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FROM OCTOBER 4, TO DECEMBER 27, 1834,

INCLUSIVE.

LONDON:

PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR,

11, BOLT COURT, FLEET STREET.

1834.

230.

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nor. To Lord Althorp.-Paper-Money.-

Patriot Creevy.Negro-Work.-Treat-

ment of the Irish Poor.-Fiscal Effects of

the Union.-Lord Durham.

8. Turning out of the Whigs.-To_the

King.-Change of Ministry.-To my Con-
stituents.-Letter IX. to Charles Mar-
shall.-Legacy to Labourers.-Fires in
England. To the King's Servants.-The
Ministerial Mess.-Buxton's Blackey.-
History of George IV.-Lord Durham.

9. Letter X. to Charles Marshall.-To
the People of Oldham.-Sir Robert Peel.
-The Swamper.-Metropolitan Toddle.
Great Public Meeting to Mr. Cobbett.

-Lord Durham.

10. To Mr. Hume.-Manifesto against the

Whig Depravity-Dissolution of Parlia-

ment. The Swamper.-Sir Robert Peel.

-Manchester Address.-Liverpool Meet-

ing.-Birmingham Meeting. -Letter of

Mr. Attwood. Important Meeting in

Manchester.

No. 11. To the People of Oldham.-To Mr.
Hume. The Swamper.-Mr. O'Connell.

No. 5. Letter VI. to Charles Marshall.-Burn-
ing of the Parliament House.--Mr. Cob.
bett's Arrival in Limerick.-Addresses No.
and Answers.-Life of Jackson.

No. 6. Letter VII. to Charles Marshall.-To
Lord Althorp.-Poor Law Bill.-To the
People of Salisbury. Consistency of
Brougham.-Lord Durham.-To Thomas
Doubleday, Esq.. Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
-Garden and Field Seeds.-History of
George IV.-Life of Jackson.-O'Connell
Tribute. To the sensible and just People
of Eng and.-To Mr. Staunton, of the
Morning Register.-Letter of Mr. O'Con-
neli.-Lord Durbam.

No. 7. To the Cobbettites. Letter VIII. to
Charles Marshall.-To the Earl of Rad-

Whig Effusions.-The Fires.-Common

Council Affairs.- Mr. Hume's Speech at

Westminster.-Death of Paper Money.--

-The Coffin.-Sir Robert Peel--Letter

of Mr. Hume to the Electors of Middle-

sex.-Dinner at Oldham.

12. Dissolution of Parliament.-Malt-tax
and Currency.-Bull-Frog Meeting.--To
Sir Robert Peel-Stanley and Graham.-
Sir Francis Burdett.-Coventry Election.
-Sir Charles Wolseley's Address to the
Southern Division of Staffordshire.-Mait-
tax Debate.-American Currency Ques-
tion.-Seeds.-Life of Jackson.

No 13. To Sir Robert Peel: Letter I-Sir R.

Peel's Letter. Mr. Harvey.-Legacy to

Labourers.-Garden and Field Seeds.-

To the Editor of the Standard.-Malt-tax.

-Kentish Bull-Frogs.-Poor-Law Bill-

Good News from America. Coventry

Election. Mr. Williams's Speech, &c.

GIFT OF

Bancrof

VOL. 86.-No. 1.] LONDON, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 4TH, 1854.

1315813

Bancroft Library

No. II.

TO CHARLES MARSHALL,

LABOURER,

[Price Is. 2d.

and all these persons are, as they eat, standing up in the room, as thick as they can stand. Fack, as soon as the mess is eaten, goes away; and, as there is room made, others come in; and there were about three hundred then waiting in the yard to take their turn.

There were about a hundred little girls in a school, and about as many boys in another, neither had shoes or stockings, and the boys had no shirts. Their faces were pale, the whole hun-` dred not having so much red as your little round-faced chap that was set to keep the birds away from the cabbage

Of Normandy Tithing, Ash, Farnham, seed in Dodman's field. Yes, MARSHALL,

MARSHALL,

Surrey.

