William Cobbett

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William Cobbett (1763–1835), portrait in oil, possibly by George Cooke around 1831, National Portrait Gallery , London

William Cobbett (born March 9, 1763 in Farnham , Surrey , England , † June 18, 1835 in Normandy , Surrey , England) was an English writer , journalist , publisher and radical , d. H. left-liberal politician. He was the editor of the weekly Political Register and had a seat in the House of Commons from 1832 until his death. As a writer he published under the pseudonym Peter Porcupine .

Life

Rural rides in the southern, western and eastern counties of England , 1930

William Cobbett was born on March 9, 1763, to an innkeeper in Farnham , Surrey, in southern England. He had three brothers. Cobbett received reading and writing lessons from his father and was sent to work with a local pastor when he was sixteen. With him Cobbett had access to a library and deepened his literary skills during this time. In 1783 he went to London , where he earned his living as an office worker.

In 1784 he enlisted in the British army, where he later Corporal ( Sergeant ascent). In March 1785, Cobbett was sent to Halifax, Nova Scotia Province , to serve in the 54th Regiment of the British Army. During his time in the military, he studied French in addition to the English language and thus laid the foundation for his later time as a journalist and writer.

Cobbett also experienced corruption in the army . He denounced the embezzlement of funds from the regimental treasury, but he himself came under pressure as a rebel. Instead of facing a legal battle and substantiating his allegations, he fled to France with his recently married wife, Ann Reid , in March 1792 . Seven months later, both went to the United States in August 1792 .

United States of America (1792–1799)

They settled in Philadelphia and Cobbett earned his income as a freelance teacher of English for French immigrants. When the Kingdom of Great Britain declared war on France in the Coalition Wars in 1792 and even British immigrants such as Thomas Paine (1737-1809) and Joseph Priestley (1733-1804) turned against their country, Cobbett was furious and wrote a confrontationally insulting pamphlet with the Title " Observations on Dr. Priestley's Emigration, ”which excited the public. Pleased with the reaction, he wrote further diatribes against supporters of the French line and its revolution. A defamatory and sometimes insulting text about the life of Thomas Paine finally earned him the nickname Porcupine ('porcupine') from one of his “victims” . Pleased with this kind of recognition, he used the nickname and from then on wrote under the pseudonym Peter Porcupine .

Wanted or not, his writings made him an unofficial propagandist for the British government, so much so that he was even offered money from government officials, which he refused. The public made Cobbett seem unmolested with his extreme manner. But he wasn't very popular. Who at these times in America a large picture of George III. hung in the window couldn't expect much from the public either.

In 1799, Cobbett got into trouble due to a physical altercation and the payment of a $ 5,000 fine, and eventually returned to England in 1800.

England (1800-1816)

After he had made friends through his writings in England, he received an offer from William Windham (1750-1810) as editor-in-chief of the governmental journal, which he declined in order to remain independent.

With financial support from Windham , with whom he was friends, Cobbett published the Political Register from 1802 , a weekly radical newspaper in which he initially supported the Tories , the predecessor of the Conservative Party , but then became increasingly right-wing and radical has been. For example, he strongly attacked the Amiens peace treaty , which was signed on March 27, 1802 between France and the British island empire. In the Jenaer Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung Volume 1, No.71 of March 1803, one could read: "Here he shows himself to be the most ardent opponent of the Amiens peace and wants war for life and death with France".

In 1806 Cobbett actively campaigned for parliamentary reform , which he promised himself to get a seat in the lower house . Cobbett ran several times to parliamentary elections. But he was denied success. An article about the flogging of British soldiers by members of the King's German Legion , who went to England after the dissolution of the army of the Electorate of Hanover and served the British crown , brought Cobbett two years in prison in the notorious Newgate Prison in London in 1810 . He passed his time there by writing. When he was released from prison, he was financially ruined and sold his farm and the Parliamentary Debates , a newspaper he owned.

