MR. COBDEN ASTRAY.
WE hope that Mr. Cobden is not going to throw himself away, either on Quixotic enterprises, or on that canting appeal to opi- nions in vogue which is fit only for puffing tradesmen or mere retail-dealers in politics. We recognize in the amended version of his Stockport speech a less outrageous proposition on the subject of national defence than the first reports seemed to convey. On the very day that we, in banter, imagined Mr. Cobden to sally forth for the purpose of repulsing an army of invaders with Free-trade arguments, he was actually and in solemn verity propounding a project of the kind I He would submit to the Governments of Europe ar- guments to show how costly are the preparations for warlike rivalry, and would suggest a consentaneous reduction of armies in all the leading European states ! There is but one answer to be made to such a proposition—" Don't you wish you may get it ?" To take only one European state, how would he induce Russia to diminish that army which is the sole reliance of Russian power —the engine on which her sovereign relies for present dominion, that on which her nobles will rely in the future struggle of the Russian Barons with some Northern King John ? Mr. Cobden might as well talk political economy and philanthropy to an Arctic bear. And if Russia maintains her immense engine of invasion and encroachment, bow will any state of all the Con- tinent be willing to reduce its force ? Similar questions might be applied, severally, to the case of each one of those states. Even if opinion had advanced, in either of those countries, to the point occupied by the Peace party in England, actual circum- stances would preclude that state from abating . its military strength : but opinion has not advanced to that point—not half way. In France, one of the most cultivated of all, warfare is a popular game, and is therefore an element in all the caprices of internal politics, an item in the attractions held out by com- peting factions another element being an aggressive jealousy, real or pretended, of England.
Of all existing statesmen, Mr. Cobden ought to be the one of whom it should be said that there is "no nonsense " about him : yet, to speak it out, we have seldom read greater nonsense than that which he consented to adopt at Newton-in-the-Willows in talking of the West Indies-
" Then we shall have the Sugar question. We want firm hands to deal with and to prevent any tampering upon the sugar-duties. There is a cry from the Colonies for an increase of the sugar-duties: they want protection back again to help them out of their difficulties. Why, what brought them into their difficul- ties? Have they not had protection? What could you adduce better as a proof of the inefficiency of protection than the present state of the West Indian interest? The West Indies have been the child of protection for the last thirty years: look at the condition of the planters, and you will find the true worthlessness of that rotten prop, protection."
The West Indies have not been " the child of Protection for the last thirty years," unless that group of colonies was the disfa- voured child—the Cinderella of Protection. A so-called protec- tion for West Indian produce was foisted on the West Indies to give an air of justice to the protection for British commerce which was forced upon those colonies. The West Indies are not asking for protection back again ; but protesting against the total want of deliberation, consistency, or system in the measures of the British Government ; which, within the last ten years, sanctioned a modified form of compulsory labour by a short-hour act—then established apprenticeship in lieu of slavery, for a stipulated period—then abolished apprenticeship before the stipulated time —then refused to allow free trade in labour to accompany free- dom of labour—then declared that a certain degree of protection should be maintained to compensate the other arbitrary measures —then reduced the protection—then admitted a supply of labour, limiting it first to the worst and afterwards to the scantiest sources—then prospectively abolished protection and permitted immigration on impracticable conditions—and finally, having kept the West Indies under such perpetual change as to defeat every calculation and destroy the profit of any investment ha- zarded at each stage, and after keeping them short of labour ever since this monstrous process began—after a capricious alternation of protective Colonial-system dogma, Anti-slavery sentiment, and Free-trade enlightenment—the British Government replies to the just remonstrances of the colonists by preaching economical commonplaces on self-reliance. Does Mr. Cobden mean to give his sanction to that course ?
We cannot believe that he has applied his shrewd and practical mind to the facts. He is taking them at second-hand, upon trust; deriving his knowledge from clumsier minds which are at the mercy of mere phrases like " protection." We might ask him whether he has paid any real attention to the subject. We might ask whether be knows the most obvious and notorious facts. For example, does he know that Lord George Bentinck, who is asking for a renewal of protection, is not "the West In- dies "1' Does he know that the cardinal: grievance of the West Indies is, not the withdrawal of protection—for the leading minds among the West Indians are as enlightened on these points as he is—but the restriction on the supply of labour! Does he know that, while a million sterling or more is spent annually in keep- ing up that squadron on the West coast of Africa which does not prevent the slave-trade, but embroils us with other countries, and hinders the adoption of a more intelligent policy, the colonists are forbidden to obtain a free supply of free labour? Does he know that at the end of the vista the promised result is, not cheap, but dear sugar, with a " monopoly ' transferred from the free-labour colonies of Great Britain to the slave-labour states of other coun- tries ? Has he investigated these questions, and come to an ori- ginal independent conclusion on them ? If not, we wonder that a man of Mr. Cobden's conscientious intellect and high spirit can consent to talk about them.
We can readily understand that the recipient of a public tri- bute may feel a very laudable impatience to perform suit and service in return : but a moment's reflection will call to mind the wholesome maxim, " Most haste, least speed." Mr. Cobden's tribute was surely an honorarium for work done, not a retaining- fee for future services—a " testimonial," not a capitalized salary? He is independent, with no obligation upon him except to serve his country. But he will not serve it by hastily taking up agi- tations without justly-matured motive or practicable aims. On the contrary, he will inflict on his country the greatest disser- vice which lies within the compass of his power—he will mar his own influence and utility as a public man.
Previous page
