1860.
Xr. 56.

LIFE OF COBDEN, [omar
panic, and I become affected by the general uneasiness. If
this be so in my case, in spite of my predilections and mY
sane surroundings, how much more must other people be
affected ? When I come to Paris, and approach close to the
imagined source of danger, all uneasiness and doubt disappear
 from my mind. In fact all ides of England being
attacked by France is founded on the ignorance of what 18
going on here, and on the play of the imagination when the
danger is afar off. Here is an illustration, by the way, of
the advantage which will arise from more intimate inter
course between the two countries.”

(5.) To W. Hargreaves.

The state of Europe.

“ Paris, May 7, 1860.—I have given a note of introduction
 to you to an old friend, Mr. Dunville, from the neighbourhood
 of Belfast, who with his mother and sister are
stopping a fortnight in London, on their way from this t0
Ireland. They are first-rate people in our sense, and you
will be very much pleased if you pass an evening in their
society.
“We are now beginning the labours of the commission:
If I were to judge by the programme setting forth our plan
of proceedings, the task might last a couple of years. Bub
I take it for granted that all the intended inquiries int®
every article of the French tariff will very soon shape itself
into a rule of thumb, and that the Government, which has
already all the information at its fingers’-ends, will under:
take to act on its own responsibility. Whatever may be tbe
result, I have made up my mind to be well abused for a yes’
or two. In the end, after a fow years’ trial, the Treaty Wil
justify itself. This assumes that we remain at peace, which
the Times and its patrons seem bent on preventing.