0,
TIL] QORRESPONDENCE WITH SIR ROKERT PERL. 30X

id I ghall not waste a word in apologising for the 1846.
breotnens—nay, the abruptness—with which I state my Zr, 42,
Tiowg,
“Tb i said you are about to resign. I assume that
Vig go, On public grounds this will be & natiooal mis-Ortune,
 The trade of the country, which has languished
rong, six months during the time that the Corn Bill has
bec in suspense, aud which would now sssume a more
“nfident tone, will be again plunged into renewed unsettletent
 by your resignation. Again, the great principle of
"Miner gig] freedom with which your name is associated
‘bron, will be to some extent jeopardized by your retire-“eat,
 Tt will li the whole civilized world with doubt and
Porplexity to see a minister, whom they believed all-powerfy,
 because he was able to carry the most difficalt measure
* oy time, fall at the very moment of his triumph.
orcigmers, who do not comprehend the machinery of our
Sovernment, or the springs of party movements, will doubt
{the people of England are really favourable to Free Trade.
They will have misgivings of the permanence of our new
Mlicy, and this doubt will retard their movements in the
tug direction. You have probably thought of all this.
“ My object, however, in writing is more particularly to
ba your attention from the state of parties in the House, as
Wary your government, to the position you hold as Prime
ingot in the opinion of the country. Ave you aware of
he Strength of your position with the country? If so,
"hy bow to a chance medley of factions in the Legislature,

% Cobden did not know that Sir Robert Pes! put nothing into the fire.
wo 0 said vo one of hia younger followers, —“ My dear ——, no public man
wy, Values hig charscter, ever destroye a letter or a paper.” As a madkter
hig Poel put ap every night all the letters and notes that had come to
thy nthe day, snd it is understood that vonsiderably more thas a hundred
ud papers are in the possession of his literary excoutors, Some who
tag, themsslves upon the minor moralities of private lifk, will be shovked
“ha gig wot respect his correspondent’s wid pulsation.