currency measure of 1819, came ill from a man whose prophecies Peel had helped to falsify. His epithets are often undeserved; and his arguments often seem to be convincing only because their language is clear. But to have written every week for thirty years and never wanted readers was a feat in itself; and it is an additional glory that, while delighting and exasperating his contemporaries, he wrote much that posterity will not willingly let die.

J. BONAR.

WHY LEAVE ENGLAND?

A

THE Giffords, the Southeys, the Walters, the Stuarts, the Stoddarts, and all the hireling crew, who were unable to answer with the pen, now rush at me with their drawn knife, and exclaim, "write on!" To use the words of the Westminster Address, they shake the halter in my face, and rattle in my ears the keys of the dungeon, and then they exclaim with a malignant grin: Why do you not continue to write on, you coward?" few years ago, being at Barnet fair, I saw a battle going on, arising out of some sudden quarrel, between a butcher and the servant of a west-country grazier. The butcher, though vastly the superior in point of size, finding that he was getting the worst of it, recoiled a step or two, and drew out his knife. Upon the sight of this weapon, the grazier turned about and ran off till he came up to a Scotchman who was guarding his herd, and out of whose hand the former snatched a good ash stick about four feet long. Having thus got what he called a long arm, he returned to the combat, and, in a very short time, he gave the butcher a blow upon the wrist which brought his knife to the ground. The grazier then fell to work with his stick in such a style as I never before witnessed. The butcher fell down and roared and kicked, but he seemed only to change his position in order to insure to every part of his carcase a due share of the penalty of his baseness. After the grazier had apparently tired himself, he was coming away, when, happening to cast his eye upon the knife, he ran back and renewed the basting, exclaiming every now and then, as he caught his breath: "Dra thy knife, wo't!" He came away a second time, and a second time returned and set on upon the caitiff again; and this he repeated several times, exclaiming always when he recommenced the drubbing: “Dra thy knife, wo't!" Till at last the butcher was so bruised that he was actually unable to stand or even to get up; and yet such,

amongst Englishmen, is the abhorrence of foul fighting, that not a soul attempted to interfere, and nobody seemed to pity a man thus unmercifully beaten.

It is my intention to imitate the conduct of this Grazier; to resort to a long arm, and to combat corruption, while I keep myself out of the reach of her knife. Nobody called the Grazier a coward, because he did not stay to oppose his fists to a pointed and cutting instrument. My choice, as I said before (leaving all considerations of personal safety out of the question) lies between silence and retreat. If I remain here, all other means will be first used to reduce me to silence; and, if all those means fail, then will come the dungeon. Therefore, that I may still be able to write, and to write with freedom, too, I shall write, if I live, from America; and, my readers may depend on it, that it will not be more than four months from the date of this address, before the publication of the weekly Pamphlet will be resumed in London, and will be continued very nearly as regularly as it has been for years past.

(From Taking Leave of his Countrymen).

THE CROWN GRUB

I WAS once going by the house of a Quaker in Long Island, and drove up to it for the purpose of getting entertainment for man and horses. After introductory matter, I said, "How is your corn?" which is the common question in that country. He shook his head, and said, "Now, William Cobbett, can thee, that knows so many things, tell how to destroy the Crown grub ?” "Ah,” said I, "that devil has mastered me all my lifetime. Your only remedy is patience, or absolutely going with a candle and lantern, and watching every plant all night long." After breakfast he took me into his field, which was in fact an orchard, with trees widely planted in it, and which, according to the custom of the country, had been ploughed up at the fourth or fifth year, for the double purpose of benefiting the trees and obtaining a crop of corn. It was fine land, some of the best in the whole island, on the side of one of the little inlets from the east river. The sight was truly distressing. The cursed creatures (saving their right of nature) had cut off the corn, when it was two inches and a half or three inches high, hill after hill, in

many places for ten hills together. The owner had been preparing himself for beating all his neighbours in this prime crop, and he saw all his hopes blasted from this miserable cause. I went and raked round some of the hills with my finger, and we found a dozen grubs together in some places, lying under the clods, contemplating the pleasures of the feast of the next evening or night. In a country where numerous hands could have been obtained at a moderate expense, the crop might have been saved to a considerable extent. Such means were not at command here; and when I saw my friend in the fall of the year, I found that he had not had five bushels upon an acre, where he ought to have had fifty at least. (From Cobbett's Corn.).

THE KING'S ENGLISH

AND, though a man may possess great knowledge as a statesman and legislator without being able to perform what this poet would call writing well; yet surely we have a right to expect in a minister the capacity of being able to write grammatically; the capacity of putting his own meaning clearly down upon paper. But, in the composing of a king's speech, it is not one man, but nine men, whose judgement and practical talent are employed. A king's speech is, too, a very short piece of writing. The topics are all distinct. Very little is said upon each. There is no reasoning. It is all plain matter of fact, or of simple observation. The thing is done with all the advantages of abundant time for examination and reexamination. Each of the ministers has a copy of the speech to read, to examine, and to observe upon; and, when no one has anything left to suggest in the way of alteration or improvement, the speech is agreed to, and put into the mouth of the king.

Surely, therefore, if in any human effort, perfection can be expected, we have a right to expect it in a king's speech. You shall now see, then, what pretty stuff is put together, and delivered to the Parliament, under the name of king's speeches.

The speech which I am about to examine, is indeed, a speech of the Regent; but I might take any other of these speeches. I choose this particular speech, because the subjects

of it are familiar in America as well as in England. It was spoken on the 8th of November, 1814. I shall take a sentence

at a time, in order to avoid confusion.

66 My lords and gentlemen, it is with deep regret that I am again obliged to announce the continuance of His Majesty's lamented indisposition."

Even in this short sentence there is something equivocal; for it may be that the Prince's regret arises from his being obliged to announce, and not from the thing announced. If he had said: "With deep regret I announce," or, "I announce with deep regret," there would have been nothing equivocal. And in a composition like this, all ought to be as clear as the pebbled brook.

"It would have given me great satisfaction to have been enabled to communicate to you the termination of the war between this country and the United States of America.”

nonsense.

The double compound times of the verbs, in the first part of the sentence, make the words mean, that it would, before the prince came to the house, have given him great satisfaction to be enabled to communicate; whereas, he meant, "it would now, have given me great satisfaction to be enabled to communicate." In the latter part of the sentence we have a little What does termination mean? It means, in this case, end, or conclusion; and, thus, the prince wished to communicate an end to the wise men, by whom he was surrounded! To communicate is to impart to another anything that we have in our possession or within our power. And so, the prince wished to impart the end to the noble lords and honourable gentlemen. He might wish to impart, or communicate the news, or the intelligence of the end; but he could not communicate the end itself. What should we say, if some one were to tell us, that an officer had arrived, and brought home the termination of a battle, and carried it to Carlton House, and communicated it to the prince? We should laugh at our informant's ignorance of grammar, though we should understand what he meant. And shall we then be so partial and so unjust as to reverence in king's councillors that which we should laugh at in one of our neighbours? To act thus would be, my dear son, a base abandonment of our reason, which is, to use the words of Dr. Watts, the common gift of God to man.

(From English Grammar.)