LETTER TO 



and though the broom-part would not be of the best quality, it 

 would be a thousand times better than heath. The seed might 

 be sent from this country, and, though the Borough-villains would 

 tax it, as their rapacious system does EVEN THE SEEDS OF 

 TREES ; yet, a small quantity of seed would suffice. 



1045. As an ornamental plant nothing equals this. The Indian 

 Corn is far inferior to it in this respect. Planted by the side of 

 walks in gardens, what beautiful avenues it would make for the 

 summer ! I have seen the plants eighteen feet and 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 perfection in 

 England as to yield the broom-materials, it will be a great thing ; 

 and, if it fall short of that, it will certainly surpass reeds for 

 thatching and screening purposes, 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 &quot; defrauded.&quot; 

 Precious villains ! They stand between the people and all the 

 gifts of nature ! But this cannot last. 



1046. I am happy to tell you, that Ellenborough and Gibbs have 

 retired ! Ill health is the pretence. I never yet knew 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 of tyranny ; 

 for, what has tyranny else to fear ? Who has it to fear, but those 

 whom it has injured ? It is the aggregate of individual injury 

 that makes up national injury ; it is the aggregate of individual 

 resentment that makes up national resentment. National re 

 sentment is absolutely necessary to the producing of redress for 

 oppression ; and, therefore, to say that individual resentment is 

 wrong, is to say, that there ought to be no redress for oppression : 

 it is, in short, to pass a sentence of never-ending slavery on all 

 mankind. Some Local Militia men ; young fellows who had 

 been compelled to become soldiers, and who had no knowledge of 



268 



