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The Cobden Club.

The ninth dinner of the Cobden Club was held on the 11th of July, at the Ship Hotel, Greenwich. The company numbered a hundred and forty-five, and included numerous guests, from the United States and other foreign countries, whose names will be found below. The majority went to Greenwich by a special steamer from the House of Commons' stairs, Westminster.

The Right Hon. W. E. Baxter, M.P., took the chair at six p.m. Among those by whom he was supported were M. Leon Say, late Prefect of the Seine, and Reporter of the Financial Committee of the French Legislative Assembly for the present year, Baron G. von Overbeck, Consul-General for Austria, Dr. Julius Faucher, Mr. Cyrus W. Field, Mr. Mahlon Sands, Secretary of the Free Trade League, New York, the Right Hon. A. S. Ayrton, Sir Louis Mallet, C.B., Mr. H. Campbell-Bannerman, M.P., page 6 Lord Arthur Russell, M.P., Sir Wilfrid Lawson, M.P., Sir Charles W. Dilke, M.P., Mr. W. C. Cartwright, M.P., Mr. E. A. Leatham, M.P., Sir G. Balfour, K.C.B., M.P., Mr. G. Osborne Morgan, Q.C., M.P., Serjeant Simon, M.P., Mr. John Holms, M.P., Mr. William Holms, M.P., Mr. E. Jenkins, M.P., Mr. James Caird, C.B., Prof. J. E. Thorold Rogers, Mr. W. H. Ashurst, Mr. Richard Baxter (Treasurer), Mr. Edmond Beales, Sir John Bennett, Mr. A. C. Humphreys, Mr. William Agnew, Mr. James Heywood, Mr. B. Leigh Smith, Herr J. Willerding (Consul-General for Sweden and Norway), Herr Leopold Güterbock (Germany), Mr. Joseph S. Ropes, President of the Boston (U.S.) Board of Trade, Mr. Hamilton A. Hill, late Secretary of the National Board of Trade of the United States, Mr. M. Halstead, Editor of the Cincinnati "Commercial," Dr. Isaac Hayes, and Mr. R. G. Haliburton (Canada).

Mr. Thomas Bayley Potter, M.P., occupied the vice-chair. Mrs. Ashburner, Mrs. and Miss Baxter, Miss Cobden, Miss Pellew, Miss Potter, and Mrs. Wells, were present during the delivery of the speeches.

The Chairman, who received a very cordial welcome on rising to propose the first toast, said:—I ask you to drink to the health of a Sovereign page 7 Lady whose political knowledge and prudence are as great as her domestic and social virtues are conspicuous. "The Health of Her Majesty the Queen" is a toast which is always received with enthusiasm in every assembly of true-born Britons throughout that Empire on which the sun never sets. I am delighted to find that the birthday of our gracious Sovereign has been celebrated this year in many parts of the United States. Any one who has travelled in that great country is aware how immensely popular the Queen is in America. I beg to propose "The Health of Her Majesty the Queen." (Loud cheers.)

The toast was drunk with immense enthusiasm, the foreign guests distinguishing themselves by their hearty concurrence in the feelings of their English friends.

The Chairman then rose to propose the toast of the evening—"Prosperity to the Cobden Club."

He said:—Gentlemen, it was with feelings of great surprise that I received from the hon. secretary, Mr. Potter, the founder, manager, and upholder of this Club, an intimation that the Committee had done me the distinguished honour of asking me to take the chair on this occasion. The post has hitherto been occupied by statesmen of mark whom an assembly of page 8 this kind would at all times be delighted to hear; and I am most acutely sensible of my utter inability to speak as powerfully as they did, or to do adequate justice to the toast which I am about to propose. Gentlemen, the Committee no doubt chose me because, although a very humble, I have ever been a very sincere admirer and disciple of the late Mr. Cobden, and a loyal adherent of those great principles of which, if not the first, he was certainly the most influential expounder. There were those who thought that he was a man of one idea, and Lord Palmerston, in the House of Commons, in an unhappy moment, said something to this effect. Never was there a greater mistake; and now that some of the many grand thoughts which from time to time he threw out for the consideration of his countrymen are receiving a little more development, men are beginning to see how far-sighted and comprehensive were his views. (Hear, hear.) His was a rich, prophetic mind, despising mere popularity-hunting and the political whims and caprices of the hour, thoroughly patriotic in the sense of desiring to preserve all those privileges and liberties which in this highly-favoured country we enjoy, but at the same time keenly alive to the dangers and difficulties of our social state, and fearful page 9 lest an overweening attachment to modes of thought and action no longer in accord with modern ideas should prevent us from leading the van of advancing civilisation. (Cheers.) The apostle of Free Trade was a pioneer of progress, and his conversation, like his speeches and writings, was full of references to a great future, when there would be fewer class and national jealousies, and the words of the angelic host would be more fully verified—"On earth peace, goodwill towards men." (Hear, hear.)

