1863,
Zr. B59.

LIFE OF COBDEN. [omar.
gramme of course contemplates that onr own soldiers are
safely ensconced in these forts beneath their casemates, snd
behind gigantic ditches in the chalk—in fact you never §aW
such precipitous excavations as these are in the Downs 0
prevent a foreign army from getting at an English army,
whilst the country is at their mercy. I need hardly add that
there is not an officer of either service with a head on his
shoulders who is under fifty, that does not look with supreme
contempt, disgust, and humiliation at these works.
“My companions were Captain Cowper Coles, R.N., the
inventor of the cupola ships, and Colonel Williams, of the
Marine Artillery, who has a pension for wounds, though &
young man.
“I saw all that was going on in the dockyards, and came
away with the conviction that we are now wasting our
money on iron-cased vessels with broadsides, whilst a new
invention is in the field which will entirely supersede them-Captain
 Coles is building a vessel with four cupolas, OF
rather is superintending the alteration of one on a principle
which it is clear must render broadside guns useless.”
“April 22,1863. (To Mr. Bright.)—There is a great and
growing uneasiness about our relations with the United
States, and there is so wide an interest taken by our friends
from America—of whom there is an influential gathering
just now drawn to this side by an apparent fear of some
impending mischief—as well as by English people, that I
feel quite oppressed with a sense of the responsibility, and
write to say that I entreat you to come to town, if only 0B
Friday to return on Saturday. Besides the confidence you
give me when we are together, I feel quite sure that the fact
of your being present with the power of reply exerts & restraining
 influence on Palmerston and the other speakers

* This refers to an important speech of Cobden’s on the duty of enforcing
the Foreign Holisiment Ack. If was made on April 34.