i 
 
 ,: 
 
 mm 
 
 I I 
 
 fflilfj ! '' : 
 
 mi I
 
 1 

 
 LjBR^tf. 
 
 CALIFORN/A 
 
 SAN DIEGO
 
 /
 
 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. 
 
 (From a Photograph by Messrs. Russell and Sons.')
 
 B 
 
 THE 
 
 LIFE AND WORK 
 
 OF THE SEVENTH 
 
 EARL OF SHAFTESBURY E.G. 
 
 BY 
 
 EDWIN HODDER 
 
 POPULAR EDITION 
 WITH EIGHT FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 CASSELL & COMPANY LIMITED 
 
 LONDON PARIS t MELBOURNE 
 isas 
 
 ALL RIGHTS BK8KBVEO
 
 PREFACE TO THE ORIGINAL EDITION. 
 
 FOE many years Lord Shaftesbury resisted every appeal that was made to 
 him to allow his biography to be written. " No one can do that satisfactorily 
 bnt myself," he said, " and I have neither the time nor the inclination." 
 Towards the close of his life, however, it became apparent to him that a 
 biography was, to nse his own word, " inevitable," and it was then his wish 
 that it should be written with his co-operation. " If the story, snch as it is, 
 must be told," he said, " I should like it to be told accurately. That cannot 
 be done unless I furnish the means." 
 
 He accordingly placed at my disposal a mass of material, and, in addition, 
 he was good enough to allow me for many months to be in frequent personal 
 communication with him, when, pen in hand, I took down the record of his 
 life as he narrated it. His memory to the very last was surprising, and as 
 the scenes of his earlier life passed before him, he would recall facts and 
 figures, dates and words, with such accuracy that although, at his request, I 
 subsequently verified them, it was almost unnecessary to do so. 
 
 The conditions imposed upon me were simple and explicit, and were 
 expressed as nearly as possible in these words : 
 
 " I will give you every assistance in my power ; place letters, books, and 
 documents, in your hands ; give you introductions to those who know most 
 about me ; and tell you, from time to time, what I can remember of my past 
 Iii-t<>ry. I will answer any questions and indicate all the sources of iufor- 
 :i available to you. But I will not read a word of your manuscript, nor 
 pass a sheet for the press. When the book is issued to the public I will, if I 
 am alive, read it, but not till then. All I ask is, that the story of my life be 
 told in its entirety political, social, domestic, philanthropic, and religious." 
 
 I was aware that Lord Shaftesbury had kept voluminous Diaries, and 
 from the first was anxious that these should be placed in my hands. " They 
 are of no value to any one but myself," was his reply ; " they have never been 
 seen by anybody, and they never will be. They are a mass of contradictions ; 
 thnuirliH jotted down as they passed through my mind, and contradicted 
 perhaps on the next page records of passing events written on the spur of 
 the moment, and private details which no one could understand but myself." 
 
 In these circumstances I felt that I could not urge Lord Shaftesbury to
 
 IV PREFACE. 
 
 entrust thorn to me, but he promised that he would, if possible, go through 
 them and furnish me with some extracts if he found any that were " worth 
 putting into print." But neither time nor opportunity came for this ; the 
 busy life was busy to the last, and increasing weakness made any effort of 
 this kind impossible. 
 
 For six months I continued my work, and in many long and intensely 
 interesting interviews gained much information and many important details 
 of his personal life. But I was conscious that without the aid of the Diaries 
 I stood only on the threshold of the subject, and he was conscious of this too. 
 I therefore lost no opportunity of urging him to let me have access to 
 them. 
 
 In June. 1885, warned by continued failure in health that the end was not 
 far off, Lord Shaftesbury yielded to these entreaties, and placed the first 
 volume of his Journals in my hands, promising to let me have the remainder 
 in succession. 
 
 "It was never my intention that a page or a lino should ever be pub- 
 lished," he said to me ; " but I have been looking through them again, and I 
 think it is possible that there are some portions of them that may do good. 
 At all events, I do not see how you can perform your task without them, for I 
 cannot give you the personal assistance I could have wished. Besides, all 
 that I could tell you, and much more, is written here, and I must leave it to 
 your discretion to make what use of them you like. Tou will find they were 
 written in hurried moments, just as thoughts or events arose. They were 
 true at the time, but I may have changed my opinions, or have found jif for- 
 wards that I had taken a wrong view of things. Tou are at liberty, of 
 course, to take any view you like of my actions, and to praise or blame them 
 as you will, but do not attempt to represent me as always in the right, or you 
 will inevitably break down in your task. Tou will find that the movements 
 in which 1 was engaged brought me at times into opposition with all classes, 
 even with those who were working with me, oftentimes with men I loved 
 dearly and greatly admired. I did not seek this opposition ; I could not help 
 it ; but do not represent me as having been always a man of a cantankerous 
 disposition because of this, unless you find the evidence overwhelmiri"- that 
 such was the case. Above all things and this is one of my strongest 
 motives for placing these volumes in your hands try to do justice to those 
 who laboured with me. I could never have done the few things I have, had 
 I not been supported by true, zealous, earnest men, who gave me their time 
 and their brains to help forward the different movements. My religious 
 views are not popular, but they are the views that have sustained and com- 
 forted me all through my life. They have never been disguised, nor have I 
 ever sought to disguise them. I think a man's religion, if it is worth any- 
 thing, should enter into every sphere of life, and rule his conduct in every 
 relation. 1 have always been and, please God, always shall be an Evan-
 
