Spaniards, had been the theme of our praise and the burden of our songs. This was written in 1796.] 'My heart was inflated with national pride. The sailors were my countrymen, the fleet belonged to my country, and surely I had my part in it, and in all its honours; yet these honours I had not earned. I took to myself a sort of reproach for possessing what I had no right to, and resolved to have a just claim by sharing in the hardships and dangers.'

He arrived at his uncle's late in the evening, full of his seafaring project. He had walked thirty miles that day, and consequently was somewhat tired; but, fatigued as he was, his brain was too busy with the naval panorama he had seen that afternoon to let him fall asleep. No sooner was it daylight, than he rose and walked down to the beach, got into a boat, and in a few minutes was on board the Pegasus man-of-war. According to Cobbett's own account, the captain, who had more compassion than is generally met with in men of his profession, tried to persuade him to go home, representing the service as a very toilsome and perilous one; but these arguments made very little impression upon him. He had resolved to become a sailor whatever the toil or danger, and accordingly he made an attempt to get his name enrolled in another vessel. There, also, the captain was unwilling to receive him, and he was forced to wend his way home to Farnham, which he did very reluctantly. He returned once more to the plough, but he was spoiled for a farmer. Previous to his Portsmouth adventure, he had known no other ambition than that of surpassing his brothers in the different labours of the field; but that was all over now. 'I sighed for a sight of the world,' he says. 'The little island of Britain seemed too small a compass for me. The things in which I had taken the most delight were neglected; the singing of the birds grew insipid; and even the heart-cheering cry of the hounds, after which I formerly used to fly from the work, bound o'er the fields, and dash through the brakes and coppices, was heard with the most torpid indifference.' Out of this unfortunate state of mind, the most common mode of escape is to run away from home once more, and this appears to have been the course adopted by Cobbett, a few months after his visit to Portsmouth.

"It was on the 6th of May 1783, that I, like Don Quixote, sallied forth to seek adventures. I was dressed in my holiday clothes, in order to accompany two or three lasses to Guildford Fair. They were to assemble at a house, about three miles from my home, where I was to attend them; but, unfortunately for me, I had to cross the London turnpike-road. The stage-coach had just turned the summit of a hill, and was rattling down towards me at a merry rate. The notion of going to London never entered my mind till this very moment, yet the step was completely determined on before the coach came to the spot where I stood. Up I got, and was in London about nine o'clock in the

evening. It was by mere accident that I had money enough to defray the expenses of this day. Being rigged out for the fair, I had three or four crown and half-crown pieces (which most certainly I did not intend to spend), besides a few shillings and halfpence. This, my little all, which I had been years in amassing, melted away like snow before the sun when touched by the fingers of the innkeepers and their waiters. In short, when I arrived at Ludgate Hill, and had paid my fare, I had but about half-a-crown in my pocket.'

Fortunately for the young adventurer, he had fallen into conversation with one of the passengers on the coach, a hop-merchant from Southwark, who had often dealt with his father at Weyhill. Taking an interest in the friendless youth, he invited him to his house, which he was told to look upon as his home till something would turn up. But before taking any steps to obtain employment for him, he wrote to Cobbett's father, letting him know where his son was, and endeavoured to persuade him to obey his father's order, that he should return home instantly. Cobbett confesses that he would willingly have done so, but for that false pride which, under similar circumstances, so frequently overcomes the sense of duty, and the natural impulse of affection. It was the first time I had ever been disobedient,' he says, and I have repented of it from that moment to this.' The gentleman who had taken him under his protection, finding that his obstinacy could not be overcome, obtained a situation for him as copyingclerk with a Mr Holland, a solicitor in Gray's Inn, where he passed nearly a year in wretched drudgery, according to his own graphic description.

