The history of the week, ending with this 16th day of May, would, to do it anything like justice, demand a bulky volume: to relate it to you would be impertinent; but my advice to you is to keep it constantly in mind, and never

but you

its being the work of the people. You have, as all people do, too long borne, had the ambition to be at once the and with too much patience; but which master of the TORIES and of the Pro- we shall bear no longer. PLE; to put down the former by your talents, and the latter by your swordbearing police; to suffer the former to keep, and to give to the latter, just what you pleased, and no more. "Oh, no!" said the TORIES, "you shall not master us both at any rate ! If you do tri-again to say, or to act as if you said, umph over us, you shall, openly be- that you would rule without the assent "fore all the world, owe your triumph of the people; for, if you again assume "to the people." this tone and air, you are yet destined to And thus it has been. There needs come down. The people put you into no argument, no narrative of facts to power; the people have kept you there; prove it, any more than there requires and, if you again attempt to set them at the use of such means to prove the ex- defiance, you will become nothing; and istence of light and darkness. So great nothing you ought to become. You and famous a people cannot make such will not believe it, I know a movement as this people has made ought to believe, and to be thoroughly within the last seven days, without the convinced of this fact, namely, that you perfect knowledge of its being made owe, at this moment, a thousand times known to the whole world; and the as much to our hatred of STRATHFIELDwhole world will now know; we, here, SAY as you owe to our regard for you. all know already; there is not a hedger, If your rival for power had been any or ploughman, or woodman, living on one of several noblemen whom I could the skirts of the wildest forest in Eng-mention, and if he had expressed his land, who does not, at this very mo- readiness to give us as much as you had ment, know, and clearly understand, offered, the result would have been very that you were defeated by the LORDS, different; for, observe, he would have that you were abandoned by the KING, stood before us unencumbered with the and that only this day week you were Irish-tithe-coercion-law, and uncharged as powerless as a baby two hours old, with many, many other things, that rest and would have continued as power-on your head. If such a man had preless, had it not been for the voluntary sented himself, though exhibiting a exertions of this spirited, virtuous, and sensible people. The history of this one week will for ever serve as an answer to those insolent beasts who talk of the people as being nothing; to those audacious plunderers who say that the people have nothing to do with the laws but to obey them. It was the people, the common people of France, who put down POLIGNAC, and drove out the tyrant Bourbon; and it is the people of England, and the people only, who have put down STRATHFIELDSAY. Our brethren in France have, indeed, thus far, been cheated out of the fruit of their victory; they were too confiding; they were betrayed; we shall not be; we shall keep the power in our own hands, and use it for our own deliverance from a state of oppression which we

strong instance of political inconsist ency, amounting, indeed, to something very much like political profligacy, should we, should I, for instance, have turned from him, and clung to you? To you, with Hampshire, and Wiltshire, and Farmer Boyce, and poor Cook of Micheldever, never to be effaced from my mind? Should I have called on my readers to force back into place him who had implanted in my mind the recollection of BRISTOL and NOTTINGHAM, where the sufferers had been urged on to acts of violence only such as he himself had represented to be the natural effect of the provocation which had been given them? Should I have called on my readers to pray the King to take back him who had, in the midst of profound peace, augmented the army

To put an end to the Poor-law Commission, with STURGES BOURNE at the head of it.

To hasten the passing of the Reform Bill, and to cause it to be brought into operation without any impedíment raised by you, or winked at by you.

These are amongst the things which,

to the anti-jacobin-war standard, who 5. had put swords into the hands of a Bourbon-like police, who had prosecuted men for walking the streets in the 6. most peaceable manner, and who had drawn troops round us in every direc tion, and had told the Lords, in your reply in the second-reading debate, that whatever might be their decision, it was your determination to keep the peace of if you be wise, you will now do; and the country? Should I, who had wit- then the nation will be grateful to you; nessed in you a determination to uphold and, for my own part, I repeat what I the tithes and all the rest of the estab- have many times said; namely, that it lishment by force; I, who had heard will please me to see you continue to your honest and frank colleague, Lord be Prime Minister as long as your life ALTHORP, promise that the measure for and health will permit it; but, if you extinguishing tithes in Ireland should accompany the measure for enforcing the payment of tithes now due, and had seen that promise broken; should I have called on my readers to put you back into power, if a rival had offered, uncharged with what I deem your fences, and ready to yield to us as much as you had offered to yield? Certainly not! and, whatever you may think of the matter, my feelings and my motive of action were those of the whole nation. We forgot none of your language or of your acts; but, when your rival was Wellington, it was drawing the sword upon us, and we, like the Israelites, flew to our tents !

of

This is the true history of the matter, and, if you be wise, you will so consider it, and will act accordingly; and if you do act accordingly, you will,

do not do these things, and especially
the fourth, I shall always detest you,
shall always rejoice at seeing you hum-
bled, and, as far as I can do it without
risk of injury to my country, shall
always endeavour to humble you.
WM. COBBETT.

