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COBDEN, RICHARD (1804-1865)
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See also:COBDEN, See also:RICHARD (1804-1865) , See also:English manufacturer and See also:Radical politician, was See also:born at a farmhouse called Dunford, near See also:Midhurst, in See also:Sussex, on the 3rd of See also:June 1804. The See also:family had been See also:resident in that neighbourhood for many generations, occupied partly in See also:trade and partly in See also:agriculture. Formerly there had been in the See also:town of Midhurst a small manufacture of See also:hosiery with which the Cobdens were connected, though all trace of it had disappeared before the See also:birth of Richard, His grandfather was a maltster in that town, an energetic and 'prosperous See also:man, almost always the See also:bailiff or See also:chief See also:magistrate, and taking rather a notable See also:part in See also:county matters. But his See also:father, forsaking that trade, took to farming at an unpropitious See also:time. He was amiable and See also:kind-hearted, and greatly liked by his neighbours, but not a man of business habits, and he did not succeed in his farming enterprise. He died when his son Richard was a See also:child, and the care of the family devolved upon the See also:mother, who was a woman of strong sense and of See also:great See also:energy of See also:character, and who, after her See also:husband's See also:death, See also:left Dunford and returned to Midhurst. The educational advantages of Richard Cobden were not very ample. There was a See also:grammar school at Midhurst, which at one time had enjoyed considerable reputation, but which had fallen into decay. It was there that he had to pick up such rudiments of knowledge as formed his first equipment in See also:life, but from his earliest years he was indefatigable in the See also:work of self-cultivation. When fifteen or sixteen years of See also:age he went to See also:London to the warehouse of Messrs See also:Partridge & See also:Price, in Eastcheap, one of the partners being his See also:uncle. His relative, ' COBDEN noting the lad's passionate addiction to study, solemnly warned him against indulging such a See also:taste, as likely to prove a fatal obstacle to his success in commercial life. But the admonition was unheeded, for while unweariedly diligent in business, he was in his intervals of leisure a most assiduous student. During his See also:residence in London he found See also:access to the London Institution, and made ample use of its large and well-selected library.
When he was about twenty years of age he became a commercial traveller, and soon became eminently successful in his calling. But never content to sink into the See also:mere trader, he sought to introduce among those he met on the " road " a higher See also:tone of conversation than usually marks the commercial See also:room, and there were many of his associates who, when he had attained See also:eminence, recalled the discussions on See also:political See also:economy and kindred topics with which he was wont to enliven and elevate the travellers' table. In 183o Cobden learnt that Messrs Fort, See also:calico printers at Sabden, near See also:Clitheroe, were about to retire from business, and he, with two other See also:young men, Messrs See also:Sheriff and Gillet, who were engaged in the same commercial See also:house as himself, determined to make an effort to acquire the See also:succession. They had, however, very little See also:capital among them. But it may be taken as an See also:illustration of the instinctive confidence which Cobden through life inspired in those with whom he came into contact, that Messrs Fort consented to leave to these untried young men a large portion of their capital in the business. Nor was their confidence misplaced. The new See also:firm had soon three establishments,—one at Sabden, where the See also:printing See also:works were, one in London and one in See also:Manchester for the See also:sale of their goods. This last was under the See also:direct management of Cobden, who, in 183o or 1831, settled in the See also:city with which his name became afterwards so closely associated. The success of this enterprise was decisive and rapid, and the " Cobden prints " soon became known through the See also:country as of rare value both for excellence of material and beauty of See also:design. There can be no doubt that if Cobden had been satisfied to devote all his energies to commercial life he might soon have attained to great opulence, for it is understood that his See also:share in the profits of the business he had established amounted to from £8000 to £ro,000 a See also:year. But he had other tastes, which impelled him irresistibly to pursue those studies which, as See also: After some time he discovered that the author of these letters was Cobden, whose name was until then quite unknown to him. In 1835 he published his first pamphlet, entitled See also:England, See also:Ireland and See also:America, by a Manchester Manufacturer. It attracted great See also:attention, and ran rapidly through several See also:editions. It was marked by a breadth and boldness of views on political and social questions which betokened an See also:original mind. In this See also:production Cobden advocated the same principles of See also:peace, non, intervention, See also:retrenchment and See also:free trade to which he continued faithful to the last See also:day of his life. Immediately after the publicadon of this pamphlet, he paid a visit to the See also:United States, landing in New See