Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 3).djvu/102

 their existence. They saw that, under its shadow, no herbs grew except such as, from their position, were favoured by a ray of the hazy sunlight of protection; healthy shrubs, luxuriant in their nature, withered and decayed wherever its branches extended.

The chief of the new class of politicians, who had arisen was no common man: he was one whose clear judgment, while it embraced existing wants, penetrated far into the future. Richard Cobden, the son of a Sussex yeoman, and, practically, one of themselves, who had been trained to commerce, I first became intimate with Cobden in 1852, and our friendship continued unbroken until his untimely death in 1865. He was the most agreeable companion, and the most convincing reasoner I ever met. Though his name has long been a household word, yet as his life has not been written (I hope it may soon be given to the world), many of my readers may not be aware of his career as a man of business. He was often my companion for days together where I now pen these notes, and, though I possess many pleasing reminiscences in connexion with his most useful life and numerous letters from him, for he had the pen of a ready writer, I prefer leaving these to be dealt with by his biographer, when his executors consider that the time has arrived to publish his life. But I think I ought not to withhold from my readers the account he gave me of his commercial career, more especially as an erroneous impression prevails in public that, though great as a statesman, he was unsuccessful as a man of business. This letter referred to the question of Limited Liability which we had frequently discussed. It is written in his happiest style; and if I could to advantage (but I cannot), I would not alter a single word. "It is singular," he remarks in another letter of his now before me, approving of some comments I had made, "how much better we all write when we are expressing ourselves with unrestrained freedom to a friend, than when we are polishing off our sentences for the great public. I find it always in my own case, and the reason is simply that we are more natural, and therefore kindle a warmer sympathy in the breast of the reader. It is this which makes the private memoirs and correspondence of great men much more interesting than their public performances." For these reasons, I venture to give to the public the letter he writes about himself and his business career unaltered, except where I have omitted the names of two noble Lords still living. saw perhaps more clearly than any one else the pernicious*