1794 - Communications, Media

Communications, Media

The pamphlet "Observations on the Emigration of Joseph Priestley" by William Cobbett creates a controversy by calling Priestley a traitor and launches Cobbett on a career as journalist (see medicine, 1793). Having joined the British Army 10 years ago and served in Canada, Cobbett returned home in 1791, filed charges of corruption against some of his former officers, fled to France to escape court-martial after the officers filed countercharges, and quickly left France for Philadelphia, where he has been living with his family and teaching English to French émigrés (see medicine, 1799).