342 Latteh it. w (TPartllK 



The Indian Corn is far inferior to it in this respect. 

 Planted by the side of walks in gardens, what beautifut 

 avenues it would make for the summer ! I have seen 

 the plants eighteen feet arid a half high. I always 

 wanted to get some seed in England ; but, I never could. 

 My friends thought it too childish and whimsical a thing 

 to attend to. If the plant should so far come to perfec- 

 tion in England as to }ield the broom-materials, it will 

 be a great thing; and, if it fall short of that, it will cer- 

 tainly surpass reeds for thatching and screening pur- 

 poses, for sheep-yards, and for various other uses. 

 However, I have no doubt of its producing brooms ; for, 

 the Indian Corn, though only certain sorts of it will 

 ripen its seed even in Hampshire, will always come 

 into bloom, and, in the Broom-Corn, it is the little 

 stalks, or branches, out of which the flower comes, that 

 makes the broom. If the plant succeed thus far in 

 England, you may be sure that the Borough-villains 

 will tax the brooms, until their system be blown to 

 atoms ; and, I should not wonder if they were to make 

 the broom, like hops, an article of excise, and send 

 their spies into people's fields and gardens to see that 

 the revenue was not " defrauded" Prpeions villains ! 

 Thoj stand betvveeij the people and all the gifts of 

 nature ! But this cannot last. 



646. I am happy to tell you, that Ellenborough and 

 Gibbs have rcUred! Ill health is the pretence. I 

 never yet kncAv ill health induce such fellows to loosen 

 their grasp of the public purse. But, be it so : then I 

 feel pleasure on that account. To all the other pangs 

 of body and mind let them add that of knowing, that 

 William Cobbett, whom they thought they had put down 

 for ever, if not killed, lives to rejoice at their pains and 

 their death, to trample on their graves, and to hand 

 down their names for the just judgment of posterity. 

 What! are these feelings wrong? Are they sinful? 

 What defence have we, then, against tyranny ? If the 

 oppressor be not to experience the resentment of the 

 oppressed, let us at once acknowledge the divine right 

 oi' tyranny ; for, what has tyranny else to fear '? Who 

 has it to fear, but those whom it has injured I It is the 



