ABSTRACT
First published in The Examiner, IX, 21 January 1816, pp. 33–4. As the new parliamentary session is about to open, Hunt worries that the government and its backers in the press, still revelling in victory over Napoleon, will believe it has a mandate to continue what Hunt – offering what almost amounts to his platform for Reform – saw as destructive policies, including high taxation, a militarization of the government, overseas adventurism and the selling of political offices (for a series of essays on some of these topics, see headnote above, pp. 41–2). While he believed that England would escape the worst excesses of restored ‘legitimacy’ on the continent, he was clearly concerned about a desire on the part of the government to quiet the opposition press and to start a new war with the United States. In the next week’s piece (‘Men of Talent in Parliament’, The Examiner, IX, 28 January 1817, pp. 49–51), he took up the leaders of the opposition, and later reviews of the talents of the members of the parliament can be seen, for example, in The Examiner, XI, 8 February 1818, pp. 81–2; 15 February 1818, pp. 97–8; 22 February 1818, pp. 113–14; 1 March 1818, pp. 129–30; and 16 August 1818, pp. 532–5. An essay of 4 February 1816, pp. 65–7, offers an interesting roll call of talent from across the political spectrum and shows Hunt’s awareness of literary and political figures on the continent. In that essay, Hunt also responded to ministerial attacks on the opposition, which included jokes about the last opposition ministry, the so-called ‘Ministry of All the Talents’; Hunt suggests the current ministers should be called ‘All the Tools, – All the Triflers, – All the Tailors’ (p. 65).
