Skip to main content

Full text of "Richard Cobden, the apostle of free trade : His political career and public services. A biography"

See other formats 


to 


of  tbe 

of  Toronto 


THE  APOSTLE  OF  FREE  TRADE. 

HIS  POLITICAL  CAREER  AND  PUBLIC  SERVICES. 

A    BIOGRAPHY. 
BY  JOHN  MCGILCHRIST, 

APTHOR  OF  "THE  LIFE  OP  LORD  DUNDOXALD,"  "MEN  WHO  HAVE  MADE 
THEMSELVES,"  ETC. 


BIRTHPLACE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEX 


NEW    YORK: 

HARPER  &  BROTHERS,  PUBLISHERS, 

FRANKLIN     SQUARE. 
1865. 


53  fc 


TO  THE  PEOPLE 

OF 

ENGLAND,  FRANCE,  AMERICA, 

AND 

THE  INDUSTRIAL  WORLD  AT  LARGE, 

THIS  HUMBLE  ATTEMPT  TO  DELINEATE  THE 

CHARACTER  AND  CAREER 

OF 

"THE    INTERNATIONAL   MAN" 

OF  THE  AGE, 


£0  3£Usj)ectfull2  lEe&fcatrtJ  fig 

THE  AUTHOR. 


PREFACE. 


THE  leading  purpose  which  the  Author  pro- 
posed to  himself  in  his  plan  of  this  work,  and 
which  he  has  faithfully  carried  out  in  its  exe- 
cution, was  to  tell  the  story  of  Mr.  Cobden's  life 
and  patriotic  and  philanthropic  public  services, 
as  far  as  possible,  in  the  very  words  of  the  sub- 
ject of  his  biography.  For  that  purpose,  every 
speech  made  by  Mr.  Cobden  within  the  walls  of 
Parliament,  and,  so  far  as  they  could  be  traced, 
every  utterance  of  his  delivered  elsewhere,  have 
been  carefully  perused.  And  the  principle  of 
selection  applied  to  the  citations  which  have 
been  chosen,  has  been  to  supply,  not  so  much 
(except  in  a  few  signal  cases)  the  finest  speci- 
mens of  Cobden's  oratory  as  the  passages  which 
are  most  autobiographical.  So  far  as  was  pos- 
sible, in  the  succeeding  pages  Cobden  has  been 
made  to  tell  the  story  of  his  own  life. 

The  Author  has  to  express  his  indebtedness 
for  much  information  and  insight  into  the  in- 
ner and  less  prominent  incidents  of  Mr.  Cob- 


viii  PREFACE. 

den's  life,  and  shades  of  his  character,  to  a  large 
number  of  gentlemen  who  stood  in  various  de- 
grees of  intimacy  to  the  great  Free  Trade  Apos- 
tle at  the  successive  epochs  of  his  career.  To 
specify  here  by  name  one  such  contributor  to 
whatever  value  this  book  may  possess,  without 
mentioning  all,  would  be  invidious.  The  Au- 
thor, therefore,  contents  himself  with  acknowl- 
edging in  general  terms  his  equal  obligations 
to  many  kind  assistants  in  his  labor  of  love. 
Turning  to  published  works,  out  of  very  many 
which  have  been  consulted,  Miss  Martineau's 
"History  of  the  Thirty  Years'  Peace,"  Mr.  Pren- 
tice's "History  of  the  Anti-Corn-Law  League," 
and  the  Eeverend  Henry  Eichard's  "  Life  of  Jo- 
seph Sturge,"  are  among  the  mines  from  which 
the  Author  has  drawn  most  largely.  A  copi- 
ous Index  is  appended,  in  which  it  has  been  en- 
deavored to  give  a  ready  clew  to  the  opinions 
held  by  Mr.  Cobden  on  all  public  questions, 
and  to  group  around  him  his  associates,  wheth- 
er those  who  were  well  known  or  those  who 
were  less  conspicuous. 

It  is  hoped  that  such  a  book,  at  a  period 
when  the  recent  political  stagnation  seems  in  a 
degree  to  be  passing  away,  may  be  of  some  ben- 
efit to  the  thoughtful  reader.  Although  not 
written  expressly  for  young  people,  if  there  has 


PREFACE.  ix 

been  a  leading  feeling  in  the  Author's  mind 
during  its  preparation,  it  has  been  that,  if  his 
book  could  serve  in  any  degree  to  induce  some 
members  of  the  rising  manhood  of  the  empire 
to  imbibe  the  contagion  of  that  high  ideal  of 
the  duties  of  citizenship  which  was  Cobden's 
great  inspiration,  he  would  at  once  have  laid  a 
not  unworthy  chaplet  on  Cobden's  tomb,  and, 
after  a  humble  sort,  continued  Cobden's  great 
work,  by  enlisting  recruits  for  that  army  of 
progress  of  which  he  was  the  chief  leader  in 
our  days. 

Our  vignette,  representing  Cobden's  birth- 
place ere  it  was  altered  and  extended,  is  taken 
from  an  early  volume  of  the  "Illustrated  Lon- 
don News,"  to  the  proprietors  of  which  histor- 
ically valuable  journal  we  have  to  tender  our 
best  thanks  for  permission  to  reproduce  it. 


CONTENTS, 


CHAPTER  PAG* 

I.    EARLY    DATS  13 

II.    FIRST  PERIOD  OF  THE  ANTI-CORN-LAW  AGITATION  26 

III.  FORMATION  OF  THE   LEAGUE 49 

IV.  COBDEN   ENTERS   PARLIAMENT 60 

V.    PROGRESS   OF  THE   FREE-TRADE   AGITATION.    82 

VI.    THE    VICTORY   OF    THE    LEAGUE 117 

VII.    FACTORY  LEGISLATION. — THE   TEN-HOURS'  BILL...  139 

VIII.    PEACE,  RETRENCHMENT,  AND    REFORM 150 

IX.    THE    LAST   OF    THE    PEACE    SOCIETY  CONFERENCES  171 

X.    PERIOD   OF    THE    CRIMEAN    WAR 185 

XI.    THE    CHINA    WAR,  AND    THE    FRENCH   TREATY 207 

XII.    LAST   YEARS   IN   PARLIAMENT 226 

XIII.  LAST    DAYS,  AND    DEATH 24G 

XIV.  TRIBUTES    TO    MR.  COBDEN'S    MEMORY  AND   MERITS  262 
XV.    THE    GRAVE 285 

INDEX...                                                                                                  ..  297 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


i.   PORTRAIT  OF  MR.  COBDEN Frontispiece. 

II.    THE   BIRTHPLACE   OF   MR.  COBDEN Vignette. 

PAGE 

III.  MIDHURST,  SUSSEX 116 

IV.  DUNFOUD  HOUSE  (AS  REBUILT  ON  THE  SITE  OF  HIS 

BIRTHPLACE),  MR.  COBDEN'S  RESIDENCE  DURING 
THE  LATTER  YEARS  OF  HIS  LIFE 152 

V.  WEST  LAVINGTON  CHURCH-TARD,  MR,  COBDEN'S  FI- 
NAL RESTING-PLACE 247 

[THE  SITE  OF  MB,  COBDEN'S  GRAVE  is  INDICATED  BY  A  CROSS, 

ERECTED  TO   MAKE    THE    GRAVE   OF   HIS    SON,  WHICH   WILL 
US  OBSERVED  TO   T11E   LEFT  OF   A   YEW-TREE.] 


LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN, 


CHAPTER  I. 

EARLY   DAYS. 

ONE  of  the  daily  London  newspapers,  in  its  re- 
port of  the  funeral  of  Mr.  Cobden,  thus  described 
the  general  character  of  the  locality  of  his  birth 
and  burial :  "  There  is  not,  perhaps,  a  lovelier 
part  of  England,  a  lovelier  country,  than  that  part 
of  Sussex  in  which  the  now  historic  village  of 
Midhurst  is  situated.  Hills  covered  with  foliage, 
valleys  bright  with  verdure  or  teeming  with  fer- 
tility, alternate  with  dark,  sombre-looking  heaths, 
sandy  patches,  and  trim,  silent,  old-fashioned  vil- 
lages, and  isolated  farm-houses  built  in  the  days 
of  the  Tudors."  All  authorities  whom  we  have 
consulted  bear  similar  testimony  to  the  beauteous 
old-woi'ld  character  of  the  neighborhood.  Even 
when  Gobbet,  in  his  "  Rural  Rides,"  strikes  into 
the  Weald  of  Sussex,  on  the  confines  of  the  west- 
ern portion  of  which  Midhurst  stands,  upon  a 
slight  eminence  above  the  River  Rother,  he  lays 
aside  his  customary  style  of  denunciation,  and 
thus  eulogizes  the  locality :  "  There  is  no  misery 


14  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

to  be  seen  here ;  I  have  seen  no  wretchedness  in 
Sussex ;  nothing  to  be  at  all  compared  to  that 
which  I  have  seen  in  other  parts ;  and  as  to  these 
villages  in  the  South  Downs,  they  are  beautiful 
to  behold.  There  is  an  appearance  of  comfort 
about  the  dwellings  ef  the  laborers  that  is  very 
pleasant  to  behold.  The  gardens  are  neat,  and 
full  of  vegetables  of  the  best  kinds.  I  saw  with 
great  delight  a  pig  at  almost  every  laborer's 
door." 

The  neighborhood  abounds  in  the  splendid  an- 
cestral residences  of  the  noble  and  untitled  fam- 
ilies of  Richmond,  Camoys,  Egmont,  the  Percies, 
the  Montagues,  and  the  Wyndhams ;  and  is  also 
thickly  studded  with  fine  old-timbered  farms  and 
manor-houses,  which  bespeak  the  woody  wealth 
of  the  ancient  oak  forests.  Many  old-descended 
yeomen's  families  are  preserved  ;  the  Entyknapps 
of  Pockford,  for  example,  hold  by  a  tenure  dating 
from  the  Saxon  times.  It  was  at  Cowdray,  the 
ancient  seat  of  the  Montagues,  now  a  picturesque 
ruin,  but  habitable  when  Dr.  Johnson  paid  a  visit 
to  it  from  Brighton,  that  that  sage  said  to  Bos- 
well,  "  Sir,  I  should  like  to  stay  here  four-and- 
twenty  hours.  We  see  here  how  our  ancestors 
lived."  Here,  nearly  two  centuries  before,  Queen 
Elizabeth  visited  the  great  Lord  Montague,  one 
of  her  heroes  of  the  Armada.  Here,  with  a  cross- 
bow, she  killed  three  or  four  deer  as  they  were 
driven  past  her  sylvan  bower;  the  Countess  of 


EARLY  DAYS.  15 

Kildare,  with  the  true  sagacity  of  the  Geraldines, 
taking  care  to  bring  down  only  one.  Verdley 
Castle,  which  lies  to  the  north  of  Midhurst,  was 
"  known,"  in  Carnden's  days,  "  only  to  those  that 
hunt  the  marten  cat." 

The  personal  associations  of  the  neighborhood 
are  not  less  interesting  and  seductive.  Otway 
was  born  at  Verdley ;  Charles  Fox  sat  for  Mid- 
hurst  before  Cobden  was  born ;  and  while  he  was 
yet  in  early  childhood,  Sir  Charles  Lyell  was  re- 
ceiving, at  the  grammar-school  of  the  quaint,  old- 
gabled  borough,  the  rudiments  of  his  education. 

At  the  farm-house  of  Dunford,  a  short  distance 
from  Midhurst,  and  a  view  of  which  forms  the 
subject  of  the  vignette  on  our  title-page,  Richard 
Cobden  first  drew  breath  on  the  3d  of  June,  1804. 
His  father  farmed  his  own  land,  a  holding  of  mod- 
erate extent.  He  had  been  for  a  short  time  res- 
ident in  Midhurst,  as  also  had  his  father  before 
him.  The  latter,  we  believe,  discharged  the  du- 
ties of  chief  magistrate  of  the  little  town.  In 
Midhurst,  Cobden  received  the  rudiments  of  his 
education.  The  grammar-school  where  he  was 
educated  at  one  time  enjoyed  a  high  reputation, 
but  its  endowment  being  no  more  than  nominal, 
we  believe  that  it  has  fallen  into  decay.  Within 
the  last  year  or  two  attempts  have  been  made  to 
reinstate  it  in  somewhat  of  its  old  position.  Of 
these  eiforts  Mr.  Cobden,  in  the  concluding  por- 
tion of  his  life,  was  one  of  the  chief  promoters. 


16  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

A  comparatively  small  sum — from  a  thousand  to 
fifteen  hundred  pounds — would  suffice  to  attain 
this  object.  We  can  not  help  thinking,  and  ex- 
pressing here  the  opinion,  that  no  public  memo- 
rial of  Mr.  Cobden's  services  and  merits  would 
be  more  eminently  appropriate  and  honoring  to 
his  memory  than  the  completion  of  this  good 
work,  one  of  the  last  he  had  at  heart. 

At  an  early  period  of  the  boy's  life  his  father 
died ;  and  the  youth, being  taken  under  the  guard- 
ianship of  an  uncle  who  was  a  London  warehouse- 
man, repaired  to  London  to  seek  his  fortunes  in 
his  relative's  establishment.  From  this  he  ap- 
pears shortly  to  have  removed  himself  to  another 
house  in  the  same  department  of  trade,  where  he 
drew  attention  by  his  eagerness  to  acquire  infor- 
mation, and  the  variety  of  his  reading.  His  mas- 
ter, a  man  belonging  to  the  old  school,  and  steep- 
ed in  the  prejudices  of  the  time,  warned  him 
against  so  much  reading,  telling  him  he  would  be 
certain,  if  he  persisted  in  the  indulgence,  to  spoil 
his  prospects  for  life.  We  need  not  say  how  this 
prediction  was  falsified.  The  master  lived  to  fail 
in  his  business,  and  to  see  the  youth  he  had  em- 
ployed at  the  head  of  a  prosperous  and  money- 
making  firm.  Cobden  did  not  resent  the  ill-ad- 
vised, but  doubtless  well-meant,  attempt  at  re- 
straint. He  allowed  his  old  employer  a  sufficient 
annual  allowance,  which  was  regularly  paid  until 
the  date  of  the  old  man's  death. 


EARLY  DAYS.  17 

Hitherto  Cobden's  employment  had  been  con- 
fined to  the  indoor  routine  of  a  warehouse.  At 
an  early  age  he  embarked  upon  the  more  varied 
and  exciting  calling  of  a  commercial  traveler, 
commencing  his  duties  in  that  capacity  at  a  very 
modest  rate  of  remuneration.  In  fact,  it  was 
only  by  accident — being  asked  to  assume  the 
duties  of  a  traveler  who  had  fallen  sick — that 
he  was  transferred  from  the  warehouse,  or  count- 
ing-house, to  the  "  road."  In  his  new  sphere  he 
soon  made  himself  exceedingly  popular,  and  equal- 
ly profitable  as  a  representative  of  the  house  that 
employed  him.  He  sent  home  large  orders ;  and 
many  men  yet  living,  and  still  engaged  in  trade, 
recall  with  pleasure  the  frank  and  affable,  though 
modest  and  diffident,  manner  of  Cobden  in  the 
after-dinner  talk — and  sometimes  disputation — 
of  the  commercial  room.  Already  he  was  deeply 
versed  in  Adam  Smith,  and  he  was  a  peripatetic 
and  enthusiastic  advocate  of  thorough-going  Free 
Trade.  With  half  jocularity  and  half  seriousness, 
he  proposed  the  establishment  of  a  "  Smithian 
Society,"  on  the  model  of  the  Linnsean  and  simi- 
lar associations  devoted  to  natural  science,  for 
the  then  much-needed  purpose  of  elucidating  and 
disseminating  the  opinions  of  the  great  master 
of  political  economy. 

In  course  of  time  the  firm  which  he  represent- 
ed withdrew  from  business,  and  disposed  of  their 
interest  and  good-will  to  certain  of  their  more 
B 


18  LIFE  OF  EICHARD  COBDEN. 

energetic  employes.  Among  these  was  Cobden. 
A  correspondent  of  the  Manchester  Courier,  writ- 
ing a  few  days  after  Mr.  Cobden's  death,  thus 
narrates  the  circumstances  of  his  first  independ- 
ent start  in  business :  "  Mr.  Cobden  began  life  as 
a  lad  in  a  London  warehouse.  Growing  into  a 
young  man,  he  was  sent  on  matters  of  business  to 
many  of  the  houses  with  which  his  firm  was  con- 
nected. Among  those  he  so  visited  was  Mr.  John 
Lewis,  of  101  Oxford  Street.  Mr.  Lewis  con- 
ceived a  liking  for  the  young  man  on  account  of 
the  smart  and  business-like  manner  in  which  he 
used  to  come  to  his  house  and  transact  whatever 
he  had  to  do,  and  often  gave  him  a  few  kind 
words.  One  day  young  Cobden  came  t<?  him,  and 
with  some  hesitation  told  him  that  he  and  two  of 
his  comrades,  young,  men  like  himself,  had  heard 
of  a  business  near  Manchester,  which  a  gentleman 
was  retiring  from,  and  the  plant  of  which  was  to 
be  had  for  £1500 ;  this  sum  the  three  had  agreed 
to  raise  among  them,  but  Cobden  had  no  friends 
to  help  him  with  his  quota,  and  therefore  he 
would  venture  to  ask  Mr.  Lewis  if  he  would  do 
so.  Mr.  Lewis,  from  his  partiality  to  him,  at  once 
assented,  and  Cobden  left  him  in  high  spirits. 
But  soon  after  he  called  again,  with  a  long  face, 
to  say  his  colleagues  had  not  been  able  to  raise 
their  £500  each.  After  a  while,  however,  he  came 
again,  to  state  that  the  owner  of  the  business  in 
question,  having  heard  favorably  of  the  trio, 


EARLY  DAYS.  19 

agreed  to  let  them  have  it  for  Mr.  Cobden's  £500. 
Would  Mr.  Lewis  still  let  him  have  the  money  ? 
Mr.  Lewis  very  kindly  complied,  and  the  three 
shortly  after  began  the  world  together.  The  £500 
was  speedily  repaid ;  and,  after  a  very  few  years, 
one  and  then  another  of  the  partners  drew  out  of 
the  business  with  a  handsome  fortune,  and  Rich- 
ard Cobden  came  to  be  what  he  was.  The  forego- 
ing particulars  were  related  to  the  writer  by  Mr. 
Lewis,  who  retired  from  business  about  twenty- 
five  years  ago,  and  subsequently  died  in  Madeira." 
The  new  firm  had  three  establishments:  one  at 
Sabden,  near  Clitheroe,  for  the  printing  of  the 
calicoes  in  which  they  dealt,  under  the  title  of 
Sheriff,  Foster,  &  Co. ;  and  two  others  for  the  sale 
of  their  goods — one  in  London,  termed  Sheriff, 
Gillet,  &  Co.,  and  another  in  Manchester,  under 
the  personal  management  of  Mr.  Cobden,  and 
entitled  Richard  Cobden  &  Co.  It  was  in  the 
year  1830,  when  he  had  only  reached  his  twenty- 
sixth  year,  that  Cobden  took  up  his  residence  in 
Manchester,  and  commenced  business  on  his  own 
account.  His  warehouse  was  in  Mozley  Street, 
which  hitherto  had  been  the  Saville  Row  of 
Manchester,  consisting  entirely  of  the  houses  of 
medical  men  and  other  private  residences.  We 
believe  that  it  is  now  entirely  composed  of  ware- 
houses ;  but  Cobden  &  Co.'s  was  the  first  to  in- 
trude on  its  privacy,  and  inaugurate  the  transmu- 
tation, which  is  now  complete. 


20  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

The  fortunes  of  the  house  rapidly  progressed. 
"The  custom  of  the  calico  trade,"  says  one  of  the 
authorities  from  whom  these  particulars  are  de- 
rived, "  at  that  period  was  to  print  a  few  designs, 
and  watch  cautiously  and  carefully  those  which 
were  most  acceptable  to  the  public,  when  large 
quantities  of  those  which  seemed  to  be  preferred 
were  printed  off  and  offered  to  the  retail  dealer. 
Mr.  Cobden  introduced  a  new  mode  of  business. 
Possessed  of  great  taste,  of  excellent  tact,  and  re- 
markable knowledge  of  the  trade  in  all  its  details, 
he  and  his  partners  did  not  follow  the  cautious 
and  slow  policy  of  their  predecessors,  but  fixing 
themselves  upon  the  best  designs,  they  had  these 
printed  off  at  once,  and  pushed  the  sale  energetic- 
ally throughout  the  country.  Those  pieces  which 
failed  to  take  in  the  home  market  were  at  once 
shipped  to  other  countries,  and  the  consequence 
was  that  the  associated  firms  became  very  pros- 
perous." Cobden  took  long  and  extended  foreign 
journeys,  both  in  the  old  world  and  the  new,  to 
open  up  markets  for  his  prints.  These  journeys 
had  also  political  and  literary  results,  to  which 
reference  will  be  made  in  succeeding  pages. 
"  Cobden's  prints"  became  very  fashionable.  Aft- 
er he  had  become  a  great  public  man,  the  wives 
and  dependents  of  the  great  landowners,  whose 
monopoly  he  assailed,  were  seen  in  public  clad 
in  his  garments ;  and,  jut,  the  heat  of  the  agita- 
tion, the  young  Queen  Victoria  herself  was  ob- 


EARLY  DAYS.  21 

served,  by  the  passengers  by  the  newly-opened 
Great  Western  Railway,  strolling  on  the  slopes 
of  Windsor  Park  plainly  dressed  in  one  of  "Cob- 
den's  prints." 

In  Manchester,  Cobden  early  entered  upon 
public  life.  Such  a  man  could  not  fail  to  be 
strongly  affected  by  the  ideas  prevalent,  and  the 
forces  in  conflict,  at  the  period  of  the  great  Re- 
form struggle.  The  circumstances  of  his  first 
introduction  into  the  arena  of  local  and  general 
politics  are  thus  narrated  by  Mr.  Cathrall,  one 
of  the  proprietors  and  editors  of  the  Manchester 
Times  : 

"  While  my  late  partner  and  myself  were  earn- 
estly engaged  as  journalists,  now  about  thirty 
years  back,  in  the  severe  struggle  then  entered 
upon  by  the  inhabitants  of  Manchester  for  obtain- 
ing the  incorporation  of  the  town,  we  received  a 
series  of  letters  upon  that  and  other  subjects  of 
public  interest  from  an  anonymous  correspondent 
under  the  signature  of  '  Libra.'  These  letters, 
which  were  generally  furnished  alternate  weeks, 
were  marked  by  so  much  thought  and  ability 
that  we  were  desirous  to  have  an  interview  with 
the  writer,  and  accordingly  inserted  a  line  in  our 
paper  to  that  effect,  mentioning  a  time  for  the 
purpose.  About  noon  the  same  day  that  this  no- 
tice appeared,  the  publisher  of  our  paper  notified 
to  me  that  a  gentleman  in  the  outer  oifa'cc  wished 
to  see  me,  when  the  stranger,  on  being  invited 


22  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

into  my  private  room,  introduced  himself  as  Rich- 
ard Cobden.  His  person  and  name  being  alike 
unknown  to  me,  and  not  recollecting  for  the  mo- 
ment that  a  stranger  was  expected  in  accordance 
with  the  notice  inserted  in  our  journal,!  begged 
he  would  inform  me  of  the  object  of  his  call,  when 
he  said  he  was  '  Libra ;'  adding, '  I  observe  from 
your  paper  that  you  wish  to  see  me.'  "We  at 
once  became  great  friends.  Soon  after,  poor  Pren- 
tice, my  partner,  entered  the  room,  and  on  being 
informed  that  it  was  'Libra'  who  was  with  me, 
warmly  shook  him  by  the  hand,  and  at  the  same 
time  complimented  him  on  the  skill,  etc.,  displayed 
in  his  letters. 

"  We  gathered  that  he  was  engaged  in  bus- 
iness in  Mozley  Street ;  that  he  had  only  recently 
come  to  Manchester,  and  had  but  few  acquaint- 
ances there. 

"I  well  remember  that  in  this  interview  he 
was  very  diffident,  and  somewhat  nervous  in  tem- 
perament ;  at  the  same  time,  it  was  obvious  to  us, 
even  then,  that  he  was  in  ability  and  promise 
much  above  the  average  stamp  of  young  men. 

"  It  happening  that  a  public  meeting,  under  the 
presidency  of  Mr.  Prentice,  in  furtherance  of  the 
incorporation  of  Manchester,  was  to  be  held  that 
same  evening  at  the  Cotton  Free  Tavern,  in  An- 
coats  (a  favorite  political  rendezvous  of  the  period 
referred  to),  my  partner  at  once  solicited  Mr.  Cob- 
den  to  accompany  him  and  take  part  in  the  pro- 
ceedings- 


EARLY  DAYS.  23 

''Although  so  many  years  have  passed  since, 
I  well  recollect  that  Mr.  Cobden  declined  to  at- 
tend the  meeting ;  in  fact,  he  evidently  shrunk 
from  the  task  of  speaking  on  the  occasion,  and  it 
was  not  until  repeatedly  pressed  to  do  so  that  he 
consented,  although  the  meeting  was  quite  of  a 
minor  character. 

" '  I  assure  you,'  he  said, '  I  never  yet  made  a 
speech  of  any  description,  excepting,  perhaps,  an 
after-dinner  one  at  a  commercial  table.'  Having 
at  length  obtained  the  promise  of  his  attendance, 
it  was  arranged  that  he  should  take  his  tea  at  our 
office  on  the  way  to  the  meeting,  which  he  ac- 
cordingly did. 

"  After  the  opening  speech  of  the  chairman,  he 
called  upon  Mr.  Cobden  to  move  the  first  resolu- 
tion, introducing  him  as  his  young  friend,  who 
had  recently  contributed  to  the  Manchester  Times 
the  able  letters  signed '  Libra.'  His  speech,  how- 
ever, on  this  occasion  was  a  signal  failure.  He 
was  nervous,  confused,  and,  in  fact,  practically 
broke  down,  and  the  chairman  had  to  apologize 
for  him,  but  at  the  same  time  expressed  full  con- 
fidence as  to  the  success  and  usefulness  of  his  fu- 
ture career. 

"  Such  was  Mr.  Cobden's  debut  before  the  Man- 
chester public  as  a  speaker.  So  far  as  his  own 
feelings  were  concerned,  for  some  time  he  was  so 
discouraged  by  his  maiden  effort  that  I  am  pretty 
confident,  had  this  lamented  and  remarkable  man, 


24  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

whose  oratory  subsequently  was  of  so  persuasive 
a  kind,  been  allowed  to  follow  the  bent  of  his  in- 
clination, he  never  again  would  have  appeared  as 
a  public  speaker. 

"  Our  professional  acquaintance  with  Mr.  Cob- 
den,  thus  formed,  led  to  his  introduction  to  the 
political  circles  of  Manchester,  and  in  a  short  pe- 
riod he  took  an  active  part  in  most  public  mat- 
ters affecting  the  interests  of  the  town,  and  was 
chosen  one  of  the  first  members  of  the  corpo- 
ration, whose  charter  he  materially  assisted  in  ob- 
taining." 

Mr.  Cobden  was  not  deterred  by  this  oratorical 
failure  from  again  attempting  to  acquire  by  prac- 
tice facility  of  public  speech.  He  must  have  pro- 
gressed rapidly,  for  we  find  that  upon  the  open- 
ing of  the  Manchester  Athenaeum,  the  establish- 
ment of  which  was  effected  in  spite  of  great,  and 
at  one  time  apparently  insurmountable  difficul- 
ties— which  Cobden  is  stated  more  than  all  other 
men  put  together  to  have  overcome — he  was 
chosen  to  deliver  the  inaugural  address.  In  con- 
nection with  the  movement  for  the  extension  of 
municipal  insititutions  of  a  modern  and  liberal 
character  to  Manchester,  he  published  a  terse 
pamphlet,  entitled  "  Incorporate  your  Borough," 
in  which  the  vices  and  jobbery  of  the  existing 
system  were  vigorously  exposed.  He  also  made 
frequent  appearances  in  Manchester,  and  else- 
where in  the  neighborhood,  in  behalf  of  the 


EARLY  DAYS.  25 

dawning  movement  for  national  education.  It 
was  in  connection  with  this  movement  that  John 
Bright  and  Richard  Cobden  became  personally 
acquainted.  Altogether,  "Mr.  Alderman  Cob- 
den"  had  become  a  man  of  decided  local  mark, 
and  a  man  of  whom  great  hopes  were  entertained 
by  his  intimates,  and  by  his  coadjutors  in  public 
causes,  by  the  time  he  was  about  thirty  or  thirty- 
one  years  of  age. 


26  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 


CHAPTER  II. 

FIRST  PERIOD  OP  THE  ANTI-CORN-LAW  AGITATION. 

MANCHESTER,  which  now  stands  so  identified 
with  a  school  of  politicians  which  subordinates 
all  other  considerations  to  a  paramount  policy  of 
freedom  of  trade,  was  one  of  the  boroughs  en- 
franchised by  the  Reform  Bill  of  1832.  At  the 
general  election  of  that  year,  the  Manchester  men 
returned  two  members  completely  pledged  to  this 
course  of  legislation.  Mr.  Mark  Phillips,  in  his 
canvass,  declared  himself  decidedly  opposed  to 
"  the  East  India,  the  Bank,  and  the  timber  monop- 
olies, and  that  greatest  of  all  monopolies  which 
was  upheld  by  the  Corn  Laws."  Mr.  Poulett 
Thompson,  afterward  Lord  Sydenham,  who  held 
the  office  of  Vice-President,  and  afterward  of 
President,  of  the  Board  of  Trade  in  Lord  Grey's 
administration,  was  known  to  be  in  advance  of 
most  of  his  colleagues  in  his  general  political 
opinions,  and  of  all  of  them  on  questions  of  com- 
mercial reform.  He  was  selected  by  the  Man- 
chester Liberals  as  their  second  candidate ;  and 
he  and  Mr.  Phillips  were  elected  by  considerable 
majorities  over  the  other  candidates — William 
Cobbet,  one  of  the  great  family  of  the  Hopes, 


ANTI-CORN-LAW  AGITATION.  27 

and  the  present  Lord  Overstone.  From  that  date 
Manchester  became  the  avowed  and  acknowl- 
edged head-quarters  of  the  Free  Trade  party.  It 
was  not  long  before  certain  of  the  leading  men  in 
the  locality  began  to  take  the  first  steps,  which 
led,  as  ultimate  result,  to  the  formation  of  the 
Anti- Corn -Law  League.  In  January,  1834,  a 
meeting  of  merchants  and  manufacturers  was 
held.  Good  speeches  were  made,  but  little  came 
of  the  meeting,  the  members  of  which  carefully 
disclaimed  all  intention  of  forming  any  associa- 
tion. Meanwhile,  in  Parliament,  Mr.  Hume  was 
urging  the  views  of  the  Free-Traders,  receiving 
support  from  snch  of  the  Whigs  as  Poulett 
Thompson,  the  late  Lord  Carlisle,  and  the  present 
Lord  Grey.  But  the  monopolists  mustered  in 
force,  and  defeated  Mr.  Hume's  very  moderate 
proposal,  which  only  contemplated  the  substitu- 
tion of  a  -fixed  for  a  fluctuating  duty  on  corn.  The 
country,  too,  was  apathetic,  for  trade  was  pros- 
perous and  food  cheap.  Mr.  Thompson,  however, 
succeeded  in  introducing  some  valuable  amend- 
ments ere  the  dissolution  of  the  first  administra- 
tion of  Lord  Melbourne,  and  he  fairly  merits  the 
statement  that  "  he  occupied,  beneficially  to  the 
public,  the  time  between  the  death  of  Huskisson 
and  the  advent  of  Cobden."  He  abolished  the 
duty  on  hemp,  considerably  reduced  the  taxes  on 
dye-stuffs  and  medicines,  and  made  a  large  and  ad- 
vantageous simplification  of  the  tai'iif  generally. 


•28  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

The  harvest  of  1835  was  gloriously  abundant, 
and  in  the  first  meeting  of  the  reconstituted  Mel- 
bourne ministry,  after  the  short  Peel  interreg- 
num, with  the  Houses  of  Parliament,  they  were 
assailed  by  the  landowners  with  the  usual  cries 
of  the  "  distress"  inflicted  upon  the  agricultural 
interest  by  the  abundance  of  the  crops.  The 
plenty  still  kept  the  people  apathetic.  An  old 
Scotchwoman,  when  some  one  was  endeavoring 
to  impress  upon  her  the  then  prevalent  delusion 
that  the  higher  prices  were,  the  better  would  be 
the  condition  of  farm  laborers,  replied, "  Na,  na ; 
ye'll  no  persuade  me  that  when  there's  plenty  o' 
meal  puir  folks  will  get  less  than  when  it's 
scarce."  The  people  had  plenty  in  1835,  and  that 
plenty  begat  a  certain  political  improvidence. 
They  were  deaf  to  the  considerations  addressed 
to  them  by  the  Free  Trade  pioneers — that  this 
cheapness  was  most  precarious,  absolutely  de- 
pending, so  long  as  the  Corn  Laws  remained, 
upon  the  chance  of  a  succession  of  similarly  plen- 
tiful harvests. 

It  was  just  at  this  era  that  Cobden,  who  had 
been,  ever  since  he  emerged  from  boyhood,  train- 
ing himself,  by  the  most  omnivorous  reading,  ex- 
tended travel,  and  careful  thought,  for  the  public 
position  he  was  providentially  designed  to  occu- 
py, enrolled  himself  openly  among  the  Free  Trad- 
ers. He  worked  first,  and  anonymously,  with  his 
pen  ere  his  voice  was  heard.  The  following  pas- 


ANTI-CORN-LAW  AGITATION.  29 

sage  from  Mr.  Prentice's  "  History  of  the  Anti- 
Corn-Law  League"  describes  Cobden's  first  en- 
listment in  the  Free  Trade  ranks.  We  present 
Mr.  Prentice's  version  of  his  first  acquaintance 
with  Mr.  Cobden  entire,  as  we  have  given  that  of 
Mr.  Cathrall  in  the  preceding  chapter,  leaving  our 
readers  to  determine  for  themselves  which  seems 
the  more  worthy  of  credit.  Our  own  preference 
decidedly  leans  to  Mr.  Cathrall's,  as  being  more 
self-consistent  and  probable  upon  the  face  of  it. 
It  is  hardly  necessary  to  state  our  belief  that  the 
discrepancies,  signal  though  they  be,  arise  from 
simple  forgetfulness  on  the  part  of  one  or  both  of 
the  narrators. 

"In  1835  there  had  been  sent  to  me  for  publi- 
cation in  my  paper  some  admirably-written  let- 
ters. They  contained  no  internal  evidence  to 
guide  me  in  guessing  as  to  who  might  be  the 
writer,  and  I  concluded  that  there  was  some  new 
man  among  us,  who,  if  he  held  a  station  that 
would  enable  him  to  take  a  part  in  public  affairs, 
would  exert  a  widely  beneficial  influence  among 
us.  He  might  be  some  young  man  in  a  ware- 
house, who  had  thought  deeply  on  political  econ- 
omy, and  its  practical  application  in  our  commer- 
cial policy,  who  might  not  be  soon  in  a  position  to 
come  before  the  public  as  an  influential  teacher ; 
but  we  had,  I  had  no  doubt,  somewhere  among 
us,  perhaps  sitting  solitary  after  his  day's  work  in 
some  obscure  apartment,  like  Adam  Smith  in  his 


30  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

quiet  closet  at  Kirkcaldy,  one  inwardly  and  qui- 
etly conscious  of  his  power,  but  patiently  biding 
his  time  to  popularize  the  doctrines  set  forth  in 
the  '  Wealth  of  Nations,'  and  to  make  the  multi- 
tude think  as  the  philosopher  had  thought,  and 
to  act  upon  their  convictions.  I  told  many  that 
a  new  man  had  come,  and  the  question  was  often 
put  among  my  friends, '  Who  is  he  ?'  It  is  some 
satisfaction  to  me  now,  writing  seventeen  years 
after  that  period,  that  I  had  anticipated  the  de- 
liberate verdict  of  the  nation.  In  the  course  of 
that  year,  a  pamphlet,  published  by  Ridgway, 
under  the  title  '  England,  Ireland,  and  America,' 
was  put  into  my  hand  by  a  friend,  inscribed '  From 
the  Author,'  and  I  instantly  recognized  the  hand- 
writing of  my  unknown,  much  by  me  desired  to 
be  known,  correspondent ;  and  I  was  greatly 
gratified  when  I  learned  that  Mr.  Cobden,  the 
author  of  the  pamphlet,  desired  to  meet  me  at 
my  friend's  house.  I  went  with  something  of  the 
same  kind  of  feelings  which  I  had  experienced 
when  I  first,  four  years  before,  went  to  visit  Jer- 
emy Bentham,  the  father  of  the  practical  Free 
Traders;  nor  was  I  disappointed  except  in  one 
respect.  I  found  a  man  who  could  enlighten  by 
his  knowledge,  counsel  by  his  prudence,  and  con- 
ciliate by  his  temper  and  manners,  and  who,  if 
he  found  his  way  into  the  House  of  Commons, 
would  secure  its  respectful  attention ;  but  I  had 
been  an  actor  among  men  who,  from  1812  to  1832, 


ANTI-CORN-LAW  AGITATION.  31 

had  fought  in  the  rough  battle  for  Parliamentary 
Reform,  and  I  missed,  in  the  unassuming  gentle- 
man before  me,  not  the  energy,  but  the  apparent 
hardihood  and  dash  which  I  had,  forgetting  the 
change  of  times,  believed  to  be  requisites  to  the 
success  of  a  popular  leader.  In  after  years,  and 
after,  having  attained  great  platform  popularity, 
he  had  been  elected  a  member  of  Parliament,  and 
when  men  sneered  and  said  he  would  soon  find 
his  level  there,  as  other  mob  orators  had  done,  I 
ventured  to  say  that  he  would  be  in  his  proper 
vocation  there,  and  that  his  level  would  be  among 
the  first  men  of  the  House." 

The  pamphlet  which  (according  to  Mr.  Pren- 
tice) thus  formed  the  occasion  of  the  introduction 
of  the  leader  of  the  League  to  its  historian,  really 
assumes  the  proportions  of  a  book.  We  are  re- 
luctantly compelled  to  resist  the  temptation  of 
summarizing  this  the  first  considerable  production 
of  Cobden's  pen.  It  was  from  first  to  last  a  pro- 
test against  the  Palmerstonian  foreign  policy,  and 
represented  views  from  which  Cobden  never  in 
his.  after  life  in  the  slightest  iota  swerved,  and 
which  he  never  ceased  to  present  to  the  nation, 
uninfluenced  by  the  fair  weather  of  popularity, 
undeterred  by  the  foul  weather  of  temporary  sea- 
sons of  alienation,  when  England  was  in  one  of  its 
intermittent  war  fevers.  These  opening  sentences 
from  the  preface  are  remarkably  characteristic  of 
the  man,  and  are  of  universal  application  in  En- 


32  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

glish  history — as  pertinent  in  1865  as  they  were 
in  1835. 

"  The  following  pages  were  written  principally 
with  a  view  to  endeavor  to  prove  the  erroneous 
foreign  policy  of  the  government  of  this  country. 
English  statesmen  of  every  age,  down  even  to  the 
present  day,  have  one  and  all  lost  sight  of  that 
distinguishing  and  privileged  feature  which  is  pe- 
culiar to  the  insular  situation  of  Great  Britain. 
If  we  go  back  to  the  year  1805,  when  Nelson 
destroyed  the  remains  of  the  French  navy  at  Tra- 
falgar, these  islands  were  thenceforth  as  secure 
against  foreign  molestation  as  though  they  had 
formed  a  portion  of  the  moon's  territory;  yet 
from  that  time  down  to  1815  we  waged  incessant 
war,  and  incurred  four  hundred  millions  of  debt 
for  interests  purely  continental.  Our  European 
commerce  yields  but  a  poor  set-off  against  the  ex- 
penses of  the  war.  The  hundred  days  of  Napo- 
leon cost  us  forty  millions,  the  interest  of  which 
at  five  per  cent,  is  two  millions.  Now,  our  exports 
to  all  Europe,  of  British  manufactures,  amount  to 
about  eighteen  millions  annually ;  and,  taking  the 
profit  at  ten  per  cent.,  it  falls  short  of  two  millions; 
so  that  all  the  profit  of  all  our  merchants,  trading 
with  all  Europe,  will  not  yield  sufficient  to  pay 
the  yearly  interest  of  the  cost  of  the  last  one  hund- 
red days'  war  on  the  Continent,  leaving  all  the 
other  hundreds  of  millions  spent  previously  as  so 
much  dead  loss." 


ANTI-CORN-LAW  AGITATION.  33 

Cobden  came  again  before  the  public  as  an  au- 
thor in  1836.  In  that  year,  Tait,  of  Edinburg, 
republished  in  a  cheap  form  four  articles  which 
Cobden  had  contributed  to  Taitfs  Magazine,  writ- 
ten with  the  design  of  allaying  the  Russophobia 
then  prevalent,  which  Mr.  Urquhart  and  his  school 
(not,  it  was  believed  by  some,  without  the  com- 
plicity of  the  Foreign  Secretary)  had  endeavored 
to  excite  in  the  country.  This  pamphlet,  like  the 
other,  is  an  admirable  product  of  Cobden's  clear 
and  vigorous  intellect.  A  few  selected  sentences 
will  suffice  to  justify  our  statement. 

"They  who,  pointing  to  the  chart  of  Russia, 
shudder  at  her  expanse  of  impenetrable  forests, 
her  wastes  of  eternal  snow,  her  howling  wilder- 
nesses, frowning  mountains,  and  solitary  rivers  ; 
or  they  who  stand  aghast  at  her  boundless  extent 
of  fertile  but  uncultivated  steppes,  her  millions 
of  serfs,  and  her  towns  the  abodes  of  poverty  and 
filth,  know  nothing  of  the  true  origin,  in  modern 
and  future  times,  of  national  power  and  great- 
ness. This  question  admits  of  an  appropriate  il- 
lustration by  putting  the  names  of  a  couple  of 
heroes  of  Russian  aggression  and  violence  in  con- 
trast with  two  of  their  contemporaries,  the  cham- 
pions of  improvement  in  England.  At  the  very 
period  when  Potemkin  and  Suwarrow  were  en- 
gaged in  effecting  their  important  Russian  con- 
quests in  Poland  and  the  Crimea,  and  while  these 
monsters  of  carnage  were  filling  the  tvorld  with 
C 


34  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

the  lustre  of  their  fame,  and  lighting  up  one  half 
of  Europe  with  the  conflagrations  of  war — two 
obscure  individuals,  the  one  an  optician  and  the 
other  a  barber,  both  equally  disregarded  by  the 
chroniclers  of  the  day,  were  quietly  gaining  vic- 
tories in  the  realms  of  science,  which  have  pro- 
duced a  more  abundant  harvest  of  wealth  and 
power  to  their  native  country  than  has  been  ac- 
quired by  all  the  wars  of  Russia  during  the  last 
two  centuries.  Those  illustrious  commanders  in 
the  war  of  improvement,  Watt  and  Arkwright, 
with  a  band  of  subalterns — the  thousand  ingen- 
ious and  practical  discoverers  who  have  followed 
in  their  train — have,  with  their  armies  of  artisans, 
conferred  a  power  and  consequence  upon  En- 
gland, springing  from  successive  triumphs  in  the 
physical  sciences  and  the  mechanical  arts,  and 
wholly  independent  of  territorial  increase — com- 
pared with  which,  all  that  she  owes  to  the  evan- 
escent exploits  of  her  warrior  heroes  shrinks  into 
insignificance  and  obscurity.  If  we  look  into  fu- 
turity, and  speculate  upon  the  probable  career  of 
one  of  these  inventions,  may  we  not  with  safety 
predict  that  the  steam-engine — the  perfecting  of 
which  belongs  to  our  own  age,  and  which  even 
now  is  exerting  an  influence  in  the  four  quarters 
of  the  globe — will  at  no  distant  day  produce  moral 
and  physical  changes  all  over  the  world  of  a  mag- 
nitude and  permanency  surpassing  the  effects  of 
all  the  wars  and  conquests  which  have  convulsed 


ANTI-CORN-LAW  AGITATION.  35 

mankind  since  the  beginning  of  time  ?  England 
owes  to  the  peaceful  exploits  of  Watt  and  Ark- 
wright,  and  not  to  the  deeds  of  Nelson  and  Wel- 
lington, her  commerce,  which  now  extends  to  ev- 
ery corner  of  the  earth,  and  which  casts  into 
comparative  obscimty,  by  the  grandeur  and  ex- 
tent of  its  operations,  the  peddling  ventures  of 
Tyre,  Carthage,  and  Venice,  confined  within  the 
limits  of  an  inland  sea." 

The  following  is  no  poor  specimen  of  the  quick, 
incisive  thrust  with  which  Cobden  so  often  stab- 
bed and  burst  the  bubbles  of  many  popular  delu- 
sions :  "  The  writers  who  have  attempted  to  lead 
public  opinion  upon  the  subject  have  not  scrupled 
to  claim  the  interposition  ef  ©ur  government  with 
Russia  for  the  purpose  of  restoring  to  freedom 
and  independence  those  Caucasian  tribes  to  which 
we  have  before  alluded  as  being  under  the  partial 
dominion  of  Russia.  Their  previous  state  of  free- 
dom may  be  appreciated  when  we  recollect  that 
within  our  own  time  a  fierce  war  was  waged  be- 
tween the  most  powerful  of  these  nations  (the 
Georgians)  and  the  Turks  in  consequence  of  their 
having  refused  to  continue  to  supply  the  harems 
of  the  latter  with  a  customary  annual  tribute  of 
the  handsomest  of  their  daughters ;  offering,  how- 
ever, at  the  same  time,  in  lieu,  a  yearly  contribu- 
tion in  money." 

In  1836,  an  Anti-Corn-Law  Association  was 
formed  in  London ;  but  it  proposed  little  in  the 


36  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

way  of  organization  and  agitation,  and  did  not 
represent  a  very  numerous  constituency.  Never- 
theless, it  comprised  the  names  of  many  very  val- 
uable public  men ;  among  others,  Joseph  Broth- 
erton,  Silk  Buckingham,  William  Clay,  Thomas 
Duncombe,  William  Ewart,  George  Grote,  Joseph 
Hume,  Sir  William  Molesworth,  Mr.  Roebuck, 
Mr.  Scholefield,  Colonel  Thompson,  Mr.  Wakley, 
Ebenezer  Elliot, William  Howitt,  Place,  the  West- 
minster tailor,  Prentice,  the  future  historian  of  the 
League,  Colonel  Leicester  Stanhope,  Tait,  the 
Radical  publisher ;  and  as  representatives  of  lit- 
erature, Laman  Blanchard  and  Thomas  Campbell. 
This  association  at  least  kept  the  question  of  Corn 
Law  Repeal  before  the  public  until  it  was  re- 
placed by  the  formation  of  the  League. 

1837  was  a  year  of  great  commercial  depression. 
There  were  heavy  failures  in  London,  Liverpool, 
Manchester,  and  Glasgow.  Ere  the  summer  ar- 
rived, deep  distress  had  reached  the  homes  of  the 
working  classes.  In  Lancashire,  thousands  of  fac- 
tory hands  were  discharged.  The  Chartist  agi- 
tation was  undertaken,  and  much  sedition  openly 
expressed.  During  the  panic,  which  was  not  of 
long  continuance,  the  belief  spread  that  it  might 
not  have  occurred  at  all  if  the  nation  had  been 
permitted  to  enjoy  a  regular  importation  of  corn. 
Mr.  Clay  moved  in  the  House  of  Commons  for  a 
fixed  duty  of  10s.  on  wheat.  Among  his  support- 
ers of  the  Whig  ranks  were  Lords  Howick  and 


ANTI-CORN-LAW  AGITATION.  37 

Morpeth,  Sir  George  Grey,  Sir  Henry  Parnell,  and 
Mr.  Labouchere.  The  death  of  the  king  causing 
an  election,  Manchester's  Anti-Corn-Law  mem- 
bers were  returned  by  large  majorities  over  Mr. 
Gladstone,  senior.  Other  Lancashire  towns  re- 
turned Free  Traders.  Mr.  Cobden  was  traveling 
on  the  Continent.  In  his  absence  he  was  pro- 
posed for  Stockport,  and  was  within  a  very  few 
votes  of  being  returned.  In  all,  thirty-eight  Free 
Traders  were  returned  for  constituencies  number- 
ing five  millions  of  souls.  In  counties  and  the 
smaller  boroughs,  where  much  flagrant  bribery 
and  corruption  had  been  brought  into  action,  the 
Protectionists  had  it  their  own  way,  and  loudly 
vaunted  the  alleged,  but  suborned,  reaction  in 
their  favor.  A  banquet  was  given  to  Mr.  Broth- 
erton  to  celebrate  his  return  for  Salford.  Mr. 
Cobden,  who  had  returned  from  his  foreign  jour- 
ney, was  present,  and  delivered  an  admirable 
speech,  the  chief  gist  of  which  was  a  recommend- 
ation of  the  ballot,  showing  how  different  would 
have  been  the  result  of  the  general  election  if  the 
electors  had  been  so  protected. 

Mr.  Cobden  now  endeavored  to  induce  the 
Manchester  Chamber  of  Commerce  to  oi'ganize  a 
decided  Anti-Corn-Law  agitation.  Its  members, 
however,  while  repeating  the  protest  against  the 
Corn  Laws  which  they  had  made  ten  years  before, 
refused  to  organize  any  more  active  measures  of 
aggression.  More  than  once  during  this  year  the 


38  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

subject  was  brought  before  the  House  of  Com- 
mons by  Mr.  Villiers  and  others,  but  the  great 
majority  of  members  would  hardly  even  listen. 
The  Marquis  of  Chandos  thus  coolly  demanded 
the  continuance  of  the  chronic  robbery  of  labor 
by  the  landowners :  "  The  agricultural  interest  is 
now  enjoying  some  little  respite  from  the  distress 
of  past  years,  and  all  it  asks  for  is  peace  and  qui- 
etness, and  that  it  shall  not  be  inconvenienced  by 
legislative  enactments  of  any  kind."  In  the  course 
of  one  of  the  debates,  Lord  Melbourne  made  a 
memorable  and  important  declaration:  he  said, 
"  The  government  would  not  take  a  decided  part 
till  it  was  certain  the  majority  of  the  people  were 
in  favor  of  a  change."  This  was  a  direct  invita- 
tion and  challenge  to  organized  agitation ;  phys- 
ical events,  too,  fanned  the  progress  of  opinion. 
The  summer  was  wet.  In  August,  wheat  was  at 
72s.,  just  double  its  price  after  the  harvest  of  two 
years  previously.  Such  men  as  Colonel  Thomp- 
son and  Joseph  Sturge  redoubled  their  efforts, 
and  many  of  the  newspapers  which  had  been  luke- 
warm showed  a  growing  bias  to  conversion. 

In  September  of  this  year  Dr.  Bowring  was 
entertained  at  a  public  dinner  in  Blackburn.  Mr. 
Prentice  seized  the  occasion  of  his  expected  pas- 
sage through  Manchester  to  issue  circulars  to  a 
number  of  the  more  decided  local  Free  Traders 
to  meet  the  doctor,  who  had  just  returned  to  En- 
gland from  the  Continent  and  Egypt,  where  he 


ANTI-CORN  LAW  AGITATION.  39 

had  been  engaged  in  a  mission  for  the  promotion 
of  freer  commercial  intercourse.  About  sixty 
gentlemen  met  together,  and  the  meeting  was 
very  enthusiastic.  Dr.  Bowring  denounced  the 
Corn  Laws  in  unmeasured  terms.  "  It  is  impos- 
sible," said  he, "  to  estimate  the  amount  of  human 
misery  created  by  the  Corn  Laws,  or  the  amount 
of  human  pleasure  overthrown  by  them.  In  every 
part  of  the  world  I  have  found  the  plague-spot." 
In  the  course  of  the  evening  a  Mr.  Howie  pro- 
posed, after  the  enthusiasm  of  the  meeting  had 
been  very  thoroughly  evoked,  "  that  the  present 
company  at  once  form  themselves  into  an  Anti- 
Corn-Law  Association."  The  proposal  was  warm- 
ly entertained,  and  the  succeeding  Monday  ar- 
ranged for  a  meeting  formally  to  consider  the 
project.  It  was  agreed  that  the  association  should 
agitate  for  no  half  measures,  but  direct  its  as- 
saults against  any  and  every  corn  law.  A  Pro- 
visional Committee  was  formed,  and  announced 
by  public  advertisement.  Mr.  Cobden's  name  ap- 
peared in  the  second  list  of  committee-men  adver- 
tised. They  subscribed  among  themselves  near- 
ly £11,000;  and,  as  a  first  step,  appointed  Mr. 
Paulton,  a  young  medical  student  of  the  highest 
qualifications,  to  deliver  popular  lectures  on  the 
subject  wherever  he  could  get  a  hearing.  He 
broke  ground  in  Manchester.  The  first  sentences 
of  his  first  lecture  clearly  and  without  any  equivo- 
cation declared  the  fundamental  principle  of  the 


40  LIFE  OF- RICHARD  COBDEN. 

association.  "  It  has  been  established  on  the 
same  righteous  principle  as  the  Anti-Slavery  So- 
ciety. The  object  of  that  society  was  to  obtain 
the  free  right  for  the  negroes  to  possess  their 
own  flesh  and  blood — the  object  of  this  is  to  ob- 
tain the  free  right  of  the  people  to  exchange 
their  labor  for  as  much  food  as  can  be  got  for  it ; 
that  we  may  no  longer  be  obliged  by  law  to  buy 
our  food  at  one  shop,  and  that  the  dearest  in  the 
world,  but  be  at  liberty  to  go  to  that  at  which 
it  can  be  obtained  cheapest."  At  the  conclu- 
sion of  a  second  lecture  in  Manchester,  Mr.  Paul- 
ton  quoted  these  lines,  which  were  received  with 
the  utmost  enthusiasm.  Many  hundreds  of  times 
afterward  were  they  cited  at  League  meetings. 
Their  so  frequent  citation  forms  part  of  the  his- 
tory of  the  League ;  we  therefore  insert  them : 

"For  what  were  all  these  landed  patriots  born  ? 
To  hunt,  and  vote,  and  raise  the  price  of  corn. 
Safe  in  their  barns,  these  Sabine  tillers  sent 
Your  brethren  out  to  battle.     Why  ?     For  rent ! 
Year  after  year  they  voted  cent,  per  cent. ; 
Blood,  sweat,  and  tear- wrung  millions !   Why  ?   For  rent ! 
They  roared,  they  dined,  they  drank,  they  swore,  they  meant 
To  die  for  England.     Why  then  live  ?    For  rent ! 
And  will  they  not  repay  the  treasures  lent  ? 
No !  down  with  every  thing,  and  up  with  rent ! 
Their  good,  ill,  health,  wealth,  joy,  or  discontent, 
Being,  end,  aim,  religion — rent,  rent,  rent!" 

Requests  at  once  poured  in  from  great  and 
small  towns  for  lectures  by  Mr.  Paulton,  and  his 


ANTI-CORN-LAW  AGITATION.  41 

success  was  equally  indicated  by  the  abuse  show- 
ered upon  him  by  the  landlord  papers. 

The  enthusiasm  was  reflected  upon  the  Man^ 
Chester  Chamber  of  Commerce.  A  general  meet^ 
ing  of  its  members,  held  in  December,  was  the 
largest  that  had  ever  assembled.  They  resolved 
to  petition  Parliament  for  total  repeal,  and  very 
properly  one  gentleman,  while  he  stigmatized  the 
Corn  Law  legislation  as  "  one  of  most  shameful 
injustice,"  stated  that  "  they  were  not  so  unjust 
and  inconsistent  as  to  ask  any  protection  for 
manufactures."  The  bulk  of  the  meeting  were 
barely  ripe  for  this.  Nor  is  this  to  be  wondered 
at,  for  probably  there  never  was  a  delusion  in  the 
whole  history  of  human  error  so  difficult  to  expel 
from  the  heads  of  men,  and  especially  of  classes  of 
men,  as  the  supposed  advantages  of  protective  or 
prohibitory  legislation.  Cobden  was  present,  and 
at  once  threw  his  weight  into  the  large  and  liberal 
view.  From  his  very  argumentative  speech  we 
extract  these  sentences,  which  prove  that  he,  at 
least,  had  nothing  to  learn  from  the  very  first  of 
the  maxims  of  the  Free  Trade  gospel — that  it  was 
any  and  all  protection,  and  not  the  mere  protec- 
tion of  the  landed  interest,  that  he  assailed : 

"  In  a  country  such  as  this,  where  a  boundless 
extent  of  capital  is  yielding  only  three  or  four  per 
cent.,  it  is  folly  to  suppose  that  by  any  artificial 
means  any  trade  can  long  be  made  to  pay  more 
than  the  average  rate  of  profit.  The  effect  of  all 


42  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

such  restrictions  will  only  be  to  narrow  the  field 
of  industry,  and  thus,  in  the  end,  to  injure  instead 
of  benefiting  the  parties  intended  to  be  protected. 
But  look  at  the  very  opposite  position  in  which 
the  owners  of  land  stand.  I  will  suppose  that  a 
law  could  be  passed  to  raise  the  price  of  wheat  to 
a  thousand  shillings  a  bushel ;  now  what  would 
be  the  effect  of  this  but  that  the  capitalists,  who 
now  get  their  ten  per  cent,  profit  in  London  or 
Manchester,  would  immediately  urge  their  sons  to 
bid  fifty  per  cent,  over  the  farmers  of  Norfolk ; 
and  if  these  were  still  in  the  way  of  getting  high- 
er profits  than  other  trades,  then  other  competi- 
tors would  appear  to  bid  fifty  per  cent,  over  them, 
until  Mr.  Coke's  farms  had  reached  the  full  mar- 
ket price,  and  yielded  only  the  ordinary  rate  of 
profit  of  all  other  trades.  But  mark  the  differ- 
ence in  the  situation  of  the  landowner  and  the 
calico-prin-ter :  while  additional  mills  and  print- 
works might  be  erected  to  meet  the  demand  for 
calicoes  and  prints,  not  an  acre  of  land  could  be 
added  to  the  present  domains  of  the  aristocracy, 
and  therefore  every  shilling  of  protection  on  corn 
must  pass  into  the  pockets  of  the  landowners, 
without  at  all  benefiting  the  tenant  or  the  agri- 
cultural laborer ;  whereas,  on  the  other  hand,  no 
extent  of  protection  could  possibly  benefit  the 
manufacturer."  He  concluded  his  speech  by  sub- 
mitting a  resolution  proposing  a  petition  for  the 
abolition  of  all  protective  duties  whatsoever. 


ANTI-CORN-LAW  AGITATION.  43 

The  meeting  -was  adjourned  for  a  week.  In 
the  interval  the  municipal  charter  of  incorpora- 
tion had  been  granted  to  Manchester.  At  the 
adjourned  meeting  Mr.  Cobden  appeared  as  Mr. 
Alderman  Cobden,  having  been  elevated  to  that 
civic  rank  by  the  inhabitants  of  one  of  the  wards. 
Mr.  Cobden's  motion  was  carried  by  a  large  ma- 
jority, and  so  important  a  body  as  the  Chamber 
of  Commerce  of  the  cotton  metropolis  thereby 
committed  to  absolute  Free  Trade.  The  discus- 
sions had  created  great  interest,  and  were  widely 
reported  in  the  country.  Cobden  was  from  this 
day  known  to  all  England  as  a  Free  Trade  cham- 
pion. 

The  Anti-Corn-Law  Association  now  determ- 
ined to  prosecute  their  work  with  augmented 
vigor,  and  to  make  large  pecuniary  contributions 
with  that  object.  A  meeting  was  held  in  Janu- 
ary, 1839,  at  which,  among  other  proposals, "  Mr. 
Alderman  Cobden  recommended  an  investment 
of  a  part  of  the  property  of  the  gentlemen  pres- 
ent to  save  the  rest  from  confiscation."  A  short 
extract  from  the  newspaper  report  of  the  day  is 
enough  to  indicate  the  determinedness  which  had 
now  taken  possession  of  the  minds  of  these  early 
Free  Traders. 

"  The  chairman  said  that,  though  young  in  bus- 
iness, he  would  put  down  £50  (cheers). 

"  Mr.  J.  B.  Smith  would  give  £100,  and  he  was 
commissioned  to  put  down  Mr.  Schuster's  name 
for  £100  (cheers). 


44  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

"Alderman  Cobden  said  he  would  give  £100 
(cheers). 

"  Mr.  J.  C.  Dyer  would  give  £100  most  cheer- 
fully, and  £1000  more  if  it  were  wanted  (cheers). 

"  Mr.  W.  Rawson  said  he  could  only  give  £50 
now,  but  would  give  half  of  all  he  possessed  if  it 
were  needed  (cheers)." 

Before  leaving  the  room  £1800  was  subscribed, 
and  large  additional  subscriptions  were  speedily 
announced.  In  a  few  days  the  total  exceeded 
£6000. 

Meanwhile  the  Chartists,  under  Feargus  O'Con- 
nor, had  commenced  their  obstructive  policy  of 
denouncing  the  Anti-Corn-Law  movement  as  only 
intended  to  advantage  the  manufacturers  by  en- 
abling them  to  purchase  labor  at  reduced  rates ; 
or,  while  admitting  the  desirability  of  Corn-Law 
Repeal,  alleging  that  its  consideration  ought  to 
be  postponed  until  a  complete  suffrage  had  been 
secured.  Tories  also  came  forward  to  disturb  Mr. 
Paulton's  lectures  and  other  Free  Trade  meetings 
by  the  former  pretext.  It  became  pretty  obvious 
that  certain  Chartist  leaders  acted  with  singular 
conformity  of  plan  and  purpose  with  that  pursued 
by  such  Tory  obstructives,  and  it  began  to  be 
more  than  suspected  that  the  identity  of  policy 
was  more  than  accidental.  Other  associations 
were  springing  up  besides  that  of  Manchester. 
At  a  dinner  given  in  that  city  to  the  members  of 
Parliament  who  had  voted  with  Mr.  Villiers  on 


ANTI  CORN-LAW  AGITATION.  45 

his  Anti-Corn-Law  motion  in  Parliament,  Mr. 
Cobden  took  advantage  of  the  presence  of  repre- 
sentatives from  all  the  principal  towns  of  England 
and  Scotland  to  suggest  that  a  general  central 
association  of  the  associations  (so  to  speak)  should 
be  formed.  This  was  favorably  entertained,  and 
was  the  first  suggestion  to  make  the  agitation  a 
combined  national  one — a  decided  step  toward 
the  League.  A  meeting  of  delegates  from  the 
various  towns  was  appointed  to  be  held  on  the 
4th  of  February,  in  London,  at  a  hotel  within  a 
stone's  throw  of  the  House  of  Commons.  These 
delegates  had  an  interview  with  Lord  Melbourne, 
and,  through  Mr.  Villiers,  prayed  to  be  heard  at 
the  bar  of  the  House  in  support  of  that  gentle- 
man's annual  motion.  But  their  plaint  was  of 
course  refused.  The  delegates  held  a  meeting  at 
Brown's  Hotel,  at  which  they  met  a  large  number 
of  metropolitan  Free  Traders  ere  they  returned 
to  their  respective  homes.  Cobden  said  "  he 
thought  there  was  no  cause  for  despondency  be- 
cause the  House  over  the  way  refused  to  hear 
them.  They  were  the  representatives  of  three 
millions  of  the  people — they  were  the  evidence 
that  the  great  towns  had  banded  themselves  to- 
gether, and  their  alliance  would  be  a  Hanseatic 
League  against  the  feudal  Corn  Law  plunderers. 
The  castles  which  crowned  the  rocks  along  the 
Rhine,  the  Danube,  and  the  Elbe,  had  once  been 
the  strong-hold  of  feudal  oppressors,  but  they  had 


46  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

been  dismantled  by  a  league ;  and  they  now  only 
adorned  the  landscape  as  picturesque  memorials 
of  the  past,  while  the  people  below  had  lost  all 
fear  of  plunder,  and  tilled  their  vineyards  in 
peace."  Some  of  the  London  Free  Traders  in- 
vited the  delegates  to  a  public  dinner  at  one  of 
the  theatres.  But  they  declined  the  invitation — 
they  were  going  back  to  their  head-quarters  at 
Manchester  to  concert  farther  measures. 

