Mr. G. K. Chesterton's new book upon Cobbett (Hodder and
Stoughton) argues powerful!' for a non-literary view of Cobbett. '
" Cobbett was not merely a wrong-headed fellow with a knack of saying the right word about the wrong thing. Cobbett was nu/ astrisly an-angty and antiquated old farmer who-thought the country must be going to the dogs because the whole world was not given hp to the cows . . . What be saw was the perishing of the :whole gnglish power of self-support, the growth of cities that drain and dry up the countryside, the growth of dense dependent populations incapable of finding their own food, the toppling triumph of machines over men, the sprawling omnipotence of financiers over patriots."
It is an excellent book, all the better for being serious and
constructive underneath its liveliness and wit.
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