PLACES AND PEOPLE ABROAD.                 285
metropolis.    Mr. Fox is a witty and vigorous writer, an
animated and brilliant orator.
Yonder, on the right of us, sits Richard Cobden. Look
at his thin, pale face, and spare-made frame. He started
as a commercial traveller ; was afterwards a calico-printer
and merchant in Manchester. He was the expounder, in
the Manchester Chamber of Commerce and in the town
council, of the principles of free trade. In the council
of the Anti-Corn-Law League, he was the leader, and
principal agitator of the question in public meetings
throughout the kingdom. He was first elected for Stock-
port. When Sir Robert Peel's administration abolished
the CQrn-laws, the prime minister avowed in the House of
Commons that the great measure was in most part
achieved by ,the unadorned eloquence of Richard Cobden.
He is the representative of the non-intervention or polit-
ical peace party ; lidding the right and duty of national
defence, but opposing all alliances which are calculated to
embroil the country in the affairs of other nations. His
age is about fifty. He represents the largest constituency
in, the kingdom — the western division of Yorkshire,
which contains thirty-seven thousand voters. Mr. Cob-
den has a reflective cast of mind ; and is severely logical
in his style, and very lucid in the treatment of his sub-
jects. He may be termed the leader of the radical party
in the House.
Three seats from Cobden you see that short, stout per-
son, with his high head, large, round face, good-sized eyes.
It is Macaulay, the poet, critic, historian and statesman.