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.