VOL. XVII. No. 15.] LONDON, SATURDAY, APRIL 14, 1810. 545] SIR FRANCIS BURDETT'S COMMITMENT TO THE TOWER. [Price 1s. -[546 minds the scandalous squabbles, intrigues, and duelling of the cabinet ministers were still fresh; and whose petitions (as far as petitions had been presented) had been THOUGH this subject, and matters closely treated, by the king's servants, with unconnected with it,, have been in agitation paralleled contempt: the public, seeing for three weeks past, I have thought it themselves thus shut out from all chance best to suspend any observations, which I of hearing, in detail, the real causes of had to offer thereon, until the thing should such immense sacrifices in men as well as be completely disposed of in parliament. in money, very loudly and generally exWhat I have now to submit to my readers pressed their indignation at this act of exwill be found to relate, chiefly, to the con- clusion, which indignation was more imduct of Sir Francis, SUBSEQUENT to that mediately levelled against Mr. Yorke, as Vote of the Honourable House, by which Vote being ostensibly the author of it.- -At he was sentenced to the Tower; but, fresh as this time, MR. JOHN GALE JONES, the the mere history of the proceedings against manager of a Debating Society, called the him must be in the public mind, it will," BRITISH FORUM," issued, an advertisein the course of a few months, be found ment in the following words: "Windham useful to my readers to possess that history, "and Yorke. British Forum, 33, Bedford brought into a short compass; and, for "Street, Covent Garden, Monday Feb. 19, that reason, I shall here give such history," 1810.-Question:-Which was a greater by way of preface to my intended obser- " outrage upon the public feeling, Mr. "Yorke's enforcement of the Standing vations. We must begin with the primary cause," Order to exclude strangers from the namely, the exclusion of the news-paper "House of Commons, or Mr. Windham's reporters and others from the Gallery of" recent attack upon the Liberty of the the Honourable House by the enforcing "Press?-Last Monday, after an interestof the Standing Order by MR. CHARLES" ing discussion, it was unanimously YORKE.An Inquiry (at the bar of the decided, that the enforcement of the House) into the facts, relating to the fatal" Standing Orders, by shutting out Expedition to the Scheldt, had, on the Strangers from the Gallery of the 26th of February, been moved for and "House of Commons, ought to be cencarried, in opposition to the ministry, with "sured as an insidious and ill-timed atwhom Mr. Yorke voted against such In- "tack upon the Liberty of the Press, as quiry. But, though the Inquiry could" tending to aggravate the discontents of not be prevented, it was possible to pre-" the people, and to render their Reprevent the public from being made ac- "sentatives objects of jealous suspicion." quainted with the far greater and more This advertisement was, by Mr. interesting part of the proceedings there- Yorke himself, complained of in the Hoin, by shutting the reporters of debates nourable House, who, having first comout of the Gallery. There being a stand-manded the Printer of the advertisement ing order for such exclusion, it could, of course, be enforced by any single member; and, in the person of Mr. Charles Yorke, such member was found, and the Gallery continued thus closed to the end of the Inquiry, which lasted more than a month. The public, who felt very acutely upon the subject of the death-dealing and inglorious enterprize; in whose * See an account of the Debate, in this Volume, page 161. to appear before them, and found, through him, that Mr. GALE JONES was the author of it, dismissed the Printer, and, having commanded Mr. Gale Jones to be brought before them, did, without any trial, without any oath being made against him, order him to be sent to the jail of Newgate, there to be kept during their pleasure. SIR FRANCIS BURDETT, who, from indisposition, was absent at the time when this measure was adopted, made, on the 12th of March, a motion for the enlargement and discharge S Jones still shut up in jail; still kept in jail, by an order of that House, and during of Mr. Gale Jones, upon the ground, that the House had no legal authority to send him to a jail, or to punish him in any way what-its pleasure! Aye, during its pleasure! Exever. This motion was negatived, and Mr. pressly, during its pleasure!It was unGale Jones remained in jail for having said der these circumstances, that Sir Francis that Mr. Charles Yorke had outraged the Burdett resolved to publish, addressed to public feeling, by his motion to exclude the his constituents, the Electors of Westminpeople from the Gallery of the House.. ster, the whole of the Argument, which he Sir Francis Burdett, not satisfied with had made use of in the House, upon the what he had done in behalf of the Liberty subject of Mr. Jones's imprisonment; of the Subject, resolved to publish his which resolution he soon afterwards fulSpeech of the 12th of March; but, I must filled, and the publication was first made here stop a moment to notice what, in the in the Political Register of Saturday the meanwhile, had befallen Mr. Charles 24th of last month.