B36
_186L. Before the year was over, events came to pass which
&r. 57. once more brought Cobden, and perhaps in a still greater
degree Mr. Bright, into an almost angrier conflict than
before with the same classes and interests with whom they
had been in strife from the first. The great civil war broke
out between the Northern and the Southern states of the
American Union. England, according to its peculiar custom,
was quickly divided into two vehemently opposed camps.
Once more Cobden found himself in antagonism to Lord
Palmerston, Lord Russell, the Times newspaper, and all the
other representatives of the aristocratic classes, and those
who imitate and feel with these classes.
As his correspondence shows, Cobden did not at first seize
the true significance of the struggle. There were reasons
why he should be slow to take the side of the North. One
of them was that he could not for a time bear to face the
prospect that the community which had hitherto been the
realization on so great a scale of his pacific ideals, should after
all plunge into war just as a monarchy or an oligarchy might
have done. The North, by refusing to allow the South t0

LIFE OF COBDEN. [oma

“ Mr. Cobden drove us to the House of Commons, as there was a morning
sitting, and, having put us into the Speakers gallery, took his place in the
House. The business was the County Courts Bill. The Solicitor-Genersl
spoke long and well, but had to give in as to who should practise before
these courts, He (the Solicitor-General) wished to confine it to attorney?
and barristers, one of each. After several others spoke, most of them 1%
the midst of much noise, Mr. Cobden rose; at once you might have heard
a pin fall, and in a very few sentences he put the matter in a true light:
He said . . . . that there was to be no monopoly, that the suitor might
employ nobody or anybody he pleased, and there was tremendous cheering:
Afterwards Mr. Cobden spoke again, and with the same effoct. After ®
vast deal of talk, strangers were ordered to withdraw, but no division took
place, a8 the Government gave in, and Mr, Cobden came to us rejoicing
hig victory. He took us to the House of Lords (where we saw the Lord
Chancellor and some others), and to see the proceedings befors a Committe?
of the House of Commons. With Mr. Smith, the Member for Dunfermline
we went over all the New Houses of Parliament. We met with 1argé
nombers of Members, who attributed to Mr. Cobden the victory gained.”
Memoir, p. 185