Richard Cobden, the radical statesman and advocate of free trade, worked as a clerk and commercial traveller before establishing a successful calico printing business in 1828. He helped found Anti-Corn Law League in 1838, campaigned tirelessly for the repeal of the Corn Laws, and was closely associated with John Bright in his free trade principles...

Bulwer joined the British Army in 1825 and entered the diplomatic service two years later. In 1838, he negotiated the Ponsonby Treaty with Turkey, which secured important advantages for British trade in the Ottoman Empire. He was appointed Ambassador to Spain in 1843 but his sympathies with the cause of Spanish constitutionalism led to his expulsion...