"funds must come to an open rupture "at last." I have said this five hundred times over, and this rupture is now at hand. ment on the real property of the country; that this just, humane, certain, and ever-prompt provision continued to be made, under the last-mentioned law, for nearly two hundred years, always attended with the most happy effects; that this provision has, within the last forty years, been, by degrees, greatly diminished; and that, by two acts passed in the year 1818 (commonly called Sturges Bourne's acts), changing the mode of voting in vestries, appointing select vestries, authorising the employ ing of salaried overseers, abridging the power of regular overseers, and also of the magistrates in ordering relief; that by these two acts, and by regulations growing out of them, the just law of Elizabeth, which Blackstone describes as "founded in the very principle of civil society," has been, in effect, made an instrument in the reducing of wages, and in grinding the faces of the labour The funds (in their present unjust rate) will go at any rate; the church will be furiously mauled, at the least; and the nobility, to be preserved, must get the people at their back; and this, as I have always said, they cannot have without letting the people choose their own House of Parliament, freely and fairly, and this cannot be without the ballot. Any attempt to refuse the ballot would now fill all the middle class of society with indignation. They would regard the refusal as a premeditated design to defraud them; and as the fraud would be ascribed to the aristocracy, the breach would then be mnade too wide ever to be healed. I am for a Government of King, Lords, and Commons; but, let what else will come, I am for the freedom, the hap-ing people, instead of the means of piness and greatness of England, and above all things, for the good feeding and clothing of those who raise all the food, and make all the clothing. WM. COBBETT. P.S. The petition which I insert below, was presented to the House of Lords by Lord KING, and to the House of Commons by Sir William Ingilby. To the Right Honourable the Lords assembled. The Petition of William Cobbett, farmer, in the parish of Barnes, in the county of Surrey, dated this 4th day of December, 1830, Most humbly showeth, their relief; that, thus, the labourers of mittees of the House of Commons, that That it has been proved before comthe allowance for the subsistence of a labouring man, including his earnings, has been, as fixed by the magistrates in Wiltshire, no more than one pound and a quarter of bread and one halfpenny in money per day for food and clothes, with nothing for drink, fuel, or bedding; that it has been proved before the said committees, that formerly the labourers all brewed their own beer, and that now they never do it; that, THAT the labourers in husbandry have, formerly they ate meat, cheese, butter, for many years, been grievously op-and bread, and they now live almost pressed; that, before the Protestant Re- wholly on potatoes, which they carry formation the laws of England effec- cold to the fields when at work there; tually provided, that all indigent persons that it has been proved before the said should be relieved out of the tithes and committees, that the honest hard-workother revenues of the church, that, after ing labourer is not allowed more than that Reformation, the Poor-law of the about half as much food as is allowed 43d year of the reign of Queen Eliza- the convicted felons in the jails and beth, made in lieu of the ancient pro-hulks; that it has been proved before vision, a provision by a general assess-the said committees, that the labourers commit crimes in order to get fed other immediate employers that the and clothed as well as the convicts working people have been thus unjustly are fed and clothed; that the Magis-and cruelly treated; that the employers, trates of Warwickshire have declared and especially the farmers, have, by the in resolutions at their Quarter Sessions, burdens of taxation, direct and indirect, that the labourers commit crimes in been rendered unable to give to the order to get into jail, the jail being a labourers a sufficiency in wages to supply more happy place than their own homes; them with even the bare necessaries that it has been proved before the said of life, these necessaries being taxed! committees, that the young women are, to an enormous degree; that the now-a-days, almost all pregnant be- farmers and tradesmen have, from this fore marriage, owing to fathers and cause, been compelled to withhold what themselves being too poor to pay the was justly due to the working people, expenses of the wedding; that it has or to be totally ruined themselves; and been proved before the said committees, that hundreds of thousands of them that the labourers, having an assistant have, by this sole cause, and notwithoverseer for a driver, are compelled to standing caution, sobriety, industry, and draw carts and wagons like beasts of all the virtues of good citizens, been burden; and that it has long been a reduced to ruin and wretchedness the general practice to put them up at auc- most deplorable, and actually make part tion, and to sell them for certain lengths of that huge mass of miserable paupers of time, as is the custom with regard to who now, to the shame and disgrace of the negroes in the slave colonies: that the name of England, swarm over this all these things have been proved to once free and happy