Cobden: a plinth among men
With fierce debates swirling around our heads about historic statues, Daniel Snowman considers that of Richard Cobden.
I THINK I’ve known since school days roughly who “Cobden and Bright” were. Just as I’ve (kind of) known about Francis Drake, Guy Fawkes, Newton, Nelson and Gladstone. Weren’t Cobden and Bright mid-Victorian advocates of free trade? Based, I remember learning, in newly industrialising Manchester (remember the Free Trade Hall)?
Well, yes. But it was when I moved into the Camden area some years ago and kept passing that statue of Cobden just up from Mornington Crescent station on my way home that I found myself wanting to learn more about him.
The results of my passing curiosity led to some hugely “relevant” thoughts about the ways we think about the past today. For a start, I had a good look at the plaque beneath the statue. It says it is of “COBDEN” (no first name) and was erected by public subscription to which the principal contributor was the Emperor of France, Napoleon III.
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Historian
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