-On Monday, the Yorke, who, being a county member, had, 26th, complaint was made of this publicain shutting the Gallery, assumed an air tion, in the Honourable House, by a right and a tone of great independence, and seem-worthy member of the same, named ed to say, that he had no understanding LETHBRIDGE, one of the members for Sowith the ministry, and was merely follow-mersetshire, of whom (for every thing being the dictates of his own mind as a loyal Country-gentleman. In three weeks from the day that he first made the motion for shutting the people out of the Gallery; in three weeks from that day, this county member, this big-talking independent man, this king's friend, this good loyal countrygentleman, was openly acknowledged to have been appointed A TELLER OF THE EXCHEQUER, a sinecure office worth 2,7001. a year. The acceptance of this office having, of course, compelled him to vacate his seat, he, as a matter of course, expected to be re-elected by the freeholders of Cambridgeshire; but, to their great honour, they hooted him from their presence, drove him away covered with reproaches, and chose another member in his stead.At the time, therefore, when Sir Francis Burdett made his motion for the discharge of Mr. Gale Jones, the public in general, and especially the constituents of Mr. Charles Yorke, had given undeniable proofs, that they regarded Mr. Yorke's "Veneris, 6° die Aprilis, 1810. conduct as a monstrous outrage upon the "Whereas the House of Commons hath public feeling. The marquis of Tavistock" this day adjudged, That sir Francis and Mr. Brand, two members of the House," Burdett, baronet, who has admitted that had, at the election at Cambridge, gone, "a Letter, signed Francis Burdett,' and in their expressions, very far indeed be- "a further part of a Paper, intituled, yond Mr. Gale Jones, in speaking of the conduct of Mr. Yorke. Still, however, Mr. Gale Jones was kept in jail by the order of that House, from which Mr. Yorke had, by the freeholders of Cam longing to such persons should be known) I have some anecdotes to give upon a future occasion; and especially about his opinions, expressed to me, at Bath (at the time of his first election), relative to the disgraceful and infamous practices of the borough-mongering trade. This gentleman it was, who complained to the House of Sir Francis Burdett's publication. The ministry seconded and supported his efforts; and, after having postponed the discussion of the subject for more than a week, the House, on Friday morning, the 6th of April, after a debate of fourteen hours, or thereabouts, the Honourable House came to a Vote, first, that Sir Francis Burdett's publication was a libel upon the House and a breach of its priviieges, and, second, that he should be im prisoned in the Tower. A warrant for his commitment was, accordingly, issued by the SPEAKER to the SERJEANT AT ARMS, which Warrant was as follows: Argument,' in Cobbett's Weekly Register of March 24, 1810, was printed "by his authority (which Letter and Argument the said House has resolved to «be a libellous and scandalous Paper, rebridgeshire, been expelled. The very "flecting on the just Rights and Privileges persons who had, for twenty years, sent "of the said House,) has been thereby him to the House; his very neighbours" guilty of a Breach of the Privileges of and friends; even these now shut him out of that House, and principally because he had done what Mr. Jones simply called an outrage upon public feeling: yet was Mr. "the said House:And whereas, the "House of Commons hath thereupon or"dered, that the said sir Francis Burdett "be, for his said offence, committed to " "For which this shall be your sufficient "Warrant. "Given under my hand, the sixth day "of April, 1810. "his Majesty's Tower of London:-These tee, in a House of Commons, to maintain are therefore to require you to take into the Laws and Liberties of the Land; havyour custody the body of the said siring accepted that trust, I never will be"Francis Burdett, and then forthwith to tray it. I have also, as a dutiful Subject, "deliver him over into the custody of the taken an oath of allegiance to the king to "lieutenant of his Majesty's Tower of obey his laws, and I never will consent, "London:-And all mayors, bailiffs, she- by any act of mine, to obey any set of "riffs, under-sheriffs, constables, and head- men, who, contrary to those laws, shall, boroughs, and every other person or under any pretence whatever, assume the persons, are hereby required to be aid- power of the King.-Power and Privi ege "ing and assisting to you in the execu- are not the same things, and ought not at "tion hereof; any time to be confounded togetherPrivilege is an exemption from power, and was by law secured to the third Branch of the Legislature in order to protect them, that they might safely protect the people; not to give them power to destroy the people.-Your Warrant, Sir, I believe you know to be illegal. I know it to be so.