POLITICAL HISTORY 



the state of the county seems to have caused the government some uneasi- 

 ness, but this feehng was probably more due to the prevalent condition of 

 alarm and panic among the ruling classes than to any real danger. In 1793 

 the Hon. H. Hobart presented a petition signed by 3,741 inhabitants of 

 Norwich pressing for parliamentary reform. 



By 1794 the French war had caused the necessity of home defence to 

 be much greater than many had thought, and to emphasize this a county 

 meeting was called in the Shire Hall to consider what steps should be taken. 

 The Townshends, Lord Walsingham, Mr. Buxton, Mr. Windham, and 

 Mr. Jodrell all moved or supported resolutions for forming volunteer corps 

 of cavalry, and for subscribing to maintain them. ' Coke of Norfolk,' the 

 agriculturist, moved an amendment protesting against the war altogether, and 

 stating that it was the duty of the meeting to refuse to subscribe. It was 

 impossible to say whether the amendment or resolution was carried, but no 

 less than ;(^i 1,000 was subscribed in the room, and in 1797 a Light Horse 

 Association under Mr. John Harvey, and a Loyal Military Association under 

 Mr. John Patteson, were successfully organized. Mason, in his History of 

 Norfolk, prints very much interesting matter as to the preparations made to 

 resist invasion, and especially the letters and projects of General Money, who 

 seems to have been by far the most able local man, and a commander of 

 ingenuity and resource. His plan for mounting light guns weighing 20 cwt. 

 on strong corn waggons capable of carrying 60 cwt. is very interesting.* 

 Very careful arrangements were made to send the women, children and old 

 men, and all the most valuable property inland by a regularly planned service 

 of carts in case of invasion, and not a few printed placards of instructions 

 can still be seen occasionally in farm-houses. 



In 1797 there were meetings and counter-meetings urging the king to 

 dismiss and support his ministers, and Thelwall, a well-known revolutionary 

 agitator, came down and tried to seduce the military. At Yarmouth there 

 was a meeting on board the fleet. Next year, however, the naval successes 

 put people in a better humour, and Norwich received with effusion a Spanish 

 admiral's sword won by Nelson,*" Norfolk's great naval hero. 



In 1802 the Hon. W. Windham lost his seat at Norwich, and was to 

 have put up for the county (Wodehouse reluctantly retiring in his favour), 

 but a safer seat was found for him elsewhere, and Wodehouse reappeared in 

 the Tory interest. After a close contest for second place. Coke was easily 

 first, and Astley beat the Hon. John Wodehouse by ninety-six, which must 

 have been the more annoying to the latter as he had been in front for the 

 first five days. 



The threatened invasion of England in 1802-3 made much stir here, 

 and a regiment of volunteer infantry numbering 1,400 was raised at Norwich, 

 as well as a rifle corps under the captaincy of Mr. R. M. Bacon, then editor 

 of the Mercury, who wielded sword as well as pen. Much of the credit for 

 the preparations for defence is due to William Windham, who pointed out 

 the risk of a local landing most forcibly to the government, and ' plainly 



' Mason, op. cit. 468. 



' Nelson, son and grandson of country parsons, was aided in coming to the front by his descent from the 

 Walpoles, from whom he took his Christian name. Paternally he was descended from a family settled at 

 Seaming in 1664, which probably came from the adjoining village of Wendling. The alleged earlier descent 

 from a family at Maudesley in Lancashire, said to be armigerous, is more than doubtful. 



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