ABSTRACT
Richard Cobden was being presented an ideal type 'National Man' and he was also presented as 'International Man' whose doctrines were global in their epoch-making implications and which, as it were, made him 'out of place'. The designation of Cobden as the 'International Man' was apparently bestowed upon him by the publisher of La Presse, the wealthy and well-connected French journalist – and death-dealing duellist – Emile de Girardin. The England into which Cobden was born in June 1804 was certainly a land with distinctive political conditions, traditions, conceptions and needs. Cobden had a very peculiar mind, one which struck out with views and principles not known to or neglected by ordinary men. Yet he 'did not possess the traditional education of his country, and did not understand it'. The solid heritage of transmitted knowledge, Bagehot thought, had more value than Cobden would have accorded to it.