Shortly  after  their  return  to  Manchesteiya 
meeting,  convened  by  the  Free  Trade  party,  was 
with  great  riot  and  violence  broken  up  by  a  mob, 
using  the  names  of  Richard  Oastler  and  O'Connor 
as  their  war  cries,  and  led  by  certain  drunken  and 
dirty  Irishmen  of  the  laboring  class.  After  this 
the  heads  of  the  movement  resolved  that  only 
members  of  the  association  and  persons  to  whom 
tickets  of  entrance  were  given  should  be  admit- 
ted to  the  meetings.  A  few  days  after,  Cobden 
addressed  a  large  assembly  admitted  by  ticket ; 
and  after  denouncing  in  terms  of  manly  indigna- 
tion the  conduct  of  the  rioters,  he  addressed  these 
words  of  appropriate  warning  to  the  working 
men :  "  Working  men  of  Manchester,  look  to 
yourselves,  you  who  look  to  your  benefit  and  sick 
clubs,  and  your  trade  societies — look  to  those 
men  who  would  take  forcible  possession  of  this 
room,  which  was  occupied  by  the  Anti-Corn-Law 
Association — who  had  upset  meetings  called  to 
form  Parthenons  and  other  literary  associations 


ANTI-CORN-LAW  AGITATION.  47 

— who  would  make  violent  inroads  upon  Anti- 
Slavery  meetings  ;  these  men  will  take  possession 
of  your  meetings  unless  you  check  them  in  the 
bud.  Nay,  more ;  I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying 
that  even  your  quiet,  happy,  and  well-regulated 
firesides  will  not  be  safe  unless  the  strong  arm 
of  the  law  is  brought  to  interfere  between  you 
and  the  wishes  of  those  lawless  men,  who  have  no 
other  restraint  but  the  fear  of  the  law  and  its 
consequences." 

A  friend  and  associate  of  Cobden  at  that  pe- 
riod of  his  career  at  which  we  have  now  arrived 
thus  describes  the  impression  he  then  formed  of 
him: 

"  Many  years  of  political  turmoil  have  passed 
away  since  we  first  saw  Richard  Cobden.  He 

was  then  a  comparatively  young  man In 

private  life  we  never  met  a  more  loveable  man 
than  Richard  Cobden.  He  was  mildness,  and 
gentleness,  and  sympathetic  courtesy  personified. 
The  natural  refinement  and  modesty  of  his  mind 
was  visible  in  his  countenance  and  in  his  whole 
deportment.  He  had  the  happy  art  of  drawing 
people  about  him,  and  of  so  making  them  his 
personal  friends  by  the  interest  he  took  in  them, 
and  by  the  certainty  with  which  he  inspired 
them,  that  his  best  advice  was  ever  at  their  serv- 
ice. No  one  meeting  Mr.  Cobdeu  for  the  first 
time,  and  under  any  circumstances,  would  expe- 
rience any  difficulty  in  addressing  him.  There 


48  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

was  that  in  his  very  look  which  inspired  confi- 
dence, and  in  his  manner  which  conciliated  more 
than  passing  good-will.  He  affected  no  superi- 
ority, and  claimed  no  deference,  even  when  in 
communication  with  the  poorest  of  the  people. 
Nothing  was  easier  to  see  than  that  Mr.  Cobden 
thoroughly  and  heartily  sympathized  with  the 
working  classes,  and  that  he  was  constantly  em- 
ployed in  devising  how  he  could  best  assist  in 
elevating  them  in  the  social  scale  without  injury 
to  the  best  interests  of  those  above  them." 


FORMATION  OF  THE  LEAGUE.  49 


CHAPTER  III. 

FORMATION    OF   THE   LEAGUE. 

THE  delegated  Free  Traders  came  to  the  con- 

O 

elusion  that  the  constituencies  and  the  country 
would  require  a  great  deal  more  of  instruction 
and  arousing  ere  repeal  could  be  extorted  from 
the  monopolist  Legislature.  They  issued  an  ad- 
dress to  the  public,  containing,  among  other  rec- 
ommendations, the  following :  "  The  formation  of 
a  permanent  union,  to  be  called  the  ANTI-CORN- 
LAW  LEAGUE,  composed  of  all  the  towns  and  dis- 
tricts represented  in  the  delegation,  and  as  many 
others  as  might  be  induced  to  form  Anti-Corn- 
Law  Associations,  and  to  join  the  League. 

"  With  the  view  to  secure  the  unity  of  action, 
the  central  office  of  the  League  shall  be  estab- 
lished in  Manchester,  to  which  body  shall  be  in- 
trusted, among  other  duties,  that  of  engaging 
and  recommending  competent  lecturers,  the  ob- 
taining the  co-operation  of  the  public  press,  and 
the  establishing  and  conducting  of  a  stamped  cir- 
cular, for  the  purpose  of  keeping  a  constant  cor- 
respondence with  the  local  associations." 

This  manifesto  issued,  the  delegates  at  once 
dispersed  themselves  among  their  several  towns, 
D 


50  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

and  held  meetings  in  every  part  of  the  country. 
The  League  commenced  also  a  vigorous  publica- 
tion of  appropriate  popular  pamphlets,  the  well- 
known  "Facts  for  Farmers"  being  among  the 
first  issued.  Ten  thousand  of  each  sheet  were  at 
first  issued.  Subsequently,  in  the  heat  and  height 
of  the  controversy,  an  issue  of  half  a  million  of 
one  pamphlet  was  far  from  rare.  Within  a  month 
of  the  formation  of  the  League,  the  "  Anti-Corn- 
Law  Circular"  was  started,  and  commenced  with 
a  circulation  of  15,000. 

Cobden,  of  course,  was  just  the  man  to  support 
such  wise  and  beneficial  measures  as  Rowland 
Hill's  Penny  Postage  and  Lytton  Bulwer's  re- 
duction on  the  Taxes  on  Knowledge.  Accord- 
ingly, Ashurst  and  Charles  Knight  in  London  did 
not  support  these  measures  with  a  whit  more  ac- 
tivity than  Cobden  and  others  of  the  Leaguers 
displayed  in  Manchester.  Cobden  saw  that  the 
Free  Trade  cause  would  be  enormously  benefited 
by  these  reductions.  The  "  Anti-Corn-Law  Cir- 
cular" was  at  first  issued  unstamped,  but  the  gov- 
ernment looked  upon  it  as  a  newspaper,  and  it  had 
to  be  stamped.  The  stamp  duty  had,  by  a  most 
propitious  accident,  been  just  reduced  to  a  penny. 
And  the  stamping  of  the  "  Circular"  turned  out 
to  be  most  advantageous ;  for  each  copy  issued, 
after  being  handed  from  one  to  another,  was  re- 
posted,  generally  to  some  friend  in  the  country, 
who  similarly  circulated  it  in  his  circle,  and  thus 


FORMATION  OF  THE  LEAGUE.  51 

the  very  machinery  of  government  became  the 
winged  Mercury  of  the  Leaguers  who  were  as- 
sailing it.  Shortly  after  canie  the  Penny  Post- 
age. It  caused  the  correspondence  of  the  League 
to  increase — literally,  we  do  not  use  a  mere  fig- 
ure of  rhetoric — a  hundred  fold.  Banquets  seem 
to  have  been  very  much  in  vogue  in  the  early 
days  of  the  League.  Mr.  Paulton,  having  re- 
turned to  Lancashire  after  a  most  successful  tour 
in  Scotland,  was  entertained  at  dinner  at  Bolton. 
Mr.  Cobden  was  present,  and  so  also  was  Mr. 
Bright,  then  a  very  young  man.  Both  of  them 
spoke,  Mr.  Bright's  speech  being  the  first  deliv- 
ered by  him  out  of  his  native  town.  The  occa- 
sion is  interesting  as  being  the  first  on  which 
these  trusty  allies  appeared  in  public  together  on 
behalf  of  Free  Trade  views.  The  first  time  they 
met  was  when  Bright,  then  quite  a  stripling, 
walked  one  day  into  Mr.  Cobden's  warehouse  to 
solicit  him  to  come  to  Rochdale  to  address  an 
education  meeting.  He  accepted  the  invitation ; 
Bright  himself  also  spoke,  and  Cobden  was  so 
struck  with  him  that  he  sought  to  press  him 
wholly  into  the  Anti-Corn-Law  cause.  Bright, 
who  married  young,  lost  his  wife  shortly  after 
marriage.  He  went  to  Leamington,  where  Cob- 
den visited  him,  and  found  him  bowed  down  by 
grief.  "  Come  with  me,"  said  Cobden,  "  and  we 
will  never  rest  until  we  abolish  the  Corn  Laws." 
Bright  arose  and  went  with  him ;  and  thus  was 


52  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

his  great  sorrow  turned  to  the  nation's  and  the 
world's  advantage. 

The  campaign  of  1840  was  commenced  with 
extraordinary  vigor.  A  numerous  meeting  of 
delegates  was  to  be  held  in  Manchester.  The 
town  contained  no  hall  large  enough  to  contain 
half  of  the  members  of  the  League  resident  in 
Manchester  and  its  immediate  vicinity.  And  the 
Leaguers  desired  to  bring  as  many  opponents  of 
their  views  as  possible  within  the  range  of  their 
voices.  Here  was  a  difficulty.  Mr.  Cobden,  ever 
ready,  solved  it.  He  happened  to  own  nearly  all 
the  land  in  Saint  Peter's  Field,  in  which  the  Pe- 
terloo  massacre  had  been  perpetrated  more  than 
twenty  years  previously.  Cobden  offered  the 
site ;  it  was  accepted ;  and  the  great  and  com- 
modious Free  Trade  Hall  thereon  ultimately 
erected.  Meanwhile  an  immense  temporary  pa- 
vilion was  raised,  by  the  work  of  a  hundred  men 
for  eleven  days.  It  was  resolved  to  inaugurate 
the  opening  of  the  pavilion  by  a  banquet.  The 
public  eagerness  to  be  present  was  immense,  for 
the  Leaguers  had  secured  a  coadjutor  of  enor- 
mous power  and  value.  Daniel  O'Connell  arrived 
in  Manchester  in  time  for  the  banquet,  being  met 
by  thousands  of  enthusiastic  admirers  at  the  rail- 
way, and  escorted  by  them  to  the  pavilion.  All 
the  leading  Free  Trade  members  of  Parliament 
and  delegates  from  the  chief  towns  of  the  empire 
were  present.  O'Connell  was  the  hero  of  the 


FORMATION  OF  THE  LEAGUE.  53 

evening,  and  delivered  one  of  his  greatest  speech- 
es. Cobden  immediately  followed  him ;  but  so 
great  was  his  modesty,  and  so  little  idea  does  he 
as  yet  seem  to  have  entertained  of  the  leading 
place  he  was  yet  to  take  in  the  struggle,  that  he 
only  made  a  short  speech  of  ten  minutes.  John 
Bright  was  not  even  on  the  platform,  but  occu- 
pied a  humble  position  among  the  mass  of  the 
auditors.  Brief  as  was  Cobden's  speech,  it  was 
long  enough  to  contain  a  fine  demonstration  of 
the  world-wide,  as  well  as  national,  aspect  of  the 
question.  "  We  have  here,"  said  he, "  gentlemen 
from  almost  every  region  of  the  globe.  We  have 
here  gentlemen  from  Mexico,  and  from  the  Unit- 
ed States ;  from  Paris  and  St.  Petersburg  ;  from 
Odessa  and  Geneva.  Indeed,  I  scarcely  knaw  a 
town  within  the  German  League  which  is  not 
represented  here  to-night.  They  will  unite  the 
Baltic  and  the  Black  Sea,  and  cover  their  rivers 
with  commerce  as  the  rivers  of  England  are  cov- 
ered. The  object  of  the  Anti-Corn-Law  League 
is  to  draw  together  in  the  bonds  of  friendship — 
to  unite  in  the  bonds  of  amity  the  whole  world." 
The  leading  speakers  on  this  occasion  were  Dr. 
Bowring,  Sharman  Crawford,  George  Thompson, 
and  Ebenezer  Elliot.  Mr.  Milner  Gibson  made  his 
first  appearance,  on  this  night,  on  a  Free  Trade 
platform,  and  made  a  most  favorable  impression. 
On  the  next  night  a  working-men's  banquet  was 
held,  five  thousand  men  being  in  the  hall,  the  fe- 


$4  LIFE  OF  KICHARU  COBDEN. 

male  members  of  their  families  filling  the  galleries. 
Mr.  Cobden  was  again  one  of  the  speakers. 

One  of  the  events  of  1840  was  the  interview 
of  a  deputation  of  the  Leaguers,  Cobden  being 
one,  with  Lord  Melbourne.  Cobden  expressed  to 
his  lordship  with  emphasis  the  strong  desire  of 
the  Free  Traders  to  have  all  taxes  supposed  to  act 
protectively  to  manufactures  removed,  as  well  as 
the  tax  on  bread.  At  the  end  of  the  conference, 
Melbourne  said  he  could  not  pledge  himself  to 
repeal.  He  acknowledged  the  respectability  of 
the  deputation,  but  had  the  ineffable  assurance 
to  add  that  the  government  did  not  assume  re- 
sponsibility or  initiation  in  the  matter,  but  left 
them  to  the  House  of  Commons !  One  of  the 
deputation  rejoined:  "My  lord,  we  leave  you 
with  the  consciousness  of  having  done  our  duty, 
and  the  responsibility  for  the  future  must  rest 
upon  the  government."  Melbourne's  easy  insou- 
ciant tone  proved  very  valuable  to  the  League. 
It  evoked  instant  indignation,  and  brought  in  at 
once  many  recruits  and  large  subscriptions. 

A  subsequent  deputation  which  waited  upon 
Mr.  Baring,  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  and 
Mr.  Labouchere,  the  President  of  the  Board  of 
Trade,  presented  one  of  the  most  extraordinary 
scenes  ever  witnessed  in  a  Downing-Street  Office. 
We  prefer  to  present  it  in  the  words  of  Mr.  Pren- 
tice, for  he  was  a  spectator  of,  and  a  participant 
in  it :  "  Mr.  J.  B.  Smith  began  the  conference  in 


FORMATION  OF  THE  LEAGUE.  55 

a  modest  and  respectful,  but  perfectly  firm  man- 
ner  Mr.  John  Brooks,  the  worthy  Bor- 

oughreeve  of  Manchester,  followed,  and  stated, 
unmoved,  many  instances  of  serious  depression  in 
the  property  of  men  of  his  own  class ;  but  when 
he  came  to  give  a  detail  of  the  distresses  of  the 
working  classes,  and  to  describe  one  particular 
family,  the  members  of  which,  after  a  life  of  econ- 
omy and  industry,  had  been  compelled  to  pawn 
articles  of  furniture  and  clothes,  one  after  another, 
till  nothing  was  left  but  bare  walls  and  empty 
cupboards,  his  feelings  completely  overpowered 
him ;  convulsive  sobs  choked  his  utterance,  and 
he  was  obliged  to  pause  till  he  recovered  from  his 
deep  emotion.  The  tears  rolled  down  the  cheeks 
of  Joseph  Sturge ;  John  Benjamin  Smith  strove 
in  vain  to  conceal  his  feelings ;  there  was  scarcely 
a  tearless  eye  in  the  multitude ;  and  the  ministers 
looked  with  perfect  astonishment  at  a  scene  so 

unusual  to  statesmen  and  courtiers Joseph 

Sturge  made  a  powerful  appeal  to  the  ministers, 
placing  the  whole  question  upon  the  eternal  prin- 
ciples of  justice  and  morality,  which,  he  said,  were 
shamefully  outraged  by  a  tax  on  the  food  of  the 
people.  The  conference,  if  such  it  could  be  call- 
ed, where  unpalatable  truths  were  forced  upon 
the  attention  of  unwilling  ears,  was  appropriately 
closed  by  some  bold  and  really  eloquent  remarks 
from  Mr.  Cobden,  who  told  the  ministers  that 
their  decision  would  become  a  matter  of  history, 


56  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

and  '  would  stamp  their  character  either  as  rep- 
resentatives merely  of  class  interests,  or  the  pro- 
moters of  an  enlightened  commercial  policy.' " 

Up  to  this  date  the  Anti-Corn-Law  Leaguers 
had  believed — or  hoped — that  some  dependence 
might  be  placed  in  the  Whig  party.  Many  of  its 
members  had  declared  themselves  against  the 
Corn  Laws  when  out  of  office,  and  it  was  hoped, 
after  they  had  had  handed  to  them  the  reins  of 
the  state,  they  might  lend  a  friendly  hand  to  those 
who  were  contesting  the  great  landowners'  mo- 
nopoly. The  cold  responses  of  Lord  Melbourne, 
Mr.  Baring,  and  Mr.  Labouchere  thoroughly  dis- 
sipated the  last  remnants  of  that  faint  hope,  and 
the  League  now  declared  themselves  formally  to 
that  effect.  Immediately  after  the  interviews 
which  we  have  just  chronicled,  they  passed  a  reso- 
lution, "  That,  dissociating  ourselves  from  all  po- 
litical parties,  we  hereby  declare  that  we  will  use 
every  exertion  to  obtain  the  return  of  those  mem- 
bers to  Parliament  alone  who  will  support  a  re- 
peal of  the  Corn  Laws."  The  official  Whigs 
laughed  at  this.  "  For  eight  or  nine  years  they 
had  found  that  the  cry  of '  do  not  embarrass  the 
administration,'  and  '  keep  the  Tories  down,'  had 
drawn  around  them  those  who  had  occasionally 
shown  a  disposition  to  diverge  into  more  radical 
courses.  They  thought  the  same  cry  would  serve 
them  in  any  emergency,  and  they  laughed  at  the 
notion  that  the  assertion  of  an  '  abstract  principle' 


FORMATION  OF  THE  LEAGUE.  57 

would  withdraw  any  of  their  usual  supporters 
from  their  party  allegiance."  Ere  many  years 
they  found  their  mistake. 

It  was  now  determined  that  the  leading  mem- 
bers of  the  League,  as  well  as  the  paid  and  pro- 
fessional lecturers,  should  go  forth  and  address 
meetings  as  itinerants.  Cobden  began  to  take 
his  fair  share  of  the  work.  And  he  astonished 
his  coadjutors  by  the  power  he  displayed  of  ad- 
dressing arguments  to  the  roughest  understand- 
ings, and  even  disarming  the  objections  of  the 
most  prejudiced  opponents — working-men  who 
had  been  directed  on  the  wrong  scent  by  the  To- 
ries, and  their  allies  the  Chartists.  His  colleagues 
had  feared  until  now  "  that  he  was  a  little  too  re- 
fined for  the  rough  work  of  a  popular  meeting." 

Ladies  were  now  enlisted  in  the  holy  and  right- 
eous propaganda.  It  was  found  that  they  took  a 
deep  interest  in  the  subject  which  so  engrossed 
their  fathers,  husbands,  and  brothers :  one  old 
lady  of  eighty  said  that,  "  in  her  daily  prayers 
for  bread,  she  also  prayed  for  a  blessing  on  the 
sood  work  of  Richard  Cobden."  The  first  of  the 

o 

great  League  tea-parties  was  held  in  the  Man- 
chester Corn  Exchange,  in  October,  1840.  Mrs. 
Cobden  presided  at  one  of  the  tables,  and  her 
husband  was  one  of  the  speakers.  With  custom- 
ary Tory  courtesy,  the  ladies  were  reproached 
by  the  monopolists  and  their  toady  abettors  with 
"  indelicacy."  The  ladies  could  well  despise  the 


58  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

taunt,  for  these  tea-meetings  proved  most  serv- 
iceable to  the  cause.  They  required  no  cham- 
pion; but  a  most  redoubtable  one  appeared  in 
the  person  of  Frederic  Bastiat.  "If  woman," 
said  he,  "  does  become  alarmed  at  the  dull  syllo- 
gism and  cold  statistics,  she  is  gifted  with  a  mar- 
velous sagacity,  with  a  promptitude  and  certainty 
of  appreciation,  which  make  her  detect  at  once  on 
what  side  a  serious  emphasis  sympathizes  with 
the  tendencies  of  her  own  heart.  She  has  com- 
prehended that  the  effort  of  the  League  is  a  cause 
of  justice  and  of  reparation  toward  the  suffering 
classes ;  she  has  comprehended  that  almsgiving 
is  not  the  only  form  of  charity.  We  are  ready  to 
succor  the  unfortunate,  say  they ;  but  that  is  no 
reason  why  the  law  should  make  unfortunates. 
We  are  willing  to  feed  those  who  are  hungry,  to 
clothe  those  who  are  cold,  but  we  applaud  efforts 
which  have  for  their  object  the  removal  of  the 
barriers  which  interpose  between  clothing  and 
nakedness,  between  subistence  and  starvation. 
....  In  former  times  the  ladies  crowned  the 
conqueror  of  the  tourney.  Valor,  address,  clem- 
ency, became  popularized  by  the  intoxicating 
sound  of  their  applause.  In  those  times  of  trouble 
and  of  viplence,  in  which  brutal  force  overrode 
the  feeble  and  the  defenseless,  it  was  a  good  thing 
to  encourage  the  union  of  the  generosity  which 
is  found  in  the  courage  and  loyalty  of  the  knight 
with  the  rude  manners  of  the  soldier.  What ! 


FORMATION  OF  THE  LEAGUE.  59 

because  the  times  are  changed ;  because  the  age  is 
advanced ;  because  muscular  force  has  given  place 
to  moral  energy;  because  injustice  and  oppression 
borrow  other  forms,  and  strife  is  removed  from 
the  field  of  battle  to  the  conflict  of  ideas,  shall  the 
mission  of  woman  be  terminated  ?  Shall  she  be 
always  restricted  to  the  rear  of  the  social  move- 
ment? Shall  it  be  forbidden  to  her  to  exercise 
over  new  customs  her  benignant  influence,  or  to 
foster  under  her  regard  the  virtues  of  a  more 
elevated  order  which  modern  civilization  has  call- 
ed into  existence  ?" 


60  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

COBDEN   ENTERS   PARLIAMENT. 

A  VACANCY  occurred  in  the  representation  of 
Walsall.  The  Leaguers  determined  to  seize  the 
occasion  to  show  the  Whigs  that  they  really  meant 
what  they  had  said,  and  that  they  would  support 
any  candidate,  of  whatever  politics,  who  would 
go  for  the  total  abolition  of  the  Corn  Laws.  Two 
candidates  appeared ;  the  Tory  being  Mr.  Glad- 
stone, fresh  from  the  University  of  Oxford,  and 
the  Whig,  a  young  cornet  in  the  Guards,  the 
Hon.  Mr.  Lyttleton.  Both  candidates  refused  to 
pledge  themselves  to  the  League  principles,  and 
the  Leaguers  resolved  to  start  a  candidate  of  their 
own,  basing  his  claims  on  his  Anti-Corn-Law  prin- 
ciples alone.  Mr.  Lyttleton  found  that  he  had 
no  chance,  and  retired.  Mr.  J.  B.  Smith  was  se- 
lected as  the  League  candidate.  Up  till  the  day 
of  polling,  Cobden  was  busy  speaking  and  can- 
vassing for  his  friend,  and  using  to  the  utmost  so 
admirable  an  occasion  for  the  preaching  of  pure 
Free  Trade  principles.  The  Ministerial  party 
were  frantic  at  this  "  treachery  to  the  Liberal 
cause,"  "  playing  into  the  hands  of  the  Tories," 
and  the  like ;  but  the  Leaguers  remained  stanch. 


COBDEN  ENTERS  PARLIAMENT.  61 

They  almost  carried  their  candidate,  spite  of  the 
fact  that  the  great  Whig  families  of  the  neigh- 
borhood, incensed  at  the  displacement  of  their 
representative  and  relative,  exercised  no  influence 
on  the  election.  This  was  regarded  as  a  virtual 
triumph  by  the  League  and  Mr.  Cobden.  At  a 
meeting  held  at  Manchester  shortly  after  the  elec- 
tion, he  said :  "  So  effectually  had  repeal  possessed 
itself  of  the  people  of  Walsall,  owing  to  the  in- 
formation circulated  there  on  the  subject  by  the 
members  of  the  League,  and  more  especially  by 
the  aid  of  our  talented  lecturer,  Mr.  Acland,  that 
Smith  was  never  once  asked  his  political  opinions. 
In  his  address  he  never  mentioned  one  word  of 
his  political  opinions,  and  all  the  time  he  was 
there  I  believe  not  an  individual  put  a  question 
to  him  as  to  party  politics.  This  is  a  remai'kable 
fact,  and  there  can  not  be  a  doubt  that  at  the 
general  election,  come  when  it  may,  the  great 
rallying  cry  will  be, '  No  bread  tax.' " 

The  devotion  with  which  Cobden  had  by  this 
time  fairly  entered  upon  his  great  Free  Trade  agi- 
tation, and  his  intense  desire  to  secure  the  alliance 
of  the  best  men  in  the  state,  will  sufficiently  ap- 
pear by  the  following  letter  addressed  by  him  to 
Joseph  Sturge : 

"MANCHESTER,  February  20,  1841. 

"My  DEAR  STURGE, — When  I  got  your  favor 
of  the  22d  of  January,  making  the  munificent 
offer  of  contributin-g  ,£200,  instead  of  £100,  for 


62  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

the  current  year's  agitation  of  the  Anti-Corn-Law 
question,!  wrote  to  you  to  beg  you  would  address 
a  letter  to  the '  Circular'  to  that  effect,  and  at  the 
same  time  impress  on  the  League  the  importance 
of  cleaving  to  the  TRUE  principle  of  immediate 
abolition.  I  thought  that  such  a  letter  from  you 
would  do  much  good,  and  I  think  so  still.  In- 
deed, it  is  now  more  than  ever  necessary  that  we 
should  cling  to  our  principle,  when  parties  (I 
mean  the  two  great  political  parties)  are  so  near- 
ly balanced  that  both  are  beginning  to  turn  their 
eye  toward  us.  The  Whigs  are  trying  to  use  the 
League  ;  and  there  are  so  many  of  our  supporters 
who  are  mere  partisans,  that  I  am  afraid  they  will 
break  our  ranks,  unless  such  men  as  you  should 
keep  us  together.  A  letter  from  you  in  the '  Anti- 
Corn-Law-Circular,'  published  at  the  present  time, 
exhorting  us  to  stand  firm  to  principle,  and  prom- 
ising your  co-operation  so  long  as  we  do  so,  would 
be  a  rallying-point  for  all  the  good  and  true  men, 
and  would  shame  the  wanderers,  and  bring  them 
back  to  our  ranks. 

"  In  your  letter  received  to-day,  you  surprise 
me  by  mentioning  your  project  of  a  trip  across 
the  Atlantic.  I  should  sincerely  regret  your  ab- 
sence from  England  at  any  time,  but  it  would  be 
a  very  great  public  loss  if  you  were  in  America 
during  the  time  of  the  meeting  of  Anti-Corn-Law 
deputies  this  spring.  Efforts  will,  I  know,  be  made 
to  bring  prominently  forward  the  view  that  the 


COBDEN  ENTERS  PARLIAMENT.      63 

slave  system  of  the  United  States  is  being  indi- 
rectly propped  up  by  our  Corn  Laws ;  and  I  think 
it  possible  that  a  couple  of  deputies  from  America 
will  attend  the  meeting  of  our  deputations.  To 
lose  you  at  such  a  time  would  be  to  throw  away 
the  good  that  must  arise  from  the  right  direction 
of  this  new  movement.  I  have  had  some  cor- 
respondence with  the  editor  of  the  '  New  York 
Emancipator,'  and  he  tells  me  the  Anti-Slavery 
party  there  are  trying  to  raise  funds  to  send  two 
missionaries  to  England  to  lay  before  the  public 
here  the  effects  of  our  Corn  Laws  in  reference  to 
the  slave  question  in  the  United  States.  I  see  by 
the  '  Massachusetts  Abolitionist'  that  a  similar 
movement  is  going  on  in  the  New  England  States. 
Now  this  is  a  glorious  field  of  operation  for  you. 
There  are  more  human  beings  in  bonds  in  North 
America  than  in  all  the  rest  of  the  Christian 
world,  and  we  by  our  Corn  Laws  throw  the  entire 
power  over  the  Legislature  there  into  the  hands 
of  the  slaveowners.  What  a  splendid  theme  this 
would  make  for  O'Connell  and  Brougham  in  the 
Anti-Corn-Law  debate,  if  you  were  in  London  to 
urge  the  subject  on  their  attention  at  the  meeting 
of  deputies !  Don't,  I  entreat  you,  turn  your  back 
upon  us  at  such  a  crisis.  By  remaining  over  our 
meeting  of  deputies,  you  will  help  most  effectually 
to  strike  the  shackles  from  the  slaves  in  America, 
and  from  our  white  slaves  here  at  the  same  time. 
"  Yours  very  truly,  R.  COBDEN." 


64  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

In  1841,  the  Melbourne  administration,  which 
had  been  during  the  latter  part  of  its  existence  as 
unpopular  as  a  government  could  well  be,  was 
evidently  tottering  to  its  fall.  Without  any  pre- 
monition, and  to  the  surprise  of  both  parties, 
Lord  John  Russell  gave  notice  of  a  motion  "  that 
the  House  resolve  itself  into  a  committee  of  the 
whole  House,  to  consider  of  the  acts  relating  to 
the  trade  in  corn."  Every  body  at  once  said 
that  ministers  were  going  to  dissolve ;  that  they 
wished  a  good  "cry,"  and  were  bidding  for  the 
support  and  alliance  of  the  League.  When  the  dis- 
closure was  fully  made,  and  Lord  John  proposed 
a  fixed  duty  of  eight  shillings,  the  mind  of  the, 
League  was  made  up  at  once ;  indeed,  it  had  been 
made  up  in  anticipation  should  the  contingency 
occur  which  now  had  arisen.  The  League  at  once 
communicated  with  all  its  auxiliary  associations, 
urging  them  to  redouble  their  efforts,  for  minis- 
ters were  evidently  feeling  their  way,  and  might, 
if  the  country  showed  unquestionable  earnest- 
ness, concede  the  whole.  Meeting  after  meeting 
followed  in  rapid  succession,  Cobden  attending 
a  much  larger  proportion  than  he  had  hitherto 
done,  and  advanced  day  by  day  in  the  admii-a- 
tion  of  his  colleagues  and  the  public.  It  was 
now  agreed  that  a  strong  effort  must  be  made 
to  return  him  to  Parliament;  a  sufficient  proof 
that  he  had  now  attained  the  very  first  rank. 
Lord  John  Russell,  as  midsummer  approached, 


COBDEN  ENTERS  PARLIAMENT.       65 

brought  forward  his  complete  financial  statement, 
which  comprised  signal  steps  in  the  direction  of 
Free  Trade,  especially  in  the  items  of  timber  and 
sugar.  The  Leaguers  willingly  admitted  this ; 
but  no  equivalent,  of  however  tempting  a  charac- 
ter, would  they  accept  in  lieu  of  the  utter  aboli- 
tion of  the  Corn  Laws.  At  one  of  the  League 
meetings  held  this  summer,  Mr.  Cobden,  by  this 
time,  though  but  thirty-seven  years  old,  enjoying 
an  income  not  far  short  of  £10,000  a  year,  used 
this  strong  language :  "Beginning  my  self  without 
one  shilling  besides  what  I  derived  from  my  own 
industry,  I  have  pushed  my  way  along,  but  I  de- 
clare it  as  my  firm  conviction  that,  had  I  been 
left  to  commence  my  career  at  the  present  day, 
such  is  the  state  of  trade,  I  could  not  have  a 
chance  of  rising.  Let  the  young  men  who  fill  our 
warehouses  think  of  this,  and  they  will  see  the 
deep  interest  they  have  in  this  matter."  Cob- 
den's  fitting  and  telling  speeches  were  by  this 
time  so  popular,  that  if  he  appeared  on  a  League 
platform,  even  if  not  set  down  in  the  evening's 
programme,  or  himself  intending  to  speak,  he  was 
sure  to  be  called  for  by  the  audience,  and  was 
obliged  to  address  them. 

Sir  Robert  Peel  defeated  ministers  on  a  vote  of 
confidence  by  a  majority  of  one,  and  they  determ- 
ined to  go  to  the  country.  At  the  election,  which 
as  a  whole  returned  a  Conservative  majority  of 
seventy-six — a  nemesis  on  the  Whigs  which  their 
E 


66  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

own  once  warm  friends,  the  Radicals,  did  not  re- 
gret— the  League  secured  several  seats.  AtWal- 
sall  their  candidate  was  triumphantly  returned. 
Bowring  sat  for  Bolton,  Cobden  for  Stockport. 
Two  Free  Traders,  but  giving  a  preference  to 
the  Whig  ministers  on  grounds  of  party,  were  re- 
turned for  Manchester :  these  were  Mark  Phillips 
and  Milner  Gibson. 

Mr.  Cobden  embraced  the  first  opportunity 
that  presented  itself  of  addressing  the  Parliament 
to  which  he  had  been  admitted.  His  maiden 
speech  was  delivered  on  the  25th  of  August,  being 
the  second  night  of  the  debate  on  the  address 
in  answer  to  the  queen's  speech.  Miss  Marti- 
neau  thus  describes  his  first  appearance,  and  the 
opinions  formed  of  it : 

"When  the  daily  papers  of  the  26th  of  August 
had  reached  their  destinations  throughout  the 
island,  there  were  meditative  students,  anxious 
invalids  in  their  sick-chambers,  watchful  philos- 
ophers, and  a  host  of  sufferers  from  want,  who 
felt  that  a  new  era  in  the  history  of  England  had 
opened,  now  that  the  People's  Tale  had  at  last 
been  told  in  the  People's  House  of  Parliament. 
Such  observers  as  these,  and  multitudes  more, 
asked  of  all  who  could  tell  them  who  this  Richard 
Cobden  was,  and  what  he  was  like ;  and  the  an- 
swer was,  that  he  was  the  member  of  a  calico- 
printing  firm  in  Manchester ;  that  it  was  supposed 
that  he  would  be  an  opulent  man  if  he  prose- 


COBDEN  ENTERS  PARLIAMENT.      67 

cuted  business  as  men  of  business  generally  do, 
but  that  he  gallantly  sacrificed  the  pursuit  of 
his  own  fortune,  and  his  partners  gallantly  spared 
him  to  the  public,  for  the  sake  of  the  great  cause 
of  Corn  Law  Repeal — his  experience,  his  liberal 
education,  and  his  remarkable  powers  all  indi- 
cating him  as  a  fitting  leader  in  the  enterprise. 
It  was  added  that  his  countenance  was  grave,  his 
manner  simple  and  earnest,  his  eloquence  plain, 
ready,  and  forcible,  of  a  kind  eminently  suited  to 
his  time  and  his  function,  and  wholly  new  in  the 
House  of  Commons.  It  was  at  once  remarked 
that  he  was  not  treated  in  the  House  with  the 
courtesy  usually  accorded  to  a  new  member,  and 
it  was  perceived  that  he  did  not  need  such  ob- 
servance. However  agreeable  it  might  have 
been  to  him,  he  did  not  expect  it  from  an  assem- 
blage proud  of '  the  preponderance  of  the  landed 
interest'  within  it;  and  he  could  do  without  it. 
Some,  who  had  least  knowledge  of  the  operative 
classes,  and  the  least  sympathy  for  them,  were 
touched  by  the  simplicity  and  manliness  with 
which  the  new  member  received  the  jeers  which 
followed  his  detailed  statements  of  '  the  propor- 
tion of  the  bread  duty  paid  by  men  who  must 
support  their  families  on  ten  shillings  a  week.'  " 
We  oifer  no  excuse  for  making  considerably 
more  lengthened  citation  from  Cobden's  first 
speech  in  Parliament  than  we  shall  be  enabled  to 
do  in  the  case  of  any  of  those  delivered  subse- 


68  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

quently,  and  we  strike  into  it  at  the  passage  re- 
ferred to  by  Miss  Martin  eau : 

"  He  called  the  attention  of  the  House  to  the 
working  of  the  Bread  Tax.  The  effect  was  this: 
it  compelled  the  working  classes  to  pay  40  per 
cent,  more,  that  is,  a  higher  price  than  they  should 
pay  if  there  was  a  free  trade  in  corn.  When 
honorable  gentlemen  spoke  of  40s.  as  the  price 
of  foreign  corn,  they  would  make  the  addition 
50  per  cent.  He  did  not  overstate  the  case,  and 
therefore  he  set  down  the  bread  tax  as  imposing 
an  additional  tax  of  40  per  cent.  He  had  now 
to  call  their  attention  to  facts  contained  in  the 
Report  of  the  Committee  on  the  Hand-loom 
Weavers.  It  was  a  report  got  up  with  great 
care  and  singular  talent.  It  gave,  among  other 
things,  the  amount  of  the  earnings  of  a  working- 
man's  family,  and  that  was  put  down  at  ten  shil- 
lings. Looking  at  the  metropolitan  and  rural  dis- 
tricts, they  found  that  not  to  be  a  bad  estimate 
of  the  earnings  of  every  laboring  family.  But 
let  them  proceed  upward,  and  see  how  the  same 
tax  worked.  The  man  who  had  20s.  a  week  still 
paid  2s.  a  week  to  the  bread  tax ;  that  was  to  him 
10  per  cent.,  as  an  income  tax.  If  they  went 
farther,  to  the  man  who  had  40s.  a  week,  the  in- 
come tax  upon  him  in  this  way  was  5  per  cent. 
If  they  mounted  higher,  to  the  man  Avho  had  £5 
a  week,  or  £250  a  year,  it  was  1  per  cent,  income 
tax.  Let  them  ascend  to  the  nobility  and  the 


COBDEN  ENTERS  PARLIAMENT.       69 

millionaires,  to  those  who  had  an  income  of 
£200,000  a  year.  His  family  was  the  same  as  the 
poor  man's,  and  how  did  the  bread  tax  affect  him? 
It  was  one  halfpenny  in  every  £100.  [Here,  we 
presume,  there  were  some  manifestations  of  de- 
rision.] He  did  not  know  whether  it  was  the 
monstrous  injustice  of  the  case,  or  the  humble 
individual  who  stated  it,  that  excited  this  mani- 
festation of  feeling  ;  but,  still,  he  did  state  that 
the  nobleman's  family  paid  to  this  bread  tax  but 
one  halfpenny  in  every  £100  as  income  tax,  while 
the  effect  of  the  tax  upon  the  laborer's  family  was 
20  per  cent." 

We  have  of  set  purpose  omitted,  at  a  recent 
stage  of  our  narrative,  the  record  of  one  of  the 
most  important  and  effective  alliances  which  Cob- 
den  and  his  coadjutors  effected  at  a  date  just  pre- 
vious to  the  assembling  of  the  new  Parliament, 
preferring  to  reserve  its  insertion  in  the  words 
of  Cobden  in  this  speech :  "  Probably  honorable 
gentlemen  were  aware  that  a  very  important 
meeting  had  been  lately  held  at  Manchester ;  he 
alluded  to  the  meeting  of  ministers  of  religion. 
(A  laugh.)  He  understood  that  laugh;  but  he 
should  not  pause  in  his  statement  of  facts,  but 
might  perhaps  notice  it  before  concluding.  He 
had  seen  a  body  of  ministers  of  religion  of  all  de- 
nominations— 650  (and  not  thirty)  in  number — 
assembled  from  all  parts  of  the  country,  at  an 
expense  of  from  three  to  four  thousand  pounds, 


70  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

paid  by  their  congregations.  At  that  meeting 
most  important  statements  of  facts  were  made 
relating  to  the  condition  of  the  laboring  classes. 
He  would  not  trouble  the  House  by  reading  these 
statements,  but  they  showed  that  in  every  dis- 
trict of  the  country — and  these  statements  rested 
upon  unimpeachable  authority — the  condition  of 
the  great  body  of  her  majesty's  laboring  popula- 
tion 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 
in  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  parties  who  had 
to  judge  them  were  their  own  congregations. 
There  were  at  that  meeting  members  of  the  Es- 
tablished Church,  of  the  Church  of  Rome,  In- 
dependents, Baptists,  members  of  the  Church  of 
Scotland,  and  of  the  Secession  Church,  Method- 
ists, and,  indeed,  ministers  of  every  other  denom- 
ination ;  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  this  country.  He 
happened  to  be  the  only  member  of  the  House 
present  at  that  meeting ;  and  he  might  be  allow- 


COBDEN  ENTERS  PARLIAMENT.       71 

ed  to  state  that,  when  he  heard  the  tales  of  mis- 
ery there  described — when  he  heard  these  minis- 
ters 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  de- 
scribed others  as  unfit  to  receive  spiritual  conso- 
lation 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  Laws,  the  provision  monopoly,  was  at 
the  bottom  of  all  that  was  endured,  heard  these 
statements,  and  from  such  authority,  he  must  say 
that  he  rejoiced  to  see  gentlemen  of  such  char- 
acter come  forward,  and,  like  Nathan,  when  he 
addressed  the  owner  of  flocks  and  herds  who  had 
plundered  the  poor  man  of  his  only  lamb,  say 
unto  the  doer  of  injustice,  whoever  he  might  be, 
'  Thou  art  the  man.'  The  people,  through  the 
ministers,  had  protested  against  the  Corn  Laws. 
Those  laws  had  been  tested  by  the  immutable 
morality  of  Scripture.  Those  reverend  gentle- 
men had  prepared  and  signed  a  petition,  in  which 
they  prayed  the  removal  of  those  laws — laws 
which,  they  stated,  violated  the  Scriptures,  and 
prevented  famishing  men  from  having  a  portion 
of  those  fatherly  bounties  which  were  intended 
for  all  people ;  and  he  would  remind  honorable 
gentlemen  that,  besides  these  650  ministers,  there 


72  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

were  1500  others  from  whom  letters  had  been 
received,  offering  up  their  prayers  in  the  several 
localities  to  incline  the  will  of  Him  who  ruled 
princes  and  potentates  to  turn  your  hearts  to  jus- 
tice and  mercy.  When  they  found  so  many  min- 
isters of  religion,  without  any  sectarian  differ- 
ences, joining  heart  and  hand  in  a  great  cause, 
there  could  be  no  doubt  of  their  earnestness. 
He  begged  to  call  to  their  minds  whether  these 
worthy  men  would  not  make  very  efficient  min- 
isters in  this  great  cause?  They  knew  what 
they  had  done  in  the  anti-slavery  question,  when 
the  religious  public  was  roused;  and  what  the 
difference  was  between  stealing  a  man  and  mak- 
ing him  labor,  and  robbing  a  man  of  the  fruit  of 
his  industry,  he  could  not  perceive.  The  noble 
lord,  the  member  for  North  Lancashire  (Lord 
Stanley),  knew  something  of  the  abilities  of  those 
men.  The  noble  lord  had  told  the  House  that 
from  the  moment  the  religious  community  and 
their  pastors  took  up  the  question  of  slavery, 
from  that  moment  the  agitation  must  be  success- 
ful. He  believed  this  would  be  the  case  in  the 
present  instance.  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  En- 
glishmen— there  was  a  permanent  veneration  for 
sacred  things ;  and  where  their  sympathy,  and  re- 
spect, and  deference  were  enlisted  in  what  they 


COBDEN  ENTERS  PARLIAMENT.      73 

believed  to  be  a  sacred  cause,  YOU  AND  YOURS 
(said  Cobden,  with  sudden  fire,  addressing  the 
Tories)  WILL  VANISH  LIKE  CHAFF  BEFORE  THE 
WHIRLWIND  !" 

"  Much  of  this  speech,"  says  Miss  Martineau, 
"relating  to  the  great  meeting  of  religious  minis- 
ters at  Manchester,  and  its  tone  being  determined 
accordingly,  some  of  the  laughing  members  of 
the  House  called  Mr.  Cobden  a  Methodist  parson, 
and  were  astonished  afterward  to  find  what  his 
abilities  were  in  widely  different  directions.  Some 
regarded  him  as  a  pledged  Radical  in  politics,  and 
were  surprised  to  see  him  afterward  verifying  the 
assurances  he  gave  this  night — that  he  belonged 
to  no  party,  and,  as  a  simple  Free  Trader,  would 
support  either  the  Whigs  or  Sir  Robert  Peel, 
whichever  of  them  should  go  farthest  in  repealing 
the  restrictions  on  food."  This  political  neutral- 
ity of  the  League  was  as  distinctly  declared  by 
Cobden  in  the  House  as  it  had  been  on  the  hust- 
ings. His  concluding  words  were :  "  I  assure 
the  House  that  thfe  declarations  I  have  made  were 
not  made  with  a  party  spirit.  I  do  not  call  my- 
self Whig  or  Tory.  I  am  a  Free  Trader,  and  op- 
posed to  monopoly  wherever  I  find  it.  And  this 
I  will  conscientiously  say,  that  though  proud  to 
acknowledge  the  virtues  of  the  Whigs  in  step- 
ping out  from  the  ranks  of  the  monopolists,  and 
going  three  fourths  of  the  way,  if  the  right  hon- 
orable baronet  (Peel)  and  his  supporters  would 


74  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

corne  a  step  forward,  I  would  be  the  first  to  shake 
hands  with  him,  if  he  allowed  me,  and  would  give 
him  a  cordial  support."  There  was  something 
here  almost  prophetic  of  the  great  event  of  five 
years  later. 

Amendments  to  the  address  having  been  car- 
ried by  large  majorities  in  both  Houses,  ministers 
resigned,  and  that  administration  of  Peel,  which 
was  destined  to  be  so  fruitful  of  beneficial  conse- 
quences to  the  nation,  was  inaugurated.  A  short 
autumnal  session  was  held,  the  premier  reserving 
the  statement  of  his  financial  policy  until  the 
spring.  The  League  at  once  burst  into  still  great- 
er activity.  There  were  more  lecturers  and  more 
tracts ;  a  splendid  bazar,  by  which  £9000  were 
netted,  at  Manchester;  and  another  conference 
of  Christian  ministers  at  Edinburg.  And  a  third 
convention  was  appointed  to  meet  in  London  on 
the  reassembling  of  Parliament. 

Ere  the  autumnal  session  was  closed,  Cobden 
spoke  in  terms  of  the  strongest  denunciation  of 
the  premier's  refusal  to  announce  his  financial 
policy — in  other  words,  his  proposals  for  relief 
to  the  prevailing  distress — until  the  succeeding 
year.  The  distress  was  indeed  terrible.  "  Cob- 
den  unmistakably  placed  the  responsibility  of  its 
continuance  on  the  proper  shoulders."  "  In  the 
borough  of  Stockport,  which  he  represented,  the 
distress  was  fearful ;  one  out  of  every  five  houses 
in  Stockport  was  untenanted,  half  of  those  occu- 


COBDEN  ENTERS  PARLIAMENT.      75 

pied  were  not  paying  rent ;  nearly  half  of  the 
manufacturers'  mills  were  closed,  and  thousands 
of  working  people,  who  to  other  countries  would 
be  a  valuable  possession,  were  wandering  about 
the  street  seeking  employment,  but  unable  to  find 
it.  Yet,  in  the  face  of  such  facts,  were  they  to 
wait  five  months  for  measures  of  relief?  God 
knew  whether  or  not  he  should  have  constituents 
in  five  months.  If  emigration  went  on  for  the 
next  six  months  as  it  had  done  for  the  last  twelve 
months,  he  feared  he  should  find  very  few  of  his 
constituents  left.  If,  however,  they  were  to  have 
the  discussion  adjourned  for  six  months,  he  beg- 
ged leave  to  place  the  responsibility,  and  the  par- 
ticular consequences  to  the  laboring  population 
that  would  flow  from  such  a  course,  on  the  shoul- 
ders of  the  right  honorable  gentlemen  opposite. 
They  had  fraternized  with  the  Chartists  to  some 
purpose  during  the  last  twelve  months.  A  coali- 
tion had  taken  place  between  them,  which  he  be- 
lieved was  now  about  to  be  dissolved ;  but  let 
them  beware,  when  going  back  to  a  people  de- 
prived of  work,  discontented  and  dissatisfied,  that 
the  cause  of  the  delay  was  placed  on  the  right 
shoulders.  It  was  right  that  the  working  classes 
should  know  that  they  had  six  months  of  priva- 
tion and  suffering  before  them  merely  because 
certain  honorable  members  were  desirous  not  to 
miss  the  pleasures  of  shooting !" 

It  would  be  impossible  for  us,  within  the  pre- 


76  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

scribed  limits  of  our  performance,  to  present  more 
than  the  succinctest  summary  of  the  doings  of 
Cobden  and  the  League  during  the  years  that 
were  yet  to  intervene  ere  their  labors  were  crown- 
ed with  complete  and  final  success.  "We  must  be 
content  to  present  a  series  of  the  more  salient  in- 
cidents of  the  agitation,  preserving  a  due  and  pro- 
portionate prominence  for  the  parliamentary  ap- 
pearances and  the  platform  utterances  of  the  sub- 
ject of  our  biographic  sketch. 

At  a  great  aggregate  meeting  held  at  Derby  in 
November,  1842,  Mr.  Cobden  made  a  most  lucid 
exposition  of  the  fallacies  of  the  most  loudly-ut- 
tered objections  against  the  cause  to  which  he  had 
dedicated  his  extraordinary  energies.  He  was 
addressing  more  especially  the  manufacturers  of 
Nottinghamshire,  Leicestershire,  and  Derbyshire, 
the  peculiarities  and  conditions  of  whose  crafts  dif- 
fered considerably  from  those  of  the  more  north- 
ern counties.  The  extraordinary  versatility  of 
Cobden,  and  his  capacity  of  adapting  the  style  and 
tone  of  his  arguments  to  the  circumstances,  sym- 
pathies, and  prejudices  of  his  auditors,  whoever 
they  might  be,  from  M.P.'s  down  to  the  most  vio- 
lent of  the  Chartists,  was  one  of  his  most  remark- 
able traits,  and  one  in  which  no  man  in  our  cen- 
tury, with  the  sole  exception  of  O'Connell,  rivaled 
him.  This  characteristic  is  very  manifest  in  the 
speech  from  which  we  here  briefly  quote :  "  Al- 
low me  to  say  that,  listening  to  the  details  which 


COBDEN  ENTERS  PARLIAMENT.       77 

you  have  given  to-day,  going  back  for  a  period  of 
five-and-twenty  years,  showing  a  constant  depres- 
sion in  the  condition  of  the  people,  and  a  decline 
in  your  own  immediate  interests,  I  could  not  help 
thinking — pardon  me  for  saying  so — that  the  agi- 
tation against  the  corn  and  provision  law  should 
have  been  begun  long,  long  ago  in  the  Midland 
Counties.  Why,  gentlemen,  you  have  the  whole 
of  the  case  in  your  own  hands.  We  in  Lanca- 
shire fight  under  a  disadvantage;  we  are  told, 
when  we  call  for  a  repeal  of  the  corn  and  provi- 
sion monopoly,  that  our  distress  arises  from  im- 
provement in  machinery.  But  this  does  not  apply 
to  your  case,  for  I  am  told  that  the  stocking-frame 
has  remained  nearly  the  same  as  when  it  issued 
from  the  hands  of  the  inventors  two  centuries 
ago ;  at  all  events,  I  believe  that  within  the  last 
five-and-twenty  years  no  material  alterations  have 
taken  place  in  the  machine";  and  there  are  no 
steam-engines  with  tall  chimneys  planted  here, 
giving  motion  to  the  power-loom  instead  of  the 
stocking-frame.  Then  we  are  met  in  Manchester 
again  with  the  cry  that  over-production  is  the 
cause  of  all  the  distress.  But  I  have  heard  to-day 
that  your  production  is  declining  ;  that  the  num- 
ber of  frames  in  motion  is  diminishing  instead 
of  increasing,  especially  in  Leicestershire.  It  is, 
therefore,  not  over-production,  it  is  not  machinery, 
that  is  doing  the  mischief  for  you.  But  what  do 
you  hear  also  in  Lancashire?  That  joint-stock 


78  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

banks  have  produced  all  the  distress.  But  here 
I  find  that  no  great  mischief  has  been  produced 
by  joint-stock  banks.  You,  therefore,  have  the 
case  in  your  own  hands.  The  whole  of  the  falla- 
cies of  our  opponents,  as  applied  to  Manchester, 
are  answered  in  your  case ;  and  I  say  that,  with 
such  a  case  in  your  hands,  and  with  such  claims 
on  the  part  of  your  dependents,  henceforth  it  be- 
comes the  province  of  the  Midland  Counties  to 
take  up  the  question,  to  lead  onward  in  the  van, 
and  to  be  the  champions  for  the  total  and  imme- 
diate repeal  of  the  Corn  Laws." 

In  the  same  speech  Mr.  Cobden  thus  aptly  drew 
the  notice  of  his  auditors  to  the  pretense  of  "bur- 
dens on  land,"  and  what  he  frequently  described 
as  the  "Land-Tax  Fraud:"  "Exactly  149  years 
ago,  when  the  landed  aristocracy  got  possession 
of  the  throne  in  the  person  of  King  William,  at 
our  glorious  revolution,  they  got  rid  of  all  the  old 
tenures  and  services,  such  as  the  crown  having  the 
right  of  wardship  over  every  minor,  the  fines  pay- 
able on  the  descent  of  certain  property  from  one 
person  to  another,  and  a  thousand  other  similar 
incumbrances,  which  yielded  the  whole  revenue 
of  the  state ;  and  besides  which,  the  land  had  to 
find  soldiers  and  maintain  them.  These  incum- 
brances were  given  up  for  a  bond  fide  rent-charge 
upon  the  land  of  four  shillings  in  the  pound ;  and 
the  land  was  valued  and  assessed  149  years  ago 
at  £9,000,000 ;  and  upon  that  valuation  the  Land 


COBDEN  ENTERS  PARLIAMENT       79 

Tax  is  still  laid.  Now,  you  gentlemen  of  the  mid- 
dle classes,  whose  windows  are  counted,  and  who 
have  a  schedule  sent  to  you  every  year,  in  which 
you  are  required  to  state  the  number  of  your  dogs 
and  horses ;  and  you  who  have  not  window  and 
dog  duty  to  pay,  but  who  consume  sugar,  and 
coffee,  and  tea,  and  pay  a  tax  for  every  pound  you 
consume  extra — I  say  to  you,  remember  that  the 
landowners  have  never  had  their  land  re-valued 
from  1696  to  the  present  time." 

In  March  of  the  following  year,  in  his  place  in 
the  House  of  Commons,  Cobden  pursued  the  same 
subject  in  more  copious  detail,  and  in  an  elaborate 
speech,  bristling  with  irrefragable  figures  and 
facts,  from  which  we  can  only  afford  space  for  a 
brief  extract,  utterly  demolished  the  delusion  that 
any  special  fiscal  burdens  afflicted  the  land :  "  Hon- 
orable gentlemen  claimed  the  privilege  of  taxing 
our  bread  on  account  of  their  peculiar  burdens 
in  paying  the  highway  rates  and  the  tithes.  Why, 
the  land  had  borne  those  burdens  before  Corn 
Laws  were  thought  of.  The  only  peculiar  state 
burden  borne  by  the  land  was  the  Land  Tax,  and 
he  would  undertake  to  show  that  the  mode  of 
levying  that  tax  was  fraudulent  and  evasive — an 
example,  in  fact,  of  legislative  partiality  and  injus- 
tice second  only  to  the  Corn  Law  itself.  .... 
For  a  period  of  150  years  after  the  Conquest,  the 
whole  of  the  revenue  of  this  country  was  derived 
from  the  land.  During  the  next  150  years  it  yield- 


80  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

ed  nineteen  twentieths  of  the  revenue.  For  the 
next  century,  down  to  the  reign  of  Richard  the 
Third,  it  was  nine  tenths.  During  the  next  sev- 
enty years,  to  the  time  of  Mary,  it  fell  to  about 
three  fourths.  From  this  time  to  the  end  of  the 
Common  wealth,  land  appears  to  have  yielded  half 
the  revenue.  Down  to  the  reign  of  Anne  it  was 
a  fourth.  In  the  reign  of  George  I.  it  was  one 
fifth.  In  George  the  Second's  reign  it  was  one 
sixth.  For  the  first  thirty  years  of  George  the 
Third's  reign,  the  land  yielded  one  seventh  of  the 
revenue.  From  1793  to  1816  (during  the  period 
of  the  Property  Tax),  land  contributed  one  ninth; 
from  which  time  to  the  present,  one  twenty-fifth 
only  of  the  revenue  has  been  derived  directly  from 
land.  Thus  the  land,  which  anciently  paid  the 
whole  of  the  taxation,  paid  now  only  a  fraction,  or 
one  twenty-fifth,  notwithstanding  the  immense  in- 
crease which  had  taken  place  in  the  value  of  the 
rentals.  The  people  had  fared  better  under  the 
despotic  monarchs  than  when  the  powers  of  the 
state  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  a  landed  oli- 
garchy, who  first  exempted  themselves  from  tax- 
ation, and  next  claimed  compensation  by  a  corn 
law  for  their  heavy  and  peculiar  burdens !" 

The  following  facts  furnish  a  tolerably  fair  indi- 
cation of  Mr.  Cobden's  pluckiness — we  can  em- 
ploy no  better  term — at  this  early,  and,  as  some 
thought,  hopeless  period  of  the  Anti-Corn-Law  ag- 
itation. The  League  held  one  of  its  usual  meet- 
ings at  the  dullest,  and  saddest,  and  most  distress- 


COBDEN  ENTERS  PARLIAMENT.  81 

ing  period  of  the  year  at  Manchester.  Silk  Buck- 
ingham was  introduced.  Every  one  remembered 
what  good  service  he  had  rendered  to  the  state 
by  his  lectures  in  former  years  against  the  East 
India  monopoly.  He  addressed  the  meeting ;  so 
did  homely  Joseph  Brotherton,  whose  very  sen- 
sible annual  motions  that  the  House  of  Commons 
should  dismiss  itself  and  betake  itself  to  bed  at  the 
sensible  hour  of  twelve  every  night  many  of  our 
readers  will  recollect.  But  there  was  a  sort  of 
damper  on  the  meeting.  Mr.  Cqbden  jumped  up 
with  alacrity,  and,  to  cheer  his  friends  up,  first 
informed  them  that  Mr.  Buckingham  was  going  to 
join  their  gallant  crew  as  a  recruit ;  he  was  going 
to  become  one  of  their  lecturers.  Then  he  said  he 
was  for  national  co-operation  ;  it  must  be  a  mere 
Manchester  matter  no  longer.  The  League  must 
print  a  million  copies  of  each  of  their  three  prize 
essays.  In  a  fortnight  he'd  have  every  Manches- 
ter printing-press  in  full  swing.  They  must  not 
any  longer  dispense  Free  Trade  tracts,  but  con- 
densed libraries  on  the  Corn  Laws.  Every  lec- 
turer must  have  his  district.  And  as  for  the  mo- 
nopolist papers  jeering  them  and  saying  they 
wouldn't  raise  their  £50,000,  why  he  thought  they 
might  just  as  well  ask  for  a  hundred  thousand  at 
once.  They'd  say  this  to  the  country — "  We'll 
spend  the  money  first;  we'll  put  ourselves  in 
pledge  for  it,  and  we'll  trust  to  our  bread-eating 
countrymen  to  take  us  out  of  pawn !" 


82  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 


CHAPTER  V. 

PBOGEESS    OF   THE   FEEE   TEADE   AGITATION. 

AFTEE  the  five  months'  gestation  by  the  min- 
istry which  we  have  seen  Mr.  Cobden  so  indig- 
nantly denounce,  Sir  Robert  Peel  brought  in  his 
famous  budget  of  1842,  with  its  sliding  scale,  its 
abolition,  or  reduction  of  750  duties  of  greater 
or  lesser  importance,  and  its  other  well-known 
features.  Cobden  and  the  League  would  not  ac- 
cept that  portion  of  it  which  had  reference  to 
corn.  Delegates  were  at  once  again,  to  the  num- 
ber of  six  hundred,  sent  to  London,  and,  to  the 
infinite  annoyance  of  ministers,  made  preparations 
for  a  session  concurrently  with  that  of  Parliament, 
at  their  head-quarters  in  Palace  Yard.  On  one 
occasion  the  deputies  proceeded  in  a  body  to  the 
House  of  Commons.  They  were  flatly  refused 
admission  into  the  House.  They  congregated 
round  the  entrance,  shouting  "  Total  repeal"  and 
"  Cheap  food"  as  the  members  entered.  After 
giving  three  hearty  cheers  for  Free  Trade,  they 
dispersed,  and  on  their  way  backward  met  the 
carriage  of  Sir  Robert  Peel.  "  He  seemed,"  says 
an  eye-witness,  "  at  first,  as  if  they  were  going  to 
cheer  him ;  but  when  he  heard  the  angry  shouts, 


PROGRESS  OF  FREE  TRADE  AGITATION.      83 

'  No  Corn  Law,'  *  Give  bread  and  labor,'  he  lean- 
ed back  in  his  carriage  grave  and  pale."  The 
question  before  the  country  was  between  Sir 
Robert's  plan  of  a  fluctuating  duty  and  Lord 
John  Russell's  proposition  of  a  fixed  one.  Mr. 
Cobden,  at  an  early  period  of  a  long-protracted 
debate,  protested  against  both  in  one  of  his  most 
vigorous  and  telling  speeches.  He  dealt  especial- 
ly with  the  fallacy,  whose  antiquity  was  exactly 
coeval  with  that  of  the  Corn  Law  itself,  that  high 
prices  of  corn  produced  a  high  rate  of  wages.  He 
accused  the  Tories  of  utter  ignorance  on  the  sub- 
ject ;  and  being  met  thereupon  with  a  storm  of 
deprecatory  and  derisive  "  Oh !  oh's !"  he  turned 
to  the  benches  whence  they  proceeded,  and  said, 
"  Yes !  I  say  an  ignorance  upon  this  subject  which 
I  never  saw  equaled  in  any  body  of  working-men 
in  the  north  of  England.  (Oh,  oh.)  Do  you 
think  that  the  fallacy  of  1815,  which  to  my  as- 
tonishment I  heard  put  forth  in  the  House  last 
week,  namely,  that  wages  rise  and  fall  with  the 
price  of  food,  can  prevail,  after  the  experience  of 
the  last  three  years  ?  Have  you  not  had  bread 
higher  during  that  time  than  during  any  two 
years  during  the  last  twenty  years  ?  Yes.  Yet, 
during  these  three  years,  the  wages  of  labor  in 
every  branch  of  industry  have  suffered  a  greater 
decline  than  in  any  three  years  before." 

