The Express.
London, England, 1865-04-03 00:00:00

(Stamped, ld. Additiomg.)

printer, to a fine of 100 f. The judgment orders
all the numbers of the Rice Gauche of March 12
which have been, or may hereafter be seized, to be
destroyed.
I cannot tell whether the Marquis de Lavalette
has not yet had time to give his attention to the
question whether it is worth while to attempt to
prevent Frenchmen from knowing what is thought
of French affairs iu other countries by confiscating
such obnoxious foreign journals as are confided to
the Freuoh post-office, or whether be means to con-
tinue the old system ; but the fact is that the Daily
News was seised both yesterday and to-day.

[TWOPENC:

In the coarse of s memorable speed), Sir Robert
Peel said :

le proposier oar MSGRIM of commercial policy I bad no
wish to rob inhere al the credit due to them. The Baas
whin nen to ha, and will be siesociated with these saw
sues is not the name of the noble lord, the cepa al
the party of w►ich be is the leader, nor is it mines
The name which ought to be, and will be, amecudated with
that nisasurse is that of on who, nting ea 1 believe
from pure sod disisterested motives, Las with untiring
swam made appeals to our reason, aod ham salmon those
appals with ea elogance the maw to be admired because
it was unaffeched and noadorned : this name which ought to
be chiefly associated with those roisaness is that of Richard
Cobden."
DEATH OF MR. COBDEN. I In the Bonze of Lords Karl Grey said :

It is our painful duty to announce the death of
Mr. Cobden, who expired at half-past 11 o'clock
yesterday morning, at his town residence, No. 23,
Suffolk-street, Pall-mall. For several years Mr.
Cobden's health has demanded his utmost care,
more especially in the winter and spring, owing to
the increasing susceptibility of the bronchial tubes
to acute infiammatMu. He had only ventured
to come up to town from Midhnrst on the 21st of
Mardi for the Canada debste, when he was badly
attacked by bronchitis. His last hours were
soothed by the presence of his friends Mr. Bright
and Mr. Moffatt.
The eminent man who was destined to establish
claims upon the lasting gratitude of his country by
achieving the greatest economical reform of modern
times sprang from the yeomanry of England, a class
which be believed to be of great value in our social
system, and the decline of which he witnessed with
sincere regret. Richard Cobden was been on
the 3rd of June, 1804, at Danford, near Mid-
burst, in Sussex, where his father cultivated
a small estate. The death of his father threw
him when young upon the care of an uncle, whokept
a wholesale warehouse in London, and whoinitiated
him in business. When a young man be joined a
oda° printing firm iu Stockport, and travelled
occasionally on the Continent to promote its inte-
rests. In 1834 he journeyed in Greece, Egypt, and
Turkey, and in the following year visited the
United States of America. His abilities lad
already begun to attract the notice of his neigh-
bours, as when he was only thirty years of age,
he was chosen to deliver the inaugural die.-'
course at the Manchester Athenaeum. It was
about this time that ho began publicly to treat
political questions from the mercantile point of
view, by publishing a pamphlet on "England, Ire-
land, and America," and another on " Ruda," both
"By a Manchester Manufacturer." BM business re-
putation by this time was well established, and his
goods bore a high reputation in the market. In
1837 Mr. Cobden offered himself as a representative
for the borough of Stockport, but on a contest was
defeated. The struggle which ended in the repeal
of the Corn Laws and in the repudiation of protec-
tion as a principle of commercial policy was now
about to commence, but its early beginnings were
far from presaging the magnitude it was ultimately
to attain.
In 1841 a vote of want of confidence in the Whig
government of the day, proposed in the House of
Commons by Sir Robert Peel, was carried by a
majority of one. A dissolution took place, and
ministers found themselves in a decided minority in
the new parliament. The Queen's speech contained
a recommendation to revise the Corn Laws. Mr.
Cobden had been returned for Stockport, and
spoke on the second night of the debate.
It may be doubted whether he ever made
a better speech than on that occasion. He
assumed at once the language of authority on
the great question of the day, and justified his
tone by relentlessly exposing the sophistries by
which some of the most eminent members of the
house and the governmeut were evading their
duty and entailing heavy loss on the nation.
It was seen at once that Mr. Cobden was
more " at home" in the House of Commons than
many members who bad passed half their lives
there. His speech was entirely directed to the
weak points of his predecessors in the debate, of
which he availed himself to introduce his un-
answerable arguments. At the end of the debate
ministers were defeated by a majority of 360 to 269,
and, immediately resigning, were succeeded by Sir
Robert Peel. The new Premier soon wound up the
business of the session, kept his own counsel, and
spent the winter in preparir.g measures for the next
year. Another bad harvest, the fourth of the
aeries, followed, and the Mateo of the people in-
creased. The League redoubled its exertions, and
great public demonstrations took place, not only
in the north, but in the midland and western
counties. When the parliamentary session of 1842
opened, six hundred delegates, from all parts of the
country, were sitting in Palace-yard waiting to learn
the policy of the ministry, expectation having
been stimulated by the resignation in the
previous week of the Duke of Buckingham,
who was understood to represent the cause
of protection in the Cabinet. The plan of Sir
Robert Peel was a sliding scale calculated to keep
the price of wheat at about 56a. the quarter. The
League upon this announcement resolved to agitate
more than ever. Mr. Villiers brought forward a
motion for the total repeal of the Corn Laws, and
was supported in a powerful speech by Mr. Cobden ;
but his motion was rejected by 393 to 90 votes,
and the ministerial bill was carried by large
majorities. Mr. Villiers made his annual motion
in 1843, and it was again defeated. The harvest
in 1814 had been good and the cause of free
trade seemed to languish ; but the autumn
of 1845 showed that the wheat crop of that
year had been deficient, while the potato
was attacked by a disease which destroyed the
subsistence of millions. A meeting at the Man-
chester Free Trade Hall was attended by 8,000
people, and Mr. Cobden called upon the people to
demand the opening of the porta. The Tory
papers declared in a. tone of defiance that the ports
should not be opened, as there were abundant sup-
plies in the country. On the 22nd November Earl
Russell published a letter declaring openly and nee
conditionally for freedom of trade. On the 4th of
December it was announced that in January Sir
Robert Peel would propose the total repeal of the
Corn Laws, and on the 27th of that month
he fulfilled the prediction. The debate
lasted twelve nights, Mr. Cobden making one of
his most forcible speeches. The bill passed the
House of Commons by a majority of 377 to 229, and
the Lords by a majority of 211 to 164 on the second
reading. It was now Mr. Cobden's turn to receive
some compensation at the hands of the great con-
servative leader for the treacherous attacks which
had been made on him in the season of difficulty by
pretended liberals, more particularly by Lord
Brougham and Mr. Roebuck. On the 29th of June,

