Chapter 16

Abstract

Abstract On the evening of 31 January 1819, three men met over dinner in the back room of a small house on Ludgate Hill. One uncorked a bottle of wine, filled their glasses, and proposed a toast. ‘To Political Essays!’ ‘Political Essays!’ they cried in unison, laughing. It was a bold gesture. Seven days earlier, Hazlitt signed a contract giving William Hone publishing rights to his next book, which attacked the enemies of freedom—Lord Liverpool, the Prince Regent, George III, Wordsworth, Coleridge, and the Poet Laureate. That evening he delivered printer’s copy, which sat on the table as he celebrated with his publisher. The third guest was a mutual friend—John Hunt, to whom Political Essays was dedicated. Their conversation covered a range of subjects including Daniel Defoe, of whom Hazlitt and his new publisher were admirers, as Hone later boasted to his friend John Childs: ‘Hazlitt is a De Foeite.’