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TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: Volume II is available as Project Gutenberg ebook
number 49845.





                           WILLIAM COBBETT.

                             A BIOGRAPHY.

                                VOL. I.

                                LONDON:
                   GILBERT AND RIVINGTON, PRINTERS,
                          ST. JOHN’S SQUARE.




[Illustration: _J. R. Smith pinxit._

_F. Bartolozzi R.A. sculpsit._

 MR. WILLIAM COBBETT.]




                           WILLIAM COBBETT:

                            _A BIOGRAPHY_.

                           BY EDWARD SMITH.

                            IN TWO VOLUMES.

                                VOL. I.

                                London:
              SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON,
                  CROWN BUILDINGS, 188, FLEET STREET.
                                 1878.

                       [_All rights reserved._]




    “It is not by his faults, but by his excellences, that we
    measure a great man.”

                                        G. H. LEWES (_On Actors, &c._).

    “Fear never but you shall be consistent in whatever variety of
    actions, so that they be each honest and natural in their hour.
    For of one will, the actions will be harmonious, however unlike
    they seem.”

                              R. W. EMERSON (_Essay on Self-reliance_).

        “My good blade carves the casques of men,
            My tough lance thrusteth sure,
        My strength is as the strength of ten,
            Because my heart is pure!”

                                              TENNYSON (_Sir Galahad_).




NOTE.


The following pages need no Preface, with regard to their subject.

I am unwilling, however, to let the work go forth to the public without
a renewed word of thanks, to those who have given me any sort of
encouragement or assistance. My acknowledgments are especially due to
the venerable daughter of Mr. James Swann, for the use of some letters;
to the author of the “Handbook of Fictitious Names,” without whose apt
teaching in the art of Bibliography, the work might have wanted the
interesting appendix; to Mr. Job Swain, one of the last survivors of
Cobbett’s personal friends, for some reminiscences; and to Mr. Ellis
Yarnall, of Philadelphia, for copies of several letters, and for some
suggestions which have enabled the author to throw additional light on
the “Porcupine” days.

                                                                E. S.

London: _November, 1878_.




CONTENTS.


                                                                  PAGE

                              CHAPTER I.

                              1762-1784.

    “I LOOKED BACK WITH PRIDE TO MY WAGGON-DRIVING GRANDFATHER”      1

                              CHAPTER II.

                              1784-1791.

    “WHEN I HAD THE HONOUR TO WEAR A RED COAT”                      30

                             CHAPTER III.

                                 1792.

    “I HAVE ALWAYS SHOWN MY ENMITY TO EVERY SPECIES OF PUBLIC
    FRAUD OR ROBBERY”                                               56

                              CHAPTER IV.

                              1793-1794.

    “I LIVED IN PHILADELPHIA”                                       94

                              CHAPTER V.

                              1794-1795.

    “HEARING MY COUNTRY ATTACKED, I BECAME HER DEFENDER THROUGH
    THICK AND THIN”                                                107

                              CHAPTER VI.

                              1796-1797.

    “PETER PORCUPINE, AT YOUR SERVICE!”                            146

                             CHAPTER VII.

                              1797-1799.

    “AT LAST GOT THE BETTER OF ALL DIFFIDENCE IN MY OWN
    CAPACITY”                                                      180

                             CHAPTER VIII.

                              1799-1800.

    “WHEN I LEFT THEM I CERTAINLY DID SHAKE THE DUST OFF
    MY SHOES”                                                      197

                              CHAPTER IX.

                              1794-1800.

    “MY FAME HAD PRECEDED ME”                                      231

                              CHAPTER X.

                                 1800.

    “I RESOLVED NEVER TO BEND BEFORE THEM”                         247

                              CHAPTER XI.

                              1800-1801.

    “I TOOK THE LEAD, IN SINGING THE PRAISES OF PITT”              267

                             CHAPTER XII.

                                 1802.

    “THE THOUGHTS OF THE NATION ARE LIKE A CORK IN THE MIDDLE
    OF THE OCEAN”                                                  284

                             CHAPTER XIII.

                              1803-1805.

    “I SAW THINGS IN ANOTHER LIGHT”                                308




WILLIAM COBBETT: A BIOGRAPHY.




CHAPTER I.

“I LOOKED BACK WITH PRIDE TO MY WAGGON-DRIVING GRANDFATHER.”


William Cobbett was born in the parish of Farnham, in the county of
Surrey, on the 9th of March, 1762.

       *       *       *       *       *

The town of Farnham is a hop-garden. It had, in olden days, one of the
most important corn-markets in the south of England. Before that, it
was a great clothing mart; and, early in Parliamentary history, was
called upon to send representatives to the “Collective Wisdom.” But,
at last, the mercantile spirit proper, as was the case with many towns
in Surrey, Kent, and Sussex, fled from Farnham; granaries took the
place of workshops; and manufactures declined. With the extinction
of the iron-furnaces of the Weald expired the once-flourishing trade
of the south of England; and agriculture became the staple pursuit of
the still-prosperous people, all over the fertile country which lies
between the Thames and the English Channel. Corn-fields took the place
of extensive sheep and cattle pastures; new grazing-downs succeeded to
the burnt-up forests, whilst hops took the pick of the land, upon which
they throve in a hitherto-unexampled manner. And Farnham, with its
deep, rich, light-brown soil, found itself with a title to give to the
best hops grown in England.

So Farnham is, to this day, a big hop-garden. In spite of a
railway-station and 10,000 inhabitants, and the