country. committees of the House of Commons, and that no remedy for the disgraceful evil, for such crying injustice and cruelty, has ever been adopted or proposed in either House of Parliament. That, of all the crimes mentioned in Holy Writ, no one, with the sole exception of wilful murder, is so strictly forbidden and so awfully sentenced as that of robbing the labourer of his due share of the fruit of his toil; that God forbids us even to "muzzle the ox as he treadeth out the corn"; that he commands us "not to turn aside the poor in the gate from his right "; that he commands us to supply our labourers liberally and cheerfully out of our flock, out of our flour and out of our wine-press ;" then he commands us not "to harden our heart nor shut our hand against our poorer brethren "; that he has promised us blessings, if we obey him in these things, and that, in case of disobedience, he has told us, that "the land we inhabit shall tremble, that our feasting shall be turned into mourning and our songs into lamentations." 66 That your humble petitioner begs leave further to represent, that it has not, generally speaking, been owing to injustice and cruelty in the farmers and That, as an undeniable proof that it is the taxes which have been the radical cause of these calamities, your humble petitioner begs leave to state to your right honourable House, that when the year's taxes amounted to 7,500,000l., the poor-rates amounted to 1,100,000l. ; that when the year's taxes amounted to 15,500,000l., the poor-rates amounted to 2,300,000l.; and that now that the year's taxes amount to 60,000,000l., the poor-rates amount to 7,500,000l. That your humble petitioner is a farmer; that he possesses knowledge as to the agricultural state of the country, at once the most extensive and most minute; that he has for many years foreseen and explicitly foretold the present crisis, when the labourers, made desperate by hunger and nakedness, are seeking to obtain by violence that which has been refused to their just and legal demands, to the tears of their wives and the cries of their starving children; that he knows, that with the present taxes and tithes, even if there be no rent at all, the farmers are unable to pay the wages which common humanity exacts. at their hands, and the paying of which is now become absolutely necessary to the peace of the country, and the safety And your humble Petitioner will ever pray. of property and of life; and that, there- what? Why, on making a motion for fore, he humbly prays, that your right the erazure of the lying inscription, honourable House will be pleased to which is on THE MONUMENT, on Fishpass an act, or acts, to abolish the as- Street Hill. Oh! what a fine and powersessed taxes, and all the taxes of the ful, and convincing speech! and what a excise, and to take from the nation the just, and noble, and liberal, and enintolerable burden of tithes. lightened Common Council, to have discovered this blot on the character of the City, and have resolved unanimously to efface the lying inscription! How tenacious they must be of their character! How keen in discovering any thing that affects it! And, above all things, how just towards the Catholics, in doing this act of justice without any suggestion from any-body; all the whole affair originating in their own intuitive wisdom and benevolence! WM. COBBETT. PLAGIARISM. LONDON COMMON COUNCIL. "Come, let me strip these daws of stolen plumes." Now, then, Reader, take the two following paragraphs from the HISTORY OF THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION, paragraphs, in the large edition, 370 and 431, and in the small edition, 369 and 430. Read these two paragraphs, which I here insert; and, when you are told that this PEARSON and his crew, took all my statements as the foundation of their proceeding, and never even alluded to my book, you will judge the Read crew according to their merits. these paragraphs; and then you will see what a despicable crew this is. I HAVE many times had to notice the robberies committed on me. For years and years the newspaper vaga bonds have partly lived upon the plunder got out of my writings; and, as to speeches in parliament, there the plunder has been so manifest as to fill with indignation all men of right minds, and to leave behind a hearty contempt, not only for the plunderers, but for all their companions; for, to sit and listen to the stolen matter, without expressing scorn of the party, is worthy of contempt the most profound. Even in the Bloody Old Times (the paper of Walters) I have daily, almost, seen articles from Who, then, can doubt of the motive of my own writings, only disguised, partly this implacable hostility, this everlasting by the stupidity of the Walters and watchfulness, this rancorous jealousy that never sleeps? The common enemy being partly by contrivance. Measure after put down by the restoration of Charles, the measure have the Parliament and the Church fell upon the Catholics with more Whitehall set adopted, which were fury than ever. This king, who came out of originally suggested by me. The sult exile to mount the throne in 1660, with still tax, the docking of the parsons of their grandfather, had a great deal more sense than more prodigality than either his father or half-pay, the curtailing of the dead- both put together, and, in spite of all his wellweight widow's pensions, and many known profligacy, he was, on account of his other things that might be mentioned. popular