k-"
 
 "f 
 
 Presentation of an Address 
 
 TO 
 
 Mr. THOMAS BAYLET POTTER, M.P., 
 
 ON BEHALF OF 
 
 THE COBDEN CLUB, 
 
 WITH THE 
 
 (great jTree Cratie ^petc!) 
 
 MADE IN PRESENTING THE ADDRESS BY 
 
 The Ridit Hon. W. E. GLADSTONE, M.P., 
 
 AND SPEECHES BY 
 
 EARL GRANVILLE (/// the Chair), 
 
 AND BY 
 
 MR. POTTER, MISS COBDEN, MR. J. W. PROBYN, 
 
 SIR THOMAS H. FARRER, BART., and the RT. HON. 
 
 SIR LYON PLAY FAIR, M.P. 
 
 CASSELL & COMPANY, Limited 
 
 LONDON, PARIS it MELBOURNE. 
 
 1890.
 
 ( 4) 
 
 Lord Monk-Bretton. 
 
 Baron von Overbeck (Aus- 
 tria). 
 
 Sir F.T. Mappin, Bart., M.P. 
 
 Mr. C. Scale Hayne, M.P. 
 
 Lady Dilke. 
 
 Miss Conybeare. 
 
 Mrs. Charles Phillips. 
 
 Miss Amy Mander. 
 
 Mrs. C. Zachary Macaulay. 
 
 Mr.J.AllansonPicton, M.P., 
 and Mrs. Picton. 
 
 M. Edouard Seve (Belgium). 
 
 M. Auguste Couvreur (Bel- 
 gium). 
 
 Sir Henry Peto, Bart. 
 
 Lieut.- General Sir Andrew- 
 Clarke. 
 
 Mr. S. Hope Morley. 
 
 Mr. Sydney C. Buxton, M.P. 
 
 Mr. F. A. Channing, M.P. 
 
 Sir Thomas H. Farrer, Bart. 
 
 Mr. J. W. Probyn (Hon. 
 Treasurer of the Club). 
 
 The Rt. Hon. Sir James 
 Caird, K.C.B. 
 
 Mr. William Summers, M.P. 
 
 Mr. R. K. Causton, M.P. 
 
 Mr. W. O'Brien, M.P. 
 
 Mr. James M. Paulton, M. P. 
 
 Mr. R. Leake, M.P. 
 
 Sir John Swinburne. 
 
 Mr. H. P. Cobb, M.P., and 
 the Misses Cobb. 
 
 Mr. Thomas Burt, M.P., and 
 Mrs. Burt. 
 
 Mr. W. B. Barbour, M.P. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. H.GilzeanReid. 
 
 Mr. H. J. Wilson, M.P., and 
 
 Mrs. Wilson. 
 Mr. A. B. Winterbotham, 
 
 M.P. 
 Mr. Charles Fenwick, M.P. 
 Mr. Caleb Wright, M.P., and 
 
 Mrs. Wright. 
 Mr. and Mrs. G. W. Medley. 
 Mr. Thomas Shaw, M.P., 
 
 and Mrs. Shaw. 
 Mr. J. T. Brunner, M.P. 
 Mr. and Mrs. C. S. Salmon. 
 Mr. John Leng, M.P. 
 Mr. A. McArthur, M.P. 
 Mr. J. Shiress Will, M.P. 
 The Baron B. de la Greze. 
 Mr. J. R. Robinson. 
 Mr. O'Connor Power. 
 Mr. Wortley Stuart. 
 Mr. C. Tyndall Wulcko. 
 The Hon. Dadabhai Naoroji. 
 Mr. R. A. Hudson. 
 Mr. and INIrs. Poultney Bige- 
 
 low (U.S. America). 
 Mr. J. Salkeld Robinson 
 
 (Rochdale). 
 The Hon. E. F. Leveson- 
 
 Gower. 
 Mr. C. Trevelyan Macaulay. 
 Mr. C. A. lonides. 
 Mr. John Hicks. 
 Mr. Wm. Digby, CLE. 
 Mr. and Mrs. George J. 
 
 Holyoake. 
 Mr. R. C. Fisher. 
 Mr. S. N. Banerjee, Mr. R. 
 
 N. Mudholkar, and Mr. J. 
 
 N. Joshi (delegates to 

 
 (5 ) 
 
 England from the Indian 
 
 National Congress). 
 Mr. Geo. M. Holbrook 
 
 (Canada). 
 Miss Vyner. 
 Mr. and Mrs. Derry. 
 Mr. and Mrs. Wilmott. 
 Mr. J. Sage. 
 Mr. R Abigail (M.P. of 
 
 N. S. Wales); Mr. and 
 
 Mrs. Terry (N. S. Wales). 
 Mr. and Mrs. Sampson 
 
 Morgan. 
 The Hon. and Mrs. Ashley 
 
 Ponsonby. 
 Mr. A. F. Peterson. 
 Mr. Donald Murray. 
 Mr. M. Makower. 
 Mr. John Beauchamp. 
 Dr. and Mrs. Karl Blind. 
 Lady Mathew. 
 Mr. V. S. Lean. 
 Mr. W. W. Shaw. 
 Mr. Frank Debenham. 
 Mr. and Mrs. P. W. Clayden. 
 Mr. C. H. Cooper. 
 Mr. T. Fisher Unwin. 
 Mr. Worsley Battersby. 
 Mr. Felix T. Cobbold. 
 Mr. J. F. Cheetham. 
 Mr. R. M. Curtis. 
 Mr. H. N. Hamilton Hoare. 
 Capt. Cecil Norton. 
 Mr. H. Nichol. 
 Mr. J. C. Lanyon. 
 Mr. Henry M. Phillips. 
 Mr. W. H. Jones. 
 Mr. S. V. Morgan. 
 
 Mr. Joseph Leicester. 
 
 Mr. W. M. Cazalet. 
 
 The Rev. and Mrs. J. Hirst 
 
 Hollowell. 
 Mr. Carvell Williams. 
 Mr. John Jupe. 
 Mr. A. E. Petter. 
 Mr. Julian C. Rogers. 
 Mr. W. E. Bear. 
 Mr. H. A. Blyth. 
 Mr. H. J. Hadrill. 
 Mr. Thos. and MissThrelfiill. 
 Mr. Herbert Vivian. 
 Mr. and Mrs. S. Rowe 
 
 Bennett. 
 Mr. Walter Scott (Rochdale). 
 Mr. W. W. Thompson. 
 Mr. J. G. Reid. 
 Mrs. and Miss Lobb. 
 Rev. Dr. Bonavia Hunt. 
 Mr. J. J. Newbould. 
 Miss Macpherson. 
 Mdlle. Bichet. 
 Mr. James Keith, C.E. 
 Mr. Charles Buxton. 
 Mr. and Mrs. J. A. Murray 
 
 Macdonald. 
 Dr. Charles Read and Miss 
 
 Read. 
 Mr. F. H. Balfour. 
 Mrs. and the Misses 
 
 Bunting. 
 Mr. George Potter. 
 Mr. T. R. Wilkinson. 
 Mr. H. S. Brandreth. 
 Mr. H. L. Feuerheerd. 
 Mr. W. H. Willans. 
 Mr. Alfred Raphael.
 
 (6) 
 
 Mrs. and Miss J. Cordy 
 Jefferson. 
 
 Mr. Richard Gowing (Secre- 
 tary), and Mrs. Gowing. 
 
 Mr. Lionel F. Gowing. 
 
 Mr. J. T. Sears. 
 
 Mr. Valerian Gribayedoff. 
 
 Mr. H. J. Gibbs. 
 
 Miss Cooke Taylor. 
 
 Col. Jebb. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. J. F. Wilson, 
 Mr. J. A. Manson. 
 Mr. W. H. Mellon 
 Mr. A. Hope Moncrieff. 
 Mr. L. Makower. 
 Mr. E. Minshall. 
 Mr. B. Whishavv and Mrs. 
 Whishaw, etc. 
 
 THE HISTORY OF THE ADDRESS. 
 
