Page:Notes on the Anti-Corn Law Struggle.djvu/290

 and contented and—something else—affording to the world an example of "the cold calculating baseness of commercial avarice."

In the work before referred to, "1793 and 1853," published in 1853, Mr. Cobden says (p. 85):—

"'Nobody, I believe, denies that Louis Napoleon received the votes of a majority of the French people. In the election which took place for the presidency, when he was supported by three-fourths of the electors, his opponent General Cavaignac had possession of the ballot-boxes, and there could be no fraud to account for the majority. With what view did the French people elect him Emperor? To maintain, in the first place, as he is pledged to do, the principles of 1789; and, in the next, to preserve order, keep the peace, and enable them to prosper. Nobody denies that these are the objects desired by France. Yet we are told that he will, regardless of public opinion, plunge the country into war.'"

In the preceding page, too, of the same work, Mr. Cobden uses these words of Louis Napoleon, "Public opinion, by which alone he reigns." In excuse for these remarks, it may perhaps be said that at that time it was not possible to obtain even a glimpse of the true history of the coup d'état of December, 1851.

Mr. Cobden's prophetic vision has been appealed to sometimes of late. In this case it does not seem to have been very trustworthy. Did or did not Louis