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on, and some isolated conservative victories were pointed to in proof of its reality. The result of the general election, however, did not bear out these assertions; it produced a considerable change in the personnel of the House of Commons: one hundred and eighty members of the old parliament were replaced by the same number of new members. The city of London sent four liberals; Westminster returned Mr. Mill and Lord Grosvenor, the former being at the head of the poll. At Birmingham Mr. Bright denounced the ministry as having climbed into office under the pretence of devotion to parliamentary reform, and having afterwards violated all its pledges. He did not hesitate to declare that its chiefs had purposely betrayed the cause they undertook to defend, and that its less eminent members had tamely acquiesced in that betrayal. But while he was thus severe on the government, he did not spare the leader of the opposition. He described Mr. Disraeli as being one who would have been a statesman if his powers had been directed by any ennobling principle or idea, but who unhappily preferred a temporary and worthless distinction, as the head of a decaying party fighting for impossible ends, to the priceless memories of services rendered to his country and to freedom, on which only, in our age, an enduring fame could be built up.

His

Of all the elections of this period the one which excited the most intense interest was that for the university of Oxford. Mr. Gladstone was opposed by Mr. Hardy, and preparations had been made for bringing him forward immediately as candidate for South Lancashire. defeat at Oxford was as ardently desired by the liberal party as by the most vehement of the Oxford conservatives. They felt that as long as he continued to represent the university he would be continually subject to antiliberal influences. But if he should become member for South Lancashire, the influences to which he would be exposed would be of a directly contrary nature. Hitherto, they said, he has been held back; now he will be urged forward. These hopes and aspirations were not disappointed. As soon as it became evident that he would be defeated at Oxford, Mr. Gladstone hastened down to Lancashire, and lost no time in presenting himself as a candidate for the southern division of that populous and

1865.] MR. GLADSTONE'S DEFEAT AT OXFORD. 263

important county. It was on Tuesday, the day of the great weekly Manchester market, when he arrived, and the exchange of that city was crowded, as it usually is on that day, by the merchants and manufacturers, not only of the cotton metropolis, but of all the great surrounding towns and districts of which Manchester is the emporium. About three o'clock it was announced that Mr. Gladstone had arrived in Manchester, as a candidate for the representation of the southern division of the county; and that he was going to deliver an address to the electors in the great room of Free-trade Hall. In a few moments that room was crowded by an eager audience, the enthusiasm of which was roused to the highest pitch when Mr. Gladstone commenced his speech by saying, 'I stand before you unmuzzled.' The shout that arose as soon as these words were uttered was the expression of a triumphant perception of the false move which had been made by those who had taken off the muzzle that had hitherto hindered Mr. Gladstone from giving unreserved utterance to his liberal sentiments, and from fully following out his liberal instincts. And they had good reason for their exultation. There can be no doubt that the pride and delight which Mr. Gladstone took in representing his own university often acted as a restraint on him, and prevented him from expressing his own strong convictions as fully as he would otherwise have done, for fear of needlessly increasing the dissatisfaction with which he knew that the course he often felt himself compelled to take was regarded by many of his old supporters. It was therefore a fortunate circumstance for the nation, though a most unfortunate circumstance for the conservative party generally, that at this critical period the Oxford tories took off the muzzle from Mr. Gladstone, and severed ties which had hitherto fettered his liberty of speech and action. The liberal party throughout England felt that Mr. Gladstone's defeat was a gain to their cause, and rejoiced at his rejection. The contest, however, in South Lancashire was a hard one. Mr. Gladstone stood third on the poll, and was only returned by a small majority over the third conservative candidate.

But while the liberal party had gained a large accession of strength by obtaining the free guidance of an earnest

and highly able leader, that gain had been to a great extent counterbalanced by the loss of one of its ablest and purest champions. Few events have ever occurred in this country that have caused a deeper or more widely-spread sorrow than the death of Richard Cobden, which happened in the earlier part of this year. He was a victim to his overanxious desire to fulfil his public duties. He came to Rochdale in the month of November, 1864, in order to give his constituents an account of his stewardship during the past session. He was suffering from a bronchial affection, which rendered it in the highest degree dangerous for him to speak at all, or even to visit at that time of the year a place the climate of which is so inclement as that of Rochdale. And one at least of his friends strongly remonstrated with him against the imprudence of which he was intending to be guilty. Nevertheless he went, and addressed a very large and crowded meeting at great length and with all his usual earnestness and eloquence. From the effects of that exertion he never recovered. The next spring he was recommended by his medical advisers not to go to London till the weather had become genial and settled; and he so far yielded to their advice as to keep at home till near the end of March; but he was nervously anxious to show his constituents that he was not negligent of his duty as their representative. This feeling impelled him to take his seat in the House of Commons at as early a period as possible. The day on which he went up to London happened unfortunately to be, perhaps, the very coldest of the year. He was exposed to the blast of a biting east wind, which produced a severe and immediate aggravation of his bronchial symptoms, under which he rapidly sank. It is scarcely possible for those who have not enjoyed the privilege of personal communication with this great man to understand the nature of that power which he exercised over his contemporaries, and of which he made so magnificent a use for the benefit of his fellow-men. His vast services were in no small degree due to the fascination which his character and demeanour enabled him to exercise over individuals in private conversation, and over multitudes by his speeches. It all had its basis in a clear understanding, and a thoroughly good heart combined with much energy and determination. The eloquence with which he was gifted

