662 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [ons
1857. tude I ever enconntered. . . . . I do not believe he will‘
ar. 53. affected in the way you fear by the news. He will
believe, take it very coolly and philosophically ; and I think
it will prove probably the best thing that could ba™
happened for his health.”
On the same day he writes to Mr. Hargreaves :—" Th
secret of such a display of snobbishness and ingratitude 8
in the great prosperity which Lancashire enjoys, and fr
which it is mainly indebted to Bright; and the result bo
been to make a large increase to the number of Tories, and
bo cool down to a genteel tone the politics of the Whig™
until at last the majority find an earnest Radical not sufi
ciently genteel for their taste. - This will go on in the north
of England so long as our exports continue to increase of
their present rate, and in the natural course of things mo™
Tories will be returned.”
The same humour finds vent in some words to Mr. W- 5
Lindsay of this date :—
“Did my friend ~—— make a failure of seconding £he
Address? Ihear so. I have never known sa manufacturité
representative put into cocked hat and breeches and rufie®
with a sword by his side, to make a speech for the Gover™:
went, without having his head turned by the feathers and
frippery. Generally they give way to a paroxysm of snob”
bery, and go down on their bellies, and throw dust on thei?
heads, and fling dirt at the prominent men of their own order”
At the end of July a vacancy was made in the repr
sentation of Birmingham by the death of Mr. Muntz, and
Mr. Bright was quickly chosen to fill the seat. His health
seemed to have been so dangerously shaken, that Cobde®
expressed a natural solicitude on so speedy a return to the
agitation of public life. To Mr. Parkes he wrote i—
“ August 9, 1857.—1I cannot help confessing to you 17
doubts whether Bright will be equal to the task which