THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 143 



is indeed only one man of marked distinction who 

 supported the labourers with intelligence and under- 

 standing. This was William Cobbett. Cobbett, 

 soldier, farmer and journalist, was born in 1762. His 

 father was a Surrey farmer, his grandfather a labourer, 

 and he began life on the land, like most country 

 children of his time, employed in bird-scaring. After 

 a few years of agricultural work, he left the country 

 whilst still a lad to lead a life of adventure. Early 

 in the XlXth century, when about forty years old, 

 he returned from America, where he had been living 

 for some years, and started a newspaper, which he 

 ultimately carried on under the name of the Political 

 Register. He soon became, thanks to his extra- 

 ordinary energy and capacity as a speaker and writer, 

 a great force in English political life. From 1821 

 onwards he made many expeditions throughout 

 England on horseback, and the account of these 

 wanderings, picturesquely told in his " Rural Rides," 

 gives a picture of the human side of the rural life 

 of the time, and does much to supplement Arthur 

 Young's descriptions. After the passing of the Reform 

 Act Cobbett was returned to Parliament, but at that 

 time his health was failing, and he died in 1835. 

 During the early years of the century, Cobbett's 

 voice was constantly being raised to explain to the 

 public the nature of the labourers' troubles, and to 

 support them in their pitiable struggle : but even with 

 his help, the forces against them were too strong, 

 and the men seem to have actually lost ground, 

 especially after 1812, when the scale of allowance 

 from the rates began to be reduced and the pressure 

 of poverty became more intense. But the spirit of 

 the people was not entirely broken. In 1830 the 



