x) SOCIAL INTERCOURSE. 761
humour, as was his wont; few men have ever been better 1860.
able to guffer fools gladly. Only once he nearly broke down, Zr. 56.
When at a féte given by an American of high position to celebrate
 the Fourth of J uly, the host made a speech to French
nd English guests in that singularly bad taste which Ameri-%an
 orators so often think due to the majesty of their country.
Cobden was always a missionary. At a dinner where most of
the guests happened to be eminent surgeons and physicians,
be tried hard to enlist them against vivisection as practised at
the Veterinary College; “but I am afraid,” he says, “that I
%id not meet with much success.” He delighted in everything
 that extended his knowledge of men and cities. On
the occasion of the Emperor's féte (Aug. 15), he walked
Bbout the streets all the evening, and observing that the
Breat thoroughfares were closed against carriages, and kept
Clear for the exclusive use of pedestrians from seven until
ben, he marks that «such consideration would not have been
shown to the masses at the expense of the rich and luxurious
tlagses in England.”
There was one group with whom after a very short
Xperience Cobden found it impossible to carry on any
tercourse. “I have ceased to go among the Orleanist
Party,” he told Mr. Bright; “they are hardly rational or
¢ivil” Whatever we may think of the Empire, there can
only be one opinion of its Orleanist foes, that eyeless,
impotent, shifty faction, who dreamed and dream on that
kingdoms can be governed by literary style, and that the
Mighty agitations of a newly revolutionized society can be
‘uled by the petty combinations and infantile tactics of
Trawing-room intrigue.
A break in the tedium of his work, but perhaps a break
of Qoubtful refreshment, is mentioned in a letter to his
friend Mr. Hargreaves :—“ For the last three days,” he says,
“I have been attending the debates in the Corps Législatif on