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THE

LIFE OF RICHARD COBDEN
 

 

 

 

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RICHARD COBDEN.

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From a Portrait by Lowes D
THE LIFE OF
RICHARD COBDEN

BY

JOHN, VISCOUNT MORLEY, O.M.

T. FISHER UNWIN LTD.

LONDON: 1 ADELPHI TERRACE
Oe
rirst Edition, 2 vols, demy 8vo, cloth, 32s.
London: Chapman & Hall 1879

Second Edition, ‘i : 1881
Third Edition, ” ”

Shilling Edition (Abridged), demy 4to, peoee covers ,, 1882
Fifth Edition, 1 vol. crown 8vo, cloth, 7s, 6d. 5 1883

Sixth (“ Jubilee”) Hdition, 2 vols, crown 8vo, cloth 7s.
London: T. Fisher Unwin 1896
Free Trade Edition (Abridged), demy 4to, paper covers, 6d. ,, 1902

Eighth Edition, 2 vols, crown 8vo, cloth, 7s. » 1903
Ninth Edition, 1 vol, crown 8vo, cloth, 2s, 6d. net ea
Tenth Edition, ” ” 09
Eleventh Edition, ” a 5
Twelfth Edition, +, 1905
Thirteenth Edition, in 5 ‘iar ‘enh 6a. net » 1906
American Edition. Boston: Roberts Brothers - ms 5 1890

French Translation (by Sophie Raffalovich),
Paris: Guillaumin et Cie 1885

Eversley Edition. London: Macmillan. ‘ é g 1908
Fourteenth Edition i e 4 . 3 ‘ * ‘ 1920
4

Ne

(All rights reserved. }
to

THE RIGHT HONOURABLR
JOHN BRIGHT

THIS MEMOIR
OF HIS CLOSE COMRADE
IN THE CAUSE OF WISE JUST AND SEDATE GOVERNMENT
IS INSCRIBED

WITH THE WRITER'S SINCERE RESPECT.
PREFAOKE.

——$o——

Ow1ne to various circumstances, with which I have
no right to trouble the reader, the publication of
these volumes has been delayed considerably beyond
the date at which I hoped to bring them to an end.
As things have turned out, the delay has done no
harm. My memoir of Mr. Cobden appears at a
moment when there is a certain disposition in men’s
minds to subject his work and his principles to a
more hostile criticism than they have hitherto en-
countered. So far perhaps it is permitted to me to
hope that the book will prove opportune. It is
possible, however, that it may disappoint those who
expect to find in it a completely furnished armoury
for the champions of Free Trade. I did not con-
ceive it to be my task to compile a polemical hand-
book for that controversy. For this the reader
must always go to the parliamentary debates
between 1840 and 1846, and to the manuals of Poli-
tical Economy.

It will perhaps be thought that I should have done
better to say nothing of Mr. Cobden’s private affairs.
viil PREFAOE.

In the ordinary case of a public man, reserve on
these matters is possibly a good rule. In the present
instance, so much publicity was given to Mr. Cobden’s
affairs—some of it of a very malicious kind—that
it seemed best, not only to the writer, but to those
whose feelings he was bound first and exclusively to
consider, to let these take their place along with the
other facts of his life.

The material for the biography has been supplied
in great abundance by Mr. Cobden’s many friends
and correspondents. His family with generous con-
fidence entrusted it to my uncontrolled discretion,
and for any lack of skill or judgment that may appear
in the way in which the materials have been handled,
the responsibility is not theirs but mine. Much of
the correspondence had been already sifted and
arranged by Mr. Henry Richard, the respected
Member for Merthyr, who handed over to me the
result of his labour with a courtesy and good-will for
which I am particularly indebted to him. Lord
Cardwell was obliging enough to procure for me Mr.
Cobden’s letter to Sir Robert Peel (vol. i. ch. 17),
and, along with Lord Hardinge, to give me permission
to print Sir Robert Peel’s reply. Mr. Bright, with
an unwearied kindness for which I can never be too
grateful, has allowed me to consult him constantly,
and has abounded in helpful corrections and sugges-
tions while the sheets were passing through the press.
Nor can I forget to express the many obligations that
PREFAOR. ix

[ owe to my friend, Sir Louis Mallet.. It was he who
first induced me to undertake a piece of work which
be had much at heart, and he has followed it with
an attention, an interest, and a readiness in counsel
and information, of which I cannot but fear that the
final product gives a very inadequate idea.

J. M.

September 29th, 1881.
CONTENTS

(Se
CHAPTER L
Earyy Lire

paen
Cosven’s birthplace ‘ é 5 8 * 3 : . 4
His family and early edanatiin 3 F - oe ’ : - 2
Business in London . . . . . ° . a » &§
Characterasayoungman . . . +. . : : . F
Commercial journeys. : i . ri . . - 8
Family troubles =. ' . . . . . 18
Begins business on his own account ° . ‘ : : 7 « 16

OHAPTEBR II.
CoxmreRciaL aND MentaL Proerrsa
Cobden’s early ial ep Jie wh cig cat: Le so. « 18
At Sabden 7 , . e : ; 5 . 223
Self-education . . ‘ 7 r 5 25
Visita France and Beilantiauia a i j . 27
Death of his Father , . 5 4 ; ‘ 3 - 29
CHAPTER IIL
TrRaveLs IN West aNnp Hast.

Voyage to the United States . a - . ‘ ‘ . 81
Vindication of his own country . 3 ‘ : s . 83
Niagara . . . . 7 . 7 “ . 86
Estimate of Ascertoen dhasenter ‘ a . ; . . . 89
Publication of pamphlets ‘ . , . . : . - . 41
Starts for the Kast . ie ‘ . . 4 . . . a - 4
Gibraltar ‘ : 5 s A , . % : F . 45
Malta and Kexaniirin x . . * ‘ . . . ‘ » 49
Alexandria 3 . ° e . .: . ‘ : 5 é . 61
From Alfeh to Cairo 5 . ‘ , : ‘ ‘ ei ‘ - 58
The Pyramids . . ° . , . . . . . . 65
Oairo é 5 * ; ; @ j & . . 67

Visit to Mehemet AN ° $ i 3 j * si . 6&9
ml CONTENTS.

aaab
Egyptian Manufactories o 6 4 a 87
Masanoreof Scio . =» se 8 ell
Constantinople .. . soo eco eh ay ee aE
Voyage to Smyrna nr ee ae ne ae eS
Conversations sat Smyrna ts. ee wee 8 «  e - 75
At Smyrna. a ee ee se ewe ee EF
Athens and the Gite se, > te “Wee, <BR <M oe BE
From Athens to Patras .« ° . ‘ : e . . . « 83
Malta and the navy ‘ ee 8 we we di ee eo ee ET

CHAPTER Iv.
Toe Two PawpHLerts
Mental activity after the Reform Act . . ° oe . . wi
Combe’s influence on Cobden . é ‘ - . : . - 8
Application to English policy . ‘i : . . 3 . . 05
The new problem . : 5 : 2 . - -
Material well-being and political sabi . 2 > ‘ . -
Russia and Turkey . . : . : . ° - 101
Intervention judged by axperieiba,, : . - . ‘ ° - 103
The Great Usage. - * «4 = 6 «2 + 105
Decisive importance of iAsnstionn json pestis . . - 107
Extravagances of intervention . 7 . . ° . 2 - 109
Shelburne as a precursor : , . . . ° . » 1
CHAPTER V.
Lirzk in Mancurstue, 1837-9.

Letter on factory legislation . : 4 ‘ ‘ 5 ‘ é - Lis
Rejection at Btookport ‘ . e . . ° 5 . ~117
Business and position in Mivioheater . . ° . . . - 119
Opinion in Manchester . . ‘ é : . . . 7 - 131
Struggle foraCharter . © @ « ‘ . 133
Coldness of Whigs for local Altetirceianit . . . . « . 125
The Radicals and the people . . . . . . e ; . 127
The Zollverein 7 . . . . . . . ; - 129
The Prussian Government Cn a a re a »  « lal
A Sunday at Berlin . . 8 Ss ‘ . 183
Manchester and Germany contrasted 2. os 4% . ‘ »  , 185
Acquaintances in London . . . 5 ; < ‘ . 187

Incorporation of Manchester. . . . . = . : . . 189

OHAPTER VI.
Tax Founpatiow oy tae Laague.

Narrow beginning of the struggle . . . .
The London Anti-Corn-Law Association . .

° e e . 141
' . . 143
OONTENTS.
The Chamber of Commerce . . o 8
The idea of the League . ‘ ‘. : . .
The corn question in Parliament . . ° .
Resentment of the Repealers . . . °
The lecturers in the country . ‘ . . .
Hostilities inthe press . . . # ‘ .
Condition of the rural poor . . . . .
New settlement in business . 7 . . .

Marriage . . i‘ s . . ‘ . .

OHAPTER VIL.
Tox Conn Laws.

Huskisson’s legislation . . - . . °
The Corn Bills of 1827-8 : 2 4 . °
Attitude of political parties . ° . : .
The Whig budget . é . a 2 .
Defeat of the Whigs ‘ . 2 . .

CHAPTER VIII.
OCospEN ENTESs PagLIaMENT—FIRst

The new Parliament
First speech in Parliament - : s
Protest against the philauihwopiets: 7 . °

CHAPTER IX.
CosppENn 48 AN AGiTaTor,

Friendship with Mr. Bright . . a
Their different characteristics . = ‘ i
Cobden’s oratorical qualities . : 5

His personality . . . : .
Feeling toward his puptermes
His faculty of veneration 5

Conditions of usefulness . . . “ ;
Practical energy .. : a . . . s
Genial ideas . . . : Z é %

CHAPTER X.
Tue New Corn Law

The antumn campaign * 3 i
The League preas . . ‘ * -

Sxasion.

main
PAG>
. 146
. 147

- 161
. 153

159
161

166
- 167

- 171

« 175

. 191
193
195

.

- 199
. 201
- 203
« 206
» 207

. 211
213
xiv CONTENTS.

vacs
Thackeray and Carlyle . . . . ' ’ . ‘ . . a
Discussion in the Cabinet . . . . . ‘ : . 2 :
The Ministerial plan ws ett 21
Feeling inthe country . - - + + * * * & * 221
Cobden’s speech on the plan. - iy mee OS tn wea 42 aaa
The country party and the Manufacturers rr eee 2)
Disappointment of the League re ee
New Projects . . . . . » , ‘ . ‘ . - 229
Attitude ofthe Clergy. .  .« © 2° = + * # *& ¢ 283

CHAPTER XI.
Srx Rosext Pret’s New Pouicr.

The Imports Committee 3 2 F . ‘ ‘ . ‘ . 235
Sir Robert Peel’s position . ‘ je oe Bro Je - 237
The new tariff 7 F & ‘ A . . . . . . 239
Cobden’s impressions. é 7 e «= « . . 241

Speech on the state of the eoanitty., Sok ee we BAB
Reply to Sir Robert Peel é Bo oe 5 o 4 + 2 BAT

CHAPTER XII.

Renrwep AcTIVITY oF THE Leacue—CoBDEN AND Siz Rospert Pesi—
Rupat Campatan.

The League and the workmen : 7 F . 7 - fs . 249

Renewed activity . . . . . . . . - 251
Cobden in Scotland . : ‘ 3 . . . . ' . 258
Mr. Bright upon Scotland 7 . A F 2 : ‘ « 256
Speech on Lord Howick’s Motion Be i Se te . 257
Soene with Sir Robert Peel . F . . . . . . 259
Mr. Roebuck’s attack  . . a : + . . . . . 263
Feeling inthe country . «© .« +. . +6 +. «© «© « 265
Reply,to the Manchester address. . . . . 3 - 267
Meetings at Drury Lane . : é . . . - : . 269
Agitation in the counties : . : 3 5 <i : . 271
Cobden’s position . : 3 2 . . ‘i ‘ é ‘ . 279
Questions in Parliament i , ‘ : % * a ‘ . 288
Occupations in the recess ‘ ‘ 2 : 7 . e 285

Distrust of the Whigs . ‘ ‘ - . 2 3 é . : 289

CHAPTER XOL
Tae Srssion or 1844-—-Factogy LeeistaTIonN—Tur Constituencies.
tatiatios of agitation . . . 291

The Seasion of 1844 7 + ' . . ‘ ‘ ‘ : . 299
CONTENTS.

The condition of England ee . ° °
Factory legislation . . . e .
English formsof Socialism .  . . ‘ °
The forty shilling franchise . . » «
Cobden’s views on this franchise . . -

CHAPTER XIV.

XV

Pace

. * a . 297

« e ° » 299

. . ‘ - 303
° * ‘ - 305
. . . » 307

Bastiat—New Tactics—Activiry 1n PartiaMENT--MaynooTtH GRant—

PRIVATE AFFAIRS,

Bastiat’s visit to England. - . >
Bastiat and Cobden 2 . . . . .
Seventh year of the League . © . ° .
Change of tactics . . . . . .
Effect of Cobden’s sneer ‘ . 7 7 .
Argument of the speech . ° a . . .

The argument . 5 ‘ ° . . . .
Cobden’s influence on Peel. ‘ . . =
Prospects of the question « # ‘ ‘
The Maynooth Grant . . . . ‘

Letters to Mrs. Cobden . ° ‘ . ‘

Private embarrassments é ‘ . . .
Letter from Mr. Bright. . 2. «we

CHAPTER XV.
Tae Avtumi or 1843.

The Edinburgh letter . . . - . 5
The Ministerial crisia . : . ° . .
Renewed agitation . 7 . ° ° . ‘
Proffer of office to Cobden. . ° ° «
Sir Robert Peel and his party : . . é
Sir Robert Peel’s conversion . r : ° é
Operations of the League : 4 é B
Reconciliation with Sir Robert Pee) 7 ‘ .

CHAPTER XVI.
RepeaL or THE Cozn Laws aND FaLt oF THE

State of public opinion on repeal . 2» Swe
Difficulties of Peel’s position . . ° . °
Attitude of the Whigs . . 7 a . .
Proceedings in Parliament . . co « -
Letter to George Combe . # "  e@ 6
Cobden’s view of hig own position . x é *

. . ° - 309
. « . - 811
. e . . 313
. . x - 815
S. . . 317
. ‘ . - 319
. es . « 321
. . > - 323
. . . . 325

° . . . 327
. . - 329
* - 331

. is e - 835

. . . . 339

° . . - 341
. . . « 343
. ° . . 345

3 - * . 347

. . . - 351

é . ~ 853
GovERNMENT.

. ° 3 . 855
° ’ . 359
. a sty . 361

e . . . 363
e . y - 865
, ° ° - 867
Xvi OONTENTS,

Letter to Mr. Hunter . ° e * . €
The miseries of popularity . = os . ‘

Miscellaneous correspondence s . . :
Progress of the Corn Bill . . * . .
London society . . . .
Third reading of the Bill i in ths Hone . é ’

The Bill passes the Upper House . . . .
Peel’s final tribute to Cobden . ° e . .

CHAPTER XVII.

CorrusronDENCE with Siz Rogsexrr PeeL—CrssaTion

Cobden’s letter to Peel . is . * if 5

Peel’s reply . . « e ° .
Letter from Lord John ei . “ .
Peculiar work of the League . ‘ . . .
New projects ‘ ‘ * 4 . @ °
Reflections on social progress . ° ° .
The National Testimonial . ‘ ; ‘ ’

CHAPTER XVII
Tour over EKvrops.

Omens of revolution iu Paris . : . . :
Cobden’s popularity among strangers . 2
Interview with Louis Philippe : . ° .
In Spain and Southern France : . . -
au Italy . ~ % . . ° . . °
At Rome 7 . . . . .
Interview with the vie ’ % ‘ < *
The Campagna. . . ° ® . .
Naples and Turin . . e . é . ‘

The Italian Lakes . . . « i i‘
Venice and Trieste o a i ° .
Interview with Prince Mettarnish # . e x
At Babelsberg ; . ~ . » ° .
Berlin and Potsdam . a . ¥ . a
Stettin . x ‘ ° ° a * j
The Russian Frontier . . 5 q .
Moscow.  . . . * é é
St, Petersburg . « e i rs ®

Arrived at huome . ai ; z . * 2

OF

Page
‘ - 871
® . 873
Cy « 376
* . 377
° - 381
. - 383
e - 387
« - 889
Leacus.
° - 390
« . 397
. - 403
- 405
5 . 409
- . 411
° . 413
* 417
. 419
‘i . 421
* » 423
e ~ 425
. . 427
. . 433
6 - 435
. . 437
. - 439
# . 441
» 443
~ 445
= . 447
‘a » 449
* - 451
_ 453
® . 459
. - 463
CONTENTS Xvi

CHAPTER XIX.
ELECTION FOR THE WeEsT RiIpInc—PURCHASE OF DunFORD—CORRESPONDENCE.
PAGE
EvectIon for the West Riding . . i . . ° . . . » 465
Purchase of Dunford ‘i ‘ “ i . : é ‘ ; $ . 467
Picture of rural life in Sussex . 5 5 ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ . . . 469

The Spanish marriages . . * ‘i i . . ‘ ‘ - 471

Letter to Mr. Bright . . é e ‘ Fi é , 5 ‘ » 473
Ona mischievous foreign policy . .» «© « « « « «© « 476
Complaints from Bastiat... sc Lis e). F ee SE ee » 477
The Revolution of 1848. ; ri s . ; . r 5 « 479
The revolution in France . = 7 * : . . . » . 481
Work in Parliament . . . ‘ a . a 7 . « 483
The Education question . r + ‘ 7 q i ‘ # - » 485
Cobden’s plan of Reform . 1 Uti - fo ae 12 6 » 489
To Combe, on Ireland . * ‘ . ‘ * . . . a « 491
On dissent from one’s party . : . . , 7 : . . « 495
Cobden’s position in Parliament . . . . . : . . . 497
- The people’s budget. : yo. So = «© » w~ «  » 499
CHAPTER XX.

MISCELLANEOUS CORRESPONDENCE ON SOCIAL AND POLITICAL MOVEMENTS.

New plans for political reform . . . ‘ . . . ‘ » 501
To Mr. Bright, on a new programme . . ° . . . . » 503
A triumphal celebration . . . . . . . oe * 505
To Combe, on national expenditure . ‘ . s . . . * . 507
The motion for arbitration . . 5 : . : * - 509
The peace OnE at Paris, , . . ee) ie . . - 611
In Paris. 7 . ‘ ‘ : “  % 7 3 . 518
To Mr. Bright, on indland ; ea IS » 515
‘fo Mr. Bright, on Parliamentary Reform eo OE oe el ato bY
On the English land question , st. oe eel ti(t CD
To Mr. Bright . . ‘i # . ‘ " « ¥ * ‘ ‘ » 621
Ontemperance, . «© + «© -» = 8 2 8 el 2B

CHAPTER XXI.

Tar Don Pacrrico DrBATE—THE PaPpaL AGGRESSION—CORRESPONDENCE
witH Mr. BricHT oN REFORM—Kossvutu.

The Hungarian war of independence . . . , . . . 529

Cobden’s denunciation of war loans . . i . . . . = . 533
Root of Cobden’s feeling about war . = 8 fs . " ie 28 . 585
The affair of Don Pacifico . ‘ BO ai ' . ' . 537
xviii CONTENTS

PaGE

Issues of the debate . . ‘ .

Death of Peel—The Papal seensticn 541

Stock exchange creditors . . , .

Miscellaneous notes . . ‘ . . , . ' . . 545
Peace congress at Frankfort . ° . . . . » 547
The No-Popery cry . A ei D : . ‘ zi ‘ . 549
The Ecclesiastical Titles’ Bill . .« + =» . . . » 551
Deadlock of parties . . . - . . . . . . 555
Motion for negotiations with France . . . . . . . » 557
Doubts on reform. . . . . . . 559
To Mr. Bright, on the land diostion . é . . * » 561
To Mr. Bright, on reform , . . . . . . . 563
Kossuth in England . 4 “ . . . . . . . « 565
To Mr. Bright, in explanation . oe oe Re me ww ee 8 a SET
Mr. Bright and Kossuth . . , . . . . . . . » 569
English opinion on Russian intervention . . . . . ° . . 571

CHAPTER XXII.
Tue PROTECTIONISTS IN OFFICR.

Fate of the Whig ministry . . +. «© + © 2 © o« . 578
The Protectionists in office . »« 6 +» o « © © « » 575
Revival of the League. , . ° . . . . . A . 577
Growth of the military spirit . . . . . . x . 579
Cobden's urgency for a dissolution . 3 “ ‘ f es . 581
The general election . ‘ 583

The free traders and the wtoistay . .
Humiliation of the protectionists . A
Mr. Disraeli’s budget ‘ . . .
Fate of the first Derby ministry - ‘

. © & « 585
er LNG + . 587

eof «©
.
.
.
.

S
©

» 6 6 8 «» . 591

CHAPTER XXIII,
Tue Panic or 1853,

The invasion panic . . . .

Excitement of public opinion . . . ¥ 595

His pamphlet: 1792 and 1853 . . 59

The war of 1793 , ' - :
Social state of France and of England . . . ; : ; : or
French feeling for Napoleon . 2 © 8° : ee : : =

Peace conference at Manchester . ‘ < :

Events of the Session i ‘ : : ; ; : -
Misrepresentation of the peace: grain
Visit to Oxford . , ' . . .
CONTENTS x1x

CHAPTER XXIV.

THE CRIMEAN WAR.

PAGE

Origin of the War... . ® Me ee ose e. 8 - 615
Cobden’s policy compared with Palmerston Sk os is - 617
Mortifying position of Cobden and Bright . . . . . 7 - 619
Their steadfastness . . a % 7 . . . . . . + 621
Difficulties of a peace party . . . . . . . . ‘ - 623
Cobden’s speeches on the war . . . . . . ’ . si » 625
Lettcrs to Mr. Bright. . a * ‘ ® * . * . . 627
» to Colonel Fitamayer . % . . . . . ‘ * » 633

» toMr. Bright . «© «© «© « «+ « . 635

to M. Chevalier , . . . . . . i # . . 641
to Mr, Ashworth . . . . ° . * ‘ é . » 643

CHAPTER XXV.
DgatH oF HIs SON,

Sudden death of his son at Weinheim. . . . . ° . » 645
Violent grief of Mrs. Cobden. ww ell KF
Mr, Bright’s illness , . . . ° . . @ te os . 649

CHAPTER XXVL

CHINESE AFFAIRS—COBDEN’s MOTION—THE DISSOLUTION.

The affair of the “Arrow” , . . . . . . « 653
Cobden’s motion and defeat of the mitnistcy ¥ * . * . * « G5
The repulse in the country . a + 8 «© «© «© . 657
Letter from Mr, Bright on their defeat . . . . . . . - 659
Cobden’s feeling . , eo. . ar) . + 661

Mr. Bright’s election at Biminghen i a. oe oe . é . 668
Cobden at Midhurst , . . . o 8  @ 6 ee «865
Views of parliamentary life . . «© «« «e« «2 «© « o »« 667

CHAPTER XXVIL

Tae INDIAN Mouriny—PRIvaTE AFFAIRS—SECOND JOURNEY TO AMERIOa,

The Indian Mutiny . . . 6 . . . . . . . 671
On contact with inferior races , e . . é é . ¥ . . 673
Sombre outlook in India , ‘ . ‘ * ‘ ‘ ‘ . . - 675
Misgivings as to the future . ’ ’ 7 ' . 2 ‘ . 677
On the transfer of land , . a . ‘ ' . . - » 679
xx CONTENTS

On the demoralisation of England by India
Change of Government , » . .
Private anxieties . ‘ 7 . °
Munificent friendship . . . .

. .
. °
. °
. °

CHAPTER XXVIII.

RETURN FROM AMERICA—THE NEW MINISTRY.

The new Ministry . . . ° .
Arrival at Liverpool ‘ . . °
Interview with Lord Palmerston . i.
Refusal of Office . . . . .

CHAPTER XXIX.

Tac FRencH TREATY,

With Mr. Gladstone at Hawarden . ‘i
Return to London ,. . . . .
Arrival in Paris . r . #
Interview with the Ruiperee . . .
The French Minister z . ° .
The Ministers at home . ‘ . r
The Emperor's hesitation . . .

Second interview with the Emperor a
Cobden receives official powers . .
The Emperor’s deviations . . ‘
Hostile feeling in France . . . .
The treaty signed . ‘

Morality of negotiation with the Einplire .

CHAPTER XXX,

Hotmay anp Return to

The [talian question . ‘ .
Interview with Prince Metternich ,
At Cannes ‘ , . ’
Return to Paris . . .
The Question of Savoy . ‘
Discussion with the Emperor ,
Cobden’s vrivate circumstances

Paris,

PAgH
» 68)
» 683
- 685
» 687

- 691
« 693

- 699

» 735
o 737
- 741
« 748
« 745
» 787
» 149
The Commission
Social intercourse

Count Persigny on the Empire
Conversation with Prince Napoleon
The proposal for fortifications .
Lord Palmerston’s distrust . 7 . .
Mr. Gladstone’s position . a i 2 . “i
Cobden’s remonstrance , x * . oy
Lord Palmerston’s reply . . . . . .
Lord John Russell’s reply ‘

Effect in Paris .

M. Rouher on Lord Palmerston’ 8 apaeeh
Prince Napoleon and Count Persigny .
Delay in signing the Convention , .
The Conventions signed .

Cobden and Mr. Bright with tha Hmiparor
Abolition of passports , . ,
Reception of the tariff in England ' .
His feeling about the English Government
Letter from Lord Palmerston. , ‘

State of the question in 1843 .
Cobden’s vindication of the treaty
Peculiarity of Cobden’s treaty .
Doable operation of the treaty
The economic circulation . .

CONTENTS

CHAPTER XXXI.

THs Tarivr—THE FORTIFICATION SOHEME.

Debates on the treaty
Nature of the treaty
Fresh labours in Paris

ey © © © © we e@
ee ce

eo ew ee .
ee © © © © ee 8h ew we ell hl ll

CHAPTER XXXII. *

THE PoLicy OF THE COMMERCIAL TREATY,

CHAPTER XXXIII.

PAGE
» 753
» 755
» 757
- 759
- 761
- 763
- 765
» 767
- 769
- 771
» 773
- 775
777
+ 779
» 781
» 783
» 785
« 787
» 789
- 791
« 793
» 795
« 797

« 801
- 803
» 805
+ 807
» 809

MISCELLANEOUS CORRESPONDENCE, 1859-60—ParIs—RETURN TO ENGLAND.

Miscellaneous correspondence, 1859-60
Mr Bright’s public appearances
Condition of political life. “
Napoleon II. as a writer. a
The state of Europe. , e
The Turkish question ‘ .

. © © @
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xxii CONTENTS

Sober politics of Peel and Aberdeen
British rule in India * . :
Great producers—The counties r
The English working class ' .
Last interview with the Emperor .

oer eee

CHAPTER XXXIV.

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THE AMERICAN WAR—FORTIFICATION ScHEMES—INTERNATIONAL Law.

Reception in England. i .
The American War . 4 ‘
Proposed changes in maritime law .
Battles with Lord Palmerston .

On maritime law . fs ‘ ‘
On China .

On traders and missionaries in China
On Lord Brougham—On secession ,
On the Trent affair . '

To Mr. Sumner on the war ‘
On maritime law . .
On the commercial class . . a
On Lord Palmerston s . .
On the American blockade ‘
Debate on Turkey . F . ‘
On the Polish Insurrection

To Mr. Sumner on the American war
On the American war .

Visit to the fortifications of Portamiouth

To Mr. Bright on the war « “
On the political torpor of the day .
On privateoring ¥ . . .

CHAPTER XXXY.

CoRRESPONDENCE WITH MR.

Feeling towards the Times newspaper
Charge of the Times against Mr. Bright

Cobden’s protest and Mr. Delane’s ca 7

His letter to Mr. Delane .
Continuance of the controversy
Mr. Delane’s virtual surrender .

The merits of the controversy . .
Letter to the Daily Telegraph . .
Cobden’s view of journalism . .

DELANE,

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877
881
883

885
887
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897
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CONTENTS

CHAPTER XXXVI.

Xxili

Tur DanisH WaR—Last SPERCHES IN PARLIAMENT—CORBRESPONDENOR.

Denmark and the British Government

Humiliating position of Lord Palmerston
Cobden’s speeches during the session.
On Garibaldi’s visit to London ‘
On Free Trade in france. é . A
On the triumph of non-intervention ¥
On blockades—On the Danish War . iz

CHAPTER XXXVII.

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PAGE
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SPEECH aT RocHDaLE—THE Land QUESTION—CORRESPONDENCE—LAST

Days aND DBRaTH,

Cobden’s views on the Land Question .
Illness after his return from Rochdale .
On minority representation . ¥ °
To Mr. Bright . * * .
Offer of a Post by the Government . 6
To Mr. T. B. Potter . . . °
To Mr. Bright . . . 8 °
On Canadian Affairs . ‘
Journey to London—IIlness cat Death .

CHAPTER XXXVIIL

ConcLUsIoON.
Traits of Private Character ° . . ‘ ‘ .
Views on Culture . ‘ . . a
His Contribution to Social Reform . . . :
The New Possessors of Power . . « . .
APPENDICES.
Letter on the Hours of Labour . . é .
The Last Letter written by Mr Cobden . * 8

A Bibliography of Richard Cobden . / 8 8

INDEX ‘ a 6 e e e ‘ a e

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THE

LIFE OF RICHARD COBDEN,

 

CHAPTER I.
EARLY LIFE,

HeysHort is a hamlet in a sequestered corner of West
Sussex, not many miles from the Hampshire border. It is
one of the crests that, like wooded islands, dot the great
Valley of the Weald. Near at hand the red housetops of
Midhurst sleep among the trees, while Chichester lies in the
flats a dozen miles away, beyond the steep escarpments of
the South Downs, that here are nearing their western edge.
Heyshott has a high rolling upland of its own, part of the
majestic wall that runs from Beachy Head almost to Ports-
mouth. As the traveller ascends the little neighbouring
height of West Lavington, he discerns far off to the left, at
the end of a dim line, the dark clump of sentinel trees at
_Chanctonbury, whence one may look forth over the glisten-
ing flood of the Channel, or hear the waters beat upon the
shore. The country around Midhurst is sprinkled thinly
with farms and modest homesteads. Patches of dark forest
mingle with green spaces of common, with wide reaches of
heath, with ponds flashing in the sunlight, and with the
white or yellow clearing of the fallows. The swelling turf
of the headland, looking northward across the Weald to the

loved companion downs of Surrey, is broken by soft wooded
B
1804.

2 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [owar.

hollows, where the shepherd finds a shelter from the noon-
tide sun, or from the showers that are borne along in the
driving flight of the south-west wind.

Here, in an old farmhouse, known as Dunford, Richard
Cobden was born on June 3, 1804. He was the fourth of a
family of eleven children. His ancestors were yeomen of the
soil, and it is said, with every appearance of truth, that the
name can be traced in the annals of the district as far back
as the fourteenth century. The antiquarians of the county
have found out that one Adam de Coppdene was sent to
parliament by the borough of Chichester in 1314. There is
talk of a manor of Cobden in the ninth of Edward IV. (1470).
In 1462 there is a record of William Cobden devising lands
on the downs in Westdean. Thomas Cobden of Midhurst
was a contributor of twenty-five pounds to the fund raised
for resisting the Spanish Armada. When hearth-money
was levied in 1670, Richard Cobden, junior, is entered as
paying for seven out of the seventy-six hearths of the dis-
trict. In the Sussex election poll-book for 1734 a later
Richard Cobden is put down as a voter for the parish of
Midhurst, and four or five others are entered as freeholders
in other parts of West Sussex. The best opinion seems to
be that the settlement of the Cobdens at Midhurst took
place sometime in the seventeenth century, and that they

‘were lineal descendants of Sir Adam and Sir Ralph of

former ages.

However all this may be, the five hundred years that inter-
vened had nursed no great prosperity. Cobden’s grandfather
and namesake was a maltster and farmer, and filled for
several years the principal office of bailiff for the borough
of Midhurst. When he died in 1809, he left a very
modest property behind him. Dunford was sold, and
William Cobden, the only son of Richard the elder, and
the father of the Richard Cobden with whom we are
1] PARENTAGH AND FAMILY MISFORTUNES 3

concerned, removed to a small farm on the outskirts of 1809-18.
Midhurst. He was a man of soft and affectionate disposition,
but wholly without the energy of affairs. He was the
gentlest and kindest of men. Honest and upright himself,
he was incapable of doubting the honesty and uprightness
of others. He was cheated without suspecting it, and he
had not force of character enough to redeem a fortune which
gradually slipped away from him. Poverty oozed in with
gentle swiftness, and lay about him like a dull cloak for
the rest of his life. His wife, the mother of Richard Cobden,
had borne the gracious maiden-name of Millicent Amber.
Unlike her kindly helpless husband, she was endowed with
native sense, shrewdness, and force of mind, but the bravery
of women in such cases can seldom avail against the shift-
lessness of men. The economic currents of the time might
seem to have been all in their favour. The war and the
scarcity which filled all the rest of the country with distress,
rained gold upon farmers and landlords. In the five years
during which William Cobden was at Guillard’s Oak, (1809-
18), the average price of wheat was just short of five
pounds a quarter. In spite of tithes, of war-taxes, and of
tremendous poor-rates, the landowners extracted royal rents,
and the farmers drove a roaring trade. To what use William
Cobden put these good times, we do not know. After the
harvest of 1813, the prospect of peace came, and with it a
collapse of the artificial inflation of the grain markets. In-
solvency and distraint became familiar words in the farm-
houses that a few months before had been revelling in plenty.

William Cobden was not the man to contrive an escape
from financial disaster. In 1814 the farm was sold, and
they moved from home to home until at length they made a
settlement at Westmeon, near Alton in Hampshire. His
neighbours were as unfortunate as himself, for Cobden was
able to say in later years that when he returned to his native

 
4 LIFE OF OOBDEN. (omar.

1814-19. place, he found that many of those who were once his play-
2r. 10-16. fellows had sunk down to the rank of labourers, and some of

them were even working on the roads.

It is one of the privileges of strength to add to its own
the burdens of the weak, and helpful kinsfolk are constantly
found for those whom character or outer circumstance has
submerged. Relatives of his own, or his wife’s, charged
themselves with the maintenance of William Cobden’s dozen
children. Richard, less happy than the others, was taken
away from a dame’s school at Midhurst, and cheerful tend-
ing of the sheep on his father’s farm, and was sent by
his mother’s brother-in-law, a merchant in London, to a
school in Yorkshire. Here he remained for five years, a
grim and desolate time, of which he could never afterwards
endure to speak. This was twenty years before the vivid
genius and racy style of Dickens had made the ferocious
brutalities of Squeers and the horrors of Dotheboys Hall as
universally familiar as the best-known scenes of Shakespeare.
The unfortunate boy from his tenth to his fifteenth year
was ill fed, ill taught, ill used; he never saw parent or
friend; and once in each quarter he was allowed such
singular relief to his feelings as finds official expression in
the following letter (March 25, 1817) :—

““Honovrsep Parents,

“You cannot tell what rapture I feel at my once more
having the pleasure of addressing my Parents, and though
the distance is so great, yet I have an opportunity of con-
veying it to you free of expense. It is now turned three
years since our separation took place, and I assure you I
look back with more pleasure to that period than to any
other part of my life which was spent to no effectual purpose,
and I beg to return you my most: sincere thanks as being the
means of my gaining such a sense of learning as will enable
1] EDUCATION AND BARLY DAYS IN LONDON. 5

me to gain a genteel livelihood whenever I am called into 1819-26.
the world to do for myself.” ir. 15-21.

Ié was not until 1819 that this cruel and disgusting
mockery of an education came to an end. Cobden was
received as a clerk in his uncle’s warehouse in Old Change.
It was some time before things here ran easily. Nothing is
harder to manage, on either side, than the sense of an
obligation conferred or received. Cobden’s uncle and aunt
expected servility in the place of gratitude, and in his own
phrase, “inflicted rather than bestowed their bounties.”
They especially disapproved of his learning French lessons
in the early hours of the morning in his bedroom, and his
fondness for book-knowledge was thought of evil omen for
his future as a man of business. The position became
so unpleasant, that in 1822 Cobden accepted the offer of
a situation in a house of business at Ghent. It promised
considerable advantages, but his father would not give
his approval, and Cobden after some demur fell in with
his father’s wish. He remained where he was, and did not
quarrel with such opportunity as he had, simply because he
had missed a better. It is one of the familiar puzzles of
life, that those whose want of energy has sunk their lives
in failure, are often so eager to check and disparage the
energy of stronger natures than their own.

William Cobden’s letters all breathe a soft domesticity
which is more French than English, and the only real dis- °
comfort of his poverty to him seems to have been a weak
regret that he could not have his family constantly around
his hearth. Frederick, his eldest son, was in the United
States for several years; his father was always gently
importunate for his return. In 1824 he came home,
having done nothing by his travels towards bettering for-
tunes that remained stubbornly unprospercus to the end
6 LIFE OF OCOBDEN. [onar.

1824. of his life. Between Frederick Cobden and Richard there
Hix. 20. always existed the warmest friendship, and when the former
found a situation in London, their intercourse was constant
and intimate. There were three younger brothers, Charles,
Miles, and Henry ; and Richard Cobden was no sooner in
receipt of a salary, than he at once took the place of a father to
them, besides doing all that he could to brighten the shabby
poverty of the home at Westmeon. Whenever he had a
holiday, he spent it there; a hamper of such good cheer as
his purse could afford was never missing at Christmas ; and
on the long Sundays in summer he knew no happier diver-
sion than to walk out to meet his father at some roadside
inn on the wide Surrey heaths, midway between Alton and
the great city. His little parchment-bound diary of
expenses at this time shows him to us as learning to dance
and to box, playing cards with alternating loss and gain,
going now and again to Vauxhall Gardens, visiting the
theatre to see Charles Mathews, buying Brougham on
Popular Education, Franklin’s Essays, and Childe Harold.
The sums are puny enough, but a gentle spirit seems still
to breathe in the poor faded lines and quaint French in
which he made his entries, as we read of the little gifts to
his father and brothers, and how he is debtor by charité, 1s.
—donné un pawore gargon, 1d.—wn pawvre gargon, 2d.
By-and-by the sombre Shadow fell upon them all. In
1825 the good mother of the house helped to nurse a
neighbour’s sick child, in the midst of an epidemic of
typhoid ; she caught the fever, and died at the age of eight
and forty. ‘Our sorrow would be torment,” Frederick
Cobden wrote to his father, “if we could not reflect on our
conduct towards that dear soul, without calling to mind one
instance in which we had wilfully given her pain.” And

with this gentle solace they seem to have had good right to
soothe their affliction,
1] PROMOTION IN BUSINESS. 7

The same year which struck Cobden this distressing blow,
brought him promotion in his business. The early differ-
ences between himself and his uncle had been smoothed
away by his industry, cheerfulness, and skill, and he had
won the approval and good-will of his employers. From the
drudgery of the warehouse, he was now advanced to the
glories of the road. We may smile at the keen elation with
which he looked to this preferment from the position of
clerk to that of traveller; but human dignities are only
relative, and a rise in the hierarchy of trade is doubtless as
good matter for exultation, as a rise in hierarchies more
elaborately robed. Cobden’s new position was peculiarly
suited to the turn of his character. Collecting accounts and
soliciting orders for muslins and calicoes gave room in their
humble sphere for those high inborn qualities of energy,
and sociability, which in later years produced the most
active and the most persuasive of popular statesmen. But
what made the life of a traveller so specially welcome to
Cobden, was the gratification that it offered to the master-
passion of his life, an insatiable desire to know the affairs
of the world. Famous men, who became his friends in the
years to come, agree in the admission that they have never
known a man in whom this trait of a sound and rational
desire to know and to learn was so strong and so inex-
haustible. It was not the curiosity of the infantile dabbler
in all subjects, random and superficial; and yet it was as
far removed from the dry parade of the mere tabulist and
statistician. It was not bookish, for Cobden always felt
that much of what is best worth knowing is never written
in books. Nor was it the curiosity of a speculative under-
standing; yet, as we shall see presently, there soon grew
up in his mind a body of theoretic principles, and a philo-
sophic conception of modern society, round which the know-
ledge so strenuously sought was habitually grouped, and

1825,

ir, 21.
1825.
Air, 21,

 

1826.

8 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [omar.

by which the desire to learn was gradually directed and
configured.

The information to be gathered in coaches and in the
commercial rooms of provincial hotels was narrow enough
in some senses, but it was varied, fresh, and in real matter.
To a man of Cobden’s active and independent intelligence
this contact with such a diversity of interest and character
was a congenial process of education. Harsh circumstance
had left no other education open to him. There is some-
thing pathetic in an exclamation of one of his letters of this
period, not merely because it concerns a man of Cobden’s
eminence and public service, but because it is the case of
thousands of less conspicuous figures. In his first journey
(August—October, 1825) he was compelled to wait for half
a day at Shrewsbury, for a coach to Manchester. He went
to the abbey, and was greatly impressed by its venerable
walls and painted glass. ‘Oh that I had money,” he says to
his brother, in plain uncultured speech, “ to be deep skilled
in the mysteries of mullions and architraves, in lieu of black
and purple and pin grounds! How happy I should be.”
He felt as keenly as Byron himself how

The lore
Of mighty minds doth hallow in the core

Of human hearts the ruin of a wall,
Where dwelt the wise and wondrons.

In his second journey he visited the birthplace of Robert
Burns, and he wrote to his brother from Aberdeen (Feb. 5,
1826) :—* It is a sort of gratification that I am sure you can
imagine, but which I cannot describe, to feel conscious of
treading upon the same spot of earth, of viewing the same
surrounding objects, and of being sheltered by the same roof,
as one who equally astonished and delighted the world.”
He describes himself as boiling over with enthusiasm upon
approaching “ Alloway’s auld haunted kirk,” the brig 0’
1] VISITS BUENS’S BIRTHPLAOE. 9

Doon, and the scene of Tam o’ Shanter’s headlong ride, 1826.
With a pang of disillusion he found the church so small that atr. 22,
Cuttie-Sark and her hellish legion can have had scanty space
for their capering, while the distance to the middle of the
old bridge, and the length of the furious immortal chase, can
have been no more than one hundred yards. The party on
this occasion were accompanied by a small manufacturer
from Paisley, who cared little for the genius of the place,
and found Cobden’s spirit of hero-worship tiresome. “Our
worthy Paisley friend remarked to us, as we leaned over the
Bridge of Doon, and as its impetuous stream rushed beneath
us, ‘How shamefully,’ said he, ‘is the water-power of this
country suffered to run to waste: here is the force of twenty
horses running completely idle.’ He did not relish groping
among ruins and tombstones at midnight, and was particu-
larly solicitous that we should leave matters of discussion
until we reached Burns’s birthplace, where he understood
that they kept the best whiskey in that vicinity.” To
Burns’s birthplace at length they came, where at first their
reception was not cordial. “ But my worthy friend from
Paisley had not forgotten the whiskey; and so, tapping the
chin of the old dame with his forefinger, he bade her bring a
half-mutchkin of the best, ‘to set the wheels going,’ as he
termed it, and, having poured out a glass for the hostess,
which she swallowed, I was pleased to find that it did set
the wheels of her tongue going. ‘Ye would maybe like to
gang and see the verra spot where poor Robbie was borned,’
she said, and we instantly begged her to show it to us. She
took us along a very short passage, and into a decent-looking
kitchen with a good fire. There was a curtain hung from
the ceiling to the floor, which appeared to cover one part of
the wall. She drew aside the curtain, and it disclosed a
bed in a recess of the wall, and a man who had been hidden
in the clothes first put his head out and looked round in

 
1826.
ART. 22.

 

10 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [onar.

stupid amazement, and then rose up in the bed and ex-
claimed, ‘What the deil hae ye got here, Lizzie ??
‘Whisht, whisht, gudeman!’ said the old dame, out of
whose head the whiskey had driven all thoughts of her hus-
band, ‘the gentlemen will be verra pleased to hear ye tell
them a’ about poor Robbie.’ Our Paisley friend had again
poured out a glass of whiskey and presented it to our host,
who drank it off, and, bringing his elbow round with a
knowing flourish, he returned the glass upside down, to
show he drank clean. ‘I knew Robbie weel,’ said he,
wiping his mouth with his shirt-sleeve. ‘I was the last
man that drank wi’ him afore he left this country for
Dumfries. Oh, he was a bonnie bairn, but owre muckle
gien to braw company. ‘And this is the spot, gentle-
men,’ said the impatient gudewife, catching the narrative
from her husband, ‘where Robbie was borned, and sic a
night that was, as I have heard Nancy Miller, the coach-
man’s mither say; it blew, and rained, and thundered, just
like as if heaven and earth were dinged thegither, and ae
corner of the house was blawn away afore the morning, and
so they removed the mither and the bairn into the next
room the day after.’ Now I believe if these two bodies
were put upon their oath to all they told us, that they would
not be guilty of falsehood or perjury, for I am quite sure
they are both persuaded that their tale is true, and
from no other cause than that they have told it so often.
And yet I would venture to bet all I possess, and what
is more, all I owe, that they never saw Burns in all their
lives.” *

The genial eye for character and the good-humoured
tolerance of foibles, which so singularly distinguished Cob-
den in the days when he came to act with men for public
objects, are conspicuous in these early letters. His hospi-

1 To F. Oobden, Feb. 6, 1826,
1] IN IRELAND. II

table observation, even in this rudimentary stage, seemed
to embrace all smaller matters as well as great. Though
he was little more than one and twenty, he had already a
sense for those great facts of society which are so much more
important than landscape and the picturesque, whether in
books or travels, yet for which the eye and thought of
adolescence are usually trained to be so dull. On his first
journey in Ireland (September, 1825), he notices how im-
mediately after the traveller leaves Dublin “you are reminded
by the miserable tenements in the roadside that you are in
the land of poverty, ignorance, and misrule. Although my
route afforded a favourable specimen of the Irish peasantry,
it was a sight truly heartrending. There appears to be no
middle class in Ireland: there are the rich, and those who
are objects of wretchedness and almost starvation. We
passed through some collections of huts called towns, where
I observed the pig taking his food in the same room with
the family, and where I am told he is always allowed to
sleep. Shoes and stockings are luxuries that neither men
nor women often aspire to. Their cabins are made of mud
or sometimes stone. I observed many without any glass,
and they rarely contain more than one room, which answers
' the purpose of sitting-room and sleeping-room for themselves
and their pig.”

Even in Dublin itself he saw what made an impression
upon him, which ten years later he tried to convey to the
readers of his first pamphlet. ‘The river Liffey intersects
the city, and ships of 200 tons may anchor nearly in the
heart of Dublin; but it is here the stranger is alone disap-
pointed ; the small number of shipping betrays their limited
commerce. It is melancholy to see their spacious streets
(into some of which the whole tide of Cheapside might
with ease move to and fro), with scarcely a vehicle through
their whole extent. Whilst there is so little circulation in

1826.

 

it. 21.
12 LIfH OF COBDEN. [oar.

1826. the heart, can it be wondered at that the extremities are
Air, 22. poor and destitute ?”?

If one side of Cobden’s active and flexible mind was
interested by these miserable scenes, another side, as we
have said, was touched by the strange whimsicalities of man.
In February, 1826, he crossed from Donaghadee, on the
north-east coast of Ireland, to Portpatrick.

“Our captain was named Paschal—he was a short figure,
but made the most of a little matter by strutting as upright
as a dart, and throwing back his head, and putting forward
his little chest in an attitude of defiance. It appeared to
be the ambition of our little commander to make matters on
board his little dirty steam-boat wear the same air of
magnitude as on board a seventy-four. I afterwards learned
he had once been captain on board of a king’s ship. His
orders were all given through a ponderous trumpet, although
his three men could not be more than ten yards distant
from him. Still he bore the air of a gentleman, and was
accustomed to have the fullest deference paid him by his
three seamen. On approaching near the Harbour of Port-
patrick, our captain put his huge trampet down the hole
that led below, and roared out, at the risk of stunning us all,
‘Steward-boy, bring up a gun cartridge, and have a care
you don’t take a candle into the Magazine!’ The order was
obeyed, the powder was carried up, and after a huge deal
of preparation and bustling to and fro on the deck, the
trumpet was again poked down to a level with our ears, and
the steward was again summoned to bring up a match.
Soon after which we heard the report of something upon
deck like the sound of a duck-gun. After that, the order
was given, ‘All hands to the larboard—clear the gangway
and lower the larboard steps,’ or in other words, ‘ Help the
passengers to step on to the pier.’ ”*

1 To F. Cobden, Sept. 20, 1826. § To F. Cobden.
1] THE DISASTERS oF 1826. 13

In the same letter he congratulates himself on having 1826.
been fortunate enough, when he strolled into the Court air. 22.
of Session, to see Jeffery, Cockburn, and Sir Walter Scott.
One cannot pass the mention of the last and greatest of
the three—the bravest, soundest-hearted, and most lovable
of men,—without noting that this day, when Cobden saw
him, was only removed by three weeks from “that awful
seventeenth of January,” when Scott received the stagger-
ing blow of desperate and irretrievable ruin. It was only
ten days before that he had gone to the Court for the first
time, “and like the man with the large nose, thought that
everybody was thinking of him and his mishaps.”

This, in fact, was the hour of one of the most widely
disastrous of those financial crashes which sweep over the
country from time to time like great periodic storms. The
rain of 1825 and 1826 was never forgotten by those who
had intelligence enough to be alive to what was going on
before their eyes. The whirlwind that shook the fabric of
Scott’s prosperity to the ground, involved Cobden’s humbler
fortunes in a less imposing catastrophe. His employers
failed (February, 1826), as did so many thousands of others,
and he was obliged to spend some time in unwelcome holiday
at Westmeon.

Affairs were as straitened under his father’s roof as they
had always been. The sun was not likely to be shining
in that little particular spot, if the general sky were dull.
The perturbations of the great ocean were felt even in that
small circle, and while retail customers at their modest shop
were reluctant to buy or unable to pay, the wholesale pro-
vider in London was forced to narrow his credit and call in
his debts. The family stood closely to one another in the
midst of a swarm of shabby embarrassments, and their neigh-
bours looked on in friendly sympathy, impotent to help.
Strangely enough, as some may think, they do not seem to
"1826.

 

Aur, 22,

14 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [onar,

have been very unhappy. They were all blessed by nature
with a kind of blissful mercurial simplicity, that hindered
their anxieties from eating into character. Their healthy
buoyancy would not allow carking care to put the sun out in
the heavens. When things were dreariest, Richard Cobden
rowed himself across the Solent and back, and with one
of his sisters enjoyed cheery days in the Isle of Wight, and
among his kinsfolk at Chichester and elsewhere. Perhaps
it was fortunate that his energetic spirit was free for the
service of his family, at a moment when they seemed to
be sinking below the surface. It was clear that means
for the support of the household could only be found in
some more considerable place than Westmeon. Presently
it was resolved to migrate to Farnham, renowned for the
excellence of its hop-gardens, for the stateliest of episcopal
castles, and for its associations with two of the finest writers
of English prose, William Cobbett who was the son of a
Farnham cottager, and Jonathan Swift who had been Sir '
William Temple’s secretary at Moor Park a mile or two away.
Thinking less of any of these things, than of the hard eternal
puzzle how to make sure of food and a roof-tree in the world,
William Cobden migrated hither in the beginning of 1827,
“The thought of leaving this dear village,’ one of his
daughters had written (July, 1826), “endeared to us by
a thousand tender recollections, makes me completely mise-
rable.” This dejection was shared in a supreme degree by
the head of the household. He found some consolation
in the good-will that he left behind him; and his old
neighbours, when they were busy with turnip-sowing,
hay-making, and sheep-shearing, were wont to invite him,
partly for help and work, and partly for kindly fellowship’s
sake, to pay them long visits, never failing to send a horse
up the road to meet him for his convenience and the further-
ance of his journey.
Lu] NEW SITUATION. 15

Richard Cobden, meanwhile, had found a situation in
London, in the warehouse of Partridge and Price. Mr.
Partridge had for seven years been one of Cobden’s em-
ployers in the house which had failed, and he now resumed
business with a new partner. He had learned, in his own
words, Cobden’s capacity of rendering himself pre-eminently
useful, and he re-engaged him after a certain effort to drive
a hard bargain as to salary. In September, 1826, Cobden
again set. out on the road with his samples of muslin and
calico prints. He continued steadily at work for two years,
travelling on an average, while on his circuit, at what was
then thought, when the Manchester and Liverpool railway
was only in course of construction, the brisk rate of forty
miles a day.

Two years afterwards, in 1828, Cobden took an important
step. He and two friends who were in the same trade
determined to begin business on their own account. The
scheme of the three friends was to go to Manchester, and
there to make an arrangement with some large firm of calico-
printers for selling goods on commission. More than half
of the little capital was borrowed. When the scheme first
occurred to Cobden, he is said to have gone to Mr. Lewis of
the well-known firm in Regent Street, to have laid the plan
before him, and asked for a loan. The borrower’s sanguine
eloquence, advising a project that in itself was not irrational,
proved successful, and Mr. Lewis’s advance was supple-
mented by a further sum from a private friend.

Cobden wrote many years afterwards: “I began business
in partnership with two other young men, and we only
mustered a thousand pounds amongst us, and more than half
of it was borrowed. We all got on the Peveril of the Peak
coach, and went from London to Manchester in the, at that
day (September, 1828], marvellously short space of twenty
hours. We were literally so ignorant of Manchester houses

1826.

Air. 22,

1828,
16 LIVE OF COBDEN. [onar.

1828. that we called for a directory at the hotel, and turned to the
&r. 24, list of calico-printers, theirs being the business with which
we were acquainted, and they being the people from whom
we felt confident we could obtain credit. And why?
Because we knew we should be able to satisfy them that we
had advantages from our large connexions, our knowledge
of the best branch of the business in London, and our supe-
rior taste in design, which would ensure success. We intro-
duced ourselves to Fort Brothers and Co., a rich house, and
we told our tale, honestly concealing nothing. In less than
two years from 1830 we owed them forty thousand pounds for
goods which they had sent to us in Watling Street, upon no
other security than our characters and knowledge of our
business. I frequently talked with them in later times upun
the great confidence they showed in men who avowed that
they were not possessed of 200]. each. Their answer was
that they would always prefer to trust young men with
connexions and with a knowledge of their trade, if they
knew them to possess character and ability, to those who
started with capital without these advantages, and that they
had acted on this principle successfully in all parts of the
world.” ¢
This is from a letter written to express Cobden’s firm
belief in the general circumstance, “ that it is the character,
experience, and connexions of the man wanting credit, his
knowledge of his business, and opportunities of making
it available in the struggle of life, that weigh with the
shrewd capitalist far more than the actual command of a
few thousands more or less of money in hand.” We may
find reason to think that Cobden’s temperament perhaps
inclined him to push this excellent truth somewhat too far.
Meanwhile, the sun of kindly hope shone. The situation
is familiar to all who have had their own way to make from

4 Lotter to Mv. W. 8. Lindsay, March 24, 1856.
1] BUSINESS ON HIS OWN AOOOUNT. 17

obscurity to success, whether waiting for good fortune in 182%.
Temple chambers, or a publisher’s anteroom, or the com- Afr. 24.
mercial parlour of some provincial Crown or Unicorn.
“During the time we have been here,” Cobden wrote from
Manchester, while affairs were still unsettled, “we have been
in a state of suspense, and you would be amused to see us
but for one day. Oh, suchachange of moods!. This moment
we are all jocularity and laughter, and the next we are mute
as fishes and grave as owls. To do ourselves justice, I must
say that our croakings do not generally last more than five
minutes.”

Intense anxiety for the success of the undertaking was
brightened by modest hopes of profits, of which a share of
one third should amount to eight hundred pounds a year.
And in Cobden’s case these hopes received a suffusion of
generous colour from the prospect which they opened to his
affectionate solicitude for his family. “I knew your heart
well enough,” he wrote to his brother Frederick, “ to feel that
there is a large portion of it ever warmly devoted to my
interests, and I should be doing injustice to mine if I did not
tell you that I have not one ambitious view or hope from
which you stand separated. I feel that Fortune, with her
usual caprice, has in dealing with us turned her face to the
least deserving, but we will correct her mistake for once, and
I must insist that you from henceforth consider yourself as
by right my associate in all her favours.”—(Sept. 21,
1828.)

The important thing is that all this is no mere coinage of
fair words, but the expression of a deep and genuine inten-
tion which was amply and most diligently fulfilled to the very
last hour of Cobden’s life.
CHAPTER IT.
COMMERCIAL AND MENTAL PROGRESS.

1829. Cosprn had not been many months in his new partnership
“Hr. 26. before his energetic mind teemed with fresh projects. The
arrangement with the Forts had turned out excellently.
The Lancashire printers, as we have seen, sent up their
goods to the warehouse of Cobden and his two partners in
Watling Street, in London. On the commission on the
sale of these goods the little firm lived and throve from the
spring of 1829 to 1831. In 1831] they determined to en-
large their borders, and to print their own goods. The
conditions of the trade had just undergone a remarkable
change. It had hitherto been burdened by a heavy duty,
which ranged from as much as fifty or sixty, to even one
hundred, per cent. of the value of the goods. In addition to
excess in amount, there was a vexatious eccentricity of
incidence; for woollens and silks were exempt, while
calicoes were loaded with a duty that, as has been said,
sometimes actually made up one half of the total cost of the '
cloth to the purchasers. As is invariably the case in fiscal
history, excessive and ill-adjusted imposts led to systematic
fraud. Amid these forces of disorder, it is no wonder that
from 1825 to 1830 the trade was stationary. The Lanca-
shire calico-printers kept up a steady agitation, and at one
time it was proposed to raise four thousand pounds for the
purchase of a seat in Parliament for a representative of their
onap, 11] LANCASHIBA, 19

gricvances. The agitation was successful. The duty was
taken off in the spring of 1831, and between 1831 and 1841
the trade doubled itself.

This great change fully warranted the new enterprise of
Cobden and his partners. They took over from the Forts
an old calico-printing factory at Sabden,—a remote village
on the banks of a tributary of the Calder, near the ruined
gateways and chapel of the Cistercian abbey at Whalley in
Lancashire, and a few miles from where are now the fine
mills and flourishing streets of Blackburn. The higher part
of the Sabden valley runs up into the famous haunted Forest
of Pendle ; and notwithstanding the tall chimneys that may
be seen dimly in the distance of the plain, the visitor to this
sequestered spot may well feel as if the old world of white
monks and forest witches still lingered on the bleak hill-
sides. Cobden was all with the new world. His imagination
had evidently been struck by the busy life of the county
with which his name was destined to be so closely bound
up. Manchester, he writes with enthusiasm, is the place
for all men of bargain and business. His pen acquires a
curiously exulting animation, as he describes the bustle
of its streets, the quaintness of its dialect, the abundance
of its capital, and the sturdy veterans with a hundred
thousand pounds in each pocket, who might be seen in the
evening smoking clay pipes and calling for brandy-and-
water in the bar-parlours of homely taverns. He declared
his conviction, from what he had seen, that if he were
stripped naked and turned into Lancashire with only his
experience for a capital, he would still make a large fortune.
He would not give anybody sixpence to guarantee him
wealth, if he only lived.' And so forth, in a vein of self-
confidence which he himself well described as Napoleonic.
“T am ever solicitous,” he wrote to his brother (Jan. 30,

* Letters to Frederich Cobden, Aug. 11, 1831, Jan. 6, 1832, &c.

1829.
ir. 25.
 

1832.
Air, 28,

20 LIFE OF COBDEN. [omar,

1832), “for your future prosperity, and I wish that I could
convince you, as I feel convinced, that it all depends upon
your bringing out with spirit the talents you possess. I
wish that I could impart to you a little of that Bonapartian
feeling with which I am imbued—a feeling that spurs me on
with the conviction that all the obstacles to fortune with
which I am impeded, will (nay, shall) yield if assailed with
energy. All is lost to you, if you succumb to those despond-
ing views which you mentioned when we last spoke. Dame
Fortune, like other fair ones, loves a brisk and confident
wooer. I want to see you able to pitch your voice in a
higher key, especially when you are espousing your own
interests, and above all, never to see you yield or become
passive and indifferent when your cause is just, and only
wants to be spiritedly supported to be sure of a triumph.
But all this must proceed from within, and can be only the
fruits of a larger growth of spirit, to the cultivation of
which without further lecture I most earnestly commend
you.”

A more curious picture still is to be found in another
letter, also to his brother, written a few months later (April
12, 1832). He describes his commercial plans as full of
solidity, “‘sure for the present, and what is still better, open-
img a vista to my view of ambitious hopes and schemes
almost boundless. Sometimes I confess I allow this sort of
feeling to gain a painful and harassing ascendancy over me.
It disquiets me in the night «s well as day. It gnaws my
very entrails (a positive truth), and yet if I ask, What is all
this yearning after? I can scarcely give myself a satisfying
answer. Surely not for money; I feel a disregard for it, and
even a slovenly inattention to its possession, that is quite
dangerous. I have scarcely ever, as usual, a sovereign in my
pocket, and have been twice to Whalley, to find myself with-
out the means of paying my expenses. I do not think that
1] CONFIDENOH IN HIS PROSPEOTS. 21

the possession of millions would greatly alter my habits of 1832.

expense.”

As we might have expected in so buoyant and overflowing
a temperament, moments of reaction were not absent, though
the shadow was probably as swiftly transient with him as
with any man that ever lived. In one of the letters of this
period he writes to his brother:—“I know I must rise
rapidly if not too heavily weighted. Another doleful letter
from poor M. [one of his sisters] came yesterday. Oh, this
is the only portion of the trials of my life that I could not
go through again—the ordeal would send me to Bedlam!
Well, I drown the past in still hoping for the future, but
God knows whether futurity will be as great a cheat as ever.
I sometimes think it will. I tell you candidly, I am some-
times out of spirits, and have need of co-operation, or
Heaven knows yet what will become of my fine castles in the
air, So you must bring spirits—spirits—spirits.”

Few men indeed have been more heavily weighted at the
start than Cobden was. His family were still dogged and
tracked from place to place by the evil genius of slipshod
fortune. In 1829 Frederick Cobden began the business of a
timber merchant at Barnet, but unhappily the undertaking
was as little successful as other things to which he ever put
his hand. The little business at Farnham had failed, and
had been abandoned. William Cobden went to live with his
son at Barnet, and amused a favourite passion by watching
the hundred and twenty coaches which each day whirled up
and down the great north road. Nothing prospered. Death
carried off a son and a daughter in the same year (1830).
Frederick lost health, and he lost his brother’s money, and
spirits followed. He and his father make a strong instance
of the deep saying of Shakespeare’s Enobarbus, how men’s
judgments are a parcel of their fortunes, and things outward
draw the inward quality after them to suffer all alike,

 

ABT. 28,
1832,

At, 28.

 

22 LIFE OF COBDEN. OHAP.

Stubborn and besetting failure generally warps good sense,
and this is the hard warrant for the man of the world’s
anxiety to steer clear of unlucky people.

Richard Cobden, however had energy enough and to
spare for the rest of his family. He pressed his brother
to join him at Manchester where he had bought a house in
what was then the genteel private quarter of Mosley Street.’
Gillett and Sheriff carried on the business at the London
warehouse, and Mr, George Foster who had been manager
under the Forts, was now in charge as a partuer at the
works at Sabden.

It is at Sabden that we first hear of Cobden’s interest in
the affairs of others than himself and his kinsfolk. There,
in a little stone school-house, we see the earliest monument
of his eager and beneficent public spirit, which was destined
to shed such prosperity over his country, and to contribute
so helpfully to the civilization of the globe. In no part of
England have the last forty years wrought so astonishing a
change as among the once lonely valleys and wild moors of
east Lancashire. At Sabden, in 1832, though the print-
works alone maintained some six hundred wage-receivers,
there was no school, and there was no church. A diminutive
Baptist chapel, irregularly served, was the only agency for

7 To those who care for a measure of the immense growth in the great
capital of the cotton trade, the following extract will have some interest :—

“T have given such a start to Mosley Street, that all the world will be at
my heels soon. My next door neighbour, Brooks, of the firm of Cunliffe and
Brooks, bankers, has sold his house to be converted into a warehouse. The
owner of the house on the other side has given his tenant notice for the
fame purpose. The house immediately opposite to me has been announced
for sale, and my architect is commissioned by George Hole, the calico-
printer, to bid 6000 guineas for it; but they want 8000 for what they paid
4500 only five years ago. The architect assures me if I were to put up my
house to-morrow, I might have 6000 guineas for it. So as I gave but 3000,
and all the world is talking of the bargain here, and there being but one
opinion or criterion of a man’s ability—the making of money—I am already
thougat a olever fellow.”—-Lettor to Frederick Cobden, Sept. 1832.
1] SABDEN. 23

bringing, so far as it did bring, the great religious tradition _ 1882.
‘of the western world within reach of this isolated flock. Air. 28.
The workers practised a singular independence towards their
employers. ‘They took it as matter of course that they
were free, whenever it was their good pleasure, and without
leave asked or given, to quit their work for a whole week at
once, and to set out on a drinking expedition to some neigh-
bouring town, whence they would have been ashamed to
return until their pockets were drained to the last penny.
Yet if there was little religion, there was great political
spirit. There is a legend still surviving, how Mr. Foster,
a Liberal of the finest and most enlightened type, with a
clear head and a strong intelligence, and the good old-
fashioned faith in freedom, justice, and progress, led the
Sabden contingent of zealous voters to Clitheroe for the first
election after the Reform Act, and how like a careful patri-
arch, he led them quickly back again after their civil duty
was done; leaving the taverns of Clitheroe behind, and
refreshing themselves at the springs on the hill-side. The
politics of Sabden were not always so judicious, for it appears
that no baptismal name for the children born in the valley
between 1830 and 1840 was so universally popular as that of
Feargus O’Connor.

It was in this far-off corner of the world that Cobden
began his career as an agitator, and for a cause in which
all England has long since come round to his mind. His
earliest speeches were made at Clitheroe on behalf of the
education of the young, and one of his earliest letters on
what may fairly be called a public question is a note
making arrangements for the exhibition at Sabden of twenty
children from an infant school at Manchester, by way of
an example and incentive to more backward regions. It
was characteristic of him, that he threw as much eager
enthusiasm into the direction of this exhibition of school-

 
24 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [oHar,

1882. children, as ever he did afterwards into great affairs of
“Zr. 28, state. His partner was a worthy colleague.

“You have ground,” Cobden wrote to him, “for very
great and just self-gratulation in the movement which you
announce to have begun in behalf of infant schools at
Sabden. There is never the possibility of knowing
the extent to which a philanthropic action may operate
usefully—because the good works again multiply in like
manner, and may continue thus to produce valuable fruits
long after you cease to tend the growth of them. I have
always been of opinion that good examples are more
influential than bad ones, and I like to take this view of the
case, because it strengthens my good hopes for general and
permanent ameliorations. Look how perishable is the prac-
tice, and therefore how little is to be dreaded the eternity
of evil; whilst goodness or virtue by the very force of
example, and by its own indestructible nature, must go on
increasing and multiplying for ever! I really think you
may achieve the vast honour of making Sabden a light to
lighten the surrounding country, and carrying civilization
into towns that ought to have shed rays of knowledge upon
your village; when you have furnished a volunteer corps of
your infant troops to teach the tactics of the system to the
people of Clitheroe, you should make an offer of a similar
service gratis to the good people of Padiham. Let it be done
in a formal and open manner to the leading people of the
place and neighbourhood, who will thus be openly called
upon to exert themselves, and be at the same time instructed
how to go about the business. There are many well meaning
people im the world who are not so useful as they might be,
From not knowing how to go to work.?*

His perception of the truth of the last sentence, coupled
as it was with untiring energy in coping with it, and showing

® To Mr. George Foster, April 14, 1836.
1] SHLF-EDUOATION. 25

people how they could go to work best, was the secret of
one of the most important sides of Cobden’s public service.
It was this which, along with his acute political intelligence,
made him so singularly effective. “You tell me,”’ he wrote
on one occasion to his partner, “ to take time and be com-
fortable, but I fear quiet will not be my lot this trip. I
sometimes dream of quiet, but then I recollect Byron’s
line,—
Quiet to quick bosoms is a hell,

and I am afraid he is nearly right in my case.”* Yet this
disquiet never in him degenerated into the sterile bustle
which go many restless spirits have mistaken for practical
energy. Behind all his sanguine enthusiasm as to public
ends, lay the wisest patience as to means.

What surprises one in reading the letters which Cobden
wrote between 1833 and 1836, is the quickness with which
his character widened and ripened. We pass at a single
step from the natural and wholesome egotism of the young
man who has his bread to win, to the wide interests and
generous public spirit of the good citizen. His first motion
was towards his own intellectual improvement. Hven at a
moment when he might readily have been excused for
thinking only of money and muslins, he felt: and obeyed the
necessity for knowledge: but of knowledge as an instru-
ment, not as 2» luxury. When he was immersed in the
first pressing anxieties of his new business at Manchester,
he wrote to his brother in London (September, 1832) :—

“Might we not in the winter instruct ourselves a little in
Mathematics? If you will call at Longmans and look over
their catalogue, I daresay you might find some popular
elementary publication that would assist us. I have a great
disposition, too, to know a little Latin, and six months
would suffice if I had a few books. Can you trust your

4 To Mr. Foster, May 14, i836.

1882.
Hie, 28,

1833-6.
26 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [onap.

1833-6. perseverance to stick to them? I think I can. Let me
Zr. 29-32. hear from you. I wished Henry to take lessons in Spanish
this winter ; it is most useful as a commercial language; the
two Americas will be our best and largest customers in spite

of tariffs.”

He had early in life felt the impulse of composition. His
first writing was a play, entitled The Phrenologist, and Cob-
den offered it to the manager of Covent Garden Theatre.
He rejected it— luckily for me,” Cobden added, “ for if
he had accepted it, I should probably have been a vagabond
all the rest of my life.” Another comedy still survives in
manuscript; it is entirely without quality, and if the writer
ever looked at it in riper years, he probably had no difficulty
in understanding why the manager would have nothing to
do with it. His earliest political work consisted of letters
addressed anonymously to one of the Manchester news-
papers (1835) on the subject of the incorporation of the
borough. But it was the pamphlet of 1835, England,
Ireland, and America, which first showed the writer’s power.
Of the political teaching of this performance we shall say
something in another chapter. Here we mention it as
illustrating the direction in which Cobden’s thoughts were
busy, and the kind of nourishment with which he was
strengthening his understanding during the years previous
to his final launch forth upon the sea of great affairs.

This pamphlet and that which followed it in the next
year, show by their references and illustrations that the
writer, after his settlement in Manchester in the autumn
of 1882, had made himself acquainted with the greatness
of Cervantes, the geniality of Le Sage, the sweetness of
Spenser, the splendid majesty of Burke, no less than with
the general course of Huropean history in the past, and the
wide forces that were then actually at work in the present.
One who had intimate relations with Cobden in these earlier
fi

u.] VISITS FEANOK AND SWITZERLAND. 27

years of his career, described him to me as always writing 1993.4
and speaking “ to the top of lis knowledge.” The real meaning
of this, I believe, was that Cobden had a peculiar gift for
turning everything that he read to useful purpose in
strengthening or adorning his arguments. He only read or
listened where he expected to find help, and his quickness in
assimilating was due to a combination of strong concentration
of interest on his own subject, with keen dexterity in turning
light upon gt from other subjects. Or, in saying that Cobden
always spoke and wrote to the top of his knowledge, our in-
formant was perhaps expressing what any one may well feel
in reading his pamphlets and speeches, namely, that he had
a mind so intensely alive, so penetrative, so real, as to be
able by means of moderate knowledge rapidly acquired, to
get nearer to the root of the matter, than others who had
laboured after a far more extensive preparation.

Very early in life Cobden perceived, and he never ceased to
perceive, that for his purposes no preparation could be so
effective as that of travel. He first went abroad in the
summer of 1833 (July), when he visited Paris in search of
designs for his business. He did not on this occasion stay
long enough to derive any ideas about France that are
worth recording now. He hardly got beyond the common
English impression that the French are a nation of grown-
up children, though he described the habit of Parisian life
in a happy phrase, as “ pleasure without pomp.” *

In the following year he again went to France, and con- 1834.
tinued his journey to Switzerland. The forests and moun-
tains inspired him with the admiration and awe that no
modern can avoid. Once in after-years, a friend who was
about to visit the United States, asked him whether it would
be worth while to go far out of his way for the sake of see-
ing the Falls of Niagara. “Yes, most assuredly,” was

§ To F. Cobden, July 27, 1835.

 

ART. 29-32.
1834,
“Ar. 80.

 

28 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [omar.

Cobden’s reply. “ Nature has the sublimity of rest, and the
sublimity of motion. The sublimity of rest is in the great
snow mountains ; the sublimity of motion is in Niagara.”

Although he had to its fullest extent this sentiment for the
imposing glories of the inanimate universe, yet it is cha-
racteristic of his right sense of the true measure of things,
that after speaking of Swiss scenery, he marks to his brother,
as “better still,” that he has made acquaintance with people
who could tell him about the life and institutions of the land.
“The people of this country are I believe the best governed:
and therefore the most prosperous and happy in the world.
It is the only Government which has not one douanier in its
pay, and yet, thanks to free trade, there is scarcely any
branch of manufacturing industry which does not in one part
or other of the country find a healthy occupation. The
farmers are substantial. Here is a far more elevated
character of husbandry life than I expected to see. Enor-
mous farm-houses and barns; plenty of out-houses of every
kind; and the horses and cows are superior to those of the
English farmers. The sheep and pigs are very, very bad.
They have not adopted the Chinese breed of the latter, and
the former they do not pay much attention to. I did not
see a field of turnips in all the country. Cowsare the staple
of the farming trade.” *

It was to the United States, rather even than to Switzer-
land, that Cobden’s social faith and enthusiasm turned; and
after his pamphlet was published in the spring of 1835, he
resolved to see with his own eyes the great land of un-
counted promise. Business was prosperous, and though his
partners thought in their hearts that he might do better by
attending to affairs at home, they allowed some freedom
to the enterprising genius of their ally, and made no
objection to his absence.

§ To F. Oobden. From Genvva, June 6, 1884.
11} DEATH OF HIS FATHER. 29

Meanwhile his father had died (June 15, 1833). When
Frederick Cobden had joined his brother in Manchester,
the old man had gone to live with his daughters in London.
But he could not bear the process of transplanting. He
pined for his old life in the beloved country, and his health
failed rapidly. They removed him shortly before he died
to Droxford, but it was too late, and he did not long survive
the change. The last few months of a life that would have
been very dreary but for the undying glow of family affec-
tion, were gilded by the reflection of his son’s prosperity.

Itis the bitterest element in the vast irony of human life
that the time-worn eyes to which a son’s success would
have brought the purest gladness, are so often closed for
ever before success has come,

1838,
Ain, 29.
CHAPTER IIL
TRAVELS IN WEST AND EAST.

1885. On May 1, 1885, Cobden left Manchester, took his passage

“Zr, 3) 10 the Britannia, and after a boisterous and tiresome voyage

of more than five weeks in the face of strong west winds,

arrived in the port of New York on June 7. His brother,

Henry, who had gone to America some time previously, met

him on the wharf. In his short diary of the tour, Cobden

almost begins the record by exclaiming, “ What beauty will

this inner bay of New York present centuries hence, when

wealth and commerce shall have done their utmost to embel-

lish the scene!” And writing to his brother, he expresses

his joy at finding himself in a country, “on the soil of which

I fondly hope will be realized some of those dreams of

human exaltation, if not of perfection, with which I love to
console myself.’? ! ;

It is not necessary to follow the itinerary of the thirty-
seven days which Cobden now passed in the United States.
He visited the chief cities of the Eastern shore, but found
his way no farther west than Buffalo and Pittsburg. Cobden
was all his life long remarkable for possessing the traveller’s
most priceless resource, patience and good-humour under
discomfort. He was a match for the Americans themselves,
whose powers of endurance under the small tribulations of
railways and hotels excite the envy of Europeans. “ Poland
(in Ohio],” Cobden notes in his journal, “ where we changed

1 To F. O., June 7, 1835.
CHAP. 1.)  VOYAGH TO THE UNITED STATES. a5

coaches, is a pretty thriving little town, chiefly of wood, with
two or three brick houses, quite in the English style. We
proceeded to Young’s Town, six miles, and there again
changed coaches, but had to wait three hours of the night
until the branch stage arrived, and I lost my temper for the
first time in America, in consequence.”

He remarked that politics were rarely discussed in public
conveyances. “Here [in Ohio] I found, as in every other
company, the slavery blot viewed as an indelible stain upon,
and a curse to, the country. An intelligent old gentleman
said he would prefer the debt of Great Britain to the
coloured population of the United States. All agreed in the
hopelessness of any remedy that had been proposed.”

Cobden’s curiosity and observation were as alert and as
varied as usual, from wages, hours of labour, quality of land,
down to swift trotters, and a fellow-traveller “who wore
gold spectacles, talked of ‘taste, and questioned me about
Bulwer, Lady Blessington, and the Duke of Devonshire, but
chewed. tobacco and spat incessantly, clearing the lady, out
of the window.” He felt the emotions of Moses on Pisgah,
as he looked down from one of the northern spurs of the
Alleghanies :—

“ Passing over the last summit of the Alleghanies, called
Laurel Hill, we looked down upon a plain country, the
beginning of that vast extent of territory known as the
Great Mississipi Valley, which extends almost without varia-
tion of surface to the base of the Rocky Mountains, and
increases in fertility and beauty the further it extends west-
ward. Here will one day be the head-quarters of agricul-
tural and manufacturing industry; here will one day centre
the civilization, the wealth, the power of the entire world.
The country is well cleared, it has been occupied by Huro-
peans only eighty years, and it is the best soil I have seen
on this side of the Atlantic. Any number of able-bodied

1835.
Ait, 31.

 
32 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [orar.

1835. labourers may, the moment they tread the grass west of the
4.31, Alleghanies, have employment at two shillings a day and be
*found.”? We arrived at Brownsville at four o’clock, the
only place I have yet seen that uses coals for fuel. We are
now in the State of Pennsylvania. Thank God I am no

longer in the country of slaves.” ?

On coaches and steamboats he was constantly struck,
as all travellers in America have been, by the vehement
and sometimes unreasonable national self-esteem of the
people. At the theatre at Pittsburg he remarked the en-
thusiasm with which any republican sentiment was caught
up, and he records the rapturous cheers that greeted the
magniloquent speech of one of the characters,—“No
crowned head in Christendom can boast that he ever com-
manded for one hour the services of this right arm.” The
Americans were at that time suffering one of their too
common fits of smart and irritation under English criticism.
They never saw an Englishman without breaking out against
Mrs. Trollope, Captain Basil Hall, and, above all, Fanny
Kemble. “Nothing but praise unqualified and unadulterated
will satisfy people of such a disposition. We passed by the
scene of Bradock’s defeat by the French and Indians on
Turtle Creek. Our American friends talked of New Or-
leans.”* Their self-glorification sometimes roused Cobden
to protest, though he thought he saw signs that it was likely
to diminish, as has indeed been the case :—

“Tt strikes me that the organ of self-esteem is destined to
be the national feature in the craniums of this people. They
are the most insatiable gourmands of flattery and praise that
ever existed. I mean praise of their country, its institutions,
great men, etcetera. I was, for instance, riding out with a
Judge Boardman and a lady, when the Judge, speaking of

2 To F. Cobden, June 15, 1836.
* To F. 0., June 16, 1835. See below, p. 34, 7.
m,] VINDIOATION OF HIS OWN OOUNTRY. 33

Daniel Webster, said, quite coolly, and without a smile, for J 1835.
looked for one very closely, thinking he joked, ‘I do not Air. 3L
know if the great Lord Chatham might not have been his
equal, but certainly no British statesman has since his day
deserved to be compared with him.’ And the lady, in the
same serious tone, asked me if I did not -find the private
carriages handsomer in New York than ours were in Eng-
land! I have heard all sorts of absurdities spoken in refer-
ence to the glorious incidents of this nation’s history, and
very often have been astonished to find my attention called
(with a view to solicit my concurrence with the enthusiastic
praises of the speaker) to battles and other events which I
had never heard of before, and which yet the Americans con-
sider to be as familiarly known to all the world as to them-
selves. I consider this failing—perhaps, as a good phreno-
logist, I might almost term it a disease—to be an unfortunate
peculiarity. There is no cure for it, however. On the con-
trary, it will go on increasing with the increase of the wealth,
power, and population of the United States, so long as they
are United, but no longer. I have generally made it a rule
to parry the inquiries and comparisons which the Americans
are so apt to thrust at an Englishman. On one or two
occasions, when the party has been numerous and worth
powder and shot, I have, however, on being hard pressed,
and finding my British blood up, found the only mode of
allaying their inordinate vanity to be by resorting to this
mode of argument :—‘I admit all that you or any other
person can, could, may, or might advance in praise of the
past career of the people of America. Nay, more, I will
myself assert that no nation ever did, and in my opinion
none ever will, achieve such a title to respect, wonder, and
gratitude in so short a period; and further still, I venture
to allege that the imagination of statesmen never dreamed of
a country that should in half a century make such pro-
D
1835.
ir, 31,

 

34 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [onar.

digious advances in civilization and real greatness as yours
has done. And now I must add, and I am sure you, as
intelligent, reasonable men, will go with me, that fifty years
are too short a period in the existence of nations to entitle
them to the palm of history. No, wait the ordeal of wars,
distresses, and prosperity (the most dangerous of all), which
centuries of duration are sure to bring to your coun-
try. These are the test, and if, many ages hence, your
descendants shall be able only to say of their country as
much as I am entitled to say of mine now, that for seven
hundred years we have existed as a nation constantly ad-
vancing in liberty, wealth, and refinement; holding out the
lights of philosophy and true religion to all the world; pre-
senting mankind with the greatest of human institutions in
the trial by jury; and that we are the only modern people
that for so long a time withstood the attacks of enemies so
heroically that a foreign foe never put foot in our capital
except as a prisoner (this last is a poser*);—if many centuries
hence your descendants will be entitled to say something
equivalent to this, then, and not till then, will you be en-
titled to that crown of fame which the historian of centuries
is entitled to award.’ There is no way of conveying a
rebuke so efficiently as upon the back of a compliment. So
in like manner, if I have been bored about New Orleans, I
have replied, ‘I join in all that can be said in favour of
General Jackson. Asacommander he has probably achieved
more than any other man by destroying two thousand of his
enemies with only the loss of twenty men. But the merit
rests solely with the General, for you, as intelligent men,
will agree that there could be no honour reaped by troops
who never were even seen by their enemies,’ ” §

4 ‘The reader will remember, as Cobden’s listeners did, that Washington

was occupied by British forces in 1814,
§ To F. Oobden, from Boston, July 5, 1835. Cobden’s reference is to the
uu.) NIAGARA. 35

Of the great glory of the American continent, Cobden
thought as rapturously as any boaster in the land. We
have previously quoted his expression about Niagara being
the sublimity of motion, and here is the account of his first
visit to the incomparable Falls. “ From Chippewa village,
the smoke (as it appears to be) rising from the cataract is
visible. There was not such a volume of mist as I had
expected, and the noise was not great. I reached the
Pavilion Hotel near the falls at one o’clock. I immediately
went to see this greatest of natural wonders alone. I
jealously guarded my eyes from wandering until I found
myself on the Table Rock. Thank God that has bestowed
on me health, time, and means for reaching this spot, and
the spirit to kindle at the spectacle before me! The Horse-
shoe is the all-absorbing portion of the scene from this
point; the feathery graceful effect of the water as it tambles
in broken and irregular channels over the edge of the rock
has not been properly described. Nor has the effect of the
rapids above the shoot, seen from this point, as they come
surging, lashing, and hissing in apparent agony at the
terrific destiny before them. This rapid above the falls
might be called a rush of the waters preparatory to their
taking their awful leap. The water is thrown over an
irregular ledge, but in falling it completely hides the face
of the perpendicular rock down which it falls. Instead of an
even sheet of glassy water, it falls in light and graceful
festoons of foaming, nay almost vapoury fluid, possessing

engagement of the 8th of January, 1815, when Andrew Jackson at New
Orleans repulsed the British forces under Sir Edward Pakenham. The
Americans mowed the enemy down from behind high works. The British
loss was 700 killed, 1400 wounded, and 500 prisoners; Jackson’s loss, eight
killed, and thirteen wounded. As it happened, the two countries were no
longer at war at the moment, for peace had been signed at Ghent a fort-
night before (Dec. 24, 1814). General Pakenham, who was Wellington’s
brother-in-law, fell while bravely rallying his columns under a murderous
Arn.

1885.
it. 31.

 
1836.
421. 81,

36 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [onar.

just enough consistency to descend in various-sized and
hardly distinguishable streams, whilst here and there one
of these foaming volumes encounters a projecting rock in its
descent, which forces it back in heavy spray into the still
descending torrent above; thus giving indescribable beauty
and variety to the scene. In the afternoon I crossed the
river below the falls, and visited Goat’s Inland. At the foot of
the staircase there is a view of the Ameyican fall at a point
of rock near the bottom of the cascade, terrific beyond ccn-
ception, and totally opposite to the effect of the Horse-shoe
Fall as seen from Table Rock. I ascended the stairs and
passed over the bridge to Goat’s Island. The view from the
platform overhanging the Horse-shoe Fall, when you look
tight down into the abyss, and are standing immediately
over the descending water, is horrible. I do not think
people would take any pleasure in being placed in this
fearful position, unless others were looking on, or unless for
the vain gratification of talking about it. In the evening I
again looked at the Horse-shoe Fall from Table Rock until
dark—oh, for an English twilight! The effect of this fall is
improved by the water which flows over the ledge being of
very different depths, from two to twenty feet, which of
course causes the water to flow more or less in a mass, so
that in one part it descends nearly half way in a blue, un-
broken sheet, whilst not far off it is scattered into the whitest
foam almost as soon as it has passed the edge of the rock.
The water for several hundred yards below the fall is as
white as drift snow—not a mere white froth, but wherever
it is disturbed it shows nothing but a white milk-like effect
unlike any water I ever saw.” °
* * * * *

“In the morning I went in a coach with Messrs. Cunning-

ham and Church, and Henry, to see the whirlpool three miles
* To F. 0., June 21, 1886.
ut] NIAGARA. 37

down the stream. I was disappointed; I don’t know if it 1885.
was that the all-absorbing influence of the falls prevented Air. 31.
my taking any interest in other scenes. After dinner, I
descended to view the Horse-shoe Fall from behind the
curtain of water; the stunning noise and the heavy beating
of the water render this a severe adventure, but there is no
danger. The effect of the sound is that of the most terrific
thunder. There is very little effect for the eye. We went
to view the burning well, which would certainly light a town
with gas. Putting a tub over the well produces a complete
gasometer. <A tree was thrown into the rapid, but the
effect is not great, it dropped immediately it passed the
ledge more perpendicularly than the cascade, and so dis-
appeared. In the balcony looking over the falls there was
a stupid-looking man, telling a stupid story, about a stupid
lord. It assured me that I was amongst my own country-
men again. The negro barber here is a runaway black from
Virginia.

* From Table Rock we sawa rainbow which formed nearly
a complete circle. We crossed again to the American side
with Mr, Cunningham, and took a bath, for there is not
one on the Canada side. The ferryman told us of a gentle-
man who swam over three times. I felt less disposed than
ever to quit this spot, so fall of ever-increasing attraction.
Were I an American, I would here strive to build me a
summer residence. In the evening there were drunken
people about. I have seen more intoxicated persons at this
first Canada town, than in any place in the States. The
view from Table Rock was rather obscured by the mist. At
dinner a crowded table was wholly vacated in twenty minutes !
Think of sixty persons at an English watering-place dining
and leaving the table in twenty minutes! I took a last and
reluctant leave of this greatest of all nature’s works,’””

7 June 22, 1836.
38 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [cmar.

1886. Cobden summed up his impressions in a long letter to
Air. 31. his brother at Manchester :—

“T am thus far on my way back again to New York,
which city I expect to reach on the 8th inst., after com-
pleting a tour through Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington,
Pittsburg, Lake Erie to Buffalo, Niagara Falls, Albany (vid
Auburn, Utica, Schenectady) and the Connecticut valley to
Boston, and Lowell, etc., to-morrow. On myreturn to New
York, I purpose giving two days to the Hudson river, going
up to Albany one day, and returning the next; after which
I shall have two or three days for the purpose of taking
leave of my good friends in New York, previously to going
on board the Britannia on the 16th. My journey may be
called a real pleasure trip, for without an exception or
interruption of any kind, I have enjoyed every minute of-
the too, too short time allowed me for seeing this truly
magnificent country. No one has yet done justice to the
splendid scenery of America. Her lakes, rivers, forests,
and above all her cataracts are peculiarly her own, and when
T think of their superiority to all that we own in the Old
World, and, still more, when I recollect that by a mysterious
ordinance of their Creator, these were hid from ‘learned
ken’ till modern times, I fell into the fanciful belief that
the Western continent was brought forth at a second birth,
and intended by nature as a more perfect specimen of her
handiwork. But how in the name of breeding must we
account for the degeneracy of the human form in this other-
wise mammoth-producing soil? The men are but sorry
descendants from the noble race that begot their ancestors ;
and as for the women! My eyes have not found one resting-
place that deserves to be called a wholesome, blooming,
pretty woman since I have been here. One fourth part of
the women look as if they had just recovered from a fit of
the jaundice, another quarter would in England be termed
m.] ESTIMATE OF AMERICAN CHARAOTER. 39

in 8 state of decided consumption, and the remainder are 1886.
fitly likened to our fashionable women when haggard and tr, 31.
jaded with the dissipation of a London season. There,
haven’t I owt-trolloped Mrs. Trollope, and overhauled even
Basil Hall ?

“ But leaving the physique for the morale. My estimate
of American character has improved, contrary to my ex-
pectations, by this visit. Great as was my previous esteem
for the qualities of this people, I find myself in love with
their intelligence, their sincerity, and the decorous self-
respect that actuates all classes. The very genius of activity
seems to have found its fit abode in the souls of this restless
and energetic race. They have not, ’tis true, the force of
Englishmen in personal weight or strength, but they have
compensated for this deficiency by quickening the momentum
of their enterprises. All is in favour of celerity of action
and the saving of time. Speed, speed, speed, is the motto
that is stamped in the form of their ships and steamboats,
in the breed of their horses, and the light construction of
their waggons and caris: and in the ten thousand con-
trivances that are met with here, whether for the abridging
of the labour of months or minutes, whether a high-pressure
engine or a patent boot-jack. Allis done in pursuit of one
common object, the economy of time. We like to speculate
upon the future, and I have sometimes tried to conjecture
what the industry and ingenuity and activity of that future
people of New Holland, or of some other at present unknown
continent, will amount to, which shall surpass and supersede
the Yankees in the career of improvements, as effectually as
‘these have done the natives of the Old World. They must
be a race that will be able to dispense with food and sleep
altogether, for the Americans have certainly discovered the
minimum of time that is required for the services of their
beds and boards. Their mechanical engines must work
40 LIFE OF COBDEN. (cmap,

1835. miracles ‘till panting time toils after them in vain.’ In fact
1.31. I regard it as almost as improbable for another community
to rival the population of these states in prosperity, as for
an individual to surpass our indefatigable friend and self-
sacrificed free-born slave, K , in the race of hard-earned
fortune. You know I predicted when leaving England for
this continent, that I should not find it sufficiently to my
taste to relish a sojourn here for life. My feelings in this
respect are quite altered. I know of no reasonable ground
for an aversion to this country, and none but unreasonable
minds could fail to be as happy here as in England, pro-
vided friendly attachments did not draw them to the Old
country. My own predilection is rather in favour of Wash-
ington as a residence. Baltimore is also, I should imagine,
a pleasant town. These two are now by means of the rail-
road almost identical. By-the-bye, when running through
those towns on my way to the west, and in the design of
extending my journey as far as Montreal, which I have
since found to be impracticable, unfortunately I resisted all
kind invitations to remain even for the purpose of being
introduced to old Hickory, which would have delayed me
only a day. I have since regretted this very much.” *
Cobden arrived in England in the middle of August, after
an uneventful voyage, in which he found no better way of
amusing himself than by analyzing the character of his
fellow-passengers, and reducing them to types. Early in
life his eager curiosity had been attracted by the doctrines
of phrenology, and however crude the pretensions of phreno-
logy may now appear, it will always deserve a certain
measure of historic respect as being the first attempt to
popularize the study of character by system, and the
arrangement of men’s faculty and disposition in classes.
To accept phrenology to-day would stamp & man as uD-

® To F. 0., July 6, 1835. From Boston.

 
m.] HIS RETURN, PUBLICATION OF PAMPHLETS. 41

scientific, but to accept it in 1885 was a good sign of 1835.
mental activity. Cobden’s portraits of his shipmates, if they Hix. 31.
are not so deep-reaching as La Bruyére, serve to illustrate
his habit of watching the ways of men, of studying the
differences among them, and of judging them with the
kindly neutrality of the humourist or the naturalist. How
useful this habit became to the leader of @ political agitation,
in which patient and versatile handling of different characters
is so important a gift, we shall soon see.

After his return from America, Cobden remained at
home for fifteen months, from the summer of 1835 to the
autumn of 1836. He began by making up all arrears of
business, and discussing new projects with his partners.
But public affairs drew him with irresistible attraction. It
was probably in this interval that he made his first public
speech. The object of the meeting, which was small and
unimportant, was to further the demand of a corporation for
Manchester. Cobden was diffident, and unwilling to speak.
He was at length induced to rise, but his speech is described
as a signal failure. ‘He was nervous,” says the chronicler,
“confused, and in fact practically broke down, and the
chairman had to apologize for him.” The first occasion on
which his name appears in the newspapers is the announce-
ment that he was chosen to be on the committee of the
newly established Athenssum at Manchester, and he modestly
seconded a resolution at the meeting.’ The important piece
of work of this date was the pamphlet on Russia, which was
published in the summer of 1836." The earlier pamphlet,

® Oct. 1, 1835.

10 The original advertisement is as follows :—“ On Monday, July 25, will
be published, price 8d., Russia, by Manchester Manufacturer, author of
England, Ireland, and America. Contents—1. Russia, Turkey, and England.
2. Poland, Russia, and England. 3. The Balance of Power. 4. Protection

of Commerce. . .. This is not a party pamphlet, nor will Russia be found
as the title might seem to imply, to be exclusively the subject of inquiry in

the following pages.”
1835.
48. $1,

1836.
Zit, 32,

 

42 LIFE OF COBDEN. [onar.

England, Ireland, and America, had been published, as I have
already mentioned, in the spring of 1835, and within twelve
months had gone through three editions, at what we should
now consider the high price of three shillings and sixpence ;
it had in April, 1836, reached a fifth edition at sixpence;
The newspapers had been liberal in its praise, and its
author had been described in the sonorous style of the
conventional leading article as a man of a liberal and com-
prehensive mind, an acute and original thinker, a clear and
interesting writer, “and in the best because not an exclusive
sense of the term—a true patriot.”? Mr. Ridgway, the
publisher, informed Cobden that nobody ought to print a
pamphlet unless he had some other object in view, besides
publication. ‘I have another object,” Cobden adds, “in dis-
tant and dim perspective.”*? We may assume that, when
he said this, he was thinking, with natural ambition, of the
pedestal from which a place in Parliament enables a man
to address his audience. These two pieces are important
enough in Cobden’s history to deserve a chapter of their
own, but it will be convenient before dealing with them to
complete the travels which followed the publication of the
second of them. Shortly afterwards the strain of so
many interests affected Cobden’s health. He had suffered
severely from an illness at the end of the previous year, and
the doctors counselled a winter abroad. As the business
was in good order, and the mainspring, to use Cobden’s own

1 Manchester Guardian, May 23, 1835. The London Times, May 5, 1886
describes the pamphlet as having “some sound views of the true foreign

policy of England,and some just and forcible reflections on the causes which

keep us in the rear of improvement,” &o.

The Manchester Guardian—we may notice as a point in that important
matter, the history of the periodical press—was from Jan. 1, 1880, to
Sept. 15, 1836, published once a week, and sold for sevenpence. After the
duty on paper was reduced (Sept. 15, 1836), it was published twice a week,
and its price brought down to fourpence.

2 To F. Cobden, March 81, 1835.
m1] STARTS FOR THE EAST. 43

figure in the matter, was not necessary until the following
spring, he resolved to set forth eastward. On the 22nd of
October he sailed from Plymouth. He arrived in Falmouth
harbour, on his return, on the 21st of April, 1837.

The ship touched at Lisbon and Cadiz, and Cobden wrote
lively accounts to his friends at home of all that he saw.
His description of Cadiz was stopped short by recollecting
Byron’s famous account, and the only subject on which he
permitted himself to expatiate repeatedly and at length was
the beauty of the ladies and their dress. “ At Cadiz too,’”he
writes to his partner at Sabden, “you may see the loveliest
female costume in the world—the Spanish mantilla! All
the head-dresses in Christendom must yield the palm to
this. It is, as you may see in the little clay figures of
Spanish ladies which are sold in England, a veil and mantle
combined, which falls from a high comb at the back of the
top of the head, down to the elbow in front, and just below
the shoulders behind. A fan, which is universally carried,
is twirled and brandished about, with an air quite murderous
to the hearts of sensitive bachelors. Black silk is the
national costume, and thus these sable beauties are always
seen in the streets or at the promenade. Judge of the
climate, judge of the streets, and of the atmosphere of their
cities, where all the ladies appear in public in full dress!
Sorry, however, am I to tell you that the demon innovation
is making war upon the mantilla,in the shape of foreign
fashions—French bonnets are beginning to usurp the
throne of the black mantilla. Reformer as I am, I would
fain be a conservative of that ancient and venerable institu-
tion, the mantilla. The French will have much to answer
for, if they supersede with their frippery and finery this
beautiful mode.”

Now, as in the busiest days of his life, Cobden was =

% To Mr. Foster, from Alexandria, Nov. 28, 1836.

 

1836.

it. 32.
1836.

Att. 32.

44 LIFE OF OCOBDEN. [oHar,

voluminous and untiring letter-writer. In the hottest time

of the agitation against the Corn Laws, he no sooner flung

off his overcoat on reaching the inn after a long journey or a
boisterous meeting, than he called for pen and ink, and sat
down to write letters of argument, remonstrance, persuasion,
direction. And when, as now, he was travelling for relaxa-
tion, the same impulse was irresistibly strong upon him, the
same expansive desire to communicate to others his impres-
sions, ideas, and experiences. “I am writing this,” he says
on one occasion, “ whilst sailing down the Nile on my return
to Alexandria, and it is penned upon no better desk than
my knees, while sitting cross-legged upon my mattress, in
the cabin of a boat not high enough in the roof to allow me
even to stand.”* No physical inconvenience and no need of
repose ever dulled his willingness either to hear or to speak.
The biographer’s only embarrassment is difficulty of selection
from superabundant material. Journals and letters alike
show the same man, of quick observation, gay spirits, and
a disposition that, on its serious side, was energetically
reflective rather than contemplative. I wish that I could
reproduce his journals, but they are too copious for the
limits of my space ; and the statements of commercial fact
which they contain are no longer true, while the currents
of trade which Cobden took such pains to trace out,
have long since shifted their direction, He was an eager
and incessant questioner, and yet his journals show a man
who is acquiring knowledge, not with the elaborate con-
scientiousness of a set purpose, but with the ease of natural
and spontaneous interest. There is no overdone earnest-
ness ; life is not crushed out of us by the sledge-hammer of
the statistical bore; there is the charm of disengagement,
and the faculty of disengagement is one of the secrets of the
most effective kind of character. Elaborate inquiries as to

* To Charles Cobden, Jan. 8, 1887,
m1. GIBRALTAR. 45

imports and exports do not prevent him from being well 1836.

 

pleased to go ashore at Tenos, “to amuse ourselves fora Air. 32.
day with leaping, throwing, and jumping.” As the serious
interests of his journey—the commercial and political cir-
cumstances of Egypt, Greece, and Turkey—are no longer in

the same case, it can hardly be worth while to transcribe

his account of them.

The following extracts from his letters to his sisters will
serve to show his route :—

Gibraltar, 11 Nov., 1836.— Before us arose the towering
and impregnable fortress ; on every side land was distinctly
visible; my first inquiry was, Where is the coast of Africa ?
Jt was a natural curiosity. A quarter of the globe where
white men’s feet have but partially trod, whose sandy plains
and mountains are unknown, and where imagination may
revel in unreal creations of the terrible, was for the first
time presented to my view. Can you doubt that the thought
which arose in my mind for a time absorbed all other reflec-
tions? Yet all I could see was the dark sable outline of the
coast of Barbary, a congenial shroud for the gloomy scene
of pagan woes and Christian crimes that have been enacted
in the regions beyond !

“The two particulars,’ he continued, “which strike
most strongly the eye of the visitor who has passed
from Spain and Portugal to this place, are the bustling
activity of Gibraltar, as contrasted with the deserted condi-
tion of Lisbon and Cadiz, and the variety of the costumes
and characters which suddenly offer themselves to his notice.
To see both to advantage, it is necessary to visit the open
square opposite to the Exchange, where the auctions ‘and
other business draw a concourse of all the inhabitants and
Sojourners in this rocky Babel.

“ Fortunately our hotel opens immediately upon this lively
scene, and I have spent hours in surveying from above the
46 LIFE OF COBDEN. [owar.

1836. variegated lines of the motley multitude below. By far the
“gx. 2, most dignified and interesting figure is the Moor, who, with
his turban, rich yellow slippers, ample flowing robes, and
bare legs, presents a picturesque figure which is admirably
contrasted with that of a Catalonian, who—with a red cap,
which depends from a black band that encircles his head,
like a long bag down nearly to his waist, pantaloons which
are braced up to his armpits, and short round jacket,—may
be seen jostling with the idle smuggler, with his leather em-
broidered leggings, his breeches of velvet adorned with side
rows of bright basket buttons, his sash, embroidered jacket,
and grotesque conical hat; whose life is a romance and pro-
bably a tragedy, and every one of whose gestures is viewed
with interest as the by-play of one who by turns acts the
part of a contrabandista, a bandit, or an assassin. Next is
the Jew, who is here beheld in the most abject guise of his
despised class: a rude mantle of the coarsest blanketing
covers his crouching figure, bent by the severe toil with
which he here earns a miserable subsistence; he is waiting
with a patient and leaning aspect the call of some purchaser.
His bare legs and uncovered head and the ropes indicative
of his laborious calling, which are probably fastened loosely
about his waist, altogether give him the appearance of one
who has been condemned to a life of penance for the expia-
tion of some heinous crimes :—alas, he is only the personifi-
cation of the fate of his tribe! But I could not find space
to portray the minor features of the scene before me.
Here are English, French, Spanish, Italian, Mahometans,
Christians, and Jews, all bawling and jostling each other,
some buying, others selling or bartering, whilst the fierce
competition for profit is maintained by a mingled din of the
Spanish, Arabic, Lingua Franca, and English tongues. This
is a scene only to be viewed in Gibraltar, and it is worthy of
the pains of a pilgrimage from afar to bchold j!.”
m.] GIBRALTAR, 47

Gibraliar, 11 Nov., 1836.—* A trip was made by a party
of five of us on horseback to a convent fifteen miles off.
The road lies through a cork wood, and it is a favourite
excursion from the garrison. It was delightful, after seeing
nothing but barren rocks, and being confined to the limits
of this fortress—which is seven miles in circumference—to
find ourselves galloping through woods where hundreds of
pathways allowed one unlimited range, and where thousands
of beautiful trees and plants peculiar to this part arrested
our attention. The doctor’ was in a botanical mood at
once, and we all gathered about to learn from him the
names and properties of such plants as were to us new
acquaintances. After filling our pockets with seeds and
specimens, we pursued our journey to the convent, which is
a dilapidated building, in which we found only one solitary
monk, A large courtyard, in which were two or three
gaunt-looking dogs, who from their manners appeared
unused to receive visitors; extensive stables, in which we
found only the foals of an ass, in place of a score of horses ;
a belfry without ropes; vast kitchens, but no fire; and
spacious corridors, dormitories, and refectories, in which I
could not discover a vestige of furniture, revealed a picture
of desolation and loneliness. We walked into the gardens
and found oranges ripening, and the fig-tree, pomegranate,
sago palm, olives, and grape-vines flourishing amidst weeds
that were almost impervious to our feet. The country
around was wild, and harmonized with the ruined and aban-
doned-fortunes of the convent. After partaking of some
brown bread, eggs, and chestnuts, from the hands of the
‘monk, and after enlivening his solitary cloisters with
the unwonted echoes of our merriment, in which we
found our poor old host willing to indulge, we left him,

5 Dr. Wilson, his travelling companion, whose acquaintance he had first
made in his voyage home from tho United States,

1836.
Air. 82

 
48 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [onar,

1886. and returned through the cork wood to our quarters
Ait. 82. here.”

Alexandria, 30 Nov., 1836.—“In consequence of the
arrival of the governor, we were greeted with much noise
and rejoicing by the good folks of Malta. The town was
illuminated, bands of singers paraded the streets, the opera
was thrown open, and all was given up to fun and revelry.
We saw all that we could of the proceedings, and heard
during the night more than we could have wished, consider-
ing that we wanted a quiet sleep. However, it was neces-
sary for us to be up betimes in the morning, to make some
preparations for our journey in Egypt. The good doctor
was in a great bustle, purchasing the biscuits, brandy, and
other little commodities; it was necessary also that we
should engage a trusty servant at Malta, to accompany us
through the voyage. Our friends recommended & man
named Rosario Villa, who had made the excursion up the
Nile several times with English tourists—spoke Arabic,
English, and Italian, and knew the whole of Egypt and
Syria thoroughly. Rosario was introduced to us. Now,
I ask you, does not the name at once tell you that he
was a smart elegant young fellow, with a handsome face,
good figure, and an insinuating address? Such is the idea
which you will naturally have formed of a Maltese named
Rosario Villa. Stop a moment till I have described him.
He is a little elderly man with a body as dried and shrivelled
as a reindeer’s tongue, only not so fresh-coloured—for his
face is of the hue of the inside of tanned shoe-leather, but
wrinkled over like a New Zealand mummy ; a low forehead,
a mouth made of two narrow strips of skin drawn back
nearly to the ear over white teeth, and with his hair cut
close, but leaving a little fringe of stragglers round the
front—such is the picture of Rosario! We had no time to
be fastidious, and his character being unquestionable, we
m1.) MALTA AND ALEXANDBIA. 49

engaged him at once, and in two hours he had made all his 1836.
worldly arrangements and was on the way at our side to Atr. 32

the steamboat. Here he was met by his friends and acquaint-
ances, who took leave of him with many embraces, and I
could not doubt that the soul was good which drew the
kisses at his parting to such a body !

“Tt was five o’clock in the evening and the sun was
beginning to prepare to leave this latitude for your western
lands, when we slipped out of the boat upon the quay of
Alexandria. A scene followed which I must endeavour to
describe. Our luggage and that of an Irish friend was
brought from the boat and deposited on a kind of platform
immediately in front of a shed, which is ennobled by the
name of Custom-House. Upon a bench, a little raised,
sat a fat little Turk with a broad square face, whose fat
cheeks hung down in pendulous masses on each side of
his mouth, after the fashion of the English mastiff dog
shown as a specimen in the Zoological Gardens. Our ser-
vant Rosario has endeavoured to hire a camel to put our
luggage upon, but there is none at hand. A crowd of
Arab porters has gathered about, offering their services,
and each is talking at the top of his voice; after due
bargaining, or rather jostling, haggling, and gesticulating,
the agreement is concluded, and a dozen of the shortest of
the hammals or porters have proceeded to adjust their
several portions of the luggage, when whack, crack, thwack,
a terrible rout is here |

“The little fat Turk whom I verily believe to have been
dreaming as he sat so tranquilly smoking his long pipe,
whose glowing ashes had the moment before attracted my
eye by its glare in the advancing twilight, has caused this
panic. Throwing aside his chibouque, and grasping a short
cane, without troubling himself to speak a word, he has
rushed with the suddenness of inspiration into the midst of

, %
1836.
At. 32.

 

59 LIFE OF OOBDEN. (orar.

the screaming and litigious gang, and plymg his baton
right and left over the shoulders, head, and arms, dealing
out an extra share of chastisement upon those who, from
having been loaded with our chattels, could not so easily
escape his fury, until he has cleared the ground of every
turbaned rogue of them, and left us standing amidst our
scattered and disordered trunks, bags, and portmanteaus,
not knowing what was to follow. I am soon able, how-
ever, to guess what is at the bottom the meaning of this
unexpected apparition of the little dignitary, and the sudden
Hegira of our porters; for after calmly resuming his pipe,
and giving it two or three inspirations to reanimate the
decaying embers, he takes Rosario on one side and whispers
a few words in his ear, the import of which you may suppose
is that the luggage must all go to the custom-house, but to
save us that trouble he will allow us in consideration of
some backshish (or a present of money) to take them with
us.

“This little difficulty being got over, our Inggage and
ourselves are under weigh through the dark streets of
Alexandria, whose houses appear to have rudely turned
their back premises to the front, for you can see nothing
but blank walls without windows or doors. The English
hotel lay at some distance, and we had occasion to pass
through one of the gates of the town, where we were met
by a guard, a fellow in a white turban, who laid violent
hands upon the leader of our party, who happened to be
the good doctor himself, and arrested our further progress
under some pretence which I could not comprehend, but I
distinctly again caught the sound of the word backshish. We
hesitated whether we should give the rascal a shilling or a
good beating ;—the doctor had raised his heavy umbrella in
favour of the latter alternative, when my vote, which you

know is always in favonr of peace, decided it in behalf of 9
un] ALEXANDRIA. $1

fee, to the extent of five piastres, and with this subsidy to 1886.
the Pacha’s representative we departed amicably. On the air, 32.
way through the narrow streets of Alexandria we met many
Turks, whose attendants bore small lamps of paper or gauze,
with which they always politely showed us our road. I
begin to think that these are well-bred barbarians, after all
my abuse of them and their religion |

“Mrs Hume’s hotel is a large detached building situated
a long distance from the Turkish quarter, and surrounded
by date-trees of luxuriant growth. I ran out and wandered
here by moonlight the very night of my arrival. The
scene was indeed delicious after a tedious and unpleasant
voyage. I thought of you all, and only wished for one of
you at least to share my exciting enjoyment. Well has it
been said that ‘happiness was born a twin,’ and you, my
dear M., somehow or other seem naturally associated with
me in my ideal pleasures. I fancied that you were with
me, and that we were equally happy.

“When I arose in the morning, I found that it was the
season for gathering the dates. The Arabs were swinging
about in the branches of this elegant tree by means of
ropes, and gathering in large baskets the ripe fruit, which
hung in luxuriant bunches. I am an admirer of the useful,
you know, but how much more do I love the combination
of utility and elegance! On the date-tree you find both
in perfection. There is the handsomest tree in the world,
bearing the sole fruit which afforded nourishment to the
wandering children of the desert, and a charming fruit
is the date. I have subscribed a trifle to the Turk who
rents this plantation, for the privilege of walking through
it, whenever I please, and helping myself freely to its
produce. There are very few curiosities to detain the
traveller in Alexandria. Pompey’s Pillar, and Cleopatra’s
Needle, and the catacombs, and a few other half-buried ruins
52 RIVE OF OOBDEN. [omar

1886. are all that now remains to attest the ancient splendour of a

 

Aix. 82. city which once contained 4000 baths, and counted a popu-
lation of 600,000 souls. These curious fragments of de-
parted grandeur have been often described, and are so little
intrinsically interesting, that I shall say nothing about

them,
“ The monuments called Cleopatra’s Needles are enormous

masses of granite. One only stands, the other was thrown
down and half buried in the sand in an attempt to remove it
to England. Mark the folly and injustice of carrying these
remains from the site where they were originally placed, and
from amidst the associations which gave them all their in-
terest, to London or Paris, where they become merely objects
of vulgar wonderment, and besides are subjected to the de-
stroying effects of our humid climate. It is to be hoped that
good taste, or at least the feelings of economy which now
pervade our rulers’ minds, will prevent this vestige of the
days of the Pharaohs from being removed.‘

“T dined with Mr. Muir at twelve o’clock. His Greek
servant, a man of remarkable elegance and gracefulness,
quiet, grave, and full of dignity at every gesture. What a
power such grace has over my mind !???

6 Théophile Gautier makes the Paris obelisk muse in Cobden’s sense :-—
Sur cette place je m’ennuie,
Obélisque dépareillé ;
Neige, givre, bruine, et pluie
Glacent mon flano déja rouillé ;

Et ma vieille aignille, rongie

Aux fournaises d’un ciel de fou,
Prend des pileurs de nostalgie
Dans cet air qui n’est jamais blen,

La sentinelle granitique,
Gardienne des énormités,
Se dresse entre on faux temple antiqre
Ht la chambre des députés.
And so forth.
Y Journal,
m1.] FROM AT¥EH TO OATRO. 53

Oairo, Dec. 20, 1836.—TI slept tolerably well after having 1886.
been for the first time made acquainted with my old torment, tr. 82.
the fleas. You will wonder when I tell you that use has since
made me almost indifferent to such trifles. The Arab sailors
who formed our crew were miserable wretches, half clothed
in dirty rags, and two of them were suffering from ophthalmia.
I had heard much of the character of the degraded population
of Egypt, and was told by those who knew no beiter, that
severity and harshness were the only methods of making
them work. My idea is, you know, that rewards and not
punishments are the most effectual means of stimulating men,
and so it proved. The backshish kept the boat going, when
stripes would have only madeit stand. At Atfeh we paid the
reis or captain his five dollars, and gave his men a few
piastres, and I parted with my usual good opinion of human
nature,

“ Scarcely had we reached the shore, when we were followed
by the reis, bringing three bad pieces of money which he
accused the good doctor, the cashier, of having paidhim. It
was clearly an imposition, and Rosario told us we should
encounter similar conduct at every stage. We changed the
money, resolving to be on our guard in future. My ideas of
human nature were tess exalied for a minute and a half
than usual.

“To proceed from Atfeh to Cairo, a distance of 150 miles
by the Nile, it was necessary to embark on board a larger
boat, but here we found that the ladies, who had just
preceded us, had taken all the good boats. We learnt,
however, that a new and commodious boat was lying at
the town of Fooah on the opposite side of the river, rather
higher up the stream, and we took a ferry, and carried
our luggage over, accompanied by the Vice-Consul, a little
Italian, who, politely as we thought, agreed to bargain for
us. The boat with twelve men was hired for 500 piastres,
1836,
Ait, 32.

54 LIFE OF OOBDEN. (omar.

or 51., and it was agreed that we should start as soon as our
luggage was on board. In the meantime I went into a cot-
ton-mill in the neighbourhood, which presented a miserable
appearance. Upon leaving, I gave backshish to one of the
managers, who followed me immediately with a bad piece of
money,which he accused me of having paid him. I threatened
to shoot him, or something equally improbable, and thus
escaped this attempt. Our Vice-Consul now left us, and we
proposed to start, but the owner of the boat very coolly
ordered a cargo of wood to be laid alongside, which he was
determined to take along with its owner to Cairo. As this
would have left no room for Rosario or Hussein for sleeping,
we resisted, and all began to grow out of humour. We threw
the wood out of the boat, and drove the porters, who were
attempting to load, ashore. A fresh difficulty now arose.
The owner of the boat refused to let her start until the next
day, and very soon all the crew, veis and all, disappeared.
My opinion of humanity sank several degrees. It now grew
towards evening. We were moored alongside of the town of
Fooah, and just opposite to a khan or coffee-house, in the
balcony of which sat the owner of the boat, smoking his
long pipe and surrounded by a party of lazy rascals like him-
self, who were all singing and laughing, probably amused at
our dilemma. Much as it is against my principles, I now
resorted to brute force. I took the pistols out of the port-
manteau where Fred had placed them loaded and primed,
but not without secret resolves that I would not injure any
one. The doctor also arrived, and we went ashore to find the
governor of the town, intending to make a complaint. It
was dark, and we had a difficulty in finding out that the
principal officer of Fooah was from home, but on inquiry for
his deputy, we were told that the owner of the boat against
whom we complained, was the man himself! Thus the judge
and criminal were one person, which was certainly against
m1. ] SHE PYRAMIDS. 55

our cause. However, we proceeded straight tothe khan, and 1836.
by means of Rosario for an interpreter, we made the vice- air. a2.
governor understand that he was a rascal, and threatened to
have him punished by our friend the Pacha. He protested
that he only acted for the safety of ourselves; that the Vice-
Consul had entrusted us to his charge as travellers of the
first consideration ; that the sky predicted a storm; and that
he could not, out of regard for such valuable lives, suffer us
to go out that night. So finding there was no help for our
difficulties but in patience and submission, we went on board,
laughed at ourselves, supped, and slept.”

“Tn the morning (Sunday, December 4th,) we started with
a favourable wind up the Nile. On looking round, however,
we found that we had only six sailors instead of twelve, and
we now learnt that this was the reason why the boat could
not venture out at night. We found also from our man
Hussein, that the Vice-Consul had received a handsome
backshish out of the 5]. we were to pay for the boat. Alto-
gether my opinion of the Egyptians received a smart shock
—they were for an hour or so down at zero. The aspect of
the scenery of the Nile at and above Fooah, though flat, was
very interesting to usatfirst. The minarets in the distance,
the palms on the banks, the brilliant foliage, all gave it a
pleasant effect to a stranger to such scenes. ‘The river,
which is of a yelp re complexion, is here of the width of
the Thames at London.”

“This day (December 16th,) is an era in my fiavels, I
went with Captain E. and Mr. Hill to see the Pyramids.
They disappoint the visitor until he gets close to them. My
first feelings, along with a due sense of astonishment, were
those of vexation at the enormous sum of ingenious labour
which here was wasted. Six millions of tons of stone, all-
shaped and fitted with skill, are here piled in a useless form.
The third of this weight of material and less than a tenth
1836.
4iit, 82.

 

56 LIFE OF COBDEN. [ouar.

part of the labour sufficed to construct the most useful
public work in England—the Plymouth Breakwater.”*

Oairo, December 20th, 1886.—“ Last evening was the
interesting time appointed for an interview with no less a
personage than Mehemet Ali, the Pacha of Egypt. Our
Consul, Colonel C.,° had the day before waited upon this
celebrated person, to say that he wished to present some
British travellers to his Highness, and he appointed the
following evening at six o’clock, which is his usual hour of
receiving visitors during the fast of Ramadan. At the
appointed hour we assembled, to the number of six indi-
viduals, at the house of Colonel C., and from thence we
immediately proceeded to the palace, which is in the citadel,
and about half an hour’s ride from the Consul’s.

“Our way lay through the most crowded part of the town.
It was quite dark, but being at the season of the Ramadan (the
Mahommedan Lent) when Turks fast and abstain from busi-
ness during the day, but feast and illuminate their bazaars
and public buildings during the night, we found the streets
lighted up, and all the population apparently just beginning
the day’s occupations. . . . Away we went through streets
and bazaars, some of which were less than eight feet wide,
and all of them being crowded with Turks, Arabs, camels,
horses, and donkeys. All, however, made way at the
approach of the janissary and the uplifted grate of fire,
both of which are signs of the rank of the persons who
followed. Besides, to do justice even to Turks, I must
add that I never saw a people less disposed to quarrel with
you about trifles than the population of Cairo. You may
run over them, or pummel them with your feet, as you
squeeze them almost to death against the wall, and they

8 Journal.

° “A martinet taken from the regimental mess, to watch and regulate the

commercial intercourse of a trading people with » merchant pacha.”—
Journal.
ut.) OATRO. 57

only seem astonished that you give yourself any concern 1886.
afterwards, to know if they be still in the land of the living. Afr. 32.
As for the foot of an ass or dromedary, if it be placed gently
on their toes, and only withdrawn in time for them to light
their pipe or say their prayers, which are the only avocations
they follow, why, they say nothing about such trifles.

“ As we proceeded along the streets, or rather alleys, of

this singular city, it was curious to observe the doings of the
good Mussulmans, who had just an hour before been released
from the observance of the severe ordinance of the prophet.
Some were busy cooking their savoury stews over little
charcoal fires; here you might see a party seated round a
dish, into which every individual was actively thrusting his
fist; and occasionally we passed a public fountain, around the
doors and windows of which crowds of half-famished true
believers were pressing, eager to quench their thirst, pro-
bably for the first time since sunrise. Some, who no doubt
had already satisfied the more pressing calls of nature, were
seated round a company of musicians, and listening with
becoming gravity to strains of barbarous music, whilst in
another place a crowd of turbans had gathered about a
juggler, who was exercising the credulity of the faithful by
his magical deceptions. By far the greater portion, however,
_ of those we passed were sitting cross-legged, enjoying the
everlasting pipe, and so intent were they upon the occupa-
tion that they scarcely deigned to cast a glance at us as we
passed.

“As we approached nearer to the citadel, the scene
changed. We now met numbers of military of all ranks who
were issuing from the head-quarters, some accoutred for the
night watch, others dressed in splendid suits and mounted
upon spirited horses. I saw some officers in the Mameluke
costume, which you may see pictured in old books of travel
in this country. Contrasted with these was the dress of the
1836,
Air. 32.

 

58 LIFE OF COBDEN. (omar.

private troops who led the way, and whose white cotton
garments, close jacket, and musket with bayonet, gave them
a half European aspect. Here too we found ourselves sur-
rounded by numerous horsemen, who like ourselves were
proceeding at this, his customary hour of levée, to pay their
respects to the Pacha. At length we entered the gates of
the citadel, and immediately the road assumed a steep
winding character admirably adapted for the purposes of
defence. On each side, as we advanced, we found ourselves
enclosed by lofty walls, and, by the light of the burning
grate of pine-wood which was raised aloft in our van, I
could distinguish the embrasures and loop-holes for musketry.
T shuddered as I thought of the massacre of the Mamelukes,
which was perpetrated near this very spot, a deed unparalleled
in the annals of the world for perfidious and cold-blooded
atrocity.

“The circumstances of the massacre are briefly these.
Mehemet Ali having by a series of daring attacks, and
aided by much cunning artifice, deposed the Mameluke
rulers who had governed Egypt for more than seven
centuries, and placed himself upon the throne of the country,
made a kind of capitulation with the fallen chiefs, by which
he agreed to give them support and protection. In conse-
quence they came to reside in great numbers in Cairo,
where they conducted themselves peaceably. On the occa-
sion of a féte in honour of his son, the Pacha invited the
Mamelukes to attend and assist at the festivities! They
entered the palace of the citadel, to the number of 470,
dressed in their gorgeous and picturesque costume, but
without arms. Mehemet Ali received them with smiles,
and it was remarked that he was more than usually cour-
teous. They departed, their hearts lighted up with a glow
by his affability, and proceeded in a gay procession down

* ‘The massacre of the Mamelukus tcok place ou March 1, 1311.
mi.) VISIT TO MEHEMET ALI. 59

to the gate which we had just passed; it was closed; ag 1836.
the. first victim reached the gate, a hundred discharges of Air. 82.
musketry from the walls on each side opened upon them.
They turned to retreat, but the gate behind was also
closed, and they were fast in the toils of their betrayer
and destroyer. Only one man is said to have escaped,
who rode his horse up a steep bank, and forced him
over the battlement and into a gulf seventy feet deep
below. The horse was killed, but the rider escaped, and
made his way to Europe. Such is the substance of a deed
of blood which had no provocation, no state necessity, nor
a semblance even of justice, to palliate its unmitigated
character of treachery, and yet here am I—I recollected
with emotions of shame—passing over the scene of such a
bloody tragedy, to do obeisance to the principal actor !
“The citadel is in extent and appearance something like a
considerable town. As we proceeded through the steep and
winding avenue, we came upon a thoroughfare lighted up
like a bazaar with shops or stalls on each side, before which
the soldiers were loitering and buying fruit or other articles
from the lazy dealers, who sat cross-legged upon their mats,
enveloped in tobacco smoke. Having passed under another
gateway, and along a winding arched passage of masx‘ve
masonry, an abrupt turning or two brought us to a large
open square, the opposite sides of which were lighted up.
Here as we approached the centre of power from whence all
rank, wealth, and authority are derived in this region of
despotism, the throng of military of all ranks became
more dense, just as the rays of light or the circles of water
are closest where the heat or motion which gives them exist-
ence has its origin. We dismounted at the principal entrance
and found ourselves in a hall, which, with the stairs that we
immediately ascended, was almost impassable for the crowds
of military who lounged and loitered in no very orderly
 

Alt. 32.

60 LIFE OF COBDEN. [omar.

manner by the way. At the head of the stairs we entered
a very large hall, which presented a curious spectacle.
Along its whole length and breadth, with only just suffi-
cient interval towards one of the sides to afford room for
passing to a door at the farther extremity, were seer
cross-legged upon the floor, on little mats, an immense
number of Turkish and Arab soldiers, whose arms and
wlippers were lying beside them. We passed along the
entire length of the large room, too quickly to allow of more
than a moment’s surprise at the scene before us, when
entering another apartment we found ourselves in a great,
lofty chamber, from the centre of which hung a chandelier
holding probably twenty yellowish-white wax candles, and
in the centre of the floor stood a row of four gigantic silver
candlesticks like those used in Catholic chapels, and each
holding a huge candle of four feet in length, and a propor-
tionate diameter. By their united light we could very
indistinctly see to the extremities of the room, from whose
farthest corner one or two persons hastily retired as we
entered, leaving us, ai I thought, alone in this huge
apartment.

“Colonel C., who preceded our party a few steps, now
bowed towards the farthest corner of the room—a move-
ment which we all imitated as we followed. A dozen steps
brought my feet close to the bow] of along, superbly enriched
pipe which rested im a little pan on the floor, the other
extremity of which was held by a short and rather fat per-
sonage, who was seated alone just to the right of the corner
of the room upon a broad and soft divan, which ran round
the apartment like a continual sofa. He laid aside his pipe,
uttered several times a sentence, which we guessed was an
expression of welcome, from its being delivered in a good-
natured and affable tone, and accompanied at each repetition
by the motion of his hands, as he pointed with more of hurry
mi] MEHMME? ALI. 61

than dignity to the divan on each side of him, as signs for us
to be seated. The colonel took his place to the right, and
the rest of the party sat down upon the divan in the order in
which they were standing. It chanced that I was placed
immediately to his left, and thus I found myself quite close,
or at least as near as I desire ever to be, to Mehemet Ali!
It happened that at the moment of our arrival the dragoman
or interpreter was not in attendance, and therefore as soon
as we were seated a slight embarrassment ensued. The
Pacha did not appear in the least ruffled by the neglect of
his officer; he looked towards the door, called for some-
body, but not impatiently; then turned to the colonel,
uttered a few words, but immediately laughed as if at the
recollection of his not being understood. Again he turned
his eye towards the door, called in a louder but still not
angry tone for some person, but nobody appearing, he
then turned to Colonel ©. and to us, smiled, fidgetted on
his seat, rubbed his knee, and twisted the fingers of a
remarkably white and handsome little hand in the handle of
his sword. All this was but the affair of a minute or two,
when an attendant of apparent rank entered, and walked
quickly up to the Pacha, who appeared to explain good-
humouredly the nature of our predicament, and he instantly
began the duty of interpreting. The Pacha commenced the
conversation by offering us a welcome; upon this the colonel
made an observation about the weather, which however
excusable it might have been in a country where Englishmen
have adopted it as the habit of introducing themselves, is
little suited to this latitude, where uninterrupted sunshine
prevails for seven years together. Let me leave the speakers
to settle the preliminaries of their interview, whilst in the
meantime I describe a little more minutely the principal
character before me.

“ Mehemet Ali is, I am told, about five feet six or seven

18886.
Ait. 32.

 
1886.
Ait, 32,

 

62 LIFH OF COBDEN. [owar.

inches high, but as he now sat beside me, sunk deeply in a
soft divan, he did not appear even so tall; he was plainly
dressed in a dark and simple suit, and wore the red fez or
tarboosh cap, which is now generally substituted for the
turban by men of rank. His features are regular and good,
and his face might be called handsome, but being somewhat
rounded by fatness, I shall use the term comely as more
expressive of its character. His beard is quite white, but I
have seen many amongst his subjects with richer-looking
tufts upon their chins. I glanced at the form of his head,
which is, as far as I could discern through its cover, confir-
matory of the science of phrenology—its huge size according
with the extraordinary force of character displayed by this
successful soldier, whilst a broad and massive forehead har-
monizes with the powerful intellect he has displayed in his
schemes of personal aggrandizement. Yet upon the whole
there is nothing extraordinary or striking in the countenance
of Mehemet Ali. He appeared to me like a good-humoured
man, and had I been called upon at a cursory glance to give
an opinion upon such a person in a private station, I might
have pronounced him an amiable and jocular fellow! How-
ever as I was seated beside an extraordinary person, it was
natural that I should scrutinize the expression of his features
with the hope, nay the determination, of finding something
more than common in his physiognomy. In doing so I en-
countered his dark eye several times, and thought it did
not improve upon closer acquaintance. His mouth, too,
which is almost concealed beneath his white moustachio,
seemed only to pretend to smile; and once or twice I
observed that whilst the lips were putting on the semblance
of laughter, his eye was busily glancing round from under
its heavy brows, with anything but an expression of un-
guarded mirth. If the eye do not reveal the human
character, it will be vain to look for it in the more ignoble
t.] MEHMET ALI. 63

features of the conntenance, and the constant workings of
this ‘ mirror of the soul’ alone revealed the restless spirit
of Mehemet Ali. I never beheld a more unquiet eye than
his, as it glided from one to another of the persons around
him; it was incessantly in motion. Its glance, however,
had none of that overpowering character which beams only
from the soul of real genius ;—there was neither moral nor
intellectual grandeur in the look of the person before me,
and I could not help thinking, as he stole furtive glances
first at us and next at the door, that that eye might have
been employed in watching the store of his quondam
tobacco shop from the pilfering hands of his Albanian coun-
trymen, with greater appropriateness than in now looking
down upon us from the divan of a pacha,’

“ Altogether there was as little dignity as possibly can be
conceived in the personal appearance of Mehemet. Were I
to confess what were the feelings which predominated in my
mind as I regarded him whilst he sat, or rather perched,
upright on the middle of the divan, without resting or
reclining upon its pillows, and with his legs tucked beneath
him, so as to leave only his slippers peeping out from each
side of his copious nether garments, they certainly partook
largely of the ridiculous.

“ Coffee was brought to us in little cups enclosed in
covers of filagree-work made of silver, and which I was
afterwards told by one of the party (I did not myself notice
_ them) was richly set with diamonds,

‘When the first civilities had passed, the Pacha, as if
impatient of unmeaning puerilities, took up the conversation
with an harangue of considerable length, which he delivered
with great animation. I felt curious to know what was the

* Mehemet Ali, the founder of the present system of government in Egypt,
was born in 1768 at a small town on the Albanian coast, of an obscure
family. For some years he dealt in tobacco, and he was thirty years old or
more before he effectively began his military career.

1886.
Air. 32.

 
1836.
Air. 32.

 

64 LIFE OF COBDEN. [cHar,

subject which seemed to possess so much interest with the
practical mind of the Pacha. Judge then of my astonish.
ment when I found that the burden of his discourse was
cotton! The speaker was boasting of the richness and
fertility of his territory, and to illustrate the productive-
ness of Egypt, he gave us an account of the harvest of a
particular village in his favourite article of cotton: he
entered into a minute calculation of the population, number
of acres, the weight of the produce, the cost of raising, and
the value in the market, and then gave a glowing picture of
the wealth and prosperity of this village, which bore no
resemblance to any place ever seen by myself or any other
traveller in his miserable country. It was certainly the
most audacious puff ever practised upon the credulity of an
audience, when Mehemet Ali vaunted the happiness and
wealth of some ‘sweet Auburn’ in his wretched and op-
pressed Pachalick. In reply to his statement, which
savoured so little of truth that I thought it harmonized
completely with the false expression of the lips which
uttered it, the Consul directed the Pacha’s attention to the
gentleman immediately to his left, who was from Manchester
in England, and whom he described to be better acquainted
than any person present with the subject he was speaking
upon. At this remark, he turned sharply round, and di-
rected a look towards me, in which, as in every glance of
his eye, suspicion and cunning predominated. He paused
for a moment, and the Colonel, not knowing whether his
hesitation arose from having imperfectly understood him,
repeated in substance his observation, and explained that
Manchester was the chief seat of the British manufacture,
and that Liverpool was the port by which the materials
reache:| that placo. Mehemet Ali had not apparently ever
heard of either of these cities. There was another pause of
half a minute, and a slight embarrassment in his manner (I
1] METEMET ALL 65

was told by one of the party afterwards that it appeared as 1886.
though a slight flush came over his face at the same instant), "Hin, 82.
when. he abruptly changed the topic of conversation, and
began to talk of his navy. I was puzzled at the moment to
divine the cause why the Pacha shunned a discussion about
his favourite cotton ; it afterward occurred to me, and the
idea was confirmed by the opinions of others of the party,
that he avoided talking on a subject on which he was con-
scious that he had greatly exaggerated, with one whom he
believed, from the too favourable account of the Consul, to
be better informed than himself.

“The Pacha now proceeded to maintain stoutly that the

quality of his Syrian pines was equal to that of British oak
for the purposes of ship-building. There was nothing
remarkable in the conversation that followed, excepting the
practical shrewdness which characterized the choice and
handling of his subjects on the part of Mehemet Ali. After
an interview of about half an hour, in which, from the
defective tact and address of Colonel C., no person of the
party but himself took any share, we made our parting
salutations, and retired from the audience-chamber, which,
as I again traversed it, I thought was on a par with a ball-
room in a second-rate English country town. On proceed-
ing through the large anteroom, we found the company
‘listening to the address of their spiritual guide. On our
way down the declivity from the citadel we passed the
menagerie, and I heard the lion growling in his den. I
thought of Mehemet Ali.”

Cobden had another interview with Mehemet Ali on
December 26, in which they had an hour’s conversation on
the Pacha’s way of managing his cotton factories. He con-
fesses himself to have been particularly struck with the
Pacha’s readiness in replying and reasoning, with his easy
handling of his 24 per cents. and 20 per cents., and with his

8
1836.
Ar. 82.

 

66 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [onar.

“love of facts and quickness of calculation.” “It is this
calculating talent, aided by higher powers of combination
and reflection, that has contributed so greatly towards
elevating him to his present position; for whatever daring
or courage he may have shown upon emergencies, it is
notorious that he has always preferred the use of diplomacy
to the more open tactics of the sword.”

Cairo, Dec. 22nd, 1836.— Mehemet Ali is pursuing a
course of avaricious misrule, which would have torn the vitals
from a country less prolific than this, long since. As it is,
everything is decaying beneath his system of monopolies.
It is difficult to understand the condition of things in Egypt
without visiting it. The Pacha has, by dint of force and
fraud, possessed himself of the whole of the property of the
country. Ido not mean that he has obtained merely the
rule or government, but he owns the whole of the soil, the
houses, the boats, the camels, etc. There is something
quite unique in finding only one landowner and one mer-
chant in a country, in the person of its pacha! He has been
puffed by his creatures in Europe as a regenerator and a
reformer—I can trace in him only a rapacious tyrant. It is
true he has, to gratify an insatiate ambition, attempted to
give himself a European fame, by importing some of the
arts of civilized countries into Egypt; but this has been
done, not to benefit his people, but to exalt himself. His
cotton factories are a striking instance of this. I have
devoted some time to the inspection of these places, of which
I am surprised to find there are twenty-eight in the country,
altogether presenting a waste of capital and industry un-
paralleled in any other part of the world. Magnificent
buildings have been erected, costly machinery brought from
England and France, and the whole after a few years pre-
sents such an appearance of dilapidation and mismanage-
ment that to persevere in carrying them forwards must be
mt.) EGYPTIAN MANUMFAOTORINS. » 69

to incur fresh ruin every year. At first, steam-engines were 1886.

 

put down at the principal mills; but these were soon stopped, Afr. 32.
and bullock-wheels were substituted, which are now in use
at all the establishments! I saw them carding with engines
almost toothless ; the spinning, which is of low numbers,
running from 12 to 40, is of the worst possible kind; and,
in weaving, the lamps and knots keep the poor weaver in
constant activity cutting and patching his web. There is
one mill, built at the side of the river, which presents a
splendid appearance as you approach from Alexandria; it
contains the finest room-full of Sharp and Roberts’s looms
that I ever saw. The engine of this does not work, and ~
they have therefore turned these power-looms into hand-
looms, and are making cloth that could not be sold at any
price in Manchester. All this waste is going on with the
best raw ectton, which ought to be sold with us, and double
its weight of Surats bought for the manufacturer of such
‘low fabrics, This is not all the mischief, for the very hands
that are driven into these manufactures are torn from the
cultivation of the soil, which is turned into desert for want
of cultivation, whilst it might be the most fertile in the
world. But the most splendid of all his buildings is the
print-works. Think of a couple of block shops, each nearly
a hundred yards long and fifteen feet high ; imagine a croft
enclosed with solid walls, containing nearly fifty acres, and
conceive this to be intersected with streams of water in all
directions, and with taps for letting on the water at any
particular place; think of such a place, compared with
which ours or the best of the Lancashire works are but
as barns, and then what do you say when I tell you that
one of these block-shops contained about fifteen tables at
work, whilst in the other the tables were all piled up in
one corner, and the only occupants of it were a couple of
carpet-weavers trying to produce a hearth-rug! All this
1836.

Air. 32,

1837.

 

Air. 33.

68 LIFH OF OCOBDEN. (omar.

is not the work of Mehemet Ali. The miserable adven-
turers from Europe, who have come here to act the parasites
of such a blood-stained despot—they are partly the cause
of the evil. But they know his selfish nature, and his lust
of fame, and this is only their mode of deluding the one
and pandering to the other.” *

On the 19th of January Cobden left Alexandria, and

arrived at Constantinople on the 1st of February :—

On board the Sardinian Brig, La Virtu, in the Sea of Mar-
mora, Jan. 29th, 1887.—“ On the 24th we found ourselves
becalmed under the island of Scio, the most fertile and the
largest of the Archipelago. In the evening the moon rose,
and diffused over the atmosphere, not merely a light, but a
blaze, which illuminated the hills and vales of Scio, and shed
a rosy tint over every object in the island. The sea was as
tranquil as the land, and everything seemed to whisper.
security and repose. How different was the scene on this

very island twelve years ago, when the Turks burst in upon

a cultivated, wealthy, and contented population, and spread
death and destruction through the land, changing in one
short day this paradise of domestic ‘happiness into a theatre
of the most appalling crimes. I must recall to your minds
the particulars of this dreadful tragedy. Scio had taken no
part in the revolution of the Greeks, and its inhabitants,
who were industrious and rich, voluntarily placed hostages
of their chief men in the hands of the Turkish Government, :
as a proof that they were not disposed to rebel against their
rulers. It happened, however, that some young men of the
neighbouring islands of Samos and Ipsara landed at one
extremity of the island, and there planted the standard of
revolt, which, however, was not followed by the Sciotes. On,
the contrary, they protested against it; and, as they had
delivered up their arms as a proof of their peaceful inten-
® To Mr. George Foster, from Cairo, December 22, 1836.
menttnnbs

OH. j MASSAOBE OF SOIO. 69

tions, they could do no more. The pretence, however, was
seized upon by the Government of Constantinople, and the
island was doomed to a visit from the Turkish Admiral, and
a body of ruffianly troops who were promised a free licence
of blood and plunder.

“The riches of the island, the beauty and accomplishments
of the females, were held out as inducements to draw all the
ruffians of the capital to join in the expedition of rapine and
murder. The situation of the island, too, afforded the
opportunity of passing from the mainland across a narrow
strait of about seven miles, and thousands of the miscreants
from all the towns of the coast of Asia Minor, including

‘Smyrna, flocked to the scene of woe. Now only picture

to yourselves such a scene as the Isle of Wight, supposing
it to be one third more populous and larger in circumference,
and then imagine that its inhabitants in the midst of un-
suspecting security were suddenly burst upon by 20,000 of
the butchers, porters, thieves, and desperadoes of London,
Portsmouth, etcetera. Imagine these for three days in
unbridled possession of the persons and property of every

soul in that happy island ; conceive all the churches filled

with mangled corpses, the rich proprietors hanging dead at
their own house doors, the ministers of religion cruelly
tortured—imagine all that could happen from the knives,
swords, and pistols of men who were inured to blood, and
suppose the captivity and sufferings of every young female
or male, who were without exception torn away and sold
into captivity ;—and you will not then picture a quarter
part of the horrors which happened at the massacre of
Scio. Of nearly 100,000 persons on the island in the month
of May, not more than 700 were left alive there at the end
of two months after. Upwards of 40,000 young persons of
both sexes were sold into infamous slavery throughout all
the Mahometan cities of Europe and Asia, and not one

1837,
Air, 33.

 
tl

70 LIFE OF OOBDEN. _ ortar,

1987. house was left standing except those of the Huropean
"Air. 33, Consuls!”

Oonstantinople, February 14th, 1837.—“ Do not expect

a long or rhapsodical letter from me, for I am at the
moment of writing both cold and cross. A copper pan of
charcoal is beside me, to which I cannot apply for warmth,
because it gives me the headache. There is a hole in the
roof, which lets down a current of melted snow, which
trickles over my bed and spatters one corner of the table on
which I am writing. To complete the agreeable position of
the writer, he is lodging in a house where the good man
(albeit a tailor!) has a child of every age, from the most
disagreeable and annoying of all ages—eighteen months—
upwards to ten, My landlady is a bustling little Greek,
with a shrill voice which is never tired; but I seldom hear
it, because, as her children are generally in fall chorus
during the whole day, it is only when they are in bed and
‘she takes advantage of the calm to scold her husband, that
her solo notes are distinguishable. But you will say that I
have very little occasion to spend my time indoors, su-
rounded as I am by the beauties of Constantinople. Alas!
if I sally out, the streets are choked with snow and water;
the thoroughfares, which are never clean, are now a thou-
sand times worse than Hanging Ditch or Deansgate in the
middle of December. If one walks close to the houses, then
there are projecting windows from the fronts which just
serve to pour an incessant stream of water down on your
head and neck; if, to escape drowning, he goes into the
middle of the street, then the passenger is up to his knees
every step, and sometimes by chance he plunges into a hole
of mud and water from which he must emerge by the charity,
of some good Turk or Christian. Then, to complete the
picture of misery, every man or woman you meet dodges
you in order to escape contagion, and it would be as difficult
i1.} OONSTANTINOPIR, 71

almost in Pera, the Frank quarter, to touch a person, as if
the whole population were playing a game of prisoner’s base.
With this multitude of miseries to encounter without and
within doors, I have seen little here to amuse or gratify me;
and if it were not for the extreme kindness of all the mer-
chants here, with almost all of whom [have dined or visited ;
and if I had not had other objects in view than merely to
see this city and neighbourhood, I should scarcely have
stayed a week at Constantinople. The plague has been
more than commonly destructive; various accounts give
from 50 to 100,000 deaths, and I have little doubt that
more than one eighth of the population has been swept
away. I must, however, tell you for your satisfaction that
it has now almost disappeared, and that it has quite lost its
virulence. Fortunately, the very day of my arrival a north
wind set in, and brought with it the snows and frosts of the
Black Sea, against which the pestilence could not exist.
Had I arrived a week earlier, the weather was as mild as
summer. That would have given me a better opportunity
of seeing the country, but not with the same security from
the plague as at present. As I entered the harbour of Con-
stantinople, the country was free from snow, and therefore I
saw the view to pretty good advantage considering that it
was the winter-time. It is too fine, too magical, for descrip-
tion, and all the accounts that you read of it do not do
justice to it.”

Smyrna, Feb. 24th, 1837.—“ After I wrote to you from
Constantinople, I made an excursion up the Bosphorus to see
the scenery which all concur in praising as the most beautiful
in Europe. I wish I had seen it before I landed in Turkey ;
—the misery, the dirt, the plague, and all the other disagree-
ables of Constantinople, haunted me even in the quiet and
solitude of natural beauties which, apart from such asso-
ciations, are certainly enough to excite the romantic fervour

1887.
tr, 38,

 
1837.

* Hin, 83.

72 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [owar,

of the most chilly-hearted. From these causes I am afraid
I have not done justice to the scene of the Bosphorus. I
could not look upon the palaces, the kiosks, and wooden
houses which crowded the banks of the beautiful channel
with the interest which they might have imparted, if I had
not known the poverty, vice, and tyranny of their possessors.

- Must I confessit? I think the Hudson river a much more

beautiful scene than the Bosphorus. But let the scenes be
reversed—if the Bosphorus were in the United States, and
the Hudson in Turkey—and I should consider probably the
former incomparably the most beautiful; so much are we

the creatures of association.” *

Smyrna, Feb. 24th, 1837.— In the steamer which brought

me from. Constantinople to this place, we had a great number
of passengers, chiefly Turks: there were a few Persians.
They all rested on deck during the whole time. For their
cdnvenience little raised platforms were placed along each
side of the steamer, to prevent the wet, if any rain fell,

4 In the pamphlet on England, Ireland, and America, Cobden had already
indulged a joyous vision of what Constantinople might become under the
genius of a free government :—‘ Constantinople, outrivalling New York,
may be painted, with a million of free citizens, as the foous of all the trade
of Eastern Europe. Let us conjure up the thousands of miles of railroads,
carrying to the very extremities of this empire—not the sanguinary satrap,
but the merchandise and the busy traders of a free state; conveying—not
the firman of a ferocious Sultan, armed with death to the trembling slave,
but the millions of newspapers and letters, which stimulate the enterprise
and excite the patriotism of an enlightened people. Let us imagine the
Bosphorus and the Sea of Marmora swarming with steamboats, connecting
the European and Asiatic continents by hourly departures and arrivals; or
issuing from the Dardanelles, to reanimate once more with life and fertility
the hundred islands of the Archipelago; or conceive the rich shores of the
Black Sea in the power of the New Englander, and the Danube pouring
down its produce on the plains of Moldavia and Wallachia, now subject to
the plough of the hardy Kentuckian. Let us picture the Carolinians, the
Virginians, and the Georgians transplanted to the coasts of Asia Minor, and
behold its hundreds of cities again bursting from the tomb of ages, to recall
religion and civilization to the spot from whence they first issued forth
apon the world. Alas! that this should only be un illusion of the fancy!”
m1] VoYacu TO SMYRNA, 73

reaching their beds. Hereon they spread their mats and 1887.
arranged their cloaks, and it was amusing to watch each Air. 33.
drawing forth his long pipe, and preparing with the aid of a
bag of tobacco to sustain the fatigues and sufferings of two
, nights’ exposure in such a position. These Turks are the

most quiet and orderly people in the world when their religious
fanaticism is untouched, in which case they are at once
changed into the most sanguinary savages imaginable.

Some of our passengers were people of good quality, with ser-

vants accompanying them, and they slept in the cabin; but

the whole of the day was spent in reposing upon their mats,

their legs tucked under, and their long pipes in their mouths,

A few words sometimes were exchanged, but the conversation

seemed always to be a secondary affair to the enjoyment of

the pipe.

“JT found great amusement in walking up and down the
deck between these rows of quiet, grave Mussulmans, whose
picturesque dresses and arms of various kinds afforded me
constant interest; whilst the honest Turks felt equal
amusement in ruminating over their pipes upon the motives
which could cause a Giaour like me to set myself the task of
walking to and fro on the deck for nothing that they could
understand, unless for some religious penance. There were
two old men with green turbans, who five times during the
day put aside their pipes, turning to the east, and, bowing
their foreheads to their feet, uttered with great fervour their
prayers. All this passed unnoticed by their very next
neighbours—for the Turks are not (what nurses say of

children) arrived at the age for taking notice. I have seen
all sorts of strange scenes happen without disturbing the
dreaming attention of the Turk. Once in Cairo I was looking
out of a window, beneath which three smokers were sitting
upon their mats: a boy was driving an ass loaded with gravel
and sand, which tripped just as it was passing full trot by the
1837.
Ait, 33.

 

74 LIFE OF OOBDEN. (OHap,

place, and fell close to the smokers, upsetting the contents
of the panniers upon their mats. The boy immediately set
to work shovelling up the sand with his hands, and scraping
it as well as he could from amongst their legs, and having

loaded his donkey, he cantered away. Not a word or look

passed between him and the smokers, who never moved from
their seats; and two hours afterwards I passed by them
when their posture was precisely the same, and their legs
were still surrounded by the remains of the load of sand | ”

Smyrna, Feb. 24th, 1887.—“ The house in which I am stay-
ing is a large, elegantly-furnished one, and the management
is of the solid kind which Mr. Rhoades’ establishment used to
be characterized by.’ Old, queer-looking servants trot about
large corridors; there are rooms for Monsieur, snuggeries
for Madame, little retreats for visitors, in one of which I am
sitting, writing; and all have good, substantial fires. In
the evening after a six o’clock dinner, parties of ladies walk
in without ceremony; they and the young gentlemen of the
house, with Madame W- (who does not speak English),
sitdown to the faro-table, around which you soon hear a
babel of tongues, English, French, Greek, and Italian, whilst
Mr. W: and I cause over Russian politics or political
economy. One by one the company disappears, after taking
a cup of coffee the size of a pigeon’s egg ; and so noiseless
and little ceremonious are their appearances and disappear-
ances, that a spectator would imagine the visitors to be
members of the family, who joined each other from different
parts of this great house to an evening’s amusement, and then
retired again for the night to their several apartments. This
is visiting as it should be done.”

The following extracts from his journal may serve to show
the chief topics of conversation in these very useful visits :—

Smyrna, Feb. 3rd.—“ At Mr. Crespin’s, in a conversation

5 Mr. Rhoades was the husband of one of his aunts.

 

 
m1. CONVERSATIONS AT SMYRNA. 95

upon the trade of Turkey, I heard that 350,0001. of British
goods are now lying here for the Persian markets, full one
half of the goods that came here last year were for Persia.
The Persian trade was formerly carried on principally from
Bombay, or through the German fairs. At present these
currents are changed. Mr. W says that he has been
at Constantinople from seventeen to eighteen years, and he
recollects when the first vessel cleared out hence for England.
At present an attempt is being made to impose transit duty
upon the Persian silk coming through Constantinople. The
trade of France is very much diminished ; query is the whole
demand for Turkey greater now than forty years ago?
Smyrna has declined. Wool which formerly went to France
now goes to London, linseed is now exported from Turkey.”
Feb. 4th.—* Again heavy snows; confined to the house
during the day. In the evening I accompanied Mr. Long-
worth to visit Mr. Simmonds, a fine old gentleman who has
spent thirty-five years in Turkey. Like almost all the
residents, he is favourable to the Turks, and anxious to sup-
- port them against the Russians; his experiments in farming
the high lands for the first time, tolerably successful. In
the course of conversation he said that last year the govern-
ment sent a firman to Salonica, and intercepted the grain
crops which were ready for exportation, ordering them to be
delivered to its stores at ten piastres and thirty paras the
‘kilo (about a bushel); he went to the Seraskier and com-
plained, and advised him of the impolicy of such a step, upon
which he promised to inquire into it. The government then

 

1887.
Air. 33.

 

sent its agents to purchase the grain at eleven or twelve

piastres from the farmers, who, as the firman had not been
withdrawn, sold it eagerly. A remonstrance, however, had
been sent to the government by the farmers of the vicinity
of the capital, declaring that they could not produce their
grain at lese than fifteen piastres the kilo. . . . It snowed all
76 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [cHtar,

1837. day. I remained at home, and read, and made extracts from

 

"Hr. 33, pamphlets, etc.”
Feb. 5th.—* In the morning received a call from Mr. Perkins.

He spoke of the steamer which goes in about three days to
Trebizond. She sails every fifteen days, and is usually full
of freight and passengers; the deck passengers pay 200
‘ piastres, or about two pounds, cabin passengers ten
pounds. She carries a great’ number of porters, who come
to Constantinople for work, remain perhaps for six months,
and then return. The goods sent to Trebizond are forwarded
chiefly to Erzeroum, from whence they are distributed
throughout Persia and the surrounding countries. Long-
cloths and prints are the principal articles. I received a
visit from Dr. Millingen.’ Says Mr. Urquhart is Scotch,
was educated at college, went out to the aid of the Greeks
at their revolution, was severely wounded on two occasions,
| afterwards travelled for some years in Turkey, discovered
‘the municipalities, direct taxation, and freedom of trade,’
which were the secret preservers of Turkey. Afterwards he
went to England, agitated the press, the ministers, and the
king in favour of Turkey. He succeeded in making every
newspaper editor and reviewer adopt his views, excepting
Tait. He afterwards wrote his Resources of Turkey, and
then his pamphlet. He was patronized by Lord Ponsonby,
until he received his appointment of Secretary of Legation,
when his active and personal exertions in promoting his own
peculiar policy produced a coolness between them. He was
sent out by the English Government to arrange the com-
mercial treaty. He, the ambassador, and the “onsul are
all at daggers drawn.
“There are no associations at all amongst the Turks, such
as are alluded to by Urquhart, under the name of Munici-

6 'The well-known physician who attended Syron in his last illness, and
who died at Constantinople last year (1878).
wt. J AT SuYRNA, a9

palities. Those amongst the rayahs have reference to the 1887.
regulation of their own affairs in the manner of the English tr. 33.
Quakers or Methodists, excepting that in their own disputes
they are allowed to arbitrate without appealing to Turkish
tribunals. The term, Municipalities, is misapplied, and only
calculated to deceive. In taxing the rayahs, the amounts
levied are arbitrary, and the only privilege the various sects
possess is to raise the money in the best way they can, as a
body amongst themselves, instead of the Turkish authorities
coming in contact with individuals. The system was no
doubt originated for the purpose of enabling the Turks to
levy their imposts with greater facility. The Greeks,
Armenians, Jews, etc., have no protection from these ima-
ginary municipalities.”

Feb. 7ih.—‘*In the morning I called on Mr. Perkins,
who is opposed to the belief in the regeneration of the
Turks. The municipalities are aptly ridiculed in the novel
of Anastasius (by Hope), where the Turk sits upon the
ground smoking under a tree, and leaves the people of the
village, where he had been sent to levy contributions, to
raise the money in the best way they can. Mr. Ralli
attributes the evils of Turkey to the radical vices of the
institutions, to the monopolies, and above all to the depre-
ciation of the standard of value in the money. The trade to
Persia through Constantinople has increased very much, but
fluctuates greatly. One year it has been probably 7 to
800,0001.; at another, owing to a glut, not half of that
amount. But he is certain that the trade to Persia, etc., is
double that of Constantinople for Turkey. In the evening
I dined with Mr. Thomasset, and met Mr. Boudrey, a
French gentleman of intelligence. He says the trade direct
with France has nearly fallen away entirely with Turkey.
Belgian, Swiss, and German fabrics have superseded those
from France. No regular impost is levied by government
1887.
Br, 33.

 

78 LIVE OF OOBDEN. foray. ,

all through its dominions; every pacha is to raise a certain
sum, and he does it in his own way. Mustapha Pacha, of
Adrianople, when ordered to send a certain quantity of corn
to government at a certain price, fixed 12 piastres as the
value, because the Europeans would give it, and he would ~
not let his people supply it for less. He is an exception, and
popular.”

Feb. 8th.—‘In the evening I dined with Mr. Perkins
and met Mr. Webster, &c. I was told that no fortunes
have been made by British merchants at Constantinople ;
that the business is so insecure, and that they are beginning
to wish for the Russians, more money being made by the
residents at Odessa.”

Feb. 9th.—— “Mr. Cartwright, the consul, called. In
speaking of trade to Persia, he said that, previous to 1790,
the commerce went by way of Aleppo, where there were
twenty-eight English houses. The shipments were made at
two seasons of the year, in six large vessels to Scanderoon,
or Ladikiyeh, where there were large warehouses for depéts.
After that epoch the stream of commerce went in the direc-
tion of Bombay for the lower division of Persia, and by way
of Russia for the other quarters of it. The modern route
by Constantinople is not more than fifteen years old. After
our treaty of 1820, Turkey began its system of imposts upon
internal commerce. He thinks that Mehemet Ali gave the
impulse to Mahmoud in many of his reforms. The change
is only in the dress and whitewashing of the houses, nothing
fundamental being altered. After the destruction of the
Janissaries, it seems that he has been quite at sea. Ruined,
worn-out country.”

Feb. 11th.—“ Mr. Hanson thinks that matters are worse
since the time of the Janissaries, who were the opposition
and check of the government. Then the people were
only plundered and oppressed by the Sultan and his Grand
11.) AT SMYENA, 79

Vizier, but now every one of the pachas about the person of 1887.
the Sultan can, by obtaining firmans, oppress the poor Air, 33.
agriculturalist. Mr. Perkins thinks the trade for Turkey
does not, in Constantinople, exceed 400,0001.; he was told
that Persia took in one year 1,200,000/. The trade to
Persia is new for the last few years by this route; he thinks
it both a creation and a transition; some of it is merely
removed from Bombay. <A ship or two in the year comes
from Trieste, bringing goods from the German fairs to the
Black Sea. In the evening I dined with Mr. Cartwright,
and met a party of merchants. After dinner we discussed
the trading prospects of Turkey. All agreed that the
money amount of the consumption of British goods is
diminishing, and that the trade to Persia forms two-thirds
of the imports into Constantinople. Mr. Cartwright spoke
of a person who, in Turkey, told him he had bought cloth
for his coat which cost him only half as much as he would
have paid for it in England. The company are obliged by
their charter to take so much woollen cloth, which they sold
ata loss. Russia, Mr. Cartwright thinks, will again let the
trade go through Georgia, by which route it formerly
reached Persia; he says that, after exhausting the fortunes
of the Armenians and others, he, the Sultan, has since been
preying upon agriculture. The Exchange operations of
the government are merely depreciating his currency, and
robbing the people by purchasing the non-interference of the
foreign merchant. Russia is continually increasing the
number of her subjects by naturalization. The rayahs, whe
form the most industrious and best, besides the moat
numerous part of the community, would certainly benefit by
a Christian government. Mr. Cartwright and all present
agreed that the Turks have not themselves the power of
regeneration, and that, unless foreign aid prevent it, they
must fall to pieces in less than twenty years. But absolute
1837,
Aut, 88,

 

80 LIFE OF CORDSN. Tomar,

occupation and authority must be possessed by the power
that would regenerate Turkey. Every public servant, from
the highest to the lowest, must be dismissed, as they are all
corrupt. A Turk, the moment he enters the public service,
is necessarily a rascal. England must, if she interposes at
all, take the part of a principal, not an auxiliary.”

From Smyrna, after a fortnight’s cruise among the islands,
Cobden arrived at Athens, March 19th, where the political
and economic circumstances of the new Hellenic kingdom
interested him more keenly than the renowned monuments,
though he did not fail in attention to them also. His in-
quiries filled him, as is usually the case with travellers, with
admiration for the gifts of the Greek people, and confidence
in their future. The perverse diplomacy which settled the
limits and constitution of the kingdom, he viewed with a
contempt which the course of Hastern events in the forty
years since his visit has fully justified. His hopes for the
future of the Greeks were not coloured by the conventional
acceptance of the glories of their past. He was amazed
to find the mighty states of Attica and Sparta within an
area something smaller than the two counties of Yorkshire
and Lancashire. ‘ What famous puffers those old Greeks
were! Half the educated world in Europe is now devoting
more thought to the ancient affairs of these Lilliputian
states, the squabbles of their tribes, the wars of their
villages, the geography of their rivulets and hillocks, than
they bestow upon the modern history of the South and
North Americas, the politics of the United States, and the
charts of the mighty rivers and mountains of the new
world.” ?

“The antiquities of Athens may be cursorily viewed in half
a day. Iwas not so highly impressed with the merits of
these masterpieces from reading and plates, as I found myself

7 Yo F. Oobden, from Smyrna, March 3rd, 1887.
1.} ATHENS AND THE GREEKS. 81

to be on looking at the actual remains of those monuments 1837.
and temples, whose ruins crown the rocky platform of the air. 33.
Acropolis. I am satisfied that there is nothing now in
_existence which for beauty of design, masterly workmanship,

and choice of situation, can compare with that spectacle of
grandeur and sublimity which the public temples of ancient
Athens presented two thousand years ago. What a genius

and what a taste had those people! And, mind, the genius is

there still. All the best deeds of ancient times will be again
rivalled by the Greeks of a future age. Do not believe the

lying and slandering accounts which the dulness of some
travellers, the envy of Levant merchants, and the Franks

of Constantinople, utter against the Greek character. The

raw material of all that is noble, brilliant, refined, and
glorious, is still latent in the character of this people:
overlaid, as is natural, with the cunning, falsehood, meanness,

and other vices inherent in the spirits of slaves.

“Do not, however, fancy that I am predicting the revival
_of Greek greatness, through the means of the present little
trumpery monarchy of that name, which will pass away like
other bubbles blown by our shallow statesmen. All the Hast
will be Greek, and Constantinople, no matter under what
nominal sovereignty it may fall, will by the force of the
indomitable genius of the Greeks become in fact the capital
of that people.” *

Athens, March 22.— In the evening at Sir E. Lyons’ I met
Captain Fisher, who spoke of the haste with which he was
ordered to sea for the Levant. He left his own son behind
him, whom I met in Egypt, going to India, and for whom
he had not dared to wait twenty-four hours. He also left
behind two guns. He remarked that if the lives and fortunes
of a nation were at stake, he could not have used more
pressing expedition—yet all for no purpose that can be

© To F, Cobden, April 18, 1837.
&
1837.
Ant, 33.

 

82 i ot LIFE OF COBDEN. (omar.

discovered! The Portland is carrying home Count Armans-
perg, the dismissed Minister of Greece, after bringing the
King and Queen of Greece.’ I saw this ship at Malta on my
way out to Egypt in November. She was fitted up superbly
for this young lady and gentleman, and their maids of
honour and attendants. She went to Venice, and was in
waiting for the royal holiday folks for two months. The
Madagascar, Capt. Lyons, brought out the Regency and the
young king. The wives of the members of the Regency
quarrelled even on the passage. Sometime ago the Medea
steamer was carrying the old King of Bavaria and his son to
the islands of the Archipelago and the coast of Asia Minor.
We are general carriers for erratic royalty all over the world;
witness, Donna Maria Miguel, old Ferdinand of Naples, the
King of Portugal and their precious minions, were the choice
freights of our ships of war. When will this folly have an
end?”

March 24.—“ At twelve o’clock at night [in the Piraeus
harbour] I went on board a little boat, which set sail imme-
diately for Kalamaki [in the Isthmus of Corinth]. It wasa
clear, fresh, moonlight night, and a favourable breeze soon
carried us from among the ships in the harbour.”

March 25.—“ In the morning we were halfway across the

® The new kingdom was entrusted to a Regency until the completion of
King Otho’s twentieth year (June 1, 1835). Count Armansperg was Presi-
derit, and Von Maurer was his principal colleague. The pair showed that
Germans are capable of rivalling the Greeks themselves in hatred and
intrigue. ‘Count Armansperg, as a noble, looked down on Maurer as a
pedant and law professor. Maurer sneered at the count as an idler, fit
only to be a diplomatist or a master of the ceremonies” (Finlay, vii. 12).
When King Otho returned to his kingdom in the Portland (Feb., 1837), he
brought with him his young bride, Queen Amelia, and Rudhart to be his
prime minister. Armansperg was recalled to Bavaria, after disastrous
failure in his administration. Cobden might have found an excellent text
for a sermon, in the childish perversity which marked Lord Palmerston’s
dealings with Greece in these years, from his stubborn defence of Count
Armansperg down to his disputes about court etiquette, and his employ:
went of the fleet to enforce the payment of a trifling debt.
. un] FROM ATHENS TO PATRAS. 83

gulf [the Saronic Gulf] by nine o’clock. ... Ateight 1887.
o’clock in the evening we arrived at Kalamaki. On the "Bi. 88.

beach were two persons fishing with a blazing torch and spear.

We entered the khan. A few phials were on a little bar,
behind which sat the master. At the other ends of the room

were raised platforms of two stages, reaching to the ceiling,

or rather roof (for there was no interior covering), on which

the travellers nad spread mats, and on some of which their
snoring occupants were reposing for the night, whilst others

were sitting smoking their pipes. An officer in the new
uniform, and another in the Albanian dress, were sitting ata

little table taking their supper with their fingers from the

same dish. A little wood fire was blazing at one side of the

room, upon which was some hot water, and by the side hung
coffee-pots of every size, from the bigness of a thimble
upwards. <A large mortar of marble stood by the side of the

fire, into which the coffee-grains were thrown by the servant,

and pounded with a pestle, previous to being boiled for his
customers, This custom of pounding instead of grinding the
coffee, is I believe, universal in the East.

“We found a proprietor of a boat from the other side of
the isthmus, and engaged with him to take us to Patras for
twelve dollars. We hired horses and set off across the
isthmus, a distance of about six miles to Loutraki. The
night was clear and cool, and the moon at nearly its full;
the scénery of the mountainous and rugged neck of land
which we traversed, and of the gulfs on each side, was
romantic. At Loutraki we saw the caves and hollows in the
sides of the mountains, into which the women and children
were thrust for concealment during the war.

“We got on board at midnight, and set sail down the
gulf of Corinth or Lepanto for Patras. Parnassus on our
right, covered with snow—a cold bed for the muses! On
each side the hills are crowned with snow. At night the
84 a ad LIFE OF OOBDEN. [Orap,

1837. wind was foul and contrary, and our boat took shelter in a
Aix. 33. port on the Roumeliot side of the gulf, and, on the morning
of the 27th of March, finding that there was no chance of
getting forward, I turned to the opposite coast, and ran for
a little village, where I determined to hire horses, and push
forward for Patras by land. We came to anchor near a
shop, where the proprietor sold every variety of petty mer-
chandise, such as wine, paper, candles, nails, &c., and we
took some coffee, whilst a person went in search of horses,
The owner of the cattle arrived soon afterwards, to make a
bargain of a dollar each horse for Vostizza. He had left his
animals concealed behind a bridge, and, as soon as we had
agreed to his terms, they were produced. This cunning is
the result of a long experience of Turkish violence. We set -
off with some companions for Vostizza, along a road border-
ing close upon the gulf, at the foot of lofty banks or hills
that bound either side of the water. We passed some rich
little valleys, finely cultivated and all planted with the little
currant-trees. Stopped ata hut in the middle of the day,
and ate some black bread and olives, and drank some wine

and water. Again set forward and reached Vostizza, a little . .

sea-port situated in a rich and well-cultivated valley, all
planted with currants. The people appeared industriously
at work. On walking out into the town of Vostizza, I found
a few stone houses, apparently lately erected, and of public --
utility. Saw a concourse of people around one of these, in
which there was to be an auction of public lands.

“Tn the khan or lodgings where I put up, there was
nothing to be had to eat but eggs and caviare. I went to
bed early, intending to be called at three o’clock, but could
not sleep from the noise of Greeks, who were laughing and

dancing in the next room. When I had by dint of threats v

and vociferations quieted these fellows, I was beset by such
multitudes of fleas that I could not obtain a moment's
nL] FROM ATHENS TO PATRAS. 85

repose. I therefore arose at two o’clock, and, as the horses 1887.

soon afterwards appeared, we set off for Patras. The moon ir. 33.

was bright and the air cool, and we proceeded along a path

- close to the gulf; passed some shepherds’ huts in which the
lights were burning, and the dogs gave note of watchfulness.
As daylight appeared, I looked anxiously to the coast for
the spectacle of a sunrise behind the mountains of Roumelia.
The first rays lighted up the summits of Parnassus and the
other lofty mountains, whose snowy peaks were tinged with
rosy hues. By degrees the sky assumed a dark dull red
aspect, above the eastern range of hills; this shade gra~-
dually grew more lurid, until little by little the horizon, from
a sombre red, assumed a dazzling appearance of fiery bright-
ness, and shortly afterwards the sun flamed above the moun-
tainous outline over the gulf, hills, and valleys around us.
The path all the way lay through a thicket of shrubs of a
thousand kinds, some evergreen, others aromatic, and the
whole wearing the appearance of a pleasure-ground in |

' England. The flowers, too, were fragrant, and the whole ©
scene was full of luxuriant richness and beauty.

«We stopped at a hut at nine o’clock to breakfast, where
we found a poor mud cottage, containing a few coarse
articles of use for sale, as well as some bread and cheese of
avery uninviting quality. I saw Lepanto on the opposite
side of the gulf, and soon afterwards the Castles of Patras
and Roumelia, which guard the entrance of the Gulf of
Lepanto. At half-past twelve o’clock we entered Patras
and went straightway to the Consul’s house, to learn the
time when the steamer would sail. I washed, dressed, and
dined, and immediately afterwards went on board the

_ Hermes steamer, Captain Blount, which arrived from Corfu.
We set sail at four o’clock. In the evening, at ten, we
called off Zante for letters, and then proceeded with favour-
able breezes for Malta.”
86 LIFE OF COBDEN, [omar

1887. At Malta Cobden formed some very decided opinions as
“Air. 88. to the policy of naval administration, as illustrated at that
station.

“The Malta station is the hot-bed for naval patronage,
and the increase of our ships of war. They are sent to the
Mediterranean for five years, the large ships are for six or
eight months of each year anchored in Malta harbonr, or
else in Vourla or Tenedos. In the summer, for the space of
four or five months, they make excursions round Sicily, or in
the Archipelago as far as Smyrna or Athens, and then they
return again to their anchorage to spend the winter in in-
activity ; the officers visiting in the city, or perhaps enjoying
a long leave of absence, whilst the men, to the number of
six, seven, or eight hundred, are put to such exercise or
employment as the ingenuity of the first lieutenant can devise
on board ship, or else are suffered to wander on shore upon
occasional leaves of absence. This is not the way either to
make good sailors, or to add to the power of the British
empire. The expenses are borne by the industry of the
productive classes at home. The wages of these idlers are
paid out of the taxes levied upon the soap, beer, tobacco, &e.,
consumed by the people of England. But what a prospect
of future expense does this state of things hold out to the
nation. Every large ship contains at least forty or fifty
quarter-deck officers, each one of whom, from the junior
supernumerary midshipman up to the first lieutenant, has
entered the service, hoping and relying that he will in due
course of time, either by means of personal merit or aided by
the influence of powerful friends, attain to the command of
a ship of war, and all these will press their claims upon the
Admiralty for future employment, and will be entitled to hope
as they grow older, that their emoluments, rank, and pros-
pects will improve every year with their increased necessities.
What then is the prospect which such a state of things holds
u.] MALTA AND THE NAVY. 87

out to the two parties concerned, the nation ontheonehand, 1887.

 

and its servants, its meritorious servants, on the other ? ” Hin, 83,
Unwise to encourage this increase of the navy, parents might
find a much better field in unsettled regions abroad.” !

Leaving Malta on April 4, and touching at Gibraltar, he
there in the course of his indefatigable questioning found new
confirmation of his opinions from competent and disinterested
informants.

April 15, 1837.— In conversation Waghorn said that the
admirals are all too old, and that this accounts for the
service being less officient now than heretofore; that the
ships are put up for six months in the winter months at
Malta, during which there is of course no exercise in sea-
manship for the men. Mr. Andrews told me that there are
sometimes twenty ships of war lying at one time in Malta.
The mode of promotion is as bad or worse now than under
the Tories; there are captains now in the command of ships
who five years ago had not passed as midshipmen, and there
are hundreds of mates pining for lieutenancies, who have
passed ten years. The Treasury presses upon the Admiralty
for the promotion of friends and dependants of the ministers
of the day, and thus leaves no room for the exercise of justice
towards the old and deserving officers. This was more
excusable at the time of the rotten boroughs than now, when
no such interest can be necessary. There are thirty or forty
midshipmen in one of the first-raters; how much incipient

disappointment, poverty, and neglect! The Admiral states
that it is enough to depress his spirits to see so many young
men, some of them twenty-five, and capable of commanding
the best ships, filling the situation of boys only. Young
Baily in conversation spoke of the way in which the Portland
was fitted up for the Queen of Greece and her maids of
honour, twenty guns removed and the space converted into
1 Journal, March 31, 1837,
88 LIFE OF OOBDEN. —— [onar. m1

aoa elegant rooms draped and furnished for the king, queen, and

4ir. 83. suite. The queen, on arriving at Athens, was so pleased with
her lodging on board, that she sent an artist to take a drawing
of her rooms. The vessel waited a couple of months at
Trieste and Venice, for the royal pair. After bringing them
and their ministers, the Portland carried back Count Armans-
perg to Malta.” ?

On the 21st of April Cobden arrived at Falmouth, after
an absence of six months. I must repeat here what I said
at the beginning of these extracts, that the portions of his
letters and journals which record the most energetic of his
interests and his inquiries, are precisely those which are no
longer worth reproducing, because the facts of commerce
and of politics, which formed the most serious object of his
investigation, have undergone such a change as to be hardly
more to our purpose than the year’s almanack. When we
come to the journals of ten years later, the reader will be
able to judge the spirit and method with which Cobden
travelled, and perhaps to learn a lesson from him in the
objects of travel Meanwhile, Cobden could hardly have
spent a more profitable holiday, for he had laid up a great
stock of political information, and acquired a certain living
familiarity with the cireumstances of the eastern basin of the
Mediterranean and the Turkish Government—then as now
the centre of our active diplomacy—and with the real
working of those principles of national policy which he had
already condemned by the light of native common sense and
reflection.

® Journal, April 15,

.
CHAPTER IV.
THE TWO PAMPHLETS.

Tr is not at the first glance very easy to associate a large 1835-6.
and theorizing doctrine of human civilization with the name amr, 31-2.
of one who was at this time a busy dealer in printed calicoes,
and who almost immediately afterwards became the most
active of political agitators. There may seem to be a
certain incongruity in discussing a couple of pamphlets by
a Manchester manufacturer, as if they were the speculations
of an abstract philosopher. Yet it is no strained pretension
to say that at this time Cobden was fully possessed by the
philosophic gift of feeling about society as a whole, and
thinking about the problems of society in an ordered con-
nexion with one another. He had definite and systematic
ideas of the way in which men ought now to travel in search
of improvement ; and he attached new meaning and more
comprehensive purpose to national life.

The agitations of the great Reform Act of 1832 had stirred
up social aspirations, which the Liberal Government of the
next ten years after the passing of the Act were utterly
unable to satisfy. This inability arose partly from their
own political ineptitude and want alike of conviction and
courage; and partly from the fact that many of these
aspirations lay wholly outside of the sphere of any govern-
ment. To give a vote to all ten-pound householders, and to
abolish a few rotten boroughs, was seen to carry the nation
, 90 LIF OF OOBDEN. (owar,

1835-6. a very little way on the journey for which it had girded itself
451, 31.2..up. The party which had carried the change seemed to
have sunk to the rank of a distracted faction, blind to the
demands of the new time, with no strong and common
doctrine, with no national aims, and hardly even with any
vigorous personal ambitions. People suddenly felt that the
interesting thing was not mechanism but policy, and un-
fortunately the men who had amended the mechanism were
in policy found empty and without resource. The result
of the disappointment was such a degree of fresh and
independent activity among all the better minds of the
time, that the succeeding generation, say from 1840 to 1870,
practically lived upon the thought and sentiment of the
seven or eight years immediately preceding the close of the
Liberal reign in 1841. It was during those years that the
schools were formed and the principles shaped, which have
attracted to themselves all who were serious enough to feel

the need of a school or the use of a principle.

If the change in institutions which had taken place in 1832
had brought forth hardly any of the fruit, either bitter or
sweet, which friends had hoped and enemies had threatened,
it was no wonder that those who were capable of a large
earnestness about public things, whether civil or eccle-
siastical, turned henceforth from the letter of institutions to
their spirit; from their form and outer framework to the’
operative force within; and from stereotyped catchwords .
about the social union to its real destination. It was now
the day of ideals in every camp. The general restlessness
was as intense among reflecting Conservatives as among
reflecting Liberals; and those who looked to the past agreed
with those who looked to the future, in energetic dissatis-
faction with a sterile present. We need only look around
to recognize the unity of the original impulse which
animated men who dreaded or hated one another; and
1v.] MENTAL ACTIVITY AFTER THE REFORM AOT. oI

inspired books that were as far apart as a humoristic novel
and a treatise on the Sacraments. A great wave of hu-
manity, of benevolence, of desire for improvement—a great
wave of social sentiment, in short,—poured itself among
all who had the faculty of large and disinterested thinking.
The political spirit was abroad in its most comprehensive
sense, the desire of strengthening society by adapting it to
better intellectual ideals, and enriching it from new resources
of moral power. A feeling for social regeneration, under
what its apostles conceived to be a purer spiritual guidance,
penetrated ecclesiastical common-rooms no less than it
penetrated the manufacturing districts. It was in 1885
that Dr. Pusey threw himself with new heartiness into the
movement at Oxford, that Dr. Newman projected Catenas
of Anglican divines, and began to meditate Tract Ninety.
In the opposite quarter of the horizon Mr. Mill was still
endeavouring, in the Westminster Review, to put 4 new
life into Radical politics by giving a more free and genial
character to Radical speculations, and—a far more important
task—was composing the treatise which gave a decisive
tone to English ways of thinking for thirty years afier-
wards. Men like Arnold and like Maurice were almost
intoxicated with their passion for making citizenship into
something loftier and more generous than the old strife of
Blues and Yellows: unfortunately they were so beset with
prejudices against what they confusedly denounced as
materialism and utilitarianism, that they turned aside from
the open ways of common sense and truth to fact, to nourish
themselves on vague dreams of a church which, though it
rested on the great mysteries of the faith, yet for purposes
of action could only after all become an instrument for the
secular teaching of Adam Smith and Bentham. To the
fermentation of those years Carlyle contributed the vehe-
ment apostrophes of Chartism and Past and Present, glowing

1835-6.
Alt, 31-2.

 
92 LIFE OF QOOBDEN. [oxar,

1835-6. with eloquent contempt for the aristocratic philosophy of
Hr, 31-2. treadmills, gibbets, and thirty-nine Acts of Parliament “ for
the shooting of partridges alone,” but showing no more
definite way for national redemption than lay through the
too vague words of Education and Emigration. Finally,
in the same decade, the early novels of Charles Dickens
brought into vivid prominence among the objects of popular
interest such types of social outlawry as the parish appren-
tice, the debtor in prison, the pauper in the workhouse, the
criminal by profession, and all the rest of that pitiful
gallery. Dickens had hardly any solution beyond a mere
Christmas philanthropy, but he stirred the sense of
humanity in his readers, and from great imaginative writers

we have no right to insist upon more.

Notwithstanding their wide diversity of language and of
method, still to all of these rival schools and men of genius
the ultimate problem was the same. With all of them the
aim to be attained was social renovation. Even the mys-
tics of Anglo-Catholicism, as I have said, had in the inmost
recesses of their minds a clear belief that the revival of
sacramental doctrine and the assertion of apostolic succes-
sion would quicken the moral life of the nation, and meet
social needs no less than it would meet spiritual needs.
Far apart as Cobden stood from these and all the other
sections of opinion that I have named, yet his early pam-
phlets show that he discerned as keenly as any of them that
the hour had come for developing new elements in public
life, and setting up a new standard of public action. To
Cobden, as to Arnold or to Mill, the real meaning of his
activity was, in a more or less formal and conscious way, the
hope of supplying a systematic foundation for higher social
order, and the wider diffusion of a better kind of well-
being.

He had none of the pedantry of the doctrinaire, but he
wv.) OOMBE’S INFLUENCE ON OOBDEN. 93

was full of the intellectual spirit. Though he was shortly to 1835-6.
become the leader of a commercial movement, he never Ar, 31-2.
ceased to be the preacher of a philosophy of civilization ; and
his views on trade were only another side of views on educa-
tion and morality. Realist as he was, yet his opinions were
inspired and enriched by the genius of social imagination.
Some readers will smile when I say that no teacher
of that day was found so acceptable or so inspiring by
Cobden as George Combe. He had read Combe’s volume
before he wrote his pamphlets, and he said that “it
seemed like a transcript of his own familiar thoughts.”*
Few emphatically second-rate men have done better work
than the author of the Constitution of Man. That memorable
book, whose principles have now in some shape or other
become the accepted commonplaces of all rational persons,
was a startling revelation when it was first published (1828),
showing men that their bodily systems are related to the
rest of the universe, and are subject to general and inexor-
able conditions; that health of mind and character are
connected with states of body; that the old ignorant or
_ascetical disregard of the body is hostile both to happiness
and mental power; and that health is a true department of
morality. We cannot wonder that zealous men were found
to bequeath fortunes for the dissemination of that wholesome
gospel, that it was circulated by scores of thousands of
copies, and that it was seen on shelves where there was
_ nothing else save the Bible and Pilgrim’s Progress.

It is easy to discern the attraction which teaching so
fresh and inspiriting as this, would have for a mind like
‘ Cobden’s, constitutionally eager to break from the old
grooves of things, alert for every sign of new light and
hope in the sombre sky of prejudice, and confident in the
large possibility of human destiny. To show, as Combe

} Life of George Combo, ii. 11.
94 LIFE OF COBDEN. [omar

1835-6. showed, that the character and motives of men are con-

Zr, 81-2. nected with physical predispositions, was to bring cha-
racter and motive within the sphere of action, because we
may in that case modify them by attending to the require-
ments of the bodily organization. A boundless field is thus
opened for the influence of social institutions, and the
opportunities of beneficence are without limit. There is
another side on which Cobden found Combe’s teaching in
harmony with the impulses of his own temperament: it
rests upon the natural soundness of the human heart, and
its methods are those of mildness and lenity. In his in-
trepid faith in the perfectibility of man and society, Cobden
is the only eminent practical statesman that this country
has ever possessed, who constantly breathes the fine spirit
of that French school in which the name of Turgot is:the
most illustrious.

The doctrine of the pamphlets has its avowed source in
the very same spirit which has gradually banished violence,
harshness, and the darker shapes of repression from the
education of the young, from the treatment of the insane,
from the punishment of criminals, and has substituted for
those time-honoured but most ineffective processes, a rational
moderation and enlightened humanity, the force of lenient
and considerate example and calm self-possession. Non-
intervention was an extension of the principle which, re-
nouncing appeals through brute violence, rests on the nobler
and more powerful qualities of the understanding and
the moral nature. Cobden’s distinction as a statesman was
not that he accepted and applied this principle in a general
way. Charlatans and marauders accept such principles in that
way. His merit is that he discerned that England, at any rate,
whatever might be true of Germany, France, or Russia, was
in the position where the present adoption of this new spirit
of policy would exactly coincide with all hor best and largest

 
APPLIOATION TO ENGLISH POLIOY. 95

interests. Now and at all times Cobden was far too shrewd 1835-6.
and practical in his temper to suppose that unfamiliar apr. 31-2.
truths will shine into the mind of a-nation by their own
light. It was of England that he thought, and for England
that he wrote; and what he did was not to declaim the pla-
titudes of rose-coloured morality, but by reference to the
hardest facts of our national existence and international
relations, to show that not only the moral dignity, but the
material strength, the solid interests, the real power of
the country, alike for improvements within and self-defence
without, demanded the abandonment of the diplomatic
principles of a time which was as unenlightened and
mischievous on many sides of its foreign policy, as every-
body knows and admits it to have been in the schoolroom,
in the hospital, and in the offices of the national revenue.
The pamphlets do not deal with the universe, but with
this country. Their writer has been labelled a cosmo-
politan,—usually by those who in the same breath, by a
violent contradiction, reproached him for preaching a gospel
of national selfishness and isolation. In truth Cobden was
only cosmopolitan in the sense in which no other statesman
would choose to deny himselfto be cosmopolitan also; namely,
in the sense of aiming at a policy which, in benefiting his
own country, should benefit all the rest of the world at the
same time. “I am an English citizen,” he would have
said, “and what I am contending for is that England is~
to-day so situated in every particular of her domestic and
foreign circumstances, that by leaving other governments
to settle their own business and fight out their own
quarrels, and by attending to the vast and difficult affairs
of her own enormous realm and the condition of her people,
she will not only be setting the world an example of noble
morality which no other nation is so happily free to set, but
_ she will be following the very course which the maintenance
96 LIFH OF COBDEN. TORLAP,

1835-6. of her own greatness most imperatively commands. It is

Hr, 31-2. precisely because Great Britain is so strong in resources, in
courage, in institutions, in geographical position, that she
can, before all other European powers, afford to be moral,
and to set the example of a mighty nation walking in the
paths of justice and peace.”

Cobden’s political genius perceived this great mark of
the time, that, in his own words, “ at certain periods in the
history of a nation, it becomes necessary to review its
principles of domestic policy, for the purpose of adapting
the government to the changing and improving condition
of its people.” Next, “it must be equally the part of a
wise community to alter the maxims by which its foreign
relations have in times past been regulated, in conformity
with the changes that have taken place over the entire
globe.”? Such a period he conceived to have come for
England in that generation, and it had come to her both
from her internal conditions, and from the nature of her con-
nexions with the other nations of the globe. The thought
was brought to him not by deliberate philosophizing, but
by observation and the process of native good sense, offering
a fresh and open access to things. The cardinal fact that
struck his eye was the great population that was gathering
in the new centres of industry in the north of England,
in the factories, and mines, and furnaces, and cyclopean
foundries, which the magic of steam had called into such
sudden and marvellous being.

It was with no enthusiasm that he reflected on this trans-
formation that had overtaken the western world, and in
his first pamphlet he anticipated the cry, of which he heard
more than enough all through his life, that his dream was
to convert England into a vast manufactory, and that his
political vision was directed by the interests of his order

* Advertisement to Russia (1886).

 
v.] THE NEW PROBLEM. 97

“ Far from nourishing any such esprit-de-corps,” he says in 1835-6.
the first pamphlet, “our predilections lean altogether in Air, 31.2.
an opposite direction. We were born and bred up amid
the pastoral charms of the south of England, and we confess
to so much attachment, for the pursuits of our forefathers,
that, had we the casting of the parts of all the actors in
this world’s stage, we do not think we should suffer a
cotton-mill or a manufactory to have a place in it... . But
the factory system, which sprang from the discoveries in
machinery, has been adopted by all the civilized nations in
the world, and it is in vain for us to think of discounte-
nancing its application to the necessities of this country ; it
only remains for us to mitigate, as far as possible, the evils
that are perhaps not inseparably connected with this novel
social element.”

To this conception of the new problem Cobden always
kept very close. This was always to him the foundation
of the new order of things, which demanded a new kind of
statesmanship and now ideas upon national policy. It is
true that Cobden sometimes slips into the phrases of an
older school, about the rights of man and natural law, but
such lapses into the dialect of a revolutionary philosophy
were very rare, and they were accidents. His whole
scheme rested, if ever any scheme did so rest, upon the
wide positive base of a great social expediency. To political
exclusion, to commercial monopoly and restriction, to the pre-
ponderance of a territorial aristocracy in the legislature, he
steadfastly opposed the contention that they were all fatally
incompatible with an industrial system, which it was beyond
the power of any statesman or any order in the country to
choose between accepting and casting out.

Fifty years before this, the younger Pitt, when he said
that any man with twenty thousand pounds a year ought
to he made a peer if he wished, had recognized the neces-

H
98 LIFE OF COBDEN. [ouar,

1835-6. sity of admitting bankers and merchants to a share of the

@r. 31-2. political dignity which had hitherto been confined to the
great families. It had now ceased to be a question of a
few peerages more or less for Lombard Street or Cornhill.
Commercial interests no less than territorial interests were
now overshadowed by industrial interests; the new diffi-
culties, the new problems, the new perils, all sprang from
what had taken place since William Pitt’s time, the porten-
tous expansion of our industrial system. Between the date of
Waterloo and the date of the Reform Act, the power-looms
in Manchester had increased from two thousand to eighty
thousand, and the population of Birmingham had grown
from ninety to one hundred and fifty thousand. The same
wonders had come to pass in enormous distrigts over the
land.

Cobden was naturally led to begin his survey of society,
as such a survey is always begun by the only kind of
historian that is worth reading. He looked to wealth and
its distribution, to material well-being, to economic re-
sources, to their administration, to the varying direction
and relative force of their currents. It was here that he
found the key to the stability and happiness of a nation,
in the sense in which stability and happiness are the objects
of its statesmen. He declined to make any excuse for so
frequently resolving questions of state policy into matters of
pecuniary calculation, and he delighted in such business-like
statements as that the cost of the Mediterranean squadron
in proportion to the amount of the trade which it was pro-
fessedly employed to protect, was as though a merchant
should find that his traveller’s expenses for escort alone
were to amount to 6s. 8d. in the pound on his sales, He
pointed to the examples in history, where some of the
greatest and most revolutionary changes in the modern
world had a fiscal or economic origin. And if Cobden had
1V.] MATERIAL WELL-BEING AND POLITIOAL STABILITY. 99

on his visit to Athens seen Finlay, he might have learnt 1835-6.
from that admirable historian the same lesson on a still Air. 31-2,
more imposing scale in the ancient world. He would have
been told that even so momentous an event in the annals of
human civilization as the disappearance of rural slavery in
Europe, was less due to moral or political causes than to
such a decline in the value of the products of slave-labour
as left no profit to the slave-owner. From the fall of the
Roman Empire to the mortal decay of Spain, and the ruin
of the ancient monarchy of France, history shows that
Cobden was amply justified in layinge down the principle
that the affairs of a nation come under the same laws
of common sense and homely wisdom which govern the
prosperity of a private concern.

In material well-being he maintained, and rightly main-
tained, that you not only have the surest foundation for
a solid fabric of morality and enlightenment among your
people, but in the case of one of our vast and populous modern
societies of free men, the only sure bulwark, against cease-
less disorder and violent convulsion. It was not, there-
fore, from the side of emotional sympathy that Cobden
started, but from that positive and scientific feeling for
good order and right government which is the statesman’s
true motive and deepest passion. The sentimental bene-
volence to which Victor Hugo and Dickens have appealed
with such power, could give little help in dealing with the
surging uncontrollable tides of industrial and economic
forces. Charity, it is true, had been an accepted auxiliary
in the thinly peopled societies of the middle ages; but for
the great populations and complex interests of the western
world in modern times, it is seen that prosperity must
depend on policy and institutions, and not on the compas-
sion of individuals.

Tt is not necessary that we should analyse the contents

 
1835-6.
Air, 31-2,

 

100 LIFE OF COBDEN. [oap,

of pamphlets which any one may read through for himself
in a few hours, and which well deserve to be read through
even by those who expect their conclusions to be most re-
pugnant. The pamphlet on England, Ireland, and America
is a development of the following thought :—A nation is
growing up on the other side of the Atlantic which by
the operation of various causes, duly enumerated by the
writer, must inevitably at no distant date enter into serious
competition with our own manufactures. Apart from the
natural advantages possessed by this new competitor, there
are two momentous disadvantages imposed upon the Eng-
lish manufacturer, which tend to disable him in the struggle
with his formidable rival. These two disadvantages are
first, protection and the restriction of commerce; second,
the policy of intervention in European feuds. The one
loads us with a heavy burden of taxation and debt; the
other aggravates the burden by limiting our use of our own
resources. The place of Ireland in the argument, after a
vivid and too true picture of the deplorable condition of
that country, is to illustrate from the most striking example
within the writer’s own knowledge, “the impolicy and in-
justice of the statesmen who have averted their faces from
this diseased member of the body politic; and at the same
time have led us, thus maimed, into the midst of every
conflict that has occurred on the continent of Europe.”
In fine, the policy of intervention ought to be abandoned,
because it has created and continues to augment the debt,
which shackles us in our industrial competition ; because
it has in every case been either mischievous or futile, and
constantly so even in reference to its own professed ends;
and because it has absorbed energy and resource that were
imperiously demanded by every consideration of national
duty for the improvement of the backward and neglected
portions of our own realms,
Iv.] RUSSIA AND TURKEY. IOI

In the second pamphlet the same principles are applied 1835-6.
to the special case which the prejudice of the time made ir. 31-2. +
urgent. David Urquhart, a remarkable man, of prodigious
activity, and with a singular genius for impressing his
opinions upon all sorts of men from aristocratic dandies
down to the grinders of Sheffield and the cobblers of
Stafford, had recently published an appeal to England in
favour of Turkey. He had furnished the ministers with
arguments for a policy to which they leaned by the instinct
of old prejudice, and he had secured all the editors of the
newspapers. Mr. Urquhart’s book was the immediate pro-
vocation for Cobden’s pamphlets. In the second of them the
author dealt with Russia. With Russia we were then, as
twenty years later and forty years later, and, as perhaps
some reader of the next generation may write on the margin
of this page, possibly sixty years later, urged with passionate
imprecations to go to war in defence of Huropean law, the
balance of power, and the security of British interests.

Disclaiming a spirit of partiality for any principle of
the foreign or the domestic policy of the Government of St.
Petersburg, Cobden proceeded to examine each of the argu-
ments by which it was then, as now, the fashion to defend
an armed interference by England between Russia and
Turkey. A free and pointed description, first of Turkey,
and next of Russia, and a contrast between the creation of
St. Petersburg and the decline of Constantinople, lead up
to the propositions :—first, that the advance of Russia to the
countries which the Turk once wasted by fire and sword, and
still wastes by the more deadly processes of misgovernment,
would be a great step in the progress of improvement ;
second, that no step in the progress of improvement and
the advance of civilization can be inimical to the interests
or the welfare of Great Britain. What advantage can
it be to us, a commercial and manufacturing people, that
1835-6,

« Air, 31-2,

 

102 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [omar.

countries placed in the healthiest latitudes and blessed with
the finest climate in the world, should be retained in a
condition which hinders their inhabitants from increasing
and multiplying; from extracting a wealth from the soil
which would enable them to purchase the products of western
lands; and so from changing their present poverty-stricken
and plague-stricken squalor, for the manifold enjoyment of
their share of all the products of natural resource and
human ingenuity. As for Russia, her treatment of Poland
was cruel and unjust, but let us at least put aside the cant
of the sentimental declaimers who, amid a cloud of phrases
about ancient freedom, national independence, and glorious
republic, obscure the fact that the Polish nation meant only
a body of nobles. About nineteen out of every twenty of
the inhabitants were serfs without a single civil or political
right; one in twenty was a noble; and the Polish nobles
were the vainest, most selfish, most cruelly intolerant,
most violently lawless aristocracy of ancient or modern
times. Let us join by all means in the verdict of murder,
robbery, treason, and perjury which every free and honest
nation must declare against Russia, Prussia, and Austria
for their undissembled wickedness in the partition. Let us
go further, and admit that the infamy with which Burke,
Sheridan, and Fox laboured to overwhelm the emissaries of
British violence in India, was justly earned at the very
same period by the minions of Russian despotism in Poland.
But no honest man who takes the trouble to compare the
condition of the true people of Poland under Russia, with
their condition under their own tyrannical nobles a century
ago—and here Cobden gives ample means of comparison
—will deny that in material prosperity and in moral order
of life the advance has been at least as great as in any
other portion of the habitable globe. Apart from these
historic changes, the Russo-maniac ideas of Russian power
Iv] INTERVENTION JUDGED BY HXPERIENOE. 103

are demonstrably absurd. With certain slight modifica- 1836-6.
tions, Cobden’s demonstration of their absurdity remains tr, 31-2,
as valid now as it was forty years ago.

The keen and vigorous arguments by which Cobden
attacked the figment of the balance of power are now
tacitly accepted by politicians of all schools. Even the
most eager partisans of English intervention in the affairs
of other nations now feel themselves bound to show as
plausibly as they can, that intervention is demanded by
some peril to the interests of our own country. It is
in vain that authors of another school struggle against
Cobden’s position, that the balance of power is not a fallacy
nor an imposture, but a chimera, a something incompre-
hensible, undescribed, and indescribable. The attempted
definitions of it fall to pieces at the touch of historic analysis.
If we find the smaller states still preserving an independent
existence, it is owing, Cobden said, not to the watchful
guardianship of the balancing system, but to limits set
by the nature of things to unduly extended dominion ; not
only to physical boundaries, but to the more formidable
moral impediments to the invader,—“ unity of language,
law, custom and traditions; the instinct of patriotism and
freedom ; the hereditary rights of rulers; and, though last,
not least, that homage to the restraints of justice, which
nations and public bodies have in all ages avowed, however
they may have found excuses for evading it.”

That brilliant writer, the historian of the Crimean War, has
described in a well-known passage what he calls the great
Usage which forms the safeguard of Europe. This great
Usage is the accepted obligation of each of the six Powers
to protect the weak against the strong. " But in the same
page a limitation is added, which takes the very pith and
marrow out of this moral and chivalrous Usage, and reduces
it to the very commonplace principle that nations are bound

 
1835-6,

Ait. 31-2.

104. LIFE OF OOBDEN. [oHar.

to take care of themselves. For, says the writer, no Power
is practically under this obligation, unless its perception of
the wrong that has been done is reinforced by a sense of ,
its own interests.” Then it is the self-interest of each
nation which is the decisive element in every case of inter-
vention, and not a general doctrine about the balance of
power, or an alleged common usage of protecting the weak
against the strong? But that is exactly what Cobden
started from. His premise was that “no government has
the right to plunge its people into hostilities, except in
defence of their own honour and interests.” There would
seem then to be no difference of principle between the
military and the commercial schools of foreign policy. The
trader from Manchester and the soldier from Aldershot or
Woolwich, without touching the insoluble, because only half
intelligible, problem of the balance of power, may agree to
discuss the propriety of a given war on the solid ground of
national self-interest. Hach will be affected by professional
bias, so that one of them will be apt to believe that our
self-interest is touched at a point which the other will con-
sider too remote to concern us; but neither can claim any
advantage over the other as the disinterested champion of
public law and the rights of Europe. If there is a difference
deeper than this, it must be that the soldier or the diplo-
matist of the old school has really in his mind a set of
opinions as to the ends for which a nation exists, and as to
the relations of class-interests to one another, of such a
colour that no serious politician in modern times would
venture openly to avow them.

If the two theories of the duty of a nation in regard to
war are examined in this way, we see how unreasonable it
is that Cobden’s theory of non-intervention should be called
selfish by those who would be ashamed to base an opposite

4 Kinglake, vol. i. oh. ii,
rv. ] THE GREAT USAGE, 105

policy on anything else than selfishness. “Our desire,” 1835-6.
Cobden said, “ is to see Poland happy, Turkey civilized, and air. 31.2,
Russia conscientious and free: it is still more our wish that
these ameliorations should be bestowed by the hands of
Britain upon her less instructed neighbours: so far the great
majority of our opponents and ourselves are agreed. How
to accomplish this beneficent purpose, is the question whereon
we differ.” They would resort, as Washington Irving said
in a pleasant satire on us, to the cudgel, to promote the
good of their neighbours and the peace and happiness of
the world. There is one unanswerable objection to this,
Cobden answered: experience is against it; it has been
tried for hundreds of years, and has failed. He proposed to
arrive at the same end by means of our national example,
by remaining at peace, vigorously pursuing reforms and
improvements, and so presenting that spectacle of wealth,
prosperity, power, and invincible stability, which reward an
era of peace wisely and diligently used. Your method, he
said, cannot be right, because it assumes that you are at
all times able to judge what will be good for others and
the world—which you are not. And even if your judgment
were infallible, the method would be equally wrong, for you
have no jurisdiction over other states which authorizes you to
do them good by force of arms.

The source of these arguments lay in three convictions.
First, the government of England must always have its hands
full, in attending to its domestic business. Second, it can
seldom be sure which party is in the right in a foreign quarrel,
and very seldom indeed be sure that the constituencies, igno-
rant and excitable as they are, will discern the true answer to
that perplexing question. Finally, the government which
keeps most close to morality in its political dealings, will find
itself in the long-run to have kept most close to the nature of
things, and to that success which rewards conformity to the
1835-6,
Ait. 31-2.

 

106 LIFE OF COBDEN. [oHar.

nature of things. It followed from such reasoning as this
that the author of the pamphlets denounced by anticipation
the policy of compelling the Chinese by ships of war to open
more ports to\our vessels. Why, he asked in just scorn,
should not the ships of war on their way out compel the
French to transfer the trade of Marseilles to Havre, and
thus save us the carriage of their wines through the Straits
of Gibraltar ? Where is the moral difference? And as to
Gibraltar itself, he contended, that though the retention of
conquered colonies may be regarded with some complacency,
because they are reprisals for previous depredations by their
parent states, yet England for fifty years at Gibraltar is a
spectacle of brute violence, unmitigated by any such excuses.
“Upon no principle of morality,” he went on, “can this
unique outrage upon the integrity of an ancient, powerful,
and renowned nation be justified ; the example, if imitated,
instead of being shunned universally, would throw all the
nations of the earth into barbarous anarchy.” Here as
everywhere else we see how wrong is the begetter of wrong,
for if England had not possessed Gibraltar, she would not
have been tempted to pursue that turbulent policy in the
Mediterranean, which is still likely one day to cost her dear.*

Again, the immoral method has failed. Why not
try now whether commerce will not succeed better than
war, in regenerating and uniting the nations whom you
would fain improve? Let governments have as little to
do with one another as possible, and let people begin
to have as much to do with one another as possible. Of

4 It is perhaps not out of place to mention that several years ago, the
present writer once asked Mr. Mill’s opinion on the question of the
possession of Gibraltar. His answer was that the really desirable thing in
the case of strong places commanding the entrance to close seas is that they
should be in the hands of a European League. Meanwhile, as the state of
international morality is not ripe for such a League, England is perhaps

of all nations least likely to abuse the possession of a strong place of that
kind.
Iv.] DECISIVE IMPORTANOE OF AMERICAN COMPETITION. 107

how many cases of intervention by England does every 1835-6.
Englishman now not admit that they were monstrous Air. 31-2.
and inexcusable blunders, and that if we had pursued
the alternative method of doing the work of government
well at home and among our dependencies, improving our
people, lightening the burdens of commerce and manufac- .
tures, husbanding wealth, we should have augmented our
own material power, for which great national wealth is only
another word; and we should have taught to the govern-
ments that had been exhausting and impoverishing them-
selves in war, the great lesson that the way to give con-
tent, enlightenment, and civil virtues, to your people,
and a solid strength to their government, is to give them
peace. It is thus, Cobden urged, that the virtues of nations
operate both by example and precept; and such is the
power and rank they confer, that in the end “ states will all
turn moralists in self-defence.”

These most admirable pages were no mere rhetoric. They
represented no abstract preference, but a concrete necessity.
The writer was able to point to a nation whose example
of pacific industry, wise care of the education of her
young, and abstinence from such infatuated intervention as
ours in the affairs of others, would, as he warned us, one
day turn us into moralists in self-defence, as one day it
assuredly will. It is from the peaceful nation in the west,
and not from the military nations of the east, that danger
to our strength will come. “In that portentous truth,
The Americas are free, teeming as it does with future change,
there is nothing that more nearly affects our destiny than
the total revolution which it dictates to the statesmen of
Great Britain in the commercial, colonial, and foreign policy
of our Government. America is once more the theatre upon
which nations are contending for mastery; it is not, how-
ever, a struggle for conquest, in which the victor will
1835-6

4B, 31-2.

108 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [onar.

acquire territorial domain—the fight is for commercial
supremacy, and will be won by the cheapest.”* Yet in
the very year in which Cobden thas predicted the com-
petition of America, and warned the English Government
to prepare for it by husbanding the wealth of the country
and educating its people, the same assembly which was
with the utmost difficulty persuaded to grant ten thousand
pounds for the establishment of normal schools, spent
actually fifty times as much in interfering in the private
quarrels of two equally brutal dynastic factions in Spain.
Our great case of intervention, between the rupture of the
peace of Amiens and the battle of Waterloo, had left a deep
and lasting excitability in the minds of Englishmen. They
felt that if anything were going wrong in any part of the
world, it must be owing to a default of duty in the British
Government. One writer, for instance, drew up a serious
indictment against the Whigs in 1834, on the ground that
they had only passed. a Reform Bill and a Poor Law Bill at
home, while abroad the Dutch question was undecided ; the

5 “ Looking to the natural endowments of the North American continent
—as superior to Europe as the latter is to Africa—with an almost immea-
surable extent of river navigation—its boundless expanse of the most fertile
soil in the world, and its inexhaustible mines of coal, iron, lead, &.:—
looking at these, and remembering the quality and position of a people
universally instructed and perfectly free, and possessing, as a consequence
of these, a new-born energy and vitality very far surpassing the character
of any nation of the old world—the writer reiterates the moral of his former
work, by declaring his conviction that it is from the west, rather than from
the east, that danger to the supremacy of Great Britain is to be appre-
hended ;—that it is from the silent and peaceful rivalry of American com-
meroe, the growth of its manufactures, its rapid progress in internal
improvements, the superior education of its poople, and their economical
and pacific government—that it is from these, and not from the barbarous
policy or the impoverishing armaments of Russia, that the grandeur of our
commercial and national prosperity is endangered. And the writer stakes
his reputation upon the prediction, that, in less than twenty years, this will
be the sentiment of the people of England generally; and that the same
conviction will be forced upon the Government of the country.” If Cobden
had allowed fifty years, instead of twenty, for the fulfilment of hia pre-
diction, he would perhaps have been. safe,
Iv.) EXTRAVAGANOES OF INTERVENTION. 109

French were still at Ancona; Don Carlos was fighting in 1835-6.
Spain; Don Miguel was preparing for a new conflict in air, 31-2.
Portugal; Turkey and Egypt were at daggers drawn;
Switzerland was quarrelling about Italian refugees; Frank-
fort was occupied by Prussian troops in violation of the
treaty of Vienna; Algiers was being made a French colony,
in violation of French promises made in 1829; ten thousand
Polish nobles were still proscribed and wandering all over
Hurope; French gaols were full of political offenders. This
pretty list of wrongs it was taken for granted that an
English ministry and English armies should make it their
first business to set right. As Cobden said, if such ideas
prevailed, the Whig government would leave Providence
nothing to attend to. Yet this was only the reductio ad
absurdwm of that excitability about foreign affairs which the
long war had left behind. The vulgar kind of patriotic
sentiment leads its professors to exult in military interven-
tions even so indescribably foolish as this. What Cobden
sought was to nourish that nobler and more substantial kind
of patriotism, which takes a pride in the virtue and enlighten-
ment of our own citizens, in the wisdom and success of our
institutions, in the beneficence of our dealings with less
advanced possessions, and in the lofty justice and indepen-
dence of our attitude to other nations. ,

No one claims for Cobden that he was the first statesman
who had dreamed the dream and seen the vision of a great
pacification. Everybody has heard of the Grand Design
of Henry the Fourth of France, with its final adjustment
of European alliances, and its august Senate of the Christian
Republic. In the eighteenth century, so rich as it was in
great humane ideas, we are not surprised to find more than
one thinker and more than one statesman enamoured of
the policy of peaceful industry, from the Abbé de Saint
Pierre, who denounced Lewis XIV. for seeking aggrandize-
110 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [ouar.

1835-6. ment abroad while destroying prosperity at home, down to
ir. 31-2. Kant, who wrote an essay on perpetual peace; and to the
French Encyclopadists, who were a standing peace party
down to the outbreak of the Revolution. Apart from these
utopias of a too hopeful philosophy, there is one practical
statesman whom the historian of political opinion in Eng-
land may justly treat as a precursor of Cobden’s school.
This is Lord Shelburne, the political instructor of the
younger Pitt. He was the first powerful actor in our
national affairs, in whom the great school of the Economists
found a sincere disciple. It was to Morellet, the writer
in the Encyclopedia and the friend of Turgot, rather even
than to Adam Smith and Tucker, that Shelburne professed
to owe those views on peace and international relations
which appeared in the negotiations of his government with
France after the war with the American colonies, and
which, alas, after a deplorable interval of half a century,
the next person to enforce as the foundation of our political
system, was the author of the two Manchester pamphlets.
In the speech which closed his career as a minister (1783),
Shelburne had denounced monopoly as always unwise, but
for no nation under heaven so unwise as for England. With
more industry, he cried, with more enterprise, with more
capital than any trading nation in the world, all that we ought
to covet upon earth is free trade and open markets. His
defence of the pacific policy as most proper for this country
was as energetic as his enthusiasm for free trade, and he
never displayed more vigour and conviction than when he
attacked Pitt for allowing himself,—and this was before the
war with the French Republic,—to be drawn again into
the fatal policy of European intervention in defence of the
integrity of the Turkish empire.
The reason why Shelburne’s words were no more than
® passing and an unheeded voice, while the teaching of
Iv.] SHELBURNE AS A PREOURSOR. 11

Cobden’s pamphlets stamped a deep impression on men’s
minds,—which time, in spite of inevitable phases of reaction
and the temporary recrudescence of bad opinions, has only
made more definite,—is the decisive circumstance which has
already been sufficiently dwelt upon, that the huge ex-
pansion of the manufacturing interests had, when Cobden
appeared, created a powerful public naturally favourable to
the new principles, and raised what would otherwise have
been only the tenets of a school into the programme of «
national party.

