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over the length and bresdth of the land to convert the natio®
had about it something apostolic : it presented something 5°
far removed from the stereotyped ways of political activity?
that this circumstance alone, apart from the object for which
they were pleading, touched and affected people, and gave ?
certain dramatic interest to the long pilgrimages of the tW0
men who had only become orators because they had som®
thing to say, which they were intent on bringing their hearer
to believe, and which happened to be true, wise, and just
The agitator has not been a very common personag®é in
English history. The greatest that has ever been seen Wa?
0’Connell, and I do not know of any other, until the time of
the League, who may be placed even as second to him. In
the previous century Wilkes had made a great figure, and
Wilkes was a man of real power and energy. But he W8°
rather the symbol of a strong popular sentiment, than it8
inspirer ; and he may be more truly said to have been born®
on the crest of the movement, than to have given to it forc®
or volume.
Cobden seemed to have few of the endowments of #2
agitator, as that character is ordinarily thought of. He had
no striking physical gifts of the histrionic kind, He had
one physical quality which must be ranked first among th
secondary endowments of great workers. Later in life b°
said, “If I had not had the faculty of sleeping like a dead
fish, in five minutes after the most exciting mental efforts
and with the certainty of having oblivion for six consecuti?®
hours, I should not have been alive now.” In his early day®
he was slight in frame and build. He afterwards gre”
nearer to portliness. He had a large and powerful head;
and the indescribable charm of a candid eye. His feature?
were not of a commanding type; but they were illuminated
and made attractive by the brightness of intelligence, of
gympathy, and of earnestness. About the mouth there W8¢