By James Henry Lynch (?-1868), via the British Museum and Wikimedia Commons. Public domain. Source
Richard Cobden by James Henry Lynch (?-1868), dated 1850
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Richard Cobden in 1850, at the height of his fame as a statesman: four years earlier, he had led a successful campaign to repeal the Corn Laws, a protectionist measure designed to enrich big British agribusiness by undermining foreign and domestic competition. See The Repeal of the Corn Laws. In 1854-56, he opposed the Government again, this time on the bloody and fruitless Crimean War with Russia, and the Russo-mania (as he called it) that seemed to hold the Foreign Office in thrall. Cobden believed that rising prosperity among the countries of the world, including both Russia and China, was very much in the British interest, as they promised new goods for British consumers, and new customers for British manufacturers. Consequently, he urged the Government to pursue trade policies that maximised our neighbours’ growth, and to stay out of global conflicts, since they not only cost lives but also depressed markets. Though he won many fervent admirers, Cobden’s influence was disappointingly short-lived.
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Richard Cobden by James Henry Lynch (?-1868), dated 1850
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By James Henry Lynch (?-1868), via the British Museum and Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.
Richard Cobden in 1850, at the height of his fame as a statesman: four years earlier, he had led a successful campaign to repeal the Corn Laws, a protectionist measure designed to enrich big British agribusiness by undermining foreign and domestic competition. See The Repeal of the Corn Laws. In 1854-56, he opposed the Government again, this time on the bloody and fruitless Crimean War with Russia, and the Russo-mania (as he called it) that seemed to hold the Foreign Office in thrall. Cobden believed that rising prosperity among the countries of the world, including both Russia and China, was very much in the British interest, as they promised new goods for British consumers, and new customers for British manufacturers. Consequently, he urged the Government to pursue trade policies that maximised our neighbours’ growth, and to stay out of global conflicts, since they not only cost lives but also depressed markets. Though he won many fervent admirers, Cobden’s influence was disappointingly short-lived.
From a salesman on a salary, he evolved into a salesman on a salary and commission.* Next he made a bold stand with two fellow-travelers and asked for the exclusive London agency of a Manchester print mill.* A year later he was carrying a line of goods worth forty thousand pounds on unsecured credit.* “Why do you entrust me with all these goods when you know I am not worth a thousand pounds in my own name?” And the senior member of the great house of Fort, Sons & Company answered, “Mr Cobden, we consider the moral risk more than we do the financial one. Our business has been built up by trusting young, active men of good habits. With us character counts.” And Cobden went up to London and ordered the words, “Character Counts!” cut deep in a two-inch oak plank which he fastened to the wall in his office.*
* The author of this extract, the somewhat controversial American writer Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915), had himself been a travelling salesman, for Larkin soap.
* The three young entrepreneurs took the coach to Manchester in September 1828, a journey of twenty hours in those days, their heads full of dreams but no specific plans. “We were literally so ignorant of Manchester houses” Cobden admitted “that we called for a directory at the hotel, and turned to the list of calico-printers.”
* According to the Bank of England, goods and services costing £40,000 in 1831 would be worth over £3,455,000 in 2024. “In less than two years from 1830” Cobden later wrote to a friend “we owed them forty thousand pounds for goods which they had sent to us in Watling Street, upon no other security than our characters and knowledge of our business.” The three young men would have struggled to find £600 between them.
* “Cobden succeeded in business” sniffed political opponent Benjamin Disraeli some years later “simply because he got other people to do his work.” This only highlighted the ideological gulf between them. Cobden believed in the social and moral value of the workers’ co-operative; Disraeli, whose two turns as Prime Minister (1868, 1874-80) came after Cobden had died in 1864, thought that a benevolent Government should do everything.
Questions for Critics
1. What is the author
aiming to achieve in writing this?
2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that
strike you. How do they help the author communicate his
ideas more effectively?
3. What impression does this passage make on you?
How might you put that impression into words?
Based on The English Critic (1939)
by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at
Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn,
Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University,
USA.
Précis
Cobden now went into business with two friends as London agents for a Manchester textile company. His employers handed them a stock of extremely valuable goods to sell without any kind of security. When Cobden expressed surprise, they replied ‘With us, character counts’, which struck him so forcibly that he had ‘Character counts!’ etched into a piece of oak, for display in his office.(64 / 60 words)
Cobden now went into business with two friends as London agents for a Manchester textile company. His employers handed them a stock of extremely valuable goods to sell without any kind of security. When Cobden expressed surprise, they replied ‘With us, character counts’, which struck him so forcibly that he had ‘Character counts!’ etched into a piece of oak, for display in his office.
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Variations:
1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 70 words.2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 60 words.3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: about, because, just, must, not, ought, whereas, who.
About the Author
Elbert Green Hubbard (1856-1915) was an American writer and artist who championed the cause of free-market enterprise, civil rights and international peace. His first job was as a salesman for Larkin soap; later he and his first wife, Bertha, established the Roycrofters, at first a publishing firm producing journals of comment and satire and fine handmade volumes, and later a fully-fledged Arts and Crafts community in East Aurora, New York. The couple divorced and in 1904, and Elbert married his mistress, teacher Alice Moore. The Roycrofters attracted a mix of socialists and free-traders, and over time Hubbard inclined more to the latter. Elbert’s public doubts over America’s role in the Great War, and plan to interview the Kaiser, caused a scandal, and in 1915, after receiving a Presidential pardon, Elbert and Alice left for Europe. Tales of heroism during sinking of the Titanic three years earlier had fascinated him, and as Fate would have it the Hubbards chose to sail on the Lusitania. The ship was torpedoed by the Germans on May 7th, 1915, and leaving the lifeboats to others, Elbert and Alice quietly locked themselves in their cabin.
For each group of words, compose a sentence that uses all three. You can use any form of the word: for example, cat → cats, go → went, or quick → quickly, though neigh → neighbour is stretching it a bit.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1I.All.Burly.
2Another.Much.Shill.
3Attention.Name.Poor.
Variations:1.include direct and indirect speech2.include one or more of these words: although, because, despite, either/or, if, unless, until, when, whether, which, who3.use negatives (not, isn’t, neither/nor, never, nobody etc.)
For each word above, choose one or more suitable
meanings from this list.
1.Long, thin mark.2.Pay for e.g. drinks, food, on behalf of others.3.Admit.4.List of items for purchase.5.A stall in a market.6.An island in the Irish Sea.7.Bear, endure a hardship.8.Possess.9.Hold oneself upright on one’s feet.10.A series of products of similar type, e.g. clothing.11.A flat piece of wood, a table-top.12.A male person.13.Long, thin cord.14.A queue.15.Pit.16.E.g. Benedictines.17.Belonging to oneself.18.Sequence.19.custom.20.Not chaos.21.Cover all the interior of e.g. a baking tray.22.Opposite of chaos.23.The gown worn by a monk or nun.24.one’s clothes, dress.25.Provide the crew for.26.A unit of British currency.27.Belonging to me.28.Get on a train, bus or ship.29.Bishop, priest or deacon.30.Command.31.Strike repeatedly, beat.
Suggest words or phrases that seem opposite in meaning to each of the words below. We have suggested some possible answers; see if you can find any others.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
Variations:
1.instead of opposites, suggest words of similar meaning (synonyms).2.use a word and its opposite in the same sentence.3.suggest any 5 opposites formed by adding im-.
Make words (three letters or more) from the seven letters showing below, using any letter once only. Each letter carries a score. What is the highest-scoring word you can make?
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Travelling salesman Richard Cobden was still in his twenties when he bought a loss-making mill for a hundred times his annual salary.
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