As we shall see when we come to the Crimean War, the
new principles did not at once crush out the old; it was
not to be expected by any one who reflects on the strength
of prejudice, especially prejudice supported by the conscious-
ness of an honourable motive, that so sudden a change
should take place. But the pamphlets are a great land-
mark in the history of politics in England, and they are
still as well worth reading as they ever were. Some of the
statements are antiquated; the historical criticism is some-
times open to doubt; there are one or two mistakes. But
they are mostly like the poet’s, who spoke of “1 miei non
falsi errori.” If time has weakened their literal force, it has
confirmed their real significance.

In a personal biography, it is perhaps not out of place to
dwell in conclusion on a point in the two pamphlets, which
is of very secondary importance compared with their
political teaching, and yet which has an interest of its own;
I mean the literary excellence of these performances. They
have a ringing clearness, a genial vivacity, a free and con-
fident mastery of expression, which can hardly be surpassed.
Cobden is a striking instance against a favourite plea
of the fanatics of Latin and Greek. They love to insist that
a collegian’s scholarship is the great source and fountain

1835-6.
4it. 81.2.

 
1835-6.
Air, 31-2.

 

112 LIFE OF OOBDEN. {cHar. Iv,

of a fine style. It would be nearer the truth to say that
our classical training is more aptly calculated to destroy the
qualities of good writing and fine speaking, than any other
system that could have been contrived. Those qualities
depend principally, in men of ordinary endowment, upon
a certain large freedom and spontaneousness, and next
upon a strong habit of observing things before words.
These are exactly the habits of mind which our way of
teaching, or rather of not teaching, Latin and Greek in-
evitably chills and represses in any one in whom literary
faculty is not absolutely irrepressible. What is striking in
Cobden is that after a lost and wasted childhood, a youth
of drudgery in a warehouse, and an early manhood passed
amid the rather vulgar associations of the commercial tra-
veller, he should at the age of one and thirty have stepped
forth the master of a written style, which in boldness,
freedom, correctness, and persuasive moderation, was not
surpassed by any man then living. He had taken pains with
his mind, and had been a diligent and extensive reader, but
he had never studied language for its own sake.

It was fortunate for him that, instead of blunting the
epontaneous faculty of expression by minute study of the
verbal peculiarities of a Lysias or an Isocrates, he should
have gone to the same school of active public interests and
real things in which those fine orators had in their different
degrees acquired so happy a union of homeliness with purity,
and of amplitude with measure. These are the very qualities
that we notice in Cobden’s earliest pages; they evidently
sprang from the writer’s singular directness of eye, and
eager and disinterested sincerity of social feeling, undis-

turbed as both these gifts fortunately were by the vices
of literary self-consciousness,
CHAPTER V.
LIFE IN MANCHESTER, 1837-9,

A ew weeks after Cobden’s return home from the Hast, 1887.
William the Fourth died (June 20), and the accession of ir. 38.
Queen Victoria to the throne was followed by a general
election. For some months Cobden’s name had been before
the politicians of Stockport, and while he was abroad, he
had kept his brother constantly instructed how to proceed
in the various contingencies of electioneering. Frederick
Cobden seems even at this early stage to have expressed
some not unnatural anxiety, lest public life should withdraw
the indispensable services of his brother from their business,
He had even remonstrated against any further pamphlets.
“Do not fear,” replied Richard Cobden, “I am not author-
mad. But I have written a letter to the editor of the Globe,
in which,”’—and so forth.! He was in no sense author-mad,
but still he was overflowing with thoughts and arguments
and a zeal for the commonwealth, which made publication
in one shape or another as much a necessity to him, as it is a
necessity to a poet or an apostle. In the same letter, in
answer to a friend’s warning that he should not spoil his
holiday by anxiety as to affairs at home, he said:—“I am
not, I assure him, giving one moment’s thought to the
Stockport electors. The worthy folks may do as they
please. They can make me M.P. by their favour, but they
cannot mar my happiness if they reject me, It is ‘the
1 To F. Oobden. Nov. 11, 1836.
114 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [onar.

1887. cause’ with which I am in some degree identified, that makes

 

#ir, 83. me anxious about the result. Personally, as you well know,
I would rather have my freedom for two years more.” ....
“Let me say once for all, in reference to the Stockport
affair, that I shall be quite happy, whichever way the die falls.
You know me better than any other person, and I am sure
you will believe that my peace or happiness does not depend
upon external circumstances of this or any similar nature.” ?

Yet even in this free mood, Cobden knew his own mind,
as he never failed to do, and he intended to be elected if
possible. He belonged to the practical type, with whom to
have once decided upon a course becomes in itself a strong
independent reason for continuing in it. “One word as
to your own private feelings,” he writes to his brother,
“which may from many causes be rather inclined to lead
you to wish that my entrance into public life were delayed
a little. I shall only say that on.this head it is now too
late to parley; it is now useless to waver, or to shrink
from the realization of that which we had resolved upon
and entered upon, not as children, but as men knowing
that action must follow such resolves. Your temperament
and mine are unequal, but in this matter I shall only remind
you that my feelings are more deeply implicated than your
own, and that whilst I can meet with an adequate share of
fortitude any failure which comes from insuperable causes,
whatever may be the object I have in view, yet if in this
case my defeat should spring from your timidity or sensi-
tiveness (shall I say disinclination 2), it would afflict me
severely, and I fear lastingly.” °

As the election drew nearer, Cobden was overtaken by
that eager desire to succeed, which gradually seizes even the
most philosophical candidate as the passion of battle waxes
hotter around him. He threw himself into the struggle

1 To F.0. Jan. 4, 1887, * To F.C. Jan. 28, 1837.

t
v.) LETTER ON FAOTORY LEGISLATION. 115

with all his energy. It is historically interesting to know 1887.
what Liberal electors were thinking about in those days. Air. 33.
We find that they asked their candidate his opinion as to the
property qualification for Members of Parliament, Primo-
geniture, the Poor Law Amendment Act, and the Factory
Question. The last of the list was probably the most im-
portant, for Cobden had taken the trouble many months
before to set out his opinions on that subject in a. letter
to the chairman of his committee. The matter remains of
vital importance in our industrial system to the present
time, and is still, in the face of the competition of other
nations, the object of a controversy which is none the less
alive in the region of theory, because the legislature has
decided it in one way in the region of practice. As that
is so, it is interesting still to know Cobden’s earliest opinions
on the matter; and I have therefore printed at the end
of the volume the letter that Cobden wrote, in the autumn
of 1836, on the restriction by Parliament of the hours of
labour in factories.‘

What he said comes to this, that for plain physical reasons
no child ought to be put to work in a cotton mill so early’
as the age of thirteen, but whatever restrictions on the
hours of labour might be desirable, it was not for the
legislature to impose them : it was for the workmen to insist
upon them, relying not on Parliament, but on their own
action, A workman by saving the twenty pounds that would
carry him across the Atlantic, could make himself as inde-
pendent of his employer, as the employer is independent
of him; and in this independence he would be free, without
the emasculating interference of Parliament, to drive his
own bargain as to how many hours he would work. In
meeting his committee at Stockport, Cobden repeated his
conviction that the factory operatives had it in their power

4 See Appendix, Note A.
1837,
Air, 33.

 

116 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [onar.

to shorten the hours of labour without the aid of Parliament,
but to infant labour, as he had said before, he would afford
the utmost possible protection. He laughed at the mock
philanthropy of the Tory landowners, who took so lively an
interest in the welfare of the factory population, and yet
declined to suffer the slightest relaxation of the corn laws,
though these did more to degrade and pauperize the labour-
ing classes, by doubling the price of food and limiting
employment, than any other evil of which they had to
complain.

Whether these views alienated any of those who would
otherwise have supported him, we do not know. Probably
the most effective argument against Cobden’s candidature
was the fact that he was a stranger to the borough. On
the day of election he was found to be at the bottom of
the poll. He wrote to his uncle, Mr. Cole, explaining his
defeat :—

“The cause of failure was that there was too much con-
fidence on the part of the reformers. We were too satisfied,
and neglected those means of insuring the election which
the Tories used, and by their activity at Stockport as else-
where they gained the victory. If the battle had to be
fought again to-morrow, I could win. To revenge them-
selves for the loss of their man, the Radicals have since
the election adopted a system of exclusive dealing (not
countenanced by me), and those publicans and shopkeepers
who voted for the Major now find their counters deserted.
The consequence is that the Reformers place printed
placards over their shops, Voted for Oobden, inscribed in
large characters, and the butchers and greengrocers in the
market-place cry out from their stalls, Cobden beef, Cobden
potatoes, etc. So you see I have not lost ground, by my

* Honry Marsland (Reformer) 480; Major Maraland (Tory) 471; Bichard
Cobden (Reformer) 418.
v.] BEJECTION AT STOOKPORT. 117

failure at the poll, with the unwashed. But the truth is I 1887.

 

am quite reconciled to the result. There are many considera- Air, 83,
tions which make me conclude it is all for the best.’? *

His friends made arrangements for presenting him with
a piece of plate, and seventeen thousand subscribers of one
penny each raised the necessary fund. For some reason,
Daniel O’Connell was invited to be present. He and Cobden
drove together in an open carriage to Stockport (November
13, 1837), where they addressed an immense meeting in
the open air, and afterwards spoke at a public dinner. To
the great Liberator the reporter of the day generously
accords three columns, while Cobden’s words were con-
densed into that scanty space which is the common lot of
orators who have won no spurs. His chief topic seems to
have been the ballot; he declared that without that pro-
tection, household suffrage, the repeal of the corn laws, the
shortening of parliaments, would all be insecure benefits.
There is in this a certain inversion of his usual order of
thinking about the proper objects of political solicitude, for
he commonly paid much less heed to the machinery, than
to the material objects of government.

It was quite as well for Cobden’s personal interests that
he was left free for a little time longer to attend to his
business. The rather apprehensive character of his brother
made him little able to carry on the trade in an intrepid
and enterprising spirit, and at every step the judgment,
skill, and energy of a stronger head were wanted. At this
time the scale of the business which had started from
such small beginnings, had become so extensive that Cob-
den estimated the capital in it as no less than 80,000I.,
with a credit in acceptances of at least 25,0001.: he re-
presented the turn-over as 150,0001.7 In 1836 the books

5 To Mr. Cole. Sept. 6, 1837.
Y Latter to F. Oohdow. Feb, 24, 1837.
118 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [owar,

1888. show that the nett profits of the firm had exceeded 28,0001.
1, ie 26 Hor the year; and though the trade was so fluctuating that
‘the first half of the following year only showed a profit of
40001., Cobden’s sanguine temperament led him to speak
as if their capital were being regularly augmented at the
rate of 2000/.a month. We can easily understand Frederick
Cobden’s unwillingness to be left to his own resources in
the administration of a business of this size, and his brother
promised repeatedly not to throw so heavy a responsibility
upon him. From the time of Cobden’s return from the Hast
they had both nourished the idea of separating from the
London firm, as well as from the Sabden factory, and the
idea remained in their minds for a couple of years. Then,
as we shall presently see, it was carried into execution.
Cobden, however, had made up his mind after the Stock-
port election that to push his material fortunes was not
to be the great aim of his life. “I am willing to give
a few years of entire exertion,” he wrote in 1838, “ towards
making the separation successful to ourselves. But at the
same time all my exertions will be with an eye to make
myself independent of all business claims on my time and
anxieties. Towards this, Henry and Charles [their two
younger brothers] will for their own sakes, I expect, con-
tribute. And I hope and expect in five years they will
be in a situation to force me out of the concern, a willing
ewtle. At all events I am sure there will not want talent
of some kind about us, to take advantage of my deter-
mination to be at ease, and have some time for leisure
to take care of my health, and indulge tastes which are in
some degree essential to my happiness. With reference to
health, both you and I must not omit reasonable precautions;
we are not made for rivalling Methusaleh, and if we can by
care stave off the grim enemy for twenty years longer, we
shau do more than nature intended for us. At all events
v.] BUSINESS AND POSITION IN MANOHESTER. 119

let us remember that to live usefully is far better than living 1888.
long. And do not let us deprive ourselves of the gratifica- air. 34.
tion at last, a gratification which the selfish never have, that
we have not embittered our whole lives with heaping up
money, but that we have given a part of our time to more
rational and worthy exertions.” *

Even now, when the indispensable work of laying a base
of material prosperity was still incomplete, and when his
own business might well have occupied his whole attention,
he was always thinking much more earnestly about the
interests of others than his own. The world of contem-
poraries and neighbours seldom values or loves this generous
and unfamiliar spirit, and the tone of Manchester was in
this respect not much higher than that of the rest of the
world. It cannot surprise us to learn that for some time
Cobden made no great progress in Manchester society.
He was extremely self-possessed and self-confident, and as
a consequence he was often thought to be wanting in the
respect that is due from a young man to his elders, and
from a man who has a fortune to make, towards those
who have made it. His dash, his freedom of speech, his
ardour for new ideas, were taken for signs of levity ; and
a certain airy carelessness about dress marked a rebel
against the minor conventions of the world. The patient
endurance of mere ceremonial was at this time impossible
to him. He could not be brought to attend the official
dinners given by the Lord of the Manor. When he was
selected to serve as assessor at the Court-leet for manorial
purposes, though the occasion brought him into contact
with men who might have been useful to him in his business,
he treated the honour very easily. He sat restlessly on
his bench, and then strolled away after an hour or two
had shown him that the proceedings were without real

® To P.O. Oot. 26, 1838.

 
126 LIFE OF OOBDEN. (cmar.

1838. significance. He could not even understand: the urgency

Ax. 34. of more prudent friends that he should return. It was not
conceit nor conscious defiance, but the incapacity inborn
in so active and serious an intelligence, of contentedly
muffling itself even for half a day under idle forms. He
was born a political man; his most real interests in the
world were wholly in affairs of government and institution,
and his dominant passion was a passion for improvement.
His whole mind was possessed by the high needs and great
opportunities of society, as thé minds of some other men
have been possessed by the aspirations of religion, and
he had as little humour for the small things of worldly
punctilio as Calvin or as Knox may have had.

I have already described the relation of some of Cobden’s
ideas to those of George Combe. It was, above all other
things, for the sake of the prospect which it held out of
supplying a sure basis and a trustworthy guide in the
intricate and encumbered path of national education, that
he was drawn for a time to Combe’s system of phrenology.
His letters during the years of which we are now speaking
abound pretty freely in the terms of that crude catalogue,
but with him they are less like the jargon of the phreno-
logical fanatic of those days, than the good-humoured
language of a man who believes in a general way that
there is something in it. In 1835 he had been instrumental
in forming a phrenological society in Manchester, and the.
first of a series of letters to Combe is one in 1836, pressing
him to deliver a course of lectures in that town. It is
interesting as an illustration of the amazing growth both
in rational tolerance and scientific opinion, when we com-
pare the very moderate heterodoxy of phrenology with the
doctrines that in our own day are publicly discussed without
alarm. “The Society which we profess to have here,”
Cobden writes, “is not well supported, and for nearly a
v.] OPINION IN MANOHESTER. 121

twelvemonth it can hardly be said to have manifested many
signs of existence.

“The causes are various why phrenology languishes, but
probably the primary one may be sought in that feeling of
fashionable timidity among the leading medical men and
others who, although professing to support it privately, have
not yet openly avowed themselves disciples of the science of
Spurzheim and Gall. But phrenology is rapidly disenthrall-
ing itself from that ‘cold obstruction’ of ridicule and
obloquy, which it has, in common with every other reform
and improvement, had to contend against, and probably the
mind of the community of Manchester presents at this
moment as fine a field, in which to sow the seeds of instruc-
tion by means of a course of lectures by the author of The
Constitution of Man, as could be found anywhere in the
world. .... The difficulty of religious prejudice exists
here, and it requires delicate handling. Thanks, however,
to the pursuits of the neighbourhood, to the enlightening
chemical and mechanical studies with which our industry is
allied, and to the mind-invigorating effect of an energetic
devotion to commerce, we are not, as at Liverpool, in a con-
dition to tolerate rampant exhibitions of intolerance here.
.... The High Church party stands sullenly aloof from
all useful projects, and the severer sectarians restrict them-
selves here, as elsewhere, to their own narrow sphere of
exertion, but the tone of public opinion in Manchester is
superior to the influence of either of these extremes. How
I pity you in Scotland, the only country in the world in
which a wealthy and intelligent middling class submits to
" the domination of a spiritual tyranny.” *

Though he was intolerant of the small politics of the
Borough-reeve and the Constables, Cobden did not count it
as small politics to agitate with might and main on behalf

® To George Combe. Aug. 23, 1836.

1886.
Air, 82.

 
122 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [onar.

1888. of the incorporation of the great city to which he belonged.

 

Zr. 34. His large comprehension of the greater needs of civilization
and his country never at any time in his life dulled his in-
terest in the need that lay close to his hand. The news-
papers of the time show him to have been the moving spirit
in the proceedings for incorporation, from the first requisi-
tion to the Borough-reeve and Constable to call a meeting
of the rate-payers (February 3, 1838), down to the final
triumph.

The Municipal Reform Act had been passed by Lord
Melbourne’s Government in 1835, on the return of the
Whigs to power after the short ministry of Sir Robert
Peel. It was the proper complement to the greater Reform
of 1832. By extending the principle of self-government
from national to local affairs, it purified and enlarged the
organs of administrative power, and furnished new fields
of discipline in the habits of the good citizen. In 1833
Brougham had introduced a measure for immediately in-
corporating such towns as Manchester and Birmingham,
and directly conferring local representative government
upon them by Act of Parliament. But between 1833
and 1835 things had happened which quenched these
spirited methods. A process which had been imperative
in 1833, had by 1885 dwindled down to the permis-
sive. Places were allowed to have charters, on condi-
tion that a majority of the ratepayers, being inhabitant
householders, expressed their desire for incorporation by
petition to the Crown in Council. A muddy sea of cor-
ruption and chicane was stirred up. All the vested in-
terests of obstruction were on the alert. The close and
self-chosen members of the Court Leet, and the Streets
Commission, and the Town Hall Commission, could not
endure the prospect of a system in which the public
business would no longer be done in the dark, and the
v.] STRUGGLE FOR A CHARTER. 123

public money no longer expended without responsibility 1888.
to those who paid it. The battle between privilege and Hin, 34,
popular representation which had been fought on the great
scene at Westminster in 1832, was now resumed and fought
out on the petitier stage of the new boroughs. The classes
who had lost the power of bad government on a large
national scale, tried hard to retain it on a small local scale.
The low-minded and corrupt rabble of freemen and pob-
wallopers united with those who were on principle the
embittered enemies of all improvement, the noisy, inglorious,
Eldons of the provincial towns, and did their best to thwart
the petitions. The Tories and the Residuum, to use the
phrase of a later day, made that alliance which Cobden
calls unholy, but which rests on the natural affinities of
bigotry and ignorance. The Whig, as usual, was timid and
uncomfortable; he went about murmuring that a charter
was unnecessary, and muttered something about expense.

“«‘ When your former kind and friendly letter reached me,”
Cobden writes to Tait, the Edinburgh publisher, “I was
engaged before the Commissioners, employed in exposing the
trickery of the Tories in getting up their petition against the
incorporation of our borough. For three weeks I was in-
cessantly occupied at the Town Hall. By dint of hard work
and some expense, we got at the filth in their Augean stable,
and laid their dirty doings before the public eye. I believe
now there is little doubt of our being chartered before the
next November election, and it will be a new era for Man-
chester when it shakes off the feudal livery of Sir Oswald
Mosley, to put on the democratic garb of the Municipal
Reform Act.

“So important do I consider the step for incorporating the
borough, that I have been incessantly engaged at the task
for the last six months. I began by writing a letter of
which I circulated five thousand copies, with a view of
1838.
Ait. 24,

 

124 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [omar.

gaining the Radicals by showing the popular provisions of
the Act. Will you credit it—the low, blackguard leaders of
the Radicals joined with the Tories and opposed us. The
poor-law lunatics raised their demented yell, and we were
menaced with nothing but defeat and annihilation at the
public meeting. However, we sent a circular to every one
of the 101. parliamentary electors who support liberal men,
calling upon them to aid us at the public meeting, and they
came forward to our rescue. The shopocracy carried the
day. ‘Two or three of the Tory-Radical leaders now entered
the service of the Tories, with a view to obtain the signature
of their fellows to a petition against incorporation. They
pretended to -get upwards of thirty thousand names, for
which they were well paid. But the voting has shown that
four-fifths were forgeries. So much for the unholy alliance
of Tory and Radical !

“T mention all this as my best excuse for not having
written to you, or for you, for so many months. What with
going twice to London on deputations, and fighting the
battle with two extreme political parties in Manchester, ]
have been so constantly engaged in action, that I have not
had time for theorizing upon any topic. Still I have not
abandoned the design of using my pen for your magazine.
T have half collected materials for an article on convulsions
in trade and banking, which when published will probably
attract some notice from people engaged in such pursuits.” }

“Not having received a word of news, good or bad, from
you since I came here,” he wrote to his brother, “I con-
clude that nothing particularly important can have occurred.
You will have heard, I dare say, the result of our interview
with the Lords of the Council. There is, I think, not a
shadow of doubt of the ultimate result of the application,
but I am not pleased with the Whig Ministry’s mode of

1 To Mr. W. Tait, of Rdinburgh. July 8, 1838.
v.] COLDNESS OF WHIGS FOR LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT. I 25

proceeding in these Corporation affairs. It is quite certain 1888.
that they are willing we should be put to quite as much tr. 34.
trouble by the Tories, as that party is able to impose on
us. In the case of the Sheffield petition, I do not think
the Charter will be granted at all, merely because the Tories
have contrived to get a greater number of ragamuffins to
sign against it, than have subscribed for the Charter. I
saw one of the deputation to-day, who is quite disgusted
with the whole set; and Scholefield of Birmingham told
me that if he and Attwood had not bullied the Whigs, and
threatened to vote against them, the Birmingham petition
would not have been acceded to. They are a bad lot, and
the sooner they go out, the better for the real reformers.” *

“That truckling subserviency,” he writes later in this
year, “of the Ministry to the menaces of the Tories, is
just in character with the conduct of the Whigs, on all
questions great or little. Without principle or political
honesty, they are likewise destitute of any atom of the
courage or independence which honesty can inspire, and the
party which bullies them most will be sure to command
their obedience. In the matter of municipal institutions
their hearts are against us. OC. P. Thomson ® told us plainly
that he did not like local self-government, and are his Whig
colleagues more liberal than he? Iam sorry I am not at
home to give a helping hand to my old colleagues. I will
never desert, and if the matter be still in abeyance when
I get back, I shall be ready and willing to give my
assistance.”

 

2 To F. W. Cobden. London, May 4, 1838.

3 Charles Poulett Thomson, afterwards Lord Sydenham, was one of the
representatives of Manchester from 1832 to 1839. On the reconstruction
of the Whig Government under Lord Melbourne, he was appointed to be
President of the Board of Trade—a post which he afterwards gave up, in
order to go out as Governor-General of Canada. As we shall see in a
later chapter, he has place in the apostolic succession of the Board of
Trade, afier Huskisson and Deacon Hume.
126 LIFE OF OOBDEN. (omar.

1838, In the autumn of 1838, Lancashire was disturbed by

Hr. 34 torchlight meetings, destruction of property, and other
formidable proceedings, under the lead of the Chartists,—
Stephens, Oastler, and others. This superficial outbreak
had no alarms for Cobden. Ina vein which is thoroughly
characteristic of the writer, he proceeds in the letter from
which I have been quoting :—

“As respects general politics, I see nothing in the
present radical outbreak to cause alarm, or make one
dread the fate of liberalism. On the contrary, it is pre-
ferable to the apathy of the three years when prosperity
(or seemingly so) made Tories of all. Nor doI feel at all
inclined to give up politics in disgust, as you seem to do,
because of the blunders of the Radicals. They are rash
and presumptuous, or ignorant if you will, but are not the
governing factions something worse? Is not selfishness,
or systematic plunder, or political knavery as odious as the
blunders of democracy? We must choose between the
party which governs upon an exclusive or monopoly prin-
ciple, and the people who seek, though blindly perhaps, the
good of the vast majority. If they be in error we must try
to put them right, if rash to moderate; but never, never talk
of giving up the ship..... I think the scattered elements
may yet be rallied round the question of the corn laws. It
appears to me that a moral and even a religious spirit may
be infused into that topic, and if agitated in the same manner
that the question of slavery has been, it will be drresistible.
I can give this question a great lift when I return, by pub-
lishing the result of my inquiries into the state of things on
the Continent, and particularly with reference to the Prussian
Union.” *

Yet Cobden had in his heart no illusions on the subject
of his countrymen, or their special susceptibility to either

‘To FLO. Oot. 5, 2883,

 
v.] THE RADIOALS AND THE PEOPLE. ~ 127

light or enthusiasm. He was well aware of the strong vault 1838.
of bronzed prejudice which man mistakes for the luminous Air. 34
firmament of truth, and with him as with the philosophic
reformers in France on the eve of the Revolution, the
foundation of his hope lay in a peuple éclairé, the enlighten-
ment of the population.

“Do not let your zeal for the cause of democracy,”’ Cobden
wrote to Tait, the Edinburgh bookseller, “deceive you as
to the fact of the opaque ignorance in which the great bulk
of the people of England are wrapt. If you write for the
masses politically, and write soundly and honestly, they will
not be able at present to appreciate you, and consequently
will not support you. You cannot pander to the new Poor-
law delusion, or mix up the Corn laws with the Currency
quackeries of Attwood. Nothing but these cries will go down
with the herd at present. There is an obvious motive about
certain agitators’ movements. They hold up impractica-
bilities; their stock in trade will not fall short. Secondly,
these prevent intelligent people from joining said agitators,
who would be likely to supersede them in the eyes of their
followers. There is no remedy for all this but improved
education. Such as the tail and the body are, such will be
the character of the head. Nature does not produce such
monsters as an ignorant or vicious community, and virtuous
and wise leaders. In Scotland you are better off because you
are better educated. The great body of the English pea-
sants are not a jot advanced in intellect since the days
of their Saxon ancestors.

“ T hope you will join us in a cry for schoolmasters as a
first step to Radicalism. . . . Whilst I would caution you
against too much political stuff in your magazine, let me
pray you to strike a blow for us for education, I have
unbounded faith in the people, and would risk universal
suffrage vo-morrow in preference to the present franchise.
1888,
Ait. 84.

 

£28 . LIFE OF OOBDEN. (omar.

But we shall never obtain even an approach towards such
a change, except by one of two paths—Revolution or the
Schoolhouse. By the latter means we shall make permanent
reform; by the former we shall only effect convulsive and
transient changes, to fall back again like Italy, or Spain,
into despotism or anarchy.” *

In August, 1838, Cobden again started for a month’s tour
in Germany, partly perhaps to appease that spirit of restless-
ness which made monotony the worst kind of fatigue, and
partly to increase his knowledge of the economic condition of
other countries. ‘ What nonsense,” he once exclaimed, “ is
uttered even by the cleverest men when they get upon that
least of all understood, and yet most important of all topics,
the Trade of this country! And yet every dunce or aristo-
cratic blockhead fancies himself qualified by nature to
preach upon this complicated and difficult question.”* He
was careful not to lay himself open to the same reproach of
trusting to the light of nature for wide and accurate know-
ledge, and he turned his houday in the countries of the Elbe
and the Rhine to good account by getting together, as he
said, some ammunition about the corn laws. This subject
was now beginning definitely to take the chief place in his
interests. =

There remains among his correspondence with his brother
during this trip, one rather remarkable letter, the doctrine of
which many of my readers will certainly resent, and it is
indeed open to serious criticism. The doctrine, however,
is too characteristic of a peculiarity in Cobden’s social
theory, for me to omit this strong illustration of it; charac-
teristic, I mean, of his ruling willingness, shown particularly
in his dealings with the Emperor of the French in 1860,
and on some other occasions, to treat political con-

§ To W. Tait. Aug, 17, 1838.
* To W. Tait. May 6, 1837.
v.) THE ZOLLVEREIN. 129

siderations as secondary to those of social and economic
well-being,

“ Although,” he says, “a very rapid one, my journey has
given me a better insight into German character and the
prospects of central Europe than I could have ever gained
from the eyes of others. Prussia must be looked upon as a
rising state, whose greatness will be based upon the Com-
mercial League [the Zollverein].’... . The effect of the
League must inevitably be to throw the preponderating
influence over thirty millions of people into the hands of the
Cabinet of Berlin, By the terms of the Union, the money
is to be collected and paid by Prussia; a very little financial
skill will thus very easily make the smaller states the pen-
sioners of the paymaster. Already, I am told, Prussia has
been playing this game; she is said to be two millions of
dollars a year out of pocket by her office, owing to her
having guaranteed the smaller partners certain amounts of
revenue. Besides the power that such a post of treasurer
will confer upon Prussia, other causes must tend to weaken
the influence of the lesser states’ governments. A common
standard of weights and measures, as well as of money, is
preparing, and these being assimilated, and the revenue
received from Prussia, whose literature and modes will
become the standard for the other portions of Germany,
what shall prevent this entire family of one common lan-
guage, and possessing perfect freedom of intercourse, from
merging into one nation? In fact they are substantially

‘one nation now, and their remaining subdivisions will

7 The Zollverein or Customs Union had been planned as far back as
1818, but it was not until 1833 that the treaty was signed which bound
most of the German states, except Austria, to a policy of free trade among
themselves, while protective duties were maintained against foreign nations.
Poulett Thomson and other English officials of the same liberal stamp,
rightly regarded the new system without apprehension, for it recognized
the expediency of abolishing commercial restrictions over a great area,
though the area was not quite great enough.

K

7

1838,

Ant, 34.
130 LIFE OF OOBDEN. {onar.

1838. become by-and-by only imaginary; and some Radicals will

 

@r, 34. hereafter propose, as we have done in Manchester, to get
rid of the antiquated boundaries of the townships of Hesse,
Oldenburg, etc., and place the whole under one Common
Council at Berlin. There are heads in Berlin which have
well reflected upon this, and their measures will not dis-
appoint their country.

“I very much suspect that at present, for the great mass
of the people, Prussia possesses the best government in
Kurope. I would gladly give up my taste for talking
politics to secure such a state of things in England. Had
our people such a simple and economical government, so
deeply imbued with justice to all, and aiming so constantly
to elevate mentally and morally its population, how much
better would it be for the twelve or fifteen millions in the
British Empire, who, while they possess no electoral rights,
are yet persuaded they are freemen, and who are mystified
into the notion that they are not political bondmen, by that
great juggle of the ‘ English Constitution’—a thing of
monopolies, and Church-craft, and sinecures, armorial hocus-
pocus, primogeniture, and pageantry! The Government of
Prussia is the mildest phase in which absolutism ever pre-
sented itself. The king, a good and just man, has, by pur-
suing a systematic course of popular education, shattered
the sceptre of despotism even in his own hand, and has for
ever prevented his successors from gathering up the frag-
ments. ... You have sometimes wondered what becomes
of the thousands of learned men who continually pass from
the German universities, whilst so few enter upon mercantile
pursuits. Such men hold all the official and Government
appointments; and they do not require 10001. a year to be
respectable or respected in Prussia. Habits of ostentatious
expenditure are not respectable there. The king dines at
two, rides in a plain carriage, without soldiers or attendants,
v.] THE PRUSSIAN GOVEENMENT. 131

and dresses in » kind of soldier’s relief cap. The plays
‘begin at six and close at nine, and all the world goes to bed
at ten or eleven.” *
It is to be remembered in reading this, that it was written
- forty years ago. Not a few considerate observers even now
hold that the prospect of German progress which Cobden
sketches, would have been happily realized, if Prussian
statesmen of a bad school had not interrupted the working
of orderly forces by a policy of military violence which
precipitated unity, it is true, but at a cost to the best
causes in Germany and Europe, for which unity, artificial
and unstable as it now is, can be no worthy recompense.
As for the contempt which the passage breathes for the
' English constitution, it is easy to understand the disgust
which a statesman with the fervour of his prime upon him,
and with an understanding at once too sincere and too
strong to be satisfied with conventional shibboleths, might
well feel alike for the hypocrisy and the shiftlessness of a
system, that behind the artfully painted mask of popular
representation concealed the clumsy machinery of a rather
dull plutocracy. It is not right to press the phrases of the
' hasty letter of a traveller too closely. If, as it is reasonable
‘to think, Cobden only meant that the energetic initiative
of central authorities in promoting the moralization of e
country is indispensable in the thick populations and
divided interests of modern times, and that the great want
of England is not a political equality which she has got, nor
a natural equality, which neither England nor any other
country is ever likely to get, but a real equality in access
to justice and in chances of mental and moral elevation,—
then he was feeling his way to the very truths which, of all
others, it is most wholesome for us to understand and +o
accept. Whatever we may think of the good word whick
8 To F. Cobden. Sept. 11, 1888.

1838.
Alt, 84

 
1838.

 

it, 34,

132 LIFE OF COBDEN. (omar,

Cobden seems to have for beneficent absolutism, it is at
least a mark of true sagacity to have discerned that manners
may have as much to do with the happiness of a people, as
has the form of their government.

In a letter to his sister, he shows that his journey has
supplied him with material for an instructive contrast :—
“Let me give you an idea of society here by telling you
how I spent yesterday, being Sunday. In the first place
I went to the cathedral church at nine o’clock in the
morning, @ very large building, pretty well filled (the ladies
were as five to one in the congregation, against the number
of male attendants).

“The singing would have been a treat; but unhappily-
I was placed beside a little old man whose devotion was so
great, that he sang louder than all the congregation, in a.
screaming tone that pierced my tympanum. I heard nothing
but the deep notes of the organ, and the little man’s notes
still ring in my ears, and his ugly little persevering face will
haunt me till I reach the Rhine. The sermon lasted forty
minutes; the service was all over in one hour and a half,
and at eleven o’clock I went in a coach to the country
palace of the king at Charlottenburg, where is a splendid.
mausoleum and a statue of his late wife to be seen. The
statue is a masterpiece of the first Prussian sculptor, and as
I always criticise masterpieces, I thought it stiff. Passing
through a wood laid out in pleasant walks, interspersed with
sheets of water and provided with seats, I saw numbers
of the cockneys strolling about, and again I might have
fancied myself in Kensington Gardens. But the variety
of head-dress, the frequent absence of the odious bonnet
which seems a part of the Englishwoman’s nature, and the
substitution of the lace or ganze covering, which aids rather
than hides the prettiest accessory of a woman’s face, her
well-managed hair, reminded me that I was from home. It
v] A SUNDAY AT BERLIN. 133

was @ quarter to two as I returned, and I met the king’s
sons going to dine with their father, who takes that meal
exactly at two. So you see we are not so unfashionable in
Quay Street as we imagined. After taking a hasty dinner
myself, I hired a horse and rode again into the country by
another road, and visited the Tivoli Gardens. On the way
I passed some good houses, the families of which were all
outside, either in balconies or in the gardens before the
door, with tables laid out with refreshments, at which the
gentlemen were smoking, the ladies knitting or sewing, and
perhaps the children playing around with frolicsome glee.
All this close to the great thoroughfare to Tivoli, along
which crowds of pedestrians of all ranks, and great numbers
of carriages and horsemen, were proceeding. Yet nobody
' turned his head to sneer, or to insult others; there was no in-
' trusion or curiosity. I thought of old England, and as I knew
_ it would be impossible there to witness such a scene, I hope
I did right in condemning the good people of Berlin for
their irreligious conduct. At the Tivoli Gardens, which are
about two miles from the town, they have a good view
of the city. Here are Moutagnes Russes and other amuse-
ments. The day was splendid, and such a scene! Hundreds
of well-dressed and still better behaved people were lounging
or sitting in the large gardens, or several buildings of this
gay retreat; in the midst were many little tables at which
groups were sitting. The ladies had their work-bags, and
were knitting, or sewing, or chatting, or sipping coffee or
lemonade; the gentlemen often smoking, or perhaps flirting
with their party. Then the scene at the Montagnes Russes !
- The little carriages were rattling down one after another
along this undulating railroad with parties of every kind
and age, from the old officer to the kitten-like child, who
clung with all its claws to the nurse, or sister, or mamma
‘who gave it the treat. Then there was music, and after-

 

1888.

Air, 34.
1838.

 

487, 84,

134 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [owar.

wards fireworks, and so went off the day at Tivoli, without
clamour, rudeness, or drunkenness. After Tivoli I looked in
at the two principal theatres, which were crammed; and so
ended the day which to me was not a day of rest. If you
think this is an improper picture of a Protestant Sunday,
on the other hand, the sober and orderly German thinks
the drunkenness, the filthy public-houses, the miserable and
moping mechanic that pines in his dark alley in our English
cities on the Sabbath-day, are infinitely worse features of a
Protestant community, than his Tivoli Gardens. Are both
wrong ?”’*

With one other and final contrast, we may leave the
memorials of the foreign tour of 1838 :—

“T do hope the leather-headed bipeds who soak them-
selves upon prosperous market-days in brandy and water at
the White Bear, will be brought to the temperature of
rational beings by the last twelve months’ regimen of low
prices. And then let us hope that we may see them trying
at least to bestow a little thought upon their own interests,
in matters beyond the range of their factory walls. It
humiliates me to think of the class of people at home, who
belong to the order of intelligent and educated men that
I see on the Continent, following the business of manufac-
turing, spinning, etc. Our countrymen, if they were pos-
sessed of a little of the mind of the merchants and manu-
facturers of Frankfort, Chemnitz, EHlberfeld, etc., would
become the De Medicis, and Fuggers, and De Witis of
England, instead of glorying in being the toadies of a clod-
pole aristocracy, only less enlightened than themselves !”??

In other words they would become the powerful and
independent statesmen of the country, the creators and
champions of a new policy adapted to the ends of a great
trading community. Thrusting aside the nobles by force

* To Miss Cobden. Sepb..8, 1838. 1 Jo F. 0. Oot. 6, 1838.
v.] MANCHESTER AND GERMANY OONTRASTED. 135

of vigorous intellectual and moral ascendency, the wealthy
middle class would place ‘themselves at the head of a
national life with new types and wiser ideals, Any one who
reflects on the gain for good causes in England, if only the
foremost men of this class would dare to be themselves,
and show by grave and self-respecting example that a great
citizen is beyond the rivalry of the great noble, will cherish
the vision that passed for an instant before Cobden’s social
imagination. As for his contrast between the educated
traders of the continent, and the haunters of the White
Bear with their leathern heads, we may be sure that all
this was the result of true observation, and was due to
no ehildish propensity to think everything abroad better
than anything at home. Cobden had far too much integrity
of understanding to yield either to the patriotic bias, or the
anti-patriotic bias; and he knew able men when he saw
them, as well in his own country as elsewhere.

In the summer of the previous year he had, in one of his
visits to London, sought the acquaintance of some of the
prominent journalists and politicians, and he wrote down his
impressions of them.

“ Yesterday,”—this was in June, 18837—“ we went along
with Cole to see the print-works of Surrey, and dined with
Makepeace. The day before, being Sunday, I went in the
morning to hear Benson (in the Temple Church) abuse the
Dissenters and the Catholics, and compare the persecuted
Church of England to the ark of the Israelites, when encom-
passed by the Amalekites. . : . Then I went to the Zoo-
logical Gardens, and after staying there till the last minute,
I accompanied Cole home to his house, and dined and slept.
.... On Saturday in the morning I was at the Clubs; was
introduced to Fonblanque (Hxaminer), Rintoul (Spectator),
' Bowring, Howard Elphinstone, etc. In the evening of the
same day I dined with Hindley, and met —

 

1837.
Air. 38,

 
1887,
ir, 33,

 

136 LIFE OF COBDEN. [onar,

etc., etc. [a party of north-country members of parliament
and candidates.) They are a sad lot of soulless louts, and
I was, as compared with the intellectual atmosphere of the _
morning, precipitated from the temperature of blood heat
down to zero. .. . I have not seen C. P. Thomson. I have
left my card and address, but he has not noticed it, and if
he does not send, I’ll not call again.

“T hear queer accounts of our Right Hon. Member ; they
tell me he is not the man of business we take him for. We
shall see. The more I see of our representatives from Lanca-
shire, the more ashamed I feel at being so served, and like
Falstaff I begin to dread the idea of going through Coventry
(for at Coventry they are generally to be found) with such a
crew. I suppose you will have more failures by-and-by
amongst the people at Manchester and Liverpool. I begin
now to fear that our distress will be greater and more per-
manent than I had expected at first. It will be felt here,
too, for some time, in failures amongst those old merchant
princes who are princes only at spending, but whose gettings
have been and will be small enough. The result of all will
be that Liverpool and Manchester will more and more assume
their proper rank as commercial capitals. London must
content itself with a gambling trade in the bills drawn by
those places.

“T have had invitations without end, and shall if I stay
a year still be in request ; but too much talking and running
about will not suit me, and I am resolved to turn churlish
and morose. I have seen, through S ’s friend )
some of the Urquhart party: they are as mad as ever. I
have called upon Roebuck, but have not been able to see
him.””?

“TI was yesterday introduced to Mrs. and Mr. Grote at
their house. I use the words Mrs. and Mr. because she is

2 To F. Oobden. June 6, 1887.

 

 
v.] ACQUAINTANOHS IN LONDON. 137

the greater politician of the two. He is a mild and philoso-
phical man, possessing the highest order of moral and intel-
lectual endowments ; but wanting something which for need
of a better phrase I shall call devil. He is too abstract in his
tone of reasoning, and does not aim to influence others by any
proof excepting that of ratiocination; tusy musy, as Braham
calls it, he is destitute of. Had she been a man, she would
have been the leader of a party; he is not calculated for it.
*T met at their house (which by the way is the great resort
of all that is clever in the opposition ranks) Sir W. Moles-
worth, a youthful, florid-looking man of foppish and con-

1887.
AMT, 33,

 

ceited air, with a pile of head at the back (firmness) like a .

sugar-loaf. I should say that a cast of his head would
fornish one of the most singular illustrations of phrenology.
For the rest he is not a man of superior talents, and let him
say what he pleases, there is nothing about him that is
democratic in principle. ....
_ ©T have been visiting, and visited by, all sorts of people,
the Greek Ambassador, Wm. Allen, of Plough Court, the
chemist and Quaker philanthropist, Roebuck, and Joseph
Parkes, of Birmingham, amongst the number. I spent a
couple of hours with Roebuck at his house. He is a clever
fellow, but I find that his mind is more active than powerful.
He is apt to take lawyer-like views of questions, and, as you
may see by his speeches, is given to cavilling and special
pleading.....

“Hasthope of the ‘Chronicle,’ is very anxious that I
should see Lord Palmerston, but I told him I had made up
my mind that his Lordship is incurable. He says that

he is open to conviction, and a cleverer man than most of

his colleagues. What a beautiful ensemble they must be!
I have seen nothing of C. P. Thomson; I would have
called again, but I think it better to reserve myself till he
calls on me. I hear from all sides that he is not the man
1887.
Air, 83.

 

138 LIFE OF OOBDEN. fomar.

of business we take him for in Manchester. Although 1
have been so much taken up with new acquaintances, I have
not failed to make calls upon all our old friends and
relations.” *

One of the very cleverest men I have ever met with is
Joseph Parkes, late of Birmingham, the eminent constitu-
tional lawyer and writer. He was employed to prepare the
Municipal Bill and other measures. He is not only profound
in his profession, but skilled in political economy, and quite
up to the spirit of the age in practical and popular acquire-

‘ments. He has been very civil to me. He received a letter

from his friend Lord Durham requesting him to find out
who the author of Russia, etc., was, as those pamphlets con-
tained more statesmanlike views than all the heads of the
whole British cabinet. His lordship goes thoroughly and
entirely with me in my principles upon Turkey. Perhaps the
truth is he went to St. Petersburg with opposite views, but
having been wheedled by the Czar and his wife, he is glad
to find in my arguments some useful pleas for justifying his
change.” ¢

One general impression of great significance Cobden
acquired from this and some later visits to London. Combe
had in one of his letters been complaining of the bigotry
with which he had to contend in Scotland. ‘What you
say of the intolerance of Scotland,” said Cobden to him in
reply, “ applies a good deal to Manchester also. There is
but one place in the kingdom in which a man can live with
perfect freedom of thought and action, and that is London.”*
However, he acted on the old and worthy principle, Spartam

3 To F. Cobden. June 12, 1837

4 The Ozar said to Sir Robert Peel :—“ Years ago Lord Durham was sent
to me, a man full of prejudices against me. By merely coming to close
quarters with me, all his prejudices were driven clean out of him.’—
Stockmar, quoted in Mr. Martin’s Life of the Prince Consort, i. 216,

5 To G. Combs, March 9 1841,
v.] INOORPORATION OF MANCHESTER, 139

nactus es, hanc exorna, and did not quarrel with the society
in which his lot was cast, because it preferred the echoes of
its own prejudices to any unfamiliar note. 4

Manchester did not receive its charter of incorporation
until the autumn of 1838. Cobden’s share in promoting
this important reform was recognized by the imhabitants of
the new borough, and he was chosen for alderman at the first
election. The commercial capital of Lancashire was now to
show its fitness to be the source and centre of a great national
cause,

1838.

Air. 34,
1838,

"Air. 34,

CHAPTER VI
THE FOUNDATION OF THE LEAGUE,

Tur French economist who recounted to his countrymen
the history of the great agitation in which Cobden now
gradually rose to a foremost place, justly pointed out that
the name and title of the Anti-Corn-Law League gave to
foreigners a narrow and inadequate idea of its scope, its
depth, and its animating spirit. What Bastiat thus said
with regard to foreigners, is just as trae with regard to our-
selves of a later generation. We too are as apt as French-
men or Germans to think narrowly and inadequately of the
scope and animating spirit of this celebrated confederation.
Yet the interest of that astonishing record of zeal, tact,
devotion, and courage, into some portions of which the
biographer of Cobden has now to enter, lies principally for
us in the circumstance that the abolition of the protective
duties on food and the shattering of the protective system
was, on one side, the beginning of our great modern struggle
against class preponderance at home, and on another side,
the dawn of higher ideals of civilization all over the world.
It was not of himself assuredly that Cobden was speaking,
when at the moment of the agitation reaching its height, he
confessed that when it first began they had not all possessed
the same comprehensive view of the interests and objects
involved, that came to them later. ‘I am afraid,” he said,

x
OHAF. VI.] NARROW BEGINNING OF THE STRUGGLE.  I4I1

“that most of us entered upon this struggle with the belief _ 1838,
that we had some distinct class-interest in the question, ir. 34.
and that we should carry it by a manifestation of our will in
this district, against the will ahd consent of other portions
of the community.”' There was in this nothing that is |
either astonishing or discreditable. The important fact was
that the class-interest of the manufacturers and merchants
happened to fall in with the good of the rest of the com-
munity; while the class-interest against which they were
going up to do battle, was an uncompensated burden on the
whole commonwealth. Besides this, it has been observed on
a hundred occasions in history, that a good cause takes on in
its progress larger and unforeseen elements, and these in
their turn bring out the nobler feelings of the best among its
soldiers. So it was here. The class-interest widened into
the consciousness of a commanding national interest. In
raising the question of the bread-tax, and its pestilent effects
on their own trade and on the homes of their workmen, the
Lancashire men were involuntarily opening the whole
question of the condition of England.

The backbone of the discussion in its strictly local aspect
was in the question which Cobden and his friends at this
time kept incessantly asking. With a population increasing
at the rate of a thousand souls a day, how can wages be
kept up, unless there be constantly increasing markets found
for the employment of labour; and how can foreign countries
buy our manufactures, unless we take in return their corn,
timber, or whatever else they are able to produce? Apart,
moreover, from increase of population, is it not clear that if
capitalists were free to exchange their productions for the
corn of other countries, the workmen would have abundant
employment at enhanced wages? A still more formidable
argument even than these lay in the mouths of the petitioners.

1 Speeoh at Manchester, Oct. 19, 1843.
1838,
Br. 84,

 

142 LIYE OF OOBDEN. [onar.

They boldly charged Parliament with fostering the rivalry of
foreign competitors; and the charge could not be answered,
By denying to America and to Germany the liberty of ex-
changing their surplus food ‘for our manufactures, the Eng-
lish Legislature had actually forced America and Germany to
divert their resources from the production of food, in order
to, satisfy their natural demand for manufactures. It was
the corn laws which nursed foreign competition into full
vitality.

But this strictly commercial aspect could not suffice.

Moral ideas of the relations of class to class in this country,

and of the relations of country to country in the civilized
world, lay behind the contention of the hour, and in the
course of that contention came into new light. The prompt-
ings of a commercial shrewdness were gradually enlarged
into enthusiasm for a far-reaching principle, and the hard-
headed man of business gradually felt himself touched with
the generous glow of the patriot and the deliverer.
_Cobden’s speculative mind had speedily placed the

-conflict in its true relation to other causes. We have

already seen how ample a conception he possessed of the
transformation for which English society was ripe, and
how thoroughly he had accustomed himself to think of
the corn laws as merely part of a great whole of abuse and
obstruction. But he was now, as at all times, far too wise a
man to fall into the characteristic weakness of the system-
monger, by passing over the work that lay to his hand, and
insisting that people should swallow his system whole. No-
body knew better how great a part of wisdom it is for a
man who seeks to improve society, to be right in discerning
ata given moment what is the next thing to be done, or
whether there is anything to be done at all. His interest
in. remoter issues did not prevent him from throwing hinm-
self with all the energy of apostolic spirit upon the par-
vi.] THE LONDON ANTI-OORN-LAW ASSOCIATION. 143

ticular point at which the campaign of a century first opened. 1888.
As he said to his brother in a letter that has already been tr. 34.
quoted, he had convinced himself that a moral, and even a
religious, spirit might be infused into the question of the
corn laws, and that if it were agitated in the same manner ag
the old question of slavery, the effect would be irresistible.’
Cobden was in no sense the original projector of an
organized body for throwing off the burden of the corn
duties. In 1836 an Anti-Corn-Law Association had been
formed in London; its principal members were the parlia-
mentary radicals, Grote, Molesworth, Joseph Hume, and
Mr. Roebuck. But this group, notwithstanding their acute-
ness, their logical penetration, and the soundness of their
ideas, were in that, as in so many other matters, stricken
with impotence. Their gifts of reasoning were admirable,
but they had no gifts for popular organization, and neither
their personality nor their logic offered anything to excite
the imagination or interest the sentiment of the public.
“The free-traders,” Lord Sydenham said, with a pang, in
‘1841, “have never been orators since Mr. Pitt’s early days.
\We hammered away with facts and figures and some
arguments ; but we could not elevate the subject and excite
the feelings of the people.” An economic demonstration
went for nothing, until it was made alive by the passion of
suffering interests and the reverberations of the popular
voice. Lord Melbourne, in 1838, sharply informed all
petitioners for the repeal of the corn-laws, that they must
look for no decided action on the part of the government,
until they had made it quite clear that the majority of the
nation were strongly in favour of a new policy. London,
from causes that have often been explained and are well
understood, is no centre for the kind of agitation which the
Prime Minister, not without some secret mockery, invited
* Above, p. 126.
18388.
Ait, 34,

 

144 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [omar

the repealers to undertake. In London there is no effective
unity ; interests are too varied and dispersive; zeal loses
its directness and edge amid the distracting play of so many
miscellaneous social and intellectual elements. It was not
until a body of men in Manchester were moved to take the
matter in hand, that any serious attempt was made to
inform and arouse the country.

The price of wheat had risen to seventy-seven shillings
in the August of 1838; there was every prospect of a wet
harvesting ; the revenue was declining; deficit was be-
coming a familiar word; pauperism was increasing; and
the manufacturing population of Lancashire were finding
it impossible to support themselves, because the landlords,
and the legislation of a generation of landlords before them,
insisted on keeping the first necessity of life at an artificially
high rate. Yet easy as it is now to write the explanation
contained in the last few words, comparatively few men had
at that time seized the truth of it. That explanation was in
the stage of a vague general suspicion, rather than the defi-
nite perception of a precise cause. Men are so engaged by
the homely pressure of each day as it comes, and the natural
solicitudes of common life are so instant, that a bad institu-
tion or a monstrous piece of misgovernment is always
endured in patience for many years after the remedy has
been-urged on public attention. No cure is considered
with an accurate mind, until the evil has become too sharp
to be borne, or its whole force and weight brought irresis-
tibly before the world by its more ardent, penetrative, and
indomitable spirits.

In October, 1838, a band of seven men met at a hotel in
Manchester, and formed a new Anti-Corn-Law Association.
They were speedily jomed by others, including Cobden,
who from this moment began to take a prominent part in all
counsel and action.
v1.) THE OHAMBER OF COMMEROE. 145

That critical moment had arrived, which comes in the 1838.

 

history of every successful movement, when a section arises Air, 34.
within the party, which refuses from that day forward
either to postpone or to compromise. The feeling among
the older men was to stop short in their demands at some
modification of the existing duty. This was the mind of
the President and most of the directors of the Manchester
Chamber of Commerce. A meeting of this important body
was held in December (1838). The officers of the Cham-
ber had, only for the second time in ten years, prepared a
petition to the House of Commons, but the petition spoke
only of modifications, and total repeal was not whispered.
The more energetic members protested against these falter-
ing voices. Cobden struck into the debate with that finely
tempered weapon of argumentative speech, which was his
most singular endowment. The turbid sediment of mis-
cellaneous discussion sank away, as he brought out a lucid
proof that the corn law was the only obstacle to a vast
increase of their trade, and that every shilling of the pro-
tection on corn which thus obstructed their prosperity,
passed into the pockets of the land-owners, without con-
ferring an atom of advantage on either the farmer or the
labourer.

The meeting was adjourned, to the great chagrin of the
President, and when the members assembled a week later,
Cobden drew from his pocket a draft petition which he and
his allies had prepared in the interval, and which after a
discussion of many hours was adopted by an almost
unanimous vote. The preamble laid all the stress on the
alleged facts of foreign competition, in words which never
fail to be heard in times of bad trade. It recited how the
existing laws prevented the British manufacturer from ex-
changing the produce of his labour for the corn of other
countries, and so enabled his foreign rivals to purchase

L
146 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [onar.

1889. their food at one half of the price at which it was sold in

Air, 35. the English market; and finally the prayer of the petition
called for the repeal of all laws relating to the importation
of foreign corn and other foreign articles of subsistence,
and implored the House to carry out to the fullest extent,
both as affects manufactures and agriculture, the true and
peaceful principles of free-trade.

In the following month, January, 1839, the Anti-Corn-
Law Association showed that it was in earnest in the
intention to agitate, by proceeding to raise a subscription of
an effective sum of money. Cobden threw out one of those
expressions which catch men’s minds in moments when
they are already ripe for action. ‘ Let us,’’ he said, “invest
part of our property, in order to save the rest from con-
fiscation.” Within a month six thousand pounds had been
raised, the first instalment of many scores of thousands still
to come. A great banquet was given to some of the
parliamentary supporters of Free Trade; more money was
subscribed, convictions became clearer, and purpose waxed
more resolute. On the day after the banquet, at a meeting
of delegates from other towns, Cobden brought forward a
scheme for united action among the various associations
throughout the country. This was the germ of what ulti-
mately became the League. It is worth noticing that more
than four years before this, he had in his first pamphlet
sketched in a general form the outlines of the course
eventually followed by the League,—so fertile was his mind
in practical methods of enlightening opinion, even without
the stimulation of a company of sympathetic agitators.
There he had asked how it was that so little progress had
been made in the study of which Adam Smith was the great
luminary, and why, while there were Banksian, Linnwan,
Hunterian societies, there was no Smithian society, for the
purpose of disseminating a more just knowledge of the

 
vt] THE IDEA OF THE LEAGUE. 147

principles of trade. Such a society might enter into 1839.
correspondence with similar bodies abroad, and so help to Air. 35,
amend the restrictive policy of foreign governments, while
at home prizes might be offered for the best essays on the
corn question, and lecturers might be sent to enlighten the
agriculturalists, and to invite discussion upon a subject
which, while so difficult, was yet of such paramount interest
to them and to the rest of the country.’ The hour for the
partial application of these very ideas had now come.
Before the month of January, the Manchester Anti-Corn-
Law Association was completely organized, and its pro-
gramme laid before the public. The object was declared
to be to obtain by all legal and constitutional means, such
as the formation of local associations, the delivery of
lectures, the distribution of tracts, and the presentation of
petitions to parliament, the total and immediate repeal of
the corn and provision laws. Cobden was appointed to be
a member of the executive committee, and he continued in
that office until the close of the agitation.

In the February of 1839, as Cobden gaily reminded a
great audience on the eve of victory six years later, three
of them in a small room at Brown’s hotel m Palace Yard
were visited by a nobleman who had taken an active part in
advocating a modification of the corn laws, but who could
not bring himself to the point of total repeal. He asked
what had brought them to town, and what it was that they
wanted. They had come, they said, to seek the total and
immediate repeal of the corn laws. With an emphatic
shake of the head, he answered, “You will overturn the
monarchy as soon as you will accomplish that.”* For
the moment it appeared as if this were really trae. Mr.
Villiers moved in the House of Commons (Feb. 18), that a

3 Cobden’s Political Writings, i. 82.
4 Cobden’s Spesohes, i, 346.
148 LIFH OF COBDEN. [oHar.

1889. number of petitions against the corn laws should be

“Hr. 35. referred to a Committee of the whole House. The motion

was negatived without a division. The next day he moved

that certain members of the Manchester Association should

be heard at the bar, in support of the allegations of a

petition which they had presented three days before.

Though this was a Whig parliament, or because it was a

Whig parliament, the motion was thrown out by a majority

*of more than two to one in a House of more than five
hundred members.

We cease to be amazed at this deliberate rejection of
information from some of the weightiest men in the king-
dom, at one of the most critical moments in the history
of the kingdom, when we recall the fact that notwithstand-
ing the pretended reform of parliament in 1832, four-fifths
of the members of the House of Commons belonged to the
old landed interests. The bewilderment of the government
was shown by the fact that Lord John Russell and Lord
Palmerston went into the lobby with the Protectionists,
while the President of the Board of Trade followed Mr.
Villiers. Yet Lord John had declared a short time before,
that he admitted the duties on corn as then levied to be
untenable. ‘The whole incident is one of the most striking
illustrations on record of one of the worst characteristics of
parliamentary government, its sluggishness in facing ques-
tions on their merits. In this instance, the majority found
before long that behind the industrial facts which they were
too selfish and indolent to desire to hear, were political forces
which they and their leader together were powerless to resist.

A few days later (March 12) Mr. Villiers brought forward
his annual motion, that the house should resolve itself into
committee to take into consideration the act regulating the
importation of foreign corn. Across Palace Yard were
assembled delegates from the thirty-six principal towns in
vs] THE OORN QUESTION IN PARLIAMENT. 149

the kingdom, to enforce a prayer that had been urged by 1889
half a million of petitioners. But the motion, after a debate air. 85.
which extended over five nights, received only one hundred
and ninety-seven votes out of a House of five hundred and
forty-one. The delegates returned to their homes with the
conviction that they had still a prolonged struggle before
them. In the picturesque phrase of a contemporary writer,
their departure was like the break-up of a Mahratta camp ;
it did not mean that the war was over, but only that attack
would be renewed from another quarter. Some of them
were inclined to despond, but the greater part almost
instantly came round to the energetic mind of Cobden. He
recalled the delegates to the fact that in spite of the House
over the way, they represented three millions of the people.
He compared the alliance of the great towns of England to
the League of the Hanse Towns of Germany. That League
had turned the castles which crowned the rocks along the
Rhine, the Danube, and the Elbe into dismantled memorials
of the past, and the new league would not fail in dismantling
the legislative stronghold of the new feudal oppressors in
England. No time was lost in strengthening their orga-
nization by drawing isolated societies to an effective centre.
Measures were speedily taken (March) for the formation of a,
permanent union, to be called the Anti-Corn-Law League,
to be composed of all the towns and districts that were re-
presented in the delegation, and of as many others as might
be induced to form local associations and federate them with
the League. The executive committee of the old Man-
chester Anti-Corn-Law Association was transformed into
the council of the new Anti-Corn-Law League. With the
same view of securing unity of action, the central offices
were established in Manchestér, whence from this time
forward the national movement was directed.

The impatience of the free-traders had been irritated,

@
 

1839.

—

Air, 35.

150 LIFE OF OOBDEN. (omar.

rather than soothed, by a speech of two hours in length from
the great leader of the Conservative opposition, in which he
carefully abstained from committing himself to any opinion
on the principle at issue. He devised elaborate trains of
hypothetical reasoning ; he demolished imaginary cases; he
dwelt on the irreconcilable contradictions among the best
economists. But there was not a single sentence in the
whole of Sir Robert Peel’s speech, that could be taken to tie
his hands in dealing with the corn laws, while on the con-
trary there was one ‘sentence which to any one who should
have accustomed himself to study the workings of that
strong but furtive intellect, might have revealed that the
great organ and chief of the landowners was not far removed
from the Manchester manufacturer. He had at least placed
himself in the mental attitude which made him accessible to
their arguments. “JI have no hesitation in saying,”—so
Sir Robert Peel told the house—“ that unless the existence
of the corn law can be shown to be consistent, not only
with the prosperity of agriculture and the maintenance of
the landlord’s interest, but also with the protection and the
maintenance of the general interests of the country, and
especially with the improvement of the condition of the
labouring class, the corn law is practically at an end.”’*
Although such a position was rational and political, as
compared with the talk of those who could not get beyond
the argument that the proprietors of the soil had a right to
do as they pleased with their own, still there remained a
long road to travel before Peel could be regarded as a
probable auxiliary. The repealers felt that they must depend
upon their own efforts, without reference either to Sir
Robert or Lord John. They had started a little organ of
their own in the press in April; and the Anti-Oorn-Law
Oireular used language which was not at all too strong for
* March 18, 1889.
v1.) RESENTMENT OF THE REPHALERS. 151

the taste of most of them, when it cried out that all political
factions were equally dishonest and profligate; that the
repealors at any rate would not suffer their great question
to be made a mere official hobby-horse ; that they would
pursue an undeviating course of strenuous protest to the
nation at large, knowing well that repeal would never be
granted by either the one or the other faction of political
pettifoggers by which the kingdom was alternately cursed.
If they could only get the honest, simple-hearted, and
intelligent portion of the people to see the justice and the
necessity of their cause, then they would not be long before
they dragged both sections of the state quacks at their
chariot wheels, each striving to outbid the other in tenders
of service and offers of concession.° '

Tn less violent tones, Cobden kept insisting on the same
point, after the rebuffs of the year had shown them that the
battle would be long, and that its issues went too deep into
the social system to suit the aims of traditional parties,
for the traditional parties in England were of their very
essence superficial and personal. ‘Towards the end of 1839,
Dr. Bowring came to Manchester to report on what he had
found on the subject of trade with England during a recent
official visit to the countries of the German Customs Union.
His points were that in consequence of the English ob-
struction to the import of grain and timber, capital in
Germany was being diverted to manufactures; that the
German agriculturists were naturally eager for the removal
of the protective duties on manufactures, which they could
purchase more cheaply from England; but that they were
met by the argument that England would never reciprocate
by opening a free market for return purchases of grain, as
her landlords and agriculturists were far too mighty to be
overthrown or even shaken. Cobden, with his usual high

5 December 10, 1839.

s

1839.

Air, 85,
1839.
Att. 35.

152 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [oHar.

confidence of spirit, replied to this by asking how every
social change and every religious change had been accom-
plished otherwise than by an appeal to public opinion. How,
he exclaimed, had they secured the penny postage, which
happened to have come into force on the very day of
the meeting ? Not by sitting still and quietly wishing for
it, but by a number of men stepping out, spending their
money, giving their time, agitating the community. And
in the same way, how could they think that the corn laws
would be repealed by sitting still at home, and lamenting
over their evils? He appealed to them, not as Whigs,
Tories, or Radicals, but as men with a sense not more of
commercial interest, than of unmistakable national duty.
We have to remember that at this date the admission
of Catholics to Parliament was not so remote, that men had
forgotten the means by which that triumph of justice and
tolerance had been achieved. Catholic emancipation was
only ten years old, and it was present to the mind of every
politician who wanted to have anything done, that this great
measure had been carried by the incessant activity of
O’Connell and the Catholic Association. That was a memo-
rable example that the prejudice of the governing classes
was to be most effectually overcome by the agitation of a
powerful outside confederacy. No two men were ever much
more unlike than Cobden and O’Connell, but Cobden had
been a subscriber to the great agitator’s Rent, and we
may be sure that the Irish example was not lost on the
leaders of the association against the corn laws. In truth
here was the vital change that had been finally effected in our
system by the Reform Act. Schemes of political improve-
ment were henceforth to spring up outside of Parliament,
instead of in the creative mind of the parliamentary leader ;
and official statesmanship has ever since consisted less
in working out principles, than in measuring the force and
vw] THE LEOTURERS IN THE COUNTRY. 153

direction of the popular gale. It is thus the non-official 1889.
statesman who, by concentrating the currents of common 2. 88.
sentiment or opinion, really shapes the policy which the
official chiefs accept from his hands.

The first year’s campaign convinced the repealers that
agitation is not always such smooth work as it had been in
Ireland. They learnt how hardly an old class interest dies.
They had begun the work of propagandism by sending out
a small band, which afterwards became a large one, of
economic missionaries. In Scotland the new gospel found
a temperate hearing and much acceptance, but in England
the lecturers were not many days in discovering at what
peril they had undertaken to assault the prejudice and
selfishness of a territorial aristocracy, and the brutality or
cowardice of their hangers-on. Though there were mavy
districts where nobody interfered with them, there were
many others where neither law nor equity gave them protec-
tion. At Arundel the mayor refused the use of the town
hall, on the ground that the lecture would make the labourers
discontented; and the landlord refused the use of his large
room, on the ground that if he granted it, he should lose
his customers. A landowning farmer went further, and
offered a bushel of wheat to anybody who would throw the
lecturer into the river. At Petersfield, a paltry little borough
in Hampshire, almost in sight of Cobden’s birthplace, either
spite or the timidity of political bondage went so far, that
when the lecturer returned, after his harangue in the market-
place, to the Dolphin, Boar, or Lion, where he had taken his
tea and ordered his bed, the landlord and landlady peremp-
torily desired him to leave their house. In the eastern
counties, again, they were usually well received by the
common people, but vexed and harassed by the authorities.
At Louth they were allowed to deliver their address in
the town hall one night, but as the lecturer had the fortune
154 LIFA OF COBDEN. [onap,

1839. to discomfit a local magnate in the discussion which fol-
42,35. lowed, the permission which had been given to use the hall
on the next night was arbitrarily withdrawn, and the lecturers
were driven to say what they had come to say from a gig in
the market-place. Nor was this the end of the adventure.
As they were about to leave the town, they were served
with a warrant for causing an obstruction in a thoroughfare ;
they were brought before the very magnate over whom
they had won so fatal a victory, and by him punished with
a fine. At Stamford they were warned that the mob would
tear them to pieces; but they protected themselves with a
body-guard, and the mob was discovered to be less hostile
than a small band of people who ought to have deserved the
name of respectable. At Huntingdon the town clerk was
the leader in provoking an outrageous disturbance, which
forced the lecturer to give up the ground. In the Duke
of Newcastle’s country, at Newark and at Retford, there
was not an innkeeper who dared to let the lecturer a room;
and at Worksop, not only could the lecturer not find a
room, nor a printer who should dare to print a placard,
but he was assaulted by hired bullies in the street. It
was reserved for a seat of learning to show that no
brutality can equal that which is engendered of the union of
the violent inherited prejudice of the educated classes, with
the high spirits of youth. No creature is a more unbridled
roffian than the ruffian undergraduate can be, and at Cam-
bridge the peaceful arguments of the lecturer were inter-
rupted by a destructive and sanguinary riot. The local
newspaper afterwards piously congratulated the furious
gownsmen on having done their duty as “the friends of
good government, and the upholders of the religious

institutions of the country.”’?
It is only when people want to get something done that

7 May 14, 1839.
v1] HOSTILITIES IN THE PRES». 155

all the odd perversities of the human mind spread themselves _ 1839.
out in panoramic fulness. A long campaign of reckless alr. 35.
and virulent calumny was at once opened in the party organs.
One London newspaper described the worst members of the
Association as unprincipled schemers, and the best as self-
conceited socialists. Another declared with authority that
it was composed in equal parts of commercial swindlers and
political swindlers. A third with edifying wnction de-
nounced their sentiments as subversive of all moral right and
order, their organization as a disloyal faction, and their
speakers as revolutionary emissaries, whom all peaceable and
well-disposed persons ought to assist the authorities in per-
emptorily putting down. The Morning Post, the journal of
London idleness, hailed the Manchester workers in a style
that would have been grotesque enough, if only it had not
represented the serious thought of many of the most impor-
tant people in the dominant class. “The manufacturing
people exclaim, ‘Why should we not be permitted to ex-
change the produce of our industry for the greatest quantity
of food which that industry will anywhere command?’ To
which we answer, why not, indeed? Who hinders you?
Take your manufactures away with you by all means, and ex-
change them anywhere you will from Tobolsk to Timbuctoo.
If nothing will serve you but to eat foreign corn, away with
you, you and your goods, and let us never see you more!”
This was a quarter from which the language of simpletons
was to be expected, but as the repealers had a thousand
opportunities of discovering within the next seven years, the
language of simpletons has many dialects. One of the
lowest perversions of the right sense of place and proportion
in things, was reached by those who cried out angrily that
the great and decisive test for candidates at the next general
election would not be corn laws or anti-corn-laws, but
“ How are your views on the Sabbath question?” The
156 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [ouar

1839. Chartists, of whom we shall say something in another

x, 38. chapter, began a long course of violent hostility by trying
at the very outset of the agitation to break up a meeting at
Leeds, insisting that the movement was a cheat put on the
work-people of the country by cunning and rapacious
employers. Even in places where so much strong political
intelligence existed as at Birmingham, members of the town
council of the borough were found to talk about “ the
interested movements of the Whig corn law intriguers,”
and to urge that the discussion of the corn laws was merely
a Whig device to embarrass the patriotic champions of
parliamentary reform.’ Of all this the Leaguers heard
much more, and from more troublesome people, in the years
to come.

Meanwhile the information which their lecturers brought
back to head-quarters at Manchester, as to the state of some
of the rural districts, inspired the leaders of the agitation with
new zeal, and a stronger conviction of the importance of their
cause. In Devonshire they found that the wages of the
labourers were from seven to nine shillings a week ; that they
seldom saw meat or tasted milk; and that their chief food
was a compost of ground barley and potatoes. It was little
wonder that in a county where such was the condition of
labour, the lecturer was privately asked by poor men at the
roadside if he could tell them where the fighting was to be.
Nor need we doubt that he was speaking the simple truth
when he reported that, though ignorant of Chartism as a
political question, the great mass of the population of Devon
were just as ready for pikes and pistols, as the most excit« ble
people of the factory towns. In Somersetshire the budget
of a labourer, his wife, and five children under ten years
of age, was as follows. Half a bushel of wheat cost four
shillings ; for grinding, baking, and barm, sixpence ; firing,

* Bunco’s History of the Corporation of Birmingham, i. 166-7.
v1.4 CONDITION OF THE RURAL POOR. 157

sixpence; rent, eighteen pence; leaving, out of the total 1839.
earnings of seven shillings, a balance of sixpence, out Air. 35.
of which to provide the family with clothing, potatoes,
and all the other necessaries and luxuries of human
existence.

With facts like these before them, the leaguers read with
mockery the idyllic fustian in which even the ablest men
of the landlord party complacently indulged their feeling
for the picturesque. Sir James Graham, in resisting Mr.
Villiers’s motion this year, spoke of the breezy call of
incense-breathing morn, the neat thatched cottage, the
blooming garden, the cheerful village green. The repeal of
the corn laws would lead to a great migration from all this
loveliness to the noisy alley, and the “sad sound of the
factory bell.” “Tell not to me any more,” the orator
called out in a foolish ecstasy, “of the cruelties of the con-
veyance of the Poles to the wintry wastes of Siberia; talk
not to me of the transportation of the Hill Coolies from
Coromandel to the Mauritius ; a change is contemplating by
some members of this House, far more cruel, far more heart-
vending in the bosom of our native land.” * If this nonsense
was the vein of so able a man as Graham, we may infer the
depths of prejudice and fallacy down into which Cobden
and his allies had to follow less sensible people. And the
struggle had hardly begun. The landlords were not yet
awakened into consciousness that this time the Manchester
men were in earnest, and resolutely intended to raise the
country upon them. They still believed that the corn laws
were as safe as the monarchy; and many months passed
before they realized that the little group who now met
several times in each week in a dingy room on an upper
floor at Newall’s Buildings in Market Street in Manchester,
were not to be daunted either by bad divisions in Parliament,

* March 16, 1889.
158 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [ouar.

_ 1889. _ or bad language in the newspapers, because they had become
4ir. 35. fired by the conviction that what they were fighting against
. was not merely a fiscal blunder, but a national iniquity.

 

Cobden lived at this time, along with his brothers and
sisters, ina large house in Quay Street, which he had bought
very shortly after settling in Manchester, and which was
known to the next generation as Owens College. His
business was in a flourishing condition, and it would have
saved him from many a day of misery if he could have been
content to leave it as it was. It was from no selfish or
personal motive that he now proceeded to make a change
in the arrangements. The reader has already seen how at
the beginning of his career Cobden affectionately insisted
with his brother, “that you will henceforth consider your-
self as by right my associate in all the favours of fortune.”
And it was in the interest of Frederick Cobden and his two
younger brothers that he now broke up the existing
partnership. The firm had previously consisted of five
members, carrying on business under three titles, one at
the warehouse in Watling Street in London; the second at
the print works at Sabden; the third, specifically known as
Richard Cobden and Company, at Manchester and Crosse
Hall, near Chorley in Lancashire. Frederick Cobden was
not a member of any of these allied firms, and there seems
to have been no willingness to make room for him. At the
end of July, 1839, Cobden withdrew from his old partners.
He left them to carry on the London warehouse and the
Sabden print works on their own account. He then pro-
ceeded himself to form a new partnership with Frederick
Cobden, to carry on the Manchester warehouse and the
print works at Crosse Hall. This was the arrangement
of Cobden’s business during the six years of agitation
against the Corn Laws.
wu] NEW SETTLEMENT IN BUSINESS. 159

Though his motive in making the change was the desire

the way for his younger brother in the future, yet Cobden
had no doubt convinced himself that the change was sound
and prudent in itself. A less sanguine man would have
found the altered conditions formidable. In the business
which he left, though he did not find himself in entire
sympathy with one of the London partners, all had been
managed with the greatest exactitude, and there had been
abundance of capital in proportion to the extent of the busi-
ness. At Crosse Hall he found himself much less favourably
‘placed. He was thrown entirely on his own unaided re-
sources, for his letters show that Frederick Cobden, with
all his excellent qualities, yet was one of the men who
mistake feverish anxiety for business-like caution, and then
suppose that they repair the errors of timidity by moments
of hurried action. Instead of coming into a factory, like
the works at Sabden, perfectly organized and superintended
by an experienced eye, Cobden had now to find a new staff,
and what was perhaps at least as arduous, he had to find new
capital, and to earn interest as well as profit from its working.

He had, moreover, so early as 1835 made speculative pur-
chases of land in various quarters of Manchester, where
his too cheerful vision discovered a measureless demand for
houses, shops, and factories, as soon as ever the corn duty
should be repealed, and the springs of industrial enterprise
set free. For five and twenty years waste spaces between
Victoria Park and Rusholme, in Quay Street, and Oxford
Street, bore melancholy testimony to a miscalculation; and
for five and twenty years Cobden paid a thousand pounds a
year, in the shape of chief rent, for a property which thus
brought him not a shilling of return. In spite of the
grave drawbacks which I have named, it is not doubted
by those who have the best meaus of knowing, that the new

1839.
to raise the position of his elder brother at once, and to pave apr. 35,
1840.
ir, 36.

 

160 LIFE OF OOBDER. [OHar,

firm was for some time reasonably successful, and was even
visited by gleams of genuine prosperity. But the under-
taking was hardly launched, before its chief was drawn away
from effective interest in it by a strong vocation which he
could not resist, to be the leader of the great national cause
of the time.

Meanwhile within a few months of the re-settlement of
his business, he took another momentous step in marrying
(May, 1840). His wife was Miss Catherine Anne Williams,
a young Welsh lady, whose acquaintance he had made as
a school-friend of one of his sisters. She is said by all
who knew her to have been endowed with singular personal
beauty, and with manners of perfect dignity and charm.
Whether in Cobden’s case this union was preceded by much
deliberation, we do not know; perhaps experience shows
that the profoundest deliberation in choosing a wife is little
better than the cleverness of people who boast of a scientific
secret of winning in a lottery. Although marriage is usually
so much the most important element in deciding whether a
life shall be heaven or hell, it is that on which in any given
instance it is least proper for a stranger to speak:

It would seem that to be the wife of a prominent public
man is not always an easy lot. As Goethe’s Leonora says of

men and women :—
Tbr strebt nach fernen Giitern,
Und euer Streben muss gewaltsam seyn.
Thr wagt os, fir die Ewigkeit za handeln,
Wenn wir ein einzig nah beschrinktes Gut
Auf dieser Erde nur besitzen méchten,
Und wiinschen dass es uns bestindig bliebe.!

If the champion of great causes has to endure the loss of
domestic companionship, he is at least compensated by
1 “Ye strive for far-off goals, and strenuous your battle. For immor-
tality to toil, do you aspire. But we one single narrow good, and that

nigh to us, would fain possess upon this earth, and only ask that it should
atendfast dell.”
v

vw] MABRIAGE. 161

patriotic satisfaction in the result; but unless the woman be
of more than common strength of public zeal, the thousand
lonely days and nights and all the swarm of undivided house-
hold cares may well put temper and spirits to a sharp strain.
In the last year of Cobden’s life, as he and Mrs. Cobden were
coming up to London from their home in the country, Mrs.
Cobden said to him,—“I sometimes think that, after all the
good work that you have done, and in spite of fame and
great position, it would have been better for us both if, after
you and I married, we had gone to settle in the backwoods
of Canada,’’? And Cobden could only say, after looking for
& moment or two with a gaze of mournful preoccupation
through the window of the carriage, that he was not sure that
what she said was not too true. But in 1840 evil days had
not yet come, and as they took their summer wedding trip

through France, Savoy, Switzerland, and Germany, Cobden

had as good right as any mortal can ever have, to look
forward to a future of material prosperity, domestic happi-
ness, and honest service to his country.

1840.
4E7. 36.

 
4

CHAPTER VIL
THE CORN LAWS.

Ir will perhaps not be inconvenient if I here pause in my
narrative, to introduce a short parenthesis setting forth what
actually were the nature and working of the Corn Laws at
“this time. Their destruction was the one finished triumph
with which Cobden’s name is associated. The wider doc-
trines which he tried to impress upon men still await the
seal of general acceptance; but itis a tolerably safe prophecy
that not English statesman will ever revive a tax upon
bread.

Cobden was much too careful a student of the facts of his
question to fall into the error of the declaimers on his own
side, who assumed that none but the owners of the soil had
ever claimed protection by law for their industry. In the
first number of the little organ which was issued by the
Association,’ he wrote a paper on the modern history of the
Corn Laws, which began by plainly admitting, what it would
have been childish to deny, that down to 1820 manufacturers
probably enjoyed as ample a share of legislative protection
as the growers of corn. Huskisson’s legislation from 1828
to 1825 reduced the tariff of duties upon almost every article
of foreign manufacture. This stamped that date, in Cob-
den’s words, as the era of a commercial revolution, more
important in its effects wpon society, and pregnant with

1 April 16, 1889.
OH. ViL.] HUSEISSON’S LEGISLATION. 163

weightier consequences in the future, than many of those
political revolutions which have commanded infinitely greater
attention from historians. The duty on cotton goods was
lowered from a figure ranging from between seventy-five and
fifty per cent. down to ten per cent. Imported linens some-
times paid as much as one hundred and eighty per cent. ; they
were henceforth to be admitted at twenty-five. Paper had
been prohibited ; it was now allowed to come in on paying
’ twice the amount levied as excise from the home manufac-
turer. The duty on a foreign manufacture in no case ex-
ceeded thirty per cent. The principle of this immense
reform was that, if the article were not made either much
better or at a much lower price abroad than at home, then
such a duty would be ample for purposes of protection. If,
on the contrary, the foreign article were either so much
better or so much cheaper as to render thirty per cent.
insufficient for purposes of protection, then, in the first place,
a heavier duty would only put a premium on smuggling;
and, secondly, said Huskisson, there is no wisdom in bolster-
ing up a competition which this degree of protection will
not sustain.

These enlightened opinions, and the measures which
followed from them, were the first rays of dawn after the
long night of confusion and mediocrity in which the Castle-
reaghs, Sidmouths, Bathursts, Vansittarts, had governed
their unfortunate country. Even now political power was
so distributed that, though the new school thus saw the
better course, they dared not to venture too rapidly upon it.
There was one mighty and imperious interest which, as the
parliamentary system was then disposed, even Canning’s
courage shrank from offending. The Cabinet, which had
radically modified a host of restrictive laws, was logically
and politically bound to deal with the most important of
them all—that which restrained the importation of food.

1825.
Att, 21,

 
164 LIFE OF COBDEN. [onar.

1825. By the law of 1815 corn could be imported when wheat had

4ir, 21, risen to eighty shillings a quarter. By the law of 1822 this

was improved to the extent of permitting importation when

the price of wheat was seventy shillings a quarter. The

landlords vowed that this was the lowest rate ati which the

British farmer could live, and not a few of them cried out

for total prohibition. They had powerful allies in the

cabinet, and even the Liberal wing in the Cabinet which

was led by Canning, never dreamed of being able to push °

the landlords very hard. When pressed by a motion for

extending to the case of grain the same principle which had

just been so wisely glorified in the case of cotton, woollen,

silk, linen, and glass, Huskisson resisted it on the too

familiar ground that the motion was ill-timed. He did not

deny that it would presently be necessary to revise the Corn

Laws; and he added the important admission that several

foreign countries were not only in distress, owing to our

exclusion of their corn, but that in revenge they were
proceeding to shut out our manufactures.”

Two years elapsed before the Ministry ventured to touch
the burning subject. The new measure was not brought
forward by Huskisson, It was officially given out as the
reason for this that he was ill, but this was only one of the
peculiar blinds that serve to open people’s eyes. Everybody
suspected that Huskisson’s illness was in reality the chagrin
of the good economist ata bad measure. It was Canning
who, in the spring of 1827, introduced the new Corn Bill.
It proceeded on the plan of making the duty vary inversely
with the price of the grain in the home market. When the
price of wheat in the home market reached sixty shillings a
quarter, foreign wheat was to pay on importation a duty of
one pound. For every rise of a shilling in the home price
the duty was to go down two shillings; for every fall of a

* April 28, 1825. ® March 1, 1887.
vit.) THE OORN BILLS OF 1827-8, 165

shilling in the home price the duty was to go up two shil- 1827.
lings, The increase and decrease in the duty was always to alr. 23.
be double the fall and rise in the price. In other words,
when the average price reached seventy shillings, wheat
might be imported with a nominal duty of one shilling; on
the other hand, when the average price fell to fifty shillings,
the duty on foreign wheat would be forty shillings.

After the bill had passed the Commons, the Liverpool
Ministry fell to pieces, and a season of odious intrigue was
followed by the accession of Canning. The Corn Bill went
up to the Lords in due course. The Duke of Wellington,
though he had been a member of the Liverpool cabinet by
which the bill had been sanctioned, now moved an amend-
ment on it, and the new Ministry was defeated. Canning
and Huskisson let the bill drop. The event which so
speédily followed is one of the tragic pages in the history of
English statesmen. Canning died a few weeks after the
close of the session; Lord Goderich’s abortive Ministry
flickered into existence for four or five months, when it
flickered out again ; and before the end ofthe year the Duke
of Wellington was prime minister. The great soldier was a
narrow and sightless statesman, and with his accession to
power all the worse impulses of the privileged classes
acquired new confidence and intensity. In every sphere the
men of exclusion and restriction breathed more freely.

The Duke introduced a new Corn Bill. This bad measure
accepted Canning’s principle, if we may give the name of
_ principle to an empirical device ; but it carried the principle
further in the wrong direction. In the bill of 1827, the
starting-point had been the exaction of a twenty shilling
duty, when the home price was ‘sixty shillings the quarter.
According to the bill of 1828, when the price in the home
market was sixty-four shillings, the duty was twenty three
shillings and eightpence. The variations in the amount of
166 LIFH OF COBDEN. [onar.

1828. duty were not equal as in the previous bill, but went by

Aix. 24. leaps. Thus, when wheat was at sixty-nine shillings, the
duty was sixteen and eightpence ; and when the home price
rose to seventy three, then the duty fell to the nominal rate
of a shilling. This was the Corn Law which Cobden and his
friends rose up to overthrow.‘

So far back as 1815, when that important measure had
been passed restraining the introduction of wheat for home
consumption unless the average price had reached eighty
shillings for the quarter, the mischiefeof such legislation had
been understood and described in Parliament. In the House
of Lords the dissentients from the measure, only ten in
number, had signed a protest, drawn up, as it has always
been believed, by that independent and hard-headed states-
man, Lord Grenville. The grounds of dissent were these:
That all new restraints on commerce are bad in principle;
that such restraints are especially bad when they affect the

‘food of the people; that the results would not conduce to
plenty, cheapness, or steadiness of price ; that such a measure
levied a tax on the consumer, in order to give a bounty to
the grower of corn. This was a just and unanswerable
series of objections. Within six years (1821) a parliamentary
committee was appointed to inquire into agricultural de-
pression.

If we turn to the effect of our regulations upon foreign
countries, there too they brought nothing but calamity.
When grain rose to a starvation price in England, we
entered the foreign markets; the influx of our gold dis-
turbed their exchanges, embarrassed their merchants, and
engendered all the mischiéf of speculation and gambling.
As it was put by some speaker of the day, the question
was—“ Are you to receive food from a foreign country

4 9 Geo, IV., 0. 60.
vu]. ATTITUDE OF THE POLITICAL PARTINS. 167

quietly, reasonably, in payment for the manufactures which
you send to them? Or are you to go to them only in the
moment of perturbation, of anxiety, of starvation, and say,
Now we must have food at any rate, and we will pay any
price, though the very foundations of your society should
be shaken by the transaction.”

There was no essential bond between the maintenance of
agricultural protection and Conservative policy. Burke,
the most magnificent genius that the Conservative spirit
-has ever attracted, was one of the earliest assailants of legis-
lative interference in the corn trade, and the important
Corn Act of 1773 was inspired by his maxims.’ There
is no such thing, Burke said, as the landed interest separate
from the trading interest; and he who separates the
interest of the consumer from the interest of the grower,
starves the country." Five and twenty years after this, in
a luminous tract often praised by Cobden, he again attacked
a new form of the futile and mischievous system of dealing
with agriculture as if it were different from any other branch
of commerce, and denounced tampering with the trade in
provisions as of all things the most dangerous.” Although,
however, Conservative policy was not necessarily bound up
with protection, the Tory party were committed to it by all
the ties of personal interest.

The Whigs ruled the country, save for'a few months, for
eleven years from 1830 to 1841. In Lord Melbourne’s
Cabinet, in 1839, the Corn Laws were, as we have already

5 This was the most liberal piece of legislation until the Act of Repeal in
1846. When the home price was at or above 48s., imported wheat paid a
nominal duty of 6d., and the bounty on exportation ceased when the home
price was 44s. “The Act of 1773 should not have been altered,” says
McCulloch, “ unless to give greater freedom to the trade.”

6 Feb. 28, 1771.

1 Thoughts and Details on Scarcity. 1796.

1828.

_ Mr, 24,
1841.

 

Air. 37.

168 LIFE OF OCBDEN. [ouar.

seen, an open question.’ But t'vo years later the financial
position of the country had becc me so serious, and the credit
and forces of the party had fallen so low, that it became
necessary to enter upon a more decisive course. The ex-
penditure had undergone a progressive increase, amounting
in six years to four millions sterling on the annual estimates
for the military and naval services alone, a rise of more than
thirty per cent. For each of the last four years there had
been a serious deficiency of income. In 1840 it was a
million and a half. For 1841 it was given out as upwards
of one million, eight’ hundred snd fifty thousand. Nor was
this the result merely of an absence of fiscal skill in the
government of the day. It was the sign, confirmed by the
obstinate depression of trade and the sufferings of the popu-
lation, of an industrial and commercial stagnation which
could only be dealt with by an economic revolution.

Besides such considerations as these, there were the con-
siderations of party strength. Macaulay’s biographer quotes
a significant passage from his diary. “The cry for free
trade in corn,” he wrote in 1839, and Macaulay was in the
Cabinet, “seems to be very formidable. If the Ministers play
their game well, they may now either triumph completely,
or retire with honour. They have excellent cards, if they
know how to use them.”* Unluckily for themselves, they
did not know how to use them; and everybody was quite
aware that their conversion towards Free Trade was not
the result of conviction, but was only the last device of a
foundering party.

In 1840 a committee on import duties had sat, and
produced a striking and remarkable report, recommending
an abandonment of the illiberal and exclusive policy of the
past, and a radical simplification of the tariff by substituting
for a multitude of duties, imposts on a small number of the

8 Above, pp. 148 and 148, * Trevelyan’a Life, ii. 87.
vit. ] THE WHIG BUDGET. 169

most productive articles, the amount of the impost being
calculated with a view to the greatest consumption.
This was in truth the base of Peel’s great reform of 1842.
But Lord Melbourne’s Cabinet had no member of sufficient
grasp and audacity in finance to accept boldly and com-
prehensively, as Peel afterwards did, the maxim that re-
duction of duties is one way to increase of revenue. The
Whig government made the experiment timidly, and they
met the common fate of those who take a great principle
with half-heartedness and mistrust. They picked it up for
want of a better. “I cannot conceive,” said Peel, “a more
lamentable position than that of a Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer, seated on an empty chest, by the side of bottomless
deficiencies, fishing for a budget.”

The proposals which the government had hit upon were
these. They returned to the general principle of the budget
, which Lord Althorp had brought forward at the beginning
of the Whig reign (1831)—the boldest budget, as it has
justly been called, since the days of Pitt.’ The main object
of the commutation of duties, Lord Althorp had said, is the
relief of the lower classes. “The best way of relieving
them is by giving them employment; and this can only be
secured by reducing the taxes which most interfere with
manufacturing industry.” Among other devices for carry-
ing this principle into practice, Lord Althorp had proposed
to regulate the timber duties.? He had failed to carry that
measure against Peel’s opposition, which was aided by a
general opinion that the budget was unsound—an opinion
mainly due to the startling proposal to levy a tax of a half
per cent. on transfers of funded property. Lord Althorp’s
successor now came back to some of his ideas. The ques-

1 Walpole’s History of England, ii. 634.
2 The 10s. duty on Canadian timber was to be raised to 20s., and the 56s,
duty on Norwegian and other Huropean timber lowered to 20s,

1841,
Ait. 37,

 
 

Ait, 37.

170 LIFE OF COBDEN, [owar.

tion for the Cabinet to decide, as Lord John Russell describes
the situation, “was whether they would lower duties of a
protective character on a great number of small articles, or
whether they would attack the giant monopolies of sugar, of
timber, and of corn.” They adopted the latter course, but
in the spirit of Huskisson, and not of Cobden. They pre-
ferred an ineffectual approach to Free Trade, to a complete
repeal of protective duties. To touch the differential
duties on sugar was to attack one at least of the strongest
protective interests in Parliament, and every other pro-
tected interest moved in sympathetic agitation. The more
sanguine of the ministers hoped to beat them by conciliating
the manufacturing interest. This they expected to reach
through the Corn Laws. Lord John Russell moved (May 7) to
abolish the sliding scale of 1828, and to establish instead a
fixed eight-shilling duty upon wheat.’ The battle turned
upon the comparative merits of Free Trade and Protective
duties, and in the special question of the Corn Laws
upon the comparative merits of a graduated and a fixed
duty.

In a debate on a vote of confidence in 1840, Peel seemed
to have advanced a step from the position which had
irritated the Leaguers in 1839. He still considered a
liberal protection to domestic agriculture indispensable,
both in the special interests of agriculture, and the general
interests of the community. He did not tie himself to the
details of the existing law; but he maintained that a
graduated duty, varying inversely with the price of corn,
was far preferable to a fixed duty. He objected to a fixed
duty on two grounds: first, on account of the great difficulty
of determining the proper amount of it on any satisfactory
data ; secondly, and chiefly, because he foresaw that it would
be impossible to maintain that fixed duty under a very high

3 5s. on ryo; 48. 6d. on barley; 8s. 4d. on oats.
vm] DEFEAT OF THE WHIGS. 171

price of corn, and that if it were once withdrawn, there would
be extreme difficulty in re-imposing it.

He now, in 1841, repeated what he had said the previous
year. ‘‘ Notwithstanding the formidable combination which
has been formed against the Corn Laws,” he said, “not-
withstanding the declarations that either the total repeal or
the substitution of a fixed duty for the present scale, is the
inevitable result of the agitation now going forward, I do
not hesitate to avow my adherence to the opinion which I
expressed last year, and now again declare, that my pre-
ference is decidedly in favour of a graduated scale rather
than any fixed duty.”

Lord Melbourne had foreseen the fate of his Chancellor’s
budget. He was shrewd enough to be sure that a half-
measure could never raise up so many friends among the
manufacturers as to outweigh the united force of the agri-
cultural and colonial interests.‘ In fact, no friends were raised
up. No great body was conciliated, nor attracted, nor even

1841.
Br. 87.

 

touched with friendly interest; and the chief reason for this ,

stubborn apathy was, as Sir Robert Peel said, that nobody
believed that the proposals of Ministers sprang from their
spontaneous will, or that they had been adopted in conse-
quence of the deliberate convictions of those who brought
them forward. The conversion was too rapid. Only two
years had gone since the Prime Minister had declared in his
place that the repeal of the Corn Laws would be the most
insane proposition that ever entered a human head. Lord
Palmerston made a fine speech against the system of pro-
tective duties; but men remembered that, two. years
before, he had voted against Mr. Villiers’s motion to hear
the members of the Manchester Association at the bar of
the House, And the motives of so speedy a change were
too plain.
* Torrene’s Life of Melbourne, ii. 358.
1841.
ir, 37,

 

172 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [om. vn.

The first division as to the new budget was taken upon
the sugar duties; the Ministers found themselves in a
minority of thirty-six. They still held on, and instead of
either resigning or dissolving immediately, astonished par-
liament and the country by an announcement that they
would go on with the old sugar duties, and would bring
forward the question of the Corn Laws in the course of two
or three weeks. Sir Robert Peel declined to give them the
chance, brought forward a vote of want of confidence, and
carried it by a majority of one.

The Ministers could not believe that the House of Com-
mons represented the wishes of the country, and to the
country they now appealed.
CHAPTER VIII.
COBDEN ENTERS PARLIAMENT—FIRST SESSION,

Tue dissolution of Parliament took place at Midsummer. 1841.
The League went actively into the campaign, though not aur. 37.
with that inflexibility in electoral policy which afterwards
marked their operations. They had to face the question
which always perplexes the thorough-going advocates of any
political principle, when they come to deal with political
practice. In all such cases a section springs up which is
prepared to go half way. The Government had given to
this section a cry. They were not prepared for total and
immediate repeal, but they would go for a moderate fixed
,duty. The proposal of a fixed duty furnished the com-
promisers with a comfortable halting-place. They could
thus claim to be Free Traders, without being suspected of
the deadly sin of being extreme. The Council of the League
were called upon to settle the proper attitude towards the
men of the middle course. Were they to offer a fanatical
resistance to the men of the middle party, thus shocking
timid but reasonable sympathizers, and forfeiting their own
character for prudence and discretion, qualities as essential
to success a8 sincerity itself? They answered this question
as might have been expected at that time. For themselves,
they held to their own demand for the entire liberation of
the provision trade. Wherever there was a constituency
ripe for carrying « candidate of this colour, every exertion
1841.
At. 37,

 

1974 LIFR OF OOBDEN. [omar.

was to be made for securing a good candidate and ensuring
his return. Where friends of the League were in a con-
stituency not yet enlightened enough to return a candidate
of League principles, then they ought to vote for a candidate
who would support the measure of the Government. Con-
sidering both the moderate strength of the League at that
time, and the state of the question in men’s minds, it seems
that this was the natural and judicious course.

Some of the more dogged, however, among members of
the League were hurt by what they took for a Laodicean
halting between two opinions, and talked of withdrawing
or lessening their subscriptions. Subscriptions are always
a very sensitive point in agitations; and Cobden found it
worth while, after the elections were over, to write a letter
to one of the more important of the protesters, explaining
the principle on which the League had acted. “ With
reference to your complaint,” he says, “that the League
did not oppose the measure of the Government, I must re-
mind you that the real governing power, the landed and
other monopolists, held fast by the old law; they never
attempted to force the fixed duty upon us. We regarded
the Government proposal, not as an offer from a party strong
enough to concede anything, but merely as a step in
advance taken by a portion of the aristocracy. It was not
our business to attack them, whilst another party, more
powerful than the Government and the people, were reso-
lutely opposed to any concession. To my humble appre-
hension, it is as unwise as unjust in any kind of political
warfare to assail those who are disposed to co-operate,
however slightly, in the attempt to overthrow a formidable
and uncompromising enemy.”

In the elections in the north of England the repealers
were successful against both Whigs and Tories, and
among those who succeeded was Cobden hunself, “I
vu] THE NEW PARLIAMENT. 175

am afraid,” he wrote to his brother, “ you will be vexed
on landing in England to find me Member for Stock-
port. I had fully, as you know, determined not to go to
Parliament. I stood out. The Bolton and Stockport folks
both got requisitions to me insuring my return. I declined.
It was then that the Stockport people put the screw upon
me, by a large deputation confessing their inability to agree
amongst themselves upon any other man who could turn
out the Major. They offered me carte blanche as to my
attendance in London, and as to the time of my retaining
the seat. I was over-persuaded by my Manchester partisans
and have yielded, and the election is secure. You must
not vex yourself, for I am quite resolved that it shall not
be thecause of imposing either additional expense on my
mode of living, or any increased call upon my time for
public objects. I did not dream of this, as you very well
know.”?

“T have a tight to expect other men of business,” he
wrote to a manufacturer at Warrington, urging a contest
in that borough, “ for 1 am doing it myself much against
my wish. I offered to give a hundred pounds towards the
expenses of another candidate in my stead for Stockport,
and to canvass for him for a week; and it was only when
the electors declared that they could not agree to another,
and would not be able to oust the bread-taxers without me,
that I consented to stand.”

The League, in fact, put a strong pressure upon him, and
we may perhaps believe that Cobden’s resistance to the
urgency of his political friends was not very stubborn.
He must have felt by invincible instinct that only through
a seat in Parliament could he secure an effective hearing
for his arguments. Itis uncertain whether the opinion of
the constituency which had rejected him in 1837, had really

1 To F. Cobden, June 16, 1841.

1841.
Air. 87.

 
176 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [cHar.

1841. been excited by the Free Trade discussion, or whether the
&r. 37. motives of the voters were merely personal. Shrewd
electioneerers have a maxim that a candidate is sure to win
any given seat in time, if he is only tenacious enough.
Cobden was returned by a triumphant majority. “The
Stockport affair,” he wrote, “was carried with unexpected
éclat. We drubbed the Major so soundly that at one o’clock
he resigned. We could have beaten him easily by two to one.
My committee worked to admiration. Two hundred electors
were up all the night previous to polling, including the
mill-owners .... who neither changed their clothes nor
closed their eyes for thirty-six hours. These men were
against me at the former election. Upon the whole the
elections will give Peel a majority of thirty or forty. So
much the better. We shall do something in opposition.” ?
It proved that Sir Robert Peel had a majority, not of
thirty or forty, but of more than ninety. Lord Melbourne,
however, did not anticipate the practice of our own day
by resigning before the meeting of the hostile Parliament.
The Ministers put into the Queen’s speech as good an
account as they could of their policy, and awaited their
fate. Cobden took his seat on the first day of the session.
“ Yesterday,” he says, “I went down to the House to be
sworn to renounce the Pope and the Pretender. Then I
went into the Treasury, and heard Lord John deliver his last
dying speech and confession to his parliamentary minority.
He gave us the substance of the Queen’s speech, which is in
the Chronicle to-day. I cannot learn what the Tories intend to
do to-night, but I suppose they will try to avoid committing
themselves against the Free Trade measures. It is allowed
on all sides that they fear discussion as they do death. It
is reported that the old Duke advises his party not to force
themselves on the Queen, but to let the Whigs go on till the

2 To F. Cobden, Julw 8, 1841.
vit] FIRST SPEEOH IN PARLIAMENT. 177

reins fairly drop out of their hands. The Queen seems to
be more violently opposed than ever to the Tories.” *

The Queen had no choice. An amendment was moved
upon the address in both Houses, and carried in the Commons
by the irresistible majority of ninety-one. The vote was
taken at five in the morning (August 28), and in the after-
noon of the same day, Lord Melbourne went down to
Windsor to resign his post. Within a few days that great
administration was formed which contained not only able
Tories like Lord Lyndhurst, but able seceders from the
Whigs like Lord Stanley and Sir James Graham; which
commanded an immense majority in both Houses; which
was led by a chief of consummate sagacity ; and which was

at last, five years afterwards, slowly broken to pieces by |

the work of Cobden and the League.

Cobden made his maiden speech in the debate which
preceded this great official revolution. ‘I was induced,”
,he writes to his brother, “to speak last night at
about nine o’clock. We thought the debate would have
been brought to a close. The Tories were doggedly re-
solved from the first not to enter upon any discussion of
the main question, and the discussion, if it could be
called one, went on as flat as possible. My speech had
one good effect. I called up a booby who let fly at the
manufacturers, very much to the chagrin, I suspect, of the
leader of his party. It is now thought that the Tories
must come out and discuss in self-defence the Free Trade
question, and if not, they will be damaged by the argu-
ments on the other side. All my friends say I did well.
But I feel it very necessary to be cautious in speaking too
much. I shall be an observer for some time.” *

We now see that Cobden’s maiden speech was much more
than a success in the ordinary sense of attracting the atten-
3 To F. Cobden, August 24, 1841. 4 To F. Cobden, August 26, 1841.

B

1841.
tr. 87,

 
1841,
At, 37.

 

178 LIFE OF OOBDEN. (oar.

tion of that most difficult of all audiences. It sounded
a new key, and startled men by an accent that was strange
in the House of Commons. The thoughtful among them
recognized the rare tone of reality, and the note of a man
dealing with things and not words. He produced that
singular and profound effect which is perceived in English
deliberative assemblies, when a speaker leaves party recrimi-
nations, abstract argument, and commonplaces of sentiment,
in order to inform his hearers of telling facts in the
condition of the nation. Cobden reminded the House that
it was the condition of the nation, and not the interests of
a class, or the abstract doctrines of the economist, that
cried for a relief which it was in the power of the legis-
lature to bestow. This was the point of the speech. In
spite of the strong wish of everybody on the side of the
majority, and of many on the side of the minority, to keep
the Corn Law out of the debate, Cobden insisted that the
Corn Law was in reality the only matter which at that
moment was worth debating atall. The family of a noble-
man, he showed the House, paid to the bread tax about one
halfpenny on every hundred pounds of income, while the
effect of the tax on the family of the labouring man was
not less than twenty per cent. <A fact of this kind, as they
said of Pericles’s speeches, left a sting in the minds of his
hearers. The results of the injustice were seen in the
misery of the population. A great meeting of ministers of
religion of all sects had been held in Manchester a few days
before, and Cobden told the House something of the desti-
tution throughout the country, to which these men had
borne testimony.

“ At that meeting,” he said, “ most important statements
of facts were made relating to the condition of the labouring-
classes. He would not trouble the House by reading those
statements ; but they showed that in every district of the
vit] FIRST SPEEOH IN PARLIAMENT, 179

country .... the condition of the great body of her
Majesty’s labouring population had deteriorated woefully
within the last ten years, and more especially within the
last three years; and that, in proportion as the price of
_ food increased, in the same proportion the comforts of the
working-classes had diminished. One word with respect
to the manner in which his allusion to this meeting was
received. He did not come there to vindicate the conduct
of these Christian men in having assembled in order to take
this subject into consideration. The people who had to
judge them were their own congregations. There were at
that meeting members of the Established Church, of the
Church of Rome, Independents, Baptists, members of the
Church of Scotland and of the Secession Church, Metho-
dists, and indeed ministers of every other denomination ;
and if he were disposed to impugn the character of those
divines, he felt he should be casting a stigma and a reproach
upon the great body of professing Christians in his country.
He happened to be the only member of the House present
at that meeting; and he might be allowed to state that
when he heard the tales of misery there described ; when
he heard these ministers declare that members of their
congregations were kept away from places of worship during
the morning service, and only crept out under cover of the
darkness of night; when they described others as unfit to
receive spiritual consolation, because they were sunk so
low in physical destitution ; that the attendance at Sunday-
schools was falling off; when he heard these and such-like
statements; when he who believed that the Corn Law, the
provision monopoly, was at the bottom of all that was
endured, heard those statements, and from such authority,
he must say that he rejoiced to see gentlemen of such
character come forward, and like Nathan, when he addressed
the owner of flocks and herds who had plundered the poor

1841.
Air, 37.

 
1841,
Mir, 37.

 

180 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [orap.

man of his only lamb, say unto the doer of injustice, who-
ever he might be: ‘Thouartthe man.’ The people, through

When they found so many ministers of religion, without
any sectarian differences, joining heart and hand in a great
cause, there could be no doubt of their earnestness. ... .
Englishmen had a respect for rank, for wealth—perhaps too
much; they felt an attachment to the laws of their country ;
but there was another attribute in the minds of Englishmen
—there was @ permanent veneration for sacred things; and
when their sympathy and respect and deference were
enlisted in what they believed to be a sacred cause, you
and yours [addressing the Protectionists] will vanish like
chaff before the whirlwind.”

One or two simpletons laughed at an appeal to evidence
from such a source; but it was felt that, though they might
jeer at the speaker as a Methodist parson, and look down
upon him as a manufacturer, yet he represented a new force
with which the old parties would one day have to deal. In
the country his speech excited the deep interest of that great
class, who are habitually repelled by the narrow passions and
seeming insincerity of ordinary politics.

His friends in the north were delighted by the vigour and
alacrity of their champion. With the sanguine assurance of
all people who have convinced themselves of the goodness of
their cause, and are very earnest in wishing to carry it, they
were certain that Cobden’s arguments must speedily convert
Parliament and the Ministry. “It is pleasant,’ Cobden
wrote to his brother, “to learn that my maiden effort has
pleased our good friends. I have some letters from Man-
chester with congratulations, It is very pleasant, but I must
be careful not to be carried off my legs. Stanley scowls and
Peel smiles at me, both meaning mischief. Thero is no other
man on the other side that I have heard, who is at all for-
Vutt. ] FIRST SPRHEOH IN PARLIAMENT. 181

midable. I observe there are a great many busy men of
our party who like to see their names in print, and who
therefore take up small matters continually; they are very
little attended to by the House. With these men I shall
not interfere, and they will all aid me in obtaining a fair
hearing on my great question. We had a curious scene of
jealousy and bickering to-day. Sharman Crawford brought
on an amendment to the address without consulting any-
body.’ Roebuck, who is as wayward and impulsive as he is
clever, walked out of the House with a tail of four or five,
whilst hearty old Wallace of Greenock cried out, ‘Who
cares for you ? who cares?’ amidst the roars of the House.
I can see that Roebuck will never do any good for our Free
' Trade party. He does not see the importance of our princi-
ple, and therefore cannot feel a proper interest init. He isa
good deal in communication with Brougham, who, by the way,
sent word by Sturge to-day that he wants to see me. I
find myself beset by cliques, but my abstemious and rumi-
nating turn will make me entirely safe from all such intrigues
and influences.” *

“From what I can hear,” he wrote a month later, “it
appears that Peel has no plan in view of any kind, with
respect to the corn question. The aristocracy and people
are gaping at him, wondering what he is going to do, and
his head will be at work with no higher ambition than to
gull both parties. Iam of opinion that there never was a
better moment than at present for carrying the question
out of doors. If there be determination enough in the
minds of the people to make a vigorous demonstration

5 When the House met to receive the Report on the Amended Address,
Mr. Crawford proposed an amendment, to the effect that the distress
deplored in the Speech was to be attributed to the non-representation of
the working olasses in Parliament. The Radicals were not unanimous, and
the amendment was defeated by 283 againat 89,

* To EL Oodden, August 29, 1641.

1841,
Air. 37.

 
1841,
Air, 37.

 

182 LIF Of COBDEN. [oHAP.

during the recess, he will give way; if not, he will stick
to his sliding scale and the aristocracy. There is a rumour |
very industriously spread in London that we are going to
have a better trade. This is one in the chapter of accidents
upon which Peel depends for an escape into smooth water.”
Now, as throughout the whole of the struggle, Cobden
kept up the closest relations with the local leaders of the
movement in the north. One of the most baneful effects of
the concentration and intensity of parliamentary life is that
members cease to inspire themselves with the more whole-
some air of the nation outside. From the beginning to the
end of his career, Cobden cared very little about the opinion
of the House, and hoped very little from its disinterestedness.
He never greatly valued the judgment of parliamentary
coteries. It was the mind of the country that he always
sought to know and to influence. And though he had
proper confidence in the soundness of his own judgment, he
was wholly free from the weakness of thinking that his
judgment could stand alone. He was invariably eager to
collect the opinions of his fellow-workers at Manchester,
and not only to collect them, but to be guided by them.
“Tt is quite evident,” he wrote to Mr. George Wilson,
towards the end of September, “that Peel has made up his
mind to prorogue without entering upon the consideration
of the Corn Law. ‘The business of the session will now be
hurried on and brought to a close probably by the end of
the week. Under these circumstances I wish to know the
opinion of our friends in Manchester as to the course which it
would be advisable for the few Anti-Corn Law members
now in London to pursue. Will you be good enough at
once to call together the whole of the Council, and consult
with as many judicious people as you can, and determine
whether you think anything, and what, can be done to
promote the cause? ‘The main question for you to decide is
vunt.] FIRST SPHEOH IN PARLIAMENT. 183

whether it be advisable for Mr. Villiers to give notice of a 1841.

 

motion for discussing the question before the Houses are x. 37.
prorogued, The Tories would shirk the discussion in the same
way as heretofore. Do you think under such circumstances
that it would advance our cause by persisting in a one-sided
debate? I think the general opinion up here is that the
way in which Peel has hitherto evaded the question, has done
us good service by dissatisfying the public mind with the new
Ministry. But we are not good judges of the public feeling,
who are actors in a sphere of our own, where we are apt to
be acted upon by our own preconceived opinions. You are in
a better position for forming a correct judgment as to the
state of the public mind. The question for you to decide
really is whether the feeling out of doors would back a small
party in the House struggling for a hearing of their cause now.
Do you think there is a desire for us to make a pertinacious |
stand now? Be good enough to take the matter into your
calm consideration, and give me the result of your delibera-
tion by return. Mr. Villiers, who is now installed as our
leader, would, I have no doubt, act upon your well-considered
judgment. I would merely add that you would do well to
take into consideration the probable amount of public de-
monstration to be made by memorials to the Queen during
the next week. You willbe able to form an estimate of the
extent to which the example of Manchester will be followed
in other places, and which must form a material considera-
tion in deciding upon the course we ought to take in
Parliament.” ”

Cobden made two other speeches in the course of the
autumn session, after the re-election of the Ministers (Sept.
16—Oct. 7). Lord John Russell reproached the new
Premier for asking for time to prepare his schemes for
repairing the national finances. Peel justly asked him why,

; 7 To G. Wilson, September, 1841.
1s.
ir. 87.

 

184 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [ouar.

if they were so convinced of the urgency of the evils inflicted
on the country by the Corn Laws, if they thought that
commercial distress was to be attributed to them, and that
these laws were at the root of the sufferings of the working

‘class—why they had allowed them to remain an open

question, and why they remained in office, allowing Lord
Melbourne to hold opposite opinions. Cobden rose to
protest against treating the subject as a party question,
and against making the House a mere debating club. He
insisted on trying to keep the mind of the House fixed on
the privation and distress in the manufacturing districts,
and he urged the Minister not to postpone the question of
the Corn Laws over the coming winter.

“....I sat through the voting of money, vastly edified

“and scandalized at the way in which the poor devils of tax-

payers are robbed. The sum of 100,000/. for arming and
clothing militia in Canada, light-houses in Jamaica, negro
education, bishops all over the world, &c., &c., in goodly
proportions. . . . The people are, I am afraid, fit for
nothing better. I did not offer an objection, for it would
have been ridiculous to do so. It did, however, cost me
some efforts to hold my tongue. I am glad that you did not
think my second speech too strong. I was not quite satisfied
with it myself. It was, however, badly reported. I was
rather better pleased with my third on Friday, when I found
there was an effort made at first to annoy me, on the part
of some young obscures, one of whom followed me with an
evidently ‘conned reply,’ in which he had quotations from
my speech at Manchester, about the Oxford education, the
Tlissus, Scamander, &c. His speech was not reported. It
was a mere prize essay oration, which, thanks to the prac-
tical turn that has been given to subjects of debate, finds
no relish in the House now-a-days. It is quite clear that ]
am looked upon as a Gothic invader, and the classicals will
vut.] PROTEST AGAINS THE PHILANTHROPISTS. 185

criticize me unmercifully. But I have vitality enough to 1841.

 

rise above the little trips which my heels may get at first. Air. 87.
Ultimately these attacks will only give me a surer foothold.
The part of my last speech that struck home the most was
at the close, I had observed an evident disposition on the
Tory side to set up as philanthropists. Old Sir Robert
Inglis sat with his hands folded ready to sigh, and if needful,
to weep over a case of church destitution; he delivered a
flaming panegyric upon Lord Ashley the other night, styling
him the friend of the unprotected, after he had been canting
about the sufferings of lunatics. Added to this, Peel has been
professing the utmost anxiety for paupers, and Sir Hardley
Wilmot is running after Sturge. When I told them at the
close of my speech that I had been quietly observing all
this, but it would not all do unless they showed their con-
sistency by untaxing the poor man’s loaf, there was a still-
ness and attention on the other side very much like the con-
duct of men looking aghast at the first consciousness of being
found out. My style of speaking pleases the gallery people,
and has attracted the notice of the Radicals out of doors.
But the Tories, especially the young fry, regard me in no
other way than as a petard would be viewed by people
in a powder-magazine, a thing to be trampled on, kicked
about, or put out in any way they can.’’*

When Cobden rose on this last occasion there were cries
of impatience from the ministerial side of the House, but
this did not prevent him from persevering with an argu-
mentative remonstrance against the incredulity or apathy
with which the Government treated the distress of the
manufacturing towns. The point which he pressed most
keenly was the interchange of food and manufactures be-
tween England and the United States that would instantly
follow repeal. He quoted from a petition to the Congress

§ To F. Cobden, Sept. 47, 1841.
1841,

Ait. 37,

186 LIFE OF COBDEN.: (omar,

of the United States. The petitioner argued that if the
English landowners would only be satisfied with a moderate
duty in lieu of the existing sliding scale, there would then
be a constant market for wheat in England, and the whole
of the return would be required in British manufactured
goods; the consequence of which would be that every
spindle, wheel, and hammer in the manufacturing district in
this country would be set free.

“ Suppose now,” Cobden went on, “ that it were but the
Thames instead of the Atlantic which separated the two
countries—suppose that the people on one side were
mechanics and artisans, capable by their industry of pro-
ducing a vast supply of manufactures; and that the people
on the other side were agriculturists, producing infinitely
more than they could themselves consume of corn, pork, and
beef—fancy these two separate peoples anxious and willing to

_ exchange with each other the produce of their common in-

dustries, and fancy a demon rising from the middle of the
river—for I cannot imagine anything human in such a
position and performing such an office—fancy a demon
rising from the river, and holding in his hand an Act of
Parliament, and saying, ‘ You shall not supply each other’s
wants ;’ and then in addition to that, let it be supposed
that this demon said to his victim with an affected smile,
‘This is for your benefit; I do it entirely for your protec-
tion!’ Where was the difference between the Thames and
the Atlantic ?”

It was after a vigorous and persistent description of the
privations of the people in the North, that he turned sharply
round upon the men whom he denounced for drawing the
attention of Parliament away from the real issues to vague
questions of philanthropy. ‘ When I go down to the manu-
facturing districts,” he said, “I know that I shall be re-

turning to a gloomy scene. I know that starvation is
vit. j THE PHILANTHROPISTS. 187

stalking through the land, and that men are perishing for 1841.
waut of the merest necessaries of life. When I witness this, Air. 37.
and recollect that there is a law which especially provides

for keeping our population in absolute want, I cannot help
attributing murder to the Legislature of this country: and
wherever I stand, whether here or out-of-doors, I will
denounce that system of legisiative murder.” He then
turned to one member who was a great friend of negro
‘slaves, and to another who was a great friend of Church
Establishment, and who had lately complimented Lord
Ashley as the great friend of humanity generally, and of
factory children in particular. ‘When I see a disposition
among you,” he said, “to trade in humanity, I will not
question your motives, but this I will tell you, that if you
would give force and grace to your professions of humanity,

it must not be confined to the negro at the antipodes, nor to

the building of churches, nor to the extension of Church
establishments, nor to occasional visits to factories to talk
sentiment over factory children—you must untax the people’s
bread.””

Cobden’s intervention in debate was more than a parlia-
mentary incident. It was the symbol of a new spirit of self-
assertion in a great social order. The Reform Bill had
admitted manufacturing towns to a share of representation
Cobden lost no time in vindicating the reality of this repre-
sentation. The conflict of the next five years was not merely
a battle about a customs duty ; it was astruggle for political
influence and social equality between the landed aristocracy
and the great industrialists. Of this, an incident in the
debates of the following session will furnish us with a suf-
ficiently graphic illustration. It is only by reading the cor-
respondence of that time, and listening to the men who still
survive, without having left its passioas behind them, that
we realize the angry astonishment with which the old society
188 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [ou. vim.

1841. of England beheld the first serious attempts of a new class

 

#r. 37. to assert its claim to take a foremost place. Many years
after the fight began, when Mr. Bright was unseated at
Manchester, we shall find that Cobden laid most stress on
the ingratitude of the manufacturers of the northern capital
in forgetting that Mr. Bright had been the “ valiant defender
of their order,” ~
CHAPTER IX.
COBDEN AS AN AGITATOR.

In the antumn of 1841 there happened what proved to bea 1841.
signal event in the annals of the League, and in Cobden’s air. 37.
personal history. He and Mr. Bright made that solemn
compact which gave so strong an impulse to the movement,
and was the beginning of an affectionate and noble friend-
ship that lasted without a cloud or a jar until Cobden’s
death.

Mr. Bright, who was seven years younger than Cobden,
had made his acquaintance some time before the question of
the Corn Laws had come up. He had gone over in the year
1836 or 1837 to Manchester, to call upon Cobden, “to ask
him if he would be kind enough to come to Rochdale, and to
speak at an education meeting which was about to be held in
the schoolroom of the Baptist chapel in West Street of that
town. I found him in his office in Mosley Street. I intro-
duced myself to him. I told him what I wanted. His
countenance lit up with pleasure to find that there were
others that were working in this question, and he without
hesitation agreed to come. He came, and he spoke; and
though he was then so young as a speaker, yet the qualities
of his speech were such as remained with him so long as he
was able to speak at all—clearness, logic, a conversational
eloquence, a persuasiveness which, when conjoined with the
1841,
Air, 87.

 

190 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [onar.

absolute truth which there was in his eye and in his coun-
tenance—a persuasiveness which it was almost impossible to
resist.”” .

Then came the gradual formation of the League, Cobden’s
election to Parliament, and the close of his first session.
“Tt was in September, in the year 1841,” said Mr. Bright. |
The sufferings throughout the country were fearful; and
you who live now, but were not of age to observe what was
passing in the country then, can have no idea of the state of
your country in that year..... At that time I was at
Leamington, and I was, on the day when Mr. Cobden called
upon me—for he happened to be there at the time on a visit
to some relatives—I was in the depths of grief, I might
almost say of despair; for the light and sunshine of my
house had been extinguished. All that was left on earth of
my young wife, except the memory of a sainted life and of a
too brief happiness, was lying still and cold in the chamber
above us. Mr. Cobden called upon me as his friend, and
addressed me, as you might suppose, with words of con-
dolence.’ After a time he looked up and said, ‘Thero are
thousands of houses in England at this moment where wives,
mothers, and children are dying of hunger. Now,’ he said,
‘when the first paroxysm of your grief is past, I would
advise you to come with me, and we will never rest till the
Corn Law is repealed.’ I accepted his invitation. I knew
that the description he had given of the homes of thousands
was not an exaggerated description. I felt in my conscience
that there was a work which somebody must do, and there-
fore I accepted his invitation, and from that time we never
ceased to labour hard on behalf of the resolution which we
had made.”

“For seven years,” Mr. Bright says, “the discussion

1 Mr. Bright lost his wife on the 10th of September, and Cobden’s visit
to him was on the 18th,
1x.] FRIENDSHIP WITH MR. BRIGHT. 191.

on that one question—whether it was good for a man to
have half a loaf or a whole loaf—for seven years the dis-
cussion was maintained, I will not say with doubtful result,
for the result was never doubtful, and never could be in
such a cause; but for five years or more [1841-6] we
devoted ourselves without stint; every working hour almost
was given up to the discussion and to the movement in
connexion with this question.””?

This is an appropriate place for considering some of the
qualifications that Cobden brought to the mission which he
and his ally thus imposed upon themselves. In speaking of
him I may seem to ignore fellow-workers whose share in the
agitation was hardly less important than his own; without
whose zeal, disinterestedness, and intelligence, the work of
himself and Mr. Bright would have been of little effect, and
could never have been undertaken. No history of the
League could be perfect which did not commemorate the
names and labours of many other able men, who devoted
themselves with hardly inferior energy to the exhausting
work of organization and propagandism. But these pages
have no pretensions to tell the whole story; they only are
concerned with so much of it as relates to one of its heroes.
“We were not even the first,” said Mr. Bright, “though after-
wards, perhaps, we became the foremost before the public.
But there were others before us.” The public imagination
was struck by the figures of the pair who had given them-
selves up to a great public cause. ‘The alliance between
them far more than doubled the power that either could
have exerted without the other. The picture of two plain
men leaving their homes and their business, and going

2 This and the preceding passages are from the very beautiful address
delivered by Mr. Bright, when he unveiled the statue of his friend at
Bradford, July 25,1877. The address is to be found in Mr. Thorold Rogers's
volume of Public Addresses of John Bright, pp. 354—366,

1841,

Air, 37.
1841.
ir. 37.

 

192 LIFR OF COBDEN. {onsP

over the length and breadth of the land to convert the nation,
had about it something apostolic: it presented something so
far removed from the stereotyped ways of political activity,
that this circumstance alone, apart from the object for which
they were pleading, touched and affected people, and gave a
certain dramatic interest to the long pilgrimages of the two
men who had only become orators because they had some-
thing to say, which they were intent on bringing their hearers
to believe, and which happened to be true, wise, and just.
The agitator has not been a very common personage in
English history. The greatest that has ever been seen was
O’Connell, and I do not know of any other, until the time of
the League, who may be placed even as second to him. In
the previous century Wilkes had made a great figure, and
Wilkes was a man of real power and energy. But he was

rather the symbol of a strong popular sentiment, than its

inspirer; and he may be more truly said to have been borne
on the crest of the movement, than to have given to it force
or volume.

Cobden seemed to have few of the endowments of an
agitator, as that character is ordinarily thought of. He had
no striking physical gifts of the histrionic kind. He had
one physical quality which must be ranked first among the
secondary endowments of great workers. Later in life he
said, “If I had not had the faculty of sleeping like a dead
fish, in five minutes after the most exciting mental effort,
and with the certainty of having oblivion for six consecutive
hours, I should not have been alive now.” In his early days,
he was slight in frame and build. He afterwards grew
nearer to portliness. He had a large and powerful head,
and the indescribable charm of a candid eye. His features
were not of a commanding type; but they were illuminated
and made attractive by the brightness of intelligence, of
sympathy, and of earnestness. About the mouth there was
m.] 4HEIR DIFFERENT OHARACTERISTIOS. 193

acuriously winning mobility and play. His voice was clear,

1841.

varied in its tones, sweet, and penetrating; but it had 37.

scarcely the compass, or the depth, or the many resources
that have usually been found in orators who have drawn great
multitudes of men to listen tothem. Of nervous fire, indeed,
he had abundance, though it was not the fire which
flames up in the radiant colours of a strong imagination.
It was rather the glow of a thoroughly convinced reason, of
intellectual ingenuity, of argumentative keenness. It came
from transparent honesty, thoroughly clear ideas, and a very
definite purpose. These were exactly the qualities that
Cobden’s share in the work demanded. Any professor could
have supplied a demonstration of the economic fallacy of
monopoly. Fox, the Unitarian minister, was better able to
stir men’s spirits by pictures, which were none the less true
for being very florid, of the social miseries that came of
monopoly. In Cobden the fervour and the logic were
mixed, and his fervour was seen to have its source in the
strength of his logical confidence.

It has often been pointed out how the two great spokes-
men of the League were the complementsof one another; how
their gifts differed, so that one exactly covered the ground
which the other was predisposed to leave comparatively
untouched. The differences between them, it is true, were
not so many as the points of resemblance. If in Mr. Bright

there was a deeper austerity, in both there was the same —

homeliness of allusion, and the same graphic plainness.
Both avoided the stilted abstractions of rhetoric, and neither
was ever afraid of the vulgarity of details. In Cobden as
in Bright, we feel that there was nothing personal or small,
and that what they cared for so vehemently were great
causes. There was a resolute standing aloof from the
small things of party, which would be almost arrogant, if
the whole texture of what they had to say were lesa
a
194 LIFE oF OOBDEN. [onar.

1841. thoroughly penetrated with political morality and with
4, 37. humanity. Then there came the points of difference. Mr.
Bright had all the resources of passion alive within his
breast. He was carried along by vehement political anger,
and, deeper than that, there glowed a wrath as stern as that
of an ancient prophet. To cling to a mischievous error
seemed to him to savour of moral depravity and corruption
of heart. What he saw was the selfishness of the aristocracy
and the landlords, and he was too deeply moved by hatred
of this, to care to deal very patiently with the bad reasoning
which their own self-interest inclined his adversaries to
mistake for good. His invective was not the expression
of mere irritation, but a profound and menacing passion.
Hence he dominated his audiences from a height, while his
companion rather drew them along after him as friends and
equals. Cobden was by no means incapable of passion, of
violent feeling, or of vehement expression. His fighting
qualities were in their own way as formidable as Mr. Bright’s;
and he had a way of dropping his jaw and throwing back
his head, when he took off the gloves for an encounter in
good earnest, which was not less alarming to his opponents
than the more sombre style of his colleague. Still, it was not
passion to which we must look for the secret of his oratorical
success. I have asked many scores of those who knew
him, Conservatives as well as Liberals, what this secret was,
and in no single case did my interlocutor fail to begin,
and in nearly every case he ended as he had begun,
with the word persuasiveness. Cobden made his way to
men’s hearts by the union which they saw in him of
simplicity, earnestness, and conviction, with a singular
facility of exposition. This facility consisted in a remark-
able power of apt and homely illustration, and a curious
ingenuity in framing the argument that happened to be
wented, Besides his skill in thus hitting on the right
1x,] COBDEN’S ORATORIOAL QUALITIES. 195

argument, Cobden had the oratorical art of presenting it in
the way that made its admission to the understanding of a
listener easy and undenied. He always seemed to have
made exactly the right degree of allowance for the difficulty
with which men follow a speech, as compared with the ease
of following the same argument on a printed page which
they may con and ponder until their apprehension is com-
plete. Then men were attracted by his mental alacrity, by
the instant readiness with which he turned round to grapple
with a new objection. Prompt and confident, he was never
at a loss, and he never hesitated. This is what Mr. Disraeli
meant when he spoke of Cobden’s “sauciness.” It had
an excellent effect, because everybody knew that it sprang,
not from levity or presumption, but from a free mastery of
his subject.

If in one sense the Corn Laws did not seem a promising
theme for a popular agitation, they were excellently fitted
to bring out Cobden’s peculiar strength, for they dealt with
firm matter and demonstrable inferences, and this was the
region where Cobden’s powers naturally exercised them-
selves. In such an appeal to sentiment and popular
passion as the contemporary agitation of O’Connell for
Repeal, he could have played no leading part.* Where
knowledge and logic were the proper instruments, Cobden
was a master.

Enormous masses of material for the case poured every
week into the offices of the League. All the day long
Cobden was talking with men who had something to tell
him. Correspondents from every quarter of the land plied
him with information. Yet he was never overwhelmed by
the volume of the stream. He was incessantly on the alert
for a useful fact, a telling illustration, a new fallacy to expose.
So dexterously did he move through the ever-growing piles

8 See Mr. McCarthy's History af Ow Own Times, i. 340, 248.

1841.
At. 37.

 
196 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [onar.

1841. of matter, that it seemed to his companions as if nothing

 

Zr. 37. apposite ever escaped him, and nothing irrelevant ever
detained him.

A political or religious agitator must not be afraid of
incessant repetition. Repetition is his most effective instru-
ment. The fastidiousness which is proper to literature, and
which makes a man dread to say the same thing twice, is in
the field of propagandism mere impotency. This is one
reason why even the greatest agitators in causes which have
shaken the world, are often among the least interesting men
in history. Cobden had moral and social gifts which invest
him with a peculiar attraction, and will long make his
memory interesting as that of a versatile nature; but he
was never afraid of the agitator’s art of repeating his for-
mula, his principles, his illustrations, his phrases, with
untiring reiteration.

Though he abounded in matter, Cobden can hardly be
described as copious. He is neat and pointed, nor is his
argument ever left unclenched; but he permits himself no
large excursions. What he was thinking of was the matter
immediately in hand, the audience before his eyes, the point
that would tell best then and there, and would be most likely
to remain in men’s recollections. For such purposes copious-
ness is ill-fitted; that is for the stately leisure of the pulpit.
Cobden’s task was to leave in his hearer’s mind a compact
answer to each current fallacy, and to scotch or kill as many
protectionist sophisms as possible within the given time.
What is remarkable, is that while he kept close to the matter
and substance of his case, and resorted comparatively little to
sarcasm, humour, invective, pathos, or the other elements that
are catalogued in manuals of rhetoric, yet no speaker was ever
further removed from prosiness, or came into more real and
sympathetic contact with his audience. His speaking was
thoroughly businesslike, and yet it was never dull. It was
1x.] HIS PHRSONALITY. 197

not, according to the old definition of oratory, reason fused
in passion, but reason fused by the warmth of personal
geniality. No one has ever reached Cobden’s pitch of suc-
cess as a platform speaker, with a style that seldom went
beyond the vigorous and animated conversation of a bright
and companionable spirit.

After all, it is not tropes and perorations that make the
popular speaker ; it is the whole impression of his personality.
* Wewho onlyread them, can discern certain admirable qualities
in Cobden’s speeches ; aptness in choosing topics, lucidity in
presenting them, buoyant confidence in pressing them home,
But those who listened to them felt much more than all
this. They were delighted by mingled vivacity and ease, by
directness, by spontaneousness and reality, by the charm,
so effective and so uncommon between a speaker and his
audience, of personal friendliness and undisguised cor-
diality. Let me give an illustration of this. Cobden once
had an interview with Rowland Hill, some time in 1888,
and gave evidence in favour of the proposed reform in
the postage. Rowland Hill, in writing to him afterwards,
excuses himself for troubling Cobden with his private affairs :
“Your conversation, evidence, and letters, have created
a feeling in my mind so like that which one entertains
towards an old friend, that I am apt to forget that I have
met you but once.” It was just the same with bodies of
men as it was with individuals. No public speaker was
ever so rapid and so successful in establishing genial
relations of respect without formality, and intimacy without
familiarity. One great source of this, in Mr. Bright’s
words, was “the absolute truth that shone in his eye and in
his countenance.”

I have spoken of Cobden’s patience in acquiring and
shaping matter. This was surpassed by his inexhaustible
patience in dealing with the mental infirmities of those

 

Ait. 37,
1841,
tr, 37.

 

198 LIfE OF OOBDEN. [owar.

whom it was his business to persuade, He was wholly free
from the unmeasured anger against human stupidity, which
is itself one of the most provoking forms of that stupidity.
Cobden was not without the faculty of intellectual contempt,
and he had the gift of irony ; but in the contempt was no
presumption, and it was irony without truculence. There
came a time when he found that he could do nothing with
men; when he could hardly even hope to find an audience
that would suffer him to speak. But during the work of
the League, at any rate, he had none of that bias against
his own countrymen to which the reformer in every.
nation is so liable, because upon the reformer their de-
fects press very closely and obstructively, while he has no
reason to observe the same or worse defects in other
nations,

Tt has often been said that Cobden was a good English-
man, and he was so, in spite of finer qualities which cur
neighbours are not willing to allow to us. London society,
and smart journalists who mistook a little book-knowledge
for culture, were in the habit of disparaging Cobden as a
common manufacturer, without an idea in his head beyond
buying in the cheapest market and selling in the dearest. This
was not the way in which he struck the most fastidious, criti-
cal, and refined man of letters in Europe, accustomed to mix
with the most important personages of literature and affairs
then alive. Prosper Mérimée saw a great deal of Cobden in
1860, when they both spent part of the winter at Cannes.
* Cobden,” he wrote to his intimate correspondent, “is a man
of an extremely interesting mind; quite the opposite of an
Englishman in this respect, that you never hear him talk com-
monplaces,and that he has few prejudices.” Itwas just because
he was not a man of prejudice, that he had none against his
own countrymen. We saw how when he was travelling in
America, he found his British blood up, as he said, and he
ix.) FEELING FOR HIS COUNTBYMEN. 199

dealt faithfully with the disparagers of the mother country.* 1841.

 

Returning from France on one occasion, Cobden says in his Afr. 87.
journal, that they all remarked on the handsome women
who were seen on the English platforms, and all agreed that
they were handsomer than those whom they had left on
the other side. “The race of men and women in the
British Islands,” Cobden goes on to himself, “is the finest
in the world in a physical sense; and although they have
many moral defects and some repulsive qualities, yet on the
whole I think the English are the most outspoken, truthful
men in the world, and this virtue lies at the bottom of their
political and commercial greatness.”

This conviction inspired him with a peculiar respect for
his great popular audiences, and they instinctively felt the
presence of it, making a claim to their good-will and their
attention. Cobden differed from his countrymen, as to what
it is that will make England great, but he was as anxious
that England should be great, and as proud of English
virtues and energies, as the noisiest patriot in a London
music hall.

Cobden always said that it was an advantage to him as an
agitator that he was a member of the Church of England.
He used to tell of men who came up to him and declared
that their confidence in him dated from the moment when
they learnt that he was a churchman. It was, perhaps, a
greater advantage to him than he knew. However little we
may admire a State establishment of religion, it is certain
that where such an establishment happens to exist, those who
have been brought up in it, and have tranquilly conformed
to its usages, escape one source of a certain mental asperity
and the spirit of division. This is no credit to them or to
the institution; any more than the asperity is a discredit to
those who do not conform to the institution. Nay, one

4 Above pp. 38-4.
200 LIFE OF OCOBDEN. [cHaP,

1841. strong reason why some disapprove of systems of ecclesias-

ir. 87. tical privilege, is exactly that in modern societies it neces-
sarily engenders this spirit of division. But in itself the
spirit of division is no element of strength, but rather of
weakness, for one whose task is to touch doubtful or un-
willing hearers,

Temperament, however, had a larger share than institu-
tions in Cobden’s faculty of moral sympathy. There is
scanty evidence of anything like an intense spirituality in
his nature; he was neither oppressed nor elevated by. the
mysteries, the aspirations, the remorse, the hope, that con-
stitute religion. So far as we can have means of knowing,
he was not of those who live much in the Unseen. But for
moral goodness, in whatever association he came upon it, he
had a reverence that came from his heart of hearts. While
leaning strongly towards those scientific theories of motive
and conduct, of which, as has been already said, George
Combe was in those days the most active propagandist, he
felt no contempt, provided only their practical endeavour
was towards good, for those who clung narrowly to older
explanations of the heart of man. In a letter written to
Combe himself, when the struggle against the Corn Laws
was over, Cobden allows himself to talk freely on his own
attitude in these high matters :—

... “With reference,” he says, “to your remarks as to
the evangelical dissenters and religionists generally, and their
views of your philosophy of morals—I will confess to you that
Tam not inclined to quarrel with that class of my country-
men. I see the full force of what you urge, but am inclined
to hope more from them in time than any other party in the
State. Gradually and imperceptibly to themselves they are
catching the spirit of the age, so far as to recognize the
moral laws as a part of our natural organization. They
do not accept your views to the superseding of their own,
rx.] HIS VENERATION. 201

but, like geology, your science is forcing its way alongside
of preconceived ideas, and they will for a time go together
without perceptibly clashing.

“T do not quarrel with the religionists, for I find them
generally enforcing or at all events recognizing and profess-
ing to act upon (they do not, I admit, sufficiently preach it)
the morality of the New Testament, and you can do no more.
The only difference is that John Calvin and George Combe
act upon different theories, and rely upon different motives,
and start from very different premises, but they recognize
the self-same ends secularly speaking, and I cannot quarrel
with either . . . I am by nature a religionist. I was much
struck with your remark when you mapped my head eleven
years ago,—' Why, if you had been born in the middle ages,
you would have made a good monk, you have so much vene-
ration!’ That was a triumph for phrenology, for you could
have formed no such notion from anything you had seen or
heard of me. Ihave a strong religious feeling,—a sympathy
for men who act under that impulse; I reverence it as the
great leverage which has moved mankind to powerful ac-
tion. I acknowledge that it has been perverted to infinite
mischief. I confess it has been the means of degrading
men to brutish purposes . . . but it has also done glorious
deeds for liberty and human exaltation, and it is destined
to do still better things. It is fortunate for me that whilst
possessing a strong logical faculty, which keeps me in the
path of rationalism, I have the religious sympathy which
enables me to co-operate with men of exclusively religious
sentiment. I mean it is fortunate for my powers of useful-
ness in this my day and generation. To this circumstance
Iam greatly indebted for the success of the great Free-
Trade struggle, which has been more indebted to the organ
of veneration for its success, than is generally known.

“Tam not without hopes that the aame fortunate circume

1841.
nt. 37

 
1841,
Air, 37.

 

202 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [oHaP.

stance in organization may enable me to co-operate efficiently
with the most active and best spirits of our day, in the work
of moral and intellectual zpucation. I could insist upon the
necessity of secular teaching and training without wounding
the religious prejudices of any man, excepting the grovelling
bigots whether of the High Church party or the opposite
extreme, against whom I could make war in the same spirit
which has in the case of the Corn monopolists enabled me
to deprive them of the pretence for personal resentment,
even in the hour of their defeat and humiliation.

“T have said that I have a strong feeling of sympathy for the
religious sentiment. But I sympathize with all moral men
who are not passive moralists: with them it is difficult to
sympathize, but I venerate and trust them. specially do I
sympathize with those who labour and make sacrifices for the
diffusion of sound moral principles. I will own, however, that
itis unpleasant to my feelings to associate with those who,
whilst they indulge in coarse sceptical allusions to our faith,
do not in their private life manifest that they impose a better
restraint upon themselves than is to be found in the New
Testament. My active public life has sometimes thrown
me into such company, and with these esprits forts, as the
French call them, I have no sympathy. My maxim is in
such predicaments to avoid theological discussions (here
again is my veneration over-riding causality), and to avow

‘that I am resolved to follow Bonaparte’s advice—to adhere

to the religion of my mother, who was an energetically pious
woman.” *

No whisper was ever seriously raised against Cobden’s
transparent honesty. What is worth remarking is that his
sincerity was not of that cheap and reckless kind, by virtue
of which men sometimes in one wild outburst of plain
speech cut themselves off from chances of public usefulness

5 To George Oombds, Ang. 1, 1846.
ix. J CONDITIONS OF USEFULNESS. 203

for the remainder of their lives. He laid down certain 1841.
social ends, which he thought desirable, and which he arr. 37.
believed that he could promote. And when one of these
was fixed in his mind, and set definitely before him, he
became the most circumspect of creatures. Being a man of
action, and not a speculative teacher, he took care not to
devote his energies to causes in which he did not see a good
chance of making some effective mark, either on legislation
or on important sections of public opinion. ‘I am cautious
to a fault,” he once wrote, “and nothing will be done by
me that has not the wisdom of the serpent, as much as
the harmlessness of the dove in it.’ *

This was only another way of saying that strong enthusiasm
in him was no hindrance to strong sense. Instead of increas-
ing the elements of friction—the besetting weakness of
reformers and dissidents of all kinds—he took infinite trou-
ble to reduce these elements to the lowest possible point.
Hence he was careful not to take up too many subjects at
once, because the antagonism generated by each would have
been made worse by the antagonism belonging to every other,
and he would have called up a whole host of enemies to-
gether, instead of leaving himself free to deal with one at a
| time. A correspondent once wrote to him on this point.

“You have opened a very important question,” Cobden
‘replied, “in respect to the duty of a public man to advocate
all the changes to which he may be favourable. I have
often reflected upon this. Bacon says, if you have a hand-
ful of truths, open but one finger at a time. He is not the
safest moral guide, I admit, but I am not sure that he is not:
to some extent right in this view. If we are to declare our
convictions upon all subjects, and if abstract reason is to be
our guide, without reference to time and circumstance, why
should not I, for instance, avow myself a republican? A

6 To 8. Lucas, Jan. 27, 1862.
204 LIFE OF OOBDEN, [omar

1841. republic is undeniably the most rational form of government

4.37. for free men. But I doubt whether I should enhance my
power of usefulness by advocating that form of government
for England. But whilst I do not think I should act wisely
by putting forth all I think, in a practical way I so far
admit the principle that I would not advocate the opposite
of what I am convinced is the truth abstractedly. And this
brings me to my old ground of trying to do one thing at a
time. By this I mean merely that I have an aptitude for
certain questions. Other people have a talent for others,
and I think a division of labour is necessary for success in
political, as in industrial life.” ”

This wise economy brought its reward. Cobden did not
carry the world with him in his own lifetime, but what he
did by his method was to bring certain principles of human
progress into line with the actual politics of the day. He
did not create a majority, but he achieved the first difficult
step of creating a strong minority, and this not merely of
sympathizers in the closet, but of active followers in the
nation.

It was what he called his wisdom of the serpent that gave
Cobden his power in the other arts of a successful agitator,
which are less conspicuous but hardly less indispensable,
than commanding or persuasive oratory. He applied the
same qualities in the actual business of the League which he
brought to bear in his speeches. He was indefatigable in»
his industry, fertile in ingenious devices for bringing the
objects of the League before the country, constantly on the
alert for surprising a hostile post, never losing a chance of
turning a foe or a neutral into a friend, and never allowing
his interest about the end for which he was working, to
confuse his vigilant concentration upon the means. The
danger of great confederacies like the League is that they

' To the Rov. Thomas Spencer, April 28, 1849,
,] PRAOTIOAL ENERGY, 208

become mechanical. Machinery must of necessity play a 1841.
large part. Circulars, conferences, subscriptions, advertise- air. 37.
ments, deputations, eternal movings and secondings—all
these things are apt to bury the vital part of a movement
under a dreary and depressing fussiness, that makes one
sometimes wonder whether the best means of saving an
institution might not be to establish a society for overthrow-
ing it. A society of this kind seems often a short way for
choking the most earnest spirits with dusty catch-words,
that are incessantly being ground out by the treadmill of
agitation. It was Cobden’s fresh and sanguine temper that
bore him triumphantly through this peril, though none of
the energetic men with whom he worked was more busily
intent on every detail of their organization. He had none of
that fastidiousness which is repelled by the vulgarities of a
proselytizing machine. He was like a general with a true
genius for war. The strategy was a delight to him; in
tactics he was one of the most adroit of men; he looked to
everything; he showed the boldness, the vigilance, the
tenacity, the resource, of a great commander. Above
all, he had the commander’s gift of encouraging and
stimulating others. He had enthusiasm, patience, and
good humour, which is the most valuable of all qua-
lities in a campaign. There was as little bitterness
in his nature as in any human being that over lived:
so little that he was able to say, at the end of seven
years of as energetic an agitation as could be carried
on, short of physical force, that he believed he had not
made a single enemy, nor wounded a single man’s personal
feelings.

Critics usually singled out Cobden’s logical faculty as his
strongest trait, and it was so; but he was naturally inclined
to think of the conclusions of his logic in poetized forms.
He always delighted, in spite of the wretched simile with
206 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [onar.

1841, which they close, in the lines in which Cowper anticipated
Air. 37, the high economic doctrine :—

Again—the band of commerce was design’d,
To associate all the branches of mankind,
And if a boundless plenty be the robe,
Trade is the golden Girdle of the globe.

’ Wise to promote whatever end he means,
God opens fruitful Nature’s various scenes,
Bach climate needs what other climes produce,
And offers something to the general use ;
No land but listens to the common call,
And in return receives supply from all.
This genial intercourse and mutual aid
Cheers what were else an universal shade,
Calls Nature from her ivy-mantled den,
And softens human rock-work into men.

From Cowper, too, he was never weary of quoting the
lines about liberty :—
‘Tis liberty alone that gives the flower
Of fleeting life its lustre and perfume,
And we are weeds without it. All constraint

Except what wisdom lays on evil men
Is evil.

It was this association of solid doctrine with genial en-
thusiasm and high ideals, that distinguished Cobden from too
many preachers of what our humourist has called the gospel
according to McCrowdy. It was this kindly imaginative-
ness in him which caught men’s hearts. His ideals were
constantly sneered at as low, material, common, unworthy,
especially by the class whose lives are one long course of
indolence, dilettanteism, and sensuality. George Combe
tells how one evening in 1852 he was in the drawing-
room of some great lady, who, amid the applause of her
friends, denounced Cobden’s policy as never rising beyond
a mere “ bagman’s millennium.”® This was the clever way,
among the selfish and insolent, of saying that the ideal

5 Infe of George Oombe, ii. 309.
1x.] GENIAL IDEALS, 207

which Cobden cherished was comfort for the mass, not 1841.
luxury for the few. He knew much better than they, that Air. 87.
material comfort is, as little as luxury, the highest satis-
faction of men’s highest capacities ; but he could well afford
to scorn the demand for fine ideals of life on the lips of a
class who were starving the workers of the country in order
to save their own rents.

There is one more point on which it is worth while to say
8 word in connexion with Cobden’s character as an agitator.
The great danger of the career is that it may in time lessen
a man’s moral self-possession. Effect becomes the decisive
consideration instead of truth ; a good meeting grows into
a final object in life; the end of existence is a paradise of
loud and prolonged cheering; and character is gradually
destroyed by the parasites of self-consciousness and vanity.
On one occasion, in 1845, as we shall see, Cobden was
betrayed, excusably enough, into some strong language
about Sir Robert Peel. Miss Martineau, George Combe,
and others, rebuked him rather sharply. He took the
rebuke with perfect temper and humility, and in seeking to
excuse himself, he described his feelings about public life in
words of which it is impossible to doubt the exact truth.
“You must not judge me,” he said, “by what I say at
these tumultuous public meetings. I constantly regret the
necessity of violating good taste and kind feeling in my
public harangues. I say advisedly necessity, for I defy any-
body to keep the ear of the public for seven years upon one
question, without studying to amuse as well as instruct.
People do not attend public meetings to be taught, but to
be excited, flattered, and pleased. If they are simply
lectured, they may sit out the lesson for once, but they will
not come again; and as I have required them again and
again, I have been obliged to amuse them, not by standing
on my head or eating fire, but by kindred feats of jugglery,
208 LIFE OF OOBDEN. (oH. 1m.

1841, such as appeals to their self-esteem, their combativeness, or

“mr 37, their humour. You know how easily in touching these

feelings one degenerates into flattery, vindictiveness, and

grossness. I really sometimes wonder how I have escaped

so well as I have done. By nature I am not a mob orator.

It is an effort for me to speak in public. The applause of a

meeting has no charm for me. When I address an audience,

it is from a sense of duty and utility, from precisely the

motive which impels me to write an article in the League

newspaper, and with as little thought of personal éclat. Do

not, therefore, be alarmed with the idea that my head will be

turned with applause. It would be a relief to me if I knew

there was no necessity for my ever appearing again at a
public meeting.” ’

& Jo George Combe, Deo. 29, 1846.
CHAPTER X.
THE NEW CORN LAW.

In the interval between the prorogation and the great 1842
session of 1842 it was commonly understood that the mr. 3s.
Government would certainly do something with the Corn
Law. Expectation was not sanguine among the men in
the north. Some of the more impatient were so irritated
by the delay, that they even wished to agitate for the over-
throw of a government which had just been appointed,
ahd which commanded an overwhelming majority. Cobden
was wiser. ‘To one of the shrewdest of his allies he wrote
some useful truth :—

“T do not like your idea,” hesaid, “of getting the deputies
to pass a vote for dismissing the Ministry. That would be
taken as a partisan movement—which it really would be—
and we should lose moral influence by it. Let us not forget
that we were very tolerant of the Whig Ministers, even after
Melbourne had laughed in our faces and called us madmen.
The present Government will do something. It is the House
of Commons, and not the Ministers, that we ought to attack.
I do not see how with decency we can worry the Queen to
change her Ministers, whilst the people’s representatives
have made her take to Peel against her consent. And
amongst the representatives who have done this are those
from Liverpool, Warrington, Wigan, Leeds, Bleckburn,

P
210 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [onar.

1842. Lancaster, etcetera. Really when we think of these places,
Zr. 38, it ought to make us modest.

“T have been thinking a good deal of the plan of district
meetings alluded to in a former letter to Mr. Rawson, and
am more and more favourable to it. Iam convinced that
spontaneous efforts through the country would tell more
powerfully upon the aristocracy, than another great meeting
in Manchester. The question has been too much confined
to Manchester. The cotton lords are not more popular than
the landlords.” ?

Although he deprecated the agitation of impatience, Cobden
was as eager and as active as anybody else in the agitation
of persuasion. Hespoke at a great conference, held at Derby,
of the merchants of Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, and Lei-
cestershire, where he made a vigorous onslaught upon what
he called the Land-tax fraud. From the Trent he found his
way to the Clyde, while Mr. Bright went to Dublin, as well
as to every place nearer home where he could get men to
listen to him. In all the centres of industry people were
urged to form associations, to get up petitions, and to hold
district meetings of deputies. They were to collect informa-
tion as to the state of trade, the rate of wages, the extent of
pauperism, and other facts bearing upon the food monopoly,
as all these things affected their local industry ; the woollen
trade at Leeds, the iron trade at Wolverhampton, the earth-
enware trade in the Potteries, the flax trade at Dundee, the
cotton trade at Manchester and Glasgow.

The lecturers continued their work. One of them went
among the farmers and labourers on Sir James Graham’s
estate, where he did not forget the landlord’s idyllic cata-
logue of the blessings of the rural poor. “ What!” cried
the lecturer, “ six shillings a week for wages, and the morn-
ing’s sun, and the singing of birds, and sportive lambs, and

1 To G. Wilson. Leamington, Oot. 18, 1841.

 
x.] THE AUTUMN OAMPAIGN. 211

winding streams, and the mountain breeze, and a little 1842.
wholesome labour—=six shillings a week, and all this! And av. 38.
nothing to do with your six shillings a week, but merely
to pay your rent, buy your food, clothe yourselves and
your families, and lay by something for old age! Happy
people!” In many rural districts the only arguments
which the lecturers were called upon to resist were stones
and brickbats; and even in some of the towns they still
encountered rough and unfair treatment from members of
the respectable classes, and their hired ruffians. The
Chartists were for the time less violently hostile.

Among other devices this autumn was that of a great
bazaar, which should both add to the funds of the League,
and bring the friends of its objects into closer personal con- _
tact. The bazaar was held in the beginning of the follow-
ing February, in the Royal Theatre at Manchester. It was
a great success, and produced nearly ten thousand pounds.
The following may serve to show Cobden’s eye for the
small things of agitation, and the unconsidered trifles that
affect public opinion :—

“T have just got your letter, and am delighted that you
are satisfied with the bazaar prospects. Really I wonder
how you and your four coadjutors endure the immense
exertions called for in this undertaking. You must not look
upon the mere money return as the sole test of success. It
will give us a position in the public eye worth all the outlay.
I remember twelve months ago feeling apprehensive that the
monopolist papers would have deterred the ladies from
appearing as sellers at the stalls by their blackguardism.
Certainly three years ago that would have been the tone of
the Herald, Post, and Bull. Now what a marked change is
seen in those papers; not a joke or attempt at ribald wit.
All is fair and even laudatory. In this fact alone I see the
evidence of & great moral triumph of the League. Could
it

212 LIF# OF OOBDEN. [cuar.

1642. you not get # succession of notices in the papers similar to
Zr. 38. the Globe last evening? Might not R. employ his pen in
that way? ‘Tell him not to be too rhapsodical or eulogistic
in his descriptions, but to give from day to day a few facts
and scraps of information which would induce the papers to
insert the articles as news. There should be a description
of the arrivals of the great trains filled with country Leaguers.
In the next League let as long a list as possible of the people
of rank who have attended be given—this is very important.”*
Their newspaper deserves a word. Its energy was as
striking as the energy of their speakers. Its leading articles,
many of them written by Cobden and Bright themselves,
were broad and weighty statements of the newest aspect
of their case. Any unlucky phrase that fell from a mono-
polist was pounced upon and made the text of a vivacious
paragraph. No incautious admission from the other side
was ever allowed to escape, until all the most damaging
conclusions that could be drawn from it had been worked
out to the very uttermost. All the news of the day was
scanned with a vigilant eye, and no item that could be
turned into an argument or an illustration was left un-
improved. This ingenuity and verve saved the paper from
the monotony of most journals of a single purpose. Its
pages were lighted up by reports of the speeches of Cobden,
Bright, and Fox. The pictures with which it abounds of
the condition of the common people, are more graphic than
the most brilliant compositions of mere literary history. It
- does not affect us as the organ of a sect; though it preaches
from one text, it is always human and social. There were
Poor Men’s Songs, Anti-Corn-Law Hymns, and Anti-Bread-
Tax Collects. Nor did the editor forget Byron’s famous lines
from the Age of Bronze, a thousand times declaimed in this
long war :=—=

 

* To G. Wilson, November, 1841.
x.J THE LHAGUE PRHSS. 213

“Bee these inglorious Cincinnati swarm,
Farmers of war, dictators of the farm;
Their ploughshare was the sword in hireling hands,
Their fields manured by gore of other lands ;
Safe in their barns, these Sabine tillers sent
Theif brethren out to battle—why P for rent!
Year after year they voted cent. per cent.,
Blood, sweat, and tear-wrung millions—why ? for rent!
They roar’d, they dined, they drank, they swore they meant
To die for England—why then live? for rent !
The Peace has made one general malcontent
Of these high-market patriots; war was rent!
Their love of country, millions all mispent,
How reconcile ? by reconciling rent!
And will they not repay the treasures lent P
No: down with every thing, and up with rent!
Their good, ill, health, wealth, joy, or discontent,
Being, end, aim, religion—rent, rent, rent !

A volunteer in Preston this winter began to issue on his
own account a quaint little sheet of four quarto pages, called
The Struggle, and sold for a halfpenny. It had no con-
nexion with any association, and nobody was responsible
for its contents but the man who wrote, printed, and sold it.
In two years eleven hundred thousand copies had been
circulated. The Struggle is the very model for a plain man
who wishes to affect the opinion of the humbler class, with-

out the wasteful and, for the most part, ineffectual machinery

of a great society. It contains in number after number the
whole arguments of the matter in the pithiest form, and in
language as direct if not as pure as Cobbett’s. Sometimes
the number consists simply of some more than usually
graphic speech by Cobden or by Fox. There are racy
dialogues, in which the landlord always gets the worst of it;
and terse allegories in which the Duke of Buckingham or
the Duke of Richmond figures as inauspiciously as Bunyan’s
Mr. Badman. The Bible is ransacked for appropriate texts,
from the simple clause in the Lord’s Prayer about our daily
bread, down to Solomon’s saying: “ He that withholdeth
the corn, the people shall curse him; but blessings shall be

1842.

Ar. 38,
1842.
itr. 38.

 

214 LIFE OF OOBDEN. (omar,

upon the head of him that selleth it.” On the front page of
each number was a woodcut, as rude as a schoolboy’s draw-
ing, but full of spirit and cleverness, whether satirizing the
Government, or contrasting swollen landlords with famine-
stricken operatives, or painting some homely idyll of the
industrious poor, to point the greatest of political morals,
that “ domestic comfort is the object of all reforms.”
Cobden had, at the beginning of the movement, been very
near to securing the services, in the way of pictorial illustra-
tion, of aman who afterwards became very famous. This was
Thackeray, then only known to a small public as the author

-of the Hoggarty Diamond. “ Some inventor of a new mode

of engraving,” Mr. Henry Cole wrote to Cobden, “told Mr.
Thackeray that it was applicable to the designs for the Corn
Laws. Three drawings of your Anglo-Polish Allegory have
been made and have failed. So Thackeray has given up the
invention, and wood engraving must be used. This will
materially alter the expense. .... I hope you will think
as well of the accompanying sketch—very rough, of course—
as all I have shown it to,do. It was the work of only a
few minutes, and I think, with its corpses, gibbet, and fly-
ing carrion crow, is as suggestive as you can wish. We
both thought that a common soldier would be better under-
stood than any more allegorical figure. It is only in part
an adaptation of your idea, but I think a successful one.
Figures representing eagerness of exchange, a half-clothed
Pole offering bread, and a weaver manufactures, would be
idea enough for a design alone. Of course, there may be
any changes you please in this present design. I think for -
the multitude it would be well to have the ideas very simple
and intelligible to all. The artist is a genius, both with his
pencil and his pen. His vocation is literary. He is full of
humour and feeling. Hitherto he has not had occasion to
think much on the subject of Corn Laws, and therefore
=] THACKERAY, 215

wants the stuff to work upon. He would like to combine
both writing and drawing when sufficiently primed, and
then he would write and illustrate ballads, or tales, or any-
thing. I think you would find him a most effective auxi-
liary, and perhaps the best way to fill him with matter for
illustrations, would be to invite him to see the weavers,
their mills, shuttles, etcetera. If you like the sketch, per-
haps you will return it to me, and I will put it in the way
of being engraved.

‘He will set about Lord Ashley when we have heard
your opinion of the present sketch. Thackeray is the writer
of an article in the last number of the Westminster Review,
on French caricatures, and many other things. For some
time he managed the Constitutional newspaper. He is a
college friend of Charles Buller. We think the idea of an
ornamental emblematical heading of the Circular good. The
lower class of readers do not like to have to cut the leaves
ofa paper. Another, but a smaller class, like a small-sized
page, because it is more convenient for binding. Corn Law
readers lie, I suppose, chiefly among the former. Will you
send your circular to Thomas Carlyle, Cheyne Street, Chel-
sea? He was quoted in last week’s Circular, and is making
studies into the condition of the working class.” *

The approach of the time for the assembling of Parliament
drew men’s minds away from everything else, and expecta-
tion became centred with new intensity on the scheme which
the Minister would devise for the restoration of national
prosperity. The retirement of an important member of the
Cabinet during the recess had greatly quickened public
excitement among both Protectionists and Free Traders.
Both felt that their question was at stake, and that the
Prime Minister would not allow the duty on corn to stand
as it was. Peel has told us, in the Memoirs published after

2 H, Oole to R. Cobden, June 22, 1839.

1842

Air. 38.

 
216 LIFE OF OOBDEN. (omar.

1842, his death, exactly what happened during the autumn of
“Ax. 38, 1841. In conformity with his general practice, he brought
the subject under the consideration of his colleagues in
written memoranda. These memoranda, he said, afforded
the best opportunity for mature consideration of facts and
arguments, and were most effectual against misconstruction
and hasty, inconsiderate decision.‘ In them he now pointed
out with unanswerable force the evils of the existing system.
He dwelt more especially on the violent fluctuations in the
corn duty, and the consequent derangements and unsteadi-
ness of the markets. He showed how little the duties on
importation could do towards keeping up a permanent high
price. All that law could effect was to provide that, so
’ long as corn grown in this country should not exceed a cer-
tain price, there should be no serious danger from competi-
tion with corn grown in other countries. What was that
price? The law of 1815 had assumed that wheat could not
be profitably grown at a lower price than eighty shillings a
quarter. Events had shown that this was absurd ; the aver-
ages of a number of years came to fifty-six shillings. It
seemed wise, then, so to readjust the machinery of the
sliding scale as to tend to secure that price.

The Duke of Buckingham, whose name figures so often in
the sarcasms and invectives of the League, at once resigned
his seat in the Cabinet rather than be a party to any med.
dling with the Corn Law of 1828. Even those who remained,
seem to have pressed for an understanding, as was after-
wards openly done in Parliament, that whatever amount of
protection was set up by the new law should be permanently
adhered to. This guarantee, Peel was far too conscientious
to consent in any form to give. The Cabinet at length, with
many misgivings, assented to their chief’s arguments, and
for the time the party was saved.

 

4 Memoirs, ii. 29.
x.j DISOUSSION IN THE CABINET. 217

I may as well quote here a passage from one of Cobden’s 1842.
familiar letters to his brother, which describes the episode tr. 38.
to much the same effect as Peel’s more dignified narra-
tive :—

“ Whilst I was with McGregor, he showed me a copy of
the scale of duties which he had prepared under Peel’s
directions, and which he proposed to the Cabinet, causing
Buckingham’s retirement, and nearly leading to a break-up
" altogether. The scale was purposely devised to be as nearly
as possible equal toan 8s. fixed duty. It was 8s. at 56s.,
rising a shilling of duty with a shilling fall of prices till it
reached 163., which was the maximum duty, and falling a
shilling in duty with the rise of a shilling in price. With
the exception of Ripon, he could get no support in the
Cabinet. Lyndhurst, like an old fox, refused to vote (as
I am told), not knowing whether Peel or the monopolists
might be conqueror, and being himself equally happy to
serve God or Mammon. The Duke of Bucks got hold of
Richmond, who secured Wellington, who by the aid of
Stanley and Graham frustrated Peel’s intentions. The latter
_told them ¢hat no other prime minister after him would ever
take office to give the landlords even an 8s. maximum duty.
I learn from several] quarters that Stanley is one of Peel’s
stoutest opponents against any alterations of a beneficial
character in the monopolies. Last autumn I remember
writing to Langton (at Heywood’s) a letter for Birley’s eye,
in which I told him that if Peel’s Cabinet were pressed for
a liberal corn law by the Lancashire Conservatives, it would
aid Peel in forcing his colleagues to go along with him, and
be the very thing he would like. McGregor now confirms
my view.” *

The League resolved that they at any rate would leave
5 To F. Oobden, June 22, 1843.
1842.
Ar. 88.

218 LIFH OF OCOBDEN. [owar.

nothing undone to support or overawe the Prime Minister.
On the eve of the session several hundreds of delegates, —
including Cobden, O’Connell, Mr. Bright, Mr. Villiers, and
Mr. Milner Gibson, assembled at the Crown and Anchor.
They learned that the Prime Minister had that morning
refused to receive a deputation from them, on the ground of
his numerous engagements. The Times had a contemptuous
article, mocking at them for the presumption and imperti-
nence of their conduct. These deputies from country asso-
ciations and religious congregationalists, instead of settling
their differences with one another, had yet on one single
point, forsooth, discovered a system so pure that in a single
interview the greatest and most experienced of statesmen
would be thrown on his haunches. Perhaps these gentle-
men would be willing to offer their services as members of
Her Majesty’s Privy Council. And so forth, in that vem of
cheap ridicule with which the ephemera of the leading
article are wont to buzz about all new men and unfamiliar
causes. Ridicule notwithstanding, the deputies thronged
down to the House of Commons with something so like
tumult, that the police turned them out and cleared the
lobbies. As they crowded round the approaches to the
House, the irritated men hailed with abusive names those
whom they knew to be champions of the abhorred monopoly.
It was noticed that they did not agree in their cries. While
all shouted out, “ No sliding scale,” some called for a fixed
duty, and others clamoured for “ Total and immediate
repeal.”

The ministerial plan was soon known, and brought scanty
comfort to the men of the north, as their friends rushed
down the corridors to tell them what it was to be. Sir
Robert Peel could not accept their explanation of the pre-
vailing depression and distress. That was due, he contended,
to over-investment: of borrowed capital in manufactures; to
x.) THK MINISTERIAL PLAN, 219

the displacement of hand-loom weaving by steam power; to
monetary difficulties in the United States, and consequent
diminution of demand for our manufactures; to interruption
of the China trade; finally, to alarms of war in Europe, and
the stagnation of commerce which always follows such alarms.
To alter the Corn Law would touch none of these sources
of the mischief, and would be no remedy. At the same
‘time he thought that the Corn Law, as it stood, was capable
of improvement. The working of the sliding scale of 1828°
was injurious to the consumer, because it kept back corn
until it was dearer; to the revenue, by the forced reduction of
duty; to the agriculturist, by withholding corn until it
reached the highest price, which was then suddenly snatched
from him, and his protection defeated; and to commerce,
because it introduced paralysing uncertainty. How then
ought the Corn Law to be improved? Not by changing a
variable into a fixed duty, because a fixed duty could not
bear the strain of a time of scarcity and distress, and could
not be permanent. It must be by modifying the existing
principle of a duty varying inversely with the price. Now
what was the price which would encourage the home-growth
of corn? On the whole it was for the interest of the agri-
culturist that the price of wheat, allowing for its natural
oscillations, should range between fifty-four and fifty-eight
shillings. The legislature could not guarantee that or any
other price, but the scale might best be constructed with a
view to this range of prices. What he proposed, then, was
a new scale, considerably decreasing the protection hitherto
afforded to the home-grower.’

6 See above pp. 165-6.

7 As this became the Corn Law denounced by Cobden during the agitation
from 1842 to 1846, it is well to describe the difference between the new
scale and that of the Act of 1828 in Peel’s own words :—“ When corn is at
59s. and under 60s., the duty at present is 27s. 8d. When corn is between
those prices, the duty I propose is 13s. When the price of corn is at 50s. the
existing duty is 362. 8d., increasing au the price falls; instead of which I

1842.
Ait. 38. -

 
220 LIFE OF COBDEN. [onar.

1842. Peel concluded a long exposition with a statement of those
Air. 38, general ideas about an economic and national system, on
which his proposals rested. They were these. It is of the
highest importance to the welfare of all classes in this country,
that care should be taken that the main sources of your
supply of corn should be derived from domestic agriculture.
The additional ptice which you may pay in effecting that
object, cannot be vindicated as a bonus or premium to agri-
culture, but only on the ground of its being advantageous to
the country at large. The agriculturist has special burdens,
and you are entitled to place such a price on foreign corn as
is equivalent to these special burdens. Any additional pro-
tection to them can only be vindicated on the ground that
it is for the interest of the country generally. And it is for
the interest of all classes that we should be paying occa-
sionally a small additional sum upon our own domestic pro-
duce, in order that we may thereby establish a security and
insurance against ‘the calamities that would ensue if we
became altogether, or in a great part, dependent upon
foreign countries for our supply.°
When the Minister sat down, Lord John Russell said a
few formal words, and Peel added some explanation which
took a moment or two. Cobden, according to a hostile
reporter, had been “looking very lachrymose all the even-
ing,” and he now rose—it is interesting to notice contem-
porary estimates of important men whose importance has
not yet been stamped—* for the purpose of inflicting one
of his stereotyped harangues on the House.”’ He did not

 

propose, when corn is at 50s., that the duty shall only be 20s., and that
that duty shall in no case be exceeded. (Hear, hear.) At 56s. the existing
duty is 80s. 8d.; the duty I propose at that price is 16s. At 60s. the
existing duty is 26s. 8d.; the duty I propose at that price is 12s At 68s.
tho existing duty is 23s. 8d.; the duty I propose is 9s. At 64s. the existing
duty is 22s. 8d.; the duty I propose is 8s. At 70s. the existing duty is
10s, 8d.; the duty I propose is 6s.”
® February 9, 1842.
x.] FEELING IN THE COUNTRY. 221

do this, but he wound up the proceedings by a short and
vehement declaration that he could not allow a moment to
pass in denouncing the proposed measure as a bitter insult
to a suffering nation.

Cobden’s reception of the Ministerial plan was loudly
re-echoed in the north of England. The news of the reten-
tion of the sliding scale was received with angry disgust
throughout the manufacturing districts. Thousands of peti-
tions, with hundreds of thousands of signatures, were sent
up to Cobden and other members to lay before Parliament.
The ordinary places of public meeting were not large enough
to hold the thousands of exasperated men, who had just

' found from the newspapers that the Government would not
give way. In cold and rain they assembled in the open
spaces of their towns to listen to speeches, and to pass reso-
lutions, denouncing Sir Robert Peel’s measure as an insult
and a mockery to a distressed population. The Prime
Minister was formally accused of offering indignity and
contempt to the working classes; of sacrificing the rights
of the poor to the selfish interests of an unfeeling and ava-
ricious aristocracy; of creating wealth, luxury, and splen-
dour for a class, out of the abject misery of the millions.
His effigy was carried on gibbets in contumely through
the streets of towns like Stockport and Rochdale, to the
sound of drums and fifes, and then, amid the execration of
multitudes, hurled into the flames. In some places the
fierce ceremony was preceded by a mock trial, in which the
criminal was swiftly condemned, sentenced, and thrown into
the bonfire as a traitor to his country, while the crowd
shouted their prayer that so might all oppressors of the
people perish.

Considering Cobden’s untiring promptitude in seizing
every occasion of enforcing his cause upon the House, it is
odd that he should not have spoken in the debate in which

1842.
Air. 38.

 
1842,
“Ain. 38.

222 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [oHar.

the new plan was most directly under discussion. The debate
ended in a majority for the Minister of one hundred and
twenty-three. Mr. Villiers, however, with the judicious
neglect of tact that is always so provoking to neutrals, and
without which no unpopular cause ever prospers, imme-
diately after the House had decided that corn should be
subject to a variable and not a fixed duty, proceeded to
invite the same House to decide that it should be subject to
no duty at all (Feb. 18). The first debate had lasted for
four nights, and the second upon the same topics now lasted
for five more. On the last of them (Feb. 24) Cobden made
his speech.® He dealt with the main propositions which Peel
had laid down as the defence of the new Bill. The Minister
had confessed, and he now repeated it in reply to a direct
challenge, that it was impossible to fix the price of food by
legislative enactment. Then for what were they legislating?
At least to keep up the price of food. Why not try in the
same way to keep up the price of cottons, woollens, and
silks? The fact that they did not try this, was the simple and
open avowal that they were met there to legislate for a class,
against the people. The price of cotton had fallen thirty
per cent. in ten years, and the price of ironmongery had
fallen as much. Yet the ironmonger was forced to exchange
his goods with the agriculturist for the produce of the land,
at the present high price of corn. Was this fair and reason-
able? Could it be called legislation at all? Assuredly it
was not honest legislation. Why should there not be a
sliding scale for wages? If they admitted that wages could

‘not be artificially sustained at a certain price, why should a

law be passed to keep up the price of wheat? But the
land, they said, was subject to heavy burdens. For every one
special burden, he could show ten special exemptions. Even

» Cobden’s Speeches, Mr. Rogers’s edition. Vol. i. 15—23&. [Ndition of
1870.]
x.] COBDEN’S SPEEOH ON THE PLAN. 223

if the exclusive burdens on land were proved, the proper
remedy was to remove them, and not to tax the food of the
people.

An excellent point was made by the exposure of the
fallacy, that low wages are the same thing as cheap labour.
And this proved to be of the highest importance, as an ele-
ment in Sir Robert Peel’s conversion. He admitted after-
wards that he had accepted this fallacy without proper
examination, and that its overthrow was one of the things
which most powerfully affected his opinions on a protective
system. Apart from his general demonstration of the truth
in this respect, Cobden now showed that the highly paid
labour of England was proved to be the cheapest labour in
the world. The manufacturers might have credit for taking
a more enlightened view of their own interest than to sup-
pose that the impoverishment of the multitude—the great con-
sumers of all that they produce—could ever tend to promote
the prosperity of the manufacturers. ‘I will tell the House,
that by deteriorating the population, of which they ought
to be so proud, they will run the risk of spoiling, not merely
the animal, but the intellectual creature. It is not a
potato-fed race that will ever lead the way in arts, arms,
or commerce.”

In the course of his speech, which was not in the strong
vein that greater experience soon made easy to him, Cobden
had talked of the ignorance on the question which prevailed

among the Tory members. “ Yes,” he exclaimed, when his:

adversaries cried out against this vigorous thrust, “I have
never seen their ignorance equalled among any equal
number of working men in the north of England.” And he
reminded them that when the Corn Law of 1815 was passed,
and when eminent men of both parties honestly thought that
wages followed the price of corn, the great multitude of the
nation, without the aid of learning, “ with that intuitive sega-

1842,
ir, 88.
 

it. 38.

224 LivH OF OCOBDEN. {cuar.

city which had given rise to the adage, ‘The voice of the
people is the voice of God,’” foresaw what the effect of the
measure would be upon wages, and from 1815 to 1819 there
never was a great public meeting at Manchester at which
there was not some banner inscribed with the words, No Corn
Laws. ‘

For these taunts, the House took a speedy revenge.
When Cobden sat down, the benches were crowded, and the
member for Knaresborough got up. In a speech ten days
before, Mr. Ferrand had said that the member for Stockport
had during the last twelve years accumulated half a million
of money; and that when night after night, during the last
session, he was asserting that the Corn Laws had ruined the
trade in Lancashire, he was actually at that very time running
his works both night and day. This was only one item in
a gross and violent attack on the whole class of northern
manufacturers, He now returned to the charge with greater
excitement than before. He quoted a great number of
instances, where the system of truck was forced upon the
helpless workmen. The artisans, he said, were compelled
to live in cottages belonging to the employer, and to pay
rent higher by one-tenth than their proper value. They.
were poisoned by the vile rags and devil’s dust with which
they: had to work, and which the masters used for the fraudu-
lent adulteration of their cloths. As for scarcity of flour, it
arose from the consumption of that article by the manufac-
turers, in a paste with which they dishonestly daubed the
face of their calicoes.

The country gentlemen shouted with exultation. They
were ill qualified to judge the worth of these extravagant
denunciations. The towns of Lancashire were more un-
familiar to them in those days than Denver or Omaha are
in our own, and any atrocity was credible of those who lived
and worked within them. The whole conception of modern
x. THE COUNTRY PARTY AND THE MANUFACTURERS, 225°

manulacturing industry was as horrible as it was strange iu

their eyes. We have already seen Sir James Graham’s afr. 33

description of them as more cruel than the icy wastes of
Siberia, or the burning shores of Mauritius. The chief
newspaper of the country party boldly declared that
England would be as great and powertul, and all useful
Englishmen would be as rich as they are, though all the
manufacturing houses in Great Britain should be engulfed
in ruin. The same paper pleased the taste of its sub-
seribers by saying that there was not a single mill-owner
who would not compound for the destruction of all the ma-
-nufacturing industry of England, on condition that during
that period he should have full work and high profits for
his mill, capital, and credit.’ It is no exaggeration to say
that by the majority of the Parliament of 1841, the cotton-
spinners of the north were regarded with the same ab-
horrence as was common twenty years ago towards such
representatives of Trade Unionism as were discovered in
Sheffield.

Cobden was not cowed by the furions scene. Amid cries
of “explain,” he rose to tell the House very quietly, that it
was not his mission to indulge in grosg personalities. He
assured the members who desired » partisan warfare of this
kind, that nothing should drive him into a personal alterca-
tion; and he considered the dignity of the House in some
danger when he found language such as they had been lis-
tening to for the last half-hour, received with so much com-
placency by the Ministers, and with such cheers by the party
at their back.

There was violent irritation among his friends at the
attack on him and their class, caused less by the exaggera-
tion of the attack itself, than by the exultant spirit in which
it was received by the House. Neighbours in Lancashire

1 Quoted in Prentice’s History of the League, i. 284. !

a

1842.
226 LIFE OF OOBDEN. (omar.

1842. came forward to testify that both at Sabden and at Crosse
41,88, Hall’he had set up a school, a library, and a news-room for
the benefit of old and young in his employ; that the work-
men of his district were eager for a place in his works; and
that to no one did Mr. Ferrand’s remarks apply with less
truth than to Cobden and his partners for the last ten years.
Cobden cared little for what had been said about him, but
he seems to have felt some dissatisfaction with the momentary
hesitation of the League as to the larger question of the new
law. He wrote to his brother :—

“ You never witnessed such a scene as that in the House of
Commons when Ferrand was speaking the other night. The
Tories were literally frantic with delight. Every sentence
he uttered was caught up and cheered by a large majority,
far more vehemently thau anything that ever fell from Peel
or Macaulay. It was not ironical cheering, but downright
hearty approbation. I have not the least doubt that the
M.P. for Knaresborough spoke the honest convictions of a
majority of the members present. The exhibition was pre-
meditated and got up for the occasion. Iwas told several
days before at the club that Ferrand was to follow me in the
debate, He was planted (to use a vulgar phrase) upon me
by his party. I finished speaking at about a quarter-past.

‘eleven, and it was remarked by two or three on our side that
just before 1 sat down, Sir George Clerk of the Treasury
went and whispered to Green, the chairman of committee,
and directed his eye towards Ferrand, so that notwithstand-
ing that others tried to follow me, he called straight for the
Knaresborough hero. Away he went with the attitudes of a
prize-fighter, and the voice of a bull..... Just at the time
when I was speaking the members swarmed into the House
from the dinner-tables, and they were in a right state for
supporting Master Ferrand. Colonel 8 plied the
fellow with oranges to suck, in an affectionate way that

 

 
x] DISAPPOINTMENT OF THE LEAGUR. 227

resembled a monkey fondling a bear. What do your Tories
think of their party in the House? I find that nothing

seems to be considered so decided a stigma, as to brand .

# man as a mill-owner. Thus you see that the charge
against me of working a mill at night would not be given
up, even although it was proved to be a print works. I
hope Ferrand by getting rope enough will settle himself
soon. Tory praise will soon carry him off his legs.

“From all that I hear, your people in Lancashire seem
to be swayed to and fro like the grass by a summer’s wind,
without any particular progress. I suppose it will settle
down into more quiet work in the way of tracts and lectures.
I should like to have carried it by a coup, but that is not
possible. It seems generally admitted up here by all parties
that it is now only a question of time. Lord Lowther said

‘to a friend of Villiers the other day, after the division of
ninety, that he did not think it would take more than three
years to abolish the Corn Laws; and Rawson and I were
taking tea at Bellamy’s, when a party of Tory members at
another table agreed that it would come to a 5s. fixed duty
in about three years. The Tories have not liked the debate.
Peel feels that he has not come out of it well. He looks
dissatisfied with himself, and I am told he is not in good
health. What will he be by the end of the session? ”?

The truth seems to be that the Leaguers, in spite of their
moderate expectations, were taken aback by the heavy blow
which the Minister had just dealt them. They had hoped
against hope, and had been too full of faith in their own

arguments to doubt their effect upon others. The ways of .

parliaments were as strange to them, as the ways of mill-

owners were to the House of Commons. For a single

‘moment they were staggered ; Cobden was for an instant or

two fired by a violent impulse, which soon, however, yielded
2 To F. Cobden, Feb. 28, 1848.

1842,
Ar, 38,

 
 

228 TIFE OF COBDEN. [oHaP,

to his usual good sense. “I feel some little difficulty,” he
wrote to Mr. George Wilson, “in offering my advice as to
the course which the League should henceforth pursue.
That course depends very much upon the spirit of the people
who are acting with us. Ifthey were all of my temper in
the matter, we would soon bring it to an issue. I presume,
however, that your friends are not up to the mark for a
general fiscal revolt, and I know of no other plan of peaceful
resistance. The question is, thea as to the plan of agitation
for the future. The idea of ever petitioning the present
House of Commons again upon the Corn Laws should be
publicly renounced. It involves great trouble and expense,
and will do uo good. If we had another election, the case
would be different, but there is no use in petitioning the
present House. I think onr lecturers should be thrown upon
the boroughs, particularly in the rural districts where we
have been opposed. A well prepared account should be
taken of the state of all the boroughs in the kingdom in
reference to our question. They should be classified, and
put into lists of safe, tolerably safe, doubtful, desperate, hope-
less. Our whole strength should be then thrown upon the
doubtfuls. Electoral Committees should be formed in each

‘borough to look after the registration, and we ought, if

needful, to incur some expenditure in this department.
Much will depend on our getting a good working Com-
mittee in every borough to look after the register, and to
agitate our question.

“Now as respects any great demonstration of nwmbers
against the passing of the present law. It has been sug-
gested that we ought to hold a meeting on Kersall Moor.
But I presume that would be a joint Suffrage and Corn Law
meeting, which would not aid our cause at present. The
middle class must; be still further pinched and disappointed
before they will go to that. I quite agree with you that we
x) NEW PROJHOTS. 229

must keep the League as a body wholly distinct from the
suffrage movement. But at the same time I think the more
that individuals connected prominently with the League join
the suffrage party the better. I shall take the first op-
portunity in the House of avowing myself for the suffrage
to every man.

“ After all, I hardly entertain a hope that we shall effect
our object by old and regular methods; accidents may aid
us, but I do not see my way in the ordinary course of things
to beating down the power of the aristocracy.”’*

Mr. Bright made various suggestions, and Cobden replied
to them with provisional assent :—

“T am afraid you must not calculate on my attending at
your tea-party. During the recess I shall have some private
matters to attend to, and I shall endeavour to avoid public
meetings as far as possible. I have been thinking of our
future plans, and am more and more convinced of the
necessity of keeping ourselves free from all other questions.
Tam much more of opinion upon reflection, of the necessity
of some such bold demenstration in the way of organization
and the securing a large fund, as you were alluding to.
Something must be done to secure the ground, and thus
prevent its being occupied by any other party. Nothing

‘would so much attain that object as to get a large fund

secured. I like the idea of-an anti-Corn-Law rent. Unless
some such demonstration of renewed life and resolution be
made immediately after the passing of the Corn Law, it will
be suspected that we are giving up the cause.” *

Cobden seems to have cooled down to a sober view of the
situation when he wrote to his brother, a fortnight after the
affair of Mr. Ferrand :—

“There is a curious symptom breaking out in the Tory ,

> To G, Wilson, Feb. 27, 1842.
4 To Mr. Bright, Maroh 7, 1842,

1842.
Ar. 38.

 
1842,
| Alt, 38,

 

230 LIFe OF OOBDEN, » [cuar.

ranks, Several of the young aristocrats are evidently more
liberal than their leaders, and they have talked rationally
about an ultimate Free Trade. I hear a good deal of this
talk in the tea and dining-rooms. In fact the Tory aris-
tocracy are liberals in feeling, compared with your genuine
political bigot, a cotton-spinning Tory. I see no other
course for us but a renewed agitation of the agricultural -
districts, where I expect there will be a good deal of dis-
content ere long. I mean in the smal} rural towns. Bad
trade in the manufacturing towns will, I suspect, very soon
convert the Tories, or break them, the next best thing.”

No new line of action was hit apon until the end of the
session. In the meantime, so far as the agitation out of
doors went, Cobden’s mind was incessantly turning over
plans for strengthening the connezions of the League. To
Mr. Ashworth he wrote :-—

“Tt has struck me that it would be well to try to engraft
our Free Trade agitation upon the Peace movement. They
are one and the samecause. It has often been to mea matter
of the greatest surprise, that the Friends have nottaken up the
question of Free Trade as the means—and I believe the only
human means—of effecting universal and permanent peace.
The efforts of the Peace Societies, however laudable, can
never be successful sc long as the nations maintain their
present system of isolation. The colonial system, with all its
dazzling appeals to the passions of the people, can never be
got rid of except by the indirect process of Free Trade,
which will gradually and imperceptibly loose the bands
which unite our Colonies to us by a mistaken notion of self-
interest. Yet the Colonial policy of Europe has been the
chief source of wars for the last hundred and fifty years.
Again, Free Trade, by perfecting the intercourse, and

5 To F, Cobden, Maroh 10, 1848,
x] NEW PROJEOTS. 231

securing the dependence of countries one upon another,
must inevitably snatch the power from the governments to
plunge their people into wars. What do you think of
changing your plan of a prize essay, from the Corn Law to
‘Free Trade as the best human means for securing universal
and permanent peace.’ This would be a good and appro-
priate prize to be given by members of the Society of Friends.
At all events, in any way possible I should like to see the
London Friends interested in the question of the Corn Law
and Free Trade.. They have a good deal of influence over
the City moneyed interest, which has the ear of the Govern-
ment.”

Besides these tentative projects of new alliances, he
watched vigilantly every chance of suggesting a point to
his allies outside, To Mr. Bright he wrote :-—~- :

“Tf you have a leisure hour, I wish you would write an
article upon the subject of the Queen’s Letter to the par-
sons, ordering collections in the churches for the distressed.
Here is a good opportunity for doing justice to the Dissent-
ing ministers, who met last year to proclaim the miseries of

1843.

Air, 38,

the people, and to propose a better remedy than almsgiving. ,

The Church clergy are almost to a man guilty of causing,
the present distress by upholding the Corn Law, they having
: themselves an interest in the high price of bread, and their
present efforts must be viewed as tardy and inefficient, if
‘not hypocritical.

“ Again, show how futile it, must be to try to subsist the
manufacturing population upon charitable donations. The
wages paid in the cotton trade alone amount to twenty mil-
lions a year. Reduce that amount even ten per cent., and
how could it be made up by charity? If you have also
leisure for another article, make a swingeing assault upon
the last general election, and argue from the disclosures

6 fn Henry Ashworth, April 12, 1848,
232 “TIER OF GOSDEN. ! [oHay.

made by the House of Commons itself, that we the Anti-
Corn Law party were not defeated, but virtually swindled
and plundored of our triumph at the hustings.” "

With reference to the first of the two themes which is
here suggested, Cobden always felt keenly the wrong part
taken throughout the struggle by the clergy of ‘the Esta-
blishment. The rector of the church which he was in the
habit of attending, Saint John’s, in Deansgate, appealed to
him for help towards an Association for providing ten new
churches in Manchester. Cobden in reply expressed his
opinion of the project with wholesome frankness :—

“Tt will be always very gratifying to me to second your
charitable efforts to relieve the distresses of our poor neigh-
bours; and if I do not co-operate in the plan for benefitting
the destitute population on a large scale by erecting ten new
churches, it is only because, in the words of the appeal, I
‘ differ about the means to be adopted.’ You, who visit the
abodes of poverty, are aware that a great portion of the
working population of Manchester are suffermg from an
insufficiency of wholesome nourishment. The first and most

7 To Mr. Bright, May 12, 1842. In the following number of the Antt-
Bread-Tax Circular (May 19), articles on the two subjects here sug-
gested by Cobden, duly appeared. “The clergy of the establishment,”
says the writer, with good strong plainness of speech, “would do well to
reflect upon their position in this matter. They have, with very few
exceptions, upheld to the uttermost the unnatural syatem, which, after
working during a period of twenty-seven years, causing more or less of suf-
fering throughout the whole of its existence, has at length brought the
nation to the verge of ruin. They have almost to ® man been the ever
active agents and allies of the monopolist party, and their restless energy
in the worst of causes has been mainly instrumental in carrying into office a
Ministry whose only pledge was that the interests of the nation should be
held subservient to the interests of the land and colonial monopolists ....
We fear that any attempt to raise contributions from the clergy, or by their
agency, cau only subject thot body to the charge of gross ignorance or
gross hypoorisy..... Their conduct contrasts strongly with the noble
efforts of the Christian ministers who last year a:sembled in Manchester,
in Carnarvon, and in Edinburgh, to declar. their entice abhorrence of the

unjust and murderons system by which multitudes of honest and industrious

men are made to suffer wrongs more grievous than can aasily be described.”
x] ATTITUDE OF THY CLERGY. 233

pressing claim of the poor is for food: all other wants are

and religious character of s people whose physical condition
is degraded by the privation of the first necessaries of life ;
and hence we are taught to pray for ‘our daily bread’
before spiritual graces., There is a legislative enactment
which prevents the poor of this town from obtaining a
sufficiency of wholesome food, and'{ am sure the law only
requires to be understood by our clergy to receive their
unanimous condemnation. Surely a law of this kind,
opposed alike to the laws of nature, the obvious dispensa-
tions of divine providence, and the revealed word of God,
must be denounced by the ministers of the Gospel. So
convinced am J that there is no other mode of raising the
condition of the working classes in the scale of morality or
religion, whilst they are denied by Act of Parliament a suffi-
ciency of food, that I have set apart as much of my income
as I can spare from other claims for the purpose of effecting
the abolition of the Corn Law and Provision Law. Until this
object be attained I shall be compelled to deny myself the
satisfaction of contributing to other public undertakings of
great importance in themselves, and secondary only to the

' first. of all duties——the feeding of the hungry. Ii is for this

reason that I am reluctantly obliged to decline to contribute
to the fund for building ten new churches. My course is, I
submit, in strict harmony with the example afforded us by
the divine author of Christianity, who preached upon the
mountain and in the desert, beneath no other roof than the
canopy of heaven, and who yet, we are told, was careful to
feed the multitude that flocked around him. Yon will, I
am sure, excuse me troubling you at such length upon a
subject which I conscientiously believe to be the most
important in relation to the poor of any that can engage
your attention.’’*
* Vobruary, 1541.

\

1842.

secondary to this. It is in vain to try and elevate the moral Air. 38,
CHAPTER Xi.
SI ROBERT PEELS NEW POLICY.

1842. _ Tux new Corn Bill was the first of three acts in the great

2r.38. drama which Peel now unfolded to Parliament and the nation.

Things looked as if the country were slowly sinking into

decay. The revenue, which had been exhibiting deficits for

several years, now fell short of the expenditure for the year

current by two millions and a half. The working classes all

over the land were suffering severe and undeniable distress.

Population had increased to an extent at which it seemed no

longer possible to find employment for them. To invite all

the world to become our customers, by opening our ports to

their products in exchange, was the Manchester remedy.

It would bring both work and food. The Prime Minister

believed that the revenue could be repaired, and the springs

of industry relieved, without that great change in our eco-

nomic policy. But he knew that the crisis was too deep for

half-measures, and he produced by far the most momentous
budget; of the century.

The Report of the Committee of 1840 on Import Duties
was, a8 I have already mentioned, the starting-point of the
revolntion to which Peel aow proceeded. It passed a strong
condemnation on the existing tariff, as presenting neither
congruity nor unity of purpose, and conforming to no
general principles. Eleven hundred and fifty rates of duty
were enwnerated as chargeable on imported articles, and all
ou. xi.] THE IMPORTS COMMITTEE. 235

other articles paid duty as unenumerated. In some cases 1842.
the dutivs levied were simple and comprehensive; in others ir. 38.
they fell into vexatious and embarrassing details. The tariff
often aimed at incompatible ends. A duty was imposed
both for revenue and protection, and then was pitched so
high for the sake of protection as to produce little or nothing
to revenue. A great variety of particular interests were
protected, to the detriment of the public income, as well as
of commercial intercourse with other countries, The same
preference was extended by means of discriminating duties
to the produce of the colonies; great advantages were given
to the colonial interests at the expense of the consumers in
the mother country.

It was pointed out that the effect of prohibitory duties
was to impose on the consumer an indirect tax often equal
to the whole difference of price between the British article
and the foreign article which the duty keptout. On articles
of food alone the amount taken in this way from the con-
sumer exceeded the ammount of all the other taxes levied by
the Government. The sacrifices of the community did not
end here, but were accompanied by injurious effects upon
wages and capital. The duties diminished greatly the pro-
ductive powers of the country; and they limited our trade.
The action of duties which were not prohibitory, but only
protective, was of a similar kind. They imposed upon
the consumer a tax equal to the amount of the duty
levied on the foreign article; but it was a tax which
went not to the public treasury, but to the protected manu-
facturer.

Evidence was taken to show that the protective system

. was not on the whole beneficial to the protected manufactures
themselves. The amount of duties levied on the plea of
protection to British manufactures did not exceed half a
million sterling. Some even of the manufacturers supposed
1842.
ir. 88,

 

236 LIFE OF OOBDEN. | fonar.

to be most interested in retaining the duties, were quite
willing that they should be abolished.

With reference to the influence of the protective system
on wages, and on the condition of the labourer, the Report
was equally decided. As the pressure of foreign competition
was heaviest on those articles in the production of which the
rate of wages was lowest, sc it was obvious in # country
exporting so largely as England, that other advantages
might more than compensate for an apparent advantage in
the money price of labour. The countries in which the rate
of wages is lowest, are not always those which manufacture
most successfully. ‘The Committee was persuaded that
the best service that could be rendered to the industrious
classes of the community, would be to extend the field of
labour by an extension of our commerce.

The conclusion was a strong conviction in the minds of
the Committee, of the necessity of an immediate change in
the import duties of the kingdom. By imposts on a small
number of those articles which were then most productive’
—the amount of each impost being carefully considered
with a view to the greatest consumption of the article, and
therefore the highest receipts at the customs—the revenue
would not only suffer no loss, but would be considerably
augmented.*

This Report was the charter of Free Trade. The Whig

1 Seventeen articles produced 944 per cent. of the total revenue, and
these with twenty-nine other articles, or forty-six articles in all, produced
983 per cent.

2 Much of the evidence which led to this Report is, in the present reoru-

deacence of bad opinions, as well worth reading to-day a3 it was forty years
ago—especially the evidence of Mr. J. Deacon Hume, who is not to be con-

fused, by the way, with Joseph Hume, the chairman of the Committee.

Cobden said that if the Committee had done nothing else but elicit this
evidence, “it would have been sufficient to produce a commercial revolution
all over the world.” Mr. Hume's answers wore largely circulated as one
of the League tracts. This important blue-book, Import Duties, No. 601,
waa ordered to be printed, Aug. 6, 1840, :
x1. BIB ROBERT PEEL'S POSITION. 237

Government, as we have seen, had taken from it in a timid and tee
blundering way a weapon or two, with which they hoped that “Air, 88. 88.
they might be able to defend their places. Their successor
grasped its principles with the hand of a master. “My
own conviction,” said Cobden many years afterwards, “is
that Peel was always a Free Trader in theory ; in fact, on all
politico-economical qnestions, he was always as sound in
the abstract as Adam Smith or Bentham. For he was pecu-
liarly a politico-economical, and not a Protectionist, intellect.
But he never believed that absolute Free Trade came within
the category of practical House of Commons measures. It
was @ question of numbers with him; and as he was yoked
with a majority of inferior animals, he was obliged to go
their pace, and not his own.” *

This is true of Sir Robert Peel’s mind throughont from
1843 to 1846. But it seems only to be partially true of
the moment when he brought in the great budget of 1842.
Notwithstanding its fatal omission of the duties on corn, it
was a Free Trade budget. Corn was excluded partly from
the leader’s fear of the “ inferior animals” whom it was his
honourable but unhappy mission to drive, but partly also by
an honest doubt in Peel’s own mind, whether it was safe to
depend on foreign countries for our supplies. The doubt
was strong enough to warrant him, from bis own point of
view, in trying an experiment before meddling with corn;
and a magnificent experiment it was. The financial plan of
1842 was the beginning of all the great things that have
been done since. Its cardinal point was the imposition of a
direct tax, in order to relax the commercial tariff. Ultimately
the effect of diminishing duties was to increase revenue, but .
the first effect was a fallin revenue. It was expedient or
indispensable for the’revival of trade to lower or remit duties,
and to purge the tariff. To bridge over the interval before

® To J. Parkes, Mas 26, 1858,
1842,
ANT. 38.

 

238! LIFE O# OOBDEN. [onar.

increased trade ond consumption made up for the loss thus
incurred, the Government proposed to put on. the income tax
at the rate of sevenpence in the pound. They expected that
the duration of the impost would probably be about five
years. Atthe end of that time the loss caused by remissions -
would, they hoped, have been recovered.

The new tariff was not laid before Parliament for some
weeks. The labour of preparation was enormous. Mr.
Gladstone, who was then at the Board of Trade, and on
whom much of the labour fell, said many years afterwards
that he had been concerned in four revisions of the Tariff,
namely in 1842, in 1845, in 1854, and in 1860; and he told
Cobden that the first cost six times as much trouble as all
the others put together. There was an abatement of duty,
on seven hundred and fifty articles. The object, as set
forth by the Minister himself, speaking generally, was to
reduce the duties on raw materials, which constituted the
elements of manufactures, to an almost nominal amount; to
reduce the duties on half-manufactured articles, which
entered almost as much as raw material into domestic
manufactures, to a nominal amount. In articles completely
manufactured, their object had been to remove prohibitions
and reduce prohibitory duties, so as to enable the foreign
producer to compete fairly with the domestic manufacturer.
The general principle Sir Robert Peel went upon, was to make
a considerable reduction in the cost of living. It is true
that the duty on the importation of fresh and salted meat
was lowered. It is true, too, that he could point to the new
Corn Bill as having reduced the duty on wheat by more
than a half. While he spoke, it was nine shillings under
the new law, and twenty-three under the old one. But the
sugar duties were untouched. It seemed a fatal, absurd,

‘ The speech proposing the Income Tax was March 11. It was May 6
when Sir Robert Peel moved to go into Commities on the Tarif,
’

x1] THE NEW TARIFF. 239

miserable flaw in the new scheme to talk of the main object 1842.
being to lessen the charge of living, and then to leave bread agr. 3a.
and sugar, two great articles of universal consumption,
burdened with heavy protective taxation. Many a League
meeting in the next three years rang with fierce laughter at ,
the expense of a Minister who talked of relieving the
consumer, when he had taken the tax off dried fruits, cos-
metics, satins, caviare, and left it upon the loaf of bread.

The Tories followed reluctantly. The more acute among

the Protectionists felt that the colonial interest would :
speedily be forced to surrender its advantage over the sugar
of Cuba and Brazil; and one member warned sympathetic
hearers that, when the Tariff was passed, the next step to
be expected was the repeal of the Corn Laws. The Minister
fonnd one remarkable champion on his own side, whose
genius he failed to recognize. Mr. Disraeli laughed at the
Whigs for pretending to be the originators of Free Trade.
Tt was Mr. Pitt, he said, who first promulgated its doc-
trines; and it was Fox, Burke, and Sheridan who then
denounced the new commercial principles. The prin-
ciples of Free Trade were developed, and not by Whigs,
fifty years before; and the conduct now pursued by Sir
Robert Peel was in exact accordance and consistency with
the principles for the first time promulgated by Mr. Pitt.
So far as it went, Mr. Disraeli’s contention was perfectly
correct.

If the Protectionists were puzzled as well as annoyed by the
new policy,so were the Free Traders. The following extracts

from letters to his brother convey one or two of Cobden’s
earlier impressions about Peel. Of the measure he always
thought the same, and the worst. By the end of the session
Cobden had clearly discerned whither Peel’s mind was turn-
ing. We who livea generation after tho battle was won, may
feel for a moment disappointed that; Cobden did not at once
1842.

!

246 LIFE OF OOBDEN. (car.

=_ Judge the Minister's boldness in imposing the income tax as

Zr. 88. a means of reforming the tariff, in a more appreciative spirit.

Vo

It is just, however, to remember that in his letters we seize .

‘the first quick ixapressions of the hour; that these first

impressions were naturally those of chagrin in one who saw
that the new scheme, however good in its general bearings,
omitted the one particular change that was needful. We must

, not expect from an energetic and clear-sighted actor, com-

mitted to an urgent practical cause, the dispassionateness of a
historian whose privilege it is to be wise after the event.

“What say the wise men to Sir Robert’s income tax?
In other words, how do our mill-owners and shopkeepers
like to be made to pay 1,200,000]. a year ont of their
profits, to insure the continuance of the corn and sugar
monopolies? I should think that the proposal to place
profits upon a par with rent before the tax collector will not
be vastly popular, unless the law can contrive to keep up
the former as it does the latter. The only important
change after all, announced last night, was timber... .
Peel delivered his statement in a clear and clever way, never
faltering nor missing a word in nearly a four hours’ speech.
This has gone far to convince our noodles on the Whig
side that there is a great deal of good in his budget;
and I find even our friend J is inclined to praise
the budget. But I fully expect that it will do much to
render Peel vastly unpopular with the upper portion of the
middle class, who will see no compensation in the tariff for
9 tax upon their incomes and profits. If this be the result
of the measure, it will do good to the Corn Law cause, by
bringing the discontented to our ranks. Let me know what
your wiseacres say about it.””*

 

“Both the corn and income tax will be thrown over Haster °
5 To F. Oobdon, March 12, 1842.
‘

XL] COBDEN’S 1MPRESSIONS. 241

LT expect. Peel is very anxions to force on both measures, 1842.
which I am not surprised at, seeing how he is badgered x. 38.
both in the House and out of doors. He gets at times very
irritable, as you will have seen. It is a hard task to govern
for a class, under the pretence of governing for the people.
If he should be killed in the vain attempt to serve two such
opposite masters, it is to be hoped he. will be the last man
foolish enough to make the attempt. He is certainly looking
very fagged and jaded. The income tax will do more than the
Corn Law to destroy the Tories. The class of voters in the
towns upon which they rely, are especially touched by his
achemes. The genteel shopkeepers and professional men who
depend upon appearances, and live by a false external, will
never forgive him for exposing their tinsel. You will not
hear of any public demonstration against the tax, but a
much more effective resistance is being offered by the private
remonstrance of Tory voters. There is very little feeling
in the manufacturing districts compared with that of the
southern boroughs. Peel is also undermining his strength
in the counties by displeasing everybody, and putting every-
thing in disorder without settling anything. The worst
danger is of the Whigs coming in again too soon. The
hacks would be up on their hind legs, and at their old
prancing tricks again, immediately they smelt the Treasury
erib.”’*

“ The truth is, your accounts make me feel very uneasy
at my position. No earthly gcod can Ido here. The thing
must be allowed to work itself into some new shape—time
only can tell what. We are nowhere on the opposition side
at present. Peel must head a milieu party soon. If the:
old Duke were dead, he would quarrel with the ultra-Tories
ina month. He is no more with them in heart than you or

* To F. Cobden, Maroh 22, 1942.
1842,

\

A
A

242 LIFE OF CORDEN. omar,

{, and I suspect there is now an accumulation of grudges

 

£7.38. between him and the more violent of his party, that can
' hardly be suppressed.” ’

“Peel is a Free-trader, and so are Ripon and Gladstone.
The last was put in by the Puseyites, who thought they had
insinuated the wedge, but they. now complain that he has

_been quite absorbed by Peel, which is the fact. Gladstone
makes a very clever aide-de-camp to Peel, but is nothing
without him. The Government are at their wits’ end about
the state of the country. The Devonshire House Whigs
are beginning to talk of the necessity of supporting the
Government in case of any serious troubles, which means
a virtual coalition; a point they are evidently being driven

_ to by the force of events. Peel will throw overboard the

bigote_of his party, if he have the chance. But the real
difficulty is the present state of the country. The accounts
from every part are equally bad, and Chadwick says the
‘poor-rates in the agricultural districts are rising rapidly.
A groat deal of land has been offered for sale during the
last three months, and everything seems working beautifully
for a cure in the only possible way, viz., distress, suffering,
and want of money. I am most anxious to get ‘away and
come to Manchester; J know the necessity of my presence,
and shall let nothing but the corn question keep me.” ®

“The last fortnight has done more to advance our cause
than the last six or twelve months. The Peel party are
fairly beaten in argument, and for the first time they are
willing to listen to us as if they were anxious to learn ex-
cuses for their inevitable conversion. If I were disposed to
be vain of my talk, I have had good reason, for both sides

5 To F. Cobden, April 11, 1843.
3 To FB. Cobden, June S2, 1842.
x] CORDEN’S IMPRESSIONS, 243

speak in praise of my two last efforts. The Reform and ada.
Carlton Clubs are both agreed as to my having pleaded the “7. 3,
cause successfully. The real secret, however, is the irre-

sistible pressure of the times, and the consciousness that the

party in power can only exist by restoring the country to
something like prosperity. If nothing happens to revive

trade, the Corn Law goes to a certainty before spring.” ’

* Peol and his squad will be right glad to get rid of the
House, and I suspect it will not be his fault if he does not
get a measure of Corn Law repeal ready before next session,
to stop the mouths of the League men. He has been ex-
cessively worried by our clique in the House, and I have
reason to flatter myself with the notion that I have been a
frequent thorn in his side. If distress should continue to
favour. us, we shall get something substantial in another
twelve months, and I suspect we may bargain for the con-
tinuance of bad trade for that length of time at least.”

Something must be said of the two speeches of which
‘Cobden speaks so lightly in one of these extracts. It was
July before he made any prominent attack on the financial
scheme. In March, when Peel had wished to press the
Income Tex Bill forwards, Cobden had been one of a small
group who persisted in obstructive motions for adjournment,
until Peel was. at length forced to give way. He had also
made remarks from time to time In Committee. But the
session was far advanced before he found a proper occasion
for putting forward all the strength of his case.

On July 1 a great debate was opened by Mr. Wallace of
Greenock, upon the distress of the country. Mr. Disraeli
pointed ont, with much force and ingenuity, that the languid

% To F. Cobden, July 14, 1842.
‘ te ts HB. Cobden, Inly $9, 1844,
244 "Live Of CORDEN. [oHAP.

1842. trade from which they wore suffering would receive a far
Zz. 28. more powerful stimulus than the repeal of the Corn Laws
could give, if Lord Palmerston had not, by a mischievous
political treaty, put an end to a treaty of commerce with
France, which would have opened new markets for all
the most heavily stricken industries of England. Joseph
Hume urged that the Government should either agree to
an inquiry, or else adopt the remedy of a repeal of the Corn
Laws. Lord John Russell lamented the postponement of
remedies, but would leave to the Government the respon-
sibility of choosing their own time. The Prime Minister
followed-in a speech in which he confined himself to very
narrow ground. It was rather a defence of his financial
policy, than a serious recognition of the state of the country.
This provoked Cobden to make his first great speech in the
House (July 8). Mr. Roebuck, who spoke the same evening,
described it as “a speech fraught with more melancholy
instruction than it had ever been his lot to hear. A speech,
in the incidents which it unfolded, more deeply interesting
to the people of this country, he had never heard in his life ;
and these incidents were set forth with great ability and
great simplicity.” As a debating reply to the Prime
Minister, it was of consummate force and vivacity. The
facts which Cobden adduced supported his vigorous charge
that Peel viewed the matter too narrowly, and that circum-
stances were more urgent than he had chosen to admit.
It was exactly one of those speeches which the House of
Jommons naturally delights in. It contained not a single
waste sentence. Every one of Peel’s arguments was met by
detail and circumstance, and yet detail and circumstance the
most minute were kept alive by a stream of eager and on-
pressing conviction. Peel had compared the consumption of
cotton in two half-years; Cobden showed that for purposes
of comparison thoy were the wrong half-years. Peel had
24] SPEECH ON {BE STATS OF THM OOUNTRY. 245

talked of improved machinery for a time turning people ont , 1842.

of employment; Cobden proved with chapter and verse “Zin. 38,
how gradual the improvement in the power-looms had been,
and pointed ont that Manchester, Bolton, Stockport, and
other towns in the north, were really the creation of labour-
saving machines. Peel had spoken as if it were merely a
cotton question and a Manchester question: Cobden, out of
the falness of his knowledge, showed that the stocking-
frames of Nottingham were as idle as the looms of Stock-
port, that the glass-cutters of Stourbridge and the glovers
of Yeovil were undergoing the same privation as the potters
of Stoke and the miners of Staffordshire, where five-and-
twenty thousand were destitute of employment. He knew
of a place where a hundred wedding-rings had been pawned
in a single week to provide bread; and of another place
where men and women subsisted on boiled nettles, and dug
up the decayed carcase of a cow rather than perish of
hunger. “ Isay you are drifting to confusion,” he exclaimed,
“without rudder and without compass. .... Those who
are so fond of laughing at political economy forget that they
have a political economy of their own: and what is it?
That they will monopolize to themselves the fruit of the
industry of the great body of the community—that they
allow the productions of the spindle and the loom to go
abroad to furnish them with luxuries from the farthest
corners of the world, but refuse to permit to be brought
back in exchange what would minister to the wants and
comforts of the lower orders. What would the conse-
quence be? We are sowing the seeds broadeast for a
plentiful harvest of workmen in the western world. Thou-
sands of workmen are delving in the mines of the western
continent, where coals can be raised for a shilling a ton.
We are sendiag there the labourers from our cotton manu-
fectorios, from our wocllen, and from our silk. They are
1848.
Ait. 38.