-To superior force I must submit; but I will not, and dare not, incur the The Serjeant at Arms, anxious, apparentdanger of continuing voluntarily to make ly, to shew, towards Sir Francis, that reone of any association, or set of men, who spect, which is felt so deeply by all good the realm; and who have no more right to shall assume illegally the whole power of men, sent him a note, upon receiving this take myself, or any one of my Constituents warrant, expressing his desire to wait upon him and to see him into the Tower of those who are now guilty of this usurby force, than I or they possess, to take any at the time and in the manner most agree-pation. And I would condescend to accept the meanest office that would vacate my seat; being more desirous of getting "CHARLES ABBOT, Speaker.* "To the Serjeant at Arms attending the House "of Commons, or his able to himself. In answer to this note, Sir Francis wrote, that he "should be "at home to receive the Serjeant at his "house in Piccadilly, at 12 o'clock, the "next day, Saturday." The Serjeant went to sir Francis's House before this answer reached him, and there he received a repetition of the answer, whereupon he retired, leaving Sir Francis to suppose, that he would return to him the next day, at the hour appointed. But, about 8 o'clock the same evening the Serjeant came again, and, telling Sir Francis, that he had received a severe reprimand from the Speaker for not having imprisoned him. in the morning, proceeded to attempt to execute his warrant; whereupon, Sir Francis refused to become his prisoner, and, in as mild a way as possible, put him and his messengers out of the house, sending, at the same time, the following Jetter to the Speaker: out of Your most obedient humble Servant, In the course of Friday evening and night there was much noise amongst the people, strong and tumultuous expressions of indignation, and some acts of violence, confined, however, to the breaking of windows, of which acts I shall have to speak more fully by-and-by.On the Saturday morning the Serjeant at Arms, with his messengers, went again to the house of Sir Francis, and were again turned out.——-Soon after this a troop of the Life Guards arrived in the street, opposite Sir Francis's house, and used means for dispersing the people, who continued to assemble in great numbers near the house. Sir Francis, upon the appear ance of the military, sent for the assistance of the civil power, and the Sheriffs and their constables came.- -The same tumultuary proceedings continued through Saturday night; and, on Sunday, an immense assemblage of people was kept up, the whole of the day, in Piccadilly, who committed no other violence than that of compelling, on pain of being pelted with mud, every one that passed to pull off his hat in honour of Sir Francis.In the mean while the Cabinet had, it seems, met, and an order had been transmitted from the War-office, in every direction, for every regiment within a hundred miles of London, to march thither forthwith.A little before 11 o'clock on Monday morning, the Serjeant at Arms, accompanied by Messengers, Police officers, and large military force, broke violently into the house of Sir Francis Burdett. Sir Francis was sitting with his family, and on the appearance of the Serjeant, asked by what authority he broke into his house. The Serjeant produced the Speaker's warrant, which Sir Francis refused to obey, and demanded if it was intended to be executed by military force? The answer was in the affirmative. Whereupon Sir Francis commanded them to desist in the king's name, and called upon the Sheriff for his aid. It was answered, that the Sheriff was not there; and Sir Francis then said, that they should not take him but by force, which they accordingly did, and hurried him through a double file of soldiers drawn up in his own house to a glass coach which they had in waiting for the purpose.-He was now conveyed to the Tower, escorted by an army thrice as numerous as the army at Guadaloupe, against which ten of our generals marched! I remember; aye, I do remember well, with what studied, with what premeditated contempt Sir Francis was treated, when he made his proposition about purliamentary reform; and having that in my mind, I cannot help copying, from the Morning Chronicle of Tuesday, the 10th instant, the description there given of this grand military exploit."The procession moved from Sir Francis Burdett's house in the following order ;-two squadrons of the 15th Ligat Dragoons, two troops of Life Guards, with Mr. Read the magistrate, at their head-the coach with Sir Francis, two more troops of Life Guards, a troop of the 15th Light Dragoons; two battalions of Foot Guards, marching in ⚫pen order and a party of the 15th Light Dragoons forming the rear. In this order they proceeded to Albemarlestreet, where they halted, and then turned up that street, with the exception of two battalions of Foot Guards, who marched forward through Piccadilly, the Haymarket, and Strand, to the Tower.-The escort proceeded along Albemarle-street, Bond-street, Conduit-street, across Hanover-square into Oxford-street, along John-street, Great Portland-street, Portland-road, the New-road, Mary-le-bone, by Pentonville, across Islington, along the City-road to Moor-fields, from thence by Sun-street into Aldgate High street, and along the Minories to the Tower.