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The edition of Richard Cobden's American diary of 1859, published in 1952 by Elizabeth Cawley1, records in the midst of the entry for 25 April 'There are here two pages of the diary missing' before resuming with the latter part of Cobden's entry for 26 April. These missing pages are transcribed below, having been located in the Cobden Papers in the West Sussex Record Office (CP 442). One surmises therefore that they were inadvertently separated from the main diary when it was deposited in the British Museum in 1933.
Nevertheless, the complete diary had in fact been transcribed by 1932 when Robert A. J. Walling,2 the editor of John Bright's diaries in 1930,3 had prepared Cobden's American diaries for publication, to be accompanied by a foreword by Nicholas Butler Murray, President of Columbia University, and an epilogue by Jane Cobden-Unwin, Cobden's last surviving daughter. Walling's unpublished transcription remains in the Cobden Papers (CP 444) in the WSRO but was seemingly not known to Elizabeth Cawley, although she too acknowledges the assistance of Mrs Cobden Unwin.
The missing pages, transcribed and annotated, may be found in the accompanying PDF.
1 The American Diaries of Richard Cobden ed. Elizabeth H. Cawley (Princeton, 1952).
2 Robert Alfred John Walling (1869-1949), West Country journalist and writer of many detective novels. Walling's papers are in the Plymouth and West Devon Record Office, NRA 4157.
3 The Diaries of John Bright ed. R. A. J. Walling (London, 1930).