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MS has not survived; text is taken from the version published in the Cumberland Pacquet . Previously published: Cumberland Pacquet, 26 October 1819, signed ‘A.B.’. Reprinted Westmorland Gazette, 6 November 1819.
These letters were edited with the assistance of Ian Packer and Lynda Pratt
All quotation marks and apostrophes have been changed: " for “," for ”, ' for ‘, and ' for ’.
Any dashes occurring in line breaks have been removed.
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Southey's spelling has not been regularized.
Writing in other hands appearing on these manuscripts has been indicated as such, the content recorded in brackets.
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– A hand bill,ultra’. The Address was not proceeded with, and government supporters in Cumberland
produced a more moderate document.
The author of the hand bill admits the allegation that “it is the direct and undisguised object
of those demagogues, by whom the multitude are misled, to bring about a REVOLUTION by force.” This he allows may be
true; “still,” he says, “there is no evidence to shew that such persons are
numerous; or that any great portion of the community has any such designs; and this may be fairly presumed from
the peace and good order by which their meetings have been distinguished.
Now, Sir, when the writer in this sentence appeals to facts, his assertions are false, and when
he pretends to reason, his reasoning is deceitful. The evidence that such persons are numerous, – so numerous that
they may well excite a reasonable fear in men of firm minds, – is to be found in all the public journals. If,
according to the concurrent testimony of those journals, the Radicals muster in bodies of from
five thousand to fifty or fourscore thousand! at the summons of Dr. Watson, Mr. Hunt, or an invisible Committee of Two Hundred,
But the innocence of their intentions “may fairly be presumed from the peace and good order by
which their meetings have been distinguished.” Upon this part of the sentence it might suffice to remind the reader
of Spa Fields, and the Gunsmiths Shops, and of Brandreth’s attempted insurrection;
Peace and good order are fair words; but they may be foully misapplied. When men upon any ordinary public occasion meet in large bodies, conduct themselves
orderly, and disperse peaceably, all is well, and as it should be; such peace and order indicate a natural and
healthy state of public feeling. But when multitudes, whose numbers are estimated by tens of thousands, collect
upon so extraordinary a business as that of deliberating upon a change in the Constitution of the country, nothing
short of Revolution; when they come with black flags and bloody daggers for their banners, and
with Universal Suffrage or Death, for their motto;black flag, the bloody
dagger, the words equal representation, or death’ on the crowd’s banners.
Secondly, The hand bill says it is not true that the multitude have ever been taught to believe
that the administration of public affairs ought to be taken from persons who are qualified by their education and
station in life, and whose stake in the country is a pledge for their good intentions, and transferred to the
ignorant and needy, who are necessarily incompetent, and who have nothing to lose.” – In reply to this round
denial, I affirm that the statement which it contradicts, is strictly and literally true. The Radical Orators have repeatedly declared, that the people of property of either party, have abused the
legislative authority with which they have hitherto been entrusted, and therefore, that it must be taken from them.
This is the revolutionary doctrine; and the revolutionary practices of
all ages has been in strict conformity to it.
Thirdly. – the hand bill says “it is a false, gratuitous, and
libellous assertion, that County Meetings tend to encourage wicked and desperate men in their rebellious
purposes.” What are the words of the Address? “We must express our sorrow that any persons of rank and
respectability should be induced to take measures which obviously tend to encourage wicked and desperate men in
their rebellious purposes.” He must be a very impudent man, who can assert that this sentence expresses or implies
any condemnation of County meetings in general, and they must be very foolish ones who can believe him. But let any
man of common honesty, and common sense, ask himself the question. Whether it is or is not encouraging the
Radicals, if Resolutions are passed by persons of rank and respectability, which certainly imply, this they do not
assert, that the Reformers at Manchester, when they assembled with sticks and staves, in military order, and with
black flags, bearing a bloody dagger and the inscription of Universal
Suffrage or Death, were at that time simply exercising the most invaluable and most unquestionable right of the
people? Let him ask himself, whether the Radicals are or are not encouraged by seeing men of rank and
respectability subscribe for the Sufferers at Manchester; as if these persons had suffered
under some calamity which had fallen upon them unforeseen and inevitable, and as if they had not been forewarned by
the Magistrates of the danger of assembling at that time and place. The very use of the word sufferers, in this case, prejudges the question; for it assumes the misconduct of the Magistrates and the
innocence and legality of the meeting.
“The people have a right to meet,” says the hand bill. Unquestionably they have, – for all lawful
purposes. This may be illustrated by an example from English History which every school boy will understand. Guy FauxGuy Faux had an undoubted right to go out of his vault when he pleased – at
any time or season, whether the King and the Peers of the Realm were assembled in the Chamber above, or not. And he
had a right to carry a dark lanthorn into the aforesaid vault. – But the Ministers of that day exercised the right
of enquiring what those barrels contained, and what use was to be made of the candle? – and they saved the King and the Nobles from the Gunpowder Plot.
After all, the great question at issue is not whether the best means were resorted to for
carrying the warrant against Mr. Hunt into effect at Manchester and dissolving that meeting; but whether the Laws,
as they now exist, do not allow a discretionary power to Magistrates for dissolving any numerous assembly, from
which they may apprehend danger to persons or property, before that assembly breaks out into open riot and
disorder; and whether meetings, constituted as the one at Manchester is by all parties admitted to have been, can
be allowed to take place wherever, and as often as the parties themselves chuse, without endangering not the
tranquillity and safety alone, – but the very existence of the Country. This is the question at issue, – and the
course of investigation in which it is now placed will soon decide it.