The Times of Tuesday publishes a most interesting letter written
by Cobden to Captain Cowper Coles in 1864 on the question of national defence, which shows that his clear and comprehensive brain had fully realised the true nature of the problem. He saw that a mobile sea-going force is the true weapon of defence for Great Britain, and that land fortifica- tions, except in special cases, such as entrances to harbours or great waterways, are a hopeless waste of money. The whole of the scheme of inland fortifications was, he said, " the offspring of three old men's brains whose united ages amounted to about two hundred and forty years,—viz., Palmerston, Howard Douglas, and Burgoyne." " We derive food and subsistence for nearly half our population from abroad, and more than one-half of the raw material on which our manufacturers are employed is of foreign origin. If an enemy is our master at sea so as to be enabled to land an army and keep open his communications, he is capable of blockading ne and starving us into subjection. He would therefore be a fool to land an army at all. We are like a garrison afloat, and our existence depends on our communications by sea being kept open." The letter contains some characteristic passages which assume that all the blundering in the matter was due to the natural wicked- ness and folly of the aristocracy. That sounds somewhat wild now, and no doubt Cobden had aristocracy rather too much on the brain, just as many people now have democracy ; but it does not detract from the general far-sightedness and sound sense of his letter. Cobden had the true statesman's mind, and could throw light on every public problem.
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