[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.