sneers at the Honourable House, and its faithful guardianship of the public purse, or at the House of Lords, where the whole he'reditary wisdom and honour of the nation are seated.' Still less ean it be necessary to retail any of his good old democratical sayings as to the inadequacy of the representation, or his prophetic denunciation to Mr Fox, that if the system of Pitt was not abandoned, the consequence infallibly would be, the annihilation of all confidence on the part of the people in the then existing race of public mėn.

What we have now referred to may fuffice as evidence of Mr Cobbett's opinion of Parliament and public men. He has difqualified the whole of its prefent members, of all parties and defcriptions, and the whole of those who were opposed to them, with the fingle exception of Sir Francis Burdett and his friends; and no good, he tells us, can be expected from that quarter, till it be filled with perfons of their principles and description. The eftablifhed conftitution and ufages of Parliament meet with as little toleration as its prefent compofition. No placemen or penfioners are to have feats in either house. In other words, the minifters, who, from their fituation and talents, muft fooneft fee the need there is for new laws, and moft thoroughly understand their operation, are to have no voice either in propofing or refifting them; and the bleffed effect of this is to be, that the House of Com'mons will be as dull as a Quaker meeting; no fixed days for debating, as it is called; no fpeeches of three hours long; and the King might then change his fervants when he pleased, without any commotion in that house, which has no more business with 'fuch changes than the mountebanks of Bartholomew fair have;' -and this,' adds Mr Cobbett, would be the way to begin to fight France.' vol. xi. p. 1087.

As to the usages and forms of proceeding in Parliament, which are matters indeed of far inferior importance, they are treated throughout with the same spirit of derifion and contempt. As to the right and the form of petitioning, for inftance, Mr Cobbett takes occafion to fay, that really the being permitted to pray does not feem a privilege worth boasting of; and when it is confidered that the perfons praying are addreffing their own reprefentatives, he can fee no occafion for fuch exceffively humble and cringing language. He then proceeds

But, gentlemen, though we may be permitted to write a prayer, we can none of us utter that prayer to the objects of our application. It must be fo uttered by fome member upon whom we may (by fome means or other) prevail to become our propitiator; that is to fay, before we can bring our prayer before the Houfe, we must obtain the special confent of one of its own members. Having fucceeded fo far, our petition is allowed

6

lowed to be read by a clerk, who fits at a table in the middle of the House; and, a very great comfort it is to one to know, that one's prayer has paffed through the lips of a man who wears a black gown and a three-tailed wig, and who, as it were for the purpose of preserv ing clean hands, always writes in gloves. But, though read, it is not yet certain that our petition will be attended to. Attended to, did I say ? It must first undergo the ceremony of a motion and of a vote; it must have a majority in its favour before it can be permitted to lye upon the table; and, when it has arrived at that honour, another motion and another vote of the majority is required, before any thing can be done in confequence of this our humble prayer; for "humble" it must be, that being a quality abfolutely indifpenfable. vol. xi. p. 390.

We have quoted this paffage at fome length, not because it contains any thing very important or very offenfive in its fubftance, but as a fair fpecimen of the irreverent and derifive style in which the author habitually fpeaks of an inftitution, from which no good man would wish to alienate the affection or refpect of the country.

With regard to the grofs and inflammatory exaggerations by which he conftantly endeavours to excite the indignation and difcontent of the people, as to the difadvantages of their fituation, and the abufes to which they may be referred, it would be endless to quote the multitude of paffages in which they occur. The immenfe numbers of the poor, and the incapacity of a labourer to fubfift a small family from his wages, are repeatedly held forward, and imputed with the moft unblushing confidence to the number of finecures, the extent of peculation, and the fyftem of funding. He loves to talk of the neceffity of changing a fyftem by which forty millions a year of the people's favings are collected and diftributed into hands, through which they naturally pass to the metropolis, and there as naturally produce all the vices of which we complain.' The following paffage, however, is particularly curious. If Mr Cobbett believes the statement in it to be true, it may be regarded as the key to that extraordinary revolution in his opinions which we set out with remarking; and, at all events, it may serve to show the opinions which he wishes to inculcate, and the lengths to which passion or prejudice can carry him. After observing that public men, in general, seemed not to be sufficiently sensible of the great change which had taken place in the general way of thinking on politics since 1801, and especially since the affair of Lord Melville, and that anti-Jacobinism, which had previously been a thriving trade, had since been on the decline, he takes occasion to observe, There was a time when a cry about Jacobinism or danger to the Church would have had great weight. But those cries have

