excite—and is content to rest an argument on its own intrinsic value without artificial adornment." And in this faith of his hearers Cobden has his strength. He gets out all he has to say, and all ho means to say. He convinces as he goes along, and with a simplicity and plainness which seem to render conviction irresistible. And thus are his hearers prepared for those occasional bursts of fervour which no man with Cobden's ideality and earnestness can keep pent up in his own bosom. His denunciation of the wickedness of transporting the best part of our population to find that food which their labour would bring home to them but for selfish laws, was given with all the power of a righteous indignation; and his affecting picture of emigrants leaving their native land was in the finest tone of sympathy for the sufferings of his fellow-creatures. On the one occasion and the other, the loudly expressed indignation, and the starting tear, convinced me that the great and brilliant audience was moved by a strong sense of justice, and a deeply-felt benevolence. Taking this meeting as representative of London, I concluded that public opinion and sentiment were rigorous and healthful.
For two days before the next meeting I had been much occupied in the splendid region created by the Marquis of Westminster to the west of the Queen's Palace, and in the more ancient but stately and aristocratic squares and streets in the northern part of the great West End. What a contrast there was to the squalor and wretchedness of Spitalfields and Wapping! Everywhere around was seen evidence of wealth—magnificent horses, handsome carriages, horses champing the bit in pure pride of blood, liveried servants, and all the other outward and visible signs of unstinted luxury. And all this, while millions were in a state bordering upon starvation; and all this within from half-an-hour to an hour's walk of abodes more filthy, more squalid, more wretched than could be found
