Mr. Cobbett, very properly, attributed a great portion of the evils which the people endured to the corrupt state of the public press, which he denominated "_blind guides_." "They are," said he (in speaking of the provincial papers), "some of them tools of corruption, and some of them _dumb dogs_, that have not the courage to take the part either of right or wrong; they are neither one thing nor the other; they are quite vapid, and, therefore, will the public 'spew them out of their mouths.' Not, indeed, such papers as the _Nottingham Review_, the _Stamford News_, the LIVERPOOL MERCURY, and some others, the proprietors of which do honour to the press, and the pages of which will always be read with pleasure and advantage." This is the way in which he spoke and wrote of Mr. Egerton Smith, the proprietor of the _Liverpool Mercury_, in the year 1816. After the great public meeting, which had been held in Spa-fields, on the 15th of November, Mr. Cobbett, in the very next Number of his Register, published on the 23d of that month, came round all at once to _Universal Suffrage_; and he says, "In Nos. 16 and 18 I gave my reasons for _excluding_ from the vote all persons who did not pay direct taxes." He then very clearly demonstrates the justice of _every one_ having a vote, and adds, "But, it appeared to me, when I wrote Nos. 16 and 18, to be too difficult to put this right in motion all at once; and therefore I recommended the confining of the right of voting _to the payers of direct taxes_, until there should be time for a reformed Parliament _to change the mode of taxing_. Since, however, I have come to London, I have had an opportunity of consulting MAJOR CARTWRIGHT upon the subject; and the result is, my THOROUGH CONVICTION that nothing short Of UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE would be just, and that such a system is perfectly practicable." This was published on the 23d of November, 1816. The reader will have to recollect these things when I come to detail what took place at the meeting of delegates, in London, on the following January. _Now_, Mr. Cobbett says that "there are three things for which I contend--_Universal Suffrage, Annual Parliaments_, and _Vote by Ballot_."