both countries, and in both
countries produce a solid and sterling pacification of feeling? Cobden saw
Palmerston and tried to see Lord John Russell, and though he hardly
received encouragement, at least he was not forbidden to proceed upon his
volunteered mission.(14) "Gladstone," wrote Cobden to Mr. Bright, "is
really almost the only cabinet minister of five years' standing who is not
afraid to let his heart guide his head a little at times." The Emperor had
played with the idea of a more open trade for five or six years, and
Cobden, with his union of economic, moral, and social elements, and his
incomparable gifts of argumentative persuasion, was the very man to strike
Napoleon's impressionable mind. Although, having alienated the clericals
by his Italian policy, the ruler of France might well have hesitated
before proceeding to alienate the protectionists also, he became a convert
and did not shrink.

Both Cobden and I, says Mr. Gladstone, were keenly in favour of
such a treaty (I myself certainly), without intending thereby to
signify the smallest disposition to the promotion of tariff
treaties in general. I had been an active party to the various
attempts under Sir Robert Peel's government to conclude such
treaties, and was as far as possible removed from any disposition
to the renewal of labour which was in itself so profitless, and
which was dangerously near to a practical assertion of a false
principle, namely that the reductions of indirect taxation,
permitted by fiscal considerations, are in themselves injurious to
the country that makes them, and are only to be entertained when a
compensation can be had for them.(15) ... The correspondence which
would in the ordinary course have been exchanged between the
foreign offices of the two countries, was carried through in a
series of personal letters between Mr. Cobden and myself. I
remember indeed that the Emperor or his government were desirous
to conceal from their own foreign minister (Walewski) the fact
that such a measure was in contemplation. On our side, the method
pursued was only recommended by practical considerations. I
contemplated including the conditions of the French treaty in a
new and sweeping revision of the tariff, the particulars of which
it was of course important to keep from the public eye until they
were ready to be submitted to parliament.

A