Charles Hitchen
The embattled under-marshal would try hard to retain his power and after two months of being accused of the felonies, at last, on 16 December, he showed his poorly written "answer" spread on 9 pages of foolscap. The document is a record of the names of all those places mentioned above, where Hitchen met the thieves and organised crimes with them. It also gives the examples of social details, one of which explains how Lord Barnard's bills through a chain of accidents appeared in Hitchen's hands. If one did not tip the porter in the General Post Office, he would throw the letter out. Pickpockets, visiting the Office for their own purpose in the midnight, saw the other one at the door with the bills inside. Seeing the boys with the papers on the one side of the tavern and a sad victim on the other, set Hitchen to assist him. Certainly, this rather comic justification with others added to his main reason of being maliciously persecuted by the robbers was not to blindfold the Court of Aldermen, who were reluctant to take decision against him anyway for the clear reasons discussed above. On the other hand, they could not utterly ignore the Lord Mayor's reminder to the committee, that marshal's behaviour humiliated the City and reflected other officers' behaviour under the Mayor. All they did, though, was rather cynical. After waiting for Hitchen's written defence, presented itself as late as 16 December, they did not read it until 16 January 1713. As for their decision on marshal's suspension, it came over five months late, that was 24 June 1713 and "forbade him attendance on the Lord Mayor" while retaining his power as a constable to obtain warrant when needed and apprehend.
Mortality (book)
The critical response to "Mortality" was largely positive with friends and admirers of Hitchens praising both his character in confronting his death and the way that this was transferred onto the page. In a glowing review of "Mortality" in "The New York Times", Christopher Buckley described Hitchens' seven essays as "diamond-hard and brilliant" and "word-perfect." He wrote that it was "sobering and grief-inducing to read this brave and harrowing account of his "year of living dyingly" in the grip of the alien that succeeded where none of his debate opponents had in bringing him down." Buckley was a friend of Hitchens. Colm Tóibín fondly wrote in "The Guardian "of his experiences with Hitchens, opining that "he was the best company in the world" and offered praise for "Mortality", writing that "in this book he does everything to make sure that his voice remains civilised, searching and ready to vanquish all his enemies, most notably in this case the dullness of death and its silence." In "The Observer "Alexander Linklater was also complimentary. Referring to John Gray's description of Hitchens as "one of the greatest living writers of English prose", Linklater responded that "the only word of that which is certainly untrue is that Hitchens is now no longer living." He also noted: "The real struggle in "Mortality" is not with mortality. Hitchens cleaves to the logical conclusion of his materialism. He hints, rather, at a fear of losing himself, of becoming an imbecile, someone who might, in terror and pain, say something foolish or (God forbid) religious near the end, to give his enemies satisfaction. The true struggle of his last writings is to remain himself, deep in the country of the ill, for as long as he can." Another positive review came from the magazine where Hitchens started his career, "The New Statesman". George Eaton wrote that Hitchens' final work had "a timeless, aphoristic quality".