"Hurrah! Hurrah!" wrote Cobden to
his wife on June 26, "the Corn Bill is law, and now my work is done!"

_IV.--In the Cause of Peace_

Cobden was now absent from England for fourteen months, travelling on
the Continent. His reception was everywhere that of a great discoverer
in a science which interests the bulk of mankind much more keenly than
any other, the science of wealth. People looked on him as a man who had
found out a momentous secret. He had interviews with the Pope, with
three or four kings, with ambassadors, and with all the prominent
statesmen. He never lost an opportunity of speaking a word in season.
They were not all converted, but they all listened to him; and they all
taught him something, whether they chose to learn anything from him in
return or not.

On his return he joined with Bright in an agitation for financial and
parliamentary reform. While he believed in an extension of the franchise
as a means of attaining the objects he had in view, he was essentially
an economical, a moral, and a social reformer. He was never an
enthusiast for mere reform in the machinery. He made it his special
mission to advocate financial reform, and left the advocacy for
franchise extension very largely to his colleague.

Retrenchment was the keynote of the financial reform urged by Cobden;
and retrenchment involved the furtherance of international peace and the
reduction of British armaments by means of the abandonment of the policy
of intervention in European disputes and the policy of "clinging to
colonies," with the consequent expenditure upon colonial defence. From
1846 to 1851 Lord Palmerston was at the Foreign Office, and was
incessantly active in the affairs of half the countries of Europe. To
this policy of interference Cobden offered resolute opposition. He was
especially energetic in protesting against the lending to Austria and
Russia of money that was in effect borrowed to repay the cost of the
oppressive war against Hungary. It is impossible not to admire the
courage, the sound sense, and the elevation with which Cobden thus
strove to diffuse the doctrine of moral responsibility in connection
with the use of capital.

In 1852, a Protectionist Ministry under Lord Derby came into power, and
the Anti-Corn Law League was revived. The danger, however, soon passed
away; the Derby Ministry made no attempt to interfere with freedom of
trade, and ere the year ended gave place to the Aberdeen Ministry.
Co