or Botany Bay, or Van Dieman's, Land, which are all different parts of the same horrid country: to none of those will any man go who is plainly told what they are, and who has common sense left in his mind.

1

In these countries the English Governor is the chief magistrate, and he is not chosen by the people, as those in the United States are. This governor is appointed by the Ministry in England. Then there is an English army there With respect to Nova Scotia, New under his command; so that you have Brunswick, and Canada, which all join still the same sort of government as if together, and a part of which latter you remained here. Then, the horrible joins the United States of America: climate; the land covered with snow in my Emigrant's Guide, speaking of seven months of the year; the danger these countries in comparison with the of death if any man be lost in the snow United States, I have described them for only ten minutes. Thousands of thus: Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, deaths take place every year from people and Canada, are the horns, the head, the being what is called frost-bitten. I told neck, the shins, and the hoofs of the ox, you before that I had to live myself and the United States are the ribs, the eight years in these wretched countries. sirloin, the kidneys, and the rest of the I was in the army. It was my duty to body. I myself, when in the army, mount guard. The men going on lived in Nova Scotia and New Bruns- guard were wrapped up in great cloth wick eight years. They are one great coats lined with flannel, their head heap of rocks, covered with fir-trees, covered with caps of the same sort, with here and there a little strip of land leaving only an opening for the eyes capable of cultivation, by the sides and the nose. They used to come out of the rivers. What these countries and range themselves at about fifty are you may judge from the fol- yards from the room out of which I lowing facts; that almost all the meat went to them; and though they had and all the flour consumed in them, only just run out of their barrackis carried from the United States; rooms, I have seen half a dozen men at that green peas are carried into those a time with their noses frost-bitten, countries from the United States, and which you perceive the moment you even cabbages; that, as to fruits, see them, by their having become cherries, apples, pears, all go from the white. The remedy is instantly to rub United States, though at a distance of with snow the part affected; but, very hundreds of miles, just as gooseberries frequently, if this be delayed only for are sent from Middlesex and Surrey to half an hour, mortification takes place; Scotland. In short, the most barren, and there are thousands of men in those the most villanous piece of waste land; countries with their hands or feet cut the thin shell upon the top of a gravel off in order to save their lives. But, pit in England, compared with the fat my friends, rest not on my word meadows and the gardens in the Med-alone for those facts. In my Emiway, or the beautiful valleys in Wilt-grant's Guide there are letters from shire, is precisely what Nova Scotia John Watson, the son of Stephen Watand New Brunswick are to the United son, of the village of Seddlescomb, near States of America. A small part of Canada is rather better, when it approaches near to the United States; but here all the good land has been given away long ago to officers of the army and parsons and other persons in office, who swarm in that country. And in these countries, observe, there are church parsons; so that if you go there, you will not lose this blessing, at any rate.

Battle, in Sussex. This John Watson was sent out to America at the expense of the parish; but he thought he was going to the United States of America, when he found himself landed in that miserable country New Brunswick. : He had land given him within a few miles of the spot where I lived for the better part of four years. But he found his situation so wretched that he took his family, a wife and several children,

"Blessed is he that pleadeth the cause approbation of this great act of the Ministers, by which the unjust power is taken from the aristocracy and restored to the people.

"of the poor and the needy, his ene"mies shall not prevail against him; "I will make all his bed on the day of "his sickness."

I am

Your Friend,

War. COBBETT.

TO THE

PEOPLE OF PRESTON.

On the Parliamentary Reform now under Discussion, and on the Conduct of the Preston Cock with regard to

that Measure.

Kensington, 10th March, 1831.

