Mr. Cobbett was not ordered to attend the bar of the House. More the pity: Cobbett in Newgate, illegally imprisoned by order of the House of Commons, would have been a very different affair to Cobbett in Newgate _ex_ The Attorney-General! Yet he was not forgotten. WM. C. to J. W. “So, then, the honourable House have, at last, resolved to have the _Register_ read to them. That is one sign of amendment, and if they do but follow it up by a similar motion every week, it cannot fail to do them a great deal of good, if anything in this world can do them good. If they call me before them, I shall say that, as the Speaker himself sent me his speech to publish, I, of course, thought it right to publish the speech of any member of the House, especially when he put his name to it. “But what I am, at this moment, anxious about, is that Mr. Madocks should again bring forward his last year’s motion. You will perceive that the worry now making is about breaches of privilege, tending to degrade and vilify the House. Now, what can have so clear and strong a tendency this way, as the having _sold seats in the House_, and the having turned out a member for not being willing to vote against his conscience? Why not punish those who were guilty of such offences? This is the ground whereon to proceed; and what a fine, what a striking, what a glorious effect it would have now, to renew Mr. Madocks’s motion! What could they do? What could they _say_? Good God! what an exhibition they would make before the country!…” “… So far so good! I am delighted with what has taken place, and especially with the conduct of Lord Folkestone,[6] who, as I always told you, is the truest man in all England. Don’t you remember the eulogium that we pronounced upon him, at your house, on Friday? That is the good of him: you may always depend upon him for more than he promises you. Who would have thought, some years ago, that he would have been the man to answer the minister? And to beat him, too! His speech, even as reported, is a master-piece; and there was no time for preparation. I always told him what he was able to do, if he could but muster up courage.…”