Page:Notes on the Anti-Corn Law Struggle.djvu/311

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Free Trade and the Channel Tunnel.
303

quoted had been acted upon, and put to the test in England at a time when the coasts of England were infested, not by Zouaves, but by Barbary pirates. But I have never discovered that the extremely pacific dispositions of the King who then reigned in England had any effect whatever towards turning the once dangerous Barbary pirate into the valued friend of the family. On the contrary, all the evidence which I have seen bearing on the subject leads to the conclusion that the pacific disposition of the English King, so far from producing a similar disposition in the Barbary pirate, only encouraged and excited him to more extensive depredations.

Mr. Cobden has thrown his work into the form of Letters to the Reverend ———, and begins with these words:—"Accept my thanks for your kindness in forwarding me a copy of your Sermon upon the death of the Duke of Wellington;" and ends with these words:—"When the Master whom you serve mingled in the affairs of this life, it was not to join in the exaltation of military genius or share in the warlike triumphs of nation over nation, but to preach 'Peace on earth and goodwill toward men.'" Suppose some of the Peace-at-any-price Corporation had gone on a pacific mission to