VOL. 49.-No. 2.] LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY 10, 1824. [Price 6d. Published every Saturday Morning, at Seven o’Clock.

out upon me, say just what I think upon the subject.

"To the Public.-After consulting with several Gentlemen upon the subject, I, in consequence of our unanimous decision, and for the purpose of obtaining the concur rence and co-operation of others, hereby give an invitation to all such Gentlemen as wish to see Mr. COBBETT placed in the House of Commons, to meet me at the Crown and Anchor Tavern, in the Strand, London, on Tuesday, the 2d of March next, in order to devise effectual means for accomplishing that purpose, which, in the present critical situation of the country, I deem to be of the great

THERE is, in the long run, nothing like fair and open deal-est importance to the welfare of that country. ing; and, therefore, I shall, when I have inserted your Advertise-"Hargham, near Attleborough,

THOMAS B. BEEVOR."

Norfolk, Dec. 26, 1823."

First, Sir, let me offer you my

ment, speak my mind upon it as freely as if I were a party not at all concerned in the matter. Half sincere thanks for the great hothe misfortunes and miseries of nour that you have done me. If life may be fairly ascribed to that I had had any thing to do in putspecies of hypocrisy, which re-ting forth the advertisement, the ceives a softening under the name place should not have been the of affectation, this being again Crown and Anchor; because I softened by the name, modesty. happen to know, that the man I shall not play the hypocrite; who keeps that tavern is, some but shall, without any reserve, how or other, so situated, as to be and with the full assurance that afraid of my name, used in this abuse enormous will be poured kind of way. I am pretty sure

C

Printed and Published by J. M. COBBETT, No, 183, Fleet-street.

I have never wished to be in parliament for my own sake; for,

that the poor fellow will have France to counter-revolutionize been frightened half to death by and to take possession of Spain; your having named his house. and that state of peril, in which The Westminster Rump and the the very independence of the Aristocratic Clubs, nay, those country is now likely to be placed, whom the "loyal" call " acquit- could not have existed. ted felons;" all meet under the roof of this same tavern. The keeper of it is not afraid of the habits of my life, my mode these quarrelling with one another. of living, my taste, and my purThey all agree perfectly well. Aye, I dare say, poor OTTEY would say, these mice and rats, though they do not very well like each other, have no deadly mutual hatred; but, different indeed is it with regard to the cat!

suits other than public pursuits, all forbid me to enter the House at Westminster. To gain money by being placed in that house is impossible, unless upon the supposition that I should consent to be set down for the most infamous As to the object of your propo- of all mankind; and, as to fame, sition, it is what I have long what do I want with more than I wished for. So early as the year have? Would the words, WIL1809, I was of opinion, that to LIAM COBBETT gain any thing by place me in parliament would be having tacked to the end of them very beneficial to the country. It the M. P. which are seen at the I had been in parliament at the tail of Coke, Wodehouse, Wilberclose of the war against Bona-force, Horace Twiss, and of the parte, in the year 1814; or, in endless tribe of the Lord Johns 1816; or, in 1819; or, in 1822; and Lord Charleses? For myself, if I had been in parliament at either of these epochs, things could not have been as they are now. The cash-measures never could have been taken; the land and labour could not have been oppressed as they now are; the most formal manner, declaring debt could not have been what it that opinion, I deem a great now is; the nation could not have honour. But, the seat itself, conbeen so cowed down as to suffer stituted as the House now is,

or for any one related to me by blood, I value a seat in parliament no more than I value a dead leaf or a straw, I should deem it no honour at all. Your good opinion; your openly, and in the

all; and, I have never desired it except for the benefit of the country.

read, they would have produced their effect. Only think, Sir, of the difficulty of causing the Register to travel through the country: think of the slowness of its progress: think of the fact, that though the extent of its numbers is, in itself considered, great, that half a million, perhaps, of other publications, are put forth for one of it. Only think of the fact, that it was a week before I could make even a few thousand persons read a contradiction of the foul

I should deem no honour at merable magazines, reviews and the like publications, has been constantly at work to misrepresent, to calumniate, and to destroy the If it be said, that I have, for effect of my labours. All these more than twenty years past had would have been of no avail, if all the means that I could have I had been in parliament. My had if I had been in parliament; speeches must have been publishthat I have had a weekly publi-ed: no combination could have cation in my hand; that I have prevented that: being published, published my opinions; that they they would have been read: being have been read; and that, as to effect in the house, I should never have got a single vote. If this be said, my answer is, that my opinions have not been read; and there lies the error. I am not weak enough to suppose, that I should ever have, by reason, gained a single vote. But, I am firmly persuaded, that I should, long ago, have had a great majority of the people with me. I have, indeed, published every week; but, what portion of the people has read? Chiefly those, who wanted misrepresentations, which Coke, no convincing. Every clog, every upon one occasion, and WODEshackle, direct as well as indirect; HOUSE, upon another occasion, a combination; tacit indeed; but put forth against me; and which a real efficient combination of misrepresentations were read by those who swallow up the sixty every creature in the kingdom, in millions of taxes and the eight eight and forty hours after they millions of tithes; these have were delivered! Only think of always existed against the circu- the fact, that there are six months lation of my writings. A press in every year, that there have sending forth about three hundred been six months in every year for newspapers, together with innu- the last twenty years, during which

six months, such men as CoкE perity in peace, notwithstanding and WODEHOUSE have had it in a full third part of the farmers their power to address themselves, have already been broken up; almost daily, to every soul in the and notwithstanding a large part kingdom, while I have never had the power to address myself to any but a few thousand persons, and that, too, only once in the week, and frequently at the peril of my life!

of the remainder are notoriously insolvent. The newspapers inform us, and without any scruple, that the Bank is taking in the deeds of noblemen's estates; and that this is done in consequence of some argeement with the Government. In spite of all this, the press, which is wholly under command of the Jews and Jobbers, and of the Ministry, cry out prosperity!

No three months pass over our heads without an account of the

The Government has been carried on by the means of such men as COKE and WODEHOUSE, instead of by the means of such men as I. The consequences are before us; and now, before I say more of your proposition respecting myself, let me beseech your attention, to a few observations wonderfully increasing prosperity with regard to those consequences. of the revenue. These everlastingWith three hundred newspapers, ly repeated assertions about prosthe business of which is to deceive perity, produce a confusion of and to delude the people, it is not ideas; they lead to a great diffiat all surprising that the swellings culty in judging: one is at a loss of this Wen should be regarded for what to say in answer to asas a proof of national prosperity, sertions so often and so impudently manifest as it is, to every man repeated. The difficulty is, howwho reflects, that such swellings ever, removed; the answer is cannot possibly arise from any found, by observing that this conother cause than that of the ruin stant increase of prosperity, has of the agricultural part of the com- been, and is, accompanied with an munity; that is to say, of nine- increase not less constant and not tenths of the nation. According less in magnitude, of the miseries to the tale of the newspapers and of the labouring class, of the ruin of the Ministers, all has been, of farmers, of the fall of landlords, and all is prosperity. It was pros- of the slavery of the people at perity in war, and it is pros-home, and of the decline of the