ABSTRACT
First published in The Examiner, XIII, 19 November 1820, p. 737. This brief address is a typical example of Hunt’s engagement with his readers in prefaces, postscripts, retrospects and prospectuses. For related examples, see ‘The Indicator’s Farewell’, The Indicator, II, 21 March 1821, pp. 191–2 and below, pp. 326–7; ‘The Critic’s Farewell to His Readers’, The News, III, 13 December 1807, p. 399 and Vol. 1, pp. 21–3; ‘Prospectus’, The Examiner, I, 3 January 1808, pp. 6–8 and Vol. 1, pp. 25–34; ‘Preface’, The Examiner, I, 1808, n.p. and Vol. 1, pp. 79–82; ‘Preface’, The Examiner V, 1812, n.p., and Vol. 1, pp. 203–5; ‘New Prospectus of The Examiner’, The Examiner, VII, 25 December 1814, pp. 819–20 and Vol. 1, pp. 337–41. The immediate occasion for this address is the Queen’s acquittal (see headnote above, pp. 307–8), which makes Hunt’s sense of connection with ‘the vast multitude of the nation’ (below, p. 319) particularly vibrant in their shared ‘happy triumph’ (below, p. 318) over the tottering lords of government power and their hireling journalists in the ministerial papers.
