rd or
reviewed every conceivable argument on the corn question,) must really
decline to re-enter the arena, and _actum agere_, upon any occasion
ministered by Mr Cobden. Very frankly, we disdain to do so; and now,
upon quitting the subject, we will briefly state why.

Mr Cobden, as we hear and believe, is a decent man--that is to say,
upon any ground not connected with politics; equal to six out of any
ten manufacturers you will meet in the Queen's high road--whilst of
the other four not more than three will be found conspicuously his
superiors. He is certainly, in the senate, not what Lancashire rustics
mean by a _hammil sconce_;[28] or, according to a saying often in the
mouth of our French emigrant friends in former times, he "could not
have invented the gun-powder, though perhaps he might have invented
the hair-powder." Still, upon the whole, we repeat, that Mr Cobden is
a decent man, wherever he is not very indecent. Is he therefore a
decent man on this question of the corn-laws? So far from it, that we
now challenge attention to one remarkable fact. All the world knows
how much he has talked upon this particular topic; how he has
itinerated on its behalf; how he has perspired under its business. Is
there a fortunate county in England which has yet escaped his
harangues? Does that happy province exist which has not reverberated
his yells? Doubtless, not--and yet mark this: Not yet, not up to the
present hour, (September 20, 1843,) has Mr Cobden delivered one
argument properly and specially applicable to the corn question. He
has uttered many things offensively upon the aristocracy; he has
libelled the lawgivers; he has insulted the farmers; he has exhausted
the artillery of _political_ abuse: but where is the _economic_
artillery which he promised us, and which, (strange to say!) from the
very dulness of his theme making it a natural impossibility to read
him, most people are willing to suppose that he has, after one fashion
or other, actually discharged. The Corn-League benefits by its own
stupidity. Not being read, every leaguer has credit for having uttered
the objections which, as yet, he never did utter. Hence comes the
popular impression, that from Mr Cobden have emanated arguments, of
some quality or other, against the existing system. True, there are
arguments in plenty on the other side, and pretty notorious arguments;
but, _pendente lite_, and until these opposite pleas are brought
forward, it is suppose