* * * * * From this day Mr. Cobbett had a handle to his name, which his unreasoning and malicious foes--his envious, his beaten foes--could flourish at will. He was now a “Convicted Libeller.” And when you can call a man a convicted libeller or a convicted anything, you may fill the office of ass to the sick lion, not only with impunity, but with credit and distinction to yourself. You will even find many base admirers. FOOTNOTES [1] A portrait (_vide_ Frontispiece), engraved by Bartolozzi, appeared at the close of 1801. Cobbett appears in the surtout and neckcloth of the period, and has sufficient dignity of mien, notwithstanding his light hair and round face, and one’s impression that he would look as well in a smock-frock. [2] _I.e._, independent, not only of subsidy, but of the shackles of party. [3] It appears in the _Political Register_ for July 30, 1803, and may be found sometimes in old collections of pamphlets and broadsides. [4] “Annual Register,” 1804. [5] Lord Colchester’s “Diary,” i. 463. [6] A very funny pamphlet appeared about this time, which may be noticed as the first one of its kind, aimed at Cobbett’s _Register_. The title is “Elements of Opposition” (Hatchard, 1803), and it consists of a series of rules, founded upon the opinions of Cobbett:--“How to describe a prime minister;” “How to be outrageous for the public good;” “How to talk of what you do not know,” &c., &c. The pamphlet went through several editions. [7] “It were idle trifling to impute the distractions and general backwardness of that country to any other cause than the circumstances in which she has been placed, and the example or wish of those to whose management she has been entrusted.”--“Annual Register,” 1804. [8] Jeremy Bentham, in an article on “The Elements of Packing, as applied to Juries,” comments on this affair. Had he been upon the jury, he “should not have regarded it as consistent with his oath and duty to join in a verdict of guilty.” Bentham, also, has a capital note on the impunity of men of family, and the punishment due to men of _no_ family, called forth by a question of the Attorney-General. It certainly was an unnecessary piece of meanness on the part of Perceval to ask, “Gentlemen, who is Mr. Cobbett? Is he a man of family in this country? Is he a man writing purely from motives of patriotism?” &c.--“Works,” v. 66, 80, 106, &c. The end of this affair was the prosecution of Judge Johnson himself, in the following year. Cobbett had delivered up the anonymous MS., with the admission that the envelope had the Dublin post-mark. The handwriting was then traced to the worthy judge. The newspapers which were not slavish supporters of Government greatly disapproved of the affair; the _Morning Chronicle_ being especially bold in the expression of its contempt. The judge retired in 1806, upon a pension of 1200_l._ a year. CHAPTER XIII. “I SAW THINGS IN ANOTHER LIGHT.”