A History of the Last Hundred Days of English Freedom.
By William Cobbett. (Labour Publishing Co. and G. Allen and Unwin. 5s. net).—Cobbett's racy writings are too seldom reprinted and too little read. The six letters written from America to the Political Register in 1817, which arc given in this little book, are hardly of Cobbett's best, but they are vigorous and interesting. They are introduced by Mr. J. L. Hammond, who now writes, unfortunately, as a Labour politician rather than as an historian. Cobbett lived to find that English freedom had not expired in March, 1817, as he pretended to believe. When trade resumed its normal course and industrial unrest ceased, the exceptional laws against which Cobbett railed were repealed or forgotten. But for their spirited political invective the series of letters may still be read with amusement.
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