220 MEMOIR OF AUGUSTUS BE MORGAN. 



1852. cellor, who is jnst dead ? He was a great friend of Parish's. Of 

 our old friends I know but little. Neate is thriving. His father 

 and mother are still living, which few men of forty-five or 

 thereabouts can say. He vegetates, I am afraid ; his parishes are 

 not very populous, and though he does everything in the way of 

 looking after them, his grasp is not full. For aught I know 

 your parish would make fifty of his in number of souls. 



August 31. I see to-day that Maitland has published a new 

 ittle book, combining several tracts with mediseval pictures. 



I bought an auctioneer's lot the other day for one book, and 

 found, among the rest, Hone's Trials, which I had never read 

 through, though, when I was a boy, I had my curiosity greatly 

 whetted by the sharp way in which they were kept out of my 

 sight, while I was admiring the presence of mind of the defend- 

 ant, and the circumstance of a man not regularly educated sticking 

 logically to one point (a great rarity), namely, that the non-pro- 

 secution of parodies in favour of ministers proved that the ani- 

 mus was political, and that religion was a pretext. There came 

 into my head a long-forgotten story told me by Place, the cele- 

 brated political tailor, more than twenty years ago, which shows 

 that Cobbett, with all his pen-assurance, had not the nerve of poor 

 Hone. When Place and some friends went to consult with 

 Cobbett about his defence to the action for seditious libel which 

 was coming on (on which he was convicted and imprisoned), 

 Place told him that if he wanted to escape conviction he had 

 only to produce the letters which public functionaries had written 

 to him on points of his paper bar, judges, the Speaker of the 

 H. of C., &c. ; that if he did this he would prove that he was not 

 considered a common libeller even by the friends of Government ; 

 and that having thus made a locus standi he could deal with the 

 specific charge as a fair political comment, and compare ifc with 

 others. Cobbett was hardly able to speak of this plan, so great 

 was his agitation at the boldness of producing these letters, which 

 would have made a great sensation, for there were very curious 

 private applications for his good word. He did not dare to do it, 

 was regularly browbeat by the judge, even in what he did ven- 

 ture, and was convicted. Such is the difference between pen- 

 courage and tongue-courage. 



Pray present my best compliments to Mrs. Heald. I am sorry 

 I cannot say remembrances. There ought to be a prospective mode 

 of address. It would sound very odd to say, in the case of a 

 person whom the writer had not seen, ' Present my most san- 



