r Robert's heart,--these, namely: it was intimated
to him one morning, that, if a division of the House should go against
the Ministry, the Queen would feel compelled to call upon Richard
Cobden, manufacturer, to make a cabinet for her. So the Ministry
yielded, and the League reached its triumph in 1846. It is due to the
memory of Peel to say that he joined with the triumphant nation to yield
every laurel to the brow to which it belonged, and uttered the memorable
prediction that Cobden's name would be forever venerated and loved,
whenever "the poor man ate his daily bread, sweeter because no longer
leavened with a bitter sense of unwise and unjust taxation."

In the year 1839 Mr. Cobden had heard John Bright speak with great power
at a meeting in Rochdale. A little later, when Bright had just lost his
wife at Leamington, Cobden visited him there. He found him in great
grief. "Think," said Cobden, "think in your sorrow, of the thousands of
men, women, and children, who are this moment starving under the
infamous laws which it is your task and mine to help remove. Come with
me, and we will never rest until we have abolished the Corn Laws." Then
and there were those hands clasped in a sacred cause which were never to
be unclasped but by death.

Mr. Cobden took his seat in Parliament in 1841, representing Stockport.
He had not only before the triumph of 1846 sacrificed his time and
impaired his health, but also given up his fortune to the cause, and was
a poor man. By a great spontaneous subscription, the nation reimbursed
his actual losses, and amongst other things built the house at Midhurst,
where he resided on the spot that his father had occupied. Immediately
after the repeal Mr. Cobden started on a Continental tour; and in every
city he was met with a triumphal reception, so deeply had his great work
in England affected the interests of all Europe. During his absence he
was elected to represent the great constituency of the West Riding in
Yorkshire, which he accepted.

It was perhaps in those furious days which preceded the Crimean War that
the noble personal qualities with which Mr. Cobden was endowed shone out
most clearly. When all England, from the thunder of the "Times" to the
quiet Muse of Tennyson, was enlisted for war, Cobden took his stand, and
refused to bow to the tempest. In a moment the nation seemed to forget
the services of years, and Cobden, denounced as a "Peace-at-any-price
man," lost the ear of t