Cobden's Bi-Centenary, 1804-2004

In 2004 the Cobden project staff were heavily involved in the effort to publicise and commerate the bi-centenary of Cobden's birth. A number of events were organised, culminating on 16/18 July  with the Richard Cobden Bi-Centenary Conference at Dunford HOuse, sponsored by the University of East Anglia, the YMCA and the British Academy.

The conference was a great success, with over thirty delegates from eight countries, including Australia , Japan and the United States . On the first evening, delegates were treated to a reception by the YMCA, the current owners of Dunford House, which included an address by Lord Judd, the President of YMCA England. Lord Judd was followed by Professor Keith Robbins, who gave the keynote lecture on ‘Cobden, the International Man'. Papers given at the Conference have provided the basis for the publication of Rethinking Nineteenth-Century Liberalism: Richard Cobden Bicentenary Essays edited by Anthony Howe and Simon Morgan (Basingstoke: Ashgate, 2006).

Conference delegates were able to soak up the atmosphere of Cobden's former home, set in the pine-woods of the Sussex Downs near Midhurst. Despite the hectic schedule, many found opportunities to visit local Cobden sites, including the Cobden obelisk at West Lavington and his tomb in the nearby churchyard. These surroundings, together with the unstinting hospitality of the staff at Dunford, combined to make the event as enjoyable and relaxing as it was intellectually stimulating.

Other bi-centenary events included Simon Morgan's public lecture at the Manchester Central Library on 29 May, which was well attended, thanks to an article in the Manchester Evening News , 26 May 2004, and a talk by Anthony Howe to the Midhurst Society on 15 June. On Cobden's anniversary itself, 3 June, a small ceremony was held at the statue of Richard Cobden in Camden Town , London . This ceremony was organised by Bruce Kent, the former president of CND, and was inspired by Professor Howe's article on Cobden's opposition to the Crimean War in History Today. Professor Howe also contributed to an item on Richard Cobden for the Radio 4 programme Making History, 13 July 2004 . In addition, Professor Howe spoke on ‘Cobden and France' at the Colloque ‘La France et l'Angleterre au XIX e siècle' organised by the Ecole Normale Supérieure and Université Paris X- Nanterre in Paris in January 2004 and gave a paper on ‘Richard Cobden: a bicentennial perspective' to the Modern British History seminar at Cambridge University on 24 January 2005.

Media interest in Cobden's bi-centenary was y muted, though the Economist , which Cobden helped to found in 1843, ran a leader on him on 3 June. In the daily press, the exception that proved the rule was an article by Peter Clarke in the Scotsman on the same day, which bemoaned Cobden's obscurity at a time when many of his ideas about freedom of trade and international peace are at the forefront of political debate.

The following is a list of the publications by project members to mark the bi-centenary:

• Anthony Howe ‘Richard Cobden and the Crimean War', History Today, 54, 6 (June 2004).
• ‘Other People's lives: Richard Cobden', LSE Magazine, Summer 2004.
• Simon Morgan ‘Richard Cobden and British Imperialism', Journal of Liberal History 45 (Winter, 2004-5).
• ‘Cobden and Manchester', Manchester Region History Review XVII, i (2004).
• ‘Cobden – The Original Liberal?', Liberator, 299 (Nov. 2004).

Rethinking Nineteenth-Century Liberalism: Richard Cobden Bicentenary Essays, edited by Anthony Howe and Simon Morgan (Basingstoke, Ashgate, 2006) contains the following essays: PDF