o_199m9vaui14ib1cnu10di10pocoj4h.pdf

350 THE NAVAL MUTINIES OF 1797
ing between this and any other political question." They
did not understand that it was necessary at times for both
political parties to work together against a common
domestic enemy. The Mayor of Portsmouth, who was a
Whig, actually took into his confidence Brassett, the
slopseller who was accused of sedition, and showed him
privately the charges which had been brought against
him. 1
There is only one indication, however, of a more direct
connexion between the mutineers and members of the
Whig party. According to Cunningham, " Captain
William Pierrepont, then commanding H.M.S. Naiad,
lying off Greenhithe, asserted that a certain political
character, in the opposition of the day, was seen by
himself to arrive in his carriage at the place; and held a
communication at a public house with one of the people
belonging to the ship." 2 The identity of the "political
character " is shown in a letter from Pierrepont himself,
in which he says that Whitbread, the prominent member
of the Whig party in Parliament, had held two hours'
conversation in Purfleet with James Wilson, a seaman
who commanded the Lancaster during the mutiny.s And
further light is thrown on the interview by Lieutenant
Covell, of the Lancaster. He reported on 9 June that he
had had an interview with Wilson, who at ordinary times
was the captain of the main-top. Covell pointed out the
batteries that had been erected on shore, and remarked,
11
You see that all the country is against you, and you see
the Opposition joining with the ministerial party to repel
you to your former subordination." " I know that,"
said Wilson, " for I had half an hour's conversation with
Mr. Whitbread the other day." Covell observed that
1. Graham to King, 22 May, A.S.I. 4172.
2- Cunningham, p. 136, note p.
3. Capts. P 226, 14 June (Digest). Cunningham made a slight
mistake in saying that Wilson belonged to the Xaiad. The confusion
was natural since the evidence was given by the captain of that ship,
and the Xaiad and the Lancaster were lying close together in Long
Reach.