252

LI%E OF COBDEN, {oma¥

1842. ance of the enlightened and patriotic in all parts of the
Zir. 38. kingdom"!
The staff of lecturers was again despatched on ite
missionary errand. To each elector in the kingdom w#*
sent a little library of tracts. Tea parties followed bY
meetings were found to be more attractive in the norther?
towns than meetings without tea parties. Places where
meetings had been thinly attended, now produced crowds:
Cobden, Mr. Bright, Mr. Ashworth, and the other chief
speakers, again scoured the country north of the Trent;
and at the end of the year, the first two of these, along with
Colonel Perronet Thompson—the author of the famous
Catechism of the Corn Lows, sud styled by Cobden, the
father of them all—proceeded on a pilgrimage to Scotland:
“ Our progress ever since we crossed the border,” Cobden?
writes, ““ has been gratifying in the extreme. Had we bee
disposed to encourage a display of enthusiasm, we might
have frightened the more nervous of the monopolists with
our demonstrations, As it is, we have been content 1°
allow honours to be thrust upon us in cur own persons, oF
rather mine, by the representatives of the people. Glasgo™
Edinburgh, Kirkcaldy, Dundee, Perth, and Stirling, hav®
all presented me with the freedom of their burghs, and 1
have no doubt I could have become a free citizen of every
corporate town in Scotland by paying them a visit.? All
this is due to the principles we advocate, for I have don?
all T could to discourage any personal compliments to myself.
 Scotland is fairly up now, and we shall have more iP
future from this side of the Tweed upon the Corn Law. We

t To Edward Baines, Oct. 25, 1842,
% It ig worth noticing that in Glasgow this honour was conferred npo?
him, not merely on the ground of his pablic action, but because, in. the word?
of his proposer, by his ingenuity as a calico printer, he had brought tha
marnfuciure to suck a state of perfection that we were now able to cone?
with the printers of France and Switzerland.