Misplaced Pages

#618381

70-485: William Cobbett was a political activist who supported the working man. He rode around Kent and Sussex and spoke to agricultural workers about their problems. He then used this as source material for his journal the Political Register . He learned that many agricultural labourers were badly paid, or unemployed and half starved. The financial support for a laid off agricultural worker was less than that paid to support

140-472: A "SWING". The letters threatened violence. The intention was to terrify the farmers. The local paper reported that farmers who received the first two letters, were so terrified that they placed their machines in the open field inviting their destruction. Initially the authorities were not clear who was responsible for the wrecking of threshing machines and other farm equipment blaming it on poachers, smugglers or deer-stealers. However it wasn't long before it

210-941: A French spy in America, tried but failed to bribe Cobbett to join the French cause. Cobbett opened a bookstore in Philadelphia in July 1796. Its shop-window displayed a large portrait of George III and its interior featured a huge painting of " Lord Howe 's Decisive Victory over the French". This provocative display attracted considerable attention. He reprinted and published much of the extreme loyalist literature then current, including George Chalmers 's hostile biography of Thomas Paine , as well as his own version, reproducing Chalmer's work interspersed with contemptuous comments. After Spain entered into an alliance with France against Britain, Cobbett expressed his anger through further pamphleteering that

280-506: A New York newspaper the addresses of welcome that the Democrats had sent to Joseph Priestley upon his arrival in America, along with Priestley's replies. His student applauded the anti-British sentiments that were expressed, and he quarrelled with Cobbett, who then resolved to "write and publish a pamphlet in defence of my country." His Observations on the Emigration of Dr. Priestley , which

350-520: A criminal in prison. Cobbett realised that Parishes were trying to avoid having to provide support to the poor with many parishes sending labouring people to the United States to save the costs of supporting them as paupers. Cobbett had predicted that there would be problems with the agricultural workers and when rural disturbances started in Kent and spread to Sussex during August 1830, Cobbett described it as

420-491: A daily newspaper, the tax restricted the circulation of most journals to those with fairly high incomes. Cobbett could sell only about a thousand copies a week. Nonetheless, he began criticising William Wilberforce for endorsing the Corn Laws, for his personal wealth and opposition to bull and bear-baiting , and particularly for his approval of "the fat and lazy and laughing and singing negroes". In 1816 Cobbett began publishing

490-508: A farm named Ash in the village of Normandy, Surrey , a few miles from his birthplace at Farnham . Cobbett died there after a brief illness in June 1835 and was buried in the churchyard of St Andrew's Church, Farnham . During his lifetime Cobbett campaigned for parliament five times, of which four attempts were unsuccessful: Dragoon Guards Dragoon Guards is a designation that has been used to refer to certain heavy cavalry regiments in

560-468: A gardener in the King's garden at Kew . His rural upbringing gave him a lifelong love of gardening and hunting . On 6 May 1783, he took a stage coach to London and spent eight or nine months as a clerk in the employ of a Mr. Holland at Gray's Inn . He joined the 54th (West Norfolk) Regiment of Foot in 1783. In his spare time, he improved his knowledge of English grammar. Between 1785 and 1791, Cobbett

630-627: A heroic reburial on his native soil, but the bones were still among Cobbett's effects when he died 16 years later. There is no confirmed story of what happened to them after that, although claims to parts of the body have been made down the years, including his skull and right hand. Cobbett arrived back in Britain at Liverpool by ship in November 1819. Cobbett's arrival came soon after the Peterloo Massacre . He joined with other radicals in attacks on

700-455: A love of glory. Men thus formed are pupils unfit for the puritanical school; therefore it was, that the sect were incessantly labouring to eradicate, fibre by fibre, the last poor remains of English manners." Cobbett supported Windham in opposing attempts in the House of Commons to introduce bills against boxing and bull-baiting; he wrote to Windham that the bill "goes to the rearing of puritanism into

