Cobbett brought corruption charges against several officers but, disgusted that he was not even called to give evidence at the Courts Martial, he moved to revolutionary France. He spent a year studying the French language before sailing for Philadelphia in 1792.
After teaching English to French refugees for a while, he opened a bookshop and published a newspaper called Porcupine's Gazette, using its columns to blast the ideas of Rights of Man author Tom Paine and English chemist and religious writer Joseph Priestley, who had moved from Birmingham to Pennsylvania in 1794.
Cobbett returned to England in 1800 and two years later launched his Cobbett's Political Register, which had a distinct tory slant. By 1804, however, he had changed its politics to out-and-out radicalism and it continued in that vein until his death in 1835.
His army experiences still rankled, and he went to prison for two years in 1810 after castigating the military policy of flogging. By 1817 he had money problems and fear of another gaol term sent him back across the Atlantic. He farmed in Long Island for a while before chancing a return to Britain and standing unsuccessfully for parliament in 1821 and 1826. In 1832, after the first Reform Bill, he was elected MP for Oldham.
Cobbett founded the journal Parliamentary Debate before selling out to Luke Hansard.
 |
 |
 |
 |
