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aore foresaw the war which was as yet only a cloud
as of a man’s hand on the horizon, than ib was foreseen 0J
the responsible statesmen in office. He passed the sumed?
peaceably in Sussex, where he was superintending ge
building of his new house at Dunford, His wife and family
were at Bognor, and he passed his time between the tW0
houses. Mrs. Cobden used to bring him in a carriage as {a7
as the Duke of Richmond’s Park, and then he trudged across
Goodwood Downs and over the unenclosed country to Hey
shott. His thoughts meanwhile incessantly revolved round
the concerns of public policy. He compiled a lucid and
forcible exposure of the origin of the Burmese War, i
which besides laying bare its naked arrogance, injustice:
and folly, he predicted the mischief that such exploits must
inevitably one day inflict on Indian finance. An expedition
to a Peace Conference at Edinburgh, and a visit to Oxford
were the only two breaks in his solitude.
“Bognor, Sept. 19, 1853. (To Mr. McLaren.)—You are
going to do a very good but courageous act in giving your
countenance to the Peace Conference. Nowhere has the move:
ment fewer partisans than in Scotland, and the reason is ob”
vious—first because your heads are more combative than eve?
the English, which is almost a phrenological miracle; and
secondly, the system of our military rule in India has bee?
widely profitable to the middle and upper classes in Scotland,
who have had more than their numerical proportion of its
patronage. Therefore the military party is very strong in
your part of the kingdom. In this Peace Conference move:
ment, we have not the same clear and definable principle oD
which to take our stand, that we had in our League agitation.
There are in our ranks those who oppose all war, even in self
defence ; those who do not go quite so far, and yet oppose
war on religious grounds in all cases but in self-defence;
and there are those who from politico-economica] and