HISTORY OF EUROPE. 



113 



called, reached Piccadilly about 

 eight o'clock. By the eflForts of 

 the sheriffs and constables, Picca- 

 dilly was nearly cleared by ten 

 o'clock. But parties going oft', 

 in various direcnons, exclaimed, 

 " Lights up !" The summons was 

 instantly obeyed ; and the town 

 in a short time displayed a general 

 illumination. 



In consequence of sir Francis 

 Burdett's conduct that day, two 

 members of the Westminster com- 

 mittee waited on him at Wimble- 

 don. Sir Francis said, that his 

 conduct had been the result of the 

 deepest reflection. Their enemies, 

 he said, had been base enough to 

 charge him with the blood that 

 had been shed on the day of his 

 commitment. And had he, by 

 gratifying his personal vanity,been 

 the cause of a single accident, he 

 should have reflected on it with 

 pain for the remainder of his life. 

 Thetwo committee-men observed, 

 that his determination ought to 

 have been made known. To this 

 sir Francis replied, that it was ab- 

 solutelynecessary that there should 

 be an expression of public senti- 

 ment ; that this was now com- 

 plete, and that his being in the 

 procession could not have added 

 thereto. It wasgenerally observed, 

 that sir Francis had, on this oc- 

 casion, observed the same artifi- 

 cial conduct towards his political 

 friends, that he did towards the 

 Serjeant-at-arms. He might have 

 made the same shew of resistance 

 to the officers of the House of 

 Commons on Friday morning that 

 be did on Monday. But then 

 there would not have been any 

 popular commotion or tumult. 

 Neither would this have taken 

 place if he had announced his in- 



VoL. LII. 



tention of not appearing in public 

 on the prorogation of parliament. 

 An expression of public sentiment 

 he acknowledged mighthave been 

 attended with fatal accidents. To 

 these he exposed his friends but 

 not himself. If such accidents 

 had happened, he would have 

 been as much to blame as if he 

 had been present, and shared in 

 the danger. In his retreat there 

 was no sacrifice of personal vanity. 

 This was rather more completely 

 gratified by a display of his popu- 

 larity and power, though he was 

 not present to animate the popu- 

 lace. Farther still, the popular 

 opinion of the metropolis respect- 

 ing the person, principles, and 

 views of sir Francis, had been suf- 

 ficiently, and somewhat too em- 

 phatically, expressed already, by 

 the occurrencesofthe9th of April, 

 when he was taken to the Tower. 

 In a word it is difficult to believe 

 that the display of public opinion, 

 which sir Francis encouraged, was 

 not considered by him as more 

 subservient to his own glory than 

 the welfare of the nation. 



From a review of all the peti- 

 tions, debates, and proceedings 

 respecting John Gale Jones and 

 sir Francis Burdett, it appears, 

 and it is somewhat curious to ob- 

 serve, that a very considerable por- 

 tion of the time and attention of 

 the House of Commons, this ses- 

 sion, was taken up with questions, 

 arising out of the practice of pub- 

 lishing, from day to day, accounts 

 of the debates in parliament : a 

 practice which, at the same time 

 that it is productive of incalcula- 

 ble advantages to the cause of 

 liberty in this, and even in other 

 countries, cannot fail, on many oc- 

 casions, to be a source of chagrin 



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