manners, a favourite with his people; It has generally taken me about six but, he was strongly suspected to be a Catho lic in his heart, and his more honest brother, years to see the fellows sneak out with JAMES, his presumptive heir, was an openly my propositions and arguments. But, declared Catholic. Hence the reign of Charles of all the instances of PLAGIARISM on II. was one continued series of plots, sham or me, the one just committed by the real; and one unbroken scene of acts of injustice, fraud, and false-swearing. These Common Council of GUZZLE-TOWN, COM> were plots ascribed to the Catholics, but monly called London, is the most im- really plots against them. Even the great pudent. Only yesterday (the 7th), the fire in London, which took place during this newspapers were crammed with the reign, was ascribed to them, and there is the charge, to this day, going round the base of "brilliant and liberal" speech of MR." the Monument," which POPE justly comCHARLES PEARSON! and about pares to a big, lying bully. "Where London's column, pointing to the "skies, "Like a tall bully, lifts its head, and lies." (p. 348, continuation), that a Committee of the House of Commons," who were very dili"gent and solicitous to make the discovery, The words are these: "This monument is" deuce, that there was any other cause of that never were able to find any probable evi❝erected in memory of the burning of this woful fire, than the displeasure of Almighty "Protestant city, by the Popish faction, in God." What infamy, then, to charge the "Sept. A. D. 1666, for the destruction of the Catholics with it; what an infamy to put the "Protestant religion and of old English lying inscription on the pillar; what au act of "liberty, and for the introduction of Popery justice, in James II., to efface it; what a and slavery. But the fury of the Papists is shame to William to suffer it to be restored "not yet satisfied." It is curious enough and what is it to us, then, who now suffer it to that this inscription was made by order of Sir remain, without petitioning for its erasure! PATIENCE WARD, who, as ECHARD shows, was afterwards convicted of perjury. BURNET Now, I should not be at all surprised, says, that one HUBERT, a French Papist, if the base Catholic Aristocracy (who "confessed that he began the fire;' but are the sediment even of baseness itself) HIGGONS (a Protestant, mind,) proves that HUBERT was a Protestant, and RAPIN were to bestow some mark of their agrees with Higgons! Nobody knew better gratitude on Mr. Charles Pearson and than the King the monstrousness of this lie; the liberal Common Crew, of whom he but CHARLES II. was a lazy, luxurious de- is a most worthy member. This crew bauchee. Such men have always been un- do not touch their boroughs, their livings feeling and ungrateful; and this King, who had twice owed his life to Catholic priests, aud and their impropriated tithes. It it who had, in fifty two instances, held his life aiming at these that these aristocratic at the mercy of Catholics (some of them very Catholics hate me. They wish that the poor) while he was a wandering fugitive, with immense rewards held out for taking him, History of the Protestant Reformation and dreadful punishments for concealing him; had never been written; for, as a vile this profligate king, whose ingratitude to his old lawyer, who has been their strappet faithful Irish subjects is without a parallel in for many years, said, "Mr. Cobbett has the annals of that black sin, had the meanness and injustice to suffer this lying inscription to "done a great deal for our religion, but stand. It was effaced by his brother and suc- a great deal against our cessor; but, when the Dutchman and the That is to say, "Against the boroughmonglorious revolution" came, it was restored; gering and against the public plunder and there it now stands, all the world, except in which we wanted to share." That's the mere mob, knowing it to contain a most malignant lie. it; and nothing else; and, perhaps, in We have seen how cruelly the Catholics the whole of the corrupt and rotten were treated under "good Queen Bess" and mass, there is no part so corrupt and JAMES I.; we have seen how they were fined, rotten as the Catholic Aristocracy, who mulcted, robbed, pillaged, and punished in body; but, though the penal code against seem to have become the worst of the them was then such as to make every just bad by their ages of longing after public man shudder with horror, we think it, then, plunder. I knew this of them, and gentleness, when we look at its subsequent said it of them, before I began to write ferocity. We have seen how Catholics were fined, harassed, hunted, robbed, pillaged, in the "History of the Protestant Reforthe reign of "good Bess." We have seen the mation.". Therefore, it was not for their same in the reign of her immediate successor, good that I intended it. I intended it with this addition, that Englishmen were then handed over to be pillaged by Scotchmen. as a blow at the church-parsons; and We have seen, that Chares I., for whom they a blow it was that will finally decide afterwards fought against Cromwell, treated their fate. The nobles may, by acting them as cruelly as the two former. We have justly towards the people, yet save seen Charles II. most ungratefully abandon themselves; but nothing can now keep them to the persecutions of the church by law established; and, during this reign, we have up the church in its present state. It seen that the Protestants had the baseness, is the Jonah; and overboard it must go, and the king the meanness, to suffer the ly-or the ship must go down. Thus have ing inscription to be put on the MONUMENT on I, in this, seen Pearson and the common Fish-street Hill, in the city of London, though cause. Lord CLARENDON (whose name the law-crew the TOOLS for executing my church holds in so much honour), in that wishes, and, before long, I shall see work which the University of Oxford publishes more important tools at work to exeat the Clarendon Press," expressly says cute other wishes of mine. HOBHOUSE. seven hands were held up in his support. The resolution for Mr. Hume was passed unani, mously. Thanks were voted to the Chairman, and the vestry was dissolved.