FOOTNOTES
[1] Niles’s Register, published at Baltimore, a weekly journal of extended influence, had begun by abusing Cobbett, but speedily found it was better worth while to reprint his writings concerning America. Some of the independent republications were,—
“Porcupine Revived; or, An Old Thing Made New. Being (1) An Argument against the Expediency of a War with England; (2) An Exposition of the Absurdity of sending Albert Gallatin to treat with the British. By William Cobbett, Esq.” (New York, 1813.) The editor is a Federalist, and thinks it surprising that Cobbett should have described so accurately seventeen years ago the present condition of the States.
“Letters on the Late War between the United States and Great Britain, &c., &c., by William Cobbett, Esq.” (New York, 1815). The preface is highly eulogistic, and forgives all Cobbett’s former wickedness.
“The Pride of Britannia Humbled; or, The Queen of the Ocean Unqueen’d by the American Cock-boats, &c., &c. Illustrated and demonstrated by four Letters to Lord Liverpool, by William Cobbett, Esq.” (Philadelphia, 1815). This editor is also very magnanimous.
It was a marked characteristic of the estimates formed by Cobbett’s cotemporaries that the party, or the set, which he for the time being appeared to support, readily overlooked his former opinions and so-called “inconsistencies.” This applies to London, as well as to Philadelphia. Never was a man so readily forgiven. Envy alone was his enduring enemy, as it always is to great abilities and to superior personal character.
[2] We get a glimpse of home over this incident:—“The youngest asked where Albany was. He ran to the map. And then the little pamphlet from Boston; they looked into it; they saw the same thing which they had, one or the other of them, written at my dictation only a few months before. Who would barter such pleasures for all the wealth and all the titles in the world?”
[3] That cruel urgency, want of space, forbids the insertion here of many a smart illustrative extract from Cobbett’s American writings. The following must suffice, being parts of a letter “to the people of Botley,” dated 10th November, 1818:—
“My old Neighbours,—Great as the distance between you and me is, I very often think of you, and especially when I buy salt, which our neighbour Warner used to sell us for 19s. a bushel, and which I buy here for 2s. 6d. This salt is made, you know, down somewhere by Hamble. This very salt, when brought here from England, has all the charges of freight, insurance, wharfage, steerage to pay. It pays, besides, one third of its value in duty to the American Government before it be landed here. Then, you will observe, there is the profit of the American salt merchant; and then that of the shopkeeper who sells me the salt. And, after all this, I buy that very Hampshire salt for 2s. 6d. a bushel, English measure. What a Government, then, must that of the borough-mongers be! The salt is a gift of God. It is thrown on the shore. And yet these tyrants will not suffer us to use it until we have paid them 15s. a bushel for liberty to use it.…
“You are compelled to pay the borough-mongers a heavy tax on your candles and soap. You dare not make candles and soap, though you have the fat and the ashes in abundance. If you attempt to do this, you are taken up and imprisoned; and if you resist, soldiers are brought to shoot you. This is freedom, is it? Now we, here, make our own candles and soap. Farmers sometimes sell soap and candles, but they never buy any. A labouring man, or a mechanic, buys a sheep now and then. Three or four days’ work will buy a labourer a sheep to weigh sixty pounds, with seven or eight pounds of loose fat. The meat keeps very well, in winter, for a long time. The wool makes stockings, and the loose fat is made into candles and soap. The year before I left Hampshire, a poor woman at Holly Hill had dipped some rushes in grease to use instead of candles. An exciseman found it out, went and ransacked her house, and told her that, if the rushes had had another dip, they would have been candles, and she must have gone to gaol! Why, my friends, if such a thing were told here, nobody would believe it.…
“I have had living with me an English labourer. He smokes tobacco, and he tells me that he can buy as much tobacco here for three cents, that is about three English half-pence, as he could buy in England for three shillings. The leather has no tax on it here; so that, though the shoemaker is paid a high price for his labour, the labouring man gets his shoes very cheap. In short, there is no excise here, no property tax, no assessed taxes. We have no such men as Chiddel and Billy Tovey to come and take our money from us; no window-peepers; no spies to keep a look out as to our carriages, and horses, and dogs.… We may wear hair-powder if we like, without paying for it, and a boy in our houses may whet our knives without our paying 2l. a year for it.”