 PREFACE. 7 
 
 pvliral of the Evangelicals, and no biography can represent me that does not 
 fully and emphatically represent my religious views." 
 
 For the selection of the quotations from Lord Shaftesbury's Diaries I am 
 responsible. My object has been to make them illustrate, as much as 
 possible, every phase of life and opinion. If it should appear that, in some 
 instances, I have inserted passages which are of too purely a domestic 
 character, I can only plead that I have acted in the spirit of the instructions 
 given to me by Lord Shaftesbury. For example, on one occasion he had been 
 narrating to me some incidents in the life of the late Countess of Shaftesbury 
 in connection with his factory labours, and lamented how little the factory 
 people knew the extent to which they were indebted to " that blessed woman," 
 as he called her. Then he spoke of her death. "But you will find it all 
 recorded in the Diaries," ho said. "Those entries would be far too private 
 and personal to put into print, would they not ? " I asked. " Not at all," he 
 answered ; " I should like you to use them. I should wish you to use them. 
 Her memory is far better worth preserving than mine." And then taking down 
 from a shelf in the library the " Shaftesbury Papers," edited by Mr. Christie, 
 he turned to a page in which the First Earl pays a tribute of affection to the 
 wife whose loss he mourns. " There," said he, " that, in my opinion, is the 
 thing in the book." 
 
 In his Diaries Lord Shaftesbury has unconsciously done what he so often 
 *.u<l 110 one but himself could do satisfactorily he has " written his own 
 life." It was by a mere accident, however, that the whole of these valuable 
 is were not destroyed. About the year 1880 he was suffering from ill- 
 ness, which confined him to the house, and he determined to occupy his enforced 
 leisure in looking through and burning old papers. The Diaries were con- 
 signed to a heap, awaiting destruction ; but in the meantime health returned, 
 the usual daily duties were resumed, and the books and papers were put away 
 to await another pause, and so escaped the threatened fate. 
 
 Only a few of the bulky quarto Diaries of Lord Shaftesbury, and four of 
 his Journals of Travels, had been placed in my hands, when the news came 
 from Folkestone of the alarming illness which terminated in his death. For 
 the privilege of perusing and making extracts from the remaining volumes, 
 for information supplying the defects of my own personal knowledge, for 
 access to his correspondence, for reading the proofs and examining the 
 extracts from the Diaries with the originals, and for other invaluable aid, I 
 am indebted to the great kindness and courtesy of his son, the Hon. Evelyn 
 Ashley. 
 
 Before Lord Shaftesbnry gave me the first volume of his Diaries to 
 . he intimated that it would, in his opinion, be of special advantage to 
 
 it,'- in my labours to have the assistance of some one who, apart from his own 
 family, had known him for many years, and in whose judgment he could 
 repose the fullest confidence. To this end he asked me to place myself in
 
 VI PREFACE. 
 
 communication with Mrs. Corsbie, the daughter of the late Mr. Alexander 
 Haldane, one of his most intimate friends, with whom for thirty years he had 
 been in almost daily correspondence. To her careful and valuable assistance 
 in reading the proofs for the press, and for the kindness which placed at my 
 disposal the voluminous letters of Lord Shaf tesbury to her father, I am under 
 the deepest obligation. 
 
 The sources from which much of the information in this work has been 
 drawn have been extremely various, and I have to express my hearty thank* 
 to the Secretaries of Societies with which Lord Shaftesbury was connected ; 
 to co-workers with him in various departments of labour ; to personal friend* 
 and others, who have given me ready access to whole libraries of reports, 
 minutes, pamphlets, and other records, and have rendered mo important 
 service in many ways. 
 
 It has been my endeavour to let the record of Lord Shaftesbury's whole 
 life-work be told, as much as possible, in his own words ; and in doing so I 
 have not added to his opinions or founded conjectures upon his plans. My 
 aim has been to present him as he was : a Christian gentleman first, then a 
 patriot, a statesman, a social reformer, and all that is implied in the word he 
 liked so little a philanthropist. 
 