No part of my life has been totally unattended with pleasure, except the eight or nine months I passed in Gray's Inn. The office for so the dungeon where I wrote was called-was so dark that, on cloudy days, we were obliged to burn candle. I worked like a galley-slave from five in the morning till eight or nine at night, and sometimes all night long. How many quarrels have I assisted to foment and perpetuate between those poor innocent fellows, John Doe and Richard Roe! How many times-God forgive me!-have I set them to assault each other with guns, swords, staves, and pitchforks, and then brought them to answer for their misdeeds before our sovereign lord the king, seated in his court of Westminster! When I think of the saids and soforths, and the counts of tautology that I scribbled over-when I think of those sheets of seventy-two words, and those lines two inches apart, my brain turns. Gracious Heaven! if I am doomed to be wretched, bury me beneath Iceland snows, and let me feed on blubber; stretch me under the burning line, and deny me thy propitious dews; nay, if it be thy will, suffocate me with the infected and pestilential air of a democratic club-room; but save me from the desk of an attorney!

'Mr Holland was but little in the chambers himself. He always

went out to dinner, while I was left to be provided for by the laundress, as he called her. Those gentlemen of the law who have resided in the Inns of Court in London, know very well what a laundress means. Ours was, I believe, the oldest and ugliest of the sisterhood. She had age and experience enough to be ladyabbess of all the nuns in all the convents of Irish Town. It would be wronging the Witch of Endor to compare her to this hag, who was the only creature that deigned to enter into conversation with me. All except the name, I was in prison, and this weird sister was my keeper. Our chambers were to me what the subterraneous cavern was to Gil Blas: his description of the Dame Leonarda exactly suited my laundress; nor were the professions, or rather the practice, of our master altogether dissimilar.'

It was not surprising that he should have at last made up his mind to escape from a mode of life which must have been purgatory to one who had previously been occupied in rural employment. The only wonder is, that a spirited young fellow should have endured it so long as he seems to have done. In the spring of 1784, while walking in St James's Park one Sunday, as was his custom, to feast his eyes with the sight of the trees, the grass, and the water,' he saw an advertisement 'inviting all loyal young men, who had a mind to gain riches and glory, to repair to a certain rendezvous, where they might enter into his majesty's marine service, and have the peculiar happiness and honour of being enrolled in the Chatham Division.' As he still retained the desire to go to sea, and as he knew that the marines spend most of their time on that element, he took the shilling; but without making due inquiry, as he found that he had enlisted in a marching regiment, the 54th, the head-quarters of which were at that time in Nova Scotia.

'As peace had then taken place, no great haste was made to send recruits off to their regiments. I remained upwards of a year at Chatham, during which time I was employed in learning my exercise, and taking my turn in the duty of the garrison. My leisure time, which was a very considerable portion of the twentyfour hours, was spent, not in the dissipations common to such a way of life, but in reading and study. In the course of this year I learned more than I had ever done before. I subscribed to a circulating library at Brompton, the greatest part of the books in which I read more than once over. The library was not very considerable, it is true, nor in my reading was I directed by any degree of taste or choice. Novels, plays, history, poetry, all were read, and nearly with equal avidity.

One

'Such a course of reading could be attended with but little profit: it was skimming over the surface of everything. branch of learning, however, I went to the bottom with—and that the most essential branch too-the grammar of my mother tongue. I had experienced the want of a knowledge of grammar during my stay with Mr Holland; but it is very probable that I never

should have thought of encountering the study of it, had not accident placed me under a man whose friendship extended beyond his interest. Writing a fair hand procured me the honour of being copyist to Colonel Debeig, the commandant of the garrison. I transcribed the famous correspondence between him and the Duke of Richmond, which ended in the good and gallant old colonel being stripped of the reward bestowed on him for his long and meritorious servitude.