 

246 LIED OF COBDEN. {onar.

not going by dozens or by scores to teach the people of
other countries the work they have learnt—they are going
in hundreds and thousands to those states to open works
against our own machines, and to bring this country to a
worse state than it is now in. There is nothing to atone for
a system which leads to this; and if I were to seek for a
parallel, it would be only in the Revocation of the Edict of
Nantes by Louis XIV., or the decree of Alva in Belgium,
where the best men were banished from their country.”
Cobden gave additional strength to his appeal by showing
that its eagerness was not due to a merely official partisan-
ship. He saw no reason, he declared, why they should not
take good measures from Sir Robert Peel, or why they should

prefer those of Lord John Russell. “The noble Lord is

called the leader on this side of the House, and I confess
that when I first came into the House I was inclined to look
upon him as a leader; but from what I have seen, I believe
the right hon. Baronet to be as liberal as the noble Lord. If
the noble lord is my leader, I can only say that I believe
that in four out of five divisions I have voted against him.
He must be an odd kind of leader who thus votes against
those he leads. I will take measures of relief from the right
hon. Baronet as well as from the noble Lord, but upon some
measure of relief I will insist. .... I give the Prime ,
Minister credit for the difficulties of his situation; but this
question must be met, and met fully; it must not be
quibbled away ; it must not be looked upon as a Manchester
question ; the whole condition of the country must be looked
at and faced, and it must be done before we separate this
session.”

Three nights later (July 11), Sir Robert Peel took occa-
sion to deal with some of Cobden’s economic propositions,
especially an assertion that in prosperous times improvements
in machinery do not tend to throw labourers ont of employ-
sid BEPLY TO SIR ROBHRT PEEL, 247

ment. At the close of his speech the Minister revealed the
tentative spirit in which his great measures had been
framed, and the half-open mind in which he was beginning
to stand towards the Corn Law. If these measures should
not prove adequate to meet the distress of the country, in
that case, he said, “TI shall be the first to admit that no
adherence to former opinions ought to prevent their fall and
careful revision.”

Cobden, in the course of a vigorous reply, pointed to a
historic parallel which truly described the political situation.
He warned the aristocracy and the landowners never to
expect to find another Prime Minister who would take office
to uphold their monopoly. “They had killed Canning by
thwarting him, and they would visit the same fate on their
present leader, if he persevered in the same attempt to
govern for the aristocracy, while professing to govern for
the people.” At this there were loud groans from some
parts of the House. “ Yes,” repeated Cobden, undaunted,

“ they had killed Canning by forcing him to try and reconcile
"their interests with those of the people, and no human
power could enable the right hon. Baronet to survive the
same ordeal.”

1842,
Air. 38,

 
1842.
itt, 38.

 

CHAPTER XII.

BKENEWED ACTIVITY OF THE LEAGUE—-COBDEN AND SIB
ROBERT PEEL--~RURAL CAMPAIGN.

Ar the close of the session, Cobden hastened back to Man-
chester, where his business, as he too well knew, urgently
required his presence. As we have seen, his brother's
letters had begun to make him seriously uneasy as to his
position. Affairs were already beginning to fall into dis-
order at Chorley and in Manchester, and in telling the story
of Cobden’s public activity, we have to remember that
almost from the moment of entering Parliament he began to
be harassed by private anxieties of a kind which depress
and unnerve most men more fatally than any other. Cobden’s
buoyant enthusiasm for his cause carried him forward; it
drove these haunting cares into the background, and his real
life was not in his business, but in the affairs of the nation.

In September he made an important speech to the
Council of the League, at Manchester. It explains their
relations to political parties, and to social classes. They
had been lately charged, be said, with having been in
collision with the Chartist party. But those who made this
charge had themselves been working for the last three
years to excite the Chartist party against the League, and
that, too, by means that were not over-creditable. These
intriguers had succeeded in deluding a considerable portion
of the working classes upon fhe subject of the Corn Laws.
OH. X11] THE LEAGUE AND THH WORKMEN, 249

“ And I have no objection in admitting here,” Cobden went 1843.
on to say, “as | have admitted frankly before, that these Ar. 38.
artifices and manceuvres have, to a considerable extent,,
compelled us to make our agitation a middle-class agitation,
I do not deny that the working classes generally have ate
tended our lectures and signed our petitions; but I will’
admit, that so far as the fervour and efficiency of our
agitation has gone, it has eminently been a middle-class
agitation, We have carried it on by those means by
which the middle class usually carries on its movements.
We have had our meetings of dissenting ministers ;
we have obtained the co-operation of the ladies; we have
resorted to tea-parties, and taken those pacific means for
carrying out our views, which mark us rather as a middle-
class set of agitators. ... We are no political body; we
_ have refused to be bought by the Tories; we have kept
aloof from the Whigs; and we will not join partnership with
either Radicals or Chartists, but we hold ont our hand
ready to give it to all who are willing to advocate the
total and immediate repeal of the corn and provision
laws.”

In another speech, he said the, great mass of the people
stuck to the bread-tax because it was the law. “ He did
_ not charge the great body of the working classes with
taking part against the repeal of the Corn Laws, but he
charged the great body of the intelligent mechanics with
standing aloof, and allowing a parcel of lads, with hired
_ knaves for leaders, to interrupt their meetings.” As time

went on, the share of the working class in the movement
‘became more satisfactory. Meanwhile, it is important to
notice that they held aloof, or else opposed it as interfering
with those claims of their own to political power, which the
Reform Act had so unexpectedly banlked.
Recovering themselves from the disappointment and con.

 

ANNN
250 LIFB OF COBDEN. [omar

2. fusion of the spring, the agitators applied themselves with
air. 88, 38, invigorated resolution to their work.

They had been spending o hundred pounds a week. They
ought now, said Cobden, to spend a thousand. Up to this
time the Council of the League had had twenty-five thou-
sand. pounds through their hands, of which by far the
larger portion had been raised in Manchester and the
neighbouring district. About three times that sum had
been raised and expended by local associations elsewhere.
In all, therefore, a hundred thousand pounds had gone, and
the Corn Laws seemed more immovable than ever. With
admirable energy, the Council now made up their minds at
once to raise a new fund of fifty thousand pounds, and, not-
withstanding the terrible condition of the cotton trade, the
amount was collected in a very short time. Men con-
tributed freely because they knew that the rescue of their
capital depended on the opening of markets from which the
protection on corn excluded them.

“You will have observed,” Cobden wrote to Mr.
Edward Baines, “that the Council of the League are
determined upon a renewed agitation upon a great scale,
provided they can get a commensurate pecuniary help from
the country, and my object in troubling you is to beg that
you will endeavour to rouse the men of the West Riding
to another effort.

“The scheme which we especially aim at carrying out is
this :-To make an attack upon every registered elector of
the kingdom, county and borough, by. sending to each a
packet of publications embracing the whole argument as
it affects both the agricultural and trading view of the
question. We are procuring the.copies of the registers for
the purpose. But the plan involves an empense of 20,0001.
Add to this our increased expenditure in lectures, ete.,
and the contemplated cost of the spring deputations in
xi. BHNEWED ACTIVITY, 25y

London, and we shall require 50,0007. to do justice to
the cause before next June. And we have a Spartan band
“of men in Manchester who are setting to work in the full
confidence that they will raise the money. The best way
to levy contributions on the public for a common object
is to set wp a claim, and therefore Manchester men musi
not in public declare the country in their debt. But
between ourselves this is the case to a large extent.
The agitation, though a national one, and for national

objects, has been sustained by the pockets of the people —

here to the extent of 10 to 1 against the whole kingdom !
“ A vast proportion of our expenditure has been of a kind
to bring no éclat, such as the wide distribution of tracts in

the purely agricultural districts, and the subsidizing of:

literary talent which does not appear in connexion with
the League. If I had the opportunity of a little gossip
with you, I conld give you proof of much efficient agita-
tion for which the League does not get credit publicly.
There is danger, however, in the growing adversity of
this district, that we may pump our springs dry, and
it is more and more necessary to widen the circle of
our contributors. We confidently rely on your influential
co-operation.

“Recollect that our primary object is to work the
printing press, not upon productions of our own, but pro-
ducing the essence of authoritative writers, such as Deacon
Hume, Lord Fitzwilliam, etc., and scattering them broad-
east over the land. Towards such an object no Free-
trader can scruple to commit himself. And in no other
humen war that I am acquainted with, can we accomplish
our end by moral and peaceable means. There is no use
in blinking the real difficulties of our task, which is
the education of twenty-seven millions of people, an object
not to be sccomplished except by the cordial assist-

1848.
Zr, 38.

 
252 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [omar.

1848. ance of the enlightened and patriotic in all parts of the
“Zr. 38. kingdom.”?

The staff of lecturers was again despatched on its
missionary errand, To each elector in the kingdom was
sent a little library of tracts. Tea parties followed by

meetings were found to be more attractive in the northern .

towns than meetings without tea parties. Places where
meetings had been thinly attended, now produced crowds.
Cobden, Mr. Bright, Mr. Ashworth, and the other chief
speakers, again scoured the country north of the Trent;
and at the end of the year, the first two of these, along with
Colonel Perronet Thompson—the author of the famons
Catechism of the Oorn Laws, and styled by Cobden, the
father of them all—proceeded on a pilgrimage to Scotland.

“ Our progress ever since we crossed the border,” Cobden
writes, “has been gratifying in the extreme. Had we been
disposed to encourage a display of enthusiasm, we might
have frightened the more nervous of the monopolists with
our demonstrations. As it is, we have been content to
allow honours to be thrust upon us in our own persons, or
rather mine, by the representatives of the people. Glasgow,
Edinburgh, Kirkcaldy, Dundee, Perth, and Stirling, have

_ all presented me with the freedom of their burghs, and I

have no doubt I could have become a free citizen of every
corporate town in Scotland by paying them a visit.* All
this is due to the principles we advocate, for I have done
all I could to discourage any personal compliments to my-
self. Scotland is fairly up now, and we shall have more in
future from this side of the Tweed upon the Corn Law. We

1 To Edward Boines, Oot. 25, 1842.

2 It is worth noticing that in Glasgow this hononr was conferred upon
him, not merely on the ground of his public action, but because, in the words
of his proposer, by his ingenuity as @ eslico printer, he had brought that
manufsctnie to such o state of perfection that we were now able to compote
with the printers of Kranco and Switzerland.
,

xn.j OOBDEN IN SCOTLAND. 253

go to-day to Glasgow to attend another Free-trade banquet. 1843.
To-morrow we procsed to Hdinburgh, where I shall air. 89.
remain a few days tc go through the ceremony ot becoming
a citizen of Auld Reekie, and then go forward to New-
castle to join Colonel Thompson and Bright (who have both
been working yuiracles), who will take Hawick by the way
for a meeting on Thursday evening.”’

“T shall be with you at the end of the week. The work ,
has been too heavy for me, and I have been obliged to
throw an extra share upon Bright and the old veteran
Colonel. I caught cold in coming from Carlisle to Glasgow
by night, and have not got rid of it. To-day has, however,
been very fine, and I have enjoyed a long walk with George
Combe into the country, looking at the farm-houses, each
of which has a tall chimney attached belonging to the engine
house. Iam obliged to come from Glasgow here on Thurs-
‘day to go through the ceremony of receiving the freedom
of this city. Upon the whole, I am satisfied with the aspect
of things in Scotland. I am not afraid of their going back
from their convictions, and there is scarcely » man who is
not against the present law, and nearly all are going on to
total repeal. Fox Maule’s conversion is important. He is
heir to 80,0007. a year in land, 40,000 acres under the
plough. a7 4

From Dundee, through Hawick, the deputation crossed
the border to Newcastle, Sunderland, Darlington, and other
towns of that region. On their return to head-quarters, Mr.
Bright recounted to a crowded meeting at Manchester
what they had done, and he summed up their impressions
of Scotland in words that deserve to be put on record.
There were some general features, Mr. Bright said, which
struck him very strongly in their tour through Scotland,

8 To George Wilson, Stirling, Jan. 18, 1843,
4 To F. Ocdden, Jon, 1.5, 1843,
254 LIFE 0% OOB8DEN. (onse.

_ 4848." “Tn the first place, I believe that the intelligence of the people
Ax. 39. in Scotland is superior to the intelligence of the people of
England. I take it from these facts. Before going to the
meetings, we often asked the committee or the people with
whom we came in contact, ‘Are there any fallacies which
the working people hoid on this question? Have they any
crotchets about machinery, or wages, or anything else?’
‘And the universal reply was, ‘No; you may make a speech
about what you like; they understand the question
thoroughly ; and it is no use confining yourself to machinery
or wages, for there are few men, probably no man here, who
would be taken in by such raw jests as those.’ Well, if the
working men are so intelligent in Scotland, how are the
landowners? You find, in that country, that the science of
farming is carried to a degree of perfection which is almost
unknown in England. You find them: with a climate not
so kind and genial as ours, for they often fail in gather-
ing in wheat when the farmers in the south of England
succeed; they have Jand not natnrally so fertile as ours,
and many are not so near a market to take off the whole of
their produce as our farmers are; but we find there that
the landowners are intelligent enough to know that the
monopolists themselves rarely thrive under the monopolies
they are so fond of, and that it would be much better for
‘them to be subjected to the same wholesome stimulus which
persons in other pursuits feel, and which is alike beneficial
to the people so engaged, and to those who purchase the
articles they produce. .... Well, then, as to the middle
classes of Scotland, I hold that the municipalities of Scot-
land represent the opinion of the middle classes. In Glas-
gow, Edinburgh, Perth, and other towns, we found that
the members of the corporations were a true index to
the opinion of the main body of tho inhabitants of the
town in which if, was situate. Now, in Glasgow, Edinburgh,

 
xuL } Mu, BRIGHT UPON AOOTLARD. 255

Kirkcaldy, Dundee, Perth, and Stirling, the highest honour 148.
which the municipal authorities of these cities and towns Air. 80.
can give, has been conferred upon that man who is in all

_ parts of the country, and throughout the world, recognized
as the impersonation of Free Trade principles, and of the
Anti-Corn-Law League.

“Scotland, in former ages, was the cradle of liberty, civil
and religious. Scotland, now, is the home of liberty ; and
there are more men in Scotland, in proportion to its popu-
lation, who are in favour of the rights of man than there are
in any other eqaal proportion of the population of this
country... . J told them that they were the people who
should have ropeal of the Union; for that, if they were
separate from England, they might have a government
wholly popular and intelligent, to a degree which I believe
does not exist in any other country on the face of the earth.
However, I believe they will be disposed to press us on,
and make us become more and more intelligent; and we
may receive benefit from our contact with them, even
though, for some ages to come, our connexion with them
may be productive of evil to themselves.”

In England, at least, it is certain that the amazing vigour
and resolution of the League were regarded with intense

~disfavour by great and important classes. The League was
thoroughly out of fashion. It wae regarded as violent,
extreme, and not respectable. A year before, it had usually
been described as a selfish and contemptible faction. By
the end of 1842 things had become more serious. The
notorious pamphleteer of the Quarterly Review now de-
nounced the League as the foulest and most dangerous
combination of recent times. The Times spoke of Cobden,
Bright, and their allies as “ capering mercenaries who go
frisking about the country;” as authors of incendiary
clap-trap; as peripatetic orators puffing themselves into
1843,
Zr, 39.

 

256 LIE OF OOBDEN. ‘ [oar.
an easy popularity by second-hand arguments. They were
constantly accused of retardiig their own cause, and
frightening away respectable people, by their violence. |
Violence, as usual, denoted nothing more than that they
knew their own minds, and pressed their convictions as if
they were in earnest. In tho earlier part of the autumn
there had been a furious turn-out of the operatives in the
mills, and later on in the season ricks had been burnt in the
midland and southern counties. The League, in spite of the
fact that its leaders were nearly all mill-owners, or con-
nected with manufactures, was accused of promoting these
outrages. There were loud threats of criminal proceedings
against the obnoxious confederacy. It was rumoured on
the Manchester Exchange that the Government had resolved
to put down the League as an association constituted against
the law of the land. If necessary, a new law would be made

to enable them to suppress a body so seditious. This heat

in the minds of the ruling class made them anxious at
almost any cost to destroy Cobden, who was now openly
recognized as the foremost personage in the detested
organization. This partly explains what now followed.

The session of 1843 opened with the most painful incident
in Cobden’s parliamentary life. It is well to preface an
account of it, by mentioning an event that happened on the
eve of the session. Mr. Drummond, the private secretary
of the Prime Minister, was shot in Parliament Street, and in
a few days died from the wound. The assassin was Daniel
M‘Naghten, a mechanic from Glasgow, who at the trial was
acquitted on the ground of insanity. From something that
he said to a police inspector in his cell, the belief got
abroad that in firmg at Mr. Drummond he supposed that he
was dealing with Sir Robert Peel. The evidence at the
trial showed even this to he very doubtful, and in any case
x1] SPEEOH ON LORD HOWIOK’S MOTION. 257

the act was simply that of a lunatic. But it shook Sir
Robert Peel’s nerves. He was known by those who were
intimate with him to have a morbid sensibility to whatever
was physically painful or horrible. It has always been
believed that his distress at the circumstances of Mr.
Drummond’s death was the secret of the scene with Cobden
which we have now to describe.

Lord Howick on an early night in the session moved that
the House should resolve itseif into a committee to consider
& passage in the Queen’s speech, in which reference had been
made to the prevailing distress. The debate on the motion
was a great affair, and extended over five nights. It was a
discussion worthy of the fame of the House of Commons—a
serious effort on the part of most of those who contributed
to it, to shed some light on the difficulties im which the
country wasinvolved. Cobden spoke on the last night of the
debate (Feb. 17). He answered in his usual dexterous and
argumentative way the statements of Lord Stanley, Mr.
Gladstone, and other opponents of a repeal of the Corn Law,
and then he proceeded to a fervent remonstrance with the
Prime Minister. I quote some of the sentences which led
to what foliowed: “If you (Sir Robert Peel) try any other
remedy than ours, what chance have you for mitigating the
condition of the country? You took the Corn Laws into
your own hands after a fashion of your own, and amended
them according to your own views. You said that you were
uninfluenced in what you did by any pressure from without
on your judgment. You acted on your own judgment, and
would follow no other, and you are responsible for the con-
sequences of your act. You said that your object was to
find more employment for the increasing population. Who

so likely, however, to tell you what markets could be ex-

tended, as those who are engaged in carrying on the trade
and manufactures of the country? .. You passed the law,
8

1848.
47. 39.

 
1843.
ET. 39,

 

258 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [omar

you refused to listen ‘to the manufacturers, and I throw on
you all the responsibility of your own measure... . The
right hon. Baronet acted on his own judgment, and he re-
tained the duty on the two articles on which a reduction of
duty was desired, and he reduced the duties on those on
which there was not a possibility of the change being of
much service to the country. It was folly or ignorance
(Oh! Oh!). Yes, it was folly or ignorance to amend our
system of duties, and leave out of consideration sugar and
corn. The reduction of the duties on drugs and such things
was a proper task for some Under-Secretary of State, dealing
with the sweepings of office, but it was unworthy of any
Minister, and was devoid of any plan. It was one of the
least useful changes that ever was proposed by any Govern-
ment... . It is his duty, he says, to judge independently,
and act without reference to any pressure; and I must tell
the right hon. Baronet that it is the duty of every honest and
independent member to hold him individually responsible for
the present position of the country. . . . I tell the right hon.
gentleman that I, for one, care nothing for Whigs or Tories.
I have said that I never will help to bring back the Whigs;
but I tell him that the whole responsibility of the lamentable
and dangerous state of the country rests.with him. It ill
becomes him to throw that responsibility on any one at this
side. I say there never bas been violence, tumult, or con-
fusion, except at periods when there has been an excessive
want of employment, and a scarcity of the necessaries of life.
The right hon, Baronet has the power in his hands to do as
he pleases.”

‘When Cobden sat down, the Prime Minister rose to his
feet, with signs of strong agitation in his usually impassive
bearing. “Sir,” he said, “the honourable gentleman has
stated here very emphatically, what he has more than once
stated at the conferences of the Anti-Corn-Law League, that
xn] SOENE WITH SIR SOBERT PEEL. 259

‘he holds me individually—” Here the speaker was inter- 143.
rupted by the intense excitement which his emphasis on the ir. 39.
word, and the growing passion of his manner, had rapidly
produced among his audience. “ Individually responsible,”
he resumed, “ for the distress and suffering of the country ;
that he holds me personally responsible. But be the conse-
quences of these insinuations what they may, never will I be
influenced by menaces, either in this House or out of this
House, to adopt a course which I consider—” The rest of
the sentence was lost in the shouts which now rose from all
parts of the House. Cobden at once got up, but to little
purpose. “TI did not say,” he began, “that I hold the
right hon. gentleman personally responsible.” Vehement
cries arose on every side; “Yes, yes”—“You did, you
did ”—~* Order ”?— Chair.” “You did,” called out Sir
Robert Peel. Cobden went on, “I have said that T hold the
right hon. gentleman responsible by virtue of his office, as
the whole context of what I said was sufficient to explain.”

The enraged denials and the confusion with which the
Ministerial benches broke into his explanation, showed
Cobden that it was hopeless for the moment to attempt to
clear himself. Sir Robert Peel resumed by reiterating the
charge that Cobden had twice declared that he would hold
the Minister individually responsible, This inauspicious
beginning was the prelude of a strong and careful speech ;
as strong a speech as could be made by a minister who was
not prepared to launch into the full tide of Cobden’s own
policy,’ and had only doubtful arguments about practical

5 The peroration of this speech is an admirably eloquent comparison
between the pacific views of Wellington and Soult — men who have seen
the morning sun rise upon living masses of fiery warriors, so many of whom
were to be laid in the grave before that sun should set ”—and “ anonymous
and irresponsible writers in the public journals, who are doing all they cap
to exasperate the differences that have prevailed; and whose efforts wera
not directed by zeal for the national honour, but employed for the base
1848,
Air, 89.

 

260 LIFE OF COBDEN. [omar

convenience to bring against the stringent pleas of logical
consistency. What astonishes us is that such a performance
should have followed such a preface. Those who have
written about Sir Robert Peel’s character have always been
accustomed to say that, though there was originally a vein of
fiery temper in him, yet he had won perfect mastery over
ib; and his outburst against Cobden was the only occasion
when he seemed to fall into the angry impetuosity that
was familiar enough on the lips of O’Connell, or Stanley, or
Brougham. He was taunted before long by Mr. Disraeli
with imitating anger as a tactical device, and taking the
choleric gentleman for one of his many parts. Whether
his display of emotion against Cobden was artificial or a
genuine result of overstrung nerves, was disputed at the
time, and it is disputed to this day by those who witnessed
the scene. The display was undoubtedly convenient for
the moment in damaging a very troublesome adversary.
Lord John Russell, who spoke after the Minister, had no
particular reason to be anxious to defend so dubious a
follower as Cobden, but his honourable spirit revolted
against the unjust and insulting demeanour of the House.
“Tam sure,” he said, “that for my own part, and I believe
I can answer for most of those who sit round me, that the
same sense was not attached to the honourable member for
Stockport’s words, as has been attached by the right honour-
able Baronet and honourable members opposite.’”? When
Lord John Russell had finished a speech that practically
wound up the debate, Cobden returned to his explanation,
and amid some interruptions from the opposite benches, as
well as from the Speaker on a point of order, again insisted
that he had intended to throw the responsibility of the
Minister’s measures upon him as the head of the Govern-

purposes of encouraging national anim sity, or promoting personal or party
interest.” :
xu.] SOENE WITH SIR BOBERT PHEL, 261

ment, In using the word “ individually,” he used it as the 1848.
Minister himself used the personal pronoun when he said air. 39.
“T passed the tariff.” “TI treat him,” Cobden concluded,
“as the Government, as he is in the habit of treating him-
self.”

Very stiffly Peel accepted the explanation. “I am bound
to accept the construction which the honourable member
puts upon the language he employed. He used the word
‘individually’ in so marked a way, that I and others put
upon it a different explanation. He supposes the word
‘individually’ to mean public responsibility in the situation
I hold, and I admit it at once. I thought the words he
employed, ‘I hold you individually responsible,’ might have
an effect, which I think many other gentlemen who heard
them might anticipate.”

The sitting was not to end without an assault on Cobden
from a different quarter. Sir Robert Peel had no sooner
accepted one explanation, than Mr. Roebuck made a state-
ment that demanded another. He taxed Cobden with
having spoken of Lord Brougham as a maniac; with having
threatened his own seat at Bath; and with having tolerated
the use of such reprehensible and dangerous language by
members of the League, as justified Lord Brougham’s
exhortation to all friends of Corn Law Reform to separate
themselves from such evil advisers. This incident sprang
from some words which Brougham had used in the House
of Lords a week before. They are a fine example of par-
liamentary mouthing, and of that cheap courage which
consists in thundering against the indiscretions of an un-
popular friend. If anything could retard the progress of
the doctrines of the League, he had said, “it would be the
exaggerated statements and violence of some of those con-
nected with. their body—the means adopted by them at some
of their meetings to excite-—happily they have not much suc-
 

262 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [onar.

ceeded—to excite discontent and breakings-out into violence

. in different parts of the country; and, above all, I cannot

discharge my duty to your Lordships and to my own con-
science, if I do not express the utter abhorrence and disgust
with which I have noted some men—men clothed with
sacred functions, though I trust unconnected with the
League, who have actually in this very metropolis of a
British and Christian community, and in the middle of the
nineteenth century of the gospel of grace and peace, not
scrupled to utter words to which I will not at present more
particularly allude, but which I abhor, detest, and scorn, as
being calculated to produce fatal effects—I will not say
have produced them—but calculated to produce the taking
away of innocent life.”

Cobden, as we might expect, had spoken freely of this
rebuke as the result of a reckless intellect and a malignant
spirit, or words to that effect.’ Nobody can think that Mr.
Roebuck had chosen his moment very chivalrously. Even
now, when time and death are throwing the veil of kindly
oblivion over the struggle, we read with some satisfaction
the denunciation by Mr. Bright, of the “ Brammagem
Brougham, who, when the whole Ministerial side of the
House was yelling at the man who stood there, the very
impersonation of justice to the people, stood forward and
dared to throw his puny dart at Richard Cobden.” There
is hardly an instance which illustrates more painfully the
ungenerous, the unsparing, the fierce treatment for which a
man must be prepared who enters public life in the House
of Commons. The sentiment of the House itself was against
Cobden. It always is more or less secretly against anyone
of its members who is known to have a serious influence

‘ Mr. Bright also took the matter up in correspondence with Lord
Brougham, and the language on both sides is as pithy as might be ex-
peoted. (Feb, 16—34.)
xm1.j MB. ROEBUOK’S aTTACK. 263

outside, and to be raising the public opinion of constituencies
to an inconveniently strong pitch. Cobden was scarcely
allowed to explain what he had really said to Mr. Roebuck.
It was simply this:—“If you justify Lord Brougham in

1848.
Ait. 39,

 

this attack on the ministers who attend the conference of

the Anti-Corn Law League, you will get into trouble at
Bath, and you will be considered the opponent of that body,
and you will have your Anti-Corn-Law tea parties, and some
members of the League visiting Bath. So far from wishing
to see Mr. Roebuck out of Parliament,’”? Cobden. concluded,
“he is the last man I should wish to see removed from the
seat which he now holds.”

Cobden’s own remarks on this unhappy evening are
better than any that an outsider can offer. To his brother
Frederick he wrote as follows :—

“Tho affair of last Friday seems to be working more
and more to our advantage. It has been the talk of every-
body here, from the young lady on the throne, down to
the back-parlour visitors of every pot-house in the metro-
polis. And the result seems to be a pretty general notion
that Peel has made a great fool of himself, if not something
worse. He is obliged now to assume that he was in earnest,
for no man likes to confess himself a hypocrite, and to put
up with the ridicule of his own party in private as a coward.
Lord was joking with Ricardo in the House the
other night about him; pointing towards Peel as he was
leaning forward, he whispered, ‘There, the fellow is afraid
somebody is taking aim at him from the gallery.’ Then
the pack at his back are not very well satisfied with them-
selves at having béen so palpably dragged through the mud
by him, for they had evidently not considered that I was
threatening him. Indeed the fact of their having called
for Bankes to speak after I sat down, and whilst Peel was

 
264 LIFE OF OORDEN.. [oHar.

1843. on his legs, clearly showed (and they cannot escape from the

41.39, unpleasant reflection) that they were unconscious of any

grievance being felt by the latter, and that they considered

the personality to refer to the former. They now feel them-

selves convicted of having taken the cue from Peel and —

joined en masse (without a conviction in their own minds to

sanction the course they took), in hunting me down as an

assassin. They will hear more of it. But the best part of

the whole affair is that everybody of every shade of politics

has read my speech carefully, in order to be able to judge

of Peel’s grounds of attack upon me. The consequence is

that all the Tories of Oxford, as I learn, have been criticizing

every word of it, and the result, I am told, is unfavourable

to Peel... . He is looking twenty per cent. worse since I

came into the House, and if I had only Bright with me,

we could worry him out of office before the close of the
session.’

“The thing is on its last legs. The wholesale admissions
of our principles by the Government must prove destructive
to the system in no very long time. The whole matter turns
upon the possibility of their finding a man to fill the office
of executioner for them, and when Peel bolts or betrays them,
the game is up. It is this conviction in my mind which in-
duced me after some deliberation to throw the responsibility
upon Peel, and he is not only alarmed at it, but indiscreet
enough to let everybody know that he is so... . Our meet-
ing last night was a wonderful exhibition. In the course of
a couple of months we will have entire possession of the
metropolis. Nothing will alarm Peel so much as ex-
hibitions of strength and feeling at his own door. I am

7 Mr. Bright, as it happened, was returned to Parliament before the end
of the session. He contested Durham in April, 1843, and was beaten by
Lord Dungannon. The new member wag unseated on petition, on the

ground of bribery. Mr. Bright again offered himself, and was elected
(July, 1843).
xIL] FEELING IN THE OOUNTRY. 265

overdone from all parts with letters and congratulations,
and can hardly find time to say a word to my friends.” *

The enemies of the League made the most of what had
happened. They spoke of Cobden as politically ruined,
and ruined beyond retrieval. Brougham, with hollow pity,
wrote about the “downfall of poor Mr. Cobden.” It soon
appeared that there was another side to the matter.
Meetings were held to protest against the treatment which
Cobden had received from the Minister and the House;
sympathetic addresses were sent to him from half the towns
in England, and all the towns in Scotland; and for many
weeks afterwards, whenever he appeared in a public
assembly, he was greeted with such acclamations as had
seldom been heard in public assemblies before. We may
believe that Cobden was perfectly sincere when he said
‘to one of his friends:—“I dislike this personal matter
for many good reasons, public and private. We must
avoid any of this individual glorification in the future.
My forte is simplicity of action, hard working behind
the scenes, and common sense in council; but I have
neither taste nor aptitude for these public displays.” *

At Manchester some eight thousand men and women
met to hear stirring speeches on the recent affair, Mr.
Bright moved a resolution, for an address to Cobden, in
words that glow with noble and energetic passion, while
they keep clear of hero-worship. “I do not stand up,”
he said, “to flatter the member for Stockport. I believe
him to be a very intelligent and very honest man; I believe
that he will act with a single eye to the good of his country ;
I believe that he is firmly convinced of the trath of the
great principles of which he is so distinguished an advocate.”

8 To F. Cobden, Feb. 28, 1843.
§ %o 18. Boines, March 8, 1845.

1848.

Air. 33,
266 LIFE OF COBDEN. [oar.

Tt was in reply to this address from Manchester, that

Air. 89. Cobden wrote a letter.to Sir Thomas Potter, with which

we may close a very disagreeable episode :—

“T have just received an address signed by upwards of
31,000 inhabitants of Manchester, declaring their approval
of my public conduct as an advocate of the principle of
commercial freedom, and their indignation at a late attempt
to give a perverted and hateful meaning to my language in
Parliament. Allow me through you, who have done me the
honour to place your name at the head of the list of
signatures, to convey to your fellow-townsmen the expres-
sion of my heartfelt gratitude for this manifestation of their
sympathy and. confidence.

“ Whilst I unfeignedly profess my unworthiness to receive
such a flattering and unexpected testimonial in reward for
my public services generally, I should feel degraded indeed
if I could not conscientiously accept the prompt repudiation
of the conduct imputed to me on a recent occasion. Nay,
I should feel it to be derogatory from my character as a
man and a Christian, that my countrymen should come
forward to repel the misinterpretation which has been
given to my words, were it not necessary on public grounds
to prevent the First Minister of the Crown from evading,
under any misconstruction of language, his responsibility
for the alarming consequences of the measures of his
Government—a responsibility not to the hand of the assas-
sin, but a constitutional and moral responsibility which
has been defined in the language of Edmund Burke:
‘Where I speak of responsibility, I do not mean to exclude
that species of it which the legal powers of the country
have a right finally to exact from those who abuse a public
trust: but high as this is, there is a responsibility which
attaches on them, from which the whole legitimate power of
this kingdom cannot absolve them. There is a responsi-
xi1.] REPLY TO THE MANOHESTER ADDRESS. 267

bility to conscience and to glory, # responsibility to the
existing world, and to that posterity which men of their
eminence cannot avoid for glory or for shame—a responsi-
bility to a tribunal at which not only ministers, but kings
and parliaments, but even nations themselves, must one
day answer.’!

“Never at any period of our history did this consti-
tutional and moral responsibility attach more strongly to a
minister than at the present moment, when the country is
struggling, amidst distress and embarrassment the ' most
alarming, against a system of monopoly which threatens
the ruin of our manufactures and commerce. That this
system, with its disastrous consequences of a declining trade,
a sinking revenue, increasing pauperism, and a growing
disaffection in the people, owes its continuance to the
support of the present Prime Minister more than to that of
his entire party, few persons who have had the opportunity
of observing the manner in which he individualizes in his
own person the powers of government, will deny.

“That the withdrawal of his support from this pernicious
system would do more at the present moment than all the
efforts of the friends of Free Trade to effect the downfall
of monopoly has been proclaimed upon high authority from
his own side of the House. ‘If the right hon. Baronet,’
said Mr. Liddell, member for North Durham, in the debate,
Feb. 3, ‘had shown any symptoms of wavering in the
support of the Corn Law, which he had himself put upon
a sound footing last year, such conduct would have been
productive of a hundred times more mischief than all the
denunciations of the Anti-Corn-Law League,’ With such
evidences of the power possessed by the First Minister of
the Crown, I should have been an unworthy representative
of the people, and a traitor to the suffering interests of my

1 These are the closing words of the Third Letter on a Regicide Peace,

1843.
“Ait. 89.
1848.
Ait, 39,

 

268 LIFE OF COBDEN. [owar,

constituents, had I failed in my duty of reminding him of
his accountability for the proper exercise of his power.

“Sanctioned and sustained as I have been by tho
approving voice of the inhabitants of Manchester, and of
my countrymen generally, I shall go forward undeterred by
the arts or the violence of my opponents, in that course to
which @ conscientious sense of public duty impels me; and
whilst studiously avoiding every ground of personal irrita-
tion—for our cause is too vast in its objects, and too good
and too strong in its principles, to be made a mere topic of
personal altercation—I shall never shrink from declaring
in my place in Parliament the constitutional doctrine of the
inalienable responsibility of the First Minister of the Crown
for the measures of his Government.” *

A few days after the scene in the House of Commons, the
first of those great meetings was held, which eventually
turned opinion in London in good earnest to the views
of the League. The Crown and Anchor and the Free-
masons’ Tavern had become too small to hold the audiences.
Drury Lane Theatre was hired, and here seven meetings
were held between the beginning of March and the be-
ginning of May. ‘The crowds who thronged the theatre
were not always the same in keenness and energy of per-
ception, but their numbers never fell short, and their en-
thusiasm grew more intense as they gradually mastered
the case, and became better acquainted with the persons
and characters of the prominent speakers. In the following
letter to his brother, Cobden hints at the special advantage
which he expected from these gatherings :—

“There is but one of their lies,” he says, referring to the
gossip of the Tories, “that I should care to make them
prove; that is that our business is worth 10,000I. a year!

8 To Biv Thomas Potter, Marob 7, 18423,
x11} MEETINGS AT DRURY LANB. 269

By the way, it is a wholesome sign that my middle-class
popularity seems rather to be increased by my avowal
of my origin; and for the first time probably a man is
' served by that aristocratic class, who owes nothing to birth,
.parentage, patronage, connexions, or education. Don’t listen
to the nonsense about our being prosecuted. The enemy
has burnt his fingers already by meddling with the Leaguers.
Wait till we have held two or three weekly meetings in
Drury Lane Theatre, and you will see that we are not the
men to be put to the ordeal of a middle-class jury. Our
metropolitan gatherings are boné-fide demonstrations of
earnest energetic men of the shop-keeping class, a large
proportion under thirty years of age. There is this advan-
tage from a middle-class movement in London, that it always
carries with it the working men, who are all intermingled
by their occupation with the class above them more com-
pletely than in any other large town. I observe what you
say about the spirit of our Manchester Tories. The base-
ness of that party exceeds anything since the time of the
old Egyptian worshippers of Bulls and Beetles. But depend
upon it, the hostility to the League is confined pretty much
to the leaders, and you will see when a general election turns
upon the Corn Laws (and we must have a dissolution upon
the question before settling it), that the rank and file of
the party, the shopkeepers and owners of small cottage
property, will either desert the Tory masters, or fold their
arms and refuse to go into action at their bidding. But
our salvation will come from the rural districts. The
farmers are already half alienated from the landlords, and
the schism will widen every rent-day. Amidst the deluge
of letters that I have received since the Peel blunder,
are lots of communications from farmers. My declaration
that I am a farmer’s son, seems to have told as I ex-
pected, and it is a point of too much importance not

1843.
"Air. 89.

 
1843.

«Bir. 39.

270 “LIFE OF OOBDEN. (omar.

to be made the most of, even at the risk of being
egotistical.’’ *

“The meeting at Taunton was a boni-fide farmers’
gathering from all parts of the division of Somerset, and
there was but one opinion in the town amongst all parties
who attended the market, that the game of the ‘ political
landlords’ is all up. I find our case upon agricultural
grounds far stronger and easier than in relation to the
trading interests. Now, depend upon it, it will be just as
we have often predicted, the agricultural districts of the
south will carry our question. They are as a community
in every respect, whether as regards intelligence, morality,
politics, or public spirit, superior to the folks that surrcund
you in Lancashire. I intend to hold county meetings every
Saturday after Easter.’’*

The year 1843 was famous for a great agitation in each
of the three kingdoms. O’Connell was rousing Ireland by
the cry of Repeal. Scotland was kindled to one of its most
passionate movements of enthusiasm by the outgoing of
Chalmers and his brethren from the Establishment. In
England the League against the Corn Law was rapidly
growing in flood and volume. [If ever the natural history of
agitations is taken in hand, it will be instructive to compare
the different methods of these three movements, two of
which succeeded, while the third failed.

Cobden never disdained large popular meetings, to be
counted by thousands. These gatherings of great multitudes
were useful, not merely because they were likely to stir a
certain interest more or less durable in those who attended
them, but also because they impressed the Protectionist
party with the force and numbers that were being arrayed

5 To F. Cobden, March 11, 1843.
4 To F. Oodden, April 10, 1848.
<u] AGITATION IN THE COUNTIES. 271

against them. Bnt he did not overrate either their signi-
ficance or their value. Chalmers, in his great work of
reorganizing the broken Church, always expressed strong
distaste for large meetings, compared with small conferences
attended by none but those who could be persuaded to do
what he commended. He wanted, he used to say, not the
excitement of emotion, but the sturdiness and endurance of
good working principles. It was the same kind of feeling
which made Cobden always look back with peculiar satis-
faction to his share in the education of the farmers in sound
economic principles by dialectical disputes from waggons,
and close debate over the beef and ale at market ordinaries.
The League had shown the evil effects of the Corn Law
upon operatives, shopkeepers, manufacturers, and merchants.
They now turned to another quarter, and set to work to
prove that the same law inflicted still greater injuries upon
the tenant farmers and the labourers. The towns were
already convinced, and the time was a good one for an inva-
sion of the agricultural districts. The farmers were getting
low prices. They were disgusted at the concessions to Free
Trade which had been made in the budget, especially in the
article of meat. They suspected their parliamentary friends
of trickery, and a selfish deference to a plausible Minister.
The meetings in the counties were highly successful for
their immediate purpose, and they are full of interest to look
back upon. They are, perhaps, the most striking and original
feature in the whole agitation. There was true political
courage and profound faith, in the idea of awakening the
most torpid portion of the community, not by any appeal to
passion, but by hard argumentative debate. It was
generally accepted that the controversy was one to be
settled by arguments and not by force. Sir George Lewis
said that if the proposal had been to annihilate rents instead
of reducing them, the Protectionists would as certainly have

1848.
Air, 39,

 
272 LIFE OF COBDEN. [omar,

1843. gone from words to blows, a8 the American slaveholders
Atr. 39. afterwards did when their peculiar institution was touched.
One reason why tue shock, when it came, was accepted
without disorder, was that the League had succeeded in
thoroughly loosening, if not in overthrowing, the prejudices of
those who expected to be immediately ruined by the change.
The discussion was usually conducted in a fair and manly
Spirit on both sides. The speakers for the League told their
hearers that they did not wish to say anything personally
offensive to anybody ; that they were simply anxious that what
was true on the subject of protection should be discovered ;
and that they gave the gentlemen in the opposition waggon
credit for anxiety to do the same thing. As a rule, things
were conducted with order and good temper. Land agents,
valuers, and auctioneers were angrier disputants than either
farmers or squires. At Dorchester there was an attempt
to storm the hustings, but the Leaguers were prepared, and
a stout party of their friends, aided by the labourers, repulsed
the attack. At Canterbury, where the cause of protection
was advocated oddly enough by Mr. G. P. R. James, the
renowned novelist, one or two corn-factors insulted Cobden
and Mr. Bright, and there was some uplifting of sticks.
There were occasional threats of violence, tossing in a
blanket, and so forth, beforehand. But when the time came,
all passed off peaceably.®
Farmers who were afraid of attending meetings in their
own immediate district, used to travel thirty or forty miles
to places where they could listen to the speakers without
being known. Enemies came to the meetings, and began
to take notes in a very confident spirit, but as the arguments
became too strong for them, the pencil was laid aside, and

5 When a visit from Mr. Bright was announced at Alnwick, the Newcastle
Jowrnal bad a most brutal paragraph to the effect that some stalwart
yeoman should take the matter into his hands.
x11.) CAMPAIGN IN THE OOUNTIES, 273

the paper was torn up. At Norwich, the leading yeoman
of the county put a number of questions to Cobden, which
were so neatly and conclusively answered, that the farmers
who were listening to the controversy burst out into loud
applause. The terse sentences in which Cobden condensed
his matter carried conviction home. Though it was im-
possible for him to invent new arguments or discover
unfamiliar facts every day, yet even those who were best
acquainted with the facts and the arguments, were struck
at every meeting by his power of selecting and concen-
trating the important points, with a conversational strength
that brought every word within the easy comprehension
of the most careless listener. Antagonists were sometimes
astute, but were often stupid even te impenetrability.
In one place, a clergyman firmly contended that scarcity
had nothing to do with dearness. In that case, Mr. Bright
replied, he need not be afraid of repeal, for of course on
his principles abundance could not produce cheapness.

At Hertford the Shire Hall was so crowded, that the
meeting was held in the open air. The multitude was
mainly composed of farmers, and on the skirts of the mul-
titude some of the most important squires in the county
sat on horseback to hear the discussion. Cobden spoke for
two hours, and obtained a sympathetic hearing by his an-
nouncement that he was the son of a Sussex farmer, that he
had kept his father’s sheep, and had seen the misery of a
rent-day. It was at this meeting at Hertford that he first
met Mr. Lattimore, the well-known farmer of Wheathamp-
stead, to whom he was in the subsequent course of the
movement greatly indebted for agricultural facts bearing
on Free Trade.*

6 «JT have not forgotten the trouble you took to instruct me in the
, agricultural view of the question; how yon visited me in London for that
' purpose. I recollect after making my speech in the House on the agri-

T

1843.

 

| Hin, 39.
1843,
Zr, 39.

 

274 LIFE OF OOBDEN. fowar.

At Aylesbury, which was the stronghold of the Duke of
Buckingham, after his address, Cobden was confronted by a
long list of questions from an anonymous inquirer. Would
not Free Trade lower the price of corn and the means of
employing labour, from thirty to fifty per cent.? Did the
members of the League think the existing price of the
quartern loaf, which was then fivepence, too high for either
producer or consumer? Cobden answered them with his
usual dexterity, and wound up with the crucial question
on his own part; namely, in what way farmers and farm-
labourers had profited by the Corn Laws since 1815? A
resolution approving of the principles of Free Trade was
then put and carried with a few dissentients—so few, that
Lord Nugent, who was in the chair, said they were about
as many as would have held up their hands in favour of
Free Trade five and twenty years before, At Uxbridge,
the farmers who usually attended the corn-market, invited
Cobden to explain his views to them. The arrangements
for the meeting were left entirely in their own hands. The
tickets of admission were issued by the farmers, and dis-
posed of by them; the county was ransacked for supporters
of monopoly, and the discomfiture of the prophet of the
League was confidently predicted. The audience was more
exclusively composed of farmers than any that had yet
been held. When the time came, four gentlemen, one
after another, advocated the cause of monopoly as ably
as they could, and the discussion between them on the one
hand, and Cobden and Joseph Hume on the other, lasted

cultural view of the Free Trade question—the most successful speech I ever
made—that several county members asked me where my land lay, thinking
I must be an experienced proprietor and farmer. I told them I did not own
an acre, but that I owed my knowledge to the best farmer of my acquain-
tence, which I have always considered you to be.”—Cobden to R. Lattimore,
April 20, 1864, The speech referred to as the most successful he ever made,
I presume to be that of March 13, 1845, No. xv. in the collected speeches.
i Se: MRS «Tare eee:

xiL.] CAMPAIGN IN THE OOUNTIES. 275

for four hours and a half. In the end, the arguments of
the Free Traders were felt to be so absolutely unanswer-
able, that a resolution in favour of total and immediate
repeal was carried by five to one. The circumstances were
much the same, and the result was the same at Lincoln,
where Cobden was accompanied by Mr. Bright. At
Taunton, the church bells were rung, flags with free-trade
mottoes were hung from the windows, and a brass band
insisted on accompanying the deputation from the railway
to the place of meeting. Cobden, Mr. Bright, and Mr.
Moore were listened to with unwearied attention for
more than four hours. The farmers listened at first
with doubt and suspicion. Gradually their faces cleared,
conviction began to warm them, and at last such an
impression had been made, that eight hundred farmers out
of a meeting of twelve hundred persons, voted in favour of
total and immediate repeal.

In Bedford Cobden had not a single friend or acquaint-
ance, He had simply announced as extensively as he could
by placards, that he meant to visit the town on a given day.
The farmers had been canvassed far and wide to attend to put
down the representatives from the Anti-Corn-Law League.
The Assembly Rooms could not hold half the persons who
had come together, and they adjourned to a large field out-
side the town. Three waggons were provided to serve as
hustings, but the monopolist party rudely seized them, and
Cobden had to wait while a fourth waggon was procured.
Lord Charles Russell presided, and the discussion began.
The proceedings went on from three o’clock in the afternoon
until nine o’clock in the evening, in spite of heavy showers of
rain. At first Cobden was listened to with some impatience,
but as he warmed to his subject, and began to deliver tell-
ing strokes of illustration and argument, the impression
gradually spread that he was right. The chairman was

1848.
Aix, 89.

 
1848.
tir, 89,

 

276 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [owar.

unwillingly obliged to declare that an amendment in favour of
Free Trade was carried by a large majority.

“We fought a hard battle at Bedford,” Cobden writes
to his brother, “against brutish squires and bull-frogs, but
carried it two to one, contrary to the expectations of every
man in the county. Lord Charles Russell is the man who
opposed even his brother John’s fixed duty, declaring at
the time that it was to throw two millions of acres out of
cultivation. After Bedford, we can win anywhere; and it
is giving great moral power to my movements in the rural
districts to be always successful. The aristocracy are
becoming savage and alarmed at the war going on in their
own camp.””"

“On Saturday next,” he continues, “I shall be at Rye,
where there will be a grand muster from all the eastern part
of our county and from parts of Kent. These county
meetings are becoming provokingly interesting and at-
tractive, so far as the landlords are affected. They begin
to feel the necessity of showing fight, and yet when they
do come out to meet me, they are sure to be beaten on
their own dunghill, The question of protection is now an
open one at all the market tables in the counties where I
have been, and the discussion of the question cannot fail to
have the right issue.” *

This discussion sometimes broke down for lack of repre-
sentatives of the opposite cause :-—

Our meeting at Rye was a very tame affair for want of
any open spirit of opposition. The audience was almost as
quiet as a flock of their own Southdowns, I fear the squires
and parsons will give up the old game of opposition, and
try to keep the farmers away. However, we have sown the
ceeds in the South of England which nothing will eradicate.

7 To F. 1. Cobden, London, June 5, 1843,
® Tanbridge iene June 7, 1848.
xii} OAMPAIGN IN THE COUNTIES. 277

Wherever I go, I make the Corn question an open question
at all the market tables. And everywhere are strong-headed
men who take up our cause. At Winchester I found many
intelligent farmers. Mr. M., who moved the Free Trade
resolution, is, with his brother, the largest occupier in the
county. A very quiet man, highly respected: his very
name a passport. A Mr. HE. was at the meeting, who rents
8000 acres. After hearing our statements, he remarked,

‘These facts and arguments are quite unanswerable. Every |

word is true,’”®

At Penenden Heath (June 29), three thousand of the men of
Kent assembled to hear a close argumentative debate
between Cobden and a local landowner. Two days later
there was an open-air meeting at Guildford, where Cobden
stated his case, tided over interruptions, and met objections
from all comers for several hours. We need not further
prolong the history of this summer’s campaign. Here-
ford, Lewes, Croydon, Bristol, Salisbury,’ Canterbury, and
Reading, were all visited before the end of the session
by Cobden and Mr. Bright, or some other coadjutor.
In all of them, amid great variety of illustrations, and
with a constantly increasing stock of facts, he pinned
his opponents to the point, How, when, or where, have
farmers and farm labourers benefited by the Corn Law?
His greatest victory was at Colchester, the chief town of
a county which kept its parliamentary representation un-
sullied by @ single Liberal. The whole district had been

® To F. W. Cobden, London, Juby 20, 1843.

1 It was at Salisbury, on ® second visit later in the year, that Cobden
was reported to have pointed to the cathedral and said: “He thought the
best thing that could happen would be to see that huge monster turned intoa
good factory.” Even his foes admitted that this story was a gross fabrica-
tion, but it was often revived against him in the days of the Crimean War.
Probably some one said that thia was what he was capable of saying, and
then by well-known mythopomie processes, it was belioved that he actually
had gaid it.

1843,
Air, 88.

 
278 LIFE OF OOBDEN. (omar,

1843. astir with angry expectation for many days; the dram
4ir, 39. ecclesiastic had been vigorously beaten all over the county;
Sir John Tyrrell, at this time one of the doughtiest followers
of Peel, promised or threatened to attend; passions waxed
very high; special constables were sworn in; and the
violent and the timid alike declared that the agitators
would find themselves in no small bodily peril. Hustings
were erected in a large field, and when the day came,
several thousands of people assembled from all parts of
the county. At the appointed hour Cobden and Charles
Villiers were at their posts, and they were soon followed by
Sir John Tyrrell and Mr. Ferrand. Then the tournament
began. The battle raged for six hours, and the League
champions achieved a striking victory. The amendment to
his resolution was put to utter rout, and when night fell, Sir
John Tyrrell was found to have silently vanished. At one
point in the controversy, he had irrelevantly defied Cobden
to do further battle with him at Chelmsford. Cobden
instantly took up the glove, and on the appointed day to
Chelmsford he went. Sir John, however, had already had
enough of an unequal match, and Cobden carried on the
controversy in the usual way and with his usual success,
“Will these repeated discomfitures,” cried the Morning
Post, “induce the landowners of England to open their eyes
to the dangers that beset them? What may be the canses
of Mr. Cobden’s success? The primary cause is assuredly
that which couduces to the success of Sir Robert Peel.
Why, indeed, if parliamentary landowners deem it honest
and wise to support the author of the Tariff and the new
Corn Law, should not the tenant farmers of England sup-
port Sir Robert Peel’s principles when enunciated by Mr.
Cobden? With what pretensions to consistency could Sir
John Tyrrell oppose Mr. Cobden on the hustings at Col-
chester, after having supported all the Free Trade measures
xu] OOBDEN’S POSITION. 279

that had made the session of 1842 infamous in the annals of
our legislation? . . . Mr. Cobden’s speech is by no means
unanswerable. But Sir John Tyrrell assuredly made no
attempt to answer it. He uttered some things not devoid
of shrewdness, but they bore as slight reference to the
fallacies on which Mr. Cobden traded, as they did to the false
doctrines of the Koran. It is not, we fear, by such men as
the present race of the parliamentary landowners that the
deadly progress of the League is to be arrested.”

Mr. Bright once said at a public meeting,’ that people had
talked much more than was pleasant to him about his friend
Cobden and himself, and he would tell them that in the
Council were many whose names were never before the
public, and yet who deserved the highest praise. He was
sorry that it should for a moment be supposed, that they
who were more prominently before the public, and who were
but two or three, should be considered the most praise-
worthy. Nor was he singular. Cobden took every oppor-
tunity quietly and modestly of saying the same thing. The
applause of multitudes never inflated him into a demagogue,
as it was truly observed, any more than the atmosphere of
Parliament and of London society ever depressed him into
conventionality.* I cannot find a trace or a word in the
most private correspondence, betraying on the part of any
prominent actor in the League a symptom of petty or
ignoble egotism. They were too much in earnest. Never
on a scene where the temptations to vanity were so many,
was vanity so entirely absent.

Cobden’s incessant activity, his dialectical skill, the

3 October, 1843.

8 “Members were subject to great, temptations in London, and those who
had not been behind the scenes little knew the perils and dangers they had
to go through. It was very difficult for a man, however clothed in the
panoply of principle, to go through the ordeal of a London season, without
finding his coat of mail perforated from one quarter or another.” —Cobden,
at Ashton-under-Lyne, January, 1843.

 

Hin, 39,
1843,
Zit, 39.

280 LIVE OF OOBDEN. [onar.

scandal of the recent scene in the House, and perhaps the
fact that he was a member of the House, ali contributed to
make his position at this time conspicuous and unique, but
his simplicity of spirit filled men with an affection and love
for him, which made his success their own. As 4 speaker,
nobody knew better than he did the more stately genius
of his chief friend and ally. He once told an audience at
Rochdale that at this time, for reasons which they would
be at no loss to guess, he always stipulated that Mr. Bright
should let him speak first. From Winchester Mr, Bright
wrote to him, that they had promised faithfully that he
should attend the meeting, and that if the train failed to
bring him, they should run the country. If Cobden’s name
was mentioned. at a meeting, the audience would rise and
give three times three for the member for Stockport, the
friend of the people. At Manchester, an immense gathering
assembled to present an address to him, formally describing
him as the leader of the movement; and the cheers grew
more enthusiastic when a letter from Lord Ducie was read,
declaring that there was no man alive to whom the country
was more indebted than to Richard Cobden. In the same
way the men on the other side singled him out for special
vituperation ; and people who had never seen a print-works
in their lives, excited agricultural audiences by asserting
that Cobden was making enormous wealth at the expense
of the strength, the happiness, the limbs, and the very lives
of little children.

As. he said afterwards, Cobden lived at this time in public
meetings. Along with the county meetings, there was for
some time a weekly gathering at the Commercial Rooms in
Threadneedle Street, where the League speakers reiterated
their arguments to crowded audiences of merchants and
bankers. There were the enthusiastic assemblies at Drury
Lane and afterwards at Covert Garden, in which the in-
xu.) OOBDEN’S POSITION. 281

terest of the London public was so great that the report of
them doubled and trebled the ordinary sale of the news-
papers on the following morning. Besides all this, Cobden
attended to everything that in any way concerned his own
great subject in the House of Commons. There his position
by this time had become really formidable to the Minister.
His complete knowledge of every aspect of the case, his
tenacity, his skill in debate, and the immense influence
which it was perceived that he was acquiring out of doors,
had brought him to a front place; and the man who in Feb-
ruary had been spoken of as politically ruined, was by August
exercising a pressure on the mind of Sir Robert Peel, as
strong on the one side, as the pressure of a whole group of
insurgent dukes on the other.

The serious subjects of discussion in Parliament were all
related to the social condition of the people, and men noticed
how at one point or another they all touched the question of
Free Trade. The Government brought in their famous measure
of national education, as we shall afterwards see. The League,
though not formally opposed to the measure, pointed out the
folly of first by the Corn Law taxing the people into poverty,
and then taxing the impoverished to pay for the instruction
of the starving. Charles Buller pressed his scheme of state-
aided emigration.‘ The League retorted that if the Corn

4 In his speech, Buller reproached Cobden with condescending to practise
on the ignorance of his audience by resort to stale theatrical clap-trap, which
must have been suggested to him by the genius of Drury Lane—where he
was speaking. As this particular passage has been much applauded by
Cobden’s admirers, both abroad and at home, I venture to reproduce it:
« Did the men who signed that memorial ever go down to St. Catherine’s
Dock, and see an emigration ship about to start on its voyageP Had they
geen these poor emigrants sitting till the moment of departure on the stones
of the quay, as if they would cling to the last to the land of their birth P
They need not inquire what were their feelings; they would read their
hearts in their faces. Had they ever seen them taking leave of their
friends? He had watched such scenes over and over again. He had seen
® veneruble woman taking leave of her grandchildren, and he hed seen a

1843.
Air, 39.

 
1843,
Air, 39.

282 LIFE OF COBDEN, ' [ontar,

Law were repealed, there would be no need for emigration.
A Free Trader moved for a committee to inquire into the
burdens and exemptions peculiar to the landed interest. A
county member proposed an amendment that the House
should direct its attention to Associations which, in matters

‘affecting agriculture and commerce, pretended to influence the

Legislature, and which by their combination and proceedings
were dangerous to the public peace and inconsistent with
the spirit of the constitution. Cobden retaliated with a
vigorous account of the state of the labourers on the county
member’s own estates, and by the telling fact that in that
very county of Dorset one out of every seven of the popula-
tion was a pauper. On the occasion of Mr. Villiers’s annual
motion for a committee to consider the duties on foreign
corn with a view to their immediate abolition, Cobden made
one of the most spirited of his speeches on a subject on which
it appeared that everything had been said.’ It was circulated
by hundreds of thousands of copies, and produced a great
effect upon opinion. The Government introduced a bill for
the repeal of the restrictions on the export of machinery.
Cobden supported the removal of this last prohibition on the
Statute book. Later in the Session, he made a vigorous
attack on the Sugar-duties, and the policy of giving a pre-
ference to the produce of the British colonies, when the
colonies contributed nothing to the revenue, and burdened

etruggle between the mother and the grandmother to retain possession of a
child. As these emigrant-vessels departed from the Mersey to the United
States, fhe eyes of all on deck were directed back to the port whence they
had started, and the last objects which met their gaze, as their native land
receded from their view, were the tall bonding-houses of Liverpool, where
under the lock—he was going to say the Queen’s look, but under the look
of the aristocracy—were shut up some hundreds of thousands of barrela of
the finest flour of America—the only object that these unhappy wanderers
were going in quest of.” His friends, he was told, did not know he had so
much sentiment and eloquence in him.
5 No, rv. in the collected speaches.
x] QUESTIONS IN PARLIAMENT, 233

us with civil and military expenses. The whole colonial trade
amounted only to 10,000,0001. a year, and to maintain this,
5,000,0001. were spent by the mother country. The West
Indian sugar-grower was the natural ally of the British corn-
grower,’ and with equal zeal the Protectionist organs took
up both causes against Cobden’s penetrating attacks.
These organs persisted in reproaching their party in the two
Houses with weakness in defence of the sacred cause.
There was disunion and want of confidence throughout the

® The following extract from one of Cobden’s speeches at Covent Garden
states his argument, and is a characteristic illustration of his style :—

“Now, what is the pretence for monopoly in sugar? They cannot say
that it benefits the revenue; neither is it intended to benefit the farmer in
England, or the negro in the West Indies. What, then, is the pretence set
up? Why, that we must not buy slave-grown sugar! I believe that the
ambassador from the Brazils is here at present, and I think I can imagine
an interview between him and the President of the Board of Trade. He
delivers his credentials; he has come to arrange a treaty of commerce. I
think I see the President of the Board of Trade calling up a solemn, earnest,
pious expression, and saying, ‘You are from the Brazils—we shall be happy
to trade with you, but we cannot conscientiously receive slave-grown
produce!’ His Hxcellency is a good man of business; so ho says, ‘ Well,
then, we will see if we can trade together in some other way. What have
you to sell us?’ ‘Why,’ returns the President of the Board of Trade,
‘cotton goods; in these articles we are the largest exporters in the world !’
‘Indeed !’ exclaims his Excellency ; ‘cotton, did you say? Where is cotton
brought from?’ ‘Why,’ replies the Minister, ‘hem—chiefly from the
United States,’ and at once the question will be, ‘Pray, is it fresgrown
cotton or slave-grown cotton?’ Now, I leave you to imagine the answer,
and I leave you also to picture the countenance of the President of the
Board of Trade. . . . Now, have any of you had your humanity entrapped
and your sympathies bamboozled by these appeals against slave-grown
produce P Do you know how the law stands with regard to the sugar trade
at present? We send our manufactures to Brazil as it is; we bring back
Brazilian sugar; that sugar is refined in this country—refined in bonding
warehouses, that is, warehouses where English people are not allowed to
get at it—and it is then sent abroad by our merchants, by those very men
who are now preaching against the consumption of slave-grown sugar. Ay,
those very men and their connexions who are loudest in their appeals
against slave-grown sugar, have bonding warehouses in Liverpool and
London, and send this sugar to Russia, to China, to Turkey, to Poland, to
Egypt; in short, to any country under the sun—to countries, too, having a
population of 500,000,000; and yet these men will not allow you to have
slave-grown suger here,”

1848.
ir, 39.

 
284 LIFE OF GOBDEN. [cmar.

1843. party. Mr. Gladstone eloquently expounded the principles
“ix. 89, of Free Trade, though it was true that he gave the adroitest
reasons for not applying them. Mr. Cobden, they said, was
a man of great energy, shrewdness, and strength of will, but
the true cause of his successes in debate was the want of
spirit in those who should have been his active adversaries.
Was it not melancholy and even insufferable to witness “the
landholders of England, the representatives of the blood of
the Norman chivalry, shrinking under the blows aimed at
them by a Manchester money-grubber ” ?

Unhappily there was nobody in Manchester to whom this
evil designation was less applicable. Only a week before the
close of the session, Cobden wrote to his brother :—

* Your account is surely enough a bad turn up. There
must be something radically fallacious in our mode of cal-
culating cost or fixing prices. Not that I expected very
much this year, because our last autumn must have been a
serious logs, and the spring business squeezed into too small
@ space of time todo great things in. We must have a rigid
overhauling of expenses, and see if they can be reduced ;
and if not, we must at all events fix our prices to cover all
charges. I rather suspect we made a blunder in fixing
them too low last spring. But with our present reputation,
we must not give our goods away. The truth is, a great
portion of our Manchester trade has always been done at no
profit or at a loss. Still I do not fall into your despair.
We have the chance of righting ourselves yet. For after
all, our great losses have always arisen from fluctnations in
the value of the stock, and there is no risk in that way for some
years to come. As to other matters hanging over us, they
can only be righted by a general revival of the district, and
we shall get Free Trade from the necessities of the Hx-
chequer.”””

 

1 To F. W. Oodden, London. Ang. 17, 1848.
x1] OOOUPATIONS IN THE BEOESS. 285

The session came to an end; it does not appear, how-
ever, that he suffered himself to be long detained from the
great work by private affairs. He went for two or three
weeks with his family to the south of England for a
breath of calm. By the middle of September, he and Mr.
Bright were again at work at Oxford, Lancaster, and
elsewhere. They were ubiquitous; to-day at Manchester,
to-morrow at Lincoln, this week at Salisbury, the next in
Haddingtonshire. <A day without a meeting was said to be
as deplorable to them, as the merciful emperor’s day without
a good deed. The following extracts from letters to his
wife and his brother, from October to January (1844), will
serve to show how Cobden passed the autumn and winter.

“T have been incessantly occupied travelling or talking
since I saw you, having made the journey across Northum-
berland, Cumberland, and Haddingtonshire twice. We go
to-morrow to Kendal to give Warburton a lift, and I shall
be home on Tuesday. I have seen much to gratify and
instruct me. We spent a couple of days with Hope, and his
neighbours the Hast Lothian farmers. They are a century
before our Hants and Sussex chawbacons. In fact, they are,
by comparison, educated gentlemen and practical philoso-
phers, and their workpeople are more like Sharp and Roberts’s
skilled mechanics than our round-frocked peasantry. Our
farmers cannot be brought to the Scotch standard by Lord
Ducie or a hundred Lord Ducies. The men are wanting.
We have better soil and climate, and the live and dead stock
may be easily brought to match them, but the two-legged
animals will not do in the present generation. We have
seen much to encourage us. I have no doubt the Hadding-
tonshire farmers will commence an agitation against the
Corn Laws, which will be a nucleus for independent action
amongst their class elsewhere. The Northumberland farmers
especially in the north are nearly upon a par with them, and

1843.
Ait, 39,
 

Ait. 40,

286 LIFE OF UOBDEN. {omar.

they are just as likely to aid us. Altogethor I am ful) of
hope from the experience of the last week. I feel no doubt
that we shall, before Parliament meets, get a declaration
signed by 1000 farmers in all parts of the kingdom, de-
claring the Corn Law to have been a cheat upon the
tenantry.”’*

« Aberdeen, Jan. 14, 1844.—Here we are happily at the
far end of our pilgrimage, and on Tuesday morning we hope
to turn our faces homeward. It has been a hard week’s
work. After finishing our labours at Perth, I expected to
have had a quiet day yesterday. We started in the morning
by the coach for this place, but in passing through Forfar
we found all the inhabitants at their doors or in the streets.
They had heard of our intended passage through their town,
and a large crowd was assembled at the inn where the coach
stopped, which gave us three cheers; and nothing would do
but we must stop to give them an address. We consented,
and immediately the temperance band struck up, and
paraded through the town, and the parish church bells were
set a ringing, in fact the whole town was set in a commotion.
We spoke to about two thousand persons in the parish
church, which, notwithstanding that it was Saturday
evening, was granted to us. It was the first time we ever
addressed an Anti-Corn-Law audience in a parish church.
Forfar is a poor little borough with a great many weavers
of coarse linens, and their enthusiasm is nearly all we can
expect from them. A subscription of about a hundred and
fifty pounds will, however, be raised. We expect better
things in the way of money here. Aberdeen is a fine large
town with several extensive manufactories, and a good
shipping port. But strange to say it is almost the only
place in Scotland where the capitalists seem to have taken
no part in the Free-trade movement. But I hope we shall

* To F. W. Cobden, Carlisle, Oot. 27, 1848,
xu. ] OCCUPATIONS IN THE RECESS. 287

be able to stir them up to-morrow. We shall depart from 1844. —
this on Tuesday morning at half-past five for the south, ir. 40.
stopping at Montrose for a midday meeting, and then
proceeding on to Dundee for a great meeting in the evening.

Thus you see we are working double tides, travelling miles

by coach and holding two meetings aday. I hope we shall

last it out for another week. We are to have two large
meetings here to-morrow. The deputation separated into

two parties at Edinburgh. Moore and I came north, and

Bright and Colonel Thompson went to the west of Scotland,

taking Paisley, Kilmarnock, and Greenock, and we shall all

meet again at Newcastle on Saturday next. We find a

great change in the temperature in these northern regions.

There is a hard frost, and the highlands are covered with

snow. I have thus far escaped a cold, and find my health

good; in fact, notwithstanding my hard work, I have been

better this winter than ever, having escaped my usual fit of
inflammation in my eyes. I think there is a special Provi-

dence watching over the Leaguers.”’

Dundee, Jan. 17, 1844.—I am nearly overdone with
work, two meetings at Aberdeen on Monday, up at four on
Tuesday, travelled thirty-five miles, held a meeting at Mont-
rose, and then thirty-five miles more to Dundee, for a meeting
the same evening. To-morrow we go to Cupar Fife, next
day, Leith, the day following, Jedburgh.”

 Newcastle-on-Tyne, Jan. 22.—I got here last night from
Jedburgh, where we had the most extraordinary meeting of
all, The streets were blocked up with country people as we
entered the place, some of whom had come over the hills for
twenty miles. It is the Duke of Bucclench’s country, but he
would be puzzled to find followers on his own lands to fight
his battles as of old. To-night we meet here, to-morrow at
Sunderland, the day after at Sheffield, where you will please
address me to-morrow, on Thursday we shall be at York,

 
1844,

| dix, 40.

288 LIFE Of OOBDEN. (cuar.

and on Friday at Hull, and in Manchester on Saturday
evening.” ® ;

“ Hull, Jan. 26, 1844.—I shall leave this place to-morrow
by the train at half-past ten, and expect to reach Manches-
ter by about five o’clock. Iam, I assure you, heartily glad
of the prospect of only two days’ relaxation after the terrible
fagging I have had for the last three weeks. To-day we
have two meetings in Hull. I am in the Court House with
a thousand people before me, and Bright is stirring up the
lieges with famous effect. He is reminding the Hull people
of the conduct of their ancient representative, Andrew
Marvell, and talking of their being unworthy of the graves
of their ancestors over which they walk. We shall have
another meeting this evening.”

There was one drawback to the Scotch. Before they
crossed the border, the Leaguers had held meetings in
Leicester, Nottingham, Sheffield, Leeds, where they got a
couple of thousand pounds before they left the room. Ata
Scotch meeting, Cobden tells Mrs. Cobden, “ we found that
to name money was like reading the Riot Act, for dispersing
them. They care too much for speeches by mere politicians
and Whig aristocrats.” But the results of the campaign were
in the highest degree valuable. The deputation strengthened
the faith in all the places that they visited, revived interest
and conviction, and brought back to Manchester a sub-
stantial addition to the funds of their association.

The following letter to Mr. George Wilson belongs to this
date, and illustrates a point on which Cobden and his friends
were always most solicitous. It is written from Durham,
for which Mr. Bright had been returned as member in the
previous July :—

“You will remember that when Bright won this place,
the Whigs (that is, the Chronicle) tried to make it a Whig

* To F. W. Cobden, Newoastle-on-Tyne, Jan. 22, 1844
x11] DISTRUST OF THE WHIGS. 289

triumph, which Bright spoilt by his declaration at the
Crown and Anchor, ‘that it was not a party victory.’ Now
your best plan at Covent Garden on Thursday will be to
prevent the Whigs playing us off against the Tories, by
declaring that the-City election was a trial of strength not
between the League and the Ministry, or between the League
and the Tory party, but between Free Trade and Monopoly.
There is no way so certain of bringing the Whigs to our
ranks, as by showing them that they will not be allowed to
make a sham fight with the Tories at our expense. Depend
on it the Whigs are now plotting how they can use us and
throw us aside. The more we show our honesty in refusing
to be made the tools of a party, the more shall we have the
confidence of the moderate and honest Tories. You have
now an opportunity of putting us right with both parties,
and I hope you will give the right tone to the speaking 2%
Covent Garden.””?

6 Io George Wilson, Durham, October 24, 1848,

1844,
Zar. 40.

 
1944,

ar. 40.

 

CHAPTER XIii.

G58 SESs1Ion oF 1844—wRrAcTORY LEGISLATION—-THE CONSTI-
TUENCIES.

Tue statistics of agitation sometimes raise a smile. The
nice measurement of argumentative importunity in terms of
weight and bulk, seems incongruous in connexion with any-
thing so complex, so volatile, so invisibly rooted as opinion.
We all know how at each annual meeting the listeners re-
ceive these figures of tracts, pamphlets, and leaflets with the
same kind of enthusiasm with which a farmer surveys his
mountains of quickening manure. At Manchester, in the
autumn of 1843, the report was stupendous. Five hundred
persons had been employed in distributing tracts from house
to house. Five millions of such tracts had been delivered to
parliamentary electors in England and Scotland; and the
total distributed to non-electors and others had been up-
wards of nine millions, The weight of papers thus circu-
lated was no less than one hundred tons. One hundred and
forty towns had been visited, and there had been five and
twenty meetings in the agricultural districts. It was re-
solved that the new campaign should be conducted with
redoubled vigour. In October (1843), after a vehement
contest, in which the Monopolist candidate was backed by
all the influence of the Government, a Free Trader was re-
turned. for the city, and this great victory gave new heart to
the movement throughout the country. Fifty thousand
OH. x11] STATISTIOS OF AGITATION. 291

pounds had been expended in the current year. A fund of 1844.
a hundred thousand pounds was demanded for the year to Air. 40,
come ; and before the end of 1844 nearly ninety thousand
pounds of that sum had actually been raised. Of this
amount, nearly fourteen thousand pounds were subscribed
at a single meeting in Manchester. Cobden had, at that
time at any rate, supreme faith in the potency of this
vast propagandism. He still believed that if you brought
truth to people’s doors, they must embrace it. Projects for
the establishment of newspapers for the spread of the views
of his school, always interested him keenly. The following
letter to Mr. Bright describes the beginnings of one of the
most excellent journals of the time :—

“T wish I could have a little talk with you and Wilson
about the removal of the Circular to London. James
Wilson’ has a plan for starting a weekly Free-trader by
himself and his friends, to be superintended by himself.
But he does not intend this unless he can have the support
of the League, or at least its acquiescence. He has a
notion that a paper would do more good if it were not
the organ of the League, but merely their independent
supporter. But then what is the League to do for an
organ? If we start another weekly paper, it would clash
with his. Villiers seems to have been rather taken with
James Wilson’s plan, and it would undoubtedly be desirable
to have Wilson’s pen at work. It is quite clear that the
League must have its organ. ‘he question for us to decide
is what kind of paper shall we have? Is it to be simply a
removal of the Anti-Bread-Tax Circular to London with the
change of the title to the League Circular and to be still
confined exclusively to the one object and movement of the

 

! Afterwards Secretary to the Treasury, and Financial Member of the
Council of Indiz. A most interesting account of Mr. Wilson is to be found
in the Literary Studies of the late Walter Bagehot (vol. i. pp. 367—406.)
292 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [owar.

1844. Teague, or must we enlarge to a sixpenny paper, and whilst
Air.40. keeping corn prominent, attack collaterally sugar, and
coffee? If we stick to the Circular in its present character,
then another Free-trade paper might be started; if we
adopted the enlarged paper, then it would be folly in James
Wilson to undertake another, and he would not attempt it.’”*

In the long-run Mr. Wilson started his own newspaper,
which he called the Heonomist. The Oircular was suppressed,
and the League was published in its stead, conveying, as
Cobden said, every syllable of their speeches to twenty
thousand people in all the parishes of the kingdom. Before
describing a more important move in the Manchester
tactics, I have to say something of Cobden’s action in Par-
liament, where a very momentous subject presently engaged
attention.

In the session of 1844 the Corn Laws fell into the back-
ground. Mr. Cardwell, in seconding the motion on the
Address, made a marked impression by a collection of evi-
dence that trade was reviving. The revival of trade
weakened the strongest argument of the agitators, because
it diminished the practical urgency of their question. Par-
liament is always glad of an excuse for leaving a question
alone, and the slightest improvement in the markets was
welcomed as a reason for allowing the Corn Law to slumber.
The Prime Minister took advantage of such a state of things
to quell the sullen suspicion of the agricultural party, by em-
phatic declarations that the Government had never contem-
plated, and did not then contemplate, any alteration in the
existing law. Repeal he hardly deigned to notice; it would,
he said, produce the greatest confusion and distress. There
was, no doubt, the alternative of a fixed duty; but if it
should happen that the agriculturists should come to prefer
that to his sliding scale, then he was inclined to think that,

2 To Mr. Bright, June 21, 1848.
xil.] THE session oF 1844, 293

not he, but Lord John Russell would be the proper person 1844.
to make the change. So closely did Peel habitually trim Air. 40.
his sails to suit the shifting of the winds.

In consequence of this declaration of the Minister, and of
the improvement in the condition of the population, com-
paratively slight attention was paid to the discussion on Mr.
Villiers’s annual Motion (June 25). The League was vio-
lently abused by the Mileses, Bankeses, Ferrands, and Sir
John Trollopes. It was again and again asserted that the
rate of wages was regulated by the price of corn, and that
the avowed object of the agitators was to lower wages
by lowering corn. Cobden replied to such serious argu-
ments as he could find in the course of the debate, but the
front bench on the side of the Opposition was empty for
most of the evening; Lord John Russell declined to vote;
Mr. Bright was listened to with so much impatience that he
was forced to sit down; and a very hollow performance
ended with a majority of 204 against the Motion.’

In the earlier part of the session (March 12), Cobden had
moved for a Select Committee to inquire into the effects of
protective duties on agricultural tenants and labourers.
This was a new approach. The main argument for repeal
had hitherto been from the side of the manufacturing popu-
lation. In what way, save by the admission of foreign corn
in exchange for British manufactures, could we secure ex-
tended markets ; or, in other words, extended demand for
the industry of the people? Cobden now turned to the
agricultural side of the question, and asked the House of
Commons, as he had asked the farmers during the pre-
vious year, to examine what advantage the Corn Law
had brought to the agriculturists themselves. He described
the condition of the labourer, morally, socially, and eco-
nomically ; said that it was the fear of falling into this con-

3 928 against 124,
294 LIFE OF OOBDEN. (omar.

1844. dition which caused the strikes of the workmen in the
“x. 40, towns; and asked how a starved popalation of this kind
could form that valuable class of domestic consumers, who
were held out by the landlords to the manufacturers as ade-
quate compensation for loss of customers abroad. The
official duty of reply fell to Mr. Gladstone. His answer
turned mainly on the inexpediency of assenting to a motion
which would imply that the Corn Law was an open question,
and which would therefore tend to unsettle trade, disturb
the revenue, and increase the excitement in people’s minds.
At present, Mr. Gladstone said, the League was thought to
be a thing of no great practical moment: its parade and
ceremonial were perhaps the most important features about
it; but if Parliament should take up the subject, then
assuredly the League would acquire a consequence to which
it had really no title. Cobden’s motion was rejected by a
vote of two hundred and twenty-four against one hundred

and thirty-three, being a majority cf ninety-one.

This bad division had perhaps less than the general feel-
ing of the House, as gathered from talk in the lobbies, to
do with the changed view which Cobden now took of ‘the
prospects of the cause. The ardour of his hopes was re-
laxed, though not the firmness of his resolution, He gave
expression to this in writing to his brother :—

“Tt is now quite certain that our Free Trade labours must
be spread over a larger space of time than we contemplated
at one time. The agitation must be of a different kind to
what we have hitherto pursued. In fact we must merely
have just 80 many demonstrations as will be necessary to
keep hold of public attention, and the work must go on in
the way of registration labours in those large constituencies
where we can hope to gain anything by a change of public
opinion. The little pocket boroughs mnst be absolutely
given over. They will not weigh as a feather in the settle
xuL.] THE sESsION oF 1844, 295

ment of the question. Time can alone effect the business.
It cannot be carried by storm. Wewere wrong iu thinking
of it. In the meantime Peel’s unsettlements sre making
enemies in the ranks of the united monopolists, and every-
body is making up his mind to more change. As my labours
must henceforth be less intense than heretofore, I shall be
able to give more attention to my private affairs, which,
Heaven knows, have been neglected enough.” *

The following passage relates to a subject which kindled
more excitement in the country than any other question
before Parliament. It was an episode in the endless battle
between bigotry and the sense of justice. The judgment in
the famous case of Lady Hewley’s bequest, finally delivered
after fourteen years of litigation, exposed endowments which
had been for several generations in the hands of Unitarians,
to the risk of appropriation by Trinitarian Dissenters, The
Ministry bronght in a Bill to confirm religious bodies,
whether Trinitarian or Unitarian, in the possession of pro-
perty of which they had been in the enjoyment for twenty
years. This measure was regarded by fanatics, alike of the
Episcopalian and the independent churches, as favouring the
deadly heresy of Unitarianism. The storm raged with
furious violence ; but the Ministry held firm, and the Bill,
which was conservative of the rights of property in the right
sense, happily became law. Sir W. Follett’s speech broke
down the opposition. Wemay be sure on which side in the
controversy Cobden was found.

“ T never entertained an idea of voting for the monopolists
in matters of faith. Nor have I had a line from anybody at
Stockport to ask me to do so. As at present advised, I
shall certainly vote for the Bill. What a spectacle we shall
present, if the intolerance of the Commons should reject a
measure which the Lords and the Bishops have passed! It

4 To #, W. Cobden, London, Jane 4, 1844.

1844,
“it. 40.
1844,

 

Ait, 40.

296 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [omap,

would confirm one’s notion that the Government of this
country is in advance of the people.

“Lord Duncan’s reply to a deputation was not amiss.
He told them drily, ‘It may be a question whether the
founders of the chapels in question intended them for the
benefit of Unitarians or Trinitarians, but one thing is
certain, they did not intend them for the lawyers, who will
have every kick of them, unless the Bill is passed into a
law.’ This young chip of the old block who stood such
hard knocking at Camperdown, said an equally good thing
to the short-time delegates who called on him to abuse the
factory masters. He told them to go home and thank God
they had not the landlords for masters, for if they had,
their wages would be reduced one-half.’’

It is now time to turn briefly to a subject which sprang as
directly as Free Trade itself from the great Condition of
England Question. Throughout this memorable parliament,
which sat from 1841 to 1847, we are conscious of a genuine
effort, alike on the part of the Prime Minister and of in-
dependent reformers and philanthropists of all kinds, to
grapple with a state of society which threatened to become
unmanageable. We see the Parliament diligently feeling
its way to one piece after another of wise and beneficent

. policy, winding up with the most beneficent of all. The

development of manufactures, and the increase and redistri-
bution of population which attended it, forced upon all the
foremost minds of that time a group of difficulties with
which most of them were very inadequately prepared to deal.
One fact will be enough to illustrate the extent of the
change. In 1818 it was computed that 57,000 persons were
employed in cotton factories. Within twenty-one years
their numbers had increased to 469,000. How was this vast
5 To F. W. Cobden, London, June 6, 1844.
xut.] THE OONDITION OF ENGLAND. 297

and rapid influx of population into the cotton towns, with
all the new conditions which it implied, to be met? Or was
it to the statesman indifferent? The author of Sybil seems
to have apprehended the real magnitude and even the nature
of the social crisis. Mr. Disraeli’s brooding imaginativeness
of conception gave him a view of the extent of the social
revolution as a whole, which was wider, if it did not go
deeper, than that of any other contemporary observer. To
accidents of his position in society and necessities of personal
ambition, it must, I suppose, be attributed that one who
conceived so truly the seriousness of the problem, should have
brought nothing better to its solution than the childish bathos
of Young England, Mr. Carlyle, again, had true vision
of the changes that were sweeping the unconscious nation
away from the bonds and principles of the past into an un-
known future. But he had no efficient instruments for con-
trolling or guiding the process. He was right enough in
declaring that moral regeneration was the one thing needful
to set the distracted nation at ease. In a particular crisis,
however, moral regeneration is no more than a phrase.
Cobden answered the question on the economic side,
You must, he said, accept and establish the conditions of
free exchange. Only on these terms can you make the best
use of capital, and ensure the highest attainable prosperity
to labour. But at this point—they were then close upon
the ever-memorable date of ’48—the gigantic question of
that generation loomed on the horizon. How are you to
settle the mutual relations of capital and labour to one
another? Abolition of restriction may be excellent in the
sphere of commodities. Is it so clear that the same con-
dition suffices for the commonwealth, when the commodity
to be exchanged is a man’s labour? Or is it palpably false
and irrational to talk of labour as a commodity? In other
words, can the relations between labour and capital be

1844,

 

Air. 40.
1844,

GT. 40.

298 LIFA OF OOBDEN. [orap,

safely left to the unfettered play of individual competition ?
The answer of modern statesmanship is, that unfettered in-
dividual competition is not a principle to which the regu-
lation of industry may be entrusted. There may be con-
‘ditions which it is in the highest degree desirable to impose
on industry, and to which the general opinion of the indus-
trial classes may be entirely favourable. Yet the assistance
of law may be needed to give effect to this opinion, because,
——in the words of the great man who was now preparing the
exposition. of political economy that was to reign all through
the next generation,—only law can afford to every individual
a guarantee that his competitors will pursue the same course
as to hours of labour and so forth, withont which he cannot
safely adopt it himself.

Cobden, as we have already seen (pp. 115-16), when he
was first a candidate for Stockport, dissented from these
theories. He could not adjust them to his general prin-
ciple of the expediency of leaving every man free to carry
his goods to whatever market he might choose, and to make
the best bargain that he could. The man who saw such
good reasons for distrusting the regulation of markets by
Act of Parliament, was naturally inclined to distrust parlia-
mentary regulation of labour. In the case of children, Cob-
den fully perceived that freedom of contract is only another
name for freedom of coercion, and he admitted the necessity
of legislative protection. He never denied that restrictions
on the hours of labour were desirable, and he knew by
observation, both at home and abroad, that the hours of
labour are no measure of its relative productiveness. What
he maintained was that all restrictions, however desirable,
ought to be secured by the resolute demands and inde-

6 5,8. Mill’s Political Economy was not begun until 1845, but it bears
abundant traces how closely he watched the course of legislation during
the yeara immediately preceding.
xut.] FACTORY LHGISLATION. 299

pendent action of the workmen themselves, and not by
intervention of the law.’

Singularly enough, while he thus trusted to the indepen-
dence of the workmen, he objected to workmen’s combi-
nations. “Depend upon it,” he said to his brother,
“nothing can be got by fraternizing with trades unions.
They are founded upon principles of brutal tyranny and
monopoly. I would rather live under a Dey of Algiers than
a Trades Committes.”* Yet without combination it is diffi-
cult to see how, on the great scale of modern industries, the
workmen can exert any effective influence on the regulation
of their labour. That in the first forms of combination
there was both brutality and tyranny, is quite true. That
these vices have almost disappeared is due in no small degree
to an active fraternization, to use Cobden’s own word, with
the leaders of the workmen by members of the middle class,
who represented the best moral and social elements in the
public opinion of their time.

The protection of the labouring population had in various
forms engaged the serious attention of Parliament for several
years. So far back as 1802 there was a Factory Act, which
was sanitary in its main intention, but also contained clauses
regulating hours. Others followed in 1819 and 1825, and
& very important factory law,’ containing the earliest pro-
visions for education, was passed in 1833, by which time the
workmen were partially able to make themselves heard in
Parliament. In 1842 Lord Ashley had procured the passing
of the Mines and Collieries Act, a truly admirable and bene-
ficent piece of legislation, excluding women from labour un-
derground, and rescuing children from conditions hardly less
horrible than those of negro slavery. In 1843, still under
the impulse of Lord Ashley, Sir James Graham brought

’ Bee Appendix A, at the end of the volnme,
8 To F. W. Oobden, August 16, 184%.

1844.
48. 40.

 
300 LIFE OF COBDEN. [onar,

1844. in a Factory Bill, not only regulating the hours of labour,

 

Ax, 40, but proposing a system for the education of the children of
the industrial class in the manufacturing towns. Cobden
took an early opportunity of saying a friendly word for the
education clauses of the measure, as being a step in the
right direction. Popular education had been the most im-
portant of all social objects in his mind from the first ; and
in spite of drawbacks, which he did not despair of seeing
amended, he saw more good than harm in the new proposals.
These clauses, however, beyond doubt conferred advantages
on the Established Church, in which the Dissenters justly and
wisely refused to acquiesce.’ It might well seem to be better
that popular instruction should still be left to voluntary
machinery for some time longer, than that new authority
and new fields of ecclesiastical control should be opened
to the privileged church. The opposition was so vehe-
ment that the education clauses were dropped, and the
Bill withdrawn.

In 1844 Sir James Graham reintroduced it, without the
education clauses, simply as a Bill for regulating the labour
of children and young persons. The definition of a child was
extended to mean children between nine and thirteen; a child
was only to be employed half time, that is to say, not more
than six and a half hours each day. The definition of young
persons remained as it was, covering persons from thirteen
to eighteen ; their hours in silk, cotton, wool, and flax manu-
factories were not to exceed thirteen and a half in each day;
and of these one hour and a half were to be allowed for
meals and rest, leaving twelve hours as the limit of actual
labour. Lord Ashley moved that the hours should be not
twelve but ten, and on this issue the battle was fought.

® The provisions for trustees of the schools were undeniably and de-

liberately calculated to give the clergy of the Established Church a pre-
dominant power on every board.
x1] FACTORY LEGISLATION. 301

The factory question from this time, down to the passing of 1844.
the Ten Hours Act, was part of the wider struggle between air. 40.
the country gentlemen and the manufacturers. The Tories
were taunted with the condition of the labourers in the fields,
and they retorted by tales of the condition of the operatives
in factories. The manufacturers rejoined by asking, if they
were 80 anxious to benefit the workman, why they did not,
by repealing the Corn Law, cheapen his bread. The land-
lords and the millowners each reproached the other with
exercising the virtues of humanity at other people’s expense.
This was not Lord Ashley’s own position. He was at this
time in favour of the Corn Law, but his exertions for the
factory population were due to a disinterested and genuine
interest in their welfare. In 1842’ Cobden took a more
generous, or rather a more just, view of Lord Ashley’s
character than he had been accustomed to express in his
letters and conversation. ‘ He would confess very frankly
that before he entered that House, he had entertained
doubts, in common with many of the employers in the north,
whether those advocates of the Short Hours Bill who sup-
ported the Corn Law were really sincere. But since he
had had an opportunity of a closer observation of the noble
lord, he was perfectly convinced of his genuine philanthropy.”
That, however, was no reason why Lord Ashley should not
be resisted, if his philanthropy led him wrong; and Mr.
Bright, while not denying that the hours of labour were
longer than they ought to be, made a vigorous onslaught on
him. “It was a perilous effort,’ Cobden wrote, “ especially
in the canting tone of the country, but our friend came off
well, and there is much credit due to him for taking the bull
by the horns. The Tories have gained nothing by the last
week’s debate.” ”

Charles Buller defended Lord Ashley’s proposal in what

1 July 8. 1 TF. Ww. Cobden, London, March 16, 1844,
Air. 40.

362 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [cuar,

was & very wise speech, though it may have been made as a
party move against Peel. Brougham poured outa torrent of
invective in. the House of Lords against all interference with
labour. Most of the official Whigs, on the contrary, went for
the limitation of ten hours, though they had stoutly opposed
the same proposal when they were in power ; but in the end
the Government carried their Act for twelve hours.

T did not vote upon the Factory question,” Cobden wrote,
“The fact is the Government are being whipped with a rod
of their own pickling. They used the ten hours’ cry, and all
other cries, to get into power, and now they find themselves
anable to lay the devil they raised for the destruction of the
Whigs. The trickery of the Government was kept up till
the time of Ashley’s motion, in the confident expectation that
he would be defeated by the Whigs and Free Traders. They
(the Government) were calculating upon this support, and so
they gave liberty to Wortley and others of their party to vote
against the Cabinet in order to get favour at the hustings.
The Whigs very basely turned round upon their former
opinions to spite the Tories. The only good result is that
no Government or party will in future like to use the factory
question for a cry. The last year’s education question, and
this year’s ten hours Bill, will sicken the factions of such a
two-edged weapon. One other good effect may be that men
like Graham and Peel will see the necessity of taking anchor
upon some sound principles, as a refuge from the Socialist
doctrines of the fools behind them. But at all events good
must come out of such startling discussions.”’®

It cannot be seriously denied that Cobden was fully justi-
fied in describing the tendencies of this legislation as social-
istic. It was an exertion of the power of the State in its
strongest form, definitely limiting in the interest of the

5 To F. W. Cobden, March 28, 1844,
sib] ENGLISH FORMS OF SOCIALISM. 303

labourer the administration of capital. The Act of 1844 1644.
was only a rudimentary step in this direction. In 1847 air. 40.
the Ten Hours Bill became law. Cobden was abroad at
the time, and took no part in its final stages. In the
thirty years that followed, the principle has been extended
with astonishing perseverance. We have to-day a complete,
minute, and voluminous code for the protection of labour ;
buildings must be kept pure of effluvia; dangerous machinery
must be fenced ; children and young persons must not clean
it while in motion ; their hours are not only limited but fixed ;
continuous employment must not exceed a given number of
hours, varying with the trade, but prescribed by the law in
given cases; a statutable number of holidays is imposed;
the children must go to school, and the employer must every
week have a certificate to that effect; if an accident happens,
notice must be sent to the proper authorities; special pro-
visions are made for bakehouses, for lace-making, for col-
lieries, and for a whole schedule of other special callings; for
the due enforcement and vigilant supervision of this immense
host of minute prescriptions, there is an immense host of
inspectors, certifying surgeons, and other authorities, whose
business it is “to speed and post o’er land and ocean” in
restless guardianship of every kind of labour, from that of
the woman who plaits straw at her cottage door, to the
miner who descends into the bowels of the earth, and the
seaman who conveys the fruits and materials of universal in-
dustry to and fro between the remotest parts of the globe.
But all this is one of the largest branches of what the most
importunate Socialists have been accustomed to demand; and
if we add to this vast fabric of Labour legislation our system
of Poor Law, we find the rather amazing result that in the
country where Socialism has been less talked about than any
other country in Europe, its principles have been most
extensively applied.
304 LIFE OF OOBDEN.’ (onar.

1844. If the Factory Law was in one sense a weapon with which
Zr. 40. the country party harassed the manufacturers, it was not
long before Cobden hit upon a plan for retaliating. For two
or three years the League had confined its operations to the
creation of an enlightened public opinion on the subject of
the Corn Laws. Then it began to work in the boroughs,
and Cobden was able to say that never at any previous date
had so much systematic attention, time, and labour been
given to the boroughs in the way of registration. The
power which had thus been given to the Free Trade party in
nearly one hundred and fifty boroughs, was expected to
make an immense, if not a decisive, difference in the next
parliament. In the great county of Lancashire alone, such
changes had been wrought by attention to the register, that
it was calculated that a new election would only leave the
monopolists five out of the six-and-twenty members for the
entire province. It now occurred to Cobden that these
constituencies could be dealt with even more effectually.
In the last division, not a single county member had gone
into the lobby with Mr. Villiers. Cobden’s thought was
to turn the counties by an indefinite increase of the con-
stituencies. They were to be won through that section of
the Reform Act which conferred the franchise in counties
upon possessors of freehold property of the value of forty
shillings a year. The landlords had already availed them-
selves to an immense extent of the Chandos clause. By the
Chandos clause tenants at will, occupying at a yearly value
of fifty pounds, had the franchise. The monopolists, in
Cobden’s words, worked this clause out; they applied them-
selves to qualifying their tenant-farmers for the poll, “ by
making brothers, sons, nephews, uncles—ay, down to the
third generation, if they happened to live upon the farm—
all qualify for the same holding, and swear, if need be, that
they were partners in the farm, though they were no more
xu] THE FORTY SHILLING FRANOHISE. 305

partners than you are. This they did, and successfully, and
by that means gained the counties,” “But,” Cobden con-
tinued, “ there was another clause in the Reform Act, which
we of the middle classes—the uuprivileged, industrious men,
who live by our capital and labour—never found out,
namely, the forty-shilling freehold clause. I will set that
against the Chandos clause, and we will beat them in the
counties with it. .... There is a large class of mechanics
who save their forty or fifty pounds; they have been ac-
customed perhaps to put it in the savings’ bank. I will not
say a word to undervalue that institution; but cottage pro-
perty will pay twice as much interest as the savings’ bank.
Then what a privilege it is for a man to put his hands in his
pockets, and walk up and down opposite his own freehold,
and say, ‘ This is my own; I worked for it, and I have won
it.’ There are many fathers who have sons just ripening
into maturity, and I know that parents are very apt to keep
their property and the state of their affairs from their chil-
dren. My doctrine is that you cannot give your son your
confidence, or teach him to be entrusted with property, too
early. When you have a son just coming to twenty-one
years of age, the best thing you can do, if you have it in
your power, is to give him a qualification for the county; it
accustoms him to the use of property, and to the exercise of
a vote, whilst you are living and can have some little
judicious control over it if necessary.’”*

The reader will observe that Cobden’s design was free from
the sinister quality of manufactured voting. He supposed
that men would acquire property in their own neighbourhood,
the natural seat of their political interests and activity.
What is politically mischievous in this franchise only happens
when a number of strangers in possession of a factitious
qualification invade a district and help to nullify the wishes

4 Speech at Covent Garden, Des. 11, 1844.

1844,

 
306 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [ouax.

1844. and opinions of the majority of those who reside in it. Such

Air. 40. a practice as this seems at no time to have been in Cobden’s

contemplation. Still many people demurred. The plan
wore the look of manufacturing votes; it seemed, they said,
mechanical, unworthy, and barely legitimate. No, replied
Cobden, there is nothing savouring of trick or finesse of any
kind in it; the law and the constitution prescribe the con-
dition ; you have a bond-fide qualification, and are conforming
to the law both in spirit and in fact. This was quite true,
and no plan ever proposed by the League met with so
unanimous a response from all parts of the kingdom. It
took two hours a day to read the letters that came from
every part of the country, all applauding the scheme. By
the beginning of 1845 between four and five thousand new
electors had been brought upon the lists in Yorkshire,
Lancashire, and Cheshire. Nos less than two hundred and
fifty thousand pounds were invested in these counties in
the forty-shilling qualification. It was believed that eight
or ten times as many persons in other parts of the country
had taken Cobden’s hint to qualify.

It was to be an immense enfranchisement, on old consti-
tutional lines and secured by the spontaneous effort and
civil spirit of the population itself. ‘“ Wherever there ‘is a
man above the rank of an unskilled labourer, whether a
shopkeeper, a man of the middle class, or of the skilled
working class that has not got a county vote, or is not
striving to accumulate enough to get one, let us point the
finger of scorn at him; he 1s not tit to be a freeman. It is
an avenue by which we may reach the recesses of power,
and possess ourselves of any constitutional rights which we
are entitled to possess.” In one of his speeches of that
date, Cobden allowed it to be perceived that this great
process had come into his mind not simply as a means of
quickening the triumph of Free Trade, but as an agenry
mu.) COBDEN’S VIEWS ON THE FRANOHISE. 307

for effecting a deep and permanent political transformation. 1844
Some people,” he said, “ tell you that it is very dangerous pr, 40. :
and unconstitutional to invite people to enfranchise them-
selves by buying a freehold qualification. I say, without
being revolutionary, or boasting of being more democratic
than others, that the sooner the power in this country is
transferred from the landed oligarchy, which has so misused
it, and is placed absolr:tely—mind, I say absolutely—in the
hands of the intelligent middle and industrious classes, the
better for the condition and destmies of this country.” *

Cobden’s eloquent colleague, Fox, placed the movement
deeper still, by dwelling on the moral elements that lay
beneath it. If it was wise and good, he said, to endeavour
to make all who could save their pittance become fund-.
holders, it must be at least as prudent and just to induce
them according to their proportion to become landholders
also—joint shareholders in this lovely and fruitful country,
which is their country as much as it is that of the wealthiest
nobleman whose lands cover half a county. It would give
them a tangible bond of connexion with society ; it would put
them in a position which was deemed necessary to citizen-
ship in the republics of ancient days; and it was better
adapted than anything else to cherish in them those eme-
tions which best accord with consistency and dignity of
character.

 

© Speaches, 7, 256. Jan. 15, 1845,
18465.

CHAPTER XIV.

BASTIAT—NEW TACTICS—ACTIVITY IN PARLIAMENT—-MAYNOOTH
GRANT—PRIVATE AFFAIRS.

Ir was in this year that Cobden made the acquaintance of
a French thinker who has done more than any other of
his countrymen to give vivid and imaginative colour to the
eprinciples which in England we usually call Cobden’s.
Bastiat was born in 1806. He lived on a meagre ancestral
property on the banks of the Adour, in the remote obscurity
of the Landes. For twenty years he had been almost solitary
among his farms, studying the great economic writers,
discussing them from time to time with the only friend he
had, occasionally making a short journey, and always prac-
tising what Rousseau calls that rarest kind of philosophy
which consists in observing what we see every day. By
chance he fell on an English newspaper. He was amazed
to find that a body of practical men in England were at the
moment actually engaged, and engaged with the reasonable
prospect of success, in pressing for that Free Trade of which
he had only dared to dream as a triumph of reason possible
in some distant future. For two years he watched the
progress of the agitation with eager interest. As was
natural, what he saw rapidly stirred in him a lively desire
for » similar illumination in his own country. He sat down
to write an account of the English movement. In the
summer of 1845 be went to Paris to see his book through
the press. With his long hair and unfashionable hat, his
ou. xy, ] BASTIAT’S VISIT TO ENGLAND. 309

rustic clothes and homely umbrella, he had the sir of an 1846.
honest countryman come to see the marvels of the town. Afr. 41,

But there was a look of thought on his square brow, a light
in his full dark eye, and a keenness in his expression, which
told people that they were dealing with an enthusiast and
man of ideas. Bastiat took the opportunity of being in
Paris to push on to London, there to behold with his own
eyes the men who had so long excited his wonder and his
admiration. He hastened to the office of the League, with
copies of his book in his hand. “ They told me,” he wrote
to his friend, “that Cobden was on the point of starting
for Manchester, and that he was most likely preparing for
the journey at that moment. An Englishman’s preparation
consists of swallowing a beefsteak and thrusting two shirts
into a carpet-bag. I hurried to Cobden’s house, where I
found him, and we had # conversation which lasted for two
hours. He understands French very well, speaks it little,
and I understand his English. I explained the state of
opinion in France, the results that I expect from my book,
and so on.” Cobden in short received him with his usual
cordiality, told him that the League was a sort of free-
masonry, that he ought to take up his quarters at the hotel
of the League, and to spend his evenings there in listening
to the fireside talk of Mr. Bright and the rest of the band.
A day or two afterwards, at Cobden’s solicitation, Bastiat
went down to Manchester. His wonder at the ingenious
methods and the prodigious scale of the League increased
with all that he saw. His admiration for Cobden as a
public leader grew into hearty affection for him as a private
friend, and this friendship became one of the chief delights
of the few busy years of life that remained to him.

There had never been any anxiety among the men of the
League to stir foreign opinion. “We came to the con-
clusion,” Cobden said, “that the less we attempted to
310 LIVE OF COBDEN. [ouar.

1845. persuade foreigners to adopt our trade principles, the
“Hr. 41. better; for we discovered so much suspicion of the motives
of England, that it was lending an argument to the protec-
tionists abroad to incite the popular feeling against the
Free Traders, by enabling them to say—‘ See what these men
are wanting to do: they are partisans of Englishmen, and
they are seeking to prostrate our industries at the feet of
that perfidious nation.’ . .. To take away this pretence we
avowed our total indifference whether other nations became
free traders or not: but we should abolish Protection for
our own sakes, and leave other countries to take whatever
course they liked best.”’ When Bastiat came to the work
of agitation in his own country, he found all the diffic ulties

that his friends of the League had foreseen.

His book, Oobden et la Ligue, came gradually into greater
vogue as the movement grew more important, and when
the hour of triumph came in England, Bastiat shared its
glory in France, as one who had foreseen its importance at
a time when no French newspaper had been courageous or
intelligent enough to give its readers any information on a
subject which was necessarily so unwelcome in a country of
monopolies. Bastiat felt that the title of his book had per-
haps wounded some of Cobden’s fellow-workers, and among
men less strenuous and single-minded he might have been
right. He defended himself by the reflection that in France,
and perhaps we are not very different in England, it is neces-
sary that a doctrine should be personified in an individual.
A great movement, he said, must be summed up in a proper
name. Without the imposing figure of O’Connell the agita-
tion in Ireland would have passed without notice in the
French journals. ‘ The human mind,” he wrote to Cobden,
“has need of flags, banners, incarnations, proper names;
and this is more true in France than anywhere else. Who

1 Oobden to Mr. Van der AMavren. Oot. 5, 1856.
xv. BASTIAT AND OOBDEN. 411

knows that your career may uot excite the emulation of _

some man of genius in this country?” *

Bastiat was always conscious of the difference between
Cobden’s gifts and his own, and nobody knew better than
himself how much more fit he was for a life of speculation
than for the career of an agitator. But there was no one
else in France to begin the work of propagandism and the
organization of opinion. Cobden told him that the move-
ment which had been made from those below to those above
in England, ought in France to proceed in the opposite
course. There they would do best to begin at the top.
In France in 1846 they had scarcely any railways, and
they had no penny postage. They were not accustomed
to subscriptions, and still less were they accustomed to great
public meetings. Worse than all this, the popular interest
was at that epoch turned away from the received doctrines
of political economy in the direction of Communism and
Fourierism. These systems spoke a language infinitely
more attractive to the imagination of the common people.
Bastiat, fired by Cobden’s example, set bravely to work to
make converts among men of mark. Besides being a
serious thinier, he had the gifts, always so valuable in
France, of irony, of apt and humorous illustration, of
pungent dialectic. The style and finish of the Hconomic
Sophisms, in which he refuted the fallacies of Monopoly, are
even declared to be worthy of the author of the Provincial
Letters. But the movement did not prosper. At Bordeaux,
indeed, where the producers of wine were eager for fresh
markets, a free trade association was formed, and it
throve. Elsewhere the cause made little way. Political
differences ran so high as to prevent hearty co-operation
on a purely economical platform. The newspapers were
written by lads of twenty, with the ignorance and the

a Gee. 1345. Gh. i. 117,

1845.
Al. 41.
$12 LIFE OF OOBDEN. (onar.

1845. recklessness proper to their age. They were conducted by

4ir. 41. men who were in close connexion with the politicians, so
that everything in their hands became a question between .
Ministry and Opposition. Worst of all they were venal,
Prequdice, error, and calumny were paid for by the line.
One was sold to the Russians, another to Protection, this to
the university, that to the bank. “ Our agitation,” Bastiat
wrote to Cobden, “agitates very little. We still need a
man of action. When will he arise? I cannot tell. I
ought to be that man; I am urged to the part by the
unanimous confidence of my colleagues, but I cannot. The
character is not there, and all the advice in the world
cannot make an oak out of a reed.”* We know not
what encouragement Cobden gave to his friend, for
by an evil chance his letters to Bastiat were all de-
stroyed, Their correspondence was tolerably constant,
and if Bastiat was indebted to Cobden for the energy of
his views on Free Trade, Cobden may well have had his
own views strengthened and diversified by Bastiat’s keen
and active logic. Bastiat always said that he valued the
spirit of free exchange more than free exchange itself, and
Cobden had already been approaching this doctrine before
Bastiat became his friend.

The League was now in the seventh year of its labours.
In 1889 their subscriptions had only reached what after-
wards seemed the modest amount of 50002. The following
year they rose to nearly 80001. In 1848 the Council asked
for 50,0001. and got it. In 1844 they asked for twice as
much, and by the end of the year between 80,000J. and
90,0002. had been paid in. They were now spending 10001.
aweek. In spite of the activity which was involved in these
profuse supplies, the outlook of the cause was, perhaps,

* Bastiat to Oobden. Mar. 20, and April 20, 1847, (wv, i. 166-9.
xiv.) SEVENTH YEAR OF THE LEAGUR. 313

never less hopeful or encouraging. The terrible depres-
sion which had at first given so poignant an impulse to the
agitation had vanished. Peel’s great manipulation of the
tariff had done something to bring about a revival of trade.
Much more had been done by two magnificent harvests.
Wheat which had been up at sixty-seven shillings when
Cobden came into Parliament, and then at sixty-one shillings
in 1843, was now down at forty-five. Trade and commerce
were thriving. The revenue was flourishing. Pauperism
had declined. The winter had lasted for five months and
had been very rigorous, yet even the agricultural labourers
had suffered less distress than in the winters before. This
happy state of things was in fact a demonstration of the
truth of what Cobden and his friends were struggling to
impress upon the country, namely that a moderate price of
food was a condition of good wages and brisk trade. The
plain inference from what had been going on for two years
before men’s eyes, was that every impediment in the way of

¢ Ata meeting held in Oldham, a workman got up in the body of the
hall. He had been thinking, he gaid, on the subject of the Corn Lawe for
twenty years; as there was no possibility that he should ever see Sir
Robert Peel, as he never came down into that neighbourhood, and az
he, the speaker, could not bear the expense of 2 journey to London, he
begged Mr. Cobden to convey to the Prime Minister the following train of
thought :—‘ When provisions are high, the people have so much to pay
for them that they have little or nothing left to buy clothes with; and
when they have little to buy clothes with, few clothes are sold ; and when
there are few clothes sold, there are too many to sell; and when there are
too many to sell they are very cheap; and when they are very cheap, there
cannot be much paid for making them; and consequently the mann-
factoring working man’s wages are reduced, the mills are shut up, business
is ruined, and general distress is spread through the country, But when
as now the working man hag the said 25s. [the fall in the price of wheat]
left in bis pocket, he buys more clothing with it, ay, and other articles
of comfort too, and that increases the demand for them, and the greater
the demand, you know, makes them rise in price, and the rising in price
enables the working man to get higher wages and the master better
profits. This therefore is the way I prove that high provisions make lower
wages, and cheap provisions make higher wages.”—Quoted in Cobden’s
Specches, i. 251.

1845,

far, 41.
fi

314 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [cnar.

1845. abundant food was an impediment in the way both of the

4x, 41. comfort of the population and the prosperity of national
industry. What good harvests had done for two years,
repeal of the Corn Law would help to do in perpetuity.
“The present state of our finances and manufactures,” said
Cobden, at the beginning of 1845, “is an illustration of the
truth of the Free Trade doctrines.” Yet oddly enough, the
very circumstances which showed that the Leaguers were
right, made people for the moment less in earnest for the
success of their programme. So long as times were good,
the Ministers were safe and the League was powerless,
Meetings were still thronged, and a great bazaar was
opened at Covent Garden in the spring, which was a nine-
days’ wonder. This notwithstanding, there was a certain
pause out of doors in the actuality of the struggle.

The change did not escape the acute observation of the
League. They at once altered their tactics. The previous
year had been devoted to agitation in the country. They
now came round to the opinion that Parliament, after all,
was the best place in which to agitate. “ You speak with
aloud voice,” said Cobden, “ when you are talking on the
floor of the House; and if you have anything to say that
hits hard, it is a very long whip and reaches all over the
kingdom.” It was in Parliament that they were best able
to conduct an assault on the Monopolist citadel from a new
side. They had tried in their short campaign to show the
farmers themselves that Protection was no better for them
than for other people. They now made a vigorous effort to
bring the same thing home to the farmers’ friends in Par-
liament. “It gives me increased hopes,” Cobden wrote to
his friend, George Combe, “to hear that you, who are a
calm observer, think that we are making such rapid progress
in our agitation. We who are in the whirl of it, can hardly
form an opinion whether we are advancing or only revolving.
x1¥. CHANGE OF TAOTIOS, 315

But I think there are symptoms that the enemy is preparing 1845.
for a retreat. The squires in the House are evidently with- Ar. "Bir. 41,
out confidence in themselves, while the farmers are losing
all faith in their old protectors, and Peel is doing his best to
shake the confidence of both landlords and tenants in any
minister. Good will come out of this. People will be
thrown back upon their own resources of judgment. In
fact, the public will be taught to think for themselves.
With respect to Mr. W., he and I are very friendly; I
have had nothing but civility, and indeed kindness, at his
hands ever since I came into the House. He is a man
of very great kindliness of nature, full of bonhomie in fact.
If he has a fault, it is in being too placable, possessing
too much love of approbation, which makes him rather
fond of praising people, especially his opponents. He is,
however, upon the whole, a fine-hearted man.” *

In the midst of the general prosperity, there was one
great interest which did not thrive: this was the interest of
the tenant-farmer. Deputations waited upon the Prime Minis-
ter to tell him that the farmers in Norfolk were paying rent
out of capital; that half the small farmers in Devonshire
were insolvent, and the others were rapidly sinking to the
same condition; that the agriculturists of the whole of the
south of England, from the Trent to the Land’s End, were
in a state of embarrassment and distress. There wag
scarcely a week in which these topics did not find their way
into the Parliamentary debates. Cobden brought forward a
motion for a Select Committee to inquire into the causes of
the alleged agricultural distress. A few nights afterwards
one of the country gentlemen in the House moved a resolu-
tion for affording relief to the landed interests in the appli-
cation of surplus revenue. Then came a proposal from a

5 To George Oombe. London, Feb. 2%, 1846.
& Gobden’s Speeches, i, 261.
316 LIFE OF OOBDER. [owar,

1845. League member for a Committee to find out what was really

 

Zx.41, the nature and amount of the peculiar burdens of which the
landed interest had to complain. Mr. Bright moved for a
Committee on the Game Laws. Mr. Villiera pressed his
regular annual motion for total and immediate repeal. Lord
John Russell introduced a string of nine resolutions, dealing
with the Corn Laws, the law of parochial settlement, na-
tional education, and systematic colonisation, all with a view
to the permanent improvement of the condition of the
working class, and especially of the labourers in husbandry.

“Bright did his work admirably,” says Cobden, “and won
golden opinions from all men. His speech took the squires
quite aback. At the morning meeting of the county members
at Peel’s, to decide upon the course to be taken, the Prime
Minister advised his pack not to be drawn into any discussion
by the violent speech of the member for Durham, but to allow
the Committee to be granted sub silentio/ This affair will
do us good in a variety of ways. It has put Bright in a right
position—shown that he has power, and it will draw the
sympathy of the farmers to the League. The latter convic-
tion seemed to weigh heavily upon the spirits of the squires.
They seemed to feel that we had put them in a false position
towards their tenants, and the blockheads could not conceal
their spite towards the League. I pleaded guilty for the
League to all they charged us with on this score.”?

The result of these incessant challenges to the landlords
and to the Ministers was a thorough sifting of the arguments,
and the establishment of a perfectly clear and intelligible
position. No Committee was granted, except Mr. Bright’s,
but discussion brought out the main facts as clearly as any
Committee could have done. It became stamped on men’s
minds, that while abundant food stimulated manufactures
and promoted the comfort of the whole body of workmen

1 Te Mr. George Wilson. London, Fob. 28, 1845.
x1v.] OOBDEN’S IMPORTANT SPEEOH. ary

and labourers, legislative protection was not saving, and 1848.
could not save, the farmers. The contention, again, that Air. 41.
the landlords were subjected to special burdens, and were
therefore entitled to special exemptions, had completely
broken down. ‘The whole process went on under the
closely attentive eyes of the Prime Minister. The year
before, said Cobden, he had not penetrated the quality
of his protectionist friends. This year they set up for them-
selves; they found out their weakness, and, what is more,
they let Sir Robert find it out also.*

Cobden himself helped to the result by one of the most
important speeches that he ever made. “‘ We are cer-
tainly,” he wrote to his wife, “taking more prominent
ground this session than ever, and the tone of the farmers’
friends is very subdued indeed. They never open their
mouths if they can help it, and then they speak in
a very humble strain, I am quite in a fidget about my
speech on Thursday. You will think it very strange in an
old hack demagogue like me, if I confess that I am as
nervous as a maid the day before her wedding. The reason
is I suppose that I know a good deal is expected from me,
and I am afraid I shall disappoint others as well as myself.
I have sent for Mr. Lattimore, who came up and spent an
evening with me, on purpose to give me a lesson about the
farmers’ view of the question.” °

“T was terribly out of sorts with the task,” he said, after
it was all over, “and when I got up to speak, I was all ina
maze.” In fact, an intimate friend who had stood on many
a platform with him, found him in the lobby, pale, nervous,
and confident that he should break down in the ural of
his speech. “No, you will not,” said his friend; “your
nervousness convinces me that you will make a better pe

® Speeches, i. 390.
* To Mre. Cobden, March 11, 1845.
1845.

ar, 41,

318 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [oar

than you ever made before in your life.” And that is what
actually happened. In sending his wife a copy of the
Times containing a report of his speech, Cobden wrote to
her that everybody in the House on both sides spoke highly
of it, and declared it to be his best. ‘ But I don’t think,”
he adds, “ that it was as good as it ought to have been.”’
The Prime Minister had followed every sentence with earnest
attention ; his face grew more and more solemn as the argu-
ment proceeded. At length he crumpled up the notes
which he had been taking, and was heard by an onlooker,
who was close by, to say to Mr. Sidney Herbert, who sat
next him on the bench, “ You must answer this, for I
cannot.” And in fact Mr. Sidney Herbert did make the
answer, while Peel listened in silence.’

This speech should be read in connexion with the com-
panion speech made the year before, and already referred
to (p. 298). Much of Cobden’s speaking, and especially at
this time, though never deficient in point and matter, was
loose in its form and slipshod in arrangement. That it
should be so, was unavoidable under the circumstances in
which his addresses were made. These two speeches, on the
contrary, show him at his best. They are models of the way
in which a great case should be presented to the House of

1 To Mrs. Cobden. March 14, 1845.

3 In the course of his speech Mr. Sidney Herbert said that it was very dis-
tasteful to him, as a member of the agricultural body, to be always coming
to Parliament “whining for protection.” The expression was unlucky,
and gave Mr. Disraeli the hint for one of hie most pungent sallies, The
agrioulturists, he said, referring to Peel’s inconsistoncies, must not contrast
too nicely the hours of courtship with the moments of possession. “There
was little said now about the gentlemen of England; when the beloved
object has ceased to charm, it is vain to appeal to the feelings. Instead
of listening to their complaints, he sends down his valet, a well-behaved
person, to make ii known that we are to have no ‘whining’ here. Such
is the fate of the great agrionltnral interest ; that beauty which everybody
wooed, and one deluded.”
x1v.] ARGUMENT OF THE SPREOH. 319

Commons, as well as admirable examples of effective selec-

tion, luminous arrangement, and honest cogency of reasoning air. 41.

in intricate and difficult matter. ‘ Besides all this, they show
how completely Cobden had worked out the whole concep-
tion of economic policy and the whole scheme of atates-
manship, of which the repeal of the Corn Law was only a
detail and a condition precedent. Many of the subscribers
to the League were no doubt only thinking that Free
Trade would bring them uew armies of good customers.
The Whigs, on the other hand, while sincerely concerned for
the social state of the realm, picked up the notion of Free
Trade vaguely, along with education and colonization, as
one remedy among others. Cobden alone seemed to discern
what Free Trade meant, how it was being forced upon us
by ‘increase of population and other causes, and how many
changes it would bring with it in the whole social struc-
ture. It was this commanding grasp of the entire policy
of his subject, which gradually gave Cobden such a hold
over the receptive intelligence of Sir Robert Peel that at
last it amounted to a fascination that was irresistible.

Why are the farmers distressed? Cobden asked. Why
are English farmers less successful than English manu-
facturers? Because they are working their trade with
insufficient capital, Throughout England, south of the
Trent and including Wales, the farmers’ capital is not more
than five pounds an acre, whereas for carrying on the
business successfully it ought to be twice as much. How
is it that in a country overflowing with capital, where every
other pursuit is abounding with money, when money is
going to France for railways and to Pennsylvania for
bonds, when it is connecting the Atlautic with the Pacific
by canals, and diving to the bottom of the Mexican mines
for investments, it yet finds no employment in the most
attractive of all spots, the soil of this country itself? The

 

1845.
1845.
Rr, 41,

 

320 LIFE OF OOBDEN. (omar,

answer is plain. There is no security of tenure such as
will warrant men of capital in investing their money in the
soil. But what is the connexion between this insecurity of
tenure aud agricultural protection? The reply is that the
protectionist landowners are in a vicious circle. They think
the Corn Laws are a great mine of wealth; they want
voters to retain them, and therefore they will have de-
pendent tenants on whom they may count at the elections.
If they insist on having dependent tenants they will not
get men of spirit and of capital. The policy reacts upon
them. If they have not men of skill and capital they
cannot have full provision and employment for the labourer.
And then comes round the vicious close of the circle, pau-
perism, poor-rates, county-rates, and all the other “special
burdens ”’ of the landed interest—special burdens of their
own express creation.’ Their fundamental error lay in
thinking that rents could only be kept up by Protection.
Even if this had been true, Protection had become im-
possible, from the pressure of population. But it was not
true.

To the farmers Cobden had never given a probable
reduction of rents as one of the reasons for repealing the
Corn Law. He told them something still more important.
“ Though I have not promised reduction of rent,” he said,
“T have, however, always maintained that with Free Trade
in corn, and with moderate prices, if the present rents are
to be maintained, it must be by means of a different system
of managing property from that which you now pursue.
You must have men of capital on your land; you must let
your land on mercantile principles ; you must not be afraid
of an independent and energetic man who will vote as he
pleases; you must give up inordinate game-preserving.’”*

® Speeches, i. 264-5.
Speoches, i. 402-8. March 8, 1849,
-

zY.j THR ARGUMENT. 33%

\

. This was the skeleton of Cobden’s argument, and each

1845.

member of it was clothed with exactly the amount of Air. 41.

graphic illustrations from sound authorities that was calcu-
lated to bring the vase effectively home. The representatives
of the farmers were surprised to be told of many things,
which they immediately wondered that they had not thought
of before. The farmers of Kent, Suffolk, and Surrey,
enjoyed a protection in their hops, but they had in return
to pay for the protection on other articles which they did
not produce. Those of. Chester, Gloucester, and Wilts had
an interest in protecting cheese, but they were heavily taxed
for the oats and beans which they wanted for their beasts.
The farmers in the Lothians had the benefit of a restrictive
duty on wheat, but this was a trifle compared with the disad-
vantage of having to pay duty on linseed cake and other items
of provender for cattle. Everybody, in short, was taxed for
the benefit of everybody else. If the farmer derived so little
good from protection, the labourer derived still less. Members
were startled to be told that more goods had been exported to
Braz.. in a year than had been consumed in the same time
by the whole agricultural peasantry and their families in
England ; that no laboarer in England spent more than thirty
shillings a year in manufactures, if the article of shoes were
excepted ; that the same class did not pay fifteen shillings a
head per annum to the revenue, and that the whole of their
contributions to the revenue did not amount to three quar-
ters of a million a year. This, said Cobden triumphantly, is
the pass to which thirty years of Protection have brought the
agricultural interest. “There never was s more monstrous
delusion than to suppose that that which goes to incresse
the trade of the country, and to extend its manufactures
and commerce ; that which increases our population, enlarges
the number of your customers, and diminishes your burdens
by multiplying the shoulders that are to bear them, and
. x
 

1846.

ir, 41,

g22 LIFE OF COBDEN. fouaP,

giving them increased strength to bear them, can possibly
tend to lessen the value of land.” *

Mr. Disraeli once said that Free Trade was not a principle,
it was an expedient. In Cobden’s hands just the reverse
is true; Free Trade is not an expedient; it is a prin-
ciple, a doctrine, and a system. He is often charged with
arguing his case too exclusively on the immediate exigencies
of the situation. It was hardly possible for him to do
otherwise. Neither the House of Commons nor the
multitude at Covent Garden would have listened with

“patience to a lecture on international exchanges. But

whenever he had a chance, Cobden took care to rest his
argument on the importance of a free circulation in the
currents of exchange. In his speech of the previous
year, he had blamed Sir Robert Peel for promising cheap
prices as the result of his tariff. The price of com-
modities, said Cobden, may spring from two canses:—a
temporary, fleeting, and retributive high price, produced by
scarcity; or a permanent and natural high price, produced
by prosperity. The price of wool, for example, had been
highest when the importation was greatest; it sprang from
the prosperity of the consumers. Peel, therefore, took .
the “least comprehensive and statesmanlike view of his
measures when he proposed to lower prices, instead of
aiming to maintain them by enlarging the circle of
exchange.” Prices would take care of themselves without
detriment to the consumer, provided only that the stream of
commodities were allowed to flow freely and without artificial
interruption. (See below, vol. ii. 34-4.)

This important idea was probably far beyond the reach
of most of Cobden’s hearers. J know there are many

® Speeches, i. 882. Some extremely interesting supplementary criticisms
on Cobden’s view of the effects of Protection on agricultural interests are to
be found in Mr. Fawcett’s Free Trade and Protection, pp. 87-47.
xy. ] COBDEN’S INFLUKNOH ON PEML, 323

heads, he once said, who cannot comprehend and master
a proposition in political economy, for I believe that that
study is the highest exercise of the human mind, and that
the exact sciences require by no means so hard an effort.*
If, however, Cobden’s economic language was a desperate
jargon to the country gentlemen, it came with the power of
revelation to their leader. “Sir Robert Peel,” said Mr.
Disraeli, in his snbtle and striking portrait of his great

enemy, “had a dangerous sympathy with the creations of '

others. He was ever on the look-out for new ideas, and
when he did so he embraced them with eagerness and often
with precipitancy. Although apparently wrapped up in him-
self and supposed to be egotistical, except in seasons of rare
exaltedness, as in the year 1844-5, he was really deficient in
self-confidence. There was always some person representing
some theory or system exercising an influence over his mind.
In his ‘sallet days’ it was Mr. Horner or Sir Samuel
Romilly; in later and more important periods it was the
Duke of Wellington, the King of the French, Mr. Jones
Loyd, some others, and finally Mr. Cobden.’’?

It was in this session that Mr. Disraeli first opened his
raking fire upon the Prime Minister. In 1842, as has been
already seen (p. 239), he declared that Peel’s policy was
in exact, permanent, and perfect consistency with the prin-
ciples of Free Trade laid down by Mr. Pitt. But clouds
had risen on the horizon since then. Things had happened
which made the rising gladiator change his mind, not as
to the national expediency of Free Trade, but as to the
personal expediency of carrying his sword to the opposite
camp. Sir Robert, soon after coming into power, observed
to a friend that he knew too little of the young men of the
party, and expressed a wish to know more. The friend
invited him to dinner, and among the men of promise who

© Sposches, i. 888. Web. 27,1846. 7 Lord George Rentinck, p. 321.

1845,
Er. Al,
324 . LIB OF OORDEN, [omar.

1845. were presented to their chief was Mr. Disraeli. Peel, one
. 2ir.4L of the most formal and even pedantic of men, was repelled
by the extravagant dress, the singular mannerism, the un-
businesslike air of the strange genius who sat at table with
him. Nothing came of the interview, and the mortified
aspirant had to bide his time. In 1845 Mr. Disraeli felt, as
he afterwards said, that Protection was in the condition in
which Protestantism had been in 1828. With a shrewder
instinct than Peel, he scented the elements of a formidable
and destructive mutiny. Success was not certain, but it
was possible enough to be worth trying. With unparalleled
daring he hastened to sound the attack. In the session of
1845 Peel seemed to be at the height of his power. Yet
this was the session in which Mr. Disraeli mocked him as a
fine actor of the part of the choleric gentleman; as the
great parliamentary middleman, who bamboozled one party
and plundered the other; as the political Petruchio, who
had tamed the Liberal shrew by her own tactics ; as the Tory
who had found the Whigs bathing and stolen their clothes.
“For my part,” he said on one of these occasions, “if we
are to have Free Trade, I, who honour genius, prefer that
such measures should be proposed by the member for
Stockport, rather than by one who by skilful parliamentary
manoeuvres has tampered with the generous confidence of
a great people and a great party.”

Yet Mr. Disraeli, whose sagacity was always of far too
powerful a kind to allow him to blink facts, knew very well,
as he afterwards said, that practically for the moment the
Conservative Government was stronger at the end of the
session of 1845 than even at the commencement of the
session of 1842. “If they had forfeited the hearts of their
adherents, they had not lost their votes; while both in
Parliament and the country they had succeeded in appro-
priating a mass of loose, superficial opinion, not trammelled

 
xiv. ] | PROSPECTS OF 'THH QUESTION. — 325

by party ties, and which complacently recognized in their 1845.
measures the gradual and moderate fulfilment of a latitu- ar. 41.
dinarian policy both in Church and State.” The same keen
observer goes on to remark of those with whom we are
immediately concerned, that in spite of their powers of
debate and their external organization, the close of the
session found the members of the Manchester confederacy
reduced to silence. The state of prices, of the harvests, of
commerce had rendered appeals varied even by the per-
snasive ingenuity of Mr. Cobden a wearisome iteration.*®

Cobden himself, however, knew exactly how things stood,
and foresaw with precision how they would move. In the
summer of 1845, when Parliament had found his appeal a
wearisome iteration, he had before him one of those immense
multitudes, such as could only be assembled, he said, in
ancient Rome to witness the brutal conflicts of men, oy
as can now be found in Spain to witness the brutal conflicts
of animals, What, he asked, if you could get into the
innermost minds of the Ministers, would you find them
thinking as to the repeal of the Corn Laws? “I know it
as well as though I were in their hearts. It is this: they
are.all afraid that this Corn Law cannot be maintained—no,
not a rag of it, during a period of scarcity prices, of a
famine season, such as we had in 739, 740, and 741. They
know it. They are prepared when such a time comes, to
abolish the Corn Laws, and they have made up their minds
to it. There is no doubt in the world of it. They are going
to repeal it,” he went on, “as I told you—mark my words
—at a season of distress. That distress may come ; aye, three
weeks of showery weather when the wheat is in bloom or
ripening, would repeal these Corn Laws.””* You cannot call
statesmanship, he scornfully argued, a policy which leaves
the industrial scheme of such a country as ours to stand

® Life of Bentiwk, pe 7. » Spsoohes, i. 288, 298.
326 LIFZ OF OCOBDEN. (omar.

or fall in such a way as this on the cast of a die. It was
not long before events put Cobden startlingly in the right.
The great popular agitation of the year, as it happened, was

caused by a measure which touched a very different kind of

sensibility, This session Peel introduced the memorable pro-
posal for the augmentation of the grant to the Catholic College
at Maynooth. That laudable measure was a small detail in
the policy of breaking up the old system of Ascendancy—a

_ policy made necesaary by the revolution of Catholic Emanci-
‘pation, in which Peel had assisted in so remarkable a Way.
_ Unfortunately, Peel never saw, what clear- sighted men like

Lord Clare saw atthe time of the Union, that thetenure of land
was the only real object of interest to the people to whom he
had given political emancipation. His attitude in reference
to the Encumbered Estates Act showed that he did not
possess the key to the Irish question. But his views on the
solution of the religious difficulty were thoroughly statesman-
like, so far as that particalar difficulty went. Nothing that he
ever did showed greater courage than the Maynooth grant;
for though he carried his second reading by the enormous
majority of 147, Mr. Gladstone was undoubtedly right when
he reluctantly affirmed that the minority represented the pre-
vailing sense of a great majority of the people of England and.
Scotland. The principles on which Peel defended the in-
creased grant to Maynooth, pointed very directly towards a
scheme for the endowment of the Catholic clergy. It was for
this reason, among others, that Lord John Russell supported
the increased grant. “The arguments,” he said, “ which are so

1 Mr. Gladstone had resigned the office of President of the Board of
Trade at the beginning of the Session, on the rather singular ground that
while he approved of the Maynooth grant and was going to support it, he
had once written a book in which a different view of the proper relations
between State and Church had been laid down. “ As a general rule, those
who have borne solemn testimony on great constitutional questions, oaght
aut vo be parties to proposing a material departure from them”
x1v.] THR MAYNOOTH GRANT, 327

sound, and as I think so incontrovertible, for an endowment
for the education of the Roman Catholic priesthood, would
prove on another occasion equally sound and incontrovertible
for an endowment to maintain that priesthood.” It is doubt-
fal whether any Liberal leader will ever again be able to take
what was once so wise and just a position, but there is still
room for the position which Cobden took. Mr. Bright
opposed the grant altogether, on the ground that no purely
ecclesiastical institution should be paid for out of the pub-
lic taxes. Cobden, on the contrary, both spoke and voted
for the Ministerial Bill. He was unable to find in it any-
thing relating to the endowment of the Catholic clergy:
what he voted for was simply and purely an extended educa-
tional grant. What objection could there be to giving a
good education, in any manner in which it can be most
effectually given, to a body of men who are to be the
instructors of many millions of people? You give large
grants to elementary schools in Ireland; you vote money
to the university, from which the Catholic clergy cannot
benefit; but if you support instruction to Roman Catholics
at all, it is wise and politic to give it to the clergy before
every other order. On the merits he would support the
proposal, and he would do so all the more cheerfully on the
” ground that it was acceptable to the Irish people? This is
as wise as political wisdom can be, but the ‘present state of
the Irish University question looks as if Mr. Bright’s view,
and not Cobden’s, had won the day.

The following extracts from letters to his wife will show
how Cobden passed the time from day to day, during this
anxious and wearisome session :—=

“London, Feb. 11, 1845.-—I met Lord Howick [the

@ April 18. In twenty-five years Cobden and Mr. Bright only weut twice
into different lobbiea. This was one oosasion. The other concerned the
expenditure at South Kensington. Cobden ay a Oommissioner for the
Groat Exhibition supported Prince Albert's policy.

1845.
ir. 41.

 
1845.
ir. 41,

 

328 LIFE OF COBDEN, {onar.

present Earl Grey] at dinner, as was told you by Miss
Bright. He did not convert me to Whiggery, nor did he
make any attempt upon my virtue. He is in very good
temper with the League, and quite disposed to help us, and
to throw the fixed duty overboard. Bright made a very
powerful but rasping speech the other night. The milk-
and-water people will find fault with him, but he is a noble

fellow, and ought to be backed up by every genuine Free-

trader.”

« April 11.—We are all being plagued to death with the
fanatics about the Maynooth grant. The dissenters and the
church people have joined together to put the screw upon
the members. However, I expect that Peel will carry his
measure by a large majority.”

“ April 14,—We are still being very much persecuted by
the fanatics ; all the bigots in the country seem to be using
the privilege of writing their remonstrances to me.”

“ April 28.—I can’t fix the day, I am sorry to say,
when I shall positively see you. There is a notice of motion
atanding by Lord John Russell upon the state of the labouring
population, which I am almost compelled: to take a part in.
If I were to be absent, it would be construed into a slight on
the Whig party. It stands for Friday, but I am not without
hope that he may put it off till after the Whitsun holidays.
I will learn his views to-morrow if I can.”

“ June 19.—On Wednesday I was to speak at Covent
Garden, and being confined all the day in the Committes-
room, and having to prepare my speech after four o’clock,
I knew I should be excused writing. I find it very
difficult to get up my spirits to appear before a large
audience like that at Covent Garden. Indeed I feel myself
to be only acting a part, in appearing to speak with energy,
hope, and confidence. I can’t go through another period
euch as the prerent sossion, to be harassed and annoyed as I
xiv.) LEYTERS TO MBS. COBDEN. 329

have been in every possible way; it would killme. Ihave 1846.

 

not the least idea when I shall be released from my at- Air 41.
tendance at the Committee. To-day we have been bored
with a three hours’ speech from a counsel, who would have
nothing else to do if he released us from our confinement.
I expect we shall have another week of it at least.”

“ June 20.—Now I will give you a specimen of my day’s
work. Our Committee meets at twelve and sits till four.
Then the House commences, and lasts on an average
till twelve. Twice last week I sat till two o’clock in the
House, having been under the roof for fourteen hours. Next
morning I can’t be down till nine o’clock, and scarcely have
I got breakfast, and glanced at the Votes and Proceedings
for the day, when I must start again for the House. You
will, I think, excuse me after this, if 1 am not a very good
correspondent.”

“ June 24.—There never was such a case of petty perse-
cution as I am enduring in this Railway Committee! We
have been now nearly five weeks sitting, hearing wit-
nesses, and listening to the tedious harangues of counsel
about a lot of paltry lines among the little towns and
villages in Norfolk and Suffolk. I thought we should have
got to the end of our work in a fortnight or three weeks,
but now we are threatened with another week or ten days.
And the great misfortune is, that we have no power to put
any restraint upon the tongues of the counsel, who are paid
in proportion to the length of time they can waste. But I
have made up my mind to go down to Manchester on Friday t
- night at any rate, although I shall be obliged to come up
again on Sunday night, to be here in the Committee at
twelve o’clock.”

« Jume 26.—-The meeting st Covent Garden was as usual
a bumper, but I did not think the speaking was quite
ap to the mark. I have had « successful motion for a
330 LIFR OF COBDEN. (omar.

Commission to inquire into the subject of the Railway

. gauges. I moved it again yesterday as a substantive

motion, and it was agreed to by all parties. It is well to do
something practical in the House occasionally, as it gives
one the standing of a man of business.”

Over all these busy interests hung a heavy cloud of the
gloomiest thoughts. Throughout the session Cobden’s
mind had been harassed almost beyond endurance by a host
of dark cares; and it is only by knowing what these amounted
to, that we can measure the intensity of a devotion to public
concerns which could sustain itself unabated under this
galling pressure. The following extracts from letters to his
brother will suffice to show us what was going on. At the
end of the session of 1844, he had allowed a groan to escape
him, extorted by the reports which his brother had sent him —
of the state of their business :—‘I shall have a month or
two for private business, and, Heaven knows, it is not before
it is required. It is a dog’s life I am leading, and I wish I
could see my way out of the collar.”* But in the recess of
1844, as in that of the previous year, he had been speedily
dragged back from his own affairs to those of the League
and the country. Throughout the spring of 1845, however,
things were rapidly approaching a crisis from which there
seemed to be no escape :~—

“ April 7—I shall certainly be down a week before the
Whitsuntide holidays, so as to have atleast a fortnight. The
fidgets have so got possession of me that I cannot master
them. For the first time I feel fairly down and dead-beaten.
It is of no use writing all one feels. Entreat J. S. to work
down the stock of odds and ends of cloth, and keep down
everything as low as possible. And remind Charles again
of the critical importance of finding something for the
machinery to do in the interval between the seasons. It is of

® To F. W. Cobden. Leumington, 8th August, 1844
xv.] PRIVATE SMBABRASSMENTS, 331

no use your writing bad news tome. I can’t help it while
here.”

“ April 18.—I do not see any difficulty in giving adequate
attention to the business, and still retaining, ostensibly at all
events, the same public position as heretofore. But whether
this can be done or not, I shall of course make everything
else subservient to the one point in which hononr is involved.
There is no doubt that our pattern department, so far as
the home trade is concerned, has been a failure this spring.
This is now irremediable, and it is of no use dwelling on it.
But it cannot be overlooked in any estimate of the manage-
ment at the works and the warehouse, and of the cause of
failure.” ,

© May 26.—I am fixed in the Norfolk Committee to-day,
and do not feel the least chance of being released for a week,
and it may bea month; and for this there is no help, for if I
were to leave for twenty-four hours, the Sergeant-at-Arms
would be after me.”

“ June 6.—I am sorry to say it is impossible for me to come
down even fora day. Our Committee have determined to sit
on Saturdays, and the rule of the House precludes me from
being absent even for an hour. God only knows when this
odious Committee will come to a close. If you should wish
to say anything about money-matters, write tome. If you
want a little temporary assistance, pray see Mr. , and
give him a message from me to the effect that I shall feel
obliged if he will try to get a few thousand pounds in a
similar manner to the former transaction.

“ But when I come down after the Session, we must put
our business upon a different footing, so as to be able to
avoid troubling anybody. I would have written to 3
but really, in my prominent position, it is a -very delicate
matter to write about. You had better, therefore, take an
opportunity of seeing him privately, and pray beg him te

 

 

18465.

ee

Air. 41,
332 LIFW OF COBDEN. {omar,

1845. treat the matter as very confidential. I have so many
4r. 41. vigilant foes, that a whisper about my credit would be
exaggerated a thousandfold.”

*« June 19.—Your letters keep me on the tenter-hooks, for
I know not in what extremity you may be placed. Iam in
the same predicament as ever. The committee will in all
probability last a week more. To-day we have been treated
to a three hours’ speech by a counsel upon a mere fraction
of the group. What makes it more difficult to escape is
that the committee does not give a decision on any part
until we have heard the whole, and consequently nobody
not acquainted with the evidence already taken could step
in to fill my place. Sir Benjamin Hall, very luckily for him,
was pitched from his horse on his head the second day of
our meeting, and he was excused from further attendance,
and as we have nobody else in his place and as four are
the quorum, we can’t proceed to business in the absence of
one.”

“ June 24.—I will try to put off any meeting of the com-
mittee on Saturday, so as to be able to come down on Friday
night, but I shall be obliged to be in town again on Monday
morning by twelve. I see no end to this tedious affair.
We have an appointment for another branch to begin on
Monday. The truth is, the rival schemes fight for time, in
order to delay the passing of the bills during the present
session. But I will at all risks come down on Friday after-
noon by the express train which will land me in Manchester at
ten o’clock, and I should like to havea bed at your lodgings,
and there I must see John Brooks privately on the Saturday
morning. I have turned the subject over in every way, and
I see no other solution of it than in absolutely withdrawing
myself from public life, first having secured such a promise
of support from some of my friends as shall secure me from
the effects of the shock, I have made up my mind to this,
xv.] PRIVATH EBMBARRASSMENTS, 333

¥ ‘
and shall not have a moment’s peace of mind until I have 1645
fairly got out of my present false position. In fact, I would Ar. 41.
not go through another four months like the past for any
earthly consideration whatever.”

A friend of Cobden’s, who was engaged in the same busi-
ness, has told me how he received a message one afternoon
in the winter before this, that Cobden wished to see him.
He went over to the office in Mosley Street, and found him
on the edge of dark sitting with his feet on the fender,
looking gloomily into the languishing fire. He was evidently
in great misery. Cobden had sent for him to seek his
advice how to extricate himself from the difficulties in
which his business had become involved. They summoned
a second friend to their sombre councils, There was no
doubt either of the seriousness of the position or of the
causes to which it was due. His business, they told
him, wanted a head. If he persisted in his present
course, nothing on earth could keep him from ruin. He
must retire from public life, and must retire from it
without the loss of a day. Cobden struggled desperately
against the sentence. The battle, he said, was so momen-
tous, and perhaps so nearly won. One of his counsellors
asked him how he could either work or rest with a black
load like this upon his mind. “Oh,” said Cobden, “ when
I am about public affairs I never think of it; it does not
touch me; I am asleep the moment my head is on the
pillow.”

A few months later the difficulty could no longer be
evaded. In September Cobden, at the cost of anguish which
we may imagine, came to the terrible resolution to give up
public affairs. He wrote a letter, describing his position
and the resolve to which it had driven him, to the friend
who had for four unresting years been his daily comrade
and fellow-soldier, and whose mere presence at his side, he
334 LIND OF OOBDEN. [caar,

1845. once said, was more to him than the active support of a

41.41. hundred other men. Mr. Bright was then travelling in
Scotland. The letter found him one evening at a hotel in
Inverness. It was the wettest autumn in the memory of
man, and the rain came over the hills in a downpour that
never ceased by night or by day. It was the rain that rained
away the Corn Laws. Cobden begged of Mr. Bright to
burn what he had written, and the injunction was obeyed.
It was a beautiful letter, Mr. Bright has said: surely we
may say no less of the reply :-—

“Inverness, September 20th, 18465.

“My pear Corpen,—I received your letter of the 15th
yesterday evening, on my arrival here. Its contents have
made me more sad than I can express; it seems as if this
untoward event contained within it an affliction personal for
myself, great public loss, a heavy blow to one for whom I
feel a sincere friendship, and not a little of danger to the
great cause in which we have been fellow-labourers.

“IT would return home without a day’s delay, if I hada
valid excuse for my sisters who are here with me. We have
now been out nearly three weeks,.and may possibly be as
much longer before we reach home; our plan being pretty
well chalked out beforehand, I don’t see how I can greatly
change it without giving a sufficient reason. But it does
not appear needful that you should take any hasty step in
the matter. Too much is at stake, both for you and for the
public, to make any sudden decision advisable. I may
therefore be home in time for us to have some conversation
before anything comes before the public. Nothing of it
shall pass my lips, and I would urge nothing to be done till
the latest moment, in the hope that some way of escape may
yet be found. I am of opinion that your retirement would
be tantemount to a dissolution of the League; its main-
xI¥. LETTER FROM ME. BRIGHT. 335

spring would be gone. I can in no degree take your place. 1845.

 

Asa second I can fight; but there are incapacities about me, Afr, 41,
of which I am fully conscious, which prevent my being more

than a second in such a work as we have labouredin. Do not

think I wish to add to your trouble by writing thus; but I

am most anxious that some delay should take place, and
therefore I urge that which I fully believe, that the League’s
existence depends mostly upon you, and that if the shock

cannot be avoided, it should be given only after the
weightiest consideration, and in such way as to produce

the least evil. :

“Be assured that in all this disappointment you have
my heartfelt sympathy. We have worked long and hard
and cordially together; and I can say most truly that the
more I have known of you, the more have I had reason to
admire and esteem you, and now when a heavy cloud seems
npon us, I must not wholly give up the hope that we may yet
labour in the good cause until all is gained for which we
have striven. You speak of the attempts which have been
made to raise the passion which led to the death of Abel,
and to weaken us by destroying the confidence which was
needful to our successful co-operation. If such attempts
have been made, they have wholly failed. To help on the
cause, Iam sure each of us would in any way have led or
followed; we held our’ natural and just position, and hence
our success. In myself I know nothing that at this
moment would rejoice me more, except the absence of these
difficulties, than that my retirement from the field could in
any way maintain you in the front rank. The victory is
now in reality gained, and our object will before very long
be accomplished; but it is often as difficult to leave a
victory as to gain it, and the sagacity of leaders cannot be
dispensed with while anything remains to be done. Be
assured I shall think of little else but this distressing turn
336 -LIFM OF OOBDEN. fom. xv,

1845. of affairs till I meet you; and whilst I am sorry that such
Air. 41, should be the position of things, I cannot but applaud the
determination you show to look them full in the face, and to
grapple with the difficulties whilst they are yet surmountable.
“T have written this letter under feelings to which I have

not. been able to give expression, but you will believe that

I am, with much sympathy and esteem,
Your sincere friend,
Joun Baieut.”

The writer, however, felt the bad tidings lying too
heavily on him to be able to endure inaction. A day or two
later Mr. Bright changed his plans and hastened south-
wards. Helpful projects revolved in his mind, as he watched
the postboys before him pressing on through the steaming
rain. When he reached Manchester, he and one or two
friends procured the sum of money which snfficed to tide
over the emergency. For the moment Cobden was free to
return to the cause which was now on the eve of victory.
CHAPTER XV.
THE AUTUMN oF 1845.

Tue story of the autumn of 1845 has often been told, 1845.
and it is not necessary that it should be told over again in air. 41.
any detail in these pages. It constitutes one of the most
memorable episodes in the history of party. It was the
turning-point in the career of one of the most remarkable of
English Ministers. It marked the decisive step in the
greatest of all revolutions in our commercial policy. And it
remains the central incident in the public life of the states-
man who is the subject of these memoirs.

Tn his powerful speech in 1844 Cobden had reminded the
House of Commons, for men were apt to forget #, he said,
that in Ireland there was a duty at that day of eighteen
shillings a quarter upon the import of foreign wheat. Will
it be believed in future ages, he cried, that in a country
periodically on the point of actual famine—at a time when
its inhabitants subsisted on the lowest food, the very
roots of the earth—there was a law in existence which
virtually prohibited the importation of bread? The crisis
had now arrived. The session was hardly at an end before
disquieting rumours began to come over from Ireland.
As the sutumn advanced, it became certain that the potato
crop was a disa&trous failure. The Prime Minister had, in
his own words, devoted almost every hour of his time, after

1 Apeoshos, i. 164.

 
338 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [ouar,

1845. the severe labours of the session, to watching chances and

Ar. 41, reading evidence night and day, in anticipation of the heavy
calamity which hung over the nation. By the middle of
October the apprehension of actual scarcity had become
very vivid, and he wrote to Sir James Graham that the only
effectual remedy was the removal of impediments to import,
On the last day of the month, the members of the Cabinet
met in great haste. Three other meetings took place within
the week. A marked divergence of opinion instantly
became manifest. Sir Robert Peel wished to summon
Parliament, and to advise the suspension for a limited period _
of the restrictions on importation. Lord Aberdeen, Mr.
Sidney Herbert, and Sir James Graham supported this view.
The other members of the Cabinet, following Lord Stanley
and the Duke of Wellington, dissented. Peel did not dis-
guise, and the dissidents were well aware, how difficult it
might be to put the corn duties on again if they had once
been taken off. It was felt on both sides that the great
struggle which had been going on ever since the Whigs
‘proposed their fixed duty, and in which Peel had shown so
many ominous signs of change, was now coming to an
issue. On both sides there was a natural reluctance to
precipitate it. On the 6th of November Ministers separated
without coming to a decision.

A skilful enemy was intently watching their proceedings |.
from the northern metropolis. On the 22nd of November ~
Lord John Russell launched from Edinburgh his famous
letter to his constituents in the City of London. He had
seen in the public prints that Ministers had met; that they
had consulted together for many days; and that nothing
had been done. Under these circumstances he thought
that the Government were not performing their duty to their
Sovereign and their country. The present state of the
sountry could not be viewed without apprehension. Pro-
xv.] THE EDINBURGH LETHE. 339°

crastination might produce a state of suffering that was 1848.
frightful to contemplate, ‘but bold precaution might avert Air. 41.
serious evils. It was no longer worth while to contend for
a fixed duty. Let them all then unite to put an end toa
system which had been proved to be the blight of commerce,
the bane of agriculture, the source of bitter division among
classes, the cause of penury, fever, mortality, and crime
among the people. If this end was to be achieved, it must
be gained by the unequivocal expression of the public
voice.

The Edinburgh Letter was the formal announcement
that Lord John Russell had come round to Cobden’s pro-
gramme, the winning of Free Trade by agitation. Sir Robert
Peel’s conversion, as everybody knows, was very freely
imputed both at the time and afterwards to interested and
ambitious motives. It is hard to understand on what ground
the same imputation might not have been sustained in the
case of the corresponding conversion of Lord John. The
obvious truth is that they were both of them too clear-
sighted not to perceive that events had, at last, shown that:
Cobden and his friends were in the right, and that the
time had come for admitting it. Lord John Russell’s
adhesion made the victory of the League certain. Mr. Bright
happened to be on the platform at a railway station in York-
shire, as Lord John Russell passed through on his way from
‘the north to Osborne. He stepped into the carriage for a
few moments. “Your letter,” said Mr. Bright, “has now
made the total and immediate repeal of the Corn Law
inevitable; nothing can save it.” The letter had in fact
done no less than this.

Immediately on its publication Sir Robert Peel summoned
his Cabinet. His view had been that Parliament ought to be
called together, on the assumption that the measure of
relief which he was prepared to intrednce would virtually
1848.

An. 41,

340 LiF® OF COBDEN. [ortar,

compel a reconsideration of the whole question of Pro.
tection. After the Edinburgh Letter he considered that this
step would appear to be a servile acquiescence in the views
of the leader of the Opposition. Still he was prepared to
stand to his post, and to run the risk of this reproach, pro-.
vided that his colleagues were unanimous. They were not so.
Lord Stanley was intractable, and others in the Government
were nearly as hostile. Thinking, therefore, that he should
fail in the attempt to settle the question, and that after
vehement contests and the new combinations that would be
formed, probably worse terms would be made than if some
one else were to undertake the settlement of the question, —
the Minister felt it his duty to resign. That event took
place on the 5th of December. For a fortnight the country
remained without a responsible Administration.

The share of the League in this startling catastrophe did
not escape Cobden’s eye. The prospect of famine in Ireland
had no sooner become definite, than the League at once pre-
pared for action. Before the end of October, and before the
first of the Cabinet Councils, they held a great meeting of
many thousands of persons at Manchester, and announced a
series of meetings in the other great towns of the kingdom.
The Ministers were quite aware what this meant, and that they
could not face it. Sir James Graham warned Peel that the
Anti-Corn-Law ferment was about to commence. It would,
he said, be the most formidable movement in modern times.
There was a pause for a few days during the deliberations
ot the Government, because everybody expected that each
successive mail would carry to him the welcome decision of
the Cabinet that the ports had been already opened. And
why were they not opened? asked Cobden. Because the
League was known to be strong enough to prevent them
from being shut again. If there had been no Anti-Corn-
Law League in the middle of November, the ports
xv.) THY MINISTMEIAL ORISIS. 34%

would have been opened a month ago. It was because
they knew well in the Cabinet, and because the landlords
knew well, that the question of total and immediate repeal
of the Corn Law was at stake, that they were ready to
risk, like desperate gamblers, all that might befall during the
next six months, rather than part with that law? When the

Cabinets came to an end without any action being taken,

then genuine alarm spread through the country, and the
storm of agitation began in good earnest. People knew
pretty well where the difficulty lay. They were told that it
was the Duke of Wellington and Lord Stanley who had
decided that the people of England and Ireland should not
be allowed to feed themselves. Cobden went to a great
gathering at Birmingham (November 13th). If I mistake
not, he said, you have tried the metal of the noble warrior
before in Birmingham. The Duke is » man whom all like
to honour for his high courage, his firmness of resolve, his
indomitable perseverance. ‘ But let me remind him,” cried
Cobden, amid a storm of strenuous and persistent approval,
“ that notwithstanding all his victories in the field, he never
yet entered into a contest with Englishmen in which he was
not beaten.” Even the Edinburgh Letter, in spite of Cobden’s
. trust in the high integrity of the writer, did not disarm his
vigilance. The letter had transformed Lord John “ from the
most obscure into the most popular and prominent man of
the day.” But the Whig party was nothing without the Free
Traders. The Tory party was broken to atome by the rupture
among their leaders. The League alone stood erect and
aloft amid the ruins of the factions.’

The activity of the League was incessant. Now that
their question had become practically argent, and an
oncasion for the fall of ministries and the strife of parties,

5 Bpeeches, i. B28. Nov. 18, 18468,
8 Bpesshes, i. 849. Dow. 17.

1845.

Br. 41.
342 LIFE OF COBDEN. (omar.

1845. public interest in their proceedings acquired » new keenness,

ir. 41, “TI had reckoned upon getting home on Saturday,” Cobden
writes to his wife from Stroud (Dec. 4), “but Lord Ducie
has put the screw upon us. We have no alternative but to
sleep at his house on Saturday night, in order to attend a
meeting on the afternoon at his neighbouring town of
Wooton-under-Edge. We could not resist his appeal.
This throws me out in my plans, and I shall not see you
till Wednesday. We shall go ap to London on Sunday
afternoon to sleep there, and meet Villiers, and others for a
talk, and on Monday we shall go to Notts, next day to
Derby, and on Wednesday home. The Times newspaper of
to-day, which has just come to hand here, reports that the
Government has determined to call Parliament together the
first week in January, and propose total repeal!‘ If this
be true, the day of my emancipation is nearer than I
expected. But we must be on our guard, and not expect
too much from the Government. They will attempt to
cheat us yet. Our meetings are everywhere gloriously —
attended. There is a perfect unanimity among all classes;
not a syllable about Chartism or any other ism, and not a
word of dissent, Bright and I are almost off our legs, five
days this week in crowded meetings.”

“ Bristol, Dec. 5, 1845.—I slept last night at James
Rhoades’s, and had many kind inquiries and invitations. We
had a very delightful meeting at Bath in a splendid Town
Hall, the Mayor in the chair. We are having meetings
every night, and I see no other prospect now but to run the
gauntlet every night till the meeting of Parliament. But I

4 Tho publication of the Cabinet secret made a wonderful atir at the
time. The Standard and the Herald denounced it as an atrocious fabrica-
tion. But the Times stuck: to its text, and laughed at the two “ melan-
choly printa” who had been “hobbling about the Corn Laws to the very
last,” unconscious that the repesi of the Corn Laws was “a thing for
stetsamen to do, not for old women to monnder about,”
xv.] BENHWED AGITATION, 343°

hope we are getting to the death-struggle. Have you seen 1845.
Punch with me on horseback and Lord John offering to hold amr. 41.
the horse, and also as the shadow when Peel is opening the
gate of monopoly.”

** London, Dec. 15, 1845.--We have had a good meeting
in the City to-day. The knowing people say that they have
never seen so large and unanimous a gathering. There is
no doubt that the City will return four Free-traders at the
next election. By the way I don’t hear anything decided
about the decision of the Government question. People
begin to doubt whether Lord John will form an Administra-
tion after all. Some knowing folks say Peel will be sent
for again.”

“ London, Dec. 18. (To George Oombe.)—Politics are
like a magic-lantern just now, every day brings some new
and unlooked-for change. What a righteous retribution
has fallen upon the late Ministry! The men who passed
the present Corn Law in the face of starving millions
in the spring of 1842 have been driven from power and
place by their own sliding scale! May their successors
profit by the example! There is still a great struggle
before us, but we will beat the unrighteous few who wish to
profit by the sufferings of the many.”

Two days after Cobden had been talking to the people of
Birmingham in a triumphant strain about the League
standing erect amid the ruins of the factions, he had an
opportunity of measuring the estimate in which he was

‘held by one at least of the factions. Sir Robert Peel
resigned on the 5th of December. The Queen.sent for
Lord John Russell, and commissioned him to form an
Administration. Lord John wrote two letters to Cobden
on the same day. In the first, he gave the leader of the
body which had shaken down a great Ministry and com-
pelled an important revolution in policy, a provisional
344 LIFE OF COBDEN. [ouar,

1845. invitation to take one of the humblest posts in the ministerial
Ar. 41, hiorarchy :-—

« Chesham Plowe, Deo, 19, 1848.

Dear S1e,—I de not expect that I shall be able to form
an Administration, If I should, however, on this occasion
or a future one, I shall ask you to assist me by accepting the
office of Vice-President of the Board of Trade, Lord Cla-
rendon being the President, and the Vice-President having
to represent the department in the House of Commons.

I remain, yours faithfully,
J. Rusexu.”

The reader will smile at this proposal, when he thinks of
the composition of Liberal Governments since the death of
Lord Palmerston. The difference between then and now
marks the decay of Whig predominance within the five-and-
thirty years that have intervened. Cobden’s reply to the
unflattering offer might have been foreseen. There is little
doubt that it would have been the same, even if the offer had
been of a more serious kind.

*® Manchester, Dec, 20, 1845,

“Duar Lozp Joun,—I feel greatly honoured by the offer
of the office of Vice-President of the Board of Trade, in the
event of your being able to form an Administration. In
preferring to remain at my post as the ont-of-doors advocate
of Free Trade, I am acting from the conviction that I can
render you more efficient assistance in carrying out our
principle by retaining my present position, than by entering
your Government in an official capacity. Again assuring
you how highly I esteem this expression of your confidence,

T remain, dear Lord John,
Most faithfully yours,
Ricwarp Cospxy.”
xv.) OFFER OF PLACH TO OCOBDEN. 345

This reply crossed the second note which Lord John
Russell had written to him on the previous day :—

“ Dec. 19, 1845,

“Dear Sip,-—-In consequence of what I wrote this morn-
ing, I now write to inform you that I have not been able
to form a Ministry.

** All those who were to be my colleagues had agreed to
the total repeal of the Corn Laws. Other differences on
another subject have caused our failure.

Tremain, youre faithfully,
J. Russxvy.”

The differences which were the canse of failure were with
Lord Grey.’ He objected to Lord Palmerston as Foreign
Secretary. The intrigue, says one who was very competent
to judge such matters, was neither contrived with dexterity
nor conducted with temper, but it extricated the Whig
leader from an embarrassing position.’ Lord John Russell’s
plea was not only that in face of the risks to be encountered
unity was indispensable, but that as Lord Grey was among
the first of his party who declared for complete Free Trade in
corn, it would be unjustifiable to attempt to carry it without
him. Viewed from this distance of time, and in the light of
the present decline of the Whig caste, the plea, it must be
confessed, is one of singular tenuity. No one doubts the
sincerity either of Lord John’s attempt to form a govern-
ment, or of his honest acquiescence in ita failure. It was
obviously much easier for Sir Robert Peel to settle the Corn
question, because he would have the votes of the Whigs and

5 The Lord Howick of the previous Chapter. He had become s peer on
the death of his father in July, 1845. The seat which he then vacated at
Sunderland was won by Mr. Hudson, the Railway King, against Colonel
Perronet Thompson. Cobden spoke with sufficient pungency of the

victorious candidate goon afterwards. See &peeciva, i, 318-8,
6 Mr, Diarnoli’a Lord George Bentinck, p. #8.

 

1846,

Aft, 41.
1845.
ir, 41,

 

346 LIFE OF COBDEN. [omar.

the Free-traders, as well as that of a large body, if not the
majority, of his usual supporters. It was not certain that
Lord John could have settled it, for the simple reason that
many of the Conservatives, especially in the House of Lords,
would have declined to follow him in a policy which they
hardly persuaded themselves to accept from Wellington and
Peel.

On the failure of his rival, Sir Robert Peel went to
Windsor, withdrew his resignation, and returned to London,
having already resumed the fanctions of the First Minister of
the Crown. He hoped by speaking to his colleagues from
the point of a definitely accepted position, to secure the sup-
port of those who had dissented from him at the beginning
of the month. One at least of the survivors, who was in a
position to know Peel’s mind at this moment, holds it for
certain that the Minister returned to town in the afternoon
of the 20th, in full confidence that he would carry his party
with him in the tremendous step which he had resolved to
take. Lord Stanley withdrew at once,’ but Peel persisted in
thinking that the schism would end there. It was not many
weeks before he found out his mistake. Thirty years after
these events, when Peel’s bitterest assailant had by a
singular destiny raised himself to the height of power from
which Peel was now looking down upon him, he made an
interesting remark on a criticism that had been published
upon his career. “The writer,’ said Lord Beaconsfield,
“fails to do justice to a striking distinction in my political
history. The Duke of Wellington in passing Catholic Eman-

7 Lord Stanley’s place at the Colonial Office was taken by Mr. Gladstone,
who had left the Ministry under circumstances already described (p. 326).
He had no seat in Parliament during the important session of 1846, having
resigned Newark, for which he had been returned by the Duke of New-
castle. The Duke was one of the stoutest opponents of Free Trade,
successfally using all his influence to secure the defeat in North Notts of
his own son, whom Peel now promoted to the office of Irish Secretary and
a seat in the Cabinet.
xv.) STR ROBERT PEEL AND EIS PARTY, 347

cipation, and Sir Robert Peel in repealing the Corn Laws,

conceded necessary measures of progress, but they broke wp Ar. 4.

the party. I passed Household Suffrage, but I kept the party
together and brought it into power.” It has often been
contended by contemporaries with good information as to
the state of things, that Peel would have been as successful
28 Mr. Disraeli afterwards was, in getting his party through
an awkward gap, if he had only consented to call them
together and had candidly laid before them the political con-
siderations on which his new policy was founded. Those
who hold this opinion are possibly right. It is, however, easy
to perceive that Peel’s situation was distinguished, by two
fatal peculiarities. One was that he had gone through the
same process before: he had already done by Protestantism
as he was now doing by Protection; he had suddenly carried
out a policy of which he had been the declared and con-
spicuous opponent. It was the champion of Protestantism
and the Church, who had repealed the Test and Corporation
Acts, who had carried Catholic Emancipation, who had
increased the Maynooth Grant, and who was believed to be
meditating the endowment of the Irish priests. Feats of
this kind do not bear repetition. In the second place, it was
comparatively easy to persuade the Conservatives to assent,
to a lower franchise, because few of them in their hearts
believed that any manipulation of the suffrage would take
away from them anything which they really valued. Very
. many of them, on the other hand, did believe firmly that the
repeal of the Corn Laws would take away from them their
rents, which they valued extremely. Political plausibilities
will reconcile men to everything, save the deprivation of
their property. It seems doubtful then whether Sir Robert
Peel could under any circumstances have prevailed upon his
party to follow him. It is not to their dishonour that it
should have been so The Minister was honestly convinced,

1845.
348 LI¥B OF COBDEN. (omar.

_1846. but the party was not. Even Cobden, when looking at the
Air, 41. battle from a distance, thought that it would be wrong “ that

 

the House which was elected to maintain Protection should
abandon its pledges and do the very. reverse.” Long after-
wards, when Peel’s Memoirs were given to the world, Cobden
still held that there would be “much that is difficult to
reconcile in his conduct in this qnestion, after everything is
seid and confessed that he can urge in his defence.””* The
simplest explanation is the true one. It is a mistake to
assume that because Peel was a great parliamentary com-
mander, he had been mastered by the parliamentary vice
of measuring national welfare by the conveniences of his
party or the maintenance of a majority in a division. A
colleague of Sir Robert Peel in this Administration, who has
had unrivalled opportunities of seeing great public personages,

. speaks of him as the most “ laboriously conscientious ”’? man

that he has ever known.’ It was his conscience that’ had
become involved in the change of commercial policy. He
could, as he believed, and as he afterwards told Cobden him-
self, have parried the power of the League for three or four
years. But he had come to the conviction that the mainte-
nance of restriction was both unsound and dangerous, was
not only impolitic but unjust. It was impossible for him to
conceal his conviction, or to act as if it did not exist. Con-
fidence in public men, he said, is shaken when they change
their opinions, but confidence ought to be much more
shaken when public men have not the courage to change
their course when convinced oftheir error. But why did he
not consult political decorum by allowing Lord John Russell
to carry repeal, or at least by taking the opinion of the
country?’ Because Lord John could not have carried

® Letter to J. Parkes, May 26, 1856.

» “ Allowing for differences in grasp and experience,” he went on, “the
Prince Consort wes in this reapeot: of the sume type.”

1 Mr. Dieraeti dwelt mach on a oeriain inconsistency on this point.
xv.J SiR ROBHRT FLEL'S CONVERSION. 349

repeal ; and Peel could neither see any advantage in indecision

1848.

or irrational delay, nor could he admit the incompetency of Afr. 41.

the present Parliament to deal with that, as with every other
object of public concern.’
“T have reason to believe,’ said Cobden afterwards,
“that some discussions which I raised in the House with
a view to proving that the agriculturists themselves were,
as a whole, injured by Protection, gave him some confidence
in the practicability of a change of policy.” This may well
have been so. The speech in which Peel announced and
vindicated the new policy, is little more than an echo of
Cobden’s Parliamentary speeches of 1844 and 1845, and this
accounts for the extraordinary prominence which he after-
wards gave in so remarkable a manuer to Cobden’s share in
what was done. Peel has explained the course along which
his mind was travelling. His confidence in the necessity of
Protection was lessened by the experiment of 1842. He
felt from the first the increasing difficulty of applying to
articles of food the principles which had been applied to so
many other articles, Later experiments pointed in the same
‘way. Certain important articles of egricultural produce
were now admitted at low rates. Among these were oxen,
sheep, cows, salted and fresh meat, A chorus of sinister
prophecy rose from the injured interests. There was even
apanic. Forced sales of stock took place. It would be
impossible: to compete with the foreign grazier. Meat
Peel always said that he felt that he was not the persou who ought to
propose repeal; and he repudiated as a foul calamny the assertion that he
wished to interfere in the settlement of the question by Lord John Russell,
Bat, asked Mr. Disraeli, what wes it but your wish’ to interfere in thia
mavner which broke up your Cabinet at the beginning of December? Ag
Peel expresely said that it was only the refusal of hie colleagues to assent
to repeal which prevented him from remaining im office on the platform
of the Edinburgh Letter, Mr. Disrasli’s charge, so far es it goss, cannot be
satisfactorily met.

$ Tamworth Letter, 1847. Bor other reasons see Peal’s letter te Oobdan,
below, p. GRY.
350 LIFE OF COBDEN, [cwar.

_1845. would be reduced to threepence a pound. The falsification

4. 41. of these prophecies, as Peel reminded his constituents after
his fall, was destined to have a great effect on the course of
public opinion. People began to be less apprehensive of
the probable consequences of a more liberal intercourse in
other articles of agricultural produce.*

Then he perceived an increase of consumption of articles
of first necessity, much more rapid than the increase in
population, and this greatly augmented the responsibility
of undertaking to regulate the supply of food by legislative
restraints. It greatly aggravated, moreover, the peril of
these restraints in the case of any sudden check to pro-
sperity.‘

Besides these considerations, Peel says that his faith in
restrictions on the importation of corn had been weakened
by general reasoning ; by many concurring proofs that the
wages of labour do not vary with the price of corn; by
serious doubts whether, in the present condition of the
country, the present plenty were not ensured for the future
in a higher degree by free intercourse in corn, than by
restrictions for the purpose of protecting domestic agricul-
ture. Clear as all thisis to a generation whose vision is not
obscured by the passions of contemporaries, resentment and
suspicion at the time were emotions that might have been
expected. It speedily became certain that they were
violent enough to endanger the new policy, te wreck the
party, and to overthrow for ever the great Minister who
had been its chief.

Meanwhile the League made ready to give him effective
support. Whatever may have been the case with Sir
Robert Peel himself, it is certain that other people were-
afraid of the operations of the League. It was this con-

3 Momomrs, ii, 108,
“ Tamworth Letter of 1847, in Memoirs, ii, 106.
xv.J OPERATIONS OF THE LHAGUR. 351

federation which kept both the Whig advocates of a fixed 1846.
duty and the Protectionist advocates of the existing law in Air. 41.
érder. In the last week in the year a meeting was held at
Manchester, at which it was resolved to raise the enormous
sum of a quarter of a million of money for the purposes of
agitation, The scene has often been described, how one
man after another called out in quick succession, “A
thousand pounds forme!” “A thousand pounds for us!”
and so forth, until, in less than a couple of hours, sixty
thousand pounds had been subscribed on the spot. There
were twenty-three persons or firms who put down one
thousand pounds each, and twenty-five persons half as
much. Cobden, who was always received at every public
gathering during this stirring crisis with an indescribable
vehemence of sympathy and applause, addressed a few
words to the excited and resolute men before him. “This
meeting,” he said, “ will afford to any Administration the
best possible support in carrying out its principles. If Sir
Robert Peel will go on in an intelligible and straightforward
course, he will see that there is strength enough in the
country to support him; and I should not be speaking the
sentiments of the meeting, if I did not say that if he takes
the straightforward, honest course, he will have the support
of the League and the country as folly and as cordially as
any other Prime Minister.”’*

At this time circumstances naturally began to work a com-
plete change in Cobden’s attitude towards Sir Robert Peel.
Three weeks before, when the Minister left office, Cobden
had allowed the excitement of the hour to betray him into
public expressions of exultation, which were almost ferocious
in their severity. Miss Martineau has explained how this
fierce outburst shocked some of his friends. They appear, ag
has already been mentioned in another connexion (p. 207),

® Boe Prontice’s History ef the Leagus, ii, $16.
352 -Li¥B OF OOBDEN. (omar.

_1845. to have used the friends’ privilege of dealing very faithfully:

Air. 41, with him. Cobden had speedily become conscious of his
error. One of those who remonstrated with him was his old
friend, George Combe, to whom he replied as follows :—

“Tt was wrong to exult in Peel’s fall, and yet the scene
of my indiscretion was calculated to throw me off my guard,
and give my feelings for a moment the mastery of my judg-
ment. I was speaking in the face of nearly the entire adult
male population of Stockport, whose terrible sufferings in
1841, when Peel took the government from the Whigs to
maintain the very. system which was starving them, were
fresh in my memory. The news of the retirement of the
Peel Ministry reached Stockport a couple of hours before
the meeting took place. When it was announced, the
whole audience sprang up, and gave three times three
cheers. I was quite taken aback, and out came that
virulent attack upon Peel, for which I have been gently
rapped on the knuckles by Miss Martineau, yourself, and
many other esteemed correspondents. It was an unpre-
meditated ebullition. Tell your good brother I will keep
@ more watchful guard over the old serpent that is within
me for the future. You must not judge me by what I say
at these tumultuous public meetings.’’*
The rest of this letter, describing his feelings about public

-life, has been given in a preceding chapter (pp. 207-8). In
a second letter, replying we may suppose to a request of
Combe’s that he might be allowed to show the first to some
of their common friends, Cobden referred fiercely enough, as
he had previously done in public, to the extremely painful
incident of 1843: it bas been already described in its
place.’ :

 

5 To @. Consbe. Manchester, Deo, 20, 1845. Seo Mian Martinean’s dude
biography, ii. 359—862.
1? Above, chap. xil,, pp. 286-—-261,
xv.] RECONCILIATION WITH SIR ROBERT PEEL,  353—

“You aro at liberty to make any use you please of that 184
letter of mine, and I really feel gratified and proud that you air. 42.
take so much interest in preserving for me the good opinion
of those whose esteem is worth having. Now let me add,
that although, as between you and myself, I am eager to
avow my regret at having been betrayed into a vindictive
attack upon Peel, although I admit that Christian principle
was violated in that speech, and that I should have better
consulted what was due to myself if Ihad shown greater |
magnanimity on the occasion, still as between any other
looker-on and myself, I must say that Peel’s atrocious con-
duct towards me ought not to be lost sight of. I do not
complain of his insinuating that I wished to incite to his
assassination, and hounding on his party to destroy me in
the eyes of the world. His conduct ‘might have been
excused on account of his state of mind, from the recent
death of Drummond, and the distress and anxiety of his wife
and daughter, who, I believe, unnerved him by their alarm
for his safety. But although this excused him at the in-
stant, it did not atone for his having failed to retract or
explain his foul chargé subsequently, which, in fact, made
and now makes ita deliberate attempt st moral assassina-
tion, which I cannot and ought not to forget, and therefore
I should feel justified in repeating what I said at Covent
‘Garden, that I should forfeit my own respect and that of my
friends if I ever exchanged a word with that man in
private.” *

No nature was ever lesa disposed for the harbouring of
long resentments, and it was not many weeks from this time
before a curious incident had the effect of finally effacing
the last trace of enmity between these two honoured men.
A vulgar attack happened to be made in the course of
debate on the Chairman of the League, which drew a rebuke

5 Zo Geo. Oombe. Manchoster, Feb, 1846.
a8
354 LIFE OF OOBDEN. (on. xv,

1846. from a member who was himself renowned for bitterness of

 

Aly, 42, speech and the unbridled licence of his imputations. Mr,
Disraeli defended the original assailant by appealing to the
example of the Prime Minister, who had, if he did not mis-
take, accused a member of the League of abetting assassina-
tion. Sir Robert Peel immediately rose to explain that his
intention at the time was to relieve Mr. Cobden in the most
distinct manner from the imputation which by misappre-
hension he had put upon him. If any one present had
stated to him that his reparation was not so complete, and
his avowal of error not so unequivocal, as it ought to have
been, he should at once have repeated it more plainly and
distinctly. Cobden followed, saying that he had felt, and
the country had felt, that the Minister’s disavowal had not -
been eo distinct as was to have been expected. He was glad
that it had now been explicitly made, because it gave him
an opportunity of expressing his own regret at the terms in
which he had more than once referred to Sir Robert Peel.
And so with the expression of a hope that the subject
might never be revived, the incident came to an end,
CHAPTER XVI.
REPHAL OF THE CORN LAWS AND FALL OF THE GOVERNMENT.

TuE public excitement and private anxieties of the year

health. Before Parliament opened he was laid up with a
complicated affection of head, ears, and throat, the result of
laborious speaking to great audiences in the open air or in
vast halls. He remained liable for the rest of his life to
deafness and hoarseness. All through the Session of 1846
he was out of health. Fortunately, circumstances had now
taken a turn which no longer demanded much more from
him than silent vigilance.

A few days after the Session opened, the Prime Minister
announced his proposals. The repeal of the Corn Laws was
to be total. But it was not to be immediate. The ports
were not to be entirely open for three years. During this
interval there was to be a sliding scale, with a maximum
duty of ten shillings when the price of wheat should be
under forty-eight shillings, and a minimum duty of four
shillings when the price reached fifty-four shillings a quarter.
The views of the League therefore would not be fully realized
antil February, 1849.

The opponents of the Minister began to talk of an appeal
to the country, and Cobden addressed himself to this critical
point in the one speech of any importance which he felt
called upon to make through the whole of these protracted
debates. He plied the Protectionists with defiant tests of the

1846.
which had just come to an end, had seriously shaken Cobden’s —y7 a5.
1846.

 

\

356 LIFH OF COBDEN. (omar,

_ national opinion. The petitions for repeal had ten times as
Air. 42,

many signatures as petitions for Protection. But, they cried,
the most numeronsly signed were fictitious. Then let them
try public, meetings. He challenged them to hold a single
public and open meeting anywhere in the land. Then for ©
parliamentary representation. “I ought to know,” he said,
“as much about the state of the representation and of the
registration as any man in this House. Probably no one

. has given so much attention to that question as I have done,

and I distinctly deny that you have the slightest probability
of gaining a numerical majority, if a dissolution took place
to-morrow. Now I would not have said this three months
ago; buat your party is broken up.” Four-fifths of the
Conservatives from the towns in the north of England were
followers of Sir Robert Peel, and not of the Protectionist
Dukes. They had been for Free Trade all along, but they
had confidence in the Minister, that he would do what was
necessary at the proper time. But let them suppose that
the Protectionists might have a numerical majority. What
would be the character of the minority ? It would contain
the whole twenty members for the metropolis and the
metropolitan county. Edinburgh and Dublin would follow
London. There was not in all Great Britain a town of five-
and-twenty thousand inhabitants, not even Liverpool or Bris-
tol, which would not send members pledged to Free Trade,
What would a majority of twenty or thirty men in pocket
boroughs and nomination counties do in face of such a mino-
rityas this? They would shrink aghast from the position in
which they found themselves, The members who came up
under such circumstances to maintain the Corn Laws from
their Ripons and Stamfords, Woodstocks and Marlboroughs,
would not defend their views a day after they had found out
go vast » moral preponderance of public opinion as this.
1 Speeches, i. No. xxi, Feb. 27, 1848,
xv1.] STATH OF PUBLIO OPINION ON BEPHAL. 357

The characteristic of all Cobden’s best speeches was a 1846.
just distribution of facts as the groundwork of hisreasoning, Air. 42,
and this for its particular purpose was one of his best
speeches. No attempt was made at the time, nor has been
made since, to weaken his striking statement of the con-
dition of the public mind. Even the Prime Minister was
not prepared for such an overwhelming force of opinion.
Towards the close of the session, when all was over, Peel met
Mr. Bright in the division lobby and had some talk with
' him, He had no conception, he said, of the intense feeling

_ of hatred with which the Corn Law had been regarded,
more especially in Scotland.

The first reading was carried by a majority of 337 to
240. But an acute observer gave Cobden what was perhaps
the superfluous warning, not to allow the victory to throw
him off his guard. The difficulties were stil! to come, and
they were very serious. In spite of the extraordinary
position in which they had been left by the desertion of Peel
and all the rest of their leaders in both Houses of Parliament,
excepting only Lord Stanley, the Protectionists were un-
deniably strong. The bold and patient politician, of whom
they then thought so lightly, but who was in fact the sustain-
ing genius of their group, has described the steps by which
they found new leaders and a coherent organization. Lord
George Bentinck was not a great man, but then the most
dexterous and far-seeing of parliamentary manceuvrers had
his ear and was constantly by his side. Mr. Disraeli must be
said to have sinned against light. His compliments to Peel
and Free Trade in 1842 prove it. Lord George Bentinck
formed some views on the merits of Protection by-and-by,
but the first impulse which moved him was resentment
at betrayal. It is easy to say that the key to his action
was incensed party spleen, but the emotion was not wholly
diacreditable, One day he walked away from the House in
358 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [ouar.

1846. company with a conspicuous member of the League. With
4.42, that amicable freedom of remark which parliamentary
habits permit and nourish even between the stoutest adver-
saries, the Leaguer expressed his wonder that Lord George
Bentinck should fear any evil from the removal of the duty.
“Well,” Lord George answered, “I keep horses in three
counties, and they tell me that I shall save fifteen hundred
a year by free trade. I don’t care for that. What I cannot
bear is being sold.’ This was not the language of mag-
nanimity or of statesmanship, but it aptly expressed the
dogged anger of “the Manners, the Somersets, the Lowthers,
and the Lennoxes, the Mileses and the Henleys, the Dun-
combes and the Liddells and the Yorkes,” and all the rest of
that host of men of metal and large-acred squires whom the
strange rhapsodist of the band has enumerated in a list as
sonorous as Homer’s catalogue of the ships.? These honest
worthies did not know much about the Circle of the Ex-
changes, but they believed that Free Trade would destroy
rent, and that the League was bent on overthrowing the
Church and the Throne; while they saw for themselves that
their leader had become an apostate. But this country,
as Cobden said at the time, is governed by the ignorance
of the country. Their want of. intelligence did not pre-
vent them from possessing a dangerous power for the
moment.

The majority on the first reading was a hollow and not an
honest majority, and the Protectionists were quite aware of it.
The remarkable peculiarity of the parliamentary contest
was that not a hundred members of the House of Commons
were in favour of total repeal, and fewer still were in favour
of immediate repeal. Lord Palmerston, as Cobden wrote to
a friend long after these events, showed unmistakable
signs that he was not unwilling to head or join a party to

§ Lore George Dentinoh, p, S18, a. zw
xvi.] DIFFICULTIES O¥ PEEL'S POSITION. 359

keep a fixed duty, but he was too shrewd to make such 1846.
an attempt when success was impossible.’ In the Upper tr. 42,
House it was notorious that not one peer in ten was
in his heart inclined to pass the Corn Bill. If the Lords
were to be coerced into giving their assent, it was in-
dispensable that the entire Whig party in the Commons
should keep together and vote in every division. It was
undoubtedly the interest of the Whigs to help Peel to get the
Corn Law out of the way, and then to turn him out. But there
was & natural temptation to trip him up before the time.

The curious balance of factions filled the air with the
spirit of intrigue, and until the very last there was good
reason to apprehend that the Peers might force Peel to
accept the compromise of a fixed duty, or else to extend the
term for the expiration of the existing duty. No episode in
our history shows in a more distressing light the trickery
and chicane which some thinkers believe to be inseparable
from parliamentary institutions. In this case, however, as
in so many others, the mischief had its root not in parlia-
mentary institutions, but in that constitutional paradox, as
perplexing in theory as it is equivocal in practice, which
gives a hereditary chamber the prerogative of revising and
checking the work of the representative chamber.

The session had not advanced very far, before other
dangers loomed on the horizon. The Ministry .was doomed
in any case. Whether Peel succeeded or failed with the
Corn Bill, nobody at this time thonght it possible that he,
could carry on a Conservative Government in a new Parlia-
ment, and he could hardly become the chief of a Liberal
Government. The question was whether and how he should
repeal the Corn Law. Difficulties arose from a quarter where
they were not expected. The misery of the winter in
Treland had produced its natural fruits in disorder and

2 To J. Parkes. June 10, 1857,
1846,

Ar, 42,

 

360 LIFE OF OOBDEN. (cHur,

violence. The Ministry resorted for the eighteenth time
since the Union to the stale device of a Coercion Bill, that
stereotyped avowal,—and always made, strange to say,
without shame or contrition, —of the secular neglect and in-
competency of the English Government of Ireland. Two
perilous inconveniences followed. The first was that the
Irish members, led by O’Connell, persistently opposed by
all the means in their power every step of this violent
and shallow policy. It would have been ignoble if they
had done less. But their just and laudable obstruction of
the Coercion Bill interposed dangerous delays in the way of
the Corn Bill. This, however, was uot the only peril. The
Coercion Bill laid the train for a combination which
could hardly have been foreseen, but which was eventually
irresistible. Cobden and his friends were hostile to the

“measure on the policy and the merits, nor in any case

could their votes have saved the Ministry. Lord John
Russell and the Whigs had no objection to a Coercion
Bill, of which for that matter they have been the steadiest

_ patrons, but they could not resist the temptation to pay off

old scores when the Minister declared Coercion to be urgent,
and then actually let it slumber for five months.‘ Lord
George Bentinck discerned very early the elements of
an invincible dilemma and a promising plot. If the
Minister pushed the Coercion Bill, that would keep back
the Corn Bill. If he gave the priority to the Corn Bill, this
would prove that the Coercion Bill was not urgent, and
therefore ought not to be supported.

4 We have an excellent illustration of the practice of msking Ireland the
shuttlecock of English parties, in the fact that the Whigs who had turned
ont Peel on the principle of Non-Ooercion, had not been in office s month
before they introduced an Irish Arms Bill. The opposition, however, was
so uharp that the Bill was withdrawn iv a fortnight. This Whig levity was
a matoh for the Tory levity which had declared Coercion urgent in January,
and taken no steps to seonre it until June.
xvi] ATTITUDE OF THE WHIGS. 361

Thus by an extraordinary and unparalleled state of political 1846
parties, a measure for which the country was sincerely Air. 42,
anxious, which was confessedly required by the circumstances
of the moment, and which the leader of the Opposition
was as desirous of passing as the Prime Minister, seemed to
be in constant risk of miscarrying at every moment, and
was attended by every circumstance of embarrassment alike’
to supporters and opponents. The great disadvantage that
Cobden saw in the critical state of the Government through-
out the session, was the encouragement that it held out to
the House of Lords to delay Repeal. This made his own
course and that of the League all the clearer. It was their
policy loudly and pointedly to denounce all compromise on
the part either of the Minister or of equivocal friends.
Cobden did not fear that the Whigs would take means to
reject the Bill, for this reason, and perhaps for no loftier
one, that its rejection would afford Peel an opportunity of
dissolving on the question; and a dissolution, as Cobden
whether rightly or wrongly believed, would snuff the Whigs
out, obliterate all old party distinctions, “and give Peel
a five years’ lease at the head of a mixed progressive
party.”* He wes equally puzzled to understand why Peel
should press the Coercion Bill forward, and why the Whigs
should show such eagerness to avail themselves of monopolist
_ support to throw Peel ont. He could only explain the
second of the two perplexities, by supposing that “the
Whigs are hugging the delusion that the country wants
them back in office. For my part, I cannot meet with any-
body whose face does not drop like the funds at the bare
prospect of the change.”

We shall see presently what Peel himself had to say to
this idea of a mixed progressive party. Meanwhile, Cobden’s
dislike and distrust of the Whigs was as intense as ever, and

5 To Me, Sturge, Sane 16, 1848.
 

362 LIFB OF COBDEN. {omar,

even drew upon him remonstrances from some of his own

. allies. “What are the old Whig party,” he asked impatiently,

“going to do for us in North Notts?‘ There is a division
with under 4000 voters, and a strong Liberal party. It was
considered Whig until the base selfishness of the landlords
of that party led them to desert their colours there and in
every other county upon the bread question. My old friend,
Bean, of Nottingham, reckoned the Liberal party safe upon
the last register, and it is improved upon the present one,
But he, honest man, has been reckoning all Whigs as Free
Traders. Now, however, Peel’s plunge must have brought
over some of the Tories to Free Trade, and if there were any
disposition on the part of the Whig proprietors to bring in a
repealer, they could do it with the aid or neutrality of the
Peelites. I look to the conduct of the Whigs in the counties
as the test of their honesty on our question. Hitherto they
have done nothing except to revile and oppose us. Not a
county has been gained to Free Trade but by League money,
and at a terrible cost of labour to the Leaguers. I invaded
the West Riding, in November, 1844, and held public meet-
ings in all the great towns to rouse them to qualify 2000
votes. Lord Fitzwilliam wrote me advising me not to come,
as I should do more harm than good! Had I followed his
advice, Lord Morpeth might still have been rusticating at
Castle Howard.’ You will perhaps tell me, that the leaders
of the Whig party can’t control their old friends in the
counties upon the Corn question. True. But then, what

6 Seat vacated by Lord Lincoln. See above, p. 346 n. ‘

? Lord Wharncliffe, who held the office of President of the Council, died
suddenly in the midst of the ministerial crisis. Mr. Stuart Wortley’s
consequent elevation to the peerage vacated the seat for the West Riding.
You know,”—so Oobden told the story three years later— that the West
Riding of Yorkshire is considered the great index of public opinion in this
country. In that great division, at present containing 87,000 voters, Lord
Morpeth was defeated on the question of Free Trade, and two Protectioniste
wore returned. I went into the West Riding with this 40s. freehold plan.
Z uteted in every borongh and divixict that we must Lave 5000 quslificatious
xvi.] PROCEEDINGS IN PARLIAMENT. 363

f

a bold farce is it now to attempt to parade the Whig party 1846. _
as the Free Traders par excellence! I will be no party to Air. 42. ,
such a fraud as the attempt to build up its ruined popularity
upon a question in which the Whig aristocracy and pro-
prietors in the counties either take no interest, or, if so,
only to resist it. I see no advantage but much danger to
our cause from the present efforts to set up the old party
distinctions, and calm reflection tells me that isolation is more
and more the true policy of the League.”* This idea held
strong possession of him until the day of Peel’s final defeat
and resignation.

Before coming to that, it will be convenient to state very
briefly the course of proceedings in Parliament. The motion
was made to go into Committee on the Resolutions, on the
9th February. Highteen days later, after twelve nights of
debate, and after one hundred and three speeches had been
delivered, the Government were successful by a majority of
ninety-seven, On March 2, the House went into Committee
on the Resolutions, and Mr. Villiers’s amendment that Repeal
should be immediate as well as total, was lost by an im-
mense majority, barely short of two hundred. The Corn
Bill was then read a second time on March 27, by a majority
of eighty-eight in a House of five hundred and sixteen; and
it was finally carried in the House of Commons at four o’clock
in the morning of May 16, by « majority of ninety-eight in
a House of five hundred and fifty-six. The Lords made a
much less effective opposition than, as is shown by Cobden’s
letters, was commonly expected. The second reading was
carried by two hundred and eleven against one hundred and
sixty-four, or a majority of forty-seven. Amendments were
made. They were made.... Men qualified themselves with a view of
helping the repeal of the Corn Laws, and in consequence of that movement
Lord Morpeth walked over the course at the next election.” —Speeckes, ii.

484, Nov. 26, 1849.
2 To Mr. J. Parkes. Wab. 16, 1288,
 

ffir, 42,

364 LIFE OF OOBDEN. (omar.

moved in Committee, but none of them met with success,
and Lord Stanley, who led the. Protectionists, declined to
divide the House on the third reading. The Conservatives
acted on the policy laid down by Peel himself seven years
before, as one of the working principles of the great party
which he had formed—“a party which, existing in the
House of Commons, and deriving its strength from the
popular will, should diminish the risk and deaden the shock
of collisions between the two deliberative branches of the
legislature.” ° The battle had been fought in the House of
Commons, and as it had been lost there, then by Peel’s
salutary rule, the defeat was accepted as decisive.

This is the proper place for Cobden’s own story of his
interests and occupations during that agitated session. We
must not forget that his private affairs had only been pro-
visionally arranged in the previous autumn, and that they
were a8 gloomy as his public position was triumphant.
Before giving the shorter correspondence, written from day
to day to his wife and his brother, it will be convenient to
give three longer letters, affording a more general view of
what at this time was engaging his thoughts.

March 7, 1846. (To G. Oombe.)—“I am pretty well
recovered from my local attack; a little deafness is all
that remains. But the way in which I was prostrated
by an insignificant cold in my head has convinced me
(even if my doctor had not told it) how much my constitu-
tion has been impaired by the excitement and wear and
tear of the last few years. The mainspring has been over-
weighted, and I must resolve upon some change to wind
up the machinery, before I shall be able to enter upon any
renewed labours. My medical friend boldly tells me that I
ought to disappear from political life for a year or two, and
seek o different kind of excitement in other scenes abroad,

® Poal's Bpsosh at Merobaat Taylerw Hall ia 1899.
xv1.] LETTER TO.GEORGE COMBE. 365

. He talks to me of the hot baths of the Pyrenees as desirable 1846.
for such cases; of a low pulse, feeble circulation, and a dis- Afr. 42.
ordered skin, and he speaks of » winter to be passed in a
southern latitude. Heaven knows what I shall do! But
one thing is certain, I neither feel in health nor spirits to
take that prominent place in the political world which the
public voice seems to be ready to demand. The truth is, I
have gradually and unexpectedly been forced upwards, by
the accident of my position in connexion with a great prin-
ciple (which would have elevated anybody else who had only
tenacity of will enough to cling to it), and I feel, in the
present state of my health, and from other private and
domestic considerations, letting alone my mental incapacity,
unable to pursue the elevated career which many partial
friends and supporters would expect from me. But I am
resolved to give primary consideration to my health, and to

‘the welfare of those whom nature has given the first claim
to my attentions. This, I think, no one will deny me. For
I assure you that during the last five years so much have I
been involved in the vortex of public agitation, that I have
almost forgotten my own identity and completely lost sight
of the comforts and interests of my wife and children,

“ Besides, to confess the truth, I am less and less in love
with what is generally called political life, and am not sure that
I could play a successful part as a general politician. Party
trammels, unless in favour of some well-defined and useful
principle, would be irksome to me, and I should be restive
and intractable te those who might expect me to run in
their harness. However, all this may stand over till we
have really accomplished the work which drew me into my
present position. I am afraid our friends in the country are
a little too confident. The Government measure is by no
means safe with the Lords yet. They will mutilate or reject
it if they think the country will suffer it. Bear in mind, if
366 LIFR OF COBDEN, -[omar,

_184 you please, that there are not twenty men in that assembly
Ax. 42, who in their hearts earnestly desire total repeal. Nay, I am
of opinion that not one hundred men in the Commons would
be more disposed for the measure, if they could obey their
own secret inclinations, without the influence of outward
considerations. Amongst all the converts and conformers,
I class Sir Robert Peel as one of the most sincere and
earnest. I have no doubt he is acting from strong convic-
tion. His mind has a natural leaning towards politico-
economical truths. The man who could make it his hobby
so early to work out the dry problem of the currency ques-
tion, and arrive at such sound conclusions, could not fail to
be equally able and willing to put in practice the other
theories of Adam Smith. It is from this that I rely upon
his not compromising our principle beyond the three years.
But I must confess I have not the same confidence in Lord
John and the Whigs. Not that I think the latter inferior in
moral sentiment, but the reverse. But Lord John and his
party do not understand the subject so well as Peel. The
Whig leader. is great upon questions of a constitutional
character, and has a hereditary leaning towards a popular
and liberal interpretation of the Constitution. But his mind
is less adapted for the mastery of economical questions, and
he attaches an inferior importance to them. Nor does he
weigh the forces of public opinion so accurately as Peel.
He breathes the atmosphere of a privileged clique. His
sympathies are aristocratic. He is sometimes thinking of
the House of Russell, whilst Peel is occupied upon Man-
chester. They are in a false position ; Peel ought to be the
leader of the middle class, and I am not sure that he is not
destined to be so before the end of his career.”
London, March 12. (To Mr. T. Hunter.)—‘ Many
thanks for your warm-hearted letter. I have often thought
of you, and our good friends, Potter and Ashworth,
xv] CORDEN’S VIEW OF HIS OWN POSITION. 367

and of the anomalous position in which I was left when 1846.

 

our consultations ended last autumn. Had it not been Air, 42.
for the potato panic, which dawned upon us within a few
weeks after we came to the wise decision respecting my own
course of action, I should then have been bound by the
necessity of circumstances to have abandoned my public
career. That providential dispensation opened ont a pro-
spect of a speedy termination of our agitation, which has not
been disappointed. I therefore made arrangements of a
temporary kind for the management of my private concerns,
This, I concluded, was understood by you and my other privy
councillors. But the arrangement was only provisional; and
now that I trust we are really drawing towards a virtual
settlement of the Corn question, my private concerns again
press upon my attention. I am in a false situation, and
every day increases its difficulty. My prominent position
before the world leads the public to expect that I shall
take a leading part in future political affairs, for which I do
not feel in health or spirits to be equal, and which private
considerations render altogether impossible.

“The truth is, that accident, quite as much as any merit
on my own part, has forced me gradually into a notoriety
for which I have not naturally much taste; but which,
under all circumstances, is a source of continaed mental em-
barrassment to me. How to escape from the dilemma has
been for months the subject of cogitation with me. My own
judgment leads irresistibly to one solution of the difficulty,
by retiring from Parliament as soon as the corn question is
safe. observe your allusion to a public demonstration;
and the idea of a testimonial has reached me through so
many channels, that it would be affectation to conceal from
myself that something of the kind is in contemplation. I
am not, I confess, sanguine abont the success of such an
effort, pecuniarily speaking, on the part of my friends. Public
368 LOM OF COBDEN. (cuir,

ebullitions of the kind never realize the expectations of their

. promoters, and thers are reasons against such success in my

own case. Out of Manchester I am regarded as a rich man,
thanks to the exaggerations of the Duke of Richmond and
the Protectionists.

* But, besides, there are others who have as good claims
as myself upon public consideration for the labours given
to the good cause. I have been often pained to see that my
fame, both in England and on the Continent, has eclipsed
that of my worthy fellow-labourers. But it would be an in-
justice which neither I nor the public voice would sanction,

‘if I were to reap all the substantial fruits of our joint

exertions, to the exclusion of others whose sacrifices and
devotion have hardly been second to my own.

“As respects my own feelings on the subject of a testi-
monial, although I see it in a different light after the work
is done to that in which I viewed it before, still, I must
confess, that it is not otherwise than a distasteful theme.
Were I a rich man, or even in independent circumstances,
I could not endure the thoughts of it. But when I think of
my age, and the wear and tear of my constitution, and reflect
upon the welfare of those to whom Nature has given the
first, and for them, the only claims upon my consideration,
I do not feel in a position to give a chivalrous refusal to
any voluntary public subsidy. Like the poor apothecary,
my poverty and not my will consents. Still, consulting my —
own feelings, I should like to be out of Parliament before

-any demonstration were made. I could hardly explain why

I should prefer this, it is so peculiarly a matter of feeling.
It is not with a view to escape from public usefulness here-
after. Iam aware that success in my Free Trade labours
will invest me with some moral power, which, after my health
was thoroughly wound up again for a renewed effort, I
should feel anxious to bring to bear upon great questions
xv1.] VIEWS Of HIS OWN POSITION. 369

for the benefit of society. But I have a strong and in- 1846.
stinctive feeling that an interregnum in my public life would afr, 42.
rather increase than diminish my power of usefulness.
Besides and independent of considerations of health, I am
“not anxious to be a party in any more political arrangements
during the next year or two, Assuming even that the
public placed me in a new position, free from anxieties of a
private kind, still I should shrink from undertaking the
office of a party politician. Ido not think I should make a
useful partisan, unless in the advancement of a defined and
simple principle. Now the next year will witness a de-
struction of old, and a combination of new parties, to which
‘Ishould be called upon to give support, and probably invited
to take office, Official life would not suit me. My only path
to public usefulness is in pursuing the same independent
course as respects parties which I have hitherto followed. I
am aware that others might take a different view; but still
no one can be so fair a judge as myself of that which
involves a knowledge of my own aptitude, springing from
private tastes and feelings.

“T might add as s motive for leaving Parliament, a growing
dislike for House of Commons life, and a distaste for mere
party political action. But this applies to my present views
only in as far as it affects my health and temporary purposes,
It is a repugnance which might and ought to be overcome
for the sake of usefulness ; and there are enough good men
in Parliament who sacrifice private convenience for public
good, to compensate for the society of the herd who are -
brought there for inferior objecta.

“T have now poured out my inward thoughts to you in
unreserved confidence—thoughts which have not been com-
mitted to paper before. And I do it with the fullest satis-
faction, for I know that, whilst you sympathize with my
feelings, you will bring a cool judgment to my assistance.

Bb
370 LIFE OF OOBDEN. (omar.

1846. T may add that it is premature yet to consider the struggle
Air, 42, atanend. The Lords are not yet decided what to do with
the Government measure. There are rumours atill of an
attempt to compromise. It is reported that Lord Fitz-
william is returning from Italy to head a fixed-duty party,
and there is still a strong body in the Commons anxious
for such # course. In fact there are not a hundred men in
the Commons, or twenty in the Lords, who at heart are
anxious for total repeal. They are coerced by the out-of-
doors opinion, and nothing but the dread of the League
organization enables Peel to persevere. But for our forty-
shilling freehold bludgeons, the aristocracy would have
resisted the Government measure almost to a man. My
strongest hopes centre in Peel. I have far more confidence
in him than the Whig leaders. He is acting from strong
convictions. He understands politico-economical questions
better than Lord John, and attaches far more importance to
sound principles in practical legislation. He and Sir James
Grahem make no secret of their determination to stand or
fall by their measure. Such being their decision, the only
delay that can take place is in the event of a dissolution ;
and I think the Lords will shrink from such a desperate and
fruitless alternative when the critical moment arrives.”

April 2. ( ,, )—'So far as I can control my
fature course of action, I am prepared to do so; and
the first step which duty requires, is to place myself in

a private position at the earliesi moment when I can

-make the change, without: sacrificing the public interest
which is to some extent involved in my person. In fact
I should have long ago retired into private life, but for
this consideration. It is still a little uncertain when we
shall escape from the tenter-hooks of delay. Even if the

Lords pass the Government measure without attempts at

mutilation, of which, by the way, I am atill not so sanguine as
xvi] LETTER TO ME, HUNTHR. 371

many people, then it will be two months yet before the royal
hand can reach the Act for the total repeal of the Corn Law.
Should the Peers attempt » compromise, I have reason
to feel satisfied that the Government will be firm; and then
we may possibly have a dissolution. A sharp struggle in
the country would in all probability be followed by total
and immediate repeal, carried with a high hand. But,
assuming the most probable event, viz. that the Lords do
pass the Bill, then my mind is made up to accept the
' Chiltern Hundreds the day after it receives the royal
assent.

“Now, my dear sir, the rest must be left to the chapter
of fate, and I shall be prepared to meeti it, come what may.
This decision is entirely the result of my own cogitations.
I have consulted nobody. If the rumour got abroad
amongst my friends, I should be persecuted with advice or
remonstrance, to which I should be expected to give answers
involving explanations painful to me, And it is quite
marvellous how apt the newspapers are to get raw material
enough for an on dit if a man suffers his plans to go beyond
his own bosom. I could, of course, make my health honestly
the plea for leaving Parliament, and can show, if need be,
the advice of the first medical men in London and Edin-
burgh to justify me in seeking at least a twelvemonth’s
relaxation from public life.

“T have thus given you an earnest of my determination
to do all that I can to acquit myself of my private as well as

1846.
Air, 42,

 

public duties. It has always been to me a spectacle’

worthy of reproach to see a man sacrificing the welfare of
his own domestic circle to the cravings of a morbid desire
for public notoriety. And God, who knows our hearts, will
free me from any such unworthy motives. I was driven
along a groove by accident, too fast and too far to retreat
with honour or without the risk of sore loss to the couatry,
872 LIER OF OOBDEN. [owar.

1846. hut ‘the happiest moment of my life will be that which
"dix. 42, releases me from the conflicting sense of rival duties, by
restoring me again to private life.”
A few days later he wrote to Mr. Edmund Potter :—~
“Many thanks for your friendly letter. Though I appre-
ciate your kindness even where it restrains you from writ-
ing to me, let me assure you that your handwriting always
gives me pleasure. You would not doubt it, if you could
have a peep at the letters which pour in upon me, I
have sometimes thought of giving William Chambers a hint
for an arousing paper in his journal upon the miseries of a
popular man. First, half the mad people in the country
who are still at large, and they are legion, address their
incoherent ravings to the most notorious man of the hour.
Next, the kindred tribe who think themselves poets, who
are more difficult than the mad people to deal with, send
their doggerel and solicit subscriptions to their volumes,
with occasional requests to be allowed to dedicate them.
Then there are the Jeremy Diddlers who begin their
epistles with high-flown compliments upon my services to
the millions, and always wind up with a request that I will
bestow a trifle upon the individual who ventures to lay his
distressing case before me. To add to my miseries,
people have now got an idea that I am influential with
the Government, and the small place-hunters are at me.
Yesterday a man wrote from Yorkshire, wanting the situa-
tion of a gauger, and to-day a person in Herts requests
me to procure him a place in the post-office. Then there
are all the benevolent enthusiasts who have their pet
reforms, who think that because a man has sacrificed
himself in mind, body, and estate in attempting to do
one thing, he is the very person to do all the rest. These
good people dog me with their projects. Nothing in their
eyes is impossible in my hands. One worthy man calls to

 
xv} THE MIGUBINS OF POPULARITY. 373

assore me that X¥ can reform the Church, and unite the
Wesleyans with the Establishment.

“That zealous and excellent educationalist, Stone, of
Glasgow, seized upon me yesterday. ‘I have often thought,’
said he, ‘that Lord Ashley or Mr. Colquhoun was the man
to carry a system of National Education through Parliament.
But they have not moral courage; if you will take it in
hand, in less than four years you will get a vote of twenty
millions, and reconcile all the religious parties to one uniform
system of religious education.’ I replied that I had tried
my hand on a small scale in the attempt to unite the sects in
Lancashire in 1836, but that I took to the repeal of the
Corn Laws as light amusement compared with the difficult
task of inducing the priests of all denominations to agree
to suffer the people to be educated. The next time I
meet Dickens or Jerrold, I shall assuredly give them a hint
for a new hero of the stage or the novel, ‘The Popular
Man.’

“Tn answer to your kind inquiries after my health, I am
happy to say I am pretty free from any physical ailment.
It is only in my nervous system that I am out of sorts.
The last two or three months have kept me on the rack,
and worried me more than the last seven years of agitation.
But if I could get ont of the treadmill, and with a mind at
ease take a twelvemonth’s relaxation and total change of
scene and climate as far off as Thebes or Persepolis,
where there are no post-offices, newspapers, or politicians,
I see no reason why I should not live to seventy; for I
have faith in my tough and wiry body and a temperament
naturally cool and controllable, excepting when my mind
is harassed as it has been by circumstances connected
with my private concerns, which I could not grapple
with and master, solely because I was chained to another
oar.”

 

1846.
Gir, 42. .
1846.

itr, 42,

374 LIFH OF OORDEN. [omur.

The extracts that now follow sre from letters to Mrs. Cob-
den, except in the few cases where a footnote gives the
name of some other correspondent :—

“ London, Jan. 23.—Peel’s speech last night’ would have
done capitally for Covent Garden Theatre, and Lord Francis
Egerton’s would have been s capital address from the chair
if he had filled George Wilson’s place. Tho Tories are in a
state of frantic excitement, and the Carlton Club is all in con-

fasion. Nobody knows his party. I have no doubt Peel will

do our work thoroughly, or fall in the attempt. He will be
able to carry his measure easily through the Commons, with
the aid of the Opposition, but I have my suspicions that the
Lords will throw it out and force a dissolution. Whatever
happens, I can see a prospect of my emancipation at no dis-
tant date. I am going to-morrow to Windsor, to spend the
Sunday with Mr. Grote.”

“Jan. 26.—I spent yesterday at Grote’s, about four
miles from Slough, and met Senior the political economist,
Parkes, and Lumley the lessee of the Italian Opera. We
had a long walk of nearly twelve miles round the country,
and for want of training I find myself like an old posting-
horse to-day, stiff and footsore. . . . There are reports to-
day of some resignations about the Court, but I don’t hear
of anybody of consequence who is abandoning Peel. Still
there is no knowing what to-morrow may bring forth
We hear nothing as to the details of Peel’s plan to-morrow,
for which we are all looking with great anxiety. But the
report is still that he intends to go the whole hog. A very
handsome gold snuff-box has just been presented to me by
Mr. Collett, the member for Athlone.”

“Jan. 28.—Peel is at last delivered, but I hardly know
whether to call it a boy or a girl Something between
the two, I believe. His corn measure makes an end of all

) Announcing the necossity of a new commercial syatem.
!

xvi} ‘MIZOMLLANEOUS CORRESPONDENCE. 375

corn laws in 1849, and in the meantime it is virtually a fixed 184.

 

duty of 4s. He has done more than was expected from him, Afr, 42.
and all bué the right thing. Whether it will satisfy our ardent
friends in the north is the question. Let me know all the
gossip you hear about it. I abstained from saying a word
in the House because I did not wish to commit myself, and I
dissuaded Villiers and the rest of the Leaguers from speak-
ing. It was too good a measure to be denounced, and not
quite good enough for unqualified approbation, and therefore
I thought it best to be quict. To-day I have attended a
meeting at Lord John’s of the leaders of the Whig party.
They seemed disposed to co-operate with Peel. But Villiers
will bring on his motion for total and immediate repeal, and
when that is lost we must do the best we can. The measure
will pass the Commons with o very large majority, some
people say seventy to one hundred, but the question still is
what will be done in the Lords? I asked Lord John to-day
what he thought the Peers would do with the Bill, and he
says if Lord Stanley heads the Protectionists they will reject
it, but that the Lords will not put themselves under the Dukes
of Richmond and Buckingham. I hear that Lord Stanley
is not for fighting the battle of Monopoly. So much for the
great question.”

