“… I have had letters from all parts of the country beseeching me to persevere.…”
Concerning the forthcoming “State Trials:”—
“I must confess that I am less pleased with this thing than I should have been, if it had remained solely in your hands. I very much question whether Mr. H.’s taste is so good as your own; and I am quite sure that we shall derive no comfort from any connexion with an author.
“But it is too late to reflect; we will go on as well as we can. Only mind to be always upon your guard against letting him assume anything like a dictatorial tone. Keep up your own consequence; for I know that your modest merit is not very well calculated to resist the encroachments of conceited importance.… Be sure to tell him none of our political secrets. Suffer no inquiries into our affairs. Let him see no copy of mine, or my correspondents. Tell him of none of our intentions about anything. I know how easy it is for any one to worm himself into your unsuspecting breast; and, therefore, I give these cautions. I think I perceive, in his letters, a rather consequential air. But I am resolved to have no partner, nor any one to give me advice, except yourself. We have gone on so happily, and so advantageously, by ourselves, that I am really in a state of alarm at the prospect of admitting anything like an associate. It must not be.…”
A vacancy in the representation of Hampshire brings another county assemblage at Winchester; on which occasion Mr. Cobbett requires each candidate to take a pledge, that, if elected, he would never accept the public money as long as he lived; and would, moreover, use every endeavour to obtain redress of the public grievances, especially that trying one of having their money “voted away by those, amongst whom there are many who receive part of that money.”
“… The meeting at Winchester was very large, and consisted of almost the whole of the people of considerable property. Rose and his son were deterred from appearing at the castle. The speech was infinitely better than the report. I made use of no notes, except as far as related to the sums. Not the smallest hesitation from beginning to end; and, owing to the strength of my voice and the clearness of my articulation, every word I said was heard by the man the most distant from me. The effect was very great. I spoke three-quarters of an hour with very little interruption indeed, notwithstanding I spoke to a party assembly, hostile to me, as far as party could influence men. I wish you could have seen how little the great looked after the speech had been made! They went up to the castle swaggering, and in crowds; they came sneaking back in ones and twos. Many of them had the meanness to compliment me upon my speech. I was invited to dinner by several; but I went to my inn and dined with Mr. Baker, another neighbouring clergyman, and Dr. Mitford, and then set off home.
“No, be in no alarm about my hazarding my reputation and happiness by standing as a candidate for this county, or for any other place. That I never will be. If any body of electors, anywhere, have a mind to choose me, without giving me any trouble, I will serve; but at this time, I have not the least desire for that; on my own account, I should wish not; but I am, in such a case, not to consider myself only. I feel that I should have power to serve with great effect; and I shall never, I hope, be backward to make any useful sacrifice. But I never will ask anybody to elect me.
“The boys have met me at Winchester sometimes; and it is no bad school for them. While I was speaking, I saw in the crowd several persons from Farnham, whom I had never seen before, since I was their playmate. I saw many to whom I used, when a boy, to make a very low bow. Lord Temple came and shook hands, even after the speech. And I must say that I think Mr. Herbert[5] a very modest young man. In one part of my speech, an attorney of the Rose party, who stood just under the window, made an attempt to excite a clamour; but I fixed my eye upon him, and, pointing my hand downright, and making a sort of chastising motion, said, ‘Peace, babbling slave!’ which produced such terror amongst others, that I met with no more interruption.…”
That Mr. Cobbett was unwilling to join in a cry against a public character, without reason or justice, was often manifest. His entire freedom from party bias, as such, accounts for the frequent distrust which he inspired, at the same time that it helped to keep away from him the temptation to hunt a man down merely because he was an opponent. For example, he did not readily give ear to the charge made against the Duke of York on the part of Major Hogan, although he was, at the very time, raising the question of the Duke’s exorbitant income. Mr. Cobbett could be just, and loyal too. This story of Hogan’s might suit the tribe of malignant, unreasoning scribblers; but he has no idea of weakening his own writings by an appeal to what looks uncommonly like an invention. The Register holds out several warnings to the Major; and Cobbett tells Mr. Wright more plainly that he believes “Major Hogan has certainly told a d—— lie, and ought to be exposed.… As for Hague,[6] he really seems to have courted a jail.”