It has sometimes occurred to me that speakers at gatherings of the Cobden Club have a little lost sight of the leading doctrines of that eminent politician's creed. Those of his intimate friends who are present will, I think, bear me out when I say that he gave prominence, especially in his latter years, to four subjects in particular—economy in our national expenditure, reform of our land laws, the extension of Free Trade measures throughout the world, and international amity. (Cheers.) Now, without any attempt at an oration—for I have a perfect horror of long speeches after dinner—let me say a few practical words on each of those heads. I have in my possession, and very much value, letters from Mr. Cobden urging me, when entering upon political life, not to forget the page 10 importance of a wise economy in our great spending departments; and I have never addressed my constituents since without endeavouring to impress upon them how desirable it is to husband our resources in times of profound peace, and so set free the springs of industry and lessen the burdens of the people. (Hear, hear.) I need not dilate to this enlightened assembly upon the dangers to nations from profuse and reckless expenditure of the public money. History tells us in many a melancholy page how much such a policy has tended to the decline and fall of States. We all admit the theory. There may, however, be differences regarding the practice; but I think that, if Mr. Cobden were now alive, he would probably address his fellow-countrymen in words like these:—"Happily, your foreign policy has entirely changed. You have given up meddling in every petty dispute which breaks out on the Continent of Europe; you have ceased to talk of the balance of power; you have got quit of nearly all those wretched provisions, in the Treaty of 1815, which provided merely for dynasties, without reference to nationalities or the wishes of the people. You have seen the establishment of a free Italy—(cheers)—and a compact, powerful Fatherland in Germany. (Hear, hear.) You have page 11 withdrawn the troops from your own colonies; you have re-arranged your military system, so as to make it more efficient for defensive purposes. You have become the workshop and the shipbuilding yard of the world; your people are wealthier, more prosperous, more contented than they ever were before. Why should you keep up a standing army, more numerous in this island than it ever was in any period of our history, and a navy which the Secretary of the Admiralty said the other day, in the House of Commons, would be able in a fight to give a good account of herself against many combined fleets?"

Gentlemen, you all recollect Mr. Cobden's desire that some one should take up the question of the Land Laws, as he had done that of the Corn Laws. We have made a little advance since that time, and the tendency of recent legislation has been in the right direction; but there is a great danger of our progress being too slow, rather than too fast. I have always been much impressed by, and often have given utterance to, the sentiment that the aggregation of large properties—especially when situated in different parts of the country, in the hands of one proprietor—is a serious evil and a social danger. (Cheers.) Every statute which tends directly or page 12 indirectly to foster such a state of things, in my judgment, ought to be repealed. (Cheers.) Laws of entail and primogeniture are relics of the past. The land should be bought and sold with as great facility and as little expense as any other article of merchandise. (Hear, hear.) There is a communistic feeling seething among the masses which mild Land Transfer Bills will touch very little, but which it would be wisdom to meet with a vigorous alteration of all those laws, affecting both the owner and the farmer, which are a mere ancient inheritance, and not founded on the principles of justice. (Hear, hear.)

My third point is—and this is the main mission of the Cobden Club—that every means should be taken to circulate Free Trade publications and promote Free Trade measures in other countries. That work has only just begun. We ourselves have not yet got the free breakfast-table, though, thanks to the Anti-Corn Law League and the splendid financial administration of Mr. Gladstone—(cheers)—we are very near it. But comparatively little has been done in other countries. In some of our own colonies we all know there is a tendency to retrograde. In Australia it was especially so; but it is page 13 a matter of sincere congratulation that New South Wales, under the leadership of Mr. Parkes, has broken the chain; and every one who knows anything of the geography of the country and the state of the boundary-line question will see that Victoria, if she wishes to escape financial ruin, must follow suit. (Cheers.)

