508

LIFE OF COBDEN. [oma?

1859. ordinary motives of human nature would have led me 10
&r 53. coms to quite another conclusion.”
This conclusion caused deep chagrin to many, perhaps
most, of those with whom he had been most closely ass0-ciated.
 His friends in the north were excited and elated bY
the circumstance that one of their own number, a middle
class manufacturer, had at length penetrated the sacred
enclosure of the oligarchy. In France all the best me?
were infinitely delighted by the honour that had been paid
to one to whom they were accustomed to look up as the
champion of progress and political morality. They dreamed
that his presence in the Cabinet would be a guarantee fof
conciliatory ideas in the Government. They were greatly
disappointed at the issue. M. Chevalier accepted Cobden’
reasons ; but he protested against any absolute and 87%
tematic resolution on Cobden’s part never to take office:
“When a man has mixed himself up in public affairs,” be
said, “with so much superiority and success as you have had,
then the public has a certain claim upon him, and the exer
cise of this claim is the demand that he shall take part i
the government of the country.”
There was one eminent man, however, who earnestly
approved of the step that had been taken, Mr. Bright declared
 that he had never been more clear of anything the?
that Cobden looked at the matter in a true light; and be
thought that a few months would prove this to be so. W@
now know that Mr. Bright's sagacity was mot at fault:
Almost from the first the new Cabinet espoused the policy
of suspicion and alarm, and within the few months of which
Mr. Bright had spoken, we shall find Cobden writing t°
Lord Palmerston and Lord John, with a vebemence of pro
test and conviction which he could under no circumstance?
have controlled, and which would have made his position in
the Government desperate. It is true that to one powerfl