The Sun.
London, England, 1861-09-28 00:00:00

LECTURES BY Al R. GEOR

GE DAJVSON.

Two lectures were given in St. Andrew's Hall on
Monday and Tuesday evenings, by Mr. George
Dawson, of Birmingham, to numerous audiences.
The subject on the first evening was " William
Cobbett," whom the lecturer in commencing de-
scribed as a man who was always feared where not
admired, one of the most admirable exposers of
English abuses, and one of the coarsest abusers, that
this country ever supplied—a bundle of strong pre-
judices, sound judgments, hearty instincts, and vio-
lent dislikes. Ho was born in 1762 at Farnham, his
father being a small publican and farmer, and the
boy had to turn out very early and work on the land.
On going to Portsmouth for a holiday, he was
seized with a passion for joining a man-of-war, but
this desire was thwarted, and be next made his
way to London and became a lawyer's clerk. Of
course the fusty chambers of a London convey-
ancer were not very congenial to one who had a
passion for fresh air and good English scenery. He
soon made his way to Chatham, was smitten like
many other young men with the "scarlet" fever,
enlisted, and was speedily ordered to New Bruns-
wick. He was rapidly promoted until he became
sergeant-major, and in his admirable book, "Advice
to Young Men," he described this part of his life,
For whenever he wanted to illustrate a virtue he
always turned to himself as an example. He knew
no one so well and admired no one so much—
(laeghter)— he was a glorious egotist, but we might
excuse a man being a little bounceable if he was
energetic in action. Whenever he enforced early
rising, or punctuality, or the pursuit of knowledge,
he always said, "Just look at me." He taught
himself Englisti grammar—a thing very few even
educated men knew perfectly—when a private sol-
dier at the pay of sixpence a day; a knapsack was
his bookcase, a bit of board on his lap a writing
table, and in winter he had rarely any light but
the fire, while he could only procure pen, ink, and
paper by foregoing some portion of food. The
officers of the regiment soon found that he surpassed
them in writing, and he had added much to his con-
sideration and a little to his pay by doing it for
them. While in New Brunswick he met his future
wife, then a:girl of 13, the daughter of a sergeant
of artillery, and at once determined to get out of
the army as soon as he could and marry her. The
artillery, however, were ordered back to England
four years before the rest of the regiment, but just
before the girl sailed, Cobbett sent her all his
savings-150 guineas—and told her to live and
dress respectably with it, and to make no spa re, as he
should no doubt get plenty more before he returned
home. When, however, he landed at Portsmouth
and got his discharge, he found her slaving as a
maid-of all-work, at £5 a year, and the first thing
she did was to hand him back the 150 guineas .un-
touched. (Applause.) He (Mr. Dawson) did not
know which to admire most—Cobbett for trust-
ing her, or she for working hard as a ser-
vant rather than spend the money so gene-
rously confided to her. After relating one or two
instances of his affection for her after their mar-
riage, the lecturer went on to observe that on quit-
ting the army in 1791, Cobbett received a testi-
monial of good conduct, but it was not long before
he brought a charge of peculation against four of
the officers. A court-martial was convened, but—
for some reasons not altogether satisfactory, pro-
bably because he found he had undertaken more
than he could get through—the accuser did not
make his appearance, and went out of the way, to
France, where the revolution was then in its most
violent excesses. Cobbett was no great lover of
France or of revolutions, for he began life as an
ignorant politician, fit mly believing that the British
constitution, if not a part of the solar system, was
equally in the nature of things, and equally to be
believed in and maintained. He soon left for
America, and got a handsome living by teaching
English to French refugees, for he had the admir-
able faculty of understanding thoroughly all that
he understood at all, and the rare power of making
clear even to a dunce whatever he understood. After
alluding to Cobbett's pamphlet attacking Dr.
Priestly—the success of which determined his voca-
tion as a pamphleteer—and to his afterwards
taking an active part in American politics, Mr.
Dawson described Cobbett's return to England in
1800, and futile attempts of the Government to
purchsse his support. In 1802 he started his
Political Register, which he continued for thirty-
three years—in health or in sickness, in prison or
out of it—with the intermission of only eleven
weeks. He was at first an independent supporter
of the Government, but about 1805 there were
signs of his politics beginning to alter, and from a
thorough-going Tory he soon became a zealoue
Radical. He (the lecturer) saw no need to apolo-
gise for this, for one might just as well taunt a
man for not wearing the same coat that he wore
ten years ago, as for having changed his opinions.
Everyone as he got older got more conservative ;
young men were born to be Radicals, and old men
