Star.
London, England, 1829-09-22 00:00:00

RADICAL REFORM SOCIETY.

An adjourned MeetinT"orrAs Society was held last
evening, at the Mechanics' Institution.
Mr. HINT, on taking the Chair, alluded to the secession of Mr.
Cobbett from the Society, on the ground of some expressions used
by Mr. French, which, as Mr. Cobbett alleged, would, in past
times, have placed every man who heard them uttered in danger
of a prosecution. He (Mr. Hunt) having been in the Chair on
the former occasion, bad distinctly heard, and be now per.
fectly remembered, what Mr. French had said. He would
agree that the expressions he had used in reference to a Mem-
ber of the Royal Family might have been in bad taste;
but, used as they were, in such a loose way, and on such an
occasion, in the heat of debate, they ought not to have been
noticed, and, in fact, were not noticed by any portion of the
public press, except by Mr. Cobbett himself. Mr. Cobbett
also charged Mr. French with having said that he wished
for universal confusion, and that he was a republican.—(Frum a
person in the crowd, " So be did say." He ( Mr. Bunt) had no
hesitation in declaring that Mr. French never made use of
any such expressions.—(A voice, " Then Cobbett is a liar.")—
Another complaint was, that Mr. French bad said that there
were no such bloodsuckers la America as the Duke of Wel-
lington. He admitted that Mr. French did use these words;
but he was interrupted before he was allowed to explain.—
The term was ordinarily applied to these who drew large re-
sources from the pockets of the people. Perhaps it was neither
delicate nor just ;—bat who would ever have thought of hearing W.
Cobbett complain of it on that account ? A hundred and a thousand
times had Cobbett himself made use of the phrase in the same sense.
Mr. Cobbett said he would no longer be a member of the Society.
This was rather extraordinary, and the Meeting would be surprised
when he informed them that Mr. Cobbett never had been a member,
for there was one ceremony necessary as a qualification—namely,
the paying down of a certain subscription, which be bad forgotten
ever to do, although be did not forget to receive the half-guinea
every time that the Society advertised its Meetings in his Register,
and by these advertisements be cleared more than be (Mr. Hunt)
bad gained by the whole course of his political conduct. Mr. Cob-
bett made two stipulations as the conditions of his becoming a mem-
ber; the first, that none but members should be permitted to address
the meetings; and the other, which was a lase qua nen, that M r. Gale
Jones should never be admitted a member. However, if Mr. Gale
Junes were to be regularly proposed and seconded and elected by the
Society, no one would have the power to refuse him admittance. It
was easy to perceive, when Mr. Cobbett entered the door on the for-
mer night, that he meant never to attend one of their meetings again
—and now he turned round and urged the Government to prosecute
the members present, and him (Mr. Hunt) particularly, as be was
most liable, from his having been in the Chair. At all events, he very
plainly told the Government that if they did prosecute, he would be
a witness that the words bad been used. They bad had a long lec-
ture upon Republicanism from Mr. Cubbett. This might be very
well from a man who had never spoken or written in favour of what
he now condemned. But he, Mr. Hint, bad taken the trouble to
look back a little to what Mr. Cobbett bad previously said of the
State of Pennsylvania. Within one short month, in his" Emigrant's
Guide," he had recommended emigrants to go to the United States,
and to take themselves entirely away from the British Government.
And why?—" Because," as be said in a letter to a friend in Long
I-land, dated the 25th of May 1829," in Pennsylvania there were no
bloody borough-mongers—(he was so very squeamish in his ex•
pressions)--there were no excisemen—no paupers—no parson-
justices—no tithes—no dead weight, female as well as male—
no dog-tax, no house-tax, no window-tax, no gig-tax, no tax
on servants—no public debt—no town of Burnley, in Lanca-
shire, where 2,000. out of a population of 6,000, were living on
one-fourth part of the earnings of an American labourer." After
some further comments, the paper from which Mr. Hunt read
concluded :—" Ever blessed be the Americans, for they have
established a Government which makes tyranny blush." But the
Reformers need not be cautioned against petitioning for a Repub-
lic, for they had never thought of doing so. The Radical Reform-
ers should not now go upon their knees and beg Mr. Cabbed to
come back. No man bad a higher admiration of his talents than
he (Mr. Hunt) had—but if he were to turn tail upon the Re-
formers, Goo be praised that he had done it so early. He would
mention one fact with respect to Mr. Cobbett :—He (Mr. Hunt)
had given him some ground in Wiltshire, to make him a free-
holder in the county, and he promised to meet him at the
inn at eleven o'clock at night, to draw up some mistakes.
preparatory to the Election. After waiting in vain for him
for some time, a friend went to look after him, and returned,
saying, " They gave me the Courier, and do you know what's
in it? That Cobbett is at Liverpool, on his way to America."—
I pulled a fifty pound note out of my pocket, and offered
to bet that that was not the case, and that he would be
here in half an hour. Mr. Hunt then said to his friends, " I hope
nobody took you up ;" for it was a fact, and he would have lost
his money. So, if the Reformers pinned their faith to Mr. Cob-
bett's sleeve now, they might some day hear of his being again at
Liverpool, on his road to America, since such was the treat-
ment that be, Mr. Hunt, had received from him, although he had
behaved to him as a bosom friend, and bad actually devoted one
year of his life to attending upon him while he was in Newgate.—
The object of the Radical Reformers was to obtain their rights
and liberties. and he hoped the cause was good enough to stand,
even if Cobbett, and he. and others, were to abandon it for ever;
but be would stick to the ship, and the Society would not catch
him in the midst of danger running away.
The minutes of the last Meeting were then read, as well as some
letters, amongst which was Mr. Cubbett's announcing his with-
drawal trout the Society, on account of some language which he
said bad been used by Mr. French, and would subject every mem-
ber of the Society to a prosecution.
Mr. Flume said that he bad been interrupted on the former
occasion, in consequence of some strong expressions which he used
in characterising the Duke of Wellington. If he thought that,
in addressing au assembly of Radicals, he could net use a strung
figurative expression, in speaking of a man who, with his own
places and pensions, and the places and pensions of his family,
cost this country nearly one hundred and fifty thousand pounds
a-year. he would wish to retire fur ever from the stormy ocean
of public debate. and shelter himself from their indignation in
the obscurity of his private life, and in that retirement he should

