102

LIFE OF COBDEN. [omsf

1848. of Commons, “quote the superior judgment of the working
Hr. 4. classes in any deliberations in this assembly: you never
heard me cant abowt the superior claims of the working
classes to arbitrate on this great question.”® P oljtics!
power was to be in the hands of people who had publ
spirit enough to save the thirty pounds or mo that would
boy them a qualification, if they could not get it in sof
other way. These middle and industrious classes would
insist on pacific and thrifty administration, as the politics
condition of popular development. Circumstances hed
brought forward a powerful representative of such ®
policy in Bir Robert Peel; and Peel at the head of ®
fusion of Whigs and Economic Liberals would carry bho
country along the ways of a new and happier civilizatio™
The old Whig watchword of Civil and Religions Liberty
belonged to another generation, and it had ceased to bo
the exclusive cry of the Whigs even now. The repesl of
the Corn Laws had broken up all parties, “I felt,” said
Cobden, “that I as much belonged to Sir James Grahan’®
party, as I did to Lord John Russell’s party.” Ther
must be & great reconstruction, and Sir Robert Peel 8°
to preside over it.
"Such a scheme was admirable in itself, In substance it 78°
destined to be partially realized one day, not by Peel, but
by the most powerful and brilliant of his lieutenants. Tho
singular fate which had marked the Minister’s past career was
an invincible obstacle to Cobden’s project. It was too 18%
All the accepted decencies of party would have been out”
raged if the statesman who had led an army of Tory country
gentlemen in one Parliament, should have hurried to lead 5”
army of liberal manufacturers in the next. The transitio®
was too violent, the prospect of success too much of #
accident. Nobody, again, could expect with Lord Job*
8 Swesches, L 872. Feb. 27, 18486. 4 Speeches, ii. BOT