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 modernusage. Double quotes are nested within double quotes, and where thisresults in 2 doublequotes closing off a speech, one is omitted. In thesecases ["] has been inserted to clarify the dialogue.
Spelling of some proper names is inconsistent. These inconsistencies have
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Buonaparte—Bonaparte
Collingborn—Collingbourn
Everley—Everly
Halcombe—Halcomb]
[Illustration: HENRY HUNT, ESQR.]
Engraved by T. Woolmoth from a Drawing taken in the Kings Bench Prisonthe Morning after Judgement was given.
Published June 5, 1820 by T. Dolby 299 Strand.
Written by himself,
IN THE COUNTY of SOMERSET.
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.
1820
And particularly to the Reformers of Lancashire, who attended the Meetingof the 16th of August, 1819, held on St Peter's Plain at Manchester, andmore especially to the Reformers of Yorkshire, in which County a Juryfound me Guilty of illegally attending that Meeting, for which, the Courtof King's Bench sentenced me to be imprisoned in Ilchester Jail for TwoYEARS and SIX MONTHS, and at the end of that period, to enter intorecognisances for my good behaviour, for Five Years, Myself in ONETHOUSAND 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, inthe first instance, briefly record the fact, that—on Monday, the 15th dayof May, Mr. Justice Bayley, as senior puisne Judge of the court of King'sBench, in a mild and gentle manner, passed the above unexampled sentenceupon me for having attended a public meeting at Manchester, by theinvitation of seven hundred inhabitant householders of that town, whosigned a requisition to the Boroughreeve to call the said meeting on the16th day of August last, for the purpose "of taking into considerationthe best and most legal means of obtaining a reform in the Commons Houseof Parliament." This meeting was no sooner assembled to the number of onehundred and fifty thousand persons, young and old of both sexes, in themost peaceable and orderly manner, than they were assailed by theManches