* Jan. 29.2>—My own opinion is that we should not be
justified in the eyes of the country if we did anything in the
House to obstruct the measure, and I doubt whether any such
step out of doors would be successful. In the House, Villiers
will bring on his motion for total and immediate repeal, and
I shall not be surprised if it were successful simply on agri-
cultural grounds by our being able to demonstrate unanswer-
ably that it is better for farmers and landowners to have the .
change at once rather than gradually. But weshould have
no chance on any other than agricultural grounds. To make

8 To Geo. Wilson.
1846.

376 LIF’ OF OOBDEN. [omar.

the appeal from the manufacturing districts simply on the plea

 

Ait. 42.

of justice to the conswmers, would not have mach sympathy
here or elsewhere, and would have no effect upon Parliament
while the question is merely one of less than three years time,
Therefore, while I would advise you to petition for the whole
measure, I can’t say I think any great demonstration as
against Peel’s compromise would have much sympathy else-
where. Understand, I would not shift a hair’s-breadth from our
ground, but what I mean strongly to impress on you is my
belief that any attempt at a powerful agitation against Peel’s
compromise would be a failure. And I should not like the~
League Council to take a step which did not at once receive a
ational support. For myself in the House I will undertake
to prove unanswerably that it would be just to all, and
especially politic for the agriculturists, to make the repeal
immediate, but if we fail on Villiers’s motion to carry the
immediate, I shall give my unhesitating support to Peel, and
I will not join Whigs or protectionists in any factious plan
for tripping up his heels. Ican’t hold any different language
from this out of doors, and therefore'can hardly see the
use of a public meeting till the measure comes on in Parlia-
ment.”

“ Feb. 9."—The Queen’s doctor, Sir James Clark (a good
Leaguer at heart), has written to offer to pay me a friendly
visit, and talk over the state of my constitution, with a
view to advise me how to unstring the bow. He wrote mea
croaking warning letter more than s year ago. As it is pos-
sible there may be a paragraph in some newspaper alluding
to my health, I thought it best to let you know in case of
inquiry. But don’t write me a long dismal letter in return,

for I can’t read them, and it does no good. If Charles
could come up for a week with a determination to work and
think, he might help me with my letters, but he will make

0 To F. WF. Onddon.
xvi] PROGRESS OF THE CORN BILL. 377

my head worse if he requires me to look after him, and so
you must say plainly.”

“ London, Feb. 19.A—-Your letter has followed me here,
Peel’s declaration in the House that he will adopt immediate
repeal if it is voted by the Commons, seems to me to remove
all difficulty from Villiers’s path ; he can now propose his old
motion without the risk of doing any harm even if he should
not succeed. As respects the future course of the League,
the less that is said now about it publicly the better. If
Peel’s measure should become law, then the Council will be
compelled to face the question, ‘What shall the League do
during the three years?’ It has struck me that onder such
circumstances we might absolve the large subscribers from
all further calls, put the staff of the League on a peace

| footing, and merely keep alive a nominal organization to
prevent any attempt to undo the good work we have
effected. Not that I fear any reaction. On the contrary,
I believe the popularity of Free Trade principles is only in its
infancy, and that it will every year take firmer hold of the
head and heart of the community. But there is perhaps
something due to our repeated pledges that we will not
dissolve until the corn Jaws are entirely abolished. In any
case the work will be effectually finished during this year,
provided the League preserve its firm and united position;
and it is to prevent the slightest appearance of disunion
that I would avoid now talking in public about the future
course of the League. It is the League, and it only, that
frightens the peers. It is the League alone which enables
Peel to repeal the law. But for the League the aristocracy
would have hunted Peel to a premature grave, or consigned
him like Lord Melbourne to a private station at the bare
mention of total repeal. We must hold the same rod over
the Lords until the measure is safe; after that I agree with

* To H. Aghaworth.

1846.

ART, 42.
378 LI OF COBDEN, [omar.

1848. you in thinking that it matters little whether the League.
‘Ar. 42, dies with honours, or lingers out a few yeers of inglorious
existence.”

« March 6.'—Nobody knows to this day what the Lords
will do, and I believe all depends upon their fears of
the country. If there was not something behind corn
which they dread even still more, I doubt if they would
ever give up the key of the bread basket. They would
turn out Peel with as little ceremony as they would dis-
miss a groom or keeper, if he had not the League at his
back. It is strange to see the obtuseness of such men as
Hume, who voted against Villiers’s motion to help Peel.
I have reason to know that the latter was well pleased at
the motion, and would have been glad if we had had a
larger division. It helps Peel to be able to point to some-
thing beyond, which he does not satisfy. I wish we were
out of it.”

“ March 25."—T have received the notes. Moffatt mentioned
to me the report in the city to which you refer. There is no
help for these things, and the only wonder is that we have
escaped so well. If you can keep this affair in any way
afloat till the present corn measure reaches the Queen’s
hands, I will solve the difficulty, by cutting the Gordian
knot, or rather the House; and the rest must take its
chance. I don’t think I shall speak in this debate. It does
no earthly good, and only wastes time. People are not
likely to say I am silent because I can’t answer Bentinck
and Co. The bill would be out of the Commons, accord-
ing to appearances, before Haster.”

“ March 80.—-We are uncertain which course will be
taken by the Government to-night, whether the Corn or
Coercion Bill is to be proceeded with. If the latter, I fear

6 Te F. W. Cobden. * To F. W. Cobden.
xi] PROGRESS CF THR CORN BILL. 379 _

we shall net make another step with the corn question
before Easter. I don’t like these delays.”

“ April 4.—It is my present intention to come home
next Thursday unless there is anything special coming on
that evening, which I don’t think very likely. It happens
most unluckily that the Government has forced on the
Coercion Bill to the exclusion of corn, for owing to the
pertinacious delay thrown in the way of its passing by the
Irish members, I don’t expect it will be read the first time
before Haster, and as for corn there is no chance of hearing
of it again till after the holidays. I wish to God we were
out of the mess.”

“ April 6.—We are still in the midst of our Irish squabble,
and there is no chance of getting upon corn again before
Easter. It is most mortifying this delay, for it gives the
chance of the chapter of accidents to the enemy.”

* April 23.—We are still in as great suspense as ever
abont the next step in the Corn Bill. The Irishmen
threaten to delay us till next Friday week at least. But
I hear that the general opinion is that the postponement
will be favourable to the success of the measure in the
Lords.”

“ April 25.—-You will receive a Times by the post con-
taining an amusing account of a flare-up in the House
between Disraeli and Peel respecting some remarks of mine,
You will also see that one of the Irish patriots has been
trying to play us false about corn. But I don’t find that
the bulk of the liberal Irish members are inclined to any
overt act of treachery, although I fear that many are in
their hearts averse to owr repeal.”

“April 27.—Last Saturday I dined at Lord Mont-
eagle’s, and took Lady in to dinner, and really I must
say I have not for five years met with e new acquaintance so
much to my taste, I met there young Gough, son of Lord

 

Rr, 42,

1846.

peters
 

Ait, 42,

380 LIRR OF COBDEN, (omar.

Gough, the hero of the Sutlej, and had come interesting
private talk with him about the doings of his father. We
are going on again to-night with the Coercion Bill, and
there seems to be a prospect of the Irish repealers pursuing
@ little more conciliatory course towards us. I hear that my
speech on Friday is considered to have been very judicious,
inasmuch as I spoke soft words, calculated to turn aside the
wrath of the Irishmen. They are a very odd and anmanage-
able set, and I fear many of the most liberal patriots amongst
them would, if they could find an excuse, pick a quarrel
with us and vote against Free Trade, or stay away. They
are landlords, and like the rest afraid of rent.”

“ April 29.—I have three letters from you, but must not
attempt now to give you a long reply. We are meeting
this morning as usual on a Wednesday, at twelve o’clock
till six in the House, and I have therefore little time for my
correspondence. The Factory Bill is coming on which I
wish to attend to. .... You may tell our League friends
that I begin to see daylight through the fog in which
we have been so long enveloped. O’Connell tells me that
we shall certainly divide upon the first reading of the
Coercion Bill on Friday. That being out of the way, we
shall go on to Corn on Monday, and next week will I trust
see the Bill fairly out of the House. The general opinion
is that the delay has been favourable to our prospects in the
Lords.”

“ May 2.—-The Corn measure comes on next Monday,
and will continue before the Honse till it passes. Some
people seem to expect that it will get ont of our hands on
Friday next. I still hear more and more favourable reports
of the probable doings in the Lords.”

“ May 8.—The fact is we are here in a dead state of
suspense, not quite certain what will be our fate in the
Lords, and yet every day trying to learn something new,
xvi] LONDON SOULTY, 381

and still left in the same doubt. It is now said that we shall 1846. _
pass the third and last reading of the Bill in the Commons tr. 42.
on Tuesday next. Then it will go up to the Lords, where

the debates will be much shorter, for the Peers have no
constituents to talk to. Lord Ducie says he thinks there

will be only two nights’ debates upon the second reading.

Still Iam told the Queen’s assent cannot be given to the
measure before the middle of June, and very likely not till

the 20th. I dined last Saturday at Labouchere’s, in Belgrave
Square, and sat beside Lady -—~-~, a-very handsome,
sprightly and unaffected dame. There was some very good
singing after dinner. I have been obliged to mount a white

cravat at these dinner-parties much against my will, but I

found a black stock was quite out of character. So you see

I am getting on.”

“ May 11.—I have been running about, sightseeing
the last day or two. On Saturday I went to the Hor-
ticultural Society’s great flower-show at Chiswick, It
was & glorious day, and a most charming scene. How dif-
ferent from the drenching weather you and I experienced
there.”

“ May 13.—I am sorry to say I see no chance of a
division on the Corn Bill till Saturday morning at one or
two o’clock, and that has quite thrown moe out in my cal-
culations about coming down. I fear I shall not be able
to see you for a week or two later. The Factory Bill, upon
which I must speak and vote, is before the House, and it is
impossible to say when the division will take place. I have
two invitations for dinner on Saturday, one to Lord Fitz-
william’s, and the other to Lord and Lady John Russell, and
if I remain over that day, I shall prefer the latter, as I have
twice refused invitations from them. I assure you I would
rather find myself taking tea with you, than dining with
lords and ladies, Do not. trouble yourself to write to me

 
 

Air, 42,

382 LOE OF OOBDEN. [omar

_every day. I don’t wish to make ita task. But tell me all

the gossip.”

“ May 15.’—-There is at last_a prospect of reading the Bill a
third time to night. The Protectionists promise fairly enough,
but I have seen too much of their tactics to feel certain that
they will not have another adjournment. There is a revival
of rumours again that the Lords will alter the Bill in com-
mittée, and attempt a fixed-duty compromise, or a perpetua-
tion of the reduced scale. It is certain to pass the second
reading by a majority of thirty or forty, but it is not safe
in the cpmmittee, where proxies don’t count. I should not
now be able to leave town till the end of the month,
when I shall take a week or ten days for the Whitsuntide
recess.””

“May 16.—I last night had the glorious privilege of
giving a vote in the majority for the third reading of the
bill for the total repeal of the Corn Law. The Bill is now
out of the House, and will go up to the Lords on Monday.
I trust we shall never hear the name of ‘Corn’ again in
the Commons. There was a good deal of cheering and
waving of hats when the Speaker had put the question,
‘that this Bill do now pass.’ Lord Morpeth , Macaulay, and
others came and shook hands with me, and congratulated
me on the triumph of our cause. I did not speak, simply
for the reason that I was afraid that I should give more life
to the debate, and afford an excuse for another adjournment ;
otherwise I could have made a telling and conciliatory ap-
peal. Villiers tried to speak at three o’clock this morning,
but I did not think he took the right tone. He was fierce
against the protectionists, and only irritated them, and they
wouldn’t hear him. The reports about the doings in the
Liords are still not: satisfactory or conclusive. Many people

5 To B. W. Oodden.
Xvi] {HIRD RMADING OF THE BILL IN THY HOUSE. 383

fear still that they will alter the measure with a view to a

compromise, But I hope we shall escape any further trouble air. 42.

upon the question, ... I feel little doubt that I shall be
able to pay a visit to your father at Midsummer. At least
nothing but the Lords throwing back the Bill apon the
country could prevent my going into Wales at the time, for
I shall confidently expect them to decide one way or another
by the 15th of June. I shall certainly vote and. speak
against the Factory Bill next Friday.”

“ May 18.—We are so beset by contradictory rumours,
that I know not what to say about our prospects, in the
Lords. Our good, conceited friend ——- told me on Wed-
nesday that he knew the Peers would not pass the measure,
and on Saturday he assured me that they would. And this
is a fair specimen of the way in which rumours vary from
day to day. This morning Lord Monteagile called on me,
and was strongly of opinion that they would ‘ move on, and
not stand in people’s way.’ A few weeks will now decide
the matter one way or another. I think I told you that I
dined st Moffat’s last Wednesday. As usual he gave us a
first-rate dinner. After leaving Moffat’s at eleven o’clock,
I went to a squeeze at Mrs,———. It was as usual hardly
possible to get inside the drawing-room doors. I only re-
mained a quarter of an hour and then went home. On
Saturday I dined at Lord and Lady John’s, and met a select
party, whose names J see in to-day’s papers.... I am
afraid if I associate much with the aristocracy, they will spoil
me, Iam already half seduced by the fascinating case of
their parties.”

May 19%-—-I received your letters with the enclosures.
Weare still on the tenter-hooks respecting the conduct of ths
Lords, There is, however, one cheering point : the majority on

9 To F. iF. Uobdon.

1846.

 
 

Ar, 42,

384 LI¥H OF OOBDEN. [ouar,

the second reading is improving in the stock-books of the
whippers-in. It is now expected that there will be forty to
fitty majority at the second reading. This will of course
give us a better margin for the committee. The Govern-
ment and Lord John (who is very anxious to get the
measure through) are doing all they can to insure success,
The ministers from Lisbon, Florence and other continental
cities (where they are Peers) are coming home to vote in
committee. Last night was a propitious beginning in the |
Lords. The Duke of Richmond was in a passion, and his
tone and manner did not look like a winner.”

“ May 20.—We are still worried incessantly with rumours
of intrigues at headquarters. Every day yields a fresh
report. But I will write fuller to-morrow. Villiers is at my
elbow with a new piece of gossip.”

May 20.°—I have looked through your letter to Lord
Stanley, and will tell you frankly that I felt surprise
that you should have wasted your time and thrown away
your talents upon so very hopeless an object. He will
neither read nor listen to facts or arguments, and after his
double refusal to see s deputation, I really think it would be
too great a condescension if you were to solicit his attention
to the question at issue. This is my opinion, and Bright
and Wilson, to whom I have spoken, appear to agree. But
if you would like the letter to be handed to him, I will
do it. Your evidence before the Lords’ Committee was
again the topic of eulogy from Lord Monteagle yesterday,
who called on me with a copy of his report, Kverything
is in uncertainty as to what the Lords will do in Com-
mittee. The Protectionists have had a great flare-up to-day
at Willis’s Rooms, and they appear to be in great spirits.
I fear we shall yet be obliged to launch our bark again
apon the troubled waters of agitation, But in the mean-

© YW H, Asiuvorth
xvL.] PROGRESS OF THE CORN BILL. 385

time the calm moderation of the League is our best title 1846.
to public support if we should be driven to an appeal to air. 42.
the country.”

“ May 22,.—Yesterday I dined with Lord and Lady
Fortescue, and met Lords Normanby, Campbell, and Mor-
peth. Isat at dinner beside the Duchess of Inverness, the
widow of the Duke of Sussex, a plain little woman, but
clever, and a very decided Free Trader.”

“ May 23.—I have sent you a Ohronicle containing a
brief report of my few remarks in the House last night.
Be good enough to cut it out, and send it to me that I may
correct it for Hansard. It was two o’clock when I spoke,
and it was impossible to do justice to the subject. Count on
my being at home, saving accidents, on Thursday to tea.”

“ May 23.—A meeting of the Whig Peers has to-day been
held at Lord Lansdowne’s, and they have unanimonsly re-
solved to support the Government measure in all its details,
There were several of these Whig Peers who up to yesterday
were understood to be resolved to vote in Committee for a
small fixed duty, and the danger was understood to be with
them. They were beginning, however, to be afraid that
Peel might dissolve, and thus annihilate the Whig party,
and so they are as a party more inclined to let the measure
pass now in order to get a chance of coming in after Peel’s
retirement. I am assured by Edward Ellice, one of the
late Whig Cabinet, that the bill is now safe and that it
will be law in three weeks, Heaven send us such good
luck | ”

“ June 10.1—There is another fit of apprehension about the
Corn Bill owing to the uncertaiaty of Peel’s position, I can’t
understand his motive for constantly poking his coercive bill
in our faces at these critical moments. The Lords will take
courage at anything that seems to weaken the Government

1 To F. W. Cobden.
a6
1846.

ae

386 Lik® OF COBDEN. [cnar,

morally. They are like a fellow going to be hanged who
looks out for a reprieve, and is always hoping for a lnoky
escape until the drop falls.”

“June 13.—I have scarcely a doubt that in less than
ten days the Corn Bill will be law. But we cannot say it
is as safe as if carried... .I breakfasted yesterday morning
with Monckton Milnes, and met Suleiman Pasha, Prince Louis
Napoleon, Count D’Orsay, D’Israeli, and a queer party of
odds and ends. The Pasha is a strong-built energetic-look-
ing man of sixty. After breakfast he got upon the subject
of military tactics, and fought the battle of Nezib over again
with forks, spoons, and tumblers upon the table in a very
animated way. The young Napoleon is evidently a weak
fellow, but mild and amiable. I was disappoimted in the
physique of Count D’Orsay, who is fleshy animal-looking
creature, instead of the spirituel person I expected to see.
He certainly dresses @ mervetlle, and is besides a clever
fellow.”

“ June 16.—The Corn Bill is now safe beyond all risk, —
and we. may act as if it had passed....I met Sir
James Clark and Doctor Combe at Kingston on Sunday,
and we took tea together. Sir James was strong in his
advice to me to go abroad, and the doctor was half disposed
with his niece to go with us to Egypt. Combe and I went
to Hampton Court Gardens in o carriage, and had a walk
there. Iam afraid Peel is going out immediately after the
Corn Bill passes, which will be a very great damper to the
country ; and the excitement in the country consequent on
a change of Government, will, I fear, interfere with a public
project in which you and I are interested.”

“June 18.—The lords will not read the Corn Bill the
third time before Tuesday next, and I shall be detained in
town to vote on the Coercion Bill on Thursday, after which
I shall leave for Manchester. I send you a Spectator paper, by
xv1} THE BILL PASSES THE UPPER HOUSE. 384

which you will see that I am a ‘likeable’ person. I hope
you will appreciate this.”

“ June 23.—I have been plagued for several days with
sitting to Herbert for the picture of the Council of the
League, and it completely upsets my afternoons. Be-
sides my mind has been more than ever upon the worry
about that affair which is to come of after the Corn
Bull is settled, and about which I hear all sorts of reports.
You must therefore excuse me if I could not sit down to
write a letter of news. .. . I thought the Corn Bill would,
certainly be read the third time on Tuesday (to-morrow),
but I now begin to think it will be put off till Thursday.
There is literally no end to this suspense. But there are
reports of Peel being out of office on Friday next, and the
Peers may yet ride restive.”

 June.26.—My pearzst Karz,—Hurrah! Hurrah! the
Corn Bill is law, and now my work is done. I shall come
down to-morrow morning by the six o’clock train in order to
"be present ata Council meeting at three, and shall hope to
be home in time for a late tea.”’

By what has always been noticed asa striking coincidence,
and has even been heroically described as Nemesis, the
Corn Bill passed the House of Lords on the same night on
which the Coercion Bill was rejected in the House of Com-
mons. On this memorable night the last speech before the
division was made by Cobden. He could not, he said, regard
the vote which he was about to give against the Irish Bill
as one of no confidence, for it was evident that the Prime
Minister could not be maintained in power bya single vote.
If he had a majority that night, Lord George Bentinck
would soon put him to the test again on some other subject.
In any case, Cobden refused to stultify himself as Lord
George and his friends were doing, by voting black to be

1846.

Air. 42,
388 LI¥M OF OOBDEN. [onar.

1846. white merely to serve a particular purpose. But though he

 

@x,42, was bound to vote against the Coercion Bill, he rejoiced to
think that Sir Robert Peel would carry with him the esteem
and gratitude of a greater number of the population of this
empire than had ever followed the retirement of any other
Minister. :

This closed the debate. The Government were beaten by
the heavy majority of seventy-three. The fallen Minister
announced his resignation of office to the House three days
later (June 29) in a remarkable speech. As Mr. Disraeli
thinks, it was considered one of glorification and of pique.
But the candour of posterity will insist on recognizing in every
period of it the exaltation of a patriotic and justifiable pride.
In this speech Sir Robert Peel pronounced that eulogium
which is well worn, it is true, but which cannot be omitted
here. “In reference to our proposing these measures,” he
said, “I have no wish to rob any person of the credit which
is justly due to him for them. But I may say that neither
the gentlemen sitting on the benches opposite, nor myself,
nor the gentlemen sitting round me—I say that neither
of us are the parties who are strictly entitled to the
merit. There has been a combination of parties, and that
combination of parties together with the influence of the
Government, has led to the ultimate success of the measures.
But, Sir, there is a name which ought to be associated with
the success of these measures: it is not the name of the
noble Lord, the member for London, neither is it my name.
Sir, the name which ought to be, and which will be associated
with the success of these measures is the name of a man who,
acting, I believe, from pure and disinterested motives, has
advocated their cause with untiring energy, and by appeals to
reason, expressed by an eloquence, the more to be admired
because it was unaffected and unadorned—the name which
ought to be and will be associated with the success of these
xvi] PEEL'S FINAL TRIBUTE TO UOBDEN. = 389
measures is the name of Richard Cobden. Without scruple,
Sir, I attribute the success of these measures to him.”
Cumbrous as they are in expression, the words were
received with loud approbation in the House and with fer-
vent sympathy in the country, and they made a deep mark

on men’s minds, because they were felt to be not less truly
than magnanimously spoken.

1846.

Ait, 42,
CHAPTER XVII.

CORRESPONDENCE WITH SIR ROBERT PEEL.-—CESSATION OF THE
WORK OF THE LEAGUE.

186- TareE days before the vote which broke up the Administra-
At. 42. tion, Cobden had taken a rather singular step. As he after-
wards told a friend, it was the only thing that he ever did
as a member of the League without the knowledge of Mr.
Bright. He wrote a long and very earnest letter to the
Prime Minister, urging him, in the tolerably certain event

of defeat on the Coercion Bill, to dissolve Parliament.

 

“76, Upper Berkeley Street, Portman Square,
28 June, 1846.

“Siz,—I have tried to think of a plan by which I could
have half an hour’s conversation with you upon public
matters, but I do not think it would be possible for us to
have an interview with the guarantee of privacy. I there-
fore take a course which will be startling to you, by com-
mitting the thoughts which are passing in my mind freely
to paper. Let me premise that no human being has or ever
will have the slightest knowledge or suspicion that I am
writing this letter. I keep no copy, and ask for no reply.
I only stipulate that you will put it in the fire when you
have perused it, without in any way alluding to its contents,
or permitting it to meet the eye of any other person what-
OH. XVil.] GOBRESPONDENOH WITH, SIR ROBERT PEEL. 391

ever.’ I shall not waste a word in apologising for the

1846.

directness—nay, the abruptness—with which [ atate my alr, 42,

views,

“Tt is said you are about to resign. I assume that
it is so. On public grounds this will be national mis-
fortune. The trade of the country, which has languished
through six months during the time that the Corn Bill has
been in suspense, and which would now assume & more
confident tone, will be again plunged into renewed unsettle-
ment by your resignation. Again, the great principle of
commercial freedom with which your name is associated
abroad, will be to some extent jeopardized by your retire-
ment. I will fill the whole civilized world with doubt and
perplexity to see a minister, whom they believed all-power-
fal, because he was able to carry the most difficult measure
of our time, fall at the very moment of his triumph.
Foreigners, who do not comprehend the machinery of our
government, or the springs of party movements, will doubt
if the people of England are really favourable to Free Trade.
They will have misgivings of the permanence of our new
policy, and this doubt will retard their movements in the
same direction. You have probably thought of all this.

“My object, however, in writing is more particularly to
draw your attention from the state of parties in the House, as
towards your government, to the position you hold as Prime

Minister in the opinion of the country. Are you aware of

the strength of your position with the country? If so,
why bow to a chance medley of factions in the Legislature,

1 Cobden did not know that Sir Bobert Peel put nothing into the firs.
He once said to one of his younger followers, —“ My dear ———, no public man
who values his character, ever destroys a letter or a paper.” Asa matter
of fact, Peel put up every night all the letters and notes that had come to
him in the day, and it is understood that considerably more than a hundred
thousand papers are in the possession of his literary executors. Some who
exercise themselves upon the minor moralities of private life, will be shooked.
that he did not respect his correspondent’s stipulation,
1846.

Zar. 42.

392 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [orar.

with a nation ready and waiting to be called to your rescue?
Few persons have more opportunities forced upon them than
myself of being acquainted with the relative forces of public
opinion. I will not speak of the populace, which to a man
is with you; but of the active and intelligent middle classes,
with whom you have engrossed a sympathy and interest
greater than was ever before possessed by a minister. The
period of the Reform Bill witnessed a greater enthusiasm,
but it was less rational and less enduring. It was directed
towards half a dozen popular objects—Grey, Russell,
Brougham, etc. Now, the whole interest centres in yourself.
You represent the Ipza of the age, and it has no other
representative amongst statesmen. You could be returned
to Parliament with acclamation by any one of the most
numerous and wealthy constituencies of the kingdom. Fox
once said that ‘Middlesex and Yorkshire together make all
Eugland.’ You may add Lancashire, and call them your
own. Are you justified towards the Queen, the people, and
the great question of our generation, in abandoning this
grand and glorious position? Will you yourself stand
the test of an impartial historian ?

“You will perceive that I point to a dissolution as the solu-
tion of your difficulties in Parliament. I anticipate your objec-
tions. You will say,—‘ If I had had the grounds for  dissolu-
tion whilst the Corn Bill was pending, I should have secured
@ majority for that measure; but now I have no such exclusive
call upon the country, by which to set aside old party dis-
tinctions.’ There are no substantial lines of demarcation
now in the country betwixt the Peelites and the so-called
Whig or Liberal party. The Chiefs are still keeping up a
show of hostility in the House ; but their troops out of doors
have piled their arms, and are mingling and fraternising
together. This fusion must sooner or later take place in
the House. The independent men, nearly all who do not
xvi] LHTTER TO SIR ROBERT PEEL, 393

.00k for office, are ready for the amalgamation. They are 1646.
with difficulty kept apart by the instinct of party discipline. Air. 42,
One dissolution, judiciously brought about, would release
every one of them from those bonds which time and cir-
cumstances have so greatly loosened.

“TI have said that a dissolution should be judiciously
brought about. I assume, of course, that you would
not deem it necessary to stand or fall by the present
Coercion Bill. I assume, moreover, that you are alive to
the all-pervading force of the arguments you have used
in favour of Free Trade principles, that they are eternal
truths, applicable to all articles of exchange, as well as
corn; and that they must be carried out in every: item of
our tariff. Iassume that you foresaw, when you propounded
the Corn Bill, that it involved the necessity of applying the
same principle to sugar, coffee, ete. This assumption is the
basis of all I have said, or have to say. Any other hypo-
thesis would imply that you had not grasped in its full
comprehensiveness the greatness of your position, or the
means by which you could alone achieve the greatest triumph
of acentury. For I need not tell you that the only way in
which the soul of a great nation can be stirred, is by appeal-
ing to its sympathies with a true principle in its unalloyed
simplicity. Nay, further, it is necessary for the concen-
tration of a people’s mind that an individual should become
the incarnation of a principle. It is from this necessity
that I have been identified, ont of doors, beyond my poor
deserts, as the exponent of Free Trade. ‘You, and no other,
are its embodiment amongst statesmen ;-—and if is for this
reason alone that I venture to talk to you in a strain that
would otherwise be grossly impertinent.

To return to the practical question of a dissolution. As-
suming that your Cabinet will concur, or that you will place
yourself in a position independently of others to appeal to the
394 LIFH OF OORDEN. (owar,

1646. country, this is the course I should pursue under vour circum-

Air. 42, stances. I would contrive to make it so far « jadgment of the
electors upon my own conduct as a Minister, aa to secure
support to myself in the next Parliament to carry out my
principles. I would sayin my place in Parliament to Lord |
George Bextinck and his party,—‘I have been grossly ma-
ligned in this House, and in the newspaper press. I have been
charged with treachery to the electors of this empire. My
motives have been questioned, my character vilified, my
policy denounced as destructive of the national interests.
I have borne all this, looking only to the success of what I
deemed « pressing public measure. I will not, however,
stand convicted of these charges in the eyes of the civilised
world until, at least, the nation has had the opportunity of
giving its verdict. J will appeal to the electors of this
empire; they shall decide between you and me—between
your policy and mine. By their judgment I am content to
stand or fall. They shall decide, not only upon my past
policy, but whether the principles I have advocated shall be
applied in their completeness to every item of our tariff. I
am prepared to complete the work I have begun. All I
ask is time, and the support of an enlightened and generous
people.’

“This tone is essential, because it will release the
members of s new Parliament from their old party ties.
The hastings cry will be, ‘Peel and Free Trade,’ and every
important constituency will send its members up to support
you. I would dissolve within the next two months, Some
people might urge that the counties would be in a less
excited state, if it were deferred; but any disadvantage in
that respect would be more than compensated by the gain
in the town constituencies. I would go to the country with
my Free Trade laurels fresh upon my. brow, and whilst the
grievance under which I was sutiering from the outrages of
xviL J LETTER TO SIR ROBERT PEEL 395

Protectionist speakers and writers was still rankling in the 1846.

 

minds of people, whose sympathies have been greatly alr, 42.
aroused by the conduct of Lord George Bentinck and his
organs of the press towards you. Besides, I believe there
are many county members who would tell their constituents
honestly that Protection was a hopeless battle-cry, and that
they would not pledge themselves to a system of personal
persecution against yourself. Some of your persecutors would
not enter the next Parliament.* Now I will anticipate what
is passing in your mind. Do you shrink from the post of
governing through the bond jide representatives of the
middle class? ‘Look at the facts, and can the country be
otherwise ruled aj all? There must be an end of the
juggle of parties, the mere representatives of traditions,
and some man must of necessity rule the State through its
governing class. The Reform Bill decreed it; the passing
of the Corn Bill has realized it. Are you afraid of the
middle class? You must know them better than to suppose
that they are given to extreme or violent measures. They
are not democratic.

“ Again, to anticipate what is passing in your thoughts.
Do you apprehend a difficulty in effacing the line which
separates you from the men on the opposite side of the
House? I answer that the leaders of the Opposition per-
sonate no idea. You embody in your own person the idea
of the age. Do you fear that other questions, which are
latent on the ‘ Liberal’ side of the House, would embarrass
you if you were at the head of a considerable section of its
members ? What are theyf Questions of organic reform
have no vitality in the country, nor are they likely to have
any force in the Hous until your work isdone, Are the

2 “ Among other things,” Cobden wrote to Mr. Parkea, “I remember
mentioning the fact that Disraeli could not be again returned for Shrews-

bury. Ey
396 LIFE OF OOBDEN. (oar,

184@ Whig leaders more favourable than yourself to institutional

4x, 42. changes of any kind? Practical reforms are the order of
the day, and you are by common consent the practical
reformer. The Condition of England Question—there is
your mission |

“As respects Ireland. That has become essentially a
practical question too. If you are prepared to deal with
Trish landlords as you have done with English, there will be
the means of satisfying the people. You are not personally
unpopular, but the reverse, with Irish members.

“ Lastly, as respects your health. God only knows how
you have endured, without sinking, the weight of public
duties and the harassings of private remonstrances and
importunities during the last six months. But I am of
opinion that a dissolution, judiciously brought on, would
place you comparatively on velvet for five years. It would
lay in the dust your tormentors. It would explode the
phantom of a Whig Opposition, and render impossible such
a combination as is now, I fear, covertly harassing you.
But it is on the subject of your health alone that I feel I
may be altogether at fault, and urging you to what may be
impossible. In my public views of your position and power,
I am not mistaken. Whatever may be the difficulties in
your Cabinet, whether one or half-a-score of your colleagues
may secede, you have in your own individual will the power,
backed by the country, to accomplish all that the loftiest
ambition or the truest patriotism ever aspired to identify
with the name and fame of one individual.

“‘T hardly know how to conclude without apologising for
this most extraordinary liberty. If you credit me, as I believe
you will, when I say that I have no object on earth but a de-
sire to advance the interests of the nation and of humanity
in writing to you, any apology will be unnecessary. If past
experience do not indicate my motives, time, I hope, will,
xvit.) PREL’S REPLY. 397

“Tt is my intention, on the passing of the Corn Bill, to 1846.
make instant arrangements for going abroad for at least a Air. 42.
year, and it is not likely after Friday next that I shall
appear in the House. This is my reason for venturing
upon so abrupt a communication of all that is passing in
my mind. I reiterate the assurance that no person will
know that I have addressed you, and repeating my request
that this letter be exclusively for your own eyes,

I have the honour to be, Sir, respectfully,
Your obedient servant,

Ricuarp Coppen.
“Rt. Hon. Sir Robert Peel, Bart. M.P.”

“«P.S. I am of opinion that a dissolution, in the way I
suggested, with yourself still in power, would very much
facilitate the easy return of those on your side who voted
with you. And any members of your government whe had
a difficulty with their present seats would, if they adhered
to you, be at a premium with any free constituency. Were
I in your position, although as a principle I do not think
Cabinet ministers ought to encumber themselves with large
constituencies, I would accept an invitation to stand for
London, Middlesex, South Lancashire, or West Yorkshire,

_ expressly to show to the world the estimation in which my
principles were held, and declaring at the same time that
that was my sole motive for one Parliament only.”

To this the Prime Minister replied on the following day,
writing at the green table, and listening to the course of
the debate as he wrote :~=

House of Commons,
“ Wednesday, June 24th, 1846.

“ S1r,—I should not write from this place if I intended to
' weigh expressions, or to write to you in any other spirit than
1646.

ffir, 42,

398 LIFE OF COBDEN, [omar.

that of frankness and unreserve, by which your letter is
characterized. First let me say that I am very sorry to hear
you are about to leave London immediately. I meant to
take the earliest opportunity, after the passing of the Corn
Bill, to ask for the satisfaction of making your personal
acquaintance, and of expressing a hope that every recol-
lection of past personal differences was obliterated for ever.
If you were aware of the opinions I have been express-
ing during the last two years to my most intimate friends
with regard to the purity of your motives, your intellectual
power, and ability to give effect to it by real eloquence—
you would share in my surprise that all this time I was sup-
posed to harbour some hostile personal feeling towards you.

*T need not give you the assurance that I shall regard
your letter as a communication more purely confidential
than if it had been written to me by some person united to
me by the closest bonds of private friendship.

* T do not think I mistake my position.

“T would have given, as I said I would give, every proof
of fidelity to the measures which I introduced at the begin-
ning of this Session. I would have instantly advised dis-—
solution if dissolution had been necessary to ensure their
passing. I should have thought such an exercise of the
Prerogative justifiable—if it had given me a majority on no
other question. If my retention of office, under any circum-
stances however adverse, had been necessary or would have
been probably conducive to the success of those measures,
I would have retained it. They will, however, I confidently
trust, be the law of the land on Friday next.

“1 do not agree with you as to the effect of my retire
ment from office as a justifiable ground, after the passing of
those measures.

“ You probably know or will readily believe that which
is the truth—-that auch a position as mine entails the severest
xvi] | PEEL'S RUPLY. 399

sacrifices. The strain on the mental power is far too severe; 1846.

 

i will say ngthing of ceremony—of the extent of private alr. 42,
correspondence about mere personal objects—of the odious
power which patronage confers—but what must be my
feelings when I retire from the House of Commons after
eight or nine hours’ attendance on frequently superfluous or
frivolous debate, and feel conscious that all that time
should have been devoted ‘to such mattera as our relations
with the United States—the adjustment of the Oregon
dispute—our Indian policy—our political or commercial
relations with the great members of the community of
powerful nations ?

“You will believe, I say, if you reflect on these things,
that office and power may be anything but an object of
ambition, and that I must be insane if I could have been
induced by anything but a sense of public duty to undertake
what I have undertaken in this Session.

* But the world, the great and small vulgar, is not of
this opinion. I am sorry to say they do not and cannot
comprehend the motives which influence the best actions
of public men, They think that public men change their
course from corrupt motives, and their feeling is so pre-
dominant, that the character of public men is injured, and
their practical authority and influence impaired, if in such a
position as mine at the present moment any defeat be sub-
mitted to, which ought under ordinary circumstances to
determine the fate of a government, or there be any cling-
ing to office.

“T think I should do more homage to the principles on
which the Corn and Customs Bills are founded, by retire-
ment on a perfectly justifiable ground, than either by re-
taining office without its proper authority, without the
ability to carry through that which I undertake, or by ene
countering the serious risk of defeat after dissolution.
400 LIFE OF COBDEN. [onap,

1846, “TI do not think a minister is, justified in advising disso-

Air, 42, lution under such circumstances as the present, unless he
has a strong conviction that he will have a majority based
not on temporary personal sympathies, not on concurrence
of sentiment on one branch of policy, however important
that may be, but on general approval of his whole policy.

TJ should not think myself entitled to exercise this great
prerogative, for the sole or the main purpose of deciding a
personal question between myself and inflamed Protec. |
tionists—namely, whether I had recently given good advice
and honest advice to the Crown. The verdict of the
country might be in my favour on that issue; but I might
fail in obtaining a majority which should enable me after
the first excitement had passed away, to carry on the
government, that is fo do what I think conducive to the
public welfare. I do not consider the evasion of difficulties,
and the postponement of troublesome questions, the carry-
ing on of a government.

“T could perhaps have parried even your power, and
carried on the government in one sense for three or four
years longer, if I could have consented to halloo on a
majority in both houses to defend the (not yet defunct)
Corn Law of 1842, ‘in all its integrity.’

“Tf you say that I individually at this moment embody
or personify an idea, be it so. Then I must be very careful
that, being the organ and representative of a prevailing and
magnificent conception of the public mind, I do not sully
that which I represent by warranting the suspicion even,
that I am using the power it confers for any personal
object.

“You have said little, and I have said nothing, about
Treland, But if I am defeated on the Irish Bill, will it be pos-
sible to divest dissolution (following soon after that defeat)
of the character of an appeal to Great Britain against
xviI.} PEEL'S REPLY. 401

Treland on a question of Irish Coercion? I should deeply
lament this.

“T will ask you also to consider this. After the passing
of the Corn and Customs Bill, considering how much trade
has suffered of late from delays, debates, and uncertainty as
to the final result, does not this country stand in need of
repose? Would not a desperate political conflict through-
out the length and breadth of the land impair or defer the
beneficial effect of the passing of those measures? If it
would, we are just in that degree abating satisfaction with
the past, and reconcilement to the continued application of
the principles of Free Trade.

“ Consider also the effect of dissolution in Ireland; the
rejection of the Irish Bill immediately preceding it.

“ { have written this during the progress of the debates,
to which I have been. obliged to give some degree of atten-
tion. I may, therefore, have very imperfectly explained
my views and feelings, but imperfect as that explanation
may be, it will I hope suffice to convince you that I receive
your communication in the spirit in which it was conceived,
and that I set a just value on your good opinion: and
esteem.

“ T have the hononr to be, Sir,
With equal respect for your character and abilities,
Your faithful Servant,
Rozrrt Pert.”

It is easy to understand the attractiveness of the idea
with which Cobden was now possessed, It was thoroughly
worked out in his own mind. By means of the forty-
shilling freehold, the middle and industrious classes were to
acquire @ preponderance of political power. It was not the
workmen as such, in whom Cobden had confidence. “ You
never heard me,” he said to the Protectionists in the House

pnd

1846.

Att, 42.
1846,

 

Ar, 42.

402 LIFE OF OOBDEN. {orar

of Commons, “ quote the superior judgment of the working
classes in any deliberations in this assembly: you never
heard me cant about the superior claims of the working
classes to arbitrate on this great question.”* Political
power was to be in the hands of people who had public
spirit enough to save the thirty pounds or so that would
buy them a qualification, if they could not get it in any
other way. These middle and industrious classes would
insist on pacific and thrifty administration, as the political
condition. of popular development. Circumstances had
brought forward a powerful representative of such a
policy in Sir Robert Peel; and Peel at the head of a
fusion of Whigs and Economic Liberals would carry the
country along the ways of a new and happier civilization.
The old Whig watchword of Civil and Religious Liberty
belonged to another generation, and it had ceased to be
the exclusive cry of the Whigs even now. The repeal of
the Corn Laws had broken up all parties. “TI felt,’ said
Cobden, “that I as much belonged to Sir James Graham’s
party, as I did to Lord John Russell’s party.‘ There
must be a great reconstruction, and Sir Robert Peel was
to preside over it.

Such a scheme was admirable in itself. In substance it was
destined to be partially realized one day, not by Peel, but
by the most powerful and brilliant of his lieutenants. The
singular fate which had marked the Minister’s past career was
an invincible obstacle to Cobden’s project. It was too late.
All the accepted decencies of party would have been out-
raged if the statesman who had led an army of Tory country
gentlemen in one Parliament, should have hurried to lead an
army of liberal manufacturers in the next. The transition
was too violent, the prospect of success too much of an
accident. Nobody, again, could expect with Lord John

3 Spcechos, i, 872. Feb. 27, 1846. 4 Speeches, ii. 607.
xvi] LETYHR FROM LORD JOHN RUSSELL. 403

Russell’s view, and it was a just view, of Peel’s long and

mediately took for his own on coming into power, that they
should have been able to unite their forces under the lead of
either of them. It would have seemed to Lord John quite
as equivocal a transaction as the too famous coalition
between Charles Fox and Lord North, What he did
was to offer posts in his administration to three of Sir
Robert Peel’s late colleagues,‘ and this was as far as he
could go. They declined, and the country was thrown back
upon a Whig Administration of the old type. When that
Administration came to an end, the fusion which Cobden
had desired came to pass. But Sir Robert Peel was there
no more. The power which he would have used in further-
ance of the wise and beneficent policy cherished by Cobden,
fell into the hands of Lord Palmerston, who represented
every element in the national character and traditions which
Cobden thought most retrograde and dangerous.

Happily for the peace of the moment, these mortifications
of the future were unknown and unsuspected. Ten days
after his letter to the fallen Minister, Cobden received a
communication from his successor.

2 “Chesham Place, July 2, 1846.

“My par S1z,—The Queen having been pleased to
entrust me with the task of forming an Administration, I
have been anxious to place in office those who have main-
tained in our recent struggle the principles of Free Trade
against Monopoly. :

“The letter I received from you in November last,
declining office, and the assurances I have received that you
are going abroad for your health, have in combination with
other circumstances prevented my asking your aid, nor,

5 Tord Daibousis, Sir James Graham, and Mr. Sidney Herbert.

1846.
successful opposition to measures and principles which heim- Air. 42.
404 LIFE OF OOBDEN. (onary.

1846. had I proposed to-you to join the Government could I have

 

4x, 42, placed you anywhere but in the Cabinet. I have not
hitherto perceived that you were disposed to adopt political
life, apart from Free Trade, as a pursuit. I hope, however,
you will do so, and that on your return to this country you
will join a liberal Administration.

“T care little whether the present arrangement remains
for any long period in the direction of affairs. But I am
anxious to see a large Liberal majority in the House of
Commons devoted to improvement, both in this country and
in Ireland. Mr. Charies Villiers has declined to take any
office. I am about to propose to Mr. Milner Gibson to
become Vice-President of the Board of Trade.

“T remain, with sentiments of regard and respect,

Yours very faithfally,
J. Russruy.”

What were the “ other circumstances”? which prevented
Lord John Russell from inviting Cobden to join his Govern-
ment, we can only guess. It is pretty certain that they
related to a project of which a good deal had been heard
during the last four or five months. There would un-
deniably have been some difficulty in giving high office in
the state to a politician whose friends were at the time
publicly collecting funds for a national testimonial of a
pecuniary kind. Whether the Whig chief was glad or not
to have this excuse for leaving Cobden ont of his Cabinet,
the ground of the omission was not unreasonable.

The final meeting of the League took place on the same
day on which Lord John Russell wrote to explain that he
intended to show his appreciation of what was due to those
‘who had maintained in our recent struggle the principles
of Free Trade against Monopoly,” by offering Mr. Gibson
& post without either dignity or influence, The Leaguers
xvi.) PEOULIAR WOBK OF THH LEAGUE, 405

were too honestly satisfied with the triumph of the cause 1646 _
for which they had banded themselves together eight years in, 42,
ago, to take any interest in so small a matter as the distri-
butidn of good things in Downing Street and Whitehall.

That was no affair of theirs. It was enough for them that

they had removed a great obstacle to the material pro-
sperity of the country, that they had effectually vindicated

what the best among them believed to be an exalted and
civilizing social principle, and that in doing this they had

failed to reverence no law, shaken no institution, and injured

no class nor order. It is impossible not to envy the feelings

of men who had done so excellent a piece of work for their
country in so spirited and honourable a way. When the
announcement was made from the Chair that the Anti-Corn-

Law League stood conditionally dissolved, a deep silence

fell upon them all, as they reflected that they were about
finally to separate from friends with whom they had been

long and closely connected, and that they had no longer in
common the pursuit of an object which had been the most
cherished of their lives.‘

The share which the League had in procuring the con-
summation of the commercial policy that Huskisson had
first opened four-and-twenty years before, is not always
rightly understood. One practical effect of a mischievous
kind has followed from this misunderstanding. It has led
people into the delusion that organization, if it be only on a
sufficiently gigantic scale and sufficiently unrelenting in its
importunity, is capable of winning any virtuous cause. The
agitation against the Corn Laws had several pretty obvious
peculiarities, which ought not to be overlooked. A large
and wealthy class had the strongest material interest in
repeal. What was important was that thir class now
happened to represent the great army of consumers.
' 6 See Mr. Bright’s speech, quoted in Mr. Auhyorth’s little hook, p. #18.
 

406 LIFE OF COBDEN. [oHar.

Protection as a principle had long ago begun to give way,
but it might have remained for a long time to come, if it
had not been found in intolerable antagonism with the grow-
ing giant of industrial interests. It is not a piece of
cynicism, but an important truth, to say that what brings
great changes of policy is the spontaneous shifting and
readjustment of interests, not the discovery of new prin-
ciples. | What the League actually did was this. Its ener-
getic propagandism succeeded in making people believe in a
general way that Free Trade was right, when the time should
come. When the Irish famine brought the crisis, public
opinion was prepared for the solution, and when protection
on corn had disappeared, there was nothing left to support
protection on sugar and ships. Then, again, the perseve-
rance of the agitation had a more direct effect, as has been
already seen from Cobden’s letters. It frightened the ruling
class. First, it prevented Peel, in the autumn of 1845, from
opening the ports by an order in council. Second, it forced
the Whigs out of their fixed duty. Third, it made the
House of Lords afraid of throwing out the repealing Bul,

There is another important circumstance which ought
not to be left out of sight. One secret of the power of the
League both over the mind of Sir Robert Peel, and over
parliament, arose from the narrow character of the repre-
sentation at that time. The House of Commons to-day is a
sufficiently imperfect and distorting mirror of public judg-
ment and feeling. But things were far worse then. The
total number of voters in the country was not much more
than three quarters of a million; six sevenths of the male
population of the country was excluded from any direct
share of popular power; and property itself was so un-
fairly represented that Manchester, with double the value
of the property of Buckinghamshire, returned only two
members, while Bucks returned eleven. It was on this
xvit] THE WORK OF THE LEAGUE. 407

account, as Cobden said, it was because Manchester conld 1846.
not have its fair representation in parliament, that it was az. 42.
obliged to organize a League and raise an agitation through
the length and breadth of the land, in order to make itself
felt.? It was just because the sober portion of the House
of Commons were aware from how limited and exclusive a
source they drow their authority, that the League repre-
sented so formidable, because so unknown, a force.

The same thought was present to the reflective mind
of Peel. Cobden tells a story in one of his speeches which
illustrates this. One evening in 1848 they were sitting in
the House of Commons, when the news came that the
government of Louis Philippe had been overthrown and a
republic proclaimed. When the buzz of conversation ran
round the House, as the startling intelligence was passed
from member to member, Cobden said to Joseph Hume,
who sat beside him, “ Go across and tell Sir Robert Peel.”
Hume went to the front bench opposite, where Sir Robert
was sitting in his usual isolation. ‘This comes,” said Peel,
when Hume had whispered the catastrophe, “ this comes of
trying to govern the country through a narrow representa-
tion in Parliament, without regarding the wishes of those
outside. It is what this party behind me wanted me to do
in the matter of the Corn Laws, and I would not do it.” *

Now that the work was finally done, Cobden was free to
set out on that journey over Europe, which the doctors had
urged upon him as the best means of repose, and which he
promised himself should be made an opportunity of dili-
gently preaching the new gospel among the economic
Gentiles. Before starting on this long pilgrimage, he went
to stay for a month with his family in Wales. Two days
after the final meeting of the League, he thus describes to

3 Speeches, ii. 482. July 6, 1848.  § Speeches, ii. 548. Aug. 18, 1859,
408 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [onar. '

1846. one of the earliest of his fellow-workers the frame of mind
“Hr. 43, in which it had left him.

“Jam going into the wilderness to pray for a return of
the taste I once possessed for nature and simple quiet life,
Here I am, in one day from Manchester, to the loveliest
valley out of paradise. Ten years ago, before I was an
agitator, I spent a day or two in this house. Comparing
my sensations now with those I then experienced, I feel
how much I have lost in winning public fame. The rough
tempest has spoilt me for the quiet haven. I fear I shall
never be able to cast anchor again. It seems as if some
mesmeric hand were on my brain, or I was possessed by an
unquiet fiend urging me forward in spite of myself. On
Thursday I thought as I went to the meeting, that I should
next day be a quiet and happy man. Next day brings
me a suggestion from a private friend of the Emperor of
Russia, assuring me that if instead of going to Italy and
Egypt, I would take a trip to St. Petersburg, I could
exercise an important influence upon the mind of Nicholas.
Here am I at Llangollen, blind to the loveliness of nature,
and only eager to be on the road to Russia, taking Madrid,
Vienna Berlin, and Paris by the way! Let me see my
boy to-morrow, who waits my coming at Machynlleth, and
if he do not wean me, I am quite gone past recovery.”’*

His mind did not rest long. To Mr. Ashworth he
wrote at the same date :—

“Now I am going to tell you of fresh projects that
have been brewing in my brain. I have given up all idea
of burying myself in Egypt or Italy. I am going on a
private agitating tour through the Continent of Europe.
The other day I got an intimation from Sir Roderick
Murchison, the geologist—-a friend and confidant of the
Emperor of Russia~-that I should have great influence with

* To Nr. Paulton. Inly 4, 1846.
xvit.] NEW PROJHOTS. 409

him if I went to St. Petersburg. To-day I get a letter 1846
from the Mayor of Bordeaux, written at Paris after dining Air. 42.
at Duchatel’s, the French Minister, conveying a suggestion
from the latter that I should cross to Dieppe and visit
the King of the French at his Chateau of Eu, where he
would be glad to-receive me between the 4th and 14th
August.

 T have had similar hints respecting Madrid, Vienna, and
Berlin. Well, I will, with God’s assistance, during the
next twelvemonth visit all the large states of Hurope, see
their potentates or statesmen, and endeavour to enforce
those truths which have been irresistible at home. Why
should I rust in inactivity? If the public spirit of my
countrymen affords me the means of travelling ag their
missionary, I will be the first ambassador from the People
of this country to the nations of the continent. I am
impelled to this step by an instinctive emotion such as
never deceived me. I feel that I could succeed in making
out a stronger case for the prohibitive nations of Europe to
compel them to adopt a freer system, than I had here to
overturn our protective policy. But it is necessary that my
design should not be made public, for that would create
suspicion abroad. With the exception of a friend or two,
under confidence, I shall not mention my intentions to any-
body.”

A few days later he wrote to George Combe, in a mood
of more even balance :—

“Your affectionate letter of the 28th of June, has never been
absent from my mind, although so long unacknowledged.
I came here last week, with my wife and children, on a visit
to her father’s, and for # quiet ramble amongst the Welsh
mountains. I thought I should be allowed to be forgotten
after my address to my constituents. But every post brings
me twenty or thirty letters, and such letters! I sca teased
1846.

Att, 42,

410 LIFE OF OOBDEN. (omar.

to death by place-hunters of every degree, who wish me to
procure them Government appointments. Brothers of peers,
ay, ‘honourables’ are amongst the number. I have but one
answer for all, ‘I would not ask a favour of the Ministry
to serve my own brother.’ Then I am still importuned
worse than ever by beggars of every description. The
enclosed is a specimen which reached me this morning;
put it in the fire! I often think, what must be the fate of
Lord John or Peel with half the needy aristocracy knocking
at the Treasury doors. Here is my excuse for not having
answered your letter before.

“ The settlement of the Free Trade controversy leaves the
path free for other reforms, aud Education must come
next, and when I say that Education has yet to come, I
need not add that Ido not look for very great advances
in our social state during our generation. You ask me
whether the public mind is prepared for acting upon the
moral law in our national affairs. I am afraid the animal
is yet too predominant in the nature of Englishmen, and
of men generally, to allow us to hope that the higher
sentiments will gain their desired ascendency in your
life-time or mine. I have always had one test of the
tendency of the world: what is its estimate of war and
warriors, and on what do nations rely for their mutual
security? Brute force is, I fear, as much worshipped now,

1 The letter referred to purported to be from a lady, who having nothing
bat her own exertions to depend upon, begged Mr. Cobden to become her
“generous and noble-minded benefactor,” to enable her to “begin to do
something for herself.” She says, “I do not see to use my needle; to rear
poultry for London and other large market-towns is what my wishes are
bent upon.” For this purpose she suggests that Mr. Cobden should pro-
oure a loan of 50001. to be advanced by himself and nine other friends in
Manchester, where, she delicately iusinuates, he is so much beloved that the
process will be a very easy one for him. The loan, principal and interest,
she promises shall be faithfully paid in ten years at the most. The writer

mentions that she has her eye upon a small estate which will serve her
purposs,
xvut.] BEFLEOCTIONS ON SOCIAL PROGRESS. 411

in the statues to Wellington and the peerage to Gough, as 1846.
they were two thousand years ago in’ the colossal propor- Zr. 42.
tions of Hercules or Jupiter. Our international relations
are an armed truce, each nation relying entirely on its power
‘to defend itself by physical force. We may teach Chris-
tianity and morality in our families; but as a people, we
are, I fear, still animals in our predominant propensities.

“Perhaps you will remember that in my little pamphlets,
I dwelt a good deal, ten years ago, upon the influence of our
foreign policy upon our home affairs. I am as strongly as
ever impressed with this view. I don’t think the nations
of the earth will have a chance of advancing morally in
their domestic concerns to the degree of excellence which
we sigh for, until the international relations of the world
are put upon a different footing. The present system cor-
rupts society, exhausts its wealth, raises up false gods
for hero-worship, and fixes before the eyes of the rising
generation a spurious if glittering standard of glory. It is
‘because I do believe that the principle of Free Trade is
calculated to alter the relations of the world for the better,
in a moral point of view, that I bless God I have been
allowed to take a prominent part in its advocacy. Still, do
not let us be too gloomy. If we can keep the world from
actual war, and I trust railroads, steamboats, cheap postage
and our own example in Free Trade will do that, a great
impulse will from this time be given to social reforms.
The public mind ig in a practical mood, and it will now
precipitate itself upon Education, Temperance, reform of
Criminals, care of Physical Health, etcetera, with greater
zeal than ever... «

“Now, my dear friend, for a word or two upon a very
delicate personal matter. You have seen the account of an
ebullition of a pecuniary kind which is taking place in the
country, a demonstration in favour of me exclusively to the
412 LIFE OF COBDEN. [onap,

1848. neglect of others who have laboured long and zealously with

 

2x, 42, me in the cause of Free Trade. I feel deeply the injustice of
passing over Bright and Villiers, to say nothing of others;
and nothing but the conviction that I am guiltless of ever
having arrogated to myself the merit of others consoles me in
the painful position in which the public have placed me, of
being the vehicle for diverting the reward from men who are
as worthy of all honour as myself. But I wish to speak to
you upon a still more delicate view of this unpalatable affair.
I do not like to be recompensed for a public service at all,
and I am sensible that my moral influence will be impaired
by the fact of my receiving a tribute in money from the
public. Ishould have preferred to have either refused it,
or to have done a glorious service by endowing a college,
But as an honest man, and as a father and a husband, I
cannot refuse to accept the money. You will probably be
surprised when I tell you that I have shared the fate of
nearly all leaders in revolutions or great reforms, by the
complete sacrifice of my private prospects in life. In a word
I was a poor man at the close of my agitation. I shall not
go into details, because it would involve painful reminis-
cences ; but suffice it to say that whilst the Duke of Rich-
mond was taunting me with the profits of my business, I
was suffering the complete loss of my private fortune, and
I am not now afraid to confess to you that my health of
body and peace of mind have suffered more in consequence
of private anxieties during the last two years, than from
my public labours. With strong domestic feelings and
with au orderly mind, which was peculiarly sensitive to the
immorality of risking the happiness of those whom nature
had given the first claim on me, for the sake of a public
object, I experienced a conflict between the demands of my
responsible public station, and the prior duties which I owed
to my family, which altogether nearly paralysed me. I should
xvi. } THE NATIONAL TESTIMONIAL. 413

have retired from public life last August, had not some of my _ 1846.

wealthy coadjutors in Lancashire forced me to continue at my Afr, 42.

post, and had theynot compelled me to leave to them the cares

‘of my private business. It is owing to the knowledge which
my neighbours in Lancashire have of the sacrifices which I
have incurred, that the subscription has been entered into;
and I wish you to be in possession of the facts, because you
are the man of all others whom I should wish to possess
the materials for forming a correct knowledge of the motives
which compel me to take a course that jars at first sight
on our notion of purity and disinterestedness.” *

It is not necessary to enter into a discussion of the pro-
priety of Cobden’s acceptance of the large sum of money,
between seventy-five and eighty thousand pounds, which
were collected in commemoration of his services to what
the subscribers counted a great public cause. The chief
Leaguers anxiously discussed the project of a joint testimo-
nial to Cobden, Mr. Bright, and Mr. Villiers, all three to
be included in a common subscription.* But nobody could
say how the fund was to be divided. It was then discussed
whether as much money could be collected for the three as
for Cobden individually, and it was agreed that it could
not, for it was Cobden who united the sections of the Free
Trade party. He had undoubtedly sacrificed good chances
of private prosperity for the interest of the community, and
it would have been a painful and discreditable satire on
haman nature if he had been left in ruin, while everybody
around him was thriving on the results of his unselfish
devotion. It is true that many othera had made sacri-
fices both of time and money, but they had not sacrificed

2 To Geo. Oombe. . July 14, 1848.
2 The League had already voted a present of ten thoasand pounds
to Mr. George Wilson, their indefatigable chairman,
414 LIFE OF GOBDEN. (ox. xvi,’

everything as Cobden had done. The munificence of the
subscription was singularly honourable to those who con-
tributed to it. No generous or reasonable man will think

- that it impairs by one jot the purity of the motives that

prompted the exertions of the public benefactor*whose great
services it commemorated and rewarded.
CHAPTER XVI
TOUR OVER EUROPE.

AccompanizD by his wife, Cobden landed at Dieppe on the 1846-7.
5th of August, 1846. He arrived in the Thames on his Arr. 42.3.
return on the llth of October, 1847. He was absent,
therefore, from England for fourteen months, and in the
interval he had travelled in France, Spain, Italy, Germany,
_ and Russia. His reception was everywhere that of a great
- discoverer in a science which interests the bulk of mankind
much more keenly than any other, the science of wealth.
He had persuaded the richest country in the world to revo-
lationize its commercial policy. People looked on him as a
men who-had found out a momentous secret. In nearly
every important town that he visited in every great country
in Europe, they celebrated his visit by a banquet, toasts,
and congratulatory speeches. He had interviews with the
Pope, with three or four kings, with ambassadors, and with
all the prominent statesmen. He never lost an opportunity
of speaking a word in season. Even from the Pope he en-
treated that His Holiness’s influence might be used against
bull-fighting in Spain. They were not all converted, but
they all listened to him, and they all taught him something,
whether they chose to learn anything from him in return
or not.

The travellers passed rather more than eleven weeks in
Spain, and at the beginning of the new year found themselves
1846,

 

Air, 42,

416 LOH OF OOBDEN. (omar,

in Italy. Here they remained from January until the end of
June. From Venice they went north to the Austrian capital,
and thence to Berlin. In the first week in August Mra,
Cobden started for England, while her husband turned his
face eastwards. In Russia he passed five weeks, and three
weeks more were usefully spent in the journey home by way
of Lubeck and Hamburg.

When he returned to England he had such a conspectus

and cosmorama of Europe in his mind as was possessed by
no statesman in the country; of the great economic currents,
of the special commercial interests, of the conflicting poli-
tical issues, of the leading personages. Unless knowledge
of such things is a superfluity for statesmen whose strong
point is asserted to be foreign policy, Cobden was more fit
to discuss the foreign policy of this country than any man
in it. In less than a year after his return, Europe was
shaken by a tremendous convulsion. The kings whom he

‘had seen were forced from their thrones, and the greatest of

the statesmen of the old world fled out in haste from Vienna.
Neither they nor Cobden foresaw the storm that was so
close upon them ; but Cobden at least was aware of those .
movements in Paris which were silently unchaining the re-
volutionary forces. The following passage is from a letter
written ten years later, but this is a proper place for it :—
“When I was in Paris in 1846, I saw Guizot, and though
T had weighed him accurately as a politician, I pronounced
him an intellectual pedant and a moral prude, with no more
knowledge of men and things than is possessed by professors
who live among their pupils, and he seemed to me to have
become completely absorbed in the hard and unscrupulous
will of Louis Philippe. At that time I was the hero of a
successful agitation, aud was taken into the confidence of all
the leaders of the opposition who were getting up the move-
ment which led first to the banquets, and next to the
xvitl.] OMENS OF REVOLUTION IN PARIS. 4ly

revolution. I was at Odillon Barrot’s, and at Girardin’s, 1846.

 

and met in private conclave Beaumont, Tocqueville, Duver- Air. 42.
gier de Hauranne, Léon Faucher, Bastiat, and others. I was
of course a good deal consulted as to the way of managing
such things, and am afraid I must plead guilty to having
been an accessory before the fact to much that was after-
wards done with so little immediate advantage to those
concerned. I remember in particular telling Odillon Barrot,
in all sincerity, that he would have made a very successful
agitator on an English platform. His bluff figure and vehe-
ment style of oratory would have almost made him another
Bright. But to the point. I naturally made inquiries as
to what amount of parliamentary reform they were aiming
at, and to my surprise found that all they wanted was a
small addition to the electoral list (not exceeding 200,000
voters), comprising ‘les capacités,’ the professions, and a
certain small increase from » slightly reduced tax-paying
franchise. Upon my expressing my amazement that they
should go for such a small measure (which, to be sure,
appeared insignificant to me, just fresh from the total repeal,
of the Corn Laws), they answered that it would satisfy them
for the present ; it would recognize the principle of progress ;
and they frankly confessed that the bulk of the people were
not fit for the suffrage, and that there was no security for
constitutional government excepting in a restricted electoral
class. Well, when these moderate men afterwards brought
forward their harmless scheme, Guizot mounted the rostrum,
and flourished his rod, and in true pedagogical style told
them they were naughty boys—that they wanted to have
' banquets, which were very wicked things, and he would
not allow such doings, and so he put down Barrot, Tocque-
ville, Bastiat, and Co., and up rose Marrast, Ledru Rollin,
and Co., to fill their places. The whole thing was the
result of Guizot’s pedantry and Louis Philippe’s unbelief in
Be
1846.

iit, 42,

418 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [omap.

human nature. I had a long evening’s talk with the latter |
at the Chateau d’Hu at the same time, and nothing so much
struck me as his contempt for the people through whom
and for whom he professed to rule. There is not the
slightest possible doubt (no Englishman but myself has so
good a ground for offering an opinion, for no other was in
the secrets of the French reformers) that if Louis Philippe
had allowed an addition of 200,000 voters to the 250,000
already on the electoral list, he would have renewed the

‘lease of the Orleanist throne for twenty years, and in all

probability have secured for the French people the perma-
nent advantages of a constitutional government.”?

As it happened, Cobden arrived in Spain at the moment
of the once famous marriages of the young Queen and her
sister, the one to her cousin, Don Franciseo, the other to
the Duke of Montpensier. The Minister sent Cobden and
his party tickets for the ceremony, and they found them-
selves placed close to the great personages of the day.
They went to a bull-fight, with the emotions that the scene
ugually stirs in all save Spanish breasts, and Cobden’s dis-
gust was particularly aroused by the presence of the Spanish
Primate at the brutal festival.? Alexander Dumas, who had
come to Madrid to write an account of the Duke of Mont-
pensier’s marriage, went with Cobden over the Museum
and the Escurial. At Seville Cobden had such a reception
that the newspapers assured their readers that Christopher
Columbus himself could hardly have been more enthn-
siastically applauded, or more highly honoured for the new
world which he had presented to Castille.

Everywhere men were delighted by his tact and address.
He made as captivating points in a speech to the traders of

1 To J. Parkes, Deo. 28, 1856.
4 Richard Cobden, “Notes sur ses Voyages,” eto. Par Mdme. Selis
Schwabe. Paris: Guillaumin, 1879.
XVII]  COBDEN’S POPULABITY AMONG STRANGHBS. 419

Cadiz, the farmers of Perugia, or the great nobles in Rome, 1846.
as when, from a waggon, he had addressed the rustics of a Air. 42.
village in the West of England. At Milan he charmed
them by mentioning that if they went into a London mer-
chant’s office they would find the accounts kept on a
method which came from Italy’; and that the great centre
of our financial system was in a street that was still named
from the Lombard bankers. At Florence he warmed the
hearts of those who listened to him by saying that he had
come to Tuscany with the feelings of a believer visiting the
shrines of his faith. The Dutch and the Swiss owed to their
geographical situation a partial escape from the protective
system; but to Tuscany belonged the glory of preceding
the rest of the world by half a century in applying economic
theories to legislation. Let them render solemn homage,
he cried with an outburst of true eloquence, to the memory
of the great men who had taught the world this great
lesson; all honour to Bandini, who a century before had
perceived the truth that Free Trade is the only sure instru-
ment of prosperity; undying honour to Leopoldi, who,
seizing the lamp of science from the hands of Bandini,
entered boldly into the ways of Free Trade, then obscure
and unknown, without flinching before the obstacles that
ignorance, prejudice, and selfishness had strewn in the path;
honour to Neri, to Giovanni Febbroni, to Fossombroni; to
all those statesmen, in a word, who had preserved down to
our own days the great work which they had set on foot.
Mrs. Cobden said that it was fortunate that her hushand
bad not too high an opinion of himself, or else the Italians
would have turned his head, so many attentions, both pub-
lic and private, were showered upon him. Even ata tranguil
little town like Perugia a troop of musicians sallied out to
serenade him at his hotel, the Agricultural Society sent a
silver medal and a diploma, and in the evening at the Casino

 
1846.

Adr, 42. .

420 LIFE OF OOBDEN. {omar.

the concert was closed by the recitation of verses in honour
of Richard Cobden.

On their arrival at Genoa, on their return from all these
honours (May 20), they found that O’Connell had died
there the previous day. They at once proceeded to pay a
visit to his son, and from O’Connell’s servant, who had been
with him for thirteen years, they heard the circumstances
of the great patriot’s end.*

Cobden’s diaries of this long and instructive tour are so
copious that they would more than fill one of these volumes.
They afford a complete economic panorama of the countries
which he visited, and abound in acute observations, and
judicious hints of all kinds from the Free Trader’s point of
view. Their facts, however, are now out of date, and
their interest is mostly historic. The reader will probably
be satisfied with a moderate number of extracts, recording
Cobden’s interviews with important people, and his impres-
sions of historic scenes.

Dieppe, Aug. 6th, 1846.—“ Called and left my card with
the King’s aide-de-camp, at the chateau. The King was out
in the forest for adrive; on his return received an invitation
to call at the chateau at eight o’clock. We found thirty or
forty persons in the saloon, the King, Queen, and Madame
Adelaide, the King’s sister, in the middle ofthe room. Louis
Philippe was very civil and very communicative, talked
rauch against war, and ridiculed the idea of an acquisition of
more territory, saying, ‘What would be the use of our
taking Charleville, or Philippeville? Why, it would give us
a dozen more bad deputies, that’s all!’ Said the people
would not now tolerate war, and much in that strain. He

® The common report that O’Connell intended to quit England and. close
bis days at Rome was untrue: on the contrary, his own inclination wes to
stay at Derrynane, and the journey to Tialy was only undertaken at the
urgent solicitation of hie friends. He was conscious up to the moment
of his death,
xvi.) INTERVIAW WITH LOUIS PHILIPPS. 421

alluded to the League and my labours, but I could not 1846.
bring him to the subject of Free Trade as affecting his own "Bir. 42,
country’s interests. He spoke of the iron monopoly of
Franco as being, if possible, worse than our corn monopoiy.
He and the Queen spoke in high terms of the kindness of the
English people towards them. ' After this short interview
I came away with the impression that the King did not
like the close discussion of the Free Trade question, but
that he preferred dwelling on generalities. I formed the
opinion that he is a clever actor, and perhaps that is all
we can say of the ablest sovereigns of this or any other
country.

“He was not very complimentary to Lord Palmerston,
applying to him a French maxim, which may be turned into
the English version, ‘If you bray a fool in a mortar, he will
remain a fool still.’ He repeated two or three times that he
wished there were no custom-houses, but ‘ how is revenue
to be raised ?’ He quoted a conversation with Washington,
in which the latter had deplored the necessity of raising
the whole of the American ‘revenve from customs’ duties.
Thad heard in England, before starting, that Louis Philippe
was himself deeply interested in the preservation of mono-
poly; and that his large property in forests would be di-
minished in value by the free importation of coals and iron.
But I will not hastily prejudge his Majesty so far as to
believe, without better proofs, that he is actuated by a per-
sonal interest in secretly opposing the progress of Free
Trade principles. It is difficult, however, to conceive that

‘a man of his sagacity and knowledge can be blind to the
importance of these principles in consolidating the peace of
empires.”

“ Paris, August 10th.—Harly in the morning a call from
Domville, my old French master; engaged him to give me
an hoar’s instruction every morning during my stay in
1846,
Alt. 42.

 

422 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [onar.

Paris.‘ Afterwards Horace Say calied, a noble-looking man
—a rare phrenological and physiognomical development.”

“ August 15th, Saturday.—French lesson. Went with
Léon Faucher to call upon M. Thiers; walked and gossiped
in his garden, and talked without reserve upon Free Trade.
T warned him not to pronounce an opinion against us, thus
to fall into the same predicament as Peel did. He seems
never to have thought upon the subject, but promises fairly.
A lively little man without dignity, and with nothing to
impress you with a sense of power.”

“ Barcelona, December 8th.—Reached Barcelona at half-
past five o’clock; as it was half-an-hour after sunset, the
health officers did not visit us, and we were shut up in our
floating prison till the following morning. This system
of requiring pratique at every port for vessels in the coast-
ing-trade is most ‘useless and vexatious, and would be
submitted to by none but Spaniards. They shrug their
shoulders like Turks, and say, ‘ It was always so.’ The
waiter on the steamer told us that the best part of the
profits of his situation came from smuggling, and that the
smuggling was all done through the connivance of the
government employés; he stated that the contraband goods
conveyed by him were generally carried on shore by the
custom-house officers themselves. This agrees with all
that I heard from the consuls and merchants on the
Mediterranean coast. The French consul at Carthagena
remarked whilst speaking of the universal corruption of
the custom-house officers, ‘ With money you might pass the
tower of Notre Dame through the custom-house without
observation, but without money you could not pass this,’
holding up his pocket handkerchief.” '

4 By his diligent use of this opportunity Cobden sacceeded in acquiring
a really good command over the French language for colloqnial and other

purposwe,
xVL | IN SPAIN AND SOUTHERN FRANCE. 423

© Perpignan, December 14th and 15th.—Luxuriated in the 1846.
comforts of a French inn. I felt almost ready to hug the air. 42.
furniture, kiss the white table-cloth, and shake hands with
the waiters, so attractive did they all look after my Spanish
discomforts! Sat indoors and wrote letters, Walked
once only into the town, an irregular, confined, and ugly
fortified place. The only annoyance I experienced was
from the military music and the parading and drilling of
the troops.”

“Narbonne, December 16th.—Left Perpignan this morn-
ing at eleven o’clock. The road to Narbonne passed.
along the marshy shores of the Mediterranean ; very un-
interesting scenery. But the sensation of passing along a
French road in an English carriage was quite delightful
after the Spanish travelling. The men wearing the blue
blouse. What a contrast in the appearance of the two
peoples! On one side the mountain, the grave, sombre,
dignified, dark Spaniard; here the lively, supple, facetious,
amiable Frenchman, who seems ready to adapt himself to
any mood to please you.”

“ Montpellier, December 17th.—Separated from our iravel-
ling companions’ this morning at Narbonne; they started
at eight o’clock for Toulouse, and we at the same hour
for Montpellier. Our road lay along a rich and populous
but uninteresting country, through Beziers, and for some
distance close to the Mediterranean. The people were
busy in the fields, cutting off the long dry shoots of the
vines with a pair of pruning shears, and leaving nothing
but the stumps. When within ten miles of Montpellier,
snow began. to fall, and it continued during the rest of the
journey.”

“ Nice, Jan. 8rd, 1847.—Sir George Napier called ; lost
his left arm at Ciudad Rodrigo; is younger brother of the

* Mr. and Mrs. Schwabe.  .
1847.

424 LIFE OF COBDEN. [omar.

conqueror of Scinde, brother of the historian of the Penin-

Air. 43. sular war, and of the commodore. Told me some anecdotes

of the wars with the Caffirs at the Cape of Good Hope,
where he was governor seven years. Says the Hottentots
make good soldiers when officered by English; described a
regiment of them (dragoons), commanded by his son; very
small men, but superior to the Caffirs or Dutch Boers;
that they required restraining, so daring their courage, etc.
This confirms my opinion that all races of men are equal
in valour when placed under like circumstances.”

“ Nice, Jan. 4th.—Saw a large number of men assem-
bled in the open place; peasants chiefly, conscripts for
the array ; went amongst them, a sturdy-looking set, and
apparently not dissatisfied with their fate; am told they
are generally only liable to serve for fourteen months.
Called on M. Lacroix, the Consul, who said the govern-
ment of Sardinia has a monopoly of salt, gunpowder, and
tobacco; that the province or county of Nice is not included
in the general customs-law of the kingdom, but has its own
privileges ; that corn from foreign countries pays a duty,
but that all other articles, excepting those monopolized by
government, are imported free. Called upon an old French-
man, named Sergent, in his ninety-seventh year, who acted
@ prominent part in the scenes of the first revolution, and
is one of the few men living who signed or voted for the
execution of the king; was originally an engraver, and
there were several of his productions on the walls of his
room, but nothing commemorative of Napoleon’s exploits.’

“Nice, Jan. 5th.—Dined with Mr. Davenport, and met
M. Sergent. Took tea with Sir George Napier and Lady N,;

* Sergent is commonly credited with a leading share in the organization
and direction of the September Magsacres in 1792; on the other hand he
is supposed to have saved several victima from the guillotine, Louis

Philippe, who had been his colleague in the Jacobin Club, gave him a pen-
sion of 1800 franos.
XVII] IN ITALY. 425

met M. Gastand, a merchant of the town, who told me that 1847.
woollens are imported from France into Nice, and again ar. 43,
smuggled into that country, the drawback of twenty per .
cent, allowed in France upon the exportation affording a
profit on this singular traffic; says that the refined sugar
exported from Marseilles receives a drawback of six per
cent., and that this sugar is sold cheaper in Nice than in
France.”

“ Genoa, Jan. 18th.—This morning the Marquis d’Azeglio
called, with Mr. William Gibbs—the former a Pied-
montese who has written poetry, romances, and political
works, and is also an artist. He told me he had been
expelled from Rome by the late Pope, and from Lombardy
. and Florence, in consequence of his writings. An amiable
and intelligent man, evincing rational views upon the moral
progress of his country, and deprecating revolutionary vio-
lence as inimical to the advance of liberal principles.

“ Genoa, Jan. 16th.—Called on Dr. and Mr. Brown
(Consul); the latter showed me a copy of Junius, with
numerous notes in pencil by Horne Tooke on the margin;
described the demagogue, whom he knew personally, as
a finished scoundrel. In the evening dined with a party
of about fifty persons, Marquis d’Azeglio president. The
consuls of France, Spain, Belgium, and Tuscany present,
as well as several of the Genoese nobles, and merchants
of different countries. French was universally spoken. My
speech was intended for the ministers at Turia rather than
my hearers. In this country, where there is no representa-

tive system, public opinion has no direct mode of influencing
_ the policy of the state, and therefore I used such arguments
as were calculated to have weight with the government, and
induce them to favour Free Trade as a means of increasing
the national revenue.”

“ Genoa, Jan. 17th.—-In the evening M. Papa called and

 
426 LIF® OF OOBDEN. [ouar.

1847. remained for a long talk about the affairs of the country.

4ir. 43. The law for the division of the landed property on the
death of proprietors is nearly the same here as in France, it
being shared equally by the children. An entail can be
settled upon the eldest son only with the consent of the
king, and it is not willingly granted. The nobles or pa-
tricians of Genoa are all Marquises, they having derived the
title from Charles the Fifth of Spain. The present representa-
tives of these old families have generally much degenerated
from their energetic and public-spirited ancestors.

“Genoa, Jan. 18th.—In the evening I visited the
governor (Marchese Paulucci) at his reception. A large
party filled his rooms, some dancing; a large majority. of
the men, officers in the army. The governor thanked me
for the tone in which I had spoken at the public dinner
given to me on Saturday; said that he had naturally
felt a little anxious to know how the proceedings had
been conducted, and complimented me upon my tact, etc.’
In speaking about the power of Russia to make an irruption
into Hurope, I expressed an opinion that she had not
the money to march 40,000 soldiers out of her territory; he
agreed with me, and mentioned an anecdote in confirmation.
He said that when he was military governor of a district in
the Caucasus, he was applied to for a plan of operations for
the invasion of Persia; that, when he handed in to the
Minister his estimate of the number of troops to be set in

’ “Although disposed to be gratefol for their public banqueta of which
IT have had upwards of a dozen in Italy, besides private parties without
number, yet 1 can see other motives besides complimenta to me in their
meetings. In the first place the old spirit of rivalry has been at work
amongst the different towns. But secondly, the Italian Liberals bave seized
upon my presence as an excuse for holding a, meeting on a public question,
to make speeches and offer toasts, often for the firat time. They consider
this a step gained, and so itis. And I have been sometimes surprised that
the government have allowed it. In Austrian Italy such demonsirations
are quite unprecedented.”.--Cobden to George Combe, June, 1847.
xvuit.] AT ROME. 427

motion, the latter was so surprised at the smallness of the
force that he declared it was not worthy of the occasion, and
that he could not present it to the emperor. ‘ But how will
you transport a greater number of men to the scene of
operations if I add them to my estimate?’ said the general.
‘Oh! we must build boats and construct waggons was the
reply.’ ‘Where is the money to come from?’ was the
rejoinder. At last the plan was laid before the emperor,
who saw the difficulty and confirmed the view of - the
general.”

“ Rome, Jam. 22nd.—In Tuscany no corn law of any
kind has been allowed to exist by the present dynasty for
many generations. Mr. Lloyd told me an anecdote of one
of the leaders of the revolutionary party of 1831, who, when
asked by him what practical reforms he wished to carry by
a change in the government, remarked that one of the
grievances he wished to remedy was the want of adequate
protection for the land. So that had this patriot been able
to induce the people to upset the Grand Duke’s authority, he
would have rewarded them with a Corn Law! Was told that
the grass of which the far-famed Leghorn bonnets are made,
can only be grown in perfection in Tuscany, that it has been
sown elsewhere, but without success, and that the seed from
which it is grownis the produce of a few fields only ; inquire
further on my return about this. Left Leghorn at six o’clock
for Civita Vecchia, and arrived there at eight the following
morning. .. . Left at half-past twelve for Rome, the road
lying along the beach for several miles. Almost immediately
on quitting the town the country assumed the character of a
wild common, covered with shrubs and tufts of long grass,
and this neglected appearance of the soil continued with
slight interruptions of cultivated patches as long as daylight
lasted. Noticed the fine bullocks of a light grey colour, with
dark shoalders, and having very long branching horna, noble-

1847.

Aart, 43.

 
428 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [omar.

1847. looking animals. It was an indistinct moonlight as we came
“4ir.43, near Rome... . On turning a corner of the road we came
suddenly upon a full and close view of the dome of St.

Peter’s which stood out boldly in the evening sky.”

“Rome, Jan. 28rd.—The effect of the colonnade is much
impaired by the high square buildings of the Vatican, which
rise high wbove on the right, and detract even from the
appearance of the great facade. On the first sight of the
interior, I was not struck so much with its grandeur or
sublimity, as with the beauty and richness of its details. I
felt impressed with more solemnity in entering York Minster
for the first time than in St. Peter’s. The glare and glitter
of so much gold and such varieties of marble distract the
eye, and prevent it taking in the whole form of the building
in one coup-d’cil, as we do in the simple stone of our un-
adorned Gothic Cathedrals. I was disappointed too in the
statues, many of which are poor things.”

“Rome, Jan. 25th— .... Then to the Vatican, and
passed a couple of hours in walking leisurely through the
numerous galleries of sculpture where the enthusiastic
admirer of the art may revel to intoxication amidst the most
perfect forms; here I was more than satisfied. I had not
pictured to myself anything so extensive or varied. Not
only is the human figure of both sexes and all ages in every
possible graceful attitude transferred to marble, which all
but breathes and moves, but there are perfect models of
animals too, and all arranged with consummate taste and
skill in rooms that are worthy of enshrining such treasures.
The Laocoon to my eye is the masterpiece. The Apollo
Belvidere is perfect in anatomy, but the features express no
feeling. Saw Raphael's masterpiece; the drawing faultless,
but the subjects were unhappily dictated by monkish patrons,
and they confined the artist too much to the expression of a
very limited range of sentiments, as veneration, ate.”

 
|
KVIUE } AT ROME. 429

“ Feb. 8th.—In the evening to a ball at the French 1847.

 

Embassy, in the Colonna Palace—a magnificent suite of air. 43.
rooms, filled with Italians, French, and English. Saw
Count Rossi for the first time (the Ambassador), a sharp-
faced, intellectual-looking man; I suspect he is more of the
diplomatist than the political economist, and more of a
politician than a Free Trader. Met the young Prince
Broglie, an intelligent youth; was introduced to Antonelli,
the Finance Minister; and had a long conversation with
Grassellini, the Governor of Rome, urging him to signalize
his reign over the city by lighting it with gas, and laying
down foot pavements, Left at twelve o’clock.”

“ Feb, 10th.—I was entertained at a public dinner in the
hall of the Chamber of Commerce; about thirty-five persons
present, Marquis Potenziani in the chair; Prince Corsini,
very aged, Prince Canino (Bonaparte), Duke of Bracciano
(Torlonia), Marquis Dragonetti, etc., amongst the guests.
The healths of the Pope and the Queen of England drank
together as one toast! I spoke in English, about a dozen
of the company appearing to understand me. Doctor Pan-
taleone then read an Italian translation of my speech, which
was well received and elicited cheers for the translator from
those who had understood the English. A Doctor Masi, a
celebrated improvisatore, delivered an improvisation in the
course of the evening upon myself; his look and gestures
were strikingly eloquent, even to one who could aot under-
stand his language. There was a wild expression of inspira-
tion in his countenance which realized the idea of a poet’s
fine frenzy, and the offect was heightened by his long
black hair, which streamed from a high pale brow down
upon his shoulders. His emotions imparted to the audience
an electrical effect, which now roused them to immoderate
excitement and next melted them to tears. One of his
verses produced an unanimous call for an encore; he paused
430 LIFH OF COBDEN. [cuar.

1847. for 2 moment, drew his fingers through his hair, then tried
#7. 43, to reproduce the verse, but there came forth another cast of
rhymes. His last verse, which drew tears from those around,
was translated to me, and conveyed this sentiment: ‘ When
you go back to England, say you found Italy a corpse, but
upon it was planted a green branch, which will one day
flower again and bring forth fruit.’ The dinner went off with
great spirit, and, remembering that we were sitting so near
the walls of the Vatican, 1 thought it the most cheering
proof of the wide-spread sympathy for Free Trade principles
that I had seen in the course of all my travels.”

“ February 11th.—Called on Prince Corsini, Colonel
Caldwell, Lord Ossulston, then to the Corso again, to join in
the fun of the Carnival, streets more crowded than ever with
carriages and masquers, the English everywhere and always
the most uproarious. If there be any excess of boisterous-
ness visible, it is ten to one that it proceeds from the Eng-
lish or other foreigners. The Italians do little more than
exchange bouquets or little bonbons in a very quiet,
graceful way, throwing them to each other from their
carriages or balconies, but the English shovel upon each
other the chalk confettis, with all the zeal and energy of
navigators. It is quite certain that a carnival in England
would not pass over so peaceably as here; people would
begin with sugar-plums, and go on to apples and oranges,
then proceed to potatoes, and end probably with stones.”

“ Rome, February 12th.—Called on Mr, Hemans, son of the
poetess, who is editing the Roman Advertiser, an English
weekly paper, and gave him a copy of my speech. Then
accompanied Prince Canino in an open carriage to see
the foxhounds throw off in the Campagna, beyond the tomb
of Cecilia Metella; the hounds drew the ruins of aqueducts
and tombs, under the direction of ‘Dick’ and ‘George,’
the whippers-in, in regular Melton style, but not finding,
XVII] AT BOM. 431

they proceeded across the Campagna to a wood at a distance.

The prince followed the field in his drag, leaving the road, ~

and going across the country, just as we should have done
in an American prairie. We soon found ourselves upon a
trackless waste, with no other habitations than here and
there & wigwam, for the temporary accommodation of the
shepherds during the winter months, the only part of the
year when man or beast can exist in this region. The Mar-
quis d’Azeglio called on me on his arrival from Genoa. We
had a long chat upon the prospects of Italy; his political views
appear to me sound and rational, and he is evidently under
the influence of patriotic feelings. There is always hope for
a country that produces such men.

“In the evening to the American Consul’s, end found a
number of his countrymen and women in masquerade dresses,
everything about them lively excepting the spirits of the
actors. Introduced to several of ‘our most distinguished
citizens,’—a title for a bore.”

“February 18th.—Dined with Mr. and Mrs. 8. Gurney,
met young Bunsens, and some other Germans, the Prussian
Minister, etc. Speaking to the latter about his being almost
the only Protestant representative at the court of the Pope,
he said that Peel had applied to the Prussian Government to
know whether it found it advantageous or otherwise to have
a diplomatic connexion with the Holy See, and that the
answer given was, that the disadvantages rather predomi-
nated, and that if that Government stood in the position of
England, it would prefer to remain without diplomatic rela-
tions with Rome. Nexi to Prince Canino’s soirée, very mixed,
but very agreeable, and many intelligent men there. Was
introduced to the Count of Syracuse, brother of the King of
Naples, with whom I had a long talk about Ireland, France,
and other matters. Found him, for a king’s brother, a very
clear-headed, well-informed man. Talked with the Sar-

1847.
At. 43.

 
432 LIF® OF OOBDEN. [onar,

1847. dinian Minister about Turkey, where he had been ambassador
@r.43, for eight years.. The Marquis Dragonetti, an able man.
Was introduced to several others of note. ”

“ February 14¢h.—They who argue that the working
people are elevated in intellect and prompted to habits of
cleanliness and self-respect by having free access to public
buildings devoted to the arts, must not quote the ragged,
dirty crowds who frequent St. Peter’s to kiss the toe of the
statue of the saint!”

“ Feb. 16th.—The statue of Moses by Michael Angelo in
the Church of San Pietro in Vincoli, did not impress me on
looking at it as I expected. The execution may be all that
the sculptor desires, but to my eye the face wants both
dignity and honesty of expression, and the head fails to
impress me with the idea of wisdom or capacity in the great
law-giver.””

“ Feb. 19th.—To the Barberi Palace to see @ very small
collection of paintings, one of them the far-famed Beatrice
Cenci by Guido. The touching pensiveness of the face pro-
duces such an impression that it will be present in one’s
recollection when perhaps every other picture in Rome is
forgotten.

“Tn the evening took tea with Mrs. Jameson, authoress
of works on early painters, an agreeable woman, whose good-
nature and sense prevent her from displaying the unpleasant
qualities of too many literary ladies. Met Mr. Gibson the
sculptor, who talked about robbers and assassins, with a
graphic description of them and their victims, which was
quite professional.”

“ Feb. 22nd.—Went with Mrs. Jameson to the Vatican,
walked through the sculpture galleries. The Braccio Nuovo
contains a statue of Demosthenes in an attitude most
earnest; there is no appearance of effort or art in the
figure, and yet it is endowed with the earnest and sincere
xv.) INTERVIEW WITH YHE POPE. 433

expression which an actor would seek to imitate. The coun- 1847.
tenance expresses a total forgetfulness of self and every- ir. 43.
thing bat the subject on which the mind of the orator is.
intent. The sculptor has not only succeeded in making his
marble convey the ideas of sincerity, but it almost makes
you think it feels sincere. The whole art of the work lies in
this impress of earnestness, and it proves that the artist
knew where the secret of oratory lies, and I can fancy that
Demosthenes himself might have been the instructor of the
sculptor on this point. The full-length statue of the Roman
lady in the same gallery is dignified, chaste, and graceful.

“Walked with Mrs. Jameson into the Sistine Chapel, to
see Michael Angelo’s frescoes; the Last Judgment at one
end, and the whole of the ceiling from his pencil. It is a
deplorable misapplication of the time and talent of a man
of genius to devote years to the painting of the ceiling of a
chapel, at which one can only look by an effort that costs
too much inconvenience to the neck to leave the mind at
ease to enjoy the pleasure of the painting. . . . Withall the
enthusiasm of my fair companion, I could not feel much
gratification at this celebrated work of art.

“ At seven o’clock was presented to the Pope in his private
cabinet, where I found him in a white flannel friar’s dress,
sitting at a small writing-desk surrounded with papers.
The approach to this little room was through several lofty
‘ and spacious apartments. The curtained doors and the long
flowing robes of the attendants reminded me, oddly enough,
of my interview with Mehemet Ali at Cairo. Pius IX.
received me with a hearty and unaffected expression of
pleasure at meeting one who had been concerned in a great
and good work in England; commended my perseverance
and the means by which the principle of Free Trade had
been made to triumph; and he remarked that England was
the only country where such triumphs were achieved by

af
(847.
Air. 43.

 

434 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [oxur.

years of legal and moral exertion. He professed himself
to be favourable to Free Trade, and said all he could do
should be done to forward it, but modestly added that he
could do but little. I pointed to Tuscany, his next neigh-’
bour, as a good example to follow,sand said that England
had not been ashamed to take a lesson from that country;
and I added that Tuscany was an inconvenient neighbour,
owing to the smuggling which would be carried on until
his tariff was put upon the same moderate scale. He spoke
of the wide frontier of his territories as being favourable
to the contraband trade, and alluded to the desirableness
of a custom-house union in Italy. In parting, I called his
attention to the practice in Spain of having bull-fights in
honour of the saints and virgins on the féte days, and gave
him an extract from a Madrid paper, giving an account of a
bull-fight there in honour of its patroness the Virgin. After
a little conversation upon the cruelty. and demoralization
of these spectacles, he thanked me for having drawn his
attention to it, and promised to give instructions upon the
subject to an envoy whom he was about to send to Spain.
He concluded by another complimentary phrase or two, and
we left. I was impressed with the notion that he is sincere,
kind-hearted, and good, and that he is possessed of strong
common sense and sound understanding. He did not strike
me as a man of commanding genius.”
e “ Feb. 28rd.—Dined with Count Rossi, the French Am-
bassador. A splendid banquet, at which the foreign ambassa-
dors in Rome, including the Turkish envoy going to Vienna,
were present. Looking round the table I saw represented,
Italy, France, Germany, Russia, England, Turkey, and
Syria, the latter by a bishop of the Maronites.”

“ Feb. 24th.— We. have been in Rome a month, have seen
some of the wonders of the ancients, and have been over-
whelmed with the kindness of friends, but I long for a quiet
xvi] THE CAMPAGNA, 435

day or two in travelling over the Campagna, where the
sheep will be the’ only living objects that will surround us.
T came here expecting repose, and have found excitement,
crowded evening parties, and late hours. At eleven o’clock
at; night Doctor Masi called again, bringing me sundry
packets of his newspaper, the Oontemporaneo, which he
desires to transmit by me to Naples, thus making me a kind
of moral smuggler.”

“ Naples, Feb. 27th.—Left Rome Thursday morning, 25th
February, at half-past eight, for Naples, by the new Appian
Way, which leaves the old road of that name a little to the
right on quitting the city, but falls into it a few miles off.
The course of this celebrated old road may be distinctly
traced at a distance by the mounds and ruins of tombs and
temples with which its sides are fringed. Snow fell as we
passed out of Rome. The view of the Campagna, with the
rained aqueducts stretching across its desolate surface, pre-
sented a striking contrast to the luxurious and busy scene
which we had but a few minutes before taken leave of
within the city walls. These stately and graceful aqueducts
are nearly the only ruins which excite feelings of regret,
being perhaps the sole buildings which did not merit
destruction by the crimes, the folly, and the injustice which
attended their construction, or the purposes to which they
were devoted.

“We are now in the territory of the King of the Two
Sicilies, who can certainly boast of ruling over more beggars
than any other sovereign. Mendicancy seems to be the
profession of all the labouring people whenever they have
an opportunity of practising it. No sooner is a traveller's
carriage seen than young and old pounce upon it; the
peasant woman throws down her load that she may keep up
with the vehicle, bawling out incessantly for charity; the
boy who is watching the sheep, a field or two off, hurries

1847,
Bir. 43,

 
1847.

Air. 43.

 

436 LIFE OF COBDEN. (omar.

across hedge and ditch to intercept you as you go up the
hill; and when the carriage stops to change horses, it is
surrounded by lame, halt, and blind, scrambling and scream-
ing for aims. The rags and misery remind me of Ireland.
The only persons I see in the small towns and villages with
clean, sleek skins and good clothes on their backs are priests
and soldiers.”

* March 4th—Went with M. D’ Azala to the Museum, first
to see the room containing jewellery and ornaments, but did
not think them generally in such good taste or so well
executed as those I had seen in Campana’s collection of
Etruscan works of a similar kind in Rome. Next to the
rooms containing the articles in bronze, brought principally
from Pompeii. Here I found specimens of all the common
household utensils—lamps, jugs, pans, moulds for pastry,
some of them in the form of shells, others of animals; scales
and steelyards, mirrors, bells, articles for the toilet, including
rouge; bread in loaves, with the name of the maker stamped
on them, surgical instruments, cupping cups’ in bronze,
locks, keys, hinges, tickets for the theatre; in fact, I was
introduced to the mode of domestic every-day life amongst
the ancients. ..... After seeing this portion of the Mu-
seum I came away without proceeding farther, preferring
to mix up no other objects with my enjoyment to-day of
certainly the most novel and interesting collection of
curiosities I ever beheld.”

“ Naples, March 6th.—At eleven o’clock went with Mr.
Close to the palace to see the King by appointment ; con-
versed for a short time with him upon Free Trade, about
which he did not appear to be altogether ignorant or without
some favourable sympathies. He questioned me about the
future solution of the Irish difficulty, a question which seems
to be uppermost in the minds of all statesmen and public
men on the continent. The King is stout and tall man,
xvut.] NAPLES AND TUBIN. 437

heavy looking, and of restricted capacity. I am told he is
amiable and correct in his domestic life, excessively devout
and entirely in the hands of his confessor, of whom report
does not speak favourably.”

“ March 1 6th.—I went to the Museum to see the collection of
bronzes again whilst the houses from which they were taken
in Pompeii were fresh in my memory. I was introduced to
the members of the Academy of Science, who were holding
an ordinary meeting in their room in the same building. A
complimentary address to me was delivered by Sig. Mancini,
and responded to by other members, and I thanked them
briefly in French.”

“Turin, May 26th, 1847.—Had an interview with his
Majesty Charles Albert, a very tall and dignified figure,
with asombre, but not unamiable expression of countenance ;
received me frankly; talked of railroads, machinery, agri-
culture, and similar practical questions. Said he hoped I
was contented with what his Government had done in the
application of my principles, and informed me that his
ministry had resolved upon a further reduction of duties on
iron, cotton, etc. He is said to have good intentions, but
to want firmness of character.

“Tn the evening, Count Revel, minister of finance, came
in, with whom I had a long discussion upon Free Trade, a
sensible man. Speaking to Signor Cibrario upon the sub-
ject of the commerce of the middle ages in Ttaly, he said
that the principle of protection or Colbertism was unknown ;
that, however, there were innumerable impediments to in-
dustry and internal commerce, owing to the corporations of
trades and the custom-houses which surrounded every little
state and almost every little city.”

“ May 28th, 1847.-—-Went at eight o’clock in the morning
to hear a lecture by Signor Scialoja, Professor of Political
Economy at the University, » Neapolitan of considerable

1847.
Ait, 43.

 
 

Alt, 48.

438 LIFE OF COBDEN. [onar.

talent, who delivered his address with much eloquence,

extempore with the aid of notes. In the course of his

lecture he alluded in flattering terms to my presence, which
elicited applause from a crowded auditory, comprising, in
addition to the students, numerous visitors, officers in the
army, clergymen, advocates, etc. On my leaving the hall
at the close I was cheered by a crowd of students in the
Court. Count Petitti, and Count Cavour took breakfast
with me.”

“ Milan, June 8rd.—Attended a meeting of La Societa
@’Incoraggiamento of Milan. About 200 persons were pre-
sent, consisting of members and their friends. A paper was
read by Signor G. Sacchi upon the doctrine of Romagnosi
(a Milanese writer) on free trade, in which he alluded in com-
plimentary terms to my presence. Then Signor A. Mauri
(the secretary) read an eulogistic address to me. After
which Chevalier Maffei read a paper upon Milton, with a
long translation from the first book of ‘Paradise Lost.’ In
conclusion I delivered a short address in French, thanking
the Society and recommending the study of political economy
to the young men present. The meeting terminated with
enthusiastic expressions of satisfaction. In the evening
was entertained at a public dinner (the first ever held in
Milan) by about eighty persons, including most of the
leading literary men of the place, Signor G. Basevi, advo-
cate, in the chair. This gentleman, who I was told is of the
Jewish persuasion, had the moral courage to act as counsel
in defence of Hofer the Tyrolese leader, when he was tried
by a military commission at Mantua and sentenced to be
shot. Not having before taken part in a similar demonstra-
tion, he was unacquainted with the mode of conducting a
meeting. He began the toasts in the midst of the dinner,
by proposing my health in an eloquent speech. Then
followed three or four others who all proposed my health.
xvii. ] THH ITALIAN LAKES. 439

Before the dinner was concluded, other orators, who had
become a little heated with wine, wished to speak. One of
them broke through the rule laid down, and almost entered
upon the forbidden ground of Austrian politics. However,
by dint of management and entreaty the excited spirits
were calmed, and the banquet went off pretty well. Re-
ceived an anonymous letter entreating me not to propose
the health of the Emperor of Austria.”

“ Lake Oomo, June 7th.—Lounged away the morning over
Madame D’Arblay’s Memoirs, and Lady CO. Bury’s George IV.
Heard also some gossip about the residents on the shores of
the lake, not the most favourable to their morality. After
dinner made an excursion to the town of Como, and saw the
Cathedral.”

“ Desenzano, June 9th.—Found Signor Salevi an intelligent
and amiable man, his head and countenance striking; is
writing a book upon prison reform, and a great promoter
of infant schools, of which he says there are three
well conducted in Brescia, and supported by voluntary con-
tributions. Speaking about the proprietorship of land,
which is in this neighbourhood very much divided, he ex-
pressed his surprise that England, so greatly in advance of

Europe in other respects, should still preserve so much of

the feudal system in respect to the law of real property_
He thinks the law of succession, as established in the Code
Napoleon, highly favourable to the mass of the people ; that
nothing gives dignity to a man, and developes his self-
respect so effectually, as the ownership of property, however
small, In Lombardy, as in Piedmont, one half the property
is at the disposal of a father on his decease; the remainder
is by law given equally amongst his children. I find every-
where on the continent, amongst all classes, the same un-
favourable opinion of our law of primogeniture in England.”

“Venice, June 21st.—In the evening dined at a public enter-

1847.
440 LIFE OF COBDEN. [orar,

1847, tainment at the island of Giudecca, under an alcove of vines;

 

Hr.43, the party consisted of about seventy persons, Count Priuli in
the chair, the podesta or mayor by his side, the French
and American consuls being present. At the close of the
sumptuons repast, the chairman called upon Dr. Locatelli
to propose my health in behalf of the meeting, and he read a
short and eloquent speech, to which I replied in French. It
had been arranged that no other speeches should be made.

| M. Chalaye, a French gentleman who was in China represent-
ing the French Government during our late war there, and
who is now appointed Consul to Peru, made a strong appeal
privately to the chairman, to be allowed to make a speech,
but without success. We left the table, and after taking
coffee, the party entered their gondolas, which were waiting,
and accompanied by the excellent band of music belonging
to an Austrian regiment, which had played during the
dinner, we proceeded in procession down the grand canal to
the Rialto bridge. The music and the gay liveries of some of
our boatmen soon attracted a great number of gondolas ; the
sound and sight also brought everybody into their balconies ;
as we returned, the moon, which had risen, gave a fresh charm
to the picturesque scene, which was sufficiently romantic to
excite poetical emotions even in the mind of a political
economist.”

“ Trieste, June 26th.—Left Venice this morning at six
o’clock in the Austrian Lloyd’s steam-boat, a handsome,
large, and clean vessel. It was low water, and as we came
out of the port, through the tortuous channel which winds

- amongst the islands, it afforded a good view of the advan-
tages which the Queen of the Adriatic possessed behind
these intricate barriers. ‘The view of the city at a few miles’
distance, with its palaces, towers, and domes, rising from the
level of the water, and its low country at the back shut in
by high mountains, is very magnificent. Reached Trieste
xvii.) VENIOE AND TRIESTE. 441

at two o’clock. The coast hilly, and the town stands upon
a confined spot shut in by the high land, which rises imme-
diately at the back. The ships lie in an open roadstead,
and are exposed to certain winds. The number of square-
rigged vessels and the activity in the port offer a contrast
to the scene at Venice.”

“ Trieste, July 1st.—Dined at a public dinner given to me
by about ninety of the principal merchants in the saloon of
the theatre. M.Schlapfer, president of the Exchange Com-
mittee, in the chair. The speeches were delivered in the
midst of the dinner. M. De Bruck, the projector and chief
director of Austrian Lloyd’s spoke well. Signor Dell’
Ongaro, who is an Italian and a poet, read a speech, in
which he made allusion to Italian nationality, which drew
forth some hasty remarks from M. De Bruck, and led to a
scene of some excitement. After dinner I porsuaded them
to shake hands. In speaking to the chairman during the
dinner, he described the iron-masters in Styria as not having
in a series of years realized much money, notwithstanding
their being protected by heavy duties. Many of the nobility
are interested in these furnaces; their businesses badly
managed. He gives a still worse description of the cotton-
spinners and manufacturers, who cling to the ways of their
fathers, and do not improve their machinery, being very
inferior to the Swiss; does not know of an instance of one
of them retiring from business with a fortune, and few of
them are rich in floating capital. A good band of an
Austrian regiment performed during the dinner.”

“ Vienna, July 7th.—Looked in to see the famous monnu-
mental tomb by Canova, an original and successful design.
I think, however, this sculptor lived to enjoy the best of
his fame, and that posterity will hardly preserve the warmth
of enthusiasm for his genius that was felt by the gonera-
tion in which he lived.”

 

Ar. 48.
442 LIYE OF COBDEN. {oxar,

1847. “Vienna, July 10th.—Paid a visit in compary with M,

21.43. de H. to Prince Metternich, whose appearance hardly
denotes the veteran of seventy-five. His head and counte-
nance convey the impression of high polish rather than
native force of character, and his conversation is more
subtle than profound. He talks incessantly, perhaps in order
to choose his own topics; the state of Italy was his prin-
cipal theme, and he professed to be apprehensive of violent.
disorders in that country. He entered into along essay upon
differences of race, and the antagonisms of nationality in
Europe. ‘Why did Italy still have favourable feelings
towards France, notwithstanding the injuries she had re- |
ceived from the latter country? Because the two nations
were of the same race. Why were England and France so
inveterately opposed? Because upon their opposite coasts
the Teutonic and Latin races came into close contact?’
Again and again he returned to the state of Italy, spoke
of their jealousies and hatreds, one town of another; said
that a man in Milan would not lend his money upon mort-
gage in Cremona or Padua, because ‘he could not see the
church steeple.’ It struck me that his hatred of the Italians
partook of the feeling described by Rochefoucault when he
says that we never forgive those whom we have injured.
Speaking of Austria, he dilated upon the great diversity of
the character and condition of the people, and seemed to be
vindicating his conservative policy. ‘How could they have
@ representative system, when men from different parts of
the empire, if assembled as representatives in the capital,
could not understand each other? The Emperor was King
of Hungary, of Lombardy, and of Bohemia, Count of Tyrol,
and Archduke of Austria.’ He alluded to the generally com-
fortable state of the people, and wished me to examine into
their condition. He seemed to speak on the defensive,
like a man conscious that public opinion in Europe was not
xvmY.] INTERVIEW WITH PRINCE MHTT#RNIOH. 443

favourable to his policy; he threw in parenthetically, and 184%.
with a delicate finesse, some compliments, such as ‘I wish I ar. 43.
was an Englishman.’ ‘I speak like yourself, as a practical
man, and not in the langnage of romance.’ ‘You and I
are of the same race,’ etc. He alluded to Ireland, and said
he could not discover a key for the solution of the difficulty:
in other countries reforms were wanted, but there a social
system must be created out of chaos. He is probably the
last of those state physicians who, looking only to the
symptoms of a nation, content themselves with superficial
remedies from day to day, and never attempt to probe
beneath the surface, to discover the source of the evils which
afflict the social system. This order of statesmen will pass
away with him, because too much light has been shed upon
the laboratory of governments, to allow them to impose
upon mankind with the old formulas.

“ After leaving Prince Metternich, I called upon Baron
Kiibeck, minister of finance, a man of a totally different
character from his chief. He is a simple, sincere, and
straightforward man; expressed himself: favourably to a
relaxation of the protective system, but spoke of the
difficulties which powerful interests put in his way; said
that Dr. List had succeeded in misleading the public mind
on the question of protection. A visit from Prince Ester-
hazy, who was upwards of twenty years ambassador in

- England; he remarked that diplomacy fpon the old system

was now mere humbug, for that the world was much too
well informed upon all that was going on in every country
to allow ambassadors to mystify matters.”

“ Dresden, July 21st.—Called on M. Zeschan, the Saxon
finance minister, an able, hard-working man, who also fills the
office of minister for foreign affairs ; tells me the land is much
divided in Saxony, that the owner of an estate worth 60,0001.
is deemed 2» large proprietor; the majority of the farmers
444 LIFH OF COBDEN, [omar,

_1847. cultivate their own ind: in some of the hilly districts the
Aix. 43. weavers rent a small patch of ground for garden or potatoes;
the feudal service, or corvée, has been abolished in Saxony
since 1833, having been commuted into fixed payments, which
will be redeemed gradually in a few years.. He spoke of
Ireland, and said he would dispose of the uncultivated land
in the same way as they do in Saxony of the mines of coal, .
etc. If after a certain fixed period the proprietor of the land
will not work them, they are let by the government to other
parties, subject to the payment of a rent to the owner, accord-
ing to the produce raised.”

“Dresden, July 22nd.— Went with M. Krug to see the col-
lection of jewels, and articles of carving, sculpture, etc. in the
green vaults. Then to the royal library,and made the acquaint-
ance of M. Falkenstein, the chief librarian, a learned and inte-
resting man, who showed us a manuscript work by Luther,
and some other curiosities. M. Falkenstein is acquainted
with Hebrew, Greek, and Latin critically, is also learned in
the Arabic, Persian, and Sclavonic languages, speaks French,
German, English, Italian, etc.; his salary, as head librarian,
having no one over him, is 1501., and he has a wife and six
children! Speaking of Luther’s coarseness, he said that there
are some of his letters in the library so grossly violent and
abusive that they are unfit to be read in the presence of
women. M. Falkenstein is the author of a life of Kosciusko,
the Polish patriot, whom he knew when he was a boy at
Soleure, in Switzerland, where the old warrior died. He
described him as very amiable and charitable ; he was accus-
tomed to ride an old horse who was so used to the habit of
his master of giving alms to beggars, that he would stop
instinctively when he came near to a man in rags. . . . Saw
in a shop-window to-day a silk handkerchief for sale, with
my portrait; engraved and my name attached.”

“ Berlin, July 28th.—-Went to Babelsberg, near Potsdam,
xvot.] AT BABELSBERG. 445

at five in the afternoon, to visit the Prince of Prussia, 1647.
the King’s brother and heir presumptive to the throne. A 47.48.
little before seven I found the Prince and Princess and their
attendants in the garden. He is a straight-forward, soldier-
like man, she a clever woman, speaking English well. A
school for the officers’ sons had been invited to visit the
grounds; the youths, dressed in a military costume, were
inspected by the Prince, and afterwards the Princess walked
along the lines and accosted some of the boys in the front
rank. Then some large balls were produced, and the Princess
began the fun by throwing them amongst the Jads, who
Scrambled for them; the Prince joined in the amusement,
and they pelted each other with great glee. The King soon
afterwards arrived from his palace at Sans Souci, and went
familiarly amongst the scholars, who were afterwards enter-
tained at a long table with cakes, chocolate, etc. The rest
of us then sat down to tea ata couple of tables under the
trees, the Princess presiding and pouring out the tea, the
King and the rest partaking unostentatiously, everybody
seated, and with hats and capson. The King speaks English
well, is highly educated, said to be clever, but impulsive,
and not practical. He is fifty-two, with a portly figure, and
a thoroughly good-natured, unaffected German face.

“Met Baron Von Humboldt, a still sturdy little man, with
a clear grey eye, born in 1769, and in his seventy-eighth
year ; tells me he allows himself only four to five hours’
sleep. He has a fine massive forehead, his manners are
courtier-like, he lives in the palace of Sans Souci, near the
King. He spoke highly of Jefferson, whom he knew inti-
mately; remarked of Lord Brougham that, like Raphael,
he had three manners, and that he had known him in his
earliest and best manner. At dusk we entered the chateau,
sat down at a large round table, and were served with a

§ The present Emperor of Germany.
1847.
Air. 43.

 

446 LIFE OF OOBDEN, [omar

plain supper; were afterwards conveyed to the railway-
station in a carriage, and reached Berlin at eleven o’clock.”

“ Berlin, July 29th.—Went with Mr. Howard to call upon
Dr. Eichhorn, at present Minister of Public Instruction,
but formerly in the department of trade, and who took an
active part in the formation of the Zollverein, an able and
enthusiastic man; he stated that the originators of the
customs-union did not contemplate the establishment of a
protective system; on the contrary, it was distinctly laid
down that the duties on foreign goods should not as a rule
exceed ten per cent. To the opera in the evening, and
was introduced to M. Nothomb, the Belgian minister,
clever, ready man. M. Nothomb thinks the Corn Laws of
Belgium will soon be abolished, and says, after the late
calamities, arising from the scarcity of food, all Europe ought
to unite in abolishing for ever every restriction on the corn
trade; he thinks the next ministry in Belgium, although its
head will probably be an ardent Free Trader, will be obliged
to advance still further in the path of restriction; that the
majority of the chambers is monopolist. ‘ An absolute govern-
ment may represent an idea, but elective legislatures represent
interests.’ The enlightened ministers of Prussia are overruled
by the clamours of the chambers of Wurtemberg, Bavaria,
and Baden, the majorities of which are protectionist. He
remarked that France stood in the way of Huropean pro-
gress, for, so long as she maintained her prohibitive system,
the other nations of the continent would be slow to adopt
the principles of Free Trade.”

“ Berlin, July 30th.—Went with Mr. Howard to call on
M. Kuhne, one of the originators of the Zollverein. When
Saxony joined it, she objected to the high duties which
were payable upon foreign goods. Now the manufacturers
of that country are wanting still higher protection; he is
not of opinion that Hamburg will join the Zollverein; is
xvi] BHRLIN AND POTSDAM. 447

not sanguine about effecting any reduction of the protec-
tive duties; only hopes to prevent their augmentation.
M. Kuhne has the character of being an able and honest
man. To the museum; the collection of statues and busts
but a poor affair after seeing the galleries of Italy, and the
pictures very inferior to those at Dresden or Vienna.
Called on M. Dieterici, Director of the Bureau of Statistics,
an earnest Free Trader, says all the leading statesmen of
Prussia are opposed to the protective system, which is forced
upon the Zollverein by the states of the south, particularly
Bavaria, Baden, and Wurtemberg, and by the manufacturers
of the Rhenish provinces. Professor Tellkampf called; he
says the real object which the Prussian Government has in
view, talking of differential duties on navigation to England,
is to coerce Holland into a more liberal system, and pro-

bably to induce her to join the Zollverein..... In the

conversation with M. Kuhne he touched upon the state of
Ireland, and remarked that society has to be reconstructed
in that country; that we have the work of Cromwell and
William to do over again in a better manner.”

Berlin, July. 31st.—Several persons called in the morn-
ing. Went by railway to Potsdam to dine with the King at
three o’clock at Sans Souci. About twenty-five to thirty
persons sat down, nearly all in court costume, and most of
them in military dresses. The King good-humoured and
affable, very little ceremony, the dinner over at half past four,
when the company walked in the garden. On coming away
the King shook hands. In the evening attended a public
dinner given to me by about 180 Free-traders of Berlin,
the mayor of the city in the chair; he commenced
the speaking at the second course, and it was kept up
throughout the dinner, which was prolonged for nearly three
hours. Two-thirds of the meeting appeared to understand
my English speech, which was afterwards translated into

1847
Air. 4.5,

 
448 LIFE OF OOBDEN, [onap,

1847. German by Doctor Asher. The speeches were rather long,
“4ix. 43. and the auditory phlegmatic when compared with an Italian
dinner-party. Mr. Warren, the United States Consul at Trieste,
made the best speech, in German. Alluding to my tour in
France, Spain, Italy, and Germany, he said that no English
politician of former times, no Chatham, Burke, or Fox could
have obtained those proofs of public sympathy in foreign
countries which had been offered to me; in their days the
politics of one state were considered hostile to others; not
only each nation was opposed to its neighbour, but city was
against city, town against country, class was arranged
against class, and corporations were in hostility to individual
rights: he adduced the fact of my favourable reception in
foreign countries as a proof of the existence of a broader and

more generous view of the interests of mankind.”
_ “Berlin, August 1st—Baron Von Humboldt called, ex-
pressed in strong and courteous terms his disapproval of
Lord Palmerston’s foreign policy in Portugal and Greece,
especially of his demanding from the latter a peremptory
payment of a paltry sum of money. I expressed my doubts
' if the Greeks were at present fitted for constitutional self- .
government, upon which he remarked that it was much
easier for a nation to preserve its independence than its
freedom. . . . Wrote a note to Dr. Asher declining his
invitation to address a party of Free Traders, and expressing
my determination not to interfere in the domestic concerns

of Prussia.”’

“ Berlin, August 5th—The Prussian law of 1818, and
the tariff which followed it, form the foundation of the
German Zollverein. The former system of Frederick the
Great, and which had lasted for upwards of half a century,
was one of the most prohibitive in respect to the importa-
tion of foreign goods ever enforced. The prohibition of the
entrance of foreign manufactures, even of those of Saxony,
xv] STETTIN. 449

was the rule. Yet the manufactures of Hastern Prussia
continued to decline; whilst in Saxony, Westphalia, and
the Rhenish provinces industry grew up, and flourished
without protection. At the end of fifty years of the triai of
Frederick’s system, such, was the result. . . . The law of 26th
of May, 1818, sets forth freedom of commerce as the funda-
mental principle of the new system of customs; it enacted
that as a rule the duty on foreign manufactures shall not
exceed ten per cent. ad valorem according to the average
prices.”

“ Qtettin, August 7th.—Took leave of Kate this morning
at the Hamburgh railway, and then started for Stettin at
seven, in company with Mr. Swaine. The railway passes
through a poor sandy country thinly peopled, and with
light crops of grain. The exportation of corn was pro-
hibited this year from Prussia, also of potatoes in May;
one of the ministers stated in the Diet publicly that the
latter measure could be of no use, inasmuch as at that time,
no potatoes could be sent out of the country with advantage,
but advocating the law on the plea that it was necessary to
tranquillize the people; the use of potatoes was also inter-
dicted in distilleries for three months, by which the food for
’eattle (the residue of the potatoes) was curtailed, and caused
great embarrassment to the proprietors. . . . In the even-
ing dined with about eighty or ninety persons, who assembled
at a day’s notice to meet me; the company sat at dinner for
nearly four hours; speeches between each course; the orators
launched freely into politics.”

“ Stettin, August 8ih.—The Baltic ports are in no way
benefited by the manufacturing interests of the south and
the Rhenish provinces, and they are directly sacrificed by
the protective system, The few furnaces for making iron
in Silesia, and those on the Rhine, have imposed a tax upon
the whole community, by laying a duty of 20s. a ton upon

6g

 

Air. 43.
t

 

450 LIFE OF OOBDEN. {omar,

i847. pig iron, Silesia is a wheat-growing country for export.
Air.48, The protective duties of the Zollverein are particularly

injurious to the Baltic provinces of Prussia, which export
wheat, timber, and other raw produce. The manufacturing
districts of Rhenish Prussia are entirely cut off and detached
from this part of the kingdom; they receive their imports,
and send out their exports by the Rhine, not through a
Prussian port; thus the protective system stands in the way
of the increase of the foreign trade in the Prussian ports,
and stops the growth of the mercantile marine, without
even offering the compensation of an artificial trade in
mannfactures. In fact, owing to her peculiar geographical
position, the maritime prosperity of Prussia is more com-
pletely sacrificed than in any other State by the protective
system.”

“ Dantzic, August 10th, 1847.— . . . . Dined with abont
fifty of the merchants. Nearly all appeared to understand
English, several speakers, all in English, excepting one.
There are about five or six British merchants only here—
mostly Scotch. Dantzic is thoroughly English in its
sympathies.”

“ Tauroggen, Russia, August 13th.—Left Konigsherg at
seven o’clock this morning in an extra post courier in com-
pany with one of Mr. Adelson’s clerks, whom he kindly sent
with me across the Russian frontier.

“My companion, who is a Pole and a Russian subject,
and, as he terms himself, an Israelite, gives me a poor pic-
ture of the character of the Polish nobility. Making a com-
parison between them and the Russians, he remarked that
the latter are barbarians, but the former are civilized
scamps; there is some respect for truth in the Russian, but
none in the Pole. Crossed the Niemen at Tilsit; were
detained upon the bridge of boats for half an hour whilst
several long rafts of timber passed; the men who were
xv] THE RUSSIAN FRONTIER. 451

upon them, and who live for months upon the voyage down 1847.

 

from Volhynia to Memel on these floats, had a wild, savage Afr. 43.
appearance, reminding me of the Irish. Soon after, reached
the Russian frontier. I rallied my companion on his rather
thoughtful aspect on approaching his native country. ‘It
is not exactly fear that I feel,’ he replied, ‘but I do find a
disagreeable sensation here,’ striking his breast; ‘ perhaps
it is something in the air which always affects me at this
spot.’ Arrived at Tauroggen at eight o’clock, the distance |
from Konigsberg being about a hundred English miles.
The chief of the Custom House was very civil, and declined to
search my luggage.

Riga, Aug. 16th.—* The distance from Tauroggen to Riga
is about 220 versts, or about 160 miles,which are accomplished
in eighteen hours exactly, at an expense of 42s. The country
generally a plain as far as the eye can reach, with here and
there only some slight undulations ; mostly a light soil and
sandy, but everywhere capable of cultivation. Large tracts
covered with forests of fir, interspersed with oak, birch, etc.,
with patches here and there of cultivated land. The country
very thinly peopled; the villages consist of a few wooden
houses thatched; scarcely saw a stone or brick house. The
villages through which we passed on the high road on the
beginning of our journey were generally peopled with Jews,
a dirty, idle-looking people, the men wearing long robes
with a girdle, and the women often with turbans, the men
also wearing the long beard. These wretched beings creep
about their wretched villages, or glance suspiciously out of
their doors, as if they had a suspicion of some danger at
every step. They never work with their hands in the fields
or on the roads excepting to avert actual starvation.”

« Ot. Petersburgh, Aug. 20th.—Called on Count Nesselrode, *
the Foreign Minister, a polite little man of sixty-five, with a
profusion of smiles, Like Metternich; he strikes me more as
1847.
An, 43.

452 LIEW OF OOBDEN. [omar,

an adept at finesse and diplomacy, than as a man of genins
or of powerful talent. He was very, very civil, spoke of my
Free Trade labours, which he said would be beneficial to
Russia, offered me letters to facilitate my journey to Mos- ©
cow, and invited me to dine. Called on Lord Bloomfield,
our minister, an agreeable man.”

“ St. Petersburgh, Aug. 21st.—Went at six o’clock, in
company with Colonel Townsend, Captain Little, and another, .
to see the grand parade, about twenty-five versts from St.
Petersburgh. The emperor, the finest man in the field; the
empress, a very emaciated, care-worn person, resembling in

her melancholy expression the Queen of the French. It is

remarkable that two of the most unhappy and suffering
countenances, and the most attenuated frames I have seen
on the continent, are those of these two royal personages,
the wives of the greatest sovereigns of the continent, who
have accidentally ascended thrones to which they were not
claimants by the right of succession; yet these victims of
anxiety are envied as the favourites of fortune.”

“ Moscow, Aug. 25th.—Started from St. Petersburgh on
Sunday morning, at seven, and reached this place at six this
morning. During the first day, passed through several vil-
lages built entirely of wood, generally of logs laid horizon-
tally upon each other; some of these are not without efforts
at refinement, being ornamented with rude carved work,
and the fronts sometimes gaudily painted. Many of the
houses appeared quite new, and others were in the course of
erection; it being Sunday, the inhabitants were in their best
clothes ; work seemed everywhere suspended. There appears
a great traffic between the old and new metropolis, both in
merchandise and passengers ; mail. coaches, diligences, and
private carriages, very numerous. The face’of the country
flat and monotonous; a strip of cultivated land, growing rye,
oats, etc., runs generally along the roadside, and beyond, the
MOSCOW. — 453

_ eye rests upon the eternal pine forests, The inns at the 1847.

 

post stations excellent ; in two of them the walls of therooms Air. 43.
were covered with English engravings of Morland’s village
scenes; tea everywhere good, and served promptly, in the
English fashion. On alighting I saw about thirty men, lying
in two rows upon the pavement, in the open air, wrapped
in their coats or sheepskins, some of their heads resting on
a pillow of hay, and others upon the rough stones. I was
told, on inquiry, that they were postillions waiting to be
called up, as their services might be required—a hard life.”

“ Moscow, August 25th.—After a couple of hours’ sleep in
a clean and comfortable bed at Howard’s English lodging-
house, I sallied out alone for a stroll of an hour or two.
This city surprises me; I was not prepared for so in-
teresting and unique a spectacle. One might fancy himself
in Bagdad or Grenada a thousand years ago. The people
are more Asiatic in their appearance and dress than at St.
‘Petersburgh, and also more superstitious, I should say,
judging from the ceremonials of bowing and crossing which
I see going on at every church door, and opposite to every
little picture of the Virgin. Everywhere struck with
' astonishment at the novel and beautiful features of this
picturesque city of the Czars.”

“Nishni Novogored, August 27th.—Left Moscow at half-
past seven on Wednesday evening in the same carriage by
which I had come from St. Petersburgh. It was dusk when
I passed beyond the suburbs of the widely extended city
of upwards of 300,000 souls. The next morning’s light
revealed the same scenery as that through which I had
passed previously ; the country so flat and the view so con-
stantly bounded with straight lines of fir forests, that I was
frequently under the illusion that the ocean was visible in
the distant horizon. .... Reached Nishni Novogorod
at six o’clock this evening, and passed through « long
I

454 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [onap,

1847. avenue of wooden booths full of merchandise, and amidst
41.43. crowds of people to the hotel, where I found comfortable
quarters. Baron Alexander Meyendorff called, chief of a
kind of Board of Trade at Moscow, an active-minded and
intelligent German, possessing much statistical knowledge
about Russian trade and manufactures. . . . He thinks the
geographical and climatical features of Russia will always
prevent its being anything but a great village, as he termed
it, it being such a vast, unbroken plain; there are no varieties
of climate or occupations, and as the weather is intensely
cold for half the year, every person wants double the
quantity of land which would suffice to maintain him m
more genial climates; as there is no coal, the pine forests
are as necessary as his rye field. Wherever the winter
endures for upwards of half the year, the population must

as a general rule be thin.”

“ Nishni Novogorod, August 28th.—The Bokhara caravan
arrived yesterday, bringing about a thousand hundredweight
of cotton from Asia, of a short staple like our Surats, with

. 8kins, common prints, dressing-gowns of silk and other
articles. I visited three merchants, some of them handsome
swarthy men ; their goods were brought upon camels as far as
Orenberg; the journey from Bokhara to Nishni occupies about
three months. This caravan had been stopped by a tribe of
the Kirghese. One of these men, a knowing, talkative fellow, .
had been in London and picked up a few words of English,
In the evening dined and took tea with Baron A. de Meyen-
dorff, and met Baronoff, the great printer and manufacturer,
an energetic and sensible man. . . . He has taken some land
on lease in the territory of the Khan of Khiva for growing
madder for his print works; he says that the madder he gets
from Asia is cheaper than that which he formerly got from
France and Holland, in the proportion of two and a half to
one.”
xv] - NISHNI-NOVGOROD. 455

“ Moscow, Aug. 31st—Found my companion a man of
great good-nature, and full of information upon the com-
merce and manufactures of Russia.

“.... The Emperor and ‘the higher functionaries of
the Government are anxious for good administration, and
they are all enlightened and able men, but the subordin-
ates or bureaucracy are generally a corrupt or ignorant
body. There are three or four grave difficulties for
the future—the emancipation of the serfs— the religious
tone, which is one of mere unmeaning formalities, and
which, if not adapted to the progress of ideas, will
become a cause of infidelity on the one hand, and blind
bigotry on the other—the tiers-at, comprising the freed
serfs, the manufacturers, and the bureaucracy: all these
are elements tending to dangerous collisions of opinion
for the future, unless gradually provided against by the
Government.

“,... At Bogorodsk we paid a visit to the halting-
station of prisoners who are on their way from Moscow to
Siberia ; upwards of twenty were lying upon wooden benches,
their heads resting upon bundles of clothes. Baron Meyen-
dorff questioned them as to the cause of their banishment;
three confessed that theirs was murder, and another coin-
ing: several were for smaller offences; the latter were not
ironed like the greater criminals, One man said he was
exiled because he had no passport, which meant that he
was a vagabond. One man was recognised by the Baron
as having been a servant in a nobleman’s family which he
was acquainted with, and he stated, in answer to the in-
quiry, that he was sent to Siberia because he was ill-tempered
to his owner and master ; this man, like all the rest, seemed
to be in a state of mental resignation quite oriental. ‘If
God has allowed me to be banished, I suppose I deserve

1847.

Air, 43.
456 LIFE OF COBDEN. (cur,
1847. it, was his remark. In another room was a prisoner, a
Er. 43, nobleman, as he was called, who confessed to the Baron
that poverty had led him to commit an act of forgery; he
was not ironed, nor was his head shaved like the rest. In
a third room were two women; one of them said her
offence was being without a passport; the other was a
woman who stated herself to be a widow, and whose
little daughter, a child about seven years of age, was
sleeping upon a bundle of old clothes at her side. She
said she was banished at the request of her mistress,
she being her serf, because she was ill-tempered. I gave
these poor women some silver.

“_,.. On leaving the mill, a few steps brought me into
the midst of the agricultural operations in the neighbourhood
and what a contrast did the implements of husbandry pre-

_ sent to the masterpieces of machinery which I had just been
inspecting! The ploughs were constructed upon the model
of those in use a thousand years ago; the gcythes and reap-
ing-hooks might have been the implements of the ancient
Scythians; the spades in the hands of the peasants were
either entirely of wood or merely tipped with iron ; the fields
were yielding scarcely a third of the crop of grain which an
English farmer would derive from: similar land ; there was
no science traceable in the manuring or cropping of the
land, no intelligence in the improving of the breed of the
cattle, and I could not help asking myself by what perversity
of judgment an agricultural people could be led to borrow
from England its newest discoveries in machinery for spin-
ning cotton, and to reject the lessons which it offered for
the improvement of that industry upon which the wealth
and strength of the Russian empire so pre-eminently
depend. ,

“,... Baron Meyendorff tells me that an association
svn)” PROTECTION IN RUSSIA. 457

of merchants proposes to export a cargo of Russlan manu-
factures to the Pacific as an experiment, and amongst the
articles which they think of sending are boots and shoes,
sail-cloth, cordage, low-priced woollens, linen towels, coarse
linens, such as ravenduck ; articles made of wood, such as
boxes, etc.; and nails, etc. Here are many manufactured
products which are natural to Russia, and who can say
how much the development of such indigenous industries
may be interfered with by the protection of cotton goods,
etc.? Baron Meyendorff considers Russia more favoured
than any other country in the production of wools. In
Russia there are public granaries in every commune, in
which, according to law, there ought always to be a store
of grain kept for the safety of the people against scarcity ;
this, like all their laws in this great empire, is little more
than waste paper. Instead of ordering the erection of
public granaries, the Government, would have done more
wisely to have devoted its attention to the construction of
roads by which grain could have circulated more freely in
the country, and thus have prevented the occasional famine
in one part of the empire whilst there is a glut in another.
If roads were made in Russia, the merchants and dealers
‘in grain would supply the wants of any particular district
by equalising the supply of all.”

“St. Petersburgh, Sept. 7th—Some time ago a Yankee
adventurer asked permission to establish a hunting-station
on the North American territory belonging to Russia, but
it was refused. A year or two after this occurred, Baron
Meyendorff happened to be calling upon his friend the home
minister, who, putting a letter into his hand, remarked,
‘Here is something to amuse you; it has occasioned me
half an hour’s incessant laughter.” It was a despatch from
the governor of Irkutsk, describing in pompous language

1847,

ET. 43,
é
1847,
Air, 48,

 

458 LIFE OF COBDEN. [omar.

an ‘invasion,’ which had taken place in the North American
territory of the Russian empire by an armed force, con-
sisting of from eighty to one hundred men, commanded by
an American, and having three pieces of artillery. It was
the Yankee fur-trader, who had taken French leave and
squatted himself upon the most favourable situation in the
Czar’s dominions for carrying on his hunting operations.
The question arose how he was to be ejected. There was
no Russian armed force or authority of any kind within
many hundreds, perhaps thousand, miles of the invading
army. The expense of fitting out an armament for the
purpose was then calculated, but the distance and the diffi-
culty of approaching the Yankee headquarters were such
formidable obstacles, that it was thought better to leave the
enemy in possession of his conquered territory, and there
he remains now, carrying on his operations against the
bears and the beavers of the Czar without molestation.
This gives an idea of the weakness of a government whose
dominions extend to upwards of a twelvemonth’s journey
from its capital.”

“St. Petersburgh, Sept. 11th—.... Dined at the
English club, and met a party of Russians; they rise from
table as soon as they have swallowed their dinner, and
proceed to the card-table, billiards, or skittles, There
is no intellectual society, no topic of general interest is
discussed—an un-idea’d party. My table companions, the
English merchants, were of opinion that extensive smug-
gling is carried on, particularly in sugar; they spoke freely
of the corruption of the employés, and the general pro-
pensity to live beyond their means. One of them mentioned
an anecdote of the corruption of the government employés.
He had a contract with one of the departments for a quantity
of lignum vite at eight roubles a pood; upon its being
xvi} | ST. PETERSBURGH. ‘459

delivered it was pronounced inferior, and rejected after
being stamped at the end of each log; he called at the
bureau to complain and remonstrate, but without success ;
and on leaving was followed by a person who asked his
address and said he would call upon him. He was as good
as his word, and the following conversation occurred: ‘You
have charged your wood too low; it is not possible to
furnish a good quality at eight roubles; you must send in
another delivery at twelve roubles,’ ‘But I have no other
quality, was the reply. ‘Leave that to me,’ said the
person. ‘You must address a petition to the department,
saying that you are prepared to send in another delivery ;
T will draw up the petition, you must sign it; I will manage
the rest, and you will pay me 1000 roubles, which will be
half the difference of the extra price you will receive’ He
consulted with his friends, who advised him to comply, and
he accordingly signed the petition. The person then had
the rejected lignum vite conveyed to a warehouse, where
the ends were sawed off the logs to remove the stamp, and
the identical wood was delivered, and passed for full weight
and good quality.”

“St. Petersburgh, Sept. 12th—Went in the morning
to the Kasan Cathedral, where I found a full congregation,
two-thirds at least being men. Went with Mr. Edwards
by railway to see the horse-races at Tsarskoe Selo; a
large proportion of the persons who went by the train
were English. The emperor and his family and a good
muster of fashionables were present on the course, but
the amusements wanted life and animation, which
nothing but a maas of people capable of feeling and ex-
pressing an interest in the sports of the day can present,
Afterwards went to the Vauxhall of Petersburgh to
dine. An Englishman accosted me in a broad Devonshire

1847.
Zit. 43.

 
460 ‘LIFE OF COBDEN,. (car.

1847. accent, and said he was a freeman of Tavistock, and would

 

47. 43, give me a plumper if I came there as-a candidate. Met
another man from Stockport who is in a cotton-mill here;
he says it works from six a.m. to eight p.m., stopping for
an hour; that the engine runs thirteen hours a day;
says double the number of hands, as compared with the
English mills, are employed to produce a given result; the
English labourer is the cheapest in Europe.”

“St. Petersburgh, Sept. 13th—Mr. Edwards, attaché to
the English ministry, mentioned an anecdote illustrative of
the inordinate self-complacency of my countrymen, They
complained to him that at the Commercial Association, a
kind of club consisting of natives and English, the air of
‘Rule Britannia’ had been hissed by the Russians; they
were discomposed at the idea of foreigners heing averse to
the naval domination of England!”

“ St. Petersburgh, Sept. 15th.—Paid a visit to the Minister
of Finance; he invited me to speak to him frankly as to
my opinions on the manufactures of Russia, and I pro-
fited by the opportunity of making a Free Trade speech
to him of half an hour's length. He was reported to me
as an incompetent, ignorant man, but he has at least the
merit of being willing to learn; he listened like a man of
good common sense, and his observations were very much
to the point. M. de Boutowsky called, who has written
a work upon political economy and in favour of Free
Trade, in the Russian language. In the course of the
conversation he remarked that Peter the Great com-
menced the system of regulating and interfering with trade
and manufactures in Russia. Another instance added to
those of Cromwell, Frederick the Great, Louis XIV.,,
Napoleon, and Mehemet Ali, showing that warriors
and despots are generally bad economists, and that they
xvm.] PROTECTION AND MILITARY DESPOTISM. 461

‘

instinctively carry their ideas of force and violence into 1847.
the civil policy of their governments. Free Trade is a mr. 43,
principle which recognises the paramount advantage of
individual action. Military conquerors, on the contrary,
trust only to the organized efforts of bodies of men
directed by their own personal will.

Dined with Count Nesselrode, and sat beside Count
Kisseleff, one of the ablest of the ministers, having the
direction of the public domains, After dinner, other
persons of rank joined us in the drawing-room, and we
had a lively discussion upon Free Trade. Count Kisseleft
talked freely and without much knowledge of the ques-
tion, whilst Nesselrode sat quietly with the rest of the
company listening to the controversy. My opponents were
moderate in their pretensions, and made a stand only for
the protection of industries in their infancy. All parties
threw overboard cotton-spinning as an exotic which ought
not to be encouraged in Russia. A Free Trade debate in
Nesselrode’s drawing-room must at least have been a
novelty.”

“St. Petersburgh, Sept. 23rd.—Called by invitation upon
Prince Oldenburgh, cousin of the Emperor, a man of amiable
and intelligent mind, a patron of schools and chari-
ties. He spoke with affection and admiration of England,
of its people, their religous and moral character, their public
spirit and domestic virtues. Speaking of Russia, he said
that its two greatest evils were corruption and drunkenness.
Was entertained at a public dinner by about two hundred
merchants and others at the establishment of mineral waters
in one of the islands; a fine hall, prettily decorated, and
with a band of music in an adjoining room. After I had
spoken, an Englishman named Hodgson, manager of
Loader’s spinning-mill, who was formerly a Radical orator
1847,
is, 48,

 

462 LIFE OF COBDEN. [cnar.

in England, addressed the meeting, pretty much in the
style of some of my old Chartist opponents in England,
which afforded me an opportunity of replying to him,
greatly to the satisfaction of the meeting. I was struck
with the freedom of speech and absence of restraint which
pervaded the meeting, and which contrasted with the
timidity I had sometimes seen in Italy and Austria. The
meeting went off well, and everybody seemed well satisfied.
Such a numerous party had never assembled at a public
dinner in St. Petersburgh.”

“ Iubeck, Sept. 29th.—Left Cronstadt at two o'clock
on Sunday morning, 26th, by the ‘Nicolai’ steamer, and
after a favourable passave without adventures of any kind

. reached Travenmunde at eight o’clock this morning. My

head was too much disturbed by the sea voyage to be fit
for numerous introductions, so after breakfasting and. rest-
ing a few hours, I proceeded in company with our Consul,
who had been so good as to come down to meet me, to
Lubeck, a pleasant drive of nine miles.”

“ Iubeck, Sept. 30th—Captain Stanley Carr called; be
has a large estate about four miles distant, which he has
occupied for twenty years, and cultivates with great success
upon the English system. He has a thousand acres under
the plough, a small steam-engine for thrashing, and all the
best implements. He says he employs three times as many
people as were at work upon the land before he bought it;
he raises four times as much produce; has drained and
subsoiled the farm; sells his butter and cattle at twenty-
five per cent. higher prices than his neighbours. Speaking
of his visit to Bohemia, where he spent three months of last
year, he said the agriculture was in a very wretched state.
The peasants were without capital, and the corvée system
prevailed, by which the landlord’s land was cultivated so
1
xVIL] ARRIVAL AT HOME. 463

badly by the peasantry that he would not accept an estate 1847.
at a gift, to be obliged to work it upon that system. He ~ Hr. 48,
told me an anecdote of a man engaged in the manufactory
of iron in that country, who complained of the competition
of the English, who ‘paid the freight to! Hamburgh, and
then the expense of carrying it up the Elbe to Bohemia, and
then,’ he added, ‘they undersell me twenty-five per cent. at
my own door, and be d—d to them!’ In consequence of
“which he went off to Vienna to call for higher protection
to the iron manufacture, by way of supporting ‘native
-industry.’!... In the evening wag entertained by a party
of about seventy merchants and others of Lubeck at a public
dinner. After dinner went to ‘the cellar’ under the Town
Hall, a famous resort for the people, where they drink beer,
sing, and listen to music, On descending into these vaults,
I was enveloped in clouds of smoke. At one end was a
band of music; in another ‘recess was a festive meeting of
the German savans, some of whom, with their wives, were
seated at tables; others were crowded round a speaker,
who was addressing them, whilst almost invisible in a
cloud of smoke. It resembled a midnight scene in a ‘coal-
hole’ or ‘finis’ in London—yet in this odd place was to
be found a hundred of the first professors and literary
‘men of Germany. I was introduced to Grimm, the famous
critic and linguist.”

“ Hamburgh, Oct. 5th, 1847.—In the evening dined with
about seven hundred persons at a Free Trade banquet ; Mr.
Ruperti in the chair. Sat down at half-past five, and the
dinner and speeches lasted till ten. The speakers were free
in the range of their topics, advocated the freedom of the
press, quizzed the regulations of the city of Hamburgh,
and turned into ridicule the Congress of Vienna and the
Germanic diet.”
464 LIFE OF COBDEN. [cmar. xvm.

1847. “ Manchester, Oct, 12th—Left the Elbe on Saturday
x. 48, morning, 9th, and reached London on Monday at eleven
o'clock. Was told on board that the steamers carry
cattle from Hamburgh to London for thirty shillings a
head, and sheep for three shillings. Slept at the Victoria
Hotel, Euston Square, on Monday, and left for Man-
chester by the six o’clock train on Tuesday, reaching home
»- at three o’clock.”

 
CHAPTER XIX.

ELECTION POR THE WEST BIDING.—PURCHASE OF DUNFORD.—
CORRESPONDENCE,

Dvuzina Cobden’s absence in the autamn of 1847, a general 1847.
election had taken place. While he was at St. Petersburg Air. 43.
he learned that he had been returned not only for his former
borough of Stockport, but for the great constituency of the
West Riding of Yorkshire. He wrote to thank Mr. Bright
for his powerful and friendly services at the election. ‘‘ But
I cannot conceal from you,” he went on to say, “that my
return for the West Riding has very much embarrassed and
annoyed me. Personally and publicly speaking, I should
have preferred Stockport. It is the greatest compliment
ever offered to a public man; but had I been consulted, I
should have respectfully declined.”’ After the compliment
had actually been conferred, it was too late to refuse it,
and Cobden represented the West Riding in two parlia-
ments, until the political crash came in 1857. The
triumph of Cobden’s election for the great Yorkshire con-
stituency was matched by the election of Mr. Bright for
Manchester, in spite of the active and unscrupulous efforts of
some old-fashioned Liberals. They pretended to find him
1 Sept. 18, 1847.

 

uh
466 LIFE OF COBDEN. [onar,

1847, violent and reckless, he wanted social position, and so forth.
Hs. 43, For. the time they were swept away by the overwhelming
wave of Mr. Bright’s popularity, but they nursed their
wrath and had their revenge ten years afterwards.

Another important step had been taken while Cobden
was abroad. His business was brought to an end, and the
affairs relating to it wound up by one or two of his friends.
A considerable portion of the sum which had been sub-
scribed for the national testimonial to him, had been ab-
sorbed in settling outstanding claims. With a part of what
remained Cobden, immediately after his return from his
travels, purchased the small property at Dunford on which
he was born. He gave up his house in Manchester, and
when in London lived for some years to come at Westbourne
Terrace. Afterwards he lived in lodgings during the
session, or more frequently accepted quarters at the house
of one of his more intimate friends, Mr. Hargreaves, Mr.
Schwabe, or Mr. Paulton. His home was henceforth at
Dunford. His brother Frederick, who had shared the
failure of their fortunes at Manchester, took up his abode
with him and remained until his death in 1858. Five or
six years after the acquisition of his little estate, Cobden
pulled down the ancestral farm-house, and built a modest
residence upon the site. In this for the rest of his life he
passed all the time that he could spare from public labours,
Once in thesedays, Cobden was addressing a meeting at Ayles-
bury. He talked of the relations of landlord and tenant, and
referred by way of illustration to his own small property.
Great is the baseness of men. Somebody in the crowd
called out to ask him how he had got his property. “I am
indebted for it,” said Cobden with honest readiness, “ to
the bounty of my countrymen. It was the scene of my
birth and my infancy ; it was the property of my ancestors;
snd it is by the munificence of my countrymen that this
'

xix. PURCHASH OF DUNFORD. 467

small estate, which had been alienated from my father by 1847.
necessity, has again come into my hands, and enabled me to afr. 43, |
light up afresh the hearth of my father where I spent my
own childhood. I say that no warrior duke who owns a vast
domain by the vote of the Imperial Parliament, holds his
property by a more honourable title than I possess mine.”?
If the baseness of men is great, so too is their generosity of
response to a magnanimous appeal, and the boisterous cheer-
ing of the crowd showed that they felt Cobden’s answer to
be good and sufficient.

The following is Cobden’s own account, at the time, of
the country in which he had once more struck a little root.
He is writing to Mr. Ashworth :-—

“ Midhurst, Oct. 7, 1850.—I have been for some weeks in
one of the most secluded corners of England. Although
my letter is dated from the quiet little close borough of
Midhurst, the house in which I am living is about one and
a half miles distant, in the neighbouring rural parish of
Heyshott. The roof which now shelters me is that under
which I was born, and the room where I now sleep is tho
one in which I first drew breath. It is an old farm-house,
which had for many years been turned into labourers’
cottages. With the aid of the whitewasher and carpenter,
we have made a comfortable weather-proof retreat for
summer; and we are surrounded with pleasant woods, and
within a couple of miles of the summit of the South Down
hills, where we have the finest air and some of the prettiest
views in England. At some future day I shall be delighted
to initiate you into rural life. A Sussex hill-side village
will be an interesting field for an exploring excursion for
you. We have a population under three hundred.in our
parish. The acreage is about 2000, of which one proprietor,

2 Speeches, i. 440, Jan. 9, 1850. In the same place will be found his
scoount of the way in which he dealt with his land.
1847.

 

: Air, 43,

468 LIVE OF OOBDEN, omar,

Colonel Wyndham, owns 1200 acres. He is a non-resident,
as indeed are all the other proprietors. The clergyman is
also non-resident. He lives at the village of Stedham,
about three miles distant, where he has another living anda
parsonage-house. He comes over to our parish to perform
service once on Sundays, ‘alternately in the morning and
afternoon. The church is in @ ruinous state, the tower
having fallen down many years ago. The parson draws
about 3002. a year in tithes, besides the produce of a few
acres of glebe Jand. He is a decent man, with a large
family, spoken well of by everybody, and himself admits
the evils of clerical absenteeism, We have no school and
no schoolmaster, unless I give that title to a couple of
cottages where illiterate old women collect a score or two
of infants whilst their parents are in the fields. Thus ‘ our
village’ is without resident proprietors or clergyman or
schoolmaster. Add to these disadvantages, that the farmers
are generally deficient of capital, and do not employ so many
labourers as they might. The rates have been up to this
time about six shillings in the pound. We are not under
the new poor law, but in a Gilbert’s Union, and almost all our
expense is for outdoor relief.

“ Here is a picture which will lead you to expect when you
visit us a very ignorant and very poor population. There is
no post-office in the village. Every morning an old man,
aged about seventy, goes into Midhurst for the letters. He
charges a penny for every despatch he carries, including such
miscellaneous articles as horse collars, legs of mutton, empty
sacks, and wheelbarrows. His letter-bag for the whole
village contains on an average from two to three letters
daily, including newspapers. The only newspapers which
enter the parish are two copies of Bell’s Weekly Messenger, a
sound old Tory Protectionist much patronized by drowsy
farmers, The wages paid by the farmers are very low, not
mx. FIOTURE OF RURAL LIFE IN SUSSEX. 469

exceeding eight shillings a week. Iam employing anold 1847.
man nearly seventy, and his son about twenty-two, and his Afr. 43.
nephew about nineteen, at digging and removing some
fences. I pay the two former nine shillings a week and the
last eight shillings, and I am giving a shilling a week
more than anybody else is paying. What surprises me
is to observe how well the poor fellows work, and how
long they last. The South Down air, in the absence of South
Down mutton, has something to do with the healthiness of
these people, I dare say. The labourers have generally a
garden, and an allotment of a quarter of an acre; for the
latter they pay three and ninepence a year rent. We are
in the midst of woods, and on the borders of common land,
so that fuel is cheap. All the poor have a right to cut turf
on the common for their firing, which costs two shillings
and threepence per thousand. The labourers who live in
my cottages have pigs in their sties, but I believe it is not
so universally. I have satisfied myself that, however badly
off the labourers may be at present, their condition was
worse in the time of high-priced corn. 'In 1847, when
bread was double its present price, the wages of the farm
labourers were not raised more than two to three shillings
a week. At that time a man with a family spent all he
earned for bread, and still had not enough to sustain his
household. I have it both from the labourers themselves
and the millers from whom they buy their flour, that they
ran. so deeply in debt for food during the high prices of 1847,
that they have scarcely been able in some cases up to the
present to pay off their score. The class feeling amongst
the agricultural labourers is in favour of acheap loaf. They
dare not say much about it openly, but their instincts are
serving them in the absence of economical knowledge, and
they are unanimously against Chowler and the Protectionists,
T can hardly pretend that in this world’s-end spot we can
470 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [oar

1847. say that any impulse has been given to the demand for agri-

“ar. 4g, Cultural labourers by the Free Trade policy. Ours is about

the last place which will feel its good effects. But there is

one good sign which augurs well for the future. Skilled

labourers, such as masons, joiners, blacksmiths, painters,

and so on, are in very great request, and it is difficult to get

work of that kind done in moderate time. Iam inclined to

think that in more favourable situations an impulse has

likewise been imparted to unskilled labour. It is certain

that during the late harvest-time there was a great difficulty

in obtaining hands on the south side of the Downs towards

the sea coast, where labour is in more demand than here

under the north side of the hills. I long to live to see an
agricultural labourer strike for wages |! ”

Before he had been many weeks in England, Cobden was
drawn into the eager discussion of other parts of his policy,
which were fully as important as Free Trade itself. The
substitution of Lord-Palmerston for Lord Aberdeen at tho
Foreign Office was instantly followed by the active inter-
vention of the British Government in the affairs of other
countries. There was an immediate demand for increased
expenditure on armaments. Augmented expenditure meant
augmented taxation. Hach of the three items of the pro-
gramme was the direct contradictory of the system which
Cobden believed to be not only expedient but even indis-
pensable. His political history from this time down to the
year when they both died, is one long antagonism to the
ideas which were concentrated in Lord Palmerston. Yet
Cobden was too reasonable to believe that there could be a
material reduction in armaments, until a great change had
taken place in the public opinion of the country with
respect to its foreign policy. He slways said that no
Minister could reduce armaments or expenditure, until the
Hnglish people abandoned the notion that they were to
xx, THH SPANISH MARRIACHS, 471,

regulate the affairs of the world. ‘In all my travels,” he 1847. __
wrote to Mr. Bright, “three reflections constantly occur to it. 48.
me: how much unnecessary solicitude and alarm England
devotes to the affairs of foreign countries; with how little
knowledge we enter upon the task of regulating the con-

cerns of other people; and how much better we might
employ our energies in improving matters at home.”* He

knew that the influential opinion of the country was still
against him, and that it would be long before it turned.
“Until that time,” he ssid, in words which may be use-

fully remembered by politicians who are fain to reap before

they have sown, “I am content to be on this question as I

have been on others in & minority, and in a minority to
remain, until I get a majority.”

While he was away that famous intrigue known as the
Spanish Marriages took place. The King of the French,
guided by the austere and devout Guizot, so contrived the

‘marriages of the Queen of Spain and her sister, that in the
calculated default of issue from the Queen, the crown of
Spain would go to the issue of her sister and the Duke of
Montpensier, Louis Philippe’s son. Cobden, as we shall see,
did not believe that the King was looking so far as this.
It was in any case « disgraceful and odious transaction, but
events very speedily proved how little reason there was why
it should throw the English Foreign Office into a parexysm.
Cobden was moved to write to Mr. Bright upon it :—

© My object in writing again is to speak upon the Mar-
riage question. I have seen with humiliation that the daily
newspaper press of England has been lashing the public
mind into an excitement (or at least trying to do so) upon the
alliance of the Duke of Montpensier with the Infanta. I saw
this boy and girl married, and as I looked at them, I could
not help exclaiming to myself, ‘What a couple to excite the

8 To Mr. Bright. Sept. 18, 1847.
 

Ar. 43.

472 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [omar.

animosity of the people of England and France!’ ° Have we
not outgrown the days when sixty millions of people could
be set at loggerheads by s family intrigue? Yes, we have
probably grown wiser than to repeat the War of Succes-
sion, but I see almost as great an evil as actual hostilities
in the tone of the press and the intrigues of the diplomatists
of England and France. They keep the two nations in a
state of distrust and alienation, they familiarize us with the
notion that war is still a possible event, and worse still, they
furnish the pretext for continually augmenting our standing
armaments, and thus oppressing and degrading the people
with taxation, interrupting the progress of fiscal reforms, and
keeping us in a hostile attitude ready for war.

“T began my political life by writing against this system
of foreign interference, and every year’s experience confirms
me in my early impression that it lies at the bottom of much
of our misgovernment at home. My visit to Spain has
strengthened, if possible, a hundredfold my conviction that
all attempts of England to control or influence the destinies,
political and social, of that country are worse than useless.
They are mischievous alike to Spaniards and Englishmen.
They are a peculiar people not understood by us. They have
one characteristic, however, which their whole history might
have revealed to us, i.e. their inveterate repugnance to all
foreign influences and alliances, and their unconquerable
resistance to foreign control. No country in Europe besides
is-so isolated in its prejudices of race and caste. It has ever
been so, whether in the times of the Romans, of the Saracens,
of Louis XIV., or of Napoleon. No people are more willing
to call in the aid of foreign arms or diplomacy to fight
their battles, but they despise and suspect the motives of all
who come to help them, and they turn against them the
moment their temporary purpose is gained, As for any
other nation permanently swaying the destinies of Spain, or
x1x.] ‘LETTER TO ME. BRIGHT. 473

finding in it an ally to be depended on against other Powers,
it would be as easy to gain such an. object with the Bedouins
of the Desert, with whom, by the way, the Spaniards have no
slight affinity of character. No one who knows the people,
nobody who has read their history, can doubt this; and yet
our diplomatists and newspaper-writers are pretending alarm
at the marriage of the youngest son of Louis Philippe with
the Infanta, on the ground of the possible future union of the
two countries under one head, or at least under one influence.
Nobody knows the absurdity of any such contingency better
than Louis Philippe. He feels, no doubt, that it is difficult
enough to secure one throne permanently for his dynasty, and
unless his sagacity be greatly over-rated, he would shrink
from the possibility of one of his descendants ever attempt-
ing to wear at the same time the crowns of Spain and France.
I believe the French King to have had but one object,—to
secure a rich wife for his youngerson. He is perhaps a little
avaricious in his old age, like most other men. But I care
nothing for his motives or policy. Looking to the facta, I
ask why should the French and English people allow them-
selves to be embroiled by such family mancuvres? He may
have been treacherous to our Queen, but why should kings
and queens be allowed to enter into any marriage compacts
in the name of their people? You will perhaps tell me when
you write that the bulk of the middle class, the reflecting
portion of the people of England, do not sympathize with the
London daily press on the subject of the Marriage question;
and I know that there is a considerable portion of' the more
intelligent French people who do not approve of all that is
written in the Paris papers. But, unhappily, the bulk of
mankind do not think for themselves. The newspapers write
in the name of the two countries, and to a great extent they
form public opinion. Governments and diplomatists act
upon the views expressed in the influential journals.

 
474 Li¥R OF COBDEN. [onar,

1847. «, ,.. There is one way in which this system of interfering,

1.43, in the politics of Spain is especially mischievous. It prevents
Spanish parties from being formed upon a purely domestic
basis, and thus puts off the day when the politicians shall
devote themselves to their own reforms, At present, all the
intrigues of Madrid revolve round the diplomatic manceuvres
of France end England. There is another evil arising out
of it. It gives the bulk of the Spaniards a false notion of
their own position. They are a proud people, they think all
Europe ‘is busy with their affairs, they hear of France and
England being on the point of going to war about the
marriage of one of their princesses, they imagine that Spain
is the most important country in the world, and thus they
forget their own ignorance, poverty, and political degrada-
tion, and of course do not occupy themselves in domestic
reforms. If left to themselves, they would soon find ont
their inferiority, for they are not without a certain kind of
common sense,

“T have always had an instinctive monomania against this
system of foreign interference, protocolling, diplomatising,
etc., and I should be glad if you and our other Free Trade
friends, who have beaten the daily broad-sheets into common
sense upon another question, would oppose yourselves to the
Palmerston system, and try to prevent the Foreign Office from
undoing the good which the Board of Trade has done to the
people. But you must not disguise from yourself that the
evil has its roots in the pugnacious, energetic, self-sufficient,
foreigner-despising and pitying character of that noble insular
creature, John Bull. Read Washington Irving’s description
of him fumbling for his cudgel always the moment he hears
of any row taking place anywhere on the face of the
earth, and bristling up with anger at the very idea of any
other people daring to have a quarrel without first asking his
consent or inviting him to take a part in it,
ven. ON A MISOHIBVOUS FOREIGN POLIOY. 475

.,.. And the worst fact is, that however often we increase
our establishments, we never reduce them. Thus in 1834 and
1835, Mr. Urquhart and the daily press did their utmost to
frighten the people of England into the notion that Russia
was going to swallow Turkey, and then would land some
fine morning at Yarmouth to make a breakfast of England.
Our armaments were accordingly increased. In 1840 the
Whigs called for 5000 additional soldiers to put down
Chartism. In 1846 still further armaments were voted to
meet the Oregon dispute. These pretences have all vanished,
but the ships and soldiers remain, and taxes are paid to sup-
port them. Keep your eye upon our good friend Ward, or
depend on it he will be wanting more ships on the plea of our
unsettled relations with Spain and France. Probably that is
the reason why you read of Admiral Parker being sent to
this ‘coast, and his fleet placed at the orders of Mr. Bulwer,
of steamers passing bétween Gibraltar and the Fleet, etc.
All this may be intended to prepare John Bull for a haul
upon his purse for more ships next session ; at least it may be
an argument to pass the navy estimates with acclamation.
As for any other rational object being gained, it is not in my
power here on the spot to comprehend it. The English
merchants leugh at the pretence set up by our Admiral to the
Spanish authorities on the coast to excuse his appearance in
such force ‘that he comes to protect British interests.’ The
British residents have no fear of any injuries. I have seen
Englishmen who have lived here during about a score of
revolutions, and witnessed a hundred changes of ministries,
and who laugh at the idea of any danger. To sum
up in a word, our meddling with this country is purely
mischievous to all parties, and can do no good to Spaniards
or Englishmen. And I hope you will do your best to stem
the spirit with which it is encouraged in the daily press. I
was glad to see the good sense in your paper, the Manchester
476 LIFE OF OOBDEN. fomap,

1848. Examiner, upon the subject, and equally sorry to observe
Atx.44, that our good friend, James Wilson, had been carried away
by the current. I wrote to him from Madrid. I fear it is
too much to expect any man to live in London in the
atmosphere of the clubs and political cliques, and preserve
the independent national tone in his paper, which we had

hoped for in the Heonomist.’’*

Lord Palmerston’s intervention in the affairs of Portugal
was more active, and even more wantonly preposterous,
All that Cobden said on this subject was literally true. The
British fleet was kept in the Tagus for many months in order
to protect the Queen of Portugal against her own subjects,
What had England to gain? Portugal was one of the
smallest, poorest, most decayed and abject of European
countries. As for her commerce, said Cobden, if that is what
you seek, you are sure of that, for the simple reason that you
take four-fifths of all her port wine, and if you did not, ne
one else would drink it. Our statesmen, he went on, actually
undertook to say who should govern Portugal, and they.
stipulated that the Cortes should be governed on constitu-
tional principles. The Cortes was elected, and what hap-
pened? The people returned almost every man favourable
to the very statesman who, as Lord Palmerston insisted, was
to have no influence in Portugal.’

What Cobden heard from Bastiat made him all the more
anxious to bring England round to 4 more sedate policy.
The chief obstacles to the propagandism of Free Trade in
France, said Bastiat, come from your side of the Channel.

4 To Mr. Bright. Oot, 24, 1846.

® Speeches, i. 466. Jan. 27, 1848. See for the other side of the matter,
Mr. Ashley’s Life of Lord Palmerston, ii. 14—30. Lord Palmerston’s refer-
ence (p. 16) to the anxiety and nneasiness of the Queen and the Prince
Consort at Windsor shows, among many other proofs, how well-founded
were Oobden’s notions of the partioular forces that were st work behind
the policy of Intervention.
xx.) OOMPLAINTS FROM BASTIAT. 477

He was confronted by the fact that at the very time when 1848.
Peel consummated the policy of Free Trade, he asked for ir. 44.
an extra credit for the army, as if to proclaim, said Bastiat,
that he had no faith in his own work, and as if to thrust
back our best arguments down our own throats. Thirteen
years afterwards, when Cobden was himself engaged in con-
verting France to Free Trade, while Lord Palmerston was at
the same moment increasing the fleet, raising new fortifica-
tions, and making incendiary speeches, Bastiat’s words of
1847 may have come back to his mind: “ Besides the extra
credit, the policy of your government is still marked by a
spirit of taquimerie, which irritates the French people, and
makes it lose whatever impartiality it may have had left.”

“T must speak to you in all frankness,” Bastiat proceeded,
in his urgent way. “ In adopting Free Trade England has
not adopted the policy that flows logically from Free Trade.
Willshedoso? I cannot doubtit, but when? The position
taken by you and. your friends in Parliament will have an
immense influence on the course of our undertaking. Ifyou
energetically disarna your diplomacy, if you succeed in
reducing your naval forces, we shall be strong. If not,
what kind of figure shall we cut before our public? When
we predict that Free Trade will draw English policy into the
way of justice, peace, economy, colonial emancipation,
France is not bound to take our word for it. There exists
an inveterate mistrust of England, I will even say a senti-
ment of hostility, as old as the two names of French and
English. Well, there are excuses for this sentiment. What
is wrong is that it envelopes ail your parties, and all your
fellow-citizens in the same reprobation. But ought not
nations to judge one another by external acts? They often
say that we ought not to confound nations with their govern-
ments. There is some troth and some falsehood in this

6 Bastiat, i, 158,
478 \LIFE GF OOBDEN. [onar.

1848. maxim; and I venture to say that it is false as regards

 

41.44. nations that possess constitutional means of making opinion,
prevail. England ought to bring her political. system
into harmony with her new economic system.”’?

Cobden in reply seems to have treated this apprehension
of English naval force, and the hostile use to which it might
be put, as a device of the French Protectionists to draw
attention from the true issue. No, answered Bastiat manfully;
“T know my country; it sees that England is capable of
crushing all the navies in the world; it knows that it is led
by an oligarchy which has no scruples. That is what disturbs
its sight, and hinders it from understanding Free Trade. I
gay more, that even if it did understand Free Trade, it
would not care for it on account of its purely economic
advantages. What you have to show it above all else is that
freedom of exchange will cause the disappearance of those
military perils which France apprehends. England ought
seriously to disarm ; spontaneously to drop her underground
opposition to the unlucky Algerian conquest; and sponta-
neously to put an end to the dangers that grow out of the
Right of Search.’* When the revolution of 1848 came, Bastiat
was more pressing than ever. France could not be the first to
disarm ; and if she did disarm, she would be drawn into war.
England by her favoured position, was alone able to set the
example. If she could only understand all this and act upon it,
“she would save the future of Hurope.’”’ Bastiat, however,
was not long in awakening to the fact that not Protection but
Socialism was now the foe that menaced France. He turned
round with admirable versatility, and brought to bear on
the new monster the same keen and patient scrutiny, the
same skilful dexterity in reasoning and illustration, which
had done such good. service against the more venerable
heresy. The pamphlets which he wrote between 1848 and

7 Bastiat to Oobden. Oct. 15, 1847. ® Gy. i. 167-170.
x1x.} THE REVOLUTION oF 1848. 479

1850 contain by much the most penetrating and effective 1648.
examination that the great Socialist writers in France have “Br 44,
ever received.

This memorable year was an unfavourable moment for
Cobden’s projects, but the happy circumstance that Great
Britain alone passed through the political cyclone without any
thing more formidable than Mr. Smith O’Brien’s insurrection
in Ireland, and the harmless explosion of Chartism on Ken-
nington Common, was too remarkable for men not to seek to
explain it. The explanation that commended itself to most
observers was that Free Trade had both mitigated the pressure
of those economic evils which had provoked violent risings
in other countries, and that, besides this, it had removed
from the minds of the English workmen the sense that the
government was oppressive, unjust, or indifferent to their

wellbeing. “ My beliefis,” said Sir Robert Peel, in a power-
ful speech which he made the following year, vindicating his
commercial policy, “that you have gained the confidence and
good will of a powerful class in this country by parting with
that which was thought to be directly for the benefit of the
landed interest, I think it was that confidence in the gene-
rosity and justice of Parliament, which in no small degree
enabled you to pass triumphantly through the storm that
convulsed other countries during the year 1848,” *

‘The Protectionist party had not yet accepted defeat, nor
did they finally accept it until they came into power in 1852.
All through the year that intervened they turned nearly
every debate into a Protectionist debate. After Lord
George Bentinck’s death in the autumn of 1848, they were
led in the House of Commons by Mr. Disraeli, whose per-
sistent and audacious patience was inspired by the seeming

> Jaly 6, 1849. This comprehensive defence of Free Trade ia well worth
reading at the present day, when the same fallacies which Peel them
have come to life again.
1848,
Air, 44,

 

480 WIFE OF COBDEN. [onar.

i

confidence that a Protectionist reaction was inevitable. The
reaction never came. The Navigation Laws, aud protection
on West Indian Sugar, followed the Corn Law. Free trade
in corn was ouly the prelude to free trade in sugar and free
trade in ships. But the interests died hard.’ Even the
landlords made tenacious efforts to get back, in the shape of
specious readjustments of rates and taxes, something of what
they believed that they were going to lose on their rents,
Cobden remained in the forefront of this long controversy,
though he was no longer one of the leaders of a forlorn hope.

The Irish famine and the Irish imsurrection forced the
minds of politicians of every colour to the tormenting problem
to which Cobden had paid such profound attention on his
first entry into public life. National Education, another of
the sincerest interests of his earlier days, once more engaged
him, and he found himself, as he had already done by his vote
on the Maynooth grant, in antagonism to a large section
of nonconformist politicians for whom in every other matter
he had the warmest admiration. The following extracts
from his correspondence show how he viewed these and other
less important topics, as they came before him.

* London, Feb. 22, 1848. (To Mrs. Oobden.)—There seems
to be a terrible storm brewing against the Whig budget.
Unfortunately the outcry is rather against the mode of raising
the money than the mode of expending it, and I do not sym-
pathize with those who advocate armaments and then grumble
at the cost. For my part I would make the influential classes
pay the money, and then they will be more careful in the
expenditure. I get a good many letters of support from all
parts of the country, and some poetry, as you will see.”

“Feb. 24.—Nothing is being talked about to-day but
the émeutes in Paris. From the iast accounts it seems that

1 The Sugar Duties Bill became iaw in 1848, but the Navigation Aot
was not passed until the sunumer of 184).
xux.] THE REVOLUTION IN FRANOE. 481

Louis Philippe has been obliged to give way and change 1848.
his ministry owing to the troops and the national guards Air. 44.

having shown signs of fraternizing with the people. By-and-
_ by governments will discover that it is no use to keep large
standing armies, as they cannot depend on them at a pinch.
You are right in saying that the income tax has brought
people to their senses. It is disgusting to see the same men
who clamoured for armaments, now refusing to pay for them.”
“ London, Feb. 29. (To George Combe.)—These are stirring
events in France. I am most anxious about our neutrality
in the squabbles which will ensue on the Continent. I dread
the revival of the Treaty of Vienna by our red-tapists, should
France reach to the Rhine or come in collision with Austria
or Russia. Besides, there is a great horror at the present
changes in the minds of our Court and aristocracy. There
will be a natural repugnance on the part of our Government,
composed as it is entirely of the aristocracy, to go on
cordially with a Republic, and. it will be easy to find points
of disagreement, when the will is ready for a quarrel. [
know that the tone of the clubs and coteries of London is
decidedly hostile, and there is an expectation in the same
quarters that we shall have a war. It is striking to observe
how little the views and feelings of the dominant class are in
unison with those of the people at large. I agree with you
that the republican form of government will put France to
a too severe test. Yet it is difficult to see what other form
will suit it. The people are too clever and active to submit
to a despotism. All the props of a Monarchy, such as an
aristocracy and State Church, are gone. After all a Republic
is more in harmony than any other form with the manners
of the people, for there is a strong passion for social equality
in France. However, the duty of every man in England is

to raise the ery for neutrality.” ?
3 After the Revolution became Socialistic, Peel said the ssme:—'I believe

Ti
1848.

Ar, 44,

482 L178 OF COBDEN. omar,

“ March 8. (To Mrs. Oobden.)—We are a little anxious ap
here lest there should be riots in the north. We hear bad
accounts from Glasgow, but I suppose they are exaggerated.
I hope we shall have no imitations of the French fashions
in this respect.”

“March 10. ( ,, )—We were very late in the House
again last night. Disraeli wae very amusing for two hours,
talking about everything but the question. He made poor
McGregor a most ridiculous figure. The Whigs are getting
hold of our friends.

“ London, March 14. ( ,, )—On getting back yesterday
T found such a mass of letters that, what with them and the
committee I had to attend, and callers, and my speech last
evening, I thought you would excuse my writing to you. I
am more harassed than ever. The committees are very
important (I mean upon army, navy, and ordnance ex-
penditure,‘ and upon the Bank of England), and occupy
my time more than the House. I gave them some home
truths last evening, but we were in a poor minority.’ The
Ministers frightened our friends about a resignation. No-
body did more to canvass for help for them than

it to be essential to the peace of the world and to the stability of govern-
ment, that the experiment now making in France shall have a fair trial
without being embarrassed or obstructed by extrinsic intervention. Let
us wait for the results of this experiment. Let us calmly contemplate
whether it is possible that executive governments can be great manufao-
turers, whether it can be possible for them to force capital to employ
industry,’ &0.—Sir Robert Peel, April 18.

3 Among other points he laughed at Cobden and Mr. Bright aa represen-
tatives of Peace and Plenty in the face of a atarving-people and a world
in arms. He also deolared himself a “ Free-trader, not a freebooter of the
Manchester school.”

* As a means of conciliating pubiic opinion, which was at this time in
one of its cold and thrifty fits, Sir Charles Wood, the Chancellor of the
Exchequer, moved for a Select and Secret Committee to inquire into the
expenditure on army, navy, and ordnance. Cobden was an assiduous
attendant, with his ueaal anxiety to hear all the facts of the case.

* On Mr. Hume’s motion for altering the period of renewed income-tax
from three years to one. The “ poor minority” was 188 against 368.

 
xix] WORK IN PARLIAMENT. 483

He is far more to be blamed than Gibson, who is thoroughly 1848.
with us in heart, and only votes with the Government Air. 44.
because he is one of them. The electors ought to make
allowance for him. He is a very good fellow, and it is a
great pity that he ever joined the Whigs. There are many
men on our side upon whom I relied, who went over to the
Government, very much to my disgust. There are uncom-
monly few to be trusted in this atmosphere. Don't be
alarmed. Iam not going to set up any new League. It is
a mistake of the newspapers.”

“ March 18. ( ,, )—Wehave had incessant rain here for
several days, and I have been thinking with some apprehen-
sion of its effects upon the grain in the ground, and upon
the operations of the farmers in getting in their seed.
To-day, however, it is a fine clear day, and Iam going with
Porter® at four o’clock down to Wimbledon to stay till
Monday. This week’s work has nearly knocked me np.
They talk of a ten hours bill in Paris. I wish we had a
twelve hours bill, for I am at it from nine in the morning
till midnight. We had a debate last evening upon the
question of applying the income tax to Ireland, but I was
shut oat of the division, the door being closed in my face
just as I was entering, otherwise I should have voted for
the measure.’ The news from Paris is more and more
exciting. There seems to be a sort of reaction of the
moderate party against the violent men. The Bank of
France has suspended specie payments, which will lead to
much mischief and confusion. I fear we have not seen the
worst.”

* London, March 21, ( ,, )—I have sent you a Timea
containing s report of my speech last night. Be good

6 The author of Porter’s Progress of the Nation.
’ Moved by Sir B. Hall, opposed by the Government, and rejected by 218
$0 138,
Zr. 44,

1848.

 

484 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [ouar,

enough to return it to me after you have read it, as I shall
want to correct it for Hansard, and have not another copy.
We were in a miserable minority. The blue jackets and
red coats were down upon me fiercely, as if I had been
attacking them sword in hand. It reminded me of the old
times when we were just beginning the Anti-Corn-law
battle in the House. We get astounding news from the
continent; a fresh revolution or a dethronement by every
post.” ,

“ March27. ( ,, )—You need not be alarmed about my
turning up right in the end, but at the present time I am
not very fashionable in aristocratic circles. However, I
have caught Admiral Dundas in a trap. You may remem-
ber that he contradicted me about my fact of a large ship
lying at anchor so long at Malta, ‘Well, a person has called
upon me, and given me the minute particulars and dates of
the times which all the admirals have been lying in Malta
harbour during the last twelve years, extracted by him from
the ship logs which are lying at Somerset House. Having
got the particulars, I have given notice to Admiral Dundas
that I shall move in the House for the official return of them
to be extracted from the ships’ logs, He says I shan’t have
the returns, but he can’t deny that I have got them. I
shall make a stir in the House, and turn the tables upon
him. Whilst I was talking to the Admiral about it to-day in
the committee room, Molesworth entered into the altercation
with so much warmth that I thought there would have been
an affair between them. The best of it all is, that I find the
present Admiral in the Mediterranean (Sir William Parker),
who sent such an insolent message to me about my speech
at Manchester, which was read by Dundas in the House,
has been lying himself for sever’ months and two days in

® Debate on Navy estimates; amendn.ent for reduction of the force,
defeated by 347 to 38,
xx.) THE MDUOATION QUESTION. 485

Malta harbour with nearly 1000 hands, without ever stirring
out of port.”

“London, April 10. ( ,, }—-We have been all in excite-
ment here with the Chartist meeting at Kennington Common,
which after all has gone off very quietly, and does not appear
to have been so numerously attended as was expected. In
my opinion the Government and the newspapers have made
far too much fuss about it. From all that I can learn there
were not so many as 40,000 persons present, and they dis-
persed quietly. Ido not think I shall be able to go north
with you before next Monday week.”

© April 15. ( ,, )—You will have seen by the paper what:
a mess Feargus O’Conuor has made of the Chartist petition.
The poor dupes who have followed him are quite disheartened
and disgusted, and ought to be so. They are now much
more disposed to go along with the middle class.”

“ May 18. ( ,, )—You will hear that all the papers are
down upon me again. In making a few remarks about the
Alien Bill, I said that the ‘ best way to repel republicanism
was to curtail some of the barbarous splendour of the
Monarchy which went to the aggrandizement of the
aristocracy.’ My few words drew up Lord John as usual,
and he was followed by Bright with a capital speech.”

“ Manchester, April 24. (Lo G. Combe.) —You know how
cordially I agree with you upon the subject of Education.
But I confess I see no chance of incorporating it in any new
movement for an extension of the suffrage. The mam
strength of any such movement must be in the Liberal ranks
of the middle class, and they are almost exclusively filled by
Dissenters. To attempt to raise the question of National
Education amongst them at the present moment, would be
to throw @ bombshell into their ranks to disperse them.
In my opinion every extension of popular rights will bring
as nearer to a plan of National Hducation, because it will

1848.

at, 44.
486 LIF% OF OOBDEN. {cuar.

1648. give the poor # stronger motive to educate their children,
Hit, 44. and at the same time s greater power to carry the motive
into practice. The real obstacle to a system of National
Education has been in my opinion the State Church, and
although the Dissenters are for the moment in a false
position, they will, I hope, with time come right.”
“ May 15. ( ,, )-—There is no active feeling at present in
favour of National Education. The Dissenters, at least Baines’s
section, who have been the only movement party since the
League was dissolved, have rather turned popular opinion
against it.’ I need not say how completely I agree with
you that education alone can ensure good self-government,
Don’t suppose that I am changed, or that I intend to shirk
the question. Above all, don’t suspect that sitting for
Yorkshire would shut my mouth. I made up my mind, on
returning from the Continent, that the best chance I could
give to our dissenting friends was to give them time to cool
after the excitement of the late Opposition to the Govern-
ment measure, and therefore I have avoided throwing the
topic in their faces. But I do not intend to preserve my
silence much longer. If I take a part in a new reform
movement, I shall do my best to connect the Hducation
question with it, not as a part of the aew Reform act, but
by proclaiming my own convictions that it is by a national
system of education alone that people can acquire or retain
knowledge enough for self-government. In our reform
movement, sectarianism will not be predominant.”
London, July 23. ( ,, )—What awretched session has
this been! It ought to be expunged from the minutes of
® See above, vol. i., p. 300. “T confess,” said Cobden, in 1851, “that for
fifteen yeara my hopea of success in ertablishing a system of National Hde-
cation, have always been associated with the idea of coupling the education
of the country with the religious communities which exist.” But he found

religions discordances too violent, and he took refage, as we shall presently
uaa, in the ssoular system.
xix.) THE EDUCATION QUESTION. 487

Parliament. Three Coercion Bills for Ireland and the rest
talk, talk, talk. There never was a Parliament in which so
much power for good or evil war in the hands of the
Minister as in this. Lord John could have commanded a
majority for any judicions Liberal measures by the aid of
Peel, who was bound to support him, and the Liberals, who
were eager to be led forward. But he has allowed himself
to be baffled, bullied, and obstructed by Lord George
Bentinck and the Protectionists, who have been so far
encouraged by their success in Sugar and the Navigation Laws
that I expect they will be quite ready to begin their reaction
on Corn next session, and we may have to fight the Free
Trade battle over again. The feebleness and incapacity of
the Whigs are hardly sufficient to account for their failures
as administrators. The fact is they are the allies of the
aristocracy rather than of the people, and they fight their
opponents with gloves, not meaning to hurt them. They
are buffers placed between the people and the privileged
classes, to deaden the shock when they are brought into
collision.”

“ May 15. (To Mr. W. BR. Greg.)—No apology is, I assure
you, necessary for your frank and friendly letter. There is not
much difference in our views as to what is most wanted for the
country. The only great point upon which we do not agree
is as to the means. What we want before all things is a
bold retrenchment of expenditure. I may take a too one-
sided view of the matter, but I consider nine-tenths of all
our future dangers to be jimancial, and when I came home
from the continent, it was with a determination to go
on with fiscal reform and-economy as a sequence io Free
Trade. I urged this line upon our friend James Wilson
(who, by the way, has committed political suicide), and
others, and I did not hesitate to say up to within the last
three months that J would take no active part in agitating for

 

Aar. 44,
488 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [onap,

1848. organic questions. But when the series of political revolu-

 

Air. 44. tions broke out on the Continent, all men’s minds in Eng-
land were suddenly turned to similar topics; and the
political atmosphere became so charged with the electric
current, that it was no longer possible to avoid discussing
organic questions. But I had no share in forcing forward
the subject. I abstained from assisting in forming a party
in the House for organic reforms, though I was much urged
by a great number of members to head such a party.”

« July 21, (To H.Ashworth.)—No man can defend or palliate
such conduct as that of Smith O’Brien and his confederates.
It would be a mercy to shut them up in a lunatic asylum.
They are not seeking a repeal of the legislative union, but
the establishment of a Republic, or probably the restoration
of the Kings of Munster and Connaught! But the sad side
of the picture is in the fact that we are doing nothing to
satisfy the moderate party in Ireland, nothing which
strengthens the hands even of John O’Connell and the
priest party, who are opposed to the ‘ red republicans’
of the Dublin clubs. There seems to be a strong impres-
sion here that this time there is to be a rebellion in Ireland.
But I confess I have ceased to fear or hope anything from
that country. Its utter helplessness to do anything for
itself is our great difficulty. You can’t find three Irishmen
who will co-operate together for any rational object.”

“ London, August 28. (To George Oombe.)—I would have
answered your first letter from Ireland, but did not know
how soon you were going back again to Edinburgh.
With respect to the plan for holding sectional meetings
of the House of Commons in Dublin, Edinburgh, and
London for local purposes, it is too fanciful for my practical
taste. Ido not think that such a scheme will ever seriously
engage the public attention. If local business be ever got
rid of by the Houso of Commons, it should be transferred
xx.) OOBDEN’S PLAN OF REFORM. 489

as much as possible to County courts. There is very little 1848.
advantage for instance in carrying a road bill from Ross- Air.44.
shire to Edinburgh instead of to London, or from Galway
to Dublin instead of to London. ‘The private or local ~
business occupies much less of the time of the House of
Commons than many people suppose. An hour on an
average at the opening of the sittings daily suffices; the
rest is all done in select Committees, and a great deal of it
by Mr. Green and Mr. Bernal, Chairmen of Committees,
who, I suspect, would find it no advantage in Irish matters
to be in Dublin. Bad as the system is of bringing to the
House of Commons all the local business of the kingdom,
I am sure it would not mend the matter to split us into
three sections, as your friends propose, for two or three
’ months, and then to reunite in London for imperial pur-
poses. We should be in perpetual session. ©

“Whilst we are constitution-tinkering, let me give you
my plan. Each county to have its assembly elected by the
people, to do the work which the unpaid magistrates and
lords-lieutenant now do, and also much of the local business
which now comes before Parliament. The head of this
body, or rather the head of each county, to be the executive
chief, partaking of the character of prefect, or governor of
a state in the United States. By-and-by when you require
to change the constitution of the House of Lords, these
county legislators may each elect two senators to an upper
chamber or senate,

“But the question is about Ireland. Why do your
friends amuse one another with such bubble-blowing? The
real difficulty in Ireland is the character and condition
socially and morally of the people, from the peer to the
Connaught peasant. It is not by forms of legislation or
the locality of parliaments, but by a change and improve-
ment of the population, that Ireland is to have a atart in the
1648.

ait, 44,

 

490 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [onar,

career of civilization and self-government. Now instead of
phantom-hunting, why don’t your friends (if they are
worthy of being your friends) tell the truth to their
countrymen, and teach them their duties as well as their
rights? And let them begin by showing that they under-
stand their own duties and act up to them. The most dis-
couraging thing to an English Member of Parliament who
wishes to do well to Ireland, is the quality of the men sent
to represent it in the House of Commons. Hardly a man
of business amongst them; and not three who are prepared
cordially to co-operate together for any one common object.
How would it mend matiers if such men were sitting in
Dublin instead of London? But the subject is boundless
and hopeless, and I must not attempt to discuss it in a
note.”

“ Hayling Island, Hants, Oct. 4. ( ,, )—Many thanks
for your valuable letters upon Ireland and Germany. I
really feel much indebted for your taking all these pains for
my instraction.

“ Leaving Germany—upon which I do not presume to offer
an opinion beside yours—I do claim for myself the justice
of having foreseen the danger in Ireland, or rather seen it
—for its condition has little altered since I first began to
reason. When about fourteen years ago I first found
leisure from my private affairs to think about public busi-
ness, I summed up my views of English politics in a pam-
phlet which contained many crude details (which I should
not now print), but upon whose three broad propositions I
have never changed my opinion. They were—First, that
the great curse of our policy has been our love of interven-
tion in foreign politics; secondly, that. our greatest home
difficulty is Ireland; and thirdly, that the United States is
the great economical rival which will rule the destiny of
England.
xix.) TO COMBE, ON IRBLAND. 491

“It may appear strange that a man who had thought
much about Ireland, and who had frequently been in that
country (I had cousin, a rector of the Church of England
in Tipperary), should have been seven years in Parliament
and not have spoken upon Irish questions. I will tell you
the reason. I found the populece of Ireland represented in
the House by a body of men, with O’Connell at their head,
with whom I could feel no more sympathy or identity than
with people whose language I did not understand. In fact,
morally I felt 2 complete antagonism and repulsion towards
them. O’Connell always treated me with friendly attention,
but I never shook hands with him or faced his smile without
a feeling of insecurity; and as for trusting him on any
public question where his vanity or passions might inter-
- pose, I should have as soon thought of an alliance with an
Ashantee chief.' I found that that which I regarded as the
great Irish grievance-—the Protestant Charch Establishment
—was never mentioned by the Irish Liberal members.
Their Repeal cry was evidently an empty sound.

“The great obstacle to all progress both ix Ireland and in
Englend is the landlord spirit, which is dominant in poli-
tical and social life. It is this spirit which prevents our
dealing with the question of the tenure of land. The feudal
system, as now maintained in Ireland, is totally unsuited to
the state of the country. In fact, the feudal policy is not
carried out, for that would imply a responsibility on the
part of the proprietor to keep and employ the people,
whereas he is possibly living in Paris, whilst his agent is
driving the peasantry from his estate and perhaps burning
their cabins. What is wanting is a tribunal or legislature
before which the case of Ireland may be pleaded, where the
landlord spirit (excuse the repetition of the word) is not

4 Oobden is here unjust to O'Connell. He opposed the Corn Bill of
1815, end wes true to the League in the fight from 1838 to 1846.

 
492 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [onar,

1848. supreme. This is not to be found in our House of Commons,

 

Sit, 44. You would be astonished if behind the scenes in the Con-
mittees, and in the confidence of those men who frame bills
for Parliament, to observe how vigilant the spirit of land-
lordism is in guarding its privileges, and how much the
legislator who would hope to carry a measure through both
Houses, is obliged to consult its sovereign will and pleasure,
Hence the difficulty of dealing with game laws, copyholds,
and such small matters, which grow into things of mighty
import in the House of Commons, whilst the law of primo-
geniture is a sort of eleventh commandment in the eyes of
our legislators.

“T think I know what is wanted in Ireland: a redistri-
bution of land, as the only means of multiplying men of pro-
perty. If I had absolute power I would instantly issue an
edict applying the law of succession as it exists in France
to the land of Ireland. There should be no more absentee
proprietors drawing large rentals from Ireland, if I could
prevent it. I would so divide the property as to render it
necessary to live upon the spot to look after it. But you can
do nothing effectual in that direction with our Houses, and
therefore I am an advocate for letting in the householders
as voters, so as to take away the domination of the
squires. But I will do all in my power in the meantime
to give a chance to Ireland, and I cordially agree with
your views upon the policy that ought to be pursued
towards it.”

“ London, Oct. 28. ( ,, )—Ihave to thank you for the
Scotsman containing the whole of your observations upon
the state of Ireland, in every syllable of which I agree with
you. But excuse me if 1 say I miss in your articles, as in
all other dissertations upon Ireland, a specific plan—I mean
such a remedial scheme as might be embodied in an Act of
Parliament, And it mnst beso from the very nature of the
xix.] TO COMBE, ON IRBLAND. 493

case, for the ilis of Ireland are so complox, end its diseases
so decidedly chronic, that; no single remedy could possibly
cure them. Indeed, if we were to apply a thousand reme-
dies, the existing generation could hardly hope to live to
see any great change in the condition of the Irish people;
and this is probably one reason why politicians and ministers
of the day do not commit their fortunes to the cause of
justice to Treland. —

“ T have but one plan, but I don’t know how to enforce it,
Cut up the land into small properties. Lct there be no
estates so large as to favour absenteeism, even from the
‘parish. How is this to be done, with feudalism still
in the ascendant in Parliament and in the Cabinet?
Pim is quite right when he draws the distinction be-
tween the case of Ireland, where the conquerors have not
amalgamated with the conquered, and that of other
countries, where the victors and vanquished have been in-
variably blended. For we are all conquered nations—some
of us have been so repeatedly—but all, with the exception
of Ireland, have absorbed their conquerors.

“ Almost every crime and outrage in Ireland is connected
with the occupation or ownership of land; and yet the
Trish are not naturally an agricultural people, for they alone,
of all the European emigrants who arrive in the United
States, linger about the towns, and hesitate to avail them-
selves of the tempting advantages of the rural districts in
the interior. But in Ireland, at least the south and west,
there is no property but the soil, and no labour but
upon the land, and you cannot reach the population in their
material or moral condition but through the proprietorship
of the land. Therefore, if I had the power, 1 would always
make the proprietors of the soil resident, by breaking up
the large properties. In other words, I would give Ireland
to the Irish,

1848.
257, 44,

 
494 1i¥H OF COBDEN. {omer

1848. ““T used to think that the Protestant Charch was the

Ain. 44, crying evil in Ireland ; and so it would be, if the Catholics of

that country were Englishmen or Scots. Bnt as an econo-

mical evil, it can hardly be said to affect the material con-

dition of the people, seeing that the titheowners live in the

parish, and are in many cases almost the only proprietors

who do spend their income creditably at home; and as it is

not felt apparently as a moral grievance, I do not think that

the agitation against the Church Establishment would be

likely to contribute to the contentment of the people. I con-

fess that the apathy of the Irish Catholics upon the subject

of the Protestant Charch Establishment in that country
excites my surprise, if not my contempt.”

Dec. 28. (To Mr. Hdward Baines.) —I doubt the utility of
your recurring to the Education question. My views have
undergone no change for twenty years on the subject, ex-
cepting that they are infinitely strengthened, and I am
convinced that I am as little likely to convert you as you
me. Practically no good could come ont of the controversy;
for we must both admit that the principle of State Educa-
tion is virtually settled, both here and in all civilized countries,
It is not an infallible test I admit, but I don’t think there are
two men in the House of Commons who are opposed to the
principle of National Hducatioz.

“YT did not intend to touch upon a matter so delicate;
but yet, upon second thoughts, it is best to be candid. My
experience in public matters has long ago convinced me that
to form a party, or act with a party, it is absolutely
necessary to avoid seeking for points of collision, and on
the contrary, to endeavour to be silent, as far as one
can be so conscientiously, upon the differences one may see
between his own opinions and those of his political allies.
Applying this to your observations? npon my budget, I

2 In the Leeds Mercury.

 
xrx.| ON DISSENT FROM ONH’S PARTY, 495

would have laid on heavily in favour of auch parts as 1648.
I could agree with, and would have deferred pointing ir 4.
out any errors ontil I had given the common enemy
time to do that (I say errors, but I do not admit them in
this case), The same remark applies to the course the
Mercury took upon the redistribution of electoral power, on
which occasion it was to my mind demonstratively wrong in
abandoning and turning against the strongest pos.tion of
the Reformers. I do not press the Education question,
because I presume your religious feelings were excited by the
course the Government took whilst I was on the Continent.
But I suppose all parties agree that education is the main
cause of the split amongst the middle-class Liberals. Now,
what I say to you I have always preached to others. For
instance, I have been trying to persuade everybody about
the Daily News, as to the impolicy, to say nothing of the
injustice, of their gross attacks upon yourself and friends, and
T have used precisely the same argument which I now use to
you.”

“ Manchester, Nov.30. (To Mre. Cobden.)—I find our League
friends here very lukewarm about the Wesi Riding election.*
Many of them declare they will not vote. They seem quite
out of humour with the religious intolerance of the Hardley
party. I am very much inclined to think +e Tories will win.
Have you seen the news from Paris? Lamoriciere, the
French Minister of War, has proposed to the Assembly to
reduce the army nearly one half, and to save 170 millions
of francs. This, if really carried out, will make our work
safe in this country.”

“ Manchester, Dec. 8. ( ,, )—I went down to Liverpool
on Wednesday afternoon, and dined at Mellor’s with a large

3 Lord Morpeth, Cobden’s colleague in the representation, now succeeded
to the earldom of Carlisle, A contest took place, and Mr. Denigoa, the
Oonservative, defeated Sir Culling Eardley.
496 LiF& OF OOBDEN. [onar.

_ 1848. party of the leading men, including Brown and Lawrence

4ir.44. Heyworth, and slept there. Yesterday I met the Financial
Reformers at their Council Board, Mr. Robertson Gladstone
in the chair. They seem to be earnest men, but I did not
exactly see the man capable of directing so great an
undertaking. They approved of my plan of a budget,
and I agreed to address a letter with it to their chair-
man for publication. Last evening I met another party
of the more earnest men of the Reform Association, at
Mellor’s.”

The last extract refers to the subject which Cobden had
now taken earnestly in hand. As he was always repeating,
extravagant and ill-adjusted finance seemed to him the great
mischief of our policy. Apart from its place in his general
scheme, retrenchment was Cobden’s device for meeting the
cry of the Protectionists. It was an episode in the long
battle against the enemies of Free Trade. The landed
interest, they cried out, was ruined by rates and taxes.
The implication was that they could not exist without Pro-
tection, That was Mr. Disraeli’s cue until he became
Chancellor of the Exchequer. He made speech after speech
and motion after motion to this effect. Cobden with equal
persistency retorted that the proper relief for agriculture was
not the imposition ofa burden upon the consumers of bread,
but a reduction of the common burdens of them all. He
had begun his campaign in the session of 1848, The
Government. came forward with a proposal, which was
afterwards ignominiously withdrawn, for an increase in the
income tax. Cobden broke new ground by insisting on the
superior expediency of direct over indirect taxation, provided
that a just distinction were recognized between permanent
and precarious incomes. His chief point was that the
fovernment must either increase direct taxation, or else
reduce expenditure; and he pressed the inference that
11x. COBDEN’S POSITION IN PARLIAMENT. 497

expenditure must be decreased, and it must be decreased by
reduction in armaments.

Cobden’s contention cannot be said to have prospered; but
the debates show how seriously his attack on expenditure was
taken by those who opposed him. Mr. Disraeli laughed at
him as the successor of the Abbé St. Pierre, Rousseau, and
Robespierre in the dreams of perpetual peace, but he re-
cognized the possibility of public opinion being brought
round to Cobden’s side. -Even Peel thought it necessary
formally to express his dissent from Cobden’s views on
national defence. Fresh from his victorious onslaught upon
the Corn Law, he was dreaded by the House of Commons
and the old political factions, as speaking the voice of an
irresistible, if not an infallible, oracle. The Government had
no root. The Opposition was nullified by the imternecine
quatre! between the Protectionists and the Peelites. The
two parties in fact were so distracted, so uncertain in prin-
ciple, and so unstable in composition, that they were pro-
foundly afraid of the one party which knew its own mind
and stood aloof from the conventional game. The Conser-
vatives constantly felt, or pretended to feel, an irrational
apprehension that the object of the Manchester school was,
in the exaggerated language of one of them, to organize a
force that should override the legislature and dictate to the
House of Commons. The Financial Reform Association at
Liverpool, with which Cobden had entered into relations,
was expected to imitate the redoubtable achievements of the
League. Similar associations sprang up both in the English
and the Scotch capitals, and there was on meny sides a stir
and movement on the subject which fora tims promised
substantial results.

in a letter to Mr. Bright, Cobden sketched an outline of
what was called a People’s Budget, already referred to in his
letter to Mr. Baines :-—=

Kk

1848
Az, 44,

 
498 LIFE OF OCBDEN. {cnap,

1848.“ London, Nov. 16,1848.—T have been thinking and talking
2x. 44, about concocting a ‘national budget,’ to serve for an object
for financial reformers to work up to, and to prevent their
losing their time upon vague generalities. The plan must be
one to unite all classes and interests, and to bring into one
agitation the counties and the towns. I propose to reduce the
army, navy, and ordnance from 18,500,0002. to 10,000,0002.,
and thus save 8,500,000. Upon the civil expenditure in
all its branches, including the cost of collecting revenue,
and the management of crown lands, I propose to save
1,500,0007. I propose to lay a probate and legacy duty upon
real property, to affect both entailed and unentailed estates,
by which would be got 1,500,0007. Here is 11,500,0001., to
be used in reducing and abolishing duties, which I propese

to dispose of as follows :—

 Oustoms :

“Tea, reduce duty to 1s. per lb.
© Wood and timber, abolish duties.
“ Butter and cheese, do.

“ Upwards of 100 smaller articles of the tariff to be
abolished. (I would only leave about fifteen articles in the
tariff paying customs duties.)

“ Hacise ;

“Malt, all duty abolished.
“Paper, do. do.
“ Soap, do. do.
“ Hops, do. do.
© Window tax, all off.
“ Advertisement duty, do.

‘« All these changes could be effected with 11,500,0001.

“ There are other duties which 1 should prefer to remove,
instead of one or two of them, but I have been guided
materially by a desire to bring all interests to sympathize
with the scheme. Thus the tea is to catch the merchants

 
x.J THE PEOPLE'S BUDGET. 499

ancail the old women in the country—the wood and timber, 1848.
the shipbuilders—the malt and hops, the farmers—paper and ir. 4
soap, the Scotch anti-excise people—the window-tax, the
shopocracy of London, Bath, etc.—the advertisements, the
press.”

The scheme which Cobden here propounds to Mr. Bright,
was elaborated in a speech made at Liverpool and after-
wards set forth in a letter to the Financial Reform Associa-
tion of that town, which led to much discussion, but which
for reasons that we shall see in the next chapter did not
become the starting-point of such an agitation as Cobdex
promised himself,
CHAPTER XX.

MISCELLANEOUS CORRESPONDENCE ON SOCIAL AND POLITICAL
MOVEMENTS,

1849. Bry the merits of a policy of economy for its own sake,
4&1 45. there was in the minds both of Cobden and of Mr. Bright and
others, a general acheme for gathering up the strength of the
Liberal party. The extraordinary state of the old combina-
tions in the House of Commons was a standing incentive to
such efforts as were now made in the north of England. There
was to be a popular party, based on real principles and a
practical programme, as distinguished from factitious catch-
words and insincere cries invented for parliamentary occa-
sions. A great association might perhaps be formed, and it
was suggested that it should be called the Commons League.
Financial Reform and Parliamentary Reform were the two
planks of the platform. Ata great meeting in Manchester in
the second week of the new year, Cobden explained his ideas
on the first, and Mr. Bright followed with a demand for the
second. Cobden believed that the parts ebout financial reform
were better received than the parts about parliamentary
reform, even by the men in fustian jackets.' Meetings were
held in other towns in the north; and the two champions
were everywhere received with unbounded cordiality. Cir-
culars were sent out from Manchester for the formation of the
new association, and between three and four thousand adhe-

} Letter to Mre. Cobden, Jan. 10, 1849.
OH. xx.} NEW PLANS FOR POLITIOAL BEFOBM. 501

sions were received. Bui the new League didnot grow. The 1849.

 

leaders hardly seemed to know what it was that they wished ai. 45.
todo. They were not sure in their tactics. Cobden thought

\ that it ought to be a metropolitan association. Mr. Bright
on the contrary believed that Lancashire and Yorkshire must
be its centre. The scheme of the association was ambiguous.
“We are asking people,” said Mr. Bright, “to join for an
undefined or ill-defined object, and we neither propose an end
to the movement, nor a clear and open way for working it.”
The two chiefs were not exactly of one mind as to the true
policy in the most important part of the programme. Cobden,
as we have so often said, was essentially an economical,
moral, and asocial reformer. He was never an enthusiast for
mere reform in the machinery. Immediately after the repea:
of the Corn Law, he confessed that on the qnestion of the
suffrage he had gone back. “And yet,” he went on, “I am
something like Peel and Free Trade. I do not oppose the
principle of giving men a control over their own affairs. I
rousi confess, however, that I am less sanguine than I used te
be about the effects of a wide extension of the franchise.”*
His own favourite plan of extension through the forty shilling
freeholder only recommended itself to him because it brought
with it the virtue of thrift, and the recommendation of pro-
perty. Mr. Bright, though cordially acquiescing in the plan
so far as it went, and as a means of bringing the old factions te
a capitulation in some of the connties, always maintained that
it would never enfranchise so many voters permanently as to
make any real and effective change in the representation.
Both before and after the League was dissolved, Mr. Bright
insisted that “no object was worth a real and great effort,
short of athorough reform in Parliament.” Although, how-
ever, there was not # sufficiently clear and concentrated
unanimity to give an impulse toa now League, there was

3 To Mr, Sturge, July 16, 1844.
502 LIYE GF OOBDEN. {owar,

1849. sbundant room for strenuous co-operation in the work about
Zit.48. which they were cordially agreed.

The following letter written to Mr. Bright at the close of
1848, two or three weeks before the meeting at Manchester,
shows the point of view to which Cobden inclined, and
to what extent,—and it was not great,—he differed from
Mr. Bright :—

“Dec, 23, 1848,—Since writing to you, I have again read
and reflected upon your letter. You say that the object of
our meeting must be specific and general ; that I must speak
upon Finance, and you follow upon Parliamentary Reform;
and that then a society must be organized for a general
registration to carry out, I presume, both objects, I thought
we had always agreed that to carry the public along with
us, we should have a single and well-defined object. It is
decidedly my opinion. If Parliamentary Reform were the
sole object, we might after a long time probably succeed;
but the two things together would be a false start, and it
muat end in our taking to one or the other exclusively. It
is true thet we joined them together in our meeting of
Members of Parliament at the Free Trade Club, and that
was because we did not feel ourselves on the strongest
ground with the middle class even then, without the Expen-
diture question, and it is vastly more so now. Besides, you
will admit that we could not ignore the existence of the
Liverpool movement. However defective in men and
money at present, they are in as good a position as we
were a year after the League was formed; and they have
far more hold upon the public mind than we had even after
three years’ agitation. I rather think that you do not fully
appreciate the extent to which the country is sympathizing
with the Liverpool movement. But taking the fact to be as
Thave stated it, that the movement is for Financial Reform,
and nobody can deny it, I am half disposed to think that
xx.] TO ME. BRIGH'T, ON A NEW PROGRAMME. 503

it is the most usefal agitation we could enter upon. The _ 1849. _
people want information and instruction upon armaments, 47 46.
colonies, taxation, and so forth. There is a fearful mass of
prejudice and ignorance to dispel upon these subjects, and

whilst these exist, you may get a reform of Parliament, but

you will not get a reformed policy.

“T believe there is as much clinging to colonies at the
present moment amongst the middie class as among the
aristocracy; and the working people are not wiser than the
rest. And as respects armaments, I do not forget that last
December [1847] hardly a Liberal paper in the kingdom
supported me in resisting the attempt to add to our
forces. Such papers as the Sun, Weekly Despatch, Sunday
Times, and Liverpool Mercury, went dead against me; and
all that I could say for the rest is that they were silent.
Now all these questions can be discussed most favourably
in reference to the expenditure. You may reason ever so
logically, but never so convincingly as through the pocket.
But it will take time even to play off John Bull’s acquisitive-
ness against his combativeness. He will not be easily
persuaded that all his reliance upon brute force and courage
has been a losing speculation. Already I have heard from
good Liberals an expression of fear that, in my Budget, I
have ‘ gone too far.” But I have said enough.

“And now, having stated my view of what the object
must be, a word or two as to the modus operandi, And
here we do not differ. I am for goimg at once te the registers
and the forty shilling qualifications. Begin where the League
lefi off, and avowit boldly. Nay, make it a condition, if you
like, of your alliance with Liverpool that such shall be the plan.
And I put it to you and Wilson, whether you think that the
men who go with us for the Budget and direct taxation, will
nct be likely to use their votes for a reform of Parliament.
T should feel very little doubt about getting nearly as much
1849.

Att. 45,

504 LIFH OF OOBDEN. (omar,

strength for the one question as the other, by merely getting
people to register and qualify for retrenchment and direct
taxation. Besides, 1 have no objection to our advocating
Reform, whilst advocating economy. I should myself do
so, J would say—We may cut down the expenditure, as
we did in 1835; but it will grow up again, as it has since,
unless either the agitation were perpetual, or the Parliament
were reformed. I have no objection to this line of argu-
ment. I object only to our separating ourselves from Liver-
pool in our organization.

“ And now I think I know the feeling of the majority of
the influential money-givers in Manchester, and I feel con-
vinced that they would all give their 101. more heartily
for my plan than any other. It would at once put Wilson,
you, and me in a pure and disinterested light before their
eyes. We should not be open to even the shade of a sus-
picion of wishing to arrogate to ourselves any separate line,
or to use them as our party, or to make Manchester need-
lessly the focus of a central agitation. You would have far
more strength upon the platform for my object than any
other. Ihave only room to add—advertise a meeting to
co-operate with Liverpool in Financial Reform, and make
any use you like of my name..... I have a good opinion
of Paulton’s judgment. Not a word has passed between us
on this subject; but I wish you would let him read my
letters, and ask him to give a candid opinion on the matter
in discussion.”

Before the session began, he took part along with Mr.
Bright in a ceremony of joyful commemoration. Peel’s
measure of 1846 provided that the duty on corn should
expire at the end of three years (see vol. i. p. 855). The
day arrived on the first of February, 1849. On the even-
ing of the thirty-first of January a gathering was held in
the great hall at Manchester. Speeches were made and
choruses were sung until midnight. When twelve o'clock
xx.] A THIUMPHAL OfLEBGATION, 505

sounded, the assembly broke out in loud and long-sustained 1849.
cheera to welcome the dawn of the day which had at last air. 45.
brought Free Trade in corn. Free Trade in its turn had
brought new causes for which to fight. Cobden never
swerved from his maxim that he could only do one thing
atatime; but his activity during the session of 1849 included
in the same effort not only reduced armaments, reduced
expenditure, and re-adjusted taxation, but the more delicate
subject of international arbitration.

“ London, Jan. 5, 1849. (Lo G. Oombe.)—I hope you will
not think there is any inconsistency in the strong declaration
T made at the meeting, of the paramount importance of the
question of Education, and my apparent present inactivity in
the matter. Owing to the split in the Liberal party, caused
by Baines, it would be impossible for me to make it the lead-
ing political subject’ at this moment. Time is absolutely
necessary to ripen it, but in the interim there are other topics
which will take the lead in spite of any efforts to prevent it,
reduction of expenditure being the foremost; and all I can
promise myself is that any influence I may derive now from
my connexion with the latter or any other movement, shall
at the fitting opportunity be all brought to bear in favour of
National Education. To confess the truth, I can only do one
thing at a time. Here am I now put in a prominent position
upon the most complex of all public questions, the national
finances, and next session I shall be perhaps more the object
of attack, and my budget more the subject of criticism, than
the Chancellor of the Exchequer and his financial measures.
For all this I am obliged to prepare myself by studying the
dry details of official papers, and reading Hansard from
1815 to the present day, whilst at the same time I am in a
daily treadmill of letter-writing, for every man having a
crotchet upon finance, or a grievance however trifling, is
inundating me with his correspondence. I can’t help it,
though I believe I am shortening my days by following
506 LIFE OF OOBDEN. fouar.

1848. strictly the rule ‘ whatever thou doest, do with all thy heart,’
“r.48. You know that of old I have felt a strong sentiment upon
the subject of warlike armaments and war. It is this
moral sentiment, more than the £ s. d. view of the matter,
which impels me to undertake the advocacy of a reduction
of our forces. It was a kindred sentiment (more than the
material view of the question) which actuated me on the Corn
Law and Free Trade question. It would enable me to die
happy if I could feel the satisfaction of having in. some degree
contributed to the partial disarmament of the world.”
“Feb. 8. ( 5, )—I hasten to reply to your kind
inquiries about my budget. In a day or two I intend
to give notice of a motion declaratory of the expediency of
reducing the expenditure to the amount of 1835. The terms
of my resolution will be to reduce the expenditure ‘with all
practicable speed.’* I am too practical a man of business
to think that it can be done in one session. But I will raise
the question of our financial system with a view to save ten
millions, and that will arrest public interest in a way which
no nibbling at details would do. In less than five years all
that I propose, anda great deal more, will be accomplished.
“T say I am too practical to think that the reduction of
ten millions can be made in a session, because the changes
in our distant colonies will take time. But these changes
ought to be set about at once. For instance, we have an
army as large in Canada and the other North-American
Colonies as that of the United States. Yet under the régime
of Free Trade, Canada is not s whit more ours than is the
“8 The motion was brought forward on February 26, and was to the effect
that the net expenditure had risen by ten millions between 1836 and 1848;
that the increase had beon caused principally by defensive armaments ; that
it was not warranted, while the taxes required to meet it lessened the funds
applicable to productive industry; and that therefore it was expedient to
reduce the annual expenditure with all practicable speed to the amount of

1835. The division went against Cobdon’s motion by a majority of 197
only 78 going iuto the lobby with the mover,
xx.] TO COOMBE, ON NATIONAL EXPENDITURE, 507

great Republic. To keep that force in the North-American 1649.

 

Colonies at the expense of the tax-payers of this country, is Ar. 45.
precisely the same drain upon our resources as if the Go-
vernment of the United States could levy a contribution
upon us for the pay and subsistence of its army. The same
may be ssid of our army in Australia, New Zealand, etc. ;
aud if we do not draw in our horns, this country, with ali
its wealth, energy, aud resources, will sink under the weight
of its extended empire.”

