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TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: Volume I is available as Project Gutenberg ebook
number 49844.





                           WILLIAM COBBETT.

                             A BIOGRAPHY.

                               VOL. II.

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




                           WILLIAM COBBETT:

                            _A BIOGRAPHY_.

                           BY EDWARD SMITH.

                            IN TWO VOLUMES.

                               VOL. II.

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

                                 1878.

                       [_All rights reserved._]




CONTENTS.


                                                                  PAGE

                             CHAPTER XIV.

                              1805-1806.

    “I NEVER SAT MYSELF DOWN ANYWHERE, WITHOUT MAKING THE FRUITS
    AND FLOWERS TO GROW”                                             1

                              CHAPTER XV.

                              1806-1807.

    “I DID DESTROY THEIR POWER TO ROB US ANY LONGER WITHOUT THE
    ROBBERY BEING PERCEIVED”                                        24

                             CHAPTER XVI.

                              1807-1809.

    “THEY NATURALLY HATE ME”                                        45

                             CHAPTER XVII.

                              1808-1809.

    “THE OUTCRY AGAINST ME IS LOUDER THAN EVER”                     63

                            CHAPTER XVIII.

                              1809-1810.

    “COMPARED WITH DEFEATING ME, DEFEATING BUONAPARTE IS A MERE
    TRIFLE”                                                         88

                             CHAPTER XIX.

                                 1810.

    “THE FOLLY, COMMON TO ALL TYRANTS, IS THAT THEY PUSH THINGS
    TOO FAR”                                                       114

                              CHAPTER XX.

                              1810-1812.

    “TO PUT A MAN IN PRISON FOR A YEAR OR TWO DOES NOT KILL HIM”   127

                             CHAPTER XXI.

                              1812-1816.

    “THE NATION NEVER CAN BE ITSELF AGAIN WITHOUT A REFORM”        149

                             CHAPTER XXII.

                              1816-1817.

    “BETWEEN SILENCE AND A DUNGEON LAY MY ONLY CHOICE”             173

                            CHAPTER XXIII.

                              1817-1821.

    “WHATEVER OTHER FAULTS I MAY HAVE, THAT OF LETTING GO MY
    HOLD IS NOT ONE”                                               198

                             CHAPTER XXIV.

                              1821-1826.

    “THEY COMPLAIN THAT THE TWOPENNY TRASH IS READ”                229

                             CHAPTER XXV.

                              1821-1831.

    “I HAVE PLEADED THE CAUSE OF THE WORKING-PEOPLE, AND I SHALL
    NOW SEE THAT CAUSE TRIUMPH”                                    249

                             CHAPTER XXVI.

                              1832-1835.

    “I NOW BELONG TO THE PEOPLE OF OLDHAM”                         275

                            CHAPTER XXVII.

                                 1835.

    “I HAVE BEEN THE GREAT ENLIGHTENER OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND”   291

    APPENDIX: BIBLIOGRAPHICAL LIST OF WILLIAM COBBETT’S
    PUBLICATIONS                                                   305

    INDEX                                                          321




WILLIAM COBBETT: A BIOGRAPHY.




CHAPTER XIV.

“I NEVER SAT MYSELF DOWN ANYWHERE, WITHOUT MAKING THE FRUITS AND
FLOWERS TO GROW.”


The summer of 1805 finds Mr. Cobbett again at Botley with his family.
A letter to Wright, dated 5th July, says, “I have found here a most
delightful house and a more delightful garden.” Preparations are being
made for a prolonged stay, and for the occasional entertainment of his
correspondent: “I have given you a deal of trouble, and hope that you
will find hereafter some compensation during the time you will spend at
Botley.” The carpets are to be taken up (in Duke Street), and all the
bedding, &c., to be “removed upstairs, packed in mats or something.” On
the 28th of July Cobbett writes--

    “I am glad that you are like to close your labours so soon,
    for I really wish very much to see you here, and so do all the
    children and their mother, all of whom have delightful health;
    and Mrs. Cobbett is more attached to Botley than I am--one
    cause of which is, she has made her servants humble, and she
    bakes good bread. I shall have made it a delightful place
    before you will have finished your volume.”[1]

There is a good deal about Botley and its neighbourhood to charm the
tastes of men like Cobbett. A fine open country, which was then to a
great extent unenclosed--it was a genuine agricultural and sporting
district, of which the little town was the centre. It was quiet enough,
not being on the road to anywhere; and the people were as quiet as the
village.

    “… Two doctors, one parson. No trade, except that carried on
    by two or three persons, who bring coals from the Southampton
    water, and who send down timber. All the rest are farmers,
    farmers’ men, millers, millers’ men, millwrights, publicans who
    sell beer to the farmers’ men and the farmers; copse-cutters,
    tree-strippers, bark-shavers, farmers’ wheelwrights, farmers’
    blacksmiths, shopkeepers, a schoolmistress; and, in short,
    nothing but persons belonging to agriculture, to which, indeed,
    the two doctors and the parson belong as much as the rest.”

As Cobbett himself described them a few years later. The creek of the
little river Hamble touches the end of the principal street; and here
was a tiny wharf, and a miller’s house. On the farther side of the
creek stood the “delightful house and more delightful garden,” which
promised such bliss. Here is one of the first resulting joys:--

    “Now, I am going to give you a commission that you must do us
    the favour to execute with the least possible delay. It is
    to find out where fishing-nets are sold, and to buy us a net
    called a Flue or Trammel net. It must be five feet deep, and
    fifteen yards long; with plenty of linnet, and not too coarse.
    We have a river full of fish sweeping round the one side of
    our little lot of land; but for want