770-621: A month later, he started the Political Register , a newspaper that appeared almost every week from January 1802 until 1835, the year of Cobbett's death. Windham and French Laurence had suggested the idea of a weekly newspaper to Cobbett and Windham raised the money to fund it by private subscription. When the British government signed a preliminary peace agreement with France in October 1801, Cobbett emerged as one of its foremost opponents, and in

SECTION 10

#1733055868619

840-801: A rise in wages. The protests were notable for their discipline, a tradition of popular protest that went back to the eighteenth century. The act of marching towards an offending farmer's homestead served not only to maintain group discipline, but also to warn the wider community that they were regimented and determined. Often they sought to enlist local parish officials and occasionally magistrates to raise levels of poor relief as well. Throughout England, 2,000 protesters were brought to trial in 1830–1831; 252 were sentenced to death (though only 19 were actually hanged), 644 were imprisoned, and 481 were transported to penal colonies in Australia. Oh Captain Swing, he'll come in

910-639: A smaller house at Botley Hill. By 1807, he was endorsing reformers such as Francis Burdett and John Cartwright . Cobbett published the Complete Collection of State Trials between 1804 and 1812 and amassed accounts of parliamentary debates from 1066 onwards, but financial difficulties obliged him to sell his shares in it to T. C. Hansard in 1812. This unofficial record of parliamentary proceedings later became known officially as Hansard . Cobbett intended to campaign for Parliament in Honiton in 1806, but

980-409: A sustainable wage. Farmers also stopped the custom of allowing their workers to take left over crops after the corn harvest, that would help them through the winter. This was compounded by the church tithes and the enclosure of common land. Added to this farmers began to introduce threshing machines that displaced workers. The displaced workers had no means to feed or clothe their families during

1050-531: A system." Although initially staunchly anti- Jacobin , by 1804 Cobbett was questioning the policies of the Pitt government, especially the immense national debt and profligate use of sinecures , which Cobbett believed were ruining the country and increasing class antagonism. Cobbett lived in Botley, Hampshire from 1805, farming and raising his family, initially at Botley House near Botley Mills, and then, from 1812, in

1120-642: A variety of maize he called "Cobbett's corn". This was a dwarf strain found in a French cottage garden, which turned out to grow well in England's shorter summer. To help sell the strain, he issued a book entitled A Treatise on Cobbett's Corn (1828). Meanwhile, he also wrote his popular Cottage Economy (1822), which taught cottagers some skills necessary for self-sufficiency, such as bread-making, beer-brewing and livestock farming. Not content to let information be brought to him for his newspaper, Cobbett did his own journalistic work – especially on his repeated theme of

1190-454: The Elham Valley , Kent a threshing machine was destroyed by rioters. The ringleaders were arrested on the 27 September 1830, nine days after the word 'Swing' was graffitied on unpainted walls between Canterbury and Dover. Also two threatening letters were sent to local farmers, signed SWING: You are to notice that if you doant put away your thrashing machine against Monday next you shall have

1260-456: The Federalists , who were led by Alexander Hamilton , because they were friendlier to Britain than were the pro-French Democrats led by Thomas Jefferson . In January 1796, he began writing a monthly tract, The Censor . It was discontinued after eight releases, and replaced by Porcupine's Gazette , a daily newspaper which ran from March 1797 until the end of 1799. Talleyrand , at the time

1330-634: The French Revolution and French Revolutionary Wars in progress, he sailed for the United States in September 1792. In the spring of 1793, he settled in Philadelphia , then the provisional capital of the United States. Cobbett initially prospered by teaching English to Frenchmen and translating texts from French to English. He later claimed that he had become a political writer by accident: during an English lesson one of his French students read aloud from

1400-410: The Political Register as a pamphlet. It now sold for only two pence and soon had a circulation of 40,000. Critics termed it "two-penny trash", a phrase Cobbett adopted. It became the main newspaper read by the working class. Radical campaigner Samuel Bamford later wrote: At this time the writings of William Cobbett suddenly became of great authority; they were read on nearly every cottage hearth in