© April 9. { 5, )—Did this subject ever come under your
notice? I have lying before me a return of all the barracke
in the United Kingdom, the date of their erection, their size,
etc. It is to mo one of the most discouraging and humili-
ating documents I am acquainted with. Almost every con-
siderable town has it barracks. They have nearly all been
erected since 1790, beforewhich date they were hardly known,
and were denounced with horror by such men as Chatham,
Fox, etc. By far the most extensive establishments have been
erected during the last twenty-five years. I speak of Great
Britain. As for Ireland, it is studded over with barracks
like a permanent encampment. I need not enlarge upen the
direct moral evils of such places. One fact is enough: real
property always falis in value in the vicinity of barracks. A
prison or a cemetery is a preferable neighbour. But you will
also see at a glance that this increase of barracks is the out-
ward and visible sign of the increased discontent of the mass
of the peopie, and the growing alarm of the governing
classes, It argues great injustice on one side or ignorance on
the other, perhaps both. The expense is too obvious te
require comment. And where is this to end? Hither we
must change our system—give the people a voice in the
government, and qualify therising generation to exercise the
rights of freemen,—or we shall follow the fate of the Conti-
pent, and end in a convulsion.
508 LIFH OF COBDEN. {onar,

1845. “You seem to be puzzled about my motion in favour of
“iz. 45. international arbitration. Perbaps you have mixed it up
with other theories to which I am no party. My plan does
not embrace the scheme of a congress of nations, or imply
the belief in the millennium, or demand your homage to the
principles of non-resistance. I simply propose that England
should offer to enter into an agreement with other coun-
tries, France, for instance, binding them to refer any dispute
that may arise to arbitration. I do not mean to refer the
matier to another sovereign power, but that each party
should appoint plenipotentiaries in the form of commis-
sioners, with a proviso for calling in arbitrators in case they
cannot agree. In fact, I wish merely to bind them todo
that before a war, which nations always do virtually after it.
As for the argument that nations will not fulfil their
treaties, that would apply to all international engagements,
We have many precedents in favour of my plan. One ad-
vantage about it is that it could do no harm; for the worst
that could happen would be a resort to the means which has
hitherto been the only mode of settling national quarrels.
Will you think again upon the subject, and tell me whether —
there is anything impracticable about it ?

* T will support the Oath Abolition motion.‘ There ought
to be no swearing in courts at all, But instead of oaths, the
clerk at tho table ought to read to every witness, before he
gives his evidence, the clause of the Act of Parliament which
imposes a penalty for false testimony.”

“London, June 19. ( ,, )—I am glad you are satis-
fied with the debate on my arbitration motion.’ I might
have taken higher ground inmy argument with more justice

4 Lord John Ruszell’s resolution, on which a Bill was afterwards founded,
for the removal of Jewish disabilities, The Bill passed the Commons, but
was rejected by the Lords.

* On June 12 Cobden moved an Address to Her Majesty, praying thas
foreign powera might be invited to sonour in treaties, binding the parties te
xx.) THH MOTION FOB ARBITRATION. 509

to the subject, and with more effect upon the minds of my 1849.
readers, but I had to deal with an audience determined to 21. 45.
sneer down the motion as Utopian. Ever since the beginning
of the session, I had to run the gauntlet of the small wits of
the House, who amused themselves at my expense, and
tittered at the very word, arbitration. These men would
have been as eager as any Quaker to profess a desire for
peace, but were prepared to pooh-pooh as utterly visionary
any plan for trying to put down the cherished institution of
war. It was to meet these people on what they considered
their strong ground, that I dwelt upon the practical views
of my scheme, and it was some satisfaction to me to see
nearly half of my audience leave the House without voting,
and to draw from Lord Palmerston a speech full of admis~
sions, which ended by an amendment avowedly framed
to escape # direct negation of my motion. The more I have
reflected upon the subject, the more Iam satisfied that I am
right at the right time. Next session I will repeat my pro-
position, and J will also bring the House to . division upon
another and kindred motion, for negotiating with foreign
countries, for stopping any further increase of armaments,
and, if possible, for agreeing to a gradual disarmament.
These motious go naturally together. They are called for by
the spirit of the age and the necessities of the finances of all
the European states.

“T agree with you in thinking that the French have dis-
played a want of conscientiousness and an excess of self-
esteem in their treatment of the Roman people. I do not
remember in all historya more flagitious violation of justice
than the French expedition and attack on Rome. The
Republic of France within a year of its own existence

refer matters in dispute to Arbitration. Lord Pelmerston moved the pre-
vious question. There wae a rather languid debate, and the provions
question was carried by 176 to 79.
510 LI¥E GF GOBDEN. foray,

1849. putting down a Republic in a neighbouring country at the
“@iz. 48. point of the bayonot-—a Republic, born-of the Parisian bar.
ricades, too,—ia a monstrous outrage upon decency and com-
mon-sense, There isa certain retribution for these sins
against the moral laws. ‘Uhey carry in them the seeds of
their own punishment. When the French army is in occupa-
tion of Rome, then will begin the difficulty of the situation.”
When the session was over, Cobden with indefatigable
zeal pushed his propagandism in new fields. Though not a
member, he accompanied his friends of the Peace Society
to the Peace Congress, which was this year held in Paris.
"© Paris, Aug.19. (To Mrs. Oobden.)—I have had my usual
fate in passing the channel. Scarcely were we clear of the
harbour at Newhaven, when I was laid on my beam-ends, and
for six hours I never moved hand or foot. It was rather cold,
and rained a little, so that I was obliged to be covered over
with a couple of counterpanes, and there I lay like a mummy
till unrolled in the harbour of Dieppe, at about half-past six
o’clock. It makes my flesh creep to think of it. I tried to
got a bed at the hotel where we stopped, but it was full,
and I was therefore obliged to put up with the discomfort
and bad odours of # second-rate place. The following
morning at half-past eleven I started for Paris by railroad,
which goes through Rouen and along the valley of the
Seine, and is decidedly the most picturesque scene of all the
railroads I have traversed. We reached Paris at half-past
four, and I am very comfortably installed at this hotel along
with the Peace Committee. There is every prospect of a
large attendance at the Congress, but we shall not shine so
brightly as I could wish in French names. Onur friends
had calculated upon the attraction of Lamartine’s name,
but they are disappointed. From sll accounts he appears
to be prostrated in mind, body, and estate. We have
cbosen Victor Hugo for chairman. Hoe stands well socially,
xx.] THE PEACE OONGRESS AT PARIS, et

and his name is known, and he is one of the few first-rate
men to be had. To my great surprise I find that Horace
Say, after signing the circulars inviting the Congress, has
gone off to Switzerland with his family. I thought him the
most trustworthy man in France. Bastiat is gone to
Brussels, but I am assured he will come back to the Con-
gress. The good men who have come here from England
to make the arrangements, are sadly put out in their calenla-
tions of French support, by having taken too much to heart
all the professions, promises, bows, and compliments, which
they met with on their first arrival here. They are now
taking such demonstrations at their just value. Notwith-
standing, however, all drawbacks, the Congress will do
much good. We shall pass a resolution condemnatory of
war loans, which will serve hereafter as a basis for some
demonstrations against the attempt to find money for Russia
in the city. I have not yet seen the Hogarths, or anybody
Iknow. Yesterday I spent in looking about Paris. Paris
externally looks the same as ever; but I fancy I seoa haggard,
careworn expression in the peopie’s faces, which bespeaks
past suffering and apprehension for tho future. This may
be imagination, but I think I see a great many sunken eyes
and clenched lips amongst all classes. There have been
terrible suffering and losses, and nobody has escaped it
from the king to the cabman.”

“ Paris, Aug. 25. ( ,, )--You will think me negligent,
but if you saw how I have been placed here for the last
three days you would excuse me. Iam at the headquarters
of the Committee of Congress, and my bedroom (foolishly
enough, on my part) is off the common sitting-room, and
morning, noon, and night Ihave been in the mélée. Be-
sides, the French public persists in regarding me as @ very
important personage, and I have been more and more beset
every day wiih visitors. But now the sittings of the Con-

1649.

Zin. 45.
1849.
dat. 45.

 

512 LIFE OF OOBDEN. (omar,

gross are over, and I am able to say that it has proved very
snecessful ; each day more and more anditors of a highly-
respectable class, and the last day thousands are said to
have gone away without being able to enter. Everybody ..
is astonished that upon such a subject, and at this hot
season of the year, in Paris, too, a room holding 2000 persons
should be crowded for three days running, and upon the
same subject. However, soit is. Everything is sure to suc-
ceed that has a good principle in it. All our good Quaker
friends are in capital spirits. There can be no doubt that our
meetings will have done good. Everybody has been talk-
ing about them during the week, and the subject of peace
has for the first time had its hearing, even in France. My
first speech, although there is really little in it, produced s
famous effect in the audience and has been almost univer-
sally landed in the papers. It ought to have been well
received, for it cost me a good deal of time with the aid of
Bastiat to write and prepare to read it. My good friend
Bastiat has been two mornings with me in my room,
translating and teaching, before eight o’clock. The Go-
vernment has shown a very friendly disposition towards us.
We have had all the public buildings and monumenta
thrown open to us. On Monday the Versailles water-
works and the water-works at St. Cloud are to be set to
play for the special gratification of the members of the Con-
gress. These works play but four times a year on Sundays,
and the Monday has been chosen on this occasion, in deli-
cate compliment to the religious feeling of the English. To-
night we are all invited, men and women, to De Tocque-
ville’s, the French Foreign Minister. On Tuesday the de-
putation returns, and the members ought to be highly
delighted with their visit.”

“ Paris, Aug. 28.( ,, )—After writing to you on Sunday
T found that the post did not leave that evening, and
xx] IN PARIS. 513

that therefore my letter to you would not probably reach 1849.
you till Wednesday. On Monday I dined with De Toc- ir. 45.
queville with a small party. Yesterday (Monday) we had
our excursion to Versailles in a special train at nine o’clock in
the morning ; about 700 were in the party. We were shown
freely over the palace, and then we went to a large hall
called the Tennis Court,’ in which luncheon was provided.
After it was over, [ was moved into the chair, and we
went through the interesting little ceremony of presenting
to each of our American friends a copy of the New Testament
in French, as a tribute of our admiration for their zeal in
coming so far to attend the Congress. ‘Then we returned to
the grounds of the palace, and saw the exhibition of the
water-works, which was really a splendid sight. A vast
crowd of French people was there, and they were oxceed-
ingly good-humoured and polite, but they seemed to be
unable to suppress their smiles at the Quakeresses’ bonnets.
From Versailles the train carried the party to St. Cloud
to see the exhibition of the water-works there at night
illuminated.”

While Cobden was busied in this way, Mr. Bright had
gone to study the Irish Question on the spot. He was a
month in the country, and was accompanied for part of the
time by one of the Commissioners of the Board of Works.
His inquiries were extensive and incessant, and what he had
said about Irish affairs in some of his speeches secured for
him particular attention on every side. Mr. Bright speedily
put his finger upon the root of the mischief. What was uni-
versally demanded, he said, was security for improvements.
Want of this was the canse of perpetual war between land-
lord and tenant. In order to remove the evil, he agreed

8 The famous scene of one of the most memorable incidents of the first
stage in the French Revolution. Strange contrast between the mad agitation

and furious resolve of the Oath of the Tennis Court, and this pacifie
presentation of New Tostaments to the American Quakers !

Ll
514 LIFZ OF OOBDEN, [ousr,

1849. with the leading members of the practical party in Ireland,

 

Aix. 45. in certain contingencies to introduce a Bill which they were
preparing fur assuring to the tenant the value of his improye-
ments. This is Cobden’s reply :—

© London, Oct. 1. (To Mr. Bright.)—I was glad to receive
your letter, and much interested in the details of your visit
to Ireland. Be assured you have done the right thing in
going there. It is a duty that ought to be similarly fulfilled
by all of us.

«T was staying for a day or two after the receipt of your
letter, with a friend in Sussex (Mr. Sharpe), whose son is
the nominal proprietor through his mother of the late Sir
Wm. Brabazon’s estate in Mayo. Both father and son
were strong in praise of the Encumbered states Act, under
which the Brabazon property, hopelessly encumbered and
in Chancery, is to be disposed of.

“The father, who is a Sussex proprietor, a liberal man,
and a somewhat enragé political economist, hopes this Irish
measure will be a stepping-stone for setting real estate
at greater liberty in England. For myself I can’t help
thinking that everything has got to be done for Ireland.
Hitherto the sole reliance has been on bayonets and patching.
The feudal system presses upon that country in a way
which, as a rule, only foreigners can understand, for we have
an ingrained feudal spirit in our English character. I never
spoke to a French or Italian economist who did not at once
put his finger on the fact, that great masses of landed
property were held by the descendants of a conquering race
who were living abroad, and thus in a double manner
perpetuating the remembrance of conquest and oppression,
whilst the natives were at the same time precluded from
possessing themselves of landed property and thus becoming
interested in the peace of the country. This was always
pointed out to me as the prime cbstacle to improvement
xx] TO MR. BRIGHT, ON IRELAND. 515

How we are to get ont of this dilemma with the present
House of Commons, and our representative system as it is,
is the problem. For we cannot shut our eyes to the fact that
our law, or rather custom, of primogeniture, has its roots in
the prejudices of the upper portion of the middle class as
well as in the privileges of the aristocracy. The snobbish-
ness of the moneyed classes in the great seats of commerce
and manufactures is a fearful obstacle to any effectual change
of the system.

“Tt was only at the price of ten millions of money, and
hundreds of thousands of famished victims, that we suc-
ceeded in passing our Encumbered Estates Bill. Our only
consolation is that as we descend in the ranks of the middle
class, and approach the more intelligent of the working

- people, the feudal prejudice diminishes ; and this brings us
to our only hope for progress, whether in this question or
the others on which we feel interested, namely, an increase
in the popular element in the House of Commons. I have
no fear that we can effect this change gradually, and
certainly if we can induce our friends to work with per-
severance. Ido not object to Walmsley’s proceedings—in
fact I am grateful to anybody that does anything but
stagnate. I subscribed my mite to his association and
have cheered him on. He has rendered this good service,
at least, that he has brought middle-class people and
Chartists together without setting them by the ears, and
although he has rather shocked some moderate Liberals by
his broad doctrines, he has carried others unconsciously with
him. But this good being done, I have not disguised from
him that mere public demonstrations without an organized
system of working will do nothing towards effecting o
change in the representation. That can only be done by
local exertions in the registration courts, and above all by
the forty shilling votes in the counties.

1849.
Air, 46.

 
516 LIFE OF CORDEN, [cmap,

148, “Whilst at Hasthovrne we talked this matter over with

“Zix.48. Fox, who was there, and we agreed that the County

qualification movement ought to be encouraged as a means

of extending the suffrage, without restricting its object to

any particular scheme of organic or practical reforms. The

forty shilling freehold movement ought to be supported solely

on the principle of extending the suffrage—and it is a scheme

which involves so many moral and social benefits that it

will be, I feel convinced, sustained by a great number of

men of moral weight throughout the country who would

not work with us for any large scheme of sudden organic

change; and these men, once enlisted with us, would go on
afterwards for all that we desire.

“TI wrote to Taylor asking him some questions: first,
whether he thought a delegate meeting of all those already
engaged or willing to embark in the forty shilling move-
ment ought to be called. Second, whether he was receiving
many letters upon the subject indicating a growing interest
in the subject; whether he was invited to go to meetings,
and whether he could give me any statistics of the existing
number of members, etc. Third, whether he thought a
periodical to be called ‘The Freeholder,’ giving a con-
densed report of all proceedings and directions about
registration, etc., should be published by a Union of the
Societies. Here is his answer. Making all deductions for
his enthusiasm, it is clear there is life in his movement. If
taken up zealously by all of us, I do believe that the present
number of electors could be doubled in less than seven
years, and, between ourselves, such a constituency would
give you at the present moment a more reliable support
for thorough practical reforms than universal suffrage.
May I predict that if we should succeed to the extent above
named, there would not be wanting shrewd members of the
Tory aristocracy who would be found advocating universal
xx.) 10 MB. BRIGHT, ON PARLIAMENTARY REFORM. 517

suffrage, to take their chance in an appeal to the ignorance 1849.

 

and vice of the country against the opinions of the teeto- Air. 45.
tallers, nonconformist and rational Radicals, who would
constitute nine-tenths of cur phalanx of forty shilling free-
holders. I have sent you Taylor’s letters. I feel much
inclined, indeed I may say I am almost resolved, to go to
Birmingham at the end of this month or the beginning of
next to a delegate meeting. Tell me what you and Wilson
think. Pray show him the letters. When I alluded to a
circular to be called ‘The Freeholder,’ I meant a monthly
publication as a beginning, to give information and direc-
tions about qualifying, registering, etc., and to record the
names and proceedings of all societies. But such a publi-
cation might grow intoa powertul exponent of the laws of
real property, and make people familiar with things which
are now Hebrew and Greek to them.

“T have bored you all so much about this forty shilling
freehold scheme, that you seem to have fallen naturally into
the idea that I cherish it to the exclusion of a broad and
specific plan of reform. Itis not so. I want it as a means
to all that we require, and upon my conscience it is, I
believe, the only stepping-stone to any material change.
The citadel of privilege in this country is so terribly strong,
owing to the concentrated masses of property in the hands
of the comparatively few, that we cannot hope to assail it
with success unless with the help of the propertied classes
in the middle ranks of society, and by raising up a portion
of the working-class to become members of a propertied
order; and I know no other mode of enlisting such co-
operation but that which I have suggested. ... .”

“Nov. 4. (To Mr. Bright.)\—If you know Mr. Kay’s
address, don’t forget to impress upon him the importance .
of separating the question of land tenure from that of /
education ia his forthcoming book. Nothing is more
1849,

Aft. 45,

518 L1¥E Of OOBDEN. {caue,

wanted than a good treatise on the former subject. The
fate of empires, and the fortunes of their peoples, depend
upon the condition of the proprietorship of land to an
extent which is not at all understood in this country,
We are a servile, aristocracy-loving, lord-ridden people,
who regard the land with as much reverence as we still
do the peerage and baronetage. Not only have not nine-
teen-twentieths of us any share in the soil, but we have
not presumed to think that we are worthy to possess a few
acres of mother earth. The politicians who would propose
to break up the estates of this country into smaller pro-
perties, will be looked upon as revolutionary democrats aim-
ing at nothing less than the establishment of a Republic upon

\ the ruin of Queen and Lords.

~ ©The only way of approaching this question with advan-
tage at the present moment is through an economical arga-
ment. And Mr. Kay may do himself credit by his treat-
ment of the subject, provided he gives us plenty of well-con-
\sidered facts throwing light upon the comparative condition
of the people in countries where land is subdivided, and
where it is held in great masses. In my opinion the high
moral and social condition of the inhabitants of mountainous
countries such as the Swiss, the Biscayans, etc., etc., is to be
greatly attributed to the fact that as a rule the land in hilly
countries is always more subdivided ; in fact, that the face
of nature is almost an insuperable bar to the acquisition of
large continuous sweeps of landed property.

“P.S.—Don’t you think that ‘A History of Chartism,’
from the framing of the Charter down to the present time,
with a temperate but truthful narrative of the doings of the
leaders, would be an interesting and useful work? Somer-
ville is the man to do it if he had access to a complete file of
the Northern Star. The working-class are just now in the
mood for reviewing with advantage the bombastic sayings
xz] ON THE ENGLISH LAND QUESTION. 519

and abortive doings of Feargus and his lieutenants. The _ 8.

 

attempted revival of the Chartist agitation under the old “45.
leadership makes this an appropriate time for such a retro-
spect.

“The difficulty with Somerville would be to condense
sufficiently his narrative—this would not be easy even with
one who had a style less flowing and less imagination than
he—for the temptation to quote largely from the speeches
and letters of the big Chartist Bobadil would be almost
irresistible. Would not such a work be interesting in a
series of letters or articles in the Hzaminer, to be afterwards
printed in a volume? It would be certain to elicit a howl
from the knaves who were subjected to the ordeal of the
pillory, and this would be useful in attracting attention to
the book.”

“ December 6. (To Mr. Bright.) — You must get Captain Mun-
dy’s edition of ‘ Brooke’s Diary.’ It was published originally
by Captain Keppell, and some horrid passages were omitted
‘by the discretion of his friends; but a new edition by
Captain Mundy was published while Brooke was afterwards
at home, and those parts were restored. See the first vol.,
p. 811, &&., and p. 325. There are details of bloodshed
and executions which, if they had appeared in the first
volume, would have checked the sentimental mania which
gave Brooke all his powers of evil.

“The above is information which I have from a friend
who knows all about the affair from the beginning, and it
may be relied on. I have not the book. I fear Gurney
will be an obstacle to anything being done. I some-
times doubt whether his obstructiveness at every step does
not more than counteract any advantage derived by the
Society from the influence of his name. I don’t understand
men of the world when they tell us we must rely upon the
influence of Christian principles, and boggle at every pro-
£849. °

Att, 45.

520 LIFG OF OOBDEN. [onap,

posal to enforce them in the current proceedings of govern-
ments and societies. Ifa monk held such language in his cell
and invited us to rely upon fasts and flagellations, I could
see seme consistency init. But when such sentiments come
from a millionaire in Lombard Street, they pass my compre-
hension. If I wished to do as little as possible, I should
wish to be able to convince myself that I was in the path of
duty when I folded my arms and exhorted people to pray for
the triumph of Christian principles. St. Paul did something
more than that, and so did George Fox. See the Manchester
Eaaminer of Saturday next, for an article which I have sent
upon the Borneo affair. The paper will be forwarded to
you. I shall be at Leeds and Sheffield the week after next,
and will allude to the subject if I can. It shocks me to
think what fiendish atrocities may be committed by English
arms without rousing any conscientious resistance at home,
provided they be only far enough off, and the victims too .
feeble to trouble us with their rermonstrances or groans.
We as a nation have an awful retribution in store for us if
Heaven strike a just reckoning, as I believe it does, for
wicked deeds even in this world. There must be a public
and solemn protest against this wholesale massacre. The
Peace Society and the Aborigines Society are shams if such
deeds go unrebuked. We cannot go before the world with
clean hands on any other question if we are silent spectators
of such atrocities.””*

“ Dec. 8. (| 5» )—You seem to have fallen into the idea
that I am looking to the freehold plan as a substitute for a
thorough reform. 1 look to it as a means to do something,
and not an end. I wish to abate the power of the aristocracy in
their strongholds. Our enemy is as subtle as powerful, and I
fear some of us have not duly weighed the difficulties of our

7 Borneo affairs were not fully discussed in Parliament until 1851, whes
Oobdon supported Hume’s motion for inquiry.
xx.] TO MR. BRIGHT. 521

task. The aristocracy are afraid of nothing but systematic | 1849.
organization and step-by-step progress, They know that! Air. 45.
the only advantage we of the stirring class have over them is
in habits of persevering labour. They fear nothing but the
application of-these qualities to the business of political
agitation. I prize the privilege of our platforms, and the
power of public discussion and denunciation as much as any-
body ; but public meetings for Parliamentary Reform which
do not tend to systematic work (as was not the case in
the League), will be viewed by the aristocracy with com-
placency as the harmless blowing off of the steam.

“With this impression, I have urged upon Walmsley an
organization for bringing the registers of the Boroughs
under the control of men of his way of thinking, men favour-
- able to the four points. This, coupled with the County

qualification movement, which is urged on by men of the
same party, would in two or three years if resolutely worked
place us in a respectable position in the House.

“ You seem to speak as if I were the obstacle to the move-
ment being carried out in Manchester last year. My own
fear was lest the public elsewhere should be deceived as to
what we should do for them in Manchester, for I felt that we
had not the materials there to renew such an agitation as
was proposed. It is not in human nature that, after the
exhaustion of one great effort, the same men should begin
another of an equally arduous character. I am also of
opinion that we have not the same elements in Lancashire
for a Democratic Reform movement, as we had for Free
Trade. To me the most discouraging fact in our political
state is the condition of the Lancashire Boroughs, where,
with the exception of Manchester, nearly all the munici-
palities are in the hands of the stupidest Tories in England;
and where we can hardly see our way for an equal half-share

of Liberal representaticn in Parliament. We have the labour
 

522 LEH OF COBDEN. (omar,

1840. of Hercules in hand to abate the power of the aristocracy
ate, Be ‘and their allies, the snobs of the towns. I have faith in
nothing but slow and heavy toil, and I shall lose all hope if
we cannot see with toleration, and a desire to encourage,
every effort that aims at curtailing the power and privileges

of the common enemy.”

Cobden was never so immersed in political projects as to
forget how much of the vital work of social improvement
lies entirely away from the field of politics. While he was
corresponding with Mr. Bright about economic and par-
liamentary reform, and with George Combe abont education,
he did not lose sight of a third cause which seemed to him,
as it has always done to Mr. Bright also, not any less
important to the national welfare than either of the other
two. The letter which follows was written to Mr. Livesey,
a zealous advocate for the promotion of Temperance:—

* London, Oct. 10.—Your letter has given me very great
pleasure. It has often been a matter of sincere regret to me
that I have not had the pleasure since my return to England
of shaking hands with you. I have taken up my abode per-
manently here, for being obliged to be six months in London,
and finding it intolerable to be so long separated from my
family, I had no alternative but to make choice of one abode,
or to have two removals of my household every year, which is
both unpleasant and expensive. As I had no business ties
in Manchester, I was tempted by the climate to leave my
esteemed friends and neighbours to settle here, where I
shall never form the sterling friendships that I possessed
in Lancashire. The damp and rigorous climate of South
Lancashire with its clay soil, never agreed with my consti-
tution, which requires a more genial temperature and a sandy
dry soil, such as I was used to in my early days in Sussex.
My abode is near the Great Western Station, Paddington,
the highest part, as well as tho driest, of the metropolis.
xx} ON THMPERANCE. 523

“ You are right in the path of usefulness you have chalked) 1849.
out for yourself; the temperance cause really lies at the! )Alr. 45.
root of all social and political progression in this country.
The English people are, in many respects, the most
reliable of all earthly beings. I am not one who likes to
laud the Anglo-Saxon race as being superior to all others
in every quality ; for when we remember that we owe our
religion to Asiatics, our literature, architecture, and fine
arts greatly to the Greeks, our numeral signs to the Arabs,
our civilization to the inhabitants of Italy, and much of our
physical science and mechanical inventions to the Germans ;
when we recollect these things it ought to make us mode-
rate in our exclusive pretensions. But give me a sober
Englishman, possessing the truthfulness common to his
country, and the energy so peculiarly his own, and I will
match him for being capable of equalling any other man in
the every-day struggles of life. He has a self-depending
and self-governing instinct which carries him triumphantly
through all difficulties and dangers. But in travelling
through all civilized countries, I have often been struck
with the superiority that foreigners enjoy over us from
their greater sobriety, which imparts to them higher advan-
tages of civilization, even when they are really far behind
us in the average of education and in political institutions.
The energy natural to the English race degenerates to
savage brutality ander the influence of habitual drunken-
ness; and one of the worst effects of intemperate habits is
to destroy that self-respect. which lies at the bottom of all
virtuous ambition. It is here that I have often been struck
with the inferiority of our working people, at least that
portion of them which habitually indulges in drunkenness,
happily every year diminishing in number. They want the
decent self-possession and courteous manners which you
find among more sober nations. If you could convert us
\ 524 LIFH OF OOBDEN. [onar,

1849. into a nation of water-drinkers, I see no reason why, in

 

4ir, 45. addition to our being the most energetic, we should not be
the most polished people, for we are inferior to none in
the inherent qualities of the gentleman, truthfulness and
benevolence. With these sentiments, I need not say how
much I reverence your efforts in the cause of teetotalism,
and how gratified I was to find that my note (written
privately, by the way, to Mr. Cassell) should have afforded
you any satisfaction. I am a living tribute to the soundness
of your principles. With a delicate frame and nervous
temperament, I have been enabled, by temperance, to do
the work of a strong man. But it has only been by more
and more temperance. In my early days I used sometimes
to join with others in a glass of spirit and water, and beer
was my every-day drink. I soon found that spirits would
not do, and for twenty years I have not taken a glass unless
as a medicine. Then port and sherry became almost as
incompatible with my mental exertions, and for many years
T have not touched those wines excepting for form’s sake
in after-dinner society. Latterly, when dining out, I find
it necessary to mix water even with champagne. At my
own table I never have anything but water when dining
with my family, and we have not a beer-barrel in the house.
For some years we have stipulated with all our servants to
drink water, and we allow them extra wages to show that
we do not wish to treat them worse than our neighbours.
All my children will, I hope, be teetotallers. So you see
that without beginning upon principle, I have been brought
to your beverage solely by a nice observance of what is
necessary to enable me to surmount an average mental
labour of at least twelve hours 2 day. I need not add that
it would be no sacrifice to me to join your ranks by taking
the pledge. On the contrary, it would be « satisfaction to
me to know that from this moment I should never taste
xx] ON TEMPBRANOE, 525

fermented drink again. Shall I confess it? My only re-
straining feeling would be that it would compel a singularity
of habits in social life. Not that this would, I trust, be an
insurmountable obstacle, if paramount motives of usefulness
urged me to the step.”

In connexion with the same subject, he wrote to Mr.
Ashworth, mildly protesting against a political banquet,
and pointing out the superior courage of the Americans in
their way of making war on this particular temptation to
excessive self-indulgence :—

“ Dec. 13.—I am not quite sure that dinner-parties are the
best tactics for our party to fall into in Manchester. Our
strength lies with the shopocracy, and I think the members
for Manchester are turning their backs upon the main army
of reformers when they leave the Free Trade Hall for a
meeting of any kind in a smaller room. Public dinners are
good for our opponents, but I have more faith in teetotalism
than bumper glasses, so far as the interests of the demo-
cracy are concerned. The moral force of the masses lies
in the temperance movement, and I confess I have no faith
in anything apart from that movement for the elevation of
the working class. We do not sufficiently estimate the
amount of crime, vice, poverty, ignorance, and destitution,
which springs from the drinking habits of the people. The
Americans have a clearer perception of the evils of drunken-
ness upon the political and material prospects of the people,
and their leading men set an example of temperance on
all public occasions. I lately read an account of a great
political meeting in New Hampshire, at which Daniel
Webster presided, when fifteen hundred persons sat down
to dinner, at which not a drop of wine, spirits, or beer was
drunk. Depend on it, they were more than a match for
four times their number of wine-bibbers. You will wonder
why I preach this homily to you. But it is apropos of the

1849.
Zit, 45,

 
526 LIFE OF COBDEN. {om. xx

1849. Corn Exchange dinner... . Sure am I that when the

 

41.45. election day comes, the teetotallers will be found the best
workers in the ranks of the Liberals, whilst the drinkers
will be the only hope of the Tories.”

“ T remember that one year (18438),”’ Cobden once wrote to
Combe, by way of illustrating this matter, “ Bright, Colonel
Thompson, and I, invaded Scotland and made a tour of the
kingdom, separating as we entered and reuniting at Stirling
on the completion of our work, There, after a large public
meeting, we adjourned to our hotel, where we were joined
by a number of baillies and other leading men, who sat
with us, to our great discomfort (for we needed our beds),
till one o’clock in the morning, drinking whisky-toddy out
of glasses which they filled from tumblers with little ladles,
and I remember that @ certain sleight of hand in this opera-
tion, acquired, I suppose, by long practice, amused us
Southrons a good deal. As we three Englishmen took
nothing but tea, it drew attention to our total abstinence
principles, which were then more rare than at present. We
compared notes with one another in the hearing of the
baillies, and found that in our tour in Scotland not a shilling
had been paid by us for spirits, beer, or wine.” Their com-
panions were at first disposed to eye them rather contemptu-
ously, but after hearing them recount the work they had gone
through, the number of meetings they had atiended, very
often two in one day, the baillies were constrained to admit,
as they placed their ladles finally in the emptied tumblers,
that water-drinking was not incompatible with indomitable
energy and long perseverance in exhausting labour.
CHAPTER XXI.

THE DON PACIFICO DEBATE--THE PAPAL AGGRESSION—-COREE-
SPONDENCE WITH MR. BRIGHT ON BEFORM—KOSSUTH.

Tue year 1850 has an important place in the history of
Cobden’s principles, because it is the date of a certain dis-
cussion in Parliament which marked the triumph for the
rest of his life, though for no longer, of the school which was
inveterately antagonistic to his whole scheme of national
policy. The famous Don Pacifico debate was the turning-
point in the career of Lord Palmerston, and it was the first
clear signal of the repulse of Cobden’s cherished doctrine
for twenty years to come.

Lord Palmerston had been at the Foreign Office for four
years, During that time he had been incessantly active in
the affairs of half the countries of Europe. That taqwinerie
of which Bastiat complained so bitterly to Cobden, was at
its height. Nothing like it was ever seen in our politics
before or since. He had brought England to the brink of
war with France in connexion with the Spanish Marriages.
He had sent the fleet to the Tagus to prevent the people of
Portugal from settling their internal affairs in their own way.
He had plunged into the thick of the dangerous European
complications connected with the civil war among the Swiss
Cantons, An English agent had been despatched on a roving
commission to the states south of the Alps, to teach politics, as
Mr. Disraeli said, to the country where Machiavelli was born.
528 LIFE OF COBDEN. {cHap,

1860. When war broke out between the King of Naples and his sub-
Zar. 46. jects in Sicily, Lord Palmerston’s emissary rode the whirlwind
and tried to guide the storm. The bustling deliriam came toa
climax when the Foreign Secretary told his ambassador at
Madrid to give a severe lecture to the Spanish Government
for failing to respect the opinions and sentiments of their
country. With a laudable sense of their own dignity, the
Spanish Government sent Lord Palmerston’s despatch back,
and ordered the British Minister to leave the country in eight
and forty hours. Lord Palmerston sincerely believed that
he was carrying out those vague and much disputed objects,
which go by the name of the Principles of Mr. Canning.
Nor has any one ever denied that in all this untiring rest-
lessness he was moved by an honest interest in good govern-
ment, or by a vigorous resolution that his country should
play a prominent and worthy part in settling the difficulties
of Europe. The conception had about it a generous and
taking air. It was magnificent, but unluckily there was no
sense in it. For the unreflecting portion of mankind the
spectacle of energy on a large scale has always irresistible
attractions; vigour becomes an end in itself and an object
of admiration for its own sake. Now that the contempo-
rary mists have cleared away, everybody can see that Jord
Palmerston’s vigour at this epoch was futile in its nlti-
mate results to others, and in its immediate circumstances
full of the gravest danger to ourselves. It kept us con-
stantly on the edge of war, it involved waste of our resources,
and it diverted attention from the long list of improvements
that were so sorely needed within our own gates.

With what feeling Cobden watched these doings, we may
imagine, They roused him to renewed assaults upon the
public opinion which tolerated or abetted them, Through-
out the autumn of 1849 he and his friends pursued their
operations with all their usual zealand confidence. He made
xx1.] THE HUNGARIAN WAR OF INDEPENDENOE. 529

speeches at Leeds, Bradford, Manchester, and others of the 1850.
northern towns, saying over again with new illustrations Air. 46.
what he had been saying during the previous session about
retrenchment, readjusted taxation, the necessity of lessened
armaments, the impolicy of our colonial relations. People
listened, were keenly interested, and in the course of years
the seed which Cobden was sowing germinated and bore
good fruit. But there were for the moment certain trang-
actions in Hastern Europe which stirred popular passion in
England to the depths, and prepared the way for those
unfortunate events which five years later seemed to dash the
whole fabric of Cobden’s hopes down to the ground.

The Hungarian War of Independence was one of the most
remarkable incidents in the revolutionary outburst of 1848,
as its suppression was one of the most important episodes
in the absolutist reaction which so speedily followed. The
Czar of Russia came to the aid of the Emperor of Ausiria ;
after a brave resistance the Hungarian forces were forced
to surrender to the Russian general; while Kossuth and
others of the patriotic leaders crossed the frontier into the
Turkish provinces, and placed themselves under the pro-
tection of the Ottoman Porte. The two northern powers
demanded that the refugees should be handed over by the
Tarkish government, and for some time Europe looked with
intense excitement upon the diplomatic struggle. Cobden
shared to the full the vehement indignation with which his
countrymen had watched these evil transactions. At the
same time he did not fail to see the danger of this just
sympathy with a good cause turning into an irresistible cry
for armed intervention on behalf of Hungarian Independence
and its champions. It must be owned that Cobden’s position
was a very delicate one. It seems to the present writer to
be impossible to state the principle of non-intervention in
rational and statesmaniike terms, if it is under all circum-

Mm
530 LiF OF COBDEN. (ortar,

1850. gtances, and without any qualification or limit, to preclude
&r. 46. an armed protest against intervention by other foreign
powers. There may happen to be good reasons why we
should ona given occasion passively watch a foreign Govern-
ment interfering by violence in the affairs of another country.
Our own Government may have its hands fall; or it may
have no military means of intervening to good purpose; or
its intervention might in the long-run do more harm than
good to the objects of its solicitude. But there can be no
general prohibitory rule. Where, as here, a military despot
interfered to crush the men of another country while strug-
gling for their national rights, no principle can make it
wrong for a free nation to interfere by force against him

It can only be a question of expediency and prudence.

Of course so obvious a distinction was not unperceived by
Cobden, and he had a sufficiently strong case without strain-
ing the general principle further than it can legitimately be
made to go. Ata meeting which was held at the London
Tavern to protest against the Russian invasion of Hungary,
he set forth in definite language his view of the nature and
the duty of a right intervention. By a singular chance, Lord
Palmerston forgot to meddle, even by a lecture, in the one
case at this date where he might possibly have meddled to
good effect. Russia, said Cobden, was allowed to march
her armies across the territory of Turkey, through Wallachia
and Moldavia, to strike a death-blow at the heart of Hun-
gary, and yet no protest was recorded by our Government
against that act. It was his deliberate conviction, as it was
that of the most illustrious men who were engaged in the
Hungarian stroggle, that if Lord Palmerston had made a
simple verbal protest in energetic terms, Russia would never
have invaded Hungary. “It is well known,” he said, “ that
the Ministers of the Czar almost went down on their knees
to beg anc! ontreat him not to embark in a struggle betweei
xx1J DUTY OF ENGLAND IN THE sTBUGGLE. 531

Austria and Hungary. Our protest would immediately have _ 1850.
been backed by the Ministry of the Ozarif it had been Ar. 46.
made; and I believe it would have prevented that most
atrocious outrage upon the rights and liberties of a consti-
tutional country.” This protest he would have made, but he
would have resisted any attempt to fight the battle of
Hungary on the banks of the Danube or the Theiss.

In other words he would have relied upon opinion. He
was too practical to dream that regard for purely moral
opinion could be trusted to check the overbearing impulse of
powerful selfish interests. Wars, however, constantly arise
not from the irreconcilable clashing of great interests of

“this kind, but from mismanaged trifles. ‘This was what he
had maintained in his argument for arbitration. The grave
and unavoidable occasions for war, he said, are few. In
the ordinary dealings of nations with one another, where
a difference arises, it is about something where external
opinion might easily be made to carry decisive weight. In
the undecided state of the Czar’s mind as to the invasion of
Hungary, a vigorous expression of English opinion, might
and probably would have made all the difference. How-
ever that might be, it is the duty of the more highly
civilized powers to lose no opportunity of shaping and
strengthening the common opinion of Europe against both
intervention of nations in one another’s affairs, and against
war for the first resort instead of the very last, as the means
of settling international differences.

At this time Cobden warmly took up what seemed a
most effective way of checking war and the preparations for
war on the part of the two powers whose tyrannical action
had inflamed the resentment of his countrymen. With
singular fire he entered on a crusade against the practice of
lending, first to Austria and then to Russia, the great sums
of money which were wader various disguises and pretexts
532 LIB OF COBDEN. [ouar,

1850. in offect borrowed to repay the cost of the late oppressive
4x, 46. war. In October he delivered a powerful speech against
the Austrian loan of seven millions. In the following
January he convened a meeting at which he denounced
with still more unsparing invective the loan of five and a
half millions which was asked for by Russia. He insisted that
the investment was unsound; that the funding system is
injurious to mankind and unjust in principle; that the
exportation of capital to be destroyed and lost in the bottom-
less abyss of foreign wars, is conirary to the principles of
political economy. What paradox could be more flagrant,
he asked, than for a citizen to lend money to be the means
of military preparations on the part of a foreign Power,
when he knew, or ought to have known, that these very
preparations for which he was providing would in their
turn impose upon himself and the other taxpayers of his
own country the burden of counter-preparations to meet
them? What man with the most rudimentary sense of
public duty could pretend that it was no affair of his to
what use his money was put, so long as his interest was
high and his security adequate? What was this money
wanted for? Austria, with her barbarous consort, had been
engaged in a cruel and remorseless war, and now she came,
stretching forth her bloodstained hand to honest Dutchmen
and Englishmen, and asking them to furnish the force of
this hateful devastation. Not only was such a system a
waste of national wealth, an anticipation of income,
destruction of capital, the imposition of a heavy and profit-
less burden on future generations: besides all this, it was a
direct connivance at acts and a policy which the very men
who were thus asked to lend their money to support it,
professed to dislike and condemn, and had good reason for
disliking and condemning. This system of foreign loans
for warlike purposes, Cobden argued, by which Hnglend,
xx1.J OCOBDEN’S DENUNOIATION OF WAR LOANS, 533

Holland, Germany, and France are invited to pay for the
arms, clothing, and food of the belligerents, is a system
calculated to perpetuate the horrors of war. Those, more-
over, who lend money for such purposes, are destitute of
any of those excuses by which men justify resort to the
sword. They cannot plead patriotism, self-defence, or even
anger, or the lust of military glory. They sit down coolly
to calculate the chances to themselves of profit or loss in a
game in which the lives of human beings are at stake.
They have not even the savage and brutal gratification
which the old pagans had, after they had paid for a seat
in the amphitheatre, of witnessing the bloody combats of
gladiators in the circus.’

It is impossible not to admire the courage, the sound
sense, and the elevation, with which Cobden thus strove to
diffuse the notion of moral responsibility in connexion with
the use of capital. Such a doctrine was a novelty even in
the pulpit, and much more of a novelty on the platform. The
press, which never goes before public opinion in such
things and usually lags a little way behind, attacked him
with its rudest weapons. The City resented the intrusion
of the irrelevancies of right and wrong into the region of
scrip, premium, and speculative percentage. Hven some of
his own friends asked him why, on their common principles
of Free Trade, he could not let them lend their money in
the dearest market and borrow in the cheapest; why there
was not to be Free Trade in money as in everything else.?

1 Speeches, ii. 189.

2 “T was told that a man had a right to lend his mone, withont inquiring
what it was wanted for. But if he knew it was wanted for a vile purpose
had he a right of so lending itP I put this question to a City man :—
‘Somebody asks you to lend money to build houses with, and you know it
is wanted for the purpose of building infamous houses: would you be justi-
fied in lending the money P’ He replied, ‘I would.’ I rejoined, ‘Then I
am not going to argue with you—you are a man for the police magistrate
te look after; for if you would lend money to build infamous houses, you

 

1850,

Lat. 46,
1866.

 

Zar, 46.

534 LIVE OF OOSDEN. [omaz,

Few reformers find the path easy, bat for none is it so
hard as for him who introduces a new morality. Cobden
could not flinch, because he was far-sighted enough to per-
ceive that the destination of capital becomes more vitally im-
portant in proportion as society becomes more democratic,
Germany is an instance before our eyes at this moment how,
with modern populations, the destruction of capital in mili-
tary enterprises breeds Socialism. As population increases,
so does the necessity increase of wisely husbanding the
resources on which it depends for subsistence. As political
power now finds its way from the few to the masses, so
much the more urgent is it that they should be taught to
see how detrimental war is to them, not merely because it
destroys human life, which after all is cheap, but because it
plays havoc with the material instruments which raise or
maintain that no less momentous object, the habit and
standard of living.

Cobden’s urgent feeling about war was not in any
degree sentimental ; it arose from a truly philosophic
view of the peculiar requirements which the changing
forces and condition of modern society had brought with
them. He opposed war, because war and the preparation
for it consumed the resources which were required for the
improvement of the temporal condition of the population.
Sir Robert Peel had anticipated him in pressing upon
Parliament the danger to European order arising from
military expenditure. Heavy military expenditure, he said,
meant heavy taxation, and heavy taxation meant discontent
and revolution. That wise statesman had courageously
repudiated the old maxim, Bellum para si pacem velis, A
maxim that admits of more contradiction, he said, or one
that should be received with greater reserve, nevar fell from

would very likely keep one yourself, if you conld get ten per cent. by it.”
—Speeches, ii. 418,
xxL] BOOT OF OGBDEN’S FERLING ABOUT WAR. 535

the lips of man. What is always still more important, Peel
was not afraid to say that it is impossible to secure a country
against all conceivable risks. If in time of peace you insist
on having all the colonial garrisons up to the standard of
complete efficiency, and if every fortification is to be kept in
a state of perfect repair, then no amount of annual expendi-
ture can ever be sufficient. If you accept the opinions of
military men, who tell a Minister that they would throw upon
him the whole responsibility in the event of a war break-
ing out, and predict the loss of this or the other valuable
possession, then the country must be overwhelmed by taxa-
tion. tis inevitable that risks should berun. Peel’s decla-
ration was, and must at all times remain, the language of
common sense, and it furnishes the key to Cobden’s charac-
teristic attitude towards a whole class of political questions
where his counsels have been most persistently disregarded.*

Tt was thus from the political, and not from the religious
or humanitarian side, that Cobden sought to arouse men to
the criminality of war. If an unnecessary war is a crime,
then to supply the funds for it, even for the sake of an
extra fraction per cent., is to be an accessory before or
after the fact in that crime. And that is the wise and
timely sermon for which Cobden took the events of those
days fora text. In the case of land, the world was quite
ready to recognize the truth, that property has its duties
aswell as its rights. Cobden’s views on the morality of
war loans extends the same principle to the whole adminis-
tration of property of every kind.

Speculative forecasts of this sort were uncongenial enough
to the veteran practitioner at the Foreign Office, who
manipulated events on other principles. Things were now
moving strangely counter to Oobden’s hopes. When
Russia and Austria pressed for the surrender of the Hun-

8 The passage from Peol was quoted by Cobden, Speeches, ii. 414.

1860.

 
536 LIFE OF COBDEN. Gr

1850. garian refugees, Lord Palmerston despatched the fleet to the

Air. 46. Dardanelles by way of encouragement to the Porte to hold
firm. According to Cobden, this was a superfluous display
of force. As he contended, the demands of Russia and
Austria had been already withdrawn in face of a vigorous
display of the public opinion of western Europe, What
is certain is that Lord Palmerston’s action at this time laid
the train which not long afterwards exploded in the Crimean
War. His next step was exactly calculated to embitter the
chronic struggle between England, France, and Russia in
the East, and by its peculiar lawlessness to set an example
which was sure to be followed, of the worst possible way of
settling international difficulties. There happened to be
certain claims which the British Government had for a long
time been pressing against the kingdom of Greece. A
portion of these claims were made on behalf of a Portuguese
Jew from Gibraltar, whom accident of domicile made a
British subject, and after him the whole episode has been
known as the affair of Don Pacifico. What Lord Palmerston
did was to despatch the fleet on its way back from the
Dardanelles to the Pirzus. There it detained not only a
man-of-war belonging to the Greek Government, but a
number of merchant vessels owned by private individuals.
They were detained as material guarantees. There has
been very little difference of opinion since, that this was an
intolerably high-handed proceeding. As is observed by
Finlay, the sagacious historian of Greece, who chanced to
be a claimant, though of a more reputable sort than Don
Pacifico, no Government in a civilized state of society can be
allowed to have a right to seize private property belonging
to the subjects of another State, or to blockade the port of
another State, without taking upon itself the responsibility
of declaring war.‘ Apart from this, it was a direct and

4 See Mr. Finlay’s story of the whole tranesotion in his most valuable
xx1.] THE AFFAIR OF DON PACIFICO, 537

certain provocation to two Powers, whom it was especially
our interest at this time to soothe and conciliate.'

France interposed with the proffer of good offices, and
they were accepted. But Lord Palmerston so blundered
and mismanaged the subsequent negotiations, that at one
moment we were brought unpleasantly near to a rupture
with the French Government, while we were at the same
time exposed to remonstrances from Russia, of which the
most mortifying feature was that they were absolutely and
unanswerably well-founded both in policy and international
morality. From beginning to end, alike in its inception
and in every detail of it, equally in its purpose and its
results, it was probably the most inept, futile, wrong-
headed, and gravely mischievous transaction in which Lord
Palmerston’s recklessness ever engaged him.

The discussion which took place upon these doings in the
House of Commons really covered the whole of Lord Palmer-
ston’s policy, and the spirit and the principles of it. Not
Sir Robert Peel alone, but Mr. Gladstone, Mr. Disraeli, Sir
James Graham, and Cobden, all bore with overpowering
weight against the Minister, not only for his impolitic
act in regard to Greece, but for his intervention in Spain,
Portugal, Switzerland, and everywhere else. Lord Palmer-

Hist. of Greece, vii. 211, &o. Mr. Finlay’s verdict is that “the whole affair
reflects very little credit on any of the Governments that took part in it.”

5 «JT gonceive,” said Sir Robert Peel, “that there was an obvious mode
of settling the claims withont offending France, and without provoking a
rebuke from Russia. My belief is that without any compromise of your own
dignity, you might have got the whole money you demanded, and avoided
the difficulties in which you have involved yourselves with these Powers.
With regard to Russia, you had just asserted the anthority of England by
remonstrating with her for attempting to expel ten refugees from Turkey.
She acquiesced in your demands; and with regard to France you had all
but the certainty of obtaining her cordial sympathy and good feeling.
There never was a period in which it was more the interest of this country
to conciliate the good feeling of Russia and France.”—Speech in the Don
Pacifico Debate, Jane 28. Hansard, oxii. 688.

 

18650.

Br. 46.
1860.

538 LIFE OF OOBDEN, [omae,

ston defended himself from the dusk of one day until the
dawn of another with an energy and skill which commanded
the admiration even of those who thought worst of his case,
He was supported by Mr. Cockburn, afterwards the brilliant
Chief Justice of our time, in a speech which is undeniably
one of the most glittering and successful pieces of advocacy
ever heard either in forum or senate. Itis only when we turn
to the real facts and the sober reason of the case, that we per-
ceivethat thefine things and impassioned turns of this striking
performance were in truth no better than heroics for the jury
and superb claptrap.* Half-a-dozen of Sir Robert Peel’s sober
sentences in his reply—the last speech that he ever made
—were enough to overthrow the whole gorgeous fabric.
The issues were broadly and unmistakably placed. Whether
in defending the rights of British subjects abroad or in
other dealings with foreign nations, the Minister of this coun-
try ought to seek his end by politic and conciliatory means,
or go rudely to it by violence and armed force? Whether
it is his business to interfere with lectures or with ships in
the domestic affairs of other countries, even on the side of
self-government? Whether he should seek and manufacture
occasions for intervention, or should on the contrary be

® As Cobden left the House after Mr. Cockburn’s speech, he was joined
by Mr. Disraeli. “I call yours,” he said to Cobden, “the Manchester
School of Oratory; and I oall his the Crown and Anchor School.” #
Cobden was never a great admirer of the eloquent lawyer. The first
occasion on which they met was at a dinner-party during the height of the
League agitation. ‘ He took the Protectionists’ side,” said Cobden, “ and
we had a long wrangle before the whole company. As I was top-sawyer
on that plank, I had no difficulty in flinging him pretty often.” They met
again at dinner the very day after the Pacifico division. Sir Alexander
Cockburn permitted himself to use some of those asperities—Cobden called
them by a more stinging name—which the sworn party-man is apt to use
against a conscientious dissident. He told Cobden that he ought to be
turned out of the Reform Club. But Oobden was always able to hold his
own against impertinence, and the advocate took little by his motion.

 

* Qobden to J. Parkea, Nov. 28, 1856.
xxi.) ISsUZS OF THE DEBATE, 539

too slow rather than too quick in recognizing even such 1860.
oceasions as arise of themselves? Whether interference Zr. 46.
should be frequent, peremptory, and at any cost, or should
on the contrary be “ rare, deliberate, decisive in character,
and effectual for its end” ?’ Whether England should
make light of the restraints of the law of nations, pushing
the claim of the Oivis Romanus with a high and unflinching
hand, or should on the contrary by her strictness of care
and scruple fortify and enlarge that domain which justice
and peace have already acquired for themselves among the
brotherhoood of nations? Such were the topics and the
issues of the controversy. The victory was to the old idols
of the tribe and the market-place. The foreign policy of
Lord Palmerston was approved, and its author encouraged,
by a majority of six and forty.

The effect of this remarkable debate was very great. It
is true that it was not wholly a debate on the merits. Under
government by parties, a debate wholly on the merits is very
uncommon. The question nominally at issue was mixed up
with suspicion of a French diplomatic conspiracy, and belief
in a Protectionist intrigue. The pubie was indignant that
a domestic faction should lend itself for purposes of its own
to a cabal of foreigners against a Minister who had been too
clever for them. It is true, also, that when we talk of the
public during these years, the phrase does not designate the
nation at large, even in the limited sense in which it does this
now. In every epoch the political public really means the
people who have votes, and at that time the people who had
votes were an extremely small fraction of the nation at large.
When that is said, however, there is very little doubt that
the language which Lord Palmerston used on this occasion
was the language which the majority of Englishmen were
not sorry to hear, and would not be likely to repudiate when

? Mr, Gladstone's description.
 

1850.

ir, 46.

540 LIFE OF OOBDEN. (omar,

it had been boldly spoken. The day after the Don Pacifico
debate, Lord Palmerston was justified in speaking of himself
as having been rendered by it the most popular Minister
that for a very long time had held his office.*

The confusion of parties made this sudden exaltation ot
Lord Palmerston a very important event, and we may
believe that he was quite alive to the possibilities which it
opened to his ambition. Public life, as was said, was
divided at that particular moment between statesmen with-
out a party and a party without statesmen. Lord Derby
and Mr. Disraeli had made a bold bid for power, but Lord
Palmerston foresaw that they could not keep it if they got
it. The reforming Whigs of the type of Lord John Russell
had been steadily losing ground ever since their brilliant
triumph twenty years before, and they were now lower in
popular influence than they had ever been. The Manchester
school were out of the question. There was one statesman
only whose authority, and the clearness of whose convic-
tions, might have baulked Lord Palmerston’s rise, and have
saved the country from the demoralization of the Palmer-
stonianreign. This statesman, by a most disastrous destiny,
met his death the very day after he had protested with all
the cogent sagacity of his ripened experience against Lord
Palmerston’s unsafe policy, and his mistaken impressions of
the honour and dignity of the country.

The death of Sir Robert: Peel may without exaggeration
be described as one of the most untoward incidents in
Cobden’s public life, as it was a dire and irreparable loss to
the country. Cobden was instantly alive to the calamity.
“ Poor Peel,” he wrote three days after the event, “1 have
scarcely yet realized to my mind the conviction that he will
never again occupy his accustomed seat opposite to my
place in the House. I sat with'him on Saturday till two

® Mr. Ashley’s Ife, ii. 161,
x1) DHATH OF PEEI-—-THH PAPAL AGGRESSION. 541

o’clock in the Royal Commission’—the last public business
in which he was engaged—and in four hours afterwards he
received his mortal stroke. We do not yet know the full
extent of our loss. It will be felt in the state of parties
and in the progress of public business to its full extent
hereafter. I had observed his tendencies most attentively
during the last few years, and had felt convinced that on
questions in which I take a great interest, such as the
reduction of armaments, retrenchment of expenditure, the
diffusion of peace principles, etc., he had strong sympathies —
stronger than he had yet expressed—in favour of my views.
Read his last speech again, and observe what he says about
diplomacy, and in favour of settling international disputes
“by reference to mediation instead of by ships of war.”?

If the Don Pacifico debate in Parliament gave a check to
the confidence of Cobden’s aspirations, a storm which burst
out over the length and breadth of the land a few months
later, still more effectually chilled his faith in the hold of
good sense and the spirit of tolerance upon the minds of
his countrymen. In the autumn of 1850, Great Britain was
convulsed by the tempest of the Papal Aggression, which
now looks none the less repulsive because we can see to
what a degree it was ludicrous. Unfortunately Lord John
Russell lent himself to the prejudices and alarms which
are so instantly roused in the minds of Englishmen and
Scotchmen by anything that reminds them of the existence
of the Roman Catholic Church. He fanned the flame by a
letter to the Bishop of Durham, which has as conspicuous a
place among his acts and monuments as the letter from Hdin-
burgh in 1845. In a damaging moment for his position at
this time, as well as for his future political reputation, he

9 The Commigsion for the Great Exhibition of 1851,
1 To G. Hedjield, July 6, 1850.

1850,
Air, 46.
1849,

Air, 45.

542 LIFS OF COBDEN. [omar,

brought in and passed a measure, as much to be blamed
for the bigotry which inspired it, as for the futility of its
provisions. The effect in the balanced state of parties was
to give an irretrievable shake to his Administration, for his
willing concessions to the bigotry of England and Scotland
kindled the just resentment of Ireland. The Irish vote
was indispensable to every Whig Ministry since the Reform
Bill, and this was now alienated from the Government of
Lord John Russell. Its fall could only be a matter of a few
months, and was only delayed even for that short time by
the difficulty of finding or devising a political combination
that should take its place.

The following extracts from his correspondence will show
what Cobden was doing and thinking about between the
winter of 1849 and the winter of 1851 :—

“ Teeds, Dec. 18,1849. (To Mrs. Cobden.)—I have received
your despatches; don’t trouble yourself to send the proofs
of the speeches. I am staying with Mrs. Carbutt, who has
taken me from Mr. Schofield and Mr, Marshall. In fact,
judging by the competition that there was for me, I am
rather at a premium. The meeting this evening promises
to be a very full and influential one. I wish it was over,
for I am sorely perplexed at these demonstrations, for want
of something fresh to say.”

“ Leeds, Dec. 19. ( ,, )-—We had a most thoroughly
successful meeting Jast evening, and I spoke with tolerably
good eftect, but I am not sure that I shall not appear in the
reports to have been rather rough with the landlords. At
all events, I expect the Protectionists will raise a fierce howl
at me.”

Bradford, Dec. 21.—We had a very successful meeting
here last evening, and I made a speech upon the Colonies,
which I hope will be freely reported, for it is my opinion

thet it went pretty fully into the arguments, and is calcu-
xx1] STOOK HXCHANGY CREDITORS. 543

lated to diffuse sound information upon the subject. The 1850.
people here have resolved to republish it for cheap dis- ir. 46.
tribution.”

“ April 18. (Lo James Mellor.)--I observed in a paper the
other day an account of the interference of our Admiral on
the South American station for the purpose of demanding
the settlement of certain claims made by creditors upon the
Government of Venezuela. The account stated that the
demand included the payment of money due for Loans. My
object in writing is to ask whether you can ascertain for me
through any house having relations there, whether the
claim of the Stock Exchange creditors was included. I
consider these debts to be totally different from those due
to merchants for property in the form of merchandise sold
to foreign states, or for goods seized unjustly in time of
hostilities. Money lent through the Stock Exchange is
generally advanced on such terms as to cover known risks
of repndiation, &c. Besides the money is advanced by
foreigners even when the loan is nominally contracted in
England, and the result of our Government becoming the
collectors of such debts would be that we should be made
the bumbailiffs of half a dozen nations besides our own.
I am watching very jealously any step of the kind, because
if the principle be once adopted, it is not easy to see where
we can stop. If we are to blockade the coast of a South
American State, how can we refuse the creditors of the
repudiating State of Mississippi to blockade the port of
New Orleans? There will be obvious disgrace as well
as injustice in dealing differently with weak and with power-
fal States.”

“ April 18. (Lo Mr. Bright.)—Look in the money article
of the Times to-day. The creditors of the Spanish Govern-
ment are talking of petitioning Parliament to collect their
debts. We must watch with jealousy the first attezaps of
 

544 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [CHAP

this kind, and be prepared to agitate against it. Did you

- see the report in the papers that the Admiral on the South

American station had demanded the debts due to English
Creditors of the Government of Venezuela? I am anxious
to know whether the Stock Exchange loans are included in
the claims. Do you know anybody in the City who would
inform us?”

“April 23. ( ,, )—It seems that there is—if we may
judge of the article in to-day’s Times—a prospect of still
farther delay about the Greek affair. Would it not be
well to draw up a memorial to the Prime Minister, or
else a petition to Parliament upon the subject? The
object, of course, should be to show the propriety of sub-
mitting the whole affair to the arbitration of disinterested
parties. It is just the case for arbitration. And the me-
morial should speak in terms of strong condemnation of
a system of International Policy, which leaves the possibi-
lity of two nations being brought to such a state of hosti-
lity upon questions of such insignificant importance. Here
is a dispute about a few thousand pounds or of personal
insult, matters which might be equitably adjusted by
two or three impartial individuals of average intelligence
and character, for the settlement of which a fleet of line-of-
battle ships has been put in requisition, and the entire com-
merce of a friendly nation largely engaged in trade with our
own people has been for months subjected to interruption.
It should be stated that apart from the outrage which
such proceedings are calculated to inflict upon the feelings of
humanity and justice, they must tend to bring diplomacy

. into disrepute. Without offering any opinion on the merits

of the question, you should pray that our Government
should agree at once to submit the whole matter to the
absolute decision of arbitrators mutually appomted, and it
might be added that this case affords a strong argument for
xxi] MISOBLLANEOUS NOTES. 545

entering upon a general system of arbitration treaties, by 1850.
which such great inconveniences and dangers springing Air 46
from such trivial causes may be averted for the future.
it seems to me that this is an occasion on which you
might frame a very practical memorial, and thus put the
present system in the wrong in the eyes of even those men
of business and politicians who do not go with you on prin-
ciple.”

“July 2. (To Mrs. Oobden.)—I am getting famously abused
for my vote on Reebuck’s Motion, but I never felt more
satisfied than I do on the course I took. The accounts of
poor Peel’s health are very unsatisfactory. I fear very
much the worst. It would be a great. national calamity to
lose him, and with him we should loge the best safeguard, if
not the only one amongst statesmen against a reaction at
headquarters from Free-trade to Protection.”

“ July4. (4, )—You will have seen the sad news of Sir
R. Peel’s death. I have not been able to think of anything
since. Poor soul, his health had been sacrificed by his
sufferings in the cause of Free Trade, and he may be said
to have died a victim to the best act of his political life. I
should not like to be in the position of those who by their
unsparing hostility inflicted martyrdom upon him.”

At the close of the Session, Cobden proceeded to the
Peace Congress, which this year was held at Frankfort.

“ Cologne, Aug. 17. (To Mrs. Cobden.) —My companions and
I reached the station just in time to catch the train, and we
reached Dover without further adventure. There we found
that the wind had been blowing hard for a couple of days,
so much so that the mail of the previous night from
Calais was several hours behind its time. This was nota
very agreeable prospect. Our boat was fixed to start for
Ostend at eleven at night, and so, after taking some long
walks about the town and neighbourhood, we tock a com-

No
1850,
' Air. 46.

 

546 LIFE OF QOOBDEN. [owar,

fortable dinner at six. At nine o’clock the boat was obliged
to leave the harbour, and cast anchor outside to save the tide,
We went aboard with our luggage, and for upwards of two
hours we were rocking at anchor in a heavy swell. I lay down
on my back in the cabin (for there were no berths), which, as
soon as the mail-train arrived at eleven with the passengers,
was full of people, and I never had a more uncomfortable
night. I lay in one posture till we had fairly cast anchor in the
port of Ostend, with my bones and flesh aching as if I
had been beaten. On opening my eyes and sitting up I
found that my next neighbour was Count A——, who had
passed a terrible night, and who looked anything but the
Adonis he strives to appear in the drawing-room. We
started from Ostend at seven o’clock in the morning, and
got to Cologne at nine at night, where we found ourselves
with all the discomfort of reaching a strange town without
knowing the language, and the little contretemps at the
baggage-office upset my temper. The trials of my temper
were increased when, on driving with an omnibus-load of
fellow-passengers to the best hotel, we found there nota
bed to be had, and so we had to hunt about the town till
nearly ten o’clock, when we took refuge in @ not first-rate
hotel; the dining-room, where we took a cup of tea,
was filled with Germans, with beards on their chins and
pipes in their mouths, playing cards and dominoes. How-
ever, a night’s rest has restored my equanimity again. »
The crowd of travellers, particularly English, exceeds all
past experience. It is lucky for me that I have a comfort-
able reception awaiting me at Frankfort.”

“ Frankfort, Aug. 23.( ,, )—We yesterday held onr first
sitting of the Congress, in the same place where the German
Parliament assembled. It is a large church of a semi
circular form, newly fitted up and decorated with flags, and
capable of holding 3000 persons. It was well filled during
xx1] PEACE OONGRESS AT FRANKFORT, 547

the day. The number of delegates and visitors to the Con-
gress is about 500 or 600; but by far the largest portion
are English. However, we have some good names from
France. Cormenin (Conseiller d’Htat) and Emile de Girardin
are both here, and spoke yesterday. Cormenin read a speech
fall of point, as everything is which comes from his pen.
Amongst other ‘spiritual’ things, he said, ‘there is one
thing which all will admit to be far more impossible than
the putting an end to war, viz. to put an end to death,
and why should we not use half as much exertion to escape
war as to escape death ?”

“Strange to say we had Haynau, the Austrian general,
sitting in the meeting. He is staying at a hotel here. I
took the opportunity, in my speech, of alluding to the fact
of having met him and Klapka at the two last peace meet-
ings I had attended. He is a tall man, with a pair of white
moustaches, which come down to his shoulders. His aspect
is not prepossessing. I suspect there is some truth in the
remark of a lady of Pesth, who expressed an opinion that he
was not always in his right senses. Upon the whole, Iam
very well satisfied with the meeting. We are gaining
ground.”

“ Nov. 9. (To G. Oombe.)—I am afraid you overrate the
importance of our Manchester educational conference.’ The
difficulties in the way of success are not much diminished

? Cobden had no sooner returned from the Peace Congress than he threw
himself once more into the long and intricate struggle for National Edu-
cation. He went to the most important contres of population, where he
sought private interviews with bodies of men who were interested in the
question, procuring 2 full and free discussion of vexed topics which were
usually conducted with the heat and bitterness peculiar to sectarian quar-
rels, The Churchmen had moved a step forward; they no longer claimed a
monopoly of grants from the State: they now proposed that sll the deno-
minations should receive public money for their religious teaching. It was
a proposal, as Cobden said, by which everybody should be called upon to
pay for the religious teaching of everybody else. This led to the conference
at Manchester, January 22, 1851.

1850.

“Bir, 46.
1850.
EXT, 46.

 

548 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [onap,

since I wrote to you to excuse my apparent apathy. I want
standing-ground for the House of Commons. At present
the Liberal party, the soul of which is Dissent, are torn to
pieces by the question, and it is not easy to heal a religions

feud. The Tories, whatever they may say to the contrary,

are at heart opposed to the enlightenment of the people.
They are naturally so from an instinct of self-preservation.
They will therefore seek every pretence for opposing us. If
I could say I represented the Radical party or any other
party upon the question, I should have some standing-
ground in the House. But the greatest of all causes has no
locus standi in Parliament. I thought I had given time to
Mr. Baines and his dissenting friends to get cool upon the

subject. But they appear to be as hot as ever. However, '

I shall now go straight at the mark, and shall neither give
nor take quarter. I have made up my mind to go for the
Massachusetts system as nearly as we can get it.’ You
would be puzzled at my objecting to the word ‘secular.’ If
I had seen, before I spoke upon the subject, that the word~
occurred again in the body of the resolution, I should noi
have taken the objection ; for, after all, the words of Shak-
speare, ‘ What’s in a name?’ apply very much to this case.
We all mean the same thing, to teach the people something
necessary for their well-being, which the ministers of religion
do not teach them. I perceive a difficulty in arguing the
case if we profess to exclude the Bible from all schools. 1
would rather take the Massachusetts ground, and say that no
book shall be admitted into the schools which favours the
doctrines of any particular religious sect; but this in 4
Protestant country could hardly be said to include the Bible.
8 That is‘to say education provided from local rates, free, compulsory,
and secular in the sense of excluding books that teach the doctrine of any
particular sect. The plan which Cobden favoured was after twenty years

of lost time practically accepted, with the important exception that elemen-
tary instruction is not yet gratuitous,
xx1] THE NO-POPERY ORY. 549

In the Lancashire public school plan, it was proposed to 1860.
have extracts from the scriptures only, and this was the "Alin, 46.
best mode of meeting the difficulty in a county where there
are so many Roman Catholics. But this is very different
from the case of Rutland, where there is not probably a
Catholic, and certainly more than half the parishes of
England and Wales are in the same predicament. Still I
do not shut my eyes to the fact that we shall be accused of
teaching religion, just as certainly as we should be charged
with irreligion if we excluded the Bible. However, there is
the Massachusetts plan and its effects to fall back upon,
and we must trust to time and discussion to put matters
right in this country.”

“ Manchester, Thursday, Nov.22. (To Mr. Bright.\—I have
come over here to attend a private meeting of the School
Committee, and shall go to Birmingham to-morrow to pass
a day or two with Sturge, and see Chance’s glass works,
and Fox and Henderson’s establishment. I hope you will
come to Birmingham and attend both the Freehold Land
Society and the Peace Meeting, if for no other purpose, to
let the fools and knaves who are raising this Guy Fawkes
outcry, know that there are people in the country who
are thinking of something more important than the Queen’s
spiritual supremacy.

“TI should like you to speak against the consecrating of
the banners, and if you found your audience all right, it
would be a glorious thing to be able to rebuke the Pro-
testant bigots, and say a word for the religious rights of a
fourth of the population of the Empire. What a disgusting
display is this Cockney no-Popery cry, headed by Johnny
Russell, who bids fair to close his political career in the
character of a religious persecutor. The end of it will bea
reaction in favour of the Roman Catholics, and increased
strength to their priesthood, which I don’t wish to see, In
1851.

 

550 LIFH OF OOBDEN. (oar,

the meantime the old sore is opened in Ireland, and there is

4x. 47. a new lease for Guy Fawkes, and the ‘ Immortal memory ’—

and my cynical brother will be confirmed in his doctrine
that we are, after all, not progressive creatures, but only
revolving in a circle of instincts. Verily we have not made
great strides during the last two centuries in religious
toleration.”

“Feb. 15, (To J. Sturge.)—Is there uo way of bringing
out a declaration from the friends of religious equality in
Birmingham against the Whig Bill for inflicting pains and
penalties upon the Roman Catholics? Birmingham was the
first to give a check to the public meetings in the North.
Coald it not have the honour of taking the lead in promal-
gating a sound declaration of opinion against all inter.
ference by the legislature in the religious concerns of the
people? Ishould like to see a declaration put forth repn-
diating the rights of the Parliament to encourage by temporal
rewards, or to discourage by temporal penalties, the pro-
gress of any religious opinions. Surely the mass of the
people of Birmingham are favourable to this principle; it is
in fact the principle of religious liberty which all parties
profess to advocate, but so few are prepared to practise,
Suppose you were to call a few friends together and take
their advice as to whether anything can be done. We are
going back rapidly in the House, and unless helped from
without, our case is hopeless.”

“London, Feb.19.( ,, )—I expect that this no-Popery
cry will prove fatal to the Ministry. It is generally thought
that the Government will be in a minority on some impor-
tant question, probably the income-tax, in less than a fort-
night. The Irish Catholic members are determined to do
everything to turn out Lord John. Indeed Ireland is im
such a state of exasperation with the Whigs, that no Irish
member having a Catholic constituency will have a chance
XL] THE EOCOLESIASTIOAL TITLES BILL. 551

of being elected again unless he votes through thick and
thin to upset the Ministry. We may have » dissolution
this spring, and if either party should be wicked enough to
raise the No-Popery ery, Heaven only knows what the
result mey be. One thing is certain; the Irish Catholics
will send none but Catholics, and they will hold the balance
of power in the House, and if they were sixty Quakers
instead of Irish Catholics, they would dictate terms to any
Ministry. This unsettled state of parties makes it more
important that we should raise the banner of religious
equality.”

“Feb, 25. (fo J. Parkes.)—-The Hcclesiastical Titles
Bill is the real cause of the upset of the Whig coach, or
rather of the coachman leaping from the box to escape an
upset.‘ This measure cannot be persevered in by any Govern-
ment so far as Ireland is concerned, for no Government can
exist, if fifty Irish members are pledged. to vote against them
under all circumstances when they are in danger. <A disso-
Intion would give at least fifty members to do that work,
and they would be all watched as they are now by their
constituents. Probably a bishop or two would be sent up
to town to keep them in the true fold, and see that they
did not fall into the hands of the Treasury shepherd.

“This mode of fighting by means of adverse votes in the
House is far more difficult to deal with by our aristocratic
rulers, than was the plan of O’Connell when he called his
monster mectings. They could be stopped by a proclama-
tion or put down by soldiers, but neither of these modes

4 Ministers were defeated on a private member's Bill to lower the county
franchise to 10., which they opposed. On Feb. 22 it was announced that
Lord Johu Russell had resigned. Lord Stanley was sent for, but gave up
the task. The Peelitee were the difficulty. Without them there could be
no strong Government, They declined to join Lord Stanley from differ.
ences as to commercial policy, and their vigorous disapproval cf the Eccle-

sisstioal Titles Bill prevented them from joining Lord John Russell. After
8 short interregnum Lord John and his colleagues returned to office.

1851.
~ Air. 47.

 
1851.
Ait, 47.

 

552 LIFE OF COBDEN. [onar,

will avail in the Honse. What folly it was to give a real
representation to the Irish counties, and to think of still
maintaining the old persecuting ascendency.’

“JT do not see how Lord John and the Whigs are to
recover from the false position into which they have been
flung by his letter and his speech. They have traded for
the last fifteen years as a political party upon Irish ques-
tions; but now that capital is exhausted. Even if they
withdrew their measure, which is hardly possible, it would
not restore them to the confidence of the Irish. They are
in a regular mess, and I do not see any way out of it for
them. It is understood that Graham refuses to join the
Whigs. He is against the Papal outcry, and walked out of
the House on the first reading.

“Now all this is a good ground for your getting upa
demonstration against the Bill. It must be withdrawn,
whether you take a part or not. But it is very desirable
that the English people should be known by the Irish
to have taken a part in ridding them of this insulting
measure.”

“ March 13. (To Mr. W. R. Greg.) ... . I doubt the
policy of interfering in the Caffre bnsiness until we have
more authentic news; the proper cure for these recurring
wars is to let the colonists bear the brant of them. This
must be done by first giving them the powers of self-
government, and then throwing on them the responsibility
of their own policy. They would then be very careful to

® Oobden is here at the very heart of the deplorable tale of English mis-
management of Ireland since Catholic Rmancipation. We invited the Irish
to send representatives of their wishes and views to Parliament, but, until
to s small extent in our own day, their views and wishes counted for
nothing in the House of Commons. Of course the spirit of the Titles Bill
was in miniature the same as the spirit of the Penal Code. Nothing could
have been more nicely caloulated to deepen Lrish dislike for English supre-

macy, and Irish contempt for English professions of equality and
tolerance. sf
Xx1] WHIG DIFFIOULTIES, 553

treat the neighbouring savages with justice, At present it 1851.

 

is the interest of the colonists to provoke the natives into Ar. 47,
war, because it leads to a most profitable expenditure of
British money.”

“ March 15. (To Mr. E. Potter.)—. . . As for politics,
nobody can foresee for a week what will happen. Parties
were a good deal confused before, thanks to Corn; but now
the Catholic element has made confusion worse confounded.
Of this be assured, all the embarrassments in the House, at
Court, and in the Cabinet, have sprung out of the Papal
question. It may suit the Whigs to abuse the Radicals, or
make the Manchester school their whipping boys; but it
is Lord Johnny’s Durham letter and his Bill that are at the
bottom of all the mischief. For the last fifteen years, ever
since 1835, the Whigs, when in power, have depended for
their political existence upon the votes of the Irish mem-
bers, If that support had been at any time withdrawn in
consequence of a Durham letter, they must have gone out of
office. And they must go ont now. The only thing that
keeps them in, is the impossibility of finding anybody to
take their places. In fact, it is difficult to see who is to
govern, Any Government that perseveres in the anti-Papal
policy will be opposed by the Irish members on every
subject, and if an Administration were to come in to do
nothing against the Pope, they would, I suppose, be turned
out by the English. So that we are in a rather considerable
fix. a

“T will back the Irish to win, though they have long odds
against them, because they have right and justice on their
side. In fact, we are exhibiting ourselves in this year of
the Exhibition as the most intolerant people on earth.
Hurope cries shame on us, and America laughs at us.
Our course is that of the dog in the manger. We will not
come to an agreement with the Pope, as the Er:peror of
1851.
Air, 47,

554 LIFH OF OOBDEN. [onar,

Russia does, by which he hag a voice in the appointment of
the Roman Catholic bishops in his Polish provinces (his Ire-
land), nor will we allow the Irish to manage their own
spiritual affairs without our aid or intervention, as is done in
the United States. Was ever anything so absurdly unjust?
Well may our statesmen, such as Graham, Aberdeen, and
so on, decline to take office to carry out such a system, I
will venture to say that there is not a leading statesman in
any country of Europe or America, who would for a moment
take upon himself the responsibility of treating seven
millions of Catholics as we are doing.

“As respects the prospects of Free Trade they are safe
enough if we can have an appeal to the country upon
that question ‘pure and simple.’ But if the Protectionists
can throw in the religious cry, heaven only knows what may
be the consequence. All I can say is that if the people are
determined to indulge their bigotry even at the cost ofa
tax on their bread, it is their affair and not mine. I ghall
as resolutely oppose Protestant monopoly as Protectionist
monopoly.

“Tam glad to hear such good accounts of you. I would
not advise you to come to Parliament, although I should
like to have you on the same bench with me. For my part
Iam so disgusted with these theological squabbles that I
should be delighted if I could bolt out of the political ring.
But there is no such luck.”

“Dunford, April 22, (To Mrs. Oobden.)—I left Chi-
chester with Elcome yesterday, in the midst of rain, and it
has been raining ever since. I can hardly see the trees on
the side of the hill leading up to Walker’s, and the Downs
are quite lost in the thick mist, Iam of course a prisoner,
which is very disagreeable. Yesterday, whilst at Chichester,
1 was very extravagant in the purchase of a great number of
roses in pots, which I expect to arrive to-day, and I shall
xxr] DEADLOOK OF PARTIES, 555

have them taken ont of the pots and placed in the garden.
They are all of the autumn perpetual kinds. I intend to
have a bed of them on the rising ground just at the end of
the house, not coming forward too far to interfere with the
view of the Downs. I shall also have a bed in the front of
the house. We shall shine in roses. The hollies and ever-
greens are still looking rather sorry and downcast. But,
probably, with dry warm weather we shall soon see an
improvement. The temperature is mild, and the wheats are
looking vigorous. The nightingale and cuckoo are already
heard in the hanger, and the foliage of the woods is assuming
a lively hue. I long for the time when we can be here with
the children in the autumn. You will enjoy it beyond
measure.”

“ May 21. (To Mr. W. B. Greg.) —W hat the Whig Govern-
ment intend to doI know not.’ But of this I am quite sure,
that if they do not intend to bring forward a measure calcu-
lated to excite some enthusiasm in the conutry, they had
better leave us as we are, to fight the battle upon the Free
Trade question. In my opinion, no measure will rouse the
middle class, or have the slightest chance of meeting any
response from the county constituency, unless the ballot
form a part of it; and I fear that Lord John will flinch from
that. The present system is worn out. There must bea
new departure taken, with a better crew on board the
Government vessel, and an avowed and definite destination
in view. Uniil this fresh start be taken, we shall be in a
transition state, and even when we get a reformed Parlia-
ment and an enlarged constituency, it may take a long time
to enable the people tc make up their minds what they
shall do with their power. Iam not sanguine (since the

$ This refers to the Ministerial proposals, which were in various shapes
before the public from this time until the Crimean War, for parliamentary
reform,

851,
ir. 47.

 
556 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [oaur,

1851. papal outburst) of living to see the political millennium which

x. 47, some people expect from another Reform Bill. But I repeat,

the present system is come to a dead-lock, and whether for

good or evil, the people must be called in to give a pre-
ponderance to one or the other political scale.”

This year the first Great Exhibition was opened. I can-
not find that Cobden was in any way responsible for the
excessive importance which was so irrationally attributed to
this once famous enterprise. He did not believe that it
marked the arrival of a pacific transformation, but he thought
that he might take people sufficiently at their word to pro-
pose to the House of Commons that the Foreign Minister
should be recommended to open negotiations with France
for a reduction of armaments He stipulated for nothing
specific; he only urged that an effort in this direction should
be made at a time which seemed in every respect so incom-
parably propitious. Lord Palmerston hastened with virtuous
alacrity to give a cordial adhesion to the general tendency of
his honourable friend’s views, but would prefer to be “left
with his hands free. Other members followed, showing in
bright colours what a noble spectacle we should set to man-
kind, if a solemn resolution of Parliament should commission
the Foreign Secretary to say openly to France, “ We desire
peace, and ask you to aid us in that great work.” All this
was the fashionable mood of the hour, just as declamatory
panic was the mood of the hour after. There was no
hypocrisy in either case. The instability arose from the
omission of influential statesmen to keep in their minds a
systematic survey of the facts of our national position in rela-
tion to Foreign Powers. There was no real basis consistently
present to the legislature or the public, to justify their occa-
sional fits of pacific profession. Cobden had no illusions ss
to the real progress of his opinions, but the fewer his
illusions, the more strongly he felt bound to persevere.
xxl] MOTION FOB NEGOTIATIONS WITH FRANOE. 557

It was not to be expected that Cobden would be able to

1851.

speak so freely as he was accustomed to do on military and x. 47,

naval matters, without touching that susceptibility which is
common to all experts, and to experts in these two great
services more even than in others. He often received inso-
lent letters from officers who resented public discussions as
private affronts. In 1850 a certain captain, whose opera-
tions in Borneo Cobden had spoken of as being of the
nature of piracy, sent him a challenge to fight a duel. Cob-
den replied that if the writer repeated the offence, he would
hand him over tothe police. Vivacious journalists instantly
taxed him with inconsistency. If he was for non-resistance,
universal disarmament, and peace-at-any-price, with what
decency could he talk of an appeal to the police? This folly
was an excellent specimen of the criticism which Cobden
was accustomed to receive at the hands of more responsible
personages than the humorists of the press. In the same
year an Admiral in high position entered into a hostile cor-
respondence with him on the ground of something which
Mr. Bright was wrongly reported to have said. Cobden
replied that his correspondent must expect like all public
men to have his conduct freely canvassed, and that if he
had so little control over his temper that he must needs
challenge one member of the legislature to mortal combat be-
cause another member was reported to have made a mistake
of a single word in a speech of an hour’s length, or because
a reporter’s pen may have slipped at a critical moment, then
the Admiral had mistaken his vocation, and ought to retire
from the public service. Cobden’s reply was too direct to
be courteous, but the provocation was sharp.

We may now proceed to correspondence of a graver kind,
principally with Mr. Bright :—

“ Sept. 29. (Lo Mr. Bright.)—I have been looking out for
signs and omeus of the political future, but cannot say I see
1851.
Hix, 47,

 

558 LIFE OF OOBDEN. (omar.

_any indications of a breeze in the direction of Reform. People

are too well-to-do in the world to agitate for anything. Did
you ever know or read of any movement for organic change
when wheat was under 40s., to say nothing of cotton at 4d,?
I am willing to do my share in the House or out of it, as
an individual; but when you suggest a Conference under
the auspices of Wilson and ourselves in Manchester, it is
well to consider whether we may not be under the risk of
deceiving ourselves or misleading others as to the meaning
of such a step.

“Tf we move together at the head of an organization, it
will be assumed that we are going to bring the League
following with us. This will be a delusion practised upon
people at a distance, and probably upon ourselves ; for de-
pend on it, we shall not carry with us those who co-operated
with us in that struggle. Since I have been down here
[Midhurst], I have been amusing myself under an old yew-
tree by looking over several bushels of old letters which I
received during the League agitation. The names of all
those who did the work of that seven years’ struggle are
fresh in my memory. Do not deceive yourself; the same men
will not fight the batile of Parliamentary Reform. If we go
into the conflict, we must seek for recruits from amongst
another class. Let this be understood beforehand by our-
selves and the public; otherwise we do harm to all parties,
by misleading the country and ourselves.

“ But is it not a proof that the country is not ripe for a
really great measure of Reform, that there is no spontaneous
movement for it? In all great movements, new men spring
up. They are the vouchers for the reality of the public
interest in the Reform in question. When the Catholics
were ready to free themselves, it was so. When the days
of the Corn Law were numbered, it was so. But where are
the men who now ask you and me and Wilson to pui oar-
xx1.] DOUBTS ON REFORM, 559

selves at their head, to effect another Reform of Parliament? 1851.
«++ Where are the influential local men who are gua- Hr. 47.
rantees for the earnestness of any considerable body of
reliable partisans throughout the kingdom? We are bound
to look about us for some security of the kind. Nay, as
practical men of this world, we should be guilty of a wanton
waste of the little moral influence we possess, if we did not
take a calm survey of the prospects of support before
plunging into a fresh agitation. Lopez may be pitied, or
blamed, according as people believe him to have had the
opportunity of knowing beforehand the opinion of the Cuban
population ; but nobody will ever excuse you or me for
miscalculating the force of public opinion upon any
question.

“We can learn what the people want, if we take the
trouble and the time to inquire. I confess that before I
embark in any formal proceeding, I should like to have
better evidence than I have hitherto had of the determination
of the public to carry a thorough measure of Reform. To
judge by appearances, nobody cares about it. There may
bea change. When the breeze stirs, I think I shall perceive
the ripple on the water as soon as anybody.

Tam not, a8 you suppose, desponding about political pro-
gress. I have faith in the onward tendency of our species,
Not even the red cloaks of the Manchester aldermen can
bring me to my cynical brother’s doctrine, that we move in
a circle of instincts, and return after a given cycle to the old
starting-place (I admit, however, that the cloaks are a great
triumph for his theory). If we are not now moving onward
with great velocity, it is because we made a great rush for
the goal of Free Trade, and the country has hardly yet re-
covered its breath sufficiently for a fresh start. But there
is no danger of our standing still or becoming stagnant.
The repeal of the Corn Law was a severe dose of alterative
560 LIFR OF COBDEN. [onap,

1851. medicine, which is working by a self-acting process & gradual
‘x, 47. change in the body politic. It may take time, but the
effects are sure. I am living in a part of the country where

I can witness its operations.”

“ Midhurst, Oct.1. (To Mr. Bright.)\—Y our letter of the
25th has only to-day come to hand, without any explanation
of the cause of the delay.

* Tobserve that you are hopeful of aid from Baines and Oo.
Have you seen the Mercury of Saturday? It is lukewarm,
or less tepid even than that! Gives the go-bye to the
ballot, opposes our honest redistribution because it would
give an 11th of the representation to London, and objects
to household suffrage with the old and perverse plea that it
would give a preponderance to the agricultural districts.

“By the way, with reference to what you heard from
—— about the register. I may here say that my mind is
made up not to stand again for the West Riding. I shall
take an early opportunity of announcing my intention.
Apart from the Free Trade question, I don’t see what prin-
ciple I could represent in the West Riding. If Baines be
@ representative of the opinions of the iniluential Liberals
of the Riding, we are as wide as the poles asunder upon the
vital questions of the day. I will sit for no place where the
constituency will not back me in an active opposition to all
invasions of the principle of religious equality. That ques-
tion stands in my judgment before that of commercial
freedom. And seeing how the majority of dissenting
politicians have violated the rights of conscience by support-
ing the Hcclesiastical Titles Bill, I feel by no means certain
that I shall find any constituency which will return me on
my own terms, about which, however, I feel no nervous
anxiety. I see nothing but party animosity and political
tergiversation in prospect in the House for some years to
come,
XXL] TO MR. BRIGHT, ON THE LAND QUESTION. 561

“T spree with you to the letter in all you say about
Ireland. There is no doubt that the land question (coupled
with the Church Establishment) is at the root of the evil.
And here let me say that I go heartily with you in the
determination to attack the land monopoly root and branch
both here and in Ireland and Scotland. There is an article
in this day’s Freeholder (“ Large and small Farms ”’) which
will show you that our minds are running in the same
direction. Wherever the deductions of political economy
lead I am prepared to follow. By the way, have you had
time to read Bastiat’s partly posthumous volume, ‘ Les Har-
monies Hconomiques’? If not, do so; it will require a
studious perusal, but will repay it. He has breathed a soul
into the dry bones of political economy, and has vindicated
his favourite science from the charge of inhumanity with
all the fervour of a religious devotee.

“But to return to the Land custome of this country.
We have made no progress upon the subject of primogeni-
tare during the last twenty years. Public opinion is either
indifferent or favourable to the system of large properties
kept together by entail. If you want a proof, see how
every successful trader buys su estate, aud tries to per-
petuate his name in connexion with ‘ that ilk’ by creating
an eldest son. It is probably the only question on which,
if an attempt were made to abolish the present system,
France could be again roused to revolution; and yet we are
in England actually hugging our feudal fetters! But we
are a Chinese people. What a lucky thing it is that our
grandmothers did not deform their feet a la Ohinoise! if
80, we should have had a terrible battle to emancipate
women’s toes. But, however unprepared the public may
be for our views on the land question, I am ready to incur
any obloquy in the cause of economical truth. And it is, I
confess, on this class of questions, rather than on planus of

O00
185i.

 

562 LIFE OF COBDEN. [onar,

organic reform, that I feel disposed to act the part of a

Air. 47. pioneer.

“The extension of the suffrage must and will come, but
it chills my enthusiasm upon the subject when I see so
much popular error and prejudice prevailing upon such
questions as the Colonies, religious freedom, and the land
customs of this country. I do not mean to say that these
thoughts make me for an instant falter in my advocacy of
the extension of the franchise, but they make me doubt
whether I may not be better employed in trying to diffuse
sound practical views, than in fighting for forms or theories
of government which do not necessarily involve the fate of
practical legislation at all. The greatest obstacle to any
improvement or change in John Bull’s sentiments just now
is the egregious vanity of the beast. He has been s0
plastered with flattery, for which he seems to have an in-
satiable appetite, that he has become an impervious mass
of self-esteom. Nothing is so difficult as to alter the policy
of individuals or nations who allow themselves to be per-
suaded that they are the ‘envy of surrounding nations and
the admiration of the world.” Time and adversity can alone
operate in such cases.”

“ October 29. (To Mr. Bright.)—I thought I had so re-
peatedly explained myself upon the Reform movement, that
it must prevent any misunderstanding between us as to my
meaning. I do not advocate our doing nothing. I am prepared
to do something. We must all do our best, But the ques-
tion, and the only question which I was discussing, is whether
we shall call a conferencein Manchester, That means in the
eyes of the public that the men who call the Conference, and
who put themselves at its head, are prepared to organize an
agitation. Have we duly reckoned the chances of making
Manchester the headquarters of a successful Reform move-
ment? I donbt its success. A Conference would be only
xxi] 10 MR. BRIGHT, ON REFORH. 563

justifiable in my opinion, after we had been requested tocall 1851.
one by the reformers of the several localities from which we ir. 47.
should invite delegates. I have seen no symptoms of any such
movement anywhere. I wish you to draw the distinction in
your mind between our individual efforts in support of some
such broad plan as Hume’s, which I am prepared to make, and
our calling a Conference in Manchester. Supposing the
latter to be decided on, what will you do with Walmsley’s
great-little go? Will you join it and merge in it, or will
you set up a distinct organization ? If the former, you will
avoid all responsibility; but you will perhaps give an
apparent force to a society which has little real strength,
and thus tend to foster the delusion that more is doing
than is really being done by it. If the latter, you incur a
great responsibility ; you can only be justified in super-
seding his society, by the certainty of establishing some-
thing better. In any case, we shall for a time have two
suns in the firmament trying to outshine each other. Un-
less we make a very grand flare-up indeed, we shall be
charged with impotent jealousy in trying to injure Walmsley’s
concern, without being able to set up anything better. Now,
none of these difficulties arise if we act individually, instead
of calling a Manchester Conference.

“T have thus again explained my views. We may differ,
but cannot misunderstand each other. Having had my
say, I by no means wish it to be supposed that I would
refuse to join you and Wilson in any such demonstration,
if you decide to hold one. I shall be in the north before
the middle of next month, and will come and pass a night
at your house. I am, however,-under an engagement to
be present at a Freehold Land Society’s Conference in
London, on the 25th of November (Monday).

“T don’t know how soon I may be with you. The
Leeds people have invited Kossuth to attend a meet-
564 LIFE OF OOBDEN. (omar,

186}. ing.’ I don’t know whether he will go. I have advised him

“Mx. 47, from tho first to be very chary in accepting invitations ; but, if
he should go there, I shall certainly be present. By the way,
you will be curious to hear what sort of impression he made
on me. Amiability, earnestness, and disinterestedness were
the most speaking characteristics of the man. Speaking
phrenologically, | should say he wants firmness; and the
head is very small in the animal organs behind the ear.
Altogether he did not impress me with a sense of his power
to the extent which I had looked for. And yet he must
possess it, for otherwise he could not have acquired an
ascendency over the aristocratic party in his country, where
judging by the specimens I have seen amongst the refugees,
he was brought into competition with men of no ordinary
stamp. The secret of his influence lies, I suspect, in his
eloquence. His speech at Winchester, delivered within forty-
eight hours of his arrival in England, in a language with
which he could have had but little practical acquaintance,
was the most extraordinary exploit I ever witnessed. I
have no doubt that with forty-eight hours’ preparation, and
a, supply of the necessary materials, he would make as good
a financial statement in the. Honse as any public man
amongst us. The speech he delivered was suggested by
myself, and was spoken without preparation.

“TJ have not seen a report of the proceedings at the
Southampton banquet, but am anxious to see how Lawrence,
the American Minister, will get through his part of sympa-
thizing with the Austrian rebel, who deposed the house of
Hapsburg in Hungary, and was a few weeks ago hung in
effigy by command of the Austrian Government, How
will these diplomatists, with their starched etiquette, ever
survive such a violation of their conventional rules? Then
how can the Austrian Minister remain at Washington

7 Kosanth landed at Southampton, from Turkey, on October 28.
xxi] KOSSUTH IN ENGLAND. 565

after the President has invited Kossuth to be his guest, 1851.
and given orders for his reception with military honours? tz. 47.
Assuredly, these Democrats are destined to turn the diplo-
matic world upside down.

“You are quite right in saying that Palmerston wants to
make political capital ont of Kossuth. His tools have suc-
ceeded in getting a vote of thanks for him in Southampton,
where the good folks have been in far too great a bustle to
think of what they are doing. But you will have observed
that Kossuth himseif avoids saying anything in praise of
Palmerston.”

“Nov. 4. (To F. W. Cobden.) —It seems Kossuth will not
goto Yorkshire,and I do not see the necessity of my attending
the Manchester banquet. The Times has had a slap in the
face which it will not soon forget or forgive. It has been
fairly cowed by the universal execration it has brought upon
itself. Yet what an absurd position we are in. So com-
pletely dictated to and domineered over by one newspaper,
that it requires a periodical revolt of the whole people to
keep the despot in tolerable order! If we had, as we might
have, a dozen daily morning papers, of all prices, represent-
ing ail opinions, and holding each other in check, there
would be no necessity for these public meetings to protest

. against the misrepresentation of the press; which, so far as
I take a part in them, are not the most safe or convenient,
for one is always in danger of being identified with those
who give vent in the excitement of the moment to very
unsound and bellicose sentiments.”

“ November 7. (To Mr. Bright.) —As respects Sturge’s plan
of universal suffrage, although I am convinced we shall come
to it some day, I do not think it would have so much support
from the electoral body ag household suffrage. And we are
too apt to forget that the mass of the people, however
enthusiastic in favour of universal suffrage, have not the
1851,
Air, 47.

 

566 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [cuap.

power of carrying that or any other measure, excepting
with the aid of the middle class.

“ Again, Sturge loses sight of the inequality of representa-
tion, which (even if we would risk the ballot) renders it
quite impossible that we should make the Reform Bill 4
simple question of household or manhood suffrage. After
all (you will say I am upon my hobby again) I look to the
forty shilling freehold movement as the surest guarantee of
our being able to break down the power of the aristocracy
without an appeal to violence. A county or two quietly
rescued from the landlords by this process will, when
announced, do more to strike dismay into the camp of
feudalism and inspire the people with the assurance of
victory, than anything we could do. As respects the Whig
programme, if the ballot be left out, I will not be a party
to the scheme, and I feel quite sure that it will be left
out.”

“ Midhurst, Nov.6. ( ,, )—I guarded myself as carefully -
as ever I did in my life from being seduced into an unsound
position at Winchester, and it is only a proof of the terrible
powers of perversion possessed by the Times that you have
been influenced by its comments on my speech. The word
‘Stop’ as applied to Russia was used first by Kossuth in
his speech. He said he wished us only to say, Stop. In my
remarks I alluded to the unsound state of public opinion
here, and our own violations of the principle of non-inter-
vention in our foreign policy. I also referred to the fact
that when the Russians invaded Hungary, so much were
we under the influence of those unsound opinions, that the
tone of some of our leading papers was adverse to the
Hungarian cause. I said, then let public opinion in England
be set right by such speeches as we had just heard, and let
us come into court with clean hands, by acting upon the
principle of non-intervention ourselves, and let America
x11] TO MR. BRIGHT, IN EXPLANATION. 567

jom us in the same course (though she has rather given

symptoms of following our bad example), and then the “. 47.

word ‘Stop’ addressed to Russia would have the force of a
thousand cannons.

“Thad, of course, a good deal of private talk with him
all in the same strain, and distinctly told him that I had no
other hope for him but in the general adoption of the prin-
ciple of non-intervention as a public opinion of the civilized
world. And certainly he bas done his part nobly in putting
forward that principle in its fairest aspect. He tells us
he does not want help, but he wishes us to secure him fair
play. Wesay we wish fair play to him and all others strug-
gling for what they hold to be their rights. Is not such a
man, then, to have our sympathies? Are we to let him be
slaughtered here by the Times, and stand silently by whilst
worse than Turks are assassinating him morally? No;
you are not the man to say so. But then you are afraid that
others will push our doctrines to the point of physical force.
Even if they do, that is no reason why we should cease to
give moral power its only chance, by boldly proclaiming the
right and justice of the Hungarians to settle their own
domestic affairs. Now I am satisfied that if public opinion
in England can be shown to be unmistakably against
Russian invasion of Hungary, the Russian Government
would no more think of risking a collision with the two
most powerful maritime states, than Tuscany or Sardinia
would; for she is, if possible, more at the mercy of those
powers. Therefore, to avoid the possibility of war, let us
give the fullest development and expression to sound public
opinion.

“My own opinion is that we are on the eve of a revolu-
tion in the diplomatic world; that the old régime of mysti-
fication and innuendo and intrigue cannot survive the growth
of the democratic principle; that diplomacy must be a

1851,
1851.

 

ABT. 47,

568 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [oaur,

public and responsible organization; and nobly again has
Kossuth assailed this stronghold of the hierarchical spirit,
What could be better than when he said, ‘ Diplomacy tells
us that the dinner is prepared and eaten, and we (the people)
have nothing to do but to digest the consequences’? Then,
again, his attacks upon the loaning system are quite in our
spirit. In fact he comes here preaching the main princi-
ples enunciated at our Peace Congress, but preaching them
better even in a foreign tongue than I could do in my own
language; und surely such a man ought not to be slighted,
although some of his admirers talk a little gunpowder.

“ But the fact is that upon the whole the public addresses
and speeches are singularly judicious, with the exception of
the London Working Men’s address, with which, of course,
the working men had nothing to do. I join you heartily in
wishing to guard us against being for a moment thought
to be the advocates of war or armed intervention, and am
equally convinced with yourself that we have nothing to
hope from Palmerston and Co. One of my reasons for
hoping much from Kossuth’s agitation here and in America
is that it will tend to unveil Foreign Ministers and put
Foreign Offices in order.

“By the way, with reference to your difficulties about
speaking, I should expect that Kossuth will prefer that
nobody speaks but himself. After having such a rule
adopted by the London Working Men’s Committee, it would
be invidious to depart from it in Manchester. I know it is
his wish that nobody spesks in his presence unless he is the
guest.of the chairman, as at Southampton. So if you like
to suggest to the Committee that Kossuth should receive
addresses and make a reply, and that nobody else should
speak, I know that would be most agreeable to him.”

“ Dunford, Nov. 18, (— ,, )—TI have only time for a few
words to save the post after reading your speech, to say how
xx1] ME. BRIGHT AND KOSSUTH. 569

greatly admire your sentiments and approve the line of
argument you took at the great Kossuth meeting. I can fully
appreciate the difficulties of » peace man standing before
such a meeting, full of the most generous indignation at the
oppressors of a people so nobly represented by the great
Magyar. If you could have moved there and then a
declaration of war against Russia and Austria, it would have
perhaps been the resolution which would have most per-
fectly embodied the feelings of three-fourths of those
present. But your remarks will bear the test of time and
reflection, which I should think would hardly be the case with
the rev. gentlemen who fell foul of your peace principles.
By the way, if I rightly understand what Dr. Vaughan
said, he took credit for Palmerston for having prevented the
Sultan from surrendering Kossuth by promising him material
help. Now, you will find on referring to Palmerston’s
speech on Roebuck’s Greek Debate, that in speaking of the
entry of our fleet into the Dardanelles, he himself inforraed
us that the Emperor of Russia withdrew his demand for the
extradition of the Refugees on the arrival of the Sultan’s
envoy remonstrating against the demand, and before any
intelligence had reached Petersburgh of the views of the Engiish
Governmert. But I remember at the time making the
calculation, and finding that the newspapers of London and
Paris, giving one unanimous expression from all parties
and every shade of opinion, of indignation at the attempt of
the northern powers to violate the law of nations in the
persons of Kossuth and his companions, reached Peters-
burgh at the same time with the Turkish envoy, and I felt
convinced, and I said as much in the House afterwards, that
it was that expression of opinion from Western Europe
scared the despots instantly from their prey. And you are
quite right; it is opinion and opinion only that is wanting to
establish the principle of non-intervention as a law of

1851.

4Et. 47,

 
1851,
“An. 47.

 

570 LIFE OF OOBDEN. {emar,

nations, as absolutely as the political refugee in a third and
neutral country is protected now by the law of nations,
But these people who bawl for soldiers and sailors to
settle these matters, forget that we have a great deal to do
to settle opinion amongst ourselves before we go to war to
make others conform to a principle which we have not yet
agreed upon. Was public opinion in England unanimously
expressed against Russian intervention in 1849? Turn back
to the columns of the Times and Manchester Guardian for
aN aDSWer. . . . .

“T know that Kossuth was most indignant on reading
the blue-books (at Kutayah) giving the correspondence
about the Hungarian struggle, for Pulsky told me at the
time that K. had discovered to his surprise that the whole
moral force of our diplomacy at Vienna was employed
against him, and that Palmerston at the close of the struggle
wrote to congratulate the Austrian government upon the
termination of the war. ... .”

* Nov. 16. (To Mr. Ashworth.) —Kossuth is most certainly
a phenomenon ; not only is he the first orator of the age, but
he combines the rare attributes of a first-rate aC ministrator,
high moral qualities, and unswerving courage. ‘(his is more
than can be said of Demosthenes or Cicero. I am glad to
see by your letter that you have participated in the pleasure
of listening to him. I confess I felt intensely interested in
the success of his visit, after the base and brutal attempt
of the Times to destroy his character, before even he had
alighted on our shores. The generous welcome given to
him is I believe not altogether undue to the dastardly
attacks made on him by that paper, which has received 6
lesson not easily to be forgotten or forgiven. The tone of
the addresses and speeches delivered at the meetings has
been very discreet and moderate. There has been some
gunpowder vomited forth, particularly by a reverend geutle-
XXI.] ENGLISH OPINION ON RUSSIAN INTERVENTION. 571

man in Manchester, which might have been better spared 1851.

 

for a fitter occasion. What we want is a sounder public air. 47.
opinion upon the question of national rights and the sove-
reignty of peoples. If we could make up our own minds, as
a community, that the Russian intervention in Hungary was
a violation of the independence of a nation, we should not
require to threaten war to make our opinion influential.
But what were the facts, and what are now the facts? At
the time when the Czar moved his army across the Carpa-
thians, not only were we not agreed as a people in con-
demning the act, but the Times, Guardian, and all the Tory
papers, took a view of the intervention favourable to Russia.
Even Lord Palmerston, in the House, spoke apologetically
of it. And even now the Times leans to the same side. The
whole of the Tory pariy and the aristocracy are holding
aloof from the Kossuth demonstration. It is clear that we
want an enlightened and reformed opinion upon the subject
of non-intervention. Kossuth has done much to change
the tone, and I think if 1849 had now to be gone through
again, there would be such a demonstration of opinion as
would scare Nicholas from his prey. But there is still very
much to be done, and I can imagine nothing more calculated
to retard the progress of sound public opinion than to invite
the people to embark in a fresh war in favour of Hungarian
liberty.”
CHAPTER XXII.

THE PROTECTIONISTS IN OFFICE.

1852. Tue signal victory which Lord Palmerston had gained in
‘Ex. 48, the summer of 1850, was followed before the close of the
following year by what looked to everybody but himself
like a crushing repulse. His rapid and peremptory way of
doing the business of his office had never been agreeable to the
Court. The substantial aims of his policy had been in most
instances extremely disagreeable to some of the continental
personages with whom the English Court was on terms more
or less close. In these high quarters, therefore, he was no
favourite. At the very moment of his triumph, the Queen
transmitted to him a rebuke for neglect of consideration and
observance towards the Crown, so sharply worded that when
it became public, men looked upon it as an affront not to be
borne, and wondered that a Minister of Lord Palmerston’s
spirit should not have met it by instant resignation. He
did not take this course, because, in his own words, to have
resigned then would have been to give the fruits of victory
to adversaries whom he had defeated, and to abandon his
supporters at the very moment when by their means he had
just triumphed. It was not long, however, before he rashly
gave his enemies their opportunity. When the President
of the French Republic struck his blow against the As-
sembly, Lord Palmerston thought that he had done what
was right and expedient, and frankly said as much in
OH. XxI1.] FALL OF THE WHIG MINISTRY. 574

talking to the French Ambassador in London. Reference 1952.
was made to the conversation in an official despatch from Air. 48,
Paris. The despatch came in due course before the Queen
and the Prime Minister. It was conceived that Lord Pal-
merston’s expression of opinion on the President’s action,
before consultation with his colleagues, was a violation of
prudence and decorum which showed him to be unfit for his
post. Lord John Russell in a summary manner dismissed
him from office; and in the debate which afterwards took
place upon the matter in the House of Commons, was
generally held at the time to have amply justified the
dismissal. Hasty observers made up their minds that Lord
Palmerston’s career was at an end.

Lord Palmerston himself took a very different view. He
reckoned confidently that the nation would not forget his

‘power-in foreign affairs. He knew that it did him more
good than harm to figure as the victim of the Germanism of
the Court. He saw that the press of the country was
almost boisterously on his side. Finally, he perceived like
everybody else that the Ministry could not get through the
session, and would probably not stand long after the meeting
of Parliament.’ His opportunity came within a few days.
He had his tit-for-tat with John Russell—so he wrote—and
turned him out by carrying an amendment in the Militia Bill,
which the Minister took as a vote of want of confidence.
Lord John Russell immediately resigned (February 23), and
the first administration of the Harl of Derby took the place
of the last administration of pure Whigs.

In Cobden’s eyes the policy of the Militia Bill, and the
accession to power of the Protectionists, were equally
startling and equally ill-omened. One event-certainly showed
a revival of the military spirit, and the other for some time
was seriously believed to threaten a reaction against Free

1 See Mr. Ashley's Life of Lord Palmerston, ii. 218.
574 LIFH OF OOBDEN. {omar,

1862. Trade. Cobden made a vigorous speech against the pro-

 

Air, 48, posal for organizing the militia, contending that we should
be amply protected by our navy, if our ships were not sys-
tematically sent abroad. He denied the reasonable probability
of invasion, appealing to Lord John Russell’s emphatic de-
claration on the first night of the session, that the relations
of peace existed between this country and foreign nations
in the fullest degree. Why should we suddenly act as if a
remote and highly improbable contingency were an assured
certainty ? This point of view was not agreeable to the
majority, and all that Cobden took by his protest was the
assurance from a member on his own side that he was
labouring under a monomania which deprived the country
of the services ofa very clever man. Cobden knew very well
what price he and his friends might expect to pay for stand-
ing aloof from either of the two great factions, and refusing
to echo the conventional cries of the political market-place,
In the course of the previous year he had told a great
meeting of Liberals at Manchester how he stood. Spitefal
newspapers had begun to talk of him as a disappointed
demagogue. “This disappointed demagogue,” he said,
“wants no publicemployment; if I did, I might have had it
before now. I want no favourand no title. I want nothing
that any Government or any party can give me; and if I am
in the House of Commonsat all, it is to give my feeble aid to
the advancement of certain questions on which J have strong
convictions.” If they deprived him of this power, if they
told him not to do this because it wes likely to destroy
a Government with which he could have little sympathy,
then the sooner he betook himself to something more
profitable than sitting up in the House of Commons night
after night, the better both for himself and his friends.’

If Cobden found little snpport from either the House of
3 Manchester, Feb, 23, 1851.
xxmr.) THE PROTEOTIONISTS IN OFFIOE. 575

Commons or the country for his opinions on war and arma-—

ments, he was compensated in part by finding that upon
Free Trade at any rate there was no backsliding in either
the press or the constituencies. The new Government pro-
fessed to leave the question of Protection open until it should
be convenient to appeal to the country. This made it
impossible for the Free Traders to do anything but oppose
them. If the Ministers were not for a Corn Law, Mr. Bright
teld them, let them say so. If one of them were authorized
boldly to avow that the time had gone by when any duty
could be imposed upon corn, and to promise that they would
not tamper with the taxation with a view to compensate cer-
tain classes for losses alleged to be due to Free Trade, then
the Government should certainly never find him voting a
want of confidencein them. The same rather bitter but per-
fectly intelligible indifference of the Manchester school to
the ties which nominally connected them with the official
world, shows itself pretty clearly in Cobden’s letters during
this long crisis :~=

* House of Oommons, Feb. 28. (To George Wilson.)
Whilst I am writing, Stanley [Lord Derby] is still speaking,
but from what I hear, his plan is to hold the Corn question
in suspense, on the plea of other grave Parliamentary affairs,
and admitting himself in a minority in the Commons, to
do nothing unless forced to a dissolution by what he calls a
factious opposition, The House of Commons is always
afraid of a dissolution, and this threat may not be without
its influences on Members. But it appears to me that our
course is clear. We must not allow the country to be kept
both in its agricultural and manufacturing interests in hot
water and confusion for a year. We must challenge to
instant combat, and memorialize the Queen from all parts of
the country to dissolve. This will give courage and con-
fidence to our friends, and prevent the Members of the

1852.
Air. 48.
1858,
Ait, 48.

576 LIFE OF OOBDEN. {onar.

House from temporizing. We have everything to fear from
delay. Popular enthusiasm cools, and the enemy being in
power will be sharpening the sword with which to slay us
as soon as we are off guard. Let no other question be mixed
up with ours. The country will not entertain other reforms
until our question is disposed of.”

“ London, Feb. 28. (  ,, )-—Further reflection, and the
perusal of Lord Derby’s speech, have confirmed me in my
views. We must go for memorials to the Queen for a disso.
lution. We must mix up no other question with it, because
no other will interest the public till it is settled. We may
talk of Reform in Parliament, but I would have no resolution
excepting upon our own question. There should be one
resolution affirming our determination to renew the League
agitation, if necessary to maintain Free Trade inviolate; and
another expressing the wish of the meeting for the interests
of all concerned, to have the question for ever settled by an
appeal to the country, and therefore praying the Queen to
dissolve as soon as the forms of Parliament admit. I have
my doubts yet, whether Lord Derby will dare to go to the
country on the bread question ; but if he should, he will find
nine-tenths of the men, women, and children even in the
rural districts dead against him. There is no doubt as to
the result of a dissolution. Free Trade is stronger in the
agricultural districts amongst the mass of the people, than
you perhaps imagine in Manchester. There need not be too
much sound and fury in our proceedings. The very appari
tion of the League will settle the question. In fact it is the
only thing that all parties at headquarters are afraid of.”

A couple of days after this letter, the Council of the
League met in their old quarters at Manchester. Crowds
from all parts of the country thronged into the great room
of Newall’s Buildings, and as one familiar face after another
was recognized, the assembly became almost as animated a8
xx1r] REVIVAL OF THE LEAGUE. 577

when the great struggle was at its height. Cobden moved
the first resolution in a terse and pithy speech, Mr. Bright
and Mr, Gibson followed, and before the meeting was over,
the men in the room thoroughly understood one another
and what was to be done; a large sum of money had been
subscribed; and the plan of the electoral campaign had
been determined upon and prepared.*

“Manchester, March 8. _ (To Mrs. Oobden.)—The meeting
was all I could wish in point of influence, numbers, and
earnestness. But it strack me that people with difficulty
realise in their minds the necessity of another effort to
secure Free Trade. However the blow will I expect tell
decisively.”

“March 5. ( ,, )—The feeling in the West-Riding
of Yorkshire is most intense amongst the working class.
They will never allow the Corn Law to be reimposed.”

“London, March 11. (Zo Mr. Sturge.)—I am not sure
that I correctly interpret your letter to mean that you prefer
to let Lord Derby remain in office for fear of seeing back the
Whigs. My object is to settle the Free Trade question for
ever, and to clear the ground for other questions. If in

® Cobden usually tried to get one salient fact into a speech. On this
Occasion he mentioned a fact that he described as comprising almost their
main case :—“ Since the day when we laid down our arms there has been
imported into this country in grain and flour of all kinds an amount of
homan subsistence equal to upwards of 50,000,000 of quarters of grain—
a larger quantity than had been imported from foreign countries during the
thirty-one years preceding 1846—that is, from the peace of 1815 down to
the time at which we brought our labours to a close. Now, gentlemen, in
that one fact is comprised our case. You have had, at the lowest computa-
tion, 5,000,000 of your countrymen, or countrywomen, or children, subsist-
ing on the corn that has been brought from foreign countries. And what
does that say P What does it say of the comfort you have brought to the
homes of those families? What does it say of the peace and prosperity and
security of domestic life in those homes, where 50,000,000 of quarters of
grain extra have been introduced, and where, but for your exertiona, the
inmates might have been left either in hopeless penury or subsisting on
potatoes Pp”

ey

1852.

at. 48,
1852.

 

578 LIFE OF COBDEN. [onur.

doing so, I should be instrumental in bringing back the

. Whigs it would not be my fault. Ihave no such object in

view, and agree with you in wishing they could remain in
Opposition for the rest of their lives—or at least to the day

of their reformation. Let us not however deceive ourselves

by supposing that Lord Derby would be less inclined for the
Militia than the Whigs. All the aristocratic parties and the
Court are in favour of more armaments. Our business is to
try to make the people of a different opinion; and when I
say the people, I mean that public opinion which alone can
enable us to break down the martial propensities of the
Government. I am more and more convinced that we
have much to do with the public, before we can with any
sense or usefulness quarrel with this or that aristocratic
party.

* T have watched naturally the tone of the press upon the
late (as I think monstrous) proposal to increase our arma-
ments. Itis decidedly against us. Ido not speak of the
dailies, but of the weekly papers; and I do not allude
to such papers as the Hxaminer or Spectator, but to the
Weekly Dispatch, read by artisans and small shopkeepers,
and the Illustrated Weekly News, a thorough middle-class
print. By these and such as these I have been denounced
and put out of the pale of practical statesmanship for oppos-
ing an increase of armaments. I care nothing for this,
because I prefer to enjoy the pleasure of advocating my own
views to the prospects of office. But how many public men
who have ambition to gratify will range themselves alongside
of us, so long as the press is thus opposed to them? To
change the press, we must change public opinion. And,
mind, when I speak of the press I speak of those weekly
papers which are really supported by the people.

“Never was the military spirit half so rampant in this
country since the Peace as at present. Look at the late
xx11] GROWTH OF THE MILITARY SPIRIT. 579

news from Rangoon.* Nobody inquires why we killed 300 1852.
Burmese, The papers applaud the deed without asking for Ar. 48.
a justification. This makes about 5400 persons killed by
our ships in the Hast during the last five years, without
our having lost one man by the butcheries!_ Now give me
Free Trade as the recognized policy of all parties in this
country, and I will find the best possible argument against
these marauding atrocities. I will then demonstrate to all
by their own admission that they cannot profit by such pro-
ceedings. To take away the motive of self-interest is, after
all, the nearest way to influence the conduct of wicked
human nature. Therefore, as the moral of this, I exhort
you to give the finishing-stroke to Free Trade as the best
means of advancing your peace principles.”

“ March 20. (To J. Sturge.)—As you will have seen by
Lord Derby’s speech in the Lords, the present Government
will carry a Militia Bill if they can. Itis the question upon
which they will try to raise a discussion in the House with a
view to gain time. And Lord John Russell and his party
are so hampered with pledges upon the subject, that they
cannot offer any opposition to at least an introduction of the
measure. Therefore you must not relax in your efforts to
prevent the scheme from being carried out. The invasion
panic seems pretty nearly forgotten.”

“London, March 20. (To George Wilson.) ... The
Derby-Disraclites are not going to give up their berths in
a hurry, and they would be fools if they did so, for they are
opposed to an Opposition whose leaders have not the pluck
(and Dizzy’s insolence shows that he knows it) to stop the sup-
plies. Ihave been in constant communication with Lord
John and Graham, but they are not the men to strike the

4 This waa the beginning of the Second Burmese War, which Cobden dealt
with in the following year in his pamphlet, How Wars are got up in India
feo Collected Writings, vol. ii,
580 LiF# OF COBDEN. jouap,

1862. blow, and we are powerless without them. The excuse they
“Bn. 48. put forward is the fear that some of the Peel party and Pal-
merston will not join in a vote of want of confidence—guch
as limiting the supplies, and that we might bein a minority,
I have urged upon them again and again that promptness
and courage will carry everybody with them—that the mem-
bers on our side of the House will for the sake of their elec-
tions vote for the Free Trade majority. But timidity carries
the day. And so I suppose these men will be in office
till November. In the meantime they will get rid of their
Protectionist pledges, and try to reconstruct a Tory party—
and as we, the present Opposition, are s rope of sand with an
Trish party pledged against the Whigs, I see no reason why
Derby should not have a fresh lease upon a Free Trade
policy. Gladstone, Goulburn, Sidney Herbert, Palmerston,
have more affinity for the Tories than for us, and nothing
but Free Trade keeps us on the same benches. True, there
will be one difficulty in the way of their making a party.
What could they do with Disraeli, if Gladstone were on the
same bench ?

“There is now no doubt that the Protectionists are slip-
ping away from their principles at a gallop, and we shall be
in danger of wasting our strength in firing ball cartridges
at a dead lion.”

“ London, March 23. ( ,, )-—I have done all I possibly
could with Lord John to induce him to act with more
vigour. He is hampered with pledges and opinions given
or expressed to the Queen or Lord Derby when he went out
of office, which prevent him from taking a leading part in
advocating an immediate dissolution of Parliament. And
yet, a8 you will have seen, he is in no way inclined to let
anybody else lead our side of the House.

“I have spoken in the same way to Sir James Graham,
who has been in consultation with his colleagues of the late
xx] OOBDEN’S URGENOY FOR A DISSOLUTION. 581

Peel party, and I have a long letter from him explainmg 1852.

 

why he thinks we must be content for the present with the air. 48.
declaration of Lord Derby. He fears that some of his

party would noi vote for limiting the supplies for the
military services. But they still leave it open to deal with

the miscellaneous estimates, if the Government should be
inclined to postpone unreasonably the appeal to the country.

Last night, owing to the rapidity with which the money

was voted there seemed to be an impression that we should
dissolve early in May.

“What are you doing? ‘You ought at once to make out
a list of those places which are safe, and waste no attention
or money on them. Then look to places like Sunder-
land, Liverpool, Lincoln, Boston, where there will be Pro-
tectionists standing, and there you ought to concentrate
your strength by distribution of telling tracts and handbills.
Not caricatures or poetry or sarcasm, but brief and pithy
facts, for in those places people are not up to the mark.
Pictorial tracts or handbills are good, but they should be
pictorial facts, not caricatures.”

“ May 5. (To J. Sturge.)—I am not quite sure yet that
we may not draw the sting from the Militia Bill, and make
it so different a thing in Committee that its author may
repudiate it. It is thought that the present Government is
vexed at having to carry the measure through, and they
will be far more sick of it before we have done with them.
Last night, or rather this morning at one o’clock, in the heat
of the strife Disraeli was drawn into another Protectionist
avowal, which will embarrass him again. In fact the Militia
Bill seems destined to bring no end of trouble upon all Govern-
ments who meddle with it, and we shall do our best to make
the present ministers sick of their adopted child. It is the
wretched Whigs alone who render such bad measures pos- ~
sible. But Lord John seems to have paid an ample penalty.”
\

582 LIFA OF COBDEN. [owar.

1862. “June9. ( 4, )—L admire your hopefulness, and must
“Zr. 48. confess myself to be much disgusted and almost dismayed
at the proceedings on the Militia Bill. I will never forgive
the Whigs for this retrograde step. On analysing the divi-
sion list, I find that in almost every case, where it was
possible to bring public opinion to bear upon members, your
party succeeded in preventing them from supporting the
third reading. The majority was made up of county mem-
bers (chiefly Protectionists) and the representatives of small
pocket boroughs. This shows that if we had a fair repre-
sentation, you could hold the military party in check. But
you can do nothing without a change in the county repre-
sentation, and there is no county that sends such bad mem-

bers as that where you live.”

The elections for a new Parliament extended over the
month of July. Cobden and his Conservative colleague
again divided the representation of the West Riding without
a contest. Mr. Gibson and Mr. Bright won at Manchester
by handsome majorities. Taken broadly the strength of
parties had not shifted, and there was no approach to such
a change as would have justified a reversal of the policy of
Free Trade. The Government gained strength enough to
resist a vote of want of confidence, if it should be proposed,
but not strength enough to carry their measures. What
shrewd observers like Lord Palmerston expected was that
they would be beaten upon some fanciful scheme for
relieving everybody without increasing anybody’s burdens,
“which would be speedily seen to be too mountebankish to
be practicable.”* This is what actually happened. Mean-
while Cobden and his friends did not relax their vigilance.

“ Midhurst, August 18. (To George Wilson.)—If you
have money in hand, would it not be well to keep it until
we have fairly disposed of the Protectionist party? The

* Lord Palmerston, in Mr. Ashley's Léfe, ii. 247, 248,

 
xx] THE GENERAL ELECTION. 583

Government ought to be driven to avow Free Trade opinions, _ 1852.
or be driven from office. It will not be easy to do either, air. 48.
unless the League still shows a formidable front to all
trimmers. We must not abandon the field whilst professing
Protectionists hold office. The Government will be ina
difficulty how to change their Protectionist garments for a
Free Trade suit without breaking up their party. But our
object is or ought to be to break up the County gang,
which exists only upon the basis of Protection. Do not
therefore throw away your balance, but keep it and let the
world know that you have it.”

“ Midhurst, Sept. 14,1852. (Lo Mr. Sturge.)—I hold, that
before you can rationally hope to reduce the army or the
navy, you must bring the public mind to agree to the
abolition of the militia, And I should also, with all due
-deference say, that until we can recover this lost ground for
the Peace party in England, it will be a little inconsistent in
us to travel abroad to teach our doctrines to other nations.
The establishment of the militia was a disastrous defeat
sustained by the Peace party, and until we can regain our
position of 1851, it is useless to think of getting back to
1835. How are we to take this step and thus recover our
lost position? I repeat by acquiring some influence in the
Counties, for it was by the votes of county members in
opposition to a majority of the representatives of boroughs
that the measure was passed. And if you have watched the
announcements in the Gazette since the passing of the law,
you must have seen the sinister influences which were at
work to carry the Bill. Have you marked the shoal of
deputy-lieutenants created as a part of the working
‘machinery of the law? Every magistrate almost in these
parts has been gazetted as a deputy-lieutenant, and is of
course entitled to appear at Court with his official costume
and cocked hat and feathers. Then have you observed the
584 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [onar.

1852. lists of appointments and promotions as officers of the
“1.48, militia? There is quite a flood of flunkeyism and patronage
in the counties. Lords Lieutenant are looking patronizingly
upon the Squire ; and the Squire’s son is snobbishly looking
up to his Lordship for a grade in the county militia. Then
there is all the small patronage for printers, surgeons,
lawyers, etc., with its necessary consequence of servility and
demoralization on the part of all interested. The whole of
the working of the militia is calculated to foster and .
strengthen an aristocratic system and tv degrade the mass

of the people.”

Sept. 20. (To Mr. Sturge.)—The death of the Duke‘
would, one thinks, tend to weaken the military party. But,
if the spirit survive, it will find its champions. After all if
the country will do such work as Wellington was called on
to perform, I don’t know that it could find a more honest
instrument. He hated jobs and spoke the truth (the very
opposite of Marlborough), and although he grew rich in the
service, it was by the voluntary contributions of the Parlia-
ment and Government. If he had been told to help himself
at the Exchequer, his modesty and honesty would never have
allowed him to take as much as was forced upon him. I,
who saw with what frenzy of admiration he was welcomed
by all classes at the Exhibition, can never honestly admit
that in what the Legislature and Government had done for
him, they had exceeded the wishes of the nation, Let us
hope that a more rational sentiment may be promoted
amongst us, but we are slow to learn. At this moment we
are doing more than any other people to keep up the vast
peace armaments of which we complain. .... Can you in
the face of such facts travel to the Continent to advocate
a reduction of establishments ? ”

Midhurst, October 4, (To J. Wilson.)—It having been

§ Tho Duke of Wellington died on the 14th of September.
xxL] THE FREH TRADERS AND THE MINISTBY. 585

decided to hold a meeting,’ there is nothing more to be said 1858.
but to make the best of it. I think you are quite right in air. 48.
having determined io mix nothing with the Free Trade
question. .... All the reflection I can give to the
subject confirms me in the opinion that we ought to confine
ourselves in the first instance to the settlement of the Free
Trade question, without attempting to tie to that proceeding
any ulterior plan whether of a personal or political nature.
We are entitled to at least a Free Trade Government to
represent the opinion of the country. If the present
Administration do not avow themselves to have cast off their
Protectionist opinions and to have adopted Free Trade views,
they ought to be turned out. I would not be contented by
their saying that they will not attempt to reverse the policy
of Sir R. Peel ‘because they have not the power to do so.’
They must profess adhesion to that policy and recant their
own errors; they must promise to promote and extend these
principles ; and failing in allthis, we must by any legitimate
means drive them into resignation. Can we do this? All
depends upon the course taken by the Peel party, and I am
glad to see by the tone of Henley’s speech that the old
bitterness of the Protectionists towards them still survives.
Indeed, so long as Disraeli continues at the head of the Tory
party, I do not see how Gladstone, Sidney Herbert, and the
rest of Peel’s followers can ever rejoin them. But much
depends upon the League pursuing an honest course. We
must not look to the right or left, but as of old go witha
single purpose to our object. We must not allow ourselves
to be used by the Whigs or Peelites, but hold the balance
fairly between them.”

Parliament met on the 4th of November, but it was the 11th
before the preliminary formalities were over. The Queen’s

 

7 A great meeting of the League party in Manchester, in opposition to
the Derby-Disracli ministry.
586 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [onar.

1852. Speech contained a paragraph of a very oblique kind on the

“82.48, question which was uppermost in everybody’s mind. If

Parliament was of opinion that recent legislation had con-

tributed to the improved condition of the country, and yet

had at the same time inflicted injury on important interests,

then it was recommended by the Queen to consider how far

it was practicable to mitigate the injury, and to enable the

country to meet unrestricted competition. Writing to his

wife on the day after the debate on the Address, Cobden

says,— We had a queer tricky allusion to the Free Trade

question in the Queen’s Speech, which brought on a sharp

attack upon the Government last night, and as all parties

are agreed to force the Disraelites, I hope we shall bring.

matters to an end soon, It is time we were done with the
question.”

The process, however, took a little time, and was at-
tended with some difficulties. ‘I am sorry to say,”
Cobden wrote a few days later (November 18), “I think
it is quite impossible under any circumstances that I can
be released before the 10th December. If even the Govern-
ment were upset, there would still be certain things to be
done which would take till that time. This has been luckily
a very fine day. I have not been near the line of pro-
cession.” But Sale and Henry Ashworth have both called
since it was over, and they think people are disappointed.
It is the last piece of paganism of the kind that will ever
be performed in this country, for I hear everybody in pri-
vate in the House (even Tories) condemn it. But nobody
dares to speak out in public.

“You will see by the paper that on Thursday Dizzy is to
move an amendment to Villiers’s address. Altogether, what
with this inconsistent declaration of Free Trade principles
coming from their own party, and this escapade of Disraeli’s

® The Duke of Wellington’s funeral.
XXII] HUMILIATION OF THE PROTEUCTIONISTS. 587

on moving the address for Wellington’s funeral,’ the Pro-
tectionist party is very much demoralized, and will I think
be broken up in a week or two. They never can hold
together, for a score or two of honest, stupid people will still
hold out, and in fact will be in a more creditable plight than
in going over with the herd.”

“ Nov. 24. (5, )—We have a fresh complication in
the House, owing to Palmerston having played us a trick
in moving a new amendment. The Whigs are very indig-
nant, and the Liberals are now confessing that we found
him out some years ago, and they now call him a traitor
and worse. It is impossible to say how matters will go.”

The story of these final manceuvres need not detain us.
It was indispensable to pin the Ministers to an explicit
acceptance of the policy of Free Trade. The Ministers
were willing to give the required pledge, but they sought
to escape the humiliation of a formal confession that the
legislation which they had resisted with an obstinacy and a
rancour unsurpassed in political history, had been wise, just,
and beneficial. ‘These were the “ three odious epithets,” as
Mr. Disraeli styled them, with which Mr. Villiers asked the
House by their resolution to stamp the Act of 1846. To call
the policy just was particularly unpalatable, because if it was
just, then what wrong was left for compensation? Mr. Dis-
raeli deprecated this revival of the cries of exhausted factions
and obsolete politics. He proposed a resolution which while
acknowledging the effect of recent legislation in cheapening

9 Mr. Disraeli in his funeral oration on the Duke introduced bodily a
passage from a panegyric delivered by M. Thiers many years before on
Marshal Gouvion de Saint Cyr. It had already appeared in an article in
the Morning Chronicle in 1848; but the writer, a brilliant man well known
in society, came forward to say that it was Mr. Disraeli who had called his
attention to the passage from Thiers. The “escapade” was singular
and it was certainly unfortunate, but men of letters, who know the tricks
that memory is capable of playing, will hardly think it incapable of fair
explanation.

1853.
ffir. 48.

 
588 LIFE OF OOBDEN. {ouar.

1852. provisions, and binding the Government unreservedly to

 

Air, 48. adhere to the policy of unrestricted competition, still con-
tained no declaration that the opinions of the Protectionist
party had been mistaken or had undergone any change,
The whole question turned upon the way in which the
national verdict was to be worded. Was this solemn final
declaration to be drawn up, Mr. Bright asked, by one who
had repudiated Free Trade as Mr. Disraeli had done, or by
one who had consistently supported it as Mr. Villiers had
done? The question was not an idle point of etiquette. A
majority of the friends of the Government no farther back
than the recent elections had openly declared either for a
reversal of Sir Robert Peel’s policy, or for compensation—
the word that never fails to come into our ears when a
favoured order is stripped of some unjust and mischievous
privilege. Under these circumstances, ought the House to
tolerate any evasion ?

This was a manly statement of the case. The interests
of political morality demanded that the Protectionists should
either be forced publicly to recant an error which they had
upheld with so much stupidity and so much virulence, and
in some cases with such unscrupulous hypocrisy and want
of principle, or else that on this issue, and no other, they
should be driven from power. But the complex. play of
party combinations seldom permits these plain and anso-
phisticated courses. It did not suit Lord Palmerston that
the Government should be turned out too soon. His plans
for the succession were not ripe. A hurried crisis might
make Lord John Russell again Prime Minister, and unde
him Lord Palmerston was resolved not to serve. A little
more time was needed to clear this up, and accordingly
with a view of saving the Ministry from a repulse which
would for his purposes have been premature, Lord Palmers-
ton suggested a third form of resolution which would con-
xx] MR. DISBAELI’S BUDGET. 599

tent Liberals, and which Protectionists might swallow. It
became evident that this would meet the wishes of impor-
tant sections of the House, always ready to be captivated
by anything that wears the air of moderation and compro-
mise. Mr. Disraeli perceived that he was saved, and with-
‘drew his own amendment in favour of Lord Palmerston’s.
Cobden now made his first direct attack on Lord Palmerston,
and he made it in very straightforward terms. But in the
long-run Mr. Villiers’s motion was rejected by a majority of
eighty, and then Lord Palmerston’s was carried by a majority
of four hundred and fifteen.

The field was now clear for Mr. Disraeli’s Budget. It
had been awaited with eager expectation. The Government
was without weight, but it was not unpopular. There was
no general anxiety to see the Whigs back again. A miracle
of financial talent might still save the Ministry, though it
had neither political principles nor administrative experi-
ence. There was 8 vivid curiosity of a personal and dra-
matic kind. Men wondered how the skilful gladiator would
acquit himself, who had never been in office until he was
made leader of the House of Commons. In a few hours
after Mr. Disraeli had stated his plans, it seemed as if they
were a success. One thing at any rate was clear; Free
Trade was safe. “The Budget,” Cobden wrote to Mr.
George Wilson, the day after Mr. Disraeli’s speech (Decem-
ber 4), “has finally closed the controversy with Protection.
Dizzy has in the most impudent way thrown over the
‘local burdens,’ as he did before a fixed duty.’ The League
may be dissolved when you like.”

When the discussion on the ministerial proposals opened

1 When the Chancellor of the Hxchequer announced that he waa not

going to recommend any change whatever in the system of raising the -

local taxes, a good deal of loud and derisive triamph was exhibited on the
other side. “Oh,” said Mr. Disraeli with composure, ‘there are greater
subjects for us to consider than the triumph of obsolete opinions.”

1853.
Ait, 48,

 
590 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [onar,

1852. a week later, it was at once geen that the first favourable

 

Air. 48. impression had been a mistake, and that they could not
stand the heavy fire which was now opened upon them by
all the ablest and most experienced men in the House. All
Mr. Disraeli’s energy, self-possession, and resource were no
match in defending a plan that was hollow and vicious in
itself, against the forces that were now combined to over-
throw him. Among other shifts, he conceived the idea of
detaching the Manchester party from the Whigs and the
Peelites. He asked one of their leaders to call upon him.
“ Protection,” he said to the illustrious Free Trader, ‘is done
with. That quarrel is at an end. If you turn us out, you
will only have the Whigs in, And what have the Whigs
done for you? They will never do anything for you.” As
a matter of fact Lord Palmerston’s manoeuvre had made the
Free Traders even less friendly to the Whigs than they had
been before. But it was impossible that Economic Liberals
could support a Budget so fantastic and unsound. It pro-
posed to repeal the malt-tax to please the farmers, and then
to reimburse the exchequer by an increase of the house-tax,
which was of course chiefly payable in the towns. “ We don’t
want the Whigs to give us office,” said Mr, Disraeli’s visitor.
* We don’t think of that. In any case, we cannot support the
new house-tax. And there are other things in your Budget
which we think wrong.” So the interview came to an end.
Cobden spoke against the Ministerial plan in the course of
the debate, but apparently with rather less power than usual.
Mr. Disraeli wound up a vehement defence of himself by
an invective against political coalitions. He had himself,
it is true, a few days before been a party to an attempt to
coalesce with Lord Palmerston. But nothing could save
him against the union of Whigs, Peelites, and Economic
Liberals, and he was beaten by a majority of nineteen. The
next day Lord Derby resigned (December 17), and the
xxIr.] FALL OF THE FIRST DERBY MINISTRY. 591

Aberdeen Administration was formed. The long deferred 1852.

 

fusion took place between the chief followers of Sir Robert Air. 48.
Peel and their old adversaries. Philosophic Radicalism

was represented in the cabinet by Sir William Molesworth.

The economic Radicalism of Cobden and his friends was left

. out, as Mr. Disraeli had foretold. The time speedily came

when Cobden was driven to say that he never repented so

much of a. vote in his life as of that which he had now just

giver,
CHAPTER XXIIL

THR PANIC oF 1853.

_3852. Som have noticed it as an odd coincidence that the voting
“Zx.48, for the Second Empire took place three days after the
funeral of the Duke of Wellington. We might picture to
ourselves, said Cobden, the third Napoleon rising from the
yet open tomb of the vanquisher of the first. That event
of sinister omen for France naturally roused considerable
disquiet in England. But what had been a natural disquiet
was exaggerated by the press and a certain influential class
of politicians into a fit of angry and violent alarm. The
massacre of unarmed citizens on the boulevards with which
Louis Napoleon had cowed Paris and sealed his usurpation,
had filled England with a just and righteous horror. But from
reprobation of this deed of bloodshed to an invasion panic,
there ought to have been a long step. Statesmen at least,
whether journalists or actors in politics, might have been .
expected to abstain from flogging the public mind intoa
state of furious apprehension. Especially is this true of
statesmen who, like Lord Palmerston, had been the first in
the Days of December to applaud the President for tearing
up the Constitution and throwing the national repre-
sentatives into prison. Lord Palmerston, however, who
notwithstanding his astuteness and his high spirits hada
strong dash of honest stupidity in his composition, had got
it into his head that steam-ships had thrown s bridge across
Ou. xx111.] THB INVASION PANIO. 593

the British Channel. It was now perfectly possible, he
said, that all England might waken up some morning
to find that 50,000 Frenchmen had landed on her shores
in the course of the previous night. It was in vain
that military and naval authorities demonstrated the phy-
sical impossibility of this electric suddenness of invasion.
It was in vain that statesmen like Sir Robert Peel had asked
the House to figure to itself the surprise with which Lord
Palmerston himself, sitting in Downing Street with all the
threads of European diplomacy concentrated like so many
telegraphic wires in his cabinet, would hear that on that
day fortnight 150,000 men were to be landed on the shores
of Great Britain. Lord Palmerston held to his fixed idea.
During Peel’s Ministry he had so incessantly asked alarm-
ist questions, that even Sir Robert himself began to think
of a Militia Bill. Lord John Russell was no sooner in
office than the same influence was brought to bear, and in
due time led to the Militia Bill which incidentally brought
his Ministry to an end. Lord Derby’s first measure on
taking his predecessor’s place was to bring in another
Militia Bill, and the energetic support which was given to
it by Lord Palmerston was one of the chief secrets of its
success.

“The organization of the militia was followed on the
erection of the French Empire by an increase in each
branch of the two services. Every condition was present
which according to Cobden’s diagnosis favoured the growth
of an invasion panic. The country was very prosperous.
Under the influence of Free Trade and the gold dis-
coveries, the exports had risen in five years from fifty to
one hundred millions sterling per annum. The manufac-
turers were rolling in new opulence. The revenue was
satisfactory. The country gentlemen found that they were
not ruined after all. but on the contrary were getting better

Qq

185%.
ANT, 48:

 
. \
594 LIFE OF COBDEN. (omar,

1852. rents than ever. There was, moreover, a not unnatural reaction

“&r, 48, against the outburst of pacific and fraternal exaggerations

to which the Great Exhibition had given rise. The death of

the Duke of Wellington and the recapitulation in a thousand

funeral orations of his splendid exploits, had turned men’s

minds to all the pomp and circumstance of war, to heroic
campaigns, to glorious and crowning victories.

When the nation is in the humour to indulge itself in the
luxury of a panic, the mood never declines for lack of
nourishment. The oracles of the military and naval clubs
hurried to the Times with agitating communications. Every
half-pay officer in the country had his own peculiar alarm
and his own favourite plan. The counters of the book-
sellers were strewn with pamphlets like snowflakes, con-
taining a Few Observations on Invasion, Brief Sugges-
tions for a Reserve Force, Short Notes on National Defence,
Plain Proposals for a Maritime Militia, Thoughts on the
Peril of Portsmouth. Every morning a fresh and more
terrible paragraph sent a thrill round the breakfast-table.
There was a French plot to secure a naval station in the
West Indies. General Changarnier had divulged a secret
plan for seizing the metropolis, The French troops were
tired of Rome, and were jealous of their share in the sack
of London. The great shipbuilders on the Clyde had re-
ceived an order for steam frigates from the French Govern-
ment. A French man-of-war had actually appeared at
Dover. It was to no purpose that each paragraph was
demolished the very day after its publication. The French-
man had been driven to Dover by stress of weather;
General Changarnier said that his alleged plan was ab-
solutely without foundation; the shipbuilders solemnly
declared that no order for steam frigates had come into the
Clyde. All this made no difference, and the panic ran its
course. As Cobden justly said, nothing could surpass the
xx] EXCITEMENT OF PUBLIO OPINION. 595

childlike simplicity with which every absurd and improbable 1852.
rumour was believed, unless it were the stolid scepticism ir. 48,
with which all offers to demonstrate their falsehood was
rejected."

Cobden was proud to recall that he and his friends in face
of this outcry took the part which had been taken by the
great political leaders who addressed our forefathers half a
century before, and who bore the most honoured names in
the history of English Liberalism. Nothing pleased him
better than to remind those who taunted him with his
alliance with the Peace Society, that the Society of Friends
co-operated with Mr. Fox in trying to prevent the war of
1793, and that Mr. Fox was not at all ashamed to write to

_Mr. Gurney, of Norwich, begging him to get up county
meetings, and to send petitions whether from Quakers or
others to the House of Commons. Cobden spent the autumn
between the general election and the meeting of Parliament
in turning over these things. His industrious meditations
took shape in a pamphlet which he intended to do some-

‘thing to appease the perturbation of the popular spirit.
Before he actually sat down to composition, he wrote
an interesting letter to his friend, Mr. Thomasson, of
Bolton :—

‘ Midhurst, Sept. 27.—The course pursued by Brougham
and all the Whig party at the close of the war, in opposition
to the large standing armameniz proposed to be maintained
by the Tories, was precisely that, which the Peace party are
now taking in opposition to both Whigs and Tories. The
former have since that time-been in power, and there is —
perfect truth in the sarcasm that the Whigs are Tories in
office, and the Tories are Whigs when out of office. But the
misfortune is that, after having been in power and committed

 

1 Sea Cobden’s aceouns in his pamphlet, written in 1862, The Three
Panice. Political Writings, ii. 286—270.
596 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [omar.

1852. to all the bad measures of a Whig Government, the Whigs

 

Air, 48, are rendered quite useless as an Opposition ; and we have
now arrived at that point that whether on the right or left
hand side of the Speaker’s chair, the Liberal party headed
by the Whigs are incapable of doing any good for the
country. But before you and I (men of peace as we are)
find fault with the Whig chiefs, let us ask ourselves candidly
whether the country at large is in favour of any other policy
than that which has been pursued by the aristocracy, Whig
and Tory, for the last century and a half? The man who
impersonated that policy more than any other was the Duke
of Wellington ; and I had the daily opportunity of witnessing
at the Great Exhibition last year that all other objects of
interest sank to insignificance even in that collection of a
world’s wonders when he made his entry in the Crystal
Palace. The frenzy of admiration and enthusiasm which
took possession of a hundred thousand people of all classes
at the very announcement of his name, was one of the most
impressive lessons I ever had of the real tendencies of the
English character. .... The recent demonstration at the
death of the Duke was in keeping with what I have described.
Now what does all this imply but a war-spirit in the popula-
tion? As for the claims of the old warrior to popularity asa
statesman, they amount to this, that he resisted two reforms,
Catholic Emancipation and the Reform Bill, until we were on
the verge of rebellion, and yielded at last avowedly only to
avoid civil war; and in a third case (repeal of the Corn Law)
he gave in his acquiescence to Peel after his old policy had
plunged one-half the kingdom into the horrors of plague,
pestilence, and famine. No, depend upon it, the world never
yet knew so warlike and aggressive a people as the British.

“I wish to see a map on Mercator’s projection published,
with a red spot to mark the places on sea and land where
bloody battles have been fought by Englishmen. It would
xx.) HIS PAMPHLET: 1792 AND 18658. 597

be found that, unlike every other people, we have during 1882.
seven centuries been fighting with foreign enemies every- | Hin. 48.
where excepting on our own soil. Need another word be
said to prove us the most aggressive race under the sun?
The Duke’s career is no exception to this rule. His victories
in India were a page in those bloody annals for which God
will assuredly exact a retribution from us or our children;
and his triumphs on the Continent can never be truly said to
have been achieved in defence of our own independence or
liberty. His descent upon the Peninsula was made after
Nelson had at the battle of Trafalgar destroyed Napoleon’s
power at sea. From that moment we were as safe from
molestation in our island home, as if we had inhabited another
planet. Yet from that time till the close of the war we
spent four or five hundred millions sterling upon continental
quarrels. ‘Oh,’ but say the flatterers of our national vain-
gloriousness, ‘ we saved the liberties of Europe.’ Precious
liberties truly ! Look at them from Cadiz to Moscow! The
moral of all this is that we have to pull against wind and tide
in trying to put down the warlike spirit of our countrymen.
Tt must be done by showing them that their energies have
been perverted toa disastrous course, so far as their interests
are concerned, by a ruling class which has reaped all the
honours and emolumenis, while the nation inherits the
burdens and responsibilities. Our modern history must be
re-written,”

The pamphlet in which he now engaged, “ 1792 and 1868,
in Three Letters,’ was, in fact, a modest attempt on Cobden’s
own part to rewrite in his own way one very relevant epi-
sode of that modern history of which he speaks in his letter.
He makes no pretence of an original historical inquiry into
the sources of the war between England and France in
1793. What he does is to show, and he finds an easy task
in showing from the speeches of leading members of the war
598 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [cruar,

iss3, Cabinet, as well as from the narratives of Tory historians
“Zr. 49, like Scott and Alison, that the alleged grounds of the war
were not the real motives either of the English Government
or the English people. The French had opened the navi-
gation of the Scheldt; they had invaded Holland; the
Convention had passed the famous decree of fraternity,
declaring in the name of the French nation that it would
grant assistance to all peoples who should wish io
recover their liberty, and charging the executive power to
give the necessary orders to its generale. These were the
three nominal grounds of quarrel. The real ground behind
them all was the violent hatred which a conservative nation
like the English, inevitably felt towards the revolutionary
policy of France. For the actual motives we mnst look to
Burke’s philippics, and not to Lord Grenville’s despatches.
But deep-rooted hatred can be no evidence that a war
prompted by it is necessary or just; and as a matter of fact
there are very few persons now alive who, having examined
the records of English policy in 1793, do not condemn the
war of that year as both impolitic and unnecessary. Cobden
would be justified by most modern students of the period in
his contempt for the plea that the French were the first to
declare war. It was manifest from the middle of December,
1792, that the English Government intended to join the
continental powers, and for the very plain reason, apart from
the captivity and imminent death of the king, that France
had shown herself more than their match. For a time it was
believed that the Revolution had broken up the army and
dispersed the resources of the country. It was expected
that Prussia and Austria would find the restoration of the
old system in France easy to accomplish. For so long the
English Ministry looked with a certain complacency on
events which promised finally to lower their natural rival,
and to punish France for the aid and comfort that she had
xxu1.J THE WAR OF 1793. 599

bestowed on the rebellion of the American colonies against
Great Britain.

Of course if Cobden had professed to be writing a history
of that momentous epoch, he would have had to take many
circumstances into account which for his purpose at the
moment might fairly be allowed to go for nothing. Chau-
velin, for instance, was not sc humble and innocent an
emissary as Cobden’s language might leave us to suppose;
he was a coxcomb without either judgment or address. The
success of the French arms, again, coming after a period of
intense apprehension, nursed in the Convention an arrogant
and overbearing spirit which would probably have made the
maintenance of peace with even a less proud Government
than that of Great Britain extremely difficult, What is clear
is that it would have been well for England, and probably
for Europe too, if the British Government had done their
best to remain at peace with the new Republic. And what
is equally clear is, as Cobden showed, that the British
Government when the crisis came, so far from doing their
best to remain at peace, hurried violently into war. The
many elastic possibilities of history did not concern a writer
whose pressing object was to demolish the opinion, which

the feeling of the moment when Cobden wrote made so
mischievous, that it was the restless and aggressive spirit of
France which first provoked the great war that opened upon
Europe in 1792. This task, as I have said, was tolerably
easy, and nobody who has fully considered the circumstances
of the Declaration of Pilnitz will deny that though there were
political parties in France to whom the foreign war that was
forced upon them was for domestic reasons not unwelcome,
yet Cobden was strictly right in his thesis that the French
Government had, in 1792, given no ground of offence to
foreign nations. ‘It is impossible,” Cobden breaks out, in
the fulness and sincerity of his emotion, “to read the

1858.

Ait. 49.
1858,
Air, 49.

 

600 “LIFE OF COBDEN. [onar,

speeches of Fox at this time, without feeling one’s heart
yearn with admiration and gratitude for the bold and
resolute manner in which he opposed the war, never yielding
and never repining under the most discouraging defeats;
and, although deserted by many of his friends in the House,
taunted with having only a score of followers left, and obliged
to admit that he could not walk the streets without being
insulted by hearing the charge made against him of carrying
on an improper correspondence with the enemy in France,
yet bearing it all with uncomplaining manliness and dignity.
The annals of Parliament do not record a nobler struggle in
a nobler cause.”

No part of the pamphlet was more likely to be usefnl than
that in which Cobden explained to his countrymen that the
French nation, instead of being ashamed of the Revolution,
and envious of the social advancement of England, as we in
the fatuousness of national vanity used to persist in believing,
do in fact cling to the work of 1789 with appreciation,
thankfulness, and invincible tenacity; and that men of the
most opposite opinions on every other subject, agree that to
the Revolution in its normal phases France is indebted for
a more rapid advance in civilization, wealth, and happiness,
than was ever previously made by any community of a
similar extent in the same period of time. No people, he
went on, have ever clung with more unshaken staunchness
to the essential principles and main objects of a Revolution
than have the French. When you say that their new
Emperor is absolute and his will omnipotent, remember that
there are three things which even he dare not attempt to do.
He dare not attempt to endow with land and tithes one sect
as the exclusively paid religion of the State. He could not
create a system of primogeniture and entail. And finally he
could not impose a tax on succession to personal property,
and. leave real property free. In England we have all three.
XxIIL] SOOIAL STATE OF FRANCE AND OF ENGLAND. 601

“T am penning these pages,” said Cobden, sitting in his 1888.
little study at Dunford, “in a maritime county. Stretching tr. 49.
from the sea, right across to the verge of the next county,
and embracing great part of the parish in which I sit, are
the estates of three proprietors, which extend in almost un-
broken masses for upwards of twenty miles. The residence
of one of them is surrounded with a walled park ten miles in
circumference. Well, if Louis Napoleon were to create three
such estates in France, it would be fatal to him. ‘Tell the
eight millions of landed proprietors in France that they shall
exchange lots with the English people, where the labourer
who cultivates the farm has no more proprictary interest in
the soil than the horses he drives, and he will be stricken
/with horror.”

All this was said, not to urge the land question, but to
press upon his countrymen the habit of which of all others
they stand most in need, of learning to tolerate the feelings
and predilections of other nations. “ Let us spare our pity,”
he insisted, “ where people are contented; and withhold our
contempt from a nation who hold what they prize by the
vigilant exercise of public opinion.” What the Frenchman
cherishes is equality; what the Englishman cherishes is
personal liberty. The poorest cottager on any of the three
estates that encircle Heyshott “feels that his personal
liberty is sacred, and he cares little for equality. And here I
will repeat,” says Cobden, “that I would rather live in a
country where this feeling in favour of individual freedom is
jealously cherished, than be without it in the enjoyment of
all the principles of the French Constituent Assembly.” Tt
is passages like this that help us to understand the secret of
Cobden’s position, and of his attraction. He was so much
of an Englishman, while he strove to show how Englishmen
might become more generous, more noble, and more just in
their judgments on other nations.
602 LIFH OF OOBDEN. [owar.

1863. His words about Louis Napoleon contained an admirable
Ar. 49. illustration of the same ever wholesome lesson :—' It is
hardly necessary to declare that, were Louis Napoleon an
Englishman, or I a Frenchman, however small a minority of
opponents he might have, I should be one of them ;—that is
all I have to say in the matter; for anything more would in
my opinion be mere impertinence towards the French people,
who for reasons best known to themselves acquiesce in his
rule.” And as to the first and stronger Napoleon, the French
feeling for his memory which had just been so strikingly
manifested in the immense and spontaneous vote for the
Empire of his nephew, became an intelligible sentiment in
Cobden’s pages, instead of remaining the wicked mania that
it appeared to the majority of his countrymen. We, he said,
who have just paid almost pagan honours to the remains of
a general who fought the battles of the Coalition,— what
should we have done in honour of those soldiers who beat
back from our frontiers confederate armies of literally every
nation in Christian Europe, except Sweden, Denmark, and
Switzerland? Should we not, if we were Frenchmen, be
greater worshippers of the name of Napoleon, if possible,
than we are of Wellington and Nelson, and with greater
reason? Should we not forgive him his ambition, his
selfishness, his despotic rule? Would not every fanlt be
forgotten in the recollection that he humbled Prussia, who
had without provocation assailed us in the throes of a
domestic revolution, and that he dictated terms at Vienna
to Austria, who had actually begun the dismemberment of
our own territory? .... Should we not indulge a feeling
of proud defiance in electing for the chief of the State the
next heir to that great military hero, the child and champion
of the Revolution, whose family had been especially pro-
scribed by the coalesced powers before whom he finally fell.
Yes, however wise men might moralize, and good men
xxnt] FRENOH FURLING FOB NAPOLEON, 603

mourn, these would under the circumstances, Tam sure, be 1858.
the feelings and passions of Englishmen, aye, and probably 7.49.
in even a stronger degree than they are now cherished in
France.”

Cobden would certainly have been the last man in the
world to deny that there was another and historically truer
version of Napoleon’s career than the version of the Napo-
leonic Legend ; but hie sound principle that masses of men
never accept either maxims or idols without something
generous, rational, and worthy of our respect in the motives
which sanctioned their acceptance, drew him naturally to
this interpretation of Napoleon’s position in the memory of
France. The interpretation, if it be not historically justi-
fiable, is at least dramatically true. It represents what
Frenchmen were thinking of; and civilization will have
taken one of its most enormous strides, when the citizens of
each nation do not shrink from the duty of doing justice to
the better mind of every other.

The pamphlet winds up with Cobden’s invariable moral,
that instead of lavishing interest on foreign nations who
neither seek nor need it, Englishmen will do better to turn
their attention to the defects of their own social condition.
“T have travelled much,” he says, “and always with an eye
to the state of the great majority, who everywhere consti-
tute the toiling base of the social pyramid; and I confess I
have arrived at the conclusion that there is no country
where so much is required to be done before the mass of the
people become what it is pretended they are, what they
ought to be, and what I trust they will yet be, as in
England.” ‘The justice, the real patriotism, the hope, of
these closing pages are all indeed admirable; and the illustra-
tion from the history of the Irish famine of the possibility of
equalling the soldier’s bravery and devotion in other fields
hesides the field of battle, is one of the most striking passages
1853.

Air. 49.

‘

604 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [onap,

in English prose, not only for the truth of its feeling, but for
the energy, simplicity, and noble pathos of its expression.’

The pamphlet was published in the course of the minis-
terial crisis, during the formation of the new Coalition
Ministry. Shortly afterwards, and almost immediately
before the opening of the session under these changed
‘auspices, Cobden attended for the fourth time the Peace
Conference, which was on this occasion held at Manchester.
He still nursed the honourable belief that the spread of
sound information and reasonable arguments would suffice
to stem the tide of national delusion, and he once more
raised the old cry to which Manchester had in old days so
briskly responded, for an army of lecturers and a deluge of
tracts to counteract “the poison that was being infused

2A famine fell upon nearly one half of a great nation. The whole
world hastened to contribute money and food. But a few courageous men
left their homes in Middlesex and Surrey, and penetrated to the remotest
glens and bogs of the west coast of the stricken island, to administer relief
with their own hands. To say that they found themselves in the valley of
the shadow of death would be but an imperfect image; they were in the
¢harnel-house ofanation, Never since the fourteenth century did pestilence,
the gaunt handmaid of famine, glean so rich a harvest. In the midst of
a scene, which no field of battle ever equalled in danger, in the number of
its slain or the sufferings of the surviving, these brave men moved as calm
and undismayed as though they had been in their own homes. The popu-
lation sank so fast that the living could not bury the dead; half-interred
bodies protruded from the gaping graves; often the wife died in the midst
of her starving children, whilst the husband lay a festering corpse by her
side, Into the midst of these horrors did our heroes penetrate, dragging
the dead from the living with their own hands, raising the head of famish-
ing infancy, and pouring nourishment into parched lips, from which shot
fever-flames more deadly than a volley of musketry. Here was courage
No musio strung the nerves; no smoke obscured the imminent danger; no
thunder of artillery deadened the senses. It was cool self-possession and
resolute will; caloulating risk and heroic resignation, And who were these
brave men? To what gallant corps did they belong? Were they of the
horse, foot, or artillery forceP They were Quakers from Clapham and
Kingston! If you would know what heroio actions they performed, you
must inquire from those who witnessed them. You will not find them
recorded in the volume of reports published by themselves—for Quakers
write no bulletins of their viotories.”--Cobden’s Collected Writings, i. 494-5.
xx] PEACE OONFERENON AT MANCHESTER, 605

into the minds of the people”? He met a friend in the 1888.

 

streets, who said to him, “ You have come here at avery Air. 49.
inopportune time for your Peace meeting, for everybody is

in a panic, and thinks that you are wrong.” Cobden man-

fally replied, that this was the very reason why they were

there, precisely because there never was a time yet when

it was so necessary for the Peace party to redouble its

efforts.

While he was at Manchester, Cobden found satisfaction in
the reception which his pamphlet had at the hands both of
his friends and of the public at large. If it did not work a
great national conversion, at any rate it did not fall dead.
Opinion decided against him for the hour, but that the
question should have been regarded as an open one, was
the first preliminary condition of the world coming round to
his view.

“ Manchester, Jan. 27,1853. (Zo Mrs. Cobden.)—I am
writing this in the Corn Exchange. This morning’s meet-
ing is only moderately attended, but I suppose we shall be
better supported in the evening. Bright has been speaking
very well. Brotherton is now speaking a very good sermon.
By the way, Bright came up to me to-day when we met, and
exclaimed, ‘What a glorious pamphlet you have written!’
Henry Richard, of the Peace Society, tells me that he sat up
till two o’clock this morning reading it, and is delighted.
Treland, of the Examiner paper, tells me he sat up to read
it, and gives also a good account of it. Bright says it must
be printed for twopence, and got into every house in the
kingdom. I see the Standard paper has commenced
abusing it, and is contending that the war was begun by
the French and not ourselves. But the Whigs will be
obliged to stand up for Fox and their party, and show the

contrary.”
“ Manchester, Jan. 31, 1853. ( 5 )—I can’t tell
606 LUE OF COBDEN. {onar.

1853.
fit. 49,

 

what the Times means by reprinting all my pamphlet.
Hitherto I don’t see that their own comments have shaken it
much, and I suppose therefore they are rather inclined to
let it tell its own tale ina favourable way. But perhaps the
abuse is all to come. However, it is an abundant recom-
pense for the little night-work, and the occasional cold feet
it cost me, to see it sent to all the corners of the earth upon
the Times’ broad sheet. They may abuse it as they will, but
after letting it be fairly read, I have no right to complain.
If, as Doctor Johnson says, the best compliment to an
author is to quote him, I must surely be satisfied when the
whole of my pamphlet is quoted. I don’t know what the
effect of the Times reprinting it will be upon Ridgway’s
sale, but it will perhaps not be unfavourable. I havea long
letter from Parkes, in which he is complimentary upon the
pamphlet. The Liberal press is so taken aback by this slap
in their face in the very midst of their anti-French howl,
that they hardly know what to say to it. There is so much
that they are bound to accept and support, that they hardly
know how to oppose, and yet they don’t feel disposed to
approve if they can help it.”

The great event of the session was the first of those
powerfully conceived and magnificently expounded financial
schemes by which the new Chancellor of the Exchequer
astonished and delighted the country. The little handful
of Protectionists declared that it was a Budget for Man-
chester, and asked for how many years more Manchester was
to dictate laws for the nation. The country gentlemen did
not even yet realize that the centre of political power was
slowly passing away, not for a moment only but for ever,
from the hereditary and territorial, to the commercial and
industrial interests. They were not wrong in perceiving
that this was the track along which Mr. Gladstone was now
following Sir Robert Peel. In criticizing this great Budget,
xxmt] EVANTS OF THA SHSSION. 607

Cobden naturally pressed his constant point of the im-
portance of reduced expenditure as the true key to
financial readjustment ; and he pointed out that extrava-
gance in this direction would assuredly fall upon property
rather than commerce, as successive remissions of in-
direct taxation were inevitable. But he was particularly
pleased with the imposition of the legacy duty upon real
property, and described Mr. Gladstone’s Budget as bold
and honest.* On another subject he found himself in
direct opposition to the Government. Mr. Milner Gibson
brought forward his resolutions upon the various duties that
stood in the way of a cheap press. He was supported in
this attempt against the taxes on knowledge by Mr. Disraeli
and his friends, and in the end he defeated Mr. Gladstone
on the advertisement duty. The battle was not won for three
years to come; and after the victory was achieved, the cheap
newspapers which it allowed to come into existence hardly
fulfilled all at once the political hopes which Cobden and
the Manchester school expected. But that fact made no
difference in their conviction that good must ultimately
come from the abundant diffusion of information, and the
constant threshing and sifting of opinion by daily dis-
cussion.

One incident at this time was like aray of hope to Cobden.
A large number of bankers and traders in the City of
London went ona deputation to the Emperor of the French,
practically to repudiate the language of the panic-mongers,
and to express their desire for the continuance of relations
of cordiality and good-will between the two countries. Un-
fortunately a train was now being laid in Hastern Europe
which, before many months, had put an end to the panic of
a French invasion, but brought something more mischievous
than the panic in its stead. Cobden at this instant no

® April 28.

1853.
Ait, 49.

 
608 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [onar.

i853. more foresaw the war which was as yet only a cloud

 

x, 49, as of a man’s hand on the horizon, than it was foreseen by
the responsible statesmen in office. He passed the summer
peaceably in Sussex, where he was superintending the
building of his new house at Dunford. His wife and family
were at Bognor, and he passed his time between the two
houses. Mrs. Cobden used to bring him in a carriage as far
as the Duke of Richmond’s Park, and then he trudged across
Goodwood Downs and over the unenclosed country to Hey-
shott. His thoughts meanwhile incessantly revolved round
the concerns of public policy. He compiled a lucid and
forcible exposure of the origin of the Burmese War, in
which besides laying bare its naked arrogance, injustice,
and folly, he predicted the mischief that such exploits must
inevitably one day inflict on Indian finance. An expedition
to a Peace Conference at Edinburgh, and a visit to Oxford

} were the only two breaks in his solitude.

“ Bognor, Sept. 19, 1853. (To Mr. McLaren.)—You are
going to do a very good but courageous act in giving your
countenance to the Peace Conference. Nowhere has the move-
ment fewer partisans than in Scotland, and the reason is ob-
vious—first because your heads are more combative than even
the English, which is almost a phrenological miracle; and
secondly, the system of our military rule in India has been
widely profitable to the middle and upper classes in Scotland,
who have had more than their numerical proportion of its
patronage. Therefore the military party is very strong in
your part of thekingdom. In this Peace Conference move-
ment, we have not the same clear and definable principle on
which to take our stand, that we had in our League agitation.
There are im our ranks those who oppose all war, even in self-
defence ; those who do not go quite so far, and yet oppose
war on religious grounds in all cases but in self-defence;
and there are those who from politico-economical and
XXUL] MISREPRESENTATION OF THE PEAOH MOVEMENT. 609

financial considerations are not only the advocates of peace,

but also of a diminution of our costly peace establishments, ir. 49.

Amongst the latter class I confess I rank myself. ....
We cannot disguise from ourselves that the military
spirit pervades the higher and more influential classes of
this country ; and that the Court, aristocracy, and all that is
aping the tone of the latter, believe that their interests,
privileges, and even their very security are bound up in the
maintenance of the ‘Horse Guards.’ Hence the very un-
fashionable character of our movement, and hence the
difficulty of inducing influential persons to attend our
meetings. .... If we add to all this that the character
of the English people is arrogant, dictatorial, and en-
croaching towards foreigners; that we are always dis-
posed to believe that other nations are preparing to attack
England ; it must be apparent that in seeking to diminish our
warlike establishments, we have to encounter as tough an
opposition as we had in our attack on the corn monopoly,
whilst we look in vain for that powerful nucleus of support
which gave us hopes in the latter struggle of an eventual
triumph. ‘The tactics of the enemy have been hitherto
cunning enough. ‘The soul of the peace movement is the
Quaker sentiment against all war. Without the stubborn
zeal of the Friends, there would be no Peace Society and
no Peace Conference. But the enemy takes good care to
turn us all into Quakers, because the Non-Resistance prin-
ciple puts us out of court as practical politicians of the
present day. Our opponents insist on it that we wish to
totally disarm, and leave ourselves at the mercy of Louis
Napoleon and the French; nay, they say we actually invite
them to come and invade us.”

“ Nov. 9. (To Mr. Bright.) —I can give you no information
or suggestion about Reform. It seems as if the Turkish
question this year, like the French Invasion of the last, will

Rr

1853.
610 LIFE OF COBDEN [onap,

1863. serve to divert the public mind from home questions. And
in. 49, this, in my view, is one of the great evils of our system of
foreign intervention. But I must say we cannot charge it
upon the aristocracy, or the executive, as a bait thrown to the
whale. The so-called Radicals of the old school are more to
blame. And this brings me to remark that in calling for
Reform of Parliament, the Radical party (so-called) have no
policy to offer as the promised fruits of another Reform Bill.
When the Whigs headed the former cry in 1830, they pro-
mised retrenchment, peace, non-intervention, and all kinds of
practical benefits. They have, no doubt, proved themselves to
have been to a large extent impostors, but now the Radicals
(I speak of those who are anything better than Whigs, and
yet not of the Manchester School) have contrived to identify
themselves with an absurd policy, which actually precludes
the possibility of any appreciable reduction of expenditure,
and puts them out of court as complainants against the aris-
tocracy for their former system of foreign intervention, and
the debts and misgovernment which have grown out of it.
In fact, those Radicals who abuse us for resisting the
invasion humbug and the Eastern question humbug, do not
seem to perceive how they have been whitewashing all the
doings of our aristocracy from 1688 to the present time;
and not only so, but like the red-republican writers and
orators on the Continent, they have contrived to give quiet
people of property the notion that extreme liberalism means
more wars, increased armaments, and greater burdens of
taxation. Add to this, that Mr. Baines and a large party of
Dissenters, the very salt of liberalism, have managed to snatch
away from us more than half of our old ery of ‘ National
Education,’ and you see what a mess we are in for want of a
Radical policy to inspire the great supine public with some
hopes of advantage from a further reform of parliament.
\ Nov. 22. ( ,, )—Yesterday I got a few lines from Moles-
xxuit.] VISIT TO OXFORD. 611

worth, asking me what I thought ought to be done in the new
Reform Bill. [have replied that the Ballot must be had, but
that he cannot carry it in the Cabinet at present; that the
suppression of the little boroughs is a sine gud non of any
approximation to any fair system of representation; but
that whatever Lord John may consent to do, I trust he will
never agree to the principle of finality on the Franchise
question, by which more than five millions of adult males are
to be stigmatized as unworthy of any share in the govern-
ment of the country. Is this a time for such a retrograde
policy, when America and the Colonies are beckoning away
our population to a higher economical and political fate ?
it is true the masses in this country are badly led and
poorly informed, and I fear possess less power to influence
the Legislature than at any previous time; and probably
they have not even the same interest as of old in the theory
of a representative system. But if this all be true, so much
the worse for us all, for the lot of the millions will be the
fate of the country. Without the cordial sympathy and co-
operation of the masses, our electoral system will become as
soulless a thing as that which lately existed in France.”

“ London, Dec. 14, 1853. (Lo F. W. Cobden.)—I got
back here yesterday from Oxford, where I spent a most
agreeable time. Instead of a monastery, the University is
rather a great nest of clubs, where everybody knows every-
body, and all are anxious to have a stranger of any note to
break the monotony of their lives. I might have lived at
free quarters for weeks amongst them. The best of fare,
plenty of old port and sherry, and huge fires, seem the
chief characteristics of all the colleges. No bad recom-
roendation you will say in December. As for the education,
it is, according to Doctor Heldenmaier, ‘ the largest invest-
ment for the smallest return of all the academies of the
world!’ But after seemg some of the examinations J am

1853.
Air. 49,

 
612 LIFE OF OOBDEN. fox. xxm,

_ 1858. inclined to think there is a greater effort required to face the

 

ix. 49. ordeal than we generally suppose.”

By the end of the year an extraordinary change had
at last taken place in the political sky, which Cobden
described in his characteristic style years afterwards,
“Tet us suppose an invalid,” he said,‘ “to have been
ordered, for the benefit of his health, to make the voyage
to Australia and back. He left England in the month
of February or March. The militia was preparing for
duty; the coasts and dockyards were being fortified;
the navy, army, and artillery were all in course of
augmentation; inspectors of artillery and cavalry were
reported to be busy on the southern coast; deputations
from railway companies, it was said, had been waiting on
the Admiralty and Ordnance, to explain how rapidly the
commissariat and military stores could be transported from
the Tower to Dover or Portsmouth; and the latest para-
graph of news from the Continent was that our neighbours
on the other side of the Channel were practising the em-
barkation and disembarkation of troops by night. He left
home amidst all these alarms and preparations for a French
invasion. After an absence of four or five months, during
which time he had no opportunity of hearing more recent
news from Europe, he steps on shore at Liverpool, and the
first newspaper he sees informs him that the English and
French fleets are lying side by side in Besika Bay. An
impending. naval engagement between the two Powers is
naturally the idea that first occurs to him; but glancing at
the leading article of the journal, he learns that England
and France have entered into an alliance, and that they are
on the eve of commencing a sanguinary war against
Russia.”

“In The Three Panics : An Historical Episode (1862): Collected Writings
li. 269,
CHAPTER XXIV.
THE CRIMEAN WA.

Ar the end of May, 1853, Cobden had described to his brother 1854
that there was a good deal of uneasiness at headquarters air. 60.
about Turkish affairs. ‘The Cabinet,” he said, “has been
divided almost to a split upon the question of more or less
direct interference on our part. The Peelites and Moles-
worth are the least disposed for intervention. The Whigs
and Palmerston are for the old stereotyped phrases of Inie-
grity of the Turkish Empire, Balance of Power, etc. They
are words without meaning, the mere echoes of the past, and
so are admirably suited for the mouths of senile Whiggery.”
By the end of the year, owing to a series of causes which are
now well understood, the relations of Russiatothe two Western
Powers had been allowed to fall into an extremely dangerous
position. Cobden’s account of the state of the Government
was unfortunately correct. The Cabinet was divided, and that
came to pass which always happens in such circumstances.
The section which had the strongest and most definite con-
victions won the day. This was the section practically
headed by Lord Palmerston, and supported by the great in-
fluence of Lord John Russell. Instead of trying to know
the facts of the condition of Turkey, these two Ministers
rested upon the old phrases which Cobden so truly de-
scribed. Nor had either of them, again, a well-conceived
notion, as Sir Robert Peel had, of the function of diplo-
1854,
Aiiz. 50,

 

614 LIFH OF OOBDEN. [omar.

macy in preventing strife. Diplomacy in their hands
always meant either veiled menace or tart lecturing,
instead of being the great, the difficult, the beneficent art,
which it bas been in the hands of its worthiest masters, of
so reconciling interests, soothing jealous susceptibilities,
allaying apprehensions, organizing influences, inventing
solutions, that the world may move with something like
steadiness along’ the grooves of deep pacific policy, instead
of tossing on @ viewless sea of violence and passion. If this
ideal had prevailed, nobody would have sanctioned the de-
spatch of a British Minister to Constantinople who was the
bitter personal enemy of the Czar. The Peelites, on the other
hand, had strong general leanings towards non-intervention,
but not snfficently definite to give them energy and de-
termination in working out a policy that should avert war.
Then the tide of popular passion rose with extraordinary
rapidity. The tardiness of the diplomatists gave time for
all that deep anger with which the people of England had

. watched the Czar’s proceedings in Hungary five years before,

to burst forth with a vehemence that soon became un-
controllable, The statesmen who ought to have exercised a
counteracting control over it, were hurried off their feet.
Lord John Russell and Lord Palmerston were rivals for
popularity, and neither could endure to surrender the prize
to the other by making a stand against the public frenzy.
The consequence was that England became the cat’s-paw of
Austria, Prussia, and the Emperor of the French.’

War was declared in the spring of 1854. Before the
summer of 1855 an extraordinary series of changes
took place. The Coalition Government had fallen to
pieces, Lord Palmerston had become Prime Minister, the
Peelites had resigned, Lord John Russell had resigned and

} We must remember that even the modern Read-to-India srgument for
the defenoe of Turkey hed not then been invented.
xxIVv.] ORIGIN OF TRE WAR, 615

returned and resigned again. These confused and distract-
ing retreats, one after another, of the statesmen who had
so diligently fanned the flame of warlike passion, filled
the country with a perplexed exasperation. It would in-
deed be difficult for the historian to find in our annals
a more remarkable exhibition of political heodlessness,
administrative incompetency, and personal incoherence
than marked the fifteen months between the declaration
of war, and the second retirement of Lord John Russell.
Never was confidence in public men more profoundly and
universally shaken. It was now that Cobden made a decla-
ration of a kind seldom heard from politicians: “I look
back,” he said, “ with regret on the vote which changed
Lord Derby’s Government; I regret the result of that
motion, for it has cost the country a hundred millions of
treasure, and between thirty and forty thousand good lives.”
It is not difficult to believe that at the time of the Vienna
Conference (1855) Lord Palmerston felt that the continuance
of the war was required by domestic emergencies. Strong
language was heard at public meetings about the aristocracy.
The newspapers talked very freely about Prince Albert. The
cry for inquiry was so passionate that Lord Palmerston was
obliged to assent to the Sebastopol Committee two or three
days after he had expressly refused his assent. If peace had
been made at Vienna, the nation would have discovered the
spurious pleas on which the war had been begun. Its temper
was dangerous, and Lord Palmerston may well have seen the
risks to much that he valued, if that temper were baulked.
When we look back upon the affairs of that time, we see
that there were two policies open. Lord Palmerston’s was
one, the Manchester policy was the other. If we are to
compare Lord Palmerston’s statesmanship and insight in
the Kastern Question with that of his two great adversaries,
itis hard, in the light of ali that has happened since, to resist

1854,
Air, 50.

 
1854,
481. 50.

 

616 LIFE OF OOBDEN. (crap,

the conclusion that Cobden and Mr. Bright were right, and
Lord Palmerston was disastrously wrong. It is easy to plead
extenuating circumstances for the egregious mistakes in
Lord Palmerston’s policy about the Eastern Question, the
Suez Canal, and some other important subjects; but the
plea can only be allowed after it has been frankly recog.
nized that they really were mistakes, and that the abused
Manchester School exposed and avoided them. Lord Pal-
merston, for instance, asked why the Czar could not be
“ satisfied, as we all are, with the progressively liberal
system of Turkey.”? Cobden, in his pamphlet twenty
years before, insisted that this progressively liberal system
of Turkey had no existence.’ Which of these two propositions
was true, may be left to the decision of those who lent
to the Turk many millions of money on the strength of
Lord Palmerston’s ignorant and delusive assurances. It
was mainly owing to Lord Palmerston, again, that the
efforts of the war were concentrated at Sebastopol. Sixty
thousand English and French troops, he said, with the co-
operation of the fleets, would take Sebastopol in six weeks.
Cobden gave reasons for thinking very differently, and
urged that the destruction of Sebastopol, even when it was
achieved, would neither inflict a crushing blow on Russia,
nor prevent future attacks upon Turkey. Lord Palmerston’s
error may have been intelligible and venial ; nevertheless, as
a fact, he was in error and Cobden was not, and the error cost
the nation one of the most unfortunate, mortifying, and abso-

' lntely useless campaigns in English history.‘ Cobden held

that if we were to defend Turkey against Russia, the true
policy was to use our navy, and not to send a land force to

2 See Mr. Ashley’s Life, ii., 280, 281, 3 See above, vol. i. eh. 4

‘The Sebastopol Inquiry Committee reported that the administration
which ordered the expedition had no adequate information as to the forces
in the Crimea; that they were ignorant of the strongth of the fortresses to
be attacked, and the resources of the territory to be invaded.
XxIV.] OOBDEN’S POLIOY COMPARED WITH PALMERSTON’S. 617

the Crimea. Would any serious politician now be found
to deny it? We might prolong the list of propositions,
general and particular, which Lord Palmerston maintained

_and Cobden traversed, from the beginning to the end of the

Russian War. There is not one of these propositions in
which later events have not shown that Cobden’s knowledge
was greater, his judgment cooler, his insight more pene-
trating and comprehensive. The bankruptcy of the Turkish
Government, the further dismemberment of its empire by the
Treaty of Berlin, the abrogation of the Black Sea Treaty, have
already done something to convince people that the two chiefs

of the Manchester School saw much further ahead in 1854 and

1855 than men who had passed all their lives in foreign
chanceries and the purlieus of Downing Street.

It is startling to look back upon the bullying contempt
which the man who was blind permitted himself to show to

_ the men who could see. The truth is, that to Lord Palmer-

ston it. was still incomprehensible and intolerable that a
couple of manufacturers from Lancashire should presume
to teach him foreign policy. Still more offensive to him
was their introduction of morality into the mysteries of
the Foreign Office. Before the opening of the session of
1854, he presided at a banquet given at the Reform
Club to Sir Charles Napier on his departure to take com-
mand of the fleet in the Baltic. In proposing success to
the guest of the evening, he made a speech in that vein of

“forced jocularity with which elderly gentlemen give the

toast of the bride and bridegroom at a wedding breakfast.

When Parliament assembled, Mr. Bright remonstrated®

against the levity of these jokes and stories on the

lips of a responsible statesman at so grave and ominous

@ moment. The war, he said, might be justifiable or

not, but it must in any case be an awful thing to any
5 March 18, 1864,

1854,
ffir, 60.

 
618 LIFR OF OOBDEN. [onap.

1854 nation that engaged in it. Lord Palmerston began his
4ir.60. reply by referring to Mr. Bright as “the honourable and
reverend gentleman.” Cobden rose to call him to order for
this flippant and unbecoming phrase. Lord Palmerston said
he would not quarrel about words. Then he went on to say
that he thought it right to tell Mr. Bright that his opinion
was a matter of entire indifference, and that he treated his
censure with the most perfect indifference and contempt.
On another occasion he showed the same unmannerliness to
Cobden himself. Cobden had said that under certain cir-
cumstances he would fight or, if he could not fight, he
would work for the wounded in the hospitals. ‘“ Well,”
said Lord Palmerston in reply, with the sarcasm of a
schoolboy’s debating society, “there are many people in
this country who think that the party to which he belongs
should go immediately into a hospital of a different kind,
and which I shall not mention.”*® This refined irony was
@ very gentle specimen of the insult and contumely which
was poured upon Cobden and Mr. Bright at this time.
“The British nation,’ said Lord Palmerston, in a private
letter, “is unanimous in this matter; I say unanimous, for
I cannot reckon Cobden, Bright and Co. for anything.”’’
Nobody who turns over a file of newspapers for this period,
or the pages of Hansard, or the letters of Cobden and Mr.
Bright to one another, will deny that Lord Palmerston’s
estimate was perfectly correct.
It is impossible not to regard the attitude of the two
objects of this vast unpopularity as one of the most truly
admirable spectacles in our political history. The moral

® June 4, 1855, Mr. Disraeli on one occasion during this period complained
of the “patrician bullying of the Treasury bench,” and amid great cheering
told Lord Palmerston that he had used Jangvage which was not to be expeoted
‘* from one who is not only the leader of the House of Commons—which ia
an accident of life—but who is also a gentleman.” —-July 16, 1856.

1 Mr. Ashley’s Life, ii., $25.
XxIV.] MORTIFYING POSITION OF COBDEN AND BRIGHT. 619

fortitude, like the political wisdom of these two strong men, 1884.
begins to stand out with a splendour that already recalls the Air. 60.
great historic types of statesmanship and patriotism. Even
now our heartfelt admiration and gratitude goes out to
them as it goes out io Burke for his lofty and manful
protests against the war with America and the oppression of
Ireland, and to Charles Fox for his bold and strenuous
resistance to the war with the first French Republic. They
had, as Lord Palmerston said, the whole world against them.
It was not merely the august personages of the Court, nor
the illustrious veterans in Government and diplomacy, nor
the most experienced politicians in Parliament, nor the
powerful journalists, nor the men versed in great affairs of
business. Jt was no light thing to confront even that solid
masa of hostilejudgment. But besides all this, Cobden and
Mr. Bright knew that the country at large, even their trusty
middle and industrious classes, had turned their faces reso-
lutely and angrily away from them. Their own great instru-
ment, the public meeting, was no longer theirs to wield. The
army of the Nonconformists, which has so seldom been
found fighting on the wrong side, was seriously divided.
The Radicals were misled by their recollection of Poland
and Hungary into thinking that war against Russia must
be war for freedom.

Men who had come to politics in the spirit of philosophers
or prophets, might have cared very little for this terrible
unanimity of common opinion. But Cobden and Mr. Bright
had never affected to be disinterested spectators of the drama
of national affairs. They had formed strong and definite con-
victions, but they had formed them with reference to the actual
condition of things, and not in the air. They were neither
doctrinsires nor fanatics. They had always taken up the
position of reasonable actors, and talked the language of prac-
tical politicians. A practical politician without followers is az
620 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [onar,

1854 unfortunate as ® general who has lost sightof his army. They
“Hix. 60. had habitually appealed against aristocratic caste, against
monopolist selfishness, against journalistic levity, against
parliamentary insincerity, to the sovereign tribunal of Public
Opinion. They had lived and worked on opinion, they -had
placed their whole heart in it, they had won their great victory
by it. This divinity now proved as false an idol as the rest.
Public opinion was bitterly and impatiently hostile and
intractable. Mr. Bright was burnt in effigy. Cobden, ata
meeting in his own constituency, after an energetic vindica-
tion of his opinions, saw resolutions carried against him.
‘Every morning they were reviled in half the newspapers
in the country as enemies of the commonwealth. They were
openly told that they were traitors, and that it was a pity

that they could not be punished as traitors.

A more mortifying position can hardly be imagined,
Mortifying as it was, it never shook their steadfastness for a
moment. War could never be for them a mere common-
place incident of policy. Ifthe necessity for it was anything
short of being irresistible, war was a crime and the parent of
crimes. They now asked where was the necessity, and what
was the justification. The danger of the Russian power,
they said, was a phantom. The expediency of permanently
upholding the Ottoman rule in Europe was an absurdity.
The drawbacks of non-intervention were remote and vague,
and could neither be weighed nor described in accurate
terms. This is their own language. With such a view, it
was impossible that they could do otherwise than hold
sternly aloof. ‘“ You must excuse me,’’ said Mr. Bright, in
reply to the Mayor of Manchester, who had invited him to
attend a meeting for the Patriotic Fund, “if I cannot go
with you; 1 willhave no part in this terrible crime. My
hands shall be unstained with the blood that is being shed.
The necessity of maintaining themselves in office may in-
xxIv.] THEIR STHADFASTNESS, 621

fluence an Administration ; delusion may mislead a people; 1854.
Vattel may afford you a law and a defence; but no respect I air. 50
have for men who form a Government, no regard I have for
going with the stream, and no fear of being deemed wanting
in patriotism, shall influence me in favour of a policy which
in my conscience I believe to be as criminal before God, as
it is destructive of the true interests of my country.” *

With equal firmness and equity, when disasters came and
people were beginning to talk at meetings against the aris-
tocracy and the Crown, Cobden would not consent to remove
the blame of disaster from the nation itself. “So far as I
am concerned,” he said, “I will never truckle so low to the
popular spirit of the moment as to join in any cry which
shall divert the mass of the people from what I believe
should be their first thought and consideration, namely, how
far they themselves are responsible for the evils which may
fall upon the land, and how far they should begin at home
before they begin to find fault with others,” *

It has often been asked how it happened that these two
strenuous, eloquent, logical, well-informed men, with their
great popular prestige and their consummate experience in
framing arguments that should tell, failed so absolutely at
this crisis in making any impression ou the minds of their
countrymen. The historian of the Crimean War, in a classic
passage,’ has said that the answer is very simple. They
could make no stand because they had forfeited their hold
upon the ear of the country by the immoderate and indis-
criminate way in which they Lad put forward some of the
more extravagant doctrines of the Peace Party. They had
no weight as opponents of a particular war, because they

Written in October, 1854. Tho whole of this admirable letter is given
at the end of the first volume of Mr. Bright’s Speeches.
9 Speeches, ii., 54. June 5, 1855.
1 Mr. Kinglake’s Invasion of the Crimea, vol. ii, chapter vii., pp. 69—71,
622 LIFE OF OCOBDEN. [onae,

i864. were kuown to be against almost all war. In all this
41.60. there is much that is true and excellently stated. Woe
may certainly demur to the assertion that Cobden had as
a matter of fact put forward the doctrines of the Peace
party in immoderate terms. A careful examination of his
speeches both in the House and in the country shows that
he had always advocated the principles of non-intervention,
not on grounds of sentiment, philanthropy, or religion, but
strictly in the dialect of policy and business. The country,
however, did not at the time perceive this. People are too
much. occupied, and they are moreover specially disinclined
by national temperament, to examine an innovating doctrine
with minute and literal precision. The virtues of Eng-
lishmen lie very close to their vices. The same dogged
tenacity with which they encounter obstacles in the great
material and political tasks which they have set themselves
throughout their adventurous history all over the world,
binds them closely to their prejudices. The same invincible
stubbornness, as Haydon said, which beat the French at
Waterloo, makes them prepare to receive cavalry at every
innovation, They eye every reform as they would an
enemy’s cuirassier.”, Above all, though full of religious
sentiment, in every reference to morality in practical
politics they instantly suspect cant. Cobden knew all this
as well as anybody. But what he also knew was that the
doctrine could only be made to take a hold on men by
‘strenuous and persistent advocacy, even at the risk of this
advocacy being misunderstood. Events showed in the long-
run that his tactics were prudent. It was by the strenuousness
and persistency of himself and Mr. Bright, that they at last
succeeded in making that gross and broad impression which
it was their object to produce. They were routed on the
question of the Crimean War, but it was the rapid spread of
3 Haydon's Memoirs, ii, 273, 274.
XxIv.] DIFFIOULTIES OF A PHAOE PARTY. 623

‘their principles which within the next twenty years made 1854.
intervention impossible in the Franco-Austrian war, in the ir. 50.
American War, in the Danish War, in the Franco-German
War, and, above all, in the war between Russia and Turkey
which broke out only the other day.

On the whole, however, it is perfectly clear that the failure
of the two Manchester leaders to affect opinion at this time
was due to the simplest of all possible causes. The public had
worked itself into a mood in which the most solid reasoning,
the most careful tenderness of prejudice, the most unanswer-
able expostulations were all alike unavailing. The incom-

_petency of one part of the Ministry, and the recklessness of
the other part, pushed us over the edge. When that has once
happened, a peace party has no longer any chance. Cobden
described this some years later in connexion with the civil war
in America. “It is no use to argue,” he said, “as to what
is the origin of the war, and no use whatever to advise the
disputants. From the moment the first shot is fired, or the
first blow is struck in a dispute, then farewell to all reason
and argument; you might as well reason with mad dogs as
with men when they have begun to spill each other’s blood
in mortal combat. Iwas so convinced of the facé during the
Crimean War; I was so convinced of the utter uselessness
of raising one’s voice in opposition to war when it has
once begun, that I made up my mind that so long as I was
in political life, should a war again break out between
England and a great Power, I would never open my mouth
upon the subject from the time the first gun was fired
until the peace was made.”’*

During these two years of disaster and mistake, Cobden
could not do more than raise protests from time to time as
opportunity served. The House of Commons was much more
tolerant than larger and less responsible assemblies. Describ-

3 Speeches, ii., 814, Oot, 29, 1864.
1855.
Gir, BL.

 

624 LIFE OF COBDEN. [onar.

ing the reception of his speech against the Ministerial policy
at the opening of the Session of 1854, Cobden wrote to his
wife :-—“ No enthusiasm, of course ;—that I did not expect;
but there was a feeling of interest throughout the House,
which is not bumptious or warlike to the extent I expected,
and not disposed to be insolent to the ‘ peace party.’ In fact,
I find many men in the Tory party agreeing with me. After
I spoke, Molesworth took me aside and said he and Glad-
stone thought I never spoke better.” The failure, again, of
the negotiations at Vienna in the summer of 1855, and the
consequent perseverance in the war, inspired him with one
of his most forcible speeches, and subsequent events havo
made it more completely unanswerable now than it was even
then. It is still worthy of being read by any one who cares
to know how strong a case the Manchester School was able to
make.‘ ‘The House was very full,” Cobden wrote to Mrs.
Cobden on the following day, “and sat and stood it out most
attentively. Not one breath of disapprobation, and a fair
share of support in the way of cheers. I was complimented by
many members after it was over. Amongst others, Lytton
Bulwer walked across the House to offer his congratula-
tions. All this is not fit to be repeated at your breakifast-
table as coming from me. Sidney Herbert remarked that
it carried him back again to my old Corn Law speeches; and
Lord Elcho (formerly Mr. Charteris) has just this moment
come to whisper in my ear that he considers my speech
better than Gladstone’s. The roar of laughter against Moles-
worth at my ‘black and curly’ allusion disconcerted him
sadly. I met Molesworth in the cloak-room on leaving the
House. We exchanged a bantering word or two. ‘ How are
you?’ said he, with a grim effort at the facetious. ‘How
are you?’ was my reply. After turning from me he fell
plump into Bright’s hands, who was waiting for me, and
« Speeches, ii., June 5, 1855.
xxIVv.] COBDEN’S SPEECHES ON THE WAR. 625

who rallied him unmercifally, telling him he had not had
half his deserts, and that he had something yet in store
‘for him himself. Molesworth tried to be audacious, and
told Bright, ‘You are just as bad as I am.’ Lord John
will get) sadly mauled before the end of it. The part I
brought out respecting his signing away the rights of the
Wallachians and Moldavians will be flung in his face again.
Roebuck says he shall tell him that he ought to be ashamed
to show his face in the House after affirming such a doc-
trine.”

After reading this speech, so full of knowledge and com-
prehensive reasoning and of strong moderation as distin-
guished from the same quality when it is weak, we can
understand that even in the midst of their anger against
Cobden and Mr. Bright, people began to feel secret mis-
givings that they might be right after all. “There isa
growing mistrust,” Cobden wrote to Mrs. Cobden about this
time, “of the durability of Palmerston’s Ministry. I have
heard from several quarters that if I and Bright had not
keen so ‘wrong’ on the war we should certainly have been
forced into the Ministry. Two letters from Delane, the
Editor of the Times, written to friends of his, but not intended
for my eye, have been put into my hands, in which this
sentiment is expressed that Bright and I must have been
Ministers if we had not shelved ourselves by our peace
principles.”

Until the end of 1855 the prospects of peace seemed
very remote. Lord John Russell described the state of
things with characteristic concision in a letter to Cobden.
«The peace of Amiens,” he said (Nov. 12, 1855), “avery dis-
advantageous peace—gave universal joy. The peace of 1763, a
very glorious peace—gave general dissatisfaction. The people
of this country are not tired of war, and do not much feel
the sacrifices you speak of. When they are tired, they will

88

1856.
Air. 51

 
1855.
air. §1.

 

626 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [owar,

blame any Minister who does not make peace.” The French
Emperor was in a similar predicament. Marshal Vaillant
told him that he would not answer for the French army if it
were brought home without laurels. In this unpromising
situation Cobden sat down to write a pamphlet, which was
published at the beginning of 1856, What Neat—and Neat ?*
Without going into the question of the origin of the war,
Cobden made it his object “to give some facts about Russia
with a view to prevent the self-confidence into which people
fell of humbling that: Power on her own soil.” “I suppose
people won’t read it,” he said, “but my conscience will be
at rest.”

It now remains to give some of Cobden’s correspondence
at this time, principally from that with Mr. Bright.

“* Midhurst, Sept. 14, 1854. (To Mr. Bright.)\—I am in
the midst of the removal of my books, and for the last few
days have been up to my chin in dusty tomes and piles of
old pamphlets, a cartload of which I am consigning to the
hay-loft for waste paper. Fortunately for me my mind has
therefore been little occupied on public affairs, which I
confess afford me but little food for pleasant reflection.

“T am as much satisfied as ever that we have followed a
right course on the war question. It must be right for us,
because we have followed our own conscientious convictions.
But in proportion as we are devoted to our principles must
be our regret to see so little prospect of their being adopted
as the practical guide of our foreign policy. It is no use
blinking the fact that there are not a score of men in the
House, and but few out of the ranks of the Friends in the
country, who are ready to take their stand upon the principle
of non-intervention in the affairs of other countries. This
is no reason why we should hold our peace; but it shows
that we have to begin at the beginning, by converting to

* Collected Writings, vol. ii,
xxrv.] LETTERS TO MB. BRIGHT, 627

our views that public opinion which is at present all but
unanimously against us.

“IT sometimes regret that I omitted to call meetings in
Yorkshire before the war begat. As it is, we must wait
results, which will be serious one way or another soon, if the
expedition to Sebastopol has been carried into effect. My
own opinion is that if the Anglo-French army can make
good a landing, it will be a match in the open field for three
times its number of Russian troops. But there are all the
accidents of wind and weather. How Lord Aberdeen must
have quaked at the sound of the equinoctial gales which
began blowing last night a week before they were due.
The fate of the ministry quite as much as that of the
generals hangs on the result. If, owing to the weather at
sea, or the climate on shore, or the dogged resistance of the
Russians behind their walls, the expedition should fail,
there will be a cry for a change of government. The
English Radicals and Tories will alike demand ‘ victims’ to
appease their wrath. If it succeed, no matter at what cost
of life, the ministry will be saved.”

“ Midhurst, Oct. 1, 1854. (To Mr. Bright.}—You ask
when our turn will come. When common sense and honesty
are in the ascendant, a day for me not very likely to be
realized, as I am fifty, and not of a long-lived family.
You have a better chance, but don’t be too sanguine. It
is very singular but true that if we look back to the
originators and propagators of this Russiaphobia, they have
been almost without exception half-cracked people. I
could give a list of them, including Urquhart, Atwood, &c.
Unfortunately we live in an age when in this country at
least mad people have still a very great power over other
minds. ...

“T sometimes feel quite puzzled when I ask myself what
result in the present struggle for Sebastopol would be the

1884.
Git 50.

 
1884.

 

ir. 60.

6238 LIFE OF OOBDEN, [onar,

most likely to promote the end you and I desire to see, a
distaste for war and a wish on ali sides for peace? Putting
humanity and patriotism aside for the sake of argument,
perhaps the best thing that: could happen would be a long
and sanguinary contest without decisive result, until the
German powers stepped in to compel the exhausted com-
batants to come to terms. For whether the one or the
other side win, I foresee great evils to follow. Let John
Bull have a great military triumph, and we shall all have to
take off our hats as we pass the Horse Guards for the rest of
our lives. On the other hand, let the Czar’s swollen pride be
gratified and inflamed with victory, it will foster that spirit
of military insolence which pervades everything in Russia.
But if neither could claim a decisive triumph, and both
were thoroughly discouraged and disgusted with their
sacrifices, they might all in future be equally disposed to be
more peaceable.

“Tt is scarcely possible to foresee any other result than
this, unless upon the assumption that the Russian Empire is
a more thorough imposture than anybody has suspected.
And yet if the accounts be true, there does not seem to bea
great force to protect Sebastopol, and all their Black Sea
ships and arsenals, notwithstanding that the Government
have had more than two months’ notice from Lord John
Russell himself of our intention to strike a blow there.
What an illustration it is of the weakness which accompanies
the acquisition of territory by mere military conquests on a
large scale. We know that Russia has more than 600,000
effective troops, and yet if report be true she cannot con-
centrate 50,000 for the defence of a vital point. Little
Belgium could do more. ... .

“But I cannot convince myself that we are to have an
easy victory in the Crimea. I was reading last night the
account of Bonaparte’s Russian campaign. If the Russians
xx1v.] LETTERS TO MB. BRIGHT. 629

fight behind their entrenchments now as they did at 1864 _
Borodino (where 70,000 were put hors-de-combat), there ir. 50.
will be wailing here before another month. I can’t see
anything in the tactics of the enemy in allowing our forces

to land without molestation to warrant the confident tone

of our cockney press. The Russians would have been fools

to have brought their men under the fire of our ships’ guns.

By the way, Napoleon entered Moscow without opposition

on the 14th Sept., 1812, and we landed in the Crimea on

the 14th Sept., 1854. Some people may think this an evil

omen. We shall soon be relieved from our suspense.”

To Mr, Bright—“ ....1 have no news beyond what
the papers give, which seems bad enough. The next
thing will be, I suppose, an assault with the bayonet, to
satisfy the morbid impatience of the public at home and
the soldiery on the spot, and heaven only can tell what the
result may be.

“T suspect from what oozes out that the Government
have unfavourable forebodings. This accounts for the
fall on the Paris Bourse, where the effects of bad news are
always felt first, owing to the stock-jobbers being more
mixed up with the personnel of the Government than here.
A man who was at the Lord Mayor’s banquet told me the
ministers were looking very dejected. That they ought to
be unhappy is certain; and yet when we have helped to
turn them out, as I should be very glad to do, we shall have
done little to avert a repetition of the evils of war until the
public sentiment can be reached, for if a people will be
ruled by phrases such as ‘ balance of power,’ ‘ integrity and
independence,’ &c., when uttered solemnly by men in
power, you may depend on it they will always find ‘ states-
men’ to take office on such easy terms. I do not know how
it is to be done, but I am quite sure there is no security for
anything better until we can teach the people a lesson of
630 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [onar.

_1855. moderation and modesty in foreign affairs, and enlighten

4r. 61, that almost Spanish or Chinese ignorance about every-
thing going on abroad which characterizes the masses of
our countrymen.

“Tam willing to incur any obloquy in telling the whole
truth to the public as to the share they have had in this
war, and it is better to face any neglect or hostility than
allow them to persuade themselves that anybody but them-
selves are responsible for the war.”

“ Midhurst, Jan. 5,1855. (To Mr. Bright.)—I agree with
you that there is some change in the public mind upon
the war; but the more moderate tone is less to be attri-
buted to pacific tendencies than to the lassitude which
naturally follows a great excitement. There is about as
much unsoundness as ever abroad about foreign affairs. A
few exceptions scattered over the land have come to my
knowledge since I spoke in the House. I have heard from
a few parsons, amongst others; they are, I suppose,
eccentricities who have not much weight.

“The break-down of our aristocratic rulers, when their
energies are put to the stress of a great emergency, is about
the most consolatory incident of the war. I am not sure
that it will so far raise the middle class in their own esteem
as to induce them to venture on the task of self-government.
They must be ruled by lords. Even the Times is obliged
to make the amende to the aristooratic spirit of the age by
calling for that very ordinary but self-willed lord, the
Governor-general of India, to come and save us.° But the
discredit and the slaughter to which our patricians, civil and
military, have been exposed, will go far to make real war
unpopular with that influential class for another generation
to come, whilst the swift retribution likely to fall on the
cabinet will tend to make Governments less warlike in fature.

* Lord Dalhonaie was now Governor-general,
xxv. LETTERS TO MR. BRIGHT. 631

As for the people, they have scarcely felt the effects of the 1855.
war as yet, but they are rapidly developing themselves in Air. 51.
diminished trade and increasing able-bodied pauperism, and
augmented taxation will follow.

“The most dishonest or most ‘incapable and guilty’
feature in the conduct of the Government, to my judgment,
has been their readiness to fall into the warlike humour of
the public, and concealing from them the extent of the
undertaking. Even Gladstone has lent himself to the
delusion that the people can be indulged with a cheap war.
It is impossible to believe that the Ministry were so ignorant
as to suppose that we could fight Russia on her own terri-
tory, 3000 miles distant by sea, for 10,000,000/. But really
T believe Palmerston or Lord John would have undertaken to
do it by contract for as many shillings, rather than not have
gained the sweet voice of the multitude twelve months since.

“TI observe what you say about the want of more co-
operation amongst our friends .... in the House. What
we really want is sympathy and support for our views out
of doors. We have a far better hearing in Parliament than
in the country. I defy you, from one extremity of the
kingdom to the other, to find a mixed body of men in
which you and I should be so well treated as we were on
the last day of the session. It is the want of identity
between the great public and ourselves on important and
engrossing questions of principle that leaves us in such an
isolated position in the House. Iam content to be as we
are, with nothing but an approving conscience for the
course we pursue. Not that I am, as Parkes says, without
ambition. If I had been where Sumner and Amasa Walker
are, I should have set no bounds to my ambition; but my
judgment told me twenty years ago that if I aimed at office
in this country, it must lead either to disappointment or an
abandonment of objects which I cherish far before official
632 LIFE OF OOBDEN, [owar.

1854. rank, and therefore I preferred pioneering for my convic-

 

4x, 60. tions to promotion at the expense of them.”

“ January 10, 1855. (To Oolonel Fitzmayer.)—I have again
to thank you for your continued kindness in sending me the
regular news of your siege operations. When I think of all
the discomfort under which your letters are penned, I cannot
too highly value such proofs of your friendship. . . .

“Before this reaches you, the news will have been carried
to the Crimea that negotiations for peace have been opened
on the basis of the four points. Jt remains to be seen
whether the Czar is in earnest, and whether the allies enter
in a bond-fide spirit upon the deliberations. I am inclined
to believe that all the Governments are heartily sick of the
war, and therefore shall not be surprised if a peace be
speedily arranged. But in the meantime our newspapers
must swagger a good deal over the Czar, and persuade their
readers that we have subjected him to great humiliations.
I confess, however, that I do not see the grounds for this
boastful self-glorification. It is true that you have beaten
the Russians in the field, but there is always the broad fact
remaining that Sebastopol is not taken. Itis no fault of your
brave army that the place is still holding out—the fact is we
never ought to have made the plunge in the dark in the
Crimea at all. Indeed it has been admitted in the House by
Lord John Russell that both government and generals had
been mistaken in their estimate of its strength. This con-
fession ought to suffice to condemn the present Administra-
tion to dismissal from office; for there can be no excuse for
ignorance on a point which might have been very easily
cleared up before the expedition sailed. I think I could
have undertaken in June last to have obtamed the most
minute particulars as to the strength of Sebastopol for a
few thousand pounds.

“There are some points raised in your letter which I shall
xxIv.] TO COLONEL FITZMAYER. 633

hope to be able to discuss with you at my fireside when you 1858.
return again to England, for my wife and I trust you will aftr. 61.
honour us with a visit to this picturesque and secluded part
of the country. But in the meantime I must be allowed to
say in reference to your allusions to a regular standing
army, that I am not opposed to the maintenance of a disci-
plined force to serve as a nucleus in case of war, around
which the people might rally to defend their country. But
there is hardly a case to be imagined or assumed in which I
would consent to send out a body of land forces to fight the
battles of the continent; and last of all would I agree to
send such an expedition to the shores of Russia.

“There is now a general complaint that we allowed our
army to fall to too low a standard, in consequence of the
cry of the financial reformers for a reduction of the expen-
diture. I am bound to say that if this country adopts the
policy of sending its armies to fight the Czar on his own
territory, then it is bound to keep up a force commensurate
with the magnitude of such an undertaking. We must
become a military people like France and Austria. This
will be contrary to our traditions, and quite incompatible
with an economical government. I am not sure that con-
stitutional freedom can co-exist with large standing armies.
I know of no instance in which they have flourished to-
gether. However, we will adjourn the debate on this sub-
ject till we meet.”

“ February 11,1855. (Zo Mr. Bright.)\—You made an
excellent speech at the Chamber of Commerce, which at the
present moment will compel many men to listen to your
warnings who have hitherto been deaf to everything but the
appeals to ‘ glory and honour.’

“Did you see Cornewali Lewis’s speech? It was a good
sign coming from the Edinburgh Review.

‘‘But I can think of nothing else but the Derby-Disrseli
634 Lire oF OOBDEN fottar,

1855. exposé/7 .... Whatcan your friend Dizzy say or do

 

4x. 61. in opposition to the Government, after having agreed not
merely to serve under Palmerston, but to sit in the same
Cabinet with Gladstone and Sidney Herbert! And what
will our soft radicals say after the affectionate flirtation of
Lord Derby with their great champion of democracy all
over the world? Lord D. seems to me to have played a
clever game for the future, and is, I suppose, acting under
the inspiration of such men as Lord Lonsdale in casting
himself loose from all his old team and opening the door
for fresh alliances. Lord Palmerston can’t of course last
many years, or perhaps months, and then the ‘ great Con-
servative party’ is the only one not used up. But what is
to become of Disraeli? He can’t be first whilst Gladstone
is either with him or against him, and he won’t play second
to anybody but Palmerston. Will it end in his going
ambassador to Paris? In the meantime he has to eat a good
deal of dirt.

‘As for the Government, unless they put on fresh masks
and dresses, we shall certainly think them the same gentle-
men who got us into a ‘foolish, just, and necessary war,’
as Sidney Smith would call it, and then threw away the
finest army we ever had for want of staff and generals. As
for the exchange of Panmure for Newcastle, we who have
been behind the scenes know that the public gain nothing
by that. Again and again I ask myself, in witnessing the
childish glee with which the press and public call for
Palmerston to serve them—are we not a used-up nation?

7 “Lord Derby was sent for to form a government, and immediately
sought the co-operation of Lord Palmerston, offering him the leadership
of the Honse of Commons, which Mr. Disraeli was willing to waive in his
favour. Offers were also made through him to Mr. Gladstone and Mr.
Sidney Herbert.” Ashley’s Life of Lord Palmerston, ii. 8304. “Derby,”
wrote Lord Palmerston to his brother, “felt conscious of the incapacity
of the greater portion of his party, and their unfitness to govern the
country.”
xxrv,] 10 MR, BRIGHT. 635

Could any people not in its dotage look to such a quarter 18655.

 

for a saviour? However, it is a consolation that we shall ar. 61.
soon see the bursting of that bubble which the cockney
clacqueurs have been so industriously blowing for the last

few years. .....

* As respects the prospect of peace, I am of opinion that
Palmerston will be anxious to steal from Aberdeen the
credit of getting out of the war. Depend on it the court
and aristocracy are more than ever anxious to put an end
to hostilities. They have found for the first time that their
prestige, privileges, and dearest interests are more en-
dangered than those of any other class by a state of war.
It will be a blessed advantage to us that henceforth our best
allies in the advocacy of peace principles will be in high
quarters. My only doubt is whether Louis Napoleon has
some sinister motives for continuing the war. I don’t like
the tone of Drouyn de L’Huys’s notes to Prussia. They are
novel in style, especially for so cautious and clever a diplo-
matist, and I learn from Faucher they are making a great and
mischievous impression upon the public mind in Prussia.

