and I begged to know if there were no means of presenting the petition
earlier, as I had promised to deliver the Prince's answer to the people
on the second of December, when they would assemble again to hear what
the answer was. To this he replied, that the only other means was
to forward the paper through the Secretary of State for the Home
Department, who, he had no doubt, would deliver it to his Royal Master
immediately, as he knew it was considered by the Ministers as a matter
of very considerable importance. I thanked him for his polite attention
and obliging information, and I then retired with the same form as I
entered, the Colonel attending me to the doors, which were thrown wide
open as before.

I immediately wrote a letter to Lord Sidmouth, to appoint a time when
I could have an audience, for the purpose of delivering to him the
petition to be presented to the Prince Regent, and I carried this letter
myself direct to the office of the Secretary of State, and sent it up to
his Lordship, saying, that I would wait in the ante-room for an answer.
In a very few minutes the servant in waiting returned, attended by an
under secretary, who said that Lord Sidmouth would give me an audience
immediately, and he desired that I would follow him. I did so, and was
forthwith introduced into the audience room, where his Lordship received
me with all that parade of overstrained politeness which belongs to a
finished courtier. He was surrounded by some half-dozen lordlings, who,
from the manner in which he ordered them out of the room, appeared to be
hungry expectants, seeking and supplicating some place, office, or boon.
They vanished in a twinkling, and his Lordship could not hear a word for
the world, till I did him the honour to take a seat, which he politely
drew for me. My letter had explained the object of my visit, and, after
having briefly apologised for intruding at a time when he was surrounded
by others, I expressed my wish to have the petition of 100,000 of the