300. Nothing is much more annoying than the _intermeddling of friends_, in a case like this. The wife appeals _to them_, and '_good breeding_,' that is to say, _nonsense_, is sure to put them on _her side_. Then, they, particularly the _women_, when describing the _surprising progress_ made by their _own sons_ at school, used, if one of mine were present, to turn to him, and ask, to what school _he went_, and what _he_ was _learning_? I leave any one to judge of _his_ opinion of her; and whether _he_ would like her the better for that! 'Bless me, so tall, and _not learned_ any thing _yet_!' 'Oh yes, he has,' I used to say, 'he has learned to ride, and hunt, and shoot, and fish, and look after cattle and sheep, and to work in the garden, and to feed his dogs, and to go from village to village in the dark.' This was the way I used to manage with troublesome customers of this sort. And how glad the children used to be, when they got clear of such criticising people! And how grateful they felt to me for the _protection_ which they saw that I gave them against that state of restraint, of which other people's boys complained! Go whither they might, they found no place so pleasant as home, and no soul that came near them affording them so many means of gratification as they received from me.
301. In this happy state we lived, until the year 1810, when the government laid its merciless fangs upon me, dragged me from these delights, and _crammed me into a jail amongst felons_; of which I shall have to speak more fully, when, in the last Number, I come to speak of the duties of THE CITIZEN. This added to the difficulties of my task of _teaching_; for now I was snatched away from the _only_ scene in which it could, as I thought, properly be executed. But even these difficulties were got over. The blow was, to be sure, a terrible one; and, oh God! how was it felt by these poor children! It was in the month of July 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.