84

LIFE OF COBDEN. [oma!

1841. if they were so convinced of the urgency of the evils inflicto
Zr. 87. on the country by the Corn Laws, if they thought ths!
commercial distress was to be attributed to them, and that
these laws were at; the root of the sufferings of the workin?
class—why they had allowed them to remain an ope?
question, and why they remained in office, allowing Lord
Melbourne to hold opposite opinions. Cobden rose t0
protest against treating the subject as a party questiod;
and against making the House a mere debating club. He
insisted on trying to keep the mind of the House fixed 03
the privation and distress in the manufacturing district
and he urged the Minister not to postpone the question of
the Corn Laws over the coming winter.
“+... I sat through the voting of money, vastly edified
and scandalized at the way in which the poor devils of tax:
payers are robbed. The sum of 100,000! for arming and
clothing militia in Canada, light-houses in Jamaica, negro
education, bishops all over the world, &c., &c., in goodly
proportions. . . . The people are, I am afraid, fit for
nothing better. I did not offer an objection, for it would
have been ridiculous to do so. It did, however, cost me
some efforts to hold my tongme. I am glad that you did not
think my second speech too strong. I was not quite satisfied
with it myself. It was, however, badly reported. I was
rather better pleased with my third on Friday, when I found
there was an effort made at first to annoy me, on the part
of some young obscures, one of whom followed me with ab
evidently ¢ conned reply,’ in which he had quotations from
my speech at Manchester, about the Oxford education, the
Ilissus, Scamander, &c. His speech was not reported. If
was & mere prize essay oration, which, thanks to the prac
tical turn that has been given to subjects of debate, finds
no relish in the House now-a-days. It is quite clear that ]
am looked upon as » Gothic invader. and the clasaicals will