ABSTRACT
Cobden’s European diaries, covering his tour of 1846—7 and his attendance at the Paris Peace Congress in August 1849, are contained within the large collection of Cobden papers held in the Department of Manuscripts in the British Library. There are six other sets of Cobden diaries – those kept during his two American trips in 1835 and 1859, his Mediterranean tour of 1836—7, his shorter tours through Europe in 1838 and 1840, and one kept during the time he spent in Paris in 1859-61 while negotiating the Anglo-French commercial treaty. The European diaries of 1846—7 are by far the most substantial of all the diaries, both in terms of the period covered, and the extent of travel which Cobden undertook.
