* COBDEN, RICHARD, was born in 1804, at Dunford, near Mid hunt, Sussex. His father, who possessed a small property in land which he himself cultivated, died while Richard was yet young, and he was taken charge of by an uncle, who kept a wholesale warehouse in the city of London, and who placed him iu his establishment. He commenced business as a partner iu a Manchester printed cotton factory, travelling occasionally for commercial purposes. He visited Egypt, Greece, and Turkey in 1834, and in 1835 he was iu North America. About this time he published two pamphlets, England, Ireland, and America,' by a Maaoheater manufacturer ; and 'Russia,' by the author of England, Ireland, and America.' He had contributed to the establishment of the 'Manchester Athenmum,' and in 1835 pronounced the inauguration discourse.
In 1837 Mr. Cobden stood a contest for the borough of Stockport, but was unsuccessful, and in the same year travelled in France, Belgium, and Switzerland. In 1838 he made a journey in Germany. Soon after his return to England, at a meeting of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce, he advocated the repeal of all taxes on grain, and carried a petition to that effect, addressed to the House of Com mons, and very numerously signed. In 1839 about 200 delegates brought up to London a vast number of petitions for the repeal of the corn-laws. Mr. Villiers made a motion for the repeal, which the House of Commons rejected by a very large majority, and immediately afterwards the National Anti-Corn-Law-League was established. In 1841 Mr. Cobden was elected M.P. for Stockport.
The most powerful of the earlier opponents of the corn-laws was Colonel T. P. Thompson, who in 1827 published, in the form of a cheap pamphlet, his 'Catechism of the Corn:Laws,' the substance of which had originally appeared in the Westminster Review.' The League, on the 20th of October 1842, announced its "intention of raising 50,0001. for the purpose of sending lecturers to every part of the country, and of, spreading information on the effects of the corn lawei by means of pamphlets, Among these pamphlets was one consisting of Extracts from the Works of Colonel T. Perronet Thompson, author of the 'Catechism of the Corn-Laws,' selected and classified by R. Cobden, Esq., M.P., and published with the consent
of the author,' 8vo, Manchester. Mr. Cobden became one of the lecturers. He attended public meetings in the principal towns throughout the country, and also occasionally in London, and was distinguished above all the others, not less by the extent and precision of his information than by his acuteness of reasoning, his boldness of declamation, and his popular style of oratory. These qualities also gained him much influence in the House of Commons, where he often spoke In support of his object. The struggle for the repeal of the corn-laws was terminated by Sir Robert Peel's memorable speech, and by the royal assent being given, June 26, 1846, to an Act for repealing the duties on the importation of foreign corn.
Mr. Cobden, soon after the passing of the Act, set out on a journey on the continent, and visited successively France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Russia, and was received with great applause at meetings in the principal cities and towns. During his absence in 1847 he was re-elected M.P. for Stockport, and also for the West Riding of Yorkshire. He made his choice to sit for the West Riding, which he still (1856) represents. After the repeal of the corn-laws his political friends set on foot a subscription to remunerate him for his services, and the of 70,000/. is stated to have been collected and given to him. Mr. Cobden is an advocate of the ballot, of exten sion of the suffrage, of shorter parliaments, of financial reforms, and generally of liberal measures. He is a member of the Peace Society, and at the congresset in Paris in 1849, at Frankfurt in 1850, and in London in 1851, supported the principles of non-intervention and of the prevention of war by arbitration between the states interested. When the designs of Ituesie against Turkey became known, arid war was imminent, he still advocated non-interference ; and during the war urged the policy of terminating it by concession to Russia. In 1S53 he published two pamphlets, ' How Ware are got up in India: the Burmese War,' Svu, London, and '1793 and 1853, in three Letters,' eve. London. In 1855 he published another pamphlet entitled' What Next?' Some of his speeches have also been