Richard Cobden, educationist, economist and statesman.

The aim of the thesis is to show that Richard Cobden
(1804-1865) deserves to be given a significant place in
the history of political, economic and social thought and
also full credit for a range of statesmanship which went
far beyond his well known part in the repeal of the Corn
Laws and the Anglo-French Commercial Treaty of 1860.
Historians have not sufficiently recognised that Cobden
sought to make fundamental changes in British society and
that he tried to initiate them by piecemeal constitutional
methods. He also believed that the British example would
have a powerful influence on other countries and thus
contribute to a new world order.
Cobden had a coherent, although unsystematised,
philosophy, based on certain major assumptions. They were,
firstly, that social progress depends on the interaction
of economic, moral and religious and educational factors;
secondly that progress towards a real political democracy
depends on progress in the former areas. A special problem
in explaining Cobden's philosophy is the fact that the
ideas of two important thinkers with whom he was associated,
George Combe (1788-1858), phrenologist (psychologist) and
Frederic Bastiat (1801-1850), economist, have been belittled
and neglected since Cobden's death. Therefore, the analysis of Cobden's thought necessitated an effort to "rehabilitate't these two thinkers.
Cobden's efforts to transform British politics and society were only partially successful in Britain's
adoption of free trade, a policy not properly understood
by most statesmen and commercial men. His work for
common schools, international schools, lyceums and
educative popular newspapers was a failure and soon
forgotten; his efforts to reform British foreign policy
and implement arms control also failed. After his death,
his followers failed to develop satisfactorily his ideas
for application to social and international problems. These
ideas still have considerable potential.