WM. COBBETT. my back on my foes. When I went on to let me alone for the future; for if I my tour into Kent and Sussex, last fall, hear of any more of his back-biting it was settled that my wife should go and eaves-dropping, I will go, yet, and over to St. Omer's, and stay awhile give him a roasting before a judge and with her youngest son, who is there jury at Norwich. learning to speak French; but, by the time I got to Rochester, I reflected that the ruffians might say that it was my intention to follow; and therefore, though I did it with great sorrow, I wrote home, positively forbidding the journey. THE GAME-LAWS. WITH very great pleasure I perceive that LORD ALTHORP has brought in a bill for altering the game-laws, which includes the abolition of that horrible act, which has furnished a subject of my most bitter complaints for about twenty years; namely, the act which Abscond, indeed! Here is an impudent fellow, to talk of my absconding! A pretty set, indeed, in the House of Commons and the Hells, to make me abscond! They may now pass suspension of Habeas Corpus Acts, dungeon-enabled the SQUIRES to transport for ing bills, gagging bills, they may put seven years, from their court of quarterdown the press altogether; they may do sessions, any man found poaching in what they like, but never shall they make the night. Thus were men, claiming me abscond, or quit English ground. an exclusive right to these wild aniI have done my work; I have firmly mals; men appointed and removed at planted the tree; and, please God, I the pleasure of the Government, auwill remain to see and taste the fruit:thorized to execute this tremendous so that Blandford and Slapp, and all the whole crew of tax-eaters and titheeaters, may console themselves with the assurance, that, let them or others do what they may, they will not get rid of me. power over all their poor neighbours. PEEL disapproved (aye, to be sure!) of this part of the measure. He suggested to Lord Althorp not to attempt to alter the laws respecting poaching by night. The Attorney-General wished "that the It appears from Slapp's letter that" right hon. Baronet had not adopted there was another "noble" lord who "the tone of discouragement, which had heard the same report that Bland-" he had made use of. He requested ford had heard, and who was equally "his noble Friend not to give up that zealous in spreading it about Norfolk." part of his bill which got rid of the This "noble" babbling slanderer would" severe Penal Laws against night do better to mind his own affairs, I be-" poaching. The crime was the result lieve; to go along and set his chuckle-" of the laws. The Common Law was head to work to find out the means of "sufficient to punish these offences, and paying the interest of the Debt in full "they ought not to be left to be punishtale, and in sovereigns of full weighted by an extraordinary law made by and fineness; and find out the means "the landowners, and executed by game of keeping his own estate, if he have" preservers. The difference between And as to Parson Slapp, instead "the mild punishments of a judge at of busying himself with slanders on me, the assize and of the justices at the let him set to work and answer Cobbett's" quarter-sessions had a very material Protestant Reformation; Cobbett's Tenth" effect in confusing in the minds of the Sermon; and Cobbett's Two-penny Trash," people the notions of right and No. 7; let him go and answer these, wrong." and contrive to make farmers and la- Never was any-thing more true, and bourers believe that he ought to have never any-thing said in a more manly the tithes of two parishes: let him do manner, than this. Wiltshire BENETT this, and let justice-of-peacing alone;" denied the frequency of severity on or, at any rate, the fellow will do well the subject at the quarter-sessions.” any. 66 not long sinh WM. COBBETT. Go and look at the calendars, Benett, this part of it is an unequivocal good; and then you will see who it is that has and it is valuable too, as showing the filled the jails with poachers. So true really considerate, merciful and benevoit is that the judges have been lenient lent disposition of those who have compared with the justices, that it is brought it in. People who live in towns, they were abused in both or who live in the country and are not Houses of Parliament for this very lenity. well acquainted with the habits, proThis law has done more to alienate the pensities, and feelings of the labouring working people from the owners of the people, can form no idea of the imland, than all the other hardships and portance of this measure. It is millions, cruelties put together. For my part, I and many millions, of men and of women have petitioned both Houses of Parlia- who will feel grateful for this measure, ment twice for the, repeal of this law : regarding it as a step on the return to I have always represented it as a source former free and happy days. The county of the greatest danger to the peace of rates will soon feel the effects of it. All the country: my readers can bear me men that have any justice in them, witness how often I have represented when they come to consider it in all its it as the source of everlasting heart-natural effects, will exult in its adoption, burnings in every village in the king- and will leave to the Preston Cock dom. How many men, fine and able the melancholy non-anticipation of any and enterprising men, has this cruel law good as the result. sent to perish in slavery, or to swing on the ignominious gallows, confounding, as the Attorney-General said, in the minds of the people, all notions of right and wrong, hardening their hearts, and preparing them for acts of atrocious THE Parliamentary report, in the ferocity, whenever the occasion should Morning Herald, of the 15th instant, serve. Hampshire will recollect through- contains the following passage: "ROout the present generation, the hanging "TUNDA MEETINGS.