ABSTRACT
Richard Cobden’s lack of sympathy with so much in the British foreign policy of his day led him to criticize severely its entire mechanism. The entire mechanism of foreign policy, as it exists in Europe under it there can never be a guarantee of permanent peace, since at present no one knows at any time what subterranean influences may be at work making for misunderstanding and mischief. The Foreign Office was then a water-tight compartment of the vessel of State. Mystifying utterances of that kind were specially characteristic of the Foreign Office whenever the House of Commons ventured to ask for information, even on questions of the utmost moment. Distractions of the kind were a godsend to Lord Palmerston, covering up many ragged ends in his foreign policy and giving him welcome breathing spaces in which to straighten out inconvenient tangles.