-From the Morning Herald, December 4. 66 To the Editor of the Register. EVERY pretender is now getting his due. This little fellow, who made a speech at the Crown and Anchor in praise of the Dead-body Bill, seems to have found his proper place at last, as the reader will see from the following account in the Morning Herald, of the London, 6th Dec, 1830. 4th December, 1830. To be seven hands Sir, In the letter from the neighbourhood held up for him, in a parish containing the Chronicle of the 2nd inst., there was a pasof Cricklade, au extract of which appeared in a hundred thousand, is not many; but it sage relating to you; and as I think the was too many for him; too many for Chronicle has done you an injustice, I consider the son of a man who has been receiving it right that you should know it. In the expublic money for nearly thirty years, These commotions are owing to Cobbett's tract given there is a passage to this effect: and the husband of a woman who has Twopenny Trash." Now, Sir, this was not the been a pensioner nearly all her life-time; only passage in the letter relating to you; and if a man too who sits for a city, the people the Chronicle had omitted altogether the menof which pelted him off the hustings of tion of your name, I should not have complainCovent-Garden with cabbages and tur-ed; but, Sir, the writer in mentioning the resist ance to oppression on the part of the labourers, and in iuscribing that resistance to you, did so with approbation of your general conduct; and he added, that, as you had now proved your fitness for the office of premier, he hoped soon to see you there. As to the ascribing of the Fires to you, the fully is equal to the malignity. What, Sir? because you have been, for a quarter of a century, standing alone in the midst of a whole community, predicting that which has at length come to pass, is it to be endured, that those whose perverseness and wickedness have been the real causes, should blame you for foretelling it? As reasonable would it be to ascribe the appearance of a Comet to the person who had foretold its coming. Your predecessor Noah foretold the deluge, and warned the besotted people; but he did not cause the rains to pour down. The rebellion is the Rebellion of the belly, as Lord Bacon calls it; and surely no one will accuse you of having caused the labourers to go with empty bellies; or even with cold potatoes or raw sorrel in them. Hoping that the time is near at hand when your efforts for the happiness and renown of your country will be crowned with success, I remain, nips, and sent scampering off into the church, at the heels of Burdett, just like Sancho, under the rib-roastings of the muleteers. Oh! how I have seen these two fellows brought down! Will they ever again show their faces before the people! Will they have that assurance? Meeting, at Vestry, of St. Anne's, Westminster.-Yesterday morning, at 11 o'clock, a numerous meeting of the housekeepers of St. Anne's, Westminster, was held in the vestryroom at the parish-church, to consider the propriety of petitioning both Houses of Parliament against the house and window duties. Mr. SHARPE, churchwarden, in the chair. The vestry was summoned by the churchwardens, in consequence of a requisition having been presented to them, signed by 160 housekeepers. The petitioners deemed that no time was more favourable than the present for their petitions to be attended to by the legislature. The King was desirous to alleviate the distresses of his people; and the Ministry have declared it to be their intention to pursue the same object. Resolutions were, therefore, acceded to; and petitions founded on them, in accordance with the prayer of the requisition. It was then resolved that Lord Brougham should be requested to present their petition to the House of Lords, and Mr. Hume to the Commons. A prolonged discussion arose upon the proposition that Mr. Hume should be delegated as their representative of the petition to the Commous, since it was observed that Mr. Hobhouse was the more proper person. In answer, however, it was objected that Mr. Hobhouse had not devoted such strict attention to the interests of his constituents as was demanded of him; and that, therefore, they were compelled to withdraw their confidence, Au amendment was put in favour of Mr. Hobhouse, when only Your most obedient Servant, PARSONS' PETITION TO THE Tunbridge Wells, 8th December, 1830. SIR,- saw this afternoon, in going into Tunbridge Wells, the following printed address stuck up upon the walls in several parts of the town; and I hope to put you to no expense nor further trouble than the reading the Kentish Parson's Petition.—I am, Sir, Your Constant Reader. LABOURERS,-These questions have been |