“I have talked to several farmers here about the tithes in England, and they laugh. They sometimes almost make me angry, for they seem, at last, not to believe what I say when I tell them that the English farmer gives, and is compelled to give, the parson a tenth part of his whole crop, and of his fruit, and milk, and eggs, and calves, and lambs, and pigs, and wool, and honey. They cannot believe this. They treat it as a sort of romance.…
“To another of my neighbours … I was telling the story about the poor woman at Holly Hill, who had nearly dipped her rushes once too often. He is a very grave and religious man. He looked very seriously at me, and said that falsehood was falsehood, whether in jest or earnest.”
[4] There was a good deal of controversy concerning land-jobbing in America about this time. Mr. Morris Birkbeck, a prosperous farmer at Wanborough, in Surrey, left England with some highly coloured notions in his mind concerning the western territories of the United States, and produced two separate accounts, with the object of inducing British emigrants to follow him (“Notes on a Journey in America, from the Coast of Virginia to the Territory of Illinois,” and “Letters from Illinois”). Cobbett gave him a letter or two, under the impression that Birkbeck’s expectations were too fascinating. Mr. Birkbeck was unfortunately soon afterwards drowned in crossing a river. Mr. Henry Bradshaw Fearon, surgeon, went out under the auspices of some emigration committee. His was a somewhat “evil report,” and amongst other matters recorded a visit to Cobbett’s house in Long Island, which, he said, was mouldering to decay, that the fences were in ruins, and that the scene produced thoughts of melancholy (“Sketches of America: a Narrative of a Journey of 5000 Miles through the Eastern and Western States of America; with Remarks on Mr. Birkbeck’s ‘Notes’ and ‘Letters’”). The same candid pen which had endeavoured to check Birkbeck’s too great enthusiasm now had the duty to perform of chastising the author of these misrepresentations, and of Fearon’s general bad account of the Americans. Mr. Benjamin Flower also travelled westward, and sent home “Letters from the Illinois” (London, 1822). See, besides these, Faux’s “Memorable days in America” (London 1823).
[5] Mr. Paine has been variously described as a traitor, an apostate, a seducer, an infidel, a rogue, an outcast, and—“one of the most enlightened and benevolent men that ever lived.” The reconciling of these things must be left to his biographer; meanwhile, the following facts are all that are necessary to be at present noted:—Paine had been an exciseman, and discovered that he could write by the production of an eloquent pamphlet upon some grievance of the excise-officers. He had written poems, and enjoyed the friendship of Oliver Goldsmith. Being introduced to Dr. Franklin, he was induced to visit Philadelphia; and there he wrote a pamphlet under the title of “Common Sense,” which is generally asserted to have been a leading factor in producing the Declaration of Independence, being read and reprinted by hundreds of thousands. Honours came upon him; he was made Secretary to Congress for Foreign Affairs, and remained in America some dozen years. At the outbreak of the French Revolution, Paine was in London again, enjoying the friendship of Edmund Burke, whom, from the part the latter took concerning the American Revolution, Paine “naturally considered a friend to mankind.” Mr. Burke’s celebrated “Reflections on the Revolution in France” was, however, the means of sundering this friendship; and the tract was answered by Paine in “The Rights of Man,” a pamphlet which produced even more delight among the advanced liberals of the day than Burke’s had with the terrified aristocracy. The “answer” to Paine was his “Life,” “by Francis Oldys, A.M.” (one of the most horrible collections of abuse which even that venal day produced), written by George Chalmers, a Government clerk and pamphleteer, who, by the way, did much better work as an antiquarian and historical compiler. A second part of “The Rights of Man” followed this, and a Government prosecution succeeded that. A verdict of guilty, however, found the culprit a Member of the French National Convention; for no less than four constituencies had elected him, on his reputation alone. He sat for Calais; was near losing his head, for his vote on the side of humanity, when Louis XVI. was arraigned; wrote “The Age of Reason” in prison; eventually returned to America, and died (1809) in his seventy-third year, at his farm at New Rochelle, Long Island; which farm had been the gift of the nation about a quarter of a century previously.
[6] As, for example, under the head “Peterborough,” in the “Geographical Dictionary,” where Cobbett enters into a lament that to “the infamy” of Henry VIII., “and the shame of after-ages, there is no monument to record” the virtues and sufferings of Catherine of Arragon, who lies beneath the floor of the Cathedral; that the remains of Mary Queen of Scots had been taken thence to Westminster Abbey, while those of the virtuous queen were suffered to remain unhonoured, &c.
