when the horrible sentence was passed upon me. My wife, having
left her children in the care of her good and affectionate sister, was
in London, waiting to know the doom of her husband. When the news
arrived at Botley, the three boys, one eleven, another nine, and the
other seven, years old, were hoeing cabbages in that garden which had
been the source of so much delight. When the account of the savage
sentence was brought to them, the youngest could not, for some time, be
made to understand what a _jail_ was; and, when he did, he, all in a
tremor, exclaimed, 'Now I'm sure, William, that PAPA is not in a place
_like that_!' The other, in order to disguise his tears and smother his
sobs, fell to work with the hoe, and _chopped about like a blind
person_. This account, when it reached me, affected me more, filled me
with deeper resentment, than any other circumstance. And, oh! how I
despise the wretches who talk of my _vindictiveness_; of my _exultation_
at the confusion of those who inflicted those sufferings! How I despise
the base creatures, the crawling slaves, the callous and cowardly
hypocrites, who affect to be '_shocked_' (tender souls!) at my
expressions of _joy_, and at the death of Gibbs, Ellenborough, Perceval,
Liverpool, Canning, and the rest of the tribe that I have already seen
out, and at the fatal workings of _that system_, for endeavouring to
check which I was thus punished! How I despise these wretches, and how
I, above all things, enjoy their ruin, and anticipate their utter
beggary! What! I am to forgive, am I, injuries like this; and that, too,
without any _atonement_? Oh, no! I have not so read the Holy Scriptures;
I have not, from them, learned that I am not to rejoice at the fall of
unjust foes; and it makes a part of my happiness to be able _to tell
millions of men_ that I do thus rejoice, and that I have the means of
calling on so many just and merciful men to rejoice along with me.

302. Now, then, the _book-learning_ was _forced_ upon us. I had a _farm_
in hand. It was necessary that I should be constantly informed of what
was doing. I gave _all the orders_, whether as to purchases, sales,
ploughing, sowing, breeding; in short, with regard to every thing, and
the things were endless in number and variety, and always full of
interest. My eldest son and daughter could now write well and fast. One
or the other of these was always at Botley; and I had with me (having
hired the best part of the keep