For the more effectual Prevention and Punishment of Blasphemous and Seditious Libels. To Authorize the Seizure and Detention of Arms on the part of Justices of the Peace. To Subject certain Publications to the Newspaper-Stamp Duty. For more effectually Preventing Seditious Meetings and Assemblies. To Prevent Delay in the Administration of Justice in Cases of Misdemeanour. [8] “Authority” must have been in a terrible fright, if we may judge from the following (from the _Statesman_ [London] newspaper, Dec. 2, 1819):-- “Manchester, Nov. 29.--Expected arrival of Mr. Cobbett.--Though the morning was very rainy, the expectation of Mr. Cobbett’s arrival in this town attracted great numbers of persons from different parts of the country. The local authorities were on the alert, and military arrangements were made, which were as formidable as those of the 16th of August. Several pieces of cannon were brought into the town last night, but the yeomanry cavalry had received no orders, nor did they make their appearance to-day. Hussars were stationed on different parts of the Liverpool road, in order to give immediate information of Mr. C.’s movements.” The Borough reeves and constables placarded the town, recommending the people to keep within doors, and also addressed Mr. Cobbett, informing him that if he made a public entry into Manchester, it would be their “indispensable duty immediately to interfere.” The Reformers met this with a counter-placard:--“No procession.--In consequence of a placard posted this morning (joined with military arrangements, similar to those which preceded the fatal 16th of August last), … the _real friends_ of peace (the principal Reformers of Manchester) request the public not to give the fiends of St. Peter’s another opportunity of shedding innocent blood, but to stay at home, and thus disappoint them of their prey.” [9] “Ode on the Bones of the Immortal Thomas Paine, newly transferred from America to England, by the no less immortal William Cobbett, Esq.” “Sketches of the Life of Billy Cobb and the Death of Tommy Pain, compiled from Original Documents obtained in an Original Manner.” “The Real or Constitutional House that Jack Built,” has a cut of Cobbett shouldering a coffin. The character of this pamphlet may be judged by the following, addressed to the “first gent:”-- “This is the prince of a generous mind, The friend of his country and all mankind, Who, lending his ear to the dictates of truth,” &c. As for the newspaper rhymesters, the episode of “Cobbett and Paine” was quite a godsend to them. And the reader who knows anything of election-squibbing will recall his own delights, when he thinks of the fun the Preston and Coventry people came to have over these poor bones.