LIFE OF THELWALL.

ALTHOUGH his abilities were not so great, nor his influence so extensive as his friends have fondly imagined, Citizen THELWALL was a remarkable man. He emerged from obscurity into public regard by dint of resolute industry ; he was a Reformer when Reform was attended with risk to character and life; and he boldly sustained his part in a singular political drama. A Ministry had attained office on Reform principles : they found it convenient to plead courtly obstacles for the non-execution of their promises: cir- cumstances enabled the bulk of the two great oligarchical parties to combine together against " innovations," and, in the words of Ptrr and his Tories, (as of Lord DURHAM now,) "to rally a large porti n of the British people around the existing institutions of the c ■untry.9 When they had done their wcrk, the Tories whistled off their Whig instruments, turning them out of place "without a character:" but, as long as the factions remained combined, they resorted to every dirty art that malice could invent or power execute to injure the fortunes or endanger the lives of those whom they could neither turn nor silence, but who stuck to their princi- ples through good and through evil report, exclaiming with JOHN THELWALL, "a plague on both your houses." Like most biographical heroes, the family of the Citizen was very ancient ; tracing far beyond the Conquest; at which period a THELWALL, with an independent feeling akin to that of his great descendant, took refuge in Wales to escape the Norman tyrant. These ancestral honours, however, the Citizen was accustomed to treat with gentle jocoseness ; and, Booth to say, by his time the family riches, if not the antiquity, were somewhat diluted. Al- though his eather was entitled to a freehold estate in Cheshire and Lancashire, he took no steps to recover it, but carried on the business of a silk-mercer in the parish of St. Paul, Covent Gar- den; where JOHN THELWALL was born, in 1764. This father dying when he was only nine years old, and the family affairs soon becoming embarrassed, under the guidance of the widow and her eldest son, a wild young gentlemen of sixteen, JOHN was at thirteen removed from school and placed behind the counter. What with the limited learning then given to the sons of trades- men and the unlimited allowance of birch, the future lecturer left school with small scholastic acquirements, having chiefly stu- died "to glory in returning from the severest castigation without a tear." But, like GIBBON at Oxford, he had no sooner quitted the seminary of learning, than his natural love of literature sprung up; "in the blind pursuit of which, he devoured miscellaneously as they came within his reach, plays, poetry, and history, moral philosophy, metaphysics, and even divinity, with an avidity so intense that it became his constant practice to read as he went along the streets, upon whatever business he was employed." He also occupied himself in copying all the prints or drawings that came in his way, as well as in cutting out paper devices—an art in which he attained great skill, and which be practised to the close of his life. These pursuits were of course looked upon with no smiling eye by his mother or elder brother ; and when remon- strance failed, blows were had recourse to, till, after a purgatory of three years, the future advocate of the rights of man got big enough to bump again. These family jars gave rise, we are told, to scenes of "hateful dissension;" and THELWALL at length oh- taMed permission to change his calling. His first wish was to be- come an artist ; but his mother would not pay the necessary pre- mium. Having been an adept in school and private theatricals, he next thought of the stage. But, devoid of figure, with at that time weak lungs, and a lisp to boot, he listened to the "moral expostulation " of COLMAN, to whom he had applied, gave tip the stage, and was filially apprenticed to a "master tailor." Joust THELWALL had now, in- the language of his biographer,

"changed his residence but not his habits. During the year and a half he continued with the tailor, lie "altered one of the plays of Shakspeare, planned an epic poem on the subject of Carsar's invasion, of which he wrote several hundred verses, and Made considerable progress in compiling a history of England, with drawings to illustrate the most striking incidents." He not only, too, continued his old habit of studying in the streets, but improved upon it, carrying a taper in his pocket that he might read as he walked at night,—a practice to be cautiously followed; since, once in a lonely place at Walwortb, a thief attracted by the light, knocked him down, and robbed him by be aid of his own taper.

_ It was not to be supposed that our young aspirant shout' be better pleased with cloth titan silk ; and, "being one evening woary of his confinement and irritated by some insult "—from a journey- man, we imagine—he arose, went to his master, told him lie could not endure to stay any longer in his house, and requested to be allowed to depart; which the man, in a " sudden storm of surprise alal fury," consented to, and off JOHN went.