Foreseeing the problems of the working class in England, Cobbett addressed the question of how to prevent insurrections and convert discontent into political power. In November 1816 he wrote to the workers not to waste their strength in rebellions but to work for parliamentary reform. In order to be able to reach the broad masses with his messages, he lowered the price of the Political Register from ten pence to two pence . In just a few weeks it became the mouthpiece of the working class in England with a skyrocketing print run of 40,000 copies. An insignificant demonstration eventually gave the ruling lords a reason to take repeated action against him. He evaded arrest for sedition by fleeing to the United States.

United States of America (1817–1819)

In the United States, he lived in North Hempstead , New York for 2½ years and regularly sent his articles for his newspaper to London by letter. Ironically, the country he had bitterly berated years ago gave him refuge and the freedom to continue to express his opinions freely.

England (1819-1835)

Memorial to Cobbett in Botley , Hampshire

In 1819 he went back to England. Before leaving, he dug up Thomas Paine's bones and stole them to bring to England.

Back in England, he took advantage of the political turmoil after the death of King George III. and with his weekly newspaper he became more and more the mouthpiece of the labor movement in England. He also continued to speak out loudly for parliamentary reform. He bought a small farm and wrote some of his books there in addition to the articles for his newspaper. With the Reform Act 1832 and the associated parliamentary reform , he decided to run again for the House of Commons . In 1832 he won the seat for Oldham . He held it until his death.

William Cobbett died on June 18, 1835 on his farm in Normandy . With his death, his newspaper Political Register was closed.

Works

  • The Soldier's Friend , 1792.
  • Observations on the Emigration of Dr. Priestley , 1794.
  • A Bone to Gnaw for the Democrats, Part 1 , 1795.
  • A Little Plain English , 1795.
  • A New Year's Gift for the Democrats , 1796.
  • The Life of Thomas Paine , 1796.
  • A Letter to the Infamous Thomas Paine , 1797.
  • An Address to the People of England , 1800.
  • Porcupine Work’s , 1801.
  • Articles on War, the Treaty of Amiens and Napoleon , 1802-1803.
  • Letters to Rt. Hon William Pitt , 1804-1806.
  • Selected articles from the series Perish Commerce , 1807-1808.
  • Articles on Parliamentary Reform , 1809.
  • Articles on the flogging of soldiers at Ely , 1809.
  • Cobbett's trial for seditious libel , 1810.
  • Cobbett's first article, from jail , 1810.
  • The English Grammar , published by William Cobbett, London, 1810.
  • Paper Against Gold, or The History and Mystery of the Bank of England , W. Molineux , London, 1817.
  • A History of the Protestant “Reformation” in England and Ireland , Charles Clement , London, 1824.
  • Cottage Economy , Published by William Cobbett , London, 1826.
  • Advice to Young Men , Essay , published by William Cobbett , London, 1829.
  • Rural Rides in the Counties of ... ,A. Cobbett, London, 1830.

literature

  • Margaret Cole : Makers of the Labor Movement . Longmans, Green and Co. , London 1948 (English).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The Army, Part 3 to the Life & Works of William Cobbett . In: Bluepete . Peter Landry , 2011, accessed December 20, 2015 .
  2. ↑ London, b. Begshaw: Cobbett's weekly political register. Vol. 1. and 2. 1802. 748 and 832 pp. Gr. 8 . In: Allgemeine Literatur Zeitung . tape  1 Numero 71. Halle, Saale March 1803 ( online [accessed December 20, 2015]).
  3. ^ Bill Bryson : Made in America . an Informal History of the English Language in the United States . Black Swan , 1998, ISBN 978-0-552-99805-5 , pp.  56 (English).
personal data
SURNAME Cobbett, William
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Porcupine, Peter (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English writer, politician and editor of the weekly "Political Register"
DATE OF BIRTH March 9, 1763
PLACE OF BIRTH Farnham , Surrey , England
DATE OF DEATH June 18, 1835
Place of death Normandy , Surrey , England