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 direction of peace were soon rudely shattered by the Crimean war (1854-6). True to the views which he had expressed twenty years before, Cobden, along with his constant comrade, Mr. Bright, vigorously withstood the policy of the war, and the strong tide of popular sentiment in its favour. They very soon perceived that public opinion was violently and incurably against them, but this made no difference in the vigour with which they endeavoured to stem the current. His view of the Turkish empire and its prospects had been formed upon the spot years before. 'You must address yourselves,' he said, 'to the question, What are you to do with the Christian population ? Mahometanism cannot be maintained, and I should be sorry to see this country fighting for the maintenance of Mahometanism. You may keep Turkey on the map of Europe, but do not think that you can keep up the Mahometan rule in the country.' To urge this deliberate judgment, which has not been discredited by the course of subsequent events, Cobden made speeches both in the House of Commons and on the platform, he kept up a busy correspondence, and in the beginning of 1856 he published the pamphlet entitled ' What next ? and next ? ' Austria, acting in concert with France, had just despatched an ultimatum to Russia, proposing terms of peace, and intimating that if they were not accepted Austria would range herself by the side of France and Great Britain. Cobden's pamphlet, passing over all discussion of the origin of the war, was a plea, backed by a heavy array of economic and military facts, against the imposition on Russia of humiliating terms of peace.

Before the peace of Paris was signed, Cobden suffered a heavy domestic blow in the sudden death of his only son (6 April 1856), a promising lad of fifteen, at school near Heidelberg. The severe illness which disabled Mr. Bright at the same time was almost as painful to Cobden as a personal affliction, and to these private sorrows there was speedily added the mortification of a great public repulse. Sir John Bowring had involved this country in hostilities with the government of China, on the ground that they had unlawfully boarded a ship alleged to be British, for the purpose of seizing certain of their subjects on board. The men were given up by the Chinese governor, on Bowring's demand, but Bowring thought it right to persist in vindictive operations, many junks were destroyed, Canton was shelled, and a long and troublesome war was entered upon. On 26 Feb. 1857, Cobden brought forward a motion condemning Bowring's action, on the ground that his demand was not strictly legal, that his violent action was precipitate, and that it would have been better for us to make joint representations with France and the United States, instead of plunging into a conflict which Lord Elgin himself afterwards declared to be a scandal to us. Cobden's motion was carried against Lord Palmerston by a majority of sixteen, by a curious coalition in which the Manchester men were joined not only by the Peelites, headed by Mr. Gladstone, but by Mr. Disraeli and by Lord John Russell. Lord Palmerston at once appealed to the country. Cobden found that his action during the Russian war, and on some other less important subjects, had destroyed all chance of retaining his seat in the West Riding, and he went to Huddersfield. At Huddersfield (26 March) he was beaten by 823 votes against 590. Mr. Bright, Milner Gibson, W. J. Fox, Miall, and nearly every other prominent member of the Manchester school, experienced an equally disastrous defeat.

After this great rout, which at first he felt very sharply, Cobden passed two years in retirement at his home in Sussex. In 1859 he made his second voyage to the United States, and spent three months there, delighted at the immense moral and material progress which America had made in the four and twenty years since his former visit. It all tends to the argument, he said to Mr. Bright, that the political condition of a people is very much dependent on its economic fate. When he landed at Liverpool (29 June), a great surprise awaited him. The conservative government which had come into power after Lord Palmerston's defeat on the Conspiracy to Murder Bill (20 Feb. 1858) had been defeated in April, a general election had followed, the various liberal sections met at Willis's Rooms and made up their differences, a vote of want of confidence was moved in the new parliament by Lord Hartington and carried by a majority of thirteen. Lord Derby resigned, and Lord Palmerston proceeded to form the administration which lasted until his death in October 1865. When Cobden stepped from the steamer, a letter was placed in his hands from the new prime minister, offering him the post of president of the board of trade with a seat in the cabinet. Many of his friends pressed him to accept, but his own judgment did not waver for an instant. He had an interesting interview with Lord Palmerston, and after an explanation, marked by entire good humour on both sides, he declined to join, on grounds which were more easily understood than accurately expressed.