, was Lord Mayor. He was descended from a Maidenhead
tailor, one of whose sons made a fortune in Jamaica. At Westminster
School he had acquired the friendship of Lord Mansfield and a rich earl.
Beckford united in himself the following apparently incongruous
characters. He was an enormously rich Jamaica planter, a merchant, a
member of Parliament, a militia officer, a provincial magistrate, a
London alderman, a man of pleasure, a man of taste, an orator, and a
country gentleman. He opposed Government on all occasions, especially in
bringing over Hessian troops, and in carrying on a German war. His great
dictum was that under the House of Hanover Englishmen for the first time
had been able to be free, and for the first time had determined to be
free. He presented to the king a remonstrance against a false return
made at the Middlesex election. The king expressed dissatisfaction at
the remonstrance, but Beckford presented another, and to the
astonishment of the Court, added the following impromptu speech:--

"Permit me, sire, to observe," are said to have been the concluding
remarks of the insolent citizen, "that whoever has already dared, or
shall hereafter endeavour by false insinuations and suggestions to
alienate your Majesty's affections from your loyal subjects in general,
and from the City of London in particular, and to withdraw your
confidence in, and regard for, your people, is an enemy to your
Majesty's person and family, a violator of the public peace, and a
betrayer of our happy constitution as it was established at the
_Glorious and Necessary Revolution_." At these words the king's
countenance was observed to flush with anger. He still, however,
presented a dignified silence; and accordingly the citizens, after
having been permitted to kiss the king's hand, were forced to return
dissatisfied from the presence-chamber.

This speech, which won Lord Chatham's "admiration, thanks, and
affection," and was inscribed on the pedestal of Beckford's statue
erected in Guildhall, has been the subject of bitter disputes. Isaac
Reed boldly asserts every word was written by Horne Tooke, and that
Horne Tooke himself said so. Gifford, with his usual headlong
partisanship, says the same; but there is every reason to suppose that
the words are those uttered by Beckford with but one slight alteration.
Beckford died, a short time after making this speech, of a fever,
caught by riding from London to Fonthill, his Wiltshire estate