The Sun.
London, England, 1867-07-04 00:00:00

The annual dinner of this club took place yester-
day evening, at the Star and Garter, Richmond.
Earl Russell presided, supported by the Duke of
Argyll, Lord Airlie, Lord Amberley, Professor G.
Smith, Mr. C. Fortescue, M.P., Lord Houghton,
&c., and among the members of the club present
were—Mr. J.Barnes, Mr. Bass, M.P., Mr. E. Beaks,
Professor Beesley, Mr. Candlish, M.P., Mr. Cheet-
h , M.P., Mr. Colvile, M.P., Sir F. Crossley,
M.P., Sir C. W. Dilke, M.P., Professor Fawcett,
M.P., Mr. Heyward, M.P., Mr.Hibbert, M.P,, Sir H.
lioare, M.P., Mr. Hodgkinson, M.P., Mr. K.
Ragmen, M.P., Mr. S. Morley, Mr. T. B. Potter,
M.P., Mr. Stansfeld, M.P., Col. Sykes, M.P., Pro-
fessor Rogers, Mr. Grant Duff, M.P., Sir C.
O'Loghlen, M.P., Mr. White, M.P.
The loyal toasts were proposed with the accus-
tomed brevity, and received with the usual loyalty
and warmth.
The CHAIRMAN then proposed the toast of " The
Memory of Richard Cobden." His lordship said—
Upon hearing this toast some persons may be dis-
posed to say—Why should we meet here to-day to
give praise to the name of Mr. Cobden ? Is there
any one who doubts his great reputation, or who is
disposed to dispute his eminent services, or who does
not heartily respond to any praise that may be given
tohim ? (Hear.) To such a question I should answer,
that it is not for the purpose of adding anything to the
wreath of glory which surrounds the name of Cob-
den that I am here to propose that you should
drink to his memory. We meet here rather for our
own benefit— (hear, hear)—to strengthen our own
feelings, to animate our own future endeavours.
(Hear, hear.) And, gentlemen, it cannot be said that
these are times in which it is unuseful to bring before
the eyes of the public and of the country the career
of a man who undoubtedly, if he had so chosen—
with his great knowledge of the process of manufac-
turers and of the ways of business—might have made
a large, and probably an enormous fortune, and who,
instead of that, gave up all the exertions of his mind,
at the sacrifice of his health, at the sacrifice of his
time and of his comfort, to the welfare of his coun-
try. (Cheers.) I say, gentlemen, that these are
not the times when such an example should be passed
over in silence and neglect. (Hear, bear.) The facts
of his career it is hardly necessary for me to go into.
You know perfectly well that Cobden first set out
on his mission in order to persuade the country to
adopt a change in the corn laws, which in his opinion
was likely to be attended with immense benefits to
his country, with immense benefits to the district
with whieh he was connected, and likewise with im-
mense benefit to the whole country, to the whole of
Europe, and to the whole world. (Cheers.) Well,
gentlemen, his exertions in this respect were not then
fully appreciated. There were men, and men in the
highest position as well as the lowest, who did not
appreciate those efforts, and who thought that they
must end in failure. (Hear.) But Mr. Cobden had
that within him which is in all men who make
great efforts that end in success—the persuasion,
namely, that he is working for the benefit of the
public, that what he proclaims is the truth, and
that the truth must finally prevail. (Cheers.) Well,
after the struggle of many years, Mr. Cobden suc-
ceeded. But it may be said, how was it that it
• should have been necessary to struggle for years in
order to produce a result which had been shown by
the philosophical writings of Adam Smith, 70 years
before, to be consonant to the interests of society,
and to be deducible almost by mathematical reason-
ing from the first principles of economical
science? (Hear, hear.) It could hardly be said
that so long a period was necessary to make the
writings of Adam Smith fully known ; and, indeed,
I must admit that so much effort on the part of Mr.
