244 GovfiRNMBNT, Laws, fPart II. 



given to Parsov Gurney for his electioneering works 

 in Cornwall. And, indeed, all over the country, they 

 have been and are the prime agents of the Borough- 

 mongers. Recently they have been the tools of Sid- 

 mouth for gagging the press in the country parts of the 

 kingdom. Powis and Guillim were the prosecutors of 

 Messrs. Pilhng and Melor ; and for which if they be not 

 made to answer, the kingdom ought to be destroyed. 

 They are the leading men at Pitt Clubs all over the 

 country ; they were the foremost to defend the pecu- 

 lation of Melville. In short, there has been no public 

 man guilty of an infamous act, of whom they have not 

 taken the part ; and no act of tyranny of which they 

 have not been the eulogists and the principal instru- 

 ment. 



444. But, why do I attempt to describe Parsons to 

 Hampshire men ? You saw them all assembled in grand 

 cohort the last tin^e that I saw any of you. You saw 

 them at Winchester, Avhen they brought forward their 

 lying address to the Regent. You saw them on that 

 day, and so did I ; and in them I saw a band of more 

 complete blackguards than I ever before saw in all my 

 life. I then saw Parson Baines of Exton, standing up 

 in a chair and actually spitting in Lord Cochrane's 



Eoll, while the latter Mas bending his neck out to speak, 

 ord Cochrane looked round and said, " By G — Sir, 

 " if you do that again I'll knock you down." " You 

 *' be d — d," said Baines, " I'll spit where I like." 

 Lord Cochrane struck at him; Baines jumped do^vn, 

 put his two hands to his mouth in a huntsman-like way, 

 and cried "whoop I whoop !" till he was actually black 

 in the face. One of them trampled upon my heel as I 

 was speaking. 1 looked round, and begged him to leave 

 off. " You be d — d," said he, " you be d — d, Jacobin." 

 He then tried to press on me, to stifle my voice, till I 

 clapped my elbow into his ribs and made " the spiritual 

 " person" hiccup. There were about twenty of them 

 mounted upon a large table in the room ; and there 

 they jumped, stamped, hallooed, roared, thumped with 

 canes and umbrellas, squalled, whistled, and made all 

 sorts of noises. As Lord Cochrane and I were going 

 back to London, he said that, so many years as he had 



