of Pitt blinded
them to the obvious consequences. From this censure I must except
Sheridan, whose speech of 2nd June was patriotic; and he further is said
to have suggested the plan of removing the buoys beyond the mutinous
fleet.

For a brief space disquieting symptoms appeared in the army. An
inflammatory appeal to the troops was distributed at Maidstone by Henry
Fellows; and the same man addressed a letter to some person unnamed,
asking him to send on 100 copies of the Ulster Address, 50 of
"Boniparte's [_sic_] Address," 50 of "the Duke of Richmond's Letter,"
and 50 of Payne's "Agrarian Justice." The last named was found among the
papers of John Bone, a member of the London Corresponding Society.[458]
It is not unlikely that this propaganda was connected with that at
Chatham barracks, where a seditious handbill was left on 21st May 1797,
urging the men to cast off the tyranny misnamed discipline, to demand
better food, better clothing, and freedom from restraint in barracks.
"The power is all our own," it concludes. "The regiments which send you
this are willing to do their part. They will show their countrymen they
can be soldiers without being slaves ... Be sober, be ready."[459] The
paper was probably connected with the mutiny at the Nore. There were
also some suspicious doings in London barracks. One of the incendiaries
there was, "wicked Williams," who certainly had run through the whole
gamut of evil. First as a clergyman, he ruined himself by his excesses;
then as a penitent he applied to Wilberforce for relief, and, after
disgusting even that saintly man, he in revenge carried round to certain
barracks the signature of his would-be benefactor appended to a
seditious appeal. Busybodies lacking all sense of humour therefore
buzzed it about that the abolitionist leader sought to stir up a mutiny.
On 13th May Pitt sent to him to sift any grains of truth that there
might be in this peck of lies. The following unpublished letter from
Wilberforce to Pitt shows that he advised him to use Williams so as to
get at the grains:

2.20 Saty mng. [_May 1797_?][460]

Williams has been with Windham and is to wait on him again. The
latter has been with me, and I have been guarding him about
Wms's character, telling him that we wish to enable some proper
person to watch Wms's motions by becoming acquainted with his
person. Now, if this watch should be at or near Windham's,