404

LIFE OF COBDEN. {oma®

1846. bad I proposed to you to join the Government could I have
Zr. 42. placed you anywhere but in the Cabinet. I have nob
hitherto perceived that you were disposed to adopt politics!
life, apart from Free Trade, a8 a pursait. I hope, howeve™
you will do so, and that on your return to this country yO
will join a liberal Administration, .
“I care little whether the present arrangement remsit®
for any long period in the direction of affairs. Bub I 82
anxious to see a large Liberal majority in the House of
Commons devoted to improvement, both in this country and
in Ireland. Mr. Charles Villiers has declined to take any
office. I am about to propose to Mr. Milner Gibson
become Vice-President of the Board of Trade.
“I remain, with sentiments of regard and respect,
Yours very faithfully,
J. Russzin.”

What were the “other circumstances” which prevented
Lord John Russell from inviting Cobden to join his Gover?”
ment, we can only guess. It is pretty certain that they
related to & project of which a good deal had been heard
during the last four or five months. There would B%"
deniably have been some difficulty in giving high office i?
the state to a politician whose friends were at the tim®
publicly collecting funds for a national testimonial of 2
pecuniary kind, Whether the Whig chief was glad or 10!
to have this excuse for leaving Cobden out of his Cabinets
the ground of the omission was not unreasonable.
The final meeting of the League took place on the sam®
day on which Lord John Russell wrote to explain that he
intended to show his appreciation of what was dune to tho$?
“ who bad maintained in our recent struggle the principle®
of Free Trade against Monopoly,” by offering Mr. Gibso?
8 post without either dignity or influence. The Leaguo®