 The presentation of this Address to Mr. Potter was first 
 proposed, at the conclusion of the ordinary business, at the 
 annual general meeting of the Club at the National Liberal 
 Club on the 20th of July, 1889. On that occasion, Mr. 
 Potter having been asked to allow Sir Thomas Farrer 
 to take the chair, the matter of the presentation of an 
 Address to Mr. Potter was proceeded with. Sir Edward 
 Watkin, Bart., M.P., had given the following preliminary ex- 
 planation of the matter : — 
 
 You will remember that a Committee, appointed at our meeting 
 last year, was instructed to arrange for an invitation to our excellent 
 chairman to a public l^anquet of members of the Club, with a view to 
 testifying their admiration of the untiring labours of Mr. Potter — 
 (cheers) — which have really made the Cobden Club a power in 
 England, on the Continent, and in the United States of America. I 
 am sorry to have to report on behalf of that Committee that, although 
 the necessary arrangements had been made, and we had secured Mr. 
 Gladstone for our chairman, Mr. Potter wounded all our feelings to 
 some extent by declining the honour we intended to pay him. 
 The Committee have instructed me to make an alternative proposal, 
 and later on I shall move that Sir Thomas Farrer take the chair, in 
 order that we may make the suggestion which the Committee has in- 
 structed us to make.
 
 ( 7 ) 
 
 The following statement was made by Sir Thomas 
 Farrer, as temporary chairman of the meeting referred to : — 
 
 The Committee appointed at the annual meeting last year, 1888, to 
 which reference has been made by Sir E. Watkin, recently instructed 
 Mr. Leadam and myself to draw up an Address for presentation to our 
 president, Mr. Thomas Bayley Potter, expressive of our esteem for him 
 and our appreciation of the valuable services he has performed for the 
 Club. 
 
 It was then proposed by Sir Edward Watkin, seconded 
 by Mr. Medley, and unanimously agreed, that the Address 
 should be engrossed and signed on behalf of the members 
 of the Club by the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, M.P., the 
 Earl Granville, the Right Hon. Sir Lyon Playfair, M.P., Sir 
 Edward Watkin, Bart., M.P., Sir Wilfrid Lawson, Bart, 
 M.P., Sir Thomas H. Farrer, Bart., the Hon. Walter 
 H. James, M.P., Mr. William Summers, M.P., Mr. I. S. 
 Leadam, Mr. G. W. Medley, and Mr. Thomas Ashton, to 
 be presented on a future day. 
 
 In pursuance of those proceedings the Address had been 
 engrossed, and was now to be formally presented. 
 
 LETTERS. 
 
 Mr. I. S. Leadam (Hon. Secretary to the Presentation 
 Committee) read and submitted letters from many members 
 of the Club and others unable to be present at this pre- 
 sentation, expressing interest in the gathering and hearty 
 sympathy in its object. 
 
 Mr. Charles P. VilUers^ M.F., the veteran Free Trader 
 and associate of Cobden, wrote : — 
 
 *' I regret to say that in the present state of my health I 
 am entirely precluded from attending any public meeting 
 whatever, and that I cannot, in consequence, be present on 
 the occasion you mention, to which I wish every success."
 
 ( 8 ) 
 
 Others wrote as follows : — 
 
 Lord Northhrook.—'' I wrote for a ticket for the pre- 
 sentation of the Address to Mr. Potter. I find that I am 
 compelled to attend the quarterly meeting of the Hampshire 
 County Council at Winchester, which will prevent me 
 from having the pleasure of attending at Princes Hall. 
 Will you be so kind as to let Mr. Potter know that I much 
 regret being prevented ? " 
 
 M. Yves Guyot (Paris) expressed his cordial sympathy 
 with the object of the meeting. 
 
 Sir Wilfrid Lawson.—'' I am obliged to return the 
 ticket, as I regret that the necessity of attending the funeral 
 of a near relative in the North on Monday will prevent 
 my attending the Presentation." 
 
 The Right Hon. H. CampMl-Bannerman, M.P.—''\ 
 much regret that I cannot be present when the Address is 
 presented to Mr. Potter on Monday, being chairman of a 
 committee which meets on that day." 
 
 Mrs, Cobden-SickerL — "Nothing would have interested 
 me more than to have seen the Presentation to yourself. I 
 am very sorry, indeed, that the state of my health prevents 
 me from coming to London on Monday." 
 
 Miss Margaret CobdeJi (in a letter from Winchcombe, 
 Cheltenham, to Mr. Potter). — "You know I should have 
 been most interested and delighted to be present. I am 
 here till about the 21st, and then only go to London for 
 a few days on my way to Marienbad." 
 
 The Chevalier Charles de Scherzer (Genoa). — "Three 
 cheers and one more for my excellent and distinguished
 
 (9) 
 
 friend, whose chief aim all his life long has been to promote 
 the welfare of mankind." 
 
 Sir William Wedderburn. — " I am sorry to say that the 
 change of date prevents my being present, as I must leave 
 town to-morrow." 
 
 Mr. Hamilton A. Hill (from Boston, U.S. America). — 
 " If the proceedings were to take place a few weeks later, I 
 should hope to be present. As it is, I can only send 
 my hearty congratulations to Mr. Potter on this new and 
 marked appreciation, on the part of his associates and 
 friends, of the great value of his services in behalf of the 
 cause for which the name of Richard Cobden stands." 
 
 Sir Charles Dilke. — "I have an engagement which 
 cannot be put off, or I should have been tempted to come 
 out of my seclusion to shake hands with you on this 
 occasion." 
 
 Mr. William Woodall, M.P. — " I regret that I cannot get 
 to the meeting on Monday. Pray include me amongst the 
 reluctant absentees." 
 
 Sir Ughtred Kay-Shuttleworth regretted that unavoidable 
 engagements prevented him from being present. 
 
 Mr. Humphreys Owen (Montgomeryshire) regretted that 
 County Council business prevented him from attending the 
 
 meetmg. 
 
 THE ADDRESS. 
 
 Lord Granville, who was received with loud applause 
 upon rising to open the proceedings, said : Ladies and 
 gentlemen, luckily for an old gentleman who has lost his 
 voice, the duties of a chairman are to maintain law and
 
 ( lo } 
 
 order in the assembly over which he presides. The 
 principles of the Cobden Club do not tend to develop 
 either disorder or illegality, and my position this day is 
 therefore of the nature of a sinecure, the only exception 
 being an exception very pleasing to myself, and, I believe, 
 to you all — of calling on Mr. Leadam to read the Address, 
 and then of calling upon Mr. Gladstone. (Cheers.) 
 
 Mr. Leadam then read the Address, which was in the 
 following terms : — 
 
 To THOMAS BAYLEY POTTER, Esq., Member of 
 Parliament for the Borough of Rochdale, Honorary 
 Secretary, ajid Chairman of t/ie Committee, of the 
 Cobden Club. 
 
 Sir, — We, the Members of the Cobden Club, desire at the 
 conclusion of the twenty-fourth year of your chairmanship 
 to record our sense of your indefatigable services both to 
 the Club and to your countrymen at large. 
 
 As the son of a distinguished Liberal, Sir Thomas 
 Potter, the first Mayor of Manchester, your earliest recollec- 
 tions are associated with the great cause of Municipal 
 Reform. As the intimate friend of Richard Cobden and 
 of John Bright, your maturer years have been employed in 
 the promotion of those beneficent measures of progress 
 which are the glory of the century, and especially with the 
 economic emancipation of the labouring classes. Like 
 those lamented statesmen, you have actively addressed 
 yourself to the education of the masses. The diffusion of 
 Free Trade Hterature — of which, at your suggestion and 
 under your guidance, the Cobden Club have been the 
 source — has strengthened the foundations of sound economic 
 thought in the minds of an enfranchised people.
 
