The year 1806 was pregnant with importance concerning the future of this country. The accession of “All the Talents” to power, after the death of Pitt, marked its commencement; and the nation was alive with hopes. Another abortive attempt was made to negotiate peace with Napoleon. The affairs of India, Military Reform, Lord Melville’s Impeachment, filled the public mind. But one matter, above all, which now came to the front: and which, after many years of lagging, now had a fair start,--was that of Parliamentary Reform. And that which, at length, furnished the motive power to the wheels of Parliamentary Reform, was no other than the invincible _Weekly Political Register_ of Mr. William Cobbett. Fitful had hitherto been the progress made. Few persons of position had been in earnest about it. Very few had dared to give definiteness to their opinions; and the number of those who could be called advocates of Reform, could be counted on the fingers. The most prominent of these was Major Cartwright.[2] So, upon Mr. Cobbett’s wit and energy being devoted to the discussion of public abuses, and the only real remedy for them, he found himself surrounded by a new class of friends. Cartwright, Burdett, Bosville, and others, no longer singly held their cry, but rejoiced in their new exponent. Here was a man who had been learning all his lifetime, and who could manfully confess his political errors, not only in mere general terms, but to points of detail;--a man who had acquired the high privilege of being maligned, misrepresented, and threatened for the odious crime of speaking the truth in clear and unfaltering, although sarcastic, terms:--one “to whom the public eye turned for light and information.” That was the view, at least, taken by many of the correspondents of the _Register_. So, if Mr. Cobbett was heaping up wrath in one quarter, his name and his talents were being recognized in another. The people were looking to him,--not the “swinish multitude” of Mr. Burke, nor the “lower orders” of Mr. Wilberforce, but the people who paid the taxes and wanted to see where the money went to.