Dyall, one of the party who had called the meeting, and as this memorial
had been unanimously agreed to by the Committee, my Lord Sidmouth, the
Secretary of State, and his agents, made so certain that I should fall
into this _trap_, and propose it to the meeting, that their principal
organ, the editor of the _Courier_ newspaper, actually inserted a copy
of it in the paper, as having been proposed by me at the meeting. But
they soon found, to their sorrow, that old birds were not to be caught
with chaff; for that I had blasted their fondest hopes of bloodshed,
by proposing a petition to the Prince Regent, of a nature totally the
reverse of the said memorial; which petition was universally adopted
by the meeting; and that I had undertaken to present it to his Royal
Highness the Prince Regent, and had also promised to report the answer,
if I received any, at the next meeting, which was appointed to be held
on Monday, the 2d of December.

On the following day, not only the _Courier_ and the _Morning Post_,
but every paper published in the metropolis (with the exception of the
_Statesman,_ which was then conducted by Mr. Lovell), joined in pouring
forth a torrent of falsehood, misrepresentation, and abuse of me. I do
not know that I can give a more correct account of what took place in
London, more fairly represent the conduct of the public press upon this
occasion, than by giving an extract from Mr. Cobbett's Register, which
was published the ensuing week, as follows, headed "SPA-FIELDS MEETING:"

"Since my long acquaintance with the press, I do not
think that I have ever witnessed so much baseness of conduct
as this Meeting has given rise to. If Mr. Hunt had
been the most notorious pick-pocket; if he had been a
raggamuffin covered with a coat hired for the day; if he
had been a fellow who took up his lodgings in the brick-kilns