The writings of Mr. Cobbett had been very severe upon the Whigs. There does not appear any time, in his whole political life, when he had not more or less distrusted them. And, now that the leaders of the party were in power, the individuals themselves were not spared. Cobbett hit off with accuracy, and with bitterest irony, their waverings and inconsistencies. No sooner had George the Fourth shuffled off this mortal coil, than he announced a “History of the Regency and the late Reign;” and, as the successive numbers of the work appeared, the Whigs had the felicity of seeing their old place-hunting fully exposed. Upon the appointment of Earl Grey’s ministry, he declared his belief that they would keep on talking, and speechifying, as of old, without any regard to the promises they had been holding out to the people. Putting a list of twenty-six questions, referring to reform, taxation, tyrannous restraints on liberty, pensions, the six Acts, reduction of the forces, poor laws and game laws, he gave his opinion that none of these things would be touched. And Mr. Cobbett was right; none of these matters were dealt with, except on pressure from without, or on the part of sturdy and independent men of the class of Joseph Hume.
All this told upon the party newly raised to power. Very naturally. But they must have felt a certain insecurity of tenure, to resort to the same mode of retaliation which their political adversaries had exercised, twenty years before. So soon does a lease of power translate itself into a mere parade of force. The Government had not been many weeks in office, before they had the abominable folly to charge Cobbett with being the instigator of the incendiary fires which were then devastating the agricultural districts of England!
This was the basest attempt to destroy Mr. Cobbett that had yet been tried. The end of it was one of the greatest triumphs of his life; and a lesson on political prosecutions, which the other side took much to heart.
The circumstances are these:—The Political Register had been, for several years past, sold at the high price of sevenpence (and sometimes one shilling for a double number), on account of the restrictive stamp laws; and it was believed that the circulation was not of that character which would bring the journal into the hands of the labouring classes, to the extent desired. Mr. Cobbett was determined, however, that he would continue, in some way or other, to instruct the labouring-classes in the elements of political and social economy. This became urgent, during the growing excitement of 1830; and the difficulty was met by reprinting portions in a cheap form, and making a monthly publication thereof. The scornful name which Canning had given to the early cheap Registers was the one adopted; and thus, on the 1st of July, came into the world the first number of “Cobbett’s Twopenny Trash, or Politics for the Poor.” The success of 1816 was repeated, and “Twopenny Trash” flew all over the kingdom: to the very particular horror of the yet undiminished number of pensioners and sinecurists, and of non-resident parsons.[8]
As the winter drew near, the accounts of the rural war were appalling. Incendiary fires, and threatening letters, were sending the farmers out of their wits; and fire-engines and man-traps became part of the farming implements. The labourers, in their ignorance, rendered desperate with hunger, proceeded from outrage to outrage, recklessly destroying food and property; quite unable to understand why anybody else could want anything to eat, if they, the producers, were to do without.
In the midst of all this, Mr. Cobbett came amongst them, both on paper and in person; endeavouring to cheer them with hopes of early relief, and to warn them against violence: “Poverty” (he said), “even in its extreme state, gives no man a right to view his rich neighbour with an evil eye, much less to do him mischief on account of his riches.”
But he also told the “King’s Ministers” how to put a stop to the fires, and that they had better do something, for the poor ignorant rural labourer “would not lay down and die;” endeavoured to palliate the conduct of the labourers, in that they could not live any longer on potatoes and salt; ridiculed the idea that more soldiers were wanted (as had been proposed) in order to keep the country quiet; taunted the Government with their apparent helplessness after so much trumpeting of “glorious” principles and good intentions.
The storm began by a motion, on the part of Mr. Trevor, member for New Romney, aimed at “the publication entitled Cobbett’s Register, of the 11th of December;” which he said contained a malicious libel on “the authorities of the State,” and a gross and unwarrantable attack on “the members of the Church by law established.” The motion was opposed on the ground that a prosecution, such as was aimed at, would be both impolitic and ill-timed; and that the proper corrective was an improved state of the public mind, by the diffusion of sound knowledge and useful instruction. It was ultimately agreed to leave the matter to the discretion of Ministers.[9]
About the same time, one Thomas Goodman, a Sussex labourer, was sentenced to death for arson; and there appeared in the newspapers a short “confession,” which had been wrung from him by a Sussex parson. A few days after, a longer confession appeared; and after that a third, still longer. Mr. Thomas Goodman was eventually respited, and never heard of more; and his escape could only be accounted for, by any rational mind, in his having inculpated Cobbett as the wicked instigator of his crime.[10]