o_199m9vaui14ib1cnu10di10pocoj4h.pdf

REPORTS FROM A SPY 343
June 10th, '97. Toasted : May the Opposition be as true to
the people as the needle to the pole.
Home Tooke and honest men, I believe Mr. Sheridan says
true that he loves the sailor, and I am sure that he means not
to support tyranny, though I readily believe he knows not
what belongs to discipline as used on board the ships. However,
may the sailors prove that they are men and will not be
lashed or goaded. I heard yesterday that the ship Parker is
on board would be between two fires, and that there was no
choice to the crew, without they submitted, but to be blown
up in the air or sunk in the water—horrid fate for oppressed
men. ... If Parker can make his escape, let him ; though
if he is destroyed, "the dead may tell tales" remains undisputed,
as Mr. Tooke surely proved it by a quotation from
Mr. Gibbon last Westminster election. ... As the navy affair
had a sudden rise, perhaps some other matters may have
[as] sudden a fall. ... So much for discipline and order.
How much I detest it as described in Voltaire's "Candide"
(a book I have lately met with), or in the Gazetteer, if I
mistake not, published upon old George's Tyranny, or rather,
as it was called, the "Laws of Russia." ....
Sailors' Parody :—
(Britannia) know thy force
And break the chains of despotic power,
vSo shall thy countrymen greet thy doings,
And welcome thee with songs of triumph. 1
If the reports are genuine—and there is no reason to
doubt their authenticity 2 —they give a direct proof that
the revolutionaries in this country strongly supported the
revolt of the seamen. There is no sign in these papers,
as there is in some parts of the evidence, of financial or
personal help, 3 but they show at least that the republicans
1. A.S.I. 3974, pp. 264—269. The reports are quoted at length in
Appendix A.
2. Spies are always beset with the temptation to invent news when
the truth is not likely to be remunerative ; and for this reason we
must read their letterswith some reserve. But I think that anyone who
reads the full text in the Appendix and judges the general character of
these reports will be inclined to accept them as genuine.
3. Unless the sentence, " Nor is it possible to have lived in that
neighbourhood without being well acquainted with matters as they have
happened," be taken to imply that the speaker had been engaged in
seditious work in Sheerness. His opinion " that the soldiers had helped
on the discontent that prevailed amongst the fleet " gives some support
to this view.