[7] To Prevent the Training of Persons to the Use of Arms.
For the more effectual Prevention and Punishment of Blasphemous and Seditious Libels.
To Authorize the Seizure and Detention of Arms on the part of Justices of the Peace.
To Subject certain Publications to the Newspaper-Stamp Duty.
For more effectually Preventing Seditious Meetings and Assemblies.
To Prevent Delay in the Administration of Justice in Cases of Misdemeanour.
[8] “Authority” must have been in a terrible fright, if we may judge from the following (from the Statesman [London] newspaper, Dec. 2, 1819):—
“Manchester, Nov. 29.—Expected arrival of Mr. Cobbett.—Though the morning was very rainy, the expectation of Mr. Cobbett’s arrival in this town attracted great numbers of persons from different parts of the country. The local authorities were on the alert, and military arrangements were made, which were as formidable as those of the 16th of August. Several pieces of cannon were brought into the town last night, but the yeomanry cavalry had received no orders, nor did they make their appearance to-day. Hussars were stationed on different parts of the Liverpool road, in order to give immediate information of Mr. C.’s movements.”
The Borough reeves and constables placarded the town, recommending the people to keep within doors, and also addressed Mr. Cobbett, informing him that if he made a public entry into Manchester, it would be their “indispensable duty immediately to interfere.”
The Reformers met this with a counter-placard:—“No procession.—In consequence of a placard posted this morning (joined with military arrangements, similar to those which preceded the fatal 16th of August last), … the real friends of peace (the principal Reformers of Manchester) request the public not to give the fiends of St. Peter’s another opportunity of shedding innocent blood, but to stay at home, and thus disappoint them of their prey.”
[9] “Ode on the Bones of the Immortal Thomas Paine, newly transferred from America to England, by the no less immortal William Cobbett, Esq.”
“Sketches of the Life of Billy Cobb and the Death of Tommy Pain, compiled from Original Documents obtained in an Original Manner.”
“The Real or Constitutional House that Jack Built,” has a cut of Cobbett shouldering a coffin. The character of this pamphlet may be judged by the following, addressed to the “first gent:”—
“This is the prince of a generous mind,
The friend of his country and all mankind,
Who, lending his ear to the dictates of truth,” &c.
As for the newspaper rhymesters, the episode of “Cobbett and Paine” was quite a godsend to them. And the reader who knows anything of election-squibbing will recall his own delights, when he thinks of the fun the Preston and Coventry people came to have over these poor bones.
[10] Oddly enough, there was another case of “bone-grubbing,” just after this escapade of Cobbett’s. The remains of Major André were exhumed and brought to England; and, considering that that unlucky officer met with the usual fate of a detected spy, the circumstance afforded Mr. Cobbett a fair opportunity of returning some of the pleasantries. As André’s name has not yet been dropped from the biographical dictionaries, his story will be found in “Chambers’s Encyclopædia,” and elsewhere.
[11] Vide “Correspondence between Mr. Cobbett, Mr. Tipper, and Sir Francis Burdett.” “A Letter to the Friends of Liberty, on the Correspondence, &c., by Thomas Dolby.” “A Defence of Mr. Cobbett, against the Intrigues of Sir Francis Burdett and his partisans.”
[12] Which letters, preserved in two quarto volumes, have happily become the property of the nation.
[13] Vide page 65.
[14] Brougham was Cleary’s counsel. Cobbett very ably defended himself, and produced one of his best jokes on this occasion. Referring to the plaintiff’s diminished prospects at the bar, alleged to be in consequence of these events, he added, “It was held to be a crime, even by poachers, to destroy young birds; and how criminal, then, must he (the defendant) be, if he really had crushed a lawyer in the egg!”
[15] Cobbett’s action with reference to Queen Caroline is another of those matters which caused unmitigable hatred on the part of the “first gent” and his ministers. He had contributed, during the year 1811, to the republication of the notorious “Book,” the entire impression of which was supposed, till then, to have been destroyed. On the Queen’s return to England, in 1820, the Reformers took up her cause with great zeal, under some impression that their own was identified therewith. Whilst Brougham, and Denman, and the leading Whigs patronized her in public; Dr. Parr, Alderman Wood, and Mr. Cobbett were at her elbow behind the scenes. The celebrated letter from the Queen to the King (which was returned unopened, but read with eager delight by all the nation) was from Cobbett’s pen.
The whole story is graphically told by Cobbett, in the “History of the Regency and Reign of George IV.,” and his cotemporary articles will be found in the Registers of 1820.
[16] Among the anti-Cobbett literature of this period which has not utterly perished, may be named,—
“The Political Death of Mr. William Cobbett” (Edinburgh, 1820), a short collection of slanders, intermingled with just sufficient truth to float it.
“The Book of Wonders” (London, 1821), an occasional publication. The second number was a verbatim report of the trial in Wright v. Cobbett, illustrated with notes.
“Cobbett’s Gridiron: written to warn Farmers of their Danger, and to put Landowners, Mortgagees, Lenders, Borrowers, the Labouring, and indeed all Classes of the Community on their Guard” (London, 1822).
“The True Patriot,” No. 1, May 15, 1824,—should have been entitled “The Truthful Hypocrite.”
“Cobbett’s Reflections on Religion,” and “Cobbett’s Reflections on Politics” (Sunderland, circa 1820-1), were “loyal” selections from his early writings.
“The Gridiron; or, Cook’s Weekly Register.” First number, March 23, 1822. Here are specimens of it:—
[“Our present intention is, principally, to exterminate Cobbett from the political world. The time required to effect this, of course, cannot be distinctly defined.…
“In our immediate attacks upon Cobbett, we request our readers to excuse the coarseness of the language adopted.”
“Farmers’ wives.—It is now but a few years since that an old shameless, wicked fellow rose up from his bed to pray for your husbands’ destruction. This wicked fellow’s name is no other than Cobbett,” &c.]
No. 2 speaks of the increasing demand for the first number. No. 3 is reduced to sixpence, for the purpose of affording a more general circulation. No. 4, ?????
All this anonymous rubbish did more good than harm, as obvious hypocrisy always will, under similar circumstances. A more respectable opponent was Henry White, a well-known Whig writer of the day. People said he was jealous of Cobbett. He was a very able man, and had himself been well abused by the Times and other papers, on account of his strict partisanship. After many years of animadversion, he produced “A Calm Appeal to the Friends of Freedom and Reform, on the Double Dealings of Mr. Cobbett, and the baneful tendency of his Writings. With a vindication of the Whigs, and the Patriots of Westminster and the Borough of Southwark, against his Scurrilous and Malignant Aspersions. By Henry White, late editor of the Independent Whig, the Charles James Fox, the Independent Observer, the Sunday Times, the Public Cause, &c., &c.” (London, 1823). Referring to his own party, White says, “What virtue, what wisdom, what real patriotism there is in the country, he knows they possess.”
CHAPTER XXIV.
“THEY COMPLAIN THAT THE TWOPENNY TRASH IS READ.”
The ruin which was overtaking all the agricultural interest during the last years of the Regency, put a finishing stroke to the little estate at Botley. It had been heavily mortgaged for some years past; and upon Mr. Cobbett’s return from America, he found himself stripped of everything in the shape of realizable property. The profits from the Register were comparatively smaller than of old; for, although the circulation was prodigious, the expense of its distribution was also very great. The establishment of another daily paper[1] probably added to his pecuniary difficulties. At last there was no resource but bankruptcy, which took place in the course of 1820. The creditors were few, and acted very generously; and Mr. Cobbett afterwards refers to them with the kindliest feelings. One of them, indeed (Mr. George Rogers, of Southampton), went further; and paid the damages and costs in Wright’s action, which followed very soon after the certificate in bankruptcy was issued. The low ebb at which his fortunes now stood, are best described in Cobbett’s own words:—
“In January, 1821, my family, after having for years been scattered about like a covey of partridges that had been sprung and shot at, got once more together, in a hired lodging at Brompton; and our delight, and our mutual caresses, and our tears of joy, experienced no abatement at our actually finding ourselves with only three shillings in the whole world; and at my having to borrow from a friend the money to pay for the paper and print off the then next Saturday’s Register!”