1470-579: The Reform Act 1832 and gained him one of two newly created seats in Parliament for the borough of Oldham . His polemics range from political reform to religion, including Catholic emancipation . His best known book is Rural Rides (1830, in print). He argued against Malthusianism , saying economic betterment could support global population growth. William Cobbett was born in Farnham, Surrey, on 9 March 1763,

SECTION 20

#1733055868619

1540-592: The Royal Horse Guards had to protect his house from the mob. War broke out again between Britain and France in May 1803 and Napoleon planned to invade England, assembling the Grande Armée at Boulogne . In June, The Morning Post appealed to all newspapers to print articles for "the purpose of arousing the people to the defence of the country". Cobbett immediately began a pamphlet, Important Considerations for

1610-625: The slave trade as necessary to British commerce. After the Slave Trade Act 1807 prohibited slave trade, Cobbett wrote in the Register that "there is not a reflecting man in the kingdom that cares one straw about it." In the Register for 30 August 1823, Cobbett published his Letter to William Wilberforce , an answer to Wilberforce's Appeal to the Religion, Justice and Humanity of the Inhabitants of

1680-483: The "Labourers' war". The main causes of the disturbances were due to an excess of labour, predominantly by men who had been involved in the Napoleonic wars, returning home. Also by itinerant Irish labourers prepared to work for next to nothing undercutting the local agricultural workers. This coincided with a fall in agricultural prices. During the ensuing depression farmers were not able to pay their agricultural workers

1750-551: The 1st, 2nd and 3rd Dragoon Guards respectively. In 1788 the four remaining regiments of Horse were converted into the 4th to 7th Dragoon Guards. At the beginning of the French Revolutionary War the British Army maintained seven regiments of Dragoon Guards, plus six of Dragoons and fourteen of Light Dragoons. During the 19th and early 20th centuries the seven regiments of Dragoon Guards were classed as medium cavalry while

1820-577: The British Army since the 18th century. While the Prussian and Russian armies of the same period included dragoon regiments among their respective Imperial Guards, different titles were applied to these units. The British Army first used the designation in 1746, when the King's Own Regiment of Horse, the Queen's Own Royal Regiment of Horse (prior to 1727 the Princess of Wales's Own) and the 4th Horse were redesignated as

1890-692: The British Empire in Behalf of the Negro Slaves in the West Indies . Here, he attacked Wilberforce's support for the Combination Act , which prohibited trade unions among British workers, and said: "Never have you done one single act, in favour of those labourers, but many and many an act you have done against them." The Letter to Wilberforce was widely distributed in working class areas and gave an impetus to

1960-539: The Combination Act's repeal in 1824. Cobbett contrasted the Evangelical reformers' campaign for the abolition of black slavery with their support for the "factory slavery" of British workers. He argued that black slaves were better fed, clothed and housed than British workers, and were better treated by their masters. He wrote: "Will not the care, will not the anxiety of a really humane Englishman be directed towards

2030-600: The English Language . With help from William Benbow , a friend in London, he continued to issue the Political Register . He also wrote The American Gardener (1821), one of the earliest horticultural books published in the United States. Cobbett observed alcohol-drinking habits in the United States. He stated in 1819, "Americans preserve their gravity and quietness and good-humour even in their drink." He believed it would be "far better for them to be as noisy and quarrelsome as

2100-519: The English drunkards; for then the odiousness of the vice would be more visible, and the vice itself might become less frequent." A plan to return to England with the remains of the British-American radical pamphleteer and revolutionary Thomas Paine (who had died in 1809) resulted in the ultimate loss of the remains. The plan was to disinter Paine's remains from his New Rochelle, New York farm for