 " I have no desire whatever to be recorded," he wrote shortly before his 
 death ; " but if I must, sooner or later, appear before the public, I should like 
 the reality to be told be it good, or be it bad and not a sham." 
 
 I have made no endeavour, therefore, to tone down his strong Protes- 
 tantism, or his unshaken and unshakable belief in Scripture, in dogma, and in 
 prayer. 
 
 He was a man with a single aim ; his labours in the field of politics 
 sprang from his philanthropy ; his philanthropy sprang from his deep and 
 earnest religious convictions ; and every labour political, benevolent, and 
 religious was begun, continued, and ended, in one and the same spirit. 
 
 E. H. 
 
 21, CRAVEN PAHK, WILLESDEN, N.W., 
 October, 1886.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER L ANCESTRY AND HOME. 
 
 PAOB 
 
 The Coopers and the Ashleys Anthony Ashley Cooper His College Days and Mar- 
 riageSketch of His Career Raised to the Peerage Made Lord High Chancellor 
 Committed to the Tower The Habeas Corpus Act Indicts the Duke of York 
 as a Popish Recusant Flies to Holland Death Various Estimates of his Cha- 
 racterThe Second Earl Education entrusted to John Locke Letter from his 
 Son The Third Earl Author of the " Characteristics "Nature of his Philo- 
 sophyThe Fourth Earl Handel Fifth and Sixth Earla St. Giles's House, the 
 Hereditary Seat of the Ashleys The Park and Pleasure Grounds St. Giles's 
 Church Its Monuments Almshouses Village of Wimborne St. Giles ... 3 
 
 CHAPTER EL CHILDHOOD AND EARLY YEARS. 
 
 Birth Home Influences Maria Millis The First Prayer Dawn of Religious Life 
 Manor-House School, Ch is wick Harsh Treatment His First Great Grief Mis- 
 taken Views of Education A Sad Childhood Removed to Harrow New Influ- 
 encesState of his Mind on Religious Questions First Visit to St. Giles's House 
 Love of Country Scenes Cranborne Chase A Strange Scene at Harrow- 
 Determines to Espouse the Cause of the Poor An Autobiographical Fragment- 
 Oxford Takes First-Class in Classics Extracts from an Early Diary" Fugitive 
 and Desultory Notes "Elected Member for Woodstock at age of Twenty-flve 
 Bin Inlay Thoughts Supports the King's Government Canning's Eloquence 
 Letter from Mrs. Canning Friendship with the Duke of Wellington Early 
 Labours in Parliament "Cursed with Honourable Desires "Diary Self-depre- 
 ciation Change of Ministry Canning, Premier Place Offered Office Declined 
 Grounds of Refusal State of Political Affairs At Strathfleldsayc Letter from 
 Duke of Wellington Death of Canning In Wales Studies Welsh Misgivings 
 as to Public Career Letter from Lord Bathurst Wellington, Head of New Ad- 
 ministrationAppointed Commissioner of India Board of Control Suttee- 
 Schemes for the welfare of India Catholic Emancipation Desires to Devote 
 his Life to Science Called to Another Career 19 
 
 CHAPTER HI. 1828-1833. 
 
 Treatment of Lunatics State of the Lunacy Laws Mr. Robert Gordon First Im- 
 portant Speech in Parliament Diary Letter from Lord Bathurst Appointed 
 Commissioner in Lunacy Investigation into State of Asylums Efforts in Litera- 
 ture Work for India Bishop Heber With the King Works of Charity For- 
 giveness Scientific Pursuits Family Affairs Astronomy and Sir James South 
 Catholic Disabilities Foreshadowings of Future Career Self -depreciation and 
 Despondency Robert Souther Elected Member for Dorchester Marries Emily, 
 Daughter of the Fifth Earl Cowper Successfully Contests Dorset Election 
 Expenses in 1831 Correspondence with Duke of Wellington Petition Against 
 the Dorset Election Pecuniary Embarrassments Letter from Ernest Duke of 
 Cumberland A Second Triumph Letters from Southey Condition of the 
 Working Classes State of the Times Sir Robert Peel's Policy Cotton Supply 
 and Manufacture Progress of Inventions Condition of the Lancashire Opera- 
 tivesChild-Jobbers and Child Labour The Apprentice System Outline of 
 Early Factory Legislation Michael Thomas Sadler, M.P. for Newark Mr. 
 Sadler Loses his Seat in Parliament Lord Ashley becomes Leader in the Factory 
 Agitation The Parting of the Ways- Pays Tribute to Mr. Sadler and Other 
 Labourers States his Views on the Factory System Explains Principles on 
 which the Agitation shall be Conducted Letter from Mr. J. R. McCulloch 
 Opposition of Master Manufacturers Address of the Operatives of England and 
 Scotland Report of Commission' of Inquiry Introduces Bill to Limit Hours of 
 Labour "for Women and Young Persons" to Ten Hours a Day Opposition of 
 Lord Althorp Bill Defeated, but Principle Established that Labour and Educa- 
 tion should be Combined . 50
 
 Vlll CONTESTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IV.-lTALY -1833. 
 
