The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — 1846-07-07 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

SIR ROBERT PEEL AND MR. LUEDEN.  (From the Landon Record.)  We cannot but think that Sir Robert Peel might have paid a compliment to Mr. Cobden, without doing it in such a manner as might seem to approve of the c.vnbtitution of the League, and of the system of its agitation, as is the reasonable inference from the right hon. baronet's speech of Monday night. When Lord Anglesea was recalled from Ireland, and said in his parting address to the Rounanists, that his advice was " Agitate, Agitate, Agitate," every m4n of sense denounced the folly of the exhortation. coming from the lips of a retiring Viceroy. and only palliated his conduct by the recollection that he was fitter to charge at the head of a regiment of hussars than to govern a nation. But Sir Robert Peel must be regarded in a very diferent aspect, and we cannot but feel that his panegyric is fitted to stimulate the ambition of future agitators, and to call into existence a new swarm of would•be Richard Cobdens.  It cannot be forgotten that Sir Robert Peel at one time entertained a very different opinion of Mr. Cobden, and thought that he did not always " appeal to reason." No one can overlook the fact that when Mr. Drummond was assassinated by one who designed the bullet for Sir Robert Peel, the premier spoke in such a manner of Mr. Cobden's addresses to the great Anti-Corn-law meetings, as seemed to intimate that Mr. Cobden was morally responsible for the attempted murder. Great was Mr. Cobden's indignation, but so unsatisfactory was Sir Robert Peet's explanation of his meaning, that it was not until the present session that Mr. Cobden expressed himself satisfied, that the imputation was withdrawn.  But it is not to any private feeling between Sir Robert Peel and Mr. Cobden, that we now look. We look to the fact that Mr. Cobden, not by appeals to reason merely, but by a powerful organization, meant to overawe the le. gislature, has for many years laboured to carry the repeal of the Corn-laws. Could the creation of fictitious votes be styled "an appeal to reason ?" Could the preparations on foot for supplanting the county constituencies be regarded as an " appeal to reason ?" We regret that Sir Robert Peel should have used such language in regard to Mr. Cobden, although we are free to admit the great talents, the indefatigable industry, and the comparative moderation of that eminent agitator. We admit that amongst agitators he is entitled to a high place, but still he was an agitator. And it would have been quite as suitable if Sir Robert Peel, as he hes now concluded his labours in favour of the abolition of the Corn-laws with a panegyric on Richard Cobden, had closed his great effort on behalf of Roman Catholic Emancipation with a laboured panegyric on Daniel O'Connell. Richard Cobden and Daniel O'Connell are both unconstitutional agitators, although we freely admit that as between them, the palm of truth, integrity, and principle, must be awarded, net to the selfish, blustering, equivocating mendicant of Ireland, bat to the more selfdenying and truth-telling Leaguer of Stockport.