The National Register.
London, England, 1817-03-31 00:00:00

I%IR. contirl"r s ENIIGR ITION.

Cobbett has really fled to America, by the way of
Liverpool, in consequence, it is believed, of his having
incurred penalties to an enormous amount, by publish-
ing his Paper without a stamp, and of the Stamp Office
having commenced proceedings against him for the re-
covery of them. It is also whispered that he is prosecut-
ed fur his Address in January to the Weaver Boys, in
which he says, should Parliament pass laws for suspend-
ing liberty, rebellion must inflow. He must have known
of this prosecution these six weeks. He has disappeared
at the moment he might have been arrested under the
Habeas Corpus Act ; at the moment it was expected a
Revolution should be effected at Spa-fields by the Blau-
krteers, &c. The grand Meeting at that place was
fixed for Monday last.
Mr. Cobbett, has caused the following letter to be
puVisbed in most of the Papers, in some measure ex-
plaining ill: reasons fbr his flight to America. Some
J 8 years ago, this cunning political weathei co_li was
compelled in some sense, to quit the United Sates, on
account of a fine levied upon him, of 5000 dollars, fur a
libel. On his arrival in this country, 11:- direct, d the
most virulent abuse against America and the American
C'aracter generally. Na lanktoo-e was too coarse—no
Calumnies too offensive—no epithets' too strong, for his
pen. His very heart and soul seemed to burn with in-
dignation against the whole race of Yankees.—Even the
land itself was hateful to him—Their laws, their man-
ners, their customs, their principles, their whole con
duct were all described as tainted with villainy, and
faiu:;ht with every thing mean, contemptible and base.
—He could have served them as he once wished to
serve Sir Francis Burdett :—he could " spit upon them
—stamp upon thtm," &e. Sze. Let the tidlowing ex-
tract from the first Numb.m of his Porcupine serve as a
specimen :
. _

Notwithstandinz h example of America, and the more
drea.lllll examph: of t: ranee, I fiti.l the emissaries or the Re-
im:Aran faction fi:r such it really is) still preachint: tana-
ticisin and ; still hawlin4 tor that chan..c which they
have the an tacit to denominate ref proi; exe:•tinr, al!
their nefurnms iticennity in sapping the foldidatitin of the
Church and the who waist experience
tlic consequences, may, for aught I know, be excused for
e:ltariving at thrse attempts; ton ME, who have semi
acts passed by a Repnblican le,os:ature, more frantlaileut
than forgery or el/111111;Z ; FOR ME, who have seen Republican
officers of-irate °tiering their country fur sale, for a few
thousand dollars ; colt Kilo It IVC Seen Repithilean judges
became felons, and felons become Republican Judges ; Fon
Mk. 50 hold my Minds, and tamely listen to the insolent eulo•
giA of tb.pithlican Governments and rulers, would he a
shame fol abandontic. it of principle, a dastardly desertion of
duty."
- - - -

Such were his opinions, such his language concerning
Amer is a within these few years put. But what has
latterly been his language respecting the very same
people, the very same land, the very same laws, habits,
customs, and principles? Finding that his conduct in
Ewrland was such as to render it possible a second
—re-
treat to the American continent might, at no distant
prioa, be a convenience to him, he has, without conde-
seig to avow any reason fur his change of sentiment
or language, latterly declared, that America was a very
tine place, the people very wod, the laws very wise,

the houses very fin?, the coaches and chariots very nu-
merous.; and that which he had betiwe described as a
" h:11 upon ear.h," he has r•Tresented as little short of
a second Parafim?, :tad the iniLibit is as scarcely infe-
rior, in point ofin.locence, purity, and virtue, to our first
parents bethrc the Fall !
His flight, at this period, to use one of his favourite
elegant figures of speech, has " let the cat out of the
bag." His latt•.r eonduct concerning America is now
amply illustrate,'. —Mr Cobbett is obedient to the di-
rections of Scripture, at, least in this point : he is careful
" to make to himself friends of the Mammon of un-
righteousness," that when his conduct in one country
haa rendered his rendered in it no longer comfortable
and proitable, the inhabitants of another " may take
him into their houses."

