"The policy primarily won the confidence of the British through the personal ability, the honesty, and the noble idealism of the men who created it—, , and . It was nourished by prosperity and grew strong with age. ... novelists drew pictures of a starving people saved by the reforms of Cobden. ... There is a sadness in the study of the promises which Cobden made to the people. ... All nations, he said, would follow Great Britain's example if she adopted free trade. Each country would then produce things which her soil, climate and people could produce to greatest advantage. War would cease, because under this system of free exchange a nation could never afford to quarrel with neighbors upon whom she depended for certain necessaries. ... No nation has followed the example of Great Britain in adopting a free trade policy. There has been no perceptible diminution in the number of wars. America has refused to remain a purely agricultural country because Great Britain had the start of her in manufactures."