One  of  the  most  important  articles  affected  by 
Peel's  great  and  sweeping  financial  measure  was 


84  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

sugar.  Manipulating  it  generally  in  the  direction 
of  reduction,  he  also  abated  the  differential  duty 
which  had  hitherto  obtained  against  slave-grown 
sugar.  This  caused  great  grief  to  many  sincere 
friends  of  the  slave  and  of  freedom  ;  and  among 
others,  stanch  Free  Trader  though  he  was,  to  Jo- 
seph Sturge.  Cobden  thought  otherwise.  He 
thought  that  slavery  was  not  to  be  put  down  by 
tariffs.  "  You  and  I,"  said  he,  in  a  letter  written 
some  years  after,  but  on  the  same  subject,  "  do 
not  disagree  in  our  abhorrence  of  slavery,  nor  do 
I  yield  to  any  one  in  sympathy  for  the  victims  of 
that  sin,  but  we  do  differ  as  to  the  course  which 
we  ought  to  take,  by  legislation,  in  this  country 
to  put  down  the  slave-trade."  While  the  contro- 
versy was  at  its  red  heat,  Cobden  sent  to  Sturge 
the  following  jocular  brochure  on  this  question. 
It  is  perhaps  necessary  to  state  that  the  Lord 
Ripon  who  is  one  of  the  interlocutors  is  Gobbet's 
"  Prosperity  Robinson,"  the  gentleman  who  was 
prime  minister  of  England  for  a  few  weeks,  and 
who  was  also  President  of  the  Board  of  Trade  un- 
der Peel.  This  premised,  the  rest  explains  itself. 

"A  SCENE  AT  THE  BOARD  OF  TRADE. 
"LoKD  RIPON  and  the  BRAZILIAN  EMBASSADOR 

sitting  together. 

"  Embassador.  Your  lordship  is  doubtless 
aware  that  the  commercial  treaty  between  En- 
gland and  Brazil  is  about  to  expire  ? 


PROGRESS  OF  FREE  TRADE  AGITATION.      85 

"Ripon.  True;  and  I  am  happy  to  find  ray- 
self  empowered  to  treat  with  your  excellency  for 
a  renewal  of  the  commercial  relations  between 
the  two  countries,  so  admirably  calculated  by  na- 
ture to  minister  to  the  wealth  and  happiness  of 
each  other. 

"Embassador.  Brazil  is  favored  beyond  almost 
any  other  country  in  its  soil,  climate,  and  the  fa- 
cilities of  its  internal  communication.  Its  pro- 
ducts are  various,  comprising  hides,  tallow,  cot- 
ton, gems  of  a  variety  of  kinds,  sugar — 

"  Ripon.  I  beg  your  excellency's  pardon  for 
interrupting  you,  but  how  is  your  sugar,  culti- 
vated— by  slave  labor  ? 

"Ambassador.  It  is. 

"  Ripon.  Oh,  strike  it  out  of  the  list,  I  beg ; 
we  can  not  take  slave  sugar ;  it  is  contrary  to  the 
religious  principles  of  the  British  people  to  buy 
slave-grown  sugar — it  is  stolen  goods. 

"Ambassador.  I  bow  to  your  nation's  honor- 
able scruples.  We  will  then  omit  the  sugar. 
Still  there  are  other  commodities  remaining  in 
which  we  may  effect  a  profitable  exchange,  and,  I 
hope,  to  the  benefit  of  both  countries. 

"  Ripon.  Oh  yes,  there  are  plenty  of  articles 
of  exchange  which  we  shall  still  be  happy  to  sup- 
ply you  with — our  irons,  earthenware,  silks,  wool- 
ens, cottons — 

"  Embassador.  I  beg  pardon ;  did  your  lord- 
ship say  cottons? 


86  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

" Ripon.  Yes;  we  are  the  largest  dealers  in 
cotton  goods  in  the  world,  and  we  sell  them  so 
cheap  that  they  find  their  way  more  or  less  into 
every  country  on  the  face  of  the  earth :  we  sup- 
ply Italy— 

"  Embassador.  I  pray  your  lordship's  pardon 
for  again  interrupting  you,  but  may  I  ask  how  is 
the  cotton  cultivated ;  is  it  not  by  slave  labor  ? 

'•'•Ripon.  Why,  ahem!  how  is  it  cultivated, 
you  say  ?  Why,  ahem ! — hem ! — why — 

"Ambassador.  I  believe  I  can  relieve  your 
lordship  from  your  apparent  embarrassment  by 
answering  that  question.  At  least  four  fifths  of 
the  cotton  imported  into  England  is  of  slave  cul- 
tivation. 

"  Ripon.  Ahem !  I  believe  it  is  so. 

"  Ambassador.  Then  am  I  to  undei'stand  that 
your  people  have  no  religious  scruple  against 
selling  slave-grown  produce  to  the  Brazilians? 

"Ripon.  (Colors  in  his  face,  and  moves  about 
uneasily  in  his  chair.) 

"  Embassador.  No  religious  scruples  against 
selling  slave-grown  cottons  into  every  country  in 
the  world ! — no  religious  scruples  against  eating 
slave-grown  rice! — no  religious  scruples  against 
making  slave-grown  tobacco ! — no  religious  scru- 
ples against  taking  slave-grown  snuff!  (pointing 
to  a  gold  snuff-box  lying  on  the  table.)  Am  I  to 
understand  that  the  religious  scruples  of  the  En- 
glish people  are  confined  to  the  article  of  sugar  ? 


PROGRESS  OF  FREE  TRADE  AGITATION.      87 

"Mipon.  (Putting  the  snuff-box  in  his  pocket.) 
I  am  sorry  to  be  obliged  to  repeat  that  I  can  not 
consent  to  take  your  sugar. 

" Ambassador.  (Hising  from  his  seat.)  My 
lord,  I  should  be  first  to  do  homage  to  the  sin- 
cere and  consistent  scruples  of  conscientious 
Christians ;  but  while  you  are  sending  to  Brazil 
sixty  millions  of  yards  of  cotton  goods  in  a  year, 
I  can  not,  in  justice  to  my  own  feelings,  sit  quiet- 
ly and  listen  to  the  plea  that  your  nation  has  in 
reality  any  religious  scruples  upon  the  subject  of 
slave-labor.  Excuse  me  if  I  suggest  to  your  lord- 
ship that  other  reasons  may  be  found,  especially 
in  the  monopoly  which  your  colonial  proprietors 
enjoy— 

" Ripon.  (Interrupting  him.)  I  do  assure 
your  excellency  that  a  body  of  religious  men, 
the  anti-slavery  party,  have  urged  these  scruples 
upon  her  majesty's  government.  I  have  to-day 
been  waited  upon  by  Joseph  Sturge,  one  of  the 
most  influential  of  that  body — 

"•Ambassador.  Joseph  Sturge!  I  have  heard 
of  him  and  his  labors  in  the  cause  of  humanity. 
He  is  the  consistent  friend  of  the  oppressed — too 
consistent,  I  should  hope,  to  urge  upon  his  gov- 
ernment, while  making  a  treaty  with  the  Brazils 
for  receiving  slave-grown  cotton  from  your  coun- 
try, to  refuse  slave-grown  sugar  in  exchange. 
Joseph  Sturge  is  a  believer  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment, which  teaches  us  to  '  remove  the  beam 


88  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEK. 

from  our  own  eye  before  we  cast  out  the  mote 
from  our  neighbor's  eye.'  Does  not  Joseph 
Sturge  oppose  the  introduction  into  this  country 
of  cotton,  tobacco,  and  rice  ? 

"  (The  door  opens,  and  enter  Joseph  Sturge, 
with  a  cotton  cravat,  his  hat  lined  with  calico,  his 
coat,  etc.,  sewn  with  cotton  thread,  and  his  cotton 
pockets  well  lined  with  slave-wrought  gold  and 
silver.  The  Brazilian  embassador  and  Lord  Ripon 
burst  into  laughter.)" 

The  cardinal  principles  of  Free  Trade,  as  ap- 
plied to  and  incorporated  in  financial  legislation, 
are,  that  taxes,  where  necessaiy,  should  be  laid  on 
for  pure  purposes  of  revenue  alone ;  that  in  their 
remission,  in  the  choice  of  those  to  be  remitted, 
the  interests  of  consumers  are  paramount  and 
alone  to  be  consulted  ;  and  that  no  tax  should  be 
levied  in  the  supposed  interest  of  producers — that 
for  two  reasons,  each  one  being  all-sufficient  to 
bear  the  conclusion  common  to  them  both ;  first, 
that  no  protective  tax  does  benefit  the  producer, 
and  even  if  it  did,  he — representing  the  minority 
— has  no  right  to  enjoy  it  at  the  expense  of  the 
majority,  namely,  the  consumers.  These  princi- 
ples were  admirably  incorporated  in  the  follow- 
ing passage,  and  so  closely,  clearly,  and  concisely 
put,  that  Peel  himself  was  compelled  completely 
to  stultify  himself  by  conceding  the  whole  ques- 
tion at  issue.  How  marvelous  does  it  seem  to  us 


PROGRESS  OF  FREE  TRADE  AGITATION.       89 

to-day  that  the  Corn  Laws  disgraced  our  statute 
book,  corrupted  our  Legislature,  and  nearly  de- 
stroyed our  people,  for  four  years  after  the  utter- 
ance of  these  words,  and  the  admission  which  they 
elicited : 

"  You  don't  fix  the  price  of  cotton,  or  silk,  or 
iron,  or  tin.  Why  don't  you  ?  But  how  are  you 
to  fix  this  price  of  corn  ?  Going  back  some  ten 
years,  the  right  honorable  baronet  finds  the  aver- 
age price  of  corn  is  565. 10e?. ;  and  therefore,  says 
he,  I  propose  to  keep  up  the  price  of  wheat  from 
54s.  to  58s.  The  right  honorable  baronet's  plan 
means  that  or  nothing.  I  see  in  a  useful  little 
book,  called  the  Parliamentary  Pocket  Compan- 
ion, in  which  there  are  some  nice  little  descrip- 
tions of  ourselves — (laughter) — under  the  head 
'  Cayley,'  that  that  gentleman  is  described  as  being 
the  advocate  of  'such  a  course  of  legislation  with 
regard  to  agriculture  as  will  keep  wheat  at  54s.  a 
quarter — (hear,  hear) — new  mi'lk  and  cheese  at" 
from  54s.  to  60s.  per  cwt. ;  wool  and  butter  at  Is. 
per  Ib.  each,  and  other  produce  in  proportion.' 
(Hear,  hear,  and  laughter.)  Now  it  might  be  very 
amusing  to  find  that  there  are  gentlemen  still  at 
large — (hear,  hear,  and  great  laughter) — who  ad- 
vocated the  principle  of  the  interposition  of  Par- 
liament to  fix  the  price  at  which  such  articles 
should  be  sold ;  but  Avhen  we  find  a  prime  min- 
ister coming  down  to  Parliament  to  avow  such 
principles,  it  becomes  any  thing  but  amusing. 


90  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

(Great  cheering  from  the  Opposition.)  I  ask  the 
right  honorable  baronet,  and  I  pause  for  a  reply, 
is  he  prepared  to  carry  out  that  principle  in  the 
articles  of  cotton  and  wool  ?"  (Hear,  hear.) 

"  Sir  Robert  Peel  said  it  was  impossible  to  fix 
the  price  of  food  by  legislation."  (Loud  cheers 
from  the  ministerial  side.) 

Mr.  Cobden  continued — "Then  on  what  are 
we  legislating  ?  (Counter  cheers  from  the  Op- 
position.) I  thank  the  right  honorable  baronet 
for  his  avowal.  Perhaps,  then,  he  will  oblige  us 
by  trying  to  do  so.  Supposing,  however,  that  he 
will  make  the  attempt,  I  ask  the  right  honorable 
gentleman — and  I  again  pause  for  a  reply — will 
he  try  to  legislate  so  as  to  keep  up  the  price  of 
cotton,  silk,  and  wool  ?  No  reply !  Then  we 
come  to  this  conclusion,  that  we  are  not  legis- 
lating for  the  universal  people."  (Tremendous 
cheers.) 

Nor  did  his  lash  fall  upon  Peel  and  the  Tories 
alone.  The  Whigs  were  glad  enough,  now  that 
they  were  in  opposition,  to  cheer  and  encourage 
Cobden  in  his  denunciations  of  the  landowner's 
monopoly.  But  they  stuck  to  their  panacea  of  a 
fixed  duty,  and  pleaded  the  difficulty,  even  if  the 
Corn  Laws  were  condemned  to  ultimate  repeal, 
of  abolishing  them  all  at  once.  Cobden  saw  no 
such  difficulty  ;  and  thus,  at  the  conclusion  of  his 
speech,  showed  them  a  very  easy,  and  a  Gordian 
way  out  of  it.  "  I  once  heard  them  [these  scru- 


PROGRESS  OF  FREE  TRADE  AGITATION        91 

pies]  met  at  a  public  meeting  of  electors  in  what 
appeared  to  me  to  be  a  very  satisfactory  manner. 
There  was  great  difficulty  on  the  platform  among 
the  Whig  gentlemen  who  were  assembled  there 
about  the  repeal  of  the  Corn  Laws,  and  they 
were  arguing  about  the  danger  and  hardship  of 
an  immediate  repeal  of  them.  They  were  at 
length  interrupted  by  a  sturdy  laboring  man  in  a 
fustian  coat,  who  called  out, '  Whoi,  mun,  where's 
the  trouble  in  taking  them  off?  you  put  them  on 
all  of  a  ruck'  (laughter  and  cheering) ;  meaning 
that  they  had  been  put  on  all  of  a  sudden." 

As  a  specimen  of  the  sort  of  arguments  by 
which  such  appeals  were  resisted  at  this  stage  of 
English  Parliamentary  history  may  be  cited  the 
allegation  of  an  M.P.  whom  we  name  not,  and 
who  spoke  after  Cobden,  that  the  real  motive  of 
the  Leaguers  in  their  desire  to  have  cheap  corn 
was  that  they  might  have  cheap  flour  with  which 
to  add  weight  and  give  a  false  appearance  to 
their  calico !  Add  to  this,  wholesale  abuse  of  the 
manufacturers  and  the  factory  system,  and  the 
chief  breadth  of  the  Tory  arguments  is  comprised 
and  indicated.  Such  Protectionist  "  hits"  were 
received  with  deafening  plaudits ;  but  we  find  in 
Hansard  that  when  Mr.  Miles,  a  Protectionist, 
said  that  Charles  Buller  had  made  an  appeal  to 
the  "  appetites  as  well  as  the  passions  of  the  peo- 
ple," this  reference  to  the  horrid  starvation  then 
prevailing  was  received  with  "  loud  laughter." 


92  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

Similar  "merry  descants  on  a  nation's  woe" 
greeted  Dr.  Bowring's  reference  to  any  thing  so 
miserably  vulgar  as  the  reduction  in  the  wages 
of  shoemakers  and  tailors.  When  he  said  women 
were  crying  for  work,  there  was  more  "  laugh- 
ter ;"  they  were  making  trowsers  for  sixpence  a 
pair  —  more  "  loud  laughter ;"  thousands  were 
hungry  and  naked — the  founts  of  laughter  proved 
as  prodigal  as  before  ;  and  "  peals  of  loud  laugh- 
ter" greeted  the  inquiry,  What  was  to  become  of 
the  women  of  Manchester  ? 

Meanwhile  the  League  Convention  continued 
to  sit  simultaneously  with  Parliament.  Among 
others  of  its  occupations,  it  sent  deputations  to 
wait  on  all  the  leading  ministers,  represent  to 
them  the  true  condition  of  the  country,  and  im- 
press upon  them  the  tremendous  responsibility 
they  were  incurring.  But  their  representations 
were  fruitless.  In  Parliament,  Cobden,  Brother- 
ton,  Villiers,  Milner  Gibson,  and  others,  worked 
hard  to  get  an  inquiry — using  every  legitimate 
form  of  the  House  for  that  end.  Peel  bitterly 
reproached  them  with  maliciously  opposing  the 
progress  of  public  business.  This  brought  Cob- 
den  on  his  legs.  He  retorted  :  "  The  public  busi- 
ness referred  to  was  the  voting  of  the  militia  es- 
timates, to  put  down,  he  supposed,  the  starving 
people.  He  believed  they  might  be  better  em- 
ployed in  finding  them  food.  If  a  person  had  the 
malice  of  a  fiend,  he  would  rejoice  at  the  mode 


PROGRESS  OF  FREE  TRADE  AGITATION.      93 

in  which  they  were  proceeding.  The  New  Poor 
Law  would  not  save  their  estates.  Their  present 
policy  would  create  an  amount  of  poverty  that 
would  break  through  stone  walls.  The  people 
were  now  lying  by  the  sides  of  hedges  and  walls, 
but  when  the  winter  came  where  would  they  go  ? 
If  they  were  driven  from  the  ditch-sides  by  the 
terrors  of  the  bastiles,  they  would  become  ban- 
ditti, or  they  must  be  put  into  the  work-house. 
Would  the  right  honorable  baronet  resist  the  ap- 
peals which  had  been  made  to  him,  or  would  he 
rather  cherish  the  true  interests  of  the  country, 
and  not  allow  himself  to  be  dragged  down  by  a 
section  of  the  aristocracy  ?  He  must  take  sides, 
and  that  instantly ;  and  should  he,  by  doing  so, 
displease  his  political  supporters,  there  was  an  an- 
swer ready  for  them.  He  might  say  he  found  the 
country  in  distress,  and  he  gave  it  prosperity ; 
that  he  found  the  people  starving,  and  he  gave 
them  food  ;  that  he  found  the  large  capitalists  of 
the  country  paralyzed,  and  he  made  them  pros- 
perous." This  is  as  nearly  as  could  be  what  Peel 
did  say  four  years  later.  How  much  human  mis- 
ery would  have  been  saved  if  he  had  made  the 
discovery  when  this  appeal,  at  once  to  his  sense 
and  his  sympathy,  was  made  to  him ! 

The  Leaguers  now  resolved  to  turn  their  bat- 
teries upon  the  agricultural  districts.  The  tactics 
of  their  opponents  had  changed,  and  theirs  must 
be  conformably  adapted.  The  chief  grounds  held 


94  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

by  the  Tories  at  this  stage  of  the  struggle  were 
that  the  movement  was  simply  a  manufacturers' 
one ;  that  its  success  would  be  as  prejudicial  to 
the  interests  of  the  laborers,  both  in  town  and 
country,  as  it  would  be  beneficial  to  the  millown- 
ers ;  and  they  endeavored  to  damage  the  cause 
by  blackening  the  characters  of  the  leaders  of  the 
League.  We  are  telling  the  story  of  Mr.  Cob- 
den's  life  as  far  as  possible  in  his  own  words. 
The  greater  proportion  of  our  extracts  from  his 
speeches  are  made,  not  with  the  purpose  of  repro- 
ducing characteristic  specimens  of  his  eloquence 
— a  few  judiciously  selected  passages  would  suf- 
fice for  that — but  that  his  public  life,  its  motives 
and  actuating  end,  its  circumstances,  sorrows,  and 
solaces,  may  be  moulded  as  nearly  as  possible  into 
an  autobiographic  form.  It  is  with  that  view 
that  we  make  the  following  quotation  from  an  au- 
tumnal speech  of  Mr.Cobden  in  this  year,  mere- 
ly premising  that  thousands  of  the  Northern  op- 
eratives had  "  turned  out"  in  the  agony  of  their 
desperation  from  their  employments,  asserting 
that  they  would  not  return  to  them  until  their 
grievances  were  righted : 

"  Xow,  gentlemen,  I  would  venture  to  say,  and 
if  nothing  else  that  fell  from  me  should  go  forth 
to  the  public,  I  hope  that  this  at  least  will  do 
so — I  will  venture  to  say,  in  the  name  of  the 
Council  of  the  Anti-Corn-Law  League,  that  not 
only  did  not  the  members  of  that  body  know  or 


PROGRESS  OF  FREE  TRADE  AGITATION.     95 

dream  of  any  thing  of  the  kind  such  as  has  now 
taken  place — I  mean  the  turn-out  for  wages — 
not  only  did  they  not  know,  concoct,  wish  for, 
or  contemplate  such  things,  but  I  believe  the  very 
last  thing  which  the  body  of  our  subscribers 
would  have  wished  for  or  desired  is  the  suspen- 
sion of  their  business,  and  the  confusion  which 
has  taken  place  in  this  district.  (Loud  applause.) 
....  Why  are  these  accusations  made  ?  It  is 
with  the  desperate  hope  that  they  will  inflict 
a  moral  taint  upon  the  Anti-Corn-Law  League. 
They  can  not  oppose  our  principles,  for  their  own 
political  chief  has  given  up  the  whole  question, 
and  has  avowed  himself  to  be  with  us  in  prin- 
ciple ;  they  can  not  therefore  denounce  our  prin- 
ciples ;  and  from  the  moment  that  the  prime  min- 
ister declared  himself  a  Free  Trader — from  the 
moment  he  said  it  was  not  only  best  to  buy  in 
the  cheapest  markets  where  others  took  goods 
from  us,  but  that  it  was  best  to  do  so  whether 
reciprocity  existed  or  not  (laughter  and  cheers) 
— from  the  moment  he  went  that '  whole  hog'  in 
Free  Trade,  their  mouths  were  closed  ;  but  still 
they  had  their  dirty  work  to  do ;  they  must  say 
something,  and  what  so  natural  and  so  politic  as 
that  these  miserable  tools  of  a  beaten  and  van- 
quished party  should  commence  immediately  to 
attack  the  Anti-Corn-Law  League?  Their  only 
hope,  their  only  chance  now  is  in  impairing  our 
moral  influence  with  the  country.  That  is  the 


96  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

game We  have  been  lately  charged  with 

being  in  collusion  with  the  Chartist  party.  Now 
the  parties  who  are  charging  this  are  laboring 
under  the  disadvantage  of  having  themselves 
been  working  for  the  last  three  years  to  excite 
the  Chartist  party  against  us,  and  by  means  not 
over-creditable,  as  we  shall  by-and-by,  perhaps, 
have  the  opportunity  of  demonstrating  to  the 
world.  I  will  not  say  a  word  upon  that  at  pres- 
ent ;  but,  by  means  which  may  meet  the  light, 
they  have  succeeded  in  deluding  a  considerable 
portion  of  the  working  classes  upon  the  subject  of 
the  Corn  Laws.  And  I  have  no  objection  in  ad- 
mitting here,  as  I  have  admitted  frankly  before, 
that  these  artifices  and  manoeuvres  have,  to  a  con- 
siderable extent,  compelled  us  to  make  our  agita- 
tion a  middle-class  agitation.  I  don't  deny  that 
the  working  classes  generally  have  attended  our 
lectures  and  signed  our  petitions ;  but  I  will  ad- 
mit that,  so  far  as  the  fervor  and  efficiency  of 
our  agitation  has  gone,  it  has  eminently  been  a 

middle-class  agitation Let  the  League  go 

on  in  their  own  course,  agitating — agitating — 
agitating  incessantly  for  the  repeal  of  the  Corn 
Laws.  Gentlemen,  you -are  strong  in  the  coun- 
try— you  are  stronger  than  you  think  in  London. 
The  middle  classes  in  London  are  almost  to  a 
man  for  the  repeal  of  the  Corn  Laws.  You  are 
stronger  than  you  think  in  the  south  of  England  ; 
you  have  strength  in  the  rural  boroughs  that  you 


PROGRESS  OF  FREE  TRADE  AGITATION.      97 

are  not  aware  of;  and  I  will  tell  you  now  what  I 
did  not  venture  to  say  on  a  former  occasion — that 
I  don't  think  Manchester  will  carry  the  repeal  of 
the  Corn  Laws,  but  that  we  shall  carry  it  by  mak- 
ing it  a  national  question." 

While  disclaiming  all  party  connections,  Cob- 
den  invited  the  co-operation  of  all,  appealing  es- 
pecially to  the  Chartists  for  co-operation — not  as 
Chartists,  but  as  working  men.  In  the  same 
speech,  he  said,  "  I  believe  that  the  working  class- 
es Ji  ere  generally  are  of  opinion  that  the  intrusion 
of  the  Chartist  question  has  not  been  of  any  serv- 
ice to  them  in  the  question  about  wages.  I  be- 
lieve they  are  quite  disposed  to  discuss  and  settle 
this  question  apart  from  party  politics.  Then 
what  will  enable  the  master  to  give  better  wages? 
By  getting  a  better  price  for  his  goods.  And 
how  is  he  to  get  a  better  price  for  his  goods  ? 
By  extending  the  markets.  How  can  he  sell  more 
goods,  and  thus  give  more  employment  to  labor, 
except  he  can  get  an  enlarged  market,  and  thus 
meet  the  wants  of  the  increasing  population  of 
the  country  ?  There  is  no  other  way.  Our  busi- 
ness is  not  to  alter  constitutions ;  we  don't  seek 
for  chartism,  whiggism,  radicalism,  or  republi- 
canism— we  simply  ask  for  an  enlarged  market 
to  enable  the  capitalist  to  extend  the  sale  of  his 
goods,  and  thereby  to  increase  the  demand  for 
labor  and  augment  the  rate  of  wages.  This  is  a 
time,  gentlemen,  when  I  hope  both  masters  and 
G 


98  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

men  will  meet  and  discuss  this  subject  apart  from 
party  politics.  The  time  is  peculiarly  favorable 
for  this,  and,  I  think,  notwithstanding  the  lament- 
able circumstances,  the  state  of  the  public  mind 
in  this  country,  both  with  masters  and  men,  will 
settle  down  into  a  more  rational  disposition  to 
view  this  question  apart  from  passion  or  preju- 
dice than  ever  it  did  before,  for  I  do  think,  gen- 
tlemen, that  the  present  disturbances  will  leave 
less  of  the  traces  of  prejudice  or  resentment  in 
the  minds  of  the  middle  classes  in  this  part  of 
the  country  than  any  former  tumults  ever  did  be- 
fore." 

Mr.  Cobden's  policy  was  accepted,  and  embod- 
ied by  the  League.  Its  aim  now  was  more  than 
ever  national.  The  towns  being  mostly  secured, 
the  object  now  was  to  gain  over  the  country ;  the 
great  mass  of  the  urban  middle  class  being  Free 
Traders,  propagandism  must  be  mainly  directed 
to  the  grades  below  them,  and  to  the  hereditary 
possessors  of  wealth  and  rank,  their  social  supe- 
riors. The  Tories  had  taunted  the  Leaguers  with 
a  sordid  regard  to  their  own  interests,  and  with 
a  selfish  desire  to  sacrifice  the  peasantry  to  their 
own  ends.  It  became  highly  desirable  to  let  it 
be  known  what  was  the  real  condition  of  this 
peasantry,  under  the  "favoring  and  benignant" 
Corn  Laws.  The  League  sent  out  agents  to  all 
the  southern  and  purely  agricultural  counties,  and 
took  care  to  give  proper  publicity  to  their  reports. 


PROGRESS  OF  FREE  TRADE  AGITATION.      99 

These  were  a  different  class  of  men  from  their  lec- 
turers. The  two  employments  required  different 
talents.  The  country-investigating  agents  were 
business-like,  sharp,  observing  men.  Their  in- 
quiry was  indeed  scrutinizing.  You  might  al- 
most believe,  on  consulting  the  reports  of  their 
investigations  published  by  these  persons,  that 
they  had  inspected  every  field,  hedge,  homestead, 
and  ditch.  The  general  gist  of  their  reports  was 
a  revelation  of  "  bad  tillage,  and  every  kind  of 
waste,  overweening  rents,  uncertain  profits,  and 
wages  reduced  below  the  point  of  possible  main- 
tenance." On  the  estate  of  one  nobleman,  the  la- 
borers who  had  furnished  the  League  agents  with 
information,  and  had  admitted  them  into  their  cot- 
tages to  see  the  holes  in  the  roofs,  and  the  wet, 
soddened  floors,  were  punished  by  being  set  to 
work  on  the  roads.  The  moment  this  was  dis- 
covered, the  League  announced  that  in  no  future 
case  would  information  be  sought  from  the  labor- 
ers— the  especial  sufferers  from  Corn  Laws  and 
Protection ;  and  they  rigorously  kept  their  word. 
Cobden  himself  went  through  the  southern  coun- 
ties in  the  recess,  holding  meetings  on  market- 
days,  and  maintaining  his  ground  against  all  com- 
ers. 

At  first  the  Protectionists  made  an  oratorical 
stand  against  him.  They  brought  out  their  loud- 
est speakers ;  their  speeches  were  elaborately  pre- 
pared ;  the  resolutions  they  moved  and  seconded 


100  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COB  DEN. 

carefully  considered,  and  couched  in  terms  as 
dexterous  as  they  could  devise.  But  it  was  not 
long  ere,  discovering  that  Cobden  invariably  tore 
their  so-called  arguments  to  ribbons,  and  evoked 
the  contemptuous  ridicule  of  their  own  farmer- 
clients,  who  were  predisposed  against  him  at  the 
outset,  at  their  sophistications,  they  altogether 
changed  their  tactics.  The  plan  then  was  to  cry 
Cobden  down,  to  endeavor  to  drown  his  shrill 
and  far-reaching  voice.  And  then,  when  that 
failed,  the  procedure  was  to  seize  the  wagons  and 
drag  Cobden  and  his  associates  down. 

The  eyes  of  the  farmers  then  began  to  be 
opened.  They  rapidly  began  to  join  the  League. 
Some  of  them  were  even  bold  enough  to  come 
out  as  speakers  for  the  League.  They  began  to 
see  the  truth  which  Cobden  always  took  care  to 
tell  them — that  their  interests  were  any  thing  but 
identical  with  those  of  the  men  who  received  their 
rents.  They  saw,  with  clear  and  emancipated 
eyes,  that  they  were  the  true  "  agricultural  inter- 
est," and  that  Cobden  and  the  League,  and  not 
the  squires  and  the  Tories,  were  the  real  "farm- 
ers' friends."  Cobden  told  them — and,  more  than 
that,  he  convinced  them — that  landowners  were 
just  as  much  agriculturists  as  shipowners  were 
sailors.  How  much  Cobden  did  thus  (like  his 
own  almost  namesake,  Cobbet,  before  him)  for 
the  cause  of  popular  education  in  the  best  and 
highest  sense,  among  the  laborers  and  the  farm- 


PROGRESS  OF  FREE  TRADE  AGITATION.    101 

ers,  who  were  not  much  better  informed  at  the 
start  than  the  hedgers  and  plowmen  they  em- 
ployed, as  well  as  for  their  physical  well-being 
and  enjoyment,  it  is  impossible  to  overestimate. 
About  leases,  tenures,  draining,  fencing,  and  im- 
proved farming  generally,  much  also  was  said. 
Cobden  began  to  rank,  and  rightly  so,  among  the 
rustics,  not  only  as  a  farmer's  friend,  but  as  a 
practical  farmer.  And  this  was  a  great  point 
gained.  One  sample  of  Mr.  Cobden's  rural  meet- 
ings will  do  as  well  as  another.  One  Saturday 
in  June,  in  this  year,  he  and  his  friend,  Mr.  Moore, 
visited  Rye,  which  is  in  Sussex.  When  they  got 
into  the  sleepy  old  town,  which  has  been  lifted 
up  out  of  the  sea,  they  found  it  stuck  all  over 
with  placards  warning  the  people  not  to  be  bam- 
boozled by  the  idea  that  this  Cobden  was  a  Sus- 
sex man ;  for  although  the  son  of  a  Sussex  farmer, 
of  course  he  had  his  own  intei-ests  to  serve  about 
Corn  Laws,  for  he  was  a  Manchester  manufac- 
turer. However,  a  great  many  of  the  farmers  at- 
tended, Cobden  having,  of  course,  as  usual,  chosen 
market-day ;  and  they  had  to  adjourn  from  the 
Town  Hall  to  the  Cattle  Mai-ket.  Cobden  gave 
an  address,  and  though  there  was  a  very  hostile 
feeling  against  him  at  first,  ere  he  had  gone  far, 
the  Brighton  Herald  of  the  date  says,  "  we  do 
not  believe  that  there  was  a  man  present  who 
was  not  convinced  in  his  own  conscience."  Mr. 
Moore  followed,  and  then  up  jumped  a  Major 


102  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

Cartels,  who  said  he  went  two  thirds  of  the  way 
with  these  gentlemen;  but  he  lived  where  the 
land  wasn't  good,  and  farmers  were  as  badly  off 
as  the  laborers  (a  great  concession  this  to  Cob- 
den,  to  which  he  at  once  responded  by  crying 
"  Granted !"),  and  if  they  were  repealed  imme- 
diately, two  out  of  three  in  his  parish  would  have 
to  leave  their  farms  all  at  once.  And  he  should 
like  to  know  if  two  thirds  of  the  tenant-farmers 
had  to  leave,  how  many  of  the  laborers  would  be 
thrown  out  of  work  ?  Here  an  interlocutor,  not 
farther  dignified  in  the  report  than  by  the  vague 
title  of  "  A  Voice,"  interrupted  with,  "  If  these 
tenant-farmers  and  laborers  are  in  such  a  distress- 
ed condition,  does  it  not  arise  from  the  enormous 
rents  they  pay?"  To  which  the  major,  who,  we 
presume,  was  a  landlord,  made  the  (to  him)  very 
unsatisfactory  reply,  that  many  of  them  paid  no 
rents  at  all.  He  couldn't  agree  with  Mr.  Cobden 
that  there  were  no  exclusive  burdens  on  the  land. 
He  thought  otherwise.  He'd  go  for  repeal  to- 
morrow, if  he  thought  it  would  not  throw  two 
thirds  of  his  neighbors  into  immediate  distress. 

Then  up  stood  an  M.P.  of  the  same  name,  but 
not  nearly  so  disposed  to  concede  his  point.  Cur- 
teis,  M.P.,  said  he  stood  boldly  there  to  contest 
the  ground  with  Mr.  Cobden.  The  point  (this 
civilian,  it  will  be  seen,  was  vastly  more  ferocious 
than  his  namesake,  and,  we  suppose,  relative) — 
the  point  was  not  whether  we  were  going  to  have 


a  sliding  scale  or  a  fixed  duty,  but  whether  there 
was  to  be  protection  to  the  English  farmer.  Mr. 
Cobden  said  before  he  could  attend  to  this  gen- 
tleman, he  thought  another  one  to  the  right  had 
thrown  out  something  like  a  challenge  about  a 
motion  to  be  made.  He  wasn't  himself  generally 
anxious  about  a  motion.  He  just  liked  to  throw 
out  a  few  facts  and  leave  them.  The  "gentleman 
to  the  right"  didn't  appear.  "  Well,"  said  Cob- 
den,  "  I'll  claim  my  right  as  a  Sussex  man,  and 
I'll  propose  a  motion."  Then  he  went  through 
Major  Curteis's  "  exclusive  burdens  on  the  land." 
"  Where  were  they  ?"  said  he.  "  Tithes  belonged 
to  the  Church,  never  at  all  to  the  landlords; 
therefore  they  couldn't  be  a  burden.  Other  class- 
es as  well  as  landlords  were  subject  to  poor  rates 
and  county  rates.  As  for  the  land-tax,  the  less 
they  said  about  that  the  better  for  themselves." 
Then  he  wound  up  with  a  motion  for  uncondi- 
tional repeal.  The  major  moved  an  amendment 
that  "  a  fixed  duty  is  desirable  for  the  present." 
A  division  was  taken,  and  the  original  motion 
(Cobden's)  carried  almost  unanimously — this  by 
an  audience  that  at  first  was  hostile  to  him. 

At  once  the  results  of  this  tour,  and  the  nature 
of  the  arguments  used  by  Cobden  to  the  farmers, 
will  appear  in  these  concluding  sentences  of  a 
speech  delivered  in  the  House  of  Commons  after 
the  resumption  of  its  session.  It  was  on  a  mo- 
tion for  "  a  select  committee  to  inquire  into  the 


104  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

effects  of  protective  duties  on  imports  upon  the 
interests  of  the  tenant  farmers  and  farm  laborers 
of  this  country."  He  thus  concluded:  "We  may 
make  a  great  advance  if  we  get  this  committee ; 
you  may  have  the  majority  of  its  members  Pro- 
tectionists if  you  will.  I  am  quite  willing  that 
such  should  be  the  arrangement.  I  know  it  is 
understood — at  least  there  is  a  sort  of  etiquette 
— that  the  mover  for  a  committee  should,  in  the 
event  of  its  being  granted,  preside  over  it  as 
chairman.  I  waive  all  pretensions  of  the  sort ; 
I  give  up  all  claims  ;  I  only  ask  to  be  present  as 
an  individual  member.  "What  objections  there 
can  be  to  the  committee  I  can  not  understand. 
Are  you  afraid  that  to  grant  it  will  increase  agi- 
tation ?  I  ask  the  honorable  baronet,  the  mem- 
ber for  Essex  (Sir  J.Tyrell),  whether  he  thinks 
the  agitation  is  going  down  in  his  part  of  the 
country  ?  I  rather  think  there  is  a  good  deal  of 
agitation  going  on  there  now.  Do  you  really 
think  that  the  appointment  of  a  dozen  gentle- 
men, to  sit  in  a  quiet  room  up  stairs  and  hear 
evidence,  will  add  to  the  excitement  out  of  doors  ? 
Why,  by  granting  my  committee,  you  will  be 
withdrawing  me  from  the  agitation  for  one.  But 
I  tell  you  that  you  will  raise  excitement  still 
higher  than  it  is  if  you  allow  me  to  go  down  to 
your  constituents  —  your  vote  against  the  com- 
mittee in  my  hand — and  allow  me  to  say  to  them, 
'  I  only  asked  for  inquiry ;  I  offered  the  landlords 


PROGRESS  OF  FREE  TRADE  AGITATION.    105 

a  majority  of  their  own  party ;  I  offered  them  to 
go  into  committee,  not  as  a  chairman,  but  as  an 
individual  member;  I  offered  them  all  possible 
advantages,  and  yet  they  would  not,  they  dared 
not,  grant  a  committee  of  inquiry  into  your  con- 
dition.' I  repeat  to  you,  I  desire  no  advantages. 
Let  us  have  the  committee.  Let  us  set  to  work, 
attempting  to  elicit  sound  information,  and  to  ben- 
efit our  common  country.  I  believe  that  much 
good  may  be  done  by  adopting  the  course  which 
I  propose.  I  tell  you  that  your  boasted  system 
is  not  protection,  but  destruction  to  agriculture. 
Let  us  see  if  we  can  not  counteract  some  of  the 
foolishness — I  will  not  call  it  by  a  harsher  name 
— of  the  doings  of  those  who,  under  the  pretense 
of  protecting  native  industry,  are  inciting  the 
farmer  not  to  depend  upon  his  own  energy,  and 
skill,  and  capital,  but  to  come  here  and  look  for 
the  protection  of  an  Act  of  Parliament.  Let  us 
have  a  committee,  and  see  if  we  can  not  elicit 
facts  which  may  counteract  the  folly  of  those  who 
are  persuading  the  farmer  to  prefer  Acts  of  Par- 
liament to  draining  and  subsoiliug,  and  to  be 
looking  to  the  laws  of  this  House  when  he  should 
be  studying  the  laws  of  Nature.  I  can  not  im- 
agine any  thing  more  demoralizing — yes,  that  is 
the  word — more  demoralizing  than  for  you  to  tell 
the  farmers  that  they  can  not  compete  with  for- 
eigners. You  bring  long  rows  of  figures  of  de- 
lusive accounts,  showing  that  the  cultivation  of 


106  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

an  acre  of  wheat  costs  £6  or  £8  per  year.  You 
put  every  impediment  in  the  way  of  the  farmers 
trying  to  do  what  they  ought  to  do.  And  can 
you  think  that  that  is  the  way  to  make  people 
succeed  ?  How  should  we  manufacturers  get 
on  if,  when  we  got  as  a  pattern  a  specimen  of 
the  productions  of  the  rival  manufacturers,  we 
brought  all  our  people  together  and  said, '  It  is 
quite  clear  that  we  can  not  compete  with  this 
foreigner;  it  is  quite  useless  our  attempting  to 
compete  with  Germany  or  America;  why,  we 
can  not  produce  goods  at  the  price  at  which  they 
do.'  But  how  do  we  act  in  reality?  We  call 
our  men  together,  and  say, '  So-and-so  is  produc- 
ing goods  at  such  a  price ;  but  we  are  English- 
men, and  what  America  or  Germany  can  do,  we 
can  do  also.' 

"  I  repeat  that  the  opposite  system,  which  you 
go  upon,  is  demoralizing  the  farmers.  Nor  have 
you  any  right  to  call  out,  with  the  noble  lord  the 
member  for  North  Lancashire — you  have  no  right 
to  go  down  occasionally  to  your  constituents,  and 
tell  the  farmers, '  You  must  not  plod  on  as  your 
grandfathers  did  before  you;  you  must  not  put 
your  hands  behind  your  backs,  and  drag  one  foot 
after  the  other  in  the  old-fashioned  style  of  going 
to  work.'  I  say  that  you  have  no  right  to  hold 
such  language  to  the  farmer.  What  makes  them 
plod  on  like  their  grandfathers  ?  Who  makes 
them  put  their  hands  behind  their  backs  ?  Why, 


PROGRESS  OF  FREE  TRADE  AGITATION.     107 

the  men  who  go  to  Lancashire  and  talk  of  the 
danger  of  the  pouring  in  of  foreign  corn  from  a 
certain  province  in  Russia,  which  shall  be  name- 
less ;  the  men  who  tell  the  farmers  to  look  to  this 
House  for  protective  acts  instead  of  their  own 
energies — instead  of  to  those  capabilities  which, 
were  they  properly  brought  out,  would  make  the 
English  farmer  equal  to  —  perhaps  superior  to  — 
any  in  the  world." 

And  Cobden  claimed  a  special  and  authorita- 
tive right  to  speak  on  this  matter,  saying,  "  Sir, 
I  have  as  good  a  right  as  any  honorable  gentle- 
man in  this  House  to  identify  myself  with  the  or- 
der of  farmers.  I  am  a  farmer's  son.  The  hon- 
orable member  for  Sussex  has  been  speaking  to 
you  as  the  farmer's  friend.  I  am  the  son  of  a 
Sussex  farmer;  my  ancestors  were  all  yeomen 
of  the  class  who  have  been  suffering  under  this 
system ;  my  family  suffered  under  it,  and  I  have, 
therefore,  as  good,  or  a  better  right,  than  any  of 
you,  to  stand  up  as  the  farmer's  friend,  and  to  rep- 
resent his  wrongs  in  this  House." 

Cobden,  if  he  had  not  had  the  thorough  whip- 
hand  of  his  opponents  in  respect  of  knowledge 
of  the  subjects  he  talked  about,  would  have  been 
an  arrogant  man.  Hundreds  of  sayings  which 
fell  from  his  lips — and  nowhere  so  frequently  as 
in  the  House  of  Commons — if  they  had  proceed- 
ed from  an  ignorant  man,  would  have  indicated 
the  veriest  and  most  insolent  arrogance.  But  it 


108  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

is  no  arrogance,  when  you  stand  opposite  to  an 
ignoramus,  and  especially  if  his  ignorance  is  your 
physical  superior,  and  drives  you,  nolens  volens, 
in  its  team,  to  denounce  the  ignorance  and  cast 
personal  ridicule  or  wrath  upon  its  human  recep- 
tacle. This  misanthropy — if  indeed  you  can  so 
call  it  —  is  begotten  of  philanthropy.  Cobden 
more  than  once  told  the  squirearchy  not  only 
that  they  were  absolutely  more  ignorant  of  the 
prime  principles  of  political  economy  than  any 
audience  of  artisans  he  ever  addressed,  but  that 
their  heads  were  actually  (he  believed)  so  con- 
structed that  politico-economic  knowledge  could 
not  get  into  their  crania.  Similarly,  on  one  occa- 
sion, in  a  debate  on  the  Game  Laws,  in  reply  to 
Colonel  Sibthorpe,  Mr.  Newdegate,  and  others  (a 
debate,  by  the  way,  in  which  Mr.  Bright  made  his 
first  great  Parliamentary  speech),  Cobden  talked 
to  the  class  who  starve  peasants  and  fatten  pheas- 
ants after  this  mode :  He  told  them  that  country 
gentlemen  knew  infinitely  less  about  the  feelings, 
circumstances,  and  grievances  of  farmers  than 
himself  "  and  the  other  members  of  the  much- 
maligned  Anti-Corn-Law  League."  He  said  that 
tenant-farmers  complained  of  nothing  so  much 
over  their  firesides,  and  when  released  from  the 
surveillance  of  the  squires  and  the  terrorism  of 
the  gamekeepers  and  watchers,  as  the  Game 
Laws.  Here,  as  might  have  been  imagined,  there 
was  one  of  those  storms  of"  Oh,  oh !"  which  only 


PROGRESS  OF  FREE  TRADE  AGITATION.    109 

the  lusty  lungs  of  well-fed  Tories  can  emit.  It 
may  be  a  matter  of  doubt  whether  this  vocal  pro- 
ficiency arises  from  the  habit  of  tally-hoing  or  of 
hip-hip-hurrahing  True  Blue  toasts.  "Let  the 
'  oh,  ohs,' "  quickly  and  angrily  rejoined  Cobden, 
"  go  forth  to  the  country,  and  the  people  will  say 
that  the  landlords  know  less  of  the  country  than 
I  do.  Nay,  more,  I  say  that  I  have  a  larger  cor- 
respondence with  farmers,  have  shaken  hands 
with  more,  and  talked  with  ten  times  more  ten- 
ant-farmers than  any  other  gentleman  in  this 
House."  And  then,  a  little  farther  on  in  the 
course  of  this  pungent  speech — which  was  also  a 
condensed  one,  for  it  occupied  only  a  few  min- 
utes in  the  delivery — he  stated  the  simple,  bold, 
undeniable,  but  most  pregnant  fact,  that  the  en- 
joyment of  the  60,000  persons  who  took  out  game 
licenses  cost  the  country,  besides  all  the  destruc- 
tion of  good  human  food,  4500  annual  convictions 
and  forty  transportations.  Or,  as  he  tersely  put 
the  fact  in  another  way,  for  every  fifteen  persons 
that  went  shooting,  one  was  convicted. 

Some  may  say,  "  How  could  a  man  who  spoke 
on  certain  occasions  in  the  manner  that  has  been 
represented  in  more  than  one  citation  in  this 
chapter,  be  described,  as  he  constantly  was  by 
all  his  friends,  as  a  peculiarly  mild,  gentle,  and 
affectionate  man  ?  We  shall  save  ourselves  and 
such  of  our  readers  equal  trouble  if  we  remind 
them  that  the  Apostle  John  was  also  a  Son  of 


110  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

Thunder.  It  is  the  deepest  and  tenderest  hearts 
that  are  so  affected.  But  the  motive-spring  is 
love  for  the  wronged,  not  hate  of  the  wrong- 
doer. 

Still  the  farmers  joined  the  League.  At  a 
meeting  at  Manchester  in  November,  1843,  Mr. 
Cobden  stated,  "  The  Council  of  the  League  had, 
a  short  time  since,  advertised  for  prize  essays 
showing  the  injurious  operation  of  the  Corn 
Laws  upon  farmers  and  farm  laborers.  By  the 
fii-st  of  this  month  (the  time  limited)  they  re- 
ceived a  large  number.  Three  had  been  select- 
ed from  that  number,  and,  having  had  the  oppor- 
tunity of  perusing  them,  foe  must  say  that  he  an- 
ticipated the  greatest  results  from  their  publica- 
tion. One  of  them  was  written  by  a  tenant 
farmer  in  Scotland,  paying  £1500  a  year  rent, 
and  he  said,  '  I  have  laid  out  a  large  sum  of 
money,  which  I  expect  to  be  reimbursed  for  be- 
fore the  expiration  of  my  lease,  and  yet  I  should 
be  delighted  to  see  the  Corn  Laws  abolished  be- 
fore the  next  session  of  Parliament.' "  A  few 
days  before,  Mr.  Cobden  said :  "  An  elderly  per- 
son called  upon  me  on  Tuesday,  having  the  ap- 
pearance of  a  country  gentleman,  and  he  put  this 
paper  in  my  hand,  accompanied  by  a  bank-note : 
'A  landowner,  possessed  of  several  farms,  sub- 
scribes £100  to  the  League  fund.  It  is  a  money 
question,  and  the  money  speaks  for  itself.  The 
subscription  will  be  repeated,  if  requisite.'  I 


PROGRESS  OF  FREE  TRADE  AGITATION.    Ill 

never  saw  the  gentleman  before,  and  probably 
will  never  see  him  again.  He  did  not  wait  for 
conversation  ;  and  I  could  get  nothing  more  from 
him  than,  'It  is  a  money  question,  it  is  a  money 
question,  and  the  money  speaks  for  itself.' " 

And  still  more  accessions  from  the  land  were 
coming  over:  the  Earls  of  Radnor  and  Ducie 
were  Leaguers  and  subscribers  to  the  funds ;  the 
Duke  of  Bedford  and  Earl  Spencer  were  also 
with  them ;  and  among  the  untitled  landlords, 
Sharman  Crawford,  Gore  Langton,  Villiers  Stu- 
art, and  Grantley  Berkeley. 

Perhaps  the  best  proof  of  the  extraordinary 
ferment  and  excitement  of  feeling  which  the 
Corn  Law  agitation  produced  in  England  is  the 
incident  we  are  now  about  to  relate.  It  is  nec- 
essary to  premise  that,  in  the  January  of  1 843, 
Mr.  Drummond,  Sir  Robert  Peel's  private  secre- 
tary, was  shot  dead  in  the  street  by  a  lunatic, 
who  mistook  him  for  the  premier.  Peel  was 
deeply  wounded  at  this,  for  Mr.  Drummond  was 
not  only  his  secretary,  but  his  friend ;  and  he  was 
ill  and  harassed  with  manifold  anxieties.  Two 
hours  past  midnight  of  the  17th  of  February,  he 
got  up  and  said,  "  Sir,  the  honorable  gentleman 
(Mr.  Cobden)  has  stated  here  very  emphatically, 
what  he  has  more  than  once  stated  at  the  Con- 
ferences of  the  Anti-Corn-Law  League,  that  he 
holds  me  individually — [great  excitement] — in- 
dividually responsible  for  the  distress  and  snf 


112  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

fering  of  the  country — that  he  holds  me  person- 
ally responsible ;  but,  be  the  consequences  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  shouts  from  various  parts  of  the  House.] 

Mr.  Cobden  rose  and  said :  "  I  did  not  say  that 
I  held  the  right  honorable  gentleman  responsible 
— [shouts  of '  Yes,  yes ;  you  did,  you  did.'  Cries 
of '  Order'  and  '  Chair.'  Sir  Robert  Peel :  « You 
did.']  I  have  said  that  I  hold  the  right  honor- 
able gentleman  responsible  by  virtue  of  his  office 
—  ['  No,  no  ;'  much  confusion]  —  as  the  whole 
context  of  what  I  said  was  sufficient  to  explain — 
['  No,  no,'  from  the  ministerial  benches.]" 

Sir  Robert  Peel  rose  and  repeated  his  asser- 
tion that  Cobden  had  "twice  repeated  that  he 
held  him  individually  responsible."  At  a  later 
period  of  the  debate,  Cobden,  again  essaying  an 
explanation,  was  hooted  down.  Probably  a  more 
extraordinary  transaction  never  occurred  on  the 
floor  of  the  House  of  Commons.  Miss  Martineau 
says  of  it,  "  The  Anti-Corn  Law  League  had  not 
yet  had  time  to  win  the  respect  and  command 
the  deference  which  it  was  soon  to  enjoy ;  but  it 
was  known  to  be  organized  and  led  by  men  of 
station,  character,  and  substance  —  men  of  en- 
larged education,  and  of  that  virtuous  and  decor- 
ous conduct  which  distinguishes  the  middle  clasp 


PROGRESS  OF  FREE  TRADE  AGITATION.     113 

of  England.  Yet  it  was  believed — believed  by 
men  of  education,  by  men  in  Parliament,  by  men 
in  attendance  on  the  government — that  the  Anti- 
Corn-Law  League  sanctioned. assassination,  and 
did  not  object  to  carry  its  aims  by  means  of  it. 
This  is,  perhaps,  the  strongest  manifestation  of 
the  tribulation  of  the  time."  It  is  just  to  the 
memory  of  Peel  to  insert  one  or  two  sentences 
uttered  by  him  about  three  years  later,  in  one  of 
the  debates  on  the  total  repeal  of  the  Corn  Laws 
in  1846  :  "The  honorable  member  thought  fit  to 
recall  to  the  recollection  of  the  House  something 
which  took  place  about  three  years  since,  in  the 
course  of  a  heated  debate,  when  I  put  an  erro- 
neous construction  on  some  expressions  used  by 
the  honorable  member  for  Stockport.  An  ex- 
planation was  given  of  the  meaning  of  those  ex- 
pressions by  that  honorable  member ;  and  my  in- 
tention at  the  time,  after  that  explanation,  was  to 
have  relieved  the  honorable  member  for  Stock- 
port,  in  the  most  distinct  manner,  of  the  imputa- 
tion which  I  had  put  upon  him.  If  any  one  who 
was  present  at  that  debate  had  stated  to  me  that 
my  reparation  was  not  so  complete,  and  the 
avowal  of  my  error  not  so  unequivocal  as  it  ought 
to  have  been,  I  should  at  once  have  repeated  it 
more  plainly  and  distinctly.  It  was  my  inten- 
tion to  have  made  the  fullest  explanation :  that 
my  intention  must  have  been  so,  will  indeed  ap- 
pear so  on  reference  to  my  speech.  I  am  sorry, 
H 


114  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

certainly,  that  the  honorable  member  for  Shrews- 
bury has  thought  fit  to  revive  the  subject,  or,  at 
least,  I  should  have  been  so  if  his  reference  to  it 
had  not  given  me  an  opportunity  of  fully  and  un- 
equivocally withdrawing  an  imputation  on  the 
honorable  member  for  Stockport,  which  was 
thrown  out  in  the  heat  of  debate  under  an  erro- 
neous impression  of  his  meaning." 


THE  VICTORY  OF  THE  LEAGUE. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

/ 

THE   VICTORY   OF   THE   LEAGUE. 

AFTER  the  division  on  Mr.  Villiers's  motion  in 
1 843,  the  Times  thus  commented  on  the  debate : 
"  Mr.  Cobden's  speech  was  clever  and  pointed. 
It  was  creditable  to  his  talents,  as  evincing  an 
aptitude  of  mind  and  an  ability  to  adapt  his  style 
to  the  air  of  the  place  and  the  tastes  of  his  au- 
dience ;  but  we  do  not  think  it  was  equally  credit- 
able to  his  judgment.  A  stronger  impression 
might  have  been  made  had  he  abstained  from  per- 
sonality and  persiflage.  Still,  allowance  must  be 
made  for  a  man  who  had  to  repeat  a  tale  for  the 
nine  hundred  and  ninety-ninth  time,  and  who, 
therefore,  was  compelled  to  adapt  it  to  the  palate 
of  his  hearers.  .  .  .  But  the  debate  is  over; 
the  question  is  settled  ;  for  how  long  ?  How 
many  even  of  the  majority  are  satisfied  of  the 
working  of  the  sliding-scale  ?  How  many  of  the 
minority  would  be  gratified  by  an  utter  and  im- 
mediate abolition  of  all  corn  duties?"  The  testi- 
mony of  the  Morning  Post  to  the  growing  might 
of  Cobden  and  his  principles  was  still  more  sig- 
nificant: "Melancholy  was  the  exhibition  in  the 
House  of  Commons  on  Monday  night.  Mr.  Cob- 


118  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

den  was  the  hero  of  the  night.  Toward  the 
close  of  the  debate,  he  rose  in  his  place,  and 
hurled  at  the  heads  of  the  parliamentary  land- 
owners of  England  those  calumnies  and  taunts 
which  constitute  the  staple  of  his  addresses  to 
farmers.  The  taunts  were  not  retorted.  The 
calumnies  were  not  repelled.  No ;  the  parlia- 
mentary representatives  of  the  industrial  inter- 
ests of  the  British  empire  quailed  before  the 
founder  and  leader  of  the  Anti-Corn-Law  League. 
They  winced  under  his  sarcasms.  They  listened 
in  speechless  terror  to  his  denunciations.  No 
man  among  them  dared  to  grapple  with  the  arch- 
enemy of  English  industry.  No  man  among 
them  attempted  to  refute  the  miserable  fallacies 
of  which  Mr.  Cobden's  speech  was  made  up.  .  .  . 
Melancholy  was  it  to  witness,  on  Monday,  the 
landowners  of  England,  the  representatives  by 
blood  of  the  Northern  chivalry,  the  representa- 
tives by  election  of  the  industrial  interests  of  the 
empire,  shrinking  under  the  blows  aimed  at  them 
by  a  Manchester  money  -  grubber  —  by  a  man 
whose  importance  is  derived  from  the  action  of  a 
system,  destructive  in  its  nature  of  all  the  whole- 
some influences  that  connect  together  the  various 
orders  of  society.  Well,  the  cycle  approaches 
its  completion ;  the  wheel  has  nearly  effected  its 
revolution ;  and  the  foul  and  pestilential  princi- 
ples which,  by  their  action,  began  forty  years  ago 
to  consign  to  beggary  hundreds  of  thousands  of 


THE  VICTORY  OF  THE  LEAGUE.  119 

harmless  and  ingenious  hand-loom  weavers  seem 
destined,  if  not  speedily  resisted,  to  sweep  away 
all  the  barriers  that  still  remain  to  shelter  pro- 
ductive industry  from  the  encroachment  of  those 
classes  of  men  to  whom  the  abasement  of  indus- 
try is  the  source  of  increased  power  and  influ- 
ence." We  present  this  piece  of  "  fine  writing," 
because  one  can  precisely  measure,  by  the  viru- 
lence of  its  spleen,  the  amount  of  power  in  the 
state  which  Richard  Cobden  and  his  principles 
had  by  this  time  attained. 

As  a  positive  and  altogether  more  valuable  in- 
dication of  the  spread  of  Free  Trade  principles, 
and  of  the  (perhaps  unexpected)  support  they 
were  receiving  in  non -political  quarters,  may  be 
given  these  characteristic  sentences  from  Car- 
lyle's  "  Past  and  Present,"  which  was  published 
about  this  time :  "  Oh,  my  Conservative  friends, 
who  still  specially  name,  and  struggle  to  approve 
yourselves  '  Conservative,'  would  to  heaven  I 
could  persuade  you  of  this  woi'ld-old  fact,  than 
which  fate  is  not  surer,  that  Truth  and  Justice 
alone  are  capable  of  being  '  conserved'  and  pre- 
served !  The  thing  which  is  unjust,  which  is  not 
according  to  God's  law,  will  you,  on  a  God's  uni- 
verse, try  to  conserve  that  ?  It  is  old,  say  you  ? 
Yes,  and  the  hotter  haste  ought  you,  of  all  others, 
to  be  in  to  let  it  grow  no  older !  If  but  the  faint- 
est whisper  in  your  hearts  intimate  to  you  that  it 
is  not  fair,  hasten,  for  the  sake  of  Conservatism 


120  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

itself,  to  probe  it  vigorously,  to  cast  it  forth  at 
once  and  forever,  if  guilty.  How  will  or  can  you 
preserve  it  f  The  thing  is  not  fair.  Impossible, 

a  thousand  fold,  is  marked  on  that 

If  I  were  the  Conservative  party  of  England 
(which  is  another  bold  figure  of  speech),!  would 
not  for  a  hundred  thousand  pounds  an  hour  al- 
low those  Corn  Laws  to  continue.  All  Potosi 
and  Golconda  put  together  would  not  purchase 
my  assent  to  them.  Do  you  count  what  treas- 
ures of  bitter  indignation  they  are  laying  up  for 
you  in  every  just  English  heart?  Do  you  know 
what  questions,  not  as  Corn-prices  and  sliding- 
scales  alone,  they  are  forcing  every  reflective  En- 
glishman to  ask  himself?  Questions  insoluble  or 
hitherto  unsolved ;  deeper  than  any  of  our  logic- 
plummets  hitherto  will  sound ;  questions  deep 
enough — which  it  were  better  we  did  not  name, 
even  in  thought.  You  are  forcing  us  to  think  of 
them.  The  utterance  of  them  is  begun  ;  and 
where  will  it  be  ended,  think  you  ?  When  now 
millions  of  one's  brother  men  sit  in  workhouses, 
and  five  millions,  as  is  insolently  said, '  rejoice  in 
potatoes,'  there  are  various  things  that  must  be 
begun,  let  them  end  where  they  can." 