To live in London, however, or even near it without “fruits and flowers,” was out of the question. Accordingly, we find Mr. Cobbett soon settled at Kensington, cultivating a plot of land as a seed-farm; and his politics and his satire are, thenceforth, mingled with the mysteries of trees and turnips, corn and apples. Unable to resume the practice of planting, for himself, upon a large scale, Mr. Cobbett gave a great impulse to the formation of plantations, on the part of gentlemen who could afford to do it. His old friend, Lord Folkestone, was especially encouraged to improve the grounds at Coleshill by further plantings, and covered many acres with his favourite acacia, then better known under its American name of locust-tree. So great, indeed, became the rage for this particular tree, that more applicants came to Kensington for the seeds than could be served with those imported from America; and Cobbett actually had to purchase them sometimes from the London nurserymen, in whose shops they were lying neglected under another name.
The story of Cobbett’s planting and seed-farming would make an interesting volume. It became the fashion, after his death, to decry his successes,[2] and to minimize his qualities as a farmer; and perhaps with some justice, as regards this latter part of his life, as his hands were always too full of more stirring matters. But he did unquestionable service to the art of planting; and in promoting the restoration of woods and coppices, which had so fatally suffered from the felling and clearing brought about by the war, and by the efforts made by so many persons to save their property by the sacrifice of its timber. And, besides this practical part of the business: ever ready to put his notions into print, he must needs produce more books, in order to popularize his plans; books, however, which have met with comparative neglect, of late years, on account of their special nature. Rural economy and domestic economy are matters which, treated as social arts, get so modified by the rapidly-changing currents of our time, that the mode of one generation is lost amid the fads of the next. But the peculiar merit of Cobbett’s books was their readableness; and, whilst such matters as the Currency and the Corn Laws could be rendered entertaining by his facile pen, it was natural that rural affairs, in which he delighted, and amongst which he heartily believed that the highest domestic felicity was to be found, should derive from that pen the highest charms. There never lived, probably, a writer to equal Cobbett in rural description: one who could, in the midst of some angry polemic, so readily turn off for a moment and present his reader with a country picture; perfectly life-like, glowing with colour and realism: who could make a mere gardening book entertaining.
Whilst in Long Island, Mr. Cobbett had prepared an “American Gardener,” which he published, soon after his return to England; dedicating it to one of his neighbours out there. The “English Gardener,” published a few years later, was a reproduction of this, adapted to the differing conditions of his own country. “The Woodlands,” published early in 1825; a new edition of Tull’s old book on “Horse-hoeing Husbandry,” in 1822; and a guide for the cultivation of Indian corn, completed a useful series of books on rural affairs. All these are marked by sufficient egotism; but they are far more practical than the general run of such works. There is so much painstaking description, and so much lively illustration, that the reader is forced to take an interest in what he is reading. It is almost impossible for one to take in hand the “Woodlands,” without wishing to become a planter.
The “Cottage Economy” was a small work, exclusively for the use of cottagers, with the aim of bringing them back to the habits and ways of their grandparents; in reviving the arts of making bread and brewing beer at home; of keeping cows, poultry, and bees; and, generally, showing the way to become independent of shopkeepers and tax-gatherers. All this Cobbett had seen in his youth, and he was determined to revive these things, if it was to be done. And the immediate popularity of these rural books, coming, as they did, at a period when people were making most desperate efforts to keep the wolf from the door, showed forth an unquestionable fact,—that the people wanted sympathy and guidance, and the means of self-improvement, and were well satisfied to get so much from the man who was fighting their battles for them in another way.
As one example of the amount of influence Cobbett obtained over people, in minor domestic matters, the following may be given:—From a farmer’s daughter in Connecticut, who had sent over to the Society of Arts a straw-bonnet of her own making, he obtained some particulars as to the mode of preparation. Having published the matter in the Register, an importer of Italian straw applied to Mr. Cobbett, requesting to know whether he could undertake to get some American straw imported. Upon seeing some samples of the straw from which the Leghorn hats were made, and looking at it “with the eyes of a farmer,” he perceived that it consisted of dry oat, wheat, and rye stalks, mixed with those of certain common grass plants. This discovery made it clear to him that there was no need of importation; and, proceeding in his usual energetic way, he soon had straw hats and bonnets prepared from English grasses. This opened up a new industry, not only in the homes of the labourers, but on the part of some manufacturers; and its success was so far recognizable, that the Society of Arts, in the year 1823, gave Mr. Cobbett their silver medal, as a token of their approbation. Envy caught sight of this, of course, and asserted itself as usual, with newspaper paragraphs headed, “The Society of Arts humbugged at last!” and so on; but what was that, to disturb the well-earned delight of the man who could ride about the country, and see and hear for himself many a poor cottager at work, otherwise unable to earn a livelihood: who could print letters of grateful thanks from every quarter of the kingdom?
