CHAPTER IX.

COBDEN AS AW AGITATOR.

1641.
d to be a ——
hat prove ’s Zr. 87.
1 there happened Bi and in Gobcon's
1 the autumn of 184 als of the Teng made that soles
Signal event in the an jo Mr. Bright to the movemen
. ) ,
Personal history. so strong an Ire n and noble friend:
“ompact which gave of an affections jar until Cob
20d was the Semi of a cloud or a]
ship that lasted wi
death

Mr, Bright, who was seven yesrs younger than Cobden,
15d made his acquaintance some time before the question of
the Corn Laws had come up. He had gone over in the year
1836 or 1837 to Manchester, to call upon Cobden, ‘to ask
him if 1g would be kind enough to come to Rochdale, and to
SPeak at an education meeting which was about to be held in
"he schoolraom of the Baptist chapel in West Street of that
town, found him in his office in Mosley Street. I introduced
 myself to him. I told him what I wanted. His
ountenance lis up with pleasure to find that there were
Others thag were working in this question, and he withoub
hesitation agreed to come. He came, and he spoke; and
though, he was then go young as a speaker, yet the qualities
°f hig speech were such as remained with him so long as he
"as able to speak at all—clearness, logic, & conversational
Sloguence, a persuasiveness which, when conjoined with the