While  the  agitation  went  on  in  the  rural  dis- 
tricts, special  new  batteries  were  directed  upon 
London.  The  extraordinary  and  novel  step  was 
adopted  of  hiring  the  great  national  theatres,  in 
Covent  Gai-den  and  Drnry  Lane,  for  the  purpose 


THE  VICTORY  OF  THE  LEAGUE.  121 

of  Free  Trade  demonstrations.  These  meetings 
were  held  on  every  successive  Wednesday.  They 
produced  an  immense  sensation.  They  form  to 
this  day  a  mai'ked  and  signal  epoch  in  the  mem- 
ory of  every  Londoner  old  enough  to  have  been 
an  adult  twenty  years  ago.  They  were  sneered 
at  as  clap-trap;  but  it  was  proved  that  they  were 
really  effective,  and  dangerous  to  monopoly,  when, 
shortly  after  their  commencement,  a  thorough 
Free  Trader,  Mr.  Pattison,  was  elected  for  the 
city  of  London,  and  Mr.  Jones  Loyd,  the  great 
banker,  sent  in  his  uncompromising  adhesion  to 
the  League.  Mr.  Prentice,  who  was  present,  thus 
describes  Mr.  Cobden's  first  appearance  at  Drury 
Lane: 

"  Richard  Cobden  came  last,  not  least,  and  had 
a  reception  which  justified  what  I  had  heard  said 
before,  that  he  was  the  most  popular  man  in  Lon- 
don. I  acknowledge  that  I  was  somewhat  dis- 
appointed. I  had  heard  him  speak,  over  and 
over  again,  with  more  effect.  I  was  jealous  of 
his  reputation,  and  grudged  that  he  should  utter 
one  sentence  without  evident  effect.  But  from 
him  I  turned  to  the  audience,  and  soon  perceived 
that  they  had  formed  a  just  appreciation  of  the 
man.  There  was  not  that  strained  attention 
which  was  seen  when  Mr.  Fox  and  Mr.  Gisborne 
addressed  them,  and  when  every  one  seemed  pre- 
pared for  a  burst  of  enthusiasm  or  a  burst  of 
laughter;  but  there  was  the  quiet  listening  si- 


122  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

lence,  expective,  not  of  excitement,  but  of  sound 
instruction  —  the  manifestly-expressed  faith  that 
there  was  something  well  worth  hearing  and 
well  worth  waiting  for.  And,  on  reflection,  I 
thought  the  more  of  the  intelligence  of  the  au- 
dience for  this  —  the  more  of  the  rapidly  matur- 
ing public  opinion  of  London.  It  seemed  to  say, 
'  Here  is  a  man  who  does  not  strain  after  effect 
— does  not  divest  an  argument  of  one  thread  of 
sequence  for  effect  —  and  is  content  to  rest  an 
argument  on  its  own  intrinsic  value,  without  ar- 
tificial adornment.'  And  in  this  faith  of  his  hear- 
ers Cobden  has  his  strength.  He  gets  out  all  he 
has  to  say,  and  all  he  means  to  say.  He  con- 
vinces as  he  goes  along,  and  with  a  simplicity 
and  plainness  which  seem  to  render  conviction 
irresistible.  And  thus  are  his  hearers  prepared 
for  those  occasional  bursts  of  fervor  which  no 
man  with  Cobden's  ideality  and  earnestness  can 
keep  pent  up  in  his  own  bosom.  His  denuncia- 
tion of  the  wickedness  of  transporting  the  best 
part  of  our  population  to  find  that  food  which 
their  labor  would  bring  to  them  but  for  selfish 
laws  was  given  with  all  the  power  of  a  righteous 
indignation,  and  his  affecting  picture  of  emi- 
grants leaving  their  native  land  was  in  the  finest 
tone  of  sympathy  for  the  sufferings  of  his  fel- 
low-creatures. On  the  one  occasion  and  the 
other,  the  loudly-expressed  indignation  and  the 
starting  tear  convinced  me  that  the  great  and 


THE  VICTORY  OF  THE  LEAGUE.  123 

brilliant  audience  was  moved  by  a  strong  sense 
of  justice  and  a  deeply-felt  benevolence." 

The  Times  said  of  these  theatre  meetings:  "A 
new  power  has  arisen  in  the  state,  and  maids  and 
matrons  flock  to  theatres  as  though  it  was  but  a 
'  new  translation  from  the  French.' " 

In  January,  1845,  the  League  published  certain 
statistics  of  its  doings  for  the  preceding  two  years. 
In  that  time  it  had  held  a  hundred  and  fifty  meet- 
ings in  parliamentary  boroughs,  and  fifty  in  other 
places ;  fifteen  thousand  copies  of  the  League 
newspaper — a  most  potent  agent  in  the  agitation 
— had  been  published  weekly ;  more  than  two 
millions  of  tracts  had  been  distributed ;  and  in 
one  year  thirty  thousand  letters  had  been  received, 
and  three  hundred  thousand  dispatched.  In  May, 
1845,  a  new  agency,  designed  partly  for  the  prop- 
agandism  of  the  principles  of  the  League,  and 
partly  for  the  augmentation  of  its  funds,  was 
called  into  play.  Covent  Garden  Theatre  was 
fitted  up  with  the  finest  taste  for  a  colossal  Free 
Trade  bazar.  It  was  transformed  into  a  fine 
Gothic  hall,  and  crowded  with  articles  of  elegance 
or  utility.  Four  hundred  ladies  acted  as  sales- 
women. Each  contributing  town  had  its  stall, 
with  its  name,  and  in  some  cases  its  arms,  painted 
above.  The  bazar  was  open  during  the  month 
of  May ;  a  hundred  and  twenty-five  thousand  per- 
sons entered  it,  and  it  yielded  the  handsome  sum 
of  £25,000  to  the  funds  of  the  League.  Douglas 


124  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

Jerrold  said  of  the  bazar  in  his  "  Magazine :"' 
"  A  '  bazar' — 'tis  a  trite  word  for  a  commonplace 
thing — often  an  idle  mart  for  children's  trumpery 
— for  foolish  goods  brought  forth  of  laborers' 
idleness.  But  an  idea  can  ennoble  any  thing. 
Nobility, in  its  true  sense,  is  an  idea;  and  how 
grand  is  the  idea  which  ennobles  our  bazar — 
which,  even  apart  from  its  claims  as  an  industrial 
exposition,  makes  it  a  great  and  holy  thing! 
'Free  Trade!'  These  words  form  a  spell  by 
which  the  world  will  yet  be  governed.  They  are 
the  spirit  of  a  dawning  creed — a  creed  which  al- 
ready has  found  altars  and  temples  worthy  of  its 
truth.  The  Auti-Corn-Law  League  Bazar  has 
raised  thoughts  in  the  national  mind  "which  will 
not  soon  die.  As  a  spectacle  it  was  magnificent 
in  the  extreme,  but  not  more  grand  materially 
than  it  was  morally.  The  crowd  who  saw  it 
thought  as  well  as  gazed.  It  was  not  a  mere  huge 
shop  for  selling  wares,  but  a  great  school  for 
propagating  an  idea.  And  the  pupils  were  not 
Londoners  alone.  From  every  part  of  the  land 
monster  trains  hurried  up  their  visitors.  From 
the  tracts  where  tall  chimneys  stand  like  forests 
— from  the  districts  where  the  plow,  not  the  en- 
gine, labors — where  the  farm-steading  takes  the 
place  of  the  factory  —  where  the  '  mill'  means, 
not  that  weaving  yarn,  but  that  grinding  corn — 
from  town  and  country,  shipping  port  and  inland 
city,  steam  has  whirled  its  tens  of  thousands  to 


THE  VICTORY  OF  THE  LEAGUE.  125 

one  common  centre,  to  see  a  great  demonstra- 
tion, to  take  a  great  lesson,  and  then  to  narrate 
and  teach  what  they  have  beheld  and  learned  to 
others." 

This  monster  bazar  caused  a  sensation  in  Lon- 
don only  exceeded  by  the  greater  impression 
made  by  the  Great  Exhibition  of  six  years  later. 
The  papers  teemed  with  descriptions  of  it,  and 
these  not  only  the  dailies  and  weeklies,  but  the 
magazines  and  journals  dedicated  to  special  and 
professional  objects.  It  is  most  amusing  at  this 
time  to  observe,  in  those  reports  of  its  proceed- 
ings and  contents  which  appeared  in  the  Con- 
servative prints,  a  sort  of  appalled  wonderment 
at  the  unexpected  magnitude  of  the  undertaking. 
We  are  told  how,  notwithstanding  the  high  price 
of  admission,  and  the  tempestuousness  of  the 
weather  at  its  opening,  it  was  nevertheless  cram- 
med to  overflowing.  We  read  of  the  admirable 
arrangements  to  prevent  confusion;  the  grand 
staircase,  fitted  up  with  tapestry,  carpets,  and 
shawls,  so  as  to  resemble  an  enormous  draper's 
shop ;  a  magnificent  mirror,  "  such  as  giants  only 
should  survey  themselves  in  ;"  colossal  boxes  of 
coal  and  iron,  the  latter  in  all  stages  of  workman- 
ship, from  the  crude  ore  to  the  finest  and  most 
flexible  steel;  apparatus  in  operation  weaving 
soft  and  beautiful  fabrics  of  glass  thread ;  and, 
finally,  when  the  central  Gothic  hall  is  reached, 
the  reporter  ceases  to  depict  details,  and  talks 


126  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

of  coming  suddenly  upon  "  a  scene  so  novel  and 
romantic,  so  incongruous  and  grotesque,  that  for 
a  moment  we  could  fancy  ourselves  transported 
to  the  East,  and  about  to  deal  with  Turks  and 
Mussulmans." 

Our  reporter  finds  solace  in  the  refreshment- 
room,  and  his  attention  is  divided  between  his 
consumption  of  the  excellent  creams  and  ices  there 
vended,  and  the  contemplation  of  "  a  huge  plum- 
cake — a  cake,  the  idea  of  which  could,  we  think, 
have  occurred  in  a  dream  only  to  some  imagina- 
tive school-boy — so  vast  in  its  expanse,  so  pon- 
derous its  size,  so  rich  its  ingredients,  so  delicious 
its  fragrance."  He  thus  proceeds — and  we  con- 
tinue the  extract  chiefly  for  the  sake  of  its  latter 
sentences,  which  indicate  how  various  were  the 
methods,  and  how  fertile  the  devices  employed 
by  Cobden  and  the  League  in  their  propaganda : 
"  It  (the  cake)  is  a  Bury  Simnel,  and  measures, 
we  should  think,  some  five  feet  in  diameter, 
weighs  280  Ibs.,  and  bears  upon  its  broad  surface 
a  sheet  of  iced  sugar  so  large  as  to  have  inscribed 
upon  it  nearly  all  the  maxims  which  embody  the 
religion  of  the  League,  and  so  sweet  and  richly 
ornamented  as  to  almost  induce  the  visitor  to 
swallow  them.  We  hear  that  it  is  to  be  cut  up 
and  distributed  on  the  last  day  of  the  Exhibition  ; 
but  let  the  League  beware  how  they  previously 
admit  a  school  to  their  bazar,  for  to  resist  the 
continued  temptation  of  this  cake  and  its  Free 


THE  VICTORY  OF  THE  LEAGUE.  127 

Trade  inscriptions  is,  we  think,  beyond  the  possi- 
bility of  school-boy  nature.  In  this  room  is  also 
the  '  post-office,'  an  ingenious  device  for  (among 
other  purposes)  raising  money,  and  disseminating 
Free  Trade  doctrines.  It  is  suggested  to  the  vis- 
itor to  knock  and  inquire  if  they  have  a  letter  for 
him,  and  upon  his  supplying  him  with  his  name 
and  address,  he  is  himself,  in  due  time,  supplied 
with  a  packet  (not  pre-paid),  which,  on  receiving, 
he  finds  filled  with  League  tracts  and  other  Free 
Trade  publications.  The  scheme  was  so  success- 
ful that  the  arrival  of  a  '  foreign  mail'  was  soon 
notified,  and,  of  course,  it  brought  with  it  a  dis- 
patch for  every  applicant,  and  at  the  foreign  rate 
of  postage." 

Enough  goods  were  left  unsold  at  the  bazar  to 
furnish  another  very  well-stocked  and  remunera- 
tive one  at  Manchester. 

Protection  to  agriculture,  freedom  of  trade,  and 
the  condition  of  the  laboring  classes,  continually 
appeared  on  the  surface  of  the  debates  during 
the  session  of  1845,  and  scarcely  a  week  passed 
in  which  they  were  not  incidentally  discussed.  A 
general  discussion  on  the  policy  of  the  Protective 
Laws  was  raised  by  a  motion  proposed  by  Mr. 
Cobden  on  the  13th  of  March  for  a  "select  com- 
mittee to  inquire  into  the  causes  and  extent  of 
the  alleged  existing  agricultural  distress,  and  into 
the  effects  of  legislative  protection  upon  the  in- 
terest of  landowners,  tenant-farmers,  and  farm  la- 


128  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

borers."  He  undertook  to  prove  the  existence 
of  distress  among  the  farmers  by  quoting  the 
declai-ations  of  some  of  the  highest  authorities  in 
the  agricultural  interest ;  that  half  the  farmers  in 
the  country  were  in  a  state  of  insolvency,  and 
that  the  other  half  were  paying  rents  out  of  their 
capital,  and  fast  hastening  to  the  same  melancholy 
condition.  This  was,  therefore,  the  proper  time 
for  bringing  on  a  motion  for  inquiry.  The  doubts 
as  to  the  cause  of  this  distress  were  also  sufficient 
reasons  for  instituting  it.  Sir  Robert  Peel  had 
said  that  the  distress  was  local,  and  did  not  arise 
from  legislation.  Mr.  Bankes,  on  the  contrary, 
maintained  that  the  distress  was  general,  and  did 
arise  from  legislation.  It  had  also  been  said  that 
the  Corn  Law  had  been  successful  in  keeping  up 
the  price  of  corn;  but  to  this  it  had  been  replied 
that  the  price  of  wheat  when  the  present  Corn 
Law  was  passed  was  56s. — that  it  was  now  only 
45s. — and  that  it  would  only  be  35s.  a  quarter 
next  year  if  we  had  another  plentiful  harvest. 
Under  such  circumstances,  might  it  not  be  well  to 
inquire  what  was  the  benefit  of  protection  ?  He 
proceeded  to  show  that  the  first  great  evil  under 
which  the  farmer  labored  was  his  want  of  capital. 
The  land  required  an  expenditure  of  £10  an  acre, 
and  had  only  £5  applied  to  it.  Why  could  not 
capital  be  profitably  employed  on  the  land  ?  Be- 
cause there  was  no  security  of  tenure,  and  cap- 
ital shrunk  from  insecurity  of  every  sort.  In  En- 


THE  VICTORY  OF  THE  LEAGUE.  129 

gland,  leases  were  the  exception,  and  he  was  sor- 
ry to  say  that  farmers  with  leases  were  in  a  still 
worse  condition  than  those  who  had  them  not; 
for  the  covenants  in  their  leases  were  quite  ante- 
diluvian, and  were  not  fitted  for  the  present  state 
of  agricultural  science.  He  created  much  amuse- 
ment by  reading  the  covenants  of  a  Cheshire  lease, 
and  contended  that  such  covenants  were  nothing 
more  than  traps  to  catch  the  unwary,  and  fetters 
to  bind  the  honest  and  intelligent.  He  advised 
the  Anti-Corn-Law  League  to  purchase  a  model 
farm,  a  model  homestead,  model  cottages,  and 
model  gardens ;  but  he  would  also  have  a  model 
lease,  and  a  farmer  of  intelligence,  with  sufficient 
capital.  It  was  said  that  farmers  would  not  now 
take  leases.  What  did  that  mean  ?  It  meant 
that  by  the  process  which  the  landlords  had  adopt- 
ed, they  had  rendered  the  farmers  servile,  and 
therefore  not  anxious  to  become  independent. 
The  cause  of  the  want  of  capital  and  the  insecuri- 
ty of  tenure  was  the  Corn  Laws.  Free  Trade  in 
corn  would  be  more  beneficial  to  the  farmers  and 
the  laborers  than  to  any  other  class.  Sir  Robert 
Peel  had  recently  admitted  foreign  fat  cattle,  but 
he  refused  to  admit  the  raw  material  which  was 
necessary  to  make  cattle  fat.  He  had  absolutely 
reversed  the  course  which  Mr.  Huskisson  adopted 
with  regard  to  manufactures.  He  maintained 
that  all  grazing  and  arable  farmers  were  interest- 
ed in  having  a  large  and  cheap  supply  of  proven- 
I 


130  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

der.  They  were  sending  out  vessels  every  day  to 
Ichaboe  for  guano  as  manure,  when  the  importa- 
tion of  cheap  provender,  which  was  now  prohibit- 
ed, would  give  every  farmer  a  cheaper  and  more 
valuable  species  of  manure,  produced  upon  his 
farm.  He  described  the  lamentable  condition  of 
the  laborers,  and  asked  the  landlords,  after  they 
had  brought  their  dependents  to  so  melancholy 
a  state,  whether  they  would  be  afraid  to  risk,  he 
would  not  say  this  experiment,  but  this  inquiry. 
Protection  had  been  a  failure  when  it  reached  a 
prohibitory  duty  of  80s. ;  it  had  been  a  failure 
when  it  reached  the  pivot  price  of  60s. ;  and  it 
was  a  failure  now,  when  they  had  got  a  sliding- 
scale,  for  they  had  admitted  the  lamentable  con- 
dition of  their  tenantry  and  peasantry.  He  called 
upon  all  the  gentlemen  who  entered  the  House, 
not  as  politicians,  but  as  the  farmers'  friends,  to 
support  his  motion,  which  was  intended  for  their 
benefit,  and  not  for  their  injury.  The  motion  was, 
like  its  precursors,  though  ably  supported  by  the 
present  Earl  Grey,  then  Lord  Howick,  and  others, 
negatived  by  a  considerable  majority. 

A  great  concession  to  the  Free  Trade  cause 
was  made  in  the  course  of  this  session.  Lord 
John  Russell  brought  forward  a  set  of  resolutions 
on  the  condition  of  the  laboring  classes.  He 
stated  that  he  could  not  now  recommend  the  fixed 
duty  of  eight  shillings  which  he  had  proposed  in 
1841.  He  supposed  no  one  would  propose  a 


THE  VICTORY  OF  THE  LEAGUE.  131 

smaller  duty  than  four  shillings ;  he  himself,  if  it 
were  his  affair,  should  propose  one  of  four,  five, 
or  six  shillings.  Sidney  Herbert,  too,  a  member 
of  the  ministry,  talked  in  terms  of  deprecation 
of  the  agricultural  interest  coming  to  Parliament 
"  whining  for  protection."  Cobden  and  the  Free 
Traders  made  abundant  use  of  this  expression, 
which,  if  it  implied  any  thing  at  all,  involved  their 
whole  case  and  the  justice  of  their  claims.  The 
farmers  all  over  England  read  the  reported  ex- 
pression— "  whining  for  protectiqn" — with  dis- 
may. 

The  Free  Trade  triumph  was  now  fast  ap- 
proaching. Physical  facts  precipitated  it.  It  re- 
mains for  us  to  narrate  with  brevity  the  conclud- 
ing act  of  that  great  drama  in  which  Richard 
Cobden  was  the  principal  actor.  The  summer 
of  1845  was  a  continuous  rainfall.  The  sun  was 
scarcely  seen  from  May  until  the  summer  of  the 
succeeding  year.  Men  began  to  fear  for  the  har- 
vest, and  to  calculate  how  much  foreign  dry 
wheat  would  be  needed  to  mix  with  the  English 
moist  and  soddened  grain.  Then  it  appeared 
that  all  over  Europe  the  harvest  would  be  a 
very  deficient  one,  and  dependence  could  only  be 
placed  on  America.  Another  terrible  calamity 
impended.  Cottiers  and  market-gardeners  began 
to  notice  brown  spots  appearing  on  the  leaves  of 
the  potato  plants.  It  appeared  that  this  indica- 
tion invariably  proved  that  the  roots  were  putrid 


132  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

and  rotten.  The  League,  the  while,  redoubled  its 
exertions.  They  decreed  a  levy  of  £250,000,  of 
which  ,£62,000  were  subscribed  at  one  meeting. 
At  a  great  demonstration  in  Manchester,  in  Oc- 
tober, Mr.  Cobden  said  there  was  only  one  reme- 
dy for  the  famine  which  threatened  our  island 
— only  one  means  of  averting  the  misery,  starva- 
tion, and  death  of  millions  in  Ireland.  The  ports 
must  be  opened.  He  referred  to  the  rumors  of 
a  new  Corn  Law,  and  said  that  some  delusive 
modification  would  be  made  unless  the  country 
declared  against  either  a  fixed  duty  or  a  reduced 
sliding-scale.  He  thus  concluded :  "  We  must 
not  relax  in  our  labors ;  on  the  contrary,  we  must 
be  more  zealous,  more  energetic,  more  laborious, 
than  we  ever  yet  have  been.  When  the  enemy 
is  wavering,  then  is  the  time  to  press  upon  him. 
I  call,  then,  on  all  who  have  any  sympathy  with 
our  cause,  who  have  any  promptings  of  humanity, 
or  who  feel  any  interest  in  the  well-being  of  their 
fellow-men,  all  who  have  apprehensions  of  scarci- 
ty and  privations,  to  come  forward  to  avert  this 
horrible  destiny — this  dreadfully  impending  visit- 
ation." 

Valuable  accessions  continued  to  be  made  to 
the  League.  Lord  Ashley  declared  against  the 
Corn  Laws.  Lord  Morpeth  joined  the  League. 
Lord  John  Russell  wrote  from  Edinburgh  to  his 
constituents  in  the  city  of  London  a  letter  con- 
taining a  complete  recantation  of  his  fixed-duty 


THE  VICTORY  OF  THE  LEAGUE.  133 

plan.  Meanwhile  the  cabinet  frequently  met, 
and  there  were  rumors  of  disagreements  among 
its  members.  Sir  Robert  Peel  and  three  of  his 
colleagues  wished  to  throw  open  the  ports,  but 
the  majority  of  the  ministers  dissented,  and  he 
withdrew  the  proposition.  On  the  4th  of  De- 
cember, the  Times  astounded  the  country  by  de- 
claring that  Parliament  would  be  summoned  in 
January  for  the  purpose  of  repealing  the  Cora 
Laws.  It  was  hotly  and  furiously  assailed  by 
the  Tory  prints,  and  its  assertion  flatly  denied 
even  by  the  papers  generally  believed  to  be  ad- 
mitted to  the  largest  share  of  the  confidence  of 
ministers.  But  the  Times  quietly  and  pertina- 
ciously adhered  to  and  reiterated  its  statement: 
"  We  adhere,"  said  the  Times,  "  to  our  original 
announcement,  that  Parliament  will  meet  early 
in  January,  and  that  a  repeal  of  the  Corn  Laws 
will  be  proposed  in  one  house  by  Sir  Robert 
Peel,  and  in  the  other  by  the  Duke  of  Welling- 
ton." It  was  believed  that  the  duke  had  been 
most  unwillingly,  and  at  the  last  moment,  per- 
suaded by  Peel,  and  only  then  by  the  statement 
of  the  premier  that  if  he  did  not  repeal  the  Corn 
Laws  he  must  resign,  and  recommend  her  majes- 
ty to  send  for  Mr.  Cobden. 

The  royal  speech  at  the  opening  of  the  session 
suggested  an  inquiry  whether  there  might  not 
still  be  a  remission  "of  the  existing  duties  upon 
many  articles,  the  produce  or  manufacture  of 


134  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

other  countries."  Large  reductions  in  taxation 
on  tallow,  timber,  silks,  sugar,  and  other  articles 
were  announced.  On  the  27th  of  January,  these 
remissions,  and  also  the  ministerial  intentions 
with  regard  to  the  Corn  Laws,  were  promul- 
gated. Peel  proposed  to  admit  all  agricultural 
produce  used  for  cattle-feed  duty  free,  colonial- 
grown  wheat  was  to  pay  a  mere  nominal  duty, 
and  protection  to  cease  totally  in  three  years; 
the  delay  being  granted  to  enable  the  farmers  to 
arrange  for  the  new  state  of  things.  In  the  in- 
terval, the  duties  would  be  materially  reduced. 
The  League  at  once  gave  their  whole  strength  to 
the  support  of  the  scheme.  Cobden  appeared 
but  seldom  in  the  final  Corn-Law  debates  of 
1846.  He  had  seriously  impaired  his  health  by 
his  indefatigable  exertions  in  the  cause  of  cheap 
food,  and  he  was  frequently,  especially  just  before 
the  final  triumph,  absent  from  the  House.  In  a 
great  speech  delivered  in  the  course  of  the  dis- 
cussion which  immediately  followed  the  ministe- 
rial statement,  he  defended  the  policy  of  the 
League  by  which  they  had  multiplied  county  vo- 
ters by  the  purchase  of  freeholds,  and  the  alloca- 
tion of  them  in  small  lots.  "Let  it  come  to  the 
worst,"  said  he ;  "  carry  on  the  opposition  to  this 
measure  for  three  years  more ;  yet  there  is  a  plan 
in  operation  much  maligned  by  some  honorable 
gentlemen  opposite,  and  still  more  maligned  in 
another  place,  but  which,  the  more  the  shoe 


THE  VICTORY  OF  THE  LEAGUE.  136 

pinches,  and  the  more  you  wince  at  it,  the  more 
we  like  it  out  of  doors.  Now,  I  say,  we  have 
confronted  this  difficulty,  and  are  prepared  to 
meet  it.  We  are  calling  into  exercise  the  true 
old  English  forms  of  the  Constitution  of  five  cen- 
turies' antiquity,  and  we  intend  that  the  ancient 
forty-shilling  freehold  franchise  shall  countervail 
this  innovation  of  yours  in  the  Reform  Bill.  You 
think  that  there  is  something  revolutionary  in 
this.  Why,  you  are  the  innovators  and  the  revo- 
lutionists who  introduced  this  new  franchise  into 
the  Reform  Bill.  But  I  believe  that  it  is  perfect- 
ly understood  by  the  longest  heads  among  your 
party  that  we  have  a  power  out  of  doors  to  meet 
this  difficulty.  You  should  bear  in  mind  that  less 
than  one  half  of  the  money  invested  in  the  sav- 
ings' banks,  laid  out  at  a  better  interest  in  the 
purchase  of  freeholds,  would  give  qualifications  to 
more  persons  than  your  150,000  tenant-farmers. 
But  you  say  that  the  League  is  purchasing  votes 
and  giving  away  the  franchise.  No,  no,  we  are 
not  quite  so  rich  as  that ;  but  be  assured  that  if 
you  prolong  the  contest  for  three  or  four  years — 
which  you  can  not  do — if,however,it  comes  to  the 
worst,  we  have  the  means  in  our  power  to  meet 
the  difficulty,  and  are  prepared  to  use  them." 

With  mingled  ridicule  and  good-humor  he  de- 
scribed the  various  Protectionist  terrors  and  de- 
lusions which  still  filled  rural  and  Tory  minds. 
He  said,  "  The  working-classes,  not  believing  that 


136  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

wages  rise  and  fall  with  the  price  of  bread,  when 
you  tell  them  that  they  are  to  have  corn  at  25s. 
a  quarter,  instead  of  being  frightened,  are  rub- 
bing their  hands  with  satisfaction.  They  are  not 
frightened  at  the  visions  which  you  present  to 
their  eyes  of  a  big  loaf,  seeing  that  they  expect 
to  get  more  money,  and  bread  at  half  the  price. 
And  then  the  danger  of  having  your  land  thrown 
out  of  cultivation !  Why,  what  would  the  men 
in  smock  frocks  in  the  south  of  England  say  to 
that  ?  They  would  say, '  We  shall  get  our  land 
for  potato-ground  at  a  halfpenny  a  lug,  instead 
of  paying  threepence  or  fourpence  for  it.'  These 
fallacies  have  all  been  disposed  of;  and  if  you 
lived  more  in  the  world  —  more  in  contact  with 
public  opinion,  and  less  within  that  charmed  cir- 
cle which  you  think  the  world,  but  which  is  real- 
ly nothing  but  a  clique ;  if  you  gave  way  less  to 
the  excitement  of  clubs — less  to  the  buoyancy 
which  arises  from  talking  to  each  other  as  to  the 
effect  of  some  smart  speech  in  which  a  minister 
has  been  assailed,  you  would  see  that  it  was  mere 
child's  play  to  attempt  to  baulk  the  intelligence 
of  the  country  on  this  great  question,  and  you 
would  not  have  talked  as  you  have  talked  for  the 
last  eleven  days."  Considerable  majorities  car- 
ried the  bill  through  its  varied  stages,  and  it  had 
passed  the  Lords  ere  the  end  of  May. 

Peel  gracefully  acknowledged  the  right  of  Cob- 
den  to  be  considered  the  real  author  of  the  meas- 


THE  VICTORY  OF  THE  LEAGUE.  137 

ure :  "  The  name  which  ought  to  be,  and  will  be 
associated  with  the  success  of  these  measures,  is 
the  name  of  one  who,  acting,  I  believe,  from  pure 
and  disinterested  motives,  has,  with  untiring  en- 
ergy, made  appeals  to  our  reason,  and  has  en- 
forced those  appeals  with  an  eloquence  the  more 
to  be  admired  because  it  was  unaffected  and  un- 
adorned ;  the  name  which  ought  to  be  chiefly  as- 
sociated with  the  success  of  these  measures  is  the 
name  of  RICHAKD  COBDEN." 

The  League  had  accomplished  its  work.  It  was 
formally  dissolved  at  a  great  meeting  at  Manches- 
ter. Mr.  Cobden  addressed  it,  and  congratulated 
his  audience  not  only  on  the  success  achieved,  but 
on  the  instruction  communicated  to  the  people, 
which  would  render  it  impossible  ever  again  to 
impose  the  Corn  Laws.  Of  Peel  he  said :  "  If  he 
has  lost  office,  he  has  gained  a  country.  For  my 
part,  I  would  rather  descend  into  private  life  with 
that  last  measure  of  his,  which  led  to  his  discom- 
fiture, in  my  hand,  than  mount  to  the  highest 
pinnacle  of  human  power."  Referring  to  the 
labors  of  himself  and  his  colleagues,  he  said : 
"  Many  people  will  think  that  we  have  our  reward 
in  the  applause  and  eclat  of  public  meetings  ;  but 
I  declare  that  it  is  not  so  with  me,  for  the  inherent 
reluctance  I  have  to  address  public  meetings  is 
so  great,  that  I  do  not  even  get  up  to  present  a 
petition  to  the  House  of  Commons  without  re- 
luctance. I  therefore  hope  I  may  be  believed 


138  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

when  I  say  that  if  this  agitation  terminates  now, 
it  will  be  very  acceptable  to  my  feelings  ;  but  if 
there  should  be  the  same  necessity,  the  same  feel- 
ing which  impelled  me  to  take  the  part  I  have 
taken,  will  impel  me  to  a  new  agitation — ay,  and 
with  tenfold  more  vigor,  after  having  had  a  little 
time  to  recruit  my  health."  He  moved  "  That, 
an  Act  of  Parliament  having  been  passed  provid- 
ing for  the  abolition  of  the  Corn  Laws  in  Febru- 
ary, 1849,  it  is  deemed  expedient  to  suspend  the 
active  operation  of  the  Anti-Corn-Law  League; 
and  the  executive  council  in  Manchester  is  hereby 
requested  to  take  the  necessary  steps  for  making 
up  and  closing  the  affairs  of  the  League  with  as 
little  delay  as  possible."  Mr.  Bright  seconded 
the  resolution,  and  it  was  carried. 

Mr.  Prentice,  himself  one  of  the  council  of  the 
League,  says :  "  An  air  of  grave  solemnity  had 
spread  over  the  meeting  as  it  drew  to  a  close. 
There  were  five  hundred  gentlemen  who  had  often 
met  together  during  the  great  contest,  and  not- 
withstanding their  exultation  over  a  victory 
achieved,  the  feeling  stole  over  their  minds  that 
they  were  never  to  meet  again.  Mr.  Cobden  re- 
minded them  that  they  were  under  obligations 
to  the  queen,  who  was  said  to  have  favored  their 
cause  as  one  of  humanity  and  justice,  and  three 
hearty  cheers  in  her  honor  loyally  closed  the  pro- 
ceedings." 


FACTORY  LEGISLATION.  139 


CHAPTER  VII. 

FACTORY   LEGISLATION. THE   TEN-HOURS5    BILL. 

WHAT  has  been  called  the  "  Condition  of  En- 
gland Question"  was  being  discussed  all  the  time 
of  the  League  agitation,  and,  indeed,  both  before 
and  after  it.  Many  different  sects  were  there, 
and  each  one  had  quite  as  many  leaders  as  the 
aggregate  number  of  the  sects.  There  were 
Chartists,  and  many  ramifications  of  them ;  So- 
cialists, not  perhaps  so  divided,  and  although 
holding  what  society  considers  a  more  "  leveling" 
opinion  than  even  Chartism,  yet  composed  of  ma- 
terials which  were  personally  more  respectable, 
and  which  have  exercised  collaterally  much  more 
important  influences.  Cobden's  grand  single- 
minded  opinion  among  the  rival  doctors,  as  in- 
deed has  already  sufficiently  appeared  in  preced- 
ing pages,  was,  that  the  first  thing  was  cheap  bread 
(or,  rather,  this  as  the  first  fruits  of  farther  Free 
Trade),  and  after  that  other  matters  might  be 
considered.  To  Socialism  he  was  ever  opposed. 
Indeed,  his  cardinal  doctrine  of  free,  universal, 
and  unrestricted  competition  is  simply  the  direct 
antithesis  of  the  cardinal  doctrine  of  Socialism. 
Chartism  in  its  rough  form  he  never  indicated  any 


140  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

favor  for.  In  fact,  in  his  agitation  he  had  fully 
as  much  trouble  to  encounter  at  the  hands  of  the 
Chartists  as  any  other  class.  At  the  same  time,  it 
must  be  admitted  that  his  political  opinions  rest- 
ed upon  precisely  the  same  radical  foundation  as 
Chartism,  which  is  neither  more  nor  less  than  the 
doctrine  of  the  absolute  political  equality  of  every 
citizen,  but  without  the  admixture  of  any  so-called 
"  social"  element. 

From  one  phase  of  Chartism — or  perhaps  we 
should  speak  a  little  more  accurately  if  we  said 
from  certain  quondam  Chartist  leaders — sprang 
a  definite  public  movement,  in  which  afterward, 
strange  to  say,  they  found  themselves  associated 
with  one  of  the  proudest  noblemen  in  England, 
and  on  which  Mr.  Cobden  entertained,  and  ex- 
pressed manfully,  as  was  his  wont,  very  definite 
opinions.  Our  elder  readers,  at  least,  will  not 
need  the  information  that  we  refer  to  the  agita- 
tion about  the  Factory  and  Ten-Hours'  Bill  ques- 
tion. Perhaps  we  shall  best  economize  our  space, 
and  at  the  same  time  conduce  to  clearness,  if  we 
leave  Mr.  Cobden  and  his  views  altogether  out 
of  sight  for  one  or  two  pages,  confine  ourselves 
to  the  delineation  of  the  opinions  and  proceedings 
of  the  friends  of  legislation  in  this  direction,  and 
then  recur  to  Mr.  Cobden,  and  discover  his  opin- 
ions, and  the  reasons  he  gave  for  them. 

The  year  1838  chronicled  the  avowed  and  open 
beginning  of  Chartism,  when  a  great  meeting,  at- 


FACTORY  LEGISLATION.  141 

tended  by  200,000  persons,  was  held  on  Kersal 
Moor,  in  Lancashire.  The  leaders  of  the  Chart- 
ists in  these  early  days  were  Stephens,  a  Wes- 
leyan  minister,  who  suffered  eighteen  months'  im- 
prisonment in  Knutsford  jail  for  certain  incendi- 
ary expressions  alleged  to  have  been  uttered  by 
him  on  this  occasion.  Secondly,  Feargus  O'Con- 
nor, of  whom  Miss  Martineau  says — and  we  not 
only  quote,  but  endorse  her  words — "  It  is  very 
probable  that  from  the  moment  when  Feargus 
O'Connor  first  placed  himself  at  the  head  of  a 
Chartist  procession  to  the  last  stoppage  of  his 
land  scheme,  he  may  have  fancied  himself  a  sort 
of  savior  of  the  working  classes ;  but  if  so,  he 
must  bear  the  contempt  and  compassionate  dis- 
approval of  all  men  of  ordinary  sense  and  knowl- 
edge, as  the  only  alternative  from  their  utter  rep- 
robation. Thirdly,  Richard  Oastler,  a  bland,  hos- 
pitable, and  generous-hearted  Yorkshire  "  squire," 
as  his  adherents  invariably  called  him,  rather 
than  a  man  fitted  for  popular  leadership,  but  yet, 
above  all  others,  the  man  most  entitled  to  be  con- 
sidered the  author  of  the  Ten-Hours'  Bill.  Last- 
ly, John  Fielden,  of  Todmorden,  also  a  man  of  big- 
ger heart  than  head,  although  the  latter  was  by  no 
means  deficient  in  capacity.  The  last  two  named 
dissociated  themselves  from  Chartism  whenever  it 
began  to  be  turbulent ;  Oastler  being  known  as 
the  advocate  out  of  doors  of  a  government  bill  for 
the  compulsory  limitation  of  the  hours  of  labor 


142  LIFE  OF  EICHARD  COBDEN. 

in  factories  to  ten  hours  a  day,  while  Fielden  and 
Lord  Ashley,  now  Lord  Shaftesbury,  pleaded  the 
same  cause  on  the  floor  of  the  House.  But  Fiel- 
den  combined  the  two  advocacies — in  the  House 
and  out  of  it.  To  narrate  at  any  length  the  whole 
history  of  the  agitation  would  be  to  turn  this  bi- 
ography— or  at  least  a  chapter  of  it — into  a  his- 
tory. We  only  reproduce  sufficient  of  its  inci- 
dents to  make  the  opinions  of  Mr.  Cobden  on  the 
question,  subsequently  to  be  adduced  by  us,  suf- 
ficiently clear  even  to  those  whose  first  informa- 
tion on  the  subject  is  derived  from  these  pages. 

Lord  Ashley  had  much  support  for  his  proposal 
both  in  and  out  of  the  House.  Such  towns  as 
Manchester  were  placarded  with  bills  with  these 
words :  "  Less  Work !  More  Wages !  Sign  for 
Ten  Hours !"  This  was  quite  enough  to  raise 
the  enthusiasm  of  the  operatives ;  and  in  the 
two  houses  of  Parliament  some  high  Conserva- 
tives believed  in  the  bill  because  they  believed 
in  the  parental  character  of  the  government. 
Some  of  the  Radicals,  again,  went  for  it  on  the 
ground  that  those  poor  who  were  not  represent- 
ed in  the  Legislature  deserved,  on  that  special 
and  peculiar  ground,  the  protection  of  the  state. 
Others  again — and  probably  a  more  numerous 
constituent  part  of  the  supporters  (we  mean  here, 
of  course,  the  uppei'-class  supporters)  of  the  bill 
— supported  it  because  it  enabled  them  to  annoy, 
vilify,  and  defame  the  League,  all  of  whom  were 


FACTORY  LEGISLATION.  143 

represented  as  the  most  horrid  and  hellish  ty- 
rants over  their  "  hands."  The  members  of  the 
League,  and  also  many  of  the  more  sagacious  of 
the  observant  public,  thought  it  somewhat  strange 
that  Lord  Ashley  should  develop  so  much  human- 
ity for  Lancashire  operatives  whose  families  were 
earning  £3  per  week,  while  his  father's  Dorset- 
shire laborers  received  no  more  than  10s.  It  ap- 
peared, too,  that  he  himself  knew  very  little  or 
nothing  of  the  vilified  "  manufacturing  system," 
and  was  more  than  once  made  the  dupe  of  the 
vilest  epistolary  information.  And  in  the  vilifi- 
cation of  the  manufacturers,  or  rather  of  the 
Leaguers — for  here  lay  the  animus — the  Ten- 
Hours'  Bill  men  either  disdained  not,  or  were  to 
their  shame  compelled  to  receive,  the  aid  of  the 
most  unscrupulous  man  who  ever  sat  and  shout- 
ed in  the  English  House  of  Commons,  whose 
name  we  will  not  here  mention.  The  member  to 
whom  we  allude  accused  Mr.  Cobden  of  paying 
his  hands  on  the  Truck  System — that  is,  of  com- 
pelling them  to  receive  a  portion  of  their  wages 
in  goods,  from  which  their  master  had  a  profit. 
Cobden  actually  found  it  necessary — so  hot  was 
the  acrimony  over  the  combined  Corn-Law  and 
Ten-Hours  controversy — to  have  the  following 
written  voucher  sent  from  his  print-works,  and  he 
read  it  in  his  place  in  the  House : 

"You  are  aware  that  our  wages  are  paid  every 
Saturday  morning,  and  our  rule  is  that  every  per 


144  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

sou  in  the  works  shall  be  paid  by  eight  o'clock 
with  money,  so  that  they  can  lay  out  their  money 
to  the  best  advantage  when  and  where  they 
please." 

Even  this  denial  did  not  suffice  for  the  "honora- 
ble member."  Eleven  days  after, "  he  asked  Mr. 
Cobden  if  he  would  deny  that  he  kept  cows,  and 
supplied  the  people  with  milk  from  them,  deduct- 
ing the  amount  from  their  wages  ?" 

We  tell  the  sequel  exactly  as  it  appears  in 
Hansard,  with  only  the  reservation  which  we 
have  already  specified : 

"  Mr.  Cobden.  Does  the  honorable  member 
charge  me  with  pursuing  the  Truck  System  ?" 

"  Mr. had  said, '  Would  the  honorable 

member  deny  it?'  If  he  did,  it  was  his  duty  to 
take  that  denial;  but  he  would  give  his  reasons 
for  having  asked  the  question,  and  his  authority 
for  having  done  so." 

"  Mr.  Cobden  hoped  that  the  House  would  give 
him  credit  for  not  wishing  to  introduce  personal 
discussion  into  its  debates.  It  seemed  to  him 
that  the  statement  which  had  gone  abroad  in  the 
Times  as  a  charge  against  him  was  withdrawn. 
He  was  not,  therefore,  directly  called  upon  to  an- 
swer it,  but  he  would  treat  it  as  a  charge  made 
against  him  last  night  which  was  not  adhered  to 
to-day.  If,  however,  the  House  would  allow  him, 
he  would  state  a  few  facts  in  reference  to  the 
business  with  which  he  was  connected.  That 


FACTORY  LEGISLATION.  145 

business  could  not  be  carried  on  without  the  con- 
sumption of  large  quantities  of  cow-dung.  He 

was  now  letting  the  honorable  member  for 

into  the  arcana  of  the  calico-printing  trade.  As 
many  hundred  tons  of  dung  were  used  in  this 
trade,  it  was  necessary  for  manufacturers  to  keep 
great  numbers  of  cows.  Now  it  so  happened 
that  his  printing-works  being  situated  close  to  a 
town,  it  was  found  more  convenient  to  buy  the 
requisite  quantity  of  dung  than  to  keep  cows,  and, 
therefore,  the  insinuations  of  the  honorable  mem- 
ber for were  not  only  untrue,  but  desti- 
tute of  the  shadow  of  a  foundation.  If  the  House 
would  allow  him,  he  would  remind  it  that  those 
charges  were  evidently  got  up  for  the  purpose 
of  distracting  the  attention  of  the  public  from  a 
great  and  important  question.  He  must  confess 
that  he  did  not  understand  how  the  alleged  mis- 
conduct of  mill-owners  and  manufacturers  could 
properly  form  a  part  of  discussions  on  the  Corn 
Laws.  If  it  was  true,  as  the  honorable  member 
for had  stated,  that  the  master  manufac- 
turers were  tyrants  to  their  workmen,  that  could 
be  no  reason  why  their  sufferings  should  be  add- 
ed to  by  increasing  the  price  of  food." 

It  was  only  a  very  few  persons  indeed  who 
defended  the  Truck  System.  These  few  alleged 
that  there  were  exceptional  occasions  on  which 
it  was  an  advantage  to  the  operative ;  thus,  where 
places  of  marketing  were  distant,  or,  if  accessible, 
K 


146  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

where  the  goods  were  inferior,  it  might  be  de- 
sirable that  the  master  should  become  purveyor 
as  well  as  employer.  The  obvious  common-sense 
answer  to  this  plea  was,  that  the  temptation  to 
extortion  was  so  great  that  it  were  better  to  get 
quit  of  the  system  altogether,  than  retain  it  on  a 
pretext  so  illusory  and  so  easily  taken  advantage 
of.  For  our  purpose  it  is  sufficient  to  remark, 
that  Mr.  Cobden's  annoyance  at  the  imputation 
was  so  evident  as  to  prove  irrefragably  his  detes- 
tation of  the  plan.  With  the  Ten-Hour  question 
the  case  was  quite  different.  We  have  already 
indicated  some  of  the  pleas  by  which  certain  of 
the  advocates  of  the  legislative  restriction  of  the 
hours  of  labor  defended  their  position.  The  oth- 
ers we  shall  presently  gather  when  we  reproduce 
the  pith  of  Mr.  Cobden's  counter  -  arguments. 
Meanwhile,  it  is  merely  necessary  to  allude  to  the 
steps  connected  with  the  passing  of  the  various 
acts,  and  the  nature  of  their  provisions.  The 
ultimate  success  of  Lord  Ashley's  measure  bade 
fair  to  be  frustrated  by  disputes  between  the 
Churchmen  and  the  Dissenters  over  clauses  about 
the  religious  education  of  those  whose  hours  of 
labor  it  was  proposed  to  diminish.  These  at  last 
were  overcome,  and,  with  the  aid  of  the  respect- 
ive governments  in  office  at  the  passing  of  the 
various  acts,  they  were  at  last  placed  on  the  stat- 
ute-book. 

The  Ten-Hours'  Bill  was  passed  in  June,  1847, 


FACTORY  LEGISLATION.  147 

while,  as  we  shall  see  in  the  next  chapter,  Mr. 
Cobden  was  out  of  England ;  it  prescribes  that 
no  person  under  the  age  of  eighteen,  and  no  fe- 
male above  the  age  of  eighteen,  shall  be  employed 
in  any  factory  for  more  than  ten  hours  in  one  day, 
nor  for  more  than  fifty-eight  in  any  one  week. 
A  supplementary  act  prescribed  that  no  such 
child  or  female  should  work  before  six  A.M.,  or 
after  six  P.M. ;  or,  if  so,  only  to  recover  lost  time, 
and  then  not  after  seven.  There  were  other  reg- 
ulations about  meal-times,  fencing  of  machinery, 
etc.  A  previous  act,  that  of  1844,  had  already 
enacted  that  certain  hours  should  be  reserved  for 
education,  and  that  no  children  under  ten  should 
work  in  textile  factories. 

It  will  be  at  once  seen  that  on  the  main  ques- 
tion, namely,  the  limitation  of  the  hours  of  labor 
of  adults,  whether  in  factories  or  elsewhere,  Mr. 
Cobden's  views  have  not  to  this  day  been  legis- 
latively reversed,  with  this  exception,  that  mills 
can  not  be  kept  going  without  juvenile  aid.  It 
will  be  enough,  therefore,  if  we  give  merely  in 
two  or  three  sentences  the  gist  of  one  speech  as 
sample  of  others  delivered  by  him,  in  which  he 
opposed  Lord  Ashley's  Ten-Hours'  Bill :  He  ridi- 
culed the  idea  that  for  ten  hours'  work  a  man 
could  earn  more  than  he  could  for  twelve.  And 
if  that  were  so,  the  loss  of  two  hours'  pay  would 
be  a  more  serious  injury  than  the  saving  of  two 
hours'  work.  People  were  generally  paid  in  the 


148  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

cotton  districts  by  the  piece.  How,  then,  could 
such  legislation  affect  them  favorably,  so  far  as 
wages  were  concerned  ?  It  had  been  said  that 
the  manufacturers  could  so  increase  the  speed  of 
their  machinery  as  that  the  same  work  might  be 
done  as  heretofore  in  twelve  hours.  He  had 
made  inquiries,  and  found  that  precisely  the  con- 
trary was  the  case.  There  was  a  tendency  to  di- 
minish speed,  for  the  high  rate  of  speed  at  which 
they  had  been  working  caused  more  loss  in  waste 
than  saving  in  wages.  The  other  argument, 
which  cut  the  ground  entirely  from  the  former, 
was,  that  diminished  production  would  give  far- 
ther employment  to  labor,  and  cause  one  sixth 
more  mills  to  be  built.  On  the  contrary,  the  fact 
was,  our  present  sale  of  cotton  goods  arose  from 
and  was  owing  to  their  cheapness.  If  we  in- 
creased our  prices  we  should  lose  our  customers, 
and  in  foreign  countries  the  handlooin,  distaff,  and 
spindle  would  be  once  more  at  work.  The  only 
real  way  to  shorten  the  hours  of  labor  was  to  re- 
move the  restrictions  on  industry.  He  did  not 
mean  by  that  to  say,  as  had  been  said  by  others, 
that  a  reduction  in  the  price  of  bread  would  alone 
afford  compensation  to  the  laboring  classes  for  a 
reduction  in  the  hours  of  labor ;  he  did  not  see  in 
the  mere  reduction  in  the  price  of  wheat,  or  sug- 
ar, or  coffee,  the  great  means  of  enabling  the 
operatives  to  get  on  with  fewer  hours  of  labor. 
"  But,"  said  he,  "  if  we  enlarged  the  various 


FACTORY  LEGISLATION.  149 

markets  for  our  productions,  if  we  allowed  a  full 
and  free  exchange  of  our  commodities  for  the 
corn,  and  sugar,  and  coffee  of  other  countries,  this 
would  be  the  practical  means  of  raising  the  prac- 
tical value  of  our  products,  and  consequently  of 
raising  the  value  of  the  labor  which  produced 
them ;  so  that,  indeed,  ten  hours'  labor  might  be 
as  good  or  better  than  twelve  hours'  now  for  the 
pocket  of  the  laborer,  and  produce  as  much  profit 
to  the  employer." 

Thus  it  clearly  appears  Mr.  Cobden  was  not 
against  ten  hours'  labor  in  itself,  or,  indeed,  any 
prudent  and  possible  reduction  of  the  hours  of  la- 
bor. In  fact,  this  very  condition,  which  he  pre- 
dicted in  1844,  in  these  last  sentences,  as  render- 
ing a  reduction  of  labor  possible  and  advisable, 
had  come  about — through  him  more  than  all  oth- 
er men  put  together — some  years  ere  he  died. 
And  many  facts  around  us  to-day,  both  in  the  la- 
bor market  and  the  food  market,  prove  to  us  that 
both  his  wishes  were  fulfilled,  namely,  the  attain- 
ment of  the  end  which  he  approved  and  desired, 
and  the  adoption  of  the  proper  method  of  seek- 
ing after  it. 


150  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

PEACE,  RETRENCHMENT,  AND  REFORM. 

THE  devotion  with  which  Mr.  Cobden  entered 
into  the  Free  Trade  agitation  had  been  most  in- 
jurious to  his  own  personal  and  pecuniary  inter- 
ests. He  had  separated  from  his  early  partners, 
and  associated  with  himself  his  brothers,  who  con- 
tinued the  printing  works  at  Chorley.  Miss  Mar- 
tineau  sets  down  his  clear  money  loss  at  £20,000 ; 
and  we  think  the  estimate  a  very  moderate  one. 
A  very  short  time  before  the  final  triumph  of  his 
efforts,  he  had  resolved  to  retire  from  the  agita- 
tion and  devote  himself  to  retrieve  the  fortunes  of 
his  business.  He  actually  wrote  to  Mr.  Bright, 
who  was  in  Scotland  at  the  time,  declaring  this 
intention.  Mr.  Bright  at  once  hastened  to  Man- 
chester, to  urge  his  friend  to  reconsider  his  de- 
termination ;  and  he  succeeded.  *  We  have  seen 
that  it  was  Cobden  who  enlisted  Bright  as  his 
chief  lieutenant  in  the  cause.  He  brought  him 
into  the  ranks  at  the  beginning  of  the  contest ; 
Bright  succeeded  in  keeping  Cobden  to  his  post 
on  the  verge  of  its  termination.  The  council  of 
the  League,  and  the  Free  Traders  generally,  de- 
termined, when  their  labors  were  done  and  their 
organization  dissolved,  to  mark  in  a  substantial 


PEACE,  RETRENCHMENT,  AND  REFORM.     153 

way  not  only  their  sense  of  Cobden's  services,  but 
their  acknowledgment  of  the  pecuniary  sacrifices 
which  they  had  involved.  The  munificent  sum  of 
£80,000  was  subscribed  and  presented  to  Cobden, 
it  being  understood  that  by  thus  securing  his  in- 
dependence he  would  be  enabled  to  relinquish 
his  business  connections,  and  devote  those  ener- 
gies which  had  already  done  so  much  for  the  land 
to  the  general  work  of  legislation  and  statesman- 
ship. A  portion  of  this  fund  was  applied  to  the 
purchase  of  the  house  in  which  Cobden  was  born, 
and  a  small  estate  surrounding  it.  It  was  under- 
stood that  he  invested  a  large  portion  of  the  bal- 
ance in  American  railway  securities.  For  some 
years  they  were  unremunerative ;  and  many  im- 
pertinent and  offensive  statements,  chiefly  ema- 
nating from  the  monopolist  regions  against  which 
Cobdeu  had  employed  his  victorious  lance,  were 
made  about  a  man  who  undertook  to  manage  a 
nation's  affairs  not  being  able  to  conti'ol  his  own, 
and  the  like.  It  was  even  gravely  argued  that 
Mr.  Cobden  had  not  a  right  to  do  as  he  would 
with  his  own  ;  and  he  was  reproached  by  persons 
who  had  not  contributed  one  penny  toward  the 
testimonial  fund  for  having  employed  his  money 
in  any  other  way  than  in  investments  native  to 
the  English  soil.  About  fifteen  years  after  the 
date  at  which  we  have  arrived  in  our  narrative, 
while  Cobden  was  absent  from  England,  seeking 
a  restoration  of  his  health  in  Algeria,  a  few  gen- 


154  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

tlenien,  without  making  any  public  appeal,  sub- 
scribed among  themselves  a  sum  stated  at  the 
time  to  amount  to  £40,000,  with  the  purpose  of 
requesting  Mr.  Cobden's  acceptance  of  it  as  a  sup- 
plementary offering  to  that  formerly  contributed. 
The  Times,  with  extremely  questionable  taste, 
came  out  with  a  leading  article,  in  which  this  in- 
tention was  announced,  and  indulging  generally 
in  a  sneering  and  contemptuous  tone.  This  arti- 
cle was,  we  believe,  the  first  announcement  to  Cob- 
den  himself  of  the  purpose  of  his  admirers.  He  at 
once  wrote  home,  stating  that  under  no  circum- 
stances could  he  accept  the  proposed  gift.  We 
are  glad  to  observe,  as  we  prepare  these  sheets, 
that  a  movement  has  been  successfully  made  at 
Manchester  to  raise  £20,000  as  a  national  tribute 
to  Mr.  Cobden's  memory,  the  sum  to  be  settled 
upon  his  widow  and  daughters.  It  is  .only  just  to 
Mr.  Cobden's  reputation  as  a  man  capable  of  guid- 
ing his  own  affairs  to  add,  that  we  believe — and 
we  derive  our  belief  from  authorities  whom  we 
accept  as  perfectly  competent:— that  Mr.  Cobden's 
American  investment,  which  was  in  bonds  or  oth- 
er securities  of  the  Illinois  Central  Railway,  had 
turned  out  to  be  productive  for  some  time  before 
his  death.  The  investment  now  yields  six  per 
cent,  return,  and  will,  doubtless,  as  the  population 
and  traffic  of  that  fertile  Western  state  are  aug- 
mented, become  still  more  productive. 

The  next  few  years  of  Mr.  Cobden's  life  present 


PEACE,  RETRENCHMENT,  AND  REFORM.     155 

him,  in  Parliament  and  out  of  it,  with  his  tongue 
constantly,  and  occasionally  with  his  pen,  as  the 
consistent  supporter  of  peace,  reform,  retrench- 
ment, and  the  introduction  of  arbitration,  instead 
of  war,  as  the  accepted  settler  of  international 
difficulties.  After  the  Free  Trade  triumph  he 
sought  a  season  of  repose.  His  health  had  given 
way,  and  he  repaired  to  the  Continent  to  seek 
its  restoration.  Ere  he  departed  Lord  John  Rus- 
sell offered  him  a  seat  in  the  cabinet,  but  he  de- 
clined it.  He  visited  in  succession  France,  Spain, 
Italy,  Germany,  and  Russia.  Wherever  he  went 
he  was  most  warmly  received.  Complimentary 
banquets  were  got  up,  and  the  warmest  eulogies 
passed  upon  the  great  breaker-down  of  the  ri- 
valries of  nations  by  the  most  distinguished  men 
of  their  respective  countries.  In  his  absence 
there  was  a  general  election.  He  was  returned 
for  the  West  Riding  as  well  as  for  Stockport, 
and  chose  the  more  distinguished  seat.  He  came 
back  to  England  in  time  to  contribute  his  valu- 
able co-operation  to  the  government  of  Lord 
John  Russell  in  their  extension  of  the  principle 
of  Free  Trade  to  sugar  and  the  navigation  laws, 
and  other  minor  sources  of  the  revenue.  After 
an  absence  of  his  name  from  the  pages  of  Han- 
sard for  a  twelvemonth,  we  find  him  in  the  spring 
of  1848  breaking  ground  again  by  supporting 
Mr.  Labouchere's  proposal  for  the  repeal  of  the 
navigation  laws.  The  old  principles  were  brought 


156  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

up  afresh,  the  application  of  them  only  being  dif- 
ferent. He  showed,  by  an  appeal  to  the  pub- 
lished evidence,  that  we  can  build  ships  better 
than  foreign  counti'ies,  and  at  as  cheap  a  rate ; 
sail  them  as  well ;  take  greater  care  of  the  car- 
goes, and  secure  greater  punctuality  and  dis- 
patch. The  only  drawbacks  were  of  a  moral 
kind  —  insubordination  and  drunkenness ;  but 
they  would  yield  to  better  culture.  He  repu- 
diated the  boastful  language  which  he  so  often 
heard  respecting  England's  naval  supremacy. 
He  must  say  that  those  boasts  were  generally  ut- 
tered after  dinner,  and  therefore  they  might  be 
the  result  of  a  little  extra  excitement.  The  abo- 
lition of  the  navigation  laws  would  not  affect  the 
naval  condition  of  Great  Britain.  But  was  this 
a  time  to  be  always  singing  "Rule  Britannia?" 
If  honorable  members  opposite  had  served  with 
him  on  the  Committee  on  the  Army,  Navy,  and 
Ordnance  Estimates,  they  would  have  a  just  sense 
of  the  cost  of  that  song.  The  constant  assertion 
of  maritime  supremacy  was  calculated  to  provoke 
kindred  passions  in  other  nations ;  whereas,  if 
Great  Britain  enunciated  the  doctrines  of  peace, 
she  would  invoke  similar  sentiments  from  the 
rest  of  the  world.  Mr.  Disraeli  made  a  sarcastic 
reply,  in  which  he,  with  some  humor,  stated  that 
he  would  not  sing  "  Rule  Britannia"  for  fear  of 
distressing  Mr.  Cobden,  but  he  did  not  think  the 
House  would  encore  "  Yankee  Doodle." 


PEACE,  RETRENCHMENT,  AND  REFORM.     157 

About  this  time  the  nation  got  into  one  of  its 
extraordinary  panics  about  a  French  invasion. 
A  letter  by  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  addressed 
to  Sir  John  Burgoyne,  in  which  the  old  warrior 
advocated  the  enrollment  of  militia  to  the  number 
of  150,000,  and  other  costly  measures  of  precau- 
tion, was  made  public.  Lord  Ellesmere  and  oth- 
ers joined  in  the  cry.  Cobden  chose  the  occasion 
of  a  great  Free  Trade  demonstration  at  Manches- 
ter about  the  navigation  laws  to  show  the  unreal 
foundation  of  the  alarm.  His  speech  was  unusu- 
ally jocular,  as  these  sentences  will  testify :  "Are 
the  French,  or  the  majority  of  them,  thieves,  pick- 
pockets, and  murderers?  If  they  were,  could 
they  exist  as  an  organized  community  —  a  com- 
munity as  orderly  as  ours  ?  for  we  have  had  as 
little  tumult  in  France  during  the  last  five  or  six 
years  as  in  England.  I  see  another  paper  in  Lon- 
don, a  weekly  paper,  the  editor  of  which  used  to 
write  with  some  degree  of  gravity,  but  I  sup- 
pose that  he  is  so  panic-stricken  that  he  has  lost 
all  his  wits ;  that  paper  tells  us  that  the  next  war 
with  France  will  be  made  without  a  declaration 
of  war,  and  that  truly  we  have  to  protect  our 
queen  at  Osborne  House  against  those  ruffianly 
Frenchmen,  who  may  come  without  notice  and 
carry  off  her  majesty.  What  a  lesson  has  our 
courageous  queen  read  to  such  people  as  those! 
She  went  over  to  France  unattended,  unprotect- 
ed, and  threw  herself  upon  the  shore  there  at  the 


158  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

Chateau  d'Eu,  literally  in  a  bathing-machine. 
Now  there  is  either  great  courage  on  the  one 
side,  or  great  cowardice  on  the  other.  •  But  this 
is  a  sort  of  periodical  visitation  that  we  have.  I 
sometimes  compare  it  to  the  cholera,  for  I  believe 
the  last  infliction  we  had  of  this  kind  came  about 
the  time  of  the  cholera ;  and  then  we  were  to  have 
had  an  invasion  from  the  Russians,  as  our  friend 
has  told  you.  I  am  rather  identified  with  and 
interested  in  that  apprehended  invasion,  for  it 
was  that  which  first  made  me  an  author  and  a 
public  man — and  I  believe  it  is  quite  possible,  if 
it  had  not  been  for  the  insanity  on  the  part  of 
some  of  our  newspapers — and  some  of  them  that 
are  now  just  as  insane — who  told  us  that  the 
Russians  were  coming,  some  foggy  day,  to  land 
near  Yarmouth — if  it  had  not  been  for  that  in- 
sanity on  the  part  of  some  of  our  newspapers, 
I  should  not  have  turned  author,  written  pam- 
phlets, or  become  a  public  man,  and  I  might  have 
been  a  thrifty,  painstaking  calico-printer  to  this 
day." 

In  this  year,  for  the  first  time  since  the  com- 
mencement of  his  career  in  Parliament,  Mr.  Cob- 
den  pronounced  in  his  place  in  the  House  opin- 
ions decidedly  favorable  to  the  causes  of  large 
electoral  reform,  secret  voting,  and  the  shortening 
of  the  duration  of  Parliaments.  The  occasion  was 
a  general  motion  by  Mr.  Hume,  comprising  all 
these  suggested  improvements.  Cobden  was  one 


PEACE,  RETRENCHMENT,  AND  REFORM.     159 

of  the  chief  speakers  in  the  debate  which  ensued. 
He  had  refused,  it  will  be  recollected,  so  long  as 
he  believed  the  Corn  Laws  to  be  the  crying  evil 
of  the  country,  to  mix  up  the  Reform,  or  any 
other  question,  with  the  advocacy  of  Free  Trade. 
Even  when  his  warm  friend  and  ally,  Joseph 
Sturge,  proposed  to  combine  the  extended  suf- 
frage with  the  Anti-Corn-Law  questions,  Cobden, 
while  not  discouraging  him,  elected  for  himself  to 
devote  himself  exclusively  to  his  first  line.  Now 
that  his  efforts  in  this  field  were  successful,  he  was 
consistently  free  to  allot  due  prominence  to  his 
views  on  Parliamentary  Reform.  His  response 
was  most  ample  and  loyal  whenever  challenged 
to  show  his  real  colors. 

