organs; or of the power that there is in one organ, of supplying the defciencies, and performing the functions of another. How widely, Sir, does this observation apply! How much, upon the subject of the developement of the organic powers, and the faculties in general, have we yet to learn! and how important is it, that the subject should be- fully investigated! – investigated, not in the schools of metaphysicians, and the closets of theoretical students; but, practically and experimentally, by the professional philosopher, whose actual observation furnishes the fuel of his meditations, and whose meditations are as a torch to illuminate the paths of observation. Example and analogy may encourage us, in the ardour of this inquiry; and stimulate the patient – or the pupil – to efort and to hope. When deaf men (I allude to facts, of which I have myself been witness) have acquired an accurate perception of the proportions of music, thro the medium of vibra- tions recognized by the organs of feeling; – when an armless phænomenon (as some have seen) has wielded the artist scissars with her toes, and cut out paper, with these clumsy substitutes, into the most elegant devices: – when a sightless philosopher (already alluded to) has used his tongue as eyes, and (with the nervous papillae of that organ separating the flaments of almost microscopic plants) has prosecuted his discoveries into the minutest departments of botany; – let not any individual despond for a single blemish; or despair of attaining an impressive intelligibility of speech, because he may happen to be defective in some one of those particular organs, by which the process of speech is generally carried on: or, if it depend not on him-

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self alone, – let the arbiters of his fate suspend, at least, the sentence of hopeless abandonment, till some rational experiment has been fairly tried; – till a series of systematic, and well directed eforts has ascertained – how far the fexibility of other parts of the mouth may be moulded and accommodated to new and untried functions. Perhaps, my dear Sir! you will agree with me that there is more occasion for the latter part of this exhortation than benevolence could wish. We do not, indeed, in this more civilized age, expose such of our children as have organic defects or palpable infrmities, to the mercy of wolves and elements: nay, some there are, who, with an excessive, tho imperfect sense of duty, foster imbecility, till pity is matured into infatuated partiality. Yet how small a portion of attention is, even in such instances, generally directed towards the means of remedying the imperfections to be deplored! and how reluctantly (too ofen) is every expense endured, that has for its object only the Intellects and the Faculties of our children! Teir interests, indeed, are our perpetual theme; but how loosely do we calculate upon their welfare! Te showy exteriors of idle accomplishment are not, indeed, neglected: – they must be procured (if there be a shadow of capability) at whatever expense; for they are the badges of our rank; but as for the developement of organic or intellectual faculties (if they be any way defective or obscured) – the reclamation of the excentric, the methodizement of the bewildered, or the excitement of the stagnant mind! – these may be lef to adventitious accident – to the wolves, and the rude elements of the intellectual desert; for the organic and intellectual faculties are the badges only of our species: – or if these extraordinary defciencies be at all attended to, the toil and mental exertion they require, are to aspire to nothing but an ordinary remuneration: for who would think of purchasing an understanding for his children, or obtaining for them the free exercise of human faculties, at a price that might have taught them to dance the fandango, or hurry their fngers over a piano-forte? [I do not mean, Sir, that either the dancing-school or the piano-forte are to be despised. I am no enemy to any species of accomplishment. I refer only to the rationality of comparative appreciation.] Human nature would be degraded, were I to enumerate all the instances of this description that have fallen within my own cognizance; – but I cannot forbear taking some notice of a circumstance that occurred to me, in one of the most opulent families (so regarded at least) in this metropolis; – and in which, a serious impediment having been contracted by one of the eldest children, had been communicated, of course, like any other contagion, to the younger members of the family. To the two elder daughters of this family, I was called in, just at the end of the frst season of my residence in London, when there was barely time for me to give to each of them a course of twelve lessons, before their departure into the country. For these lessons I was then humble enough to take

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only twenty-fve guineas; and such was the efect produced by them – that not only the parents themselves, but some friends, whom they called in to witness it, during the last lesson, could not help exclaiming – that they could not have given credit to the possibility of such a change without the evidence of their own senses. Yet, having had time to calculate, before their return to London, that the terms I demanded were a little more than they were in the habit of paying to the dancing-master, they very modestly ofered me for my further attendance upon their two daughters, at the western extremity of the town, something less than I am in the habit of receiving for one such pupil attending me at my own house. A circumstance came to light, during this negotiation, that deserves a more public exposure than I am disposed to make of it. Tat the advantages of that portion of instruction I was able to impart, during the twelve days prior to their quitting town, might not be entirely lost, while they were in the country, I had (with a degree of liberality, not common, I believe, with the professors of any mystery that is the result of their own personal discovery) permitted the mother of the young ladies to be present at the lessons, and had marked with a specifc notation, on their book of exercises, the rules and maxims I had deemed it most necessary to explain. During our conversation, it was unwarily acknowledged – or, as a hint, perhaps, that now they could do without me, – that advantage had been taken of these circumstances; the book, with its notations, having been carried, with one of the sons, to a public school, and such an explanation given of the principles indicated, as had enabled the Tutor of that young gentleman to cure him of his defect. To such terms and to such conduct (young as my project then was) – it might have been my interest to submit; and to drudge, for awhile, without remuneration, in the hope of future emolument from the seedlings of reputation I might be nourishing in this experiment. But such was not the temper with which I embarked ,in a profession, which I felt myself secure might be rested upon the solid bases of its own utilities; and my connection with the family ceased. Te spirit of the observations which, upon the grounds of something better than mere speculation, I have advanced, with respect to Impediments, will, I believe, apply, with equal force, to all those cases of Speechlessness, also, that do not result from absolute deafness. Such cases should always, in the mind of the philosophical practitioner, be kept perfectly distinct from those of the deaf-born dumb. Tey require a treatment, in many respects, essentially and fundamentally diferent. Much of the process requisite for the former would be destructive in the latter. From all substitutes and subterfuges – the whole language of signs and indications, the pupil, who is merely mute from the non-developement of existing faculty, ought, as far as possible, to be utterly excluded. Te spirit of that regulation is, therefore, perfectly correct, that precludes all cases, of this

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description, from that noble Institution, so honourable to the philanthropy of the country, established for the education of the Deaf and Dumb. But, tho improper objects of that particular charity, shall those unfortunate persons, whose speechlessness proceeds alone from moral and educational causes, – from a want of the application of proper stimuli for the developement of the organic faculties, – be consigned to hopeless idiocy? – shall no kind door be opened, for the relief of their afictions – no inquiry be instituted, no plan encouraged, for the discovery and removal, of the causes of their apparent ineptitude? I have my eye, while I am writing this, upon a particular, and an interesting case: – the case of a young female in Maidstone, the sisterinlaw of a schoolmaster in that town: – a modest and respectable man, whose love of learning has raised him from the plough to literary estimation, and whose patient industry is difusing, for small remuneration, a portion of the same spirit among the surrounding youth. Te young female (his speechless, or almost speechless relation) has been refused, upon the principle I have been justifying, at the institution for the deafborn dumb: for she is not destitute of hearing: and, if I am not mistaken, she is not incapable of being taught to speak by a better and a shorter process than can be applicable to the absolutely deaf. Whether the directions I gave to her brotherinlaw, when I visited Maidstone, during the last Autumn, will be productive of any material consequences, I cannot venture to predict: for these are not cases to be relieved by a transient observation and a passing prescription; and her relation, tho zealous, indefatigable and benevolent, cannot be expected, amid the daily labours of his vocation, to fnd time and opportunity for one tythe of that laborious attention such a case must inevitably require. To the particular consideration of cases of this description, my mind was frst conducted, by an unhappy instance of complicated calamity, that fell under my observation, while I was at Glasgow; and which, in the year 1804, I made the subject of a communication to the Monthly Magazine, to the following efect:

Case of a Child, Blind fom the operation of the inoculated Small Pox; and supposed to have been rendered Speechless by the same cause: ‘As professional facts, when any way connected with important inferences, or with subjects of philosophical inquiry, seem always to be acceptable in your miscellany, I transmit to you, a case which has lately presented itself within the sphere of my particular observation. I cannot, indeed, say, that it is pregnant with any satisfactory conclusions, either of a practical or of a theoretical nature; or, that it furnishes any immediate proof of the triumph of those scientifc principles which I am labouring to inculcate: but it may, at least, aford materials for a very interesting speculation on the incitements and sources of that spe-

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cies of imitative action, by which certain defnable organs of the human frame are enabled to convey, with tolerable precision and accuracy, the impressions of one mind to the apprehensions of another. I allude, of course, to the actions of the organs of speech: actions, in their ultimate phænomena, sufciently familiar to almost every human being; but the laws and operations of which have not, hitherto, attracted that degree of philosophical investigation to which, from the importance of their objects, they are, perhaps, entitled. Te physiology of these organs, by which the functions of elocution are carried on, has, for some years, been the object of my particular attention; and I am free to acknowledge, that, among the sources of that success with which my public Lectures on the Science and Practice of Elocution have been so generally encouraged, the most gratifying to my feelings, and the most stimulating to my hopes, is the notoriety of that relief which, in consequence of such attention, I have been enabled to extend to persons aficted with the most calamitous impediments; and even to those from whom the apparent caprices of nature have withheld some of the essential organs of enunciation. Till the case in question, indeed, an individual instance has not occurred, to which the principles of my science would not practically apply: and I began to persuade myself that, by a simple and easily communicable process, every human being, who had the gif of hearing, might readily be enabled to speak, with impressiveness and facility, at least, if not with elegance and harmony. But the case in question seems to present an exception to my conclusions; and, apparently, it defeats all theory. It is not so strictly speaking, a case either of defect or of impediment, as a instance of the imperfect developement, or non-application of the organs. It approximates more, in its phænomena, to the case of Peter the wild Boy, 22 or that of the unfortunate Savage of Aveyron,23 than to any of those examples, either of defective construction, or of irregular action, to which my principles have been hitherto applied. It is an instance, indeed, even more anomalous than either of those I have mentioned; inasmuch, as the child, in question, has been brought up in the bosom of civilized society, and yet exhibits all the negative phænomena of enunciative privation and ineptitude, which, in the former instances, are only accounted for, from the want of human association. Te early history of this case (as far as I have been able to ascertain the circumstances) is as follows: Augusta (one of the daughters of a very respectable gentleman, in the neighbourhood of Glasgow) was inoculated far the small-pox, when she was only three months old. Te disease, however, made its appearance with none of the mitigated symptoms which inoculation is intended to insure. It raged, on the contrary, with the utmost virulence; and disfgurement and blindness were the consequences. One of the eye-balls seems to have been completely obliterated by the disease, so that the closed and deeply sunken lids, far retiring into the socket, only mark the position where the visual organ should be. Te

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lower part of the other orb (which is sufciently obtrusive) appears to retain some small degree of sensibility to the presence of light; and thro the medium of this organ, it appears, that the diference between night and day is indistinctly perceptible; but no object of vision can either be distinguished or perceived. In addition to this calamitous privation, the poor child had, early, the misfortune of being deprived of its mother; and from circumstances, partly arising from necessary attentions to the management of a numerous family, and partly, perhaps, from mistaken calculations of the comfort and accommodation of the child herself, she seems to have been, for a considerable time at least, resigned to the exclusive, and almost secluded, care of a nurse, – who, perhaps, had not all the dispositions, and cannot be expected to have had all the knowledge and refection, which the peculiar circumstances of the nursling might require. One serious mistake, it is obvious, has been committed. It seems to have been the universal practice to direct and manage the unfortunate child by the sense of touch alone. No appeal seems to have been made to any of the other senses. Tat of hearing, in particular, seems so entirely to have been neglected, that the necessity of comprehending, and consequently of imitating, the distinctions of enunciated sound, seems hardly to have been presented. Te guiding hand seems, on every occasion, to have been substituted for the inviting voice. How much of the additional calamity is to be attributed to this cause, I shall not pretend to determine; but certain it is, that the poor child has attained her seventh year, without making any intelligible eforts towards the exercise of the faculty of speech. While I was at Glasgow, the observations I had occasion to make ‘on the Causes and Cure of Natural and Habitual Impediments,’ during my ‘Course of Lectures on the Science and Practice of Elocution,’ occasioned me to be applied to, by the father of this unfortunate child; and I accordingly visited her, in company with a medical friend, of philosophical and scientifc celebrity, whose curiosity, like my own, was considerably excited by the particulars we had heard of this very extraordinary case. Of the dreadful ravages which the virus of the small-pox had made, it may easily be inferred, from the facts already stated, that the child presented a very lamentable spectacle. Her general health, however, did not appear to be afected. Her growth and proportions are remarkably beyond the ordinary standard of her years; and her robust and masculine fgure formed a most striking contrast to the delicate symmetry of two beautiful and diminutive sisters, the smallest of which was but two years younger than herself. Her animal spirits appeared to be high and irregular; and she was full of boisterous activity; which, sometimes, approached almost to ferceness, and, sometimes, subsided into absolute inattention, and apparent inanity. In these transitions, however, and this wildness of deportment, neither my professional friend nor myself could discover

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any indications, either of defciency or derangement of the sensorial faculty, that could account for the want of articulative utterance, – even if defciencies and derangements of that description, could be admitted as sufcient solutions of the phænomenon. Te mingled boldness and precaution with which she climbed over the tables and other furniture; the skill with which she balanced herself upon the seats and backs and frames of the chairs, which she successively inverted, in all possible directions; and the address with which she recovered herself, when in danger of losing her equilibrium, conspired, with a variety of other feats and circumstances, to preclude all idea of any other degree of imbecility, than the mere complicated privations of vision and discourse might naturally be expected to produce. Nor can any inferences be drawn that would invalidate this conclusion, from her intervals of apparent inanity: if inanity that can be called, which is evidently nothing more than the pause of physical exhaustion, when boisterous exertion has fatigued her muscles, or dissipated her animal spirits. Ten, indeed, she seats herself upon the ground, and, swaying her head from side to side, with a sort of sinuous oscillation, begins to beat time with her lef knee, while she hums, in a low and plaintive tone, a sort of imperfect tune: always, I believe, the same, though of this 1 cannot be certain. It is only when she is thus amusing herself, that the unfortunate Augusta appears, at all, interesting. Te deformity of feature, produced by the original disease, is, probably, in more respects than one, an aggravation of the calamities of this unhappy child. Imagination has something to do, even with the best feelings of our nature; its associations mingle with the active operations of our most imperious duties; and few, indeed, are the human beings whose sympathies are so abstractedly correct, as to require no assistance from its alliance. Such assistance, the person of this poor child is little calculated to aford; and the vehemence of her actions and gesture is not likely to counteract the impression which her appearance inevitably produces. But when, tired of jumping and tearing about, she sits herself down to murmur her inarticulate song, the mournful monotony of her action, and the expression of her voice (which, though not harmonious, is most appropriately melancholy) fnd their way irresistibly to the heart. And certainly, there is nothing in the whole phænomena of this melancholy employment that can justify the idea, either of physical imbecility, or derangement. Te monotony of the action and the tone are indeed peculiarities: but, in these, I can discover no other indication than of the efort of a mind, contracted in its sphere of activity by physical privations, to vary, according to its narrow means, its occupations and its amusements. But if idiotism, or if derangement, be not the cause that has precluded this unfortunate child from the use of speech, to what other circumstance shall we attribute the privation?

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Te persuasion of the family seems to be – that this second and more aggravated calamity has resulted from the ravages of the same disease which deprived the infant of its sight. As a secondary consequence, this may, perhaps, have been the case; but, of the primary or physical operation of the virus upon any of the organs essential to oral intercourse, there is certainly not the slightest appearance. Te hearing of the child, does not seem to be afected. She is, evidently, conscious to the general impressions of sound; and she even appears to be interested by particular tunes, and some of the movements of instrumental music. Tat the vocal organs are sufciently perfect, is equally obvious, from the vociferations and noises of all kinds which she so frequently utters. Te enunciative organs also appeared, upon inspection, to be complete in every portion of their structure. Tat they were so, indeed, would have been sufciently evident, even if no such inspection had been made; for, amid the variety of unmeaning noises, with which she occasionally amuses herself, all the elements of enunciation may be distinctly heard: nor is there an individual simple sound (whether labial, lingual, palatial, nasal, or guttural) out of which, the combinations of verbal language should be formed, which she does not repeatedly pronounce. Whether from this chaos of original elements, the creations of intelligible speech will ever arise, I own I am exceedingly doubtful. It cannot be disguised, that this is one of those cases which would require much more attention than, from the nature of the circumstances, it is practicable that it should receive. Cases so completely anomalous, are only to be understood by long and minute observation; and remedies, if practicable, are only to be expected from the persevering assiduity of an intelligent superintendant, capable of suggesting, and patient enough to conduct, a long and consistent series of experiments: – a superintendant, who could descend to all the minutiae of ministration and attendance, and who had sufcient authority over the whole household, to preclude all thwartings and interruptions of the necessary plans, either from the prejudices of ignorance, or the impatience of unseasonable doubt. All that I could do, therefore, in the present instance, was to give a few simple rules for the future regulation of the child; the principal object of which was to divert, if possible, to the sense of hearing, that internal attention, which, from the error of education, had, hitherto, been concentrated to the sense of touch alone. I had the greater reason to confde in the probability of some efect from these regulations, if they could have been observed, because, to me, at least, it was apparent, that my frequent repetitions of the English salutation, ‘How do you do?’ (a salutation to which her ears had never been familiarized) had produced (during the twenty-four hours that I staid in the house on my frst visit) an imitative efort, which expressed itself in an indistinct How do? which, it appeared to me, she applied as a sort of name, or term, associated in her mind with the impressions she had received of my distinct and personal identity. On my second visit, the same ejaculation again

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was uttered; yet I could not learn that any such exclamation had been observed in my absence. A circumstance, from which I drew a very diferent conclusion, from those which were inferred by the persons who are usually around her. I was apprehensive, however, at the time, that my regulations would never be attended to, with sufcient perseverance and precision; and, during my second visit, they were violated, before my face, by the negligence, or the perverseness, of a domestic, who, naturally enough, despised a restriction, the tendency of which she could not comprehend. As this was, in reality, no more than I expected, my only animadversion was – never to call again. Such are the few and unsatisfactory particulars I am able to communicate respecting this unhappy case. Unsatisfactory, however, as they are, they add one more to the small number of facts that seem to furnish land-marks for an inquiry into the causes that facilitate, and those which preclude the developement of the faculty of speech.’ Te publication of this case excited some curiosity, and occasioned me several communications, and interesting conversations, with enlightened professional men; and with other persons, of a benevolent and philosophical turn of mind. Among these, a very respectable and meritorious practitioner, Mr. Harrison, of Kendal, where my family then resided, communicated to me the particulars of another, but very dissimilar case, of speechlessness; which he, aferwards, procured me an opportunity of examining. Relative to this, I also made the following short communication to the same miscellany.

Case of a poor Man, speechless fom Epilepsy and organic Imbecility. ‘As the pen is in my hand, I will just mention another fact, not entirely irrelevant to the subject of my last communication. Shortly afer I had transmitted to you the case of the unfortunate Augusta, an instance was mentioned to me, in the course of conversation, of a poor man, in this part of the country, who, to all efective purposes, may be regarded as speechless; but, in whom, no apparent cause of such privation could be discovered in the structure of the organs, either vocal or enunciative; and who had arrived at the age of thirty years, without any other verbal language, than a very imperfect yes and no, and two or three indistinct and monosyllabic ejaculations. As the individual, to whom this report related, resides at no great distance, I had the curiosity to visit him; but I no sooner beheld him, than I was, irresistibly, convinced – that his was a case, essentially and totally, distinct from that of the unfortunate Augusta. If, in her contour, her features and her deportment, no marks of idiocy could be traced; in his, they were stamped with the most characteristic evidence: – Te small and misproportioned scull; the dark rayless eyes, staring almost from the top of the

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forehead; the long prominent nose; the huge slavering mouth, and the whole line and proportions of the lower part of the head and face, so excessively too large for the upper, were indications not to be overlooked. In short, epilepsy and imbecility were written in such legible characters in his physiognomy, that every observer of nature must read them, as soon as he is seen. Nor was the conclusion, in my mind, less decisive, as to the comparative case, than as to that which was immediately under consideration. If defciency and derangement of the sensorial or intellectual faculty, be the cause of the speechlessness of this poor man, of the similar defect, in the unfortunate Augusta, they, assuredly, are not. Never were cases more featurally distinct: in the form of her head and face, (mangled as the latter is) are all the lines and expressions of undeveloped capacity; in his, the total absence of every thing from which rational faculty could be presumed. But a practical question arises from the case under consideration: – How far is it usual for idiocy to operate in the preclusion of the faculty of speech? Tat it must contract the sphere of exercise of that faculty, is, indeed, sufciently obvious; for speech can never extend beyond the limits of memory, of perception and idea. But, that it should preclude the individual from learning and using the terms that relate to his animal wants and customary operations, does not, from such observations as I have been able to make, seem necessarily or generally to ensue. If any of your correspondents could furnish me with any facts that might elucidate this question, I should feel myself much obliged to them: – the more especially as the ascertainment of this point, besides its professional application, would throw considerable light upon a very interesting inquiry; namely, How far man is indebted for the invention and exercise of the faculty of speech, to the original superiority of his intellectual powers; and, how far those intellectual powers are themselves derivable fom his physical and exclusive faculty of enunciative utterance.’ Te comparison of these two cases, and of some others, less striking, tended, still further, to rivet in my mind, the distinction between moral and physical idiocy: – or, in other words, between those cases of imbecility, or imperfection, which were to be accounted for from the non-developement or derangement of the organic faculties, and those which resulted from absolute defects of physical nature: – from defciencies or disproportions in the organic structure. In the chain of reasoning I had adopted, upon the occasion, I was considerably encouraged, and, in my researches, considerably assisted, by my philosophical friend, Mr. John Gough; and, urged, at once, by a sense of the importance of the inquiry, and the sanction of his coincidence, I meditated the design of a regular treatise and classifcation of the Causes of Idiocy, and of the phænomena by which the contra-distinctions alluded to, might be clearly and satisfactorily ascer-

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tained. Professional engagements, however, have hitherto prevented, and may, probably, for ever prevent, the full execution of my design: for this is not an age of encouragement for works of elaborate research and real practical utility. Te genius of the Trade of Literature, is, necessarily, unfriendly to such productions. Tat species of patronage which Dr. Johnson has, so authoritatively, panegyrized, can never ofer to them the prospect of remuneration without which they cannot rationally be expected to be produced. A bookseller can give, and ought to give, no more for any work, than it is worth, as an article of trade, upon the calculation of a quick return, and a substantial proft. Te man, therefore, who does not merely sit down to the compilation of a book, because a book is wanted in the market, and he has no other proftable employment for his time, – but who theorizes only because theory is thrust upon him by the necessity, or the habit of meditating on what he professionally observes, – and who submits his theory to the labour of experimental analysis, for the improvement of his professional practice, can seldom aford the sacrifce of time necessary for committing his discoveries to paper; or the still more expensive gratifcation – (for such the author who is his own publisher will generally fnd it) of communicating them, thro the press, to the world. So that those who have the best opportunities of making and ascertaining the validity of useful discoveries, will, pretty generally, be necessitated to sufer their science to perish with them: or, at best, to survive them only in the imperfect remembrance of those to whom it may have been imparted, thro the accident of familiar association. It is not to be disguised, Sir, that to these general discouragements, there are, also, to be added – particular and personal obstructions to my design. Prejudices and fears are very obstinate things; and in the treatment of Impediments of Speech, I should have been obliged to learn (even if I had met with no other opportunities of conning such a lesson) – that when a diseased association has once been formed, it is another labour to be added to those of Hercules, efectually to dissolve that association, and to replace it by one of order and sanity. If interested design, or simple wantonness should once have dressed up a lamb in the hide of a tiger, there are people in the world (perhaps not a few) who would never hear the bleatings of his voice again, without some degree of panic and terror. And some there are (even among those who ought to have more understanding) who, because, fourteen years ago, I was a zealous (or, if they please, an intemperate) advocate for parliamentary reform, and would not have staked the existence of Europe in a war against the French Revolution, continue to be in a war against the French Revolution, continue to be alarmed at my system, of Elocution, and my plans for the rescue of my unhappy fellow beings from Idiocy and Eccentric Derangement. Tere are some who think – I ought not to notice these prejudices. But I never yet knew a prejudice put down by silent acquiescence: and I shall not disguise from you, Sir, or from the world – the proud conscious-

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ness I feel – that, when the record shall be consulted of what I have done in the paths of that profession – to which (since the relinquishment of politics) I have opened myself a way, – the rational part of mankind will unanimously exclaim (whatever they may think of former transactions) – that I ought not (on that account) to have been prevented from doing more. ––––––––––––– Te interest taken by Mr. Gough in the case of Augusta, was as strong as it was natural. Blind himself, from infancy, from the same physical cause to which the original calamity of that unfortunate child is attributable, and remembering the eforts by which he had been induced to make his remaining faculties supply his organic defciency, he was, at once, disposed and qualifed to estimate the validity of my inductions. Te following important communication was the frst fruit of the interest thus inspired.

Case of a Child rendered speechless by seclusion and indulgence, and aferwards attaining the use of Speech, by being placed under new circumstances; with illustrative facts, &c. communicated by Mr. GOUGH. Middleshaw, July 29, 1804. SIR, I have been perusing your narrative of a girl who lost her sight when three months old, and remained dumb, in the literal sense of the word, at the unusual age of seven years. Te account is interesting, to me at least; because it appears to favour opinions of my own, relating to the expansion of the intellectual powers during infancy, as well as the radical causes of idiotism. You will perceive from what has been said already, that I am going to submit a theory of these important phænomena to your consideration. Perhaps it will prove a matter of surprise, when you fnd my fundamental notions in perfect unison with the theoretic hints of your communication to the Monthly Magazine; but such coincidences confrm an hypothesis; because truth, being a simple object, will not admit of repugnant conclusions. In all probability you assign the true cause of the poor child’s misfortune, when you ascribe her want of speech to the negligence or ignorance of those who superintended the education of her infant years: for the germs of the intellectual powers appear to be unfolded, and the use of the bodily organs is dictated, by a species of necessity, resulting from constitutional propensities, or the modes of existence which Nature has imposed upon us. Tis proposition may be elucidated by facts: for man is evidently formed for society, and shows a strong partiality for the reciprocal duties and pleasures of it, in his tenderest years. Hence arises a potent motive, or necessity, which obliges him to associate with his fellow

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beings, the very moment he is able to recognise them; as well as to copy their manners, and to learn the use of his own organs, from imitation. Perhaps the imbecility of infancy renders the temper pliant, and prepares the mind for that degree of subsequent improvement, which characterizes the human species. In this point of view, the intellectual powers may be compared to certain plants, that require the support of a neighbouring shrub, to ensure their prosperity. Te pains and pleasures, the duties and interests of society constitute the highly ramifed tree, to which the mind clings thro life; and for every twig of which it has a tendril in the frst years of its existence. Should then an infant have the misfortune to be placed in a situation, which refuses him access to the prop of society, he must grovel in the dust, like the unsupported vine, and never arrive at perfection. Sickness, infrmity, and mutilation can do a great deal towards secluding a child from the intercourse of his species; and the mistaken care of a nurse, as well as her negligence, it is to be feared, too frequently completes the mischief, and terminates in the awful catastrophe of idiotism. Nothing is more to be dreaded in the education of an infrm or mutilated infant, than injudicious tenderness, or a premature persuasion, that he is incapable of improvement. Either of these mistakes is almost certain of laying the foundation of mental imbecility; by permitting him to rest satisfed with the exercise of those faculties only, which respect his own person. A plan of tuition of a very diferent aspect ought to be pursued in such a case; his attention should be diverted from himself to society, and social appetites ought to be created in him. Tese are the causes, that can alone compel him to an exertion of his latent powers; an attempt, which, in all likelihood, he will never make, as long as his wants are supplied without an efort on his own part, and all his conceptions are merely of a selfsh nature. I remember an instance of a girl, who aforded a striking example of a faulty education. She had been lef, in early infancy, almost entirely to the care of an aged couple; who allowed her to signify her wants by signs, without obliging her to have recourse to words. Tis folly (for it deserves no better name) had its necessary consequences: the girl remained destitute of speech at the age of fve years; although she could form most of the elementary sounds composing the English language. Her fortune, however, eventually surpassed that of your Augusta; for she was sent to the knitting-school, which is a common receptacle for the poor children of Kendal. Here she became a member of a society, which would not or could not understand her gestures. Another motive, in addition to this difculty, compelled her to the proper exercise of her vocal organs: she began to relish the pursuits, as well as to copy the manners, of her companions. Tese circumstances, joined to the ridicule of her new friends, showed her the necessity of conversation; and she learned to converse accordingly. Te facts, that have been related above, show what mischief may be done to the faculties by an improper education; and how easily the injury is corrected

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by a fortunate concurrence of moral causes. Te inference resulting from the premises, appears to be evident; namely, that abstraction from society, or a total indiference to human afairs, during infancy, will unavoidably terminate in idiotism; which habit will confrm, unless the propensity to negligence be counteracted in time. Mr. White24 has perpetuated the memory of an idiot (in his Natural History of Selborne) whose conduct proves that this worst of human evils does not spring, in all cases, from want of mental energy. Te infatuated boy, described by this pleasing author, was in the habit of sleeping away the winter in the chimney corner; regardless of the family, and all its interests. But his season of action returned with the spring: when he sallied forth, with no better purpose than that of hunting bees and with no better purpose than that of hunting bees and wasps; which he caught with surprising address, disarmed them with his naked hands, and sucked their bodies. Nay, the ungovernable appetite of this youth for honey, frequently impelled him into the gardens of his neighbours, with a view to disturb the bees, by tapping at the hives; on which occasions, he seized the inhabitants, and devoured them for their honey bags. Was there not a time, when the activity and ingenuity of this young idiot might have been diverted to nobler designs? was it not, once, possible to prevail with him, to cultivate commerce, agriculture, or science with the same degree of ardour, which he manifested in the persecution of these armed insects? But taste is every thing, with man; and when the pursuits of a child infuence him to quit society for solitary enjoyment, he is in danger of falling into idiotisim. Nothing can be more fatal to the future prospects of an infant, than the limited application of his powers to a single object or pursuit. Being a stranger in the world, it is his business to examine every thing; for, if the morning of life be spent in inattentive indolence, the day of his sublunary existence may be expected to pass away in stupidity. In one of my rambles through this county, in search of natural curiosities, I met with a moral phænomenon, illustrative of the preceding maxim. Tis was a man between thirty and forty years old, who was speechless, and dressed in petticoats. He possessed all his senses; his frame was robust, his gait frm, and his voice masculine. Notwithstanding these accomplishments, he was the mere shell of a man; totally devoid of intellect. His whole business consisted in following his mother, from place to place; whose steps he attended with the assiduity of a shadow. All his attention was directed to this aged person; whose hand had fed him from the hour of his birth to that moment; and whose care to anticipate his wants did not appear to be abated by time. His constitution had been attacked by strong convulsions at an early period; and though his limbs and senses recovered from the shock, his mind became stationary.

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I will not venture to assign the cause of this melancholy event; but there is too much reason to suspect, that he had been reduced by injudicious tenderness, to the state of a parasitical being, not less dependant on parental protection, than the Misletoe is on the Oak, that nourishes it. Before this time, I had frequently attempted in vain, to defne the attributes due to the sleepy Gods of Epicurus; but, afer contemplating this man of abstraction, I did not hesitate to honour him with the encomium, which Lucretius25 bestows on the divine nature: Ipsa suis pollens opibus, nihil indiga nostri, Nec bene promeritis capitur, nec tangitur irâ. Nought here below, nought in our power it needs; Ne’er smiles at good, ne’er frowns at wicked deeds. CREECH.

It would be folly to enter into a disquisition relating to the divine idiots of the Greek Philosopher, when I have other observations remaining, apparently of greater moment. Te concurrent privation of Sight and Hearing would produce a degree of idiotism; which could not be reclaimed; because of the impossibility of exciting imitation in a person so circumstanced. But I have the pleasure to say – that senses imperfect in the aggregate, do not, in certain cases, seclude a human being from his species. A man died, in Kendal, not more than two years ago; who had been half paralysed, at an early period, in almost every sense and limb; but he was not an idiot, otherwise than in appearance: for he attached himself to society; and necessity compelled him to accommodate the remains of his faculties to the narrow scale of his circumstances. Tis fortunate conduct made him an useful member of the community; which he served diligently, in the performance of the lowest ofces; never refusing a petty employment, that promised emolument. He conducted himself with a great deal of ill-temper towards children; by whom he was perpetually teased; at the same time he paid a kind of awkward courtesy to those who treated him with kindness; for gratitude was a prominent feature in his character. If the principles of the preceding theory be just, they inspire us with a rational hope, that idiotism may be prevented by judicious treatment. In fact, the improbability of the tale of Cymon and Iphigenia26 does not consist in the conversion of an idiot into a hero; tho we feel some difculty in conceiving how such a being could fall in love. Notwithstanding this objection, circumstances have produced wonderful revolutions in besotted minds, if any credit be due to Ancient History. I must now conclude with a wish, that it may be your study to give practical importance to the theoretic ideas, which have occurred to you, as well as the author of this. JOHN GOUGH.

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Mr. Gough had an eye, perhaps, in the concluding paragraph, upon the story of the dumb son of Crsus. An anecdote, which, tho it is impossible to give credit to it, in its literal extent, may, perhaps, have had some foundation. Many a convulsive stammerer will, occasionally, under the infuence of powerful impression, give clear and distinct utterance to some short exclamatory sentence. Even the unfortunate and speechless savage of Aveyron, could articulate La-la, in the presence of an attractive object, who nearly bore that name; and the son of Crsus was perhaps a stammerer; who, during the momentary energy, excited by the danger of his father, gave an unpremeditated demonstration – that he might, under proper management, have been excited to the full developement of the faculty of speech. A few months afer the receipt of the above communication, I was favoured by the same gentleman with the following

Case of moral Idiocy, &c. SIR, Middleshaw, Oct. 3, 1804. I forgot to mention, in the course of our conversation respecting Idiotism, a remarkable female idiot, who died but a few days ago, in Kendal. An intelligent friend has procured for me several facts relating to this woman, by inquiry from her sister. His information is just come to hand, and the following is the substance of it, with certain remarks of my own. M. Barker was the eldest child of Tomas Barker, many years sexton of the parish of Kendal. About the time she began to walk, her parents observed in her a love of solitude; which she indicated by a propensity for retiring into by corners. A gentleman of the faculty, being consulted, afer observing her actions, pronounced her to be an idiot, and therefore incurable. I will not pretend to say how far this sentence, which was pronounced on the child, infuenced the future fortune of the woman; there are circumstances, however, which argue strongly, that her friends had no reason to impute the mental imbecility of their ofspring to the caprice or negligence of Nature. She was a healthy infant; her limbs, and particularly her head, were no way misformed. She laboured under no bodily infrmity, except the tooth-ache, and a severe attack of a fever, in her thirtieth year. Having given you this short account of her physical condition, I come in the next place to relate what my friend has collected relative to her moral character; which her parents considered to be natural, probably on the authority of the physician: for the qualities of her constitution, which have been already described, did not at all favour the opinion. But before I enter upon this part of the account, it will be proper to mention, that her sight and hearing were good, and her other senses were supposed to be perfect.

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Her employment consisted wholly in collecting dust and small stones in the churchyard, which she let fall through her fngers again, either on the ground or into her apron. When the weather would not permit her to pursue this favourite employment in the open air, she repaired to the freside, where the fragments of the fuel and the ashes supplied a good substitute for pebbles and earth. Trough life she always appeared to be the happiest when alone, and constantly sought the most retired parts of the churchyard, to avoid the intrusion of children and passengers. So great was the abstraction of this solitary being, that she showed not the least attachment to any person living; nor did the pleasures, misfortunes, or sorrows of her friends give her the least concern. My friend has furnished me with a striking proof of her apathy in this respect. Her aged father was unfortunately burned in his bed by her mother, who was almost as old and infrm as her husband; this awful catastrophe did not at all afect their idiot daughter. To her hearing was perfect, she never spoke in her life; at which I do not wonder much: for a person who has no business with society, has no need of conversation; and we have no reason to suppose that imitation will compel a child to learn an art for which he has no use, and in which he feels not any interest. Tis proposition is demonstrated by the conduct of those men who have been accustomed to hear songs and music almost every day, but have never acquired the habit of producing melody, of practising the notes of the gamut with their own vocal organs. Perhaps imitation is not, properly speaking, a faculty of human nature, but a motive resulting from the connection which Education obliges man to form with society: if, then, accident prevent an individual from cultivating this salutary connection, he must remain destitute of that motive which brings him, by a kind of necessity, to the form and habits of a social being. M. Barker, whom I seem to forget at present, was always fed by the hands of her friends. Oat bread was her favourite food; and, as of as she could procure it herself, she crammed a quantity of it into her mouth, which it was necessary to remove by force, to prevent sufocation. Her friends, also, dressed her; and, on these occasions, she exhibited a symptom of knowledge which is not uncommon with infants not more than twelve or thirteen months old; for she would have held out her arms that her gown and other clothes might be put on with the greater ease. My friend has also preserved another proof of her recollection. Not long before her death, her aged mother, who was sick in bed, attempted to raise herself by help of her daughter’s chair, which stood near her; and overturned it, and the idiot in it, by the efort. Tis accident terrifed the poor creature so much, that she could never aferwards be prevailed upon to sit by the side of the bed. She had no fear of remaining alone in a dark place; but expressed great apprehension upon being removed from one place to another, in the night time, without a candle. Te sight of the river terrifed her much, but she had not the

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least dread of fre; the reason of this is not very apparent. It might arise from the former being a strange, and the latter a familiar object; but perhaps some fact in her history is unknown to me, which would aford a better explanation of her aversion to running water. A being so secluded from society may be reasonably supposed to have passed her life in a state of great equanimity; and I am accordingly informed, that she enjoyed an uniformity of temper, which was but rarely rufed, to the day of her death, which happened in the year 1801, and the 61st of her age. Te preceding narrative contains all the facts, which my friend has transmitted to me, relating to M. Barker. Her history afords a surprising example of total inattention to those afairs and pursuits which engage the minds and form the dispositions of the bulk of mankind. We may ask, What could lead her into such a line of conduct? seeing her senses were perfect, and she enjoyed the common opportunities to learn. Te question cannot be satisfactorily answered, for want of more minute particulars. Perhaps the characters, the opinions, and the conduct of the parents, in respect to her, would have thrown great light on this interesting inquiry. My narrative, however, has its use, though it is defective. Te philosopher, who happens to contemplate a character of this description, in whom he can fnd no physical imperfection, will perceive many reasons which will induce him to suspect, that this species of imbecility ought not to be attributed to Nature, but to moral causes. Te natural fool difers, in many respects, from the moral idiot. His capacity is limited by some imperfection in his organs; but he feels an attachment to society; and this motive obliges him to cultivate his mutilated talents. Te two characters ought, therefore, to be distinguished by appropriate names; and the English language will admit of the distinction. Te man who is prevented from acquiring knowledge by a constitutional defect, may be called a natural: on the other hand, the being who neglects to join himself to society, or has never been induced to join in social exertion, may be denoted by the appellation of a moral idiot. Tis classifcation may prove of use to those who are desirous of investigating the subject; for in considering the case of a particular idiot, it will be necessary, in the frst place, to determine whether he possesses the characteristics of a natural or of a moral idiocy; and this may be learned with some degree of probability, both from his manners and his conformation. If he is attached to society, but cannot join in the exercise of the social functions, I should not hesitate to pronounce him a natural; on the other hand, if all his views be confned to his own person, I should feel little scruple to call him a moral idiot – provided he was known to possess the full use of his corporeal senses. ‘JOHN GOUGH.’ –––––––––––––

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In the general reasoning of Mr. Gough, upon these cases, I dare say, Sir, you will think with me, – that there is sufcient reason for agreeing: particularly in that part which relates to the non-efciency of the mere principle of imitation. It is true, indeed, that imitation to a certain extent, that is to say, so far as it is stimulated or acted upon by some feeling of desire or necessity, may, in the generality of instances, be relied upon; and, the habit once formed, – it seems, in many respects, to operate upon the youthful organs, even without the aid of consciousness. But, afer all, it will be found, upon examination, that Imitation, like every other species of exertion, requires the stimulus of motive; and, as it is obvious (from whatever cause) that diferent individuals are, from the frst, and throughout the whole of their lives, susceptible, in diferent degrees, to the infuence of very diferent kinds of stimuli; and that, for excitement to the same actions, very diferent motives must, therefore, be presented. It follows, of course, that a very important part of the Science of Education, in general, – and, in cases of tardy developement and apparent ineptitude of any of the faculties, in particular, must consist in discovering and applying, in every instance, the kind of stimuli, most calculated for efective operation. But there are certain general necessities, arising out of the mere animal appetites, which ought never to be overlooked; and which, properly managed, may be made instrumental (even in cases the most unfavourable) to a considerable degree, at least, if not to the perfect developement of several of the organic faculties. But, if the blind child be to have its food, regularly and silently put into its mouth, on the frst indication, or suspicion, of want, – if the little fondling be to sit, for ever, on the solitary lap, and have all its wants anticipated, – if the honey is to be procured by the mute efort of solitary ingenuity, instead of being socially presented, as a motive for some proper species of exertion, without which it is not to be procured, – what wonder if the requisite imitations never be excited, and if what was, at frst, mere partial ineptitude, or partial defciency of organic structure, be matured into speechlessness and Moral Idiocy? I am afraid that many an indulgent mamma (in every class of society, from the lowest to the highest,) might make a feeling application of the general reasoning of this paragraph; and recollect how ofen, by an idle indulgence of every appetite, and mischievous anticipation of every want, she has diminished the motives, and precluded the opportunities for the developement of the organic and moral faculties of her darling: – nay, how much she may have contributed to that partial derangement or intellectual perturbation, which, tho it doom not its victim absolutely to a strawbed and a strait waistcoat, beclouds, at once, the intellect and the happiness of all his future days. You will perceive, Sir, that there is nothing in this system that runs counter to the admission of serious original diferences of facility and aptitude for developement, in the organic, moral and intellectual faculties of diferent individuals. I not only admit – that there are such diferences; but the very jut and object of

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my disquisition, is – the necessity of a systematic observance of such diferences, and of a mode of management applicable to them, in all their varieties. I admit, also, that these diferences must, frequently, be assigned to what maybe called occult causes – to causes that lie not only beyond the reach of superfcial observation, but (in our present state of knowledge) beyond the reach, also, of scientifc research. But, at the same time, I contend, Sir, that, as it seems to have been demonstrated, by innumerable facts, not only of human; but also of comparative anatomy, that there is a certain conformation, or proportion, that seems, almost universally, associated with certain portions or degrees of intellectual capability; while other modes of Conformation, or, if you please, of disproportion, are universally indicative of the want of such capability; we ought not, in any case, where the pravity of desirable conformation is not indisputable and conspicuous, hastily to conclude, that any apparent ineptitude or defciency (whether it be of speech, or of any other faculty) is to be regarded as assignable to constitutional, or irremovable causes, and beyond the reach of educational melioration. Some facts collected, upon very good authority, in the neighbourhood of Carlisle, and some observations I had, there, an opportunity of making, perhaps, may furnish further landmarks, for the establishment of those discriminations which should be the guides of practice in such cases. Mr. James, a respectable medical practitioner of that city, related to me, in a very interesting conversation, the following

Case of Two Children rendered Speechless to a very protracted Age, by Habit and Imitation. Te late Rev. Mr. Bird, a clergyman in that part of the country, had two sons, who were twins. He had, also, residing with him, a father, who was deaf and dumb. Te fondness of the grandfather occasioned the infants to be much with him: and, from the necessities arising out of this intercourse, the twins were early initiated into the language of signs, in which they became prematurely expert. But having learned one sort of language, to which everybody paid a willing and prompt attention, it was observed – that they made no eforts towards acquiring another; and when they were between three and four years of age, neither of them could speak at all. Te father, accordingly, became alarmed; and experiments were tried upon their hearing, which was found to be sufciently perfect. Te cause of their speechlessness was, therefore, apparent; and Mr. B. had the good sense and resolution to remove the cause, by prohibiting, entirely, the language of signs in the presence of his children, and resolutely insisting – that their signs should not be attended to. Te experiment, regularly followed up, at length succeeded; and the children both came to speak as distinctly and clearly as other children do. One of them had died about a year before the time of my visit to

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Carlisle, the other was then about thirteen; pursuing his studies, in a classical seminary; and I understood him to be possessed of a very clear enunciation, and to be regarded as a lad of some promise. ––––––––– If the relation of this case gave additional confrmation to my theory – that Speechlessness, when neither resulting from idiocy nor deafness, is, in reality, a malady of non-developement of faculty, assignable to educational causes, – or, in other words, to negligence or mistaken management, the impression was not at all weakened, by another case, to a personal acquaintance with which I was introduced by this same gentleman.

Case of permanent Speechlessness fom temporary Deafness. J. I – , then fve years of age, only son of Mr. I. of the Cofee-House, Carlisle, when he was about thirteen months old (at which time he had only begun to make use of the primary monosyllables that, from the facility of their utterance, have come, by universal consent, to indicate parental relationship) was visited by a complication of maladies – particularly by the infuenza, which deprived him of the sense of hearing. Nor did he, from that time, betray any symptom of the consciousness of sound, till he was between three and four years old; when, a barrel organ playing in the street, he was obviously, afected to attention and pleasure; which he indicated by imitating some of the sounds with his mouth. He had continued ever since to be delighted with such music as came in his way; to be attracted by the drum and ffe; but much more sensibly interested by the military band. Tese particulars I collected in conversation with his family, and in his presence. I myself observed that he was obviously sensible to the diference of voices, and to the direction from which any voice proceeded: – for when he was standing at his mother’s knee, between Mr. J. and myself, he turned round alternately to him and to me, as one or the other of us was speaking. Te family of the child, however, were frmly riveted in the strange persuasion – that tho he has an ear for sounds, he has none for the enunciation of speech; nor could I fnd that any experiments had been tried, or that there was the least disposition for trying any, to ascertain – how far his susceptibility to the varieties of musical sound proceeded. All that could be collected on the subject, was only the result of casual observation, and of the efect of such impressions as had been accidentally produced. Te boy was a remarkably fne child – well made – well grown, and active; with an eye quick, intelligent and observant; and he had as fne a contour as Lavater himself could have wished to look upon. All his organs of voice and

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enunciation were evidently perfect; tho, in point of language, he had proceeded no further than when his malady, frst assailed him, in his thirteenth month. ‘Tis case’ (I quote from the memoranda in my note book – made upon the spot, while the whole phænomena and circumstances were fresh in my remembrance.) – ’Tis case appears to me, to be a plain one. Te temporary necessity resulting from two years of deafness, having induced a habit, among all around him, to direct him, entirely, by signs and the sense of touch, produced in him, also, the imitative habit of expressing his wants by the same means; and the sense of hearing having been so long suspended, all attention to the cultivation of the organs of that sense has been abandoned, from an impression (and such impressions are, in general, too easily adopted) that every thing that related to that faculty was hopeless and irretrievable. Tus, the child not having either the ordinary excitements to vocal imitation, or the ordinary inducements of necessity for learning the use of the organs of speech, the enunciative faculties remain undeveloped. A pull by the coat, the apron, or the arm, expressed his importunity: – and that expression is always attended to. A sign with his hand, or a shake of his head, makes known the object of his wish; – if injudicious solicitude do not even anticipate his desire. A stamp with his foot, or the ejaculation ‘boy,’ or ‘baw!’ obtains him the attention he wishes, when those to whom it is addressed, are out of his reach, or looking another way; and I observed, also, that he was not at all backward in laying the full weight of his hand on any person whom he thought not sufciently attentive to his commands.’ Te house is well frequented by people of the frst consequence; some of whom, it seems, have undertaken to provide for the child, at the Deaf and Dumb School. Te project, accordingly, I understood, was to abandon his sense of hearing, as altogether hopeless, and send him, as soon as he was old enough, to what I should regard, for his particular case, as the most unft and mischievous situation he could possibly be placed in. At any rate, it appeared to me, that as he was yet not old enough for such consignment, in the intermediate time, something else ought to be attempted; and I strenuously recommended, that, at any rate, he should be removed immediately from home, and from the intercourse of all those who would be likely, so promptly, to understand his signs and inarticulate exclamations. Te project I most particularly recommended (as there was then no Institution, or existing arrangement for professional superintendence, adapted to his particular case) was to place him at some distant school, where there were many boys of his own age; and among whom he would not only be induced, but compelled, to make some efort for the developement of his neglected, for I cannot yet consider it as an extinguished faculty. I backed my recommendation, by relating to his family the parallel case communicated by Mr. Gough. Te medical gentleman who accompanied me, and, also, Dr. James, a physician in Carlisle, coincided with me in the opinion I had formed; and

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undertook to enforce my advice: with what success, however, I know not: – for want of leisure has prevented me from keeping up the profered correspondence, not only in that but in many an interesting direction. Dr. James, also, brought to my apartments, for the purpose of further elucidation and conference, an unfortunate girl; the circumstances and phænomena of whose afiction will sufciently contradistinguish her case from the one already narrated.

Case of Privation of Speech fom Epilepsy. Elizabeth Bell, aged ten years, daughter of Mr. Bell, farmer, at Mellgard, about seven miles from Carlisle, in the road from Penrith, till about the end of her eighth year, possessed all the customary faculties of children: – spoke fuently, was alert and docile, and enjoyed, apparently, a good state of constitution. About that time, she began to be aficted with fts; which appear to have been epileptic. At frst, they occurred but rarely: there might, probably, be the best part of a month, or more, between the frst and second. Tey soon, however, became very frequent; – so that she had, ofen, fourteen or ffeen in a. night; and their occurrence became habitual; scarcely ever failing to visit her every night. It was only in her sleep that they attacked her; and, generally, towards the morning. In process of time, she became inert and indocile; and gradually lost her speech: so that, during the last six months, she had never been heard to utter any thing, but yes and no and mammy – (so she called her grandmother, – who, together with her father, came with her to me:) and this, but imperfectly. Her fts did not last more than a minute or two, at a time; and they lef no disposition to turbulence or outrage behind them. She was perfectly harmless – otherwise than not having the sense to keep herself from mischief. When her faculties began to fail, she fell into the habit of swallowing, with the greatest avidity, every improper thing she could grapple; and, in this way, devoured, at diferent times, a great number of pins. She would wander from home, and walk backwards and forwards, for hours, till she was ready to drop; or would go into any house that was in her way, without knowing any diference between it and her own. She had been some time, under the care of Dr. James, – who, about a fortnight before I saw her, among other applications, had tried the efect of powerful doses of calomel. Some efect seemed to have been produced by these; as, during the whole of the then preceding week, she had been free from fts; and, at the time I am speaking of, had not more than two in a night; and, during the last two or three days, she seemed to have had more feeling and consciousness than for some considerable time. During the preceding week, she had been occasionally seized with immoderate fts of laughter.

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Te child was large and full grown. All the lower portions, however, both of the face and body, appeared to be larger, and more bulky than the upper. Te head was not well formed: the lower part of the face being over heavy and prominent, in proportion to the upper. Te chin hung, and the mouth was glouting and slavering. Te face was feshy and pallid; the eyes ( of light blue) were large, staring and rayless; the skull had the appearance of being deprest; and there was very little tuberance behind. Te contour, however, was not, like that of the poor man whom I examined in company with Mr. Harrison, – that of original idiotism: ,tho the proper enlargement of the brain, and, consequently, that of the skull, (probably from the time when the attacks of epilepsy frst came on,) does not seem to have taken place. Te complexion and the physiognomy, altogether, and the disproportioned enlargement of the lower members, in part, reminded me, of some other melancholy cases I had witnessed of the fatal operations of early epilepsy. Te child seemed very little attentive to what was said; and was, of course, becoming less and less so, from the habit her father and grandmother had of holding her, perpetually, either upon or between their knees, guiding and moving her about by the hand, feeding her, like an infant, and ministering ofciously to her helplessness. She glared about, and fxed her eyes upon those who surrounded her, with a mingled look of frowning sullenness and staring vacancy; or whirled slowly around, with little variety of motion; or balanced herself, from side to side, with a restless pendulation of the head. Whatever she laid hold of, she put to her mouth, and wetted it with her saliva: even her father’s watch, which he desired her to put to her ear, she used in this manner; and would not even permit either that or Dr. James’s to be put against the organ of hearing. She seemed, indeed, to be unwilling to have that sense awakened; as her father informed me – that, when a cart or coach was passing by, she would clap her hands against her ears, and hold them there, pressed very tightly, for some time. Yet, when I spoke to her in a strong, frm, cheerful voice, it seemed to awaken her attention, more than any thing else had done; and by reiterated invitation, I prevailed upon her, without guidance or assistance, to come to me, and shake hands; tho she had done nothing, but by pushing and leading, under the direction of her father and grandame. From something that occurred in conversation, I thought it necessary to be very emphatic in my directions – that no blows or severity, or unnecessary restraint should be inficted upon her, under any pretence whatever; – that, as much as possible, they should endeavour to infuence her by only speaking to her; and should leave her to do every thing for herself, that she could possibly do. Beyond this, and regulations of this description, I considered it – (if a case of any hope, at all) to be one for Medical, rather than Elocutionary treatment; and I have introduced it here, not so much for the purpose of suggesting any mode

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of management, as to shew how strongly cases of this description are generally discriminated, in their phænomena, from those that belong to the physician of the mind. It is for the same reason, that I subjoin the following interesting

Case of general Disorganization of the Senses; fom the Infuence of the same Disease: communicated, also, by Dr. JAMES; and -which had been, for some time, under the superintendence of Mr. BRADLEY, of Carlisle: ‘A girl of about thirteen – daughter of a farmer in the West Holmes, being seized with an epileptic ft, lost thereby, for a while, all her faculties – of sight, of speech, and of hearing. Afer some time, however, the faculties progressively returned; frst her sight, then her speech ( though in an imperfect way;) – then her hearing returned, but her speech again departed. Afer another interval, she again recovered her speech, and her faculty of sight departed once more; and, in this way, did all her faculties continue to come and go, and alternate, till some little time before the period at which the narrative was communicated to me; when she had retained them altogether, in a tolerable state of perfection, for a month or two together. Latterly, however, she had been seized again with her fts, and lost again her several faculties; though not so absolutely as before, or for so long a time. Te girl was well proportioned, and had appeared to be a healthy child, till these fts occurred; and no reason of terror or violence can be assigned for the sudden change.’ ––––––––––––– In cases like this, it is evident that the suspension, – as, in others, it may be equally conspicuous that the non-developement of the faculties and functions of the organs of sense, is, purely, the efect of physical and constitutional causes; and tho consequences may, sometimes, remain, afer the disease is eradicated, that may require another mode of treatment, – medicine must perform its part, before any thing else can be done; or before it can be ascertained whether any thing more is requisite. Perhaps the sketch of discriminative cases would have been more complete, if I had taken notes, at the time, of another case of speechlessness, upon which I was consulted in the summer of the year 1806 – afer the establishment of my Institution. But as that precaution was not taken, I can only speak of it from memory. Te child I refer to, was son of a respectable gentleman in the neighbourhood of Rochester; and, if I recollect rightly, eight or nine years old; tho, in stature and in strength, still a helpless infant; – incapable of walking, and almost of standing, even with a chair to hold by. Te mere skull, I think, was not particularly ill-formed; but the lower part of the face was immeasurably out of proportion; and the mouth had an appearance that was idiotic. Te body

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was, to the full, as disproportioned as the head. It was almost conical – small at the top, and enormously large below – like that of the kangaroo; only short and squab. Te weight – was, even for the bulk, enormous. Te lower extremities were small and shrivelled – covered with a sort of scale or scurf, and neither having the appearance, nor evincing the sensibility of animal life. Te sense of hearing did not appear defcient; neither did there appear to be any particular defect in the structure of the organs of speech; yet his vocal eforts, were only such as might be expected from an infant of fve or six months old; and, if his physiognomy (which had all appearance even older than should belong to his reported age) had not contradicted the impression, his whole deportment might have been considered as equally infantile. Upon other constitutional indications, detailed by the family, I shall not dwell; they would lead me out of my province. Sufce it to say – that this was a case which, if I had been a medical man, I should have thought a ft object for medical experiment; and in which, if I had been the parent of the child, I would certainly have had some medical experiment tried: for no consequence that could have resulted, even from mistake or indiscretion, could have been more calamitous, to the child itself, than a continuance of the miserable state in which it existed. I scrupled not to suggest this opinion to the family, giving it as my decided opinion – that, altho there did not appear to be any thing in the mere construction or state of the organs, that should preclude the exercise of speech, unless some such experiments, under proper medical direction, could frst be tried, and the constitution could be relieved from that oppression that seemed to confound, at once, the corporal and the mental powers, – it was perfectly useless for me to give any directions relative to the developement of the powers of those organs, or the excitement of those faculties that had been the principal objects of my attention. ––––––––––– Te instances I have selected for this detail, are marked, I trust, Sir, with features sufciently distinct, to exemplify, to a certain extent, the line of discrimination I am desirous of pointing out, between cases merely physical – (that is to say, of absolute constitutional defect, organic imperfection and disease) – and those in which, from a complication of mental and moral causes, the organic faculties have either been perverted, or remain undeveloped; and I hope, my dear Sir! to have credit, at least, from your kindness and candour, for being actuated more by the zeal of science, than the presumption of enthusiasm, when I, strenuously, contend – that no individual ought ever to be regarded as included in the former class, where the indications are not of that clear and unambiguous description which would immediately associate them, by obvious physical phænomena, with the idiotic, the imperfectly organized, or the diseased. Where such phænom-

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ena do not actually exist, even mental imbecility, and even some descriptions of mental derangement, will be found, upon analysis, ascribable to moral causes; and, upon experiment, to be capable of moral remedy. My illustration of this theory would be more perfect, if I could feel myself at liberty to state one case, in particular, of clear and palpable Amentia,27 which has fallen under my private treatment, in the metropolis; and, in which, it was evident to me, upon the frst appearance, and afer very little inquiry, that certain educational causes, conspiring with certain constitutional predispositions, had occasioned. partially – a non-developement, and, partially – a perversion of the animal and mental energies; and, in which, the imperfection of speech, was a symptom and consequence only (tho there was, indeed, some little malconformation of the mouth) of the want of habitual attention, and of the non-developement of the connective and inductive faculties of the mind: – a case in which I have happily succeeded, not only in superinducing a completely intelligible and tolerably perfect utterance, but in expanding and methodizing, to a considerable degree, the dormant powers of intellect. But tho the particular object of this experiment cannot be decorously identifed, in so public an address as this is intended to be; – to you, my dear Sir, in private confdence, I shall be happy to enter into every explanation, that may further elucidate the subject of that distinction I am so anxious to establish, between physical and inevitable, and contingent and remediable, imbecility and defect; or that may demonstrate the grounds upon which, in a recent number of that Miscellany which has been my usual channel of communication, I thus concluded my correspondence on the treatment of Impediments and cases of Amentia. – – – – – ‘Altho I have devoted a considerable portion of my attention to cases of amentia, – that is to say, to those cases in which, from the neglects or accidents of early education, the senses have not properly been developed, or the connective faculty of the mind has not been called into action, I have, thought it necessary to preclude,’ from domestication in my Institution, ‘every case that appeared to have any approximation to the idiotic, the paralytic, or the inane.’ To ‘those unhappy persons,’ however, whom the correspondent alluded to in my former communications, and many others, I believe, are disposed to regard, as ‘incurably dumb, (that is, who want, or are defective in the organs, that produce articulative sound,’) I have (even in my Institution) no objection. I reject, altogether, as far as the organization of the mouth is concerned, all distinction of curable and incurable impediments: for I know how far human ingenuity can go, in supplying the defciencies of organic structure; and I know, also, by experience, how far one organ can be trained, to supply the defciences, and perform the functions of another. Even without the application of artifcial palates, those who are defcient in that organ, may obtain a distinct and intelligible, tho not a tunable, or agreeable utterance. In short, let there be but industry, intellect, sight

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and hearing in the pupil, (even sight, perhaps, may be dispensed with) and the professor, who really understands his science, need never despair of superadding the power of fuent speech. ‘Neither, in those cases, wherein apparent ineptitude, or early excentricity, give reason to apprehend a tendency to idiotism, or derangement, should the object be hastily abandoned. Observation and experiment have sufciently convinced me – that (notwithstanding the opinions of many physical inquirers,) such early indications, as well as the calamity of speechlessness, are frequently as referable to educational and moral, as to physical and irresistible causes: in other words, that there is an idiocy, a derangement, and a speechlessness, of habit, non-developement, and mistake; and which are, therefore, capable of palliation, at least, if not of absolute remedy: as well as of organic malconformation, and constitutional infrmity. Perhaps it would not be saying too much, if I were to afrm – that imbecility, at least, if not absolute idiocy, as well as some species of derangement, are as frequently the results of moral causes, early acting upon the infant organs, as of organic or constitutional causes acting upon the mind. With the indications of this distinction, I have some reason to believe, that I am not entirely unacquainted; and it has been a part of my study, during several recent years, to devise and apply such modes of regulation, of stimulus, and restriction, as may be likely, in cases of the former description, to remedy, or rather to avert, the calamity: not indeed in my Institution, for that would be inconsistent with my other arrangements; (which have reference to the highest accomplishments of intellect and of polished life, as well as to the removal of defects of utterance!) but by private superintendence and direction of the education of the party. Cases of amentia, indeed, (unless a separate and well constituted establishment, upon the most liberal plan, could be provided for their reception) especially ‘where the appearances of imbecility are marked, and conspicuous, are most conveniently superintended in the private residence of the family: at least, if there be, in such family, any judicious individual who can be depended on, to enforce the regulations of the professor, report to him the results of every experiment, and act implicitly by his direction; and, under such circumstances, I have seen enough of the progress of developement, in faculties apparently the most inert, or most unpromising, to be confdent – that many a human being has been consigned to speechless inanity, that might have been trained, at least, to a respectable mediocrity of mind and faculty; and that, in many instances, what, in early childhood was only habitual ineptitude, or cherished exentricity, has been sufered to mature itself into drivelling idiotism, and mental disorganization.’ –––––––––––––

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Tus, my dear Sir, have I endeavoured, as far as time and opportunity would permit, to submit to your attention, my views upon this important subject: – or, rather, to throw together, at such intervals as numerous avocations would permit, a few loose suggestions and historical sketches, upon a topic, which I fatter myself you will agree is worthy of a much more elaborate and methodical investigation. It was my intention to have subjoined (in the Appendix) – together with the further communication from my friend Mr. Gough, on the subject of Cretinage, and the few essays on subjects of Impediments, and the general principles of Elocution, therein reprinted (from the Monthly Magazine, and the Medical and Physical Journal,) such other miscellaneous essays on interesting parts of the science, as lay in a state of partial preparation, among my papers, or in my notebook. But time presses; and failing eyes, and exhausted spirits (the fruits of many a toil and many a care) call for relaxation and forbearance. What I have already done, has been principally accomplished in short snatches, and at intervals that ought to have been devoted to social consolation and repose: for the laborious profession I have undertaken, and the system upon which I pursue it, aford but few intervals for any other than the routine of professional exertion. Tis is, indeed, one of the reasons why I have chosen epistolary communication as the vehicle of my thoughts: hoping that the negligences and inaccuracies inevitable to hasty and interrupted composition, may meet with a degree of indulgence, in such a form, which could not, and ought not to be extended to a didactic treatise, or a professed scientifc disquisition. For my singling you out as the particular object of this address, the world will readily perceive one of my motives – the hope of rendering your respected name and eminent celebrity, a medium of attraction for professional and public attention to the nature of my undertaking. But besides this obvious motive, I have another, also, – that of having an opportunity of publicly acknowledging the many kindnesses, which, during fve-and-twenty years of my eventful life, have been heaped by you and by your family, on, Dear Sir, Your obliged and faithful friend, JOHN THELWALL. Institution, &c. Bedford- Place, Russell-Square, 4th Dec. I809. P. S. Te interesting case you have done me the honour of referring to me, since this letter has been committed to the press, is one that might lend, in a considerable degree, to illustrate the series of distinctions I wish to establish and which, under proper regulations, might (if I am not very much mistaken) furnish the materials of a practical demonstration of the principles upon which

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those distinctions are rested. I subjoin, therefore, a copy of the written opinion – which I delivered, to the friend of the young lady in question, for the purpose of being transmitted to those who are naturally most interested in the event. Te case will, to you, Sir, require no further comment; and, to the world, more particular explanations might, perhaps, be superfuous; or, at any rate, indecorous. Te opinion, itself, I believe, recites all the particulars that are necessary for the purposes of practical induction.

