From a very early age I had imbibed the opinion that it was every man's duty to do all that lay in his power to leave his country as good as he had found it.

While not a Catholic Cobbett at this time also took up the cause of Catholic Emancipation. 1834. On his release a dinner in London attended by 600 people was given in his honour presided over by Sir Francis Burdett who like Cobbett was a strong voice for parliamentary reform.

Through the seeming contradictions in Cobbett's life his opposition to authority stayed constant. He was also against the Corn Laws a tax on imported grain. 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.