Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from England's Grievance Discovered, in Relation to the Coal-Trade: The Tyrannical Oppression of the Magistrates of Newcastle
The Author of the following work, for the last two centuries, whenever he has been spoken of at all, has been described as a turbulent, litigious scoundrel, who appropriately terminated a life, infamous on account of its slander and treachery against the Corporation of Newcastle, by a death on the scaffold at York, for the ignominious crime of coining.
The present Editor, however, having, in early life, from a careful study of the Author's book, formed a very different opinion of his character, wishes, in a few brief sentences, to clear away from Ralph Gardner's name, the stains with which selfishness and malevolence have so long laboured to cover it; and to lead the inhabitants of Shields and the Tyne generally, to cherish with gratitude the memory of a man, who, in his day and generation, was the best friend of their interests, and the most able champion of their rights.
It will, no doubt, be considered by many a matter of small consequence, to know whether this advocate of their just claims was a just man or not. It is nothing to him, either, the sturdy Reformer of the Tyne during the Commonwealth - whose ardent spirit has so long been quenched in the dust - for a century and a half, at least, sleeping peacefully. Persecuted, impoverished, ruined as he was, no one more heartily than he would have scorned the slanders of his foes, or smiled at the neglect of those friends for whose welfare he had sacrificed himself. But there are some generous hearts to whom it will not be a matter of small moment that this patriot of the Tyne, having been maligned for two hundred years, should at last, by a loving hand, have the stains wiped away from his memory.
It is a grateful task to perform these pious offices to the reputation of a just man and a benefactor. Death does not close our liabilities to such as these, nor any lapse of time. The debts of gratitude never reach the Statute of Limitations.
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