Journalist; born in
Farnham, Surrey, England, March 9, 1762; was the self-educated son of a farmer, and in early manhood was eight years in the army, rising to the rank of sergeant-major.
He obtained his discharge in 1791, married, and came to
America in 1792, when he became a pamphleteer, bookseller, and journalist, having established
Peter Porcupine's gazette in 1794.
He attacked
Dr. Rush, of
Philadelphia, because of his treatment of yellow-fever cases, especially of his blood-letting.
Rush prosecuted him for libel, and obtained a verdict for $5,000 damages.
That suit had been brought to a trial on the day of
Washington's death (Dec. 14, 1799), and
Cobbett remarked that it was a singular coincidence that while the great patriot was dying in consequence of the too free use of the lancet, he should be mulcted in a verdict of $5,000 for exposing and ridiculing the dangerous practice in yellow fever.
In anticipation of the verdict,
Cobbett stopped the publication of his paper and removed to New York, where he was threatened with imprisonment, but procured bail.
There he
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issued a series of vigorous pamphlets, called
Rush lights, in which he exhibited, in vivid colors, the various phases of character of all engaged in his prosecution.
Then he went back to
England, and issued
Porcupine's works, in 12 octavo volumes, which sold largely on both sides of the
Atlantic.
In these he exhibited such pictures of his American enemies that he tasted the sweets of revenge.
In 1802 he began his famous
Weekly political register, which he conducted with ability about thirty years, but which caused him to incur fines and imprisonment because of his libellous utterances.
He again came to the
United States in 1817, but returned to
England in 1819, taking with him the bones of
Thomas Paine.
He continued the business of writing and publishing, and many of his books, written in vigorous Anglo-
Saxon, are very useful.
He entered Parliament in 1832, and was a member three years. He died in
Farnham, June 18, 1835.
