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COBBETT, WILLIAM (1766-1835)

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Originally appearing in Volume V06, Page 607 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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COBBETT, See also:WILLIAM (1766-1835) , See also:English politician and writer, was See also:born near See also:Farnham in See also:Surrey, according to his own statement, on the 9th of See also:March 1766. He was the See also:grandson of a See also:farm-labourer, and the son of a small See also:farmer; and during his See also:early See also:life he worked on his See also:father's farm. At the See also:age of sixteen, inspired with patriotic feeling by the sight of the men-of-See also:war in See also:Portsmouth See also:harbour, he thought of becoming a sailor; and in May 1783, having, while on his way to See also:Guildford See also:fair, met the See also:London See also:coach, he suddenly resolved to accompany it to its destination. He arrived at Ludgate See also:Hill with exactly See also:half-a-See also:crown in his See also:pocket, but an old See also:gentleman who had travelled with him invited him to his See also:house, and obtained for him the situation of copying clerk in an See also:attorney's See also:office. He greatly disliked his new occupation; and rejecting all his father's entreaties that he would return See also:home, he went down to See also:Chatham early in 1784 with the intention of joining the See also:marines. By some See also:mistake, however, he was enlisted in a See also:regiment of the See also:line, which rather more than a See also:year after proceeded to St See also:John's, New See also:Brunswick. All his leisure See also:time during the months he remained at Chatham was devoted to See also:reading the contents of the circulating library of the See also:town, and getting up by See also:heart See also:Lowth's English See also:Grammar. His See also:uniform See also:good conduct, and the See also:power of See also:writing correctly which he had acquired, quickly raised him to the See also:rank of See also:corporal, from which, without passing through the intermediate grade of sergeant, he was promoted to that of sergeant-See also:major. In See also:November 1791 he was discharged at his own See also:request, and received the See also:official thanks of the major and the See also:general who signed his See also:discharge. In See also:February 1792 Cobbett married the daughter of a sergeant-major of See also:artillery, whom he had met some years before in New Brunswick. But his See also:liberty was threatened in consequence of his bringing a See also:charge of peculation against certain See also:officers in his old regiment, and he went over to See also:France in March, where he studied the See also:language and literature. In his See also:absence, the inquiry into his charges ended in an acquittal.

In See also:

September he crossed to the See also:United States, and supported himself at See also:Wilmington, See also:Delaware, by teaching English to See also:French emigrants. Among these was Talleyrand, who employed him, according to Cobbett's See also:story, not because he was ignorant of English, but because he wished to See also:purchase his See also:pen. Cobbett made his first See also:literary sensation by his Observations on the See also:Emigration of a See also:Martyr to the Cause of Liberty, a See also:clever See also:retort on Dr See also:Priestley, who had just landed in See also:America complaining of the treatment he had received in See also:England. This pamphlet was followed by a number of papers, signed " See also:Peter See also:Porcupine," and entitled Prospect from the See also:Congress See also:Gallery, the See also:Political See also:Censor and the Porcupine's See also:Gazette. In the See also:spring of 1796, having quarrelled with his publisher, he set up in See also:Philadelphia as bookseller and publisher of his own See also:works. On the See also:day of opening, his windows were filled with prints of the most extravagant of the French Revolutionists and of the founders of the See also:American See also:Republic placed See also:side by side, along with portraits of See also:George III., the See also:British ministers, and any one else he could find likely to be See also:obnoxious to the See also:people; and he continued to pour forth praises of See also:Great See also:Britain and scorn of the institutions of the United States, with See also:special abuse of the French party. Abuse and threats were of course in turn showered upon him, and in See also:August 1797, for one of his attacks on See also:Spain, he was prosecuted, though unsuccessfully, by the See also:Spanish See also:ambassador. Immediately on this he was taken up for libels upon American statesmen, and See also:bound in recognizances to the amount of $4000, and shortly after he was prosecuted a third time for saying that Dr See also:Benjamin See also:Rush, who was much addicted to See also:blood-letting, killed nearly all the patients he attended. The trial was repeatedly deferred, and was not settled till the end of 1799, when he was fined $5000. After this last misfortune, for a few months Cobbett carried on a newspaper called the Rushlight; but in See also:June 'Soo he set See also:sail for England. At home he found himself regarded as the See also:champion of See also:order and See also:monarchy. See also:Windham invited him to See also:dinner, introduced him to See also:Pitt, and begged him to accept a See also:share in the True Briton.

