initial commit of ebook 36795HEADmain

1 files changed, 7021 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/36795.txt b/36795.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ac51e5a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36795.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,7021 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Bygones Worth Remembering, Vol. 1 (of 2), by
+George Jacob Holyoake
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Bygones Worth Remembering, Vol. 1 (of 2)
+
+Author: George Jacob Holyoake
+
+Release Date: July 20, 2011 [EBook #36795]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BYGONES WORTH REMEMBERING ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+
+BYGONES WORTH REMEMBERING
+
+By George Jacob Holyoake
+
+"The best prophet of the future is the past."
+
+Lord Byron
+
+Volume I.
+
+New York E. P. Dutton And Company
+
+31 West Twenty-Third Street 1905
+
+
+[Illustration: Holyoake]
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+If the preface of a book be a plea to the reader, its force must lie in
+the aims of the author. In the following pages his main aim has been
+to be of service to somebody. That is a principle, which, amid the
+ravelment, perplexity, and entanglements of the world, always finds a
+pathway open. Such a principle is as an All-Seeing Eye, to which he who
+acknowledges it, is amenable, since it makes plain to him the devious,
+time-serving byways he should avoid.
+
+The writer has no interest, no taste, no trust, save in definite,
+verifiable ideas. His aim has been to keep clear of the Sin of
+Pretension, which consists in declaring, or assuming to be true, that
+which the writer or speaker does not know to be true. What errors
+negligence of this rule has bred! What misdirection it has perpetuated!
+Into how many labyrinths, where truth was not to be found, has it led
+men! What can be more useful, or holier, than inciting the reader to
+beware of pretension in speech, in morals, in politics, and in piety?
+To keep as clear as possible of this universal sin may serve many and
+mislead none.
+
+Professor Jowett has told us that "where Inquiry is denied at the door,
+Doubt gets in at the window." This is the way it came to the writer
+of this preface, and accounts for a certain liberty of expression the
+reader may meet with, if he ventures further into these pages.
+
+A sentence of Mr. Allen Upward will sufficiently describe the spirit
+of this book: "Let us try to tolerate each other instead of trying to
+convert each other." The author disclaims belonging to that class who
+have "great expectations," which are as vain in literature as in life.
+The utmost the author looks forward to is that semi-friendly applause
+which is accorded to a platform speaker, not so much for any merit in
+his oration as for his unexpected consideration for the audience by
+concluding.
+
+G. J. HOLYOAKE.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I. CONCERNING BYGONES PREFATORY
+
+It was a saying of Dryden that "Anything, though ever so little, which
+a man speaks of himself, in my opinion, is still too much." This depends
+upon what a writer says. No man is required to give an opinion of
+himself. Others will do that much better, if he will wait But if a
+man may not speak of himself at all--reports of adventure, of personal
+endeavour, or of service, will be largely impossible. To relate is not
+to praise. The two things are quite distinct. Othello's imperishable
+narrative of his love of Desdemona contained no eulogy of himself. A
+story of observation, of experience, or of effort, or estimate of men
+or of opinions, I may venture upon--is written for the reader alone. The
+writer will be an entirely negligible quantity.
+
+Lord Rosebery, who can make proverbs as well as cite them, lately
+recalled one which has had great vogue in its day, namely, "Let bygones
+be bygones." Life would be impossible or very unpleasant if every one
+persisted in remembering what had better be forgotten. Proverbs are like
+plants: they have a soil and climate under which alone they flourish.
+Noble maxims have their limitations. Few have universal applicability.
+If, for instance, the advice to "let bygones be bygones" be taken as
+universally true, strange questions arise. Are mistakes never more to
+teach us what to avoid? Are the errors of others no more to be a warning
+to us? Is the Book of Experience to be closed? Is no more history to be
+written? If so philosophy could no longer teach wisdom by examples, for
+there would no longer be any examples to go upon. If all the mistakes
+of mankind and all the miscalculations of circumstance be forgotten, the
+warnings of the sages will die with them.
+
+He who has debts, or loans not repaid, or promises not kept, or
+contracts unfulfilled in his memory, had better keep them there until
+he has made what reparation he can. The Bygone proverb does not apply to
+him. There are other derelictions of greater gravity than fall under the
+head of intellectual petty larceny, such as the conscious abandonment
+of principle, or desertion of a just cause, which had better be kept in
+mind for rectification.
+
+If an admiral wrecked his ships, or a general lost his army, or a
+statesman ruined his country, by flagrant want of judgment--ever so
+conscientiously--it is well such things should be borne in mind by those
+who may renew, by fresh appointment, these opportunities of calamity.
+It would be to encourage incapacity were such bygones consigned to
+oblivion. It may be useless to dwell upon "spilt milk," but further
+employment of the spiller may not be prudent.
+
+Slaves of the saying, "Let bygones perish," would construct mere
+political man-traps, which never act when depredators are about. In
+human affairs bygones have occurred worth remembering as guides for the
+future.
+
+It is said that "greatness is thrust upon a man"--what is meant is a
+position of greatness. Greatness lies in the quality of the individual,
+and cannot be "thrust" on any man. It is true that intrinsic greatness
+is often left unrecognised. It would be a crime against progress were
+these cases, when known, consigned to forgetfulness. Noble thoughts as
+well as noble acts are worth bearing in mind, however long ago they may
+have occurred.
+
+My friend Joseph Cowen, who from his youth had regarded me as a
+chartered disturber of the unreasoning torpidity of the public
+conscience, described me as an agitator. All the while I never was a
+Pedlar of Opinions. I never asked people to adopt mine, but to reason
+out their own. I merely explained the nature of what I took to be
+erroneous in theological and public affairs. Neither did I find fault
+with prevailing ideas, save where I could, or thought I could, suggest
+other principles of action more conducive to the welfare of all who
+dwell in cottages or lodgings--for whom I mainly care. I was for
+equal opportunities for all men, guaranteed by law, and for equitable
+participation in profit among all who, by toil of hand or brain,
+contributed to the wealth of the State.
+
+Yet, though I never obtruded my convictions, neither did I conceal them.
+No public questioner ever went empty away,--if his inquiry was relevant
+and I had the knowledge he sought Sometimes, as at Cheltenham (in 1842),
+when an inquiry was malicious and the reply penal, the questioner got
+his answer. My maxim was that of Professor Blackie:--
+
+     "Wear thy heart not on thy sleeve,
+     But on just occasion
+     Let men know what you believe,
+     With breezy ventilation."
+
+Thus, without intending it, I came to be counted an "agitator."
+
+As to the matter of the following pages, they relate, as all
+autobiographical reminiscences do, to events that are past. But whether
+they relate to acts, or events, or opinions, to tragedy or gaiety, they
+are all meant to fulfil one condition--that of having instruction or
+guidance of some kind in them--which bring them within the class of
+"bygones worth remembering."
+
+One day as I was walking briskly along Fleet Street, a person in greater
+haste than myself running down Johnson's Court collided with me, and
+both of us fell to the ground. On rising, I said, "If you knocked me
+down, never mind; if I knocked you down, I beg your pardon." He did
+not reciprocate my forgiveness, thinking I had run against him
+intentionally. Nevertheless, I say to any resenting reader who does
+me mischief, "never mind." If I have done him any harm it has been
+unwittingly, and I tender him real apologies.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II. PERSONAL INCIDENTS
+
+These pages being autobiographic in their nature, something must be said
+under this head. I was born April 13, 1817, which readers complained I
+omitted to state in a former work* of a similar kind to this, probably
+thinking it a "Bygone" of no importance.
+
+     * "Sixty Years 01 an Agitator's Life," afterwards referred
+     to as "Sixty Years."
+
+*****
+
+It was in 1817 that Robert Owen informed mankind that "all the religions
+in the world were in error," which was taken to mean that they were
+wrong throughout; whereas all the "Prophet of the City of London Tavern"
+sought to prove was that all faiths were in error so far as they rested
+on the dogma that men can believe if they will--irrespective of evidence
+whatever may be the force of it before them. Mr. Owen's now truistical
+statement set the dry sticks of every church aflame for seventy years.
+In many places the ashes smoulder still. By blending Theology with
+Sociology, the Churches mixed two things better kept apart Confusion
+raged for years on a thousand platforms and pulpits. I mention this
+matter because it was destined to colour and occupy a large portion of
+my life.
+
+*****
+
+The habit of my thoughts is to run into speeches, as the thoughts of a
+poet run into verse; but if there be a more intrinsic characteristic of
+my mind it is accurately described in the words of Coleridge:--
+
+"I am by the law of my nature a Reasoner. A person who should suppose
+I meant by that word, an arguer, would not only not understand me, but
+would understand the contrary of my meaning. I can take no interest
+whatever in hearing or saying anything merely as a fact--merely as
+having happened. I must refer to something within me before I can regard
+it with any curiosity or care. I require in everything a reason why the
+thing _is_ at all, and why it is _there_ or _then_ rather than elsewhere
+or at another time."
+
+This may be why I entitled the first periodical edited in my name, _The
+Reasoner_.
+
+*****
+
+My firstborn child, Madeline, perished while I was in Gloucester
+Prison.* There is no other word which described what happened in 1842.
+
+     * See "Last Trial for Atheism."
+
+In 1895 (as I had always intended), I had a brass tablet cast bearing
+the simple inscription--
+
+                                    "Near this spot was buried
+
+                                             MADELINE,
+
+                          Daughter of George Jacob and Eleanor Holyoake,
+
+                                           WHO  PERISHED
+
+                                          October! 1842."
+
+This tablet I had placed on the wall over the grave where the poor
+child lay. The grave is close to the wall. The cemetery authorities
+had objections to the word "Perished." When I explained to them the
+circumstances of Madeline's death, they permitted its erection, on my
+paying a cemetery fee of two guineas. The tablet will endure as long
+as the cemetery wall lasts. The tablet is on the left side of the main
+entrance to the cemetery, somewhat obscured by trees now.
+
+*****
+
+Dr. Samuel Smiles published a book on Self-Help in 1859. In 1857, two
+years earlier, I had used the same title "Self-Help by the People." In a
+later work, "Self-Help, a Hundred Years Ago," the title was continued. I
+had introduced it into Co-operation, where it became a watchword. I have
+wondered whether Dr. Smiles borrowed the name from me. He knew me
+in 1841, when he was editing the Leeds _Times_ to which I was a
+contributor. He must have seen in Mill's "Principles of Political
+Economy," "Self-Help by the People--History of Co-operation in
+Rochdale," quoted in Mill's book (book iv. chap. viii.).
+
+*****
+
+The phrase "Science is the Providence of Life" was an expression I had
+used in drawing up a statement of Secular Principles twenty-four years
+before I found it in the poem of Akenside's.
+
+*****
+
+Two things of the past I may name as they indicate the age of opinions,
+by many supposed to be recent. Co-operators are considered as intending
+the abolition of competition, but as what we call nature--human,
+animal, and insect--is founded upon competition, nobody has the means of
+abolishing it. In the first number of the _Reasoner_, June 3, 1846, in
+the first article, I stated that Mr. Owen and his friends proclaimed
+co-operation as the "Corrector of the excesses of competition in social
+life"--a much more modest undertaking than superseding it.
+
+*****
+
+The second thing I name that I wrote in the same number of the
+_Reasoner_ is a short paper on "Moral Mathematics," setting forth that
+there is a mathematics of morality as well as of lines and angles. There
+are problems in morality, the right solution of which contributes as
+much to mental discipline as any to be found in Euclid. These I thus set
+forth--
+
+Problem 1. Given--an angry man to answer without being angry yourself.
+
+Problem 2. Given--an opponent full of bitterness and unjust insinuations
+to reply to without asperity or stooping to counter insinuations.
+
+Problem 3. Given--your own favourite truths to state without dogmatism,
+and to praise without pride, adducing with fairness the objections to
+them without disparaging the judgment of those who hold the objections.
+
+Problem 4. Given--an inconsistent and abusive opponent. It is required
+to reply to him by argument, convincing rather than retorting. All
+opportunities of "thrashing" him are to be passed by, all pain to be
+saved him as far as possible, and no word set down whose object is not
+the opponent's improvement.
+
+Problem 5. Given--the error of an adversary to annihilate with the same
+vigour with which you could annihilate him.
+
+Problem 6. Required--out of the usual materials to construct a public
+body, who shall tolerate just censure and despise extravagant praise.
+
+*****
+
+One day I found a piece of twisted paper which I picked up thinking I
+had dropped it myself. I found in it a gold ring with a snake's head. It
+was so modest and curious that I wore it. Four years after, on a visit
+to Mr. W. H. Duignan, at Rushall Hall, on the border of Cannock Chase,
+I lost it. Four days later I arrived by train at Rugby Station with five
+heavy-footed countrymen. I went to the refreshment room. On my return
+only one man was in the carriage. The sun was shining brightly on
+the carriage floor, and there in the middle, lay, all glittering and
+conspicuous, my lost ring unseen and untrodden. I picked it up with
+incredulity and astonishment. How it came there or could come there, or
+being there, how it could escape the heavy feet of the passengers
+who went out, or the eyes of the one remaining, I cannot to this day
+conceive. After I had lost it, I had walked through Kidderminster,
+Dudley Castle, and Birmingham, and searched for it several times. I
+had dressed and undressed four times. I lost it finally during Lord
+Beaconsfield's last Government, at the great Drill Hall meeting at
+Blackheath,* in a Jingo crush made to prevent Mr. Gladstone entering to
+speak there on the Eastern policy of that day. In future times should
+the ground be excavated, the spot where I stood will be marked with
+gold--the only place so marked by me in this world.
+
+     * November 30, 1878.
+
+*****
+
+It is probably vanity--though I disguise it under the name of
+pride--that induces me to insert here certain incidents. Nevertheless
+pride is the major motive. When I have been near unto death, and have
+asked myself what has been the consolation of this life, I found it in
+cherished memories of illustrious persons of thought and action,
+whose friendship I had shared. There are other incidents--as Harriet
+Martineau's Letter to Lloyd Garrison, Tyndall's testimony, elsewhere
+quoted--which will never pass from my memory.
+
+*****
+
+The first dedication to me was that of a poem by Allen Davenport,
+1843--an ardent Whitechapel artisan. The tribute had value in my eyes,
+coming from one of the toiling class--and being a recognition on the
+part of working men of London, that I was one of their way of thinking
+and could be trusted to defend the interests of industry.
+
+*****
+
+The next came from the theological world--a quite unexpected incident in
+those days. The Rev. Henry Crosskey dedicated his "Defence of Religion"
+to me. He was of the priestly profession, but had a secular heart, and
+on questions of freedom at home and abroad he could be counted upon,
+as though he was merely human. The dedication brought Mr. Crosskey into
+trouble with Dr. Martineau. Unitarians were personally courteous to
+heretics in private, but they made no secret that they were disinclined
+to recognise them in public. Dr. Martineau shared that reservation.
+
+Letter from Dr. James Martineau to Rev. W. H. Crosskey:--
+
+"It is very difficult to say precisely how far our respect for honest
+conviction, and indignation at a persecuting temper, should carry us in
+our demonstrations towards men unjustly denounced. I do confess that,
+while I would stoutly resist any ill-usage of such a man as Holyoake, or
+any attempt to gag him, I could hardly dedicate a book to him: this act
+seeming to imply a special sympathy and admiration directed upon that
+which distinctively characterises the man. Negative defence from injury
+is very different from positive homage. After all, Holyoake's principles
+are undeniably more subversive of the greatest truths and genuine basis
+of human life than the most unrelenting orthodoxy. However, it is a
+generous impulse to appear as the advocate of a man whom intolerance
+unjustly reviles."*
+
+     * From "Life of W. H. Crosskey," p. 90.
+
+Thus he gave the young minister to understand--that while there was
+nothing wrong in his having respect for me, he need not have made it
+public. At that time it was chivalry in Mr. Crosskey to do what he did,
+for which I respected him all his days.
+
+*****
+
+A third dedication I thought more of, and still value, came from the
+political world, and was the first literary testimony of my interest
+in it. It came from "Mark Rutherford" (William Hale White), who knew
+everything I knew, and a good deal more. He inscribed to me, 1866, a
+remarkable "Argument for the Extension of the Franchise," which had all
+the characteristics of statement, which have brought him renown in later
+years. He said in his prefatory letter to me: "If my argument does any
+service for Reform, Reformers will have to thank you for it, as they
+have to thank you for a good many other things." They were words to
+prize.
+
+*****
+
+Recently a letter came from Professor Goldwin Smith, who was Cobden's
+admiration and envy, as he once told me, for the power of expressing an
+argument or a career in a sentence. His letter to me was as follows:--
+
+"You and I have lived together through many eventful and changeful
+years. The world in these years has, I hope and believe, grown better
+than it was when we came into it. In respect of freedom of opinion and
+industrial justice, the two objects to which your life has been most
+devoted, real progress has certainly been made."
+
+The main objects of my life are here distinguished and expressed in six
+words.
+
+*****
+
+Reviewers of the autobiographic volumes preceding these, complained
+that they contained too little about myself. If they read the last four
+paragraphs given here they will be of opinion that I have said enough
+now.
+
+*****
+
+At the Co-operative Congress held in Gloucester, 1879, a number of
+delegates went down to see the gaol. When they arrived before it, Mr.
+Abraham Greenwood, of Rochdale, exclaimed, "Take off your hats, lads!
+That's where Holyoake was imprisoned." They did so. That incident--when
+it was related to me--impressed me more than anything else connected
+with Co-operation. I did not suppose those tragical six months in that
+gaol were in the minds of co-operators, or that any one had respect for
+them.
+
+*****
+
+The chapter, "Things which went as they Would," shows that serving
+co-operators had its inconveniences, but there were compensatory
+incidents which I recount with pleasure. One was their contribution to
+the Annuity of 1876, which Mr. Hughes himself commended to them at
+the London Congress. It was owing to Major Evans Bell and Mr. Walter
+Morrison that the project was successful.
+
+*****
+
+The other occurred at the Doncaster Congress, 1903. In my absence a
+resolution had been passed thanking me for services I had rendered
+in Ten Letters in Defence of Co-operation. When I rose to make
+acknowledgment, all the large audience stood up. It was the first time
+I had ever been so received anywhere, showing that services which seemed
+un-noted at the time, lived in remembrance.
+
+*****
+
+Here I may cite a letter from Wendell Phillips. Of the great American
+Abolitionists, Phillips, with his fine presence and intrepid eloquence,
+was regarded as the "noblest Roman of them all." Theodore Parker, he
+described to me as the Jupiter of the pulpit; and Russell Lowell has
+drawn Lloyd Garrison, in the famous verse--
+
+     "In a dark room, unfriended and unseen,
+     Toiled o'er his types, a poor unlearn'd young man.
+     The place was low, unfurnitured and mean,
+     But there the freedom of a race began."
+
+I corresponded with them in their heroic days. It is one of the letters
+of Phillips to me I quote here:--
+
+"Boston,
+
+"July 22, 1874.
+
+"My dear Sir,--I ought long ago to have thanked you for sending
+me copies of your pamphlets on John Stuart Mill and the Rochdale
+Pioneers--and with so kind and partial a recognition of my co-operation
+with you in your great cause.
+
+"That on Mill was due certainly to a just estimate of him, but how sad
+that human jackals should make it necessary. That on Co-operation I read
+and read again, welcoming the light you throw on it, for it is one of
+my most hopeful stepping-stones to a higher future. Thank you for
+the lesson--it cleared one or two dark places--not the first by any
+means--for I've read everything of yours I could lay my hands on. There
+was one small volume on Rhetoric--'Public Speaking and Debate,' methods
+of address, hints towards effective speech, etc.--which I studied
+faithfully, until some one to whom I had praised and lent it, acting
+probably on something like Coleridge's rule, that books belong to those
+who most need them--never returned me my well-thumbed essay, to my keen
+regret. Probably you never knew that we had printed your book. This was
+an American reprint--wholly exhausted--proof that it did good service.
+We reprinted, some ten years ago, one of your wisest tracts, the
+'Difficulties that obstruct Co-operation.' It did us yeoman service. But
+enough, I shall beg you to accept a volume of old speeches printed long
+ago, because it includes my only attempt to criticise you--which you
+probably never saw. In it I will put, when I mail it, the last and best
+photograph of Sumner, and if you'll exchange, I'll add one of
+
+"Yours faithfully, and ever,
+
+"Wendell Phillips.
+
+"Mr. G.J. Holyoake."
+
+*****
+
+With Mr. Charles Bradlaugh I had personal relations all his life. I took
+the chair for him at the first public lecture he delivered. I gave
+him ready applause and support. At the time of what was called his
+"Parliamentary struggle," I was entirely with him and ready to help him.
+It was with great reluctance and only in defence of principle, to which
+I had long been committed, that I appeared as opposed to him. He claimed
+to represent Free Thought, with which I had been identified long before
+his day. My conviction was that a Free Thinker should have as much
+courage, consistency, and self-respect as any Apostle, or Jew, or
+Catholic, or Quaker. All had in turn refused to make a profession of
+opinion they did not hold, at the peril of death, or, as in the case of
+O'Connell and the Jews, at the certainty of exclusion from Parliament.
+They had only to take an oath, to the terms of which they could not
+honestly subscribe. Mr. Bradlaugh had no scruple about doing this. In
+the House of Commons he openly kissed the Bible, in which he did not
+believe--a token of reverence he did not feel. He even administered to
+himself the oath, which was contrary to his professed convictions. This
+seemed to be a reflection upon the honour of Free Thought. Had I not
+dissented from it, I should have been a sharer in the scandal, and Free
+Thought--so far as I represented it--would have been regarded as below
+the Christian or Pagan level.
+
+The key to Mr. Bradlaugh's character, which unlocks the treasure-house
+of his excellences and defects, and enables the reader to estimate him
+justly, is the perception that his one over-riding motive and ceaseless
+aim was the ascendancy of the right _through him_. It was this passion
+which inspired his best efforts, and also led to certain aberration of
+action. But what we have to remember now, and permanently, is that it
+was ascendancy of the _right_ in political and theological affairs that
+he mainly sought for, fought for, and vindicated. It is this which will
+long cause his memory to be cherished.
+
+At the time of his death I wrote honouring notices of his career in
+the _Bradford Observer_ and elsewhere, which were reproduced in other
+papers. Otherwise, I found opportunity on platforms of showing my
+estimate of his character and public services. I had never forgotten
+an act of kindness he had, in an interval of goodwill, done me. When
+disablement and blindness came in 1876, he collected from the readers
+of his journal L170 towards a proposed annuity for me. It was a great
+pleasure to me to repay that kindness by devising means (which others
+neither thought of nor believed in) of adding thrice that sum to the
+provision being made for his survivors. It was a merit in him that
+devotion to pursuits of public usefulness did not, in his opinion,
+absolve him from keeping a financial promise, as I knew, and have
+heard friends who aided him testify--a virtue not universal among
+propagandists. No wonder the coarse environments of his early life lent
+imperiousness to his manners. In later years, when he was in the society
+of equals, where masterfulness was less possible and less necessary,
+he acquired courtesy and a certain dignity--the attribute of conscious
+power. He was the greatest agitator, within the limits of law, who
+appeared in my time among the working people. Of his own initiative he
+incurred no legal danger, and those who followed him were not led into
+it. He was a daring defender of public right, and not without genius
+in discovering methods for its attainment. One form of genius lies in
+discovering developments of a principle which no one else sees. Had he
+lived in the first French Revolution, he had ranked with Mirabeau and
+Danton. Had he been with Paine in America, he had spoken "Common Sense"
+on platforms. He died before being able to show in Parliament the
+best that was in him. Though he had no College training like Professor
+Fawcett, Indian lawyers found that Mr. Bradlaugh had a quicker and
+greater grasp of Indian questions than the Professor. It was no mean
+distinction--it was, indeed, a distinction any man might be proud to
+have won--that John Stuart Mill should have left on record, in one of
+his latest works, his testimony to Mr. Bradlaugh's capacity, which he
+discerned when others did not. Like Cobbett, the soldiers' barracks
+did not repress Bradlaugh's invincible passion for the distinction of a
+political career. In the House of Commons he took, both in argument and
+debate, a high rank, and surpassed compeers there of a thousand times
+his advantages of birth and education. That from so low a station he
+should have risen so high, and, after reaching the very platform of
+his splendid ambition, he should die in the hour of his opportunity
+of triumph, was one of the tragedies of public life, which touched the
+heart of the nation, in whose eyes Mr. Bradlaugh had become a commanding
+figure.
+
+*****
+
+It was in connection with the controversy concerning the Oath that I
+received a letter from John Stuart Mill, which when published in the
+_Daily News_, excited much surprise. Mr. Mill was of opinion, that the
+oath, being made the condition of obtaining justice, ordinary persons
+might take it. But one who was known to disbelieve the terms of it, and
+had for years publicly written and spoken to that effect, had better
+not take it. This was the well-known Utilitarian doctrine that the
+consequences of an act are the justification of it. Francis Place
+had explained to me that Bentham's doctrine was that the sacrifice
+of liberty or life was justifiable only on the ground that the public
+gained by it. A disciple should have very strong convictions who differs
+from his master, and I differ with diffidence from Mr. Mill as to
+the propriety of carrying the Utilitarian doctrine into the domain of
+morals. Truth is higher than utility, and goes before it. Truth is a
+measure of utility, and not utility the measure of truth. Conscience is
+higher than consequence. We are bound first to consider what is right.
+There may be in some cases, reasons which justify departure from the
+right. But these are exceptions. The general rule is--Truth has the
+first claim upon us.
+
+To take an oath when you do not believe in an avenging Deity who will
+enforce it, is to lie and know that you lie. This surely requires
+exceptional justification. It is nothing to the purpose to allege that
+the oath is binding upon you. The security of that are the terms of the
+oath. The law knows no other. To admit the terms to be unnecessary is to
+abolish the oath.
+
+*****
+
+When a youth, attending lectures at the Mechanics' Institution, I soon
+discerned that the more eminent speakers were the clearer. They knew
+their subjects, were masters of the outlines, which by making bold and
+plain, we were instructed. Outline is the beginning of art and the charm
+of knowledge. Remembering this, I found no difficulty in teaching very
+little children to write in a week.
+
+It is a great advantage to children to take care that their first
+notions are true. The primary element of truth is simplicity--with
+children it is their first fascination. I had only to show them that the
+alphabet meant no more than a line and a circle. A little child can make
+a "straight stroke" "and a round O."
+
+The alphabet is made up of fifteen straight line and dozen curved line
+letters. The root of the fifteen straight line letters is J placed in
+various ways. The root of the eleven curved line letters is O or parts
+of O and I joined together.
+
+A is made by two straight lines leaning against each other at the top,
+and a line across the middle.
+
+H is made of two upright lines with a straight line between them.
+
+V is made of two straight lines meeting at the bottom. If two upright
+lines are added to the V it becomes M.
+
+Two V's put together make W. The letters L and T and X and Z make
+themselves, so easy is it to place the straight lines which compose
+them.
+
+O makes itself. A short line makes it into Q. If the side of O be left
+open it is a C. If two half O's are joined together they make S. Half O
+and an upright line make D. An upright line and a half O make P. Another
+half added and B is made.
+
+After a second or third time a child will understand the whole alphabet.
+
+Such is the innate faculty of imitation and construction in children
+that they will put the letters together themselves when the method is
+made plain to them, and within a week will compose their own name and
+their mother's. At the same time they learn to read as well as to
+write. What they are told they are apt to forget, what they write they
+remember.
+
+Reason is the faculty of seeing what follows as a consequence from what
+is, but to define distinction well is a divine gift. My one aim was to
+make things clear.
+
+*****
+
+One of my suggestions to the young preachers, who had two sermons on
+Sunday to prepare, was that they should give all their strength to the
+evening discourse and arrange with their congregation to deliver the
+other from one of the old divines of English or Continental renown,
+which would inform as well as delight hearers. It would be an attraction
+to the outside public. Few congregations know anything of the eloquence,
+the happy and splendid illustrations and passages of thought to be found
+in the fathers of the Church of every denomination. Professor Francis
+William Newman, whose wide knowledge and fertility of thought had few
+equals in his day, told me that he should shrink from the responsibility
+of having to deliver a proficient and worthy discourse fifty-two times
+a year. Anyhow, for the average preacher, better one bright ruddy
+discourse, than two pale-faced sermons every Sunday.
+
+*****
+
+Those who remained true to Chartism till the end of it are recorded
+in the following paragraph under the title of the "National Charter
+Association," which appeared in _Reynolds's Newspaper_, January 4,
+1852:--
+
+"On Wednesday evening last, the scrutineers appointed by the
+metropolitan localities attended at the office, 14, Southampton Street,
+Strand, and having inspected the votes received, gave the following as
+the result, in favour of the following nine:--
+
+"Ernest Jones (who received 900 votes), Feargus O'Connor, John Arnott,
+T. M. Wheeler, James Grassby, John Shaw, W. J. Linton, J. J. Bezer, G.
+J. Holyoake.
+
+"Messrs. J. B. O'Brien, Gerald Massey, and Arthur Trevelyan having
+declined to serve, the votes received on their behalf have not been
+recognised.
+
+"We, the undersigned, hereby declare the nine persons first named to be
+duly elected to form the Executive Committee for the ensuing year.
+
+"John Washington, City Locality.
+
+"Edwd. John Loomes, Finsbury Locality.
+
+"December 31, 1851."
+
+*****
+
+After I became an octogenarian, I was asked whether my years might be
+ascribed to my habits. I could only explain what my habits were. In the
+first half of my life I ate whatever came to hand, and as not enough
+came I easily observed moderation. But then I was disposed to be
+moderate on principle, having read in the _Penny Magazine_, about
+1830, that Dr. Abernethy told a lady "she might eat anything eatable
+in moderation." In the second and later half of my life I gave heed to
+Carnaro, and sought to limit each meal to the least quantity necessary
+for health. The limitation of quantity included liquids as well as
+solids, decreasing the amount of both "in relation to age and activity,"
+as Sir Henry Thompson advised. Not thinking much of meat, I limited that
+to a small amount, and cereals to those that grow above ground. A tepid
+bath for the eye (on the recommendation of the Rev. Dr. Molesworth, of
+Rochdale) and a soap bath for the body every morning ends the catalogue
+of my habits.
+
+My general mode of mind has been to avoid excess in food, in pleasure,
+in work, and in expectation. By not expecting much, I have been saved
+from worry if nothing came. When anything desirable did arrive, I had
+the double delight of satisfaction and surprise. Shakespeare's counsel--
+
+     "Be not troubled with the tide which bears
+     O'er thy contents its strong necessities,
+     But let determined things to destiny
+     Hold, unbewailed their way"--
+
+ought to be part of every code of health.
+
+The conduciveness of my habits to longevity may be seen in this. More
+than forty of my colleagues, all far more likely to live than myself,
+have long been dead. Had I been as strong as they, I also should have
+died as they did. Lacking their power of hastening to the end, I have
+lingered behind.
+
+*****
+
+For the rest--
+
+     "From my window is a glimpse of sea
+          Enough for me,
+     And every evening through the window bars
+          Peer in the friendly stars."
+
+The principles and aims of earlier years are confirmed by experience at
+88. Principles are like plants and flowers. They suit only those whom
+they nourish. Nothing is adapted to everybody.
+
+*****
+
+Goethe said: "When I was a youth I planted a cherry-tree, and watched
+its growth with delight. Spring frost killed the blossoms, and I had
+to wait another year before the cherries were ripe--then the birds ate
+them--another year the caterpillars ate them--another year a
+greedy neighbour stole them--another year the blight withered them.
+Nevertheless, when I have a garden again, I shall plant another
+cherry-tree." My years now are "dwindling to their shortest span "; if
+I should have my days over again, I shall plant my trees again--certain
+that if they do grow they will yield verdure and fruit in some of the
+barren places of this world.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III. OTHER INSTANCES
+
+My first public discussion in London was with Mr. Passmore
+Edwards--personally, the handsomest adversary I ever met. A mass of wavy
+black hair and pleasant expression made him picturesque. He was slim,
+alert, and fervid. The subject of debate was the famous delineation of
+the Bottle, by George Cruikshank, which I regarded as a libel on the
+wholesome virtue of Temperance. Exaggerations which inform and do not
+deceive, as American humour, or Swift's Lilliputians, Aztecs, and
+giants of Brobdingnag, have instruction and amusement. The exaggeration
+intended to deride and intimidate those who observe moderation is a
+hurtful and misleading extreme. Mr. Edwards took the opposite view.
+Cruikshank could not be moderate, and he did right to adopt the rule of
+absolute abstinence. It was his only salvation. To every man or woman of
+the Cruikshank tendency I would preach the same doctrine. To all others
+I, as fervently, commend the habit of use without abuse. Without that
+power no man would live a month. Had Mr. Edwards been of this way of
+thinking, there had been no debate between us.
+
+Mr. Edwards had much reason on his side. Mankind are historically
+regarded as possessing insufficiency of brains, and it is bad economics
+to put an incorrigible thief into their mouths to steal away what brains
+they have.
+
+I had respect for Mr. Edwards' side of the argument. For when a man
+makes a fool of himself, or fails to keep an engagement, or departs, in
+his behaviour from his best manner--through drink--he should take the
+next train to the safe and serene land of Abstinence.
+
+The first person who mentioned to me the idea of a halfpenny newspaper
+was Mr. Passmore Edwards. One night as we were walking down Fleet Street
+from Temple Bar, when the Bar stood where the Griffin now stands,
+Mr. Edwards asked me, as I had had experience in the publishing trade
+whether I thought a halfpenny newspaper would pay, which evidently had
+for some time occupied his mind. The chief difficulty I foresaw was,
+would newsagents give it a chance? It afterwards cost the house of
+Cassells'--the first to make the experiment--many thousands. The
+_Workman_, in which I had a department, was intended, I was told, to be
+a forerunner of the halfpenny paper. But that title would never do, as I
+ventured to predict. Workmen, as a rule with no partnership in
+profits, had enough of work without buying a paper about it. Tradesmen,
+middle-class and others, did not want to be taken for workmen, and the
+_Workman_ was discontinued. But, strange to say, the same paper issued
+under the title of _Work_ became successful Everybody was interested in
+work but not in being workmen. Such are the subtleties of titles! Their
+right choice--is it art or instinct? The _Echo_ was the name fixed
+upon for the first halfpenny paper. Echo of what? was not indicated. It
+excluded expectations of originality. Probably curiosity was the charm.
+It committed no one to any side. There were always more noises about
+than any one could listen to, and many were glad to hear the most
+articulate. I wrote articles in the earliest numbers under the
+editorship of Sir Arthur Arnold.
+
+*****
+
+The House of Allsop, as known to the world of progress in the last
+century, is ended. The first who gave it public interest was Thomas
+AIlsop, who assisted Robert Owen in 1832 in the Gray's Inn Lane Labour
+Exchanges. He was a watchful assistant of those who contributed to the
+public service without expecting or receiving requital. His admiration
+of genius always took the form of a gift--a rare but encouraging form
+of applause. Serjeant Talfourd somewhere bears testimony to the generous
+assistance Mr. AIlsop rendered to Hazlitt, Lamb, and Coleridge. To Lamb,
+he continually sent gifts, and Coleridge dined at his table every Sunday
+for nineteen years. Landor, who had always nobility of character, and
+was an impulsive writer--represented Mr. Allsop's interest in European
+freedom as proceeding from "vanity," forgetful of his own letter to
+Jessie Meriton White, offering L100 to any assassin of Napoleon III.;
+and John Forster preserves Landor's remark upon Mr. Allsop, but does
+not, so far as I remember, give Landor's Assassin Letter. The fact was,
+no man less sought publicity or disliked it more than Mr. Allsop. When
+Feargus O'Connor was elected member for Nottingham, Mr. Allsop qualified
+him by conferring upon him lands bringing an income of L300. He divided
+his Lincoln estate into allotments for working men, but he never
+mentioned these things himself. His son Robert held his father's
+intellectual views. His eldest son Thomas, who was class-mate with Mr.
+Dixon Galpin at Queenwood, a considerable landowner in British Columbia,
+was the philosopher of the family, and like Archbishop Whately, had a
+power of stating them with ever apt and ready illustrations.
+
+They were like Mr. Owen, Conservative in politics; but in social and
+mental matters they were intrepid in welcoming new truth. It was at
+Thomas's suggestion that I omitted his father's name altogether in my
+chapter, "Mr. Secretary Walpole and the Jacobin's Friend."* Landor was
+quite wrong, there was no "vanity" in the Allsop family. Were Thomas
+Allsop the younger now living I should not write these paragraphs. As it
+is, I may say that I owed to his generosity an annuity of L100. He
+commenced it by a subscription of L200, and by Mr. Robert Applegarth's
+friendly secretaryship, which had devotion and inspiration in it, a
+committee to which the Rev. Dr. Joseph Parker, with his intrepid
+tolerance, gave his name, was formed, and an annuity of L100 was
+purchased for me.
+
+     * "Sixty Years," chap. lxx. p. 72.
+
+[Illustration: Parker]
+
+*****
+
+When the Taxes on Knowledge were repealed, Mr. Collet and I attempted
+to procure the repeal of the Passenger Tax on Railways. For forty years
+after the imposition of the tax of Lord Halford, 1832, the workman was
+taxed who went in search of an employer. When a poor sailor, arriving in
+London after a long voyage, desired to visit his poor mother in Glasgow,
+the Government added to his fare a tax of three shillings, to encourage
+him in filial affection. In the interests of locomotion and trade, two
+or three associations had attempted to get this pernicious tax repealed,
+without success. It was remarked in Parliament in 1877 that no
+committee representing the working class asked for the repeal of this
+discreditable impost, which most concerned them. This was the reason of
+the formation of the Travelling Tax Abolition Committee, of which Mr.
+Collet became secretary and I the chairman. We were assisted by an
+influential committee of civic and industrial leaders. After six years'
+agitation we were mainly instrumental (that was in Mr. Gladstone's
+days) in obtaining the repeal of the penny a mile tax on all third-class
+fares, effected by Mr. Childers in 1883, which ever since has put into
+the pocket of working-class travellers L400,000 a year, besides the
+improved carriages and improved service the repeal has enabled railway
+companies to give. We continued the committee many years longer in the
+hope of freeing the railways wholly from taxation, which still hampers
+the directors and is obstructive of commerce. I was chairman for
+twenty-four years, during which time twenty-two of the committee died.
+Our memorials, interviews with ministers, correspondence with officials,
+petitions to Parliament, public meetings and various publications,
+involved a large and incessant amount of work without payment of any
+kind. Subsequently a committee of publicists, journalists and members of
+Parliament, for whom Mr. Applegarth was the secretary, caused L80 to be
+given to me, in recognition of my services. Though it represented less
+than L4 a year as the salary of the chairman, it was valuable in my
+eyes from the persons who gave it, as they were not the persons much
+benefited by the work done, and who really taxed themselves on behalf
+of others. A subscription of a halfpenny each from the working-class
+travellers who had profited by the repeal would have amounted to a
+handsome acknowledgment. But from them it was impossible to collect
+it. Testimonials, I believe, are often given by persons who generously
+subscribe for others upon whom the obligation of making it more properly
+rests.
+
+*****
+
+It would seem insensibility or ingratitude not to record, that on
+my eightieth birthday--now eight years ago--I was entertained at a
+numerously attended dinner party in the National Liberal Club, at which
+to my gratification, Mr. Walter Morrison presided. The speakers, and
+distinction of many in the assembly, were a surprise, transcending all
+I had foreseen. The words of Mr. Morrison's speech, to use Tennyson's
+words, were like
+
+     "Jewels
+     That on the stretch'd forefinger of all time
+     Sparkle forever"
+
+in my memory.
