WILLIAM COBBETT. T HOSE of our readers who incline to the
belief, which we own to have long held ourselves, that William Cobbett was not only among the most interesting characters of the century, but also possessed in a singular degree the qualities of courage, honesty, energy, and political integrity, will forgive us if we say a word in defence of one who, while he lived, would have scorned the aid of any other pen than his own. We use the word "character" advisedly, because the whole force and essence of Cobbett's career, the justification for his pugnacity, our sympathy with his fortunes in a hundred fights, in prison, in exile, in victory, in defeat, in his strong and eager pleadings to the rich for justice to the poor, and to the poor for justice to each other—as when he declared in 1833, when Member for Oldham, that the overworking of children in factories was due, not to the greed of manufacturers, but to the avarice of their parents—and our amused condona- tion of his own self-praise and conceit, must crumble and disappear, if the man himself were not brave and upright, and true and just in all his dealings. Then the value of Cob- bett's work must be judged, not by the moral standard of the "Rural Rides," the "Poor Man's Friend," the "Sermons to Working Men," or the volumes of the Weekly Register, but by the literary power which remains unquestioned in the writings of one whom we must suppose to have been a gifted but unscrupulous agitator.
Yet such are the misgivings which must arise from a perusal of Mr. Leslie Stephen's sketch of Cobbett's career in his lecture at Toynbee Hall on Saturday last,—a sketch which, taken in connection with the " Life " in the "Dictionary of English Biography," might, if unquestioned, go as far, for the moment, to injure Cobbett's posthumous reputation as the "one thousand volumes, chiefly paid for out of the taxes," which he asserted to have been written and published for the sole purpose of impeding the truths which dropped from his pen. "I have been twice stripped of my earnings," he writes, "once lodged in a felon's gaol for two years, and once driven into exile for two-and-a-half years." This statement contains nothing but a bare truth. The reference to the last incident by Mr. Leslie Stephen is as follows :—" There was danger of another prosecution for seditious libel, and Oobbett ran away The result was disastrous for him. If he had stood his ground, as other men did, he might have become a popular hero." With this we may compare the "Dictionary ":—" Fearing a second imprisonment, and being also in debt, he went a second time to America." Are we wrong in inferring that the view suggested in the passages which we quote, is that, in the first place, Cobbett was a coward ; and in the next, that he wished to avoid his creditors P If we are wrong, we shall confess our error gladly. Meantime, we will give our reasons for believing that neither supposition can be maintained for a moment. It is true that he owed money ; and whose fault, we may ask, was that ? The history of Cobbett's financial ruin is one of the basest chapters in a period of peculiarly base political panic. For describing the horrors of a military flogging, in which five hundred lashed had been inflicted at Ely on English Militiamen, under the supervision of German officers, he was prosecuted for seditious libel, harassed for a year by the Attorney. General, then brought to trial, and sentenced to two years' imprisonment, and a fine of £1,000. "Two years' imprisonment, and a fine of 21,000, only wanted the gentle accompaniment of ear-cropping to have done honour to the Star Chamber; for, to a man who had a farm and a news- paper to carry on, imprisonment threatened to complete the ruin which the fine was calculated to commence." So wrote Cobbett, after he had come out of gaol, with a debt of 26,000 incurred in expenses ; though his own indomitable energy enabled him to keep the paper afloat, and the efforts of his wife and young family kept the farm from immediate collapse. But it hardly lies with us to censure Cobbett for being in debt, or to suggest that as a reason for his temporary absence in America. But he "ran away," fearing a second prosecution. As a marked man, with the record of a previous conviction to make a second final and crushing, such a reason might well be excused, even had the previous powers of the law only been in force. But Cobbett retreated, not before the ordinary weapons at the disposal of his enemies, but in face of the extraordinary and unbounded powers conferred by the "Six Acts," each and all of which were levelled with deadly malice against the supporters of the views which it was Cobbett's weekly duty to maintain. The right of free speech, of public meeting and political comment, were, for