ANTI-CORN-LAW LEAGUE MEMOIRS.
RICHARD COBDEN, Esq., M.P. for STOCKPORT.
There is a small Parliamentary borough in the western division of Sussex, called Midhurst, with a noble park, containing ancient trees and a ruined palace on one side, and a wide range of sand-hills, barely covered with heath and furze, on the other side. Leaving Midhurst with our faces south-west, we proceed over this sandy heath, and descending a steep roadway, at the distance of two miles from Midhurst, we find ourselves in a ravine, wooded on each bank, with a rivulet brawling amongst bushes at the bottom. Crossing this as best we can, and rounding the corner of the coppice wood, we enter, having gone forward a hundred yards or so, upon an open green, two or three acres in extent, entirely surrounded with the steep hills, and the trees and bushes that grow upon them, and the forest and field game that harbour among the bushes. On our right hand, gently elevated among the trees, with a garden behind, and another before, stands what was once the farm-house of Dunford, and there, on the 3d of June, 1804, was born Richard Cobden. His father at that time occupied the farm of Dunford, which is now attached to another, the farmer living at the other, while this house is occupied by three families of working people.
The father of Richard Cobden was the son of a substantial yeoman, for many years the chief official of the borough of Midhurst, known as MaltsterCobden, and still remembered by the old people for the energy and integrity of his character, and the justice of his decisions in cases of arbitration, he being always referred to as a judge, whether in office or out of it, as head-borough of the town. A lane leading out of Midhurst to where his malting work was, is still called Cobden*s-lane, though it has been widened into the Petersfield road, and though no member of the Cobden family now lives there. From what the present writer observed on a recent occasion, the inhabitants of Midhurst seem disposed to preserve this name, as well as some other memorials of the Cobden family, in honour of the eminent statesman born so near them. One day an elderly woman addressed the writer, and said she was informed that he knew Richard Cobden, of Manchester. He replied that he did. Upon which she said, "And so did I once ; I put the first clothes on him he had in this world, God bless him!"
While the family were still children, Mr. Cobden the elder left Dunford Farm, and took another, ten or twelve miles distant northward, in the parish of Lynchmere, under Sir Charles Taylor, who was at that time, as he is now, noted as a great breeder and vigilant preserver of game, and prosecutor of poachers. When they had been there but a short time, and had not been familiarised with the gamekeepers and the game, Richard, who in going to and coming from school, had seen some pheasants in a field, resolved one day when alone to catch one. He has related the incident to this effect; that it was excessively cold, but that his boyish eagerness to obtain a beautiful bird, kept him all the afternoon shivering behind the hedge, until towards evening one of the pheasants was at last caught in his snare. He took it out, overjoyed with his prize, and hastening home with it, met the head gamekeeper, to whom he showed it, crying, "Look what a beautiful bird it is; I have watched for it all the afternoon, and catched it at last!" The gamekeeper laid hold of him by the collar of his jacket, swore at him, dragged him along, and threatened him with all kinds of terrible consequences, and at last handed him over to his father, demanding that he should be punished. The father engaged that none of his family would again molest a pheasant, or other game: and thus the youthful Richard Cobden was taught to know what a sacred thing a rich man's wild bird is, even though feeding at his own father*s expense. And the family soon learned how hopeless it was to struggle in the cultivation of a farm, literally eaten up as that one was, by wild beasts, kept for the landlord's sport. They were ultimately obliged to retire from it; but it is better for them now that they did so, and from agriculture altogether. They are all in a condition of life far above anything they could have possibly attained to as tenant farmers.
The passage of Richard Cobden's life, from boyhood to a mercantile clerkship in London, and from that to Lancashire, is now familiar to the public, and we need not dwell on its particulars.
In 1830 he entered into business as a calico printer, and was successful. The works were at a place called Sabden, in a romantic district of hilly country, near Blackburn, where every valley has its stream of pure water, an indispensable element in the finer departments of the printing business, where, too, the population, removed from the corrupting influences of crowded towns, can be educated and morally trained. They were so educated; and the provision made for it by Mr. Cobden and his then partner in trade, Mr. Foster, is a proof that the highest duties of employers were understood and performed by them both.
Mr. Foster still continues the Sabden print-works. Mr. Cobden separated from him and entered upon another establishment at Chorley, where, being a tenant, and having other difficulties to contend with, incident to a populous place, his educational department has not been carried out as successfully as that instituted at Sabden. Yet the young and all the others over whom employers can exercise moral influence are morally and intellectually cared for ; while it is the design of the firm—Richard Cobden and Co., to do much more than they have yet had within their power to do for the moral and social well-being of their workpeople, the average number of whom is about 600.
Soon after Mr. Cobden settled in Lancashire, occasional articles in the form of letters to the editor, were received and inserted in the Manchester Times newspaper. The editor had been for many years familiar with all the local writers, and knew their style and literary powers, though they did not always give their names. But he did not know this writer. His contributions continued, and curiosity to know who he was increased in the editorial office. But it was remarked by the chief in that department that one who could write so well would not remain always unknown. "This is a new man in Manchester," said the editor; "he will make himself known before long." He did make himself known. He was Richard Cobden.
In 1835 he went abroad, visiting Russia, Austria, Turkey, Greece, &c., and published, on his return, a valuable commentary on the commercial interests of England and Russia. He called himself a "Manchester manufacturer," and again, under the same name, he published a short comprehensive work, entitled, "England, Ireland, and America," which was extensively read. In that work he regrets that there is no society established to teach the principles of political economy, though every other profession and science has its society and its literary organs. He suggests how one might be formed, and says that, amongst other modes of providing, "Prizes might be offered for the best essays on the corner question: all lecturers might be sent to enlighten the agriculturists, and invite discussion upon a subject so difficult, and have such paramount interest to all."
This being written several years before the League was formed or thought of, was prophetic of what has actually occurred. Mr. Cobden was first drawn before the public with his real name in print, in consequence of a series of gross attacks made on Lord Palmerston, and on "A Manchester Manufacturer," by a Mr. Urquhart and a London morning newspaper, by whom the wild story was propagated and reiterated until it offended even the common sense of the political opponents of Lord Palmerston, that, as Foreign Secretary, he had been negotiating to sell England to Russia, and that the "Manchester Manufacturer" had been to Russia to assist in the sale, and had a good part of the price, namely, 5,000l., and a gold box, for writing a pamphlet.
The term which Mr Cobden's thought took in writing the passage referred to in his "England, Ireland, and America," suggesting a popular institution for the diffusion of popular knowledge, seems to have led him to the institution of the Athenæum. So was he also (though this is more generally known) in obtaining the Charter of Incorporation for the borough of Manchester. For this last service he was rewarded by being elected one of the first aldermen.
In 1837, at the general election, he was a candidate for Stockport, but was defeated. In 1841 he again stood, and was elected.
On the 22nd of September, 1838, a meeting, occasioned by Dr. Bowring visiting Lancashire, was held in Manchester, out of which grew the Anti-corn Law Association, and subsequently the League. Mr. Cobden's name appears for the first time at the fourth weekly meeting. (Mr. Bright's name is entered as a subscriber at the third meeting—a fact not known to the writer last week, when speaking of precedence.)
The name of the League was first suggested by Mr Compton. When the association began its work he at once took a first-rank place, side by side with John Benjamin Smith, Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce, who up to that time was the most powerful advocate of free trade in Manchester. Mr. Cobden went several times to London, as one of a deputation to wait on Ministers and Members of Parliament, to urge the repeal of the corn law upon of them, and to support Mr. Villiers with petitions. It was at last found to be of no use to waste time thus. At a meeting of Deputies at Brown's Hotel, Palace-yard, Mr Cobden, addressing them, said, "Let us imitate the Hanseatic League, which withstood and overcame the feudal Lords; let us form a League of our towns against our corn Lords." "Yes, cried some one in the meeting, "a national anti-corn-law league;" the deputies went home, and those who went to Manchester transformed their Ant-Corn-law Association into the National Anti-Corn-law League accordingly.
To continue a narrative of Mr Cobden's subsequent to services would be to write the history of the League up to the present time, which is not the purpose of these sketches. Yet if at some future period there should be a column or two of this paper to spare for such a purpose, the present writer would supply several interesting, but unknown particulars exemplifying the personal character of this remarkable man, whom he has had occasion to know somewhat intimately; so knowing him, has seen his deep suggest city and is a powerful grasp of mind otherwise exercised them in the public speaking; has seen his untiring care manifested in suggesting modes of operation to the less experienced and less talented members or agents of the league; has seen him wearing his mind and body late at night and early in the morning, in the mastery of piled up statistics and difficult arguments, and then giving to some subordinates, perhaps a lecturer, these arguments to go before the public with as new, to get to the credit of them, while he would be content to use them secondhand, and get secondhand applause for them himself; has seen him as a father, and constrained to reverence him as such for the words of wise counsel dropping from his lips upon all those who might seem to need council, given always in a time and place and mother show us to leave no pain, even in the most sensitive. Eminent as Mr. Cobden is before the public, he would seem a greater menstrual if the public could see him as he has been seen by ———.—— Douglas Jerrold's Weekly Newspaper.