Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/105

Rh  1em  COBDEN, (1804-1865), was born at a farm house called Dunford, near Midhurst, in Sussex, on the 3d of June 1804. The family had been resident in that neighbourhood for many generations, occupied partly in trade and partly in agriculture. Formerly there had been in the town of Midhurst a small manufacture of hosiery with which the Cobdens were connected, though all trace of it had disappeared before the birth of Richard. His grandfather was a maltster in that town, an energetic and prosperous man, almost always the bailiff or chief magistrate, and taking rather a notable part in county matters. But his father, forsaking that trade, took to farming at an unpropitious time. He was amiable and kind-hearted, and greatly Hked by his neighbours, but not a man of business habits, and he did not succeed in his farming enterprise. He died when his son Richard was a child, and the care of the family devolved upon the mother, who was a woman of strong sense and of great energy of character, and who, after her husband s death, left Dunford and returned to Midhurst. The educational advantages of Richard Cobden were not very ample. There was a grammar school at Midhurst, which at one time had enjoyed considerable reputation, but which had fallen into decay. It was there that he had to pick up such rudiments of knowledge as formed his first equipment in life, but from his earliest years he was indefatigable in the work of self-cultivation. When fifteen or sixteen years of age he went to London to the warehouse of Messrs Partridge and Price, in East Cheap, one of the partners being his uncle. His relative noting the lad s passionate addiction to study, solemnly warned him against indulging such a taste, as likely to prove a fatal obstacle to his success in commercial life, Happily the admonition was unheeded, for while unweariedly diligent in business, as his rapid after success abundantly proved, he was in his intervals of leisure a most assiduous student. During his residence in London he found access to the London Institution, and made ample use of its large and well-selected library. When he was about twenty years of age he became a commercial traveller, and throwing into that, as he ever did into whatever his hand found to do, all the thorough ness and vigour of his nature, he soon became eminently successful in his calling. But never content to sink into the mere trader, he sought to introduce among those he met on the &quot; road &quot; a higher tone of conversation than usually marks the commercial room, and there were many of his associates who, when he had attained eminence, recalled the discussions on political economy and kindred topics with which he was wont to enliven and elevate the travellers table. In 1830 Cobden learnt that Messrs Fort, calico printers at Sabden, near Clitheroe, were about to retire from business, and he, with two other young men, Messrs Sheriff and Gillet, who were engaged in the same commercial house as himself, determined to make an effort to acquire the succession. They had, however, very little capital among them. But it may be taken as an illustration of the instinctive confidence which Cobden through life inspired in those with whom he came into contact, that Messrs Fort consented to leave to these untried young men a large portion of their capital in the business. Nor was their confidence misplaced. The new firm had soon three establishments, one at Sabden, where the printing works were, one in London, and one in Manchester for the sale of their goods. This last was under the direct management of Cobden, who, in 1830 or 1831, settled in the city with which his name became afterwards so closely associated. The success of this enter- prize was decisive and rapid, and the &quot; Cobden prints&quot; soon became known through the country as of rare value both for excellence of material and beauty of design. There can be no doubt that if Cobden had been satisfied to devote all his energies to commercial life he might soon have attained to great opulence, for it is understood that his share in the profits of the business he had established amounted to from 8000 to 10,000 a year. But he had other tastes, which impelled him irresistibly to pursue those studies which, as Lord Bacon says, &quot; serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability.&quot; Mr Prentice, the historian of the Anti-Corn-Law League, who was then editor of the Man chester Times, describes how, in the year 1835, he received for publication in his paper a series of admirably written letters, under the signature of &quot; Libra,&quot; discussing com mercial and economical questions with rare ability. After some time he discovered that the author of these letters was Cobden, whose name was until then quite unknown to him. In 1 835 he published his first pamphlet, entitled Eng land, Ireland, and America, by a Manchester Manufacturer. It attracted great attention, and ran rapidly through several editions. It was marked by a breadth and boldness of views on political and social questions which betokened an original mind. In this production Cobden advo cated the same principles of peace, non-intervention, re trenchment, and free trade to which he continued faithful to the last day of his life. Immediately after the publica tion of this pamphlet, he paid a visit to the United States, landing in New York on the 7th June 1835. He devoted about three months to this tour, passing rapidly through the seaboard States and the adjacent portion of Canada, and collecting as he went large stores of information respecting the condition, resources, and prospects of the great Western Republic. Soon after his return to England he began to prepare another work for the press, which appeared towards the end of 1836, under the title of Russia. It was mainly designed to combat a wild out break of Russophobia which, under the inspiration of Mr David Urquhart, was at that time taking possession of the public mind. But it contained also a bold indictment of the whole system of foreign policy then in vogue, founded on ideas as to the balance of power and the necessity of large armaments for the protection of commerce. While this pamphlet was in the press, delicate health obliged him to leave England, and for several months, at the end of 1836 and the beginning of 1837, he travelled in Spain, Turkey, and Egypt. During his visit to Egypt he had an interview with the redoubtable ruler of that country, Mehemet Ali, of whose character as a reforming monarch 