The Sun.
London, England, 1820-02-11 00:00:00

TO MR. WILLI A M Coo! 13 Err.

Sra—lf the Annaib of the Old Bailey had not
furnished us with instauces of that effrontery
which makes a guilty man, convicted on the
clearest testimony, talk of innocence and virtue,
should he surprised that even you should ap-
peal to, the Reformers for support ou the-ground
of your olvo-excellence, although my knowledge
of your general character, and the superlative
confidence which has distinguished you from your
fellow labourers in the holy work of perverting
men's onderstandirus, should have taught me not
to wonder at the foulness of a stream which owes
its existence to a polluted fountain.
Ai it is the fashion amongst a very numerous
cla,s of well disposed Englishmen to dise.urage

every attempt to expose your falsehoods and
s,phistry on the ground of your utter svortidess=
ness, 1 should riot tumble you or the Public with
any observations on your Letter to the Reformers,
it 1
lead not a pretty strong conviction of the ne-
cessity tl ere is for meeting you fairly and fully,
for the sake of truth and propriety, and also of
the justice of that French adage, which says,
" Les manvaises Meshes ne meriteat puilitt nos
4gaiik pour elks tnemes, mais pour le mai qu'elles
pourroient faire ala bonne vegetation." I really
think, that if men's pelts rather than their swords
haul .been properly employed in the exposure of
your intentions, we should have never been driven
'o form new Legislative barriers against the en-
croachments which you and such as you have been
so long endeavouring to make on the Constitu-
tion. You. have been allowed to grow into im-
portance by the weakness or indoletuce of your
adversaries, who are numerous, for they are to
be found in the sound and virtuous parts of the
community, in the defenders of the Church, the
well-wishers of the State, and the honest plain
dealing men who would have their children un-
polluted by your doctrines, and their fire-side en-
joyments undisturbed by your counsel ; your
maxims of law and policy, and the schemes which
you propose as substitutes for the Constitution
when,subverted, have assumed consequence from
the absence of well timed opposition ;and the
literary attemps that the public has. seen directed
against you, have almost wholly failed from the
foolish vanity of writers, whit h.has made them
,believe that they could imitate your style and
manner, and so subdue you, when plain solid rea-
soning to which thousands are equal though so
few, if any, can write exactly like Mt. Coaatcr-r,
would, I firmly believe, if well seconded and
boldly repeated, have been found sufficient
to avert all the evils that have resulted
from your labours, We should then have seen
no infatuated crowds courting destruction by
rebellious tumult, and no new Acts would
have been passed to give you the shadow of an
excuse for calling us less free than we used to be.
The conduct of Government towards you and
your associates, had been that of the seaman who
would not fire at the water spout and prevent
its injuring his vessel, but waited patiently until
iart of his crew was drowned before he could
atisfy himself that so singular a cause could ope-
ate so much mischief. It is a very foolish sort
If affectation to deny your powers of mischief.
my Lord A— rosy still say, " Do you really sup-
lose he can do half the harm that he threatens,"
Ind his Grace of G— may exclaim, " The fel-
ow is all talk—we have a thousand cleverer
hen than he is." I say, your enemies may rail
pinst you as long as they please, but you are
till the Bosley Porcupine ; and if you have not
he bold courage of the Lion, you have what is
inch worse, the poisonous sting of the Adder.—
.ou see, Sir, that I- have no very mean opinion
your powers of mischief; but I rejoice to find,
py your tare appeal to the Reformers, that men
-ow wiser and wiser, and then sillier and sillier
an equally rapid proportion ; and that a man
fifty-three may write a foolish letter, and make
weak appeal' to his partizans, although he has
mitten volumes in his time, which were wel'

orth reading for their ingenuity, to say no more of
lent. If the columns of the Evening Post should
frequently enriihed with inch splendid produc-
us, and the Reformer, are such thin brained
eatures as your appeoi would lead us to believe
ern, you must augment your mechanical means
throwing off copies; for if they are weak
Lnigh to read and approve your " Tale of a
b," (for, by your own confession, that elegant
'ork was your standard of literary excellence
en a boy, and we are not to wonder that you
ould revert to it in your dotage), it is the star-
sign that they will purchase any trash that
you ugly invent far their amusement.

