COBDEN RICHARD: (1804-1865)

COBDEN RICHARD: (1804-1865) English politician, manufacturer and a campaigner for free trade and peace, associated with the Anti-Corn Law League. An excellent A.L.S., Richd. Cobden, four pages, 8vo, London, 12th August 1850, to Michel Chevalier. Cobden thanks his correspondent for their letter and extracts from the Revue des deux Mondes and continues to observe ´You are pursuing the politics & true course, in labouring to identify as much as possible in mens minds the doctrines of protection & socialism. If we carry out logically the declared principles of the protectionists we shall find ourselves carried forward to the ground occupied by Owen, Cabet & Co. - Unfortunately the protectionists gave not generally logical heads, & therefore it is very difficult to lead them back to first principles´, further adding ´I have reflected frequently upon your economical prospects in France, & am always more inclined to the belief that you will some day own the complete bouleversement of the present system to the accidental failure of your crops, & the consequent dread of famine. The case will be made to turn upon a question of food for the millions, as it did in 1846, in England. Once withdraw protection from the agriculturists & they will destroy the other monopolies´. Cobden also remarks that he agrees with Chevalier concerning the British foreign minister, ´Lord Palmerston represents the old ideas of international rivalry. jealousy, & antagonism. He is twenty years behind his time - I will not say that he is twenty years behind the opinion of the mass of my countrymen, for I am afraid we are an arrogant, dictatorial, pugnacious people, fond of intermeddling with our neighbours, & bullying weaker powers. But he is a generation behind the late lamented Peel in his ideas of foreign policy. You will have observed that I was one of half-a-dozen liberals who refused to vote in approbation of Palmerston´s policy. You.....will approve of my standing by my principles when the popular feeling was running strong on the other side. Time & reflection will change the foreign politics as they have already done the domestic policy of this country´. A letter of fine content and good association. Some very light, extremely minor age wear, VG Michel Chevalier (1806-1879) French engineer, statesman, economist and free market liberal. Together with Richard Cobden and John Bright Chevalier prepared the free trade agreement of 1860 between the United Kingdom and France, which is still called the Cobden-Chevalier Treaty. Robert Owen (1771-1858) Welsh textile manufacturer, philanthropist and social reformer, a founder of utopian socialism and the co-operative movement. Etienne Cabet (1788-1856) French philosopher and utopian socialist who founded the Icarian movement. Viscount Palmerston (1784-1865) British statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 1855-58 & 1859-65 and was previously Foreign Secretary 1830-34, 1835-41 and 1846-51. Robert Peel (1788-1850) British statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 1834-35 and 1841-46.