William Cobbett: Selected Writings
Editor: Leonora Nattrass
Advisory Editor: James Epstein
The Pickering Masters
978 1 85196 375 1: 234x156mm: £495.00/$875.00
Availability: Japan: Maruzen
This new edition makes an important selection of Cobbett's writings available to scholars in the fields of history, economics, politics, literature and the history of ideas for the first time, and includes full annotation and a biographical and analytical introduction.
William Cobbett (1763–1835) was a prolific writer, best known as the anti-Radical founder of Cobbett's Political Register which ran from 1802–35 and comprised 88 volumes. As his views changed around 1804 he wrote more positively in the Radical interest, and was imprisoned for his attack on flogging in the army. He published the Parliamentary Debates (which later became incorporated into Hansard), a collection of critical writings on America, and numerous volumes of articles on economic and political events, agriculture, language and travel.
While some of Cobbett's texts are available in print, these present the eccentric side of Cobbett and are of limited use to academics and historians. His most historically-significant texts, including the best of his early American journalism which made his name, and his pamphlets from 1816 which sold up to 70,000 copies each, have been unavailable since shortly after his death.
Texts are fully reset and fully annotated with biographical and analytical volume introductions, and there is a comprehensive index.
Contents
Volume 1
'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)
Volume 2
Articles on war, the Treaty of Amiens and Napoleon (1802–3); Letters to Rt. Hon William Pitt (1804–6); Selected articles from the series Perish Commerce (1807–8); 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)
Volume 3
Cobbett's Weekly Political Register: Paper Against Gold, Letters 1 - 3, 7, 10–12, 15–16, 18–21 (1810); Paper Against Gold Letters, 25, 29 (1811); The Last Ten Years (1812); To the Prince Regent, On the Dispute with the American States, Letters 4 & 5 (1812); Mr Eaton - Paine's Age of Reason, June 13th, 20th, 27th & July 11th (1812) The Trinity, May 15th & June 12th ( 1813); Prayer and Thanksgiving (1813); Ecce Homo, October 23rd & 30th (1813); Religion (1813); The Scourge of God (1814); Letters I - VI To the Earl of Liverpool, on the American War (1814); Napoleon's Return (1815); To the People of England. On the Approaching War against France (1815); To Lord Grenville: On the Constitutions of England, America, and France (1815); Letter VI. To Lord Castlereagh. On the Overthrow of the Emperor Napoleon (1815); To the Reformers in General (1816); To the Journeymen and Labourers of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland (1816); A Letter to the Luddites (1816); A Letter to Henry Hunt, Esq. of Middleton Cottage, near Andover. London Plots (1816); To the People of Hampshire. On the Reports made to Parliament. On the Habeas Corpus Suspension. On the Sedition Bills and Treason Bills. On the State to which we are reduced (1817); A Letter to the `Deluded People' (1817); Mr Cobbett's Taking Leave of his Countrymen.
Volume 4
To Major Cartwright, the Venerable Leader of Reform; On Mr. Wooler's Attack on me; on that Gentleman's Trials for Libel; on the Proposition to Elect the Lord Mayor as one of the Members for the City of London; Letters To Mr. Benbow, of the town of Manchester; One of the English Reformers, now imprisoned in some prison in Great Britain, under a warrant of a Secretary of State, in virtue of an Act, lately passed, lodging the absolute power of imprisonment in the hands of the Ministry; Letter, A, To the Freemen of the City of Coventry; On the subject of Englishmen's Birthright, on that of Assassination, on that of the Right to Resist Oppression, on that of Gentler Means; To the Blanketteers and the Public; On the Utility of Knowing Grammar; To the Governor and Company of the Bank of England; To Henry James, Esq., Merchant of Birmingham. on his project for saving the Boroughmongers by making a shilling pass for eighteen pence; Letter X. To Henry Hunt, Esq.; On the recent Tricks of the Boroughmongers, relative to their Paper-Money; To Sir Robert Peel, Baronet and Cotton-Weaver; On the Petition, presented by him against the Resolutions, in Parliament, relative to the Specie-Payments; To the Middle Classes of England; On the benefits which Reform would produce to them; To the Bishop of Llandaff; On a Speech published in the Courier on the 11th of December last, purporting to be a Speech delivered by him on the 10th of that month, in which Speech is contained certain remarks relative to the subjects of Blasphemy, and that of Paine's Age of Reason
Volume 5
A History of the Protestant Reformation in England and Ireland (1829)
Volume 6
Cobbett's Twopenny Trash: Fires in Kent and Sussex; To the Working people of England (1830); A Letter to the King's Ministers on the way to put a stop to the Fires; Letters to the Labourers on their Duties and their Rights; To the Labourers of England, 1) Observations to Labourers, on the subject of Parliamentary Reform; 2) Instructions to Labourers for raising Cobbett's Corn; To the Working People of the whole Kingdom, on the effects which a Parliamentary Reform will have with regard to them; To the Labourers of the England, on the Projects for getting them out of their Native Country (1831); A Full and Accurate Report of the Trial of William Cobbett, Esq. ( before Lord Tenterden and a Special Jury) on Thursday, July 7, 1831, in the Court of King's Bench, Guildhall. Ed anon, 1831; Cobbett's Twopenny Trash: To the Working People, on the scheme for withholding the Ten Pound Suffrage in Great Towns (1831); To the Yeomanry Cavalry: on the Fires (1832); To the Electors under the Reform Bill. On the caution they will now have to exercise, and on the duties which they will now have to perform (1832); To the Working People. 1) The Reform Festival, to be held in Hampshire, on 7th July 1832 (1832); Cobbett's Weekly Political Register: Chopstick Festival at the Hamlet of Sutton Scotney, in Hampshire (1832); To the Cobbettites: on the Elections, and more particularly those of Oldham and Manchester (1832); Cobbett's Legacy to Labourers; or What is the Right which the Lords, Baronets, and Squires, have to the Lands of England? (1834)
Reviews
‘These six volumes of some of Cobbett’s most influential work are … welcome…. Leonora Natrass, who in the past has written sensitively on Cobbett’s style, has chosen to omit some of his better-known works (such as Rural Rides), and concentrated on those political texts that were widely read in his lifetime, but are much less well known and less easily accessible today…sterling work.’
– Linda Colley, London Review of Books
‘Nattrass’s carefully annotated and indexed collection should do much to restore Cobbett to his rightful place at the centre of a Romanticism articulated in its historical and political contexts…a significant and original reassessment of Cobbett’s career and importance.’
– Tim Fulford, Years Work in English Studies