The attempt to naturalize the maize plant was another singular effort of Mr. Cobbett’s; the complete success of which, however, was too much to expect from the English climate. But, by the application of a good deal of zealous labour and attention, many persons did succeed in producing good crops; and there was not only bread made from “Cobbett’s corn,” but paper was made from the stalks.
A most particular aversion of Mr. Cobbett’s was the potato.
“This root is become a favourite because it is the suitable companion of misery and filth. It can be seized hold of before it be half ripe, it can be raked out of the ground with the paws, and without the help of any utensils except, perhaps, a stick to rake it from the fire, can be conveyed into the stomach, in the space of an hour. We have but one step farther to go, and that is, to eat it raw, side by side with our bristly fellow-creatures, who, by-the-bye, reject it as long as they can get at any species of grain, or at any other vegetable. I can remember when the first acre of potatoes was planted in a field, in the neighbourhood of the place where I was born; and I very well remember that even the poorest of the people would not eat them. They called them hog-potatoes; but now they are become a considerable portion of the diet of those who raise the bread for others to eat.”
This passage is from a Botley Register, of 1813; but it will represent Cobbett’s notions and feelings on the matter during all his life—from the scarcity-period at the beginning of the century (when bills were introduced in Parliament to “encourage” the growth of potatoes; and Ministers of State, at their grand dinners, used fried potato-cakes, as a substitute for bread), to the time when he came to predict a disastrous Irish famine. And it would be hard to deny the force of his arguments; the burden of which was, that in order to keep a people in a condition of semi-barbarism, little else was necessary than to cause potatoes to be the general food of the country. A knife (he pointed out) which even savages rarely dispense with, is not required by the feeder on potatoes. No forethought, and only a minimum of industrious attention, are needed. The love of ease, so natural to mankind, soon prevails, in the absence of incitement to labour—a safe commonplace; but one of vital importance to be borne in mind, when the thoughtless, and the ignorant, and the purse-proud are content to see a whole class of their fellow-beings ranked just above the swine.
Some curious notions used to get afloat, concerning cheap food for the poor. There was the Duke of Richmond’s celebrated discovery of the nourishing qualities of curry-powder; and the recipe of another clever fellow, for making flint-soup. Milk, produced by animals fed upon stewed straw, was discovered to have great fattening properties.…
Yet, with all this considerate device, the ungrateful wretches still whined for their beer and bread and bacon, the dietary of their forefathers. And the editor of a certain “diabolical” publication persisted in telling them that they ought to have it, and they could have it; for, at the time that the ordinary Wiltshire fare was 1¼ pound of bread and a halfpenny per day, he was giving to his own labourers, at Barn Elm, 1 lb. of meat or bacon, 1½ lb. of flour, besides cheese and beer, per day; and three shillings a week in money.
And there was so much wanton cruelty and insolence, under the poor-relief system of those days. Gangs of labourers would be set to work, the leader having a bell round his neck; men were set to draw carts, like so many convicts, instead of using wheel-barrows; and, when there was no immediate work on hand, you might see one carrying a heavy stone up and down; or digging a hole in the ground one day, and filling it up again the next. How all this went on, in England, for ten or twelve years, scarce half a century ago, is past comprehending. It is, however, a fact, that people could not only permit it, but permit it without shame; and could venture to call those persons “diabolical villains,” who blushed for the country which proclaimed itself “the envy of surrounding nations.”
