io INTRODUCTION. 



Rides, which lias become a classic of English literature. 

 After showing that honc-t labourers were far worse off than 

 felons he bn-aks out with : 



" (h, you \vi>h to keep up the price of corn for the pood of the 

 I'Hior devils of labourers who have liardly a rag to cover them ! 

 Admirable f> eling, tmdt r-heartcd souls ! Did not oh, oh ! 

 can- even about the fanners ! It was only for the sake of the 

 poor naked devils of labourers. . . . This was the only reason 

 for their wantinp corn to sell at a hiph price ! . . ." 



And Cobbett had lived through days when wheat was i2os. 

 a quarter, and wages driven down to 6s. a week ! 



It was when he was mounted, riding across the English 

 counties, that Cobbett did his finest work, and not inside 

 Parliament. 



" The ruffians" he wrote, " owing, and solely owing to my 

 having /i-s/ ;;/v mice (if Co;v;;/;-y, have kept me out of the House ; 

 but they have not kept me out of hearing. I have since last 

 autumn been in seventeen counties making Rustic Harangues, 

 which have produced far more effect than any spei ehes in 

 Parliament." 



It was at one of these meet ings, a stormy one, where it was 

 resolved that Cobbett should be ejected from the room. 



" I rose," he wrote with that touch of sublime egotism 

 of lii-, " that they might see the man they had to put out." 

 lie was r-i\ty years of age then, and yet he dominated the 

 whole room. It was as the author of Rnrnl Rittrs that 

 Cobbett entered iu'.o hi-- kingdom and became the St. George 

 of the j;i:;jli-h labourer. 



When elerti-d to the lh'UM> of Coir.inons in i$.}2 at the 

 advanced age of seventy, he was -till the irrepressible and 

 almost the only champion of the a grit ult ural labourer. 



John O'Connell dei hired that in the House "he was 



. lite a- dogmatical and downright as in his \\-ritten diatribe, 



. i id lie had quite as much sareast ic audacity of self-possession 



though he were a \\ealth\- pairicia.n member of that tuft- 



hunting Hou-e." \\'ith the pertinacity of a Keir Hardie he 



n,i'\-ed ,i \-cry drastic amendment to the Address in answer 



t (i the Spei-i li from the Throne. He moved that all the words 



M-t Gracious Majesty" be omitted! The House 



