A nationalist and militarist, opposed to the Manchester school of politicians, Richards issued in 1848, in the form of a letter addressed to Richard Cobden, a denunciation of the "peace-at-any-price party", under the title of "Cobden and his Pamphlet considered". Another volume was "Britain Redeemed and Canada Preserved", anticipating a railway between the Atlantic and the Pacific. "Poems, Essays, and Opinions" (2 vols.), and "Essays and Opinions" (2 vols.) consisted of writings from "The Mirror of the Time". He brought out, in 1854, a collection of lyrics called "The Minstrelsy of War".