I shall have the pleasure of reading to the club a letter which the secretary has received from Mr. Parkes. The committee voted him last year the gold medal for distinguished services rendered to Free Trade principles, and he writes thus:—

Every gentleman present will, I am sure, be glad to hear that I have also a letter from our distinguished friend, M. Chevalier. (Cheers.) Indeed, he has shown himself so interested in our proceedings that he has written to no less than four gentlemen who are present in this room. I, however, will read only one of his letters, which is as follows:—

We have distinguished strangers here to-night. I know no man who has done more—ay, as much—to promote the views of the late Mr. Cobden as our illustrious friend, Mr. Cyrus Field. (Cheers.) He has crossed the Atlantic times without number, and travelled, shall I say millions of miles, as a messenger of peace. But his countrymen are yet wofully behindhand in their understanding and acknowledgment of those Free Trade doctrines which eventually must be universally received. There is no man in this country who admires the United States more than I do, and who has oftener given expression to his sentiments in that respect. I have travelled much in the Great Republic, and been an eye-witness of the marvellous material, mental, and moral energy of its people; I have carefully studied the page 16 admirable system of common schools, which may be termed the safety-valve of democracy, and have seen the whole land, even in the far West, covered with Christian churches erected and sustained on the voluntary principle. (Hear, hear.) But the fiscal legislation of the United States is all wrong, and has done more than anything else to injure, almost to destroy, American shipbuilding, and to drive the star-spangled banner from the seas. We were favoured last year with the presence of Mr. Wells, who is, perhaps, the leader of American Free Traders. (Cheers.) You all heard his sentiments; but there is one passage from his Report for 1871 so important that, though it has been read many times before, I will venture to read a few sentences again, because they contain a very remarkable commentary on American fiscal legislation. Mr. Wells states that "in 1869 an enterprising citizen of the North-West visited England for the purpose of contracting for an iron vessel suitable for the grain trade of the upper lakes. As foreign-built ships are not admitted on the American register, it was proposed to take over the vessel in sections, simply to serve as a pattern, and at the same time it was intended to import skilled workmen, and to establish an iron shipbuilding yard in the vicinity of page 17 Chicago. But when the duties, varying from 38 to 66 per cent. on the various articles employed in the construction of the vessel, came to be calculated, they were found to amount to so much that the project had to be abandoned. Thus Chicago and its neighbourhood are still without an iron shipbuilding yard." The whole population is taxed in the attempt to protect the interest of a few hundred American ironmasters. To such circumstances as that just narrated the Commissioner attributes the decline in American shipping which has caused so much discussion in the States. Mr. Wells says that in America the cost of living is increasing in a greater ratio than the rate of wages and salaries, and he complains, not so much that comforts are curtailed, but that the power of saving is diminished. "The rich are becoming richer, and the poor poorer." "Small accumulations of capital are stopped." (Hear, hear.) I hope the gentlemen from that country who have favoured us with their company to-night will be successful in their endeavours to bring about a change of policy, and get quit of those Protective duties which so injuriously affect the American people. (Hear, hear.)

"International amity"—Mr. Disraeli dislikes the adjective—I, on the other hand, rejoice to think that page 18 the old, narrow kind of patriotism, which confined our sympathies to our own country, looked with a jealous eye on the prosperity of other nations, and talked of our natural enemies, is passing away, and giving place to a nobler and more enlarged—shall I say a more Christian-like?—feeling, which, placing England first, as a matter of course, in our affections, is anxious also to promote the weal of all other nations on the face of the earth. (Hear, hear.) I am quite aware that we are not living in Utopia—that the time has not come for hanging up the shield in the hall—(hear, hear)—that neither we nor our children's children will see the millennium, that as long as crime and ignorance and evil passions prevail there will be jealousies and misunderstandings and quarrels between States: but it seems to me that there is less desire to foment and magnify them than there used to be, and that a disposition is growing, it may be slowly, but still growing, to have recourse, between nations, as well as between individuals, to the commonsense plan of reference to arbitration, rather than the bloody arbitrament of war. (Cheers.) The highest tribute we can pay to the memory of Mr. Cobden is severally and collectively to do all that lies in our power to promote the principles to which he was so much attached, some of page 19 which were regarded as chimeras and dreams at the period of their enunciation, but which are being received with more and more acceptance as time rolls on. (Renewed cheers.)

