his whimsical adventures—are related with such a mingling of fierce earnestness and racy humour that the "Rural Rides" will immortalise him if all his other works should come to be forgotten. They embalm a character, the like of which the world may never see again; while at the same time they contain a storehouse of material for students of the social condition of England during the third decade of the present century.
Just as he went about the country to find facts to support his political doctrine, so he made his researches into its past history. For the former task he was admirably fitted by all his previous experience and peculiar talents; for the latter he was just as incompetent. His preconceived opinions, his obstinate prejudices, his utter incapacity to sympathise with the mental peculiarities of those who did not think and feel as he did, rendered it impossible that he could write true history. Nevertheless he undertook to give the world the history of the Protestant Reformation, and the result was, as might have been expected, a violent ex parte statement from a Roman Catholic point of view. So long, however, as history continues to be written in the interest of certain political or religious principles, a book like Cobbett's will have a value for the judicious reader. Moreover, it contains an account of the shameful way in which the large estates of the Church were disposed,—often a series of iniquitous acts which have never yet been atoned for, and therefore cannot and must not be forgotten.
Although the author of "The Protestant Reformation" writes as if he held a brief for Rome, he was in truth no more a Papist than he was an Atheist. He was far too English for the former position, far too religious for the latter.
Two or three years before he wrote the "Reformation" he published a series of religious tracts. They were twelve in number, and the titles will give some idea of their contents, and the spirit in which they were conceived:—1. "Naboth's Vineyard, or God's Vengeance against Hypocrisy;" 2. "The Sin of Drunkenness in Kings, Priests, and People;" 3. "The Fall of Judas, or God's Vengeance against Bribery;" 4. "The Rights of the Poor, or the Punishment of Oppressors;" 5. "God's Judgment on Unjust Judges;" 6. "The Sluggard;" 7. "God's Vengeance against Murderers;" 8. "The Gamester;" 9."God's Vengeance against
