The description of Washington Territory corresponds in the main with that of Oregon. The Territory is similarly divided, as regards climate and productions, by the Cascade Range. The rainfall is even greater in the western portion of Washington Territory than in the corresponding portion of Oregon, ranging from 70 inches in the south to the remarkable measure of 125 inches in the north, where it borders on Puget Sound. In this same region the temperature is remarkably equable, varying but 27 degrees during the year between the lowest and highest points. East of the Cascades a narrow strip on the north is mountainous and covered with forests, but south of this lies the Great Plain of the Columbia. Along the western border of this vast region, next the Cascade Range, it is claimed that the rainfall is sufficient for good cereal crops. The same is asserted of its eastern edge, bordering the Coeur d’Alene Mountains of Idaho; but the rest of it, like the southern extension of the same plain into Oregon, is fit only for grazing, except where irrigation is possible. It resembles very much the western portions of Kansas and Nebraska and the western parts of Colorado and Wyoming. In both regions the nutritious, self-curing bunch grasses, which form the chief reliance of the herdsmen east of the Rockies, abound. The grazing and agricultural interests of Oregon and Washington are increasing with great rapidity. The census of 1880 credits Oregon with 500,000 cattle and 1,250,000 sheep, and Washington with 250,000 cattle and 200,000 sheep, and since then the increase has been nearly 100 per-cent. The wheat crop of Oregon, according to the census, was 7,480,010 bushels, the oat crop 4,385,650 bushels, and the barley crop 920,977 bushels. At the same time in Washington Territory the wheat crop was 1,921,322 bushels, the oat crop 1,571,706, and the barley crop 566,537 bushels. Undoubtedly the completion of the Northern Pacific Railroad this year will open an era of marvelous growth in the State and Territory above described.
WILLIAM COBBETT, THE AGITATOR.
Alder Grove, Neb.
Who was William Cobbett? He is spoken of as a reformer.
J. M. K.
Answer.—He was an English political writer of the latter part of the last and the first third of the present century. Born at Farnham, Eng., in 1762, the son of a farmer of moderate means, he acquired habits of industry and self-dependence. Not liking rural pursuits, he went to London and engaged as a copying clerk. Soon tiring of this occupation, he enlisted in the British army, where he rose by merit to the rank of Sergeant Major. His spare time in barracks was given to self-education, and on obtaining his discharge, in 1791, he married and emigrated to Philadelphia, where he entered upon his after career as a political writer under the pseudonym of “Peter Porcupine.” At this period he satirized American democracy and French republicanism, attacking the inconsistencies and political fallacies of the time in terms of scorn and bitter denunciation. He was denounced by the American press, particularly by the Democrats, or “Republicans” of those times, as a Tory aiming at reviving the royalistic element in this country, not then completely eradicated. Not pleased with the reception of his political diatribes he returned in 1800 to England, and in 1802 began the publication of his Weekly Political Register, now famous, which he continued to his death, June 18, 1835. At first Tory, the Register gradually changed its politics until it became the most fierce and unrelenting opponent of the government, then conducted by Pitt, and the foremost champion of English Radicalism. He advocated the abolition of flogging in the army, and for strictures on the government and satires and charges claimed to be libellous against certain high officials, he was condemned to imprisonment for two years in Newgate Prison, and to pay a fine of £1,000. He attacked the six acts of the British Parliament for the suppression of free discussion, pouring vials of abuse on the leaders of the government party; and to escape pecuniary embarrassments and the dread of again going to Newgate, he once more came to America, where his change of politics had raised up many friends. He virtually edited his Weekly Political Register from this side the Atlantic until some years later when he returned to England. Radicalism had made great strides, and he found himself one of its recognized champions. In 1829-30 he delivered political lectures in several of the principal towns of England and Scotland, and was everywhere met with enthusiastic welcome as the boldest and most powerful advocate of the people’s rights. In 1832 he was elected to the first reformed Parliament as the member for Oldham. He was re-elected in 1834, and continued in this relation until his death the following year. Among his many popular works may be named “Cottage Economy,” “Rural Riches,” “Advice to Young Men and Women,” “The Emigrant’s Guide,” “Parliamentary History,” and an “English Grammar.”
CONCRETE OR GROUT HOUSES.
Fountain, D. T.