Various causes have been assigned or conjectured for
this his second emigration.
The Morning Chronicle of this day, does not believe
that it has li.:eu occasioned by any intimation from the
Stamp Office, as suggested above : and we are partly of
the same opinion. But what could induce any one to
suppose that (great as its circulation has been) the bare
stamp duty of 4d. on every sheet of the 2d. Register,
would amount to the enormous sum of 80,0001. ? Sure-
ly 4,800,000, coppies of that work cannot have been
issued within the space of the f:iw months that the nu-.
stamped Register has been published. This is beyond
all calculation and all truth ! We know not what ex-
actly what the penalties are in such cases, but the Pa-
per above referred to says, that if the Commissioners had
pursued for the penalties instead of the duties, they
would have amounted, on the number sold, to more
than a million of money, instead of 80,0001.
Besides, should this business of stamps have been the
cause of his flight, what are we to say concerning the
other " Registers"—the other two-penny weekly
newspapers—which still remain unmolested ? Are they
less liable to the Stamp Duty than Cobbett's " Pam-
phlets?" Most assuredly nut--Indeed some of them
have much more the appearance and character of a
Newspaper—they contain more articles of direct intel-
ligence—more news in the proper sense of the word,
than Cobbett's Registers lime ever done. They great-
ly injure the circulation of the regular weekly Journals
• in the publication of which an immense capital is em-
barked and very little profit, (after the reduction of 4d.
for the stamp) obtained.
On this subject a Paper of yesterday the following
judicious observations.
" We are not surprised at the Commissioners of the Stamp
Office adopting thi.. measure, as it was notoi ions that Cob-
hetes twopenny pamphlet materially lessened the sale of
weekly Newspapers, loy which tneans he injured the revenue,
as well as the property of private individuals, to a very se-
rious extent. The readers of weekly Papers are generally
those persons who do not take in a daily Paper, and it
became a familiar observation with them, when applying
for a Newspaper at the chance shops on a Sunday, to say
" Let me have Cobbett's twopenny-worth of Polities; I
shall not pay nine pence for a paper.'"l'llos it is evident
Cobbett had three purposes to answer—his own profit, the
injury of the revenue, and the propagation of his political
principles, among the middling and lower orders of society."

But we must suspend our remarks to afford room for
Mr. Cobbett's farewell address :

TO THE PUBLIC.

Liverpool, Mach 26, 1817._

"My departure for America will surprise nobody but those who
do not reflect. A full ansl explicit statement of my reaso..4 will ap-
ptxtr in a few dap, probably on the sth of April. In the mean
while. I think it necessary to make known, that I have fully em-
powered a person of respectability to manage and settle all:my
in England. I owe my countrymen most sincere regard, which I
shall always entertain for them in a higher degree than toward.; any
other people upon earth. I carry nothing from my country but my
wife and children, and, surely, they arc my own, at any rate. I
shall always love England better than any other country; I will
never become a subject or citizen of any other state; but I and mine
were not born under a Government having the absolute power to
imprison us at its pleasure; and, if we can avoid it, we will neither
live nor (lie under such an order of things. If I have not taken
leave of numerous friends in London and in the country, it was because
I should have been made unhappy by their importunities and the
expressions of their sorrow. I make an enormous bacrifice of pro-
perty and of feeling; but when my heart feels the tugs of friendship,
and of all the interesting objects in Iliunpshire, it i 3 reconciled to
the loss, by the thought that I can enjoy them only during the ph a-
sure of a Secretary of State. When this order of things shall cease
to exist, then I shall again see England.
C orinETT.

We may just add, that the reasons why no intima-
tion of Mr. Cobbett's departure appeared in his Register
of Saturday lust, is to be found in the fact, that Satur-
day's Number was prepared a week in advance. We
are to have one more—and then—What will become of
the hawkers and pedlars, whom he swore to protect ?--
and where is the vengeance he vowed against the criers
of last dying speeches, and the hdlad singers, provided
he must not be allowed to peddle without a licence,—
and print newspapers without a stamp? We suppose all
these high matters are left in the hands of his friend
limit, who lately took " the poor boy Dogma" into his
holy keeping.
But, really, Mr. Collett, it is hardly fair to leave
your friends thus:—You should not have risen from the
table before the cloth was removed.—But, we cry you
mercy—that is the way with the polite world—and you
hate politen;:ss, it 13 so aristocratical.—Finally : what, if
Ctibbett's destination, after all, should not be for North

HAY

AND STY VW PEK I.OAII.
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SMITHFIELD i Clover 5 10 0 a 7 0 11 li 5 0
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