Memoirs of Henry Hunt, Esq, vol 1

Memoirs of Henry Hunt, Esq, vol 1

Project Gutenberg's Memoirs of Henry Hunt, Esq. Volume 1, by Henry Hunt Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.
This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the header without written permission.
Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is important information about your specific rights and restrictions in how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.
**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**
*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
Title: Memoirs of Henry Hunt, Esq. Volume 1
Author: Henry Hunt
Release Date: August, 2005 [EBook #8685] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on August 1, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MEMOIRS OF HENRY HUNT, V1 ***

Produced by S.R.Ellison, Stan Goodman, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.

[Note:The use of quotation marks in the text does not accord with modern usage. Double quotes are nested within double quotes, and where this results in 2 doublequotes closing off a speech, one is omitted. In these cases ["] has been inserted to clarify the dialogue.
Spelling of some proper names is inconsistent. These inconsistencies have not been altered--cf. Buonaparte--Bonaparte Collingborn--Collingbourn Everley--Everly Halcombe--Halcomb]

[Illustration: HENRY HUNT, ESQR.]
_Engraved by T. Woolmoth from a Drawing taken in the Kings Bench Prison the Morning after Judgement was given._
_Published June 5, 1820 by T. Dolby 299 Strand_.

MEMOIRS OF HENRY HUNT, ESQ.
_Written by himself,_
IN HIS MAJESTY'S JAIL AT ILCHESTER,
IN THE COUNTY of SOMERSET.

Volume I

Whoever thinks a faultless piece to see, Thinks what ne'er was, nor is, nor e'er shall be. In every work regard the Writer's end, Since none can compass more than they intend; And if the means be just, the conduct true, Applause, in spite of trivial faults, is due. POPE.
LONDON:
PUBLISHED BY T. DOLBY, 299, STRAND; AND 34, WARDOUR STREET, SOHO.
1820

TO
THE RADICAL REFORMERS,
MALE AND FEMALE,
OF
ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND SCOTLAND,
_And particularly to the Reformers of Lancashire, who attended the Meeting of the 16th of August, 1819, held on St Peter's Plain at Manchester, and more especially to the Reformers of Yorkshire, in which County a Jury found me Guilty of illegally attending that Meeting, for which, the Court of King's Bench sentenced me to be imprisoned in Ilchester Jail for_ Two YEARS and SIX MONTHS, _and at the end of that period, to enter into recognisances for my good behaviour, for Five Years, Myself in_ ONE THOUSAND POUNDS and Two Sureties in FIVE HUNDRED POUNDS EACH.
* * * * *

_Ilchester Jail, May 22, 1820_
FRIENDS AND FELLOW COUNTRYMEN, In dedicating this work to you, I will, in the first instance, briefly record the fact, that--on Monday, the 15th day of May, Mr. Justice Bayley, as senior puisne Judge of the court of King's Bench, in a mild and gentle manner, passed the above unexampled sentence upon me for having attended a public meeting at Manchester, by the invitation of seven hundred inhabitant householders of that town, who signed a requisition to the Boroughreeve to call the said meeting on the 16th day of August last, for the purpose _"of taking into consideration the best and most legal means of obtaining a reform in the Commons House of Parliament."_ This meeting was no sooner assembled to the number of one hundred and fifty thousand persons, young and old of both sexes, in the most peaceable and orderly manner, than they were assailed by the Manchester yeomanry cavalry, who charged the multitude, sword in hand, and without the slightest provocation or resistance on the part of the people (as was clearly proved by the trial at York), aided by two troops of the Cheshire yeomanry, the 15th hussars, the 81st regiment of foot, and two pieces of flying artillery, sabred, trampled upon, and dispersed the unoffending and unresisting people, when 14 persons were killed and upwards of 600 wounded. I, and eleven others, having, by a mere miracle, escaped the military execution intended for us, were seized and confined in solitary dungeons in the New Bailey, for eleven days and nights, under a pretended charge of high treason. At the end of that time, upon a final examination, I was sent under a military escort, upwards of fifty miles, to Lancaster Castle, although bail was ready, and waiting to be put in for me. After this sentence was passed, I was sent to the King's