It is highly probable, but for the urging to prosecution, on the part of the ministerial press, that he might have been let alone. But they would not be true to the common cause. Bound in the fetters of party, or of pence, the press was, as yet, ignorant of the latent force which has since made of it a Fourth Estate. And, with respect to Mr. Cobbett, it is impossible to withhold the conviction that the envy and the injustice of his rivals had more to do with moulding his fortunes than all other causes put together. WM. C. to J. W. “Your letter, this day got, contained the best and most agreeable news.… We have all, I and my wife, six children, and every soul in the house, drunk Mr. Perry’s health. I made even little Susan lisp out the words. Pray give my kindest and most respectful compliments to him; and tell him that I do not only most heartily rejoice at his success (which, by the bye, does not surprise me), but beg leave to present my sincere thanks; in which, I trust, I only participate with the rest of the gentlemen connected with the press. Nothing but the necessity of attending to my concerns here this week would have prevented me from returning to town immediately, in order to endeavour to urge in person, what I request you to urge for me; namely, a public dinner at the Crown and Anchor, of ‘the Friends of the Liberty of the Press,’ at which we ought to pass a vote of thanks to Mr. Perry, and to proclaim some principles that may be of the utmost importance in future. Now is the time for us to assert our rights, and the respectability of our profession and character.[4]… Mr. Perry has done more good than any man of his time, and it is for us to profit by it.…” Another public incident, of this period, was the celebrated conflict of Sir Francis Burdett with “Mr. Speaker.” Mr. Gale Jones had been imprisoned by the House of Commons; and Burdett took occasion to address his constituents,--by means of a long letter in Cobbett’s _Register_--denying the power of the House to imprison any but its own members. The letter was composed by Cobbett himself. Mr. Speaker walked home from church[5] with Mr. Perceval on the following day. The latter proposed to move the House to commit Burdett to the Tower, and order the attendance of Cobbett. And so, as every one knows, the metropolis was upset, for the space of two or three months, by an indecent squabble, which brought the House into great disrespect, and made Burdett the idol of the populace. In the end, it required 50,000 soldiers and militia to get him into the Tower; but not all the king’s horses, nor all the king’s men, could rend away the mantle of ridicule which the action of ministers had brought upon themselves.