THE POLITICAL WRITINGS OF RICHARD COBDEN.
The Political Writings of Richard Cobden. New Edition in 2 vols. (T. Fisher Unwin. 7s. 6d.)—We do not know that many of these political pamphlets are of abiding value from an historical or a purely political point of view. They are, however, important and interesting from the light they throw on the ideas of their author, whose distinction as a statesman it is to have popularised a conception of the proper relation of civilised States to one another which will, we believe, bear great fruit in the future. Meanwhile, however, the reaction, material and moral, against this conception has long been growing ; it is hardly to be hoped that it has culminated, or that the rivalry of the military Empires, which are striving to divide the globe amongst them- selves, will end without the clash of a world-wide conflict ; and in such conditions it would assuredly have been sanguine to expect that the fiscal policy with which the name of Cobden is associated should have maintained its ascendency in Europe. The main lesson, indeed, which these volumes impress upon the reader is that of the interdependence of finance and policy. The moral justification of Free-trade from the point of view of taxation is the relief which this policy affords to those classes in a nation which are least able to • support the burden; but when public expenditure rises to a certain point considerations of social justice will go to the wall, as they have done in every Continental nation. There are those who think that this point is rapidly being reached in this country; and it is significant that the financial strain of a great war should have given the opportunity for a serious, if ignorant and interested, attack on our present fiscal system. This edition has an introduction written by the
late Sir Louis Mallet in 1867, which gives a complete and authori- tative exposition of Cobden's doctrines ; and a vigorous preface by Lord Welby, who shows among other things how much more often Cobden was right than wrong in his political forecasts, notably in the cases of British policy towards Russia, and of the growing power of the United States of America.
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