* For my part, I can’t think of these things and to what
an extent we as a people are wrong in our alliances and
tendencies without most cynical misgivings respecting the
future course of our foreign policy. There is positively no
intelligence amongst the masses on such subjects to serve
as a leverage in dealing with the abounding fallacies of the
juveniles, who, fresh from college, ‘do’ this department of
our periodical literature, and take either the line of our old
aristocratic diplomacy in favour of the ‘balance of power’
and dynastic alliances, or the more modern and equally
unsound and mischievous line newly adopted by our so-called
‘democrats’ on behalf of Mazzini and the ‘nationalities.’
There is no out-of-doors support for the party of peace and
non-intervention.”
636 _ LIKE OF OOBDEN {onae,

1855. “ Midhurst, Sept. 30. (Lo Mr. Bright.)—I think you will
Zx.61. read the enclosed with interest. There is a description of what
the writer witnessed at the hospital in Sebastopol, which
surpasses everything I have read. The graphic account of the
horses lying harnessed to the guns at the bottom of the clear
blue water comes back to my mind’s eye like a real picture.
You will see that he speaks of our failure at the Redan as
arising solely from the fact of the men not following their
officers to the assault. He is always on the side of the men,
and he finds excuses for them at the expense of the officers.
But the real solution of the disaster is that the troops were
raw recruits—mere boys, and I expect that after a little
more recrimination between the parties concerned the whole
truth will come out, that, in the words of the Times’ cor-
respondent, ‘we are trusting the honour, reputation, and
glory of Great Britain to undisciplined lads from the plough
or the lanes of our towns and villages.’ It will end in an
exposure of the hollowness of all those demonstrations of
the press and the public in favour of this just and necessary
war—for it will come out that the bone and muscle of the
country take no part in it, but leave the recruiting-sergeant
as best he can to kidnap mere children and carry them off
to the shambles.

“This sham must blow up, but the press and Palmerston
are so interested in not telling the people that they must do
something more than pass resolutions, write inflammatory
articles, or preach incendiary sermons—that they must in
fact do the fighting as well as the shouting for war, that I
expect they will let matters go on till we are plunged into
some deep humiliation and disgrace. As it is, the French
army are trying to soothe us with compliments so overdone
that we cannot help seeing through the grimaces which
accompany them. Depend on it, if the war goes on, men
of sense will see that we must either have the conscription,
xn.) TO MR. BRIGHT. 637

like our opponents and allies, to secure a fair representation 1854.
of the manhood of the country in the battle-field, or drop Air. 61.
our bombastic posturing and come down to a level with the
Sardinians, and be a mere contingent of the French army.
The French will gradually but with every possible pro-
testation of respect bring us to this. They are now acting
almost independently of us, and from this time we shall
see more and more the difficulty of our maintaining an
equality.

“What is doing about the penny paper?* I hear from
Sturge that he has doubts about He speaks of —~
and . Ihave the most perfect confidence in the good
faith of these men, but if a precaution such as is contem-
plated be taken that the paper shall not go wrong, I should
be inclined to say that it would be as well not to have a
too enthusiastic peace man as its managing editor. The
difficulty is to get a daily newspaper with a circulation of
30,000 established. If it be an expansion of the Herald
of Peace, it will never be established as a newspaper—at
least not this year. There must be a good deal of the
wisdom of the serpent as well as the harmlessness of the
dove to float such a paper, and unless it can be established
as a newspaper, it will not attain the object we have in view.
What say you to this?”

© Aug. 6. (To Mr. Bright.)—What an atrocious article
there is in the Athencewm of last Saturday upon Tennyson’s
poems. War is in itself a blessing and the mother of bless-
ings. We owe to it our great poets and men of genins,”:

 

 

§ This refers to the establishment of the Morning Star. Cobden had no
financial interest in the venture, Mr. Sturge being 4 principal subscriber. It
was understood that Cobden and Mr. Bright were to be consulted as to the
policy of the new journal. As we shall see, this constant reference to them
was so overdone that Cobden himself warned the editor against it—an in-
sturctive warning to leading politicians who meddle with newspapers.

* Maud was published at this time, fall of beautiful poetry and barbarous
politicos, about “ the long long canker of peace being over and done,” and eq
638 LIFE OF OCOBDEN. (cuar.

1855. It is quite clear, according to the writer, that there
4ir.61. must have been a mistake in the record of Christ’s preach-
ing. It was war, not peace, he left for a legacy to man.
How could he possibly bring peace into the world to corrupt
and degrade it? It is enthroning the devil in the place of
the God of mercy, truth, love, and justice; for what has

war to do with these?”

August 8,1855.— ,. . . Ipaid a visit on Wednesday to
my neighbour the Bishop of Oxford, and met Lord Aberdeen,
Roundell Palmer, and some others. The old Earl was
even more emphatic than at the same place a year ago
in lamenting to me that he had suffered himself to be
drawn into the Russian war. He declared that he ought
to have resigned.’ Speaking of the authors of his
policy he said, ‘It was not the Parliament or the public,
but the Press that forced the Government into the war.
The public mind was not at first) in an uncontrollable
state, but it was made so by the Press.’ He might have
added that —— had something to do with it. I really
could not help pitying the old gentleman, for he was in an
unenviable state of mind, and yet I doubt if there be a more
reprehensible human act than to lead a nation into an un-
necessary war, as Walpole, North, Pitt, and Aberdeen have
done, against their own conviction and at the dictation of
others... . .”
forth. The singular implication of the poet is that the best way to rescue
the poor from being hovell’d and hustled together, each sex, like swine,” is
to cultivate “the blood-red blossom of war.” Unluckily war cannot go on
without taxes, and taxes in the long-ran in a thousand ways aggravate the
hovelling and hustling of the poor, as the state of the labourers after the
war of Oobden’s youth showed. That a man of Mr. Tennyson’s genius
should have been so led astray, only illustrates the raging folly of those
two years.

1 Sir James Graham in the same way ssid to Mr. Bright: “You were
entirely right about that war; we were entirely wrong, and we never

should have gone into it.” Bright’s Speeches, i. 192. “This war,” wrote
Sir George 0. Lewis, who joined the Palmerston Government after Mr.
xxrv.] TO MR. BRIGHT. 639

“ Sept.18. ( ,, )—Iam actually so amazed and dis- 1856.
gusted and excited at the frenzy to which all classes Air.51.
—and especially those called middle and respectable—
have abandoned themselves, and am so horrified at the
impudent impiety with which they make God a wit-
ness and partaker of their devilish paroxysm, that I
would rather say nothing about it. My only hope is
in Louis Napoleon—his interests and necessities. When I
saw Lord Aberdeen a few weeks since, he said that his only
hope of peace was founded on a favourable issue of the
siege of Sebastopol; that if Louis Napoleon could meet
with a ‘success’ to satisfy his army, he would seize the
opportunity of making peace. Well, he has now the oppor-
tunity, and I have a strong impression (though founded on
no facts) that he has sent pacific proposals to our Govern-
ment, and that this embarrassing message is the cause of
the frequent and long Cabinet Councils—for how can our
Government make out a case to their deluded followers to
justify a peace which must certainly involve the abandon-
ment of the Crimea? The danger is that Louis Napoleon,
whose one dominant idea is the alliance with England, may
yield to Palmerston and the warlike spirit of our people,
and go on with the war. But he has grave reasons against
such a course at home. He will have to raise another army
to pursue the war in the interior of Russia; bread is con-
stantly rising in price; and there is an ugly symptom of
rottenness in the financial state of France, as illustrated
by the Dr. and Cr. of the Bank of France, and the
rapid fall of some of the public securities. How does it

Gladstone’s resignation, “‘has been distastefal to me from the beginning,
and especially so from the time when it ceased to be defensive and the
Russian territory was invaded. My dislike of it, and my conviction of ita
repugnance to the interests of England and Europe waa only increased
with its progresa.” Web. 14, 1855.—Letters, p. 291.
1855.

 

640 LIFE OF OOBDEN. {orar,

illustrate the madness of our combative countrymen when

Ar. 61. one can only turn with hope for peace to the coercion of a

Bonaparte upon the deliberations of our Cabinet! I don’t
see how we can act with Gladstone in the broad advocacy of
non-intervention, so long as he professes to be an advocate
of the policy of invading Russia. He seems to put an
impassable gulf between us by that one argument, for
if anything is ever to be done again in favour of peace
principles, it must be by persuading the masses at
least to repudiate the very principle of the Russian inva-

sion... .”

“Oct. 5. (To M. COhevalier.)\—If war had not absorbed my
anxieties, I should have given all my sympathies to the great
industrial rivalry to which you have invited the nations of
the world. I should have thought of the Ohamps Elysées if
my attention had not been unhappily so much distrast by
the terrible scene which was exhibiting on the Champ de
Mars. In fine, I deferred my visit to the Temple of Peace
until after that of Janus should have been closed. But I
fear that present appearances are against the realization of
my plan; and it is more than ever uncertain when I shall
see you. Under these circumstances I shall trouble you
upon paper, instead of vivd voce, with a little unreserved
chat upon the subject of the war.

“You will remember that we had some confidential
correspondence a few years ago, when the state of popular
feeling here towards your Government was the.very opposite
to what it is now; and I have reason to know that that
correspondence had a favourable influence upon the relations
of the two countries, through the publication of those facts
and statistics which you gave me; and I wish we could now
in a similar manner contribute to the restoration of the
peace of the world. When in 1852 I published in speech
and pamphlet my views respecting the cry of a ‘French
wiry. j 70 M. CHEVALIER. 64%

invasion,’ I was denounced by nearly every London news-
paper, and at present I am in pretty nearly the same pre-
dicament respecting my opinions upon the war. But is it
not possible that two or three years may produce in my
opponents the same change upon the one question that has
undoubtedly been effected on the other? Depend on it
there is a good deal of unreasoning passion and pecuniary
selfishness on the part of the people and the Press of this
country in the present warlike clamour.
“TI know proprietors of newspapers (the

for example) who have pocketed 30001. or 40001.
a year through the war, as directly as if the money had
been voted to them in the Parliamentary estimates. It
is not likely, unless they are very disinterested specimens
of human nature, that they will oppose a policy so profit-
able to themselves. But the people, who have no interest
in being misled, will probably become satiated with monoto-
nous appeals to their combative passions, and then the
papers will change. The moment this reaction of feeling
shows itself in considerable force, there are all the most
able statesmen of this country ready to head the party of
peace. For it is 8 remarkable fact, that whilst the mase of
politicians appear to be so warlike, their leaders are al] in
their hearts opposed to a continuance of the war. I do not
of course, include Lord Palmerston amongst the number of
leaders, for it is a notorious fact that he never possessed the
confidence of a dozen members of the House, and was there-
fore never at the head of a party. It is only because all the
Parliamentary chiefs shrink from the responsibility of con-
tinuing the war that he has been enabled to seize the reins.
All men of the age of seventy-two, with unsatisfied ambi-
tion, are desperadoes; and Lord Palmerston, in addition to
this qualification, having had the experience of nearly half a
century of Parliamentary life, having continued to persuade

rt

1855.
41. 61.

 
1856.
Air. 61.

 

642 LIFE OF COBDER. (omar,

the democracy that he was « revolutionist, whilst the aris-
tocracy knew him to be their safe friend, he became the
fittest incarnation of the delusion, bewilderment, and decep-
tion into which the public mind had been plunged; and he
and his colleagues hold office to carry on a war for the
continuance of which no other statesmen choose to be
responsible. Had it not been for the war, the present
ministry could never have been in power, and it will not
last two months after the return of peace.”

“ Dec. 19. (To H. Ashworth.)—I have been gratified by the
receipt of your letter. The newspaper also reached me. It is
sad to see the bewilderment of the poor people about the price
of bread, but we ought to be very tolerant with them, seeing
how much ignorance we meet with amongst their ‘ betters.’

“The papers are underrating the effect of the drain of
capital for the war on the floating capital of the country.
People look at the assessment returns of real property, and
they say, ‘See how much more rich we are than we were in
the last war.’ But this fixed property is not available for
war. It is only the floating capital which sets it in motion
that is available. Now, I suspect that the proportion of
floating to fixed capital employed in the manufactures of the
country is less in relation to the number of workpeople
employed than ever it was. Am I right in this? Has not
the tendency been to increase the fixed as compared with
the floating capital in a mill. If so, it is a very serious
question how soon the withdrawal of the life-blood (the
floating capital) may stop the whole body. With interest of
capital at six to seven per cent. for trading purposes, how
long will it be before some of the weaker among you go to
the wall? If, as you say, the cotton trade as a whole has
paid no profit, there must be a large proportion that are
losing, and they will break if the war goes on, Then will
follow distress among the operatives.
xv] to MR. ASHWORTH. 643

“You hear a good deal sbout agricultural prosperity. 186.

Turn to the dictionary, and ‘agriculturist ’ means one who Air. 63.

has skill to cultivate the land. The labourer is the agricul-
turist quite as much as the farmer, and he belongs to a
body five to one more numerous. I assure you J never saw
more distress among this class. They are generally em-
ployed. But their wages here never exceed 12s., and are
often only 10s., and if you try to calculate how a man and
his wife and three or four small children live upon this sum,
with bread at 2id. a lb., you will find your arithmetical
talent very much taxed. Dry bread is all that they can get.
The pigs have disappeared from their sties. They and their
children are looking haggard and pale and ragged, and this
is agricultural prosperity.”

When the war was at last brought to an end at the
Congress of Paris in the spring of 1856, two remarkable
steps were taken by the assembled plenipotentiaries in
Cobden’s direction. They recognized the expediency and
the possibility of submitting international differences to
arbitration. Secondly they incorporated in the public law
of Europe certain changes in the right of maritime capture
which tended to make trade which was free in time of peace
as free as possible in time of war aleo.
CHAPTER XXV.
DEATH OF HIS SON.

1886. At this moment Cobden was stricken by one of those cruel

&r. 62. blows from which men and women often recover, but after
which they are never again what they were before. He lost
his only son, a boy of singular energy and promise. The
boy, who was now fifteen years old, was at school at Wein-
heim, about fourteen miles from Heidelberg. He was suddenly
seized by an attack of scarlet fever, and died in the course
of three or four days (April 6, 1856), before his parents at
home even knew that he was ill. There was nothing to
soften the horror of the shock. Cobden was the first to
hear of what had happened. His friend, Chevalier Bunsen,
had recommended the school, a few miles away from Charlot-
tenburg, his own residence. The schoolmaster sent Bunsen
a telegraphic message, and took for granted that Bunsen
would communicate with Cobden. Bunsen, on the other
hand, took it for granted that the news would be sent by
the schoolmaster. The result was that Cobden heard
nothing until he heard all. In a letter to one of the most
intimate of his friends, he told how the blow fell :—

“T had invited Colonel Fitzmayer from the Crimes to
breakfast at nine on the Thursday. When I came down from
my sleeping-room in Grosvenor Street, I found him and the
breakfast waiting. My letters were lying on the table, and
I apologized for opening them before beginning our meal,
OH. Xxv.] SUDDEN DEATH OF HIS SON AT WEINHEIM. 645

and the third letter I opened informed me that my dear boy, _ 1856.
who by the latest accounts was described as the healthiest Air. 52.
and strongest in the school, was dead and in his grave. No
one not placed in the same situation can form the faintest
conception of my task in making the journey to this place
[Dunford], which took me five hours, bearing a secret which
I knew was worse than s sentence of death on my poor wife,
for she would have gladly given her life, a dozen times, if it
were possible to save his. I found her in the happiest
spirits, having just before been reading to my brother and
the family circle a long letter from the dear boy, written a
few days previously, and when he was in the best possible
state of health. I tried to manage my communication, but
the dreadful journey had been too much for me, and I broke
down instantly, and was obliged to confess all. She did not
comprehend the loss, but was only stunned; and for twenty-
four hours was actually lavishing attentions on me, and
superintending her household as before.”

T have been told how he entered his house at nightfall,
and met his wife unexpectedly on the threshold; she
uttered an exclamation as she caught his haggard and
stricken face. His little children were making merry in the
drawing-room. He could only creep to his room, where he
sat with bent head and prostrate, unstrung limbs. When
the first hours were over, and the unhappy mother realized
the miserable thing that had befallen her, she sat for many
days like a statue of marble, neither speaking nor seeming
to hear ; her eyes not even turning to notice her little girl
whom they placed upon her knee, her hair blanching with
the hours

It would be a violation of sacred things to dwell upon the
months that followed. Cobden felt as men of his open and
simple nature are wont to feel, when one of the great
cruelties of life comes home to their bosoms. He waa he-
1856.
Sit. 62.

 

646 LIFE OF OOBDEN. (omar

wildered by the eternal perplexities of reconciling untimely
death with the common morality of things. ‘‘God!” he
exclaims, repeating a commonplace of the grave, so old and
well-worn, yet ever fresh in its pathos, “ what a mystery of
mysteries is this life—that one so young and bright, around
whom our hopes and dreams had been twining themselves
for fifteen years, should be in a few hours struck down and
withered like a weed!” His was not a soul to lose itself in
brooding over the black enigma. There is not a word of
rebellion. He accepts the affliction as a decree of the
inscrutable Power, and his quiet and humble patience
touches us the more, because we discern the profound
suffering beneath it. His anguish at the blighting of
his own love and hope, was made keener by the strange
torpor which now and for long afflicted his wife. His ten-
derness and devotion to her in the midst of all this agony,
were unremitting and inexhaustible. Six weeks after the
fatal news had come, he was able to write to his brother-in-
law :—I have not been out of her sight for an hour ata
time (except at the funeral) since we learnt our beresve-
ment; and I do not believe she would have been alive and in
her senses now, if I had not been able to lessen her grief by
sharing it.” And this urgent demand upon his sympathies
and attention continued beyond weeks, into months.

** My poor wife,” he writes to a friend,’ “ makes but slow
progress in the recovery of her health. She is on the lawn
or in the field all day with a little spade in hand, digging
up the weeds; it is the only muscular effort she can make,
and it unfortunately leaves her mind free to brood over the
one absorbing subject. The open air must in time give her
strength, but as yet she has not been able to pass a night
without the aid of opiates. Her friends must have pity and
forget her for s time. She is not » heroine; but hers ir »

1 To Joseph Parkes, May %3, 1856
xxv] VIOLENT GRIEF OF MBS, OOBDEN, 647

terrible case, and might have taxed the energies of the
strongest mind of her sex. Jam sure that they who are
impatient with her under such a severe trial, can never have
realized in their minds the ordeal she has had to go throngh.
She requires the patience and tender treatment of a child.
It is true, as Bright says (who is one of the tenderest-hearted
creatures I kuow), that we know but imperfectly what a
mother suffers in such a case.”

To the same friend, a fortnight later, he says :*—“I cannot
prove as good as my word by coming to town this week, but
my poor wife will accompany me on Monday. She is as
helpless as one of her young children, and requires as much
forbearance and kindness. God knows how much the com-
fort and regularity of her domestic life have always been
made subservient, willingly and meekly so, to my political
engagements, without one atom of ambition to profit by the
privileges which to some natures offer a kind of compensation
for family discomfort. And, bearing this in view, I have
from the moment that this terrible blow fell on us, deter-
mined to make every other claim on my time and attention
subordinate (even to the giving up of my seat) to the task
of mitigating her sufferings. No other human being but
myself can afford her the slightest relief. I sometimes
doubt whether for the next six months I shall be able to
leave her for twenty-four hours together.”

He repeats with the helpless iteration of an incurable
grief, how hard is the case of » mother, who had not seen
her son waste gradually away as she tended his death-bed,
but who suddenly and in 2 moment stumbled over his corpse
as she passed cheerfully from room toroom. She never to the
last submitted to the blow with the graces of resignation, and
hence she never had the comparative solace that might have
come either from religion or from reason. To the end she

® To Joseph Parkes, June 4, 1858.

 

18586.

Rr. 62.
1856.
Air. 52.

 

648 LIFE OF OOBDEN. {omar

fought against her fate. ‘But if there be one act of con-
tumacy,” Cobden wrote in tender deprecation, “ which God
would pardon beyond all others in his creatures, it is surely
that which springs from the excessive affection of a mother
for her child.”

The external trifles of life were in sombre accord with the
tragedy that overshadowed their hearts. All things, small
as well as great, in which Cobden was concerned, seemed to
go wrong. His best cows lost their calves. The fruit in the
orchard was all blighted. A fine crop of hay lay spoiling in
the rain. Deeper than these vexations was his anxious con-
cern for Mr. Bright. For eighteen years almost without
an interval Mr. Bright had been at work in public causes.
The labour of prepartion and advocacy would in itself have
been enormous, but the strain was peculiarly intensified by
the fact that the labour was pursued in face of misrepre-
sentation and obloquy such as few English statesmen have
ever had to endure. At a time when repose would under
any circumstances have become necessary, instead of repose
came the violent excitement of the Russian War. Mr. Bright’s
health gave way, and many of his friends began to fear that
he was permanently disabled. “TI think of him,”’ Cobden
wrote, “ with more serious apprehension than he is aware of.”
And his correspondence with their common friends shows the
reality of his solicitude. This is an extract from one of his
letters of that time :—“I have always had a sort of selfish
share in Bright’s career, for I have felt as though, when
passing the zenith of life, I was handing over every principle
and cause I had most at heart to the advocacy of one, not
only younger and more energetic, but with gifts of natural
eloquence to which I never pretended. . . . . Perhaps there
never were two men who lived in such transparent intimacy of
mind as Bright and myself. Next to the loss of my boy, I
have had no sorrow so constant and great as from his illness,
xxv.] MR. BRIGHTS ILLNESS. 649

The two together make me feel quite unnerved, and I seem to —_ 1856.
be always feeling about in my mind for an excuse for quitting tr. 63.
the public scene. Bright’s loss, if permanent, is a public
calamity. If you could take the opinion of the whole
House, he would be pronounced, by a large majority, to
combine more earnestness, courage, honesty, and eloquence,
than any other man. But we will not speak of him as of the
past. God grant that he may recover |’’?

Mr. Bright and his family were staying in the autumn of
this year at Llandudno. It happened that a friend, about
the same time, offered the use of her house in the neigh-
bourhood of Bangor to Cobden. Mrs. Cobden seemed to
be falling into a settled torpor, which alarmed her husband.
Dreading the winter gloom and the association of home, he
resolved to try a great change, and accepting his friend’s
offer, he went with his family to Wales. Here the clouds
slowly began to show a rift. Mr. Bright and he paid one
another visits, with the bargain exacted by Cobden that not
a word should be exchanged about politics. He was slightly
reassured as to his friend’s condition. At home there were
signs of better things. Everybody about them was kind and
neighbovrly. Friendly offices were pressed on the suffering
mother by good women, “such indeed,” says Cobden, “as
are found in the middle and upper ranks in every corner of
Britain.” Mrs, Cobden roused herself to talk her own Welsh
among the poor people who knew no other language, and
who brightened up and became confidential the moment
that they were addressed in their own tongue. Her little
children gradually became a diversion and resource. But
her husband could not permit himself to do more than hope
that she was perhaps recovering. His own mind began to
recover its tone, and his interest in public affairs to revive.
Lord Brougham among others was very anxious to impress

3 To Joseph Parkes, Nov 11, 1858.
18&6.

 

Air. 52.

650 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [on. xxv,

upon him the doctrine that it is Work only, and not Time,
that can relieve the mind from the pressure of bereavement,
“If I had only my own case to consult,” Cobden said, “I
would at once return to the duties of life, and try to escape
from the thoughts of the past in the hard labour and tarmui]
of politics.” ,

Of the prospects of domestic legislation, he writes :—“ I
suppose the work to be atterapted next session is law reform;
and nothing is more pressing. Thorough measnres, such as
simplifying the sale of land up to something like the Irish
Encumbered Estates standard, shal] have my hearty support
as industriously in the way of votes as if I were in the
government. But I tell you candidly, I think this work
would be better done if the Tories were in. The Lords
rule this land in ordinary times supremely. It is only once
in ten or twenty years that with a great effort the country
thrusts them off from some bone of contention, but merely
to leave them in possession of the rest of the carcase as
securely as ever. Now the Lords look on the Tories as
their party. They know that to enable them to keep office
something must be done, and as they cannot satisfy the
Radicals in organic questions, they strain a point to let their
men have the credit of some thorough practical reforms of
the law and administration. Hence the good round measure
of Chancery Reform which the Peers passed for the Derby-
Disraeli government. And depend on it, if we were now on
the left-hand side of the Speaker’s chair again, there would
be a better measure of law reform passed than we are likely
to see next session.”’*

Nowhere can prospects be calculated with so little cer-
tainty as in parliamentary politica. The session for which
Cobden thus anticipated such tranquil occupation, proved to
be one of the most striking landmarks in his history.

4 To J. Parkes, Deo. 11, 1854.
CHAPTER XXVL
CHINESE AFFAIRS—COBDEN’S MOTION—-THE DISSOLUTION.

Tur first week of the new year (1857) found Cobden back 1857.
again at Dunford; but at the end of January he went with Air. 53.
his wife to a hydropathic establishment at Richmond. “I
have little sympathy myself,” he said, “with the hydro-
pathic superstition; but the simple diet and regular hours
are always in favour of health.” As it happened he had,
besides simple diet and quiet hours, something which to
natures such as his is the most favourable of all conditions
to sound health, I mean the excitement of vigorous interest
in a great public cause.

Certain transactions in China had for some time attracted
his vigilant attention, and they now occupied him to the
exclusion of everything else. In his pamphlet on the Second
Burmese War Cobden had shown the danger and injustice
of our accepted policy towards the weak nations of the Hast.
A war had now broken out in China which illustrated the
same principles in a still more striking way. Sir John
Bowring, the Governor of Hong Kong, was an old friend of
Cobden’s, a member of the Peace Society, and one of the
earliest agitators against the Corn Law. But he was a
man without practical judgment, and he became responsible
for one of the worst of the Chinese wars. The Chinese
boarded the “ Arrow,” and rescued twelve of their country-
men from it on s charge of piracy. The British Consul
1857.

 

652 LIFE OF OOBDEN. (omar.

protested on the ground that malfeascnts on board a

41.63. British ship should not be seized, but should be demanded

from the Consul. Nine men were returned at once. Bowring
sent word that unless the whole of the men were returned
within eight-and-forty hours, with apologies for the past
and pledges for the future, the English men-of-war would
begin operations. On a certain day the whole of the men
were returned, with a protest from the Chinese governor
that the ship was not a British ship, and that therefore he
was not bound to demand his malfeasants from the
Consul. The Chinese governor was perfectly in the right,
Bowring’s contention was an absolute error from beginning
to end.! The “ Arrow ” was not a British ship. Its licence
had expired. Even if this had not been so, the Hong Kong
agents had no power to give a licence to a Chinese ship-
owner protecting him against his own government. The
case stood thus then, Bowring had made a claim which
was legally untenable. The Chinese governor, while de-
claring it illegal, acquiesced in the demand. Yet the day
after the whole of the men had been given up, naval
and military operations were begun, a great number of
Chinese junks were destroyed, the suburbs of Canton were
burnt and battered down, the town was shelled, and this
iniquitous devastation was the beginning of a long and
costly war.

The course which the Government at home ought to have
taken was this. Bowring ought to have been recalled; in
time it is to be hoped that public opinion will insist that
agents who are guilty of action of this kind shall not only

' Mr. Ashley’s account of this transaction (Life of Palmerston, ii. 844),
is too condensed to be quite aoourate. If a man of Mr. Ashley’s industry
and character is not careful to see the facte of auch cases precisely and as
they were, we cannot wonder at the rough and ready style in which the
public is wont to take the unsifted official stories for granted, whenever @
British agent launches his country into one of these scandalous wars,
txvr} THR AFFAIR OF THE “ ARROW.” 653

be recalled, but shall be formally disgraced and explicitly 1887.
punished. His recall would have been justified even by the air. 68.
opinion of that day or of this. It was not, however, to be
expected from the statesman whose politics never got beyond
Oiwis Romanus, especially when he was dealing with a very
weak Power. The Government resolved to support Bowring.
As usual, they shifted the ground from the particular to the
general; if the Chinese were right about the “ Arrow,”
they were wrong about something else ; if legality did not
exactly justify violence, it was at any rate required by
policy ; orientals mistake justice for fear; and so on through
the string of well-worn sophisms, which are always pursued
in connexion with sach affairs.

To Cobden, as we may suppose, the whole transaction
seemed worthy of condemnation on every ground. Bowring’s
demand was illegal, and ought not to have been made. If
this was doubtful, at any rate Bowring’s violent action was
precipitate. It was a resort in the first instance to
measures which would hardly have been justifiable in the
last instance. If there were general grievances against the
Chinese, why not make joint representations with France
and the United States, instead of stumbling into a quarrel
in which we had not a leg to stand upon, and beginning a
war for which in the opinion of our best lawyers there was
no proper ground.”

The chance of reversing the course of policy depended
as usual on the accidents of party combination. In a letter
to Mr. Lindsay written in the last month of 1856, Cobden

» Lord Elgin, who was sent out to carry on the war, says in his diary:
“1 have hardly alluded in my ultimatum to that wretched question of the
“Arrow,” which is 8 scandal to us, and is so considered, I have reason to
know, by all except the few who are personally compromised.” Letters and
Journals, p. 209. “It is impossible to read the blue-books.” he says else-
where, “without feeling that we have often acted towards the Chinese in a

manner which it is very difficult to justify” (p. 185). See also p. 191, 218,
&c., £0.
aa

63.

654 LIFB OF CODEN. (cuss.

describes the state of parties at that time. “It is unlike,”
he said, “everything I have witnessed for the last fifteen
years. There seems to be no party having an_ intelli-
gible principle or policy in which any considerable body
out of doors takes an interest. The two sides of the House
no longer represent opposing parties—unless, indeed, it
may be said that our leader is at heart an aristocratic Tory,
while the chief of the Opposition is, if anything, a demo-
cratic Radical Of this a considerable number on the Tory
side seem to be shrewdly aware, for they evince no desire to
turn out Palmerston, in whom they have more confidence
than in Disraeli.” Under these circumstances, however,
the position of a Minister must always be precarious, for
the absence of definitely antagonistic policies places him at
the mercy of fortuitous personal coalitions. One of these
coalitions came into existence now. The Peelites were only
following the tradition of their master in condemning a
precipitate and useless war. Mr. Disraeli and his friends
played the official part of an Opposition in censuring an
Administration. Lord Jobn Russell obeyed an honest
instinct for justice. All these sections resolved to support
Cobden. It was on the 26th of February that Oobden
brought forward a motion to the effect that without ex-
pressing an opinion on the causes of complaint arising
from non-falfilment of the treaty of 1842, the House
thought the late violent measures at Canton not justified
by the papers, and that a Select Committee should
inquire into the commercial relations with China. This
enabled him to cover the whole ground of our policy in that
country. He did so in one of the most masterly of his
speeches; it was closely argued, full of matter, without an
accent of passion, unanswerable on the special case, and
thoroughly broad and statesmanlike in general views.’

8 Speeches, ii, 181—154
xxvi} COsDEN’s MOTION AND DEFEAT OF THE MINISTRY. 656

The House was profoundly impressed. After a long debate,
in which Lord Palmerston taunted Cobden with his un-
English spirit, and wondered how he could have thought of
attacking an old friend like Bowring, the division was
taken, There was s majority of sixteen against the
Government. The sixteen would have been sixty, it was
said, if Lord Derby’s party had held together. That so
many of them were found on Cobden’s side, showed
that so far as opinion and conviction went, the mi-
nority was very small indeed. But, as we are always
seeing, it is the tendency of party government to throw
opinion and conviction too often into a secondary place.
Mr. Gladstone said that if the division had been taken
immediately after the speeches of Cobden and Lord John
Russell, the motion would have been carried by a majority
80 overwhelming that the Minister could not have ventured
to appeal to the country against it. The interval allowed
the old party considerations to resume their usual force.
As it was, Lord Palmerston with his usual acuteness and
courage of judgment determined to dissolve Parliament.
Mr. Bright was now at Rome. “I need not tell you,”
he wrote to Cobden, “ how greatly pleased I was with the
news, and especially that the blow was given by your hand.”
The blow was unhappily to be returned with interest.

The country had not long been engaged in the heat and
turmoil of the general election, before Cobden detected
ominous signs. He had long before resolved to abandon
his seat for the West Riding. It was too plain that he had no
chance. His views on education alienated one section, and
his views on the Russian War had alienated all sections. It
was thought that Huddersfield was the borough where the
feeling of which Mr. Baines was the chief exponent, and
which Cobden had offended, was least formidable. So to
Huddersfield he went. But he was not more active for him-

1&7.
Air, 68
 

Aix. 53.

656 LIFE OF COBDEN. foinas.,

self, than he was on behalf of his absent comrade. It is
easy to explain the feeling that was abroad. Under our
system there is little tolerance for individual dissent, and
new principles make their way against artificial difficulties
of desperate force. People said that Cobden and _ his
friends had shown themselves perversely independent of the
Minister. They had been a thorn in the side of three
Liberal Governments. They had been openly mutinous
under Lord John Russell ; they had opposed Lord Aber-
deen ; they had violently quarrelled with Lord Palmerston.
They had committed the unpardonable offence of leading
their enemies to turn out their friends. All this was narrow,
undiscriminating, and ungenerous. In time men became
ashamed of such criticism, but for the hour it was fatal.
Cobden moved the vast audience of the Free Trade Hall
to its depths by an eloquent and touching vindication of Mr.
Bright, with whom, as he told them, he had lived in the
most transparent intimacy of mind that two human beings
ever enjoyed together. When he spoke of Mr. Bright’s
health—“ impaired in that organ which excites feelings of
awe and of the utmost commiseration for him on the part of
all right-minded men”—his emotion almost overpowered
him, and shook the soul of his hearers.‘ But the practical
conclusion was foregone. He wrote hasty notes to inform
Mrs. Cobden of his fears.

“ Manchester, March 17.—I hear very discouraging
accounts of Bright and Gibson. There have been many
defections, and unless our friends are giving themselves
needless alarm, I fear the chances are greatly against us.
The cause chiefly assigned is less an alteration of opinion
than a feeling of resistance towards the ghost of the
League, which still persists in haunting Newall’s Build-
ings, and, as is alleged, dictates to Manchester. I was

4 Bee Speeches, ii. 74.
xxv) THE REPULSE IN THE COUNTRY. 657

always of opinion that it would have been much better to
have abolished the whole concern and taken up new quar-
ters, and a new name. But it is too late to say anything
about it now, and, indeed, the less ssid the better. I have
determined to go to Huddersfield. I attend s great meeting
this evening in the Free Trade Hall, and to-morrow shall
proceed to Huddersfield.”

Huddersfield, March 24.—I sm dragged about all the
day through mud and mire canvassing, and hardly know
whether I can win. I don’t think they are by any means
safe at Manchester. I go over there again to-morrow, to
attend a meeting in the Free Trade Hall.”

“ March 25.—We have just had the nomination, I
was dragged to the hustings and obliged to speak, very
much against my inclination. We had the show of hands.
The polling is to-morrow. Our friends are in better spirits
every hour, but I am still very doubtfal. If I win,I will
telegraph to London, and request a letter to be sent by to-
morrow’s post to you. So if you do not hear at the same
time as you get this, conclude that I have lost.” *

No telegram was sent, for Cobden was beaten. A Tory
had carried the borough not long before, and now the com-.
bination of Tories with Palmerstonian Whigs was: doubly
irresistible. Cobden only polled 590 votes, against 823 for
his opponent. At Manchester Mr. Gibson and Mr. Bright were
defeated, and the latter of them was at the bottom of the poll.’
Fox was thrown out at Oldham and Miall at Rochdale. Lord
Palmerston’s victory was complete, and the Manchester
School was routed. Nothing had been seen like it since the
disappearance of the Peace Whigs in 1812, when Brougham,
Romilly, Tierney, Lamb, and Horner all lost their seats.

Mr. Bright wrote to Cobden from Rome during the
elections. He had, he said sarcastically, just been reading

5 Bir J. Patter, 8368; Turner, 7854; Gibson, 5588; Bright, 5458.
Ua

1857.

 
658 LIFE OF OOBDEN. {orap,

1857._ Bulwer’s Rienzi, and so he was prepared for ignorance,

 

ir. 63. scurrility, selfishness, ingratitude, and: all the other un-
pleasant qualities that every honest politician must meet
with. When the news of the great reverse reached him, he
took it with a certain composure. He put the case to Cob-
den, exactly as to a historical observer five-and-twenty years
later it would seem that it ought to have been put.

“ Venice, April 16.

“My pear CospEn,

“TI have been intending to write to you from day
to day since I received your letter. It was most refreshing
to me to read it, although its topics were not of the most
pleasing, but it came at the right time, and it said the right
thing, and was just such as I needed.....

“In the sudden break-up of the ‘School’ of which we
have been the chief professors, we may learn how far we
have been, and are ahead, of the public opinion of our time.
We purpose not to make a trade of politics, and not to use
as may best suit us the ignorance and the prejudices of our
countrymen for our own advantage, but rather to try to
square the policy of the country with the maxims of common
sense and of a plain morality. The country is not yet ripe for
this, but it is far nearer being so than at any former period,
and I shall not despair of a revolution in opinion which shall
within a few years greatly change the aspect of affairs with
reference to our Foreign policy. During the comparatively
short period since we entered public life, see what has been
done. Through our labours mainly the whole creed of
millions of people, and of the statesmen of our day, has been
totally changed on all the questions which affect commerce,
and customs dnties, and taxation. They now agree to re-
pudiate as folly, what, twenty years ago, they accepted as
wisdom. Look again at our Colonial policy. Through the
xxv] LE'TEL FROM MB. BRIGHT ON THEIB DEFEAT. 659

labours of Molesworth, Roebuck, and Hume, more recently

1857.

supported by us, and by Gladstone, every article in the creed Air. 53.

which directed our Colonial policy, has been abandoned, and
now men actually abhor the notion of undertaking the
government of the Colonies; on the contrary, they give to
every Colony that asks for it, a Constitution as democratic
as that which exists in the United States.

“ Turn to the question of Parliamentary Reform. ‘Finality’
is stoutly repudiated, not by Lord John Russell alone, but
by the Tories. I observe that at the recent elections, Tories
have repeatedly admitted that there must be Parliamentary
Reform, and that they will not oppose a moderate dose of it ;
and I suppose something before long will be done, not so real
as we wish, but something that will make things move a little.

“ But if on Commercial legislation, on Colonial policy, on
questions of Suffrage, and I might have added on questions
of Church, for a revolution in opinion is apparent there also,
we see this remarkable change, why should we despair of
bringing about an equally great change in the sentiments of
the people with regard to foreign affairs? Palmerston and
his press are at the bottom of the excitement that has lately
prevailed ; he will not last long as Minister or as man. I see
no one ready to accept his mantle when it drops from him.
Ten years hence, those who live so long, may see a complete
change on the questions on which the public mind has been
recently so actiye and so much mistaken.

“This is bringing philosophy to comfort us in our mis-
fortunes, you will say, and does not mend the present, and
it is trne enough, but it is just the line of reasoning, I doubt
not, which has presented itself to your mind when free from
the momentary vexation caused by recent events. I am the
least unfortunate of our small section, for a year of idleness
and of ill-health has made absence from Parliament familiar
to me, and J have contemplated resigning my seat since the
1857.

 

Air. 58.

660 LIFE OF OOBDEN. (omar.

beginning of 1856. Personally, therefore, to be out is neither
strange nor unpleasant, and J am surprised how very little
I have cared about the matter‘on my own account. I hope
you can feel somewhat as I do, conscious that we are ostra-
cised because our political creed is in advance of, and our
political morality higher than, that of the people for whom
we have given up the incessant labours of nearly twenty
years. Time will show, and a long time will not be needed
to show, the hollowness of the imposture which now rules.
Its face may be of brass, but its feet are of clay... ..

“Tt is strange after so much experience that we should
be disappointed that opinion goes on so slowly. We have
taught what is true in our ‘ School,’ but the discipline was a
little too severe for the scholars. Disraeli will say he was
right: we are hardly of the English type, and success, politi-
cal and personal success, cannot afford to reject the use which
may be made of ignorance and prejudice among a people.
This is his doctrine, and with his views it is true; but as we
did not seek personal objects it is not true of us. If we are
rejected for peace and for truth, we stand higher before the
world and for the fature than if we mingled with the patient
mediocrities which compose the present Cabinet. .... I hope
the clouds may break, and that sunshine may come again.

“ Ever yours very sincerely,
“Joun Bricur.”

After the elections were over, Cobden went to his home
in Sussex, and there he remained in retirement for nearly
two years. His correspondence shows how sharply he felt
the defeat.

To Mr. Moffett, he writes :—

“ April 7.—I find a retreat to this drowsy neighbour-
hood very necessary for my health. I overdid it, in trying

to canvass Huddersfield and Manchester at the same time,
xxvt] COBDEN’S FEELING. 661

and was almost afraid my head was giving way. How-
ever, my old medicine, sleep, has nearly restored me. But
Tam determined to keep ont of the ring for the present. It
suits me on private and domestic grounds to have been
beaten at Huddersfield (where my good friends ought not
to have taken me), and although the dose is a little nauseous,
the medicine will ultimately be of service to me. But I am
persecuted with innumerable letters from kind people, who
have taken up the notion that I must require encouragement
and condolence. And they have all sorts of projects ready
cut and dry for me, as if I could begin a life of agitation
again, and repeat the labours of my prime now that I am
past the zenith.

“The only incident of the election which hangs about me
with a permanent feeling of irritability, is the atrocious treat-
ment Bright has received from the people at Manchester.
They are mainly indebted to him for the prosperity which
has converted a majority into little better than Tories, and
now the base snobs kick away the ladder! I find my scorn
boiling over constantly, and can hardly keep my hands, or
rather my pen, off them. The case of Gibson is different.
He could not have been without the expectation that some
day an end would be put to a connexion for which there was
no special fitness; and to have sat for nearly eighteen years
for Manchester has given him a position which nothing can
take away. I do not, however, think he deserved to be left
in a minority. But Bright’s case is very different, He was
one of themselves. You know how valiantly he defended
his order against all assailants. He was an honour to his
constituents. They had no grievance on account of his
peace views, for they. knew he was a Quaker when they
elected him. To place such a man at the bottom of the
poll, when prostrate by excessive labours in the public ser-
vice, is the most atrocious specimen of political ingrati-

 
1857.
dr. 58

662 LIFE OF OOBDEN. (omar,

tude I ever encountered. ... . I do not believe he will be
affected in the way you fear by the news. He will, I
believe, take it very coolly and philosophically ; and I think
it will prove probably the best thing that could have
happened for his health.”

On the same day he writes to Mr. Hargreaves :—“ The
secret of such a display of snobbishness and ingratitude is
in the great prosperity which Lancashire enjoys, and for
which it is mainly indebted to Bright; and the result has
been to make a large increase to the number of Tories, and
to cool down to a genteel tone the politics of the Whigs,
until at last the majority find an earnest Radical not suffi-
ciently genteel for their taste. This will go on in the north
of England so long as our exports continue to increase at
their present rate, and in the natural course of things more
Tories will be returned.”

The same humour finds vent in some words to Mr. W. S.
Lindsay of this date :—

“Did my friend —— make a failure of seconding the
Address? Ihearso. I have never known a manufacturing
representative put into cocked hat and breeches and ruffles,
with a sword by his side, to make a speech for the Govern-
ment, without having his head turned by the feathers and
frippery. Generally they give way to a paroxysm of snob-
bery, and go down on their bellies, and throw dust on their
heads, and fling dirt at the prominent men of their own order.”

At the end of July 8 vacancy was made in the repre-
sentation of Birmingham by the death of Mr. Muntz, and
Mr. Bright was quickly chosen to fill the seat. His health
seemed to have been so dangerously shaken, that Cobden
expressed a natural solicitude on so speedy a return to the
agitation of public life. To Mr. Parkes he wrote :—

“ August 9, 1857.—I cannot help confessing to you my
doubts whether Bright will be equal to the task which
tiv] MR. BRIGHT’S ELECTION AT BIRMINGHAM. 663

he seems bent upon undertaking without much more for- 1857.

 

bearance. If he break down again, the chances are that he ir. 53.
is shelved for life, and may lose even the powers which he
is now in secure possession of. I very much fear he allows
himself to be pushed forward by others who are interested,
from enjoying a reflected share of his greatness, in seeing him
again in the House. But I have no reason to suppose that
this is the case with his wife and family. I have said as much
as I could to urge him to be quiet, but I doubt whether he
has the power to divert his mind from politics. He seemed
to me to be watching or speculating on the details of poli-
tical movements whilst he was in Algiers or Italy, pretty
much the same as when he was at home. The honest and
independent course taken by the people at Birmingham,
their exemption from aristocratic snobbery, and their fair
appreciation of a democratic son of the people, confirm me
in the opinion I have always had that the social and political
state of that town is far more healthy than that of Man-
chester ; and it arises from the fact that the industry of the
hardware district is carried on by small mannfactarers,
employing a few men and boys each, sometimes only an
apprentice or two; whilst the great capitalists in Man-
chester form an aristocracy, individual members of which
wield an influence over sometimes two thousand persons.
The former state of society is more natural and healthy in
a moral and political sense. There is a freer intercourse
between all classes than in the Lancashire town, where a
great and impassable gulf separates the workman from his
employer. The great capitalist class formed an excellent basis
for the Anti-Corn-Law movement, for they had inexhaustible
purses, which they opened freely im a contest where not
only their pecuniary interests but their pride as ‘an order’
was at stake. But I very much doubt whether such a state
of society is favourable to a democratic political movement,
1887,

 

Air. 58.

664 LIFH OF COBDEN. {onar.

and this view I have urged upon Wilson and Bright ever
since the League was, or ought to have been, abolished. If
Bright should recover his health and be able to head a
party for parliamentary reform, in my opinion Birmingham
will be a better home for him than Manchester.

“ Charles Sumner has been here, and is now on his way
to see De Tocqueville. We had some very long adjourned
debates, as you may suppose. What a talker he is! One
night, or rather morning, I had to warn him to bed at
half-past one, which to us rustics is a late sitting, for at
this harvest-time folks are thinking of getting up to work
soon after that. But excepting for his own health’s sake I
would have gladly protracted our noctes to daylight. It is
refreshing to meet with a man of his intellectual calibre
and of such accomplishments, one too so capable in every
way of playing a politician’s part, giving up all to con-
science. I really hardly know such a case. We can’t put
ourselves in such a comparison, for we have not the same
temptations even had we his powers. For in this aristo-
cratic country we know that the chief seata must be occn-
pied by men of a given class, or their nominees. In his
country every post was accessible to him, if he could only
speak successfully to Bunkum.”

“ July 28. (To Mr. Parkes.)—Very many thanks for your
thinking of me sometimes. I am deep in mangolds and pigs,
and unless you brought me occasionally in contact with
the great maélstrom of politics, I should be in danger of
forgetting that there are such things as Whigs and Tories
in the world. Believe me I am in no hurry to get back to
the House. When I saw the other day that the Honse sat
till half-past four, I hugged myself, and looked out on the
South Downs with a keener relish. The tone of Parliament
is unlike anything I have ever witnessed, and I should not
like to be made more closely acquainted with it. There is a
EXvL) OOBDEN AT MIDHURST. 665

spirit of servility, which cannot last; for a really manly

1887.

assembly (which the House of Commons is) will recover its ir. 68.

self-respect, and the reaction will perhaps be all the stronger
from the consciousness which will one day flash upon it
that it has been prostrating itself before a brazen image, as
hollow as it is impadent. But I am content to wait. It is
true that Sumner has offered to come and see me, and if he
would stay a few days it would be well for his health, but I
expect he will linger in town till he has only a day to give
me. I went on Friday to dine at the Bishop of Oxford’s
to meet Lord Aberdeen, and slept there. The old Earl was
looking older and more tacitarn than usual, His clothes
looked too large for his frame. I should foar he is wasting
away, bat his northern air, I hope, will set him upagain. It
is the third year I have had a long téte-a-téte with him, and
I have always found myself much interested in a thoroughly
quiet and homely intercourse with him and his host... ..

“Tn answer to your friend’s inquiry about Bowring’s
trathfalness, you may content yourself with a general
description of the genus sentimentalist. They are not to be
depended on in political action, because they are not masters
of their own reasoning powers. They sing songs or declaim
about truth, justice, liberty, and the like, but it is only in
the same artificial spirit in which they make odes to dew-
drops, daisies, &c. They are justas likely to trample on one
as the other, notwithstanding. There was Lamartine, the
prince of the class, who mouthed so finely about inter-
national righta; and yet it has come out that he was just as
ready as king or kaiser to march an army into Italy to take
a material guarantee for—tliberty. See the exhibition of
Thackeray «t Oxford,‘ and yet he expressed sympathy to me

® At a bye-election for Oxford city (July 21) Mr. Thackeray stood against
the present Lord Cardwell, and failed by the uarrow difference of 67,10 &

gross poll of 2103.
1867.

 

666 LIFE OF COBDEN. fons.
and Bright at the Reform Club during the war. Then

. there is his great contrast, Dickens, for ever writing of his

desire to elevate the masses and to put down insolence in high
places. I saw a note from him in which he refused to sign
& petition for the repeal of the taxes on knowledge, on the
express ground that he would not promote a deluge of
printer’s ink in England similar to what he had seen in
America. The most reliable politicians are your wiry logi
cians of the Jefferson or Calhoun stamp. They may be
liable to false starts, but when once you know their pre-
mises you can calculate their course and where to find them.’

Midhurst, June 6. (To Mr. Hwart.)—I must confess
the proceedings of your Hon. House have done much
to reconcile me to my rustication, for its tone is subser-
vient even to sycophancy. We have had the ‘ Barebones
Parliament,’ the ‘Long Parliament,’ the ‘Unlearned
Parliament,’ but the present ought to be named the
‘Servile Parliament.’ From such an assembly I confess
Iam not sorry to be excluded. There has always been
until now a body of men, sonietimes more and sometimes
fewer in the House, who counted themselves for something
better than Whigs or Tories, and who were bent on securing
something for the public as the price of their support of the
more Liberal section of the aristocracy. These men, whether
numbering thirty or eighty, were the pioneers of every good
work. Asa party they seem no longer to have an existence
in this Parliament. When they reappear, and the public
have recovered their taste for earnest politics, I hope I
shall be of their number; but till then the House of Com-
mons would not suit me, or I suit it.

“ Dec. 3. (To Mr. Moffatt.)—It is very kind and friendly in
you, as usual, to think of me. This post has also brought a
letter from Lancashire, saying some of the leaders at Ashton
would wish me to succeed to poor Hindley. But I have
XXVI.] VIRWS OF PARLIAMENTARY LIPH. 667

resolved neither to stand nor sit for any place; and this 1867.
resolution will certainly be adhered to for a year, probably tr. 68.
for the rest of my working days) I am not sulking or
shamming, but acting from motives of a personal nature,
and which no political considerations will be sufficiently
powerful to overcome. If half a dozen constituencies were
to offer to return me free of expense I should decline them
all. I shall be glad, should you at any time hear of any
movement in my favour, if you will discourage it, without
giving me occasion to offer explanations which are painful
‘to me. The truth is I cannot leave home for forty-eight
hours, and preserve that tranquillity and elasticity of spirit
which is necessary to success in public life. Under the
circumstances, I am therefore useless anywhere but in my
family. There might have been a state of things, indeed
there has been, when I sacrificed every domestic considera-
tion for public duty; but there is now no motive or justifi-
cation for my doing so,”

The actual life of the House of Commons which has in-
vincible attractions for so many men, seems to have had no
particular charm to Cobden. At the beginning of the
session of 1857 he described to a friend the disagreeable
effect upon him of bad air and long speeches. ‘I don’t
know whether you feel yourself similarly affected by the
air of the House, but after sitting there for two or
three hours I find my head useless for any other purpose
but aching. I find my brain throbbing, as though it were
ready to burst; and the pain returns upon me as soon as I
awake in the morning. It seems as if the air were dried
and cooked to such an extent as to rob it of its vital pro-
perties. My reasoning powers are in abeyance while under
the roof of the House, and if the symptoms continue and
no remedy be called for by others, likely to effect a change,
I shall seriously consider whether I ought to continue to
1857,

 

Air. 58.

668 LIFE OF OOBDEN. (CH. XXVI

hold a trust which I am rendered physically and mentally
incapable of fulfilling.”

“T came away on Tuesday,” he continues, “ after listen-
ing for two hours and a half to Disraeli. I wish there could
be some Bessemer’s power invented for shortening the time
of speaking in the House. My belief, after a long experi-
ence, is that a man may say all that he ought to utter at
one ‘standing’ in an hour, excepting a budget speech
or a government explanation, when documents are read.
The Sermon on the Mount may be read in twenty minutes;
the Lord’s Prayer takes one minote to repeat; Franklin
and Washington never spoke more than ten minutes at a
time.”

In the autumn of 1857 there was some prospect of a
vacancy for the borough of Finsbury, and a movement was
started in favour of Cobden as a candidate. Nothing came
of it, and it is doubtful, as we shall presently see, whether
at that moment his private interests would have allowed
him to return to public life. In the beginning of 1858 he
received one of the pleasantest of social compliments, in his
election as a member of the Athenssum Club by the special
favour of the Committee. In the course of the same year
his brother, Frederick, died at Dunford. He had suffered
such excruciating torture for some time past that to himself
death was almost welcome, but Cobden may well have felt
a sharp pang at the loss of one to whom he had been all his
hfe bound by the ties of so affectionate an intimacy.
CHAPTER XXVII.

THE INDIAN MUTINY—PRIVATE AFFAIRS—-SECOND JOURNEY
TO AMERICA.

Tux elections had barely taken place before the country 185”
was thrilled from end to end as it had been on no occasion 2: 6
before, by the appalling horrors of the Indian Mutiny.
Cobden had always watched the affairs of this great’ depen-
dency with jealous and unfriendly eye. As a military and
despotic government; asan acquisition of impolitic violence
and fraud ; as the seat of unsafe finance; for these and other
reasons, he had always taken his place among those, and
they were much fewer then than they are now, who cannot see
any advantage either to the natives or their foreign masters
in this vast possession. He had said as much in the House
of Commons so far back as 1853, when the renewal of the
Company’s Charter was under discussion. When the Mutiny
came, then like every one else, he said, he could think of
nothing else. Three or four of his letters will be enough to
show what he had to say upon the most hideous occurrence
in our history.

* Midhurst, Oct. 16,1857. (To Mr. Ashworth.) —I thought
I could have withdrawn myself for a time from public affairs,
but every Indian mail quite overturns my resolution, and
weans me back from my farm and my household, and makes
me as much a politician in thought and feeling as ever.
And yet I confess to you that this crisis in the Eaat makes
640 LIfB OF COBDEN. [oap.

1857. me very grateful for the accident which released me from
4r.58. my Parliamentary duties, and thereby relieved me from the
necessity of making any public declaration of opinion on
the subject; for the more I reflect on it, the less do I feel
able to take any part which would harmonize with the

views and prejudices of the British public.

“Tam, and always have been, of opinion (see the enclosed
extract from Hansard) that we have attempted an im-
possibility in giving ourselves to the task of governing
one hundred millions of Asiatics. God and his visible
natural laws have opposed insuperable obstacles to the
success of such a scheme. But if the plan were practicable
at the great cost and risk which we now see to be tsepa-
rable from it, what advantage can it confer on ourselves?
We all know the motive which took the East India Com-
pany to Asia—monopoly, not merely as towards foreigners,
but against the rest of their own countrymen. But now
that the trade of Hindoostan is thrown open to all the world
on equal terms, what exclusive advantage can we derive to
compensate for all the trouble, cost, and risk of ruling over
such a people f—a people which has shown itself, after a
century of contact with us, to be capable of crimes which
would revolt any savage tribe of whom we read in Dr.
Livingstone’s narrative, and which had never seen a
Christian or European till he penetrated among them.

“The religious people who now tell us that we must hold
Indias to convert it, ought, I should think, to be convinced
by what has passed that sending red coats as well as black
to Christianize a people is not the most likely way to insure
the blessing of God on our missionary efforts.

“T am aware that it is quite useless to preach these doc-
trines in the present temper of the people of this country ;
but if forced to appear in public to offer my opinion on the
topics of the day, I could not ignore this greatest of all
xxv] THE INDIAN MUTINY. 671

texts, and therefore I cling to my shell here because I know _!857- _
that this is not the moment to give utterance to my ideas ir. 58
with any chance of doing good.

“ Unfortunately for me I can’t even co-operate with
those who seek to ‘ reform’ India, for I have no faith in
the power of England to govern that country at all perma-
nently; and though I should like to see the Company
abolished—because that is a screen between the English
nation and a full sight of its awful responsibilities—yet I
do not believe in the possibility of the Crown governing
India under the control of Parliament. If the House of
Coramons were to renounce all responsibility for domestic
legislation, and give itself exclusively to the task of govern-
ing one hundred millions of Asiatics, it would fail. Hin-
doostan must be ruled by those who live on that side of the
globe. Its people will prefer to be ruled badly—according
to our notions—by its own colour, kith and kin, than to sub-
mit to the humiliation of being better governed by a suc-
cession of transient intruders from the antipodes.

“These, however, are, I confess, opinions of a somewhat
abstract kind, and not adapted for the practical work of the
day. What is to be done now? Put down the military
revolt in justice to the peaceable population, who are at the
mercy of the armed mutineers. It is our duty to do so.
We can do it, and I have no doubt it will be done. But
then comes our difficulty. With the experience of the
present year we can never trust a native force with arms
again, with the feelings of security which we formerly in-
dulged. Who will live in the interior of India in fature,
beyond the range of our forts or the sound of the regi-
mental dram Certainly no one with wife and children to
love and care for. Yet we cannot possibly administer the
affairs of that country without a native force, and we are
pow actually raising an army of Sikhs, the most warlike of
1857.

 

672 LIFE OF OORDEN. [owar.

our subjects in al] Asia, whom we disarmed when we took

. possession of the country, and of whom Lord Dalhousie

said, in a letter, not ten years ago, that every man was
against us |

“No; there is no future but trouble and loss and dis-
appointment and, I fear, crime in India, and they are doing
the people of this country the greatest service who tell
them the honest truth according to their convictions, and
prepare them for sbandoning at some future time the
thankless and impossible task.”

August 24, (To Mr. Bright.)\—If we could meet, I should
be glad to have a whole week’s adjourned debates on
public matters with you; and I could write you long letters
too, but somehow I always feel myself restrained by the fear
that my correspondence does you harm by keeping the brain
needlessly on the old scent. I wish you to discard politics
from your thoughts; how then can I with consistency dose
you with my political speculations ? Besides, to tell you the
truth, I can find nothing very cheerfu] to remark upon in
relation to public matters. The proceedings of the House
have ceased to interest me; and when I glance at the con-
clusion of the reports, and sometimes read ‘ adjourned at a
quarter to three o’clock,’ I hug myself with delight at the
recollection that Iam not one of the dramatis persone of
the humiliating performance.

“The only subject that binds my attention fast to the
newspapers is this horrible Indian business. There has been
nothing in history since the St. Domingo revolt to compare
in fiendish ferocity with the atrocities by the Sepoys upon
the women and children who have fallen into their hands.
One stands aghast and dumbfoundered at the reflection
that after s century of intercourse with us, the natives of
Tudia suddenly exhibit themselves greater savages than
any of the North American Indians who have been brought
ixvi.] ON CONTACT WITH INFHRIOR RACES. 673

into contact with the white race. It is clear that they 1867.
cannot have been inspired with either love or respect by Air. 53.
what they have seen of the English. There must bea fierce
spirit of resentment, not unmixed with contempt for the
ruling class, pervading the native mind. From the moment
that I had satisfied myself that a feeling of alienation was
constantly increasing with both the natives and the English
(we had some striking evidence to this effect before our
Committee in 1853), I made up my mind that it must end
in trouble sooner or later. It is impossible that a people
can permanently be used for their own obvious and conscious
degradation. The entire scheme of our Indian rule is based
upon the assumption that the natives will be the willing
instruments of their own humiliation. Nay, so confident are
we in this faith, that we offer them the light of Christianity
and a free press, and still believe that they will not have
wit enough to measure their rights by our own stan-
dard.

“Chance has thrown me in the society of some ladies who
have lately returned from India, where they were accus-
tomed to barrack life, their husbands being officers in native
regiments. I find the common epithet applied to our fellow-
subjects in Hindostan is nigger. One of these ladies took
some credit for her condescension in allowing a native officer,
answering to the rank of a subaltern, to sit down in her pre-
sence when he came for orders to her husband. All this
might have been borne, though with difficulty, if the
English with whom the natives came in contact displayed
exalted virtues and high intellectual powers. But I fear the
traits most conspicuous in our countrymen have been of a
very different character. A low morale and an absence of
mental energy have been the most conspicuous faults of the
British officers, and the business of the regiments has more
and more fallen into the hands of the natives. What is now

xx
18657.
4dr. 68.

 

674 LIFE OF OOBDEN. fostar.

witnessed in India—the assassination and massacres on one
side, and the wholesale executions on the other—muat for
ever perpetuate and deepen this feeling of alienation.!

“T can see nothing but increased difficulties in fature in
consequence of the almost indiscriminate slaughter with
which every commissioned officer and his drum-head court
are visiting the Sepoys that fall into their power. Unless
this is persevered in until the 100,000 mutineers are hung
up, the only effect will be to convert those who escape into
worse assassins and incendiaries than before. How are we
to maintain despotic sway in future over 100,000,000 of
Asiatics (for it must be undisguised despotism henceforth)
and preserve our own freedom at home? Will it be pos-
sible to find a sufficient number of recruits in Hngland to
keep up a sufficient army for this purpose ?

* These are questions that I shall not answer at present, but
I confess to you that I have no faith in the doctrine that by
any possible reforms we can govern India well, or continue
to hold it permanently. God and nature have put a visible
and insuperable obstacle in the way of our rash and
audacious scheme. And if it be true, as even Voltaire
believed it to be, that there is ‘un Dieu rétributeur et
vengeur,’ the deeds perpetrated by the British in times
past, and still more the bloody deeds now being enacted,
and which all arise from our own original aggression upon
distant and unoffending communities, will be visited with
unerring justice upon us or our children. But Iam sinning

1 Almost on the very same day Lord Elgin wrete in his Journal :—“ It is
a terrible business, this living among inferior races. I have seldom from
man or woman since I came to the Hast heard a sentence which was
reconcilable with the hypothesis that Christianity had ever come into the
world. Detestation, contempt, ferocity, vengeance, whether Chinamen or
Indians be the objeot.”—Lord Elgin’s Journals, p. 199. (August 21, 1857.)
On March 29, 1858, there is a similar entry :—‘ The truth is that the whole
world just now are raving mad with a passion for killing and slaying.”
xxv11) SOMBRE OUTLOOK IN INDIA. 675

against my own rule in thus venting my croakings upon
you.....

“P.8. You hint at the possibility of Manchester taking
me in case of poor Potter’s death. I don’t think the offer
will ever be made, but I am quite sure that there is no
demonstration of the kind that would induce me (apart
from my determination not at present to stand for any
place) to put myself in the hands of the people who
without more cause then than now struck down men
whose politics are identically my own. To confess my
honest belief, I regard the Manchester constituency, now
that their gross pocket question is settled, as a very un-
sound, and to us a very unsafe body.”

September 22. ( ,, )—Iam glad tosee your handwriting
again. Although I knew our minds were busy in one
and the same direction, yet I abstained from sending you my
cogitations, for I was fearful of adding fuel to fire. These
Indian horrors give me perpetual shudder. The awful
atrocities perpetrated upon women and children almost give
rise to the impious doubt whether this world is under the
government of an all-wise and just Providence. What crime
had they committed to merit the infliction of tortures and
death? Verily the sins of the fathers have been visited on
the children to the third and fourth generations! And how
can it be otherwise in the case of a nation? For if a collec-
tive crime be perpetrated, and a community be visited with
retributive justice, even an hour after the commission of the
deed, those who have entered life in the interval must par-
ticipate in the penalty. We can see that it must be so, but
not that it ought to be.

** These fiendish outrages upon the defenceless—the pro-
pensity displayed in so many places to unparalleled cruelties
—have amazed me more than anything that ever occurred in
my time. We have read of something of the kind in St.

1857.

Air. 53.
1857.
Att. 53.

 

676 LIFR OF COBDEN. [oraz,

Domingo, in the French Revolution, and in the revolt of
the Polish peasants, but in our time nothing like it has
happened, and I would not have believed that any tribe
of men which had been in contact with civilized life could
have committed such barbarities. But we seem in danger
of forgetting our own Christianity, and descending to a level
with these monsters who have startled the world with their
deeds. It is terrible to see our middle-class journals and
speakers calling for the destruction of Delhi, and the indis-
criminate massacre of prisoners. Leaving humanity out of
the question, nothing could have been more impolitic than
the wholesale execution of common soldiers with which we
attempted from the first to put down the rebellion. Had it
been a mutiny of a company or a regiment, it would have
been of doubtful policy to hang or blow from the guns all
the privates concerned. But when an entire army of
100,000 men have planted the standard of revolt, it is no
longer a mutiny, but a rebellion and civil war. To attempt
to hang all that fall into our power can only lead to reprisals
and wholesale carnage on both sides.

‘« Did you observe that the men who swam ashore at Cawn-
pore after the boats, in which were the garrison who had
been promised a safe passage, had been treacherously sunk,
were blown from the guns on successive days, no doubt in
imitation of our treatment of the Sepoys? To read the
letters of our officers at the commencement of the outbreak,
it seemed as if every subaltern had the power to hang or
shoot as many natives as he pleased, and they spoke of
the work of blood with as much levity as if they were
hunting wild animals. The last accounts would lead one
to fear that God is not favouring our cause, and that
too many of our countrymen are meeting the fate which
was intended for the natives.

“ But the future—what isin the distance? The most cer-
xxvm.] MISGIVINGS AS TO THE FUTURE. 677

tain and immediate result is that we shall have a bankrupt 1887.
empire of 150 millions of people on our backs. The end of ir. 58.
this year will leave the Company minus not much short of
100 millions sterling, including guaranteed railways, &c.
And then comes all the sacrifices of life and treasure which
we shall make to put down the rebellion and reconquer
India. And nobody asks what benefit we shall derive from
our success! You know my opinion of old: that I never
could feel any enthusiasm for the reform of our Indian
Government, for I failed to satisfy myself that it was pos-
sible for us to rule that vast empire with advantage to its
people or ourselves. I now regard the task as utterly hope-
less. Recent and present events are placing an impassable
gulf between the races. Conquerors and conquered can
never live together again with confidence or comfort. It
will be a happy day when England has not an acre of ter-
ritory in Continental Asia. But how such a state of things
is to be brought about, is more than I can tell. I bless my
stars that I am not in a position to be obliged to give
public utterance to my views on the all-absorbing topic
of the day, for I could not do justice to my own con-
victions and possess the confidence of any constituency in
the kingdom. For where do we find even an individual
who is not imbued with the notion that England would sink
. to ruin if she were deprived of her Indian Empire? Leave
me, then, to my pigs and sheep, which are not labouring
under any such delusions. ... .”

“October 18. (To Oolonel Fitzmayer.)\—Do we find that
Government and Parliament acquit themselves so well
in domestic matters that they have a surplus of efficiency
and energy for Hindoostan? Shall we give education to
India, or reform its criminals, or abate its crime, or mode-
rate its religious bigotry and intolerance? Can we do these
things at home? If a Board of Works can’t give us 9

 
1857.
Abr. 58.

 

678 LIFA OF OOBDEN, [cuar.

common sewer for London, is it likely to cover India with
canals for irrigation? If Catholic and Protestant can’t live
together in Belfast, excepting under something like martial
law, are we the people to teach Christian charity and tolera-
tion to the Hindoos? With such views as mine, what am I
to do in public life in the midst of all this excitement
and enthusiasm for reconquering and Ohristianizing Indiaf
I confess I think myself lucky that I can, with a fair plea,
exempt myself from the task of speaking at all in public on
the subject, for not having the responsible trust of M.P., I
am not bound to shock people with my sentiments. For a
politician of my principles there is really no standing-
ground. The manufacturers of Yorkshire and Lancashire
look upon India and China as a field of enterprise which can
only be kept open to them by force, and indeed they are
willing, apparently, to be at all the cost of holding open the
door of the whole of Asia, for the rest of the world to trade
on the same terms as themselves. How few of those who
fought for the repeal of the Corn Law, really understand
the full meaning of Free Trade principles! If you talk
to our Lancashire friends they argue that unless we occupied
India there would be no trade with that country, or that
somebody else would monopolize it, forgetting that this is
the old protectionist theory which they used formerly to
‘idicule. India was a great centre and source of commerce -
for the civilized world before Englishmen took to wearing
breeches, and it was the renown of its wealth and produc-
tiveness which first attracted us there. I am by no means
so clear as some people, that we have added greatly to its
commerce. Certainly the trade of European countries has
increased in a greater ratio than that of India during the
last century.

“ However, I have wearied you with my abstractions.
The practical business in hand is to put down the military
xxvu.] ON THE TRANSFER OF LAND. 679

mutiny, which, in justice to our own subjects, we are bound
todo. I fear that in the process we shall familiarize our-
selves with deeds of blood which may tend to make us a
cruel and sanguinary nation, and then God help Bolton or
Oldham, if some day from sudden suffering its passionate
multitude should set the middle classes and their Horse
Guards at defiance ; for assuredly then they who now cry for
the destruction of Delhi would not be less merciful to the
bricks and mortar of Lancashire.”

“ Nov. 22. (To Mr. Witte, the Member for Brighton.)—
. ... You have seized upon the most important of our
social and political questions in the laws affecting the trans-
fer of land. It is astonishing that the people at large are
so tacit in their submission to the perpetuation of the feudal
system in this country as it affects the property in land, so
long after it has been shattered to pieces in every other
country except Russia. The reason is, I suppose, that the
great increase of our manufacturing system has given such
an expansive system of employment to the population, that
the want of land as a field of investment and employment
for labour has been comparatively little felt. So long as
this prosperity of our manufactures continues, there will be
no great outcry against the landed monopoly. If adversity
were to fall on the nation, your huge feudal properties
would soon be broken up, and along with them the heredi-
tary system of government under which we contentedly
live and thrive. When I was travelling on the Continent, I
found among the thinking part of the population in France,
Italy, and Germany, a great feeling of surprise that the men
who had abolished the Corn Laws had not also abolished
the monopoly of land; and they were quite puzzled, and
almost incredulous, when I told them that there was little
feeling against our custom of primogeniture even among the
rural population of England. Another reason may help to

1857.
ir. 58.

 
680 LIFE OF COBDEN. [onar.

1858. account for our indifference to the subject. We have been

4x, 64, taught to consider our colonies as an outlet for the popula-
tion, and this not by a process of expatriation to a foreign
land, but by emigration to other parts of our own territory.
Then there is our insular vanity, that scorns to follow
the example of other countries and that lays us open to the
influence of flattery, of which John Bull will accept any
quantity, however coarsely laid on, in place of more sub-
stantial payment of what is honestly his due.”

“ London, May 16, 1858. (To G. Oombe.)— ... I have
come to London for a few weeks, and have brought my
wife and little girls, We have been staying with our friends
in a succession of visits, and I have seen a little of the
politicians from whom I have been so long separated.

“T am afraid our national character is being deteriorated,
and our love of freedom in danger of being impaired by
what is passing in India. Is it possible that we can play
the part of despot and butcher there without finding our
character deteriorated at home? Were not the ancient
Greeks and Romans corrupted and demoralized by their
Asiatic conquests, and may we not share their fate, though
in a different way? Then comes the question which you
have so ably put in your letter. ‘ What possible benefit
can we derive from our Indian conquests?’ I confess I
take a gloomy view of our prospects in that quarter. The
English people will not give up Hindoostan, any more than
they did North America, without years of exhausting war.

“Tt is more and more my conviction that the task of
governing despotically 150 millions of people at a distance of
twelve thousand miles cannot be executed by a constitutional
Government. It ought to be done, if atall, by a despot, whose
rule is concentrated, and less liable to personal changes than
our representative forms admit. With a change of Govern-
ment every six or twelve months it is impossible that we
XXv11.]ON THE DEMORALIZATION OF ENGLAND BYINDIA. 681

can have a continuous plan or a real responsibility. Since 1888.

 

IT have been in London, I have heard scarcely a word about tr. 54.
the best mode of governing the millions of India. The only

talk is about the chance of turning out one Ministry and
bringing in another.”

“ March 28. (To Mr. Gilpin.) —What a pretentious and
hypocritical people we are in our dealings with the outside
world! How we abuse and bully King Bomba because he
will not govern his lazzaroni according to our notions of
constitutionalism! But when you propose to apply a little
of our love of liberty to our own fellow-subjects in India
‘oh! oh!’ is the reply you meet with in the House. Yet
you would have no difficulty in carrying the cheers of the
said House for any proposal to put the slaves in America or
Cuba immediately on the same political level as their masters.
This nation will meet with a terrible check some day,
unless it makes a little better progress in the science of self-
knowledge.”

“October 30. ( ,, )—... Is Klapka gone? He mentioned
to me in conversation some views about our Indian massacres
of private men, that I should like to be allowed to quote
some day. JI remember he expressed himself as a soldier
with some disgust on the subject. He said the indis-
criminate destruction of rank and file was unprecedented in
modern times, and he stated that anybody accustomed to
armies knew that when a whole regiment or army fell from
its allegiance, the great body of the privates really took no
active part, that they went with the officers as a matter of
instinct, and that perhaps with the exception of a few
violent ringleaders the rest hardly knew anything about it.
In some cases a minority would in their hearts be opposed
to the mutiny, but they had no choice but go with the rest.
He argued that to slay all alike in the field or on the gallows
was terrible,”
682 LIFH OF OOBDEN. [onar.

1858. A few months before this, Cobden had felt for an instant
Aix. 64, that he would have liked to be in the House. Mr. Gibson,
who had found a seat at Ashton-under-Lyne, beat Lord
Palmerston on the Conspiracy to Murder Bill (Feb. 20), and
the Minister who had returned to power in triumph eleven
months before, suddenly saw himself compelled to resign.
‘When I read,” said Cobden to Mr. Lindsay, “the account
of Bright and Gibson walking up to the table of the House
to pass sentence upon that venerable political sinner, I could
not help thinking what a fine historical picture the artist
missed, There was surely something more than chance in
bringing back these two men to inflict summary punish-
ment on the man who flattered himself a few months ago
that he had put his heel on their political necks. For the
first time I felt regret at not being there to witness that

scene of retributive justice.”

On the feeling between England and France which had
arisen in connexion with the circumstances of the Conspiracy
to Murder Bill, he wrote to his friend, Miche] Chevalier :—

« July 13.—It is useless our pursuing the tu quoque argu-
ment, otherwise I should remind you that our estrange-
ment has all sprang out of the unfortunate course pursned
by your Government at the time of the Orsini horror. Never
did your Emperor fall into such a mistake as to seek to
widen the responsibility of that mad outrage by making it
the ground of domestic legislation of s restrictive character
and of diplomatic negotiation, requiring fresh safeguards
from foreign Governments: all which assumed that others
besides those frenzied Italians were plotting against his life.
To assume that assassination had sympathizers in England,
France, or elsewhere, was an insult to humanity. His policy
should have been the very opposite. He should have thrust
aside the injudicious advisers who recommended such a course,
and should have loudly proclaimed his belief that men of all
xxviL]} OHANGH OF GOVERNMENT. 683

nations would equally join in condemning the devilish act: 1856.
and he should have placed himself under the protection of Air. 54.
that sentiment of horror which was universally entertained,
whilst he might have frankly owned that his life, like that of
every other man, was at the mercy of those who chose to
cast off all the restraints of reason, religion, and humanity.
Such a course as this, narrowing the responsibility of the
atrocious act to those who were its wicked authors, would
have attracted the sympathy of the whole civilized world.
But it is useless now to dwell on these reminiscences. I
hope the really gallant conduct of our Queen in paying a
visit to Cherbourg, and thus giving a slap in the face to
those mischievous fools who are constantly raising the cry
of a French invasion, will have the effect of soothing all the
irritation on your side.”

The second Administration of Lord Derby was formed,
and Mr. Lindsay asked for Cobden’s view of the new
political situation, Inreply he once more preached a sermon
on the old text.

“* March 23.—‘ The present men are more honest, and they
are certainly more obliging than the last.’ In this I agree
with you, and it might have been said of any Tory Govern-
ment as compared with any Whig one since I have been in the
political ring. I remember when I came into the House in
1841, after the general election which gave Peel a majority
of ninety, I found the Tories more civil in the intercourse
of the lobbies and the refreshment-rooms than the Whigs.
It runs through all departments. It seems as if the Whig
leaders always thought it necessary to snub the Radicals, to
satisfy the Tories they were not dangerous politicians. But I
do not blame them, for they live by it. I do blame those
advanced Liberals who allow themselves to be thus used
and abused. There is no remedy but in the greater self-
respect of the middle class. I fear we have been going the

 
684 LIFR OF COBDEN. (cna.

1858. other way for the last ten years. The great prosperity of

Zr, 64. the country made Tories of us all. .... During my expe-
rience the higher classes never stood so high in relative
social and political’ rank, as compared with other classes,
as at present. The middle class have been content with the
very crumbs from their table. The more contempt a man
like Palmerston (as intense an aristocrat at heart as any of
them) heaped on them, the louder they cheered him.
Twenty years ago, when a hundred members of the House
used to muster at the call of Hume or Warburton to
compel the Whigs to move on under threats of desertion,
there seemed some hope of the middle class setting up for
themselves; but now there is no such sign.....

* You ask me my view of the political situation. It is
hard fate for me to be obliged to choose between Derby and
Palmerston, but if compelled to do so, I should certainly
prefer the former. Nothing can be so humiliating to us as
a party or a nation as to see that venerable political im-
postor at the head of affairs. But how will you prevent his
return to power? .... Half a dozen great families meet
at Walmer and dispose of the rank and file of the party,
just as I do the lambs that I am now selling for your alder-
men’s table. And I very much doubt whether you can put
an end to this ignominious state of things. Until you can,
I don’t think you are playing a part in any noble drama.”

During this period of withdrawal from active public life,
Cobden was greatly harassed by private anxieties. As there
was always much ill-natured gossip about his affairs, it is
well to state the facts as they were. With a portion of the
proceeds of the national testimonial Cobden, as we have
already seen, had purchased the little property which had
belonged to his forefathers. The rest, or most of the rest,
he had invested in the shares of an American railway. The
Tllinois Central is the great line from North to South, with

 
sxvit] PRIVATH ANXINTIEGS. 685

its headquarters at Chicago, taking its course right through |

the centre of the rich valley of the Mississippi, and joining
the great river itself at Saint Louis, Cairo, and New Orleans.
Very large tracts of the finest alluvial soil in Illinois were
ceded to the company on each side of the line. The company
therefore had two sources of profit, one arising from the sale
of the lands, the other from the traffic on the line itself
which in grain was very large and daily increasing. Such
property was clearly a legitimate investment to persons who,
if more capital were called up than was at first anticipated,
could afford to meet the calls upon their shares without
inconvenience.* With a man in Cobden’s position the case
was different. In this matter, however, he was not disposed
to listen to the advice of his friends, who recommended
him only to hold bonds or paid-up shares. “I recollect,”
says Mr. W.S. Lindsay, “having many conversaticns with
Cobden on this subject. I agreed with him entirely as to the
prospects of the line, but we differed as to the time when
the large prospective profits of the undertaking could be
realized. He thought they were close at hand; I, on the
contrary, held the opinion that, while all the land would in
time find purchasers, they would rather belong to the next
generation than to our own. In this instance my views
came true. The land found purchasers, but not to the
extent nor with the rapidity anticipated. The directors had
calculated that the proceeds from the sale of the lands would
enable them to complete the line, and consequently render
further calls upon the shareholders unnecessary. In this
they were mistaken.”

“Cobden,” Mr. Lindsay goes on to say, “ viewed his
investments in an entirely different light from that in which
they would be seen by an ordinary man of business. He

? The 100 dollar ordinary sharee were lately at 160, and are now 188,
1858.

 

Air, 54.

686 LiFR OF COBDAN. fonar.

thought of the overcrowded cities of Europe, and of the
masses of people who on this side of the Atlantic were
seeking, or about to seek, new homes in the far West. His
mind surveyed at a glance the vast expanse of rich, unoccu-
pied virgin land in the mighty valley of the Mississippi,
through which the Illinois Central ran its course—a valley
where millions of people from the old world could find profit-
able employment. He was aware of the great and rapidly
increasing facilities which would enable the intending
emigrant to reach this most tempting field at less cost than
their fathers could have travelled from Glasgow to London ;
and for these reasons he came to the conclusion that the
demand for the company’s land would be both great and
immediate, and the money derived from the sale would be
more than sufficient to complete all the works connected
with the railway. But Cobden was no speculator in the
ordinary sense of the word.”

In a letter to Mr. Moffatt, with whom he was in constant
correspondence on the subject at this time, Cobden shows
how conscious he was of the view which a hard-headed man
of business would be likely to take of what he was doing.
At the beginning of 1858, Mr. Osborn, the Chairman of the
Railway, was in England, and visited him at Dunford.

“ Osborn was so candid with me,’ Cobden writes, “so
disinterested and friendly in his advice, that I could not help
suspecting that a very good friend of mine had whispered
in his ear something to this effect. ‘Say nothing to feed
his sanguine views. He has already become téte montée
about the Illinois; but rather throw in a word of caution
about putting too many eggs in one basket. He is a worn-
out agitator, out of business, with a young family. Such
people ought not to become speculators. As a rule your
public men, and especially your revolutionary leaders, make
unsuccessful men of business. They look too high and too
xxvit] MUNIFIOENT VRIENDSHIP. 687

far, and others who fire at a shorter range beat them in the
field. Besides, they look at things too much in the gross,
neglect details, and disregard the element of time, which in
speculation is everything. Here is Cobden dealing with
Illinois Central as if they were going to yield him a profit
next quarter-day. Warn him that it will take many years to
realize all his expectations.’ Am I not right in my surmise f”

Whether the surmise was right or not, it is clear that the
investment, however sound, was nota prudent one fora man
who had no spare capital, and who needed income. Cobden
was greatly inconvenienced by outstanding loans which
were raised to pay the calls. In connexion with them, it is
for the honour of human nature that we should mention an
extraordinary example of grateful and considerate munifi-
cence. The late Mr. Thomasson of Bolton, hearing from Mr.
Slagg, their common friend, that Cobden was embarrassed by
one of these outstanding loans for the Illinois shares, amount-
ing to several thousand pounds, released the shares and sent
them to Cobden, with a request that he would do him the
favour to accept their freedom at his hands “ in acknowledg-
ment of his vast services to his country and mankind.” On
a later occasion, when the same difficulty recurred for the
same reasons, Mr. Thomasson went down to Midhurst,
ascertained the circumstances, and insisted that Cobden
should accept a still larger sum, refusing a formal acknow-
ledgment, and handing it over in such a form that the trans-
action was not known to any one but Cobden and himself.
After Mr. Thomasson’s death, there was found among his
private papers a little memorandum of his advances, con-
taining these magnanimous words: “I lament that the
greatest benefactor of mankind since the Inventor of printing
should be placed in a position where his public usefulness is
compromised and impeded by sordid personal cares; but I
have done something as my share of what is due to him

1868.

Gir. 54
688 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [on. xivnj

1868. from his countrymen to set him free for farther efforts in the
“Zr. 64. cause of human progress. My children will hereafter be
proud that their father at all events recognized his claims.

Their fortunes are to a great extent the result of Richard
Cobden’s sacrifices.””

It was in connexion with the Illinois Railway that Cobden
made his second voyage to the United States. He went on
behalf of other English shareholders to examine the line and
its management on the spot. He remained in the country
for three months. Everything that he saw delighted him.
The material and moral progress since his visit in 1835
realized all his expectations. “It is the universal hope of
rising in the social scale,”’ he told Mr. Bright, “ which is the
key to much of the superiority that is visible in this country.
It accounts for the orderly self-respect which is the great
characteristic of the masses in the United States... . All
this tends to the argument that the political condition of a
people is very much dependent on its economical fate.”

So far as the immediate object of his journey went
Cobden declared himself to be more than satisfied. “ As
respects the main question,” he wrote to his wife, “as to the
ultimate success of the undertaking, I have no doubt what-
ever that it will prove the best railroad investment in
America. But unfortunately it does not suit me to wait,
and nearly all I have is at stake.”” In another letter to
Mrs. Cobden he writes: ‘“ My thoughts are much with you
and the dear children. I feel great anxiety to know that
you are settled. Everything has gone as unluckily as
possible with me. I sometimes feel almost unnerved, great
as is my energy and natural buoyancy.” As we shall see
presently, the clouds vanished quickly from his spirit, as
soon as ever he saw a piece of useful work to be done.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
KTTJEN FROM AMERICA.—THE NEW MINISTRY.

Dourme Cobden’s absence, great events came to passin the 1859.

 

parliamentary world. Mr. Disraeli introduced his Reform Bill ir. 55.
(Feb., 1859), which included the famous “ fancy ” franchises,
and the use of voting papers. The Conservatives did not
like the Bill, and two of their most respected leaders, Mr.
Henley and Mr. Walpole, quitted the Ministry rather than
be parties to it. The Whigs objected to it as an encroach-
ment on their own political preserves. Mr. Bright denounced
it as absurd and irritating, disturbing everything and
settling nothing. The Government were defeated by a
majority of thirty-nine in a heise of six hundred and
twenty-one members. They dissolved Parliament three
weeks afterwards, and the writs for its successor were issued
before the end of April.

The men of Rochdale met and resolved to choose Cobden
as the Liberal candidate. Mr. Bright went to their meeting
and commended to them his “ political associate, his political
brother,”’ in a manly and cordial record of Cobden’s past
career. Cobden had told him that he would rather sit for
Rochdale than for any other borough in England; for
Rochdale Liberalism, he said, had heart enough in it “to
back up a man against the aristocratic section of the
legislature.” Cobden was eventually returned without a

contest.
Yy
690 LIFE OF COBDEN. [onap.

1859. When the elections were over the Conservatives claimed

 

4ir. 55. to have gained twenty-nine seats, but this was not enough
to secure them against a union of the various sections of the
Opposition. The day before the assembling of the new
Parliament (June 6) those sections held a conference at
Willis’s Rooms, settled their differences with one another,
and devised a vote of want of confidence as an amendment
on the Address. This vote was moved the next night by
Lord Hartington, and was carried, after a debate which
lasted three nights, by a majority of thirteen in a house of
six hundred and forty-three (June 10). The Government
immediately resigned.

Before the meeting at Willis’s Rooms, the two chiefs
whose rivalry hed so long weakened party organization
had come to an understanding that either would consent to
serve under the other. The Queen was unwilling to settle
the question between “two statesmen so full of years and
honours,” and sent for a younger and less experienced man.
But Lord Granville, after making an attempt to form s
Ministry, resigned a task in which it had never been possible
for him to succeed. Lord Palmerston was designated for
the first post by a voice which the sovereign of a free
country cannot pretend to ignore. All difficulties disap-
peared before his incomparably strong political position, and
within five days of the defeat of the fallen Government
Lord Palmerston had completed his list, with the exception
of one post. This post was reserved for Cobden, then
known to be on his way home.

The following is the letter which was despatched by the
new Prime Minister to meet him on landing at Liverpool :—

“94, Piccadilly, 27th June, 1859.
* My pxar Sirz,—I understand that it is likely that you
may arrive at Liverpool to-morrow, and I therefore wish
xxvmit.] THE NEW MINISTRY. 691

that this letter should be placed in your hands upon your
landing.

“T have been commissioned by the Queen to form an
Administration, and I have endeavoured so to frame it, that
it should contain representatives of all sections of the Liberal
party, convinced as I am that no government constructed
upon any other basis could have sufficient prospect of dura-
tion, or would be sufficiently satisfactory to the country.

“Mr. Milner Gibson has most handsomely consentai to
waive all former difficulties, and to become a member of the
new Cabinet. I am most exceedingly anxious that you
should consent to adopt the same line, and I have kept open
for you the office of President of the Board of Trade, which
appeared to me to be the one best suited to your views, and
to the distinguished part which you have taken in public life.
I shall be very glad to see you, and to have personal com-
munication with you as soon as may be convenient to you
on your arrival in London, and I am,

‘ My dear Sir,
* Yours faithfully,
“ PALMERSTON.”

The invitation was supported by a letter which was sent
at the same time by Lord Palmerston’s most important
colleague :—

“Chesham Place, June 25th, 1859.

“My peak Mer. Cospen,—Lord Palmerston will have
written to you to offer you a seat in his Cabinet.

“ An attempt has been made, more or less wisely, to form
a government from various sections of Liberals. Recent
speeches have prevented the offer of a cabinet office to Mr.
Bright. This is much to be regretted ; but if you accept,
his accession may take place hereafter. If you refuse, I do

1859.
Air. 55.
1859.
Air. 65.

 

692 LIFE OF COBDEN. [cmar.

not see a prospect of amalgamating the Liberal party during
my life-time.
“ In these circumstances I confess I think it is a pury for
you to accept the office of President of the Board of Trade.
“T remain,
“ Yours faithfully,
«J. Rossen.”

Cobden arrived in the Mersey on June 29, and in a letter
written the next day to Mrs. Cobden, described what
happened :—

“ Manchester, June 30, 1859.—I had but a moment yester-
day in Liverpool to apprise you of my safe arrival in Eng-
land. As I came up the Mersey, I little dreamed of the
reception which awaited me. Crowds of friends were ready
to greet and cheer me; and before I left the ship a packet
of letters was put in my hand, containing one from Lord
Palmerston, offering me a seat in the Cabinet as President
of the Board of Trade, and another from Lord John Russell,
urging me in the very strongest terms to accept it. There
were letters from Moffatt, Gilpin, and a great many others,
advising me not to refuse the offer.

“IT was completely taken by surprise by all this, for I had
heard nothing of the change of government, and was twenty-
five days without having seen the latest news from England,
namely eleven days’ passage, and fourteen days which we.
were behind the news when I left Quebec.

**T went on shore and proceeded to the hotel, where my
troubles began. More than a hundred of the leading men
of Liverpool assembled in the large room to present me with
an address, which was put into my hand by Mr. William
Brown. .... Afterwards Mr. Robertson Gladstone, from
the Financial Reform Association, Mr. Rathbone, from the
American Chamber of Commerce, and the President of the
xxvuL} ARBIVAL AT LIVERPOOL. 693

Peace Society, all presented addresses, to which I was
obliged, without 8 moment’s notice, and with my head still
swimming with the motion of the sea, to deliver replies. It
was really like killing one with kindness. I have come on
here [to Manchester] to see my friends, and hear what they
have to say. A deputation from Rochdale is over also.
And IJ have an address from a number of persons, including
Bazley and H. Ashworth, wishing me to accept the offer of
a seat in the Cabinet. Indeed, almost without exception,
everybody, Radicals, peace men, and all, are trying to per-
suade me to it.

“ Now it really seems to me that they must all have gone
mad, for with my recorded opinions of Lord Palmtrston’s
public conduct during the last dozen years, in which opinions
I hawe experienced no change, were I suddenly to jump at the
offer of a place under him, I should ruin myself in my own
self-respect, and ultimately lose the confidence of the very
men who are in this moment of excitement urging me to
enter his Cabinet. So great is the pressure put on me, that
if it were Lord Granville, or even Lord John, at the head of
affairs, I should be obliged, greatly against my will, to be a
Right Honourable. But to take office now, without a single
declaration of change of view regarding his public conduct,
would be so monstrous a course, that nothing on earth shall
induce me to do it. Iam going to town this afternoon, and
shall forward him my answer on my arrival. I listen to all
my friends and say nothing, but my mind is made up.”

On arriving a day or two later in London, Cobden lost no
time in calling upon Lord Palmerston. He wrote a full
account of all that passed between them to Mr. Sale, his
brother-in-law in Manchester.

* London, 4th July, 1859.—I thought it best on my arrival
in town to go first to Palmerston, and explain plainly and
frankly everything. On calling on him I was most plea-

1659.

 
1859.
Air. 55.

 

694 LIFE OF OOBDEN. (omar.

santly welcomed, and we talked as usual for a few minutes
on everything but what I went about. At length I broke
the ice in this way. ‘ You have acted in so manly and mag-
nanimous @ manner in pressing me to take office in your
Cabinet, that I feel bound to come and talk to you without
reserve upon the subject. My case is this. For the last
twelve years I have been the systematic and constant
assailant of the principle on which your foreign policy has
been carried on. I believed you to be warlike, intermeddling
and quarrelsome, and that your policy was calculated to
embroil us with foreign nations. At the same time I have
expressed a general want of confidence in your domestic
politics." Now I may have been altogether wrong in my
views ; it is possible I may have been, but I put it candidly
to you whether it ought to be in your Cabinet, whilst holding
a post of high honour and emolument derived from you, that
I should make the first avowal of a change of opinion respect-
ing your public policy? , Should I not expose myself to
severe suspicions, and deservedly so, if I were under these
circumstances to step from an Atlantic steamer into your
Cabinet? Understand, I beg, that I have no personal
feelings which prevent me from accepting your offer. I
have opposed you as the supposed representative of what I
believed to be dangerous principles. If I have ever been
personally offensive in my opposition it was not intended,
and assuredly you never gave me any justification for such a
course.’

“Tn reply he disclaimed any feelings of a personal kind, and
said that even if there had been any personalities, they never
ought to be remembered for three months; and he added
in a laughing way that he thought Gibson had hit him quite
as hard as Thad. Then he commenced to combat my objec-
tions, and to offer, with apparently great sincerity, a variety
of arguments to show that I ought to enter the Cabinet,
axvm.} INTERVIEW WITH LORD PALMERSTON. 695

dwelling particularly on the fact that as questions of foreign
policy were now uppermost, and as those questions were in
the hands of the Executive, it was only by joining the
Government that I could influence them. ‘You and your
friends complain,’ he said, ‘ of a secret diplomacy, and that
wars are entered into without consulting the people. Now
it is in the Cabinet alone that questions of foreign policy are
settled. We never consult Parliament till after they are
settled. If, therefore, you wish to have a voice in those
questions, you can only do so in the Cabinet.’ This was the
argument I found it most difficult to answer, and therefore
he pressed it most strongly.

“But finding me still firm in my objections, he observed
laughingly, ‘ Why are you in the House of Commons?’ I
answered also with a laugh, ‘ Upon my word I hardly know.’
‘But why did you enter public life?’ said he. ‘I hardly
know,’ was my answer ; ‘it was by mere accident, and for a
special purpose, and probably it would have been better for
me and my family if I had kept my private station.” Upon
which he threw out both his hands, and, with a laugh louder
than before, he exclaimed, ‘Well, but being in it, why
not goon?’ He added, ‘Recollect I don’t offer you the
seat from any desire of my own to change my colleagues.
Tf left to me, I would of course rather have gone on as before
with my old friends. I offer you the seat because you have
a right to it.’

Tn answer to my remark that perhaps others might be
found quite as much entitled as myself to represent the
advanced Liberals in his Government, he replied quickly,
‘Will you be good enough to mention the name of any one
excepting Bright, Gibson, and yourself, that I could bring
into the Cabinet as the representative of the Radicals?’ I
urged that Bright had been unfairly judged, and that his
speeches at Birmingham, d&c., were not of a kind to exclude

1859.
| ir, 55.
1859.
1, 56.

696 LIFE OF OOBDEN. (onur.

him from an offer of a seat, and I remarked that he had very
carefully avoided personalities in those speeches. ‘ It is not
personalities that are complained of ; a public man,’ said he,
‘is right in attacking persons. But it is his attacks on classes
that have given offence to powerful bodies, who can make
their resentment felt.’

“In the course of his remarks he gave me a full explana-
tion of his views on the present war, and expressed his
determination to preserve a strict neutrality, observing that,
as the people of England would as soon think of ‘ evacuating
these islands’ as to go to war in behalf of Austria, and as
France did not ask us to help her, he could not see any
possibility of our being mixed up in the fray. On this
point he remarked :—‘If you are afraid of our abandoning
our neutral ground, why don’t you come into the citadel of
power, where you could have a voice in preventing it?”

“On his remarking upon the difficulty there would be in
carrying on the Government unless all parties were united,
and how impossible it was for him to do so if the natural
representatives of the Liberals would not take office, I
replied that the very fact of his having offered me office was,
so far as I was concerned, his justification; and that I
should be blamed, and not he in the matter. And I added,
‘I shall give just the same support to your Government
whilst Mr. Gibson is in it, who represents identically my
views, as I should if I were one of your Government: for I
should be certain to run away, if you were to do anything
very contrary to my strong convictions.’ I added that at
present there were only two subjects on which we could
have any serious difference, and that if he kept out of the
war, and gave us a fair Reform measure, I did not see any
other point on which I should be found opposing him. He
returned to the argument that my presence in the Govern-
ment was the important step required; and I then told him
rxvirt.] INTERVIEW WITH LORD PALMERSTON. 697

that having ron the gauntlet of my friends in Lancashire,
who had kindly pressed the matter on me, and having
resolved to act in opposition to their views, which nothing
but the strongest convictions of the propriety of my course
could have induced me to do, my mind was irrevocably made
up. And so I rose to depart, expressing the hope that our
personal and political relations might be in future the same
as if I were in his Government.

“ As I left the room he said, ‘Lady Palmerston receives
to-morrow evening at ten?’ To which I instantly replied,
‘I shall be happy to be allowed to present myself to her.’
‘IT shall be very glad if you will,’ was his answer, and so we
parted.

“The next evening I was at Cambridge House for the first
time, and found myself among a crowd of fashionables and
politicians, and was the lion of the party. The women came
and stared with their glasses at me, and then brought their
friends to stare also. As I came away, Jacob Omnium and
I were squeezed into a corner together, and he remarked,
‘You are the greatest political monster that ever was seen
in this house. There never was before seen such a curiosity
as a man who refused a Cabinet office from Lord Palmerston,
and then came to visit him here. Why, there are not half-a-
dozen men in all that crowd that would not jump at the
offer, and believe themselves quite as fit as you to be Presi-
dent of the Board of Trade.’

“JT never had before so much annoyance to my feelings
as in this matter. To be pressed by nearly all my friends
to take a course which I felt from the first moment to be
impossible, was a most painful ordeal to go through. I don’t
remember any political occurrence which ever before made
me ill. This has really upset my physical health. How-
ever, I hope my friends will on reflection do me justice, and
believe that I acted conscientiously. Oertainly all the

1859.
451, 55.

 
1859.
AXt. 55.

 

698 LIFE OF GOBDEN. [orrar.

ordinary motives of human nature would have led me to
come to quite another conclusion.”

This conclusion caused deep chagrin to many, perhaps to
most, of those with whom he had been most closely asso-
ciated. His friends in the north were excited and elated by
the circumstance that one of their own number, a middle-
class manufacturer, had at length penetrated the sacred
enclosure of the oligarchy. In France all the best men
were infinitely delighted by the honour that had been paid
to one to whom they were accustomed to look up as the
champion of progress and political morality. They dreamed
that his presence in the Cabinet would be a guarantee for
conciliatory ideas in the Government. They were greatly
disappointed at the issue. M. Chevalier accepted Cobden’s
reasons ; but he protested against any absolute and sys-
tematic resolution on Cobden’s part never to take office.
“When a man has mixed himself up in public affairs,” he
said, “with so much superiority and success as you have had,

* then the public has a certain claim upon him, and the exer-

cise of this claim is the demand that he shall take part in
the government of the country.”

There was one eminent man, however, who earnestly
approved of the step that had been taken, Mr. Bright de-
clared that he had never been more clear of anything than
that Cobden looked at the matter in a true light; and he
thought that a few months would prove this to be so. We
now know that Mr. Bright’s sagacity was not at fault.
Almost from the first the new Cabinet espoused the policy
of suspicion and alarm, and within the few months of which
Mr. Bright had spoken, we shall find Cobden writing to
Lord Palmerston and Lord John, with a vehemence of pro-
test and conviction which he could under no circumstances
have controlled, and which would have made his position in
the Government desperate. It is true that to one powerful
xxv } REFUSAL OF OFFIOR. 699

member of that Cabinet its military policy, now and after, 1859

was as abhorrent as it was to Cobden himself; who wrestled ir. 55.
with his conscience by day and by night as to the morality of
his position; and who only escaped from his own repro-
bation by the hope that in a balance of evils he had chosen
the course which led to the less of them. If Cobden had
been sitting by Mr. Gladstone’s side at the council table
during the first half of 1860, would they together have been
able to resist Lord Palmerston and Lord John Russell, sup-
ported by the body of the Cabinet, and encouraged by the
excited suspicions of the great bulk of the nation? To put
the question is to answer it. Lord Palmerston was quite
strong enough at that moment to do without Cobden, and
even without Mr. Gladstone, if Mr. Gladstone, yielding to a
moral pressure which, as we shall see, Cobden unsparingly
applied to him when the time came, had refused to remain
an accessory, and had left the Government. If Cobden had
taken office at. Midsummer, he would certainly have been out
of it by Christmas.

Beneath solid considerations of this kind, there was pro-
bably an unspoken sense of a loss of personal dignity and self-
respect that would follow official subordination to a Minister
of whom he had thought and spoken so ill as he had thought
and spoken of Lord Palmerston. When Macaulay supposed
in the crisis of 1845 that there was a chance of his being
invited to take office under Sir Robert Peel, he said: “ After
the language which I have held respecting Peel, and which
I am less than ever disposed to retract, I feel that I cannot
without a loss of personal dignity, and without exposing
myself to suspicions and insinuations that would be insup-
portable to me, hold any situation under him.”! There
is always sure to be too little rather than too much of this
honourable sensibility in public life. Cobden was perfectly

1 Trevelyan’s Life, ii. 168,
1859.
Et. 55.

 

7OO LIFE OF OOBDEN. (on. xxvrrr.)

justified in disclaiming all personal feeling about Lord
Palmerston, but his repugnance to the sentiments, traditions,
and methods of which Palmerston was the representative,
was the deepest part of his nature, and it was ineradi-
cable. The instinct was surely sound which told him that
something would be lost to the integrity of his political
character and conscience, if he allowed the seeming expe-
diency of the hour to tempt him into an alliance with a
system that he had always denounced, and with men who had
all their lives been committed to it heart and soul. Other
people would in the long ran have felt the same thing about
him. The moral influence of character is the most delicate
of all forces. It is affected by subtle and almost impercep-
tible agencies, of which logic is far too rough an instrument
to take any account. The idea which men had, and still
have, of Cobden’s simplicity, independence, and conviction,
would inevitably have been tarnished if he had accepted a
post under one, to whom the beliefs and the language of a
lifetime made him the typical antagonist.

This was what was in Cobden’s mind when he said, “I
have a horror of losing my individuality, which is to me as
existence itself.” His position in the League had shown
that nobody was less open than he to the charge of inability
to act with others,—that fatal sign of mediocre capacity.
But a more fatal sign of a worse moral mediocrity is the
ability to act with the first comer. Cobden was of all men
the most staunch and most flexible member of an alliance,
but he was scrupulously careful in choosing who his allies
should be. He was right in thinking that he should not
find one after his own heart either in Lord Palmerston, or
among many of the colleagues with whom Palmerston was
likely to provide him.
CHAPTER XXTX

THE FRENCH TREATY.

In the summer of 1859 M. Michel Chevalier paid a visit to 1859.
England, which led to one of the most important chapters Bir, 55.
in the life of Cobden, as well as to a very important episode
in the relations between England and France. To M.
Chevalier, Free Trade was an article of religious conviction.
In his early manhood he had been one of that truly remark-
able band of men who between 1830 and 1840 devoted
themselves to the principles of Saint Simon, to propa-
gating them in every country from the Seine to the Nile,
and to carrying them out in their own lives and persons
with the fervid enthusiasm of the first followers of Saint
Francis. It was they who first succeeded in setting indus-
trial questions before political ones in French opinion ; and
though their organization split upon the rock of certain
theocratic fantasies, the wide social views connected with
it remained deeply stamped on their minds. They made a
definite impression in France, and prepared the way for
the events of 1848. So early as 1832 M. Chevalier had
shown the bias of his views by a paper on the Mediterranean
system, proposing the construction of railways throughout
Europe on a scale which then seemed chimerical enough.
In this he dwelt upon the facilities that would be offered
for travelling from one country to another, and how these
facilities “would speedily break down the barriers of
1859.
&iir, 55.

 

7O2 LIFE OF OOBDEN. {omar

ancient prejudice, remove hereditary animosities, and
firmly cement nation to nation in a lasting peace.”' The
Suez Canal was another favourite idea with these far-seeing
men; for one of the most striking things about them was
that they united to their mystic enthusiasm, as their lives
afterwards proved, practical faculties of the highest and
most valuable kind. Free exchange exactly fitted in with
their notions of promoting international union by in-
creasing the pacific intercourse of nations.

In the session of 1859 Mr. Bright in a speech in the
House of Commons incidentally asked why, instead of
lavishing the national substance in armaments, they did
not go to the French Emperor and attempt to persuade
him to allow his people to trade freely with ours.’ M.
Chevalier, after reading this speech, was inspired by the
idea of a Commercial Treaty between England and France,
and he wrote to Cobden in this sense. Coming to England
shortly afterwards, he found that Cobden had arranged, for
family reasons, to pass a portion of the winter in Paris.
He immediately saw an opening, and urged Cobden to
seize the opportunity for converting the Emperor, as fifteen
years earlier he had so powerfully aided in converting the
English public, to the policy of Free Trade, and to as near
an execution of that; policy as the circumstances of a country
still in the stage of prohibition could permit.

These ideas made so strong an impression on Cobden
that he grew eager to discuss them with the only statesman
in the high official world with whom he felt conscious of
deep moral and political sympathy. What made the idea

1 See Mr. A. J. Booth’s Saint Simon and Saint Simonism (Longman,
1876), p. 169—an excellent account of an extraordinary movement,

2 The idea was in the air. In s conversation with Lord John Eussell,
Count Persigny expressed a wish, as an earnest of the sincerity of the
Emperor’s desire for peace, for a Commercial Treaty between Great Britain
and Franos, by which France might be enabled to lower her protective
duties.— Martin's Life of the Prince Oonsort, tv. 470.
xx.) WITH MR. GLADSTONE AT HAWAEDEN. 703

of a Treaty possible, moreover, was that in the following
year terminable annuities to the amount cf upwards of two
millions would fall in, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer
would have that amount of taxation to deal with. If the
Minister could be induced to entertain the idea of a Treaty,
he would by means of such a surplus be able to make that
reduction in the duties on French articles which the French
would regard, and insist upon, as a price for a transforma-
tion of their own prohibitive system. In the early part of
September, Cobden paid a visit to Hawarden, and there
he opened his mind to Mr. Gladstone. They were both of
them thoroughly alive to the objections to which on strictly
economic grounds treaties of commerce must always be open.
They both felt it to be perfectly true, if economic rules were
never under any circumstances to be contravened, that, as
Mr. Bright had already said, it was our business to look to
our own tariffs, and to release French products from the
duties that prevented our trading with France; and this
without any stipulation as to what France should do in
return. But then they felt that the occasion was one which
could not be judged in this simple way. An economic
principle by itself, as all sensible men have now learnt, can
never be decisive of anything in the mixed and complex
sphere of practice. Neither Cobden nor Mr. Gladstone
could resist the force of M. Chevalier’s emphatic assurance,
that in no other way could the French tariff be altered in
the direction of Free Trade than through a diplomatic act,
that is to say, a commercial treaty with England. The
Emperor, moreover, in spite of his absolutist system, was
practically powerless to reduce his duties, unless the English
Government gave him the help of a corresponding move-
ment on their side.

Mr. Gladstone discerned both the opportunity which such
a movement would afford for continuing the great work of

1859.
Ait. 56.

 
704 LIFE OF OOBDEN. (omar.

tariff reform, and the strong influence that a commercial

. treaty would have upon the violent and dangerous perturba-

tions in the political sentiment of the two nations towards
one another. His powerful imagination was kindled, and
he had the first dawn of that fine vision which he revealed
to the public in the famous budget speech of the following
February. He was, in fact, continuing the work which Sir
Robert Peel had begun in 1842, along the very iines which
Peel had then expressly laid down. In the case of wine and
brandy, Sir Robert Peel had said that he did not reduce the
duty, because he hoped that they might employ these duties
“as instruments of negotiation, with a view of effecting a
reduction in the duties imposed by other countries on the
produce of our own country.” “TI am not disposed,” Peel
said, “to carry too far that principle of withholding from
ourselves the benefits of reduction of duties in order to force
other nations to act in a reciprocal manner, and in many
cases we weakened the effect of instruments we held in our
own hands by reducing the duty of articles relative to which
negotiations might have been entered into, Our general
rule was that in cases where the articles were elements of
manufacture, or where there was risk from smuggling, we
took to ourselves the advantage likely to arise from a
reduction of duty on these articles; but in others, wine for
example, we made no reduction of duty, and intend to make
no reduction of duty, in the hope that we shall induce other
countries to give to us an equivalent advantage.”* The
discussion therefore between Mr. Gladstone and Cobden at
Hawarden in 1859 turned upon the means of realizing the
hope then expressed by Sir Robert Peel in 1843, and
expressed by him not casually, but as an element in a
deliberate policy.

Cobden’s first suggestion had been that as he was

® Feb. 17, 1848.
carr] RETURN TO LONDON. 705

about to spend a part of the winter in Paris, he might 1858,
perhaps be of use to Mr. Gladstone in the way of inquiry. a, 55,
Conversation expanded this modest proposal into something
more definite and more energetic. It was thought that, if
he had the tacit and informal authority of the British
Government, he might put himself into communication with
the Emperor and his Ministers, might bring to bear upon
them his well-tried powers of persuasion and conversion,
and might work out with them the scheme of a treaty which
would give an occasion for a great fiscal reform in both
countries, and in both countries would produce a solid and
sterling pacification of feelings.

This was the plan with which Cobden quitted Hawarden.
He was not confident of success, for he knew that he would
have to deal with governments, and he had little faith in
either the courage or the disinterestedness of governments.
When he started on the expedition, he had written in
no sanguine vein to Mr. Bright :—“‘ Governments seem as
a rule to be standing conspiracies to rob and bamboozle
people, and why should that of Louis Napoleon be an excep-
tion? The more I see of the rulers of the world,”’ he added,
in amplification of a famous saying, “the less of wisdom or
greatness do I find necessary for the government of man-
kind.”

When he reached London he found that the Ministers had
been summoned for a Cabinet Council. He called upon
Lord Palmerston and Lord John Russell, and discussed
M. Chevalier’s notions with them. “It is not easy,” he
wrote to Mr. Bright, “to interest men whose foreign policy
has been running in such different grooves, in questions of
political economy and tariffs. But I spoke frankly to both
of them as to the state of our relations with France, and
disparaged the valne of an alliance in China, or any other
pretended entente cordiale, whilst we were keeping up

ZZ
706 LIFE OF OOBDEN. cHaP.

1859. twenty-six millions of armaments, principally as a defence
Ar, 65, against France.”

“From what I hear,” he continued, “ the Cabinet is con-
cerned with the mighty question whether France is to take a
bit of territory from Morocco. We are, I suppose, to protest
from Gibraltar against anything so shocking to us as picking
and stealing our neighbour’s territory going on within view
of that reputable possession of ours. We have taken a whole
empire from a Mahometan sovereign in Asia, and we are
horrified at France taking a province in the same latitude
from a Mahometan sovereign in Africa. For my part, if
France took the whole of Africa, I do not see what harm
she would do us or anybody else save herself.’’*

It will one day seem incredible that two keen and
patriotic statesmen of the eminence which Lord Palmerston
and Lord John Russell held in the public esteem, should at
this stage of our history have so misconceived the relative
importance of things, as to think the very remotest doings of
any foreign government a matter of real and primary import-
ance, and an extension of our trade, however vast it might
promise to be, a matter so purely secondary as hardly to be
worth an hour’s serious attention. Ata Lord Mayor’s dinner,
or at a meeting at Manchester, each of them often uttered
the stereotyped sentences about commercial prosperity being
the basis of British greatness. But ueither of them had
what religious writers call a living sense of the extent to
which such words were true. They were really thinking
all the time of strong despatches and spirited representa-

4 The source of the uneasiness in Downing Street was the dispute between
Spain and Morocco, as to the boundaries of the Spanish territory round
Ceuta. “It is plain,’ Lord Palmerston wrote to Lord John Russell, “ that
France aims through Spain at getting fortified points on each side of the
Gut of Gibraltar”—with the ultimate view of “shutting us outof the Medi-
terranean” (Ashley’s Life, ii. 874). The inference as to the designs of
France is » masterpiece of the perverse ingenuity of the Palmerstonian
policy of alarm,
xxrx.] ABBIVAL IN PABIS. 704

tions. The commercial and industrial movements of our
own country, and the relations of government to them, were
treated as objects for men of the third or fourth order in
the political system. What is curious is, that while
devoting such passionate attention to foreign affairs, no
men ever seem to take so little pains as ministers of this
stamp to keep themselves abundantly and accurately
informed of what really goes on in foreign countries, what
forces are at work under the trite words of diplomatic
agents, what amount of substance throws those shadows
about which they write and speak so many busy sentences.

Although, however, he received no cheerful encourage-
ment from either the Prime Minister or the Foreign
Secretary, Cobden was not forbidden to proceed on the
mission that he had volunteered. On October 18, he arrived
in Paris, and on the 23rd he went to see Lord Cowley at
Chantilly. They had a long conversation, in the course of
which the English Ambassador gave the Emperor a high
character for straightforwardness, and a strict adherence to
his word in all his engagements with Lord Cowley himself.
Two days later Cobden, M. Chevalier, and M. Rouher dined
together. The Minister had keen very uneasy lest the fact
of his interview with Cobden should get abroad, and I have
heard that the dinner was planned with as much secrecy
and discretion as if they had been three housebreakers
under the surveillance of the police.

M. Rouher, who was then Minister of Commerce, pro-
fessed strong Free-trade views, and was thoroughly won
round by Cobden’s exposition of the well-known list of
Protectionist subterfuges. He made no secret that it was
the Emperor only who on every question gave the initiative
to his Minister. If he could be induced to reform his
customs duties, M. Rouher would be a very willing instru-
ment in promoting his plans. The next step, and the

1859.
Air, 56.

 
1859.
Air. 55.

708 LIFB OF OOBDEN. (omar,

greatest, was to convince the Emperor. The Minister
undertook to procure an invitation, and two days later
(October 27) Cobden went to St. Cloud to have his first
audience, It was not the first time that they had seen one
another. Cobden had met Louis Napoleon at breakfast at
Mr. Monckton Milnes’s three days after the escape from
Ham in 1846. He had then set the Prince down for a very
mediocre person indeed. He did his best to remember that
he was now talking to quite a different personage, but was
not sure that he always succeeded. Cobden kept a full
journal of the events of the negotiation, and the following
is his account of the first interview with the convert who
was of paramount importance :— ;

“ After a few remarks upon the subject of the improve-
ments in Paris, and in the Bois de Boulogne, and after
he had expressed his regret at my not having entered the
Ministry of Lord Palmerston, the Emperor alluded to the
state of feeling in England, and expressed his regret that
notwithstanding he had for ten years given. every possible
proof of his desire to preserve the friendship of the British
people, the press had at last defeated his purpose, and now
the relations of the two countries seemed to be worse than .

_ ever. He appealed to me if he had ever done one act to

justify the manner in which he was assailed by our press?
I candidly told him that I thought the Governments of both
countries were to blame. He asked what he could do
more than he had already done to promote the friendly
relations of the two countries.’ This led to the question of

5 In the letter which he wrote on the occasion to Lord Palmerston (Oct.
29, 1859) Cobden gave a rather fuller account of this preliminary part of
the conversation:—“The Emperor began the conversation after a few
introductory remarks, by complaining of the English Press. I told him
that I had myself been accused of every crime almost by the Press (in-
cluding an attempt at murder), and that I had learnt to laugh at it. He
continued this topic by asking me to point out a single act during the ten
years he had been in power, which had not been dictated by a desire to
xx11) INTERVIEW WITH THE EMPEROR, © 709

Free Trade, and I urged many arguments in favour of
removing those obstacles which prevented the two coun-
tries from being brought into closer dependence on one
another. He expressed himself as friendly to this policy,
but alluded to the great difficulties in his way; said he had
made an effort by admitting iron in bond for ship-building,
which he was obliged to alter again, and spoke of the sliding
scale on corn which had been re-imposed after it had ex-
pired. I spoke of the opportuneness of the present moment
for making a simultaneous change in the English and French
tariffs, as there was a prospect of a surplus of revenue next
year, owing to the expiry of our terminable annuities, and
that Mr. Gladstone was very desirous to make this surplus
available for reducing duties on French commodities. Louis
Napoleon said he had a majority of his Chambers quite
opposed to Free Trade, and that they would not pass a

stand well with England, and to keep the two countries in a state of
barmony and friendship ; but the Press had completely defeated his object.

After reminding him that I had blamed, ‘both in Parliament and in public
meetings, the attacks made in England on the Government of France, I said
that he should bear in mind that his name, which had such a charm in the
cottages of France, had still a sound which carried a traditional alarm into
our houses, and that this feeling was worked upon by those who for their
own ends persuaded the people that he intended to repeat the career of his
uncle. With some excuses, I ventured to add that the way in which he had
entered on the war in Italy, without a previous emposé des motifs, had given
great force to their persuasion. He interrupted me by saying that he had
explained his reasons. I told him that what I meant was that he had not
appealed to the world with a manifesto of his grievances and objects, and
that if he had done so, from what I knew of the opinion in England and
America, where the Austrian Government had hardly a friend, the feeling
would have been se universally in his favour that a war would not have
been necessary. But the suddenness and secrecy with which this great war
was entered upon alarmed people lest the same thing should be repeated.

After some further conversation about the state of feeling, which I admitted
was very bad, if not perilous, in England, and which he said was brought to
such 4 state in France that he seemed to be almost the only man friendly to
England left, I expressed an opinion, very frankly, that the Governments of
both countries, professing as they did to be friendly, would be responsible,
if not blamable, were nothing done to try to pat an end to this state of

things.”

1859.

Att. 55.
1859.
&ir. 55.

 

710 LIFE OF COBDEN, [orar.

decided measure; that by the constitution he could alter
the tariff by a decree, if it were part of a treaty with a
foreign power; and he asked me whether England would
enter into a commercial treaty with him. I explained that
we could give no exclusive privileges to any nation; that
we could simultaneously make reductions in our tariffs; and
the alterations might be inserted in a treaty, but that our
tariff must be equally applicable to all countries. He said
he was under a pledge not to abolish the prohibitive system
in France and substitute moderate duties, previous to 1861.
I told him that I saw no obstacle in this to a treaty being
entered into next spring, for that the moral effect would be
the same even if the full operation of the new duties did not
come into play for two or three years. He asked me to let
him know what reductions could be made in our tariff upon
articles affecting his country, which I promised to do. He
then inquired what I should advise him to do in regard to
the French tariff. I said I should attack one article of great
and universal necessity, as I had done in England, when I
confined all my efforts to the abolition of the corn-laws,
knowing that when that clef-de-voiite was removed, the
whole system would fall. In France, the great primary
want was cheap iron, which is the daily bread of all indus-
tries, and I should begin by abolishing the duty on iron
and coal, and then I should be in a better position for
approaching all the other industries ; that I would, if neces-
sary, pay an indemnity in some shape to the iron-masters,
and thus be enabled to abolish their protection immediately
—a course which I should not contemplate following with
any other commodity but iror and coal. He spoke of the
danger of throwing men out of work, and I tried by 8
variety of arguments to convince ‘him, especially by a refer-
ence to the example of England, that the effect of a reduction
ef duties is to increase, not diminish, the demand for labour.
xxrx.] INTERVIEW WITH THE EMPEROR. 7X1

I showed that in England we had much machinery standing
idle in consequence of the want of workmen at the present
time ; and in order to allay his fears of an inundation of
British products, to throw his own people out of work, I
explained that there was not an ounce of our productions
which was not already bespoken, and that it would take a
long time to increase largely our investment of capital,
whilst it was impossible to procure any considerable addition
to our labourers. On my giving him a description of the
reforms effected by Sir Robert Peel, and the great reverence
in which his name is held, he said, ‘I am charmed and
flattered at the idea of performing a similar work im my
country; but,’ he added, ‘it is very difficult in France
to make reforms; we make revolutions in France, not
reforms.’

“The Emperor is short in stature and very undignified ;
I never saw a person with fewer heroic traits in his appear-
ance and manner. But there is nothing harsh or even cold
in the expression of his countenance. His eye is not plea-
sant at first, but it warms and moistens with conversation,
and gives you the impression that he is capable of generous
emotions.

“The approach to the Palace of Saint Cloud was thronged
with military, both horse and foot. I entered the building,
and passed through an avenue of liveried lacqueys in the
hall, from which I ascended the grand staircase, guarded
at the top by sentries, and I passed through a series of
apartments hung with gorgeous tapestry, each room being
in charge of servants higher in rank as they come nearer to
the person of the Sovereign. As I surveyed this gorgeous
spectacle, I found my thoughts busy with the recollection
of a very different scene which I had looked upon a few
months before at Washington, when I was the guest of the
President of the United States, a plain man in a black suit,

1859.
ir. 55.

 
1859,

 

Air. 55.

712 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [onar.

living in comparative simplicity, without a sentry at his
door or a livery servant in his house.”

In writing of this important interview to Mr. Bright,
Cobden says (Nov. 17, 1859) :—

“J had a full hour’s private talk at St. Cloud with Lonis
Napoleon. He knew I had taken the unpopular line in
opposing the invasion cry. He is not unmindful of such
acts of fairness, and I felt: myself not only tolerated but
encouraged to talk, with just as much frankness as I could
to you or any other equal. In reply to his strong com-
plaints against the English press, I told him that the course
he had taken in beginning the Italian war suddenly, and
without publishing a manifesto of his grievances to the
world, had alarmed the public mind of Europe; that not
only England but Germany was arming to the teeth; and
that this was all in reference to himself, and from the fear
that he contemplated repeating the career of his uncle. I
told him that there was but one way of removing this im-
pression, and that was by a bold measure of commercial
reform ; that there was only a choice between the policy of
Napoleon I. and the policy of Sir Robert Peel. On this
point, I used every argument, to make it appear that it was
his interest to begin the work at once; quoted the complete
success of our experiment ; and pointed to the fame of Sir
Robert Peel, and the veneration in which his memory was
held, as stimulants for his honourable ambition. I found his
sympathies strongly with us, but he is ignorant of practical
details, and he has consequently a great dread of the pro-
tectionists. You may be sure I spared no pains to take the
latter gentry down in his estimation. I never had a better
private pupil. He isa good listener, and put some very perti-
nent questions. The most remarkable fact respecting this
man is, that, whilst the press and the popular sentiment attri-
bute to him the most tortuous and deceptive policy, all who
xx1x.] INTERVIEW WITH THE EMPEROR. 713

have business with him, without exception, give him the cha-
racter of straightforwardness and fairness. This is the testi-
mony of Malmesbury, Lord John, and Lord Palmerston, and of
Lord Cowley to a very high degree indeed. Then, turning to
Kossuth, who had the cup dashed suddenly from his lips,
by the almost unaccountable turn in the affairs of the war
at Villafranca, he distinctly told me that Louis Napoleon
did not in the slightest degree deceive or betray him. I
travelled from Paris to London last week with Klapka,
who was at the headquarters of the war, and he repeated
the sentiments expressed by Kossuth. Klapka thinks Louis
Napoleon has genuine popular sympathies, and wound up
his remarks on him with the words, ‘ I] n’est pas méchant.’ ”
The Emperor afterwards expressed himself to M. Fould as
highly satisfied with the interview. Cobden, he said, had
given him a little courage. In describing this interview to
Lord Palmerston, Cobden expressed a strong opinion that
the Emperor was more afraid than he need have been, of
the protected interests. “I have no doubt that as you
say,” Lord Palmerston wrote in reply, “the Emperor and
his advisers greatly exaggerate the resisting power of the
protectionist classes. But the want of moral courage in
Frenchmen which you advert to, is confessed even by
Frenchmen themselves, and it is probably one cause of the
frequency of political convulsions in France.” Napoleon
was open to the impressions of political fervour. Cobden
produced upon his mind the same reinspiriting effect which
had followed in relation to his Italian policy from the
memorable interview with Cavour in the previous spring.
M. Fould was the person next to be converted, and
Cobden succeeded in persuading him that instead of the
timid course of replacing a policy of prohibition by a policy
of extensive protection, the Government would do better
boldly to embrace a large reform. The protectionists, he

1859.

 
714 LIFE OF OCOBDEN. [cHar.

1859. very truly said, would offer as much opposition to a timid

 

ir. 55. a8 to a bold scheme, while for a small reform there would
be no vigorous popular sympathy or support. They went
over again the whole question of Free Trade, M. Fould
using many of the old fallacies about being inundated by
British goods, labourers being thrown out of work, and so
forth. “I had,” says Cobden,, “to give him the first
lessons in political economy.”

A day or two afterwards he received from the Emperor
an invitation for himself and his wife to spend four days
at Compiégne. He declined it on the plea of Mrs. Cob-
den’s health. M. Chevalier was very anxious that he should
go, and Cobden wrote to Mr. Bright that he was sorely
tempted to accept the invitation, because it would have
given him a good opportunity of talking to the Emperor
unreservedly, and without the risk of his audiences being
reported. It was the Emperor’s custom to walk about
with his guests, and chat with them over his interminable
cigarettes. ‘If I had been sure,” Cobden says, “ of convert-
ing my pupil into a practical Free-trader, I would have gone.
But if I failed, the fact of my having taken part in those
gay festivities would have furnished a ready taunt of my
having been bought and seduced, if I had ever said a word
against a French invasion afterwards. So it is better as it is.” *

Ten days were passed in discussions with M. Fould, and
conversations with M. Chevalier. There were many vacil-
lations, and each day brought its new rumour, for hope
or discouragement. Cobden’s record of some of his inter-
views with the Minister is worth reproducing, because they
show the mind of the French Government in listening to
his arguments, and they show also how entirely the French
Ministers depended on him for inspiration and guidance in
their new policy.

§ To J. Bright, Nov. 20, 1859.
xurx.} HR FRENOH MINISTER. 715

Nov. 2.—“M. Fould called ; he seemed preoccupied with 1859.
the uneasy and hostile state of feeling in England against tr. 65.
France. He regretted that there was no way in which a
statesman in France could make a public statement in reply
to the speeches delivered at the late Conservative banquet at
Liverpool; said something must be done to allay the uneasi-
ness in the financial and commercial world; and at all
events, was glad that the French and English Governments
had come to an understanding respecting the joint expedi-
tion against China.’ The officers sent to England to arrange
.this combination of forces had, he said, completed their plans
satisfactorily in conjunction with the British authorities.
This warlike alliance has been strenuously sought for lately
by the French Government under the impression, as I believe,
that it would tend to promote a more amicable state of feel-
ing between the two countries. I told him I had great
doubts whether this expectation would be realized; that
the war against China would not be popular in England ; and
the motives of each party in going into the alliance would
be certain to be misinterpreted by the other. ‘Yes,’ he
replied, ‘I suppose it will be said to be a snare on our
part.’ He then repeated the words, ‘Something must be
done,’ and he recurred at last, apparently with no great
relish, to the subject of a Commercial Treaty with England.

“He saw great difficulties in the way. How, when, and
where could a negotiation be carried on, and with whom ?
He was afraid that if a meeting between himself, the
Minister of Commerce, M. Rouher, and myself, were to take
place, it could not be kept a secret; that at present they

7 By the Treaty of 1858 the European signatories had the right of
sending ambassadors to Pekin. In June, 1859, the English fleet conveying
the envoy was resisted at the mouth of the Pei-Ho. Without giving the
Chinese an opportunity of making reparation, the English and French
Government proceeded to organize a joint expedition. It was in the course
of this (Oct. 6, 1860) that the European troops committed the infamy of
pillaging and burning the Summer Palace.
1859.
Att. 56.

 

716 LIFR OF GOBDEN. {onar.

had concealed even from M. Walewski, the Foreign Minister,
the fact of any conversation having taken place between the
Emperor, and themselves, and me. I spoke of Prince
Napoleon, whom M. Fould described as quite a sincere
opponent of Protection, but he added that he was very apt
to talk too freely, and that we must be careful how we took
him into our counsels. I told him that, as regarded the
negotiations, I was prepared to go into the preliminary dis-
cussion of the changes which should be made in the tariffs
of the two countries; that I could in a short interview or
two with him and M. Rouher, give them a general idea as
to what I thought ought to be done by both parties, and
that if necessary I thought I could obtain Lord Palmerston’s
authority for acting in the matter. He had no objection to
make to this. He said he was to dine with the Emperor
to-morrow ; and all I could gather was that he seemed to be
in a very timid and undecided state of mind.

“ Before parting, I alluded to the state of uneasiness, not
only in Englana but on the Continent, and reminded him of
the great increase of warlike preparation which had been
going on; and I expressed an opinion that a Bonaparte being
on the throne of France, who had last spring invaded Italy
and fought great battles, was the cause of the present feeling
of mistrust, and that to this fact alone was to be attributed
an augmentation of the expenditure for defensive armaments
in Europe at this moment to the amount of twenty millions
sterling per annum. He said that nothing was farther from
the Emperor’s thoughts than to pursue a warlike policy. I
remarked, as he was leaving the room, that, so far as I was
acquainted with the state of public opinion in England,
nothing would so instantaneously convince the people there
of the Emperor’s pacific intentions, as his entering boldly
upon a policy of commercial reform, by which he would
enable those, who, like myself, took the unpopular side iv
wxrx,] THE MINISTERS AT HOME. 917

opposing the current of prejudice and hatred which was 1859.
running against him in England, to turn the tables on his Air. 65.
accusers and detractors. Afterwards I called on Lord Cowley,
and explained what had passed. He was going to dine
to-day with M. Fould. The droll part of these interviews,
besides the timidity of the people, is that here is a govern-
ment having so little faith or confidence in one another, that
some of its members tie me down, a perfect stranger, to
secrecy as against their most elevated colleagues ! ”

The next day Cobden started for London, where he
remained for a week, partly engaged in some private business
connected with the Illinois Railway. He saw Mr. Gladstone,
who entered as heartily as before into the matter. “ Glad-
stone,” he said in a letter to his trusted friend at Rochdale,
“is really almost the only Cabinet Minister of five years’
standing who is not afraid to let his heart guide his head a
little at times.” He tried to see the Foreign Secretary, but
failed. “I doubt,” he says, “whether Lord John is not
just now attaching more value to the spirited turn of a
phrase about Morocco, than to my efforts to lay down a
commercial cable that shall bind these two great countries
together.” He called on Lord Palmerston, and had a con-
versation on the state of public feeling in France and
England. Lord Palmerston admitted that the Government
of this country had no complaint against the Emperor, and no
reason to be dissatisfied with his conduct, and that there was
no unsettled question or ground of quarrel between the two
countries. But one man had told him of a French order for
ten thousand tons of iron plating for ships of war, and another
man had told him of a large order for rifled cannons, and a
third had talked of some flat-bottomed boats at Nantes. All
these tendencies to increase his means of aggression in case
of a desire to attack England, made it necessary, said Lord
Palmerston, to increase our means of defence. Would it not
1859,
Atir. 55.

 

718 LIFE OF OOBDEN. (omar.

be wiser—this is Cobden’s reflection on Lord Palmerston’s
plea,—“to act as private individuals would do in such a
case, namely, ask an explanation of the meaning of such
apparently unfriendly proceedings, and offer frankly to ex-
plain any acts in return, which might have a hostile com-
plexion. But governments are opposed to a simplification of
their proceedings, or to bringing them under those rules of
common sense which control the acts of every-day individual
life.”

On his way back to France, M. de Persigny, the French
ambassador, came over from Hastings to Newhaven to dis-
cuss with him the prospects of commercial reform in France.
Cobden thought highly of Persigny, spoke of him as “an
honest and warm-hearted” creature, and recognized, as
some of the bitterest enemies of the group who helped
Louis Napoleon to the throne have always recognized, that
Persigny’s devotion to the Emperor would have stood the
test of adverse fortune. However this may be, there can
be no doubt of the French ambassador’s zeal and sincerity
on behalf of the new cause.

On the 17th of November, Cobden returned to Paris,
so ill that he at once took to his bed, and was confined
to his room for some days. (Ilness, however, did not
quench his zeal, and he carried on the endless argument
with the Ministers in his bedroom. It is not necessary
to recount the course of negotiations from day to day,
nor the busy and laborious discussions with M. Fould and
M. Rouher. On December 9th, M. Chevalier informed
Cobden that M. Rouher had prepared his plan for a
commercial treaty, which would be submitted for the
Emperor’s approval on the next day. “There is but
one man in the Government,” M. Rouher had said, “the
Emperor, and but one will, that of the Emperor.” The
will of this one man still remained uncertain. Lord
xx1x.] THE BMPHROR’S HESITATION. 719

Cowley who had been staying at Compiégne three weeks 1859.

 

before, said the Emperor was strong for a commercial Air. 55.
treaty with England, but since then his language had
changed. He had once more found out how many diffi-
culties were to be overcome. It had become, as he told
Lord Cowley, “une grosse affaire”’ The Emperor had
been pressing M. Fould as to the precise advantage that
France would gain in imitating the policy of England.
England, said the Emperor, was so dependent on her foreign
trade, that she was constantly in a state of alarm at the
prospect of war. France, on the other hand, could find
herself involved in war with comparatively little inconve-
nience. “This remark,” says Cobden, to whom it was
reported, “struck me as disclosing a secret instinct for a
policy of war and isolation.”

“Lord Cowley,” he says in another place, “ who knows
the Emperor so well, smiled at the idea which so generally
prevails of his being always actuated by some clever
Machiavellian scheme, when he is often only committing in-
discretions from too much simplicity, and want of states-
manlike forethought. ~He repeated the opinion which he
had expressed before, that ‘it is not in him’ to have any
great plan for a political combination, extending into the
future, and embracing all Europe.”

Better ideas prevailed at last. M. de Persigny had
come over from London, to tell his master how hostile and
dangerous was the state of opinion in England. For the
first time in his experience, he said, he believed war to be
possible, unless the Emperor took some step to remove the
profound mistrust that agitated the English public. The
security of the throne, he went on to urge, depended on the
English alliance being a reality. So long as there was a
solid friendship between England and France, they need not
care what might be in the mind of Russia, Austria, or
 

720 LIFE OF COBDEN. (ots.

Prussia, This was the course of reasoning which, in Cobden’s
opinion, finally decided the Emperor. In other words,
Napoleon assented to the Treaty, less because it was good for
the French than because it would pacify the English. It
was the only available instrument for keeping the English
alliance.

M. Rouher presented his plan of a commercial treaty,
together with sixty pages of illustrative reasoning upon it.
The whole was read to the Emperor ; he listened attentively
through every page, approved it, and declared his intention
of carrying it out. He then produced a letter which he had
prepared, addressed to M. Fould, and intended for publica-
tion, in which he announced his determination to enter
upon a course of pacific improvement, to promote the in-
dustry of the country by cheapening transport, and so forth.

The project was now disclosed to Count Walewski, the
Minister for foreign affairs, and Cobden was invited to have
an interview with him. Once more he went over the
ground along which he had already led Fould, Rouher, and
the Emperor. “TI endeavoured,” says Cobden, “to remove
his doubts and difficulties, and to fortify his courage against
the protectionist party, whose insignificance and powerless-
ness I demonstrated by comparing their small body with
the immense population which was interested in the re-
moval of commercial restrictions.” The discussion with
M. Walewski was followed by a second interview with the
Emperor.

Dec. 21.—“ Had an interview with the Emperor at the
Tuileries. I explained to him that Mr. Gladstone, the
Chancellor of the Exchequer, was anxious to prepare his
Budget for the ensuing session of Parliament, and that it
would be a convenience to him to be informed as soon as
possible whether the French Government was decided to
agree to a commercial treaty, as in that case he would make
xxx.J =SHCOND INTERVIEW WITH THE EMPEROR. 721

arrangements accordingly; that he did not wish to be in 1868.

 

possession of the details, but merely to know whether the ir. 56.
principle of a treaty was determined upon. The Emperor
said he could have no hesitation in satisfying me on that
point ; that he had quite made up his mind to enter into
the Treaty, and that the only question was as to the details.
He spoke of the difficulties he had to overcome, owing to
the powerful interests that were united in defence of the
present system. ‘The protected industries combine, but
the general public do not.’ I urged many arguments to
encourage him to take a bold course, pointing out the very
small number of the protected classes as compared with the
whole community, and contending for the interests of the
greatest number, rather than for those of the minority. He
repeated to me the arguments which had been used by
some of his ministers to dissuade him from a Free-trade
policy, particularly by M. Magne, his Finance Minister, who
had urged that if he merely changed his system from pro-
hibition to high protective duties, it would be a change
only in name, but that if he laid on moderate duties which
admitted a large importation of foreign merchandise, then,
for every piece of manufactured goods so admitted to con-
sumption in France, a piece of domestic manufacture must
be displaced. I pointed out the fallacy of M. Magne’s
argument in the assumption that everybody in France was
sufficiently clothed, and that no increased consumption
could take place. I observed that many millions in France
never wore stockings, and yet stockings were prohibited.
He remarked that he was sorry to say that ten millions of
the population hardly ever tasted bread, but subsisted on
potatoes, chestnuts, &c.—(I conclude this must be an exag-
geration). JI expressed an opinion that the working popu-
lation of his country were in a very inferior condition
as compared with those in England.

BA
422 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [ouar.

1859. “Referring to the details in his intended tariff, he said the
“Hr, 66. daties would range from ten to thirty percent. I pointed out
the excessive rate of the latter figure, that the maximum ought
not to exceed twenty per cent.; that it would defeat his
object in every way if he went as high as thirty per cent. ;
that it would fail as an economical measure, whilst in a
political point of view it would be unsuccessful, inasmuch as
the people of England would regard it as prohibition in an-
other form. He referred me to M. Rouher for farther dis-
cussion of this question. He described to me the letter which
he thought of publishing declaratory of his intention of
entering on a course of internal improvement and commercial
reform, and asked me whether it would not place him at a
disadvantage with the British Government if he announced
his policy beforehand, and whether they might not be in-
clined afterwards to withdraw from the Treaty. I replied that
there might be other objections to his publishing such a
letter, but this was not one, and that I was sure it would not
be taken advantage of by our Government. We then talked
of our immense preparation in naval armaments. I said I
expected that in a few months we should have sixty line-of-
battle ships, screws, in commission. He said he had only
twenty-seven. Talking of the excited state of alarm in
England, he said he was dictating to M. Mocquard a
dialogue between a Frenchman and an Englishman, in
which he should introduce all the arguments used in
England to stimulate the present alarm of French aggres-
sion, and his answers to them, and he asked if I thought
the Times would print it.

“Whilst we were in the midst of this familiar con-
versation, during which he smoked several cigarettes, the
Empress entered the room, to whom I was introduced.
She is a tall and graceful persen, very amiable and
gracious, but her features were not entirely free from
XxIxX.] SECOND INTERVIEW WITH THE EMPEROR. 722

an expression of thoughtfulness, if not melancholy. The
Emperor is said by everybody to be very fascinating to those
who come much in personal contact with him. I found him
more attractive at this second audience than the first. His
manner is very simple and natural. If there be any affec-
tation, it is in aslight air of humility (‘young ambition’s
ladder’), which shows itself with consummate tact in his
voice and gestures.”

Cobden gives some further particulars in a letter to
Mr. Bright (Dec. 29, 1859) :—

“T saw the Emperor again for a full hour last week, as
you would learn from your brother. Of course, I tried to
employ every minute on my own topic, but he was in a
talkative mood, and sometimes ran off on other subjects. It
was at four o’clock; he had been busy all day, and I
was surprised at the gaiety of his manner. He smoked
cigarettes all the time, but talked and listened admirably.
. . . On this occasion my private lesson was chiefly taken
up with answering the arguments with which M. Magne, his
Minister of Finance, who is a furious protectionist, had
been trying to frighten him. Here was one of them,
which he repeated word for word to me: ‘Sire, if you do
not make a sensible reduction in your duties, the measure will
be charged on you as an attempted delusion. If you do make
a serious reduction, then for every piece of foreign manu-
facture admitted into France, you will displace a piece of
domestic fabrication.’ I of course laughed, and held up both
hands, and exclaimed what an old friend that argument
was; how we had been told the same thing a thousand
times of corn; and how we answered it a thousand times
by showing that s fourth part of the people were not pro-
perly fed. And then I showed how we had imported many.
millions of quarters of corn annually since the repeal of our
cern law, whilst our own agriculture was more prosperous

1859.

 

4fir. 56.
 

Aix. 66.

724 LIFE OF OOBDEN. (omar.

and productive than ever, and yet it was all conswmed. I
told him that his people were badly clothed, that nearly a
fourth of his subjects did not wear stockings, and I begged
him to remind M. Magne that if a few thousand dozens of
hose were admitted into France, they might be consumed
by these barelegged people, without interfering with the
demand for the native manufacture. .... We then got
upon the condition of the mass of the working people,
where his sympathy is mainly centred, and on the effect
of machinery, Free Trade, etc., on their fate. He said the
protectionists always argued that the working class en-
gaged in manufactures were better off here than in England,
and they always assumed that Free Trade would lower
the condition of the French operatives. I told him that
the operatives in France were working twenty per cent.
more time for twenty per cent. less wages, and paid up-
wards of ten per cent. more for their clothing, as com-
pared with the same class in England. He seized a pen
and asked me to repeat these figures, which he put down,
observing, ‘ What an answer to those people!’ I told him
that if M. Magne or anybody else disputed my figures, I was
prepared to prove them. ButI need not repeat to you a
course of argument with which we are so familiar.”

After this interview the negotiation reached the stage of
formal diplomacy. Cobden’s position had hitherto been
wholly unofficial. He had been a private person, represent-
ing to the French Emperor that he believed the English
Government would not be indisposed to entertain the
question of a commercial treaty. The matter came officially
before Lord Cowley in the form of a request from Count
Walewski that he would ascertain the views and intentions
of his Government. Lord Cowley applied to Lord John
Russell for official instructions .to act, and in the course of
the next month Cobden received his own instructions and
xx1x.P OOBDAN BERORIVES OFFICIAL POWERS. 725

powers. Meanwhile not a day was lost, and he brought the 1860.
same tact and unwearied energy to the settlement of the At. 56.
details of the Treaty, which he had employed in persuading
this little group of important men to accept its principles and
policy. There was one singular personage, who ought from his
keen faculties, his grasp of the principles of modern progress,
and his position, to have been the most important of all, but
in whom his gifts have been nullified by want of that in-
describable something which men call character and the
spirit of conduct. This was Prince Napoleon. Cobden had
several conversations with him, and came to the conclusion
that few men in France had a more thorough mastery of
economic questions. He thus describes their first inter-
view, which is interesting from the clearness with which it
brings out how secondary or indirect an object the com-
mercial treaty was in itself to the French Government,
compared with its importance in their eyes as a means of
strengthening the alliance between France and England :—
“Jam. 4.—Dined at M. Emile de Girardin’s, and met
Prince Napoleon, the son of Jerome, whose face bears a
strong resemblance to the first Napoleon. After dinner I
conversed apart with him for nearly an hour upon the
subject of the proposed Treaty, to which he was strongly
favourable. He verified the opinion I had heard of him as
being favourable to Free Trade, and he spoke with much
fluency and considerable knowledge on economical questions.
He gives one the impression of great cleverness in a first
interview. In the conrse of our conversation, in speaking of
the relations between France and England, he said that he
knew, from frequent conversations with the Emperor, that
he desired, du fond de son coeur, to be at peace with England,
and that he was led to this feeling by the perusal of the life
of his uncle, whose fall was attributable to the hostility of
England, whose wealth furnished the sinews of war to the
726 LIFB OF OOBDEN. [euar.

1860. whole of Hurope. I went over the whole of the arguments,
r. 66. political and economical, in favour of the Treaty; and he
finally proposed to see the Emperor on the subject to-morrow.
“He informed me that M. Walewski had retired from the
post of Minister of Foreign Affairs." This ied to a long
conversation upon the foreign policy of France. The Prince
said that as there was to be no congress on Italian affairs,
the only way in which they could be arranged was by a
thorough alliance between France, England, and Sardinia,
by whom the Italian territory must be held inviolate against
foreign intervention, and that England must be prepared, in
case Austria should violate this rule, to send a fleet into the
Adriatic to co-operate with France against that Power. I
told him that such an alliance with the present state of
public opinion in England so hostile to, or so fearful of, the
designs of the Emperor, was out of the question; that the
only way to alter this state of doubt and suspicion was a
declaration of views by the French Government favourable
to a greater commercial intercourse between the two
countries; that letters or phrases would have no effect; that
acts alone, as displayed in a reform of the tariff, would in-
spire the English people with confidence in the pacific
intentions of the Emperor. The Prince professed a perfect
agreement, repeating my words that there had been enough
and too many phrases and letters. He said that he feared
the Emperor might not be firm in the affair of the Treaty;
that he would be deterred from his purpose by reports which
M. Billault, the Minister of the Interior, would give him of
the hostile feelings of the protectionists, and their work-
people at Rouen, Lille, etc.; that he had twice abandoned his
purpose, and thrown over M. Rouher, whom he had previously

® Walewski’s retirement was due to his disagreement wit the Emperor
en the subject of an Italian Oonfederation. He was snoceeded by M.
Thonvenai.
xx. THE EMPEROR'S DEVIATIONS. 924

encouraged to proceed with the reform of the tariff; that the 1860.
Emperor, though he persists in arriving at an object which Air. 66.
he has once resolved to attain, yet had a habit of deviating
and stumbling by the way.”

There were frequent interruptions, for, as Lord Palmerston
once said, Napoleon’s mind was as full of schemes as a warren
is full of rabbits. Cobden was alarmed one day, for instance,
by a story that the treaty of commerce was to be thrown
aside in favour of a treaty of alliance for settling the affairs
of Italy. Then the treaty of commerce was not to be thrown
aside, but a political treaty was to be tacked on to it. “‘ It
is possible,’ Cobden wrote to Mr. Gladstone (Jan. 7, 1860),
“that the Emperor may think we attach so much importance
to the Treaty, that he can make it a bribe to make us agree
to something else. Much as I am interested in the success
of the good work, I would not allow such a stipulation to be
made. The Emperor has more necessity for our alliance
than we have for his just now.” When this disquieting
project vanished, the Emperor wished to submit the draft
of the Treaty to the Legislative Body, notwithstanding the
fact that he had himself assured Cobden that the Legislative
Body was irreconcilably hostile to every manner of Free
Trade.

After this there was one more fierce struggle at the
council-table. M. Magne—a cannon-ball protectionist, as
Cobden described him—and M. Troplong, insisted that at any
rate the Emperor was bound by his word of honour to have
an inquiry before he abolished the prohibitive system. The
Emperor yielded, and held a formal inquiry, which was
limited to two days. Meanwhile, to show that he had no
intention of drawing back, he sent to the Moniteur, what
was for nine days a memorable document, the Letter to M.
Fould. This letter was an announcement, in shado
general terms, of the coming change; it had scan
1860.
at. 56.

 

728 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [omar

been submitted by the Emperor to Cobden, and at Cobden’s
suggestion some changes and additions had been made in it.
Yet, though Cobden thus was not only the inspirer of the
Treaty, but actually put words and principles into the
Emperor’s mouth, one of the favourite charges against the
Treaty, when it came before Parliament in England, was that
it was the result of a policy of subservience. With noble
indignation one member of the House of Commons asked
whether the free Parliament of Britain had assembled only to
register the decrees of a foreign despot.

In France the Emperor’s letter excited intense excitement.
An eminent member of the English Parliament happened to
be at the house of M. Thiers on the evening when the news
of the Treaty was brought im, and he has described the
sparkling fury of the great man at the Emperor’s new card.
The protectionists hastened to Paris and appointed a strong
committee to sit en permanence. The feeling was so violent
that the greatest industrial personage in France told Cobden
that his own nephew had refused to shake hands because
he, the uncle, was a free trader. The Orleanists were dis-
gusted that the Emperor should have the credit of doing a
good thing, and Cobden heard one of the party declare,
with much vehemence, at a dinner of the Political Economy
Club, that to establish Free Trade in a country where public
opinion was not ripe for it, was neither more nor less than
gross oppression. Friends and foes, however, amid the
hubbub of criticism, agreed in admiring the Emperor’s
courage. ‘You may form some idea of the position,” Cobden
wrote to Mr. Gladstone, “if you will imagine yourself in
England in 1820, before Mr. Huskisson began his innova-
tions in our tariff, with this serious disadvantage on the side
of the French Government, that while the protectionists have
all the selfishness and timidity which characterized our
‘interests’ at that time, they arrogate to themselves an
xx.) HOSTILB FEELING IN FRANOR. 729

amount of social and political importance which our manu-
facturers never pretended to possess. . . . It would hardly
be possible to assemble five hundred persons together by
any process of selection, and not find nine-tenths of them at
least in favour of the present restrictive system.” Only
thirteen years before, as we have seen, Louis Philippe had
candidly told Cobden that the ironmasters and other pro-
tected interests commanded such an overwhelming majority
in the Chamber, that it was utterly impossible to take a
single step in the direction of Free Trade. Cobden had been
warned from the first that the iron interest had powerful
friends even within the walls of the imperial palace, and he
felt this occult antagonism throughout the negotiation.

The resistance to the Treaty grew stronger every hour. A
hundred and twenty cotton-spinners assembled in the court-
yard of the Minister of the Interior, tumultuously crying for
an immediate interview. M. Thiers was said to be calling for
an audience with the Emperor. The press teemed with ar-
ticles and pamphlets, whose logic and temper betrayed the
high pressure under which they had been composed. In
Manchester, meanwhile, the Emperor’s letter had created an
exultant excitement which had never been equalled since
the day when Sir Robert Peel announced that he was about
to repeal the Corn Laws. The letter had appeared on a
Sunday (January 15th), and at the great market which used
to draw men from every part of that thriving district on
Tuesdays, the French Emperor was everywhere hailed as the
best man in Europe. This intense satisfaction was due less
to a desire for extended trade, than to the confidence that
the Emperor intended peace, and had taken the most
effectual means to make it permanent. The English news-
papers, which every morning for months past had been
accusing the Emperor of every sinister quality in statesman-
ship, now turned round so handsomely that M. Baroche told

1860,

 

ir. 56.
730 LIF @F GORDEN. four,

1860. Cobden he wished they could be forced te moderate their
Air. 66, compliments, as such flattery made the Treaty more unpopular
in France.

A week after the publication of the letter, the Treaty was
ready for execution, and the happy day arrived. The follow-
ing is Cobden’s entry in his journal :—

« Jan. 23.—Went to the Embassy at eight this morning,
to revise for the last time the list of articles in the Treaty.
At two o’clock the plenipotentiaries met at the Foreign
Office, where the Treaty was read over by a clerk in French
and English, after which it was duly signed and sealed.’ It
is wanting four days only of three months since I had my
first interview with the Emperor at St. Cloud. The interval
has been a period of almost incessant nervous irritation and
excitement, owing to the delays and uncertainties which have
constantly arisen. I can now understand not only the
wisdom, but the benevolence, of Talleyrand, when he coun-
selled a young diplomatist not to be in earnest. However,
the work is at last at an end, and I hope it will pave the way
for a change in the relations between these two great neigh-
bours by placing England and France in mutual commercial
dependence on each other.”

Cobden’s health had been so bad since his return to Paris
in the middle of November, that the end of his business
came none too soon. His throat and chest gave him
incessant trouble, and the doctor urged a speedy flight to
the lands of the sun. Lord Palmerston had written to him
that “the climate of Paris is perhaps better than that of
London, but then the French physicians are less in the
habit of curing their patients than ours are.’ From
climate and physicians alike Cobden was eager to escape.
As it happened, the work was not even yet quite at an

* Lord Cowley and Cobden signed on behalf of England, and M. Baroche
--then Acting Minister for Foreign Affairs—and M. Rouher for France.
xarx.] THR TREATY SIGNED. 31

end. Some small verbal loosenesses were discovered in the 1860.

 

Treaty. The negotiators had written English coke and tr. 56.
coal, when they meant British, and harbour, when they

meant shipping. It was re-written, and again signed, the
signatures and seals from the old Treaty having been duly

cut off. This was on January 29.

Surpnse has often been expressed that a man of Cobden’s
strong Liberalism should have been not only so willing to
co-operate with Louis Napoleon, but so unable to enter into
the feelings of Frenchmen towards a government which,
besides being lawless and violent in its origin, persisted in
stifling the press, corrupting the administration, silencing
the popular voice, and from time to time sending great
batches of untried and often innocent men to obscure and
miserable death at Cayenne. A story is told of an English-
man of reputation ¢ this time saying to a group which sur-
rounded him in a Parisian drawing-room :— But surely
under your present Government France is prosperous; and
surely you can do as you please.” ‘Oh, dear, yes,” said a
bystander, “if we wish only to eat, drink, and make money,
we can do exactly as we please.” It was said that Cobden
thought too lightly of all those things, besides eating, drink-
ing, and making money, which the best Frenchman might
wish to do and ought to be esteemed and praised for wish-
ing to do. One or two remarks may be made upon this
interesting point.

In the first place, economists have often been apt to treat
the political side of affairs as secondary to the material side.
Turgot, and the whole school of which he is the greatest
name, systematically assumed that the reforms which they
sought should proceed from an absolute central power. It
was one of the distinctions of the Saint Simonians, to whom
Cobden’s friend Chevalier belonged, that they held strongly
that government is good for something, and that authority ia
1860.
ir. 56.

 

732 LR OF COBDEN. (owas.

#n indispensable principle of modern societies. M. Laffitte,
the admirable chief of another earnest sect of social re-
formers, told an English traveller that he and his friends
approved of the imperial regime. Cobden’s attitude, there-
fore, was in harmony with that of many able and disin-
terested men who had nothing to do with the imperialist
party, but who conscientiously thought that the existing
Government, notwithstanding its heavy drawbacks, was
better than the anarchy of utopists, anarchists, and talkers,
which it had superseded, and that it had at least the merit
of preserving an amount and kind of order in which the
ideas of a better system might grow up. Events, in the
opinion of the present writer, only confirmed what sound
political judgment might have led men to expect—namely,
that this was a grave miscalculation. Sedan and the Treaty
of Frankfort proved it. But if Cobden thought better of the
Empire than it deserved, not a few good and high-minded
Frenchmen erred with him.

Our second remark, however, is that Cobden was probably
as well aware as others of the evils and perils of the Empire.
He was no blind believer in the Emperor, as his letters
testify. It was not his tendency to believe blindly in any
governments. But he always revolted from the pharisaical
censoriousness and most unseemly licence with which English
journalists and others are accustomed to write about the
rulers and the affairs of foreign nations. He always inclined
to moral, no less than to a material, non-intervention in the
domestic doings of other countries, and thought it right to
observe and counsel a language of scrupulous decency
towards a government in which the bulk of the French
nation formally and deliberately acquiesced.

Apart from such considerations as these, Cobden would
probably have defended himself for acting with such a
government as that of Louis Napoleon, by the plain argu-
xxx.) MORALITY OF NEGOTIATION WITH THE EMPIRE. 733

ment that in politics it is wise not to throw away any oppor-
tunity of getting a good thing done. The Empire was
there, and it was the part of sound sense to secure from it
whatever compensation it might be made to afford for its
flagrant and admitted disadvantages. It is sometimes said
that the policy of Free Trade has been damaged in the
opinion of France, by being thus associated with the ruined
Empire. Apart from the fact that later governments have
not ventured to go back from the Treaty policy, if this plea
against Cobden were in any degree true, we ought to find
the desire for protection strongest in those parts where dis-
like of the Empire is strongest. This is notoriously not the
case. The feeling about the Treaty uniformly follows the
interests of the people concerned, and is absolutely inde-
pendent of any feeling as to the government by which the
Treaty was made.

\This was in fact Cobden’s own case. He knew as well as
any one else that the position of the Emperor was that of a
gambler, who might be driven by the chances of fortune to
acts of desperation. But he insisted that, so far as England
was concerned, the Emperor nursed no criminal designs,
but, on the contrary, made friendship with England the
keystone of his system. He insisted, moreover, that even if
it were otherwise, still the most solid and durable check to
the development of hostile purposes would be found in the

promotion of close and deeply interested commercial inter-

course between the people of the two countries. The
change in the relations between the governments of France
and England for the last twenty years, in the language of
the French and English press, in the mutual sentiments of
the two peoples, is the verification of Cobden’s hope and
foresight,

 

Air. 56.
1860.

CHAPTER XXX.
HOLIDAY AND RETUEN TO PARIS.

Most men would have been content, after such an achieve-

long holiday. If Cobden had been so exclusively interested
in a mere increase of trade as his adversaries believed, he
would have cared very little for the Italian question. Asa
matter of fact he cared intensely for it, and thought clearly
about it. He had as definite ideas and as deep an anxiety
about foreign affairs as Lord Palmerston himself. It was in
method that the vast difference existed between them, not
in the supposed fact that one had a foreign policy and the
other had none. Cobden went straight from the Foreign
Office, where he had just signed the revised Treaty, to the
Austrian Embassy. Prince Metternich was not at home,
but Cobden returned the next day and delivered his soul
on the subject of Venetia, which was then jeoparding the
European peace.

We have to remember that all this time the entanglements
of Italy had been distracting the Powers. Throughout the
negotiations on the Treaty, which, as we shall see, lasted
until the autumn of 1860, the group of difficulties known as
the Italian question engrossed the attention of every states-
man in Europe. The Emperor of the French was more
dangerously involved in these difficulties than any one else,
not excepting Victor Emmanuel himself. The Treaties of
OH. xxx.] THE ITALIAN QUESTION. 735

Zurich, which gave definitive shape to the preliminaries 1860.
agreed upon between Napoleon and Francis Joseph at Villa- atr. 56
franca (July 11, 1859), had been signed during Cobden’s
short visit to London in November.

The base of these Treaties, which proved the most abyo-
lutely abortive documents in the whole history of diplomacy,
was the proposed formation of an Italian Confederation
under the honorary presidency of the Pope; the cession of
Lombardy, save the two great fortresses of Peschiera and
Mantua, to the King of Sardinia; admission of Venetia
to the Italian Confederation, while remaining a posses-
sion of Austria; the restoration of the Dukes of Tuscany
and Modena. There was, at the moment when Cobden saw
Prince Metternich, no prospect of a single article of either
Treaty being realized. The Grand Dukes dared not enter
their former dominions. The Romagna would not receive
back the agents of the Pope. The Italians would have
nothing to say to a Confederation, and insisted on unity.
The Pope protested, in language that was more energetic
than saintly, against all that had been done, and denounced
a pamphlet which was known to be written by the French
Emperor as a monument of hypocrisy and an ignoble tissue
of contradictions.’

The deadlock of the moment was unique. The force of
circumstances had brought the European powers to a policy
of non-intervention, not by their own free will, but because
the peril of departing from it was grave and instant. The
Emperor of Austria and the Emperor of the French were
equally bound by the Treaty of Zurich, but the Treaty of
Zurich was desperate. Lord Palmerston and Lord John
Russell, whose sympathies were generously given to the
cause of Italy, were inclined to a course which might not

1 “ The Emperor is decidedly too fond of seeing himself in print,” Cobden
wrote in his journal, when Le Paps of le Congrés appeared.
736 LIFE OF COBDEN. [omap.

1860. improbably have drawn England into war.’ The case was
Mx. 56. exactly that which many partisans of the general principle
of non-intervention have taken as beyond the limits of that
principle ; it was a case, namely, of intervention by English
diplomacy to enforce non-intervention by Austria in the
rights of the people of Italy to settle their own government.
However this may be, there was no objection to the informal
diplomacy in which Cobden now innocently engaged, and
those who realize the mterest and prodigious peril of the Ita-
lian question in the early weeks of 1860 will perhaps care to
know what was Cobden’s advice to Austria. It was Austrian
policy in regard to Venetia that made the cardinal difficulty.
* Jan. 30, 1860.—Called and conversed for nearly an
hour with Prince Metternich, the Austrian ambassador,
upon the subject of the affairs of Italy. I took special
care at the outset to explain to him that I held no diplo-
aiatic or other official post; that the Treaty of Com-
merce having been signed, for which alone I had been
named plenipotentiary, I reverted to my former capacity of
an independent member of Parliament, having no connexion
with the English Government; and that neither Lord Cow-
ley nor any one else was aware of my intention of calling
on the Prince. I then observed that the interest I felt in
the cause of European peace, and the fear I felt lest a
rupture might again take place on the Italian question, had
emboldened me to call to ask his attention for a few
minutes to what I had to say, premising that I did not ask
or expect him to offer any opinion in reply. I began
by explaining very frankly the state of public opinion
in England, as well as in the United States, on the
Italian question; that the popular sympathies were
everywhere strongly in favour of the Italians; and that if

* Gee Mr. Ashley’s Life of Lord Palmerston, ii. chapter 16, p. 883. Mem.
of Jun. 6, 1860.

 
&xx.] INTERVIHW WITH PRINOH METTERNIOH. 737

another struggle should arise for the independence of 1860.

 

Venetia, and especially if it were attended with slaughter tr. 56.
of civilians, or sack of an unarmed community, it would be
very difficult for any government iu England to prevent the
feeling of horror and resentment from assuming the form
of material aid to the Italians. I then proceeded to hint
whether, in such a state of things as existed in Venetia, it
would not be true wisdom in the Austrian Government to
contemplate some arrangement by which the danger of
war might be averted; that there were people now specu-
lating on the prospects of war this spring, and they might not
be unwilling to promote such a result; and I then frankly
added that I did not believe there was any other mode by
which the danger could be effectually met but by abandon-
ing Venetia to the Italians, taking in return an indemnity
which I thought might be made to amount to a very im-
portant sum of money.

*‘T then continued (as he did not seem desirous of taking
a part in the conversation) to urge some reasons for enter-
taining such an idea, I showed the great pecuniary loss
which Austria suffered from the possession of Venetia; that
the cost of holding the province in subjection was far more
than its income; that I believed there were now so many
soldiers in possession of Venetia, that they were equal to
one for every ten of the entire population; that this state
of things was growing every year worse and worse, and
that whilst the present cost was so burdensome to the re-
sources of Austria, the imminent danger of the future pre-
vented her Government from directing its energies to the
improvement of the internal resources of the Empire.

“He now gradually took a part in the conversation,
giving me credit for the singleness of purpose which had
induced me to call on him, and said that my antecedents
apon the question of peace, and the extension of commerce,

3B
738 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [ouar,

1860. were a justification for the course I was taking. He frankly

Hin. 66. avowed that he did not justify everything that his govern-
ment had been doing of late in Italy, and that he blamed
especially the mode in which they had commenced the war
last year. He observed that, speaking only his own indi-
vidual sentiments, he did not consider that, ‘if the interests
of the peace of Europe called for such an arrangement,’ it
would be ‘absolutely impossible’ for Austria to come to
terms with Venetia, by which their relations might be
placed upon a different footing. He hinted at the appoint-
ment of a Grand Duke with greater local powers. His
ideas did not go to the extent of a complete alienation of
territory. Indeed, he expressed an opinion that the great
body of the population of Venetia were not so much dis-
affected towards the present order of things as was sup-
posed ; that the agitation against the Austrian Government
was factitious, and so forth.

“TJ endeavonred to combat this view by drawing his
attention to the immense military force kept up. He said
that this was rendered necessary by the hostile attitude of
their next neighbour. I pointed to this as an inevitable state
of things; and I observed that, although I had no sympathy
for the dynastic ambition of the King of Sardinia, or for the
plans of annexation which were entertained by his Minister,
still it could not be denied that the kingdom of Sardinia
was a growing power, possessing to a large extent the
sympathy of the world, and that therefore the permanent
influence of that State, as a hostile neighbour, must always
be taken into account in the value to be put upon Venetia.
I declared my belief that the two races would become every
year more and more alienated, and that it would be impos-
sible permanently to keep possession of Venetia, or that it
could only be held at a ruinous loss to the Government of
Vienna. I remarked that whilst Austria possessed Lom-
xxx.) INTERVIEW WITH PRINCE METTHENIOH. 739

bardy, she had a comparatively ancient title to her Italian 1860.
possessions, but she had come into such recent possession of Air. 66.
her Venetian territory, and the mode in which Venice had
been given over to her by Bonaparte, at Campo Formio,
was such an outrage upon all justice and decency, that
Enrope felt a sort of shame at having been made a party to
such an act of violence at the Congress of Vienna, and it
would be held by many to be a duty to contribute towards
a redress of the evil.

“He said that Austria was peculiarly circumstanced ;
that it was a collection of nationalities; and that it would
be a serious thing to begin a process of selling the
independence of a province of the Empire. I said there
was no analogy between the state of Venetia and that of
Hungary cr Bohemia; that nobody considered the latter
kingdoms as being anxious for complete separation from
Austria, but merely as aiming at a reform in their adminis-
tration—a question about which foreigners were compara-
tively little concerned. Whereas, on the contrary, the
Italian question engrossed the attention of the political
world, and everywhere it was regarded as a danger to the
peace of Europe. He said it would be a very delicate
question what would become of the province of Venetia if
it were abandoned; that it might possibly be annexed to
Piedmont, and there would probably be objections to the
aggrandisement of the military monarchy. On the other
hand, the Italian states might quarrel or fall into anarchy,
and call for the intervention of neighbouring states. He
alluded to the serious consideration of how far it would be
wise in Austria to give up so powerful a strategic position
as the great fortresses presented, that the Italian Tyrol might
be attacked, or the territory on the Adriatic, etc. I said
that the wisest course for Austria would be to give the fall
control of their future destinies to the population of Venetia ;

 
1860.
Air. 56.

740 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [onar,

that a magnanimous policy was the best, and the only one
becoming a great Empire; that it would, besides, be quite
useless to attempt to bind the people of Venetia, for that the
world was more and more inclined to recognize the rights
of the people to choose their own mode of government,
and their own alliances and amalgamation ; and, therefore,
that if the people of Venetia chose to annex themselves to
Piedmont, it would not be likely that any Power would in-
terfere to prevent them. As respected the great fortresses,
I said that I would not advise their being given up but
destroyed, that I would blow them up, and, if possible, raze
them to the ground.

“T then came to the plain statement of the plan I would
follow. I would sell the independence of Venetia for a large
sum, which no doubt might be easily arranged; with that
money, say twenty or thirty millions sterling, I would put
the finances of the Austrian Government in order, restore
the currency, re-establish my credit, and then apply myself
to the internal reforms of the Empire. I knew no country
where there was such a field for improvement as in Austria;
that a few years of fiscal and commercial amelioration would
add immensely to the wealth and power of the Empire; that,
even with the loss of the Italian provinces, the population
of Austria would be about equal to that of France, and
greater than that of England, and would contain resources
which, if properly developed, might in a few years make
her one of the richest and most prosperous countries in
Europe. I at the same time pointed out the evils which
must arise from the present state of the finances and the
currency in Austria; that all mercantile operations, and all
contracts between individuals, must be rendered more and
more difficult and insecure, so long as the future of the
Empire is involved in so much uncertainty, and whilst the
circulating medium is subjected to such constant depreciation.
xxx] AT OANNES. TAI

“The Prince showed much earnestness of feeling in his
conversation. He wore an humbled air, as well he might,
considering the topic on which we were conversing, which
was nothing less than whether it would be advisable to sell a
part of the Empire to save the rest. After reiterated apologies
for the liberty I had taken in calling on him, which he received
in the best possible spirit, I left him. If I could spend a
month in Vienna, and see the leading men in the Government
circles there, I feel a presentiment that I could bring them
to my views on this difficult and important subject.”

The next day Cobden started for the south of France,
and he remained there until the last week in March. He
made Cannes his headquarters, and hoped for sunshine and
warmth, Unluckily, cloudy skies and keen winds confirmed
his opinion that, if we would make sure of a second summer
in the year, it cannot be had in Europe; men must imitate
the swallows and migrate into Africa. Cobden’s elastic and
joyful temperament, however, atoned for defects of climate,
and his diary is a record of lively excursions and genial
intercourse with friends. Among his daily companions were
Bunsen, Henri Martin, Arles Dufour, Legouvé, Mérimée,
and occasionally Lord Brougham. Those who have been
accustomed to think of Cobden as wrapped up in tariffs and
the vulgarities of Parliament might well be amazed at the
eagerness with which he notes the house to which Rachel
was brought to die, and the circumstances of her last hours ;
at his enthusiasm for the fine landscapes; at the sincerity
of interest with which he listened for long hours while
Bunsen talked to him about Egyptian antiquities, and read
his latest successes in deciphering hieroglyphs. Every day
brought to his curious and observant mind new stores of
information, political, social, and industrial, and still he had
interest left for gossip and the trivialities that help such men
across from one serious thought to another,

1860.
"Br. 66.

 
742 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [onaP.

1860. The people of the country wished to make their visitor

 

41.66. useful; and three of the principal inhabitants of Grasse
came to beg of him that when he returned to Paris he
would say a word to M.. Rouher in favour of a railroad from
Grasse to Cannes. “I remarked,” says Cobden, “that in
England a rich and industrious community like theirs would
have a meeting, and form a company to make a line for
themselves, seeing that it was calculated that it would pay
a good interest for the investment. They replied that it
was not their way of doing things in France; they were
accustomed to look to the government to take the initiative ;
and as other parts of France were assisted by government,
they might as well be assisted also. They said that in the
month of May, when the flowers were brought into Grasse
for making them into scented waters, pomades, etc., one
house would sometimes receive several tons of rose-leaves in
& morning.”

In the course of his stay, Cobden paid a visit to some
friends at Nice, where the expected annexation to France
was the general topic of conversation among people of all
classes. It is perhaps worth while, considering the violent
agitation which this transaction was shortly to rouse in
England, to reproduce Cobden’s impression of the public
feeling on the spot :—“TI found it very difficult,” he says,
“to ascertain the prevailing state of opinion on the subject.
As a general rule, I found that people’s inclinations in the
matter followed pretty closely the direction of their personal
interests, The shopkeepers and tradespeople of the town,
who thought their business would be improved by the
change, were in favour of annexation. The professional
men, the advocates, and lawyers, whose interests would
suffer, were generally opposed to the project. The land-
owners and peasants were said by some to be favourable,
and by others to be opposed. It was very difficult to ascer-
xxx] RETURN TO PARIS. 743

tain the state of public opinion, for almost every person I 1860.
consulted differed from the one I had previously talked to, Air. 56.
Sometimes I found members of the same household divided

in opinion. Whilst talking to M. A., a banker, in his
counting-house, who was using various reasons in favour

of annexation, his clerks, who were in an adjoining office,
separated by a glass partition, and who overheard his
remarks, were expressing by signs and gestures their
dissent from his remarks. Again, on the same day, whilst
calling on M. D., who was offering an opinion to the effect

that the population generally were in favour of the proposed
change, he was contradicted very emphatically by a lady

who was present.”

On the 22nd of March, Cobden found himself once more
in Paris.

“ March 26.—Called on Lord Cowley. He appeared
harassed and worried. Since I last saw him, the Savoy
question had come to a crisis; and the correspondence had
all been published in a parliamentary blue book. He and
his Secretary of Legation complained of the practice of
printing the despatches giving an account of the conver-
sations held with foreign ministers or other personages,
remarking that these reports of what passes at a gossiping
interview may be very proper for the eye of a Secretary of
State, but become very inconvenient when exposed to the
eye of the whole world ; that their publication has the effect
of making ministers of state unwilling to hold oral communi-
cations with diplomatic agents. Lord C. complained of the
conduct of the Emperor in the Savoy question; alleged
broadly that he had been deceived by him ; that for the first
time he had acted in such a way as to completely destroy all
confidence in future in him; he stated that he had, in an
interview with the Emperor, told him frankly that he had not
1860.
ir. 66.

744 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [onar.

acted towards the English Government and its ambassador
with the openness which had characterized all their previous
intercourse; that it was less the question of the annexation
of Savoy than the way in which it was effected, which
caused the present coolness and alienation between the two
Governments. ....

“ March 28.—Called on M. Fould, the Minister of State,
and had half an hour’s conversation with him. Speaking of
the misunderstanding which had arisen between the French
and English Governments since I last saw him, just before
my departure for Cannes, he complained of Lord John
Russell, our Foreign Minister, and observed that he had
been always in their way ; that he was opposed to the Treaty
of Villafranca, and afterwards was the chief cause why the
terms of that Treaty were not carried out and the Grand
Dukes restored to their sovereignties. I remarked that it
was utterly out of the question that force should have been
resorted to for the restoration of the Dukes. He replied
that force would not have been necessary if England had
given her moral support to the principle, but that Lord
John Russell encouraged the Italian people to resist the
wishes of the French Emperor, and thus rendered the
falfilment of the Treaty of Villafranca impossible; that it
was in consequence of this that the change in the Emperor’s
plans became necessary, and that the annexation of Savoy
was afterwards resorted to; that if the terms of the Peace
of Villafranca could have been carried out, France would not
have thought of any extension of her frontier. In the
course of conversation, he said that the English Court were
much opposed to the French Government, and that Prince
Albert was very Austrian in his sympathies.

“March 29.—Dined with Prince Napoleon and the
Princess Clotilde, and met a large party. The company
were less than an hour at the table. The present Emperor
xrxx.] THE QUESTION OF SAVOY. 745

has introduced the fashion of using great despatch at the
dinner-table.

“ March 30.—Had an audience with the Emperor in the
morning at the Tuileries. After saying a few words about
my visit to Cannes, and expressing his congratulations that
the British Parliament had at last passed the Treaty of
Commerce, he referred to the state of the relations between
his Government and that of England upon the subject of
the annexation of Savoy to France. He complained of the
manner in which he was attacked, and in which his conduct
and motives were misrepresented by the press of England,
and by some of the speakers in the House of Commons. I
remarked that I had not had the opportunity of reading the
papers laid before Parliament upon the Savoy question, and
was not therefore in possession of the facts of the case, but
as far as I understood the ground of the misunderstanding
which had unfortunately arisen between the two govern-
ments, since I last had the honour of an audience with his
Majesty, it was caused less by what his government had
actually done, in annexing Savoy and Nice to France, than
by the manner in which it had been effected. He then
volunteered an explanation in a few words of what had been
his course from the beginning on this question; changing
from English, in which we had before been speaking, to
French, for the more convenient and rapid delivery of his
narrative.

“He said that, previous to entering on the war against
Austria, he had had an understanding with the King of
Sardinia and Count Cavour, to the effect that if the result
should be the driving of the Austrians out of Lombardy
and Venetia, and the annexing of those provinces to
Piedmont, then France would require the fulfilment of two
conditions on the part of the King of Sardinia, viz. the
payment of the expenses of the war (which the Emperor

1860.
ART. 56.

 
 

481. 56.

746 LIFE OF OOBDEN. {onar.

said had amounted to 300,000,000 francs), and the cession
of Savoy and Nice. These terms were assented to, in a
general way, by the Government of Sardinia. The result
of the war had been less decisive than he had expected ; he
acquired only Lombardy, which he had annexed to Pied-
mont, without the intention of claiming Savoy, and not
intending to ask for more than a portion of the expenses of
the war. The subsequent events, which had induced him
to change his views, were wholly unexpected by him, and
they were brought about in spite of his efforts to prevent
them. Central Italy refused to take back its former rulers,
and insisted on annexation to Piedmont, which gave the
latter power as large an acquisition of territory, and as great
8 population in Italy (about 11,000,000), as if Venetia had
been added to its dominions. Under these circumstances
he had felt justified in claiming the cession of Savoy.

“ After finishing this narrative, he again recurred to the
attacks and misrepresentations to which he was exposed.
He said he was quite désolé to find that, in spite of his frank
and loyal policy towards other Powers, he was still exposed
to such unjust charges. I remarked that too much im-
portance was sometimes attached to the strictures of a news-
paper writer, or the language of a member of the House of
Commons; that he knew the state of things in England
too well to require to be told that any writer could publish
whatever he pleased anonymously, and that a member of
the House could utter whatever opinions he liked; that
people sometimes fell into the error of regarding the utter-
ances of an individual, who was perhaps actuated by very
anworthy personal motives, as the expression of a large
public opinion ; and I added the declaration of my belief
that this misunderstanding between the two countries would
be of an evanescent character; that it would admit of ex-
plapations which would remove all grounds of serious dis-
xxx] DISOUSSION WITH THE EMPEROR. 747

agreement. He joined in the expression of this wish. I 1860.
then observed that I could see but one possible cause of abr. 66.
war between the two countries; that the mercantile and
manufacturing and mining interests have the power and
determination to keep the peace so long as it is their interest
to do so; but the danger, and in my own opinion the only
danger, was that the expenditure for our warlike armaments
might be so increased that it would some day be possible
to present to the people the argument that war might be
less costly than the perpetual burden of a war expenditure in
a time of peace; that I had heard very sedate and grave per-
sons argue in this way; and that, leaving out of the question
the sacrifice of life and limb, it was difficult to answer their
reasoning on economical grounds. I mentioned the enor-
mous sums we were voting this year for our armaments.

“ He said he did not know what he could do to prevent it,
or how he was responsible for such a state of things; that,
as regarded the navy, he was not spending so much on it as
he ought to do, or as was laid down as necessary in Lonis
Philippe’s time; and he referred to the dialogue between an
Englishman and a Frenchman, which he had composed and
sent for publication to the Times newspaper; it contained
some exact details respecting the strength of the French
navy. I reminded him that his experiments on iron-cased
ships had led us into some expenses of the same kind. I
mentioned that I had seen one of his frégates blindées at
Toulon, with an iron casing about four inches in thickness ;
that no sooner were they ordered to be built, than we began
to construct line-of-battle ships with iron sides six inches
thick, and that Mr. Whitworth had subsequently invented a
gun which had projected a bullet through this thickness of
iron, in addition to a couple of feet of solid timber ; that 1
thought all this a very deplorable waste, and unworthy of
the age in which we lived.
748 LIFE OF OOBDEN. {onar.

1860, “We then talked of the Treaty of Commerce, and the
Ar. 66. remaining details which are yet to be settled. I argued
that it was more than ever desirable, in the present unsatis-
factory state of the relations between the two governments,
that this Treaty, which was intended to unite the peoples of
France and England in the bonds of commercial dependence,
should be completely carried out. I urged several reasons
why the duties should be moderate. He expressed his con-
currence in this, and said the only subject on which he felt
any anxiety was that of iron; that the difficulty was the
want of railroads to convey the ore to the coal; that in two

years’ time he hoped this evil would be remedied.

“On my rising to depart, he asked me to accept a vase as
a souvenir. I left my address in London where it would be
delivered. I hope it will be of small value.*

« March 31.—Dined at M. Rouher’s, the Minister of Com-
merce, where a large party was assembled, everybody pre-
sent except myself being decorated with orders and ribbons.
I sat beside Prince Napoleon, and had a good deal of
conversation upon the subject of our rival armaments. ....
He did not think it was impossible to come to an agree-
ment for limiting the naval forces of the two countries; but
he thought that whilst our aristocracy retained its present
power, it would be very difficult to carry out such a policy
in England. He repeated several times, and with emphasis,
that it would not be impossible on the part of France. In
the course of conversation, when speaking of the inaptitude
of the French for self-government, he remarked, ‘ And yet
they are always crying out for liberty! They want the
right of governing themselves, and yet they claim the right
of exempting themselves from the duties of self-govern-
ment.’ ”

* The vase may be seen at the South Kensington Museum, whither
Mrs. Cobden sent it shortly after the death of her husband.
xiz.] COBDEN’S PRIVATH OIROUMSTANOES. 949

A day or two after, Cobden returned to England. And
here we may for a moment turn from his public activity to
say so much as may be necessary about some of his private
concerns. The subject is painful enough, just as it is pain-
fal even at this distance of time to think of Burke’s genius
being humiliated and impeded by the straits of embarrassed
circumstances. So much publicity, however, was given to
Cobden’s affairs, partly by the spleen of political adversaries,
and partly by the indiscretion of friends, that it is proper to
describe the transaction of this period as it really was. A
few lines fortunately will suffice. We have seen that of the
sum raised in 1846 as a proof of the public gratitude for his
services in the cause of Free Trade, the bulk had been
employed in meeting the heavy losses incurred in Cobden’s
business, during the time when he was absorbed in the
agitation against the Comm Laws. What happened to the
balance which had been invested in the shares of the Hlinois
Central Railway, we have also seen. There was, moreover,
the continued drain of the chief rent on the unhappy pur-
chase of land at Manchester.‘ The upshot was that after
his return from the United States Cobden found his re-
sources practically exhausted, and his position had become
extremely serious.

Under these circumstances he applied to one of his oldest
and most confidential friends in Manchester for aid and
advice. What he sought was that a few men who could
afford to wait for a return on their money, might be induced
to buy the building land from him at a certain valuation,
which should include some of that prospective value which
he insisted on seeing in it. In this letter he said to his
friend, in words that will touch all who can think gently of a
man for taking too little heed of his own interests, for the
sake of the commonwealth : “ My hair,” he said, “has been

4 Vol. i. p. 159,

1860.
Air. 66.
750 LIFE OF COBDEN. fou. xxx.

1860. growing grey latterly with the thoughts of what is to become
“air. 66, of my children. If I were to consult my duty to them, I
should withdraw from Parliament, and accept some public
employment, by which I might earn 20001. a year. The
present Ministry have, through my friend Lord H——,
sounded me as to my willingness to take such an office.
But I see the difficulty of justifying my withdrawal from
Parliament at the present time..... It is one of the
miseries of a public man’s life that he must be liable under
such circumstances to have his private troubles gibbeted
before the whole world.” °
It is not necessary to follow the course of what followed.
It was found that nothing effectual could be done with the
land. So a little group of Cobden’s most intimate friends
took counsel together, and in the end a subscription was
privately raised which amounted to the sum of 40,0001.
The names of those who contributed to it, between ninety
and a hundred persons in all, honever knew. He requested
that a list might be given to him in a sealed cover. After
his death the executors found the envelope in his desk, with
the seal still unbroken. Such an endowment was a gracious
and munificent testimonial to his devoted public spirit.
The fact that Cobden had so richly earned the gift, made
him, as it may make us, none the less sensible of the con-
siderate liberality of the givers.

* To Mr. John Slagg, Sept. 5, 1859.
CHAPTER XXXL
THE TARIFF—THE FORTIFICATION SCHEME.

iv is not necessary for us to follow the fortunes of the Treaty 1860.
in England. They belong rather to our fiscal and parlia- “ay. 66,
mentary history, than to the biography of one of the
negotiators. The Treaty was laid before Parliament by
Lord John Russell, and its provisions were fully explained,
along with the changes which the Government proposed in
our fiscal system as a consequence of this Treaty, by Mr.
Gladstone in a memorable speech (Feb. 10) which for
lucidity and grasp has never been surpassed. He did not
forget to pay a just tribute to his absent colleague. “ Rare,”
said Mr. Gladstone, “is the privilege of any man who having
fourteen years ago rendered to his country one signal and
splendid service, now again within the same brief span of
life, decorated neither by rank nor title, bearing no mark
to distinguish him from the people whom he serves, hag
been permitted again to perform a great and memorable
service to his country.”

The leader of the Opposition did not fall far behind in
civil words, while conveying in his compliment to Cobden
a characteristic sneer at the hated Whigs? Mr. Disraeli
(Feb. 20) took credit for having recognized the great ability
and the honourable and eminent position of the secret agent
of the Treaty, long before they had been recognized by those
“sympathizing statesmen of whom he was somehow doomed
952 LifR OF COBDIN. fomtar.

1860. never to be the colleague.” But at the same time, he

4ir. 56. detected in the Treaty the idiosyncrasies of the negotiator :
he saw the negotiator’s strong personal convictions in the
wanton sacrifice of so many sources of revenue; he saw it
in the light treatment of belligerent rights.

Then the parliamentary battle began according to the
well-known rules. Private secretaries rapidly hunted up
the circumstances of Pitt’s Commercial Treaty of 1786, and
their chiefs set to work to show that the precedent had been
accurately followed, or else, if they happened to sit on the
other side of the House, that it had been most unreasonably
departed from. Men whose intellectual position was so
strong as that of Sir James Graham and Earl Grey, pro-
tested against the policy of commercial treaties. One
member, as I have already mentioned, still happily alive
and vocal, asked if it had come to this—that the free Parlia-
ment of England sat to register the decrees of the despot
of France. There was the usual abundance of predictions,
in which the barely possible was raised to the degree of
probable or certain, and to which the only answer was
that men were not bound to believe them. The great
authority from the city prophesied that there would be
no permanent enlargement of our trade with France as a
consequence of the Treaty. Mr. Disraeli declared that he
had always strongly desired an improvement of our com-
mercial relations with France, and even if that improve-
ment took the form of a commercial treaty he could endure
it: but this was a bad treaty; it was calculated to
sow the seeds of discord and dissension between the two
countries. Mr. Disraeli’s chief in the House of Lords
argued that the time was inopportune for a reduction
of the sources of revenue; and he pointed out that the
Treaty admitted to France articles of vital importance for
purposes of war, and the Government itself acted in other
xxx) DEBATES ON THE TREATY, 753

respects as if war were not improbable. Here Lord Derby 1860.
made a point, as Cobden would have been the first to admit. apr, 56.
The policy of 1860 was a double policy. The Treaty im-
plied confidence in peace, while the estimates implied a
strong expectation of war. If war were as near a contin-
gency as the tone of some of the Ministers seemed to show,
then the budget of 1860 was open to the criticism on the
budget of 1853, the great peace budget which immediately
preceded the Crimean War. ,

After much skirmishing, the real debate came on in the
House of Commons, on a motion that it was not expedient
to diminish the sources of revenue, nor to re-impose the
income tax at a needlessly high rate. The discussion
extended over three nights, and at the end of it the division
gave to the Government a majority of 116. Mr. Gladstone
had met happily enough the serious objections, as distin-
guished from those which were invented in the usual way
of party business. Nothing, he said, was given to France
which was of any value to us. On the other hand, nothing
was received from France except a measure by which that
country conferred a benefit upon itself. Ata small loss of
revenue we had gained a great extension of trade. These
propositions told with great weight against the theoretic
objection that a commercial treaty tends to mislead nations
as to the true nature of the transaction. In any case this
was an objection which was very litile calculated to affect
a body endowed with the rough and blunt intellectual
temper of the House of Commons.

On his arrival in London, meanwhile, at the beginning of
April, Cobden found that the Government had determined
to send out a Commission to arrange the details of the tariff.
The Commission was to consist of a chief and two official
subordinates, The subordinates had already been named;
one from the Board of Trade, and another from the Cus-

$e
1860.
4it. 56.

754 LIFE OF OOBDEN. {onar.

toms. The latter was represented by Mr. R. A. Ogilvie, the
late Surveyor General of Customs, and the Board of Trade
was represented by Mr. Louis Mallet, who speedily impressed
Cobden, as the diaries show, by his strong intelligence and
efficiency, and who afterwards became one of the most
eminent advocates of Cobden’s principles to be found among
English statesmen. The Government thought that it would
be beneath Cobden’s dignity to accept the office of chief
commissioner and to correspond with the Board of Trade,
after having been a plenipotentiary and having corresponded
with the Foreign Office. Cobden began to fear that the
chief who might be appointed would not prove quite a man
after his own heart, so, he says, “as I felt no concern what-
ever about the loss of dignity, I volunteered to come out to
Paris myself as chief commissioner, and to sign the sup-
plementary treaty as plenipotentiary when it is completed.
Tam afraid I have undertaken a very difficult and tedions
task. But having begun the good work, I must pursue it
to the end, and probably I could not transfer it to other
hands without damage to the cause,”!

Tn fact, it was clear that though the diplomatic or political
part of the work had been effectually done, the more difficult
commercial part still remained. The Treaty was hardly more
than a rough and provisional sketch. When it reached the
Board of Trade the amazement of that office was not alto-
gether pleasurable, for a department is capable of self-love,
and the officials privately felt that they had been made rather
light of. It was soon perceived that from the point of view
of their office the Treaty did not carry things far. In the
first article the Emperor had engaged that in no case should
the duties on a long list of articles of British production and
manufacture exceed thirty per cent. This was to be the
limit. But a duty of thirty per cent. was nearly as bad as

1 To M. Ohevalier, April 14, 1860,
xxx.) NATURE OF THE TREATY, 755

prohibition. All depended on the results of the thirteenth
article. Article thirteen ran to the effect that the ad valorem
duties established within the limits fixed by the preceding
articles should be converted into specific duties by a
Supplementary Convention.’

2 It may be convenient here to reproduce the description of the terms of
the Treaty, from Mr. Gladstone’s speech explaining it to the House of Com-
mons :—“ First,” he said, ‘I will take the engagements of France. France
engages to reduce the duty on English coal and coke, from the 1st of July,
1860; on bar and pig iron and steel, from the lst of October, 1860 ; on tools
and machinery, from the Ist of December, 1860; and on yarns and goods
in flax and hemp, inolnding, I believe, jute—this last an article compara-
tively new in commerce, but one in which a great and very just interest is
felt in some great trading districts,—from the Ist of June, 1861. That is
the first important engagement into which France enters. Her second and
greater engagement is postponed to the lst of October, 1861. I think it is
probably in the knowledge of the Committee that this postponement is
stipulated under a pledge given by the Government of France to the classes
who there, as here, have supposed themselves to be interested in the main-
tenance of prohibition. On ths lst of October, then, in the year 1861,

. France engages to reduce the duties and to take away the prohibitions on
all the articles of British production mentioned in a certain list, in euch a
manner that no duty upon any one of those articles shall thereafter exceed
thirty per cent. ad valorem. Ido not speak of articles of food, which do
not materially enter into the treaty; but the list to which I refer, includes
all the staples of British mannfacture, whether of yarns, flax, hemp, hair,
wool, silk, or cotton,—all manufactures of skins, leather, bark, wood; iron,
and all other metals; glass, stoneware, earthenware, or porcelain. I will not
go through the whole list ; it is indeed needless, for I am not aware of any
great or material article that is omitted. France also engages to commute
those ad valorem duties into rated duties by a separate convention, to be
framed for the purpose of giving effect to the terms I have described. But
if there should be @ disagreement as to the terms on which they should be
rated under the convention, then the mazimwm chargeable on every class
at thirty per cent. ad valorem will be levied at the proper period, not in
the form of a rated duty, but upon the value; and the value will be deter-
mined by the process now in use in the English customs.

“1 come next, sir, to the English covenants. England engages, with a
limited power of exception, which we propose to exercise only with regard
to two or three articles, to abolish immediately and totally all duties upon
all manufactured goods. There will be a sweep, summary, entire, and
absolute, of what are known as manufactured goods from the face of the
British tariff. Farther, England engages to reduce the duty on brandy,
from 16s. the gallon to the level of the colonial duty, viz. 8s. 2d. per gallon.
She engages to reduce immediately the duty on foreign wine. In the treaty
it is of course French wine which is specified; but it is perfectly undex

1860.

4. 56.
756 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [cuap.

1860. If it appears absurd that Cobden should ever have been
47.56. content with an arrangement that left the French with a
possible protection so high as thirty per cent., we must
recall the conditions of the case. Hitherto the system in
France had been one of absolute prohibition. It was the
system of monopolies in all its perfection and completeness.
Suddenly to break down this high wall of exclusion was
politically impossible. To tell the great ironmasters, the
cotton-spinners, the woollen manufacturers, that they were
to pass at a step from monopoly to free competition, would
be to shake the very Throne. A duty in their favour of no
more than ten per cent. would have seemed a mockery to
men who had been accustomed to command their own prices.
The Emperor dared not open the battle with a lower pro-
tection than thirty per cent. It was for the English Govern-
ment to have this brought down to as near ten per cent. as
they could. M. Rouher, who believed faithfully in free.
competition, hoped and intended that this process of beating
down the great duty allowed by the terms of the Treaty
should be effectively carried out. Cobden knew much better
than his critics how much remained to be done; but then he
trusted M. Rouher and the Emperor. This was the merit
of his diplomacy, that he knew whom he could trust; and
he always felt that here, and not in perpetual suspicion, is
the secret of effective and wise diplomacy, as distinguished
from the policy of craft and war. The result showed in the
present instance, that the Emperor and M. Rouher deserved
his confidence.
Cobden arrived in Paris on April 20th, and it was the

stood between France and ourselves, that we proceed with regard to the
commodities of all countries alike. England engages, then, to reduce the
duty on wine, from 6 rate nearly reaching 6s. 10d. per gallon, to 8s. per
gallon. She engages, besides a present reduction, farther to reduce that
duty from the lst of April, 1861, to a scale which has reference to the
strength of the wins messured by the quantity of spirit it contains.”
xxx1] FRESH LABOUBS IN PARIS. 757

5th of November before his labours were concluded. They 1860.

 

were of the most toilsome and fatiguing kind. The cir- arr. 56.
cumstances were without precedent or example, and the
whole course of procedure had to be created. When the
English commissioners reached Paris, they found that the
French Government had agreed to refer the subject of the
rates of duty to the Conseil Supérieur, a body rarely con-
voked, and consisting of the greatest commercial men in
France. The Conseil Supérieur took evidence from French
and English manufacturers and producers, as to the com-
parative cost of production in the two countries. Iron had
been dealt with in the Treaty itself, and it was the only
article on which the rate was there definitely fixed. All
other articles were left open. What Cobden and his
colleagues had to do was in the first instance to prepare
the English witnesses, to collect and shape their evidence,
and to have it carefully translated for the Conseil Supérieur.
This tedious process lasted until the end of July. It was
August before the sittings of the definitive Commission
began. The business which Cobden and his two official
colleagues had now to do, was nothing less than to go
through the whole list of British products and manu-
factures, and to prove in each case to the French Commis-
sioners that from the circumstances of the special trade
they ought to be content with a given duty. Every day
at two o’clock the three Englishmen sat round a table in
one of the saloons of the palace in the Quai d’Orsai, with
about three times as many representatives of the hostile
interests of France. The various products of British in-
dustry came up in turn. The French Commissioners cried
for their import duty of thirty per cent. Cobden called for
ten percent. Then the battle began. The English nam-
bered no more than the Graces, while the French were as
many as the Muses. The French, in strategical language,
758 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [omar,

1860. were close to their base of operations, for if they wanted

Air. 56, more knowledge as to a given trade, there were men who
were quite able and only too happy to supply it in the next
street or in the anteroom. The Englishmen were dependent
on the accident of the right man having come to Paris from
home. They were obliged to represent all branches of
industry, to master the important facts of a hundred special
trades, to meet from their own secondhand knowledge, picked
up the evening before and digested in the forenoon, an-
tagonists whose knowledge was personal and acquired by a
life’s experience. The enterprise called for nothing less
than the dexterity and pliancy of a first-rate advocate, united
to the dogged industry of the compiler of a commercial
encyclopedia. Iron gave most trouble. Thongh the
rate had been fixed in the Treaty, the classification of
its descriptions remained. The ironmasters, Cobden told
Mr. Bright, “are the landed interest of France. They
constitute the pretorian guards of monopoly. Almost
everybody of rank and wealth is directly or indirectly
interested in iron-works of some kind. Bankers, courtiers,
authors (Thiers and St. Marc Girardin, to wit), bishops, and
priests, are to be found in the ranks of the ironmasters.
M. Schneider—the Duke of Richmond of the interest—is
one of the Commission sitting to try himself. The French
witnesses, of course, all tell the old story of alarm and ruin,
and discourse most feelingly of the misery which their work-
people will suffer if their protection be withdrawn. .... I
am transported back twenty years.”

Apart from the monotony of these proceedings, what to
Cobden was harder to bear than tedium, was the dishonesty
and bad faith of some of those with whom he had to deal.
The more unscrupulous among the protectionists falsified
the facts of their various trades, and played dishonest
tricks with returns of cost, wages, and prices. On one
xxx] THE OOMMISSION. 759

occasion, a French commissioner, who had made himself 1860.
the mouthpiece of the protectionists, tried to counter Air. 66.
some demand of Cobden’s by one of these fadrications.
Cobden, worn out by the iteration of such shameless
devices, could no longer contain himself, and in angry
tones called out too crude a statement of the truth.
But he was usually as long-suffering as he was tenacious.
There was one member of the Commission on the French
side whose conduct gave him constant encouragement and
support. Every day brought fresh proof of the ability, moral
courage, sincerity, and good faith of M. Rouher. These
are Cobden’s own words, and he adds with enthusiasm that
his name will go down to posterity as the Huskisson or
Peel of France. No ordinary man could have effected in a
twelvemonth changes which in England were spread over
twenty years. :

The strain of the conflict and its preparation, both on
Cobden and his colleagues, was very great. The discussions
at the Foreign Office usually lasted from two until six
o’clock, when they went to dine. Later in the evening
came laborious interviews with commercial experts from
England, who brought tables, returns, extracts from ledgers.
Commercial friends at home were apt to be impatient, and
Cobden was obliged to write long letters of encouragement
and exhortation. In the morning, after two or three
hours devoted to correspondence and further interviews, soon
after eleven Cobden proceeded to the offices of the English
commissioners in the Rue de l’Université, where his colleagues
had already arranged the matter acquired in the previous
evening. This they examined and discussed and prepared
for the meeting at two o’clock, when the encounter was once
more opened.

Occasional relief was enjoyed in varied social intercourse.
There were great official banquets with ministers of state,
760 LIFE OF OOBDEN. {omar,

1860. blazing with stars and decorations. There were the balls

 

Aix, 56, and receptions of the ministers’ wives, where Cobden un-
gallantly noted that the number of handsome toilettes was
more striking than the beauty of their wearers. He was
taken one day to see the studio of Ary Scheffer; and on
another day he went with Clara Novello to visit Rossini at
his villa at Passy. The composer’s vivacity and cleverness
pleased Cobden, and he was perhaps not displeased when
the old man asked why the English were in a panic, and
declared his indignation at. such childishness in a great
nation for whom he had all his life long felt the deepest
respect. One night at the table of Arles Dufour, Cobden
met Enfantin, the head of the Saint Simonians, and the
most wonderful and impressive figure in the history of
modern enthusiasm. The party sat until midnight, talking
over the question of a mutual limitation of the armaments
of France and England, and all agreed that unless some-
thing were done to put a stop to this warlike rivalry, a
conflict must inevitably break out. “ If you would preserve
peace,” said Enfantin, amending the saying of the old world,
“ then prepare for peace.”

Cobden was more than once a guest at the house of
the Marquis de Boissy, and the more famous Marquise,
better known as the Countess Guiccioli. Cobden’s simple
mind was surprised at the fact that, so far from having
lost caste by the notoriety of her relations with Lord
Byron, the lady moved in the highest circles in Paris and
was much sought after. The Marquis was a strong old
Tory, vigorously opposed to Free Trade and every other
reform; he predicted that the Emperor’s concessions to
England would be his ruin ; confidently foretold a reign of
terror for Italy, the death of Victor Emmanuel on the
scaffold, and “ many other equally pleasant and probable
events.” Cobden listened to all this nonsense with unruffied
xxxr] SOOLAL INTHRCOURSE. 761

humonr, as was his wont; few men have ever been better 1860.
able to suffer fools gladly. Only once he nearly broke down, tr. 56.
when ata féte given by an American of high position to cele-
brate the Fourth of July, the host made a speech to French
and English guests in that singularly bad taste which Ameri-
can orators so often think due to the majesty of their country.
Cobden was always a missionary. Atadinner where most of
the guests happened to be eminent surgeons and physicians,
he tried hard to enlist them against vivisection as practised at
the Veterinary College; “but I am afraid,” he says, “ that I
did not meet with much success.” He delighted in every-
thing that extended his knowledge of men and cities. On
the occasion of the Emperor’s féte (Aug. 15), he walked
about the streets all the evening, and observing that the
great thoroughfares were closed against carriages, and kept
clear for the exclusive use of pedestrians from seven until
ten, he marks that “such consideration would not have been
shown to the masses at the expense of the rich and luxurious
classes in England.”

There was one group with whom after a very short
experience Cobden found it impossible to carry on any
intercourse. “I have ceased to go among the Orleanist
party,” he told Mr. Bright; “they are hardly rational or
civil.” Whatever we may think of the Empire, there can
only be one opinion of its Orleanist foes, that eyeless,
impotent, shifty faction, who dreamed and dream on that
kingdoms can be governed by literary style, and that the
mighty agitations of a newly revolutionized society can be
ruled by the petty combinations and infantile tactics of
drawing-room intrigue.

A break in the tedium of his work, but perhaps a break
of doubtfal refreshment, is mentioned in a letter to his
friend Mr. Hargreaves :—“ For the last three days,”’ he says,
“T have been attending the debates in the Corps Législatif on
762 LIFE OF COBDEX. (omar,

1860. the Treaty. The scene reminded me of our own old doings
r. 56. in the House of Commons twenty years ago. The protec-
tionists were very savage. Being recognized in the strangers’
tribune, I became the object of attack and defence. It was
really the old thing over again. As I was leaving the house
in a shower of rain, one of the members who avowed himself
® protectionist, offered me his umbrella, and he remarked,
‘If we had been still under the constitutional régime, your
Treaty would never have passed. Not twenty-five members

of the Chamber would have been for it.’ ”’*

Of one or two of the most important of Cobden’s conver-
sations, it is worth while to transcribe the reports from his
own journal. On March 25 he met Count Persigny, who
was then on one of his frequent visits from Albert Gate to
Paris.

“ He expressed himself,” says Cobden, “in strong terms
to me upon the subject of the present system of govern-
ment in France; says the Emperor has no independent
responsible ministers; that he governs, himself, in the
minutest details of administration; that he has been
gradually more and more assuming to himself all the powers
of the State; that for two years after the formation of the
Imperial government there were men in his Cabinet, such as
Drouyn de |’Huys, St. Arnaud, and himself (Persigny), who
exercised an independent judgment on his projects, and
that he was then willing to yield to the advice and argu-
ments of his council, but that latterly he had been accus-
tomed to act upon his own impulse, or only to consult one
of his Ministers ; that his Cabinet frequently found decrees
in the Moniteur of which they had never heard, and that
this habit of secret and personal management opened the
door to all kinds of intrigues, and gave the opportanity for
unworthy individuals, male and female, to exercise an irre-

* To William Hargreaves. May 2, 1860.
xx) OOUNT PEBSIGNY ON THE EMPIRE. 763

sponsible and improper influence over the actsof theEmperor. 1860.
He blamed M. Fould for having encouraged and flattered amr. 56.
the Emperor into this habit of ruling by his personal will,
independent of his Ministers, by which he was bringing
great danger on his dynasty; that he had not the genius
of the first Napoleon, to whom his flatterers compared him,
or his mastery of details ; and that in attempting to interfere
with everything, nothing was properly superintended. That
he (Count de P.) was very unhappy at this state of things;
that he had been for some years remonstrating against it;
that he was now penning another memorial on the subject, a
rough copy of which he had in his pocket; and that if he
failed to effect the desired reform, he should retire from the
service of the Emperor, and withdraw altogether from public
life; that he was entitled to a salary of 12001. year as
senator, or to a pension of 4000I. a year as privy councillor;
that he should not accepé either, but would gather together
his small private fortune and retire upon that.”

« April 26.—Called on M. Herbet, the Chairman of the
French commission for arranging the details of the Treaty.
M. Herbet had been six years Consul at London. In the
course of conversation he remarked good-humouredly upon
the aristocratic manners of the English people. When he
went first to London he was a junior attaché to the Embassy,
and he was then a welcome guest at the tables of the great;
but when he was appointed Consul-general, with important
duties and 40,000 francs per annum, he was no longer
comme i faut, and found himself hardly worthy to be the
guest of our principal merchants.

“ May 20.—Breakfasted with Emile de Girardin, and after-
wards sat with him in his garden whilst he gave me the
Bonaparte programme of foreign policy, which in brief
amounted to this :—that France must extend her frontier to
the Rhine, after which the Emperor could afford to grant
764 LIFR OF OOBDEN. [onar.

1860. political liberty to his people; that all Belgium, with the

4x. 56, exception of Brussels and Antwerp, would willingly annex

itself to France; that the German provinces to the left of

the Rhine, though not speaking French, were Catholic and

therefore inclined towards annexation, and might be bribed

by a promise of an exemption from taxation for a number

of years to become a portion of France; that Prussia might

be indemnified by the absorption of the smaller German

States, and Austria be pacified by a slice of Turkey; that

after this extension of territory to the natural boundaries of

France, the Bonaparte dynasty would be secured, and the

Emperor would enter into an engagement for a complete

system of disarmament; that in no other way can this

dynasty be enabled to grant liberal institutions, and without

these there can be no security for the peace of Europe; that

the family of the King of Belgium might be compensated by

& crown at Constantinople, etcetera. I laughed repeatedly

at the natveté with which he went over this unprincipled
programme of foreign policy.

“ June 8.—Called on Prince Napoleon, who in the course
of conversation described the state of the relations between
the governments of England and France as being very
unsatisfactory ; ‘les choses vont mal.’ He alluded to the
danger of our constantly arming in England, the an-
easiness which it gave to the people, and the tendency which
it had by the burden of taxation that it laid on them, to
reconcile the English to a war as the only means of getting
rid of the evil. He complained of the vacillating conduct
of our Government in its foreign relations; that it never
seemed to know its own mind, which was constantly liable
to be influenced by the state of opinion in England and by
the majority of the House of Commons. He alluded to the
question of the annexation of Savoy, and remarked that our
Government knew that it was inevitable; that he had him-
xxx1] CONVEBSATIONS WITH PRINOE NAPOLEON. 765

self told Lord Cowley that it was absolutely necessary for 1860. _
the satisfaction of the French people, who required some ir. 66,
return for the sacrifices they had made for the independence

of Italy. He spoke of our Tory party as being just as

hostile to the Bonapartes as were their predecessors of the

time of the first Empire; that some of the Whig party were

of a similar character. He mentioned Lord Clarendon as

being a ‘ thorough aristocrat,’ who had told him that Bright

and myself were a couple of fools who thought of converting
England into a Republic.

“ June 10.—In consequence of a letter which I received
from Prince Napoleon’s Secretary, I called at the Palais
Royal to-day, and had a conversation with the Prince. He
said that the political relations of the two countries were
very far from being in a satisfactory state; that he feared
the Austrians were going to interfere in Naples; that he
suspected they were encouraged by the confidence they had
in the support of our Court and the Prince Consort, and that
the English Government would not join France in prevent-
ing it. The consequence might be that the Piedmontese
would interfere also, and a war would be the consequence
which would compel France to take a part, or else allow the
Austrians to march to Turin, which they would certainly do
if they had not a French army to oppose them; that
England might avert this by undertaking with her fleet to
prevent an expedition from leaving Trieste ; that no blood-
shed could arise ; and that the least England could do would
be to assist France in maintaining the principle of non-inter-
vention. He dreaded the complications that would arise,
and feared that it might lead to a rupture between France
and England.

“He then said he was about to mention a delicate
matter, and he suggested that I ought to be appointed
Ambaasador to France; that this would do more than
766 LIFR OF OOBDEN. (cmap,

1860. anything besides to cement the good relations between
“Hix. 66, the two countries. As this was said with a good deal of
emphasis, and appeared to be the communication he had in
view when he sent for me, I replied, with equal emphasis,
‘Impossible! you really do not understand us in England!’
I then explained exactly my position towards Lord Cowley ;
that I had from the first been only an interloper on his
domain; that he had acted with great magnanimity in
tolerating my intrusion ; that a man of narrow mind would
have resented it, and that I felt much indebted to him for
his tolerance of me, etcetera. The Prince remarked that a
man of first-rate capacity ought to have resented it, and
either have given up his post altogether to me, or to have
resisted my encroachment on his functions. I remarked
that Lord Cowley had frankly owned that I had superior
knowledge to himself on questions of a commercial or
economical character, and that, considering how much they
had been my study, it was not derogatory to him to grant
me precedence in my own specialty. I begged him to say

no more upon the subject.

“June 14.—To-day a féte-day at Paris, a holiday, a
review, flags, and illuminations. The Emperor was well
received by the populace on his way from the railway to
the Tuileries, and in going and coming from the Champs de
Mars, where he passed in review upwards of 50,000 troops
and national guards. The occasion of these demonstrations
was the celebration of the annexation of Savoy and Nice to
France. An acquisition of more territory is as popular with
the masses here and in the United States (and would be in
England if we had anything but the sea for our frontier), a8
in ancient times it was with despots and conquerors. The
world is governed by the force of traditions, after they have
lost by the change of time and circumstances all relation
to the existing state of human affairs. It is only by the

 
xx11] THE PROPOSAL FOR FORTIFICATIONS. 767

greater diffusion of knowledge in the science of political 1860.
economy, that men will cease to covet their neighbour’s Ar. 66.
land, from the conviction that they may possess themselves
of all that it produces by a much cheaper, as well as honester,
process than by war and conquest. But until this time
arrives, we do not insure ourselves against the conquering
propensities of despotic sovereigns by transferring the
supreme power to the masses of the people.

