268

LIFE . . OOBDEN, Tuas

1848. constituents, had I failed in my daty of reminding him o
Ar. 89. his accountability for the proper exercise of his power.
“Sanctioned and sustained as I have been by the
approving voice of the inhabitants of Manchester, and of
my countrymen generally, I shall go forward undeterred bY
the arts or the violence of my opponents, in that course ©
which a conscientious sense of public duty impels me; and
whilst studiously avoiding every ground of personal irritd”
bion—for our cause is too vast in its objects, and too good
and too strong in its principles, to be made a mere topic of
personal altercation—I shall never shrink from declarin§
in my place in Parliament the constitutional doctrine of the
inalienable responsibility of the First Minister of the Crows
for the measures of his Government >

A few days after the scene in the House of Commons, the
first of those great meetings was held, which eventually
turned opinion in London in good earnest to the view?
of the League. The Crown and Anchor and the Free
masons’ Tavern had become too small to hold the audiences:
Drury Lane Theatre was hired, and here seven meocting®
wore held between the beginning of March and the be
ginning of May. The crowds who thronged the theatr®
were not always the same in keenness and energy of per
ception, but their numbers never fell short, and their enthusiasm
 grew more intense as they gradually mastered
the case, and became better acquainted with the persons
and characters of the prominent speakers. In the following
letter to his brother, Cobden hints at the special advantage
which he expected from these gatherings :—
“There is but one of their lies,” he says, referring to the
gossip of the Tories, “that I should care to make them
prove; that is that our business is worth 10,0001, a year |
2 To Bir Thomos Potisr, Marok 1, 1843,