William Cobbett: A Biography in Two Volumes, Vol. 2

by Edward Smith

If here on earth you grumble.

[4] “When I hear the Dissenters complaining of persecution, I cannot help reflecting on the behaviour of some of them towards the Catholics, with respect to whom common decency ought to teach them better behaviour. But, whether I hear in a Churchman or a Dissenter abuse of the Catholics, I am equally indignant; when I hear men, no two of whom can agree in any one point of religion, and who are continually dooming each other to perdition; when I hear them join in endeavouring to shut the Catholic out from political liberty on account of his religious tenets, which they call idolatrous and damnable, I really cannot feel any compassion for either of them, let what will befall them. There is, too, something so impudent, such cool impudence, in their affected contempt of the understanding of the Catholics, that one cannot endure it with any degree of patience. You hear them all boasting of their ancestors; you hear them talking of the English Constitution as the pride of the world; you hear them bragging of the deeds of the Edwards and the Henrys; and of their wise and virtuous and brave forefathers; and, in their next breath, perhaps, you hear them speak of the Catholics as the vilest and most stupid of creatures, and as wretches doomed to perdition; when they ought to reflect that all these wise and virtuous and brave forefathers of theirs were Catholics, that they lived and died in the Catholic faith, and that, notwithstanding their Catholic faith, they did not neglect whatever was necessary to the freedom and greatness of England. It is really very stupid, as well as very insolent, to talk in this way of the Catholics, to represent them as doomed to perdition who compose five-sixths of the population of Europe; to represent as beastly ignorant those amongst whom the brightest geniuses and the most learned men in the world have been and are to be found; but still, the most shocking part of our conduct is to affect to consider as a sort of outcasts of God as well as man those who have, through all sorts of persecution, adhered to the religion of their and our forefathers. There is something so unnatural, so monstrous, in a line of conduct in which we say that our forefathers are all in hell, that no one but a brutish bigot can hear of it with patience.”—Register, xix. 1286.

[5] An unusual number of “answers” to Cobbett’s book have been produced, some of which are named below. Out of the whole lot there is not one that does not, once again, manifest the inability of your controversialist, blinded with dogmatic solicitude, to escape from his mental prison-house. The reader may be tempted to look at the last on the list, as being a production of recent times; but the chances are against his cutting open any pages beyond the introductory chapter. To say no more than this argues great forbearance on the part of the present writer.

“Catholic Miracles; illustrated by George Cruikshank; to which is added a Reply to Cobbett’s Defence of the Reformation.”

“A True History of the Protestant Reformation in England and Ireland; showing how that event has Enriched and Elevated the Main Body of the People in those Countries; in a Series of Letters addressed to all sensible and just Englishmen. In Reply to William Cobbett. By a Protestant.” (In threepenny numbers, 1 to 5 only published. London, 1825.)

“The Protestant Vindicator; or, A Refutation of the Calumnies contained in Cobbett’s History of the Reformation; including Remarks on the Principal Topics of the Popish Controversy. By Robert Oxlad.” (Serial. ? 14 numbers. London, 1826.)

“The Epistles of Ignatius and Polycarp.… With an Appendix, containing Notes, in which the Leading Arguments of Mr. Cobbett’s History are refuted.…” (1827.)

“A Brief History of the Protestant Reformation; in a Series of Letters addressed to William Cobbett.… By the Author of ‘The Protestant.’” (1826; new ed., Glasgow, 1831.)

“The Social Effects of the Reformation.… By a Fellow of the Statistical Society.” (“From a Series of Letters which appeared … during the years 1824 and 1825.” London, 1852.)

“A Reply to Cobbett’s ‘History of the Protestant Reformation in England and Ireland.’ Compiled and Edited by Charles Hastings Collette.” (London, 1869.)