+
+On my eighty-sixth birthday a reception was given me by the Ethical
+Society of South Place Chapel, Finsbury--the oldest Free Thought temple
+in London, where the _duty_ of free inquiry was first proclaimed by W.
+J. Fox. The place was filled with faces familiar and unfamiliar, from
+near and far, of artists, poets, publicists, journalists, philosophers,
+as at the National Liberal Club, but in greater numbers. Lady Florence
+Dixie purchased a large and costly oil painting,* and sent it for me to
+present to the Library of the Rationalist Press Association. Among the
+letters sent was one, the last sent to a public meeting, by Herbert
+Spencer. The reader will pardon the pride I have in quoting it.
+
+     * By my nephew, Roland Holyoake.
+
+Writing from 5, Percival Terrace, Brighton, March 28, 1903, Mr. Spencer
+said: "I have not been out of doors since last August, and as Mr.
+Holyoake knows, it is impossible for me to join in the Reception to
+be given to him on the occasion of his eighty-sixth birthday. I can do
+nothing more than express my warm feeling of concurrence. Not dwelling
+upon his intellectual capacity, which is high, I would emphasise my
+appreciation of his courage, sincerity, truthfulness, philanthropy, and
+unwearied perseverance. Such a combination of these qualities, it will,
+I think, be difficult to find."
+
+*****
+
+For a period I had the opportunity accorded me of editing a daily
+newspaper--_The Sun_. The Rev. Dr. Joseph Parker had been my
+predecessor. I was left at liberty to say whatever I pleased, and I did.
+In one week I wrote twenty-nine articles.
+
+But opulent opportunity of working was afforded me. As I was paid ten
+times as much as I had received before, I thought myself in a paradise
+of journalism.
+
+*****
+
+In the correspondence of Robert Owen, now in possession of the
+Co-operative Union Memorial Committee, Manchester, is the following
+letter from his customary legal adviser, who then resided at Hornsey.
+
+     "6,  Old Jewry,  London,
+
+     "February 17, 1853. "R. Owen, Esq.,
+
+     "Dear Sir,--I am glad to see your handwriting upon an
+     envelope conveying to me a pamphlet of yours.
+
+     "Holyoake I expect will breakfast with me on Sunday morning.
+     He comes down by the railway to Hornsey, which leaves London
+     at nine o'clock precisely.
+
+     "I am afraid it is too cold for you, and that the walk from
+     the railway to our house, which is three quarters of a mile,
+     may not be agreeable.
+
+     "Yours truly,
+
+     "W. H. Ashurst.
+
+     "H. will return about 12 or 1."
+
+After breakfast Mr. Owen walked briskly with me into town. He was then
+eighty-two. On his way he explained to me that, when walking as
+often had done from Birmingham to Worcester, or from Huddersfield to
+Sheffield--to lecture, I should find it an advantage to use the horse
+road, as on the footpath there is more unevenness and necessity of
+deviation to allow persons to pass, which increases the fatigue of a day
+on foot. So thoughtful and practical was the reputed visionary.
+
+*****
+
+Of letters on public affairs I confine myself to three instances.
+When the South Kensington Exhibitions were in force, more than twenty
+thousand visitors a day thronged the Exhibition Road. Mothers with their
+children had to cross the wide Museum Road, where policemen, stationed
+to protect the passengers, had enough to do to keep their own toes on
+their feet, in the undivided traffic of cabs. I wrote to the _Times_
+suggesting that a lamp should be erected in the middle of the wide road
+serving as a light, a retreat, and a division of traffic. All the cabmen
+who could write protested against the danger, or the necessity, and
+possibility of the proposal. But it was done, to the great joy of
+mothers and advantage to the public.
+
+*****
+
+After the fall of the French Assassin at Sedan when Marshal Bazaine
+was hanging about Europe in obscurity and ignominy, Mr. Arthur Arnold
+proposed that he should be invited to a banquet in London. Seeing that
+the citizens of Paris went out at night in bands of twenty or thirty
+heroically to help to raise the siege--on what ground could we offer to
+honour Bazaine, who with 192,000 soldiers under his command, was afraid
+to attempt it? I asked the question in the Press, and the proposal,
+which had a sentiment of chivalry in it to a fallen general, and was
+commanding some concurrence--went out--like the Marshal--into outer
+darkness. *****
+
+When public opinion was in the balance respecting the South American
+War, Mr. Reverdy Johnson and a Copperhead colleague arrived in London
+and began to do a respectable business in public mystification. From
+information supplied to me I wrote letters explaining the real nature
+of that sinister mission, in consequence of which the two emissaries of
+slavery made tracks for New York.
+
+But of instances, as of other things, there must be an end.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV. FIRST STEPS IN LITERATURE
+
+Surely environment is the sister of heredity? Mr. Gladstone once said to
+me that "The longer he lived the more he thought of heredity." Next to
+heredity is environment--the moulder of mankind. My first passion was to
+be a prize-fighter. Nature, however, had not made me that way. I had
+no animosity of mind, and that form of contest was not to my taste. But
+prize-fighting was part of the miasma the Napoleonic war had diffused in
+England. It was in the air; it was the talk of the street "Hammer" Lane,
+so called from the iron blow he could deliver, was the local hero of the
+Ring in the Midlands in my youth. He was a courtier of my eldest sister,
+and created in me a craving for fistic prowess. I fought one small
+battle, but found that a lame wrist, which has remained permanent, cut
+me off from any prospect of renown in that pursuit Next, to be a circus
+jester seemed to me the very king of careers. My idea was to leap into
+the arena exclaiming:--
+
+"Well, I never! Did you ever? I never did."
+
+"Never did what?" the clown was to ask me, when my reply was to be:--
+
+"I could only disclose that before a Royal Commission"--alluding to a
+political artifice then coming into vogue in Parliament When a Minister
+did not know what to say to a popular demand, or found it inconvenient
+to say it if he did know, he would suggest a Commission to inquire into
+it, as is done to this day.
+
+Then the clown would demand, "What is the good of a Royal Commission?"
+when the answer would be: "Every good in the world to a Ministry, for
+before the Commission agreed as to the answer to be given, the public
+would forget what the question was." Under this diversion of the
+audience, no one noticed that no answer was given to the original
+question put to the jester. Whether I could have succeeded in this
+walk was never decided. It was found that I lacked the loud, radiant,
+explosive voice necessary for circus effects, and I ceased to dream of
+distinction there.
+
+I suppose, like many others who could not well write anything, I thought
+poetry might be my latent--very latent--faculty. So I began. For all I
+knew, my genius, if I had any, might lie that way. To "body forth things
+unknown," which I was told poets did, must be delightful. To "build
+castles in the air"--as my means did not enable me to pay ground
+rent--was at least an economical project. So I began with a question, as
+new Members of Parliament do, until they discover something to say. My
+first production, which I hoped would be mistaken for a poem, was in the
+form of a "Question to a Pedestrian":--
+
+     "Saw you my Lilian pass this way?
+     You would know her by the ray
+     Of light which doth attend her.
+
+     Her eye such fire of passion hath,
+     That none who meet her ever pass,
+     But they some message send her."
+
+The critics said to me, as they said to Keats, to whom I bore no other
+resemblance, "This sort of thing will never do. It is an imitation
+of Shenstone, or of one of the Shepherd and Shepherdess School of the
+Elizabethan era"--of whom I knew nothing. So I was lost to the Muses,
+who, however, never missed me.
+
+But my career was not ended. I was told there might be an opening for me
+in criticism, especially of poetry, as there were many persons great in
+the critical line, who could not write a verse themselves--and yet lived
+to become a terror to all who could. My first effort in this direction
+was upon the book of a young poet whom I knew personally. Not venturing
+upon longer pieces at first, I selected two sonnets--as the author,
+Emslie Duncan, called them. The opening was very striking, and was thus
+expressed:--
+
+     "Great God: What is it that I see?
+     A figure shrimping in the sea."
+
+How natural is the exclamation, I began. The poet invokes the Deity on
+the threshold of a great surprise. Luther did the same in his famous
+hymn beginning--
+
+     "Great God! What do mine eyes behold!"
+
+Our sonneteer may be said to have borrowed the exclamation from Luther.*
+But we have no doubt the exclamation of our poet is purely original.
+He next demands an interpretation of his vision. It is early morning,
+though the poet does not mention it (great poets are suggestive, and
+stoop not to detail). An evasive grey mist spreads everywhere, like the
+new fiscal policy of the Bentinckian type (then in the air), obscuring
+the landmarks of long-time safety. Still there is one object visible.
+The poet's eye in "fine frenzy rolling" sees something. He is not sure
+of the personality that confronts him, and with agnostic precaution
+worthy of Huxley, he declines to say what it is--until he knows--and so
+contents himself with telling the reader it is a "figure" out shrimping.
+The scene is most impressive. As amateurs say, when they do not
+understand a picture they are praising, "It grows upon you." So this
+marvellous sonnet grows upon the
+
+     * The opening of Luther's fine hymn:--
+
+          "Great God! What do mine eyes behold!
+          The end of things created"--
+
+     which long imposed on my imagination and does so still.
+
+reader. If there be not imagination and profundity here, we do not know
+where to look for it.
+
+Next our poet returns to town, and in White-chapel meets with the statue
+of a lady attired only in a blouse. Notwithstanding his astonishment he
+varies his abjuration, and exclaims--
+
+     "Judge ye gods, of my surprise,
+     A lady naked in her chemise!"
+
+This is unquestionably very fine. True, there is some contradiction in
+nudity and attire; but splendid contradiction is an eternal element of
+poetry. What would Milton's "Paradise Lost" be without it? The reader
+cannot tell whether the surprise of the poet is at the lady or her
+drapery. There is no use in asking a great poet what he meant in writing
+his brilliant lines. If as candid as Browning, he would answer as
+Browning did, that "he had not the slightest idea what he meant."
+Nothing remains for us but to congratulate the public on the advent of a
+new poet who is equally great on subjects of land or sea.
+
+There is a good deal of reviewing done on this principle, and
+reputations made by this sort of writing as fully without foundation,
+and I looked forward to further employment.
+
+The editor to whom I sent these primal specimens of my new vocation
+seemed undecided what to do with them--throw them into his waste-paper
+basket or submit them to his readers. I assured him I had seen a number
+of criticisms less restrained than mine, on performances quite as
+slender as the sonnets I had described. With kindly consideration, lest
+he might be repressing a rising genius in me, he asked me to give my
+opinion upon a charming little poem by Longfellow--to commend, as he
+hoped I could, as a new edition in which he was interested was about to
+be published.
+
+The object of the poet, I found, was to awaken certain young ladies,
+whose only fault consisted in getting up late in the morning. The lines
+addressed to them, if I rightly remember, began thus:--
+
+     "Awake! Arise! and greet the day.
+     Angels are knocking at the door.
+     They are in haste and may not stay,
+     And once departed come no more."
+
+This verse reminds the readers of Omar Khayyam. Two ideas in it are his,
+and the terms used are his; but I resisted this temptation to imitate
+those popular critics, whose aim is not to discover the graces of a new
+poet, but his plagiarisms, and to show that everybody reproduces the
+ideas of everybody else, and prove that--
+
+     "Nothing is, and all things seem
+     And we the shadows of a dream"--
+
+and of old, antediluvian dreams. Disdaining this royal road to critical
+renown, I commenced by praising the enchanting invocation of the poet,
+who when the ladies heard it would leap out of bed and dress. I observed
+that to the reader who did not look below the surface--did not "read
+between the lines," is the favourite phrase--the poem presented some
+mysteries of diction. Instead of appearing as the angel in Leigh Hunt's
+"Abou Ben Adhem" did, who diffused himself in the room like a vision,
+these peripatetic visitants presented themselves like celestial postmen
+"knocking at the door." Then why were they out so early themselves?
+Had they more calls to make than they could well accomplish in the time
+allowed them? Why were they "in haste"? No wonder mankind lack repose
+if angels are in a hurry. The Kingdom of the Blest is supposed to be
+the land of rest Manifestly these morning angels had to be back by a
+stipulated time, and like a tax-collector could make no second call.
+Apparently Longfellow's angels are like Mr. Stead's favourite spirit
+Julia. They are harassed with appointments, commissions, and cares.
+It is of no use being a spirit if you cannot move about with regal
+leisureliness, such as was displayed by the first Shah of Persia who
+visited us. The writer has seen nothing like it in any European monarch.
+While in the lines now in question supernatural misgivings of angelic
+perturbation are awakened. But as an example of poetry, irrespective of
+its meaning and suggestions, every reader will covet a new edition of
+the American poet, and no library could be complete without a copy upon
+its shelves.
+
+I had visited the poet at his Cambridge home, and was proud of the
+opportunity of adding ever so small an addition to the pyramid of regard
+raised to his memory.
+
+The editor looked dubious on reading this review, and said the higher
+criticism might be entertaining in theology, but the higher criticism
+of poetry, which dealt with its meaning, was a different thing and
+might not be well taken. In vain I suggested that a poet ought to mean
+something, as Byron did, whose fascination is still real, and there was
+pathos and beauty, tragedy, tenderness and courtesy enough in the
+world to employ more poets than we have on hand. I received no more
+commissions in the way of criticisms, and had to think of some other
+vocation.
+
+Some of the happiest evenings of younger days were spent in the rooms of
+university students. It was pleasant to be near persons who dwelt in the
+kingdom of knowledge, who could wander at will on the mountain tops
+of science and literature, and have glimpses of unknown lands of light
+which I might never see. Who has seen London under the reign of the sun,
+after a sullen, fitful season, knows how wondrous is the transformation.
+Like the sheen of the gods the glittering rays descend, dispelling and
+absorbing the sombre clouds. A radiance rests on turret and roof. Then
+hidden creatures that crawl or fly come forth and put on golden tints.
+The cheerless poor emerge from their fireless chambers with the grateful
+emotions of sun worshippers.
+
+How like is all this to the change which comes over the realm of
+ignorance! Light does not change vegetation more than the light of
+knowledge changes the realm of the mind. The thirsty crevices of thought
+drink in, as it were, the refreshing beams. Once conscious of the
+liberty and power which comes of knowing--ignorance itself becomes
+eager, impatient--covetous of information. Faculties unsuspected
+disclose themselves. Qualities undreamed-of appear. So it came to be my
+choice to enter the field of instruction. It seemed to me a great
+thing to endow any, however few, in any way, however humble, with the
+cheeriness and strength of ideas. True, I began to teach what I did not
+know--or knew but partially--yet not without personal advantage, since
+no one knows anything well until he has tried to teach it to another.
+The dullest pupil will make his master sensible of defects in his own
+explanation. Formerly, the dulness of a learner was supposed to discover
+the necessity of a cane, whereas all it proved was incapacity or
+unwillingness to take trouble--on the part of the teacher. The result
+was that I wrote several elementary books of instruction. All owed their
+existence, or whatever success attended them, to the experience of the
+class-room.
+
+All things have an end, as many observant people know, and before long
+I turned my attention to journalism. I had read somewhere a saying of
+Aristotle--"Now I mean to speak conformably to the truth." That seems
+every man's duty--if he speaks at all. Anyhow, Aristotle's words
+appeared to constitute a good rule for a journalist I had never heard or
+never heeded the injunction of Byron:--
+
+     "Let him who speaks beware
+     Of whom, of what, and when, and where."
+
+The Aristotelian rule I had adopted soon brought me into difficulties,
+probably from want of skill in applying it. It was in propagandist
+journalism that I had ventured, which I mention for the purpose of
+saying that it is not, as many suppose, a profitable profession. It is
+excellent discipline, but it is not thought much of by your banker. Its
+securities are never saleable on the Stock Exchange. Nevertheless, the
+Press has its undying attraction. It is the fame-maker. Without it noble
+words, as well as noble deeds, would die. Day by day there descend from
+the Press ideas in fertilising showers, falling on the parched and
+arid plains of life, which in due season become verdant and variegated.
+Difficulties try men's souls, but true ideas expand them. And they have
+done so. Literature is a much brighter thing than it was when I first
+began to meddle or "muddle" in it, as Lord Salisbury would say.
+
+Nothing was thought classical then that was not dull No definition of
+importance was found to be utterly unintelligible until a University man
+had explained it. All is different now--let us hope.
+
+Instances of the progress of literary opinion are perhaps more
+instructive and better worth remembering. In 1850, when George Henry
+Lewes and Thornton Hunt included my name in their published list of
+contributors to the _Leader_, it cost the proprietors, I had reason to
+know, L2,000. It set the Rev. Dr. Jelf, of King's College, on fire,
+and caused an orthodox spasm of a serious kind in Charles Kingsley and
+Professor Maurice, as witness their letters of that day.
+
+One journal projected by me in 1850 is still v issued--_Public Opinion_.
+Mr. W. H. Ashurst asked me to devise a paper I thought the most needed.
+As Peel had said, "England was governed by opinion," I suggested that
+this opinion should be collected. I wrote the prospectus of the new
+journal, specifying that each article quoted should be prefixed by a
+few words, within brackets, setting forth what principles, party, or
+interest it represented--whether English or foreign. Mr. Ashurst put the
+prospectus into the hands of Robert Buchanan, father of the late Robert
+Buchanan, and the earlier issues followed the plan I had defined. The
+object was to collect intelligent and responsible opinion.
+
+In 1866 the _Contemporary Review_ announced that it would "represent
+the best minds of the time on all contemporary questions, free from
+narrowness, bigotry, and sectarianism." It professed "to represent those
+who are not afraid of modern thought, in its varied aspects and demands,
+and scorn to defend their faith by mere reticence, or by the artifices
+commonly acquiesced in." This manifesto of 1866 far surpassed in
+liberality any profession then known in the evangelical world. It was at
+the time a bold pronouncement. When it is considered that Samuel Morley
+was the most influential of the supporters of the _Contemporary_,
+it shows that intellectual Nonconformity was abreast of the age--as
+Nonconformity never was before.
+
+In 1877 I was taken by Thomas Woolner, the sculptor, to dine at Mr.
+Alfred Tennyson's (Lord Tennyson later). I believe my invitation was
+owing to Mrs. Tennyson's desire to make inquiries of me concerning
+the advantages of Co-operation in rural districts, in which, like the
+Countess of Warwick, she was interested. The Poet Laureate gave me a
+glass of sack, the royal beverage of poets, of more exquisite flavour
+than I had tasted before. I did not wonder that it was conducive to
+noble verse--where the faculty of it was present Mr. Knowles, now Sir
+James, founder of the _Nineteenth Century and After_, was of the party,
+and the new review--then projected--being mentioned, it came to pass
+that my name was put down among possible contributors. The _Nineteenth
+Century_ proposed to go further, and include a still wider range
+of subjects, with free discussion on personal responsibility. Its
+prospectus said "it would go on lines absolutely impartial and
+unsectarian." The Prefatory Poem, written by Tennyson twenty-seven
+years ago, which may not be in the memory of many now, was this:--
+
+     "Those that of late had fleeted far and fast,
+     To touch all shores, now leaving to the skill
+     Of others their old craft, seaworthy still,
+     Have chartered this; where, mindful of the past,
+     Our true co-mates regather round the mast;
+     Of diverse tongues, but with a common will,
+     Here in this roaming moor of daffodil
+     And crocus, to put forth and brave the blast.
+     For some, descending from the sacred peak
+     Of hoar, high-templed Faith, have leagued again
+     Their lot with ours to rove the world about,
+     And some are wilder comrades, sworn to seek
+     If any golden harbour be for men
+     In seas of Death and sunless gulfs of Doubt."
+
+Tennyson, with all his genius, never quite emerged from the theologic
+caves of the conventicle. The sea of pure reason he took to be "the sea
+of Death." Doubt was a "sunless gulf." He did not know that "Doubt" is
+a translucent valley, where the light of Truth first reveals the
+deformities of error--hidden by theological mists. The line containing
+the words "wilder comrades" was understood to include me. Out of the
+"One Hundred Contributors," whose names were published in the
+_Athenaeum_ (February 10, 1877), there were only-six:--Professor Huxley,
+Professor Tyndall, Professor Clifford, George Henry Lewes, myself,
+and possibly Frederic Harrison, to whom the phrase could apply. If the
+remaining ninety-four had any insurgency of opinion in them, it was
+not then apparent to the public, who are prone to prefer a vacuum to
+an insurgent idea. New ideas of moment have always been on hand in the
+_Nineteenth_ if not of the "wilder" kind.
+
+After issuing fifty volumes of the _Nineteenth Century Review_, the
+editor published a list of all his contributors, with the titles of
+the articles written by them, introduced by these brief but memorable
+words:--
+
+"More than a quarter of a century's experience has sufficiently tested
+the practical efficacy of the principle upon which the _Nineteenth
+Century_ was founded, of free public discussion by writers invariably
+signing their own names.
+
+"The success which has attended and continues to attend the faithful
+adherence to this principle, proves that it is not only right but
+acceptable, and warrants the hope that it may extend its influence
+over periodical literature, until unsigned contributions become quite
+exceptional.
+
+"No man can make an anonymous speech with his tongue, and no brave man
+should desire to make one with his pen, but, having the courage of his
+opinions, should be ready to face personally all the consequences of all
+his utterances. Anonymous letters are everywhere justly discredited in
+private life, and the tone of public life would be raised in proportion
+to the disappearance of their equivalent--anonymous articles--from
+public controversy."
+
+Than the foregoing, I know of no more admirable argument against
+anonymity in literature. There is nothing more unfair in controversy
+than permitting writers, wearing a mask, to attack or make replies to
+those who give their names--being thereby enabled to be accusative or
+imputative without responsibility. There is, of course another side to
+this question. Persons of superior and relevant information, unwilling
+to appear personally, are thereby excluded from a hearing--which is so
+far a public loss.
+
+But this evil is small compared with the vividness and care which would
+be exercised if every writer felt that his reputation went with the
+work which bore his name. Besides, how much slovenly thinking, which is
+slovenly expressed--vexing the public ear and depraving the taste and
+understanding of the reader--would never appear if the writer had to
+append his signature to his production? Of course, there is good writing
+done anonymously, but power and originality, if present, are never
+rewarded by fame, and no one knows who to thank for the light and
+pleasure nameless writers have given. The example of the _Nineteenth
+Century and After_ is a public advantage.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V. GEORGE ELIOT AND GEORGE HENRY LEWES
+
+[Illustration: Lewes]
+
+More than acquaintanceship, I had affectionate regard for George Henry
+Lewes and George Eliot. Lewes included me in the public list of writers
+and contributors to the _Leader_--the first recognition of the kind I
+received, and being accorded when I had only an outcast name, both in
+law and literature, I have never ceased to prize it.
+
+George Eliot's friendship, on other grounds I have had reason to value,
+and when I found a vacant place at the head of their graves which lie
+side by side, I bought it, that my ashes should repose there, should I
+die in England.
+
+On occasions which arose, I had vindicated both, as I knew well
+the personal circumstances of their lives. When in America I found
+statements made concerning them which no editor of honour should have
+published without knowledge of the facts upon which they purported to be
+founded, nor should he have given publicity to dishonouring statements
+without the signature of a known and responsible person. On the first
+opportunity I spoke with Lewes's eldest son, and asked authority to
+contradict them. He thought the calumnies beneath contempt, that they
+sprang up in theological soil and that they would wither of themselves,
+if not fertilised by disturbance. I know of no instance of purity and
+generosity greater than that displayed by George Eliot in her relation
+with Mr. Lewes. Edgar Allan Poe was subject to graver defamation, widely
+believed for years, which was afterwards shown to be entirely devoid of
+truth. George Eliot's personal reputation will hereafter be seen to be
+just and luminous.
+
+For myself, I never could see what conventional opinion had to do with a
+personal union founded in affection, by which nobody was wronged, nobody
+distressed, and in which protection was accorded and generous provision
+made for the present and future interest of every one concerned.
+Conventional opinion, not even in its ethical aspects, could establish
+higher relations than existed in their case. There are thousands of
+marriages tolerated conventionally and ecclesiastically approved, in
+every way less estimable and less honourable than the distinguished
+union, upon which society without justification affected to frown.
+
+Interest in social and political liberty was an abiding feature in
+George Eliot's mind. When Garibaldi was at the Crystal Palace, she asked
+me to sit by her and elucidate incidents which arose.
+
+On the publication of my first volume of the History of Co-operation, I
+received the following letter from Mr. Lewes:--
+
+     "The Elms, Rickmansworth,
+
+     "Aug. 15, 1875.
+
+     "My   dear   Holyoake,--Mrs.   Lewes   wishes me to thank
+     you for sending her your book, which she is reading aloud to
+     me every evening, much to our pleasure and profit.    The
+     light firm touch and quiet   epigram   would   make   the
+     dullest  subject readable; and this subject is _not_ dull.
+     We only regret   that   you  did   not   enter more fully
+     into working details.    Perhaps they will come in the next
+     volume.
+
+     "Ever yours truly,
+
+     "G. H. Lewes."
+
+The second volume of the work mentioned supplied to her the details she
+wished.
+
+In 1877 I visited New Lanark and saw the stately rooms built by Robert
+Owen, of which I sent an account to the Times. The most complete
+appliances of instruction known in Europe down to 1820 are all there,
+as in Mr. Owen's days. A description of them may be read in the second
+volume of the "History of Co-operation" referred to. When George Eliot
+saw the letter she said, "the thought of the Ruins of Education there
+described filled her with sadness." I made an offer to buy the neglected
+and decaying relics, which was declined. I wrote to Lord Playfair, whose
+influence might procure the purchase. I endeavoured to induce the
+South Kensington Museum authorities to secure them for the benefit of
+educationists, but they had no funds to use for that purpose.
+
+Some women, not distinguished for personal beauty when young, become
+handsome and queenly later in life. This was so with Harriet Martineau.
+George Eliot did not come up to Herbert Spencer's conception of personal
+charm. One day when she was living at Godstone, she drove to the station
+to meet Mr. Lewes. He and I were travelling together at the time, and he
+caused the train to be delayed a few minutes that I might go down into
+the valley to meet his wife. I had not seen George Eliot for some years,
+and was astonished at the stately grace she had acquired.
+
+One who knew how to state a principle describes the characteristic
+conviction of George Eliot, from which she never departed, and which had
+abiding interest for me.
+
+"She held as a solemn conviction--the result of a lifetime of
+observation--that in proportion as the thoughts of men and women are
+removed from the earth on which they live, are diverted from their
+own mutual relations and responsibilities, of which they alone know
+anything, to an invisible world, which can alone be apprehended by
+belief, they are led to neglect their duty to each other, to squander
+their strength in vain speculations, which can result in no profit to
+themselves or their fellow-creatures, which diminish their capacity for
+strenuous and worthy action during a span of life, brief, indeed, but
+whose consequences will extend to remote posterity."*
+
+     * _Congregationalist_ April, 1881, p. 297.
+       Bray's Autobiography.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI. WHEN BIRMINGHAM WAS A TOWN
+
+When Birmingham was a town it had a national reputation for Liberalism.
+At present I prefer to call myself a "townsman" rather than a "citizen."
+The old pride of owning to being a Birmingham man is merged into the
+admission of being born in Warwickshire. Some of the political scenes in
+its town days may be instructive to its present-day citizens.
+
+The famous Birmingham Political Union of 1832 was "hung up like a clean
+gun" on G. F. Muntz's suggestion and never taken down. Many years later
+a new Union was projected. Mr. Joseph Chamberlain was in the chair. I
+was on the platform, and the only person present who was a member of the
+former Union. I had no opportunity of speaking--nor indeed had anybody,
+save movers and seconders of motions. There was nothing radical
+about the proceedings. Nobody's opinion was asked. No opportunity of
+discussion was given. The meeting was a mere instrument for registering
+the business of the chair. The impression that afternoon made upon me
+has never left me. Nothing afterwards surprised me in the performances
+of the "quick-change artiste" of the Parliamentary music-hall.
+
+Mr. John Morley wrote an article in the _Fortnightly_ on Mr.
+Chamberlain, which first gave him a position before the public. Not even
+in Birmingham could any one see adequate justification for it. But Mr.
+Morley proved right, and had discerned a capacity which had not then
+unfolded itself.
+
+About that time Mr. Chamberlain made some remark on Mr. Disraeli in the
+Birmingham Town Council, which did not amount to much. Mr. Disraeli did
+the municipal speaker the honour to call him to account. Had any one in
+like case called Mr. Disraeli to account he would have said in his airy
+and evasive way: "Every public speaker is liable to the misconstruction
+of unheeding and ill-hearing reporters, and he could not be expected to
+answer for them." Mr. Chamberlain gave no sign of any such adroitness
+which was ready to his hand, but wrote what read like an abject apology.
+He did not dare to say to Mr. Disraeli "What I have said I have said."
+
+Mr. Jesse Collings was one of the minor merchants of Birmingham. He came
+originally from Exeter, and was held in great respect for his earnest
+Liberalism, and for promoting the education of the people--though he was
+himself a sectarian pure and simple, with little, if any, secularity
+in him. When he came to be Mayor, the Tories of Birmingham--who had not
+then and never had any man of mark or genius among them--were capable of
+outrage. It was the only art they knew. When Mr. Collings presided one
+day at a public meeting in the town hall, they drew an ass's head on a
+large sheet of pasteboard, and hung it over the clock in front of the
+chair labelled--the "Portrait of the Mayor." For two hours they made all
+business impossible by shouting "Mr. Mayor, look at your portrait." At
+length the Mayor took courage and ordered the Chief Constable--Major
+Bond--to remove the picture placard and the ringleader of the
+disturbance. This was construed as an insult, which Mr. Kynersley, the
+principal Tory magistrate, supported. I was one who urged Mr. Collings
+to apply to the bench for a case, that it might be determined in the
+higher courts whether a mayor had legal power to preserve order at a
+public meeting. The case was refused by Mr. Kynersley. This was the
+treatment of the Right Honourable Jesse Collings for being a Liberal. Is
+there a stranger sight in England than seeing this Liberal mayor dressed
+in Tory livery, fetching and carrying in Parliament for the intolerant
+party which treated him with such ostentatious indignity? What must be
+his sense of humiliation under his new convictions? Equally tragic and
+unforeseen must be the humiliation of the Tory party in Parliament who
+used to boast of their pride, their dignity, and self-respect at having
+to accept as a leader the great "caucus-monger," as they called Mr.
+Chamberlain, who was the object of their epithets and hatred during so
+many sessions. The tragedy of political convictions can no further go.
+Far be it from me to deny that Mr. Collings and Mr. Chamberlain have not
+honest reasons for their strange professions, though I do not
+understand them. Like gravitation, I admit the fact, though its cause
+is inscrutable. In politics motives are as though they were not. They
+cannot be taken into account. If alleged, they admit of no proof.
+Resentment rages among the partisans of the accused and the tendency
+of their principles, which it is alone instructive to discuss, is lost
+sight of. It is common for partisans to disparage those who have left
+their ranks--forgetting that conviction depends upon evidence. Those who
+leave a party may be as honest as those who remain. Whoever has rendered
+aid to liberty and gone over to the other side should be honoured
+for what he has done. He who has once stood upon the side of humanity
+deserves more respectful treatment than he who never took the part of
+the right. Mr. Collings and Mr. Chamberlain rendered important service
+to the cause of public progress, and their abandonment of it was a loss.
+For the rest, the career of Joseph Chamberlain, like that of Joseph
+Cowen, has its explanation in the passion for paramountcy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII. THE TENTH OF APRIL, 1848--ITS INCREDIBILITIES
+
+It is not easy to determine which of many historic incidents of interest
+should take precedence. The 10th of April, known as the day of Chartist
+Terror--still spoken of in hysterical accents--will do, as it shows the
+wild way with which sober, staid men can write history. I was out that
+day with the Chartists, and well know how different the facts were from
+what is believed to be the peril of the metropolis on that day. I have
+long regarded it as one of the "bygones" having instruction in them.
+
+The French have their 9th Thermidor (July 27, 1794), when the Reign
+of Terror ended, and their 18th Brumaire (November 9, 1799), when the
+Napoleonic Terror began, and the English have their 10th of April, 1848,
+when a million special constables were out staff in hand, to prevent a
+National Petition of the people being presented to the House of Commons.
+Yet no conspiracy existed--nor even had the police fabricated a plot (as
+they often did in those days)--no disorder had been threatened, not a
+man was armed; the only imaginable enemy was the Chartist Convention
+of less than two hundred persons. The most distinguished of the Special
+Constables was Louis Napoleon, who four years later became known as the
+assassin of French liberty, and whose career is one of the infamies of
+Imperialism.
+
+The 10th of April, 1848, has for more than half a century held a place
+in public memory. The extraordinary hallucination concerning it has
+become historic, and passes as authentic. Canon Charles Kingsley was the
+chief illusionist in this matter. He wrote: "On the 10th of April,
+the Government _had_ to fill London with troops, and put the Duke of
+Wellington in command, who barricaded the bridges and Downing Street,
+and other public buildings."* Nobody "had" to do what Kings-ley relates.
+Nine years had elapsed since any one had taken the field against the
+Government, and that was in a Welsh town 147 miles away. John Frost and
+his tiny band of followers were the insurgents. All were put down
+in twenty minutes by a few soldiers. Frost came to London in 1839 to
+consult James Watson, Henry Hetherington, Richard Moore, William Lovett,
+and other responsible Chartists, whom he most trusted. They besought
+Frost to abandon his idea of an attack upon Newport, as no one would
+support him. There were no arms in London on April, 1848, no persons
+were drilled, no war organisation existed, and no intention of rising
+anywhere. The Government knew it, for they had spies everywhere. They
+knew it as well or better in 1848 than in 1839. For nine years John
+Frost had then been in penal servitude, and no one had attempted to
+imitate him. Nor had he any followers in London in 1848. At his trial
+no noblemen, no aristocratic ladies, crowded the court to cheer him by
+their sympathy, or mitigate his sentence by their influence--as they did
+when Dr. Jameson and others were on trial for their wanton and murderous
+raid on the Government of South Africa. Such is the difference between
+the insurgency of poverty seeking redress, and the insurgency of wealthy
+insolence seeking its further aggrandisement There was absolutely
+nothing in the field against the Duke of Wellington in London but a
+waggon, on which a monster petition was piled.
+
+     * Introduction to "Alton Locke," by Thomas Hughes.
+
+Politically speaking, London has seen no tamer day than the 10th of
+April, 1848. There was less ground for alarm than when a Lord Mayor s
+procession passes through the city. The procession of actual Chartists,
+able to leave their work to join it, could never have amounted to four
+thousand. There was not a single weapon among them, nor any intention of
+using it had they possessed it. There was only one weapon known to be in
+London, in the hands of the Chartists, and that was a Colonel Macerone's
+spear, fabricated in 1830, to assist in carrying the first Reform Bill.
+That was hidden up a chimney in 3, Queen's Head Passage, Paternoster
+Row. It came into my possession, and I have often shown it to members of
+the Government to convince them what risks Society ran in Wellington's
+days--and are exposed to still.
+
+The Chartists had held a Convention in London the week before the 10th,
+and were unable to obtain any place of meeting except a small social
+institution in John Street, Tottenham Court Road, which could not seat
+150 persons at the Convention table. The hall was lent to them by the
+most pacific body of politicians in London--the followers of Robert
+Owen. Yet Mr. Thomas Hughes adopted and authenticated Kingsley's
+incredible belief, that the country was in danger of these earnest but
+entirely impotent Chartist petitioners; and Mr. Hughes actually quotes
+believingly in his introduction to "Alton Locke" a statement that: "The
+Duke of Wellington declared in the House of Lords that no great society
+had ever suffered as London had during the proceeding, while the Home
+Secretary telegraphed to all the chief magistrates of the kingdom the
+joyful news that the peace had been kept in London."*
+
+     * Prefatory Memoir of Kingsley's Works, by Thomas Hughes,
+       p. 13.
+
+Never did the craziest despotic Government in Europe engage in such a
+political imposture. It was pitiable that the Duke of Wellington should
+have had no more self-respect than to compromise his great career
+by fortifying London against an imaginary enemy. The Government had
+plentiful information and must have known the truth--the contrary of
+what they alleged.
+
+It may be said in extenuation of these affected Ministerial terrors,
+that the Parisian revolution of that year had communicated unrest to
+the people of England. It had inspired them with pleasure, but not with
+insurgency, for which they were as uninclined as they were unprepared,
+and none knew this better than the Duke of Wellington. The Parisian
+population had seen military service. They understood the use of arms,
+had them, and knew how to settle their differences at the barricade.
+London had never seen a barricade. The people were all unused to arms,
+and were without the means or the knowledge to storm a police station.
+Yet, according to Canon Kingsley, Wellington told the Government "that
+no capital had gone through such days as England had on the 10th of
+April," when no man was struck--no man was killed--no riot took
+place anywhere. It would seem that ignorance, rashness, wildness, and
+irresponsible language are by no means peculiar to the working classes.
+We must cease to wonder at the Duke of Wellington when an accredited
+publicist like Judge Thomas Hughes, who was educated at Rugby, could
+tell the world himself that "It is only by an effort that one can
+realise the strain to which the nation was subjected."
+
+On that awful day, nobody was reported as found looking into a shop
+window with a predatory glare in his eyes, and no account came up from
+the provinces that a single Chartist was observed to peep over a hedge
+in a menacing manner.
+
+I was out on the 10th of April. On Sunday, the night before, I was the
+lecturer at John Street The audience was composed largely of delegates
+to the dreadful Convention that so perturbed the "Iron Duke."
+
+My advice to them, published at the time, was to "Beware of the police,"
+and not to strike again if they were struck. Many of them, I knew, were
+willing to die for their country, if that would save it. They would
+serve it much better by dying without resistance, than dying with it. If
+any were killed whilst walking in the procession their comrades should
+move quietly on. Nothing would tell more strongly on public opinion than
+such heroic observance of order. Hetherington, one of the bravest who
+walked in the ranks, told me he would do it. The Government, by their
+ostentatious provocation, in garrisoning the Bank with soldiers,
+crowding Somerset House with them, parading troops on Clerkenwell Green,
+had brought, it is computed, more than two millions of persons into the
+streets. The conclusion to which the Chartist leaders came, was that
+the Government wanted to create a conflict, shoot down a number of the
+people, and then proclaim to Europe that they had "saved Society,"
+by murder, as one of their chief special constables did soon after in
+Paris.
+
+As I had been personally associated with all the chief Chartists, in
+prison and out, from the beginning of the movement, I can speak with
+some knowledge of them on that day.
+
+On the morning of the 10th of April, Mr. C. D. Collet, the well-informed
+Secretary of the People's Charter Union, myself, Richard Moore, and
+others, organised a band of forty persons, who were to distribute
+themselves over London, note-book and pencil in hand, in the character
+of reporters. The police took kindly to us, and gave us good positions
+of advantage, where we could see everything that took place thereabouts,
+and even protected us from being incommoded. We were there to watch the
+police, not the people, as the disorder, if there were any, would come
+from them. My station was in Bridge Street, Blackfriars, where a row
+of constables was drawn up. I found a coarse, plethoric alderman, going
+from man to man, saying only three words: "Strike hard to-day."
+
+The people behaved admirably. Not a blow was struck which gave a
+colourable ground for outrage on the part of the police. In justice to
+the police, it ought to be said, neither did they incite disorder.
+
+At night the Home Secretary spent the money of the State, in
+telegraphing to all the mayors in the land "the day had passed off
+quietly," thus creating a false terror everywhere that London had been
+in danger--danger of the Government's creating.
+
+The Bull Ring Riots in Birmingham in 1839, when I was resident there,
+were created entirely by the magistrates, who introduced a hundred
+London policemen into the town, which led to the loss of life and
+property.