not, on a retrospect, have a single political fault to reproach him-
self with, except that, living in a pusillanimous age, be had been
somewhat bold In the current of his thoughts and the ardency of bis
expressions. At this thus the Radicals should speak out with all
their strength and energy. not as if the Attorney-General were
frowning over their diessisier, or as if they were afraid of outraging
the delicate . not of a hireling of the broad sheet, but of
this new alty of the of Wellington, Wm. Cobbett, of the loyal
Ifesister. They ahead not now content themselves with admiring
the Duke of Wellington. or look with exultation upon the field of
Waterloo, when tens of thousands of arms, as vigorous as those
which mowed down the enemies of England there, were folded in
idleness, though longing for industry, or stretched forth in suppli-
tattoo to those who told them, in their lordly answers, that they
could not give them hope, much less bread. In such a situation
they should not suffer their attendees to be drawn off, rivetted as
it ought to be upon their own country, by the sacred misery
of the people—by a long-winded speech about America. What
had the decision of a Court in Pennsylvania, giving one thou-
sand dollars damages against William Cobbett, for a false and
dastardly libel upon Dr. Rush—what bad this to de with the de-
liberations of the Radials?—" Who steals my purse steals trash,"
said Dr. Rush, as be pressed the law charge. Bet Colibett re-
plied, Curse the empty bubble of public reputation. He that
makes an onset no my money bags is my deadliest foe." But all
this had nothing to do With the meetings for Radical Reform. He
was charged with wishing for universal confusion. " Confusion
worse confounded," he said, in the words of the poet, upon the
head of the base calumniator who dared to lay to hie charge the
long-cherished wish of his own cankered—nay—fiend.like heart.
His (Mr. F.'s) worst enemies could not believe that he had ever
uttered such a guilty wish. In the midst of such a convulsion as he
was supposed to look to, his contempt of money would still keep
him poor. He would stand irretorse ocsilo, though all the spoils of
the borough-mongers were spread in the arena before him. He also
stood charged with being a Republican. He was an enthusiastic ad-
mirer of the British Constitution as it ought to be—oot as it is. Let
the 3 props of the Coostitutition be restored—Annual Parliaments
—Vote by Ballot—and Universal Suffrage—and he would ask no
more. This was sound Radicalism. All beyond it was Jacobinism
—was Vandalism—nay, what was infinitely worse than all the
moral curses of the universe—lawless and rancorous Cobbettism.
Mr. French was then about to read extracts from some of Mr.
Cobbett's papers ' but the uproar which bad raged from time to
time dodo' various stages of the proceedings was now redoubled,
and be could not make himself heard.

Mr. Harm. explained that what Mr. French wished to read was
a passage in which Mr. Cobbett said that he had never received a
sixpence for any thing be had written; and another, in which he
said that he gave to his wife, in America, on their marriage, 150
guineas, which he had saved from his earnings by writing for hii
officer%

Mr. Faamot made repeated attempt. to read the paper, but his
voice was drowned by the deafening tumult, and he ac length sat
down.

Mr. Guar and others addressed the meeting, enlarging upon
the importance of Radical Reform ; and a resolution was pawed
that an Address should be prepared to the peeple of the United
Kingdom, calling upon them to co-operate with that Association
in the cause of Radical Reform.