ABSTRACT
First published in The Examiner, XIV, 25 February 1821, pp. 113–14. This final year of Hunt’s involvement with The Examiner witnessed a continuing decline in the fortunes of both the paper and the nation. Yet Hunt’s writings for 1821 also typify his overall Examiner history. For he persists in his relentless struggle to reform national politics, and he continues to stress the vital role of the arts in that project. On the national and global levels, the powers of reaction seemed to have consolidated their gains over the last several tumultuous years. Carlile and Henry Hunt were locked away. George IV was crowned in July. Queen Caroline was banished to a quiet internal exile until her death in August. Napoleon died in July and with him vanished, or so it could seem, any genuine threat to the ancien regime now restored throughout Europe. Prosecutions of oppositional papers continued, including one directed at John Hunt for his volley at Parliament the previous year that had so outraged Castlereagh (see above, pp. 291–5). John Hunt had taken over sole proprietorship of The Examiner specifically to protect Leigh from such a prosecution, and the weight of the government came down on him alone. Another high stakes trial of The Examiner took place on 21 February, with Lord Chief Justice Abbott presiding and Attorney General Gifford leading the attack. The jury was also stacked, as before, with special jurors sympathetic to the Crown (for the previous trial of The Examiner, see headnote Vol. 1, pp. 262–3).
