156

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ify OF CB

1846. in Tealy. Hero they remained froma January antil the ond 0
Hix. 42. June. From Venice they weut north to the Austrian capité)
and thence to Berlin. In the first week in August Drs.
Cobden started for England, while her hushand turned 1%
face eastwards, In Russia he passed five weeks, and thre?
weeks more were usefully spent in the journey home by wey
of Lubeck and Hamburg,
When he returned to Hugland he had such a conspect®
and cosmorama of Harope in his mind as was possessed by
no statesman in the country ; of the great economic currents
of the special commiorcial interests, of the conflicting POU
tical issues, of the leading personages. Unless knowledg®
of such things is a superfluity for statesmen whose strons
point is asserted to be foreign policy, Cobden was more fi
bo discuss the foreign policy of this country than any 18%
in if. In less than a year after his return, Furope W%°
shaken by a tremendous convulsion. The kings whom he
had seen were forced from their thrones, and the greatest of
the statesmen of the old world fled out in haste from Viens
Neither they nor Cobden foresaw the storm that was 5°
close upon them ; but Cobden at least was aware of those
movements in Paris which were silently unchaining the re”
volutionary forces. "The following passage is from a letbe’
written ten years later, but this is a proper place for it =
“When T was in Paris in 1846, 1 saw Gruizot, and ghough
I had weighed bim aceurately as a politician, I pronounced
him an intellectual pedant and a moral prude, with no more
knowledge of men and things than ia possessed by professor?
who live among their pupils, and he seemed to me to hav
become completely absorbed in the hard and unscrupulo®®
will of Louis Philippe. At that time I was the hero of &
successful agitation, and was taken into the confidence of all
the leaders of the opposition who were getting up the move”
ment which led first to the banquets, and next to $2