2170-615: The People of the Kingdom , warning the country of the consequences of a French invasion. Cobbett declined an offer of payment from the government and his pamphlet was published anonymously in July. The Prime Minister, Henry Addington , ordered copies to be sent to every parish in England and it had an immediate effect on public opinion. Cobbett formed a close friendship with Windham, who became his patron and shared his anti-Jacobinism and his love of rural and athletic sports. The Evangelical movement

Captain Swing - Misplaced Pages Continue

2240-511: The Prime Minister, William Pitt , and contributors to the Anti-Jacobin , including George Canning . Pitt's government offered Cobbett the editorship of a government newspaper, but he chose to remain independent. His own paper, The Porcupine , bearing the motto "Fear God, Honour the King", started on 30 October 1800, but without success, and he sold his interest in it in 1801. Less than

2310-506: The Prince Regent that Two anonymous threatening Letters have been received by Mr William Shackell of Early Court and Mr James Fuller of Loddon Bridge near Reading in the County of Berks of which the following are Copies viz. You may Believe it so Help Mr Shackell Early Court to be left at Marquis Granby Mr Fuller Loddon Bridge Farm Berks On Saturday night, 28 August 1830, in

2380-512: The Whites, instead of towards the Blacks, until, at any rate, the situation of the former be made to be as good as that of the latter?" In 1833, Cobbett voted for the abolition of slavery but in the Register he was still contrasting Parliament's concern for black slaves with their indifference to the sufferings of British "factory slaves". Although not a Catholic, Cobbett at this time also advocated

2450-653: The army on 19 December 1791. In Woolwich during February 1792, he married an American-born woman, Anne Reid (1774–1848), whom he had met while stationed at Fort Howe in Saint John. Their children were Anne (1795–1877), William (1798–1878), John (1800–1877), James Paul (1803–1881), Eleanor (1805–1900), and Susan (1807–1889). Their daughter Anne Cobbett was the author of several domestic books including The English Housekeeper: The Manual of Domestic Management. Cobbett had developed an animosity towards some officers , suspecting them of corruption, and gathered evidence on

2520-477: The cause of Catholic Emancipation . Between 1824 and 1826, he published his History of the Protestant Reformation , a broadside against the traditional Protestant historical narrative of the reformation, stressing the lengthy and often bloody persecutions of Catholics in Britain and Ireland. Catholics were still forbidden at that time to enter certain professions or become members of Parliament. Although

2590-602: The cause of freedom", free blacks , the Irish republicans had formed a society dedicated to the proposition (to which each member attested) that "a free form of government, and uncontrouled [sic] opinion on all subjects, [are] the common rights of all the human species". Against the backdrop of America's Quasi War with French and of the Haitian Revolution (then still under the flag of the French Republic ), for Cobbett, this

2660-491: The government and was charged with libel three times in the next couple of years. Cobbett published on behalf of Caroline of Brunswick in her fight against the Pains and Penalties Bill 1820 . His daughter Anne believed that he would have had fewer legal difficulties if he had stopped supporting Queen Caroline, but noted that they gained much needed source of income from supporting her. The family all expected notable rewards following

2730-408: The government intending to suspend habeas corpus , and fearing arrest for his arguably seditious writings, Cobbett again fled to the United States. On Wednesday 27 March 1817, he embarked at Liverpool for New York on the ship Importer , with D. Ogden as master, accompanied by his two eldest sons, William and John. Cobbett lived for two years on a farm on Long Island , where he wrote Grammar of

2800-679: The grand jury threw out case against him by a one-vote majority. In the Gazette , he serially denounced Benjamin Franklin Bache , publisher of the Jeffersonian paper, the Aurora . Cobbett suggested that the "stubborn sans culotte" should be treated "as we would a TURK, a JEW, a JACOBIN or a DOG". He directed the same invective against Bache's successor, William Duane and his growing circle of United Irish émigrés, describing them as men "animated by

