Richard Cobden, the Apostle of Free Trade: His Political Career and Public Services
A Biography. By , Author of “ The Life of Lord Dundonald.” etc. New York : Harper & Brothers.
THIS unassuming volume, of small size and plain covers, is strictly what it pretends to be, a simple biography, and therefore, apart from its subject, it is a book to be commended. We do not see the author on every page, we are not forced to stop and listen to his reflections, nor to long digressions into history, too commonly the fault in contemporaneous biography of political men. The writer kindly remembers that the reader’s ignorance or knowledge does not rest upon his conscience. Therefore we find in the little book what we wish, the story of Richard Cobden, “the international man"; and it is a noble life-history, of which no American should be ignorant.
His success in business, remarkable as it was, is a greater source of wonder and admiration in England than in America, where the rapid accumulation of a fortune and the creation of a large mercantile house have hitherto been matters of less rare occurrence than in older countries ; but the result and use of Richard Cobden’s financial success are as unprecedented and surprising at one end of the money-making and money-spending world as the other.
Soon after the establishment of his business house in Manchester, Mr. Cobden interested himself in the public welfare of that city. His labors in behalf of the people attracted John Bright to his side, and at the early age of thirty years he had made a “ decided local mark.”
The saying, true and old as the fact men call character, that it is what an individual is, and not what he does, which marks him good or ill among his kind, holds eminently true with regard to Richard Cobden, Not only was the range of his sympathies wide, the aim was sure ; “ he never lost sight,” said Mr. Disraeli, “of the sympathies of those whom he addressed ; and so, generally avoiding to drive his arguments to an extremity, he became, as a speaker, both practical and persuasive”; and the same power, brought to bear upon the actions and communications of every day, made him a puissant servant of the Right.
There are three or four benefactions, however, which he was instrumental in conferring upon his own country, and indirectly upon all countries, for which he has become justly celebrated. These are tangible and enduring proofs of character for those who knew him not, and show his sympathy to have transcended the bounds of mere sentiment, and passed into the region of energetic self-sacrifice.
His efforts for the Anti-Corn-Law and Free Trade in England cannot be over-estimated. His life and strength and fortune were as nothing in comparison with his desire to benefit the people. When he first comprehended the necessity of labor in the Anti-Corn-Law struggle, he determined to press Mr. Bright, whose abilities had already produced a deep impression upon Mr. Cobden, into the service; but Mr. Bright had lately lost his wife and had retired to Leamington, where Mr. Cobden 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 his great sorrow turned to the nation’s and the world’s advantage.”
Years afterward, a short time before their final triumph in behalf of Free Trade, Mr. Cobden saw his fortune becoming materially injured, besides his actual losses, estimated at twenty thousand pounds. His courage failed at length, and he went so far as to write to Mr. Bright that it was his intention to withdraw from the agitation and endeavor to retrieve his business. Then in turn Mr. Bright went to his friend, in Manchester, and was successful in urging him to reconsider his determination. It was agreed among the Free-Traders to bestow eighty thousand pounds upon Mr. Cobden when the struggle was ended, and he soon after received this manifest mark of their esteem and gratitude.
His labors to preserve peace, to strengthen the bonds of amity and weaken the causes for distrust between England and France, were earnest, unwearying, and fruitful in their results. His endeavors also to stem the dreadful tide drifting into the Crimean War, and his appeal in the House of Commons, when war became imminent with China, “that a select committee be appointed to examine into the state of our commercial relations with that country,” prove his unswerving principles, and his energetic desire to preserve peace, until war should be declared a national necessity.
A man of the iron integrity of Cobden found himself necessarily in opposition to a man of popularity and self-aggrandizement, like Palmerston. Therefore, when the primeminister announced his determination to reserve certain seats in his cabinet and ministry “ for the leaders of advanced Liberalism,” Richard Cobden declined the position appointed to himself, saying to Lord Palmerston, “ that he had always regarded him as a most dangerous minister for England, and his views still remained the same.”
One of Mr. Cobden’s last efforts in the House of Commons was for the repeal of the Paper Duty. He said, — “ If I were a young man just fresh from college, with nothing in the world but a good education, there is nothing I should work for with so much interest as making perfectly free the press of this country, by removing all the taxes which tend to render scarce and dear literary productions.” The last time Mr. Cobden addressed a public audience, he said, — “ If I were a rich man, I would endow a professor’s chair at Oxford and Cambridge to instruct the undergraduates of those universities in American history. I would undertake to say, and I speak advisedly, that I will take any undergraduate 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. . . . To bring up young men from college with no knowledge of the country in which the great drama of modern politics and national 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 influence 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 government, is, I say, imperilling 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 future welfare of his country.” He concluded his speech by saying, — “ Do you suppose it possible, when the knowledge of the principles of political economy has elevated the working classes, and when that elevation is continually progressing, that you can permanently 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 further delay.”
The speech of Lord Palmerston in the House of Commons, after the death of Mr. Cobden, must be familiar to all readers. It came to round the measure of his eulogy, which had been sung in the East and in the West, in the North and in the South, and at length was heard even from the heart of Nazareth. We will not quote here the words of England’s late minister; we would only urge those who love the study of nobility to read the Life of Richard Cobden, remembering such men “are set here for examples.”