940

LIFE OF COBDEN.

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The hard-headed man of business and the fastidious man of
letters were equally touched by the interest of his conversation
 and the charm of his character. There must have
been something remarkable about ome who won the admiration
 of Prosper Mérimée, and the cordial friendship of
Mr. Goldwin Smith, and the devoted service of strenuous
practical men like Mr. Slagg and Mr. Thomasson. His exceeding
 amiability was not insipid. He was never bitter, but
he knew how to hit hard, and if a friend did wrong and
public mischief came of it, Cobden did not shrink from the
duty of dealing faithfully with him. We have seen With
what vigour he denounced the doings of Sir John Bowring
in China, and the supposed backslidings of Sir William
Molesworth in the Cabinet.
He usually extended his good-nature evento the busy-bodies
who pester public men with profitless correspondence. When
strangers who wrote to him committed the absurd offence of
subscribing to their letters a hieroglyphic that no one could
read, he only said to them in reply that it was a pity that
some system of rewards and punishménts could not be
jevised to make people at least sign their own names
plainly. It was very seldom that he allowed himself to be
provoked into dealing a blow to the impertinence which
used to protest against his un-English conduct, his wan® of
patriotism, and the other cries of that stupid party which is
not by any means exclusively composed of Tories. Old soldiers
in the army of the League especially were apt to suppose
that this accident gave them a right to lecture him. One of
them, an entire stranger to Cobden, wrote a vehement pro-?
 See above, p. 160. A sharper dispute took place between Cobden and
Sir Willinm Molesworth on the 8rd of August, 1855. The latter had gone
out of his way to mse some hard words about the peace party. Cobden
showed, with a good deal of pungency, that until he went into the Cabinet
Sir William Molesworth avowedly shared his opinions to the letter.—-Ho®
sord, CXXXit.