The toast was drunk with all the honours.

Sir Louis Mallet then proposed "Our Foreign Guests." He said:—

It is the distinctive feature of the policy which we are met to commemorate, that it is one in which all the nations of the world have a common interest. The policy of Free Trade absorbs and reconciles conflicting interests and nationalities, and, rising above local and traditional prejudices, affords the only solid hope for the future of civilisation.

It is this which gives to these gatherings an international character, and procures us the honour of seeing at our board so many distinguished representatives from other countries of the cause which we cherish.

We are to-night not less fortunate than on former occasions in this respect, for we have with us, as our Chairman has told you, M. Leon Say, Dr. Julius Faucher, and Mr. Cyrus Field.

M. Say bears an inherited name dear to all economists, while his personal services as a public page 20 man in France give him an additional title to our respect. I may add that his efforts to maintain at a time of peculiar danger—now happily averted—the Commercial Treaty, associated with the names of Cobden and Chevalier, call for our thanks to-day. (Hear, hear.)

Dr. Julius Faucher is, in more senses than one, an international man. Himself a distinguished German, though born of a French family, gifted with much of the genius and fire of the race from which he springs, and trained under Cobden as an English journalist in the best school of economic thought, he has fought the battle of Free Trade through the length and breadth of Germany, and I am happy to have this occasion of thanking him for the advice and assistance which he gave in negotiating the Commercial Treaty with Austria. (Hear, hear.)

As to our. friend Mr. Cyrus Field, our Chairman has already called your attention to the services which he has rendered to our cause. His name is identified with the grand work of ocean telegraphy. We all honour the public spirit, faith, and energy which he devoted to the wonderful enterprise which has, so to speak, annihilated time and space between England and America; and which, by multiplying transactions page 21 and quickening intercourse, has enlisted in the cause of Free Trade those material agencies which for the time have even eclipsed the lustre of the great moral principle which inspires and animates our policy.

Gentlemen, I propose to you with all my heart, "The Health of our Foreign Guests," and I couple with the toast the names of M. Leon Say, Dr. Julius Faucher, and Mr. Cyrus Field. (Cheers.)

M. Leon Say, who was very warmly cheered, spoke in French to the following effect:—

Gentlemen,—Pray excuse me if I speak in French; but it seems to me that your society will be all the more disposed to indulgence because the principles of Richard Cobden are true in every country, and in every language. I have deeply felt the evidences of sympathy which you have given me, and the compliments which Sir Louis Mallet has been good enough to address to me. But I cannot forget that France presents at this moment a spectacle which must grieve the true friends of economical science. We must especially regret it, those of my friends and myself who have been compelled, both in the Government and in the Chambers, to yield to necessity, and to surrender principles. In France we have no "free breakfast-table." From the time we get up to the page 22 time we go to bed, we pay, it may be said, for our slightest movements. Yes, my friends and I were compelled to take the responsibility of deplorable measures because we had no choice of means. Reduced to the most cruel extremities, we had to obey necessity. We were like a traveller surprised by a storm, who is obliged to provide himself with shelter with the first materials that come to hand. These harsh sacrifices were not confined to our financial organisation; we had to abandon for our circulation the metallic basis so dear to France since the melancholy experience of the assignats. Our coin went abroad, and we could count the number of twenty-franc pieces which were melted down in Germany. The value was more than a milliard. In order to replace that milliard we issued notes, and notes with a forced circulation. Hitherto the forced currency has led to no inconvenience; and the course of exchange shows that the franc is at par compared with the pound sterling. I cannot refrain, however, from thinking upon what my father, Horace Say, said in 1848, at a period when specie payments had also ceased. "I am frightened," he said to me, "by the small amount of injury the forced currency causes." My sentiment is identical now; and seeing page 23 how little we have suffered, I ask myself whether the theory of the forced currency might not acclimatise itself in our country, which would be a great misfortune. The time, moreover, has come when we might reform, step by step, the provisional system of taxation we have adopted. The taxes upon articles of consumption appear to have reached their utmost limits. Those taxes produce about 900,000,000 francs a year. At the end of the year 1873 the taxes in question were divided into two categories, of about equal importance as revenue. Upon the former of these categories a supplementary tax of four per cent, was established. On the 30th of June of this year—that is to say, six months afterwards—we were able to estimate that the augmented taxes showed a diminution in their yield, while those which had not been touched showed an increase. It is an experimental trial, which shows that raised tariffs do not always give increased revenue. We shall by degrees replace these materials, collected almost at random, by materials of good quality in our financial edifice. Time and effort will be necessary; but, notwithstanding all the obstacles we have to overcome, I beg you to believe that there is in France a small body of men faithful page 24 to the principles of Richard Cobden, who will make them triumph in the end. (Loud cheers.)

