The French revolution failed because real liberty cannot be enforced overnight, or indeed enforced at all.

Some likened tax-and-spend to a refreshing shower of rain, but for William Cobbett the rain wasn’t falling mainly on the plain man.

Arthur Wellesley watches on as one of his soldiers is rescued from a watery grave.

William Cobbett makes a distinction between everyday business and the murky world of Westminster lobbyists and financial speculation.

Oldham’s firebrand MP William Cobbett rips into the the City of London for blocking economic and political progress in India.

Young Thomas Arne goes to extreme lengths to conceal his musical talent from his family.