also:York on the 7th of June 1835. He devoted about three months to this tour, passing rapidly through the seaboard states and the adjacent portion of See also:Canada, and See also:collecting as he went large stores of See also:information respecting the See also:condition, resources and prospects of the great western See also:republic. Soon after his return to England he began to prepare another work for the See also:press, which appeared towards the end of 1836, under the See also:title of See also:Russia. It was mainly designed to combat a See also:wild outbreak of Russophobia which, under the See also:inspiration of See also:David See also:Urquhart, was at that time taking See also:possession of the public mind. But it contained also a bold See also:indictment of the whole See also:system of See also:foreign policy then in See also:vogue, founded on ideas as to the See also:balance of See also:power and the See also:necessity of large armaments for the See also:protection of See also:commerce. While this pamphlet was in the press, delicate See also:health obliged him to leave England, and for several months, at the endof 1836 and the beginning of 1837, he travelled in See also:Spain, See also:Turkey and See also:Egypt. During his visit to Egypt he had an interview with Mehemet All, of whose character as a reforming monarch he did not bring away a very favourable impression. He re-turned to England in See also:April 1837. From that time Cobden became a conspicuous figure in Manchester, taking a leading part in the See also:local politics of the town and See also:district. Largely owing to his exertions, the Manchester See also:Athenaeum was established, at the opening of which he was chosen to deliver the inaugural address. He became a member of the chamber of commerce, and soon infused new life into that See also:body. He threw himself with great energy into the agitation which led to the See also:incorporation of the city, and was elected one of its first aldermen. He began also to take a warm See also:interest in the cause of popular See also:education. Some of his first attempts in public speaking were at meetings which he convened at Manchester, See also:Salford, See also:Bolton, See also:Rochdale and other adjacent towns, to See also:advocate the See also:establishment of See also:British See also:schools. It was while on a See also:mission for this purpose to Rochdale that he first formed the acquaintance of See also: Of that famous association Cobden was from first to last the presiding See also:genius and the animating soul. During the seven years between the formation of the league and its final See also:triumph, he devoted himself wholly to the work of promulgating his economic doctrines. His labours were as various as they were incessant—now guiding the See also:councils of the league, now addressing crowded and enthusiastic meetings of his sup-porters in London or the large towns of England and See also:Scotland, now invading the agricultural districts and challenging the landlords to meet him in the presence of their own farmers, to discuss the question in dispute, and now encountering the Chartists, led by Feargus O'See also:Connor. But whatever was the character of his See also:audience he never failed, by the clearness of his statements, the force of his reasoning and the felicity of his illustrations, to make a deep impression on the minds of his hearers. In 1841, See also:Sir See also:Robert See also:Peel having defeated the See also:Melbourne See also:ministry in See also:parliament, there was a general election, when Cobden was returned for Stockport. His opponents had confidently predicted that he would fail utterly in the House of See also:Commons. He did not wait long, after his See also:admission into that See also:assembly, in bringing their predictions to the test. Parliament met on the 19th of See also:August. On the 24th, in course of the debate on the Address, Cobden delivered his first speech. " It was remarked," says See also:Miss See also:Martineau, in her See also:History of the Peace, " that he was not treated in the House with the See also:courtesy usually accorded to a new member, and it was perceived that he did not need such observance." With perfect self-possession, which was not disturbed by the jeers that greeted some of his statements, and with the utmost simplicity, directness and force, he presented the See also:argument against the corn-laws in such a See also:form as startled his audience, and also irritated some of them, for it was a See also:style of eloquence very unlike the conventional style which prevailed in parliament. From that day he became an acknowledged power in the House, and though addressing a most unfriendly audience, he compelled attention by his thorough mastery of his subject, and by the courageous boldness with which he charged the ranks of his adversaries. He soon came to be recognized as one of the fore-most debaters on those economical and commercial questions which at that time so much occupied the attention of parliament; and the most prejudiced and See also:bitter of his opponents were See also:fain to acknowledge that they had to See also:deal with a man whom the most practised and powerful orators of their party found it hard to See also:cope with, and to whose eloquence, indeed, the great statesman in whom they put their See also:trust was obliged ultimately to surrender. On the 17th of See also:February 1843 an extraordinary See also:scene took See also:place in the House of Commons. Cobden had spoken with great fervour of the deplorable suffering and See also:distress which at that time prevailed in the country, for which, he added, he held Sir Robert Peel, as the See also:head of the See also:government, responsible. This remark, when it was spoken, passed unnoticed, being indeed nothing more than one of the commonplaces of party warfare. But a few See also:weeks before, Mr See also:Drummond, who was Sir Robert Peel's private secretary, had been shot dead in the See also:street by a lunatic. In consequence of this, and the manifold anxieties of the time with which he was harassed, the mind of the great statesman was no doubt in a See also:moody and morbid condition, and when he arose to speak later in the evening, he referred in excited and agitated tones to the remark, as an incitement to violence against his See also:person. Sir Robert Peel's party, catching at this hint, threw themselves into a frantic See also:state of excitement, and when Cobden attempted to explain that he meant See also:official, not See also:personal responsibility, they drowned his See also:voice with clamorous and insulting shouts. But Peel lived to make ample and See also:honourable amend for this unfortunate ebullition, for not only did he " fully and unequivocally withdraw the imputation which was thrown out in the See also:heat of debate under an erroneous impression," but when the great free-trade See also:battle had been won, he took the See also:wreath of victory from his own brow, and placed it on that of his old opponent, in the following graceful words:—" The name which ought to be, and will be associated with the success of these See also:measures, is not mine, or that of the See also:noble See also:Lord (See also:Russell), but the name of one who, acting I believe from pure and disinterested motives, has, with untiring energy, made appeals to our See also:reason, and has enforced those appeals with an eloquence the more to be admired because it was unaffected and unadorned; the name which ought to be chiefly associated with the success of these measures is the name of Richard Cobden." Cobden had, indeed, with unexampled devotion, sacrificed his business, his domestic comforts and for a time his health to the public interests. His friends therefore See also:felt, at the See also:close of that long See also:campaign, that the nation owed him some substantial token of gratitude and admiration for those sacrifices. No sooner was the See also:idea of such a See also:tribute started than liberal contributions came from all quarters, which enabled his friends to See also:present him with a sum of £8o,000. Had he been inspired with personal ambition, he might have entered upon the See also:race of political See also:advancement with the prospect of attaining the highest official prizes. Lord John Russell, who, soon after the See also:repeal of the corn laws, succeeded Sir Robert Peel as first See also:minister, invited Cobden to join his government. But he preferred keeping himself at See also:liberty to serve his countrymen unshackled by official ties, and declined the invitation. He withdrew for a time from England. His first intention was to seek See also:complete seclusion in Egypt or See also:Italy, to recover health and strength after his long and exhausting labours. But his fame had gone forth throughout See also:Europe, and intimations reached him from many quarters that his voice would be listened to everywhere with favour, in advocacy of the doctrines to the triumph of which he had so much contributed at See also:home. See also:Writing to a friend in See also:July 1846, he says—" I am going to tell you of a fresh project that has been See also:brewing in my See also:brain. I have given up all idea of burying myself in Egypt or Italy. I am going on an agitating tour through the See also:continent of Europe." Then, referring to messages he had received from influential persons in See also:France, See also:Prussia, See also:Austria, Russia and Spain to the effect mentioned above, he adds:—" Well, I will, with See also:God's assistance during the next twelve months, visit all the large states of Europe, see their potentates or statesmen, and endeavour to enforce those truths which have been irresistible at home. Why should I See also:rust in inactivity? If the public spirit of my country-men affords me the means of travelling as their missionary, I will be the first See also:ambassador from the See also:people of this country to the nations of the continent. I am impelled to this by an instinctive emotion such as has never deceived me. I feel that I could succeed in making out a stronger See also:case for the prohibitive nations of Europe to compel them to adopt a freer system than VI. 20I had here to overturn our protection policy." This See also:programme he fulfilled. He visited in succession France, Spain, Italy, See also:Germany and Russia. He was received everywhere with marks of distinction and See also:honour. In many of the See also:principal capitals he was invited to public banquets, which afforded him an op• portunity of propagating those principles of which he was regarded as the apostle. But beside these public demonstrations he sought and found access in private to many of the leading statesmen, in the various countries he visited, with a view to indoctrinate them with the same principles. During his See also:absence there was a general election, and he was returned (1847) for Stockport and for the See also:West See also:Riding of See also:Yorkshire. He See also:chose to sit for the latter. When Cobden returned from the continent he addressed himself to what seemed to him the logical See also:complement of free trade, namely, the promotion of peace and the reduction of See also:naval and military armaments. His abhorrence