Opinion on a Case of Defective Utterance, fom partial Deafness, and supposed Defciency of general Faculty. – Age 16. ‘MADAM, In compliance with your request, I have taken into serious consideration the interesting case of the young lady for which you seem to entertain so lively a sympathy; and I shall proceed to give you, as you have desired, my free and unbiassed opinion on the nature of that case; as far as the circumstances of a single interview enable me to form a settled opinion on the subject. In the frst place, then, Madam, I am fully and decidedly convinced – that there is, in this instance, no species of defciency, either in the natural structure or natural sensibility of the organs of speech – whether of voice or enunciation; nor any thing, in the circumstances of those organs, that should necessarily produce any permanent defciency in the utterance of that young lady. Upon the subject of intellectual capability, I think I might almost venture to speak with the same decision; – since, neither in the form of the head, the shape of the features, nor in the expression of the physiognomy, do I discover any of those indications or appearances, that almost universally accompany physical ideotism, or constitutional imbecility of mind. [You will please to notice, Madam, – that I use the terms physical and constitutional, in contradistinction to any defciency or non-developement of the faculties of the mind, that may have arisen from moral or educational causes, or the want of that mental treatment which the peculiarities of the case might require.] Tere is, indeed, in the eyes, a peculiar expression – which, to the casual observer, might suggest a suspicion of something verging towards ideotism; but from which (upon due consideration) I am disposed to draw a directly opposite inference. I cannot see, in that peculiarity of expression, any thing that is ideotic. It certainly is not the glare of vacancy. On the contrary, it appears to me, to be rather the look of tense exertion and observance; – an efort to obtain, thro the medium of sight, some portion of that information, as to what is passing, which others receive thro the medium of the ear. Te young lady may be said to listen with her eyes; and her being rather short-sighted, which I understand to be the case, cooperating with this efort, will sufciently account for this only unfavourable appearance in the

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physiognomy: which, thus considered, becomes an argument of the earnestness, rather than the debility of the mind; and furnishes a rational ground of hope, rather than of despair. In the formation of the throat there is something, indeed, that appears to approximate towards Cretinage; but, whatever may be the case with the unfortunate inhabitants of the Alps, I have sufcient instances in remembrance, to justify me in the unqualifed assertion – that, in this country, such conformation, whether hereditary or incidental, has no necessary connection with idiocy or mental imbecility; and I certainly do not, in the present instance, observe the least connection between this circumstance and the existing defciency in the speech. In short – the only organic defciency of any importance I can perceive, in the case of this young lady, is in the organ of hearing. How far that is capable of relief falls not entirely within my province: but I understand you to have had, already, the best advice which can possibly be had upon the subject. From the defect of hearing, and the want of that particular attention and management which this defect rendered indispensable, I conceive to have arisen all the defciency and imperfection of utterance; and from the same causes, cooperating with the additional difculty thrown in the way of customary communication by that in perfection of speech, I conceive – has resulted whatever imperfection or defciency may be observable or suspected in the young lady’s mind. As far as I have yet had opportunity of discovering, those imperfections or defciencies consist more in the want of communicated ideas, or acquired knowledge, than of original faculty or capability of acquisition. If there be any defciency of perceptive faculty (the hearing alone excepted) I conceive it to be rather accountable for, from the want of exercise and developement, than to be referable to any fault of nature. Of the connective faculty, I have not seen any symptom, whatever, of the least defciency: tho this is a subject upon which to speak with positiveness, it would be necessary for me to have more opportunities of observation, and to make some experiments. Such, Madam, is the outline of my opinion, as to the theory of this case. It remains – that I state to you my practical inferences as to the probability of successful treatment. Tis it behoves me to do with some caution; as a certain portion of professional reputation must necessarily be pledged by such a statement. But if the view I have already taken of the nature and phænomena of the case be accurate – (and I am confdent, that, in several of the leading points, it may be depended upon) there is much to be hoped from a rational, steady and persevering system of management – grounded on the inductions to be drawn from a previous series of well-regulated experiments. I have no doubt that the speech may be considerably improved. I should by no means despair of its being tutored into tolerable, if not considerable perfection: only that the tone, perhaps,

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will always have less harmony and fexibility than might be produced, thro the medium of a better ear. I am equally inclined to the opinion that the mind, to a certain degree, at least, may be opened; that many branches of useful, ornamental and amusive knowledge, and most of the accomplishments that are proper for a lady in the most respectable sphere of life, might, under a proper system of management, be attained: and I should certainly earnestly recommend – that as many such accomplishments as the young lady could be inspired with a taste or inclination for, should be cultivated with all practicable assiduity. In short, that every means should be adopted to produce new impressions, enlarge the circle of ideas, and excite the mind and faculties to activity. I need hardly add that for the furtherance of these objects, no local situation can be so favourable as the metropolis. I must, however, be understood as building my confdence of success, in this, and in all similar cases, upon the steadiness, consistency, and perseverance with which the plans that may be laid down should be pursued. For the full attainment of so serious an object as developing defective or neglected faculties, there must be a system of education particularly adapted to the specifc case; and, in the conduct of that system, there must be one presiding and directing mind; in whom every plan must originate, or to whom it must be submitted, and whose directions and restrictions must be punctiliously attended to, by every person who familiarly approaches or associates with the pupil, in the absence, as well as in the presence of such tutor. Of the importance of this, you yourself, Madam, appeared so fully impressed, that it was, perhaps, scarcely necessary for me to have mentioned it; and it will certainly be a very fortunate circumstance (if the father of the young lady should resolve upon having the experiment tried) that she should have the protection and superintendence of a friend so fully impressed with the importance, and so prepared to promote the efcacy of any regulation that may be necessary to be adopted. When I speak of Perseverance, I, of course, have reference to time as well as to system. I do not consider this as a case, in which I could think it proper to stake my reputation by any temporary’ or transient arrangement. I would not for any possible fee or emolument have the young lady, if placed under my direction, under circumstances that would not justify the confdence that she should depart from that superintendence essentially benefted by my instructions and management. And, as several weeks might probably elapse in experimental observation, before a regular system could be formed, on the permanent efcacy of which we might securely depend, I conceive – that if I am to be honoured, in this case, with the confdence of the young lady’s friends, the engagement ought to be made, in the frst instance, for half a year: during which time, I should propose to give my regular personal attendance for an hour in every day (except Sundays, or when any very rare and particular emergency might prevent) and to lay down such plans, and prescribe such modes of management, and branches of

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education, as might, from time to time, appear necessary to be adopted. In the course of that time I am confdent that something would be done, that would be productive of permanent advantage: enough to enable the friends of the young lady to decide – how far it was worth their while, and how far it was necessary, further to persevere in the plan of my personal superintendence; or how far the future progress of education might safely be intrusted to any judicious person, who could be depended upon in following the further directions I might deem necessary to communicate. JOHN THELWALL. Bedford-Place, 7th Dec. 1809.

APPENDIX. THO the following miscellaneous articles are so far thrown into the form of notes, as to have reference to particular passages in the Letter; they will not be found of the nature of necessary explanations. It is hoped that there are, in the text, no passages, that, in any such point of view, stand in need of annotation. Tey consist partly of disquisitions – that, in a methodical treatise, (if time could have been found for such a composition) might have been inwoven into the general texture; and partly of essays that are only collaterally related to the immediate subject; but which may throw additional light upon the professional pursuits of the author, and the extent and objects of his Institution. Note 1. p. 9. – ‘Tis transcendant series of upwards of ten thousand verses.’ Te vindication and illustration of the rhythmus of Milton, is, in a critical point of view, the favourite object of my system: and almost an entire copy of the Paradise Lost, and other poems of that author, scanned into cadences, according to that system, with a notation of the quantities and qualities of the respective syllables, will enable me to convince the curious enquirer – that I have not drawn my conclusions upon the subject, from hasty surmise, or partial experiment. Tis is, perhaps, the test, to which every rule or system of pretended analysis of English Rhythmus ought to be brought; and I think it will be admitted, that the system by the practical application of which the versifcation of the Paradise Lost is rendered most perfect – most harmonious and expressive to the ear, is, in all probability, the most correct system of English Prosody; – how widely soever it may difer from the systems generally received: at least, that of two systems, by accommodating his enunciation, and the action of his voice, to one of which – the reader or reciter should render what should be the versifcation of that poem, in innumerable instances, and in almost every page, into dissonant and hobbling prose, and by the other of which – he should present the whole (even the pas-

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sages most objectionable in the former experiment) into fowing energetic and well-proportioned numbers – numbers that should, at once, delight the ear, by their expressive variety, and the fastidiousness of analytical perception, by the nice adjustment of mathematical proportions, – the latter is the more likely to have its foundations in those very feelings and principles of nature under the infuence of which the poet originally wrote. It is not my intention, of course, to enter into a systematic elucidation of such a system, in a note upon a hasty, and, perhaps, fugitive publication, like the present. But the following articles, which have already appeared in the Monthly Magazine, having reference to a part of that system, will perhaps not be unacceptable or unappropriate, in this place. Te former of these was communicated in August, 1806; and was occasioned by a criticism in the same Miscellany, for the month of June preceding, on the following passage of our immortal bard. – BOOK I. LINE 44. ‘Him the Almighty Power Hurl’d headlong faming from th’ ethereal sky, With hideous ruin and combustion, down To bottomless perdition, there to dwell In adamantine chains and penal fre, Who durst defy th’ Omnipotent to arms.’28 Which the critic proposed thus to alter – Him who durst thus defy T’ Omnipotent to arms, th’ Almighty Power Hurl’d headlong faming from th’ ethereal sky, With hideous ruin and combustion, down To bottomless perdition, there to dwell In adamantine chains and penal fre.’

Upon this supposed amendment, my animadversion was as follows – Te devoted attention which, for some years, I have been in the habit of paying to the Works of Milton, and the adoration with which I contemplate by far the greater part of his divine poem, occasion me always to feel some degree of jealousy when I fnd him submitted to the cavil of verbal criticism; and I believe it may safely be asserted, that, in at least ninety-nine instances out of every hundred, wherein such cavils have been advanced, a fner perception, and a more accurate investigation, would have shewn – that the poet was in the right, and his critics entirely in the wrong. Most assuredly I never yet met with an individual instance of proposed correction, that did not remind me -of the schoolboy’s experiments upon his pen, – who every time he mended it, made it worse. In applying this observation most unequivocally to your correspondent M. N. (Monthly Mag. p. 392,) I hope I shall not wound his feelings, since I only accuse

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him of failing, where, perhaps, it is not given to human nature to be capable- of succeeding. I do not mean to assert – that the Paradise Lost is all perfection. Tat it might have been rendered still more exquisite, by some retrenchments, cannot, I think, be denied; – and that the sublime genius of Milton might have substituted something better in the place of those disputations of scholastic subtlety and quibbling metaphysics that occupy so many pages of his poem, I am ready enough to admit. But tho Milton may, sometimes, nod, let not criticism dream, that, where the pen of inspiration has fallen from his hand, the defciency is to be supplied by mortal talent. In the present instance, however, it appears to me – that it is not Milton who nods, but his commentator, who slumbers: nor would I, for my own part, change a single iota of the noble passage quoted by your correspondent, either for the alteration he has ofered, or for any thing I suspect either critic or poet to be capable of suggesting. I am, indeed, much inclined to suspect – that this objection (like the generality of those cavils to which the rhythmus and construction of Milton have been so frequently exposed,) has originated in that system of erroneous mechanism so generally applied to the act of reading our English poets: a system which, in many instances, has even deformed our typography, corrupted our orthography, turned into absolute dissonance some of the most exquisite verses in our language, and caused to be regarded as extremely difcult, to the reader and the reciter, an author, who, considering the sublimity of his ideas, and the vastness of his erudition, is, perhaps, the easiest of all authors who ever wrote. [I might have added – that this erroneous hypothesis of numerical mechanism has even debased the genius of our versifcation, by occasioning not a few of what are called our correct poets, anxiously to avoid modes of construction and arrangement, which they ought most sedulously to have cultivated.] Give to the verses of Milton (what all verses ought to have) the easy fow of a spontaneous and oratorical utterance – the objections advanced by silent, inapprehensive, fnger-counting monastics, will disappear; and, instead of condemning, we shall learn to applaud that free spontaneous fow of oratorical period, which the versifcation of Milton so transcendantly displays. ‘With this recollection in our minds, let us turn to the passage in question, and (trying what can be done, by the assistance of a correct orthography and accurate punctuation, towards assisting the perception of the reader,) bring its melody and its construction to that test by which alone they can properly be tried: that test – which can only be fairly appreciated by those who have, learned to consider it as the peculiar excellence of the style of Milton – that his construction was always regulated by his perceptions of melody; and that his melody was always the spontaneous emanation of the sentiment, the passion, or the image, that glowed in his creative mind. Te passage, then, I would have printed thus,

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– the inverted curve ( ) indicating the contraction, not the elision, of the respective vowels over which it is placed. ‘Him the Almighty Power Hurl’d, headlong, faming, from the ethereal sky, – With hideous ruin and combustion, down To bottomless perdition: there to dwell In adamantine chains and penal fre, – Who durst defy the Omnipotent to arms!’

Let any person read or recite this passage, with an oratorical fow of utterance; let him give to the respective syllables the quantities and qualities to which they are liable in spontaneous speech, – and none other; let him make his pauses there, and there only, where they would fall according to the .grammatical construction and divisions of the sense in spontaneous prose; and regulate the time and emphases by the dictates of simple usage, and the import of the respective words; and then, let him accurately consider – whether, in the frst place, any alteration of the arrangement could be made, without injury to the music of the period? and, in the second, whether the mind can have any possible difculty in supplying that species of grammatical elision, without which, not poetry only, but even prose, cannot, with any sort of smoothness or conveniency, proceed? It is true, indeed, that minute analysis requires the following repetition to be supplied ‘Tere to dwell in adamantine chains and penal fre: – him there to dwell, who durst defy the Omnipotent to arms!’ But to me it appears – that, when the passage is properly read, it is utterly impossible that a mind of any apprehension can fail of instantaneously supplying such repetition; and if so, how much more graceful is this mode of construction; which, equally intelligible, is at the same time so much more terse and harmonious than the prosing formality that mere grammatical pureism might have dictated. Te passage, I grant, requires to be well and naturally read, in order to be promptly comprehended; but surely there are very few passages worth comprehending, either of verse or prose, that can be promptly understood when they are read unnaturally and ill; and I repeat – that, but for the difculties thrown in our way by false principles of criticism, and false systems of utterance, I do not know a single writer, either of prose or of verse (the sublimity of his subject and the elevation of his ideas considered,) whom it is more easy to read than Milton. I certainly do not remember the season, even of my boyhood, since I was capable of understanding the words he makes use of, when I ever found any difculty in so reading him as to be able to comprehend such portions of his meaning as did not happen to refer to topics beyond the sphere of my imperfect erudition. It is, perhaps, worthy of consideration, whether a carefully revised edition, rationally punctuated, and accompanied with a simple and accurate system of

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notation, that might facilitate the spontaneous reading, and indicate the natural rhythmus of this sublime and wonderful poem, might not contribute to the still more general difusion of the reputation of our immortal bard, and to the increased gratifcation of his numerous admirers.’ ‘I might, certainly, without subjecting myself to the imputation of any great overfow of critical gall, have animadverted a little more severely on the euphony and the rhythmus (or rather the prosaic cacophony) of the proposed commencement, Him who durst thus defy – and have inquired – into what cadences, or what feet, or by what rules of percussion, or accent, of number, of quantity, or of adjustment of thesis and arsis, they were to be scanned, or divided? I ought to have ask’d – why, if we are to print or read ‘from th’ eth,’ we ought not, also, to make another elision in the sequent word, and print and read ‘ether’al?’ why, if we are to have ‘th’ Omnipotent,’ we should not have, also, ‘hid’ous,’ ‘ combust’on’ &c. Let our fnger-counting critics, at any rate, – if it be but for the sake of so much reputation as may result from the conviction that they can count their fngers, at all times, with equal certainty, be consistent with themselves, and present us with a complete edition of the Paradise Lost, afer the following sample, – with as many of their own amendments, and conjectural readings as they may think proper to introduce: and then – let them but read as they print, and fnd, if they can, an audience, ‘with Midas’ ears,’29 enough, to listen to the end of the frst page. Him who durst thus defy T’ Omnipotent to arms, th’ Almighty Pow’r Hurl’d headlong faming from th’ ether’al sky With hid’ous ruin and combustchun down To bottomless perdishun – ! ! !

Te subject of Elision, however, I pursued still further, in the following communication; which appeared in the Monthly Magazine for the December following. ‘If I had not been ashamed to couple the consideration of my own verses with the vindication of those of Milton, I should have said a few words, in a former paper, upon the subject of an established inaccuracy of typography; illustrations of which are exhibited in the printed copy of Anacreontic Stanzas, which appeared in your Magazine of June: I mean the frequent elision of the vowel, as in ‘wint’ry’ for ‘wintery,’ and ‘th’ autumnal’ for ‘the autumnal.’ I might add, indeed, (if Dr. Johnson did not stare me in the face,) ‘remembrance’ for ‘rememberance:’ for most assuredly every elegant speaker would pronounce the vowel, whatever the lexicographer may order us to write. [So, also, our best speakers in the House of Commons, &c. uniformly pronounce Henery, not Henry; nor can there be any reason in common sense or etymology why it

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should not so be written. Tose who appreciate the euphony of the English language not by the ear, but by mechanical calculations, would do well to consider how many vowels we pronounce which we do not write, as well as how many we write which we do not pronounce. I observe, also, with much satisfaction, that a few of our parliamentary orators, of most acknowledged taste and erudition, pronounce the word India, as three syllables, In-di-a; and leave In-jee to the natives of Hibernia, and their imitators, and In-de to the country gentlemen.] Tis elision is, in reality, one of the most glaring defects of modern typography; and when attended to, as it too frequently is, by the reader, it will sometimes reduce a verse of the sweetest euphony to a kind of cluttering cacophony, that would not be tolerated in the most careless and unornamented prose. It has originated, most undoubtedly, in that spirit of pedantic criticism – which attempts to scan the rhythmus of verse upon the fngers, because it is incompetent to appreciate it by the ear: to that barbarous confusion in the language and ideas of modern prosodists, who, confounding together the distinctions of heavy and light with those of long and short, and insensible to the happy fexibility and almost infnite variety in the quantities of English syllables, have not had mathematics enough in their ears to perceive – that 2+½+½ are equal to 2+1. Such, however, were not the perceptions of the great master of rhythmical harmony, our immortal Milton; an essential part of the excellence of whose versifcation appears to me to consist in that admirable dexterity with which he has so frequently enriched his lines with supernumerary syllables: – syllables that, in many instances, set at defance all the mechanical expedients of elision, and secure a rich variety of mellifuous rhythmus, which no succession of lines uniformly composed of ten syllables can ever hope to rival. In this respect, (weak follower as I am!) I have endeavoured, at humble distance, to tread in the footsteps of my illustrious master: and believing a due mixture of short notes (provided the equal measure of the cadences be not interrupted) to be as essential a grace in the music of speech, as it is in the ordinary music of instrument and song, I have sedulously interspersed the few compositions of my riper years with verses partly composed of such words, and such successions of words, (wherever the nature of the sentiment and the echo of the sense would permit,) as might present this variety in the most unequivocal form. Accordingly, in the three frst lines of the Anacreontic in .question, I have presumed to introduce no less than four of these supernumerary syllables; and twelve more will be found in the nine ensuing stanzas: yet I should hope – that no one of the lines in which the supposed redundancies occur, when measured by the nice perceptions of an accurate ear, will be found to trespass against the strict laws of cadential quantity and proportion. And surely, if we may have ‘An-ac-re-on’s shell,’ and not ‘An-ac-r’on’s shell,’ – ’In-eb-ri-ate with the wanton lay,’ and not ‘In-eb-r’ate,’ &c. we may also have ‘the-au-tum-nal,’ and not ‘th’ au-tum-nal fre.’ If we may read

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‘low-er-ing (or hov-er-ing) near,’ and not ‘low-’ring ‘ or ‘hov-’ring;’ if, without ofence to the measure, we may preserve ‘rap-tu-rous shell,’ – ’Te visions that in mem-o-ry roll,’ – ’Te draf on mem-o-ry’s tablet true,’ &c. can there be any necessity or reason for rejecting ‘wint-er-y snows,’ – ’cords of sweet rem-ember-ance, &c.? I am aware, however, that there are many who would print, and not a few who would even read, in all these instances, wint’ry, hov’ring, rapt’rous, mem’ry, th’autumnal, &c. but such printing may I seldom behold; such reading of my poor verses may I never be condemned to hear!’ ‘Every observer will presently be convinced – that in the spontaneous fow of elegant conversation, such barbarous elisions are never heard; and I cannot admit that any combination of syllables ought to be regarded as an English verse, that cannot be, at once, recognized as such, when pronounced, thro every syllable, within the strictest limits of conversational propriety. Many of our syllables, indeed, will be found, even in ordinary delivery, to be liable to a considerable degree of latitude, – both in quantity and tune. Tese, when they occur in prose, we humour, according to our convenience, our taste, or our caprice. In verse, on the contrary, their fexible qualities become fxed and ascertained, by the selection and arrangement of the poet. Still, however, the freedom of his election extends no farther than the limits of conversational usage; and the printer, or the reader, should take it for granted, if the author in reality be worthy of his types or of his breath, that when he most strictly conforms himself to the limits thus prescribed, he most efciently represents the species of harmony the poet intended to produce. ‘Te egotism of these remarks may, perhaps, require some apology; but as a matter of general application, I presume to hope – that the principles suggested may not be thought unworthy of attention, &c.’ Te little poem alluded to in these illustrations, if correctly printed, according to my system, would stand thus – ANACREONTIC. Come reach me old Anacreon’s lyre, For wintery snows are hovering near, And soon shall chill the Autumnal fre Tat gleams on life’s, declining year. Ten let me wake the rapturous shell, With cords of sweet rememberance strung; While grateful Age delights to tell Of joys that glow’d when life was young. And, test the languid pulse forgo Te throb that Fancy’s fight inspires,

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Anacreon’s fowing cup bestow, And urge with wine the waning fres. But temper me the Teian bowl! And chasten me the Teian shell! Te visions that in memory roll Are such as Nature’s bosom swell. Yes, Nature! – thine the votive string, To no polluted ear addrest; Tat of no blooming boys can sing, But boys that hang on Beauty’s breast. Nor lawless, thro the realms of Love, Where native Venus lights the way, Shall yet excursive Fancy rove, Inebriate with the wanton lay. If, while the mantling goblet fows, I sing of Beauty’s charms divine; – Te breast that heaves, the cheek that glows, And beaming eyes like stars that shine; – Te draf on Memory’s tablet true. Tat pictures each entrancing grace, Without a frown shall Stella view, Or there some lov’d memorial trace; And when with high-enraptur’d air, My lavish verse shall most commend, Shall fnd her youthful image there, Or, in each portrait, own a friend. Ten reach me old Anacreon’s lyre, And temper me Anacreon’s bowl; Tat youthful joy’s remember’d fre May Age’s numbing frost controul.

Note 2. p. 23–4. – ‘Te principles of musical cadence and proportion – from the natural thesis and arsis of the organ of primary impulse, &c.’ Te full explanation of this axiom would require the quotation of the entire Lecture which I have been, heretofore, in the habit of delivering upon the subject of Pulsation and Remission. But, even if so long a note could properly fnd a place in the appendix to so short a book, that Lecture, has in reality, never been written, – having been delivered, as my Lectures always are, from short notes, or memoranda; and I have not now the leisure to fll up the hasty and imperfect outline. Te following brief suggestion on the subject of ‘the connection between

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the sciences of Physiology and Music, and the physical cause of the satisfaction received by the human ear from such sounds, exclusively, as are reducible to the stated proportions of common and triple time,’ is reprinted from one of my early communications with the Monthly Magazine. ‘Mr. Joshua Steele, in the only valuable work I have met with on the subject of English elocution (‘Prosodia Rationalis, or a Treatise on the Measure and Melody of Speech ‘) observes, (p. 26) ‘that either a tune or a discourse will give some uneasiness, – or, at least, not be quite satisfactory to nice ears, if its whole duration be not measured by an even number of complete cadences, commensurable with, or divisible by two or by three.’ (He admits, however, (p. 23.) that, at least with respect to the rhythmus of speech, ‘perhaps, the number fve, as being composed of the prime numbers two and three, should be also excepted;’ – and Mr. Shield,30 I understand, has practically demonstrated the same exception, even with respect to the music of song. But these exceptions interfere not with so much of the proposition as falls under our consideration. All is referable to the primary cadences of common and triple time.) To the axiom thus advanced, Mr. Steele has added the following note: – ’It were to be wished that something more’ than assertion, with an appeal to nature, and a conjecture, could be ofered as an illustration of this mysterious law. But may not space of time be analogous to space in geometry; which can only be equally and uniformly divided by quadrilateral or triangular polygons, their multiples, or subduples; that is by squares, parallelograms, triangles or hexagons; for with a series of pentagons or heptagons, or any other polygons than those frst mentioned, no space can be uniformly covered, without leaving void interstices of heterogeneous forms; whereas, any quadrilateral or triangular space can be completely covered with homogeneous quadrilateral or triangular fgures. Tat this conjecture is ingenious, must be admitted; but that it is completely satisfactory, I think the most devoted mathematician will not venture to afrm. Te fact is – -that not to geometrical proportions, but to physical principles, we must look for the solution of the difculty. Te necessary action and reaction of the primary organ of vocal impulse, once comprehended, – the law of universal sympathy between the executive and the perceptive organs, exhibited in all the phænomena of vital action and vital perception, once considered,’ – and the necessary reference of all imitative art, (however modifed and improved) to the primary principles of original nature, once admitted, – the mystery may be easily explained.’ Tere is an obscure impression on my mind – that to some or other of the periodical publications, I have communicated a brief abstract of that part of the lecture alluded to, in which the principle of the physical thesis and arsis is

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explained. I have only been able, however, to lay my hand upon the following sketches, from the Monthly Magazine, and the Medical and Physical Journal: – the former containing a very compressed outline of the entire Course of Lectures on the Science and Practice of Elocution; the latter, a somewhat more enlarged skeleton on the Physiological series only. As the lectures have ceased to be publicly delivered, and are not likely to be very shortly printed – if, indeed, they should ever be written out – these sketches may not, perhaps, be unacceptable to those who have not been in the way of meeting with them in those Miscellanies. ‘Te object of my course of Lectures on the science and practice of elocution is to explain and illustrate, in a popular way, the physiological and musical principles upon which all graceful and harmonious utterance must necessarily depend; and practically to elucidate the deportment and accomplishments with which the higher eforts of oratorical delivery should be accompanied. In the prosecution of this plan, I fnd it necessary to commence with an inquiry into the structure and ofces of those two distinct classes of organs (the Vocal and the Enunciative) which are employed in the production and variation of tunable sounds, and in superadding to those sounds the discriminative characteristics of literal and verbal expression. In explaining the functions of the latter of these, I necessarily discuss the anatomy of the elementary sounds of English Speech; and the precise actions of the organs by which such elements are formed. Te laws of physical necessity, under which the organs act, come next into review: from the injudicious application of an overstrained volition to which, I trace the gradations of harsh and ungraceful utterance; and from irregular and inconsiderate eforts for their counteraction, all impediments of speech. Tis part of the subject leads me to an investigation of the intimate connection between physiological and harmonic science; the origin of our perceptions of musical proportion, from the primary actions and reactions of the organ of vocal impulse, and the application of these implicated sciences to facility of utterance, to the improvement of the grace and harmony of speech, and to the removal of habitual impediments. Facts, also, are introduced relative to the practical application of the principles in question, and to the structure and efcacy of artifcial organs, in those cases of defective conformation, which, alone, should be regarded as cases of natural impediment. Such are the essential elements of my Science; tho the assistance of philology is occasionally appealed to, in the more critical parts of the investigation. From these original stems, a variety of interesting considerations necessarily branch forth: – such as the application of all the various contradistinctions of ordinary music to the phænomena of speech; the thesis and arsis, corresponding with the posing and rising – or accented and unaccented notes of the musician; the

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varieties of higher and lower tones, and of the infections of acute and grave on the respective syllables; the adjustment of the percussive impulse – again confounded by the grammarian, under the abused appellation of the term accent; the adaptation of the degrees of loud and sof to appropriate words; of swell and fall to the respective portions of sentences; of the staccato and the legato styles to diferent combinations of sentiment and language; the objects and elements of idiomatic pronunciation; the nature of vocal punctuation; the seat, tune, and quantity of emphases; and other particulars, – of the extent, variety, and connections of which it will not, perhaps, be practicable to give a more compressed idea than is attempted in the titles of thirty successive Lectures, subjoined to the introductory discourse, recently printed for publication. Nor do I confne my instructions to the mere language of tone and enunciation; altitude and demeanour have their share of my attention. Composition, also, (whether in verse or prose) is too intimately connected with my subject to be passed over in silence. Te graces of conversational accomplishment, – the towering energies of soul, – the range of intellectual attainment essential to genuine eloquence, – and all that relates to the formation of the oratorical character, come ultimately under consideration.’ To the Editors of the Medical and Physical Journal, my communication was, in substance, as follows: – ’I can readily conceive – that neither you nor your readers maybe predisposed to the supposition – that the subject of this communication has anything to do with the objects to which the Medical and Physical Journal is devoted. But impediments of speech, tho originating, for the most part, in irregular volition, may, in some degree, be regarded as a species of disease; and it cannot be denied – that they are frequently connected (sometimes as causes, and sometimes as efects) with other diseased actions of the human system. Cases, indeed, there are of this description, which come within the immediate province of the surgeon. Of this kind, some have been referred to me by professional gentlemen; while, in others, I have been obliged to appeal to the assistance of the operator, before the object of my instructions could be secured. In cases, especially, of defective conformation, there is assuredly much that demands the attention of the medical professor; and I should hope – that the time cannot be distant, when it will be thought as regular, and as honourable, for him to superintend the application of those artifcial organs – by which the powers of distinct and articulate utterance may be substituted for the hollow and unintelligible murmurs of a half-formed mouth, as to dictate the form and use of those mechanical implements, by which the less glorious distinctions of erect attitude, and frm tread of human proportion, are occasionally conferred upon the miserable cripple. Even in cases where the original workmanship of Nature has not been so defcient, circumstances

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have occurred that shew how intimately connected some parts of my present pursuit are with the objects of medical science; and, within these very few weeks, during my temporary residence in the neighbourhood of Doncaster, Mr. Hill, of the Dissenting College, at Rotherham, has found himself essentially relieved from some of the inconveniences of asthma, by the system of management of the breath and voice, which I dictated for his improvement in the art of reading; a circumstance, indeed, which I was prepared to expect, from similar advantages I had myself derived from the judicious attention paid to me, in my early years, by the tutor to whom I am indebted for the frst practical rudiments of my art. Tese considerations embolden me to trouble you with a formal announcement of my intention to establish, in the neighbourhood of London, a College for the Cure of all Impediments of Speech, not connected with absolute privation of hearing; whether originating in mal-conformation, in accidental injuries, in mental agitation, or imitative habit; and, also, to request your insertion of the following sketch of the physiological parts of a Course of Lectures, which it is my intention, at the same time, to commence in the metropolis. As the foundations of elocutionary science are equally laid in the physiological necessities that dictate the actions of the organs of speech, and in the laws of musical infection and proportion, with which those actions most readily conform, – I fnd it necessary to commence my course of instruction with an inquiry into the structure and ofces of those organs. Tese I fnd it necessary to distribute into two distinct classes; – the vocal organs, which are employed in the production and variation of tunable sounds; and the enunciative, which are employed in superadding to those sounds the characteristic discriminations of literal and verbal expression: a classifcation, I believe, not hitherto observed, either by elocutionists or physiologists; and which, like other classifcations., may be thought to have its difculties; since some of the organs will, perhaps, be found to act in a double capacity – of modifying the tune, or at least the tone of the voice, and of ministering to literal and verbal conformation. Te distinction, nevertheless, is sufciently obvious for all the purposes of scientifc and practical application; and certainly, in the management of impediments and defciencies of utterance, is of sufcient importance to challenge a very minute attention. I doubt, exceedingly, whether the failure of Dr. Itard,31 in his attempt to confer the exercise of the faculty of speech on the Savage of Aveyron, may not, in some degree, be attributed to his overlooking this essential distinction. Te organs of voice seem to have been minutely examined; tho of the phænomena these should exhibit, there never appears to have been any defciency: but what attention is recorded to the excitement of the sensibilities and varieties of lingual, labial and uvulary action, – upon which the formation of verbal language must depend? To this classifcation, therefore, I think it necessary to pay very particular attention; and, having assumed, as my simple datum, the generally received doc-

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trine of the origin of all sounds in percussions and vibrations of the air, I proceed to a minute investigation of the anatomy of those organs which, in the human being, give the impulses, and produce the modifcations of those percussions that propagate the sounds of voice. In this part of my inquiry, I have a very powerful ally in Mr, John Gough, of Kendal; whose scientifc theory, as developed in several successive papers in the Manchester Memoirs, and in his correspondence with myself upon the subject’ [See the earlier pages of the present publication.] ‘falls in so exactly with the views, which, without concert or knowledge of his speculations, I had previously formed, that I instantly incorporated it with my system. Emboldened by the corroboration of his experiments, which have been further confrmed by my own reiterated repetitions, and of which sensible demonstrations are usually exhibited as I proceed, I endeavour not only to explain the phænomena of the variety of human voices, but to point out the means by which strength, tone and modulation of voice may be essentially improved. Here still my subject continues to be closely connected with Physical and Medical Science; a minute comparison of the elocutionary and the vital functions of the lungs; the requisite reception and decomposition of atmospheric air, in the cells of that organ; the small portion of such air necessary for the purposes of sonorous impulse; and, above all, appeals to notorious instances of persons of the weakest and most diseased conformation attaining great command and power of voice, enabling me not only to demonstrate the importance of management and judicious tuition, in these respects; but, also, the reciprocal action and re-action of vocal and constitutional improvement. Having considered the structure and ofces of the enunciative organs, in the same particular way, and demonstrated the anatomy of the elementary parts of English speech, I proceed to the primary laws of physical necessity, under which the organs act. From one simple and original principle (whose existence and operation, I trust, are sufciently demonstrated by the series of experiments regularly exhibited) I trace the fundamental and physical distinctions of heavy and light syllables; and from the unavoidable alternations of these (or of pauses of the voice during the actions by which they should be produced) I demonstrate the formation of those simple cadences of common and triple measure, out of which arise all the beauties of rhythmus, and all the facilities of fuent and harmonious utterance. From an injudicious application of undisciplined volition to this physical action, I endeavour to account for all the gradations of harsh, ungraceful, and interruptive delivery; and from inconsiderate attempts to violate this primary law, all the customary impediments of speech. Te practical management of these (in which consists the glory of my art,) is next considered. Te line of separation between organic and habitual impediment is endeavoured to be accurately marked; the distinctions of physical and moral ideotism are discussed, as far as relates to their connection with my

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subject; precise facts are stated (such of them as attention to the feelings of individuals will permit, with all the circumstantiality of name and place) relative to extraordinary developements and calamitous extinctions of organic capabilities; and instances are adduced of children rendered speechless, by mis-management an their early education; and of mutes who have been brought to the full exercise of the powers of speech, by the application of proper stimuli. Some of the instances thus adduced, have fallen under my own observation; for others I am indebted to the communications of Mr. John Gough, Dr. James of Carlisle, and other professional and scientifc characters. Te chirurgical operations by which malconformations are to be remedied, constitute another ramifcation of this essential branch of my subject; and the structure and application of artifcial organs, whose efcacy, even in the deplorable cases of fssure, of the palate and obliteration of the uvuls, I trust, is sufciently demonstrable. [Of the feasibleness of this, the boldest and most diffcult of all the practical applications of my science, I never myself had any kind of doubt; and the practicability of such artifcial supply of the most formidable defciency of natural organization, was, accordingly, one of the axioms I ventured to advance, at the frst outset of my present lectures (between three and four years ago;) when much of my subject lay yet in chaos, and many of its most essential principles were but dimly descried. But the learned and ingenious Dr. Pringle of Alnwick, (to whose attentions I have many obligations to acknowledge) endeavoured to convince me – that, in this respect, I carried my hypothesis to a visionary extent; and that such defciencies were perfectly irremediable. I have since learned, that, in this opinion, he is completely countentanced by the frst medical and anatomical characters in the metropolis. I bowed, therefore, to authority, till facts could be appealed to; and omitted, for some time, this part of my animadversions. But my visit to Birmingham presented me with the opportunity I desired. Against positive demonstration, authority, however high, cannot be admitted as argument. I resume my statement, therefore, not merely as theory, but as a practical and proven fact], Te remedy of habitual impediments involved a more complicated view of my general theory. Some of these, indeed, originate in mere anatomical position; and all of them in what may be called the want of a proper understanding between the voluntary and physical powers; but the mode of treatment is so completely implicated with the musical parts of my science, that to enter into it would be to trespass upon those limits which the nature of your publication necessarily dictates to this communication. Te application of this principle has been further illustrated, and my ideas upon the subject of English rhythmus, in some degree developed, in the follow-

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ing paper, addressed to the Editor of the Monthly Magazine, and inserted in the Number of that miscellany, published the 1st of Feb. 1807. ‘SIR, I am sorry to trouble you again about errors of the press; but there is one in the last line of the second column, page 445, of your last Magazine, (in my remarks on the improper elision of vowels) that reduces the sentence to such tautology and nonsense, that I am obliged to request the opportunity of a conspicuous correction. I had stated that ‘many of our syllables will be found, even in ordinary delivery, to be liable to a considerable degree of latitude, both in QUANTITY and TUNE;’ but your compositor (who may very well be excused for never having heard of the tune of syllables, in the ordinary pronunciation of speech) has substituted the word time; and made me dwell upon a distinction (infnitely too subtile, I suppose, for the apprehension of any of your readers) between the quantity of a syllable and its time. I throw no reproach, therefore, on the corrector of your press, on account of this inaccuracy but, as the discrimination of the various properties of English syllables is one of those topics, to which, both from taste and from professional duty, I am in the habit of paying a very particular attention, I avail myself (if the present opportunity to elucidate the distinction alluded to in my last communication. English syllables then, Sir, I conceive, (and I believe I might confdently afrm the same of the syllables of all languages, that ever did, or ever can exist) difer from each other, not only in their enunciative elements (i.e. the simple qualities of the letters of which they are composed) and in their respective quantities, (i.e. the time they occupy in pronunciation) but, also, in the following qualities, – which constitute (in the most comprehensive application of the word) their tune; and which I shall endeavour to contradistinguish by appropriate symbols; the greater part of which I have borrowed from the ingenious work of Mr. Joshua Steele. ‘FIRST – Syllables difer from each other in their poise – that is to say, in the afections of heavy (Δ) and light (..) – the Tesis and Arsis of the Greeks: – the alternations of which (not proceeding from mere taste and election, but resulting from the physical necessities under which the primary organ of vocal impulse, and indeed all organs and implements of motion, must eternally act) constitute those ascertainable and measurable cadences, by which alone (in the English language at least) the proportions and varieties of rhythmus can be rendered palpable to the ear. – Tus SECONDLY – Syllables may be further distinguished by the property of percussion – that is to say, by an explosive force superadded to the heavy poise,

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or more emphatic part of the cadence. Such percussion is always superadded to some one syllable of every word that has more heavy syllables than one – as It belongs, also, to the heavy syllable of some dissyllabic words, when arranged into sentences; and even, occasionally, to certain monosyllables, under similar circumstances: – as – Prose and verse falling, in this respect, precisely under the same laws. THIRDLY – Te tune of syllables is still further diversifed by diferent degrees of loudness and sofness: substantives and verbs, for example, (as a general rule) demanding a more swelling loudness, and articles and conjunctions more of diminuendo, or sofness, than the other parts of speech: a circumstance, by the way, to which it would be well, if some even of our very frst rate players would, pay more attention; as they would be sure to do, if they were but in the habit of observing and analysing the pure unpremeditated speech of those with whom (of whatever rank or intellect) they may occasionally converse. We should not then so frequently hear the fne sentences of our immortal Shakespeare deformed and degraded by the preternatural tumefaction of Unimportant particles; nor would our ears be shocked by those frequent thunderings of ‘he, she, it, and, we, ye, they’ which remind us of the wretched spectacle of a rickety child; the feebleness of whose trunk and the faccidity of whose wasted muscles, are deplorably compensated, by the largeness of his wrists and ancles. I use the word loudness in the above paragraph, in preference to the word force; and, indeed, in contradistinction to it, though they are so generally confounded. Force is, indeed, rather an object of attention in the general management of the voice, than a property of particular syllables: though its distinctions may indeed be superadded to particular syllables, or combinations of syllables, as one of the modifcations of emphasis: but a well regulated utterance will render the sofest and the lightest syllables forcible; as well as the loud, the heavy, and the percussed. FOURTHLY – -Syllables difer from each other in those most evanescent, yet highly important properties – their musical accents. But with what an unfortunate word am I obliged to conclude this enumeration? – Accent! that word so perpetually used by our grammarians and prosodists, but so little understood. – Accent! that unfortunate servant of all work in the household of English rhythmical criticism, – almost incessantly employed in every ofce it is unft for, while the department for which it is exclusively qualifed, remains almost entirely neglected. For example, the term accent is applied, in the case of all words (either of two or three syllables) that constitute but one cadence, exactly as I apply the term heavy, and as the Greek grammarians applied the word thesis: – thus the words ‘fancy,’ ‘absolute,’ ‘appear,’ ‘repairing,’ &c. are said to be accented, – the frst and second on the initial, the third and fourth on the second syllable; but, altho precisely the same property of thesis or heavy, which is given to the syllable

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fan, in ‘fancy,’ pair, in ‘repairing,’ &c. is given to lute, in ‘absolutely,’ (at least, when deliberately, or emphatically pronounced;) – to in, in ‘intrepidity,’ and to ring, in ‘Seringapatam,’ here the term accent – is, by the generality of writers, absolutely denied to these merely heavy syllables, and is exclusively confned to the individual syllable that receives the superadded and perfectly distinct quality of percussion. So that we have the same name applied to two distinct properties of utterance; and the appellation positively denied, in one instance, to the very same quality – which, in another, is insisted upon as constituting its sole and indisputable essence. But that is not all. Tat confusion may be still worse confounded, the very application of the term accent is, by all our grammarians, imperiously denied to all monosyllables; altho such of our monosyllables as are substantives have, universally, (by the most deducible and imperious law of English pronunciation, of common usage, and of common reason,) that identical quality of heaviness, or afection to thesis, which in words of two syllables is called their accent; and are even liable, as has been already shown, to that superadded quality of percussion, to which the name of accent is consigned in the longer words. But the measure of absurdity it not yet full. What grammarian is there who, afer all his confused applications of this unfortunate word, would scruple to talk of a Scotch accent, an Irish accent, a Welsh accent, a Northumbrian accent, a French accent, &c.? Yet, most assuredly, the diferent modes of utterance thus indicated, depend upon something essentially distinct from those qualities of syllables indicated by the term accent in any of the former instances. With very few exceptions, the Scotchman, the Irishman, the Welshman, the Londoner, the native of Northumberland, &c. would place the percussion precisely on the same syllable, and would make, Yet nothing can be more diferent than their accents: – that is to say, (for in this respect, and this only, the vulgar application of the term is correct) than the Idiomatic tune of the respective provinces; or the mode and system of what old Ben Jonson32 so accurately defnes, ‘the tuning of the voice, by lifing it up and down in the musical scale;’ – a defnition which is worth all that has been written upon the subject of accent, from the days of that admirable grammarian, to those of Joshua Steele; but which we cannot be surprised that succeeding grammarians have forgotten; since old Ben, himself, seems to have forgotten it, the very instant it was dismissed from his pen: having absolutely, in the practical illustration of his own axiom, confounded it again, with that very property of percussive force, from which he seemed to have separated it for ever. Tus, then, by the term accent – I mean ‘the tuning of the voice, by lifing it up and down in the musical scale;’ and I mean nothing else. Accents (thus defned) must of necessity be regarded as universal and indispensable properties of syllables: every syllable (whether spoken or sung) being necessarily

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characterized by a certain portion of tuneable sound; which must be either higher or lower in an ascertained, or ascertainable scale of musical proportions. And, further, it may be stated, that if such syllable be spoken, it must not only have its characteristic elevation or depression in such scale; but, also, its motion thro a certain portion of that scale, either upwards or downwards, or both ; for if we dwell, during the interval of any syllable, and especially any of the longer syllables, on an uninterrupted monotone, singing, and not speaking, is the consequence. Tus – the accents of speech have not only their distinctions of high and low, like the notes of common music (though on a scale of more minute division) but have, also, their minute movements, or apparent slides; that is to say – their distinctions of acute, grave, gravo-acute, acuto-grave, and of the complicated circumfexes; some one of which motions of the voice must necessarily take place, during the pronunciation of every syllable (whether the voice, at the commencement of such syllable, be pitched high or low), or the character of speech is lost. Such are the distinct properties of the tune of syllables; in the application of which (as well as of the attribute of quantity, or duration) it was may meaning to afrm – that in many instances, considerable latitude is allowed, in the ordinary conversational delivery, even of the most correct and harmonious speakers; and to the extent of which latitude, (and no further) I consider the writer and the reader of verse to be at liberty, nay to be called upon, to extend his discretionary selection; in whatsoever to the respective provinces of the writer and the repeater can practically belong. ‘I am conscious, Sir, that this hasty and imperfect scrawl may expose your compositor to fresh difculties; and, what is worse, perhaps, from the want of perspicuous and sufcient elucidation of that which is new or difcult in the theory, may rather tend to perplex than to inform the student of English prosody. But the incessant calls of professional duty (as a public and as a private teacher,) forbid me the opportunities not only of a more ample and explicit developement of my ideas, but of the necessary task of revising what I have so hastily set down. It has, indeed, been long my wish to submit to the world a methodical and ample developement of that entire system of elocutionary science, which the labour of ten years has enabled me, in some degree, to digest, tho, at present, it has no written existence, except in those short notes which have been prepared for the purpose of my public lectures; and which, in reality, can be intelligible to no one but myself. But the publication of a work of such extent is so formidable a speculation; and it is, in fact, so much more proftable to talk to mankind than to write for them, that I am much inclined to believe – that (notwithstanding the disadvantages of detached and partial disquisitions, upon a subject which ought to be examined as a whole,) an occasional hasty essay, like the present, is likely, for some years at least, to be all that attention to the interests of my family will

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permit me to prepare for publication. I have hopes, however, that a part of what I had meditated, will be executed by an abler hand. My learned and very ingenious correspondent Mr. Roe, of Stramore, in Ireland, will, I trust, oblige the public with his systematic and admirable work on the genius and elements of English metre; and the world will then have little reason to regret that other labours than those of the pen, engross the time and attention of Yours, &c.’ Bedford-Place, 7th Dec. 1806. ‘P. S. Mr. Roe,33 mentioned above, has already published an elementary work upon this subject, of great tho neglected merit – ’Elements of English Metre, both in Prose and Verse, by Richard Roe,’ Longman and Rees, 1801, which, perhaps, the more enlarged work he at present meditates, ought not entirely to supersede. To those who are not already initiated in the ordinary system of musical notation, the simple proportions of a measured scale, and the directions for the use of a mechanical index, in the original work, must be highly acceptable; the musical notation adapted in the enlarged dissertation will be, however, much more satisfactory to the scientifc student; and the more comprehensive view that is taken of the subject, increases the interest and enhances the value of the performance.’ Note 3, p. 51. – ’Tis premature operation; never necessary, Dr. Denman says, for the alleged purpose of nutrition’ – Te authority I refer to, upon this subject, is the following Letter to Dr. BATTY;34 published in the Medical and Physical Journal for August, 1805: – ‘DEAR SlR, Having been lately informed of two cases of children losing their lives in consequence of cutting what is called the bridle of the tongue, by which a fatal haemorrhage was occasioned, I hope you will excuse my requesting you to insert the following observations on the subject in the Medical and Physical Journal. It was formerly an almost universally received opinion, that every child was born tongue-tied. Tis was a great error; but if a child from mismanagement, or any cause, was incapable of sucking, or indisposed to suck at particular times, or did not suck in the manner the nurse thought right, it was immediately said to be tongue-tied; and the fænum of the tongue being, on inspection, observed, the opinion was confrmed. All medical men know that the fænum of the tongue is a natural part, intended for the important purposes of preventing the retraction of the tongue beyond a certain degree, and for regulating its actions, particularly that of duly modulating its voice. By cutting the fænum, it cannot be doubted but that these advantages are impaired, the enunciation injured, and that which is called speaking thick, pleno ore, is occasioned.

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Te fænum of the tongue is much shorter in some children than in others; but experience has sufciently proved that when it is apparently short, it will by frequent action be stretched so much as to allow all the necessary and proper motions of the tongue; and even if the fænum should confne the end of the tongue, forming a small indention at the extremity, the child would not be hindered from sucking or speaking distinctly, or sufer any inconvenience from it. An infant can only use its tongue for sucking, for swallowing its food, and for crying; and the last of these proves that it is not tongue-tied. Nor have I ever met with one instance of a child, in whom it was absolutely necessary to cut the fænum of the tongue. I have indeed sometimes done it to satisfy the prejudice of parents, or those who have the care of children; or to prevent its being done by those who might be less careful than myself; but then I have just divided the edge or selvage of the fænum, leaving the further division to the action of the tongue; and by this method all danger has been avoided. Yet I believe it may be justifable to say, that the fænum never requires cutting. In so unhappy a case as that of a dangerous haemorrhage occasioned by cutting the fænum of the tongue negligently, ignorantly, or rashly; it would perhaps be impossible to tie the vessels from which the blood was poured, and any application which could be safely employed might fail; yet one would hardly feel satisfed without trying, when all other means had failed, the actual cautery.’ I am, &c. THOMAS DENMAN. July 9, 1805 Tese observations of Dr. Denman gave occasion to the following letter; which I immediately communicated, and which was inserted in the ensuing number of that miscellany: –

To the Editors of the Medical and Physical Journal. GENTLEMEN, Te professional interest which I necessarily feel in every thing connected with the conomy of the organs of voice and enunciation, has occasioned me to peruse, with particular satisfaction, the remarks of Dr. Denman, in the last number of your miscellany, on the rash and mischievous practice of cutting, during the earliest season of infancy, ‘what is called the bridle of the tongue.’ I was not, indeed, aware that consequences so fatal as those which gave rise to Dr. D.’s communication were likely to ensue; but facts enough had fallen under my observation to convince me – that the operation was generally unnecessary, and, so far as related to Te other two, who were brothers also, had not been equally successful. In the younger of these, a sort of lisp was produced, from the almost utter impossibility ,of so completely removing the entire edge of the tongue from

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contact with the lower teeth, as to admit the complete percussion of the sharper sounds; while, in the elder, the stricture was so obstinate as, not merely ‘to form a small indentation at the extremity,’ but even to divide the tongue, in its attempts to advance beyond the teeth, into two thick lobes, which interdicted the complete formation of the element th, and imparted a sort of thickness to the whole enunciation. In both these cases, afer reiterating every experiment, which, in other instances, I had found efcacious in subduing similar impediments, I was obliged to invite the assistance of the surgeon; whose operation, most assuredly, was considerably assistant to the efcacy of my instructions. Tere is, also, another observation in Dr. Denman’s communication, which may, perhaps, be liable to some misapprehension; the statement, I mean, that ‘what is called speaking thick, pleno ore, is occasioned by cutting the fænum.’ In its present unqualifed shape, this position is, certainly, much too general; for tho the ofciousness of nurses and gossips, in this particular, is one of the primary causes of such impediment, yet does not the defect, on one hand, irremediably ensue, nor, on the other, does thickness of enunciation necessarily suppose any such peculiarity or injury in the physical state of the organs; two propositions sufciently illustrated in the phænomena and successful treatment of the cases above described. In short, speaking thick does sometimes, undoubtedly, arise from too great laxity, and sometimes from too rigid restriction of the apex of the tongue; but, in general, like almost every other impediment, it will be found to originate in habitual sluggishness, or evil imitation; and the tongue of the thickest mumbler will frequently be found as perfect in its structure and capabilities as that of the most accomplished elocutionist. While I was cultivating my little farm in Wales, before I had ever thought of taking up my present profession, an instance of this presented itself to my observance, which made a deep impression on my mind. Tree children of Mr. Grifths, a hatter, in Brecknock, had contracted such a habit of coiling up the tongue, as rendered their speech almost unintelligible. Teir parents had, accordingly, conceived that the boys had a natural impediment, – or, as they expressed it, ‘that their mouths were not made like other people’s mouths.’ From this impression, it is probable that the lads would have been permitted to grow up in the habit of negligent utterance, till it had ripened into inveterate impediment, if the accident of my going into the shop, to furnish myself with an article I wanted, had not brought me acquainted with the circumstance. Half an hour’s attention, however, and the imposition of a very acceptable task (the reiterated pronunciation of a short, ridiculous sentence) enabled me to put them into a train of as intelligible utterance as any of the people by whom they were surrounded. To conclude. – Let it not be supposed, upon one hand, that wherever there is a thickness of utterance, or indistinct enunciation, there must necessarily be

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any defect in the physical state of the organs; or, on the other, – that, even where the fænum has been injudiciously separated, or the tongue, from any other circumstance, is more loosely situated in the mouth than usual, that a mumbling fulness must inevitably exist. Natural impediments (properly understood) are, indeed, exceedingly rare. Deafness and mental imbecility excepted, – they can only originate from extreme obstinacy of stricture in the fænum, from hare-lip, from malconformation of the jaw, or from fssure of the roof and obliteration of the uvula; and even of these, fortunately, there is not one which is beyond the reach and medicature of human art; or which may not yield to the cooperative infuence of elocutionary and physiological science. Yours, &c, Brownlow Hill, Liverpool, August 6, 1805. Note 4, p. 84. – ’Institution – for the education of the Deaf and Dumb.’ Every thing that relates to the Institutions for the education of the Deaf and Dumb, and to the great apostle of those institutions, will, of course, have some interest. Te following communications to another miscellany, is, therefore, reprinted; as well as for the purpose of further elucidating the distinction insisted upon in the text.

