592 LETTER II. TO [PART III. 



who had been compelled to become soldiers, 

 and who had no knowledge of military disci 

 pline ; who had, by the Act of Parliament, been 

 promised a guinea each before they marched ; 

 who had refused to march because the guinea 

 had not been wholly paid them; some of these 

 young men, these mere boys, had, for this mu 

 tiny, as it was called, been flogged at Ely in 

 Cambridgeshire, under a guard of German 

 bayonets and sabres. At this I expressed my 

 indignation in the strongest terms; and, for doing 

 this, I was put for two years into a jail along 

 with men convicted of unnatural crimes, rob 

 bery, and under charge of murder, and where 

 ASTLET was, who was under sentence of death. 

 To this was added a fine of a thousand pounds 

 sterling; and, when the two years should ex 

 pire, bonds for the peace and good behaviour for 

 seven years! The seven years are not yet ex 

 pired. 1 will endeavour to be of " good be- 

 " haviour " for the short space that is to come ; 

 and, 1 am sure, I have behaved well for the 

 past; for never were seven years of such effi 

 cient exertion seen in the life of any individual. 

 1047. The tyrants are hard pushed now. 

 The JBan/c Notes are their only ground to stand 

 on ; and that ground will be moved from under 

 them in a little time. Strange changes since 

 you left England, short as the time has been ! 