+
+I and others on the deputation to Mr. Walpole told him at the time, when
+the railings were broken down in Hyde Park, that if he made a show of
+soldiers and policemen, people were sure to be killed. At the peril
+of his own reputation, he kept them out of sight, and no disorder took
+place, though violent members of the Government tried to destroy
+Mr. Walpole for his wise and noble forbearance. Dean Stubbs, in his
+interesting book on Charles Kingsley, says (p. 97): "On the 10th
+of April, 1848, a revolution was threatened in England. One hundred
+thousand _armed men_ were to meet on Kennington Common and thence
+to march on Westminster, and there to compel, by physical force, if
+necessary, the acceptance of the People's Charter by the Houses of
+Parliament." Could such a lunatical statement be written by any one,
+and his friends not procure a magistrate's order for his removal to the
+nearest asylum? How were the "hundred thousand" to get the arms into
+London--if they had them. Whence were they to procure them? Where could
+they store them, seeing that at that time there was not a single place
+of Chartist meeting that was not known to be in debt, unless its rent
+was paid by the charity of some well-to-do sympathiser? What were
+muskets or pikes to do against the stone walls of the Houses of
+Parliament or the Bank? How were cannon to be drawn from the centre
+of London to Kennington Common with ample service of powder and shot?
+Marvellous is the history which Churchmen can write!
+
+The utterly groundless and incredible representations of the "10th
+April," which Charles Kingsley and Thomas Hughes published, as we have
+seen, were to my amazement resuscitated as late as 1902 for the historic
+instruction of the students of the Working Mens College in Great Ormond
+Street, London, by Mr. R. P. Lichfield, vice-principal of the college,
+who for forty-seven years has rendered it important service, for which
+all friends of education for workmen are grateful. Yet in his address to
+the students (October 1, 1902), he tells them that in 1848 "the wave
+of democracy which swept over Europe gave fresh impetus to the Chartist
+agitation. On the memorable 10th of April it looked as if we were to
+have a revolutionary outbreak on the Parisian pattern. This we were
+saved from, partly by an army of volunteers, special constables, partly
+by the Duke of Wellington's discreet placing of his troops.... The
+attempt to overawe Parliament by a 'physical force' demonstration was a
+fiasco." The world knows a good deal of historians who draw upon their
+imagination for their facts, but here is a responsible teacher, drawing
+upon his terrors of fifty years ago, for statements which nobody
+believes now or believed then, who knew the facts. The Duke of
+Wellington's great name in war imposed upon amateur politicians. The
+Duke--contrary to his reputation for military veracity--readily lent
+himself to the Government of that day, that they might figure before the
+country as the deliverers of England, from the nation-shaking assault
+of a miscellaneous crowd of penniless and unarmed combatants, who had
+neither cannon nor commissariat. Everybody was aware that the knowledge
+of the Iron Duke, outside war, was very limited, and his political
+credulity was unbounded. At the end of the Peninsular War he wrote to
+the Government of that day, informing them "the bankers of Paris were
+furnishing large sums to Revolutionists in England." Only old residents
+in Bedlam would believe that. There were no leaders of Revolutionists in
+England, to whom the money could be assigned or consigned, and bankers
+were the last persons in the world to subscribe money for a wild,
+speculative, and uncertain enterprise. No spy of Pitt, or Sid-mouth,
+would have sent home so insane a report, from fear of instant dismissal
+from their sinister employment.
+
+This is but a sample of the airy, false, and fictionary foundation on
+which the Legend of the Tenth of April was built. These incidents of
+historic perversion, though bygones of half a century ago, are worth
+remembering.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII. THE CHARTISTS OF FICTION
+
+The Chartists have made as much noise in the world as they knew how--yet
+to the generation of to-day they are ambiguous. They have had no
+historian. Carlyle went to look at them in prison, and defamed them with
+that bitterness and contempt he had for partisans who lacked the sense
+of submission to the dictates of those superior persons who knew what
+was best for everybody, of whose aspirations they knew nothing, and for
+whose needs they had no sympathy. Chartism, however, has won conspicuous
+treatment in fiction. What it was in fact, is a very different thing.
+There is the Church Chartist by Canon Kingsley, and the Positivist
+Chartist by George Eliot, drawn by two famous artists. The pictures are
+hung upon the line in the great gallery of literature. So brilliant
+is the work of Kingsley that it has imposed on so accomplished a
+connoisseur as Dean Stubbs, who, in his life of the fervid Rector of
+Eversley, has taken it for a painting from real life. I present the
+Church Chartist first.
+
+In my time I have seen much good done by Christians with a view to
+extend their faith. Some few, like Samuel Morley, who excelled all
+lay Dissenters I have known in the manly sense of the dignity and
+independence of Nonconformity, would do generous things from the
+humaneness of their own minds alone. Some Quakers and Unitarians have
+had this quality. Others, Churchmen, Roman Catholics, and orthodox
+Christians, I have known to mitigate privation for the "Lord's sake,"
+not for humanity's sake. This was to some extent the case of the Rev.
+Frederick Denison Maurice, Canon Kingsley, and their noble colleagues,
+Edward Vansittart Neale, Judge Thomas Hughes, and J. M. Ludlow.
+They became Christian Socialists not so much because they cared for
+Socialism, as Maurice owned his "object was not to Socialise society,
+but to Christianise Socialism." Startled by the dislike and even
+resentment against Christianity expressed by men of poverty and
+intelligence at being asked to adopt a belief which brought them no
+relief, Maurice, Kingsley, and their associates concluded that privation
+was the cause of alienation from the Church. In like manner Dissenters
+thought that it was the bad condition of industrial life which
+kept working people from chapel. None realised that alienation from
+Christianity had its seat in the understanding--in intellectual
+dissatisfaction with the tenets of Theology. The absentees from church
+and chapel alleged that no relief came of belief, and never had since
+the days when manna fell in the Jewish wilderness, and loaves and fishes
+were miraculously plentiful on the hills of Galilee. There was no sense
+or profit in adopting a faith which had been unproductive for nearly
+2,000 years. It had taken the slave, the serf, and the hired worker
+a long time to see this. But at last experience had told upon the
+thoughtful. But the theologians neither in the dominant, nor dominated
+camps perceived it.
+
+Very generous is Kingsley's sympathy, in "Alton Locke," with the lot of
+working people, but he believed that when the rebellious shoemaker fully
+realises that good priests would mitigate the lot of those who labour
+in workshops or in fields and mines, he will become reconciled to the
+Thirty-nine Articles. Alton Locke is a Church Chartist--not one of the
+Chartists of real life whom I knew, who were current in Kingsley's days,
+who signed the famous document which Place drew and Roebuck revised.
+They had principles. They did not seek paternal government of friendly
+Churchmen, nor of Positivists, nor that nobly organised kind of
+passive competence which Mr. Ruskin meditated for the people. The real
+Chartists--like the Co-operators--sought self-government for the people
+by the people. The alienation of the people from church and chapel was
+not founded on lack of spiritual patronage, or thirst for it, but from
+intellectual dissatisfaction with theological tenets.
+
+Christians, from the Vatican to the Primitive Methodist conventicle,
+are all so persuaded of the infallibility of their interpretation of the
+Scriptures, and are so convinced of the perfect sufficiency of their
+tenets for the needs of all the world, that they regard difference of
+opinion as springing from wilful misunderstanding, or from the "evil
+heart at enmity with God"--a mad doctrine beneath the notice of the
+average lunatic. Natural variety of intellect, the infinite hosts of
+personal views, and the infinitude of individual experience--which
+silently create new convictions--are not taken into account, and
+conscientious dissent seems to the antediluvian theologian an
+impossibility. Even the most liberal of eminent Unitarians in England,
+W. J. Fox, regarded, what we now know as the Agnostic--hesitation to
+declare as true that which the declarer does not know to be so--as a
+species of mental disease.
+
+That Kingsley lived in a refracting medium, in which the straightest
+facts appeared bent when placed in it, was evident when he wrote:
+"Heaven defend us from the Manchester School, for of all narrow,
+conceited, hypocritical, and atheistic schemes of the universe the
+Cobden and Bright one is exactly the worst." There was no reason why
+Kingsley should be a Chartist, since he had all he wanted secured, and
+had contempt in his heart for Chartist tenets. He wrote: "The Bible
+gives the dawn of the glorious future, such as no universal suffrage,
+free trade, communism, organisation of labour, or any other Morrison
+pill measure can give." He exulted in the existence of the forces which
+made against the people. He exclaimed: "As long as the Throne, the House
+of Lords, and the Press are what I thank God they are!" he was grateful.
+The state of things which existed, it was the object of Chartism to
+change.
+
+These rampant ideas of Kingsley were far from being Chartist sentiments.
+At a meeting in Castle Street, London, the Rev. Charles Kingsley and Mr.
+Thomas Hughes were present, working men comprising the audience, an old
+grey-headed Chartist, of a Republican way of thinking, whose experience
+of monarchy was limited to his share of taxation for its support,
+hissed at the introduction of the Queen's name. Mr. Hughes, then a young
+athlete, turned upon the old Six Points politician and said: "Any one
+who hissed at the Queen's name would have to reckon with him"--meaning
+that he would knock him down, or put him out of the meeting. If, at a
+Chartist meeting, one athletic leader had similarly threatened an old
+grey-headed Royalist who hissed some Republican name, it would have been
+described, in all respectable papers, as "a ruffianly proceeding." The
+Hughes incident showed Christian Socialist sympathy with Chartism was
+not of an enthusiastic character. At other times Mr. Hughes had nobler
+moods, but he, like Kingsley, had few qualifications for delineating
+Chartists.
+
+Judge Hughes, like Canon Kingsley and his Christian Socialist
+colleagues, saw everything in the light of Theology. He saw nothing else
+by itself. He relates "the appearance of a little grey, shrivelled man
+at the grave of Mr. Maurice at the cemetery at Hampstead, one of the
+staff of the leading Chartist newspaper," as a proof of his conversion.
+This was gratitude, not conversion. Had I not been at the Bolton
+Co-operative Congress at the time, I should have been at the same grave.
+When the news came of Maurice's death, it did not occur to his friend,
+Mr. Neale, that the Congress would pass a resolution in honour of
+Maurice. I suggested it to him, and he said to me, "You had better draw
+up the resolution," which I did, and moved it. It was unanimously and
+gratefully passed. Though I was foremost to express the respect of
+working men, and the sense of obligation they were under, for Maurice's
+great services to Co-operation, and his establishment of the Working
+Men's College, it did not imply that I had come to accept the
+Thirty-nine Articles. Relevant appreciation, real gratitude, and
+admiration, do not imply coincidence of opinion on other and alien
+questions.
+
+How little the creator of Alton Locke was a Chartist, or a sympathiser
+with Chartism, was seen when he described "Mr. Julian Harney and Feargus
+O'Connor and the rest of the smoke of the pit." Kingsley said "his only
+quarrel with the Charter was that it did not go far enough." All his
+meaning was that it should have comprised social, instead of political
+reform, which was what all who were opposed to political freedom said.
+This only meant that he wanted Chartists to take up social, and drop
+political reform. This appears in the passage in which he said, "The
+Charter disappointed me bitterly when I read it. It seemed a harmless
+cry enough, but a poor, bald, constitution-mongering cry as ever I
+heard. The French cry of organisation of labour is worth a thousand of
+it."* Organisation of labour is a great thing, but it is not political
+equality or liberty. Kingsley's Chartist had no political soul.
+
+There is noble sympathy with labour, and there are passages which should
+always be read with honour in "Alton Locke." But the book is written in
+derision of Chartism and Liberal politics. Alton Locke himself was like
+his creator. Kingsley's acts were the acts of a friend, his arguments
+the arguments of an enemy; and Alton Locke, despite the noble personal
+qualities with which he is endowed, was a confused political traitor,
+who bartered the Kingdom of Man for the Kingdom of Heaven, when he might
+have stood by both.
+
+     * Prefatory Memoir, by T. Hughes, p. 16.
+
+So much for the Church Chartist. Now turn to the Positivist Chartist,
+and see whether there be any backbone of political emancipation in
+him, or whether his vertebra is of jelly, like Alton Locke's. To the
+Positivist Chartist is given the stronger name of "Radical."
+
+One of the remarkable volumes George Eliot gave to the world bears the
+name of "Felix Holt, the Radical." But when she comes to delineate the
+Radical, he turns out to be a Positivist--of good quality of his kind,
+but still not a Radical.
+
+As Canon Kingsley drew the Church Chartist, so George Eliot drew the
+Positivist Radical. Neither drew the selected hero as he was, but as
+each thought he ought to be.
+
+A Radical is one who goes to the root of things. He deals with evils
+having a political origin, which he intends to remove by political
+means. Radicals were far older than the Chartists. Radicalism was a
+force in reform before Chartism began. The Radical more or less evolves
+his creed by observation of the condition of things surrounding him; the
+Chartist had his creed ready made for him. The Chartist may be said to
+begin with political effects, the Radical with political causes. Anyhow,
+the Radical was always supposed to know what he was, and why he was
+what he was. Felix Holt was not built that way. George Eliot had greater
+power of penetrating into character than Kingsley, but she made the same
+mistake in Felix Holt that Kingsley made in Alton Locke. Felix Holt is
+a revolutionist from indignation. His social insurgency is based on
+resentment at injustice. Very noble is that form of dissatisfaction,
+but political independence is not his inspiration. Freedom, equality
+of public rights, are not in his mind. His disquiet is not owing to
+the political inability of his fellows to control their own fortunes.
+Content comes to Felix when the compassion of others ameliorates or
+extinguishes the social evils from which his fellows suffer. He is
+the Chartist of Positivism without a throb of indignation at political
+subjection. That may be Positivism, but it is not Radicalism.
+
+Felix Holt discloses his character in his remark that "the Radical
+question was how to give every man a man's share in life. But I think
+that is to expect voting to do more towards it than I do."
+
+"A man's share in life" was the Baboeuf doctrine of Communism, which
+English Radicals never had. Holt's depreciation of the power of voting
+was the argument of the benevolent but beguiling Tory. It was part
+of the Carlylean contempt of a ten-thousandth part of a voice in the
+"national palava." This meant distrust, not only of the suffrage, but of
+Parliament itself. When both are gone, despotism becomes supreme. When
+Felix Holt talked so, he had ceased to be a Radical--if he ever was one.
+
+The power of voting has changed the status and dignity of working
+men--not much yet, but more will come. Hampered and incomplete as the
+suffrage is, it has put the workers on the way to obtain what they want,
+though they are a little puzzled which turning to take now they are on
+the road.
+
+Felix Holt continues: "I want the working men to have power.... and I
+can see plainly enough that our all having power will do little towards
+it at present.... If we have false expectations about men's characters,
+we are very much like the idiot who thinks he can carry milk in a can
+without a bottom. In my opinion the notions about what mere voting will
+do, are very much that sort" Felix declares that all the "scheme about
+voting and districts and annual parliaments [all points of the Charter]
+will not give working men what they want."*
+
+     * See "Felix Holt, the Radical," vol i. pp. 265-266,
+     Blackwood's edition of George Eliot
+
+Felix has much more to say in disparagement of political aspiration
+which is like reading one of Lord Salisbury's speeches when he was Lord
+Cranborne, but without the bitterness and contempt by which we knew the
+genuine Salisbury mind. The Eliot spirit is better--the argument more
+sympathetic, but the purport is the same. It means: "Leave politics
+alone. You will find all the redress that is good for you elsewhere."
+
+This, if true, is not Radicalism which sought to help itself, and not
+rise by compassion. Radicals may have expected too much from political
+reform--they may have thought political power to be an end instead of a
+means whereby better public conditions can be obtained, by which social
+effort could better be compassed, and its projects carried out. It
+is true that social condition can be improved by men of purpose and
+character under despotism, but this does not prove that despotism is
+desirable, since it can make itself at will an effectual obstacle
+to progress, and as a rule does so. The policy of seeking the best
+political condition in which social progress can be made, is Radicalism.
+The policy of contentment with things as they are, seeking social
+condition apart from politics, is Socialism, as it has been understood
+in England. "Felix Holt," like "Alton Locke," abounds in noble
+sentiments, exalts the character of working men, vindicates their social
+claims with eloquence. But Felix Holt was no more a Radical than Alton
+Locke was a Chartist. Alton Locke is against Chartism. Felix Holt is
+against Radicalism. Sir Leslie Stephen has written the most fascinating
+estimate of the writings and genius of George Eliot that has been
+produced. He has interesting things to say of Felix Holt, but it does
+not occur to him to say what he was so well able to say, whether he
+was a Radical or not--or if one, of what species. Therefore it has been
+necessary to place before the reader the evidence which will enable him
+to decide the question for himself.
+
+In reference to this chapter, Mr. J. M. Ludlow wrote to me, saying:
+
+["That you above all men should find fault with Kingsley or any one else
+for setting social above political reform, I own, amazes me. But it is
+not true in any sense of the words that Kingsley wanted Chartists to
+'take up social and drop political reform.' In his first letter to
+Thomas Cooper (Life, vol. i. p. 182), he expressly says: 'I would shed
+the last drop of my blood for the social and _political_ emancipation
+of the people.' [The italics are mine.] Again, you misquote General
+Maurice's (not Mr. Maurice's) words, when you say that 'Maurice owned
+that his object was not to socialise society, but to Christianise
+Socialism.' General Maurice's words are: 'Beyond all doubt he dreaded
+becoming the head of a _party_ of Christian Socialists. His great wish
+was to Christianise Socialism, not to Christian-socialise the universe'
+(Life, vol. ii. p. 47).
+
+"Your story about the 'old grey-headed Chartist' and T. Hughes does not
+tally altogether with the statement in Mr. Maurice's Life (vol. ii. p.
+13), but as I do not recollect being present (nor, I believe, were you)
+on the occasion, I cannot say which is right. I should have thought that
+an 'old greyheaded Chartist' would have had more courtesy as well as
+more sense than to hiss the Queen."
+
+Mr. Ludlow's letter throws a flood of light on the mistakes of Canon
+Kingsley and his colleagues. Mr. Ludlow "is amazed that I above all men
+should blame any man for setting social above political reform." It is
+now some fifty years since Mr. Ludlow first did me the honour to notice
+what I wrote or said. Yet I think he never knew me to subordinate
+political to social reform. I always thought it base to teach men to
+barter political freedom for social benefits. The leaders of early
+co-operation in the days before Mr. Ludlow knew it--being like Robert
+Owen, mostly of a Tory way of thinking--deprecated political reform,
+and thought its pursuit unnecessary, as their social remedy would do
+everything for the people. I always dissented from this doctrine and
+resented it, as the politician, if you do not watch him, will come some
+day and throw the savings of a century into a sea of imperial blood. Mr.
+Ludlow quotes a letter from Kingsley to Thomas Cooper, in which he says
+he "would shed the last drop of his blood for the social and political
+emancipation of the people." What! for the "smoke of the pit"? as he
+described the agitation for the Charter. What! "shed his blood" for a
+"Morrison pill measure"--shed the last drop of his blood" for a poor,
+bald, constitution-mongering cry as ever he heard"? I agree that this is
+extraordinary political enthusiasm. Still it was no proof that Kingsley
+was a Chartist, and that was my point. General Maurice's version of his
+father's saying that "his object was not to socialise society," shows
+that Maurice cared no more for Socialism (which at that time meant
+co-operative communism) than Kingsley cared for Chartism. Both meant
+well to the people in a theological--not a political way. The old
+grey-headed Chartist hissed the Queen's office, not herself. Republicans
+ever made that distinction.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX. THE OLD POSTILLION
+
+Besides Church Chartists and Positivist Chartists, there were Tory
+Chartists, of whom I add an account, and a list of those among them who
+were paid in the days of their hired activity. But the business of this
+chapter is with the Old Postillion, the founder of the real Chartists,
+who taught them and who knew them all.
+
+Of course I mean Francis Place, who was always ready to mount and drive
+the coach of the leaders of the people. Though he took that modest and
+useful position, it was he who determined the route, made the map of
+the country, and fixed the destination of the journey. Joseph Parkes
+himself, known as "The People's Attorney-General," first addressed Place
+as the "Old Postillion."* James Watson, a working-class politician (whom
+Place could always trust), wrote of him at his death as the "English
+Franklin,"** a very good title, having regard to the strength of the
+common-sense characteristics of Place.
+
+     *Wallas's "Life of Place," p. 346. Longmans, Green & Co., 1898.
+
+     **Reasoner, No. 409, vol. xvi., March 28 1854.
+
+One advantage (there were not many) of my imprisonment which I have
+never ceased to value, was that it led to my acquaintance with Place.
+From him I learned many things of great use to me in after life.
+One thing he said to me was: "A man who is always running after his
+character seldom has a character worth the chase." Some far-seeing
+qualification was generally present in what he said. For a man who is
+"always" vindicating himself becomes tiresome and ineffectual. Yet
+now and then, sooner or later, and often better later then sooner, a
+personal explanation may be useful. Printed actionable imputations
+were made against Cobbett of which no notice was taken--so far as I
+knew--which created in many minds an ineffaceable personal prejudice
+against him.
+
+Once imputations were published concerning me which justified
+contradiction. It came to pass that they were certified as true by
+a person of mark. Then I proposed to show that the allegations were
+untrue. Whereupon I was assured it would be to my disadvantage with
+many with whom I stood well, which meant that should I prove I was not
+a rascal I should lose many of my best friends, which shows the curious
+perplexities of personal explanation. Nevertheless, I made it.* Mr.
+Place told me that in the course of his career as defender of the
+people, "he had been charged with every crime known to the Newgate
+Calendar save wilful murder." A needless reservation, for that would
+have been believed. He let them pass, merely keeping a record of the
+accusations to see if their variety included any originality. There was
+one charge brought against him which to this day prejudices many against
+him. The one thought to be most overwhelming was that he was a "tailor"
+at Charing Cross. After that, argument against the principles he
+maintained was deemed superfluous; as though following a trade of
+utility disqualified a man's opinions on public affairs; while one who
+did nothing, and whose life and ideas were useless to mankind, might be
+listened to with deference.
+
+     *"Warpath of Opinion."
+
+In 1849 _Chambers's Journal_ published an article on the "Reaction of
+Philanthropy," against which I made vehement objection in an article in
+the _Spirit of the Age_, of which _Chambers's Journal_ took, for them,
+the unusual course of replying. The _Spirit of the Age_ coming under
+Place's notice, he sent me the following letter, which I cite exactly as
+it was expressed, in his quaint, vigorous and candid way:--
+
+"Brompton Square,
+
+"March 3, 1849.
+
+"Master Holyoake,--I have read your paper of observations on a paper
+written by Chambers, and dislike it very much. You assume an evil
+disposition in Chambers, and have laid yourself open to the same
+imputation. This dispute now consists of three of us, you and I and
+Chambers--all three of us, in vulgar parlance, being philanthropists. I
+have not read Chambers, but expect to find, from what you have said and
+quoted, that he, like yourself, has been led by his feelings, and not by
+his understanding, and has therefore written a mischievous paper. I will
+read this paper and decide for myself. Knowledge is not wisdom. The most
+conspicuous proof of this is the conduct of Lord Brougham. He knows
+many things, more, indeed, than most men, but is altogether incapable
+of combining all that relates to any one case, i.e., understanding it
+thoroughly, and he therefore never exhausts any subject, as a man of a
+more enlarged understanding would do. This, too, is your case. I think I
+may say that not any one of your reasonings is as perfect as it ought to
+be, and if I were in a condition to do so, I would make this quite plain
+to you by carrying out your defective _notions_--reasonings, if you like
+the term better.
+
+"It will, I am sure, be admitted, at least as far as your thinking can
+go, that neither yourself, nor Chambers, nor myself, would intentionally
+write a word for the purpose of misleading, much less injuring the
+working people; yet your paper must, as far as it may be known to them,
+not only have that tendency, but a much worse one; that of depraving
+them, by teaching them, in their public capacity, to seek revenge, to
+an extent which, could it pervade the whole mass, must lead to slaughter
+among the human race--the beasts of prey called mankind; for such they
+have ever been since they have had existence, and such as they must
+remain for an indefinite time, if not for ever. Their ever being
+anything else is with me a forlorn hope, while yet, as I can do no
+better, I continue in my course of life to act as if I really had a
+strong hope of immense improvement for the good of all.--Yours, really
+and truly,
+
+"Francis Place."
+
+There was value in Mr. Place's friendship. He was able to measure the
+minds of those with whom he came in contact, and for those for whom he
+cared he would do the service of showing to them the limits within which
+they were working. It was thus he took trouble to be useful to those who
+could never requite him, by putting strong, wise thoughts before them.
+
+Elsewhere* I have related how Place on one occasion--when all London was
+excited, and the Duke of Wellington indignant and repellant--went on a
+deputation to him, and was dismissed with the ominous words:
+
+    *"Sixty Years," vol. i. chap. 40.
+
+"You seem to have heads on your shoulders; take care you keep them
+there." The courage of seeking this interview, at which Place was the
+chief speaker, is well shown in the experience of George Petrie, who
+was known to Place. Petrie was an intelligent soldier, who served
+under Wellington in the Peninsular War, and was wounded in several
+engagements. It often happened that the commissary was in arrears to the
+troops with their rations, but when the supply arrived the arrears were
+faithfully served out to the soldiers. On one of these occasions, when
+some days' rations were due, Corporal Petrie was absent on duty when the
+rations were served out, and on his return he found himself without his
+arrears. To a half-starved soldier this was a serious disappointment,
+and Petrie applied to the quartermaster, to the adjutant, and to the
+captain of his company, but without effect, until he arrived at the
+commanding officer of his regiment Being as unsuccessful as he had been
+with the other officers, and becoming hungrier by delay, he requested
+permission to make his complaint to the Commander-in-Chief (Lord
+Wellington), which was granted. Upon being introduced he found his
+lordship seated at a table perusing some documents. "Well," said the
+Commander, without raising his eyes from the papers before him, "what
+does this man want?" "He is come to appeal to your lordship about
+his rations," replied the officer in attendance; whereupon the
+Commander-in-Chief, without asking or permitting a single word of
+explanation from the injured soldier, without discovering (as he ought
+in common justice to have done) whether the soldier had a real grievance
+for the redress of which he had sought the protection of the head of the
+army, Wellington hurriedly exclaimed, "Take the fellow away and give him
+a d----d good flogging!" Petrie, naturally indignant and a determined
+man, lay in wait two nights to shoot Wellington, who escaped by taking
+one night a different route, and on another being closely accompanied by
+his staff. The facts were published in 1836. Petrie's appeal shows
+that the Duke was not a pleasant person for Mr. Place to call upon. No
+biography or book about Wellington has anything to say of his sympathy
+with men who died in making his fame. He took the same care of his men,
+and no more, that he did of his muskets, which it must be owned is more
+than many employers do, who take more care of their machinery than of
+the workers. Wellington kept his men dry, but he had no more feeling for
+them than he had for their carbines. Petrie's story will be instructive
+to men who shout for war without knowing what the soldier's fate is.
+They were told by Tennyson "not to ask the reason why." Their business
+is to die without inquiring whether they are murderers or patriots, or
+what treatment will befall them in the ranks. If they do they may expect
+some form of the Petrie treatment.
+
+To Place, the experience of social reformers was as valuable as that
+of politicians. Social life gives its character to public life, and the
+politician is most to be valued whose measures tend to exalt the
+daily life of the people. Near the end of his days Place addressed
+the following (his last) letter to Robert Owen, with whom he had been
+acquainted since 1813:--
+
+"21, Brompton Square,
+
+"March 26, 1847.
+
+"Dear Owen,--It is some years since you and I had a conversation, and it
+is time we had one. Will you call upon me, or shall I call upon you? I
+go out but little, having an asthmatic complaint, which at times treats
+me sadly, and from which I am never wholly free. Worst of all, I have
+an affection of the brain, which will not permit me either to read or
+write, and when these two complaints co-operate I am something worse
+than good for nothing. You are, I conclude, in a much better state than
+I am, although you are not much younger, yet the doctors tell me that
+after having lived through seventy years without illness, I have
+nothing to complain of in the usual circumstances of old age now that I
+approximate to eighty.--
+
+"Yours truly,
+
+"Francis Place."
+
+
+From a condition of absolute penuriousness, he raised himself to the
+position of master tailor, from which, at the age of forty-five, he
+was able to retire upon an income of L1,1000. Shrewd, hard-headed,
+painstaking, vigilant and prudent as he was, he found, when more than
+sixty, that L650 of his income was irrevocably lost He had put a large
+part of his capital into house property, and left the investment of
+it to an incompetent or dishonest solicitor.* The fate befel him which
+afterwards befel Cobden, Thomas Bayley Potter, and some others.
+
+Why did Place let his prudence sleep? Why, in his walks with Jeremy
+Bentham,** did he not turn his steps to the sites of his investments,
+and judge for himself their value? His absorbed interest in public
+affairs is the only explanation. Yet he had often warned others that
+such engrossment, however honourable, should be limited, and not
+suffered to endanger necessary personal security.
+
+On the death of Place in 1854, at the age of eighty-two, the _Spectator_
+and the _Reasoner_ expressed a hope that a life of Place would be
+written as one of supreme utility to the great class which he had served
+so conspicuously.
+
+Happily this was done, forty-four years after, in 1898,*** by Mr. Graham
+Wallas. When he mentioned to me his intention of writing a biography
+of Place, I told him where, in the Manuscript Department of the British
+Museum, he would find virgin material in Place's own compact and
+clear hand. By research there and elsewhere, Mr. Wallas has produced
+a valuable and remarkable book, of which there is no similar one so
+instructive to a working-class politician.
+
+     * See Wallas's "Life of Place," p. 329.
+
+     ** See "Sixty Years," vol. i. p. 215.
+
+     *** "Life of Francis Place," by Graham Wallas, M.A.
+     Longmans, Green & Co.
+
+The most notable of all the insurgent publicists Place inspired and
+counselled, Richard Carlile, an impassable defender of a Free Press,
+whom pitiless power in the darkest days of its supremacy could not
+subdue, thus wrote of Place: "Though by circumstances (meaning those of
+nine years' imprisonment) separated from the immediate acquaintance of
+Mr. Place for several years past, I can, by experience of eighteen
+and the well-founded report of forty years, pronounce him a prodigy
+of useful, resolute, consistent political exertion and indefatigable
+labour, which evidently continues unabated to this day.... Francis
+Place, by his assistant labours and advice given to the members of the
+House of Commons, has produced more effect in that House than any man
+who was ever a member."*
+
+     * See article on the "Real Nobility of the Human Character,"
+     by A. P. (i.e., Richard Carlile) in the _Monthly Magazine_,
+     May 1835. p. 454.
+
+This testimony from one who bore the heat and burden of the day with
+Place, agrees with all recorded of him. Carlile wrote in 1835, and the
+public work Place was engaged in then he continued until his death in
+1854, at which time he was chairman of the Committee for Repealing Taxes
+on Knowledge. The Old Postillion was on the saddle to the last.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X. MEETING BREAKERS--LIST OF THOSE PAID FOR DOING IT
+
+The enfranchisement of the working class, for which Place worked
+so unceasingly, could not come--in the ordinary course of things
+English--until the middle class had succeeded in their contest with
+their feudal masters. By the possession of the vote in 1832, the middle
+class became a rival power to the aristocracy; and that power would be
+greatly augmented if the middle class should favour the extension of the
+franchise to the working class, as many of them were naturally inclined
+to do. The Tory policy then was to sow animosity between the middle and
+the working classes, which might prevent them acting together. Their
+method was to suggest that the middle class, having obtained what they
+wanted, cared nothing for the people, notwithstanding that Hume, Leader,
+Roebuck, Grote, Mill, Cobden, and Bright, were the great champions of
+the franchise for the people, who incurred labour, peril, and obloquy
+for them.
+
+Temple Leader said: "Do not be too sure workmen will not turn against
+you, do what you may for them. If sheep had votes they would give them
+all to the butcher"--as we have seen them do in this generation. The
+Tories had spite against the Whigs, who gave the people the first Reform
+Bill. Disraeli began to denounce the Whigs, and he soon found ostensible
+leaders of the people to help. Chartist speakers were bribed to take up
+the cry. The Irish in England, who thought their chances lay in English
+difficulty, willingly preached distrust of the middle class, and their
+eloquent tongues gave them ascendency among the Chartists, many of
+whom honestly believed that spite was a mode of progress, and under the
+impression that passion was patriotism, they took money to express it.
+The Liberal portion of the middle class had long contributed to the
+support of workmen's political societies. But when they found their own
+meetings broken up by Chartists, and their Tory adversaries aided at
+elections, their subscriptions decreased, and a new charge of hostility
+to the working class was founded on that.
+
+This chapter is a statement, not a plea. Considering the superior
+information and means of the middle class, they have not shown
+themselves so solicitous for the political claims of Labour as they
+ought--having regard to their own interests alone. Nor have the Labour
+class shown that regard for the rights of the middle class, by which
+Labour could have furthered its own advantages. Friendliness between
+them is the interest of both.
+
+Who would have thought that if you scratched a Chartist you would find
+a Tory agent under his skin? Yet so it proved with many of them. George
+Julian Harney was a Republican. In early Chartist days he wore on
+Winlaton platforms a Red Cap of Liberty, after the manner of Marat,
+and called himself "L'Ami du Peuple," after Marat's famous "Journal of
+Blood." Yet he was not the Friend of the People, in the sense we all
+thought. He went to America with the reputation of a fiery patriot. It
+procured for him a welcome from the Liberals of Boston, and he was given
+a clerkship in the State House soon after his arrival. He might have
+grown grey in England before a place would have been given him in any
+Government department here.* To my astonishment Harney soon began to
+write home disparagements of the American people and their Government,
+such as we were familiar with from aristocratic pens. When the Bulgarian
+massacres were stirring the indignation of English Liberals, he sent
+me a pamphlet he had written, in the spirit of Disraeli's "Coffee House
+Babble" speech. I wrote to him, saying "it read like the production of
+a full-blown Tory." He resented the imputation--when all the time it was
+true. He had cast off his Liberal garments, and was naked, and ashamed.
+Afterwards he cast off the shame. When I was in Boston, in 1879,
+American Liberals expressed to me their disappointment that Mr. Harney
+neither associated with them nor lent them any assistance in their
+societies, such as they had expected when they welcomed him to their
+shores. Yet to the end of his days I remained his personal friend, in
+consideration of services in agitations in which we had worked together.
+I had helped him when he issued _The Republic_ and had written words in
+honour of his first wife, a Mauchline beauty of the Amazon type, whose
+heroism was notable. In times of danger she would say to her husband,
+"Do what you think to be your duty, and never mind me."
+
+     * Sam Bamford, who wrote the "Pass of Death," when Canning
+     died, was old before we accorded him a seat in a cellar in
+     Somerset House, copying papers at a few shillings a week. It
+     was all his Parliamentary friends could procure for him.
+
+I first knew Harney at the time of the Bull Ring Riots in Birmingham in
+1839. He was "wanted" by the authorities. I alone knew where he lodged.
+He knew he was safe in my hands, and we never ceased to trust each
+other. I never change my friendship for a colleague because he changes
+his opinions; but I never carry my friendship so far as to change my
+convictions for his.
+
+Happily it is now thought a scandal to say that Chartist politicians
+took money from Tories to break up Liberal meetings. This shows there
+is a feeling against it. But they did take it Thomas Cooper, as well
+as Ernest Jones, the two poets of Chartism, were themselves in this
+disastrous business.
+
+When Thomas Cooper came to London he went, as most Chartists of note
+did, to see Francis Place. After some conversation Place asked, "Why
+did you take money to prevent Liberal meetings being held?" Cooper
+vehemently denied it. Place then showed him a cheque which Sir Thomas
+Easthope, the banker, had cashed for him. Place said, "You had L109,
+so much in gold, so much in silver, and so much in copper, for the
+convenience of paying minor patriots." Years after Cooper in his Life
+expressed regret that he had denied receiving Tory money.
+
+Mr. Bright, in the House of Commons, June 5th, 1846, told the honourable
+member, Mr. Thomas Slingsby Duncombe, that those parties with whom he
+was found at public meetings out of doors had been the greatest enemies
+of the repeal of the Corn Laws. (Cries of "Name!")
+
+In answer to the cries of "Name" (says a leading article of the _League_
+newspaper), we will mention a few only of the most prominent and active
+of these:--Feargus O'Connor, Leach, McDowall, Pitkeithly, Nightingale,
+O'Brien, Marsden, Bairstow, Cooper, Harney--some of whom, to our
+knowledge, and as we are ready to prove, were well paid for their
+opposition to the Free Traders. Nor would it be difficult to show
+where the money came from. Let one fact suffice. In June, 1841, on
+the occasion of a great open-air Anti-Corn Law meeting being held in
+Stevenson Square, Manchester (in answer to the taunt of the Duke of
+Richmond that no public meeting could be held against the Corn Laws),
+the monopolists made a great effort to upset the meeting. Every Chartist
+leader of any notoriety was brought to Manchester from places as distant
+as Leicester and Sunderland. The most prominent leader and fugleman of
+the opposition was Mr. Charles Wilkins, Dr. Sleigh and he moving and
+seconding the amendment to the Free Trade resolution. On that very
+morning Mr. Wilkins cashed a cheque for L150, drawn by the Duke of
+Buckingham at Jones and Lloyd's Bank. At that meeting of 10,000 working
+men the Chartists were driven off the ground. Blows being exchanged
+and blood spilt in the fray, the aim of the Chartist party to create
+confusion was so far gained; and the moral effect of the demonstration
+was effectually marred. For more than three years at the beginning
+of the agitation every public meeting called by the Free Traders was
+subjected to outrages of a similar kind by the followers of O'Connor.*
+
+     * The _League_ newspaper, No. 142, vol. iii. p. 625.
+
+A short time ago Mr. Chamberlain made a point of declaring that the
+working classes were against Free Trade in Cobden's days. The only
+portion of the working class known to oppose Free Trade were the
+Chartists. Why they did so, Mr. Chamberlain ought to know. If he does
+not, he may learn the reason in these pages. The list of the payments
+made to them was published, when it could have been contradicted if
+untrue. But no disproof was ever attempted. Even "Honest Tom Duncombe,"
+as the Chartists affectionately called him, was known to be in the pay
+of the French Emperor, of sinister renown, as documents found in the
+Tuileries showed. The Chartists, who became the hired agents of Tory
+hostility, did more to delay and discredit the Charter and to create
+distrust of the cause of Labour than all outside enemies put together.
+
+Those who censure the middle class for indifference to the Parliamentary
+claims of Labour, should bear in mind the provocation they received.
+Their meetings were frustrated for years after the Anti-Corn Law
+agitation was ended.
+
+In the light of what we know it seems hypocrisy in the Tories to speak
+of Chartists with the horror and disdain which they displayed, when all
+the while the Chartists were doing their work. It seems also ingratitude
+that when questions were raised in Parliament of mitigating the
+condition of Chartist prisoners, the Tories never raised a single voice
+in their favour.
+
+We know there were Tory Chartists, because they took money from the
+Tories to promote their interests. We know it also by the sign that
+while they denounced the Whigs they were always silent about the Tories.
+Now the Whigs are practically dropped and Liberals are denounced, there
+is the same tell-tale silence as to the Tories. Now we see a party
+arise so virtuous, philosophic and impartial that no party suits their
+fastidious taste, and they will have nothing to do with Liberals or
+Tories. When they speak, Liberals are referred to as very unsatisfactory
+persons, but no objections are made to Tories. The reticence is still
+instructive.
+
+So be it. In art, every man to his taste; in politics, every man
+according to his conscience. I only describe species. There is a science
+of political horticulture, and it is only by knowing the nature of the
+plant that any one can tell what flower or fruit to expect. Yet
+there are politicians who go mooning about looking for nectarines on
+crab-apple trees. The Old Postillion made no such mistake.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI. TROUBLE WITH HER MAJESTY
+
+
+I.
