Cobbett and Mill. 485 



Bills became law, the community would be required to dis- 

 burse more money in bounties so as to get rid of the superfluous 

 cereals by increased exportation. This was specious reasoning, 

 but its inconsistency is apparent in the ensuing paragraph. 

 "Nevertheless," adds Cobbett, "if the quartern loaf should 

 again rise to eighteen pence, I should not at all wonder to see 

 a revival of these remedies, these State nostrums, especially 

 the project of commuting the tithes." He does not, apparently, 

 perceive that with the rise in the price of bread, the opposite 

 policy of discouraging the exportation of grain would follow as 

 a natural consequence, with which the encouragement and 

 extension of the grain- producing area would then be quite 

 consistent. 



Into such a mistake as this it would have been impossible 

 for the logical mind of Mill to fall, and perhaps it will enable 

 us to gauge and compare the abilities of these two men most 

 graphically, if we consider some instance of controversial 

 economy in which both took a part. With no topic was 

 Cobbett either more interested or more familiar than the im- 

 provement of the lot of the working-classes, and at the same 

 time, no problem is calculated to more effectually evoke a dis- 

 play of all those mental gifts with which Mill was by nature so 

 generously endowed. 



The latter kept two objects in view whilst seeking measures 

 for the relief of the working-man. The first was the effect 

 which would be produced upon the character of the individuals 

 benefited ; the second was the change which would be brought 

 about in their daily life. Thus, however greatly some pro- 

 posal might improve the material existence of the industrial 

 class, it failed in Mill's eyes, if it did not improve their minds 

 also, and in making any suggestion of a similar nature, he 

 refused to separate the sentimental from the more practical 

 sides of this problem. 



The ideal relationship between rich and poor had hitherto 

 been that of the parent to the child. It was the superior's 

 duty to see to the education, religion, clothing, amusement, 

 and food of his inferiors. This was the old feudal polity of 

 protector and protected, a seductive picture full of admirable 