He was now thrown upon the world, and strove bard to follow the fine arts as a profession; but was again unsuccessful, from want of means either to pay for his studies or to support himself whilst studying. After a brief attempt, his mother persuaded him to return to the shop-board; which he soon quitted with deeper disgust titan before. His brother-in-law, a barrister, then got him into an attorney's office, with a view to his being even- tually called to the bar : but there was no money, and TitaLwast. neither stomached -the drudgery nor the necessary craftiness of a clerk's duties in his new profession, and sometimes, in a fit of universal philanthropy, gave hints to the people he was employed against. A lawyer's clerk, however, he remained far three or four years; when, having published a legendary tale in quarto, and written with some success, in the periodicals of the day, he determined to become author by profession; and followed his trade with industry and some pecuniary success for several years,— though the reader who should now turn to his pages would see nothing in them beyond fluent commonplace.

In literature, however, Tims.wsss would not at any time have attained much eminence; and he soon abandoned the belles lettres

for political writing and active politics. His first approach to this field was through becoming a member of a then celebrated "society for free debate," held at Coachinakers' Hall ; where his early Church and King notions were gradually changed by discussion, and Tory taxation. He had indeed the sagacity very soon to perceive, that, in his own words, " the Commons, as they are called, were only a second hand or journeyman aristocracy—the deputies of the Lords, not the representatives of the People ;" but he at first fancied that the power of the Crown was necessary to balance the power of an oligarchy, till he saw " that there might be an oligarchy with the Crown as well as against it ; and that a junto of boroughinongers might exercise their anarchic dominion, with the semblance of a king or monarch at their head, as well as they could make war against his person in his name." Whilst these notions were floating in his mind, the first blow of the French Revolution came to give them consistency. He became an active member of the different societies which were then formed in fa- vour of popular rights and freedom ; earnestly supported HORNS 'forme in his Westminster election; wrote, spoke, and acted in favour of a full reform, and against the coalition of the two fac- tions, whether for the purpose of carrying a borough election or opposing a popular demand ; set the Government of Par at legal defiance; outran the feelings of his moderate friends, and was coldly looked upon in consequence ; and, by way of climax, was included with HARDY, Hoarse Toone, and others, in the accusa- tions of high treason which in London followed the convic- tions of Mu IR, PALMER, &c. for sedition at Edinburgh.

The reader who wishes a ready reference to these infamous proceedings, may procure this volume ; where he will find nar- rated at length the scandalous ransacking of houses and irregular seizure of private papers; the use which underlings made of this irregularity to ascribe documents to the wrong possessors; the petty spite and gigantic wickedness of the Government, in restrict- ing the comforts of the prisoners, employing spies, packing juries, tampering with the prisoners' witnesses, and threatening their own; the plausible smoothness, crocodile tears, and long-winded

speeches of JOHN Scorn" (Lord ELDON) ; the long delays, the different Councils held, and the variations of the legal proceed-

ings, as prisoner after prisoner was acquitted; till at last, on the trial of THELWALL, the arts of chicanery and of power were ex. 'misted, and the remaining victims were set at liberty by the " Heaven-burn Minister," after having spent, it is said, above 100,0001. of the public money in this iniquitous persecution.

This trial was the historical event of THELWALL'S life, and the cause of his popularity and influence; for he unquestionably be-

came a sort of London aeon:vela- His leading tnodus operandi was by lectures; which gave rise to C A NN I NG'S joke in the Anti- jacobi n-

" Thelwall, and ye that lecture as ye go,

And for your pains get pelted."

Persecuted, however, would have been fitter than pelted, for pelted at this time he most assuredly was not. Dealing with the prin- ciples, or what passed as the principles, of politics, he furnished a mental food to the political public, which no periodical of the time attempted, or could have attempted with success. The subjects which he made the vehicle for conveying his views—as national debt, taxation, distress, the war, the famine, and the cruel crimping system for supplying the Army and Navy—had most of them a strong temporary interest, whilst his financial facts had, in their freshness, much more attraction than they have now. The living lecture—then a popular mode. of disseminating know- ledge, and a substitute, in fact, fur the higher class of periodicals —displayed his compositions to more advantage, by the energy and spirit of oral delivery, than they would have shown if first sub- mitted to the test of type. With all these attractions, aided by the hatred felt towards the Government, the shillings a head dropped in upon THELWALL. His rooms became crowded, and numbers were nightly turned away ; lie exercised a temporary sway over the opinions of a class; what was more, he set the fashion, being one of the first who determined to leave off hair- powder when PITT taxed it, and appeared in his tribune with his black hair in its natural state. In short, he be- came such a bugbear, that the twaddling " friends of order" re- proached the Ministry for not silencing that man. Whether the • He occupied nine hours in his first address to the jury. When this was reported to THIJALOW, he exclaimed—"Nine knits' speech I then there is no treason, by Goal! course they indicated was ever tried, we cannot tell; but when the lecturer, exhausted by his literary labours and the exertions he made in conjunction with the Corresponding Society against the bill for putting down debate, went into the country to recruit his health, some good-natured friends reported that he had retired on a pension of three hundred a year. Once, however, it is said, that female influence was brought to bear upon him. But the virtue of the Citizen was proof against the attractions of the Cyprian god- dess ; and he quickly got rid of his tempter, by informing he: that be was a married man, and made a point of telling every thing to his wife.