Correction of Mistakes relative to the Abbé de l’Epeé.35 ‘To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine, SIR, – Your numerous readers have, of course, been highly gratifed by the perusal of Mr. Mann’s communications relative to the Institutions for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb. To me, at least, they have been particularly interesting; for altho (for reasons hereafer to be explained,) I do not interfere (at least, as domesticated pupils) – with the treatment of the absolutely deaf, yet, the subject is intimately connected with one to which a considerable portion of my attention is devoted; and nothing which promises to throw new light upon the science of surmounting organic defciencies, can be indiferent to me. But, while I make my acknowledgements to Mr. Mann, for the entertainment derived from his two papers, in the Monthly Magazine of June and August last, he will, perhaps, excuse me, if I suggest the possibility – that, in some two or three particulars, he may happen to have been misinformed. In the frst place, he seems to suppose – that the sole object of the work published by Bonet,36 in 1620, was to ‘teach the deaf and dumb to think and write, and learn useful arts,’ without aspiring to the communication of the power of speech. Not being acquainted with the Spanish language, I am not capable of answering for the contents of the book; but the title is, I believe, Reduction de las Letras, y Arte. para ensennar à hablar los Mudos. It professes, therefore, to

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teach the dumb to speak; and the Abbé de l’Epeé, expressly informs us, in his ‘Method of Teaching the Deaf and Dumb,’ that it was from this very book, and Amman’s37 Dissertatio de Lequelâ Surderum et Mutorum, that he frst derived the suggestions, that ultimately enabled him to teach his deaf and dumb pupils to speak. Having procured the frst of these books, ‘I immediately resolved,’ says he, ‘to make myself master of the Spanish, that I might be able to render my pupils so great a service;’ and, shortly aferwards, having obtained the second, also, ‘by the light of these two, (continues this noble and enlightened enthusiast) ‘I soon discovered – how to proceed, in order to cure, in part at least, one of the two infrmities of my scholars. Teir works are two torches, which have lighted my footsteps; but I have taken the route which appeared to me the .shortest and easiest, in the application of their principles.’ What that route was, he proceeds to show us, in the second part of his truly valuable work, ‘Te Method of Educating the Deaf and Dumb.’ (See Eng. Trans. Cadell, 1801.) How, therefore, your correspondent could have fallen into the second, and more important mistake, that ‘the Abbé gave up every attempt to become master of the theory of teaching the dumb to speak,’ I am at a loss to conjecture. Tat he did master both the theory and the practice, the evidence is complete and copious; and he appears to have improved and simplifed it to such a degree, that he would frequently undertake ‘with men of learning, that he would make them profcients in it, in the space of half an hour. Before I had to instruct the multitude of deaf and dumb, that have been successively pressed upon me, my own application to the rules here laid down proved so efective, as to enable Lewis Francis Gabriel de Clement de la Pujade38 to pronounce, in public, a Latin discourse of fve pages and a half; and, in the ensuing year, to lay down a defnition of philosophy, detail proofs of its accuracy, and defend it in regular disputation, answering, in all’ scholastic forms, the objections ofered against it by Francis Elizabeth John de Didier, one of his fellow-students, I, also, enabled another deaf and dumb scholar to repeat aloud to his mistress, the twenty-eight chapters of the Gospel according to St. Matthew, and to recite the morning service along with her every Sunday.’ It is true, indeed, that, afer the number of the Abbé de l’Epeé’s pupils began very much to increase, he found it impracticable to give up so large a portion of his own time, as would have been necessary to instruct each of them, individually, in the practice of speech; this province, therefore, was resigned to other tutors, whom he bad previously initiated; while he devoted himself to what appeared the more important, and were, certainly, the more difcult, parts of his system of instruction. Still, however, it appears – that the generality of his pupils were taught to speak; and the controversy between the venerable Abbé and Professor Heinich, was not, simply whether it were better to teach the deaf and dumb to speak by the exercise of the organs of -enunciation, or by the lan-

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guage of methodical signs; (if it had, perhaps, the justice of the decision of the Academy of Zurich might have been called in question,) but whether the system of education by methodical signs, connecting, in the very steps of tuition, the particular treatment of the organic defect of his pupils, with the exercise and developement of the understanding, as practised by the Abbé, or the mechanical system of dactylology, &c. adopted, or invented by his opponent, were more advantageous to the deaf and dumb. What then are we to say to the supposed correspondence between the Abbé and Mr. Tomas Braidwood?39 and how has Mr. M. been misled, (for that he is misled, in this particular, scarcely admits a question) into the statement in page 9 of your Magazine for August, of the lamentation of the Abbé over the impossibility of his undertaking a voyage to England, to take lessons from Mr. Braidwood in person; and his consequently giving up every attempt to become master of the theory of teaching the dumb to speak? Did any correspondence, on this subject, ever take place between these enlightened professors? and has the purport been inaccurately reported to Mr. M.? or has the whole story originated in some confused misrepresentation of part of the correspondence between the Parisian and the Leipsic professor? Something that looks very like a foundation for this story, does, certainly, in that controversy, appear. ‘In order to confer with you respecting my method of educating the deaf and dumb,’ (says S. Heinich) ‘and disclose something of the invention, it is indispensably necessary – that you learn the mode of tuition from myself; that you learn the mode of tuition from myself, which would require you to live upon the spot with me, at least half a year.’ To which the Abbé replied, that (without the preliminary of accepting this invitation) ‘he would be bound, not to learn, but to teach,’ the whole mystery of the learned professor, ‘to any rational creature, endowed with the faculty of hearing.’ It is clear then, at least, that in the year 1782, the Abbé l’Epée would never have lamented the impossibility of his taking a voyage to England, to learn the art and mystery of teaching the deaf to speak: an art which the publications of Wallis40 and Holder,41 in England, and, as it should seem, those of Bonet, Helmont,42 and Amman, in their respective countries, had, in a considerable degree, developed, more than a century before; and which the Abbé himself has so happily completed and explained. Tere is, also, another point, relative to ‘the munifcence of the Bourbons,’ towards the Abbé de l’Epée and his institutions, that requires clearing up. Te testimony of Mr. Mann, and that of the translator of the Abbé’s Method of Educating, &c. are, in this respect, directly opposite to each other. Mr. M. says – that ‘the expenses attending the education of the pupils admitted into the Abbé’s Institution, were defrayed by the paternal bounty of the government of his country, which granted him a liberal recompense besides.’ Te English translator

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asserts – that, ‘not content with the rejection of presents and profts, which he had no wants nor passions to make necessary,’ he carried his enthusiastic benevolence to such an extent, that ‘the expenses attending the seminary which he established, were wholly defrayed by himself. He inherited an income, as M. de Bouilly informs us, amounting to fourteen thousand livres (nearly six hundred pounds sterling), of which he allowed two thousand for his own person, and considered the residue as the patrimony of the deaf and dumb, to whose use it was faithfully applied.’ And, upon the authority of the same M. de Bouilly, the translator further relates – that, when ‘the Russian ambassador at Paris made the Abbé a visit, in the year 1780, and ofered him a present in money proportioned to the customary magnifcence of the empress, the Abbé declined accepting it, saying, he never received gold from any one; but that, since his ‘labours had obtained him the esteem of the empress, he begged she would send a deaf and dumb person to him, to be educated.’ Such appear, upon pretty good evidence, to have been the sentiments upon which the great benefactor of the deaf and dumb uniformly acted: sentiments which ought not to be defrauded of that portion of admiration to which they are entitled. In vindicating the character of the Abbé from what I suspect to be a misrepresentation, I do not, however, mean to be regarded as recommending his conduct, in this respect, to imitation. Perhaps even in his own instance, it had more of the enthusiasm, than the efcacy of virtue; for the man, who, like him, out of an income of six hundred pounds a year, appropriates upwards of four hundred to a specifc charity, in which his own incessant labour is also employed, might assuredly enlarge the sphere of his utilities, by accepting the liberal remunerations of the opulent, and the well-merited bounties of empresses and kings. At any rate, such enthusiasm can only be commendable in those who are already in possession of independent fortunes; and who, like the Abbé de l’Epée, either by vows of religion, or some other circumstance, are absolved from the cares and the duties of the more immediate relationships of life. Perhaps, there is not a more extensively useful axiom, even among the precepts of religion, than that which upholds – that the labourer is worthy of his hire; and I strongly suspect – that neither the pride nor the refnement that induce particular individuals systematically to reject this hire, are to be ranked among the prejudices that are ultimately benefcial to society. At the same time, with respect to my own immediate pursuit, I cannot but occasionally lament – that no national institution, no incorporated benevolence, no ‘paternal bounty of government,’ enables me to extend the infuence of my labours and discoveries, beyond the circles of at least comparative opulence. Having dwelt thus long, with no intention of detracting from the merits of a paper by which I confess myself to have been highly interested and instructed, on some of the statements of fact, which appear to want revision, Mr. M. will, I

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hope, excuse me, if I proceed, in a future number, to combat the practical application of one of his doctrinal statements; namely, the identity of the means to be adopted in the education of the deaf and dumb, and of persons who labour under impediments of speech: – a doctrine which I mean to object to, even to such an extent, as to expose the absolute impropriety of sufering those two classes to join together in the same exercises, or mingle in the same seminary. &c. Bedford-Place, Sept. 24, 1807.

On the Treatment of Impediments, and of the Deaf and Dumb. – To the same. I proceed to the fulflment of my recent promise, by making some animadversions on the supposed identity of the means for the education of the deaf, and of persons aficted with impediments: so far, at least, as that doctrine may seem to countenance the practice of educating those distinct classes of unfortunate persons in the same seminaries. I admit, indeed, that the science of teaching the dumb to speak, and that of removing impediments, are, in many respects, very intimately allied; and that ‘the same species of knowledge, upon which depends the instruction of the absolutely deaf,’ in the art of speaking, ‘is indispensably necessary to correct’ by far the greater number of defects or impediments of utterance;’ but it does not, therefore, follow – that ‘whoever possesses the art of teaching the deaf to speak, is, from that reason, competent to correct every species of existing impediment.’ Even exclusively of those defects ‘which arise from the loss,’ or malconformation, ‘of one or more of the requisite organs,’ and which all writers upon this subject (that I have met with) so decisively, but so erroneously, assert ‘are susceptible of no remedy,’ there are classes of impediment that require a mode of treatment, which it is physically impracticable to apply to the instruction of the deaf. Te judicious instructor of the deaf-born dumb must be qualifed, undoubtedly, in a very considerable degree, for the correction of all such impediments as depend, exclusively, upon the actions of the enunciative organs: nor can any person be qualifed to correct such defects, without the knowledge, which, if properly applied, might teach the deaf to speak. But are there not impediments (and those, too, of the most formidable and afictive description) with which the want of precision, in the positions and actions of the enunciative organs, will be found to have little to do? Impediments which are, evidently, almost exclusively vocal – which appear to result from spasm or constriction in the primary passage of the voice, or from some species of local convulsion, afecting particular parts of that complicated apparatus upon which the phænomena of vocal sound depend? But how little the

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real sources of impediment are in general understood, will be obvious to those who have had the opportunity of observing that even these very impediments, so merely and exclusively vocal, are seldom if ever found to afect the voice in singing. If such impediments were really dependant upon mere organic or constitutional defects, these contradictory phænomena could never occur. Are not the impediments I have just described, together with the whole class of those that afect the tone and tune of speech, evidently dependant upon circumstances with which the mode of treatment necessary for the deaf can have no possible connection? Are not some of them the consequences even of habits of imitation, which deafness must of necessity preclude, and with which the teacher of the deaf can, therefore, have nothing to do? I will go further: – there are some species of minor defect and impediment (and monotony and ofensive peculiarities of tone and tune are among the number) which, without appeal to the sense of hearing, can never be removed; and with which accordingly, in the speech of the deaf-born dumb, we contentedly dispense. In such cases, intelligible distinctness is all that we expect; and if this be attained, thankful to that benignant art which has accomplished so much, we rest satisfed with the dispensation which precludes the higher excellences of a varied and expressive modulation. But he who, in case of impediment, would stop, where Nature, with an insurpassable barrier, has fxed the limits of vocal attainment to the deaf, is not qualifed for this department ; since there are impediments – nay, perhaps, since all impediments are best surmounted (even in what relates to the primary requisites of facility and intelligibleness) by aiming at the highest graces of rhetorical emphasis and harmonic infection: to which the deaf must for ever be as insensible as the blind, to prismatic colours. Te deep nasality, for example, of the late Mr. Bensley,43 the sepulchral pectoralism of Mr. Kemble,44 the overstrained maxillarism of Master Betty,45 and all the caricatured defects of their injudicious imitators, might be classed among the minor impediments of voice; or, at least, among those ill habits of vocal action, the excesses of which (like the excesses of all other ill habits of utterance) would ultimately amount to impediment. [In the attempt to mark these distinctions, I am obliged to make use of new terms; because I am treating of a subject that is new to critical analysis. Te terms nasality and pectoralism will speak for themselves. By maxillarism, is to be understood the excess of that species of tone produced in the cells and sinuses of the jaws and contiguous parts of the head. An excess of this description is the more ofensive in the age of boyhood, because some of the organs that most contribute to the pleasing modulation of these tones are not then expanded]. Tese, and such like habitual defects, in the tone and character of the voice, in all their respective gradations, it is the province of the professor who undertakes the cure of impediments, to remove; and I shall venture to pronounce, that, by

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means of the inductions of anatomical analysis, by minute attention to the process and modifcations of vocal action, and by accurate and reiterated comparison of other consentaneous sensations with the perceptions of the well-cultivated ear, they might be efectually removed: while, at the same time, without such comparisons, and such appeals to the sense of hearing (with which the teacher of the deaf can have no concern), no impediment whatever, if deeply complicated with such ill habits of vocal action, can ever be efectually and permanently subdued. But cases of this complicated description are generally set down to the account of constitutional defect: a term, which, at once, with great convenience, covers ignorance, and excuses neglect. Te unhappy victim is accordingly consigned to efortless despair, and not unfrequently to consequent vacancy and imbecility of mind: for such must be the lot of him, who, with an impediment in his speech, is consigned to the superintendence, or rather to the neglect and mockery, of an ordinary school. Tus, must the treatment of impediment, frequently, begin, where Nature has fxed the very utmost limits of the practicability of instruction to the deaf: for it would be wonderful indeed, if, by any imaginable application to any or all the inlets of perception, compatible with deafness, it were possible to produce even the restricted modulation of a Kemble or a Bensley. [It is hoped that nothing in this illustration will be considered as personally disrespectful to a justly celebrated actor, who, in many of the highest requisites of his profession (among his own sex, at least,) stands unrivalled in his generation. Te defect of his voice, and somewhat too much of uniformity in the measure of his cadences, are, perhaps, the only sources of essential blemish in his acting; for the former of which he is most assuredly not so much indebted to any irremediable unkindness of physical nature, as to the misfortune of living in an age when the science of vocal expression is so completely unknown, that it has not even been suspected that any such science was among the possibilities of analytical discovery. But what the studies and erudition of the brother could not discover as a science, has been practically revealed to the more acute perceptions of the sister; who, superadding to his just discrimination of character and sentiment, the apparently magic powers of an exquisite modulation, and a fnely varied tune of speech, is enabled, in many of her characters, to realize that ideal perfection of imitative art, which surpasses nature itself, without becoming unnatural. What pity that this fne harmonist had not been so far acquainted with the theory and mystery of her own peculiar art, as to have communicated it (for that it might have been communicated is certain) at least to the circle of her own family! In the stress I lay upon the education of the ear, in the treatment of impediments of speech, I do not merely argue from the well-known sympathy between the perceptive and the executive organs, or that important axiom of experimental science, the necessity of correcting the impressions of one sense by the evidence

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of others. My inductions are drawn from facts and actual observation. In my own particular practice, I have derived considerable assistance from an application of the principles of musical infection and proportion, and from a system of demonstration that appeals at once to the perceptions of the three distinct senses of touch, sight, and hearing. As far as relates to proportion, indeed, the speech of the deaf might be regulated with sufcient accuracy, and the cadences, or alternations of Tesis and Arsis, might be as distinctly and accurately formed by them, as by the person who has hearing. It is, indeed, highly interesting to observe how far, in this respect, the perceptions of the deaf can go. I was once exceedingly entertained by seeing Mr. Arrowsmith46 (the deaf and dumb miniature painter, to whom I suppose Mr. Mann, in his communications, to have alluded) beat time to the instruments, at a public concert, with the greatest accuracy; and by seeing him, aferwards, dance, for several hours, with so lively and expressive a perception of time, as to surpass, in promptitude and accuracy of movement, almost every individual in the group: nay, such was his superiority in this respect, that he actually, by his attentions, assisted every individual who came near him in the dance, and contributed to keep them in the same regularity of step and fgure with himself. But all this, and all that (in the perceptions of the deaf ) could be connected with this, would not sufce to correct the accent, properly so called (that is to say, ‘the tuning of the voice by lifing it up and down in the musical scale.’ – Ben Jonson’s Gram.)47 would not improve the tune, or regulate tones of the voice; with which, as I have already suggested, so large a class of impediments will be found to be connected. But, if there be something connected with the art of removing impediments, that has no sort of reference to the instruction of the deaf, it is still more important explicitly to point out – that there is something, also, nay much, that is connected with the necessary instruction of the deaf, with which, in the management of impediments, we must resolutely determine to have nothing whatever to do. Speech, however perfectly they may attain it, must for ever be, to the deaf, a very imperfect and limited source of communication and intelligence. Tey must of necessity have another language: and for their use, the benignant genius of successive professors has, accordingly, been employed, in inventing and maturing the systems of dactylology, and of methodical and expressive signs. To what admirable purposes, in the education of the deaf dumb, these may be applied, has been amply manifested in the labours of the Abbé de l’Epée, Sicard,48 and others: but within the walls of a seminary for the cure of impediments, or the instruction of those, who, without being deaf, are speechless, no such systems, nor any modifcations of the language of pantomime, should ever, in the least, be tolerated.

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Te very existence of impediment, properly understood, is a proof, (and the existence of speechlessness, where there is no defect of hearing, is a proof still stronger,) – that the imitative faculty stands in need of regulation and assistance from some more powerful stimulus, than the mere supposed invincible propensity to imitation. Every precaution should, therefore, be taken, that the pupil of this description may be constantly surrounded by such circumstances as necessitate him to give that faculty the direction required. He should feel, on every occasion, the privations that result from his defect, and the impossibility of avoiding those privations, by any substitute for the cultivation of the organs in which the defect resides. How disastrous for the poor savage of Aveyron, was the fatal mistake of placing him in an hospital for the deaf and dumb! I am in possession of many facts, well authenticated, which prove, beyond all question, that speechlessness has sometimes been caused by an early initiation into the language of signs, and the promptitude of those around to comprehend and to obey the mute mandates of the early dactylologist. If so, the language of signs, so important to the education of the deaf, should assuredly, be excluded with the utmost jealousy, from every seminary established for the education of those who are merely aficted with impediments or defects in the organs of voice and enunciation. Far be from them the seductions of that substituted eloquence which speaks to the eye alone. Rather let the youth of tardy and imperfect utterance dwell and associate in those mansions only, where the voice of harmony for ever fows; where all instructions are communicated, and all the intercourses of life endeared, by the well-modulated periods of a graceful and animated oratory; and where all around are purposely and systematically blind to the subterfuges of dactylology and gestures. Bedford-place, Dec. 9, 1807. Note p. 122. – Distinction of ‘Natural’ and ‘Moral Idiot’ – In addition to the papers inserted in the text, and many invaluable hints, I am indebted to Mr. GOUGH for the following

Communication on the subject of Alpine Idiocy, &c. SIR, I have perused Dr. Abercrombie’s49 Inaugural Dissertation on Alpine Idiotism, and, along with it, Sir Richard Clayton’s Essay on the same subject; which may be seen in the third volume of the Manchester Memoirs. Tese productions contain nearly the same facts; the malady, described by the Baronet and the Doctor, is called Cretinage, and the persons aficted with it are denominated Cretins. Cretinage is a local complaint, being confned to certain valleys of mountainous districts; in which the atmosphere is laden with noxious vapours,

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for want of ventilation. Te disease is very common in the lower valleys, according to both writers. Dr. Abercrombie does not restrict it to the Alps; for he fnds instances of it in the Pyrenean hills, Les Cevennes, of France, and some narrow valleys of Tartary. Tey both agree in describing a Cretin as a diminutive being, whose stature rarely exceeds four feet and a half; he is not more remarkable for the imperfections of his mind, than those of his body, his intellectual powers being not less incomplete than his senses and several of his corporeal functions. His appetites may be said to be beastly; for he is stimulated by no inclinations, but such as either contribute to his support or to the perpetuation of idiotism. Cretinage is more or less perfect in diferent subjects, if the term perfection can be applied with propriety to this deplorable state of the human constitution. Tis fact has led Dr. Abercrombie to divide the idiots, whom he describes, into six classes; of which I am going to give you an abridged account. Te frst is the absolute Cretin, or genuine idiot of the Alps. He has nothing human in him, but the fgure of a man; and this is not a little deformed. When arrived at maturity, his stature varies from four to fve feet. Before the prime of life, he is of a pale or umber colour, but becomes swarthy in a more advanced age. His muscles are of the common size, but very faccid, and inadequate to their functions. His head is small, compared with the rest of the body; the upper part of it is not sufciently convex; particularly the occiput does not project upwards in due proportion. His face is fat and nearly square, his eyes small, sunk in the sockets, and nearly concealed under the projecting forehead. In other cases, which occur but seldom, they are large and prominent. His cheeks are loose and pendulous. His eye-lids and lips are tumid. Idiots of this description are generally seen gaping. His stupid face, for he cannot be said to have a countenance, expresses nothing but a want of understanding. He has, for the most part, more or less appearance of the goitre about him. His breast is narrow and fat, resembling that of a duck. His fngers long and slender. His feet unnaturally broad, and twisted in some persons outwards and in others inwards. Moreover, these idiots neither enjoy their senses nor voluntary functions in perfection. Tey are mute; – in many instances, they are nearly deaf. Teir taste and smell are equally imperfect. Teir sense of touch is so blunt, that, tho they prefer warmth to cold, they frequently appear to disregard the excesses of both, as well as blows and other external injuries. Teir sight, according to some authors, is good, but, by the bye, Sir R. Clayton contradicts this assertion. Being perfectly incurious, they constantly frequent the same places, namely, those where they usually bask in the sun, and receive food. Tey spend most of the winter in the chimney corner. Teir posture is commonly .upright, with their arms hanging down and their mouths standing open. Tey always go and come by the same way, and are too ignorant to avoid an approaching danger by turning out of the road. Te demands of Nature are, with them, the only incitements to motion; and a few idiots, it is said, exercise no functions

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but those which relate to repletion and evacuation. Beings of this description have no right to the name of moral agents: they are perfect strangers to right and wrong, to honour and disgrace; and as for their notions of beauty, they cannot distinguish by the eye, things that are straight from those that are crooked. Teir pleasures are of a nature which forbids me to follow the Doctor in English; who concludes his horrible description by remarking, that a genuine Alpine idiot possesses a spark of life, barely sufcient to prevent the putrefaction of his body. Idiots of the second description have their lenses and powers of motion in somewhat greater perfection than those of the frst class; most of them can sound the vowels but not the consonants; which circumstance principally distinguishes them from absolute idiots. Te moral character of the latter is actually worse than that of the former; for they are not only ignorant of the social virtues, but would be intolerable in society, on account of their peevishness, did not the prejudices of their countrymen excuse them; who commonly suppose, they are sent into the world to sufer for the sins of the people. Infants, that are destined to be idiots, are distinguishable at their birth; their bodies are swollen as if distended by air; some of them are born with water in their heads or with goitres. Tey learn to suck with difculty, and they are less attentive to sounds and other external stimulants than infants in general are. Tey are fed by their friends like new-born children, to the age of puberty; at which time they begin to walk and to use their hands. Idiots of the third class hear and articulate with some degree of correctness, but are ignorant of right and wrong, and the social virtues. Tey remember past transactions, and make some rude attempts at imitation; but they are so destitute of mental arrangement that they never can be taught to count their fngers. Te fourth class comprises idiots who understand what they say to others, and what others say to them; but who cannot be taught to read and write. Tose of the ffh class learn to read and write; but they do not understand what they read; nor are their written productions intelligible to others. Idiots of the sixth class are not so dull of understanding but that they have an idea of property, and can make bargains. Tey, also, can name the letters, and spell words; and they, likewise, understand the meaning of written language, as far as it expresses things in common use. It is, also, possible to teach them to express in writing their own wants, and other things not exceeding their capacities. Some few of them attempt to be poets, and make verses; which are mere prose, in all respects excepting metre; being destitute of all energy both of thought and diction. Some idiots of this description have made surprising advances not only in painting, engraving and architecture, but also in music; – performing with skill both on stringed and wind instruments. Nevertheless, they rarely make discoveries in these arts; but, being diligent imitators, they take faithfuller copies of

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other men’s inventions than those taken by the inventors themselves; persons of this description have been known to form the exactest representation of the most complex machine, afer seeing it but once: moreover they recollect objects, occurrences and sayings, much better than persons of sound understandings; by whom they are far surpassed in capacity. But they never can be taught the properties of numbers and the science of arithmetic. Idiots of this sort remain for the most part destitute of foresight and prudence thro life; being incapable of regulating their own conduct, as well as of following the advice of wiser people. Tey form but a bad judgement of virtue and vice, of honour and disgrace, of justice and injustice; they are, besides, quarrelsome, cheats, dissemblers, and to the list of their bad qualities may be added cowardice and excessive indolence; nor have they the least sense of those social afections which are the ground works of society, nor of that elevation of mind, which ennobles the brave and virtuous. Alpine idiots of the third, fourth, ffh and sixth classes, are all capable of receiving a greater or less degree of improvement from education. Tey are more numerous in poor than rich families; because their parents cannot procure for them the instruction of which they are susceptible. On the contrary, idiots of the frst and second class are more frequently found in opulent families; which the Doctor ascribes to the intermarriages of persons of this description, which are formed by mercenary parents. Dr. Abercrombie’s six gradations of mental imbecility appear to be carefully collected from good authorities. A circumstantial abridgement of the frst class is given in the present letter; the sixth is translated in full; and the striking particulars of the intermediate paragraphs are preserved. My reasons for giving a full length portrait of idiotism in its last stage, perhaps, may be obvious to you: for I cannot consider an idiot of this description otherwise than a character depraved by the negligence and prejudices of his guardians, joined to the bad examples of naturals, to which his infancy has been exposed. Such an idiot has, evidently, judgement sufcient to cheat and dissemble: that is, he knows enough of the moral tie to evade the obligations of it, by cunning, when the evasion suits his interest. What does such a person require, to make him a good moralist, besides a due sense of honour and a proper esteem for himself ? Tese powerful motives have not been implanted in his mind by restraint and education; because his friends and countrymen at large supposed him incapable of feeling their force; and his knavish disposition has been encouraged by private as well as public connivance. A character of this sort is on a level, in some instances, with a savage, and excels him in others. As soon as a savage discovers the superiority of an European, he becomes a coward, and, ignorant of the ties of honour, has recourse to fraud and dissimulation. Few savages have any just notions of property and commerce; nevertheless we do not accuse uncivilized nations of idiotism, but of ignorance, arising from the want of instruction. Why then do we refuse to extend

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the same excuse and indulgence to the Cretin of the sixth degree, who appears to be lef destitute of education from a national prejudice? He certainly possesses various mental powers, which are probably brought to light by accident; he has a good memory; the imitative faculty is strong in him; and I see no reason why a person should be unable to perceive the beauty of moral truth, who can comprehend and admire the fne arts, and copy the productions of the best masters. Te general opinion, however, appears to be, that Cretins, of every description, are incapable of being taught to distinguish right from wrong; and that they remain, on this account, ignorant of the social duties; but a comparison of this doctrine with the sixth degree of Alpine idiotism will certainly lead the philosopher to a very singular conclusion. It will oblige him to suppose the human mind to be divided into a variety of departments; in each of which a particular function of the intellect is generated and exercised; that these several sections of the soul are collected into one system, and put into action by a common frst mover, the memory. He must, also, be persuaded that Nature neglects, in the formation of a few individuals, to produce the parts necessary to certain functions of the mind; in the same manner as she seems to forget, in other instances, to give birth to certain limbs and organs, without detriment to the rest. But this hypothesis comprises a train of concessions, to which few philosophers would subscribe, since the time of Simon Browne50 mentioned by the Adventurer; who imagined that his animal faculties survived his rational soul; which was annihilated in his lifetime by the will of the Almighty. It may be objected to the notion I have adopted, relative to the best sort of Cretins, and other idiots, that the prejudice of a nurse or guardian could not prevent those improvements in an infant, which proceed on principles that are obvious; because they are in universal practice. But morality must be engrafed on the mind by precept and authority, before the judgement can see the beauty and worth of it. Te necessity of laws demonstrates the propriety of this assertion; for laws are mere human contrivances to protect the most important rights of society; whilst the fner ramifcations of the social tie are preserved by the love of honour and the dread of infamy. Te Cretin observes the law; he must be taught to do so; because robbery and murder cannot be tolerated: but public opinion permits him to be contemptible; he is therefore a cheat and a dissembler. On the other hand, prejudice is a pernicious error in a parent or nurse; and is easily transferred from the tutor to the pupil. Tis neighbourhood afords a very remarkable instance of the foregoing proposition. Tere is an aged woman who picks up a scanty livelihood by selling tea-bread about the country: I had ofen heard that she uniformly refused to taste animal food. In order to learn the history of this singular and obstinate aversion, I one day invited her to dine of a dish, which very few natives of England dislike; but she declined the ofer, and at the same time informed me that she never ate butcher’s meat, fowl or fsh, in the course, of her life. Te reason

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assigned for this singular whim was, that her mother could not hear the sight of animal food, some time, before her birth, and that this aversion of the parent became hereditary in her own person. She moreover told me, by way of proof, of this strange notion, that a piece of meat was put into her mouth in early infancy; upon which she manifested her antipathy to it, by rolling it about for a time, and then thrusting it out with her tongue. Since that time her diet had consisted of potatoes, bread, and milk; with the addition of cheese and butter; which, tho of animal origin, did not exile the aversion of her mother, during pregnancy. Te preceding is an instance of prejudice preventing an infant from acting on principles, which are obvious, because they are in general practice. Te inhabitants of the Alps consider the most sensible Cretins to be incapable of comprehending the properties of numbers; altho they are known to possess strong memories, and can make observations, so as to recollect the various parts of a machine, and the mutual relations of them. Now these qualities require nothing but practice to make an arithmetician: for the art of compounding and resolving numbers depends wholly upon observation and memory; by the frst we fnd out the principles of addition and subtraction: we aferwards learn to repeat the multiplication table, which is the groundwork of the remaining fundamental rules of the science: I mean multiplication and division. I formerly knew a man of very weak abilities, who nevertheless was a good ready reckoner. All his operations were performed by memory; for he was ignorant of fgures and letters. Tis singular character resided near Shap, in this county; he was frst introduced to me by a workman in the employment of my father, as a person equally remarkable for his knowledge of numbers and his ignorance in other afairs. Before the interview, I considered myself to be a good mental accomptant; but I was surprised to fnd my superior in a man who passed for a fool; and who was so, certainly, in many respects. His manners and way of life were perfectly simple at that time, and a pipe of tobacco constituted his only luxury. But, not long afer, he lost his serenity of temper; for he was compelled, I believe, by the parish, to remove to Penrith, where he was employed in turning a lathe. In this new situation, he acquired a relish for animal food; in consequence of which he became discontented; for his scanty income, together with his earnings, proved inadequate to the demands of his voracious appetite. Te same cause also prevented him from continuing his visits to Kendal; for his friends in this place being but in low circumstances could not support the expense of his company. You will think by this time I have made a long letter; which is, in fact, the case; for I wish you to consider the subject of idiotism very attentively, and am desirous of contributing what lies in my power to the investigation of the phænomenon. JOHN GOUGH, Middleshaw, Dec. 7, 1804.

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Some Account of the Institution for the Improvement of Elocution, and Completion of an accomplished Education. As the major part of the present volume has reference only to a particular part of the professional practice of the Author – it may be necessary to state – that the Institution established in Bedford-place, has not for its object, merely, the removal of Impediments and Defects of Speech, or the remedy of apparent defciencies of Intellect: – cases of which last description, indeed, when marked and palpable, are not admitted within the walls of the establishment; but are only objects of professional superintendence, in the families where such misfortunes may occur. Te instructions of the seminary are, also, extended to the foreigner, and to the statesman and the professional student, and a diligent attention is paid to every department of Elocution, Composition, Criticism, and Polite Literature. In short, provision is made for conducting, with consistency, the entire process of a liberal education – from the preparation of the infant mind for the proftable reception of the frst seeds of erudition, to the incitement of the energies of maturer genius, and the cultivation of the fnishing accomplishments of the gentleman, the statesman, and the orator.

Te following is a brief enumeration of the several descriptions of Pupils, that may be accommodated, by domestication, in the Institution: 1. Gentlemen designed for the Pulpit, Bar, Senate, or diferent departments of active or public life. 2. Foreigners, &c. desirous of attaining the Idiom and Pronunciation of the English Language; and of being made acquainted with the beauties of English Literature, and the principles of English Composition. 3. Gentlemen with Impediments or Imperfections of Utterance; whether proceeding from constitutional, mental, or moral causes, from habit and imitation, or from defects in the organs of speech. 4. Junior Pupils, of the two latter descriptions, of either sex, from four years old to twelve, are received under the immediate care and instruction of Mrs. T., and are initiated in every essential part of English Education, and in the rudiments of the French, Latin, and Italian Languages. 5. Young gentlemen, of the same descriptions) from twelve to ffeen, are instructed by the members of the family, under the direction and superintendence of Mr. Telwall. Te more adult pupils are under the exclusive superintendence of Mr. T. Pupils of all the respective descriptions are, also, privately attended at stated hours, either at the Institution, or at their own houses; and Plans of Study are furnished, and the prosecution of them directed, with particular reference to such

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branches of useful attainment as are not generally attended to in our Universities; or to such objects as may be applicable to the particular views or defciencies of the respective pupils. Advice also is given by Mr. T. in all cases of Amentia, and menial and organic defects, – the propriety or necessity of operations, in cases of mal-conformation, and the structure and application of artifcial organs. Further particulars will be found, at large, in the Plan and Terms of Instruction – which may be had of the publishers of this work: the following paper will give some idea of one of the ramifcations of Mr. T.’s plan of Instruction.

Te Historical and Oratorical Society. (Reprinted fom the Monthly Magazine, Sep. 1809.) SIR, As your interesting and useful publication has been the vehicle, thro which the plan and objects of my institution for the Cure of Impediments, and the Cultivation of English Elocution, have been announced to the world, from the frst public dawnings of my discoveries, I have felt a natural propensity, thro the same medium, occasionally to announce its progress, and the successive developement of my design. It will naturally occur to you, Sir, that to a professor of the science and practice of elocution, a very ample feld of inquiry and of instruction is, in reality, laid open; and tho, in the frst instance, I have deemed it adviseable to lay the principal stress, in all my public announcements, on that part of my plan which relates to the removal of impediments, and the instruction of foreigners, – as objects, tho only of particular application, yet of the most prominent and serious importance; yet, neither in meditation nor in practice, have my views been confned to the mere circumstance of enabling my pupils to read with distinctness and propriety, and speak without obstruction or ofensive peculiarity. Even before I adopted the profession of a public teacher, I .had clearly perceived, what practice has since demonstrated, the universality of the application of the general principles of elocution: that from the stem of physiological analysis (to which every part of my system for the treatment of impediments is referred) naturally spring, not only the blossoms of graceful and harmonious utterance, in conversation and reading, but the matured and invigorating fruits of oratorical energy and impressiveness; nay, that even the arrangements and fow of language (in composition as well as speech) have a connection and dependance on the cultivation of the faculty of oral utterance: – the improvement of the nice perceptions of the ear, and a judicious attention to the action of the organs, in the formation and combinations of the elements of spoken language, having an ultimate operation on the memory and imagination, in the recurrence, selection,

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and arrangement, of such words as enter into combination with the greatest facility and efect. Tis view of my subject led me to consider the application of my principles to all the higher purposes and ultimate objects of a liberal education; – to the last fnishing and accomplishment of the studies of those ingenuous youths, who look upwards to the most eligible situations of active and public life. And when I critically examined the educational establishments, public and private, of my age and country, I thought I perceived – -an institution that would properly embrace these objects, was yet to be regarded as a desideratum. Tat oratory (tardy in its growth, and imperfect in its developement, among us) was already in its wane, required not the prejudices and fond partialities of age to suggest; even if I had been old enough, or cynical enough, for an infatuated partiality to the days that are past, merely because they were the days of fresher impression and more happy susceptibility: and a much less elevated idea of oratorical perfection, than the contemplation of the models of antiquity and the recorded efects of ancient eloquence, is calculated to inspire, might be sufcient to evince – that, notwithstanding the inducements held out in this country for the cultivation of oratory, we had yet not trodden in those true paths of emulation, in which the efcient excellence of that accomplishment is to be attained. Hence, tho a Chatham, indeed, had philippicized, with almost Demosthenean efect; tho a second Pitt, had triumph’ed in the pomps of oratorical diction; tho a Sheridan had blazed awhile, with all the coruscations of wit; tho a Burke had astonished us, by his bojd and successful excursions into all the varied regions of science, of erudition, and of fancy; tho an Erskine had surpassed all contemporary and compatriot competition, in forensic eloquence; and Fox had atoned for a delivery the most ofensive, and an action the most extravagant and ungraceful, by all the energies of oratorical mind, and the exhaustless afuence of thought and language; – yet, that happy union of dignity and ardour – of vehemence and harmony – of grace and energy – of comprehension and compression – thought, knowledge, voice, enunciation, and deportment – of inspired soul and cultivated exterior, that constitute the genuine and perfect orator, had never but once (if once) illustrated the Senate and the name of Britain.51 Fully persuaded that the tardiness, the imperfect manifestation, and the premature decline of oratorical phænomena, in a country, whose language, if properly wrought, is an exhaustless mine of oratorical capability, could only be attributed to the want of a proper system of oratorical education, it became an object of my ambition to supply this defect; and tho an institution, expressly established for the education of the orator, might have been too bold a singularity, yet the studies and habits of my life, having been almost entirely oratorical, it seemed not quite presumptuous to hope, – that, by blending together (what indeed ought never to have been separated) the profession of the rhetorician

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with that of the teacher of elocution, and by making my institution, at the same time, a seminary for the study of history, and the graces of literary composition, something might be done towards the accomplishment of this great national desideratum; without relinquishing, or in any way detracting from, the principal and ostensible object – the removal of those troublesome defects of utterance, that deprive so many of our species of the noblest privilege of their nature. Nay, for the furtherance of that very object, this part of my project, and the studies connected with it, appeared to be, if not absolutely indispensable, yet of the highest importance; since, by means of these, the stammerer, the faulterer, or the throttler, while under the necessary regulations for the cure of his impediment, would enjoy all the opportunities, and be stimulated by all the incitements, for the cultivation of the most liberal and important branches of efcient education; and the hope might fairly and rationally be entertained, – that, even from among the pulpits of this description, might start forth some new Demosthenes, to enlighten and to energize the rising generation. It was with these views, that, even in the infancy of my establishment, as soon as I had collected a few pupils around me, I constituted, as an essential part of my academical œconomy, a weekly society, which, if classical names had not been so much degraded by ridiculous misapplication, I would call the Lycaeum of Oratory; but which, perhaps, may be efciently described by the title of the Historical and Oratorical Society. Te frst proceedings of this society, at the end of the year 1806, were not very promising; for my frst pupils (as was to have been expected) were almost exclusively such whose cases were of the most desperate description: whose impediments had bafed all the customary modes of treatment; and, what was worse, had occasioned their minds to remain in uncultivated ignorance, and their tempers (a consequence not unfrequent) to be vitiated by the unsocializing infuence of feelings and of habits, which their defects had imposed upon them, or maltreatment had provoked. With three or four lads of this description, assisted by two of my own children – (and their years entitled them to no other denomination,) commenced the frst session of a society, which, from its successive growth, and the respectable disquisitions already entered on its journals, I have reason to hope – may contribute, in some degree, towards a more successful cultivation of English oratory. It was obvious, at any rate, that the necessity imposed upon these pupils, of delivering (with whatever difculty,) once in every week, a set speech (written, or extemporary, according to the state of the case) upon a given subject, must produce some efect, both in the way of useful attainment, and the capacity of utterance. My partial success in these cases (for the generality of them did not remain long enough for a perfect cure) brought others to my institution, whose maladies were not so formidable, and who had means and patience to perse-

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vere, to the complete accomplishment of their object. At the same time, pupils of another description, who had no actual impediments, but were emulous of improvement, in conversational eloquence, in oratory, and composition, joined the society. A more particular organization now became necessary; the precaution of a few simple laws, for the exclusion of visitors, and the direction of its members; and a regular journal to record its proceedings. Te following are, at present, the principal regulations of the society: – Tat its meetings be regularly held, in the library of the institution, every Monday evening, at half-past seven, from the beginning of October to the latter end of May; – Tat no persons be admitted to the discussions, but such as are regularly registered as members of the society; – Tat every domestic pupil of the institution, and every gentleman entered as a private pupil for a course of twenty-four lessons, be considered a member of the society for the time being, on complying with the established regulations, and be at liberty to become a perpetual member of the same, on payment of a small annual subscription; – Tat all pupils entering for a quarter of a year, in any of the classes of instruction, be considered as members, for the entire season, on the same conditions; and that those who have been pupils of the institution (domestic or private for an entire year, have the privilege of members, so long as the society shall continue to exist; – Tat gentlemen of respectability, not otherwise pupils of the institution, may be admitted as annual members, on payment of a stipulated subscription; – Tat a few gentlemen of literary and scientifc reputation, or of eminence in the liberal professions (and such only) may, upon proper application, be admitted as honorary members; – Tat every member of the society open, in his turn, with a written dissertation, the question previously proposed for discussion; and every member be prepared to deliver his sentiments, in his turn, if called upon, during the further discussion of such question; and that it be expected, with the exception of the opening dissertation, that the members shall deliver their sentiments extemporary; but that such members, as have strong impediments of speech, shall be indulged, during the early stages of their treatment, previously to write their speeches, and have them prepared and rehearsed, according to the plan of exercises prescribed in the institution; – Tat every member shall, at his own expense, cause his written dissertations to be fairly transcribed into the journals of the society; and that minutes of the speeches of the other members be regularly taken by the secretary, and preserved in the same record; – Tat no decision or vote be taken on any question debated in this society; the objects being historical inquiry and oratorical improvement, not the strife of prejudice, or the victory of dogmatism. Besides these regulations, it soon became apparent – that some settled plan was desirable, with respect to the objects of discussion. At frst I had satisfed myself with the mere exclusion of subjects of religious controversy and party pol-

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itics; but now, I began to think it necessary – that the society should have, for its object, the systematic pursuit of some important branch of practical attainment. Te most essential objects of study, in the formation of the mental character of the orator, are, 1. for the substance and matter of his discourses, History, (including the progress of opinion, jurisprudence, political œconomy, and constitutional law;) 2. for induction and sentiment, Moral Philosophy (including the study and regulation of the passions, those parts of Logic that are not merely technical, and so much of Metaphysics as relates to the perceptions and defnable operations of the human mind, and does not pretend to subtilties and abstractions beyond the reach of ordinary comprehension;) – and thirdly, Poetry, for the depth of pathos, the excitement of the imaginative or inventive faculty, and the improvement of the energies of impressive diction. Tese, then, were to be the principal objects recommended to the attention of my oratorical pupils. But the two latter were, obviously, to be regarded as applicable only to the illustration and enforcement of that fundamental and indispensable knowledge comprised in the former. To have made the technicalities of rhetoric, the dilemmas of casuistry, the distinctions of criticism, or the efusions of fancy, the subjects of our declamations, would have been to have neglected the foundations, while we were employed upon the embellishments, of the edifce. To be an orator to any efective or benefcent purpose, it is necessary to be an historian. To be a British orator, above all things, the speaker should have prepared his mind by a profound attention to British history. In conformity with this mode of reasoning, I adopted for the society, at the beginning of the year 1808, a plan of regular disquisition, from which it has never since departed (except in a single instance, which aforded the meeting an opportunity of being edifed by the antiquarian researches of an honorary member, eminent for his attainments in that department of literature:) – a plan which I conceived would be equally useful to the professor of the law, the incipient senator, the general student, and the independent gentleman. Tis was no other than to take, for the subjects of discussion, in regular series, all the prominent facts and epochs of English history: the succession of events, the progress of society, arts and legislation; the rise and decline of customs, orders and institutions; and the characters of the respective actors in the great drama of national progression. Te fve following questions, which were frst in this series, will serve to exemplify the plan and object of our inquiries. 1. ‘How far back into the historical antiquities of the respective tribes or nations, who have contributed to the population of this country, can we advantageously look, for the origin of those particular institutions which are regarded as the peculiar advantages of the English constitution? and what are the particular institutions specifcally referable to the respective people?’ – 2. ‘How far are we in possession of any authentic evidence relative to the particular institutions

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of Alfred? what parts of those institutions are to be regarded as merely collated from former codes and traditions? – what parts as having originated in himself and his immediate counsellors? – and how far did those institutions survive the successive shocks of the Danish and Norman conquests?’ – 3. ‘In what nations, or among what diferent tribes, that have contributed to the population of modern Europe, will any vestiges of the trial by jury be found? What is the evidence of its having been one of the institutions of Alfred (original or adopted)? or how far it maybe considered as introduced or modifed by the Normans?’ – 4. ‘How far are we to consider the feudal institutions as innovations introduced by the Norman conquest? How far were they practically inconsistent with the previous state of political organization among the Saxons? – and what were their operations on the morals and happiness of the community?’ – 5. ‘Which ought to be considered as the greatest character, Egbert, (who founded the English monarchy,) Canute the Great, or William the Conqueror?’ In this manner have we proceeded for two successive sessions, investigating every event and circumstance of importance, from the earliest records of our history to the accession of Henry the Seventh; and, making some incursions into the reigns of the Tudors, as far as to the days of the Reformation, we concluded the discussions of the last season with a comparison of the merits and demerits, of the houses of Tudor and Plantagenet; and the advantages and disadvantages resulting to the country from the government of the respective princes of either dynasty. At the discussion of these questions, I have regularly presided, to point out the sources of information, to interrogate the speakers as to the authorities for disputed facts, to rectify their mistakes, assist them in appreciating the value of historical evidence, and religiously to enforce the observance, even in the ardour of debate, of the undeviating language of decorum and urbanity: and, as care has been taken that the library of my institution should never be unfurnished with any books that it could be necessary to refer to, for the illustration of the subject in debate; and as every immediate pupil, at least, has been obliged to take his share in every discussion, tho all may not have been formed into orators (a consummation neither practicable nor desirable) no member of the society could well avoid making some progress in the attainment of historical knowledge, and in the habit of confdent and fuent utterance. For the minuteness with which we have traced, step by step, the progress of our early history, I had several motives. To those who may choose to partake for successive years in our discussions, the advantages will be obvious of having thus laid a frm foundation in the historical antiquities of their country, whose history and institutions they are, hereafer, to examine, in the more advanced stages. To those (the period of whose instruction being closed) who have retired to their distant homes, or are closely engaged in their professional vocations,

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it will be valuable, to have been so far conducted thro the thorny road of early investigation, and to be lef to their own industry and further attainment, at an aera of increasing interest; where the allurements and excitements to further inquiry and attainment are perpetually unfolding. But I am free to confess, that a motive, not less powerful in my mind, was the desire of not meddling with the more recent periods, till the nature of my undertaking were popularly understood, beyond the danger of suspicion: for I am well aware, how much prejudice has to do in retarding the progress of the most useful establishments; and how important it is for a public teacher, or the professor of any liberal science, to be armed against misrepresentation, and to have his views and objects understood for precisely what they are. Te jealousy of that precaution is now no longer necessary. Te objects of my institution are now, I believe, pretty well understood to be no other than they are professed to be – the improvement of English elocution, and the cultivation of the accomplishments connected with the completion of a liberal education, and the efcient endowments for the eligible departments of active life; and the respective pupils, of all parties, and of all opinions, who have already partaken of the instructions of that institution, and of these discussions, in particular, will bear testimony for me – that my system interferes not with the parties or the theories of those who are intrusted to my care. To spread the facts of history before them, to guide them to the attainment of a thorough knowledge of the institutions of their country; to store my shelves, impartially, for their edifcation, with every respectable authority, pro and con, for every period or event of disputed record; to form their taste for the more elegant departments of literature, and to inspire, at once, a thirst for knowledge and for eloquence, and an emulation of utility and distinction in their generation, (whatever may be their class, their party, or their professional destination) – these are the views with which, in the next session of the historical and oratorical society, I shall proceed to direct the attention of my pupils to these two important periods of the English annals; the frst of which begins with the accession of the house of Tudor, and the second of which terminates with the abdication of James. Whether the whole of the events of those two interesting epochs will be discussed during a single session of the society, I do not, by any means, predict: but I believe I may venture to announce to those who are interested in the intelligence – that, in the library of my institution, will now be found almost every historian, and every accessible document, that can be useful in the free investigation of any important question that can arise out of the events of those periods. One alteration it is my intention to make in the conduct of this society, which, I hope, may be regarded as an improvement. Hitherto, every Monday evening, during the session, has been devoted to the discussions of the pupils; and my own lectures and remarks have been only incidental, and, like those discussions, have been merely private. For the future, it is my intention

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to devote the frst Monday of every month to a public lecture on the study of history, and its application to the purposes of senatorial, forensic, and popular oratory. To these lectures every member of the society will have free admission; and on these evenings, and these alone, the attendance of visitors, and of ladies, in particular, will be solicited. Te discussions of the society must still continue, as heretofore, accessible to the pupils and members only. Te frst public lecture will be on ‘Te fve grand epochs of English history; the state and objects of jurisprudence, during those epochs, and the degrees of attention due to each of them, respectively, by the student of oratory.’ Such, Sir, is the history, and such are the objects, of my infant, but hitherto growing, society, for the cultivation of historical knowledge and oratorical accomplishment. I have already trespassed too long upon your attention, to detain you by a tedious apology; I shall, therefore, only just observe – that, perhaps, few things could contribute more to the advancement of science, and to extend the operation of useful establishments, than a free and full announcement of the plans, views and means, of such establishments, authenticated by the signature of their respective projectors, (who would thus become responsible to the public, in person and reputation, for the fulflment of their professions,) thro the medium of a Miscellany so widely circulated as that by which so many obligations, in the furtherance of his professional pursuits, have been conferred on, &c. Bedford-Place, 10th August, 1809. Te Lectures are regularly taken in short-hand; so that, altho spontaneously delivered, the record of the sentiments and maxims they contain will be preserved – probably as a basis for future publication. THE END.

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THE VESTIBULE OF ELOQUENCE

Te Vestibule of Eloquence ... Original Articles, Oratorical and Poetical, Intended as Exercises in Recitation, etc. (London: J. McCreery, 1810).

Te collection of Telwall’s writings entitled ‘Te Vestibule of Eloquence’ was published in 1810 – shortly afer the ‘Letter to Henry Cline’, though some of the material that comprised it had actually been published earlier. We have included three items from the collection: the ‘Introductory Discourse on the Nature and Objects of Elocutionary Science’, his poem ‘Te Trident of Albion; an Epic Efusion on the Death of Lord Nelson’ and his ‘Oration on Martial Enthusiasm; with the Eulogies of Epaminodes and Alfred’. Other parts of ‘Te Vestibule’ reveal practical aspects of his planned ‘Institution for the Cure of Impediments’: such as how Mrs Telwall would attempt to initiate ‘junior pupils’ in the rudiments of foreign languages like Latin, French and Italian, with the aim of developing their faculties. In addition to this, he suggested that younger pupils be taught other subjects, like Classics and Mathematics and activities such as Music, Fencing, Dancing and Drawing, to ensure that they ‘secure all the advantages’ of a ‘preparatory’ or ‘classical’ school. In the included ‘Advertisement’ to the discourse on elocution – which was based on his second course of lectures delivered in Liverpool in November 1805 and originally published later that year – Telwall makes a pointed political announcement; or rather, an apolitical announcement. He suggests that the sentiments he expresses have ‘nothing to do with the popular occurrences of the day’, adding that ‘the thoughts of the Lecturer have, for several years, been fowing in a current, that leaves him neither taste nor leisure for political disquisition’. Te only political feeling that continues to animate his writing, he suggests, is the ‘zeal for the independence of his country’. Nevertheless, the discourse appears to retain his commitment to democratic equality: its object, he declares, is nothing less than ‘the improvement of the oral Language of Englishmen’. ‘Te Trident of Albion’ celebrates the military command of Lord Nelson, but for whose ‘providential care’, the country would have perished. Yet, as Michael Scrivener has argued, Telwall’s poem ‘steers the popular nationalist sentiment – 113 –

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… away from aristocratic and loyalist ideology by framing the war against France as a traditional English battle against foreign invasion, this tapping into the constitutionalist idiom of Saxon democracy and the Norman yoke’.1 Te discourse on ‘Oration’ is markedly diferent in tone and substance from his increasingly common scientifc writings on speech, where the theme is elocutionary theory and how it should work in practice. Instead, here the emphasis is strongly on oration as an ‘art’, on the role of elocution in Greek and Roman times and, in particular, the nature and value of eloquence. Notes 1.

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Scrivener, Seditious Allegories, p. 192.

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Te Vestibule1 of Eloquence THE CONTENTS OF THIS VOLUME ARE AS FOLLOWS. 1. Te plan and terms of the Institution. 2. An Introductory Discourse on the Nature and Objects of Elocutionary Science 3. Te Trident of Albion; an Epic Efusion on the Death of Lord Nelson 4. An Oration on Martial Enthusiasm; with the Eulogies of Epaminodes and Alfred 5. Odes for Recitation – To the energies of Britain, in behalf of the Spanish Patriots Te Negro’s Prayer For the Anniversary of the Humane Society To EDWARD RUSHTON, on his restoration to Sight, afer a blindness of thirty years Te Song of ALI, the Lion of God To Peace (written in 1801) To Benevolence ‘From Mate and Nestlings far away’ To the English Long Bow ~ To Despair TO Fulvia To Dr Paley Two Passages Virgil Te Hope of Albion Te frst Gray Hair; a moral rhapsody Te Lecturer cannot omit the present opportunity of inscibing his acknowledments to the President, Vice-President, Committee and Proprietors of eth Lyceum; in one of whose apartments his Second Course of Lectures in Liverpool (of which the ensuing pages have constituted a part) is delivered. Te attentions of those gentlemen to the interests of Literature and Science, manifested in the liberality with which their room has been repeatedly conceded to the use of public Lecturers, as well as the extent of their growing library, and the Architectural elegance of the Edifce, contribute to – 115 –

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render that Institution one of the principal ornaments of a fourishing and spirited town; and will, undoubtedly, endear it to posterity.

