Note 24 — Chapter VI

He certainly began his speech with references to the general distress, but he soon drifted on to the subject of Reform, and tried to excite his audience by drawing attention to the Royal, and other Incomes. Here is a specimen of his oratory: "You have all heard of George Canning, that impudent dog, that vile, unprincipled, unmanly calumniator of the people—that miscreant, whose language failed him in applying disgraceful epithets to you: but you do not know his family; nay, I do not believe he knows his own grandfather. Yet Mother Hunn, who brought this hopeful cub into the world (without knowing who was his father), had £500 for the useful event, and her worthy daughters had also £500 each."[24] And in another part of his speech is reported to have said: "I know well the superiority of mental over physical force: while we have the power of exercising the former, we cannot be justified in resorting to the latter." This might be construed into a sort of "Don't nail his ear to the pump"—and was remembered as such on the 2nd of December.