 ( " ) 
 
 Nor has a policy intended by Nature for the world been, 
 under your leadership, confined to home. In the United 
 States of America the advance towards Free Trade is dis- 
 cerned and denounced by the Protectionists now in power 
 as the outcome of the exposition of those principles of 
 which you are the representative. Though repressed by 
 the financial exigencies of that militarism which Richard 
 Cobden recognised as the foe not less of sound economy 
 than of peace, scientific opinion upon the Continent has 
 long since adopted the doctrines of Free Trade. But the 
 example of foreign war tariffs maintains in activity an under- 
 current of Protectionist agitation in this country which 
 enjoys the benevolent regard of some at least of the leaders 
 of the old Party of Monopoly. Of the vitality of this 
 movement the recent endeavour to carry a Bill for the 
 exclusion of cheap sugar was a startling symptom. You, 
 as Honorary Secretary and Chairman of the Committee of 
 the Cobden Club, played no secondary part before the 
 public eye in successful resistance to that design. We, 
 as its members, appreciate in your leadership the 
 experience which guides and the genial sympathy which 
 stimulates. In you we acclaim and follow the friend and 
 fellow-worker of Richard Cobden, the successor to his 
 labours, and the depositary of his traditions. We earnestly 
 trust that for many years to come you may be spared to 
 continue, both in the House of Commons and as Chairman 
 of the Committee of the Cobden Club, that career of 
 public usefulness which has been the honourable distinction 
 of your life. 
 
 [The Address, richly illuminated, and contained in a handsome 
 carved frame, was exhibited to the meeting. The following is a 
 description : — 
 
 A Cobden Club Address ; the basis of the specially prepared design
 
 ( 12 ) 
 
 is the letter " C," upon which rests the cartouche containing the text 
 of the Address. 
 
 Above, a portrait of Cobden is surrounded by the label and motto 
 of the Club, "Free Trade, Peace, Goodwill among Nations"; the 
 portrait is flanked by the Palm Branch, signifying the victory of Free 
 Trade principles which Cobden achieved, and the Olive Branch of that 
 international peace which he laboured to promote. A tablet at the 
 back of the portrait records the dates of Cobden's birth and death. 
 
 On the left of this central group, abundant ears of corn bear the 
 inscription " Repeal of the Corn Laws " ; on the right hand, *' Repeal 
 of the Navigation Laws " leads up to a cornucopia of fruit, typical of 
 some of the foreign produce the importation of which was the out- 
 come of that repeal. 
 
 Within the confines of the letter "C" are portraits of four great 
 exponents of Cobden's doctrines ; Gladstone, Bright, Villiers, and 
 Wilson, who, together with the recipient of the Address, have brought 
 about or agitated for the various reforms indicated upon the small 
 scrolls intertwined with the ornamentation : " Franchise Extension," 
 associated particularly with Gladstone, Bright, and Villiers ; " Arbitra- 
 tion V. War," associated particularly with the two latter statesmen ; 
 "Repeal of the Paper Duties," "Education of the Masses," and 
 "Free Trade Abroad." The National emblems, the Rose, Shamrock, 
 and Thistle, are intertwined about these portraits, symbolising the 
 endeavour to apply these measures to the United Kingdom equally. 
 
 The left-hand top corner is occupied by the Arms, Crest, and 
 Motto of Rochdale, for which town Cobden, as well as Mr. Potter, 
 sat in Parliament, and with which John Bright also was intimately 
 associated by residence and by many personal and public interests. 
 In the bottom corner of the same side the Arms of London are placed. 
 
 The portraits are reduced from cabinet size, and printed by a new 
 and permanent process. 
 
 The colouring is also quite permanent, and the work is executed 
 upon vellum. 
 
 The design and execution were carried out from the suggestions of 
 Sir Edward Watkin by Mr. W. J. Pearce, 30, Kingswood Road, 
 Penge.] 
 
 The reading of the Address was received with loud and 
 protracted applause.
 
 ( '3 ) 
 
 The Chairman then called upon Mr. Gladstone to 
 present the Address on behalf of the members of the 
 Club. 
 
 MR. GLADSTONE'S SPEECH. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone rose amidst great cheering. He said : 
 Lord Granville, Mr. Bayley Potter, ladies and gentlemen, 
 when I was honoured with the request that I would under- 
 take to place in the hands of Mr. Bayley Potter the Address 
 that has just been read, I accepted that invitation without 
 hesitation and both with pleasure and with zeal. I do not 
 look upon this, ladies and gentlemen, as simply a political 
 demonstration. (Hear.) In fact, so far as general politics are 
 concerned, I would wish, for the day — or, at all events, for 
 this portion of the day — (laughter and applause) — to lay them 
 aside, and to advert to that which has so well been said in 
 one particular sentence of the Address, and which expresses, 
 I think, the main purposes of our meeting. I need not say, 
 with respect to the general politics of Mr. Bayley Potter, 
 that if we do not on this particular occasion dwell largely 
 upon them, it is not because they are subject, so far as I 
 know, to the smallest suspicion, or can occasion any mis- 
 giving. (Hear, hear.) We can assume, I think, that they 
 stand in a thoroughly satisfactory position ; and the 
 Liberalism of which he has been a life-long champion is 
 still a steadily advancing cause — (cheers) — more, I am afraid, 
 than can be boldly said for the particular subject that I 
 conceive to be the aim of our meeting here to-day. The 
 sentence I refer to in the Address is this : — " In you we 
 acclaim and follow the friend and fellow-worker of Richard 
 Cobden, the successor to his labours, and the depositary of 
 his traditions." (Cheers.) I am thankful to know that the 
 name of Cobden is still worthily represented, as a name, by
 
 ( M) 
 
 his own children (hear, hear) ; but in public life, undoubtedly 
 Mr. Bayley Potter — partly by his succession at Rochdale, 
 and partly by the zeal, earnestness, and wisdom that he 
 has shown in the choice of his means — has established a 
 connection between his own name and that of the dis- 
 tinguished statesman, philanthropist, and economist, such 
 as, I think, no other living man can claim. (Cheers.) I 
 have accepted this office, perhaps, with more zeal than 
 prudence. My title I do not conceive to be a perfect one. 
 In addressing you, my Lord, I address one who has been 
 an unflinching and an instructed Free Trader from the very 
 attainment of the years of discretion. (Cheers.) The case of 
 Mr. Potter is the same. My own is not quite, and has not 
 been quite, so apt. Although I was brought up to admire 
 the incipient Free Trade of Mr. Huskisson and Mr. Canning 
 (hear), yet the traditions of Protectionism were not so com- 
 pletely shaken off but that some of its fetters and some of 
 its recollections hung about me in the earliest years of my 
 public life. It was in the year 1841 — and that is a respect- 
 able time ago, as you will admit (hear, hear, and laughter) — ■ 
 that Sir Robert Peel sent me, on the formation of his Gov- 
 ernment — I must own, considerably against my will — to the 
 Department of Trade. From that moment it became my 
 duty to study as hard as I could all the questions connected 
 with our commerce, of which down to that time I had known 
 little or nothing ; and the effect of this study upon my mind 
 was rapid and decisive, for it at once began to act as a 
 powerful solvent upon whatever Protective ideas I had been 
 accustomed to learn and to imbibe (hear, hear) ; and from 
 a very short time after that date, I have fought in the same 
 army as that in which both Lord Granville and Mr. Bayley 
 Potter were older soldiers. I have fought with sincerity. I 
 have had at times no small share of the labour. I have
 
