te, and taking rather a notable part
in county matters. But his father, forsaking that trade, took to farming
at an unpropitious time. He was amiable and kind-hearted, and greatly
liked by his neighbours, but not a man of business habits, and he did
not succeed in his farming enterprise. He died when his son Richard was
a child, and the care of the family devolved upon the mother, who was a
woman of strong sense and of great energy of character, and who, after
her husband's death, left Dunford and returned to Midhurst.

The educational advantages of Richard Cobden were not very ample. There
was a grammar school at Midhurst, which at one time had enjoyed
considerable reputation, but which had fallen into decay. It was there
that he had to pick up such rudiments of knowledge as formed his first
equipment in life, but from his earliest years he was indefatigable in
the work of self-cultivation. When fifteen or sixteen years of age he
went to London to the warehouse of Messrs Partridge & Price, in
Eastcheap, one of the partners being his uncle. His relative, noting
the lad's passionate addiction to study, solemnly warned him against
indulging such a taste, as likely to prove a fatal obstacle to his
success in commercial life. But the admonition was unheeded, for while
unweariedly diligent in business, he was in his intervals of leisure a
most assiduous student. During his residence in London he found access
to the London Institution, and made ample use of its large and
well-selected library.

When he was about twenty years of age he became a commercial traveller,
and soon became eminently successful in his calling. But never content
to sink into the mere trader, he sought to introduce among those he met
on the "road" a higher tone of conversation than usually marks the
commercial room, and there were many of his associates who, when he had
attained eminence, recalled the discussions on political economy and
kindred topics with which he was wont to enliven and elevate the
travellers' table. In 1830 Cobden learnt that Messrs Fort, calico
printers at Sabden, near Clitheroe, were about to retire from business,
and he, with two other young men, Messrs Sheriff and Gillet, who were
engaged in the same commercial house as himself, determined to make an
effort to acquire the succession. They had, however, very little capital
among them. But it may be taken as an illustration of the instinctive
confidence which Cobden through life i