“July 16.—Called on Lord Cowley, and referring to a
suggestion which he and M. Rouher had made that I should
seek an audience with the Emperor, in order to strengthen
his free-trade tendencies by my conversation with him, I
alluded to the warlike preparations which had lately been
going on in England, and confessed a repugnance to meet-
ing the Emperor, to whom I had promised last November
that if he entered on the path of Free-trade without reserve,
it would be accepted by the English people as a proof that
he meditated a policy of peace. Yet in the midst of my
labours upon the details of the French tariff, in which I had
every day found greater proofs of the honest intentions of
the French Government, I observed s constant increase in
the military preparations in England, which completely
falsified my promises to the Emperor. And now we were
daily threatened with a proposal for a large outlay for
fortifications. I added that, if the latter scheme were
announced, I should feel disinclined again to see the
Emperor.”

It was not long before the proposal was launched, and
Cobden was perfectly prepared for it. The momentous
subject of military expenditure had in truth divided Cobden’s
active interest with the Treaty since the beginning of the
year. It had been incessantly in his mind, harassing and
afflicting him. If he had been capable of faltering or
despondency, it would have unnerved him for the difficult
1860.

 

768 LIF8 OF OOBDEN. (ozap,

contest which he was every day waging. The financial

. arrangements connected with the Treaty itself, had not been

carried through Parliament very smoothly. The episode of
the Paper duties in the House of Lords was a curious in-
terruption to serious business. Lord John Russell had
brought in a Reform Bill, but the Prime Minister was
notoriously hostile to it, and the Parliament was thoroughly
Palmerstonian at heart. It was a session of confusion
and cross purposes. “ke House of Commons is an
uncertain sea,” wrote one of the most competent observers
to Cobden, “soon up with any shift of the wind. It got
disorganized by the proposed Reform Bill. Members were
determined not to pass it, yet they dared not commit them-
selves to a vote against it. Delay became the watchword,
and nothing was passed lest the road should be cleared for
the Reform Bill. Every day the House fell deeper into dis-
organization, and it seemed unable to recover its balance.”
In the spring and summer, the feeling in England against
France had become more and more deeply coloured with
suspicion and alarm. It had approached what an eminent
correspondent of Cobden’s called a ‘maniacal alarm.”
There was in this country, he was told, “such a resolute
and one-sided determination to throw all responsibility on
our neighbours, to presume the worst, to construe every-
thing in that sense, to take credit for perfect blamelessness,
”? Tt was observed by
one who was himself a churchman, that among the most
active promoters of the panic and the necessity for imme-

as mere argument cannot surmount.

' diate preparation were the country clergy. A famous

bishop went about telling a story of a Frenchman who had
told him that he knew the Emperor’s mind to be quite un-
decided whether to work with England for liberty, or to
work against England for absolutism, beginning the work
with an invasion, The annexation of Savoy had kindled s
xxx.) LORD PALMERSTON’S DISTRUST. 769

fire in England which a breath of air might blow into a con-
flagration,

The experts in foreign politics surpassed themselves in
the elaborateness of their ignorance. One peer who had
actually been minister for foreign affairs, gravely argued
that if the annexation of Savoy should take place, the
formation of a strong kingdom in the north of Italy would
not be feasible, as that kingdom would be open at both
extremities, by the Alps to France, and by the Mincio to
Austria, The newspapers and debates teemed with foolish
jargon of this kind. It is like a return to the light of day
to come upon that short but most pithy speech (Mar. 2,
1860), in which the orator said that he did not want the
Government to give the slightest countenance to the project
of annexation, but, he exclaimed in a memorable phrase,
“Perish Savoy—though Savoy will not perish and will not
suffer—rather than the Government of England should be
involved in enmity with the Government and people of
France in a matter in which we have no concern whatever.”

Unfortunately, Ministers shared the common panic. Lord
Palmerston had, until the winter of 1859, been the partisan
of the French Empire. He had been so ready to recognize
it, that his haste involved him in a quarrel with his colleagues
and the Court. He was the minister of that generation who,
more than any other, had shown penetration and courage
enough firmly to withstand the Germanism which Prince
Albert, in natural accordance with his education and earliest
sympathies, had brought into the palace. He had come
into power in 1859, mainly because the people expected him
to stand by the Emperor in the emancipation of Italy. But
in the winter of 1859 he wrote a letter to Lord John Russell,
then the Foreign Secretary, saying that though until lately
he had strong confidence in the fair intentions of the Emperor
towards Kngland, yet he now began to suspect that the

3D

1860.
tr. 56.

 
770 LIFH OF COBDEN. fomas.

1360. intention of avenging Waterloo had only lain dormant,

zr. 66, “You may rely upon it,” he said to the Duke of Somerset,
“that at the bottom of his heart there rankles a deep and
inextinguishable desire to humble and punish England.” ‘
Later than this, at the beginning of 1860, it is true that he
admitted that although the Emperor differed from us about
certain conditions, and the interpretation of certain conditions
of the treaty of peace with Russia, yet the points in dispute
were settled substantially in conformity with our views.
“There is no ground,” he said, “for imputing to him bad
faith in his conduct towards us as allies.” Notwithstanding
this, the imputation of bad faith as a future possibility lay
persistently in men’s minds. Lord Palmerston’s apprehen-
sions were shared by all the other members of his Govern-
ment, save two; they were echoed in the reverberations of
ten thousand leading articles; and they were eagerly seized
by a public which seems to be never so happy as when it is
conjuring up dangers in which it only half believes.

Lord John Russell wrote a characteristic note to Cobden
(July 3), announcing a formal notification of an article which
prolonged the labours of the commission until November 1.
“T hope,” Lord John Russell proceeds, “that long before
that time arrives, you will have completed your glorious
work, and laid the foundations of such an intertwining of
relations between England and France that it will not be
easy to separate them. It is curious and amusing to me,
who remember how Huskisson was run down for proposing
a duty on silk goods so low as 30 per cent., to hear the pro-
tectionists abuse France for not having a much lower duty.
My belief is that 15 per cent. will protect their chief manu-
factures. In the meantime I wish to see this tight little
island made almost impregnable. It is the sole seat of
freedom in Europe which can resist a powerful despot,

* Ashley's Life of Lord Palmerston.
xxx1j KB. GLADSTONE’S POSITION. 971

and I am for ‘civil and religious liberty all over the —

world.’””

There was one powerful man in the Cabinet who did his
best to stem the dangerous tide. But though in the session
of 1860 Mr. Gladstone had delighted the House and the
country by the eloquence and the mastery of his budget
speech of February, and by the consummate skill with
which he conducted his case in the debates that followed,
yet he was a long way from the commanding eminence at
which he arrived afterwards when Jord Palmerston’s place
in the popular imagination became empty. If he had left
Lord Palmerston’s Government, the effect would perhaps
hardly have been greater than it was when he left the
Government of Sir Robert Peel in 1845, or that of Lord
Palmerston himself in 1855. But the struggle in the
foram of his own conscience was long and severe. He
felt all the weakness of the evidence by which his
colleagues justified the urgency of their suspicions and the
necessity for preparation. He revolted from the frank
irrationality of the common panicmonger of the street and
the newspaper. As a thrifty steward he groaned over the
foolish profusion with which he saw his masters flinging
money out of the window. He was in very frequent cor-
respondence with Cobden, and Cobden brought to bear upon
him all his powers of persuasion, supported by a strong and
accurate knowledge of all that the French Government had
to show in defence of their own innocence. It is hardly too
much to say that Cobden at this time subjected Mr. Gladstone
to the same intense intellectual and moral pressure to which he
had subjected Peel fifteen years before. But the Chancellor
of the Exchequer, in the spirit of Lord Palmerston’s appeal to
Cobden himself to come within the citadel, decided that he
could do more good by remaining in the Government than
by leaving it. At the close of the session, marked as it had

1860.
Air. 56.
772 LIFE OF OOBDEN. (omar.

1860. been by more dazzling proofs than his career had ever

 

41.56, furnished before of eloquence and intellectual power, his
position in Parliament and the country was certainly weaker
than it had been six months ago.

Cobden at least was no harsh judge. At the beginning
of the year, when writing to Mr. Bright about the Treaty, he
had said, “I have told you before that Gladstone has shown
much heart in this business... . . He has a strong aversion
to the waste of money on our armaments. He has no class
feeling about the Services. He has much more of our
sympathies. It is a pity you cannot avoid hurting his
convictions by such sallies as [—sally not now worth repro-
ducing]... He has more in common with you and me
than any other man of his power in Britain.” And later in
the year, “I agree with you that Gladstone overworks
himself. But I suspect that he has a conscience which is at
times a troublesome partner for a cabinet minister. I make
allowances for him, for I have never yet been able to define
to my own satisfaction how far a man with a view to utility
ought to allow himself to be merged in a body of men called
@ government, or how far he should preserve his indivi-
duality. If he goes into a government at all, he must make
up his mind sometimes to compromise with his own con-
victions for a time, and at all events to be overborne by a
majority of his colleagues.”

Meanwhile, the Government insisted on what they re-
garded as the policy of security. On July 10, Cobden
wrote to Lord Palmerston a long letter, calmly and ear-
nestly urging reasons against a new scheme of defensive
armaments. He began with a few words about the Treaty,
and the date at which they might expect to end their
labours. The Treaty, he said, had been the engrossing
task of the French Government for the last eight
months, and M. Rouher was then foregoing his autumn
a

xxx1) COBDEN’S REMONSTBANOS. 773

holidays in order to complete the work. Cobden then goes
on :—

“The systematic and resolute manner in which these
reforms have been entered upon leave me no reason to
doubt that the Government contemplate a complete revo-
lution in their economical policy, which will lead to an early
and large increase in the commercial intercourse of the two
countries, and to an amelioration of their social and political
relations. Now it is evident that this is a very different
prospect from that which is generally entertained in England,
where the public mind has been systematically misled,
apparently with the design of effecting some temporary and
sinister object. The extraordinary military and warlike
displays of the last few months in England have also tended
to diminish the hopes which were at first entertained in
connexion with the Treaty. And this state of discourage-
ment in the public mind has been increased by the rumour
that it is the intention of the Government to propose a large
increase to our permanent defences. For as this will be to
commit ourselves to a future and somewhat remote ex-
penditure, rather than to provide against a present danger,
it would be tantamount to a declaration on the part of the
Government that they have no faith in any ultimate advan-
tages from the Treaty.

“Tt is on this point that Iam more immediately led to
address you. It seems to me that the two questions are
intimately connected; and I venture to suggest that in
fairness to the public and to Parliament, as well as to the
Government itself, the result of our negotiations here
should be known, before the country is pledged to a farther
large outlay for defensive armaments. Let it be under-
stood that I ask merely for the delay of a few months;
and I ask this on the ground that there is not only
a general ignorance in England as to what the value of

1860.

45r, 66.
774 LIFE oF OOBDER. (cnar,

1860. the Treaty is likely to be (for it cannot be known even to

2r, 66, myself until the French tariff is ready for publication),
but that a widespread suspicion has been created that the
French Government is playing an uncandid part in the
negotiations. Should the Treaty prove as unsatisfactory in
its details as is predicted by those who are urging us to an
increase of our warlike preparations, I shall have nothing to
say in opposition to such a policy. But if, as I expect, the
French Government should take but a single step from their
probibition system to a tariff more liberal than that of the
Zollverein or the United States, then I think the public
mind in England will undergo a considerable change as to
the prospects of peace with our great neighbour; and it is
doubtful whether the country would, on the very eve of such
a change, subject itself to increased burdens in anticipation
of a rupture with its new customer. All I desire is that it
should be allowed a choice when in possession of a full
knowledge of these circumstances.

“There is another reason why I am induced to press this
subject on your attention. It has been evident to me from
the first that political considerations entered more largely
than those of an economical] kind into the motives which
induced the Emperor to embark at this time on the career
of Commercial Reform. Doubtless he was satisfied that this
new policy would be ultimately advantageous to his people;
but there was no necessity for immediate action, and, con-
sidering the great derangement of powerful interests, and
the large amount of opposition and unpopularity involved
in the change, there was nothing which invited one even s0
bold as himself to enter prematurely upon the task. His
immediate objects were to strengthen the friendly relations
of the French and English peoples, and to give the world an
assurance that he did not contemplate a career of war and
conquest. And J did not hesitate to assure him and his
x71] LORD PALMERSTON’S REPLY. 775

most influential advisers that nothing would be so cordially 1880.
accepted by the English people, as a proof of his pacific Air. 66.
intentions towards them, as the adoption without reserve of
a liberal commercial policy.

Tt will be readily perceived that if, in addition to all that
has been done, the Government should announce a great
scheme of defensive armaments, and thus before my labours
are completed, discredit by anticipation the political value
of the Treaty, it will considerably weaken my position here.
Bear in mind that the duties are not yet finally settled on
any of the articles of the French tariff, every item of which
has to be discussed and arranged by the plenipotentiaries,
between the extreme rates of five and twenty per cent. I
do not allege that the French Government will be led by
the hostile bearing of England to adopt a system of retalia-
tion in the terms of the Treaty. But in the important dis-
cussions on the details of the French tariff (and it is wholly
a question of details), I shall be placed in very disadvan-
tageous position, and shall find myself deprived of those
arguments with which I most successfully urged the adop-
tion of the Free Trade policy, if in the meantime the present
Government commits itself, and, what is still more important
in the sight of France, if it be allowed to commit the Free
Trade and popular party in England, to u permanent attitude
of hostility and mistrust.”

The answer to this weighty remonstrance was forth-
coming a week after Cobden wrote it, and it came through
the House of Commons. On July 23 Lord Palmerston
made his speech. He introduced a resolution for con-
structing works for the defence of certain royal dockyards
and arsenals, Dover and Portland, and for erecting a central
arsenal. After speaking in general language of the horizon
being darkened by clouds that betokened the possibility of a
tempest, Lord Palmerston proceeded :—“ The Committee of
1860.
Air. 56.

 

776 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [oniar

course knows that in the main I am speaking of our imme-
diate neighbours across the Channel, and there is no use in
disguising it. It is in no unfriendly spirit that I am speak-
ing. No.one has any right to take offence at considerations
and reflections which are purely founded upon the principles
of self-defence.” He admitted that he hoped much from
the Treaty, but a treaty waa a frail defence. It would be
folly to rely on its future effects, so long as our sea frontier
was vulnerable. There were, moreover, circumstances in
the state of Europe leading us to think that we might soon
have to defend ourselves from attack. France had an army
of 600,000; of these 400,000 were actually under arms, and
the remainder could be called into the ranks in a fortnight.
He did not mean to say that such a host was raised for the
deliberate purpose of aggression, but still the possession of
power to aggress frequently inspires the will to aggress. It
was not only the army that suggested these apprehensions.
The navy, too, had been greatly strengthened, so that our
neighbours would have the means of transporting within a
very few hours a large and formidable body of troops to our
shores.

Cobden’s plea in reply to all this had been given by anti-
cipation, in a postscript to the letter from which I have
already quoted. “I am of course writing,” he had said,
“ with the conviction that France has done nothing in the
way of warlike preparations to justify our demonstrations in
England. I have had good opportunities of satisfying my-
self that the most monstrous exaggerations have been
current in England respecting the naval strength of this
country.” And this was quite true. Cobden had taken as
much trouble as the responsible head of a department, or
much more perhaps, to find out from visits to Nantes and
elsewhere, as well as from constant conversations with the
French authorities and the English naval attaché, whether
xxx] LORD JOHN RUSSELL’S BEPLY, wag

any real change in the proportion between the imperial navy _ 1860.
and our own was taking place. He had satisfied himself air. 66.
that there was no evidence whatever of the alleged change.

Lord Palmerston seems to have handed Cobden’s letter to
Lord John Russell, who wrote in reply :—

« July 31, 1860.

“My pear Mr. Cospzn,—I infer from your last letter
that you think the plan for fortifications will interfere with
the arrangements of the Commercial Treaty. I cannot
understand this. The Emperor wishes to defend France ;
he completes Cherbourg ; he adopts a peace army of 600,000
men. Not a word of complaint. We add to our navy, and
propose to fortify the arsenals where they are built and
repaired. We are accused immediately of warlike inten-
tions. Is it to be deliberately said that France may be
armed, but that we should be unarmed? Belgium, Ant-
werp, Dover, Portsmouth, would in that case soon fall into
French possession.

“I am anxious for the completion of the Commercial
Treaty. But I cannot consent to place my country at the
mercy of France.—I remain, yours very truly,

“J. Russe.”

To this Cobden replied (Aug. 2, 1860) with an emphatic
statement, which he often repeated in various forms, but
which those who accuse him of wishing for peace at any
price carefully overlook :—

“My peak Lorp Joun Russeww,—So far am I from
wishing that ‘we should be unarmed,’ and so little am I
disposed to ‘ place my country at the mercy of France’ (to
quote the language of your note), that I would, if necessary,
spend one hundred millions sterling to maintain am irre-
sistible superiority over France at sea. I had satisfied myself
778 LIVE OF OOSDER. (omar.

1860. that we were in this position of security, and that there was

 

41,66. no foundation for the reports of the sudden or unusual
increase of the French navy before I addressed my letter to
Lord Palmerston. .... Recollect that we had voted for
our armaments for this year nearly 30,000,0001., before the
fortification plan was proposed. I do not see any limit to
the future expenditure if, when a further increase is objected
to, every existing provision is to be ignored, and we are.
met with the answer that, unless the additional outlay be
agreed to, we shall be unarmed.”

On the same day on which Cobden wrote in this way,
Mr. Bright, in a speech of the highest power and sagacity,
had shown equally clearly that it was not the policy of
security which he opposed, but the mistaken means of
carrying it out. After illustrating the almost daily advances
that were taking place in the engines of war, Mr. Bright
said :—T am one of those who believe that at a time like this,
when these remarkable changes are taking place, . . . . the
course of an honest and economic government should be to
go on slowly, cautiously, and inquiringly, and not commit
themselves to a vast expenditure which twelve months’
experience may show to be of no value at all.”

If it was answered that the occasion was urgent, then
Cobden’s rejoinder by anticipation in his letter to Lord
Palmerston was perfectly good, namely, that the expenditure
on fortifications was remote and spread over a number of
years, and therefore could hardly be designed to meet an
immediate and pressing danger. Lord Palmerston’s speech
we now see, at the distance of a score of years, to have been
a dangerous provocation to Napoleon instantly to make the
very descent for which we declared ourselves to be unpre-
pared. If Napoleon had really cherished the bitter design
of avenging Waterloo, of which Lord Palmerston suspected
xxx1,] E¥¥KOT IN PARI6. 779

him, he would not have waited for the completion of the 1860.
fortifications. The effect in Paris was what Cobden had atr. 56.
foreseen, as the entries in his journals testify.

“ July 25.—Called on Lord Cowley, and in the course
of conversation expressed my disapproval of Lord Palmer-
ston’s project for fortifying the British coasts at the expense
of ten or twelve millions sterling. I also censured the tone
of his speech in alluding to France as the probable aggres-
sor upon England. ‘The scheme and the speech were a
mockery and insult to me, whilst engaged in framing the
Treaty of Commerce; and I frankly avowed that if I had
not my heart in the business in which I was engaged here,
I would return home and do the utmost in my power to
destroy the Ministry, and thus prevent it from committing
the popular party to the policy of the present Government.
He admitted that Lord Palmerston’s speech was inja-
dicious in having alluded so exclusively to the danger to be
apprehended from France.

“July 26.—Lord Palmerston’s speech in the House of Com-
mons has produced considerable emotion in the political
circles of Paris. The proposal to spend nine millions on for-
tifications has occasioned less offence than the speech which
accompanied it, wherein he directed the apprehensions of
the country towards France exclusively as the source of our
danger of attack and invasion. People speak of it as an
indication that our Court and aristocracy are inclined to
renew the policy of 1792, by forming another coalition in
opposition to France. They say that the inspiration of our
policy in arming and fortifying comes from Berlin and
Brussels through the British Court.

“July 28.—Dined with Mr. P and a party at the
restaurant of Philippe. M. Chevalier, one of the company,
told me a curious story about a recent interview between
M. Thouvenel, the French Foreign Minister, and Lord

 
 

780 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [onar,

1860. Cowley. The latter, after confessing some perplexity in
4,56. making the communication, informed the former that Lord

Palmerston had obtained from some person in the secret a
copy of the plan of the Emperor for seizing on London!
He had also procured from a similar source the information
that the Emperor had entered into an arrangement with
Cavour, by which France was to secure a further aggran-
dizement of territory. Both stories were received as
laughably untrue. M. Chevalier says there are chevaliers
d’industrie who manufacture these marvellous stories, and
sell them to newspapers or to credulous statesmen. Both the
above canards had, he said, been sold to Lord Palmerston
and by him been transferred to his colleagues of the Cabinet.

“ August 2.—In a conversation with M. Rouher, the
Minister of Commerce, he related to me the incident, men-
tioned previously by M. Chevalier, of Lord Cowley having
called on M. Thouvenel, the Foreign Minister, to ask for
an explanation respecting » secret treaty alleged to have
been entered into’ by France and Sardinia, by which the
latter was to be allowed to annex the whole of the Italian
States on the condition of ceding to the French Emperor
another slice of territory. He described in a graphic way
the embarrassment of the British envoy in disclosing the
delicate object of his visit; how, after many shrugs and
wry faces, and sundry exhortations from the French Minister,
he at last revealed the secret; how this was followed by an
earnest disavowal, on the personal honour of M. Thouvenel,
upon which, after many fresh protestations of regret and
perplexity, Lord Cowley produced from his pocket a copy
of the Treaty, which he handed to the French Minister, who
thereupon langhed heartily, and assured him that it was not
worth the paper on which it was written, and that in fact
the English Government had been the victim of a very
clumsy hoax,
xix] M. ROUHER ON LORD PALMERSTON’s SPEECH. 781

“M. Rouher spoke in indignant terms of the speech 1860.
lately delivered by Lord Palmerston in the House of Com- Air. 66.
mons when introducing the measure for fortifying the naval
arsenals, in which he founded his scheme entirely upon the
danger to be apprehended from France. He characterized
the policy of our Cabinet as a pitiful truckling to the
popular passions of the moment, for the sole object of
securing a majority in Parliament, in disregard of the in-
teresta of commerce and civilization and the higher duties
of statesmanship. He spoke at some length and with much
eloquence on this subject, and remarked that he regretted
there was not a tribune in France from which he could
speak for half an hour in answer to Lord Palmerston. He
said that this speech had increased the difficulties of the
French Government in carrying out liberally the terms of
the Treaty, for it deprived them of the argument that it
would ameliorate the moral and political relations of the
two countries. He denied the truth of Lord Palmerston’s
assertion that the French navy had been unduly increased.
Alluding to the letter which the Emperor had written to
Count Persigny in consequence of Lord Palmerston’s speech,
he remarked that it had wounded the susceptibilities of the
French people, who dislike to see their sovereign treat with
so much consideration, and so much on the footing of equality,
a statesman who had recently offered so many insults to
France. I hear from many other quarters that the Em-
peror’s letter has hurt the self-love of all classes of the
French people. It is a significant fact that it has not been
published in the Moniteur.

“ August 27.—Called on M. Rother in the morning and
had some conversation on the subject of our proposed
arrangements for completing the French tariff. He men-
tioned that he had been speaking to Lord Clarendon upon
the language used by Lord Palmerston in the House of

 
982 LIFA OF CORNER, (onas,
1860. Commons, and had censured the levity with which he had

 

4x. 66. for mere momentary objects in the House embittered the
relations of the two countries and endangered their peace.
He observed that the conduct of Lord Palmerston had added
immensely to the difficulties of the French government in
carrying out the details of the Treaty, for it had cut from
under their feet the political grounds on which they had
justified themselves to the influential members of the
protectionist party, who now taunted him with having failed
. to secure the English alliance by the Free-Trade concessions.
He said that the Emperor’s letter to M. Persigny was not
intended for publication, but that the Emperor was impor-
tuned by the latter to allow it to be given to the world.

* August 31.—Called on Prince Napoleon, who informed
me he was going shortly on a visit to England, where he
would study our agriculture, and travel into Scotland as
far as Inverness. I hoped he would visit Manchester and
Liverpool, and make a speech on the Commercial Treaty.
He complained of the language of Lord Palmerston in the
House towards France, and intimated that it would be well
for the peace of the world that be were removed from the
political stage, if not from the stage of life. He said the
great danger to be dreaded from these attacks upon France,
made by our leading statesmen from political motives, was
lest the Germans, and particularly Austria, should infer that
they would be supported in a war with France by England,
and thus be encouraged to make a rupture with this country.
He attributed our present hostile attitude towards France
to the influence exercised at our Court by the royal families
of Prussia, Belgium, etc. The English Conrt, he said, in the
present equally balanced state of parties, exercised a great
sway over the rival aristocratic candidates for office.

“September 4.—Lord Granville called, and I took the
opportunity of commenting on the conduct of the Goverm
<xxt]  PRINCH NAPOLEON AND OOUNT FuRsiany. 784

ment during the late session of Parliament, particularly with 1860.
regard to Lord Palmerston’s gratuitous attacks on France Air. 56.’
in his speech on proposing the project of fortifications. I
showed the enormous superiority which we already possessed
at sea before the expenditure on coast defences was proposed,
that we had 84,000 men and boys voted for our navy against
30,000 in France; that our expenditure was 15,000,000.
and theirs 6,000,0001.

“ September 5.—M. de Persigny (French Ambassador to
London) dined with me, and we had a long conversation
apon the politics of the two countries. I referred to the
report that the Emperor had ordered eight more frégates
blindées to be built, which he seemed to admit to be true,
and I expressed an opinion that it would only lead to our
building double as many iron-cased line-of-battle ships in
England. I added that this could only lead to an indefinite
expense on both sides, and that unless an end could be put
to this insane rivalry it would lead to a war. I said I
blamed the French Government for taking the initiative in
these matters, which he did not appear able to meet. He
agreed that it would be necessary to endeavour to bring the
two governments to an understanding by which some limit
could be put to this warlike rivalry. He expressed an
opinion that it would be left to a Tory government to carry
out this policy. He complained of the levity with which
Lord Palmerston trifled with the peace of the two countries ;
and he spoke of the difficulties which he encountered in his
relations with our Government, owing to the want of a
consistent and reliable policy on the part of the Ministry,
who altered their course to suit the caprice of the House of
Commons from day to day.”

Meanwhile, the fabric of a tariff was ae rising out of
space. In September, a storm ruffled the surface of Cobden’s
diplomacy. The new rates of duty on iron and other metal
 

Air. 66.

784 LIFR OF COBDEN. [ouar,

wares in the French tariff were to come into operation on
the 1st of October. Cobden had been holding daily con-
ferences with M. Rouher for settling the necessary altera-
tions in the tariff, and was at length (Sept. 10) able to
report that the work was nearly completed. Lord Cowley
expressed a wish to take instructions from home before he
signed the convention. In vain Cobden pointed out to him
the impossibility of revising the French tariff in London
without the assistance of the French Ministers, and the
Ministers would certainly not go over the matter again.
At that moment, moreover, the heads of departments
were absent from London, and a most embarrassing and
dangerous delay wonld necessarily take place in consequence.
Lord Cowley did not feel that he could give way, and a
copy of the tariff was sent home. When the tariff reached
London, the Foreign Office hesitated to accept the figures
without reference in detail to the Treasury, the Customs,
and the Board of Trade. It was true that both the Board
of Trade and the Customs had sent their representatives to
supervise the proceedings in Paris. It was clearly ex-
plained to the Foreign Office how impossible it would be to
revise a French tariff in London. The President of the
Board of Trade was away in his yacht, and nobody knew
where to find him. In the meanwhile his department
had written to the Foreign Office, deprecating as useless, if
not mischievous, any attempt to revise the French tariff in
London, and advising that it should be accepted as it left
the hands of the Commission in Paris. “The Board of
Trade,” said one of its Presidents, “is merely an opinion-
giving department, and our advice is often disregarded,
especially when it is right.’ It was disregarded now, and
the tariff remained hung up in the most stubborn of all the
Circumlocution offices. The first day of October was rapidly
epproaching. The French Ministers were astonished at a
xxx1.] DELAY IN SIGNING THE OONVENTION. 785

delay which was unintelligible. “Iam amazed,” M. Rouher 1860.
said to Cobden, “that a country like England should allow air. 56.
& great commercial question to be treated in this con-
temptuous way. Had it been Caraccas or Guayaquil or
Turkey, I should have understood it. But here is a Treaty
of Commerce between England and a nation of thirty-six
millions of people within two hours of its shores—probably
the greatest event in her commercial annals—and it does
not seem to create sufficient interest in the Government to
induce the President of the Board of Trade to remain for a
few days at his post, or even to leave his address where a
despatch will find him.” He added that he had some reason
to believe that perhaps there would be no great regret in
some quarters, if Cobden did not meet with too great success
in his negotiations. Success might procure for him a
degree of influence that might, it was feared, possibly be
used against the Government.

Cobden suggested to M. Rouher that if they could only
sign such @ portion of the tariff as was to come into opera-
tion on the Ist of October, they might at least publish the
whole tariff, on the ground that the first portion was likely
to be the least satisfactory to the English man ufacturers,
and it was unadvisable therefore to expose it to hostile
criticism for a week or ten days before the rest could be
published. When this was explained at the next meeting
of the plenipotentiaries, a rather disagreeable scene took
place. ‘ Lord Cowley,”’ says Cobden, “jumped up from
his chair and, seizing his hat, declared with considerable
excitement that he would leave the room, throw up all re-
sponsibility, and leave the matter in my hands ; that I had
undertaken to act without his consent, and in opposition to
his instructions, etcetera. In vain M. Rouher explained that
he had acted on my personal assurance, and that what I had
anid did not bind me as a plenipotentiary, and still less Lord

38
786 LIFE OF COBDEN. [OHAP,

_1860. Cowley. The whole scene ended in Lord Cowley refusing

“&r.56. to sign the whole of the tariff on metals, and so we ap-
pended our signatures only to that portion which comes
into operation on October 1.” This, it should be said here,
was the only occasion when any difference arose between
Cobden and the English ambassador. ‘ Do not say a word,”
he had written to Mr. Bright a few weeks before, “ to dis-
parage Lord Cowley. He has acted a very manly part,
and has done his best to help me.”

The continued delay as to the text of the Convention
chafed Cobden almost beyond endurance. “When the post
of plenipotentiary was conferred on me, without my solicita-
tion,” he writes in his diary, “T little thought that it would
subject me to feelings of humiliation. Yet this has been
the case during the last week; for I find that I am paraded
at meetings of the plenipotentiaries with my hands tied,
without the power of solving the merest question of detail.
When I filled the post of commercial traveller at the age of
twenty, I was entrusted with more discretionary power than
is now shared by Lord Cowley and myself while filling the
office of H.M.’s plenipotentiaries. The name might more
appropriately be changed to that of nullipotentiary. The
points on which this delay is created by the Foreign Office,
are so trivial and unimportant as almost to defy comprehen-
sion. It fairly raises the suspicion whether there be not an
occult influence at work st home, unfavourable to my success,
and which wonld not grieve even if I were to fail in my
Treaty altogether, or to abandon the undertaking in weari-
ness and disgust.”

The suspicion that his labours were not popular with
the Cabinet was undoubtedly well founded, but in this
particular instance Cobden was probably only suffering
from that jealous and surly spirit which the Foreign Office
thinks businesslike. Lord Cowley wrote to him good-
x11] THE CONVENTIONS SIGNED. 787

naturedly :— You will not bless the day when you made 1860.

 

acquaintance with diplomacy. But as you have now got air. 56.
entangled in our meshes, you must take us as we are,
for better, for worse.” The truth seems to be that Lord
Palmerston, who knew little or nothing of the merits
of the matter, thought in a general way that official
form or the national dignity required that a certain
number of objections should be raised. Mr. Milner Gibson
was compelled to hurry down to Broadlands, to prove by
word of mouth to the Prime Minister that they were wasting
time in mere strawsplitting. The Foreign Office held out
upon the following point. If an importer were proved to
have made a declaration of value to the amount of ten per
cent. under the real value, he should be liable to penalties.
No, our Government said, ten per cent. is not margin
enough: the importer must not be punished unless his
under-declaration should amount to fifteen per cent. on the
real value. In fact, this was only making things a little
easier for dishonest men. M. Rouher said that he would
accept the alteration if it were pressed, but that it would
disincline him for the adoption of further ad valorem duties.
This was explained to Lord Cowley, and after an inter-
change of telegrams, the alteration was abandoned.

It was October 12 before the first supplementary con-
vention was signed, fixing the duty on work in metals.
The second supplementary convention, embracing the re-
mainder of the French tariff, was signed on November 16.
On this day the labours of the Treaty came to an end.
Cobden summed up his grievances in the following passage
in his journal, referring immediately to the earlier of the two
conventions, but substantially conveying his impressions of
the performance as a whole :—

“This convention was ready for signature, so far as the
negotiation here was concerned, on the 18th September, and
788 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [cuap.

1860. the delay which has taken place is attributable to our
Ar. 56. Foreign Office, to their habitual procrastination, the desire
to meddle, and I fear also to the willingness on the part of
some of the officials in that department to find fault with
my performance. My position is that of a poacher, and
their feeling towards me is akin to that of gamekeepers
towards a trespasser in quest of game. I am afraid, too,
that the majority of the Cabinet is not very eager for my
complete success here. The tone of our Court is very hos-
tile to the French Emperor, and in the present nearly-
balanced state of political parties the Court has great
influence. There is an instinctive feeling on the part of our
aristocratic politicians that if the Treaty should prove suc-
cessful, and result in a largely increased trade between
France and England, it would produce a state of feeling
which might lead to a mutual limitation of armaments, and
thus cut down the expenditure for our warlike services on
which our aristocratic system flourishes. The firat attempt
at delaying the Treaty, and perhaps detracting from my
merit in its preparation, was the proposal to revise again the
tariff in England ; and when I had proved the absurdity and
impossibility of doing this, and had induced them to leave it
precisely as I had sent it home, then the Foreign Office
officials fell upon the tezt of the convention, and by insisting
on certain alterations produced a further delay. The attempt
to substitute fifteen for ten per cent. for the amount of
undervaluation which should subject importers to a fine,
and other attempted changes in this part of the convention,
whilst they cansed further postponement, were calculated to
weaken my influence with the French Minister by revoking
an engagement to. which I had become a party. These
points have at last been most unwillingly yielded, after
occasioning me great trouble and annoyance. The clause
which 1 had agreed to for regulating the doty on sugar was
xxx] OOBDEN AND MB. BRIGHT WITH THE EMP£ROR. 789

rejected, though it was proposed merely for the convenience
of the French Minister in controlling his own producers, and
could not possibly be prejudicial to our interests. The
clause also respecting the Visa of French Consuls in
England was altered at the Foreign Office, with no other
practical result than to give needless offence to the French
negotiators, and M. Herbet, one of the Commissioners,
pronounced it to be very ‘blessant.’? Altogether the
spirit which animates the officials at home is very hostile
and mistrustful to the French Government; and it is evi-
dent that, whilst this spirit lasts, it is quite impossible that
any negotiation between the two Governments, with a view
to limit their respective armaments, can be entered on with
any chance of success.”

In November Mr. Bright came to Paris to pay his friend
a short visit. ‘‘I cannot allow you to leave Paris,” he had
written, “to go south to Algiers, or Egypt, or even to
Cannes or Nice, without trying to have an evening or two
with you.” The day after his arrival they called on Prince
Napoleon, who told them that the English Government
ought to invite the Emperor to bring away his troops from
Rome. According to Prince Napoleon, England could not
do the French Government a greater service. On the
following day they saw the Emperor himself.

“ Nov. 27.—Mr. Bright and I had an audience of the
Emperor. He asked if I was satisfied with the Treaty, and
I replied that, with the exception of the article of iron, I
did not complain. I told him that if iron had been taken
last instead of the first item in the tariff, it would have been
dealt with more boldly. He intimated that greater reduc-
tions would follow. He expressed to Mr. Bright his high
sense of the course he had taken in always trying to pre-
serve a good understanding between the two countries. He
again complained (as he had done before to me) that his

1860.
At. 56
1860.

 

Air. 56.

790 LIF® OF OOBDEN. [cuar,

_ intentions towards England were misrepresented by certain

people. He laughed at the reports that he was preparing
some boats for the invasion of England, when it turned out
they were intended to carry coals from the interior to Brest.
He alluded to the conduct of an English lady, and said he
had a letter written by her to M , saying, ‘ Will nobody
be found to shoot that rascal?’ meaning the Emperor. He
alluded to the affairs of Italy, and seemed to be especially
puzzled what to do with the Pope. In reference to Venetia,
he said he had suggested to Mr. that a pamphlet
should be written recommending that Austria should sell
the independence of that Italian province for a sam of
money. In the course of our conversation he mentioned as
a secret that he had bought the Chronicle, London news-
paper, and he offered to put it into Bright’s and my hands,
to be under our control.’ I parried this proposal by saying
that such arrangements could never be kept secret, and I
rather surprised him by saying that I had heard some
months since of his having bought that newspaper.”

This interview had been sought by the Emperor's visitors
from no idle motives. Most of the hour was taken up with
the subject of passports. The two Englishmen had come
there to bring arguments to bear which should induce the
Emperor to abolish this troublesome restraint on the inter-
course of nations. It naturally followed as a part of the
policy on which France had entered in the Treaty; and the
Emperor felt that the persuasion of his visitors could not
be logically resisted. This proved to be another instance of
the value of the informal diplomacy of reasonable and en-
lightened men. Mr. Bright was struck by the great con-
fidence which Napoleon seemed to feel in Cobden, and by
the degree in which his mind was open to argument. After

 

 

§ Mr. Bright does not recollect that the Emperor said he had bought the
Ohronicle, but that he had secured an infinence in it or over it.
mj ABOLITION OF PASSPORTS. 791

Mr. Bright returned to England, Cobden persevered with
the good work.

“‘ December 6.—Dined at M. Chevalier’s. Met Count de
Persigny, who has just returned from the Embassy to
England and entered on the duties of Home Minister. We
spoke upon the subject of passports. I mentioned to him
the conversation I had had with the Emperor when
Mr. Bright and I had an audience with him. He (Count P.)
seemed inclined to put an end to the present system of pass-
ports between France and England, and to substitute a
mere visiting card, which should receive the stamp from the
consular agent at the port of embarkation, and which should
serve as a ticket of admission into France. Although
admitting that this would bean improvement on the present
system, I advised him to make a clean sweep of all travel-
ling permits, and to content himself with a police surveil-
lance when a person became settled; I said that a billet de
séjour might be required to be taken out by all Englishmen
who took up their abode in any part of France.”

Two days later Cobden wrote a letter to Persigny,
now become Minister of the Interior, urging many reasons
why he ought to abolish passports without substituting
any other precaution in their place. The abolition of pass-
ports with regard to British subjects was passed a week
later (December 16). Some of the English newspapers
chose to say that the change had been made at the inter-
cession of the Empress, who was delighted at the manner
in which she had been treated in England. “The pass-
port reform,” Cobden wrote to Mr. Bright, “is capital.
To-day, Chevalier writes to say that the French post-
master is prepared to increase the weight of letters,
and I am writing by this post to Rowland Hill to say
that he has only to make the proposal. Thus in the
same year we have the tariff, abolition of passports, and a

 

Air. 56.
1860.
Air. 56.

 

792 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [onar.

postal facility. The question arises naturally, why should
not our Foreign Office accomplish some good of this kind ?
I do not want to throw any blame on Lord Cowley, but can
it be doubted that much more of the same kind might be
done if there was a will ? ”

This ietter to Persigny was Cobden’s last act before
leaving Paris. On the 9th of December, accompanied by
his wife and eldest daughter, he left Paris on his way to
Algiers. He had never quite shaken off the effects of the
illness which had attacked him in the previous winter.
He used to say of himself that he was wholly the creature
of atmosphere and temperature. His throat was con-
stantly troublesome, and when cold ‘and damp weather
came, his hoarseness returned with growing severity. He
had a nervous dread of the London fog, from which he had
suffered the autumn before, and from which he was snffering
even now, and he had an irresistible craving for the sunshine
of the warm south. His doctor warned him that a single
speech to a large audience might destroy his voice for ever ;
and he was beset with invitations to public meetings and con-
gratulatory banquets. We cannot wonder at his eagerness for
rest. “When I began last winter,” he wrote to a friend, “as
a, volunteer in the corps of diplomacy, I little dreamed what a
year’s work ] was preparing for myself. Certainly mine
has not been an idle life, but I never had so tough a task in
hand as that which I have just finished. And much as my
heart was in the work, I feel intensely satisfied that it is at
an end. Nor do I think, if I must confess so much, that J
could again go through the ordeal. It would not be easy
to explain to you what it has been, but if I should again
have the pleasure of toasting my knees by your fire, I
could explain it in a few sittings.’’*

He remained in Algiers until the following May. While

® To William Hargreaves. Nov. 18, 1880.
xxx1) RROEPTION OF THE TARIFY IN ENGLAND. 793

he was absent, his friends began to talk about some 1861.
public recognition of his services by the Government. The &r. 57
Tariff had been received with almost universal approval in
the various centres of English industry. Manchester, after a
day or two of hesitation, pronounced at last a decided ver-
dict. In spite of some difficulty about drills, the linen-men
of Belfast were well pleased. The slate people and the
leather people frankly declared that the new duties were all
that they could desire. Bradford and Leeds, Nottingham and
Leicester, rose to enthusiasm. The London newspapers, it
is true, were nearly all silent, but the great merchants and
manufacturers all over the country were thoroughly awake
to the volume of wealth which the Treaty would pour into
Great Britain. They asked one another whether, while
grants of money were always lavished on men who achieved
successes in war, the Government could leavs unnoticed a
man who had just achieved so vast a success in the field of
industry and peace. Asa matter of fact, the authorities of —
the Foreign Office, it is said, did not even pass the account
of the mere expenses of the Commission, a sum of little more
than 3000/. in all, without much ungracious demur. There
was a rumour that a vote of money to Cobden would be
submitted to the House, but it is believed that the Govern-
ment declined the suggestion. It was customary, as it
seemed, to make presents of money to military men for
doing their duty, but there was no precedent for offering
such a reward to volunteer diplomatists. Cobden’s friends
probably answered that there was no precedent for his
disinterested labour. What his own mind was upon this
subject is seen in the following letter to Mr. Bright :—

“ Algiers, 4 Feb., 1861.

“Tf there be the slightest whisper in any quarter of pro-
posing to vote me any money for the work I did in Paris, I
1861.

 

At. 57.

794 LIFE OF OOBDEN. {onap.

rely on your putting a stop to it. Whether such an idea
ever occurred to a member of the Government I should
doubt. But kind and officious friends have suggested it. I
repeat, from whatever quarter it may be spoken of, I rely
on your representing my feelings and determination by pre-
venting its being publicly advocated, or, if so, by declining
itin my name. It is bad enough to have neglected one’s
affairs till I am obliged to see something of this sort done
privately for my family. But the two processes would be
intolerable.

« Besides, if there were no other motive, I do not wish to
allow the Government to be my. paymaster, for a totally dif-
ferent reason. The conduct of the head of the Government
during my negotiations was 80 outrageously inconsistent, so
insulting to myself in the position in which I was placed, so
calculated to impede the work I had in hand, and to render
it almost impossible for the French Government to fulfil its.
intentions, that, as I told Lord Cowley, if my heart had not
been in my work, I should have thrown up my powers and
gone home. I allnde, of course, to Lord Palmerston’s
speech on the fortification scheme, and to his still worse
one, if possible, just before the close of Parliament. If I
had done justice to myself, I should have put on public
record in a formal despatch my opinion of this conduct,
which threw ridicule and mockery on my whole proceedings.
But I was restrained solely by a regard for the cause in
which I was engaged. I was afraid that the real motive was
to prevent my completing the work, and was cautious there-
fore not to give any good ground for quarrelling with me
and recalling me.

“To form a fair judgment of this reckless levity and utter
want of dignity or decency on the part of the Prime Minister,
just turn to the volumes of the Life of the first Lord Auck-
land, who was sent by Pitt to negotiate the Commercial
XXXL) HIS FHBLING ABOUT THE ENGLISH GOVERNMENT. 795

Treaty with France in 1786. I have not seen the book, but
T can tell you what you will not find in its pages: you will
not read that in the midst of those negotiations Pitt rose in
the House and declared that he apprehended danger of a
sudden and unprovoked attack on our shores by the French
king; that (whilst history told us that we had 84,000 men
voted for our navy to the 31,000 in France, and whilst we
had 150,000 riflemen assembled for drill) he, Mr. Pitt, pur-
sued the eccentric course of proposing that the nation should
spend ten millions on fortifications, and that he accompanied
this with speeches in the House in which he imputed
treacherous and unprovoked designs upon us on the part of
the monarch with whom his own plenipotentiary was then
negotiating a treaty of commerce in Paris. On the contrary,
you will find Pitt consistently defending, in all its breadth
and moral bearings, his peaceful policy, and it is the most
enduring title to fame that he left in all his public career.’

7 Cobden was justified in the contrast on which he insisted between Pitt’s
relations with Eden, and Lord Palmerston’s treatment under similar cir-
cumstances. The Auckland Correspondence (i. 86—122) shows that Pitt
entered into the details of the project which he had initiated, with the
liveliest zeal and interest. Oddly enough, in the course of the negotiations,
suspicions arose in England of the sincerity of the French Government on
the same grounds as were discovered in 1860—the alleged increase of
the French navy, and a royal visit to Cherbourg, which was supposed to
mean mischief to Portsmouth and Plymouth. EHden, however, like Cobden,
insisted that at Versailles there was every appearance of a belief that
Great Britain and France ought to unite in some solid plan of permanent
peace—though Eden, unlike Cobden, laid down the general proposition that
*it is difficult to feel confident in the sincerity of any foreign court.” The
English papers embarrassed the Government by their demand for the
destruction of Cherbourg, but Pitt kept a ooo] head, along with his firm
hand, in the difficult negotiations which followed the Commercial Treaty.

In defending the Treaty, Pitt made the declaration which caused him to
be taunted with his degeneracy from the spirit of Chatham: “I shall not
hesitate to contend against the too-frequently expressed opinion that
France is, and must be, the unalterable enemy of England. My mind
revolts from this position ag monstrous and impossible. To suppose that
any nation can be unalterably the enemy of another is weak and childish.”
Fox, unluckily for the wholeness of his reputation, insisted on imputing
ainister motives to France in the Treaty negotiations.

1861.
Air. 57.

 
796 LIFE OF OOBDAN, (crtar.

1861. Yet he had far stronger grounds for suspecting the

4.67. French king of hostile designs, or of feeling resentment
towards him, for we had only three years previously closed
@ disastrous war with our American colonies, whose success-
ful revolt was greatly the result of the unwarrantable
assistance rendered to them by the French Government.
On the other hand, Palmerston had not one hostile act
towards us to allege against the sovereign with whom I was,
with his sanction, engaged in negotiating the Treaty. The
whole affair is so shockingly gross and offensive to serious
minds, that, unless we are to degenerate to a nation of
political mountebanks, it cannot be much longer tolerated
that we are to be governed and represented by such
persons.”

The Government proposed no vote of money, but they
did not intend to leave the negotiator of the Treaty with-
out honourable recognition. While he was in Algiers,
Cobden received the following letter from the Prime
Minister :—

"94, Piccadilly, 26 March, 1861.

“My pgzar Mz. Cospen,—The Queen being desirous of
marking the sense she entertains of the public service
rendered by you during the long and laborious negotiations
in which you were engaged on the subject of the Com-
mercial Treaty with France, her Majesty hos authorized
me to offer to you either to be created a Baronet, or to be
made a Privy Councillor, whichever of the two would be
most agreeable to you.

“1 am aware that you might not perhaps attach any great
intrinsic value to distinctions of this kind, but as an acknow-
ledgment of public services they would not fail to be appre-

ciated.
“My dear Mr. Cobden, yours sincerely,

& PaLMEBaTON.
xx1x1] LETTEB FROM LOBD PALMERSTON. 797

“I hope your health has derived all the benefit you de- _ 1861.
sired from the milder winter climate of Algeria. You have | Alt, 67.
at all events escaped the severest English winter upon
record.”

To this Cobden made the reply that might have been,
and probably was, anticipated :—

* Algiers, 13th April, 1861.

“My pear Lorp Patmerston,—I beg to acknowledge the
receipt of your letter of the 26th March, which reached me
yesterday only, on my return after an absence of ten days
from Algiers. Whilst entertaining the same sentiment of
gratitude towards the Queen which I could have felt if I
had accepted the offer you have been so good as to make
me in her name, J must beg permission most respectfully
to deny myself the honour which her Majesty has graciously
proposed to confer on me. An indisposition to accept a
title being in my case rather an affair of feeling than of
reason, I will not dwell further on the subject.

“With respect, however, to the particular occasion for
which it is proposed to confer on me this distinction, I may
say that it would not be agreeable to me to accept a re-
compense in any form for my recent labours in Paris. The
only reward I desire is to live to witness an improvement
in the relations of the two great neighbouring nations which
have been brought into more intimate connexion by the
Treaty of Commerce.

«J remain, my dear Lord Palmerston,
“ Yours sincerely,
“ R, Coppen.

“In reply to your kind inquiry, I may say that my health
has derived much benefit from the beantiful summer
weather which I have had the good fortune to experiance
798 LIF® OF OCOBDEN. (om. xxx

1861. here. The winter has been exceptionally fine with us,

 

tr. 57. whilst it seems to have been unusually severe in England.”

No other course could have been reconcilable with Cob-
den’s pure and simple type of citizenship. To him the ser-
vice was its own reward. The whole system of decoration
was alien to the antique and homely spirit of his patriotism.
He never used great words about such things, nor spoke
bitterly of those who coveted and prized them. On one
occasion Mr. Gladstone, not long after the conclusion of the
Treaty, invited him to one of his official state dinners. “To
tell you the truth,” Cobden replied, “I have never had the
courage to get a court costume; and as I do not like being
singular by coming in ordinary dress, I will beg you to
excuse me.” There were no heroics about him in encounter-
ing these trifling symbols of a social ordering with which he
did not sympathize. He merely practised, almost without
claiming it, the right of living his own plain life, and
satiefying his own ideals of civic self-respect.
CHAPTER XXXII.
THE POLICY OF THE COMMERCIAL TREATY,

Tr will be convenient to insert here a few short remarks on
the general character of the work that Cobden had now
accomplished. We shal] find that under a different form
it must still be regarded as an extension of the same prin-
ciples which had inspired his first great effort. It was one
more move in the direction of free exchange. By many
prominent men, indeed, at the time, and by many more
afterwards, the Treaty was regarded as an infraction of
sound economic principles. Some came to this opinion from
lack of accuracy, but more from a failure in copiousness of
thought. One or two of those who had been with Cobden
in the van of the assault on the Corn Laws, now looked
askance on a transaction which savoured of the fallacy of
reciprocity. Those rigid adherents of economics who insist,
in Mill’s phrase, on treating their science as if it were a
thing not to guide our judgment, but to stand in its place,
denounced the doctrine of treaties as a new-fangled heresy.
Even the old Protectionists professed a virtuous alarm at an
innovation on the principles of Free Trade.

The discussion of 1860 did little more than reproduce a
discussion that had taken place seventeen years before.
When Sir Robert Peel entered office, he found four sets of
negotiations pending for commercial treaties, between
England and France, Portugal, Spain, and Brazil. Those

1860.

 

Ait. 56
800 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [cHAP.

1860. with France were obviously the most important. Affairs

4ir.66. in Syria had interrupted them, but Peel resumed the nego-
tiations. He was most anxious for a Tariff Treaty. “1
should not,” he said, as Pitt had said before him, and
as Cobden and Mr. Gladstone said after him, “ estimate
the advantage of an extended commercial intercourse
with France merely in respect to the amount of pecu-
niary gain; but I value that intercourse on acconnt of
the effect it is calculated to produce in promoting the
feelings of amity and goodwill between two great nations.
I should regard that mutual intercourse in commercial
affairs as giving an additional security for the permanent
maintenance of peace.”’ Unfortunately, the negotiations
fell through. Guizot said that he could not pass any such
measure through the Chambers. Nor was there better
success in other quarters.

In 1843, Mr. J. L. Ricardo had introduced a resolution in the
House of Commons, declaring the inexpediency of postponing
remissions of duty with a view of making such remissions
a basis of commercial negotiations. This was a reply from
the pure economic party to Peel’s statement already quoted
(see above, p. 240), that he did not reduce the wine duties
because he hoped to make them the instruments of treaties
with foreign countries. Ricardo prefaced his resolution by
a speech, which was very able, but which pressed for Free
Trade without delay, restriction, or qualification. The only
process to which they need resort against hostile tariffs was
to open the ports. Mr. Gladstone answered Ricardo by the
same arguments that were afterwards used to defend his own
policy in 1860. Mr. Disraeli, not at all disclaiming Free
Trade as a general policy, supported Mr. Gladstone against
the ultra-Free-Traders in a speech remarkable to this day
for its large and comprehensive survey of the whole field of

) Apeil BK, 1842.

 
sxxtt) STATE OF THE QUESTION IN 1843. 801

our commerce, and for its discernment of the channels in
which it would expand. On the immediate question, Mr.
Disraeli gave a definite opinion in support of the Minister.
“Tn forming connexions with the states of Europe,” he
said, “it was obvious that we could only proceed by nego-
tiations. Diplomacy stepped in to weigh and adjust con-
tending interests, to obtain mutual advantages, and as-
certain reciprocal equivalents. Our commerce with Europe
could only be maintained and extended by treaties.” ’

Cobden supported Ricardo’s motion, not on the rather
abstract grounds of the mover and others, but because it
was a way of preventing a Government “ which was the
creature of monopoly, from meddling with any of our com-
mercial arrangements.” The envoy to Brazil, he said,
had been sent out to obtain the best terms for the West
Indian sugar monopolists, and he quoted the description by
a Brazilian senator, of the people of Great Britain as the
slaves of a corn, sugar, coffee, and timber oligarchy.

Was it fit, Cobden asked, that the executive government
should be allowed to go all over the world to seek for im-
pediments to Free Trade abroad, in order to excuse them in
resisting the removal of impediments at home? It might
be very well to talk of a commercial treaty with Portugal,
but abolish the monopolies of sugar, corn, and coffee, and
the vast continents of North and South America would be
opened to the manufactures of Great Britain. Charac-
teristically enough, he kept close to the immediate and
particular bearings of the discussion, and nothing was said
by him in 1848 that was inconsistent with his position in
1860. Ricardo, again, in 1844 brought forward a resolution
to the effect that our commercial intercourse with foreign
nations would be best promoted by regulating our own

2 Feb. 14, 1843. “Sign the treaty of commerce with France,” Mr.
Disraeli cried, “that will give present relief.”

3F

 

ir. 56,
$02 LIFE OF OOBDEN. {omat.

_ 1860. customs duties as might be best suited to our own interests,
Ax. 66. without reference to the amount of duties which foreign
powers might think expedient to levy on British goods. The
discussion was very meagre, and the House was counted out.
To return to the Treaty of 1860. Cobden, unable to be pre-
sent to defend his measure in the House of Commons, took
up the points of the case against it in a letter to Mr. Bright:—
“T observe that some of the recent converts to Free
Trade, who gave you and me so much trouble to convert
them, are concerned at our doing anything so unsound as to
enter into a Commercial Treaty. I will undertake that there
is not a syllable on our side of the Treaty that is inconsistent
with the soundest principles of Free Trade. We do not
- propose to reduce a duty which, on its own merits, ought
not to have been dealt with long ago. We give no conces-
sions to France which do not apply to all other nations.
We leave ourselves free to lay on any amount of internal
duties, and to put on an equal tax on foreign articles of the
same kind at the Custom House. It is true we bind our-
selves, for ten years, not otherwise to raise such of our customs
as affect the French trade, or put on fresh ones; and this, I
think, no true Free Trader will regret.

“And here I may suggest, that if you observe the mem-
bers on the Opposition side averse to parting with the power
of putting on higher customs duties on these articlés of
French origin, it may be well to read them a lesson on the
impossibility of their being able to lay any further burdens
on commerce in future, and to remind them that if they
sanction higher expenditure, they must expect to pay it in a
direct income tax. Public opinion, without any French
Treaty, is daily tending to this result.

“ There being no objection on the ground of principle,
there are, and will be, many specious arguments resorted to
by those who really at heart have no sympathy for a cordial
txx.] OOBDEN'’S VINDICATION OF THE TREATY. 804

union between the two nations, for defeating or marring the 1860.
projected Treaty. Of course these fallacies you will easily Air. 56.
deal with. I observe they often answer themselves. For
instance, in the same breath, we are told that we have
emptied our budget and given everything to France already,
and then that we are going now to give everything and
receive nothing. Then we are told that it is very wrong to
reduce the duties on French wines, because France is going
to lower the duties on British iron; and in the same breath
are reproached for including Spain and Portugal in our
‘concessions,’ without obtaining anything in return! I am
really half inclined to share your suspicions that there are
influences at work, hostile to any policy which shall put an
end to the present state of armed hostility and suspicion
between France and England. God forgive me if I do any
body of men the injustice of attributing to them wrongfully
such an infernal policy. It is, perhaps, hardly consciously
that anybody would pursue such a course.

“ But surely, if people wished to see the relations of the
two countries improved, they would never attempt to impede
the only sure means of attaining that end by such frivolous
objections. These people seem to think that Free Trade in
France can be carried by a logical, orderly, methodical pro-
cess, without resorting to stratagem, or anything like an
indirect proceeding. They forget the political plots and con-
trivances, and the fearful adjuncts of starvation, which were
necessary for carrying similar measures in England. They
forget how Free Trade was wrested from the reluctant
majorities of both our Houses of Parliament. Surely Louis
Napoleon has as good a right, and may plead as strong
motives of duty, for cheating (if I may use the word) the
majorities of his Senate into an honest policy, as Peel had in
dealing with the House of Lords. The Emperor of the
French was elected by the whole people, not only to ad-

 
1860.
Air. 56.

 

804 LIF® OF COBDEN. (owas.

minister their laws, but to legislate for them. They do not
expect, as we do in England, to initiate reforms.. They look
for amelioration from above. When speaking with the
Emperor, he observed to me that the protected interests
were organized, and the general public was not; and, there-
fore, the contest was as unequal as between a disciplined
regiment and a mob. The answer was obvious: ‘Your
Majesty is the organization of the masses.’ And I am
earnestly of opinion that he is now acting under this impulse
and conviction.”

The direct effects of the Treaty upon the exchange of
products between England and France have been too pal-
pable, to be denied. In 1858 the total exports from
England to France amounted to no more than nine million
pounds, and the imports from France to thirteen millions.
Nineteen years later, in 1877, the British exports and
re-exports had risen from nine to twenty-five million pounds,
and the imports from France to forty-five millions.

The indirect effects of the Treaty were less plainly
visible, but they cannot be left out of account if we seek
to view the Treaty policy as a whole. England cleared her
tariff of protection, and reduced the duties which were
retained for purposes of revenue on the two French staples
of wine and brandy. France, on her part, replaced prohibi-
tion by a system of moderate duties. If this had been all,
it might have been fair to talk about reciprocity, though
even then, when it is a reciprocity in lowering and not
in raising duties, the word ceases altogether to be a term
of reproach. But the matter did not end here. The
Treaty with France was not like the famous Methuen Treaty
with Portugal (1703), an exclusive bargain, to the specified
disadvantage of a nation outside of the compact. In 1703
we bound ourselves to keep our duties on French wines one-
third higher than the duty on the wines of Portugal. This
xxx) PECULIARITY OF OOBDEN’S TREATY. 805

was the type of treaty which Adam Smith had in his mind _ 1860
when he wrote his chapter on the subject. Pitt’s Treaty ir. 56.
with France (1786) was of a different and better kind; and
his motive in making it was not diplomatic or political, as
had been the case in the old-fashioned treaties of commerce,
but truly economical and social. He wished to legalize the
commerce which was carried on illegally, and to an immense
extent, by smuggling, always the spontaneous substitute for
free trade; and he boldly accepted, moreover, the seeming
paradox that reduction of duties may lead to increase of
revenue.’ Neither party stipulated for any peculiar ad-
vantages. Still, the benefits of the Treaty were confined to
the two nations who made it. In 1860 England lowered her
duties, not only in favour of French products, but in favour
of the same products from all other countries. The reforms
which France and England now made in favour of one
another, in the case of England actually were, and in the
case of France were to be, extended to other nations as
well. This was not reciprocity of monopoly, but reciprocity
of freedom, or partial freedom. England had given up the
system of differential duties, and France knew that the pro-
ducts of every other country would receive at the English ports
exactly the same measure and treatment as her own. France,
on the other hand, openly intended to take her Treaty with
England as a model for Treaties with the rest of Europe,
and to concede by Treaty with as many Governments as
might wish, a tariff just as favourable as that which had
been arranged with England. As a matter of fact, within
five years after the negotiations of 1860, France had made

8 “Only 600,000 gallons of French brandy were legally imported in a
year, while no less than 4,000,000 of gallons were believed to be every year
imported into England. And since there was a total prohibition of French
cambrics, every yard of them sold in England must have come in by illicit
meang.”"—Lord Stanhope’s Life of Pett, i. 816-17.
806 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [owar.

1860. Treaties with Belgium, the Zollverein, Italy, Sweden and
4r. 66. Norway, Switzerland, and Austria.

In these, and in the treaty made afterwards by England
with Austria, Sir Louis Mallet reminded its opponents in
later years, that each of them had a donole operation. Not
only does each treaty open the market of another country to
foreign industry; it immediately affects the markets that
are already opened. For every recent treaty recognized the
“most favoured nation” principle, the sheet-anchor of Free
Trade, as it has been called. By means of this principle, each
new point gained in any one negotiation becomes a part of the
common commercial system of the European confederation.
“By means of this network,” it has been excellently said by
a distinguished member of the English diplomatic service,
“of which few Englishmen seem to be aware, while fewer
still know to whom they owe it, all the great trading and
industrial communities of Europe, i.e., England, France,
Holland, Belgium, the Zollverein (1870), Austria, and Italy,
constitute a compact international body, from which the
principle of monopoly and exclusive privilege has once for
all been eliminated, and not one member of which can take
off a single duty without all the other members at once par-
taking in the increased trading facilities thereby created.
By the self-registering action of the most favoured nation
clause, common to this network of treaties, the tariff level of
the whole body is being continually lowered, and the road
being paved towards the final embodiment of the Free Trade
principle in the international engagement to abolish all duties
other than those levied for revenue purposes.”

In face of unquestioned facts of this kind, nothing can be
less statesmanlike than to deny that the treaties since 1860
have helped forward the great process of liberating the ex-
change of the products of their industry among the nations
of the world. It is amazing to find able men so overmastered
rxxm.] DOUBLE OPERATION OF THE TREATY. 807

by a mistaken conception of what it is that eccnomic gene-
ralization can do for us, as to believe that they nullify the
substantial service thus rendered by commercial treaties of
Cobden’s type to the beneficent end of international co-
operation, by the mere utterance of some formula of
economic incantation. If the practical effect of the com-
mercial treaties after 1860, as conceived and inspired by
Cobden, has been,-without any drawback worth considering,
to lead Europe by a considerable stride towards the end
proposed by the partisans of Free Trade, then it is absurd to
quarrel with the treaties because they do not sound in tune
with the verbal jingle of an abstract dogma. It is beside
the mark to meet the advantages gained by the international
action of commercial treaties, by the formula, “Take care of
your imports, and the exports will take care of themselves.”
The decisive consideration is that we can only procure
imports from other countries on the cheapest possible terms,
on condition that producers in those countries are able to
receive our exports on the cheapest possible terms. Foreign
producers can only dothis, on condition that their governments
can be induced to lower hostile tariffs; and foreign govern-
ments are only able, or choose to believe that they are only
able, to lower tariffs in face of the strength of the protected
interests, by means of a commercial treaty. The effect of a
chain of such treaties—and the chain is automatically linked
together by the favoured nation clanse—is to lower duties all
round, and lowering duties all round is the essential and
indispensable condition of each country procuring for itself
on the lowest possible terms imports from all other
countries.

It is an economic error to confine our view to the imports
or exports of our own country. In the case of England,
these are intimately connected with, and dependent upon,
the great circulating system of the whole world’s trade.

1860.
Ait. 56.

 
1860.
Ait. 56.

 

808 LIFE OF OCOBDEN. [onar.

Nobody has fully grasped the bearings of Free Trade, who
does not realize what the international aspect of every com-
mercial transaction amounts to; how the conditions of pro-
duction and exchange in any one country affect, both actually
and potentially, the corresponding conditions in every other
country. It is not Free Trade between any two countries
that is the true aim; but to remove obstacles in the way of
the stream of freely exchanging commodities, that ought,
like the Oceanus of primitive geography, to encircle the whole
habitable world. In this circulating system every tariff is an
obstruction, and the free circulation of commodities is in the
long run as much impeded by an obstruction at one frontier
as at another.‘ This is one answer to an idea which has been
lately broached among us, under stress of the temporary
reaction against Free Trade. It has been suggested that
though we cannot restore Protection in its old simplicity,
yet we might establish a sort of National Imperial Customs
Union among the English dominions. The territory over
which the flag of Great Britain waves, is so enormous and so
varied in productive conditions, that we could well afford, it
is urged, to shut ourselves within our own walls, developing
our own resources, and consolidating strong national senti-
ment, until the nations who are now fighting us with pro-
tective tariffs come round to a better mind. The answer to
this is that the removal of the restriction on the circulation
to a more distant point would not affect the vital fact that
the circulation would still be restricted and interrupted. To
induce our colonies and dependencies to admit our goods
free, would of course be so much gained ; just as the free-
dom of interior or domestic commerce, which was one of the
chief causes of the early prosperity of Great Britain, was by so
much a gain over the French system, which cut off province

4 This is worked out with vigour and acouteness in the admirable pamphlet
published by the Cobden Club in 1870, entitled, Commercial Treaties: Free
Trade amd Internationalism. Four Letters by a disciple of Richard Oobdas
xxx] THE EOCONOMIO OIROULATION. 809

from province by customs barriers during the same period. _ 1860.
But freedom of internal commerce, whether within an island at. 56.
or over a wide empire, is still not the same thing as universal
freedom of exchange. An interruption, at whatever point
in the great currents of exchange, must always remain an
interruption and a disadvantage. England is especially in-
terested in any transaction that tends to develope trade
between any nations whatever. We derive benefit from it in
one way or another. The mother country has no interest in
going into a Customs Union with her colonies, with the idea
of giving them any advantage or supposed advantage in
trading with her over foreign countries.

It is not enough, therefore, to remove our own protective
duties, though Peel may have been right under the circum-
stances of the time in saying that the best way of fighting a
hostile tariff is by reforming your own. It is the business
of the economic statesman to watch for opportunities of
inducing other nations to modify duties on imports; because
the release of the consumers of other nations is not only a
stimulus to your own production for exportation, but has
an effect in the supply of the imports which you declare to
be the real object of your solicitude.

This was the conception at the bottom of the Commercial
Treaty of 1860. ‘A treaty with France,” said Mr. Glad-
stone, “is even in itself 2 measure of no small consequence ;
but that which gives to a measure of that kind its highest
value is its tendency to produce beneficial imitation in other
quarters. It is the fact that, in concluding that Treaty, we
did not give to one a privilege which we withheld from
another, but that our Treaty with France was, in fact, a
treaty with the world, and wide are the consequences which
engagements of that kind carry in their train,”
CHAPTER XXXIIL

MISCELLANEOUS CORRESPONDENCE, 1859-60—pParIs—RETUEN
TO ENGLAND.

1859. Tue business of the Treaty did not prevent Cobden from

41. 55. keeping up his usual copious correspondence. Much of it,
as might be expected, had to do with his work in Paris;
but he kept a keen eye upon what was going on elsewhere,
and no effort that pointed in the right direction escaped
him. Some extracts from the correspondence of this period
will still be found interesting, both because they illustrate
the character of the writer, and because they contain ideas
on questions which even now are far from having run their
fall course.

(1.) To Mr. Bright.

On December 1, 1859, Mr. Bright made a speech at Liverpoul,
upon the invitation of the Financial Reform Association of that
city. In this speech he unfolded a plan, which, as has been
truly said of it, involved a complete financial revolution. The
main features of the proposals were, that the income tax, the
assessed taxes (except the house-tax), the tax on marine and fire
insurances, and the excise on paper, should be repealed; all
duties in the tariff should be abolished, save those on wine,
spirits, and tobacco; and, to replace the deficiency thus
created, there should be a tax of eight shillings on every hundred
pounds of fixed income.

Dec. 16, 1859.—“ I have been much pleased with the
perusal of your masterly statement at Liverpool, every
MISCELLANEOUS OORBESPONDENOE, 1859-60. 811

word of which I have read. After all, I hardly know that 1858.
the Liverpool men could do a better service than in preach- ir. 55.
ing the abstract doctrine of direct taxation. People are
attracted by the advocacy of a principle, to which alone we
can feel any strong and lasting devotion. The threat of
direct taxes held over our aristocracy, may perhaps do a
littleto restrain their proneness to Government extravagance;
and it will help an honest Chancellor of the Exchequer to
move forward in the path of commercial reform. There is
an apparent tendency in your speeches to advocate the
interest of the working class as apart from the upper
classes. Now, I am sorry to say that whenever the case is
so posed, there is a tendency in the middle class to range
themselves with those above them, to resist a common
danger. Your witticism of the middle class being invited to
be the squire of the class above has been realized. Therefore,
Ihave always studiously abstained from using the words
‘working class,’ as apart from the middle class, in discussing
the question of taxation. For you see how eagerly your
opponents parade the poor widow of 1001. a year. I cannot
separate the interest of the small shopkeeper and the
labourer, or the manufacturer and his operatives, in the
question of taxation. Indeed, ultimately, God has made
all our interests in the matter one and indivisible. Ido not
believe there is a hairsbreadth of difference between us, but
you seem to take the working class sometimes too exclu-
sively under your protection. They are quite powerless as
opposed to the middle and upper classes, which is a good
reason why they should not be allowed to be made to
appear to be in antagonism to both.

“There is another point on which we should not differ in
our cool moments, but on which you are sometimes carried
away in the excitement of a speech beyond me. I mean
where you seem to assume that a wiser policy in taxation or
812 LIFE OF OOBDEN. (ona.

1859. other matters will necessarily follow from a democratic reform.
4.55. I am always willing to take my chance of the consequences
of such achange. If the majority in a democracy injure
me and themselves at the same time by unsound legislation,
Ihave at least the consolation of knowing that they are
honest in their errors, and that a conviction of their mistake
will for their own sakes lead to a change. . It is far different
where you are wronged by a self-interested minority. But
I do not feel so confident as yourself that a great extension
of the franchise would necessarily lead to a wiser system of
taxation. On this subject I got a letter lately from Senator
Mason, of Virginia, in which he says, speaking of direct taxa-
tion—‘ Our people are not yet philosophical enough to know
that it is safer to feel the tax when you pay it, than to pay it
without feeling it.” I am afraid that this rather pithy
remark would apply to all other people at present. I have
done with my dissentient remarks, which after all would
not lead me into an opposite lobby to yourself, if we had

five minutes’ discussion together,”

(2.) To Mr. Bright.

Considerations on Mr. Bright's general course and policy.

“ Dee, 29, 1859.—You will be speaking at Birmingham
again soon. It is bard to tell what to say. If you are
intense on Reform, you will have a hearty response from the
meeting, and little beyond it. If you are cooler than your
wont, you will disappoint your hearers. Were I in your
place, I should not dwell too much on the Reform topic.
But then, what else can you talk about ? I should like to
see you turn the tables on those who have wasted another
autumn on another bubble cry. But perhaps people are not
yet sufficiently out of breath with the cry to listen to you.
I observe the Times, having led the pack all through the
xxx] MB. BRIGHT’S PUBLIO APPEARANCES. 813

phantom chase, is now turning round, and saying that it 1859.
was not from fear of the French that we were called on to Air. 55.
arm. And this line is taken by its followers. I have always
observed that, as the time for the meeting of Parliament
approaches, the newspapers put on a more decent regard for
propriety and consistency. They feel that a power of re-
futation and exposure is at hand when the House is in
Session. This last autumn’s escapade of the good British
public, calling its youth to arm against an imaginary foe,
after having seen twenty-six millions voted for its protection,
is one of the most discouraging and humiliating spectacles
T have witnessed. The effect it has on me is to produce a
feeling of indifference. To be too much in earnest in the
cause of common sense, with the liability to see one’s
‘countrymen running mad every year or two after any
visionary programme launched by the anonymous writers of
the Times, is only calculated to injure one’s digestion, and
perhaps ruin one’s health; and so I try to cultivate a stoical
apathy.

“Perhaps we are wrong in aiming at producing too
large results within a given time. I do not, as I grow
older, lose my faith in humanity, and its future destinies ;
but I do every year—perhaps it is natural with increasing
years—feel less sanguine in my hope of seeing any
material change in my own day and generation. I some-
times doubt whether you would not have done more wisely
to rely on your House of Commons influence, and been
more shy of the Stump. ‘Your greatest power is in the
House. In quiet times, there is no influence to be had from
without, and if we fell into evil days of turbulence, and
suffering and agitation, less scrupulous leaders would carry
off the masses. You are not the less qualified to take your
true position, from having shown that you are an outside,
as well as an inside, leader. But I have an opmion that if
814 LIF® OF COBDEN. (omar.

1858. you intend to follow politics, and not eschew office, you
4r. 65. must in future be more exclusively a House of Commons
man.

“And then you must make up your mind to accept
certain conditions of things as a part of our English political
existence during your time. For instance, the Church and
Aristocracy are great realities, which will last for your life
and your sons’. To ignore them or despise them is equally
incompatible with the part which I think you have the
ambition to play, and which Iam sure you are competent
to perform. I remember that President Buchanan, the day
before he left London on his return to America, in the
course of a conversation over the tea-table, remarked: ‘I
leave England with the conviction that you are not yet able
to govern yourselves without the aid of your aristocracy.’
There are things to be done which you and I could make a
so-called Liberal governmert do, if we were out of the
Cabinet, without being held. ineligible by the Court and
Aristocracy (with whom the most powerful part of the middle
class will be found sympathizing) to enter it, owing to any
extreme democratic designs. But we are comparatively
powerless if we can be assumed to be excluded from the
government by either our own will, or that of the ruling
class, owing to our entertaining revolutionary or funda-
mentally subversive doctrines. One great object which I
should like to force our rulers, much against their will, to
accomplish, is the limitation of our armed force, in relation to
that of France. And this I will endeavour to promote, if I
am spared, and my present task is successful, by an appeal
to the French Government in the same unofficial way as I
am now at work upon another affair. But I feel convinced
that the great obstacle would be with our own ruling class.

“This could only be overcome by an honest party in the
House, of which you must be the head. My talking days
xxx.) CONDITIONS OF POLITIOAL LIF8. 815

are, I think, nearly over; I have no confidence in my voice 188
serving me much in future. I suffer no inconvenience now; Ar. 56.
but a hoarseness interposes if I talk much, and IJ feel as if
half an hour’s public speaking would render me inaudible.
However, I shall go to Cannes as soon as this business is
decided one way or another, which must be within a fort-
night. When I speak of being held eligible for office, I
merely refer to the power which that gives us in the House.
I have no intention to take office under any circumstances,
because I think I could do more good out of office. Besides,
it is too late even if I liked it. I am in my fifty-sixth year,
and do not come of a long-lived parentage.

“T thought of saying a few words about the state
of opinion here [Paris], the designs of the Emperor,
etcetera. I have no prejudice against a voluntary armed
force like the riflemen of Switzerland, or the militia of
America, though it is open to question whether Joseph
‘Hume was right in preferring a regular armed profession,
on the principle of the division of labour. But the origin
of our rifle corps, just after we had voted twenty-six
millions for our armed professions, as a means of defence,
and instigated by real or pretended fear of France, is such
as to make the movement a disgraceful act of folly—speak-
ing of the nation, and not of all the individuals who have
been drawn into it.”

(3.) To William Hargreaves. é
Remarks on the writings of Louis Napoleon

“Oannes, March 14, 1860.—I have been amusing myself
with reading very carefully the works of Louis Napoleon.
They are published under his own auspices, in four splendid
volumes, and are said to be without the alteration of a word.
They have been lent to me, but if you were in an extravagant
816 Lift OF COBDEN. [omar

1860. humour, they might be worth your buying. Besides the

 

2.56. interest we all have in knowing what has been passing
through such a brain for the last thirty years, the style of
his composition is a model worth studying. Baron Bunsen,
who is here, tells me, apropos of his style, that De Tocque-
ville, who died lately at Cannes, and who was no friend of the
Emperor’s, declared that Louis Napoleon was the only man
living who could write ‘monumental French.’ It is, I
suppose, the consciousness of the possession of this talent,
so greatly appreciated in France, which leads him to come
so frequently before the public in print; for if he be taciturn
in oral communications, the quality assuredly does not attach to
his pen... But when we have praised his style, we have
expressed the best that can be said of his volumes. Most
assuredly we cannot endorse all that he says as a political
economist, as the enclosed extract will show. There are
some curious historical chapters upon the progress of
artillery, a subject to which he seems to have devoted much
study, and which now possesses great interest. But the
chief charm of his works is in the absolute perfection of the
style of his occasional addresses, extending over a series of
years. That one in particular announcing his intended
marriage a8 a parvenu, and giving his reasons for making
choice of a private individual for his wife, is the most
striking of all for the ingenuity and boldness of his argu-
ment, and the beauty of its composition. I must say I
sought in vain for traces of that spirit of vindictiveness
towards England which politicians of the Horsman school
tell us, with so much solemn mysteriousness, pervades his
writings. The whole tone of his works seem to me to be
so singularly forbearing and magnanimous towards the
implacable and successful enemy of his great idol, the first
Bonaparte ; he treats the whole matter with so much philo-
sophy when referring to the death struggle between France
xxx] NAPOLEON III. AS A WRITER. 817

and England, that I wonder the alarmists and invasionists

never discovered a plot in the absence of all passionate re-

sentment towards us, which characterizes these volumes.”
The following is the passage referred to:

(CGiuvres de Napoleon, Tome Deuxiéme, p. 234.)

“L’Angleterre a réalisé le rave de certains économistes modernes ; elle
surpasse toutes les autres nations dans le bon marché de ses produits
manufacturés. Mais cet avantage, si c’en est un,'n’a été obtenu qu’au
préjudice de la classe ouvriére. Le vil prix de la marchandise dépend du
vil prix du travail, et le vil prix du travail, c’est la misére du peuple.
Il ressort d’une publication récente, que pendant les derniéres années,
tandis que l'industrie Anglaise triplait sa production, la somme employ ée
pour solder les ouvriers, diminuait d’un tiers. Elle a été reduite- de
quinze millions & dix millions de livres sterling. Le consommateur a
gagné, il est vrai, le tiers du salaire prélevé sur la sueur de |’ouvrier ;
mais de la aussi sont venus les perturbations et la malaise, qui ont
affecté profondement la prosperité de la Grande Bretagne. Si, en
France, les-partisans de la liberté du commerce osaient mettre en pratique
leurs funestes théories, la France perdrait en richesse une valeur d’au
moins deux milliards; deux millions d’ouvriers resteraient sans travail,
et notre commerce serait privé du bénéfice qu'il tire de ]’immense quan-
tité de matiéres premidéres qui sont importées pour alimenter nos manu-
factures.}

Fort de Ham, Aoft 1842.”

(4.) To W. Hargreaves.
Effect of going to and fro between London and Paris.

“ Paris, April 23, 1860.—A curious influence is exerted
on my mind in going to and fro between London and Paris,
which helps to account for what is almost unaccountable.
When in England, I find myself so surrounded with sayings
and doings which are founded on the assumption of evil
designs on the part of the Emperor towards England, that
I feel, in spite of myself, a little infected with doubt as to
our safety. In fact, I breathe an atmosphere tainted with

1 This extract contains some very erroneous doctrine as to the effect

of increasing trade on workmen. But it is not necessary to discuss the
matter here.
3G

 

1860,
fT, 56,

 
818 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [onar,

panic, and I become affected by the general uneasiness. If
this be so in my case, in spite of my predilections and my
sane surroundings, how much more must other people be
affected ? When I come to Paris, and approach close to the
imagined source of danger, all uneasiness and doubt disap-
pear from my mind. In fact all idea of England being
attacked by France is founded on the ignorance of what is
going on here, and on the play of the imagination when the
Nanger is afar off. Here is an illustration, by the way, of
the advantage which will arise from more intimate inter-
course between the two countries.”

(5.) To W. Hargreaves.
The state of Europe.

“ Paris, May 7, 1860.—I have given a note of introduc-
tion to you to an old friend, Mr. Dunville, from the neigh-
bourhood of Belfast, who with his mother and sister are
stopping a fortnight in London, on their way from this to
Ireland. They are first-rate people in our sense, and you
will be very much pleased if you pass an evening in their
society.

“We are now beginning the labours of the commission.
If I were to judge by the programme setting forth our plan
of proceedings, the task might last a couple of years. But
I take it for granted that all the intended inquiries into
every article of the French tariff will very soon shape itself
into a rule of thumb, and that the Government, which has
already all the information at its fingers’-ends, will under-
take to act on its own responsibility. Whatever may be the
result, I have made up my mind to be well abused for a year
or two. In the end, after a few years’ trial, the Treaty will
justify itself. This assumes that we remain at peace, which
the Times and its patrons seem bent on preventing.
xxxm1.] THE STATE OF EUROPE. 819

“The state of Germany is very unsatisfactory. Enormous 1860.
sums are being wasted bya very poor people in preparations Air. 56.
for war. There is a great uneasiness both with respect to
their internal and external relations. The worst of it is that, °
as I learn, influential politicians in Prussia are beginning to
hold this language: ‘We must have a war with France
sooner or later, and it is the only way in which we can get
rid of our internal discords, and swamp the small States
under the Rule of Prussia.? These people say: ‘We
should be beaten back by France at the first shock, but we
should recover everything with interest.’ My belief is, that
at this moment Louis Napoleon is about the most peaceable
person in Europe. Everybody in France is well satisfied

_-With the Savoy business, and the Emperor was never s0
popular. But he knows that he is mistrusted by all Europe,
and that it would be dangerous to attempt any fresh exten-
sion of his boundaries. However, it must not be supposed
that he has any love for the present territorial arrangements
in Europe. There is no doubt that he would like to give
Mr. Wyld an excuse for publishing another map of France.
But he would not like it at the expense of a war with
England.

“T am not very proud of the spectacle presented by our
merchants, brokers, and M.P’s., in their ovations to the
pugilist Sayers. This comes from the brutal instincts having
been so sedulously cultivated by our wars in the Crimea and
especially in India and China. I have always dreaded that
our national character would undergo deterioration (as did
that of Greece and Rome) by our contact with Asia. With
another war or two in India and China, the English people
would have an appetite for bull-fights, if not for gladiators.”
 

820 LIFE OF COBDEN. [onar.

(6.) To W. Hargreaves.
Two Reasons against Political Despondency.

* June 5, 1860.—I am sorry to see that you have been
laid up. Depend on it, you overdo the work in proportion
to your forces. Don’t let public matters worry you. Why
should you? Whatever evils befall the country, you at
least, in proportion to your strength, have done more than
your share to prevent them. There are two things which
we must always bear in mind when we grow impatient or
desponding. How much has been done before us: how
many will come after us to do what remains to be done.”’*

(7.) To Mr. Bright.

In 1860 violent disturbances broke out among the Christian
population of Syria. They were followed by the dispatch of a
force of occupation from the European powers, and a com-
missioner was appointed for the re-organization of Syria, The
discussion in the spring of 1861, between the French and
English Governments, turned on the continuance of the Euro-
pean occupation.

“ Algiers, 18th March, 1861.—From what I hear from
Paris, the two Governments are wrangling over Syrian
matters. After what I saw of the spirit of the Foreign
Office, it is always a source of wonder to me how any busi-
ness in which the two Governments are concerned ever
comes to an issue, and how they escape for six months
from a rupture. For recollect, it is not merely Lord John’s
lecturing, but the ill-conditioned temper of and the
subordinates with whom the details of the negotiations rest,

 

§ On the other hand, on July 16, 1860, writing to a friend on the agita-
tion kindled by the action of the House of Lords against the repeal of the
Paper Duties, Cobden said :—“ What strikes me in all these movements is
the absence of new men. The good old veterans of the League turn up,
but where are the young politicians?"
xxxm.] THE TURKISH QUESTION. 821

that has to be borne by the French Government. No one
can defend, on principle, the French intervention in Syria.
But our Government violates the principle of non-inter-
vention towards the Turk every day; and every statesman
in Europe, with the sole exception of Palmerston, recog-
nizes the unavoidable fall of Ottoman rule at an early day,
and the necessity of providing or recognizing some other
mode of governing Turkey. Our Government alone now
contends for the integrity of that ghastly phantom, the
Ottoman Porte, at the same time that it lends its sanction
by conferences at Paris, and commissions in Syria and Con-
stantinople, to the violation of the rights of the Sultan’s
sovereignty. It is only when it is convenient for a topic
for a diplomatic wrangle with Russia and France, or to re-
concile the British public to a war, that the Sublime
Porte is paraded as an independent Power, whose sovereign
rights are to be treated with respect. Is there no way of
bringing matters to a different attitude? In my opinion
nothing can be so dangerous as the present mode of treat-
ing the Turkish question. Hither we ought to apply the
same principle as in Italy—viz. allow the races of the same
language and religion to join in putting down a foreign
domination—or else to interfere to some final purpose, If
the Great Powers will allow the Greeks outside of the
present Turkish Empire to give their fellow-countrymen,
or at least their co-religionists of the same language and
race, material aid, they will soon succeed, with the aid of
the other Christian sects, in driving the Turks beyond the
Bosphorus, and ere long in securing possession of the coast
of Asia Minor and Syria. And why should this not be
permitted by those who are so warm in their support of
Garibaldi, who sallied forth from Nice with no better title
to overturn the Neapolitan Government than the people of
Athens or Syria would possess to drive the Turks from their

 

Air. 57.
822 LIFH OF OOBDEN. (onar.

1861. less justifiable domination in Constantinople? In fact the

 

4r.67. foreigner has practically ruled Italy longer than the
Osmanlis have possessed the ancient capital of the Greeks.
But if England is not prepared to allow the Christians to
drive out their Mahometan rulers, what is she prepared to
do? Surely it becomes a great country to have a policy
which lifts its diplomacy out of the reach of mere intrigue
and endless altercation and gossip, such as characterizes our
present abortive proceedings on the Turkish question. The
way in which we tolerate, nay perpetuate, the hideous evils
of the Sultan’s Government, because it is not convenient to
our politicians to bring the Eastern Question to an issue—the
way in fact in which we prevent a body from dying which
is no longer able to live, and look on complacently whilst
millions of intelligent beings are suffering from contact
with this despotism, tends to degrade Englishmen in the
eyes of foreign nations, presenting us in the light of a
selfish and unsympathizing people.

“There are a couple of volumes of De Tocqueville’s corre-
spondence and remains lately published, and in his letters
to Senior and other English friends (which are full of in-
terest), he alludes very delicately to the little sympathy
felt for us in our Indian troubles by the nations of the
Continent, and attributes it to the general impression that
prevails (and which he says is not quite unfounded), that
the English people make their foreign policy entirely sub-
servient to their own narrow interests.”

(8.) To Samuel Lucas.
The Syrian Massacres—French Intervention.

“ Paris, August 16, 1860.—I am disappointed that more
is not said and done to create sympathy for the many
thousand homeless widows and orphans in Syria. So great
xxxtit.) SOBER POLITIOS OF PEEL AND ABERDEEN. 823

a calamity, so near to our doors by steam and telegram,
ought to excite more compassion. Pray advocate subscrip-
tions to relieve the sufferers. Money is really the form in
which intervention is most needed, though I would not say
a word in opposition to French succour in a more potent
form. How are the guilty to be punished, or those sold
into captivity to be recovered, unless an Huropean armed
force appear on the scene? The Turkish soldiers cannot be
depended on, for the simple reason that they are not paid.”

(9.) To Mr. Bright.

Free Trade could only have been carried while the Nation was in a
sober mood.

“To my eye, from this distance, there seems a strange
contempt of sober domestic politics among the English
people. They have been blasés by wars in India and the
Crimea and by the great events of the Continent, and are
like people who have drunk to excess, or eaten nothing but
spiced meats, and cannot relish anything less exciting. I
have often thought how lucky we were that when struggling
for Free Trade in corn, the Continent was slumbering under
Louis Philippe’s soporific reign, and that we had to deal
with statesmen like Peel and Lord Aberdeen, who were
too honest and sedate to get up a war or foreign compli-
cations to divert attention from home grievances. Think
how impossible it would be in these times to keep public
attention for seven years to one domestic grievance. Why
Garibaldi would draw off the eyes of the country from any
agitation you could raise in our day! The concentrated
earnestness with which political parties were at work in the
United States, inspired me with full faith that the people
of the country would, in spite of the difficulties and dangers
of their political issues, work out their salvation. If I had

1861.

 

Ait. 57.
1860.
Bir. 66.

 

824 LIFE OF COBDEN. {ousr.

found them engaged in settling the affairs of the whole
world, instead of their own, I should have despaired.”

(10.) To Wiliam Hargreaves.
Annexation of Savoy.

T should like to know what practical result is likely to
follow from our Foreign Minister persevering in borrowing
the tone of Mr. Kinglake and Sir Robert Peel in his
despatches to the French Government. The annexation of
Savoy to France is a ‘fait accompli.’ The bargain has
pleased Piedmont, the Savoyards, and the French people,
the only parties really interested ; and why, instead of the
snarling, dissatisfied tone in which our Foreign Minister
persists in treating the matter, cannot he dismiss it with a
little of the dignity with which the Russian or Austrian
Government has got rid of the disagreeable affair. There
is nothing so unworthy of a nation, or even of a man, as a
tone of dissatisfied criticism which leaves no after resource
but a fit of pouting and sulking. It is a style of contro-
versy fit only for the nursery. I should like to know
whether the correspondence now going on between our
Foreign office and the American Government upon the
subject of the island of St. Juan, is conducted in the same
captious, irritating tone as that which has characterized some
of our recent despatches to France, Austria, and Naples.
If so, the train is being laid for either a war or a great
humiliation.”

(11.) Zo William Hargreaves.
Hopelessness of our rule in India.

“Pars, August 4, 1860.—To confess the truth I have
no heart for discussing any of the details of Indian manage-
ment, for I look on our rule there as a whole with an eye of
despair. Whether you puta screen before your eyes and
xxxuL] BRITISH RULE IN INDIA. 825

call it a local army, or whether you bring the management 1860.
face to face in London, the fact is still the same. The atr.56.
English people in Parliament have undertaken to be re-
sponsible for governing one hundred and fifty millions of
people, despotically, in India. They have adopted the
principle of a military despotism, and I have no faith in
such an undertaking being anything but a calamity and a
curse to the people of England. Ultimately, of course,
nature will assert the supremacy of her laws, and the white
skins will withdraw to their own latitudes, leaving the
Hindoos to the enjoyment of the climate to which their
complexion is suited. In the meantime we shall suffer all
kinds of trouble, loss, and disgrace. Every year will witness
an increased drain of men and money to meet the loss
entailed on us. In the meantime, too, an artificial expan-
sion of our exports growing out of government expenditure
in India, will delude us as to the value of our ‘ possessions”
in the East, and the pride of territorial greatness will
prevent our loosening our hold upon them. Is it not just
possible that we may become corrupted at home by the re-
action of arbitrary political maxims in the East upon our
domestic politics, just as Greece and Rome were demoralized
by their contact with Asia? But Iam wandering into the
regions of the remote future. It is, however, from an
abiding conviction in my mind that we have entered upon
an impossible and hopeless career in India, that I can never
bring my mind to take an interest in the details of its
government.”

(12.) To Henry Ashworth.
The War in China,
“ Paris, August 27,1860.—* * * * I have been watching
with interest the course of events in China, where it seems
we are performing the double and rather inconsistent task
1860.

 

“Ar. 66.

$26 LIFH OF COBDEN. (ortar.

of aiding the rebellion in the interior and putting it down
on the coast! It is well known that by our wars with the
Chinese—by paralysing the central government and destroy-
ing its prestige with its people,—we help the rebels in their
work of confusion and slaughter. But on their approach
to Shanghai we are, it seems, to help the Government to
resist the insurgents. But of what use will the seaports
be if the interior of the empire, where silk and tea are
grown, is to be given up to pillage and anarchy? Think of
the Americans coming to let loose fire and slaughter in
Lancashire and Yorkshire, but setting up at the same time
as the protectors of Liverpool! Where is all this folly and
wickedness to end? Shall we ever learn to live at peace
and be content with the honest possessions with which God
has so bountifully blessed our island? Unfortunately, we
have a class—and that the most influential one—which
makes money out of these distant wars, or these home
panics about a French invasion. How could your aristo-
cracy endure without this expenditure for wars and arma-
ments? Could not a less worthy and inhuman method of
supporting them be hit upon? When I am talking over the
reduction of duties with M. Rouher, and we come to some
small industry employing a few hands and a little capital,
which has put in its claim for high protection, I am in the
habit of suggesting to him that rather than interfere with
the trade of the country for the purpose of feeding and
clothing these small protected interests, he had better with-
draw the parties from their unprofitable occupations, take
some handsome apartments for them in the Louvre Hotel,
and feast them on venison and champagne at the country’s
expense for the rest of their days. Might not a similar
compromise be entered into with the younger sons of our
aristocracy, instead of supporting them by the most costly
of all processes, that of war or preparation for war?” * *
xxx] GREAT PRODUOERS—THE COUNTIES. 827

(13.) To Samuel Lucas.
Anti-social interest of great Producers.

“ Paris, 1860.—I looked in yesterday at Galignani’s read-
ing-room (where I had not been before) to glance at the
papers. They are of course all high-priced, and not one
word was said in any one of them, weekly, daily, or pro-
vincial, upon the subject in question. This very conspiracy
to ignore the question of the paper duty ought to be the
most conclusive argument in favour of its repeal. It proves
that the high-priced papers have an interest opposed to
that of the public. I remember when Lord Althorp was
Chancellor of the Exchequer, being one of a deputation of
calico-printers urging on the Government the repeal of the
excise duty on prints. In the course of the conversation
it was remarked that some of the largest printers were
opposed to the movement, on which Lord Althorp, with that
instinctive good sense which characterized him, observed:
‘That is in my opinion one of the strongest possible argu-
ments in your favour, for it is evident if the great calico-
printers are in favour of the tax, that their interest cannot
be the public interest.’ ”

(14.) Lo Samuel Lucas.
Politics in the Counties.

* Algiers, 23rd February, 1861.—It is a mistake to sup-
pose, because there are no contests in the counties, and
because a few nobles or proprietors settle the candidatures
and the returns in every case, that there is no political
spirit in our provincial towns and villages. There is more
healthy radicalism to be found scattered about our small
towns and villages than in the larger boroughs. I mean
that it is a more sturdy kind of democratic sentiment, for

 

1860.

Air. 56.
828 LIFE OF OOBDEN. OBA?

1861. it goes directly against the feudal domination under which

&r.67, we really live, whereas in the great towns radicalism often
misses its mark and is assailing some insignificant grievance.
If you can see your way for carrying out this idea, I would
take some apropos occasion for announcing’ the intention
to ‘open up,’ as we say of China, the politics of our
counties. You would then have volunteers aiding you
with information. Let it be seen who are the men who
really return the county members. Show how absolutely
the 5 to 10,000 registered electors are ignored in the
choice of their representatives, No meetings to discuss the
question, no contests, not even a newspaper controversy,
to decide the merits of candidates who are generally totally
unknown by any political antecedents. Challenge a com-
parison between the mode of doing these things in the
counties and the large boroughs, as well as between the
merits of the knights of the shire, and the burgesses re-
turned to Parliament.”

(15.) To William Hargreaves.
Life in Algiers—The English Working Class.

“ Algiers, 1st March, 1861.—The weather here continues
all that could be possibly desired. The scenery around
Algiers for walking or horse exercise is remarkably beau-
tiful. It is threaded with foot-paths and Arab tracks in
all directions, presenting a great variety of views. I have
hardly ever seen a city possessing such resources in its
neighbourhood. We have a clear sky generally, or with
only a few clouds to break the monotony. Very seldom
any rain. It is very hot in the sun’s rays. A thermometer
on a table in front of the house stood the other day at
95. But in the shade it is quite different. . . . This differ-

*" Mr. Lucas was now Editor of the Morning Star.
Xxx1I1.] THE ENGLISH WORKING OLASS. 829

ence between the sun and shade makes it difficult to avoid
getting a chill. It is this, too, that prevents vegetation
coming on before its time; for although we have green peas
and flowers in abundance, and the almond-trees and others
are showing young fruit, yet the vines and other trees have
not yet begun to shoot. You must not, however, suppose
from this that the nights are cold. Such a thing as a
white frost is not known. Fogs are equally unknown. If
called on to say, I should be of opinion that the air is too
sharp and clear for active consumptive cases. But for a
person without organic disease, but with a tendency to
asthma or pulmonary weakness, I should consider it ex-
cellent.

“ My friends advise me to remain till after Easter, which
happens very early this year, and I think I shall do so.
There is certainly nothing in the House to tempt cne to
return. The tone of the leading, or rather misleading,
members is just of that hollow mocking kind which would
worry me into bad health. I wonder the working people
are so quiet under the taunts and insults offered them.
Have they no Spartacus among them to head a revolt of the
slave class against their political tormentors? I suppose
it is the reaction from the follies of Chartism, which keeps
the present generation so quiet. However, it is certain
that so long as five millions of men are silent under their
disabilities, it is quite impossible for a few middle-class
members of Parliament to give them liberty, and this is the
language I shall hold when called on to speak to them.
lt is bad enough that we have a political machine which
will not move till the people put their shoulders to the
wheel. But we must face things as they are, and not live
in a dreamland of our own creating. The middle class
have never gained a step in the political scale without long
labour and agitation out of doors, and the working people

1861.
461, 67.

 
1861.
Air. 57,

 

830 LIFE OF OOBDEN. (oar.

may depend on it they can only rise by similar efforts, and
the more plainly they are told so the better.”

(16.) To J. Parkes.
Arlas-Dufour—The Rights of Women.

“ Feb. 11, 1860.—It is charming to see him at sixty-five
with his heart still running off with his head! He would
not allow the word ‘obey’ to be used by women in the
marriage ceremony, and has other very rebellious notions
My doctrine is that in proportion as physical force declines
in the world, and moral power acquires the ascendant, women
will gain in the scale. Christianity in its doctrines, though
not yet coming up to its own standard in its practice, did
more than anything since the world began to elevate women.
The Quakers have acted Christianity, and their women have
approached nearer to an equality with the other sex than
any of the descendants of Eve. I am always labouring to
put down physical force, and substitute something better,
and therefore I consider myself a fellow-labourer with your
daughter in the cause of women’s rights! And yet, strange
to say, women are the greatest favourers of soldiering and
sailoring and all that appertains to war.”

It was the 6th of May before Cobden arrived in Paris on
his way home. On the 12th, he had an audience of the
Emperor at the Tuileries—the last interview that they had.

“« May 12.—The Emperor spoke upon the Turkish question
and the affairs of Syria, and seemed to regret the misunder-
standings which arose upon the subject between himself and
the English Government. I suggested that the two countries
should come to a frank agreement; that neither of them
would take a hectare of territory from Turkey in Europe;
that the same policy should be enforced upon Russia and
Austria; that then the doctrine of non-intervention which
xxxm.] LAST INTERVIEW WITH THE EMPEROR. 831

had been applied to Italy, should be adopted towards 1861.

 

European Turkey ; that the Christians should be allowed to Air. 67
drive the Turks back into Asia; that the Greeks had a right
to repossess themselves of their ancient capital of Constan-
tinople ; and no foreign Power had a right to stand between
them and the recovery of their rights from their Mahometan
conquerors. He remarked that it would be desirable to let
Austria have Bosnia and Herzegovina, in exchange for
Venetia; and that it had been the policy of Russia to
prevent the formation of a Greek empire at Constantinople.
I urged strongly that if France and England were to apply
the policy of non-intervention to Turkey in Europe, and
renounce all selfish objects themselves, they would be in
so strong a position both morally and materially as to be
able to dictate the same course to Russia. I urged the
necessity of abandoning the idea of sustaining the Turks
in Europe; that the Christians in Turkey constituted the
only element of progress; that they possessed the wealth,
carried on the commerce, and comprised the artists, pro-
fessional men, &c.; that the Turks did not possess a single
vessel engaged in foreign trade; and that all the commerce
of the Black Sea and the eastern parts of the Mediterranean
were rapidly falling into their hands (the Greeks) ; in fact,
Turkey in Europe, so far as the Mahometan population was
concerned, had hardly more relations with the progress and
civilization of the age, than Timbuctoo had.

“ May 14th.—Called on Mdme. Cornu, a lady who from
her childhood had been the playmate and friend of the
Emperor, and who showed us a couple of volumes of his
letters to her, the first of which was dated in 1820, when
he was only twelve years old. Several of the letters were
read to us. They were written in an affectionate and senti-
mental tone. She described him as possessing a feminine
softness of character, that he always as a boy was very slow
832 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [owar.

1861. and vacillating in choosing any course of action, but that

 

41.57. when once decided, he followed his bent with great energy.
She did not regard him as a genius, but as possessing great
good sense, with a very amiable disposition.

May 15.—Dined with M. Rouher, Minister of Commerce,
and met a large party. Had a conversation with the
Minister of Marine, who narrated to me the facts of the
explanations he had had with Mr. Lindsay respecting the force
of the two navies; said he had invited Lord Clarence Paget
to come over and inspect the French navy and ascertain the
truth of the statement made by the French Government. He
(the Minister of Marine) stated that the French did not
aim at an equality with the English, but merely to be the
first of the second-class Powers ; that they relied on their
army and regarded their navy as merely an accessory, whilst
England trusted to her navy, and only looked to her army
as an accessory. He complained that England had last year
greatly exceeded the fair proportion which she was accus-
tomed to maintain in comparison with the French navy.
He told me that the Emperor had often spoken to him on
this subject. He remarked, also, that the Emperor had
discussed with him the question whether he ought to make
additional outlays for his navy and for fortifications to meet
the preparations going on in England, and that he (the
Emperor) had dismissed the subject with the observation,
‘Let them (the English) go on with their expenditure; they
will find out the uselessness of their policy by-and-by.
In the meantime, I don’t know that it does us any harm.’
The Minister of Marine told me that Lord Cowley had
complained to him that he had given the particulars of: the
amount of the French naval force to Mr. Lindsay, and not to
him; the Minister replied that it was useless to give such
particulars to the English Government, as they were only
misconstrued and misrepresented.”
ABRIVAL IN ENGLAND. 833

On May 16, Cobden left Paris for England. The directors 1861.
of the railway placed a carriage gratuitously at his disposal 4. 57.
to Dieppe. A public meeting had been held at Dover, at
which a resolution of welcome had been passed, to be pre-
sented to him on landing. But he went from Dieppe, not
to Dover, but to Newhaven, whence he proceeded to the old
home (May 18) under the Sussex Downs, having seen the
manners of many men and many cities, and having done a
good and difficult stroke of work for two great countries.

348
1861.
ar. 57.

 

CHAPTER XXXIV.

THE AMERICAN WAR—FORTIFICATION SCHEMES—INTERNATIONAL
LAW.

Iw one of his last letters before leaving Algiers, Cobden had
written to Mr. Hargreaves in rather a depressed vein. “ The
truth must be told,” he said; “though one does not like
publicly to shelve oneself—my work is nearly done. Iam
nearly fifty-seven and not, like you, of a long-lived family.
Since I passed my meridian a few years ago, I have found
my powers sensibly waning and particularly those organs
of the voice which I exercised so rudely whilst in their
prime, and which were naturally but a weak inheritance from
my father. If, however, I could pass the remainder of my
days with only the labour of an average person of my years,
I could, I dare say, nurse myself into a good old age. The
question is whether I ought rather to content myself with a
briefer span and the satisfaction of trying to do something a
little beyond my strength? Itis a nice question for casuists,
for the home duties affecting one’s young children intrude.”

When Cobden returned to England his public position
had more than recovered the authority and renown which
had been seriously impaired by his unpopular attitude on
the Russian War, and his devotion to the thankless questions
of Retrenchment and Peace. It was felt that the reproach
of sentimental statesmanship could not well be applied to a
man who had conducted so tough and laborious an undertak-
on, xxxrv,] BEOEPTION IN ENGLAND. 835

ing as the negotiation of a tariff. The commercial class
were compelled to forgive what they called his crotchets, to
one who had opened for them new channels of wealth. The
Lord Mayor entertained him at a banquet. In the House of
Commons he received a hearty welcome, but a short speech
on the repeal of the paper duty was his only contribution to
its proceedings before the end of the session. He had never
even in the darkest times lost the ear of this assembly.
It seldom refuses to listen to anybody who can furnish it in
moderately few words with aptly chosen fact, or substantial
and unsophisticated argument. Everybody understood that
neither he nor Mr. Bright took up a question for the sake of
having a question. Their subjects were put into their minds
by actual circumstances from without. Their habit, as I think
that Cobden himself said, was only to step out and join the
debate when they saw that it was passing their duor. It was
always known that whenever Cobden spoke, he really sought
to have something done or left undone. A speech with him
was a means of accomplishing something, and always re-
ferred to practical performance of some kind. “ You know
gentlemen, Inever perorate.”’ hesometimes said to great meet-
ings of his constituents, ‘‘ and when I have done, I leave off,
and sit down.” This abstinence was in itself an enormous
recommendation. Then as a debater, so fine a judge as Mr.
Disraeli pronounced Cobden to have few equals ; asa logician,
he described him as close and compact, adroit, acute, and even
subtle. ven the politicians who most disliked what one of
them called Boanerges-Liberalism, found nothing to offend
them in a man who was never either declamatory or
passionate ; and who never lost sight of the sympathies of
those whom he addressed.’

1 Mr. George Hope, the well-known tenant-farmer (of Fenton Barna),
gives an account in one of his letters of the way in which Cobden used to
be received in the House :—

1861.
Air. 57.

 
$36 LIFH OF COBDEN. (omar,

1861. Before the year was over, events came to pass which

Air. 67. once more brought Cobden, and perhaps in a still greater
degree Mr. Bright, into an almost angrier conflict than
before with the same classes and interests with whom they
had been in strife from the first. The great civil war broke
out between the Northern and the Southern states of the
American Union. England, according to its peculiar custom,
was quickly divided into two vehemently opposed camps.
Once more Cobden found himself in antagonism to Lord
Palmerston, Lord Russell, the Times newspaper, and all the
other representatives of the aristocratic classes, and those
who imitate and feel with these classes.

As his correspondence shows, Cobden did not at first seize
the true significance of the struggle. There were reasons
why he should be slow to take the side of the North. One
of them was that he could not for a time bear to face the
prospect that the community which had hitherto been the
realization on so great a scale of his pacific ideals, should after
all plunge into war justas a monarchy or an oligarchy might
have done. The North, by refusing to allow the South to

“Mr. Cobden drove us to the House of Commons, as there was 8 morning
sitting, and, having put us into the Speaker’s gallery, took his place in the
House. The business was the County Courts Bill. The Solicitor-General
spoke long and well, but had to give in as to who should practise before
these courts. He (the Solicitor-General) wished to confine it to attorneys
and barristers, one of each. After several others spoke, most of them in
the midst of much noise, Mr. Cobden rose; at once you might have heard
@ pin fall, and in a very few sentences he put the matter in a true light.
He said .... that there was to be no monopoly, that the suitor might
employ nobody or anybody he pleased, and there was tremendous cheering.
Afterwards Mr. Cobden spoke again, and with the same effect, After a
vast deal of talk, strangers were ordered to withdraw, but no division took
place, as the Government gave in, and Mr. Cobden came to us rejoicing in
his victory. He took us to the House of Lords (where we saw the Lord
Chancellor and some others), and to see the proceedings before a Committee
of the House of Commons. With Mr. Smith, the Member for Dunfermline,
we went over all the New Houses of Parliament. We met with large
numbers of Members, who attributed to Mr. Cobden the victory gained.”—
Memoir, p. 185
xxx1Vv.] THE AMEBIOAN WAR. 837

secede, seemed to him at first to be the author of the strife.
Another reason why his sympathies wavered was that though
the Southerners were slaveholders, their interests made them
Free Traders. As we have seen more than once, Cobden was
always prone to be led by his sympathies as aneconomist. The
hesitation, however, did not last long. He tolerably soon came
round to a more correctview of theissues at stake, partly under
the influence of Mr. Bright, whose sagacity, sharpened by his
religious hatred of slavery, at once perceived that a break-up
of the Ameriéan Union would be a damaging blow to the
cause of freedom all over the world. Atthe beginning of the
struggle, they happened to meet Mr. Motley at breakfast.
With a good deal of liveliness Cobden attacked something
which Mr. Motley had been writing in the newspapers in
favour of the Northern case. As they walked away down
Piccadilly together, Mr. Bright remonstrated with Cobden on
these symptoms of a leaning towards the South. The argu-
ment was continued and renewed as other arguments had
been between them. The time came for Cobden to address
his constituents at Rochdale. “Now,” said Mr. Bright, with
a final push of insistence, “this is the moment for you to
speak with a clear voice.” Cobden’s vision by this time was
no longer disturbed by economic or other prepossessions,
and he was henceforth as generally identified as Mr. Bright
with support of the Northern cause.

The interest in the conflict soon took a practical turn.
The circumstances of the war very speedily raised great
questions connected with the maritime rights of belligerents
and neutrals, and Cobden threw himself energetically into a
discussion which was of vital importance to Great Britain.
His activity between the date of the Commercial Treaty and
the time of his death was principally directed to two ob-
jects; the improvement of international law as it affects com-
merce in time of war, and the limitation of expenditure upon

1861.

Ant, 57.
1862.
Aft. 58.

 

838 LIFE OF OOBDEN. {onar.

unneeded schemes of national defence. The first and more
important of these subjects had been brought into a con-
spicuous place for public discussion by the Declaration of
Paris in 1856. Free ships were then declared to make free
goods. The merchants of a nation in a state of war were
to be free to carry on their trade as usual, provided that
they should send their goods in the ships of neutral Powers.
Cobden carried this favour to neutrals a great deal further,
and he explained his position in a carefully reasoned letter
to Mr. Ashworth, then the Chairman of the Manchester
Chamber of Commerce (April 10, 1862).? Not only, he
contended, ought all private property, that of unemies no
less than that of neutrals, to be exempt from capture at
sea, but neutral ships ought to be exempt from right of
visitation and search, and, most important of all, the com-
mercial ports of an enemy ought to be exempt from
blockade. Cobden’s defence of this transformation of
what he called the old barbarous code of international
maritime law, rested not merely on the claims of natural
justice, but on the special requirements of our own
country. A population circumstanced as ours is in respect
both of its food and of the raw materials of its industry, is
interested beyond all others in removing every regulation
which interferes with the free circulation of the necessaries
of life, whether in time of peace or war, Why should we
persist, he asked, in upholding a belligerent right which we
have always shrunk from enforcing, and shall never rigor-
ously apply, by which we place in the hands of other
belligerents the power at any moment of depriving a large
part of our population of the supply of the raw materials of
their industry and of the necessaries of life? The Cotton

* Published in his Collected Writings, ii. pp. 6—22. The three changes
which he there proposes are those enumerated in the letter to Mr. Paulton,
below, p. 896,
XxxIv.] PROPOSED OHANGES IN MARITIME LAW. 839

Famine in Lancashire, caused by the blockade of the
Southern ports of the United States, gave to these views a
painful appositeness, and Cobden pressed the arguments
of his letter to Mr. Ashworth still more forcibly and with a
greater breadth of illustration in an address to the Man-
chester Chamber of Commerce in the autumn of the same
year.*

In the course of 1862 Cobden made one of his most deter-
mined and systematic onslaughts upon Lord Palmerston’s
policy of national defence. He carried on very effective skir-
mishing during the session, until at the close of it (Aug. 1), as
an eye-witness describes it, they. engaged in a regular single
combat.‘ The House was thin, the conclusion was foregone,
and no effect followed from Cobden’s undaunted perseverance.
Perhaps more was done by a pamphlet which he published
earlier in the same year, The Three Panics, a strenuous and
humiliating narrative of the incoherent alarms of invasion
which had seized successive Governments in 1848, in 1853,
and in 1862.5 Mr. Gladstone thought that the narrative
laid more than the full share of blame upon Governments

8 Speeches, ii. 279. Oct. 25, 1862.

4 “There they stood,” said Mr. Grant Dnff, “ unreconciled and irrecon-
cilable—the representatives of two widely different epochs, and of two widely
different types of English life. The one trained in the elegant but superficial
eulture which was usual among the young men of his position in life at the
beginning of this century, full of pluck, fall of intelligence, but disinclined,
alike by the character of his mind and by the habit of official life from
indulging in political speculation, or pursuing long trains of thought; yet
yielding to no man in application, in the quickness of his judgment, in know-
ledge of a statesman’s business, and in the power of enlisting the support of
what has been truly called ‘ that floating mass which in all countries and all
time has always decided all questions,’ The other derived from nature finer
powers of mind, but many years passed away before he could employ his great
abilities in a field sufficiently wide for them. There he stood, an admirable
representative of the best section of the class to which he belongs, full of
large and philanthropic hopes, and fall of confidence in his power to realize
them,” &c. Mr. Grant Duft’s Elgin Speeches, p. 25.—See his Speeches, ii. 257.

5 Collected Writings, vol. ii.

1862.

fir. 58.
1862.

iT. 68,

840 LIFE OF COBDEN. (cuar.

and Parliament, and that it was unjust to let the general
public go scot-free. He told Cobden a story of a large
farmer whom he had canvassed in the general election of
1857. He exclaimed to the farmer against the amount of
the military and naval charges. ‘Well, sir,” the voter
said, “ we want to be defended ;” and no impression was
to be made upon him. In truth, as Mr. Gladstone put it,
there was a residuum of excitement standing over from the
Russian war which had nourished all the subsequent alarm.
Nor was it to be denied, either, that the world had become
more volcanic since the days to which Cobden referred. It
was in vain that he quoted Peel’s excellent practical
maxim, that in time of peace “ you must consent to incur
some risk” (see above, p. 71). There was onerisk which
statesmen and the public saw closer at hand, and which
they were bent on not incurring if they could help it, and
that was risk from the possible necessities of the French
Emperor. On the special issues, therefore, between himself
and Lord Palmerston, such as the Fortification Scheme,
Cobden made little way in opinion. What he did was cer-
tainly to moderate what Mr. Gladstone called “the spirit
of expenditure,” and this according to him was more
objectionable and more dangerous than the expenditure
itself.

6 The case against Cobden’s view was well put in a letter addressed to him

by Lord John Russell :—
“ Pembroke Lodge, April 2, 1861.

“My pear Mr. Cospgn,—The question you raise in your letter to me of
the 22nd March is @ very serious one, and so we must both consider it.

“Lord Palmerston, it appears from the Times, has said that the policy of
France has been for a length of time to get up a navy which shall be equal
if not superior to our own. Lord Palmerston does not complain of this
policy, but he says that to deny it is to shut our eyes against notorious
facts, and he defends a policy which is meant to provide for our own seourity
against this notorious policy of France. As to the facts, I do not pre-
tend to enter into details of rival navy estimates, but I will mention what ia
notorious. It is notorious that two or three years ago France had a
xxx1Vv.] BATTLES WITH LORD PALMERSTON. _ 841

He deplored the absence from the scene of his steadfast ally,
but Mr. Bright remained at Rochdale. He told Cobden how

number of line-of-battle ships exceeding by one that in the British navy.
It is notorious that France is now building a number of iron-cased ships
more or less rapidly, exceeding that which we are building. It is
notorious that having these ships she has between 30,000 and 40,000
seamen, inscribed in a register, whom she can add to her present number
of sailors, which exceeds 33,000. Such being the state of facts, I will men-
tion to you that two years ago I stated to the Count de Persigny, then
Ambassador of France, that our maritime strength was essential to our
existence as @ nation; that in 1817 Lord Castlereagh had stated to a Select
Committee that Great Britian ought to have a navy equal to the two
strongest navies in the world, that the nation had accepted this dictum as a
practical maxim always to be kept in view.

“ Acting on these general views, we do not care whether France has or not
400,000 soldiers in arms, with 200,000 more ready drilled and capable of
joining their colours in a fortnight, but we do care when we see her cherish-
ing, nursing, and increasing her naval forces. We therefore endeavour to
provide a navy adequate to maintain our character, our position, and our
safety. Weare willing to stake our existence as a Ministry on the grant of
the number of men for the navy we have asked for. I am aware that the
expense is great, the burden is irksome, and that the French are irritated by
our obstinacy in being determiaed to defend ourselves. But all these con-
siderations yield to the paramount consideration of national security.

“Upon this ground whenever you raise the question we shall be ready to
stand.

“ Allow me before I close to ask you to reflect on the suggestions which are
made to you and Mr. Lindsay, and not to Lord Cowley, Col. Claremont, and
Commander Hore, by the French Ministers, These suggestions appear to me
to betoken a desire on the part of France to raise in Parliament an opposi-
tion to armaments of a defensive character, in order to ensure French
gupremacy. This policy would not be unnatural, nor would it be new,
Lord Macaulay, in giving an account of the instructions of Lewis to his
Ambassador, Count Tallard, when he came to England after the peace of
Ryswick, says, ‘In the original draft of the instructions was a curious
paragraph which, on second thoughts, it was determined to omit. The
Ambassador was directed to take proper opportunities of cautioning the
English against a standing army as the only thing which could really be
fatal to their laws and liberties.’

“We are very glad to enter with the French into improved commercial
relations, and very grateful to you for your labours in this direction. But
when they advise us against arming for our defence, while they do not ’bate
a jot of their preparations military and naval, the instinct of the Britieb
nation distrusta the friendship which appears in so suspicious a guise.

I remain, yours very faithfully,
J. Busesin.”

1862.

Ait. 58
842 LIFE OF OOBDEN. (omar.

1862. he admired his courage and perseverance, but he could not

 

Air. 68, imitate it. For the moment he acknowledged himself beaten.
The fates were against them in the shape of the ignorance
and flunkeyism of the middle classes. After the final battle
in August, Mr. Bright wrote to him that he had maintained
the struggle most manfully. ‘I have never,” he said, “ read
speeches with more pleasure than these in which you have
attempted to destroy the most shameless imposture of our
time. But speeches will hardly do it. Since 1854 the
public have been so thoroughly demoralized that they have
become literally helpless, and I can scarcely conceive of an
event sufficiently insulting and alarming to them to excite
them to any positive and united action. The working men
have no leaders of their own class, and they have no faith in
any others. I wait, therefore, for some accident to bring
about a change. Possibly Palmerston’s final fall, which can-
not be long postponed, may act as an awakener throughout
the country. Still I think your speeches are preparing the
way for some discoveries on the part of our dim-seeing
people.” This prophecy was fulfilled to the letter. Liberalism
remained stationary until Lord Palmerston’s death, and it
was not long after that event that the great awakening
took place which landed Mr. Gladstone in power, with Mr.
Bright himself for the most popular and influential of his
colleagues.

Cobden’s correspondence during these final years touches
other topics, but the fortunes of the war in America, inter-
national maritime law, and national expenditure, were the
subjects which now filled the largest space both in his
thoughts and in his public addresses.

Maritime Law.
“ April 26, 1861. (To Mr. W. 8. Iindsay.)—In your
letter upon maritime law in time of war, you shirk the
rxx1V,] ON MARITIME LAW. 843

pinching point of the whole question, by omitting allusion
to the fact that we gave up our old belligerent rights over
neutrals, not from choice but from necessity. It was the
attitude of the United States at the outbreak of the Russian
war, which induced us to suspend those ‘rights’ of search
and seizure, the enforcement of which led to our last war
with America. And we yielded up permanently those rights
at the Paris Congress from the same motives, namely,
deference to the attitude of the United States, though no
American plenipotentiary was present. In fact, as you
know, all the modifications in our old arbitrary navigation
code had their origin in the rising power of the United
States as a maritime people.

“ Looked at in this light, the question is much more simple
than you assume it to be, for you put the alternative of going
back to the state of things before the Paris Congress, as
though the consent of England to that Congress were a
voluntary choice and not an inevitable necessity. Viewed in
this manner, there cannot be a doubt in any sane mind that
it is our interest to go on even to the extent stipulated for
by President Buchanan in his late letter on the subject.
With the European law as it now stands, it merely offers the
carrying trade to the United States in case of a war between
England and any other maritime state sufficiently powerful to
keep a few fast steamers at sea. Anybody who opposes your
proposal to put England and America on the same footing
in case of war, does not understand our present situation.

“PS. The peace-at-any-price party (if there be one)
are not so much interested as the war people in putting
us on a par with the United States in case of hostilities
with a maritime power; for in the present state of
things a war with France, whatever might be the ultimate
result, must involve tenfold sacrifices to England, as com-
pared with what would be the case if your plan were acceded

1861.

Air. 57.
1861

Air. 57.

844 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [owar.

to. In fact, if France could keep a few swift steam corvettes
at sea, to raise our sea insurance at Lloyd’s 10 per cent.,
our ships would have to transfer their registry to the United
States or to rot in our ports. It is evident that the know-
ledge of these facts must weigh with our statesmen to pre-
vent them from embarking in a war with France. In so far
it plays the game of the peace-at-any-price party, but at the
risk of national humiliation.”

July 27,1861. ( ,, )—Ihave readthe debates on the
iron-cased ships in the Times. It is important only so far aa it
elicited a most able and statesmanlike speech from Disraeli,
which will bear fruits.’ .... You were wrong in throwing
overboard your Paris authority, and giving in your adhesion
to the Secretary of the Admiralty. There was no necessity
to contradict him until you had the disproofs. But I would
have waited for the answer from the other side. My
maxim has been to distrust the Treasury bench at all times,
and never admit myself wrong in acontroversy with the Go-
vernment, until I have better evidence than their assertions,
Old Saddletree’s example in the Heart of Midlothian is worth
remembering. When hard pressed by an opponent in an
argument, who asked, ‘There, can ye deny that, Master
Saddletree ?” he replied, “No; but I’m not going to admit
it, neither.’ ”

7 The subject of the discussion was the naval competition between Eng-
land and France. Mr. Disraeli’s point was that there could be no reason
why the two Governments should not come to an understanding as to the
relative proportion of the naval forces to be maintained by the two Powers;
and that if the march of science compelled fresh efforts to establish adequate
naval forces, the leading statesmen of each country ought at least to do all
in their power to enlighten the publio as to the true meaning of what was
going on. Lord Palmerston, instead of laying stress on the revolution in
naval affairs, always left people to suppose that an insane competition for
supremacy at sea was going on between two rival nations. (Hansard, clxiv.
1678). This was only one of several admirable speeches made by Mr. Disraeli
at this time, which justified Cobden’s preference of him over Lord Palmer-
eton. But Mr. Disraeli in power thirteen years afterwards adopted Palmer-
ston’s policy and his vices in the Levant, in India, and in South Africa,
xx1I7.] ON OHINA. 845

British Policy in China.

“1861. (Zo Mr. Hargreaves).—You will have seen
that these articles generally, especially those in the Times,
lay all the blame of their wars on our commercial classes, and
the cost thus entailed on the country is made a grievance on
the part of the aristocratic and propertied classes, on account
of the taxation which they bring on the country. So far as
the charge against our merchants is concerned, I am afraid
that many of the residents in China, especially the younger
and less experienced of their number, as well as those engaged
in the opium trade whether old or young, have often been
active promoters of hostilities with that empire. As a rule
the Chinese are not a people who attract much sympathy
from those who live among them. How could it be
otherwise, when they feel no sympathy for others? ‘Like
begets like’ But it is very short-sighted and unphilo-
sophical conduct to try to cure this ungenial characteristic
of a people by violence and injustice, which can only increase
the feeling of alienation and repugnance. Yet this is the
receipt invariably prescribed in our intercourse with the
Chinese as a cure for their insolence, by the young merchants ;
for Sir George Bonham, the former Governor of Hong Kong,
draws a distinction between the conduct of the old and sub-
stantial houses and the younger residents; the latter are
always for ‘ pitching into the Celestials’ by way of making
them more civil. By the way, I am afraid the prospect of a
sudden increase of trade, which always follows a war ex-
penditure for a time, is not without its influence on these
young houses, to say nothing of the enormous profits which
have been made out of the claims for compensation for losses
of property incurred during the war. Now none of these
motives can have any sway with the merchants and manu-
facturers of Lancashire, who are the parties principally

1861.
Er. 67.

 
 

Ait, 57,

846 LIFE OF OOBDEN. for.

interested in a permanent trade with China. All they can
desire is that the duties shall be moderate, the trade regular,
and that facilities shall be afforded at the porta of entry for
the quick despatch of business. All these conditions exist
in China to as great an extent as in any other considerable
maritime states. Indeed, comparing our trade with China
with that with our own possessions in India, it seems likely
that the duties payable in the former will soon be the lighter
of the two! Now all this leads me to press on you and the
other members of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce to
take some step for the protection of your interests against
the risk of future collisions and wars in that country. The
only way of accomplishing this is by discouraging the British
Government from entering into closer diplomatic relations,
or forcing on that country a resident Ambassador at Pekin,
or seeking for free access for our countrymen to the interior
of that empire. The last is a very plausible but most
perilous situation. The idea of Englishmen ‘ opening up a
trade’ in the interior of China commends itself strongly to
those who do not know how commerce is carried on. But
any one acquainted with the trade of Russia or other
countries in a low state of civilization, and speaking a
peculiar and difficult language, knows that it is impossible
for foreigners to carry on the interior trade of those countries.
Tt must all be left to natives. There is a proposal for carry-
ing our productions in English ships up the great arterial
river of that country into the interior. Now this would be
totally at variance with all international law, unless the trade
were confined to some one or more ports of entry to be
agreed upon. But once let an English trading steamer find
itself 500 or 1000 miles in the interior of China, and how
could you hope to prevent irregular trade taking place, to be
followed by constant collisions with local authorities, who
would, no doubt, be exposed to a system of bribery by which
Xxi1V.] ON TEADHRS AND MISSIONARIBS IN OHINA. 847

the smuggler would only supersede the regular trader atthe 1861.
ports? Even the stipulation for foreigners to be allowed to ar. 67.
penetrate into the country by means of passports is, in my
opinion, a policy of very doubtful wisdom. Missionaries will
then, no doubt, avail themselves of the facility for travelling
in safety into the country. I have the most profound vene-
ration for those, who, like St. Paul, preach the gospel at their
own risk, trusting for their safety solely to the purity of their
motives and the overruling protection of God. But it is
different when a missionary goes forth with all the force of a
powerful Government at his back ; in such a case he is likely
to do far more injury than service to the cause of Christianity.
The present war, so far as the French are concerned, arose out
of the alleged murder of a Roman Catholic priest in China;
and if missionaries are to travel through that country with
passports, it will, I fear, lead to as many wars as conversions.
There is another point to be considered. Our cruisers on
the coast of China are frequently capturing or destroying
junks, on the plea that they are pirates. There is a bad
practice of paying head-money for these pirates, taken or
destroyed. I think there is a wanton destruction of life some-
times committed without sufficient proof of the character of
the parties. In my opinion we ought not to undertake to
perform the duties of police on the coast, unless to protect
our own vessels, or at least those of European origin. In this
respect we ought to follow the example of United States
cruisers—watch over the security of national property, leave
the Chinese to protect their own shipping. The truth is,
our opium smugglers and our wars with the Government of
China, lead to a state of carelessness on the coast, and we
then step in to preserve the peace in Chinese waters, in
consequence of the impotence of the authorities to perform
the duties of police.”
1861

“Rt. 67.

848 LIFE OF OOBDEN. fortar,

On Lord Brougham.

“ Midhurst, August 21,1861. (To M. Ohevalier.)—I have
read with much pleasure your address to the Social Science
Meeting at Dublin. If you have a corrected copy in French,
let: me have one. I was amused at your diplomacy in com-
paring Brougham to Cicero. This must have delighted
him. He has, I suspect, always had the great Roman in his
eye, and has sought to imitate him in the universality of his
accomplishments. But it was one thing to be universal 1900
years ago, and is another thing now. A Bolton mechanic
who makes a steam engine, or one who drives a locomotive
on our railways, knows more in his special calling than
either Cicero or Brougham. It is this attempt at universality
which has been the great error and failing of Lord B.’s pub-
lic life. He has touched everything and finished nothing.
Had he given his vast powers to one thing at a time, he
might have codified our laws, and endowed every village
with a good school, besides leaving nothing for me to do in
Free Trade. But he made a speech for five hours on Law
Reform forty years ago nearly, and another as long on
National Education, and then he left those questions for
something else. The result will be that in fifty years he
will be remembered only for his herculean mental powers,
and his unrivalled intellectual industry, but his name will
not be specially associated with any reforms for which
posterity will hold him in grateful remembrance.” *

5 Brougham, as hag been seen, had been very unfriendly to the League
(see vol. i. p. 262). For many years there was no communication between
him and Mr. Bright. With Cobden he kept up an occasional corre-
spondence, and in 1856, when Mr. Bright was ill, Brougham, says Cobden
in a letter of that date, “ wrote to me speaking in the most affectionate
terms of Bright, and offering him the use of his house at Cannes. I sent
the letter to Bright, who of course met his advances with open arms, and
they have been exchanging great civilities. He seems anxious to heal all
his ancient enmities. Could a better use be made of bis declining years P”
—To G. Moffatt. June 4, 1856.
XxxIv.] ON LORD BROUGHAM—ON SECESSION. 849

Inconvenience of a sectarian organ.

“Midhurst, October 17,1861. (LoS. Lucas.)—I said in one
of my notes to you that the Star should not appear the organ
of a sect. I will give you an illustration 4 propos of this re-
mark. In an otherwise excellent and tolerant article on Lord
John yesterday, you bring in Bright and myself at the close
to sting him by our contrast. This is the kind of remark
which stamps your paper as the organ of a strait sect which
tolerates nothing but what comes from your own preachers.
You remember the anecdote I gave you of a person I
travelled with in the railway carriage from Guildford to
London, when he bought the Telegraph and I the Star. He
remarked, ‘I don’t like the Star, it is so intolerant; it
never admits anybody to be right but Bright and Cobden.’
I should like to make a bargain with you in the interest of
your paper, not to let my name appear in your leaders
(unless to find fault with me) for two years.”

Tocqueville on the right of Secession.

« Jume 22, 1861. (To W. Hargreaves, Hsq.)—I am glad
to see that as yet there is no serious fighting in America,
Until there has been a bloody collision, one may hope
there will be none. J have been reading Tocqueville’s De-
mocracy in America. In his chapter on the influence of
slavery his sagacity is, as it frequently is, quite prophetic.
He seems to regard it as the chief danger to the Union,
less from the rival interests it creates, than from the in-
compatibility of manners which it produces. It is singular
too that he takes the Southern view of the right of secession.
He says, ‘The Union was formed by the voluntary agree-
ment of the States; and in uniting together they have not
forfeited their nationality, nor have they been reduced to
one and the same people. If one of the States chose to

31

1861,
Et. 57.

 
1861.

 

Att. 57.

850 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [cuap,

withdraw its name from the contract, it would be difficult
to disprove its right of doing so; and the Federal Govern-
ment would have no means of maintaining its claims either
by force or by right.’ He then goes on to argue that
among the States united by the Federal tie there may be
some which have a great interest in maintaining the Union
on which their prosperity depends; and he then remarks—
‘Great things may then be done in the name of the Federal
Government, but in reality that Government will have ceased
to exist.? Has he not accurately anticipated both the fact
aud the motive of the present attitude of the State of New
York? Is it not commercial gain and mercantile ascen-
dency which prompt their warlike zeal for the Federal
Government? At all events, it is a little unreasonable in the
New York politicians to require us to treat the South as
rebels, in the face of the opinion of our highest European
authority as to the right of secession.”

The Trent Affair.

“ Midhurst, Dec. 3, 1861. (To Ineut.-Ool. Fstzmayer.)—
-... In reference to our latest complication with the
United States, it is I hope possible the Government at
Washington may disavow the act of their officer. If not, it
will I expect be nothing more than a diplomatic and legal
wrangle. I think, however, the American Government are
very foolish to take such a course. I confess I have not
much opinion of Seward. He is a kind of American Thiers
or Palmerston or Russell—and talks to Bunkum. Fortu-

® Messrs. Slidell and Mason, two Commissioners from the Confederate
States to Europe, were passengers on board the West India mail steamer
Trent. Captain Wilkes, of the United States war-vessel San Jacinto, stopped
the Trent by firing a shot across her bows, took the Commissioners forcibly
out of her, and sailed away with them (Nov. 8). After an interchange of
©orrespondence between Lord Russell and Mr. Seward, and the despatch of
British troops to Halifax, the men were given up, and reached England ov
Jgnuary 29. (See Irving’s Annals, p. 614.)
xxx1V.] ON THE TRENT AFFAIR. 851

nately, my friend Mr. Charles Sumner, who is Chairman of
the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, and has really
a kind of veto on the acts of Seward, is a very peaceable
and safe man.

“JT look upon it as quite impossible that the North in
addition to their life and death struggle at home can desire
a rupture with this country. It is to assume that they are
mad. Doubtless there are plenty of Irish and plenty of
Southern sympathizers in the Northern States, who would
be delighted with a war with England. But ninety-nine
hundredths of the honest citizens of the North must above
all things desire to avoid a quarrel with us at the present
moment, and they will I fear only interpret our accusation
of a contrary design as a proof that we wish to pick a
quarrel with them.

“Nothing is more clear to me than that the world is
underrating in this struggle the power of the North. I
have paid two visits to that country at an interval of
twenty-four years between the first and second trip.
I do not believe anybody without two such visits can
form an idea of the power and resources and the rapid town
growth of that people. As for the Slave States I look upon
them as doomed in any case to decay and almost barbarism.
If Christianity is to survive, there can be no future for
slavery. But those Free States where slavery is prohibited
will in all human probability contain more than one hundred
millions of people in the lifetime of persons now born. Is
it wise with us who have an India, as they have their slaves,
to give cause to that great fature nation to remember with
feelings of hatred and revenge our successors to remote
generations? Ought not we most carefully and generously
to guard ourselves against the possibility of bemg shown
hereafter to have taken advantage of the North in the hour
of ita trial ?

1861.

 

Ait, 57.
1861.

ir. 57.

852 LIFE OF COBDEN. (onae.

“Upon the whole I do not complain of our Government,
nor do I think the Americans can fairly charge us as a nation
with having failed to bear with fortitude and temper the
great suffering the civil war has inflicted on our cotton trade.
It is trae we have our Times as the Americans have their
Herald, and the twin incendiaries may pair off together.”

“ Midhurst, Dec. 6, 1861. (To Mr. Bright.)—Your ad-
mirable address cannot fail to do good.' But itis a mad
world we live in! Here am I in the midst of extracts from
Hansard, &c., to show up the folly or worse of the men who
have been putting us to millions of expense to protect us
from a coup de main from France, and now we see the same

people willing to rush into war with America, and leave us

exposed to this crafty and dangerous neighbour! Might
we not be justified in turning hermits, letting our beards
grow, and returning to our caves! ...

“ Has it occurred to you that this war is now nearly a
year old, and the South has rather gained than receded on
the Potomac, having stopped the navigation to the Federal
capital? How long will foreign powers look on if nothing
decisive bedone? I doubt whether another year’s blockade
will be borne by the world. Whatsay you? If you agree,
you should let Sumner know. My own conviction is that if
there is to be no early compromise and settlement between
North and South, and if the North do not voluntarily raise
the blockade, there will next year be an intervention in some
shape. A Bordeaux merchant came here to me a few days
ago. He says the export of wine and spirits from that port
to New Orleans was 30,000 tuns per annum, which is cut
off to a gallon. He says also that their trade in liquors and
fruits with New York, &c,, is nearly destroyed by the Morrill
tariff. He tells me the feeling is very bitter in France, and

1 Mr. Bright spoke on the Trent Affair and on the American War gene-
pally, at Rochdale, December 4, 1861.—Speachan, i. 167.
xxx1v.] ON THE TRENT AFFAIR. 853

that the Emperor would be supported if he were to join 1861. _
England in breaking up the blockade. France has a far Air. 67.
greater stake in the export trade to the South than England,

owing to her old connexion with New Orleans.”

“ Midhurst, Dec. 14,1861. (To M. Chevalier.}—There is
considerable reaction in the public mind, I think, on the
American question. Some large public meetings have passed
resolutions in favour of arbitration; and the religious con-
gregations have been also making demonstrations for peace.
I expect the Americans will propose either to restore the
status quo, and let the United States Admiralty Courts decide,
or else refer to arbitration. I hope the Emperor will offer
his mediation if an opportunity occurs. Neither party will
be in the humour to refuse. It is high time that we had a
revision of these so-called international maritime laws.
They are merely traps laid for nations to fall into wars.
I do not believe in a war. Palmerston likes to drive the
wheel close to the edge, and show how dexterously he can
avoid falling over the precipice. Meantime he keeps people’s
attention employed, which suits him politically. But I hope
this game is nearly played out. I am quite sick of it.”

“ Jan., 1862. (To Mr. Paulton.)—Palmerston ought to be
turned out for the reckless expense to which he has put us.
He and his colleagues knew there could be no war. From
the moment they were informed of the course France, Prussia,
and Austria were taking in giving us their moral support
(and they knew this early in December), a war was, as they
knew, impossible. Then came Seward’s despatch to Adams
on the 19th December, which virtually settled the matter.
To keep alive the wicked passions in this country as Palmer-
ston and his Post did, was like the man, and that is the
worst that can be said of it.

“T can’t see my way through the American business. 1
don’t believe the North and South can ever lie in the same
1861.
AX. 57.

 

354 LIFH OF COBDEN. (omar.

bed again. Nor doI see how the military operations can
be carried into the South, so as to inflict a crushing defeat.
Unless something of the kind takes place, I predict that
Europe will recognize the independence of the South. I tell
Sumner this, and tell him that his only chance if he wants
time to fight it out, is to raise the blockade of the Mississippi
voluntarily, and then Europe might look on.

But our friend Bright will not hear of anything against
the claims of the North. I admire his pluck, for when he
goes with a side it is always to win. I tell him that it is
possible to wish well to a cause without being sure that it
will be successful. However, he will soon find in the House
that we shall be on this question as we were on China,
Crimean, and Greek Pacifico wars, quite in a minority!
There is no harm in that if you are right, but it is useless
to deceive ourselves about the issue. Three-fourths of the
House will be glad to find an excuse for voting for the dis-
memberment of the great Republic.”

“ Nov. 29, 1861. (Lo Mr. Charles Sumner).—I hear that
the law officers of the Crown have decided that you are not
within the law in what has been done. I leave your lawyers
to answer ours. The question of legality in matters of in-
ternational law has never been very easily settled. However, —
the only danger to the peace of the two countries is in the
temper which may grow out of this very trivial incident.
The Press will, as usual, try to envenom the affair. It is for
us and all who care for the interests of humanity, to do our
utmost to thwart these mischief-makers. You may reckon
on Bright, myself, and all our friends being alert and active
in this good work, and we reckon on the co-operation of your-
self and all who sympathize with you. Though I said in my
other letter that I shall never care to utter a word about
the merits of a war after it has begun, I do not the less feel
it my duty to try to prevent hostilities occurring. Let me
xxx1v.] TO MR. SUMNER ON THE WAR. 855

here remark that I cannot understand how you should have
thought it worth your while at Washington to have re-
opened this question of the right of search, by claiming to
exercise it in a doubtful case and a doubtful manner, under
circumstances which could be of so little advantage, and to
have incurred the risk of greater disadvantages. The cap-
ture of Mason and Slidell can have little effect in dis-
couraging the South, compared with the indirect encourage-
ment and hope it may hold out to them of embroiling your
Government with England. I am speaking with reference
to the policy, and leaving out of sight the law of the case.
But in the latter view we are rather unprepared to find you
exercising in a strained manner the right of search, inas-
much as you have been supposed to be always the opponents
of the practice. I was under the impression that our
Government was told pretty plainly at the outbreak of the
Crimean War that it would be risking the peace of this
country with yours if we claimed the right of search in the
open sea. J am not in a position to know how far this was
the case. Can yon tell me if there be any documents on
the subject? If it were so, we should, of course, all unite
in holding you to your own doctrine.

P.S.—Since writing the accompanying, we have the details
of the capture of Mason and Slidell in our packet vessel.
You may be right in point of law, though, perhaps, in tech-
nical strictness, the lawyers may pick a hole. But I am
satisfied you are wrong in point of policy. There is an im-
pression, I know, in high quarters here, that Mr. Seward
wishes to quarrel with this country. This seems absurd
enough. I confess I have as little confidence in him as I
have in Lord Palmerston. Both will consult Bunkum for
the moment, without much regard, I fear, for the fature.
You must not lose sight of this view of the relations of the
two countries. Formerly England feared a war with the

1861.
Afr, 57.

 
1861.
Air. 67.

 

856 LIFE OF OOBDEN. {oar.

United States as much from the dependence on your cotton
as from a dread of your power. Now the popular opinion
(however erroneous) is that a war would give us cotton.
And we, of course, consider your power weakened by your
civil war. I speak as a friend of peace, and not as a parti-
san of my own country, in wishing you to bear this in
mind.”

« Dec. 6, 1861.—Since writing my letter of yesterday’s
date, I have read General Scott’s admirable letter. It con-
tains a passage to the following effect: ‘I am sure that the
President and people of the United States would be but too
happy to let these men go free, unnatural and unpardonable
as their offences have been, if by it they could emancipate
the commerce of the world. Greatly as it would be to our
disadvantage at this present crisis to surrender any of those
maritime privileges of belligerents which are sanctioned by
the laws of nations, I feel that I take no responsibility in
saying that the United States will be faithful to her tradi-
tional policy upon this subject, and to the spirit of her
political institutions,’ ”

« Dec. 12, 1861.—The Times and its yelping imitators are
still doing their worst, but there is a powerful moderate
party. I hope you will offer promptly to arbitrate the
question. There is one point on which you must absolutely
define your platform. You mustacknowledge the South as
belligerents to give you a standing-ground on the Trent affair.
Some of your newspapers argue that you have a right to
carry off a rebel from an English vessel, which means that
Austria might have seized Kossuth under similar circum-
stances. Were you to take such ground, there would be
war.”

“ Dec. 19, 1861.—Everybody tells me that war is inevit-
able, and yet I do not believe in war. But it must be
admitted that there are things said and done on your side
xxx1v.] TO MR. SUMNER ON THE WAR. 857

that make it very difficult for the advocates of peace on this 1861.
side to keep the field. We can get over the sayings of air.57.
your Herald that ‘France will not and England dare not go
to war.’ Your newspapers will not drive us into war. But
when grave men (or men that should be grave), holding the
highest posts in your cultivated State of Massachusetts,
compliment Captain Wilkes for having given an affront to
the British lion, it makes it very hard for Bright and me to
contend against the ‘British lion party’ in this country.
All I can say is that I hope you have taken Bright’s advice,
and offered unconditional arbitration. With that offer
publicly made, the friends of peace could prevent our fire-
eaters from assaulting you, always providing that your
public speakers do not put it out of our power to keep the
peace. I was sorry to see a report of an anti-English
speech by your colleague at New York. Honestly speaking,
and with no blind patriotism to mislead me, I don’t think
the nation here behaved badly under the terrible evil of
loss of trade and danger of starving under your blockade.
Of course all privileged classes and aristocracies hate your
institutions—that is natural enough; but the mass of the
people never went with the South. I am not pleased with
your project of sinking stones to block up ports. That
is barbarism. It is quite natural that, smarting as
you do under an unprovoked aggression from the slave-
owners, you should even be willing to smother them like
hornets in their nest. But don’t forget the outside world,
and especially don’t forget that the millions in Europe are
more interested even than their princes in preserving the
future commerce with the vast region of the Confederate
States.”

« Jan. 23, 1862.—It is, perhaps, well that you settled the
matter of sending away the men at once. Consistently
with your own principles, you could not have justified their
858 LI¥® OF OCOBDEN. {onar.

1862. detention. But it is right you should know that there was
“2x. 68. & great reaction going on through this country against the
diabolical tone of the Times and Post. (I suspect stock-
jobbing in these quarters.) The cry of arbitration had been
raised and responded to, and I was glad to see the religious
people once more in the field in favour of peace. Be assured
if you had offered to refer the question to arbitration, there
could not have been a meeting called in England that would
not have endorsed it. The only question was whether we
ought to be the first to offer arbitration. I mean this was
the only doubt in the popular mind. As regards our
Government, they are, of course, feeling the tendency of
public opinion. A friend of mine in London, a little behind
the scenes, wrote to me:—‘ They are busy at the Foreign
Office hunting up precedents for arbitration, very much
against their will.’ I write all this because I wish you to
know that we are not quite so bad as appeared at first on

the surface.”

In the same letter, after arguing for the raising of the
blockade by the North, he says :—

“ All the reflection 1 have been able to give the subject
confirms me in the view I expressed in my former letter.
Propose to Europe a clean sweep of the old maritime law of
Vattel, Puffendorf, and Co.; abolish blockades of commer-
cial ports on the ground laid down in Cass’s despatch which
you sent. Get rid of the right of search in time of war as
in time of peace, and make private property exempt from
capture by armed vessels of every kind, whether govern-
ment vessels or privateers. And, as an earnest of your
policy, offer to apply the doctrine in your present war. You
would instantly gain France and all the continent of Europe
to your side. You would enlist a party in England that can
always control our governing class when there is a sufficient
motive for action; and you would acquire such a oral

 
xxx17.] ON MARITIME LAW. 859

position that no power would dream of laying hands on
you. I think I told you that all our commercial and trading
community have already pronounced in favour of exempting
private property from capture by government ships, as first
proposed by Mr. Marcy. In the ensuing session of Parlia-
ment I intend to make a speech on the subject of maritime
law, in which I will undertake to prove that we, above all
other countries, are interested in carrying out all the above
three propositions of reform. With the exception of the
aristocratic classes, who have an instinctive leaning for any
policy which furnishes excuses for large naval and mili-
tary establishments, everybody will be favourable to the
change.”

Maritime Law.

“ Midhurst, Feb. 2. (To A. W. Paulton.)—I hope to see
you on Wednesday evening. 1 have an idea (about which
we can talk) of occupying ground in the House upon the
subject of rights of neutrals by giving notice early of some-
thing of this kind: ‘That in the opinion of the House the
questions affecting belligerent rights and the rights of
neutrals are in an unsatisfactory state, and demand the
early attention of her Majesty’s Government.’

* A Committee on Shipping in 1860 reported in favour of
adopting Marcy’s plan of exempting private property alto-
gether from capture by Government ships as well as priva-
teers, but nothing was done.

“Now, I think such a motion must be agreed to, be-
cause all parties are dissatisfied with matters as they were
left at Paris in 1856. In my speech I should advocate :—

“1st. The making of private property sacred from capture
by armed ships of all kinds.

“9nd. Exempting neutral ships from search or visitation
in time of war as in time of peace.

1862.

Air. 68.
860 LIFE OF OOBDEN. {onap.

1862. 8rd. The abolition of blockade of commercial ports or
"Hx. 68, coast-lines.
“T could make it clear that England is beyond all coun-
tries interested in carrying out these points.
“Have you been reading anything about International
Law? If so, give me the benefit of your observations.
What I shall want is standing-ground to show the absolute
necessity fora change. Are there not great discrepancies
between Lord John’s present doctrines and our former sup-
posed principles? For instance I thought all our authorities,
including Phillimore’s last book, agreed that a belligerent
could take a neutral ship anywhere, and carry her into port
for adjudication.”

The Commercial Class.

“ Feb. 7, 1862. (Lo Mr. Henry Ashworth.)—I am quite
happy to see you at the head of the Chamber of Cammerce.
With many faults and shortcomings, our mercantile and
manufacturing classes as represented in the Chambers of
Commerce are after all the only power in the State possessed
of wealth and political influence sufficient to counteract in
some degree the feudal governing class of this country.
They are, indeed, the only class from whom we can in our
time hope for any further beneficial changes,

“It is true they are often timid and servile in their con-
duct towards the aristocracy, and we must wink at their
weaknesses if we are to keep them political company. But
there is always this encouragement to hope better things—
that they have no interest opposed to the general good,
whilst, on the contrary, the feudal governing class exists
only by the violation of sound principles of political economy,
and therefore the very institution is hostile to the interests
of the masses.

“T wish we could inspire the mercantile manufacturing
XXXIv.] ON THE OOMMERCIAL OLASS, 861

community with a little more self-respect. The future of 1862.

 

England must depend on them, for, as Deacon Hume said Air, 58.
twenty years ago, we have long passed the time when the
prosperity of this country depended on its land, and yet

how little share this all-important interest claims in the
government of the country.”

Maritime Law in the House of Commons.

“ Feb. 14, 1862. (Zo M. Chevalier.)—I have not yet
secured an evening for my motion. We have to ballot for the
first chance, and there are always a good many candidates
at the commencement of the session. I intend to move the
resolution on the other side. If this be affirmed by the
House, as I have no doubt it will be, the Government will
be obliged to take some steps in the matter, and when
once they begin, I defy them to stop without completing my

programme,
“P.S.—Mr. Cobden to move :—

- That the present state of international maritime law, as affecting
the rights of belligerents and neutrals, is ill-defined and unsatisfac-
tory, and calls for the attention of her Majesty’s Government.

“ But I fear it will be some weeks before I can secure an
evening.”

“March4. ( ,, )—After Thad given notice of my motion
in the House, Mr. Horsfall, the Tory M.P. for Liverpool,
complained that I was poaching on his domain, as he had
announced his intention in the previous session to bring the
subject of maritime law before Parliament. On referring
back to the proceedings of last year, I found he was correct,
and as it is a sort of etiquette in the House not to encroach
on each other’s territory, I yielded at once. Mr. Horsfall
has adopted my exact words, and I shall second his motion.
The debate stands for next Tuesday, the 11th. TI am very
| Bir. 58.

862 LIFE OF OOBDEN. (omar.

well satisfied that Mr. Horsfall originates the motion, as it
will give a better chance of success, the Tories being less
likely to oppose one of their own party than me. By the
way, Lindsay says he thinks there is now a majority in the
House in favour of exempting private property from capture.
The question respecting blockades is quite new, but with
& little discussion we shall carry that point; and I am still
convinced that if the Emperor will propose the three points
which I quoted in a former letter, we can compel our
government very shortly to acquiesce.”

“March 17. ( ,, )—Inall my political life I have never
suffered a more vexatious disappointment than in being
prevented from speaking last Monday. I had taken great
trouble to prepare, and should have had a good opportunity
of being universally read in the papers, for much attention
has been called to my intention to speak. But I was seized
with a sudden hoarseness arising from a cold, and on
Monday was unable to articulate. The consequence was
that the debate to my mind was kept to too narrow a basis.
However, enough was said and admitted on all sides to prove
that we cannot remain where we are, and as nobody
seriously proposes to go back, it is quite clear we must go
forward. Iam convinced that the result will be, after the
usual agitation out of doors, that public opinion in England
will pronounce for a complete revolution in the maritime
law. We have more to gain than any other people from
the complete removal of all restrictions on freedom of com-
merce whether in time of peace or war. But we have our
battle to fight as usual with our own feudal governing class.
I am writing this in my bedroom, and cannot, therefore, say
much. As respects the postage question, I will not lose
sight of it.’’*

3 The debate was resumed on March 17 by Mr. Lindsay, who began by
expressing » hope that Cobden would be able ta speak before the end of
xxxrv.] ON LORD PALMERSTON. 863

“ Athenceum, London, March 18. ( 4, )—You will see 1863
that we are in the midst of a debate on the maritime law, Air. 58
and you may have remarked that Palmerston has seized
the opportunity before the discussion was over to declare
his opposition to the change affecting private property of
belligerents at sea. Iam not surprised at this; for a man
of seventy-seven, whose ideas are stereotyped on the model
of half a century ago, is not likely to favour any measure in
harmony with the age in which we live. But Iam not the
less certain that these changes in maritime law to which I
alluded before, will be adopted by this country. It takes
time with us English people to make up our minds, but
when great material interests can be appealed to on the
side of principles of freedom and humanity, the eventual
result in this country is not doubtful. It is a terrible evil
to find ourselves with an old man of seventy-seven at our
head, and I am more and more convinced that any change
from this state of things will be an advantage.

 

Lord Palmerston.

“ Midhurst, August 7, 1862. (Lo Mr. Hargreawes.)—I
have found your letter on coming here. If Bright could
have been by my side during the last six weeks of the
Session, I think we could have silenced Palmerston. He
had laid himself open to attack, and the events of the
Session had made him very vulnerable. However, I hope I
have spoilt his game as a popular demagogue a little for
the recess. But he has a terrible run of good luck; and
then I am afraid of the tricks he may be allowed by his
obsequious colleagues to play before we meet again. No-
thing could be so unfavourable to the public interest as the

the evening. Hia hoarseness, however, remained intractable, and Mr.
Bright spoke instead.
864 LIFF OF COBDEN. [orar,

1862. present state of parties. Palmerston is spending many

 

7.38. millions more than the Tories would dream of spending.
He pampers the ‘services’ to such a degree that they
draw off all opposition from Dizzy’s party, so that there is
no check on anything he does. There was literally no oppo-
sition last Session. Then Gladstone lends his genius to all
sorts of expenditure which he disapproves, and devises
schemes for raising money which nobody else would think
of. Thus he gets the funds for fortifications by a system of
loans, which tends to keep the waste out of the annual
accounts. If the money had to be raised out of the taxes, we
could resist it. In the same spirit he goes into China wars,
and keeps a Dr.and Cr. account, deluding himself and the pub-
lic with the idea that these wars are at the expense of the
Chinese, whereas for every million we get from that country
we spend at least as much in increased cost of establish-
ments there ; and it seems more and more doubtful whether
much more will be got on any terms. How we are to
accomplish the change I know not, but it would be a great
gain to the public if we could carry the Liberals to the
Opposition side of the House. It seems as if the Tories
were determined not to let their leaders into office. They
are too well satisfied with things as they are. Well they
may be!”

Commercial Blockades.

« August 7, 1862. (To M. Ohevalier.)—Our Government, as
you know, is constantly declaring that we have the greatest
interest in maintaining the old system of belligerent rights.
Lord Russell considers that we must preserve the right of
blockade as a most valuable privilege for ourselves on some
future occasion, and you will see that almost the very last
words uttered by Lord Palmerston at the close of the
Session were to assert the great interest England had is
£xxIVv.j ON TH® AMERICAN BLOCKADE. 868

maintaining these old belligerent rights. In fact we are 1862.

 

governed by men whose ideas have made no progress since Air. 68
1808—nay, they cling to the ideas of the middle ages!”

“ Manchester, Oct. 25, 1862. ( ,, )—England can-
not take a step with decency or consistency, to put an
end to the blockade, until our Government is prepared to
give in their, adhesion to the principle of the abolition of
commercial blockades for the future. This our antiquated
Palmerstons and Russells are not willing to do. They have
a sincere faith in the efficacy of commercial blockades as a
belligerent weapon against our enemies. They are ignorant
that it is a two-edged sword, which cuts the hand that
wields it—when that hand is England—more than the
object which it strikes. Lords Palmerston and Russell feel
bound to acquiesce in the blockade, and even to find excuses
for it, because they wish to preserve the right for us of
blockading some other power.

“Tam against any act of violence to put an end to the
war. We should not thereby obtain cotton, nor should we
coerce the North. We should only intensify the animosity
between the two sections. Rut I should be glad to see an
appeal made by all Europe to the North to put an end to
the blockade of the South against legitimate commerce, on
the ground of humanity, accompanied with the offer of
making the abolition of commercial blockades the principle
of international law for the future. But this, I repeat, our
own Government will not agree to at present. We havea
battle to fight against our own ruling class in England to
accomplish this reform. I am by no means so sure as
Gladstone that the South will ever be a nation. It depends
on the “ Great West.” If Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana,
Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota sustain the President’s
anti-slavery proclamation, there will be no peace which will
leave the mouth of the Mississippi in the hands of an inde-

3K
1862.
Mir. 58.

 

866 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [CHAP.

pendent power. A few days will tell us how these elections
will go.”

The Cotton Famine.

“ Nov. 6, 1862. (Lo Lady Hatherton).—Few people can
realize the appalling state of things in this neighbourhood,
Imagine that the iron, stone, and coal were suddenly with-
held from Staffordshire, and it gives you but an imperfect
idea of what Lancashire, with its much larger population, is
suffering from the want of cotton; it reverses the condition
of the richest county in the kingdom, and makes it the poorest.
A capitalist with 20,0001. invested in buildings and machinery,
may be almost on a par with his operatives in destitution, if
he be deprived of the raw material which alone makes his
capital productive. Bad as is the state of things, I fear we
are only at its commencement, and unhappily the winter is
upon us to aggravate the sufferings of the working people.
The evil is spreading through all classes. The first effects
will be felt on the small shopkeepers; the weak millowners
will come next. I met a magistrate yesterday from Old-
ham, and he told me that at the last meeting of the Bench
four thousand assessments were exempted from payment of
poor rates on the plea of inability of the parties to pay !
How rapidly this must aggravate the pressure on the
remainder of the property of the Union! There will be
another meeting of the Manchester Committee next Monday,
at which it will be proposed to extend it to a National Com-
mittee, and the Queen will be solicited as Duchess of
Lancaster to allow her name to appear as its patron. An
energetic effort will then be made to cover the whole king-
dom with local committees, and then institute a general
canvass for subscriptions. By this means we may keep
matters in tolerable order till Parliament meets, but there is
® growing opinion that we shall have to apply to Parliament
XXxIVv.] DEBATR ON TURKEY. 867

for imperial aid. People at a distance, who learn that the
poor rates in Lancashire are even now less than they are in
ordinary times in the agricultural districts, cannot under-
stand this helplessness and destitution. They do not perceive
how exceptional this state of things is. Lancashire, with its
machinery stopped, is like a man in a fainting fit. It would
be as rational to attempt to draw money from the one as
blood from the other. Or it may be compared to a strong
man suddenly struck with paralysis; until the use of his
limbs and muscles be restored to him, it is useless to tell
him to help himself.”

Debate on Turkey.

“ London, June 2, 1863. (To M. Ohevalier.\—We had a
debate in the House on the Turkish question last Friday,

& propos of the bombardment of Belgrade by the Turks.” I:

took a part, and send you enclosed an extract from my speech,
in which I alluded to the policy which ought to be pursued
in the Hast on the part of France and England. As you will
see, the doctrine, though somewhat new to the House, was
very well received. I was very much struck with the
altered feeling towards the Turks. They have not a friend,
except Palmerston and his partial imitator, Layard. Pal-

2 When Servia acquired what was practically her independence, Belgrade
was one of five fortresses which the Turks continued to ocoupy. In the
summer of 1862 an affray, such as was frequent enough, took place be-
tween some Servian citizens in Belgrade, and some soldiers of the Turkish
garrison in the citadel. The Turkish Pasha proceeded to bombard the
town, and European diplomacy was once more stirred by the relations
between Turkey and her dependencies, In the debate in the House of Com-
mons, May 29, 1863, Mr. Layard made an elaborate defence of the condition
and prospects of the Turkish Government. Cobden replied in a particularly
able statement of the case against Turkey and the traditional policy of the
British Foreign Office. To this Mr. Gladstone replied in turn, not taking
Mr. Layard’s line, but rather deprecating “a general crusade against
Turkey,” and hoping for the best.—Hamsard, olxxi. p. 126, ete.

1868.

Zit. 59
1863.
Air. 59.

 

868 Live Of COBDEN. [oHaP.

merston was absent from the debate owing to a slight
attack of gout. Gladstone was obliged to speak iv reply to
me, but he did it with evident reluctance. There will be
no more Crimean wars for us in defence of the Turks.
Should a Slavonic or Hellenic Garibaldi arise to wage war
with the Ottoman oppressor, British public opinion will
instantly leap to his side, and then our Foreign Office will
instantly turn its back upon its old traditions, as it did in
the case of Italy. There is no demagogue like our high
officials for flattering and bowing to the popular passion of
the hour | ””

The Polish Insurrection.

“June 22, 1863. ( ,, )—My dear friend, I do not
understand what good can come from an interference by
force of arms in the Polish business.’ I can see how very
great injury could arise to ourselves. We draw food for two
or three millions of our people yearly from Russia. If your
nation goes into such a war it will of course be with the
hope of getting some extension of territory out of the
squabble. That would no doubt be the case. Germany
would fall into confusion, and another ‘ confederation’ would
arise, in which France would of course have a voice, and her
good will must be propitiated by a concession on the Rhine.
To this I have no objection. But our Foreign Office would
go into convulsions at such an audacious rupture of its
cherished traditions. Then as we are not in want of further
territory, and could not therefore share in the spoil, the
danger is that we should quarrel with you. I hope the
chimerical scheme will not be persevered in.”

* In the beginning of 1863, in consequence of the shameless brutality of
the Russian conscription, an insurrection had broken out in Poland. The
Emperor of the French proposed that our Government should join him in
remonstrating with Prussia for aiding Russia. Lord Palmerston, however,
for once took Cobden’s view, and “declined to fall into the trap.”
xxx1v.] ON THE POLISH INSUBBEOTION. 869

The American War.

« July 11, 1862. (To Mr. Summer.)—It is a long time since
I wrote to you. Indeed, to confess the truth, it is a painful
task for me to keep up my correspondence with my American
friends. But I have not been a less anxious observer of
the events which have passed on your side. I shall now
best serve the interests of humanity by telling you frankly
the state and progress of opinion here. There is an all but
unanimous belief that you cannot subject the South to the
Union. Even they who are your partisans and advocates
cannot see their way to any such issue. It is necessary that
you should understand that this opinion is so widely and
honestly entertained, because it is the key to the expression
of views which might otherwise not be quite intelligible.
Among some of the governing class in Europe the wish is
father to this thought. But it is not so with the mass of the
people. Nor is it so with our own Government entirely.
I know that Gladstone would restore your Union to-morrow
if he could; yet he has steadily maintained from the first
that unless there was a strong Union sentiment, it is impos-
sible that the South can be subdued. Now the belief is all
but universal that there is no Union feeling in the South ;
and this is founded latterly upon the fact that no cotton
comes from New Orleans. It is said that if the instinct of
gain, with cotton at double its usual price, do not induce the
people to sell, it is a proof beyond dispute that the poli-
tical resentment is overwhelming and unconquerable.”

“ Feb. 18, 1863. (To Mr. Sumner.) —If I have not written to
you before, it is not because I have been indifferent to what is
passing in your midst. I may say sincerely that my thoughts
have been almost as much on American as on English poli-
tics. But I could do you no service, and shrank from
occupying your over-taxed attention. even for — moment.

1868,
Air. 59.

 
 

fit, 69,

870 LIFE OF OOBDEN (omar

My object in now writing is to speak of a matter which has
a practical bearing on your affairs. You know how much
alarmed I was from the first lest our Government should
interfere in your affairs. The disposition of our ruling
class, and the necessities of our cotton trade, pointed to
some act of intervention; and the indifference of the great
mass of our population to your struggle, the object of
which they did not foresee and understand, would have
made intervention easy, and indeed popular, if you had been
a weaker naval power. This state of feeling existed up to
the announcement of the President’s Emancipation Policy.
From that moment our old anti-slavery feeling began to
arouse itself, and it has been gathering strength ever since.
The great rush of the public to all the public meetings
called on the subject shows how wide and deep the sym-
pathy for personal freedom still is in the breasts of our
people. I know nothing in my political experience so
striking, as a display of spontaneous public action, as that
of the vast gathering at Exeter Hall, when, without one
attraction in the form of a popular orator, the vast building,
its minor rooms and passages, and the streets adjoining,
were crowded with an enthusiastic audience. That meeting
has had a powerful effect on our newspapers and politicians.
Tt has closed the mouths of those who have been advocating
the side of the South. And I now write to assure you
that any unfriendly act on the part of our Government—no
matter which of our aristocratic parties is in power—towards
your cause, is not to be apprehended. If an attempt were
made by the Government in any way to commit us to the
South, a spirit would be instantly aroused which would
drive that Government from power. This, I suppose, will
be known and felt by the Southern agents in Europe, and
if communicated to their Government, must, I should think,
operate 9s a great discouragement to them.”
xxx1v.) TO MR. SUMNER ON THE AMERICAN WAR. 871

“ April 2, 1863. ( ,, )—There are certain things which
can be done and others which cannot be done by our Govern-
ment. We are bound to do our best to prevent any ship-of-
war being built for the Confederate Government, for a ship-
of-war can only be used or owned legitimately by a govern-
ment. But with munitions of war the case is different. They
are bought and sold by private merchants for the whole
world, and it is not in the power of governments to prevent
it. Besides, your own Government have laid down repeatedly
the doctrine that it is no part of the duty of governments to
interfere with such transactions, for which they are not in
any way responsible. I was therefore very sorry that Mr.
Adams had persisted in raising an objection to these
transactions, in which, by the way, the North has been quite
as much involved as the South. If you have read the debate
in the House on the occasion when Mr. Forster brought on
the subject last week, you will see how Sir Roundell
Palmer, the Solicitor-General, and Mr. Laird the ship-
builder, availed themselves of this opening to divert atten-
tion from the real question at issue—the building of war-
ships to the question of selling munitions of war, in which
latter practice it was shown that you in the North were the
great participators.”

“ May 2, 1863. ( ,, )—I am in no fear whatever of any
rupture between the two countries arising out of the
blockade, or the incendiary language of the politicians or
the Press on both sides of the Atlantic, though these may
help to precipitate matters on another issue. But the
fitting out of privateers to prey on your commerce, and to
render valueless your mercantile tonnage, is another and more
serious matter. Great material interests are at stake, and
unless this evil can be put down the most serious results
may follow. Now I have reason to know that our Govern-
ment fully appreciates the gravity of this matter. Lord

1863. .
Zit, 69.
1863.
itr. 59.

872 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [cnar.

Russell, whatever may be the tone of his ill-mannered
despatches, is sincerely alive to the necessity of putting an
end to the equipping of ships of war in our harbours to be
used against the Federal Government by the Confederates.
He was bond fide in his desire to prevent the Alabama
from leaving, but he was tricked, and was angry at the
escape of that vessel. It is necessary that your Government
should know all this ; and I hope public opinion in England
will be so alive to the necessity of enforcing the law, that
there will be no more difficulty in the matter. If Lord
Russell’s despatches to Mr. Adams are not very civil, he
may console himself with the knowledge that the Con-
federates are still worse treated.”

“ May 22,1863. ( ,, )—I called on Lord Russell, and read
every word of your last long indictment against him and
Lord Palmerston, to him. He was a little impatient under
the treatment, but I got through every word. I did my best
to improve on the text in half an hour’s conversation.
Public opinion is recovering its senses. John Bull, you know,
has never before been a neutral when great naval operations
have been carried on, and he does not take kindly to the
task; but he is becoming graciously reconciled. He also
now begins to understand that he has acted illegally in
applauding those who furnished ships of war to prey on your
commerce. It will not be repeated.”

“ Midhurst, Aug. 7,1863. ( ,, )—Though we have given
you such good ground of complaint on account of the cruisers
which have left our ports, yet you must not forget that we
have been the only obstacle to what would have been almost
a Kuropean recognition of the South. Had England joined
France, they would have been followed by probably every
other State of Europe, with the exception of Russia. This
is what the Confederate agents have been seeking to accom-
plish. They have pressed recognition on England and
xxrxrv.] ON THE AMERIOAN WAR. 873

France with persistent energy from the first. I confess 1863.
that their eagerness for other European intervention in ir. 59.
some shape has always given me a strong suspicion of their
conscious weakness. But considering how much more we
have suffered than other people from the blockade, this
abstinence on our part from all diplomatic interference is
certainly to our credit, and this I attribute entirely to the
honourable attitude assumed by our working population.”

“ Midhurst, Jan. 8, 1863. (To Mr. Paulton.)—.... Do
you remember when that old slave-dealer, the Confederate
envoy, breakfasted with you last spring, and we were dis-
cussing the vast preparations then making by the Federal
government, that he remarked with considerable emphasis,
when alluding to the incapacity of the Washington
government, ‘Sir, I know these men well, and I tell you
they are setting in motion a machine which they have not
the capacity to control and guide.’ I have often thought
of the truth of this remark when witnessing the frightful
mismanagement at headquarters among the Federals during
the last twelve months. If it were not for the negro
element I should think it the most wild and chimerical dream
that ever entered the human mind to think of subjugating
the vast region comprised in the Southern Confederacy.
But I have a suspicion that the much-despised ‘ nigger ’ is
going to play the part of arbiter in this great conflict.
Neither party wishes to use him or consult him in the matter.
Both parties will tolerate his intervention with about equal
disgust. But the North stands in the position of being able
to make the first use of some half-million of men who are
capable of being drilled into good soldiers, and bear the
climate of the battle-ground without the average losses from

 

disease.
“ These black troops im posse will be more and more the
temptation of the North to make the plunge for complete
874 LIFE OF OOBDEN (omar.

1868. emancipation. It is indeed doubtful whether another army
4x59. of Northern whites could be raised. Ifthe Federal Congress
bolt the black dose, and resolve to employ black regiments,
it will be the beginning of the end of slavery. Is it not
apparently tending to this? I would have rather seen the
work done in almost any other way. But the Devil of
battles will not, I hope, have it all his own way. God will, I
hope, snatch something from the carnage to compensate us
for this terrible work. And spite of the Times and the devil

I hope the slave will get his freedom yet.”

“ Midhurst, Jan. 18,1863. ( ,, )—.... I join with
you in all your horror of this vulgar and unscientific and
endless butchery in America. Before the first shot was
fired I wrote to Sumner to say that if I were a New Eng-
lander I would vote with both hands for a peaceful separa-
tion. But since the fighting began 1 have regarded the
matter as beyond the control of reason or moral suasion, and
I have endeavoured to keep my mind as free as I could from
an all-absorbing interest in the struggle—simply on this
utilitarian principle—that I can do no good there, and
T want my faculties and energies to try and do something
here.

“My only absorbing care in connexion with the civil
war is to endeavour to prevent this country from inter-
fering withit. To thisend I think the anti-slavery direction
in which the war is drifting will be favourable. I am not
much afraid of any widespread acts of violence on the part
of the negroes. They are generally under religious impres-
sions, and are not naturally ferocious. They will grow
unsettled, and some of them unmanageable, and there will
be great confusion and swaying to and fro. But though I
don’t expect them to rise and commit desperate crimes, it is
quite evident that Jefferson Davis feels all the force of the
emancipation measure as 9 strategical act. He has allowed
XxxIV.]VISIT TO THE FOBTIOATIONS OF POBTSMOUTH. 875

his passions to master him in the eyes of the world, as shown
by his proclamation in advance.

“Tt will be a strange working of God’s Providence if the
negro turns the scale for the North, after the whites on both
sides are exhausted. It isclear that the able-bodied blacks
will be a cheap resource for soldiers for the North for
Southern stations. I hope you and Hargreaves have agreed
not to get into an excitement on the subject.‘ The issue is

beyond European or human control now, and will go on to
the bitter end.”

Visit to the Fortifications.

“ Midhurst, Feb.3. ( 4 )—.... I went last week
to Portsmouth to see the fortifications. I spent a couple of
days in theneighbourhood. Starting by train from Chiches-
ter, I stopped at Havant, where a couple of officers from
Portsmouth met me, and we went thence in a fly over the
Downs by Portsdown Hill to Fareham, and then from the
latter place to Gosport.

* Our road along the downs passed beside the great inland
chain of forts covering all the high ground within four or
five miles of Portsmouth. It is necessary to see these things
to understand them. The South Down forts are not designed
for defence against a landing. They, as well as an inner
system of forts between the Downs and the sea, are planned
on the theory that an enemy has beaten us at sea and
landed in force, and having worsted an army on shore,
these forts are to prevent the foreign force from taking up a
position on the downs, and shelling the docks at four or five
miles off. Of course the theory implies that the enemy is
free to go elsewhere, and the reasonable inference may be
that he would prefer going to London, or at least coming
to rob our henroosts who live under the downs! The pro-

4 Mr. Paulton, like Mr. Lindsay, Mr. Moffatt, and one or two other of
Oobden’s intimate friends, did not sympathize with the cause of the Union.

1863.
Ar, 59.

 
$76 LIFE OF OOBDEN, [onar.

1863. gramme of course contemplates that our own soldiers are

 

4x. 69. safely ensconced in these forts beneath their casemates, and
behind gigantic ditches in the chalk—in fact you never saw
such precipitous excavations as these are in the Downs to
prevent a foreign army from getting at an English army,
whilst the country is at their mercy. I need hardly add that
there is not an officer of either service with a head on his
shoulders who is under fifty, that does not look with supreme
contempt, disgust, and humiliation at these works,

“My companions were Captain Cowper Coles, R.N., the
inventor of the cupola ships, and Colonel Williams, of the
Marine Artillery, who has a pension for wounds, though a
young man.

“T saw all that was going on in the dockyards, and came
away with the conviction that we are now wasting our
money on iron-cased vessels with broadsides, whilst a new
invention is in the field which will entirely supersede them.
Captain Coles is building a vessel with four cupolas, or
rather is superintending the alteration of one on a principle
which it is clear must render broadside guns useless.”

“ April 22,1863. (To Mr. Bright.) —There is a great and
growing uneasiness about our relations with the United
States, and there is so wide an interest taken by our friends
from America—of whom there is an influential gathering
just now drawn to this side by an apparent fear of some
impending mischief—as well as by English people, that I
feel quite oppressed with a sense of the responsibility, and
write to say that I entreat you to come to town, if only on
Friday to return on Saturday.’ Besides the confidence you
give me when we are together, I feel quite sure that the fact
of your being present with the power of reply exerts a re-
straining influence on Palmerston and the other speakers

5 This refers to an important speech of Cobden’s on the duty of enforcing
the Foreign Rnlistmant Act. Tt was made on April %.
sity, ?O MR. BRIGHT ON THR WAR. 874

on the ‘Treasury bench, and it is especially important that 1968.
they should be so restrained on this occasion. I hope 4. 59.
therefore that you will find yourself in a situation to come
for one night.”

“« Sept. 8, 1863. ( ,, )—The tide of battle seems to have
set in so strongly for the North, that I don’t think the
friends of freedom need feel any anxiety about the result so
far as fighting is concerned. There is, of course, a tre-
mendous difficulty beyond, but there is something more than
accident which seems in the long-run to favour the right
in this wicked world, and I have a strong persuasion that
we may live to see a compensating triumph for humanity
as the result of this most gigantic of civil wars.

“T confess I cannot penetrate the mystery of French politics
in connexion with the United States question. I suppose
the Emperor has been very strongly pressed by Slidell and
other interested parties to take some step to encourage the
South. His unwise Mexican expedition, about which he
must have daily more of doubt and misgiving, has placed
him in a false and dangerous position on the continent of
North America; and we all know how in public, as in pri-
vate life, one false step seems only to necessitate another.
I have no doubt that his Mexican embarrassment is plied
with consummate tact and unscrupulous daring by the Con-
federate agents. The Richmond government will offer any
terms for the French alliance. Fortunately they are in such
straits themselves, that they have little to offer as a temp-
tation to an ambitious but cautious mind like Napoleon’s.
The influential people who surround the Emperor, such as
Fould and Rouher, are of course opposed to any interference
in the American quarrel... .. After all, our chief reliance
for the maintenance of a non-intervention policy by France
and England is not in the merits or justice of that course,
but—it is sad to say it—in the tremendous warlike power
1863.

 

ir. 69.

878 LIFB OF OOBDAN. (omar.

manifested by the free States of America. Some shallow
and indiscreet members of our aristocracy exclaimed at the
outbreak of the Civil War, ‘The Republican bubble has
burst ;’ but the experience of the last two years shows
that, whether in peace or war, this Republic, instead of a
bubble, is the greatest and most solid fact in all history.
.... Itis to be hoped that gradually our educated mob
of the clubs will become, however unwillingly, acquainted
with the warlike resources of America. At present, nine
out of ten of them are under the complacent delusion that
we have the power at any moment to raise the blockade,
and effect a peace on the basis of separation. And such is
the invulnerable conceit of a large part of our aristocratic
middle class, that if such facts as I have given above were
published by you or myself, they would be read with
incredulity, and we should be denounced as Yankee
sympathizers.

“T always take for granted the government will not allow
the ironclads to leave Laird’s, unless they know their real
destination. The progress of the Federal arms will help
the Cabinet over some of the legal technicalities of the
enlistment act.”

“ Midhurst, Oct. 12, 1868. ( ,, )—I have nothing to
say, but that Mr. Whiting, who is here as successor to Mr.
Evarts as legal representative of the Washington govern-
ment, has been visiting me, and from a rather confidential
conversation with him, I find that you must have been mis-
informed as to the correspondence or communications that
have been taking place between Adams and our Foreign
Office. The President, from what I gather from Mr. W.,
who seems to be in the most confidential relations with him
and his Cabinet, is determined whatever happens, short of a
direct intervention, not to have a rupture with England or
France during the Civil War. And he has not authorized
xxx1v.] 0 MR. BRIGHT ON THE WAR. 879

Adams to give any notice of leaving his post even if the
ironclads are permitted, on the plea of legality, to leave our
ports. Nor will he meddle with Mexican politics, whatever
may happen, whilst Jeff Davis is in the field. In all this he
shows a strong common sense much to be commended.

“Mr. Whiting tells me that Mr. Adams had no assurance
up to the last from our Government that the Rams would
not leave, and even when our semi-official papers were
announcing that they had been arrested, he gave expression
to a fear that he might get up any morning and find the
ships had escaped. Now that I see by yesterday’s paper
that the broad arrow has been put upon the Rams, I
suppose the matter is settled.”

Midhurst, Oct. 17, 1863. ( ,, )—I return Aspinall’s
and Chase’s letters. I was pleased with Chase when I saw
him in Ohio, where he was governor of the State in 1859.
He is in his physical and mental traits not unlike Sumner—
a massy, stately-principled man, but more practical and
less of the rhetorician than his Massachusetts colleague.
He is altogether a different type to Seward.

“T have a letter from Evarts by the last mail. He seems
well pleased at the detention of the Rams. He has a
passage in his letter which seems rather to corroborate
your information about Lord Russell. He says, ‘From in-
formation which I have of the severity and uncertainty of
the final struggle with your ministry, Harl Russell was dis-
creditably slow and unsteady in coming to the right de-
cision. I am sure that when the communications of proofs
as to the destination of these ships of war made to your
government are made public, common sense on both sides
of the water will be shocked at the stumbling hesitancy of
the ministerial council in face of the facts, and at the narrow
escape the two nations have had from at least partial
hostilities.’ ”

1863.
ir. 58
$80 LIFR OF GOBDEN. foita’,

1863. “ October 4,1864. ( ,, )—I should say that as a poli-

4x. 59.. tician Lincoln is very superior to McClellan, who is a

professional soldier and nothing more. By the way, Lincoln

stumped Illinois for the Senate in opposition to Douglas,

the ablest debater in America after Clay. They travelled

from county town to county town together, and met the same

audience on the same platform in forty or fifty counties, ques-

tioning, bantering, and exposing each other’s shortcomings.

It is the fashion to underrate Lincoln intellectually in part,

because he illustrates his arguments with amusing anecdotes.

But Franklin was not less given to apologues, and some

of them not of the most refined character. It is quite

certain that an inferior man could never have maintained

such a contest as Lincoln went through with Douglas.

Presidents are apt to fulfil the second term better than the

first. Chase is the strongest man of the Republican party,

and I sincerely hope Lincoln will bring him back to the
Treasury.

“I hope you were pleased with the compliment paid us
in California.’ There is a poetical sublimity about the idea
of associating our name witha tree 300 feet high and 60
feet girth! Verily it is a monument not built with men’s
hands. If I were twenty years younger I would hope to
look on these forest giants; great trees and rivers have an
attraction for me.”

Political torpor of the day.

“April 5, 18638. (To Mr. Hargreaves.\—How do you
admire the reception given to the ‘ Feargus O’Connor of
the middle classes’ in Scotland?’ For the Town Councils
and their addresses I can find excuses; they are privileged

6 The names of Cobden and Bright were inscribed respectively on tablets
on two of the giant trees of the Yosemite valley.

7 Lord Palmerston was installed as Lord Rector at Glasgow, March 80, and
had a very triumphant reception. See Irving’s Annals of our Time, p. 644
xxx1v.] ON THE POLITIOAL TORPOR OF THE DAY. 88)

flunkies, and nothing else could be expected from them. 186.
But there is no doubt that the demonstration was largely Afr. 59.
shared by the working class, which is certainly one of the
most singular and inexplicable of public incidents. It brings
to my mind the saying of our librarian, , who, when
speaking of the old Premier, called him ‘ the most successful
impostor since Mahomet !?

“There is a remarkable fact in the political movement, or
rather political torpor of our day, that the non-electors, or
working men, have no kind of organization or organ of the
Press by which they can make their existence known, either
to help their friends or prevent their body being used as
was done in Glasgow, to strengthen their enemies—for the
latter effect has no doubt been produced by the address
from the working class presented to the Premier.

“T observe what you say about Bright’s powers of elo-
quence. That eloquence has been most unsparingly used
since the repeal of the Corn Laws—now going on for nearly
twenty years—in advocating financial economy and parlia-
mentary reform, and in every possible way for the abase-
ment of privilege and the elevation of the masses. If he
could talk till doomsday he would never surpass the strains
of eloquence with which he has expounded the right and
demolished the wrong cause. Yet see with what absolute
lack of success !

“Now if you have ever the chance of bringing your
influence to bear on him in this connexion, let it be, I
entreat you, to urge him to take any opportunity that the
working class may offer him to tell them frankly that no-
body can help them until they are determined to help them-
selves. Let the responsibility be thrown back on them in a
way to sting them into an effort, if self-respect fail to
excite them. They should be told plainly that old parties
have coalesced on the ground that no further parliamentary

3L

 
882 LIFE OF COBDEN. [cHar.

1863. reform is required—that five millions of adult males in the
‘4. 59. kingdom are politically ignored, or only remembered to be
insulted, and that this state of things will endure so long as
the five millions eat, drink, smoke, and sleep contentedly
under the proscription, and that no power on earth will ever
help them out of their political serfdom until they show
that they can discriminate between those who would eman-
cipate them and those who would keep them as they are.
Until the non-electoral class can have a bond fide organiza-
tion in every large town, composed. of their own class, and
self-sustained, it is a pure waste of life and strength for a
man of Bright’s genius to attempt to advance their cause in
that packed assembly, the House of Commons.”

On Privateering.

 Oct.6,1863. (To Mr. Bigelow.)—In 1854, on the break-
ing out of the Crimean war, a communication was sent by
England and France to the American Government, express-
ing a confident hope that it would, ‘in the spirit of just reci-
procity, give orders that no privateer under Russian colours
shall be equipped, or victualled, or admitted with its prizes, in
the ports of the United States,’ &c. It has occurred to me to
call your attention to this, although I dare say it has not
escaped Mr, Dayton’s recollection. But I should be curious
to know what answer the French Government would now
make if its own former language was quoted against the
course now being taken at Brest in repairing, and I sup-
pose ‘victualling,’ the ‘ Florida.’ If the answer be that
this vessel is not a ‘ privateer’ but a regularly commissioned
ship-of-war, then I think the opportunity should not be
lost to put on record a rejoinder to this argument, showing
the futility of the Declaration of Paris against privateer-
ing; for if a vessel sailing under one form of authority
issued by Jefferson Davis, and called a ‘commission,’ can
xxxIvdq ON PRIVATRERING, 8383

do all the mischief to your merchant-vessels which another 1863.

 

could do carrying another piece of paper called a ‘letter Air. 59.
of marque,’ it is obvious that the renunciation of privateer-
ing by the Paris Congress is a mere empty phrase, and all
the boasted gain to humanity is nothing but a delusion if
not a hollow subterfuge. I think it might be well if Mr.
Dayton were to take this opportunity of justifying the
policy of the United States in refusing to be a party to the
Declaration of Paris, unless private property at sea was
exempt from capture by armed ships of all kinds. The
argament would be valuable for reproduction at a future
time, when the question of belligerent rights comes up
again for discussion.”
 

1863.

Air. 59.

CHAPTER XXXV.
CORRESPONDENCE WITH MB. DELANE.

It was inevitable that a public man, working for s trans-
formation of political opinion, should incur the hostility of
the great newspaper of the day, for the simple reason that

it has always been the avowed principle of the conductors of . .

that newspaper to keep very close to the political opinion of
the country in its unregenerate state. This principle it is
not our business here to discuss, but we can easily perceive
how it would come to make the newspaper sincerely inimi-
cal to the Manchester school. We need not resort to private
grudges to explain what is perfectly intelligible without
them.

“T remember,” said Cobden, in his speech on behalf of
Mr. Bright at Manchester in 1857, “the first time I spoke
in public after returning home from the Continent in 1847.
It was at a dinner-party in Manchester at which I took the
chair; and 1 took the opportunity of launching this question
of the press, and saying that the newspaper press of Eng-
land was not free, and that this was a thing which the
reformers of the country ought to set about—to emancipate
it. Well, I got a most vicious article next day from the
Times newspaper for that, and the Times has followed us
both with a very ample store of venom ever since.” “ Any
man,” he said on the same occasion, “who has lived in

1 Speeches, ii, 77.
CH. XXXV.]FENLING TOWARDS THE T/MES NEWSPAPER. 885

public life, as I have, mast know that it is quite useless to 1868.
contradict any falsehood or calumny, because it comes up Afr. 59.
again next day just as rife as ever. There is the Times
newspaper always ready to repeat it, and the grosser the
better.” “My plan,” he wrote to a friend in 1861, “has
always been to meet that journal with a bold front, and
neither to give nor to take quarter. I may add that if ever I
have succeeded in any public proceedings, it has always been
in spite of the opposition of that print. It was so with the
League ; with the abolition of the Taxes on Knowledge; and
with the French Treaty. You may take my word for it,
you never cun be in the path for success, in any great
measure of policy, unless you are in opposition to that
journal.” ?

It was very easy to see the reason why all this should
be as it was. In 1850 Cobden told Mr. John Cassell that
he believed the newspaper stamp to be the greatest griev-
ance that the democracy had in the whole list of fiscal
exactions. “So long as the penny lasts, there can be no
daily press for the middle or working class. Who below
the rank of a merchant or wholesale dealer can aflurd to
take in a daily paper atfivepence? Clearly it is beyond the
reach of the mechanic and the shopkeeper. The result is
that the daily press is written for its customers—the aris-
tocracy, the millionaires, and the clubs and news-rooms.
The great public cannot have its organs of the daily press,
because it cannot afford to pay for them. The dissenters
have no daily organ for the same reason. The governing
class in this country will resist the removal of the penny
stamp, not on account of the loss of revenue (that is no
obstacle with a surplus of two or three millions), but be-
cause they know that the stamp makes the daily press the
instrument and servant of the oligarchy.”

5 To Mr. W. 8. Iindsay. Feb. 26, 1861,

 
886 LIFS OF COEBDEN. [ Omar.

1863. His correspondence shows with how sharp an eye Cobden

4x.69. watched his masked foe. He jealously noted any post that
was conferred on a writer in the Times; in this respect, I
am bound to confess, being rather apt to make mountains
out of extremely small molehills.* He told his friends in
scornful tones of the social deference that was paid in pri-
vate by great people to the famous editor, and was scan-
dalized, here also rather unreasonably, to find him dining at
tables where every guest but himself was an ambassador, a
cabinet minister, or a bishop. An eminent visitor from the
United States, who had access to London society, was for a
long time perplexed by the social attentions that were
bestowed on this mysterious being, and in conversation with
Cobden contrasted the position of the press and its conductors
in England with that of similar personages in his own country.
“In America,” said Cobden, referring to this in a letter to
Mr. Hargreaves, “ the editor or proprietor puts his name on
the front of his paper, fights the battles of his party openly,
shares in the honours of its victories, and is to be found
among the senators, the governors of states, etc. But with us
the conductor of the Times preserves a strict incognito to his
readers, on the plea that anonymous writing is necessary
for preserving his independence, whilst he inconsistently
drops the mask in the presence of those who dispense social
distinctions and dispose of government patronage—the
very persons towards whom in the interests of the public he
ought to preserve his independence.” ‘

3 It is worth remembering, however, that in the famous Slough speech
of 1858, Mr. Disraeli accused hiv Whig adversaries of “corrupting the once
pure and indepéndent pressof England.” “Innocent people in the country,”
he said, “ who look to the leading articles in the newspapers for advice and
direction—who look to what are called leading organs to be the guardians
of their privileges and the directors of their political consciences—are not
the least aware, because this sort of knowledge travels slowly, that leading
organs now are placehunters of the court, and that the once stern guardians
of popular rights simper in the enervating atmosphere of gilded saloons.”

4 To W. Hargreaves. Web. 16, 188).
xxxv.] CHARGE OF THE TIMES AGAINST MB. BRIGHT. 887

In November, 1863, it happened that in his annual address
to his constituents, Cobden made a passing reference to
the land question, and Mr. Bright followed with more on
the same subject. The Times promptly accused the two
Gracchi of Rochdale of exciting discontent among the poor,
and proposing a spoliation of the owners of land. The rest of
the story is worth telling, if for no other reason, because it
illustrates the kind ot opinion which public writers could at
that time pretend seriously to hold about these two statesmen.

By accident Cobden saw the misrepresentation of which
his enemy had been guilty, and he at once wrote the following
letter to the editor of the Times :-—

Siz,—The following is extracted from your yesterday’s leading
article :—

“Then, though a small state may have something to lose by change, it
has usually more to gain; and so it comes to pass that it looks upon any
attempt to reconstruct the map, or reform the institutions of Europe, with
something of that satisfaction with which the poor might regard Mr.
Bright's proposition for a division among them of the lands of the rich,
or the Roman plebeians might hang on the lips of Gracchus when he rose
to expound to them his last plan for a new colony, with large grants of
land to every citizen who should join it.”

Without communicating with Mr. Bright, I trouble you with a few
words on this gross literary outrage, which concerns not him alone, but
every public man. To utter a syllable to prove that the above assertion,
that Mr. Bright advocated a division of the lands of the rich among the
poor, is a groundless and gratuitous falsehood, would be to offer an insult
to one who has done more than probably any other public man, to popu-
larize those economical truths on which the rights of property are based.
To say that it is a foul libel for which the publisher is amenable to law
were beside the question, because the object of the calumny would scorn
any other court of appeal than that of public opinion, But a wider
question is forced on our attention by this specimen of your too habitual
mode of dealing, not merely with individuals, but with the interests of
society. A tone of pre-eminent unscrupulousness in the discussion of
political questions, a contempt for the rights and feelings of others, and
a shameless disregard of the claims of consistency and sincerity on the
part of its writers, have long been recognized as the distinguishing
characteristics of the Times, and placed it in marked contrast with the
rest of the periodical press, including the penny journals of the metropolis

1863.

Ait. 59.
 

Ait. 59.

888 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [onar.

and the provinces. Its writers are, I believe, betrayed into this tone
mainly by their reliance on the shield of an impenetrable secrecy.
No gentleman would dream of saying, under the responsibility of his
signature, what your writer said of Mr. Bright yesterday. I will not stop
to remark on the deterioration of character which follows when a man of
education and rare ability thus lowers himself—ay, even in his own
eyes—to a condition of moral cowardice ; for will he deny that if he were
to meet Mr. Bright in the club, or the House of Commons, with the know-
ledge that his secret was divulged, he would cower with conscious inferiority
before the man he had stabbed in the dark? This, however, is his own
affair. But there is another aspect of the subject in which the public is
directly interested.

In the present management of the Times there is an essential departure
from the plan on which it was conducted twenty or thirty years ago, which
distinguishes it from all other journals. They who associate in the higher
political circles of the metropolis know that the chief editor and the
manager of the Zimes, while still maintaining a strict éncognito towards
the public, drops the mask with very sufficient reasons in the presence of
those powerful classes who are at onoa the dispensers of social distinction,
and (on which I might have something to say) of the patronage of the
Government. We all know the man whose fortune is derived from the
Times ; we know its manager; its only avowed and responsible editor—
he of the semi-official correspondence with Sir Charles Napier in the
Baltico—through whose hands, though he never pen a line himself, every
slander in its leaders must pass—is as well known to us as the chief
official at the Home Office. Now the question is forced on us, whether
we who are behind the scenes are not bound, in the interests of the un-
initiated public, and as the only certain mode of abating such outrages as
this, to lift the veil and dispel the illusion by which the Times is enabled
to pursue this game of secrecy to the public, and servility to the Govern-
ment—a game (I purposely use the word) which secures for its con-
nexions the corrupt advantages, while denying to the pee its own
boasted benefits of the anonymous system.

It will be well for public men to decide, each in his own case (for myself
I have no doubt on the subject), whether, in response to such attacks as
these, they will continue to treat the Zimes as an impersonal myth ; or
whether on the contrary, they will in future summon the responsible editor,
manager, or proprietor to the bar of public opinion, and hold him up by
name to the obloquy which awaits the traducer and the calumniator in
every other walk of social and political life.

I an, &e.,

RricoHarp CoBpEn.
Mrpavnst, December 4, 18638,
xxxv.] OOBDEN’S PROTEST AND MB, DELANEH’S REPLY. 889

This letter was not inserted in the Times, and the Editor
wrote to Cobden a reply, of which the following is the sub-
stance :—

The Times Office, Dec. 7, 1863.

The Editor of the Times presents his compliments to Mr. Cobden, and
encloses a proof of his letter, which, though it arrived by Saturday's
post, only reached the Editor’s hands last evening. He could not then
give it immediate consideration, but, in deference to Mr. Cobden’s name,
he announced that it should be published to-morrow.

On reading it, however, this morning, he thinks—and he trusts Mr.
Cobden will, on re-perusal, agree with him—that Mr. Cobden has no
right to expect him, upon a pretext entirely irrelevant, to publish a
series of most offensive and unfounded imputations upon himself and his
friends.

.+~. The facts, however, are shortly these :—Messrs. Cobden and Bright
make two speeches at Rochdale, which are reported in the Times at
unusual length, and with extraordinary promptitude. These speeches
are discussed elaborately in two leading articles on successive days, and in
each of them certain passages are interpreted as recommending a re-
partition of the land among the poor. Messrs. Cobden and Bright are
expressly challenged to disavow this interpretation if it misrepresents their
meaning ; but they make no reply, and apparently accept it as conveying
their true intention.

The speeches, as reported, also remain before the public for upwards ofa
week, and the interpretation put upon them by the Times provokes no ad-
verse remark, At last an article appears upon a totally different subject, in
which an allusion is made in a single phrase to Mr. Bright’s supposed
opinions, and Mr. Cobden pounces upon this phrase, not that he may discuss
the true interpretation of Mr. Bright’s expressions, but that he may make
a vague and most offensive attack upon the Times and its conductors.

The Editor declines to permit the Times to be made the means of dis-
seminating imputations which he knows to be unfounded, and which
are entirely irrelevant to the question at issue.

The sensation was tremendous in Fleet, Street and Pall
Mall, when Cobden published his rejoinder, not to the imper-
sonal Editor, but to Mr. Delane in his own proper name,

To Joun T. Detang, Esa.

Sr1z,—You and I have been long personally acquainted; your hand.
writing is known to me, and I know yon to be the chief Editor of the

1868.

Air. 59.
1863.

ir. 59,

890 LIFS OF COBDEN. {onar.

Times. Under such circumstances I cannot allow you to suppress your
individuality, and shield yourself under the third person of the editorial
nominative, in a correspondence affecting your personal responsibility for
a scandalous aspersion on myself (as I now learn for the first time from
you) as well as on Mr. Bright.

Your refusal to publish my former letter is a matter so entirely within
your own province, that I have nothing to say upon it, except to con-
gratulate myself on the recent revolution in the newspaper world, which
renders your decision comparatively harmless. A few years ago the
Times possessed almost a monopoly of publicity. Four-fifths of the daily
newspaper circulation issued from its press. Voz it constitutes, probably,
one-tenth of our diurnal journalism, and my letter will be only the more
generally read from having been excluded from your columns.

But your letter proceeds to offer some most singular arguments in
justification of your attack on Mr. Bright. You state that your journal
had previously contained two leading articles, casting the same imputa-
tion both on him and myself, that you had challenged us to disavow your
interpretation of our speeches, and as we had failed to do so, you accepted
our silence as an acknowledgment of the truth of your interpretation,—
in other words, as proof of our guilt! Here we have, in a compendious
form, an exhibition of those qualities which characterize the editorial
management of the Times,—of that arrogant self-complacency, logical
incoherence, and moral bewilderment, which a too long career of impunity
and irresponsibility could alone engender.

Now that which lies at the basis of this reasoning, if such it may be
termed, is an inordinate display of what I must call Zimes egotism.
Notwithstanding that your journal has now but a fractional part of the
daily newspaper circulation, you complacently assume that all the world
are your constant readers. The Times never enters my house, except by
rare accident. This I know to be also the case with Mr. Bright, who
will, in all probability, never have seen your attack until he reads it in
my letter. It is only during the Session, at the Club, that I am in the
habit of seeing your paper. The chance visit of a friend last Friday
placed in my hand the Times of the previous day, when that scandalous
paragraph caught my eye which formed the text of my letter to you. I
was entirely ignorant of the two former attacks, which, by a droll process
of reasoning, you now invite me to accept as a justification of the third.
Now, let me ask you to descend for a minute from your editorial chair,
while I illustrate this logic by a hypothetical case put to Mr. Delane, the
barrister. Suppose that the constituents of Mr. Bright were to indict
your publisher for defaming their member, and that it was proposed in a
consultation of lawyers, at which you were present, to set up as a plea of
justification at the trial that the same libel had been twice previously
nity.) HIS LUITER tu MR, DELANB. $91

published against both Mr. Bright and Mr. Cobden,—-would it fail to
occur to you that, in the eyes of an honest judge and jury, this defence
would be considered an aggravation of the offence P

But we will assume, for the sake of argument, that Mr. Bright and I
are regular subscribers to, and diligent readers of, your newspaper. Is
it seriously contended that as often as you choose to pervert the sense of
our speeches, and charge us with schemes of public robbery, the onus lies
with us to disprove the imputation, aud that neglecting to do so, we have
no right to complain if we are thenceforth treated as ‘felons’ Would it not
occur to any one but an editor of the Times that, before we violate the
ninth commandment, the obligation lies with us to know that we are not
bringing a false accusation against our neighbour ?

Now, a word upon the subject which has given rise to this corre-
spondence. Nobody knows better than yourself, except the writer who
actually penned the scandalous passage in question, that this charge of
wishing to divide the land of the rich among the poor, when levelled at
Mr. Bright, is nothing but the resort to a stale rhetorical trick (though
the character of the libel is not on that account altered) to draw away
public attention from the real issue, and thus escape from the discussion
of a serious, but, for the moment, an inconvenient public topic. In order
to trail a red herring across the true scent the cry of spoliation was
raised. You and your writers cannot be ignorant that the laws and
political institutions of this country tend to promote the agglomeration of
agricultural land in a constantly lessening number of hands :—you and
I know, by a joint experience, which neither of us is likely to have for-
gotten, how great are the obstacles which the law interposes to the free
transfer of landed property in this country. Now, the policy which
sustains this state of things is a public question, which is not only fairly
open to discussion, but invites the earnest attention and study of public
men. In this, as in every other human concern, we must bring the
matter to the test of experience, and in no way can this be more effec-
tually done than by a comparison between the condition of the great
majority of the agricultural population in this and other countries. The
subject of our land laws has engaged the attention of eminent statesmen,
and of our highest legal authorities; but I will venture to add—and it
is all I shall condescend to say in refutation of your aspersions—that if
there are two persons, who beyond all others, have given pledges through-
out an ardent discussion of kindred topics during a quarter of a century,
that in debating the question of the tenure and transfer of land they
would observe the restraints of law, justice, and political economy, they
are the men whom your journal has dared to charge with the advocacy of
a echeme for robbing the landowners of their property for the benefit of
the posr.

1863.

 

Air. 69.
1863.

 

Git. 69.

892 LIFH OF OOBDEN. Lower.

Judging from past experience, this intrusion of a gross personality
will tend only to attract public notice to a matter which it was meant to
put out of sight. It has been the fate of the Times to help forward
every cause it has opposed. By its truculent, I had almost said ruffianly,
attacks on every movement while in the weakness of infancy, it has
roused to increased efforts the energies of those it has assailed ; while, at
the same time, it has awakened the attention of a languid public, and
attracted the sympathy of fair and manly minds. Itis thus that such
public measures as “the abolition of the Corn Laws, the repeal of the
Taxes on Knowledge, and the negotiation of the Treaty of Commerce
with France, triumphed in spite of its virulent, pertinacious, and unscru-
pulous opposition; until, at last, I am tending to the conviction that
there are three conditions only, requisite for the success of any great pro-
ject of reform,—namely, a good cause, persevering advocates, and the
hostility of the Times.

I shall forward this correspondence for publication in the Rochdale
Observer, that it may at least be perused by the community which has
the greatest interest in a controversy which concerns the reputation of
Mr. Bright and myself.

I am, sir, your obedient servant,
B. Coppen.

Mipuvest, Dec. 9, 1863.

To this Mr. Delane replied (Dec. 11) that it was quite true
that they had long been personally acquainted ; that there was
no need to identify his handwriting ; and that he had no desire
to deny his personal responsibility for what Cobden was
pleased to call his “scandalous aspersions.” Proceeding to
vindicate himself, Mr. Delane asked whether it was egotistic
or unreasonable to suppose that one who had pounced so
promptly upon a single phrase in an article of much inferior
interest to himself, should have read the articles which dis-
cussed his own speech ? Could he be expected to know that
a gentleman who once preferred a single copy of the Times
“toall the books of Thucydides” did not admit the Times to
his house?* The pith of the vindication was in the following
paragraph :—

§ This refers to an expression of Oobden’s which was a standing joke

against hima in ihose days. At # meeting of the Manchester Athensum
(Deo. 37, 1850), Oobden used the following language :~ I tuke it thas, ag
xxv] CONTINUANOE OF THE CONTROVERSY. 893

You attribute to the Times a deliberate misrepresentation of your mean-
ing and that of Mr. Bright, as to the means of amending the unequal
distribution of land between the rich and the poor. I repeat that certain
passages in your speeches will, in my opinion, bear no other interpretation
than that ascribed to them. If yon merely intended to recommend mea-
sures for facilitating the conveyance of land, as your reference to our
transaction at Ascot would suggest, your language was the most strangely
exaggerated that was ever used to further a humble instalment of law
reform. If you had read the Times, instead of condemning it unread, you
would have known that it has always advocated the simplification of
means for the transfer of land, and that its advocacy has not been alto-
gether unsuccessful. But just as no simplification of conveyances will
compel the rich to sell land or enable the poor to buy it, 80 no legislative
measure will render the purchase of land a profitable investment for the
poor.

The possession, the transfer, and the tenure of land are, however,
public questions, which are best discussed, not between Mr. Cobden and
Mr. Delane, but as it has always been the practice of the English press to
discuss them—anonymously. That practice was not invented by me; it
will not be destroyed by yourself. It has approved itself to the judgment
of all, whether statesmen or publicists, who have appreciated the freedom
and independence of the press; and J believe it to be essential to the
interests not only of the press, but of the public.

Cobden, however, insisted on carrying on the controversy
with Mr. Delane :—

a rule, grown-up men, in these busy times, read very little elae but news-
papers. I think the reading of volumes is almost the exception; and the
man who habitually has between his fingers 400 or 500 newspapers in the
course of the year—that is, daily and weekly newspapers—and is engaged
pretty actively in business, or in political or public life—depend npon it,
whatever he may say, or like to have it thought to the contrary, he reads
very little else, as a rule, but the current periodical literature; and I doubt
if a man witb limited time could read anything else that would be mnch
more useful to him. I believe it has been said that one copy of the Times
contains more useful information than the whole of the historical books of
Thucydides—(laughter) ;—2and I am very much inclined to think that to
an Englishman or an American of the present day that is strictly true.”
The opinion may be sound or not, but the expression was a slip, because
it showed that the speaker knew little about the author on whose com-
parative value be was hinting a judgment. Too much was made of the slip
by journalists and collegians who knew little more about Thucydides than
did Cobden himrelf, but who now wrote an if that rather troubleaome author
were the favourite companion of their leianre bours.

1868.
Air. 59.

 
1863.

Air. 59.

894 LIFB OF OOBDEN. Lonar.

To Jonn T. Detane, Esa.

S1z,—I have received the letter dated from your private residence, and
bearing your own signature, in which you take on yourself personally the
responsibility of the interpretation put by the Times on the speeches of
Mr. Bright and myself at Rochdale—namely, that we proposed “a
division among the poor of the lands of the rich.” Your letter to me
says :—

“You attribute to the Ztmes a deliberate misrepresentation of your
meaning, and that of Mr. Bright, as to the means of amending the un-
equal distribution of the land between the rich and the poor. I repeat
that certain passages in your speeches will, in my opinion, bear no other
interpretation than that ascribed to them.”

This is a grave accusation. I am told that, if proved, it would bring
Mr. Bright and myself within the provisions of the Act 57th Geo. III.
cap. 19, and render us liable to the penal consequences of transportation
for seven years.

I will not believe that you can be so wanting in the respect due to
others, as well as yourself, as to have addressed this accusation to me,
unless with the belief that you have evidence to substantiate it.

I call on yon to give me those “ certain passages” to which you refer,
and which are really now the only question at issne between you and me.
That there may be no excuse or ground for delay, I accept the report which
appeared in your paper as an accurate version of my speech ; and to aid you
in your task J have cut from the Times the entire passage which contains
all that I said in reference to the condition of the people generally, or to the
agricultural population, and the land question in particular. But let it
be distinctly understood that I do not confine you to this extract, but that
I give you the entire range of my speech.

Before giving the passage I will say a few words, which, although I do
not in the slightest degree claim for them the character of evidence, may
have interest in some quarters.

It is known that I am not in the habit of writing a word beforehand of
what I speak in public. like other speakers, practice has given me as
perfect self-possession in the presence of an andience as if ] were writing
in my closet. Now, my ever-constant and overruling thought while ad-
dressing a public meeting, the one necessity which long experience of the
arts of controversialists has impressed on my mind, is to avoid the possibility
of being misrepresented, and prevent my opponents from raising a false
issue—a trick of logic as old as the time of Aristotle. If I have, as some
favourable critics are pleased to think, sometimes spoken with clearness,
it is more owing to this ever-present fear of misrepresentation than any
other cause -—it is thus that the most noxious things in life may have
xxxyv.] CONTINUANCE OF THE OONTROVERBSY. 895

their uses. When in my speech at Rochdale I came to touch upon the
subject of the land, the thought instantly flashed upon me—and none but
the public speaker knows with what velocity thoughts move when in the
presence of 4000 listeners—that I was dealing with a question about
which there is a superstition in England, unknown elsewhere, and that
the enemy would raise the cry of agrarianism against me, and hence my
denunciation of agrarian outrage, which will be found in the following
extract, Had I been inspired with the faculty of second-sight, and seen
the Editor of the Times sitting bodily penning his criticism on my speech,
I could not have more completely refuted and confounded in anticipation
the charge now brought against me.
The following is the passage referred to :—

“Tt has been a fashion of late to talk of an extension of the franchise as
something not to be tolerated, because it is assumed that the mass of the
community are not fitted to take a part in government, and people point to
America and France, and other countries, and draw comparisons between
this country and other countries. Now, I hope I shall not be considered
revolutionary, becauas at my age I don’t want any revolutions. They
won't serve me, J am sure, or anybody that belongs to me. England may
compare very favourably with most other countries if you draw the line in
society tolerably high ; and if you compare the condition of the rich and
the upper classes of England, or a considerable portion of the middle
classes, with the same classes abroad. I don’t think a rich man, barring
the climate, which is not very good, could be very much happier anywhere
else than in England; but when my opponents treat this question of the
franchise as one that threatens to bring the masses of the people down
from their present state to the level of other nations, I say that I have
travelled in most civilized countries, and that the masses of my fellow-
countrymen do not compare so favourably with the masses of other countries
as I could wish. I find in other countries a greater proportion of people
owning property than there are in England. I don’t know a protestant
community in the world where the masses of the people are so illiterate as
in England. These are not bad teata of the condition of a people. It is
no use your talking of your army and navy, your exports and your im.
ports—it is no use telling me you have a small portion of your people
exceedingly well off. I want to bring the test to a comparison of the
majority of the people with the majority of the people in other countries,
Now, I say with regard to some things in foreign countries we don’t com-
pare favourably. The condition of the English peassntry has vo parallel
on the face of the earth. (Hear.) You have no other peasantry but that
of England which is entirely divorced from the land. There is no other
country in the world where you will not find men holding the plough and
turning up the furrow upon their own freehold. I don’t want amy agrarian
outrages by which we should change all this, but this I find, and it is quite
consistent with human nature, that wherever I go the condition of the
people is generally pretty good, in comparison with the power they have
to take care of themealves; and if you have ® olecs entirely destitute of

1863.
Zit. 69

 
1863.