With this period of THELWALL'S career the volume closes; and .this was pretty well the close of his public life, or at least of his public influence. Either the age went on, or he went off. And though for many years be contrived to keep himself before the world upon the strength of his former celebrity and present activity, he was only known as a lecturer on elocution and a writer of flue political papers, who had a dash of the pretender if not of the quack. In general history his name may appear, if convenient for the historian to round his period ; in temporary history he will cut a figure. But his celebrity sprung out of circumstances of which he was the creature, not the master ; and, shining in borrowed light, he was obscured as soon as the illuminating body passed. The volume before us is published under the superintendence of Mrs. THELWALL ; and hence contains, no doubt, more authentic particulars than could have been obtained from any other source. At the same time, this circumstance has influenced the judgment and taste of the writer; causing him to attribute greater importance to his subject than the world will allow him to possess, and to overlay his book with verbose quotations from THELWALL'S works, upon matters whose points might have been briefly stated. In other respects the volume may be recommended as a fluent and readable biography ; which, besides containing a full account of THELWALL'S life, gives a sketch of the minute political history of the time, and a good picture of the public manners and charac- ter of the period.

Of the nature of these last points, a few extracts will enable the reader to judge better than any description.

DOINGS IN THE. DAYS OF A UNION OF PARTIES.

Having by this time established the right of lecturing, Thelwall now deter- mined to proceed upon the restitution of the right of political debate, which bad been so unwarrantably taken from the people a few months before ; and, understanding that the proprietor of the Park Tavern in the Borough had in. dependence enough to stand the brunt of persecution for the cause, Thelwall engaged his room, and again posted the town with his bills, announcing a " de- bate," on the ensuing 'Monday, on the following question: "Mich is to be considered as most destructive in its principles and conduct, the present or the American War?"

It must be confessed that such a question, and at such a time, was well cal- culated to raise the ire and vengeance of the beads of the two factions. Scarcely more than a twelvemonth had elapsed since most of the great Whig families bad been brought over to consent to the projected war with France; and, for his exertions for this maws?, Burke was rewarded with two pensions of about 40,000/. value ; whilst, for this consent, and their coalition with Pitt, the epos- tatizers were degraded in the estimation of all parties. This placard, therefore, produced the greate, consternation; and the alarm and activity among the Magistrates were greater than ever. The bills were pulled down as fast as they were put lip; and violent threats were denounced against Thelwall (which were carefully conveyed to him on the Sunday morning), that, " if he dared to hold the meeting, he should most certainly be taken into custody." To this he replied by sending advertisements to the newspapers to supply the loss of his posting-bills. The landlord was next threatened with the loss of his licence. but with as little effect. A numerous company assembled, and among them about twenty police.olicers from Union Hall, together with a Magistrate to direct their operations. In the face of all these Thelwall took the chair, avowed himself to be the sole person responsible fur the calling of the meeting, and directed the attention of the company to the question. Upon this opening of the debate, one of the police, who seemed to guide the others, rose, and made a curious, short speech, in favour of kings. Instantly upon his sitting down, all the other keepers of the peace rose up, and, with one tumultuous roar, sung -out " God save great George our King !" which they regularly resumed every time anybody attempted to speak to the question. The indignation of the Company rose at this interruption ; and the experiment might have proved a fatal one, if Thelwall had not possessed influence enough to restrain the resent• ment of the insulted audience, and to prevent them from attempting to turn out the disturbers. In the midst of this turbulence and insult, Thelwall kept his chair and his temper till the hour of ten, when he declared the meeting and the question adjourned to some future time ; observing, that " the legality of the meeting was established beyond dispute, since the police-officers who had attended, and who had sufficiently displayed the hostility of their wishes, had not dared to exert even the shadow of authority against either the meeting or himself."