+
+References are continually made in the Press to certain events recorded
+in this chapter founded upon statements made by myself, but lacking
+details and without the official substantiating documents. The original
+summonses and other legal instruments were preserved, and copies of
+them are given herein. Reports only would be incredible to the new
+generation, and it is necessary to publish them to give authenticity to
+the narrative of what really took place.
+
+It seems better to say "Trouble with Her Majesty" than Trouble with
+the Queen, "Majesty" being more official than personal. The three
+indictments to be recorded in this narrative all took place in the
+Victorian reign. It seems a disadvantage of the monarchical system that
+the name of the head of the reigning House should be attached to all
+proceedings, great or petty, noble or mean, honourable or infamous. It
+assumes the personal cognisance and interference in everything by the
+occupant of the Throne. It is the same in the theological system, where
+the Deity is assumed to personally cause or permit whatever takes place
+in this inexplicable universe. If the glory of the mountain be his, the
+devastation of the inhabitants of the valley by a volcano is also his
+act. The Church is beginning, not too soon, to discourage this theory.
+The curate rescued from a wreck who reported to Archbishop Whately that
+he had been "providentially" saved, was asked by the logical prelate,
+"Do you intend to say that the lost have been 'providentially' drowned?"
+Thus blasphemy is made one of the wings of religion--just as sedition
+becomes a wing of loyalty, when discreditable incidents are represented
+as the personal acts of the Crown. Lawyers know that the King or
+Queen is not directly answerable, but by acute legal fiction, odious
+responsibility is transferred to others. But the people always think
+that he or she, in whose name a thing is done, is answerable for it,
+and theologians all teach that everything, even rascality, occurs by the
+will of God.
+
+References to my indebtedness to the Exchequer of L600,000 of fines
+incurred by publishing unstamped newspapers, seem to readers of to-day a
+factless tradition. This is not so, as will appear from the warrants and
+notices of prosecution which follow, copied from the original documents
+in my possession, which have never until now been published.
+
+Early in 1855, I received the following message from Her Majesty, in the
+18th year of her reign:--
+
+"Victoria, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
+and Ireland Queen, Defender of the Faith, to George Jacob Holyoake,
+greeting. We command and strictly injoin you that (all excuses apart)
+you appear before the Barons of our Exchequer at Westminster, on the
+thirty-first day of January instant, To answer us concerning certain
+Articles then and there on our behalf to be objected against you. And
+this in no wise omit under the penalty of One Hundred Pounds, which we
+shall cause to be levied to our use upon your Goods and Chattels, Lands
+and Tenements, if you neglect this our present command. Witness, Sir
+Frederick Pollock, Knight, at Westminster, the eleventh day of January,
+in the eighteenth Year of our Reign.
+
+"By the Barons.
+
+"H. W. Vincent, Q.R."
+
+Mr. George Jacob Holyoake,--You are served with this Process to the
+intent that you may by your Attorney, according to the practice of the
+Court, appear in Her Majesty's Court of Exchequer, at the return thereof
+in order to your defence in this prosecution.
+
+"Mr. George Jacob Holyoake.
+
+"At the suit of Her Majesty's Attorney-General,
+
+"By Information.
+
+"Folio 9--1855.
+
+"Joseph Timm," Solicitor of the Inland Revenue,
+
+"Somerset House, London.
+
+"Folio 9--55-
+
+"Inland Revenue, Somerset House.
+
+"Solicitors' Department.
+
+"The Attorney-General against George Jacob Holyoake.
+
+"The penalties sought to be recovered by this prosecution are several of
+L20 each, which the defendant has incurred by publishing certain
+newspapers called _War Chronicle_ and _The War Fly Sheet_ on unstamped
+paper."
+
+
+As I had published 30,000 copies, the penalties incurred were L600,000.
+
+These alarming documents were accompanied by intimation as to the
+question at issue, and the penalties to be recovered. My solicitors,
+Messrs. Ashurst, Waller and Morris, No. 6, Old Jewry, put in an
+appearance for me, but on the repeal of the duty shortly after,
+a hearing was never entered upon, and the penalties have not been
+collected. How they came to be incurred in respect of the _War
+Chronicles_ the reader may see in "Sixty Years," vol. i. p. 287.
+
+No intimation was ever given to me--there is no courtesy, I believe, in
+law--that these intimidating summonses were withdrawn. I had no defence
+against the charge. I could not deny, nor did I intend to deny, that I
+had knowingly and wilfully published the said papers. In justification
+I could only allege that I had acted, as I believed, in the public
+interest, which, I was told, was no legal answer. The law, which ought
+to be clear and plain, was, I knew, full of quirks and surprises; and,
+for all I knew, or know to this day, the payment of the fines incurred
+might be demanded of me. It was communicated to the then Chancellor of
+the Exchequer (Mr. Gladstone) that in case of the full demand being made
+upon me, I should be under the necessity of asking him to take it in
+weekly instalments, as I had not the whole amount by me.
+
+The position of an "unstamped" debtor was not, in those days, a light
+one. My house in Fleet Street could be entered by officers of the Inland
+Revenue; every person in it, printers, assistants in the shop, and any
+one found upon the premises could be arrested. The stock of books could
+be seized, and blacksmiths set to break up all presses and destroy all
+type, as was done to Henry Hetherington; and for many weeks I made
+daily preparations for arrest.
+
+The _St. James's Gazette_ (April 13, 1901) referred to the fines of
+L600,000 incurred by me. What I really owed was a much larger sum,
+had the Government been exacting. Previously to the _War Chronicle_
+liability, I had published the _Reasoner_ twelve years, of which the
+average number issued may have exceeded 2,000 weekly, or 104,000 a
+year--every copy of which, containing news and being unstamped, rendered
+me liable to a fine of L20 each copy. Now 104,000 x 12 x L20 exceeded
+more millions of indebtedness than I like to set down. Any arithmetical
+reader can ascertain the amount for himself. A friend in the Inland
+Revenue Office first made the calculation for me, which astonished me
+very much, as it did him. Had the whole sum been recoverable it might
+have saved the Budget of a Chancellor of the Exchequer struggling with a
+deficit.
+
+The Government were frequently asked to prosecute me. It was not from
+any tenderness to me that they did not. It was their reluctance to give
+publicity to the _Reasoner_ that caused them to refrain. It was the
+advocacy of unusual opinion which gave me this immunity.
+
+The _St. James's Gazette_ asked me: "Is it justifiable for a good
+citizen to break a law because he believes it to be wrong?" I answered
+"No! unless the public good seems to require it, and that he who breaks
+the law is prepared to take the consequences." I never evaded the
+consequences, nor complained of them when they came.
+
+If every one who breaks a law first satisfies himself that public
+interest justifies it, and he is ready to meet the penalty, only bad
+laws would be broken. It is also the duty of a citizen to find out
+whether there is any practical way open for procuring the repeal of
+a bad law before breaking it. Respect for law, under representative
+government, in which the law-breaker has a share, is a cardinal duty of
+a citizen.
+
+On my violation of the law in the matter of the _War Chronicles_ Mr.
+Gladstone (the Chancellor of the Exchequer) said to a deputation, that
+he knew "my object was not to break the law, but to try the law."
+
+The impulsive and the ambitious of repute may overlook this
+consideration, but as I sought neither distinction nor martyrdom, I
+acted as I did because no other course was open, and no other person
+would take this.
+
+
+II.
+
+In the year following the prosecution in the Court of Exchequer, Her
+Majesty gave me further trouble in discharge of the odious duty imposed
+upon her as collector of debts for the Church. As few know to-day how
+hateful this impost was, it will be informing to see how the clerical
+case was officially stated to me. It began as follows:--
+
+"Mr. George Jacob Holyoake,--Take Notice that in and by certain Rates or
+Assessments made by virtue of and for the purposes mentioned in the Act
+of Parliament passed in the 4th Year of the Reign of her late Majesty
+Queen Ann, Cap. 27, intituled, 'An Act for settling the Impropriate
+Tythes of the Parish of Saint Bridgett, alias Bride's, London,' You are
+assessed in respect of the Houses, Shops, Warehouses, Cellars, Stables,
+Tofts, Grounds, or other Tenements or Hereditaments, within the said
+Parish occupied by you, in four several Sums amounting to One pound four
+shillings and eightpence for four several Quarters of a Year commencing
+at the Feast of The Birth of our Lord Christ, 1854, and ending at the
+same Feast in the Year 1855, and that such assessments are made on a
+Rental of L74. Dated this 22nd day of May, 1856.
+
+"John William Thomas,
+
+"Collector of the said Rates."
+
+
+These ecclesiastical cormorants took a hungry survey of every place
+containing property on which they could lay hands. After the Rathcormac
+massacre, where two sons of the widow Ryan were shot by the soldiers,
+employed by the Church in collecting its rates--how appropriate and
+consoling it must be to a bereaved mother to read that the rates
+commenced to be due at "The Feast of the Birth of our Lord Christ!" Yet
+there are people who go about promoting prosecutions for blasphemy, and
+with a holy partiality leave untouched outrages like these. The summons
+sent to me speaks of the "late Queen Ann," who had been dead 140 years.
+Her name being spelt "Ann" shows that she had been dead long enough to
+lose the final "e" of her name. The rent of the Fleet Street house was
+L74, L400 having been paid for the lease. Each time there came on
+the scene the local agent of the Church, who delivered an interesting
+intimation as follows:--
+
+"Mr. George Jacob Holyoake,--I do hereby demand payment of One pound
+four shillings and eightpence, due from you for Rates made in pursuance
+of the Act of Parliament passed in the 4th Year of the Reign of her
+late Majesty Queen Ann, Cap. 17, intituled, 'An Act for settling the
+Impropriate Tythes of the Parish of Saint Bridgett, alias Brides,
+London.' And take notice that unless the same be paid to me within Four
+Days next after the demand thereof hereby made, I shall Distrain your
+Goods and Chattels, and sell and dispose thereof, and out of the Monies
+arising thereby pay the said Sum of Money, and the Costs allowed by the
+Acts of Parliament in that case made and provided.
+
+"Dated this 22nd day of May, 1856.
+
+"John William Thomas,
+
+"Collector of the said Rates."
+
+
+The predatory Vicar of St. Bride's, for whose advantage the contemplated
+seizure was being made, remained in the background, praying for my soul
+while he picked my pocket, as I regarded his action.
+
+After two or three seizures of property, I sent to the vicar payment
+"in kind"--the form in which the payment of tithe was originally
+contributed. The chief produce of my farm in Fleet Street consisted
+in volumes of the _Reasoner_. I sent the vicar three volumes, which
+exceeded in value his demand. He troubled me no more.
+
+The last citation relates to a trial in which Lord Chief Justice
+Coleridge was concerned, and Henry Thomas Buckle made a splendid defence
+of a poor well-sinker who was afraid of killing the world.
+
+
+III.
+
+
+In a Cornish village in 1857 small patch advertisements broke out like
+small-pox, of which the following is a copy:--
+
+"BLASPHEMY.
+
+"Any person who has seen a man writing Blasphemous sentences
+on Gates or other places in the neighbourhood of Liskeard, is requested
+to communicate immediately with Messrs. Pedler and Grylls, Liskeard, or
+with the Rev. R. Hobhouse, St. Ive Rectory."
+
+Whether the perturbed Rector of St Ive found out anything, or whether
+ashamed, as he might well be, at being mixed up in so miserable a
+business, he retired from it, and the Rev. Paul Bush appeared in his
+place as a spiritual detective on the pounce, and a poor, eccentric
+well-sinker, one Thomas Pooley, was accused of writing in chalk
+incoherent words in a hand only intelligible to the all-construing eyes
+of the policeman of the Church, who caused to be issued the following
+ponderous summons in her Majesty's name:--
+
+"To Thomas Pooley, of the Borough of Liskeard in the County of Cornwall,
+Labourer.
+
+"Cornwall to wit, Whereas Information and Complaint (a) hath this day
+been laid before the undersigned, one of Her Majesty's Justices of the
+Peace in and (b) for the said County of Cornwall by The Reverend Paul
+Bush of the Parish of Duloe, in the said County, for that you the said
+Thomas Pooley on the twenty-second of May last at the Parish of Duloe,
+in the said County, did unlawfully and wilfully compose, write and
+publish a certain scandalous, impious, blasphemous and profane Libel of
+and concerning the Holy Scriptures and the Christian Religion, and for
+having blasphemously spoken against God and profanely scoffed at the
+Holy Scripture, and exposed it to contempt and ridicule, and also for
+having spoken against Christianity and the established religion.
+
+"These are therefore to command you in Her Majesty's name, to be
+and appear on Wednesday the 1st day of July next at 10 o'clock in the
+Forenoon, at Treean Gate in the Parish of Lanewath in the said County,
+before such said Justices of the Peace for the County as may then
+be there, to answer to the said Information and Complaint, and to be
+further dealt with according to Law.
+
+"Given under my hand and Seal this 27th day of June, in the year of
+our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, at Liskeard in the
+County aforesaid.
+
+"James Glencross."
+
+
+Notes on the summons were:--"(a) If upon Oath insert 'On Oath.' (b)
+Erase the words in italic when summons is issued by Justice acting out
+of jurisdiction in which he resides."
+
+There is more untruth and holy malevolence in this summons than Pooley
+was ever known to be guilty of in all his life. Mr. Bush charges Mr.
+Pooley with "wilfully composing" the words complained of. Everybody
+in the parish knew that he had not the mental coherence to "compose"
+anything. He had neither spoken against God--for he was a believer in
+Him--nor was he a preacher either in pulpit or on street corner. Nor
+did he "speak" about God, except when he was being stripped in gaol. His
+"scoffing against the Holy Scriptures" merely meant that he was incensed
+against priests. The charge that he had published a "scandalous,
+impious, blasphemous, and profane libel" was simply the reckless,
+false, professional language of the clergyman and lawyer who drew up
+the summons, which would be counted unscrupulous and venomous in other
+persons. In this summons we have the same profanation of the Queen's
+name as we have already seen. How can a monarch expect his office or
+character to be held in esteem who permits his or her name to be cited
+for the purposes of any bigot who has spite in his heart and falsehood
+on his lips? People cease to respect a monarch who has no respect for
+himself.
+
+There was more of the evil spirit of untruth in the charges in the
+summons than in all Mr. Pooley's vague and honest anger. I went down to
+Duloe to see Mr. Bush, and found him residing in a spacious house, with
+a pleasant outlook of roads and fields before it, while poor Pooley
+lived in wells. Why should one so well-placed as the Rev. Paul Bush
+conspire to procure twenty-one months' imprisonment for this friendless,
+half-demented parishioner? Very likely Mr. Bush was by nature a
+kind-hearted clergyman in whom theology generated--
+
+"Words, Which turned the milk of kindness into curds."
+
+At the trial Pooley, who was entirely undefended received a sentence
+of twenty-one months' imprisonment. The son of the judge, Sir John Duke
+Coleridge, who prosecuted, said, "It was not the prosecution of
+opinion in any sense, but society was to be protected from outrage and
+indecency." If so, six weeks' imprisonment was more than sufficient in a
+case in which there was no wantonness and only half-insane conviction in
+it Mr. Thomas Henry Buckle, the famous historian of Civilisation, wrote
+in _Fraser_ an indignant and generous denunciation of the sentence, and
+those concerned in it. It was the last great letter of a philosopher in
+defence of the mental liberty of a poor man, and no equal to it appeared
+in the century. I published an account of Pooley's case, which Buckle
+saw. Sir John Duke (who afterwards became Lord Chief Justice Coleridge)
+had behaved, as prosecuting counsel, better than I knew, as I
+admitted when I did know it. Still, the sentence (twenty-one months'
+imprisonment) will always stand on record as atrocious, apart from the
+irresponsible condition of the offender. The words said to be "spoken,"
+and which were made a count in his indictment, were mere exclamations,
+provoked by the irritation of gaolers, which the prisoner had neither
+means nor intent of publishing. A barrister in court was struck by the
+signs of insanity in Pooley, unnoticed by the preoccupied eyes of the
+judge and his son.
+
+Pooley, as we have said, was a well-sinker, a tall, strongly-built man
+of honest aspect and of good courage and fidelity, who had descended
+into a deep well and rescued his master from death. Though not a
+philosopher, Pooley, like some who were, was a wild sort of Pantheist.
+He thought this world to be an organism, and believed it to be alive;
+and such was the tenderness and reverence of his devotion that nothing
+could persuade him to dig a well beyond a certain depth, lest he should
+wound the heart of the world.
+
+Some years later Lord Coleridge informed me that he did not press the
+case against Pooley, and that he had no idea he was of uncertain mind,
+nor did his father suspect it. I thought it was impossible they could be
+unaware of it, as it was well known to all Liskeard. In justice to Lord
+Coleridge's father, I ought to say, that when he subsequently became
+aware of Pooley's condition of mind, he at once consented to his
+liberation, and Pooley was taken home, after four months' imprisonment,
+in the carriage of the governor of the gaol, who had sympathy for him.
+Sir William Molesworth and Sir Erskine Perry were, after Mr. Buckle,
+the chief instruments of his liberation. The facts I have related of the
+Coleridges were not known to me when I first saw Mr. Buckle, who wrote
+upon the information I gave him. Pooley was a resolute man, who had
+self-respect and would not wear the prison dress. When it was put upon
+him he tore it to shreds, and he was left naked in the dark cell in
+which he was confined. He would have been made quite mad had he not been
+released when he was.
+
+
+IV.
+
+The last case in which I supply documentary evidence is that concerning
+the limelight placed on the Clock Tower at Westminster. No member of
+Parliament had thought of it, nor should I, had I not needed it for my
+own convenience. I was then secretary to Mr. (afterwards Sir) Joseph
+Cowen. When he wished to take part in a division he would ask me to
+ascertain whether the House was sitting. In those days there were two
+lamp-posts in Palace Yard with three lights each, which were kept in
+while the "House was sitting," but when the "House was up" two of the
+lights were extinguished. There was no other sign, and I had often
+to ride from Redcliffe Square, Brompton, to Palace Yard before the
+signal-light could be seen. The limelight had just been perfected, and
+it occurred to me that if an effective light was placed on the
+Clock Tower it would be conspicuous for miles around, and members of
+Parliament, dining in the suburbs, could learn by that sign when the
+House was sitting and its absence would indicate that the House was
+up. I wrote to Lord John Manners, giving reasons of Parliamentary
+convenience for the institution of such a light Lord John was then First
+Commissioner of Works. The following is a copy of the letter directed to
+be sent to me:--
+
+"Office of Works, 12, Whitehall Place, S.W." It is requested that any
+answer to this letter may be directed to The Private Secretary to the
+First Commissioner of H.M. Works.
+
+"8--1--68.
+
+"Sir,--I am desired by Lord John Manners to acknowledge with
+thanks the receipt of your letter, and suggestions.
+
+"Your faithful servant,
+
+"H. Stuart Wortlev.
+
+"G. J. Holyoake, Esq."
+
+
+Nothing was done during Lord John Manners' reign as Commissioner of
+Works, but when Mr. A. S. Ayrton became Commissioner of the Board,
+he found the letter in the archives of the office, and had the light
+erected.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII. UNFORESEEN QUALITIES IN PUBLIC MEN
+
+
+I.
+
+Without noticing unexpected qualities now and then, and remembering
+them, many are needlessly discouraged in purposes of improvement. The
+two Bramwells, the judge and his brother Frederick, were both men of
+great parts. This narrative relates to the Judge, who could do mischief
+at will--and did it. It was Baron Bramwell who protected the bribers of
+Berwick. It is to judges of his political proclivities, to whom bribers
+look still for countenance. Young men of to-day enjoy advantages unknown
+to their forefathers, and the new generation are mostly ignorant how
+their good fortune, which Liberalism brought them, came to them--and
+they make no inquiry. Not only have they no pride in sustaining the
+political traditions of their family, but their base ambition is to give
+the influence of the position they have attained to that party who
+put every impediment in the way of their ever emerging from social and
+industrial obscurity--a condition from which they did not deserve to be
+rescued.
+
+Political reformers used to complain of bribery at elections, by which a
+few wealthy political adventurers tempted the baser sort of citizens to
+sell the liberties of the nation to them. Tories, by the law of their
+being, seek authority by which the majority of them intend the control
+of public affairs for their own advantage. They supply money for
+corruption, intending to refund themselves by place and profit when the
+resources of the State come under their manipulation. Even judges
+of their party accord them legal security in their political
+nefariousness.
+
+When the Liberals of Newcastle-on-Tyne claimed that Parliament should
+terminate electoral bribery, Lord John Russell said the law was already
+against it, and that the Newcastle applicants to the House of Commons
+should put bribery down at their own door, meaning in Berwick-on-Tweed,
+notorious for it Lord John had never tried to do this, or he would not
+have advised the attempt His counsel at the time seemed reasonable, and
+what came of it was shown in a petition from the Northern Reform Union,
+sent to Parliament (1859), which set forth as follows:--
+
+That the petitioners were members of a society named "The Northern
+Reform Union," which was instituted for the purpose of obtaining a
+further Reform of the Representation of the People of these Realms in
+Parliament, and for the purpose of vindicating that purity and freedom
+of election which is essential to a true representative system. Amongst
+other steps with a view to these purposes, the said petitioners were
+induced to institute inquiries into certain corrupt practices, alleged
+to have taken place in the election of a member for the town of
+Berwick-upon-Tweed.
+
+The result of these inquiries was, that the petitioners were induced,
+as a matter of public duty, to prosecute certain electors of the town
+of Berwick-upon-Tweed for the offence of offering bribes at the election
+aforesaid. The prosecution was instituted under the provision of the Act
+of 1854, known as "The Corrupt Practices Prevention Act," when one or
+more of the persons upon whom writs were served in accordance with the
+provisions of the Act, made affidavit that to the best of their belief,
+Mr. Richard Bagnall Reed, the secretary of the Northern Reform Union
+and the nominal prosecutor in these cases, was not of ability to pay the
+costs of suit in case of nonsuit, and applied through their counsel
+to Sir G. W. Bramwell, one of the Barons of Her Majesty's Court of
+Exchequer, to make order that security should be lodged for payment
+of the costs in these actions if proceeded with. A report of the
+particulars of this application was published in a newspaper printed at
+Newcasde under the title of the _Northern Daily Express_, which report
+is verbatim, as follows:--
+
+"London, _December_ 16, 1859.
+
+"Actions have been commenced, at the suit of Mr. R. B. Reed, the
+secretary of the Northern Reform Union, against several persons
+suspected of bribery at the last Berwick election. The actions are
+founded on the 5th Section of 'The Corrupt Practices Prevention Act,
+1854,' which provides that 'any one who shall be guilty of using any
+undue influence at any Parliamentary election shall not only be guilty
+of a misdemeanour, but shall also be liable to forfeit the sum of fifty
+pounds to any person who shall sue for the same, together with full
+costs of suit.'
+
+"An application was made at chambers before the Hon. Mr. Baron B ram
+well, on the part of the defendants in the above actions, for an order
+that the plaintiff should give security for costs.
+
+"Mr. Chitty appeared in support of the application.
+
+"Mr. Rutherford appeared on behalf of the secretary of the Northern
+Reform Union to oppose the granting of the order.
+
+"Mr. Chitty founded his application on an affidavit, which stated
+that Mr. Reed was not the real plaintiff in the action; he was only
+instigated by the Northern Reform Union, who were the real plaintiffs.
+A copy of the _Northern Daily Express_ was annexed as an exhibit to the
+affidavit, and a passage was read from it relating to the proceedings of
+the Northern Reform Union. Mr. Chitty cited cases to prove that where a
+plaintiff in an action was for the benefit of third parties, he is bound
+to give security for costs; and he endeavoured to show that in the event
+of the action being decided in the defendant's favour, it would be in
+vain to look to the plaintiff for costs.
+
+"Mr. Baron Bramwell hereupon made the following extraordinary remark:
+'This Northern Reform Union is a purity society. It consists of
+patriots, and surely these gentlemen will only be too eager to give
+any security that may be desired, if it were merely to show their
+high-mindedness and integrity.'
+
+"Mr. Rutherford said that his Lordship, on looking into the case, would
+find that the application now made was a vexatious proceeding to throw
+obstacles in the way of the plaintiff. Mr. Reed was the secretary of the
+Union, and the proper person to sue. The Union must sue in the name of
+some one, and who so proper as their secretary? The authorities that
+had been cited on the other side did not touch the case, because the
+plaintiff was suing for penalties, which, if recovered, would be for his
+own benefit. It mattered not at whose instigation he was suing. He was
+suing for a penalty, which the Act of Parliament gave him the right to
+sue for.
+
+"Mr. Baron Bramwell: 'What is the plaintiffs position? Is he a man of
+substance?'
+
+"Mr. Rutherford: 'He is, I am told, a gentleman of a respectable
+position. But that is not the question; it appears clearly from the
+authorities that in penal actions the courts have refused to order
+security, even in cases where the common informer was a person of great
+poverty. In one case Mr. Justice Bayley says, "Many _qui tam_ actions
+have been brought by men who were worth nothing, but there is no
+instance of their being compelled to give security for costs. It might
+happen that the penalties had been incurred, but their recovery would be
+defeated by requiring such a security."'
+
+"Mr. Baron Bramwell here observed: 'There is great force in that Men of
+property are not likely to trouble themselves about such things. I think
+I cannot make the order. Cannot some agreement be come to between the
+parties? Mr. Chitty, will you name any other member of the Union to
+be substituted as plaintiff instead of Mr. Reed? Some one must be
+plaintiff; and the same argument you have used against Mr. Reed would
+apply to any one else.'
+
+"A long discussion here ensued.
+
+"Mr. Rutherford said he could not, without the consent of his clients,
+agree to substitute another person as plaintiff. The Act would become a
+dead letter if the judges allowed obstacles to be thrown in the way of
+carrying it out. There was no ground at all for this application, and
+if his Lordship granted it, it was impossible to conceive under what
+circumstances a similar application would be refused.
+
+"Mr. Chitty insisted that his clients would not be able to recover their
+costs if the action were decided in their favour. It was a very hard
+thing to be compelled to defend an action at the suit of invisible
+personages. His Lordship had said that 'purity principles were all very
+fine.'
+
+"Mr. Baron Bramwell: 'No doubt they are. It is very easy to go about
+professing integrity. To commence actions against people for penalties
+when the plaintiff cannot pay the costs, is a cheap way of becoming
+a patriot--cheap and, I think, nasty. I find that the Act gives me
+a discretion. The affidavits made by the defendants have not been
+answered. I shall make the order.'
+
+"The order was made accordingly.
+
+"The petitioners were informed and believed that the report quoted was
+substantially and literally correct. It was reprinted and commented upon
+by various other journals, and no attempt to question its accuracy was
+made, either on the part of the learned judge or of any other person.
+
+"The petitioners were persuaded that the language asserted to have been
+used by the learned judge on this occasion cannot be deemed by, nor
+appear to Parliament either befitting the station of him who used it,
+or just towards the suitors in this prosecution, who were taking legal
+steps, under a sense of public duty, to put a stop to practices which
+tend to corrupt the source of all law.
+
+"The petitioners submitted that the order made on this occasion is
+contrary to all precedent, and inconsistent with the intention and
+enactments of the said Corrupt Practices Act, which by Section 13
+expressly limits the obligation on the plaintiff to find security for
+costs to those cases only where he may seek to recover, by order of the
+judge, the costs of prosecution for offences against the Act.
+
+"The petitioners urged that they did not deserve to have their motives
+and characters thus questioned and sneered away, nor did they think that
+such language as that imputed to Baron Bramwell can tend to add to that
+respect for the law and those who administer it which the petitioners
+trusted may never be lost amongst Englishmen.
+
+"On the contrary, such language appeared to the petitioners calculated
+to cause the people to believe that a complicity with such practices
+exists amongst the administrators of the law; subversive at once of
+justice and of the representative portion of the Legislature.
+
+"The petitioners, therefore, prayed the honourable House of Commons to
+take such steps as might appear to it most fitting, to bring the matter
+under the notice of Her Majesty and her advisers in such a mode as may
+prevent a repetition of the same."
+
+This remarkable petition, which may be read in the records of the House,
+bore the signatures of the following persons:--
+
+     Thomas Doubleday,
+     James Eadie,
+     James Watson,
+     James Hay,
+     Jos. Cowen, jun.,
+     Robert Sutherland,
+     Thomas Gregson,
+     Thomas Allen,
+     Jos. Barlow,
+     Thomas Spotswood, jun.,
+     John Emerson,
+     Robert Ramsay,
+     William Douglas,
+     James Reed, and thirty-three others.
+
+The character of Baron Bramwells remarks--the impediments he must
+well know he was putting in the way of any prosecution for bribery in
+Berwick; the words by which he sought to intimidate the prosecutors
+by holding them up to public ridicule--the language of the petition
+appropriately characterised. Baron Bramwell could not be ignorant of
+the great expense which had been incurred in taking legal proceedings
+against the persons accused of bribery and in collecting evidence long
+after the time when the acts of bribery occurred. Such evidence is
+expensive to collect at the time, and much costlier at a later stage.
+After obtaining witnesses it was necessary to protect them from being
+spirited away at the time of the trial--no uncommon occurrence in these
+cases. Many hundreds of pounds must have been spent before the case
+reached the stage when Baron Bramwell was appealed to by the accused to
+put obstacles in the way of the charges against them being tried. The
+penalties recoverable under the Act would not have covered a tenth part
+of these costs. Those who appealed to Baron Bramwell for protection knew
+perfectly well, as all Durham and Northumberland knew, that any costs
+they might be able to claim against Mr. Reed would be met. Baron
+Bramwell, by the remarks he uttered and the order he made, aided and
+abetted the bribery, and protected those who committed it. The Baron's
+observation that "men of property would not be likely to trouble
+themselves" to put the Act in force against electoral corruption, was
+true and significant. The "men of property" were they who profited
+by it; and if any man of property had justice and patriotic spirit
+sufficient to prosecute bribers, he was certain to incur annoyance and
+loss, and subject himself to offensive comments such as Baron Bramwell
+made. It was the duty of a judge, to whom the Act gave discretion, to
+use it in favour of public purity, and not to favour public corruption.
+Though no other judge behaved so flagrantly ill as Baron Bramwell, there
+were few who could be trusted to render justice to Reformers.
+
+The Tory judge, Baron Bramwell, sneered away all chance of a just
+verdict, and Mr. Joseph Cowens noble effort to vindicate electoral
+purity cost him L2,000 and whatever obloquy and derision the venomous
+tongue of the judge could heap upon him.
+
+Let men beware of principles which render corruption congenial--and let
+them honour the memory of those who made heroic sacrifices for electoral
+integrity.
+
+*****
+
+It is happily exceptional when political partisanship perverts the sense
+of justice in a judge. Sometimes the sense of truth, characteristic of
+Liberalism (for it is not worth while being a Liberal unless it implies
+the ascendency of truth) is perverted by political exigency or obscured
+by excitement. An instance of this occurred where it was little
+expected.
+
+
+II.
+
+Mr. J. Humffreys Parry drew up the legal part of my defence at
+Gloucester in 1842. He was then a young law student, living in lodgings
+at (what was then) No. 5, Gray's Inn Road, near Theobalds' Road. His
+grandfather was editor of the Cambro-Briton, and one of the founders, in
+1820, of the Cymmrodorion Society. But we knew nothing of this. We only
+knew young Humffreys as a stalwart, energetic platform speaker. Radical,
+bold, and impetuous, but so manifestly sincere, that it atoned for
+his somewhat gaseous style of speaking. Like O'Connell, he acquired
+eventually two styles. Parry's legal style became Demosthenic in
+its terseness. For the research and care he took to prepare my legal
+defences, he ought, even at that stage of his career, to have received
+twenty guineas, but for it he received nothing, nor asked for anything.
+When he became Mr. Serjeant Parry he abandoned his platform style
+altogether, for one of uncoloured vigour, which gave him ascendency
+at the Bar. Had he lived a few years longer than he did he would have
+become one of our judges. His son--known as Judge Parry--was shot by a
+suitor, while presiding at a Manchester court, but not shot fatally. He
+is still known with distinction as a judge, as an author, and dramatic
+critic. Thus three generations of Parrys have been notable.
+
+Years ago propagandists of new opinion were often assisted by Mr. Robert
+Mackay, author of a powerful work on the "Progress of the Intellect." A
+silent, unobtrusive man, Mr. Mackay would be seen at times at meetings
+or lectures, but never taking any public part He seemed to shrink back
+when addressed, and was as reserved as an affrighted man. In his quiet
+way, of his own initiative, he took much trouble to promote the opening
+of the National Gallery on Sundays, and went personally to men of note
+in law, science, and art, to solicit their signatures to a memorial in
+favour of opening public treasures on Sundays for the refinement of the
+poor, that being the only day when they had a leisure hour to see them.
+Among others, Mr. Mackay called on Mr. Serjeant Parry, who signed the
+memorial. Later the Serjeant was a Parliamentary candidate for Finsbury.
+Some super-fervid free Sunday advocate went to electoral meetings,
+asking Mr. Parry whether he would vote for the opening of the National
+Gallery. There are always "fool-friends" of progress, who are ever ready
+to ruin it by their Pauline zeal of doing things in season and out of
+season. It was well known to all concerned that he would vote for an
+"Open Door" of art. But if the constituency knew it, it would cost him
+the votes of most of the Puritan portion of the electors. Forgetful,
+at the moment, of the incident that he had signed the memorial, the
+candidate denied that he had. One morning when due in court, he had
+hurriedly signed his name to some documents brought before him,
+among them the memorial sent in by Mr. Mackay. Whereupon this modest,
+retiring, shrinking, impalpable gentleman went into turbulent meetings,
+vindictively parading the actual memorial to confront the candidate.
+This proceeding cost Mr. Parry his election. It was a warning to
+public men against signing a liberal document which might be needlessly
+obtruded against them at a critical conjuncture. Thus the Sunday League
+lost a Parliamentary defender, who, from persuasion of the righteousness
+and rightfulness of its objects, would have stood by it The word of Mr.
+Mackay would have been quite sufficient to vindicate the honour of the
+League, had he waited till the election was over. But the unexpected
+thing was to see Mr. Mackay--who had never spoken at a meeting
+before--appearing at crowded and tumultuous assemblies, where a strong
+and resolute man might have hesitated to present himself.
+
+The answer of Mr. Serjeant Parry in question was given without
+premeditation; it was evident to the audience that it was made under the
+inspiration of an after-dinner speech, when robust barristers, in
+those days, were liable to airiness or eccentricity of statement.
+Being pursued vindictively, he became too indignant to give the obvious
+explanation of the inadvertency of his denial of his signature.
+
+
+III.
+
+There are saints of the Church and saints of humanity; Lord Shaftesbury
+was a saint of both churches. There are two kinds of Conservatives, as I
+have elsewhere said.* One class seek power for personal aggrandisement;
+another, and better class, covet it as a means of doing good. Lord
+Shaftesbury belonged to this class. Through not making this distinction,
+the whole Conservative body are made answerable for the actions of a
+part Discrimination is as just in politics as in morals.
+
+     * "Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens, Preacher and Political
+     Orator."
+
+Lord Shaftesbury was a nobleman of two natures. In politics he would
+withhold power from workmen. In humanity he would withhold nothing
+from them which could do them good. In theology he knew no measure. Of
+Professor Seeley's book, "Ecce Homo," he said it was "vomited from the
+mouth of hell." Surely something ought to be pardoned to a writer who
+made Satan sick. At an earlier day such language had handed the luckless
+Professor over to Torquemada. Yet Lord Shaftesbury was so courteous,
+tender, and friendly to Nonconformists, that he laid more foundation
+stones of Dissenting chapels than any other peer or patron. Should
+England one day be counted among extinct civilisations, and some
+explorers arrive to excavate its ruins, they will come upon so many
+stones deposited by Lord Shaftesbury and bearing his name, that report
+will be made of the discovery of the king of the last dynasty. Whatever
+contradictions biographers may have to record of the character of Lord
+Shaftesbury, everything will be forgiven him in consideration of his
+noble exertions on behalf of factory children. He sought to improve the
+condition of women in mines and collieries. Public health,
+emigration, ragged-schools, penny banks, drinking-fountains, and
+model lodging-houses were subjects of his generous solicitude. Lord
+Shaftesbury was one of the earliest of slum visitors. He was essentially
+and exclusively a social reformer. He took no part in political
+amelioration. He believed that working people only clamoured for
+political enfranchisement because they were ill-used and uncomfortable.
+He saw no further. Their desire for independence never occurred to
+him. His sympathy with co-operators was on moral grounds. It was quite
+unforeseen by any, and had little acceptance in his day, that he should
+advise, that the agencies for planting Christianity among heathen
+nations should include the secular missionary, who must precede the
+Christian teacher to prepare the soil of the soul by social amelioration
+before the seeds of Christianity could take root Like Faraday, Lord
+Shaftesbury had a dual mind. Faraday reasoned like a Sandemanian on
+questions of faith and like a philosopher on questions of science.
+In like manner Lord Shaftesbury was a sectarian in piety and a
+latitudinarian in humanity.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII. THE COBDEN SCHOOL
+
+[Illustration: Cobden]
+
+There never was a "Manchester School," though a volume has been
+published upon it. It never had professor nor special tenets. Manchester
+stands for Free Trade and nothing more. Its three great leaders--Thomas
+Thomasson, Richard Cobden, and John Bright--were also for Peace,
+Retrenchment, and Reform, for the extension of the suffrage, and the
+repeal of the taxes upon knowledge, because they were essential to the
+popularity and maintenance of Free Trade. But Manchester took no special
+interest, save in Free Trade, which was a local manufacturing necessity,
+as well as a national one.
+
+Mr. John Morley uses the term "Manchester School," as embodying the
+personal convictions of the great Free Trade leaders. Manchester did
+a great thing in adopting, adhering to, and enforcing Free Trade. That
+itself is a noble distinction.
+
+The advocacy of Thomasson, Cobden, and Bright included principles
+loftier and wider than Manchester. The "Manchester School" is but a term
+of courtesy used for convenience of reference, far less definite than
+the "School of Bentham." The "School of Cobden" is intelligible, as
+covering a larger area of thought than Manchester. As to Cobden, no
+one can presume to give any new estimate of him, after John Morley has
+written his Life. Therefore I confine myself to such personal incidents
+as came under my own observation.
+
+Once, when I had the pleasure to be a guest of Mr. Joseph Chamberlain
+at Highbury, Mr. John Morley was present Conversation in the library
+turning upon Cobden, I remarked that he had introduced more immorality
+into politics than any other public man in my time. "How?" asked
+Mr. Morley, with a quick, questioning look. I answered, "By advising
+electors to vote for any candidate, irrespective of his politics, who
+would vote for the repeal of the Corn Laws." This was in effect saying,
+"Vote for the devil, provided the devil will vote for you," who, even
+if he keeps faith with you, is a dangerous ally to put in power. In
+a speech to the council of the Anti-Corn Law League in Manchester in
+September, 1842, Mr. Cobden said: "We are no political body. We have
+refused to be bought by the Tories;* we have kept aloof from the Whigs,
+and we will not join partnership with either Radicals or Chartists;**
+but we hold out our hand, ready to give it to all who are ready to
+advocate the total repeal of the Corn and Provision Laws."
+
+     * Would the Tories have bought them? What could they have
+     done with them?
+
+     * Neither Radicals nor Chartists asked them. Both parties
+     conditionally opposed the Corn Law Repealers. Thomasson held
+     that the repeal of the Corn Laws could precede the Charter.
+     The Chartists contended that the Corn Laws could not be
+     repealed until the people had universal suffrage. Thomasson
+     was right.
