Memoirs of Henry Hunt, Esq., vol 2 | Page 8

the invasion of a foreign foe. The very
FIRST time in my life that I was ever called upon by my
fellow-countrymen to preside at a public meeting, was on the
SIXTEENTH OF AUGUST, 1801; and, for my zeal and devotion for
the welfare and safety of my country on that day, I received the
approbation of Lord Pembroke, the Lord Lieutenant of the county of
Wilts. On the SIXTEENTH OF AUGUST, 1819, that day eighteen
years afterwards, my readers all well know, and they will never forget
it, that I was presiding at as peaceable, as laudable, and as
constitutional a public meeting, held at Manchester, for the purpose of
taking into consideration the best and most legal means of obtaining "a
reform in the peoples' or Com- mons' House of Parliament." But,
instead of then receiving the thanks of the Lord Lieutenant of the
county, I was assaulted by a military force, imprisoned, sentenced to be
incarcerated in the worst, the most unwholesome, and the most
infamous county gaol in the kingdom, for TWO YEARS and SIX
MONTHS; while the butchers who murdered fifteen or sixteen, and
maimed upwards of six hundred of their peaceable and unresisting
fellow creatures, received the thanks of the King for their services.
This is a very extraordinary coincidence of circumstances, that the first
and the last public meeting at which I ever presided, should have been
on the SIXTEENTH OF AUGUST; and that they should have been
attended by such different results is equally worthy of notice. I am
quite sure, that I was actuated by the very same feeling, the same love
of country, the same anxiety for the well being of my fellow

countrymen, and the same self-devotion, at both these meetings; my
great leading object being to promote, as far as my humble means
would permit, the welfare, the freedom and the happiness of my fellow
countrymen.
It will not, I think, be uninteresting to my friends, who honour me by
reading these memoirs, to state how I came by this letter of Lord
Pembroke's, written nearly twenty years ago. It would seem as if I had
been a very wary person to preserve my papers so carefully. But this is
not the fact; I have been quite the reverse; thousands of papers, letters
from public men, which would have been most valuable to me now,
and documents, have I incautiously and thoughtlessly burnt. I will,
however, state how I came by this letter, which I have now here in this
gaol. Soon after I came to Ilchester, I wrote home to my family, to
collect from amongst my papers, all letters and papers containing votes
of thanks that had been passed at public meetings all over the country,
and sent to me from various places, from almost every part of the
kingdom; particularly in the years 1816, 1817, 1818, 1819 and 1820.
When these papers came to me here, in looking them over I discovered
three from Lord Pembroke; and I was rather surprised at their being
amongst the number sent, as I had quite forgotten what subjects they
were upon. But, on opening them, I found that they all contained
expressions of approbation and thanks, for various offers that I had
made during the first French war, while an invasion was threatened. As
soon as I had examined them, I put them by, and never thought of them
again, till I came to write the account of my first offer. I was then going
to state the substance of the Lord Lieutenant's answer, as far as my
memory would serve me, but at that moment recollecting that I had
some letters from Lord Pembroke, I looked for them, and the very first
upon which I laid my hand was that which I have inserted above. Now,
let the life and fortune men produce, if they can, one such instance
amongst them, of patriotic and disinterested self-devotion as that which
I evinced at that time. It will be seen that I was just the same sort of
man on the 16th of August, 1801, as I was on the 16th of August, 1819;
just the same sort of man that I am at this moment. In the first instance
my country was in danger; she was threatened by the invasion of a
foreign foe--that was enough; what was my conduct? I hurried to her
assistance, and I made a voluntary tender of all I possessed--_corn, hay,

horses, cows, oxen, sheep, pigs, waggons, carts, &c._ to the value of at
least twenty thousand pounds, together with my own personal services,
to perform any duty, however hazardous. I had suffered once for my
zeal. I had been insulted by the colonel of the Wilts yeomanry, and for
resisting it, I had been