the time, wholly 'withdrawn ; and Cobbett wisely withdrew also, and used what he called his "long arm" from across the Atlantic. We cannot leave the subject of the Toynbee Hall lecture without some reference to the last, and perhaps the most serious, allegation which it contains against Cobbett's memory. Those familiar with the story of his life will remember that his early manhood was spent in the Army, a training identical with that of a life which has some features in common with Cobbett's career,—that of the late Charles Brad- laugh. The story of his enlistment and career in his regiment would alone be material for a volume on "Self-Help," such as has often been compiled from less remarkable lives. There was a restless energy about the poor farmer's son which, in spite of his intense love of rural life and devotion to the " land " for its own sake—a devotion as old as the Book of Job, and as deep a feeling in Cobbett as in Tennyson's Northern Farmer—drove him again and again from the cottage by an imperative impulse, which, for want of a better phrase, we may call the spirit of adventure. As a boy he walked from Farnham to Kew, and there remained, working in the Gardens and studying botany. He saw the fleet at Ports- mouth, and at once joined a ship, and only withdrew his name under pressure from a kind-hearted captain. In the same way, he found his way to London, where he spent a dreary 'time in an office. Lastly, he enlisted in the Marines—as be -supposed—but by mistake in a Line regiment, in which, before he was twenty years old, he was promoted to be serjeant-major. Tt was while in the ranks that he laid the foundation of that English style, which he ever maintained should be "clear as the pebbled brook." He learnt by heart the whole of "Louth's Grammar, repeating it to himself when -on sentry duty." Mr. Stephen's account of this part of Cobbett's life is that, "because he had nothing better to do, he became a common soldier," which scarcely does justice either to the impulse which led him to enlist, or his success in his profession. But it is in reference to his leaving the Ser- vice that Mr. Stephen has done Cobbett what we must consider to be an unintentional injustice :—" On retiring from the Army, Cobbett accused sonic of his officers of peculation. A eourt.martial was granted, but Cobbett declined to appear, for fear of the consequences to himself, and retired to France." The italics are our own, but the statement must rest on the authority of Mr. Stephen. It suggests infamous baseness, and, in justice to Cob bet% his own account of the matter, given at a time when contradiction was easy, should be read. Cobbett, when on foreign service in Halifax, became aware that one-fourth of the men's rations were kept back with the connivance of certain officers. As serjeant-major, he had access to all the regimental books, from which he made extracts, which were attested by a corporal named Bestland. In spite of his warnings to the Court, these books were de- stroyed, and Cobbett, who had obtained his own discharge, was forced to rely on the evidence of Bestland, who was Still in the service. Cobbett demanded the discharge of "one man whom be should name" as the condition of continuing the prosecution—the man, of course, being Bestland—whose evidence Cobbett " had solemnly engaged not to have recourse to unless he were first out of the Army, and so out of the reach of the bloody and vindictive lash." He had been set down for discharge when he first reached England, but there was a suspicion of his connection with him, for which reason be sur- mised that "they were resolved to keep him in their power." Unless this account is fiction, Cobbett did not refuse to appear "for fear of the consequences to himself," but from an honourable regard for the consequences to another.
If the arguments which we have urged are sufficient to vindicate Cobbett's memory against the suspicion of dishonour, dishonesty, or want of courage, we shall not regret the limits which space sets to the present consideration of his strong and pure English, his rare power as an orator, or his work as a pioneer in that technical instruction which is now brought to the door of every labourer, and by which he boasted that he had "mended the meals of millions." Perhaps it is in his views on social and domestic economy that Cobbett is most nearly in touch with the present day. The main political points for which he fought have been already won; and after the concession of vote by ballot, accompanied by a general representation of interests in Parliament, including those of the labourer himself, secured by lowering the suffrage, the advent of another Cobbett in the political arena has become impossible.
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