Mr. Rose was, nevertheless, one of the best public servants this country ever possessed.
[2] “Council dinner: Hammond, Canning, Frere, Malone; Cobbett, alias ‘Peter Porcupine,’ whom I saw for the first time; Pitt, and George Ellis; Canning’s cousin.”—“Diary of the Right Hon. William Windham” (Longmans, 1866), p. 430.
[3] The total population, at the same time, being less than eleven millions.
CHAPTER XI.
“I TOOK THE LEAD, IN SINGING THE PRAISES OF PITT.”
Mr. Cobbett’s facile pen could not remain completely at rest, whilst the project of a newspaper was yet only in the bud. On the 30th August he issued a sixth (and final) number of the Rushlight, wherein he reviewed the circumstances of his career, and the tenor of his writings in the United States. This fugitive number is not only very temperate in style, but elegant, unless exception be taken to its strong anti-gallican spirit; calling, as it does, upon the Americans to shun “all connexion with that den of monsters, France.” With reference to his own war-whoop, he says,—
“I studied the interests of my country. To make the name of Englishmen a friendly sound, to recommend an imitation of our Government, our fashions, our propensities, and finally to make them pay a tribute to England, through the medium of her manufactures, was the object nearest my heart.”
At last, in the course of the ensuing month, an advertisement appeared of the projected newspaper; and the public were invited to ask for a prospectus at the house of William Cobbett, at No. 18, Pall Mall. It was to be called The Porcupine, and to appear every morning at the office, No. 3, Southampton Street, Strand.