A journalist whose weekly paper, the Political Register, took an anti-jacobinical line until 1804, but thereafter became progressively more radical, supporting Burdett at the Westminster election of 1807. From 1810 to 1812 he was imprisoned after being prosecuted by the government for criticising flogging in the militia. Cobbett’s political development was the exact opposite of Southey’s and Southey was a consistent critic of Cobbett.