 First Travel-Diary Plains of Burgundy Jura Mountains Geneva Protestant and 
 Papal Switzerland Brieg The Siinplon Milan High Mass in Cathedral A 
 Retrospect Venice Her Sun Set Bologna A Wayside Accident Rome St. 
 Peter's The Forum and Coliseum St. John Latcran Guide's Aurora The 
 Shortest Day Christmas Eve Ceremonies at St. Peter's Te Deum at the Gesa 
 St. Agostino Catacombs Pusey and Bunsen Viterbo Siena Florence Sar- 
 dinia Nice A "Kingdom of Italy" Home 91 
 
 CHAPTER V.-1834-1838. 
 
 Diary Resumed Letter from Southey A Stormy Political Horizon Alma Mater 
 Installation of Duke of Wellington as Chancellor Introspection Change of 
 Ministry A Note-Book of Passing Events Correspondence with Sir Robert 
 Peel Appointed a Lord of the Admiralty Painstaking Diligence A Short- 
 lived Ministry The Church Pastoral Aid Society Founded Difficulties Con- 
 cerning it Factory Act of 1833 in Operation Trials from Friends Harassed by 
 Fruitless Correspondence The Ten Hours Agitation Grows Mr. Poulett 
 Thompson's Bill Opposed and Withdrawn Mr. Charles Hindley's Bill A 
 Pledge from the Government Richard Cobden and Factory Legislation " De- 
 luded and Mocked " by the Government Factory Question Actively Resumed 
 An Able Speech Letter from Charles Dickens Word-Portrait of Lord Ashley in 
 1838 101 
 
 CHAPTER VL-1838-1839. 
 
 Commencement of Diaries Lord Melbourne Lockhart's Life of Scott Appoint- 
 ment of Vice-Consul at Jerusalem Lord Lindsay's Travels A Case in Lunacy 
 Success of Pastoral Aid Society At Windsor Castle Progress of Science The 
 State and Prospects of the Jews Religious and Political Action in Jerusalem- 
 Letter from Sir Robert Peel Fall of the Melbourne Administration Sir Robert 
 Peel Sent for The " Bedchamber Question " Appointment in Royal Household 
 offered to Lord Ashley Peel urges its Acceptance Attempt to Form a Ministry 
 Fails Lord Melbourne Recalled Board of Education, consisting of a Com- 
 mittee of the Privy Council, Appointed Letter from Duke of Wellington Lord. 
 Stanley's Motion to Revoke the Order in Council Supported by Lord Ashley 
 The Measure Attacked as Adverse to the Constitution, and as Hostile to the 
 Church and to Revealed Religion Lord Stanley's Amendment Lost The Esta- 
 blishment of the Committee of Council on Education 123 
 
 CHAPTER VH. SCOTLAND 1839. 
 
 The Bull Ring, Birmingham Poverty and Luxury in Liverpool Boldness The 
 Slave Trade Southey Carlisle Afternoon Service Sir Walter Scott Archi- 
 tecture of Kirks Churches, Ancient and Modern Extempore Prayer Edin- 
 burgh Castle Annals of Scotland In the Trossachs Melancholy without 
 Despondency Charm of Scott's Genius Rossie The Carse of Gowrie Dunkeld 
 Fanaticism of Early Reformers Gaelic Life The System of Gleaning Oban 
 Scotch Architects Glasgow Factories Dr. Macleod Rev. Robert Montgomery 
 Blindness In Courts and Alleys Sir Archibald Alison Cora Linn Chilling- 
 ham Red Deer and Wild Cattle The Duchess of Northumberland Ravens- 
 worth Van Mildert, Bishop of Durham Fountains Abbey Ripon Cathedral 
 Newby York Cathedral Services Castle Howard Chatsworth Haddon Hall 
 Home Letter from Daniel Webster An Estrangement Marriage of Lord 
 Palmerston to Lady Cowper Happy Close of the Year 133 
 
 CHAPTER VIH.-1840. 
 