 ( IS ) 
 
 fought with conviction, and no man has ever felt that con- 
 viction to be founded on a more solid basis than is the case 
 with the individual who now addresses you. (Cheers.) Now 
 Free Trade has passed through its var)ung phases. It had a 
 period of struggle ; it had a period of triumph ; and after its 
 triumph it has now a period of danger. I do not look upon 
 that danger with apprehension as to the ultimate result, but 
 I think it is right that we should recognise it as a period of 
 danger. (Hear, hear.) When I go back to the early time that 
 I have just mentioned, we must recollect that there was 
 something to be said in those days for the gentlemen who 
 then fought the battle of Protection. In a great controversy 
 of this kind, it often takes a long time before the arguments 
 on the two sides are distinctly seen and properly marshalled. 
 It is not surprising that the Protectionists of those days, of 
 the earlier part of the century, should have used bad argu- 
 ments. It is, rather, more remarkable that all the arguments 
 of the Free Traders were not good. Now, as to the Pro- 
 tectionists, it is really a curious fact, and one worth recording, 
 that when in 1814 the Corn Law, which was the most odious 
 and nearly the most extreme exhibition of Protection ever 
 known in this country — when that Corn Law was proposed 
 by Lord Ripon in the House of Commons (as Mr. Robinson), 
 and by Lord Liverpool in the House of Lords, they made use 
 (I have no doubt with perfect good faith personally) — they 
 made use of this argument. They said : — " All you have to 
 do is to secure to the British farmer the absolute possession 
 of the home market, and the effect of that will be that he 
 will rear for you such vast, abundant, redundant quantities 
 of grain that you will become a great exporting country, 
 and have it cheaper than any other country in the world." 
 (Laughter.) Now, that is a curious fact. That is on record 
 in the Parliamentary Debates. You won't be surprised,
 
 ( i6 ) 
 
 therefore, if a little nonsense was talked by those on the 
 side of Protection. But there was at that period a very 
 favourite argument — I mean, before the days of Mr. Cobden 
 — a very favourite argument with the advocates of Free 
 Trade. It was this — and often have I heard it put in the 
 House of Commons : "In the time of the war you had a 
 monopoly of ocean trade, and our manufacturers could do 
 what they pleased. Now that peace is established the 
 ocean is alike open to us all, and it is impossible for our 
 manufacturers to continue their competition with the manu- 
 facturers of the Continent as long as they are called upon 
 to pay the high Protection prices for bread ; that is to 
 say, as they are called upon to give wages based on high 
 Protection prices for bread." (Hear, hear.) You will at once 
 see that the weak point in that argument was that it enabled 
 the friends of the Corn Law to reply, as they did reply some- 
 times with very great effect : "We perfectly understand you. 
 Your object is to lower the wages of your operatives in order 
 that you may better compete with the manufacturers of the 
 Continent." You will agree with me that was a very bad argu- 
 ment from the point of view of Free Trade. Mr. Cobden threw 
 over that argument altogether. (Hear, hear.) He declined to 
 have anything to do with the question of cheapness or dear- 
 ness. He said, "What we want is freedom of trade." In point 
 of fact, we see wheat now much cheaper than ever it was in 
 those days; but the great cheapness of wheat at this moment 
 is possibly not owing in so large a degree to freedom of trade 
 as it is to the long continuance of peace and the cheapness 
 of carriage, and Mr. Cobden put this argument on a right 
 footing. From his time onward the country knew what it 
 was about. And, moreover, it is quite true that some 
 economists, even before his time, had seen much of the 
 truth, and probably would not have used such an argument
 
 ( 17 ) 
 
 as that I have referred to about the wages manufacturers 
 were compelled to pay in order to enable operatives to 
 live. But those economists were persons who had no faculty 
 for conveying their ideas to the public mind and of making 
 them the property of the people at large. That great work 
 was performed by Cobden ; and when Sir Robert Peel, on 
 that memorable day when he made that striking acknowledg- 
 ment at the close of his Ministry in 1846, that the credit of 
 the triumph which had been obtained was due not to this 
 political party or to that, but to the mind and the arguments 
 of Richard Cobden, he placed upon record a simple fact 
 which all coming generations will acknowledge. (Cheers.) I 
 hope you will not be displeased with me for turning to con- 
 siderations that are not matter of congratulation between 
 you and me or among yourselves, but I must own it is a 
 great and heavy disappointment to see how much ground 
 has been lost by the doctrines of Free Trade within the last 
 five-and-twenty years. I have no doubt, as is well observed 
 in this Address, that that dreadful militarism which lies like 
 an incubus, like a vampire, upon Europe — (cheers) — is 
 responsible for much of the mischief. But not for all, 
 because Free Trade has receded in countries where 
 militarism does not prevail. Free Trade has receded and 
 Protection has gained ground in the United States of 
 America, and, I yet more regret, and much more regret, to 
 say, in the colonies of Great Britain. (Hear, hear.) We 
 had no title to expect that America should respect in any 
 degree our example ; but with regard to the colonies, though 
 I do not say that we had a title to expect it, yet it would 
 not have been unreasonable to hope that they might have 
 attached great weight to our experience. It must always be 
 borne in mind that England did not adopt Free Trade in a 
 hurry. (Hear.) We spent twenty years of national legislative 
 
 B
 
 ( i8) 
 
 life upon fighting out this battle. Between 1840 and 
 1 86 1 or 1862 little else was done. That is a tremendous 
 price to pay. During that struggle our convictions were 
 tested, and our energies were braced, and we ought certainly 
 to know what is the value of the purpose which we pursued 
 at so heavy a cost. It was said at one time that the devil 
 is wiser than of yore, and that Protection is becoming bolder 
 than of yore. Protection used, at any rate, in old time to 
 be confined to goods. Mr. Bright used sometimes to ask, 
 " Why do you confine Protection to goods ? Why don't 
 you apply it to persons ? " Why was it that the wealthy 
 and powerful classes in this country, when they com- 
 manded its legislation, did not lay heavy prohibitory 
 duties upon the importation of Italian singers ? (Laugh- 
 ter.) Why was not the labour of the honest, hard-working, 
 though not so melodious or skilful British singer en- 
 titled to Protection just as much as bad production 
 or inferior production in any other department whatever ? 
 (Hear, hear.) Nobody placed the Italian singer under the 
 ban of Protection. Gentlemen knew too well to sacrifice 
 their own pleasures or their own comforts to the Protective 
 doctrines when they came so near home as that. (Hear, 
 hear.) Though it may seem almost like the incredible, yet, 
 you all know, as has been well said, " truth is stranger than 
 fiction," and Protection is now freely applied against persons 
 and not simply against goods. I am not sure what the state of 
 the law in the United States is, and whether the incursion, 
 as it is, I believe, called, of the Chinese is simply resented, 
 or whether it is barred by any kind of legislative restriction 
 or pecuniary tax ; but undoubtedly in . the Australian 
 colonies, amongst our own kith and kin, the Chinaman is 
 either prohibited or heavily taxed upon his importation. 
 This is Protection pure and simple, and it is quite right to
 
 ( 19) 
 
 exhibit it in the face of the world. Why is the Chinaman 
 thus taxed ? Not because a superior race resents the con- 
 tact — you may say the contamination — of an inferior one, not 
 because civilisation recoils from companionship with a people 
 who are considered to be uncivilised. The Chinaman 
 comes in to compete with the hand labourer, and his entry 
 is in some if not in all these colonies prohibited or restrained 
 by heavy taxation, amounting in some cases, I believe, to 
 virtual prohibition. Why ? Because he does more work 
 for the money. Because he is less exacting; because he is 
 satisfied with less ; and, moreover, because he consumes a 
 great deal less of alcoholic liquor. (Laughter.) On these 
 accounts the Chinaman is a formidable rival. It is not for 
 his vices, but for his virtues, that he is dreaded ; and on ac- 
 count of these virtues. Protection has developed itself in a 
 manner and degree happily far beyond our experience, and 
 is applied, as I admit in consistency it ought to be applied, 
 to the importation of human beings as well as to the im- 
 portation of things made by the labour of human beings.* 
 Well, let us look at the actual state of things at home and 
 abroad. When we pass over the countries of the world 
 and the countries of Europe, together with the great 
 
 * Mr. Gladstone, a few days later, wrote the following explanatory letter, 
 addressed to leading Journals, with regard to these observations : — " In my 
 speech on the 12th instant, on the presentation of an Address to Mr. Bayley 
 Potter, I made an allusion to the restraints now imposed in the United 
 States and in some of the colonies on the importation of the Chinese, as ex- 
 hibiting a remarkable development of the spirit of Protection. My statement 
 was incomplete, and, therefore, not altogether just. It was alleged — and I 
 fear it is true — that in cases where the Chinese are largely massed together, 
 as happens in the great towns, or some of them, the social results are 
 deplorable, and such as to warrant legislative or police restraint. I do not 
 understand that these evils arise when the Chinese are not aggregated in 
 large numbers, and it is to this latter class of cases only that my remarks 
 can properly apply."
 
