Wm. C. to J. W.
“I found Mrs. Cobbett very well, and quite prepared for what had happened. She bears the thing with her usual fortitude; and takes hourly occasion to assure me that she thinks I have done what I ought to do. In this she is excellent. She is the only wife that I ever saw, who, in such circumstances, did not express sorrow, at least, for what the husband had done; and, in such cases, sorrow is only another word for blame. Nancy was a good deal affected, but she soon got over it. If I had but about three weeks for preparation I should like it better; but I must settle things here as well as I can. Dr. Mitford will tell you what has been suggested to me, and what (if anything) will be done in consequence of it.
“Send me by the coach to-morrow … Mother Clarke’s book, for I must notice the contents of it this week. You will have, in my writing, twenty-four columns, the greater part of it by to-morrow’s and next day’s posts. The rest of the double-number I should like to have made up of proceedings about reform, such as have appeared in the Times and other daily papers; but, at present, the more harmless the things are the better. I shall write as boldly as ever, but I will take care of my subjects. The proofs of approaching scarcity can be no longer disguised. It will be very great and complete indeed. I shall be disappointed if the quartern loaf be not half-a-crown before Christmas. I wonder whether it be true that Buonaparte has stopped the exportation of corn from his dominions? If it be, you will soon see the effect of it. You see, that no rascal of a newspaper has touched upon the subject. It will come upon us by-and-bye with a vengeance.”
The reader will recollect [ante, p. 96] that the notion of any intercession on his behalf was warmly deprecated by Mr. Cobbett from the very first; and no sign of a craven spirit had appeared during all these twelve tantalizing months. His mind was made up. The long-deferred prospect of a term in prison had been getting still more remote, and its accompanying terrors would be unheeded. But, back again among his beloved fields and woods, and surrounded by a little family which could but dimly appreciate the situation; struck with anxious cares that must result from his predicament, he listens to a suggestion.
The form and the terms of that suggestion are unknown, and will probably remain unknown; that is of little consequence, however. Suffice it to say, that before a week was out, negotiations were going on, through Mr. John Reeves, for some measure of indulgence, by which, at least, the Attorney-General was to hold his hand, and not move the Court for judgment. At the same time, a farewell article was prepared for the Political Register; for Mr. Cobbett foresaw that he could not continue it without softening his tone, if he were to be indulged; and softening his tone was out of the question. Preparations were made for disposing of the remaining sets of the work, and for renouncing his profession of political writer, “until better days.”
This weakness did not last long. There would seem to have been a suspicion that the Government were enticing him into making the sacrifice before letting the law come down in all its force.
Wm. C. to J. W.
“I will not sacrifice fortune without securing freedom in return. It would be both baseness and folly. Your threat to R[eeves] was good, and spoke my sentiment exactly. I have not time for telling you my plan now; but let it suffice that, really, from the bottom of my soul, I would RATHER be called up than put down the Register.”
On the following day, Peter Finnerty posted up to London with full powers to stop negotiation, and to see that the farewell article was cancelled. Need it be said that the affair got wind? It was intended to get it in the wind. No one can doubt that this was a final effort to add to the discomfiture, and tarnish the reputation, of a really brave man, by exposing him to the charge of having sold himself at last.