MY EXCELLENT FRIENDS,

66

The mind of no man, however comprehensive, however long accustomed to meditate on such matters, however endued with the faculty of foresight, can, all at once, embrace the various great effects, which must, of necessity, spring from this change. Before, however, I speak of any of these effects, let me do justice to the authors of the change, or, rather, to the author; for, it is as clear to me as daylight is, that we owe this, I trust, timely measure to LORD GREY, and Lord Grey alone: and this is a matter of which you, good men of Preston, and all others the people of England, ought to have a clear underBy this appellation I still address standing. This measure is one the you, though, as it will be my duty to adoption of which will form a really prove, you have, by your late choice of NEW ERA in the affairs of England, aye, a member, done as much mischief to and of the world too; it will produce your country as it was in your power to greater effects than any that has been do by the means of so feeble an instru- adopted since the "PROTESTANT REment; an instrument to whose feeble- FORMATION": it will be called "THE ness, indeed, it will be owing, that you REFORM," as the change made in the have not done as much harm to the time of Henry VIII. is called THE people of England as you, at the ex- REFORMATION, ," and as that made in pense of so many sacrifices, have en- 1688 is called "THE REVOLUTION": Our deavoured to do them good. Before, children and their children will have to however, I go into this part of my talk of "before the Reform" and subject, permit me to offer you some "since the Reform," as we now talk of remarks upon the nature and the natural" before the revolution" and "since the effects of the Reform now proposed to revolution.” We ought, therefore, now, be made. while all the facts are before us, to trace With respect to the nature of the this measure to its real author, and to reform, I shall not enter here into fix that point, so that there never shall minute detail, because the bill may un-be any dispute, nor any doubt, about dergo alterations as to particular towns, the matter. boroughs, or counties. When the thing is done, I will give, all the details, and show precisely what changes have been made. At present I shall, as to the nature of the reform, merely observe, that, if carried into full effect, it will give us a government of king, lords, and commons, instead of a government of king, lords, and boroughmongers. For this change I have been writing and praying for twenty-four years; and I should be that which knaves and fools have called me, the most inconsistent of mortals, if I did not now express my

In causing the reform to be adopted, numerous indeed are the parties who will have a fair claim to a share. The people, the king, and a part of the press. I agree too, with Mr. HODGES, the worthy Member for Kent, that SWING suspended his operations in the hope of seeing the Reform adopted; and I believe that his fearful, his terrific operations, were one great cause, if not the greatest immediate cause, of this mighty measure. The recent fate of the Bourbons was another cause; and the present state and prospects of the govern

ment of France another cause. But, I am not now writing the history of the Reform, but am at present anxious to implant in the minds of my readers the fact, that Lord GREY, and he alone, ought to be regarded as the author of the measure.

maintained, that if the aristocracy would consent to a reform of the Parliament, and thereby restore to the people their fair share of the government, the example of France was not an object for them to dread. In the year 1793, he presented that famous petition which I Lord JOHN RUSSELL, when he opened have republished at full length in my the measure to the HOUSE OF COMMONS, Register, five or six times; and the said, that the Bill had been drawn up pith of which, namely, that a hunby the First Lord of the Treasury him- dred and fifty-four boroughmongers self. This might have been, and yet returned a majority of the House of that First Lord no more the author of Commons, I have quoted at least, I it than the person to whom I am now should suppose, two hundred times. dictating is the author of this Letter to Indeed, the statements of this petition you. I dare say that Lord Grey, who have been our great war-horse against has not the beastly folly to write in a the boroughmongers. This petition hand that nobody can read, did himself was also the work of Lord GREY. It actually draw up, actually write the bears all through it the marks of his Bill; but not now, unless the worms pen. But the Bill for the bringing in had eaten his old copy; for he of which he moved in the year 1797, had this Bill, this very Bill, drawn up was entirely his own work. by himself, and moved for leave to bring Why, it may be asked, has he kept it it into the House of Commons, in the out of sight all this time? When it year 1797; that is to say, thirty-four was rejected by a majority of more years ago; that is to say, when Lord than three to one, in 1797, the naJohn Russell was three years and nine tion was mad with a love of war, months old. It is the same identical and with the prosperity of paperBill: the 113 county members, the money, and thus it continued until copy-holders, the lease-holders, the the death of Pitt, which took place house-holders, the breaking up of the in 1806. Then Lord Grey came into vile holes of corruption called bo- power; and now he committed the only roughs all is the same. Lord Grey fault or folly that I can discover in his was thirty-four years old when he life, being willing to look upon the late brought forward this measure, and he is Special Commissions as a measure to now in the sixty-eighth year of a sober which his assent was obtained by and mostly a country life. So that he has persons and means whom I do not care had this bill by him, ready drawn up, to name, and which I do not care to during one-half of his whole lifetime, decribe. With this exception, the going and during the whole of the manhood into power, without proposing his reof his long life except thirteen years. form, is the only fault or folly that I can For the truth of this statement, I refer discover in his life. He has always every reader to the Parliamentary De- been right as to the interference with bates, 26th May, 1797, or to the Annual the affairs of foreign nations; always Register of that year; and as to the age right as to the nature and effects of of Lord Grey, that is stated in the Peer-paper-money; always right as to the age. He first came into Parliament, I be-effects of the stupid and beastly bill of lieve, when he was about five-and-twenty. Peel and of all the measures growing He had been there but a very little out of it; the only fault or folly to be while when the French Revolution found in the history of his life is, the broke out. When, in the year 1793, the having gone into office without bringnation was about to be plunged into ing forward his measure of reform. the war against the republicans of The Whigs, to which party he had France, he constantly distinguished him- always belonged, had contended for the self as the opponent of that war, and necessity of reform when out of office;