 Announcement of the Queen's Marriage A Magistrate The Old Story Renewed 
 The only Conservative Principle Marriage of the Queen Letter from Daniel 
 Webster Attempt upon the Queen's Life Church Extension Chimney Sweeps 
 Early Legislation Various Acts for Protection of Climbing Boys Lord Ashley 
 Takes up the Question Mr. Steven Labours In and Out of the House Law 
 Suits as "Test' Cases A Rescued Boy Progress of the Factory Movement- 
 Mr. Oastler Appointment of a Select Committee Children not Protected by the 
 Factory Acts Commission Granted to Inquire into the Employment of Children 
 The Syrian Question Mehemet Ali and Ibrahim Pasha Prospects of the 
 Jewish People Etforts for their Protection Return to their Own Land Conflict 
 with France Anticipated Memorandum to Lord Palmerstpn The "Bear'' 
 Etlice Thiers and Guizot Fall of Acre At Broadlands Article in Quarterly 
 on " Infant Labour "Socialism and Chartism 121
 
 CONTENTS. IX 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 1811. 
 
 PAOK 
 
 Indifference of the Clergy Sympathy with the Poor- Practical Christianity Pro- 
 gress of Children's Employment Commission The Second Chamber Lord 
 Morpeth'8 Registration BUI (Ireland) Admissibillty of Jews to Municipal Offices 
 The Duke of Wellington Anecdotes A Dissolution Threatened Sir Robert 
 Peel's "No Confidence" Motion Ascot Oxford Commemoration Parliament 
 Dissolved General Election Speech to Electors of Dorset Letter to Sir R. Peel 
 
 Proposed- 
 
 Prince Albert's Household Declined The New Ministry Illness of Bickersteth 
 Drainage and Ventilation Bills Letter from Colonel Napier M. Cornelius 
 The Jerusalem Bishopric Frederick William IV. of Prussia Dr. Bunsen Out- 
 line of his Special Mission Progress of the Negotiations The Bill for Creating 
 the Bishopric Passes Enthusiasm and Opposition The Druses Consecration of 
 Bishop Alexander The Episcopal Benediction Lord Ashley's Power of Reading 
 Men Anecdote of First Earl of Shaftesbury The Cripple Dodds . . . .175 
 
 CHAPTER X.-1812. 
 
 Tractarianism Oxford Professorship of Poetry Letter to Mr. Roundell Palmer- 
 Rev. Isaac Williams and Rev. James Garbett Letters from Hon. William Cow- 
 per. Rev. E. Bickersteth, and " Charlotte Elizabeth "A Suggested Compromise 
 Correspondence with Rev. Dr. Pusey and Rev. John Keble- Letter from Arch- 
 deacon Wilberforce Result of the Contest The King of Prussia in England- 
 Correspondence with Sir Robert Peel His Hostility to Factory Bill Announce- 
 ment to Short-time Committees Principle in Government and Opposition A 
 Socialist Ally Bishop Alexander's Entry into Jerusalem Report on Mines and 
 Collieries Public Indignation Aroused Terrible Disclosures The System Ex- 
 posed A Great Speech Richard Cobden and the Philanthropists Cobden alters 
 his Estimate of Lord Ashley's Character Lord Palmereton's Support Letter 
 from Prince Albert No Peer to take Charge of Bill Victory Trade Depression 
 and Riots Tour through Manufacturing Districts The Duchess of Beaufort and 
 Mr Robert Peel China and Afghanistan 206 
 
 CHAPTER XI.-1813. 
 
 A pprehensions The "Repeal Year" Daniel O'Connell Afghanistan The Gates of 
 Somnauth Lord Elleuborough's Proclamation Pious Slave-holders Assassina- 
 tion of Mr. Edward Drummond Correspondence with Sir Robert Peel thereon 
 Troubled State of Country Second Report of Children's Employment Commis- 
 sionNature of its Revelations Need of Education among the Working Classes 
 An Address to the Crown thereon A Remarkable Speech Factory Education 
 Bill Proposed by Government Opposition of Dissenters The Bill Amended and 
 ultimately Withdrawn The Opium Question The Indo-Chinese Opium Trade- 
 First Great Indictment of the Opium Trade in Parliament Arguments Used 
 Motion Withdrawn Opinions upon the Speech Estimate of Characters of Sir 
 Robert Peel, Lord John Russell, and Sir James Graham State of the Poor of 
 London Field Lane Ragged School A Disreputable Locality and its Traditions 
 A Novel Practice in the Church Pews and Pew-rents Birthday Reflections- 
 Opposition to Collieries Bill At Brocket Movements in the Churches Pusey 
 Interdicted from Preaching Letter from Elizabeth Fry A Foreign Tour 
 'rp Aix-la-Chapelle Bavaria Carlsbad Prague Vienna Visits to Phil- 
 anthropic Institutions Continental Sundays Linz Ratisbon Nuremberg 
 \Vurtemberg Heidelberg Frankfort Domestic Life Russia Lord Ashley's 
 Philanthropy Attacked Miss Harriet Martineau Speech at Sturminster on 
 Condition or Agricultural Labourer Consequences The Nestorian Christians 
 Correspondence with Lord Aberdeen 238 
 
 CHAPTER XII.-1S1I. 
 
