HUNT, HENRY (1773-1835), English reformer, was born at Upavon, Wilts., on Nov. 6. He was for many years the most prominent among the more extreme English reformers under the oppression of Sidmouth and Castlereagh : indeed, after the de fection of Burdett he had a position which was almost that of recognized leader. In person, training and character, he much re sembled William Cobbett (q.v.). He was tall, florid and bulky; a typical English farmer both in occupation and appearance ; he was as pugnacious, as unreasonable, as devoted and as vain as his more famous rival; he was possibly more courageous. But littera scripta manet: Cobbett wrote magnificent English which has pre served him a growing fame ; Hunt is forgotten because we can no longer hear the voice and eloquence which gave him the name of Orator Hunt. He first adopted radical principles in 18o6 and continued his agitation at a persistent series of public meetings and dinners until Aug. 1819 when he presided at the great meeting at St. Peter's fields, Manchester, which was attacked by the yeomanry (see PETERLoo). The white hat, which he wore on that occasion and which was stated to have been stove in by a sword cut, became the badge of reform, and for several years to wear a white hat was as symbolical as later it was to wear a red tie. He was sentenced to imprisonment for two and a half years; from his prison he sent out A peep into a jail, an exposure of Ilchester gaol which had its share in promoting prison reform. He took a great share in causing the crescendo of indignation which eventually overturned the oligarchy in 1832. In 183o he was himself elected M.P. for Preston, a borough which, by virtue of a scot-and-lot franchise, was one of the very few with a working class electorate. In Parliament he presented a petition for women's rights, and moved (despite his farming connection) against the Corn Laws. But the Reform Act of 1832, in granting the vote to the middle class and standardizing the franchise, necessarily disfranchised the mass of the electors at Preston. Hunt lost his seat in the election of 1833 and died on Feb. 15, 5.