but they came into office; they were the community, were of a nature so turned out again; and while in they terrific that they compelled men of said not a word about parliamentary property to trace back the evil to its reform. But, the truth is, that their true cause; and that cause they found fault was not saying nothing about par- to be the want of representation of the liamentary reform; but going into people in their own House of Parliaoffice with those who would not let them ment. Hence only the innumerable say anything about it. They made petitions for parliamentary reform. a coalition with the GRANVILLES and My writings and my lectures, the with the ADDINGTONS; nay, they put latter delivered in several towns in themselves under these. Lord GRAN- almost every county, had a great deal VILLE was the First Lord of the Trea- of effect in making men think about sury and Prime Minister; WYNDHAM, the cause of the distresses of the counLord SPENCER, Lord FITZWILLIAM, all try, and particularly of the misery of the sworn enemies of reform, were in the labouring people; a subject on which Cabinet. As if these were not enough, I never failed to dwell, to the utmost ADDINGTON, now SIDMOUTH, and EL- powers of my mind, always predicting LENBOROUGH, the Lord Chief Justice, that if a remedy were not applied in were stuffed into the Cabinet too. Lord time, those miseries would lead to some Grey, who was then Lord Howick, was terrible convulsion. Therefore, when the part of the time First Lord of the Ad-riots and the fires began, these preachmiralty, and the other part Secretary ings of mine urged people of property of State for Foreign Affairs. How was to think of the grand remedy which I he, a member of such a cabinet, to bring forward his reform bill? His fault was not the not bringing forward of the bill but his consenting to tarnish his high reputation by belonging to such a Cabinet; and this I have told him five hundred times over. From the year 1807, when he was in place, up almost to the present time, there has been no opportunity until now for him to bring forward this bill with a chance of immediate success. During the Jubilee years of paper-money and Waterloofeats, the nation was absolutely drunk. In 1817, merchants and bankers and BARING, the loan-man, who was so manufacturers and yeomanry joined the active at the Special Commissions at nefarious boroughmongers in calling for Winchester, is, in the report of his dungeons for those who most humbly speech on the Reform Bill, represented petitioned for parliamentary reform. as having said, that the petitions in Then followed the events of 1819. favour of reform arose chiefly from the Distress after distress in England, fa- speeches made by persons who went mine after famine in Ireland; but still, about the country for the purpose. expedient after expedient; false hope insolent expressions are, in this case, after false hope, so far deluded the ascribed to the loan-man; and, theregreat mass of the middle class of so- fore, I shall only say that he greatly ciety, and particularly the richer part of overrated the effects of those speeches. them, that there was nothing like a The speeches had been made for six loud and unanimous call for parlia- months, or thereabouts, and yet the mentary reform, until the labourers of middle classes had not been roused to England would no longer endure their petition. The speeches had produced intolerable sufferings. The acts of this just thoughts in the minds of the middle formerly tractable and peaceable part of class. I quitted no county without

had constantly pointed out; and made them cry aloud for Parliamentary Reform. But I might have written and preached till my fingers had been cramped with old age, and till my tongue could hardly have been heard from between the small space that the absence of my teeth have left between nose and chin; I might have written and have preached to the last moment of my life, without producing a ten-thousandth part of that effect which was produced in one single week by the riots and the fires.

No