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ART. IX. Cobbett's Political Register. 11 vol. 8vo.

II vol. 8vo. pp. innumerable. London 1802-1807.

WE E are induced to take fome notice of this Journal, becaufe we are perfuaded that it has more influence with that moft important and most independent clafs of fociety, which ftands juft above the lowest, than was ever poffeffed before by any fimilar publication. Its circulation and its popularity are, we think, upon the whole, very creditable to the country. It is written with great freedom, and often with great force of argument. It flatters few national prejudices-except our love of detraction and abufe; and has often had the merit of maintaining bold truths, both against the party in power, and the prevailing fentiments of the nation. It confifts, in general, of folid argument and copious detail; with little relief of general declamation, and no attraction of playfulness. It is a good fign of a people, we think, when a work of this defcription is generally read and ftudied among them. It can only be acceptable to men of fome vigour of intellect, and fome independence of principle; and it was, upon the whole, with feelings of pride and fatisfaction, that we learned the extent of its circulation among the middling claffes of the community, and the great fuperiority of its influence over that of the timid and venal prints, which fubfift by flattering the prejudices of a party, or of the nation at large.

The author's original anti-Jacobinifm was, like all other antiJacobinifm after 1800, extravagant, fcurrilous, and revolting. But this died away; and, for the three or four laft years, till very lately, his influence, we believe, has been rather falutary, and we have been well pleased that such a journal should be in exiftence. Difgufted as we have often been with his arrogance; irritated by his coarse and clamorous abuse; and wearied with the needlefs vehemence and difproportioned fury with which he frequently defcanted on trifles, we could ftill admire his intrepidity, and refpect his force of understanding; and were glad to have a journal in which falutary truths could be strongly spoken, and which might ferve as a vehicle for independent fentiments, and a record of neceffary, but unpopular accufations. With this general impreffion, we could eafily make allowance for the exceffes into which the author was habitually betrayed, either by the defects of his education, or by his known political partialities; and aftèr fetting afide his raving about the funds and the committee at Lloyd's his trafh about the learned languages-and his ignorant fcurrility about Mr Malthus-we had still some toleration in store for his zeal for the Bourbons, his horror at revolutions, and his jealousy of the democratical part of our conftitution.

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Within the last fix months, however, he has undergone a most extraordinary and portentous transformation. Inftead of the champion of establishment, of loyalty, and eternal war with all revolutionary agency, he has become the patron of reform and reformers; talks hopefully of revolutions; fcoffingly of Parliament; and cavalierly of the Sovereign; and declaims upon the state of the representation, and on the iniquities of placemen and penfioners, in the very phrafes which have been for fome time laid afide by those whom he used to call levellers and Jacobins.

The inconfiftencies and apoftafies of a common journalist, certainly are neither fo rare nor of fuch importance as to deserve any notice from us. But Mr Cobbett is not quite a common journalist; and his cafe is fomewhat peculiar. He has more influence, we believe, than all the other journalists put together; and that influence is ftill maintained, in a good degree, by the force of his perfonal character. He holds a high tone of patriotism and independence; he puts his name to all his publications; and manfully invites all who diffent from his opinions, to meet him in the fair field of public difputation. Another peculiarity in Mr Cobbett's cafe is, that he ftill ftoutly afferts his confiftency; and maintains, that with a very moderate allowance for the exaggerations of a difputant, and for actual changes in the position of our affairs, the doctrines which he now promulgates are the fame which he has held and expreffed from the beginning, He has neither professed to be converted like Mr Redhead Yorke, nor attempted to sneak silently to the other side like the herd of venal pamphleteers. Though our quarrel with him, therefore, be entirely on the score of the tendency of his later productions, the question of their consistency or inconsistency with his former professions is by no means indifferent to the issue. There are many who believe in him, partly at least, on account of the sturdy honesty to which he lays claim, and the tone of confidence with which he predicts what is to come, and pretends to have predicted whatever has actually occurred; and there are few, perhaps, of those who have received any impression from his writings, whose faith in his reasonings would not be diminished by a conviction of the inconsistency or versatility of his successive opinions, or a suspicion of the share that passion or party may have had in their formation. It is not, therefore, from any paltry or vindictive motive, but for the purpose of reducing his authority to its just standard, that we think it necessary, before entering upon the examination of his late doctrines, to make a few remarks on his title to the praise of consistency, and to exhibit some instances of what has certainly appeared to us as the most glaring and outrageous contradiction.

The

The first thing that would strike any one who had only known Mr Cobbett as the author of the Porcupine, and the earlier volumes of the Political Register, on looking into any of his later numbers, would be the terms of high and unmeasured praise with which he speaks of the political principles and proceedings of Sir Francis Burdett. We were perfectly certain, that these same principles had formerly been the object of his most furious reprobation, and had an obscure recollection that the worthy Baronet himself had occasionally been subjected to the discipline of his pen. In looking back to the Register for the year 1802, we were surprised, however, to find the excess and scurrility of the abuse which was then poured out on the present idol of the author. Some of the following passages form so extraordinary a contrast with those which Mr Cobbett's readers have lately been in the habit of perusing, that we cannot resist the temptation of transcribing them.

