One singular incident of this period is the case of Miss Taylor; a lady who had, unfortunately for herself, to give evidence of her acquaintanceship with Mrs. Clarke. She, with her sister, had kept a school, and the two were earning a respectable livelihood. There was not the slightest ground for tainting her character; but, having to admit, upon a very unnecessary and malicious cross-examination, that she was not born in wedlock, the fathers and mothers of that moral, that highly-toned age, could not brook the notion of their children being educated by a ----, whatever name offended society chose to give her. Her appearance in the inquiry was the prelude to immediate ruin, for her pupils suddenly vanished; and, as the affair got into the papers, it was felt by some of the new “patriots” that, to some extent, she was a martyr to the cause. So they got up a subscription:[8] Mr. Cobbett leading the way; and she was eventually provided for. They should get husbands, he says in one of his letters, “in spite of the _Morning Post_.” But with his characteristic pertinacity, he will have the money invested in no treacherous “Scrip.” Lord Folkestone suggests India Bonds as a mode of investment; but Cobbett’s answer is that not one farthing of money, the disposal of which lies with him, shall ever be laid out, for one hour, in any India or Government security. “I am fixed as a rock never to have any hand in doing anything that shall tend to keep the Funds and the Nabobs in countenance. It would be a pretty thing indeed for me to appeal to the compassion of the public, in order to raise the means of supporting these infernal impostures. No, I will do no such thing, and besides, I do not believe that the money would be secure.” * * * * * “… From the article which appeared in the _Courier_ of Saturday, it is beyond a doubt that one of two things must have taken place; either a copy of the Register, or of proofs, must have been gotten out of Mr. Hansard’s office; or my ‘copy’ must have been read and copied at the post-office, previously to its going to you. This latter would not at all surprise me; and, indeed, I believe it to have been so. But I wish you to speak of it to Hansard, and ask him for answer, positively, whether, to his knowledge or belief, my copy did prematurely get out of the printing-office. Because, this is a thing to state. It is another striking instance of the desperateness of our opponents.