Memoir of Francis Hodgson
John Hodgson to Francis Hodgson, 9 April 1810
Lincoln’s Inn: April 9, 1810.
My dear Frank,—The review of Anstey’s works is at length completed; I hope it
will make ten or twelve pages, but it has been written piecemeal and amidst
many interruptions, and I cannot pride myself much upon it. However, such as it
is, Griffiths shall have it to-night or
to-morrow. You have, of course, seen how civil the ‘Critical’ has been to you.
Sir Francis Burdett was taken to the
Tower this morning. As he had repeatedly declared, both publicly and privately,
that he would not surrender, it was necessary to resort to force. ![]()
| IMPRISONMENT OF BURDETT. | 137 |
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His house was accordingly
invested this morning, between nine and ten, by a large party of civil
officers, headed by the Sergeant-at-Arms, and backed by a very strong military
guard; and, admission being refused, the door was broken open, and the windows
on the first floor scaled. He made no personal resistance, and was therefore
conveyed into a carriage, and, attended by a regiment of Horse Guards, was
safely lodged in the Tower. As the Guards passed through Fenchurch Street and
that neighbourhood the mob grew so troublesome and insulting that they were
obliged to fire, and a sort of skirmishing took place, in which one man was
killed, and some others wounded. When the service was performed the Guards left
the City by the way of London Bridge. I long very much to see the Tower with
its ditch filled, guns mounted, drawbridge up, &c.; I hear it looks quite
grand.
I cannot quite agree in your opinions of this business. With
respect to the commitment of Gale Jones,
although I am rather surprised at the existence of such a power, I cannot see
any ground to dispute it. All text writers of every age acknowledge it, the
most liberal and constitutional judges have uniformly approved of it, and the
precedents are as old as there are journals of the House, and ![]()
| 138 | MEMOIR OF REV. F. HODGSON. | |
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the earliest of them speak of the power as one of the
undoubted privileges of the House of Commons. Nor do I see any indiscretion in
the exercise of the power in Jones’s case: he was by
his own confession guilty, and the publication was of a mischievous tendency.
His detention in prison is entirely owing to his refusal to make a proper
apology to the House and to petition for his discharge. With respect to
Sir Francis himself, he had admitted
the power of the House to commit one of its own members; and surely when they
had resolved that his letter was a libel, it was too gross a one to merit
anything but the highest punishment they could inflict. It would have been
better in my opinion if neither of these absurd publications had been noticed
at all; but, as they were noticed, the House was bound to maintain its dignity,
and vindicate its ancient and established rights and privileges.
The riots have been very considerable, especially on Saturday
night when the Horse Guards were obliged to be very active, and some blood was
certainly spilt, but I do not think it clear that any life was lost till this
morning. Cannon were planted in Soho, Bloomsbury, and Lincoln’s Inn
Squares, and quite a park of artillery opposite the offender’s house in
Piccadilly. I understand there are ![]()
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fourteen thousand troops in London. Meantime Bonaparte is getting happily married and settled at Paris.
Let me hear from you soon; and believe me dear Frank, yours
very affectionately,
Christopher Anstey (1724-1805)
English poet; author of the popular burlesque poem,
The New Bath
Guide (1766).
Sir Francis Burdett, fifth baronet (1770-1844)
Whig MP for Westminster (1807-1837) who was imprisoned on political charges in 1810 and
again in 1820; in the 1830s he voted with the Conservatives.
George Edward Griffiths (1772-1828)
In 1803 he succeeded his father Ralph Griffiths as editor of the
Monthly Review, continuing until 1825.
John Hodgson (1786-1849)
Of Lincoln's Inn, a cousin of Francis Hodgson; he was called to the bar in 1812 and
practised as a conveyancer. He reviewed poetry for the
Monthly
Review and
Quarterly Review.
John Gale Jones (1769-1838)
Educated at Merchant Taylors' School, he was a surgeon and member of the London
Corresponding Society, later a radical politician aligned with Sir Francis Burdett and
Henry Hunt.
Emperor Napoleon I (1769-1821)
Military leader, First Consul (1799), and Emperor of the French (1804), after his
abdication he was exiled to Elba (1814); after his defeat at Waterloo he was exiled to St.
Helena (1815).
The Critical Review, or, Annals of Literature. (1756-1817). Originally conducted by Tobias Smollett, the
Critical Review began
as a rival to the
Monthly Review, begun in 1749. It survived for 144
volumes before falling prey to the more fashionable quarterlies of the nineteenth
century.