'seen

• seen their day pass; every man's attention being now turned to the abuses in the expenditure of the public money.' And afterwards, This, I repeat it, is the sole point upon which men's at⚫tention is now earnestly fixed. Of the affairs of the Continent,-of conquests in South America, and of means of defence at home, they have not leisure to think. The reading of tax-papers, and the providing for the incessant demands of the tax-gatherer, take up all their time. Their present grievous burdens is the only subject upon which they can be expected to think; and, while they feel these burdens, they know that enormous peculations re'main unpunished; they see no hope of preventing them for the future; and they feel as men must feel under such circum stances. Vol. xi. p. 816.

A people thus defrauded of its political rights, and oppressed in its private circumstances, certainly could have no great inducement to fight for a constitution which imposed and perpetuated such abominations; nor could it look forward to the subversion of such à constitution but as to a deliverance from tyranny, and a chance of restoration to happiness. If Mr Cobbett had intended, therefore, to render his countrymen indifferent as to foreign conquest, and desirous of internal revolution, he could not have employed other means than those to which he has actually resorted. We pretend not to judge of his intentions as to others; but, for his own individual part, he has spoken his opinion pretty freely, at least as to the probability and desirableness of a revolution. There are scattered throughout all his late Numbers general expressions of prophetic exultation to this effect; that the day of the people will come, that a terrible contest will soon succeed to the wars of faction, and that a radical change must be made in our internal system. The following passage, however, is more full and explicit. After alluding to certain advertisements about the purchase of seats in Parliament, Mr, Cobbett observes-

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From one corner of the kingdom to the other, corruption extends his baleful, his ferpent-hatching wings. Can this laft? Ought it to laft? Of what avail is it that the miscreants engaged in this infamous traffic call us jacobins and levellers? Will any one of them fay that this ought to be? Has any one of them the ingenuity to find out any thing, even in imagination, torfe than this? Politicians may endeavour to alarm us with cries of revolution, and divines may preach to us about hell; but, if the one can find any thing more difgraceful, or the other any thing more damnable, than what is described in these advertisements, I beseech them fpeedily to exhibit it to our view. Fifty-feven of these advertisements have I read in the London daily papers; and I defy any man living to produce me, in the biflory of the whole world, any thing fo completely defcriptive of national degradation. Well may Mr Fawkes fay, in his addrefs to his late conftituents of the county of York, that a feat in parliament, which he

once

once regarded as the height of laudable ambition, he now views in quite a different light; and the only wonder is, that he should have been till now in the dark upon the fubje&t. Again I call upon our accufers, upon those who, for hire, denominate us jacobins and levellers, and who cry aloud for the prefervation of the conftitution, to fay, whether the conftitution fanctions these things. If it does, what an infamous impofture it is! and, if it does not, it is we, and not our revilers, who are endeavouring to fupport the conftitution of England. Aye, it is we who would reftore and fupport the conftitution; the real conftitution; that conftitution which fo ftrictly forbids the buying or the felling of a fingle vote, much more a feat in parliament; that conftitution which inhibits peers from any fort of interference in elections, and that fuppofes it impoffible that any peer fhould, in any way, fend a member to the Commons' Houfe; that conftitution, in fhort, which forbids, in the ftrongeft terms, and under fevere penalties, every one of the abuses, of which we complain: and yet have the hireling revilers the audacity to reproach us with a wish to overturn the conftitution! In fuch a state the country cannot long remain. No country has ever long remained in fuch a ftate. Thofe who have an evident intereft in perpetuating abuses of all forts, may endeavour to terrify the people with the confequences of what is called a revolution; and, from a revolution, in the ufual fenfe of the word, as applied to politics, God preserve us! but a change, and a great change too, muft come; and come it will, in one way or another, and that at no diftant day. Vol. xi. p. 836-7.

