262

LIFE OF COBDEN, ad

1848. ceeded-—to excite discontent and breakings-out into violent
x. 39. in different parts of the country; and, above all, I cannot
discharge my duty to your Lordships and to my own con”
science, if I do not express the utter abhorrence and disgust
with which T have noted some men—men clothed with
sacred functions, though 1 trust unconnected with the
League, who have actully in this very metropolis of #
British and Christian community, and in the middle of the
nineteenth century of the gospel of grace and peace, nob
scrupled to utter words to which I will not at present more
particularly allude, but which I abhor, detest, and scorn, 8°
being calculated to produce fatal effects—I will not 887
have produced them-—but calculated to produce the taking
away of innocent life.” }
Cobden, as we might expect, had spoken freely of this
rebuke as the result of a reckless intellect and a malignant
spirit, or words to that effect.’ Nobody can think that Mr
Roebuck had chosen his moment very chivalrously. Ever
now, when time and death are throwing the veil of kindly
oblivion over the struggle, we read with some satisfactio?
the denunciation by Mr. Bright, of the Brummage™
Brougham, who, when the whole Ministerial side of the
House was yelling at the man who stood there, the very
impersonation of justice to the people, stood forward and
dared to throw his puny dart at Richard Cobden.” Ther
is hardly an instance which illustrates more painfully tho
ungenerous, the unsparing, the fierce treatment for which
man must be prepared who enters public life in the Hous?
of Commons. The sentiment of the House itself was agains?
Cobden. It always is more or less secretly against anyon’
of its members who is known to have a serious influenc

s Mr, ight
Mi. Begs ek che mat fe somtpondns, 7, 1
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