ADVERTISEMENT. THO the poetical portion of this little Pamphlet, appear as the prominent subject in the title page, it is no afectation in the Author to declare – that poetical reputation is not his object, in laying it before the world. Such reputation is not to be expected from a hasty efusion, poured out, almost spontaneously, on the spur of the moment this object, – amidst the throng of interfering thoughts, which necessarily arise out of the public and private duties of a laborious profession. Te publication arises, as the composition originated, from the echo of the heart to the last injunction of a departed hero. – ‘England expects that every man should do his duty;’ and the manifestations of his feelings, under the present exigencies, appeared to the Author to be a part of his. To this manifestation, alone, the ensuing pages would have been restricted, – if it had not been apprehended, that the detached appearance of these temporary efusions, might produce an erroneous impression, of the nature and objects of the undertaking, with which they were, accidentally, connected. Te Lectures on the Science and Practice of Elocution (in illustration of which the Poem and Oration were repeatedly delivered – on the 11th, 12th, and 14th of November – the frst three nights of the Author’s Second Course in Liverpool) have, in reality, nothing to do with the popular occurrences of the day: nor, except in the present instance, has any thing connected with such occurrences, been permitted to mingle with the subject. Te thoughts of the Lecturer have, for several years, been fowing in a current, that leaves him neither taste nor leisure for political disquisition; and, not to interfere with the prejudices or opinion of any party, has become one of the settled principles of his conduct. One feeling, only, that can be regarded as of a political nature, he continues to cherish, in all its vital warmth and activity: – a zeal for the independence of his country – an indignant abhorrence of the idea of a foreign yoke. It was this feeling (under the infuence of an enthusiasm, which the events referred to had an irresistable tendency to inspire,) which dictated the ensuing poem, – which suggested the choice of the subject for the opening Oration of his present Course of Lectures, and produced the particular allusions to the glorious exploits and triumphant martyrdom of our great Naval Champion; when arrangements and subjects of a very diferent description, had already been announced to the public. It was the same feeling which prompted him to give still greater publicity to his sentiments, at the numerous and respectable meeting of the Inhabitants of Liverpool, assembled, by invitation of the Mayor, in their Town Hall: – (an

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invitation in which, as a resident householder, he, of course, considered himself included:) For tho the mite of his contribution could be worthy of no regard, among the large donations, so liberally subscribed, for the Monument of our illustrious Admiral, yet he fattered himself – that it might not be unacceptable, as an example of that unanimity which binds every description of Englishmen, with links of adamant, to the cause of their endangered country. Te manner in which his sentiments were received, on that occasion, seemed to justify this supposition: and the public testimony, was still farther confrmed, by the particular acknowledgments of some gentlemen of the highest estimation in the vicinage; and the fattering declaration – that they regarded the public manifestation of those sentiments as calculated to be highly useful. If, for this opinion, there should be the least foundation, – the Poem and Oration here presented, can require no further apology: for the sentiments they breathe, and those addressed by their author to that respectable and numerous assemblage, are, in principle and essence, the same. But, that the nature of the general subject (of which these efusions were introduced as temporary illustrations) may be seen in its proper point of view; – that what was, in fact, only an unprecedented deviation, may not be regarded as an essential part of the plan; the probationary Discourse, which preceded the frst delivery of these efusions, is prefxed: which, together with the Titles of the ensuing lectures, (to be found at the end of the pamphlet,) will sufciently evince the objects of the undertaking. In the candid appreciation of that undertaking, perhaps mankind at large, may be found to have some interest; – since (besides the attractive accomplishments to which the name of Elocution has been generally confned) the Lecturer professes – to illustrate and apply the principles of a Science, that may give speech to the Dumb, and fuency to the convulsive Stammerer. If to this, on the present occasion, he may hope to add – that, by an excusable deviation from the general tenour of his plan, he has rendered it, in any respect, conducive to that patriotic enthusiasm and determined unanimity, without which we cannot stand, and with which we cannot fall, the refection will gild the evening of his days, and increase his attachment to those professional pursuits to which he has been long devoted. Brownlow Hill, Liverpool Dec. 4, 1805.

plan and terms &C. Te imperfect state of Elocution, in this country, – so inconsistent with the state of knowledge and refnement, in every other respect; the defciency of

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grace, harmony and facility, even in the tones and enunciation of our professed Instructors, – our Advocates and Public ?Speakers; and the frequent occurrencer of every species of degrading and troublesome impediment, have induced Mr. Telwall to devote several years of his life, to a Teoretical and Practical Analyssis of the Phenomena of Spoken Language; – to a minute examination of the organization, on which those _henomena depend; and an accurate investigation of het Physiological, Rational, and Musical Principles, by which the powers, both of Conversational and Oratorical Delivery, may, most efectually, be regulated and improved. Of the poin to view in which these reseraches have led him to consider the subject, and the principles that form the basis of his general system of Instruction, a slight sketch will be found in the annexed Discourse, on the Nature and Objects of Elocutionary Science, – the Outline of a course of Lectures on that subject, and other documents, that will usually accomp0any this prospectus. In practical application, that system, is not only adapted to the ordinary purposes of distinct and intelligible delivery, and to eht removal of those defects, usually considered under the denomination of Impediments; but, also , to Geebleness and Dissonance of Voicel; to Foreign and Provincial Accents, and every ofensive peculiarity of Tone an dEnunciation: nor are even those cases precluded from relief, in which there are actual Defnciencies and Malconformations, in the Natural Organs of Utterance. At the same time, by a felicity, that frequently belongs to the disvoveries of real Science, the principles most conducive to the obvious purposes of utlity, are found to be no less applicable ot the highest reginements of grace and elegance; and the system of Insturction, that gives Speech to the Mute, and Fluency to the convulsive Stammerer, may be applied to the improvement of all the Harmonies of Language: to the rythmus of Poetry and elegant Composition, the facilities of Converational Eloquence, and the energies of Public Oratory. Nor is the process adopted, eithe rtedious or precarious. Te time necessary to the attainment, must, of course, depend, in a considerable measure, upon the extent of accomplishkemnt desired, – the nature and degree of the impediment or habit to be ecnocuntered, and susceptibility, diligence, previous attaninements, and disposition of het Pupil: – but frequently, a single quarter, and generally, a single year, – will be found sufcient, for the removal of the most troublesome defects. In some inatances, indeed, (even where wther erwe Impediments of a very formidable descriptions) a few weeks have been sufcient, for attaining the essential objects of tuition.

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INTRODUCTORY DISCOURSE on the Nature and Objects of Elocutionary Science; and the Studies and Accomplishments connected with the Faculty of Oral Expression THE object of the present Course of Lectures, is the improvement of the oral Language of Englishmen, – as contradistinguished from mere graphic composition; and the cultivation of every external grace and accomplishment, with which the delivery of that language should be accompanied; whether in Reading, in Recitation, or in Spontaneous utterance. In the prosecution of this object, it is by no means my intention to confne myself to the limits of former example, or to tread in the beaten paths of my predecessors. I shall not satisfy myself with a mere compilation from the works of Rhetoricians and Grammarians; or with detailing the ill-digested and incongruous rules of Art, which, it is hazarding little to assert – have more frequently been repeated than understood. I shall, at least, endeavour to go somewhat deeper into my subject; and (although it is my intention to give a popular form, and a popular colouring, to every portion of the enquiry) shall attempt to establish my doctrines upon the settled principles of Science, and demonstrate the essential elements of Elocution as a branch of Natural Philosophy. In such an undertaking, – however popularly treated, (and, indeed, in the outset of every scientifc enquiry) some defnitions are indispensable: for, in the laxity of general conversation, many terms become indiferently and indistinctly used; which, in the precision of scientifc discussion, must be carefully separated and placed in contradistinction: – the very admission of synonymies being perfectly inconsistent with the progress and comprehension of Scientifc Truth. Nor is this the only point of view, in which the importance of scientifc defnitions may properly be considered. Te knowledge of words leads to the knowledge of things; and every accurate Defnition, necessarily conveys to the mind some important truths of the science to which it refers. Te Defnitions to which it is necessary, in the frst instance, to call the attention of the student, are those only that mark the boundaries, of signifcation assignable to three essential terms of discrimination, in the modifcations of the faculty of discourse, – Eloquence – Oratory – and Elocution: terms which Etymological refnement might, perhaps reduce to one radical meaning, but which the necessities of science have converted into defnite representatives of distinct, though relative, ideas. ELOQUENCE may be defned – Te Art of expressing our thoughts and feelings, with precision force and elegance; and of heightening the impressions of Reason, by the colourings of imagination.

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It is applicable, therefore, to the whole faculty of verbal discourse; whether oral, or written: It addresses itself, by the pen, to the eye; as well as, by the living Organs, to the ear. Tus – we speak (with admitted accuracy) of an eloquent Book, as freely as of an eloquent Oration; of the eloquent BUFFON (alluding to his celebrated work upon Natural History;) and of the eloquent writings, as well as the eloquent speeches of EDMUND BURKE. Te Apostrope to the Queen of France, is as genuine a piece of eloquence, as if it had been spoken in the House of Commons. ORATORY, on the contrary, is precise and limited, in its application: and, in this respect, even popular usage is pretty generally correct. It may be defned – Oral Eloquence; or the Art of communicating, by the immediate action of the vocal and expressive Organs, to popular, or to select assemblies, the dictates of our Reason, or our Will; and the workings of our Passions, our Feelings and our Imaginations. Oratory, therefore, includes the idea of Eloquence: for no man can be an Orator who hath not afuence of thought and language. But Eloquence does not necessarily include the idea of Oratory: since a man may be rich in all the stores of Language and of thought, without possessing the advantages of a graceful and impressive delivery. It is, therefore, the name of a more complex idea and includes, besides the general notion of Eloquence, the practical part of Elocution : – which, as it constitutes the immediate and essential object of these Lectures, must be spoken of more at large. ELOCUTION may be regarded, either as a Science, or as an Act. In the former signifcation it may be defned – Te System of Elementary Facts and Principles, by which the Phenomena of Human Utterance are explained, and the Rules for the just delivery of Eloquence are taught; In the latter – Tat happy coincidence of vocal, enunciative and gesticulative expression, by which Oratorical excitement is superadded to the Eloquence of Tought and Language. In other words – Elocution is the Art, or the Act, of so delivering our own thoughts and sentiments, or the thoughts and sentiments of others, as not only to convey to those around us (with precision, force and harmony) the full purport and meaning of the words and sentences in which those thoughts are cloathed; but, also, to excite and impress upon their minds – the feelings, the imaginations and the passions by which those thoughts are dictated or with which they should naturally be accompanied. Elocution, therefore, (in its more ample and liberal signifcation) is not confned to the mere exercise of the Organs of Speech. It embraces the whole Teory and Practice of the exterior demonstration of the inward workings of the mind. In short, Eloquence is the Soul, or animating principle of Discourse; and is dependent on Intellectual Energy, and intellectual Attainments. Elocution is the embodying Form, or representative power; and is the result of certain exterior accomplishments, and of the cultivation of the expressive Organs. Oratory

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is the complicated and vital existence resulting from the perfect harmony and cooperation of the two. Tis vital existence, however, in its full perfection, is one of the choicest rarities of Nature. Te high and splendid accomplishments of Oratory (even in the most favoured Ages, and the most favoured Countries) have been attained by few; and many are the Ages, many are the Countries in which those accomplishments have never once appeared. Generations have succeeded to Generations, and Centuries have rolled afer Centuries – during which, the intellectual desert has not exhibited one solitary specimen of the stately growth and fourishing expansion of Oratorical Genius. Te rarity of this occurrence is, undoubtedly, in part, to be accounted for, from the difculty of the attainment. Te Palm of Oratorical perfection is only to be grasped – it is, in reality, only to be desired – by aspiring souls and intellects of unusual energy. It requires a persevering toil – which few will be disposed to encounter; – a decisive intrepidity of character, and an untameableness of mental ambition, which very – very few can be expected to possess. It requires, also, conspicuous opportunities for the cultivation and display of its essential attributes: Opportunities – to which few can have the fortune to be born; and which fewer still, will have the hardihood efciently to improve. But, even the very few, to whom these energies, and these opportunities are dispensed are, at least, impeded in their pursuit if not frustrated of their hopes, by the want of sufcient guides in the path of their emulation. In those parts of Oratory, indeed, which relate to the arrangements of thought, and the energies of expressive language, there is no absolute defciency of existing models; and, certainly, no paucity whatever, of pedantic Rules and Treatises. Cicero and Demosthenes still continue to speak to the Eye, in all the eloquence of graphic words; and Quintillian and Blair (like two conspicuous luminaries, in the ancient and modem hemispheres of oratorical Criticism) illuminate the tracks of written language and may help to inform us – how Orations should be composed: (In this part of Oratory, the present – and even the preceding generation, have, accordingly something to boast:) But for the theory and practice of those impressive exterior demonstrations, with which the delivery of such Orations should be accompanied! – to what systems, or to what models, can the English Student appeal? In short – Eloquence has been cultivated, with considerable diligence; but Elocution has been so much neglected – that the very nature of the Science seems to be entirely forgotten: – so much so, indeed, – that the few fragments of antiquity, that have descended to us, upon the subject, are evidently misunderstood, by those who have pretended to comment upon them; and many of our most learned Critics have either ingenuously acknowledged, or unwarily betrayed, – their total inability to comprehend some of those very distinctions most indispensable to the expression and harmony of Oratorical delivery: – Such, for

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example, as the musical accents, or infections of the voice in the harmonic scale; the proportions of respondent sounds and cadences, and the essential contradistinctions of percussion, accent and quantity. Is it wonderful, therefore – that, while we have so many eloquent speakers, the character of an Orator (if fairly appreciated) is scarcely known among us? Afer what has been said, however, – if the sublime accomplishments of Oratory (as they are the noblest) were the only objects of my Lectures, I could scarcely look for very extensive patronage. Where few can be the Candidates for attainment, the remunerators of Tuition must, of course, be few. But my subject is not thus confned. Te practical application of my principles is extensive – is universal. If Oratorical excellence be an object only to the few; Elocutionary Accomplishment is certainly desirable by all. Tere are few, indeed, to whom it would not be advantageous (at least in point of mental gratifcation) to be able to read, with expression and harmony, the fne passages of our poets, or the instructive and elegant composition of our historians and moralists, and our amusive writers: – Tere is, perhaps, scarcely an individual who has not, occasionally, experienced the advantage of delivering what he had to say, with correctness, ease and impressiveness; or (lacking this accomplishment) who has not felt the disadvantages resulting from such defect. Even in the social intercourses of private life, how great are the benefts of this attainment! – How does it multiply the sources of innocent pleasure! – What a zest does it impart to the highest, tho most familiar, of our intellectual gratifcations! To the favour of the Fair, it is, perhaps (of all accomplishments to which, in the gay season youth and gallantry, we can aspire) the surest passport; and, to the Fair themselves, – it might be recommended, as an additional charm, that extends their infuence, and secures their dominion; if its connexion with the sweetest and most essential of Maternal Duties, did not present it to them, in colours of more amiable attraction. Fortunately for mankind, – this accomplishment, so universally to be desired, needs never to be desired in vain. With, those exceptions, only, which result from deafness, or from mental imbecility, – I shall, I think, demonstrate – that (by no greater sacrifce of time and efort, than is usually devoted to less important Sciences, and much more frivolous accomplishments) correct and impressive Elocution is attainable by all. To this apparent Paradox, I am aware, it may be objected – that hitherto, at least, the Instances of such attainment have been exceedingly rare: – that few are the Englishmen who converse with fuency and impressive grace; and fewer still, who can read with tolerable harmony and propriety. Even in our Churches, the sublimest passages lose their impressiveness, from the imperfect manner in which they are delivered; and those very Preachers, who are most accomplished

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in every other particular, too frequently obscure, by the wretchedness of their Elocution, the eloquent discourses they compose. But the Causes of this, it is not difcult to discover. We trace them, at once, in the almost universal neglect of this important branch of Education. Even of the professed Teachers, in this department, how few are the instances – nay, where is the individual – who has properly explored the extent, or the principles of the Science ? – Te principles of the Science!!! – Where is the individual, who, in modern times, has suspected – that Science had any thing to do with the subject? It has almost been questioned Whether Elocution were to be considered as an Art? Excellence has been regarded as a mysterious gif of Nature, or of Fortune; – as the original and unsolicited dispensation of a partial providence; which no education could secure, and which study and application were scarcely necessary to improve. With respect to the constitution of that Excellence, more Taste and Presentiment have been regarded as the only Arbiters; the very Laws of infection and proportion have been denied all foundation and existence, in the utterance of modern speech; and pronunciation, tone and melody, – and even the constituent requisite of percussive Accent (upon which the individuality, the character and the force of spoken words essentially depend have been abandoned to the lawless rule of Fashion and Caprice. To rescue the elements of Elocution from this state of neglect and Chaos – to give form and order to its constituent parts – and to facilitate the general attainment of an accomplishment so generally useful and desirable, it is necessary, in the frst instance, to take, at least, a cursory survey of the extent and nature of the subject. ELOCUTION, then is partly a Science, founded on ascertainable principles, and susceptible of palpable demonstrations; partly an Art, attainable by imitative application and observance, and subject to such Laws as result from comparison of general principles with practical Experience; and partly an object of Taste and Sentiment, dependent on acuteness of Perception, and delicacy and refnement of Feeling. As a SCIENCE, its foundations are to be sought, – First – in Physiology; – that is to say, in the Anatomical Structure of the Elocutionary Organs, and the Laws of Physical Necessity, by which their actions are regulated and circumscribed; – some knowledge of which seems to be indispensably requisite to the complete developement and exertion of their respective powers; to the supply of accidental and occasional defciencies; and to the correction of those erroneous and defective modes of utterance, which, originating in negligent or vicious imitation, have ripened into habitual Impediments: Secondly – in Music, the essential Laws and Accidents of which (with only one conspicuous exception) are as applicable to Elocution as to Song: – All fuent and harmonious speech, (even that of the most easy and familiar conversation) as necessarily falling into

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the rythmical division of musical bars, and into the two generic measures of common and triple time, as the warblings of the most scientifc singer on the Stage; while several of the impediments which most seriously obstruct and deform the elocution of injudicious speakers, may be proved to originate in no other cause, than the violation of these musical principles; and the consequent resistance of those physical necessities, which limit the facilities of organic action; and with which the elementary principles of harmonic proportion, so admirably, and so mysteriously conform. In the third place; Elocution hath also a basis in Philology – inasmuch as to the philosophy of the structure and composition of Language, and to the acute researches of the Etymologist, many of those disputed questions of pronunciation, quantity and percussive accent, which have hitherto been surrendered to the arbitrary and fuctuating decisions of Fashion, ought, in reality, to be referred. As an ART, the Laws of Elocution are partly Gnmmatical, – as arising out of the structure and arrangement of sentences, and the consequent degrees of connection and relationship between the diferent words and members of discourse; – partly Harmonic, – as connected with the practical regulation of the variations and proportions of harmonic sound; – and partly Mechanical, or Experimental, – as relating to the motions and positions of the respective Organs, by which the varieties of vocal and enunciative expression are produced. As a matter of TASTE, it embraces, of course, the consideration of such peculiar habits, of study, deportment and association, as are favourable to acuteness and delicacy of susceptibility, both in the Intellectual and the Organic system, and give them their peculiar bias and direction. In this point of view – all the fner Arts, and all the more intellectual accomplishments constitute essential parts of the studies of the fnished Elocutionist. He should have an Eye for the glowing tints and fowing lines of Picture, the proportions of Architecture and the symmetries of Statuary; an Ear for the ravishing delights of Music; a perception of the vital graces of look and attitude and motion, – beyond all that the dancing school or the Opera-house can teach him; and a Soul tremblingly alive to all the enthusiasm of Poetry, and all the poignancy of Sentiment and Pathos. But, above all things, – the individual who aspires to the highest distinctions of the Elocutionary Character, should cherish, with fond solicitude, the generous, the tender, and the noble feelings of the heart: for it is with these that he has most especially to deal: – it is these, in all their shades and varieties, that it is the noblest distinction of his art to regulate and to excite; and how shall he successfully impart to others, what he does not himself both comprehend and feel? Such is the extent and nature of this neglected subject – Such are the requisite studies and accomplishments of the fnished Elocutionist: – and such, accordingly, is the course of study to which it is the object of these Lectures to initiate the attentive student.

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No precedent, indeed, can be found, in modern times, for the claim of my science to such an ample feld of enquiry and Illustration: but I appeal to the example of Classical Antiquity! – I appeal to the practice of those illustrious ages – in which the energies of Elocution are admitted to have been most manifested, and its powers most extensively felt! – I appeal to facts that stand upon record – to the reliques of ancient criticism that yet remain; and which (ill understood in many particulars, as they have obviously been) are yet sufcient to demonstrate that Elocution, among the ancients, was regarded as a musical Science; and that its cultivation was associated with all the arts, and all the accomplishments that gave dignity to life, and were connected with the privileges of a liberal education! In the Treatment of this extensive and interesting subject, it is not my intention to overlook those ample sources of amusement, which, on every hand, it so abundantly presents. It will be my constant aim – to make Delight the handmaid of Science, and useful Information a vehicle of Recreation and Pleasure. For this purpose, Variety is as indispensable as Unity; and if, now and then, the excursive fights of Imagination should be indulged, or the pursuit of interesting illustration should deviate into miscellaneous digression, the candid critic will remember that it is not to Men of Science alone, that my Lectures are addressed; and that my science itself must languish in neglect, if I fail of popular attraction. To enlarge, therefore, as much as possible, the sphere of attractive Variety, each Lecture will, generally, be divided into three distinct Parts. I. Of these, the priority will generally be given to the Didactic Discourse; or treatise on the Elements of Science, and the Rules of Art. II. Te second place will, usually, be occupied by Illustrations – either of the General Principles of Elocutionary Taste, or of the Specifc Rules of the preceding Discourse; and the Readings and Recitations; introduced for this purpose, will be, still further, diversifed – by Strictures, Literary and Critical, on Style and Composition, and on the Genius and peculiar excellences of the respective Authors. III. To these will be added, – some specimen of spontaneous Elocution: – that is to say – of that species of eloquence, of which the general Outline, only, is prepared, and the language and embellishments are trusted to the feelings of the moment. Te Oratorical and Critical Dissertations, destined to occupy this portion of the Lectures, will be devoted to such Miscellaneous Parts of the Subject, as do not require the precision of Scientifc arrangement; or to such topics of a moral, historical, or a critical description, as may tend to exemplify the importance of the Subject, and to rouse a generous emulation. I. Te Didactic Discourses will, necessarily, commence with the Physiological Portions of the Science. In the frst instance I shall endeavour to explain – the

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structure and ofces of two efciently distinct classes of Organs, upon which the Functions of Speech depend: – that is to say (1) the Vocal Organs, – or those portions of the Organic system employed by the human (or other animated) being, in the production and variation of tunable sounds; and (2) the Enunciative Organs, – which, in the complication and perfection of their structure, are peculiar to Man, – and are employed in superadding to the Sounds of Voice the elementary characteristics of verbal expression. Te Laws of Physical Necessity, under which the functions of these respective Organs are performed, will, in the next place, briefy be investigated; and the mode of operation by which volition accommodates itself to the restrictions inevitably imposed: an investigation which will necessarily lead me into that curious, and hitherto unfathomable, question – Te cause of the exclusive satisfaction received, by the human ear, from sounds that follow each other in certain defnite and simple proportions: – that is to say, by a succession of cadences, in Common, or in Triple Time? From Science and theory, we then advance to practice; and the Physiological portion of these Discourses, terminates with an ample exposition of the Causes and Cure of the various Impediments of Speech; whether originating in Organic Defects, or consisting, only, in the Inveteracy of Erroneous Habit Tese difculties removed, and the requisite principles established, – I proceed to the Education and Management of the Organs of Speech; – the expressive powers of Voice and Enunciation; the laws of Infection, Proportion and Harmony; and the Graces and Accomplishments, by which the delivery of Speech (whether original or imitative) should naturally be accompanied; and by which its infuence may be rendered more prompt and efcacious, on the senses, the imagination and the heart. Among these, – Physiognomical Expression, or the play and sympathy of the features, and the language of Gesticulation, must not be overlooked: for, as Mr. Sheridan has observed, it is a palpable ‘delusion;’ to suppose – ’that by the help of words, alone, we can ‘communicate all that passes in the mind of Man – ’Te Passions and the Fancy have a language of their own, utterly independent of words, by which only their exertions can be manifested and communicated.’ Lect. on Eloc. p. xii. 8vo. edit. Tis language, it is my intention at once to vindicate and to explain; and to this Language I shall not scruple, in thy own particular practice, to appeal, whenever the animation of the Subject, the impulse of emotion, or the descriptive eloquence of the language, seems either to dictate or require such accompaniment. In so doing, I am perfectly aware of the Prejudice I have to encounter. Te Dulness and Indolence of modern Elocutionists, having conspired, with other causes, hereafer to be explained, to reduce almost all public speaking, but that of the stage, to one sympathetic monotony of tone and look and attitude, – the

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superstition of criticism (mistaking sanction for propriety, and established usage for the law of nature) has raised a sort of hue and cry, against all expression of attitude and feature; as if these were mere Teatrical afectations, and meretricious artifces, that ought to be confned to the mummeries for which they are supposed to have been invented. To this objection it ought to be sufcient answer, simply to enquire – Whether, upon the stage, the practices alluded to, when judiciously applied, advance the genuine objects of Elocution? – whether they rouse, and agitate and impress? If so – even if they were inventions of Teatrical Art, the Orator would be called upon to appeal to them: – for what is Oratory, if it produce not these efects? But tone and look and gesture, are so far from being Teatrical inventions, that they are essential parts of the original language of Nature; and, perhaps, have been exhibited in their highest perfection, in ages and nations so little removed from original simplicity, that neither Teatres nor Dramatic representations have been known among them. And still does the voice of Nature cry within us, to give latitude to this artless language. Still, when really actuated by any strong and genuine emotion, the tone becomes afected; the physiognomy assumes a sympathetic expression; and, bursting through the boundaries of fashion, and tile chains of unnatural torpor, each limb and muscle struggles with inspiring passion; and, with eforts, rude and imperfect (because untutored and unaccustomed,) endeavours to enforce upon the eye, what the words of the Orator are labouring to communicate to the ear. It is true, indeed, that these vehement bursts of action, are, ofen, sufciently ludicrous: the very maxims of education that prohibit their cultivation, rendering them, when unavoidable, both ungracious and extravagant. Tat action may, at once be temperate, graceful and expressive, it is necessary that it should be attentively cultivated; for, although to move be the universal impulse of animated nature, grace and facility are attributes of cultivation and practice. Tese refections are, indeed, so obvious, – and the inducements to gesticulative expression are so cogent, that nothing but the practice of shutting up our public orators in little boxes, or burying them in a hole, chin deep, amidst a press of auditors and competitors, can account for the entire neglect of this part of our elocutionary education, and the ungraceful inanity that pervades our public speaking. If these observations are not sufcient to justify the animated system of elocution, which the Ancients universally practiced, and which it is one of the objects of these Lectures to revive, – l might appeal, for confrmation, to the universal analogies of nature; – to all animate, and even inanimate existence; – to the very phenomena of the Seasons, and the operations of the physical universe: – I might refer to ‘each gentle, and each dreadful scene;’ and might boldly ask

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– Whether universal Nature, in its most tremendous, and its most delightful workings, does not proceed by general sympathies ? – Whether any thing, but impotent and ill-directed Art, ever attempts to operate by the separate impulses of incoherent parts? When Tunder roars, does not the Lightning fash! – When Volcanoes pour forth their destroying fres, and surrounding realms are deluged in the faming torrent; does not subterranean thunder grow beneath? – shakes not the earth in terrible convulsion? – heaves not the ocean its threatening billows to the sky? – and stoop not the sulphurous clouds, in correspondent fury, – deepening the general horror? Change the prospect. Take some sweet summer’s evening – some luxuriant scene, where the nightingale yet builds her nest. Te twilight fades. Te moon, in silver majesty, climbs up the azure vault of heaven. How tranquil! how serene! how soothing! How still the air! – how sof! Its whispers are scarcely heard amidst the foliage of the aspine; whose motions would not be perceived, but for the scintillation of the refected beam. Where are the sympathies of nature now? – or, rather, Where are they not? Glides not the stream in gentler murmurs? Do not the felds repose? – the Woodlands cease to wave their leafy heads? Yes; all is still; – valley and hill and grove, and all their countless tenants: – save only one – the sweetly plaintive Philomel! – she tunes the song of sadest ecstasy: – the only song that could sympathize with such a scene. What are your own sensations at this instant? Are not all in sweet abstraction? Is not the breath almost suspended? – the voice melted to a whisper? Arenot the sofened pulse and the consenting heart attuned to sympathetic harmony? Have they not caught the contagion of the scene? And such is Elocution. – It hath its thunders! it must have its lightnings too: it hath its explosions; it must have its war of sympathizing elements. It hath, also, its gentler moods. It would melt to pity; it would soothe with tenderness, it would inspire with gaiety; it would warm to admiration, and to love. To produce these efects, language alone is not sufcient: nature’s epitome, like nature’s self, must sympathize through every element: motion and look and attitude must manifest the inspiration of genuine feeling; and every portion of the frame must be vital with expressive eloquence.

the TRIDENT OF ALBION: an EPIC EFFUSION; Sacred to the Glorious Cause of National Independence. ‘ENGLAND EXPECTS EVERY MAN TO DO HIS DUTY.’

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WHO frst – who last thy Naval Tunder roll’d, And drove thy Water-Chariot o’er the deep Triumphant? trident-sceptred Albion, say – Glory of Ocean’s race! Unfold to view Te Pictur’d records of that dauntless worth, Which, in full Panoply of glory, guards Ty Sea-girt Strength; – secure amidst the storm, Or o’er the storm exulting: – from that day When frst thy Fasces, o’er the Ocean borne, Controll’d the wayward Fates, even to the time When (as with Omnipresent Valour) few From Pole to Pole – from Orient to the West, Ty aweful Nelson; still, where Danger lower’d, For ever found: where Nilus2 swells his foods, – Where Transatlantic Islands, menac’d, call His guardian arm; or proud Trafalgar’s Cape Embays the hostile squadrons: Victor still! – In Science, as in Valour, uncompar’d, And all-pervading – all-controlling mind. Unfold! – unfold the Roll of Ages! – Let Te swelling scenes, in all their pomp array’d, Beam on my favour’d sight. And, lo! it spreads! – In tints of living light, that ne’er shall fade, Te pictur’d story glows. Distinct and clear, Time-honour’d Triumphs, and the honour’d dead, In long procession, march; while, o’er the waves, Sounds the loud Conch, and Pole to distant Pole Reverberates thy fame. CARAUSIUS3 frst (His Celtic limbs in Roman arms array’d, And Cerule Robe Imperial) from thy hand Receives the Trident, by his valour won, When frst his Britons to the war he led, – Te Ocean-War; and, in the glorious cause Of British Independence, bade his Keels Break thro the chains, by foreign Tyrants drawn Round thy indignant shores. Next, shrin’d in light, In constellated glories clad, divine! Britain’s best boast, immortal ALFRED4! comes; His country’s truest Father! at whose name

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Selected Political Writings of John Telwall, Volume 4 What knee not bows? – what head is not inclin’d In patriot adoration? Ah! what woes, Albion, were thine, when frst his saviour hand Collects thy trampled ensigns. O’er the Realm, Palsied with panic horror, and abas’d In servile shackles, – prowls the inebriate Dane, Breathing annihilation: while, upborn On ominous pinion, with blood-dropping beak, O’er many a City sack’d, and waste Champaign, Te Raven screams; and, midst her Song of Death, Rapine and Rape, Pollution, and the Scourge Of reckless Tyranny – (attendants sure Of Foreign Subjugation) stalk at large. Te shrieks of Virgins, and the Matron’s howl O’er quarter’d Innocents, and Cradles, stain’d With unresisted slaughters, pierce his soul, Awhile in vain deploring. But, ere long, Awful he rises, – in tremendous power Of Arm and Mind, and strength of Patriot Worth, Invincible; while, – with a voice, might wake Te soul of Valour from the mouldering tombs Of time-envelop’d Ancestry, he calls His bands compatriot: his compatriot bands Hear the glad voice – that, thro each fainting breast, Kindles reviving energy. At once, Bursting its bonds, in giant force renew’d, Stalks forth the Martial Realm; Briarëus5 like, Lifing the multitudinous arm, to quell Invading Arrogance. Te Dane is crush’d: Oppression prowls no more. Te Peaceful Arts Lif up their heads and smile; – smile to behold Te Virgin, in her own pure thoughts secure, Stray thro the sylvan haunts; the Mother, clasp Te Babe, untrembling, to her foodfull breast, And Peace with Freedom reign. But, these to guard, Behold, the Patriot Monarch, to thy hand, Resuscitated Albion, gives again Te Trident-Sceptre; and, from every Port,

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Harbour and Bay of thy indented Shore, His Navy rides, triumphing. Can the tongue Of varied Eloquence fnd words to tell Te long succeeding glories? Can the hand Of chissell’d Artist bid the marble breathe In adequate proportions, till, emboss’d In living Portraiture, the long – long line. Of Naval Worthies rise? Our Raleighs – who With intellectual energy, inform’d Te Martial mass; beaming, o’er Valour’s breast, Te illumin’d warmth of Science! – our brave Blakes, Who frst, with foating bulwarks, overaw’d Embattled Promontories; whose mural strength (Till then invulnerable to naval war) Shrunk in their fx’d foundations; while the Sea, With borrow’d thunders and wide-wasting fres, Menac’d the shores, and the deep-rooted pride Of Terrene Empire shook. Let Columns rise – Let proud Pantheons spread their storied walls, And give some Gleanings, to the popular gaze, Of that full Harvest the Historic Muse Upstores in faithful record; but the hand Of Art sinks powerless – and the o’erwearied Voice Falters, exhausted, o’er the copious theme. Yet can my Tongue forego thy patriot praise, Immortal DRAKE6? Can the big heart, that heaves With proud impatience, at the galling thought Of foreign domination, e’er resign Te grateful theme? Lo! from those cells, abhor’d, Where Papal Superstition, midst the groans Of tortur’d victims, mutters o’er her spells, Blasting the germs of Reason, – issues forth Te ferce Inquisitor. Him Philip hails, – Him and his councils; and, with Bigot Pride, Prepares the vast Armada. O’er the Sea It spreads – a foating Nation; and foredooms Te approaching fall of Albion. Racks and Chains And ignominious Fetters, ballast deep

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Selected Political Writings of John Telwall, Volume 4 Each threatening bark, scarce buoyant with the freight Of meditated Vengeance! But, behold! – Albion, again, the Naval Sceptre shakes, And speaks in all his Tunders! Where are now Te hopes of Foreign Spoilers? Racks and Chains And Warlike preparations, and proud Fleets, Misnam’d Invincible, – or deep-ingulph’d, In Air exploded, or o’er Ocean strew’d, Proclaim the Tyrant’s folly; while brave Drake Hauls, in proud triumph, up the shouting Tames, Iberia’s shatter’d relicks: – all that scap’d Te avenging tempest, and thy whelming wrath, Pride of the fostering Ocean! Humbled thence, Te Bigot Power resigns her threatening port Imperious; nor, resurgent from the shock, Te martial brow, even yet, again has rear’d In wonted Majesty. Nor she alone; – All Nations, by the dread example taught, Have shunn’d thy vengeful shores. But, see! – the Gaul, Inebriate with success, – and, by the pride Of wide-extended frontier, urg’d to grasp At Universal Sovereignty, – defes All Elements, and all Examples taught Of over-weening Arrogance, and cries – ‘Empire is mine, alone! – All Nations else ‘Shall, as my vassals, at the unquestion’d nod ‘Of my Ambition, bend the suppliant neck; ‘My Will alone their Law!’ O fckle race, And abject! – even amidst thy boundless pride, Most abject! for the lust of spreading sway All else resigning! and content, thyself, To bend beneath a Tyrant’s yoke, and own A foreign Master! He, (uncurb’d by Law, Or Ties of Nature, or what sacred else, Good Men, or Wise have reverenc’d, tramples down Vassal alike, or Neighbour; and ensnares, With perjur’d treaties, or with inroad dark

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Of midnight depredation, whom his pride Marks for Destruction – D’Enghien or Tousaint; – In mirky forest! or in dungeon’s gloom! Where Albion now – where gasping Europe – where, But for our NELSON’s7 providential care And dauntless Valour – where had been your hopes? For, see – portentous, o’er the Nations, glares Te pestilential Scourge, and breathes around Dismay and Subjugation. Panic-struck, Te Austrian Eagle, from his powerless grasp, Lets fall the extinguish’d Tunder. One deep groan Trills thro the Continent: and Britain hears, With sympathising horror. On each brow Sits dark Dismay, and heart-corroding Care, And boding Apprehension. ‘Shall thy felds, Fair Queen of Isles! to the Invader’s hoof ‘Yield its sof verdure? Shall thy bleating hills ‘And fertile vallies witness the ferce strife ‘Of doubtful Carnage? and thy beauteous dames ‘Shriek in the grasp of foreign Ravishers? – ‘Or scape pollution only thro the blood ‘Of Husbands and of Brothers, in their sight ‘Nobly expiring?’ While such thoughts distract, Albion, thy Inland Sons – lo! thro the gloom, Forth from thy darken’d Coasts, indignant fies Te Naval Tunder; and once more averts, (O’er many a Sea loud pealing) the dread fate Of else-devoted Europe. On thy Car Of Sea-borne Triumph, lo! the Veteran Chief, By thrice twice twenty Victories renown’d, Controls the Waves. Iberia feels once more, Leagued with the Gaul, that every league is vain, When sounds thy warrior Conch; and Gaul, that own’d, From rescu’d Nilus, – that ‘o’er Ocean’s realm ‘Tou reign’st invincible,’ again bewails Her impotent presumption. From her fears Te rescu’d World revives; – the Sea redeems

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Selected Political Writings of John Telwall, Volume 4 Te Land’s disasters; and from Albion’s shores Ascends the Song of Triumph. See! – sublime, On his own element resistless still, Te Ocean Monarch rides; and, from the prow, Gorgeous wìth recent trophies, calls aloud His Martial Sons; and bids them ‘form, intense, ‘With horrent front, along the guarded shore, ‘Te Patriot rampart; – frm and undismay’d; ‘Prepar’d to second what his sea-born sons ‘So nobly dare; – that (whatsoe’er betide, ‘From chance, or covert guile, or treasur’d wrath ‘Of unappeased Destinies) – secure ‘In conscious unanimity, and strength ‘Of Arms prepar’d, and adamantine links ‘Of love fraternal, – Britain still may stand, ‘Free from the infamy of Foreign Bonds, – ‘To all should fall beside.’ Unanimous, From rank to rank, thro all her kindling sons, With deep-breath’d vows of emulation, rings Te shout responsive – ’To all else should fall, ‘Free from the infamy of Foreign Bonds, ‘Britain shall still remain!’ But, ah! what gloom Damps the proud Joy, and o’er thy awful brow (Victorious Albion!) and fre-darting eye, Spreads its dark shade? – He falls! – thy Hero falls! Even in the Arms of Victory, he falls; And NELSON – is a name! Mourn, Albion mourn! Mourn midst thy Triumphs. Let the generous tear, Te heart-heav’d sigh of pious gratitude Embalm thy Champion; and thy Laurel Wreaths Mingle with baneful Cypress. He is gone, – Cause of thy Triumph; in the silent Tomb, With the Time-honour’d dead, for thee he sleeps. He whom thrice forty Victories renown, Victim himself, thy Nelson is no more! Mourn, Albion mourn! Nor Mersey! thou forget, – Foremost of Tradeful Rivers, to deplore Ty best defender; – who, from Sea to Sea, – From Coast to Coast, – or where Aboukir spreads

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Her spacious bay, or where thy Western Isles Tempt the proud spoiler, or thy freighted Fleets, Ploughing their homeward course, with fearful keel, Elude the watchful foe: – More watchful he; In providential valour, present still: – Ty shield in every danger. But, no more His Saviour arm he spreads: no more upholds Te Fasces of the Main; – to other hands (Not unremindful of his last behest And patriot exhortation) now resign’d. Mourn – Mersey mourn! with every tradeful stream Tat to the Ocean Albion’s tribute pours, Join the long Dirge; and, midst your Triumphs, mourn. He who o’er every Ocean Victor rode, – Victim himself, – thy Nelson is no more!

Oration ON the subject of the present disquisition, it could scarcely have been necessary to address an ancient audience. Te most venerated nations of antiquity, were sufciently impressed with the importance of Elocutionary Accomplishment, and its infuence upon every thing that is connected with the Intellect, the Glory and the Power of States. Every part of their history, – every record of their habits, their customs and their institutions, evinces their attention to the cultivation of this Science. Among the Grecian States, every thing may be said to have been Elocutionary. Poems and Histories were written – not only that they might become the amusements of the studious and retired, but that the strains of instruction, of sentiment and pathos, might be conveyed, in their proper tones, to congregated auditors; and the rich melody of a fnely cultivated ear. Te speculations of the Philosopher, and the sublime institutions of the Moralist, were not consecrated to the silent gaze of vital eloquence, from the bosom of the Tutor, amidst a throng of emulous Pupils, – as they focked around him, in the Porch, or in the Grove, and imbibed, at once, his wisdom and his animation. – Even Laws themselves, were promulgated, – and the obligations of social concord, and the sacred zeal of patriotism, disseminated – by the assistance of the Elocutionist: – who, partly from necessity, and partly from a conviction of the animating infuence of oral instruction, became the animating infuence of oral instruction, became the organ of all communication between the enlightened and the uninformed. – We hear, with astonishment, in these days of drawling and monotonous inan-

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ity, – that the congregated nations of Greece, at their very highest festivals, – even amidst the emulous sports and pageantries of the Olympic Games, could listen, all ear, to the recitation of the entire Works of Homer and of Hesiod; – to the long poem of Empedocles, on the doctrines of Pythagoras; and even to ethe elaborate History of Herodotus: which the author himself repeated, amidst the acclamations of the people. But while the practical accomplishments of this noble Art, were thus applied to every purpose of Education, of Government, and of Delight, – all other Sciences and Accomplishments seem to have been rendered subservient to its cultivation. Even the athletic exercises of the Gymnasium by improving the elasticity of the frame, and the carriage of the body, administered to the impressive grace and dignity of Oratory; and Music itself, – which (among modern nations) has been little regarded but as a source of frivolous and licentious amusement, – seems, by the Greeks, to have been universally studied, for its application to the facilities, the grace and the impressiveness of speech; and for the assistance they derived from its theory and principles, in the melioration of their Oratorical language. Nor was the attention thus paid to Elocutionary cultivation, without its adequate reward. To this may be attributed, in a considerable degree, the phenomena of those constellations of talent, that shed a blaze of glory over the history of the petty states of Greece: – among whom (tho so small must have been the number of their educated classes) it is without emotions of wonder and delight the frequent instances of towering energy, and gigantic grasp of mind. It is, indeed, in this circumstance, of energy of character (a circumstance which the animation of an elocutionary system of education is so calculated to produce) that the superiority of the ancients so transcendently appears. In the minutia of mechanical operation and experimental research, we have lef them, indeed, at an immeasurable distance; and our Literati are familiar with many languages more than a Greek would have condescended to study. But the Mind of the modern appears to be dwarfed, by the very process thro which his learning is acquired; and tho our students are so much more numerous, and our scholars may boast of their more extensive erudition, – that comprehensive dignity of soul, and dauntless consistency of original character (which constituted the essence of ancient greatness) – have become comparatively rare. But while speaking of the energies of Grecian Mind, can the Elocutionist refuse the tribute of his especial homage to the Intellectual Glory of Athens: – of Athens, the region of Orators and Patriots; – of Historians and Poets; of Statesmen, Philosophers, and Heroes! – of Athens! – that birth place of all existing Mind! – that centre and focus of Elocutionary energy; where its intensity most burned, and whence its brightest emanations diverged: and where the ears of the very populace, seem to have become attuned to a nicety of enunciative and

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harmonic perception, which the most cultivated among us can scarcely comprehend! Enchanting Athens! at the very mention of whose name, the heart dilates, – the intellect expands, – and our ideas of the dignity and essence of human nature become, instinctively exalted. – With what delight do we contemplate the trophies and records of thy varied energies! ‘Ty palms, thy laurels, thy songs; Ty smiling band of Arts; thy godlike sires Of-civil wisdom; thy heroic youth, Warm from the felds of glory!’

And what was this Athens – so boundless in the Chart of Intellect? – ‘Filling so vast a space in Learning’s eye!’

Search for her, in another Map. Let the Geographer delineate the magnitude of this unrivalled Sovereign of the World of Mind, and compare her proportions, in the general Portraiture of Nations. ‘What little body, with a mighty heart!’

Te whole territory of Attica would scarcely rival, in roods and perches, the individual district of Yorkshire; and for extent, population, and Commerce, – the Town and Port of Liverpool, might be the Athens afer which we enquire. If, from the splendid spectacle of the triumphs of Grecian Mind, we turn our contemplation to the power and. aggrandizement of Rome, we shall not, yet, lose sight of the utilities of our science. If (instead of being .satisfed with those dull abridgements, that burthen the memory with mere names and dates, and uninstructive catalogues of sieges and battles) we direct our attention to the original historians, who ‘trace the fbres of the Roman strength,’ and render us familiar with the character and habits of the People, – we shall soon perceive, how important an engine was found in Roman Oratory, for the extension of Roman domination. Romulus manifested its infuence over the minds of a rude and incongruous multitude, while he laid the foundations of the infant state; his successors alternately applied it to the security of their dominion, or the civilization of the people; and Julius Caesar, at the head of his veteran Legions was no less indebted to its energies, – whether controlling the mutinous spirit of the ferce engines of his power, extending the limits of a mighty nation, or trampling on its ancient institutions. An Art thus important to individuals and the State, did not languish for want of cultivation. Even in those early ages when all other arts were yet in embrio, Elocution seems to have been fondly cherished. While a block of unhewn mar-

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ble, or of wood, was carried, in their funeral processions to represent the efgies of departed ancestors, there is sufcient evidence that Oratory fourished in their popular assemblies, and was made an instrument of governance to the people. And during the best days of Roman greatness, – when her Scipios and her Marcelli promoted alike the refnements of intellect and the glory of her arms; so attentive were these enlightened people to the purity and improvement of their national elocution, – that it has even been afrmed – that no person was permitted, in any family of ingenuous race, even to fll the humble ofce of a nurse, who had not proved her qualifcations – of speaking the language with grammatical propriety, and pronouncing it with tolerable correctness and harmony. If such was, indeed, the attention paid by the Romans to Elocutionary accomplishment, – the uses to which they applied it will be admitted (at least by the advocates of military domination) to justify all their solicitude. By the Oratory of the Magistrates, in their popular assemblies, the ranks of the Legions were flled, with a willing soldiery; and by Oratory, in the Camp and in the feld of battle, the Commanders excited the courage of their troops; and breathed, into their bosoms, that irresistable enthusiasm, – which triumphed over all opposition, and made them masters of the destinies of nations. Tus did the Eloquence of the Forum prepare the Triumphs of the Field: and it is scarcely hyperbolical to declare – that the Tunder of the Rostrum beat down the walls of hostile Cities, and annihilated the Armies of opposing nations. Nor did the glories of Rome expire but with her elocutionary energy. Te system of military harangue, and the discipline it had a tendency to invigorate, seem to have declined together; and when, in the degenerate days of the empire, – (while the barbarians were breaking in upon every hand, and every symptom of debility and disorder, seemed to indicate approaching dissolution) – even then, – when a temporary gleam of energy and virtue retrieved, for awhile, the lustre and reputation of her arms, and restored the sinking state to a portion of its former grandeur; Elocution had its share of the glory of this achievement. Under these circumstances, it was, that Claudius, who, in the language of Mr. Gibbon, ‘obtained and deserved, the glorious title of Restorer of the Roman World,’8 as the frst step of that meditated reform, which was to infuse new vigour into the exhausted realm, and snatch it from impending destruction, revived the ancient practice of haranguing the Soldiery; and, ascending the Rostrum, in the assembled camp, frst breathed into that soldiery the desire of renovated order, and the patriotic enthusiasm, which rendered them the scourge of invading foes, and terminated in the triumph of their arms, and the security of their country. Nor was the infuence of Elocution, in the Grecian states, confned to the diffusion of literary talent, and, the improvement of the sof arts of peace. Te stern

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profession of arms had equal obligations to the inspirations of Grecian Oratory; and, by the soul- stirring voice of Eloquence, the little bands of Achaïa, – of Lacedemon, Attica and Tebes, were, alternately rendered invincible; and their renowned Chiefains covered with unfading laurels: while the myriad armies of Persia (among whom a manly elocution was never cherished, and genuine oratory could have no existence,) were consumed, like stubble, in the indignation of their wrath; and the unwieldy state itself, (a Giant without sinews – a Leviathan without fns!) is now only remembered, by the disgraceful defeats it sufered in the unequal confict. But this, in reality, is no more than should be expected. Te circumstances that are creative of energy of mind must be decisive in the struggle of nations. For Mind is Man: and the maxim is as applicable to the Camp, as to the Cabinet; – to the shock of Armies, as to the confuence of Popular Assemblies, and the attainments of studious genius. Yes, Mind is Man! – What is this form with which we are invested? – limbs, joints, integuments, – -the bones that support – the muscles that move the frame – Are these the Man? – Tey are but the perishable and ever-changing garment, with which he is invested. Te Mind – the conscious principle they enshrine, is his essence and his identity; and upon the energies and attributes of this, depend (under whatever circumstances) his efcient distinctions, and his power. Tere are some, indeed, who, in all that relates to military afairs, will dispute the application of this principle: who, reducing all tactics to mere mechanic art, would discard from the Camp, as perfectly superfuous, the energies of genius and the cultivation of intellect. ‘Te battalion is a mere machine,’ say these satyrists, ‘best guided by mechanical impulse. – Te dread of the halberts, and the cannon planted in the rear, are the best stimulants to the courage of ‘rank and fle; and Discipline and Dissipation are ‘the only occupations of a Soldier!’ But let me enquire of these new theorists – whence they have derived their models and their facts? What to such maxims would have been said, by any of the celebrated heroes of the ancient, or the modern world? – from Cadmus (if historical record could carry us so far) to Frederic the Great, of Prussia? – Had they not mind? Did they not regard the cultivation, and the energies of intellect? What, in particular, would have been the sentiments of those illustrious warriors, and war-directing statesmen, to whom we have recently referred? – of Pericles? who so long directed the energies of the Athenian people: – of Philip of Macedon? who laid the foundations of that mighty power, which Alexander aferwards acquired: – of Alexander himself ? who rose by intellectual energy; and by dissipation fell: – of Temistocles? who defended Greece against the mighty hosts of Xerxes: – or of the still more glorious Miltiades? – who, with ten thousand brave Athenians, routed upwards of two hundred thousand Per-

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sians; and drove the insolent invaders, with terror and devastation in their rear, before the mighty tempest of that valour, which his inspiring eloquence had frst excited? What, fnally, would have been the testimony of the Teban Epaminondas? who repelled the invasion of the domineering Spartan ; – broke the iron sceptre of that ambitious power; and, restraining it within its proper limits, asserted the menaced liberties of Greece. Brave and virtuous Epaminondas! – thou prop and glory of the Teban State! – which rose by thy exertions, – which stood only by thy eforts, and in thy fall expired. – Tou, – dauntless patriot! – who, fnding thy country in the very reproach of abasement, – the least, in consideration, of the Grecian States; – downtrodden and despised; and threatened with subjugation, by an aspiring power, that grasped at universal dominion! – from the very calamities of this degradation, produced the splendour and triumph of that country, and lifed it to the supremacy of the Grecian League! – What wouldst thou have said to the maxims that discard the accomplishment of Intellect, and the energies of Elocution, from the pursuits of Martial Glory? But his biographers have already answered this question: – those biographers – who, proclaiming that Epaminondas was the bravest of the human race, but yet less brave than wise; that he was the wisest of mankind, but was yet less wise than virtuous; have concluded his eulogy, with the emphatic declaration – Tat his eloquence did more, towards checking the overweening power of Sparta, and preserving the Liberties of Greece, than his Wisdom, his Valour and his Virtue, all combined. It is true, indeed, that, in the records of modern heroism, the instances of Oratorical accomplishment are not equally conspicuous. But this has not arisen from any conviction, that the energies of intellect are of no importance to the Character of a Great Commander; but, from the unreasonable neglect into which the Science of Elocution has been sufered to fall, among the nations of modern Europe: – a Science which, tho, in reality, most especially calculated to give energy to every other pursuit of genius and intellect; was yet (from circumstances to be explained in a future Lecture) sufered to remain in the torpor of neglect and barbarism; – even at that very time, when all other sciences were resuscitated and cherished, by the returning illumination of mankind. Yet, even among modern conquerors, – and, (what is still more glorious!) among those heroes and patriots, who, in modern times, have asserted the independence of their respective countries, against the tyranny of foreign domination; instances may be found – splendid and magnifcent instances! in which the energies of Oratory have plumed the crest of Victory: – have inspired the valour which has rendered the arm invincible.

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Why should I speak of the eloquence of Mahomet, and the enthusiasm it kindled in his infatuated followers? – why of the Catholic Mussulmen – the Christian Mamalukes9 of recent times? – With ‘Mahomet, the impostor, and impostors like Mahomet; with Mirvan the apostate, and apostates like Mirvan;’ – with the deceivers and ravagers of the universe, I would have nothing to do. A more splendid – and irreproachable instance, comes rushing on my mind. An instance of heroism without oppression; or courage without tyranny; – an instance (if such, in deed, can be enshrined in human essence) of mind without defect, and virtue without a stain. A hero whose power was all benefcence, and all whose dispensations were blessings; – who fought only to vindicate; and conquered, only to beneft – even those whose aggressions had forced him to unsheathe the sword. A hero no less in science, in polity and in arts, than in the feld of confict: Great in the council, as in the camp; super-eminent in learning, as in arms! – who (bursting at once, thro the night of Gothic Ignorance, and, superior, in all things, to the barbarism of the times,) – shone forth, amidst the general darkness that overshadowed Europe, with a lustre so bright – with a meridian so unclouded, that the record of the phenomenon almost staggers credulity; and all that relates to him, but for a host of concurring testimony, and the evidence of still-existing vestiges, might, reasonably, be set down among the wildest fctions of romance. Is there an Englishman, for whom it can be necessary to write a name under the portrait, I have thus delineated? Is there an auditor whose heart has not, already, pronounced the name of Alfred? – of Alfred, the author of our most venerated Institutions! – of Alfred, the father of his country’s mind! – of Alfred, our redeemer from a foreign yoke; and the creator of that navy, whose recent triumphs are the particular objects of our present celebration; – that navy, which has long protected, and will still protect, our shores! – Alfred – immortal, all-accomplished Alfred – ’who,’ in the language of his historians, ‘when he harangued his army, or endeavoured to excite the indignation of his nobles, against their ‘infdel invaders, with the energy and fre of Demosthenes, gave weight to his arguments, and rendered them irresistible!’ Such are my authorities, for the infuence of Oratory, in creating Martial Enthusiasm; and for the consequent importance of Elocutionary energy and accomplishment, to Commanders of Armies, and those who are entrusted with the destinies of nations. Nor should it ever be forgotten – that, tho discipline is indeed much; Enthusiasm, when superadded to discipline, is much more: and that, by means of this enthusiasm, the eloquent Scipio (tho remarkably lax in all the minutiae of discipline) completely vanquished the illustrious Hannibal10; – the most rigid disciplinarian, and, perhaps, the greatest general, of all antiquity. But of the importance of enthusiasm, in military operation, there is, surely, no remaining doubt. Te parade of military array, – the excitements of Music – the

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doubling drum, the martial trumpet, the ear- piercing ffe, the chearful cymbal; – the banners, trophies, plumes; ‘Pride, pomp and circumstance of glorious war;’ – are not these, in reality, so many expedients for kindling enthusiasm? and so many acknowledgements of its efcacy and its power? But what music so inspiring as the human voice? What strain so animating is the eloquence of a beloved General, prepared, himself, to brave the very dangers he is exhorting his followers to despise? To ‘the Dorian mood of futes and sof recorder,’ as Milton expresses it, could raise ‘To height of noblest temper heroes old, Arming for battle; and, instead of rage, Deliberate valour breathe, frm, and unmov’d With dread of death, to fight or foul retreat;’11

yet, what was the enthusiasm inspired by these; in comparison with the emulation excited by the Songs and Poems of Tyrtæus?12 – who (with no other military accomplishment, it should seem, than his elocutionary energy) redeemed the desperate afairs of Lacedemon; and turned, so completely, the torrent of success, in the famous Messinian war. Nor, among the means which Elocution has employed Martial Enthusiasm, must we forget to enumerate the Funeral Orations of the Greeks: – which, while they embalmed the memory of the dead, kindled the emulation of the living; and occasioned valour, like another phœnix, to rise, in perpetual renovation, from its own-funeral pyre. For such Martial Eulogies, has Britain had no ft occasions – Might not the virtuous Abercrombie have been so deplored? Might not the memory of the gallant Nelson be so embalmed? – Nelson! whose enthusiastic valour has, at once, preserved his country, and added a prouder pinnacle to the towering fabric of its fame! But how shall one, unskilled in the phrase and operations of nautical warfare, do justice to this copious theme? – How shall he trace the dawn and progress of that valour, which, with such unrivalled splendour, manifested itself thro all the various circumstances of a hundred and thirty victories; till it sunk, at last, with a brilliancy so inefable, as to eclipse, by its evening rays, the remembrance of its meridian glories? What grasp of mind can comprehend – what power of language can do justice, to the invincible spirit – the fertility of invention and resource, under every circumstance of difculty and danger, displayed by this great commander? – to that rapidity of conception – that promptitude of thought, which perceived the bearings of every exigency; and devised and adopted, on the instant the plans of attack, manœuvre and operation, which the circumstances, however unexpected, might require? – to that collected boldness and impetuous hardihood,

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which realised, in action, every project, which his boundless Science and fertile genius had devised ? – and, above all, to that rapidity of evolution, front post to post, from sea to sea, from pole almost to pole, – which seemed, as it were, to control the very elements; and, like the motion and operations of lightning gave an appearance of omnipresence to his resistless courage? Eulogy has no metaphor that can do justice to this splendid career; and panegyric itself, must borrow its language from the simple pages of historical record, if it would paint, even in an individual instance, the enterprising activity of his fery spirit; when, yet in a subordinate situation, in the confict of doubtful battle, he seized the moment of critical conjuncture; and, attacking, with his single, smaller vessel, the well-seconded force of a superior foe, he passed, sword in hand, from his own deck, up the towering sides of his enemy; overpowered the desperate resistance of its crew; and then made the mastered vessel, a step, as it were, from which, with equal impetuosity and success, he passed to another, of still superior magnitude, and overwhelmed all opposition with a courage, which appeared to be supernatural. But this was only a prelude to those splendid achievements, in every part of which he displayed an equal mixture of enthusiasm and presence of mind. To him, wounds, hardships, suferings, privations and mutilations, presented no obstructions in the career of duty. ‘Victory, or Westminster Abbey!’ – a glorious life, or an honourable tomb, seem to have been regarded, almost, as equal blessings; and the loss of limbs, and the abridgement of the powers of exterior sense, appear only to have concentrated the patriotic fre that burned within, and to have increased the valour and comprehension of his soul. And can we remember, withhout emotions of gratitude, the benefts which this comprehension and this valour have conferred upon his country? – whose fate it is, perhaps, too much to say that he has averted – (since the danger may yet return; – and since, even in the last extremities, ‘come what come may,’ Britons may surely rely on the energies of their united valour!) but whose shores he has, at any rate, for awhile, preserved from the impending ravages of invasion. And can we – while we taste (tho but for awhile) the renovated blessing of security, forget that he, who conferred that blessing, is no more to be a participator of its enjoyments. Upon such a subject, grief might, assuredly, be eloquent; and the voice of lamentation might be heard in every street. But no – Heroic Spirit! Not such are the Tears that should embalm thy memory; not such is the mourning with which thy obsequies should be accompanied. Let efeminate sorrow melt over the pale victims of afiction and disease! Let the dirges of lamentation resound over the grave of virgin loveliness, cropped in its vernal bloom: but the Tomb of the Hero, is the Temple of his Triumph; and the

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Trophies that adorn it, are the Altars on which compatriot youths should ofer up their vows of emulation. Yes! thou heroic spirit! if, yet conscious to the transactions of this fragile world, thou hoverest, with patriotic solicitude, over the country thou hast so bravely defended – Yes, thou wilt exclaim, ‘By other actions acknowledge my services and estimate my loss, than by tears and lamentations and lamentations! – by other oferings consecrate my memory than by the dirges of desponding sorrow. Proclaim your admiration, by imitating my example; and, with pen of adamant, engrave upon your hearts – the language of my last injunction. Landsmen, as well as seamen, may yet be summoned to the exertions and the sacrifces it demands. Even yet, upon your coasts you may be called upon to repel the invader: – and, if you should, – keep then in your recollections – what England expects of every individual; and write your remembrances of me with your swords!’ We hear thee, patriotic Spirit! – We receive thy awful admonitions – not in our ears, but into our hearts: – those hearts, from which we breathe, with determined unanimity, the fervent – the inviolable vow, ‘To assert, – as thou hast asserted, even in death, the independence of our country; and to prove, under all extremities, that we are not forgetful of the injunctions, or the example, of the Heroic Martyr of Trafalgar.’

