r}

BUSINESS AND POSITION IN MANCHESTER. 119

let ug remember that to live usefully is far better than living
long. And do not let us deprive ourselves of the gratifica- Zr. 34
tion at last, a gratification which the selfish never have, that
We have not embittered our whole lives with heaping up
Toney, but that we have given a part of our time to more
rational and worthy exertions.” ®
Even now, when the indispensable work of laying a base
of material prosperity was still incomplete, and when his
Wn business might well have occupied his whole attention,
he Was always thinking much more earnestly about: the
Wherests of others than his own. The world of contem-Poraries
 and neighbours seldom values or loves this generous
and unfamiliar spirit, and the tone of Manchester was in
this respect not much higher than that of the rest of the
world, Tt cannot surprise us to learn that for some time
Cobden made no great progress in Manchester society.
He wag extremely self-possessed and self-confident, and as
& consequence he was often thought to be wanting in the
respect that is due from a young man to his elders, and
from & man who has a fortune to make, towards those
who have made it. His dash, his freedom of speech, his
ardour for new ideas, were taken for signs of levity ; and
® certain airy carelessness about dress marked a rebel
against the minor conventions of the world, The patient
endurance of mere ceremonial was ab this time impossible
to him. He could not be brought to attend the official
dinners given by the Lord of the Manor. When he was
selected to serve as assessor at the Court-leet for manorial
Purposes, though the occasion brought him into contact
with men who might have been useful to him in his business,
he treated the honour very easily. He sat restlessly on
his bench, and then strolled away after an hour or two
had shown him that the proceedings were without real
® ToF. 0. Oct. 26. 1838.

1838.