Those who blushed for their country: those who spent their lives in the endeavour to arrest the hand of her oppressors: justly scorned the pleas of submission and contentment, put forth by many well-meaning persons in the shape of “religious” tracts. The man before us (one of that class who practise a good deal more than they preach; who act righteously before they inculcate righteousness on the part of others) could only see, in these precious handbills, inducements to submit to social degradation. But, in truth, acute suffering on the part of the labouring-classes was teaching them as much as Mr. Cobbett, or any one else, could do. To see the name of some fat pluralist on the title-page of a tract against “repining;” to listen to advice and exhortation, based on the comforting prospects of another and better world, on the part of men who were themselves making sure of this one; to see the names of the committees and promoters of this officious piety, and find that they were, in many instances, the names of those who had given a helping-hand to repression; and who continued to inculcate passive obedience, and the extreme naughtiness of the poor wretches in wanting to know something about the real causes of their misery, was too much for millions of the unprivileged and unendowed. They could see, plainly enough, who were the real Sowers of the Wind. And, perhaps, the Church of England has come to see, for herself, how we have reaped a whirlwind of religious indifference; in spite of “revivals,” and “restorations,” and “extensions,” and “functions,” and potterings without number.[3]
Not the least important contribution to the cause of the people, on the part of Mr. Cobbett, was his “History of the Reformation.” A curiosity in literature; a clumsy, hastily-drawn indictment; the sport of Protestant controversialists; the work yet served a noble purpose. The scale of misrepresentation and calumny had been too long on one side, and there wanted a thumping weight to restore the balance. And when the world discovered that the story of the Reformation in England had its very dark as well as its very bright side: when people learned what utterly selfish ends it had promoted: the world took a long step forward; stepped up to scrutinize it closely. And if the world found that the rough rude hand of this literary pre-raphaelite had brought some features into disgusting prominence, it was no more than was to be expected, sooner or later. The mere controversy, concerning the mutual recriminations of Papists and Protestants, and concerning their cutting of each other’s throats, is nothing. All that will be going on when the New Zealander comes. But the political nature of that great convulsion, and its important social results, particularly with regard to the shameless transfer of property into the hands of court-favourites, had need to be shown up with a relentless hand.
The occasion, of this “History of the Reformation” being projected, was the rapidly-growing feeling on the subject of Emancipation. Mr. Cobbett had long proclaimed equality of political rights for the Catholic, the Unitarian, and the Jew; and regarded them as oppressed people, as long as their theological disabilities remained.[4] We laugh now-a-days, at such fears as then existed concerning the removal of these disabilities; but we are out of the wood; and the few persons of superior mental stature who, in those times, persisted in declaring to the cowards beneath them, that there was more safety in moving on, than in standing still, had to make their voices heard above a fearful din, of incrimination, and calumny, and petty party strifes.
So, by the time that the cause of Emancipation had taken hold of the public mind: when the press, at last, took it up warmly, and O’Connell was leading the agitation in Ireland: Cobbett had lashed himself into a perfect fury, toward the opponents of religious equality, and toward the inheritors of the Church domains. The ease-loving character of the parsons of his day, the growth of a plutocracy, and the debased condition of the poor: spake too ominously of national decadence. The increasing perils of the country, with all parties trying, at last, to propitiate the Parliamentary Reformers at the same time that they had mortal dread of them, kept his mind at fever-heat; and Mr. Cobbett was less than ever disposed to stay his voice or his pen, when conviction had once seized him. He had nothing to gain, and nothing to lose, by expressing his convictions. Given a fight, he was certain to be seen in the thickest of it.
The urgency of the matter, and the readiness of the public mind to accept a broader view of the Reformation story, were shown, by the immediate success of the History. Published weekly, at a low price, the early numbers reached a sale of upwards of forty thousand; and very little time elapsed, before the work had flown all over Europe and America. The fanatics did not like it, and they don’t like it now.[5] There are persons about us, in these latter days, who consider Emancipation as one of our great national sins, on account of which we shall yet be heavily scourged. “Let them curse, but bless thou!”
The thing did not aim at proselytism; the writer had no intention, nor any expectation, of that. He did expect, however, to see thousands and thousands of converts to the cause of tolerance; and there can be no doubt whatever, that Cobbett’s “History of the Reformation” gave immense impulse to that cause. And, if the book had only been called “The History of the Great Spoliation,” the fanatics would have been disarmed, and perhaps joined with the author in his passionate denunciations; instead of wilfully and wickedly misconstruing his motives, and distorting his arguments.
But the prejudice with which we go through the world is quite as gross as the ignorance with which we enter it; and when we have stuck up such a word as Reformation, and fallen down and worshipped it for a time, we soon become incapable of forming just judgments.