-Mr. HUNT, of the two youg men whom Judge "in presenting a petition from certain Burrowes left there for execution, and persons meeting at the Rotunda, said whose crime was having resisted game- "that it complained of the conduct of keepers belonging to Lord Palmerston" the judges on the late commission. He and Ashton Smith. Resistance, arising "felt himself called upon to observe solely out of this cruel law, which, as "that he had been threatened and dethe Attorney-General so well expressed "nounced by the party to which the peit, was the cause of the crimes. The" titioners belonged, solely because he grey hairs of how many fathers and" had on a previous occasion disclaimed mothers has this law brought in sorrow "in that House all connexion with them, to the grave! How many widows has or participation in their views. So it made ! How many, good God, how" far, however, from being intimidated many, fatherless children! And this, by these threats, he now reiterated "his former assertica, and, should the "House not protect him, he knew "did 66 too, observe, solely for the preservation of the SPORTS of the rich. 66 66 PRESTON COCK. And yet the PRESTON COCK very well how to protect himself—(a not anticipate that much good would “ LAUGH)." This "laugh" was, as "result from the measure!" I do antici- I am told by a gentleman who was pate much good; and this is one of the present, not a horse-laugh nor a merry very things that I recommended to the laugh, but a sort of a ha! laugh, uttered ministers in my Register of the 22nd with the chin twisted, the lips lifted, of January, as the effectual means of and the nose drawn up, as if the olfacputting an end to the fires. With res-tory, as well as the risible, nerves had pect to the other parts of the bill, I have been affected. This report may be a not had time to consider them; but fabrication on the part of the reporthers, 66 in PARLIAMENT. HOUSE OF LORDS. Feb. 3. Nothing of consequence in either House. Feb. 4. HOUSE OF LORDS. Nothing of consequence; but in the forward his plan for the Civil List. He CIVIL LIST. LORD ALTHORP brought proposed a committee of inquiry into it, so that we shall hear much more of this matter. It will not be forgotten that it was this thing, the Civil List, that bundled out the Duke; and now for any-thing that I know to the contrary; but, I find the thing published, and, as a publication, I remark on it. What! the Preston Cock call for the protection of others, and those others that very body, too, whom he so becalled and so expressed his contempt of, when on his progress from Preston to London! It can never be ! It must be an invention of the reporther! What! he, who is called the "Preston Cock,' because, in that town, his flags repre- praying for this measure, and almost all sented him as a red game cock, clapping of them desiring that the ballot may his wings and crowing, while STANLEY was, upon the same flags, represented form a part of it. as a yellow dunghill cock, running away; HE call on the House for protection! But, then, as to the feasibility of the thing called for, how is the House to protect him against the tongues or pens of those whom he, or his reporther, chooses, by name, to stig-let us see what his successors would be matize in publications, being, or purporting to be, reports of speeches at with it. Out of a million of money, made in that House? He is not there is a reduction of 20,000l. proposed! timidated" (ooh! ooh! who-o-ose a-have always said that nothing but a and not one pension to be touched! I fraid!) and he knows" very well how to defend himself." Nobody says the reformed parliament CAN do what is contrary; but I do remember that, at a county meeting Winchester, in 1817, there was a good-for-nothing saucy fellow, under the Grand Jury chamber-window, who, as soon as he began to open his mouth, held up a long wand with a white feather tied on at the end of it; and I did not see any-body able "to protect " him against that. I did not see any punishment inflicted, or attempted to be inflicted, for that daring breach of privilege. As to As to his disclaiming all connexion with those petitioners, and all participation in their views, I leave them and him to settle that matter between them, until, at least, I know what their petition contained; and this I beg some one or other of them to have the goodness to let me know as soon as possible, as I shall want it for my "Letter to the people of Preston," which will be published on the 1st of March, in No. 9 of the Two-penny Trash. at WM. COBBETT. Bolt Court, 17th of Feb. 1831. wanted; and now see, then, that I am right. I give one short extract from Lord Althorp's speech. He said of It is necessary for me to explain the ground the existing pensions, and I will state them on which I do not propose to remove any shortly. It is certainly true, and no man is more ready to assert it than I am, that many of the pensions on the list are such as ought but after the best examination I have been never to have been granted (hear, hear); able to give the subject, I am able to say that the majority are merely and purely pensions of charity. I willingly admit that we have the legal right to put an end to all those mise of the Crown, and it has no right to pensions; they expire, by law, with the derenew them. But though we may have a legal right, I doubt if we have an equitable right, to abolish them; because they were that the party receiving them obtained them undoubtedly always granted on the supposition for life. The result of my statement unquestionably is, that there is no immediate saving immediate saving, it ought not perhaps to be to the public. When I say that there is no omitted that there is a saving to the extent of about 20,000l.; but I do not put it forward so far as a measure of economy. Mr. HUME's observations upon this were excellent. He said, He