 '1 of Oppression Distressed Needlewomen The Ameers of Scinde Motion 
 for their itclease from Imprisonment Result of the Motion Tahiti Queen 
 Pomare Pritchard the Missionary War with France Imminent Sir James 
 Graham's Bill for Regulation of Labour in Factories Agitation " The Ten 
 Hours and No Surrender ! "Distance Traversed by Children in Daily Work- 
 Speech Attack by Mr. John Bright^ A Scene in the House Peel in 
 a Dik-inma Government Stratagems to Rescind Votes " Jack Cade " Legisla- 
 tion Unpopularity of Sir James Graham New Factory Bill brought in Motion 
 for Introduction of New Clause The Ten Hours Bill Argued on Commercial 
 Grounds Sir James Graham Threatens Resignation Sir Robert Peel Follows 
 Suit^A Signal Defeat Mr. C. Greville's View of the Situation-Second Threat- 
 Resignation .of the Ministry Correspondence with Sir Robert Peel
 
 X CONTENTS. 
 
 I'AUB 
 
 Dissenters' Chapels Bill Report of Metropolitan Commissioners" in Lunacy- 
 Motion Thereon Public and Private Asylums Lunacy in its Early Stages 
 Middle-class Patients Motion Withdrawn Mr. Shell's Eulogy Placing a Son 
 at School Mrs. Fry Visit of Emperor of Russia Tour through Factory Districts 
 Receives Addresses Fresh Schemes Beset by Bulls of Bashan .... iii 
 
 CHAPTER XIII.-1845. 
 
 Retrospect and Forecast The Irish Secretaryship State of Calico Print- Works Bill 
 to Regulate Labour of Children Therein At St Giles's Defenceless State of 
 Dockyards and Coast Tractarian Movement Mr. Ward Censured and Deprived 
 of his Degree Converts to Rome Maynooth Sir Robert Peel's Bill for In- 
 creased Grant Excitement in the Country The Bill Carried Speech on May- 
 nooth The Evangelical Fathers Jews' Society Death of Bishop Alexander 
 The Railway Mania Two Bills on the Lunacy Question The Regulation of 
 Limatic Asylums The Better Treatment of Lunatics Both Bills Carried Ap- 
 pointment of Permanent Lunacy Commission Insanity of the Poet Cowper 
 The Society of Friends A Coming Storm The Potato Disease Commission of 
 Inquiry Appointed Changes of View on Corn Laws Letter from Lord John 
 Russell Resignation and Re-appointment of Sir Robert Peel A Painful Alter- 
 native 318. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV.-1846. 
 
 Repeal of the Corn Laws The Ten Hours Bill Mr. John Bright Seat for Dorset 
 Resigned Hard Work in Factory Districts Care of Ten Hours Bill devolves on 
 Mr. Fielden Out of Parliament In the Lobby Fall of the Peel Ministry Lord 
 John Russell, Prime Minister The Colonies Indian Successes Letter from Sir 
 Henry Hardinge- Gloomy Views The Ragged School Union Curious Coinci- 
 dence of Names Labour for the Poor The London City Mission The Labourers' 
 Friend Society Housing of the Poor Perambulations in Low Haunts of London 
 Speaking to the Outcasts With Little Children The Model Lodging-House 
 System Inaugurated Article in Quarterly Review Poverty and Riches Dreams 
 or Future Work Activity in Religious Circles Young Men's Christian Associa- 
 tionEarly Closing Movement Bishop Gobat A Foreign Tour Belgium, Ger- 
 many, Switzerland, Holland "The Cells where Memory Slept" Invited to 
 Stand for Bath Famine in Ireland Pope Pius IX. A Talk with Lord John 
 Russell Unsuitable Education Poverty 338 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 1847-1850. THE TEN HOURS BELL. 
 
 In Lancashire Mr. Fielden's Ten Hours Bill Debate there9n in the Lords Lord 
 Brougham The Bishop of Oxford The Bill Carried Rejoicings Letter to the 
 Short-Time Committees A Check to the Rejoicings The System of "Relays" 
 and "Shifts" A Test Case The Bill in Jeopardy Mr. Baron Parkes's Adverse 
 Decision in the Test Case An Appeal to the House The Work of Agitation Re- 
 newedSir George Grey's Proposal Acceded to by Lord Ashley A Split in the 
 Camp The Government Bill becomes Law The Principle Established by the 
 Ten Hours Bill Recantation of Mr. Roebuck and Sir James Graham Letter 
 from Mr. Roebuck Mr. Gladstone on Factory Legislation Tributes Summary 
 of whole Subject 307 
 
 CHAPTER XVI.-1847. 
 