1865.]

DEATH OF MR. COBDEN.

265

sprang from an earnest desire to convey into the minds and hearts of others the strong convictions and the high and noble feelings by which he was animated. Hence there was nothing artistic or artificial in his speeches. His art was not to conceal art, and that simply because he had no art to conceal; all with him was natural and unaffected. Accordingly his speeches had no formal exordium or peroration. He perhaps never stood up to address any assembly without an earnest purpose in addressing it. He said what he thought and felt with regard to the subject on which he spoke ; and when he had finished what he had to say on it he sat down. The feeling which occupied and might almost be said to have engrossed his mind, was a strong desire to benefit his fellow-creatures, and especially his fellow-countrymen; for though eminently cosmopolitan, he was no less eminently patriotic. The author of this work well remembers how in the last conversation he ever had with him, Mr. Cobden expatiated with warm satisfaction on the great increase that had taken place in the number of persons employed in the printing and publication of newspapers since the abolition of the stamp and paper duties, which he himself had so powerfully helped to remove, and how he dwelt with especial gratification on the fact that this increase in the number of persons employed had been followed by a great rise in the payments by which their labour was remunerated. The reader of this work has already enjoyed an opportunity of perusing the noble tribute of just acknowledgment paid to his services in the cause of free-trade by Sir R. Peel. A still more heartfelt and earnest tribute was paid to his memory by his intimate private friend and political associate, Mr. Bright, who was persuaded so far to do violence to his own feelings and wishes as to go down to the House of Commons on the evening on which it was understood that Lord Palmerston and Mr. Disraeli would refer to the loss which the legislature and the country had suffered by the death of Mr. Cobden. After the leaders on both sides of the House had warmly eulogised the deceased statesman, all eyes were naturally turned to the bench occupied by his friend and political ally; and Mr. Bright, endeavouring to master the emotions by which he was agitated, thus responded to the feeling of the House:

'Sir, the present moment is too near the scene in which

I have witnessed the passing away of one of the kindest and purest spirits that ever breathed, for me to be able to express what I feel; but I hope to be able to have some other opportunity of pointing out to some portion of his countrymen the lesson which is to be gathered from the life of him who has passed away. After a close friendship of many years, I never knew how much I loved him till I lost him.' And the strong firm-set man sat down and wept. The tears he shed were worthy of him who dropped them, and of him whose remembrance drew them forth. Indeed, the long and unbroken friendship of these two distinguished men was highly honourable not only to them but to the age they illustrated. Many attempts were made to create jealousies and ill-feelings between them; many a time was the one extolled at the expense of the other, for this very purpose; but these attempts failed to cast a shade on the pure and disinterested friendship which bound them together.

In less than a fortnight after the death of Cobden came the assassination of President Lincoln, shot in his private box at Lord's theatre, Washington, by an actor named Booth, who after the commission of his crime leapt on the stage brandishing a dagger and exclaiming Sic semper tyrannis! and then galloped away on a horse which stood ready saddled and bridled outside the building. The news of this odious crime, coming as it did at the moment of the triumph of the policy which the murdered president had so vigorously carried out, produced in England a strong and general feeling of horror and indignation. The Queen wrote to Mrs. Lincoln, as a widow to a widow,' a letter full of kindly sympathy. In both Houses of Parliament addresses were unanimously voted, and the leaders of both parties vied with each other in expressing their horror of the crime, and their sympathy with the American government and nation.

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At a later period of this year another death occurred under very different circumstances. The premier was now in the eighty-first year of his age, and though he suffered occasionally from attacks of gout, he still maintained all the strength and sprightliness of his character, and fulfilled the duties of his position with that tact and good humour which had always distinguished him, undergoing an amount

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