should only now say generally, that the estimate considerably exceeded what he hoped site, for he felt that it would occasion deep it would have been, and he was satisfied that disappointment to the country at large; he a great reduction might and ought to be felt that it would disappoint those expectamade. Looking at the list of pensions now tions which the people were entitled to form before the House, he could not find one name from the earnest which the present Governin fifty of a person who had ever been at all ment held out to the nation. When he spoke connected with the crown. That was in itself of the people, he spoke of those most interestquite enough to prove the necessity of those ed in the matter then under consideration; he pensions coming under the consideration of spoke of those by whom the means of defraying Parliament every year. He, for one, could the expenses of the Civil List were supplied; not consent to the giving ninety-eight thou- he spoke of the industrious and useful classes sand pounds of the public money, to be paid of society-the productive portion of the away in pensions at the uncontrolled disposal population, and not the drones by whom of the Minister. The noble Lord had, on a every-thing was consumed. In the present former occasion, said that the country could moment of deep and overpowering distress, no longer be governed by patronage; he (Mr. the people were looking up to the new AdHume) hoped that the noble Lord may also ministration in the hope and confidence, that be convinced that it could no longer be go- on their first appearance before Parliament verned by corruption. He had said that the and the public, they would come forward with greater part of those pensions were, in fact, a proposition for the relief of those wants charitable donations. Now he (Mr. Hume) which it was impossible adequately to dewas of opinion, that if peers were unable to scribe, and scarcely possible to endure. The maintain themselves suitably to their rank Civil List certaiuly formed but a small portion from their own estates, they ought not to do of the expenditure of the nation; but the so upon public charity, but to lay down their proposition of the Government would go forth titles. (Laughter.) The peerage was insti- as an earnest of their intentions, and the detuted by the constitution to stand between the cision of the House would go forth as an crown and the people; but it was not con- earuest of its intentions, and of what the templated by the constitution, that, when country had to expect from both. On the unable to keep their places in the state, they subject of the noble Lord's statement, he did should be supported by the people. (Hear.) not agree with the hon. Member for Cricklade, When the question would come to be dis- that there was any mystification in it-it was, cussed in the Committee, he should certainly unfortunately, but too clear. He had before propose that each individual pension should that night imagined that it was always the be examined separately. (Hear, hear.) If he object of Government to mystify matters of could not effect that examination thoroughly that sort, and of every sort connected with in the Committee, he would do so in the the expenditure of the country. He had House. Their time could not he better occu-always given them the fullest credit for myspied, even should the inquiry occupy them until June. (Laughter.) His view of the subject was supported by law, according to which all pensions cease upon the demise of the crown. Therefore, pledge of the present Government, the law, and the claims of the country, were now all with him. The pensioning, indeed, was said to be charity; but he thought that charity ought to begin at home. (Laughter.) It was the duty of the House to consider that the distresses of the country had been occasioned by the pressure of taxation, of which so great a part was imposed for the maintenance of pauper peers. Who were the fitter objects of the charitable consideration of the House? The distressed people of England, or the peers who had relations rich enough to provide for them? To support such persous with the money of the people was not charity-it was profusion and extravagance. (Hear.) It was a time for Parliament to interfere and put an end to the system. He trusted that Ministers would not allow a false delicacy to prevent them from fulfilling their promises of retrenchment. Look back once more at the motto, reader. Read that over once more. Mr. HUNT said, he heard with great pain the statement made by the noble Lord oppo tification; but on that occasion he must do them the justice to say, that they had evinced no disposition to mystify. He trusted that as he was so young a Member, they would extend to him the indulgence his inexperience required, and give him credit for every wish to avoid, in the delivery of his sentiments, anything approaching towards personal effence, or any want of that respect towards the regulations of the House, which he should be at all times willing to manifest; but having been sent there by the people, and having been returned in a very extraordinary manner by a great body of the people, without any solicitation on his part, and even without his knowledge, he felt that he should grievously disappoint the expectatious which they had a right to form, if he permitted that opportunity to pass without giving expression to the considerations which the conduct of the Government, unavoidably suggested. He confessed, it appeared to him, that the whole of the question then before the House had been that night argued as if the people had nothing at all to do with the mattween the crown and the House-as though ter-as though it was a matter entirely bethe House were to pay so much money out of their own pockets to the crown-and that there was no such thing in this country as a people from whose hard earnings alone could that they