Volume 1: 1. Early life; 2. Commercial and mental progress; 3. Travels in west and east; 4. The two pamphlets; 5. Life in Manchester, 1837–9; 6. The foundation of the League; 7. The Corn Laws; 8. Cobden enters Parliament - first session; 9. Cobden as an agitator; 10. The new Corn Law; 11. Sir Robert Peel's new policy; 12. Renewed activity of the League - Cobden and Sir Robert Peel - rural campaign; 13. The session of 1844 - factory legislation - the constituencies; 14. Bastiat - new tracts – activity in parliament - Maynooth grant - private affairs; 15. The autumn of 1845; 16. Repeal of the Corn Laws and fall of the government; 17. Correspondence with Sir Robert Peel - cessation of the League; 18. Tour over Europe; Appendix. Volume 2: 1. Election for the West Riding - purchase of Dunford - correspondence; 2. Miscellaneous correspondence on social and political movements; 3. The Don Pacifico debate - the Papal aggression - correspondence with Mr. Bright on reform – Kossuth; 4. The Protectionists in office; 5. The panic of 1853; 6. The Crimean War; 7. Death of his son; 8. Chinese affairs - Cobden's motion - the dissolution; 9. The Indian Mutiny - private affairs - second journey to America; 10. Return from America - the new ministry; 11. The French treaty; 12. Holiday and return to Paris; 13. The tariff - the fortification scheme; 14. The policy of the commercial treaty; 15. Miscellaneous correspondence, 1859–60 - Paris - return to England; 16. The American war - fortification schemes - international law; 17. Correspondence with Mr. Delane; 18. The Danish war - last speeches in Parliament - correspondence; 19. Speech at Rochdale - the land question - correspondence - last days and death; 20. Conclusion; Index.