Dr. Julius Faucher, who was cordially received, said:—

Mr. President and Gentlemen,—I am not in the happy position of being allowed to address you as my predecessor has done—in my own vernacular tongue—but will attempt to address you in English. I do not know whether I shall succeed. I have left this country now some fifteen years, and in the meantime, naturally, my own country, where I have lived, has had the preference in the matter of language.

My somewhat awkward position here to-night reminds me of a circumstance which occurred a year ago, when I myself made myself guilty of placing others in the same awkward position. At the annual dinner of German Economists, at Vienna, last August, we drank the health of the foreign guests, as you have just done, and it fell to my lot to propose the toast. There were present one Englishman, one Dane, two Dutchmen, and one Turk. (A laugh.) I gave the names of all those gentlemen to the company, and asked them to show us the way in which foreigners speak German, and they were all ready to do so. Mr. White, the English Consul at Dantzic, took the page 25 lead, and delivered a most remarkably good German speech, leading me again to think that the English always speak German the best. Then followed the Dane, Professor Fredericksen, who is, I believe, an honorary member of this Club, and the others succeeded, except the Turk, Abdullah Bey, Professor of Natural History at Constantinople, who turned out to be no real Turk, but a Viennese.

Now, sir, the conclusion I am drawing from this experience is, that we ought not to have just one and the same language on earth, as an institution under which Free Trade and goodwill among men would advance more rapidly than at present. In every country, now, sometimes you have men—as, for instance, the late Sir John Bowring—who can speak even a very great number of languages. There should be everywhere only more study of foreign living languages, to promote a better approach between man and man. (Hear, hear.) When I lived in England, I was well acquainted with the lamented great man in whose honour this banquet is held, and he once congratulated me upon the great benefits I enjoyed in being able to read, speak, and write two other languages beside my own, and he complained that the cause of peace and international Free Trade, page 26 which he had at heart, was so much hindered by the diversity of tongues, and the yet everywhere insufficient means to disseminate the knowledge of living foreign languages, French excepted.

I spoke just now of Vienna, and of the exhibition there. This was the first international exhibition ever held on what I still may call German soil, and we may take heart from this; for there has always been a close connection between these great universal exhibitions of industry and the advance of Free Trade. (Hear, hear.)

It has just been said by the Hon. Mr. Baxter that we have not yet succeeded in introducing cutting tariff reforms in the direction of Free Trade into Germany. But to a great extent this has taken place, and there are still better days in store for us. I feel quite sure that already the four last international exhibitions of London and Paris have, by the exhibition of German manufactures, furthered the cause, and have won over to it even the hitherto protected German manufacturers themselves. By far the majority of them have now joined the agricultural and the shipping interest, as well as the general consumer, in shouting for Free Trade. There have been many peculiar difficulties in our way, connected with page 27 political federal questions, but I think I am to-night entitled to say that the battle is as good as won. There are some strongholds of protection yet, and we may be sure that the relics of protection will be dislodged but slowly; but it will be done. For I am happy to tell you that there are in Germany, as there are in France and Russia, and Austria now, a band of men who will never cease their efforts until the full victory is achieved. (Cheers.) There are many thousands of thorough Free Traders in my country who will with much eagerness read the report of this interesting meeting, and I give you their friendly greetings. (Loud cheers.)

