ELLY

COBDEN'S POSITION.

2%

forest of the London public was so great that the report of
them doubled and trebled the ordinary sale of the news-Papers
 on the following morning. Besides all this, Cobden
Mitended to everything that in any way concerned his own
Breat subject in the House of Commons. There his position
by this time had become really formidable to the Minister.
His complete knowledge of every aspect of the cage, his
tenacity, his skill in debate, and the immense influence
Which if was perceived that he was acquiring out of doors,
had brought him to a front place; and the man who in Feb-*Uary
 had been spoken of as politically ruined, was by August
®Xercising a pressure on the mind of Sir Robert Peel, as
Strong on the one side, as the pressure of a whole group of
"Msurgent dukes on. the other.
The serious subjects of discussion in Parliament were all
related to the social condition of the people, and men noticed
Bow af one point or another they all touched the question of
Free Trade, The Government brought in their famous measure
of national education, as we shall afterwards see. The Leagne,
though not formally opposed to the measure, pointed out the
folly of first by the Corn Law taxing the people into poverty,
0d then taxing the impoverished to pay for the instruction
of the starving. Charles Buller pressed his scheme of statebded
 emigration The League retorted that if the Corn

18438.

Fr. 39.

* In his speech, Buller reproached Cobden w7ith condescending to practise
™ the ignorance of his audience by resort to stale theatrics! clap-trap, which
Must have been suggested to him by the genius of Drury Lane—where he
"a5 speaking, Ag this particular passage hes been much applanded by
Sobdenty sdmirers, both abroad end at home, I venture to reproduce it:
Did the men who signed that memorial ever go down fo St. Catherine's
Docks, and gee an emigration ship about to start on its voysge ? Had they
Som hogs poor emigrants sitting 4ill the moment of departure on the stoned
f the quay, ag if they would cling to the last to the lund of their birth?
they need not inquire what were their feelings ; they would read their
arts in their faces, Had they ever seen them taking leave of their
Criondy p He hed watched euch scenes over and over again, He had seam
® Yonerable woman, taking lewve of ber grandchildron, snd be had meen a