+
+This doctrine, sanctioned by Cobden's illustrious name, has demoralised
+politics and placed every Prime Minister at the mercy of every
+conscientious party strong enough to defeat him by an unscrupulous
+conspiracy in Caves, or at the poll. The Independent Labour Party
+founded their Ishmaelitish policy (of _more_ than aloofness) upon this
+contagious Manchester speech--leaving out the friendly condition of
+"readiness to give their hands" to any who advocate the interests of
+Labour, which is their professed reason of being. Women who seek the
+political emancipation of their sex adopt the policy of voting for
+Tories, and Mr. Woodall, in their name, risked the wrecking of a Liberal
+Government if it did not accede to their claim. Mr. Cobden, in inviting
+electors to vote for Conservatives who were against the Corn Laws,
+would have established Tory ascendancy in the land. Considering that
+the stricken condition of the people was through their food being taxed,
+Toryism might be a lesser evil than the denial of Free Trade. Cobden
+might reasonably be of opinion that no party can do so much harm as
+starvation, and therefore felt justified in possibly destroying the
+Liberal party to save the people. But he should have qualified his
+policy by restricting it to extreme cases, where the arrest of a
+progressive Government is a lesser peril than refusing a particular
+and paramount claim. Without such qualification Cobden's precedent
+proclaimed a policy of selfishness which fights for its own hand against
+the general interest of the State. This is the charge which Liberals
+bring against the aristocracy. It is the policy of Self which makes the
+multiplication of parties a public danger. Such unqualified advocacy
+of reforms carries with it an element of national hostility. Justifying
+himself by the example of Cobden, we have seen the publican going for
+the bung, and the teetotaler for the teapot The anti-vaccinator will
+risk poisoning the nation by Toryism in order to arrest the lancet; as
+certain workmen will destroy Liberalism in the interest of Labour. Thus,
+generally speaking, every party is for its own hand and none for the
+State.
+
+The great French Revolution, which promised the emancipation of
+Europe, was destroyed by the determination of each party to obtain the
+ascendancy of its own theories, at the peril of the Republic.
+
+The Society for Repealing the Taxes upon Knowledge met in many places.
+When Francis Place was chairman we met in Essex Street. At one time
+we met in the rooms of the secretary, Mr. C. D. Collet, in Great Coram
+Street, within a door or two of the house where a girl was killed, for
+which a Dutch clergyman was arrested, and falsely and ignominiously
+imprisoned for a time. Bright and Cobden attended committee meetings in
+Great Coram Street.
+
+One day when Cobden came, he walked to the House of Commons after the
+meeting, through falling snow, in the quiet, meditative way peculiar
+to him. As I had some duties in the House of Commons in those days, I
+followed him, curious to see what streets he would go through, wondering
+as I went along, at the disinterested and unnoted services so great a
+man, of European fame, rendered to the interests of the working people.
+Mistaken Chartists were denouncing Cobden, Bright, and Milner-Gibson
+as Whigs--as mere middle-class advocates--these libelled leaders were
+generously and disinterestedly labouring to confer upon the working
+class the enfranchisement of the Press--although they knew full well
+it would put larger means of assailing them into the hands of their
+defamers. Why should Mr. Cobden walk through the snow to put new power
+in their hands--save from nobleness of nature, which helped others,
+irrespective of any advantage to himself--irrespective even of their
+goodwill? He not only personally attended committees, as Bright and
+Gibson also did, but often sent us letters explaining principle or
+policy which implied constant thought upon the movement as well as
+labour for it.
+
+The "pale-faced manufacturer" was a champion of the industrial classes,
+which he foresaw would come into the field, which were thought then good
+enough for paying taxes, but who were to be kept out of the pale of the
+governing classes.
+
+Thus I conceived and retained a personal affection for Cobden,
+notwithstanding his aversion for some views he supposed me to hold.
+
+When it was advised that I should appear at the London Tavern to oppose
+Mr. Peter Borthwick's design of setting up a separate society for the
+repeal of the paper duty, which would divide the forces for the repeal
+of the whole of the taxes upon knowledge, Bright hesitated as to the
+propriety of sending me on that mission. "What I am thinking of," said
+Bright, "is whether we shall not be taken as seeking the repeal of the
+Thirty-nine Articles instead of the taxes on knowledge." Cobden was more
+fearless in things intellectual. I was deputed to speak at the Borthwick
+meeting.
+
+Though Cobden's mind was engrossed in public affairs, public affairs
+were never master of him. He always possessed himself.
+
+Sir Alexander Burne's despatches were long withheld, and when produced,
+at Mr. Blight's instigation, they were found to be so mutilated
+that they were spoken of as the "forged" despatches. It was of that
+transaction that Cobden said, "Palmerston was so impartial, that he
+had no bias, not even towards the truth," showing that he could speak
+epigrams that cut into a reputation.
+
+One night Mr. Cobden brought to me in the Bill Room of the House of
+Commons a blind young man, whom he said he wished to introduce to me. It
+was Mr. Henry Fawcett, of whom he said great things might be expected
+in the future. Mr. Cobden had procured for Mr. Fawcett an order for the
+Speaker's Gallery. He was waiting for admission, as the doorkeeper told
+him there was no room. Amid all the chatter and bustle of the Lobby, Mr.
+Fawcett's ears were up that staircase, and he said, "I hear footsteps
+coming down," which meant there was a vacant seat, and Mr. Fawcett was
+admitted. No one else had heard the descending feet. It was that night
+that Mr. Cobden told me, in answer to a question put to him, that he
+"believed, had it not been for the occurrence of the Irish famine, all
+the vast educative efforts of the Anti-Corn Law League would not have
+effected the repeal of the Corn Laws at that time." Nevertheless,
+the great propagandist activity of the League was the main element of
+success. The Anti-Corn Law agitation of the League was a triumph of
+argument aided by calamity. Subsequendy Mr. Fawcett became a professor,
+and an authority on political economy. At Social Science meetings,
+wherever or whenever I asked him to aid the Co-operative question of
+Co-partnership--by defining it in debate, as public ideas were confused
+about it--he would always find or make occasion to do so.
+
+In order that Co-operation should be represented at his funeral, I
+travelled across country through the early morning fog, from Leicester
+to Trumpington, where he was buried. I found in the churchyard my
+early friend, Sir Michael Foster, who had like regard for the dead
+Postmaster-General. I was the only person known to be connected with the
+Co-operative movement who was present at his grave that day.
+
+How well Cobden could take care of himself appeared in a matter in which
+my friend, Thornton Hunt, to my great regret, was in the wrong. The
+_Times_ had published defamatory imputations on Mr. Cobden, who took
+the editor, Mr. Delane, by the throat and held him with a grasp of such
+vigour that when he died the marks of Cobdens fingers were upon the neck
+of his reputation. The _Daily Telegraph_, of which Mr. Thornton Hunt
+was consulting editor, published comments in defence of the _Times_ on
+Cobdens letter to Delane, but refused to insert Cobden's letter of self
+defence. Mr. Hunt, who had real regard for Cobden, wrote to assure him
+of it, and gave as the reason for declining to insert his letter, his
+fear lest it should damage his reputation. It was the same as saying to
+Cobden, "Our readers have a great regard for you, but if you should
+prove you are not a knave, you will sink in their estimation." The
+ineffable meanness and audacity of this inspired Mr. Cobden with a
+contemptuous indignation, and he told Mr. Hunt there was only one favour
+he could do him, and that was not to take his reputation under his
+repellent patronage.
+
+Apart from instances such as the perfidy to Cobden, Mr. Delane was a
+great editor, determining the fluctuating policy of the _Times_ (the
+policy of the ascendancy of prevailing opinion, right or wrong),
+selecting leading articles and defining the lines to be taken by the
+writers. Robert Lowe (afterwards Lord Sherbrooke) received directions
+which might themselves be printed as leaders in brief. As it was Mr.
+Lowe's custom to throw Mr. Delane's letters into his paper basket, they
+came into the hands of his butterman, who, having practical curiosity,
+took them to Mr. James Beal, who, upon the advice of Mr. Bright, sent
+them back to Mr. Lowe. All who saw the letters were surprised at the
+fidelity of the articles as they appeared in the _Times_ to Mr. Delane's
+preconceived comprehensive, explicit, and well-defined tenor.
+
+It was a favourite story told against Cobden by his adversaries, that
+when he visited the Central Illinois Railway, the company gave free
+tickets to residents near each station, that the seeming crowd of
+travellers might impose on Cobden to report well on its prospects.
+
+It is what sharp business Americans might be supposed to do. But it did
+not impose on the popular traveller, whom many naturally strove to see.
+The chief of the company was candid to him* Mr. Morley has made clear
+that what did influence Cobden was the prospect of advancing the welfare
+of emigrants abroad.
+
+At the Great Exhibition of 1851 a belief arose that international
+commerce would increase. A friend of mine, Mr. Allsop, like Cobden, lost
+a large fortune by premature enthusiasm. Mr. Cobden's was a like error,
+but a generous one.
+
+On the night of Cobden's last speech in Rochdale, I was one of the
+audience in the great Mill Room in which he spoke. He sent to me a note
+from the platform. It was the last I received from him. I was that night
+more conscious than ever before of his wonderful self-possession in
+speaking. He held up as it were, in the air, a chief sentence as he
+spoke it, and supplied, before he left it, the qualification he saw it
+needed, or the amplification he saw it required, so that malignity could
+not pervert it, nor ignorance misunderstand it. After making the longest
+speech of his life to the largest audience he had ever met in one room,
+he was taken to the house of a friend, where he was kept standing on
+the cold marble hearth in a fireless room, while his friends greeted
+him until late that November night. To a man of Cobden's temperament
+standing is painful after mental exhaustion. A cold followed the
+fireless reception. I knew in Birmingham a speaker of great promise,
+Mr. J. H. Chamberlain (unrelated to Mr. Joseph Chamberlain) who was
+surrounded by his friends after a long and brilliant lecture, and when
+at last he sat down, he died.
+
+I was in Lavington Churchyard when Cobden was buried. On our walk from
+the station there, Mr. Gladstone, who was before me, turned round to
+shake hands with a friend. I saw at once that he was a Lancashire man,
+which had never struck me before. He shook hands from the shoulder,
+which I had observed Lancashire men did. In the churchyard I lingered
+behind, and stood within a clump of trees overlooking the grave. When
+Mr. Bright, who had left the other mourners, came there himself, I
+moved noiselessly away. He remained alone, looking down on the last
+resting-place of his star-bright colleague in counsel and in fight.
+
+Cobden excelled among politicians of the people in enthusiasm of the
+intellect. He regarded strong, lucid argument as the omnipotent force of
+progress. When one morning the news came, "_Cobden is dead_" it was felt
+in every workshop in the land that a great power for peace and industry
+was lost to the nation. His disciples have grown with succeeding years,
+and if he be regarded as the founder of a school, no nobler one exists
+among politicians. He laid the foundations of Free Trade, not only
+for Manchester, but for the world. As Mr. Morley tells us in his great
+"Life," Mr. Gladstone "ranked the introduction of cheap postage for
+letters, documents, patterns, and printed matter, and the abolition
+of all taxes on printed matter as in the catalogue of Free Trade
+legislation." "These great measures," says Mr. Morley, "may well take
+their place beside the abolition of prohibitions and protective duties,
+the simplifying of revenue laws, and the repeal of the Navigation Act"
+These were all Cobden's ideals. Most of them he called into being, and
+he was the principal enchanter who gave them a local habitation and a
+name.
+
+As with the "Manchester School," so with the term "Manchester men," it
+is used with a geographical indefiniteness; as when we speak of any one
+belonging to a shire instead of a town. Hence Cobden, who was a
+Midhurst man, and Bright, who was a Rochdale man, are taken as typical
+"Manchester men." As few readers have any definite idea of what a
+"Manchester man" of the nobler sort individually is, I give a brief
+biography of one of the most influential of them, who might be regarded
+as the founder of the Cobden School.
+
+Thomas Thomasson [1808-1876], manufacturer and political economist,
+born at Turton, near Bolton, December 6, 1808, came of a Quaker family
+settled in Westmoreland (1672). His grandfather came from Edgeworth,
+near Bolton, about the middle of the seventeenth century, where he owned
+a small landed estate, and built a house known as "Thomasson's Fold."
+He gave the site for the Friends' Meeting House and burial ground
+at Edgeworth. Mr. Thomasson's father, John, was born in 1776. He was
+manager of the Old Mill, Eagley Bridge, Bolton, having also a share
+in the business, and subsequently became a cotton spinner on his own
+account. His son, Thomas Thomasson, the subject of this notice, erected
+No. 1 Mill in Bolton in 1841, at a time of great depression in trade,
+and great distress in the town--a fact which was mentioned by the Prime
+Minister (Sir R. Peel) in the House of Commons as evidence that persons
+did not hesitate to employ their capital in the further extension of the
+cotton trade, notwithstanding its condition. Thomas Thomasson married
+a daughter of John Pennington, of Hindley, a Liverpool merchant. Though
+brought up a member of the Society of Friends, Thomasson attended the
+Bolton Parish Church, his wife being a Churchwoman. But in 1855 he
+heard the clergyman preach on the propriety of the Crimean War, which
+he thought so un-Christian that he never went to church again. By
+his vigorous speeches he gave the impression that he knew more of the
+political economy of trade and commerce than any other manufacturer of
+his time. Mr. Bright and Mr. Cobden may be said to have learned from
+him. When Mr. Bright went out to deliver his first speech at a public
+meeting, he went to Mr. Thomasson on his way to take his opinion upon
+what he had in his mind to say. At Thomasson's decease Mr. Bright bore
+testimony to his remarkable capacity as a man of business, saying, "He
+will be greatly missed by many who have been accustomed to apply to him
+for advice and help." He was not merely an eminent manufacturer, he was
+distinguished for his interest in public affairs. He assisted by money,
+counsel, and personal exertions in securing the incorporation of Bolton.
+He consented to join the first Council and was at the head of the poll,
+considering it his duty to take part in promoting the improvements he
+had advocated. He remained a member of the Council over eighteen years.
+Under the old government it was usual to call out armed police, or the
+military, for comparatively trifling disturbances, which greatly excited
+Thomasson's indignation. He was a vigorous advocate for the town being
+supplied with cheap gas and cheap water, which involved watchfulness and
+advocacy extending over several years. He was foremost in insisting on
+the sanitary improvements of the town, and that the inspector should
+proceed against those who suffered nuisances on their premises. He gave
+the instance of "a family living in a cellar, outside of which there was
+a cesspool, the contents of which oozed through the walls and collected
+under the bed." L300 being left towards the formation of an industrial
+school, Thomasson gave L200 more that it might be put into operation. On
+one occasion, when he was much opposed to the views of the Council,
+he resigned rather than frustrate a compromise in which he could not
+concur, but which others thought beneficial. He promoted petitions in
+favour of Decimal Coinage, and refused to join in a petition against
+the Income Tax, deeming direct taxation the best. For some time he was a
+member of the Board of Guardians, but resigned because he "could not
+sit and see men slaughtered by a stroke of the pen," alluding to what
+he considered the illiberal manner in which relief was dispensed.
+He promoted the establishment of a library and museum, and gave L100
+towards establishing a school on the plan of the British and Foreign
+Bible Society. When new premises were required for a Mechanics'
+Institution, he gave L500 towards that project. He subscribed fifty
+guineas towards a memorial statue of Crompton, the inventor, and
+proposed that something should be given to his descendants, saying: "If
+Crompton had been a great general and had killed thousands of people,
+the Government would have provided him with a small county, and given
+him a peerage; but as he had given livelihood to thousands of mule
+spinners, it was left to the people to provide for his distressed
+descendants." The town would have given Thomasson any office in
+its power, but he would neither be Alderman, Mayor, nor Member of
+Parliament. He declined testimonials or statue. He sought no distinction
+for himself and accepted none; he cared alone for the welfare of the
+nation and the town, and the working people in it.
+
+At a time when the votes of workpeople were generally regarded as the
+property of employers, Thomasson said: "If the men in his employ were
+Tories and voted so"--which meant voting for the Corn Laws, to which
+he was most opposed--" they would remain perfectly undisturbed by
+him--their public opinion and conduct were free." He was distinguished
+beyond any Quaker of his day for political sympathy and tolerance. His
+principle was "to extend to every man, rich or poor, whatever privilege,
+political or mental, he claimed for himself."
+
+At a memorable occasion in the Bolton Theatre, when the Corn Law
+question was contested, he may be said to have called Mr. Paulton into
+public life, by sending him on to the platform to defend the cause of
+repeal. Mr. Paulton became the first effective platform advocate of
+that movement Thomasson was the chief promoter of the Anti-Corn Law
+agitation, and the greatest subscriber to its funds. When the great
+subscription was raised in 1845, he was the first to put down L1,000.
+When it was proposed to make some national gift to Mr. Cobden,
+Thomasson gave L5,000. He subsequently gave,L5,000 to the second Cobden
+subscription. This is not all that he did. Mr. John Morley relates,
+in his "Life of Cobden," that Thomasson, learning that Cobden was
+embarrassed by outstanding loans, raised to pay for his Illinois shares,
+amounting to several thousand pounds, Thomasson released the shares, and
+sent them to Cobden, with a request that "he would do him the favour to
+accept that freedom at his hands in acknowledgment of his vast services
+to his country and mankind." On a later occasion, when aid was needed,
+Mr. Thomasson went down to Midhurst and insisted that Cobden should
+accept a still larger sum, refusing a formal acknowledgment and handing
+it over in such a form that the transaction was not known to any one but
+Cobden and himself. After Mr. Thomasson's death there was found among
+his private papers a little memorandum of these advances containing the
+magnanimous words: "I lament that the greatest benefactor of mankind
+since the invention of printing was placed in a position where his
+public usefulness was com-promised and impeded by sordid personal cares,
+but I have done something as my share of what is due to him from his
+countrymen to set him free for further efforts in the cause of human
+progress."
+
+In the repeal of the Corn Laws he always had in mind the welfare of his
+own townsmen, who, he said, "were paying in 1841 L150,000 more for
+food than they did in 1835," and every town in the country in a similar
+proportion. He constantly sought opportunities of generosity which could
+never be requited, nor even acknowledged, as he left no clue to the
+giver. When in London, he would, two or three years in succession, call
+in Fleet Street at my publishing house--then aiding in the repeal of the
+taxes on knowledge and defending the freedom of reasoned opinion--and
+leave L10, bearing the simple inscription, "From T.T." Several years
+elapsed before it was known whose name the initials represented. All
+this was so unlike the popular conception of a political economist, that
+such incidents deserve to be recorded. Workmen whose views he did
+not share would invite lecturers to the town, whom he would sometimes
+entertain, and judging that their remuneration would be scant, he would
+add L5 on their departure to cover their expenses. Thinking that Huxley
+might need rest which his means might not allow, Thomasson offered to
+defray the cost of six months' travel abroad with his family. It was not
+convenient to the Professor to act upon the offer. At Thomasson's death
+a note was found among his papers, saying, "Send Huxley L1,000," which
+his son, afterwards member for Bolton, did in his father's name.
+
+Thomasson was not one of those who strongly _wish_ improvement, but
+feebly _will_ it. He willed what he wished, and gave his voice and
+fortune to advance it. He was not a foolish philanthropist, with emotion
+without wisdom; his aid was never aimless, but given discerningly to
+reward or aid others who rendered public service. His merit was like
+circumstantial evidence--if special acts did not exceed those of some
+other men, the accumulated instances made a record which few have
+excelled.
+
+That was the character of a real "Manchester man"--on whom Charles
+Kingsley poured out the vitriolic vials of his holy wrath. Yet Kingsley
+had noble qualities--far above those with which the country clergyman
+is usually credited. It requires discrimination to speak of men of the
+"Manchester School" as persons--
+
+     "Who have only to close their eyes,
+     Be selfish, cold, and wise,
+     And they never need to know
+     How the workers' children grow,
+     And live out only half their time."
+
+Thomasson did know this--wished to know this--took trouble to know
+it--and gave both thought and fortune to make their lot better. Thomas
+Bayley Potter was of that class, which includes Manchester careers worth
+remembering.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV. HARRIET MARTINEAU, THE DEAF GIRL OF NORWICH
+
+[Illustration: Martineau]
+
+There is a romance in the title of this chapter, should some one arise
+to write it It was Lord Brougham who first spoke of Harriet Martineau as
+the "deaf girl of Norwich," which does more than any other words written
+about her to suggest a great disadvantage under which she accomplished
+more than any other woman ever attempted. The phrase quoted occurs in
+one of those letters which show that kindly feeling and genuine interest
+in progress was natural to Lord Brougham, though obscured by the
+turbulence of his later life. He first brought Miss Martineau into
+notice. He wrote: "There is at Norwich a deaf girl, who is doing more
+good than any man in the country. Last year she (Harriet Martineau)
+called upon me several times, and I was struck with such marks of energy
+and resolution in her, which I thought must command success in some line
+or other of life."
+
+If the reader can realise what deafness means, he will know how great
+was her disablement Asking questions is the surest way of acquiring
+knowledge, or verifying it. Harriet Martineau was discouraged in asking
+questions, because she could not hear the answers, unless given through
+a speaking-tube, which imposed efforts on her friends she was loath to
+subject them to. She could hear no great singer, actor, or orator. These
+noble sources of pleasure and ideas were denied to her. She could take
+no part in public meetings or conferences, save those of which the
+business was foreknown to her. Then she was dependent upon some friend
+who indicated to her the time when she might intervene. Not hearing
+conversation, she could only learn indirectly what had gone before. Nor
+was it always possible to hear accurately, or interpret what was told to
+her. How, under these disadvantages, she acquired her large knowledge,
+her wonderful judgment of character, her unrivalled mastery of political
+questions of the day--which made her the greatest political woman in
+English history--proves the possibility of seemingly impossible things.
+She wrote some twenty small volumes of "Tales of Political Economy,"
+which were as eagerly looked forward to as the small volumes in which
+Sterne's "Tristram Shandy" appeared, or Dickens's "Pickwick Papers."
+James Mill and Charles Buller told her it was impossible to make the
+"Dismal Science" entertaining, but she did it, and she was the first who
+did it. She translated Comte's "Positive Philosophy" so well that Comte
+had it retranslated from English into French, as being better than his
+own work.
+
+In 1852-3 Harriet Martineau invited me to visit her at Ambleside,
+saying, "I should like a good long conversation with you on the
+Abolitionists and American slavery, and also on the intolerable
+iniquities of the _Leader?_"  What they were I do not recall--probably
+Copperheadism* in one of the editors, which she could sharply detect.
+
+     * "Copperhead" was the name of a venomous American snake,
+     which gave no warning of its approach. The slavery
+     Copperhead during the Civil War proclaimed his attachment to
+     the Union, and argued against it. There are Copperheads in
+     every movement.
+
+On Sunday, the day after my arrival, she drove me to Wordsworth's house
+and other places of interest. At my request she extended the drive to
+Coniston Water, some miles away, and on to Brantwood, the place Mr.
+Ruskin afterwards bought of Mr. Joseph Cowen, who held a mortgage of
+L7,000 upon it. Brantwood was then the residence of W. J. Linton, and
+Col. Stolzman and his wife were inmates. The Colonel was an old Polish
+officer, who, when a young man, was present at Fontainebleau, when
+Napoleon took leave of his Old Guard. Miss Martineau's quick eye took in
+at a glance the surroundings of the dwelling, and she explained to Mrs.
+Linton, who looked delicate, what should be done to render the house
+healthier, as the rains falling on the hill behind made the undrained
+foundation damp. Miss Martineau had an instinct of domesticity.
+
+I never knew a more womanly woman. Her life was an answer to those
+who think that active interest in public affairs is incompatible with
+household affection. After my return home she wrote: "I enjoyed your
+visit very much; and I hope you will come as often as you conveniently
+can. It will be a great benefit, as well as pleasure to me. My good
+girls, Caroline and Elizabeth, send you respectful thanks for your
+remembrance of them. I, too, am obliged by your thoughtfulness of them.
+But let this be once for all. You will come again, I hope; and my girls
+will enjoy being hospitable, in their own way, to one whom I had led
+them to respect as they do you"--mentionable as showing the tact,
+judgment, independence, and friendliness of the hostess to visitors and
+those of her household.
+
+She aided the diffusion of opinions she thought ought to have a hearing
+without altogether coinciding with them. She sent L10 towards the
+establishment of the Fleet Street House. She took in the _Reasoned_
+sending a double subscription. Many editors will appreciate so excellent
+an example. Her interest in the _Reasoner_ was less in the subjects
+discussed, than in its endeavour to maintain in controversy that
+fairness to adversaries, which we should have wished (but did not even
+expect) to be shown towards ourselves.
+
+Of the L500 given by Mr. Loombs in aid of her translation of Comte's
+great work, she arranged to reserve L150 for Comte, whose rights, as
+author, she considered ought to be respected. Many unrequited authors
+would be glad if all translators held the same opinion.
+
+In 1854-5 she was told by her physicians that she had heart disease,
+which might end her life any day. I mentioned to Professor Francis
+William Newman the jeopardy she was said to be in. At times restoratives
+had to be administered before she could be brought down to dinner. Mr.
+Newman desired me to tell her that he had had, some years previously,
+heart trouble. All at once a shock came as though a pistol had been
+discharged in his brain, and he expected fatal results. Yet he recovered
+his usual health and lived to a great age. Harriet Martineau lived
+twenty-two years after her friends were instructed to expect her death
+daily. Fearless and indifferent when the end might come, she was saved
+from the apprehensiveness by which the timid invite what they dread.
+
+It was during this--the period when her physicians apprehended her early
+death--that I one day (February 5, 1855) received the following note at
+147, Fleet Street:--
+
+"Miss H. Martineau presents her compliments to Mr. Holyoake, and is
+happy to find that she may hope to see him this week, and to thank him
+for his kindness in sending her some interesting papers by post.
+
+"Miss H. Martineau will be happy to see Mr. Holyoake at tea on Wednesday
+evening next, if he can favour her with his company at seven o'clock.
+
+"55, Devonshire Street, Portland Place."
+
+In accordance with this note I took tea with her. She conversed in her
+accustomed unperturbed way, and said, "I sent for you that you may bear
+witness that I die on your side. An attempt will be made to represent
+that my opinions have vacillated. Whereas I have gone right on, as, I
+believe, from truth to truth. My views may not, however, have been those
+of progress."
+
+I remarked that I had bought her earlier works to satisfy myself of the
+successiveness of her convictions, as expressed in her writings, and
+thought she rightly described them as being intrinsically progressive.
+
+"Yes," she added, "my views from time to time were at successive stages,
+as they are now, clear and decided. Certainly I was never happier in my
+life than at the present time. Christians, if they think it worth while
+to attempt it, will not be able to make a 'Death Bed' out of me. I wish
+you to know my opinions at this time. We have to vindicate the truth as
+well as to teach it."*
+
+     * I put these words down the same night; thus I am able to
+     quote them.
+
+For myself, I was neither priest nor confessor. Had I been, I should
+have felt it presumption to attempt to confirm one better able to teach
+me than I was to teach her. All I said was: "It is certainly a moral
+relief not to hold the cardinal Christian tenets of faith, as so many
+preachers speaking, as they assume to do, in the name of God, explain
+them. To act according to conscience and speak according to knowledge,
+never ceasing to consider what we can do for the service of others, is
+the one duty which a future life, if it comes, will not contradict."
+
+Though no one was so well able as herself to write her biography, it was
+not in her mind to do it, and she wrote to me to give her the names of
+persons I thought might undertake it. I named three: Charles Knight,
+who knew more of her life than any one else, eligible to write it; next
+Francis William Newman, who, being a many-sided thinker, and largely
+coinciding with her views, could justly estimate her earlier and
+later convictions. The third was Mr. H. G. Atkinson, who was entirely
+conversant with her convictions and career, but who declined with
+expressions of diffidence, though I urged him to undertake the work. At
+length she did it herself, in a way which showed no one else could have
+done it so well. She left instructions in her will that I should receive
+a copy of her Autobiography, which appeared in three volumes, and
+came to me (February 28, 1877) from Mr. Thomas Martineau, one of her
+executors.
+
+No autobiography produced in its day a greater impression. The treatment
+Miss Martineau had received from eminent adversaries astonished a
+generation in which greater controversial fairness had come to prevail.
+The friends of those who had assailed her felt some consternation at the
+imperishable descriptions of their conduct, which would never cease to
+be associated with their names, and they made public attempts to explain
+the facts away.
+
+Her mind was photographic in other respects. She saw social facts and
+their influences, their nature and sequences, with a vividness no other
+writer of her day did. Her charming romance, the "Feats of the Fiord"
+impressed Norwegians with the belief that she was personally familiar
+with the country, where she had never been. There was "caller" air in
+the pages which made the reader hungry.
+
+The autobiography contains a small gallery of statues of contemporaries,
+of note in their time, sculptured from life, as perfect in their way
+as Grecian statues. Their excellencies are generously portrayed for
+admiration, and their defects described for the guidance of survivors.
+Not like the false eulogies of the dead, which, by pretending
+perfection, lie to the living, where silence on errors or deficiencies
+are of the nature of deceit, and sure to be resented when the truth
+comes to be known. Only that admiration is lasting which is fully
+informed.
+
+No character of Lord Brougham so striking and true as hers, has ever
+been drawn. Eminent biographers and critics, including Carlyle, have
+delineated him, but her portrait--drawn twenty years before theirs
+appeared--Professor Masson assured me her character of Brougham was the
+most perfect of all.
+
+Her two-sided estimate gave discomfort to those content with obliqueness
+in knowledge, but those who have the impartial instinct seek reality,
+by which no one is deceived. The light and shade of character, like the
+light and shade of a painting, alone give distinctiveness and truth.
+But whoever delineates so must suffer no distorting tints of pique, or
+spite, or prejudice on his palate.
+
+Miss Martineau entered into a correspondence on "Man's Nature and
+Development," with Mr. Henry G. Atkinson, which, when published, was
+reviewed by her brother, Dr. James Martineau, in the _Prospective
+Review_ No. xxvi., Art 4, for which he selected the offensive and
+ignorant title of "Mesmeric Atheism." It was misleading, because
+mesmerism has no theology. It was ignorant, because neither Mr. Atkinson
+nor Dr. Martineau's sister were Atheists. Their disavowal of Atheism was
+in the book before him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV. HARRIET MARTIN EAU--FURTHER INCIDENTS IN HER SINGULAR CAREER
+
+If the reader is curious to know what really were the opinions of these
+two distinguished offenders (H. Martineau and H. G. Atkinson), I recite
+them. In the book Dr. Martineau reviewed, Mr. Atkinson said:--
+
+"I am far from being an Atheist I do not say there is no God, but that
+it is extravagant and irreverent to imagine that cause a Person."
+
+Miss Martineau herself writes in the same series of letters:--
+
+"There is no _theory_ of a God, of an author of Nature, of an origin of
+the universe, which is not utterly repugnant to my faculties; which is
+not (to my feelings) so irreverent as to make me blush; so misleading as
+to make me mourn."
+
+Yet Dr. Martineau wrote of his sister and her friend in terms which
+seemed, to the public, of studied insult and disparagement, which,
+in educated society, would be called brutal. It was merely spiritual
+malignity, of which I had in former years sufficient experience to
+render me a connoisseur in it.
+
+All the while Dr. Martineau had heresies of his own to answer for,
+yet he wrote words of his sister which no woman of self-respect could
+condone, unless withdrawn. During her long illness of twenty years Dr.
+Martineau, her brother, never wrote to her nor addressed one word of
+sympathy to one who had loved him so well. He had told the world that
+the "subtle, all-penetrating spirit of Christ has an inspiring nobleness
+philosophy cannot reach, nor science, nor nature impart." Then how
+came Dr. Martineau to miss it? The nobleness of mind of his illustrious
+sister all the world knew--before the world knew him--and Mr. Atkinson
+was a gentleman of as pure a life and of as good a position in society
+as Dr. Martineau himself. O Theology, into what crookedness dost thou
+twist the straightest minds! I have seen in a "Life of Dr. Martineau"
+that Professor Newman assented to what Dr. Martineau wrote of his
+sister. This fact I ought not to withhold from the reader.
+
+But Mr. Newman only knew what Dr. Martineau told him.
+
+Mr. Atkinson was the son of a London architect who left him an income
+which enabled him to devote himself to philosophy, which was his taste.
+He was personally conversant, as visitor or guest, with a wide range of
+distinguished thinkers and writers of his time. He was full of curious
+knowledge and notable sayings gathered in that opportune intercourse.
+With a mind devoid of prejudice, he looked on scientific discoveries
+as a veteran and seasoned spectator. No new idea surprised him, no
+expression of thoughtful opinion awakened in him resentment. He cared
+only for truth, in whatever form or quarter it appeared. He had none
+of the indifference of the arm-chair philosopher, but aided struggling
+opinion to assert itself. Once I was his guest in Boulogne. To my
+surprise I was the only passenger in the packet boat The quay of
+Boulogne was deserted. At Hughes's Hotel I was the only guest in the
+dining-room. On inquiring the reason, I learned that Gilbert a'Beckett
+had died a few days before of diphtheria, and that Douglas Jerrold had
+left for England since. Mr. Atkinson, not expecting me, had gone for
+a day's sea trip to Calais. On his return we spent pleasant hours at a
+cafe. He had no idea of leaving the hotel where he had rooms. Some years
+later Mr. Atkinson died in Boulogne, where he had resided many years.
+Personally he was tall, of good presence and refined manners. He was
+clean shaven, and might be taken for an Evangelical Bishop. Save a
+mobile expression, his face was as shadowless as one of Holbein's
+portraits. The object of his letters to Miss Martineau was to ascertain
+if there could be found a real basis of a science of mind. The common
+idea in those days was that mind was a "vital spark" which shone at
+will--originating without conditions--acting of its own caprice and
+obeying no law. Only the theological spirit could see harm in this
+investigation.
+
+Not only fidelity, but chivalry towards her friends was a characteristic
+of Miss Martineau. When W. J. Linton, for whom I had great regard, as
+appears in what I have written of him in the "Warpath of Opinion," had
+become vindictive--because I had obtained 9,000 shillings for European
+Freedom from readers of the _Reasoner_ at the request of Mazzini, Mr.
+Linton--equally desirous and equally devoted, had not succeeded--wrote
+to the _Liberator_ of New York, edited by Lloyd Garrison, assailing
+me politically and personally, whereupon Miss Martineau sent to the
+_Liberator_ the following generous letter--which, though it be counted
+egotism in me to cite, I accept the risk, since such friendship was
+without parallel in my experience:--
+
+"Dear Sir,--I see with much surprise and more concern an attack in your
+paper upon the character of Mr. G. J. Holyoake, signed by Mr. W. J.
+Linton. I could have wished, with others of your readers, that you had
+waited for some evidence, or other testimony, before committing your
+most respected paper to an attack on such a man from such a quarter. Of
+Mr. Linton it is not necessary for me to say anything, because what
+I say of Mr. Holyoake will sufficiently show what I think of his
+testimony.
+
+"I wish I could give you an idea of the absurdity that it appears to us
+in this country to charge Mr. Holyoake with sneaking, with desiring to
+conceal his opinions, and get rid of the word 'Atheism.' His whole life,
+since he grew up, has been one of public advocacy of the principles he
+holds, of weekly publication of them under his own signature, and of
+constant lecturing in public places. One would think that a man who has
+been tried and imprisoned for Atheism, and has ever since continued
+to publish the opinions which brought him into that position, might be
+secure, if any man might, from the charge of sneaking. The adoption
+of the term Secularism is justified by its including a large number
+of persons who are not Atheists, and uniting them for action which has
+Secularism for its object, and not Atheism. On this ground, and because
+by the adoption of a new term a vast amount of impediment from prejudice
+is got rid of, the use of the name Secularism is found advantageous;
+but it in no way interferes with Mr. Holyoake's profession of his own
+unaltered views on the subject of a First Cause. As I am writing this
+letter, I may just say for myself that I constantly and eagerly read Mr.
+Holyoake's writings, though many of them are on subjects--or occupied
+with stages of subjects--that would not otherwise detain me, because
+I find myself always morally the better for the influence of the noble
+spirit of the man, for the calm courage, the composed temper, the
+genuine liberality, and unintermitting justice with which he treats
+all manner of persons, incidents, and topics. I certainly consider the
+conspicuous example of Mr. Holyoake's kind of heroism to be one of our
+popular educational advantages at this time.
+
+"You have printed Mr. Linton's account of Mr. Holyoake. I request you to
+print mine. I send it simply as an act of justice. My own acquaintance
+with Mr. Holyoake is on the ground of his public usefulness, based on
+his private virtues; and I can have no other reason for vindicating him
+than a desire that a cruel wrong should be as far as possible undone.
+And I do it myself because I am known to your readers as an Abolitionist
+of sufficiently long standing not to be likely to be deceived in regard
+to the conduct and character of any one who speaks on the subject,
+
+"I am, yours very respectfully,
+
+"Harriet Martineau.
+
+"London, November 1, 1855."
+
+
+Born June 12, 1802, at Norwich, she died June 27, 1876, at Ambleside. In
+1832, when she was twenty-eight, Lucy Atkin wrote to tell Dr. Channing
+that "a great light had arisen among women," which shone for forty-four
+years. When she was a young woman, Lord Melbourne offered her a pension,
+which she declined on the ground that a Government which did not
+represent the people had no right to give away their money--an act of
+integrity so infrequent as to be always fresh. In her case it explains a
+career.
+
+Two of the greatest women in Europe, George Sand and Harriet Martineau,
+of nearly equal age, died within a few weeks of each other. "Passed
+away" is the phrase now employed, as though the writer knew that a
+journey was intended, and was in progress, whereas as Barry Cornwall
+wrote:--
+
+     "A flower above and a mould below
+     Is all the mourners ever know."
+
+Mrs. Fenwick Miller relates that Miss Martineau began writing for
+the Press, like the famous novelist mentioned, under a man's name,
+"Deciphalus." Once when at Mr. W. E. Forster's, at Burley, it fell to
+me to take Mrs. Forster down to dinner. Being in doubt as to what was
+etiquette in such cases, preferring to be thought uncouth than familiar,
+I did not offer my hostess my arm. Afterwards I asked Miss Martineau
+what I might have done. She answered that "a guest was an equal, and any
+act of courtesy permissible in him was permissible in me," but in better
+terms than I can invent. Recurring to the subject at another time, she
+said, "I was well pleased at your consulting me as you did. It would
+save a world of trouble and doubt and energy, if we all asked one
+another what the other is qualified to tell. I, who have to be
+economical of energy and time, always do it. I ask, point blank, what
+it is important for me to know, from any one who can best tell me, and
+I like to be inquired of in the same way. I hope no guest will feel
+puzzled in my house, but ask, and what I can answer I will." The
+readiness with which she placed her wisdom at the service of her friends
+might have given Matthew Arnold (as she was a frequent visitor at Fox
+Howe) his idea of "Sweetness and Light."
+
+Greater than the difficulty of deafness was the fact that Miss Martineau
+wrote on the side of Liberalism. Tory writers dipped their pens in the
+best preparation of venom sold by Conservative chemists. The Church and
+King party, which burnt down Dr. Priestley's house, soon discovered that
+Miss Martineau was guilty of the further crime of being a Unitarian.
+Nevertheless, she abandoned no principle, nor apologised for maintaining
+what she believed to be true. Spinoza, as Renan has told us, gave great
+offence to his adversaries by the integrity of his life, as it did not
+give them a fair opportunity of attacking him, for the enormity of his
+conduct in believing less than they believed. This was the case with
+Harriet Martineau, who had said in one of her books, "A parent has a
+considerable influence over the subsistence fund of his family, and an
+absolute control over the numbers to be supported by that fund." The
+_Quarterly Review_, "written by gentlemen for gentlemen," added, "We
+venture to ask this maiden sage the meaning of this passage." Why not
+ask the Rev. Thomas Maithus, whose words Miss Martineau merely repeated?