Mr. Cyrus Field said he had to thank the proposer of the toast for the kind words he had spoken of the United States and of himself, but he protested that it was not fair—and the English people were known to be lovers of fair play—to arrest a poor Yankee on his way from California to Iceland—(laughter)—without notice, to address so distinguished an audience. Richard Cobden had been his friend for many years, and his guest in America. In 1852 Mr. Cobden urged upon the late Prince Consort the propriety of appropriating the profits of the Great Exhibition of 1851 to the establishment page 28 of telegraphic communication between England and America. (Cheers.) He was in Egypt when he received a telegram informing him of the death of Mr. Cobden. When he read that telegram he was dining at a festive table, at which were more than a hundred gentlemen from all parts of Europe, M. de Lesseps, of Suez Canal fame, being in the chair. He should never forget the scene which then occurred. On receiving the telegram he handed it to M. de Lesseps—the company had been twelve days together, winding up each evening with a ball, but on M. de Lesseps reading the telegram to the assembly and making a few appropriate remarks, every man—though all the nations of Europe were represented—left the table, feeling as if he had lost a personal friend. (Cheers.) No other death in Europe had ever produced so deep a feeling in America as did that of Richard Cobden. (Hear hear.) During their recent civil struggle he had been constantly in the society of Mr. Cobden, and he well remembered the sagacity and great powers of mind with which he had predicted what would be the end of that civil war. In Mr. Field's library there hung on one side a portrait of Richard Cobden, signed with his own autograph, and on the other that of page 29 John Bright. (Cheers.) Recently, crossing the prairies of Colorado, he inquired of the friend who was driving him the population of the place they were approaching, and his friend replied that he did not know, for he had not been there since the previous Monday. (Laughter.) Some of the gentlemen present might expect him to say a few words about the Free Trade movement in America, but as he left there on the 17th of June, twenty-four days ago, and as there was at the table a gentleman who had just landed from the United States—Mr. Halstead—he would, with their permission, ask that gentleman to state what was the present feeling in America in regard to Free Trade. (Cheers and laughter.)

Mr. Halstead said that, some three weeks ago, while in the heart of America, he had agreed with Mr. Cyrus Field to meet him in England, for the purpose of going with him to Iceland, but had not promised to make his after-dinner speeches on the way. If, however, he could be permitted to go on for a few moments in all the peculiarities of American speech—(a laugh)—it was possible that, as he had left America only a fortnight ago, he could impart some information as to what was going page 30 on at the other side of the Atlantic, though Mr. Field's perversity in uniting the continents by telegraph reduced the interest of rapid personal locomotion. First, as to the matter of currency, finances, and taxation, exterior and interior, he believed the people of the United States had proceeded in recent legislation upon a false principle. There were, however, excuses for it. They had, for instance, been contending with the Home Rule doctrine at home in an aggravated form, for certain States had claimed the right to leave Union men to go about their own business, and to set up for themselves. They had further been obliged to contend with the doctrine that certain men of one complexion had the right to hold certain men of another complexion to service without paying them for their labour. (Hear, hear.) And even that was hardly the worst of it, for by virtue of holding men of another complexion they claimed to dictate to those who did not hold any of their fellow beings in bondage what their political duty was. They of the United States had only recently got through those preliminary questions by deciding them in favour of the doctrines that each citizen ought to own himself, and that the people of the States con- page 31 stitute a nation—(cheers)—and now they were prepared to go into questions of revenue and currency, and that sort of thing. (A laugh.) They were stimulated to do it by the fact that they had accumulated during the recent war a considerable national debt upon which they were paying high interest. He would not go into the history of that at length, but in the matter of financial legislation, he was afraid they had not proceeded upon an intelligent principle.

He hoped that they would make allowance for any freedom of manner, because he could not bring himself to feel that he was a stranger—certainly not a foreigner—among friends of Richard Cobden—(cheers)—whose name was as well known on the banks of the Ohio as on those of any English river, and was never mentioned without respect and honour; and he might be permitted to add that there was another name similarly regarded in America, and that was that of John Bright. (Cheers.)