Mr.  Hume's  motion  came  on  on  the  20th  of 
June.  It  had  been  previously  set  down  for  the 
23d  of  May.  But  when  the  worthy  economist  of 
Montrose  rose  in  his  place  after  eleven  o'clock  on 
the  night  of  that  day,  he  craved  leave  to  postpone 
his  motion  on  account  of  the  lateness  of  the  hour. 
Feargus  O'Connor,  in  his  mad  way,  insisted  on 
the  debate  being  inaugurated  and  proceeded  with. 
When  he  sat  down,  Mr.  Cobden  rose,  and  ad- 
dressed the  House  for  a  few  minutes.  We  hold 
his  speech  to  be  eminently  worthy  of  entire  repro- 
duction, for  it  is  not  only  important  as  an  auto- 
biographical and  also  an  historical  utterance ;  not 
only  is  it  peculiarly  illustrative  of  the  wise,  cau- 
tious, and  conservative  element  in  Cobden's  char- 


160  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

acter,  but  it  is  worthy  of  transfer  to  our  pages  for 
present  political  use  in  our  own  days. 

"My  conviction  is  that  there  can  be  but  one 
opinion  on  the  part  of  every  sincere,  honest,  and 
intelligent  man  in  the  country,  that  the  honorable 
member  for  Moutrose  is  entirely  blameless  for  the 
delay  which  has  taken  place  in  the  discussion  of 
his  motion.  I  think  that  no  reasonable  man 
would  suppose  that  any  one  having  to  conduct  so 
important  a  question  would  bring  it  before  the 
House  at  a  quarter  past  eleven  o'clock.  The  ob- 
ject of  my  honorable  friend  is  that  this  question 
may  be  fully  discussed ;  and  if  it  had  begun  at  five 
o'clock,  I  doubt  whether  one  evening  would  have 
sufficed  for  a  full  discussion  of  it.  The  honorable 
gentleman  who  has  just  spoken  has  undertaken 
to  give  advice,  in  no  very  courteous  or  compli- 
mentary terms,  to  my  honorable  friend  ;  but  if  I 
were  to  venture  to  give  my  honorable  friend  ad- 
vice, it  would  be  this — that  in  conducting  this 
important  question,  he  should  not  follow  the  ad- 
vice, still  less  the  example,  of  the  honorable  mem- 
ber who  calls  himself  the  leader  of  the  working 
classes  of  this  country,  but  who,  after  undertak- 
ing for  nine  years  to  lead  them  in  the  advocacy 
of  what  is  called  '  The  People's  Charter'— [Mr. 
F.  O'Connor  :  Fifteen  years] — who,  as  the  hon- 
orable gentleman  stated  the  other  day  at  a  meet- 
ing of  his  convention,  had,  after,  as  he  now  says, 
fifteen  years  of  leadership  and  advocacy  of  the 


PEACE,  RETRENCHMENT,  AND  REFORM.     161 

'  People's  Charter,'  met  with  but  one  man  in  the 
House  of  Commons  upon  whom,  in  his  absence, 
he  could  depend  for  the  advocacy  of  his  princi- 
ples. ['  Name.']  I  can  not  name  the  honorable 
member;  but  I  think  that  is  sufficient  to  warn 
the  honorable  member  for  Montrose  to  beware 
how  he  conforms  himself  to  the  tactics  and  ad- 
vice coming  from  the  honorable  member  for  Not- 
tingham. I  think,  if  any  thing  could  open  the 
eyes  of  the  working  classes  of  the  country  to 
a  just  sense  of  the  value  of  the  honorable  mem- 
ber for  Nottingham's  services,  it  is  the  position 
in  which  he  has  been  placed  by  every  honorable 
member,  except  one,  in  this  House,  after  fifteen 
years  of  leadership.  I  have  had  long  experience 
of  that  honorable  member,  and  perhaps  he  will 
not  accuse  me  of  being  actuated  by  any  feelings 
of  hostility  toward  him — for  certainly  no  honor- 
able member  has  lavished  so  many  compliments 
upon  me  as  he  has  done — but  I  say,  that  my  ex- 
perience of  the  conduct  of  the  honorable  mem- 
ber out  of  this  House,  and  of  the  spirit  and  man- 
ner in  which  he  has  tried  to  array  the  working 
classes  against  every  man  who  could  effectually 
assist  them  in  carrying  forward  the  objects  in 
which  the  honorable  member  himself  professed 
to  wish  them  success,  convinces  me  that  he  has 
done  more  to  retard  the  political  progress  of  the 
working  classes  of  England  than  any  other  public 
man  that  ever  lived  in  this  country.  I  speak  from 
L 


162  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

long  experience  of  that  honorable  member ;  and 
no  man  has  more  right  to  speak  of  him  than  I 
have  upon  that  subject.  For  seven  years  I  had 
the  direct  and  relentless  hostility  of  that  honor- 
able member  upon  what,  I  believe,  was  strictly  a 
question  affecting  the  interests  of  the  working- 
classes  of  this  country — I  mean  the  abolition  of 
the  tax  upon  their  food.  That  honorable  gentle- 
man did  all  he  could  to  array  the  working  classes 
against  me,  and  against  those  who  acted  with  me. 
I  had  more  hostility  to  encounter  from  that  hon- 
orable member  than  from  the  Duke  of  Bucking- 
ham and  all  his  party.  And  what  is  the  result  ? 
I  never  fraternized  with  the  honorable  gentle- 
man or  his  myrmidons.  No  one  can  for  a  mo- 
ment charse  me  with  ever  having  done  so.  I 

o  o 

always  treated  the  honorable  member  as  the  lead- 
er of  a  small,  insignificant,  and  powerless  party. 
I  never  identified  him  or  his  party  with  the 
working  class  of  this  country.  I  ever  treated 
him,  as  I  do  now,  not  as  the  leader  of  the  work- 
ing classes,  but  as  the  leader  of  a  small  and  or- 
ganized faction.  I  have  set  the  honorable  gentle- 
man publicly  at  defiance,  and  all  his  followers ; 
and  I  never  failed  to  beat  them  by  votes  whenever 
I  met  them  at  public  meetings  in  the  open  air  in 
any  county  in  England.  In  any  advocacy  I  may 
enter  upon  for  the  working  classes,  as  I  never 
have,  so  I  never  will,  offer  to  fraternize  with  the 
honorable  member  and  his  organized  followers ; 


PEACE,  RETRENCHMENT,  AND  REFORM.     1C3 

and  if  he  says,  as  he  has  said,  that  he  is  prepar- 
ing his  followers  to  go  along  with  us,  I  say  to 
him  again,  that  with  him  and  his  Chartists,  as  an 
organized  body,  I  never  will  fraternize.  I  have 
set  them  at  defiance  before,  and  I  set  them  at 
defiance  now.  I  would  advise  my  friend,  the 
honorable  member  for  Montrose,  not  to  be  de- 
luded by  any  thing  which  may  fall  from  the  hon- 
orable member  as  to  the  power  he  has  over  the 
working  classes  of  this  country.  He  was  weak 
before,  he  is  harmless  now;  and  whatever  he 
may  threaten  or  promise  will  be  equally  power- 
less and  uninfluential.  Ferocious  as  was  his  at- 
tack upon  my  honorable  friend,  the  member  for 
Montrose,  there  is  no  one  who  will  not  be  as  well 
disposed  as  ever  to  continue  to  my  honorable 
friend  that  confidence  which  he  has  always  en- 
joyed from  the  great  mass  of  the  people  of  this 
country." 

Mr.  Cobden  was  of  course  a  strenuous  sup- 
porter of  Mr.  Henry  Berkeley's  annual  motions  on 
the  Ballot.  His  precise  views  on  this  important 
political  question  of  the  secondary  grade  may  be 
gathered  from  a  summary,  contained  in  a  few 
sentences  of  a  brief  speech  delivered  by  him  in 
the  same  year,  in  reply  to  Lord  John  Russell. 
He  said  that  he  viewed  the  question  of  the  Ballot 
with  less  interest  than  he  had  done  twelve  years 
previously.  Had  it  been  then  adopted,  it  would 
have  done  much  to  put  an  end  to  that  corruption 


164  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

in  the  boroughs  and  subserviency  in  the  counties 
which  they  had  now  to  deplore ;  but  it  was  too 
late  now  to  remedy  the  evil,  excepting  by  an  in- 
fusion of  new  blood  into  the  constituency.  Still, 
he  believed  the  ballot  was  the  best  mode  of  tak- 
ing the  vote  in  this  or  any  country,  and  he  should 
vote  for  the  question.  The  question  must  be  on 
its  last  legs  when  no  better  answer  could  be  made 
to  it  than  that  furnished  by  Lord  John.  Secret 
voting, his  lordship  said,  was  opposed  to  the  "open 
and  free  constitution  of  the  country."  The  mode 
of  election  was  open,  but  was  it  free  ?  A  jury 
gave  its  verdict  openly ;  but  the  analogy  was  un- 
fortunate ;  for,  though  a  jury  must  be  unanimous 
when  it  convicted,  it  was  not  necessary  that  it 
should  be  so  when  it  did  not,  nor  were  the  votes 
of  each  juror  published.  The  grand  jury  was  a 
secret  tribunal.  In  Scotland,  where  the  verdict 
depended  upon  the  majority,  there  was  no  pub- 
licity of  the  votes  of  the  jurors.  The  analogy  of 
the  open  voting  in  the  House  of  Commons  did 
not  apply  either ;  for  members  went  there  to  per- 
form, by  delegation,  certain  duties  for  their  con- 
stituents, and  they  were  held  responsible  for  their 
acts ;  or  why  were  they  subject  to  periodical  elec- 
tion ?  (The  following,  we  think,  was  a  most  hap- 
py and  apposite  thrust.)  "And  how  are  the  con- 
stituencies to  form  a  judgment  upon  them  if  they 
do  not  know  what  they  have  done  ?  But  are  the 
electors  responsible  to  non-electors  ?  If  they  are, 


PEACE,  RETRENCHMENT,  AND  REFORM.      165 

then  the  non-electors  must  be  competent  to  judge 
of  the  way  in  which  the  trust  is  exercised,  and 
this  is  an  argument  for  extending  the  suffrage  to 
them."  It  was,  he  said,  for  the  sa'ke  of  the  coun- 
ties in  particular  that  he  wished  to  see  the  Ballot 
carried  into  effect;  for  he  believed  that  if  the  coun- 
ty constituencies  possessed  the  Ballot,  they  would 
send  some  of  the  best  representatives  which  the 
country  afforded  to  that  House ;  and  he  wanted 
to  see  the  farmer  class  in  this  country  men  of  more 
character,  dignity,  and  self-respect  than  they  ever 
could  be  under  the  existing  degrading  system. 

We  return  to  that  class  of  topics  which  consti- 
tuted the  subjects  of  nine  tenths  of  Mr.  Cobden's 
public  appearances  in  the  years  intervening  be- 
tween the  termination  of  the  Anti- Corn -Law 
struggle  and  the  commencement  of  the  Crimean 
War.  During  these  years  Cobden  introduced 
annual,  or  oft-repeated  motions  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  seeking  to  bind  that  body  to  the  af- 
firmation of  these  principles :  that  the  national 
expenditure  might  be  with  prudence  and  safety 
so  far  reduced  as  to  admit  of  a  reduction  of  ten 
millions  of  taxation,  and  that  the  stipulation  of  ar- 
bitration should  be  introduced  in  all  international 
treaties.  As  means  to  the  advocacy  of  these  ends, 
he  made  some  use  of  the  press,  and  large  use  of 
the  platform,  arc!  threw  himself  heart  and  soul 
into  the  operations  of  the  Peace  Society ;  but 
he  always  carefully  guarded  himself  against  the 


166  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

imputation  of  being  a  "  Peace-at-any-price  man." 
While  another  great  panic  of  a  French  invasion 
existed  in  this  country  in  the  early  part  of  1853, 
Cobden  said,  "  It  was  not  newspaper  articles,  or 
speeches  made,  but  our  great  naval  preparations, 
which  really  endangered  our  understanding  with 
France,  and  caused  uneasiness  at  home.  If  a 
friendly  note  were  to  be  exchanged  with  the 
French  government  on  the  subject,  he  had  no 
doubt  that  it  would  be  responded  to  in  a  manner 
that  would  banish  all  suspicion.  If  it  did  not, 
he  would  be  ready  to  vote  £100,000,000  to  resist 
a  French  invasion"  And  more  recently, while, 
it  will  be  remembered,  he  resisted  a  vote  of 
£2,000,000  for  the  defense  of  certain  of  our  ar- 
senals by  stone  fortifications,  he  said,  if  he  really 
thought  they  were  needed  and  would  answer,  he 
would  say,  "  Take  twenty,  not  two  millions." 

Early  in  1849  Cobden  proposed  his  two  reso- 
lutions relating  to  the  arbitration  clause  and  the 
ten  million  reduction  of  revenue  and  expenditui-e. 
The  unfortunately  depressed  state  of  the  revenue 
gave  th'e  question  of  financial  reform  a  very  strong 
hold  on  the  public  mind.  Associations  advocat- 
ing retrenchment  wrere  formed  in  many  of  the 
great  towns,  and  Cobden  was  sanguine  that  he 
could  cut  down  the  expenditure,  if  not  quite  to 
that  of  the  normal  year  of  Whig  economic  admin- 
istration— 1885 — at  least  to  a  considerably  lower 
point  than  that  at  which  it  stood  in  1848,  and  the 


PEACE,  RETRENCHMENT,  AND  REFORM.    167 

subsequent  years  in  which  he  renewed  his  resolu- 
tion. His  great  points  were  that  the  agricultural 
interest,  which  again  complained  of  special  bur- 
dens, could  only  expect  to  be  relieved  of  them  if 
it  united  with  the  economists  in  pruning  the  ex- 
penditure ;  that  the  navy  was  our  true  line  of  de- 
fense, and  that  we  might  with  perfect  safety  large- 
ly reduce  our  military  establishments  and  costs ; 
and  that  the  colonies  should  defray  the  expenses 
of  the  maintenance  of  their  own  governments  and 
external  defense.  In  the  latter  view  he  was  well 
sustained  by  Sir  William  Molesworth,  who  made 
this  question  his  specialty  as  much  as  Cobden  had 
made  Free  Trade  his.  It  is  now  universally  rec- 
ognized by  all  parties  as  axiomatic,  although  as 
yet  it  is  rather  theoretically  than  practically  in- 
corporated in  our  colonial  policy. 

Mr.  Cobden's  exertions  in  this  direction  were 
far  from  fruitless.  Ere  the  close  of  the  period  of 
his  public  life  now  under  our  consideration,  an 
offensive  Militia  Bill  had  to  be  withdrawn ;  and 
although  Prince  Louis  Napoleon  had  been  elected 
President  of  the  French  Republic,  ministers  came 
before  Parliament  with  the  declaration  that 
"  large  reductions  had  been  made  in  the  estimates 
of  last  year."  Cobden  had  written,  ere  this,  glee- 
fully to  his  trusty  abettor,  Joseph  Sturge — "I 
have  been  delighted  with  the  success  of  your 
meetings.  You  Peace  people  seem  to  be  the  only 
men  who  have  courage  just  now  to  call  a  public 


1G8  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

meeting.  I  always  say  that  there  is  more  real 
pluck  in  the  ranks  of  the  Quakers  than  in  all  our 
regiments  of  redcoats.  .  .  .  "What  progress 
has  been  made  in  public  opinion  during  the  last 
twelve  months  !  Much  of  it  is  due  to  the  efforts 
of  your  Peace  Society.  In  fact,  all  good  things 
pull  together.  Free  Trade,  peace,  financial  re- 
form, equitable  taxation,  all  are  co-operating  to- 
ward a  common  object." 

Thus  modestly  did  Cobden  write,  disclaiming 
all  credit  himself,  of  "you  Peace  people,"  and 
"  your  Peace  Society."  He  was  himself  not  the 
least  active,  and  certainly  far  from  the  least  in- 
fluential, of  its  members.  The  successive  annual 
Peace  Congresses — unhappily  interrupted  by  the 
Crimean  War,  and  by  the  bath  of  blood  through 
which  some  leading  portion  of  the  human  race 
has  had  to  wade  ever  since — now  in  India,  again 
in  Italy,  in  Poland,  in  the  Scandinavian  Peninsu- 
la, and  in  the  New  World — were  held  successive- 
ly at  Brussels,  Paris,  Frankfort,  London,  Man- 
chester, and  Edinburg.  Cobden  was  present  as 
a  leading  speaker  at  all  of  them  save  the  first,  at 
which,  however,  a  long  letter  from  his  pen  was 
read.  At  Paris  he  said,  to  meet  certain  objec- 
tions to  his  arbitration  plan,  "  We  do  not  pro- 
pose to  constitute  the  executive  department  of 
government  arbitrators  in  difficulties  between 
nations.  We  should  wish  to  appoint  arbitrators 
to  suit  each  particular  case ;  for  instance,  in  a 


PEACE,  RETRENCHMENT,  AND  REFORM.  169 

question  of  naval  or  military  etiquette,  a  general 
or  an  admiral  might  be  selected  ;  in  a  commer- 
cial matter,  a  merchant,  and  so  on."  About  the 
same  time,  in  his  place  in  Parliament,  he  remind- 
ed members  of  a  number  of  instances  in  which, 
during  fifty  years  previously,  commissioners  had 
been  employed  to  adjust  disputes  between  na- 
tions, and  in  no  instance  had  such  arbitration  led 
to  war.  There  was,  therefore,  nothing  either  vis- 
ionary or  novel  in  his  plan.  In  fact,  Mr.Cobden's 
arbitration  scheme  and  proposed  reduction  of  na- 
tional expenditure  were  not  only  very  much  more 
practicable  than  was  generally  held  —  and  if  ad- 
mitted to  be  practicable,  there  could  be  no  doubt 
of  their  high  utility — but  the  principles  of  the 
Peace  Society,  of  which  Cobden  was  not  ashamed 
to  constitute  himself  the  champion  and  exponent, 
were  very  different  from  the  popular  but  errone- 
ous idea  of  them.  On  this  point,  the  English 
mob  (we  include  all  classes  of  it)  accepted  their 
idea  of  what  the  Peace  Society  really  was,  not 
from  its  own  annual  and  authorized  documents, 
or  from  the  explicit  and  definitely  limited  state- 
ments of  men  like  Cobden,  but  from  the  repre- 
sentations of  fanatics  and  lampooners.  It  was 
not  the  object  of  the  Peace  Society  to  proclaim 
the  advent  of  a  millennium,  but  rather  to  provide, 
during  any  intervals  of  peace  which  the  world 
might  enjoy,  practical  measures  to  be  used  in  lieu 
of  the  sword  in  the  contingency  of  future  dis- 


170  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

putes.  Such  measures  were,  reduction  of  arma- 
ments, arbitration,  treaties,  the  propaganda  of  the 
doctrine  of  non-intervention,  the  development  of 
all  means  of  international  communication — cheap 
postage,  similarity  of  standards  of  weight,  meas- 
ure, and  value.  These  proposals,  and  strenuous 
measures  to  band  together  in  their  support  all 
Christian  ministers  and  men,  and  all  teachers  of 
youth,  and  the  consideration  of  the  best  and 
quickest  means  of  effecting  them,  were  the  ob- 
jects of  Cobden  and  the  Peace  Society.  His 
avowal  of  sympathy  and  identity  with  its  pre- 
cepts and  purposes  was  the  only  aspect  of  his 
life  that  ever  exposed  him  to  ridicule,  however 
he  may  have  been,  in  other  points  of  his  belief, 
subjected  to  acrimony.  We  are,  however,  strong- 
ly inclined  tp_  believe  that  future  generations  will 
laud  Cobden  more  highly  for  his  devotion  to  this 
cause  than  for  all  his  Free  Trade  triumphs,  signal 
and  extraordinary  as  these  were. 


EDINBURG  PEACE  CONFERENCE.  171 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE   LAST   OF   THE   PEACE   SOCIETY  CONFERENCES. 

THE  writer  of  these  pages  has  a  vivid  recollec- 
tion of  the  appearance  of  Mr.  Cobden  at  the  very 
last  of  these  Peace  Conferences,  which  was  held 
at  Edinburg  at  the  latter  end  of  the  autumn  of 
1853.  Here  Cobden  had  decidedly  the  laugh  on 
his  side.  Early  in  that  year,  England  had  been 
in  one  of  her  periodical  fears  of  a  French  invasion. 
Thrice  within  the  limits  of  a  very  few  years  had 
this  panic  reappeared :  when  Prince  de  Joinville 
was  young  and  bellicose;  when  the  Duke  of  Wel- 
lington wrote  his  alarmist  letter  to  Sir  John  Bur- 
goyne;  and  at  the  close  of  1852  and  in  the  early 
part  of  1853.  Cobden  had  done  all  he  could  to 
abate  the  latter,  as  he  had  the  former  panics. 
So  strongly  had  he  felt  on  the  subject  at  the  be- 
ginning of  this  year  as  to  publish  his  well-known 
pamphlet,  "  1793  and  1853,  in  three  letters,  by  R. 
Cobden."  On  the  title-page  he  placed  a  some- 
what scandalous  and  most  naive  and  candid  quo- 
tation from  Alison,  referring  to  the  former  period 
— 1793:  "The  passions  were  excited;  democrat- 
ic ambition  was  awakened ;  the  desire  of  power 
under  the  name  of  Reform  was  rapidly  gaining 


172  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

ground  among  the  middle  ranks,  and  the  institu- 
tions of  the  country  were  threatened  with  an 
overthrow  as  violent  as  that  which  had  recently 
taken  place  in  the  French  monarchy.  In  these 
circumstances,  the  only  mode  of  checking  the  evil 
was  by  engaging  in  a  foreign  contest,  by  draw- 
ing off  the  ardent  spirits  into  active  service,  and, 
in  lieu  of  the  modern  desire  for  innovation,  arous- 
ing the  ancient  gallantry  of  the  British  nation." 
This  sentence  being  taken  as  a  text  by  Cobden, 
he  applied  in  his  pamphlet  the  various  lessons  of 
English  policy  in  1793,  and  the  costly  results 
which  succeeded  it,  to  the  requirements  of  1853. 
A  large  portion  of  the  public,  in  the  midst  of 
their  war  fever,  not  only  refused  to  be  convinced 
by  it,  but  made  it  the  special  object  of  their  ridi- 
cule. Punch  caught  the  vulgar  feeling,  and  exe- 
cuted a  cartoon  of  Mr.  Cobden,  with  long  asinine 
ears,  looking  with  a  vacuous  look  into  the  muzzle 
of  a  cannon,  and  asserting  that  it  was  innocuous. 
By  the  time  the  Peace  Conference  was  in  ses- 
sion in  Edinburg,  in  October,  all  was  changed. 
Mr.  Cobden  had  now  fairly  the  laugh  against  his 
decriers,  for  Nicholas  had  crossed  the  Pruth,  fair- 
ly commenced  his  aggression  upon  Turkey — hav- 
ing been  doubtless  largely  induced  so  to  do  by  the 
conviction  that  England  and  France  were  quite 
alienated,  and  would  not  unite  to  resist  his  en- 
croachment. And  England  and  France  were  in 
close  and  friendly  alliance.  Mr.  Cobden  thus,  at 


EDINBURG  PEACE  CONFERENCE  173 

Edinburg,  took  advantage  of  the  turning  of  the 
tables,  delivering  this  portion  of  his  address  with 
infinite  humor  aud  verve : 

"  The  very  minister  who  talked  of  the  French 
coming  from  Cherbourg  in  one  night,  with  60,000 
men,  to  invade  our  coasts,  I  myself  heard  say  that, 
now  the  French  and  English  are  united,  and  have 
one  common  bond  of  interest,  and  are  united  by 
sentiments  of  mutual  confidence  and  esteem,  they 
are  a  power  against  whom  it  is  in  vain  for  Russia 
to  contend ;  for  all  Europe  would  be  powerless 
against  such  an  irresistible  combination.  (Hear, 
hear,  and  great  applause.)  And  what  did  I  hear 
at  the  end  of  last  session  of  Parliament  in  the 
queen's  speech,  as  if  it  was  to  give  to  the  Peace 
Party  the  climax  of  your  triumph  ?  Not  only 
does  the  queen  in  her  speech,  in  Parliament,  ere 
it  separated,  declare  that  she  is  on  the  best  terms 
of  amity  with  the  French  nation,  but  she  rather 
goes  out  of  the  way  to  add  that  she  is  also  on  the 
best  possible  footing  with  the  Emperor  of  the 
French.  (Laughter.)  Now  I  have  often  thought 
of  supposing  the  case  of  an  individual  who  had 
been  ordered  away  from  this  country,  as  many 
persons  are,  for  the  benefit  of  their  health,  and 
supposing  he  had  left  our  shores  last  January  to 
take  a  voyage  to  Australia,  returning  again  with- 
out remaining  there,  merely  making  the  circuit 
of  the  globe  for  the,  benefit  of  his  health.  He 
left  England  preparing  her  militia  and  fortify- 


174  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

ing  her  coasts,  general  officers  writing  to  me 
offering  to  lay  a  wager  that  the  French  would 
come  and  invade  us.  (Loud  laughter  and  cheers.) 
And  he  saw  an  inspector  of  cavalry  and  artillery 
moving  about  the  Southern  coasts,  deputations 
from  the  railway  companies  waiting  upon  the 
Admiralty  and  the  Ordnance  to  see  how  soon  the 
Commissariat  and  the  Ordnance  supplies  could 
be  transmitted  from  the  Tower  to  Dover  or  to 
Portsmouth;  he  left  in  the  midst  of  all  these 
preparations  for  the  French  invasion ;  he  makes 
the  circuit  of  the  globe,  and  as  he  could  see  no 
newspaper — for  one  great  motive  in  sending  a 
careworn  individual  on  such  a  voyage  is  to  keep 
him  away  from  politicians  and  the  Post-office — 
he  knows  nothing  of  what  has  occurred  during 
his  absence.  Well,  he  lands  here  in  September, 
and  the  first  thing  he  reads  of  in  the  newspapers 
is,  that  the  French  and  English  fleets  are  lying 
side  by  side  in  Besika  Bay.  He  immediately  says 
that  there  is  to  be  a  great  battle — (laughter) — he 
turns  to  the  leading  article  of  the  very  paper  that 
has  told  him  before  he  left  the  country  that  the 
French  emperor  was  a  brigand  and  a  pirate,  and 
that  the  French  people  were  about  to  invade  En- 
gland without  notice  or  declaration  of  war — he 
turns  to  a  leader  in  this  paper — the  very  first  he 
has  seen  after  he  has  arrived  in  England — and 
there  he  finds  that  the  English  and  French  are 
so  cordially  united  that  their  fleets  are  lying  in 


EDINBURG  PEACE  CONFERENCE.  175 

Besika  Bay,  under  the  command  of  Admiral  Dun- 
das  ;  that  we  are  prepared,  if  necessary,  to  send" 
an  army  to  be  put  under  a  French  general,  and 
that  we  are  going  into  action,  probably  to-mor- 
row, with  the  Russian  fleet.  Now  the  first  thing 
that  he  would  naturally  ask  would  be  this — '  But 
can  you  trust  this  individual,  whom,  when  I  left 
Britain,  you  were  characterizing  as  a  brigand 
and  a  pirate  ?  (Hear,  hear.)  What  has  happen- 
ed? Has  any  thing  happened  to  prove  that 
these  Peace  people  have  been  right  and  that  you 
were  wrong?  What  change  has  taken  place? 
What  does  this  mean  ?  What  guarantee  has  this 
man  given  you  that  when  you  go  into  action  with 
the  Russian  fleet,  he  has  not  previously  come  to 
an  understanding  with  the  Emperor  of  Russia, 
and  that,  instead  of  joining  you  in  firing  broad- 
sides into  the  Russian  fleet,  he  will  not  join  Rus- 
sia in  demolishing  yours  ?  (Hear,  hear,  and  loud 
cheers.)  And  then,  unless  he  has  undergone  a 
great  change,  and  you  have  not  explained  to  me 
how  it  happened,  what  proofs  have  you  that  when 
he  has  joined  the  Russian  fleet,  he  will  not  come 
and  ravage  your  coasts,  burn  down  your  houses, 
seize  the  Bank,  and  carry  off  the  queen  ?' "  (Loud 
laughter.) 

But  the  most  extraordinary  effect  of  all  was 
produced  by  this  retort  upon  Punch — the  delight 
and  excitement  of  the  audience  (let  it  be  remem- 
bered, no  vulgar  rabble,  but  a  morning  audience 


176  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

of  one  of  the  most  intelligent  cities  in  the  em- 
pire) being  something  indescribable. 

"  Why,  don't  you  remember  the  caricature  in 
which  your  humble  servant  was  represented  with 
very  long  ears,  thus  (erecting  his  hands  on  each 
side  of  his  head,  amidst  loud  laughter),  because 
he  stood  up  and  declared  that  he  did  not  believe 
that  the  French  were  coining  to  invade  us  ?  Who 
has  got  the  long  ears  and  the  fool's  cap  now?" 
(Roars  of  laughter.) 

The  proceedings  of  the  Peace  Conference  at 
Edinburg  consisted  of  three  meetings  (two  morn- 
ing and  one  evening)  of  the  society,  sitting  as  a 
society  (to  which,  however,  the  general  public 
were  also  admitted),  and  a  public  meeting,  sup- 
posed to  be  entirely  composed  of  persons  who 
indicated  by  their  presence  neither  that  they 
agreed  with  nor  differed  from  the  principles  of 
the  society.  At  that  meeting  an  amusing  and 
stirring  incident  occurred,  of  which  the  writer 
had  also  the  good  fortune  to  be  a  spectator.  He 
had  accompanied  to  the  platform  an  aged  rela- 
tive— one  of  the  Edinburg  committee  for  the  re- 
ception of  the  delegates — and  sat  in  one  of  the 
back  seats  immediately  behind  the  chairman,  Mr. 
Duncan  McLaren,  at  that  time  chief  magistrate 
of  the  city.  He  saw,  to  his  surprise,  that  the 
seat  of  honor  immediately  on  the  left  of  the  chair 
was  reserved  for  a  gentleman  whose  face  he  did 
not  recognize  as  belonging  to  any  one  who  had 


EDINBURG  PEACE  CONFERENCE.  177 

appeared  at  all  at  any  of  the  previous  meetings 
of  the  Conference.  This  gentleman  pushed  his 
way  m  a  somewhat  rough  and  unceremonious 
manner  to  his  place,  and  his  arrival  created  no 
little  stir  among  the  occupants  of  the  platform, 
who  were  composed  in  almost  equal  proportions 
of  Peace  Society  delegates  from  various  parts, 
and  of  persons  of  all  degrees  of  local  importance. 
It  was  evident,  however,  by  the  courteous  atten- 
tions paid  to  this  gentleman,  ere  the  opening  of 
the  meeting,  by  the  chairman  and  others,  that  he 
was  "  somebody."  Nevertheless,  his  appearance 
belied  the  idea  of  his  importance  which  was  pro- 
duced by  the  attentions  paid  him.  Neither  laun- 
dress, perruquier,  nor  tailor  seemed  to  any  large 
extent  to  have  been  taken  into  consultation  as  to 
the  preparation  of  his  outer  man ;  nor  did  the 
few  words  that  fell  from  his  lips  in  answer  to  the 
courtesies  and  greetings  which  he  received  indi- 
cate that  either  his  instructors  in  his  early  life 
or  himself  at  its  later  periods  had  bestowed  much 
attention  upon  the  graces,  or  even  the  proprie- 
ties of  his  diction.  The  then  spectator  and  pres- 
ent narrator  was  mystified.  And  this  mystifica- 
tion lasted  some  time — lasted  through  the  chair- 
man's opening  speech ;  through  the  reading  by 
Mr.  Richard,  the  Secretary  of  the  Society,  of  the 
list  of  the  resolutions  passed  at  the  Conference; 
through  an  eloquent  address  by  Elihu  Burritt, 
and  through  another,  overflowing  with  the  rich- 
M 


178  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

est  humor,  by  the  late  esteemed  Rev.  John  Bur- 
net,  of  Camberwell,  one  of  the  great  representa- 
tive Nonconformist  leaders  of  our  century.  Then 
rose  Mr.  Cobden.  He  had  not  spoken  long  be- 
fore the  mystery  was  solved.  "  I  am  glad,"  said 
he, "  on  this  occasion,  that  we  have  a  gallant  gen- 
tleman with  us — if  he  will  allow  me,  I  will  call 
him  my  gallant  friend,  for  we  have  walked  into 
the  same  lobby  generally,  if  not  always,  when  we 
were  in  the  House  of  Commons  together — we 
have  a  gallant  officer  here,  who,  if  ever  you  have 
to  fight  instead  of  arbitrating,  will  do  your  busi- 
ness as  well  as  any  body  you  can  find.  This  gal- 
lant gentleman — this  gallant  admiral — has  come 
from  London,  warm  from  the  City  of  London 
Tavern,  bringing  with  him  a  spirit  impatient  for 
some  decisive  proceedings  in  this  troubled  East- 
ern Question." 

All  at  once  it  flashed  upon  the  narrator's  mem- 
ory that,  a  week  or  two  before,  Sir  Charles  Na- 
pier had  announced  his  intention,  at  a  London 
Tavern  meeting,  of  "  bearding  the  Peace  Society 
in  its  den,"  or  some  such  phrase,  which  in  the 
lapse  of  years  has  escaped  our  memory.  This 
had  been  generally  put  down  as  a  flourish  of 
trumpets.  But  no  ;  here  was  the  hero  of  Acre 
presented  to  our  gaze,  and — what  was  even  bet- 
ter for  juvenile  hot  blood,  the  prospect  of  a  set-to 
between  "  Old  Charley"  and  the  great  Peace  he- 
roes. "  What  a  pity,"  thought  we,  "  that  Cob- 


EDINBURG  PEACE  CONFERENCE.  179 

den  speaks  before  him!"  But  when  we  heard 
Mr.  Bright  reply  to  the  admiral,  our  regret  van- 
ished. The  audience  received  all  three  with  equal 
good  humor,  and  with  an  equal  share  of  plaudits 
— a  circumstance  not  so  much,  perhaps,  to  be  at- 
tributed to  any  vacillation  or  fickleness  of  the 
popularis  aura  as  to  a  just  and  fair  determination 
to  give  equal  justice.  Cobden's  speech  was  di- 
versified by  occasional  gruffly  given  interruptions 
from  the  admiral,  most  of  which,  however,  were 
inaudible. 

"  The  gallant  gentleman,"  continued  Mr.  Cob- 
den,  "  has  declared  his  disapproval  of  the  course 
we  have  taken,  and  I  have  no  doubt  that  he  has 
come  here  to  state  the  grounds  on  which  that 
disapprobation  rests;  and  I  should  only  be  an- 
ticipating the  duty  which  the  right  honorable 
chairman  here  can  perform  as  well  as  any  man  in 
Scotland — I  mean,  in  offering  him,  in  their  name, 
a  most  courteous  reception  and  a  most  patient 
hearing  for  all  that  he  may  have  to  address  to 
this  meeting.  My  gallant  friend  says  to  me  just 
now  (alluding  to  one  of  the,  to  us,  inaudible,  or 
rather  undistinguishable  interruptions), '  How  do 
you  know  I  am  your  opponent  ?'  I  have  no 
doubt,  before  we  have  done  with  him,  we  will 
make  him  an  ally.  That  will  be  our  business  to- 
night. He  is  worth  converting,  I  assure  you." 

Mr.  Cobden  went  at  length  into  the  elucida- 
tion of  those  views  upon  land  and  maritime  ar- 


180  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

maments  which  he  had  elaborated  still  more  fully 
in  the  House  of  Commons  in  more  recent  years, 
and  to  which  reference  will  be  made  in  a  suc- 
ceeding chapter;  told  Sir  Charles  that  "what  he 
had  heard  people  say,  and  what  he  had  read  in 
some  of  the  prints  in  the  Reform  Club,  about  the 
objects  of  the  Peace  Conference,  were  pure  fic- 
tions; and  he  would  tell  him  what  they  really 
were ;"  and  urged  (in  view  of  the  then  threaten- 
ing Russian  War)  that  for  us,  who  had  just  been 
guilty  of  an  atrocious  encroachment  upon  the 
Burmese, "  to  pretend  to  exercise  God's  venge- 
ance upon  other  nations  of  the  world  was  pre- 
sumption and  hypocrisy." 

One  passage  of  Mr.  Cobden's  speech  must  be 
given  at  length,  for  it  is  explanatory  and  exposi- 
tory of  a  well-known  saying  of  his,  which  has  been 
intentionally  misrepresented  in  some  quarters,  and 
ignorantly  misapprehended  in  others : 

"  Our  gallant  visitor  here,  I  see,  referred,  rather 
peculiarly,  at  the  London  Tavern,  to  a  phrase  that 
fell  from  me  some  years  ago  at  a  meeting,  with 
regard  to  crumpling  up  the  Russian  Empire. 
Now  the  phrase  I  used  was  at  a  meeting  on  the 
subject  of  the  Hungarian  invasion  in  1849.  I  at- 
tended a  meeting  in  the  City  of  London  Tavern 
to  protest  against  the  invasion  of  Hungary  by 
Russia.  Russia  was  allowed  then  to  march  her 
armies  across  the  territory  of  Turkey,  through 
Wallachia  and  Moldavia,  to  strike  a  death-blow 


EDINBURG  PEACE  CONFERENCE.  181 

at  the  heart  of  Hungary,  and  no  protest  was  ever 
recorded  by  our  government  against  that  act. 
And  it  is  my  deliberate  conviction,  from  a  patient 
study  of  the  Blue-books — and  it  is  the  conviction 
of  the  most  illustrious  men  who  were  engaged  in 
that  Hungarian  struggle  —  that  if  Lord  Palmer- 
ston  had  made  but  a  simple  verbal  protest,  in  en- 
ergetic terms,  Russia  would  never  have  invaded 
Hungary  by  passing  through  the  Moldavian  and 
Wallachian  territories.  It  is  well  known  that 
the  ministers  of  the  Czar  almost  went  down  on 
their  knees  to  beg  and  entreat  him  not  to  embark 
in  a  struggle  between  Austria  and  Hungary. 
Our  protest  would  immediately  have  been  backed 
by  the  ministry  of  the  Czar  if  it  had  been  made ; 
and  I  believe  it  would  have  prevented  that  most 
atrocious  outrage,  as  I  consider  it,  upon  the  rights 
and  liberties  of  a  constitutional  country.  I  said 
on  that  occasion,  in  the  midst  of  all  the  excitement 
and  frenzy  that  then  prevailed  in  favor  of  Hunga- 
rian nationality,  that  I  would  resist  any  attempt 
to  send  an  English  force  to  fight  the  battles  of 
Hungary  on  the  banks  of  the  Danube  or  the 
Theiss.  I  proclaimed  the  same  thing  then  that 
I  proclaim  now.  I  did  not  disguise  my  views  on 
the  subject  any  more  than  I  disguise  my  views 
now  with  regard  to  the  conduct  of  Russia  toward 
Turkey ;  but  I  said  I  will  remain  content  with 
uttering  my  reprobation  of  the  act.  I  would  not 
sanction  the  sending  of  English  soldiers  and  sail- 


1*2  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

ors  to  fight  these  distant  battles.  In  fact,  in  .1 
word,  my  opinions  and  my  principles  resolve 
themselves  into  this,  that  I  will  never  argue  for 
any  battle  whatever  as  to  which  I  am  not  pre- 
pared to  go  and  take  a  part  in  it.  I  would  never 
send  men  to  some  distant  part  of  the  world  with- 
out partaking  of  their  peril;  whenever  a  battle  is 
to  be  fought  with  my  consent,  it  shall  be  one  in 
which  I  am  willing  to  take  a  part  myself.  Well, 
I  took  occasion  then,  speaking  in  the  City  of 
London  Tavern,  to  say  that  Russia  did  not  con- 
template attacking  us ;  that  if  Russia  did  attack 
us,  such  were  the  great  resources  of  this  country 
— such  were  the  enormous  resources  of  wealth, 
and  the  scientific  appliances  which  might  be  used 
for  the  purpose  of  naval  warfare  and  warlike  de- 
struction, that  we  could  crumple  up  the  Russian 
Empire  by  blockading  her  ports,  and  sealing  her- 
metically that  semi-barbarous  country,  so  that 
she  could  have  no  communication  whatever  with 
the  rest  of  the  civilized  world.  That  was  what  I 
said.  Well ;  but  why  do  I  rate  so  low  the  pow- 
er of  the  Russian  empire  ?  It  is  because  every 
thing  we  have  seen  in  the  progress  of  that  coun- 
try proves  that  she  is  comparatively  weak,  partic- 
ularly beyond  her  own  frontiers.  I  don't  say 
within  her  own  borders,  because  she  has  shown 
in  the  case  of  Napoleon  that  if  you  go  there  you 
will  find  but  an  inhospitable  reception.  But  all 
history  proves  that  Russia  is  a  very  weak  coun- 


EDINBURG  PEACE  CONFERENCE.  183 

try  when  she  attempts  to  carry  on  a  war  beyond 
her  own  border." 

And  as  an  illustration  of  the  moral  power 
which  can  be  exercised  by  a  great  people,  with- 
out any  imposing  demonstration  of  force,  he  said : 
"  There  is  that  boy-Emperor  of  Austria,  who  has 
been  wasting  his  time  ever  since  he  came  to  the 
throne  in  reviewing  troops,  surrounded  by  his 
gilded  state  and  a  staff  of  fifty  or  sixty  generals. 
If  a  single  frigate  were  sent  by  that  plain  man 
in  a  black  suit  of  clothes  in  the  Capitol  at  Wash- 
ington to  Trieste,  with  a  hostile  message,  would 
not  that  boy-emperor's  heart  be  in  his  very  jack- 
boots when  he  received  it  ?" 

Ere  turning  to  an  entirely  new  aspect  of  Cob- 
den's  career,  when  he  found  his  own  and  the  na- 
tion's opinion  receding  farther  and  farther  from, 
instead  of  advancing  nearer  and  nearer  to,  each 
other,  we  present,  as  the  conclusion  of  this  chap- 
ter, a  pen-and-ink  sketch  of  him,  about  this  time, 
limned  by  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe  in  her  "  Sunny 
Memories." 

"Monday  morning,  May  23.  We  went  to 
breakfast  at  Mr.  Cobden's.  Mr.  C.  is  a  man  of 
slender  frame,  rather  under  than  over  the  middle 
size,  with  great  ease  of  manner  and  flexibility  of 
movement,  and  the  most  frank,  fascinating  smile. 
His  appearance  is  a  sufficient  account  of  his  pop- 
ularity, for  he  seems  to  be  one  of  those  men  who 
carry  about  them  an  atmosphere  of  vivacity  and 


184  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

social  exhilaration.  We  had  a  very  pleasant  and 
social  time,  discussing  and  comparing  things  in 
England  and  America.  Mr.  Cobden  assured  us 
that  he  had  curious  calls  from  Americans  some- 
times. Once  an  editor  of  a  small  village  paper 
called,  who  had  been  making  a  tour  through  the 
rural  districts  of  England.  He  said  that  he  had 
asked  some  mowers  how  they  were  prospering. 
They  answered, '  We  ain't  prospering  we're  hay- 
in'.'  Said  Cobden, '  I  told  the  man,  Now  don't 
you  go  home  and  publish  that  in  your  paper; 
but  he  did  nevertheless,  and  sent  me  over  the  pa- 
per with  the  story  in  it.'  ....  The  conver- 
sation turned  on  the  question  of  the  cultivation 
of  cotton  by  free  labor.  The  importance  of  this 
great  measure  was  fully  appreciated  by  Mr.  Cob- 
den, as  it  must  be  by  all.  The  difficulties  to  be 
overcome  in  establishing  the  movement  were  no 
less  clearly  seen  and  ably  pointed  out.  On  the 
whole,  the  comparison  of  views  was  not  only  in- 
teresting in  a  high  degree,  but  to  us,  at  least,  evi- 
dently profitable.  We  ventured  to  augur  favor- 
ably to  the  cause  from  the  indications  of  that  in- 
terview." 


PERIOD  OF  THE  CRIMEAN  WAR.  185 


CHAPTER  X. 

PERIOD    OF   THE   CRIMEAN   WAR. 

MR.  COBPEN  acted  with  his  usual  courageous- 
ness  in  the  matter  of  the  Crimean  War.  He  dif- 
fered with  the  mass  of  the  English  people  about 
the  policy  of  entering  upon  it,  and  he,  with  equal 
manliness  and  clearness,  put  the  grounds  of  his 
difference  from  the  prevailing  opinion  upon  rec- 
ord. These  grounds  we  regard  it  our  incumbent 
duty  to  reproduce  in  his  own  words,  or,  at  all 
events,  in  a  summary  of  the  few  speeches  and  the 
pamphlet  which  proceeded  from  him  during  the 
war,  which  shall  be  as  faithful  a  transcript  as  the 
necessary  brevity  of  our  undertaking  allows,  of 
Cobden's  ipsissima  verba ;  and  we  also  incorpo- 
rate with  our  narrative  a  citation  from  Mr.  King- 
lake's  great  work,  "The  Invasion  of  the  Crimea," 
as  representing  with  tolerable  fairness  the  object- 
ive view — the  view  held  by  Mr.  Cobden's  fellow- 
citizens —  of  his  conduct  at  this  very  important 
crisis  of  the  nation's  history.  We  must,  howev- 
er, interpose  the  caveat  —  which,  indeed,  the  pre- 
vious context  of  our  remarks  would  almost  make 
unnecessary  —  that  we  can  not  agree  with  Mr. 
Kinglake  in  his  estimate  of  the  doings  of  Mr. 


186  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

Cobden  and  the  Peace  Society  in  the  peaceful 
years  anterior  to  the  outbreak  of  the  war  be- 
tween Nicholas  and  the  Porte,  in  which  England, 
with  other  Western  Powers,  found  herself  in- 
volved. Mr.  Kinglake  thus  nervously,  and,  on  the 
whole,  impartially  writes  of  Cobden  and  Bright 
at  this  era : 

"  Mr.  Cobden  and  Mr.  Bright  were  members  of 
the  House  of  Commons.  Both  had  the  gift  of  a 
manly,  strenuous  eloquence ;  and  their  diction,  be- 
ing founded  upon  English  lore  rather  than  upon 
shreds  of  weak  Latin,  went  straight  to  the  mind 
of  their  hearers.  Of  these  men,  the  one  could 
persuade,  the  other  could  attack ;  and,  indeed, 
Mr.  Bright's  oratory  was  singularly  well  qualified 
for  preventing  an  erroneous  acquiescence  in  the 
policy  of  the  day ;  for,  besides  that  he  was  honest 
and  fearless — besides  that,  with  a  ringing  voice, 
he  had  all  the  clearness  and  force  which  resulted 
from  his  great  natural  gifts,  as  well  as  from  his 
one-sided  method  of  thinking,  he  had  the  advan- 
tage of  generally  being  able  to  speak  in  a  state 
of  sincere  anger.  In  former  years,  while  their 
minds  were  disciplined  by  the  almost  mathemat- 
ical exactness  of  the  reasonings  on  which  they 
relied,  and  when  they  were  acting  in  concert 
with  the  shrewd  traders  of  the  North  who  had  a 
very  plain  object  in  view,  these  two  orators  had 
shown  with  what  a  strength,  with  what  a  mas- 
terly skill,  with  what  patience,  with  what  a  high 


PERIOD  OF  THE  CRIMEAN  WAR.  18? 

courage  they  could  carry  a  great  scientific  truth 
through  the  storms  of  politics.  They  had  shown 
that  they  could  arouse  and  govern  the  assenting 
thousands  who  listened  to  them  with  delight — 
that  they  could  bend  the  House  of  Commons — 
that  they  could  press  their  creed  upon  a  prime 
minister,  and  put  upon  his  mind  so  hard  a  stress 
that,  after  a  while,  he  felt  it  to  be  a  torture  and 
a  violence  to  his  reason  to  have  to  make  stand 
against  them.  Nay,  more ;  each  of  these  two  gift- 
ed men  had  proved  that  they  could  go  bravely 
into  the  midst  of  angry  opponents  —  could  show 
them  their  fallacies  one  by  one  —  destroy  their 
favorite  theories  before  their  very  faces,  and  tri- 
umphantly argue  them  down.  Now  these  two 
men  were  honestly  devoted  to  the  cause  of  peace. 
They  honestly  believed  that  the  impending  war 
with  Russia  was  a  needless  war.  There  was  no 
stain  upon  their  names.  How  came  it  that  they 
sank,  and  were  able  to  make  no  good  stand  for 
the  cause  they  loved  so  well  ? 

"  The  answer  is  simple. 

"  Upon  the  question  of  peace  or  war  (the  very 
question  upon  which,  more  than  any  other,  a  man 
might  well  desire  to  make  his  counsels  tell)  these 
two  gifted  men  had  forfeited  their  hold  upon  the 
ear  of  the  country.  They  had  forfeited  it  by  their 
former  want  of  moderation.  It  was  not  by  any 
intemperate  words  upon  the  question  of  this  war 
with  Russia  that  they  had  shut  themselves  out 


188  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

from  the  counsels  of  the  nation ;  but  in  former 
years  they  had  adopted  and  put  forward,  in  their 
strenuous  way,  some  of  the  more  extravagant 
doctrines  of  the  Peace  Party.  In  times  when  no 
war  was  in  question,  they  had  run  down  the 
practice  of  war  in  terms  so  broad  and  indiscrim- 
inate, that  they  were  understood  to  commit  them- 
selves to  a  disapproval  of  all  wars  not  strictly 
defensive,  and  to  decline  to  treat  as  defensive 
those  wars  which,  although  not  waged  against  an 
actual  invader  of  the  queen's  dominions,  might 
still  be  undertaken  by  England  in  the  perform- 
ance of  a  European  duty,  or  for  the  purpose  of 
checking  the  undue  ascendency  of  another  power. 
Of  course  the  knowledge  that  they  held  doctrines 
of  this  wide  sort  disqualified  them  from  arguing 
with  any  effect  against  the  war  then  impending. 
A  man  can  not  have  weight  as  the  opponent  of 
any  particular  war  if  he  is  one  who  is  known  to 
be  against  almost  all  war.  It  is  vain  for  him  to 
offer  to  be  moderate  for  the  nonce,  and  to  pro- 
pose to  argue  the  question  in  a  way  which  his 
hearers  will  recognize.  In  vain  he  declares  that 
for  the  sake  of  argument  he  will  lay  aside  his 
own  broad  principles,  and  mimic  the  reasoning 
of  his  hearers.  Practical  men  know  that  his 
mind  is  under  the  sway  of  an  antecedent  determ- 
ination, which  dispenses  him  from  the  more  nar- 
row but  more  important  inquiiy  in  which  they 
are  engaged.  They  will  not  give  ear  to  one  who 


PERIOD  OF  THE  CRIMEAN  WAR.  189 

is  striving  to  lay  down  the  conclusions  which 
ought,  as  he  says,  to  follow  other  men's  princi- 
ples. He  who  altogether  abjures  the  juice  of  the 
grape  can  not  usefully  criticise  the  vintage  of 
any  particular  year ;  and  a  man  who  is  the  steady 
adversary  of  wars  in  general,  upon  broad  and 
paramount  grounds,  will  never  be  regarded  as  a 
sound  judge  of  the  question  whether  any  particu- 
lar war  is  wicked  or  righteous,  nor  whether  it  is 

foolish  or  wise Lord  Aberdeen  and  Mr. 

Gladstone  consenting  to  remain  members  of  a 
war-going  government,  and  Mr.  Cobden  and  Mr. 
Bright  being  disqualified  for  useful  debate  by  the 
nature  of  their  opinions,  no  stand  could  be  made." 
Ere  proceeding  to  transcribe  Mr.  Cobden's 
own  explanation  and  justification  of  his  conduct 
in  this  matter,  it  will  serve  more  than  one  useful 
purpose  to  make  brief  reference  to  a  speech  de- 
livered by  him  at  a  public  meeting  held  at  the 
London  Tavern  in  the  early  part  of  1850,  upon 
the  then  proposed  Russian  Loan.  The  sentiments 
then  and  there  delivered  by  him  make  it  abund- 
antly clear  that  it  was  no  sordid  regard  for  Rus- 
sia, as  a  growing,  if  not  already  a  great,  market 
for  our  manufactures,  that  induced  him  to  offer 
pacific  counsels.  And  in  this  speech  he  showed 
himself  to  be  a  sincere  and  sympathetic  friend  of 
distressed  nationalities.  It  acquits  him  of  the 
charge — one  by  no  means  unfrequeutly  brought 
against  him — of  being  indifferent  and  callous  to 


190  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

the  progress,  the  struggles,  and  the  wounds  of 
liberty  abroad.  He  was,  it  must  be  admitted,  ex- 
tremely cautious  as  to  the  overt  expression  of 
sympathy  for  the  oppressed  peoples  of  the  world  ; 
for  he  had  seen  how  outspoken  utterances  from 
Englishmen  had  fed  such  unfortunates  with  vain 
hopes  of  English  interference,  and  thereby  in- 
cited them  to  the  prolongation  of  struggles  whose 
failure  made  their  woes  more  grievous  than  be- 
fore, and  entailed  upon  them  additional  exasper- 
ated strokes  of  dynastic  vengeance.  The  remark 
may  seem  ungenerous,  but  we  confess  that  we 
think  it,  to  say  the  very  least,  very  questionable 
whether  the  Circassians  are  not  to-day  in  a  worse 
plight  than  if  Mr.  Urquhart  had  never  been  born, 
or  employed  at  the  Turkish  Embassy — whether 
Lord  Dudley  Stuart's  speeches  and  Earl  Russell's 
dispatches  may  not  have  heightened  the  agonies 
of  the  Poles — and  whether  the  vengeance  of  the 
Czar  and  the  Kaiser  upon  the  Magyars  might 
not  have  been  less  severe  had  some  one  else  than 
Lord  Palmerston  been  at  the  Foreign  Office  in 
1848.  Be  that  as  it  may,  Mr.  Cobden's  course  in 
such  matters  was  at  least  logical,  and  not  only 
self-consistent,  but  perfectly  compatible  with  the 
warmest  love  of  liberty,  the  most  intense  hatred 
of  enthroned  wrong,  and  the  tenderest  commis- 
eration for  enthralled  right.  "We  the  more  glad- 
ly make  reference  to,  and  citation  from  this  speech, 
inasmuch  as  it  was  one  of  his  happiest.  It  be- 


PERIOD  OF  THE  CRIMEAN  WAR.  191 

longed  to  that  class  of  his  speeches — a  class  which 
formed  a  large  constituent  part  of  them — which 
may  be  termed  chatty  and  conversational;  in 
which  he  put  himself  at  once  and  peculiarly  at 
ease  with  his  audience,  and  equally  discarded  ora- 
torical effort  and  rhetorical  verbiage. 

The  plea  upon  which  the  Czar  came  to  the  En- 
glish money  market  for  five  and  a  half  millions 
sterling  was  that  it  was  wanted  for  the  comple- 
tion of  the  railroad  from  St.  Petersburg  to  Mos- 
cow. Mr.  Cobden  commenced  by  flatly  declar- 
ing that  this  was  untrue — and  that  he  had  been 
at  St.  Petersburg  three  years  previously,  and 
seen  that  the  rolling  stock  of  the  railway  was 
complete.  Even  if  he  did  want  it  for  making  a 
railway,  it  was  ridiculous  to  suppose  that  he 
would  need  it  all  in  six  months,  which  was  the 
condition  of  his  request.  "  Here  are  railway 
calls  from  one  railway  alone  at  the  rate  of  near- 
ly one  million  a  month,  and  that  in  a  country 
where,  up  to  the  month  of  March,  no  work  can 
be  done  in  the  way  of  forming  embankments, 
and  consequently  this  money  is  wanted  for  the 
purpose  of  being  expended  in  excavating  and 
embanking  in  the  months  of  April,  May,  June, 
and  July.  I  really  pity  the  mendicant  Czar  who 
is  obliged  to  come  to  us  with  such  a  story." 

But  why,  he  went  on  to  say,  should  he,  as  a 
Free  Trader  (he  had  been  asked),  interfere  with 
such  a  loan  ?  "  Why  not  let  people  lend  their 


192  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

money  in  the  dearest  market,  and  borrow  it  in 
the  cheapest  ?"  He  answered,  "  I  have  no  objec- 
tion to  people  investing  their  money,  if  they  like 
to  do  so ;  but  I  claim  the  right  as  a  Free  Trader, 
in  a  free  country,  to  meet  my  fellow-citizens  in  a 
public  assembly  like  the  present,  to  try  and  warn 
the  unwary  against  being  deceived  by  those 
agents  and  money-mongers  in  the  city  of  London 
who  will  endeavor  to  palm  off  their  bad  securi- 
ties on  us  if  they  can." 

"  But,"  he  went  on,  "  apart  altogether  from 
these  grounds  of  its  inherent  immorality  and  in- 
security, I  stand  here  as  a  citizen  of  this  country, 
and  as  a  citizen  of  the  world,  to  denounce  the 
whole  character  of  this  transaction  as  injurious 
to  the  best  interests  of  society.  I  will  take  first 
the  politico-economical  view  of  the  question,  be- 
cause it  is  supposed  that  on  this  question  I  am 
particularly  weak  in  that  direction.  Now  I  take 
my  stand  on  one  of  the  strongest  grounds  in  stat- 
ing that  Adam  Smith  and  other  great  authorities 
on  political  economy  are  opposed  to  the  very 
principle  of  such  loans.  What  is  this  money 
wanted  for  ?  It  is  to  be  wasted.  It  is  to  go  to 
defray  the  expense  of  maintaining  standing  ar- 
mies, or  to  pay  the  expenses  of  the  atrocious  war 
in  Hungary.  Then  what  does  it  amount  to?  It 
is  so  much  capital  abstracted  from  England  and 
handed  over  to  another  country  to  be  wasted, 
thereby  abstracting  from  the  labor  population  of 


PERIOD  OF  THE  CRIMEAN  WAR.  193 

this  country  the  means  by  which  it  is  employed 
and  by  which  it  is  to  live.  I  say  that  every  loan 
advanced  to  a  foreign  power  to  be  expended  in 
armaments,  or  for  carrying  on  war  with  other 
countries,  is  as  much  money  wasted  and  destroyed 
for  all  the  purposes  of  reproduction  as  if  it  were 
carried  out  into  the  Atlantic  and  there  sunk  in 
the  sea.  And  I  make  no  distinction  whether  the 
interest  be  paid  or  not — for  if  it  be  paid  by  the 
Emperor  of  Russia,  it  is  not  paid  out  of  the  pro- 
ceeds of  the  capital  lent — it  is  not  paid  out  of  the 
capital  itself  being  invested  in  reproductive  em- 
ployment ;  but  it  is  extorted  from  the  labor,  the 
industry,  and  the  wretchedness  of  his  people,  to 
pay  for  the  interest  of  that  capital  which  has  not 
only  not  been  employed  in  reproductive  labor,  or 
even  thrown  into  the  ocean,  but  far  worse,  in  ab- 
stracting industry,  in  devastating  fair  and  fruitful 
lands,  and  in  suppressing  freedom." 

The  following  sentences  were  uttered  by  a  man 
who  more  than  once  during  his  public  life  was 
called  a  Philo-Russian ! 

"  Now  what  is  this  money  wanted  for  ?  Sim- 
ply and  solely  to  make  up  the  arrears  caused  by 
the  exhaustion  of  the  Hungarian  War.  I  am  not 
in  the  habit  of  boasting  at  public  meetings  of 
what  I  may  have  done  on  former  occasions,  but 
if  I  were  a  boaster  I  should  exult  that  the  asser- 
tions I  made  on  this  spot  in  June  last,  and  which 
have  been  subjected  to  so  much  sarcasm  from 
N 


194  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

foes  and  friends — I  should,  I  say,  feel  some  exult- 
ation that  this  poverty-stricken  Czar  has  been 
obliged  to  come  forward  and  verify  every  word 
I  then  said.  What  has  become  of  the  two  mil- 
lions we  were  told  the  Emperor  has  subscribed 
to  the  Austrian  loan  ?  "What  has  become  of  the 
£500,000  he  was  going  to  advance  to  the  Pope, 
or  the  half  million  he  was  going  to  bestow  in  his 
generosity  on  the  Grand-Duke  of  Tuscany  ?  Oh, 
he  ought  to  pay  his  scribes  well  in  "Western  Eu- 
rope who  have  told  so  many  lies  for  him !  He 
ought  to  pay  them  well,  seeing  that  they  have 
been  subjected  to  this  full  refutation  of  all  they 
said  in  his  behalf  at  the  hands  of  the  Czar  himself. 
If  I  had  been  employed  to  write  up  the  wealth, 
power,  and  riches  of  a  man  who  six  months  after 
was  obliged  to  come  before  the  citizens  of  Lon- 
don and  sign  his  name  to  such  a  humiliating 
document  as  this  imperial  ukase,  I  should  expect 
to  be  exceedingly  well  paid  for  the  loss  of  char- 
acter I  had  sustained.  Well,  I  stand  here,  to  re- 
peat the  very  words  I  uttered  twice  on  this  plat- 
form at  times  when  few  would  believe  me.  I  say 
that  the  Russian  government  in  matters  of  finance 
has  been  for  years  —  successfully,  until  now  the 
bubble  has  burst — the  most  gigantic  imposture 
in  Europe.  I  use  the  words,  as  I  hope  I  do  ev- 
ery word  I  say  at  a  public  meeting,  advisedly.  I 
have  used  them  before,  and,  after  clue  investiga- 
tion, I  came  here  to  repeat  them.  I  say  that  this 


PERIOD  OF  THE  CRIMEAN  WAR.  195 

money  is  wanted  for  the  purpose  of  sustaining 
the  ambition,  the  sanguinary  brutality  of  a  des- 
pot, who  has  all  the  tastes  of  Peter  the  Great, 
and  all  the  lust  of  conquest  of  Louis  XIV.,  with- 
out the  genius  of  the  one  or  the  wealth  of  the 
other;  and  who  would  apply  their  principles  to 
a  great  part  of  Europe,  forgetting  that  this  is  the 
nineteenth  instead  of  the  seventeenth  century ; 
while  utterly  wanting  not  merely  the  ability  which 
would  enable  him  to  play  such  a  part  in  history, 
but  even  the  pecuniary  means  of  enjoying  the 
tastes  he  possesses." 

We  conclude  our  quotations  from  this  speech, 
so  memorable  and  important  an  incident  in  the 
life  of  Cobden,  with  the  following  anecdotal  par- 
agraph. 

