The Life of William Cobbett, Written by Himself Pl. 6.

This is the sixth plate in Gillray's eight plate series, The Life of William Cobbett, Written by Himself which pretends to be a kind of graphic autobiography, but is, in fact a not so veiled attack upon Cobbett himself. For the general context of the series in Gillray's work, some background about Cobbett, and the more immediate impetus for the set of plates, see my Introduction.

The Life of William Cobbett, Written by Himself P.6.

The Life of William Cobbett, Written by Himself Pl. 6. [September 29, 1809]
© Lewis Walpole Library Yale University

Like most of the plates in the series, this one is loosely based on the article entitled "Court Martial" in the June 17,1809 edition of Cobbett's Weekly Political Register but also on the Proceedings of [the] General Court Martial which had been published in May of 1809 to coincide with other efforts to discredit Cobbett.

The image portrays the first day of the Court Martial itself which was held at the Horse Guards on March 24, 1792. The three officers accused by Cobbett—Captain Richard Powell, Lieutenant Christopher Seton, and Lieutenant John Hall—appear at the bar. The Judge Advocate-General, Charles Gould (off screen) asks the Court Clerk to "Call William Cobbett into Court, to make good his Charges." As the clerk continues to call his name, Cobbett can be seen through the open door of the chambers sailing away while crying out "'Call away & be Damn'd–I'm off.'"

Here is Gillray's caption:

_The Court-Martial was assembled at Chelsea as I requested, and Captn Powele and the other accused Persons were placed at the Bar:_when_blast-my-Eyes!_I saw, the whole of that damn'd 51st Regiment Drummers, Fifers and all, marching boldly into the Hall to bear Testimony against Me!!_on this I instantly ran to a boat which I had Providentialy secured, and crossed the Thames._damn'd infernal Ideots!_did the Judge-Advocate and his Gang of Publick Robber's think that I would stay to witness my own Exposure and condemnation? Vide, my own Memoirs in the Political Register_1809.'

In point of fact, Cobbett did not appear at the Court Martial when called. The Court was then adjourned to March 27 to allow additional time to contact Cobbett at his London address. But as suggested by Gillray's print, Cobbett had already left for France and from thence to America. As a result, when Cobbett failed to appear a second time on March 27, Judge Gould had no choice but to declare the defendants innocent and the charges baseless.

But, of course, in Cobbett's telling, there is more to the story. Cobbett's accusations against the three officers were only provable by the regimental papers that he had requested to be secured at the time of his initial complaint or (faiing that) by the testimony of Corporal Bestland who had seen the papers and could verify that Cobbett's transcriptions were accurate. But with just weeks before the date of the court martial, Cobbett determined that, contrary to the statements of the Advocate-General, the documents had NOT been secured and were still in the hands of the accused and that Bestland had been denied release from the army and was consequently still vulnerable to potential retribution from his accused superiors. There was now no way to prove his charges without jeopardizing Bestland. And to make matters worse, Cobbett discovered in one of his trips to Portsmouth that a number of officers from the regiment were being lined up to testify that

at an entertainment given to them by me before my departure from the regiment, I had drunk "the destruction of the House of Brunswick."

The object, then, was to turn the tables on Cobbett and to accuse him of seditious libel with intent to undermine military authority and create dissention in the ranks. Under those circumstances, Cobbett wrote, "It was useless to appear, unless I could have tolerable fair play; and besides, it seemed better to leave the whole set to do as they pleased than to be made a mortified witness of what it was quite evident they had resolved to do.

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