 ( 20 ) 
 
 Republic of America, we see that although the doctrines 
 of Free Trade had never been unconditionally accepted 
 in any of those countries, yet there had been a kind 
 of qualified progress towards them. That progress first 
 was exchanged for a stationary condition of opinion, and of 
 late opinion has been actively retrogressive. I know but 
 two subjects of consolation — at least, I remember only two 
 at this moment — in the survey of the state of opinion 
 abroad with respect to freedom of trade. In some of our 
 own colonies, I believe, the principles of Free Trade are 
 still cherished. They have been cherished up to this time, 
 under circumstances most disadvantageous, in the great and 
 important colony of New South Wales. (Cheers.) But 
 I did not mean to speak of that when I spoke of what 
 was abroad ; I was thinking of what was beyond our own 
 special poUtical connection, beyond the limits of the Empire. 
 I do hope that we may look with some favourable expecta- 
 tion to the great strength and activity and clear convictions 
 of the Free Trade party in the United States of America. 
 (Cheers.) The accounts we hear of it and of its progress are 
 such as to give rise to the belief that no long time is likely 
 to pass before it may become triumphant at the polls. I 
 cannot help mentioning another case, which is the more re- 
 markable because it belongs to the European system, and 
 that is the case of France. The final triumph of Mr. 
 Cobden was to negotiate the treaty with France in i860. 
 Nearly twenty years ago that treaty expired, but although it 
 had expired the legislation that was due to it remains 
 almost entirely, I believe not in every particular, but almost 
 entirely untouched. (Hear, hear.) We are still enjoying 
 the vast advantages, and France is still enjoying the vast 
 advantages, of a measure which involved on her part a great 
 and bold advance towards the system of Free Trade. Now
 
 ( »I ) 
 
 is it not a very remarkable circumstance that while the 
 countries around her have been moving in the wrong 
 direction, France, who made the bold step in advance, has 
 in the main maintained her ground ? Why has she done 
 so ? I am not afraid to give you by way of conjecture my 
 own opinion on the subject You know, and we all know, 
 that the effect of measures of Free Trade is to create strong 
 and large bodies of friendly opinion in the different 
 countries where they prevail, a friendly opinion which 
 crosses the water, and which forms one of the strongest ties 
 between one nation and another. (Hear, hear.) I firmly 
 believe that it is the strong and powerful sentiment of friend- 
 ship towards England which has been generated in France, 
 and which has been generated mainly in consequence of the 
 great work of Cobden, that has encouraged France, and 
 enabled France to maintain her position. Long may she 
 maintain it ! May she even improve it ! May she set an 
 example to the Continent, where her vast influence always 
 will be powerfully operative ! And may she maintain along 
 with it, and increase along with it, that sentiment of friend- 
 ship which is so warmly reciprocated on this side of the 
 Channel, and which is at once the basis and the fruit of 
 close commercial relations ! (Cheers.) If, however, we look 
 to the world at large, the picture, as I have said, is not an 
 encouraging one; and this state of opinion in other countries 
 has even emboldened some champions of Protection — who 
 had formerly been lurking in holes and corners — to venture 
 out again into the light of day, and to endeavour to revive 
 the struggle which, as I say, cost us a quarter of a century 
 of our national life to determine. I find, however, among 
 ourselves various grounds of congratulation, and one is that 
 few indeed are the Protectionists in this country who find it 
 expedient to call themselves by their proper name. (Cheers.)
 
 ( 22 ) 
 
 They have shown great ingenuity in the invention of names, 
 an ingenuity which I have sometimes seen exhibited by 
 political parties when it was convenient to make a change in 
 a somewhat damaged nomenclature. (Laughter.) And so 
 the Protectionists made their appearance on the stage, first 
 as Fair Traders. What can be more winning and attractive 
 than the idea of fair trade ? (Laughter.) Who would wish 
 for any trade except fair trade? (Renewed laughter.) In 
 this way it was hoped that Protectionism would find its way 
 into incautious minds through avenues which would have 
 been barred against the genuine article coming forward 
 under its genuine designation. However, Fair Trade did 
 make its appearance, as Mr. Bayley Potter will recollect, one 
 evening in the House of Commons, about, I think, seven or 
 eight years ago, with a modest motion for a Committee of 
 Inquiry. I rejoice to say that the House of Commons 
 would not entertain the motion. (Cheers.) Fair Trade was 
 abashed and terrified, and ran away with its tail between its 
 legs (laughter), and Fair Trade has never again come forward 
 under that name. It has not been found useful to adopt a 
 general name. There is much of the poison circulating in 
 the system. I think there was a meeting, if I remember 
 aright, of something like a thousand of the Conservative 
 Association at Oxford, where you might count upon your 
 fingers the number of those who dissented from the doctrine 
 that Protection ought to be restored. But when it was so 
 held that Protection ought to be restored, that was entirely 
 in private and confidential communications amongst them- 
 selves, and they have never made bold to give effect to 
 those communications in a public responsible proposition in 
 Parliament. They have, however, not been altogether idle. 
 It was too dangerous to attempt a reversal of the Free Trade 
 policy wholesale, yet it seemed practicable enough to attack
 
 ( 23 ) 
 
 it piecemeal. And the point of assault was chosen not 
 without special recommendation. It was known or believed 
 that the cheapness of sugar, which has been such an 
 enormous blessing to the country (cheers), was in some 
 respects due to the operation of a concealed, a latent, bounty 
 granted by sugar-growing countries of Europe to the pro- 
 duction of beetroot and the export of the yield of beetroot. 
 It was therefore an act of obvious philanthropy to endeavour, 
 by means of a Convention, to get rid of this kind of cheap 
 sugar. For my own part, I frankly own I have no desire to 
 see artificial cheapness produced by means of bounties. 
 (Hear, hear.) I wish to see trade free ; and in order 
 to be free, it must be free from bounties, just as much as 
 from prohibitions. (Hear, hear). But this plan for a time 
 seemed to thrive. The Powers of Europe were brought 
 together in the persons of their representatives. A baron 
 — (laughter) — was appointed on the part of Great Britain to 
 represent the interests of this country. He gave such satis- 
 faction to his colleagues that they passed to him all manner, 
 I believe, of complimentary votes, describing the enlightened 
 views and the courtesy of manner with which he had dis- 
 charged his functions. A treaty was made, and that treaty 
 bound Her Majesty to ask Parliament to place restraints 
 upon the sugar trade, which not only would have greatly 
 raised the price of sugar, but which would have introduced 
 into your commerce a state of confusion such as never was 
 dreamt of, and such as would have been found totally in- 
 tolerable. That proposition, like the proposition for Fair 
 Trade, for one night, and for one night only, if I recollect 
 right, lived in the House of Commons. (Laughter.) Since 
 then it has been no more heard of. It has absconded like a 
 criminal, and no person will offer a reward for its apprehension. 
 (Cheers.) Another plan has been very lately heard of, which
 
 ( »4 ) 
 
 I must not confound with, and will not assimilate to, the 
 schemes that I have lately described — that is, a plan of intro- 
 ducing into our currency what is called bimetallism. (Hear, 
 hear.) I myself believe that no instructed disciple of Mr. 
 Cobden ever will be or can be an advocate of bimetallism. 
 But I make this confession freely, that there are not only good 
 Liberals, but good Free Traders — perhaps not very many — 
 who have contrived to represent the case to themselves in 
 such a light that they have desired bimetallism on its own 
 account, and not at all as a means of sapping and undermin- 
 ing the system of Free Trade. But I cannot disguise from 
 myself this fact, that many of the most zealous bimetallists 
 have also been the most zealous ex-Protectionists ; and being 
 ex-Protectionists, and not being in a condition to mount the 
 old livery, they have sought for garments that might more 
 effectually serve their purpose by an apparent dissimilarity. 
 They have at the same time smelt something in bimetallism 
 which was exactly the thing they wanted. (Laughter.) They 
 have smelt in it a rise of prices. A rise of prices all round — 
 not as a result of increased consuming power, and therefore 
 increased demand, but a rise of prices for the greater remu- 
 neration of producers — is the object of their idolatry. (Hear, 
 hear.) They have followed bimetallism with this view, and 
 so far as they are concerned — and I believe they are the vast 
 majority of bimetallists — I heartily rejoice that on the late oc- 
 casion, when they also showed themselves in Parliament, their 
 cause received a very heavy fall. (Hear, hear.) Now do 
 not let us conceal from ourselves that this country is 
 almost at present the solitary citadel of Free Trade. 
 Will you be able to hold out during the present ad- 
 verse tide and currents — almost I may say, storm — of 
 opinions in the world ? Shall we unlearn that which we 
 have learned.-* Shall we go back upon and cast away
 
