COBBETT TO THE DUKE OF 'WELLINGTON.
POLITIC:t L REGISTE n—It is little, or.rather nothing, to gain ° victories" when a man has a hundred and fifty millions of pounds sterling to expend in the gain- ing of them. Nor is it touch to gain parliamentary " victories," when the party gaining them has the collection ail distribution of sixty millions of taxes a-year. Victories like these are nothing. But, a " victory" over the Debt ! That is the victory which you now have to achieve; and unless you succeed here, all your other victories will very soon pass for nothing. You are entitled to no forbearance from the nation. If it be ruined and convulsed, it will have a clear right to as- cribe the evil to you. For, in the first place, you took the office of Minister. when I had offered to take it; and, in the next place, you have all along rejected any advice. Ah ! it is now useless to laugh at this : the beggared merchants and farmers will not join you in the laugh. They will look sulky at you, when they see you laugh; and though the beggared vagabonds hate me most cordially, they will very soon say, that it would have been better if Cohbett had been Minister; and they already say, that it would have been better, if his advice had been fol- lowed. Carry us through ; prevent utter ruin ; prevent convulsion; settle the matter peaceably and well ; put a stop to famine and to the hideous increase of crime : do these things, and I will applaud you ; but, if you fail to do them ; if the nation suffer dreadfully in your hands, I, above all men, shall have a right to censure you.
Previous page
