The National Register.
London, England, 1812-07-12 00:00:00

SUNDAY, JULY N, 1812.

0
tS o.

POI ITICAL DIS2UISITION.

11111. COBBETT.

• This celebrated writer and inconsistent politician : the
advocate of England in America, the reviler of his country
in England : the warmest admirer of Mr. PITT when in the
zenith of his power, his foul calumniator since his decline and
death: once the sturdiest opponent of Reform and Sir F. Ba
bra' T, whom he represented as a traitor to his King and Coun-
try, and now the chief of seditious writers, and the flatterer of
that same Baronet whom he holds as a sincere, well-meaning
patriot; after performing his two years penance in Newgate,
burst once more into public notice on Thursday last, at a
dinner given in honour of his liberation, at the Crown and
Anchor. Sir FRANCIS, whom Mr. COBBETT lISCd SO pub-
licly to "despise and abhor," generously sacrificing- all private
resentment to the good of the cause in which all reformers
are engaged, introduced his former libeller into the room,
and taking the chair, placed him on his right, thus giving a
notorious pledge of reconciliation, whilst Major Cartwright
enjoyed the honours of the left. Scarcely had the feasting
ceased, (without a thought of the poor starving manufac-
turers, who, it was reported, were to have been invited to
come down and share at least one good meal with their
friends !) when Mr. COEUR rT, inspired with new-brewed
courage, rose to rebut a charge preferred against him two
years ago, in several publications, but hitherto unanswered,
and renewed by The Times %pat morning. NVe know not
which to admire most, the long forbearance of this calm and
patient politician, or the candour with which be exposed 1)
conscious mutability of principles, in his awkward attempt
at clearing himself. He was accused of having offered to
give up his Register, if Government would remit his punish-
ment; and this proposal, justly considered as an intended
abandonment of their cause, filled some Reformers at the
time with indignation, and induced them to press him for an
explanation of his conduct, which, notwithstanding all their
reproaches, satire, and abuse, he magnanimously withheld
until the day of his liberation. Evil disposed persons will
be apt to attribute this extraordinary display of self com-
mand, to a wish that the storm might spend all its rage at
once, unprotracted by any opposition on his part, so that
when be should re enter society he might find the mantle of
oblivion cast over the past, and all around him should be
greeting and popularity. His friends, who know his real
motives, will contend that the revived attack in The Times
was unmanly, base, and unnecessary, as his obstinate silence
Was the best refutation of the unfounded calumnies circu-
lated against him; and the last opinion will be confirmed
by the unfortunate nature of his defence. But he will
probably consider it as the malignant effusion of a fellow
P. 0. CCYIYY.

PRICE 90.

prisoner, jealous of his fame, and of the superior accommo-
dations which the superior revenue of his publication
enabled him to purchase at Newgate. Whatever be the
Opinion of his foes or lends, or of himself on the subject,
we, in common with the impartial public, cannot refrain from
rejoicing at the forced self exposure of a political impostor,
at the very moment of his apparent triumph. Had he slunk
silently back into that world from which he had been so long
severed, he would have avoided this mortification. But he
yielded to the pride of his heart and the folly of his friends,
and fancying himself a second Cicero returning from unjust
baniihment, would have a public reception and public
dinners in his honour. Ile provoked the blow which hal
laid him prostrate in the opinion• of every member of the
community, whether Loyalist or Ruf ,rmist, and instead
complaining at being attacked, and begging still more time
to elude, not to answer, his accusers, he ought to have felt
himself duly rewa:ded, and have hung his head in merited
humiliation. He might then have warded off contempt, by

excising; pity.
Unable to deny the whole truth of the charge brought
against him, because it seemed now urged by persons in pos-
session offacts sufficient to expose fa!sehoodv Mr. CoBBETT
on breaking the religious silence which he had kept for two
years on the subject, acknowledged that it had been his
intention to give up his Register. Ele asserted, however,
that it was not because he repented of the nature and ten-
dency of his writingq, but " because he was afiaid it would
be out of Ills power to carry it on, on the same principles of
fair discussion as formerly." We shalt content ourselves
with asking him. what could put it out (if his power to main-
tain the principles of his publication unalteied, if his mind
remained unchanged? And what could change his mind, if
he did not repent, but want of courage to bear the con e-
quences of his own seditious writings ? Could the imprison-
ment of his person chain his thought, or turn it, rum/Wing, into
a particular channel, different from that to which it had, ever
since his politicalapestacy been accustomed ? Did he fear that
force should be employed to direct his pen ? and in that case,
which it is our piide to say, in England alone amidst the
nations does never occur, but to which we will for a moment
grant that reality to which the terrors of a cowardly mind
may have given With, did he feel his own weakness, and
conscious that he should barter consistency for any proffered
relaxation of punishment, did he wish to guard against him
self by a timely sacrifice of that publication which must at
once have recorded his fresh mutation, his timidity, or his ve-
nality? This excuse, therefore, instead of clearing Mr. Co s-
n ETT, would tend to prove him guilty of a degree ofpusillani-
mity and weakness not inferior to that with which he is already
charged. The power of maintaining his principles, what•

Imo,
_