1. FREE TRADE AND THE REPEAL OF THE CORN LAWS

31. Petition of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce to the House of Commons, 1838

[This petition, drawn up by Richard Cobden, J. B. Smith and Henry Ashworth on behalf of the Manchester Anti-Corn Law Association, was adopted by the Manchester Chamber of Commerce on 20 December 1838.]

2. LAISSEZ-FAIRE

36. RICHARD COBDEN: Russia (1836)

A few plain maxims may be serviceable to those who may in future have occasion to allude to the subject of commerce, in kings’ speeches, or other state papers.

To make laws for the regulation of trade, is as wise as it would be to legislate about water finding a level, or matter exercising its centripetal force.

3. EDUCATION

41. THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY: Speech in the House of Commons, 18 April 1847

[Both Macaulay and Bright (No. 42) were speaking in the debate on the Government’s scheme for education.]

I believe, Sir, that it is the right and the duty of the state to provide means of education for the common people. This proposition seems to me to be implied in every definition that has ever yet been given of the functions of a government. . . .

4. RELIGIOUS LIBERTY

43. THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY: Speech in the House of Commons, 17 April 1833

[Macaulay was speaking in the debate on the civil disabilities of the Jews.]

5. FOREIGN POLICY

46. RICHARD COBDEN: Speech in the House of Commons, 12 June 1849

[Cobden’s motion ran: ‘That an humble address be presented to Her Majesty, praying that she will be graciously pleased to direct her Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to enter into communications with Foreign Powers, inviting them to concur in Treaties, binding the respective parties, in the event of any future misunderstanding, which cannot be arranged by amicable negotiation, to refer the matter in dispute to the decision of arbitrators.’]

6. INDIA AND IRELAND

53. THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY: Speech in the House of Commons, 10 July 1833

We are told that the time can never come when the natives of India can be admitted to high civil and military office. We are told that this is the condition on which we hold our power. We are told that we are bound to confer on our subjects every benefit—which they are capable of enjoying?—no;—which it is in our power to confer on them?—no;—but which we can confer on them without hazard to the perpetuity of our own domination.

PART IV

THE AGE OF GLADSTONE

1. THE PHILOSOPHY OF LIBERTY

59. JOHN STUART MILL: On Liberty (1859)

(A)

This, then, is the appropriate region of human liberty. It comprises, first, the inward domain of consciousness; demanding liberty of conscience in the most comprehensive sense; liberty of thought and feeling; absolute freedom of opinion and sentiment on all subjects, practical or speculative, scientific, moral, or theological.

2. PARLIAMENTARY REFORM

67. RICHARD COBDEN: Speech at Rochdale, 18 August 1859

I would ask the middle class who have now got the franchise, whether they may not incur some difficulties and dangers themselves if they keep out of the electoral pale the vast majority of the community who have now no interest in the suffrage? The working class, and those who are not entitled now to vote, I believe amount to five millions of persons.

3. FOREIGN POLICY

76. W. E. GLADSTONE: Speech in the House of Commons, 7 May 1877

Sir, there is before us not one controversy, but two. There is the controversy between Russia and Turkey; there is the controversy between Turkey and her revolted subjects. I think the Government and their supporters out-of-doors in the Press are committing a great error in this—that it is the first of these two controversies—that between Russia and Turkey, which, after all, is only symptomatic—to which they address their minds. In my opinion, the other is the deeper and more important.