Tariff legislation in the United States did not mean either revenue or protection distinctly, but it was the product of a combination of selfish interests. Salt had a few votes, iron a few votes, leather had a few, grindstones a few—(laughter)—and so on, and page 32 they all combined together to set up a system of taxation of the many for the benefit of the few. (Cheers.) His home was on the Ohio, which river was remarkable for having been for a thousand miles the boundary line between the slave and free States of the Union. Cincinnati, where he resided, was the largest of the central cities of the country, and the change of public sentiment there indicated in an unusual and suggestive degree what was going on throughout the United States. There were, he might say, no Protectionists there; he did not know of half a dozen persons in the city who believed in the doctrines of Protection. (Cheers.) Their political trouble on the question of Protection had arisen from the fact that the great State of Pennsylvania—the only State which had in national affairs a pronounced and distinct public policy—was in favour of Protection. In the American political system Pennsylvania was known as the keystone State—the keystone of the arch of all the States. Now, it was remarkable that that State, which was most full of valuable minerals and of natural resources of all kinds, should have accepted the delusion that it was necessary, on account of her enormous internal riches, to be protected. (Laughter.) page 33 They hoped before long to convince Pennsylvania of the error of her ways. (Hear, hear.) The Grangers would see to it that the agricultural interest should not want direct representatives in Congress; and the Trades' Unionists, by the application to labour of the principle of Protection claimed for capital, were demonstrating its absurdity. He was quite within the mark in saying there had been a great change in public sentiment in the New England States on this question. Many remarkable evidences of that change were in possession of the members of the Cobden Club. He trusted that the English-speaking nations, having taken the foremost place in the establishment of free political institutions, might also come to the front in the matter of the adaptation of political economy as a science to general affairs. He was certain that all English-speaking nations would profit by that policy, and that in his own country, on those immense rivers which seamed the continent with navigable waters, its adoption would hasten the creation of cities which would surpass Palmyra and Alexandria of old, and rival even the majestic metropolis of the English Empire, whose flag in peace and in war shone on every sea (Cheers.)

Mr. Ayrton, who was loudly called for, and on rising was received with cheers, proposed the next toast. He said that on most of the previous occasions of the dinners of the Club the Liberal party had been in the ascendant, and had been charged with the administration of the affairs of the country. (Hear, hear.) One could not but remember that on those occasions their tables had been adorned with many men who were preeminent in the ranks of the Liberal party. Having had the pleasure of dining there when Liberalism was in the ascendant, he had thought it his duty especially to come on the first occasion when Liberalism seemed for the moment to have given place to what might be considered as a combination of all the Protectionist interests in the country. (Hear, hear.) He could not help thinking that the consequences of the recent General Election had been due in a great degree to the common effort made by every one who imagined that his own personal interests were threatened for the benefit of the nation at large. (Cheers and laughter.) There was a very great resemblance in the tone of the country at the recent election to that which, singular in its coincidence, had placed Sir Robert Peel at the head of page 35 affairs, and had for the moment depressed the Liberal party in the estimation of the country. That statesman had by a career of transcendant ability succeeded in persuading the nation that every interest was threatened, that every one was likely to be injured by the progress of Liberalism, and that he alone would be able to conduct public affairs upon such Conservative principles that every one's interest would be preserved, and that the nation at large would be beneficed by the preservation of every thing which the party of progress had deemed an abuse. (A laugh.) That might have been a great and generous aspiration on his part, but it was exactly the reverse of the principle of the Cobden Club; for if Free Trade had for itself any special mission, it certainly was that of carrying on war against the special interests of particular classes which were adverse to the interests of the nation at large, and therefore it appeared to him that it was pre-eminently the duty of all those who cherished the principles of Richard Cobden to take an interest in the maintenance of Liberal principles. (Hear, hear.) They should attend the meeting of the Club at those annual gatherings, and should be conspicuous by their presence, and show a desire to page 36 take an active part in the conduct of affairs, rather than be conspicuous by their absence. (Cheers.) Objections had been sometimes raised to the practice of the members of the Club meeting at dinners like the present, which were accomplished by the indefatigable energy and exertions of their Honorary Secretary; but the dinners were by no means inappropriate, for Mr. Cobden was not a professor of political economy as an abstract science. His mind was eminently practical, his object was to provide more abundant and cheaper food for the people, to promote their industry and their welfare. Mr. Potter, by his successful efforts, reminded them of the purpose for which Mr. Cobden struggled, whilst he afforded them an opportunity of stimulating one another to renewed efforts to advance the views of the Liberal party, to enlarge the industry and comfort of the people, and to promote for them the happiness which they were themselves enjoying. The right hon. gentleman then proceeded to propose the health of Mr. Potter, the hon, secretary, and one of the originators of the Club.

