'' Political Essays , with Sketches of Public Characters '' is a collection of essays by William Hazlitt , an English political journalist and cultural critic . Published in 1819 , two days before the Peterloo Massacre , the work spans the final years of the Napoleonic Wars and the social and economic strife that followed . Included are attacks on monarchy , defences of Napoleon , and critical essays on Samuel Taylor Coleridge , Robert Southey , and Edmund Burke . The collection compiles Hazlitt 's political writings , drawn largely from his newspaper articles
Peterloo Massacre
Peterloo Massacre
Political Essays