Richard Cobden the International Man. By J. A. Hobson (T.
Fisher .Unwin. 21e. net.)—Mr. Hobson has served Cobden ill by printing masses of his private correspondence, especially with Henry Richard of the Morning Star, which remind us how narrow and mistaken were his views on foreign policy, how spiteful be was in hie opposition to Palmerston, and with what unholy glee he fastened upon any British reverses, like the Mutiny, to show that he was right and the restof his country- men wrong. Lord Morley in his Life of Cobden dealt discreetly with this painful side of his hero's career, but Mr. Hobson drags it into the light, and suggests that we shall all think better of Cobden when we know that be was a false prophet and a bad patriot, as well as a Free Trader. For our part, we are not edified by Cobden's denunciations of the Poles for their folly in resenting Russian tyranny, or by his sympathy with " the people of Oude," who, be thought, were " fighting for their rights " in 1857, or by his contempt for the Danes and his ignorance of Prussian designs in 1864, or by his abuse of Palmerston, who after all—as Cobden once at least admitted— kept the peace with greater success than his rivals. There is, however, a certain humour in the instructions to Henry Richard with regard to the conduct of the Pacificist Morning Star. Cobden was shrewd enough to see that, if the paper was to gain a circulation, it must not thrust its principles down its readers' throats every day of the week.
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