He refused the offer and joined an old friend, John See also:

Morgan, in opening a See also:book See also:shop in See also:Pall Mall. For some time he published the Porcupine's Gazette, which was followed in See also:January 18o2 by the Weekly Political See also:Register.. In 18o1 appeared his Letters to See also:Lord Hawkesbury (afterwards See also:earl of See also:Liverpool) and his Letters to the Rt. Hon. See also:Henry Addington, in opposition to the proposed See also:peace of See also:Amiens. On the conclusion of the See also:pea.ce (18o2) Cobbett made a still bolder protest; he determined to take no See also:part in the general See also:illumination, and—assisted by the sympathy of his wife, who, being in delicate See also:health, removed to the house of a friend—he carried out his resolve, allowing his windows to be smashed and his See also:door broken open by the angry See also:mob. The letters to Addington are among the most polished and dignified of Cobbett's writings; but by 1803 he was once more revelling in personalities. The See also:government of See also:Ireland was singled out for wholesale attack; and a See also:letter published in the Register remarked of See also:Hardwicke, the lord-See also:lieutenant, that the See also:appointment was like setting the surgeon's apprentice to bleed the pauper patients. For this, though not a word had been uttered against Hardwicke's See also:character, Cobbett was fined £500; and two days after the conclusion of this trial a second commenced, at the suit of See also:Plunkett, the See also:solicitor-general for Ireland which resulted in a similar See also:fine. About this time he began to write in support of See also:Radical views; and to cultivate the friendship of See also:Sir See also:Francis See also:Burdett, from whom he received considerable sums of See also:money, and other favours, for which he gave no very grateful return. In 1809 he was once more in the most serious trouble. He had bitterly commented on the flogging of some See also:militia, because their See also:mutiny had been repressed and their See also:sentence carried out by the aid of a See also:body of See also:German troops, and in See also:con-sequence he was fined £1000 and imprisoned for two years.

His indomitable vigour was never better displayed. He still continued to publish the Register, and to superintend the affairs of his farm; a hamper containing specimens of its produce and other provisions came to him every See also:

week; and he amused himself with the See also:company of some of his See also:children and with weekly letters from the See also:rest. On his See also:release a public dinner, presided over by Sir F. Burdett, was held in See also:honour of the event. He returned to his farm at Botley in See also:Hampshire, and continued in his old course, extending his See also:influence by the publication of the Twopenny Trash, which, not being periodical, escaped the newspaper See also:stamp tax. Meanwhile, however, he had contracted debts to the amount of £34,000 (for it is said that, notwithstanding the aversion he publicly expressed to See also:paper currency, he had carried on his business by the aid of See also:accommodation bills to a very large amount); and early in 1817 he fled to the United States. But his pen R as as active as ever; from See also:Long See also:Island his MS. for the Register was regularly sent to England; and it was here that he wrote his clear and interesting English Grammar, of which lo,000 copies were sold in a See also:month. His return to England was accompanied by his weakest exhibition—the exhuming and bringing over of the bones of See also:Thomas See also:Paine, whom he had once heartily abused, but on whom he now wrote a panegyrical See also:ode. Nobody paid any See also:attention to the affair; the See also:relics he offered were not See also:purchased; and the bones were reinterred. Cobbett's great aim was now to obtain a seat in the House of See also:Commons. He calmly suggested that his See also:friends should assist him by raising the sum of £5000; it would be much better, he said, than a See also:meeting of 50,000 persons. He first offered himself for See also:Coventry, but failed; in 1826 he was by a large number of votes last of the candidates for See also:Preston; and in 1828 he could find no one to propose him for the office of See also:common councillor.

