COBDEN, EICHARD. 



171 



and the editors of the " Times " became inter- 

 ested to form the acquaintance of their un- 

 known correspondent, and requested him to 

 visit their office. He was solicited to address a 

 meeting called to aid the movement, but de- 

 clined, as he had never spoken in public. As 

 his friends insisted, however, he made the at- 

 tempt, but failed signally. Not deterred by this 

 failure, he overcame his diffidence, and soon 

 was in demand as a forcible and impressive 

 speaker. On the incorporation of Manchester 

 he was elected one of its first Aldermen, and 

 soon began to be a recognized leader in the 

 efforts to establish a system of National edu- 

 cation. It was in connection with this enter- 

 prise that he first became personally acquainted 

 with John Bright. 



In 1835, in the very dawning of the Free 

 Trade movement in Manchester, when as yet 

 the people were in the midst of their plentiful 

 harvests, indifferent to any change in the corn- 

 laws, and Parliament, with its large majority of 

 landholders, scouted and scorned the idea of 

 any change which should render their profits 

 less exorbitant, Mr. Cobden joined the little 

 band of Free Traders. His first effort in be- 

 half of the cause, was a stout pamphlet entitled 

 "England, Ireland, and America," by a Man- 

 chester manufacturer. This pamphlet was 

 from beginning to end a vigorous and powerful 

 protest against the foreign policy of Lord Pal- 

 merston. Soon after he contributed to "Tait's 

 Magazine " four articles, subsequently collected 

 in a pamphlet having for their object to allay 

 the fear of Eussia which was then excited by 

 the Government and others. Like his former 

 pamphlet this was earnest, pertinent, and logi- 

 cal. In both there were passages which in- 

 dicated how deeply the opposition to the corn- 

 law monopoly had imbued his whole being, and 

 these, incidental as they were, served to exhibit 

 the spirit and purpose of the man. 



It was not, however, till the autumn of 1838, 

 when two years of bad crops had raised the 

 price of wheat to seventy-two shillings the quar- 

 ter, just double what it had been in 1835, and 

 the corn-laws still prevented importation, that 

 the people were ready for any decisive move- 

 ment to agitate for the abrogation of those 

 laws. In September, 1837, Dr. Bowring, who 

 had been travelling in Egypt, and on the Con- 

 tinent, on a mission for the promotion of free 

 commercial intercourse, visited Manchester, and 

 in a public meeting denounced the corn-laws 

 in unmeasured terms. An anti-corn-law asso- 

 ciation was immediately formed, pledged to 

 exert itself against any and every corn-law. 

 Eleven thousand pounds sterling were raised at 

 once, and a lecturer procured to deliver popular 

 addresses on the subject throughout Lancashire. 

 These proved successful in inciting the people 

 to think on the subject, and soon the Manches- 

 ter Chamber of Commerce, which though pro- 

 fessing dissatisfaction with the corn-laws, had 

 been strangely apathetic in regard to them, 

 took strong and decided ground, and resolved 



to petition Parliament for total repeal. Other 

 anti-corn-law associations sprang up in the 

 other manufacturing towns of England, and in 

 February, 1839, delegates from all met at Lon- 

 don, and had an interview with Lord Melbourne, 

 then Premier, and, through Mr. Villiers, prayed 

 to be heard at the bar of the House, in support 

 of his motion for the repeal of the corn-laws. 

 Parliament refused their request with scorn. 

 The delegates returned to Manchester and there 

 formed a permanent organization to be called 

 "The Anti-corn-law League," which should 

 embrace in its membership the entire country, 

 and to agitate for repeal throughout Great 

 Britain by means of tracts, lectures, periodicals, 

 etc., etc. The struggle for the next five or six 

 years between the landholders and privileged 

 classes for the retention of their monopoly, 

 and the anti-corn-law league for the repeal of 

 all restrictions on the importation of bread- 

 stuffs, was a desperate one. 



In 1841 Mr. Cobden was elected a member 

 of Parliament for Stockport, and almost imme- 

 diately took rank with the ablest debaters and 

 the most accomplished statesmen in that body. 

 The efforts of the landholders, at first, to put 

 him down by jeers and derision, were met with 

 such dignity and self-possession that they were 

 not repeated. The number of Free Traders in- 

 creased with each Parliament, but Cobden was 

 at all times their acknowledged leader. In this 

 position he came often into collision with the 

 premier, Sir Eobert Peel, who inclined to half 

 measures, but with each conflict the premier's 

 respect for the great Free Trader rose, till finally 

 the long battle was won, and one by one the 

 hereditary enemies of Free Trade were com- 

 pelled to abandon the doctrines they had cher- 

 ished for a lifetime, and give in their adhesion 

 to the propositions of a Manchester manufac- 

 turer. The premier, in the session of 1846, 

 moved the repeal of the corn-laws in the 

 House of Commons, and the Duke of Welling- 

 ton performed the same duty in the House of 

 Lords, greatly against his will, and only, it was 

 said, on the assurance of Sir Eobert Peel that 

 if he did not, he should be compelled to resign 

 and ask the Queen to send for Mr. Cobden to 

 form a ministry. But the labor necessary for 

 the accomplishment of this great change had 

 not been all, or mainly, expended in the House 

 of Commons. During all the vacations of Par- 

 liament, Mr. Cobden had been constantly en- 

 gaged in appealing to the people in behalf of 

 Free Trade. The manufacturing towns had 

 given in their adhesion to the cause, but the 

 agricultural districts were only to be converted 

 by patient labor and clear demonstration. After 

 a time, great numbers of the landed aristocracy 

 who at first opposed Cobden with great bitter- 

 ness came round to his views, and when at last 

 victory crowned the efforts of the league, there 

 was general rejoicing. But this constant and 

 severe effort had materially impaired Mr. Cob- 

 den's naturally vigorous constitution, as it had 

 seriously injured his fortune. His health was 