-The procession went on at its outset at a quick rate; and the capture having been made at an earlier hour than the crowd had been in the habit of assembling, the event was not immediately or generally known. The baronet had passed up Albemarlestreet, before a cry was set up, "They "have taken him-they have dragged him out "of his house." The cry spread immediately far and wide; and an immense crowd soon attended the cavalcade, which increased to such an extent, that by the time Sir Francis reached the Tower, the crowd had blocked up the Minories, and all the streets in its vicinity, and it became impossible for cart or carriage to pass. Additional preparations had been made in the contemplation of a disturbance near the Tower. Troops were stationed near it, and a fresh regiment came up by water from Tilbury-fort this morning. They were quartered in the New Mint, Towerhill.The Foot Guards who had marched along the Strand and through the city arrived upon Tower Hill five minutes before 12. They came down Mark-lane, headed by the City Marshal, and a Civil Officer. They drew up three deep in the line from the Tower-gates, which were shut, covering the entrance.-Ten minutes past 12, an officer of the 15th Light Dragoons rode smartly out from Jury-street, by the further side of the Trinity House, making signals for the mob to clear the way. Great shouting and scampering.-A quar ter past twelve, arrived about 20 of the Horse Guards, who rode up towards the Tower-gates. At the distance of 100 yards came about 300 of the 15th Light Dragoons, then about 200 of the Horse Guards, having in the middle of them the coach containing Sir F. Burdett.-The windows of the coach were all down; Sir Francis sat on the right, behind; he sat Upon an occasion like the present, it would have been silly to expect either the tongue or the pen of calumny to be idle. Sir Francis Burdett will not, I dare say, have been at all surprized at what has been published in the news-papers, during the last three days. He will not have forgotten the out-cry that was set up at the time of his publication about "THE ACCURSED RED BOOK," when he was, just as he is now, told that "even his friends" disapproved of his conduct; that "his forward, and was well seen. As he passed there was much huzzaing, the guards flourished their swords to intimidate the mob.-After the Horse Guards came about 200 more of the 15th. As the procession entered by the further side of the Trinity House, it came on Tower-hill in a serpentine form, and the military spectacle was very grand.-This state of things remained for full half an hour, the carriage covered by about 200 Horse Guards, the line of Foot Guards stretching from it up Tower-hill, the 15th lining the sides of" best friends lamented that he had such Tower-hill, to keep off the mob, which began to disperse. The two squadrons of the 15th light dragoons opened right and left, and cleared the ground in all directions, forming a circle, two deep, around the entrance, through which the remainder of the force, with the prisoner, proceeded without any material interruption; though there was much hooting and huzzaing "Burdett for ever;" and some who had taken refuge within the palings, even pelted the cavalry, who, in return cut at them with their swords, happily without any material injury on either side. Many of the mob were, however, forced into the Tower ditch, but without mischief, as there was but little water. On the arrival of the carriage at the gate, Sir Francis alighted, and was received with the usual formalities; the gate was immediately shut." Several Cannon were fired at the Tower to announce, that the prisoner was arrived; that the capture had been completed; that the enterprize had been crowned with success!-Every part of the town was, on Monday night, paraded by troops; cannon were planted in several of the squares and streets; not only all the divers barracks and depots were filled with soldiers, but guards were mounted in prirate houses that happened to be uninhabited. In short, in and about London, there was by Monday night, and still is, an army, supposed to amount to not much short of fifty thousand men! Such is the history of the imprisonment of Sir Francis Burdett in the Tower. His conduct, subsequent to the passing of the vote for that imprisonment, has been, in many of the news-papers, a subject of much animadversion; and, therefore, I shall now proceed to offer some observa tions thereon, reserving for a future opportunity what I have to say, in addition to what I have said in a former Number, as to the nature of the publication, for the making of which the Honourable Baronet has been imprisoned. "bad advisers;" that he was "a tool in not The animadversions on Sir Francis's conduct, subsequent to the vote for sending him to the Tower, embrace several points, amongst which is that of his pretended breach of promise with the Serjeant at Arms. -Now, in the first place, I can |