+All that was meant was "deferred marriages." The reviewer put an obscene
+construction upon it, and imputed to her his own malignant inference.
+This was a common rascality of logic alike in theology and politics in
+those days.
+
+The intrepid authoress happened to believe there was some truth in
+mesmerism. Dr. Elliotson, who thought so too, told me that his temerity
+that way cost him L7,000 a year in fees. This mesmeric episode brought
+the doctors upon the poor lady, who never forgave her being alive when
+they said she ought to be dead. Eminent physicians predicted that she
+would sink down in six months. When, instead of sinking down, she rode
+on a camel to Mount Sinai and Petra, and on horseback to Damascus, they
+said "she had never been ill!"
+
+She had the unusual capacity which the gods only are said to give--that
+of seeing herself as others saw her. She saw her own life and
+intellectual power in its strength and in its limitation, as though
+she stood away from them and looked at them; she saw them, as it were,
+palpable and apart from herself. Of imagination, which sheds sunshine
+over style, she had little. Her pictures were etchings rather than
+paintings. Her strength lay in directness of expression and practical
+thought She saw social facts and their influences, their nature and
+sequences, with a vividness no other writer of her day did. When she had
+completed the translation of Comte's "Positive Philosophy," she placed
+at my disposal twenty-five copies to give to persons unable to buy
+them, but able to profit by them; and to extend the knowledge of its
+principles. She offered me the publication of an edition of "Household
+Education." No book like it had been written before, and none since.
+Four hundred copies were sold by my arrangement. The book was mainly
+intended for women. The review of it for the _Reasoner_* was written by
+my wife, as I advocated that women should take their own affairs in the
+press into their own hands, and give their own opinion on what concerned
+them. Miss Martineau's object in writing "Household Education" was, she
+told me, "to indicate that, in her opinion, education should be on a
+philosophical basis," adding: "I should see the great point of it is
+ignoring rank in so important a matter as the development of human
+beings. It was written for Buckingham Palace and the humblest cottage
+where life is decently conducted." Miss Martineau lived twenty-two years
+after receiving prognostications of early decease. Had she not been
+a woman of courage she would have died, as was suggested to her. She
+understood that she must accept new conditions of life. She had a bed
+made in a railway carriage, and went down with her maids to Ambleside,
+and never left her house except to take air and get the relief which
+the smoking of a cigarette gave her, as she sat on summer evenings
+just outside the open windows of her sitting-room. She might have given
+herself greater liberty, for she did not die of heart ailment after all.
+
+     * Reasoner, vol. vi. pp. 378-9 and 390.
+
+
+As I have seen in women of thought, Harriet Martineau, like George
+Eliot, grew handsomer as she grew older, and acquired that queenly
+dignity, such as is seen in George Richmond's painting of Miss Martineau
+in mature years.
+
+She devoted all her diversified genius to inspire public affairs with
+loftier aims and persistent purpose. She was one of those Christians
+mentioned by Shakespeare who "mean to be saved by believing rightly."*
+Harriet Martineau did, and these words of Flavius might be her epitaph.
+
+     * "Twelfth Night," act iii., scene 2.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI. THE THREE NEWMANS
+
+[Illustration: Newman]
+
+In one of the last conversations I had the pleasure to hold with
+Mr. Gladstone, I referred to the "three Newmans" and their divergent
+careers. He said he never knew there were "three." He knew John Henry,
+the Cardinal (as he afterwards became), at Oxford. He knew Francis
+William there, who had repute for great attainments, retirement of
+manner, and high character; but had never heard there was a third
+brother, and was much interested in what I had to tell him. The articles
+of Charles Newman I published in the _Reasoner_, and their republication
+by the late J. W. Wheeler, were little known to the general public, who
+will probably hear of them now for the first time.
+
+Though I name "three Newmans," this chapter relates chiefly to the one I
+best knew, Francis William, known as Professor Newman. The eldest of the
+three was John Henry, the famous Cardinal. The third brother, Charles,
+was a propagandist of insurgent opinion. Francis was a pure Theist, John
+was a Roman Catholic, and Charles a Naturist, and nothing besides; he
+would be classed as an Agnostic now. Francis William was the handsomest
+He had classical features, a placid, clear, and confident voice, and an
+impressive smile which lighted up all his face. John Henry manifested
+in his youth the dominancy of the ecclesiastic, and lived in a priestly
+world of his own creation, in which this life was overshadowed by the
+terrors of another unknown. Francis believed in one sole God--not the
+head of a firm. His Theism was of such intense, unquestioning devotion,
+of such passionate confidence, as was seen in Mazzini and Theodore
+Parker, of America. Voltaire and Thomas Paine were not more determined
+Theists. In all else, Francis was human. Charles believed in Nature
+and nothing more. In sending me papers to print in the _Reasoner_ on
+"Causation in the Universe," he would at times say, "My mind is leaving
+me, and when it returns a few months hence, I will send you a further
+paper." Like Charles Lamb's poor sister, Mary, who used to put her
+strait waistcoat in her basket and go herself to the asylum, when she
+knew the days of her aberration were approaching, Charles Newman had
+premonition of a like kind. He had the thoroughness of thought of his
+family. The two brothers--the Cardinal and the Professor--united to
+supply Charles with an income sufficient for his needs. The Cardinal,
+though he knew Charles' opinions, readily joined.
+
+When some questioning remark on Professor Newman was made incidentally
+in the House of Commons, in consequence of his uncompromising views,
+the Cardinal wrote saying that "for his brother's purity he would die,"
+which, considering their extreme divergence of opinion, was very noble
+in the Cardinal.
+
+Professor Newman, I believe, wrote more books, having regard to their
+variety and quality, than any other scholar of his time. Science,
+history, poetry, theology, political economy, mathematics, travel,
+translations--the Iliad of Homer--among them a Sanscrit dictionary. He
+wrote many pamphlets and spoke for the humblest societies, regardless of
+the amazement of his eminent contemporaries and associates. On questions
+relating to marital morality, he did not hesitate to publish leaflets. I
+published a series of letters for him in the _Reasoner_--now some fifty
+years ago, so we were long acquainted. These earlier communications came
+to me at a time when the authorities of University College in London,
+where he was Professor of Latin, were being called upon to consider
+whether his intellectual Liberalism might deter parents from sending
+their sons there. But it was bravely held that the University had no
+cognisance of the personal opinions of any professor. Like Professor
+Key, Mr. Newman took an open interest in public affairs. Though variedly
+learned, Professor Newman's style of speech, to whomever addressed by
+tongue or pen, was fresh, direct, precise, and lucid.
+
+Mr. Newman's quarto volume on Theism, written in metre, is the greatest
+compendium of Theistical argument published in my time, and until Darwin
+wrote, no entirely conclusive answer was possible.
+
+Francis Newman had a travelling mind. From the time when I published his
+"Personal Narrative" of his early missionary experience at Aleppo, he
+grew, year by year, more rationalistic in his religious judgment. In
+one of his papers, written in the year of his death, he said: "It may
+be asked, 'Is Mr. Newman a disciple of Jesus?' I answer, 'Of all nations
+that I know, that have a religion established by law, I have never seen
+the equal to what is attributed to Jesus himself. But much is attributed
+to Him--I disapprove of.' On the whole, if I am asked, 'Do you call
+yourself a Christian?' I say, in contrast to other religions, 'Yes! I
+do,' and so far I must call myself a Christian. But if you put upon me
+the words Disciple of Jesus, meaning the believing all Jesus teaches
+to be light and truth I cannot say it, and I think His words variously
+unprovable. Now all disciples, when they come to full age, ought to seek
+to surpass their masters. Therefore, if Jesus had faults, we, after more
+than two thousand years' experience, ought to expect to surpass Him,
+especially when an immense routine of science has been elaborately built
+up, with a thousand confirmations all beyond the thought of Jesus."
+
+What a progressive order of thought would exist now in the Christian
+world had Mr. Newman's conception of discipleship prevailed in the
+Churches!
+
+Mr. Newman's words about myself, occurring in his work on "The Soul," I
+remember with pride. They were written at a time when I had an ominous
+reputation among theologians. When residing at Clifton as a professor,
+Mr. Newman came down to Broadmead Rooms at Bristol, and took the chair
+at one of my lectures, and spoke words on my behalf which only he could
+frame. But he was as fearless in his friendship as he was intrepid in
+his faith. He wrote to me, April 30, 1897, saying: "I appeal to your
+compassion when I say, that the mere change of opinion on a doubtful
+fact has perhaps cost me the regard of all who do not know me
+intimately." The "fact" related to the probability of annihilation at
+death. He regretted the loss of friendship, but never varied in his
+lofty fidelity to conscience. Whatever might be his interest in a future
+life, if it were the will of God not to concede it, he held it to be
+the duty of one who placed his trust in Him to acquiesce. The spirit
+of piety never seemed to me nobler, than in this unusual expression of
+unmurmuring, unpresuming resignation.
+
+His first wife, who was of the persuasion of the Plymouth Brethren, had
+little sympathy with his boldness and fecundity of thought. Once,
+when he lived at Park Village, Regent's Park, his friend, Dr. James
+Martineau, came into the room; she opened the window and stepped out on
+to the lawn, rather than meet him. Mr. Newman was very tender as to her
+scruples, but stood by his own. When I visited him, he asked me, from
+regard to her, to give the name of "Mr. Jacobs"--the name I used when
+a teacher in Worcester in 1840, where I lectured under my own name and
+taught under another.
+
+On February 12, 1897, Mr. Newman wrote:--"Mv dear Holyoake,--I am not
+coming round to you, though many will think I am. On the contrary, I
+hope you are half coming round to me, but I have no time to talk on
+these matters." He then asked my advice as to his rights over his own
+publications, then in the hands of Mr. Frowde, printer, of Oxford; but
+with such care for the rights of others, such faultless circumspection
+as to the consequences to others in all he wished done, as to cause
+me agreeable surprise at the unfailing perspicacity of his mind, his
+unchanging, scrupulous, and instinctive sense of justice.
+
+He regarded death with the calmness of a philosopher. He wrote to me
+April 30, 1897: "Only those near me know how I daily realise the near
+approach of my own death (he was then ninety-three). I grudge every day
+wasted by things unfinished which remain for me to do." No apprehension,
+no fear, and he wished I could "appear before him, with a document drawn
+up," by which he could consign to me the custody of all the works under
+his control. At the time, as he said, he might "easily be in his grave"
+before I could accomplish his wishes. He says in another letter that
+his "wife, like himself, abhorred indebtedness." He provided for the
+probable cost of everything he wished done. His sense of honour remained
+as keen as his sense of faith. He was a gentleman first and a Christian
+afterwards.
+
+Mr. Gladstone told me he was under the impression that he had, in some
+way unknown to himself, lost the friendship of Mr. Newman, from whom he
+had not heard for several years; and Mr. Newman was under an impression
+that Mr. Gladstone's silence was occasioned by disapproval of his
+published views of the "Errors of Jesus"--an error of assumption
+respecting Mr. Gladstone into which Mr. Newman might naturally, but not
+excusably, fall; for Mr. Newman should have known that Mr. Gladstone had
+a noble tolerance equal to his own, or should personally have tested
+it, by letter or otherwise, before nurturing an adverse conjecture. I
+mentioned the matter to Mr. Gladstone, and found Mr. Newman's surmise
+groundless. At the same time I gave him a copy of Mr. Francis Newman's
+"Secret Songs" (as one copy given to me was called) which revealed to
+Mr. Gladstone a devotional spirit he did not, as he said, imagine could
+co-exist in one whose faith was so divergent to his own.
+
+The following letter, which has autobiographical value, may interest the
+reader:--
+
+"Norwood Villa, 15, Arundel Crescent,
+
+"Weston-super-Mare.
+
+"March 22, 1893.
+
+"Dear Mr. George Jacob Holyoake,--I had no idea of writing to Mr.
+Gladstone, yet am glad to hear that you gave him my 'Secret Hymns.'
+Probably my contrast to my brother, the late Cardinal, always puzzled
+him. That we were in painful opposition ever since 1820 had never
+entered his mind, much less that this opposition made it impossible to
+me to endure living in Oxford, which also would have been my obvious
+course.
+
+"I did send my 'Paul of Tarsus' to Mr. Gladstone, which partially opened
+his eyes. For my brother's first pretentious religious book was against
+the Arians, which I _think_ I read at latest in 1832. Mr. Gladstone has
+_written_ that my brother's secession to Rome was the greatest loss that
+the English Church ever suffered. Of what kind was the loss my little
+book on 'Paul' indirectly states, in pointing out that, as our English
+New Testament shows, Paul in his own episode plainly originated the
+doctrine, three centuries later _called_ Arianism, and held by all the
+Western Church until young Athanasius introduced his new and therefore
+'false' doctrine.
+
+My brother, with Paul's epistle open before him, condemned the doctrine
+of Arian, and did not know that it was the invention of Paul, and
+thereby prevailed in the whole Western Church. Moreover, I read what I
+cannot imagine met Mr. Gladstone's eyes, that 'It is not safe to quote
+any Pre-Athanasian doctrines concerning the Trinity, since the _Church_
+had not yet taught them how to express themselves.' After this, _could_
+Mr. Gladstone, as a decent scholar, mourn over my brother's _loss_ to
+the Church? I hope Mr. Gladstone can now afford time to read
+something of the really early Christianity. He will find the Jerusalem
+Christianity perishing after the Roman revolt, and supplanted by Pauline
+fancies (not Christian at all) and by Pauline morality, often better
+than Christian. To me our modern problem is to eschew Pauline fancies
+and further to improve on Pauline wisdom.
+
+"But since I have reached the point of being unable to take Human
+Immortality as a Church axiom, I cannot believe that the problem is
+above fully stated, or that Christianity deserves to become coetaneous
+with man's body.
+
+"Perhaps I ought to thank you more, yet I may have said too much.--Yours
+truly,
+
+"F. W. Newman."
+
+
+One day as Mr. Newman was leaving my room in Woburn Buildings, he looked
+round and said: "I did not think there were rooms so large in this
+place"; and then descending the stairs, as though the familiarity of the
+remark was more than an impulse, he said: "Do you think you could join
+with me in teaching the great truth of Theism?" Alas! I had to express
+my regret that my belief did not lie that way. Highly as I should think,
+and much as I should value public association with Mr. Newman, I had to
+decline the opportunity. If the will could create conviction, I should
+also have accepted Mazzini's invitation--elsewhere referred to--for
+Theism never seemed so enchanting in my eyes as it appeared in the lives
+of those two distinguished thinkers who were inspired by it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII. MAZZINI IN ENGLAND-INCIDENTS IN HIS CAREER
+
+[Illustration: Mazzini]
+
+Giuseppe Mazzini, whom Englishmen know as Joseph Mazzini, was born in
+Genoa, June 22, 1805, and died in Pisa, March 10, 1872. He spent the
+greater part of forty years of his marvellous life in London. * Some
+incidents of his English career, known to me, may increase or confirm
+the public impression of him.
+
+     * First in Devonshire Street, Queen Square; in Chelsea; in
+     Brompton; in earlier years in penury. Where he had command
+     of a sitting-room, birds were flying about. Uncaged freedom
+     was to Mazzini the emblem of Liberty.
+
+Never strong from youth, abstemious, oft from privation, and always
+from principle, he was as thin as Dumas describes Richelieu. Arbitrary
+imprisonment, which twice befel him, and many years of voluntary
+confinement, imposed upon himself by necessity of concealment--living
+and working in a small room, whence it was dangerous for him to emerge
+by day or by night--were inevitably enervating. When he first came to
+London in 1837, he brought with him three exiles, who depended upon his
+earnings for subsistence. The slender income supplied him by his mother
+might have sufficed for his few wants,* but aid for others and the
+ceaseless cost of the propaganda of Italian independence, to which he
+devoted himself, had to be provided by writing for reviews. At times
+cherished souvenirs had to be pledged, and visits to money-lenders had
+to be made.
+
+     * Of Mazzini's great abstemiousness it was written later in
+     life:
+
+     "A cheaper world no one can know,
+     Where he who laughs grows fat;
+     Man wants but little here below--
+     Mazzini less than that."
+
+It was the knowledge all his countrymen had that he sought nothing for
+himself, never spared himself in toil or peril, that was the source of
+his influence. He wrote: "We follow a path strewn with sacrifices and
+with sorrows." But all the tragedies of his experience we never knew
+until years after his death, when his incomparable "Love Letters" were
+published in the _Nineteenth Century_, No. 219, May, 1895.
+
+He appeared to others to have "the complexion of a student," the air
+of one who waited and listened. As Meredith said, it was not "until you
+meet his large, penetrating, dark eyes, that you were drawn suddenly
+among a thousand whirring wheels of a capacious, keen, and vigorous
+intellect."
+
+Mr. Bolton King has published a notable book on the great Italian,
+containing more incidents in his career than any other English writer
+has collected. I confine myself mainly to those within my knowledge.
+
+When anything had to be done, in my power to do, I was at his command.
+I had numerous letters from him. His errorless manuscript had the
+appearance of Greek writing. Two letters "t" and "s," such as no other
+man formed, were the signs of his hand and interpreters of his words. Of
+all the communications I ever received from him or saw, none had date or
+address, save one letter which had both. Many sought for conversation,
+if by chance they were near him, or by letter, or interview--for ends
+of their own. But no one elicited any information he did not intend to
+give. His mind was a fortress into which no man could enter, unless he
+opened the door.
+
+Kossuth astonished us by his knowledge of English, but he knew little
+of the English people. Louis Blanc knew much; but Mazzini knew more than
+any foreigner I have conversed with. Mazzini made no mistake about us.
+He understood the English better than they understood themselves--their
+frankness, truth, courage, impulse, pride, passions, prejudice,
+inconsistency, and limitation of view. Mazzini knew them all.
+
+His address to the Republicans of the United States (November, 1855) is
+an example of his knowledge of nations, whose characteristics were as
+familiar to him as those of individuals are to their associates, or as
+parties are known to politicians in their own country. There may be seen
+his wise way of looking all round an argument in stating it. No man of a
+nature so intense had so vigilant an outside mind.
+
+He knew theories as he knew men, and he saw the theories as they
+would be in action. There was no analysis so masterly of the popular
+schools--political and socialist--as that which Mazzini contributed
+to the _People's Journal_, His criticisms of the writings of Carlyle,
+published in the _Westminster Review_, explained the excellencies and
+the pernicious tendencies--political and moral--of Carlyle's writing,
+which no other critic ever did. But Mazzini wrote upon art, music,
+literature, poetry, and the drama. To this day the public think of him
+merely as a political writer--a sort of Italian Cobbett with a genius
+for conspiracy.
+
+The list of his works fills nearly ten pages of the catalogue of the
+British Museum.
+
+Under other circumstances his pen would have brought him ample
+subsistence, if not affluence. Much was written without payment, as
+a means of obtaining attention to Italy. It was thus he won his first
+friends in England.
+
+No one could say of Mazzini that he was a foreigner and did not
+understand us, or that the case he put was defective through not
+understanding our language. The _Saturday Review_, which agreed with
+nobody, said, on reading Mazzini's "Letter to Louis Napoleon," which was
+written in English, "The man can write." The finest State papers seen in
+Europe for generations were those which Mazzini, when a Triumvir in
+Rome, wrote--notably those to De Tocqueville. De Tocqueville had a great
+name for political literature, but his icy mystifications melted away
+under Mazzini's fiery pen of principle, passion, and truth. This
+wandering, homeless, penniless, obscure refugee was a match for kings.
+
+Some day a publisher of insight will bring out a cheap edition of
+the five volumes of his works, issued by S. King and Co., 1867, and
+"dedicated to the working classes" by P. A. Taylor, which cost him L500,
+few then caring for them. Mrs. Emilie Ashurst Venturi was the translator
+of the five volumes, which were all revised by Mazzini. The reader
+therefore can trust the text.
+
+Mazzini did me the honour of presenting to me his volume on the
+"Duties of Man," with this inscription of reserve: "To my friend, G. J.
+Holyoake, with a very faint hope." Words delicate, self-respecting and
+suggestive. It was hard for me, with my convictions, to accept his great
+formula, "God and the People." It was a great regret to me that I could
+not use the words. They were honest on the lips of Mazzini. But I had
+seen that in human danger Providence procrastinates. No peril stirs it,
+no prayer quickens its action. Men perish as they supplicate. In danger
+the people must trust in themselves.
+
+Thinking as I did, I could not say or pretend otherwise.
+
+Mazzini one day said to me, "A public man is often bound by his past.
+His repute for opinions he has maintained act as a restraint upon
+avowing others of a converse nature." This feeling never had influence
+over me. Any one who has convictions ought to maintain a consistency
+between what he believes, and what he says and does. But to maintain
+to-day the opinions of former years, when you have ceased to feel them
+true, is a false, foolish, even a criminal consistency. To conceal
+the change, if it concerns others to know it, is dishonest if it is
+misleading any persons you may have influenced. The test, to me, of the
+truth of any view I hold, is that, I can state it and dare the judgment
+of others to confute it. Had I new views--theistical or otherwise--that
+I could avow with this confidence, I should have the same pleasure in
+stating them as I ever had in stating my former ones. When I look
+back upon opinions I published long years ago, I am surprised at the
+continuity of conviction which, without care or thought on my part,
+has remained with me. In stating my opinions I have made many changes.
+Schiller truly says that "Toleration is only possible to men of large
+information." As I came to know more I have been more considerate
+towards the views, or errors, or mistakes of others, and have striven
+to be more accurate in my own statement of them, and more fair towards
+adversaries. That is all. Mazzini understood this, and did not regard as
+perversity the prohibition of conscience.
+
+In his letter to Daniel Manin, which I published in 1856, Mazzini
+described as a "quibble" the use of the word "unification" instead
+of "unity." "Unification" is not a bad thing in itself, though very
+different from unity. To put forth unification as a substitute for unity
+was forsaking unity. It was a change of front, but not "quibbling." The
+Government of Italy were advised to contrive local amelioration, as
+a means of impeding, if not undermining, claims for national freedom.
+Mazzini condemned Manin for concurring in this. All English insurgent
+parties have shown similar animosity against amelioration of evil,
+lest it diverted attention from absolute redress. Yet it is a great
+responsibility to continue the full evil in all its sharpness and
+obstructiveness, on the grounds that its abatement is an impediment
+to larger relief. Every argument for amelioration is a confession that
+those who object to injustice are right What is to prevent reformers
+continuing their demand for all that is necessary, when some of the evil
+is admitted and abated? Paramount among agitators as I think Mazzini,
+it is a duty to admit that he was not errorless. High example renders an
+error serious.
+
+The press being free in England, there needed no conspiracy here. An
+engraved card, still hanging in a little frame in many a weaver's and
+miner's house in the North of England, was issued at a shilling each
+on behalf of funds for European freedom, signed by Mazzini for Italy,
+Kossuth for Hungary, and Worcell for Poland. When editing the _Reasoner_
+I received one morning a letter from Mazzini, dated 15, Radnor Street,
+King's Road, Chelsea, June 12, 1852. This was the only one of Mazzini's
+letters bearing an address and date I ever saw, as I have said. It
+began:--
+
+"My dear Sir,--You have once, for the Taxes on Knowledge question,
+collected a very large sum by dint of sixpences. Could you not do
+the same, if your conscience approved the scheme, for the Shilling
+Subscription [then proposed for European freedom]? I have never made any
+appeal for material help to the English public, but once the scheme is
+started, I cannot conceal that I feel a great interest in its success.
+A supreme struggle will take place between Right and Might, and any
+additional strength imparted to militant Democracy at this time is not
+to be despised. Still, the _moral_ motive is even more powerful with me.
+The scheme is known in Italy, and will be known in Hungary, and it would
+be extremely important for me to be able to tell my countrymen that it
+has not proved a failure.
+
+"Ever faithfully yours,
+
+"Joseph Mazzini."
+
+
+I explained to the readers of the _Reasoner_ the great service they
+might render to European freedom at that time by a shilling subscription
+from each. Very soon we received 4,000 shillings. Later (August 3, 1852)
+Mazzini, writing from Chelsea, said:--
+
+"My dear Sir,--I have still to thank you for the noble appeal you have
+inserted in the _Reasoner_ in favour of the Shilling Subscription in aid
+of European freedom. My friend Giovanni Peggotti, fearing that physical
+and moral torture might weaken his determination and extort from him
+some revelations, has hung himself in his dungeon at Milan, with his own
+cravat. State trials are about being initiated by military commissions,
+and General Benedek, the man who directed the wholesale Gallician
+butcheries, is to preside over them. At Forli, under Popish rule,
+enforced by Austrian bayonets, four working men have been shot as guilty
+of having defended themselves against the aggression of some Government
+agents. The town was fined in a heavy sum, because on that mournful
+day many of the inhabitants left it, and the theatres were empty in the
+evening.
+
+"Faithfully yours,
+
+"Joseph Mazzini."
+
+
+People of England have mostly forgotten now what Italians had to suffer
+when their necks were under the ferocious heel of Austria.
+
+In a short time I collected a further 5,000 shillings, making 9,000 in
+all, and I had the pleasure of sending to Mazzini a cheque for L450.*
+
+     * The expenses of collection I defrayed myself.
+
+A shilling subscription had been previously proposed mainly at the
+instigation of W. J. Linton, which bore the names of Joseph Cowen,
+George Dawson, Dr. Frederic Lees, George Serle Phillips, C. D. Collet,
+T. S. Duncombe, M.P., Viscount Goderich, M.P. (now Marquis of Ripon),
+S. M. Hawks, Austin Holyoake, G. J. Holyoake, Thornton Hunt, Douglas
+Jerrold, David Masson, Edward Miall, M.P., Professor Newman, James
+Stansfeld, M.P. Some of these names are interesting to recall now. But
+it was not until Mazzini asked me to make an appeal in the _Reasoner_
+that response came. Its success then was owing to the influence of
+Mazzini's great name. Workmen in mill and mine gave because he wished
+it.
+
+I published Weill's "Great War of the Peasants," the first and only
+English translation, in aid of the war in Italy. The object was to
+create confidence in the struggle of the Italian peasantry to free their
+country, and to give reasons for subscriptions from English working men
+to aid their Italian brethren. Madame Venturi made the translation, on
+Mazzini's suggestion, for the _Secular World_, in which I published it.
+
+In 1855 wishing to publish certain papers of 'azzini s, I wrote asking
+him to permit me to do so, when he replied in the most remarkable letter
+I received from him:
+
+"Dear Sir,--You are welcome to any writing or fragment of mine which you
+may wish to reprint in the _Reasoner_. Thought, according to me, is,
+as soon as publicly uttered, the property of _all_, not an _individual_
+one. In this special case, it is with true pleasure that I give the
+consentment you ask for. The deep esteem I entertain for your personal
+character, for your sincere love of truth, perseverance, and nobly
+tolerant habits, makes me wish to do more; and time and events allowing,
+I shall.
+
+"We pursue the same end--progressive improvement, association,
+transformation of the corrupted medium in which we are now living,
+overthrow of all idolatries, shams, lies, and conventionalities. We both
+want man to be not the poor, passive, cowardly, phantasmagoric unreality
+of the actual time, thinking in one way and acting in another; bending
+to power which he hates and despises, carrying empty Popish, or
+thirty-nine article formulas _on_ his brow and none within; but
+a fragment of the living truth, a real individual being linked to
+collective humanity, the bold seeker of things to come; the gentle,
+mild, loving, yet firm, uncompromising, inexorable apostle of all that
+is just and heroic--the Priest, the Poet, and the Prophet. We widely
+differ as to the _how_ and _why_. I do dimly believe that all we are
+now struggling, hoping, discussing, and fighting for, is a _religious_
+question. We want a new intellect of life; we long to tear off one more
+veil from the ideal, and to realise as much as we can of it; we thirst
+after a deeper knowledge of _what_ we are and of the _why_ we are. We
+want a _new heaven_ and a _new earth_. We may not all be now conscious
+of this, but the whole history of mankind bears witness to the
+inseparable union of these terms. The clouds which are now floating
+between our heads and God's sky will soon vanish and a bright sun shine
+on high. We may have to pull down the despot, the arbitrary dispenser of
+_grace_ and _damnation_, but it will only be to make room for the Father
+and Educator.
+
+"Ever faithfully yours,
+
+"Joseph Mazzini."
+
+
+Another incident has instruction in it, still necessary and worth
+remembering in the political world. In 1872 I found in the _Boston
+Globe_, then edited by Edin Ballou, a circumstantial story by the
+_Constitutional_ of that day, setting forth that Sir James Hudson, our
+Minister at Turin, begged Cavour to accord an interview to an English
+gentleman. When Cavour received him, he was surprised by the boldness,
+lucidity, depth, and perspicacity of his English visitor, and told him
+that if he (Cavour) had a countryman of like quality, he would
+resign the Presidency of the Council in favour of him, whereupon the
+"Englishman" handed Cavour his card bearing the name of Joseph Mazzini,
+much to his astonishment.
+
+There are seven things fatal to the truth of this story received and
+circulated throughout Europe without question:--
+
+1. Sir James Hudson could never have introduced to the Italian Minister
+a person as an Englishman, whom Sir James knew to be an Italian.
+
+2. Nor was Mazzini a man who would be a party to such an artifice.
+
+3. Cavour would have known Mazzini the moment he saw him.
+
+4. Mazzini's Italian was such as only an Italian could speak, and Cavour
+would know it.
+
+5. Mazzini's Republican and Propagandist plans were as well known to
+Cavour as Cobden's were to Peel; and Mazzini's strategy of conspiracy
+was so repugnant to Cavour, that he must have considered his visitor a
+wild idealist, and must have become mad himself to be willing to resign
+his position in Mazzini's favour.
+
+6. Cavour could not have procured his visitor's appointment in his place
+if he had resigned.
+
+7. Mazzini could not have offered Cavour his card, for the reason
+that he never carried one. As in Turin he would be in hourly danger
+of arrest, he was not likely to carry about with him an engraved
+identification of himself.
+
+Nevertheless, the _Pall Mall Gazette_ of that day (in whose hands it was
+then I forget) published this crass fiction without questioning it.
+
+The reader will rightly think that these are the incredible fictions
+of a bygone time, but he will conclude wrongly if he thinks they have
+ceased.
+
+Lately, not a nameless but a known and responsible person, one Sir
+Edward Hertslet, K.C.B., a Foreign Office official, published a volume
+in which he related that in 1848 (the 10th of April year, when no
+political historian was sane) a stranger called at the Foreign Office
+to inquire for letters for him from abroad. A colleague of Sir Edward's
+suggested that he should inquire at the Home Office. The strange
+gentleman replied indignantly, "I will not go to the Home Office. _My
+name is Mazzini_." This answer Sir Edward put in quotation marks,
+as though it was really said. Sir Edward has been in the Diplomatic
+service. He has been a Foreign Office librarian, and is a K.C.B., yet
+for more than fifty years he has kept this astounding story by him,
+reserved it, cherished it, never suspected it, nor inquired into its
+truth.
+
+Mazzini was not a man to give his name to a youth (as Sir Edward was
+then) at the Foreign Office. He never went there. It is doubtful whether
+any letter ever came to England bearing his name. He was known among his
+friends as Mr. Flower or Mr. Silva. When the late William Rathbone Greg
+wished to see him, he neither knew his name nor where he resided,
+and his son Percy--who was then writing for a journal of which I was
+editor--was asked to obtain from me an introduction, and it was only to
+oblige me that Mazzini consented to see Mr. W. R. Greg. Sir James Graham
+never opened any letter addressed to Mazzini, for none ever came. He
+opened letters of other persons, as every Foreign Secretary before
+him and since has done, in which might be enclosed a communication
+for Mazzini. Was it conceivable that the Foreign Office, then known to
+secretly open Mazzini's letters, would be chosen by the Italian exile as
+a receiving house for his letters, and have communications sent to its
+care, and addressed in his name? Was it conceivable that Mazzini would
+go there and announce himself when the Foreign Office was acting as a
+spy upon his proceedings in the interest of foreign Governments? This
+authenticated Foreign Office story would be too extravagant for a "penny
+dreadful," yet not too extravagant, in Sir Edward Hertslet's mind, to be
+believable by the official world now, and was sent or found its way to
+Foreign Embassies and Legations for their delectation and information.
+Yet Sir Edward was not known as a writer of romance, or novels, or
+theological works, nor a poet, or other dealer in imaginary matters. His
+book was widely reviewed in England, and nowhere questioned save in the
+_Sun_ during my term of editorship in 1902.
+
+Mazzini preached the doctrine of Association in England when it had no
+other teacher. Much more may be said of him--but Sir James Stansfeld
+is dead, and Madame Venturi and Peter Alfred Taylor. Only Jessie White
+Mario and Professor Masson remain who knew Mazzini well. But this
+chapter may give the public a better conception than has prevailed of
+Mazzini's career in England.
+
+[Illustration: Mario]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII. MAZZINI THE CONSPIRATOR
+
+There have been many conspirators, but Mazzini appears to have been the
+greatest of them all. In one sense, every leader of a forlorn hope is
+a conspirator. Prevision, calculation of resources, plans of
+campaign--mostly of an underground kind--are necessary to conspiracy.
+The struggles of Garrison and Wendell Phillips for the rescue and
+sustentation of fugitive slaves are well-known instances of underground
+conspiracy. There the violence of the slave-owner made conspiracy
+inevitable. In despotic countries, without a free platform and a free
+press, the choice lies between secret conspiracy and slavery. When
+Mazzini began to seek the deliverance of Italy he had to confront
+600,000 Austrian bayonets. How else could he do it than by conspiracy?
+
+Those are very much mistaken who think that the occupation of promoting
+or taking part in a forlorn hope is a pastime to which persons
+disinclined to business or honest industry, betake themselves. The spy,
+for instance, who is a well-known instrument in war, takes the heroism
+out of it. The sinister activity of the spy turns the soldier into a
+sneak. Honourable men do, indeed, persuade themselves that if by deceit
+they can obtain knowledge of facts which may save the lives of many on
+their own side, it is right. At the same time they also betray to death
+many on the other side, including some who have trusted the spy in his
+disguise. But whatever success may attend the deceit of the spy, he can
+never divest himself of the character of being a fraud; and a fraud in
+war is only a little less base than a fraud in business. But it is the
+perils of even the patriotic spy, which are so often under-estimated. If
+discovered by the enemy, he is sure to be shot; and he runs the risk of
+being killed on suspicion by friends on his own side--too indignant to
+inquire into the nature of the suspicions they entertain. The spy dare
+not communicate the business he is upon to his friends. Somehow it would
+get out; then the spy would surely walk the plank, or hang from the
+gallows as Andre did. The spy's own friends being ignorant of the secret
+duty he has undertaken, observe him making the acquaintance of the
+enemy--hear of him being seen in communication with them--and he becomes
+distrusted and disowned by those whom he perils his life to serve.
+Mazzini detested the Cabinets, or the Generals, who employed spies.
+He made war by secrecy--open war being impossible to him--but never by
+treachery. Some who had suffered and were incensed by personal outrage
+or maddening oppression, would act as spies in revenge. Because these
+were done on the side of Italian independence, Mazzini was accused of
+inspiring them and employing them.
+
+Mazzini had another difficulty. Like Cromwell, he sought his combatants
+among men of faith. Mazzini was, as has been said, a Theist, like Thomas
+Paine, or Theodore Parker, or Francis William Newman, he was that and
+nothing more; and, as with them, his belief was passionate. He did not
+believe that political enthusiasm could be created or sustained without
+belief in God. He seemed unable to conceive that a sense of duty could
+exist separately from that belief. Hence his motto always was "God and
+the People," which limited his adherents largely to Theists, and implied
+a propaganda to convert persons to a belief in Deity, before they could,
+in his opinion, be counted upon to fight for Italian independence. Yet
+there were contradictions; but contradictions seldom disturb passionate
+convictions, and Mazzini himself could not deny that he had often been
+faithfully served by men who were not at all sure that God would fight
+on their side, if disaster overtook them. One night at a crowded Fulham
+party Mazzini was contending, as was his wont, that an Atheist could not
+have a sense of duty. Garibaldi, who was present, at once asked, "What
+do you say to me? I am an Atheist. Do I lack the sense of duty?"
+
+"Ah," said Mazzini, playfully, "you imbibed duty with your mother's
+milk"--which was not an answer, but a good-natured evasion. Garibaldi
+was not a philosophical Atheist, but he was a fierce sentimental one,
+from resentment at the cruelties and tyrannies of priests who professed
+to represent God. To disbelieve unwillingly from lack of evidence, and
+to disbelieve from natural indignation is a very different thing.
+
+All the many years Mazzini was in London, Madame Venturi was constantly
+in communication with him, and was present at more conversations than
+any one else. Had she possessed the genius of Boswell, and put down
+day by day criticisms she heard expressed, the narratives of his
+extraordinary adventures, and such as came to her knowledge from
+correspondence, now no longer recoverable, we might have had as
+wonderful a volume of political and ethical judgment as was Boswell's
+"Johnson." Sometimes I expressed a hope that she was doing this.
+Nevertheless, we are indebted to her for the best biography of him that
+appeared in her time. I add a few sayings of his which show the quality
+of his table talk:--
+
+"Falsehood is the art of cowards. Credulity without examination is the
+practice of idiots."
+
+"Any order of things established through violence, even though in itself
+superior to the old, is still a tyranny."
+
+"Blind distrust, like blind confidence, is death to all great
+enterprises."
+
+"In morals, thought and action should be inseparable. Thought without
+action is selfishness; action without thought is rashness."
+
+"The curse of Cain is upon him who does not regard himself as the
+guardian of his brother."
+
+"Education is the bread of the soul."
+
+"Art does not imitate, it interprets."
+
+Only those who were in the agitation for Italian freedom can understand
+the exhausting amount of labour performed by those who were adherents
+or sympathisers. How much greater was the labour of the commander of the
+movement, who had to create the departments he administered, to provide
+the funds for them, to win and inspire its adherents, and correspond
+incessantly with agents scattered over Europe and America, and to
+vindicate himself against false accusations rained upon him by a
+hostile, ubiquitous European press.
+
+Orsini was a man of invincible courage, and could be trusted to execute
+any commission given him. No danger deterred him, but in enterprises
+requiring prevision of contingencies, he was inadequate. Mazzini
+thought so; and Orsini secretly contrived to plot against the French
+usurper, to extort from Mazzini the confession that he (Orsini) could
+carry out an independent enterprise. All the same, the adversaries of
+Italian freedom made Mazzini responsible for it.
+
+A writer in the press, who did not give his name (and when a writer does
+not do that, he can say anything), published, in editorial type, this
+passage: "By the way, I remember that Orsini, the day before he left
+England to make his attempt upon the life of Napoleon III., had a
+solemn discussion with Joseph Cowen and Mazzini, as to the justice of
+tyrannicide." Mazzini being then dead, I sent the paragraph to Mr. Cowen
+and asked him if there was any truth in it, who replied:--
+
+"Blaydon-on-Tyne, March 2, 1891.
+
+"My dear Holyoake,--I have no idea where the writer of the enclosed
+paragraph gets his information. I cannot speak as to Orsini having a
+conversation with Mazzini, but I should think it is in the highest sense
+improbable, because long before Orsini went to France, Mazzini and he
+had not been in friendly intercourse. There was a difference between
+them which kept them apart. I had repeated conversations with Orsini
+about tyrannicide--a matter in which he seemed interested--but I did not
+see him for some weeks before he went to France.
+
+"Yours truly,
+
+"Joseph Cowen."
+
+
+Mazzini always repudiated the dagger as a political weapon. It answered
+the purpose of his adversaries in his day and since, to accuse him
+of advocating it. He pointed out that calumny was a dagger used to
+assassinate character, but to that form of assassination few politicians
+made objection. Sometimes partisans of Mazzini would supply a colourable
+presumption of the truth of this accusation.