FINIS.

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RESULTS OF EXPERIENCE

Results of Experience in the Treatment of Cases of Defective Utterance, fom Defciencies in the Roof of the Mouth and Other Mal-conformations of the Organs of Speech, with Observations on Cases of Amentia and Tardy and Imperfect Developments of the Faculties (London: J. McCreery, 1814).

Results of Experience in Treatment of Cases of Defective Utterances… is again addressed to Telwall’s medical friend Henry Cline, whose name is not included in the title to prevent any reader from confusing the two works. Te essay here is again dedicated to Telwall’s career in speech therapy and, as the title suggests, recounts the results of his experience, drawing scientifc lessons from his practice. One of the main claims he advances concerns the scope of elocutionary remedies, which he aims to widen signifcantly. Tus ‘Cases of defciency in the Roof, the Uvula, and Velum Palati’ can, he insists, be treated successfully through elocutionary training, without any need for surgery. He allows that this will not be possible in all cases: notably those of ‘fssure of the front of the mouth’, which will require false teeth to reshape the mouth. But the thrust of his intervention is nevertheless that elocutionary therapy can cure more than is usually expected. One of his arguments is that such therapies should be ofered most intensively to the young. He argues – on the basis of a patient that he treated intensively but for merely four months – that even if young people have certain physical disabilities in their mouths, they will not have been fully socialized into patterns of speech and that with the right training in ‘rhythmical proportion’, such disabilities can be overcome. ‘Results of Experience’ thus continues the central theme explored in the earlier letter to Cline: the potential that medical treatments had to assist people ofen thought to be beyond help. It is also congruent with Telwall’s continuing political commitment to the rights of the downtrodden and his opposition to the exclusionary pathologizing of those with treatable speech conditions. For him, the aim of elocutionary science is to give a voice to those who are otherwise excluded from public discourse.

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RESULTS OF EXPERIENCE in Treatment of Cases of Defective Utterance, fom Defciencies in the Roof of the Mouth, and other Imperfections and Mal-conformations of the Organs of Speech; with Observations on Cases of Amentia, and tardy and imperfect Developments of the Faculties: by

JOHN THELWALL, ESQ. ADVERTISEMENT I have addressed the ensuing details of professional facts, in the form of a letter, to one of the principal ornaments of another, and, in some degree, a kindred profession, – to whose fiendship and confdence I am indebted for a large part of the opportunities I have had of demonstrating the solidity of my principles, and the verity of my science; but I have forborn to introduce his name into the title-page, more particularly to contradistinguish the present, fom a former publication addressed to the same gentleman. I am proud to add that, in giving this form to my little volume, I have not taken an unauthorized liberty; as, indeed, the perusal would naturally suggest. My reasons for choosing such a vehicle of communication will be sufciently obvious. Many of the facts, it will be perceived, are of a nature too delicate to admit of any ordinary form of authentication: yet, perhaps, it will be admitted – that they are facts of such a description, that it was of some importance to the interests of humanity, that they should be authenticated. Te mode I have adopted will, it is presumed, give them some portion of authenticity, without any of that personal identifcation which might be wounding to the feelings of individuals. Te parties, indeed, will recognise the cases in which they are personally interested; but in those of greater delicacy at least, there is nothing to point out individuals to the world, or to draw upon them the gaze of alien curiosity: – at least, if it be granted that the facts themselves are such as the world ought to be acquainted with, I have hopes that – 147 –

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it will be admitted, also, that the mode of publication is the least ofensive that could have been adopted to give them the requisite stamp of current sanction. Tose readers to whom some controversial refections introduced in the latter part of the letter may seem to require apology or comment – may turn to the Monthly Review, for March 1813, and my reply in the New Review. Tat is may be seen that the kind of Cases alluded to in these details, do not constitute the whole of the objects of my science, a sketch is subjoined of the plan of my Institution.

TO HENRY CLINE, ESQ. DEAR SIR, AT the latter end of the year 1809, when my Institution was yet in its infancy, I took the liberty of addressing to you some hasty pages on the subject of the rise and progress of those discoveries relative to the Physical Cause of Rhythmus and the Treatment of Impediments of Speech, which had led to the adoption of my present profession. Among the statements and principles which had on that occasion the good fortune to be honoured with your approbation, were interspersed some remarks on a class of Calamitous Cases which had always been regarded both by Elocutionists and Medical Men, as capable neither of remedy nor mitigation: Cases of defciency in the Roof, the Uvula, and Velum Palati. At the same time, I stated to you the results of the only short experiment I had then had any opportunity of making that was directly to the point; and which had been so far successful as to seem to justify the confdence I have always felt (notwithstanding the universality of the contrary opinion) that these Cases were by no means incapable of Elocutionary remedy; provided the treatment were conducted with assiduity and perseverance, according to correct principles of rhythmical and elocutionary science: or, in other words, if the teacher were fortunate enough to blend together a competent knowledge of the anatomy and physiology of the existing organs and implements of Speech, with the habits of clear and energetic enunciation, and a mind of unweariable perseverance in the practical application of his knowledge. I owe it perhaps, in part, to the prepossessions of friendship, that to you and to one or two other medical gentlemen, there appeared a feasibility in suggestions which, to the generality of the professional men I had conversed with, appeared to be utterly visionary and enthusiastic. Be this as it may, your approbation, I am proud to acknowledge, has not been confned to passive acquiescence or verbal assent. To your recommendation I am indebted for a considerable portion of those various cases in the treatment of which I have been enabled to demonstrate the practical utility of my principles; and I fatter myself that it may be some gratifcation to you, both as a friend and as a philanthropist, to be in possession

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of the evidence that seems to establish it, not as a speculation, but as a fact, that persons who have defects in the roof and other contiguous organs of the mouth, may be enabled to speak quite as intelligibly, and almost as agreeably, as if there were no such defciencies in their organization. In my former letter, p. 73, &c. in speaking of those interior and complicated deformities which sometimes accompany the Hare Lip, I have admitted a necessity for supplying interior defciencies by an artifcial palate. – ’In these cases, for the purposes of Speech, it is not sufcient that, by an operation, we confer the grace of human symmetry on the external mouth: the interior defciency, must, also, be supplied; and supplied upon principles accommodated to the structure (minutely examined) and the ofces (well understood) of the parts, in a state of natural perfection.’ It is true, indeed, that as far as the supply is to be attempted, the principles and precautions premised should be minutely attended to; otherwise new diffculties may be thrown in our way, greater than those which resulted from the imperfections of nature: but, with my present experience, I should decidedly pronounce that no attempt should, in such cases, or in any cases of primary malconformation, be made to supply, by mechanical application, the defciencies of the roof, uvula, and velum palati; but that the defects of utterance resulting from such parts of the mal-conformation, should be consigned entirely to elocutionary management; since elocutionary science, if properly applied, will be found fully competent to the remedy of such defects. In cases of fssure of the front of the mouth, I should, indeed, still recommend (in addition to the operation for the Hare Lip) the application of artifcial teeth and gums, so as to render the front of the mouth as perfect as possible; and it might be matter of consideration, dependant, in a great degree, upon the particular circumstances of the case, how far such artifcial apparatus might be permitted to be carried backward into the mouth: but as for the functions of the palate, uvula, &c. they can be better supplied by a proper training and education of the other organs of the throat and mouth, than by any mechanism I am at present acquainted with; or any that I can imagine within the sphere of human invention. My former publication, indeed, had scarcely issued from the press, before I began to doubt the propriety of that degree of countenance it might seem to give to the practice of introducing mechanical substitutes for these defcient organs. To say nothing of the danger of serious accidents from the more complicated, and apparently perfect, of these artifcial palates, &c. there are, as you have very judiciously observed, insuperable objections, on the score of health and comfort, from the almost utter impossibility of preserving such interior apparatus in any tolerable state of cleanliness. Te absorption that must take place in the spunge, usually made use of to suspend the silver plate that forms the artifcial roof, can scarcely be alluded to without ofence to delicacy; and though some

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have substituted valves of leather, or of elastic gum, the evil though somewhat palliated must still exist to an ofensive degree. Even where the whole apparatus, by the assistance of a more elaborate mechanism, is made entirely of Gold, the trouble (in this case considerable) of a daily removal and refnement can scarcely be competent to the prevention of disgusting annoyance. But this is not all. Te progress of analytical observation soon led me to refect how small a part of the imperfection of utterance in the defectively organized, consists in the non-production of the elements referable, in ordinary cases, to the action of organs in which such persons are defective. I had observed, also, with what facility even in mouths the most perfectly organized certain elements are produced by organic actions and positions exceedingly remote from those generally dictated, and, perhaps, generally used for their production. Te former of these circumstances seemed to demonstrate (and further experience has completed the demonstration) that the imperfection of the utterance, in these cases, results much more considerably from secondary habits, arising out of what may be called the maltreatment of the defect, than from mere physical necessities, or the primary defciency itself. Te remedy of so much of the evil was, therefore, obviously within the reach of elocutionary science. Te other circumstance was no less encouraging to the hope – that means might be found to make the existing organs perform, at least to an intelligible degree, the functions of those that were defcient: and if the enunciation could be rendered complete, I had no sort of doubt that something could also be done, towards correcting defects of intonation; for the power of volition, in regulating and correcting the tones of the voice, I had already demonstrated in innumerable instances. But this was not all. In the primary principles of my science, out of which all the peculiarities of my process of instruction have emanated and ramifed, and almost all my success in the treatment of elocutionary defects has arisen – that is to say, the detection of the physical cause, and the physiological laws of Rhythmus, and the omnipotency of these, when properly applied, in the production of every thing that belongs to distinctness and harmony in speech, I had an anchor of undoubted hope, for securing (by natural means alone) even in such states of imperfect conformation, more than mechanic art could pretend to, or attempt. Even in cases where there were no defects of organization, further analysis had led me to place still more and more reliance (even in the production of that part of the phenomena of speech which, as contradistinguished from tone &c. I denominate enunciation,) on the primary actions of the Larynx; and I could not but perceive, in part at least, the extent to which the infnitely variable actions of this sensible organ might be rendered assistant in supplying the ofces of the defective organs. Nor was it long before I had an opportunity of bringing these speculations to the test of experiment. A young lady of about ffeen (daughter of one of the

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principal partners of a respectable banking-house in the city, but residing in the neighbourhood of Wandsworth) was brought to me, upon your recommendation, the interior of whose mouth exhibited the defects alluded to: – almost the entire roof, together with the uvula and velum palati, being wanting. In this case, the application of any artifcial organ, was, to any practical purpose, entirely out of the question: for as the young lady had evidently not attained her full stature and proportions, the dimensions of the cavity must necessarily be perpetually altering with her growth; so that no mechanism could possibly have supplied an apparatus of any permanent utility: at the same time, it is during the season of youth that the advantages of elocutionary treatment are to be expected in their fullest extent; since not only the existing organs have then a superior degree of elastic sensibility, and consequently more facility of adapting themselves to new functions, but the improper habits also (a very serious part of the evil in these, as in all cases of impediment and imperfect utterance) cannot have become so confrmed and imperious as at more advanced periods of life. In this case, therefore, it was necessary to do, what, in any case, under the infuence of that train of reasoning into which I had fallen, I should have preferred, – that is to say, to try what could be done by the mere application of the deliberate process of rhythmical proportion, and the art of making the existing supply the place of the defcient organs. Tere were some disadvantages in the arrangement under which this attempt was to be made. In these, and in all cases of impediment and imperfection of utterance, it is desirable that the elocutionary tutor should have the entire direction and superintendence of the pupil – even to the extent of absolute domestication; since it is scarcely possible, by any other means, to prevent a part of what is done during the hours of attendance to the particular object, from being undone again by those who have the conduct of other parts of the education: to say nothing of the consideration – that an hour in a day is but a small portion of time to devote to the correction of habits which all the previous hours of life have been employed in forming and aggravating, and for the recurrence of which almost every other hour is presenting unsuspected opportunities and spontaneous inducements. Te attachment of the family, however, to the system of educating their children (their daughters in particular), without even temporary interruption, beneath the guardianship of their own roof, was too determinate to yield even to circumstances of such peculiar necessity; while, at the same time, the distance of their residence precluded the practicability of my daily attendance. An arrangement was however made, by which I was enabled to attend the young lady four times a week. Tis engagement began in the middle of March and terminated at the end of July: at which time I usually leave London, to enjoy my only annual vacation by the sea side. In this short space of time (little better than four months) – not altogether equal to a single quarter,

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where daily attendance is practicable, and under such disadvantages, – you probably, sir, have been informed that so much was done as gave entire satisfaction to all parties: the speech of the young lady being rendered generally intelligible, and the ofensive peculiarity of tone being in a considerable degree corrected. It was one of those cases, however, which I lef with that sort of regret which the ardent practitioner of any art, must necessarily feel, on perceiving that tho he has efected much, time and opportunity are forbidden for the accomplishment of all. A little incident occurred during the period of my attendance, which may be worth noticing, as illustrative of one of the inconveniences of attending such cases at the residence of the pupil. It is to be remarked, that in these instances, as in all cases of imperfection of utterance, the individual becomes habitually intelligible, thro’ the immediately surrounding circle of association – at least in what relates to familiar occurrences, how chaotic soever, to ordinary apprehension, such utterance may be; – the imperfections being parcelled, and the half formed symbols understood, by a sort of family compact, which has little or no relation to the general compact of language and pronunciation in the more extended society of province or nation. Tis was precisely what had taken place in the present instance. Te young lady was intelligible within the circle of her daily association; and it was not till the introduction of a stranger into the family, by a new link of relationship, that the father seemed to be awakened to the full extent of the calamity with which his daughter was aficted. Te same familiarity of daily association which had rendered the imperfect utterance intelligible, rendered also the gradual development of a more perfect enunciation but little conspicuous. Te change was stealing on by imperceptible degrees; and was therefore scarcely recognised as a change: a circumstance which is frequently highly disadvantageous – as it deprives the pupil of the stimulus and encouragement which result from the commendation of obvious and striking improvement. Such had been the state of things in the present instance – and tho we were going on even beyond my most sanguine expectations, our progress was not fully appreciated, by a part at least of the family, till the change was noticed, in terms of astonishment, by a party of visitors, who had not seen the young lady since our process began, and who had not the least knowledge of any means having been adopted for the purpose, till their own exclamations brought the subject into conversation. Tis incident (which occurred about the middle of my engagement) called back to the recollection of those who were most interested, the impressions which had been gradually obliterated, produced a more full conviction of the importance of what we were doing, and encouraged the perseverance of the pupil. Te next case of this precise description that occurred, was also one in which we had not all the advantages of domestication. Tis was an acute, docile,

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and assiduous lad of between ffeen and sixteen: the son of a very respectable Quaker at Chelmsford; whose strict adherence to all the tenets and customs of that peculiar, but highly estimable fraternity, rendered him desirous that his son should board and lodge in a family of their own society, during the time that he remained in London for the beneft of my instructions. Every advantage, however, short of absolute domestication we had in this instance. Five days in the week, with the utmost regularity, this pupil read with me during the whole of the morning, in the domestic class; and every other part of his education went on under the direction of the diferent members of my family, so as not to interfere with the main object. Tis engagement, also, continued between four and fve months; and was successful to the utmost extent of expectation – the shortness of the time considered. General intelligibility was completely attained; the intonation was in a considerable degree corrected, and from the constantly progressive state in which the improvement was going on, it was obvious, that more might still have been attained; if further attainment had been deemed necessary, or of sufcient importance to justify the inevitable sacrifce of expense and time. But it was during the last year, sir, that my principles and mode of treatment in these cases, were brought to the fullest and most satisfactory test: three pupils, with very considerable defects of organization (including extensive fssure of the roof, and entire defciency of the uvula and velum palati) being, at the same time, under the management of myself and Mrs. Telwall, on the more eligible plan of complete domestication, and of receiving the whole of their education from the members of our family. For two of these (the gentleman and one of the ladies) I am indebted, sir, to your recommendation: for the other young lady, to the rumour I believe of the former triumphs of my art. Te young lady you did me the honour of recommending to me, is a native of Plymouth Dock; and, when she frst came under our superintendence, was in her sixteenth year: her constitutional habits delicate, timid, and inert: the fssure of the roof, as you know, Sir, coming very forward – the feshy parts of the back of the roof entirely defcient, the form of the upper jaw and front teeth considerably deranged, and the lower jaw receding considerably behind the upper teeth. In short, the defciency in the present instance, was as serious as it could well have been, without extending thro’ the gums and front of the upper jaw. But the erroneous habits that had resulted, as usual in such cases, from despair and mismanagement, were even more serious than those which were referable to the primary defect of nature. You will, Sir, I dare say, recollect the dissonance of tone, and perfect chaos of languid, indiscriminate and inarticulate enunciation in this case: not that it was at all worse than in such cases frequently occurs – but, such as it was, most assuredly, to the ear of every stranger, it could not but be utterly unintelligible. To the demonstration of our progress however (afer the lapse of nearly a year and a half ) I venture now to invite your attention. I will not say,

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indeed, that every thing like blemish or peculiarity is even yet entirely removed; but I am happy in the frequent expressions of surprise and gratitude from her father and her friends, for what has been accomplished; and I believe you will admit that, at present, the young lady, without any apparent labour or difculty, can render herself completely intelligible even to the merest strangers, and can accompany her enunciation with appropriate accent and emphasis, whether in reading, in recitation, or in spontaneous speech. Some degree of languid nasality indeed, is yet observable in the tone, and (when she is not properly on her guard) an occasional feebleness in the utterance of one or two particular elements. But I believe it may be confdently asserted that, even in these respects, the blemishes are not greater than may very frequently be detected in the delivery of persons who have no organic defect whatever; and it is particularly worthy of remark – that these occasional errors of pronunciation, do not occur upon the guttural elements – that is to say, upon the elements usually formed by the organs that in this instance are defcient. Tese are always by the pupil in question, with full perfection of enunciation, and are indeed always the frst elements that are mastered by my pupils of this description. But it is in the nasal element ng, with which (from habitual inattention, and even from false principles of early instruction) there is frequently so much difculty, even with the most perfectly organized; and in the sibbilants f and th, which depend upon the actions or contacts of the lip, and of the tip of the tongue, upon the front teeth (which in the instance of this young lady, are sufciently perfect for the simple and customary production of such elements) that the occasional defects occur: and it is only occasionally that they do occur; for she not only can produce all these elements; but occasionally transposes the latter two, making sometimes a faint th for an f, or a v, but much more frequently an f for a th. Tese have, therefore, in reality no more connexion with the organic defect, that the cockney confusion of v and w, has with the supposition of such a defciency. But so much more difcult is it to surmount the errors of superinduced habit, than to supply the natural defect. In short, it may fairly, I believe, be questioned – whether there is, at this time, any other perceptible blemish in this young lady’s utterance, than might probably have accompanied a certain degree of tendency to mental inertion and constitutional langour, even with the most perfect organization. Te Case of the young gentleman young gentleman you recommended to me (the son of an opulent farmer in Sufolk) under similar circumstances if malconformation, appeared to be still more desperate. To his parents and domestic associates, I understand he had become in some degree intelligible, by that sort of family compact formerly alluded to; but you will, I dare say, remember, Sir, when he pretended to repeat to you the Lord’s Prayer, previous to his coming under my charge, how perfectly unintelligible he was to you, in every part of that familiar composition; and certainly when he frst attempted to read a passage

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which he had transcribed, in the presence of his fellow students, in our historical society, no single syllable could be understood, from the beginning to the end, by any person present; nor was there any more resemblance in the dissonant sounds he emitted, to any thing that deserves the name of articulation, than if he had been purposely reiterating an unmeaning ba! ba! ba! during the whole period of vociferation. But the most serious part of this case, was the total neglect in which the faculties had been sufered to remain, as to all intellectual attainment, thro’ the despair of those around him, and the total inability of those who had been entrusted with what had been attempted in his education, to accommodate their instructions to his untoward circumstances: an inability which can hardly be regarded as any impeachment of the general capacity or diligence of the unfortunate teachers. Te case indeed of the ordinary schoolmaster who is aficted with such a pupil, is truly pitiable. In that routine of cares and exertions to which his life is necessarily subjected, it is utterly impossible for the superintendant of a large school to fnd leisure and consideration for the management of extraordinary cases, or to discover what is ft to be done in such extremities. If he loves his own ease or peace of mind, even in any ordinary degree, he must, in many respects, abandon his charge to the mere direction of chance, or the lethargy of indolence; or if he endeavours to proportion his solicitude and exertions to the ineptitude of the subject, the best that is to be expected from multiplied toils and reiterated vexation, is, that he should fnd himself, at last, to have done worse than nothing: – that he should have ploughed and sowed, to reap a harvest of brambles for his labour. Certain it is, that this young man, when he came to me, in his ffeenth or sixteenth year, was in every branch of educational attainment, writing alone excepted (altho there were certainly many indicators that precluded the idea of any particular defect of capacity,) scarcely on a par with children of fve years old. Experiment accordingly soon convinced me, that he was perfectly inadequate to the reception of advantage from the process of instruction usually adopted by me with persons of his years. His organic habits, indeed, had acquired the rigid inveteracy that belonged to his growth; but in every appeal to his mental faculties, it was absolutely necessary that neither his stature nor his age should be at all regarded. Te frst half of the year that he spent with me was inevitably devoted, almost exclusively, by other members of my family, to those elementary instructions that are necessary initiations to the comprehension of more manly instructions; and it was only during the last two or three months, that I was able to appeal, with any prospect of success, to those parts of my process with which, in the cases of much younger pupils than himself, I have usually begun. Some good dispositions, an appearance of grateful kindness, and the total absence of every symptom of a refractory spirit, mitigated the irksomeness of these harassing circumstances; and our progress, tho slow, was satisfactory. He

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became capable of rendering himself completely intelligible, even to entire strangers, both in reading and in conversation; and was indeed beginning to make some degree of improvement even in intonation, emphasis, and comparative propriety of speech, beyond my early expectations; when, at the end of his year, he was reluctantly called upon, by circumstances at home, to suspend for a whole the process of his improvement. Whether he will be able to fulfl his promise of returning to me again, for the completion of what has been so happily begun, a few months will probably determine; but whether he does so, or not, I feel the comfortable assurance, that he has already done that which, with a little care and attention, will enable him to pass through life with extended means of comfort, utility and social enjoyment. But we have still beneath our roof another case that justifes a more exulting gratifcation: our more complete success in the treatment of which, is partly attributable to the capacity and energy of the pupil, and partly to the fortunate circumstance of her having come under our care at a more early age. Tis young lady, the daughter of a gentleman of independent property in Surrey, came to us when she was nine years old, with no disadvantage of education or intellectual development, and with the defects resulting from imperfect organization as little complicated as could be expected by mistaken instruction, or habitual blemish. Not that the defects of her utterance were by means confned to the elements usually formed by the organs of which she is defcient. Tis is a phenomenon I have never yet observed in any individual case of this description – either those which have been the immediate subjects of my experiments; or those which, falling accidentally under my cognizance, many years ago, gave impulse to the train of refections which ultimately emboldened my attempt. With her, as with others, I have had much more trouble in producing the perfect sounds of certain elements for which her organization is comparatively complete, than those for which the customary implements are defcient. But the task has altogether been easier than it could have been if she had been older, if she had been worse educated, or of less determined intellect; and, above all, if she had been more tampered with by injudicious attempts to palliate the evil. Tis young lady has been with us little more than a year, and (without the loss of time in any of the useful, or even of the ornamental attainments that should belong to her sex, her years, and her expectations,) has acquired a tolerably agreeable intonation, and an utterance perfectly distinct, and even to a considerable degree, graceful and emphatic. Her conversation is easy, and if I may make free to repeat the testimony both of her friends and of strangers, and particularly of the medical gentleman who attends her family, and who confesses that he himself considered the attempt as hopeless and impracticable, he reading and recitation, are such as might to credit even to public speakers who have no defect of organization to contend with. I do not mean to say that there is not yet a little

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peculiarity in some of the tones of her voice; but such I believe as would never suggest to a stranger the particular cause – certainly not more than is frequently heard in the voices of persons whose organs are entire: so that, upon the whole, I think I may be permitted to assert, that, if there still remains some little to be done, enough has been accomplished to authorise the conclusion, that perseverance can alone be requisite to the attainment of all that in this respect the heart of afection could require. Tese, sir, are the whole of the causes of this particular description that have fallen under my superintendence, since the date of my former communication: and as far as the experience derived from so small a number of experiments can be admitted to justify a general conclusion, perhaps I may be allowed, without much presumption to consider the process I have adopted, as infallible in the remedy of the ofensive unintelligibility resulting from this organic calamity. Tat the opportunities of experiment have been hitherto so few, is easily accounted for, from the universally prevailing notion – that relief, under such calamitous circumstances, is actually impracticable. In the case of the young gentleman from Sufolk, it required all the infuence of your advice and opinions to counter-balance the confdent despair of other of his friends, and their unqualifed declamation against the absurdity and presumption of the attempt; and I have already stated, that, even in that case where my success has been most complete, the medical advisor of the family had discouraged the expectation of relief. But I confess myself not to be without hope that the publication of these facts (which though not detailed, it is presumed, with a particularity that trespasses upon delicacy, are yet perhaps sufciently identifed to establish their authenticity) may dissipate this injurious prejudice. Perhaps some advantage might accrue to society (even beyond the limits of the present subject of disquisition) if friends and parents, and sufering individuals themselves, could be impressed with the determination to consider no calamity as irremediable till every possible efort had been tried. ——————— SINCE the above was written, you have done me the honour, sir, of inspecting two of the cases above described, and of witnessing yourself the fdelity of my report – the third had unfortunately quitted the institution before you favoured me with your long meditated visit. Te fssure in the palate of the younger lady whom you had never before examined, is, as you observed, of very considerable extent, and is accompanied by a very ill arranged set of teeth, such as of themselves, without particular management, could not have failed to have been productive of some defect of utterance. She laboured at the time, under a very considerable degree of cold and evident hoarseness; yet even under such disadvantage, you were pleased to observe that her enunciation was perfectly distinct

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and articulate. Te elder lady you certainly heard at her best: for, tho her natural timidity makes her shrink from exertion, and even the addition of a single person to the family group she is used to see around her, necessarily abashes her to a certain degree, she seemed to be animated with an amiable anxiety that you should know what she had gained during the sixteen or seventeen months that had passed since you frst heard her. Te satisfaction you expressed was the more gratifying since the long article she recited was one that you had never seen or heard before; and consequently depended for its intelligibility on the distinctness and articulation of the delivery alone, without any of those aids of memory by which the auditor, in other circumstances, parcels the imperfections of the speaker. I was, also, highly gratifed to fnd that you coincided with me in opinion – that in this case, the elocutionary exertion seemed to have palliated, in some degree, even the organic defect; the breadth of the fssure being apparently somewhat diminished: the sof parts approximating toward each other, as it should seem, in consequence of the eforts for the formation of the guttural and palatial sounds. How far this physical efect might be carried by early attention to such cases, is an inquiry for which, at present, we have not sufcient documents; but, theoretically, I have always calculated that something in this respect would be accomplished: while at the same time it is obvious that the application of artifcial organs must have the opposite tendency. ——————— AND now, my dear sir, I might lay aside my pen, if, among the other classes of cases that share my professional attention, there were not one in particular, relative to which the philosophical and philanthropic inquirer will naturally be desirous of accumulating all the facts that actual observation and professional experiment can furnish; and relative to which, when, about this time last year, I was meditating a publication of another kind, I made some selections, and set down some memoranda, that are still lying before me, though in a crude and imperfect state. Afer the announcement of that intended publication, professional engagements thickened so fast upon me as to prevent the immediate prosecution of my design; and when my season of vacation at length arrived, the wearied mind sought for more congenial recreation, in rural pastimes and in recurring to a work, which for almost thirty years (in meditation or in execution) has occupied my few intervals of ease and leisure, and become associated with almost all my ideas of intellectual gratifcation. Te controversy once dropped, it is not now my intention to resume. Perhaps, to every candid mind, what I have already said upon the subject, thro’ the medium of the ‘New Review, for June, 1813,’ will appear sufciently decisive as

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to the candour and competency of my pretended critics – if not, facts, at least, will continue to speak for themselves, and triumph, in time, over the sarcasms of ignorant or wilful misrepresentation, and the insinuations of malignity. Te particulars already stated in this letter, will be sufcient to shew what attention can have been given to the nature and objects of my ‘imagined discoveries,’ by the being who, even with a mask upon his face, could venture to afrm that they were nothing but the ‘tritest and most frequently refuted of poetical errors.’* Te particulars and observations that follow, may evince, perhaps, what degree of justice there is in confounding my professional exertions, or the principles on which they are founded, with the reveries and ‘wild absurdities into which several physiologists have been led by their perpetual tendency to materialize the operations of the human understanding.’ At any rate, I believe, the facts that I have here selected, relative to the treatment of Amentia, and tardy and imperfect developments of the understanding, may add something to the little stock of knowledge hitherto accumulated, relative to ‘so curious and so ill understood a class of phenomena in our constitution:’ and if your candour can excuse the disjointed shape in which they are now thrown together, as the mere fragments of an unfnished work, began without leisure for mediation, and thrown aside in weariness and exhaustion, I will take the liberty of submitting them to your inspection. ——————— CASES of this description, of course, do not make a noise in the world. Tey are cases of delicacy, from which even familiar conversation shrinks, in the very recesses of relative confdence. Even when the calamity is removed, or the defect surmounted, the remembrance that it has been, cannot be so pleasant to the families in which it has occurred, that they should be expected to proclaim it by sound of trumpet: nor can the preceptor, (the physician of the mind) feel himself at liberty to give that kind of publicity to the particulars of his success, that might be fairly and decorously given to instances of corporeal medicament. All those, however, who have had any opportunity of being acquainted with the interior of my institution, and who know, accordingly, in what state pupils have sometimes been received, in what state some of those pupils now remain, and in what state others have departed thence, will, I believe, bear testimony that the remarks I have formerly thrown out upon this subject, are not the mere specula* Tat trite and refuted poetical errors should give speech to those unfortunate persons who are defcient in the common organs of voice and enunciation, would be indeed a most extraordinary phenomenon. It is a pity, at this rate, that there were not a few more poetical errors in the world; they might happen to efect a still greater miracle, and give common sense and honesty to a Monthly Reviewer.

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tions of a visionary theorist; but are grounded on experience, and capable of practical application. Extreme cases, indeed, for obvious reasons, cannot be admitted under my roof. It is not my intention to convert my dwelling into an hospital for idiots and lunatics, or to preclude myself, by the admission of disgusting objects, from the emoluments of more agreeable parts of my profession. Some cases, however, have been submitted to my experiments, and to those of the equal partner of my toils, which, tho not ofensive in their phenomena, were sufciently marked to strike the casual and superfcial observer with despair. Among the earliest of these, was the son of a gentleman of the profession of the law in the neighbourhood of Halifax, a boy of about ten years of age, but who, in the development of any of his faculties, was scarcely on a level with children of four or fve; and the absolute unintelligibility of whose utterance (even when he could be roused to any utterance that was audible) was accompanied by such vacant inanity of countenance, and such feeble listlessness both of bodily and mental function, as would generally, I believe, have been considered by those physiologists, who ‘materialize the operations of the human understanding’ as undeniable indications of constitutional defect. Our treatment was, however, in nothing medical, except in attention to those regular habits, and to that cherishing simplicity of diet, which ought to be observed with regard to all children, and which the health of our pupil so obviously demanded. Yet the result of our experiments, for exciting and directing the dormant faculties, was sufciently obvious and satisfactory: the gloom and inanity of the downcast countenance gradually disappeared; the utterance became at least audible and intelligible; he began to take his share in the recreations and the studies of his associates; his faculties brightened; and, tho his sensibility was blunt, disparity of intellect became less apparent. Te child, indeed, unfortunately remained with us but half a year. Before the expiration of that time, he had the misfortune to lose his father; and partly from change of circumstances, resulting from this melancholy event, and partly perhaps from the weakness of maternal afection (which sometimes loves the presence more than the welfare of its object) he never returned to the institution afer the autumnal vacation. He had been recommended by another gentleman of the same profession, in another part of Yorkshire, the father of another pupil of the same age, who, to a perfect chaos of utterance, had added an eccentricity almost as remarkable as the insanity of the former; and the successful treatment of whose case was one of the sources of the early reputation of the Institution. ——————— THIS latter mentioned, tho more early occurring case, deserves perhaps a more particular notice; than, from the neglect of keeping a particular journal at the time, it is practicable, without more leisure for recollection than I can bestow

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upon it, to present. It was a clear and decided case of diseased and broken association, tho accompanied with considerable briskness and vivacity of some of the faculties. Te want of coherency, however, was sufciently obvious in every part of his mental phenomena – but particularly in his speech – in which elements, the most remote in sound and organic formation, were frequently, nay incessantly, so confounded, that every thing like sense or meaning was utterly inexplicable. Te extent, indeed, in which this diseased association, or chaotic incoherency sometimes appears in the speech of particular persons, is truly wonderful. While I was residing in Liverpool1, previous to my establishment in London, I had two sisters (full grown ladies) under treatment (and they were successfully treated,) who were so aficted; the elder of whom, in particular, would, with perfect innocency of mind, in lieu of such combinations of elements of that, or good, or when, and a thousand others equally indispensable in the construction of the simplest sentences, pronounce sounds that had the semblance of such shocking words, as the pen must not write, nor the ear of modesty listen to – sounds that had no more resemblance to the syllables intended, than the frst and last of these specifed have to each other. In such cases, the task imposed upon the tutor, is (if I may venture, without being suspected of the horrible crime of materialism, to apply an anatomical term to a mental operation) to articulate the disjointed faculties: and, I believe, wherever any one of the faculties happens to be in a tolerably perfect state; this is always practicable, in a considerable degree at least, with respect to the rest. ——————— A case of a similar description to the frst of the preceding, occurred soon afer. Te child I now allude to (son of a clergyman of considerable family and connexion) was, when he came to us, between six and seven years old; but, from querulous inanity, had all the helplessness, without any of the vivacity, of an infant of less than two. His countenance was inexpressive, his eye vacant, his head always drooping, and his whole deportment listless. Gait he could not be said to have any; for it was with reluctance that he would quit the knee, or the chair, upon which he was placed. It was with difculty that he could be roused to so much exertion as to walk across the room without assistance; and he would literally lay himself down on the carpet, in cheerless inanity, rather than endure the trouble of getting to any thing he wanted, or was sent for, at the farther end of the apartment. Speech he could scarcely be said to have any – unless a halfuttered whisper, or a faint querulous and inarticulate murmur may so be called; and the elements that require any energy of action in the organs, he seemed utterly incapable of forming. Such were the phenomena of this case when it came under our superintendence; and all, who are acquainted with the interior of our institution, know full well that I have not exaggerated. Te child was,

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undoubtedly, of feeble constitution; and, perhaps, to the mistaken management that resulted from this feebleness, the greater part of the phenomena are to be ascribed: – [more particularly, as the want of intellectual energy does not by any means appear to be a prevalent disease in the family: for a still younger brother of this pupil – a child of most uncommon power and premature development, was placed for a short time under the care of Mrs. Telwall, to bring into habits of order his irregular vivacity, and render the excesses of his fne, but impetuous spirit more manageable.*∗ But whatever had been the original source of the evil, certain it is, that our experiments very soon began to demonstrate, that the faculties, both of mind and body, had been rather undeveloped than extinct; and, among the enviable hours of my life, I shall perhaps be pardoned for enumerating that in which an uncle of this child (who was a little hard of hearing) calling upon us, when our pupil had been with us about a quarter of a year, heard, for the frst time, the sound of his own voice, and with a start of ecstasy exclaimed, ‘I never knew he had a voice before! I never heard from him a syllable or a sound!’ Te entire inanity of the child, however, was not so soon subdued. Te dislike of all efort, mental or bodily, yielded progressively only to the stimuli which incessant attention and superintendence applied to his dormant faculties; – and, for a considerable time, almost the only voluntary use he made of his reason, or his speech, was to wish that he were a man, that he might lie upon the carpet, and not be obliged to do any thing. Gradually, however, every vestige of these defects disappeared. His mind expanded; activity was superinduced; and in less than two years that he was under our roof, he became lively, bold, and certainly sufciently audacious – so as to be able to make his way manfully thro’ the public-school, to which he was removed. He had begun even to have a taste for reading, and some desire for the acquisition of knowledge; and thro’ the medium of that system of physical and harmonic rhythmus, in which I have been fully justifed in placing my confdence for the removal of elocutionary defect, he attained a cadence and an elocution altogether, of which I believe much older boys need not have been ashamed, who had never had any apparent defciency to surmount. ——————— As contrasts to these, I shall exhibit two other cases, not equally successful, because lacking the co-operation of discretion and perseverance, on the part of the parents of the children. Tey are cases, indeed, which properly considered, may be highly instructive, because pointing out, if I am not mistaken, some of the frequent sources of those mental maladies, for which, in general estimation. * Te whole mystery of managing such spirits as this, in early life, consists in a due mixture of consistent frmness, and endearing gentleness: an equanimity that never imposes, and never yields.

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Nature appears to be loaded with considerably more than her proper share of blame. One of these was a boy of thirteen or fourteen, who had been formerly much aficted by epilepsy, but from which, for some years previous to his admission into our institution, he had been relieved: – a point we deemed it necessary to ascertain, before he could be admitted. Tat some injury should be done to the mental faculties, from this early visitation, as well as that some marks should have been lef behind upon his frame and physiognomy, was naturally to be expected; but that the method pursued in his education (if so it may be called) had been far from being calculated to remedy the evil, was equally apparent. Te parents themselves, were obviously illiterate people, of strong passions and weak intellects; and in whose deportment and sentiments the most sordid of all species of egotism, the low pride of property, supplied the place of that moral sensibility so important to the due regulation and direction of the infant mind. Imbecile indulgence, or harsh correction, and sometimes a causeless fuctuation from the extremes of both, are the educational resources of those parents in whom rational feeling and moral sensibility are defcient. Up to the age already mentioned, the time of this unfortunate boy appears to have been divided (in no very regular proportions) between the infatuated fondling and pampering indulgence of these parents, and the nursery-like consignment of a little preparatory school; where the only associates of his overgrown stature and underdeveloped faculties, were children of from three or four to six or seven years old. What faculties, connected with the better passions of our nature, were likely to expand under such circumstances, conjecture may be lef to determine. He who is nursed as a baby, and associates with none but babies, till he is verging to manhood, may have a chance of uniting in his character the foibles and imbecility of babihood, with some of the worst passions of animal maturity; but has little chance of correcting the original defects of nature, or advancing in understanding and manly deportment. Of this the phenomena in the present case were a lamentable exemplifcation. In him the abject timidity that shrinks alike from mental and bodily exertion, was blended with the vehemence that had been tamed by no consistent restraint; the feebleness of spirit that crouches to superior, or even to approximating strength, – with a tyrannous impetuosity towards every thing that was feeble and helpless, or incapable of resisting the oppression: – the wanton cowardice that exults in the torture of the mute and stingless fy, and screams and trembles at the dog that barks, or even at the trodden worm that but seems to turn again! – To these were added that abject cunning which fourishes, like an evil weed, from the mere neglect of moral and intellectual culture; that rapacious sensuality of appetite which animalises every thought and feeling; and that total disregard of truth, which marks the most absolute insensibility to all moral feeling and discrimina-

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tion. In such a case, the utter intelligibility of speech, the absence of every idea, and the want of every part of the deportment that should have belonged to his years, and even his imperfect initiation into the simple mysteries of the hornbook, were not to be reckoned among the most discouraging circumstances. Our frst object was to endeavour to superinduce a more decorous deportment, to restrain the selfshness of animal passion, and eradicate the habit of systematic falsehood, together with some other kindred propensities: for the fact is, that in our system the morel feelings are the great implements of education; and no species of imbecility appears to us so hopeless as that which is complicated with vicious habits, and the absence of social sympathy. Some portion of these our primary objects seemed to be efected, during the quarter of a year that the boy remained under our care. But these were not the primary objects with his parents, and they were perhaps neither disposed to investigate, nor capable of appreciating what had been efected in these respects; and still less were they capable of conceiving what these preliminaries could have to do with the objects of their founder solicitude; so that fnding their darling (or, as they had taught him to call himself, their ‘pitty boy!’) on his return to them, in the autumnal vacation, not absolutely metamorphosed into all that they would have thought delightful and clever, during the three long months that he had been absent from their sight, they grew tired of the experiment, and he returned to us no more. It must however be confessed, that we were not very desirous that he should return. Te case itself was, in all its phenomena, at the very extremity of those which the nature of our institution could sufer us to admit; and those of the connexions of the family who occasionally called to see him, were almost as little aware as himself of the decorums that were due to such an establishment. Te representation I made of the case, and the terms I stipulated upon which alone I could consent to receive him again under my roof, might in all probability, have something to do in determining them to withhold him. Just about the same time, and for the same short period, the other case I have alluded to, came under my consideration: Tis was a boy about nine years old, of very unpromising appearance, whose parents resided in the neighbourhood of my then establishment. In his infancy (as I was informed) he had been diseased by water in the head; which (as the parents retailed to me the opinion of his physicians) had subsided by absorption. A great thickening of the frontal bone had ensued; whose massive projection, pressing down upon the eyes, had thrown them into a very unusual form, and given to the whole countenance a sort of elephant-like expression, which, tho not disgusting, was certainly exceedingly preternatural. Te manners and deportment of the child were not less odd than his physiognomy. In the eyes of casual observers, he appeared to be idiotic: but to me it was evident, from the frst inspection, and the impression was fully confrmed by afer-experiment, that there was much more of that eccentricity

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which frequently results from solitary education and infatuated humouring and indulgence, than of the idiocy that is to be accounted for from physical causes. He was at once shy, obstinate and self-willed, timid and audacious. Tat he was, to all intents and purposes, master of the house, in whatever could interfere with his humours, was obvious from various indications; and that the private tutor who had been provided for him, had been rather the sport of his caprice than the master of his conduct, was not less conspicuous. Te faculties, therefore, were in a disordered state; and the whole phenomena of his mind were as incoherent and incongruous as had been the order, or disorder of his education. He was learning Latin; yet the imperfect perceptions and tardy faculties of his mind had received no assistance towards their necessary development. He was fond of poring over a book; yet his utterance was not only unintelligible, but his elements and syllables were so obviously, and so strangely miscalled and misplaced, that his reading was a perfect chaos, and presented the most ample evidence that the links of association between the impressions presented to the eye, and those that were to be produced by the enunciative organs, and received by the ear, were as completely broken as they are sometimes in paralytic cases: or, more properly speaking – that those links of association had, in reality, never yet been formed. Tis was, however, a case which I have no doubt might have been successfully treated, if parental infatuation could have been prevailed upon to adopt the only plan by which any thing like a fair trial could have been given to the experiment. Tis would have been – to have placed him for a twelvemonth at least, as a domestic pupil in the institution; where the maternal management of Mrs. Telwall (to whom, at such an age, the greater part of his instruction ought to have been committed) might have co-operated with the regular habits and associations of the family, to superinduce the train of ideas and feelings that were necessary for his improvement. But this, like the preceding, was an only child: an unfortunate class of beings, almost universally devoted to early mismanagement; and from among whom, I have, accordingly, had no small proportion of my most unfavourable cases! But this very circumstance, which ought to have dictated a very diferent plan, had infatuated them with the idea of his being educated entirely at home. For a child of eight years old, and under these circumstances, they had kept a classical tutor in the house. Teir frst proposal to me was, that I should give him private lessons in the same situation. But this (tho by far the most proftable mode of practice) I declined, as absolutely unft for his particular case: it being sufciently obvious, that it was constant superintendence he required, and not merely a daily lesson in elocution. To part with, however, was impossible; and the best arrangement I could bring them to, was only – that he should come to me as a daily pupil, but should return home not only to sleep, but to all his meals. But there was another stipulation, still more capricious and

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absurd. According to the arrangements of our institution, the younger pupils are consigned, almost exclusively, to the instruction and management of Mrs. Telwall; whose unsubduable patience, and mild determination of character – whose indefatigable assiduity, and afectionate solicitude for every thing in the form of a child that approaches her; – and, above all, whose facility in entering into the characters, and awakening the afections of her pupils, so completely qualify her for the duties of this department. But the high spirit, and quick sensibility of this child (qualities which parental infatuation scarcely ever fails to discover in what, to all the world besides, assumes only the appearance of a fretful petulance at every disappointment of appetite, or shadow of opposition to capricious humour) were not to be wounded, by his being put under the tuition of a lady: – to whom, by the way, I have resigned, almost without interference, the education of our own children, till they were thirteen or fourteen years of age; and who has (with very little occasional assistance from a classical and mathematical tutor) prepared one of them for the career of intellectual emulation at the University; and all of them, I trust, to appear, without disparagement, in the best educated circles of society. It was, accordingly, expressly stipulated – that this child, who had yet to learn the pronunciation of the simplest syllables, and the discriminative sounds even of his very letters, was to be exclusively my pupil: that is to say, he was to be classed with lads and young men of from fourteen to four and twenty; and even with Fellows of Colleges, and scholars of maturest age, and the highest intellectual attainments: for of such is my adult class, occasionally, in part composed.* Te arrangement had all the inconveniences I expected: divided attention, and consequent irregularity and refractoriness. Te time of pudding, was always interfering with the time of lesson; and what was still worse – never considering the institution as his home, he never fell into the habits of that institution, or adopted the feelings that should have rendered its instructions efcacious. Yet, with all these disadvantages, the development of his faculty of speech, as the parents reiteratedly acknowledged, was rapid. Tis was all that could be expected; for, under such an arrangement, to correct the eccentricity of his mind was impossible. Tere was another inconvenience in the management of this case. Te parents would be every now and then interrupting me by their interference, * I had, at that very time, among my pupils, the joint master of a private Classical Academy, and the head master of one of our Public Schools. Te latter, a Fellow of a College, in the full maturity of life; the former a young clergyman just entering into orders, who has since attained a Fellowship at Oxford. Tis gentleman was witness to the labour of one of the lessons I gave to this untoward child. Afer it was fnished, I asked him how many such lessons he would be content to give every day for three thousand a year? to which he replied, with an emphasis that bordered upon horror, ‘not one, by all that is sacred!’ Tose who know the labour with which my profession is pursued, will neither envy my reputation nor my emoluments; nor confound my pursuits with the idle reveries of speculative enthusiasts.

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and their solicitude, that he should learn that; altho the state of the child’s mind sufciently demonstrated how little they had been aware, what he was capable, or what he was incapable of learning; – or at what end they should begin, for the unravelment of his entangled faculties. It has been always my settled system not to sufer either my mind to be harassed, or my time to be consumed by such interferences. Mutual dissatisfaction resulted, and the experiment terminated with the frst quarter. It is not to be disguised, that in cases of eccentricity especially, the parents are sometimes the disease. Te instances I have given are not the strongest I could have selected for the illustration of the remark. Where the mental or moral habits have been strikingly wrong, the patient or pupil cannot be too completely separated from those under whom they have been formed. Old associations renew old ideas; and old habits recur with them. Even in cases of mere impediment of speech, the progress has generally been most steady, and the success most perfect, where the family of the pupil have been most remote, and his intercourse with them longest suspended. Te desirable thing would be, at least in all serious cases, that the pupil should enter the Institution on the frst of October, that he might have the advantage of the entire session of ten months, without vacation or interruption, for the formation and confrmation of those habits by which the errors of former practice are to be corrected. Wherever the mental and moral faculties (either from eccentricity, misdirection, or non-development) demand particular attention, it would be well, if it were practicable, that even the vocational interruption should be avoided: for in such cases especially, the two months spent at home, never fail to undo a part of what has been laboriously efected during the period of application; and a considerable portion of the ensuing session is frequently consumed in bringing back the pupil to the state he had been brought to, at the close of the former. Two strongly contrasted cases, at this time under our management, may exemplify this statement. Te one is of a boy, now in his tenth year, whose faculties have been clouded, and their early development impeded by infant epilepsy; and tho the disease itself has long subsided, and has lef behind none of those disgusting phenomena which sometimes result from early visitations of this description, its traces are, in many respects, sufciently obvious. Te limbs are large without being muscular, the body ponderous without strength, the physiognomy heavy and vacant – except when excited to childish play, and nonsensical drollery. Inertness and timidity (manifest alike in his duties and his amusements) betray the defciencies of physical energy, and perhaps prohibit (unless time should happen to relieve the constitution from its oppressive burthen) all expectation of conspicuous intellect or high attainment. But tho these unfavourable phenomena were much more strongly marked when the child was frst placed under our care, than they are at present; tho his speech was alto-

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gether unintelligible, and his attainments, in any respect, not at all beyond what would be expected in a child of four years old, I could never assent to the general impression produced by his appearance, upon the minds of all who casually beheld him. It is true that, where the perceptions are thus benumbed, and the faculties thus constitutionally clouded, it will generally be very practicable for neglect or mismanagement to rock the aficted individual into idiocy. But there were certain indications, which in my mind (wherever they have appeared) have been always conclusive against the supposition that, under proper management, such catastrophe was inevitable: there was no vicious insensibility; no malignant cunning; no want of moral perception, or moral decorum; no difculty in apprehending the propriety and beauty of truth; nor any stubborn barriers in the way of superinducing a practical adherence to that principle. In short, tho it was conspicuous in the physiognomy, that animal appetite had too predominant a sway, the moral and social sympathies were obviously not extinct: and wherever these can be properly awakened, there is always hope: for the heart is the best rectifer of the head; as, in certain cases, the head is also of the heart. To understand how to make these act upon each other, for reciprocal improvement, is one of the most valuable, and least communicable secrets in the science of education. I should add, that tho the lower or sensual parts of the face had more than their due proportion (as already hinted), the form of the scull was not such as I have ever met with in cases of idiotism, or irremediable imbecility. We undertook this laborious case, therefore – [it was one in which the partner of my toils was to have more than an equal share;] in the full confdence that something would be done: and something has been done: not enough indeed to be regarded as the promise of future brightness, but enough to justify my frst prognostic, that it was not a case of physical idiocy. A completely intelligible (though far from an impressive or well regulated) utterance has been superinduced; some progress has been made in reading, in writing, and in arithmetic; the logical or inductive faculty is obviously expanding; and, tho, in all attainments, he is yet much behind the usual expectations of his years, it may be fairly questioned whether there be, at this time, any other general indication of imbecility, than a sluggish indolence, which can only be kept in action by the labour of incessant and resolute superintendence. Tis is a case to which, from the circumstance last mentioned, the annual recurrence of a vacation of two months is a very formidable evil; and it is rendered still more formidable, from circumstances of family arrangement, by means of which the period is considerably protracted. All that we can do, in the way of direction and regulation, to counteract this evil, is of course done; and I have no doubt that, as far as is practicable in the very nature of things, those directions are attended to; but it will be sufciently obvious, that this all must necessarily be very little. Te consequence is, that in the middle, or at the latter end of

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October, the pupil returns to us in a retrograde state, with relaxed habits, and renewed disinclination to all intellectual exertion; the discipline, to which he had begun to be reconciled, becomes again as burthensome as ever; and half the ensuing session is consumed in bringing back the mind to the state in which it had been before the interruption. Tis is rolling the stone of Sisyphus2; and tho the re-action never carries us down again to the very bottom of the hill, it is obvious that it must be a long time before we can expect to reach the summit: and the time, alas! during which any thing can be done towards it, hath its inevitable limit. [Te above paragraph was written nearly a twelvemonth ago. Since that time, another vacation has occurred, without the ill efects that had heretofore ensued: a circumstance which augurs favourably for the future, and seems to indicate, that a permanent efect has been at last produced. During the present session we have accordingly been making more than our usual progress; and the boy has now lef us to try how far he may be capable of pursuing improvement, under the ordinary system of education.] ——————— THE other, sir, is a case referred to our superintendence by your recommendation: – a case, in every respect, the reverse of the former (as far as defect can be the reverse of defect); but certainly not originally less formidable; and, perhaps, still less promising, with respect to the calculable extent of future solid attainment; but holding out, from the arrangements that have been complied with, a more rational hope, that all that is morally and physically practicable should be gradually and permanently attained. If physical oppression, in the one instance, seemed to have produced a degree of intellectual torpor, which required to be roused by extraordinary stimuli, the other presented the evidence of physical debility and irritation, complicated with an eccentricity so obvious and so universal, as to suggest the necessity of constant superintendence, and a mode of treatment, tho gentle and tranquillizing, at once so frm, so unremitting, and so consistent, as might give a chance of fxing the wandering, connecting the incoherent, and developing the incipient faculties. – In one, those faculties, tho not actually extinct, were an inert and unvivifed mass, that required the Promethean torch; in the other, they seemed to exist only in scattered particles; or, at best only in fragments, or disjointed parts, that needed the articulation of connective ligament. But I beg pardon. Where rational induction and practical inference anre the objects, minute detail is better than metaphorical illustration. Tis child, when I was frst consulted about him, had entered upon his ninth year; was slight in his form; and, in stature, as much above, as in strength, he was below the common standard of his age. He exhibited no want of vivacity;

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but his vivacity was without meaning – almost without apparent consciousness; approximating more to the characteristics of spasmodic irritation, than of intellectual volition. Te striking phenomena were – perpetual motion, without apparent object; incessant restlessness, without real activity; constant shifings of the feet, twitchings of the limbs, and fdgettings of the fngers; a wandering eye, roving every where, and looking at nothing; features perpetually fuctuating from causeless smiles to vacant composure; – the former occasionally relieved by a certain expression of infantile archness, the latter more frequently accompanied by a relaxation of the jaw, a slight distortion of the lip, and partial protrusion of the apex of the tongue; a habit of perpetual talking – frequently without direction either to person or object – always without coherency, audibility, or distinctness; and an ineptitude so complete, for all that related to numbers, – whether in fgures or symbols, or in persons and familiar objects, that even to count three, or to understand the diference between three and fve, or whether two and two made four, or seven, or one, – seemed totally beyond his apprehension; or, to speak more properly, required a degree of fxed observance and attention, of which he appeared to be utterly incapable. To these unfavourable symptoms, were only to be opposed – a quick perception and obvious taste for music; the comparative facility with which he had acquired the rudiments of the art of reading; and a complete exemption from all appearances of evil passions and malignant propensities. Such were the phenomena from which I was to form my prognosis; and there were certainly materials enough to form a tolerable estimate of what might be the consequences, when the physical powers and passions should develop themselves, if the mental faculties could not previously be regarded in some degree, and the senses be reduced and disciplined to a more consistent attention to their proper objects. Te parents had the good sense to perceive, as clearly as myself, that this was not a case for my exclusive superintendence; that it must necessarily be treated in all the minutiae of detail, and that the patience and endearing familiarity of female watchfulness would be requisite to conduct, thro’ all its ramifcations, any consistent plan that might be formed for the accomplishment of the object desired. Mrs. Telwall and myself were lef to share the responsibility between us, according to our own arrangements. Tis was not the only evidence of that amiable rationality which, whenever it is found in the friends and parents of a pupil, mitigates, in no small degree, the labours of the tutor. Te defects, such as they were, may be said to have been those of nature only; there was no evidence of their having been aggravated by weak indulgence, or perverse mismanagement. If any thing had been wrong, it was that which almost inevitably resulted from the kind sympathies and best feelings of an amiable family; who, compassionating his infantile state of mind, treated him with the kind of indulgence due to an

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infant, and condescended to sooth and to amuse him with infantile attentions; – which humour, instead of counteracting the evil. Whatever had been attempted in the way of education, seemed to have been done rationally; and if little had been efected, there was scarcely any thing to undo. What was, perhaps, still more important, there was no attempt to dictate what was to be done. It was rightly considered that persons who were to be regarded as competent to the management of such cases, were necessarily to be lef to the direction of their own judgements, and the results of their own experience, in deciding upon what was practicable to be efected, and where they were to begin. Tat the child should be so trained, if possible, as to pass with quiet respectability thro’ life, was the modest boundary of their solicitude; and we had full discretion with respect to means and measures. As less than four months were to elapse between the time when he was placed in our Institution, and the commencement of our annual vacation, they prudently lef him behind them, when they themselves lef the metropolis for their country-seat. He accordingly accompanied us to the sea-side, during the months of August and September; where, it was justly concluded, thro’ the regular exercises of what is usually meant by the term education would be suspended, – that much more important part of efcient education which is directed to moral and intellectual habits, would not be broken in upon; while we should have opportunities of analyzing his capabilities, and detecting the evanescent traits and indications of his mind, under the varying infuence of new scenes and diversifed associations. Te propriety of this arrangement has been thus far confrmed by the event. When the family returned to London in the winter-season, they found their expectations more than realized (so they have thought ft to express themselves) in the habits, the deportment, the conversation, and the little attainments of our charge. Accordingly they not only followed up their former system of self-denial, by withdrawing him very rarely, and then only for short intervals, from the habits and associations of the Institution, but by the additional sacrifce of again resigning to our superintendence and direction the pleasures of his vacation, as well as the studies of the session. What will ultimately be the issue of this case, as to the extent of improvement that may be superinduced, time only can reveal. But you will be glad to hear, sir, – that our progress, tho not rapid, and tho occasionally interrupted by constitutional causes, has hitherto been such as fully to realize every expectation I thought myself authorized in encouraging. Tere are cases in which it is no small degree of triumph, by any system of management, to give that degree of consistency and orderly self-possession to the mind, that may avert from maturer years the evils that threaten from developed passion and incoherent intellect; and may enable the pupil to pass thro’ life with the decorums that belong to the mediocrity of private station: cases in which some years

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must necessarily pass away in solicitous attention, before it can be practicable to form any decided opinion, whether any thing more than this can be regarded as attainable. ——————— THESE are by no means all the cases of unconnected and imperfectly developed faculty that have fallen under my management. Several other instances, more or less complicated with defects of utterance, both of younger and more adult pupils, might be produced, if it were any part of my intention to make a formal catalogue of my successes; or if property could sanction such particularization as might render them efciently instructive. One young man in particular, whose mind, not more from inherent causes, than from the neglect (and perhaps something worse than neglect) of his education, was obviously verging to the brink of no ordinary calamity, had the awakened sense occasionally to acknowledge – that what I had done for the development and regulation of his mind in general, was even more important to him than the cure of the impediment in his speech. But perhaps enough has been said to shew that the hints and suggestions thrown out in my former publication (and as hints and suggestions you know, sir, they were alone intended – not as a methodical and regular treatise) were not the mere ‘unconnected speculations’ and ‘daring conjectures’ of a presumptuous visionary; but emanations of refection, and authorized inductions, not only from physiological principles, but from actual observation of the phenomena of mind: – the fruits of a practical conviction, that moral intellectual and educational causes, have, in cases of this description, as absolute, and sometimes as extensive an operation on the physical system, as physical causes have upon the attributes and phenomena of mind. With respect to that description of cases, in particular, which constitute by far the largest portion of my practice – including the various species of impediments of speech, the experience of every day, more and more convinces me how little they depend upon constitutional – how extensively on mental causes. Tere is scarcely a case of this description, that has fallen under my observation, that might not furnish some materials towards that grand desideratum in the Philosophy of the History of Man – the phenomena of the action and re-action of physical and metaphysical causes – and the operation, in particular, of mental, moral, and educational stimuli upon the frame and fbre – the senses and the organic functions. If Impediments of Speech in general, were not, in reality, mental diseases, the cure would be exceedingly simple: for notwithstanding what is frequently said about nervous, and natural, and hereditary impediments, and the like, nothing is more easy than to demonstrate that while the mind is under the due impres-

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sion of rhythmical perception, and the eforts of enunciation are conducted according to the physiological laws upon which the principles of rhythmus depend, impediment is impossible. Where the impediment, therefore, is merely an habitual imitation: where the perceptions are not blunt, nor faculties confused; where the mind is neither much enfeebled, nor strongly eccentric; nor the moral temper deeply infected, the remedy is never difcult. But where the mind is embarrassed, lethargic, or incoherent; or the temper perturbed by sullen gloom, excessive irritability, unconquerable levity, morbid vanity, or impatience of correction or control, or any of those blemishes which cloud the reason and intercept volition, the labour increases and the hope diminishes, in proportion to the extent of these mental and moral evils. In short, the Science of Curing Impediments is, in a considerable degree, the science of correcting and regulating the mental and moral habits of the pupil: the medicament of the mind! – and the successful practitioner must have looked with scrutinizing eye into the motions of the heart, and of the understanding. For altho his rules of utterance may be infallible in their operation, they can only operate while they are acted upon, and can only be acted upon – (at least, till by long usage they have become organically habitual) – while the mind can be kept in that state of self-collection essential to the communication between volition and organic action. When I speak, however, of Impediments of Speech as necessarily connected with mental or moral diseases, let me not be misunderstood. Strong minds, like strong constitutions, have their diseases, as well as weak ones; and dispositions of general amiability have their defects, as well as those in which the blemishes are not compensated by equal advantages. I have known persons aficted with very serious difculties of utterance, who blended together with great excellence of disposition, conspicuous energy, enlarged capacity, high attainments, and general solidity of understanding. But, in such cases, I believe it may be pronounced (without exception or reservation) that the cure, if sought, is certain: at least, within the extent of my observation, I have never known a single instance, where any reasonable degree of time was given to the experiment, in which the pupil of any age, with any tolerable approximation towards these attributes, has failed in the attainment of his object. I remain, dear Sir, Your obliged Friend, J. THELWALL. Institution, &c. 57, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, 5th April, 1814.