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With regard to the probability and the effects of invasion, Mr Cobbett says, he is firmly persuaded that Bonaparte never meditated a march to the Rhine with more determination than he meditates the invasion of England or Ireland, and that it would be infatuation unparalleled to suppose that he should leave these kingdoms untried:' and then, on diverse occasions, he expresses his apprehensions, that if their grievances be not redressed, the people may not think the country worth fighting for; and maintains, that to uphold the present system of things, is not the way to call forth their zeal in defence of the Government. The most offensive, and, we think, the most suspicious, passage we have met with upon the subject, is in the last Number which has reachThe author is there pleased to say

ed us.

I have, from long thinking upon the subject, brought myself to a conviction, that the French never will fucceed in fubduing us. The why and the wherefore I might have fome difficulty in detailing; but the conviction I entertain, and under it I am eafy; and, what is more, I am fully perfuaded, that, however fome perfons may tremble, this conviction is felt by ninety-nine out of every hundred men in the nation. I do not reafon much upon the matter. I have done asking how the French can get here or to Ireland, and how we are able to repel them. I know the enemy to be powerful by land, and that he may foon become powerful by fea; I fee the force of all Europe collected against us, and

I

I have confidered in detail the probable acts of fuch a conqueror. But when I confider who we have for Commanders, and particularly for Commander in Chief; when I confider the strength of our armies; when I confider the extent of our immenfe resources, and the manner of diftributing those resources; when I confider, in fhort, the whole of the force and ftate of the nation, the whole of the scene that lies before me,-I ftop not to reafon, but involuntarily exclaim, Buonaparte, I fet thy utmost ingenuity, power, and malice, at defiance ! ' Vol. xii. p. 84-5.

Now we know Mr Cobbett's opinion of our Commanders, and of our Commander in Chief; and we have no quarrel with him for that opinion; but, knowing what it is, we ask, whether any man, capable of serious counsel or of proper feeling, could possi bly conceive such a crisis of such a country as a suitable subject for derision, or for such asinine attempts at irony and humour as are exhibited in this passage?—At such a time, it is the duty of all who possess, or who hope for, any influence over their fellowcitizens, to point out the dangers of the country, and the means by which they may be averted. To affect to be jocular upon such a theme; and, with a full conviction of the danger, to present us, instead of counsels or exhortations, with paltry gibes and personalities, appears to us to be at once despicable and insulting, and to indicate a lamentable deficiency both in the head and the heart of the author.

Having thus endeavoured, in as short compass as possible, to justify the representation we have given of the actual tenor of Mr Cobbett's recent doctrines, we shall proceed to consider, in a few words, in how far the doctrines themselves admit of justification.

Laying aside his mere general common-places of discontent and disaffection, we think Mr Cobbett's whole argument may be reduced to this single proposition,-That all the evils under which we are groaning, are produced by the improper composition of the legislative bodies, and especially of the House of Commons, The evil in its composition is twofold. First, That the members are not fairly chosen by the people, but are either nominated by the influence of great families, or purchase their seats from a junto of venal electors; and, secondly, That placemen and pensioners are allowed to sit in both houses. The radical evil to which this faulty constitution necessarily gives rise, is, that the members of parliament, instead of deliberating for the general good, are engaged in a constant scramble for place and emolument; that all sorts of jobbing and peculation are winked at, for the sake of securing votes; and that pensions and sinecure places are multiplied for the same unconstitutional purpose. All our other miseries, it seems, may be traced back to this fruitful source

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