I oo J^TSEN B V PERSE VE RANGE, 



crawling slaves, the callous and cowardly hypocrites, who 

 affect to be "shocked" (tender souls!) at my expressions of 

 joy at the death of Gibbs, EUenborough, Percival, Liverpool, 

 Canning, and the rest of the tribe that I have already seen 

 out, and at the fatal workings of that system for endeavouring 

 to check which I was thus punished ! ' 



When the spy system had produced the horrors of 1817 

 and the Six Acts, Cobbett, who was still under heavy recog- 

 nisances, thought it prudent for himself and his sureties to 

 withdraw for a time to America. He imagined, not without 

 cause, that one of the Six Acts was directly aimed at him ; 

 and the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act made his 

 situation very perilous. Cobbett therefore made the best of 

 his way to Liverpool with his large young family ; and from 

 thence, upon the 26th March 181 7, he addressed the public 

 in these terms : — 



'My departure for America will surprise nobody but those 

 who do not reflect. A full and explicit statement of my 

 reasons will appear in a few days, probably the 5th of April. 

 In the meanwhile, I think it necessary for me to make known 

 that I have fully empowered a person of respectability to 

 manage and settle all my affairs in England. I owe my 

 countrymen sincere regard, which I shall always entertain 

 for them in a higher degree than towards any other people 

 upon earth. I carry nothing from my country but my wife 

 and my children, and surely they are my own at anyrate. 

 I shall always love England better than any other country — 

 I will never become a subject or citizen of any other state ; 

 but I and mine were not born under a government having 

 the absolute power to imprison us at its pleasure, and, if we 

 can avoid it, we will never live nor die under such an order 



