Of Gallipots and Bull Finches

In the January 10th, 1807 issue of Cobbett's Political Register, Mr. William Cobbett, noted British reformer and crank, turned the focus of his scathing pen from its usual targets of the war with France, Catholic Emancipation, and Parliamentary Reform to a more perennial topic, the masking of ignorance with pretentious jargon:

Do those who make use of such phrases, he wrote, which the stupidest wretch upon Earth might learn to use as well as they in a few hours; nay, which a parrot would learn, or which a high-dutch bird-catcher would teach to a bull-finch or a tom-tit in the space of a month; and do they think, in good earnest, that this last relick of the mummery of monkery, this playing off upon us of a few gallipot words, will make us believe that they are learned?

Political Cartoon of William Cobbett, 1819