However, it was not the intention of the agents of power to let the meeting disperse So quietly; for, immediately after Thelwall had finished his address, the officers proceeded to personal violence, by attempting to overturn the plat- form on which his table and chair were placed. The company immediately, thereupon, surrounded Thelwall, and thrust the peace-officers out of the way ;

and Thelwall was retiring, when he encountered the Magistrate, who had all the while been waiting below, *ready for the riot which he supposed must take

place. Trembling with fear and disappointment, he asked 'Thelwall if he should order the constables to attend him home, and keep the peace. " Sir," replied Thelwall, " your constables were the only persons who disturbed the meeting ; and if you suffer them to come after me, you must be answerable for the consequences, for I will not."

DEBATES IN PARLIAMENT.

It was at this period, and in consequence of the discussion of the first prin- ciples of government, to which he was naturally led by the incidents of the French Revolution, that Thelwall began to direct his special attention to the general complexion of the disputes between Administration and Opposition. The warmth with which every question any. way connected with the views of personal ambition was sure to be discussed to the two Houses of Parliament, and the indifference with which subjects of the utmost importance to the public were uniformly regarded in those assemblies, had produced a growing conviction in his mind that what are usually called " parties" in the two Houses of Par- liament were nothing but juggling conspiracies against the purse and privileges of the People; and that, however these parties might contend about the divv- shin of the spoils, they perfectly understood each other on onepoint,—emek the necessity of keeping the !People in ignorance of the extent of that sysegi of insidious corruption by which they were at once beggared and enslaved,

REWARD OF CONSISTENCY.

Nothing at this time could exceed the efforts of the Administration to throe obloquy on those men who still had resolution to stand up for the right of meet, Mg, and who persisted in their demand for Parliamentary Reform. It is, thee& fore, little surprising that the activity of Thelwall, his growing popularity, his indefatigable promptitude and address in the despatch of hoariest?, his intrepid eloquence, and his influence over the large body of men which then cloned* the popular societies, should awaken the jealousy of a Governmenr in whole estimation Parliamentary Reform was but another name for revolution; and, as might have been expected, he was surrounded on all sides by spies and ia. formers.

Every engine was now made use of to crush and destroy him. The Mail. terial prints began to vomit contemptuous calumny against him. His privet, character was attacked by a creature who knew nothing of him but his nom His house was deserted by every one whom it was his interest to conciliate) and even of the few who knew and loved him, the majority were afraid to ohm their attachment to him.

The late Lord Winchilsea actually turned some of his tenants out of their farms on his estate, because they were related to Thelwall, and because they read his publications.

WESTMINSTER ELECTION IN THE OLDEN TIME.

The right of voting in the city of Westminster was, antecedently to the pal. ing of the Reform Bill, vested in the whole of the householders within the ancient limits of that city paying scot and lot, viz. parish-rates, no matter% how small an amount. The electors, in the year 1790 amounting to 17,291, had then, and still continue to have, the appearance of indicating a large per. tion of what is called the public opinion of the nation ; and, of course, gave to its Members a considerable degree of weight and importance in the House d Commons. The representation of Westminster became, therefore, of primary importance in the estimation of the two rival factions ; and, in the general elec.

tions of 1784 and 1788, two grand struggles took place for this prize, which were accompanied with all the usual profligate excesses on these occasions, el drunkenness, tumult, violence, and murder. In the latter election, the option ing candidates were, nominally, Lord John Townsend and Lord Hood, but it was the factions which really carried on the contest. In the course of fan yenta, each party had expended 100,0001. Nor can it be deemed matter of surprise that such immense sums should be lavished, when it is under. stood that, independently of the money disbursed in purchasing the votes of electors, every public-house throughout the city was kept open, by otte or the other party, night and day. Bands of ruffians, composed of the very dregs of society, decorated with cockades, preceded by flags, and armed with bludgeons, &c. and accompanied with music, were employed to parade the streets or surround the hustings, at the enormous wages of ten shillings a day each man. Nor was this too large a sum f. r the hazard the poor wretches underwent. Parties of them had to fight their way through thick and thin, to encompass the electors, and protect them from the missiles and attacks of the mobs engaged by the other side ; and never did add), pass without atrocious. conflicts, broken heads, and broken limbs ; nor did an election take place with. out the loss of one or more lives. But to return to our subject : upwards of 20,000/ of the expenses of this election were paid by persons most of them in office. The Duke of Richmond paid 5001., the next in degree of official rank paid 300/., the Lords of the Treasury 2001. each, the Lords of the Admiralty 1501. each, with some few exceptions, and the Secretary of the Treasury fur- nished the rest.

On the Opposition side, of course, all was loss ; as it came out of the pockets of the individual members of the party, whose hope of reimbursement depended upon their being at some future period strong enough to turn their opponents out of office and step into their places.