 ( »5 ) 
 
 our hard-earned experience ? And shall we revive the state 
 of things from which we have advanced so far that, if I 
 may quote in a summary form the evidence of Mr. Giifen, I 
 think it bears me out in saying that we have improved the 
 position on the average of every labouring man in this 
 country by 50 per cent. ? (Cheers.) Are we bold enough to 
 believe, and is it reasonable for us to believe, that we 
 are in the right, and that the majority of the world is wrong ? 
 I do not wish to inflate national vanity. I do not wish to 
 say that we are better or wiser than other people. But I do 
 say this — that it often happens in the counsels of Providence 
 that each nation, or that some particular nation, is appointed 
 to work out great social, political, and economical problems 
 for the benefit of the world at large. (Hear, hear.) It has 
 been given to this country almost exclusively — undoubtedly 
 far beyond any other example — to work out for the benefit 
 of the world at large the enormous advantages of the repre- 
 sentative system. In that representative system long we 
 may be said to have stood alone, but by degrees one after 
 another of the great countries of the world have come in, 
 and the nations sprung from our own loins have given their 
 countenance and currency to our example, and now the 
 man would be deemed mad who wished to endeavour to 
 denounce as a general principle what is termed the system 
 of popular representation. (Hear, hear.) I do not think it is 
 unreasonable to believe that something of the same kind 
 may be true with respect to freedom of trade. We certainly 
 have experience in the matter which no other country 
 possesses. No other country has struggled, no other 
 country has suffered, so much as we have done to attain 
 this great consummation. (Cheers.) It tore asunder our 
 political parties, it intercepted the work of legislation, 
 it created ill-will, it sometimes went near the point even
 
 ( 26) 
 
 of endangering the peace, before we could arrive at a 
 solution of the great controversy. But all this experi- 
 ence gives us title to rely upon the conclusions that 
 we have arrived at ; and this experience does not depend 
 alone upon such conclusions, but it depends upon the 
 results which we see scattered over the length and breadth 
 of the land, and which speak to us every day, and almost 
 every moment, of our lives, in tones that cannot be mis- 
 understood. (Cheers.) Without setting ourselves up above 
 the world, yet with a consciousness of right, England has 
 sometimes been ready to withstand the world. Here, if we 
 withstand the world, it is only in inviting it to share the 
 advantages which we have struggled for, which we have 
 obtained, which now through a long course of years we 
 have found demonstrating themselves from day to day with 
 clearer and still clearer evidence. (Cheers.) I confidently 
 anticipate that these doctrines of Free Trade, which mean 
 nothing in the world except that each man and each 
 country is to turn to the best account, without artificial in- 
 terference and interruption, the powers and the gifts that 
 God has given them — (cheers) — for there is the sum and 
 substance, the Alpha and the Omega, of the creed— I believe 
 that these doctrines, even if they be under temporary dis- 
 credit in some of the countries of the world, yet are des- 
 tined, by virtue of the inalienable charter of truth, to revive 
 and obtain a general acknowledgment ; and as they obtain 
 that acknowledgment progressively you, Mr. Potter, will be 
 enabled thankfully to recollect that, as an individual and as a 
 Member of Parliament — most of all, perhaps, in your distin- 
 guished and lengthened connection with the Cobden Club 
 — you have, through evil report and good report, stuck to 
 the right and the true, and fought for the benefit of man- 
 kind, even when large portions of mankind were slow to
 
 ( 27 ) 
 
 acknowledge that benefit themselves. (Loud and prolonged 
 cheers, during which Mr. Gladstone formally presented the 
 Address to Mr. Potter.) 
 
 MR. POTTER'S REPLY. 
 
 Mr. Potter, who was heartily cheered on rising to 
 reply, said : My Lord Granville, Mr. Gladstone, ladies and 
 gentlemen, I cordially thank the members of the Cobden 
 Club for the Address which has been presented to me, but I 
 feel that if I could have had my own way I should have also 
 liked recognition to have been made in that Address of the 
 labours of those who have been associated with me on the 
 Committee of the Club. During the last four-and-twenty 
 years I have had the advantage and the assistance of many 
 most able and excellent men. Without them I could have 
 done nothing. I am not going to mention many names, 
 but there is one gentleman, who is no longer with us — the 
 late Sir Louis Mallet — (applause) — who was my staunchest 
 friend in the early years of the Cobden Club, and whom we 
 called the intellectual head of the Club. (Hear, hear.) I will 
 mention one more, my late friend of a lifetime, Mr. Richard 
 Baxter, who with me shared the duties of organisation and 
 the more detailed labours of the Club. It would be invidious 
 in me now to repeat the names of those with whom I am 
 associated in the present Committee. All I can say is this 
 — that without their aid, without their wisdom, and the use 
 of their pens, which have been most freely and fully given 
 for the benefit of the Club, we should never have been able 
 to achieve w^hat we have done. I would, however, mention 
 the name of Mr. Probyn — (applause) — who occupies the 
 position of honorary treasurer, which was held before him 
 by Mr. Baxter, and who has been a most loyal supporter 
 during the last four-and-twenty years. For this signal honour
 
 (28) 
 
 done to me by the members I feel very grateful, but what 
 words that I can use can express my appreciation of the 
 honour done to me by Mr. Gladstone, who has presented 
 the Address ? What have I done that the foremost of all 
 great men in the world — (cheers) — should have thus 
 honoured me ? Mr. Gladstone's philanthropy and his 
 wisdom are familiar to all the world : he reminds me of 
 the words of the American poet — 
 
 A thousand million lives are his 
 
 Who holds the world in his sympathies. 
 
 (Cheers.) Then I feel very grateful for the presence of 
 Lord Granville. (Cheers.) I have known Lord Granville 
 for a great many years, and I think we have been found 
 fighting generally on the same platform. (Hear, hear.) 
 Lord Granville, the most courteous and genial of men, is also 
 one of the wisest statesmen of the generation. (Hear, hear.) 
 I was much struck, in reading the Life of Lord Russell a 
 little time ago, with the letters on the course Lord Granville 
 took in most difficult circumstances during the early portion 
 of the American Civil War. I feel that England was 
 indebted to him for saving us from the greatest calamity 
 that could befall the world — a war between these two 
 English-speaking peoples. (Cheers.) As time divulges 
 the secrets of Cabinets, the wisdom of Lord Granville will 
 be more universally known. I feel greatly indebted to him 
 for the kindness he has done me in taking the chair to-day. 
 (Hear, hear.) Now there are some of you who perhaps are 
 not very familiar with the Cobden Club and its origin. It 
 was established — or, rather, the idea of it originated — in 
 March, 1866. I think Mr. Thorold Rogers— (hear, hear) — 
 was the one who initiated it, and after consultation with
 
 ( 29 ) 
 
 Mr. Bright it was thought that I, as a young Parliamentary 
 hand — (laughter) — should perhaps have time to work it out. 
 The object of the Cobden Club is a very wide one. It is to 
 develop and encourage the spread of those economic and 
 political principles with which Mr. Cobden's name is 
 associated. Since the establishment of the Cobden Club 
 there have been various subjects in which we have taken 
 considerable interest, and on which we have spread a vast 
 amount of information. Of course we have furthered Free 
 Trade as far as we could, and we have been ready to attack 
 Protection in whatever quarter it showed itself. (Laughter.) 
 The great question to which Mr. Cobden attached import- 
 ance in his later years was that of the land. He said, in 
 his speech at Rochdale, in November, 1864, that he believed 
 that if he were a young man he could take Adam Smith in 
 his hand, and could establish a league which would ulti- 
 mately carry Free Trade in land ; and he believed that Free 
 Trade in land would do as much good as Free Trade in 
 corn had done. Well, on that question — both with regard 
 to the tenure of land in foreign countries, and with regard 
 to our own- land laws — the Club has done its best to 
 circulate sound information ; and in the future I think we 
 may almost venture to say our greatest object will be to 
 help to form sound opinion on that question. The tide of 
 democracy is rising. (Hear, hear.) I for one do not fear 
 its progress. (Hear, hear.) If its course is wisely directed, 
 and if obstacles which savour of monopoly and privilege are 
 removed in time, the tide of democracy may refresh and 
 strengthen the condition of the people of this country ; but 
 if difficulties are to be avoided, it must be done by those 
 statesmen who will prepare themselves and the country 
 for the inevitable. (Prolonged applause.)
 