In 1830, that year of revolutions, he was prosecuted for inciting to See also:

rebellion, but the See also:jury disagreed, and soon after, through the influence of one of his admirers, Mr Fielden, who was himself a See also:candidate for See also:Oldham, he was returned for that town. In the House his speeches were listened to with amused attention. His position is sufficiently marked by the sneer of See also:Peel that he would attend to Mr Cobbett's observations exactly as if they had been those of a " respectable member "; and the only striking part of his career was his absurd See also:motion that the See also:king should be prayed to remove Sir See also:Robert Peel's name from the See also:list of the privy See also:council, because of the See also:change he had proposed in the currency in 1819. In 1834 Cobbett was again member for Oldham, but his health now began to give way, and in June 1835 he See also:left London for his farm, where he died on the 16th of that month. Cobbett's See also:account of his home-life makes him appear singularly happy; his love and admiration of his wife never failed; and his See also:education of his children seems to have been distinguished by great kindliness, and by a good See also:deal of healthy See also:wisdom, mingled with the prejudices due to the peculiarities of his See also:temper and circumstances. Cobbett's ruling characteristic was a sturdy See also:egoism, which had in it something of the nobler See also:element of self-respect. A See also:firm will, a strong See also:brain, feelings not over-sensitive, an intense love of fighting, a resolve to get on, in the sense of making himself a power in the world—these are the See also:principal qualities which account for the success of his career. His opinions were the fruits of his emotions. It was enough for him to get a thorough grasp of one side of a question, about the other side he did not trouble himself; but he always firmly seizes the facts which make for his view, and expresses them with unfailing clearness. His See also:argument, which is never subtle, has always the See also:appearance of See also:weight, however flimsy it may be in fact. His See also:sarcasm is seldom polished or delicate, but usually rough, and often abusive, while coarse nicknames were his special delight. His See also:style is admirably correct and always extremely forcible.607 Cobbett's contributions to periodical literature occupy too volumes, twelve of which consist of the papers published at Philadelphia between 1794 and 1800, and the rest of the Weekly Political Register, which ended only with Cobbett's See also:death (June 1835).

An abridgment of these works, with notes, was published by his sons, John M. Cobbett and See also:

James P. Cobbett. Besides this he published An Account of the Horrors of the French Revolution, and a See also:work tracing all these horrors to " the licentious politics and infidel See also:philosophy of the See also:present age " (both 1798) ; A Year's See also:Residence in the United States; See also:Parliamentary See also:History of England from the See also:Norman See also:Conquest to s800 (18o6); Cottage See also:Economy; See also:Roman History; French Grammar and English Grammar, both in the See also:form of letters; See also:Geographical See also:Dictionary of England and See also:Wales; History of the Regency and Reign of George IV., containing a See also:defence of See also:Queen See also:Caroline, whose cause he warmly advocated (1830–1834); Life of See also:Andrew See also:Jackson, See also:President of the United States (1834); See also:Legacy to Labourers; Legacy to Peel; Legacy to See also:Parsons (1835), an attack on the See also:secular claims of the Established See also:Church; See also:Doom of See also:Tithes; Rural Rides (1830; new ed. 1885), an account of his See also:tours on See also:horse-back through England, full of admirable descriptive writing, See also:Advice to See also:Young Men and See also:Women; Cobbett's See also:Corn (1828); and History of the See also:Protestant See also:Reformation in England and Ireland (1824–1827), in which he defends the monasteries, Queen See also:Mary and See also:Bonner, and attacks the Reformation, Henry VIII., See also:Elizabeth and all who helped to bring it about, with such vehemence that the work was translated into French and See also:Italian, and extensively circulated among Roman Catholics. In 1798 Cobbett published in America an account of his early life, under the See also:title of The Life and Adventures of Peter Porcupine; and he left papers See also:relating to his subsequent career. His life has been written by R. Huish (1835), E. See also:Smith (1878), and E. I. See also:Carlyle (1904). See also the annotated edition of the Register (1835).

End of Article: COBBETT, WILLIAM (1766-1835)

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