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SELECTED WRITINGS FROM THE CHAMPION

John Telwall was editor of the Champion from 1818 to 1823. During these years, he contributed a lead editorial for each edition that, almost without exception, dealt with political subjects. Due to the inevitable constraints of space, we have only included two brief samples of the journalistic material from the Champion. We have included a slightly wider variety of the more literary material he republished in Te Poetical Recreations of the Champion (1822). We have elected to do so in part because Telwall ofen emphasized his desire to devote more time to poetry, ‘the frst passion of his soul’. He also articulated his desire that the Champion be recognized ‘as much a Literary as a Political miscellany’.1 We also include the poetry here to show how much politics underpinned his literary endeavours (however much he might deny it in these years). Scholars have argued that the Champion demonstrates quite clearly that Telwall’s politics had become much less radical and much more moderate by this time. Te historian E. P. Tompson, for instance, has argued that by this time in his life, Telwall ‘the political fox’ was long ‘dead’.2 Indeed, there is evidence that Telwall, who continued to emphasize his new role as ‘Professor’, is eager to distance himself from such combative fgures as the journalist William Cobbett and the orator Henry Hunt. His tone is noticeably less clamorous and much more moderated, even at times a bit self-important, as in the following statement: To steer boldly and frmly, yet temperately and benignantly, a middle course between the currents that might lead, on one hand, to anarchic contempt, or, on the other, to servile acquiescence in the exertions of authority, is, in times like these, a difculty which the conscientious director and guardian of the Press alone can estimate.3

Yet we can exaggerate the extent to which Telwall’s politics had mellowed. Other textual evidence can as easily be gathered from the Champion that would seem to dispel the notion that he lost his radicalism. Indeed, there is much here to indicate continuity in terms of both political and personal themes. He is, for instance, still rehearsing past wrongs: he refers to the ‘monstrous atrocities’ that were committed against him more than twenty-three years earlier at Yarmouth, Lynn and Wisbeach, and then at Derby, Leicestershire, Stockport and Norwich.4

– 175 –

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He is still smarting from his great battle with Francis Jefrey of the Edinburgh Review.5 ‘It was’, he writes, the Whigs of Edinburgh – the Whig Reviewers, with the great Mr. Jefray and the incipient Whig leader, Mr. Brougham, at their head, who, by the meanest and most malignant conspiracy that ever degraded the name and garb of gentleman, frst turned his locks to grey.6

He makes clear that he is still very much against, as he puts it, the ‘church and king party’. Telwall also rekindles the political themes of the 1790s: he interprets the Anglo-Saxon constitution to address contemporary political questions. Although a wistfulness for the past might be in evidence in some of his writing in this period, he does relish his role as an experienced critic and advisor. He pledges his support for a new generation of ‘Radical Reformers’, who, he says, have awakened some to a sense of the necessity, and given to others the courage to look into the crying abuse of Starving Industry – the monstrous, the anomalous, the impolitic barbarity of sending the industrious artisan, afer six days hard labour, like a common vagabond to the parish for relief.7

In addition, as his various theatre reviews, poetry and miscellaneous essays reveal, there is still an enthusiastic interest in culture (he writes on the great English actor Edmund Kean, for example) and in the political implications of aesthetic practice. Telwall also reports on a whole new set of topical events in the Champion. A quick survey of editorials from 1819–21 give a sense of his range of political interests: on 2 August 1819 he wrote on the ‘Duty and Responsibility of the Whigs’; on 26 July 1819 he wrote on the popular associations in the manufacturing districts; on 8 August 1819, he wrote on the ‘Popular Discontents’ against ‘Mr. Malthus’s Moral Restraints’. Other topics which preoccupied him were the Peterloo Massacre, the trial of the radical publisher Richard Carlile (who was prosecuted for publishing Tom Paine’s Age of Reason), the Corn Laws, the Catholic Question, the death of Napoleon and the death of George IV’s estranged wife, Caroline. Much of this reportage arguably lacks the argument as well as the cut and thrust of his 1790s political lectures, but it does indicate that Telwall was still very much engaged with political culture. Notes 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

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J. Telwall, Te Poetical Recreations of the Champion, (London: J. Telwall, 1822), p. v. E. P. Tompson, ‘Hunting the Jacobin Fox’, Past and Present, 142 (1994), pp. 94–104, p. 128. Champion, 347 (Sunday 5 September 1819), p. 557. Champion, 335 (Monday 7 June 1819), p. 345–53. On this war of words, see Volume 3. Champion, 335 (Monday 7 June 1819), p. 352. Champion, 334 (Sunday 8 August 1819), p.508.

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OCCASIONAL ADDRESS (from ‘Te Champion’) Written by Mr. THELWALL, and spoken by Mr. ABBOTT1 at COVENTGARDEN THEATRE, for the beneft of the Charitable Establishment for ‘Shelter to the Houseless,’ during the last inclement Winter of 18192. Ask you where most Brittania’s glory shines? ‘Tis not in treasures of her Indian mines; Nor that he fag, by Neptune’s self unfurl’d Wafs her proud commerce o’er the felds of war, Bellona like, she drives her conquering car; ‘Tis not that Arts and Sciences o’er isle Difuse the lustre of their radiant smile; Nor that the Muse upon the rolls of fame Inscribes a Milton’s and a Shakespeare’s name. No, all that valour, wealth and genius boast. In one bright glory of her reign is lost; For what are valour, genius, wealth and fame, Te victor’s laurel, or the poet’s name, Or all on Glory’s record e’er imprest, To the bright sunshine of the feeling breast, O! blest Benevolence! When urg’d by thee To healing acts of heaven-born charity? Britannia! yes – tho ‘tis thy splendid boast To have seen thy banner wave on every coast, – Tro’ the four quarters of the world to have heard Ty accents echo’d, and thy power rever’d – On Glory’s plain tho high thy trophies rise In pyramidal triumph to the skies, Yet Heaven’s own trumpet shall thro’ time proclaim Ty social virtues brighter than thy fame. Tis the fair feld in which, almost divine, Ty honour, name and praise unrival’d shine. Is there a suferance in this world of woe Disease inficts or helpless man can know For which thy healing hand and fostering care Has not been prompt the balsam to prepare? Turn where we will, the rising domes we see, – 177 –

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Selected Political Writings of John Telwall, Volume 4 And open doors, of sacred Charity! Te ag’d, the lame, the speechless and the blind, Youth, strength, sight, voice, in thy protection fnd Disease and Want the pallid look forgo, And from thy healing bounty learn to glow. When, clad in storms, the Giants of the Frost Condense the waves, and stride from coast to coast, O’er realms aghast the darkening tempest roll, And bring the Nations nearer to the Pole, – While shivering Want and houseless Nakedness Shrink from the blast in agonized distress, Direct to heaven the half congealing eye, And only ask the direful boon – to die; ‘Tis thine to mitigate the inclement rage, And dark Despair’s excruciate pang assuage, Te sheltering dome, the cheering hearth provide, And bid the agonies of want subside. Oh! still the glories of this race pursue, And keep the brightest goal of heaven in view! Let Ocean’s Queen the Ocean’s wealth dispense In Charity’s divine munifcence: To houseless want her sheltering care impart, And clasp the social virtues to the heart. And tho those social virtues now must claim One patron less among the frst in name, – To Kent no more his royal hand shall spread To prop the drooping, shield the houseless head, Let mourning myriads mingle with the tear, Which strong emotion sheds upon his bier, Te generous aim to emulate his worth, Whose ample soul gave lustre to his birth, And made him frst – – divine Philanthropy! In every patriot toil devis’d by thee. J.T.

POLITICAL ECONOMY (See ‘IMPORTANT INTELLINGENCE,’ from the LONDON GAZETTE of Tuesday, May 23, 1820) 1. Beloved Ferdinand, ‘tis said, A petticoat for the Virgin made, With his own royal hands; And George the Fourth, on whom we doat, To regulate a petticoat As sagely understands.

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2. How blest the nations now must be, When arts of female industry Command of kings the care, A court can never want a queen, When lappets, robes and smocks, are seen, A monarch’s thoughts to share. 3. And for the folk, tho poor they be, What doubt we that economy Will lend us now a lif, Since from the sample we may guess, To help us in our last distress, Our King can make a shif!

quid est.

THE CHAMPION Te Renovator [from ‘Te Champion’] No. XII

ON PASTORAL POETRY ‘Te best pastorals of modern times,’ says Mr. Ring3, in his Preface to his highly improved translation of the Eclogues of Virgil, ‘are those of Pope and Gesner.’4 Of the latter of these I shall say nothing – for a reason which, to an ordinary Reviewer, might seem odd enough – namely, that I have never read them: but of the Pastorals of Pope, for best I should read worst. I know not, I confess, what it is that some critics – panegyrists, I should have said, can have found in these fantastic compositions to commend so highly: except the smoothness and beauty of the versifcation. In every other respect they are mere puerilities: compilations from Virgil and Teocritus, selected and arranged with little skills, and most absurdly misapplied. Every poem should represent something which, whether it has ever existed or not, can be believed to have existed. Tere should be a coherency of parts, a harmony of sentiment, incident and character which may look like nature, even tho the subject itself be a mere creation of Fancy. Te boldest fights of imagination (even when it soars into the regions of impossibility, deals with exploded magic, and creates to itself a world if supernatural agencies) should never lose sight of probability. Shakespeare and Milton exemplify this maxim most admirably. Ariel and Caliban, the Witches in Macbeth, and the Fairies in

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the Midsummer Night’s Dream, are as true to nature as the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet, or Dogberry and Verges in Much Ado about Nothing. Comus has, poetically, as much of reality about him as Cassio in his cups, or Sir John Brute at the tavern, or any Bacchanalian reveller which either Tragedy or Comedy ever exhibited on stage; and the Fallen Angels in Pandemonium have as genuine a verisimilitude, I had almost said as true a stamp of historical credibility, as if Milton had been actually present when the rebellious spirits rose from the oblivious pool, or had employed a reporter to take down the speeches from their infernal senate in short hand. Te fctions of these great bards are not a chaos, but a creation: they are methodical inductions, not disorderly conceits. We know, indeed, that such things never were; but we feel that if they had been at all, they must have been, or at least might have been, just such as they are represented. We lend them, therefore, and cannot help lending them, all the temporary credence necessary to the interest which poetry should inspire, and to the delight an the instruction it should impart. To bring the illustration nearer home to our subject, the pastoral characters of our immoral bard, in As You Like It, and those of Allen Ramsay5, in Te Gentle Shepherd, tho the former are mere Arcadian fctions, and the others, in many particulars, are such as in poetry only are to be met with, harmonize so completely with themselves and with our perceptions, and have such accordance with the suggested scenes and circumstances, that we never think of questioning their reality. So in the pastorals of Virgil and Teocritus, whether it be a shepherd that pipes, or a drunken god that sings – whether the rival colloquists wrangle about their sheep, or extol the praises of their mistresses, all is equally natural; for all is equally accordant with the frst design; and the characters, the manners, the sentiments and the superstitions are in unison with the age and scene imagined. Tis is all that poetic nature requires: but, with the smallest part of this poetry – just and legitimate poetry, cannot dispense. Now what say the admirers of Pope’s pastorals to this test? Te shepherds of Windsor Forest build altars and set up Parian statues to Apollo, and promise ‘Tat if he hear their prayers and bless their fold, His Parian statue shall be turn’d to gold.’6

Nor is this a solitary absurdity. All is equally incongruous. Te scenery and the sentiments, the characters and the manners, the age and the superstitions, are such as no stretch of the most compliant and credulous imagination can associate together for an instant; and feeling, itself, without a pause of thought, condemns the whole a impossible and absurd. Te passages themselves may be beautiful; and are so. Individually they would have been blossoms of price in their proper place; but they intrude themselves

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where they have no business, and therefore are but gaudy weeds. But even this spurious kind of merit attaches not to the author: for the thoughts are not his own. Tey are a cento of plagiarisms, translated out of classical poetry into English nonsense. Tey were real beauties in the Arcadian Parterres, where he found them, but they are mere deformities in the English hedgerows, where every clown knows, and every critic, that they could not vegetate for an instant. Te fsh’s head and the lion’s tail could not have been more incongruously united. If the poet be disposed to give us Sicilian and Arcadian pastorals, we have no objection. Sicily and Arcadia are still ft subjects for poetic fable; – the Sicily and Arcadia of classic times; nor are we in the least averse to the fctions of the Golden Age. Our imaginations are not so ‘familiar with the scenes of real life,’ as to ‘sicken at the bare mention of the pipe and the crook.’ But if the sentiments and the manner are to be Arcadian, let the scenery and the characters be Arcadian also: let time, place and circumstance have some imaginable accordance. But Arcadian swains among the shades of Windsor! – Te poet might as well have introduced them into the lanes and cellars of St. Giles’s: – Saint Giles’s in the Fields! Nothing could, indeed, have been more unfortunate than the very choice of place where the scene of these pastorals is laid; or more incongruous, with our poetical idea of what is usually called pastoral. I do not mean to say that the manners and sentiments of the shepherds of poesy should, in all respects, be exactly such as those of shepherds in reality are. Poetical nature is not the absolute nature of mere every day prose. Such a maxim would be annihilative of all poetry. But the scene should, at least, be laid where the sentiments and characters can be imagined to have existed, and the incidents to have occurred. Who ever has visited Hobbies Hoe, or is at all acquainted with the characters of that Scottish peasantry, which gave us an Ettric Shepherd7 and a Robert Burns,8 can give an easy credence to the existence of such a pastoral group as pipe and sing in Ramsay’s Gentle Shepherd. But had the scene even of that exquisite pastoral (tho not a twentieth part so remote from our realities as those we are speaking of ) been laid within thirty or forty miles of London, we must have sickened at the incongruity as much as if Achilles and Agamemnon had been introduced in full panoply to wrangle about Chalcas and Briseis at a levee in Carlton House.9 Hedge-cockney shepherds in a poetical pastoral! Te characteristics of this portion of our peasantry are stamped in prose indelibly upon every mind – the lowest in the nation – ignorant without simplicity, nefarious without shrewdness, – the most sordid, and the most oafsh – in short, the most unpoetical portion of the national community; with a dialect of unintelligible vulgarity – obscure from the mixture of all sorts of barbarism, yet enriched with none of those antiquated and expressive idioms which give a sort of poetic grace

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to many of our provincial dialects, and some sprinklings of which seem to be indispensable to the very ideas of the diction of pastoral: of English pastoral, at least – the genuine specimens of which are, it must be admitted, sufciently scarce. It is certainly a curious circumstance, that perhaps the only genuine pastorals we have (those in the Scottish dialect excepted) should have been intended, or professed to have been intended, as burlesque. Te Eclogues in the Shepherd’s Week of Gay10, whatever he meant them for, are genuine and beautiful English pastorals. Tat they have a mixture of the comic and the ludicrous is no impeachment either of their pastoral or their poetic character. Tey have their due portion of the pathos and the sentiment of humble life; and tho they abound with classical parodies, those parodies are so adapted to the characters and situations of the speakers, and rendered so accordant to the manners and the superstitions of our own rustic population, that they never lose sight of poetic truth and nature. Te diction, it is true, is not the absolute diction of any individual province; and it is so much the better for that very reason – for, as it is a diction virtually English, and completely rustic, it becomes national and general, thereby, instead of being merely local. Nor is the efect produced in the perusal, such as is appropriate to the ludicrous and the burlesque. We smile, it is true, occasionally; but it is a smile that comes from the heart; and our sympathy is not lost in our mirth. It is utterly impossible to forget, or that I should ever wish to forget, the sensations with which, in the happy days of youth, I pored over these Eulogues, when frst they fell into my hands; or the delight with which I returned to them again and again, and to the allegorical, or metaphorical ‘proem’ with which the author introduces them. Te thrilling delight, the tremour of sensibility that ran thro’ every nerve, was such, undoubtedly, as could only have been awakened by them in the early season of juvenility – in the days of inexperienced boyhood; – but they were not the feelings which, even at such an age, are to be awakened by any thing whose characteristic is merely that of burlesque. No; these can be excited only by the genuine touches of nature; and it is the perfection of pastoral poetry in particular, that it should speak to the feelings of nature most powerfully at that age of innocence when those feelings are least sophisticated. Did the pastorals of Pope ever speak to those feelings at any age whatever? Te delight that results from smooth and harmonious versifcation excepted, the only pleasure that can result from the perusal of them, is that of their recalling to the classical scholar the remembrance of the passages from which these centos are translated. While I am upon this subject, I will take the opportunity of observing, that it has ofen appeared to me not a little extraordinary, that the new circumstances of society, and the state of mind and feeling dependent upon them, should not have suggested to some of our poets, a new species of pastoral, more congenial

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to general apprehension than those in which ploughmen and shepherds are the only characters: for it is the scenery of the poem, I presume, and not the condition of the colloquists that constitutes the essence of the pastoral; and he who loiters, or who busies himself among pastoral scenes, and interests himself in rural delights and occupations, whether with a poetic or a moral feeling, is a character for the pastoral dramatis personae. Urbanus pruning his vine, Sylvanus musing in the grove or by the rivulet, and Rusticus training the climatis or the woodbine over the rustic porch or round the window of his cottage retirement, while the ploughman is whistling in the neighbouring glebe, and the sheep and herds are grazing in the surrounding pastures, are as much the ftting subjects of pastoral poetry as any Damon or any Strephon of those slip-slop second-hand pastoralizers of the common-place community who pretend to have lodgings on Parnassus. And yet such dramatis personae exclude not the ideas of some refnement, or the illustrations derived from some of the attainments of literature, and from a cultivated, tho rural taste. At any rate, metropolis, or even of Windsor Forest, can be made the proper theatre. Te gentleman farmer, in the midst of the rustic hinds of our northern or western provinces – or the poet and the artist, among the lakes of Cumberland, the dales of Derbyshire, or the dingles of Wales, might be as romantically pastoral as the genius of such a species of composition can require, without any palpable violation of the truth of nature: and, surely, they may have their solicitudes and their woes, their absent loves, their raptures and their disappointments, as well as the attendants on goats and bullocks. Champion Cottage, Sept. 18, 1820. J.T. P.S. To we have difered thus widely from Mr. Ring upon this single point, we should be sorry to have it supposed that we are insensible to the value of his very excellent translations. Virgil, as far as we have yet read, never before appeared in an English dress so truly worthy of him. We shall probably speak hereafer more at large upon this subject: in the mean time, we acknowledge ourselves indebted to Mr. Ring in many thank for having purifed and harmonized Dryden’s version of the Eclogues, and presented us in polished style and fascinating numbers those Georgicks which former translators, even Dryden himself, had rendered to us unreadable. If the Æneid (which we have not yet read) be equal to the rest, Ring’s Virgil is no small acquisition to our stock of translated literature.

Te Renovator No. XVIII. – SATURDAY, DEC. 16, 1820. AN ESSAY ON HUMAN AUTOMATONISM11.

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Say what we choose on the self-satisfying subject of free-will, there are phenomena enough in almost every life to justify an occasional suspicion that we are nothing but mere machines – speaking automatons, whose very words are breathed thro’ us, as thro’ an organ-pipe, infated by some exterior agency, and stopped or played upon by the fnger of a capricious destiny. We reason, it is true, or appear to do so; but how seldom is the practical result a consistent part of the syllogism? We resolve, or persuade ourselves that we have done so; but how frequently our actions gainsay our pretended resolutions:--nay, fy in the very teeth of them, and shew that we know nothing of ourselves. Te author of the following extract could fnd instances enough in the records of personal remembrance to illustrate this axiom, and make it tolerably apparent that he, at least, is no free agent; and if both were written fairly out – the plan and the action – he doubts whether the history of a single day would shew any very exact accordance between his pillowed or morning determination – or what would be called his determination, and what would also be called his voluntary eforts or exertions. Human life is a tissue of inconsistencies; and the clearest eforts of our back-sighted reason are those which demonstrate the impotency of resolution. Te frst passion of the soul of that pretended free agent we are speaking of – was poetry. For its calm and retired delights, in his early days, he sacrifced profession, prospects, friendships, ease and health; and lo! all his succeeding and maturer years have been tormented and harassed by the bustle and vexations of political and professional turmoil. His frst exertion as a public speaker, – if we except the maiden efort in which he stuck fast in the midst of the frst sentence, and stood stultifed for fve minutes, amidst the laughter of the audience, till a pitying friend took him by the skirt of his coat and pulled him down again: – His frst exertion as a public speaker was made in a popular society, to which he had gone with a fxed determination not to speak, because it was a political question that was to be agitated; and he abhorred political discussion. Is this volition and free agency? But we drop not the non-identity of the speculative and the practical man – the resolver and the doer – here. In the former character, he has never ceased to be a poet; and all the really happy moments of his life (such alone excepted as have been sweetened by relative endearment and social intercourse) have been those which have been devoted to poetic meditation: but, in the latter, it must be said that his life hath exhibited nothing that was poetical, but its distresses. More than 30 years ago he formed the plan of a national Epic Poem; and it hath been his morning and his evening dream ever since – when either morning has aforded him the leisure for a dream. Two-and-twenty years ago, he actually began it: but even this commencement proved him to be no free agent. Out of humour with himself and with all the world, in the very malice of his heart, he

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said, ‘now will I spoil this long mediated epopee, and turn the subject of it into a goblin romance.’ Te frst part of the resolution, perhaps, he too fatally kept: but, as for the second – mark the issue. He seized the pen, dipped it, as he supposed, up to his very fngers in the ink of vulgar prose, and sat down to out-monk Monk Lewis12 himself in good circulating-library rhodomantade; when lo! willy nilly, as tho the devil or destiny drove him on, or the master of the puppet-shew drew the strings of his automaton fngers, blank verse came from him in a torrent, with proposition, invocation, action, colloquy and episode; and, for seventeen weeks successively, he went from his bed to his writing-desk, and from his writing-desk to his bed, and his Epic Poem seemed to be in a fair – or a foul way of being struck of at a heat – not by him, it should seem, but by the divine, or the demoniac ‘thrusting on’ to which he was thus playing mere puppet. Tis was a fne farming, you will say: – for he was then a farmer. Delightful rationality and free will! How this career was interrupted, it matters not here to narrate; that is part of another history: but the tables were now turned. To fnish what he had thus involuntarily begun became thenceforward his fxed and solicitous determination; and lo! years have occasionally rolled upon years – sometimes eight or ten of them together, without the addition of another line; and tho, with such intervals, a few cantos have since been added, it has almost always been in the same perversity and inconsistency of volition against will, – when some other exertion had been determined upon by the logical inductions of the speculative self; and whenever this same speculative self has fairly determined to proceed, some over-ruling destiny seems always to have pulled the strings that play of the practical automaton, and turned his eforts into the most opposite direction. Te creation, involuntarily begun at the beginning of 1798, remains still, in spite of all volition, a chaos of fragments, as 1820 is drawing to a close. What chance is there, in the calculations of human life, that it should ever be fnished, or called into shape and order? Even the presentation of the ensuing fragment illustrates the sceptical moral of this essay: for chance, rather than volition, hath thrown it into the hands of the compositor; and, even at the moment of publication, reason demonstrates the absurdity of sending into the world a mere detached portion of an ample and unpublished whole, the merit of any part of which, if it hath any merit, must consist in the harmony and adaptation of the respective incidents and episodes to the whole; and many, perhaps, of the happiest turns of thought, in which must, of necessity, be partially unintelligible to those who are unacquainted with the previous incidents to which they refer. But we are giving, at this very instant, another illustration of our theory: for what reason had determined should be only an introductory paragraph, is automatically extending itself thro’ the whole space of the columns that could be spared for the mediated quotation.

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ESSAY IV. – On the Ancient Ballad. But enough of the Ode, its characteristics and its metres; we proceed to a subject more native to our isle – the Epic Song of our ancient minstrels – the English heroic ballad. Tis is a species of composition of pure Gothic growth and origin. It hath no prototype in the productions of classical antiquity. It is decidedly lyrical in all its characteristics; and is admirably adapted, in the structure of its measures, to be accompanied by the harp or other hand instrument of the olden minstrels; or to be chanted forth in that half-singing, half-speaking style, which approximates to the accompanied recitative. It differs from the Ode as much in its genius as its structure, and accords, in every thing but its structure and its duration, with the Epopee. It is a compound of the narrative and the dramatic. Its characteristic is heroic simplicity. It breathes the sentiments of nature, more elevated than adorned; energetic, but not refned. It delights in valorous sentiment and touching tenderness; and its appeals to the feelings are couched in a pithy and sententious simplicity rather than in rhetorical copiousness. In short, it bears in all its features the unequivocal stamp of its origin in an age of energy and of feeling, rather than of erudite refnement – in which the heart was the instructor of the hand, and the tongue borrowed all its eloquence from the native emotions of the soul. Te models of this kind of composition will be found in Dr. Percy’s Rel13 ics, in Ellis’s Specimens,14 and the various collections of ancient English and Scottish Poetry. A very noble specimen of the most heroic kind, is the ancient ballad of Chevy Chace,15 which is preserved entire in the above quoted collection of Dr. Percy. Te frst ft, or canto, just so far retouched as was necessary to remove the obscurity without afecting the antiquity of its language, will be found in another part of this collection; and will sufciently impeach either the taste or the research of Addison, in presenting to the readers of his Spectator, as a subject of panegyrical admiration, the comparatively modern, instead of the original ballad. Te merits and beauties of our ancient ballads have been well appreciated in our days; and vast stores of literary instruction and delight have been discovered in what Mr. Pope was pleased to call ‘all that reading which is never read.’ If in some instances this species of reading may have ministered to the puerile afectation of those who call simpleness simplicity, and think a new coat looks the better for a patch or two of an ancient tunic – in its better operation, it hath done much to correct our national taste, and to energize a Muse which had grown sickly with artifcial refnement. It hath discredited the polished tinsel of the School of Pope; and brought us back, in some degree, to the better models of versifcation, and better feeling of rhythmical proportion and variety, antecedent to the Restoration.

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Tat which became so much admired could not be long without its imitators. Among the most successful of these undoubtedly must be recorded Sir Walter Scott16; who to the length; and blending with them not only some of the characteristic ingredients of the old gothic romance, but of those also of the modern novel, hath produced a kind of composition which, in his hands at least, has had a charm and commanded a popularity which must have gratifed, one should think, almost to satiety, any moderate appetite for contemporary fame. Whether his bark is likely to descend down the stream of time to any very remote posterity, with the same swelling sail, it is not our intention to discuss. It is more to our cue to observe that the additional ingredients in the compositions we have described have detracted quite as much from the simplicity as they have added to the splendour of the ballad style; which, indeed, in the poems we are speaking of, is but very partially and imperfectly preserved. Tat the conception of these compositions originated in the ancient ballad – that they are such, in short, as never could have existed, if the ballads we have been speaking of had not existed before them, is sufciently obvious; but, critically, they are not ballads, any more than they are critical epics, or critically romances, or critically novels in rhyme. Tey are not, in fact, in their main character, Lyrical (even the frst of them, ‘Te Lay of the last Minstrel,’ is not so;) but narrative poems interspersed with Lyrical passages; and they belong to the subject of our disquisition rather from their origin than their execution. Nay, what is more, notwithstanding their much greater length, they lack not only the unity, but the entireness of the ancient ballad. Of the whole number of the compositions of Sir Walter Scott, ‘Te Lady of the Lake’ only, is an entire poem – hath a beginning, a middle, and an end. All the rest are mere fragments and episodes. But the ballad is a Tale entire. Te heroic, however, in any martial sense, tho a frequent, is not a necessary characteristic of the ballad. It hath its pastoral, as well as its trumpet stop. Not only ‘ferce wars,’ but ‘faithful loves’ may ‘moralize its strain:’ tho these are frequently united. Te Legendary Tale, as it is now usually called, is a species of the ancient ballad, and retains all its lyrical characteristics. Among the modern imitations of this species of ballad, pre-eminently unrivalled remains Dr. Goldsmith’s17 Edwin and Angelina.

ESSAY V. – On Song Writing. From the ballad we descend, by natural progression, to the Song : the most abounding of all the various species of rhythmical composition. Every stripling who fancies himself in love, if he can string eight syllables into a line, and tag as many lines with jingling terminations, thinks he can write a song ; and every boarding-school Miss who has stayed, in her literary researches,

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from a novel to the columns of a Lady’s Magazine, supposes she can follow his example; and yet how few endurable songs have we, comparatively, in the English language. Te fact is, that brevity and facility are not synonymous in literary composition. Te poem that may be soon read, is not, therefore, easy to compose. Te Song and the Sonnet have a difculty which the minor wits who deal in these species of composition little dream of. Tey admit not of a blemish. Tey are cabinet pictures for minute inspection; or gems which require an equal polish at every angle; and a blot or a faw, any where, destroys, at once, their value. If they are designed, indeed, merely to be sung, in the true English unintelligible style, in one of those incongruous melanges of vapid prose and rhyming singsong, which, upon our stage, we call an opera, it matters now how they are composed – a stave from Tom D’Urfey18 may do just as well as the sweetest passage of Comus or L’Allegro,19 or the tenderest lay of Ramsay or of Burns. But if they aspire to be ranked as poetical compositions, beware, young songmonger, of the Critic’s scourge – for he can aford no mercy to the slightest slip or negligence: to your want of feeling, or your want of ear. Te song must have a unity and completeness of thought. Be the stanzas more or fewer, they must constitute an apparent whole; and nothing more than a whole. Tere must be no digression, no redundancy, no afected or superfuous ornament. Every word must be so appropriate in selection and position, as to look as if there were no other that could supply its place. It must not be dragged in for the sake of the rhyme; still less to make out the measure. An expletive is a sin for which there is no forgiveness; and a forced inversion an afectation not to be endured. If the sentiment in any verse could be expressed by a smaller, or even an equal number of syllables in prose, the line is inadmissible, and the song condemned. Nor will terseness, and appropriateness alone sufce – the diction must be graceful, elegant and simple – equally remote from the turgid and the low; from the quaint and the familiar. It must not be colloquial: neither must it be pedantic or obscure, technical or abstruse. It must be picturesque and imaginative, but not elaborate or fantastical: and, above all things, it must not deal in conceits and common-places. Leave them to the Delias and the Strephons20, who sigh in Ladies’ pocket-books; or to the original correspondents of Te Literary Gazette: the classical songster will hold them in utter contempt. Nor is the law less strict in euphony and in rhythmus. Tere must be no halting in the verse, no uncertainty in the measure, no misplacing of the poise or impulse, no false quantities, no distortions imposed upon the reader or the singer to accommodate the pronunciation to the verse. We cannot permit even the authority of Tomas Moore21 to be quoted in apology for so licentious a barbarism. In the collocation of the syllables, there must be no clashing of con-

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sonants, no hissing of sibilants, particularly in the terminations of the lines and clauses. Liquids and vowels should be taught to melt into each other, and to overwhelm, by their frequency and their arrangement, the harsher and the untuneable sounds. Such are some of the critical requisites for the composition of that elegant trife called a song: and we trust that the consideration of them will prevent the spoiling of many a ream of paper by those tyroes and unfedged pretenders to the fights of poesy who had persuaded themselves that song-writing was an easy task. Te fact is, that it requires a more matured judgment, and a much more delicate perception to excel in such trifes, than to succeed in poems of greater length and more apparent difculty. We have already said that English Song-writers – nay, even individual English Songs – of sterling merit, are exceedingly rare. Our brethren, on the other side of the Tweed, beat us in this kind of composition, as much as we beat them in heroic and dramatic verse. If they have no Shakspeare, no Milton, nor even so much as a Pope, we have certainly no Ramsay, and no Burns. Tose two writes alone have written, we believe, more good Songs (tho Scotland has many a good song to boast that was not written by either of them) than all our English Song-writers put together. we would not, however, be too sweeping in our conclusions, or have it inferred that no Englishman can write a good song. Tere is a pleasant anecdote in Holcrof’s Memoirs22 to chastise the wholesale arrogance of such critical dogmatism. He was sitting in a Cofee-house one evening with his musical friend, Mr. Shield,23 when their attention was particularly arrested by the mention of ‘Te Birks of Endermay;’ 24 nor were they a little amused to hear that a young critic launching forth into the most enthusiastic praises both of the words and the tune of that fne old composition. ‘Ah!’ exclaimed the critic, ‘what a charm and a beauty! what an expression and what a melody there is in the poetry and the music of those elder times! and what trash and insipidity we are pestered with in these degenerate days! Tere is nobody now who can write such a song as this: – nobody who can compose such a tune!’ Our poet and musician sufered the critic to indulge his enthusiasm in this strain for a considerable time, till he had run himself fairly out of breath; when Holcrof, taking advantage of the pause, accosted him in his dry sharp style, and with his sardonic grin – ’I am glad to hear, Sir,’ said he, ‘that you admire ‘Te Birks of Endermay’ so very critically; because the words, Sir, were written by me; and my fiend, Mr. Shield, here, composed the music!’ Nor is Te Birks of Endermay the only good song written by Holcrof – albeit not of very song-writing, or very poetic temperament. He was a sour, cold, laborious man, misanthropic in his feelings and visionary in his notions; – fonder of the apparent abstraction and real jargon of a diseased and unintelligible philosophy, than of the sympathies or the inspirations of the Muse. Yet his ‘Gafer Gray’ is, in its kind, a song of unrivalled beauty; and if it hath never been set to music

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(which we believe it hath not) we are sure it is well worthy of being so: still more worthy of being read and conned by every heir of ease and afuence: by every friend of humanity. We have others, however, who have done more in this way than Mr. Holcrof. Shenstone,25 who had some notion of the difculty of the attempt, did not always fail; tho he never seems to have satisfed himself: and we have no doubt that, with some research, we could pick out a little volume or two of mere English songs of sterling merit; tho it must be with very little assistance from any of the popular Collections we have glanced an eye over. Yet still, it must be confessed, that in song-writing, our southern poets are generally very inferior to their northern brethren: and the reason is obvious. Te Scots, popularly speaking, are altogether a musical people. Teir hills resound with their national melodies; their very many beautiful airs are familiar, not to every poet only, but to every peasant. Tey listen to, and they repeat them with a proud enthusiasm, which casts their thoughts and language, as it were, naturally into a lyrical mould; and that same lilting of the idiomatic tune of their music, which, ringing perpetually in their ears and incorporating with their sensations, disqualifes their perceptions for the comparative equanimity of the heroic measures, attunes them with equal aptitude for the melody of song. At the same time, their native Doric,26 for so we may properly call the Scottish dialect, seems particularly adapted, especially to pastoral song. Provincially obsolete without being vulgar – for the Scots are an informed people, and blend a sort of intellectual refnement even with their rustic simplicity – their language readily accommodates itself to their shepherd’s pie; and their poetry has an Arcadia of its own; while the many picturesque and descriptive words, scattered thro’ their dialect, have a tenderness and a vivacity with which the rustic dialects of England cannot vie; and for which the courtly smoothness even of our most polished diction is, in this species of composition, no adequate compensation. J.T.

GUSTO EXTRAORDINARY; or THE STATE SULKY. For a solemn occasion of splendour and joy It is said a great man will a Sulky employ So grand and so splendid as never was seen; – Fit to shew of a King; quite too good for a Queen! All embroidery within, and all gilding without, And well stufed with Bank-paper and tax-bills, no doubt. French velvet, French woods, and French builders, they say, Shall be found, and Old England fnd nothing – but pay; Yet the sight shall give joy to each thrice-loyal soul,

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For legitimate splendour shall varnish the whole. Lud! how brave will it be! Tro’ the world should you seek, Both for coast and for gout you’ll pronounce it unique! And while the creams draw it, how people will stare! ‘Such a thing was ne’er seen,’ they’ll be ready to swear; And the air shall be rent, and the caps be up cast With ‘God save the State Sulky! and long may it last!’

SONNET Ingratitude, the politician’s vice, Infects not one but all: the young, the old, Te crafy cautious, and the seeming bold Deal in’t alike. It is the only price Tey pay an honest service; but entice With other bait the venal, who they know Know them, and will not of their ease forgo, In word or act, till ‘vantage is in hold. On such, with liberal bounty, they bestow Not grudging praise, or lagging courtesy; But deal out turn for turn to overfow. Knew I not this, perforce, ere yesterday? Could not thy conclave, Wimbledon! inform Who lef the enthusiast youth adrif amidst the storm.

Nov. 22. 1820.

J.T.

SONNET. On the rapid Extension of the Suburbs. dedicated to lord holland. How far, ye Nymphs and Dryads! must we stray Beyond your once-lov’d haunts, ere we again May meet you in your freshness? My young day Has of time seen me, in your sylvan train, Culling the wild-wood fowers, where now remain Nor break nor hedgerow, nor clear bubbling stream To feed their fragrance, or the fervid ray To mitigate; but to the faunting beam Te domes of tasteless opulence display, Shadeless, their glaring frouts; while the pure rill Tat wont to parley, or by noon or night, With Phoebus’, or with Dian’s sofer light, Now thro’ some drain obscene creeps dark and still, To sweep the waste of luxury away. J.T.

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THE RENOVATOR No. XXIII. – SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29. Some notices and quotations have occasionally appeared in this paper of the unpublished national Epic Poem, THE HOPE OF ALBION; and some account of the general plan and object of that poem may not perhaps be unacceptable – at least, if the quotations themselves have appeared in any respect interesting to the reader. Te action of the poem is heroic; the form Epic – afer the models of classical antiquity – tho approaching more to the plan of the Odyssey than of the Iliad – comprising more of the confict of armies and the shock of battles, than the former, as well as more of the adventures of the voyager by sea and land, than either the latter, or the Æneid: the moral or political design requiring that the action should breathe more of a didactic spirit, and of that politic lore resulting from extended views of the state of society under the infuence of diferent institutions; and particularly of the relative condition of the diferent portions of that Empire to the celebration of whose united glory it is devoted. Te consummation of the action is the establishment of the English Constitution on the broad bases of civil and religious Liberty; from whence all the other glories of the united realm, military, naval, commercial and intellectual, are virtually derived. Te Hero of the Poem is Edwin of Northumberland, known, in his own days, at least, by the well merited title of Edwin the Great: the frst of our Saxon Ancestors celebrated for the wisdom of his civil institutions, and for the just and impartial administration of the Laws; and the monarch thro’ whose infuence Christianity was ultimately established throughout the English nation, on the ruins of Pagan Idolatry. Te immediate action, by means of which the great results of national glory, felicity and prosperity, are represented as having been secured, is the establishment of that prince on the throne of Northumberland, and his consequent elevation to the imperial ascendency in the Heptarchic Union, by the overthrow of his cruel persecutor, the tyrannical usurper Adelfrid. A superfcial and imperfect, but not uninteresting, sketch of the historical occurrences which form the outline of the story, will be found in the frst volume of Hume. Tose who would be more accurately informed of the exploits and merits of the hero, and the state in which he found, and to which he brought his country, must extend their researches into those authorities to which Hume refers, and which, as usual, he occasionally misquotes; and into the chronicles and other documents that have reference to Anglo-Saxon antiquities.

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Te obscurity and ambiguity which involve, in many respects, the history of that remote period, however perplexing to the Antiquary, are favourable, perhaps to the ends of poetry; and the author has endeavoured to avail himself of the latitude which these circumstances seemed to ofer, as well as of the superstitions of so remote a period, in the structure and conduct of his fable. To the few facts, however, that are either popularly known, or appear to be authentically recorded, he has generally adhered, with a degree of historical fdelity, which, he trusts, may give an air of credibility and reality to the whole; and as the action itself might have appeared to have wanted dignity, if restricted to its mere localities of time and space, the episodes interwoven, and the retrospective and prophetic views incorporated with those episodes, extend the infuence of that action thro’ the whole of the ultimate limits of the British empire; and embrace, in fact, the prominent events of the history of that empire, from the arrival of the Saxons to the period of the Revolution, which re-asserted the principles of Anglo-Saxon liberty, and placed the Dynasty of the Brunswicks on the British throne. Te accomplishment of this great and benefcent design – the concentration of a mighty empire, and the establishment of Institutions upon which were to depend the Freedom, the Glory, and the happiness of countless millions and successive generations, is not attempted to be represented as the mere result of human agency. Te hero is the elected instrument of Heaven, schooled to his high destinies by long trial and adversity, prompted by inspiration, and superintended by a particular providence. He has fallen Angels to contend with (the false gods of Scandinavia – the objects of the idolatrous worship of our Saxon ancestors) as well as human persecutors and oppressors; and the Guardian Angels of Albion watch over him in his suferings, and, ultimately, war upon his side. While, at the same time, the prospect of all that is to result from the accomplishment of his enterprise, stands revealed before him, and his mind expands, and his arm is nerved, by the consciousness of a more than mortal destiny. Te immediate action of the poem commences with the arrival of the Ambassadors of Adelfrid at the East Anglian Court, in which he had at length found refuge, to demand the surrender of the royal exile into the hands of that usurper; and it terminates with the defeat and overthrow of the tyrant, the constantaneous demolition of the idols in the temple of Woden, by Coif, the high priest of that Demon Deity, and the election of the hero, by universal acclamation, to the Northumbrian throne; of which he elevation to the Heptarchite, or Imperial Sovereignty over the kingdoms of the Saxon league, had been predicted as the immediate consequence. Te action, therefore, in itself, is single; and the time of its duration is but about twelve or fourteen days. Such is the general plan of this National, and, as it may be called, Constitutional Epic. We will present the reader with a brief specimen, from the frst

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book, of the political sentiment that breathes thro’ it. It is the termination of the song or rhapsody, in which the Scald had recounted, for the instruction and gratifcation of the hero, the exploits of the several chiefains who had founded successively the diferent kingdoms of the Saxon Heptarchy. So, in sevenfold state Te Saxon fabric, from the strenuous base Of freeborn valour, rose. O! be it fx’d – Eternal as the azure vault of heaven And bifrost’s beauteous arch! May plighted love Cement the noble fabric, and extend In frmer unity, till all in one – One hallow’d structure for all Albion’s sons – Expands the spacious dome! where Freedom’s voice (Twin with immortal Justice!) shall be heard, Calling her various tribes, and calling thee – Tou emerald sister of this freeborn realm! To share co-equal blessings: calling too (For space nor raging billows drown the voice Of heaven-born Freedom) from strange oceans, yet Unconscious of the keel, emergent isles And latent continents, alike to share Te blest reciprocation: equal laws – Ty gif, Deïrian Edwin! – equal rights, And like protection to the strong and weak. Hail to the Saxon dome! Spread wide! tower high Tou gothic fabric! lif thy cluster’d shafs In close compacted union to the skies, Rich in the toil of ages! May no arts Of factious treason from the base uptear Te pillars of hereditary faith Tat prop the aspiring roof !

We will add one other extract, of about the same length, from the end of the same book. It is the song of the genii of the deep, in honour of Albion (the tutelary Angel of our Island) as he rides triumphantly over the ocean, afer the breaking up of the celestial Consistory in which the duties of the tutelary functionaries, in the approaching confict, had been debated. – He upon his pearly throne, self-moved, Te sceptred Angel, to the azure deep Speeds his pre-eminent way – triumphant there To rein the whirlwind, and Leviathan’s rage Tame to his sovereign will. Te azure deep Curl’d round the pearly car, and on the foam

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Te genii of the subkect ocean rode With coach and gratulous hymn – ’Hail, Albion’s king! ‘Eternal! Heaven enthron’d! – Hail, Lord of Isles! ‘Strength of the sea! controller of the waves! ‘White-sandal’d Hierarch! hail! When Albion’s son’s, ‘Te foster children of thy favour’d isle, ‘Shall blend for Freedom – when establishe’d frm ‘On law’s just basis, Liberty shall lif ‘Her towering columns, and her arch shall span ‘Te smiling shores, then shall the nations know ‘Ty matchless might; all ocean to thy prow ‘Shall part the obedient wave, and worlds unknown ‘List to the thunder of thy voice, and fear. ‘Te Albion’s sons (and long as Albion’s sons ‘Te holy fane of Liberty shall guard ‘With patriot heart!) the trident shall sustain ‘In unabased sovereignty. All hail! ‘Albion, or Adoraim! – whether nam’d ‘Of Earth or Heaven: for thou of heaven and earth, ‘As of the ocean, art alike rever’d! – ‘Chief of the Island Deities! all hail!’ Tey sung; and, in the song, the rising sun Join’d the full chorus of his beams, and spread Tro’ his diurnal span the all hail sublime – ‘Chief of the Island Deities! all hail!’

To these we will, also, add ‘THE PRAISE OF ERIN,’ a Scaldic Song, which prefaces the narration of the adventures of the Hero in Ireland, and we shall then, perhaps, have done enough, tho not to illustrate in any degree the conduct and texture of the Poem, as an epic whole, yet to shew the kind of political spirit and sentiment that pervades it. For ERIN now, green island of the Bards! Wake the historic song. Fraternal Isle! Twinborn with Albion! and of Albion’s fame Twin heir that shalt be! – of his equal laws, His freedom and his charters Saxon-born, To thou of Celtic voice! – twin heir of all For which the son of Ælla, heaven elect, Toils thro’ his travel’s exile. – Yes, for thee, Green isle of ERIN! as for Albion’s self, Shall Freedom’s standard wave: for thee shall fow Te voice of legislative wisdom – dear As thy own Brehon Law! – its end the same – Justice in Mercy, Freedom, and the wreath Of never dying glory. – ERIN hail!

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Selected Political Writings of John Telwall, Volume 4 Partner, not rival of the trident sway, – Fraternal ERIN hail! O! Day of bliss! Come in thy brightness! Day of union come; – Of equal union: essence as in name! Blend the twin glories; in one blest accord (By equal virtues, equal interests join’d – Commutual barriers, not opposing wraths!) Link with the chains of love the emerald twain – Glad Ocean’s darling gems! Ten shall matur’d Teir inborn lustre shine: then each with each, (Anglia and ERIN and rough Caledon,) With an unenvying emulation, share Reiterate glory manifold, and spread To earth’s remotest regions the dread name, Triune! triumphant! – while the mingled tribes, Where ERIN’s destin’d hero leads the way, Gather eternal wreaths, – and Europe’s thrones, Amid the wreck of nations, lean on him Teir else subverted weight.* Hail! ancient Isle! From date of dark antiquity remote Who claim’st thy letter’d laurels, and thy arts (Elder than Grecian or than Memphian song) Of social science! Hail ye forest shades Of Inis Eogan, where the Druid hoar – Milesian sage! for countless ages, wont To pour oracular wisdom, – pour the song To Freedom sacred, as to patriot worth And valour’s crested pride. Fervid of soul, Tose groves around, the blue-eyed race I see Listening the strain divine, till every breast Fill’d with the generous fervour, burns to share Te meed of glory – civic or of arms. What tho a stranger faith the voice suppress Of Druid prescience, and those sacred oaks Tat o’er a thousand generations spread Teir gloom oracular, with a branch convolv’d, Hoary with alien misleto, no more Te naked isthmus shade – tho steeple and tower Te woodland right assume, – the spirit still Survives immortal; and the love of song, Te love of Freedom, and the valourous heart, Fresh as the Island robe, immortal shine.

* We entreat that this may not be taken as any compliment to the politics of the Hero of Waterloo.

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Hail! ERIN hail! for thee the Harp shall wake Its sweetest echoes thro’ each changeful string: Land of the glowing breast, the glowing song! Ty moorlands wild – thy hospitable halls Shall yield, awhile, a not unwelcome theme. J.T.

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PANORAMIC MISCELLANY

‘Mr. Telwall’s Lecture. On the harmonic qualities of the literal elements, their classifcation according to their musical and other inherent properties’, Panoramic Miscellany, 1 (1826), pp. 41–7, 193–8, 347–54, 635–42, 796.

Following his previous experience at the helm of the Tribune and the Champion, Telwall’s fnal role as the editor of a periodical came with the Panoramic Miscellany, which was published during the frst six months of 1826. Tere was a huge diference between this periodical and those earlier ventures. Whilst the Tribune was entirely and the Champion largely in the service of the reform movement, and both were vehicles for Telwall’s political opinions, the Panoramic Miscellany was not a primarily political journal at all. Telwall’s contributions did not concern democratic representation, political tactics, an immoral monarchy, a corrupt establishment or even the settling of scores with his various foes. Instead, they concerned his expertise in elocutionary theory, developed during his successful career as a speech therapist. Te two parts of the lecture included here show Telwall delving into ostensibly arcane issues in elocutionary theory, discussing diferent classifcatory schemes for ‘the literal elements of speech’ and delineating precisely the nature of vowels and consonants. Despite this, he is keen to remind his readers that while it is philosophically important to make the correct scientifc distinctions in these matters, classifcatory schemes are crucial also for the ‘practical student’. Even when tackling these areas of enquiry, he is feisty in debate, scolding the work of those he disagreed with, such as John Walker, who – among other theses regarded by Telwall as controversial – maintained a distinction between a ‘sharp mute’ and a ‘fat mute’. And, in keeping with his more political works, he is ‘perfectly aware how many authorities there are against’ him: but by this time in his life (he is in his sixties), he refers not to the authorities of the state but of the classical Greek and Roman writers whose views on the quantities of vowels were still infuential.

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Panoramic Miscellany Mr. THELWALL’S LECTURE. – On the Harmonic Qualities of the Literal Elements, and their classifcation, according to their musical and other inherent properties.

… I. MODES OF CLASSIFICATION. Tere are two modes of classifcation of the literal elements of speech, the due comprehension of each of which is of equal importance to the scientifc, and to the practical student. Te Organic, or Anatomical – which refers to the structure, positions and motions of the respective organs by which they are respectively formed; and the Harmonic, or that which discriminates and arranges them according to their euphoric powers and properties, whether of sonorousness, force and quantity, or the reverses of these. With respect to the former and more technical part of the subject, my classifcation, with its anatomical demonstrations, is already before the public. Te present series is devoted to that euphoric classifcation which must form the basis of all scientifc development of the harmonic capabilities, the prosody, and the impressiveness of spoken language: for, as we ascend from the mere formation of elements to the composition of speech, it becomes necessary to consider the phenomena of their ultimate efects; – the properties that facilitate, or impede their respective coalitions, and the harmony, or the cacophony that result from their diferent arrangements: for it is obvious, or will immediately be so, on attentive consideration, that elements difer among themselves, not only in the organic formation from which they derive the appellations of lingual, guttural, labial, dental, &c. – but in their expressive powers and properties, – their facilities of utterance and combination, and other striking particulars; upon an accurate knowledge, or instinctive perception of which our style both of composition and of elocutionary delivery must in a great degree depend. Te necessity of classing them according to these properties, or some of them at least, has, accordingly, not entirely escaped even the most ordinary apprehension. 1. Te most common division of the Alphabet has been, however, merely into vowels and consonants; and a vowel has been defned, etymologically (from the Latin vox, a voice), as an element having a sound of its own, capable of distinct enunciation, without combination with any other element; to which has sometimes been added – that it is capable of unlimited, or discretionary continuity, without change of vocal character. A consonant (con-sonans, sounding together) has by the – 201 –

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same authorities been defned – an element that has no sound independently of its own; and which cannot, therefore, be pronounced without the addition of a vowel, either audible or whispered. But these defnitions are as inadequate as the classifcation: for not only are there eight, at least, if not ten, of our English elements which have never been regarded as vowels, to which the former of these defnitions would as accurately apply as to a, e, I, o, u, and y; but, according to the latter, there would remain but three consonants in our whole, or of any practical alphabet – t, k, and p: tho certainly there are several others to which even the most vague and latitudinary defnition of a vowel cannot possibly apply. 2. Another, and rather more discriminating classifcation has, therefore, been received into technical usage, which adds to the vowel and consonant, an intermediate description, under the denomination of liquid, or semivowel; including several elements which have been regarded as having a sort of intermediate quality, or imperfect orisonance of their own; and as such, to be capable of being partially sounded without the adjunction of any vowel*. Into this class four of our elements l, m, n, and r, have been usually admitted. Still, however, the general defnitions of vowel and consonant have been usually lef in their old imperfect state; and no successful attempt, that I remember, has been made (at least, by any popular or modern writer) scientifcally and accurately to defne wherein the diference between vowel and liquid, in reality, consists. Nor has the dignity and value of the latter, in spoken language, been ever, I believe, fully appreciated, or asserted, by any writer whatever: – perhaps, I might venture to add, of any nation: and much of the error of some, even of our frst-state theatrical declaimers, and the whole of that soporifc drawl which so ofen disgraces the reading from our pulpits, may be attributed to the erroneous systems of the seat of quantity, &c. which have arisen out of this inattention. Even the number of these liquids has been diferently estimated by diferent writers, Dr. Kenrick1 has confned the appellation to those already enumerated, and seems to have considered the perfection of English pronunciation as consisting in reducing all the consonants, as nearly as possible, to the quality of mutes. But authors of more taste and musical perception have considerably extended the catalogue, tho they have not always agreed in the enumeration; and so long ago as in the year 1688, Dr. Wilkins2 and Dr. Holder3 set the example, which in 1773 was followed by Herries, as in part it has been by a few others, of a more discriminating estimate of the value and tunability of certain consonants, and of more specifc classifcation. 3. Of these diferent classifcations, it may not be amiss to take particular notice. Te object of Wilkins and Holder was not merely to analyze the Eng* ‘Te common distinction of the consonants into semivowels and mutes,’ says Dr. Wilkins, ‘will not, upon a strict enquiry, be adequate.’ – Real Charac. p. 366.

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lish alphabet, but to inquire, as philosophers, into the physical constitution of speech in general, the organic mechanism from which it results, and the practicable varieties of application and phenomena. Teir books were published by order of the Council of the Royal Society, of which they were both members; the former* in 1688, and the latter† in 1669. Wilkins‡ considers ‘all simple letters (elements) as distinguishable (1.) into such as are either apert and free; and (2) such as are intercepted and shut.’ Te apert he divides into those that are open in a greater, and those that are so in a lesser degree – and these again (3.) into sonorous and mute. Tose that are intercepted, he divides, in the same way, into such as are shut in a lesser, and those that are shut in a greater degree: of the former, he says – that ‘because they have something vowelish in them, they are therefore by some called semivowels, being spiritous and breathed;’ of the latter – that ‘they do most partake of the nature of consonants, and may be stiled nonspiritous, of breathless:’ and all these he further subdivides and contradistinguishes according to their organic formation, as labial, lingual and guttural; as also by the circumstances of their utterance, by appulse, or by trepidation of the organs, or by percolation of the breath. Te English consonants he thus arranges, enumerates and defnes.§ 1. Spiritous, or breathed; 2. Semispiritous, or half-breathed; 3. Nonspiritous, or breathless. Te spiritous, or breathed, he defnes to be ‘such consonants as require, to the framing them, a more strong emission of breath, either thro’ the nose or the mouth;’ and these are further distinguished as ‘sonorous, including M, N, NG; V, Dh, L, R, Z, Zh; and their mutes hm, hn, hng; F, T, hL, hR, S, Sh:’ some of which, however, he does not consider as legitimate, or customary elements of English language; hm and hn, hl and hr, he says, ‘are in use among the Welch, and Irish;’ but the hng he leaves with the Hebrew.¶ By semispiritous, or half-breathed, he tells us, ‘are meant such as are accompanied with some kind of vocal murmur, * ‘An Essay towards a Real Character, and a Philosophical Language, by John Wilkins, D.D. Rector of Ripon, as F.R.S. 1688.’ † ‘Elements of Speech: an enquiry into the Natural Production of Letters with an Appendix concerning persons Deaf and Dumb. By William Holder, D.D. and F.R.S. 1669.’ In a copy of this formerly in my possession, on the blank side of the title leaf was the following inscription in writing; that bore itself the marks of some antiquity, ‘Tis curious book, now become exceedingly scarce, was printed by an order of a meeting of the R.S. dated March 4, 1668-9. By John Martyn, printer to the society; and was, I believe, one of the earliest of their publications.’ ‡ See Table, p. 360, &c. § Part III. ch. 12. ¶ Gh, still used by the Irish,’ he supposes rightly enough, I dare say, to be the sound that was ‘heretofore intended by the spelling of those English words right, light, daughter, enough, thorough, tho this kind of sound be now, by disuse, lost among us.’ Its correspondence mute Ch (I should prefer Kh to avoid confounding it with the sound designated, in our living speech, in Church, Chichester, &c.) is now used amongst the Welsh,’ (he might have added, and among the Scotch in the word loch, &c.) ‘was, perhaps, heretofore, intended by the Greek letter (X.)’ But perhaps this was a sound corresponding with our modern Ch.

