a great master of the vernacular. His
earliest model had been Swift's _Tale of a Tub_, and in downright
vigour of homely language he could scarcely be surpassed even by the
author of the _Drapier's Letters_. He had enlisted as a soldier, and
had afterwards drifted to America. There he had become conspicuous as
a typical John Bull. Sturdy and pugnacious in the highest degree, he
had taken the English side in American politics when the great
question was whether the new power should be bullied by France or by
England. He had denounced his precursor, Paine, in language savouring
too much, perhaps, of barrack-rooms, but certainly not wanting in
vigour. He defied threats of tar and feathers; put a portrait of
George III. in his shop-window; and gloried in British victories, and,
in his own opinion, kept American policy straight. He had, however,
ended by making America too hot to hold him; and came back to declare
that republicanism meant the vilest and most corrupt of tyrannies, and
that, as an Englishman, he despised all other nations upon earth. He
was welcomed on his return by Pitt's government as likely to be a
useful journalist, and became the special adherent of Windham, the
ideal country-gentleman and the ardent disciple of Burke's principles.
He set up an independent paper and heartily supported the war. On the
renewal of hostilities in 1803 Cobbett wrote a manifesto[180] directed
by the government to be read in every parish church in the kingdom, in
order to rouse popular feeling. When Windham came into office in 1806,
Cobbett's friends supposed that his fortune was made. Yet at this
very crisis he became a reformer. His conversion was put down, of
course, to his resentment at the neglect of ministers. I do not think
that Cobbett was a man to whose character one can appeal as a
conclusive answer to such charges. Unfortunately he was not free from
weaknesses which prevent us from denying that his political course was
affected by personal motives. But, in spite of weaknesses and of
countless inconsistencies, Cobbett had perfectly genuine convictions
and intense sympathies which sufficiently explain his position, and
make him more attractive than many less obviously imperfect
characters. He tells us unconsciously what were the thoughts suggested
to a man penetrated to the core by the strongest prejudices--they can
hardly be called opinions--of the true country labourer.

The labourer, in the first place, if fairly re