calumny? Is a man bound to endure this in _silence_? 'He
has his redress _at law_.' Oh! the base cowards! Their
answer is worse than their crime.

"Was it any _fault_ in an Englishman, living in the country,
to come to London to take part at a _Meeting of Englishmen
in distress_? Was this any _fault_? No one can
say that it was.--The Meeting had been advertised many
days before any knowledge of it reached Mr. Hunt; he
was requested to come up; and who can blame him for
coming? However, it is not a question of blame or no
blame; he had _a right_ to come, and he chose to exercise
his right. If, indeed, the invitation had been from persons
in _prosperity_, he might have easily declined; but, I
do not see how he was to resist the call of people in distress.

"But his speech, that was '_inflammatory_.' Good God!
what is _not_ inflammatory now-a-days? But, though the
speech might, and, I dare say, did contain matter much
stronger than that which I have read in the report of it,
I am very sure that it could not surpass what I have read in
the _Morning Chronicle_ within this month; and that it
could not surpass (for nothing can surpass) the inflammatory
matter in the _Times_ and the _Courier_ on the subject
of their alleged extortions of the Bakers and Butchers.
Besides, as to the printed reports of the speech, Mr. Hunt
was wholly _at the mercy of the Reporters_. They have
made him say just what they pleased, and he has no redress;
no means of correction; no chance of being heard
in explanation. They impute to him the having asserted,