Mr. T. B. Potter, who was received with prolonged cheering, said:—

Permit me to thank you for the hearty manner in page 37 which you have received the too kind mention of my name by Mr. Ayrton. It is a compliment which causes me all the greater pleasure because I admit that I have been blamed not unfrequently, and have been told that the dinners given by the Cobden Club have been inconsistent with the Cobdenic character of our Association. (No, no.) I have heard it said that our good friend, whose memory we so much revere, would not have approved of such gatherings. This I certainly am not prepared to acknowledge; for a more happy, congenial, and convivial companion, never lived. (Cheers.) The Cobden Club has, at any rate, been successful and useful. It has been in existence about eight years, and the dinners have been the means of bringing together political economists of all nations, who might not otherwise have met. They have also afforded an opportunity to many in our own country of meeting those who take a prominent part in connection with the government of the country, and who occupy high positions in the State. These meet here on friendly terms, and all parties learn to know each other a little better than they did before. This object, it is well to remember, was one of the earliest aims of the Cobden Club, and no one can doubt that a considerable benefit has been the result. page 38 (Cheers.) We have expended large sums on publications which have done much good to the cause we all have at heart, and I am satisfied that the Cobden Club, as a literary and political society, has disseminated knowledge all over the world, and has done good service in the cause of progress. (Cheers.) There are some in this country who think that because the Cobden Club is regarded with coolness, perhaps with jealousy, here, it has no influence; but on the other side of the world it is thought more of, and it is the same throughout the colonies and amongst foreign nations. We are, in fact, the principal, if not the only nucleus of Free Trade intercourse with all parts of the world. It has been no slight satisfaction to me to know that we have such an associate and correspondent as Mr. Parkes in the city of Sydney, in the great colony of New South Wales. The resources of these colonies in the South Pacific are very great; they are in their youth, and Free Trade principles are taking a firm hold of their politicians. (Cheers.)

For myself, I may say without egotism, gentlemen, that I have worked hard to secure for the Club a local residence; and I congratulate you on the fact that a new organisation has been established, to which all page 39 members of the Cobden Club have access, which, though it docs not bear the name of the Cobden Club, but is called the Liberal Club, is based on the broadest platform of political and Free Trade principles. The new Club will, I hope, have an international character; and under the auspices of such men as the Duke of Devonshire, the Duke of Westminster, Mr. Gladstone, and Mr. Bright, I feel confident that it will be a social as well as a political success. You have now, gentlemen, offered to you what I predicted and advocated a few years ago; and, therefore, I think to-night I have a right to congratulate myself, and you, that another of the objects of the Cobden Club has been attained. The Cobden Club has other objects which must not be given up, and which are of a distinctive character. We are now proposing to endeavour to educate the people on the subject of Local Government and Local Taxation—a question which occupies the mind of every statesman, both in this country and elsewhere. We think that the experience of other nations may throw light on this subject, and we are therefore preparing a series of essays, by foreign writers, as well as our own countrymen, which we hope may be useful, and which will be published early in 1875. (Cheers.)

The unexpected compliment of drinking my health, which you have paid me for the first time during my connection with the Cobden Club—(loud cheers),—has made me almost forget the duty which has been entrusted to me. I have to propose the health of the Chairman. (Cheers.) We were most anxious that our friend Mr. Baxter should take the chair this evening, as we knew that a more Worthy exponent of the principles of Mr. Cobden could not be found. The right hon. gentleman is one of the very few who assisted in the foundation of this Club, and his loyalty to the principles of Cobden is such that we owe him gratitude for his past services, and, at the same time, confidently expect from him great assistance in the future. (Cheers.) I am sure it was the feeling of the committee, when they asked Mr. Baxter to preside to-night, that they were placing in the chair one around whom the members of the Cobden Club could rally as a leader, not merely at this gathering, but in his place in the country and the House of Commons. I ask you, therefore, to drink the health of Mr. Baxter. (Loud cheers.)

The Chairman, in reply, said:—

Mr. Potter and Gentlemen,—I regard it as one page 41 of the most distinguished honours of my life that I have been asked to take the chair at the annual dinner of the Cobden Club, because I have been all my life a great admirer of Mr. Cobden. I feel that there are many of the principles so ably enunciated by him which will yet have to be discerned in the future political history of this country. My friend, Mr. Potter, said that this Cobden Club was the nucleus of free trade sentiments all over the world. Gentlemen, there is no other nucleus. It is all very well to laugh at the Cobden Club, and to make jokes about dining at Greenwich; but depend upon it, you have founded an organisation here that will leave a name in history, and you may depend upon it that Mr. Potter, who is really the author—the Alpha and Omega, I may say—of the Institution, made his mark, too, when he founded a club of this important kind. (Cheers.)