+
+A circumstantial story appeared in the "Life of Charles Bradlaugh" (vol.
+i. p. 69), signed W. E. Adams, as follows:--
+
+"The year 1858 was the year of Felice Orsinis attempt on the life of
+Louis Napoleon. I was at that time, and had been for years previously, a
+member of the Republican Association, which was formed to propagate the
+principles of Mazzini. When the press, from one end of the country to
+the other, joined in a chorus of condemnation of Orsini, I put down on
+paper some of the arguments and considerations which I thought told
+on Orsini's side. The essay thus was read at a meeting of one of our
+branches; the members assembled earnestly urged me to get the piece
+printed. It occurred to me also that the publication might be of
+service, if only to show that there were two sides to the question
+of 'Tyrannicide.' So I went to Mr. G. J. Holyoake, then carrying on
+business as a publisher of advanced literature. Mr. Holyoake not being
+on the premises, his brother, Austin, asked me to leave my manuscript
+and call again. When I called again Mr. Holyoake returned me the paper,
+giving, among other reasons for declining to publish it, that he was
+already in negotiation with Mazzini for a pamphlet on the same subject.
+'Very well,' said I, 'all I want is that something should be said on
+Orsini's side. If Mazzini does this, I shall be quite content to throw
+my production into the fire.'"
+
+It is true that the pamphlet was brought to me by Mr. Adams, entitled,
+"Tyrannicide: A Justification." What really took place on my part, as
+I distinctly remember, was this. I said: "I was unwilling to publish a
+pamphlet of that nature which did not bear the name of the writer," which
+the MS. did not. The author answered that "a name added no force to an
+argument; besides, his name was unimportant, if put on the tide-page,"
+which was reasonably and modestly said. My reply was, "That in an affair
+of murder, 'Justification' was a recommendation, and that any one acting
+on his perilous suggestion ought to know who was his authority." Nothing
+more was said by me. The writer made no offer to add his name to
+his MS., nor to meet my objection by a less assertive title. As any
+prosecution for publishing it would be against me, and not against him,
+I thought I had a right to an opinion as to the title and authorship
+of the work I might have to defend. It was afterwards issued by Mr.
+Truelove, a bookseller of courage and public spirit, but who suggested
+the very changes I had indicated to the author; and by Mr. Truelove's
+desire the author not only gave his name, but changed the title into
+"Tyrannicide: Is it Justifiable?" which was quite another matter. It
+asked the question; it no longer decided it.
+
+As to Mazzini, it is impossible I could have said what is imputed to
+me. I was not "in negotiation with Mazzini" "to write anything upon
+the Orsini affair. I knew he would not do so. Orsini, as I have said,
+concealed his plot from Mazzini, who never incited it, never approved
+it, never justified it--he deplored it. Only enemies of Mazzini sought
+to connect him with it. If I left this story uncontradicted, it might
+creep into history that, in spite of the disclaimers of Mazzini's
+friends, he actually "entered into negotiation" to write in defence
+of Orsini's attempt, which must imply concurrence with the deplorable
+method Orsini unhappily took; and, moreover, that a publisher, regarded
+as being in Mazzini's confidence, had, in an open, unqualified way, told
+a writer on assassination of it. The publisher was speedily arrested
+on the issue of the pamphlet, as I should have been, but that would
+not have deterred me from publishing it in a reasonable and responsible
+form.
+
+Soon after I printed and published a worse pamphlet by Felix Pyat, which
+was signed by "A Revolutionary Committee." The Pyat pamphlet was under
+prosecution at the time I voluntarily published it. As what I did I did
+openly--I wrote to the Government apprising them of what I was doing.
+
+Besides, I commenced to issue serial "Tyrannicide Literature,"
+commencing with pamphlets written by Royalist advocates of
+assassination. Because I did not publish the Adams Tyrannicide pamphlet
+right off without inquiry or suggestion, I was freely charged with
+refusing to do it from fear. No one seems to have been informed of
+the reasons I gave for declining. No one inquired into the facts.
+Adversaries of those days did not take the trouble. But, as I had to
+take the consequences of what I did, I thought I had a right to take my
+own mode of incurring them.
+
+On the last night of Orsini's life, Mazzini and a small group of the
+friends both of Orsini and himself, of which I was one, kept vigil until
+the morning, at which hour the axe in La Roquette would fall.
+
+The favourite charge of the press against the great conspirator was that
+he advised others to incur danger, and kept out of it himself. This was
+entirely untrue--but it did not prevent it being said. The principle
+these critics go upon is, that whoever is capable of advising and
+directing others, should do all he can to get himself shot--a doctrine
+which would rid the army of all its generals, and the offices of all
+newspapers of their editors. Upon Mazzini's life the success of twenty
+small cohorts of patriots depended, ready to give their lives for Italy.
+Mazzini was not only the commander of the army of Liberation, but, as
+has been indicated, the provider of its reserves, its commissariat
+and recruits. His life was also of priceless value to other struggling
+peoples. He was the one statesman in Europe who had a European mind--who
+knew the peoples of the Continent, whose knowledge was intimate, and
+whose word could be trusted. So far from avoiding danger, he was never
+out of it. With a price set upon his head in three countries, hunted
+by seven Governments, with spies always following him and by assassins
+lying in ambush, his life for forty years passed in more peril than any
+other public man of his time. Yet it was fashionable to charge him with
+want of courage whose whole "life," to use his own phrase, "was a battle
+and a march."
+
+Could there be a doubt of the intrepidity of a man who, with the slender
+forces of insurgent patriots, confronted Austria with its 600,000
+bayonets.
+
+No sooner was Garibaldi in Rome than Mazzini was there in the streets
+inspiring its defenders. What dangers he passed through to reach Rome,
+knowing well that his arrest meant death!
+
+Rome was not a safe place for Mazzini, neither was London. His life was
+never safe. I have been asked by his host to walk home with him at night
+from a London suburban villa where he dined, because a Royalist assassin
+was known to be in London waiting to kill him.
+
+Mazzini died at Pisa, March 10, 1872, from chill by walking over the
+Alps in inclement weather, intending to visit his English friends once
+more. A few of his English colleagues protested against his embalmment.
+I was not one. Gorini, the greatest of his profession, undertook to
+transform the body into marble, and for him Mazzini had friendship. Dr.
+Bertani, Mazzini's favourite physician, approved embalming. It could
+not be done by more reverent hands. How could England--who disembowelled
+Nelson and sent his body home in a cask of rum; who embalmed Jeremy
+Bentham, and took out O'Connell's heart, sent it to one city, and his
+mutilated remains to another--reproach Italy for observing the national
+rites of their illustrious dead?
+
+The personal character of Mazzini never needed defence. In private life
+and state affairs, honour was to him an instinct. He saw the path of
+right with clear eyes. No advantage induced him to deviate from it. No
+danger prevented his walking in it.
+
+Carlyle, whom few satisfied, said he "found in him a man of clear
+intelligence and noble virtues. True as steel, the word, the thought of
+him pure and limpid as water."
+
+It may be by experience that a nation is governed, but it is by
+rightness alone that it is kept noble. It was to promote this that
+Mazzini walked for forty years on the dreary highway between exile and
+the scaffold. It was from belief in his heroic and unfaltering integrity
+that men went out at his word, to encounter the dungeon, torture, and
+death, and that families led all their days alarmed lives, and gave up
+husbands and sons to enterprises in which they could only triumph by
+dying. No one save Byron has depicted the self-denial incidental to
+Mazzini's career, which involved the abnegation of all that makes life
+worth living to other men.
+
+          "Such ties are not
+     For those who are called to the high destinies
+     Which purify corrupted commonwealths.
+     We must forget all feeling save the _One_
+     We must resign all passions, save our purpose.
+     We must behold no object, save our country.
+     And only look on death as beautiful
+     So that the sacrifice ascend to heaven,
+     And draw down freedom on her evermore."*
+
+     * "Marino Faliero."
+
+Mazzini left a name which has become one of the landmarks, or rather
+mindmarks, of public thought, and, though a bygone name, there is
+instruction and inspiration in it yet.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX. GARIBALDI--THE SOLDIER OF LIBERTY
+
+[Illustration: Garibaldi]
+
+Dining one day (June 29, 1896) at Mr. Herbert Spencer's, thirty years
+after Garibaldi left England, Professor Masson, who was a guest of Mr.
+Spencer, told me that Garibaldi said to Sir James Stansfeld that "the
+person whom he was most interested in seeing in England was myself."
+This Garibaldi said at a reception given by Mr. Stansfeld to meet the
+General--as we had then begun to call him. I was one of the party; but
+Mr. Stansfeld did not mention the remark to me, and I never heard of it
+until Professor Masson told me. Of course I should have been gratified
+to know it We had met before, but it was years earlier, and Garibaldi
+had forgotten it. The vicissitudes and battles of his tumultuous career
+may well have effaced the circumstance from his mind. The first occasion
+of my meeting Garibaldi was at an evening party at the Swan Brewery,
+Fulham, when I was asked to accompany him to Regent Street, where he was
+then residing. My name would be given to him at the time, which he might
+not distinctly hear, as is often the case when an unfamiliar name is
+heard by a foreign ear, as occurs when a foreign name is mentioned to an
+English ear. On our way he asked me "how it was that the English people
+had accorded such enthusiastic receptions to Kossuth, and yet they
+appeared to have done nothing on behalf of Hungary?" I explained to him
+that "our Foreign Office was controlled by a few aristocratic families
+who had little sympathy with and less respect for the voteless voices of
+the splendid crowds who greeted Kossuth with generous acclaim. That was
+why large and enthusiastic concourses of people in the streets produced
+so little effect upon the English Government" The great Nizzard
+insurgent had been mystified by the impotence of popular enthusiasm.
+In such plain, brief and abrupt sentences as I thought would be
+intelligible, I explained that "he must distinguish between popular
+sympathy and popular power. He might find himself the subject of the
+generous enthusiasm of the streets, but he must take it as the voice of
+the people, not the voice of the Government." Kossuth, who had a better
+knowledge of English literature and the English press, never made the
+distinction, which led him into mistakes and caused him needlessly to
+suffer disappointments. To this day the House of Lords is an alien power
+in England.
+
+It was at the party which we left that night that I was first struck
+with the natural intrepidity of Garibaldi. His square shoulders
+and tapering body I had somehow come to associate with military
+impassableness, and the easy, self-possessed way in which he moved
+through the crowd in the room confirmed my impression. I was told
+afterwards by one of his fellow combatants that unconscious courage was
+his characteristic on the field. Calmness and imperturbable modesty
+were attributes of his mind, as seen in his heroic acts, deemed utterly
+impossible save in romance. He had received the triumphal acclamation of
+people he freed, whose forefathers had only dreamed of liberation.
+
+Since the time of that casual acquaintanceship, Garibaldi had heard
+of me from Mazzini, from Mr. Cowen, and as acting secretary of the
+Committee who sent out the British Legion to him. We had collected a
+considerable sum of money for him, which was lying in unfriendly hands,
+but which his treasurer had been unable to obtain. I had sent him other
+help, when help was sorely needed by his troops. Besides, I had defended
+him and his cause under the names of "Landor Praed," "Disque," and my
+own name, in the press. Garibaldi sent me one of the first photographs
+taken of himself after his victorious entry into Naples, on which he had
+written the words, "Garibaldi, to his friend, J. G. Holyoke." He had got
+name and initials transposed in those eventful days. After the affair of
+Micheldever,* he charged his son Menotti to show me personal and public
+attention on his visit to the House of Commons. To the end of his life
+he saw every visitor who came to him with a note from me.
+
+* See "Sixty Years," chap, lxxix.
+
+When Menotti Garibaldi died, the family wished that the flag which
+the "Thousand" carried when they made their celebrated invasion of
+the Neapolitan kingdom, should be borne at the funeral. They therefore
+telegraphed to the mayor of Marsala, who was supposed to be the guardian
+of the relic. The mayor replied that he had not got it, but that it was
+at Palermo; so the mayor of Palermo was telegraphed to. He also replied
+that he had not got it, and said it was in the possession of Signor
+Antonio Pellegrini, but that its authenticity was very doubtful. General
+Canzio, one of the survivors of the expedition, says that the flag
+possessed by Signor Pellegrini is nothing like the real one, which was
+merely a tricolor of three pieces of cotton nailed to a staff. At the
+battle of Calatafimi the standard-bearer was shot and the flag lost. It
+was said to have been captured by a Neapolitan sub-lieutenant, but all
+traces of it have now disappeared. The wonder is not that the flag has
+disappeared, but that so many official persons should declare it
+to exist elsewhere, of which they had no knowledge. The flag of the
+_Washington_ would have been lost had it not been taken possession of
+by De Rohan. The last flag carried by the Mazzinians, which was shot
+through, would have been lost also had not Mr. J. D. Hodge sought for it
+before it was too late. Both flags are in my possession.
+
+Walter Savage Landor sent me (August 20, 1860) these fine lines on
+Garibaldi's conquest of the Sicilies:--
+
+     "Again her brow
+     Sicaria rears
+     Above the tombs--two thousand years,
+     Have smitten sore her beauteous breast,
+     And war forbidden her to rest
+
+     Yet war at last becomes her friend,
+     And shouts aloud
+     Thy grief shall end.
+     Sicaria! hear me! rise again!
+     A homeless hero breaks thy chain."
+
+How often did I hear it said, in his great days of action, that had
+Garibaldi known the perils he encountered in his enterprises, he
+would never have attempted them. No one seemed able to account for his
+success, save by saying he was "an inspired madman." His heroism was not
+born of insanity, but knowledge. His wonderful march of conquest through
+Italy was made possible by Mazzini. In every town there was a small
+band, mostly of young heroic men, who were inspired by Mazzini's
+teaching, who, like the brothers Bandiera, led forlorn hopes, or who
+were ready to act when occasion arose. I well remember when seeking
+assistance for Mazzini, how friends declined to contribute lest they
+became accessory to the fruitless sacrifice of brave men. There was no
+other way by which Italy could be freed, than by incurring this risk.
+Mazzini knew it, and the men knew it, as Mazzini did not conceal it from
+those he inspired.
+
+The following letter to me by one of the combatants was published at the
+time in the _Daily Telegraph_, It is a forgotten vignette of the war,
+drawn by a soldier on the battlefield who had been wounded five times
+before, fighting under Garibaldi:--
+
+"Dear Sir,--Just time to say that we are in full possession, after
+streams of blood have flowed. Fights 'twixt brothers are deadly.
+
+"We want money; we want, as I told you, a British steamer chartered,
+with revolving rifles and pistols of Colt's (17, Pall Mall), also some
+cannon _raye_ but for the sake of humanity and liberty do hurry up the
+subscriptions. The sooner we are strong the less the chance of more
+fighting. We muster now some 30,000 all told, though not all armed. We
+want arms and ammunition, and caps--Minie rifles. Or the rifle corps
+pattern the General would as soon have. He is well and radiant with joy
+and hope, though sighing over the necessity to shed blood. Oh! will the
+world never learn to value the really great men of the earth until the
+grave has closed over them? Garibaldi has written only one or two of
+all the things published over his name. The rest are the inventions of
+enemies or over-zealous friends.
+
+"Messina must capitulate. If the King grant a constitution, all will be
+lost. The Bourbons must be driven from Italy, for it will never be quiet
+without. Warn the papers against trusting the so-called letters, etc.,
+from Garibaldi. He writes little or none, and dislikes to be made
+prominent.
+
+"Do try and urge on the subscriptions. The English admiral here has
+behaved bravely, and Lord John Russell's praises are in every one's
+mouth; but he must not falter or hesitate.
+
+"The Royal Palace was burned down, and the fighting was desperate
+indeed.
+
+"Of all the defeats imputed to the 'insurgents' not one has really taken
+place. The General was at times obliged to sacrifice some lives for
+strategical purposes.
+
+"Now, pray use your influence for England not to allow Naples to patch
+up a peace, for I tell you it is useless. Garibaldi and his friends will
+never consent to anything short of 'Italy for the Italians.'
+
+"You may communicate this as 'official' if you wish to the _Times_ or
+_News_, reserving my name, Yours truly, in great haste,
+
+"-------------
+
+"G. J. Holyoake, Esq.
+
+"P.S.--I need hardly say this will have to take its chance of getting
+to you. I trust it to a captain whom I have given the money to pay the
+postage in Genoa, where he is going. Will you let me hear from you?"
+
+He did hear from me. Whether it is good to die "in vain," as George
+Eliot held, I do not stay to determine. Certainly, to die when you know
+it to be your duty, whether "in vain" or not, implies a high order of
+nature. Sir Alfred Lyall has sung the praise of those English soldiers
+captured in India, who, when offered their lives if they would merely
+pronounce the name of the Prophet, refused. It was only a word they
+had to patter, and Sir Alfred exclaims, "God Almighty, what could it
+matter?" But the brave Englishmen died rather than be counted on the
+side of a faith they did not hold. Dying for honour is not dying in
+vain, and I thought the Italians entitled to help in their holy war for
+manhood and independence.
+
+When Garibaldi was at Brooke House, Isle of Wight, I was deputed by the
+Society of the Friends of Italy to accompany Mazzini to meet Garibaldi.
+Herzen, the Russian, who kept the "Kolokol" ringing in the dominions of
+the Czar, met us at Southampton. The meeting with Garibaldi took place
+at the residence of Madame Nathan. The two heroes had not met in London
+when the General was a guest of the Duke of Sutherland. As soon as
+Garibaldi saw Mazzini, he greeted him in the old patois of the lagoons
+of Genoa. It affected Mazzini, to whom it brought back scenes of their
+early career, when the inspiration of Italian freedom first began.
+
+Mrs. Nathan, wife of the Italian banker of Cornhill, was an intrepid
+lady, true to the freedom of her country, who had assisted Garibaldi and
+Mazzini in many a perilous enterprise. After the interview at her house,
+she had occasion to consult Garibaldi on matters of moment. Misled or
+deterred by aspersion, which every lady had to suffer, suspected of
+patriotic complicity, Mrs. Nathan was not invited to Brooke House. Under
+these circumstances she could not go alone to see the General, and
+she asked me to take her. Offering her my arm, we walked through the
+courtyard and along the corridors of the house to Garibaldi's rooms.
+Going and returning from her interview, I was much struck by the queenly
+grace and self-possession of Mrs. Nathan's manner. There was neither
+disquietude nor consciousness in her demeanour of the disrespect of not
+being invited to Brooke House, though her residence was known.
+
+On the night of Garibaldi's arrival at Brooke House, Mr. Seely, the
+honoured host of the General, invited me to join the dinner party,
+where I heard things said on some matters, which the speakers could
+not possibly know to be true. Garibaldi showed no traces of excitement,
+which had dazed so many at Southampton that afternoon. The vessel which
+brought him there was immediately boarded by a tumultuous crowd of
+visitors. All the reporters of the London and provincial press were
+waiting for the vessel to be sighted, and they were foremost in the
+throng on the ship. Before them all was Mrs. Colonel Chambers, with
+her beseeching eyes, large, luminous and expressive, and difficult to
+resist. Garibaldi gave instant audience to Joseph Cowen, whose voice
+alone, or chiefly, influenced him. Years before, when Garibaldi was
+unknown, friendless, and penniless, he turned his bark up the Tyne
+to visit Mr. Cowen, the only Englishman from whom he would ask help.
+Garibaldi's first day at Southampton was more boisterous than a battle.
+Everybody wanted him to go everywhere. Houses where his name had never
+been heard were now open to him. Mr. Seely was known to be his friend.
+The Isle of Wight was near. Brooke House lay out of the way of the
+"madding crowd," and there his friends would have time to arrange
+things for him. The end of his visit to England was sudden, unforeseen,
+inexplicable both to friend and foe, at the time and for long after.
+
+He had accepted engagements to appear in various towns in England, where
+people would as wildly greet him as the people of London had done. When
+it was announced that he had left England, it was believed that the
+Emperor of the French had incited the Government to prevail upon
+Garibaldi to leave the country. Others conjectured that Mr. Gladstone
+had whispered something to him which had caused the Italian hero
+to depart. I asked about it from one who knew everything that took
+place--Sir James Stansfeld--and from him I learned that no foreign
+suggestion had been made, that nothing whatever had been said to
+Garibaldi. His leaving was entirely his own act. He had reason to
+believe that Louis Napoleon was capable of anything; but with all his
+heroism, Garibaldi was imaginative and proud He fancied his presence in
+England was an embarrassment to the Government. He being the guest of
+the nation, they would never own to it or say it. But his departure
+might be a relief to them, nevertheless. And therefore he went.
+His sensitiveness of honour shrank from his being a constructive
+inconvenience to a nation to whom he owed so much and for whom he cared
+so much. It was an instance of the disappointment imagination may cause
+in politics.*
+
+     * Some who read Mr. Morley's account of "Garibaldi's
+     Departure"  in his "Life of Gladstone" will think that
+     Garibaldi did not require much imagination to see that he
+     was not wanted to stay in England. He heard, even from Mr.
+     Gladstone, words of solicitude for his health, if he visited
+     the many towns he had promised--and not one suggestion that
+     he should limit the number, which could do him no harm.
+     There could be but one inference from this and Garibaldi
+     drew it.
+
+But Garibaldi was a poet as well as a soldier. Like the author of the
+"Marseillaise," Korner and Petofe, he could write inspiring verse, as
+witness his "Political Poem" in reply to one Victor Hugo wrote upon him,
+which Sir Edwin Arnold, the "Oxford Graduate" of that day, translated
+in 1868. Those do not understand Garibaldi who fail to recognise that he
+had poetic as well as martial fire.*
+
+     * Both poems, the one by Hugo and Garibaldi's in reply, were
+     published with a preface by the present writer.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX. THE STORY OF THE BRITISH LEGION--NEVER BEFORE TOLD
+
+General de Lacy Evans is no longer with us, or he might give us an
+instructive account of the uncertainty and difficulty of discipline in
+a patriotic legion which volunteers its services without intelligently
+intending obedience. When I became Acting Secretary for sending out the
+British Legion to Garibaldi, I found no one with any relevant experience
+who knew what to expect or what to advise. Those likely to be in command
+were ready to exercise authority, but those who were to serve under them
+expected to do it more or less in their own way. The greatest merit in a
+volunteer legion is that they agree in the object of the war they engage
+in. They do not blindly adopt the vocation of murder---for that is
+what military service means. It means the undertaking to kill at the
+direction of others--without knowledge or conviction as to the right and
+justice of the conflict they take part in.
+
+General De Lacy Evans being a military man of repute, and marching with
+his Spanish Legion, had disciplinary influence over them. Two of
+my colleagues in other enterprises of danger were among the Spanish
+volunteers, but they were not at hand--one being in America and the
+other in New Zealand--otherwise I might have had the benefit of their
+experience.
+
+The project of sending out to Garibaldi a British Legion came in the
+air. It was probably a suggestion of De Rohan's, who had gathered in
+Italy that British volunteers would influence Italian opinion; be an
+encouragement in the field; and, if sent out in time, they might be
+of military service. Be this as it may, the Garibaldi Committee found
+themselves, without premeditation, engaged in enlisting men, at least by
+proxy. It was a new business, in which none of us were experts. We knew
+that men of generous motive and enterprise would come forward. At the
+same time, we were opening a door to many of whom we could not know
+enough to refuse, or to trust. However, the army of every country is
+largely recruited from the class of dubious persons, over whom officers
+have the power to compel order--which we had not.
+
+As I was the Acting Secretary, my publishing house, 147, Fleet Street,
+was crowded with inquirers when the project of the Legion became known.
+Many gave their names there. For convenience of enrolment, a house was
+taken at No. 8, Salisbury Street, Strand, where the volunteers, honest
+and otherwise, soon appeared--the otherwise being more obtrusive and
+seemingly more zealous. Among them appeared a young man, wearing the
+uniform of a Garibaldian soldier, of specious manners, and who called
+himself "Captain Styles"--a harmless rustic name, but he was not at all
+rustic in mind. Being early in the field, volunteers who came later took
+it for granted he had an official position. It was assumed that he
+had been in Italy and in some army, which was more than we knew. His
+influence grew by not being questioned. Without our knowledge and
+without any authority, he invented and secretly sold commissions,
+retaining the proceeds for his own use. To avoid obtruding our military
+objects on public attention, I drew up a notice, after the manner of Dr.
+Lunn's tourist agency, as follows:--
+
+EXCURSION to SICILY and NAPLES.--All persons (particularly Members
+of Volunteer Rifle Corps) desirous of visiting Southern Italy, and of
+AIDING by their presence and influence the CAUSE of GARIBALDI and ITALY,
+may learn how to proceed by applying to the Garibaldi Committee, at the
+offices at No. 8, Salisbury Street, Strand, London.
+
+The Committee caused, on my suggestion, applicants to receive notice of
+two things:--
+
+(1) That each man should remember that he goes out to represent the
+sacred cause of Liberty, and that the cause will be judged by his
+conduct. His behaviour will be as important as his bravery.
+
+(2) Those in command will respect the high feeling by which the humblest
+man is animated--but no man must make his equal patriotism a pretext
+for refusing implicit obedience to orders, upon which his safety and
+usefulness depend. There no doubt will be precariousness and privation
+for a time, which every man must be prepared to share and bear.
+
+Further, I wrote an address to the "Excursionists" and had a copy placed
+in the hands of every one of them. It was to the following effect:--
+
+Before leaving Faro, Garibaldi issued an address to his army, in which
+he said:--"Among the qualities which ought to predominate among the
+officers of an Italian army, besides bravery, is the amiability which
+secures the affection of soldiers--discipline, subordination, and
+firmness necessary in long campaigns. Severe discipline may be obtained
+by harshness, but it is better obtained by kindness. This secret the
+numerous spies of the enemy will not discover. It brought us from Parco
+to Gibil-Rosa, and thence to Palermo. The honourable behaviour of our
+soldiery towards the inhabitants did the rest. Of bravery, I am sure!"
+exclaims the General. "What I want is the discipline of ancient Rome,
+invariable harmony one with another--the due respect for property, and
+above all for that of the poor, who suffer so much to gain the scanty
+bread of their families. By these means we shall lessen the sacrifice
+of blood and win the lasting independence of Italy." To this address was
+added the following paragraph:--
+
+"In these words the volunteer will learn the quality of companionship
+he will meet with in the field, and the spirit which prevails among the
+soldiers of Italian independence."
+
+When we had collected the Legion, the thing was to get it out of the
+country--international law not being on the side of our proceedings. As
+many as a thousand names* were entered on the roll of British volunteers
+for Italy. The Great Eastern Railway was very animated.
+
+When they were about to set out at a late hour for Harwich, a "Private
+and Confidential" note was sent to each saying:--
+
+"As the arrangements for the departure of the detachment of
+Excursionists are now complete, I have to request your attendance at
+Caldwell's Assembly Rooms, Dean Street, Oxford Street, at three o'clock
+precisely, on Wednesday, the 26th instant (September, 1860), when you
+will receive information as to the time and place of departure, which
+will be speedy.
+
+"(Signed) E. Styles, Major."
+
+     * I have preserved all letters of application for curiosity
+     and conjecture. They might be of interest in the future.
+     Some joined personally.
+
+
+By this times the "Captain" had blossomed into a "Major." Owing to
+urgency the Committee had to acquiesce in many things. Garibaldi
+being in the field, and often no one knew where, it was futile to ask
+questions and impossible to get them answered.
+
+The Government no doubt knew all about the expedition. Captain De Rohan,
+or, as he styled himself, "Admiral De Rohan," was in command of
+the "Excursionists." He marched up and down the platform, wearing a
+ponderous admiral's sword, which was entirely indiscreet, but he was
+proud of the parade. By this time he had assumed the title of "Rear"
+Admiral. De Rohan was not his name, but he was, it was said, paternally
+related, in an unrecognised way, to Admiral Dalgren, of American
+fame. Of De Rohan it ought to be said, that though he had the American
+tendency to self-inflation, he was a sincere friend of Italy. Honest,
+disinterested, generous towards others--and the devoted and trusted
+agent of Garibaldi, ready to go to the ends of the earth in his service.
+When the English Committee finally closed, and they had a balance of
+L1,000 left in their hands, they were so sensible of the services and
+integrity of De Rohan that they gave it to him, and on my introduction
+he deposited it in the Westminster Bank. He was one of those men for
+whom some permanent provision ought to be made, as he took more delight
+in serving others than serving himself. In after years, vicissitude came
+to him, in which I and members of the Garibaldi Committee befriended
+him.
+
+As our Legion was going out to make war on a Power in friendly relation
+to Great Britain, Lord John Russell was in a position to stop it.
+The vessel (the _Melazzo_) lay two days in the Harwich waters before
+sailing. There were not wanting persons who attempted to call Lord
+John's attention to what was going on, but happily without recognition
+of their efforts. No one was better able than Lord John to congeal
+illicit enthusiasm.
+
+Mr. E. H. J. Craufurd, M.P., chairman of the Committee, myself, my
+brother Austin,--who was unceasing in his service to the Committee and
+the Legion--W. J. Linton, and other members of the Committee, travelled
+by night with the Legion to Harwich. Mr. George Francis Train went
+down with us and explained to me vivaciously his theory, that to obtain
+recognition by the world was to make a good recognition of yourself.
+Train did this, but all it gave him was notoriety, under which was
+hidden from public respect his great natural ability and personal
+kindness of heart. When I last met him, I found him--as was his
+custom--sitting on the public seat in a New York square, interesting
+himself in children, but ready to pour, in an eloquent torrent, the
+story of his projects into the ear of any passer-by who had time to
+listen to him.
+
+It was early morning when we arrived at Harwich. As the ship lay some
+distance out, it took some time to embark the men, and it was the second
+day before she set sail. To our disappointment De Rohan did not go with
+the troops, which we thought it was his duty to do, but suddenly left,
+saying he would meet them at Palermo. He alone had real influence over
+the men. No one being in authority over them, feuds and suspicions were
+added to their lack of discipline.
+
+The vessel was well provisioned, even to the pleasures of the table.
+There was that satisfaction.
+
+It may interest readers who have never sailed in a troopship to read the
+regulations enforced:--
+
+1. The men will be allotted berths and divided into messes, regularly by
+companies, and their packs are to be hung up near their berths.
+
+2. With a view to the general health and accommodation of the men, they
+will be divided into three watches, one of which is to be constantly on
+deck.
+
+3. A guard, the strength of which is to be regulated by the sentries
+required, is to mount every morning at nine o'clock.
+
+4. The men of each watch are to be appointed to stations.
+
+5. The men not belonging to the watch are to be ordered below, when
+required by the master of the ship, in order that they may not impede
+the working of the vessel.
+
+6. In fine weather every man is to be on deck the whole day.
+
+7. The whole watch is to be constantly on deck, except when the rain
+obliges them to go down for shelter.
+
+8. Great attention is to be paid to the cleanliness of the privies.
+Buckets of water are to be thrown down frequently.
+
+9. The bedding is to be brought on deck every morning, if the weather
+will permit, by eight o'clock, and to be well aired.
+
+10. The men are to wash, comb, and brush their heads every morning.
+
+11. At sunset the bedding is to be brought down, and at any time during
+the day on the appearance of bad weather.
+
+12. At ten o'clock in the evening, every man is to be in his berth,
+except the men on guard and of the watch.
+
+13. The chief of the watch is to be careful that no man interferes with
+the windsails, so as to prevent the air from being communicated.
+
+14. The men are strictly forbidden sleeping on deck, which they are apt
+to do, and which is generally productive of fevers and flushes.
+
+With a view of preventing accidents from fire, a sentry will be
+constantly placed at the cooking place or caboose, or one on each side,
+with orders not to allow fire of any kind to be taken without leave.
+
+1. No lights are to be permitted amongst the men except in lanterns. All
+are to be extinguished at ten o'clock at night, except those over which
+there may be sentries.
+
+2. No smoking on any account to be permitted, except on upper deck.
+
+3. No lucifer or patent matches to be allowed.
+
+4. The officers are strictly charged to trace when going their rounds
+between decks, and to report instantly any man who shall presume either
+to smoke there, or to use any lights except in lanterns.
+
+Every possible precaution is to be taken to prevent liquor being brought
+on board ship.
+
+Regularity and decency of conduct are peculiarly required on board ship.
+It is the duty of those in command to repress, by the most decided
+and summary measures, any tendency to insubordination, to check every
+species of immorality and vice, and to discountenance to the utmost of
+their power whatever may disturb the comfort of others, or interrupt the
+harmony and good understanding which should subsist on board.
+
+
+We had trouble in London. One day at a Committee, held at my house, an
+applicant, who was contracting to supply 900 rifles, attended to show
+certificates of their efficiency. The legal eye of the chairman (Mr.
+Craufurd, M.P., one of the prosecuting counsel of the Mint), detected
+them to be forgeries. On his saying so, the applicant snatched them from
+his hand. The chairman at once seized the knave, when a struggle
+ensued to obtain the false credentials. As it was not prudent in us to
+prosecute the presenter and have our proceedings before a court, we let
+him go.
+
+There being no legal power to enforce order was the cardinal weakness
+of the British Legion. A competent commander should at least have been
+appointed, and an agreement of honour entered into by each volunteer, to
+obey his authority and that of those under him, on penalty of dismissal,
+and a certain forfeiture of money. These conditions, though not of
+legal force, would be binding on men of honour, and place the turbulent
+without honour at a disadvantage.
+
+At the Queenwood community, in Robert Owen's day, no contract of this
+kind was thought of, and any one who declined to leave could defy
+the governor, until he was ejected by force--a process which did not
+harmonise with "Harmony Hall."
+
+De Rohan met the Excursionists at Palermo on their disembarkation.
+"Captain Styles" was prudently absent, and no more was heard of him. The
+spurious commissions could not be recognised, and commotion naturally
+arose among those who had been defrauded. Captain Sarsfield, Colonel
+Peard, known as "Garibaldi's Englishman," De Rohan, Captain Scott,
+and others on the spot, with colourable pretensions to authority, took
+different views of the situation. Appeals were made to the Committee in
+London, on whose minutes stormy telegrams are recorded. Mr. Craufurd,
+though he had the prudent reticence of his race, would sometimes fall
+into impetuous expressions. Yet the second statement of his first
+thought would be faultless. This quality was so conspicuous that it
+interested me.
+
+The first man of the Legion killed was young Mr. Bontems, only son of a
+well-known tradesman in the City of London--a fine, ingenuous fellow.
+He was shot by the recklessness of a medical student of the London
+University, as Bontems stood in a mess-room at Palermo. It was said not
+to be the first death caused by the criminal thoughtlessness of the same
+person. Mr. Southall, another London volunteer like young Bontems, was a
+man of genuine enthusiasm, character, and promise. He became an orderly
+officer to Garibaldi, by whom he was trusted and to whom he gave the
+black silk cravat he wore on entering Naples.*
+
+     * Southall forwarded it to me. A revolver and case was sent
+     me by request of a soldier who died on the field.
+
+When Garibaldi retired to his island home, he sent to England
+the following testimony of the services and character of the
+Excursionists:--
+
+"Caprera,
+
+"Jan. 26, 1861.
+
+"... They [the British Legion] came late. But they made ample amends for
+this defect, not their own, by the brilliant courage they displayed
+in the slight engagements they shared with us near the Volturno, which
+enabled me to judge how precious an assistance they would have rendered
+us had the war of liberation remained longer in my hands. In every way
+the English volunteers were a proof of the goodwill borne by your noble
+nation towards the liberty and independence of Italy.
+
+"Accept, honoured Mr. Ashurst, the earnest assurance of my grateful
+friendship, and always command yours,
+
+"G. Garibaldi."
+
+
+Allowing for Garibaldi's generosity in estimating the services of the
+Legion, it remains true that the majority deserved this praise. Many
+were of fine character. Many were young men of ingenuousness and bright
+enthusiasm, prompt to condone lack of military knowledge by noble
+intrepidity in the field.
+
+The Legion cost the Italian Government some expense. Claims were
+recognised liberally. The men were sent back to England overland, and
+each one had a provision order given him to present at every refreshment
+station at which the trains stopped. Count Cavour was a better friend of
+Italian freedom than even Mazzini knew. It was only known after Cavour's
+death, how he had secretly laboured to drag his country from under the
+heel of Austria. Cavour had the friendly foresight to give orders that
+the members of the English Legion were to be supplied on their journey
+home with double rations, as Englishmen ate more than Italians. The
+Cavourian distinction was much appreciated.
+
+The sums due to the men until their arrival in England were paid by the
+Sardinian Consul (whose office was in the Old Jewry), on a certificate
+from me that the applicant was one of the Legion.
+
+A request came to me from Italy for a circumstantial history of the
+Legion and such suggestions as experience had furnished. The story made
+quite a book, which I sent to Dr. Bertani. When after his death I was in
+Milan, I learned from a member of his family that no one knew what had
+become of it. And so I briefly tell the story again, as there is no one
+else to tell it Bertani was the confidant and favourite physician of
+Mazzini and Garibaldi. No one knew so well or so much as he who were the
+makers of Italian Unity. What has become of his papers?
+
+Among friends of Italy who appeared at our council in London was Captain
+Sarsfield, the son of the Duke of Somerset. Pallid, with an expression
+of restrained energy, handsome beyond any face I had seen, it might have
+been carved by a Grecian sculptor. His high breeding struck me before
+I knew who he was. He took out for me an important letter to Garibaldi,
+who had then no postal address. On Sarsfield's return home, he took, as
+was his delight, a furious ride in a high wind. Washington did the same,
+and it killed him, as it did Captain Sarsfield. Difficulty of breathing
+ensued, and it was necessary that Dr. Williams should be called in to
+perform an operation--all in vain. The Duchess of Somerset lay all night
+on the carpet-floor by the dead body of her son, for whom she grieved
+exceedingly. In her distress she said Dr. Williams had been wanting in
+promptness or in skill. His great reputation could not be affected by an
+accusation made in agony, and his own explanation would vindicate him.
+But he took the brutal course of dragging the distressed and distracted
+mother into the law courts. In consequence of remarks I published upon
+this unfeeling and egotistic outrage, the Duchess sent me a letter of
+thanks, and requested me to call at her residence. So much for the two
+men who mainly made Italy a nation. What Castelar said to the Italian
+patriots in general, he might have addressed to Garibaldi and Mazzini
+individually:--
+
+"That which Julius II. could not effect with his cannon, nor Leo X. with
+his arts, that which Savonarola could not make a reality by giving
+himself to God, nor Machiavelli by giving himself to the Devil, has been
+done by you. You have made Italy one, you have made Italy free, you have
+made Italy independent."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI. JOHN STUART MILL, TEACHER OF THE PEOPLE
+
+[Illustration: Mill]
+
+One reason for commencing with the remark that John Stuart Mill was
+born on May 20, 1806, at No. 13, Rodney Street, Islington, London, is
+to notify the coincidence that Gladstone, another man of contemporaneous
+distinction, was born in Rodney Street, Liverpool, three years later.
+Rodney Street, London, where Mill was born, was a small, narrow,
+second-rate, odd, out-of-the-way suburban thoroughfare. But in those
+days Islington had the characteristics of a rural retreat A little above
+this Rodney Street, in what is now known as the Pentonville Road, stood
+the "Angel," a favourite hostelry, where Thomas Paine wrote part of one
+of his famous books, near the period of Mill's birth.
+
+The familiar books concerning J. S. Mill,* treat mainly of his eminence
+as a thinker.
+
+     * Notably those of Professor A. Bain and Mr. Courtney.