of See also:war amounted to a See also:passion. Throughout his long labours in behalf of unrestricted commerce he never lost sight of this, as being the most See also:precious result of the work in which he was engaged,—its tendency to diminish the hazards of war and to bring the nations of the See also:world into closer and more lasting relations of peace and friendship with each other. He was not deterred by the fear of ridicule or the reproach of Utopianism from associating himself openly, and with all the ardour of his nature, with the peace party in England. In 1849 he brought forward a proposal in parliament in favour of See also:international See also:arbitration, and in 1851 a See also:motion for mutual reduction of armaments. He was not successful in either case, not did he expect to be. In pursuance of the same See also:object, he identified himself with a series of remarkable peace congresses—international assemblies designed to unite the intelligence and philanthropy of the nations of Christendom in a league against war—which from 1848 to 1851 were held successively in See also:Brussels, See also:Paris, See also:Frankfort, London, Manchester and See also:Edinburgh. On the establishment of the See also:French See also:empire in 1851–1852 a violent panic took possession of the public mind. The press promulgated the wildest alarms as to the intentions of See also: At the beginning of 1857 tidings from See also:China reached England of a rupture between the British plenipotentiary in that country and the See also:governor of the See also:Canton provinces in reference to a small See also:vessel or lorcha called the " Arrow," which had resulted in the English See also:admiral destroying the See also:river forts, burning 23 See also:ships belonging to the See also:Chinese See also:navy and bombarding the city of Canton. After a careful investigation of the official documents, Cobden became convinced that those were utterly unrighteous proceedings. He brought forward a motion in parliament to this effect, which led to a long and memorable debate, lasting over four nights, in which he was supported by See also:Sydney See also:Herbert, Sir See also: On his arrival in London he called on Lord Palmerston, and with the utmost frankness told him that he had opposed and denounced him so frequently in public, and that he still differed so widely from his views, especially on questions of foreign policy, that he could not, without doing violence to his own sense of See also:duty and consistency, serve under him as minister. Lord Palmerston tried See also:good-humouredly to combat his objections, but without success. But though he declined to share the responsibility of Lord Palmerston's See also:administration, he was willing to See also:act as its representative in promoting freer commercial intercourse between England and France. But the negotiations for this purpose originated with himself in See also:conjunction with Bright and See also:Michel See also:Chevalier. Towards the close of 1859 he called upon Lord Palmerston, Lord John Russell and Gladstone, and signified his intention to visit France and get into communication with the emperor and his ministers, with a view to promote this object. These statesmen expressed in general terms their approval of his purpose, but he went entirely on his own See also:account, clothed at first with no official authority. On his arrival in Paris he had a long audience with Napoleon, in which he urged many arguments in favour of re-moving those obstacles which prevented the two countries from being brought into closer dependence on one another, and he succeeded in making a considerable inpression on his mind in favour of free trade. He then addressed himself to the French ministers, and had much See also:earnest conversation, especially with See also:Rouher, whom he found well inclined to the economical and commercial principles which he advocated. After a good deal of time spent in these preliminary and unofficial negotiations, the question of a treaty of commerce between the two countries having entered into the See also:arena of See also:diplomacy, Cobden was requested by the British government to act as their plenipotentiary in the See also:matter in conjunction with Lord See also:Cowley, their ambassador in France. But it proved a very long and laborious undertaking. He had to contend with the bitter hostility of the French protectionists, which occasioned a good deal of vacillation on the part of the emperor and his ministers. There were also delays,hesitations and cavils at home, which were more inexplicable.. He was, moreover, assailed with great violence by a powerful See also:section of the English press, while the large number of See also:minute details with which he had to deal in connexion with proposed changes in the French See also:tariff, involved a tax on his See also:patience and See also:industry which would have daunted a less resolute man But there was one source of embarrassment greater than all the See also:rest. One strong See also:motive which had impelled him to engage in this enterprise was his anxious See also:desire to establish more friendly relations between England and France, and to dispel those feelings of mutual jealousy and alarm which were so frequently breaking forth and jeopardizing peace between the two countries. This was the most powerful argument with which he had plied the emperor and the members of the French government, and which he had found most efficacious with them. But while he was in the midst of the negotiations, Lord Paimerstcn brought forward in the House of Commons a measure for fortifying the naval arsenals