Yonr professed object in writing to the Re-
formers is to obtain a soul of money to defray- the

expences of tin Election which you are vain

enough to think would send you to Parliament;

or as I suspect, for the purchase of a Borough—

~f`o~~ ~~~~~ ~~
i~~

of your chance in this way or the purposes i°
which you may convert the surplus of the money
that the poor starving Reformers, as you empha-
tically call them, may supply you with, I shall say
nothing, although one might vehture by the way
to argue from Mr. CoBBBTT's predilection to tra-
velling, that a well filled purse would induce him
to follow one Of his friends to the Continent, and
leave behind him his sober exhortations to the
water drinkers, as an ample return for their
contributions and a proof that in decamp-
log, •be applies the Fund to a
.real act
of Reform by abandoning their society ; but
the grounds upon which you demand this aid
are so'cutious that I cannot help adverting to
them. You c•Il yourself a Philosopher, a sound
goof! Father and Husband,. a kind-
hearted \lan and. Makter, a trite Refrainer, and an
ardent Advocate for moral and social duties,
which you perm(' to inculcate by your example.
Now, whether these quahheations, supposing yon
to possess them, have many chahns iii the es. i-
illation of the Reformers I know not, bitt I do
know that the Moon is as far from resembling
the Sini, in its effulgent properties, as Mr. Cob-
bett is in the virtues that he mentions. Your claims
to distinction as a Philosopher are very equivocal
indeed. Your whining in Newgate and year
flight to America are, at any rate, strung proofs
that your Philosophy is not of the order which
distingnished the heroes of ancient days, or the
Champions of British Liberty. You, have neither
the patriotic philosophy of a SYDNEY, or the hold
enduring tnibulence of a Wierots, and the only
evidence of your philosophy rests on your decla-
ration, that when a boy you preferred the pur-
chase of The Tole of a Tub to the solid comfort of
a bread and cheese supper. As a sound Politician
you could never have taken two sides of a ques-
tion. The sontidnels of your politics would
either have taught you steadiness to the Refor-
mers, or fidaty to Mr. PITT, whom you
abandoned because you were once excluded front
his invitatloll which that great Statesman gave to
literaiy men of copal talent-41nd more known than
yourself. I know nothing of you as a father or
a bushmml ; silly tongues prate, and if they prate
truth, your wife and children are Lot much to be
envied. As a kind-hearted roan and a good
master, you surely have few claims to public fond-.
nos, for the whole neighbourhood of Botley says
the contrary. That you may be a true Reformer
is, perhaps, true, for what is a Reformer, in
your own definition of the term, but a profligate,
hollow-hearted parasite of men's vices, and an un-
principled tlisturber of men's happiness ? You are
a moral man, too, you say, and a kind one into
the bargain—where are the proofs of your mo-
rality or kindliest; ? Where is the poor roan's
hearth that William Cobbett has cheered ? Where
is the poor prisoner that be has relieved ? Where
is the orphan, or the widow, or the aged and de-
crepit) to whom he has held Out the hand of tel.
lo%vship ? With an immense revenue, if your
own account of the sale of your Registers can be
credited, what public or private charity has found
you its contributor ? You are not a drunkard
certainly, where then are the truits ot your in-
dustry ) They have not been all swallowed up by
State prosecutions; they have not been dispensed in
acts of benevolence ; your morality did not allow

you to convert them to the payment of Mr. Ttp.
rag, or Sir FRANCLi BURDETT, or Prevent your
writing to the latter gentleman, a letter, insult-
ing to the feelings of the man who had helped
you, and subversive of every principle of Law and

1 • - •
NS:ice It I had time to follow ;tau through
deceit and falsehood, I would do so, but
there arc temporAty boundaries to, every man's
indignation.- i will write to ru again, and tell

•.
you the re►►l motives, and the real grounds of your
application to the Reformers. Jo ►he mean time,
►vhilst you ere boasting of health and strength,
remember that oh' age is already stridinz towards
you, and that you cannot say with the good
Christiin,

Poco duri, porche

Al -

LONDON JOURNALS.

FROM 'nig MORNING pApERS OF THIS DAY.

[Morning Post.]
AN UNEXPECTED EVENT IN HIGH LIFE.—The
topic of conversation yesterday was the sudden
disappearance of a Mail of fashion, who has long
taken the lead it; the gay haunts at the west end
of the town. He held high rank in the army,
and is an accomplished scholar. An unhappy
predelietion for play is the cause assigned for his
abrupt departure. Siine of his friends are said to
be under acceptances for a very considerable sum.
All the trades-people are left unpaid ; and more
than one hotel•keeper has reason to bewail his
loss. The fugitive has winged his flight to the
Continent.