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 by the reform question, had hardly time to consider the bearings of the contest on the interests of this country before it was terminated. It was not till Monday July 9th that Lord Derby had so far overcome the difficulties attendant on the formation of a conservative administration as to be able to make his ministerial announcement in the House of Lords. On that day the gilded chamber of the peers was filled with an illustrious audience, for among those who had come to listen to the opening statement of the new premier were the Prince and Princess of Wales and the Duke of Edinburgh. Lord Derby had lost much of that buoyant and impetuous vigour which in former times obtained for him the title of the Rupert of debate.' His voice, his manner, and his whole bearing proved that age and infirmities were coming on him, and that in taking office he had yielded reluctantly to an overwhelming sense of duty. However, he girded himself up resolutely to the work that was before him, and with great skill and tact made the announcements which his position required him to make. Referring to the reform question, he said that he and his colleagues were entirely free and unpledged on that subject, and that he should be especially observant of an axiom laid down by Earl Russell, that no government should undertake a measure of reform without seeing a fair possibility of being able to carry it; and this he believed could only be done by an understanding and a joint action between the two great political parties in the state. added, that he did not deny the existence of anomalies in our constitutional system, and that there were many persons who did not possess the franchise that were fairly entitled to it; but he was afraid that those who professed to be most ardent in the cause of reform would not be contented with any measure which was likely to be carried in parliament. He should be glad, however, if any opportunity occurred for passing a safe and satisfactory measure. He promised the earliest attention of the government to the law of bankruptcy, the administration of the poor-law, and the condition of workhouses-a question to which public attention had recently been drawn by a gentleman who, for the sake of obtaining information with regard to it, had disguised himself and passed a night in the casual He 1865.] DEATH OF LORD PALMERSTON. 267 of labour which at his age seemed almost miraculous. Except when prevented by the gout, or kept away by other business, he was almost always in his place in the House of Commons from the commencement to the close even of its most protracted sittings, and affording an example of assiduity and attention to business which few of the youngest members imitated. During the autumn of this year he had shown some symptoms of failing health, but they were not of a nature to cause serious uneasiness. On Thursday, October 19th, he was confined to his bed by what seemed a slight cold, caught through riding imprudently in an open carriage without an overcoat. On the Monday following it was rumoured that his indisposition had taken a serious turn; but the report was promptly contradicted. Next day a bulletin was issued, stating that he was improving steadily; but in the afternoon of the same day it was announced that he had become worse; and on the following morning that he was gradually sinking; about eleven o'clock he expired. As he died during the recess, there was, of course, no opportunity afforded for a notice of his death by the legislature at the time when it occurred; but the public press made up for this deficiency by its comments on the services and character of the departed statesman, who for nearly forty years had occupied a very prominent and important position in this country, and had presided over its destinies after having passed the fourscore years allotted by the Psalmist to Arrangements were made for his interment in the vault belonging to the family in Romsey Abbey church, but they were set aside by the special desire of the Queen, in order that his remains might rest where so many other statesmen reposed, in the ancient Abbey of Westminster. Almost every public man in the country took some opportunity of eulogising the deceased premier. As to the appointment of his successor there could be no doubt or hesitation. Earl Russell's age, his great services, his high reputation, his honourable character, gave him irresistible claims to the vacant place. Equally, of course, Mr. Gladstone became leader of the ministry in the House of Commons. These changes afforded a sufficient guarantee that the question of parliamentary reform and of other much-needed changes would not be allowed to remain man. assured his colleagues and associates that this might be done without any violation of the law. On the other hand, the government determined to prevent the proposed meeting from being held. A notice forbidding it was issued, signed by Sir Richard Mayne, the head of the London police. Mr. Walpole, an excellent, accomplished, amiable man, but somewhat deficient in the firmness required in the holder of the office he filled, especially at a crisis like the present, thought, and his colleagues thought with him, that the purposed demonstration was likely to disturb the public peace, and lead to riot and disorder. However, Mr. Beales and his associates conceiving that they had a legal right to hold their meeting in the Park, determined to disregard the notice of the chief commissioner and the prohibition of the government. Accordingly, on the 23d of July numerous processions with bands of music converged on the Marble Arch. The gates had been closed at five o'clock. A large body of police guarded the Park, and an immense crowd of spectators assembled about the arch to see what would occur. The appearance of the first detachment of the procession was welcomed with loud cheers, showing that the crowd sympathised with the reformers, and a line was at once opened through it, by which Mr. Beales, Colonel Dickson, and other members of the council of the league advanced towards the gate and made a formal demand for admission, which was refused. Mr. Beales then asked by whose orders he was excluded? and he was informed that it was by the authority of Sir Richard Mayne. Seeing that farther remonstrance would be useless, he turned away, and led the procession towards Trafalgarsquare, where a meeting was duly held, and resolutions in favour of reform, and votes of thanks to Messrs. Gladstone and Bright for their fidelity to a cause which others had basely deserted, were carried unanimously. The meeting then dispersed, and those who composed it quietly retired. Nothing could be more orderly and praiseworthy than their conduct. They had asserted what they had been advised to be a legal right, and they had adopted what they conceived to be the best and most practical mode of exposing the falsity of the statement which had been made over and over again, that the working classes were indifferent to the franchise. They hoped and believed that their example 1865.] OUTBREAK OF RINDERPEST. 269 arbitration. The men on the other hand insisted that the arbitration should precede their return to work. In such a contest the masters had the advantage which belongs to more cultivated intelligence and to the comparative smallness of their numbers, which facilitated combination. But the market-price of labour is regulated by the laws of demand and supply, and is very little influenced either by strikes or lock-outs. The masters, as appears by the result, had miscalculated it, and were forced to yield, first at Newcastle, then at Cleveland; at length the Staffordshire masters found themselves left to fight their battle with the men without farther assistance; then the South-Staffordshire masters yielded; and at last the North-Staffordshire masters, finding that they could not maintain the contest alone, followed their example; and so the dispute ended, not without heavy loss to both the contending parties, producing a greater willingness on both sides to submit their differences to arbitration, instead of settling them by the clumsy expedients of strikes and lock-outs. Before the general election was well over, the country was alarmed by the intelligence that a disease of the oxtribe known on the Continent by the name of the steppemurrain, or rinderpest, had appeared in this country. The disease seems to have been first brought into England by some cattle imported from Holland; and it spread rapidly. Attention was at once directed to the means to be adopted for repressing its ravages. The London cowkeepers met in the end of July to establish a society intended to prevent the spread of the infection. The government took up the matter, and on the 2nd of August the privy-council issued descriptions of the symptoms of the disease, and directions respecting the precautions to be adopted in order to prevent it from spreading. The alarm was increased by the circumstance that when the same complaint visited England a hundred and twenty years before, it was computed that no fewer than 40,000 head of cattle had perished by it, and there seemed to be strong reasons for apprehending that its ravages at this time would be at least equally serious. Towards the end of October it was announced that the cattle attacked with the disease during the past week, so far as they had come under the notice of the inspectors, were 1873, and that during the short time that had elapsed |