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as B, D, G; whereas those are stiled nonspiritous or breathless, which are wholly mute as P, T, C’ (K). W and Y, he evidently considers as of an amphibious, or middle nature, between the vowel and the liquid*. To the H, he assigns no place whatever; adopting, it should seem, the vulgar prejudice that the aspirate is no letter. According to this author, there are thirty-four simple letters (or literal sounds) ‘whereof eight are vowels, and twenty-six consonants; besides twentyfour dipthongs.’ 4. Dr. Holder, in his treatise, supposes the possible consonants (‘not to speak of one stop, which may be made in the larynx, of breath, before it comes to the tongue and palate;†’) to be thirty-six in number; that is to say nine spiritual, nine vocal, nine naso-spiritual, and nine naso-vocal; of which we have adopted nineteen; to wit seven spirituals, P, T, K; F, T, S, Sh; nine vocals, B, D, G; V, Dh, Z, Zh, L, R; no naso-spirituals; three naso-vocals, M, N, NG. Of each of these classes, he considers the frst three as formed by close appulse; the remainder by pervious appulse. For he obviously considers all vowels as elements formed, in open speech, by breath and voice alone, without appulse of organs; and, in whispering, by mere unvocalized breath; all consonants as requiring the superaddition of appulse of organs, either to breath and voice, or to breath only; and all to be consonants that have such superaddition. Tis was coming (had he thrown his notion into the form of terse, but full explicit defnition) something nearer to the point than any of his successors appear to have done.‡ 4. Dr. Kenrick, in the Rhetorical Grammar prefxed to his Dictionary, published in 1773, (a season fruitful in publications upon this subject) divides the consonants into four classes. – Six mutes, B, P, D, T; G and K, in which he includes C hard and Q. – Seven aspirates, H; Dh, T; V, F; J or G, and Ch. – Four sibilants, Z or S, S or C, Sh, si, ti, ci, ce; Zh, si, su. – Four liquids, or semivowels, L, M, N, R. To these he adds two equivocals, Y and W. But in Dr. Kenrick’s Teory of Utterance, I fnd so much to reject and so little to approve, that I shall not dwell upon a classifcation at once so incomplete, so unphilosophical and so incongruous to the genuine principles of taste and harmony. 5. His contemporary Herries, inferior in fame, but superior in merit, give us not, however, in his table of Te elements of Speech and Vocal Music, a more perfect classifcation – except in the important article of the liquids; to whose * Chap. 13. Dr. Wilkins is not very consistent in what he says about these letters. See pp. 360. 370. 372. † Te stop here alluded to, I suppose to be that which resembles, in some degree, the cluck of a hen. I do not understand that it has been adopted either as an element or an ornament of language by any tribe or nation, except the Hottentots of the Cape of Good Hope; among them, it is, according to some authorities, in the very frequent use. ‡ I subjoin the table of consonants practicable and adopted, from p. 62 of Dr. Holder’s book – premising that the horizontal obelisks mark the rejected elements; and, at the same time, remarking that this table, ample as it appears to be, does not yet exhibit the G, Spanish=gh, or ch of the Scottish, or gutturalized Ll of the Welch.

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number and importance he does more ample justice. He confnes the vowels to nine varieties – all, more, good, run, arm, fan, bed, fame, see; and divides the consonants into three classes; – nine liquids, L, R, M, N, NG, Dh, V, Z, Zh, – fve aspirates, T, F, S, Sh, H, – and six mutes, B, D, G, I, P, K, he, however, admits that in the frst three mutes D, B and G, for tho ‘no breath is allowed to escape outwardly,’ there is ‘an obscure murmur heard in the mouth and nostrils, which is scarcely perceptible in common speech;’ and there is reason to believe from what he says, in certain parts of the body of his book, that he was not averse to the system of making this murmur more tunable and less obscure, than it is, too generally, in the practice of common speech: leaning, in this respect, towards the very reverse of Dr. Kenrick’s system, who seems disposed, as far as possible, to unvocalise the liquids, and reduce all the consonants to the faint, short aspirate quality of the mute. 6. Sheridan4 [General Dictionary of the Eng. Lnag. (frst edit.) 1780,] also makes nine vowels, and nineteen consonants; rejecting C and Q, as superfuous, considering J and X as compounds, and condemning the unfortunate H, as no letter*. Te remaining nineteen consonants, he divides into six mutes, three pure, K, T, and P. three impure, B, D and G. – thirteen semivocals; nine vocal, L, M, N, R, V, Z, Dh (or as he writes it eth) Zh, NG; and four aspirated F, S, TH (th’) Sh: which he subdivides again into Labials, Dentals, Palatine and Nasal. Making semivocals of elements that have no voice, will, perhaps, be thought to smack a little of the country of the author. But, in short, eloquence and enthusiasm were the distinguishing excellencies of Mr. Sheridan: not profundity and analysis. Te works of the laborious, and, generally speaking – where he is suffciently perspicuous – the accurate Walker5, are in every hand; and quotations from him are, therefore, unnecessary. It is sufcient to refer the reader to his Analogical Tables of the Vowels and Consonants (p. 3 of the second edition, and pp. 24 and 25 of the third,) where it will be found that divides the former into simple or pure, and compound, or impure vowels (in which he includes i, y, u, and w;) and the latter into mute labials and lisping labials (to which he subjoins, the labionasal liquid m;) mute dentals, and aspirated dentals (to which he subjoins, in like way, the dentonasal liquid n;) hissing dentals, and aspirated dentals (subjoining the dental liquid;) lisping dentals; gutturals (with their subjoined guttural liquid r;) and dentoguttural, or nasal ng; all which, except the four liquids, L, M, N and R (for he allows no more) and the nasal NG, he subdivides again, or pairs of in sharps and fats. * What is a letter? Is it any thing more than a graphic symbol of an elementary action of the enunciative organs? Is there no organic action in forming the aspirate? Is not a signifcant and discriminative element in the process of speech? And is not h the symbol of that element? But it has no sound. If by sound be meant, tune, or musical sound, this is true. But have t, p, k, s, ch, &c. any tune? Are the elements, they represent, capable of any tunable sound? Yet who denies to these the rank of letters? – i.e. of graphic symbols of enunciative elements?

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To the anatomy of this (tho not quite accordant with my own analysis or nomenclature) I shall make no great objections, except so far as relates to the gutturalization of the pure and simple NG, in hang, &c. and to the circumstance of noting the R (which in our language is sometimes the symbol of a guttural and sometimes of a linguadental*) as guttural only. But to the philosophy of the classifcation (so far as the harmonic qualities of the elements are concerned) my objections are much more serious; and surely it must be admitted as an instance of very unfortunate selection of terms, to apply the musical contradistinction of sharps and fats to elements that are denominated mutes. A sibilant, indeed, as well as a vocal note, may be more or less sharp; but a sharp mute and a fat mute, are distinctions beyond the sphere of comprehension. Assuredly the sound, or noise, or call it what you will, that can convey to the ear the idea, or impression of sharpness, can, in no sense of the word, be any longer called a mute. To me, at least, it appears that spiritual and vocal (the distinctions of Holder) are much more philosophical and accurate. But, indeed, in all the writings of Walker, I do not remember to have discovered the least evidence of his ever having consulted this author; or, indeed, any of the more profound and philosophical writers upon this subject;† and I cannot but think that if they had fallen into his hands, they would have improved his theory, and rendered many portions of his elaborate productions still more valuable and interesting. 8. Dr. Crombie,6 in his Etymology and Syntax of the English Language, merely divides the consonants, into ‘perfect mutes; sounded or imperfect mutes; imperfect mutes; imperfect consonants,’ (or pure liquids): his object appearing to be rather to enumerate and to describe the elements, than to enter into philosophical analysis, detect their harmonic qualities, or draw them into classical arrangement. 9. Dr. Darwin,7 in his ‘Analysis of Articulate Sounds,’ [Temple of Nature, 4th edit. 1803 Additional note xv. p. 118] considers the alphabet ‘to consist of 31 letters, which spell all European languages,’ and the following is his classifcation – ‘Tree mute consonants, P, T, K. – Tree antisonant consonants, B, D, Ga. – Tree narisonant liquids, M, N, NG. – Six sibilants, W German, F, T, S, SH, H. – Six sonisibillants, W, V, T, Z, J French, Ch, Spanish. – Two orisonant liquids, R, L. – Eight vowels, Aw, ah, a, e, i, y, oo, o.’ * It is but justice to Mr. Walker to observe that, this inaccuracy in his table can be regarded only as an oversight; since, both in his Rhetorical Grammar, p. 18, (third edit.) and his Principles of Pronunciation (Dict. third edit.) p. 62, he has distinctly noticed that there are two R’s ‘a rougher and a smoother.’ Te rough r, says he, ‘is formed by jarring the tip of the tongue against the roof of the mouth near the fore teeth: the smooth r is a vibration of the lower part of the tongue, near the root, against the inward region of the palate, near the entrance of the throat.’ Tere is, however, still a third distinction, of which Mr. W. takes no notice. † When Mr. Walker published his Rhetorical Grammar, it is obvious from internal evidence, that he was not even acquainted with the Grammar of old Ben Johnson; tho he had looked into it before he published the second edition of his Dictionary.

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Why the pure aspirate (H) should be confounded with the sibilants does not very obviously appear, not would it be very easy for any one to conceive, who had never been familiar with the peculiar pronunciation of Dr. Darwin, how any admixture of sibilancy should have been assigned to the liquids W and V; and to the former in particular. But difering as this philosophical poet and poetical philosopher, and I do, on the organic formation of the elements themselves, it would have been somewhat extraordinary if we had not difered, in some respect, upon their harmonic classifcation also. Te rhetorician who could make ‘polite speaking’ to consist in pronouncing Dlove for Glove, and Tloe, Cloe, and who did, in common with many ‘polite speakers,’ pronounce jew for dew, must necessarily have had a theory, occasionally difering from mine, on the euphonic attributes of literal elements. Tis theory I shall no otherwise combat, however, than by proceeding to my own defnition. (To be continued.)

Mr. THELWALL’S LECTURE on the ELEMENTS of EUPHONY. (Continued fom page 46.) II. DEFINITIONS. THERE is nothing more important to scientifc instruction than exactness of defnition. In the familiarity of conversation, and in mere literary disquisition – in whatever appeals to the imagination, or has reference only to general ideas, – language has many apparent synonymes; on the judicious selection and diversifed application of which, the grace, the harmony and the vividness of the composition will, in a great measure, depend. Te reason is obvious: for the object of the speaker, or the writer, on such occasions, is most frequently at least, to call up ideas, or present images to the mind, in their generalities and their aggregates; not to analyse and contradistinguish their respective shades, or component parts. In such cases, ‘more is meant than meets the ear;’ much is lef to fancy, or the memory, – to the imagination, or the feeling of the hearer, or reader; and he, who most powerfully excites these to activity in the minds of those he addresses, by the fewest particulars, and with the least approximation to detail, is, in fact, most eloquent. For this purpose, a part is perpetually used for the whole – an integral fraction, for a complex aggregate – an individual trait, for a complicated association of attributes. Tus (to illustrate by a familiar instance) when we talk of the fair sex, we do not mean to convey, nor do we mean to convey the idea only of the whiteness of the skin. What we mean to refer to – and what we are always understood to mean, is ‘the sex whose general

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attributes are beauty, grace and symmetry;’ of the frst even of which still general, or compound ideas, fairness is only one, and that even a subordinate quality. ‘True she is fair! O how divinely fair!’ What youthful lover listens to this line, and thinks only of breathing lillies? Do not the glowing cheek, the vermil lip, the lustrous eye, the featural form most dear to his imagination, – the grace, the motion, the symmetry of loveliness, foat before his eyes, as well as the paler tints of the neck and brow, and the ivory hand and arm? So when we speak of ‘roseate youths,’ are not the smile, the dimple, the buoyant spirit beaming from every feature, as actually brought to our recollection as if they had been all described? – In these respects, language is not the mathematician’s compass, but the wizzard’s spell; and the conjuration is then most potent when ‘the word of power’ is selected, not with reference only to the most prominent part of the general idea, or association of ideas, to be summoned up, – but when it harmonizes, also, most agreeably, by euphonous combination, with the aproximating elements: and an eye, a lip, a brow, a dimple, or a blush, &c. may, occasionally, answer, with equal, or with superior fullness of efect, the same identical purpose, according to the elementary qualities of the preceding and succeeding syllables. But science has nothing to do with this ambiguous magic. Language, for her purposes, must lay aside her wand, – almost her wings; must be content with her native and derivative attributes; – must tread her ground sedately, and speak plainly and unequivocally to the understanding alone. In other words – there must be no pretence of synonymes; not only every aggregate idea, but every component part of such idea, must have its specifc name: there must be but one term to indicate one idea; and but one idea indicated by any one term;* and the signifcation of these must be fxed, not by arbitrary, but by strict and logical defnition. Nothing can be more absurd than the assumed axiom that an author is at liberty to select and to defne his terms at his own discretion, provided he use them always in the same sense. Tis were to reduce the nomenclature of science to the jargon of Babel, and subject the student to the necessity of learning a new language every time he opened a new book upon any given subject. Te terms of science must be defned, (or the defnition will not be scientifc) accord* Te only apparent exception to this rule is when two or more ideas are, in the nature of things, constantanesouly associated. Tus, for example, as will, hereafer, be more particularly shewn – a BAR indicates a given portion of elocutionary, as of musical time; a CADENCE is a specifc alternation of vocal sound occupying the space of a bar; a FOOT is the portion of syllabic utterance accompanying the alteration of sound in the interval of the bar. Tey are, therefore, in the process of speech, generally speaking, constantaneous; and the instances are innumerable in which the use of any one of these terms presents the aggregate idea, as completely to the mind of the student, as if all the three were enumerated. Other instances, however, occur, in which the contradistinctions of these ideas must be clearly discriminated – thus the bar may not have had its due admeasurement; the cadence may not have been properly tuned; or the quantities may not have been properly distributed among the component syllables of the foot; and we are obliged accordingly to recollect that the terms, tho sometimes discretionary, are never synonymous. But of this, more hereafer.

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ing to their inherent, or their analogous signifcation; and, if, in developing one science (especially a new science,) we are obliged to borrow terms from another, the analogy must be preserved in our application of what we borrow. If the law be rigid, I shall at least endeavour not to be less so in my adherence to it. For the sake, therefore, of more distinct and perfect intelligibility, I shall here commence with marking the diferent signifcations (too frequently confounded) of the terms letter and element. Te former refers to the symbol, or to the name (frequently very absurdly given) of the symbol presented to the eye – as double-yew is the name of the symbol, or letter W; and see-aich of the compound symbol, or double letter CH, &c.; – the latter refers to the inherent characteristic quality of the elementary sound organically produced, and by the association of which on the ear with the symbol presented to the eye, and not by the absurd, perplexing and pedantic names of the letters, all children, I conceive, in the frst instance, ought to be taught to read. Tis distinction between the literal name, and the elementary sound designated by the symbols, it is of the utmost importance to keep in constant remembrance; and, altho there are no graphic signs by which the distinction can, by pen or type, be marked, the reader is requested, on every occurrence of these symbols, to recollect – that it is the simple elementary sound which it will retain in a syllabic combination, that alone is signifed.* Te elements of speech, thus defned, are divisible, in the frst instance, into vowels and consonants. 1. A VOWEL is an elementary, or specifc impulse of the voice, receiving its discriminative character fom the modifcations of the cavity and aperture of the mouth,† without any contact of the enunciative organs. It has therefore with propriety its generic name from the latin vox, which signifes, simply, a voice. Its practical varieties are, from the very mode of its formation, almost infnite; and gradations may be, and in, some instances, are so fne, as almost to elude discrimination. In Scotland, for example, they have some vowelative varieties, which almost defy the discriminations of an English ear, and the imitation of English organs; and other national, and even provincial peculiarities might be pointed out. But of all the European scales of vowel sound, the most beautiful, the most simple, and the most discriminative, is that of the Italian language. Its simple vowels are but fve; and they have the advantage of being represented always by * Tis is not the only instance, in which the efcatious communication of elocutionary science and accomplishment, without the assistance of oral instruction, approaches to imposibility. † Te cavity is modifed by the fexure and motions of the sof parts of the interior mouth: those, particularly, in the vicinity of the larynx. Te aperture referred to is principally of the lips; for tho the assumed positions of the teeth are convenient helps to the grace of vowelative, as well as of consonant, the lips being so apt to sympathize with these: yet nothing can be more easy than the demonstration, that every variety of vowel pronunciation, whether as a simple element, or in syllabic combination, can be produced, and can proceed while the teeth are completely clenched. I have demonstrated this repeatedly, both in public and in private: reading, in that way, whole pages of the Paradise Lost.

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the same fve letters a, e, i, o, u. So that wherever the symbol is seen there can be no ambiguity as to the element that is meant to be represented;* while our vowel sounds – sometimes insisted upon (by an extravagant refnement, it must be confessed,) to the number of 15 or 16, are each of them occasionally represented by each of the fve symbols to which, by our alphabet, we are confned. I say fve, a, e, i, o, u: for tho y is sometimes the representative of a vowel, (and, as a terminative, is always so,) yet is it (like w), on other occasions, the representative of a consonant also; and its vowelative power is always either that of long e, or long i, or of the dipthongal combination i e. For a guide thro’ this labyrinth of vowelative confusion, the student, who has not the advantage of oral instruction and example, must be referred to the elaborate exemplifcations of Orthoepical Dictionaries (of which Walker’s, with all its defects, is, upon the whole, the best): the discrepancies between our sounds and our symbols, are not reducible to any general rules, nor can be made proftable subjects of a lecture. 2. A CONSONANT (a sounding together) is an element formed by the contact, or combined action of two organs; as of the tongue and teeth; the tongue with the uvula and velum palati; the lips with each other, or with the teeth, &c. But this is a defnition much too general for practical utility: for consonants are of various descriptions with respect to their euphonous and tunable efects and estimation; and, according to these qualities must be subdivided into mutes, liquids, semi-liquids, and sibilants. A MUTE is a pure stop, – the contact being so complete as to suspend the vocal vibration; it can, therefore, only be rendered audible in conjunction with another element, or by the assistance of a whispered vowel. Tere are only three, T, K, P. A LIQUID is a tunable element, formed by gentle contact of two organs in a state of vocal vibration, and capable of unlimited duration and fexure, without change of character. Tere are eight – L, M, N, NG, R, V, W, Y: to which some have added Z, but it has a considerable mixture of sibilancy, and is therefore properly enough, by Dr. Darwin called sonisibilant. It is capable, however, of unlimited duration, as, indeed, are the sonisibilants T and Zh. Tese three might therefore be treated as a separate class. A SEMI-LIQUID is a partially tunable element, formed by the motion of one organ upon another, or by the motion of two organs in contact, and consequently limited in its duration by the limits of the line of action thro’ which it can be formed: of these we have B, D, G, Q,† X=GZ, T=dT, as in that, Z, and Zh. Te latter four may be called sonisibilants. A SIBILANT is an element formed by a gentle contact of organs and * Te o and the e have, indeed their open and their close sounds; but the diference is not such as perceptibly to mar the consonance, when they occur alternately in rhyme. It should be added, that the Spanish literati lay claim to the same precision and simplicity in their vowelative scale: but it is not as readily admitted in the perceptions of foreign ears. † Q, (always, but unnecessarily, written with U afer it) is a compound semi-liquid – the organs at the back of the mouth assuming nearly the position for K, and those in the front the attitude for W. If compounded to the eye it ought to be KW.

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an impulse of breath, without vocal vibration; as C=S, Sh, Ch, F, G=J. T (as in theist) X=KS. Te simple ASPIRATE is neither vowel nor consonant; having neither vocalization nor contact. It is, nevertheless, an expressive element, and therefore worthy of a literal representative. X=GZ, and X=KS, are compounds; as is also Ch, tho it may fairly be contended whether it be a compound of TSH, since the preliminary action for the mute element T, is certainly not necessary for its complete formation. ST (coming together) always form a compound: even when the former terminates, and the latter begins a word: unless there be an intervening grammatical pause. Te analysis of the harmonic qualities of the elements, and their classifcation according to their musical and other inherent properties, is a study of considerable importance, both in elocution and in composition, and may be the subject of future investigation. But something, on this head, must be said even here: and frst of their ELEMENTARY QUANTITY; a due comprehension, of an instinctive feeling of which is equally important to the graces and harmony of elocution and composition; and the student of the former, in particular, will do well to consider, respectively, the necessary, the practicable, and the desirable quantities of each. All the elements are capable of quantity, but the mutes T, K, P, (and it is sometimes graceful to prolong the stop occasioned by these, by holding them a little while between the organs;) but none of the consonants, except the tunable elements (liquids and semi-liquids) should have any more quantity assigned to them, than is necessary for distinct audibility. Much discredit is brought upon our language, especially in singing, by the unnecessary quantity given to the utterance of the sibilants, as well as by the unnecessarily frequent use of them in composition. Not are these the only elements against the protracted or the too frequent recurrence of which, the vocalist, or the composer should be upon his guard. Te vowels having a natural tendency to monotone, are the proper elements of quantity in song; the liquids having a necessary tendency to slide and infection, are the proper elements of quantity in speech. Tat composition will be most graceful in which the cadences, or metrical feet, are most frequently articulated by a liquid; but most energetic, in which the articulation is most frequently by semi-liquids. Mutes are bad articulators of cadences, but sibilants are much worse.* Of the liquids, some contribute more (as the R, in particular) to energy, and some to melody; as L, M, NG., &c.; but the L, pre-eminently. Of the semi-liquids, those are the best articulators that have least tendency to * I have been obliged to make use of the term ‘Articulation’ in this place, altho the proper occasion for the defnition of this term has not yet occurred. Sufce it, however, here to say that the term is always used in these lectures as in the science of anatomy, from which it seems originally to have been borrowed, to indicate the fexible combination, not the separation of syllables or parts: in other words, not as the synonime, but the antagonist of dislocation.

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sibilance. In other words, the organs of enunciation, in the utterance and combinations of spoken syllables are to dwell most deliberately upon those elements, or in those elementary positions which administer, at once, to the most agreeable modifcations of vocal sound, and preserve in most obvious purity the essential contradistinction between the vibratory infections of the tune of speech, and the graduated monotones of the tune of song. But I have strung together, in a few sententious axioms, what perhaps, ought to have been expatiated upon thro’ as many pages; and I am perfectly aware how many authorities there are against me: – that classical scholars have been writing for generations about the quantities of vowels, as if they were all in all: and so they were, if, as some of those scholars have strenuously maintained, the declamation of the Greeks and Romans was a species of recitative, or chaunt; and so they are, or at least ought to be, if our language is to be chaunted also; but then, if we distribute our elementary quantities upon this singing principle, we must give to our voices the correspondent pitch appropriate to the song; or else, with our heterogeneous combination of sing-song intervals, and speaking tone, we shall, in reality, neither sing nor speak, – but shall continue, ‘sans intermission’ (as many of our set speakers and most of our readers do!) to nasalize our language in a soporifc drawl. Even the authority of that great actor, the late John Kemble8, is, I am aware, nevertheless against me. He brought the prejudices of his classical education with him to the stage; and who shall deny the classic dignity that he gave there (but not thereby) to his profession. He maintained, as our classical tutors maintain, that the quantity belongs to the vowels; and, in his solemn and deliberate declamation, he exemplifed in his practice, what in theory he upheld; and therefore it was, that his declamation was, in reality, the worst part of his acting – that his solemnity was occasionally a little soporifc, and his deliberation degenerated into something like monotonous drawl. Not all his fne perceptions of rhythmical construction, nor his classical attention to the metrical arrangements of his favourite – and Nature’s favourite author, could rescue his intonation from the infuence which this one erroneous axiom, cast over it, like a spell. His critics, when they would object to him, talked, in their ignorance, of his measured delivery; and some of his wise successors, in their anxiety to obviate this supposed defect, have determined to keep no measure at all; and huddle the varied and expressive harmony of the divine Shakespeare, into crashing and cluttering prose – as if the gabbling of washerwomen, over their tubs, were the standard perfection of English elocution; and the natural delivery of sentences, pregnant with the noblest conceptions and the sublimest sentiments, consisted in reducing all the syllables to one common standard of quantity, from the insignifcant particle to the impassioned epithet, or the important substantive. But it was not his attention to metrical proportions and rhythmical response, that constituted the occasional heaviness of Kemble’s dec-

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lamation: these were among his excellencies, – not his defects; and whenever, assuming the energies of the more impassioned scene, especially when that passion was of a lofy and dignifed description, he forgot his pedantic system of protracted vowels, and remembered only those principles of rhythmical proportion, which are, in fact, in all the compositions of real genius, whether in verse or prose, the natural responses of excited feeling; then did his metrical perceptions and due preservation of the rhythmus of his author give force and expression to the sentiment that electrifed, and the passion, that thrilled the heart. In short, the defect of John Kemble, when he was defective, (I speak of him, of course, when treading in his proper line – for tho a great, he was not a general actor!) – his defect, where else he would not have been defective, consisted in giving to the monotone of the vowel that portion of the quantity of his syllables, which ought to have been assigned to the vibratory infexions and circumfexions of the liquids and other tunable consonants Te assertion may seem bold. Te doctrine, I am aware, is new. But whoever shall minutely and analytically attend, with a musical ear and an anatomical perception, to the process of harmonious and impressive delivery, will, I believe, be compelled to admit the conclusion ‘that the expressive grace and genuine melody of spoken language depend, not upon the protractions of the vowel sounds, but upon the judicious assignment of due quantities to the euphonous consonants, among which the liquids have pre-eminent place.’ But this will be more clearly illustrated in the ensuing lecture, in which I shall speak of the composition and euphonic power of Syllables.

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‘FUNERAL OF THE LATE THOMAS HARDY’

‘Funeral of the Late Tomas Hardy’, Morning Chronicle (9 October 1832).

Te radical artisan and founder of the London Corresponding Society, Tomas Hardy, died in October 1832. Te text below is an account of Telwall’s oration that was published in the Morning Chronicle on 9 October 1832. Tis was a momentous time for the reform movement as the 1832 Reform Act had increased the franchise by over 70 per cent to one-ffh of the population and rationalized the electoral system to get rid of the bulk of existing ‘rotten boroughs’. Te Act was the product of a struggle that was both intense and protracted and it was viewed as the successful culmination of the growth of radicalism in the late eighteenth century. It would also be known retrospectively as the event that closed the Romantic era. Hardy’s funeral was a huge event, involving a procession through London, from the undertakers in Drury Lane to the grave at Bunhill Fields – the burial ground of a number of prominent dissenting fgures, including John Bunyan and William Blake. Here, in front of a crowd of between twenty and forty thousand people, Telwall gave the only eulogy. In it, he recalls Hardy’s role in the London Corresponding Society in the 1790s and how the two were imprisoned in close proximity within the Tower awaiting trial for treason. He declares that a successful prosecution of the twelve accused would have led to six hundred further arrests, the warrants for which were already signed. Tis public remembrance of the oppression associated with Pitt’s government was not merely nostalgia on Telwall’s part, but also relates to the immediate political context of 1832. Among the slightly splintered radical movement, the Reform Act itself was considered on the one hand a huge success and on the other a less than satisfactory compromise – or at least only a partial solution. As Michael Scrivener points out, such factionalism added to the political spectacle of Hardy’s funeral and increased the importance of Telwall’s eulogy.1 In 1832, Telwall was in his late sixties and, as he observes, the passing of Hardy lef him as the sole survivor of the treason trials. He gestures poignantly about his own epitaph. Notes 1.

See Scrivener, Seditious Allegories, pp. 186–90. – 215 –

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APPENDIX, No.9. Funeral of the Late Tomas Hardy. Yesterday the remains of this eminent reformer were conveyed to their last resting place. In consequence of the publicity given to the funeral arrangements, considerable public interest was excited, and large numbers of persons were assembled to view the procession throughout the whole line in which it was expected to pass. About twelve o’clock, a considerable number of gentlemen who had signifed their intention of attending, assembled at Mr. Pritchard’s (the undertaker), in Drury-lane. Several old and conspicuous reformers were among them. We observed Mr. Telwall, Mr. Gale Jones, Sir Richard Phillips, Rev. Mr. Aspinall, Mr. Wooler, Mr. Nicholson, Mr. Galloway, Rev. Alexander Fletcher, Mr. J. T. Rutt, Mr. S. Lawless, Rev. Dr. Wade, Mr. Cleary, Mr. Richard Taylor, Mr. Mayne, Mr. Palmer, and a very numerous attendance of the Members of the Council of the National Political Union, of whom were Major Revell, Messrs. Detrosier, Franks, Rogers, Savile, Powell, Hankin, Burnard, and many others. About half past twelve these gentlemen lef Drury-lane in fourteen mourning coaches, and proceeded to Charing-cross, where a considerable crowd had by this tune assembled. Here the foot procession was formed, consisting principally of respectable artisans and mechanics, who marched six abreast. Tis procession was headed by a large body of Members of the National Union of the Working Classes, and preceded by one of the fags of that Union. About half-past one o’clock the hearse and mourning coaches, containing Mr. Hardy’s private friends, arrived from his residence at Pimlico, with Sir Francis Burdett’s private carriage (Sir Francis not being able to attend personally) and another private carriage, and Mr. Hunt, M. P., in a barouche. Te cortége then started in the following order: – .Te hearse, fanked on either side by a walking procession, the mourning coaches, private carriages, Union fag, and foot procession. Te line of march being through the Strand, Fleet-street, Ludgate-hill, Old Bailey, Newgate-street, St. Martin’s-le-grand, Aldersgate-street, Old-street, City-road, to Bunhill-felds burial- ground, where they arrived about three o’clock. Te streets were lined, and the houses thronged with spectators, all of whom seemed to take deep interest in the solemn occasion, and many thousand persons accompanied it to Bunhill-felds. Several shops in Fleet-street, the Strand and Ludgate-hill, were – 217 –

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partially, and some entirely closed, but when the funeral train arrived within the precincts of St. Luke’s, scarcely a house was to be found which had not paid to the illustrious dead this tribute of respect. A number of fags and banners, emblematic of liberty and union, but bordered with crape, were displayed from diferent houses, or were suspended across the road. At the corner of Old-street and the City-road, not less than fve thousand persons were assembled, who fell into the procession. Afer the cofn containing the corpse, was lowered into the grave, which is not more than one hundred yards from the road, the funeral service was read in a most impressive manner by the Rev. Dr. Rice, rector of the parish of St. Luke, who, unlike most of our benefced clergymen, is not only an active and zealous reformer, but much beloved by his parishioners. At the conclusion of the service, Mr. Telwall stood up and addressed the immense multitude, which was variously estimated at from twenty thousand to forty thousand persons. He spoke apparently under the infuence of strong and excited feelings, and was listened to throughout with the utmost attention and decorum. He commenced thus: – ‘Friends, fellow-citizens and spectators! who have come here to pay respect to the departed, let me hope for that silent and quiet attention, without which, not one-hundredth part of this vast assembly can possibly hear any human voice. Te ordinary condition of humanity calls, my countrymen, for no other particular notice of those who have departed this world than that sacred and serious ceremony which hath already passed; but there appear, now and then, on the face of the globe, particular individuals placed under particular circumstances, which sometimes demand a more especial and particular notice. Among these, those who have been illustrious for their virtues, their patriotic devotion to the welfare of their fellow beings, ought to stand forward the most conspicuous. Tere is a nobility of birth and station – there is a higher nobility of intellect; there is a nobility yet higher, of strong moral principle, which attaching itself to the welfare and happiness of mankind; labours for the general beneft and the promotion of the great interests of the human species (hear, hear, hear). In this point of view, my worthy colleague who has now departed this world, and whose remains we have now seen deposited, deserves most especial attention. Tough not standing foremost in point of splendour of talent and genius, he stood foremost in what is much better than high endowments of intellect – an honest principle and a frm determination to do the utmost in his power to promote the interest of his fellow-men. He was one of the frst sowers of that seed of which I hope we are now about to reap the fruit and public advantage’ (hear, hear). Te orator then proceeded to pass a most eloquent panegyric on the private virtues of the late Mr. Hardy. He described him, as a man exhibiting a combination of meekness of spirit, and frmness of determination, such as is rarely met with. He spoke of him as a philanthropist in every sense of the word, and referring to the

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period when both were confned in the Tower – their apartments separated only by a small passage – he said, he had there repeated opportunities of observing the cheerful mildness and benignity of spirit of Tomas Hardy, undisturbed by the apprehension of, as it is generally termed a shameful, but which he would have considered an honourable death. If he had died, he would have died as Sydney and Russell died, struggling for the happiness and welfare of the community. ‘But (said Mr. Telwall) do not believe that this serenity sprung from stoical coldness or insensibility of disposition. Future history will state, that for eight days, I believe [a voice, ‘nine’] – hear it ye men of England – treasure it in your remembrance – have the record widely spread, that in this country, boasting itself to be a land of freedom, Hardy was brought to trial, which continued through the tedious proceeding of nine days; in order to make out a case of treason, forsooth; when the whole constitutional law of treason might be written on the palm of my hand, in characters legible to all around me. Afer standing nine days with the frmness of conscious dignity before the tribunal of his country, when at length an honest, a virtuous, and independent jury, whose names are written in this record in gold, on a tablet of purple (displaying it) – when these twelve glorious men pronounced a verdict of innocence, what was the frst act of Tomas Hardy, the philosopher? To repair to the grave where lay that wife who had fallen a victim to the anguish which this persecution had inficted upon her, and who was buried during the period of his confnement. He had no tears for himself – no melting weakness for the danger of his own situation – he appears to have treasured them up in the secret vial of his heart, and to have given them no vent till the frst moments of his liberation enabled him to pour them out on the grave of the departed partner of his cares, who had fallen a victim to the cruel, tyrannical, murderous, and unconstitutional measures of the wicked government which then domineered over us (hear, hear).’ Te orator then directed the attention of the assembled multitude to Hardy’s public career. Afer taking a very admirable review of the state of the country in the year 1792, and of the unconstitutional eforts of the government to engross all the power into their own hands, for the unhallowed purpose of plundering the community, he described the origin of the Corresponding Society, which as all our readers well know, originated with the assembling of a few friends at Mr. Hardy’s house, for the purpose of considering the nature and extent of their constitutional rights; and its gradual increase, until its ramifcations extended all over the kingdom, and followed up his observations by a defence of the views of the Society, which sought but to establish Parliamentary Reform, though it vas true, by means of annual parliaments and Universal Sufrage. It was, however, always advisable for those who sought for political improvement to ask for more than they expected to obtain – since they were generally compelled to accept much less than they asked for; and as an abstract right – however it might be afected by expediency

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– no one could deny the abstract justice of Universal Sufrage. He then adverted to the persecution with which government thought ft to visit those who chose to commence these investigations, and to question the justice of the power which they exercised. He need not advert to the names of Fysshe Palmer and Muir, and to the infamous system of espionnage. Te government actually sending spies abroad amongst the people, and instigating them to the very deeds which they sought to punish. Failing in this, they were compelled to execute one of their own spies (Watt), which certainly was the only act of justice ever done by that most wicked of wicked governments. Tere was a compact of blood between them – blood, the government was determined to have; and if they could not obtain innocent blood, they were determined to shed that of their own guilty agent. So far from these members of the Corresponding Society seeking revolution, they were supporters of the principles of the constitution; and it was such men as Pitt, Dundas, and the then Sir John Scott, who were endeavouring with all their might to subvert it – for what purpose? Corruption had always something beyond corruption for its object – plunder, speculation, robbery without the responsibility of the gallows – robbery without responsibility – this was the main object of all corrupt governments (hear, hear, hear). Tat Hardy opposed this system of corruption was one of his greatest crimes, and that he endeavoured to preserve peace, and to prevent the sources of this island from being expended for the purpose of restoring despotism in a neighbouring country was another. Let them contrast the state of the debt and of the public burdens in 1792, with the present state of that debt and those burdens, and then they would be able to judge of the value of Hardy’s exertions, and of the situation in which England would have been at this moment, had his exertions been then crowned with success, He then referred to the period of the trial. ‘Twelve of us (said he) where then arraigned, of which twelve I stand here the solitary survivor. My tears must here drop on the grave of the last of my associates, and perhaps the time is not distant when a similar close shall be put to my existence also; but whenever that may be the case, I hope that the circumstance by which I shall be remembered may be, that I was the associate of Tomas Hardy in the London Correspondence Society, and had the happiness with him of standing at the bar of the Old Bailey, and of holding up my hand to appeal to God and my country. Tere Hardy stood nine days, whilst they were satisfed with inficting on me the humbler duration of fve days’ sophistry and chicanery, with, emblematically speaking, the halter round my neck. Twelve of us were then tried on a charge of treason. An eminent lawyer, a serjeant, and since a representative in parliament, had said to him the other day, ‘I have been reading what purported to be a brief account of the trial of one John Telwall, and I fnd no one charge in the indictment which can possibly be construed into the slightest crime, by the law or the constitution of this country.’ So much for the charge of treason.’ He then went into

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a lengthened exposure of the tricks of the then government to secure a conviction. When a law was brought forward in the House of Commons to secure to the prisoners the inspection of the panel and of the list of witnessess, Pitt dared to say they could aford to grant that, for they could make the list both of jurors and witnesses so numerous, that no prisoner or accused party whatever, could have it in his power to sif them and worm them out. Such was the plan adopted on their trial – the list of jurors was numerous, almost beyond belief, and that of the witnesses still more so. Indeed, they took the step of placing on the list of witnesses the name of every man who was known to have the slightest connexion with any of the accused – thus leaving the prisoners in uncertainty, lest any of their friends should have turned traitors to them, and materially narrowing the means of defence. Tere was one man yet alive connected with these proceedings – a man who talked frequently about his conscience (hear, hear). He did not wish to bring forward any thing personal if he could possibly avoid it, especially any thing in which character was concerned. He would wish to spare him decrepitude. But he could not suppress the observation, that any man who found it necessary twenty-four times in twenty-four hours to talk about his conscience, seldom turned out to have any conscience at all. It must be worn to rags by so much mouthing [hear, hear]; and when the word was thus mouthed, they would fnd it interpreted to mean nothing but interest and ambition. Now mark an anecdote! Te proper returning ofcer at that timer – the Deputy Sherif or Secondary – was named Burchell. He was about to tell them a story which was told by Burchell himself, to his brother-in-law, the late John Holt, of the Chancery bar. Burchell told him, that not being found sufciently pliant in the selection of the Jury, ‘old Conscience,’ as he was now called, took the jury book out of the hands of the proper ofcer [‘ mark, mark this!’], whose duty it was to keep and use it, according to the constitution and the law, and carried it to his own chamber, and there, in the dark and secret divan, picked out such men as he thought might be depended on for hanging the prisoners, guilty or not guilty. [Shame, shame!] Fortunately his stupidity equalled his roguery. He certainly placed on the panel many men on whom he might have depended, but they were dead – others had lef that part of the country; – he could not prevent many honest men from getting on. Te country became alarmed; and the result was, that three successive juries returned verdicts of acquittal. Could the government have hanged those twelve men, the fate of hundreds and thousands would have been sealed; for thousands of persons in every station in life, – persons of high respectability even in the world’s eye – men amongst the most opulent of the manufacturing, commercial, and professional interests – had done every thing which they had done, and stood precisely in a similar situation. It was an ascertained fact that six hundred warrants were signed, to arrest six

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hundred persons in various parts, if they could have succeeded in destroying the twelve whom they placed in the foremost rank. Afer denouncing state prosecutions generally, as attempts to legalize murder, and detailing a very interesting conversation between him and Horne Tooke in the Tower, in which both expressed their conviction of the certainty of their fate, and their resolution to meet it boldly, he said, that Hardy, and those who acted with him, had always borne in view this principle, which he begged to impress on all those who entered seriously into political life – that no man has a right to agitate the country against the existing government, unless lie is resolved to carry his life in his hand, and is ready to lay it down at an instant’s warning, rather than apostatize from his principles, or even retire in the hour of peril. [Tis sentiment was followed by a subdued cheer, which ran through all the crowd, and had a most peculiar efect; the sanctity of the place, and the solemnity of the occasion, evidently preventing them from indulging in that responsive shout which it would otherwise have called forth.] Te government wanted runaways. He was not arrested till several hours afer Hardy, though the leading member of the Society; and even afer he was arrested, abundant opportunities of escape were given, which lie detailed. He then narrated the foul attempts of the government to procure the kidnapping or assassination of those men whom they failed to hang, and their procuring the repeal of the right of appeal of murder, that old Saxon law which Charles Fox declared to be a palladium of British security – and which, empowering the next of kin to prosecute for murder, took away from the King the power to pardon. Seven times, did he himself make his way through bands of hired assassins; and he presented to the House of Commons a petition, through Sir Francis Burdett,1 in which he ofered to prove this at its bar. Tese men would, under the repeal of this law, have acted on certain security; for, as they were employed by government, they could have depended on government to pardon them, even if convicted. In one instance he could bring this home to them, for he proved that Captain Roberts had directed his crew to go to a certain place, where they were to fnd the crew of another vessel, and take the creature (meaning him), and bring him away alive or dead. What did they do in this case? Why, they actually promoted Captain Roberts from a small skif to the command of a 74-gun ship, and sent him to the West Indies to be out of the way of justice. Tey were determined; at whatever cost, to put a stop to the spirit of reform; they were resolved to drown the voice of reason in a torrent of blood. Tis might at frst sight appear to be a digression, but it was not. His object was to impress on them the paramount necessity of Reform; the state the country would have been in without it; and with this would come a deep conviction of the debt of gratitude which they owed to the exertions of the man whose last remains had that day been laid in the cold – cold grave. ‘His (said the speaker, much afected) is not a grave to demand a pompous monument, or

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colossal efgies. His tomb requires a better monument – the materials of which time shall not destroy, nor tempests shake – one that shall record the cause in which he struggled – the sacrifces which he made – the glorious triumph which was secured to him by honest jurors – and on which shall be inscribed, as long as Englishmen continued to be Englishmen, the name of ‘Tomas Hardy,’ associated with our dearest rights – inspiring future generations with a determination to act in the same upright, conscientious, and disinterested principles which distinguished him throughout the whole of his private and political life.’ At the conclusion of the oration, Mr. Telwall and the other gentlemen of the procession retired, and the crowd, afer satisfying their curiosity – we are wrong, for it was a better feeling, in taking one last look at the cofn of the departed, peaceably retired. Morning Chronicle, Oct. 9th, 1832.

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NOTES

A Letter to Henry Cline Esq. 1.

Henry Cline: (1750–1827), surgeon and lecturer in anatomy, born in London, educated at Merchant Taylors’ School, apprenticed at St Tomas’s Hospital and later practised and lectured there, pupil of John Hunter, appointed frst master then president of the College of Surgeons; his sole publication was On the Form of Animals (1805). As a lifelong democrat and deist, Cline formed friendships with Telwall and Horne Tooke, supporting them through their treason trials in 1794. In subsequent years, Cline hosted an annual dinner at his house in Lincoln’s Inn Fields in commemoration of Horne Tooke’s acquittal. As an interesting demonstration of how politics can intersect with science, he performed the post-mortem examination on opposition leader Charles James Fox. 2. Dr. John Haighton: (1755–1823), surgeon and physiologist who worked under Henry Cline at St Tomas’s and lectured at Guy’s Hospital throughout the 1790s. 3. ‘…Te hidden soul of Harmon’: Milton, L’Allegro (1645), ll. 143–4. 4. Dryden: John Dryden (1631–1700), English poet and playwright, who translated Virgil’s epic poem the Aeneid into English in 1697. 5. Paradise Lost: Milton’s most famous poem was lauded by romantic writers such as William Blake and Percy Shelley for both aesthetic and political reasons. In the former sense, Milton’s work – unlike the studious classicism evinced in the writing of Dryden and Pope – seemed to reveal a melodic yet democratic language. In the latter sense, his characterization of Satan writing was interpreted as an exaltation of the fgure of the good rebel – the Promethean fgure who rebels against the tyranny of arbitrary authority. 6. Hygeia: Greek goddess associated with sanitation and hygiene. 7. Brecknock: part of the Borough of Brecknockshire, Wales, near to where Telwall had moved in 1798. 8. Fraenum: the membrane that links the tongue to the foor of the mouth. 9. Ceres … Muses: Ceres is the Roman goddess of Agriculture and the Muses are a group of Greek goddesses whose role is to inspire the creative process. Telwall is signalling his return from the sphere of agrarian life to that of the writer. 10. the passions of Europe: Tis is a reference to the Treaty of Amiens signed in 1802, which established peace between Britain and France, though it would last only one year. In the treaty – the preliminary articles of which had been signed in London in October 1801 – Britain formally recognized the legitimacy of the French Republic. 11. Demosthenes: (384–322 bc), Greek statesman renowned for his oratorical prowess and rhetorical skill. – 225 –

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12. Joshua Steele: (d. 1796), plantation owner and linguist who wrote An Essay Towards Establishing the Melody and Measure of Speech, to be Expressed and Perpetuated by Peculiar Symbols (1795), which developed a theory of prosody and the melodic nature of speech. It was reprinted in 1799 as ‘Prosodia Rationalis’. 13. Lord Monboddo: James Burnett (1714–99), philosopher and judge who wrote about many of the themes central to the Scottish Enlightenment, but from an Aristotelian perspective. His linguistic philosophy was expressed in On the Origin and Progress of Language (1773), which provided a historical and philosophical analysis of the evolution of language. 14. Mr. Gough, of Middleshaw: John Gough (1757–1825), natural philosopher, Quakereducated son of a Lake District shearman dyer, who lost his sight from smallpox in 1759. He was something of a polymath, renowned for his expertise in classics, languages, mathematics, physics, botany, zoology and the nature of sound. Students from Cambridge travelled to be tutored by Gough, among the most famous of which was the chemist John Dalton. See H. Lonsdale, Te Worthies of Cumberland (1874) f. 52; W. H. Henry, Memoirs of the Life and Scientifc Researches of John Dalton (n.d.). Gough could identify any plant through taste. See also A. L. King, ‘Note in Memory of Blind John Gough’, American Journal of Physics, 21 (1953), pp. 231–2. See also H. Rossiter Smith, Notes and Queries, 200 (September, 1955), pp. 394–3. 15. Dr. Denman: Tomas Denman (1733–1815), highly successful man-midwife and author of Aphorisms on the Application and Use of the Forceps, and Vectis; on Preternatural Labours, on Labours Attended with Haemorrhage, and with convulsions (1783); and An Introduction to the Practice of Midwifery, 2 vols (1794–5). 16. Lord Chatham against employing Indians in the American war: Lord Chatham, William Pitt (the Elder), frst Earl of Chatham (1708–78). Chatham, an opponent of the British war with America, made a speech in 1777 that argued against the deployment of Indian auxiliaries in the confict. 17. Uvula and Velum Palati: Te uvula is the small piece of sof tissue that descends from the sof palate over the back of the tongue and the velum palate is the sof tissue that constitutes the back of the roof of the mouth from which the uvula descends. 18. Galen and Hippocrates: Galen (129–200 ad) and Hippocrates (460–370 bc) were ancient Greek physicians, the latter being ofen described as the ‘father of medicine’. 19. Mr. Astley Cooper: Sir Astley Paston Cooper, frst Baronet (1768–1841), surgeon and anatomist whose work on vascular surgery was pioneering. He spent the 1790s lecturing with Henry Cline at St Tomas’s and was appointed surgeon at Guy’s in 1800. 20. Mr. Flood: Henry Flood (1732–91), Irish politician who served in both the Irish and British parliaments and was renowned for his eloquence and oratorical style. 21. Professor Kant: Immanuel Kant (1724–1804), German philosopher whose hugely infuential writings on epistemology, metaphysics and ethics epitomize the thought of the Enlightenment. Telwall would very likely have frst encountered Kant through Coleridge, who was obsessed by him and who would later devote a series of lectures to his ideas. 22. Peter the wild boy: (found 1725, d. 1785), a twelve- or thirteen-year-old boy found in the woods near Hanover in 1725, he walked on all fours, ate plants and could not speak. Once found, he quickly became a source of curiosity and George I had him brought to London. Although he developed a love of music and learned to perform simple tasks, he never learned to talk and was never known to laugh. Tere has been speculation as to why and how he came to take up living in the forest: he seems to have run away from an

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Notes to pages 40–86

23.

24.

25. 26.

27. 28. 29.

30.

31.

32.

33.

34.

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abusive home and may have been an autistic child. Te ensuing craze prompted scientists and writers like Jonathan Swif and Daniel Defoe to write on the subject. See Homo Ferus: Between Monster and Model; Te Animal Kingdom or Zoological System of the Celebrated Sir Charles Linnaeus, trans. R. Kerr. Savage of Aveyron: Victor of Aveyron (also Te Wild Boy of Aveyron), a boy who lived his childhood in the woods before being captured near Toulouse, France in 1797. He escaped twice from his well-meaning captors before emerging on his own in January 1800. His speechlessness and his immunity to the coldness of snow seemed to indicate that even these seemingly biological phenomena were the result of experience, culture and conditioning. Although he had hearing, Victor was taken to the National Institute of the Deaf, where he became the focus of a study to determine what separated humans from animals. Victor came to demonstrate empathy, but never acquired language. See H. Lane, Te Wild Boy of Aveyron (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1975) and R. Shattuck, Te Forbidden Experiment: the Story of the Wild Boy of Aveyron (New York: Kodansha International, 1980). Mr. White: Gilbert White (1720–93), naturalist, ornithologist and early ecologist. His Te Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne (1789) was compiled of the letters written by White to zoologist Tomas Pennant and fellow of the Royal Society’s Daines Barrington, which documented his observations of the natural history and surroundings of his village, Selborne, in Hampshire. Lucretius: (99–55 bc), Roman philosopher and Epicurean poet. Te following quotation is from his De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Tings), Prologue to Book 1. Cymon and Iphigenia: the tale of Cymon and Iphigenia, conceived originally by Boccaccio but adapted later by Dryden, features the former as an uneducated young man who becomes so enchanted by the beauty of the latter while asleep that he transforms himself into a person of knowledge and erudition – or, as Telwall puts it, from ‘an idiot into a hero’. Amentia: a general term for mental defciency that takes place before birth or soon afer. Who durst defy th’ Omnipotent to arms: Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 1, ll. 44–9. ‘with Midas’ ears,’: In Greek mythology, Midas was punished by Apollo – when he demonstrating his untutored ear by expressing a preference for the music of Pan to his own – by having his ears transformed into those of a donkey. Mr. Shield: Likely a reference to William Shield (1748–1829), composer mainly of operas, who also wrote An Introduction to Harmony (1800), as an aid to the teaching of song. Dr. Itard: Jean Marc Gaspard Itard (1774–1838), French physician who treated the aforementioned Wild Boy of Aveyron (see note 23) but was unable to teach him to speak. Ben Jonson: (1572–1637), in addition to the poems and plays written by Jonson, of which Telwall showed considerable regard, he also wrote Te English Grammar in 1617, which was eventually published posthumously in 1640 and recommended syntactic punctuation. Mr. Roe: Richard Baillie Roe (1764–1853), Irish stenographer interested in principles of harmony in language, author of Te Elements of English Metre, both in Prose and Verse (1801). Dr. BATTY: Robert Batty (1763–1849), obstetric physician, expert on midwifery and for some years editor of the Medical and Physical Journal.

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Notes to pages 89–97

35. Abbé de l’Epeé: Abbé Charles-Michel de l’Épée (1712–89), French philanthropist and educational theorist. Ofen described as the ‘father of the deaf ’, he opened the frst public school for deaf children where he practised his signes méthodiques system of sign language. See H. Lane, When the Mind Hears: A History of the Deaf (New York: Random House, 1984). 36. Bonet: Juan Pablo Bonet (1573–1633), Spanish priest and educator. His Reducción de las letras y arte para enseñar a hablar a los mudos (1620) was the frst book published on the subject of deaf education and provided a manual alphabet for sign language. 37. Amman: Johann Konrad Amman (1669–1724), Swiss physician and educator of the deaf who published Surdus loquens s. methodus, qua, qui surdus natus est, loqui discere possit (‘Te speaking deaf, or Method by which he who was born deaf can learn to speak’) in 1694 and Dissertatio de loquela in 1700. He argued that because the deaf had the ability to perceive the movements of the speech organs, they could remember linguistic sounds and learn to speak. 38. de la Pujade: Lewis Francis Gabriel de Clement de la Pujade, a deaf student whom de l’Épée successfully taught to talk. 39. Mr. Tomas Braidwood: (1715–1806), teacher who founded ‘Braidwood’s Academy for the Deaf and Dumb’ in 1760, Britain’s frst school for the deaf. 40. Wallis: John Wallis (1616–1703), mathematician and geometer, who also wrote infuential treatises on linguistics and the concept of sounds, which underpinned his attempt to teach deaf people to speak. 41. Holder: William Holder (1616–98), theorist of music and author of Elements of Speech (1669), which named and analysed the physical parts of speech in pursuit of a basis for a universal language and A Treatise on the Natural Grounds and Principles of Harmony (1694). He achieved recognition in 1660 for his successful attempt to teach the deafmute Alexander Popham. However, afer Popham regressed he was taught again by John Wallis (see previous note) who claimed the credit for the success, which enraged Holder. 42. Helmont: Francis Mercury Van Helmont (1614–98), philosopher and linguistic theorist who regarded Hebrew as a natural representation of innate ideas and a language that could unite the world. 43. Mr. Bensley: Robert Bensley (1740–1817), English actor whose nasal voice – along with his clumsy appearance and jerky bodily movements – drew derision from some critics, though his ability did gain favourable writing from other critics, most notably Charles Lamb. 44. Mr. Kemble: John Philip Kemble (1757–1823), prolifc actor, known for his fne elocutionary style as well as his methodical commitment to the individual characters he was to represent. 45. Master Betty: William Henry West Betty (1791–1874), extremely popular child actor, though his lack of vocal power was noted by some critics when he came to assume more grown-up roles. 46. Mr. Arrowsmith: Tomas Arrowsmith, a deaf artist who was a pupil of Tomas Braidwood’s. 47. Jonson’s Gram: a reference to Ben Jonson’s Te English Grammar. 48. Sicard: Roch-Ambroise Cucurron Sicard (1742–1822), French priest and educational theorist who worked with deaf-mutes. 49. Dr. Abercrombie: John Abercrombie (1780–1844), Scottish physician who wrote extensively on mental and pathological conditions.

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Notes to pages 101–69

229

50. Simon Browne: (1680–1732), dissenting minister who abandoned his ministry afer a sudden onset of depression in 1723, which may be traceable either to the death of his wife and son or that of a highwayman he caused when accosted by him. Browne claimed that God had destroyed the ‘thinking substance’ in him. 51. illustrated the Senate and the name of Britain: Here Telwall lists some of the best known late eighteenth-century political fgures (Chatham, Pitt, Sheridan, Burke, Erskine and Fox), each in some respect known for their eloquence.

Te Vestibule of Eloquence 1. 2. 3.

Vestibule: ‘the part of the mouth outside the teeth’ (OED). Nilus: Greek god of the River Nile. Carausius: (d. ad 293), commander in the Roman military who attempted to claim personal rule of Britain, of which he declared himself Emperor and sought to capitalize on dissatisfaction with Roman rule. He did not actually manage to take control of the whole of Roman Britain and was assassinated by Allectus, his treasurer. 4. ALFRED: a reference to King Alfred the Great (c. ad 849–99), whose reputation as a wise and enlightened ruler reached something of a zenith in the nineteenth century. 5. Briarëus: one of the three Hecatonchires, who in Greek mythology were the children of Gaia and Uranus and had one hundred hands and ffy heads each. 6. DRAKE: Sir Francis Drake (1540–95), politician and vice admiral in the British feet who headed a successful campaign of aggression against the Spanish Armada. 7. Nelson: frst Viscount Horatio Nelson (1758–1805), Vice-Admiral of the British navy who enjoyed a highly successful career before his death (to which Telwall refers) during the victorious Battle of Trafalgar. 8. glorious title of Restorer of the Roman World: see Gibbon, Te Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. 9. Christian Mamalukes: military regiment established by the Muslim dynasties of the middle ages that were comprised of slaves forced to convert to Islam. 10. eloquent Scipio … vanquished the illustrious Hannibal I: Scipio Africanus (236–183 bc) was a Roman general and statesman who defeated Hannibal of Carthage (247–183 bc) in the Second Punic War. 11. With dread of death, to fight or foul retreat’: Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 1, ll. 550–5. 12. Tyrtæus: Greek, mainly elegiac poet of the seventh century, whose works advocating the virtue of courage were popular with the Spartan army, who sung them at night to maintain morale.

Results of Experience 1. 2.

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While I was residing in Liverpool: Telwall practised elocutionary instruction in Liverpool for six months between 1805 and 1806. the stone of Sisyphus: Sisyphus, a fgure from Greek mythology who was forced to bear the punishment of rolling a boulder up a hill only to have it roll down again and repeat the task interminably.

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230

Notes to pages 177–86

Selected Writings from the Champion 1. 2. 3.

4.

5.

6. 7. 8. 9.

