to bring forward the Baftile. It was infamous and disgraceful to bring it forward during the two last elections. Gentlemen, to assume the ability to find words to express my feelings for having been nominated, would be an insult to your understandings, I have lived all my life in the county? [and what good have you done in it?] I have lived on my own estate. I hope the freeholders of the county know my character, and are convinced that I am both honest and independent."

The three candidates were then separately put in nomination by the fheriff. The fhew of hands was decidedly in favour of Sir Francis Burdeti, Bart. and Mr. Mellif, and the sheriff accordingly declared the same. A poll was immediately demanded on behalf of Mr. Byng, and the court adjourned.

CHARACTER OF SIR FRANCIS BURDETT;

BY HIS FRIEND WM. COBBETT.

"It was our intention to have entered into a refutation of certain political doctrines which Sir F. Burdett has published and pofted through the county of Middlesex; but, upon closer examination, we find them to proceed upon notions so completely subversive of the Laws and Government of the country, that any controversy with him must neceffarily have for its object to prove the inexpediency of destroying the Monarchy of England. To reason with such a man would be absurd; he must be treated with silent contempt, or be combated with weapons very different

different from a pen. We declare our abhorrence of the principles and conduct of the man, who, in alluding to the British Government, speaks of hired Magiftrates, Parliaments, and Kings; we deteft and loath Sir F. Burdett; we would trample upon him for his false, base, and insolent insinuations and assertions, respecting his and our Sovereign," &c. &c. &c.-Cobbett's Annual Regifter, Vol. II. p. 151. "The Political Register" (of Mr. Cobbett)" is the only publication that I have seen or heard of, wherein men expect to meet with authenticity of ftatement and impartiality of insertion."-Mr. Paull's letter to Lord Folkestone.-Cobbett's Political Regifter, Oct. 25th, 1806.

MR. COBBETT'S VINDICATION OF SIR F. BURDETT.

A paffage has been quoted, from the Regifter of 1802, wherein I severely reproached Sir Francis Burdett for having in one of his Addreffes to the Freeholders, made use of the phrase," hired Magiftrates, Parliaments, and Kings;" a phrase highly improper, in my opinion, both then and now; though I thall not maintain, that, in my comments upon it, I was entirely uninfluenced by that strong prejudice, which had been created in my mind, with regard to his motives; to which must be added, that the situation of England and of Europe, with respect to political doctrines, was, at that time, very different from what it is now, when all the terrors of democracy are turned into errors of universal despotism. But, it fhould not be forgotten, that, in 1802, I had been but about

18 months in England, after a long war, carried on with great zeal, against republicans in a foreign country, where, let it be observed, every republican was a sworn enemy, not only of the king of England, but of England itself. Upon my return to England, I naturally fell into a literary acquaintance, consisting entirely of men who were the political enemies of Sir F. Burdett. Several of these had corresponded with me while I was in America; and, it was not until long after my return to England, that I found, to my utter astonishment, that every one of them, received, and had long been receiving, in one fhape or another, considerable sums of money annually from the government; that is to say, out of the taxes raised upon the people. Amidft such a circle of acquaintance it was not likely, that, with all my independence of mind, and with as ftrong an inclination, as falls to the lot of any writer, to speak the truth upon every subject; amidst such a circle it was not likely that I should very soon arrive at the truth; and, from the acquaintances alluded to, I imbibed what was, I dare say, their sincere opinion, that Sir F. Burdett, in his representations with respect to the solitary prison in Cold Bath Fields, was actuated by no other motive than that of regard for the Mutineers, who were, or had been, confined there, and that that regard was founded on an approbation of their treasonable designs. Thus thinking, it is not at all surprizing, that, as far as I was able, I opposed him in his first conteft for Middlesex. During the fecond conteft I made no observations, on one side or the other; and the reasons were these:

FIRST, in no part of his parliamentary conduct had I seen any thing to censure, but in many parts of it much to commend; SECOND, that a moft foul misrepresentation of his speech upon the County Address, relative to the present War, had excited in my mind a great degree of indignation against his enemies; THIRD, that I had had time to perceive, that the most bitter of his enemies, not excepting my own acquaintances above alluded to, were, to a man, placemen or pensioners, or both at once, and that the far better half of their loyalty, was, in fact, a love of the public money; but, a FOURTH reason, and a reason more powerful than all the reft put together, was, that I had, by this time, learnt from the lips of Mr. Reeves, that shocking abuses had really exifted in the Solitary Prison, and that he himself had been the first to complain thereof, in his capacity of magiftrate. The subject of Mr. Reeves's complaint was the treatment of Despard, who was then confined in the prison; and, the description which he gave me of that treatment, though he seemed to think that Sir F. Burdett's complaints were not founded, convinced me that those complaints were not, without further inquiry, to be treated as groundless. With these impressions upon my mind it was, that I made, with regard to the second Middlesex Election, and after the contest was over, those remarks which will be found in Vol. IV. of the Register: and which remarks, had Sir F. Burdett been a hunter after popularity, would very soon have produced a personal acquaintance between us.

But, the fact is,

that no communication of any kind, either direct or

indirect,

indirect, ever took place between him and me, until fome time, I believe, in the month of March last, when we first met from causes purely accidental; though I must confess, that an unsolicited meeting had long been wished for on my part. I have before expressed, in general terms, my opinion, and, indeed, my thorough conviction, that, in the whole kingdom, there is not a man more attached to the kingly government and the whole of the conftitution of England, than Sir F. Burdett. But, I muft now beg leave to ftate, somewhat in detail, the information which, upon the subject of the Solitary Prison, the hon. baronet has had the condescension to furnish me with, and which, had I been furnished with it previous to 1802, would have made me his eulogift at that time. The English newspapers which reached me in America, and the representations made to me upon my return to England, exhibited Sir Francis as a person, who, from mere love of the conduct of the Mutineers, officiously visited them in their cells. But the fact, though so ftudiously concealed by all the newspapers, was, that Sir Francis was led to that prison by a letter, received from some of the prisoners. This letter, from the circumstance of the prisoners being deprived of the use of pen, ink, and paper, was written upon the leaf of a book, if I recollect right, with a splinter of wood, and in the blood of the miserable captives, who, in terms indicative of despair, supplicated him to save them from the pangs of death produced by hunger and thirst; and, need I ask the reader, whether it was the bounden duty of an Englishman, particularly of a member of

par