An Englishman in Exile, by William Cobbett

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I owe, besides, great gratitude to this sensible and brave people and to their wise, gentle, and just Government for having preserved from the fangs of despotism this one spot of the globe. I owe to them my freedom at this moment. I owe to them that I am not shut up in a dungeon instead of being seated in safety and writing to you. These are great claims upon my gratitude, and my feelings towards the Government and the People are fully commensurate with those claims; but, as to the changing of allegiance, or the denying of my country, it is what I shall never do. England, though now bowed down by Boroughmongers,* is my country; her people are public-spirited, warm-hearted, sincere and brave; common dangers, exertions in common, long intercourse of sentiment, and the thousands upon thousands of marks of friendship that I have received, all these have endeared the people of my own country to me in a peculiar manner. I will die an Englishman in exile, or an Englishman in England free.

by William Cobbett 1762-1835

From William Cobbett’s ‘Political Register’ for July 1817, as reproduced in ‘A History of the Last Hundred Days of English Freedom’ (1921), with an introduction by J. L. Hammond.

* Boroughmongers was Cobbett’s term for MPs who voted in Parliament as their wealthy backers directed them to, rather than honestly representing their constituency. The word borough here means a town sending MPs to Westminster, and the word monger means a merchant or dealer, either creditably (fishmonger) or discreditably (warmonger).

Précis

The duty he owed to the US, said Cobbett, and the wonders of their new-born Constitution, did not blind him to the sterling merits of the British public, whatever quarrels he may have with their Government; nor was his determination to help them by his writing any the less. Wherever he may live, he would remain an Englishman at heart.

Questions for Critics

1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?

2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?

3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?

Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.

Sevens

Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.

Why did Cobbett feel he had obligations to the USA?

Suggestion

Because it protected him and his rights.

Jigsaws

Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.

Cobbett was a proud Englishman. He disagreed with the Government.

See if you can include one or more of these words in your answer.

ISpite. IIStop. IIIWho.

Précis

Questions for Critics

Sevens

Jigsaws

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