 Famine in Ireland Day of Humiliation National Education and Wesleyan Support 
 Letter from Lord John Russell Election Speech at Bath Incidents of the 
 Election Returned Head of the Poll Ragged School Business Broad wall 
 Ragged School Roger Miller, City Missionary His Death Article on Mrs. 
 Elizabeth Fry Article on Lodging-Houses A Round of Visits Leader of the 
 Conservative Party Missionaries Miss Strickland Highland Scenery A Pre- 
 sentation at Bradford Party Spirit Labours in Lunacy Cases Baron Lionel 
 Rothschild and Jewish Disabilities At Windsor Dr. Hampden Faith . . 380 
 
 CHAPTER XVIL-1848. 
 
 A Coming Storm Revolution in France Flight of Louis Philippe A Revolutionary 
 Epidemic State of England Louis Philippe Lands in Sussex Panic among 
 English Residents in France Efforts for their Relief Metternich Deposed 
 "Revolutions gooff like Pop-guns!" The Chartist Demonstration Ends in a 
 Fiasco The Prince Consort A Conversation at Osborne Letter from the Prince 
 Consort Letter from Lord John Russell The Prince Visits Homes of the Poor- 
 Presides at Labourers' Friend Society May Meetings State of Sanitary Science 
 Chairmanship of Board of Health Ragged Schools and Emigration Condition 
 of the Poor Emigration Scheme Expounded Farewell Address to Emigrants- 
 Anecdotes of Thieves A Strange Experience A Thieves' Conference Lord 
 Hardinge In Scotland Again Special Providences With the Queen Dowager 
 -With the Queen at Harrow Death of Lord Melbourne 389
 
 CONTENTS. 
 CHAPTER XVIII. -1819. 
 
 I'AGE 
 
 Habeas Corpus Act Suspended Distress In Ireland Plans and Projects Illness 
 Scheme for Subdivision of Parishes Good Friday Idle Ecclesiastics Attend- 
 ance at Court Capital Punishment A Sorrowful Narrative Death of Son at 
 Harrow Effect on Lord Ashley Ragged School Emigration Scheme A Very 
 Precious Letter Approach of Cholera Labours on the Board of Health The 
 City of the Plague Public Prayers Cholera Statistics Lord Hardinge Sunday 
 Labour at the Post-OfficeCollection and Delivery of Sunday Letters Suspended 
 The most Unpopular Man in the Kingdom The Order Prohibiting Sunday 
 Labour at Post-OUice Rescinded 118 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 1850-1851. 
 
 Trusteeship of Money Mias Portal Death of Rev. E. Bickereteth Mediation Ash 
 Wednesday In Paris Adolph Monod Low Haunts oi Paris At Madame 
 Pozzo's The President's Reception at the Elysee Lamartine Theatres Board 
 of Health Extra-n<ural Interment Bill Death of Sir Robert Peel Memories 
 In Scotland The Papal Aggression Dr. Wiseman The "Durham Letter" 
 Great Meeting at Freemasons Hall Letter from the Bishop of Oxford Speech 
 on Progress of Popery Action of English Catholics The Ecclesiastical Titles 
 Bill Archdeacon Manning Joins the Church of Rome Roman Catholics and 
 Roman Catholicism Christian Fellowship The Great Exhibition The Shoe- 
 black Brigade Bible Stand in Exhibition President of British and Foreign 
 Bible Society Speech at Anniversary Meeting Model Lodging-House Bill- 
 Common Lodging-House Bill Death of Lord Shaftesbury Lord Ashley Reviews 
 his Career 121 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 1851 (JuKK)-1852. 
 
 Farewell to House of Commons In the House of Lords Speech on Common 
 Lodging-House Bill Model Lodging-House Bill Early Impressions of House of 
 Lords First Acts of Power St. Giles's Sweeping Reforms The Truck System 
 Cottage Accommodation Kossuth Socialism Thomas Wright, the Prison 
 Philanthropist A Coup cTttat The Militia Bill Brook Street, Grosvenor 
 Square May Meetings At Ems Death of the Duke of Wellington Chancellor- 
 ship of Oxford Lying in State The Story of the Madiai An Amusing Letter 
 " Uncle Tom's Cabin 'Slavery Address from Women of England The Fugi- 
 tive Slave Law Friendships The Rev. E. Bickersteth Mr. Alexander Haldane 
 Revival of Convocation Auricular Confession Resignation of Lord Derby- 
 Lord Aberdeen, Premier i r. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 1853. 
 