In the Register for July 1802, (vol. II. p. 51.), this loyal politician observes, To read the bills and advertisements which have been published in the county of Middlesex, one would believe that the contest was not between two gentlemen, but between the magistrates and the thieves; and that the great body of those who have espoused the cause of Sir Francis Burdett, have done so with a hope, that, if he were successful, there would be an end to all legal punishment; and that crimes of every sort might be committed in perfect security. The same observation is repeated at p. 90. of the same volume, where it is facetiously observed, that the road to Brentford is lined with ragged wretches from St Giles's, bawling out, Sir Francis Burdett, and no Bastile; and, at the Hustings, there are daily some half dozen convicts, who have served out their time in the house of correction, amusing the rabble with execrations on the head of Mr Mainwaring,' &c. In the same spirit, the worthy Baronet is repeatedly branded as the friend of the convicted traitor O'Connor, and the acquitted traitor Horne Tooke, and held up to detestation as the demagogue with his crew,' or his gallows-hating citizens.' It would be endless to quote the passages in which this temper is indicated. The following may serve as a pretty fair specimen of the tone in which they are composed. To reason with such a man' (as Sir Francis Burdett) would be absurd. He must be treated with silent contempt, or be combated with weapons very different from a pen. While, however, we declare our abhorrence of the principles and conduct of the man who, in alluding to the British government, speaks of "hired Magistrates, Parliaments and Kings; "while we detest and loathe Sir Francis Burdett ;while we could trample upon him for the false, base and insolent

insinuations

insinuations respecting our and his Sovereign,' &c. &c. Pol. Reg. vol. II. p. 151.

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Those who are in the habit of reading the Political Register, may find an amusing contrast to these effusions in almost any the numbers which have been published for the last six months. For the benefit of those who do not see that Journal, we shall extract a few passages. It is needless to quote any thing which he says in his laboured and pertinacious defence of the patriotic Baronet on occasion of his rupture with Mr Whitebread; in the course of which, he complains bitterly of his old favourite John Bowles, for having used the most false and scurrilous expressions relative to Sir Francis. In vol. XI. p. 433, he is represented as having been uniformly hated by every party which had existed in his time, because they were all bent upon fattening on the public money, and knew that he would oppose them. In p. 871. of the same volume, he says to the electors of Westminster, If you succeed in causing Sir Francis Burdett to be returned to Parliament, you will have done more for the country in fourteen days, than has been done for it during the last hundred years. At p. 990, there is this unequivocal confession of faith, We, the people of England, feel that Sir Francis Burdett is our best friend; we participate in his principles-we rely on his talents and integrity we approve of his declarations ;-we despise the circulators of the a-hundred-times refuted calumnies against him, and look forward, with confidence, to the day when those calumnies will be drowned in the unanimous applause of a no longer besotted people. After this, it cannot surprise us to find our exulting author congratulating the country upon his being able to open a new volume with an account of the chairing of Sir Francis Burdett,' which he is pleased to consider as the memorable sign of an æra in politics; and afterwards stating, that when the worthy Baronet's head became visible above the crowd, the air rang with a shout, in which, had the King been in town, he would have heard the voice of his people-the sound of that voice which he will, ere long, hear from all his subjects, the voice of love and admiration of those who are the real friends of the country, and of indignation at those who are its real enemies,' &c. This, we believe, is enough for our purpose; though it would be hard to withhold from our readers that spirited and liberal paragraph, in which Mr Cobbett, in expressing his indignation at the idea that the name of the ignoble Lord Howick should ever be connected with that of his darling patriot, is pleased to say, that if any man had told him that such a connexion had been hinted at, he would almost have been. tempted to spit in his face !

Now,

Now, we should like to know in what way Mr Cobbett, or Mr Cobbett's admirers, can reconcile these passages. They will scarcely venture to say, that Sir Francis Burdett has abandoned the principles which he held in 1802. Whatever may be his errors or his demerits, the worthy Baronet is entitled, at least, to the praise of consistency; and his late political addresses are at least as obnoxious to zealous loyalists and antijacobins, as those which excited Mr Cobbett's indignation at the first of those periods. But the times, it will be said, have changed ;-they have come round to Sir Francis, and have carried Mr Cobbett along with them -This will not do; there is no man in his senses who will say, that in 1802 there was more to be apprehended from Jacobinism than in 1807, or that there was less need to clamour for a reform in parliament, and a check to corruption, at the former than at the latter period. It remains, then, that Mr Cobbett himself has changed. We cannot help it; nor do we think there is any great harm in it: the change is perhaps for the better: for though we can by no means go along with the rapturous encomiums which he now bestows on the object of his former detestation, we really felt quite as much disgusted with the abuse which he then poured upon him. We never thought that the constitution was in any great danger from the worthy Baronet's plan of universal suffrage, and annual parliaments; and certainly are not of opinion, that his return to parliament is the most propitious and important event which has happened in England for the last hundred years, Both opinions appear to us to be somewhat absurd and irrational; but we cannot help thinking it a little extraordinary, that they should both have been zealously maintained by one and the same individual, and that this individual should take it into his head to value himself upon his political consistency. The merits of Mr Cobbett's new creed, we shall take occasion to appreciate by and by: we think it already pretty apparent, that it bears no great resemblance to his old one; and may perhaps be permitted to hint to his admirers, that it might be as well, if one whose faith is so liable to be unsettled, did not persecute with such intolerance all who ventured to oppose it.

But his conduct to Sir Francis Burdett, perhaps is influenced by some private attachment, and his judgment of other public men is more temperate and consistent. We can see no proofs of this;-all are treated in the same way,-praised extravagantly today,-abused outrageously to-morrow. We do not recollect any one (except perhaps Mr Windham) of his original favourites, upon whom he has not heaped the ordure of his ignoble abuse; and scarcely one whom he reprobated at the beginning, who has not been compensated at last by the most preposterous encomiums,

Mr

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