2870-533: The ground very shortly, as I know that you can well afford to spare that sum for a short time, until I have the effects to repay it. Keep this secret, or it will be the worse for you, as I have spys about your neighbourhood. Direct to me, ‘X.Y.Z.’ The Nag’s Head, James-street, Covent Garden. ‘SWING’. P. S. Be not to make no delay in sending it The sender turned out to be a soldier in the Dragoons . William Cobbett William Cobbett (9 March 1763 – 18 June 1835)

Captain Swing - Misplaced Pages Continue

2940-420: The law was no longer enforced, it was officially still a crime to attend Mass or build a Catholic church. Although Wilberforce also worked and spoke against discrimination against Catholics, Cobbett resumed his strident opposition to the noted reformer, particularly after Wilberforce in 1823 published his Appeal in Behalf of the Negro Slaves in the West Indies. Wilberforce, long suffering from ill health, retired

3010-493: The manufacturing districts of South Lancashire, in those of Leicester, Derby, and Nottingham; also in many of the Scottish manufacturing towns. Their influence was speedily visible. He directed his readers to the true cause of their sufferings—misgovernment; and to its proper corrective—parliamentary reform. This made Cobbett a dangerous man. In 1817, he became aware that the government was planning to arrest him for sedition . With

3080-509: The matter while in New Brunswick. His charges against them were ignored. He wrote The Soldier's Friend in 1792, in protest against the low pay and harsh treatment of enlisted men in the British army. Sensing that he was about to be indicted in retribution, he fled from Britain to France in March 1792 to avoid imprisonment. Cobbett had intended to stay a year to learn the French language, but due to

3150-620: The next year. In 1829, Cobbett published Advice To Young Men , in which he criticised An Essay on the Principle of Population by the Reverend Thomas Robert Malthus . That year he also published The English Gardener , which he later updated and expanded. This book has been compared favourably with other contemporary garden tomes, such as John Claudius Loudon 's Encyclopædia of Gardening . Cobbett continued to publish controversial content in his Weekly Political Register and

3220-608: The night To set all your buildings and crops alight And smash your machines with all his might That dastardly Captain Swing! Threshing machines had been contentious since the Napoleonic wars. Letters had been sent to farmers, in the Reading area, suggesting that they should get rid of their threshing machines as early as 1811, the following two were reproduced in The London Gazette : Whitehall September 3 1811 Whereas it hath been humbly represented to His Royal Highness

3290-502: The outcome of the trial being seen to be in Caroline's favour, however her death soon after meant that this did not happen to the expected degree. In 1820, he campaigned for Parliament in Coventry , but finished last in the poll. That year he also founded a plant nursery at Kensington, where he grew many North American trees, such as the black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) , and with his son,

3360-490: The pages of The Porcupine and in his Letters to Lord Hawkesbury , he denounced the agreement as humiliating to Britain and advantageous to France. When news of the ratification arrived on 10 October, Cobbett refused to illuminate the windows of his house in celebration and it was attacked by a mob, which smashed all the windows. When the Peace of Amiens was signed in March 1802, Cobbett again refused to illuminate his windows and

3430-455: The pamphlet Paper Against Gold , warning of the dangers of paper money , and many essays and letters. His daughter Anne lived with him in prison. On his release, a dinner in his honour in London was attended by 600 people and directed by Sir Francis Burdett , who like Cobbett was a strong advocate of parliamentary reform. By 1815 the tax on newspapers had reached four pence a copy. As few people could afford to pay six or seven pence for

3500-533: The people of this right to relief, Cobbett believed that the social contract was broken and that therefore the duty of allegiance was dissolved. A week before his death, he wrote to a friend: "[B]efore the passing of the Poor-Law Bill, I wished to avoid [a] convulsive termination. I now do not wish it to be avoided." During later life, Thomas Macaulay , a fellow MP , remarked that Cobbett's faculties were impaired by age. From 1831 until his death, Cobbett managed

3570-438: The plight of rural Englishmen. He began riding about the country observing events in towns and villages. Rural Rides , a work for which Cobbett is still known, appeared first in serial form in the Political Register from 1822 to 1826, and then in book form in 1830. While writing it, Cobbett also produced The Woodlands (1825), a book on silviculture . In the first supplement to the Political Register , Cobbett had defended

