11°

LIFE O¥% OGBDEN. [oms?

1838. show that the nett profits of the firm had exceeded 23,0000
&r, 34. for the year; and though the trade was so fluctuating tho!
the firs half of the following year only showed a profit o
4000!., Cobden’s sanguine temperament led him to speak
8s if their capital were being regularly augmented at the
rate of 2000L. a month. We can easily understand Frederick
Cobden’s unwillingness to be left to his own resources i?
the administration of a business of this size, and his brothe?
promised repeatedly not to throw so heavy a responsibility
upon him. From the time of Cobden’s return from the East
they had both nourished the idea of separating from the
London firm, as well as from the Sabden factory, and the
idea remained in their minds for a couple of years. Then;
as we shall presently see, it was carried into execution.
Cobden, however, had made up his mind after the Stock
port election that to push his material fortunes was not
to be the great aim of his life. “I am willing to give
a few years of entire exertion,” he wrote in 1838, towards
making the separation successful to ourselves. But at the
same time all my exertions will be with an eye to make
myself independent of all business claims on my time and
anxieties. Towards this, Henry and Charles [their two
younger brothers] will for their own sakes, I expect, contribute.
 And I hope and expect in five years they will
be in a situation to force me out of the concern, a willing
eile. At all events I am sure there will not want talent
of some kind about us, to take advantage of my determination
 to be at ease, and have some time for leisure
to take care of my health, and indulge tastes which are iD
some degree essential to my happiness. With reference t0
health, both you and I must not omit reasonable precautions;
we are not made for rivalling Methusaleh, and if we can by
care stave off the grim enemy for twenty years longer, we
shail do more than nature intended for us. At all eventé