COBBETT'S TWO-PENNY TRASH; or Politics for the Poor. Vols. 1 & 2.

Printed by the Author. London: -1832., 1831 Two volumes in one. A complete run of 24 parts covering July 1830 to July 1832, as issued (apparently no part was issued in March 1832. pp. [ii], 292; 288. Bound without the sectional title to volume 2 as usual. 12 mo. 195 mm. Bottom edge untrimmed. Original cloth backed paper boards; spine repaired. Hardbound. Very good. Manuscript ownership of William B. Young (?). William Cobbett (1763-1835) was an English pamphleteer, farmer, activist and journalist. Among his causes were: Reformation of Parliament and abolishing the rotten boroughs (which he hoped to end the poverty of farm labourers); he attacked the borough-mongers, sinecurists and "tax-eaters" relentlessly; he opposed attempts in the House of Commons to bring in Bills against boxing and bull-baiting he was against the Corn Laws (a tax on imported grain); although not a Catholic, he became a fiery advocate of Catholic Emancipation in Britain; etc. Early in his career, he was a loyalist supporter of King and Country: but later he joined and successfully publicised the radical movement, which led to the Reform Bill of 1832, and to his winning the parliamentary seat of Oldham. Following the passage of the Power of Imprisonment Bill in 1817, and fearing arrest for his arguably seditious writings, he fled to the United States (returning to England two years later). Cobbett's earlier newspaper, the Political Register (1812-1817)had been denounced as 'two-penny trash' - a name he gladly adopted for this later work. Through the seeming contradictions in Cobbett's life, two things stayed constant: an opposition to authority, and a suspicion of novelty. He wrote many polemics, on subjects from political reform to religion. "Cobbett is considered to have begun as an inherently conservative journalist who, angered by the corrupt British political establishment, became increasingly radical and sympathetic to anti-government and democratic ideals. He provides an alternative view of rural England in the age of an Industrial Revolution with which he was not in sympathy. Cobbett wished England would return to the rural England of the 1760s to which he was born. Unlike fellow radical Thomas Paine, Cobbett was not an internationalist cosmopolitan and did not support a republican Britain. He boasted that he was not a "citizen of world" saying it is quite enough for me to think about what is best for England, Scotland and Ireland." - Wiki. His style of agitation and general opinions have long been admired in America. Goldsmiths 37363 (one part only); Kress C.2481. Complete runs of Cobbett's 'Two-Penny Trash' are very scarce in today's marketplace. **PRICE JUST REDUCED! ENGLAND 6 Language: eng. Hardcover. Very Good.