"  I  came  down  this  morning  from  the  West-end 
of  the  town  in  an  omnibus,  sitting  opposite  to  a 
gentleman.  As  we  were  riding  along,  he  looked 
out  of  the  window  and  saw  a  placard  with  the 
words  '  Great  meeting  on  the  Russian  Loan.'  He 
said  to  me,  'Mr.  Cobden  is  going  to  have  a  meet- 
ing, I  believe.'  '  Yes,'  said  I, '  I  believe  he  is.' 
'  It's  very  odd,'  he  observed, '  that  he  should  pre- 
sume to  dictate  to  capitalists  as  to  how  they 
should  lay  out  their  money.'  'Well,'  said  I,  'if 
lie  attempts  to  dictate,  it  is  rather  hard.  But  I 
suppose  he  allows  you  to  do  as  you  like.'  '  But,' 
said  he, '  he  holds  public  meetings  to  denounce 
the  loan  ;  yet  I  should  not  wonder  if  he  would  be 


196  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

very  glad  himself  to  have  £20,000  of  it.'  I  said, 
'Have  you  taken  any  yourself?'  He  replied, 'I 
have — £50,000,  and  I  intend  to  pay  it  all  up.'  I 
then  said  to  him, '  Would  you  like  to  leave  that 
property  to  your  children  ?  '  No,'  he  said, '  I 
don't  intend  to  keep  it  more  than  two  years  at 
the  outside,  and  I  hope  to  get  a  couple  per  cent, 
profit  upon  it.'  Now  it  is  with  that  view  that 
that  gentleman  is  going  to  pay  up  his  calls — that 
is,  if  he  thinks  of  doing  so.  That  is  not  the  or- 
dinary case ;  they  generally  pay  up  one  call,  and 
then  sell  the  stock  at  any  profit  which  they  can 
get  upon  it ;  and  the  loss  of  holding  these  securi- 
ties—  I  said  it  before,  and  I  repeat  it  now  —  the 
loss  falls  upon  individuals  who  were  totally  un- 
connected with  the  taking  of  the  loan  —  trades- 
men retired  from  business,  widows  and  orphans, 
trustees  and  others  who  invest  money  in  what 
they  regard  as  a  permanent  security,  in  order  to 
obtain  the  interest  upon  it.  Well,  now,  I  declare 
most  solemnly,  after  looking  into  this  subject  of 
Russia  as  I  have  done  for  the  last  eighteen  years, 
that  I  would  not  give  five-and-twenty  pounds  per 
cent,  for  the  Russian  Five  per  Cent,  stock,  which 
is  being  dealt  in  to-day  by  the  Bulls  and  Bears  at 
107.  I  would  not  take  £100  at  that  price  for  per- 
manent investment,  and  with  the  view  of  leaving 
it  as  a  part  of  the  dependence  of  my  children." 
x  Mr.  Cobden  spoke  in  the  House  of  Commons 
very  seldom  while  we  were  "  drifting  into"  and 


PERIOD  OF  THE  CRIMEAN  WAR.  197 

carrying  on  the  Crimean  War.  He  entered  his 
dignified  protest  against  the  revival  of  the  war 
spirit  in  the  land — the  sentiment  expressed  in 
Tennyson's  paean  of  joy  that  "  the  long,  long 
canker  of  peace  was  over  and  done."  He  did 
so,  and  then  he  retired,  refusing  to  cumber  the 
ground  and  increase  the  irritation  by  farther  in- 
vectives and  cautions.  He  deliberately  expressed 
his  views  in  1853  and  the  spring  of  1854,  ere  the 
country  was  quite  committed,  and  subsequently 
he  only  addressed  the  House  when  terms  of  peace 
were  under  consideration,  and  when,  accordingly, 
his  voice  might  do  good.  The  chief  arguments 
and  considerations  adduced  by  him  were  these. 
He  held  that  the  integrity  and  independence  of 
the  Turkish  Empire,  as  a  maxim  of  policy,  had 
become  an  empty  phrase  and  nothing  more.  The 
Turks  were  intruders  in  Europe ;  their  home  was 
Asia;  the  progress  of  events  had  demonstrated 
that  a  Mohammedan  power  could  not  be  main- 
tained in  Europe.  The  independence  of  a  coun- 
try that  could  not  maintain  itself  could  not  be 
upheld ;  and  if  he  himself  were  a  Rayah,  a  Chris- 
tian subject  of  the  Porte,  he  should  say,  "  Give 
me  any  Christian  government  rather  than  a  Mo- 
hammedan." "We  should  hereafter  have  to  ad- 
dress our  minds  to  the  question  what  we  were  go- 
ing to  do  with  Turkey,  for  we  must  not  think  that 
we  could  keep  Turkey  as  it  was.  He  ridiculed  the 
notion  of  going  to  war  for  tariffs,  the  futility  of 


198  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

which  policy  experience  had  proved,  and  he  con- 
tended that  the  importance  of  the  trade  with  Tur- 
key had  been  overrated.  He  maintained  that  all 
our  commerce  in  the  Black  Sea  was  owing  to  Rus- 
sian encroachment.  As  for  the  talk  of  a  Russian 
army  invading  England  (which  prevailed  in  some 
quarters),  why,  Russia  could  not  move  her  forces 
across  her  own  frontier  without  a  loan. 

As  the  war  became  more  imminent,  he  pointed 
out  that  the  whole  difference  between  Russia  and 
the  other  powers  consisted  in  this — that  the  Great 
Powers  wished  that  the  grievances  of  the  Chris- 
tians should  be  redressed  by  themselves,  acting 
together  and  in  concert,  and  not  by  Russia;  and 
for  this  despicable  ground  of  quarrel  Europe  was 
to  be  deluged  in  blood.  Undoubtedly  the  Chris- 
tian population  were  looking  for  ameliorations, 
whether  from  Russia  or  elsewhere.  He  said  it 
was  chimerical  to  expect  any  substantial  change 
in  their  treatment,  which  could  only  be  brought 
about  by  an  abandonment  by  the  Mussulmans  of 
their  religious  principles  and  an  abrogation  of  the 
law  of  the  Koran.  Replying  to  the  arguments 
upon  the  other  side,  founded  upon  the  compara- 
tive value  of  the  trade  with  Russia  and  Turkey, 
he  declared  the  Russian  trade  to  be  of  thrice  the 
importance  to  this  country  of  the  Turkish.  If 
there  was  real  danger,  as  Lord  John  Russell  had 
alleged,  "  to  all  mankind,"  those  nearest  the  dan- 
ger ought  to  be  the  first  to  meet  it.  If  we  were 


PERIOD  OF  THE  CRIMEAN  WAR.  199 

going  really  to  fight  for  the  Turks,  let  us  fight 
with  our  navy,  and  not  send  a  miserable  20,000 
troops  to  the  Danube.  [This  was,  of  course,  before 
the  expedition  to  the  Crimea  was  resolved  on.] 

Early  in  1855  there  was  a  great  debate  on  a 
motion  of  Mr.  Milner  Gibson  for  an  address  to  the 
crown  to  this  general  effect,  that  the  propositions 
made  by  Russia  at  the  Vienna  Conference  con- 
tained the  germs  of  reasonable  pacification,  and, 
therefore,  that  the  negotiations  should  be  vigor- 
ously and  hopefully  pursued.  All  the  great  rep- 
resentatives of  all  parties  spoke.  Mr.Layard  also 
had  given  notice  of  a  motion  denouncing  the  in- 
efficiency of  the  administration,  and  of  the  con- 
duct of  the  war,  and  its  source — the  favoritism  of 
our  governmental  system.  This  already  compo- 
site discussion  was  still  farther  complicated  by  a 
resolution  of  Mr.  Disraeli,  pledging  the  House  to 
"dissatisfaction  with  the  ambiguous  language  and 
uncertain  conduct  of  her  majesty's  government 
in  reference  to  the  great  question  of  peace  and 
war."  The  House,  night  after  night,  debated  to- 
gether the  rival  propositions.  Disraeli  made  one 
of  his  most  sarcastic  orations,  his  chief  victim  be- 
ing Lord  John  Russell,  who  had  just  made  so  woe- 
ful a  failure  at  Vienna  as  a  diplomatist.  After 
hie  denunciation  of  "  diplomatic  subterfuge  and 
ministerial  trifling,"  Sir  Francis  Baring  interposed 
an  amendment,  expressing  continued  confidence 
in  the  government.  Sir  William  Heathcote  intro- 


200  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

duced  still  another  amendment,  expressing  more 
definitely  than  Sir  Francis  Baring's  a  strong  de- 
sire for  the  return  of  peace,  which  gained  the  val- 
uable adherence  of  Mr.  Gladstone,  who  was  not 
then  a  minister.  After  speeches  from  many  mem- 
bers of  secondary  weight,  and  from  Sir  William 
Molesworth,  Sir  Bulwer  Lytton,  Lords  Palmer- 
ston,  Stanley,  and  Lord  John  Russell,  Mr.  Cob- 
den,  having  adjourned  the  debate  at  a  late  hour, 
resumed  it  on  the  following  day.  Sir  William 
,\-  Molesworth  had  urged  the  rejection  of  the  Rus- 
sian proposals,  and  the  prolongation  of  the  war. 
Mr.  Cobden  especially  reproached  him  for  deser- 
tion of  his  old  principles.  He  maintained  that 
the  slight  difference  between  Russia  and  ourselves 
on  the  famous  "Third  Point"  was  not  sufficient 
to  justify  the  continuance  of  the  war.  Russia, 
'he  said,  had  been  denounced  for  bad  faith,  and 
yet  we  were  prepared  to  join  with  her  in  guaran- 
teeing the  governments  of  Wallachia  and  Molda- 
via, and  the  protocols  reposing  trust  in  Russia 
to  this  extent  were  signed  by  the  very  cabinet 
ministers  who  had  so  denounced  her.  He  pun- 
gently  contrasted  Lord  John  Russell's  polite  con- 
duct abroad  with  his  violent  speeches  at  home. 
The  language  and  conduct  of  the  ministers  were 
one  continued  seesaw,  changed  from  time  to  time 
to  suit  the  press  and  the  feeling  out  of  doors.  He 
taunted  ministers  with  the  deferment  of  the  prom- 
ised and  boasted  co-operation  of  Austria ;  but  his 


PERIOD  OF  THE  CRIMEAN  WAR.  201 

main  point  was  the  natural  development  of  Rus- 
sia in  the  Black  Sea,  which  he  showed  had  been 
more  rapid  than  even  that  of  the  United  States 
of  America.  It  was,  he  admitted,  only  a  youth- 
ful barbarian  developing  himself  into  something 
better;  but,  while  he  continued  with  no  other 
neighbor  than  the  decaying  and  unimproving 
Turkish  Empire,  all  the  powers  o*earth  could  not 
take  from  Russia  her  preponderance  in  these  re- 
gions, which  was  inherent  in  the  nature  of  things. 

Our  readers  will  have  vividly  brought  back  to 
their  recollections  the  height  and  fervor  of  the 
war  spirit  of  1855,  and  the  utter  hopelessness  of 
Mr.  Cobden  affecting  it  in  the  slightest  degree,  by 
the  perusal  of  these  few  lines  of  Lord  Palmer- 
ston's  speech  in  reply  to  Mr.  Cobden.  He  was 
speaking  of  the  so-called  "peace -at -any -price 
men." 

"  With  peace  in  their  mouths,  they  have,  nev- 
ertheless, had  war  in  their  hearts;  and  their 
speeches  are  full  of  passion,  vitupei'ation,  and 
abuse,  and  delivered  in  a  manner  which  shows 
that  angry  passions  strive  for  mastery  within 
them.  I  must  say,  judging  from  their  speeches, 
their  manner,  and  their  language,  that  they  would 
do  much  better  for  leaders  of  a  party  for  war  at  all 
hazards,  instead  of  a  party  for  peace  at  any  cost. 
Mr.  Cobden  did  at  last  tell  us  that  he  would  fight 
— no,  not  that  he  would  fight — but  he  said  that 
there  was  something  for  which  the  country  must 


202  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

fight ;  and  he  added,  that  if  Portsmouth  were 
menaced  —  he  said  nothing  about  the  Isle  of 
Wight — he  would  go  into  the  hospital.  Well, 
there  are  many  people  in  this  country  who  think 
that  the  party  to  which  the  honorable  gentleman 
belongs  would  do  well  to  go  immediately  into  a 
hospital  of  a  different  kind  from  that  which  the 
honorable  gentleman  meant,  and  which  I  shall 
not  mention."  It  is  not  much  to  be  wondered  at 
that  Cobden,  Liberal  politician  though  he  was, 
should  mournfully  say,  a  few  weeks  after,  "  I  look 
back  with  regret  on  the  vote  which  I  gave  on  the 
motion  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  twenty  and  thirty  thousand  good  lives." 
A  still  more  astounding  indication  of  the  fe- 
vered spirit  at  this  period  prevailing  is  furnished 
by  this  incident.  Mr.  Joseph  Sturge,  like  the 
other  Peace  Society  leaders,  manfully  avowed 
among  his  neighbors  and  elsewhere  his  opinion 
of  the  war ;  and  he  received  more  than  his  own 
share  of  obloquy.  A  placard  was  put  up  in  Bir- 
mingham entitled  "War  and  Dear  Bread,"  show- 
ing how  war  enhanced  the  price  of  food,  and  it 
was  popularly  attributed  to  Mr.  Sturge.  He  re- 
ceived a  number  of  anonymous  letters  accusing 
him  of  hoarding  large  quantities  of  grain  to  en- 
hance its  value,  and  threatening  vengeance.  Mr. 
Sturge  wrote  a  general  reply  to  his  anonymous 


PERIOD  OF  THE  CRIMEAN  WAR.  203 

correspondents,  and  had  it  inserted  in  the  local 
newspapers,  stating,  "  If  the  writer  of  this  letter 
will  give  me  his  name,  I  shall  be  glad  to  meet 
him  and  his  friends,  and  if  they  can  point  out  how 
I  can  lower  the  price  of  bread  to  the  public,  I 
shall  rejoice  to  join  them  in  any  legitimate  means 
to  carry  their  plan  into  effect."  When  Mr.  Cob- 
den  heard  of  this,  he  wrote  to  his  friend :  "  It  is 
amusing  to  see  the  mad  vagaries  of  the  persons 
who  charge  yow,  of  all  men,  with  being  the  cause 
of  dear  bread !  It  reminds  me  of  what  occurred 
after  the  great  French  War  had  produced  its 
natural  consequences  —  dear  bread  and  want  of 
employment — when  the  London  mob  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Spitalfields  directed  their  vengeance 
against  the  Quakers  as  being  the  authors  of  their 
misery  —  the  Quakers  having  been,  be  it  remem- 
bered, almost  the  only  people  who  steadily  op- 
posed the  said  clamorous  mob.  You  will  see 
this  referred  to  incidentally  in  the  first  volume 
of  the  Life  of  William  Allen,  p.  50." 

It  was  some  consolation  to  Cobden  to  have  the 
sustenance  and  support  of  such  men  as  Sturge. 
Sturge  wrote  of  Cobden  to  an  American  friend 
in  February,  1855,  "John  Bright  and  Richard 
Cobden  are  acting  a  noble  part  in  resisting  the$ 
war  mania ;  and  the  fearful  carnage  it  occasions, 
as  well  as  the  increasing  sufferings  among  our 
poor,  are  bringing  many  over  to  their  opinion 
who  were  a  short  time  ago  in  favor  of  the  war." 


204  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

Cobden  said  no  more  on  the  subject  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  but  brought  out,  early  in 
1856,  his  pamphlet, "  What  Next  — and  Next?" 
in  which  he  besought  the  country  to  consider 
whither  it  was  tending,  and  asked  it  to  endeavor 
to  realize  its  own  ends  and  objects  in  the  war, 
and  to  consider  both  the  cost  and  the  likelihood 
of  their  attainment.  He  pointed  out  the  fact  that 
a  country  like  England  is  peculiarly  unsuited  for 
aggressive  military  enterprises :  "  A  manufactur- 
ing community  is,  of  all  others,  the  least  adapted 
for  great  aggressive  military  enterprises  like  that 
in  which  we  have  embarked.  In  defending  them- 
selves at  their  own  doors,  such  an  industrial  or- 
ganization might  afford  greater  facilities,  proba- 
bly, than  any  other  state  of  society ;  for  the  men, 
being  already  marshaled  (so  to  speak)  in  regi- 
ments and  companies,  and  known  to  their  employ- 
ers, the  resources  of  the  capitalists  and  the  serv- 
ices of  the  laborers  might  be  brought,  with  pre- 
cision and  economy,  into  instant  and  most  extend- 
ed co-operation.  We  read  that  Jack  of  Newbury 
(the  Gott  of  his  day)  led  a  hundred  of  his  clothiers, 
at  his  own  expense,  to-  Flodden  Field ;  and  if  the 
spirit  of  patiiotism  were  roused  by  the  attack  of 
a  foreign  enemy,  I  have  no  doubt  we  should  see 
our  great  manufacturing  capitalists  competing  for 
the  honor  of  equipping  and  paying  the  greatest 
number  of  men  until  our  shores  were  freed  from 
the  presence  of  the  invader.  But  I  am  obliged 


PERIOD  OF  THE  CRIMEAN  WAR.  205 

to  presuppose  an  invasion  of  our  own  territory 
before  assuming  that  all  ranks  would  be  roused 
to  take  a  part  in  the  struggle." 

At  last,  to  Cobden's  great  delight,  peace  came. 
In  one  respect,  the  Peace  of  Paris  contained  a 
great  triumph  for  him,  although  it  came  to  him 
most  unexpectedly.  In  the  treaty  was  incorpo- 
rated the  very  Arbitration  clause  for  which  he 
had  been  battling,  and  for  which  he  had  been  so 
jeered  in  the  English  House  of  Commons.  When 
the  peace  was  proclaimed,  a  deputation  waited 
upon  Lord  Palmerston  on  the  subject,  but  he 
raised  all  sorts  of  objections,  and  held  out  no 
hope.  Mr.  Henry  Richard  then  suggested  that 
a  journey  should  be  undertaken  to  the  very  fount- 
ain-head, Paris,  where  the  plenipotentiaries  sat. 
He  met  with  but  scant  encouragement.  His 
friends  (including  Cobden,  it  would  appear)  dis- 
suaded him  from,  the  bootless  errand.  Sturge, 
however,  said,  "  Thou  art  right ;  if  no  one  else 
will  go  with  thee,  I  will ;  and  I  am  prepared  to 
go,  not  only  to  Paris,  but,  if  necessary,  to  Berlin, 
Vienna,  Turin,  and  even  to  St.  Petersburg,  should 
there  be  time,  and  see  if  we  can't  get  access  to 
the  various  sovereigns  whose  plenipotentiaries  are 
sitting  at  Paris."  They  went,  visited  Lord  Clar- 
endon, and  obtained  the  promise :  "I  will  do  what 
I  can  to  bring  the  matter  before  the  Congress." 
He  did  so,  was  supported  by  the  French  and 
Prussian  plenipotentiaries,  and  when  the  treaty 


206  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

was  promulgated  it  was  found  to  contain  this 
clause : 

"  The  plenipotentiaries  do  not  hesitate  to  ex- 
press, in  the  name  of  their  governments,  the  wish 
that  states  between  which  any  serious  misunder- 
standing may  arise  should,  before  appealing  to 
arms,  have  recourse,  so  far  as  circumstances  might 
allow,  to  the  good  offices  of  a  friendly  power. 
The  plenipotentiaries  hope  that  the  governments 
not  represented  at  the  Congress  will  unite  in  the 
sentiment  which  has  inspired  the  wish  recorded 
in  this  protocol." 

"  This  happy  innovation,"  as  Lord  Clarendon 
termed  it,  consoled  Cobden  in  some  degree  for 
his  heartache  of  the  last  two  years.  In  the  very 
House  which  had  laughed  at  his  proposal  only  a 
short  time  ago,  Mr.  Gladstone  spoke  eloquently 
of  this  protocol  as  "  a  powerful  engine  on  behalf 
of  civilization  and  humanity,"  and  said  it  "assert- 
ed the  supremacy  of  reason,  of  justice,  humanity, 
and  religion."  Even  Lord  Derby  accorded  "  end- 
less honor"  to  the  diplomatists  for  adopting  it, 
and  Lord  Malmesbury  talked  of  its  "importance 
to  civilization  and  to  the  security  of  the  peace  of 
Europe,"  because  "  it  recognizes  and  establishes 
the  immortal  truth  that  time,  by  giving  place  for 
reason  to  operate,  is  as  much  a  preventive  as  a 
healer  of  hostilities."  This  was  by  no  means  the 
smallest  of  Cobdeu's  triumphs. 


THE  CHINA  WAR.  207 


CHAPTER  XI. 

THE   CHINA   WAK,  AND   THE   FKENCH   TREATY. 

ME.  COBDEN'S  whole  career  may  be  character- 
ized as  having  displayed  the  continuous  and  con- 
sistent pursuit,  exposition,  and  advocacy  of  a  few 
fixed  and  definite  ideas.  These,  at  an  early  pe- 
riod, fairly  took  possession  of  his  whole  mind  and 
being,  and  may  be  said  to  have  saturated,  and 
permeated  to  its  extremities,  his  very  existence. 
The  remaining  portion  of  Mr.  Cobden's  life  may 
be  greatly  compressed,  for  it  consisted  of  no  more 
than  the  renewed  and  continued  application  of 
those  principles  of  his  policy  which  we  have  al- 
ready, in  an  expository  manner,  propounded,  to 
the  public  questions  which  arose,  either  in  our 
domestic  or  our  foreign  policy,  from  year  to  year. 
Cobden's  views  and  tenets  remained  the  same 
— quite  unchanged.  The  form  of  their  applica- 
tion might  vary  somewhat,  as  the  conditions  and 
contingencies  to  which  they  were  applied  varied. 
New  forms  of  illustration  might  be  introduced, 
as  when  he  made  himself  master  of  the  whole 
novel  and  intricate  questions  of  shore  fortifica- 
tions and  naval  armaments,  as  they  came  before 
the  public  with  all  the  modern  experience  of  the 


208  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

Crimean  and  American  Wars,  the  bombardments 
of  Sebastopol  and  Charleston,  and  the  encounter 
of  the  Monitor  and  Merrimac.  He  brought  to 
the  debates  on  these  and  cognate  themes  a  prac- 
tical knowledge  which  put  him  quite  on  an  equal 
footing  with  our  great  administrators,  soldiers, 
contractors,  and  engineers.  He  held  his  own 
with,  or  against,  the  Palmerstons,  Burgoynes, 
Ellenboroughs,  Lairds,  and  Petos.  In  addition 
to  showing,  on  general  grounds,  the  needlessness 
and  folly  of  excessive  international  defenses  and 
armaments,  and  the  certainty  of  their  causing 
wanton  acerbity  and  ill  blood,  he  descended  into 
the  more  technical  arena  of  the  minor  premiss 
disputed,  and  showed  that,  even  if  his  general 
views  on  national  armaments  were  erroneous — 
ceding  that  major  point  for  the  sake  of  argument 
— nevertheless,  the  nation  was  acting  unadvisedly 
about  the  kinds  of  armament  it  selected.  Even 
if  great  and  costly  armaments  were  necessary,  it 
was  foolish,  he  said,  to  go  on  building  experi- 
mental ships,  or  casting  experimental  guns,  in  the 
uncertain  and  transitionary  states  of  the  sciences 
of  artillery  and  ship-building,  and  to  construct 
great  stone  fortifications,  when  positive  evidence 
had  shown  their  fragility,  and  negative  evidence 
the  superior  impregnability  of  hastily-constructed 
earthen  ramparts.  In  such  minor  and  special 
particulars,  the  course  of  his  argumentation  and 
the  line  of  his  advocacy  were  modified  and  at- 


THE  CHINA  WAR.  209 

fected  by  circumstances ;  but  his  principles  re- 
mained the  same:  he  only  reiterated  them.  A 
brief  and  compendious  summary,  therefore,  of  his 
leading  utterances  during  the  last  eight  years  of 
his  Parliamentary  career  will  be  sufficient  for  our 
purpose. 

Cobden  differed  from  the  majority  of  his  fel- 
low-countrymen about  the  Chinese  War  of  1857, 
as  he  had  dissented  from  the  popular  voice  and 
will  about  the  Russian  War  of  1854.  News  had 
been  received  in  England  of  a  serious  misunder- 
standing with  the  Chinese  authorities.  A  small 
vessel  called  the  Arrow,  of  a  peculiar  local  form 
and  rig  designated  by  the  term  lorcha,  and  which 
had  a  British  colonial  register,  lay  in  the  Canton 
River  a  little  below  the  foreign  factories.  No 
notice  having  been  given  to  the  British  consul, 
she  was  boarded  by  a  party  of  the  Chinese  ma- 
rine. Her  flag  was  torn  down,  and  her  whole 
Chinese  crew  carried  away  on  a  charge  of  piracy. 
The  British  consul,  Mr.Parkes,  remonstrated,  but 
without  avail.  The  Chinese  commissioner,  Yeh, 
gave  no  heed  to  his  representations.  Nor  was  our 
superior  diplomatic  agent,  Sir  John  Bo  wring,  a 
whit  more  successful.  The  matter  was  then  rele- 
gated to  the  admiral  of  the  station,  Sir  Michael 
Seymour,  to  obtain  satisfaction  for  the  alleged 
wrong  to  the  English  flag.  His  menaces  proving 
equally  unavailing,  and  more  than  one  term  of 
grace  having  expired,  he  proceeded  to  overt  acts, 
O 


210  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

and  reduced  fort  after  fort  along  the  river  sides, 
destroyed  a  fleet  of  junks,  shelled  the  city,  and 
demolished  its  chief  public  buildings. 

The  English  government  at  once  avowed,  jus- 
tified, and  declared  their  intention  to  stand  by 
the  acts  of  their  officials.  At  home,  opinions 
were  divided  about  the  justice  and  propriety  of 
the  procedure.  Lord  Derby  took  the  sense  of 
the  House  of  Lords  on  a  motion  adverse  to  the 
ministers,  and  Mr.  Cobden  adopted  the  same 
course  in  the  Lower  House.  The  keenest  de- 
bates occurred  in  both  assemblies ;  and  the  divi- 
sion list  in  the  Commons'  House  was  by  far  the 
largest  which  had  been  known  in  its  history.  Mr. 
Cobden's  resolution  was  couched  in  these  terms : 
"  That  this  House  has  heard  with  concern  of  the 
conflicts  which  have  occurred  between  the  Brit- 
ish and  Chinese  authorities  in  the  Canton  River ; 
and  without  expressing  an  opinion  as  to  the  ex- 
tent to  which  the  government  of  China  may  have 
afforded  this  country  cause  of  complaint  respect- 
ing the  non-fulfillment  of  the  treaty  of  1 842,  this 
House  considers  that  the  papers  which  have  been 
laid  upon  the  table  fail  to  establish  satisfactory 
grounds  for  the  violent  measures  resorted  to  at 
Canton  in  the  late  affair  of  the  Arrow;  and  that 
a  select  committee  be  appointed  to  inquire  into 
the  state  of  our  commercial  relations  with  China." 
Without  going  too  definitely,  he  said,  into  what 
we  had  actually  done,  he  contented  himself  with 


THE  CHINA  WAR.  211 

inquiring,  Would  we  have  done  what  we  had 
done  if  we  had  been  dealing  with  a  strong  pow- 
er, and  not  a  weak  one?  He  contrasted  the 
conduct  of  the  British  authorities  at  Hong  Kong 
with  that  which  we  would  have  pursued  had  the 
government  we  dealt  with  been  at  Washington, 
and  the  transaction  had  taken  place  at  Charles- 
ton. He  conscientiously  believed  that  there  had 
been  a  preconceived  design  to  pick  a  quarrel 
with  the  Chinese,  for  which  the  whole  world 
would  cry  shame  upon  us.  The  papers  he  look- 
ed upon  as  a  garbled  record  of  trumpery  com- 
plaints against  the  Chinese.  He  quoted  extracts 
from  travelers  testifying  to  the  civility  and  in- 
offensive habits  of  the  Chinese,  and  reminded  his 
auditors  of  the  haughty  demeanor  and  inflexible 
bearing  toward  the  natives  of  other  countries 
which  Englishmen  carried  abroad  with  them.  As 
for  the  clause  in  the  treaty  enforcing  the  admis- 
sion of  Englishmen  into  Canton,  he  expressed  his 
opinion  that  it  was  a  chimera.  It  was  not  worth 
fighting  for.  If  this  part  of  the  treaty  could  be 
at  once  enforced,  it  would  be  of  no  use  to  us.  He 
also  specially  blamed  the  conduct  of  Sir  John 
Bowring,  alleging  that  he  had  acted  directly  con- 
trary to  his  instructions. 

The  Tories  and  the  Peelites  united  with  the 
Radicals  in  support  of  the  motion.  Among  the 
speakers  adverse  to  the  government  were  Sir  E. 
B.  Lytton,  Messrs.  Warren  and  Whiteside,  Sir 


212  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

James  Graham,  Dr.  Phillimore,  Sir  Frederick 
Thesiger,  Sidney  Herbert,  Roundell  Palmer,  Mr. 
Henley,  Messrs.  Gladstone  and  Disraeli.  In  a 
word,  the  whole  character  and  oratorical  power 
of  the  House,  save  what  was  possessed  by  minis- 
terialist office-holders  and  office-seekers,  ranged 
themselves  under  Cobden's  leadership.  He  car- 
ried his  motion  by  a  majority  of  sixteen.  And 
this  was  the  more  wonderful,  that,  in  the  House 
of  Lords,  where  Toryism  so  largely  preponder- 
ated, Lord  Derby's  similar  motion  was  defeated 
by  a  majority  of  thirty-six. 

Lord  Palmerston  had  the  option  of  dissolution 
or  resignation.  He  chose  the  former,  and  went 
to  the  country.  The  natural  excitement  of  the 
public  mind,  coupled  with  the  zealous  advocacy 
of  the  ministerial  prints,  and  the  bellicose  speech- 
es of  the  ministerial  candidates,  added  to  those 
other  less  obvious,  but  perhaps  more  operative  in- 
fluences which  ministers  can  always  bring  to  bear 
at  election  times,  produced  from  the  people  an 
entirely  different  verdict  from  that  which  had 
been  delivered  by  their  parliamentary  represent- 
atives. The  name  of  Palmerston  became  the  ral- 
lying cry  at  every  hustings.  In  fact,  the  popu- 
lace ignored  even  the  consideration  of  the  abso- 
lute merits  of  the  question  under  dispute.  They 
simply  remembered  that  Palmerston  had  carried 
them  through  the  Crimean  War,  when  other  pol- 
iticians had  wavered  and  shrunk  from  its  respon- 


THE  CHINA  WAR.  213 

sibility.  They  recounted  with  admiration  his 
versatile  and  varied  talents,  his  bonhommie  and 
gallantry  against  opposition,  and  the  wondrous 
energy  with  which  he  combated  and  spurned  the 
natural  influences  of  growing  old  age.  The  re- 
sults were  a  marvelous  ministerial  majority,  and 
the  exclusion  from  Parliament  of  Cobden,  Bright, 
Milner  Gibson,  Layard,  J.  W.  Fox,  Miall,  and  not 
a  few  of  the  Peelites  of  the  second  grade.  Cob- 
den  had  not  again  sought  the  suffrages  of  his 
West  Riding  constituents.  He  had  discovered 
in  the  course  of  his  canvass  that  he  had  no  chance 
of  success  there ;  and  when  he  made  the  discov- 
ery, he  rebuked  them  for  their  tergiversation  from 
their  old  principles,  at  Leeds  and  other  great 
towns  of  the  Riding,  in  tones  as  distinguished  by 
manly  outspokenness  as  they  were  marked  by  the 
entire  absence  of  all  querulousness  or  personal 
chagrin.  He  then  solicited  the  suffrages  of  the 
citizens  of  Huddersfield ;  but  the  voters  there 
gave  the  preference  to  a  thorough-going  minis- 
terialist, and  Cobden  was  for  the  first  time  since 
he  first  entered  Parliament  without  a  seat. 

A  beautiful  incident  occurred  during  this  stir- 
ring period  of  our  recent  history.  While  the 
general  election  was  going  on,  Bright,  who  had 
shortly  before  been  compelled  by  ill  health  to 
leave  the  country,  was  still  so  ill  as  to  be  unable 
to  return  to  conduct  his  own  canvass  at  Manches- 
ter ;  Cobden  and  others  of  his  friends  discharged 


214  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

that  task  for  him.  Shortly  after  the  common  re- 
jection of  Cobden  and  Bright,  the  former  attend- 
ed and  addressed  a  meeting  at  Manchester.  In 
the  course  of  his  speech  he  alluded  to  his  friend's 
defeat,  and  dwelt  upon  the  fact  that  the  Manches- 
ter men  had  rejected  the  man  of  whom  they  had 
been  so  proud,  at  a  time  when  he  was  afflicted, 
and  necessarily  absent  by  reason  of  ill  health. 
He  became  at  once  deeply  affected — the  more  so, 
that  Mr.  Bright's  health  was  believed  to  be  still 
most  dangerously  affected.  He  could  not  go  on ; 
his  eyes  filled  with  tears,  and  for  a  time  he  was 
reduced  to  absolute  silence.  This  eloquence  was 
felt  to  be  far  more  expressive  than  the  most  flu- 
ent sentences  of  objurgation  or  reproach.  When 
one  recollects  such  an  occasion  of  the  expression 
of  ardent  personal  attachment  between  the  two 
men,  or  such  as  was  reciprocally  shown  by  Bright 
in  speaking  of  the  House  of  Commons  the  day 
after  Cobden  died,  how  strongly  is  one  reminded 
of  the  forcible  but  indisputable  expression  of  Cic- 
ero— "  Nulla  potest  amicitia  nisi  inter  bonos !" 

For  rather  more  than  two  years  Mr.  Cobden 
was  absent  from  Parliament.  Part  of  his  leisure 
was  filled  up  by  a  somewhat  lengthened  tour  in 
the  United  States.  It  was  not  long  after  his  re- 
jection by  the  voters  for  the  "West  Riding  and 
the  electors  of  Huddersfield  ere  the  country  be- 
gan to  be  rather  ashamed  of  its  conduct  in  reject- 
ing so  many  of  its  best  men  in  its  China  War  fer- 


THE  CHINA  WAR.  215 

vor.  Among  others  of  the  discarded  who  were 
from  time  to  time  reseated  was  Mr.  Cobden,  who 
was  ultimately  returned  by  Rochdale  while  he 
was  yet  absent  from  England.  In  Cobden's  ab- 
sence, Mr.  Milner  Gibson  had  avenged  the  cause 
of  conscientious  Radicalism  upon  Lord  Palmer- 
ston  by  defeating  him  upon  the  Conspiracy  to 
Murder  Bill.  The  Tories  had  come  in ;  Mr.  Dis- 
raeli had  introduced  his  Reform  Bill;  it  was  op- 
posed by  Lord  John  Russell  on  the  ground  of  the 
meagreness  of  its  provisions;  the  Radicals  formed 
a  coalition  with  the  Whigs  at  the  famous  Willis's 
Rooms  meeting.  Their  combined  forces  defeat- 
ed the  government.  Lord  Palmerston  was  once 
more  sent  for,  and  he  announced  his  determination 
to  reserve  certain  seats  in  his  cabinet  and  ministry 
for  the  leaders  of  advanced  Liberalism.  Mean- 
while, Mr.  Cobden  had  not  yet  returned  to  En- 
gland. It  was  only  on  his  arrival  at  Liverpool 
that  he  learned  from  a  deputation  of  gentlemen 
who  went  off  and  boarded  the  steamer  by  which 
he  voyaged  that  the  premier  had  designated  him 
to  the  appropriate  office  of  President  of  the  Board 
of  Trade.  On  his  landing,  he  accepted  a  solicit- 
ation to  address  a  meeting ;  and  although,  as  he 
himself  said,  his  head  was  yet  swimming  from 
the  effects  of  sea-sickness,  he  delivered  a  speech 
cogent  and  telling,  clear  and  perspicuous,  which 
might  well  have  been  supposed  to  have  been  the 
result  of  much  study  and  elaborate  preparation. 


216  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

Mr.  Cobden  determined  not  to  accept  the  proffer- 
ed post.  He  called  upon  Lord  Palmerston  at 
Cambridge  House,  and  frankly  told  his  lordship 
he  could  not  serve  under  him.  It  was  under- 
stood that  when  Palmerston  remonstrated  and  ad- 
vised reconsideration,  Cobden  rejoined  that  he 
had  always  regarded  him  as  a  most  dangerous 
minister  for  England,  and  that  his  views  still  re- 
mained the  same ;  and  that  he  felt  that  he  would 
be  doing  violence  to  his  own  sense  of  duty  and 
destroying  his  character  for  consistency  if  he  at- 
tempted to  act  with  a  minister  to  whom  he  had 
all  along  been  opposed. 

While  Cobden  was  out  of  Parliament,  the  ques- 
tion of  the  short  war  with  Persia,  and  the  more 
important  incident  of  the  Indian  Mutiny,  had  been 
the  chief  subjects  of  discussion.  Although  he 
was  precluded  from  uttering  his  views  in  St. 
Stephen's  Hall,  he  let  it  be  known  through  other 
channels  that  he  strongly  condemned  the  chronic 
misgovernment  which  produced  the  revolt  of  our 
Sepoys,  and  that  he  supported — as  might  indeed 
have  been  supposed  —  that  "  clemency"  of  Lord 
Canning  after  the  disturbances  were  virtually 
quelled  which  was  the  subject  of  such  angry  ani- 
madversion within  and  without  the  walls  of  Par- 
liament. 

In  1853,  the  periodical  date  of  the  legal  expiry 
of  the  East  India  Company's  twenty  years'  char- 
ter had  come  round.  It  was  strongly  urged  that 


THE  CHINA  WAR.  217 

their  tenure  of  power  should  not  be  renewed  for 
the  same  terra,  but  that  a  year  or  two's  time 
should  be  allowed  to  intervene  for  full  consider- 
ation of  all  the  aspects  of  the  question  of  India 
and  her  relation  to  the  home  government  ere  leg- 
islation for  a  lengthened  period  was  again  effect- 
ed. In  the  debates  of  that  year  Cobden  had 
taken  a  leading  part,  so  that  his  opinions  were 
fairly  before  the  nation  in  advance  of  the  crash 
of  the  mutiny.  He  described  the  Court  of  Di- 
rectors as  a  mere  sham,  a  screen  behind  which 
that  governing  body,  which  was  real,  and  there- 
fore ought  to  be  responsible,  might  shelter  itself. 
The  two  were  respectively  the  John  Doe  and 
the  Richard  Roe,  shams  of  law  which  had  been 
then  lately  done  away  with.  India  should  be  gov- 
erned in  the  same  way  as  the  colonies,  so  that 
English  public  opinion  should  reach  it — this  was 
its  only  chance.  Thus  only  could  wars  and  an- 
nexations be  got  rid  of.  The  President  of  the 
Board  of  Control  might  actually  annex  China,  if 
he  so  chose,  against  the  will  of  the  Secret  Com- 
mittee. As  to  patronage,  he  desired  appoint- 
ments to  be  given  to  the  natives,  which  the  Board 
of  Directors  were  certain  never  to  do.  As  to  the, 
fiscal  question,  he  said  it  was  impossible  to  sepa- 
rate the  fate  of  Indian  and  English  finances.  He 
showed  that  there  had  been  an  aggregate  defal- 
cation in  twenty  years  amounting  to  twenty-eight 
millions.  And  those  who  had  proved  that  they 


218  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

could  not  take  stock  in  a  way  which,  in  the  case 
of  the  humblest  trader,  would  satisfy  a  bankrupt 
cy  judge,  were  not  fit  to  administer  the  finances 
of  India.  As  the  territory  had  increased,  so  had 
the  debt;  and  Sattara,  Scinde,  and  the  Punjaub 
were  all  admittedly  governed  at  a  loss. 

We  need  hardly  say  how  thoroughly  the  start- 
ling shock  of  the  mutiny  brought  home  these  and 
such  considerations  to  the  minds  of  the  English 
people.  The  result  was  the  final  quietus  of  the 
Company,  except  as  a  body  of  guaranteed  fund- 
holders,  and  the  fair  assumption  by  England  of 
those  responsibilities  of  the  government  of  its 
most  magnificent  dependency,  which  Cobden  six 
years  previously  had  warmly  urged  her  to  under- 
take. 

Cobden,  though  declining  to  be  an  actual  mem- 
ber of  the  second  administration  of  Lord  Palmer- 
ston,  offered  no  objection  to  act  as  its  represent- 
ative in  the  negotiation  of  the  French  Treaty. 
In  the  latter  case,  he  avoided — what  he  could  not 
have  escaped  in  the  former — all  general  complici- 
ty with  the  plans  and  policy  of  ministers.  The 
French  Treaty  of  Commerce  thus,  or  somewhat 
thus,  came  about.  Strong  in  his  denunciation  as 
he  had  been  of  the  frequent  panics  of  French  in- 
vasion of  England,  the  idea  gradually  grew  upon 
him  that  by  far  the  most  effectual  method  of  ren- 
dering their  recurrence  most  unlikely,  if  not  quite 
impossible,  was  to  cement  new  ties  of  commercial 


THE  FRENCH  TREATY.  219 

intercourse  connecting  the  two  countries,  bet  ween 
which  for  ages  there  had  been  a  most  foolish  and 
mutually  injurious  rivalry  of  prohibitory  tariffs, 
and  thus  establish  the  strongest  interests  on  both 
sides  of  the  Channel  against  the  outbreak  of  war. 
He  had  frequently  talked  over  this  idea  with 
other  illustrious  Free  Traders,  notably  with  such 
men  as  Chevalier  and  Bright ;  and  Bright  pub- 
licly expounded  it  and  urged  its  adoption,  in  a 
speech  delivered  shortly  after  the  formation  of 
the  ministry  in  1859.  Chevalier,  when  he  read 
this  speech,  wrote  to  Cobden,  stating  his  belief 
that  the  time  was  now  ripe  for  the  completion  of 
the  idea  which  had  formed  so  frequent  a  subject 
of  their  mutual  converse  and  their  dearest  hopes. 
Chevalier  said  he  believed  the  co-operation  of  the 
Emperor  was  certain.  This  was  a  great  encour- 
agement to  Cobden,  and  he  resolved  fairly  to  set 
about  the  task.  He  communicated  his  plans  to 
Mr.  Bright,  and  the  two  proceeded  to  Hawarden 
Castle,  the  seat  of  Sir  Stephen  Glyn,  a  relative  of 
Mr.  Gladstone,  and  whom  the  latter  gentleman 
was  then  visiting.  Mr.  Gladstone  accorded  at 
once  his  warmest  approval.  Cobden  then  waited 
upon  the  premier,  who  also  sanctioned  the  enter- 
prise, and  Mr.  Cobden  at  once  proceeded  to  Paris 
to  commence  the  execution  of  his  difficult  but 
glorious  task.  Into  the  details  of  the  long-pro- 
tracted negotiation ;  the  enormous  obstacles  of 
prejudice  to  be  overcome  in  France,  the  most 


220  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

Protectionist  of  European  lands;  the  devoted 
loyalty  of  the  Emperor  from  first  to  last;  the  ef- 
fectual aid  received  from  such  Frenchmen  as 
Bastiat,  Chevalier,  and  the  Minister  Rouher ;  the 
valuable  support  afforded  to  Mr.  Cobden  by  his 
appointed  coadjutor  in  the  business  of  negotia- 
tion, Mr.  Mallet,  of  the  Foreign  Office — into  these, 
and  the  other  most  interesting  minute  particulars 
of  the  transaction,  it  is  impossible  to  enter ;  and 
it  would  be  writing  a  history  rather  than  a  biog- 
raphy, and  therefore  quite  stretching  and  exceed- 
ing the  prescribed  purpose  of  our  plan,  were  we 
to  enter  upon  the  pleasing  digression  of  nar- 
rating, even  in  brief,  the  story  of  the  hard  fight 
against  the  treaty  in  the  English  House  of  Com- 
mons, and  the  gallant  stand  made  for  it,  and  its 
absent  negotiator,  by  Palmerston,  Gladstone,  Mil- 
ner  Gibson,  and  many  others  equally  worthy  of 
honor.  Nor  shall  we  enter  at  length  into  what 
all  the  newspapers,  Board  of  Trade  Returns, 
Financial  Statements,  and  general  experience  of 
the  trading  and  industrial  portion  of  the  nation, 
have  each  and  all  equally  brought  to  light  since 
it  was  carried ;  the  astounding  impetus  to,  and 
yearly  increasing  development  of  the  internation- 
al commercial  transactions  of  the  two  lands  which 
it  has  affected  and  blessed. 

The  broad  features  of  the  treaty  may  be  com- 
pressed within  a  very  few  lines.  On  the  1st  of 
October,  1861,  France  Avas  to  reduce  duties  and 


THE  FRENCH  TREATY.  221 

take  away  prohibitions  on  British  productions 
mentioned,  on  which  there  was  to  be  an  ad  va- 
lorem duty  of  30  per  cent.  There  was  a  provi- 
sion that  the  maximum  of  30  per  cent,  should, 
after  the  lapse  of  three  years,  be  reduced  to  a 
maximum  of  25  per  cent.  England  engaged,  with 
a  limited  power  of  exception,  to  abolish  imme- 
diately and  totally  all  duties  on  manufactured 
goods,  to  reduce  the  duty  on  brandy  from  15s.  to 
8s.  2c?.,  on  wine  from  5s.  \Qd.  to  3s.,  with  power 
reserved  to  increase  the  duty  on  wine  if  we  raised 
our  own  excise  duties  on  spirits.  England  en- 
gaged to  charge  upon  French  articles  subject  to 
excise  the  same  duties  which  the  manufacturer 
would  be  put  to  in  consequence  of  the  changes. 
Considerable  reductions,  both  present  and  pro- 
spective, were  made  upon  the  charges  levied  on 
English  iron,  coal  and  coke,  carried  into  France. 
The  treaty  to  be  in  force  for  ten  years. 

Probably  in  the  whole  history  of  diplomacy,  if 
we  consider  the  disturbing  views  and  opposing 
interests  to  be  conciliated  or  vanquished,  the  in- 
tricacy of  detail  of  negotiation,  the  novelty  of 
the  proposal,  the  brief  period  in  which  all  was 
accomplished,  no  one  feat  so  wondrous  was  ever 
achieved  by  one  man.  Cobden  lived  to  see  all 
the  morose  vaticinations  both  of  French  and  En- 
glish opponents  disappointed.  He  lived  to  hear 
from  his  antagonists  their  own  candid  confessions 
of  their  error;  and  the  French  manufacturing 


222  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

classes,  who  were  five  years  before  the  most  Pro- 
tectionist body  in  Europe,  not  only  vied  with  the 
English  people  in  their  expressions  of  sorrow  at 
Cobden's  death,  but  it  was  a  common  saying  of 
English  travelers  to  France,  in  the  spring  and 
early  summer  of  1865,  that  they  actually  believed 
that  the  mourning  for  Cobden  occupied  more 
deeply  the  French  bosom  than  the  English,  or 
was  at  least  more  loudly  demonstrated  by  the 
subjects  of  the  Corsican  than  the  subjects  of  the 
Guelph. 

From  the  English  ministry  Cobden  had  not  to 
wait  for  so  tardy  (though,  when  it  came,  so  pleas- 
ing) an  acknowledgment.  Mr.  Gladstone  said 
in  his  place  in  Parliament :  "  With  regard  to  Mr. 
Cobden,  speaking  as  I  do  at  a  time  when  every 
angry  passion  has  passed  away,  I  can  not  help  ex- 
pressing our  obligations  to  him  for  the  labor  he 
has,  at  no  small  personal  sacrifice,  bestowed  upon 
a  measure  which  he,  not  the  least  among  the 
apostles  of  Free  Trade,  believes  to  be  one  of  the 
most  memorable  triumphs  Free  Trade  has  ever 
achieved.  Rare  is  the  privilege  of  any  man  who, 
having  fourteen  years  ago  rendered  to  his  coun- 
try one  signal  and  splendid  service,  now  again, 
within  the  same  brief  span  of  life,  decorated  nei- 
ther by  rank  nor  title,  bearing  no  mark  to  dis- 
tinguish him  from  the  people  whom  he  loves,  has 
been  permitted  to  perform  a  great  and  memora- 
ble service  to  his  sovereign  and  to  his  country." 


THE  FRENCH  TREATY.  223 

After  the  successful  completion  of  the  French 
treaty,  Lord  Palmerston,  on  the  part  of  her  maj- 
esty, offered  to  Mr.  Cobden  a  baronetcy  and  a 
place  in  the  Privy  Council.  Cobden  declined 
both  the  hereditary  rank  and  the  personal  honor. 
He  chose  to  be  content  without  ordinary  and 
official  reward ;  and  perhaps  this  was  just  as  well. 
The  titles  and  rewards  of  office  have  often  been 
misapplied ;  have  been,  with  almost  equal  fre- 
quency, conferred  for  discreditable  and  detri- 
mental as  for  beneficial  services;  have  been  as 
often  bestowed  upon  the  favorites  of  kings  and 
the  instruments  of  their  tyranny — sometimes  even 
of  their  vices — as  upon  the  benefactors  of  the 
people  and  the  promoters  of  their  best  interests. 
Cobden  doubtless  felt  this,  and  feeling  this,  one 
may  acquit  him  of  any  cynical  independence  and 
affected  republican  simplicity  in  his  respectful  re- 
fusal of  the  honors  offered  him  by  his  sovereign 
and  her  appointed  minister. 

Posterity,  rather  than  ourselves,  will  be  able 
to  estimate  the  full  amount  of  the  benefit  to  En- 
gland and  humanity  constituted  by  and  contained 
in  the  French  treaty.  Only  when  a  century  shall 
have  passed  without  any  war  between  England 
and  France  shall  the  livers  in  that  blessed  epoch 
be  able  to  contrast  with  sufficient  emphasis  with 
the  five  previous  centuries  of  English  history 
the  peaceful  era  inaugurated  by  Cobden's  far-see- 
ing scheme  for  withdrawing  the  risks  of  war  and 


224  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

multiplying  the  bonds  of  peace;  for,  from  the 
time  of  the  earliest  Plantagenets  up  to  the  days 
of  our  own  immediate  fathers,  it  seemed  all 
through  to  be  almost  an  axiom  of  English  policy 
and  feeling  that  we  should  be  always  picking 
quarrels  with,  or  accepting  challenges  from,  the 
sons  of  Gaul,  and  dealing  upon  them  our  dough- 
tiest blows.  Every  ship  we  launched,  every  gun 
we  cast,  every  regiment  we  embodied,  were 
launched,  cast,  and  embodied  that  they  might  be 
used  against  France.  In  more  olden  times,  our 
youth  were  trained  in  the  use  of  cross  and  long 
bows,  all  with  a  view  to  the  fights  at  Cressy, 
Agincourt,  Orleans,  and  Calais.  On  France  all 
our  bellicose  energies  were  concentrated.  Liter- 
ally, up  till  Tudor  times  she  was  the  only  Con- 
tinental power  we  ever  fought  with;  and  since 
the  days  of  the  Armada,  even,  we  fought  with 
her  more  frequently,  and  at  far  greater  cost,  than 
with  all  other  powers  combined.  Kings  like 
James,  and  ministers  like  Walpole,  were  unpop- 
ular because  they  would  not  war  with  France; 
and  at  the  end  of  his  unloved  reign,  the  Second 
George  gained,  to  his  own  surprise,  great  popu- 
larity, and  Chatham's  popularity  became  more  ex- 
cessive than  ever  minister's  had  been  before,  or 
has  been  since,  when  they  committed  the  nation 
to  war  with  France.  Maria  Theresa  was  the 
darling  of  our  nation,  and  even  the  rough  and  un- 
loveable Frederick  the  Great  became  the  same 


THE  FRENCH  TREATY.  225 

•when  they  entered  into  alliance  with  us — or,  rath- 
er, we  with  them,  for  the  quarrels  were  theirs — 
against  France.  All  this  is  altered  now,  and,  we 
trust  in  Heaven,  shall  ever  so  remain.  To  Cob- 
den,  more  than  any  other  man,  will  posterity  ad- 
mit that  it  is  indebted  for  the  holy  and  propitious 
change. 

P 


226  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

LAST  TEAES   IN   PARLIAMENT. 

DURING  the  whole  of  1861  Cobden  spoke  only 
once  in  the  House  of  Commons.  This  was  in  be- 
half of  the  repeal  of  the  Paper  Duty,  the  last 
remnant  of  those  taxes  on  knowledge  which  he 
had  assailed  all  his  life.  Just  when  he  started  as 
a  public  man — but  as  yet  not  known  beyond  the 
confines  of  his  own  borough  and  neighborhood — 
he  had  taken  a  respectable  share  in  the  agitation 
for  the  reduction  of  newspaper  stamps  and  the 
charge  for  postage.  He  lived  to  see  the  very  last 
artificial  shackle  on  intelligence  and  its  dissem- 
ination removed,  and  he  helped  in  no  mean  de- 
gree to  its  removal.  His  speech,  which  was  on 
the  Budget  of  this  year  generally,  was  but  a  brief 
one.  He  had  been  away  from  the  House,  doing 
better  work  for  England  in  Paris  than  he  could 
in  London.  "  I  am  not,"  said  he,  "  going  to 
trouble  the  committee  at  any  great  length.  I  am 
not  sufficiently  conversant  with  your  recent  de- 
bates to  do  so." 

The  following  compliment  to  the  newspaper 
press  of  this  country,  as  a  literate  profession,  is 
certainly  one  of  which  it  may  well  be  proud : 


LAST  YEARS  IN  PARLIAMENT.  '227 

"  You  are  aiming  at  preventing  the  Chancellor 
of  the  Exchequer  from  continuing  in  a  course 
which  he  has  not  the  merit  of  originating.  I  can 
not  give  him  the  credit  for  the  least  originality, 
nor  can  he  be  accused  of  precipitation.  He  is 
only  going  in  the  path  which  every  government 
must  follow,  whether  it  be  called  Whig  or  Tory. 
Is  it  for  the  advantage  of  honorable  gentlemen 
opposite  that  they  should  place  themselves  in  this 
position  ?  If  you  succeed  by  a  majority  in  over- 
turning the  government  and  coming  in  yourself, 
you  must  instantly  adopt  the  very  policy  which 
you  are  opposing  in  opposition.  There  is  no  al- 
ternative. The  principle  rooted  in  the  public 
mind  of  England  is  to  remove  those  barriers 
which  impede  the  progress  of  commerce  and- 
manufactures,  so  as  to  give  the  chance  of  employ- 
ment for  a  growing  and  an  increasing  population. 
You  yourselves  have  the  greatest  interest  in  pro- 
moting that  policy,  and  in  nothing  more  than  the 
repeal  of  the  paper  duty,  by  which  you  offer  the 
advantage  of  employment  to  a  class  superior  to 
those  affected  by  any  other  article  subject  to  the 
Excise  Duty ;  for  bear  in  mind  that  there  is  no 
article  which  gives  employment  to  the  same  edu- 
cated class  of  men  as  paper.  If  I  were  a  young 
man  just  fresh  from  college,  with  nothing  in  the 
world  but  a  good  education,  there  is  nothing  I 
should  look  for  with  so  much  interest  as  making 
perfectly  free  the  press  of  this  country,  by  remov- 


228  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

ing  all  the  taxes  which  tend  to  render  dear  and 
scarce  literary  productions.  What  should  I  want  ? 
I  should  want  employment  for  my  pen.  Is  it  not 
an  advantage  to  rising  educated  young  men  that 
more  editors,  more  contributors,  more  short-hand 
Avriters  should  be  required  ?" 

On  the  3d  of  June,  1862,  Mr.  Stansfeld  pro- 
posed in  the  House  of  Commons  a  resolution  to 
the  effect  "  that  the  national  expenditure  is  capa- 
ble of  reduction,  without  compromising  the  safe- 
ty, the  independence,  or  the  legitimate  influence 
of  the  country."  This  was  a  great  field-night  in 
the  House.  Several  amendments  had  been  put 
upon  the  paper,  two  or  three  of  them  more  or 
less  friendly  to  the  government,  and  one  —  that 
of  Mr.  Walpole  —  was  supposed  to  be  designed 
to  raise  the  direct  issue  of  "  no  confidence." ,  It 
was  believed  that  once  more  a  conjoint  Tory- 
Radical  attack  was  to  be  made  upon  ministers, 
and  that  there  was  a  chance  of  Lord  Derby  and 
his  party  coming  in.  There  was  a  crowded 
House,  an  unusually  disorderly  preliminary  de- 
bate —  an  overture,  as  it  were,  to  the  great  per- 
formance which  was  to  follow — and  altogether  a 
very  great  deal  of  interest,  bustle,  and  excitement. 
Mr.  Cobden  spoke  just  before  the  close  of  the 
discussion,  making  no  allusion  whatever  to  its 
supposed  party  aspects,  which,  indeed,  turned  out 
not  to  exist  in  the  intentions  of  the  movers  either 
of  the  motion  or  of  any  of  the  amendments.  The 


LAST  YEARS  IN  PARLIAMENT.  229 

general  gist  of  Mr  Cobden's  speech  may  be  given 
very  briefly.  After  a  severe  reply  to  Mr.  Hors- 
man,  whom  he  rightly  accused  of  the  most  cal- 
lous carelessness  to  the  real  welfare  of  the  na- 
tion so  long  as  the  armaments  were  kept  in  their 
inflated  state,  he  undertook  to  deal  with  the  stale 
and  nauseating  plea  that  our  expenditure  was 
kept  up  on  account  of  the  necessity  to  protect 
ourselves  against  France.  Why  should  we  not 
endeavor  to  produce  quiet  and  peace  in  a  cheaper 
way  ?  We  were  in  alliance  with  France ;  why 
could  not  Lord  Palmerston,  or  somebody  else — 
he  (Mr.  Cobden)  would  undertake  to  do  it — take 
the  matter  in  hand,  and  talk  over  the  question  of 
the  iron  vessels  ?  He  said  the  consequences 
would  be  perfectly  disastrous  unless  the  govern- 
ment would  address  themselves  to  the  task  of  re- 
trenchment, and  to  the  relations  of  this  country 
with  France.  Thus  felicitously  and  pertinently 
did  he  demonstrate  from  contemporary  events  the 
truth  that  it  is  reserved  resources  of  material 
wealth,  and  not  huge  armaments  eating  into  the 
vitals  of  nations,  that  are  the  real  conquerors 
when  the  push  comes. 

"  Look  at  what  is  going  on  beyond  the  Atlan- 
tic. Every  body  has  complained  that  America 
was  very  overbearing  in  her  foreign  policy.  Very 
well ;  but  bear  in  mind  that  America  was  never 
well  armed.  She  had  but  fourteen  or  fifteen  thou- 
sand soldiers ;  she  never  would  have  a  fleet ;  she 


230  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

has  not  had  a  line-of-battle  ship  in  commission  for 
the  last  ten  years  —  certainly  not  more  than  one. 
If,  then,  America  played  the  bully  without  arms, 
what  was  it  that  impressed  her  will  upon  the  rest 
of  the  world  ?  Undoubtedly  it  was  that  you  gave 
her  credit  for  having  vast  resources  behind  her, 
which  were  not  unnecessarily  displayed  in  a  state 
of  armed  defiance.  Well,  what  has  been  the  re- 
sult of  the  present  deplorable  war  in  America  ? 
You  have  seen  that  country  manifesting  a  power 
such  as  I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  no  nation 
of  the  same  population  ever  manifested  in  the 
same  time.  No  country  in  Europe,  possessing 
20,000,000  of  people,  could  put  forth  the  might, 
could  show  the  resources  in  men,  money,  and 
equipments  that  the  Federal  States  of  America 
have  done  during  the  last  twelve  months.  Tak- 
ing the  whole  country  together,  about  thirty  mil- 
lions of  people  have  kept  nearly  1,000,000  men 
in  arms ;  and  they  have,  upon  the  whole,  been 
equipped  and  supplied  as  no  other  army  ever  was 
before.  Why  was  that?  Simply  because  the 
Americans  had  not  exhausted  themselves  previ- 
ously by  high  taxation.  They  were  a  prosperous 
people.  Their  wages  and  profits  were  high,  be- 
cause their  taxation  was  low;  and  as  they  were 
earning  twice  as  much  as  the  people  of  Europe 
earned  when  the  war  broke  out,  they  had  only  to 
restrict  themselves  to  one  half  of  their  usual  en- 
joyments, and  they  found  means  of  carrying  on 


LAST  YEARS  IN  PARLIAMENT.  231 

the  war.  That,  I  think,  is  a  doctrine  that  applies 
to  us  as  well  as  to  the  Americans,  and  I  deny  the 
doctrine  that  a  nation  increases  its  power,  and  is 
better  prepared  for  carrying  on  war,  because  it 
always  maintains  a  large  war  establishment  in 
time  of  peace." 

One  of  the  last  great  and  telling  speeches  deliv- 
ered by  Cobden  in  the  House  of  Commons  was  on 
the  proposal  of  the  government  to  expend,  with- 
in a  given  number  of  years,  a  sum  of  £20,000,000 
on  the  additional  fortifications  of  our  dock-yards 
and  arsenals.  In  this  he  undertook  to  prove  that 
the  alarmist  government  statements  about  the 
strength  of  the  French  navy  were  "  entirely  fal- 
lacious and  delusive."  This  proposition  he  sup- 
ported by  a  long  array  of  figures.  "  In  the  whole 
of  the  past  five  years  I  defy  any  one  to  show  an 
instance  in  which  the  noble  lord  (Palmerston)  has 
advocated  an  increase  of  our  naval  armament  in 
reference  to  any  other  country  but  France.  We 
have  heard  from  him  the  word  '  invasion'  a  dozen 
times  within  the  last  few  years.  Now,  for  a  prime 
minister  to  talk  about  this  country  being  invaded 
by  a  friendly  power,  without  one  fact  to  justify  a 
suspicion  of  it  —  on  the  contrary,  when  the  navy 
of  that  government  is  less  than  at  any  former  time 
— is  to  commit  this  country  to  an  attitude  toward 
that  neighboring  power  that  no  minister  ought 
to  give  it  with  the  levity  of  indiscretion  that  has 
marked  the  noble  lord's  course  on  the  subject." 


232  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

Some  passages  from  the  conclusion  of  this  spir- 
ited address  we  quote  without  any  farther  com- 
ment than  to  call  the  reader's  attention  to  the 
confirmation,  falling  from  Mr.  Cobden's  own  lips, 
of  a  statement  made  by  us  in  a  previous  page, 
about  the  matured  and  moderate  character  of  his 
views  on  the  question  of  Peace. 

