in the meantime raised into a retributive agent for the chastisement of those who were the authors of the original war"
In this passage Mr. Cobden has, no doubt unintentionally, misrepresented facts. This arose from Mr. Cobden's having read in Hansard the debates in both Houses of Parliament on the war with France from 1791 to 1796, but apparently not having carried his investigation beyond 1796. He thus concludes that England was the aggressor throughout the war till 1815, having been the aggressor in 1793. Whereas, in 1796, Napoleon Bonaparte having obtained the command of the army of Italy assumed a policy of a universally aggressive character, which Mr. Cobden has apparently overlooked and given Bonaparte credit for virtues which he did not possess.
Mr. Cobden says (p. 11):—
"If you would really understand the motives with which we embarked upon the last French war, you must turn to Hansard, and read the debates in both Houses of Parliament upon the subject from 1791 to 1796. But there must be a very precise and accurate attention to dates, in order to understand the subject in hand. Our business lies with the interval from 1789, when the Constituent Assembly of France met, till 1793, when war commenced between England and France."