TO THE

PEOPLE OF MANCHESTER,
On the Events of the last Week.

MY FRIEnds,

Bolt Court, May 17, 1832.

Ir will be out of my power to give you a full account of the events of the last seven days, which exceed in importance all the events that have taken place in the last hundred years, because they will decide, not only the fate of 1. Drop at once the haughty tone which our liberties, but that of the liberties of you have held towards us, remem- all Europe. The eyes of the whole bering that true dignity of charac- world have been upon us for now more ter never yet was found in that than twenty months; the despots have man who was supple towards the been looking at us with dread, and their powerful (as you have been) and oppressed subjects with hope: both have "vigorous" towards the feeble. been alternately elevated and depress2. To rely upon the good will of the ed: the former will now despair and people for support, and akcnow-the latter will exult. Famed throughledge that you do rely upon that. 3. To cease to be the rigid and severe Minister, and propose and adopt none but mild measures. 4. To take steps for bringing back, and pardoning, the hundreds of country labourers who have been sent into slavery beyond the seas, by the Special Commissions.

out the world for our wealth, our industry, our integrity, our morality, and wielding power so great, our example has always been powerful; and, great God! what must now be the effect of that example! How the good and cheated fellows of Paris will rejoice to hear of our conduct, and of its result!

To give a full account of the pro

H 2

ceedings of the week, is out of my Hanover formed the subject of a popupower, but it is necessary that I put lar and widely-circulated caricature. the principal facts upon record, and Resistance in every shape and form was particularly with regard to the dates. publicly proposed; and, amongst the On the 7th of May, as you have al- means intended to defeat the King and ready been informed, Lord Grey put a the new Minister, was that most effecstop to the proceedings of the bill, tual of all means, a run upon the Bankfinding that it must either be lost or for gold! which, on Saturday, the 12th taken out of his hands, unless there of May, was recommended in a placard, were a great creation of peers. On posted up all over London in the folTuesday morning he went to the King lowing words: "To stop the Duke, go and proposed such creation, and, the for gold." On Sunday, the 13th, an King having refused to make the peers, incident took place at one one of the Grey and Brougham, who went with churches, which will show to what an him, tendered the resignation of their extent the public rage had extended. offices, of which the King accepted on The Bishop of Lichfield, whose name is the ninth, in the fore part of the day; Ryder, and who is a brother of that and it was soon understood that Wel- Lord Harrowby who has made himself lington was to be Prime Minister, with so conspicuous in his opposition to the such a set of colleagues as he might get Reform Bill, was to preach a charity together. The alarm which this ex- sermon at the parish church of St. cited in London, it is impossible for Bride, which is in the very heart of the any man to describe. The common city of London. The account of his council of the City instantly met, reception there, and of his treatment by and petitioned the House of Commons the people, I take from the Morning to grant no further supplies until the Chronicle of the 14th of May, in the Reform Bill should be passed. As following words: quickly as the intelligence could fly, this very laudable example was followed all over the country; and, so quick were the movements of the people, that on Friday, the 11th of May, there were deputations in London, bringing up petitions and remonstrances from Birmingham and Manchester, of which latter I shall have to say more by-andby.

We should state, it is always customary for the Lord Mayor to attend in state. The nomination of the Bishop to preach the sermon did not give general satisfaction to the parishioners, and numerous placards of an unpleasant nature were yesterday in circulation, and indeed, several were exhibited containing advice to send the bishop to Coventry, and inviting the parishioners to quit the church as soon as the Bishop ascended the pulpit. Perhaps, however, it would have been prudent, in the present excited state of the public mind, To describe the agitation in London, if the authorities had postponed the sermon and the anger of the people against the till a more quiet period. A large crowd Lords, the Bishops, Wellington, and assembled in Fleet-street, and the avenues particularly against the King, is a task leading to the church, between ten and eleven o'clock, and was subsequently much increased that no tongue or pen can perform. -so much so, that the respectable inhabitants, Every man you met seemed to be con- particularly the females, found much difficulty vulsed with rage: to refuse to pay taxes in entering the chhrch. Upon the arrival of was amongst the mildest of the mea-with loud and continued plaudits. He was the Lord Mayor, his Lordship was received sures that were proposed at the several accompanied by the Lady Mayoress, but meetings the language of the news- upon the pious Prelate's carriage making its papers, especially with regard to the appearance, the most horrid yells were uttered, King, Queen, and divers members of the and some mud was thrown at the carriage. It was with great difficulty the Bishop succeeded Royal family, was such as to make one in reaching the vestry-room, from whence he doubt the evidence of one's senses, and was escorted by the parish functionaries, and yet it was a very inadequate representa- a large body of police to his seat in the church, tion of what was issuing from people's which was now filled with a dense mass of mouths. A cry for a republic was pretty increased. Much alarm was painted in the persons, while the crowd outside greatly nearly general; and an emigration to countenances of many of the fair sex,