The list of Mr. Cobbett’s books, which were directly intended to help the cause to which his life was devoted, is complemented by adding to the above-named, “The Poor Man’s Friend;” “Twelve Sermons;” and “The Emigrant’s Guide.” The first of these he called the most learned work that he had ever written. It consisted principally of short papers on the rights and duties of the poor; which were published monthly, and addressed to the working-people of Preston, after his unsuccessful contest at the election. But the Sermons are better deserving of the palm of superiority. The reader cannot open a page of this volume, without being powerfully struck with Cobbett’s ability to handle any subject illustrating man’s duty to his neighbour. Of course, there is a little touch of politics underlying it all, although only perceptible to one familiar with his political writings; but it is not one whit too much to say, that this volume of sermons would do honour to any Divine, in any Christian Church.
The “Sermons” had a tremendous popularity, for several years. As monthly tracts, they had been originally published in avowed rivalry to the vapid productions of religious doctrinaires, and of the preachers of contentment and resignation under conditions of obvious misgovernment. Some of the clergy had the good sense to use Cobbett’s sermons in their own pulpits; it is to be hoped without generally avowing the source of their inspiration. One reflection persists in intruding itself upon the reader of these tracts; that when men come to enter the ministry, after having been buffeted about the world a bit, and having learned something of human nature, instead of being delivered from a cloister (as from some manufactory), they will understand their business better, and soon have less cause to whine about the “spread” of infidelity and immorality. Until then, things will go on as they do now.
That racy volume, “Rural Rides,” came forth to the world in a sufficiently unpretending manner. It was a mere reprint of articles from the Register, which had been generally written at the close of a day’s journey, and without any special object but current reports upon the condition of the people and the country. But none of Cobbett’s writings have been so much quoted as the “Rural Rides,” a fact which is easily understood, considering the circumstance that what would deter most people from literary drudgery, was the very reverse to Mr. Cobbett. A day’s exercise would impart fresh vigour to his mind, and wings to his pen; and the result is, in this case, one of the very liveliest books in the English language.
It was in the autumn of 1821 that the first journal was undertaken. Cobbett’s own affairs were getting more comfortable; he lived quietly at Kensington, not often troubling himself with the publishing-office; and the experiment, of going round to see the farmers for himself, was just in his vein. Agricultural distress was nearly at its worst, and the troubles of the farmers formed the leading topic of the day. Beef and mutton fetched an average of 4½d. per lb., in the month of November; and all rural produce was at a similarly reduced figure. So Mr. Cobbett started off, on horseback, through Berkshire and Wiltshire to Gloucester and Hereford, returning by Oxford to Kensington; with such satisfaction, that he spent much of the winter in similar journeys through parts of southern England. All his intense interest in rural affairs, and the welfare of the country folk: his close observations on soil, and climate, and produce, and his sarcastic reflections on domestic politics, were here served up for his readers in better style than ever. And, at last, having employed a part of the ensuing four or five years in the same manner, and reprinting the journals into a volume, the result was a picture of the cotemporary domestic affairs of England which it would be vain to seek elsewhere. In short, given an inquiry into the condition of the people, at this troublesome period, there could not, possibly, be better means of enlightenment than that of taking Cobbett’s “Rural Rides;” and, making it the basis of such inquiry, to group around it the necessary information and statistics furnished by official reports. While, to the value of Cobbett’s accurate and vivid descriptions of rural scenery, the use made of the “Rural Rides,” on the part of guide-book makers, is sufficient testimony.
The more important result, personally, of these rural journeys, was the frequent opportunity afforded to Mr. Cobbett of meeting the farmers at their market dinners and county meetings. This added immensely to his influence; his opinions, especially on the currency, began to take hold upon men, who had hitherto read his writings with some degree of dislike and dread; and a very short time elapsed, before there were found more Cobbettites in the country towns, than in the larger centres of population.
Another series of rural rides was commenced in 1829. These were more distinctively political tours; and extended to more distant parts, including the manufacturing towns of Yorkshire and Lancashire. The reception Mr. Cobbett met with, and the overflowing attendances upon his lectures, showed, in a surprising degree, the hold he had obtained upon the minds of the working-people. Parliamentary Reform was, at last, no longer to be delayed; and while the Russells and the Greys were getting a due share of credit, for their endeavours to force on the Great Plunge, there was no questioning to whom principally belonged the distinction of having made it inevitable.