72

LIFE OF COBDEN. (oma?

1845. recklessness proper to their age. They were conducted by
Zr. 41. men who were in close connexion with the politicians; 5
that everything in their hands became a question betwee™
Ministry and Opposition. Worst of all they were vensl
Prejudice, error, and calumny were paid for by the line:
One was sold to the Russians, another to Protection, his 80
the university, that to the bank. “Our agitation,” Bastiat
wrote to Cobden, “agitates very little. We still need 2
man of action. When will he arise? I cannot tell I
ought to be that man; I am urged to the part by the
unanimous confidence of my colleagues, but I cannot. The
character is not there, and all the advice in the world
cannot make an osk out of a reed” We know BO
what encouragement Cobden gave to his friend, for
by an evil chance his letters to Bastiat were all destroyed.
 Their correspondence was tolerably constan’
and if Bastiat was indebted to Cobden for the energy of
his views on Free Trade, Cobden may well have had ns
own views strengthened and diversified by Bastiat’s keer
and active logic. Bastiat always said that he valued the
spirit of free exchange more than free exchange itself, and
Cobden had already been approaching this doctrine before
Bastiat became his friend.

The League was now in the seventh year of its labours
In 1839 their subscriptions had only reached what after
wards seemed the modest amount of 50007. The followin8
year they rose to nearly 8000. In 1843 the Council asked
for 50,0001. and got it. In 1844 they asked for twice 8°
much, and by the end of the year between 80,0000. and
90,0007. had been paid in. They were now spending 1000
a week. In spite of the activity which was involved in thes®
profuse supplies, the outlook of the cause was, perbap®
3 Bastiat to Cobden. Mar. 20, and April 20, 1847, Eww. i. 156-8.