1847.
Ao, 43.

4% 2

LIFE OF COBDEN,

[oHAP

animosity of the people of England and France !* Have we
not vutgrown the days when sixty millions of people could
be set at loggerheads by a family intrigue? Yes, we havo
probably grown wiser than to repeat the War of Succes”
sion, but I see almost as great an evil as actual hostilitic®
in the tone of the press and the intrigues of the diplomabist
of England nod France. They keep the two nations in #
state of distrust and alienation, they familiarize us with the
notion that war is still a possible event, and worse still, they
furnish the pretext for continually angmenting our standing
armaments, and thus oppressing and degrading the poops
with taxation, interrupting the progress of fiscal reforms, 8%
keeping us in & hostile attitude ready for war,
«T began my political life by writing against this syste”
of foreign interference, and every year’s experience confirm?
me in my early impression that it lies at the bottom of much
of our misgovernment at home. My visit to Spain bas
strengthened, if possible, a hundredfold my conviction that
ell attempts of England to control or influence the destinies
political and social, of that conntry are worse than useless:
They are mischievous alike to Spaniards and Englishme?
They are a peculiar people not understood by us. They have
one characteristic, however, which their whole history might
have revealed to us, i.e. their inveterate repugnance 0 all
foreign influences and elliances, and their unconquerabl®
resistance to foreign control. No country in Europe pesides
is so isolated in its prejudices of race and caste. It has over
been so, whether in the times of the Romans, of the Saracen®
of Louis XIV., or of Napoleon. No people are more willi?8
bo call in the aid of foreign arms or diplomacy to fight
their battles, but they despise and suspect the motives of all
who come to help them, and they turn against them the
moment their temporsry purpose is gained. As for any
other nation permanently swaying the destinies of Spain &