10. 11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

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Mr. ABBOTT: William Abbot (1790–1843), English actor, known for his comedic and melodramatic roles. the last inclement Winter of 1819: a particularly severe winter that had seen temperatures of –23ºC recorded in southern England. Mr. Ring: John Ring (1752–1821), surgeon at St Tomas’s who was well-known for his advocacy of smallpox vaccination. He was also renowned for his Latin verse, and the translation of Virgil to which Telwall refers prompted his election to the Royal Society of Literature in 1820. are those of Pope and Gesner: Among Alexander Pope’s (1688–1744) works were his infuential Te Pastorals (1710) and Discourse on Pastoral Poetry (1717); Solomon Gesner (1730–88) was a Swiss painter and poet known for his pastoral writings. Allan Ramsay: (1686–1758), Scottish poet, whose play Te Gentle Shepherd (1725) was a highly successful pastoral drama and whose work would be an important infuence on the work of future Scots writers. His Parian statue shall be turn’d to gold: Pope, Spring, the First Pastoral, or Damon, verses 51–2. Ettric Shepherd: A reference to the Scottish poet and novelist James Hogg (1770–1835), who was born near Ettrick Forest in Selkirk. Robert Burns: (1759–96), the iconic Scottish poet was born to a tenant farmer in South Ayrshire. Carlton House: was for many years the residence of George IV, whose reputation for a lifestyle of opulence, indulgence and licentious hedonism was widespread, is juxtaposed here with the noble heroism associated with the Trojan War veterans Achilles and Agamemnon and their love interests. Gay: John Gay (1685–1732), English poet and dramatist, whose Te Shepherd’s Week (1714) comprised six pastorals based on rustic life in England. AUTOMATONISM: though this is ostensibly an essay on the question of human agency and whether or not individuals are considerable as ‘automatons’, whose actions are determined by external forces, it becomes a personal refection on Telwall’s own experience as a writer and public speaker and his ‘interrupted’ career as a poet. Monk Lewis: Matthew Gregory Lewis (1775–1818), English novelist, who was ofen referred to as ‘Monk’ Lewis, which referenced his highly successful Gothic novel Ambrosio, or the Monk (1796), known for its sensational and lurid content, replete with scenes of rape, incest and torture. Dr. Percy’s Relics: this refers to Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (1765), a threevolume collection of mostly ancient English ballads and songs published by Tomas Percy (1729–1811) that infuenced romantics such as Wordsworth and Coleridge and has been viewed as one of the chief sources for the movement away from neo-Classicism in poetry and art. Ellis’s Specimens: a reference to writer and politician George Ellis (1753–1815), who published a popular collection entitled Specimens of the Early English Poets in 1790, which went through six editions in the frst half of the nineteenth century. ancient ballad of Chevy Chace: a popular English song that is thought to document the ‘Battle of Otterburn’ of 1388’ between Scotland and England, which was published in Percy’s Relics (see note 13, above).

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Notes to pages 187–205

231

16. Sir Walter Scott: frst Baronet (1771–1832), prolifc and hugely popular Scottish novelist and poet, author of various key works of romantic and gothic fction, such as Waverley and Rob Roy. 17. Oliver Goldsmith: (1728–74), poet whose ballad Te Hermit features the love story of Edwin, a young boy without wealth or status whose experience of living as a hermit puts him at one with nature, and Angelina, the daughter of a local Lord. 18. Tom D’Urfey: Tomas D’Ufrey (1650–1723), English poet and dramatist, whose loose style of writing was best captured by his collection of poems Wit and Mirth, or Pills to Purge Melancholy. 19. Comus or L’Allegro: both works by Milton. 20. Delias and the Strephons: Delia and Strephon were both characters in Pope’s ‘Spring, the First Pastoral, or Damon’. 21. Tomas Moore: (1779–1852), Irish poet, songwriter, satirist and historian, who was described by (one of Telwall’s nemeses) Francis Jefray in the Edinburgh Review as ‘the most licentious of modern versifers’. 22. Holcrof’s Memoirs: Tomas Holcrof (1745–1809), English playwright who was one of the twelve reformers indicted for high treason but acquitted in 1794. His memoirs were completed afer his death by William Hazlitt, who then donated the profts to Holcrof’s family. 23. Mr. Shield: William Shield (see note 30 to A Letter to Henry Cline). 24. Te Birks of Endermay: Te Birks of Endermay (or Invermay), a song written by William Malloch and published in William Tomson’s collection of Scots songs Orpheus Caledonius in 1733. 25. Shenstone: William Shenstone (1714–63), writer and poet, the somewhat lukewarm criticism of whose work drove him into reclusive introspection and an increased interest in gardening. 26. Doric: the term for the dialect associated with Lowland Scots.

Panoramic Miscellany 1. 2.

3. 4.

5.

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Dr. Kenrick: William Kenrick, producer of dictionary editions from 1773. Dr. Wilkins: John Wilkins (1614–72), theologian and natural philosopher, who was a founder member of the Royal Society in 1660 and author of Essay Towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language (1668), which – in the context of increasing speculation about the possibility of establishing or recovering a universal language – argued that one could exist but needed to be constructed artifcially and philosophically, with systematic reference to the natural world. Dr. Holder: William Holder, see note 41 to A Letter to Henry Cline. Sheridan: Tomas Sheridan (1719–88), Irish actor and elocutionist, who (in addition to his A General Dictionary of the English Language (1780) cited here by Telwall), wrote a number of works on grammar and education, including British Education: Or, Te source of the Disorders of Great Britain. (1756). Walker: John Walker (1732–1807), elocutionist and lexicographer, whose works include A General Idea of a Pronouncing Dictionary (1774), Exercises for Improvement in Elocution (1777) and Hints for Improvement in the Art of Reading (1783), Elements of Elocution (1781), Rhetorical Grammar (1785) and Te Melody of Speaking (1787). His work developed a theory of melodic infection that drew on the work of Joshua Steele, but in a way that was more accessible to the general public.

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232 6.

7. 8.

Notes to pages 206–22 Dr. Crombie: Alexander Crombie (1762–1840), philologist and schoolmaster, whose major work on linguistics was his Etymology and Syntax of the English Language Explained (1802). Dr. Darwin: Erasmus Darwin (1731–1802), physician and natural philosopher. John Kemble: see note 44 to A Letter to Henry Cline.

‘Funeral of the Late Tomas Hardy’ 1.

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Sir Francis Burdett: (1770–1844), politician who became known for his radical views on a variety of issues, including his critique of harsh prison conditions, his arguments for parliamentary reform and the extension of the franchise and his subsidizing of various political allies, including Hardy.

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INDEX

Abbot, William, 4.177 Abercrombie, John, 4.97, 100 Abernethy, John, 1.xvii abolitionists, arguments against, 2.148, 152–3 accents/ infections, JT lecture on, 3.101–2 Adair, James, and Two Acts, 2.301 Adams, Daniel, arrest/ papers seized, 2.27 Addison, Joseph, 4.186 admission charges, lectures, 1.129–30 Aesop, 1.67 agricultural poor, conditions, 3.22–3, 26–7, 38, 38–9, 40, 44 Akenside, Mark, on Brutus, 2.72 Alexander the Great, veniality, 2.218–19 Alien Act, 2.78 alliances, 2.129–45 of government against people, 2.139–45 allies and alliances, 2.129–45 Allum [of America], JT’s letter, 2.32, 109, 111 ambition, and war, 2.216–23 America alliances, 2.143–4 avidity for commercial aggrandizement, 3.21–2 emigration to, 2.20 merchants exploiting naval capture, 2.224 Amesbury, 3.33–7 Amiens, Peace of, 4.12 Amman, Johann Konrad, 4.90 Anarchists, reformers labelled as, 2.15–16 anatomical physiology, 1.12 anatomists, French, 1.xviii Anderton’s Institution, Glasgow, 4.17

Andover, 3.28 Arbuthnot, and Scriblerus Club, 2.132 Aristogeiton and Harmodius, 2.70 Arrowsmith, Tomas, 4.96 Ashby de la Zouch, JT attacked at, 3.78 Association for the Preservation of Liberty and Property against Republicans and Levellers, Reeves and, 2.80n46 associations, political, JT withdraws to protect Tribune, 2.88–90 Athens, tyrants removed, 2.70, 71 Atkinson, Christopher (MP), 1.148 Austin, J. L., 1.xix Austria, loan to, 2.132, 136–7, 142 automatonism, human, 4.184–6 Bacon, Francis [Lord Bacon of Verulam], on poverty and unrest, 2.177, 180, 182–5, 252 Bagge, Mr [alderman of King’s Lynn], 1.166, 169, 170 Bagshot, 3.21 bail, regulation, 2.264 balances of power, 2.137–8 ballads, ancient, 4.186–7 bankruptcies, increasing, 2.12 Banks, Sir Joseph, 3.185 Barlow, Joel, 1.125 Barrow, false charges, 2.180 Barry, James, 3.36 Basingstoke, 3.24–5 Batavia see Holland Bath, 3.51–2 Baxter [friend of JT], 2.29–30 beadles, refuse to take JT into custody, 2.81 Beattie, James Hay, 3.188

– 233 –

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234

Selected Political Writings of John Telwall, Volume 4

Beaufort Buildings lectures, 1.x, xiv, 74–6 Beaufort, John [ JT’s pseud], 3.88n25 Bedford Place Institution, 1.xi, 4.60–4, 68, 103–11, 159 Belsham, Tomas, 3.117n memoirs of George III, review of, 3.150–5 Philosophy of the mind, 3.118n, 149 Bensley, Robert, 4.94, 95 Beresford family, places, 2.203, 206 Berry [apothecary of Oakham], 1.104, 109 Betty, William Henry West, 4.94 Bible and vitalism, 1.15, 16–18, 20, 21 bibliography, 1.xxv–xxxii biographical memoir, ‘J Telwall’s justifcation’, 3.57–8, 59–89 Edinburgh Review and, 3.107–8, 109–55 Birmingham disturbances, 2.178, 179 elocution lectures, 4.23, 25 Blackstone, William, Commentaries on the Laws of England, 1.45, 58, 3.120 on sovereignty, 2.257, 259 on treason, 2.27–8 Blackwater, 3.22 Blair, Hugh, 3.155, 188 blood, and vital principle, 1.16–24, 28 Boethius, Consolations of philosophy, 1.67 Bonet, Juan Pablo, 4.89–90, 91 Bonney, John Augustus, 2.29 confned in Newgate, 2.101–2 on Newgate conditions, 2.104–7 books not allowed in Tower, 2.97 stolen during JT’s arrest, 2.32 borough-mongering corruption, 2.197–209 Bow-Street runners, 1.45 Brabant, struggle for liberty, 2.140 Braidwood, Tomas, 4.91 Branson, Mr, of Doncaster, 4.35 bread price increases, 2.249–50 price to poor, 2.38–9 Brecknock, 3.8, 89 hatter’s children, 4.10–11 Brissotins, 2.170 Bristol, 3.52–5 Brothers, Richard, 2.37

Thelwall 4.indb 234

Brougham, Henry Peter [Lord Brougham and Vaux], 3.126, 127, 128, 161, 165–6 Brown, Tomas, 3.112 Browne, Simon, 4.101 Brunswick, Duke of, 1.41, 139 Brunswick Manifesto, 1.41 Brutus, Akenside on, 2.72 Builth Wells, 3.3, 89 Burchell [deputy sherif ], on jury-rigging, 4.221 Burdett, Sir Francis, 4.222 Burke, Edmund, Refections on the revolution in France, 1.xiii on chivalry, 2.219–20 on Jacobinism, 2.49–50, 56, 208 Burks [of LCS], and JT’s arrest, 2.28 Burnet, Gilbert [Bishop], histories, 1.78–9, 80, 87–8 on origin of Whigs, 2.44–5 Burnet [Sherif ], and JT’s papers, 2.100 Burns, Robert, 4.181, 188 as ploughman, 3.131, 131n Bury and Norwich Post, and Yarmouth kidnap attempt, 1.149 Caesar, rebellion against, 2.71–2 Callender, James Tomson, 1.125 Cambridge Intelligencer, and Yarmouth kidnap attempt, 1.149, 168 Canterbury debate, 1.40–1 Carpmeal [Bow-Street Runner], and JT’s arrest, 2.28–9 Chalk Farm, LCS meeting, 1.162, 2.34–5 charitable relief, as partial justice, 2.186–7 Charles I King of England, state trials, 1.77–8 Charles II King of England ministers and imagined plots, 2.76, 78–9 state trials, 1.79–80 Charles Louis, Elector Palantine, 1.87 Chatterton, Tomas, 3.53 Chepstow, 3.3 chivalry, age of, Burke on, 2.219–20 chronology, 1.xxxiii–iv circulating medium [money], not wealth, 3.11–12 civic humanism, Telwall and, 1.xii

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Index Claeys, Gregory, Te politics of English Jacobinism: writings of John Telwall, 2.vii classical history, JT purports to lecture on, 1.123, 128, 130–1, 147 classical theories, vitalism, 1.14–15 classical writers, libertarian, quoting, 1.125–6 Claverton Down, 3.51 Clayton, Sir Richard, 4.97–8 Cline, Frances, JT and, 3.70–1 Cline, Henry, 1.xxiiin18, 3.72 JT’s letters on speech defects, 4.1–111, 4.147–73 lectures, 2.126 Coach-Makers Hall, 1.40 debating society, 3.74, 75 Cobbett, William, Rural rides, 1.xvi Cobham, Lord (Sir John Oldcastle), 1.91–4 Cockayne, Mr [agent provocateur], 2.58–9 Cocker’s Arithmetic, 2.10 Coke, Sir Edward, upon Littleton, 1.58 Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 3.17n2 ‘Protest’, 2.287 Telwall and, 1.xi Collins, William, 3.138 Colman, George, discourages JT from theatricals, 3.63 Combes, John [or William, of Oakham], 1.104, 108, 109, 111 commerce, and manufacture, 2.9–13 common causes, international, 2.131 Commons, proceedings, 2.266–7 conscripts families, 2.17–18 proportion of labour force, 2.21–2 consonants, defnition, 4.210–11 conspiracy, Eyre’s defnition, 2.99–100 Constable, Archibald, 3.111, 161, 177n constitution, British, 2.42–3, 2.258 1688 provisions, 2.255–70 and gagging acts, 2.271–89 as triple balance, 2.137 corruption/ usurpation, 2.243–54 Convention of 1688, 2.258 Conventional Bill [Ireland], 2.180 Cooke, George Frederick, 3.134n, 143 Cooper, Sir Astley Paston, 1.xxiiin18, 4.35 Cooper [LCS member], false charges, 2.178

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235

Copenhagen Fields meeting, 1.x Copenhagen House, LCS meeting, 1.162 Cork military riots, 2.180–1 corn shortage, and hair powder, 2.38–40 corruption parliamentary, as cause of unrest, 2.177–89, 197–209 political system, 2.243–54 Corsica, constitution, 2.8 counter–revolutionaries, 2.268–9 Courier, Te JT as manager, 3.78, 81, 127 account of Yarmouth kidnap attempt, 1.145–8, 157 Crickhowel, 3.20 crimping see navy pressing Crombie, Alexander, Etymology and syntax of the English language, 4.206 Cromwell, Oliver, and public justice, 1.78–9 Crossfeld, Robert Tomas, 1.76n3 D’Urfey, Tom, 4.188 Dallas, Sir Robert, 3.74 Darwin, Erasmus ‘Analysis of articulate sounds’, 4.206–7 ‘Te Botanic Garden’ [poem], 2.32 and climate change, 2.133 and Stone-Henge, 3.37 Davenant, Charles, on misgovernment, 2.186 de Bouilly, M., 4.92 de l’Epeé, Abbé Charles-Michel, Institution for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb, 4.89–93, 96 deaf and dumb people, education institutions, 4.39, 60–4, 68, 89–92 deaf people, teachers, 4.93 debating societies, JT and, 3.71 declamation, JT on, 1.118–19 democracy, Cromwell and, 1.78 Denman, Tomas, on fraenum operations, 4.25–6, 86–8 Dent, Mr [MP], on hair powder, 2.38 depopulation, 2.7–8, 9–10, 20–2 Deptford Batch, 3.38 Derby, JT attacked at, 3.78 despairing poverty, and insurrection, 2.251–2

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236

Selected Political Writings of John Telwall, Volume 4

despotism, self-defeating, 2.17–20 disabilities, overcome by perserverence, 4.36–7 disunity as weapon of government, 2.165–75 Down Husband, 3.28 drama, JT on, 1.118–19 Dryden, John, rhythmus in, 4.8–9 Dundas, Henry [Secretary of State] and Gerrald, 2.64–5 and JT’s trial, 2.30–1, 33–5 and slavery gradual abolition, 2.150–1, 154–5 on JT confnement in Tower, 2.98 places, 2.204 Dundas family, places, 2.203, 206–7 Eamer [Sherif ], 2.103 and JT’s papers, 2.100 Eaton, Daniel Isaac, 1.33n1, 45, 76n3, 104 Eaton, Harry [of LCS] and JT’s arrest, 2.28 and Privy Council, 2.35–6 bail set at £2000, 2.264 Edinburgh, elocution lectures, 4.23 Edinburgh Convention, 1.64–6 Edinburgh Five, Te, 1.64–6, 83–4, 96 Edinburgh, JT’s elocution lectures at, 3.138–42, 163–7 Edinburgh Review ‘Observations ...’ authorship, 3.161–3 JT’s reply to review of poems, 3.107–8, 109–55 JT’s reply to FJ, 3.157–8, 159–88 Edward III King of England, statute on treason, 2.77–8 Edwards [ JT’s neighbour], 1.127 eggs, vital principle, 1.20–2, 28 Eldon, Lord (Attorney General), 1.124 and JT’s trial, 2.33–5 Elizabeth I Queen of England, state trials, 1.77 Ellis, George, Specimens of the early English poets, 4.186 elocution and physiology, 4.11–111 defned, 4.120–1, 123–5 elocutionary science, 4.119–28, 235–44

Thelwall 4.indb 236

English, neglected, 4.16 Greek, 4.14 pupil types, 4.103–4 see also speech disability cures; speech science elocution lectures, 4.116–28 development, 4.12–13, 23 Edinburgh, disrupted, 3.138–42, 163–7 prospectus, 3.91–2, 93–106 stage, JT lecture on, 3.99 eloquence, defned, 4.119–20 emigration, 2.20–1 enclosures, efects, 3.39–40, 44, 46 enunciative organs, JT lecture on, 3.96, 99 enunciative speech impediments, cure, 4.10–11 Epictetus, 1.67 Erskine, Tomas [Baron], 3.155 and Newgate conditions, 2.105 defends JT, 3.77 on House of Commons, 3.9–10 Esten, Harriet Pye, 3.134n, 143 Europe, military alliances, 2.131–45 excise laws, Pitt and, 2.207 export/ import statistics, 2.10–13 exports, military, 2.11–13 Eyre, Sir James on Newgate conditions, 2.105–6 on sovereignty, 2.257 on treason, 2.99 Fabricius, 1.87 factions, avoiding, 2.163–75 Farley, 3.50 Farren, Elizabeth, 2.295 Favell, Mr, 2.273 FitzWilliam, William Earl, 2.50 on Beresford family, 2.203 Flood, Henry, 4.35 foods, Wye, 3.5–7 Fonthill, 3.40–1 food prices, 1.xiv–xv Ford, Richard false reports, 2.175 promises return of personal papers, 2.95–6 Fox, Charles James, 1.139 Fox and Liberty, 2.49

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Index on French war, 2.22 fraenum operations, 4.25–6, 86–8 France alliances, 2.141, 144–5 despotism self-defeating, 2.17–20 King’s ministers as traitors, 2.74–5 revolution, 1.35–6, 41 as lecture subject, 1.126–7 factionism, 2.170–1 rebellion as salvation, 2.73–4 war with, 1.xiii, xiv–xv costs, 2.7–13, 15–16 efects, 1.136–7 French as ‘natural enemies’, 2.215–16 shipping embargo against, 2.224–5 Franklin, Benjamin, as printer’s devil, 3.129, 130 fraternity and unanimity, 1.97–9 Frederick II King of Prussia on politics, 2.216–17 on responsibilities of monarchs, 2.52 Frederick II of Saxony, reforms, 1.87 freedom of speech, 1.35–6 evading gag acts, 1.115–31, 139–40 restriction, 2.53–4 freedom of speech see Gagging Acts Freeman, Mr [alderman of King’s Lynn], 1.170 French anatomists, 1.xviii Freshford, 3.51 Friends of the Freedom of the Press, 2.178 Friends of the People, Southwark, JT and, 3.75–6 Frome, 3.48–50 Fulham Bridge, 3.18 Fuseli, Henri, 3.36 Gagging Acts 1795, 1.ix–x, xv, xxii and constitution, 2.271–89 Garnet, Dr, 3.185 Garrow, Sir William, 3.74 Gay, John, 3.37, 4.182 and Scriblerus Club, 2.132 as silk mercer, 3.129, 130, 131n George III King of England, purported assassination attempt, 1.ix–x, 2.243 Germans, as allies, 2.13, 23–4

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Gerrald, Joseph, 1.64–6, 81, 83–4, 96 in Newgate, 2.63, 107 JT visits in prison, 2.66–7, 83–4 on war, 2.26 persecution, 2.62–5 Gesner, Solomon, 4.179 Gibbon, Edward, Decline and fall of the Roman Empire, 2.77 Gibbs, Sir Vicary defends JT, 3.77 and Newgate conditions, 2.105 Gilpin, William, 3.3 Glasgow, elocution lectures, 4.23 Globe Tavern Debating Society, 1.44–5 Glorious Revolution (1688), 2.255–70 efects, 1.xiii, xxi–ii see also constitution, British Godwin, William ‘Considerations on Lord Grenville and Mr. Pitt’s Bills’, JT on, 2.121–8, 239–42, 287 ‘Cursory strictures ...’, 1.xiii–xiv, 2.99n50 Enquiry concerning political justice, 2.15n8, 19n10 on ‘Two Acts’, 1.xv Telwall and, 1.xiii–xiv, xv–xvi Goldsmith, Oliver, 4.187 Gordon riots, 2.123, 239, 240, 242 Gosling [spy], 2.167, 237 Gough, John on Alpine idiocy, 4.97–102 on speech disability, 4.17–23, 45, 46–55, 64, 80, 81 governments allied against people, 2.139–45 patricidal, 2.68–70 Grand Alliance, 2.49 Grand Juries regulation, 2.99 Savoy Liberty, 1.74–6 Gray, Tomas, 3.19 Great Yarmouth see Yarmouth Greek elocution, 4.14 Greek theatre, 2.296–301 Gregory, Pope, suppressing profane books, 2.245 Grenville family, places, 2.203, 204–5 Grenville, Lord see Dundas, Henry

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Grey, Mr, on Paine efgy burning, 2.178–9 Grey, Sir Charles [Earl Grey], 2.9 Groves [spy], 2.167, 237 Gurney, Sir John and Eaton trial, 1.76, 78, 82–3, 90 State Trials, 2.104 Guy’s Hospital, JT and, 1.xi, xvii–xviii, 3.72, 4.6 Haighton, John, 3.72, 4.6 hair powder tax, 2.36–40 Hales, Matthew, 1.85 Hampton Court Palace, 3.19 Hardy, confned in Newgate, 2.101–2 Hardy, Tomas, 1.76n3, 97 acquittal, 2.275 arrest/ papers seized, 2.27 funeral, 4.217–18 in Tower, 2.98 JT’s oration, 4.218–23 treason trial, 2.28, 87–8 Harmodius and Aristogeiton, 2.70 harmonics, JT lecture on, 3.100 harmony and speech, 4.14–17, 75–6, 201–13 Harrington, James, 1.78, 125 Hartford Bridge, 3.22 Hartley, David, 1.xvii Harvey, William, and vital principle, 1.18 Harvey [schoolmaster], 3.62 Hastings, Warren, 3.20–1 Hay-on-Wye, 3.6, 89 JT’s books seized at, 3.84 Hazlitt, William, on Telwall, 1.x, xvi heat, and vital principle, 1.20–2 Heinich, S., 4.91 Helmont, Francis Mercury Van, 4.91 Henry V, and Cobham, 1.91–4 Hereford, 3.12 elocution lectures, 4.23 Hereford [Surrey], 3.19, 20 Hewson, William, on blood, 1.22 Higgins, George [of LCS], in prison, 2.37 Hill, George, 3.188 Historical and Oratorical Society, 4.104–11 Hoare, Sir Richard, 3.46 Hodgson, William, 2.310 Hogg, James [Ettric Shepherd], 4.181

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Holcrof, Tomas, 3.72, 4.189–90 Holder, William, 4.91, 202–4 Holland struggle for liberty, 2.140–1 unreliable ally, 2.22–3 Hollocks [militia ofcer], 1.148 Homer, rhythmus in, 4.9 Homes, Henry [Lord Kames], 3.155 Hondy [Honddu] River, 3.8 Hook, condition of poor, 3.22 Horne Tooke, John, 1.xxiiin18, 76n3 acquittal, 2.275 confned in Newgate, 2.101–2 in Tower, 2.98 JT and, 3.74 on borough-mongering, 2.201–2, 234–5 Horner, Francis, 3.112 Hornor, Mr, of York [prosthetic dentist], 4.13 Horsley, Samuel, bishop of Rochester, 2.281 Hubert, Tomas (of Leige), 1.87 Huddersfeld, JT lecture course, 3.105–6 Hull, elocution lectures, 4.13 human automatonism, 4.184–6 Hume, David, 3.155 Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary, 2.164, 235, 287 on national debt, 2.8n2 on Stuarts, 1.82–3, 85–6, 87–8 Hunter, John on vital principle, 1.14–26 Telwall and, 1.xvii Hurry family, of Yarmouth, 1.145, 147, 148 Hyde, Edward Earl of Clarendon, 2.46–7 Impey, John, JT and, 3.68–70 Inchbald, Rev. Mr, Classical Seminary, 4.26 individuals, lives, not valued in war, 2.7–8 informers, Telwall on, 1.37–8, 39–69 Institution for the Cure of Impediments of Speech ..., 1.xi, 4.60–4, 68, 103–11, 159 institutions, social, decay, 2.51–7 international alliances, 2.129–45 Ireland, people in misery, 2.180, 183–4 Itard, Jean Marc Gaspard, 4.79

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Index Jackson, Rev Mr, persecuted, 2.58–62 Jacobins fears of, 1.ix reformers labelled as, 2.15–16 James, Dr. of Carlisle, 4.57–8, 60, 81 James I King of England, state trials, 1.77 Jefrey, Francis JT letter to, 3.107–8, 109–55 JT’s lecture disruption, 3.138–42, 163–7 JT’s reply to FJ, 3.157–8, 159–88 Jefreys, George [ Judge], 1.90 ‘Jefs’ [lies] defned, 3.115–21n Jervis, John, Admiral [Earl of St. Vincent], 2.9 Jesus, as frst Jacobin, 2.253 Jew’s-Harp House meeting, 2.273 Jonson, Ben English grammar, 4.84, 96 Sejanus, 1.39, 52, 56, 57, 62, 63–4 words adapted, 1.51 Jordan, Dorothy, 2.295 Joyce, confned in Newgate, 2.101–2 judiciary, independence, 2.265 Junius [pseud], 3.74 juries interference with, 2.79–80, 4.221 selection, 2.263–4 justice, international alliance for, 2.131–4 Kant, Immanuel, 4.36 Katterfelto, Gustavus, 2.22 Kemble, John Philip, 3.134n, 143, 4.94, 95, 212–13 Kenrick, William, 4.202, 204 King [Secretary to Dundas] and JT’s arrest, 2.28–9 and JT’s trial, 2.35 King’s Arms (Cornhill), disturbance, 1.40–2 King’s Lynn, lecture broken up by Navy, 1.164–70 kings, imagining death of, as treason, 2.78 Kyd, confned in Newgate, 2.101–2 Lacon, Sir Edmund Knowles, 1.154 language, Telwall and, 1.xix–xx law, JT seeks career in, 3.68–70 Lawrence, William, 1.xvii laws, to be made by consent of all, 2.280

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LCS, misrepresented, 2.173–5 le Mesurier, Paul (Lord Mayor of London), 1.45–6, 47–8 Le Grand, Edwin, 3.72 lecture programmes, 2.310–11 lectures, and Seditious Meetings Act, JT on, 1.120–1, 123–8, 139–40 lectures, political Godwin’s attack on, 2.121–8 outlined, 1.130–1 elocution, 4.116–28 development, 4.12–13, 23 Edinburgh, disrupted, 3.138–42, 163–7 prospectus, 3.91–2, 93–106 lecturing, JT on, 1.118–20 Leeds, elocution lectures, 4.13 Lemaitre, Peter [of LCS], in prison, 2.37 lettres de cachet, 1.158 Lewis, Matthew Gregory ‘Monk’, 4.185 libel, lawyers on, 2.57 liberty 1688, erosion, 2.255–70 international alliance for, 2.131–4 lost in Britain, 1.136–8 literary career, JT and, 3.70–4, 86–9 literary reviewers, JT on, 3.109, 125–6n, 148–55 Llys-Wen, JT farms at, 3.81–9 Locke, John, 1.xxiiin19, 125 Lollards, persecution, 1.86–9 London Corresponding Society (LCS) and treason trial, 2.27–9 JT and, 1.xv, 45, 162, 2.275, 276, 3.76 persecuted, 4.220–1 Longlete, 3.50 Lord Chancellor, and JT’s trial, 2.33–5 Lords Chamberlains, powers, 2.293 Lorraine, Claude, 3.3 Lovett, and treason trial, 2.27 luxuries, Telwall on, 1.xii–xiii Lynam [spy], 2.167, 237 Lynn [King’s Lynn] lecture broken up by Navy, 1.164–70 JT attacked at, 3.78 Machiavelli, Niccolò, 2.41 on political assassination, 2.60 Maclaurin, Dr, 3.72, 172

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Magna Carta, 2.42–3 and Gagging Acts 1795, 1.ix Maiden Bradley, 3.47 Manchester, disturbances, 2.178–9 Mann, Mr, on Institutions for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb, 4.89, 91, 93, 96 Mansfeld, William Murray, Earl of, 3.155 manufacture, decline in, 2.9–10, 11 Marat, Jean-Paul, 2.173 Margarot, Maurice, 1.64–6, 83–4, 96 portraits, 2.29, 32 persecution, 2.62 martial enthusiasm, oratory and, JT lecture on, 3.96 Martin, John [of LCS] ‘An account of the proceedings on a charge of high treason’ [pamphlet], 2.99 on hair powder, 2.39 in prison, 2.37, 98 Mary Stuart Queen of Scotland, 1.77 Marylebone, poverty in, 2.187 Mason, William, Elfida, 1.118 massacres, wars as, 2.21 McCann, Andrew, on self-fashioning, 1.xix medical lectures, JT attends, 3.72 medicine, Telwall and, 1.xvii–xx Merchant-Taylor’s Hall meeting, 2.273 Mere, 3.46 military behaviour in Tower prison, 2.97–8, 99 consumption of hair powder, 2.38–9 military alliances, 2.129–45 military victories, social costs, 2.17–21 militia, Yarmouth, and attempted kidnap of JT, 1.144–9 Milton, John, rhythmus in, 4.8–9, 68–75 ministers ambition as cause of unrest, 2.177–89 duty to govern without despotism, 2.19–20 opposition to as treason, 2.77 treasonable, 2.68–70, 73–9 moderation, as principle, 2.91 modulation and monotony, JT lecture on, 3.98 monarchs and rights, 1.xiii, xxi–ii

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imagining death of, as treason, 2.78 responsibilities, 2.52–6 Monboddo, Burnett, James Lord, 4.16 Monck, George [General] Duke of Albemarle, 2.46–7 Money, Cammon [or John], 1.146 Montesquieu, Charles–Louis de Secondat, 1.126 on aristocracy, 2.42 Montgaillard, Jean Gabriel Maurice Roque, Comte de, 2.15 Monthly Magazine Gough on speech physiology, 4.18–22 ‘J Telwall’s justifcation’, 3.57–8, 59–89 JT’s articles for, 1.xvi ‘Pedestrian excursion through several parts of England and Wales during the summer of 1797’, 3.15–16, 17–55 ‘Te Phenomenon of the Wye, during the winter of 1797–8’, 3.1–2, 3–13 Moore, Tomas, 4.189 morality, war against, 2.138–9 Morland, George, 3.36 Morning Chronicle, on Gerrald, 2.62–5 Morning Post on JT removal to Newgate, 2.101–2 report of Eaton’s examination, 2.35–6 Moyes, Henry, 3.185 Muir, Tomas, 1.66n48, 83–4, 96 in Newgate, 2.107 persecution, 2.62 Murrel Green, 3.22 musical science, and speech science, 4.14–17, 75–6, 201–13 national debt, 2.8, 21–2, 3.10–11 increase, 2.198–200 national vanity, social costs, 2.16–21 navy pressing, 2.147n21, 152, 157–61 attempted kidnaps of JT, 1.144–64, 165–70, 4.222 Nelson, Horatio, efusion upon, 4.128–35 Newgate conditions, 2.102–3, 105–7 Gerrald confned in, 2.63, 107 John Martin confned in, 2.37 JT confned in, 2.86, 100, 101–3, 236, 3.77

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Index Newham, Alderman, supporter of slavery, 2.148, 153 non-violent resistance, 2.72–3, 76 Norfolk Chronicle, and Yarmouth kidnap attempt, 1.153 Norfolk Island, Gerrald transported to, 2.62–5, 83 North, Frederick Earl of Guilford, 2.217 Northcote, James, 3.36 Norwich JT attacked at, 3.78 JT visits, 1.140–1, 142 poverty in, 2.186 Norwich Mercury, and Yarmouth kidnap attempt, 1.153 O’Connor, Arthur, 1.76n3 Oakham, JT married at, 3.71 Oakhamites, 1.104–5 Old Sarum [rotten borough], 3.33 Oldcastle, Sir John Lord Cobham, 1.91–4 Opie, John, 3.36 oratory defned, 4.120–2 lecture prospectus, 3.91–2, 93–106 order/ morality, war against, 2.138–9 Otway, Tomas, Venice Preserved, 2.292 Overton, 3.26–7 Paine, Tomas, 1.125, 139, 2.173 burned in efgy, 2.178–9 Decline and fall of the English system of fnance, 2.8n2, 3.11 Rights of man, 1.xiii, 81 Sharpe portrait, 2.32 painting, JT seeks career in, 3.63, 64–5, 67 palates, artifcial, 4.24–5, 34–6, 149–51 Palmer family, of Yarmouth, 1.147 Palmer, Tomas Fyshe, 1.66, 83–4, 96 persecution, 2.62 parish constables, refuse to take JT into custody, 2.81 Park Tavern, Borough, 1.46–7 Parliament non-representative, 2.56–7 see also government; ministers parliamentary corruption, as cause of unrest, 2.177–89, 197–209

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party spirit and public principle, 2.41–50 pastoral poetry, JT on, 4.179–83 Paterculus, Marcus Velleius, quoted, 2.42 patricidal governments, 2.68–70, 71–9 patriots, anniversary of arrest, 2.65–70, 71–84 peace, international alliance for, 2.131–4 Peace of Amiens, 4.12 people, conditions worse than West India slaves, 2.147–61 Percy, Tomas, Reliques of ancient English poetry, 4.186 persecutions, political, 2.51–65 personal factions, avoiding, 2.163–75 Peter the wild Boy, 4.40 Petersham, 3.18 Phillips, Sir Richard, 3.88 Philomathian Society, 1.1–2, 3–7 Philosophical Transactions of the Manchester Society, 4.17–18 Physical Society, JT and, 3.72–3, 172 physiognomical expression, JT lecture on, 3.103 physiology, 1.12 and elocutionary science, 4.11–111 JT’s early studies, 4.7 Pisistratus, 2.70 Pitt and Grenville Acts see Gagging Acts Pitt family, places, 2.203, 204–5 Pitt, William (Chancellor of the Exchequer), 1.ix–x, xiv–xvi, 124, 125, 139 and Jackson case, 2.59 and JT’s trial, 2.33–5 and Quintuple Alliance, 1.43–4 at Canterbury, 1.40–1 budget 1795, 2.7–13 denies corn shortage, 2.39, 40 jury-rigging, 4.221 JT confenement in Tower, 2.98 places, 2.204–5, 207 places [political sinecures], 2.200–8 and 1688 law, 2.262–3 Playfair, John, 3.188 Plowden, Francis Peter, 1.58 poetry JT on, 4.179–83, 186–7 rhythmus in, 4.8–9, 68–75

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Poland and Prussia, 2.136 despotism, 2.19 police, at political meetings, 1.45, 46–7 political assassination, 2.60–2 political career, JT and, 3.74–81 political parties, and public principle, 2.41–50 political system, corruption/ usurpation, 2.243–54 poor people, conditions worse than West India slaves, 2.147–61 poor rates, increase, 2.198–9 Pop-gun Plots, 2.185 Pope, Alexander, 3.19, 4.179, 4.186–7 and Scriblerus Club, 2.132 Essay on man, 1.xviii population, efect of war, 2.7–8, 9–10, 20–2 Portland, William Henry Cavendish Cavendish–Bentinck, Duke, 2.50 Portsmouth magistrates, JT praises, 2.66–7 Poussin, Nicolas, 3.3 poverty, attitudes to, 3.129n press censorship, 1.82–6 press gangs, and merchant navy, 1.172 see also navy pressing price rises, 1.xiv–xv, 2.249–50 Price, Richard on borough-mongering, 2.201–2, 234–5 on monarchy, 1.xiii Priestley, Joseph, 1.xvii, 2.178 principles, attempted extermination, 2.245–7 Pringle, Dr, of Alnwick, 4.81 Prior, Matthew, as waiter, 3.129, 130, 131n prison, thoughts not confned, 1.67 Privy Council JT examined by, 2.32–5 regulation, 2.260 pronunciation, JT lecture on, 3.100–1 prosecutions for political opinions, Telwall on, 1.71–2, 73–99 prosecutions, pretended treason, 2.65–70, 71–84 Prussia and German powers, 2.247–8 and Poland, 2.136

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public, not allowed to discuss war/ diplomacy, 2.248–9 public principle, and party spirit, 2.41–50 public revenue, wasted on war, 2.8–10 pulsation and remission, JT lecture on, 3.96 punishments, regulation, 2.264 Pye, Henry James, on Harmodius and Aristogeiton, 2.70, 71, 72 Quintuple Alliance, Pitt and, 1.43–4 Radical triumvarite; or, infdel Paine, Lord Byron, and surgeon Lawrence, colleaguing with the Patriotic Radicals ... [pamphlet], 1.xviii Raleigh, Sir Walter, 1.77 Ramsay, Allan, 4.180, 188 Ramsey [ed], State Trials, 2.104 Rapin de Toyras, Paul de, 1.125 on political parties, 2.46, 47, 79 rebellion, as salvation not treason, 2.69–70, 71–9 Reeves, John [magistrate], 1.127 and Association for Preserving Liberty and Property against Republicans and Levellers, 1.40n4, 45, 59–60, 2.278 and Savoy Liberty jury, 1.74–6 and JT’s trial, 2.80–2, 171, 261–2 reformers, not rioters, 2.177 Regency Bill, 1.40 regicide advocated, 1.33–6 Reid, Tomas, 3.188 religion, wars to protect, 2.139 Renovator, Te [ JT pseud], writings from Te Champion, 4.179–83, 184–6, 192–7 Requisition Bill [navy pressing], 2.159–60 research, factors preventing, 4.45–6 resistance, non-violent, 2.72–3, 76 Restoration, increase of public trials, 1.79 revolution, 1688, 2.255–70 Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 3.36 rhythmus, physical principles, 4.8–9, 68–75 and speech defects treatment, 4.9–10, 81–6 Richard II King of England, and Tresillian, 2.69 Richmond Hill, 3.18–19

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Index Richter [LCS member] and JT’s papers, 2.109–11 arrest/ papers seized, 2.27 confned in Newgate, 2.101–2 on Newgate conditions, 2.104, 105 treason trial, 2.27, 101, 102, 105, 106, 109, 110, 111 Ring, John, 4.179, 183 Roberts, Captain, of L’Espiegle, attempts to press JT, 1.144–64, 4.222 Robespierre, Maximilien François Marie Isidore de, 1.149 Robison, professors, 3.188 Robson, Mr [of King’s Lynn], 1.166 Roe, Richard Baillie, 4.86 Roman theatre, 2.306 Rome, tyrants removed, 2.71–2, 73 Ross on Wye, 3.3 rotten boroughs system, 2.56–7, 58, 182–3 Rowan, Hamilton, 2.59 Russell, Lord William, 2.56 Russia, despotism, 2.19 Rye House plot, 2.56n39–40 Sacheverell, Henry, seditious libel, 2.49 Salisbury, 3.28 Salisbury Cathedral, 3.28–9 Sans Culottism, 2.44, 45, 310 Saunderson, Sir James [Lord Mayor of London], 3.75 and Society for Free Debate, 1.40, 42n7, 42–4, 47–8 seeks redress for poor, 2.268 Savage of Aveyron, 4.40, 79 Savoy Liberty, Grand Jury, 1.74–6 Saxon England, Telwall and, 1.xx–xxi Saxons, purported liberty, 3.9–10 Schaw [messenger], and JT’s arrest, 2.28–9, 31–2 schools, JT and, 3.61–2 science, Telwall and, 1.xvii–xx Scott, Alexander, 1.66n48 Scott, John, Earl of Eldon see Eldon, Lord Scott, Mr (brandy merchant), 1.75 Scott, Sir Walter, 4.187 Scottish Martyrs, Te, 1.64–6, 83–4, 96 sedition charges dismissed (1794), 1.74–6

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seditious libel crime of dreaming, 1.58–60 lawyers on, 2.57–8 Stuarts and, 1.82–6 Seditious Meetings Act 1795, 1.ix–x, xv, xxii and lecturing, 1.120–1, 123–8, 139–40 text extract, 1.121–3 self-fashioning, Telwall, 1.xix Septembrists, 1.145 Shakespeare, William, 4.179–80 Shefeld, elocution lectures, 4.13 Shelburne, William Petty–Fitzmaurice Earl of, on borough-mongering, 2.201–2, 234–5 Shenstone, William, 4.190 Shepherd, William, Life of Poggio Bracciolini, 3.149, 151–2n, 167–8n Shepperton, 3.20 Sheridan, Tomas, General dictionary of the English language, 4.205–6 Shield, William, 4.76, 189–90 shop work, JT and, 3.63, 64 shorthand writer, JT employs, 3.77–8 Sicard, Roch-Ambroise Cucurron, 4.96 Siddons, Sarah, 2.295 Sidney, Algernon, 1.64–6, 90, 125, 2.56 Simonides, 2.151–2 simple life, Telwall and, 1.xi Sinclair, Charles, 1.64–6, 84 Skirving, William, 1.66, 83–4, 96 persecution, 2.62 slave trade comparative estimate, 2.147–61 war as, 1.51 slavery, British poor, 2.200 smallpox inoculations, and blindness/ deafness, 4.39 Smirke, Robert, 3.36 Smith, Adam, 3.188 Smith, John [of LCS], in prison, 2.37 Smith, Sir James Edward, 3.185 Society for Constitutional Information, 2.29n21 Society for Free Debate, 1.40–7 Socrates, prosecuted for treason, 2.300–5 soldiery, considered as an honourable vocation, 2.244 song writing, JT on, 4.188–90

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soul, and vitalism, 1.14–16 Southey, Robert, ‘Joan of Arc’, 3.54 sovereignty, of the people, 2.256–70 Spain, alliance with, 2.247 speech disabilities, 3.97 and deafness, 4.56–8, 93–7 and epilepsy, 4.58–60 and mental disability, 4.44–6, 48–63, 65–8 and sensory disability, 4.39–44, 45, 46–8 failure to develop speech, 4.39–46 hereditary, 4.27–8 physiological, 4.25–6, 34–6, 78, 86–8 psychological causes, 4.23, 27–34, 159–73 vocal defects, minor, 4.94–5 speech disability cures enunciative cures, 4.10–11, 26 patient attitudes, 4.30–2, 36–8 physiological cures, 4.17–38, 151–8 rhythmus treatment, 4.9–10 speech physiology, 4.11–111 Gough on, 4.17–23 JT lecture on, 3.95–8 vocal and enunciative, distinction, 4.77–81 speech science elocutionary science, 4.119–28, 235–44 JT’s development, 4.1–111 and harmony, 4.14–17, 75–6, 201–13 see also elocution Spencer, George John [Earl], 1.147–8 spies and informers, government, 1.37–8, 39–69, 2.75 spinners, poor, 3.48–50 spirit, vital, 1.26–7 Spitalfelds, poverty in, 2.187 Spouting Clubs, 3.64 spy system, Pitt and, 2.208 Squires, farm at, 3.23–4 St George’s felds, LCS meeting, 1.162 St Paul, and vitalism, 1.15 St Tomas’s Hospital, JT attends lectures, 4.6 stage elocution, JT lecture on, 3.99 Staines, 3.20 stammering, curing, 4.17

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Star Chamber, and press, 1.82–6 state trials, 3.76 history, 1.77–81 Stuarts and, 1.87–8, 79–80, 82–6, 2.65–6, 76 Steele, Joshua, Prosodia Rationalis, 4.14–17, 75–6 Stockport, JT attacked at, 3.78 Stodart [painter], 3.36 Stoke, 3.51 Stone-Henge, 3.37 Stour-head, 3.46–7 Strange, Sir John, 1.58 Stuart monarchs and divine right, 2.257–60 and political parties, 2.43–4 and pretended treason, 2.56, 65–6 state trials, 1.87–8, 79–80, 82–6, 2.65–6, 76 treasonable ministers, 2.76 Stukeley, William, 3.37 Sun, Te, misrepresentations in, 2.174 Sunbury, 3.19 Sunning Hill, 3.21 suspicion upon oath, Seditious Meetings Act, 1.125 Swif, Jonathan, 1.57 and Scriblerus Club, 2.132 on political distinctions, 2.48 swinish herd, Burke on people as, 2.10, 11 Switzerland, alliances, 2.144 Sydney see Sidney, Algernon Sylvanus Teophrastus, JT as, 3.72 Tacitus, Manners of the Germans, 3.10 Tacitus, Publius (or Gaius) Cornelius, quoted, 2.41–2 Tandy, Napper, 2.59–60 Tarquins, rebellion against, 2.71 taxation and National Debt, 3.10–11 increase, 2.198–200 hair powder, 2.36–40 Taylor, John [government spy], 2.82, 167 Telegraph, Te, on hair powder, 2.39 theatre, JT seeks career in, 3.63–5 theatre elocution, JT lecture on, 3.99

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Index theatres only 2 allowed in London, 2.293–4 political prostitution of, 2.291–307 Telwall, John chronology, 1.xxxiii–iv life, 3.57–8, 59–89 daughter’s death, 3.85, 124–5 early life, 1.x, 3.61–70 lisp cured by artifcial teeth, 4.13 marriage to Stella Vellum, 3.71 simple life, 1.xi–xiii careers self-fashioning, 1.xix elocution, 1.xi, xix–xx, 3.91–2, 93–106 farming, 3.81–9 historian, 1.xx–xxii journalist/ orator, 1.xiv–xvi political activist, 1.ix–xiv, 3.74–81 scientist, 1.xvii–xx writer, 1.xii, 3.70–4, 86–9 treason charge 1794, 1.x–xi, xv arrest, 2.27–36, 80–2 confned in Newgate, 2.86, 100, 101–3, 236, 3.77 confned in Tower, 2.66, 86, 95–102, 105–6, 236, 241, 3.77 papers seized, 2.27–36, 82, 95–6, 100–1, 107–14, 3.76–7 trial, 2.32–36, 93–114 works, 1.xxv–ix bibliography, 1.xxv–xxxii ‘Address of J. Telwall to the audience at closing his lectures for the season’, 2.85–91 Appeal to popular opinion, against kidnapping & murder ..., 1.133–4, 135–72 Classical lectures, 3.78 ‘Civic oration on the anniversary of the acquittal of the Lecturer’, 2.271–89 ‘Connection between the calamities of the present reign, and the system of borough-mongering corruption’, 2.197–209 ‘Continuation of the narrative of the proceedings of the messengers, &c’, 2.93–114 Daughter of adoption, 3.88

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245 ‘Elements of euphony’ [lecture], 4.207–13 Elocution and oratory: general plan and outline of Mr. Telwall’s course of lectures (1803), 3.91–2, 93–106 ‘Essay on human automatonism’, 4.184–6 Essay towards a def nition of Animal Vitality, 1.xvii–xviii, 9–10, 11–29, 3.72–3, 172 ‘Examination of Mr. Pitt’s statement of the fourishing state of our commerce – From the lecture on the BUDGET’, 2.7–13 Fairy of the Lake, 1.xx ‘Farewel address’, 2.309–15 ‘First lecture on the political prostitution of our public theatres’, 2.291–307 ‘Funeral oration to Tomas Hardy’, 4.215–16, 217–23 ‘Further enquiry into the calamities produced by the system and usurpation and corruption (Fourth lecture)’, 2.211–25 ‘Further enquiry into the calamities produced by the system of corruption (Fifh lecture)’, 2.227–38 ‘Further enquiry into the calamities produced by the system of usurpation and corruption (Eighth lecture)’, 2.243–54 ‘Godwin’s pamphlet’, 2.240–2 ‘Harmonic qualities of the literal elements’ [lecture], 4.201–7 ‘Historical strictures on Whigs and Tories – From the frst lecture on the distinction between party spirit and public principle’, 2.41–50 Hope of Albion; or, Edwin of Northumbria, 1.xx, 3.83 ‘J Telwall’s justifcation’, 3.57–8, 59–89 John Gilpin’s ghost or, the warning voice of King Chanticleer ..., 1.101–2, 103–112 King Chaunticlere; or, the fate of tyranny..., 1.31–2, 33–6, 45, 2.185

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Telwall, John works Lectures on the Science and Practice of Elocution, 4.116–28 Letter to Francis Jefray, Esq., on certain calumnies and misrepresentations, 3.107–8, 109–55 Letter to Henry Cline, esq., 4.1–111 Monthly Magazine articles, 1.xvi Mr Telwall’s Reply to the ... Anonymous Observations on His Letter to the Editor of Te Edinburgh Review (1804), 3.157–8, 159–88 ‘Narrative of the proceedings of the Messenger, &c. on the seizure of J. Telwall’s Paper ...’, 2.27–36 ‘No war just but a war of self–defence’, 2.26 ‘Ode for the anniversary of the Philomathian Society’, 1.1–2, 3–7 ‘On allies and alliances; with strictures on the faith of regular governments’, 2.129–45 ‘On pastoral poetry’, 4.179–83 ‘On prosecutions for pretended treason’, 2.65–70 ‘On prosecutions for pretended treason’ [conclusion], 2.71–84 ‘On song writing’, 4.188–90 ‘On the ancient ballad’, 4.186–7 ‘On the causes of the late disturbances ...’, 2.177–89 ‘On the comparative estimate of the slave trade, the practice of crimping, and Mr Pitt’s partial Requisition Bill’, 2.147–61 ‘On the importance of avoiding personal factions and divisions among the friends of reform’, 2.163–75 ‘On the importance of Elocution in a moral and intellectual point of view’, 3.138–41n ‘On the origin of sensation’, 3.73, 172 ‘On the probable consequences of continuing the present system of ambition and hostility’, 2.15–26 ‘On the Revolution in 1688’, 2.255–70

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‘On the system of terror and persecution adopted by the present ministry; ... the treatment of Joseph Gerrald’, 2.51–65 ‘Origin of sensation’ [lecture], 1.xviii Panoramic Miscellany, 4.199–200, 201–13 ‘Pedestrian excursion through several parts of England and Wales during the summer of 1797’, 3.15–16, 17–55 Peripatetic, 3.72 ‘Phenomena of the Wye, during the winter of 1797–8’, 3.1–2, 3–13 Political lectures, 3.75 Political lectures (No. 1) on the moral tendency of a system of spies and informers, ..., 1.37–8, 39–69 Political lectures (No. 1) on the moral tendency of a system of spies and informers, ..., advertisement text, 1.40n3 Political lectures (No. 1) on the moral tendency of a system of spies and informers, ..., postscript text, 1.48n14 Political lectures, (No.II) Sketches of the history of prosecutions for political opinion ..., 1.71–2, 73–99 Prospectus of a course of lectures in strict conformity with Mr. Pitt’s Convention Act, 1.xxii, 113–14, 115–31, 139–40, 2.313–15 Renovator [pseud], writings from Te Champion, 4.179–83, 184–6, 192–7 Results of experience ... defective utterance, 4.145–6, 147–73 Selected writings from Te Champion, 4.175–6, 177–97 Sober refections on Burke’s letter, 3.79 ‘Tax on hair powder. From the lecture on the budget’, 2.36–40 Vestibule of eloquence, 4.113–14, 115–44 ‘Vindication of the liberty of speech’ [advertisement], 1.42–3 ‘Vindication of the natural and constitutional rights of Britons’, 2.57

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Index verse ‘Gusto extraordinary or the state sulky’, 4.191 ‘Occasional address’, 4.177–8 Poems written chiefy in retirement, 1.xxivn27 Poems written chiefy in retirement, Edinburgh Review and, 3.107–8, 109–55 Poems written in close confnement in the Tower and Newgate, 3.77 ‘Political economy’, 4.178–9 sonnets, 4.191, 192 ‘Trident of Albion: an epic efusion’, 4.128–35 Telwall, Joseph [ JT’s father], 3.60–1 Telwall, Mrs Joseph [ JT’s mother], 3.67–8, 70, 71 Telwall, Stella [Vellum], 3.71 assisting JT prepare defence, 2.100, 104 declining health, 3.86 Telwall, Walter [ JT’s grandfather], 3.60 Torpe, William, 1.89–90 Tree Kings [tavern] Minories, 1.45, 47–8 Turlow, Edward, 2.208 Times, Te on hair powder debate, 2.38 on Jackson afair, 2.61 Tims [messenger], 1.xii–xiii and JT’s arrest, 2.28–32 and JT’s trial, 2.32–5 attrapment eforts, 2.93–5 and JT’s papers, 3.76–7 Tisbury, 3.41–2 Tories historical strictures on, 2.41–50 origins, 2.45–6 Tower of London, JT confned in, 2.66, 86, 95–102, 105–6, 236, 241, 3.77 trade, and colonies, 2.149–50 Traitorous Correspondence Act, 2.78 traitors, opponents of reform as, 2.252–3 treason arrests, 2.27–36 Eyre’s defnition, 2.99–100 law of, 2.27–8 ministers, 2.68–70, 73–9

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247

pretended, prosecutions, 2.65–70, 71–84 rebellion not, 2.69–70, 71–9 Treasonable Practices Act 1795, 1.ix–x, xv, xxii Tresillian, Robert, state trial, 2.69 trials, state, history, 1.77–81 Tribune, 1.xiv–xvi lectures, 1.xviii, xxi, 97–9 origins, 3.77–8 survival and treason issues, 2.88–90 volume 1 (1795), 2.1–4, 5–114 volume 2 (1796), 2.115–18, 119–89 volume 3 (1796), 2.191–4, 195–315 True Briton [loyalist newspaper], 1.ix–x misrepresentations in, 2.174 Twickenham, 3.19 Two Acts see Gagging Acts tyranny, regicide advocated, 1.33–6 Udall, John, 1.77 unemployment, 2.10 United Irishmen [political movement], 2.59 unity, pretended by government, 2.166–8 universal sufrage, 2.189 unrest, true causes, 2.177–89 Upton, 3.45 usurpation, political system, 2.243–54 Vanbrugh, John, Te provok’d wife, 1.89n26 vanity, national, social costs, 2.16–21 Vertot, Réné-Aubert, 1.126 victories, military, social costs, 2.17–21 Vincent, Rev. Charles, 4.12 vindication, JT’s acquittal, 2.271–89 vitalism, 1.xvii, 9–10, 11–29 classical theories, 1.14–15 vocal defects, minor, 4.94–5 see also speech disabilities; speech disability cures vocal organs see elocution; speech physiology; speech science voice see elocution; speech physiology; speech science Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet), Henriade, 1.67 vowel sounds, classifcation, 4.201–7, 209–10

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Wadstrom, Carl Bernhard, 2.157 wages, starvation, 2.200 Wales, JT farms in, 3.81–9 Walker [LCS member], false charges, 2.178 Walker, George, 3.185 Walker, John, 4.205, 206n Wallis, John, 4.91 Wallop, 3.28 Walpole, Sir Robert, and borough-mongering, 2.200 Walsh, James (government spy), and Cornhill disturbance, 1.41n6, 42n7 Walsh [itinerant spy], and JT’s arrest, 2.28–9 wars against order/ morality, 2.138–9 as slave trade, 1.51 French allies unreliable, 2.22–4 costs, 2.7–13 efects, 1.136–7, 3.52 and new building, 3.52 horrors of, 2.227–38 irrational, 2.211–25 of principles, 2.243–4 system, 2.243–54 unjust unless defensive, 2.24–5, 26 vocabulary, 2.216 Wardour Castle, 3.43–4 waste land, cultivation, 3.12–13 Watson, false charges, 2.180 Watt, Mr, persecuted, 2.58, 61 wealth, national, and money, 3.11–12 weavers, poverty, 2.187 West, Benjamin [painter], 3.36 JT and, 3.67 West India slaves, 2.147–61 attitudes to, 3.129n West Indians [settlers], 3.72 dependence on slavery, 2.148–51 West Indies war, social costs, 2.20–1 West Knoyle, 3.46 Westminster Election 1790, JT and, 3.74–5, 117n Wharton, John, on liberties erosion, 2.266 Wheatley, Francis, 3.36 Whigs historical strictures on, 2.41–50 origins, 2.44–5 Whitbread, Samuel, urges abolition, 2.155

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Whitchurch, 3.27 White, Gilbert, on bee–eating boy, 4.49 White, Jacob, Treasury solicitor, 2.82 White, Joseph, 1.107 White [Solicitor to Treasury], and JT’s papers, 2.112–13 Wilberforce, William, 2.161 Wilkes and Liberty, 2.49 Wilkins, John, 4.202–4 William III King of England, 2.255, 259 and Spain, 2.48–9 on political parties, 2.47 state trials, 1.80–1 Williams, Rev Mr [of Oakham], 1.104, 109–10 Williams, George [of Safron–hill], 3.79 Willy [village], 3.39–40 Wilton-House, 3.30–2 Winchelsea, Lord [of Oakham], 1.104 Windham, William Wyndham Grenville, 1.161, 162 Windsor, 3.18, 20–1 Winterton Stoke, 3.37–8 Wisbeach attempts to break up meeting, 1.170–2 JT attacked at, 3.78 Wollstonecraf, Mary, 1.xx Wolsey, Cardinal, on press, 1.95 women and elocution, 3.102 education, 1.xx Wordsworth, William, JT and, 1.xi Wyclife, John, 1.89, 95 Wye River, 3.3–13 Wyndham, William, 2.50, 56 Wynne, John Huddlestone, 1.6 Yarmouth, atrocious proceedings at, 1.135 attempted navy pressing [kidnap] of JT, 1.144–64 handbills against JT’s lecture [anon], 1.149–50, 151–3, 154 JT attacked at, 3.78 JT to lecture at, 1.141–4 mayor, and kidnap attempt, 1.147, 148, 154, 155–6 York, elocution lectures, 4.13 Young, Sir William, anti-abolition, 2.156–7

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