| Description | The Cobden Club was formed within a year of Richard Cobden's death, and held its first meeting at the Reform Club on 15 May 1866. Among its first members were Gladstone (an honorary member), John Bright, John Stuart Mill, Lord Houghton, and Professor Cairnes. For a quarter of a century the Chairman was Thomas Bayley Potter. The Club engaged in correspondence throughout Eurpoe and America, was consulted on free trade matters, published studies, republished Richard Cobden's works, and was responsible for a University prize essay competition.
The National Reform Union, with its head office in Manchester, was founded in 1864 by members of the committee of the Anti-Corn [Laws] League, its objects (as stated in 1914) being to support Liberal Party policies, with special emphasis on free trade. The Union was wound up in 1946 and its assets (and archives transferred to the Free Trade Union. |