of England, which he introduced in a warlike speech pointedly directed against France, as the source of danger of invasion and attack, against which it was necessary to guard. This produced irritation and resentment in Paris, and but for the See also:influence which Cobden had acquired, and the perfect trust reposed in his sincerity, the negotiations would probably have been altogether wrecked. At last, however, after nearly twelve months' incessant labour, the work was completed in See also:November 186o. " Rare," said Mr Gladstone, " is the See also:privilege of any man who, having fourteen years ago rendered to his country one See also:signal service, now again, within the same brief span of life, decorated neither by land nor title, bearing no See also:mark to distinguish him from the people he loves, has been permitted to perform another great and memorable service to his See also:sovereign and his country." On the conclusion of this work honours were offered to Cobden by the governments of both the countries which he had so greatly benefited. Lord Palmerston offered him a baronetcy and a seat in the privy See also:council, and the emperor of the French would gladly have conferred upon him some distinguished mark of his favour. But with characteristic disinterestedness and modesty he declined all such honours. Cobden's efforts in furtherance of free trade were always subordinated to what he deemed the highest moral purposes—the promotion of peace on See also:earth and See also:goodwill among men. This was his desire and See also:hope as respects the commercial treaty with France. He was therefore deeply disappointed and distressed to find the old feeling of distrust still actively fomented by the press and some of the leading politicians of the country. In 1862 he published his pamphlet entitled The Three Panics, the object of which was to trace the history and expose the folly of those periodical visitations of alarm as to French designs with which England had been afflicted for the preceding fifteen or sixteen years.
When the See also:Civil War threatened to break out in the United States, Cobden was deeply distressed. But after the conflict became inevitable his sympathies were wholly with the See also:North, because the See also:South was fighting for See also:slavery. His great anxiety, however, was that the British nation should not be committed to any unworthy course during the progress of that struggle. And when relations with America were becoming See also:critical and menacing in consequence of the depredations committed on See also:American commerce by vessels issuing from British ports, he brought the question before the House of Commons in a series of speeches of rare clearness and force.
For several years Cobden had been suffering severely at intervals from bronchial irritation and a difficulty of breathing. Owing to this he had spent the See also:winter of 186o in See also:Algeria, and every subsequent winter he had to be very careful and confine himself to the house, especially in See also:damp and foggy See also:weather. In November 1864 he went down to Rochdale and delivered a speech to his constituents—the last he ever delivered. :That effort was followed by great See also:physical prostration, and he deter-See also:mined not to quit his retirement at Midhurst until See also:spring had fairly set in. But in the See also:month of See also: He recovered a little for a few days after his arrival in London; but on the 2gth there was a relapse, and on the 2nd of April 1865 he expired peacefully at his apartments in See also:Suffolk Street.
On the following day there was a remarkable scene in the House of Commons. When the clerk read the orders of the day Lord Palmerston See also:rose, and in impressive and See also:solemn tones declared " it was not possible for the House to proceed to business without every member recalling to his mind the great loss which the House and country had sustained by the event which took place yesterday See also:morning." He then paid a generous tribute to the virtues, the abilities and services of Cobden, and he was followed by Disraeli, who with great force and felicity of See also:language delineated the character of the deceased statesman, who, he said, " was an ornament to the House of Commons and an honour to England." Bright also attempted to address the House, but, after a See also:sentence or two delivered in a tremulous voice, he was overpowered with emotion, and declared he must leave to a calmer moment what he had to say on the life and character of the manliest and gentlest spirit that ever quitted or tenanted a human form.
In the French See also:Corps Legislatif, also, the See also:vice-See also:president, Forgade la Roquette, referred to his death, and warm expressions of esteem were repeated and applauded on every See also:side. " The death of Richard Cobden," said M. la Roquette, " is not alone a misfortune for England, but a cause of See also:mourning for France and humanity." Drouyn de Lhuys, the French minister of foreign affairs, made his death the subject of a See also:special despatch, desiring the French ambassador to See also:express to the government " the mournful sympathy and truly national regret which the death, as lamented as premature, of Richard Cobden had excited on that side of the Channel." " He is above all," he added, " in our eyes the representative of those sentiments and those See also:cosmopolitan principles before which national frontiers and rivalries disappear; whilst 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 to say so, was an international man."
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