 

1. 59.

896 LIFE OF OOBDEN. (omar.

political power, while in another country they possess it, they will be
treated there with more consideration, they will have greater advantages,
they will be better educated, and have a better chance of possessing
property than in | country where they are deprived of political power.
(Hear.)

You will observe in the above passage from my speech, taken from your
own report, that I use the words, “I don’t want any agrarian outrages by
which we should change all this;” and now we must appeal to the
authority of the lexicographer. If you turn to Webster's (quarto)
Dictionary you will find the word “agrarian” interpreted, on the
authority of Burke, as follows :—

“Relating to lands. Denoting or pertaining to an equal division of
lands; as, the agrarian laws of Rome, which distributed the conquered
and other public lands equally among all the citizens, limiting the quan-
tity which each might enjoy.” Again, in the same dictionary the word
“ agrarianism ” is given as an equal division of lands or property, or the
principles of those who favour such a division.”

Thus, in repudiating the agrarian system, I repudiated, in pure and
unquestionable English, according to Burke, the principles of those who
favour an equal division of land ; I repudiated the agrarian laws of Rome;
and yet, in spite of this, you charge me and Mr. Bright with “ proposing
a division among the poor of the lands of the rich,” and you associate us
with Gracchus in schemes of socialistic spoliation,

Mr. Delane in reply (Dec. 16) insisted that the passage to
which Cobden had referred him, did in his opinion convey a
proposition for the division among the poor of the lands of
the rich. ‘ Youseem to assume,” he said, “ that I charged
you with proposing that this division should be accomplished
by violence. But your own words were there to prove to me
that such was not your meaning, and to confute me instantly
if I had attempted to attach that meaning to it.” This, as
we shall see in a moment, ruined Mr. Delane’s case, for the
Times had distinctly and in terms described the proposed
change as the work of violence. Meanwhile, he went on to
say that it could be effected by compulsory partition after
death as in France :—

A similar measure proposed by yourself, or by Mr. Bright, and
earried in a parliament elected principally by the pensantry whom you
rxxy,] MB. DELANE'’S VIRTUAL SURRENDER. 897

desire to enfranchise, because they would then “have a better chance of 1868.

 

having property,” would in two or three generations not only check the “Air. 69.
accumulation of land in few hands, but would break up all existing

estates, great or small, and thus largely increase the number of proprietors,

In another generation, probably, the peasant himself would “turn up

the furrow on his own freehold,” and be no longer “divorced from the

land.”

You suggest so obviously that it is by legislative measures—rendered
possible by giving political power to the peasantry—you propose to“ amend
the unequal distribution of the land between the “rich and the poor,” that
no one would think of charging you with endeavouring to effect this great
change by violence.

It was clear that Mr. Delane had now surrendered himself
into the hands of his adversary. Cobden did not allow him
to escape, “ For the first time,” he replied (Dec. 18), “ you
now disavow having imputed to Mr. Bright and myself the
design of promoting by violent, illegal, or immoral means
a redistribution of the land of this country.’? Grammar,
logic, and common sense, he said, all revolted against the
Editor’s attempt to show the connexion between his former
language and his new accusation.

You now profess only to impute to us the design of favouring the
equal division of landed property among all the children at the death of a
proprietor. But this will not correspond with your reiterated charge
that we contemplated a division “ among the poor of the land of the rich.”
What you now affect to consider to be our object is the division of the
land of the rich equally among the children of the rich. I must bring
the question to the test of your own language.

In your leading article of December 3, you alleged that the small
states of the continent regarded a congress with the “ satisfaction with
which the poor might regard Mr. Bright’s proposition for dividing among
them the lands of the rich.” I now infer, from your new interpretation,
that I am asked to construe this as meaning only the satisfaction with
which the children of rich landowners would regard a proposition for
dividing among them the lands of their fathers.

Again, in your letter to me of December 7 you stated “ These
speeches are discussed elaborately in two leading articles on successive days,
and in each of them certain passages are interpreted as recommending
a repartition of the land among the poor.” Now, the word partition

3M
1863.
ir. 59.

 

898 LIFE OF OCOBDEN. fortar.

or repartition means simply a division, and not a bequest or inheritance,
and yet, with our dictionaries at hand, you now ask me to interpret the
“repartition of the land among the poor,” as only meaning that Mr. Bright
and I wished to compel rich landowners at their death to leave their
estates equally among all their children. And in your letter to me of
December 11 you “repeat” the assertion that “certain passages ” of our
speeches “ bear no other interpretation than that ascribed tothem.” Now
up to that date you had put no other interpretation on those speeches
than that they advocated the “division of the land of the rich among
the poor.” The poor we are now told to interpret to mean only the
children of rich landowners !

Then, I suppose, we are expected to forget that you coupled us with
Gracchus, and the agrarian system of Rome.

No; in the teeth of all these proofs in plain, unmistakable English
to the contrary, I should be sacrificing truth to courtesy were I to affect
to concur in this new version of your language, which does not admit of
two meanings.

This was sufficiently pungent; but it was not the most
decisive blow. On the evening of the day on which he
wrote the above letter, Cobden found in the Daily News
what it is odd that he should not have sought earlier, namely,
& passage from one of the previous articles in the Times to
which Mr. Delane had referred. “ This language,”’ the Times
had said (Nov. 26), “so often repeated, and so calculated to
excite discontent among the poor and half-informed, has
really only one intelligible meaning. ‘Reduce the electoral
franchise ; for when you have done so you will obtain an
assembly which will seize on the estates of the proprietors of
land, and divide them gratuitously among the poor”... It
may be right to reduce the franchise, but certainly not as a
step to spoliation.”

Now, said Cobden, “ you will at once perceive that unless
this language be unreservedly recalled, it makes the state-
ment in your last letter simply a mockery and an untruth.”
Mr. Dolane, declaring that the passage taken without its
context does not convey the same meaning as when taken
with it, and enclosing a copy of the article in full, then
trrv,] THE MBRITS OF THE CONTROVERSY. 899

begged to retire from the personal part of the contro-
versy.

There can now be very little difference of opinion among
candid men as to the merits of the controversy. It is hardly
possible to deny two propositions ; first, that the interpreta-
tion by the Times of what had been said at Rochdale was
plainly unjust, heedless, and calumnious; second, that Mr.
Delane’s attempt to explain away the imputation of violence
and spoliation was wholly unsuccessful. No editor ever
stumbled into a more palpable scrape, nor chose a less
fortunate way out of it. The simple and manly course
which the Hditor of the Times ought to have taken was
to say something of this kind ;—“ My article was written
in good faith. It is possible, however, that the writer may
have been led by certain conscious or unconscious pre-
possessions against the speakers to read something in Mr.
Bright’s speech and in yours which was not literally there.
I now see, looking at the speeches more carefully, that your
words could not bear the construction that was put upon
them, and that your complaint is justified. I will, as Editor,
publicly retract an imputation which I now perceive to have
been erroneous.”

As this apology was not forthcoming, Cobden was en-
tirely justified in publicly seizing Mr. Delane by name, and
fixing upon him personally the misdemeanour for which
he contumaciously made himself answerable. Anonymous
journalism may be tolerated and defended on account of
certain incidental conveniences—Cobden himself wrote
plenty of anonymous articles—but the system cannot be
invoked to protect the writer or the conductor of a public
print from liability to be called publicly to account in case
of persistent and proved misrepresentation. On the other
hand, it can hardly be denied that Cobden put himself in
the wrong by accusing the conductors of the Times of cor-

1863.
407. 59.

 
18638,
Air. 69.

 

900 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [omar.

ruption. When he talked of the “ corrupt advantages ” of
servility to the Government, he made an imputation which
he could not prove (as he found out when he tried to get up
a case for Parliament), and which was in fact not justified.
The conductors of the Times did not praise the friends and
abuse the enemies of the Government, in order to have one
of their contributors sent to the Bahamas, or another made
a magistrate at Bow Street. The Times was Palmerstonian
because the country was Palmerstonian, just as by-and-
by it became Derbyite because the country seemed
Derbyite. It condemned the talk of Cobden and Mr. Bright
about the land, because the capitalists and the country
gentlemen and the great nobles were frightened out of their
senses by such talk. The conductor of a newspaper is
entirely at liberty to choose what constituency he will
attract. It pleased the Times at that day to domesticate
itself, it was said, among the aristocracy. This may have
been a very narrow and ignoble policy, but Mr. Delane had
as much right to prefer to spend his evenings among dukes
and bishops as Cobden had to spend his among manufac-
turers and merchants. One thing he had not a right to do,
and that was to fasten upon public men propositions which
it was his business to know that they had never made.

That the Times was wrong upon some of the greatest
questions of Cobden’s time is quite clear. How wrong it was
upon the Russian War, the China War, the American Civil
War, everybody knows. But let us be just. If the Times
was wrong, so was the country. The newspaper only said
what the directing classes of the country said. Cobden’s own
letters to his friends show as much as this. The Times was,
in fact, the natural exponent of all those old ideas of national
policy which Cobden was bent on overthrowing. Just like
the Athenian Sophist, the newspaper taught the conven-
tional prejudices of those who paid for it. It is as if, says
XXxv.] LETTER TO THE DAILY TELEGRAPH. gol

Socrates of the Sophist and his public, a man had observed
the appetites of a great and powerful beast, how to approach
it, why it is furious or calm, what tones soothe and what
tones irritate it. Like the Sophist, the newspaper reflects
the morality, the intelligence, the tone of sentiment, of its
public. If the latter is vicious, so is the former.

As it happened, a great organ in the penny press
treated Cobden, as he thought, even worse than if its price
had been threepence. The Daily Telegraph declined to
print Cobden’s letter to Mr. Delane, from a rather unctuously
expressed tenderness for Cobden’s reputation; but though
it suppressed his letter, it published some very unfriendly
comments on it. Cobden protested against this with much
vivacity. ‘The merciful haze of time has effaced the interest
of much of his letter, but some portion of it is relevant to
still unsettled questions in the constitution of the literary
priesthood.

The question concerns the Government on one side, and the leading
London journal on the other. Does not that affect the publicP Is the
disposal of Government patronage—the appointment to posts which the
public pay—a private or personal question?  Recollect, I repeat, that
the entire controversy between us is—whether or not the subject should
be shrouded in secrecy. Itis not the question of anonymous writing
that is in debate. hat is only the red herring drawn across the true
scent. We all write anonymously, more or less. The only objection is
to the masked literary assassin, Nor is it a question whether writers
for the press have a right to their share of public appointments; nobody
denies it. Ido not even say that the stream of patronage ought not to
flow to the Times office; I only contend that it should not run under-
ground.

Far from thinking that the class of whom we are speaking should
be excluded from the public service, I form a very high estimate of the
fitness for legislative and administrative function, of those who write
for the political instruction of the people. And it is on this account
that, while I deny to no one the right of an honest incognito, I regret
that the prevalent, and perhaps unavoidable habit of anonymous writing
in the metropolis, should entomb, for all practical political purposes, eo
much of our best intellect, and rob society of the full development of

1868.

Jt. 69.
1863.

Air, 69.

902 LIFE OF OOBDEN. (onar.

that individuality, which, more than all besides, is essential to the progress
and elevation of our species. In the provinces, the anonymous system
has, practically, up to a very recent period, never been in operation ;
because, there, every man’s occupation was more or less known to his
neighbours, And, if space permitted, I could trace the salutary effect
of this on the political progress of the last generation; for it would
be easy to adduce the names of half a score of men, the conductors
of journals in Leeds, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Manchester, Norwich,
&c., &c., to whose able, honest, and energetic efforts, as leaders of
public opinion in their several localities, more than probably any
other traceable cause, the nation is indebted for its successful resistance
to that reactionary spirit, which, from the end of the last century,
down to 1820, ran its course of tyrannical repression, and filled all but
the stoutest hearts with despair. These men have all passed away, but
they should not be forgotten. And if, when my friend Dr. Smiles, him-
self a distinguished member of the fraternity, shall have completed his
biographies of our great discoverers, and improvers in physical science,
he should give us a volume of the lives of those pioneers of political
progress, it will be seen that their triumphs are traceable to something
more than an investment of capital in presses and type, with an impersonal
editorial staff,—that they were in each case due to the open and avowed
writing, and the personal example of the individual man, who was living
in clear daylight, under the full gaze of his neighbours, whom he was
not only stimulating, but leading in the path of duty, and by whom he
was in turn cheered and sustained. I might also, if space allowed, refer
to the advantages which open and avowed journalism might afford to the
electoral body, in the choice of representatives to Parliament. Those
members of the House of Commons connected with the public press,
who have been elected during my experience, and who, with the excep-
tion of the first-named, were connected with provincial journals,—Messrs,
Miall, Baines, Macguire, Fagan, Lucas, and others,—whatever may be
the differences of opinion as to their views, will be acknowledged by
all who have sat with them, as having been, in every case, among the
foremost of their party, for political intelligence and hononr.

I have said enough to show that I take a more exalted view than
most men, of the mission of those who instruct the public through the
newspaper press, and that, while asserting their title to the most
hononrable posts, 1 am assailing only a system by which they are huddled
clandestinely into inferior employments, as the result of a secret and
illicit intercourse with the Government of the day. And I revert to the
question—has not the country a right to be informed, on my responsibility,
that this illicit intercourse has been carried on between the Times and
the Government ; and is the Datly Telegraph justified in intercepting
xxxv.] COBDEN’S VIEW OF JOURNALISM. 903

from the public, so far as lies in its power, all knowledge of the fact, on
the plea that it is a personal matter P

Here we may leave the subject, merely remarking that to
the present writer it seems that the word “illicit” in the
letter is entirely misplaced and unintelligible. There was
only one way of effectually checking the excessive authority
of a journal which had abused it; this was to encourage the
establishment of competitors. Cobden did as much towards
this desirable end as any one, by his share in the reduction
of the paper duty, which was what made the cheap press
possible. The multiplication of newspapers and periodicals
has had the further effeet of clearing away the old charla-
tanry and the mystery of authorship and editorship. The
names of all important journalists are now coming to be
practically as well known as the names of important mem-
bers of Parliament, and this change has naturally been
followed by that more careful sense of responsibility which
Cobden was quite right in insisting upon,

1863,

 

Air. 59.
1864.

CHAPTER XXXVI

THE DANISH WAR—LAST SPEECHES IN PARLIAMENT——
CORRESPONDENCE.

Ir was truly said by a Member of the House of Commons at

‘Rr. 60, the time, that if the Session of 1864 were remembered at

all twenty years afterwards, it would only be remembered
for the answer which it gave to the question, Shall or shall
not England take part in the struggle between Germany
and Denmark? This entitles it to a notable place in any
account of Cobden. The answer that was then given was as
remarkable a triumph for Cobden’s principles, as the result
of the Don Pacifico debate had been a victory for Lord
Palmerston fourteen years before. The great wave of
Nationality which was the moving force in Europe for so
many years after the storm of 1848, now swept into Schles-
wig-Holstein, and brought Danes and Germans into violent
collision. We may here content ourselves with Cobden’s
own account of what he justly called that most complicated
of all questions. “In 1852,” hesaid, “by the mischievous ac-
tivity of our Foreign Office, seven diplomatists were brought
round a green table in London to settle the destinies of a
million of people in the two provinces of Schleswig and
Holstein, without the slightest reference to the wants and
wishes or the tendencies or the interests of that people.
The preamble of the treaty which was there and then agreed
to stated that what those seven diplomatists were going to
OH. XXXvI.] DENMARK AND THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT. 905

do was to maintain the integrity of the Danish monarchy, 1864
and to sustain the balance of power in Europe. Kings, 7.60
Emperors, Princes were represented at that meeting, but
the people had not the slightest voice or right in the matter.
They settled the treaty, the object of which was to draw
closer the bonds between those two provinces and Denmark.
The tendency of the great majority of the people of those
provinces—about a million of them altogether—was alto-
gether in the direction of Germany. From that time to this
year the treaty was followed by constant agitation and dis-
cord; two wars have sprung out of it, and it has ended in
the treaty being torn to pieces by two of the Governments
who were prominent parties to the treaty.” !

The question was whether England should go to the aid
of the weak Power against the two strong ones. Lord
Palmerston and Lord Russell were in favour of vigorous
intervention both before the war broke out, and after the
failure of the London Conference. They undoubtedly en-
couraged Denmark to resist. They were held back by
colleagues, against whose timidity the two veterans bitterly
murmured to one another.? When the London Conference
broke up, there was a universal apprehension that the active
party in the Cabinet would still carry the day, and that
Great Britain would find herself committed without an ally
to the terrible peril of a war with Germany.

“At the end of June,” as Cobden described it, “the
Prime Minister announced that he was going to produce the
protocols, and to state the decision of the Government upon
the question. He gavea week’s notice of this intention, and
then I witnessed what has convinced me that we have
achieved a revolution in our foreign policy. The whippers-
in—you know what I mean—those on each side of the House

1 Speeches, ii. 341.
2 Mr. Ashley’s Life of Lord Palmerston, ii. 437-8.
1864.
ir. 60.

 

906 LIFE OF OOBDEN. (omar.

who undertake to take stock of the number and the opinions
of their followers—the whippers-in during the week were
taking soundings of the inclination of Members of the House
of Commons. And then came up from the country such a
manifestation of opinion against war, that day after day
during that eventful week Member after Member from the
largest constituencies went to those who acted for the
Government in Parliament, and told them distinctly that they
would not allow war on any such matters as Schleswig and
Holstein. Then came surging up from all the great seats
and centres of manufacturing and commercial activity one
unanimous veto upon war for this matter of Schleswig
and Holstein.”* The result was that when Lord Palmerston
came down to the House on that memorable afternoon of
the 27th of June, it was to make the profoundly satisfactory,
but profoundly humiliating announcement, that there was
to be no war. They had ascertained, he said, that France
declined to take any active part in support of Denmark.
They had ascertained that Russia would take no part. The
whole brunt of the effort requisite for dislodging the German
troops would fall upon this country alone. Under these
circumstances, they had not thought it consistent with their
duty to advise the Sovereign to undertake the task. Lord
Palmerston wound up his statement by menaces of great
things to be done by the Government if Prussia and
Austria went a step farther in certain possible directions.
These curiously hollow and ill-timed threats were received
with loud shouts of derision, and Mr. Disraeli had the whole
House with him when he denounced them as spiritless and
senseless. He had the House with him when he went on to
say that judging from the past, he would prefer that the
affairs of the country should be conducted on the principles
of the Member for Rochdale and the Member for Birming-
3 Speeches, ii. 844
xxXv1.] HUMILIATING POSITION OF LOBD PALMERSTON. 907

ham. In that case the consequences might be the same, but 1864.

 

the position of England would be more consistent and more Al. 60.
dignified. At least these two gentlemen would threaten
nobody ; at least they would not have told Denmark that if
she were attacked she would not find herself alone; at least
they would not have exasperated Germany by declaiming
in the full Parliament of England against the “aggravated
outrages” of her policy; at least they would not have lured
Denmark on by delusive counsels and fallacious hopes.
When in course of time Mr. Disraeli moved a vote of
censure, Cobden did not let the opportunity slip. The in-
herent strength of his position made his speech even more
free than usual from bitterness or personality. It was felt
that the humiliating breakdown of the Foreign Office, and
the meddling and impotent diplomacy of which Lord Palmer-
ston was now the traditional representative, was a complete
justification of the great principles of non-intervention as
he had preached them for a whole generation. For the
last time, as it was destined to be, he pressed home the old
arguments for taking all reasonable and possible precautions
for avoiding continental quarrels. ‘ Our country,”’ he said,
“ requires peace. Some people think it is very degrading,
very base, that an Englishman should speak of his country
as requiring peace, and as being entitled to enjoy its bless-
ings; and if we allude to our enormous commercial and
industrial engagements as a reason why we should avoid
these petty embroilments, we are told that we are selfish
and grovelling in our politics. But I say we were very
wrong to take such measures as were calculated to extend
our commerce, unless we were prepared to use prudential pre-
cautions to keep our varied manufacturing and mercantile
operations free from the mischiefs of unnecessary war. You
have in this country engagements of the most extensive
and complicated kind. You have extended your operations
1364,

Air. 60.

 

908 LIFE OF COBDEN. [omar.

during the last twenty-five years to such a degree, that you
are now actually exporting three times as much as you did
twenty-five years ago—that is, your foreign commerce, and
the manufactures on which it depends, have grown in a
quarter of a century twice as much as they grew in a
thousand years before.”—(July 5.)

Lord Robert Cecil, who followed him in the debate, ob-
served caustically that though Cobden was about to support
the Government against the vote of censure, his enthusiasm
for them was not very warm. The Member for Rochdale, he
said, was about as good a friend of Her Majesty’s Govern-
ment, as Her Majesty’s Government had been of the king-
dom of Denmark; there was, however, the remarkable
difference between the two cases, that whereas the Govern-
ment gave to Denmark abundance of good words but no
material aid, the honourable member was about to give the
Government all his material aid, while he accompanied it
with a full dose of what certainly could not be called fair
words. When the division was taken, the Government won
by a majority of eighteen, but Lord Palmerston must have
felt that the policy of Free Trade had, among many other
changes which it had wrought, finally taken the supreme
control of peace and war out of the hands of the old territorial
oligarchy.

Cobden made two other elaborate speeches in the course
of the session. One was introductory of a series of reso-
lutions on a subject on which he had long entertained
strong views, the great extension of Government mann-
facturing establishments. In this, as in his views on the
greater subject of Free Trade, Cobden was able to quote
the illustrious authority of Burke in favour of the principle
which he was now advocating, that the Government should
not be allowed to manufacture for itself any article which
could be obtained from private producers in a competitive
xxxv1.] COBDEN’S SPEEOHES DURING THE SESSION. 900

market.‘ The other important speech had been made
earlier in the session, and carried his views of foreign policy
into a field where their application was becoming, and has
remained, more urgently necessary than it was even in the
sphere of continental Europe. He moved a resolution to
the effect that the policy of non-intervention by force of
arms in the internal political affairs of foreign countries, which
we profess to observe in Europe and America, should also
be observed in our intercourse with the Empire of China.°
What gave special point to the resolution was the fact that
at this time we were in danger of repeating the same vio

lence and the same impolicy which had worked such con-
fusion in China, in forcing intercourse upon the people of
Japan. Now, as on many occasions before, Cobden showed
his sense of the danger that the cry for new markets might
become as mischievous as the old cry for extended dominion.
The enormous expansion of manufacturing industry had
made some of the commercial class as ready to use violence
in opening fresh fields for the sake of gain, as the aristocracy
had ever been to use it in satisfying their national pride
or military ambition. Cobden’s demonstration of the perils
which lie before us on this side, and he was not ashamed to
consider moral as well as material perils, still remains as apt
and as timely as it was in his own day.

Cobden wrote his longest letters at this time to Mr.
Sumner and M. Chevalier. He protested, as we see, against
the early tendencies of his American friend, to imitate the
worst faults of the worst kind of European diplomacy ; and
to his French friend he put a question as to what might
happen in 1870, which subsequent events made curiously
significant.

‘ This excellent speech, which was Cobden’s last performance in the
House of Commons, is to be found in Hansard, clxxvi. July 22, 1864; and

in Mr. Rogers’s Selection of Speeches, i. 577.
3 May 31, 1864.

1864,
i. 60.

 
1864.

 

910 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [onar.

Character of President Lincoln,

“ Jan. 7. (To Mr. Sumner.)—You will soon begin to busy
yourselves with the task of President-making. I hope you will
re-elect Mr. Lincoln. He is rising in reputation in Europe
apart from the success of the North. He possesses great
moral qualities, which in the long-run tell more on the
fortunes of the world in these days than mere intellect. I
always thought his want of enlarged experience was a
disadvantage to him. But he knows his own countrymen
evidently, and that is the main point. And being a stranger
to the rest of the world, he has the less temptation to
embark in foreign controversies or quarrels. Nothing
shows his solid sense more thanthe pertinacity with which
he avoids all outside complications. His truthful elevation
of character, and his somewhat stolid placidity of nature,
put it quite beyond the power of other governments to
fasten a quarrel on him, and inspire the fullest confidence
in those who are committing themselves to the side of the
North. I say all this on the assumption that he has
irrevocably committed himself to ‘ abolition ’ as the result of
the war. Any compromise on that question would cover
your cause with external infamy, and render the sanguinary
civil war with which you have desolated the North and
South, a useless butchery.”

The American War.

«© Midhurst, Aug. 18,1864. ( ,, )—I still look forward
with unabated confidence to the triumph of the North. But I
begin to speculate on the effect which the failure of Grant’s
campaign may have on your politics. Sometimes I speculate
on the possibility of your imitating the course which political
parties often follow here, and that your Democrats, who
appear to be for peace, may come into power, and carry out
even more successfully than your party could do the policy
xxxv1.] ON GARIBALDI’S VISIT TO LONDON. oir

of war and abolition of slavery. Like Peel in his course on
Free Trade and Catholic Emancipation, they would have
the advantage of being sure of the support of the honest
advocates of the policy they adopted, even although they
were nominally in the ranks of their political opponents.
What I most dread is your falling into political confusion in
the North! That would be a severe blow to the principle
of self-government everywhere.”

Garibaldi’s Visit to London.

© May 3, 1864, (Lo M. Ohevalier.)—I thought you were
now sufficiently acquainted with England not to attach un-
due importance to the Garibaldi affair, in so far as our
ministers are concerned.® They of course were only acting a
political part in order to catch a little of the popularity which
for the moment surrounded the Italian hero. You do not
of course suppose that Palmerston entertains any views in
common with Garibaldi. It would be difficult indeed to
show that he has any views at all beyond the wish to hold
office by flattering the popular passions of the hour. The
people were quite sincere in the homage they offered to the
Italian.?, They believe in his honesty and disinterestedness,
and they know him to be a good fighter! There is acertain
antique picturesqueness about the man too which attracts

* Garibaldi arrived in England on April 3. The wild enthusiasm with
which he was received by the densest masses that ever attended » pro-
cession in London, made the Government uncomfortable. By some in-
trigue, the great hero of the European Revolution was hurried ont of the
country in the Duke of Sutherland’s yacht.

7 “ London, May 10. (To Mr. T. B. Potter.)— . .. . The working people
in the metropolis are very proud of their reception of Garibaldi, and those
of the provinces are hoping for another opportunity of féting him.

‘ When will the masses of this country begin to think of home politios P
Our friend Bright observed, as he gazed from » window in Parliament
Street on the tens of thousands that cheered the Italian,‘If the people
would only make a few such demonstrations for themselves, we could de

something for them.’ But nothing except foreign politics seems to occupy
the attention of the people, press, or parliament.”

1864.

4ir. 60.
1864.

 

ir. 60.

912 LIFE OF COBDEN. (otrae.

the sight-loving multitude. But there are perhaps other
reasons why the middle classes share the enthusiasm of the
populace. They believe him to be an enemy of the Pope, and
you know what ardent Protestants we are! The Dukes and
Duchesses took possession of Garibaldi to keep him out of
the hands of the democrats, and when they had finished
féting him, they sent him straight home to Caprera in a
Duke’s yacht. It was expected that he would make a tour
in the north of England, and all arrangements had been
made to receive him in Manchester, Newcastle, and other
places. But it was feared by his aristocratic acquaintances
in London that if he went to the provinces he might be talk-
ing too revolutionarily and so he was persuaded to go away
home, greatly to the disgust of the country democrats, who
consider themselves ‘done.’ All this is merely the play of
our political game, in which the so-called statesmen and
ministers of the Crown do not act a very dignified part.
The affairs of the Conference are not very promising. It
seems that we are to be thankful that France and England
are not on better terms. Liast autumn France was appa-
rently willing to go to war with Russia for Poland, and
England declined. Now England seems to be desirous of
going to war with Germany for Denmark, and France de-
clines! So we have preserved peace in consequence of the
suspension of the entente cordiale.”

Free Trade in France.

“27, Victoria Street, Westminster, June 27. ( ,, )—I
ought to have written to you more promptly, to thank you
for the very kind invitation conveyed in your last letter.
Be assured that it would give my wife and me very great
pleasure to come and pay Madame Chevalier and you a
long family visit in the Hérault. I am, however, afraid it
will not be in my power to avail myself of your friendly
XXXVI] ON FREE TRADE IN FRANOE. 913

offer of hospitality. In the present state of my health I 1864

 

am obliged to look forward to the possibility of being com- ir. 60.
pelled to go abroad in the winter. You know that the
climate of England from May to October is the finest in the
world, and gives no excuse for the invalid to leave home. I
must therefore remain with my family in the summer, in the
fear that my health may compel me to go to the south in the
winter. I should be delighted to have the opportunity of
passing a few weeks with you. Among other matters we
could talk over the progress of Free Trade in France. I
confess I am not satisfied that you do not continue to make
further reforms, if only to guard against reaction in those
already made. Time is passing. It is now four years since
we arranged your tariff. Are you sure that in 1870 you will
be so completely under the Free Trade régime as to prevent
the government of that day (God knows what it may be)
from going back to protection after the Anglo-French Treaty
expires.

“We are in a critical political situation here. It is
not easy to say what will happen in a week or two in the
House. The Whigs are in avery sorry plight. But the
Tories are so stupid that they seem hardly capable of pro-
fiting by the blunders of their opponents. The Opposition
is to meet to-morrow at Lord Derby’s, to consider the next
step. If they move a resolution implying censure on the
Government for not having gone to war, they will not be
supported by a majority of the House, for both sides are
very much opposed to war in behalf of the Danes. I have
been much struck with this pacific sentiment in both parties,
It is quite different from what it was previous to the Crimean

War.”
Tone of English Politics.

“ Midhurst, Nov. 5. ( ,, )—I am glad to hear that

yon and Madame Chevalier are returning in good health
aN
864,
Ait. 60.

 

914 LIFE OF OCOBDEN. [oxar.

to Paris. It ts a long time since we exchanged letters.
But Ihave been vegetating here ever since the close of
the Session of Parliament, and have had no news to com-
municate to distant friends. I have not yet made up my
mind whether I shall leave home for a more sunny region
this winter. It will depend on my health and the tempera-
ture of our English winter. I do not contemplate in any
case going to Africa. It may be necessary for me to go to
Southern Europe. But I confess I have a great repugnance
to making a journey of a thousand miles merely onan errand
of health.

“T have received the Débats with its article on the
Metric system. We have made a first step; but when I
think with what Chinese slowness we march in the path of
reform, it makes me despair of living to see this useful
change carried into effect.

“Our politics are very stagnant. How could they be
otherwise? . . . But there is one great change amounting
to a revolution which has been accomplished in our foreign
policy. After the fiasco of last Session on the Danish
question, our Foreign Office will never again attempt to
involve us in any European entanglements for the Balance
of Power, or for any dynastic purpose. Henceforth we
shall observe an absolute abstention from continental
politics. Non-intervention is the policy of all future go-
vernments in this country. So let the Grand Turk take
care of himself, for we shall never fight his battle again.
Until the American war is at an end we shall not recover
our natural tone of politics in this country. I am still con-
vinced the South will have to succumb. The geographical
difficulties of separation have always appeared to me to be
insurmountable. The mouth of the Mississippi alone is
enough to prevent Jeff Davis from establishing his slave
empire. It would be easier to establish an ‘ Kast Anglia’
XXxXxvL] ON THE TRIUMPH OF NON-INTERVENTION. 915

by the secession of Kent and Essex at the mouth of the
Thames, than to set up an independent State in Louisiana.
It is not a question ever to be discussed. It is an impossi-
bility. Have you not like myself been astonished at the
financial resources of the North? I have just seen a pam-
phlet recently published in Washington by Mr. Blodget on
the financial and industrial resources of the Union. I have
been astounded by the facts and figures it gives from
Government returns, railway traffics, &c., showing the
almost incredible and fabulous wmcrease of every kind of
production in the Northern States during the last three
years of war. It is quite clear that America stands on a
different footing from the old world, and that its powers,
whether in peace or war, are to be measured by a different
standard. In comparing their powers of endurance or
recovery, we must consider the one to be a man of twenty-
five and the other of sixty... .”

International Law.

“ Sept. 3. (To Henry Ashworth, Esq.)—The great fallacy
that rons through Roundell Palmer’s arguments is in the
assumption that ‘ International Law’ is a fixed and immu-
table code like the Ten Commandments, and that it would
be wrong in us now to set up any new precedents or inno-
vations. Now the whole of what is called International
Maritime Law is mere precedents, generally emanating
from our own Courts, and then adopted by the Americans
in times and circumstances quite different from the present.

“We agreed to a fundamental change in the bases of the
Maritime Code at the Congress of Paris after the Crimean
War in 1856, and the great error has been that we did not
seize the opportunity of the American war to still further
relax the old system in the interests of non-combatants at
sea. Instead of which Roundell Palmer, who is a lawyer

1864.
Ait. 60.

 
1864,

 

Ait. 60.

916 LIFE OF OOBDEN, [ouaP.

and not a statesman, has been put forward as the exponent
of British policy, and he has laid down principles which will
tell fearfully against us at a future time. . . . The declara-
tion of Paris in 1856 against privateering becomes a mere
pretentious hoax, when we see that ships such as the
‘Georgia’ and ‘Tallahassee’ are recognized as ships of
war, merely because they carry a bit of paper called a
‘Commission’ instead of one called a ‘Letter of Marque.’
It is most important that you should disabuse our ship-
owners of their delusion that this declaration against
privateering will be of any benefit to them after such pre-
cedents as we are now establishing in the event of our
being at war.”

The Law of Blockade.

“Sept.9. (  ,,  )—The Blockade Laws are about
as rascally an invention as the old Corn Laws, Suppose
Tom Sayers lived in a street, and on the opposite side
lived a shopkeeper with whom he has been in the habit
of dealing. Tom quarrels with his shopkeeper and forthwith
sends him a challenge to fight, which is accepted. Tom,
being a powerful man, sends word to each and every house-
holder in the street that he is going to fight the shopkeeper,
and that until he has finished fighting no person in the street
must have any dealings with the shopkeeper. ‘We have
nothing to do with your quarrel,’ say the inhabitants, ‘ and
you have no right to stop our dealings with the shop-
keeper.’

The argument is just as good on a large scale as on a
small one—for fifty millions as for one person, The various
governments of England have been the chief and almost
only supporters of the blockade laws, and no nation on earth
will be so much injured by them, not to say a word of their
injustice. The sooner the blockade laws follow the Corn
XXXVI.) ON BLOOKADES-——-ON THE DANISH WAR. 917

and Navigation laws the better it will be for all nations, and
for England in particular.”

The Danish War.

“July 1. (To Mr. Ashworth.)— . . . . The House of Com-
mons is remarkably pacific. I have been much struck with
the all but universal feeling among members on both sides
against going to war on this Danish question. I really don’t
believe there are fifty men in the House, who, if their votes
were to decide the question, would vote for war. It is the
more remarkable inasmuch as the press had been very war-
like, and full of threats and braggadocio. There was a section
of the Cabinet quite ready to do anything for popularity.
But the whipper-in carried such a report of the tone of the
House, as to decide the Government to do nothing.

“ T attribute this remarkable change in the temper of the
Honse since the Crimean war to the enormous amount of
material interests at stake,

‘We are exporting now at the rate of 160,000,0001. a year,
threefold our trade twenty years ago. This must have given
an immense force to the Conservative peace principles of the
country. The House of Commons represents the wealth of
the country though not its numbers, and J have no doubt
the members hear from all the great seats of our commercial
ship-owning and manufacturing industries that the busy
prosperous people there wish to be at peace. This is one of
the effects which we advocates of Free Trade always pre-
dicted and desired as the consequence of extended com-
mercial operations. But the manner in which the principle
is now operating is most remarkable. ... .”

« July 26. ( 4, )—.... Iam glad yon liked my last
speeches. One has more and more the painful impression
that it is after all mere barren talk. Ido not see how any
material improvement in public affairs is possible, so long as

1864.

Air. 60.
918 LIFE OF OOBDEN. (oH. xxxv1.

i864. this old man at the head can contrive to use all parties for
‘4ix, 60. his own ends. With Gladstone and Gibson for his colleagues,
and with a tacit connivance from a section of the Tories,
there can be no honesty in our party life and little chance
for ridding ourselves of the incubus, excepting with the aid
of Time, which I suppose will enforce a superannuation upon

the old gentleman some day.

“Tt would have given me very great enjoyment to have
visited you at your Highland box, but I go quietly among
my children at Dunford during the fine weather, for I always
feel under the liability of being induced to leave home for a
southern clime in the winter. During the Session I see
little of my young people, and I really think it is as health-
ful as it is pleasant to relax after the turmoil of the House
and the clubs among the minds of children. I remember
hearing Wakley say in the House when O’Connell first
showed symptoms of giving way, that if he would withdraw
from politics and live with his grand-children, he might last
for ten years, But he died in a twelyemonth.”

 
CHAPTER XXXVII.

SPEECH AT BROCHDALE—-THE LAND QUESTION— CORRESPONDENCE
—-LAST DAYS AND DEATH.

In November Cobden went down to Rochdale to make his
annual speech to his constituents. He was not in very good
spirits when he started, and the exertion of travelling and
of speaking to an enormous audience lowered his powers
still further. It was the largest meeting on one floor that
he had ever attended. The speech itself is one of his
longest.' Mr. Bright, who was absent at Leamington, said
that when he read it, he marvelled how Cobden could have
made such a speech when times were so dull. Besides
being one of his longest, it is perhaps the one that gives
the best idea of his manner, and opens the easiest view
to his theory of the foreign policy which is proper for
Great Britain in her existing civeumstances. We see in
it to perfection what Mr. Disraeli commended in him, that
careful art of avoiding to drive his arguments to an
extremity, which was one of the secrets of his singular
persuasiveness.

It was in this speech that he made the memorable declara-
tion on the Land Question. We have already seen (above
p- 429) what he said the year before in the same place: that
the English peasantry had no parallel on the face of the
earth; that there is no other country in the world where the

1 Speeches, ii. 8339. November 23, 1864.

1864,
Ait .60.

 
1864.

 

ir. 60.

920 LIFE OF OOBDEN. (car,

peasantry is entirely divorced from the land.2? He now
said :—“If I were five-and-twenty or thirty, instead of
being unhappily twice that number of years, I would take
Adam Smith in hand—I would not go beyond him, I would
have no politics in it—I would take Adam Smith in hand,
and I would have a League for free trade in land just as
we had a League for free trade in corn. You will find
just the same authority in Adam Smith for one as for the
other; and if it were taken up, as it must be taken up to
succeed, not as a political, revolutionary, Radical, Chartist
notion, but taken up on politico-economical grounds, the
agitation would be certain to succeed.’””?* What it was that
he precisely meant by free trade in land he did not more
particularly specify. His reference to Adam Smith is
enough to show that he contemplated the abolition of
entails and other artificial means of tying land up in long
settlements ; and like all men of sense, he constantly ad-
vocated improved facilities in the machinery of transfer.
How much further he was prepared to go, we cannot tell;
but there is no evidence that, in England and Scotland, he
was inclined to favour the French system of compulsory
partition, and there is abundant evidence that he was not
likely to sympathize with any of the vague projects for what
their authors call the nationalization of the land. On the
other hand, it is probable that he would have been friendly
to the legislative recognition, not only in Ireland but in Great
Britain, of the principle of Tenant Right. In one of the
most effective of his speeches in the time of the Corn Law,
which has been already referred to (see above, vol. i. p. 320),
he insisted upon security of tenure as the first condition of
prosperity alike to landlord, tenant, and labourer. This
security he expected to find in leases, that should contain

4 Speeches, ii, 116,
4 Speeches, ii. 367. See Wealth of Nations, Bk. iii, chap. ii.
XXXVI] COBDEN’S VIEWS ON THE LAND QUESTION. 921

none of those restrictive covenants which now so constantly
hamper the tenant in the manner of applying his capital and
carrying on his business. Perhaps he might have been
persuaded that leases themselves are found by the people
concerned to be a practical impediment to the free move-
ment of capital; and in this way might have come round to
such a form of legislative Tenant Right as would give the
security of a lease without involving an inconveniently long
duration. However this may be, we have as a matter of fact
no complete scheme of Cobden’s views on the English Land
Question.‘ His solution of the question of the same name
in Ireland, we have already seen (above pp. 28, 29, 50, 97).
He would “ give Ireland to the Irish.”

Although the few sentences which concerned a Land
League did most to startle attention at the moment, Cob-
den’s last speech dealt much more fully with other topics,
and covered a very wide space of political ground. The
exhaustion after such an effort was severe. “I should
have been well enough,” Cobden told Mr. Paulton, “if I
could have gone to bed for four and twenty hours after
the speech. But the next day Mr. Kemp had a reception
of two hundred of the leading Liberals, and I spent the
whole evening in shaking hands and incessant talking to
relays of friends.”” The journey home made things worse.
He was afraid to rest in London, lest he should find himself
compelled by illness to remain there. On the whole, when
he reached home, he considered that he had escaped tole-
rably well, but he made up his mind that he must never
attend another public meeting in the winter season. As it

¢ Mr. Thorold Rogers, who had many conversations with him on the sub-
ject, says that by free trade in land Cobden meant “the extension of the
principle of free exchange in all its fulness to landed estates, and the re-
moval of all restrictions on its transfer, either voluntarily, should the
owner desire to sell it, or involuntarily if the owner becomes embarrassed.”
—Oobden and Modern Political Opinion, chap. iii. p. 89.

1864.

 
1865.

 

47. 60,

922 LI¥H OF OOBDEN. (onar,

was, he found that he had suffered more harm than he
supposed. Two months after his return he gave the follow-
ing account of himself to Mr. Paulton :—

“ Jam. 25.—I have never before had such a shake. I
came back from my imprudent trip to the North out of
order from top to toe. Besides my old foe (which the
Doctor here calls ‘nervous asthma’), from which my breath-
ing was so obstructed that I could hardly move a limb, I
had an attack of bronchitis, which threatened to extend to
my lungs, and my stomach was much disordered with
feverish symptoms. Our little apothecary was very assi-
duous, and 1 am much better. The asthma has entirely
disappeared, and I can walk upstairs without any of the
old symptoms. But I am thinner, and without air or
exercise how can any one be well? I have not been out
of doors since I returned home. This cold weather keeps
up the old irritation in my throat, and I am not free from
cough. In fact what I want is a fortnight of July sunshine.
This has been the most disagreeable winter I have ever
known here. Generally we get sunshine in the middle of
the day, if even for only two or three hours. This year,
although the average temperature has not been lower than
usual, there have been great fluctuations, with much mois-
ture and cloudiness. At present the ground is covered with
snow of unusual depth.

“I am deeply obliged to you and Mrs. Paulton for your
kind invitation. At present I cannot entertain the idea of
going to town. I should not be able to attend the House,
and in anything like my present state of health, home is the
only proper place forme. Besides there never was a ume
when so little motive existed to lead a man to run risks of
life and health in the fulfilment of his public duties. ....
The talk in official circles is that the election is to take
place in June. That is the season of the year which will
XIXvu.] ILLNESS AFTER HIS RETUBN FROM ROOHDALH. 923

suit me best. But really what right has anybody to pre-
tend to take the burden of affairs of state on his shoulders,
when he has arrived at an age when he can hardly bear the
weight of his own infirmities? I ought to give up public
life. So nauseous is the present state of parliamentary
parties, that if I knew the general election would give the
old Premier a renewed rule, I should secretly pray that Mr.
Brett’ would relieve. me from the task of being a further
witness, if not accomplice, to the imposture!”

His time was filled by vigilant observation of affairs, and
by his unfailing practice of correspondence. The struggle
in America occupied his thoughts incessantly, partly because
he was looking to the questions that would remain for ad-
justment after the war had come to an end. One of his last
letters to Mr. Sumner touched on this point :—

“ Jan. 11, 1865.—I agree with a remark in the concluding
passage of your last letter, that you are fighting the battle of
liberalism in Europe as well as the battle of freedom in
America. It is only necessary to observe who are your
friends and who your opponents in the Old World, to be
satisfied that great principles are at stake in your terrible
conflict. But it is not by victories in the field alone that
you will help the cause of the masses in Hurope. End
when it may, the civil war will, in the eyes of mankind,
have conferred quite as much ‘glory,’ so far as mere fighting
goes, on the South as on the North. Itis in your superiority
in other things that you can alone by your example elevate
the Old World. I confess I am very jealous of your taking
a course which seems to hold up our old doings as an excuse
for your present short-comings. Hence I was sorry to see
your republication of the old indictment against us in your
very able and learned pamphlet. My answer is, that your

* The present Lord Justice Brett. He was now before the constituency
of Rochdale as the Conservative candidate.

1865.
ABT. 60.

 
 

924 LIFB OF OOBDEN. (omar.

only title to existence as a Republic is that you are supposed
to be superior to what we were sixty years ago. Had you
returned the ‘ Florida’ to Bahia without a moment’s delay,
cashiered the captain of the ‘ Wochusett,’ and offered to pay
for the support of the survivors who were dependent on
those who were killed or drowned in that wicked outrage,
your friends would have felt some inches taller here. That
would have been the true answer to the taunts of our Tory
press, and not the disinterment of the misdeeds of our Tory
Government to show that they did something almost as bad
as the Federal commander.

“Twas much pleased with your speech on the Canadian
difficulty in the South, when you spoke of avoiding all
quarrels with other countries, and devoting yourself to the
one sole object of putting down the rebellion. I am not
blind to the fact that very grave questions will stand over
for adjustment between your country and ours. Some of
them, such as the injury done to your whole shipping in-
terest by the losses and destruction of a port, can hardly be
settled by governments. They will, I fear, invite future
retaliations on our shipping by citizens of your country, if
we should ever go to war. But all these questions must be
postponed till your war is ended, and then probably the
whole world may be ready for a thorough revolution in
international maritime law. It will be for you to show the
way.”

The topic of national expenditure kept its place in his
mind, and the plans for the defence of Canada stirred his
liveliest disgust. He expressed his views in two elaborate
letters to Mr. Gladstone, with a sort of forlorn hope that
they might through him obtain a hearing in the Cabinet.
Excepting Mr. Gladstone himself, however, and Mr. Gibson,
there was nobody in the Cabinet who felt the least inclina-
tion to listen. Even Mr. Gladstone thought that his corre-
XXXVIL] ON MINORITY REPRESENTATION. 925

spondent did less than justice to the Government, and more
than justice to the Canadians. Mr. Bright, meanwhile, was
working for their views in a different direction, insisting on
the proposition for which he had been fighting ever since
the repeal of the Corn Law, that nothing good could be done
until the representation was improved. He began the new
year with a powerful speech at Birmingham, to Cobden’s
great satisfaction :—

Jom.16. (ToMr. Bright.)—I see your meeting at Birming-
ham is fixed. You will, I suppose, have something to say
about Reform. What is wanted is to slay and bury those delu-
sive projects which have of late owed their existence to men
who wish to mystify the simple question of principle, and
lead the public astray after crotchetty details of their own.
Of these Lord Grey and Buxton are the most notable. But
I suppose you are aware that Stuart Mill has endorsed
Hare’s incomprehensible scheme. It is a pity that Mill,
who on the whole is so admirable in his sympathies and
tendencies, should give his sanction to these novelties. (I
got a letter the other day from an old Leaguer in Australia,
saying that the Protectionists there are quoting Mill to
justify a young community in resorting for a time to Protec-
tion.) It has always appeared to me that the best way to
meet the wishes of those who honestly fear that particular
classes or bodies of the community may be unrepresented,
is to make the electoral districts as diversified as possible.
With this view I would allow each constituency to return
one representative. Thus, for instance, if Birmingham had
six members, they should be elected by six wards. This
would give every section of the community the oppor-
tunity of suiting itself. The idea of giving representation
to minorities is an absurdity. It strikes at the very founda-
tions of representative government by majorities. It ig-
vores the fact that opinion is always represented by minori-

1865.

 

“Air. 60.
1865.

 

Ar. 60.

926 LIFE OF COBDEN. [cuar.

ties as well as majorities, or why should there be party
divisions at all? *

“Has it ever occurred to you to ascertain what was the
old borough franchise? In Forster’s ‘ Life of Eliot,’ giving
a very detailed account of the parliamentary and constitu-
tional struggle between the Houseof Commons and Charles L.,
at the period antecedent to the revolutionary conflict, there
are constant notices of trials before Parliamentary Com-
mittees to decide the question whether the right of voting
belonged to the ‘commonalty in general,’ or to privileged
corporations or classes. The decisions seem to have been
almost always in favour of the ‘commonalty in general.’
By this phrase I suppose was meant all householders at
least. I dare say the polling-papers are preserved of the
old elections, and it would be curious to see the propor-
tions the voters bore to the whole population. I see it stated
that in 1628 there was a contested election for Coventry,
when the successful candidates had a majority of 600 votes.

6 The last letter that Cobden wrote was on this subject. It was addressed
a week before his death (March 22,-1865) to Mr. T. B. Potter, who had
sent him a letter from Mr, Mill :—“ Everything from him is entitled to
respectful consideration. But I confess, after the best attention to the
proposed representation of minorities which I can give it, I am so stupid
as to fail to see its merits. He speaks of 50,000 electors having to elect
five members, and that 30,000 may elect them all, and to obviate this he
would give the 20,000 minority two votes. But I would give only one
vote to each elector, and ove representative to each constituency. Instead
of the 50,000 returning five in a lump, I would have five constituencies of
10,000, each returning one member. Thus, if the metropolis, for example,
were entitled, with a fair distribution of electoral power, to 40 votes, I
would divide it into 40 districts or wards, each to return one member; and
in this way every class and every variety of opinion would have a chance
of a fair representation. Belgravia, Marylebone, St. James’s, St. Giles’s,
Whitechapel, Spitalfields, &c., would each and all have their members. I
don’t know any better plan for giving all opinions a chance of being heard ;
and, after all, it is opinions that are to be represented. If the minority
have a faith that their opinions, and not those of the majority, are the true
ones, then let them agitate and discuss until their principles are in the
ascendant. This is the motive for political action and the healthy agitation
of public life.”
xxxvi1.] TO MR. BRIGHT. 927

There must have been a much larger proportion of the whole
population voting then than is polled now.

“Twas talking with Durrant Cooper, one of the leading
members of our Sussex Archeological Society, and told him
if instead of devoting a volume a year to the remains of
old castles and monasteries, they would give us some facts
throwing light upon the social and political condition of
the inhabitants in former ages, it would be a much more
useful employment of their talents. It is astonishing what
a mass of facts of old date are in existence. The secretary
of our County Society once said that an itinerary of King
John’s reign, giving his whereabouts every day of his life,
could be given if worth the trouble, with as much accuracy
as that of William the Fourth.

“T have no recent letters from America. Goldwin Smith
says he has come back a confirmed radical and free church-
man, and less impatient because more assured of liberal
progress. . . His pen is a power in the State.”

“ Jan. 22. (4, )—J hope you have returned safely home,
and if you are well after your double effort at Birmingham,
I congratulate you on your bronchial organization. I was
satisfied and pleased with your speech in the Town Hall.
I think you took a very wise course in using the language
of warning to those ruling factions who are alone responsible
for the present state of the Reform question. Not that it
will have the desired effect in that quarter, where nothing
but fear of something worse happening ever leads to the
concession of any reform. Unfortunately, in the case of the
proposed change in the representation, involving, as our
privileged classes believe, the destruction of their privileges,
nothing worse than this spectre can be presented to their
imagination ; and they will contend against a measure which
would make the people the depository of political power in
this country, as they would against a revolution of the old

 

1865,
Ex, 60..
1868.
Br. 60.

 

928 WIFE OF OOBDEN. (omar.

French model. But you have done your duty in iatroducing
to them the five or six millions who may at any time set
their eyes on the portals of the constitution with a demand
for admittance which could not be resisted; and you have
given them this warning in language with which no one,
however fastidious, can quarrel, and yet which nobody can
fail to understand. But, after all, I sometimes think that
we almost lend ourselves to an imposture in arguing on
these matters, as though we believed we were appealing to
a tribunal which could be swayed by appeals to reason and
the principles of justice.”

Whilst he was in this mood of discouragement, he received
a letter from Mr. Gladstone, written (Feb. 10) on behalf of
the Government and by desire of Lord Palmerston, offering
him the office of Chairman of the Board of Audit. It was
proposed to reconstitute the Board, and to strengthen and
raise the position of its head; the Comptrollership of the
Exchequer was to be united to the Chair of the Board of
Audit; and the salary was to be raised to 20001. a year.
Although the duties of the office, Mr. Gladstone said, would
require very high qualities for their proper discharge, they
would not be very laborious. The tender of such an office
was not to be taken as an adequate acknowledgment of his
distinguished and long continued public services, but it was
the highest civil office which the Government had it in their
power to give. After taking a couple of days to think over
the proposal, though probably his decision was made at
once, Cobden declined it :—

“ Midhurst, Feb. 13, 1865.

“My pear Mr. Giapstong,

“T have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter written
on behalf of the Government, offering in the kindest terms
to place at my option the post of Chairman of the Board of
Audit, about to be vacated by Mr. Romilly. Owing to the
txxvi.] OFFER OF A POST BY THB GOVERNMENT. 926

state of my health, T am precluded from taking any office
which involves the performance of stated duties at all seasons
of the year, or leaves a sense of responsibility for the fulfil-
ment of those duties by others. I have for some time been
able to recurring attacks, during certain conditions of the
atmosphere, of what medical authorities call nervous asthma,
While giving me no pain, it disqualifies me for active exertion
during its visitations, and I am certain of exemption from
it only in warm weather. I cannot live in London during
the season of fog and frost. Here there are good and suf-
ficient reasons why I should for the rest of my days be
exempt from the cares of salaried official life. But were
my case diiferent, still, while sensible of the kind intentions
which prompted the offer, it would assuredly not be consult-
ing my welfare to place me in the post in question, with
my known views respecting the nature of our finance. Be-
lieving, as I do, that while the income of the Government
is derived in a greater proportion than in any other country
from the taxation of the humblest classes, its expenditure
is to the last degree wasteful and indefensible, it would be
almost a penal appointment. to consign me for the remainder
of my life to the ‘task of passively auditing our finance
accounts. I fear my health would sicken and my days be
shortened by the nauseous ordeal. It will be better that I
retain my seat in Parliament as long as I am able in any
tolerable degree to perform its duties, where I have at least
the opportunity of protesting, however unavailingly, against
the Government expenditure. But I am wandering from
the text of your kind letter, for which I heartily thank you,
especially for the postscript,’ and I remain,
“ Very truly yours,
“ Ricnarp CoppEn.”
7 The postscript was to the effect that if he were disposed to talk the

matter over, Mr. Gladstone was at his service.

30

1865.
4Et. 60.
930 Lire OF OOBDEN. {omar

1865. In acknowledging the letter, Mr. Gladstone expressed his
‘Ar. 60, Satisfaction that Cobden so clearly appreciated the spirit in
which the offer had been made by the Government, and
especially by Lord Palmerston. He went on to add that he
did not think the most faithful discharge of the duties of the
office would have made the incumbent of it in any sense
whatever responsible for the expenditure of the country, or
would even have brought it before him in any marked
manner in the career of ordinary duty. None of Cobden’s
friends have ever doubted the propriety of his decision,
though it is within the range of possibility that if it had

been otherwise his days might have been prolonged.

At this time Mr. Bright wrote to him (Feb. 28), say-
ing that Mr. Seymour Fitzgerald was to talk on Canadian
Fortifications some day soon. “TI wish,” Mr. Bright said,
“that you could be in the House when he comes on. You
understand the details of the question better than any other
man in the House, and I think you could knock over the
stupid proposition to spend English money in fortifications
at Quebec. I shall probably say something if you are not
there, but I hope the matter may not be debated till you
are in town.” <A week later, Cobden received the last letter
that he was destined to have from his friend. It was a note
(Mar. 3), saying by what train Mr. Bright would come down
to Midhurst on the following afternoon. Cobden now
occasionally ventured out into the air during the middle of
the day, and he and Mr. Bright took easy walks together on
the terrace at Dunford or in the lanes. On one occasion,
looking in the direction of the church, Cobden said, “ My
boy is buried there, and it will not be long before I am
there with him.” It was, indeed, little more than a month.

Three final letters belong to this date :—

“ Feb.23, (To Mr. T. B. Potter.\—I have forwarded Lord
~—’s letter to Mr. Goldwin Smith. I observe that he
sxxviz.} TO MR. T. B. POTTER. 93

assigns as the main cause for the hostility of the ruling 186.
class (for the masses we know are on the other side) to the Ar. 60.
North to the fact that the Americans have (previous to the
war as well as since) shown a disposition to go to war with
us. This is the old indictment, and I have but one answer
to it. The United States maintained previous to the out-
break of the Civil War an army of 17,000 men and a navy
of 7000, and for ten years previous had never commissioned
a line-of-battle ship. Yet in her dealings with England and
Europe, with their standing armies of half a million of men,
and their navies of scores of line-of-battle ships, the United
States carried, we are now told, matters with a high hand!
Was there ever a stronger admission of the superiority of
moral force and of republicanism? When a Bobadil or a
Drawcansir is represented on the stage, he is always armed
to the teeth. But here you have an unarmed nation bully-
ing great military and naval powers. Would to Heaven
that France, Russia, Austria, England, Italy, and Prussia
would follow this fashion of bullying! ....

What is running in Lord ’s head is the common
fallacy of confounding the language of certain newspapers
and parties in America with the acts of the Government.
Is it fair to forget that there are nearly two millions of
persons who were born in Ireland living in the United
States, and perhaps as many more the offspring of Irish
parents, all of whom are animated with the most intense
hatred towards England? New York city alone at the last
census had 260,000 Irish, actually more than the population
of Dublin in 1851, thus making New York the greatest
Irish city inthe world. These people have their newspapers,
their orators, and they have votes. Considering how de-
monstrative they are, it is not wonderful that their voices
are heard at every period of excitement. But what shall be
said of the fairness of those Englishmen, who, knowing

 

 
1865.
Air. 60.

 

932 LIFR OF OOBDEN. (onar.

that the misery and depopulation of Ireland has sprung
from centuries of oppression and outrageous injustice on
the part of England, follow the Irish to America, and m-
stead of frankly acknowledging that they have grounds of
resentment towards us, fasten their quarrel on the Americans
who have given them an asylum !

“Shall I confess the thought that troubles me in con-
nexion with this subject? Ihave seen with disgust the
altered tone with which America has been treated since she
was believed to have committed suicide or something like
it. In our diplomacy, our press, and with our public
speakers, all hastened to kick the dead lion. Now in a
few months everybody will know that the North will
triumph, and what troubles me is lest I should live to see
our ruling class—which can understand and respect power
better than any other class—grovel once more, and more
basely than before, to the giant of democracy. This would
not only inspire me with disgust and indignation, but with
shame and humiliation. I think I see signs that it is
coming. The Times is less insolent and Lord Palmerston
is more civil.”

“March 15. (To Mr. Bright.)—I have read through the
whole of the debate on Monday. The alteration of tone
is very remarkable. It is clear that the homage which was
refased to justice and humanity will be freely given to suc
cess. No part of your speech was to me more acceptable
than where you threw in the parenthetical reflection that
the sacrifices of the North were not to put Bourbons on the
throne of France or to keep the Turk in Europe. Still, do
not let us deceive ourselves. There will be a back reckoning.
It is all very well to talk of future peace and goodwill,
but the Americans will feel that they have a substantial
wrong to redress with this country. In international law
if there be such a thing) a nation is a unit, and the whole is
XXXVIL] TO MB. BRIGHT. 933

responsible to another people for the acts of its individuals. 1865.
Parties will from this moment be looking for political capital ai. 60.
in America to the resentment everywhere felt against our
shipbuilders and merchants. There is not an aspirant for
the presidency, even including our dear friend Sumner, wha
will not be ready to take the stump on the ground of
‘indemnity to American citizens for losses by the Alabama,’
I will trust none of their leading politicians except Lincoln,
whose political life closes with his next term.

“Now the money question is really the smallest part of
the issue between the two countries arising out of the
experience we have had of the present state of international
maritime law, and the interest we have, beyond all other
countries, in altering it. But where is the statesmanship to
deal with the problem, when nobody seems to look beyond
the exigencies of the next twenty-four hours? I feel con-
fident there can never be a war between us and America.
The mass of the people here must every day feel that they
have a far higher stake in the United States than in the
country of their birth.

“T was glad you brought out so clearly the homestead
law. When it is fairly driven home to the apprehension of
our dull landless millions that the people of the United
States hold the largest and richest unoccupied domain in
the world, not for great feudal monopolists like the Demi-
doffs or the Sutherlands, not even for the exclusive use of
American citizens, but in trust for the landless millions
aforesaid, to every one of whom is offered a farm as large as
he can cultivate, and a vote six months after his settlement
(which is the rule in the West), it will be impossible to
marshal in hostile array the masses of this country against
that people. But though the governing classes will not be
able to involve us in war, they will, I think, if they continue
to hold their present rule in this country, bring on us some
934 LIFE OF OOBDEN. (cur.

1866. great humiliation from America, which never could happen if
47.60. the people as a whole controlled the politics of the State.”

‘March 20. (Zo Colonel Oole.)—The most interesting
debate of the session hitherto has been on Canadian affairs,
This is a subject of increasing interest, and the projected
confederation of the British North American colonies will
bring it into great prominence this session. It seems to be
generally accepted here as a desirable change, though I fail
to discover any immediate interest which the British public
have in the matter. There is no proposal to relieve us from
the expense and risk of pretending to defend those colonies
from the United States—a task which, by the way, every-
body admits to be beyond our power. Then I cannot see
what substantial interest the British people have in the
connexion to compensate them for guaranteeing three or
four millions of North Americans living in Canada, &c.,
against another community of Americans living in their
neighbourhood. We are told indeed of the ‘loyalty’ of the
Canadians ; but this is an ironical term to apply to people
who neither pay our taxes nor obey our laws, nor hold
themselves liable to fight our battles, who would repudiate
our right to the sovereignty over an acre of their territory,
and who claim the right of imposing their own customs
duties, even to the exclusion of our manafactures. We are
two peoples to all intents and purposes, and it is a perilous
delusion to both parties to attempt to keep up a sham con-
nexion and dependence which will snap asunder if it should
ever be put to the strain of stern reality. It is all very
well for our Cockney newspapers to talk of defending
Canada at all hazards. It would be just as possible for the
United States to sustain Yorkshire in a war with England,
as for us to enable Canada to contend against the United
States. It is simply an impossibility. Nor must we forget
that the only serious danger of a quarrel between those two
rxxv1.] ON OANADIAN AFFAIRS. 935

neighbours arises from the connexion of Canada with this
country. In my opinion it is for the interest of both that
we should as speedily as possible sever the political thread
by which we are as communities connected, and leave the
individuals on both sides to cultivate the relations of com-
merce and friendly intercourse as with other nations. I
have felt an interest in this confederation scheme, because I
thought it was a step in the direction of an amicable sepa-
ration. I am afraid from the last telegrams that there may
be some difficulty, either in your province or in Lower
Canada, in carrying out the project. Whatever may be the
wish of the colonies will meet with the concurrence of our
Government and Parliament. We have recognized their
right to control their own fate, even to the point of assert-
ing their independence whenever they think fit, and which
we know to be only a question of time. All this makes our
present responsible position towards them truly one-sided
and ridiculous. There seems to be something like a dead-
lock in the political machinery of the Canadas, which has
driven their leading statesmen into the measure of con-
federation. I suspect that there has been some demoraliza-
tion and corruption in that quarter, and that it is in part
an effort to purify the political system by letting in new
blood. There is also, I think, an inherent weakness in the
parody of our old English constitution, which is performed
on the miniature scenes of the colonial capitals, with their
speeches from the throne, votes of confidence, appeals to
the country, changes of ministry, &c., and all about such
trumpery issues that the game at last becomes ridiculous in
the eyes of both spectators and actors.”

A few days after Mr. Bright had left him, Cobden found
himself unable to resist the desire to take a part in the discus-
sion on the Canadian Fortifications, and on the 21st of March,
in bitter weather, he travelled up to London, accompanied

1865.
ZiT. 60.

 
936 LIFE OF COBDEN, [cetar.

1865. by Mrs. Cobden and his second daughter. Instead of going

 

421.60. as usual to the house of Mr. Paulton or some other friend,
he had taken lodgings in Suffolk Street; it was close to the
Athenzum, and as near as he could get to the House of
Commons. On his arrival at his journey’s end, after writing
a few letters, according to his indefatigable custom, he was
immediately prostrated by an attack of asthma. He lay
through the bleak days watching the smoke blown from the
chimneys of the houses opposite, and vainly hoping that the
wind would change its quarter from the merciless east. At
the end of a week he seemed convalescent, and was allowed
to see one or two friends. The apparent recovery only lasted
a few hours, and was followed by a sharper attack than
before. Fora day or two his wife and daughter watched
with painful alternations of hope and fear. On the Ist of
April the asthma became congestive, and bronchitis super-
vened. It was now evident that he would not recover. He
was able to make his will, and occasionally to say a few
words to those who were watching by his bedside.

Mr. Bright called in the evening, but was not allowed to
see him. Early the next morning (Sunday, April 2) he
called again ; and as all chance of a rally had now vanished,
he took his place by the side of the dying man. One other
friend was in the room, Mr. George Moffatt, whose inti-
macy with Cobden had been long and sincere. They saw
that his end was very close. As the bells of St. Martin’s
Church were ringing for the morning service, the mists of
death began to settle heavily on his brow, and his ardent,
courageous, and brotherly spirit soon passed tranquilly
away. Many tears were shed in homes where Cobden’s
name was revered and loved when the tidings that he was
dead reached them.

At the time of his death he was within two months
of the completion of his sixty-first yoar. One afternoon in
XXXVII.]JOUENEY TO LONDON—ILLNESS AND DEATH. 937

the summer of 1856, he and a friend took it into their
heads, as there was nothing of importance going on in
the House, to stroll into the Abbey. His friend had
never been inside before, as he confessed that he had never
been inside St. Paul’s Cathedral, though he had passed it
every day of his life for fifteen years. They strolled about
among the monuments for a couple of hours, and the
natural remark fell from his companion that perhaps one day
the name of Cobden too would figure among the heroes.
“T hope not,” said Cobden, “I hope not. My spirit could
not rest in peace among these men of war. No, no, cathe-
drals are not meant to contain the remains of such men as
Bright and me.” He was buried by the side of his son in

1865.

 

the little churchyard at Lavington, on the slope of the hill |

among the pine woods. A large concourse gathered round
his grave, some of them illustrious, others of them obscure,
some his companions in past victories, others his fellow-
workers in causes that still seemed forlorn; but all bound
together for the moment in attachment to the memory of
a frank and cordial friend, and a clear-sighted and faithful
citizen.

“Before we left the house,” Mr. Bright has told us,
“standing by me and leaning on the coffin, was his sorrow-
ing daughter, one whose attachment to her father seems to
have been a passion scarcely equalled among daughters,
She said, ‘ My father used to like me very much to read to
him the Sermon on the Mount.’ His own }'fe was to a
large extent—I speak it with reverence and with hesitation
—a sermon based upon that best, that greatest of all
sermons. His was a life of perpetual self-sacrifice.”

On the day after Cobden’s death, when the House of Com-
mons met, the Prime Minister commemorated the loss which
they had all sustained in a few kindly sentences. It wae
1865.

 

Air. 60.

938 LIFE OF OOBDEN. (oa, xxxvm

reserved for Mr. Disraeli to strike a deeper note. “There
is this consolation,” he said, “remaining to us when we
remember our unequalled and irreparable losses, that these
great men are not altogether lost to us, that their words will
be often quoted in this House, that their examples will often
be referred to and appealed to, and that even their expressions
may form a part of our discussions. There are, indeed, I
may say, some members of Parliament, who though they
may not be present, are still members of this House, are in-
dependent of dissolutions, of the caprices of constituencies,
and even of the course of time. I think that Mr. Cobden
was one of these men.”

While the House was still under an impression from
these words which was almost religious, Mr. Bright, yielding
to a marked and silent expectation, rose and tried to say
how every expression of sympathy that he had heard had
been most grateful to his heart. “ But the time,” he went
on in broken accents, “which has elapsed since in my
presence the manliest and gentlest spirit that ever quitted
or tenanted a human form took its flight is so short, that I
dare not even attempt to give utterance to the feelings by
which I am oppressed. I shall leave to some calmer mo-
ment when I may have an opportunity of speaking before
some portion of my countrymen the lesson which I think
may be learned from the life and character of my friend.
I have only to say that after twenty years of most intimate
and almost brotherly friendship, I little knew how much I
loved him until I had lost him.” As Homer says of Nestor
and Ulysses, so of these two it may be said that they never
spoke diversely either in the assembly or in the council, but
were always of one mind, and together advised the English
with understanding and with counsel how all might be for
the best,
CHAPTER XXXVIIL

CONCLUSION.

A cuaractsr like that of Cobden calls for no elaborate
attempt at analysis. In motive and purpose he was the most
candid and direct of mankind. Though he was amply
endowed with that practical wisdom which Aristotle de-
scribes as the first quality of the man who meddles with
government, all his aims, his sympathies, his maxims were
as open and transparent as the day. Nobody could be more
free from the spirit of Machiavellian calculation. He had in
a fall measure the gift of tact, but it came from innate con-
siderateness and good feeling, and not either from social art
or from hidden subtlety of nature. Of Cobden’s qualities as
a public man enough has been said already.’ Some of his
private traits may well be recorded beside them.

It is easy to know how a nature so open and expansive
would win the attachment of friends. In his own house,
where public men do not always seek the popularity that is the
very breath of their nostrils abroad, he was tender, solicitous,
forbearing, never exacting. Most of his preparation for
speeches and pamphlets was done amid the bustle of a young
household, and he preferred to work amid the sociable play of
his little children. His thoroughly pleasant and genial tem-
per made him treat everybody who approached him asa friend.
Few men have aitracted friends of such widely different type.

1 See above, vol. i, chapter ix.
940 LIFE OF COBDEN. [onar.

The hard-headed man of business and the fastidious man of
letters were equally touched by the interest of his con-
versation and the charm of his character. There must have
been something remarkable about one who won the ad-
miration of Prosper Mérimée, and the cordial friendship of
Mr. Goldwin Smith, and the devoted service of strenuous
practical men like Mr. Slagg and Mr. Thomasson. His ex-
ceeding amiability was not insipid. He was never bitter, but
he knew how to hit hard, and if a friend did wrong and
public mischief came of it, Cobden did not shrink from the
duty of dealing faithfully with him. We have seen with
what vigour he denounced the doings of Sir John Bowring
in China, and the supposed backslidings of Sir William
Molesworth in the Cabinet.’

He usually extended his good-nature evento the busy-bodies
who pester public men with profitless correspondence. When
strangers who wrote to him committed the absurd offence of
subscribing to their letters a hieroglyphic that no one could
read, he only said to them in reply that it was a pity that
some system of rewards and punishments could not be
devised to make people at least sign their own names
plainly. It was very seldom that he allowed himself to be
provoked into dealing a blow to the impertinence which
used to protest against his un-English conduct, his want of
patriotism, and the other cries of that stupid party which is
not by any means exclusively composed of Tories. Old soldiers
in the army of the League especially were apt to suppose
that this accident gave them a right to lecture him. One of
them, an entire stranger to Cobden, wrote a vehement pro-

3 See above, p. 160. A sharper dispute took place between Cobden and
Sir William Molesworth on the 8rd of August, 1865. The latter had gone
out of his way to use some hard words about the peace party. Cobden
showed, with a good deal of pungenoy, that until he went into the Cabinet

Sir William Molesworth avowedly shared his opinions to the letter.— Han-
sovd, OXxxix.
xxxvu1.) TRAITS OF PRIVATE CHARACTER. 641

test against his an-English conduct in siding with the North
in the American war, and justified his remonstrance by the
fact that he had once belonged to the Anti-Corn-Law
League. “Permit me to say,” said Cobden, “that you must
have been out of place in our ranks, for no one can bea
consistent enemy of monopoly, who does not tolerate an
honest difference of opinion on every question, Your note
is a laughable assumption of superiority and authority, where
I can recognize neither.” *

It was his fortune to be engaged in incessant conflict all
through his life, and we have had occasion to mark the
dauntless buoyancy with which he sprung time after time
down to the very end into the breach, and waged his active
battle almost single-handed against Lord Palmerston and
his immovable host. What makes it the more admirable
is that Cobden was not by nature inclined to this ceaseless
attitude of oppugnancy. There is a story that, going down
to the House on one of these occasions, he said to his com-
panion, “I hate having to beard in this way hundreds of
well-meaning wrong-headed people, and to face the look of
rage with which they regard me. I had a thousand times
rather not have to do it, but it must be done.” Even in his
sharpest speeches we are conscious of a sentiment of this
kind. He was unsparing in the trenchancy of his argument,
but he never sought to hurt individuals, not even Lord
Palmerston. ‘I believe he is perfectly sincere,” Cobden
said, “for the longer I live, the more I believe in men’s
sincerity.” There could be no better sign of a pure and
-generous character, than that so honourable a conviction as
this should have been the lesson of his experience.

Cobden’s conversation, like his public addresses, was
simple, reasonable, devoid of striking figures of speech, but
bright, eager, and expansive ; and, as Mérimée said,‘ it was

3 November 12, 1864. * Bee above, i. 198.
042 Liv® OF OOBDEN. formar.

the outcome of an extremely imteresting mind, and unlike
English conversation in being quite free from commonplaces.
On religious questions he was for the most part silent.
When he was in the country, he went to church like other
people. All his personal habits were in the highest degree
simple and frugal. He was indifferent to the pleasures of
the table, he did not care to acquire fine things of any
kind, and he had none of the passion of the collector.
Politics were the one commanding interest of his life.

But it is well once more to note that what Cobden talked
about and cared for was real politics, not the game of party.
Politics in his sense meant the large workings of policy, not
the manceuvres of members of Parliament. When the news-
paper was unfolded in the morning, that furnished him and
his friends or his guests with topics for the day. Events all
over the world were deliberately discussed in relation to wide
and definite general principles; their bearings were worked
out in the light of what Cobden conceived to be the great
economical and social movements of the world. This is what
makes a real school in politics. It was in the same spirit
that Cobden read books and talked with bookish men. His
point of view was always actual, not in the sense of the
vulgar practical man, but social and political, When he
read a book, he read it as all reading should be done, with
8 view to life and practice, and not in the way of refined
self-indulgence. The Life of Eliot made him think of the
state of the franchise in those old times, and Motley’s
History of the Netherlands, which interested him greatly,
suggested to him that Queen Hlizabeth carried her aversion
to European crusading in the Palmerstonian sense almost
too far. To the Ilyssus we may confess that Cobden was a

& “Why, when I read Motley’s History of the Rise of the Dutch Republic
—an admirable book, which everybody should read—when I read the history
of the Netherlands, and when I see how that struggling community, with
txxvm.] ViEWS ON OULTURS. 943

little unjust, but the point of his good-humoured sarcasm
has been much misrepresented. He was, he said in his
last speech, a great advocate of culture of every kind. What
he sought was that young men should be led to add to
classical learning a great knowledge of modern affairs and
the habits of serious political thought about their own time.‘

their whole country desolated by Spanish troops, and every town lighted up
daily with the fires of persecution,—when I see the accounts of what passed
when the envoys came to Queen Elizabeth and asked for aid, how she is
huckstering for money while they are begging for help to their religion,
I declare that, with all my principles of non-intervention, I am almost
ashamed of old Queen Bess. And then there were Burleigh, Walsingham,
and the rest, who were, if possible, harder and more difficult to deal with
than their mistress. Why, they carried out in its unvarnished selfishness
a national British policy ; they had no other idea of a policy but @ national
British policy, and they carried it out with a degree of selfishness amounting
to downright avarice.

“He next quotes Chatham. Do you suppose that Chatham was running
about the world protecting and looking after other people’s affairs P Why,
he went abroad in the spirit of a commercial traveller more than any
Minister we ever had, .... At that time, Lord Chatham thought, that by
making war upon France and seizing the Canadas, he was bringing custom
to the English merchants and manufacturers ; and he publicly declared that
he made those conquests for the very purpose of giving a monopoly of those
conquered markets to Englishmen at home ; and he said he would not allow
the colonists to manufacture a horseshoe for themselves. .... Now, if I
take Chatham’s great son ; if I take the second Pitt, when he entered upon
wars he immediately began the conquest of colonies. When he entered upon
war with France in 1793, and for three or four years afterwards, our navy
was employed in little else than seizing colonies, the islands of the West
Indies, &¢., whether they belonged to France, Holland, or Denmark, or
other nations, and he believed by that means he could make war profitable.
—Speeches, ii. 350, 361.

6 The passage was prompted by a little slip in a leading article in the
Times, which had made one of the greatest of American rivers ron uphill
great number of miles into another river, and then these two united (the
waters of which are never blended at all) were made to flow into a third
river, into which, as it happens, neither of them pours a drop. How pre-
posterous, said Cobden, that young gentlemen who know all about the
geography of ancient Greece, should be unable, if asked to point out
Chicago on the map, to go within a thousand miles of it. ‘“ When I was at
Athens,” he said, “I sallied out one summer morning to see the far-famed
river, the Ilyssus, and after walking for some hundred yards up what
appeared to be the bed of a winter torrent, I came up to a number of
Athenian laundresses, and I found they had dammed up this far-famed
944 Life OF GOBDEN. (onat.

His own industry in acquiring the knowledge that was
necessary for his purpose was enormous. His pamphlets
show his appetite for blue-books, and as with other sensi-
ble men it was an appetite which led him not merely to
swallow but to digest and assimilate. He was a constant
student of Hansard, and for one who seeks for purposes of
action or controversy to make himself well versed in the
political transactions of the present century, there is no
book so well worth the labour of ransacking. Cobden was
never afraid of labour that he thought would be useful; he
cheerfully undertook even the drudgery of translation, and
that too in a case where he did not in his heart expect to
make any important mark on opinion.’

People have often wondered how it was that a man who
showed so remarkable a capacity for understanding public
business, should have made so little of a success of his own
affairs. The same question might be asked of Burke and
of Pitt, both of them economists and financiers of the first
order, yet both of whom allowed their private affairs to fall
into embarrassment and ruin. One obvious answer is that
their minds were too much absorbed in public interests to
have any room left for that close attention to private in-
terests which must always be required to raise a poor man
into prosperity. Cobden, it is true, deliberately attempted
material success, and did not attempt it with prudence.
The failure was in fact due to the very qualities which
made him successful in larger affairs. His penetration
shows to # man of this kind ways in which money may be

classic river, and that they were using every drop of water for their linen
and such sanitary purpuses. I say, why should not the young gentlemen
who are taught all about the geography of the Ilyssus know something
about the geography of the Mississippi, the Ohio, and the Missouri ?”"—
Speeches, ii. 364.

7 In 1858 he translated M. Chevalier’s pamphlet on Gold,
xXxXv0I.J HIS CONTRIBUTION TO SOCIAL REFORM. 945

made, and his energy naturally incites him to try to make
it. Cobden was penetrating, energetic, and sanguine. “ The
records of unfortunate commerce,” as Mr. Bagehot said,
‘abound in instances of men who have been unsuccessful,
because they had great mind, great energy, and great hope,
but had not money in proportion.” *

One obvious criticism on Cobden’s work, and it has
often been made, is that he was expecting the arrival of a
great social reform from the mere increase and more equal
distribution of materiai wealth. He ought to have known,
they say, that what our society needs is the diffusion of
intellectual light and the fire of a higher morality. It is
even said by some that Free Trade has done harm rather
than good, because it has flooded the country with wealth
which men have never been properly taught how to use.
In other words, material progress has been out of all pro-
portion to moral progress.

Now nobody had better reason to know this than Cobden.
The perpetual chagrin of his life was the obstinate refusal of
those on whom he had helped to shower wealth and plenty
to hear what he had to say on the social ideals to which their
wealth should lead. At last he was obliged to say to him-
self, as he wrote to a friend: ‘Nations have not yet learnt
to bear prosperity, liberty, and peace. They will learn it in
a higher state of civilization. We think we are the models
for posterity, when we are little better than beacons to help
it to avoid the rocks and quicksands.”

«When I come here,” he wrote to Mr. Hargreaves from
Dunford, ‘to ramble alone in the fields and to think, I am
impressed with the aspect of our political and social relations.
We have the spirit of feudalism rife and rampant in the

* Bagehot’s Literary Studies, vol. i, 373—a passage as applicable to Cobder

as to Mr. Wilson, about whom it is written.
3P
946. LIFE OF OOBDEN. [cnar

midst of the antagonistic development of the age of Watt,
Arkwright, and Stephenson! Nay, feudalism is every day
more and more in the ascendant in political and social life.
So great is its power and prestige that it draws to it the
support and homage of even those who are the natura
leaders of the newer and better civilization. Manufacturers
and merchants as a rule seem only to desire riches that they
may be enabled to prostrate themselves at the feet of feu-
dalism. How is this to end? And whither are we tending
in both our domestic and foreign relationsf Can we hope
to avoid collisions at home or wars abroad whilst all the
tendencies are to throw power and influence into the wrong
scale ?”’*

He had begun life with the idea that the great manu-
facturers and merchants of England should aspire to that high
directing position which had raised the Medici, the Fuggers,
and the De Witts to a level with the sovereign princes of the
earth.' At the end he still thought that no other class
possessed wealth and influence enough to counteract the
feudal class.?. Through all his public course Cobden did his
best to moralize this great class; to raise its self-respect and
its consciousness of its own dignity and power. Like every
one else, he could only work within his own limits. It is too
soon yet to say how our feudal society will ultimately be
recast. So far, plutocracy shows a very slight gain upon
aristocracy, of which it remains, as Cobden so constantly
deplored, an imitation, and a very bad imitation. The political
exclusiveness of the oligarchy has been thoroughly broken
down since Cobden’s day. It seems, however, as if the
preponderance of power were inevitably destined not for the
middle class, as he believed, but for the workmen.

For this fature régime Cobden’s work was the best pre

© To Mr. Hargreaves, April 10, 1863. 1 See vol. i., p. 18H
) Bee above, p. 396
xxxXVv011.] THE NEW POSSESSORS OF POWEB. 947

paration. He conceived a certain measure of material
prosperity, generally diffused, to be an indispensable instru-
ment of social well-being. For England, as with admirable
foresight he laid down in his first pamphlet in 1835, the
cardinal fact is the existence of the United States—iu
industrial competition and its democratic example. This
has transformed the conditions of policy. This is what
warns English statesmen to set their honse in order.
For a country in our position, to keep the standard of
living at its right level, free access to the means of sub-
sistence and the material of industry was the first essential.
Thrift in government and wise administration of private
capital have become equally momentous in presence of the
rising world around us, To abstain from intervention in
the affairs of other nations is not only recommended by
economic prudence, but is the only condition on which
proper attention can be paid to the moral and social necessi-
ties at home. Let us not, then, tax Cobden with failing to
do the work of the social moralist. It is his policy which
gives to the social reformer a foothold. He accepted the
task which, from the special requirements of the time, it
fell to him to do, and it is both unjust and ungrateful to
call him narrow for not performing the tasks of others as
well as his own.

It was his view of policy as a whole, connected with
the movement of wealth and industry all over the world,
that distinguished Cobden and his allies from the
Philosophie Radicals, who had been expected to form so
great and powerful a school in the reformed Parliament.’
Hume had anticipated him in attacking expenditure, and
Mr. Roebuck in preaching self-government in the colonies.
It was not until Retrenchment and Colonial Policy were

§ See Mr. Mill’s Autobtography, 194—196,
948 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [catar,

placed in their true relation to the new and vast expansion
of commerce and the growth of population, that any con-
siderable number of people accepted them. The Radical
party only became effective when it had connected its prin-
ciples with economic facts. The different points of view of
the Manchester School and of the Philosophic Radicals was
illustrated in Mr. Mill’s opposition to the alterations which
Cobden had advocated in international maritime law. Mr.
Mill argued that the best way of stopping wars is to make
them as onerous as possible to the citizens of the country
concerned, and therefore that to protect the goods of the
merchants of a belligerent country is to give them one
motive the less for hindering their Government from
making war. With all reverence for the ever admirable
author of this argument, it must be pronounced to be
abstract and unreal, when compared with Cobden’s. You
are not likely to prevent the practice of war, he contended,
but what you can do is to make it less destructive to the
interests and the security of great populations. An argu-
ment of this kind rests on a more solid basis, and suggests
a wider comprehension of actual facts. In the same way
he translated the revolutionary watchword of the Fra-
ternity of Peoples into the language of common sense and
practice, and the international sentiment as interpreted
by him became an instrument for preserving as well as
improving European order. He was justified in regard-
ing his principles as the true Conservatism of modern
societies.

Great) economic and social forces flow with a tidal sweep
over communities that are only half-conscious of that: which
is befalling them. Wise statesmen are those who fore
see what time is thus bringing, and endeavour to shape
institutions and to mould men’s thought and purpose
exxvm.] OONOLUSION. 949

in accordance with the change that is silently surrounding
them. To this type Cobden by his character and his influence
belonged. Hence, amid the coarse strife and blind passion of
the casual factions of the day, his name will stand con-
spicuously out as a good servant of the Commonwealth, and
be long held in grateful memory.

( sPPENDIZ.
APPENDIX.

Nore A. (See p. 115).
Oobden to W. O. Hunt on the Hours of Labour.

Falmouth, Oct. 21, 1836.
. . - . When upon the point of embarking on board the
Liverpool steamer for Lisbon, a thought has occurred to me
relative to the address which I left with you for the Stock-
port electors, and which induces me to trouble you with
this letter. I have altogether omitted to advert to the Ten
Honors Bill; and as it is a question that interests deeply the
non-electors, whose influence, I am aware, is very consider-
able in your borough, I might be considered to have wilfully
and designedly suppressed all allusion to the subject, if I did
not explain my opinions unreservedly upon it. As respects
the right and justice by which young persons ought to be
protected from excessive labour, my mind has ever been
decided, and I will not argue the matter for a moment with’
political economy ; it is a question for the medical and not
the economical profession; I will appeal to or Astley
Cooper, and not to MacCulloch or Martineau. Nor does it
require the aid of science to inform us that the tender germ
of childhood is unfitted for that period of labour which even
persons of mature age shrink from as excessive. In my
opinion, and I hope to see the day when such a feeling is
universal, no child ought to be put to work in a cotton-mill at
all so carly as the age of thirteen years; and after that the

ee

 
952 APPENDIX.

hours should be moderate, and the labour light, until such
time as the human frame is rendered by nature capable of
enduring the fatigues of adult labour. With such feelings
as these strongly pervading my mind, I need not perhaps
add that, had I been in the House of Commons during the
last session of Parliament, I should have opposed with all
my might Mr. Poulett Thomson’s measure for postponing
the operation of the clause for restricting the hours of infant
labour. Iam aware that many of the advocates of the cause
of the factory children are in favour of a Ten Hours Bill for
restricting the working of the engines, which in fact would
be to limit the use of steam in all cotton establishments (for
young persons are, I believe, at present employed in every
branch of our staple manufacture, more or less) to ten hours
aday. It has always, however, appeared to me that those
who are in favour of this policy lose sight of the very
important consequences which are involved in the principle.
Have they considered that it would be the first example of a
legislature of a free country interfering with the freedom of
adult labour? Have they reflected that if we surrender into
the hands of Government the power to make laws to fix the
hours of labour at all, it has as good a right, upon the same
principle, to make twenty hours the standard as ten? Have
they taken into account that if the spinners and weavers are
to be protected by Act of Parliament, then the thousand
other mechanical and laborious trades must in justice have
their claims attended to by the same tribunal? I believe it
is now nearly three hundred years ago since laws were last
enforced which regulated or interfered with the labour of
the working classes. They were the relics of the feudal
ages, and to escape from the operation of such a species of
legislation was considered as a transition from a state of
slavery to that of freedom. Now it appears to me, however
unconscious the advocates of such a policy may be of such
APPENDIX. 953

consequences, that if we admit the right of the Government
to settle the hours of labour, we are in principle going back
again to that point from which our ancestors escaped three
centuries ago. Let not the people—I mean the masses—
think lightly of those great principles upon which their
strength wholly rests. The privileged and usurping few
may advocate expediency in lieu of principles, but depend
upon it we, reformers, must cling to first principles, and be
prepared to carry them out, fearless of consequences. Am
I told that the industrious classes in Lancashire are in-
capable of protecting themselves from oppression unless by
the shield of the legislature? I am loath tobelieveit. Nay,
as I am opposed to the plan of legislating upon such a subject,
I am bound to suggest another remedy. I would, then
advise the working classes to make themselves free of the labour
market of the world, and this they can do by accwmulating
twenty pounds each, which will give them the command of
the only market in which labour is at a higher rate
than in England—I mean that of the Unirzp Starzs. If
every working man would save this sum, he might be as
independent of his employer as the latter, with his great
capital, is of his workmen. Were this universal, we should
hear no more of the tyranny of the employers. If I am
told that my scheme is chimerical because the working
classes cannot depend upon each other, I answer that I have
better hopes of them, and I look forward to many other
improvements of a similar kind. AU that is required, in my
opinion, is that the operatives understand their own interests,
and be not put upon a false scent; let them trust only to
themselves, and not depend upon the legislature, which will
never avail them. I yield to no man in the world (be he
ever so stout an advocate of the Ten Hours Bill) in a hearty
good-will towards the great body of the working classes ;
but my sympathy is not of that morbid kind which would
954 APPENDIX.

lead me to despond over their fature prospects. Nor do I
partake of that spurious humanity, which would indulge in
an unreasoning kind of philanthropy at the expense of the
independence of the great bulk of the community. Mine is
that masculine species of charity which would lead me to
inculcate in the minds of the labouring classes, the love of
independence, the privilege of self-respect, the disdain of
being patronized or petted, the desire to accumulate, and
the ambition to rise. I know it has been found easier to
please the people by holding out flattering and delusive
prospects of cheap benefits to be derived from Parliament,
rather than by urging them to a course of self-reliance; but
while I will not be the sycophant of the great, I cannot
become the parasite of the poor; and I have sufficient confi-
dence in the growing intelligence of the working classes to
be induced to believe that they will now be found to contain
& great proportion of minds, sufficiently enlightened by
experience to concur with me in opinion that it is to them-
selves alone individually, that they, as well as every other
great section of the community, must trust for working out
their own regeneration and happiness. Again I say to them,
‘ Look not to Parliament, look only to yourselves.’

“It would be easy for me to state reasons of a different
description why the legislature ought not to be suffered to
interfere with the freedom of the labour of the people.
How very obvious, however, must it be that any law
restricting the hours of labour would be inoperative so soon
as it became the interest of masters and workmen to violate
it! Where, then, would be the utility or wisdom of an
enactment which owed its power entirely to the free will of
the parties whom it professed to coerce? Surely they
might act as effectually without the necessity of infringing
and merely bringing into disrepute the law of the land |
But it is impossible to pursue the question to the extent of
APPENDIL. 955

its merits within the limits of a sheet of letter-paper. If I
am told by the advocates of a Ten Hours Bill that the plan
of putting a restriction upon the moving power is the only
way of saving the infants from destruction, to what a sad
point does this argument conduct us! It is, in fact, an
avowal that the parents cannot be trusted to obey 3
law which forbids them to sacrifice their offspring. Against
this lamentable aspersion upon the natural affection of the
working classes I enter my solemn protest. I believe, on
the contrary, that public opinion amongst them is sufficiently
patent to prevent an unnatural connivance of the kind on
the part of any considerable number of parents; and I am
convinced that the morality of the people is rapidly advanc-
ing to that elevated standard which will very soon preclude
the apprehension that any individual of this body will be
found sufficiently depraved to be suspected of the guilt of
infanticide.”
FULL TEXT OF THE LAST LETTER WRITTEN BY
MR COBDEN,

23 SurroLK Street, Paut Matt,
Lonpon, 22nd March, 1865.
My Dear Porrsr,

I return Mill’s letter.—Everything from him is
entitled to respectful consideration—but I confess, after the best
attention to the proposed representation of minorities which I
can give it, I am so stupid as to fail to see its merits. He speaks
of 50,000 electors having to elect five members, and that 30,000
may elect them all, and to obviate this he would give the 20,000
minority two votes, but I would give only one vote to each elector,
and one representative to each constituency. Instead of the 50,000
returning five in a lump, I would have five constituencies of 10,000,
each returning one member. Thus, if the Metropolis, for example,
were entitled with a fair distribution of electoral power, to forty
votes, I would divide it into forty districts or wards, each to return
one member, and in this way every class and every variety of
opinion would have a chance of a fair representation—Belgravia,
Marylebone, St James’s, St Giles’s, Whitechapel, Spitalfields, etc.
would each and all have their members. I don’t know any better
plan for giving all opinions a chance of being heard, and, after all,
it is opinions that are to be represented. If the minority have a
faith that their opinions, and not those of the majority, are the true
ones, then let them agitate and discuss until their principles are in
the ascendant. This is the motive for political action and the
healthy agitation of public life. I do not like to recognise the
necessity of dealing with working men as a class in an extension of
the franchise. The small shopkeeper and the artisan of the towns
are socially on a level. The subject is, however, too large for a
sheet of notepaper.

Believe me, 5

Yours very truly,

(Sgd.) R. COBDEN.
Tuos. B. Porrzr, Faq.
A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF RICHARD COBDEN, BASED ON THE
* BRITISH MUSEUM CATALOGUE.

The Political Writings of Richard Cobden. 2 vols. London, 1867°

8vo. ee 8008. ee*
—— Second edition. 2 vols. London [printed], New York, 1868
[1867]. 8vo. 8008. ec. 3.

—— [Another edition.] With an introductory essay by Sir L. Mallet,
etc. (Notes by F. W. Chesson.) London, 1878. 8vo.

2238. a. 14.

—— [Another edition.] Pp. vii-704. Cassell & Co.: London, 1886.
8vo. 8139. aaa. 22.
Speeches on ee of Public Policy. Edited by John Bright and
J. E. Thorold Rogers. 2 vols. London, Oxford [printed], 1870.

8vo. 2238. f. 2.
England, Ireland, and America. By a Manchester Manufacturer
[Richard Cobden]. 1835. 8vo. T. 1918. (4.)

—— 1836. 8vo. 8135. i.
cae By a Manchester Manufacturer [Richard Cobden]. 1836.

. vO. : 8093. f.

—— Facts for the Present Crisis. Richard Cobden on Russia. Reprinted

from the original pamphlet published in 1836 under the name of

“A Manchester Manufacturer.” Third edition. Manchester,

1876. 8vo. 8094. g. 6. (9.)

Corn Laws. Extracts from the Works of Thomas Perronet Thompson,

selected and classified by Richard Cobden. Manchester,

(1841 7]. 8vo. 8245. c. 79. (4.)

The Corn Laws. Speech of Richard Cobden in the House of

Commons on February 24, 1842. Sixteenth Thousand. Revised.

Manchester, [1842]. 1I2mo. 8244. a. IO.

The Land-Tax Fraud. Speech of Richard Cobden in the House of
Commons, March 14, 1842. Manchester, [1842]. 12mo.

8223. a. 12.

Tenant Farmers and Farm Labourers. Speech on the 12th March,

1844, on moving for a Select Committee “to inquire into the

effects of protective duties on imports upon the interests

of tenant farmers and farm labourers.” Pp. 23. J. Gadsby:

Manchester, [1844 ?]. 8vo. 8135. dd. 9. (11.)

—— Corrected report of the speech of Richard Cobden in the House

of Commons, 12th of March, 1844, on his motion for a Select

Committee to inquire into the effects of protective duties on

imports upon the interests of the tenant farmers and farm
labourers in this country. Second edition. 1844. 8vo.

y . ; . 1391. f. 43.

On the effects of Protection on the agricultural interests of the country.

House of Commons, March 13, 1845. Adams (C. K.), Repre-

sentative British Orations, etc. Vol. ili. 1884. 16mo.

12301. cc. 3.

Speech of Richard Cobden in the House of Commons February 18,
1848. Pp. 8. A. Heywood: Manchester, [1848]. 12mo.

8135. a. 5. (2.)

National Defences. Speech of Richard Cobden. London, 1848. 8vo.
1308. f.

Speech on the Russian Loan, delivered at the London Tavern,
January 18th. London, 1850. 8vo. 8223. a. 13,

England. National Parliamentary and National Reform Association,
National Reform Tracts Nos. 21, 22, 23, 24. Proceedings at the

a eR
958 BIBLIOGRAPHY.

fourth monthly soirée of National Reform Association with
the speeches of Sir J. Walmsley, and Richard Cobden. London,

[1851]. 8vo. ~ 8138 df. 5. (1.)

1793 and 1853, in three letters. Second edition. London, 1853. 8vo.
8138. c.

—— New edition revised, with a preface. London, Farringdon
[printed], 1853. 8vo. 8138. c.

— Fourth edition. London, 1853. 8vo, 8026. ee. 8. (3.)

Report of the Proceedings of the Peace Conference at Edinburgh,
October, 1853. With the speeches of Richard Cobden. Reports
of the Peace Congresses at Brussels, etc. 1861. 8vo.

8425. c. 52.
How Wars are got up in India. The origin of the Burmese War.
Fourth edition. London, 1853. 8vo. 8022. c. 15

Address to the Mechanics’ Institution at Barnsley, on the re-opening
of the New Lecture Hall. See British Eloquence of the
Nineteenth Century. Literary Addresses. Second series.

1855 [1854]. 8vo. 1205. b. 12.

What Next and Next? London, 1856. 8vo. 8028. b.
—— Fifth edition. Pp. 50. J. Ridgway : London, 1856. 8vo.

8026. d. 12. (4.)

On the probable fall of the value of gold. By Michel Chevalier,
Translated from the French, with preface by Richard Cobden.

Manchester, 1859. 8vo. 8223. b. 53.
The Three Panics. Third edition. Pp.152. Ward & Co.: London,
1862, 8vo. 8026. c. 23.
—— Fifth edition. London, 1862. 8vo. 8138. e.
—— [Another edition.) Pp. 168. Cassell & Company : London,
[1884]. 8vo. 8138. aa. 7.
—— Les Trois Paniques, épisodes de l’histoire eee traduit
de l’Anglais par A. Raymond. Paris, 1862. 8vo. 8138. h.

Maritime Law and Belligerent Rights. Speech of Richard Cobden
advocating a reforin of International Maritime Law, delivered
to the Manchester Chamber of Commerce, Oct. 25, 1862.
Revised and corrected by the author. Manchester [printed],
London, [1864]. 8vo. 6955. bb.
Speech of Mr. Cobden, on the “ Foreign Enlistment Act,” in the House
of Commons, April 24, 1863. London, 1863. 8vo. 8138. cc.
— Second edition. London, 1863. 8vo. 8138. b.
-—— Third edition. London, 1863. 8vo. 8138. b.
Mr. Cobden and The Times Correspondence between Mr. Cobden, . . .
and Mr. Delane, editor of The Times; with a supplementary
correspondence between Mr. Cobden, and [Thornton Hunt,
writing on behalf of] the Editor of the Daily Telegraph. Man-
chester, 1864. 8vo. 8138. cc.
Mr. Cobden on the Land Question. London, 1873. 8vo. C. T. 355- (7.)
[Written by Mr. Cobden, Jan. 22, 1864, a published in the
Morning Star under the signature of R.S
Government Manufacturing Establishments. a of Richard
Cobden in the House of Commons, July 22, 1864, etc.
London, 1869. 8vo. 8246. ee. 4.
Solution. Une solution prompte! Congrés ou Guerre: précédé
d'une lettre de Richard Cobden. Paris, 1868. 8vo. 8026. g.

APPENDIX.
BIioGRAPuyY, CRITICISM, ETC.

Apjohn, L. Richard Cobden and the Free Traders. [By L. Apjokn.]
'1881.] “Memorable Men of the Nineteenth Senay = eee iv.
[1881, etc.] 8vo. o601. bbb.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. 959

Ashworth (H.). Recollections of Richard Cobden... and the Anti-
Corn Law League. London, Manchester [printed], 1877. 8vo.

; 8138. aa. 5.

—— [Second edition.] London, [1878]. 8vo. 8138. de. I.
Bastiat (Frédéric). Cobden et le Ligue, ou l’agitation Anglaise pour
la liberté du commerce, etc. Paris, Senlis [printed], 1845.

8vo. 1391. g. 14.
Blackman, E.L, Our Relations with America. A reply to the argu-
ments of Mr. Cobden .. . as to the supply of ammunition of

war to the belligerents. Manchester, [1863]. 8vo.
8175. e. I. (1.)
Brett (J.). Calculator. Free Trade. Cobden, Bright, Gladstone, ...
Fawcett, collated and examined. Pp. 63. Effingham Wilson:
London, 1886. 8vo. 8229, i. 18. (4.)
Brewster, D. The Radical Party ; its Principles, Objects, and Leaders
—Cobden, etc. Manchester, 1867. 8vo. 8138. cc. 10. (10.)
Bright (Right Hon. J.). Speeches delivered in Bradford on the
occasion of the inauguration of the Cobden Memorial, .. . with
a sketch of the history of Cobden, the Anti-Corn Law League.
Revised by Mr. Bright. London, Bradford [printed, 1877].

8vo. 8138. df. 5. (11.)
Bullock (Thomas Austin). Richard Cobden. (A study for young
men.) London, [1866]. 8vo. 10817. cc. 21. (8.)

Cashin (T. F.). Free Trade Fallacies; or Cobden confuted. An
exposition on the existing phase of progress and poverty, etc.
Pp. xvi.-69. Wyman & Sons: London, 1886. 8vo.
8229. bbb. 53. (12.)
Chevalier (Michel). Free Trade in Gold, being a reply to the Cobden-
Chevalier treatise, ‘(on the probable decline in the value of
gold,” also an exposition of the French schemes on the currency
now maturing.” London, 1861. 12mo. 8223. a. 49.
Cobden, Richard. Analysis of Mr. Cobden’s “Cure for the Russo-
Phobia” [in his pamphlet entitled “ Russia.” By a Manchester
Manufacturer.) Pp. 33. [J. Ridgway & Sons: London, 1836.]
vO. 8028. e. 36. (I.)
—— A Letter from a Crow to Mr. Cobden. Translated from the
original by a Northamptonshire Squire. London, 1844. 4to.
1391. g. 31.
—— Banquet offert a Richard Cobden par la Société des Economistes
le 18 aout 1846. Extrait du No. 57 du Journal des économistes.
Paris, 1846. 8vo. 1391. k. 37.
—— Bordeaux. Association pour la liberté des échanges. Publications
de l’Association. Banquet offert a Richard Cobden le 1° Sep-
tembre 1846. Discours de Richard Cobden. (Bordeaux) [1846].
8vo. 8245. cc. 23. (3.)
~— Discorsi pronunziati al Banchetto dato in Livorno a Richar
Cobden, il 12 Maggio, 1847. Livorno, 1847. 8vo. 8245. f. 6.
— Letter to Richard Cobden on the Scotch Law of Entail. By a
Scotch Landlord. Inverness, 1847. 8vo. 6583. b.
— A letter to Richard Cobden in reply to “1793 and 1853.” By
Manchester Man. Manchester, 1853. 8vo. 8138. £.
-— “The Three Panics” dispelled. A reply to the historical episode
of Richard Cobden. Reprinted .. . from “Colburn’s United
Service Magazine.” London, 1862. 8vo. 8138. b.
—— [Reception at the Accademia Pontaniana.] Academies. Naples.—
Societa Pontaniana, etc., afterwards Accademia Pontaniana.
Tornato ordinaria del 21 Marzo 1847. [For the reception of
Richard Cobden as a member of Academy.] [Naples, 1847.j
Bye. 8207. h. 1. (6.)
960 BIBLIOGRAPHY.

Richard Cobden. Roi des, Belges. [Being a reply to Richard
Cobden’s letter to l’Economiste Belge on the fortifications of
Antwerp.] Par un Ex-Colonel de la Garde Civique. Dédie
aux blessés de Septembre. Deuxiémeédition. London, 1863. 8vo.

—— Cobden-Delane Controversy. Opinions of the Liberal Press on the

Correspondence between Mr. Cobden . . . and Mr. Delane, etc.
Manchester, 1864. 8vo. 8138. cc.
— In Memoriam. Richard Cobden, his Life and Times. London,
[1865]. 8vo. 10817, cc.

—— Cobden’s Nederidge Navolgers in Indié : een beschamend woord
voor alle bestrijders der liberale Koloniale politiek. (Overgedrukt
uit het “Dagblad van Zuidholland en’s Gravenhage” van 8-11
Augustus, 1865.) ’sGravenhage, 1865. 8vo. 8022. dd.
— Richard Cobden : sein Leben und sein Wirken. Von einem Frei-
handler und Friedensfreunde. Bremen, Norden [printed],
1869. 8vo. 10817. bbb.
— Richard Cobden, the Friend of the People. The story of his life
told for popular reading. London, [1877 ?]. 8vo. 10803. b. I. (11.)
Cooke (Frances E.). An English Hero; the story of Richard Cobden,
written for young people. Pp. 130. Sonnenschein & Co.:
London, 1886. 8vo. 10601. b. 35.
Day, G. G. Cobden’s Contradictions. Extracted from Mr. G. G.
Day’s Letter to the Morning Herald of March 27, 1850.
[London, 1850.) S. sh. fol. 806. k. 15. (27.)
Denman (Hon. J.). The pressing necessity for increased docks and
basins at Portsmouth, with some observations on Mr. Cobden’s

“Three Panics,” etc. 1862. 8vo. 8806. c.
——1863. 8vo. : 8806. c.
Dino Carina ( ). Riccardo Cobden. (Elogio.) Firenze, 1865.

10817. aa. 15.

I2mo.
Dunckley (H.)._ Richard Cobden and the Jubilee of Free Trade, etc.
By H. Dunckley, P. Leroy-Beaulieu, T. Barth, L. Courtney,
C. P. Villiers. With preface by R. Gowing. Pp. 246.
T. Fisher Unwin: London, 1896. 8vo. 08225. f. 1.
Dyer (George H.). Richard Cobden. Pp. 16. Dyer Bros.: London,
[1882]. 16mo. One of the “ Penny Popular Biographies.”
10803. aa. 6. (3.)
—— Six Men of the People, etc. Richard Cobden... By G. H.

Dyer. Dyer Bros.: London, [1882]. 8vo. 10803. aa. 6. (2.)
E. (F. M.). Richard Cobden at Home. By F. M. E[dge?]. London,
Manchester [printed], [1868]. 8vo. T0817. aaa. 41. (3.)

Ellis, W. A Few Questions on Secular Education—What it is, and
what it ought to be; with an attempt to answer them. Pre-
ceded by an Appeal to Richard Cobden, Esq., and the members
of the late Anti-Corn Law League. By the Author of “ The
Outlines of Social Economy” [W. Ellis]. London, 1848. 8vo.

8305. e. 82.

Garnier (C. J.). Richard Cobden, les ligueurs, et la Ligue ; precis de
Vhistoire de la derniére révolution économique et financiére en
Angleterre. Paris, 1846. 12mo. 1391. a. 32.

Gladstone (Right Hon. W.E.). Alarming results of the non-reciprocity
system of Free Trade promoted by Messrs, Gladstone, Cobden,
Bright, and their supporters. Fourth edition. London, [1865].

_ 8. sh. fol. 1880. d. 1. (67.)
Gowing (Richard). Richard Cobden. Pp. 128. 1885. ‘ World's
Workers,” 1885, etc. 8vo. 10601. bbb.

Grandguitlot, A. Pamphlets Nationaux. No, 1. Les Joujoux de M.
Cobden. Par A. Grandguillot. Paris, [ 1868, etc.], 8vo. :

8245. ff. 3.
BisrrocraPnry. 961

Hall (A. Hall). The Land and the Agricultural Population. [Being
letters of A. H. Hall, W. T, White, and others, in reply to two
speeches delivered at Rochdale in November, 1863, by Richard
Cobden and John Bright. Reprinted from the West Sussex
Gazette.] Arundel, 1864. 8vo. 7075. bb. 27.

Robart (Vere Henry), The Mission of Richard Cobden. ... Reprinted
from Macmillan’s Magazine. London, [1867]. 8vo. ;

139. aa.

Holdfast (Harry) pseud. A short letter to Mr. Cobden in reply to his
long speech at Manchester from his quondam admirer, Harry
Holdfast. London, 1849. 8vo. 3138. d.

Holtzendorff (F. von). Richard Cobden . . . von F. von Holtzendorft.
Virchow (R.) and Holtzendorff-Vietmansdorf (F. v.) Sammlung
gemeinverstandlicher wissenschaftlicher Vortrage, herausgeben
von R. v. und F. v. Holtzendorff. Berlin, 1866, etc. 8vo.
Series I. Heft. 17.

Kretzschmar (Auguste). Richard Cobden, der Apostel der Handels-
freiheit und die jiingste staatsbkonomische Revolution in Gross-
britannien.. Nach der besten englischen und franzésischen
Quellen. Grimma, 1846. I2mo. 8245. a. 69. (2).

Lammer Moor. Bowring, Cobden, and China, etc. A Memoir by
Lammer Moor. Pp. 32. J. Menzies, Edinburgh, 1857. a 5

(022, d.

Levi (L.). On Richard Cobden. An introductory lecture, delivered in
King’s College, London, etc. London, 1865. 8vo. 8205. bb. ro.

Lindsay (W. S.). Remarks on the law of partnership and limited
liability. By W.S. Lindsay and Richard Cobden. London,
1856. 8vo. 6376. b. 15.

London. iii. Financial Reform Union. Papers on Taxation, etc.
No. 3. A Budget for 1869, based upon Mr. Cobden’s “ National
Budget,” proposed in 1849. Pp. 7. [London], 1868. 8vo.

C. T. 274 (8).

MacGilchrist (John), of London. Richard Cobden, the apostle of Free
Trade, his political career and public services. A biography.
[Illustrated with photographs.] Pp. 294. Lockwood & Co.:
London, 1865. 8vo. 10817. aa, 25.

Maitre (C.). Richard Cobden, ou I’Esprit Anglais contre I’Esprit
Francais 4 propos de la Liberté des Echanges. Paris, 1846.

16mo. fs : 1391. a. 35. (2.5
Mallet (Sir L.). The Political Opinions of Richard Cobden. Pp. viii—64.
Macmillan & Co.: London, 1869. 8vo. 8008. aaa.

Marsham (J. C.). How Wars arise in India. Observations on Mr.
Cobden’s Pamphlet entitled “The Origin of the Burmese War.”
1853. 8vo. 8022. d.
Maydwell (Isaac). Maydwell’s Analysis of Cobden’s Addresses, with
remarks on Mr. Greg’s speech at the Great League Meeting at

Manchester, London, 1843. 8vo. : 1391. g. 47.
Morley (John), Right Hon, The Life of Richard Cobden. 2 vols.
Chapman & Hall : London, 1881. 8vo, 2406. f. 6.
—— —— Abridged edition. 1902. 8vo. 10816. h. 7

Ouvry (Henry Aimé). Stein and his reforms in Prussia, with reference
to the land question in England, and an appendix containin
the views of Richard Cobden, and J. S. Mill’s advice to Lan
Reformers. London, 1873. 8vo. 8277. b. 66.

Pope (J. B.). The Curse of Cobden, or John Bull v. John Bright. [A
pamphlet upon Free Trade.] W. Blackwood & Sons : Edin-
burgh and London, 1885. 8vo. 8228. b. 37.

Protin (P. O.). Les Economistes Apprécies, ou Neécessité de la

3Q
962 BisriocraPHy.

Protection . . . Cobden, Michel Chevalier—Carey—Du Mesnil
—Marigny, etc. 3 pt. Paris, 1862-63. 12mo. 8206. a2a. 31.
Reybaud (M. K. L.). Economistes modernes . . . Richard Cobden,
M. F. Bastiat, M. M. Chevalier, M. J. S. Mill, M. L. Faucher,

M. P. Rossi, etc. Paris, 1862. 8vo. 8206. f. 17.
Richards (A. B.). Cobden and his pamphlet [1793 and 1853] con-
sidered, in a letter to Richard Cobden, etc. 1853. 8vo. 8138. df.
Ritchie (J. E.). The Life of Richard Cobden [by J. E. Rachie] 3 with
a faithful likeness from a photograph by Eastham, etc. ndon,
(1865]. Fol. 10816. i.
Robkin. “Robkin and Blight” [i.e Richard Cobden and John
nee What unfair trade is doing for us. [Signed “ Pastor
Agricola.”] Pp. 23. H.T. Cooke & Son: Warwick, 1885. 8vo.

8139. b. 29. (7.)

Rogers (James Edwin Thorold), Cobden and Modern Political
Opinion. Essays on certain political topics. London, 1873.

8vo. 2238. e. 12.
Russia—Appendix, History and Politics. Russia. In answer to a
Manchester Manufacturer [Richard Cobden]. London, 1837.

8vo. 8026. g. 33. (I.)

Salis Schwabe (J.), Madame. Richard Cobden, Notes sur ses voyages,
correspondances et souvenirs, recueillés par Mme. Salis Schwabe,

avec une préface de M. G. Molinari. Pp. xvi.-384. Paris, 1879.

8vo. 10920. €€. 14.

— Reminiscences of Richard Cobden, compiled by Mrs. Salis
Schwabe. With a Preface by Lord Farrer.. Pp. xvi.-3q40.

T. Fisher Unwin: London, 1895. 8vo. 10815. e. 18.

Scott (A. T.). In Memoriam. The Life and Labours of Richard
Cobden . . . to which is appended an account of the Funeral.

London, 1865. 8vo. 10825. bb. 33. (6.)
Sibree (James). Richard Cobden: Philanthropist and Statesman.
Hull: London, [1865]. 16mo. 10817. a. 49.

Simonson (F.). Richard Cobden und die antikarnzolliga, sowie ihre
Bedentung fiir die wirthschaftlichen Verh4ltnisse des Deutschen
Reiches. Pp. 64. Berlin, 1863. 8vo. 8229. de. 32. (II.)

Urquhart (D.). Answer to Mr. Cobden on the assimilation of war and
peace [as proposed by Mr. Cobden in a letter to the Manchester
Chamber of Commerce]. Also analysis of the correspondence
[of the English Government] with the United States [May,
June, 1861], showing the Declaration of Paris to have been
violated by England and France. Pp. 64. Hardwick : London,
1862. 8vo. 1250. c. 38. (7.)

Walcker (Carl). Richard Cobden’s Volkswirthschaftliche und
politische Ausichten, auf Grund aelteren und neuerer Quellen
systematisch dargestellt. Pp. vi-g1. Hamburg, Leipzig
[printed], 1885. 8vo. 8229. d. 35. (7.)

Warminster Fair Trade and Home Labour Defence League. The
Curse of Cobden; what it means, An address to those with
brains. Issued by the Warminster Fair Trade and Home
Labour Defence League. [Signed for the League by John W.
Hull.] Pp. 8. Warminster, [1g01.] 8vo. 08226. g. 62. (13.)

Watkin (Sir E. W.), Bart, Alderman Cobden, of Manchester. Letters
and reminiscences of Richard Cobden, with portraits, illustra-
tions, etc. L.P., pp. 218. Ward & Lock: London, [1891]. 4to.

10816. g. Io.

Woods (J. Crawford). In Memory of Richard Cobden, a sermon [on
Isaiah x. 18, and Matt. xxv. 34, 35, 40] preached... July g,
1865. Adelaide, 1865. 8vo. 10816. bbb. 15. (3.)
INDEX.

 

ABERDEEN, Cobden at, 286,

Aberdeen, Lord, leaves the Foreign
Office, 1847, 470; administration
formed, 127; Cobden sees, 174;
politics of, 359.

Aborigines Society, 520.

Agitation, Statistics of, 290, 291.

Albert, Prince, 157.

Alexandria, Cobden describes his land-
ing at, 1836, 49, 50; the Arabs,
curiosities at, 51.

Algiers, Cobden in, 1860, 792, 828.

Alison, 598.

Alliance, unholy, between Tories and
the Residuum, 123.

Althorpe, Lord, Budget of, 1831, 169.

Alva, decree of, 246.

Amber, Millicent, mother of Cobden,
3

America, Cobden visits, 1835, 30;
Cobden makes second voyage to,
to examine Illinois Central line,
688 ; the civil war in, 1861, 836.

American competition, importance of,
107 ; colonies, 599; blockade, 865;
railways, Cobden’s investments in,
685; war, 869, 873, 877, 880, 910.

Americans, the self-esteem of, 32.

Ancestors of Cobden, 2.

Antonelli, 429.

Antwerp, 764.

Arabs, 523.

Arbitration, recognition of policy of,
643. *

Archeological Society of Sussex, 927.

Arkwright, 946.

Arlés Dufour, 760, 830.

Arnaud, St., arrival at Liverpool, 229,
762...

 

BAR

‘* Arrow” boarded by Chinese, 651;
affair, the, 652, 653.

Ascendancy, 326,

Asher, Dr., 448.

Ashley, Lord, 299; motion of, that
hours of labour shall be ten hours,
300, 373.

Ashworth, Henry, 252.

Association, Anti-Corn-Law, subscrip-
tion raised by, Jan., 1839, 146;
completely organized, Jan., 1839, 147.

Atfeh, Cobden at, 53.

Athenzum Club, Cobden elected mem-
ber of, 1857, 668.

Athens and the Greeks, 81.

Athens, Cobden goes to, March 19th,
1837, 80.

Austria, 598; and Italy, 531, 532,
535, 737, 740.

Austrian loan of 7,000,0007., speech
on, Oct., 1849, 532.

Austrian Treaty, Cobden’s diary on,
736.

Autumn of 1845, the turning-point in
Peel’s career, 337. i

Aylesbury, Cobden at, 274; Cobden’s
speech at, 466.

Azeglio, Marquis d’, 431.

Bawta, 924,

Baines, Mr., 610.

Balance of power, 5, 6,

Ballot required, 611.

Bandini, 419.

Bangor, Cobden at, 649,

Barberini palace, 482.

Barcelona, Cobden at, 422.

Baroche, M., 729; signs the Frenek
Treaty, 730.
2

964

BAB

Barrot, Odillon, as an agitator, 1846,
417.

Basevi, Signor G., 438.

Bastiat, 140; born 1806, 308; ac-
count of, 308 ; visits England, 1845,
309 ; makes the acquaintance of Cob-
den, 1845, 309; his book on ‘* Cob-
den et la Ligue,” 310; more fit for
a speculator than an agitator, 311;
to Detalen on the agitation, Mar. 20,
and April 20, 1847, 312; to Onb.
den, 477.

Bazaar, great, at Manchester, ¥_t.

Bazley, Mr., urges Cobden to accept
office, 693.

Beaconsfield, Lord, contrasts himself
with Peel and Wellington, 347, 354,
386.

Belgium, 764.

Bentinck, Lord George, 357 ; opinion
of Free Trade and Protection, 358 ;
Coercion, 360, 387.

Berlin, Cobden at, visits Prussia, and
Russia, meets Humboldt, 445 ; sees
Dr. Eichhorn with Mr. Howard,
sees Nothomb, sees M. Kuhne, an
originator of Zollverein, at, 446; Free
Traders of, 447 ; Treaty, 617.

Bigelow, Mr., 882.

Billault, M., 726.

Birmingham, the growth of, between
1815 and 1832, 98, 925; Mr. Bright
elected for, 1857, 662.

Black Sea Treaty, 617.

Blockade, law of, 916.

Bloomfield, Lord, 452.

Board of Audit, reconstitution of, 928.

Board of Trade and French tariff,
784,

Bogorodsk, description of, 455.

Boissy, Marquis de, 760.

Bolton, 595.

Bordeaux, 311 ; Mayor of, invites Cob-
den to visit King of French, between
Aug. 4 and 14, 1846, 409.

Borneo, 620, 557.

Boye Cobden’s excursion up the,

Le

Boulogne, Bois de, 708,

Bourbons, the, 932.

Bowring, Dr., visit of, to Manchester,
his report on German Customs
Union, 161.

Bowring, Sir John, responsible for a
Chinese war, 651; and ‘‘ Arrow”
affair, 662, 653; and Government,
658, 940.

 

InD#x

BRI

Bradford, statue of Oobden at, 191,
529 ; Cobden at, 542.

Brazil, 321.

Brett, Mr., 923.

Bright, Mr., Cobden’s first acquaint-
ance and compact with, 1841,
189; extract from his address at
Bradford, July 25, 1877 ; his friend-
ship with Cobden, 190; character-
istics as a speaker, 193; goes to
Dublin, 210; advice to Cobden about
fr ague, 229; Cobden asks to unite
about new projects, 231 ; article of
in Circular, 232, 251; in Scotland,
254; denounces Brougham, 262;
moves a resolution for an address
to Cobden at a meeting at Man-
chester, 1848, 265; campaign in
counties, 275 ; accompanies Cobden
to Oxford, Lancaster, and else-
where, 285; at Hull, 288; factory
question, 301; moves for a com-
mittee on Game Laws, 316; account
of his voting in House with Cobden,
327 ; opposes the Maynooth Grant,
327; writes to Cobden, Sept. 20,
1845, retirement from public life,
334; goes to Manchester to hel
Cobden, 336 ; opinion of Edinburgh
letter, 339; insists on a thorough
reform in Parliament, 501; goes to
Ireland, 513; agrees with introduction
of a Bill for assuring the tenant of
the value of his improvement, 514;
returned for Durham, July, 1843,
557; and Kossuth, 568; and the
Ministry, 575; returned for Man-
chester, 582; congratulates Cobden
on his pamphlet, 605; remon-
strates against levity of Palmer-
ston, 1854, 617 ; political foresight,
617; insulted by Palmerston, 618 ;

osition of, about Russian war, 619;
urnt in effigy, reviled, 620; stead-
fast in attitude about Russian war,
621; and Cobden, their principles
prevented future intervention,
623; why they failed in Peace
policy, 623 ; Cobden’s concern for
is health, 648 ; at Llandudno, visita
Cobden in Wales, 649; illness of,
1856, 649 ; at Rome, 1857, 655 ; de-
feated at Manchester, 1857, 657;
letter from, to Cobden, April 16,
1857, on defeat of Manchester
school, 658-660 ; on political future,
659; defeat of, at Manchester,
INDEX

BRO

Oobden’s vexation at, 1857, 661; on
Cobden’s career, at Rochdale, 689;
and Disraeli’s Reform Bill, 689;
free trading with France, 694; on
Cobden refusing office, 698; visits
Cobden in Paris, Nov., 1860, 789;
and Cobden’s interview with French
Emperor, 789; public appearances,
813 ; and American War, 837 ; and
“Trent ” Affair, 852; his eloquence,
881; charges of Times against,
887; last letter to Cobden, Mar. 3,
1865, 930; at Cobden’s death-bed,
936 ; on the death of Cobden, 938,

Broglie, Prince, 429.

Brooke's Diary, Captain Mundy’s,
originally published by Captain
Keppell, 519.

Brotherton, Mr., 605.

Brougham, measure of, for conferring
on towns local representative govern-
ment, 1833, 122, 261 ; writes about
“the downfall of poor Mr. Cob-
den,” 265 ; protest of, against inter-
ference with labour, 302, 6595;
reference to, 848.

Brussels, 764,

Buccleuch, Duke of, 287.

Buckingham, Duke of, resigns seat in
Peel’s Cabinet, 216.

Budget of 1842, the Free Trade, 237.

Buller, Charles, scheme of emigration,
287; defends Lord Ashley, 301.

Bunsen, Chevalier, 644.

Burke, one of the earliest assailants of
Corn Laws, 167, 598,

Burmah, war in, 579.

Burmese War, second,
pamphlet on, 651.

Burns, Cobden visits birthplace of,
1826, 8.

Buxton, Lord, 925.

Cobden’s

CaBINET, disunion in, 1842, 217; dis-
agreement of Peel’s, 1845, 338 ;
Peel’s, separate without any deci-
sion, 338 ; Peel’s difficulty in forma-
tion of, Nov., 1845, 339 ; Council,
705.

Cadiz, Cobden at, 419.

Cairo, Cobden’s account of, and its
inhabitants, 56, 57.; massacre of
Mamelukes at, 58, 59.

Cambridge, riots at, May, 1839, 154.

Cambridge House, Cobden at, 697.

Campbell, Lord, 385.

Canal, Suez, 702,

 

965

OOB

Canning, 247; introduces Corn Bill,
Mar. 1, 1827, dies 1827, 164, 528.

Carbutt, Mrs., 542.

Cardwell, Mr., 756.

Carlton Club, opinion of Cobden,
243.

Carlyle, T., 215, 297.

Carr, Captain Stanley, 462.

Carhwrieht, Mr., the consul at Con-
stantinople, Cobden’s conversations
with, 78, 79.

Cassell, Mr., 524.

Catechism of Corn Laws, 252.

Catholic Emancipation, 326.

Cavour, Count, 438.

Cecil, Lord Robert, 908.

Chancery Reform, 650.

Chandos Clauses of Reform Act, 304.

Changarnier, General, 594.

Channel, British, 593.

Charter, struggle for, in Manchester,
1838, 123.

Charter, East India Company’s, 669.

Chartism, history of, proposals for,
518.

Chartists, ra .
Li e, 156.

Ghassan, 599.

Chevalier, Michel, inspired by the idea
of a commercial treaty between
England and France, 702; French
treaty, 780.

China affairs, 651; war, 825; British
policy in, 845 ; traders and mission-
aries in, 847; non-intervention in,
909.

Chronicle, the, 288, 385.

Cibrario, Signor, 437.

Circular, suppression of, 292; Anti-
Corn-Law, Journal of League,
founded 1839, 150.

Circulation, the economic, 809.

City, the, resents Cobden’s intrusion
with regard to money, 533.

Clare, Lord, and land-tenure, 326.

Clark, James, 386.

Clergy, attitude of, 233 ; Church, up-
hold Corn Laws, 231.

Cleopatra’s Needles, 52.

Clitheroe, election at, 23; Cobden
makes his earliest speeches at, 23.

Cloud, St., Cobden at, 708.

Coalition Government, 1855, 604, 614.

Cobden, William, father of Cobden, re-
moves to outskirts of Midhurst, 3;
character of, easy disposition ; life
from 1809-13; financial disasters ;

opposition of, to
966

OOB

farm sold, 1814; settles at West-
meon, Hampshire, 3; eee
of, letters, 5; embarrassments of,
13; living with son Frederick at
Barnet, 1829; loses son and
daughter, 1830, 21; removes from
Westmeon to Farnham in early
art of 1827, 14; death of, at
Broxford, June 15, 1833, 29.
Cobden, Mrs., mother of Cobden, dies
in 1825 of typhoid, 6.

Cobden, Richard, born June 8, 1804,
at Midhurst, Sussex, 2; ancestors
of, 2; grandfather of, 2; goes to
a Workehirs school, 1814-19, stat.
10-15, ill-used, 4; goes to London as
clerk to his uncle, 1819 ; unpleasant-
ness of his position ; offered situa-
tion at Ghent in 1822; not approved
of by his father, and remains in
London, stat. 15-21, 5; friendship
for brother Frederick; kindness to
father ; younger brothers, Charles,
Miles, and Henry; his diary, ex-
penses, amusements, xt. 20, 6;
promotion of, to be traveller for his
uncle’s house, et. 21, 1825; his de-
sire to know affairs of the world,
great energy, 7; two first business
journeys of; visita Shrewsbury
Abbey, Aug. Oct., 1825; birthplace
of Burns, 8; eye of, for character, as
shown in his early letters, 10 ; first
journey to Ireland, Sept., 1825, et.
21; describes peasantry ; desolation
of Dublin, 11; crosses from Dona-
ghadee to Portpatrick, Feb. 1826,
gt. 22; anecdote of captain of vessel
in letter to brother Frederick, 12;
sees Jeffery, Cockburn, and Scott in
the Court of Session, 1826, et. 22;
financial crashes in 1825-26 ; failure
of employers, Feb. 1826; spends
unwelcome holiday at Westmeon,
18; family of, mercurial spirits of,
under misfortune, 1826; he spends
pleasant days at Isle of Wight and
Chichester, 1826, et. 22, 14 ; obtains
situation with Partridge and Price,
et, 22, 1826; his usefulness; sets
out on road, with muslins, eto, ; in
1828 with two friends enters into
business as salesman on commis-
sion ; small capital, 15; his method
of working up his business; intro-
duced to Fort Brothers, xt, 24,
1828, 16; hopefulness and prospects,

 

INDEX

ooB

1828, 24, 17; the quickness with
which the character of, widened,
1833-36, 25; writes a play; first
published letters and pamphlet,
1835, 26; visits America, 1835, zt,
81; his opinion of, 30; vindication
of his own country, when in America,
1835, 33; at Niagara, 1835, 35-
37; estimate of America, 1835,
38-40; return to England from
America, Aug. 1835, 40; first speech
at Manchester, Oct. 1, 1835, and
pamphlet on Russia, 1836, 41; ac-
count of the Spanish mantilla, 43;
starts for the East, Oct. 22, 1836,
returns to England, April 21, 1837,
43; journals and letters, 44; visits:
Malta, 1836, 48; goes from Atfeh
to Cairo, 1836, 53; visits Alex-
andria, 49-51; sails up the Nile
from Atfeh to Cairo, 53, 54; visits
Pyramids, 55; describes Cairo,
and interview with Mehemet Ali,
1836, 56-64; second interview with
Mehemet Ali, 66; description of
Egyptian manufactories, 67; he
leaves Alexandria, Jan. 19, 1837, 68;
the massacre of Scio, 68, 69; descrip-
tion of island, 69; arrival of, at Con-
stantinople, 70; describes city and
eople, 71; voyage to Smyrna, 72,
3; goes to Athens, March 19,
1837, 80; describes Smyrna and the
life there, 74-80; at Athens, 81;
from Athens to Patras, 83, 85 ; goes
to Malta, 86; conversations about
the Navy and Malta, 87; arrives at
Falmouth, April 21, 1837; a profit-
able holiday, 88; two first pam-
phlets considered ; his philosophic
gifts and definite ideas, 1835-36,
88; the influence of Combe on, 93,
94; pamphlets, the doctrine of:
merits of as a statesman, 94, 95;
perceives the necessity of adapting
ork to the improving con-
dition of the people; struck by
increasing population in North of
England, 1835, 96; the factory sys-
tem, a new social element; his
conception of this new social pro-
blem, 97; his method of surveying
society ; resolves questions of State
policy in matters of pecuniary cal-
culation, 98 ; how history bears out
his principles with Government; his
scientific feeling for good govern-
INDEX 967

COB
ment, 99; attacksin ‘‘ Russia” pam-
phlet on the ‘balance of power;”
intervention judged by experience,
103-105; the differences between
commercial and military views of
foreign policy, 104; his objections
to the theory of intervention by
Powers; the source of his argu-
ments, 105; views on retention of
Gibralter, 106; importance of Ame-
rican competition, 107; his pam-
phlets a great landmark in English
political history, 111; his literary
excellence; his qualities as a writer ;
without influence of classical train-
ing, 112; opinion of, on Factory
Question, 1837, 115; defeat of, at
Stockport, 1837; explains his defeat,
116 ; the business of, and its value,
117 ; resolve of, to live free from care
and business, 118; cannot make pro-
gress in society, 1838, 119; a born
political man; his passion for im-
provement; Combe’s system of
phrenology: forms Phrenological
Society in Manchester, 120; fight
of, for Charter, 123; visit of, to Ger-
many, 1838 ; his opinion on the Zoll-
verein, 129; reasons why his san-
guine views of Prussian government
have not been fulfilled, 131; his ac-
count of a Sunday at Berlin, 133;
contrasts merchants of Germany with
thoseof England, 134 ; madealderman
of Manchester, 1838, 139 ; speech of,
at Manchester, Oct. 19, 1843, 141; his
ample conception of the ripeness of
people for agitation, 1838, 142; not
the original projector, 143 ; included
in Anti-Corn-Law Association, found-
ed in 1838, 144; draft of his petition
against Corn Laws accepted by Man-
chester Chamber of Commerce, Dec.
1838, 145; brings forward scheme
for united action against Corn Laws,
1839, 146; compares Alliance to
Hanse League; organizes the Anti-
Corn-law League, March, 1839, 149;
and O’Connell, 152; instances re-
forms obtained, 1839, 152; the
firm, new arrangements in, July,
1839, 158 ; withdraws from old part-
ners in business, July, 1839; forms
a partnership with F. Cobden; ar-
rangement of business during agita-
tion, 158; his prospects in Man-
chester, and business arrangements,

 

COB
1839, 159; marriage of, May, 1840,
160 ; wedding trip ; married life of,
161; modern history of Corn Law,
162; elected for Stockport, 1841,
175; takes his seat in Parliament,
1841, 176; makes his maiden speech
in Parliament, Aug. 25, 1841, 177;
great effect of his maiden speech,
178; arguments used by, in maiden
speech, 180 ; his eagerness for opinion
of fellow-Leaguers, 182; makes two
speeches in the House, Sept. 16, Oct.
7, 1841, 183; asks Mr. G. Wilson’s
opinion as to proper course, 183 ; pro-
test against the philanthropists, 185 ;
compares the Thames and the
Atlantic, 186; acquaintance with
Bright, 1836 or 1837, compact with,
1841, 189; his friendship with Mr.
Bright, 190, 191; as an agitator, 191,
192; his characteristics as a speaker,
193 ; his oratorical qualities, 194,
195; his dexterity in dealing with
material for his case, 195; his per-
sonality, 197; as an Englishman,
198 ; his feeling for his countrymen,
199; his religion; his veneration,
200, 201 ; his sympathy for religious
sentiment, 202; conditions of use-
fulness, 203; power as {an agitator,
204; his practical energy, 205; his
imaginativeness, 206; his genial
ideas, 207; thinks Peel’s Govern-
ment, 1842, will do something, 209 ;
speaks at conference at Derby;
goes to the Clyde, 210; advises
about bazaar of 1842, 211; dele-
gates at Crown and Anchor, 1842,
218; denunciation of Peel’s propo-
sals, 221; speech on Peel’s propo-
sals, Feb, 24, 1842, 222 ; low wages
not cheap labour, element in Peel’s
conversion, 223; replies to Fer-
rand’s attack, 225; account of Fer-
rand’s attack, 226, 227; advice to
League, 228 ; Mr. Bright, advice to,
229; Peace movement and Free
Trade one cause, 230; projects new
alliances for League, 231; reasons
for not subscribing to church build-
ing fund, 233; opinion of Peel, 237;
impression of Peel, 239, 240 ; impres-
sions of, on Peel, 241; thinks Peel’s
party willing to listen, 242; a thorn
in Peel’s side, 243; makes his first
great speech in House of Commons,
July 8, 1842, 244; great speech, 244.
968

COB

246; his speech, account of dis-
tress in, 245; business affairs, 248;
speech to League, Sept., 1842, 248;
speech to League, 249; advises
League about funds, 250; receives
freedom of Scotch burghs, 252; in
Scotland, 253; most painful incident
in parliamentary life, 256; and Sir
Robert Peel, 257; speech in the
House of Commons, Feb, 17, 1843,
257 ; explanation to Peel, 260; ex-
planation to Mr. Roebuck, 263 ; dis-
likes individual glorification, 265;
Third Letter’ on a Regicide Peace,
267 ; does not overrate the signifi-
cance and value of large meetings,
2713 at Hertford, 273; at Ayles-
bury, 274; at Bedford, Lincoln,
Taunton, 275; his account of cam-
paignin counties, 276,277; at Guild-
ford, Colchester, Lewes, &c., 277;
reception of, at public meetings, 280;
lives at public meetings, 1843, 280;
energy in attending meetings, 280 ;

sition of, 1843, 281; attacks sugar
uties, 282; speech at Covent Gar-
den, 283; his work in Scotland and
the North, 285; at Oxford, Lancas-
ter, Manchester, Lincoln, Salisbury,
285; at Aberdeen, Perth, Forfar,
286; in Scotland, 287; opinion of,
about League organs, 291; faith in
propagandism, 291; moves for a
committee of inquiry into effect of
protective duties on agricultural
tenants and labourers, 293; mo-
tion for committee rejected, 294;
position with regard to Ministerial
Bill for confirmation of religious
bodies in possession of property,
295; free exchange basis of pro-
sperity, capital and labour, 297;
opinion of Trades’ Unions, 299;
opinion of Lord Ashley, 301;
Government and Ten Hours’ Bill,
302; registration; proposals for
winning counties, 304; speech at
Covent Garden, Dec. 11, 1844, 805;
views on the Reform Act, 805;
views on the franchise, 306; makes
the acquaintance of Bastiat, 1845,
308; reception of Bastiat, 3809;
all letters to Bastiat destroyed,
312; speech at Oldham, 1845, on
the condition of the country, 313;
great speech of Mar. 18, 1845, 317;
end the farmers, 820; importance

 

INDEX

COB
of enlarging the circle of exchange,
322; influence on Peel, 823; and
his appeal of 1845, 325; account
of his voting in the House, 327 ; re-
solves to give op public affairs, 333 ;
opinion of the Duke of Wellington,
341; attends meeting at Birming-
ham, Nov. 13, 1845, 841; meeting
at Bath, Dec., 1845, 342 ; meeting in
London, Dec. 15, 1845, 343; refuses
Lord John Russell’s offer of Vice-
Presidency of Board of Trade, Dec.
20, 1845, 344; attitude towards
Peel, 351; speaks at meeting of
League after Peel’s conversion, 351 ;
health, 1846, 355; attacks Peel at
Stockport meeting, 1845, 362; dis-
like to Whigs, their conduct in
counties a test of honesty, 1846,
362; health, 1846, 364; occupation
during session of 1846, 364; feels
unable to pursue his career, 1846,
365; Peel an earnest convert, 366;
view of his own position, thinks of
retiring from political life, 1846, 367;
not a rich man ; his fellow-workers ;
his Free Trade labours, 368; mo-
tive for leaving Parliament, 369;
views on his own position, 369 ; sits
for the picture of the Council of the
League, 387; visits Wales with Lis
family, 407; movements, 408; de-
scription of Wales, 408; new projects,
409; views on national education,
410; objects to a national testimonial,
411; lands at Dieppe, Aug. 5, 1846,
en route to France, Spain, Italy,
Germany, and Russia, 415; meets
French politicians in Paris, 1846,
417; conversation with Louis Phi-
lippe, 1846, 418; in Spain, 1846,
goes to a bull-fight; goes over Escu-
rial with Dumas, 418; at Seville,
418; addresses traders of Cadiz,
farmers of Perugia, nobles of
Rome, 1846, 419 ; popularity among
strangers, 419; Italian statesmen,
419; at Milan, 1846, 419; French
lessons from Domville, 421; at
Genoa; his diaries; interview with
and opinion of Louis Philippe, 1846,
421; at Barcelona, Dec. 8, 1846,
corruption of customs’ officers, 422;
at Perpignan, Dec. 14, 1846, 423;
sees Sir George Napier at Nice,
1846, 423 ; at Montpellier and Nice,
1846, 423; st Nice, 424; makes

i
INDEX 969

OOoB
speech ot dinner given to him at
Genoa, 1847, 425; at Rome, Jan.
1847, 427 ; his description of Rome,
the Vatican, &c,, 428 ; meets Prince
Broglie, Antonelli, &c. ; entertained
at public dinner; hears an Italian
improvisatore, 429 ; his life in Rome,
hunting, Roman Advertiser ; sees
Mr. Hence, 430; life at Rome,
431; society in Rome, 431; paint-
ings in Rome ; interview with Pope;
his reception, 1847, 433; calls
Pope’s attention to bull-fights at
Madrid ; dines with Count Rossi,
434; travels over the Campagna,
435; at Naples, March, 1847; at
Museum ; with king, 436; at Turin,
sees Count Revel, Signor Cibrario;
Colbertism, 437; attends meeting
at Milan, address to, entertained at
dinner, 438; sees Count Cavour,
438; at Lake Como, Desenzano;
Signor Salevi; the Italian lakes,
439; reception at Venice, 440;
reception at Trieste, 440 ; at Vienna,
dines with Prince Metternich, &c.,
442; at Dresden; sees M. Falken-
stein at Royal Library, 444; at Ber-
lin; visits Prince of Prussia ; meets
Humboldt, 445; goes to Potsdam ;
dines with king, 447; attends din-
ner given to him by the Free-traders
of Berlin, 447 ; sees Mrs. Cobden off
from Hamburg, thenstarts forStettin,
Aug. 7, 1847, 449 ; at Stettin ; opinion
of the Baltic ports, Aug. 8, 1847,
449; at St. Petersburgh, Aug. 20,
1847; calla on Count Nesselrode,
451; description of journey from
Tauroggen to, 451; sees the grand
parade, 452 ; at Riga, Aug. 16, 1847 ;
journey from St. Petersburgh to
Moscow, Aug. 25, 1847, 452; from
Moscow to Nishni-Novgorod, Aug.
27, 1847, 453; description of Mos-
cow, Aug. 25, 1847, 453; pays a
visit to Hogarsdak, 455 ; visits Mos-
cow again, Aug. 31, 1847, 455; ac-
count of his stay in St. Petersburgh,
from Sept. 7 to Sept. 23, 1847, 457,
461; description of Lubeck, 462;
arrives at Hamburg, en route for
England, and reaches London, Oct.
11, 1847, 463; returned for Stock-
port and West Riding, 1847, 465;
speech at Aylesbury, relations of
Isndlord and tenant, 466; business

 

OOB
matters settled, 466; purchases Dun-
ford, 466; his brother Frederick goes
to live with him, 466; his descrip-
tion of Midhurst, 468; views as ta
England and Spain, 472; on mis-
management of Ireland, 472; and
the revolution of 1848, 479 ; returns
again to national education, 481;
suggests direct over indirect taxa-
tion, 496; how seriously his attack
on expenditure was taken, 497 ; and
Bright’s scheme for strengthening
the Liberal Party, 1849, 500 ; speaks
at Manchester on financial reform,
1849, 500; plan for international
arbitration, 508 ; supports the Oath
abolition, 508; accompanies the
Peace Society to Paris, 1849, 510;
views on forty-shilling freehold, 516 ;
resides near the Great Western
Station, Paddington, 1849, 522; on
temperance, 523; illustrations of
temperance, 526; speaks at Leeds,
Bradford, Manchester, and other
northern towns, during the autumn
of 1850, on Reform, 529; views on
lending money to Austria and Russia,
531 ; and the attitude of England in
the struggle, 531; speech on the
Russian loan of 5,500,000/., Jan.,
1850, 532; powerful speech of, on
the Austrian loan, Oct., 1849, 532;
denounces war loan, 533; the root
of his feeling about war, 534; goes
to the Peace Congress at Frankfort,
545; and the Great Exhibition of
1851, 556; receives a challenge to
fight a duel, 557 ; motion for negotia
tion with France, 557; resolves not
to stand for West Riding again, 560;
and the land question, 561 ; opinion
as to renewal of war in favour of
Hungarian liberty, 571; views on
the. Militia Bill, 573 ; on the impor-
tation of grain, 677; military feel-
ing, 678; urgency of a dissolution,
580; the Queen’s Speech, 586 ;
direct attack on Palmerston, 589;
speaks against the Ministerial plan,
590; opinion on Whigs and Tories,
595; his alliance with the Peace
Society, 595; and the Catholic
Emancipation and Reform Bill, 596 ;
his pamphlet ‘‘ 1792 and 1853,” 597 ;
shows that the French Government
had given no ground of offence in
1792, 699; quotation from hig
970

‘

CoB

pamphlet, ‘1793 and 1853,” 604;
and Gladstone’s budget, 607 ;
lives peacefully in Sussex during the
summer of 1853, 608; compiles a
lucid and forcible exposure of the
origin of the Burmese war, 608 ;
goes to Peace Conference at Edin-
burgh, then visits Oxford, 608 ;
Quakers and Peace movement, 609 ;
at Oxford, 611; opinion of required
reforms, 611; Whig Cabinet and
Eastern Question, 613; regrets
change of Lord Derby’s Government,
615; naval defence of Turkey, 616 ;
opinions on value of Sebastopol,
616; and Palmerston’s policy in
Russian war, 617; foresight, proofs
of, 617; insulted by Palmerston,
618; position of, about Russian
war, 619; reviled for attitude on
Russian war, 620; steadfast atti-
tude on Russian war, why he failed
in impressing nation, 621; advo-
cacy of non-intervention on political

ounds, 622; and Bright, why they
ailed in peace policy, 623; and
Bright, their principle prevented
future intervention, 623; great
speech against war policy, reception
in House of Commons, 624; pam-
phlet, “What Next and What
Next?” 626; opinions on Russian
war, in letter to Mr. Bright, 627-
631; standing armies, 633 ; Derby-
Disraeli exposé, 634 ; out-of-doors
support of peace policy, 635; Ten-
nyson’s poem, 637, 638; on esta-
blishment of Morning Star, 637;
Gladstone’s advocacy of invading
Russia, 640; death of his son,
April 6, 1856, at Weinheim, 644 ;
great distress at death of his son,
breaks the news to his wife,
645; concern for Mr. _ Bright’s
health, 1856, 648; and Bright in
Wales, 1856, 649 ; at Dunford, 1857,
Richmond, 650 ; China affairs, 650 ;
‘* Arrow” affair, 653 ; brings forward
motion that a Select Committee be
appointed to inquire into commer-
cial relations with China, his speech,
654; abandons seat for West Riding ;
goes to Huddersfield ; speaks about
Bright, 655 ; at Huddersfield, beaten,
657; in Sussex, after defeat, 1857,
660; elected at Birmingham in
July, 1857, 662; wishes it possible

 

INDEX

CoB
to shorten speeches in House of
Commons, 668; elected by com-
mittee a member of Athenzum Club,
1858, 668; Indian mutiny, 669;
Government of India and natives;
Indian mutiny, 1857, 670; on con-
tact with native races, our Indian rule,
difficulties of future ; not possible to
govern India well, 673, 674; trans-
fer of land, 679; on the demoraliza-
tion of England by India, 681 ; and
Chevalier, 682, 683 ; view of political
situation when Lord Derby formed
his ministry; Whig leaders and
Radicals ; prefers Derby to Pal-
merston, 683, 684 ; private anxieties,
investment in American railways,
685; his shares in Illinois Central
released by Mr. Thomasson of Bol-
ton, 1858, 687; further loans to;
goes to America to examine line;
satisfied, 688; return from America,
1859, 689; explains to Palmerston
reason for not accepting office, 693 ;
stays with Gladstone, 703; arrives
in Paris, 707; first interview with
Napoleon, Oct. 27, 1859, 708;
opinion of Napoleon, 712; receives
invitation from Napoleon to stay
with him at Compiégne, 714; record
of his interview with M. Fould, 714;
returns to London, 717; and Glad-
stone, 717; goes to Paris again,
Nov. 17, 1859, 718; interview with
Count Walewski, 720; interview
with the Emperor at the Tuileries,
720; receives official powers, 725;
memorable letter to M. Fould, 727 ;
health fails him, 730; diary on the
execution of the French treaty, 730 ;
signs it, 730 ; morality of negotiation
with the Empire, 733; at the Aus-
trian embassy, 734 ; on the subject
of Venetia, 734; diary on the Aus-
trian treaty, 786; interview with
Prince Metternich, 1860, Austria,
Italy, and Venetia, 737-740; at
Cannes, 741; at Nice, 742; Lord
Cowley, M. Fould, Savoy Question,
744; audience with Emperor of
French, conversation about Savoy
Question, 745; naval armaments,
747; treaty of commerce with
France, 748 ; returns to England, 749;
private circumstances, 750 ; subscrip-
tion of 40,0002. to, 1860, 750 ; treaty
of commerce with France, debates
INDEX

COB
on, 752; returns again to Paris,
April 20, 1860, 756 ; fresh labours
in Paris, Nov, 5, 1860, 757; and
the commission, 759; visits Rossini
with Clara Novello, 760; guest of
Marquis de Boissy and Countess
Guiccioli, 760; meets Enfantine
at Arlés Dufour’s, 760; visits Ary
Scheffer, 760; attends the debates
in the Corps Législatif, 761; and
the Orleanists, 761; meets Persigny,
Mar. 25, 1860, 762; diary about
French tariff, 763 ; conversation with
Prince Napoleon, 765 ; on the proposal
for fortifications, 767; Mr. Gladstone,

772; remonstrance about England’s |

armaments, 1860, 773; remon-
strance with Lord Palmerston, 1860,
French treaty, 774; armaments,
778; Lord Palmerston’s project for
fortification, 775; scene with Lord
Cowley, 786; convention with France
signed, Oct. 12, 1860, 787 ; abolition
of passports, 1860, 791; the labours
of diplomacy, 1860, 793 ; payments
of French treaty services, 794, 795;
Palmerston, 795; vindication of
commercial treaty with France,
1860, 803 ; circulation, the economic,
809; direct taxation, 812; Mr.
Bright's public utterances, 813 ; in-
fluence of Church and aristocracy,
814; conditions of political life,
815; writings of Louis Napoleon,
816; effect of going to and from
London and Paris, 817; state of

Europe, 1860, 818, 819; gives
reasons against political despon-
dency, 820; the kish Question,

1861, 821; Syrian massacres, and
French intervention, 822; sober
politics of Peel and Aberdeen, 823 ;
hopelessness of our rule in India,
824; annexation of Savoy, 824; war
in China, 852; politics in counties,
827; anti-social interest of great
producers, 827; life in Algiers, and
the English working class, 828, 829 ;
Arlés Dufour, and women’s rights,
830; last interview with Emperor
of French, 831; arrives in England
from France, May 18, 1861, 833;
reception on return from Algiers,
1861, 835; American’ War, 837;
international maritime law, 839;
The Three Panics, 839; battles with
Lerd Palmerston, 842; maritime

 

971

COB

law, 843; British policy in China,
845; traders and missionaries in
China, 847; Lord Brougham, 848;
Tocqueville on the right of seces
sion, 849; ‘‘Trent” affair, 850;
American War, 852-858; maritime
law, 859; the commercial class, 860;
luck of Lord Palmerston, 863;
commercial blockades, 864; Ameri-
can blockade, 865; cotton famine,
state of Lancashire, 866; debate
on Turkey, 1863, 867; Polish insur-
rection, 868; American War, 869-
873; fortifications of Portsmouth,
875; views on the American War,
France and America, 877; conver-
sations with Mr. Whiting, 878;
Mr. Evarts, 879; Lincoln, 880;
political torpor, 1863, 881; priva-
teering, 883; correspondence and
controversy with Mr. Delane and
the Times, 884-903; feeling towards
Times newspaper, 885; English
and American Press, 886 ; addresses
protest to Times, 888; refused
insertion, 889; Delane’s letter to,
889; letter to Delane (personally),
891; merits of Times controversy,
899 ; views of journalism, 903 ; and
the Danish War, 904; peace policy,
907; two speeches during his last
session, 909; character of President
Lincoln, 910; American War, 910;
Garibaldi, 911; Free Trade in
France, 912; on tone of English
olitics, 913; international law, 915;
w of blockade, 916; Danish War,
917; speech at Rochdale on the
land question, Nov. 23, 1864, 919;
acoount of himself, 922; on Canada,
924; on minority representation,
925 ; last letter on, 926; Durrant
Cooper, 927; Canadian affairs,
935 ; journey to London, 935 ; takes
lodgings in Suffolk Street, 936;
illness of, 936; dies, April 2, 1865,
936; account of his death, 936;
commemoration of, in the House,
937; traits of private character,
941; views on culture, 943; his
contribution to social reform, 945.
Cobden, Mrs., continental tour, Aug.
1846, 416; violent grief at death of
her son, 646, 647; alarming con-

dition of, 649.
Cobden, Frederick, eldest brother
of Cobden; returns from America
972 INDEX

COB
1824, unprosperous, 6; extract from
letter of, on mother’s death, 6; a
timber merchant at Barnet, his ill-
success, 1829, 21; partnership with
Cobden, July, 1839, 158; business
qualities, 159 ; death of, 1858, 466.

Cobden, Charles, 6.

Cobden, Henry, 6; meets Cobden in
New York, 1835, 30,

Cobden, Miles, 6.

Cockburn and Cobden, 1826, 13;
supports Lord Palmerston, 538

Coercion Bill for Ireland, 1846, 360 ;
rejected, June 26, 1846, 387.

Colchester, Free Trade battle at, 278,

Cole, Mr., uncle of Cobden, 116.

Cole, H., letter to R. Cobden, 214, 215.

Coles, Captain Cowper, 876.

Collett, Mr., 374.

Cologne, Cobden at, 546.

Colonial trade, 283.

Colquhoun, Mr., 373.

Combe, George, the influence of Cobden
on, 93, 94; system of phrenology,
Cobden drawn to, 120, 522.

Commerce, Chamber of, Manchester,
Cobden’s draft of a petition against
the Corn-Laws accepted by, Dec.
1838, 145; French treaty of, 748;
laid before Parliament, Feb. 10,
1860, 742 ; policy of, 799-809.

Committee on Imports, report of, 235.

Commons League, proposals for, 1848,
500; failure of, 501. ;

Como, Lake, 439.

Conseil Supérieur, 757.

Conspiracy to Murder Bill, Feb. 20,
Mr. Gibson beats Lord Palmerston
on, 682,

Constantinople, Cobden’s account of,
70; the plague, 71; the Bosphorus,71.

Constitution, English, 130,

Coppdene, Adam de, 2,

Cormenin, Conseiller d’Etat, 547.

Corn Bill, Peel’s new, 234; second
reading of, passed Mar. 27, 1846;
passed, June 26, 1846, by a majority
of 73, 387.

Corn Law, existing when Cobden’s agi-
tation began, 165, 166; effects of,
in foreign countries, 166; repeal of,
break up of all parties, 402.

Corn-Law, Anti-, League, 140; Asso-
ciation, formed in 1886 ; its members,
proved impotent, 143; foundation
of, in Manchester, 144.

Corn Law of 1815, 1822; bill of 1827,

 

_ COR

Canning’s; 1828, Wellington, Duke

of, 164, 165,

Corn Laws, modern history of, by
Cobden, April 16, 1839, in the Circu-
lar, 162; Burke and, 167; in back
ground, 292.

Cornu, Madame, 831.

Corps Législatif, 761.

CoRRESPONDENCE :—

Ashworth, H., April 12, 1842, 231;
Feb. 19, 1846, 377; May 20, 1846,
384, 467; July 21, 1848, 488; Nov,
16, 1851 ; Dec. 13, 1849, 525; Dec
19, 1855, 642, 643; Oct. 16, 1857,
669-671; Aug. 27, 1860, 825;
Feb. 7, 1862, 860 ; Sept. 3, 1864,
915; Sept. 9, 1846, 916; July 26,
1864, 917; July 1864, 917.

Baines, E., Oct. 25, 1842, 250-
252, 252; Mar. 8, 1843, 265;
Dec. 25, 1845, 494.

Bastiat, M., 477.

Bigelow, Mr., 882.

Bright, Mr., 229; May 12, 1842,
282; June 21, 1848, 291, 292,
465; 1847, 471; 1848, 497-499; Dec.
23, 1848, 502; Oct. 1, 1849, 514;
Nov. 4, 1849, 517; Dec. 6, 1849,
519; Dec. 8, 1849, 520; April 23,
1850, 544; Nov. 22, 1850, 549;
Sept. 29, 1851, 558; Oct. 1, 1851,
560; Oct. 29, 1851, 562; Nov. 7,
1851, 565; Nov. 6, 1851, 566; Nov.
13, 1851, 568; Nov. 9, 1858, 609;
Nov. 22, 1853, 610; Sept. 14, 1854,
627; Oct. 1, 1854, 627; 1854, 629;
Jan. 5, 1855, 680, 631; Feb. 11,
1855, 633 ; Sept. 30, 1855, 636;
Aug. 6, 1855, 637, 638; Aug. 8,
1855, 688; Sept. 18, 1855, 639;
Aug. 24, 1857, 672; Aug. 24, 1857,
678, 674; Sept. 22, 1857, 675-677 ;
Nov. 17, 1859, 712; Nov. 20, 1859,
714; Dec. 29, 1859, 728, 772-
7745 Feb. 4, 1861, 794, 795; 1860,
802 ; Dec. 16, 1859, 810, 811; Dec.
29, 1859, 812; March 18, 1861,
820; Dec. 6, 1861, 852; April 22,
1863; Sept. 8, 1863; Oct. 12,
1863 ; Oct. 17, 1863 ; Oct. 4, 1864,
876-880; Jan. 16, 1865, 925;
Jan. 22, 1865, 927; Feb. 23, 1865,
930 ; Mar. 3, 1865, 930; Mar. 15,
1865, 932.

Chevalier, M., Oct. 5, 1855, 640;
July 18, 1858, 682; Aug. 21,
1861, 848; Dec. 14, 1861, 8533
iNDEX

COR

OornesronpEncr (continued) :-—

Feb. 14, 1862 ; Mar. 4, 1562; Mar.
17, 1862; Mar. 18, 1862, 861-
863; Aug. 7, 1862, 864; June 2,
1863, 867; June 22, 1863, 868;
May 3, 1864, 911; June 27, 1864,
912; June 27, 1864, 912; Nov.
1864, 913.

Cobden, Mrs., Mar, 11, 14, 1845, 317,
318 ; Feb. 11, 1845, 327 ; April
11, 1845, April 14, 1845, April
28, 1845, and June 19, 1845, 328;
June 20, 1845, 829; June 24,
1845, 329; April 7, 1845, 330;
Dee. 4, 1845, 342; April 29, 1846,
330; June 6, 1845, 331; April 18,
1845, 331; May 26, 1845, 331;
June 19, 24, 1845, 332; Jan. 28,
1846, 374; Jan, 23, 1846, 374;
Jah. 26, 1846, 374; Mar. 30,
1846, 378 ; April 4, 6, 1846, April
23, 1846, April 25, 1846, April
27, 1846, 379; May 2, 1846,
380; May 8, 1846, 380; May 11,
1846, and May 13, 1846, 381 ; May
16, 1846, 382; May 18, 20, 1846,
383, 384; May 22, 1846, 385 ; May
23, 1846, 385; June 13, 16, 1846,
886; June 18, 1846, 386; June
23, 1846, 387; June 26, 1846,
387, 480, 481; Mar. 8 1848,
482; Mar. 10, 1848, 482; Mar. 14,
1848, 482; Mar. 18, 1848, 483;
Mar. 21, 1848, 484; Mar. 27, 1848,
484; April 10, 1848, 485; April 15,
485 ; May 13, 1848, 485; Nov. 30,
1848, 495; Dec. 8, 1848, 496; Aug.
19, 1849, 510; Aug. 25, 1849, 511;
Aug. 28, 1849, 512; Dec. 2, 1849,
542; Dec. 18, 1849, 542; Dec. 19,
1849, 542 ; July 2, 1850, 545; July
4, 1850, 545; Aug. 17, 1850, 545;
Aug. 23, 1850, 546 ; April 22, 1851,
554; Mar. 3, 1852, 577; Mar. 5,
1852, 577; Jan. 81, 1858, 605;
Jan. 27, 1858, 605; 1854, 1855,
624; June 30, 1859, 692.

Cobden, Miss (sister), Sept. 8, 1838,
182, 133.

Cobden, Frederick W., Feb. 5, 1826,
8; Sept. 20, 1825, 12; 1881,
20; 1882, 22; 1834, 28 ; 1835, 30
-B2; 1835, 34; 1885, 38-40;
75-80; March 8, 1837, 80, 81;
April 18, 1837, 81-88; Nov. 11,
1836, 113 ; Jan. 4, 1837 ; Jan. 28,
1837, 114; Feb. 24, 1837, 1173

 

973

COR

CoRRESPONDENCE (continued) :—

Oct. 26, 1838, 118, 126; Oct. 5,
1838, 126, 126; Sept. 11, 1838,
180 ; Oct. 6, 1838, 134, 135 ; 1837,
135-137; June 6, 12, 1837,
135, 137, 188 ; June 16, 141, 175;
176; Aug. 24, 1841; Aug. 26,
1841, 177; Aug. 29, 1841, 181;
Sept. 27, 1841, 184, 185 ; June 22,
1842, 217; Feb. 28, 1842, 226,
227; Mar, 10, 1842; Mar. 12,
1842, 240; Mar. 22, 1842, 241;
April 11, 1842, 242; June 22,
1842, 242; July 14, 1842, 243;
July 20, 1842, 243; Jan. 5, 1843,
253 ; Feb. 17, 1843, 263 ; Feb. 23,
1843, 265; Mar. 11, 1843, 269;
April 10, 1843, 270 ; June 5, 1843,
276; July 20, 1843, 277; Aug. 17,
1843, 284 ; Oct. 27, 1843, and Jan.
2, 1844, 285-287; June 4, 1844,
295; June 5, 1844, 296, 297;
Aug. 16, 1842, 299; Mar. 16,
1844, 301; Mar. 23, 1844, 302;
Aug. 8, 1844, 330; Feb. 9, 1844
376; Mar. 6, 1846, 378; Mar,
25, 1846; May 15, 1846, 382;
May 19, 1846, 383; June 10,
1846, 385.

Cobden, Charles, Jan. 8, 1837, 44,

Cole, Colonel, Mar. 20, 1865, 934,

Cole, Mr., 117.

Combe, George, Ang. 23, 1836,
121; Mar. 9, 1841, 188; Aug. 1,
1846, 202, 203; Dec. 29, 1845,
208 ; Feb. 23, 1845, 315 ; Dec. 13,
1845, 343; Dec. 29, 1845, 352;
Feb. 1846, 353; Mar. 7, 1846,
364; Aug. 1, 1846, 364; July 14,
1846, 410; Feb. 29, 1848, 481;
April 24, 1848, 485, 486 ; July 23,
1848, 486; Aug. 28, 1848, 488;
Oct. 4, 1848, 490; Oct. 28, 1848,
493 ; Jan. 5, 1849, 505; Feb, 8,
1849, 506; April 9, 1849, 507;
June 19, 1849, 509; Nov, 9, 1850,
547; May 16, 1858, 680.

ene John T., Dec. 9, 1863, 889,

Daily Telegraph, 901.

Ewart, Mr., June 6, 1857, 666.

Fitzmayer, Colonel, Jan. 10, 1855,
632, 633; Oct. 18, 1857, 678;
Dec. 3, 1861, 850.

Foster, George, April 14, 1836, 24;
1836, 25; Nov. 28, 1836, 43;
Dec. 22, 1836, 66-68,
974

COR

CoRRESPONDENOR (continued) :—

Gilpin, Mr., Mar. 28, 1858, Oct. 30,
7

217.

Gladstone, Jan. 7, 1860, 727, 728;
Feb. 10, 1865, 928; Feb. 13,
1865, 928.

Greg, W. R., May 15,. 1848, 487;
Mar. 18, 1851, 552 ; May 21, 1851,
SSS.

Hadfield, G., July 5, 1850, 560.

Hargreaves, Mr., 198; April 7,
1857, 662; Aug. 4, 1860; May 2,
1860, 761; Nov. 1860, 792; Mar.
14, 1860, 815; April 23, 1860,
817; 1860, 819; June 5, 1860,
821; Mar. 1, 1863, 828; 1861,
845; June 22, 1861, 849 ; Aug. 7,
1862, 863; Oct. 25, 1862, 865;
April 5, 1863, 880 ; Feb. 16, 1861,
886; April 10, 1863, 945.

Hatherton, Lady, Nov. 6, 1862,
866.

Hunt, W. C., Oct. 21, 1836, 464.

Hunter, T., Mar. 12, 1846, 367 ;
371.

Lattimore, R., April 20, 1864, 274.

Letter to parents whilst at ‘ork-
shire school, Mar. 25, 1817, 4.

Lindsay, Mr. W. S., Mar. 24, 1856,
16; 1857, 662; April 26, 1861,
842; Feb, 25, 1861, 885.

Livesey, Mr., Oct. 10, 1858, 522,

Lucas, 8., July 27, 1862, 202, 203;
Aug. 16, 1860, 822; Jan. 23,
1861, 827; Oct. 17, 1861, 849.

Maeren, Mr. Van der, Oct. 5, 1856,
310.

McLaren, Sept. 19, 1853, 608,

Mellor, James, April 18, 1850,
548.

Moffatt, Mr., April 7, 1857, 660;
Dec. 8, 1857, 666; 1858, 686.

Palmerston, Lord, June 27, 1859,
691; April 13, 1861, 797.

Parkes, J., Feb. 16, 1846, 363; May
26, 1856, 237; May 26, 1856,

Des

COW

CoRRESPONDENCE (continued) :—

a Sir R., June 23, 1846, 390-

397.

Potter, Edmund, 372; Mar. 15,
1851, 553.

Potter, Mr. T. B., Mar. 22, 1865,
926 ; Feb. 23, 1865, 930.

Potter, Sir Thomas, 1843, 266;
Mar. 1, 1843, 268.

Russell, Lord John, Nov. 12, 1855,
625 ; July 31, 1860, Aug. 2, 1860,
777

Sisters, Nov. 11, 1836, 45-473
Dec. 20, 1836, 49-64.

Slagg, J., Sept. 5, 1859, 750.

Spencer, Rev. Thomas, April 23,
1849, 204,

St. John’s, Rector of, Manchester,
Feb. 1841, 232, 233.

Sturge, Mr., June, 10, 1846, 861;
July 16, 1846, 501; Feb. 19, 1851,
550; Feb. 15, 1851, 550; Mar. 11,
1852, 577; Mar. 20, 1852, 579;
May 5, 1852, 581; June 9, 1852,
582; Sept. 14, 1852, 583; Sept.
21, 1852, 584.

Sumner, Mr. Charles, Noy. 29, 1861,
854; July 11, 1862; Feb. 13,
1863; April 2, 1863; May 2,
1863; May 22, 1863; Aug. 7,
1863, 469-473; Aug. 18, 1864,
910; Jan. 11, 1865, 923,

Tait, Mr., July 3, 1838, 123; Aug.
17, 1838, and May 5, 1837, 128.

White, Mr., Nov. 22, 1857, 679.

Wilson, G., Sept. 1841, 182, 183;
Nov. 1841, 212; Feb. 27, 1842;
Mar, 7, 1842, 228, 229; Jan. 18,
1843, 253; Oct. 24, 1848, 289;
Feb. 28, 1845, 316 ; Jan. 29, 1846,
375; Feb. 20, 1852, 575; Feb.
28, 1852, 576; Mar. 20, 1852,
579; Mar. 23, 1852, 580; Aug,
18, 1852, 588; Oct. 4, 1852, 5853
Nov. 24, 1852, 587.

348; June 10, 1857, 859; Dec.
28, 1856, 418; May 23, 1856,
June 4, 1856, 646, 647; Nov. 11,
1856, 649; Dec. 11, 1856, 650;
Aug. 9, 1857, 663; 1857, 664;
Feb. 11, 1860, 830.

Paulton, Mr., July 4, 1846, 408;
Jan. 1862, 853; Feb. 2, 859;
Jan. 8, 1868 ; Jan, 18, 1868, 873; | Cowley, Lord, 707, 717, 719, 724, 766,
Feb. 3, 1863, 875; Jan. 25, 1865, 779; Savoy question, 767; French
922, treaty, 786,

Corsini, Prince, 429, 430,

Counties, campaign in, 278, 275; pro-
posals to win, 304.

Country, how it receives Peel’s propo-
sals, 221; opinion about Russian
War, 619.

Covent Garden, League Bazaar at, in
the spring of 1845, 314,

 
INDEX

ORA

Orawford, Sharman, 181.

Crimean War, commencement of,
1854, 614; origin of, 615; end of,
1856, 643.

Orisis, Ministerial, the, 1845, 341.

ee Hall, Cobden’s business at, 158,

o.
Orown and Anchor, the, 268,
Czar of Russia, 529.

Daniy Telegraph, 901.

ween Lord, declines office, 1846,
403.

Danish War, 904, 917.

Dantzic, 450. :

Dardanelles, fleet despatched to, 536.

Débats, 914.

Delane, Mr., editor of Times, thinks
Cobden and Bright might have been
ministers, 625; social distinctions,
886 ; letter of, to Cobden, giving
reason for not publishing protest,
889 ; controversy with Cobden, 884-
903 ; virtual surrender of, 897.

Democratic Reform, movement of,
521,

Denmark, 602; and the British Govern-
ment, 905.

Deputation of bankers and traders in
London to Emperor of the French,
607.

Derby-Disraeli, exposé, 534.

Derby, Lord, 540, 573, 575, 576, 578,

* 680, 918; resigns, Dec. 17, 1852,
590; second administration, 1858,
683 ; on the policy of 1860, 753.

Desenzano, 439.

Dickens, Charles, the influence of his
early novels, 92, 606.

Dieterici, M., Cobden visits, at Berlin,
an earnest Free Trader, 447.

Disraeli, Mr., says Pitt was firat Free
Trader, 239, 243, 260; on Free
Trade, 822; attacks Peel, 1845, 323 ;
speaks of Cobden, 323; attitude
towards Peel, 323; views on the
session of 1845, 527, 537, 540, 580,
591, 592, 607, 634, 919; leads
the Protectionists in 1848, 479;
recognizes the possibility of public
opinion being brought round to
Cobdents side, 1848, 497; moves
an amendment to Villiers’ address
on the Duke of Wellington’s funeral,
586; funeral oration on the Duke
of Wellington, 587; budget, 589;
defeated by 2 majority of nineteen,

 

975

ENG

590; conceives tle idea of detach-
ing the Manchester party from
Whigs and Peelites, 590; intro-
duces his Reform Bill, Feb., 1859,
689; treaty of commerce with
France, 752; Free Trade, 800;
and Schleswig-Holstein affair, 906 ;
vote of censure on Lord Palmerston,
907 ; on the death of Cobden, 938,

Distresa of country, debate on, 243.

Domestic Legislation, Cobden’s opinion
of, 650.

Don Pacifico, debate, 527; affair of,
904.

D’Orsay, Count, 386.

Dresden, communication with Mr. Fal-
kenstein at Royal Library, 444.

Droxford, Cobden’s father dies at,
June 15, 1833, 29.

Drummond, Mr., private secretary to
Peel, shot, 256, 353.

Drury Lane, meetings at, 280.

Dublin, Cobden’s early impression of,
1825, et. 21, 11.

Ducie, Lord, 285,

Duff, Mr. E. Grant, 839.

Dumas, Alexandre, 418.

Duncan, Lord, 296.

Dunford, farmhouse where Cobden
was born, 2; Cobden at, April 22,
1851, 554; 1857, 651.

Dungannon, Lord, beats Bright at
Durham, April 4, 1843, unseated for
Bribery, July 1843, 264.

Durham, Bishop of, 541.

EASTBOURNE, 516.

Eastern Question, 1854, 613.

Economic Sophism of Bastiat, 311.

Economist, the, 292.

Edinburgh, Cobden attends Peace Con-
ference, 1853, 608.

Edinburgh letter, the, of Lord John
Russell, 1845, 339.

Edinburgh Review, 633.

Education, National League and, 281 ;
popular, 300.

Egerton, Lord, 374.

Election of 1841, state of parties,
ei general, July 1852, 582; 1857,
65

Eliot, Forster’s life of, 926, 942.

Ellice, Edward, 385.

Emmanuel, Victor, 734.

Emperor of Austria, 529.

England, condition of; pestilent
effects of bread tax on, 141; the
976

ENG

growth of the League in, against
the Corn Law, 270; condition of,
296, 297, 532, 542; cat’s-paw of
European powers, 614; feeling in,
against France, 768; warlike de-
monstration against France, 1860,
774-778 ; working classes of, 828 ;
popular feeling in, about Eastern
Question, 1854, 614 ; social state of,
601; and France, estrangement be-
tween, about Conspiracy to Murder
Bill, 682.

England, Ireland, and America, Cob-
den’s first pamphlet, 1835, 26 ; goes
through several editions, 1835, 42;
Cobden’s phlet on; the disad-
vantages ot the English manufacturer,
100. 4

English policy in 1793, 598 ; politics,
tone of, 913,

Europe, state of, Cobden on, 1860,
818, 819.

Evarts, Mr., 879.

Examiner, 578.
Exchange, free, Cobden’s remedy,
297.

Exhibition, Great, opening of the,
1851, 556.

Factory legislation, 299; Bill, Sir
James Graham’s, withdrawal of;
reintroduction, clauses of, 300;
question, part of great struggle,

- 301,

Famine, Cotton, 866.

Farmers, tenant, distressed state of,
815; account of, 321.

Farnham, William Cobden removes to,
in 1827; association of, with Swift
and Cobbett, 14.

Faucher, Léon, 422,

Ferrand, Mr., violent attack of, on
Cobden, 224,

Finlay on the Pacifico affair, 536.

Fitzgerald, Seymour, 930.

Fitzwilliam, Lord, 251.

Florence, Cobden at, 419,

“Florida” affair, 460,

Fonblanque, 136.

Fooah, Cobden at, 64.

nee Office, procrastination of, 1860,

88.

Forfar, Oobden at, 286.

Fort Brothers and Co. aid Cobden in
pee lieing his business, 1828,
16,

Fortescue, Lord and Lady, 385,

 

GLA
Foster, George, Cobden’s partner at
Sabden, a Liberal of finest type, 22,

23.

Fould, Achille, 713.

Fould, M., 744.

Fox, Charles James, and the League,
307, 403, 600.

Fox, George 520, 595, 605.

France, Cobden’s first visit to, 1833,
27; scarcely any railways and no
penny postage in, 1846, 311; sus-
pends specie payment, 483, 533 ;
social state of, 601; and America,
1864, 877; Free Trade in, 912.

Frankfort, Peace Congress at, 545.

Freemasons’ Tavern, 268.

Free Trade, banquet to supporters
of, Manchester, 1839, 146; original
development of, 239; charter of,
Imports Committee Report, 236;
related to all questions of condition
of people, 281, 521, 533; bearings
of, 808.

French diplomatic conspiracy, 539.

French empire, 593.

French tariff, debdte on, in the House,
752; nature of, 755,

French treaty, resistance to, 729;
signed, Jan, 29, 1867, 730.

Fuggers, the, 946.

GARIBALDI, visit of, to London, 911.

Gazette, the, 583.

Genoa, F. Cobden at, 1847, 425.

Germanism in English Court, 769.

Germany, Cobden starts for, in Aug.
1838; acquires information about
Corn Laws, 128; society in, Cobden’s
account of, 132, 533.

Gibraltar, Cobden’s visit to, and de-
scription of, 45-47; Cobden’s views
on the retention of, 106.

Gibson, 577; returned for Manchester,
582; defeated at Manchester, 1857,
657; beats Lord Palmerston on his
Conspiracy to Murder Bill, Feb. 20,
1857, 682, 924,

Girardin, Emile de, Cobden dines with;
725, 763.

Gladstone, Mr., revision of the
tariff, 238, 257; Free Trade,
284; opinion of League, 294; views
as to the Maynooth Grant, 326;
resigns the office of President of
the Board of Trade, 1845, 326,
537, 924; description of inter-
ference, 539, 580, 585 ; budget, 1858,
INDEX

GouU
606, 640, 699, 717, 720; speech on

Treaty of Oommerce with France,
751 ; ition, 1860, 771, 772;
Free e, 800; French Treaty,

1860, 809 ; The Three Panics, 840.

Goulburn, Mr., 580.

Government, British, increased ex-
penditure on armaments, 470; in-
tervention of, in foreign affairs, 1847,
470; propose an increase in the in-
come-tax, ignominiously withdrawn,
496; defeated on the bill to lower the
county franchise to 10J., 551; and
Denmark, 913.

Graham, Lord, 579.

Graham, Sir James, speech of, against
Mr, Villiers’ motion, Mar. 15, 1839,
157; Factory Bill, 1844; its with-
drawal ; reintroduction; clauses of,
300; -on renewed agitation after
Peel’s resignation, 1845, 340; de-
clines office, 1846, 403, 537.

Granville, Lord, attempts to form a
ministry, 690, 782.

Greece, the King and Queen uf, 82;
Cobden in, 1837, 81-85, 536.

Grenville, Lord, 598.

Grey, Lord, the cause of Lord John
BRussell’s inability to form # minie-
try, 1845, 345, 461.

Grote, Cobden’s estimate of, 186,
137.

Guardian, Manchester, 42.

Guizot, M., 147.

Gurney, Mr., 519, 595.

Hatt, Sir Benjamin, 332.

Hamburg, 463.

Hampshire, New, 5265.

Hampton Court Gardens, 386.

Hartington, Lord, 690.

Haydon, 622.

Haynau, General, 547.

Henley’s, Lady, bequest, 295.

Henley, Mr., 689.

Herbert, Sidney, 318; declines office,
1846, 403, 580, 585.

Herbert paints a picture of the Coun-
cil of the League, 387.

Hertford, Cobden speaks at, 273.

Heyshott, hamlet near Midhurst, 1.

Hill, Rowland, 791.

History of the Netherlands, Motley’s,
942,

Holland, 533.
Household S e and Gorn Laws,
effect of, on ies, 347.

 

977

KEM

Howick, Lord, 827; on the Queen’s
speech, 257.

Hull, Cobden at, 288.

Humboldt, Baron von, and Cobden at
Berlin, 448.

Hume, David, 483.

Hume, Deacon, 251.

Hume, Joseph, 244.

Hungary, 535.

Huskisson, 405; legislation of, 1823-
25, 163, 164, 728.

Iturnois Central Railway, Cobden’s
investments in, and anxieties about,
685, 686.

Illustrated Weekly News, 578.

Tlyssus, 478.

Import Duties, Report of Committee
on, and Peel, 234.

Income Tax, Tories and the, 241.

. India, Cobden on government of, 1857,

670; demoralizes England, 671;
hopelessness of our rule in, 824.

India, West, sugar growers, 283.

Indian Mutiny, 669.

International law, 915.

Intervention, the policy of, Oobden dia-
cuszes in his ‘‘ Russia” pamphlet,
101, 109; extravagance of, 109.

Inverness, Duchess of, 385.

Ireland, first visit of Cobden to, Oct.
21, 1825; description of peasantry,
11; failure of potato crop in, 1844;
duties on corn in, 837; views on,
in a letter to George Combe, 488;
mismanagement of, 552.

Irish yote indispensable to the Whig
Ministry since the Reform Bill,
542,

Tron, duty on, 449.

Italian statesmen, 419.

Italy, landed property in, 1847, 426;
and Austria, 737-740.

Jamxs, G. P. R., advocates protection
at Canterbury, 272.

Jameson, Mrs., 432.

Jeffery and Cobden, 1826, 13.

Johnson, Dr., 606.

Journalism, Cobden’s view of, 903.

Journalists, Cobden makes acquainv-
ance of some, 1837, 135.

KaLaMAKI, in Gulf of Corinth, Cobden
arrives at, 82.

Kay, Mr., 517.

Kemp, Mr., 921,

3k
978

KEN

Kendal, Cobden at, 285.

Keppell, Captain, 519.

Kinglake, Mr., 104, 621.

Kingston, Cobden at, 386.

Klapka, General, 547, 713.

Kossuth, 529; comes to England,
speech at Winchester, 564; and
Bright, 568; indignation with re-
gard to the Blue Book on the Hun-
garian struggle, 570.

Ktbeck, Baron, Cobden meets, at
Vienna, 448.

Kuhne, M., Cobden visits, ab Berlin,
447.

Lazove legislation, 808, 465-468 ;
difficulty in obtaining, 470.

Lafitte, M., 782.

Lakes, Italian, 439,

Lancashire calico printers’ agitation
against heavy duties, 1825 - 1830;
duty taken off, 1831, 18, 19; Char-
tist disturbances in, 1838, 126; men
of, and bread tax, 1838, beginning
of struggle, 141, 521, 522,

Lancashire, South, 522.

Land, transfer of, 679.

Lansdowne, Lord, 385.

Lattimore, Mr., 273, 317.

Law, International, 915.

Law, International Maritime, 838-
844. :

Lawrence, Mr., 100.

League, idea of the, 147; Anti-Corn-
Law, organization of, March, 1839,
149; lectures of, 153; vilified in
Press, 155 ; attitude of, during elec-
tions of 1841, 172; tactics of, during
elections of 1841, 178, 174; the
two great spokesmen of, 198; as a
theme for popular agitation, 195;
moral triumph of, 211; organ of,
212; delegates from, at House of
Commons, 218; disappointment of,
227; Cobden’s advice to, 228; and
Peel’s tariff, 289; Cobden speaks
to, 248; and the workmen, 249;
increased expense, 250; funds
of, 250; not credited with all its
work, 251; renewed activity of,
251; and Scotland, 252; reception
of League in Scotland, 255; threat-
ened proceedings against, 256;
meetings to protest against the
bad treatment of Cobden, 265; the
enemies of, on Cobden, 265; meet-
ing in Drury Lane Theatre, 268;

 

INDEX

LUB

victory at Oolchester, 278; Mr.
Bright on work of, Oct., 1843, 279;
national education and, 281; and
emigration, 282; in Scotland, 2865-
288 ; in Midland counties, 288 ; new
organ, 291; abuse of, by Ferrand,
&e., 293; account of the subscrip-
tion, 312; change of tactics, 1845,
314 ; object, clearly and intelligibly
established, 316; great meeting
at Manchester, Dec., 1845, 340;
vsperations of, 351; money, and
gain in counties by influence,
362; isolation the true policy
1846, 363; final meeting, 404;
its work, 406; secret of its power,
406; voted a present of 10,0007.
to Mr. G. Wilson, 1846, 413; dis-
cussion, on a joint testimonial to
Cobden, Bright, and Villiers, 413;
great meeting at Manchester, 585.

League, establishment of, 292; the
organ of the Free Traders, the con-
duct of, 212.

Lecturers, the League sends, to the
country, 1889, 153; ill reception
of, in country, 153, 154; reports of,
on their experiences lends fresh
hope to Leaguers, 156; at work in
country, 210, 211.

Leeds, 520, 529; Cobden at, 542.

Lewis, Mr., of Regent Street, advances
Cobden capital for a business, in
1828, 16.

Lewis, Sir George, and the Corn
Laws, 271; on Crimean war, 633.
L’Huys, Drouyn de, 762; notes to

Prussia, 635.

Liddell, Mr., speech on the debate of
Feb. 3, 1848, 267.

ea President, 416 ; character of,

46.

Lindsay, W. S., conversation with
Oobden about American railways
685 ; Oobden no speculator, 686.

Little, Captain, 452.

Liverpool Financial Reform Associa-
tion initiate the League, 496.

Lombardy, cession of, 735, 745, 746.

London Tavern, 530.

Lothian, Kast, farmers of, 285.

Louis Philippe, conversation with
Oobden, 1846, 418; interview of
oo with, conversation, &c.,
421.

Lubeck, journey to, from St. Peters-
burg, Sept. 29, 1841, 461.
INDEX

MAO

MaoavLay, Lord, 8, 16; congratu-
lates Cobden, 382, 699.

Magne, M., 721, 727.

Mallet, Mr. Louis, sent on a commis-
sion to France, 754, 806.

Malta, visit of Cobden to, 48;
opinions of Cobden about, as a
naval station, 86; leaves, April 4,
1837, 87. .

M‘Naghten, Daniel, the assassin of Mr.
Drummond, 256.

Manchester, Cobden’s early enthusiasm
for, 19; growth of, 22; the growth
of, from 1815 to 1882, 98; partiesin,
during struggle for charter, 124;
Germany contrasted with, 135; in-
tolerance of, 138; received char-
ter of incorporation, 1838, 139;
head-quarters of Anti-Corn-Law
League, 149; country in debt to,
251; meeting at, of 8000 people,
265; meeting at, 280; Free
Trader returned for, 1843, 290;
a meeting held in the great hall in
commemoration of the expiration of
duty on corn, Jan. 31, 1849, 504;
521,522; Free Trade Hall of, 525, 529 ;
Cobden at, 549, 568, 575; Newall’s
Buildings, 576 ; great meeting of the
League at, 585 ; 604.

Manchester Examiner, 520.

Manchester Guardian, 42, 570; and
the Kossuth demonstration, 571.

Manchester School, policy of, on the
Crimean War, 1854, 615; defeat
of, at elections, 1857, 657.

Mantua, fortress of, 735.

Manufacturers, country party and,
225.

Maritime Law, 843, 859; proposed
changes in, 839.

Markets, regulation of, by legislation,
298. :

Marlborough, 584.

Marshall, Mr., 542.

Martineau, Miss, 351.

Massacres, Syrian, French interven-
tion, 822.

Maule, Fox, 253.

Maynooth Grant, second reading car-
ried by a majority of 147, 1845,
326.

Wedici, the, 946.

Mehemet Ali, Cobden describes his
reception by, and interview with, at
Oairo, Dec, 1836, 60, 61; his de-
scription of, 62, 63; his conversa-

 

979

MUN

tion, 64; Cobden’s second interview

with, Dec. 26, 1886, 65; Cobden’s

opinions of, 66.

its bourns, Lord, Municipal Reform
Act of, 122; cabinet of, want of
fiscal ‘skill, 168; budget of, 1841,
169; defeat. of his ministry, appeals
to the country, 1841, 172; resigna-
tion of, Aug. 28, 1841, 177.

Men-of-war, English, the carriers of
royalty, 82.

Mercury, the, 560.

Mérimée Prosper, opinion of Cobden,
198, 940.

Mersey, 692.
Methuen treaty, 1758, 804.
Metternich, Prince, 442, 443, 784;

interview with Oobden, Austria,
Italy, and Venetia, 1860, 737-740.

Meyendorff, Baron Alexander, 454;
views on protection in Russia,.
456,

Midhurst, the scenery about ; birth--
place of Cobden, 1, 2; description.
of, 469.

Milan, Cobden at, 438.

Mill, J. Stuart, 925, 948.

Millingen, Dr., Cobden visited by,
at Smyrna, 76.

Milnes, Monckton, 386, 708.

Ministerial proposals for parliamentary
reform, 555.

Ministers, great meeting of, of all re-
ligions, in Manchester, 178, 179.

Mines and Collieries Act, 299.

Mocquard, M., 722.

Moffatt, Mr., 878; at his death-bed,

936.

Molesworth, Sir W., Cobden meets,
187 ; represented philosophic radi-
ealism in the cabinet, 591.

Molesworth and Cobden, 624.

Moniteur, the, 317, 727, 781.

Moore, Mr., 275.

Morning Post calumniates the League,
155, 278.

Morning Star, the, 637.

Montpensier, Duke of, 418.

aaron 7 ie a
orpeth, , 3885; congratulates
Cobden, 382.

Moscow, returns to, 455.

Mosley, Sir Oswald, 123.

Movement, Peace; misrepresentation
of, 609.

Muir, Mr., 52.

Mundy, Captain, 519.
980

MUN

Municipal Reform Act passed, 1885,
by Lord Melbourne, complement to
Reform Act, 122.

Muntz, Mr., death of, 1857, 662,

Murchison, Sir Roderick, invites Cob-
den to St. Petersburg, 408.

Mutiny, Indian, Cobden on, 1857,
670-672,

Nantes, Edict of, 246, 717.

Napier, Sir George, 423.

Naples, Cobden at, 4386; king of,
528,

Napoleon, 597.

Napoleon, Louis, 386, 601; and
Free Trade, 709; reasons for assent-
ing to the treaty, 720; wishes to
submit the draft of the treaty to the

islative Body, 727; Cobden’s
audience with, 1860, 745, 746;
French treaty, 774; Cobden’s con-
versation with, French treaty, 1860,
816; writings of, 790; Cobden’s
last interview with, 831.

Napoleon, Prince, complains of Lord
Palmerston’s fortification speech,
782.

Napoleonic Devnd 608,

Narbonne, Cobden at, 423,

Navigation laws follow the
Taws, 480,

Nelson, 188, 597, 600.

Nesselrode, Count, 451.

Newcastle, Cobden at, 287.

Neweastle Journal, the, 272.

Newman, Dr., 91.

New York, 931.
iagara, Cobden’s
1835, 35-37.

Nice, Cobden at,
of, to France, 742.

Nile, Cobden sails up, Dec. 4, 1836;
scenery of, 55.

Nishni Novogorod, description of,
Aug. 27, 1847, 453, 454,

Nonconformists, Crimean War, 619.

Normanby, Lord, 385.

North, Lord, 403,

Northern counties, between 4000 and
5000 electors added to, 1845, 306.

Northern Star, the, 584.

Norwich, 278, 596.

Nottingham, 245.

Novello, Olara, 760,

Corn

description of,

424; annexation

‘O*OonNELL, 420; rouses Ireland by
the cry of Repeal, 270, 87, 454.

 

INDEX

PAM

Ogilvie, B. A., sent on a commission

5 to France, ES ie
pinion, popular, misgivings of, about
obden and Bright, 625.

Orleanists, the, 761.

Osborn, Mr., chairman of Illinois rail-
way, visits Cobden at Dunford,
1858, 686,

Oxford, Cobden, 1858, 608; Cobden
visits, 611.

PaDIHAM, 24,

Palmerston, Lord, 148, 358, 530,
536, 540, 556, 565, 568, 580, 588,
590, 592, 634, 690, 718, 717, 727,
982; substituted for Lord Aber-
deen, 1847, 470; his policy with re-
gard to Portugal, 476; account
of his political life, 527; and the
Spanish Government, 528; failure

his policy, 528; foreign policy
approved of by a majority of 46,
539; and the Queen, 572; carries an
amendment on the Militia Bill, 573;
and the invasion panic, 592; East-
ern Question, 612; Prime Minister,
1855, 614; Eastern policy, 616
concentration of war at Sebastopol,
616; Russian War policy, and Cob-
den’s, 617; presides at Napier’s
banquet, 617; flippancy towards
Cobden and Bright, 618 ; durability
of Ministry, 1855, 625; resigns, de-
feated on Cobden’s motion, 1857,
655 ; victory of, 1857, 657 ; defeat of,
on Conspiracy to Murder Bill, Feb.
20, 1858, 682; distrust of France,
769 ; French treaty, 1860, 776; speech
on aggressive France, 779; offers
Baronetcy or Privy Councillorship
to Cobden, March 26, 1861, 796;
luck of, 863; statement on Schles-
wig-Holstein affair, June 27, 1864,
906; humiliating position: of, 907;
on the death of Cobden, 937; Cob-
den battles with, 941.

Palmerston, Lady, 697.

Pamphlets, the two, written by Cob-
den, consideration of, 89; Oob-
den’s, their application to English
policy, 95 ; consideration of Cobden’s
rst, 97-112; Cobden’s, on Russia,
101. ‘*Few Observations on In-
vasion,” 594; ‘Brief S stiong
for a Reserve Force,” 594; ‘Short
Notes on National Defence,” 594;
‘Plain Proposala for a Maritime
INDEX

PAN
Militia,” 594; ‘(1792 and 1858,”
597; ‘Thoughts on the Peril of
Portsmouth,” 594.
Panics, The Three, 612, 776.
Papal aggression, account of the,
41

Paris, Peace Congress held there in
1849, 510; treaty of, 643.

Parkes, Joseph, of Birmingham, 138.

Parliament of 1841, 7; dissolution
of, 173; feeling of, 296; scene in the
House of Commons on the Corn Law
agitation, 257 ; question in, of 1843,
283; proceedings, in 1846, 363;
meets, Nov. 4, 1852, 585; meets,
June 7, 1859, 690.

Parties, political, 1830, 1841, 167;
state of, 1846, 356.

Partridge and Price, Cobden enters
warehouse of, in 1828, 15.

Paschal, Captain, anecdote of a, Feb.,
1826, 12.

Pasha, Suleiman, 306.

Passports, abolition of, 791.

Paulton, Mr., 921, 936.

Peace movement and Free Trade,
230.

Peace movement, misrepresentation
- of, 609.

Peace Society, 520.

Peel’s, Sir Robert, speech on Corn
Law agitation, March 18, 1839,
150; views of, on corn question,
181, 182; advance in his opinion
on corn laws, 170; proposals to
his cabinet, 1842, 216; proposals
unsatisfactory to League, 219, 220 ;
roposal an insult to ig 3 effi
Farmed, 221; a Free er, 237 ;
position of, 287; budget of, 1842,
237; Cobden’s impression of, 241 ;
Cobden thinks him willing to listen,
242; Cobden a thorn in his side,
243;  Oobden meets arguments,
244; replies to Cobden, 246; per-
oration of his speech in answer
to Cobden, 259; his character, 260 ;
accepts Oobden’s explanation, 261 ;
unfavourable criticism of the Tories
in Oxford, 264; says repeal not
wanted, 292; a trimmer, 293 ; cabinet
summoned after Edinburgh letter,
1845, 339; goes to Windsor after Lord
John Russell’s failure to form minis-
try, 346 ; champion of Protestantism,
repealer of Test and Corporation
Acts, 347; and his party, 1845,

 

981

PHR
347; inconsistencies, 348 ; speeches
in vindication of Free Trade policy,
349; Bill, first reading of, 1846, great
majority of Free ers, 857; ad-
vises his followers to grant the Game
Law Committee, 316 ; proposes lower
prices, 8322; dislike of Mr. Disraeli’s
character, 324 ; introduces the grant
to the Catholic College at Maynooth,
326 ; resignation of, after Edinburgh
letter, Dec. 5, 1845, 8340; withdraws
his resignation, Dec. 20, 1845, 346 ;
his position with his party, 1845,
347 ; conversion to Free Trade prin-
ciples, 349; League and, 350; re-
conciliation of, to Cobden, 353; ex-
planet regarding Cobden, 1846;
obden’s expression of regret, 354 ;
followers of, 356; no conception of
intense feeling about Free Trade,
1846, 357 ; autumn of 1845 turning-
int in career of, 357; position,
culties ef, 359 ; ministry, doom
of, 359; an earnest convert, 366;
speech on the necessity of ‘a new
commercial system, Jan. 22, 1846,
874; announces his resignation in a
Temarkable speech, June 29, 1846,
888 ; all letters carefully preserved,
391; reply, June 24, 1846, to Cob-
den’s letter of June 23, 1846, 397-
401; speech on his commercial
policy 1848, 479, 535, 537, 538; death
of, 641, 588, 593, 606, 704, 712;
and commercial treaty with France,
823 ; sober politics of, 800.
Peelites in favour of non-intervention,
614,
Pekin, English ambassador at, 846.
People’s budget, an outline sketched
by Cobden, 498, 499.
Perkins, Mr., Cobden visited by, at
Smyrna, 7

» 76.

Perpignan, Cobden at, 428,

Persigny, M. de, on commercial reform
in France, 718; and the state of
opinion in England, 719; on the
empire, 763 ; lomatio difficulties
in England, 783; abolition of pass-
port question, 791.

Perth, Cobden at, 286.

Peschiera, fortress of, 735.

Petitti, Count, 438.

‘* Peveril of the Peak” coach, 15.

Philanthropists, Cobden’s attacks on
the, 185, 187.

Phrenology. See Combe, George.
982

PHR

Phrenologist, The, play written by
Cobden, 26.

Piedmont, 746.

Pireus, fleet despatched to, 536.

Pitt, Cobden contrasts, with Lord
Palmerston, 795 ; commercial treaty
with France, 1786, 805.

Polish insurrection, 1863, 868.

Political changes, 1853, 612.

Political life, condition of, 815.

Political torpor, 1863, 881.

Ponsonby, Lord, 76.

Poor, rural, condition of, 157.

Pope and Free Trade, 433; receives
Cota, conversation with him, 1847,

33

433.

Portpatrick, Cobden goes to, Feb.,
1826, 12.

Portsmouth, fortifications of, 875.

Ports not to be open until 1849, 355.

Portugal, 537.

Post, Morning, calumniates League,
155, 278.

Potsdam, Cobden goes to, drives with
King, 447.

Press, hostilities in the, 1839, 155.

Price Partridge and, Cobden enters
warehouse of, 1826, 15.

Privateering, 882.

Protection, petition for, 356.

Protectionists, anger of, after first
reading of Peel’s Repeal Bill,
358; led by Mr. Disraeli after
the death of Lord George Bentinck
in 1848, 479; do not accept defeat
till 1852, 479; im office, 572-
591; disfavour of the budget with,

606.
‘* Provincial Letters” of Pascal, 311.
Prussia, the treasurer of the Zollverein ;
Gel power of, 1838, 129; Cob-
en’s views on the government of,
2 3 exportation of corn from, 440,
598.
ee opinion, excitement of, 1852,
4.

Pulsky, 570.

Punch, cartoon of Cobden, 343,
Pusey, Dr., 91.

Pyramids, Cobden’s description of, 55.

Quakers and peace movement, 609,

Quarterly Review, the, 255,

Quay Street, Manchester, residence of
Cobden in, 158.

ee the, and Lord Palmerston,

 

INDEX

R 10.

ADIOAL , 610.

Radical tee Mr. Mill and, 91.

Radicalism, economic, and the new
Cabinet, 591.

Radicals, blunders of, their character-
istics, 126; and Orimean War,
619.

m, 579.

ap parliamentary, proposals for,

55.

Reform Act, the, of 1832, 249; in-
fluence of, on society, 89, 90; rest-
lessness, mental activity after, and
wishes for social regeneration, 91.

Reform Bill, Disraeli’s, 689.

Reform Club, opinion of Oobden,
243,

Reform, French Parliamentary, 417.

Register, great difference to Cobden’s
party by improvement of, 304.

Repeal, petition for, 856; publie
opinion of, 357.

Revel, Count, 437.

Revolution, omens of, in Paris, 1846,
417.

Ricardo, 268 ; free trader, 800.

Richmond, Duke of, 384.

Ridgway, 606.

Riga, Cobden goes to, 451.

Rochdale, 689 ; deputation from, 698 ;
speech at, 919.

Roebuck, 136, 244; Cobden thinks
him ‘‘a clever fellow,” 137 ; Cobden’s
estimate of, as Free Trader, 181 ;
speech on the League, Feb. 17, 1843,
261, 947.

Rogers, Thorold, 921.

Romagna, 735.

Heme Cobden at, Jan., 1847, 427-

Rosario Villa, Cobden’s Maltese guide,
1836, 48,

Rossi, Count, 484.

Rossini, 760.

Rouher, M., 707, 716, 726, 748, 759,
767, 781; signs the French treaty,
730; Lord Palmerston’s fortification
speech, 781; French treaty, 785;
French navy, 832.

Russell, Lord Charles, 275.

Russell, Lord John, 148; moves te
establish a fixed duty on wheat,
May 7, 1841, 170; speech, Feb, 17,
1848, 260; introduces nine resolu-
tions with a view to improving the
working class, 316; supports the
Maynooth Grant, 326 ; famous letter
INDEX

80G

of, on duty of the Government, 1845,
338 ; comes round to Cobden’s pro-
gramme, 339 ; Queen sends for, Deo.,
1845, 343; unable to form Ministry,
Dec. 19, 1845, 345; offers Cobden
(prospectively) Vice-Presidency of
Board of Trade, Dec. 19, 1845, 844;
attempts to form Government, 1845,
345 ; and Irish Coercion Bill, 360;
and Peel, difference between, as
statesmen, 366 ; offers posts to three
of Peel’s colleagues, 403; letter to
Cobden, July 2, 1846, reasons for
not asking him to join the Cabinet,
403; offers Mr. Gibson the Vice-
Presidency of the Board of Trade,
404, and the Papal aggression,
541; resigns, Feb, 22, 1851, 551;
his Durham letter, 558, 573, 579,
588; brings in another Militia Bill,
593; Eastern Question, 613, and
Lord Palmerston, riva between,
614 ; resignation of, 615, 724 ; brings
in a Reform Bill, 768, 770; arma-
ments, 777.

Russia, Cobden’s first pamphlet on,
1836, 41; Cobden’s pamphlet on,
advocates non-interference between
Russia and Turkey, 101; Poland
and; false ideas of Russian power,
102; power of, 1847, Cobden’s opi-
nion, 426, 531, 535, 566,

Rye, meeting at, 276.

SaspEn, Cobden’s firm takes factory
at, 1829, 19; Cobden’s interest in
public affairs at, 1832, 22, 23,

Sacchi, Signor, G., 438.

Salevi, Signor, 489.

Salisbury, Cobden at, 277. :

Savoy question, 743; annexation of,
768, 824.

Say, Horace, 422,

Scheffer, Ary, studies of, 760,

Scheldt, the 598.

Schleswig-Holstein, 904; Lord Palmer-
ston on, 906,

Schneider, M., 758.

Schofield, Mr., 542.

Scialoja, Signor, 437.

Scio, massaore in island of, 68, 69.

Scotland and the League, 252;
people of, enthusiastic about the
outgoing of Chalmers from the Esta-
blichment, 270, 542.

Scott, Sir Walter, and Cobden, 1826,
13, 598.

 

983

STR

Sebastopol committee, 615.

Sectarian organ, inconvenience of a,
849.

Session of 1846, opening of, 355.

Sharpe, Mr., stays with, 514.

Sheffield, 520.

Shelburne, Lord, the precursor ot
Cobden’s school; his enthusiasm
for Free Trade and peace, 110.

Shrewsbury, Cobden’s first business
journey to, Oct. 21, 18265, 8.

Silesia, 449,

Slagg, Mr., 750, 940.

Smith, Adam, 110, 920.

a salen, 927, 940. i

myrna, Cobden’s voya; to, 5
TBs visiting at, 7a) Feb, 1837,
markets, 75 ; conversation with Mr.
Perkins on Trade, 76, 77.

Socialism, principles of, applied in
England, 303; English ite of,
303.

Somerville, Mr., 519,

Southampton, banquet at, 564.

Spain, 537.

Spanish Government and Lord Palmer-
ston, 528,

Spectator, the, 386, 578,

Staffordshire, miners of, 245.

Stamford, disturbances at, 154.

Standard, the, 606.

Stanley, Lord, 217, 257, 341, 384;
withdraws from Peel’s Cabinet,
Dec., 1845, 346; and protectionists,
357, 548,

Star newspaper, 849.

Statistics of agitation, 290, 291.

Stephenson, 946,

Stettin, Cobden goes to, 449.

Stockport, Cobden’s name before peo-
ple of, 1837, 113; Cobden a candi-

late for, defeated, 1837, 116; eleo-

tion for, 1841, 176.

Stoke, potters of, 245.

Stone, Mr., 373.

Stourbridge, glass-cutters of, 245.

St. Petersburg, Cobden goes to,
451; account of his visit to, 457-
461,

Struggle, the, a paper issued in
Preston, description of, 213.

Sturge, Mr., 637.

Subscription to Cobden, 1860, 750.

Sugar duties, Cobden attacks, 282;

est Indian, protection on, follows

Law (Act passed in 1848),

480.
984

sUM
Sumner, Oharles, 664.
Sussex, Cobden in, 1857, 660.
Sweden, 602.
Switzerland, Cobden’s first visit to,
1834, 27, 602.

Tart, W., 124-128.

Tamworth letter, 1847, 349.

Tariff, new, Peel’s, its principles, 238.

Tariff, French, revision of, 784;
delay in signing, 1860, 785; signed,
Nov. 16, 1860, 787; reception of, in
England, 793.

Tauroggen, Cobden at, 450.

Taylor, Mr., 516.

Tea-parties, meetings and, 252.

Telegraph, Daily, 849, 901.

Tellkampf, Prof., Cobden meets, 447.

Temperance movement, 522.

Ten Hours’ Bill becomes law, 1847,
303.

Tennyson, Mr., 637.

Testimonial, national, to Cobden, of
between 75,0002. and 80,000/7., 1846,
413.

Thackeray, Cobden nearly secures
services of, 214; a candidate for
Oxford, 665. .

Thiers, M., 728.

Thomasson, Mr., of Bolton, 595, 940;
assists Cobden; Illinois Central
shares, 687; aids Oobden by further
loans, 687 ; munificence of, 687.

Thompson, Colonel, 287.

Thomson, 0. P. (Lord Sydenham),
125, 1386.

Thouvenel, M., 780.

Thucydides and the Ztmes, 892.

Times, the, 255, 318; mocks at
League, 218 ; proposes total repeal,
Dec. 4, 1845, 342, 544, 565, 566,
567, 570, 594, 606, 932; and the
Kossuth demonstration, 571; De-
lane, editor of, 625, 631; war cor-
respondence of, 636; charge of,
against Mr. Bright, 887; contro-
versy, merits of, 899 ; policy of, 901.

Tocqueville on rights of secession,

849.
feeling of about Corn-

Tories, the
Laws, 227.

Townsend, Colonel, 452,

Tracts, Free-Trade, circulation of,
290.

‘Travenmunde, arrives at, 462,
Treaty, commercial, with France,
policy of, 799, 809; Mr. Disraeli,

 

INDEX

vos
801; Mr. Gladstone, 800, Question,
state of, 1843, 801; and free trade,
802; effected, 804; Pitt’s, 1786,
805 ; Cobden’s, peculiarity of, 805;
double operation of, 807; bottom
of, 807.

Treaty, the French, 701, 772, 775,
780; signed Oct. 12, 1860, 787.

“Trent ” affair, 850.

Trieste, 440; reception of Cobden at,
441.

Trinitarians, 296.

Troplong, M., 727.
ileries, 720.

Tunis and Port, American War, 858,

Turin, Cobden at, 437.

Turkey, Cobden in, 70-80; affairs
of, 612; debate on, 1863, Cobden
and, 867,

Turkish Question, the, 1861, 820

el Sir John, follower of Peel,
278,

UnitEp Starzs, Oobden’s visit to,
1885 ; his opinions about, 30-32.

Unitarians, 295.

Urquhart, Mr., the Secretary to Bri-
tish Legation at Constantinople,
account of, 76; his book the pro-
vovation of Cobden’s pamphlets,
101.

Usage, the great, as defined by King-
ans 104-106. -

Vrnick, Cobden’s eee es at, 40.

Venetia and Austria; Italy, 737-741.
Victoria, Queen, accession to throne,
1837, 113.
Vienna, Cobden at, dines with Prince
Metternich ; conversation with, 442,
Vienna Conference, 1855, 615.
Villafranca, peace of, 713, 735.
Villiers, 278, 804, 316; moves in
House of Commons that petitions
against the Corn Laws be referred to
a Committee of the whole House,
rejected, Feb. 18, 1889, 147, 148;
his annual motion on importation
of corn, Mar. 12, 1839, rejection of,
148; the leader in Parliament of
the agitation, 183; proposes that
there shall be no duty on corn,
Feb. 18, 1842, 222; annual motion
of, rejection, 1844, 293; proposal
that repeal be immediate, lost, Mar.,
1846, 368 ; declines office, 1846, 404.
Vostizza, 84.
INDEX

WAG

“‘Waass, in 1847, 469.

Wakley, 918. .

Wales, visit to, and description of,
407 ; Cobden in, 649.

‘Walewski, Count, 720, 724, 726.

Wallace, Mr., 248.

Walmsley, 521.

War of Independence,
account of, 529.

War of 1793, 598.

War with Russia declared,
614,

Warren, Mr., 448.

Watt, 946.

Webster, Daniel, 33, 525.

Weekly Dispatch, the, 578.

Wellington Club, at, 592.

Wellington, Duke of, Corn Bill, his,
1828, 165, 584; death of, Sept.
14, 1852, 592, 602.

Westmeon, near Alton, Hampshire,
settlement at, by Cobden’s father,
1814, 8; poverty of home at, 6;
Cobden spends holiday at, Oct.
22, 1826, 13; Cobden’s lease for
‘Farnham, 1827, 14.

West Riding, Oobden elected for,
1847, 465; resolves not to stand
again for, 560.

Wheat, price of, Aug., 1888 ; increase
of pauperism, 144 ; prices of, 318.

Hungarian,

1854,

 

935

ZUR

Wheathampstead, 273,

Whig Ministry, fall of, 578.

Whigs, coldness of, for local self-
government, 125; defeat of, 1841,
171; distrust of, 289; and Free
Traders, 341; attitude of, 361; as
Free Traders, 363.

Whiting, Mr., 878.

Whitworth’s, Mr., guns, 747.

William IV., death of, June 20, 1837,
113.

Williams, Catherine Anne, Cobden
marries, May, 1840, 160,

Willis’s Rooms, 690.

Wilson, James, 291.

Winchester, Cobden at, 277.

Witts, the De, 946.

*“Wochusett” affair, 924. és

Women, rights of, 830.

Workers, fellow, of Oobden,
seemingly. ignored, 191.

Working men of London, address,
56R,

why

YEOVIL, glovers of; 245,
Yosemite valley, 880.

ZOLLVEREIN, Cobden’s
effect of, 129, 806,
Zurich, treaties of, 785.

opinion of

THE END.
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Edinburgh