to tone them down. Cobbett's change was easily
explained. Ho was not much of a theoretical poli-
tician ; his great favourites were the country labour-
ers, whom it was the fashion for townspeople to
laugh atas fools and dullards, but whoreally did their
work quite as well and without so much fuss as
city artisans. He saw agricultural labourers work-
ing for only 7s. a week, and when he found the
governing class of that day would do nothing for
them, he saw the necessity for reform. What
helped him to the change was his exceeding dis-
like of the funding system ; he never could see that
the putting " national" before " debt" made it any
pleasanter. Nowadays some people argued that
though debt was always an evil, put national before
it and it became the anchor of the State, and so
forth ; but to Cobbett debt always meant bondage,
and usually disgrace. In 1804 began a series of
troubles. He was twice fined £5OO for libel, and
was prosecuted and imprisoned for protesting
against some milli iamen at Ely being flogged by
Hanoverians. He made his prison, however, very
comfortable, and when he came out commenced
publishing his Twopenny Trash, a term of contempt
which Lord Castlereagh had applied to cheap papers,
and which Cobbett very characteristically adopted.
He went to America for a short time, returned in
1819 and started a daily paper, but suffered great
losses, being reduced at one time to sell his bed.
Governments were then vindictive, conscienceless,
and persecuting, and Cobbett, though he provoked
them much, never deserved half the inflictions laid
upon him. He was a capital terrier, and there were
plenty of rats for him to pounce upon. In 1820 he
was smitten with the ambition of entering the
House of Commons, but he was defeated at
Coventry and again at Preston. In 1831 he
was prosecuted for an article which was alleged
to stir up the agricultural labourer to vio-
lence ; he defended himself in a six hours'
speech, and the jury not agreeing, he got off. The
following year he was elected for Oldham. It was the
fashion to say he was a failure in Parliament, but the
truth was it was late in the day for him, and late
hours did not suit the old farmer, who loved fresh air
and home-brewed beer. In 1835 this singular man
died, and the newspaper which had been most con-
stant in abuse of him during his life, described him
as the " last of the Saxons." In truth he was pecu-
liarly Saxon, possessing in perfection all the tradi-
tional virtues and many of the traditional faults of
oldis
ji
s breadiknorngs English w
wordas
brewers'h home.
bpers ai on nild a
ietne
didt lho
evsee
notdo af
yl tishk
he
et
mg baker'ri ag nhdst
the race. The key note to most of his likings and
hwaaysee dolidsliikneind
eiteysteilfl,
tfhoer
pthaebiaiebhoomnieneaebol
beyond
eras
concernedbelief, and
of this
wtbaiseheetuhnat.
eba:ildfar
be as he (the
lturtereywears)
all future experiment. (Laughter.) Exotics of
every kind Cobbett detested. The very fact that
tea only grew in China was proof to him that it
had no business in Hampshire, and he
considered
the gossip over it as washy as the fluid. (Laughter.)
He hated wine, and thought it much better for
people to say they could not afford it than to drink
the abominable slop that was cal:ed wine. The
foreign and exotic were his detestation, the ho
mely
and
and the English his delight. His likes
were not
always wise, and many of his hatreds were not
very enlightened, but there was a healthy instinct
about t hem all. He loved the multitude, and what•
ever professed to be above or superior to them he
always made a face at, He did not like Jews,
because they were a chosen people; he detested
Quakers, because they spoke and dressed peculiarly ;
he hated Unitarians, not that he cared much about
theology, but because they claimed to be the only
enlightened sect. Select people, genteel people,

prigs of all sorts and sizes, this angry wan railed

against and abused. He disliked potatoes, yellow
linen, dirt, vaccination, bad grammar, of which he
found plenty, and the Protestant Reformation, of
which he wrote a history which, he was wont to
boast, had had next to the Bible the largest sale of
any book. He did not trouble about doctrine, but
the political thing 'called the Reformation was his

aversion. He did not like the nobility getting the
church lands; he thought the people were better
off before than afterwards, and once said plainly
he would rather have .the Inquisition and well-
filled bellies, than civil and religious liberty and
nothing to eat. (Laughter.) But it was pleasanter
to dwell on the things he loved. He liked good
food, children, and gardening--the purest and most
lasting of all man's pleasures. He had a great love
of farming, and did more than any other man to
put an end to the Lzy sy.tera of sowing the seed
all over the field, instead of drillling it in in fur-
rows. His prejudices were certainly not all wise,
but ho was the most eminent and industrious ex-
poser of abuses that ever lived, and deserved a high
place amongst the self-made men of England. He
I brave, honest, coarse, preju-
hearty hater of gentility,
preju-
diced, wasce d
rcalsesairontahtien;kear