considerably. When we mounted the hustings, the Abbey-Grove was at least
one-third of it crammed full, so that, on a moderate calculation, there
were from twelve to fifteen thousand persons present. A public meeting
of the people for any political purpose had never before been held in
Bath, and therefore it attracted greater attention than is usual in
other cities.

Resolutions were now proposed and passed, which exposed the glaring
injustice of paying away enormous sums of the public money to sinecure
placemen and unworthy pensioners, &c. The Marquis of CAMDEN, who held
the office of one of the Tellers of the Exchequer, a sinecure of
thirty-five thousand a year, being the Recorder of the city of Bath,
gave us a fine opportunity of expatiating on the profligate waste of the
public money upon that corrupt and knavish corporation. Our resolutions
were extremely strong and pointed upon this subject of _our Recorder's_
enormous sinecure; and these resolutions were embodied in our petition,
which was passed almost unanimously, amidst the cheers of the citizens
of Bath. In this petition we forcibly remonstrated against such a wanton
and unfeeling waste of the public money, and urged the necessity of the
immediate abolition of the Marquis of Camden's sinecure. I wish I had
a copy of the resolutions and petition by me, that I might insert them
here, as I conceive this to have been the most momentous petition that
was ever presented to the House of Commons; and the effect which it
produced was more important than that of any other petition that was
ever passed at any public meeting, not excepting that which was passed
at Spafields. At this, as well as at all the public meetings that
I attended, the petition prayed for Annual Parliaments, Universal
Suffrage, and Vote by Ballot; but, as it was the first and only petition
that ever came from a public meeting of the citizens of Bath, we laid
very great stress upon the Marquis of Camden's sinecure, he being the