Dublin, 27. Sept. 1834.

and will not, I hope, listen to any fanatical man, who would persuade them, that to starve in rags, in this world, has a tendency to give them a crown of glóry in the next.

that little chap, with his satchel full of bread and cheese or bacon; he was at the proper school! He and Tom DeadAFTER I wrote to you, the other day, MAN and little BARRATT will make strong about the MENDICITY, I went again at and able men like their fathers; will the dinner time. You know, I saw the live well, and be well clothed; and will breakfast! that is the ground oals and be respected like their fathers, and be butter-milk, or water, or skim-milk, happy in that state of life in which it (sometimes one and sometimes the has pleased God to place them; other), boiling in great coppers for the breakfast; and now I went to see the dinner; and the gentlemen, who have the management of the place, showed me all about it. There are about three] thousand persons fed here; and, if they were not thus fed, they must either die, or thieve or rob; or more properly take by force; for, in such a case, the words theft or robbery do not, according to the just laws of England, apply to the act; though they do apply, and, I hope, always will apply, in England.

In another place I saw a great crowd of women sitting and doing nothing, each with a baby in her arms. They were sitting in rows, waiting, I believe, for their messes. Some of them were young and naturally handsome; but made ugly by starvation, rags, and dirt. It was one mass of rags; and, not what I saw this" dinner." In one long you call rags; not rags such as you see room, there were about 500 women, on the beggars or gipsies that go to each with some potatoes in a bowl, hopping at Farnham; but far worse mashed, as you mash them, to mix with than any that you ever saw tied round a meal, for your hogs. These people go stake to frighten the birds from our/ to one end of the room, and, one at a wheat and our peas; far worse than time, get their mess. There are persons the Kentish people and South Hampto put the potatoes into the bowl; shire people put up on a scare-crow to which they do by taking the potatoes keep the birds from their cherries. And out of a tub, with a tin measure, holding this is the condition, Marshall, to which about a quart, and putting the thing the Scotch feelosofer vagabonds wish to full in to the bowl, which is then carried persuade the Parliament to reduce the away by the person who is to eat it; wives and the daughters of the working [Printed by W. Cobbett, Johnson's court.]

$53594

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people of England! while they talk of bonds before we have done. It is our educating you all, at the same time! duty, too, to exert this right to endeaAh! MARSHALL, these vagabonds want your to better the lot of our suffering to give you books, and to take away the fellow-subjects in Ireland. Mr. DEAN will tell you, that I have always set my bread and meat for themselves. In another place I saw the most pain-face against the ill-treatment of Irish ful sight of all women with heavy people who go to get work in England. hammers, cracking stones into very small Their own food is sent away from them pieces, to make walks in gentlemen's to England, for the benefit of their landgardens! These women were as ragged lords; we receive the food, and it is as the rest; and the sight of them and monstrous injustice in us to frown upon their work, and the thoughts accompa- them, if they come and offer their lanying these, would have sunk the heart bour in exchange for a part of that very And food which they themselves have raised. in your body, as they did mine. I hear that discontents are arising are the women and girls of England to be brought to this state? Would not again in England, on account of the every man in Normandy suffer every lowering of wages. Mr. DEAN will not drop of blood to be let out of his body lower the wages of any body. He knows rather than see your sisters and daugh- that I never gave a full working man ters and mothers and wives brought to less than 15s. a week, though found a this state? If I were not sure that Tom good house and garden and plenty of FARR would perish himself rather than fuel. And I know that a man, with a see his sister brought to this, he should wife and only three small children, cannot live under my roof a moment longer. not live, as he ought to live, on less, And what, then, of his good and indus- though flour were cheaper than it is trious and kind and tender mother! The now, as I hope it will be. But, MARbate thought would drive him mad! SHALL, let us be just; let us do as we Yet, Marshall, it is my duty to tell you, would be done by many of the farmers that the half-drunk and half-mad and are not able, in the present state of greedy and crawling Scotch vagabonds, things, with all these taxes and monowhose counsels have beggared the polies arising out of them, to give the Scotch working people, are endeavour-wages that I give, without being ruined ing to persuade the Parliament to bring themselves; theirs is, in many cases, a your wives, mothers, sisters, and daugh-life of greater hardship than that of the ters into this very state! Be on your labourer: they are compelled to give) guard, therefore; be ready to perform 8s. 6d. for MALT, which, if there were your duty to prevent the success of these no tax, they would have at this moment crawling villains, who hope to get re- for about 3s. 3d. They would give! warded for their schemes for making their men beer, they would keep the you work for 6d. a day, and for putting young people in their houses, as I do; your wages into the pockets of the land- but they are unable to do it without lords. When I get back we will have being ruined and becoming labourers a meeting at Guildford to petition the themselves. Then the landlords: why king and Parliament on the subject; to should their rents not be paid? Not to this meeting you must all come; for, get their rents is to lose their estates; though the law does not give you the and why should they have their estates right of voting, it always gives you the taken away? Those estates are as much right of petitioning; and as I shall here- their right as good living in exchange after show you, it gives you a right to for your labour, and as parish aid in parish relief in case you be unable to case of inability are your rights. So earn a sufficiency to keep you in a pro-that I hope that you will duly consider per manner. This is as much your birth- these things; and not conclude that, right as is the lord of the manor's right though others may not give the wages to his estate; and of this we will con- that I give, they would not do it if they vince the crawling and greedy vaga- could.