In his opinion the wintry owed a debt of gratitude to
the bedew; of the Lingua, more especially to Xr. oobdece
To him, to his genies and pszernraam wars they indebted
foe the achievement of what be believed to be me of the
mast inipsetset measures with roferesos to the future
welfare of the British people that over reorived the
sumacs el parliament. He had achieved this triumph by
mesas altogether uuszeoptionabla all his efforts had been
addressed towards coaverting the opinion of the uatioo, and
he must my that his sweets appeared almost miraculous.
The work of the League was now done, and it
preeisimed its owe dissolution. Mr. Oaths rr
oeived from the free traders of the country a free
gift of 75,0001.
Mr. Cobden evidently regarded the emancipation
of his country's industry as the great work of his
life. Although he took part in many move-
ment. for various kinds of reform, be never
assumed to pleas himself in the same relation
to any great public question as that in which be
had stood to free trade. At the dissolution of 1867
he was returned spontaneously for the West
Riding, which he represented until 1867, but the
vote which he gave on Lord Palmerston's China
poliay coat bins his seat. In 1869 he
was elected for Rochdale whilst absent in America.
On his return he found a seat in the Cabinet await-
ing his acceptance, but be declined to serve under
Lord Palmerston. Re was a man of con-
victions, and knew the value of liberty; to
follow the dictates of his own judgment. He was,
moreover, a practical man. When a law was proved
to be mischievous or unjust he demanded its amend-
:neat ar repeal. He had no idea of toying with poli-
tics—everything he did he did earnestly.
These peculiarities—these infirmities as some
would call them—unfitted him for many positions
which he only wanted a certain elasticity to fill
with distinction. His simplicity and the dislike
with which he could not but look on political
trifling, threw him out of rapport with a large class
of politicians, who mistook for weakness of temper
an impatience which was entirely moral. The
service which he rendered to the country as the
• negotiator of the French treaty is too recent to be
• forgotten, or the indifference to honour which he
• showed when offered some mark of distinction at its
• conclusion. The benefits of the great commercial
reforms which it had been his privilege to bring
about increase year by year, and in them he poo-
r seises the best of titles to his country's lasting
remembrance.