"  There  is  no  question  in  this  House  as  to  de- 
fending the  country  against  a  foreign  enemy.  It 
would  be  a  piece  of  supreme  impertinence  in  me, 
or  in  any  other  man,  to  lay  claim  to  an  exclusive 
interest  or  regard  for  the  security  of  the  country 
against  a  foreign  enemy,  and  I  hold  the  man  to 
be  a  charlatan  who  sets  up  a  claim  to  popularity 
because  he  holds  the  honor  and  safety  of  the 
country  in  higher  estimation  than  I  do.  That  is 
not  the  question  here,  where  every  man  has  an 
equal  interest  in  the  safety  of  the  country.  We 
may  take  different  views  —  as  we  are  entitled 
to  do — as  to  the  best  modes  of  fortifying  and  per- 
manently defending  the  country.  Some  think  we 
can  not  do  better  than  appeal  for  armaments  and 
fortifications  in  addition  to  our  existing  resources 
in  times  of  peace,  notwithstanding  the  weight  of 
taxation  under  which  the  country  is  struggling ; 
while  others,  like  myself,  may  think,  with  Sir  Rob- 
ert Peel,  that  you  can  not  defend  every  part  of 
your  coast  and  colonies,  and  that,  in  attempting  to 
do  so,  you  run  a  greater  risk  of  danger  to  the  coun- 
try than  you  would  incur  by  husbanding  the  re- 


LAST  YEARS  IN  PARLIAMENT.  233 

sources  which  you  are  now  expending  upon  arma- 
ments, so  as  to  have  them  at  call  in  time  of  emerg- 
ency. That  is  my  view.  Let  no  one  presume  or 
dare  to  say  that  he  has  more  regard  for  the  safety 
of  the  country  than  I  have.  They  may  try  to 
create  imaginary  dangers,  and  to  take  credit  for 
guarding  against  them ;  but  give  us  a  real  danger, 
show  us  that  our  navy  is  not  equal  to  our  defense, 
that  a  neighbor  is  clandestinely  and  unduly  trying 
to  change  the  proportion  which  its  foi'ce  should 
bear  to  that  of  this  mercantile  people  living  in  an  isl- 
and, and  then  I  would  willingly  vote  £100,000,000 
of  money  to  protect  our  country  against  attack. 
But  in  saying  this  I  claim  no  merit.  I  do  not  set 
myself  up  as  a  great  patriot,  for  there  is  nobody 
here  but  would  put  his  hand  in  his  pocket  and 
spend  his  whole  fortune  rather  than  have  this  isl- 
and defiled  by  the  foot  of  an  enemy 

"  Our  wealth,  commerce,  and  manufactures  grow 
out  of  the  skilled  labor  of  men  working  in  metals. 
There  is  not  one  of  those  men  who,  in  case  of  our 
being  assailed  by  a  foreign  power,  would  not  in 
three  weeks  or  a  fortnight  be  available  with  their 
hard  hands  and  thoughtful  brains  for  the  manu- 
facture of  instruments  of  war.  That  is  not  an 
industry  that  requires  you  at  every  step  to  mul- 
tiply your  armed  men.  What  has  given  us  our 
Armstrongs,  our  Whitworths,  our  Fairbairns  ? 
The  industry  of  the  country,  in  which  they  are 
mainly  occupied.  It  has  been  sometimes  made 


234  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

a  reproach  against  me  and  my  friends,  the  Free 
Traders,  that  we  would  leave  the  country  de- 
fenseless. I  say,  if  you  have  multiplied  the  means 
of  defense — if  you  can  build  three  times  as  many 
steamers  in  the  same  time  as  other  countries,  and 
if  you  have  that  threefold  force  of  mechanics  to 
which  my  honorable  friend  has  spoken,  to  whom 
do  you  owe  that  but  to  the  men  who,  by  con- 
tending for  the  true  pi'inciples  of  commerce,  have 
created  a  demand  for  the  labor  of  an  increased 
number  of  artisans  in  this  country  ?  Go  to  Plym- 
outh or  to  Woolwich,  and  look  at  the  names  of 
the  inventors  of  the  tools  for  making  fire-arms, 
and  shot  and  shell.  They  bear  the  names  of  men 
in  Birmingham,  in  Manchester,  and  in  Leeds — 
men  nearly  all  connected  for  the  last  twenty  years 
with  the  extension  of  our  commerce,  which  has 
thus  contributed  to  the  increase  of  the  strength 
of  the  country,  by  calling  forth  its  genius  and 
skill.  I  resist  the  attempt  which  has  been  made 
to  show  that  I  am  not  a  promoter  of  the  strength, 
the  power,  and  the  greatness  of  this  country,  or 
that  I,  or  any  of  those  who  act  with  me,  are,  or 
have  been  indifferent  to,  or  ignorant  of,  what  con- 
stitutes the  real  strength  and  greatness  of  the 
country." 

The  last  occasion  on  which  Mr.  Cobden  ad- 
dressed the  House  of  Commons  was  on  July  22d, 
1864,  when  he  made  an  unusually  lengthened  and 
elaborate  speech,  bristling  with  facts  and  figures, 


LAST  YEARS  IN  PARLIAMENT.  235 

and  permeated  by  sound  practical  experience  and 
common  sense.  The  occasion  was  his  moving  a 
series  of  resolutions  condemnatory  of  the  great 
extension  of  the  government  manufacturing  es- 
tablishments. He  cited  as  an  authority  Burke, 
who, in  a  speech  delivered  in  1*780,  "laid  down, 
in  language  which  it  is  impossible  to  surpass,  the 
reasons  why  the  government  should  not  manu- 
facture its  own  supplies,  but  should  depend  on 
the  competition  of  individual  manufacturers." 
He  said  the  negligence  of  Parliament  and  the 
Treasury  had  become  so  great,  and  the  depart- 
ments had  taken  upon  themselves  such  an  im- 
mense increase  of  manufacture,  that  they  laughed 
at  the  idea  of  Parliament  superintending  the  de- 
tails of  the  administration.  Indeed,  Mr.  Cobden 
himself  objected  to  Parliament  undertaking  such 
intricate  functions.  He  thought  the  House  could 
interfere  with  great  advantage  in  prescribing  the 
principles  on  which  the  executive  government 
could  be  carried  on,  but  beyond  that  he  held  it 
to  be  impossible  for  the  Legislature  to  interfere 
with  advantage  in  the  details  of  the  administra- 
tion of  the  country.  And  he  said  that  in  the 
early  years  of  his  experience  in  Parliament,  when 
Sir  Robert  Peel  was  prime  minister,  he  would 
have  resented  the  appointment  of  the  Parlia- 
mentary committees  of  inquiry  into  the  details  of 
administration  which  now  prevail  as  tantamount 
to  votes  of  want  of  confidence.  Sir  Robert  would 


236  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

have  said,  if  such  a  committee  had  been  proposed 
in  his  time,  and  while  he  held  the  reins  of  power, 
"  If  you  think  the  administration  is  not  satisfac- 
torily conducted  by  me",  then  you  must  find  some- 
body else  to  undertake  it." 

To  give  some  idea  of  the  rapidity  of  the  rate 
at  which  the  government  had  become  manufac- 
turers, Mr.  Cobden  reminded  the  House  that  up 
till  the  close  of  the  Crimean  War  the  British 
government  had  never  cast  a  cannon,  or  made  a 
shot  or  shell.  And  when  it  was  determined  to 
cast  68-pounders  at  Woolwich,  the  proprietors 
of  the  Low  Moor  works,  who  had  previously  sup- 
plied the  government,  and  who  not  only  took  se- 
lected qualities  of  their  own  iron — which  is  the 
best — but  used  coal  of  a  peculiar  kind,  fresh  from 
the  earth,  to  smelt  it,  would  not  sell  pig  iron  to 
the  Woolwich  establishment.  The  result  was 
that,  having  got  the  machinery  for  casting  the 
guns,  there  was  no  iron  fit  to  cast.  They  had  to 
go  into  the  market  and  buy  the  ordinary  kind  of 
pig  iron,  and,  as  a  consequence,  the  guns  were 
pronounced  rotten  and  were  never  used.  He 
then  told  the  exactly  similar  and  parallel  story  of 
the  government  and  Whitworth  and  Armstrong 
guns.  He  dwelt  with  great  scornful  glee  upon 
the  naivete  with  which  the  leading  men  at  Wool- 
wich came  before  the  committee  appointed  by 
the  House,  and  tried  to  show  that  they  were  pro- 
ducing the  guns  cheaper  than  at  Elswick,  Sir 


LAST  YEARS  IN  PARLIAMENT.  237 

William  Armstrong's  factory ;  forgetting  that  the 
two  were  one  and  the  same  concern,  Sir  William's 
works  being  as  much  a  government  establishment 
as  those  at  Woolwich !  for  they  were  both  start- 
ed by  the  government  with  the  nation's  capital. 

Then  he  went  on  to  small-arms,  and  showed 
that  exactly  the  same  course  had  been  pursued  in 
this  field.  Till  the  close  of  the  Crimean  War  the 
government  did  not  manufacture  a  single  rifle. 
They  were  furnished  by  private  contractors,  and 
spoken^of  in  the  highest  terms  by  the  Sebastopol 
Committee  of  1855,  while  the  medical,  commis- 
sariat, and  other  departments  were  unflinchingly 
condemned.  But  the  government  got  an  idea 
into  their  heads  that  at  some  moment  of  dire 
necessity,  when  they  were  in  great  need  of  rifles, 
there  might  be  a  strike  among  some  class  of  the 
workmen  who  manufacture  their  various  parts ; 
the  more  so,  as  if  only  the  maker  of  the  lock 
struck,  it  would  stop  the  manufacture  and  deliv- 
ery of  the  whole  rifle.  This  was  quite  true,  and 
the  natural  remedy  was  that  they  should  give  or- 
ders to  capitalists,  who  would  set  up  machinery 
for  manufacturing  the  whole  musket.  But  gov- 
ernment could  not  be  made  to  comprehend  a 
thing  so  obvious  as  this,  and  erected  an  enormous 
manufactory  for  the  construction  of  rifled  small- 
arms  at  Enfield,  and  they  actually  sent  to  Amer- 
ica to  procure  the  requisite  machinery.  And  now 
all  had  gone  for  nothing ;  for  the  superiority  of 


238  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN 

the  Lancaster  and  Whitworth  to  the  Enfield  rifles 
had  been  acknowledged. 

After  entering  into  similar  and  more  extended 
details,  Oobden  said  he  found  that  he  never  could 
make  the  conductors  of  these  government  estab- 
lishments understand  that  the  capital  they  had  to 
deal  with  was  really  money.  For  how  should  it 
be  real  money  to  them?  It  cost  them  nothing. 
Whether  they  made  a  profit  or  a  loss,  they  never 
made  their  way  into  the  Gazette.  To  them  money 
was  a  myth ;  to  the  tax-payers,  however,  it  was  a 
reality.  You  never  could  make  the  gentlemen  at 
the  head  of  the  departments  understand  that  they 
must  pay  interest  for  capital,  rent  for  land,  as  well 
as  allow  for  depreciation  of  plant  and  machinery. 
He  said  the  manner  in  which  the  government  of- 
ficials chuckled  over  the  supposed  greater  cheap- 
ness of  their  results  in  comparison  with  those  of 
the  private  manufacturer  always  reminded  him  of 
the  story  of  two  gipsies  who  sold  brooms.  One 
said  to  the  other,  "  I  can't  conceive  how  you  can 
afford  to  sell  your  brooms  cheaper  than  I  do,  for 
I  steal  all  my  materials."  "  Ah !"  says  the  other, 
"  but  I  steal  my  brooms  ready  made." 

Then  he  went  on  in  the  same  vein  of  serious 
depreciation,  enlivened  by  the  keenest  irony,  to 
the  array  tailoring  department,  jocularly  terming 
Lord  De  Grey  and  Ripon  "the  most  extensive 
tailor  in  the  world."  •  Then  he  went  from  land  to 
sea,  propounding  once  more  his  oft-reiterated 


LAST  YEARS  IN  PARLIAMENT.  239 

views  as  to  the  folly  of  large  expenditure  for 
ships  in  the  present  transitionary  state  of  naval 
architecture  and  the  science  of  gunnery.  The  last 
words  of  this  remarkable  speech — and  the  last 
words  uttered  by  Cobden  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons— were  these.  They  are  a  sacred  legacy  left 
to  the  nation  he  loved  so  well. 

"  I  know  of  nothing  so  calculated  some  day  to 
produce  a  democratic  revolution  as  for  the  proud 
and  combative  people  of  this  country  to  find 
themselves,  in  this  vital  matter  of  their  defense, 
sacrificed  through  the  mismanagement  and  neg- 
lect of  the  class  to  whom,  with  so  much  liberal- 
ity, they  have  confided  the  care  and  future  desti- 
nies of  the  country.  You  have  brought  this  upon 
yourselves  by  undertaking  to  be  producers  and 
manufacturers.  I  advise  you  in  future  to  place 
yourselves  entirely  in  dependence  upon  the  pri- 
vate manufacturing  resources  of  the  country.  If 
you  want  gunpowder,  artillery,  small-arms,  or  the 
hulls  of  ships  of  war,  let  it  be  known  that  you 
depend  upon  the  private  enterprise  of  the  coun- 
try, and  you  will  get  them.  At  all  events,  you 
will  absolve. yourselves  from  the  responsibility  of 
undertaking  to  do  things  which  you  are  not  com- 
petent to  do,  and  you  will  be  entitled  to  say  to 
the  British  people, '  Our  fortunes  as  a  government 
and  nation  are  indissolubly  united,  and  we  will 
rise  or  fall,  flourish  or  fade  together,  according  to 
the  energy,  enterprise,  and  ability  of  the  great 


240  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

body  of  the  manufacturing  and  industrious  com- 
munity.' " 

Speaking  with  strict  accuracy,  these  were  not 
absolutely  Cobden's  last  words  in  the  House. 
For  subsequently,  in  the  same  debate,  he,  curi- 
ously enough,  interrupted  a  speaker  with  the 
characteristic. ejaculation,  "It  is  ridiculous  to  com- 
pare times  of  peace  and  war." 

The  last  time  Mr.  Cobden  appeared  before  and 
addressed  a  public  audience  was  on  the  23d  of 
November,  1864,  when  he  gave  to  his  Rochdale 
constituents  his  customary  annual  review  of  the 
session,  and  his  general  opinions  upon  current 
questions  of  public  policy  and  affairs.  Mr.  Bright 
was  also  to  have  been  present,  but  was  compelled 
to  be  absent  in  consequence  of  the  recent  death 
of  a  son  of  great  promise.  Mr.  Cobden  could 
well  sympathize  with  a  calamity  like  this,  and  the 
opening  sentences  of  his  long,  comprehensive,  and 
spirited  address  contained  most  kind  and  touch- 
ing references  to  the  affliction  of  his  friend  and 
constituent.  Mr.  Cobden  never  uttered  a  more 
thoroughly  characteristic  address  than  this.  All 
his  leading  qualities  Avere  displayed  in  it.  Merely 
premising  that  .the  chief  topics  which  he  touched 
were  the  Schleswig-Holstein  debates  of  the  pre- 
ceding session ;  the  collapse  of  the  doctrine  of 
intervention  to  which  these  debates  had  testified ; 
the  course  of  the  American  War ;  the  questions 
in  dispute  between  Federals  and  Confederates, 


LAST  YEARS  IN  PARLIAMENT.  241 

and  the  financial  condition  and  prosperity  of  En- 
gland, we  proceed  to  cull  a  few  of  the  more  rep- 
resentative passages  of  this  speech.  We  make 
no  attempt  at  summarizing,  commenting  on,  or 
furnishing  connecting  links  to  our  citations.  We 
shall  best  do  our  duty  to  the  original  and  to  our 
readers  by  letting  Mr.  Cobden  speak  for  himself. 
And  to  read  these  words  solemnizes  one,  for  they 
were  the  last  he  uttered  in  public. 

"  Let  me  tell  the  solid,  substantial,  manufactur- 
ing, and  commercial  capitalists  of  the  country  that 
this  is  not  a  very  honorable  position  to  be  left  in. 
They  allowed  the  government  to  go  on  and  com- 
mit them  in  encouraging  a  small  power  to  fight 
with  a  big  one.  It  was  very  much  like  a  man 
backing  a  little  fellow  for  a  prize-fight,  drawing 
him  to  the  scratch  where  his  toe  is  to  come  to, 
telling  him  how  to  plant  himself,  superintending 
his  training,  and  assuming  responsibility  for  all  he 
does,  and  then,  as  soon  as  blows  are  exchanged, 
running  off.  That  is  the  position  in  which  we 
were  left  by  what  happened  last  session  in  regard 
to  Schleswig-Holstein,  and  we  are  caricatured  in 
every  country  of  Europe.  I  myself  saw  German 
and  French  caricatures  immediately  afterward. 
There  was  a  French  one  representing  Britannia 
with  a  cotton  night-cap  on.  I  recollect  a  picture 
of  the  British  lion  running  off  as  hard  as  he  could, 
pursued  by  a  hare.  That  is  not  a  satisfactory 
state  of  things,  because  I  maintain  that  to  a  cer- 

Q 


242  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

tain  extent  we  deserve  all  this  —  that  is,  we  de- 
serve it  unless  we  show  that  we  did  not  run  away 
merely  because  it  did  not  suit  us  to  fight,  but  that 
we  intended  to  adopt  a  new  principle  in  our  for- 
eign policy,  and  that  other  countries  must  not  ex- 
pect us  to  fight  except  for  our  own  business.  .  . 
"  It  is  said  we  must  form  our  armaments  upon 
a  new  scale,  in  order  to  prevent  France  from 
swallowing  up  Germany.  Now  I  think  that  if 
France  were  to  perform  such  a  feat  as  that,  she 
would  suffer  so  terribly  from  indigestion  after 
swallowing  these  forty  millions  of  uncomfortable 
Teutons,  I  think  she  would  be  an  object  of  pity 
rather  than  terror  ever  afterward.  Well,  now, 
really  it  is  surprising  to  hear  men  aspiring  to  be 
statesmen  come  and  talk  exactly  as  if  they  had 
taken  passages  from  Baron  Munchausen  or  Gul- 
liver's Travels.  How  can  we  say  that  we  have 
made  any  great  progress  if  such  sentiments  can 
be  paraded  on  the  banks  of  the  Roche,  and  what 
must  we  expect  to  hear  from  the  agricultural  dis- 
tricts in  the  neighborhood  of  Midhurst  ? 

My  right  honorable  friend  [Mr.  Bouverie,  M.P.,  in 
a  then  recently  delivered  speech],  when  he  advo- 
cates the  carrying  out  of  the  sentimental  policy, 
carries  us  as  far  back  as  the  time  of  Queen  Eliza- 
beth, and  says  that  she  was  a  sovereign  who  did 
what  was  right,  and  true,  and  just,  and  in  the  in- 
terest of  Protestantism,  all  over  the  Continent  of 
Europe When  I  read  Motley's  '  History 


LAST  YEARS  IN  PARLIAMENT.  243 

of  the  Dutch  Republic' — when  I  read  this  history 
of  the  rise  of  the  Netherlands,  and  when  I  see  that 
struggling  community  with  their  whole  country 
desolated  by  Spanish  bigotry,  and  every  town  lit 
up  daily  by  the  fires  of  persecutors — when  I  look 
at  what  passes  when  the  envoys  come  to  Queen 
Elizabeth  to  ask  her  aid,  how  she  is  huckstering 
for  money  while  they  are  talking  of  religion,  I 
declare,  with  all  my  doctrines  of  non-intervention, 
I  am  almost  ashamed  of  Queen  Bess,  and  of  her 
grasping  ministers,  Burleigh  and  Walsingham.  .  . 
"  What  did  the  Americans  do  when  they  de- 
clared their  independence  in  1776?  They  put 
forth  a  declaration  of  grievances,  and  at  the  pres- 
ent time  no  Englishman  can  doubt  that  they  were 
justified  in  separating  from  the  mother  country. 
....  But  why  is  there  [by  the  Confederate  lead- 
ers] no  such  declaration  ?  Because  they  have  but 
the  grievance  they  want  to  consolidate,  perpetu- 
ate, and  extend — slavery ;  but  they  can  not  do  it. 
....  What  do  they  say  ?  Leave  us  alone ;  all 
we  want  is  to  be  left  alone.  That  is  the  reason 
why  the  conservative  governments  of  Europe,  and 
so  large  a  portion  of  the  upper  classes  in  England, 
have  consented  to  back  the  insurrection.  Now 
how  would  they  feel  if  Essex  and  Kent,  having 
been  beaten  on  the  subject  of  the  Corn  Laws,  had 
chosen  to  set  up  Kent  and  Essex,  and  East  Auglia 
right  across  the  Thames,  as  the  Secessionists  have 
sought  to  attempt  to  cut  off  Louisiana  from  the 


•244  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

mouth  of  the  Mississippi,  and  if  they  had  said, 
'  We  want  to  be  left  alone' — why,  can  any  govern- 
ment be  carried  on  if  a  section  of  the  people,  when 
they  are  beaten  at  the  poll  at  a  peaceful  election, 
be  allowed  to  secede  ?  I  ask  where  is  the  conserv- 
atism among  the  governing  class  of  the  country  ? 
I  come  to  the  conclusion  that,  after  all,  there  is 

more  conservatism  among  the  democracy 

"If  I  were  a  rich  man,  I  would  endow  a  profess- 
or's chair  at  Oxford  and  Cambridge  to  instruct 
the  undergraduates  of  those  universities  in  Amer- 
ican history.  I  would  undertake  to  say,  and  I 
speak  advisedly,  that  I  will  take  any  undergradu- 
ate now  at  Oxford  or  Cambridge,  and  ask  him  to 
put  his  finger  on  Chicago,  and  I  will  undertake  to 
say  that  he  does  not  go  within  a  thousand  miles 
of  it.  ....  When  I  was  at  Athens  I  sallied  out 
one  summer  morning  to  seek  the  famous  river,  the 
Ilissus,  and  after  walking  some  hundred  yards  or 
so  up  what  appeared  to  be  the  bed  of  a  mountain 
torrent,  I  came  upon  a  number  of  Athenian  laun- 
dresses, and  I  found  that  they  had  dammed  up 
this  famous  classical  stream,  and  were  using  every 
drop  of  its  water  for  their  own  sanitary  purposes. 
Why,  then,  should  not  these  young  gentlemen, 
who  know  all  about  the  geography  of  the  Ilissus, 
know  also  something  about  the  geography  of  the 
Mississippi  ?  ....  To  bring  up  young  men  from 
college  with  no  knowledge  of  the  country  in  which 
the  great  drama  of  modern  politics  and  national 


LAST  YEARS  IN  PARLIAMENT.  245 

life  is  now  being  worked  out,  who  are  ignorant 
of  a  country  like  America,  but  who,  whether  it 
be  for  good  or  for  evil,  must  exercise  more  influ- 
ence in  this  country  than  any  other  class — to  bring 
up  the  young  destitute  of  such  knowledge,  and 
to  place  them  in  responsible  positions  in  the  gov- 
ernment, is,  I  say,  imperiling  its  best  interests ; 
and  earnest  remonstrances  ought  to  be  made 
against  such  a  state  of  education  by  every  public 
man  who  values,  in  the  slightest  degree,  the  fu- 
ture welfare  of  his  country." 

Probably,  had  Mr.  Cobdeu  himself  been  able  to 
penetrate  the  inscrutable  future — had  he  uttered 
his  speech  with  the  consciousness  that  it  was  to 
be  his  last — he  would  have  made  selection  of  these 
following  sentences  which  concluded  this  admi- 
rable and  now  sacred  oration : 

"  Do  you  suppose  it  possible,  when  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  principles  of  political  economy  has  el- 
evated the  working  classes,  and  when  that  eleva- 
tion is  continually  progressing,  that  you  can  per- 
manently exclude  the  whole  mass  of  them  from 
the  franchise  ?  It  is  their  interest  to  set  about 
solving  the  problem,  and,  to  prevent  any  danger, 
they  ought  to  do  so  without  farther  delay.'' 


246  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 


CHAPTER  fill. 

LAST   DAYS,  AND   DEATH. 

FOR  the  last  three  or  four  years  of  Mr.  Cobden's 
life  he  suffered  from  an  asthmatic  affection,  and 
was  recommended,  as  each  succeeding  winter 
came  round,  to  repair  to  a  milder  climate.  But 
he  disregarded  the  injunctions,  and  preferred  to 
remain  in  his  own  country  home,  now  rendered 
more  sacred  to  him  by  the  burial  in  the  grave- 
yard which  was  ere  long  to  receive  his  own  re- 
mains, of  his  only  son.  The  younger  Cobden,  a 
youth  of  great  promise,  died  in  Germany,  where 
lie  was  pursuing  his  education.  His  remains  were 
conveyed  to  England,  and  buried  in  West  Lav- 
iugton  church-yard,  a  spot  of  remarkable  beauty, 
and  which  Mr.  Cobden  selected  as  the  burial-place 
of  himself  and  his  family,  in  preference  to  the 
cemetery  of  his  own  parish  of  Heyshot. 

Mr.  Cobden's  daily  life  at  Dunford  was  of  a  re- 
markably beautiful  and  touching  character.  All 
his  life  a  being  of  strong  affections  and  singular 
gentleness,  these  lovely  traits  became  more  strik- 
ing as  he  grew  older,  being  mellowed  and  inten- 
sified by  his  great  domestic  sorrow.  He  was  sur- 
rounded by  the  memories  of  his  family,  and  the 


LAST  DAYS,  AND  DEATH.  249 

outward  records  of  the  existence  of  its  successive 
generations.  His  own  house,  though  rebuilt  and 
modernized  when  the  estate  was  purchased  for 
him,  contained  intact  a  part  (we  believe,  his  moth- 
er's bedroom)  of  the  old  house  in  which  he  had 
been  born,  and  which  had  been  occupied  by  his 
father  and  grandfather.  The  Cobden  family  had 
been  owners  of  freehold  land  in  Sussex  from  the 
time  of  Henry  VIII.,  if  not  from  an  earlier  date. 
Close  by  stands  an  ancient  building  called  Cran- 
moore  farm-house,  now  divided  into  two  laborer's 
dwellings,  which  local  tradition  says  was  the  res- 
idence of  the  Cobden  family  —  then,  as  more  re- 
cently, yeomen  freeholders — a  century  and  a  half 
ago.  An  old  yew-tree,  the  sole  occupant  of  his 
lawn,  had  witnessed  the  advent  and  the  passing 
away  of  many  successive  generations  of  the  Cob- 
dens,  and  a  fine  pine  wood  upon  his  estate,  which 
formed  his  favorite  walk,  and  under  whose  shade 
Mr.  Bright  and  he  discussed,  only  three  weeks  be- 
fore his  death,  the  policy  of  the  nation,  must  have 
been  nearly  coeval  with  the  association  of  the 
Cobdens  with  Dunford.  In  fine  weather,  his  fa- 
vorite ride  was  to  Cowdray,  the  old  residence  of 
the  Montagues ;  or  he  would  drive  through  the 
pleasant  parishes  of  Heyshot  and  Graffham  to  the 
family  seat  of  the  Bishop  of  Oxford,  with  whom 
he  was  accustomed  to  stay  once  or  twice  every 
year. 

Mr.  Cobden's  hospitality  at  Dunford  was  very 


250  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEX. 

conspicuous,  and  its  objects  were  as  various  as  its 
kindness  was  undoubted.  The  cosmopolitan  char- 
acter of  his  mind  and  heart,  and  the  world-wide 
beneficial  range  of  his  efforts,  were  fairly  reflect- 
ed in  the  national  varieties  of  his  guests,  who 
came  to  him  from  all  parts  of  the  earth.  With 
them  he  would  sit  up  far  into  the  night,  never 
weary  of  conversing,  and  —  a  rarer  faculty  —  as 
ready  to  listen  as  to  talk.  His  large  correspond- 
ence cemented  and  enlarged  the  circle  of  his 
friends.  He  was  a  prodigious  letter-writer,  and 
a  very  admirable  one.  A  note  of  his  in  answer  to 
the  most  ordinary  query  was  sure  to  be  exhaust- 
ive, and  in  most  cases  was  suggestive,  going  into 
new  and  additional  aspects  of  the  question  to  that 
submitted,  and  furnishing  his  querist  with  con- 
siderable moi'e  of  information  or  counsel  than  had 
been  solicited.  He  would  frequently  rise  at  six 
in  the  morning  to  write  letters ;  and,  says  a  most 
appreciative  biographer  in  a  morning  newspaper, 
to  whom  we  have  gratefully  to  acknowledge  our 
indebtedness  for  many  of  the  facts  and  traits  we 
reproduce  in  this  chapter,  "  If  the  sky  was  cloudy 
or  the  weather  broken,  he  would  often  write  till 
post-time,  perhaps  alternating  his  epistolary  du- 
ties with  reading  some  favorite  author,  a  recrea- 
tion of  which  he  was  never  weary.  Like  a  famous 
ancient,  he  was  never  less  idle  than  when  he  was 
idle,  nor  ever  less  alone  than  when  he  was  alone." 
We  have  frequently  denied  ourselves  the  grat- 


LAST  DAYS,  AND  DEATH.  251 

itication,  and  our  readers  the  advantage,  of  pre- 
senting characteristic  passages  from  Mr.  Cobden's 
letters  at  various  stages  of  the  pleasant  labor 
whose  results  are  embodied  in  the  preceding 
pages.  Ere  taking  leave  of  our  subject  we  pre- 
sent two  of  Mr.  Cobden's  letters  ;  one  of  them, 
we  believe,  the  very  last  he  penned.  They  are 
both  on  most  important  themes,  and  on  subjects 
whose  interest  is  any  thing  but  evanescent.  They 
may  justly  be  considered  legacies  of  opinion  left 
behind  him,  bequeathed  in  the  interests  of  his 
mourning  compatriots  and  his  fellow-men.  The 
former  of  the  two  is  upon  the  progress  of  the 
American  War,  and  on  certain  of  the  questions 
of  policy  incidental  to  its  development.  It  was 
addressed  by  Mr.  Cobden  to  the  American  minis- 
ter at  Copenhagen,  and  runs  as  follows.  It  will 
be  observed  that  all  the  surmises  contained  in  the 
second  paragraph  turned  out  absolute  predictions, 
and  were  being  literally  realized  just  about  the 
time  of  Mr.  Cobden's  death. 

"  Midhurst,  February  5. 

uMy  DEAK  FRIEND,  —  I  duly  received  your 
letter  of  the  12th  of  December.  Ever  since  1 
have  been  an  invalid,  not  having  left  the  house 
for  more  than  two  months.  1  was  imprudent  in 
going  at  so  late  a  season  to  address  my  constitu- 
ents in  the  North,  and  was  unfortunate  in  being 
obliged  to  speak  not  only  for  myself,  but  for  Mr. 


252  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

Bright,  who  was  prevented  from  being  present 
by  the  death  of  his  son.  But  I  am  better  now/ 
though  not  well  enough  to  be  at  my  post  at  the 
opening  of  the  session.  I  must  wait  for  finer 
weather. 

"I  congratulate  you  on  the  course  which  events 
have  taken  in  your  country  during  the  last  few 
months.  It  seems  to  me  that  there  are  unmis- 
takable signs  of  exhaustion  in  the  Confederacy, 
and  it  would  not  be  rash  to  predict  now  that  the 
famous  '  ninety  days'  will  witness  very  decisive 
events  in  the  progress  of  the  war.  Jefferson  Da- 
vis rules  in  Richmond,  but  the  Federal  armies 
control  his  dominions.  I  hold  a  theory  that  in 
these  times,  when  armies  require  vast  appliances 
of  mechanical  resources,  and  when  they  are  so 
much  larger  than  in  olden  days,  it  is  impossible  to 
carry  on  war  without  the  base  of  large  cities.  If 
the  sea-ports  be  taken  and  Lee  be  obliged  to  evac- 
uate Richmond,  there  will  not  be  a  town  left  in 
the  Confederacy  with  20,000  white  inhabitants. 
It  will  be  impossible  to  maintain  permanently 
large  armies  in  the  interior  of  the  slave  states, 
amid  scattered  plantations  and  unpaved  villages. 
You  can  not,  in  such  circumstances,  concentrate 
the  means  of  subsistence  or  furnish  the  necessary 
equipment  for  an  army.  I  expect,  therefore,  to 
see  the  loss  of  the  large  towns  lead  to  a  dispersion 
of  the  Southern  armies.  I  have  sometimes  spec- 
ulated on  what  course  Lee  will  take  if  obliged  to 


LAST  DAYS,  AND  DEATH.  253 

abandon  his  position  at  Richmond.  I  have  my 
doubts  whether  he  will  continue  the  struggle  be- 
yond the  borders  of  his  native  state.  However, 
all  these  are  speculations  which  a  few  months  will 
dispose  of.  I  pray  Heaven  we  may  soon  see  the 
termination  of  this  terrible  war. 

"I  observe  what  you  say  about  Confederate 
agents  having  found  encouragement  in  Europe. 
I  can  easily  believe  this.  If  the  South  caves  in 
there  will  be  a  fierce  resentment  felt  by  the  lead- 
ers toward  those  potentates  or  ministers  in  Eu- 
rope who  have  deluded  them  to  their  ruin,  and  I 
should  not  be  surprised  if  we  were  to  hear  some 
secrets  disclosed,  in  consequence,  of  an  interesting 
kind.  Democracy  has  discovered  how  very  few 
friends  it  has  in  Europe  among  the  ruling  class. 
It  has  at  the  same  time  discovered  its  own 
strength,  and,  what  is  more,  this  has  been  dis- 
covered by  the  aristocracies  and  absolutisms  of 
the  Old  World,  so  that  I  think  you  are  more 
safe  than  ever  against  the  risks  of  intervention 
from  this  side  of  the  Atlantic.  Besides,  you  must 
not  forget  that  the  working  class  of  England,  who 
will  not  be  always  without  direct  political  power, 
have,  in  spite  of  their  sufferings  and  the  attempt 
made  to  mislead  them,  adhered  nobly  to  the  cause 
of  civilization  and  freedom. 

"  You  will  have  a  task  sufficient  to  employ  all 
your  energies  at  home  in  bringing  your  finances 
into  order.  There  is  a  dreadful  want  of  capacity 


254  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

at  your  head  in  questions  of  political  economy ; 
you  seem  now  to  be  in  the  same  state  of  ignorance 
as  that  from  which  we  began  to  emerge  forty 
years  ago.  The  labors  of  Huskisson,  Peel,  and 
Gladstone  seem  never  to  have  been  heard  of  by 

Messrs. and  Co.    Depend  on  it  that  as  there 

is  no  royal  road  to  learning,  so  there  is  no  repub- 
lican path  to  prosperity.  You  must  follow  the 
beaten  track  of  experience.  Debt  is  debt,  whether 
on  the  west  or  east  of  the  Atlantic,  and  it  can  be 
paid  only  by  prudence  and  economy,  and  a  wise 

distribution  of  its  bui-dens 

"  Yours,  very  truly, 

"R.  COBDEN. 
"  Hon.  B.  R.  Wood." 

The  other  letter,  the  last  which  proceeded  from 
his  pen,  was  addressed  to  Mr.  Potter,  now  Mr. 
Cobden's  successor  as  M.P.  for  Rochdale,  and  is 
on  the  subject  of  a  scheme  recently  propounded 
by  Mr.  John  Stuart  Mill,  which,  with  all  respect 
for  its  author,  we  can  not  help  agreeing  with  Mr. 
Cobden  in  regarding  as  somewhat  cumbrous  and 
crotchety,  for  the  better  parliamentary  represent- 
ation of  minorities.  The  letter  seems  to  us  an 
admirable  specimen  of  the  clearness  and  sagacity 
of  Mr.  Cobden's  intellect.  It  did  not  reach  its 
destination  by  post,  but  was  found  in  his  desk 
after  his  death. 


LAST  DAYS,  AND  DEATH.  255 

"London,  23  Suffolk  Street,  Pall  Mall,) 
March  22,  1865.  > 

"MY  DEAR  POTTER,  —  I  return  Mill's  letter. 
Kvery  thing  from  him  is  entitled  to  respectful 
consideration.  But  I  confess,  after  the  best  atten- 
tion 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  return- 
ing five  in  a  lump,  I  would  have  five  constituen- 
cies of  1 0,000,  each  returning  one  member.  Thus, 
if  the  metropolis,  for  example,  were  entitled,  with 
a  fair  distribution  of  electoral  power,  Jo  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,  St.  Giles,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  opin- 
ions 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 


256  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

action  and  the  healthy  agitation  of  public  life.  I 
do  not  like  to  recognize  the  necessity  of  dealing 
with  the  working-men  as  a  class  in  an  extension 
of  the  franchise.  The  small  shop-keeper  and  the 
artisan  of  the  towns  are  socially  on  a  level.  The 
subject  is,  however,  too  large  for  a  sheet  of  note- 
paper.  Believe  me,  yours  very  truly, 

"  R.  COBDEN." 

The  writer  to  whom  we  have  already  acknowl- 
edged our  indebtedness  thus  completes  his  notice 
of  Mr.  Cobden  at  Dunford  during  the  last  period 
of  his  life : 

"The  public  are  able  to  judge  of  his  powers  as 
a  letter-writer,  of  that  clearness  and  vigor  of  style 
which  shone  as  brightly  in  his  briefest  notes  as 
in  his  most  studied  speeches ;  but  only  a  compar- 
ative few  of  the  outer  world  have  had  the  oppor- 
tunity of  being  fascinated  by  his  conversation,  or 
feeling  the  magic  spell  which  he  cast  around  him 
in  private  life.  He  had  also  the  rare  faculty  of  ab- 
stracting himself  from  surrounding  objects,  and, 
like  some  other  great  men,  of  sleeping  at  will — 
perhaps  the  secret  of  that  recuperative  power 
with  which  so  fragile  a  man  must  have  been  en- 
dowed. While  his  life  at  Midhurst  was  simplici- 
ty itself,  its  chief  beauty  consisted  in  the  ample 
fulfillment  of  every  positive  duty.  His  affection 
for  his  cattle,  and  for  animals  of  all  kinds,  was 
great,  but  his  love  for  his  fellow -creatures  was 


LAST  DAYS,  AND  DEATH.  257 

correspondingly  greater.  He  never  forgot  that 
he  was  not  only  a  member  for  a  distant  constitu- 
ency, and  a  statesman  with  high  public  functions 
to  perform,  but  that  he  was  a  parishioner  ofHey- 
shot,  and  that  serious  obligations  devolved  upon 
him  within  a  stoue's-throw  from  his  own  door. 
At  first  he  occupied  the  whole  of  his  land  him- 
self, but  latterly  he  let  a  portion  of  it  to  the  old- 
est farmer  in  the  parish  —  a  veteran  who  mourns 
for  him  as  for  a  son ;  and  as  he  had  spent  a  great 
deal  of  money  in  improving  and  draining  it,  no 
one  could  place  him  in  the  same  category  with  a 
certain  class  of  the  Irish  landlords.  He  took  a 
deep  and  abiding  interest  in  the  welfare  of  the 
poor  people  in  the  neighborhood.  Occasionally, 
when  his  health  admitted,  he  would  call  upon 
them;  and  he  was  constantly  inquiring  about 
them  individually  in  his  house.  Many  of  these 
poor  persons  have,  at  various  times,  been  objects 
of  his  generous  and  discriminating  bounty  —  all 
regarded  him  as  a  friend  to  whom  they  could  with 
confidence  appeal  in  the  hour  of  need.  He  took 
a  deep  personal  interest  in  the  establishment  of  a 
school,  and  was  extremely  anxious  to  establish 
penny  readings  for  the  benefit  of  the  villagers, 
and  to  get  lecturers  from  a  distance  who  would 
talk  to  them  on  improving  subjects.  As  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Church  of  England,  he  was  as  devoted 
to  the  cause  of  religion  as  he  was  to  the  interests 
of  education.  No  man  could  take  more  pride  in 
R 


268  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

his  parish  church,  or  exhibit  a  more  laudable  de- 
sire to  make  it  the  focus  and  centre  of  a  blessed, 
heaven-inspired  influence.  So  long  as  he  was  able, 
he  never  failed  to  be  present  at  divine  worship 
beneath  the  venerable  roof  of  Heyshot  Church, 
in  the  precincts  of  which  his  brother  was  buried  ; 
and  only  the  extreme  inclemency  of  winter  pre- 
vented him  from  participating  in  its  pure  and 
elevating  ritual.  He  took  a  chief  part  in  origin- 
ating the  improvements  in  the  church,  and  the 
music  has  more  recently  been  the  object  of  his 
pious  care.  An  old  poet  has  said, 

"  '  Only  the  actions  of  the  just 

Smell  sweet  and  blossom  in  the  dust.' 

This  applies  with  singular  relevance  to  Mr.  Cob- 
den  ;  and,  indeed,  as  the  present  writer  can  af- 
firm, only  those  who  have  conversed  with  the  men 
and  women  who  were  familiar  with  his  every- 
day life,  who  were  privileged  to  know  or  to  dis- 
cover the  good  things  he  did  openly,  or,  as  he 
best  loved,  in  secret,  can  form  an  adequate  idea 
of  the  pure  and  noble  life  of  this  Christian  states- 
man and  philanthropist." 

Although  not  obtrusively  communicative  on 
public  occasions  of  points  of  religious  faith,  Mr. 
Cobden  was  a  really  religious  man.  A  frequent 
remark  of  his  was,  "You  have  no  hold  of  any  one 
who  has  no  religious  faith." 

The  physical  prostration  which  succeeded  the 


LAST  DAYS,  AND  DEATH.  259 

great  speech  at  Rochdale,  in  November,  1864, 
once  more  reminded  Mr.  Cobden  how  dangerous 
it  was  for  him  to  appear  in  public  during  an  En- 
glish winter.  He  never  got  the  better  of  it,  and 
declared  his  intention  not  to  resume  his  parlia- 
mentary duties  until  spring  had  fairly  set  in.  In 
January,  1 865,  Mr.  Gladstone  wrote  to  Mr.  Cob- 
den,  offering  for  his  acceptance  the  important 
post  of  chairman  of  the  Board  of  Audit,  a  perma- 
nent office,  with  a  salary  of  £2000  a  year.  Mr. 
Cobden  at  once  declined  the  flattering  and  lucra- 
tive office,  alleging  that  he  could  not  subject  him- 
self to  the  pain  and  annoyance  which  his  dis- 
charge of  the  duties  must  involve,  of  witnessing, 
and  appearing  to  sanction  without  any  power  to 
prevent,  the  scandalous  and  unnecessary  waste  of 
public  money. 

Mr.  Cobden  was  inspired  with  the  deepest  in- 
terest in  the  progress  in  Parliament  of  the  dis- 
cussions on  the  alleged  necessity  of  undertaking 
large  works  of  defense  in  the  Canadas.  Early  in 
March  he  invited  Mr.  Bright  to  come  to  Dunford, 
that  they  might  converse  together  on  the  subject, 
and  concert  the  best  means  of  impressing  their 
common  views  on  the  government  and  the  nation. 
He  asked  Mr.  Bright  to  come  into  Sussex,  because 
he  did  not  deem  it  advisable  to  go  to  London  in 
the  very  inclement  and  wintry  weather  which  still 
prevailed.  In  the  course  of  his  converse  with 
Mr.  Bright,  he  referred  to  the  fact  that  his  son 


260  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

was  buried  in  Lavington  church-yard,  and  stated 
that  there  too,  when  God  took  him,  he  would  be 
buried.  As  the  Canada  debates  progressed,  he 
was  seized  with  an  irresistible  desire  to  go  up  to 
London,  and  expound  his  opinions  in  Parliament. 
He  came  to  town  on  the  twenty-first  of  March, 
one  of  the  bitterest  days  of  the  very  severe  and 
trying  spring  of  the  year.  Immediately  on  his 
arrival  at  his  house  in  Suffolk  Street  he  was 
seized  with  an  attack  of  asthma.  A  week  after, 
he  had  sufficiently  recovered  to  be  able  to  see 
some  of  his  friends.  But  on  the  afternoon  of 
Wednesday,  the  twenty-ninth,  the  attack  returned 
with  renewed  severity.  For  a  day  the  attentions 
of  his  medical  attendant,  and  the  sedulous  care  of 
his  wife  and  second  daughter,  prevented  at  least 
an  increase  in  the  malignity  of  the  disorder,  and 
hopes  of  his  recovery  were  entertained.  On  Fri- 
day, the  last  day  of  March,  the  symptoms  were 
considered  unfavorable,  but  on  Saturday  morning 
he  was  again  held  to  be  a  little  better;  but  as 
the  day  proceeded  he  grew  decidedly  worse,  the 
disease  becoming  developed  into  what  is  termed 
congestive  asthma,  and  being  farther  complicated 
by  an  attack  of  bronchitis.  In  the  course  of  the 
day  he  made  his  will,  appointing  as  his  executors 
Mrs.  Cobden  and  the  Messrs.  Thomasson,  senior 
and  junior,  of  Bolton.  He  also  dictated  a  letter 
to  Mr.  Bazley,  M.P.,Mr.  Henry  Ash  worth,  of  Bol- 
ton, and  Mr.  John  Slagg,  of  Manchester,  with  ref- 


LAST  DAYS,  AND  DEATH.  261 

crence  to  certain  funds  which  these  gentlemen 
held  in  trust  for  his  children.  About  midnight 
he  seemed  somewhat  stronger,  and  conversed  a 
little  with  Mr.  Bright  and  Mr.  Moffat,  M.P.,  and 
with  two  friends  and  neighbors  from  Midhurst. 
As  the  morning  of  Sunday,  the  second  of  April, 
dawned,  it  became  clear  that  death  had  set  his 
seal  upon  him.  He  gradually  sank,  but,  thanks 
to  God's  goodness,  with  a  cessation  of  suffering, 
and  in  bodily  and  mental  tranquillity ;  and  just 
as  the  church  bells  were  concluding  their  sum- 
moning peals  to  the  houses  of  God  throughout 
the  land,  the  spiritual  essence  which  had  for  near- 
ly sixty-one  years  inhabited  a  human  fabric  which 
the  Deity  had  made  very  eminently  a  home  of  the 
habitation  of  His  gracious  Spirit,  returned  to  Him 
who  gave  it,  and  who  providentially  directed  its 
energies  so  largely  to  the  advantage  of  His  hu- 
man creatures. 


262  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

TRIBUTES  TO  ME.  COBDEN's   MEMORY  AND  MERITS. 

FEW  who  were  living,  and  of  sufficiently  ma- 
tured powers  of  observation  at  the  time,  will  ever 
forget  the  sad  and  general  impression  made  by  the 
tidings  of  Mr.  Cobden's  peaceful  release,  through- 
out the  whole  land,  among  all  classes  of  its  citi- 
zens, and  in  the  great  countries  of  Europe  and 
the  New  World.  Mr.  Cobden,  with  a  patriotism 
as  undeniable  and  unquenchable  as  ever  animated 
a  human  breast,  had  nevertheless  been  the  great 
apostle  of  kindliness  and  conciliation  in  interna- 
tional relations,  and  one  consequence  was,  that 
he  was  more  beloved  and  popular  out  of  his  own 
land  than  ever  statesman  was  in  the  history  of 
the  world.  Englishmen  —  even  those  who  had 
admired  him  most  warmly  while  living  —  were 
astounded  when  they  came,  after  his  death,  to 
realize  the  beauty  of  his  character,  the  magnitude 
of  his  services,  and  the  amount  of  what  they  had 
lost  by  his  somewhat  early  departure.  They  were 
equally  startled  to  find  that  France,  Germany, 
Italy,  and  America  mourned  him  as  if  he  had 
been  a  son  and  citizen  of  their  own  soils.  A 
letter  from  Paris,  dated  two  days  after  his  death, 


POSTHUMOUS  TRIBUTES.  263 

says:  "Last  night  I  happened  to  be,  at  a  soiree 
in  a  fashionable  salon.  The  only  topic  of  con- 
versation was  the  immense  loss  even  this  coun- 
try has  sustained  by  the  death  of  Mr.  Cobden, 
which,  by  its  suddenness,  startled  the  Parisian 
world,  and  has  created  a  painful  sensation,  as  well 
as  a  deep  feeling  of  regret."  A  short  paragraph 
in  the  list  of  European  telegrams  in  the  daily 
papers  a  few  days  after  his  death  showed  that 
he  was  so  mourned  on  the  distant  Danube,  that 
Prince  Milosch,  of  Servia,  decreed  that  services 
in  honor  of  his  memory  and  for  the  peace  of  his 
soul  should  be  held  in  the  cathedral  of  Belgrade, 
and  the  other  churches  of  the  Greek  communion 
in  his  principality.  Thus  the  gentle  influences 
of  his  life  had  not  only  bridged  over  the  abyss 
of  antipathy  between  nation  and  nation,  but  were 
revealed  at  his  death  to  have  accomplished  the 
nobler  feat  of  obliterating  the  more  deep-seated 
disagreements  of  rival  faiths. 

In  the  English  House  of  Commons  a  scene  was 
witnessed  on  the  day  succeeding  his  death,  than 
which  never  did  any  transaction  of  the  six  cen- 
turies of  that  assembly's  existence  redound  upon 
it  more  infinite  credit.  To  comment  upon  it 
would  be  to  mar  the  dignity  and  honor  of  the 
picture.  We  present  it  unabridged,  and  in  a  re- 
lief unaffected  by  any  fringe  or  framework  of  our 
own. 

"  On  the  clerk  at  the  table  proceeding  to  read 


264  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

the  orders  of  the  day,  the  first  of  which  was  the 
motion  to  go  into  committee  of  supply,  Lord  Pal- 
merston  rose,  and,  amid  breathless  silence,  said: 
'  Sir,  it  is  impossible  for  the  House  to  have  this 
motion  put  and  any  determination  come  to  upon 
it  without  every  member  recalling  to  his  mind 
the  great  loss  which  this  House  and  the  country 
have  sustained  by  the  event  which  took  place 
yesterday  morning.  Sir,  Mr.  Cobden,  whose  loss 
we  all  deplore,  stood  in  a  pre-eminent  position, 
both  as  a  member  of  this  House,  and  as  a  mem- 
ber of  the  British  nation.  I  do  not  mean,  in  the 
few  words  which  I  have  to  say  upon  this  subject, 
to  disguise,  or  to  avoid  stating,  that  there  were 
many  matters  upon  which  a  great  number  of 
people  differed  from  Mr.  Cobden  —  I  among  the 
rest ;  but  those  who  differed  from  him  could  nev- 
er have  had  any  doubt  of  the  honesty  of  his  pur- 
pose or  the  sincerity  of  his  convictions.  They 
felt  that  his  object  was  the  good  of  his  country, 
however  they  might  differ  on  particular  occasions 
from  him  as  to  the  means  by  which  that  end  was 
to  be  accomplished.  But  we  will  all  leave  in  ob- 
livion points  of  difference,  and  think  only  of  the 
great  and  important  services  he  rendered  to  his 
country.  Sir,  it  is  many  years  ago  since  Adam 
Smith  elaborately  and  conclusively,  as  far  as  ar- 
gument could  go,  advocated  as  the  fundamental 
principle  of  the  wealth  of  nations  the  freedom  of 
industry  and  the  unrestricted  exchange  of  the 


POSTHUMOUS  TRIBUTES.  265 

objects  and  results  of  industry.  These  doctrines 
were  inculcated  by  learned  men  —  by  Dugald 
Stewart  and  others,  and  were  taken  up  in  process 
of  time  by  leading  statesmen,  such  as  Huskisson 
and  those  who  agreed  with  him.  But  the  bar- 
riers which  long -associated  prejudice — honest 
and  conscientious  prejudice  —  had  raised  against 
the  practical  application  of  these  doctrines  for  a 
great  number  of  years,  prevented  their  coming 
into  use  as  instruments  of  progress  to  the  coun- 
try. To  Mr.  Cobden  it  was  reserved,  by  his  un- 
tiring industry,  his  indefatigable  personal  activi- 
ty, the  indomitable  energy  of  his  mind,  and  I  may 
say  by  that  forcible  Demosthenic  eloquence  with 
which  he  treated  all  subjects  he  took  in  hand — it 
was  reserved  for  him,  aided,  no  doubt,  by  a  great 
phalanx  of  worthy  associates,  such  as  my  right 
honorable  friend  the  President  of  the  Poor-law 
Board,  and  by  Sir  Robert  Peel,  whose  name  will 
be  ever  associated  with  the  principles  he  so  ably 
advocated — I  say  it  was  reserved  for  Mr.  Cobden, 
by  exertions  which  were  never  surpassed,  to  car- 
ry into  practical  application  those  abstract  princi- 
ples with  the  truth  of  which  he  was  so  deeply  im- 
pressed, and  which  at  last  gained  the  acceptance 
of  all  reasonable  men  in  the  country.  He  con- 
ferred an  inestimable  and  enduring  benefit  by  the 
result  of  those  exertions.  But,  great  as  were  Mr. 
Cobden's  talents,  great  as  was  his  industry,  and 
eminent  as  was  his  success,  his  disinterestedness 


266  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

of  mind  equaled  them  all.  He  was  a  man  of 
great  ambition ;  his  ambition  was  to  be  useful  to 
his  country,  and  that  ambition  was  amply  grati- 
fied. When  this  present  government  was  formed 
I  was  authorized  graciously  by  her  majesty  to  of- 
fer Mr.  Cobden  a  seat  in  the  cabinet.  Mr.  Cob- 
den  declined,  and  in  doing  so  he  frankly  told  me 
that  he  thought  he  and  I  differed  greatly  upon 
many  important  questions  of  political  action,  and 
he  therefore  thought  it  would  not  be  comforta- 
ble, either  to  himself  or  myself,  to  join  the  ad- 
ministration of  which  I  was  the  head.  I  think 
he  was  wrong ;  but  I  will  say  that  no  man,  how- 
ever strongly  he  may  have  differed  from  Mr. 
Cobden  upon  general  political  principles,  or  the 
application  of  those  principles,  could  have  come 
into  communication  with  him  without  carrying 
away  the  strongest  personal  esteem  and  regard 
for  the  man  with  whom  he  differed.  The  two 
great  achievements  of  Mr.  Cobden  were  —  in  the 
first  place,  the  abrogation  of  those  laws  which 
limited  the  importation  of  corn,  which  gave  a 
great  development  to  the  industry  of  the  country, 
and  then  the  commercial  arrangement  which  he 
negotiated  with  France,  and  which  has  also  great- 
ly benefited  the  commercial  relations  of  this  coun- 
try. When  the  latter  achievement  was  accom- 
plished I  knew  he  would  not  accept  office,  and 
therefore  it  was  my  lot  to  offer  to  Mr.  Cobden 
those  honors  which  the  crown  can  bestow  in  the 


POSTHUMOUS  TRIBUTES.  267 

form  of  a  baronetcy  and  a  seat  in  the  Privy  Conn- 
cil.  These  are  honorable  distinctions  which  it 
would  have  been  a  gratifying  reward  to  the  crown 
to  have  bestowed  upon  him,  and  I  do  not  think 
that  it  would  have  been  at  all  derogatory  for  him 
to  have  accepted  them ;  but  that  same  disinter- 
ested spirit  which  marked  all  his  conduct,  wheth- 
er public  or  private,  led  him  to  decline  these  hon- 
ors, which  would  have  been  readily  bestowed. 
I  can  only  say  that  the  country  has  sustained  a 
toss  which  all  the  country  must  feel.  We  have 
lost  a  man  who  may  be  considered  to  be  peculiar- 
ly emblematical  of  the  constitution  under  which 
all  have  the  happiness  to  live,  because  he  rose  to 
great  eminence  in  this  House,  and  rose  to  acquire 
an  ascendency  in  the  public  mind,  not  by  virtue 
of  any  family  connections,  but  solely  and  entirely 
in  consequence  of  the  power  and  vigor  of  his 
mind  —  that  power  and  vigor  being  applied  to 
purposes  evidently  advantageous  to  his  country. 
Sir,  Mr.  Cobden's  name  will  be  forever  associated 
with  and  engraved  on  the  most  interesting  pages 
of  the  history  of  this  country,  and  I  am  sure  that 
there  is  not  a  man  in  this  House  who  does  not 
feel  this  day  the  deepest  regret  that  the  House 
has  lost  one  of  its  brightest  ornaments,  and  the 
country  one  of  her  most  useful  servants.' 

"  Mr.  Disraeli,  whose  rising  was  the  signal  for 
cheers  from  all  parts  of  the  House,  said :  '  Sir, 
having  been  a  member  of  this  House  when  Mr. 


268  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

Cobden  first  took  his  seat  in  it,  and  having  indeed 
remained  in  this  House  during  the  whole  time  of 
his  somewhat  lengthened  Parliamentary  career,  I 
can  not  reconcile  myself  to  silence  on  this  occa- 
sion, when  we  have  to  deplore  the  loss  of  one  so 
eminent,  and  one,  too,  in  the  full  ripeness  of  his 
manhood  and  the  full  vigor  of  his  intellect.  Al- 
though it  was  the  fortune  of  Mr.  Cobden  to  enter 

o 

public  life  at  a  time  when  passions  were  roused, 
still,  when  the  strife  was  over,  there  was  soon 
observed  in  him  a  moderation  and  temperateness 
of  expression  that  intimated  a  large  intellectual 
capacity  and  high  statesmanlike  qualities.  There 
was  in  his  character  a  peculiar  vein  of  reverence 
for  tradition,  which  often,  unconsciously  to  him- 
self, subdued  and  softened  the  severity  of  the  con- 
clusions to  which  he  may  have  arrived.  That, 
sir,  in  my  mind,  is  a  quality  which  in  some  de- 
gree must  be  possessed  by  any  man  who  attempts 
or  aspires  to  sway  this  assembly.  Notwithstand- 
ing the  rapid  changes  in  which  we  live  and  the 
improvements  which  we  anticipate,  this  country 
is  still  Old  England.  What  the  qualities  of  Mr. 
Cobden  were  in  this  House,  all  now  present  are 
able  to  judge.  I  think  I  may  say  that,  as  a  de- 
bater, he  had  few  equals ;  as  a  logician,  he  was 
close  and  compact,  and  I  would  say  adroit,  acute, 
and  perhaps  even  subtle ;  yet,  at  the  same  time, 
he  was  gifted  with  that  degree  of  imagination  that 
he  never  lost  sight  of  the  sympathies  of  those 


POSTHUMOUS  TRIBUTES.  269 

whom  he  addressed ;  and  so,  generally  avoiding 
to  drive  his  arguments  to  an  extremity,  he  be- 
came, as  a  speaker,  both  practical  and  persuasive. 
The  noble  lord,  who  is  far  more  competent  than 
myself  to  deal  with  such  a  subject,  has  referred  to 
his  career  as  an  administrator.  It  seemed  to  be 
destined,  notwithstanding  the  eminent  position 
which  he  had  achieved  and  occupied,  and  the  va- 
rious opportunities  which  offered  for  the  ambi- 
tion which  he  might  legitimately  possess,  that  his 
life  should  pass  without  the  opportunity  of  show- 
ing that  he  possessed  those  talents  and  qualities 
so  valuable  in  the  council  and  in  the  management 
of  public  affairs.  But  still  it  fortunately  happen- 
ed that  before  he  quitted  us  he  had  one  of  the 
greatest  opportunities  which  a  public  man  could 
enjoy,  and  in  the  transactions  of  great  affairs  ob- 
tained the  consideration  of  the  two  leading  coun- 
tries of  the  world.  There  is  something  mournful 
in  the  history  of  this  Parliament  when  we  re- 
member how  many  of  our  most  eminent  and  val- 
uable public  men  have  been  removed  from  among 
us.  I  can  not  refer  to  the  history  of  any  Parlia- 
ment that  will  bear  down  to  posterity  so  fatal  a 
record.  But,  sir,  there  is  this  consolation  remain- 
ing to  us,  when  we  remember  our  unequaled  and 
irreparable  losses,  that  those  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 


270  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

even  their  expressions  may  form  a  part  of  our  dis- 
cussions. There  are,  indeed,  I  may  say,  some 
members  of  Parliament  who,  though  they  may 
not  be  present,  are  still  members  of  this  House, 
are  independent  of  dissolutions,  of  the  caprices  of 
constituencies,  and  even  of  the  course  of  time.  I 
think  that  Mr.  Cobden  was  one  of  those  men.  I 
believe  that  when  the  verdict  of  posterity  shall 
be  recorded  upon  his  life  and  conduct,  it  will  be 
said  of  him  that,  looking  to  his  expressions  and 
his  deeds,  he  was  without  doubt  the  greatest  po- 
litical character  that  the  pure  middle  class  of  this 
country  has  as  yet  produced ;  that  he  was  an  or- 
nament to  the  House  of  Commons,  and  an  honor 
to  England.' 

"After  a  brief  and  impressive  pause,  Mr.  Bright 
rose,  and,  in  a  voice  tremulous  with  emotion,  said : 
'  Sir,  I  feel  that  I  can  not  address  the  House  on 
this  occasion ;  but  every  expression  of  sympathy 
which  I  have  witnessed  has  been  most  grateful 
to  my  heart.'  (The  honorable  gentleman  betray- 
ed strong  emotion,  but  recovered  himself  and  pro- 
ceeded.) '  But  the  time  which  has  elapsed  since 
I  was  present  when  the  manliest  and  gentlest 
spirit  that  ever  quitted  or  tenanted  a  human  form 
departed  this  life  is  so  short  that  I  dare  not  even 
attempt  to  give  utterance  to  the  feelings  by  which 
I  am  oppressed.'  (The  honorable  gentleman  here 
for  a  moment  paused,  and  covered  his  face  with 
his  hand.)  '  I  shall  leave  to  some  calmer  moment, 


POSTHUMOUS  TRIBUTES.  271 

when  I  may  have  an  opportunity  of  speaking  be- 
fore some  portion  of  my  countrymen,  the  exposi- 
tion of  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  inti- 
mate and  almost  brotherly  friendship  with  him,  I 
little  knew  how  much  I  loved  him  until  I  found 
that  I  had  lost  him.  (The  honorable  gentleman, 
whose  broken  words  of  sorrow  were  with  diffi- 
culty spoken,  sat  down,  amid  the  sympathetic  ap- 
plause of  the  House.)" 

At  the  monthly  dinner  of  the  Societe  D'Eco- 
nomie  Politique,  in  Paris,  three  days  after  his 
death,  Mr.  Cobden's  memory  was  honored  in  the 
warmest  terms  by  such  men  as  Hippolyte  Passy, 
Chevalier,  Aries  Dufour,  and  Joseph  Gamier. 
"  Cobden  has  done  more,"  said  the  president,  M. 
Passy,  "  for  allaying  international  hatreds,  for  the 
extinction  of  those  jealous  rivalries  which  have 
so  often  ai*med  peoples  against  each  other,  and  for 
promoting  the  fundamental  interests  of  humanity, 
than  any  of  the  statesmen  who  have  hitherto 
taken  part  in  the  government  of  nations.  Cobden 
is  no  more,  but  his  works  remain,  and  the  future 
will  honor  them,  for  their  wisdom  and  benefi- 
cence will  from  day  to  day  more  distinctly  ap- 
pear." 

