The following is Sir Francis Burdett's reply to an invitation
to attend a public meeting to be held on Monday week, at the Crown and Anchor, for the purpose of originating a subscription for erecting a a monument to Cobbett; Mr. O'Connell in the chair.
" - Leamington, June 1st 1836. " Sir—A letter from you, dated the 16th of May, having followed me here, I lose not a moment in returning. according to your request. en answer. Yoa invite inc to a meeting to be hell on the 13th of the month. at the Crown and Anchor, at which Mr. D. O'Connell is to preside, for the purpose of raising ii subscrip- tion or a nionument to be erected to the memory of the late Mr. Cobbett. The ap- plication is unique, as the French say, seeing that whoever attends that meeting be- comes a public vomiter for the honesty, disinterestedness, and patriotism of the said
Cobbet t. Now. as I belitive,or rather know. the teverse. awl as all the world besides know my opinion and experience thereon, it would be something worse than foolhdt in me to attend such a meeting. end I can only wonder at the application. At the same time, I manna but acknowledge that the united empire could not fur itsit a more appropriate eliairman. Nor can I offer to the committee any centribution more appro- priate than Mr. Cobbett's bonds now in my possession, which, as considerably more than fourteen years haVeelipsemt since the money was lent, will :emend to consi- derably mule than 8000f. I trust the committee will think' this a handsome and suitable offer. " I remain, geollemen, your must obedieut servant, "F. BURDETT."
[O'Connell might he better employed than in presiding on this oc- casion ; for Cobbett's great talents were not more notorious than his bad use of them : towards the close of his life he became little better than a tool for the Tories. Burdett's allusion to the " bonds," though smart, is paltry,—whether the money was originally lent on account of services to the lender, or as it testimony of regard for Cobbett as a public man. The kick at O'Connell is a piece of gratuitous black- guardism, in which any tenant of St. Giles's could match Sir Francis.]
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