“Of all these men, REEVES and WILLIAM GIFFORD were the only ones of talent--the former a _really learned_ lawyer, and, politics aside, as good a man as ever lived--a clever man; a head as clear as spring water; considerate, mild, humane; made by nature to be an English judge. I did not break with him on account of politics. We said nothing about them for years. I always had the greatest regard for him; and there he now is in the grave, leaving, the newspapers say, _two hundred thousand pounds_, without hardly a soul knowing that there ever was such a man! The fate of WILLIAM GIFFORD was much about the same: both lived and died bachelors; both left large sums of money; both spent their lives in upholding measures which, in their hearts, they abhorred, and in eulogizing men whom, in their hearts, they despised; and, in spite of their literary labours, the only chance that they have of being remembered, for even ten years to come, is this notice of them from a pen that both most anxiously wished to silence many years ago. Amongst the first things that Reeves ever said to me was: ‘I tell you what, Cobbett, we have only two ways here; we must either _kiss_,--or _kick_ them; and you must make your choice at once.’ I resolved to kick. William Gifford had more asperity in his temper, and was less resigned. He despised Pitt and Canning and the whole crew; but he loved ease, was _timid_; he was their slave all his life, and all his life had to endure a conflict between his pecuniary interest and his conscience. “As to the rest of my _’Squires_ and other dignified pamphleteers, they were a low, talentless, place-and-pension-hunting crew; and I was so disgusted with the discoveries that I had made, that I trembled at the thought of falling into the ranks with them. Love of _ease_ was not in me; the very idea of becoming _rich_ had never entered into my mind; and my horror at the thought of selling my talents for money, and of plundering the country with the help of the means that God had given me wherewith to assist in supporting its character, filled me with horror not to be expressed.” FOOTNOTES [1] The Right Hon. George Rose, M.P., a Government official, and one of the luckiest sinecurists of his day. His “success” in life aroused, alternately, the ridicule and the wrath of his cotemporaries:-- “George Rose, Esq., Secretary to the Treasury, &c., &c., &c., &c., &c., &c., &c.”--Mathias: “Pursuits of Literature.” “_Greedy_:--George Rose’s moderation, and not satisfied.”--Pigott’s “Political Dictionary” (1796). “Who in his lifetime held situations worth 10,000_l._ per annum, and whose family, it has been calculated, received in principal and interest, nearly two millions of the public money.”--“Black Book; or Corruption Unmasked” (1820).