ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a letter of Richard Cobden to John Slagg dated 15 February 1862. Between themselves, there is something a little unsound & not calculated to promote the success of their principles abroad in the public appeals making from the Chambers of Commerce, & public men in Parliament, to the British government to effect a reduction of duties in foreign countries. Every effort of the kind is trumpeted in the protectionist papers abroad, & then the foreign governments are attacked for contemplating free trade measures in the interests of Manchester or Leeds. This puts the controversy on the worst possible footing for the free trade advocates. How delighted the protectionists in England would have been during the League agitation if they could have raised the cry of Russian or American intervention. Cobden see the Leeds Chamber of Commerce are for making another government department to pay more direct attention to commercial matters.