The  foreign  minister  of  France,  M.  Drouyn  de 
Lhuys,  introducing  an  admirable  innovation  in 
diplomatic  intercourse,  sent  a  dispatch  on  the  all- 


272  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

engrossing  theme  to  the  French  embassador  in 
London,  which  rivaled  in  the  excellence  of  its 
terms  the  observations  of  Mr.  Disraeli;  and  high- 
er eulogy  than  this  could  not  be  accorded  to  it. 
Although  in  most  instances  one  can  do  no  more 
than  cull  a  single  leaf  from  the  wreaths  of  im- 
mortelles reverently  placed  on  Cobden's  tomb, 
the  importance  of  this  document  justifies  our 
pi'esentation  of  it  unmutilated  and  sacred  from 
curtailment : 

"To  his  Excellency  the  Prince  de  la  Tour  d'Auvergne,  1 
Embassador  of  France  at  London,  Paris,  April  8.    ) 

"  PRINCE, — A  few  days  since,  while  the  first 
minister  of  her  Britannic  majesty  bore  brilliant 
testimony  in  the  House  of  Commons  to  the  mem- 
ory of  Richard  Cobden,  a  speaker  belonging  to 
the  government  of  the  Emperor  expressed  the  re- 
grets which  the  death  of  this  illustrious  man  gave 
rise  to  in  France,  and  the  Legislative  body  iden- 
tified themselves  with  this  homage  by  a  unani- 
mous impulse. 

"A  manifestation  so  honorable  to  the  two  na- 
tions, and  to  the  person  whose  loss  England  de- 
plores, will  not  have  escaped  your  attention,  and 
you  will  perhaps  have  already  had  occasion  to 
communicate  thereupon  with  the  ministers  of  the 
queen.  I  desire,  nevertheless,  prince,  to  place  you 
in  a  position  to  express  to  them  officially  the 
mournful  sympathy  and  truly  national  regret 


POSTHUMOUS  TRIBUTES.  273 

which  the  death,  as  lamented  as  premature,  of 
Richard  Cobden  has  excited  on  this  side  of  the 
Channel. 

"  That  indefatigable  promoter  of  liberty  in  the 
domain  of  commerce  and  manufactures  was  not 
only  the  living  proof  of  what  merit,  perseverance, 
and  labor  can  accomplish,  but  one  of  the  most 
complete  examples  of  those  men  who,  sprung 
from  the  most  humble  ranks  of  society,  raise 
themselves  to  the  highest  ranks  in  public  estima- 
tion by  the  effect  of  their  own  worth  and  of  their 
personal  services  ;  finally,  one  of  the  rarest  exam- 
ples of  the  solid  qualities  inherent  in  the  English 
character.  Pie  is,  above  all,  in  our  eyes,  the  rep- 
resentative of  these  sentiments  and  those  cos- 
mopolite principles  before  which  national  front- 
iers and  rivalries  disappear;  while  essentially  of 
his  country,  he  was  still  more  of  his  time ;  he 
knew  what  mutual  relations  could  accomplish  in 
our  day  for  the  prosperity  of  peoples.  Cobden, 
if  I  may  be  permitted  so  to  say,  was  an  interna- 
tional man. 

"There  are  some  mental  views  and  aptitudes 
which  are  only  given  to  those  who  in  the  outset 
of  their  career  have  felt  the  embarrassments  and 
the  difficulties  of  life,  who  have  had  to  struggle 
against  the  necessities  of  a  position  less  than  hum- 
ble. Richard  Cobden  had  been  brought  up  in 
this  severe  but  strengthening  school ;  he  thence- 
derived,  as  the  best  preparation  for  a  knowledge 
S 


274  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

of  political  economy,  the  gift  of  sympathy  with 
the  sufferings  of  the  laborious  classes  in  the  midst 
of  whom  he  had  lived ;  he  understood  the  bet- 
ter the  straitened  circumstances  which  he  had 
shared ;  and  in  feeling  the  need  of  alleviating 
them,  he  was  naturally  led  to  seek  the  means  to 
do  so  —  firstly,  in  the  abolition  of  the  Corn  Laws 
in  England,  then  in  the  suppression  or  lowering 
of  the  barriers  which  the  various  commercial  laws 
had  raised  between  peoples.  Certainly  Cobden 
did  not  create  any  of  the  principles  of  industrial 
and  commercial  liberty.  They  had  been  profess- 
ed and  propagated  before  him  by  eminent  theo- 
rists in  England  and  France.  But  his  glory  is 
to  hav.e  followed  up  the  practical  application  of 
them,  abroad  and  at  home,  with  an  ardor  and  de- 
votedness  quite  unparalleled. 

"  Exempt  from  national  prejudices  as  from 
those  of  education  and  caste,  Richard  Cobden 
brought  to  the  pursuit  of  reforms  which  he  judged 
useful  to  his  country  and  profitable  to  humanity 
a  disinterestedness  and  a  sincerity  which  one  can 
not  but  honor,  while  at  the  same  time  one  is 
obliged  to  admit  that  all  his  views  were  not 
equally  practicable. 

"  For  ourselves,  we  can  not  forget  the  consid- 
erable part  he  took  in  the  change  of  opinions 
which  prepared,  and  in  the  negotiations  which  led 
to,  the  treaty  of  commerce  at  present  existing 
between  France  and  England.  This  important 


POSTHUMOUS  TRIBUTES.  273 

net,  the  good  results  of  which  experience  has  al- 
ready consecrated,  and  the  liberal  provisions  of 
which  are  from  day  to  day  adopted  by  other 
powers  of  Europe,  will  have  for  effect  not  only 
the  development  of  the  material  interests  between 
England  and  France,  but  it  will  also  aid  power- 
fully in  strengthening  their  friendly  relations. 
This  was  the  double  object  of  Richard  Cobden. 
He  loved  and  understood  France  better  than  any 
other  person,  and  regarded  as  one  of  the  greatest 
interests  of  his  country  and  humanity  the  main- 
tenance of  peaceful  relations  between  the  two  na- 
tions, which,  according  to  the  expression  recently 
used  by  a  member  of  the  English  cabinet,  march 
at  the  head  of  the  world. 

"  You  will  be  good  enough,  prince,  to  acquaint 
the  first  minister  and  the  principal  secretary  of 
her  Britannic  majesty  with  the  sentiments  ex- 
pressed in  this  dispatch,  and  which  they  will  re- 
ceive, I  doubt  not,  with  a  willingness  equal  to 
that  which  has  dictated  them.  Receive,  etc., 
"  (Signed),  DKOUYN  DE  LHUYS." 

After  a  long  and  elaborate  sketch  of  his  life, 
the  writer  of  an  admirable  article  in  the  Moni- 
teur  thus  concluded : 

"A special  and  peculiarly  admirable  character- 
istic of  the  man  whom  England  has  just  lost  ren- 
ders the  loss  one  which  must  be  felt  alike  by  Eu- 
rope and  by  the  whole  world.  He  was  the  type 


276  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

of  the  true  economist,  the  citizen  of  the  commer- 
cial universe.  Most  sincerely  attached  to  British 
interests,  he  did  not  separate  them  from  those  of 
other  peoples.  He  saw  the  development  and  the 
greatness  of  his  own  country  in  the  development 
and  the  greatness  of  rival  nations,  for  he  under- 
stood no  rivalries  but  those  of  peace.  Thus  he 
passed  a  part  of  his  life  in  traveling  from  coun- 
try to  country,  preaching  his  industrial  crusade, 
spreading  his  doctrines,  employing  every  where 
his  favorite  weapon — persuasion,  ....  Cobden 
was  able  to  understand  France,  and  he  loved  her 
— she  will  never  forget  him." 

In  the  Corps  Legislatif  the  subject  of  Cob- 
den's  death  was  introduced  by  its  vice-president, 
M.Forcade  laRoquette,andhis  warm  expressions 
of  esteem  were  applauded  and  repeated  on  every 
hand.  "The  death  of  Richard  Cobden,"  he  said 
— "  and  I  feel  convinced  that  the  Chamber  will 
cordially  join  in  the  sentiment — is  not  alone  a 
misfortune  for  England,  but  a  cause  of  mourning 
for  France  and  for  humanity."  The  Emperor 
took  means  of  letting  his  personal  sympathy  with 
the  expressions  of  his  subjects  appear  by  declar- 
ing his  intention  to  place  a  bust  of  the  great  Free 
Trader  in  his  palace  of  Versailles. 

From  Germany  there  were  similar  tributes — 
from  the  Prussian  Chambers  and  in  the  pages  of 
the  great  newspapers.  The  Cologne  Gazette  con- 


POSTHUMOUS  TRIBUTES.  277 

eluded  a  lengthened  biography  in  these  words : 
"How  high  stands  such  a  man,  in  whom  the 
rising  citizenhood,  the  enlightened  spirit  of  our 
age,  were,  so  to  speak,  incorporated  !  How,  in 
comparison  with  him,  do  all  the  petty  vanities 
and  ridiculous  pretensions  of  caste  conceit  sink 
into  pitiful  nonentity !" 

At  the  conclusion  of  a  lecture  delivered  before 
the  Leeds  Mechanics'  Institution  two  days  after 
Cobden's  death,  Elihu  Burritt,  speaking  in  behalf 
of  America,  said : 

"  When  such  a  man  lies  dead  in  the  land ; 
while  the  shadow  of  a  great  sorrow  is  on  a  na- 
tion's face,  and  millions  in  other  countries  feel  the 
penumbra  of  the  same  grief  moving  over  their 
spirits ;  while  the  electric  wires  of  the  world  are 
yet  thrilling  with  the  news  that  one  of  the  very 
foremost  workers  in  the  world's  history  for  the 
well-being  of  mankind  has  just  gone  to  his  rest,  I 
could  not  refrain  on  this  occasion  from  offering  a 
small  tribute  of  reverence  to  a  memory  which,  I 
trust  and  believe,  the  English-speaking  race  in 
both  hemispheres  will  ever  hold  and  cherish  as  a 
common  treasure.  If,  in  the  grand  words  of  the 
ablest  of  his  political  opponents,  such  a  man,  in 
the  working  presence  of  his  great  mind,  is  still  a 
member  of  Parliament, '  independent  of  dissolu- 
tions, of  the  caprice  of  constituencies,  and  even 
of  the  course  of  time,'  he  is  in  a  wider  sweep  of 
influence  an  immortal  citizen  of  the  great  com- 


278  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

monwealth  of  states  that  speak  the  earth-engir- 
dling tongue  whose  latent  power  his  peerless  logic 
unlocked  and  strengthened  to  its  utmost  capacity 
of  expression  in  the  advocacy  of  principles  that 
shall  live  forever  among  men — among  the  bright- 
est immortalities  of  truth  and  right.  All  the 
millions  that  inhabit  the  American  continent  shall 
hold  the  life  of  Richard  Cobden  as  one  of  the 
great  gifts  of  God  to  a  common  race,  and  cherish 
and  revere  his  memory  as  one  of  the  priceless 
heir-looms  which  the  motherland  has  presented 
to  the  multitudinous  family  of  states  she  has 
planted  on  the  outlying  continents  and  islands 
of  the  globe.  In  the  proud  and  grateful  senti- 
ment of  this  relationship,  they  shall  say  we  share 
with  her  in  the  common  patrimony  of  such  a  life, 
and  feel  they  have  a  children's  right  to  light  the 
lamp  of  their  experience  by  its  light,  and  follow 
its  guidance,  without  abstracting  from  the  beams 
it  sheds  around  her  feet." 

At  home,  in  England,  the  corporations  of  Lon- 
don and  the  provincial  towns,  as  well  as  the 
Chambers  of  Commerce,  the  associations  of  work- 
ing men,  and  other  bodies,  hastened  to  pass  reso- 
lutions of  regretful  respect  and  of  condolence  with 
Mr.  Cobden's  family.  One  address  of  condolence 
to  Mrs.  Cobden  from  a  provincial  Reform  Club — 
that  of  Blackburn — was  distinguished  by  the  deli- 
cate kindliness  and  sympathy  of  its  tone.  "  We 
did  not,"  it  stated,  "  love  your  husband  at  a  dis- 


POSTHUMOUS  TRIBUTES.  279 

lance;  his  nature  was  too  kindly  and  tender;  all 
were  drawn  toward  him."  One  who  has  a  just 
right  to  speak  on  behalf  of  the  more  intelligent 
members  of  the  industrial  order  thus  truthfully 
expressed  himself: 

"  He  was  one  of  the  few  members  of  Parliament 
who  thought  for  the  people,  and,  what  is  more 
and  rarer,  gave  himself  trouble  to  promote  their 
interests.  He  never  knew  apathy  or  selfishness. 
To  a  clear  intellect  he  united  perfect  sincerity  and 
a  quick  conscience.  On  the  question  of  Reform 
he  kept  clear  of  all  that  base,  paltering,  and  treach- 
erous indifference  which  so  many  others  have  dis- 
played. He  never  explained  away  a  promise : 
he  always  kept  faith  with  the  workman  as  well  as 
with  the  gentleman.  He  cared  for  principle,  not 
to  serve  his  own  ends,  but  the  ends  of  the  people. 
With  him  a  great  principle  was  a  living  power 
of  progress ;  and  not  to  apply  it,  and  produce  by 
it  the  good  which  was  in  it,  seemed  to  him  a 
crime.  To  him  apathy  was  sin.  A  cause  might 
be  despised,  obscure,  or  poor :  he  not  only  helped 
it  all  the  same — he  helped  it  all  the  more.  He 
aided  it  openly  and  intentionally.  Fresh  from 
the  honors  of  great  nations,  who  were  proud  to 
receive  him  as  a  guest,  he  would  give  an  audience 
to  a  deputation  of  poor  men.  The  day  after  he 
arrived  from  the  court  of  an  emperor,  he  might 
be  found  wending  his  solitary  Avay  to  a  remote 
street  to  attend  a  committee  meeting,  to  give  his 


280  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

personal  advice  to  the  advancement  of  some  for- 
lorn hope  of  progress.  In  the  day  of  triumph  he 
shrank  modestly  on  one  side,  and  stood  in  the 
common  ranks ;  but  in  the  dark  or  stormy  days 
of  unfriended  truth  he  was  always  to  the  front." 

The  Bishop  of  Oxford,  who  was  prevented  by 
illness  from  being  present  at  the  last  rites  of  his 
friend  and  fellow -philanthropist,  wrote  a  most 
touching  letter  of  regret  for  his  inability  to  at- 
tend the  funeral,  in  which  he  said, "  I  feel  his  loss 
deeply.  I  think  it  is  a  great  national  loss.  But 
my  feelings  dwell  rather  on  the  loss  of  such  a 
man,  whom  I  hope  it  is  not  too  much  for  me  to 
venture  to  call  my  friend.  His  gentleness  of  na- 
ture ;  the  tenderness  and  frankness  of  his  affec- 
tions; his  exceeding  modesty;  his  master  love 
of  truth ;  and  his  ready  and  kindly  sympathy — 
these  invested  him  with  an  unusual  charm  for  me. 
How  deeply  I  feel  for  his  wife  and  for  his  daugh- 
ters !" 

The  universal  press,  of  all  the  shades  of  politics, 
added  its  unanimous  tribute.  And  it  was  noticed 
that  a  large  proportion  of  the  biographies  and 
comments  which  appeared  in  the  newspapers 
evinced  in  their  writers  considerable  personal  and 
familiar  knowledge  of  the  man.  It  was  remem- 
bered that  the  Corn  Law  agitation  had  been  a 
great  educational  movement  as  well  as  one  of 
physical  amelioration,  and  that  it  had  raised  many 
meritorious  men  from  the  humbler  ranks  into  its 


POSTHUMOUS  TRIBUTES.  281 

employ  as  the  lecturers  of  the  League,  many  of 
whom,  at  its  dissolution,  entered  upon  the  honor- 
able career  of  journalism.  These  men  looked 
upon  Cobden  as  their  great  master,  and  were  en- 
abled to  communicate  to  those  to  whom  they  dis- 
charged the  duty  of  political  and  economic  in- 
struction many  personal  traits  and  incidents  of 
Cobden's  public  life,  especially  in  its  earlier  and 
more  energetic  era. 

The  Times  said, "  His  eminence  in  the  state  is, 
and  must  always  remain,  indisputable.  The  Lib- 
eral ranks  are  too  often  filled  with  men  whose 
only  claim  to  distinction  is  their  ability  to  repeat 
the  catchwords  of  a  party.  Mr.  Cobden  had 
nothing  in  common  with  those  echoes."  "  Rich- 
ard Cobden,"  said  the  Daily  Neics,  "  was  more 
than  a  Caesar.  When  he  had  done  all  this,  he  ac- 
cepted simply  the  offering  which  the  nation  made 
him  in  lieu  of  the  fortune  he  had  sacrificed,  and 
without  even  the  false  modesty  of  a  pompous  re- 
tirement, he  continued  to  render  such  services  as 
an  ordinary  member  of  Parliament  can  perform. 

Perfect  probity,  absolute  sincerity,  an 

eager,  almost  an  impetuous  desire  to  make  truth 
triumphant,  a  belief  in  the  power  of  human  hon- 
esty and  good  feeling,  if  it  could  only  have  fair 
scope,  an  incapacity  to  recognize  that  rank  or 
privilege  conferred  dignity  or  desert — these  wrere 
the  conspicuous  virtues  or  the  faults  of  his  char- 
acter." One  sentence  in  the  obituary  notice  of 


282  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

the  Manchester  ^Examiner  is  as  much  character- 
ized by  its  truth  as  it  is  by  its  pith  —  "  He  loved 
his  country  not  less  than  any  man  living,  but  he 
loved  it  in  wise  and  philanthropic  subordination 
to  the  welfare  of  all  mankind."  A  writer  in  the 
Scotsman,  with  the  accustomed  exercise  of  that 
nice  critical  faculty  which  has  ever  distinguished 
the  great  Whig  organ  of  the  North,  justly  pointed 
out  the  fact  that  "by  natural  temperament  and 
tastes  Mr.  Cobdeu  was  by  no  means  an  agitator, 
much  less  a  demagogue.  He  was  naturally  quiet, 
unassuming,  even  timid,  and  full  of  a  gentleness  of 
spirit  which  shone  out  in  his  manner,  and  which 
must  have  made  controversy  distasteful.  He  was 
cradled  into  oratory  by  wrong — a  sense  of  injus- 
tice drew  him  from  his  parlor  to  the  platform, 
and  sustained  him  thi'ough  a  dreary,  protracted, 
and  wearying  struggle."  Mr.  Miall,  Mr.  Cobden's 
friend  and  fellow  -  combatant  in  many  fights  for 
all  kinds  of  freedom  —  religious,  political,  and  fis- 
cal—  thus  testified  in  the  Nonconformist'.  "To 
do  the  good  he  was  qualified  to  do  was  the  only 
reward  he  ever  craved.  Wealth,  ease,  reputation, 
popularity,  social  distinction,  were  all  as  nothing 
when  he  had  a  duty  to  do.  When  that  duty  had 
been  done,  he  was  satisfied.  He  cared  not  to 
claim  the  merit.  He  delighted  in  lavishing  it 
upon  those  with  whom  he  had  been  associated. 
You  might  be  in  his  company  for  days  together 
without  hearing  a  single  expression  calculated  to 


POSTHUMOUS  TRIBUTES.  283 

remind  you  of  his  own  superiority  of  position. 
He  seemed  to  have  no  self-consciousness  save  for 
what  he  took  to  be  his  defects.  He  assumed  no 
airs  of  authority.  He  recoiled  from  the  very  ap- 
pearance of  acting  the  great  man.  His  affections 
all  tended  outward.  He  was  the  soul  of  gener- 
osity. But  in  one  respect  he  firmly  and  tena- 
ciously held  his  own  —  he  never  parted  with  his 
convictions — he  would  suffer  no  blandishments  to 
rob  him  of  his  self-respect.  There  were  times 
when  he  was  beset  by  temptations  that  would 
have  been  powerful  for  other  men.  None  of 
them  moved  him.  He  put  them  aside  and  went 
on  his  way,  neither  caring  to  deny  nor  glorying 
in  what  he  had  done." 

Time  was  when,  upon  the  death  of  such  a  man, 
the  whole  air  would  have  been  filled  with  elegiac 
odes.  We  of  these  days  are,  for  the  most  part, 
content  with  prose.  Nevertheless,  poetry  has  not 
died  out  of  us.  We  listen  with  responsive  en- 
thusiasm to  the  truly  inspired  singer.  It  is  be- 
cause we  believe  the  following  verses  equally 
worthy  of  the  subject  and  the  poet — Cobden  and 
Eliza  Cook — that  we  select  them  to  bind  up  the 
garland  which  we  have  culled : 

"  COBDEN  !  proud,  English,  yeoman  name  ! 

I  offer  unto  thee 

The  earnest  meed  that  all  should  claim 
Who  toil  'mid  Slander,  Doubt,  and  Blame, 
To  make  the  free  more  free. 


284  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

"Thy  voice  has  been  among  the  few 

That  plead  for  Human  Right ; 
It  asked  for  justice ;  and  it  grew 
Still  louder  when  the  fair  and  true 
Were  trampled  down  by  Might. 

' '  Thy  heart  was  warm,  thy  brain  was  clear, 

Thy  wisdom  prompt  in  thought; 
Thy  manly  spirit  knew  not  fear, 
But  held  its  country's  good  most  dear — 
Unwarped,  unbribed,  unbought. 

"  An  open  foe — a  changeless  friend — 

Thy  gauntlet  pen  was  flung ; 
More  ready  in  thy  zeal  to  lend 
A  shield  to  others,  than  defend 
Thyself  from  traitor's  tongue. 

"  A  home-bred  Caesar  thou  hast  been, 

Whose  bold  and  bright  career 
Leaves  on  thy  brow  the  wreath  of  green., 
On  which  no  crimson  drop  is  seen, 
No  widow's  bitter  tear." 


POSTHUMOUS  TRIBUTES.  285 


CHAPTER  XV. 

THE    GRAVE. 

OUE  task  is  now  all  but  complete.  It  only  re- 
mains to  reproduce  the  circumstances  of  the  tran- 
sit of  the  earthly  remains  of  Richard  Cobden  to 
that  God's-acre  which  he  himself  had  indicated 
as  his  chosen  resting-place,  and  where  the  father 
and  the  son  now  lie  side  by  side.  We  would  not 
willingly  withhold  from  our  readers  the  advantage 
of  having  the  picture  of  the  funeral  presented  in 
the  very  words  of  a  witness  of,  and  participant  in, 
the  sad  ceremony — a  privilege  which  the  writer 
of  these  pages  did  not  enjoy.  We  make,  there- 
fore, no  apology  for,  and  believe,  indeed,  that  we 
rather  enhance  the  value  of  our  record  by  pre- 
senting the  account  of  Mr.  Cobden's  burial  in  the 
very  words  of  that  authority  of  whom  we  have 
already  made  such  large  use. 

"  The  mourners,  who  numbered  several  hund- 
reds, formed  a  procession  half  a  mile  or  more  in 
length.  They  walked  at  a  funeral  pace  along 
the  picturesque  highway  which  leads  direct  to 
West  Lavington  Church.  At  many  points  on  the 
road  groups  of  country  people  were  gathered,  who 
had  put  on  such  mourning  as  they  could  com- 


286  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

mand,  and  whose  honest  faces  expressed  the  sor- 
row they  felt.  The  shingled  spire  and  oaken 
porch  of  West  Lavington  Church  presently  caught 
the  eye,  and  in  a  few  minutes  the  base  of  the  hill 
upon  which  the  church  stands  was  reached,  and 
Religion  was  about  to  consecrate  with  its  solemn 
rites  Death's  last  great  achievement.  The  pro- 
cession was  then  re-formed.  Passing  through 
the  Lychgate,  where  in  olden  times  the  mourners 
were  accustomed  to  engage  in  prayer,  the  coffin 
was  borne  by  laborers  on  Mr.  Cobden's  estate  up 
the  steep  pathway.  The  pall  was  held  by  twelve 
of  Mr.  Cobden's  most  distinguished  associates : 
Mr.  Bright,  M.P. ;  the  Right  Hon.  W.  E.  Glad- 
stone, M.P. ;  the  Right  Hon.  Charles  Pelham 
Villiers,  M.P. ;  Mr.  George  Wilson,  formerly  chair- 
man of  the  Anti-Corn-Law  League ;  the  Right 

O  7  O 

Hon.  Thomas  Milner  Gibson,  M.P. ;  Mr.  Moffatt, 
M.P. ;  Mr.  Thomas  B.  Potter,  Mr.  A.  W.  Paulton, 
Mr.  Henry  Ash  worth  ;  Mr.  Bazley,  M.P. ;  Mr. 
William  Evans,  chairman  of  the  Emancipation 
Society ;  and  Mr.  Thomas  Thomasson.  The  chief 
mourners  then  followed:  Mr.  Charles  Cobden, 
the  brother  of  the  deceased ;  Mr.  William  Sale, 
of  Manchester,  his  brother-in-law ;  Mr.  John  Wil- 
liams, the  brother  of  Mrs.  Cobden  ;  Mr.  Freder- 
ick Hogard,  Mr.  Charles  F.  Kirk,  and  Mr.  Wil- 
liam Sale,  jun.,  relatives  of  the  family;  and  Mr. 
Rhoades,  Mr.  Fisher,  sen.,  and  Mr.  Fisher,  jun. 
Halfway  up  the  ascent  the  coffin  was  placed  on 


THE  GRAVE.  287 

the  bier,  and  carried  up  the  successive  terraces 
of  the  grave-yard  into  the  peaceful  house  of  pray- 
er, where  it  was  deposited  in  the  chancel  between 
the  choir  stalls.  As  Mr.  Bright  ascended  the 
church  steps  he  was  tenderly  supported  by  Mr. 
Gladstone,  who,  by  his  presence,  paid  the.  last 
tribute  of  respect  to  his  distinguished  friend. 
The  church,  which  from  this  day  forth  is  destined 
to  have  a  memorable  historic  interest,  is  built  in 
the  middle  pointed  style,  and  was  erected  as  re- 
cently as  1850,  the  last  act  of  Archbishop  Man- 
ning before  he  seceded  to  the  -Roman  Catholic 
Church  having  been  to  watch  over  its  completion. 
If  the  exterior  is  attractive,  the  inside  view  ex- 
hibits a  singularly  successful  combination  of  taste 
and  simplicity.  The  roof  is  supported  by  a  double 
row  of  massive  arches  and  columns.  The  screen 
is  made  of  Petworth  marble,  and  is  tastefully 
carved.  The  sculptured  brackets  and  corbels  rep- 
resent the  fern  and  wild  hops  of  the  district.  The 
frontal  of  the  altar  and  the  draperies  of  the  pul- 
pit and  the  lectern  are  at  present  of  violet  cloth, 
the  color  of  the  Lenten  season.  Above  all,  the 
stained  glass  of  the  eastern  window  typifies,  by 
its  sublime  figures,  the  great  truth  of  the  Resur- 
rection, and  is  at  once  the  symbol  of  our  Lord's 
second  coming,  and  of  that  exalted  faith  which 
yesterday  must  have  brought  -consolation  to  ev- 
ery heart.  The  church  is  only  adapted  to  accom- 
modate two  hundred  persons,  the  exact  number 


288  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

of  souls  dwelling  in  the  little  parish  of  Laviug- 
lon.  On  this  occasion  it  was  wholly  inadequate 
to  receive  the  large  concourse  that  had  assem- 
bled. It  was  soon  full  to  overflowing,  and  hund- 
reds who  failed  to  procure  admission  were  com- 
pelled to  take  up  their  position  on  one  or' other 
of  the  terraces  into  which  the  grave-yard,  stand- 
ing, as  it  does,  on  the  slope  of  a  hill,  is  necessarily 
laid  out.  The  opening  sentences  of  the  beautiful 
service  for  the  dead — that  immortal  legacy  which 
has  been  bequeathed  to  us  by  the  piety  of  our 
forefathers,  and  which  is  destined  to  be  transmit- 
ted to  the  latest  generations — were  read  by  the 
Rev.  James  Currie,  M.A.,  the  incumbent  of  the 
parish.  The  lesson  from  that  chapter  of  the  Co- 
rinthians in  which  the  great  apostle  proclaims  the 
grand  doctrine  of  the  resurrection  of  the  body  in 
language  as  majestic  as  it  was  truly  inspired  by 
the  Most  High,  was  read  by  the  Rev.  Caleb  Col- 
lins, M.A.,  the  rector  of  Stedham  and  Heyshot, 
Mr.  Cobden's  own  parish.  Then  the  body,  with 
these  heaven-sent  words  of  faith  and  hope  still 
rinffina:  in  the  ears  of  the  mourners,  was  carried 

O         O  ' 

out  into  the  bright  sunshine,  which  beamed  with 
celestial  splendor  upon  the  scene.  No  one  pres- 
ent could  have  wished  that  Mr.  Cobden  had  been 
buried  in  any  other  spot.  The  magnificence  of 
the  abbey  or  the  minster  paled  before  the  glory 
of  nature's  beauteous  temple.  From  the  crest  of 
that  hill  upon  which  his  remains  were  so  soon  to 


THE  GRAVE.  289 

mingle  with  their  mother  dust,  the  eye  gazed 
upon  a  landscape  as  charming  and  resplendent 
as  Milton's  picture  of  Paradise.  In  the  far  dis- 
tance, forming  a  background  on  the  horizon, 
stretched  the  range  of  the  South  Downs  from 
Worthing  in  the  east  to  Petersfield  in  the  west, 
a  distance  of  thirty  miles.  Between  lay  the  val- 
ley of  the  hills,  thickly  wooded  with  pine,  and 
fir,  and  oak,  the  foliage  of  which  reflected  every 
color,  and  gleamed  with  the  rays  of  a  warm 
spring  sun.  There  was  a  quietude  and  a  peace 
in  it  all  which  the  busy  haunts  of  men  can  never 
give,  even  when  one  treads  the  stately  aisles  of 
Westminster  or  St.  Paul's.  No  wonder  that  long 
years  ago — before  the  death  of  his  only  and  well- 
beloved  son — Mr.  Cobden  should  not  only  have 
chosen  this  church-yard  as  his  future  burial-place, 
but  have  selected  for  his  grave  the  very  spot 
where  yesterday  he  was  interred ;  for,  wherever 
the  eye  wanders  from  this  central  point,  it  rests 
upon  scenes  of  pastoral  loveliness  which  can  not 
be  surpassed  in  any  part  of  this  beautiful  isle. 

"  Mr.  Cobden's  vault  lies  at  the  southern  ex- 
tremity of  the  grave-yard,  and  its  only  occupant 
until  yesterday  was  his  son,  who  died  in  Germany, 
but  whose  remains  were  buried  here.  In  allowing 
a  vault  to  be  constructed  at  all,  the  incumbent  ex- 
hibited a  graciousness  of  disposition  which,  tak- 
ing into  account  the  strength  of  his  opinions,  de- 
serves a  cordial  recognition.  Around  the  gaping 
T 


290  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

vault  clustered  the  mourners  and  bosom  friends 
and  political  associates  of  Mr.  Cobden.  There 
stood  his  brother  and  his  kindred.  There  Mr. 
Gladstone,  with  eyes  closed  and  face  unnaturally 
pale.  There  Mr.  Bright,  whose  manly  grief  was 
that  of  a  brother.  There  Mr.  George  Wilson,  Mr. 
A.  W.  Paulton,  and  Mr.  William  Evans,  who  had 
been  associated  with  him  in  the  earlier  struggles 
as  well  as  the  later  triumphs  of  the  Anti-Corn- 
Law  League.  There  also  stood  Mr.  Milner  Gib- 
son and  Mr.  Villiers,  who,  like  him,  were  leaders 
in  the  warfare  against  an  unrighteous  monopoly. 
There  was  a  singular  fitness  in  the  presence  of 
the  three  cabinet  ministers  who  are  the  appointed 
guardians  of  the  interests  of  finance,  trade,  and 
the  impoverished  classes,  and  who  come  here  to 
render  homage  to  the  ashes  of  the  man  who  was 
the  liberator  of  commerce  and  the  champion  of 
the  poor.  Lord  Clarence  Paget,  another  repre- 
sentative of  the  government,  was  present ;  so 
also  was  Lord  Alfred  Paget,  Avho  represented  the 
court." 

Among  many  other  mourners  were  Mr.  Adams, 
the  American  ministei',  Lord  Kinnaird,  Mr.  Baz- 
ley,  M.P.,Mr.  J.  B.  Smith,  M.P.,  Mr.  Baines,  M.P., 
Mr.  W.  E.  Forster,  M.P.,Mr.Moran,the  Secretary 
of  the  American  Legation,  Mr.  Charles  Gilpin, 
M.P.,  Mr.  Stansfeld,  M.P.,  Mr.  Leatham,  M.P.,  Sir 
Morton  Peto,  Mr.  Edward  Miall,  Mr.  John  Rich- 
ardson, who  carried  a  motion  in  the  Corporation 


THE  GRAVE.  291 

of  London  that  a  marble  bust  of  Mr.  Cobden 
should  be  placed  in  their  Council  Chamber,  Mr. 
Robertson  Gladstone,  the  Rev.  Newman  Hall,  Dr. 
Hook,  the  Dean  of  Chichester,  Mr.  Thomas  B. 
Potter,  Mr.  Cobden's  successor  in  the  representa- 
tion of  Rochdale,  the  Rev.  Henry  Richard,  M. 
Visschers,the  eminent  Belgian  statesman,  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Brock,  Mr.  Elihu  Burritt,  Mr.  Samuel  Morley, 
and  a  host  of  other  well-known  men. 

Loving  hands  had  woven  chaplets  of  everlast- 
ing and  new  spring  flowers,  which  were  deposit- 
ed with  reverent  care  on  the  foot  of  the  coffin ; 
and  one  venerable  individual,  who  had  come  a 
long  journey,  being  unable  to  approach  the  grave, 
handed  the  flowers  which  he  had  gathered  from 
one  to  another,  that  they  might  be  placed  by  the 
side  of  the  other  mementoes  of  affection.  Slowly 
the  coffin  was  pushed  down  the  narrow  planks 
as  the  priest  solemnly  pronounced  the  words, 
"Earth  to  earth,  ashes  to  ashes,  dust  to  dust," 
and  cast  upon  the  lid  a  handful  of  that  clay  which 
is  the  emblem  of  mortality.  As  the  coffin  passed 
from  view,  Mr.  Bright,  with  irrepressible  grief,  ad- 
vanced nearer  and  nearer,  and  strained  his  eyes 
into  the  narrow  tomb  which  was  so  soon  to  be 
closed.  The  sorrow  of  many  found  vent  in  audi- 
ble sobs;  but  the  comforting  benediction  closed 
the  painful  scene,  and  the  grief-stricken  throng 
separated  after  taking  another  and  yet  another 
farewell  of  the  vesting-place  of  the  great  and  good 


292  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEN. 

Richard  Cobden.  He  sleeps  the  long  sleep  on 
the  lovely  summit  of  a  Sussex  hill — not  in  a  wil- 
derness of  graves,  for  there  are  few  who  share 
that  consecrated  ground  with  him,  but  amid 
scenes  which  speak  of  the  beauty  of  his  life  and 
the  glorious  hope  of  a  joyful  resurrection. 

The  author  of  an  article  in  "All  the  Year 
Round,"  describing  "Richard  Cobden's  Grave," 
thus  wrote : 

"  There  was  a  deep  sadness  in  every  face,  tears 
in  women's  eyes,  and  the  bell  from  the  lofty  bel- 
fry tolled  with  a  plaintive  tinkle.  About  two  hun- 
dred gentlemen  filled  the  little  church,  in  which 
service  was  read,  with  mumbling  mutterings. 
When  the  coffin  was  borne  out  of  the  church,  and 
along  the  terrace  toward  the  grave,  amid  the  un- 
covered mourners,  the  sun  beating  warmly  upon 
their  heads,  while  the  clergyman  said  "  dust  to 
dust,"  "  in  hope,"  and  the  coffin  grated  down  the 
planks  into  the  vault,  a  shock  of  grief  passed 
through  the  crowd  of  mourners,  women  wept, 
and  men  grew  deadly  pale.  Many  of  the  hands 
there  had  often  been  warmly  clasped  during  a 
severe  political  struggle  by  the  hand  lying  there 
dead.  A  French  wreath  of  everlastings  was  laid 
on  the  coffin  above  his  feet,  and  a  wreath  of 
spring  flowers — blue  and  purple  anemones,  prim- 
roses, polyanthuses,  hepaticas,  primulas,  above  his 
breast.  It  was  an  aged  man  of  fourscore  years 
who  handed  forward  the  wreath  of  spring  flow- 


THE  GRAVE.  293 

ers,  and  who  had  co.mmenced  his  friendship  with 
the  deceased  on  the  Catskill  Mountains,  in  Amer- 
ica, in  July,  1835.  This  old  man's  chaplet  was 
but  the  first  of  many  symbols  of  respect  paid  to 
the  memory  of  a  man  whose  name  is  significant 
of  a  commercial  policy  tending  to  give  the  poor 
their  daily  bread,  and  spread  peace  on  earth  and 
good-will  among  men." 

A  friend  remarked  to  us  a  few  days  after  the 
death  of  Cobden  that  the  three  great  attitudes 
and  performances  of  his  life  were  valuable  in  the 
inverse  ratio  of  their  popularity  —  that  his  Anti- 
Corn-Law  agitation,  which  bulked  most  largely 
in  connection  with  his  name  in  the  public  eye, 
was  really  a  less  wondrous  feat,  and  less  produc- 
tive of  great  future  consequences,  than  the  French 
Treaty  ;  for  the  latter  was  a  recognition  and  dec- 
laration of  the  principle  of  the  extension  to  the 
whole  world  of  the  advantages  confined  by  the 
former  to  England.  And  similarly,  that  Cob- 
den's  unswerving  advocacy  of  universal  peace 
and  arbitration  betwixt  differing  and  alienated 
nations  was  really  something  larger  and  grander 
than  his  purely  fiscal  achievements.  We  agreed 
perfectly  with  the  remark.  After  all,  the  most 
splendid  legacy  left  by  Cobden  was  his  preaching 
of  "  Peace  on  Earth."  At  a  Peace  Society  Meet- 
ing at  Newcastle  shortly  after  Cobden's  death, 
his  friend,  the  Rev.  Henry  Richard,  the  excellent 
and  estimable  Secretary  of  the  Peace  Society, 


294  LIFE  OF  RICHARD  COBDEft. 

feelingly  and  forcibly  impressed  this  fact.  And 
we  believe  that  we  can  not  more  fitly  conclude 
our  narrative  of  the  life  of  this  God-sent  man — 
for  we  believe  we  could  not  do  so  in  a  manner 
more  likely  to  be  approved  by  Mr.  Cobden's  own 
gentle  spirit — than  by  the  citation  of  these  heart- 
felt, earnest,  and  memorable  words : 

"  Last  Friday  I  stood  over  the  grave  of  Rich- 
ard Cobden,  and,  to  confess  my  weakness,  when  I 
looked  into  the  vault  and  saw  his  coffin  lie  there, 
and  recall  to  remembrance  how  long  that  man 
had  been  like  a  tower  of  strength  to  me  upon 
which  I  could  always  lean  —  his  wisdom  in  coun- 
cil and  his  undaunted  courage  in  action — the  first 
impulse  of  my  weakness  was  as  if  I  must  retire 
from  all  share  in  public  matters,  and  give  them 
up  in  despair  and  despondency.  A  few  months 
before,  I  had  walked  by  his  side  along  the  same 
road  where  the  funeral  procession  went  on  Fri- 
day, and  I  could  remember  the  precise  remarks 
he  made  to  me  by  the  particular  points  of  the 
road,  and  my  feeling  was,  as  I  said,  having  lost 
such  a  pillar  of  strength  in  the  cause  of  peace, 
that  I  could  no  longer  persevere ;  but  my  second 
reflection  was,  that  such  is  not  the  lesson  which 
the  life  and  example  of  Richard  Cobden  should 
attach  to  any  of  his  surviving  friends — that  man 
who,  twenty-five  years  ago,  lifted  up  his  voice  in 
the  midst  of  this  nation  in  favor  of  Free  Trade 
and  international  peace,  and  who  continued,  till 


THE  GRAVE.  29o 

the  last  day  of  his  life,  faithful  and  unflinching  to 
the  principles  of  his  youth.  Was  it  right,  then, 
that  I  should  retire  from  the  work  which  Provi- 
dence has  given  to  me  to  do  ?  No,  I  would  rath- 
er be  as  the  Carthaginian  general,  taking  a  little 
boy  to  his  father's  bosom  to  swear  true  enmity  to 
Rome.  So  I  felt  disposed,  standing  over  the 
grave  of  my  honored  and  beloved  friend,  whose 
friendship  had  been  for  fifteen  years  the  privi- 
lege and  pride  of  my  existence,  that  I  would 
rather  swear  true  fidelity  to  the  cause  of  peace, 
a  cause  for  which  he  had  done  more  than  any 
man  of  his  age ;  and  I  would,  if  it  had  been  in 
ray  power,  have  taken  hundreds  of  the  rising 
youth  of  England,  and  there,  over  the  grave  of 
the  man  of  peace,  have  sworn  them  all  to  an  un- 
flinching fidelity  to  the  same  cause." 


INDEX. 


ACLAND,  JAMES,  eulogimn  of,  by  Cobden,  Cl. 

Agricultural  Districts,  inquiries  into,  by  the  League,  98 ;  dis- 
tress in,  commented  on  by  Cobden,  128;  see  also  Anti- 
Corn-Law  Agitation  and-  League,  passim. 

Alison,  Sir  A.,  reprehensible  statement  of,  quoted  by  Cob- 
den, 171. 

American  War,  opinions  of  Cobden  on,  229,  243,  251. 

Anti-Corn-Law  Agitation,  first  period  of,  26-48 ;  first  asso- 
ciation formed  in  London,  35 ;  in  Manchester,  39 ;  in- 
creased vigor  of  agitation,  43. 

Anti-Corn-Law  League,  formation  of,  49-59 ;  ladies  enlist- 
ed as  agents,  57 ;  seeks  seats  for  its  members  in  Parlia- 
ment, 60  ;  repudiates  Lord  John  Russell's  "Fixed  Duty," 
64 ;  great  conferences  of  ministers  of  religion,  69,  74 ;  ba- 
zars in  Manchester  and  London,  74,  123,  127;  continued 
progress  of  agitation,  82-1 14 ;  extraordinary  scene  in  Pal- 
ace Yard,  82 ;  resolution  to  pay  special  attention  to  rural 
districts,  93;  joined  by  farmers,  110;  and  landowners, 
111 ;  great  meetings  in  the  London  theatres,  120-123 ;  its 
final  victory,  131-138 ;  its  dissolution,  138 ;  its  education- 
al influences,  280. 

Arbitration  clause  in  international  treaties  proposed  by  Cob- 
den, 166-169 ;  inserted  in  the  Treaty  of  Paris,  205  ;  opin- 
ions of,  by  leading  English  statesmen,  206. 

Arkwright,  Richard,  eulogium  on,  by  Cobden,  34. 

BALLOT,  The,  Cobden's  opinions  on,  37,  163. 

Bastiat,  Frederic,  defends  the  enlistment  of  ladies  by  the 

League,  58 ;  services  in  the  negotiation  of  French  Treaty, 

220. 

Bazars,  Free  Trade,  74,  123,  127. 
Beecher  Stowe,  Harriet,  sketch  of  Cobden  by,  183. 
Blanchard,  Laman,  an  early  Free  Trader,  36. 
Bowring,  Sir  John,  his  opinions  on,  and  efforts  against,  the 

Corn  Laws,  38,  66,  92;  the  author  of  "The  China  War," 

209. 


298  INDEX. 

Bright,  John,  M.  P.,  forms  the  acquaintance  of  Cobden,  25  ; 
joins  the  League,  51 ;  first  Parliamentary  speech,  108; 
described  by  Mr.  Kinglake,  186 ;  last  intercourse  with  Cob- 
den,  259 ;  his  tribute  to  Cobden's  memory,  270 ,  at  Cob- 
den's  grave,  290. 

Brotherton,  Joseph,  M.P.,  an  early  Free  Trader,  36;  serv- 
ices, etc.,  in  the  cause,  81. 

Buckingham,  Silk,  an  early  Free  Trader,  36;  becomes  a 
League  lecturer,  81. 

Buller,  Charles,  M.P.,  speech  against  the  Corn  Laws,  91. 

Burnet,  Rev.  John,  at  the  Edinburg  Peace  Conference,  178. 

Burritt,  Elihu,  at  the  Edinburg  Peace  Conference,  177 ;  trib- 
ute to  Cobden's  memory,  277. 

CALICO  PRINTING  trade,  Cobden's  innovations  in,  20 ;  de- 
tails of,  described  by  him,  145. 

Campbell,  Thomas,  an  early  Free  Trader,  36. 

Canada,  Cobden's  opinions  on  defenses  of,  260. 

Carlisle,  Earl  of,  an  early  Free  Trader,  27. 

Carlyle,  Thomas,  denounces  the  Corn  Laws,  119,  120. 

Cathrall,  Mr.,  first  introduction  to  Cobden,  21. 

Chandos,  Marquis  of,  statement  by,  38. 

Chartism,  Cobden's  opinions  of,  76,  96,  140,  142. 

Chartist  agitation  first  undertaken,  36 ;  antagonism  to  the 
League,  44,  46,  75,  96;  great  demonstration  on  Kersal 
Moor,  141. 

Chevalier,  Michel,  negotiates  the  French  Commercial  Treaty, 
219. 

China  War,  Cobden's  opinions  and  conduct  on,  209. 

Circassian  Independence,  Cobden's  opinions  of,  35. 

Clarendon,  Earl  of,  plenipotentiary  at  Paris,  205. 

Gobbet,  William,  his  description  of  the  scenery  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Midhurst,  13 ;  stands  unsuccessfully  for  Man- 
chester, 26. 

Cobden,  Richard,  birth  and  birthplace,  15;  apprenticed,  16 ; 
becomes  a  commercial  traveler,  17 ;  commences  business, 
18 ;  removes  to  Manchester,  19 ;  his  innovations  in  the 
calico  printing  trade,  20 ;  civic  and  public  life,  and  news- 
paper contributions,  21 ;  breaks  down  as  a  speaker,  23; 
first  pamphlet,  24 ;  makes  acquaintance  of  Mr.  Bright,  25 ; 
enters  Free  Trade  ranks,  29 ;  nearly  returned  for  Stock- 
port,  37 ;  elected  alderman,  43 ;  description  of,  as  a  young 
rnan,  47 ;  gradually  absorbed  by  his  labors  for  the  League, 
48 ;  returned  to  Parliament,  66 ;  maiden  speech,  68 ;  tours 


INDEX.  299 

in  the  provinces,  76, 93,  99  ;  encounters  with  Peel,  89,  90, 
92,  93,  111,  128 ;  painful  scene  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
112  ;  speeches  at  Drury  Lane  Theatre,  121 ;  latest  Anti- 
Corn-Law  speeches,  134;  factory  legislation,  139  ;  nation- 
al testimonial  to,  153 ;  returned  for  West  Hiding,  155 ; 
services  in  the  cause  of  peace,  retrenchment,  and  reform, 
150-183;  Edinburg  Peace  Conference,  amusing  incidents 
at,  172;  period  of  Crimean  War,  185-206;  described  by 
Mr.  Kinglake,  186 ;  the  China  War,  207 ;  defeats  Lord 
Palmerston  on  the  question,  210 ;  loses  his  seat,  213  ;  re- 
turned for  Rochdale,  215;  offered  a  seat  in  the  Cabinet, 
215;  French  Commercial  Treaty,  218;  last  speech  in 
House  of  Commons,  234 ;  last  speech  at  Rochdale,  240 , 
last  days  and  death,  246 ;  his  religious  sentiments,  257 ; 
tributes  to  his  memory,  263 ;  funeral,  286. 

Cobden,  Mrs.,  appears  at  the  League  Tea-parties,  57. 

Cobden's  prints  worn  by  ladies  of  rank,  20 ;  by  her  majesty, 
20,  21. 

Commercial  travelers,  their  recollections  of  Cobden,  20. 

Commercial  Treaty  with  France,  218. 

Condition  of  England  Question,  139-149. 

Cook,  Eliza,  tribute  to  Cobden's  memory,  283. 

Corn  Laws.  See  Carlyle  and  Cobden,  Anti-Corn-Law  Agi- 
tation and  League,  passim. 

Cotton  Free  Tavern,  a  political  rendezvous  at  Manchester,  22. 

Cowdrav,  its  historical  associations,  14 ;  a  favorite  haunt  of 
Cobden,  249. 

Crawford,  Sharman,  M.P.,  joins  the  League,  51. 

Crimean  War,  Cobden's  opinion  and  course  upon,  172,  185- 
206. 

DISRAELI,  Right  Hon.  B.,  humorous  retort  on  Cobden,  156; 

tribute  to  memory,  267. 

Drouyn  de  Lhuys,  M.,  tribute  to  Cobden's  memory,  272. 
Drummond,  Mr.,  assassination  of,  111. 
Buncombe,  T.,  M.P.,  an  early  Free  Trader,  36. 
Dunford  House,  Cobden  born  at,  15 ;  his  latter  days  spent 

at,  249 ;  hospitality  at,  250. 

EAST  INDIA  COMPANY,  Cobden's  opinions  of,  217. 
Edinburg  Peace  Conference  and  amusing  incidents  at,  171- 

183. 
Elizabeth,  Queen,  visits  Cowdray;   Cobden's  criticism  on, 

242. 


300  INDEX. 

Elliot,  Ebenezer,  an  early  Free  Trader,  3G. 
Ewart,  W.,  M.P.,  an  early  Free  Trader,  36. 

FACTORY  LEGISLATION,  139-149. 

' '  Facts  for  Farmers,"  50. 

Fielden,  John,  of  Todmorden,  141. 

Financial  Reform,  Cobden's  opinions  on,  166-1 G9. 

Fixed  Duty  on  Corn,  36,  64,  130. 

Fortifications,  Cobden's  opinions  on,  166,  208,  231. 

Fox,  Charles  James,  M.P.  for  Midhurst,  15. 

Francis  Joseph,  Emperor  of  Austria,  amusing  reference  to, 

by  Cobden,  183. 

Freehold  Land  Society  movement,  135. 
Free  Trade,  cardinal  principles  of,  88 ;  see  Anti-Corn-Law 

Agitation  and  League,  passim. 
French  invasions,  panics  of,  157, 172,  231. 
French  Commercial  Treaty,  218. 
French  tributes  to  Cofoden's  memory,  271. 

GIBSON,  Right  Hon.  T.  MILNER,  joins  the  League,  5 1 ;  re- 
turned to  Parliament,  66 ;  his  motion  on  the  Crimean 
War,  199. 

Gladstone,  Right  Hon.  W.  E.,  returned  to  Parliament  as  a 
Protectionist,  60;  the  French  Commercial  Treaty,  219; 
eulogium  on  Cobden,  222 ;  offers  him  the  chairmanship 
of  the  Board  of  Audit,  259 ;  at  Cobden's  grave,  290. 

Grey,  Earl,  an  early  Free  Trader,  27. 

Grotc,  George,  an  early  Free  Trader,  36. 

HOUSE  OF  COMMONS,  tributes  to  Cobden's  memory  in,  264. 
Howitt,  Wm.,  an  early  Free  Trader,  36. 
Huddersfield,  Cobden  unsuccessfully  stands  for,  213. 
Hume,  Joseph,  M.P.,  an  early  Free  Trader,  27,  36;  motion 

on  Parliamentary  Reform,  158,  159. 
Hungarian  insurrection,  Cobden's  opinions  on,  182. 

JERROLD,  DOUGLAS,  description   of  Covent  Garden  Free- 
Trade  Bazar,  123, 124. 
Johnson,  Dr.,  visits  neighborhood  of  Midhurst,  14. 

KINGLAKE,  A.  W.,  M.P.,  his  description  of  Cobden  and 
Bright,  186. 

LAND  TAX,  The,  Cobden's  exposure  of  its  fraudulent  charac- 
ter, 78. 


INDEX.  301 

Lewis,  John,  an  early  friend  of  Cobden,  18. 
Lyell,  Sir  Charles,  educated  at  Midhurst,  15. 

MANCHESTER,  Cobden  takes  up  his  residence  in,  19 ;  enfran- 
chised by  the  Reform  Bill,  26 ;  Cobden  elected  alderman 
of,  43. 

Manchester  Athenaeum  inaugurated  by  Cobden,  24. 

Manchester  Chamber  of  Commerce  urged  by  Cobden  to  join 
in  the  League  agitation,  37;  and  successfully,  41. 

"Manchester  Courier,"  extract  from,  about  Cobden's  start 
in  business,  18. 

Manchester  Free  Trade  Bazar,  74,  127. 

Manchester  Free  Trade  Hall  built  on  land  belonging  to 
Cobden,  52. 

"Manchester  Times"  contributed  to  by  Cobden,  21. 

Martineau,  Harriet,  description  of  Cobden's  first  appearance 
in  Parliament,  66-73 ;  her  low  opinion  of  Feargus  O'Con- 
nor, 141 ;  estimate  of  Cobden's  pecuniary  loss  by  his  Free 
Trade  services,  150. 

McLaren,  Duncan,  president  of  Peace  Conference  at  Edin- 
burg,  176-183. 

Melbourne,  Lord,  opinions  and  course  of  action  on  the  Corn 
Laws,  38,  45,  64  ;  severely  rebuked  by  Cobden,  54. 

Midhurst,  character  of  scenery  and  associations,  13 ;  C.  J. 
Fox,  M.P.  for,  15 ;  Sir  C.  Lyell  educated  at,  15  ;  Cobden's 
father  chief  magistrate  of,  15  ;  proposed  restoration  of  its 
grammar-school,  16. 

Mill,  John  Stuart,  criticism  by  Cobden  on  an  opinion  of, 
255. 

Milosch,  Prince  of  Servia,  tribute  to  Cobden's  memory,  263. 

Minorities,  representation  of,  Cobden's  views  on,  255. 

Mohammedan  Religion,  Cobden's  opinions  on,  198. 

Molesworth,  Sir  William,  an  early  Free  Trader,  36. 

Mozley  Street,  Manchester,  Cobden's  warehouse  in,  19. 

NAPIER,  Sir  CHARLES,  amusing  encounter  of,  with  Cobden 
at  Edinburg,  176. 

Napoleon  III.,  Cobden's  opinions  of,  175 ;  his  tribute  to  Cob- 
den's memory,  276. 

National  education,  Cobden's  interest  in,  25. 

National  defenses,  Cobden's  opinions  on,  166,  204,  208,  229. 
231. 

Nationalities,  Cobden's  opinions  on,  190. 

Navigation  Laws,  !">">. 


302  INDEX. 

Newspaper  press,  eulogium  by  Cobden  on,  227;  tributes  by, 

to  his  memory,  280. 
Nicholas,  Czar  of  Russia,  Cobden's  opinion   of,  175,  181, 

191. 

OASTLER,  RICHARD,  his  career  and  public  services,  46,  141 . 

O'Connell,  Daniel,  great  Free  Trade  speech  at  Manchester, 
52. 

O'Connor,  Feargus,  his  opposition  to  the  League,  44 ;  char- 
acter of,  141 ;  rebuked  by  Cobden,  159. 

Otway,  birthplace  of,  15. 

Overstone,  Lord,  unsuccessfully  contests  Manchester,  27; 
joins  the  League,  121. 

Oxford,  Cobden's  opinion  on  education  at,  244. 

Oxford,  Bishop  of,  tribute  to  Cobden's  memory,  280. 

PALMERSTON,  Lord,  his  foreign  policy  first  attacked  by  Cob- 
den, 31 ;  blamed  by  Cobden  for  his  conduct  to  the  Hun- 
garians, 181 ;  attack  by  him  on  Cobden,  201  ;  his  govern- 
ment defeated  by  Cobden  on  the  China  War,  210 ;  ap- 
peals successfully  to  the  country,  213;  offers  Cobden  a 
seat  in  the  cabinet,  215 ;  and  public  honors,  223 ;  his 
tribute  to  Cobden's  memory,  264. 

Paper  duty.     See  Taxes  on  Knowledge. 

Parliamentary  Reform,  opinions  of  Cobden  on,  159, 164,  244. 

Pattison,  Mr.,  returned  as  first  Free  Trade  member  for  City 
of  London,  121. 

Paulton,  A.  W.,  first  enlistment  in  the  Anti-Corn-Law 
cause,  39  ;  engaged  as  the  first  lecturer  of  the  League,  40 ; 
his  services,  etc.,  51. 

Peace  So.ciety,  Cobden's  services  to,  168-184 ;  real  charac- 
ter of,  169. 

Peel,  Sir  Robert,  leading  incidents  of  his  administration,  68, 
73 ;  budget  of  1842,  82 ;  parliamentary  encounters  with 
Cobden,  89,  90,  93,  111,  128;  eulogiums  on  Cobden,  113, 
114,  137;  abolition  of  Corn  Laws,  133. 

Peterloo  Massacre,  Free  Trade  Hall  built  on  scene  of,  52. 

Phillips,  Mark,  first  Free  Trade  member  for  Manchester,  26, 
66. 

Place,  Francis,  an  early  Free  Trader,  36. 

Potter,  T.  B.,  M.P.,  letter  of  Cobden  to,  255,  256. 

Prentice,  Archibald,  makes  Cobden's  acquaintance,  22 ;  de- 
scribes Cobden's  first  enlistment  in  the  Free  Trade  ranks, 
29 ;  a  member  of  the  first  London  Association,  36 ;  his 


INDEX.  303 

energetic  Free  Trade  efforts,  39 ;  narrates  an  extraordi- 
nary scene  in  Downing  Street,  54 ;  describes  Cobden's  ap- 
pearance at  the  Drury  Lane  meetings,  121 ;  describes  the 
dissolution  of  the  League,  138. 

Protectionists,  cruel  ribaldry  of,  91.  See  also,  passijn,  Anti- 
Corn-Law  Agitation  and  League. 

"Punch"  newspaper,  admirable  retort  on, by  Cobden,  175, 
176. 

QUAKERS,  The,  Cobden's  opinions  of,  203. 

REDUCTION  of  expenditure  proposed  by  Cobden,  166, 169. 

Richard,  Rev.  Henry,  at  Edinburg  Peace  Conference,  177 ; 
procures  the  insertion  of  Arbitration  Clause  in  Treaty  of 
Paris,  205 ;  his  tribute  to  Cobden's  memory,  294. 

Ripon,  Earl  of,  amusing  brochure  on,  by  Cobden,  84. 

Rochdale,  Cobden  returned  for,  215;  his  last  speech  deliv- 
ered at,  240. 

Roebuck,  J.  A.,  M.P.,  an  early  Free  Trader,  36. 

Russell,  Lord  John,  proposes  a  fixed  duty  on  corn,  64,  130, 
131 ;  recants  in  his  Edinburg  letter,  132;  Cobden's  criti- 
cisms on  his  conduct  at  the  Vienna  Conference,  200. 

Russia,  opinions  of  Cobden  on,  33,  158,  180, 189. 

Russian  Loan  of  1850  denounced  by  Cobden,  189. 

ScHLESwio-HoLSTEiN  Question,  Cobden's  opinions  on,  241. 

Scholefield,  Mr.,  M.P.,  an  early  Free  Trader,  36. 

Shaftesbury,  Lord,  declares  against  the  Corn  Laws,  132 ; 
Ten-Hours'  Bill,  etc.,  143. 

Smith,  Adam,  Cobden  deeply  versed  in,  17. 

Smith,  J.  B.,  M.P.,  an  early  Free  Trader,  43;  Free  Trade 
services,  etc.,  54 ;  contests  Walsall  with  Mr.  Gladstone,  60. 

Smithian  Society,  17. 

Socialism,  Cobden's  opinions  on,  139. 

Stanhope,  Colonel  Leicester,  an  early  Free  Trader,  36. 

Stansfeld,  Mr.,  M.P.,  motion  for  reduction  of  expenditure, 
228. 

Stephens,  Rev.  Mr.,  an  early  Chartist  leader,  141. 

Stockport,  Cobden  returned  for,  66 ;  distress  in,  75. 

Sturge,  Joseph,  an  energetic  Free  Trader,  38 ;  his  services, 
55,  61;  letters,  etc.,  from  Cobden  to,  61,  84,  167,  203; 
friendly  satire  by  Cobden  on,  84;  the  victim  of  popular 
detraction,  202  ;  his  eulogy  of  Cobden,  203 ;  procures  in- 
sertion of  Arbitration  Clause  in  Treaty  of  Paris,  205. 


304  INDEX. 

Sugar  Duties,  Cobden's  opinions  on,  84,  155. 

Sussex,  Weald  of,  picturesque  nature  of  scenery  and  historic 

associations,  13,  289. 
Sydenham,  Lord.     See  Thompson. 

TAIT,  the  Edinburg  publisher,  an  early  Free  Trader,  36. 

"Tail's  Magazine,"  Cobden  contributes  to,  33. 

Taxes  on  knowledge,  Cobden's  opinions  and  course  on,  50, 

227. 

Tea-parties  of  the  League,  57. 
Ten-Hours'  Bill,  agitation  for,  139-149;  Cobden's  opinions 

on,  147. 

Theatres,  Free  Trade  meetings  in,  120,  121. 
Thompson,  Poullet,  returned  for  Manchester,  26 ;   his  Free 

Trade  measures,  27. 
Thompson,  General  Perronet,  an  early  Free  Trader,  36 ;  his 

services  in  the  cause,  38. 
Thompson,  George,  joins  the  League,  51. 
Truck  System,  143-146 ;  Cobden's  opinions  on,  146. 
Turks,  Cobden's  opinions  on  the,  197. 

UNIVERSITY  EDUCATION,  Cobden's  opinions  on,  244. 
Urquhart,  David,  his  views  disclaimed  by  Cobden,  33. 

VERDLET  CASTLE,  15. 

Victoria,  Queen,  seen  clad  in  "Cobden's  prints,"  20,  21. 
Vienna  Conference,  Cobden's  great  speech  on,  200. 
Villiers,  Right  Hon.  C.  P.,  his  annual  motion  on  the  Corn 
Laws,  38, 117. 

WAKLET,  THOMAS,  an  early  Free  Trader,  36. 

War  Office,  administration  of,  Cobden's  opinions  on,  232, 235. 

Watt,  James,  eulogium  on,  by  Cobden,  34. 

Wellington,  Duke  of,  reluctant  consent  to  Corn-Law  repeal, 
133 ;  seized  with  alarm  of  French  invasion,  157. 

West  Lavington  Church-yard,  Cobden's  resting-place,  286. 

West  Riding  of  Yorkshire,  Cobden  returned  for,  155;  un- 
seated, 213. 

Whigs,  Alliance  with,  repudiated  by  the  League,  57. 73 ;  sat- 
irized by  Cobden,  91. 

Working  Classes,  Cobden's  opinions  on,  97, 136;  their  trib- 
utes to  his  memory,  280. 


THE    END. 


" 


DA  McGilchrist,  John 

536  Richard  Cobden 

C6M3 


PLEASE  DO  NOT  REMOVE 
CARDS  OR  SLIPS  FROM  THIS  POCKET 

UNIVERSITY  OF  TORONTO  LIBRARY