COBDEN, RICHARD

(1804-65), Brit. statesman; s.of a Su ex farmer. He was for some time a commercial traveler, and in 1830 went to Manchester as a cotton printer. He had become interested in political and economic questions and in 1835 pub. a pamphlet, Hngland, Ireland, and America, by a Manchester Manufacturer. Was elected M.P. for Stock port, and devoted all his energies to the anti-Corn-Law agitation. After the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846, Sir Robert Peel acknowledged Cobden as the man to whom succe was due. He arranged a commercial treaty between Britain and France in 1860.