 ( 30 ) 
 
 MISS COBDEN. 
 
 The Chairman : Ladies and gentlemen, I have very 
 great pleasure in asking iSIiss Cobden to address you. 
 
 Miss CoBDEX, who was greeted with repeated cheers, 
 said : The Committee of the Cobden Club have entrusted to 
 me a very pleasant task, which I gladly now perform, 
 though I cannot help feeling that there are many persons 
 present who would perform it more effectively and in 
 more eloquent words. I do feel real pleasure, then, in rising 
 to propose the best thanks of the meeting to Mr. Gladstone 
 for the share he has taken in the proceedings of to-day. 
 This event will be recorded as one of the most interest- 
 ing in the annals of the Cobden Club. It unites in our 
 minds three Englishmen who have had in their life's work 
 but one object, one purpose — namely, that of furthering by all 
 the means in their power the w^U-being and the happiness of 
 their fellow-creatures. (Applause.) Through good report and 
 through evil report these three men have remained firm to 
 their great trust, without desiring any reward but that which 
 comes to them with the knowledge that they have helped 
 the poor of this country and of Ireland to a hope and a 
 belief of better things yet to be attained. (Cheers.) All 
 present, I am sure, heartily join in the hope that Mr. 
 Potter may for many years to come carry forward this 
 great life-work of his, and that he may be the means of 
 sowing broadcast throughout the length and breadth of 
 the land the seed of those principles which are summed 
 up in the motto of the Cobden Club, "Free Trade, 
 Peace, Goodwill among Nations." (Hear, hear.) And 
 I am sure I am only expressing what is the prayer of all 
 of us here when I say that I hope that Mr. Gladstone will 
 for many years to come lead forward the Liberal party —
 
 ( 31 ) 
 
 (loud cheers) — to carry out those great measures of reform 
 which will add most materially to the well-being of the 
 men and women of this country, and confer still greater 
 lustre, if that were possible, on a name that "is not for 
 an age but for all time." (Cheers.) 
 
 MR. PROBYN. 
 
 Mr. J. W. Probyn said : Ladies and gentlemen, the 
 Committee did me the honour, as the honorary treasurer 
 of the Cobden Club, to ask me to second the vote of 
 thanks to Mr. Gladstone which has been so feelingly 
 proposed by Miss Cobden. And in doing so, I venture 
 to make just one or two remarks. They arise from the 
 eloquent address which Mr. Gladstone has given us. He 
 has pointed out to us that, though Free Trade is very 
 firmly fixed and very hopefully situated for the future in 
 this country, the battle of Free Trade is by no means 
 over ; that we are surrounded, I may say, by more or less 
 Protectionist countries on all sides. Now, I do hope that 
 the members of the Cobden Club will lay that fact to heart, 
 and more especially the younger members ; and that they 
 will rally round us still more firmly and more warmly in 
 the future than they have done in the past. I know that 
 there are many who think that Free Trade is a foregone 
 conclusion. No, it is not a foregone conclusion anywhere, 
 as Mr. Gladstone has so seriously pointed out. And, 
 therefore, the rising generation of English politicians should 
 be on the watch, that at all times and seasons they may 
 be prepared to meet and to expose the introduction of in- 
 sidious Protectionist principles, whether brought forward 
 by those calling themselves Fair Traders, or by any other 
 pleasing names, and whether they touch the sugar bounties 
 or any other subject whatsoever. When I came into this
 
 ( 30 
 
 room, I began to be afraid that I belonged quite to the 
 older generation. But Mr. Gladstone, and our Chairman, 
 and my old friend Mr. Potter, have carried back their 
 recollections so far that I begin to hope that I have 
 made some mistake. At any rate, I am afraid that I am 
 not to be numbered amongst the rising generation ; and 
 it is, therefore, to them that I especially address myself in 
 calling upon them to rally round the cause of Free Trade 
 — not only to maintain the cause in this country, but to 
 spread the principles of Free Trade amongst other nations, 
 and especially in our own colonies. There is one little 
 fact which came under my notice not very long ago, and 
 which is well worth the consideration of the younger 
 members of our Club ; and it is this : that one of the best 
 arguments that we can use in favour of Free Trade is to 
 point to what the condition of England itself was under the 
 Protectionist system. (Hear, hear.) Do not neglect that 
 point. Do not look merely to the abstract principles or to 
 the present prosperity of the country ; but learn from the 
 past what was the terrible state of the country under the 
 system of Protection, and then compare that condition with 
 the present condition of England under the system of Free 
 Trade. Not very long ago I was present at a meeting in an 
 agricultural district on this question of Free Trade, and with 
 the help of a very good pamphlet which has been published 
 by the Club (it was drawn up by my friend Mr. Leadam, a 
 member of our Committee, and called " Forty Years of 
 Protection " or some such title) I was pointing out the 
 difference between England then and England now ; and 
 when I sat down, there rose up in the body of the hall an 
 old agricultural labourer — I should think, some seventy years 
 of age — and all he said was this : " I only wish that the 
 young men about me could have passed through what I
 
 ( 33 ) 
 
 have passed through as a young man — could go back to the 
 yea.s 1840, 1841, and 1842, when all our manufactories in 
 the North were being stopped, when bread was high, when 
 wages were low, when pauperism was abounding ; and then 
 do not let them come to me and say that Free Trade has 
 been a failure." Now, if we only meet our Protectionist friends 
 — or our Protectionist political foes — with facts of that sort, 
 we shall be able to strengthen our cause throughout the 
 country ; and, after all, some such facts as these will — at any 
 rate, with the large mass of people — tell more than all the re- 
 fined arguments which can be used by those who have studied 
 the question in the abstract. I have nothing more to add but 
 to express the pleasure which it gives me to be permitted to 
 second the vote of thanks to you, sir (Mr. Gladstone), for your 
 presence on this occasion ; to thank you, not only for coming 
 here to-day to do honour to our Honorary Secretary and 
 Chairman of Committee, Mr. Potter, but also for what you 
 have done to-day to strengthen the hands of that great cause 
 of Free Trade for which you, and those who worked with you, 
 have in the past done so much ; and we trust that in the 
 future there will be many to follow in your steps, to further 
 these great and noble principles of " Free Trade, Peace, 
 and Goodwill amongst Nations," which lay at the heart 
 and at the foundation of the work of Richard Cobden. 
 (Applause.) 
 
 The resolution was passed with acclamation. 
 
 MR. GLADSTONE'S REPLY. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone, who was received with renewed cheer- 
 ing, said : Ladies and gentlemen, if it were according to 
 true form in a public meeting, I ought to hold up my hand 
 for a vote of thanks to you for having allowed me to address
 
 ( 34 ) 
 
 you upon a subject of very great interest and, under a con- 
 viction which I sincerely entertain, of strong necessity. It 
 is needful, if we are Free Traders, that we should all in- 
 dividually resolve not only to hold by our convictions, 
 but to do the best we can to maintain and propagate them, 
 and, while respecting the Hberty of all other nations, steadily 
 to maintain that it is the common cause of all — not the 
 cause of one country, but the cause of the world — which we 
 have been maintaining and are maintaining, and which it is 
 to me a peculiar, special, and crowning pleasure to think 
 that Miss Cobden should have been here to-day to join us 
 in. (Cheers.) 
 
