by the prospect of advancement or profit. To show how difficult it is to get at truth, I will quote a letter of Mr. Cobden to me, dated "Midhurst, 25th November 1858." Mr. Cobden says:—
"Since we last met, the war with Russia occurred, and I confess it tended rather to modify my opinion as to the aristocratic origin of all our wars. I watched very closely the forces at work in carrying us into that war, and I did not find that the aristocratic element predominated. The House of Commons was far less warlike than the people. Talking to Lord Aberdeen one day about the origin of the war, he said it was the press that prevented him from keeping the peace. Has it not always been so? I suspect that the newspapers are far more powerful now than ever, and that they are gaining upon the power of the orators of whom you hold so unfavourable an opinion. As a general rule, I think, great orators have done quite as much harm as good. They have this to be said for them, that they are a sort of guarantee in parliamentary government that we are not governed by downright fools. It by no means insures our being Under the rule of honest men or wise statesmen."
Mr. Cobden died on the 2nd of April, 1865, more than ten years before the publication of Sir Theodore Martin's third volume of the Life of the Prince Consort. Consequently Mr. Cobden had not, in forming his opinion respecting the origin of the Crimean War, the assistance which he would have derived from that third volume. When Lord