SECTION 50

#1733055868619

3640-638: The riots and soon symbolized the whole rural resistance. Sir, Your name is down amongst the Black hearts in the Black Book and this is to advise you and the like of you, who are Parson Justasses, to make your wills. Ye have been the Blackguard Enemies of the People on all occasions, Ye have not yet done as ye ought,... Swing Sir, This is to acquaint you that if your threshing machines are not destroyed by you directly we shall commence our labours. Signed on behalf of

3710-679: The same infamous principles, and actuated by that same thirst for blood and plunder, which had reduced France to a vast human slaughter-house". In May 1798, he began publishing accounts of a Conspiracy, Formed by the United Irishmen, With the Evident Intention of Aiding the Tyrants of France In Subverting the Government of the United States. Convening in Philadelphia's African Free School, and admitting, together with "all those who have suffered in

3780-519: The seat of Oldham . In Parliament, Cobbett concentrated his energies on attacking corruption in government and the 1834 Poor Law . He believed that the poor had a right to a share in the community's wealth and that the Old Poor Law was the last remaining right that English workers possessed, and which set them apart from other countries which had no such provision. Because the New Poor Law deprived

3850-411: The third son of George Cobbett, a farmer and publican, and Anne Vincent. He was taught to read and write by his father and he started working from an early age. He later said: "I do not remember a time when I did not earn my living. My first occupation was driving small birds from the turnip seed, and the rooks from the peas." He worked as a farm labourer at Farnham Castle , and also worked briefly as

3920-504: The thrasher brings down in contact with the corn. It can also represent a swinging corpse on the gallows or gibbet. Possibly a more plausible explanation is that after a work party had stopped to sharpen their scythes and were ready to recommence work the leader would shout out 'Swing!', the leader was usually known as the Captain, hence 'Captain Swing'. The name 'Captain Swing’ became synonymous with

3990-431: The three remaining Dragoon regiments were heavy cavalry. The exercise of converting from "Horse" (heavy cavalry) to " Dragoon " (formerly mounted infantry) was intended to save money—Dragoons were paid less than Horse and rode an inferior breed of horses. The change was accordingly very unpopular among the regiments affected. To compensate for the fall in salary and status, the impressive sounding title of "Dragoon Guards"

4060-420: The whole... Swing Not all letters were from impoverished farm labourers trying to improve their lot; other people saw the use of the eponymous 'Swing' purely for private gain. For example a letter sent to a Mrs Chandler of Church Farm, Pursey, Wiltshire, was an obvious attempt at extortion: Madam — I have to request that you will send me by return of post the sum of £10, or else your house will be burned with

4130-675: The winter. A resident of Lewes in Sussex, Gideon Mantell the English obstetrician, geologist and palaeontologist noted in his diary of 1830: It is all bad, our peasantry are in a state of ignorance and slavery: almost starving without the knowledge to attempt obtaining redress without violence, without violating laws, which are made to oppress the poor and protect the rich. Popular protests by farm workers occurred across agricultural areas of southern England. The main targets for protesting crowds were landowners/ landlords, whose threshing machines they destroyed or dismantled, and whom they petitioned for

4200-410: Was adopted. The Dragoon Guards remained as cavalry of the line and did not become Household troops in any sense. The Regiments of Horse that were converted to Dragoon Guards took precedence over all other cavalry regiments of the Line, which were at the time exclusively dragoons. As the senior regiments, they could not take numbers sequential with those of the existing dragoon regiments, so they needed

4270-524: Was an English pamphleteer , journalist, politician, and farmer born in Farnham, Surrey . He was one of an agrarian faction seeking to reform Parliament, abolish " rotten boroughs ", restrain foreign activity, and raise wages, with the goal of easing poverty among farm labourers and small land holders. Cobbett backed lower taxes, saving, reversing commons enclosures and returning to the gold standard . He opposed borough-mongers, sinecurists , bureaucratic "tax-eaters" and stockbrokers. His radicalism furthered