could not think of going to church. the sums under discussion be drawn. He He called upon those who attached so much could assure the House that no man was more importance to religious and moral instruction, sensible than himself how much a friend to his to ask themselves how they could even indipeople was the present King. The King of rectly be accessary to a system that kept the England proved that he felt for his people, people in a condition in which they were while bis Ministers had betrayed a very oppo- unable to attend public worship-so ragged, site disposition of mind. In substance and so miserable, so filthy, so destitute even of effect the noble Lord had told them that there soap to clean themselves, that every one of was no relief to be expected on the motion of them was compelled to remain at home, and the Civil List. Now, he desired to learn why never to visit their parish church. They were it was the former Government had found taxed in bread, they were taxed in beer, soap, themselves under the necessity of resigning? candles, and even in potatoes, and all that What was it that broke up the former Govern- with the Pension List, which was now to be ment, and called the present Ministers to fill submitted to Parliament. They had been told their places? Nothing more or less than that all of those pensions legally expired at the this, that the former Government told the demise of the crown. Why, then, he would Parliament, and through them the people, ask, not abolish the whole Pension List, aud that no relief could be afforded through the allow the King to grant all the pensions anew Ledium of the Civil List-that in that depart to such only as deserved them? There was ment there could be no reduction of the public not a petition presented, to that House which expenditure. (Hear, hear.) It was upon touched upon the subject of the public disthis ground, then, that he affirmed the disap- tress, or the financial difficulties of the counpointment which could not fail to be generally try, without calling for a reduction of the felt from the course which his Majesty's Pension List. It was the unanimous demand Government had thought proper to pursue. of the people, that all pensions be abolished It was not for him to determine what might except those which had been merited by acbe too much or too little for the Civil List, but knowledged public services. If those petitions he too well understood, and too painfully felt, were to be definitively answered in the manwhat the people were able to pay. If all the ner in which his Majesty's Government then Members of that House were to visit the proposed they should be answered, the people wretched dwellings which recently it had would be driven to despair, from whence the been his distressing lot to enter, they could transition to disturbance was easy, and but too not but agree with him, that so far from being certain. He was not the man to say elsewhere able to continue the endurance of the heavy what he should be ashamed to repeat in that burdens laid upon the people, they were in a House; but as long as he was a Member of condition demanding instant and extensive re- that House he hoped and trusted that he should lief. In presenting a petition yesterday he so conduct himself as never to fail in respect had an opportunity of stating a fact, which towards any individual Member, or towards the had he then known he certainly should have House collectively; (hear, hear, hear;) but stated, but the knowledge of which only with every wish to be governed by such a reached him by means of a letter since re- feeling, he would call upon the House to deceived. It was, that in one of the districts mand information respecting the property dewhence that petition came the working people rived from the Duchy of Lancaster. It was the were not able to earn more on an average duty of the House to see all that the crown posthan from 4s. 6d. to 5s. a week; and from sessed. He was not one of those who called for what he saw at another place in the same any reduction of what was necessary for the ease county, he could declare most conscien and comfort of the crown, but let the means for tiously, that he readily believed that state- promoting that be seen and understood. He ment. When he was at Preston one Sun- was perfectly sensible of the disposition which day, instead of going to church (a laugh), his Majesty had shown to contribute to the rehe went round to the habitations of a lief of his people. The King was justly so considerable number of the poor persons popular that any-thing in which the Ministers resident in that town and its vicinity. The failed would be laid at their own door, and not highest sum that any of them could earn was at that of the King; for example, nothing 6s. a week. Their breakfast was oatmeal could more merit the gratitude of the people broth-their mid-day meal was potatoes, and than the manner in which his Majesty had deoatmeal broth again in the evening; they paid clined the outfit for the Queen of 50,000!, 67. a year for the wretched hovel they inha- How different was the conduct of the Minisbited; 2s. a quarter for taxes; and 2s. a quarters! the reason their conduct formed a bad ter for the clergy, with 1d. for each chimney in the miserable dwelling. He inquired of them how long since any of them had new clothes, and could not learn that any of them had bought a new garment within the last five years; they never were able to compass anything beyond second-hand clothes, and the poor unhappy beings were so ragged and dirty earnest for the future was, that it afforded indication that they had no intention of reducing their own salaries. He remembered well when those salaries were raised to the present high amount-when a message came from the Crown recommending an increase of the incomes of the several Members of the Royal Family, and the high Officers of State, on the |