118

LIFE OF (OBDEN. [cma®

1846. human nature. I had a long evening’s talk with the latte*
&r. 42. ab the Chateau d’Eu at the same time, and nothing s0 much
struck me as his contempt for the people through who
and for whom he professed to rule. There is not the
slightest possible doubt (no Englishman but myself has 5
good a ground for offering an opinion, for no other Was ip
the secrets of the French reformers) that if Louis PhilipP®
had allowed an addition of 200,000 voters to the 250,000
already on the electoral list, he would have renewed th
lease of the Orleanist throne for twenty years, and in oll
probability have secured for the French people the permé
nent advantages of a constitutional government.”
As it happened, Cobden arrived in Spain at the moment
of the once famous marriages of the young Queen and he’
sister, the one to her cousin, Don Franciseo, the other t0
the Duke of Montpensier. The Minister sent Cobden and
his party tickets for the ceremony, and they found the™”
selves placed close to the great personages of the day
They went to a bull-fight, with the emotions that the soen®
gsuslly stirs in all save Spanish breasts, and Cobden’s &i#*
gust was particularly aroused by the presence of the Spanish
Primate at the brutal festival.! Alexander Dumas, who had
some to Madrid to write an account of the Duke of Mon?”
pensier’s marriage, went with Cobden over the Museu
and the Bscurial. At Seville Cobden had such a recepti®”
that the newspapers assured their readers that Christophe”
Columbus himself could hardly have been more enth®
siastically applanded, or more highly honoured for the ne¥
world which he had presented to Castille.
Everywhere men were delighted by his tact and addres®
He made as captivating points in a speech to the traders of

1 To J. Parkes, Deo. 28, 1866. ,
? Richard Cobden, “Notes sur mes Voyages, ete. Par Mdme. gal?
Schwabe. Paris: Guillavmin, 1879.