Cobbett's arrival came soon after the
Peterloo Massacre. He joined with other
radicals in attacks on the government and was charged with libel three times in the next couple of years. Cobbett published on behalf of
Caroline of Brunswick in her fight against the
Pains and Penalties Bill 1820. His daughter Anne believed that he would have had fewer legal difficulties if he had stopped supporting Queen Caroline, but noted that they gained much needed source of income from supporting her. The family all expected notable rewards following the outcome of the trial being seen to be in Caroline's favour, however her death soon after meant that this did not happen to the expected degree. in 1830. In 1820, he campaigned for Parliament in
Coventry, but finished last in the poll. That year he also founded a plant nursery at Kensington, where he grew many North American trees, such as the black locust
(Robinia pseudoacacia), and with his son, a variety of maize he called "Cobbett's corn". In the
Register for 30 August 1823, Cobbett published his
Letter to William Wilberforce, an answer to Wilberforce's
Appeal to the Religion, Justice and Humanity of the Inhabitants of the British Empire in Behalf of the Negro Slaves in the West Indies. Here, he attacked Wilberforce's support for the
Combination Act, which prohibited trade unions among British workers, and said: "Never have you done one single act, in favour of those labourers, but many and many an act you have done against them." Cobbett contrasted the Evangelical reformers' campaign for the abolition of black slavery with their support for the "factory slavery" of British workers. He argued that black slaves were better fed, clothed and housed than British workers, and were better treated by their masters. He wrote: "Will not the care, will not the anxiety of a really humane Englishman be directed towards the Whites, instead of towards the Blacks, until, at any rate, the situation of the former be made to be
as good as that of the latter?"
Catholic emancipation Although not a Catholic, Cobbett at this time also advocated the cause of
Catholic Emancipation. Between 1824 and 1826, he published his
History of the Protestant Reformation, a broadside against the traditional
Protestant historical narrative of the reformation, stressing the lengthy and often bloody persecutions of Catholics in Britain and Ireland. Catholics were still forbidden at that time to enter certain professions or become members of Parliament. Although the law was no longer enforced, it was officially still a crime to attend Mass or build a Catholic church. Although Wilberforce also worked and spoke against discrimination against Catholics, Cobbett resumed his strident opposition to the noted reformer, particularly after Wilberforce in 1823 published his
Appeal in Behalf of the Negro Slaves in the West Indies. Wilberforce, long suffering from ill health, retired the next year. (middle) and
Joseph Pease (right) (the first Quaker elected to Parliament) arriving at Westminster, during March 1833. Sketch by
John Doyle. In 1829, Cobbett published
Advice To Young Men, in which he criticised
An Essay on the Principle of Population by the Reverend
Thomas Robert Malthus. That year he also published
The English Gardener, which he later updated and expanded. This book has been compared favourably with other contemporary garden tomes, such as
John Claudius Loudon's
Encyclopædia of Gardening. Cobbett continued to publish controversial content in his
Weekly Political Register and was charged in July 1831 with
seditious libel for a pamphlet entitled
Rural War, endorsing the Captain
Swing Riots, in which rioters were smashing farm machinery and burning haystacks. Cobbett successfully conducted his own defence.
Member of Parliament Cobbett still sought to be elected to the House of Commons. He was defeated in
Preston in 1826 and in Manchester in 1832, but after the passage of the
Reform Act 1832, Cobbett won the seat of
Oldham. In Parliament, Cobbett concentrated his energies on attacking corruption in government and the
1834 Poor Law. He believed that the poor had a right to a share in the community's wealth and that the
Old Poor Law was the last remaining right that English workers possessed, and which set them apart from other countries which had no such provision. Because the New Poor Law deprived the people of this right to relief, Cobbett believed that the social contract was broken and that therefore the duty of allegiance was dissolved. A week before his death, he wrote to a friend: "[B]efore the passing of the Poor-Law Bill, I wished to avoid [a] convulsive termination. I now do not wish it to be avoided." During later life,
Thomas Macaulay, a fellow
MP, remarked that Cobbett's faculties were impaired by age. From 1831 until his death, Cobbett managed a farm named Ash in the village of
Normandy, Surrey, a few miles from his birthplace at
Farnham. Cobbett died there after a brief illness in June 1835 and was buried in the churchyard of
St Andrew's Church, Farnham. ==Parliamentary career==