Cobden in enforcing the doctrines of Adam Smith
would not have been necessary if there had not been
strong interests on the other side. (Hear, hear.) In-
deed, gentlemen, I am persuaded myself that if,
when Newton's discoveries were given to the world,
there had been an interest in favour of cycles and
epicycles, the cause of cycles and epicycles would
not have wanted defenders. (Hear, hear.) If a
man could have said, " My income of £lO,OOO
a year will be reduced to £2,000 if Newton's theory
of attraction and system of the universe is believed,"
then, gentlemen, I believe that that system would not
have been credited for 70 or 80 years, and that the
world would have remained in blindness to it all that
time. (Hear, hear, and a laugh.) But this was the
difficulty with which Cobden had to deal, and he had
the power—and a most remarkable power—of per-
suasive eloquence, which was the pledge of success
to his efforts. (Hear, hear.) His eloquence was
without any of the ornaments and metaphors that
attract the fanciful; still less did it depend upon ma-
lice and invective, which often attract much more
attention than any other form of speech ; but he had
a gift of eloquence which made those who heard him
feel that what he was the advocate of was the inte-
rest of England, and that if the course he recom-
mended were followed the interest of England would
be advanced. (Hear, hear.) When the time came
that these efforts were successful—and I have been
told that it was not till the last years of his efforts
that he found the working classes in general were
persuaded by his speeches. When that time came
the minister of the day, who was in a position of
great power, most fairly and most freely gave Mr.
Cobden the merit of that success.—(hear, hear)—and
raid that if those measures were likely to prosper and
thrive for the future, it was to Mr. Cobden the glory
was due—(hear, hear)—and that, notwithstanding
the great talents and abilities of his coadjutors, and
among them my friend Mr. Villiers—(cheers)—yet
the movement would not have succeeded unless Mr.
Cobden had been able by his efforts to make an
impression on the country, and through the
country, on the House of Commons. (Hear, hear.)
On another occasion Mr. Cobden exerted his talents
before a very different audience, and with equal
success. The Emperor of the French, greatly to his
honour, and in spite of the prejudices of that na-
tion, which was strongly attached to the cause of
protection, proposed to the British Government, to
which I had then the honour to belong, to enter into
a treaty of commerce. The Cabinet of Lord Pal-
merston at once agreed to that proposal, and they
agreed at the same time that Mr. Cobden should be
asked to undertake the mission. (Hear.) Ile re-
ceived his instructions from Mr. Gladstone.
(Cheers.) I never myself presumed to interfere, but
left the matter entirely to the judgment of those
two eminent persons ; and in the result Mr. Cob-
den was as powerful in the Chamber of the Minister
of Foreign Affairs for France as he ever was at any
meeting of Manchester or Leeds. (Cheers.) The
treaty was concluded ; and the results of those great
efforts of Mr. Cobden are not to be measured by
their immediate co
usequences. Just as the conse-
quences of an unnecessary war reach into wide
circles, and briog an infiniteot train of misery and
grief after them, so,
on the her hand, innumerable
and
will
benefits have resulted,
continuec to result,
from the peaceful labours of Mr. Cobden. If
Cobden had removed the robbers an%
between nations in some of the earliest periods of
legendary narration he would have been treated as
a hero and worshipped as a demi-god, and temples
would have been raised to his honour. (Cheers.) If
he had lived in the middle ages, and had taught men
to address God in the language of prayer, he would
then have been made a saint, and we should have
had temples erected to the memory of Saint Richard.
(Cheers.) In our days these forms of admiration
public are passed away, but we have in the
press a
powerful instrument, which carries over distant
lands the record of everything that is thought, and
hoped, and said here ; and by that means the name
of Cobden will be known, not for a few s
or in a restricted region, but to all futurey,(4resslonalisk
ylci
among countless millions of men. (Cheers.)
of you, therefore, to drink, in solemn silence, anda
with all the veneration that belongs to it, "To the
memory of Richard Cobden."
The toast was drunk in silence.
The Duke of ARGYLL then proposed the toast of
" The Fellow-workers with Cobden in the Free-
trade Movement," to which Mr. S. MORLEY re-
plied, and the toast of " The Progress of Liberal
Opinion in the Universities" was proposed by Lord
HOUGHTON, and
by Professor GonrnesPended to in an effective speech
IN SMITH.
Mr. BAXTER having Proposed the health of the
chairman,
Earl RUSSELL, in reply, naid....l
will say a few