prisoners. It is very curious that it was never communicated to the
prisoners that I was in attendance to give evidence on their behalf; but
when they saw me in court, they actually thought that I was subpoened as
an evidence for the Crown against them.

Lord Sidmouth now brought in a Bill for the further suspension of the
Habeas-Corpus Act. In the House of Commons, Sir Francis Burdett called
the attention of its Members to the conduct of _Oliver, the spy_, and
of others who had been employed by Government, and who had excited
distressed persons to riot in the North. The county of Middlesex
petitioned in vain against the renewal of the Habeas-Corpus Act. The
Bill passed, and Parliament was prorogued by the Prince Regent on the
12th of July.

On the 31st of July, a public dinner was given at the Crown and Anchor,
to celebrate the acquittal of Watson, Thistlewood, Preston and Hooper,
at which dinner I was in the chair, and upwards of a hundred persons sat
down to it. Hooper very shortly after died; he fell a victim to a cold
which he caught in prison.

Such was the increasing distress of the people in the metropolis,
that the Old Bailey Calendar contained above 400 prisoners for trial;
forty-five more than were ever before known. In this year, 1817, the
Bank of England prosecuted _one hundred and twenty-four_ persons for
forgery, or uttering forged notes. This speaks for itself, and shews the
state of society produced by the Pitt system. On the 22d of September
the Bank of England announced their intention of paying in cash all
their small notes issued before the first of January 1817. This was a
beginning of calling in one pound Bank of England notes.