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Rh James T, Callender, later to become a storm-center in American politics, was one of these emigrants. He had attacked the Pitt administration for its political injustices, in a pamphlet entitled, "The Political Progress of Britain." Cobbett, having had some success with his attack on Priestley, turned his attention to Callender with equal success. This endeavor resulted in his being likened to a porcupine, and from that time on Cobbett signed himself "Peter Porcupine." For a while his writings were printed as a series in The Political Censor, eight numbers of which had appeared up to January, 1797. On March 4, 1797, he brought out the first number of Porcupine's Gazette and Daily Advertiser, and for the next two years he was actively engaged in defending himself and his paper and attacking those who were against the English cause and the Federal party.

The virulence with which Cobbett attacked his opponents, and his vituperation of the French people and French admirers, occasioned so much scandal that it was said that John Adams had resolved to order him to leave the United States, under the provisions of the Alien Act—strong Federalist though Adams himself was. The remonstrance of the Attorney-General prevented this action, but Cobbett decided to return without such a mandate, and secretly sold his property. In the end, however, it was a private lawsuit that resulted in his leaving Philadelphia,—Dr. Benjamin Rush, a famous physician and politician of Pennsylvania, having received a verdict of $5,000 damages for a libelous statement against him. Porcupine's Gazette was suspended in consequence of this verdict, and the following year Cobbett sailed for England, leaving behind him as a legacy all his virulence and