Page:Notes on the Anti-Corn Law Struggle.djvu/38

 of Young to rival or at least imitate Shakspeare—a vain attempt—and concludes thus:—

"Amidst tranquil events here is a man who, with the ntmost insensibility of remorse, stands up and avows himself the author of all. I can compare him only to Zanga, in Dr. Young's Revenge:—

I ask, my lords, whether the revengeful temper attributed to the bloody African is not surpassed by the coolness and apathy of the wily American?"

It is said that Franklin, though he betrayed no emotion in the public room, when he got back to his lodgings, took off the suit of clothes he wore, and never wore it again till he affixed his name to the treaty by which the independence of America was acknowledged.

Those who have had the means of the closest observation admit to the full Mr. Cobden's merits—the ability that he displayed in the organization of the movement—his perception very early that it could only be maintained by money—his knowledge of the Lancashire capitalists and his skill in convincing them of the expediency of employing their capital for the purposes of the Anti-Corn Law League, till the movement reached the point