several of whom quitted the church long | a man as ever lived in the world. If before the conclusion of the sermon. The these gentlemen ever eat porridge, they Bishop was evidently much agitated when he entered the pulpit. In the course of the might have kept their breath for the sermon he appeared much recovered, until a purpose of cooling it, for, while the tremendous shout from the mob outside, and Alderman has not found a man in the an evident movement from the side aisle kingdom to believe that any but sincere within the church, again appeared to affect the Bishop's nerves. At the conclusion of the reformers did this thing, Mr. LITTLE

within and withoutside the church. The Lord

;

sermon, after waiting some short time, the Bi-TON will have a vast deal to do to shop, with some difficulty, owing to the pressure prove that as good a man as any in of the crowd, joined the Lord Mayor and Lady the world was as bitter enemy of Mayoress, and proceeded under their protecThe fact is, tion and the great activity of the police, down parliamentary reform. the middle aisle of the church; but as soon as that this narrative of the Chronicle he reached the outer part, the crowd, which is far short of the truth. My house was very great, began to applaud the Lord and at Bolt-court is within a hundred yards Lady Mayoress, until perceiving the Bishop of St. Bride's Church. I know not only made part of the cortege, they set up most tremendous groans and shouts, and immediately that the reformers did the work, but a rush was made to seize the Bishop, and his that these reformers are, too, the prinlife was certainly in no little peril from the cipal persons of the parish of St. Bride. angry and vindictive conduct of the mob, both I was told by a gentleman who was Mayor, with great quickness and dexterity, present, that many persons struck the and we may add with much humanity, seized Bishop with the crowns of their hats as the Bishop by the arm, and placed him before he went along the aisle of the church him, while Cope, the Marshal, and the City and that the constables formed a sort of police formed a side guard, by which means arch over him, to protect him from the the Bishop was enabled to escape into the vestry room. He appeared dreadfully agitated, blows aimed at his head. The Lord and, after some time, requested to accompany Mayor provided for his own safety when the Lord Mayor in his state carriage, but the he refused the Father-in-God a place in Lady Mayoress being present, and it never his coach, it being evident, that, if he being customary for any other person but officers attached to his suite to ride with his lord- had admitted him into the coach, the ship, the offer was politely declined. Word coach, which is glass all around, would being brought that the crowd had somewhat have been dashed to pieces, himself and dispersed, the Lord Mayor's carriage was ordered to be drawn up, and the Bishop's to fol- his wife along with it. It was with low quite close. His Lordship and the Lady great difficulty that the Bishop was got Mayoress were loudly greeted by the thousands with whole bones into his own coach, who had now assembled, and considerable ap-at the bottom of which he couched down prehension was felt for the safety of the Bishop, until it had got away out of the reach but the blinds of the carriage being up, doubts arose if he had left the church, and the coachman using considerable dexterity in forcing the horses through the crowd, and Cope, the City Marshal, being outside the carriage, the Bishop escaped amidst the horrid yells and imprecations of the crowd, who followed the carriage as far as Temple Bar.

In the House of Commons, on the 15th of May, Mr. Alderman WAITHMAN, for some reason, known I dare say to his wise self, but wholly incomprehensible to me, took upon himself to assert, that this treatment of the Bishop was not the work of the reformers; and that the reformers had nothing at all to do with it; whereat the sublime Mr. LITTLETON, Member for Staffordshire, ́expressed his exceeding delight, saying that he knew the Bishop to be as good

of the people.

I shall not stop to make reflections on this transaction, having nothing to do but with the facts; but it is quite necessary that they should be known

and recorded.