SECTION 60

#1733055868619

4340-464: Was campaigning to reform the sports and recreations of the common people, intending to replace bull-baiting , boxing , singlestick , wrestling and racing with Sunday Schools and psalm singing. Cobbett in the Register criticised the Evangelicals' hostility to rural and athletic sports, "which string the nerves and strengthen the frame, which excite an emulation in deeds of hardihood and valour, and which imperceptibly instill honour, generosity, and

4410-425: Was charged in July 1831 with seditious libel for a pamphlet entitled Rural War , endorsing the Captain Swing Riots , in which rioters were smashing farm machinery and burning haystacks. Cobbett successfully conducted his own defence. Cobbett still sought to be elected to the House of Commons. He was defeated in Preston in 1826 and in Manchester in 1832, but after the passage of the Reform Act 1832 , Cobbett won

4480-558: Was grateful to Cobbett for supporting Britain's interests in America: the Duke of Kent hailed him as "this great British patriot"; the British representative in America, Robert Liston , offered him a "great pecuniary reward" (which he turned down), and the Secretary at War , William Windham , said that Cobbett deserved a statue of gold for the services he had rendered to Britain in America. Cobbett's American writings were reprinted in Britain, with John Wright acting as his agent. In August 1800, Windham invited Cobbett to dinner with

4550-442: Was highly critical of Spanish King Charles IV , in Porcupine's Gazette . The Spanish foreign minister in Philadelphia asked the United States government to prosecute Cobbett for libel of the Spanish king. Cobbett was arrested on 18 November 1797. He was tried in the State Court of Pennsylvania by Chief Justice Thomas McKean (who was also the Spanish minister's father-in-law). Despite McKean's criticism of Cobbett in his summing up,

4620-535: Was persuaded by Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald to let him campaign in his stead. Both men campaigned together but failed, having refused to bribe voters by "buying" votes. This situation encouraged his opposition to rotten boroughs and belief in parliamentary reform. Cobbett was found guilty of treasonous libel on 15 June 1810, after objecting in The Register to the flogging at Ely, Cambridgeshire of local militiamen by Hanoverians . During his two years' incarceration at Newgate Prison , he wrote

4690-401: Was published anonymously in 1794, was a violent attack on Priestley. In 1795, Cobbett wrote A Bone to Gnaw for the Democrats , which attacked the pro-French Democratic Party. He replied to his critics with A Kick for a Bite , which was his first work to be published under the pseudonym "Peter Porcupine"; a reviewer had compared him to a porcupine , which pleased him. He took the side of

4760-407: Was realised that it was mainly local village labourers. The authorities tried to identify who this 'Swing' was and apprehend him, it took a while for them to realise that Captain Swing was probably an invented name. The origin of the name is not clear. But the word 'Swing' seems to have a deliberate double meaning. It could represent how the part of flail known as either a swing or a swingel, which

4830-445: Was stationed with his regiment in New Brunswick and sailed from Gravesend in Kent to Halifax , Nova Scotia . Cobbett was in Saint John , Fredericton and elsewhere in New Brunswick until September 1791, as he was promoted through the ranks to sergeant major , the most senior rank of non-commissioned officer . Cobbett returned to Britain with his regiment, landing at Portsmouth on 3 November 1791. He obtained his discharge from

4900-512: Was sufficient proof of an intention to organise slave revolts and "thus involve the whole country in rebellion and bloodshed". Cobbett also campaigned against physician and abolitionist Benjamin Rush , whose advocacy of bleeding during the yellow fever epidemic may have caused many deaths. Rush won a libel suit against Cobbett. Cobbett never fully paid the $ 8,000 judgement, but instead fled to New York and during 1800 via Halifax , Nova Scotia, to Falmouth, Cornwall . The British government

#618381