villain, they vollunteering their services as witnesses. But Mr. Jones
very coolly replied, "I have taken summary redress, and paid the fellow
in his own coin; therefore it will be only necessary to give such a
scoundrel '_rope enough and he will hang himself_.'" Mr. Jones's
observation was not only very just, but most prophetic. _The loyal and
the worthy Mr. Reynolds, a few months afterwards, to save Jack Ketch
the trouble, put an end to his own existence, by hanging himself in a
malt-house._ If what I hear of another of them be true, it is not very
improbable that he may soon follow his example.

As I drove home in the evening from this meeting, I could not avoid
seriously reflecting upon the critical situation in which I was placed
by my friend Mr. Cobbett having deserted me, and stolen away to America.
I had been constantly and faithfully acting with him for many years, up
to the very hour of his flight, for I had now no doubt in my mind that
the report in the _Courier_ was true. I felt indignant and mortified
in the extreme, at this desertion on the part of my friend, at such a
moment, and without his ever having given me the slightest reason to
suspect him of any such intention. My first resolve was this:--let what
will come I will never fly my country, never desert my countrymen in
the hour of peril. The Habeas Corpus Act was suspended, the Seditious
Meetings Bill had been passed and received the Royal Assent. Many of the
brave Reformers of Lancashire had, in consequence, been arrested and
thrown into dungeons, particularly those who had attended in London at
the delegate meeting; therefore I expected to share the same fate, but
still I made up my mind to this, that I would never run from the danger;
and, as I never secreted myself, but was always to be met with any day,
and every day, I was also resolved that no one should with impunity
treat me in the way in which Messrs. Knight, Bamford, Healy, and others
had been treated. They had not merely been arrested, but their houses