CHAPTER XXXIIL

MISOELLANEOUS CORRESPONDENCE, 1859-60—-PARIs-—RETURN
TO ENGLAND.

185%. Tm business of the Treaty did not prevent Cobden from
41. 55. keeping up his usual copious correspondence. Much of it;
a8 might be expected, had to do with his work in Paris;
but he kept a keen eye upon what was going on elsewhere
and no effort that pointed in the right direction escaped
him. Some extracts from the correspondence of this period
will still be found interesting, both because they illustrate
the character of the writer, and because they contain ideas
on questions which even now are far from having run their
full course.

(1.) To Mr. Bright.

On December 1, 1859, Mr. Bright made a speech at Liverpool,
apon the invitation of the Financial Reform Association of that
city. In this speech he unfolded a plan, which, as has been
truly said of it, involved a complete financial revolution. The
main features of the proposals were, that the income tax, the
nesessed taxes (except the house-tax), the tax on marine and fire
insurances, and the excise on paper, should be repealed; all
Juties in the tariff should be abolished, save those on wine,
spirits, and tobacco; and, to replace the deficiency thus
areated, there should be a tax of eight shillings on every hundred
pounds of fixed income.

Dec. 16, 1859.—“1 have been much pleased with the
perusal of your masterly statement at Liverpool, every