1843.
Rr. 80.

250

LIFE (7 OORDEN. [oms?

scandal of the recent scene in the House, and perhaps tbe
fact that he was a meraber of the House, all contributed to
make his position at this time conspicuous and unique, bat
his simplicity of spirit filled men with an affection and lov
for him, which made his success their own. As a speake™
nobody knew better than he did the more stately geni®®
of his chief friend and ally. He once told an audience ab
Rochdale that at this time, for reasons which they would
be at no loss to guess, he always stipulated that Mr. Bright
should let him speak first. From Winchester Mr. Bright
wrote to him, that they had promised faithfully that B¢
should attend the meeting, and that if the train failed
bring him, they should run the country. If Cobden’s name
was mentioned at a meeting, the audience would rise and
give three times three for the member for Stockport, th
riend of the people. At Manchester, an immense gathering
assembled to present an address to him, formally describin8
him as the leader of the movement; and the cheers gre¥
more enthusiastic when a letter from Lord Ducie was red
declaring that there was no man alive to whom the country
was more indebted than to Richard Cobden. In the sam?
way the men on the other side singled him out for special
vituperation ; and people who had never seen a print-work?
in their lives, excited agricultural audiences by assertit8
that Cobden was making enormous wealth at the expense
of the strength, the happiness, the limbs, and the very 1ives
of little children. .
As ho said afterwards, Cobden lived at this time in publi
meetings. Along with the county meetings, there was OF
some time a weekly gathering at the Commercial Rooms in
Threadneedle Street, where the League speakers reiterated
their arguments to crowded audiences of merchants and
bankers, There were the enthusiastic assemblies at Drury
Lane and afterwards at Covent Garden, in which the I