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REPORTS OF A POLITICAL CLUB 383
the mutineers are to be permitted to pass the batteries. It will
be very desirable that instructions should be sent to Colonel
Nesbitt as soon as possible to detain all boats or other vessels
that may come up from the Nore and to secure all the people
on board of them ; and I wish to submit to Mr. Pitt the
propriety of ordering the post office to stop every letter
addressed to any of the disaffected ships, as nothing is more
likely to bring them to reason than finding themselves quite
cut off from the country.
I shall see General limes to-morrow morning before I set
off from here, to arrange with him how to dispose of the
prisoners he may receive from Sheerness, and I suppose we
shall
be in town about twelve o'clock.
Yours very sincerely,
SPENCER.
[The original letters are in the Rough Minutes,
A.S.M. 137.]
EXTRACTS FROM INTELLIGENCE OF A POLITICAL
CLUB.
[See above, p. 342.]
June ioth, '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 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. I also credit
the opinion of those people at Sheerness who say that the
soldiers have helped on the discontent that prevailed amongst
the fleet, nor is it possible to have lived in that neighbourhood
without being well acquainted with matters as they have
happened; nor will, I trust, the Sedition Bills always remain
in force. I have read with attention part of the Duke of