504 LIFE OF COBDEN. [ons
1858,
in English prose, net only for the truth of its feeling, but for
the energy, simplicity, and noble pathos of its expression.’
The pamphlet was published in the course of the minis:
berial crisis, during the formation of the mew Coalitio®
Ministry. Shortly afterwards, and almost immediately
before the opening of the session under these changed
auspices, Cobden attended for the fourth time the Peac®
Conference, which was on this occasion held at Manchester:
He still nursed the honourable belief thst the spread of
sound information and reasonable arguments would guffice
to stem the tide of national delusion, and he once MO
raised the old cry to which Manchester had in old days 5
briskly responded, for an army of lecturers and a delng® of
tracts to counteract “the poison that was being infused
$ “A famine foll npon nearly one half of a great nation, - The whole
world hastened to contribute money and food. But a few courageous men
left their homes in Middlesex and Surrey, and penetrated to the ramotest
zlens and bogs of the west coast of the stricken island, to administer rolief
with their own hands. To say that they found themselves in the valley of
the shadow of death would he but an imperfect image ; they were in the
rharnel-house of a nation. Never since the fonrteenth century did pestilencd
bhe gaunt handmaid of famine, glean so rich & harvest. In the midst Of
% scene, which no fleld of battle ever equalled in danger, in the pumber of
its slain or the sufferings of the surviving, these brave men moved 68 calm
1nd undismayed as though they had been in their own homes. The poPY
lation sank so fast that the living could not bury the dead; half-interred
bodies protruded from the gaping graves; often the wife died in the roidsb
of her starving children, whilst the husband lay a festering corpse by ber
side. Into the midst of these horrors did our heroes penetrate, draggit8
the dead from the living with their own hands, raising the head of feraish:
ing infancy, and pouring nourishment into parched lips, from which shot
‘aver-flames more dozdly than a volley of musketry. Here wag eourag®
Yo music strung the nerves ; no smoke obscured the imminent danger; 2°
shunder of artillery deadeved the senses. It was cool self-possession and
sesolute will ; calculating risk and heroic resignation, And who were th0%2
brave men P To what gallant corps did they belong? Were they of the
horse, foot, or artillory force? They were Quakers from Clapham and
Kingston! If you would know what heroic actions they performed, FOU
must inquire from those who witnessed them. You will not find the®
recorded in the volume of reports published by themselves—for Quakor®
sreite no bulleting of their victories.” —finbden’s Oollaoted Writings, i. 494-5:
