Notice of Corn-Law Repealers--Mr. Cobden--Mr. Bright--Colonel
Thompson--Mr. Villiers--Dr. Bowring--William J. Fox--Ebenezer
Elliott--James Montgomery--Mr. Paulton--George Wilson--The Last
Meeting of the League.
The seasonable organization, steady progress, and signal triumph of The
National Anti-Corn-Law League are attributable in a very large degree to
the sagacity, ability, and courage of RICHARD COBDEN. The early career
of one who so suddenly acquired a European reputation is not so familiar
as to render uninteresting a few incidents of that part of his life.
The leader of the Commercial Revolution of England is the son of a poor
yeoman of Sussex. Commencing active life as a clerk in a London
counting-house, he afterward removed to Manchester, where he became the
traveling agent of a house largely engaged in the cotton trade. His
intelligence, industry, and sound judgment won him the confidence of his
employers, and the respect of all with whom he had intercourse. His rise
was rapid, and we soon find him associated with an elder brother in a
manufacturing enterprise of his own. He was highly successful. He
studied public taste then as shrewdly as he afterward studied public
opinion. An anecdote will illustrate this. In 1837, a gentleman visited
Mr. Cobden's warehouse in Manchester, where he was shown some printed
muslins of a peculiarly beautiful pattern, which Mr. C. was just sending
into the market. A few days afterward, this gentleman was walking in
the vicinity of Goodwood, and met some ladies of the family of the Duke
of Richmond wearing these identical prints; and shortly after, while
strolling through Windsor Park, he saw the young Queen going down the
slopes sporting a new dress of the same pattern. Of course, this set all
the ladies of the kingdom in a rage after "Cobden's prints," which
immediately became as celebrated in the market as did Cobden's speeches
a few years afterward.
But Cobden was never a mere calico-printer. In his manufacturing days,
his capacious mind embraced large views of finance and trade. In 1835,
he published, under the signature of "A Manchester Manufacturer," an
able pamphlet on "England, Ireland, and America," and, soon after,
another on "Russia," in which he advocated a repeal of the corn laws,
free trade, peace, and non-intervention in the politics of other
nations; strongly urging that England's true policy was to abolish the
agricultural monopoly, open her ports to the world, stick to trade and
manufactures, and not meddle with foreign controversies. The information
which these pamphlets displayed was rare and valuable; the reasonings
cogent; the style forcible; and the sentiments eulogistic of "those free
institutions which are favorable to the peace, wealth, education, and
happiness of mankind." As an illustration of his thorough mode of
sifting a question, it may be stated that, before writing his pamphlet
on Russia, he made a tour to the East expressly to gain information on
that subject.
Mr. Cobden had now secured a reputation in Manchester and the
surrounding district, and became a leading man in all public movements,
especially such as related to business and trade. In 1837, he was
invited to contest Stockport for a seat in Parliament. He failed of an
election by fifty-five votes. In 1840, he was requested to stand for
Manchester; but he declined, because he was expected to support, in all
things, the Whig Administration; and, being far in advance of it on the
subject of Free Trade, he was not the man to put on a chain to win a
seat on the Treasury benches of the House of Commons. He was returned
for Stockport at the general election the next year, and his biography
has since become a part of English history. Of his services in the cause
of Free Trade, I have already spoken at some length.
On the second of July, 1846, the act repealing the Corn Laws having
received the royal assent, the League held its final meeting at
Manchester. All the _elite_ of that victorious body had assembled from
three kingdoms. George Wilson, who had presided as chairman of the
council during the entire struggle, called to order. Having given a
rapid sketch of the rise, progress, and triumph of the Association, he
requested Mr. Cobden to address the Assembly. As he rose, the multitude
sprang to its feet as one man, and greeted him with cheer on cheer,
cheer on cheer, cheer on cheer. There stood the brave leader, the modest
man, the victor in a field more glorious than ever Wellington won,
unable to utter a word for several minutes, for the rapturous shouts of
his companions in arms. His speech was characteristic. He bestowed warm
eulogies upon his co-workers in the League, generously complimented Sir
Robert Peel and Lord John Russell for their services in the crisis of
the conflict, and delicately alluding to his own labors, insisted, in
spite of the thundering "noes" which greeted the statement, that far too
large a share of credit had been bestowed on him. He closed by moving
that the operations of the League be suspended, and the Executive
Council requested to wind up its affairs with as little delay as
possible. The next day, a modest letter appeared in the public prints,
addressed by him to the electors of Stockport, heartily thanking them
for the confidence and kindness with which they had honored him, and
announcing that the state of his health induced him to seek a temporary
withdrawal from public life. Then followed the European tour; the
feastings and toastings at Genoa, Paris, and other Continental cities;
the munificent National Testimonial of nearly $100,000; the reelection
to Parliament; the plans for financial reform; the motion and speech on
that subject during the late session; the defeat; the girding up of the
armor for another struggle.
Those who associate in their fancy great physical endowments with great
political achievements, would be disappointed in the person of Mr.
Cobden. His name is announced. Forward steps a pale, slender man, with
grave features stamped with few of the lineaments usually coupled with
greatness and energy, and with rather a weak voice, and a gesticulation
no wise striking, begins to unfold his subject. But, lucid arrangement;
well selected words; arguments that penetrate to the marrow; facts new
and old, clearly presented and felicitously applied; illustrations that
shed light without bewildering; an occasional apothegmatic expression,
embodying the whole subject in a phrase that enslaves the memory;
earnestness and sincerity which first enlist sympathy and soon beget
conviction--these are the elements of his power as a public speaker. The
League furnished half a score of more brilliant orators than he; it
produced not another such advocate. But, effective as were his forensic
abilities, these did not place him at the head of the Anti-Corn-Law
movement. He was as wise in council as he was resolute in action; and
his well-balanced mind, his sturdy common sense, made him proof against
the importunities of short-sighted coadjutors, and the snares of
long-headed antagonists. A radical without rashness, a leader without
arrogance, he carried straight forward to victory a constantly
increasing host, never committing a blunder, nor sustaining an
unnecessary reverse during a long conflict of peculiar excitement and
temptation.
Next to Mr. Cobden, in popular estimation, among the League champions,
stood the enthusiastic, eloquent Quaker, JOHN BRIGHT. He entered
Parliament in 1843, and, like Cobden, was from the manufacturing class.
For some years, he had been distinguished among the anti-rate paying
dissenters of Central and Northern England, for his vigorous support of
religious freedom. He had resisted the extortions of some persecuting
dignitaries of the Establishment, and subjected them, on two or three
occasions, to most mortifying defeats. He brought into Parliament a high
reputation as an advocate of the League before popular assemblies, and
an intimate knowledge of the subject of protection and free trade. His
ready, bold, inspiring style of oratory partook more of the fervor of
the platform than the calmness of the forum. But shrewdness and tact
soon enabled him to catch the key-note of the House, where he displayed
skill and courage as first lieutenant of the League, and won as much
popularity from the aristocratic sections as so radical a democrat could
reasonably expect.
Colonel PERRONET THOMPSON, a liberal of the old school, was an efficient
member of the League. The incidents of his life would furnish materials
for a dozen novels. He had served and commanded, both in the navy and
army, in two hemispheres, going through storm and flame in contests with
Frenchmen in the Peninsula, South Americans at Buenos Ayres,
slave-traders on the coast of Africa, Arabs around the Persian Gulf, and
Hindoos among the sources of the Ganges. In the midst of moving
accidents by flood and field, he mastered the French, Spanish, and
Arabic languages, wrote pamphlets on Law and Morals, read the works of
Jeremy Bentham, and negotiated commercial treaties, one of which is
remarkable for being the first public act that declared the slave-trade
piracy. Retiring on half pay in 1824, he turned his attention
exclusively to politics and literature. He gave full scope to his
democratic tendencies, and became a leader among the radicals. For ten
years he wrote many of the ablest papers on current public questions
that appeared in the Westminster Review, of which journal he was for
some time the joint editor and proprietor with Dr. Bowring. His style is
remarkable for its originality and vigor, combining the pith of Lacon,
the raciness of Franklin, and the liberality of Jefferson. His speeches
are distinguished for the same sententious and suggestive qualities that
mark his writings. I am tempted to quote, though I spoil it by
mutilation, his definition of a radical. "What," asks the Colonel, "_is_
a radical? One that has got the root of the matter in him. One that
knows his ills, and goes to work the right way to remove them. Every man
is a radical that shuts his mouth to keep out flies. Does any man go to
a doctor, and ask for a cure that is not radical? All men have been
radicals who ever did any good since the world began. Adam was a radical
when he cleared the first place from rubbish, for Eve to spin in. Noah
was a radical, when, hearing the world was to be drowned, he went about
such a common-sense proceeding as making himself a ship to swim in. An
antediluvian Whig would have laid half a dozen sticks together for an
ark, and called it a virtual representation." Colonel T. had high
claims--a preemption title--to the position he occupied in the corn
law-struggle; for, twelve years before that controversy begun, he wrote
"The Catechism of the Corn Laws," which contained the substance of all
that was subsequently elaborated by Cobden and his coadjutors.
MR. VILLIERS was the Free-Trade leader in Parliament till Cobden
appeared; and, indeed, on account of his early services, he was called
by courtesy the leader until the victory was won. His annual motion for
repeal was a thermometer to measure the rise of public opinion; and his
annual speech, laden with facts and arguments, converted thousands
beyond the walls, if it failed to win majorities within. The
multifarious learning and diligent pen of DR. BOWRING were often in
requisition. A disciple of Bentham, an early advocate of Free Trade,
acquainted with the commercial systems of foreign countries beyond most
men, with a mind ripened by study and enlarged by extensive travel, he
rendered important aid throughout the controversy. WILLIAM J. FOX, a
Unitarian minister in London, a refined gentleman, a classic scholar, an
original thinker, an enlightened philanthropist, added eclat to the
Drury-Lane and Covent-Garden meetings. He now represents Finsbury in
Parliament.
In this summary, I must not omit the iron poet of Sheffield. Like the
Ayrshire plowman, he sprung from the working class. Like him, his songs
are the lays of labor. But, unlike him, his muse did not draw her
inspiration from the breath of the open fields, perfumed with daisies
and adorned with hawthorn, but from the hot atmosphere of furnaces,
ringing with the clang of anvils and the hoarse grating of machinery.
Burns was the bard of yeomen. ELLIOTT is the bard of artisans. Both have
touched the deepest chords of human feeling, and waked echoes that shall
vibrate till human hearts cease to pulsate. Wandering a few years ago in
the suburbs of Sheffield, my eye fell upon a building, blackened with
the blackest smoke of that most somber town, whose front showed a sign
running, I think, thus: "_Elliott & Co.'s Iron and Steel Warehouse._" I
inquired of a young man, dressed in a frock, besmeared with iron and
coal, for the head of the establishment. "My father," said he, "is just
gone. You will find him at his house yonder." I repaired thither. The
"Corn-Law Rhymer" stood on the threshold in his stocking feet, holding a
pair of coarse shoes in his hand. His frank "walk in" assured me I was
welcome. I had just left the residence of MONTGOMERY. The transition
could hardly be greater than from James Montgomery to Ebenezer Elliott.
The former was polished in his manners, exquisitely neat in his personal
appearance, and his bland conversation never rose above a calm level
except once, when he spoke with an indignation that years had not abated
of his repeated imprisonment in York Castle, for the publication, first
in verse and then in prose, of liberal and humane sentiments, which
offended the Government. And now I was confronted with a burly
iron-monger, rapid in speech, glowing with enthusiasm, putting and
answering a dozen questions at a breath, eulogizing American
republicanism and denouncing British aristocracy, throwing sarcasms at
the Duke of Wellington, and anointing General Jackson with the oil of
flattery, pouring out a flood of racy talk about Church Establishments,
Biddle and the Bank, poetry, politics, the price of iron and the price
of corn, while ever and anon he thrust his damp feet into the embers,
and hung his wet shoes on the grate to dry. A much shorter interview
than I enjoyed would be sufficient to prove, even if their works were
forgotten, that of the two Sheffield poets, Elliott's grasp of intellect
was much the stronger, his genius far the more buoyant and elastic. Yet
has the milder bard done and suffered much for civil and religious
liberty. But the stronger! Not corn-law repealers only, but all Britons
who moisten their scanty bread with the sweat of the brow, are largely
indebted to his inspiring lays for the mighty bound which the laboring
mind of England has taken in our day. Some of his poems are among the
rarest and purest gems that shine on the sacred mount. Others are as
rugged, aye, and as strong, as the iron bars in his own warehouse. They
break out in denunciations of privileged tyrants and titled
extortioners, with sounds like the echoes of a Hebrew prophet. The
genius that animates and the humanity that warms every line, carry them
where more fastidious and frigid productions would never find their way.
Elliott has been called harsh and vindictive. He may be pardoned for
hating institutions which reduce every fourth man to beggary, while a
great heart beats in his bosom. Against meanness and oppression, his
muse has rung out battle-songs, charged with indignation, defiance,
sarcasm, and contempt; but into the ears of the lowly and wan sons of
toil, it has breathed the sweetest murmurs of sympathy, consolation, and
hope. The key which unlocks his harmony he has furnished in these angry
lines:
"For thee, my country, thee, do I perform,
Sternly, the duty of a man born free,
Heedless, though ass, and wolf, and venom'd worm,
Shake ears and fangs, with brandished bray, at me."
It is impossible to even name a tithe of the men of might and genius
whose public services gave energy to this conflict, and splendor to this
victory. Behind these stood a host whose less conspicuous, but not less
efficient labors, gave aim to that conflict and certainty to that
victory. Only two will be mentioned--MR. PAULTON, the able editor of
"_The League_" newspaper, who was one of the earliest actors in the
enterprise, and weekly sent forth from his closet arguments which, when
reiterated by eloquent tongues on the rostrum, made the land echo the
cry of "Cheap Bread;" and MR. GEORGE WILSON, who officiated as Chairman
of the League from its creation to its extinction. Some estimate may be
formed of the extent of his services by a fact stated by Mr. Cobden in
his speech at the dissolution. It appeared from the official records of
the League, that, during the seven years of its existence, Mr. Wilson
had attended its meetings one thousand three hundred and sixty-one
times, and had never received one penny for his labor. Such devotion
bankrupts all eulogy.