XXXVI.) TRATTS OF PRIVATE CHABACTEB. 041

test against his un-English conduct in siding with the North
in the American war, and justified his remonstrance by the
fact that he had once belonged to the Anti-Corn-Law
League. “Permit me to say,” said Cobden, “that you must
have been out of place in our ranks, for no one can be a
consistent enemy of monopoly, who does not tolerate an
honest difference of opinion on every question, Your note
is a laughable assumption of superiority and authority, where
I can recognize neither.” *
It was his fortune to be engaged in incessant conflict all
through his life, and we have had occasion to mark the
dauntless buoyancy with which he sprung time after time
down to the very end into the breach, and waged his active
battle almost single-handed against Lord Palmerston and
his immovable host. What makes it the more admirable
is that Cobden was not by nature inclined to this ceaseless
attitude of oppugnancy. There is a story that, going down
to the House on one of these occasions, he said to his companion,
 “1 hate having to beard in this way hundreds of
well-meaning wrong-headed people, and to face the look of
cage with which they regard me. I had a thousand times
rather not have to do it, but it must be done.” Even in his
sharpest speeches we are conscious of a sentiment of this
kind. He was unsparing in the trenchancy of his argument,
but he never sought to hurt individuals, not even Lord
Palmerston. “I believe he is perfectly sincere,” Cobden
said, “for the longer I live, the more I believe in men’s
sincerity.” There could be no better sign of a pure and
generous character, than that so honourable a conviction as
this should have been the lesson of his experience.
Cobden’s conversation, like his public addresses, was
simple, reasonable, devoid of striking figures of speech, but
bright, eager, and expansive ; and, as Mérimée said,’ it was
3 November 12, 1864 “ See above, i. 198.