 VOTE OF THANKS TO LORD GRANVILLE. 
 
 Sir Thomas Farrer : My lords, ladies, and gentle- 
 men, a great honour has been entrusted to me as one of 
 the younger members of the Cobden Club — one, I 
 mean, who has only of late joined its ranks — the honour, 
 namely, of asking you to give a hearty vote of thanks to our 
 chairman, Lord Granville. (Cheers). Although I am so 
 young a member of the Club, I am yet old enough to 
 remember his entrance into public life. It was about the 
 time when I myself, first in a subordinate capacity, joined 
 the Board of Trade; and I very well remember my then 
 chief and master. Lord Taunton, then Mr. Labouchere, 
 saying to me, " They are laughing at us out-of-doors for 
 having put the Master of the Buckhounds into a political 
 office. They will not laugh long. Those who know Lord 
 Granville, and who know the stock of which he comes, know 
 that his motto is ' Thorough,' and that his riding will be as 
 resolute in the field of poHtics as it is in the hunting-field." 
 What was then in the air was Free Trade. The Corn 
 Laws had been repealed, and the Navigation Laws had
 
 ( 35 ) 
 
 either been repealed, or were on the point of being 
 repealed ; and what Mr, Labouchere referred to was 
 Lord Granville's hearty, thorough adherence to Free 
 Trade doctrines, of which you have already heard from Mr. 
 Gladstone. Well, we have since that time seen Lord Granville 
 in an atmosphere often discouraging and hostile — (hear, hear) 
 — in office and out of office, championing successfully, not 
 only the cause of Free Trade, but every other cause which is 
 dear to Liberal hearts. (Cheers.) We ourselves have watched 
 his run in the political hunting-field — a run of no common 
 duration, a run in which there have been many brilliant 
 bursts, in which there have been some checks, and in which 
 there have been and are many stiff places. And we can 
 all join in bearing witness to the entire fulfilment of Mr. 
 Labouchere's prediction. (Hear, hear.) We know that 
 among our political riders there is no one who has ridden 
 with more resolute courage or with a firmer seat, none 
 perhaps who has ridden with so light and so delicate a 
 hand. (Cheers.) 
 
 Sir Lyon Playfair : Ladies and gentlemen, I have 
 simply to second the resolution which my friend Sir Thomas 
 Farrer has proposed, that a vote of thanks should be given 
 to Lord Granville for his conduct in the chair. I need not 
 say that no one could have been in the chair more 
 appropriately. No one has been a more consistent Free 
 Trader, or a more steady and consistent supporter of every 
 Liberal measure, from times — I will not say how long, but 
 my experience of his sympathy with Liberal measures in 
 regard to trade goes so far back as forty years. There 
 is one remark that I should like to make with regard 
 to what Mr. Gladstone has said. He spoke with hope 
 of the United States, and so do L But if you were
 
 ( 36 ) 
 
 to look at what the United States are doing, just now 
 in regard to Protection, you would be utterly hopeless. 
 But it is the dying spasm of the whale. This week 
 I was reading the M'Kinley Bill now passing through 
 Congress for the "reform " of the Tariff; and it is going to 
 be a reform all the wTong way. I have put down a few of 
 the things upon which that democratic countr}^ is about to 
 raise the tax. They purpose to raise the tax upon blankets, 
 clothing, beans, potatoes, eggs, knives, tools — upon almost 
 ever)^thing that the working classes have to use. And 
 notably there is one subject — whether it is intended as a 
 protest against Free Trade I don't know — but there is one 
 interesting article which formerly was free, and now is to 
 be put into the taxed list : English plum puddings are to be 
 taxed. (Laughter.) Now, I ought in justice to add that 
 some things are to be put upon the free list that hitherto 
 have been taxed. And the working men of America will 
 no doubt appreciate the compensation very much indeed 
 when they understand that amongst the articles to be 
 relieved of taxation are cat-gut, whip-gut, worm-gut, 
 dandelions, sea-weed, and — as a comphment, no doubt, to 
 our great Australian colonies — kangaroo skins. (Laughter.) 
 Well, that of course is a consolation for the immense 
 taxation that they are putting upon all material commodities. 
 But I believe it is the spasms of the dying animal. I am 
 very glad that the Protectionists are going so thoroughly 
 into Protection in that country. I know America well — 
 I visit it every year. I have seen the growth of Free 
 Trade principles in America ; and I believe that the 
 New England provinces are going to be Free Trade 
 provinces. And I venture to state that I do not believe 
 that there will be another Presidential election without such 
 a large reform of the tariff being brought before the nation.
 
 ( 37 ) 
 
 In our sense of Free Trade the United States are very far 
 behind. But a notable reduction of the tariff may come 
 before many years. I am very glad to have had the 
 opportunity of thanking Lord Granville for presiding on this 
 occasion. 
 
 The resolution was carried, as before, by acclamation. 
 
 Lord Granville, rising amidst prolonged cheering, 
 said : I rise gratefully to acknowledge the vote of thanks 
 you have just passed. They are thanks very lightly won. 
 Lord Melbourne once said, " I like butter; you cannot lay 
 it on too thick." (Laughter.) Well, I think I have had some 
 butter of the finest quality to-day : there is no margarine in 
 this hall. (Renewed laughter.) I am bound to say that I can 
 readily excuse even very great exaggeration of compliment 
 coming from two old personal, official, and political friends 
 like Sir Thomas Farrer and Sir Lyon Playfair, and there are 
 certain things which I admit. I really think that I can lay 
 claim to having been a consistent supporter of the Liberal 
 party — (applause) — and I am very proud of it, perhaps 
 more proud than some philosophers would think quite just. 
 But if there is one thing of which I am still prouder, it is 
 the one so kindly alluded to by Mr. Gladstone, and by 
 others who have spoken — namely, my one great exception 
 in going against my party on a serious matter — when I 
 voted with Mr. Charles Villiers, whose letter you have 
 heard read, and from whom I have received a private letter, 
 full of genial sympathy with the movement of this afternoon — 
 when I voted with him against my party, but in anticipation 
 of their further views. (Hear, hear.) I cannot sit down with- 
 out thanking Mr. Potter for his very kind words, and will he 
 allow me to say that I entirely appreciate his feelings to-day ? 
 For I think it is a proud moment for any man. I believe
 
 ( 38 ) 
 
 we who think that Free Trade legislation was the greatest 
 benefaction ever conferred upon this nation, must admit, 
 together with Sir Robert Peel, that there were three men 
 who contributed practically more than any others to the 
 blessings which we enjoy — Cobden, Bright, and Gladstone. 
 (Cheers.) Talking of Sir Robert Peel, Mr. Gladstone knows, 
 but we do not know, how far Sir Robert Peel's colleague 
 in the Board of Trade influenced and assisted Sir Robert 
 Peel. (Hear, hear.) I think that to Mr. Potter, the intimate 
 personal friend of Mr. Cobden and Mr. Bright, who is so 
 well and eloquently described in the Address as the deposi- 
 tary of their traditions, it must be a singular satisfaction to 
 have that connection put forward by Mr. Gladstone, of 
 whom he has been an equally loyal follower all his life. 
 (Hear, hear.) I cannot help thinking that there must have 
 been another source of satisfaction to him — not only the 
 feeling which you, ladies and gentlemen, have shown, but 
 the presence of Miss Cobden here to-day, and, I may add, of 
 Mr. Cobden's only grandson. (Cheers). I heartily congratu- 
 late Mr. Potter on the proceedings of this afternoon, and 
 thank you most cordially for your kindness to myself 
 (Cheers.) 
 
 The proceedings then terminated. 
 
 PRINTED BV CASSELL & COMPANY, LIMITED, LA BELLE SAUVAGE, LONDON, E.C.