POLITICAL HISTORY the state of the county seems to have caused the government some uneasi- ness, but this feehng was probably more due to the prevalent condition of alarm and panic among the ruling classes than to any real danger. In 1793 the Hon. H. Hobart presented a petition signed by 3,741 inhabitants of Norwich pressing for parliamentary reform. By 1794 the French war had caused the necessity of home defence to be much greater than many had thought, and to emphasize this a county meeting was called in the Shire Hall to consider what steps should be taken. The Townshends, Lord Walsingham, Mr. Buxton, Mr. Windham, and Mr. Jodrell all moved or supported resolutions for forming volunteer corps of cavalry, and for subscribing to maintain them. ' Coke of Norfolk,' the agriculturist, moved an amendment protesting against the war altogether, and stating that it was the duty of the meeting to refuse to subscribe. It was impossible to say whether the amendment or resolution was carried, but no less than ;(^i 1,000 was subscribed in the room, and in 1797 a Light Horse Association under Mr. John Harvey, and a Loyal Military Association under Mr. John Patteson, were successfully organized. Mason, in his History of Norfolk, prints very much interesting matter as to the preparations made to resist invasion, and especially the letters and projects of General Money, who seems to have been by far the most able local man, and a commander of ingenuity and resource. His plan for mounting light guns weighing 20 cwt. on strong corn waggons capable of carrying 60 cwt. is very interesting.* Very careful arrangements were made to send the women, children and old men, and all the most valuable property inland by a regularly planned service of carts in case of invasion, and not a few printed placards of instructions can still be seen occasionally in farm-houses. In 1797 there were meetings and counter-meetings urging the king to dismiss and support his ministers, and Thelwall, a well-known revolutionary agitator, came down and tried to seduce the military. At Yarmouth there was a meeting on board the fleet. Next year, however, the naval successes put people in a better humour, and Norwich received with effusion a Spanish admiral's sword won by Nelson,*" Norfolk's great naval hero. In 1802 the Hon. W. Windham lost his seat at Norwich, and was to have put up for the county (Wodehouse reluctantly retiring in his favour), but a safer seat was found for him elsewhere, and Wodehouse reappeared in the Tory interest. After a close contest for second place. Coke was easily first, and Astley beat the Hon. John Wodehouse by ninety-six, which must have been the more annoying to the latter as he had been in front for the first five days. The threatened invasion of England in 1802-3 made much stir here, and a regiment of volunteer infantry numbering 1,400 was raised at Norwich, as well as a rifle corps under the captaincy of Mr. R. M. Bacon, then editor of the Mercury, who wielded sword as well as pen. Much of the credit for the preparations for defence is due to William Windham, who pointed out the risk of a local landing most forcibly to the government, and ' plainly ' Mason, op. cit. 468. ' Nelson, son and grandson of country parsons, was aided in coming to the front by his descent from the Walpoles, from whom he took his Christian name. Paternally he was descended from a family settled at Seaming in 1664, which probably came from the adjoining village of Wendling. The alleged earlier descent from a family at Maudesley in Lancashire, said to be armigerous, is more than doubtful. 523