Being totally ignorant of the rules of grammar, I necessarily made many mistakes in copying; because no one can copy letter by letter, nor even word by word. The colonel saw my deficiency, and strongly recommended study. He enforced his advice with a sort of injunction, and with a promise of reward in case of success. I procured me a Lowth's Grammar, and applied myself to the study of it with unceasing assiduity, and not without some profit; for though it was a considerable time before I fully comprehended all that I read, still I read and studied with such unremitting attention, that at last I could write without falling into any very gross errors. The pains I took cannot be described. I wrote the whole grammar out two or three times. I got it by heart. I repeated it every morning and every evening, and when on guard. I imposed on myself the task of saying it all over once every time I was posted sentinel. To this exercise of my memory I ascribe the retentiveness of which I have since found it capable; and to the success with which it was attended, I ascribe the perseverance that has led to the acquirement of the little learning of which I am master.'

By

His steadiness and regularity soon led to promotion. In a very short time he was made corporal-no great advance it may be thought; but to him, at that stage of his progress, a most notable, event, seeing that it raised his small income a clear twopence per diem. A few months after his enlistment, the detachment to which he belonged sailed from Gravesend for Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he joined his regiment, and from which he proceeded with it to St John's and New Brunswick shortly afterwards. the end of his third year in the army, he was promoted to the rank of sergeant-major, over the heads of thirty sergeants; and this promotion appears to have been mainly owing to the excellent character he had acquired for early rising, and extraordinary attention to the duties of his profession. In his Advice to Young Men, he says, with reference to this period of his life: Before my promotion, a clerk was wanted to make out the morning report of the regiment. I rendered the clerk unnecessary; and long before any other man was dressed for the parade, my work for the morning was all done, and I myself was on the parade walking, in fine weather, perhaps for an hour. My custom was thus-to get up in summer in daylight, and in winter at four o'clock; shave, dress, even to the putting on my sword-belt over my shoulder, and having my sword lying on the table before me ready to hang by my side.

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Then I ate a bit of cheese, or pork and bread. Then I prepared my report, which was filled up as fast as the companies brought me in the materials. After this, I had an hour or two to read before the time came for any duty out of doors, unless when the regiment or part of it went to exercise in the morning. When this was the case, and the matter left to me, I always had it on the ground in such time that the bayonets glittered in the rising sun-a sight which gave me delight, of which I often think, but which in vain I should endeavour to describe. If the officers were to go out, eight or ten o'clock was the hour, sweating the men in the heat of the day, breaking in upon the time of cooking their dinner, putting all things out of order, and everybody out of humour. When I was the commander, the men had a long day of leisure before them: they could ramble into the town, or into the woods; go to get raspberries; to catch birds, to catch fish, or to pursue any other recreation; and such of them as chose, and were qualified, to work at their trades. So that here, arising solely from the early habits of one young man, were pleasant and happy days given to hundreds.' This topic of early rising its manifold advantages, and the importance of acquiring the habit in early life, if a man wishes to make his way in the world-is one on which he is never tired of expatiating, especially in that most entertaining and instructive of his works, the Advice to Young Men. It is in that work also, in his 'Letter to a Lover,' that he gives an account of his first introduction to the worthy young woman who afterwards became his wife, and who appears to have recommended herself to his favour in no small degree by her early rising and her industry.

'When I first saw my wife,' says Cobbett, she was thirteen years old, and I was within a month of twenty-one. She was the daughter of a sergeant-major of artillery, and I was the sergeantmajor of a regiment of foot, both stationed in forts near the city of St John, in the province of New Brunswick. I sat in the same room with her for about an hour, in company with others, and I made up my mind that she was the very girl for me. That I thought her beautiful is certain, for that I had always said should be an indispensable qualification; but I saw in her what I deemed marks of that sobriety of conduct of which I have said so much, and which has been by far the greatest blessing of my life. It was now dead of winter, and of course the snow several feet deep on the ground, and the weather piercing cold. It was my habit, when I had done my morning's writing, to go out at break of day to take a walk on a hill at the foot of which our barracks lay. In about three mornings after I had first seen her, I had by an invitation to breakfast, got up two young men to join me in my walk, and our road lay by the house of her father and mother. It was hardly light, but she was out on the snow scrubbing out a washingtub. "That's the girl for me," said I, when we had got out of her hearing. One of these young men came to England soon

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