CHAPTER V.

LIFE IN MANCHESTER, 1837-9

A FEW weoks after Cobden’s return home from the East, 1887.
William the Fourth died (June 20), and the accession of Zur. 33
Queen Victoria to the throne was followed by a general
election. For some months Cobden’s name had been before
the politicians of Stockport, and while he was abroad, he
had kept his brother constantly instructed how to proceed
in the various contingencies of electioneering. Frederick
Cobden seems even at this early stage to have expressed
Some not unnatural anxiety, lest public life should withdraw
the indispensable services of his brother from their business,
He had even remonstrated against any further pamphlets.
“Do not fear,” replied Richard Cobden, “I am not authormad.
 Bat I have written a letter to the editor of the Globe,
in which,” —and so forth! He was in no sense author-mad,
bus still he was overflowing with thoughts and arguments
and a zeal for the commonwealth, which made publication
in one shape or another as much a necessity to him, as it is a
Becessity to a poet or an apostle. In the same letter, in
&nswer to a friend’s warning that he should not spoil his
holiday by anxiety as to affairs at home, he said :—“1 am
not, I assure him, giving one moment's thought to the
Stockport electors. The worthy folks may do as they
Please. They can make me M.P. by their favour, but they
cannot mar my happiness if they reject me. It is ‘the
t To F. Cobden. Nov. 11, 1838.