TO MR. SMITH,

AT THE PRINTING-OFFICE,
BOLT COURT.

It is my opinion that, if flour were only 5s. a bushel, 15s. a week is not too much for a really able, sober, and trustworthy labouring man, who has a wife DEAR SIR, and only three small children. And I Dublin, 27. Sept., 1834, never did, and never will, make any You will please to cause 500 copies of each of these Letters to MARSHALL distinction between a married man and to be struck off, in the manner described a single man. Why should I? What have I to do with the man, more than in my last letter. Put them up in a to pay him duly the worth of his labour? Coach-parcel, and send them by the And how is the single man ever to be Farnham coach, directed to Mr. DEAN in a fit condition to marry, and to lead at Normandy, Ash, Farnham, Surrey. a happy life and rear a family, unless This is not giving you trouble, but plea he has, from his earnings while single, sure; and therefore I offer you no aposingle,logy. I hope that all the uns amped the means of starting well in his new state of life? The old saying, that will send these letters about. "when poverty comes in at the door, love flies out at the window," is perfectly true. And how is poverty to be kept out if there be nothing of any worth to begin with?

I am,

Your faithful

And most obedient servant,
WM. COBBETT.

P.S. Put an ounce weight of each of

I have not time to write any thing them under cover, and direct it to our more to you now. I will, in future let-county member, John Leech, Esq., Lea, ters, tell you the causes of all this misery, Godalming. and you will want nothing more to make you all resolve to use all the lawful means in your power to prevent it from falling on yourselves.

TO MR. JOHN DEAN.
DEAR SIR,

Two things, I hope, you will all at- I SUPPOSE that the parcels of printed' tend to in my absence: first, cheerful letters will get to Farnham every Tuesobedience to Mr. DEAN, in all things, day night. And you must get them 27 years of experience having convinced over to Normandy. Send about 200 me that he will require from you no- of each Number, by one of the boys or thing but that which is proper, and that men, to Mr. WHITLAW, at Compton, who nothing will induce him to do any I hope will get them sent to Godalming, thing towards any body that is unjust, Bramley, Elstead, Frencham, Seale, or hard. The other thing is, my hope that none of you will go to any drinking place on any account. You have no need to do it; when you have not good beer at the farm-house, I give you the means of having it at home with your wives and children; and therefore, if any of you should disobey me in this respect, and should set at nought the example which you have in Mr. DEAN, as well as the precept that you thus receive from me, Mr. DEAN has my full authority to act towards you accordingly. With giving you this important precept, and in the hope that all of you and all belonging to you are well, I am, Your master and friend,

WM. COBBETT.

Hazlemere, &c. and all about that side of the Hog's-back. You will take care to get the rest sent to Farnham, Guildford, Chertsey, Egham, Bagshot, and to all the parishes round about us, especially Purbright and Chobhain. Be very diligent about this. Any of the men will carry them on a Sunday, or in the evening, to such a place as Purbright or Aldershot. You will observe, that I have this matter greatly at heart; and therefore, I beg you to act accordingly. My native county shall not be unjust towards Ireland for want of knowing her treatment, and for want of knowing the miseries so unjustly inflicted upon her; nor shall the people of that county be steeped in similar misery by the schemes of the renegado Scotch villains,

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