+
+I concern myself with those personal characteristics which won for him
+the regard and honour of the insurgent industrial classes--insurgent,
+not in the sense of physical rebellion against authority, but
+of intellectual rebellion against error, social inferiority and
+insufficiency of means. Mill regarded the press as the fortress of
+freedom. All his life he gave money to establish such defences, and left
+the copyright of his works to Mr. John Morley, to be applied in aid
+of publications open to the expression of all reasoned opinion, having
+articles signed by the names of the writers. Mr. Mill was the first who
+made provision for the expression of unfriended truth. It would be a
+surprising biography which recorded the causes he aided and the persons
+whom he helped. He was not one of those philosophers, "selfish, cold
+and wise," who, fortunate and satisfied with their own emancipation from
+error, leave others to perish in their ignorance. Mill helped them,* as
+did Place, Bentham, Grote, Roebuck, Molesworth, and other leaders of the
+great Utilitarian party. For ten years I knew Mr. Mill to receive and
+write letters of suggestion from the India House. He would see any
+one, at any hour, interested in the progress of the people. As Mr.
+John Morley has said in the _Fortnightly Review_, "It was easier for a
+workman than for a princess to obtain access to him."
+
+     * Like Samuel Morley, he took trouble to aid honest
+     endeavour, often irrespective of agreement with it.
+
+
+A pamphlet by me on the "Liberal Situation" in 1865* being sent to Mr.
+Mill, he wrote me the following letter:--
+
+     * It was in the form of a letter addressed to Joseph Cowen.
+
+"Avignon,
+
+"April 28, 1865.
+
+"Dear Sir,--I have received your pamphlet (the 'Liberal Situation')
+which I think is one of the best of your writings, and well calculated
+to stir up the thinking minds among the working classes to larger views
+of political questions. So far as I am myself concerned I cannot but
+be pleased to find you in sympathy with some of the most generally
+unpopular of my political notions. For my own part, I attach for the
+present more importance to representation of minorities, and especially
+to Mr. Hares plan, combined with opening the suffrage to women, than
+to the plural voting which, in the form proposed by Mr. Buxton, of
+attaching the plurality of votes directly to property, I have always
+thoroughly repudiated. But I think what you say of it likely to be very
+useful by impressing on the working people that it is no degradation to
+them to consider some people's votes of more value than others. I would
+always (as you do) couple with the plurality the condition of its being
+accessible to any one, however poor, who proves that he can come up to a
+certain standard of knowledge.--I am, yours truly,
+
+"J. S. Mill.
+
+"G. J. Holyoake."
+
+
+One night when a great Reform League meeting was held in the
+Agricultural Hall, Islington, I accompanied him from the House of
+Commons to it. There were rumours of danger in attending it. This did
+not deter him. The meeting itself was ill spoken of by the press--still
+he went. The crowd about the place made it perilous for one so
+fragile-looking as he, to force a way in. He never hesitated to try it
+When we arrived on the thronged platform, it was a struggle to get to
+the front. The vast amphitheatre, with its distant lights and dense
+crowds--the horsepit presenting a valley of faces, the higher ground
+hills of men, the iron rafters overhead were alive with hearers who had
+climbed there--was a strange Miltonic scene. No sooner did the stout
+voice of Manton--which alone all could hear--announce the arrival of Mr.
+Mill than every man was silent; though few would catch the low, wise,
+brave words he uttered. Afterwards I returned to the House of Commons
+with him, he being interested in an expected division.
+
+The Islington meeting that night had been denounced as illegal. He went
+to justify the right of public meeting by his presence, and to share the
+responsibility of those who convened it. What man eminent as a
+thinker, save he, or Mr. John Morley, would incur the odium, peril, and
+discomfort of attending, for such a purpose, a workman's meeting such as
+that?
+
+The first time he made a speech at a public meeting was at the
+Whittington Club, before a gathering of co-operators. I asked him to
+address them. I was as glad as surprised when he consented. Had it not
+been for the presence of women taking interest in co-operative economy,
+he probably had not spoken then. In a sentence he defined the higher
+co-operation. He never spoke in vain.
+
+When in business in Fleet Street I signed bills for the convenience of
+a city friend, who, like William Ellis--Mill's early associate--was a
+munificent supporter of progressive endeavour. By putting my name on his
+bills I incurred a liability beyond my means of meeting. My more than
+imprudence was indefensible because it involved the business in which
+the money of others was invested. Learning that my resources fell short
+by L70 of the amount for which I was answerable, Mr. Mill sent me the
+L70 from himself and a friend. When the bills were repaid me from the
+estate of him for whom I had signed them, I sent the L70 to Mr. Mill,
+who returned me half as a gift, on the condition that I did not sign
+another bill, which I never did, unless I was able to pay it if my
+friend did not, and I was willing to pay it if he could not.
+
+Mr. Mill had quoted portions of my "History of the Rochdale Pioneers,"
+in his "Political Economy," which was a great advantage to a cause
+whose success I much desired. In many ways I was much indebted to his
+friendship, and have never changed in my regard for him. Yet this did
+not involve spontaneous acquiescence in all his views. Upon the ballot
+I dissented from him. It seemed to me a just condition that the people
+should be, for one minute in seven years, free to vote for their
+political masters (as members of Parliament are) without control,
+intimidation, or fear of resentment Mr. Bright himself and Mr. Berkeley
+were impressed by my view as stated to a meeting of the Reform League.
+Mill thought it conduced to manliness that the elector should withstand
+adverse influences at whatever peril--which assumed the universal
+existence of a heroic spirit of self-sacrifice. Since the elector by his
+vote subjects his fellow-citizens, it may be, to perilous mastership,
+Mill inferred every man had a right to know from whose hand came the
+blessing or the blow. There is still force in Mill's view which
+commands respect. On the other hand, secret voting is not without its
+disadvantages. The citizen may be surrounded by disguised adversaries.
+The fair-seeming dissembler he trusts may stab him at the poll. The
+independence given by the ballot may betray the State, and the traitors
+be shielded from responsibility. The secret vote also rests on a vast
+assumption--that of the universal paramountcy of conscience and honesty
+in electors--which paramountcy is as scarce as political heroism. Those
+who so trust the people incur the greater and ceaseless responsibility
+of educating them in political honour. They who have shown their trust
+in the people, alone have the right of claiming their fidelity. Mr. Mill
+was foremost in teaching the duty of independent thought, and, to do him
+justice, my dissent from a principle he had come to hold strongly, made
+no difference in his friendship. He was once a believer in the ballot
+himself.
+
+Mr. Mill was an instance which shows that even the virtues of a
+philosopher need, as in lesser men, good sense to take care of them,
+lest the operation of lofty qualities compromise others. His unguarded
+intrepidity in defence of the right cost him his seat for Westminster.
+Things were going well for him, on his second candidature, when one
+morning it appeared in the newspapers that he had sent L10 to promote
+the election of Mr. Bradlaugh. That L10 was worth L10,000 to his Tory
+opponent, and cost Mill's own committee the loss of L3,000, which was
+contributed to promote his election. When I was a candidate in the
+Tower Hamlets, Mr. Mill sent a similar sum to promote my election; but I
+prohibited the publication of an intrepid act of generosity, which might
+prove costly to Mr. Mill At his first election Dean Stanley nobly urged
+Christian electors to vote for Mr. Mill; but at the second election,
+when it became known that Mr. Mill was subscribing to bring an Atheist
+into Parliament, most Christians were persuaded Mr. Mill was himself an
+Atheist, and only the nobler sort would vote for him again. It was right
+and honourable in Mr. Mill to stand by his opinion, that an Atheist
+had as much right as a Christian to be in Parliament, and that
+ecclesiastical heresy was no disqualification for public or
+Parliamentary service. To maintain your opinions at your own cost is
+one thing, but to proclaim them at the cost of others, without regard to
+time, consent or circumstance, is quite a different matter.
+
+Mr. Mill had refused on principle to contribute to the expense of his
+own election, on the ground that a candidate should not be called upon
+to pay for his own election to a place of public service, I though it
+was perfectly consistent that he should contribute to the election of
+others. But his committee could not convert the electorate to this
+view. There is nothing so difficult as the election of a philosopher.
+Mr. Mill was in favour of the civil equality of all opinions, but it did
+not follow that he shared all opinions himself. But the electors could
+not be made to see this after the L10 sent to Northampton became known,
+and England saw the most famous borough in the land handed over for
+unknown years to a Tory bookseller, without personal distinction of his
+own, and a book writer of the highest order rejected by the electors in
+favour of a mere bookseller.
+
+Mr. Mill's father, openly advocating the limitation of families in
+the interest of the poor, bequeathed to his son a heritage of
+disadvantage--of liability to frenzied imputation. No man is to be held
+responsible save for what he himself says and what he himself does. No
+man is answerable, or ought to be held answerable, for the construction
+others put upon his conduct, or for their inference as to his opinions.
+No writer ever guarded his words and conduct more assiduously than J.
+S. Mill. Yet few have been more misrepresented by theological and
+Conservative writers. Upon the question of "limitation of families," Mr.
+Mill never wrote other or more than this:--
+
+"No prudent man contracts matrimony before he is in a condition which
+gives him an assured means of living, and no married man has a greater
+number of children than he can properly bring up. Whenever this family
+has been formed, justice and humanity require that he should impose on
+himself the same restraint which is submitted to by the unmarried."*
+
+     * "Principles of Political Economy," Book ii.
+
+Further instruction of the people upon this subject J. S. Mill might
+not deprecate, but he never gave it He never went so far as Jowett,
+who wrote: "That the most important influences on human life should
+be wholly left to chance, or shrouded in mystery, and instead of being
+disciplined or understood, should be required to conform to an external
+standard of propriety, cannot be regarded by the philosopher as a safe
+or satisfactory condition of human things."*
+
+     * "Dialogues of Plato." Introduction to "Republic," vol. ii.
+
+Mill's views, or supposed views, naturally excited the attention of
+wits. Moore's amusing exaggeration, which, like American humour, was
+devoid of truth, yet had no malice in it, was:--
+
+     "There are two Mr. Mills, too, whom those who like reading
+     What's vastly unreadable, call very clever;
+     And whereas Mill senior makes war on _good_ breeding,
+     Mill junior makes war on all _breeding_ whatever."
+
+The way in which opinions were invented for Mill is shown in the
+instance of the London Debating Club (1826-1830), which was attended by
+a set of young men who professed ultra opinions. Mr. J. A. Roebuck was
+one. It was rumoured that at a meeting at which Mr. Mill was present, a
+pamphlet was discussed entitled, "What is Love?" attributed to a man of
+some note in his day, and of | unimpeachable character in private life.
+Mr. Mill might have been present without knowledge of the | subject to
+be brought forward, and may have been a listener without choice.
+
+But in those days (and down to a much later period) the conventional
+fallacy was in full vogue--that civility to an opponent implied a secret
+similarity of opinion. Courtesy was regarded as complicity with
+the beliefs of those to whom it was shown. He who was present at
+an unconventional assembly was held to assent to what took place
+there--though neither a member, nor speaker, nor partisan.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII. JOHN STUART MILL, TEACHER OF THE PEOPLE
+
+(continued)
+
+Mill was so entirely serious in his pursuit of truth, and entirely
+convinced of the advantages of its publicity, that he readily risked
+conventional consequences on that account. He held it to be desirable
+that those who had important convictions, should be free to make them
+known, and even be encouraged to do so. In thinking this he was in no
+way compromised by, nor had he any complicity with, the convictions of
+others. But this did not prevent him being made answerable for them, as
+in the case of the distribution of papers sent to him by friends in his
+company. A copy of it came into my possession which assuredly he did
+not write, and the terms of which he could never have approved, had
+they been submitted to him. On one occasion he sent to me a passionate
+repudiation of concurrence or recommendation in any form, of methods
+imputed to him.
+
+These eccentricities of imputation, supposed to have died by time, were
+found to be alive at Mills death.
+
+The chief resurrectionist was one Abraham Hay-ward, known as a teller
+of salacious stories at the Athenaeum. He was a man of many gifts,
+who wrote with a bright, but by no means fastidious, pen. In some
+unexplained, inconsistent, and inexplicable way, Mr. Gladstone was
+on friendly terms with him. No sooner was Mill dead, and illustrious
+appreciators of the great thinker were meditating some memorial to his
+honour, than Mr. Hayward sent an article to the _Times_, suggesting
+intrinsic immorality in his opinions. He also sent out letters privately
+to deter eminent friends of Mill from giving their names to the memorial
+committee. He sent one to Mr. Stopford Brooke, upon whom it had no
+influence. He sent one to Mr. Gladstone, upon whom it had, and who, in
+consequence, declined to join the committee.
+
+Hayward was, in his day, the Iago of literature, and abused the
+confiding nature of our noble Moor.* Yet, when Mr. Mill lost his seat
+for Westminster, Mr. Gladstone had written these great words: "We all
+know Mr. Mill's intellectual eminence before he entered Parliament.
+What his conduct principally disclosed to me was his singular moral
+elevation. Of all the motives, stings and stimulants that reach men
+through their egotism in Parliament, no part could move or even touch
+him. His conduct and his language were in this respect a sermon. For the
+sake of the House of Commons, I rejoiced in his advent and deplored his
+disappearance. He did us all good, and in whatever party, in whatever
+form of opinion, I sorrowfully confess that such men are rare."
+
+     * My little book, "John Stuart Mill, as the Working Classes
+     Knew Him," was written to show Mr. Gladstone the answer that
+     could be given to Hayward.
+
+There was no tongue in the House of Commons more bitter, venomous, or
+disparaging of the people than that of Lord Robert Cecil, afterwards
+Lord Salisbury; yet I record to his honour he subscribed L50 towards the
+memorial to Mr. Mill. One of the three first persons who gave L50 was
+Mr. Walter Morrison. The Duke of Argyll, the Earl of Derby, the Duke of
+Devonshire, Sir Charles and Lady Dilke, Mr. and Mrs. P. A. Taylor were
+also among the subscribers of L50 each. Among those who gave large
+but lesser sums were Mr. Herbert Spencer, Stopford Brooke, Leonard
+H. Courtney, Frederic Harrison, G. H. Lewes, W. E. H. Lecky. Sir John
+Lubbock, G. Croome Robertson, Lord Rosebery, Earl Russell, Professor
+Tyndall, and Professor Huxley. So Mr. Mill had his monument with honour.
+It stands on the Thames Embankment, and allures more pilgrims of thought
+than any other there.
+
+Purity and honour, there is reason to believe, were never absent from
+Mill's mind or conduct; but trusting to his own personal integrity, he
+assumed others would recognise it His admiration of Mrs. Taylor, whom he
+frequently visited, and subsequently married, was misconstrued--though
+not by Mr. Taylor, who had full confidence in Mr. Mill's honour. No
+expression to the contrary on Mr. Taylor's part ever transpired. It
+might be due to society that Mr. Mill should have been reserved in
+his regard. But assured of his own rectitude, he trusted to the proud
+resenting maxim, "Evil be to him who evil thinks," and he resented
+imputation--whether it came from his relatives or his friends. Any
+reflection upon him in this respect he treated as an affront to himself,
+and an imputation upon Mrs. Taylor, which he never forgave. A relative
+told me after his death, that he never communicated with any of them
+again who made any remark which bore a sinister interpretation. If ever
+there was a philosopher who should be counted stainless, it was John
+Stuart Mill.
+
+In the minds of the Bentham School, population was a province of
+politics. It would seem incredible to another generation--as it seems
+to many in this--that a philosopher should incur odium for being of
+Jowett's opinion, that the most vital information upon the conduct of
+life should not be withheld from the people. To give it is to incur
+conventional reprehension; as though it were not a greater crime to be
+silent while a feeble, half-fed, and ignorant progeny infest the land,
+to find their way to the hospital, the poor house, or the gaol, than to
+protest against this recklessness, which establishes penury and
+slavery in the workman's home. Yet a brutal delicacy and a criminal
+fastidiousness, calling itself public propriety, is far less reputable
+than the ethical preference for reasonable foresight and a manlier race.
+
+Mr. Mill's success in Parliament was greater than that of any
+philosopher who has entered in our time. Unfortunately, very few
+philosophers go there. The author of "Mark Rutherford" (W. Hale White)
+writing to me lately, exclaimed: "Oh for one session with Mill and
+Bright and Cobden in the House! What would you not give to hear Mill's
+calm voice again? What would you not give to see him apply the plummet
+of Justice and Reason to the crooked iniquities of the Front Benches? He
+stands before me now, just against the gangway on the Opposition side,
+hesitating, pausing even for some seconds occasionally, and yet holding
+everybody in the House with a kind of grip; for even the most foolish
+understood more or less dimly that they were listening to something
+strange, something exalted, spoken from another sphere than that of the
+professional politician."
+
+Mr. Christie relates that in the London Debating Society, of which Mill
+was a member when a young man, it used to be said of him in argument,
+"He passed over his adversary like a ploughshare over a mouse."
+Certainly many mice arguers heard in Parliament, who made the public
+think a mountain was in labour, ended their existence with a squeak when
+Mr. Mill took notice of them.
+
+The operation of the suffrage and the ballot, questions on which Mill
+expressed judgment, are in the minds of politicians to this day, and
+many reformers who dissented from him do not conceal their misgivings as
+to the wisdom of their course. "Misgivings" is a word that may be taken
+to mean regret, whereas it merely signifies occasion for consideration.
+The extension of the franchise and the endowment of the ballot have
+caused misgivings in many who were foremost in demanding them. The wider
+suffrage has not prevented an odious war in South Africa, and the ballot
+has sent to the House of Commons a dangerous majority of retrograde
+members. John Bright distrusted the vote of the residuum. John Stuart
+Mill equally dreaded the result of withdrawing the vote of the elector
+from public scrutiny. I agreed with their apprehensions, but it seemed
+to me a necessity of progress that the risk should be run. While the
+Ballot Act was before the House of Lords, I wrote to the _Times_ and
+other papers, as I have elsewhere related, to say that the Ballot Act
+would probably give us a Tory government for ten years--which it did.
+I thought that the elector who had two hundred years of transmitted
+subjection or intimidation or bribery in his bones, would for some time
+go on voting as he had done--for others, not for the State. He would not
+all at once understand that he was free and answerable to the State
+for his vote. New electors, who had never known the responsibility
+of voting, would not soon acquire the sense of it Mr. Mill thought it
+conduced to manliness for an elector to act in despite of his interest
+or resentment of his neighbours, his employer, his landlord, or his
+priest, when his vote became known. At every election there were martyrs
+on both sides; and it was too much to expect that a mass of voters,
+politically ignorant, and who had been kept in ignorance, would
+generally manifest a high spirit, which maintains independence in the
+face of social peril, which philosophers are not always equal to. No
+doubt the secrecy of the vote is an immunity to knaves, but it is the
+sole chance of independence for the average honest man. The danger
+of committing the fortune of the State to the unchecked votes of the
+unintelligent was an argument of great power against a secret suffrage.
+Lord Macaulay, though a Whig of the Whigs, gave an effective answer when
+he brought forward his famous fool, who declared "he would never go into
+the water until he had learnt to swim." The people must plunge into the
+sea of liberty before they can learn to swim in it. They have now been
+in that sea many years, and not many have learned the art yet. Then was
+found the truth of Temple Leader's words, that "if the sheep had votes,
+they would give them all to the butcher." Then when reformers found that
+the new electors voted largely for those who had always refused them the
+franchise, the advocates of it often expressed to me their misgivings
+as to its wisdom. Lord Sherbrooke (then Robert Lowe) saw clearly that
+if liberty was to be maintained and extended, the State must educate its
+masters.
+
+But has this been done? Has not education been impeded? Have not
+electoral facilities been hampered? Has not the franchise been
+restricted by onerous conditions, which keep great numbers from having
+any vote at all? Has not the dual vote been kept up, which enables
+the wealthy to multiply their votes at will? Before reformers have
+misgivings concerning the extension of liberty to the masses, they must
+see that the poor have the same opportunity of reaching the poll as the
+rich have. George Eliot, who had the Positivist reluctance to see the
+people act for themselves, wrote: "Ignorant power comes in the end to
+the same thing as wicked power."* But there is this difference in their
+nature. "Ignorant power" can be instructed, and experience may teach
+it; but "wicked power" has an evil purpose, intelligently fixed and
+implacably determined.
+
+     * "Felix Holt," p  265.    Blackwood's stereotyped edition.
+
+Does any reflecting person suppose, that when the vote was given to the
+mass of the people, they would be at once transmuted into intelligent,
+calculating, and patient politicians--that their passions would be
+tamed, and their vices extinguished--that they would forthwith act
+reasonably? Much of this was true of the thoughtful working men. But
+for a long time the multitude must remain unchanged until intelligence
+extends. We have had renewed experience that--
+
+     "Religion, empire, vengeance, what you will,
+     A word's enough to rouse mankind to kill.
+     Some cunning phrase by fiction caught and spread,
+     That guilt may reign, and wolves and worms be fed."
+
+But the reformer has one new advantage now. He is no longer scandalised
+by the excesses of ignorance, nor the perversities of selfishness.
+Giving the vote has, if we may paraphrase the words of Shakespeare, put
+into
+
+     "Every man's hands
+      The means to cancel his captivity."
+
+It is no mean thing to have done this. There is no reason for misgiving
+here. If the people misuse or neglect to use their power, the fault is
+their own. There is no one to reproach but themselves.
+
+Abolitionists of slavery may, if supine, feel misgivings at having
+liberated the negroes from their masters, where they were certain of
+shelter, subsistence, and protection from assault of others, and exposed
+them to the malice of their former owners, to be maltreated, murdered at
+will, lynched with torture on imaginary or uninvestigated accusations.
+Those who aided the emancipation of the slaves are bound to ceaseless
+vigilance in defending them. But despite the calamities of liberty,
+freedom has added an elastic race (who learn the arts of order and of
+wealth) to the family of mankind, and misgivings are obsolete among
+those who have achieved the triumphs and share the vigils and duties of
+progress.
+
+Mr. Mill was essentially a teacher of the people. He wished them to
+think on their own account--for themselves, and not as others directed
+them. He did not wish them to disregard the thoughts of those wiser
+than themselves, but to verify new ideas as far as they could, before
+assenting to them. He wished them not to take authority for truth, but
+truth for authority. To this end he taught the people principles which
+were pathways to the future. He who kept on such paths knew where he
+was. Herbert Spencer said he had no wrinkles on his brow because he
+had discovered the thoroughfares of nature, and was never puzzled as to
+where they led. Mr. Mill was a chartmaker in logic, in social economy,
+and in politics. None before him did what he did, and no successor
+has exceeded him. By his protest against the "subjection of women," he
+brought half the human race into the province of politics and progress.
+They have not all appeared there as yet--but they are on the way.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII. ABOUT MR. GLADSTONE
+
+Mr. Gladstone's career will be the wonder of other generations, as it
+has been the astonishment of this. Mr. Morley's monumental "Life" of
+him will long be remembered as the greatest of all contributions to the
+education of the British politician. It is a life of Parliament as well
+as of a person. Those who remember how Carpenter's "Political Text Book"
+was welcomed will know how much more this will be valued.
+
+Never before was a biography founded on material so colossal. Only
+one man was thought capable of dealing with a subject so vast and
+complicated. Great expectations were entertained, and were fulfilled in
+a measure which exceeded every anticipation. The task demanded a vaster
+range of knowledge than was ever before required of a biographer.
+Classic passages, not capable of being construed by the general reader,
+are translated, so that interest is never diverted nor baffled by
+flashes of learned darkness. When cardinal and unusual terms are used,
+which might be dubiously interpreted, definitions are given which have
+both delight and instruction. He who collects them from Mr. Morley's
+pages would possess a little dictionary of priceless guidance. A noble
+action or a just idea is recognised, whoever may manifest it Some
+persons, as Mr. Gladstone said of Kinglake's famous book, "were too
+bad to live and too good to die." Nevertheless, their excellence, where
+discernible, has its place in this biographical mosaic Thus unexpected
+pieces of human thought emerge in the careers of the historic figures
+who pass before the reader, by which he becomes richer as he proceeds
+from page to page. Illuminating similes abound which do not leave
+the memory--such fitness is there in them. Historic questions which
+interested those who lived through them, are made clear, by facts
+unknown or unregarded then. Men whom many readers detested in their day
+are discovered to have some noble feature of character, unrevealed to
+the public before. Mr. Morley is a master of character--a creator of
+fame by his discernment, discrimination, impartiality, and generosity to
+adversaries, from which the reader learns charity and wisdom as he goes
+along. Knowledge of public life, law, and government, come as part of
+the charm of the incidents related. Memorable phrases, unexpected terms
+of expression, like flashes of radium, gleam in every chapter. The
+narrative is as interesting as the adventures of Gil Bias--so full is
+it of wisdom, wonder, and variety. From all the highways, byways, and
+broadways of the great subject, the reader never loses sight of Mr.
+Gladstone. All paths lead to him. Like Bunyan's Pilgrim, the biographer
+goes on his shining way, guiding the reader to the shrine of the hero of
+the marvellous story. Mr. Gladstone moves through Mr. Morley's pages as
+a king--as he did among men. He sometimes fell into errors, as noble men
+have done in every age, but there was never any error in his purpose. He
+always meant justly, and did not hesitate to give us new and ennobling
+estimates of hated men. His sense of justice diffused, as it were, a
+halo around him. Mr. Morley's pages give us the natural history of a
+political mind of unusual range and power which was without a compeer.
+As Mr. Gladstone began, he advanced, listening to everybody, to use one
+of Mr. Morley's commanding lines: "He was flexible, persistent, clear,
+practical, fervid, unconquerable."
+
+In "Vivian Grey," Disraeli foreshadowed his bright and vengeful career.
+In the same way, Mr. Gladstone wrote the whole spirit of his life in
+his first address to the electors of Newark. His career is in that
+manifesto, which has never been reprinted. The reader will be interested
+in seeing it Here it is:--
+
+To the Worthy and Independent Electors of the Borough of Newark.
+
+"Gentlemen,--Having now completed my canvass, I think it my duty as well
+to remind you of the principles on which I have solicited your votes as
+freely to assure my friends that its result has placed my success beyond
+a doubt. I have not requested your favour on the ground of adherence
+to the opinions of any man or party, further than such adherence can be
+fairly understood from the conviction that I have not hesitated to avow
+that we must watch and resist that uninquiring and un-discriminating
+desire for change amongst us, which threatens to produce, along with
+partial good, a melancholy preponderance of mischief, which I am
+persuaded would aggravate beyond computation the deep-seated evils of
+our social state, and the heavy burthens of our industrial classes;
+which, by disturbing our peace, destroys confidence and strikes at
+the root of prosperity. This it has done already, and this we must,
+therefore, believe it will do.
+
+"For a mitigation of these evils we must, I think, look not only
+to particular measures, but to the restoration of sounder general
+principles--I mean especially that principle on which alone the
+incorporation of Religion with the State in our constitution can be
+defended; that the duties of governors are strictly and peculiarly
+religious, and that legislatures, like individuals, are bound to
+carry throughout their acts the spirit of the high truths they have
+acknowledged. Principles are now arrayed against our institutions, and
+not by truckling nor by temporising, not by oppression nor corruption,
+but by principles they must be met. Among their first results should be
+sedulous and especial attention to the interests of the poor, founded
+upon the rule that those who are the least able to take care of
+themselves ought to be most regarded by others. Particularly it is
+a duty to endeavour by every means that labour may receive adequate
+remuneration, which unhappily, among several classes of our
+fellow-countrymen, is not now the case. Whatever measures, therefore,
+whether by the correction of the Poor Laws, allotment of cottage
+grounds, or otherwise, tend to promote this object, I deem entitled to
+the warmest support, with all such as are calculated to secure sound
+moral conduct in any class of society.
+
+"I proceed to the momentous question of slavery, which I have found
+entertained among you in that candid and temperate spirit which alone
+befits its nature, or promises to remove its difficulties. If I have not
+recognised the right of an irresponsible Society to interpose between
+me and the electors, it has not been from any disrespect to its members,
+nor from any unwillingness to answer their or any other questions
+on which the electors may desire to know my views. To the esteemed
+secretary of the Society I submitted my reasons for silence, and I made
+a point of stating those views to him in his character of a voter.
+
+"As regards the abstract lawfulness of slavery, I acknowledge it simply
+as importing the right of one man to the labour of another; and I rest
+upon the fact that Scripture--paramount authority on such a point--gives
+directions to persons standing in the relation of master to slave for
+their conduct in that relation; whereas, were the matter absolutely and
+necessarily sinful, it would not regulate the manner. Assuming sin is
+the cause of degradation, it strives, and strives most effectually, to
+cure the latter by extirpating the former. We are agreed that both
+the physical and moral bondage of the slave are to be abolished. The
+question is as to the order and the order only; now Scripture attacks
+the moral evil before the temporal one, and the temporal through
+the moral one, and I am content with the order which Scripture has
+established.
+
+"To this end I desire to see immediately set on foot, by impartial and
+sovereign authority, an universal and efficient system of Christian
+instruction, not intended to resist designs of individual piety
+and wisdom for the religious improvement of the negroes, but to do
+thoroughly what they can only do partially. As regards immediate
+emancipation, whether with or without compensation, there are several
+minor reasons against it, but that which weighs most with me is, that
+it would, I much fear, exchange the evils now affecting the negro for
+others which are weightier--for a relapse into deeper debasement, if not
+for bloodshed and internal war.* Let fitness be made the condition of
+emancipation, and let us strive to bring him to that fitness by the
+shortest possible course. Let him enjoy the means of earning his freedom
+through honest and industrious habits, thus the same instruments which
+attain his liberty shall likewise render him competent to use it; and
+thus, I earnestly trust, without risk of blood, without violation of
+property, with unimpaired benefit to the negro and with the utmost speed
+which prudence will admit, we shall arrive at the exceedingly desirable
+consummation, the utter extinction of slavery.
+
+     * Isaiah could not have prophesied more definitely. Friends
+     of the slaves stoutly denied that the Scriptures sanctioned
+     their bondage. They were afraid the fact would go against
+     Christianity. It was true nevertheless, and the American
+     preachers pleaded this for their opposition and supineness
+     towards abolition.
+
+"And now, gentlemen, as regards the enthusiasm with which you have
+rallied round your ancient flag, and welcomed the humble representative
+of those principles whose emblem it is, I trust that neither the lapse
+of time nor the seductions of prosperity can ever efface it from my
+memory. To my opponents my acknowledgments are due for the good humour
+and kindness with which they have received me, and while I would thank
+my friends for their zealous and unwearied exertions in my favour, I
+briefly but emphatically assure them that if promises be an adequate
+foundation of confidence, or experience a reasonable ground of
+calculation, our victory is sure. I have the honour to be, gentlemen,
+your obliged and obedient servant,
+
+"W. E. Gladstone.
+
+"Clinton Arms, Newark, Tuesday, Oct, 9, 1832."
+
+The sincerity, the intrepidity, the sympathy with those who labour, the
+candour of statement, the openness of mind, the sentiments of piety
+and freedom (so rarely combined) of his life, are all there. His whole
+career is but a magnificent enlargement of that address. I have lingered
+before the hotel in the market-place, where he stayed and from which he
+made speeches to the electors. There is no one living in Newark now who
+heard them. Byron lived in the same hotel when he came to Newark with
+his early poems, which he had printed at a shop still standing in the
+market-place. The township is enlarged, but otherwise unchanged as the
+Conservatism he then represented. I have thrice walked through all
+the streets along which he passed, for he visited the house of every
+elector. What a splendid canvasser he must have been, with his handsome
+face, his courtesy, his deference, his charm of speech, and infinite
+readiness of explanation!
+
+I first saw him in the old House of Commons in 1842. Mr. Roebuck had
+presented a petition from me that sitting, and I remained to witness
+subsequent proceedings. I only remember one figure, seemingly a
+young-looking man, tall, pallid-faced, with dark hair, who stood well
+out in the mid-space between the Ministerial benches and the table, and
+spoke with the fluency and freedom of a master of his subject Every one
+appeared to pay him attention. I was told the speaker was Mr. Gladstone.
+
+When he visited the Tyne in 1862, I did not need to be told his name. At
+that time I was connected with the _Newcastle Chronicle_, and it fell
+to me to write the leaders on Mr. Gladstone. The miners were told, when
+they came up from the pits on that day, they would see a sight new
+in England, which they might not soon see again--a Chancellor of the
+Exchequer who was known to have a conscience. Other holders of the same
+office may have had that commodity about them, but not employing it in
+public affairs, its existence had not been observed. The penny paper
+which gave the miners that information, we told them would not exist but
+for Mr. Gladstone. Thousands of miners came up from the pits of Durham
+and Northumberland, and great numbers succeeded in shaking hands with
+Mr. Gladstone as he approached the _Harry Clasper_, named after the
+well-known oarsman of the Tyne, who was on the river with Bob Chambers,
+who had won a hundred contests. Clasper and Chambers were always
+named together. Men swam before Mr. Gladstone's vessel a considerable
+distance, as though they were the water gods of the Tyne, preparing the
+way for their distinguished and unwonted visitor. And what a journey
+it was! Twenty-two miles of banks, counting both sides, were lined with
+people. The works upon the Tyneside, with their grim piles high in
+the air, crowned with clouds of blackest smoke, out of which forks of
+sulphurous flames darted, revealing hundreds of persons surmounting
+roofs and pinnacles, cheering in ringing tones, above, while cannon
+boomed at their feet below. Amid it all you could see everywhere women
+holding up their children to see the great Chancellor of the Exchequer
+go by. The Tyne has seen no other sight like this.
+
+It was of this visit that I first wrote to Mr. Gladstone. The
+arrangements for his wonderful reception were the work of Mr. Joseph
+Cowen, jun. His father was Chief Commissioner for the Tyne--in person
+taller than Mr. Gladstone, with a gift of speech which sincerity made
+eloquent. His son, who had organised the reception, never came in sight
+of Mr. Gladstone from first to last. As I knew Mr. Gladstone liked
+to know what was below the surface as well as upon it, I sent him two
+informing notes.
+
+"Going to and fro in the land "--not with inquisitive malice as a
+certain sojourner mentioned in Job is reputed to have done--on lecturing
+purpose bent, sometimes on political missions, I knew the state and
+nature of opinion in many places. The soul and Liberalism of the country
+was Nonconformist and religious. Many in Parliament thought that London
+newspapers, published mainly for sale, and which furnished ideas for
+music-hall politicians--represented English opinion at large. At times
+I wrote to members of Parliament that this was not so. Mr. Walter James
+(since Lord Northbourne) was one who showed my reports to Mr. Gladstone.
+
+One day in 1877 Mr. Gladstone sent me a postcard, inviting me to
+breakfast with him. He was as open in his friendship as in his politics.
+In all things he was prepared to dare the judgment of adversaries.
+Incidentally I mentioned the invitation to two persons only, but next
+day a passage appeared in a newspaper--much read in the House of Commons
+at that time--to the effect that Mr. Gladstone was inviting unusual
+persons to his house, who might be useful to him in his campaign on the
+Eastern question, so anxious was he to obtain partisan support in the
+agitation in which he was engaged. There was no truth whatever in this,
+as Mr. Gladstone never referred to the subject, nor any of his guests.
+But I took care at that time not to mention again an invitation lest it
+should occasion inconvenience to my host. The visit to the Tyne had some
+picturesque incidents. By happy accident, or it might be from thoughtful
+design, Mrs. Gladstone wore an Indian shawl having a circle in the
+centre, by which she was distinguishable. Every person whom thousands
+come out to see, should have some individual mark of dress, and should
+never be surrounded by friends, when recognition is impossible and
+disappointing to the crowd.
+
+At Middlesboro', Mrs. Gladstone was taken to see molten metal poured
+into moulds. I knew the ways of a foundry, and that if the mould
+happened to be damp, a shower of the liquid iron would fall upon those
+near. The gentlemen around her seemed to think it an act of freedom to
+warn her of her danger, so I stepped up to her and told her of the risk
+she ran. She said in after years, that if I did not save her life, I
+saved her from great possible discomfort.
+
+Middlesboro* was then in a state of volcanic chaos. Mr. Gladstone
+predicted that it would become what it is now, a splendid town. It was
+in the grey of a murky evening, when blast furnaces were flaming
+around him, that Mr. Gladstone began in a small office--the only place
+available--a wonderful comparison between Oxford and the scene outside.
+Alas! the dull-minded town clerk stopped him, saying that they wished
+him to make his speech in the evening--not knowing that Mr. Gladstone
+had twenty speeches in him at any time. The evening came, but the great
+inspiration returned no more.
+
+The night before he had spoken in Newcastle, when he made the
+long-remembered declaration on the war then raging in America, the
+reporter of the Electric Telegraph Company had fallen ill, and Mr.
+Cowen asked me to take his place. It is easier to report Mr. Gladstone
+verbatim than to summarise his speech as he proceeded on his rapid,
+animated, and unhesitating way. So I condensed the famous passage in
+these words: "Jefferson Davis had not only made a navy, he had made a
+nation (Sensation)." The word was too strong. There was no "sensation;"
+there was only a general movement as of unexpectedness, and "surprise"
+would have been a more appropriate word; but it did not come to me at
+the moment, and there was no time to wait for it, and the "sensational"
+sentence was all over London before the speech was ended. The next night
+he recurred to the subject at Middlesboro' with qualifications, but the
+Press took no notice of them. The "sensation" appended to the sentence
+had set political commentators on fire.
+
+A notable speech was made by the Mayor of Middlesboro'. In presenting
+addresses to Mr. Gladstone, local magnates complimented him upon his
+distinction in Greek, which none of them were competent to appraise. The
+Mayor of Middlesboro', an honest, stalwart gentleman, said simply, "Mr.
+Gladstone, if I could speak as well as you can speak, I should be able
+to tell you how proud we are to have you among us." No speech made to
+him was more effective or relevant, or pleased him more.
+
+By the courtesy of Mr. Bright, who procured me a seat in the Speaker's
+gallery when there was only one to be had, I heard Mr. Gladstone
+deliver, at midnight, his famous peroration, when, with uplifted hand,
+he said, "Time is on our side."
+
+I remember the night well. The Duke of Argyll came into the gallery,
+where he stood four or five hours. I would gladly have given him my
+seat, but if I did so I must relinquish hearing the debate, as I must
+have left the gallery, as no stranger is permitted to stand. So I
+thought it prudent to respect the privileges of the peerage--and keep my
+seat.
+
+In the years when I was constantly in the House of Commons, I was one
+day walking through the tunnel-like passage which leads from Downing
+Street into the Park, I saw a pair of gleaming eyes approaching me. The
+passage was so dark I saw nothing else. As the figure passed me I saw
+it was Mr. Gladstone. On returning to "The House," as Parliament is
+familiarly called, I mentioned what I had seen to Mr. Vargus, who had
+sat at the Treasury door for fifty years. "Yes," he answered, "there
+have been no eyes enter this House like Mr. Gladstone's since the days
+of Canning."
+
+Yet those eyes of meteoric intensity so lacked quick perception that he
+would pass by members of his party in the Lobby of Parliament without
+accosting them, fearing to do so when he desired it, lest he should
+mistake their identity and set up party misconceptions. Mr. Gladstone
+ignored persons because he did not see them. It should not have been
+left to Sir E. Hamilton to make this known after Mr. Gladstone's death.
+The fact should have been disclosed fifty years before.
+
+To disappointed members with whom I came in contact, I used to explain
+that Mr. Gladstones apparent slightingness was owing to preoccupation.
+He would often enter the House absorbed by an impending speech--which
+was true--and thought more of serving his country than of conciliating
+partisans. Lord Palmerston was wiser in his generation, who knew his
+followers would forgive him betraying public interest, if he paid
+attention to them.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Bygones Worth Remembering, Vol. 1 (of
+2), by George Jacob Holyoake
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BYGONES WORTH REMEMBERING ***
+
+***** This file should be named 36795.txt or 36795.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/7/9/36795/
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+http://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.