“ef

LIFE OF COBDEN. (ons?

1838, In the autumn of 1838, Lancashire was disturbed bf
 torchlight meetings, destruction of property, and oth?
formidable proceedings, under the lead of the Chartists,~
Stephens, Oastler, and others. This superficial outbres!
had no alarms for Cobden. In a vein which is thoroughly
characteristic of the writer, he proceeds in the letter fro”
which I have been quoting :—
“As respects general politics, I see nothing in the
present radical outbreak to cause alarm, or make oD
dread the fate of liberalism. On the contrary, it is pre
ferable to the apathy of the three years when prosperity
(or seemingly so) made Tories of all. Nor do I feel at 8)
inclined to give up polities 1m disgust, as you seem to do
because of the blunders of she Radicals. They are rash
and presumptuous, or ignorant if you will, but are not th°
governing factions something worse? Is not selfishness
or systematic plunder, or political knavery as odious as th¢
blunders of democracy? We must choose between th?
party which governs upon an exclusive or monopoly priz
ciple, and the people who seek, though blindly perhaps, th
good of the vast majority. If they be in error we must tr¥
to put them right, if rash to moderate; but never, never talk
of giving up the ship. . . . . I think the scattered elements
may yet be rallied round the question of the corn laws. I
appears to me that a moral and even a religious spirit may
be infused into that topic, and if agitated in the same manned
that the question of slawery has been, it will be irresistible
I can give this question a great lift when I return, by pub
lishing the result of my inquiries into the state of things 0?
the Continent, and particularly with reference to the Prussia?
Union.” ¢

Yet Cobden bad in his heart no illusions on the subject
of his countrymen, or their special susceptibility to eithe"
4s Po 0. Ock. Bb Us