Run about all day
with a tin kettle at his tail, is, at last, released, to go limping and
exhausted home.
"I struggled with this, too, and for some time would not 'give in.' But
my face, now, would not answer to my will. It would look pale and
miserable. My friends began to commiserate me. This was dreadful. So I
at last yielded to the combined movement, of my own convictions of
necessity, the wishes of my friends, the orders of my physician, and,
most effective of all, the kind commands of one whom I deem it an
honour, as it is a necessity, to obey in most things - I went away from
business. I went away without hope. I did not expect cure. I believed
functional derangement had become, at last, organic disease - and that
my days were numbered. I tried the water cure, homoeopathy, allopathy -
everything. Some day, I must recount my consultations, on the same
Sunday, with Sir James Clarke, Her Majesty's physician, and Dr. Quin,
homoeopathist, jester, and, as some said, quack."
At the end of five years of my suffering, I went to America. The trip
did me good. It did not cure me. I wrote a book - a very little one.
Half-a-crown was its price. The present First Lord of the Treasury, Mr.
W. H. Smith, published it. All the edition was sold. I did not venture
another. I will quote some portions of it, as a preface to what is to
follow.
When this book was just out of the press, I received the following
letters from Mr. Cobden: -
"DUNFORD, NEAR MIDHURST, SUSSEX,
"6th January, 1852.
"MY DEAR WATKIN,
"When lately in Manchester I heard from S. P. Robinson that you had
been to the United States; that you had been much struck with what you
saw there; that we were being fast distanced by our young rival, &c.
Since then I have seen an extract in a paper from a work published by
you; but being in an outlying place here, have no means of informing
myself further about it. Now, if the book be not large, and can be sent
through the post, I wish you would let me have a copy. I know how
unreasonable it is to ask an author to give away his works; for, as Dr.
Johnson said to Thrale, the brewer, in vindication of his own rule
never to make a present of his writings, 'You do not give away your
porter, Sir;' but I feel very anxious to know what you think of the
United States.
"I have long had my notions about what was coming from the West, and
recorded my prophecy on my return from America in 1835. People in
England are determined to shut their eyes as long as they can; but they
will be startled out of their wilful blindness some day by some
gigantic facts proving the indisputable superiority of that country in
all that constitutes the power, wealth, and real greatness of a people.
"Hoping that you are quite well after your holiday, which you would not
allow to be a holiday.
"I remain, very truly yours,
"R. COBDEN.
"EDWD. WATKIN, Esq."
In reference to a paragraph in the following, I should mention that in
my letter transmitting the book, I had written about my meetings with
Kossuth, the Hungarian patriot, and had referred to his visit to the
United States.
"DUNFORD, NEAR MIDHURST,
"8th January, 1852.
"MY DEAR WATKIN,
"Many thanks for your kindness in sending me a copy of your work,
which, so far as I have gone, pleases me much. You could not have done
a wiser and more patriotic service than to make the people of this
country better acquainted with what is going on in the United States.
It is from that quarter, and not from barbarous Russia, or fickle
France, that we have to expect a formidable rivalry - and yet that
country is less studied or understood in England than is the history of
ancient Egypt or Greece. I should like to go once more to America, if
only to see Niagara again. But I am a bad sailor, and should dread the
turmoil of public meetings when I arrived there.
"My impression of Kossuth's phrenology was that there was not
power or animal energy sufficient to account for the ascendancy he
acquired over a turbulent aristocracy and a rude uncivilized democracy.
The secret lies evidently in his eloquence, in which he certainly
surpasses any modern orator; and, taking all things into account, he is
in that respect probably a phenomenon without equal in past or present
times. I fear when the French news reaches America, it will damp the
ardour of his friends there, and make them more than ever resolved to
'stand upon their own ground' rather than venture into the quagmire of
European politics. It has confirmed me in my non-intervention policy.
It is evident that we know nothing about the political state of even
our next neighbours, and how are we likely to be better informed about
Germany or Italy? Their ways are not our ways. Let us not
attempt to judge them by our standard. Let us endeavour to set them a
good example. If 36 millions of Frenchmen, or 46 millions of Germans,
submit to a despotic Government, it is because they do not really
desire anything better.
"If they wished for a different form of Government they could have it.
What presumption in us to think that our interference in the
matter can be necessary!
"Believe me, faithfully yours,
"RICHARD COBDEN.
"EDWD. WATKIN, Esq."
I venture here a few extracts from my little book of 1851, as detailing
my views, new and fresh as they were, on American questions.