The day before this took place, the King and Queen came to town from Windsor; and of their treatment by the people the Morning Chronicle of the 14th gives us the following account:

their Majesties would come to town on SaturThe Court Circular having announced that day, the popular feeling had an opportunity presented for displaying itself, which was seized with extraordinary avidity. At a quarter-past twelve o'clock, the royal carriage in attendants, reached the village of Hounslow, which their Majesties were seated, without where it was joined by an escort of about

twenty of the 9th Lancers. The postilions passed on at a rapid rate till they entered the town of Brentford; where the people, who had assembled in great numbers, expressed, by groans, hisses, and exclamations, their disapprobation of his Majesty's conduct with respect to the administration. The escort kept close together, and it is probable that they protected their Majesties from insult, as it is alleged that pieces of mud were flung towards the carriage. Along the whole of the road to London the people continued to express their feelings of dissatisfaction. When the carriage entered the Park, it proceeded at a very rapid rate towards the Palace, amidst the hisses, mingled with a few occasional cheers, of the crowds assembled to receive it. His Majesty leaned back, but the Queen sat forward, with her face towards the right-side window, and appeared to be wholly unconcerned at the groaning and hissing which proceeded from the people.

LIBEL, No. 1.

To the Editor of the Morning Chronicle. SIR,-The shameful parts of monarchy, as that obscene renegade Philpotts would say, ought to be concealed. The by-blows of a king ought not to be his body-guard. Can anything be more indecent than the entry of a sovereign into his capital with one bastard rid ing before, and another by the side of his car riage? The impudence and rapacity of the FITZJORDANS is unexampled, even in the annals of Versailles and Madrid. The demands made upon the person of their poor, weak, and drivelling begetter are incessant. On the slightest demur, the insult and reproaches heaped upon his wretched head (by the eldest of the brood especially) are not to be described. In this they are abetted by HER whom Cob bett calls "THE NASTY GERMAN FROW."

As long as the machinations of this crew of Harpies only affected the private peace and That the people should behave in cared not to interfere; but when they have the domestic comfort of their unhappy parent, 1 this manner is not at all surprising, audacity to defile with their unclean touch, when we look at the language of the the Charter of our new-born freedom, and atnewspapers, which have now been attempt to strangle by their illegitimate hands work for several days, attacking the the lawful expectations of the people of England, their sordid depravity shall be exposed King in as rough a manner as it was to the world. Are the destinies of this great possible to attack him by words. As a country, indeed, to be at the mercy of these specimen of these attacks, take the vagabonds, male and female? The reports of following from the Morning Chronicle these intrigues are quite sickening. Their inof this same 14th of May. Talk of li- bankrupt, unprincipled adventurer, who has struments, too, in effecting their object-a bels indeed; talk of the sacred person long lived on, and connived at the of a King; talk of an Attorney-General to a madman! an ignorant, hard-hearted solto prosecute libels! here are libels in-dier, whose occupation even now, when his deed! In one of them, too, my name is of superannuated idiotcy, ought to warn him hollow cheeks, wasted form, and vacant grin inserted, as that of a person who has of the inutility, as well as folly of such at given his countenance, or rather his as- tempts, is to be Sultan of his Dowager Sesistance, in the putting forth of these raglio; who is as fitted to be minister in point intolerable libels. How many a man brave troops, who, by their valour, won for of intellect, as the most uneducated of those has groaned out his life in jail for pub-him his reputation, his title, and his inordilishing libels not a thousandth part so date pensions, and whose lives he ever merciwicked as these, which, as every one lessly sacrificed with wanton recklessness, in must see, is little short of a direct invi-sieges and retreats, feeding his hounds on their tation to the people to drive the King from his throne, and to destroy the kingly government for ever! I will here insert these libels; and when I have so done, you will not wonder that the treasonable cry for a republic should have become so general. It will be perceived that my name is introduced into one of these libels, upon which I shall have to remark, and also upon another passage or two, when I have inserted the libels themselves. You will please to observe, that I copy these libels from the Morning Chronicle of the 14th of May.

miserable rations, whilst they were starving, and filling the ditches of fortresses with their bo dies, that he might walk safely over the bloody and mangled pile.

These, then, Englishmen, are the creatures that betray you. These are the instruments through whom they would rule you-would plunder you would reduce you to their own level of moral degradation and infamy, and make you objects of pity and contempt to the they derived their being and their principles, lowest scene-shifter on that stage from whence Will you submit to this disgraceful yoke? I pause for an answer.

LIBEL, No. 2.

JUNIUS.

Nothing can be more shameless than the tactics of certain left-handed branches of an