CHAPTER VII.—A DISCIPLE OF WILLIAM COBBETT—THE SCHOLAR ENCOUNTERS THE PRIEST.
The individual whom I supposed to be a radical, after a short pause, again uplifted his voice; he was rather a strong-built fellow of about thirty, with an ill-favoured countenance, a white hat on his head, a snuff-coloured coat on his back, and, when he was not speaking, a pipe in his mouth. “Who would live in such a country as England?” he shouted.
“There is no country like America,” said his nearest neighbour, a man also in a white hat, and of a very ill-favoured countenance,—“there is no country like America,” said he, withdrawing a pipe from his mouth. “I think I shall”—and here he took a draught from a jug, the contents of which he appeared to have in common with the other—“go to America one of these days myself.”
“Poor old England is not such a bad country, after all,” said a third, a simple-looking man in a labouring dress, who sat smoking a pipe without anything before him. “If there was but a little more work to be got I should have nothing to say against her. I hope, however—”
“You hope? who cares what you hope?” interrupted the first, in a savage tone; “you are one of those sneaking hounds who are satisfied with dog’s wages, a bit of bread and a kick. Work, indeed! who, with the spirit of a man, would work for a country where there is neither liberty of speech nor of action, a land full of beggarly aristocracy, hungry borough-mongers, insolent parsons, and ‘their --- wives and daughters,’ as William Cobbett says, in his ‘Register’?”
“Ah, the Church of England has been a source of incalculable mischief to these realms,” said another.
The person who uttered these words sat rather aloof from the rest; he was dressed in a long black surtout. I could not see much of his face, partly owing to his keeping it very much directed to the ground, and partly owing to a large slouched hat which he wore; I observed, however, that his hair was of a reddish tinge. On the table near him was a glass and spoon.
“You are quite right,” said the first, alluding to what this last had said: “the Church of England has done incalculable mischief here. I value no religion three halfpence, for I believe in none; but the one that I hate most is the Church of England; so when I get to New York, after I have shown the fine fellows
on the quay a spice of me, by --- the King, I’ll toss up my hat again, and --- the Church of England too.”
“And suppose the people of New York should clap you in the stocks?” said I.