 The Poor of London Progress of Ragged School Work Advice to Teachers- 
 Inspiring; Zeal Refuges and Industrial Classes Emigration The Poor Dis- 
 S lured by Building Improvements A further Common Lodging-Houses Bill 
 uvcnile Mendicancy Juvenile Delinquency A Curious Episode Challenged 
 to Fight a Duel Correspondence with Lord Mornington Youthful Offenders 
 Bill The Waldensiun Christians Pasteur Meille Peripatetic Schoolmasters 
 ,'n Taste Protestantism Abroad Anti-Slavery Agitation Stafford House 
 from the Women of America An Editor's Mistake China London 
 Missionary Society Sanitary Reform " Unpardonable Activity ''The Board 
 of Health Abolished Democracy English Radicals The Career of a Philanthro- 
 pist Financial Difficulties Family Affairs Rewards to Agricultural Labourers 
 Palmerston's Reply to Scotch Memorialists 4G0 
 
 CHAPTER XXII.-1854-1855. 
 
 A Cloud in the East Rumours of War with Russia War Declared Christians in 
 Turkey Russian Intolerance Religious Liberty in France Correspondence 
 with Emperor of the French Olfer of Order of the Garter Reasons for Declin- 
 ing the Honour Colonisation of Syria Chimney Sweepers Bill Thrown Out 
 A Mothers' Meeting Harrow Death of Lord Jocelyn Death of Duchess of 
 Beaufort Wild Court War in a Christian Spirit Lord Raglan's Despatches 
 <> Mr. Haldane Mismanagement in the Crimea Change of Ministry 
 Palmerston, Premier Offer of Duchy of Lancaster Correspondence ttMfWB 
 with Lord Palmerston Letter from Lady Palmerston Organisation of Sanitary 
 Commission for Crimea Letter to Lord Panmuro Instructions to the Sanitary 
 Commissioners Letter from Miss Florence Nightingale Death of the Czar- 
 Visit of Emperor of the French Letter to Mr. Evelyn Ashley Offer of Duchy 
 of Lancaster Rene wed Letters from Lady Palmereton In Perplexity - Inter- 
 position of Providence Religious Worship Bill- Opposition of Lord Derby and 
 iiishop of Oxford Success of the Bill Sardinia National Education- 
 Death of Sir Robert Inglis Milliners and Dressmakers Death of his Son 
 Maurice Letter to Mr. Evelyn Ashley Woburn Abbey Life Peerages . . I.Sfl
 
 Xll CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER :XXm. THE INNER LIFE. PAO- 
 
 Unpopular Religious "Views An Evangelical of the Evangelicals Disclaims Leader- 
 ship of the Evangelical Party The Old School Justification by Faith Inspira- 
 tion of the Scriptures Dogmatic Truth Simple Preaching How to Meet 
 Opponents Divine Providence The Second Advent Collected Passages from 
 the Diary on Religious Themes The " Sortes Biblicse "The " Little Flock" 
 The Incarnation Prayer Sins of Omission Distraction the Order of the Day 
 The Highest Point of Christian Life The Religion of the Future Neology 
 " Schools of Thought "Evangelical Union The Vicarious Sacrifice Intellect 
 and Heart Merit Limiting the Almighty Calvin's C9mmentaries " It is 
 Finished " " It is I " A Good Friday Meditation Preaching Smooth Things 
 Easter Day Fears The Song of Moses 519 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 1856-1858. 
 
 A Ten Years' Diary The Sabbath Day A Parisian Sunday The Crystal Palace- 
 Sunday Bands A Packed Meeting Threatened Riots 24, Grosvenor Square in 
 a State of Siege Early Closing Movement Saturday Half-Holidays At Wind- 
 sorPeace Rejoicings Life Peerages Peers from the Ranks of Commercial 
 Men Death of Lord Cowper Harvest Home Chinese Difficulties The Lorcha 
 Arrow The Opium Trade Motion on its Legality Dissolution of Parliament 
 General Election Return of Lord Ashley for Hull Exeter Hall Special Services 
 Opposition Motion to Amend Religious Worship Act of 1855 Speech on 
 Religious Worship Act Amendment Bill Action of Bishop Wilberforce and the 
 High Church Party Bill Withdrawn in Favour of Archbishop of Canterbury's 
 BiO Indian Mutinies A Special Prayer Letter to Mr. Evelyn Ashley Speech 
 at Wimborne Comment in the Times A. Statement Questioned Letter from 
 Lady Canning Fifteen Years Later Missionary Zeal Sir Henry Havelock 
 Sir Henry Lawrence Vote of Censure on the Government Indian Affairs 
 Ceaseless Correspondence Religious Meetings The People's Park, Halifax 
 Eleyation of Mr. Macaulay to the Peerage Correspondence with Lord Macaulay 
 His Death Letter from Mr. Charles Sumner Admission of Jews to Parliament 
 Social Science Congress at Liverpool 531 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 1859-1860. 
 
 Dawn of Italian Freedom The Men and the Hour Events Leading to the Struggle 
 Sympathy with Sardinia The Reform Bill Ministerial Crisis Palmerston's 
 Cabinet A Proposed Italian Committee Correspondence with Garibaldi An- 
 nexation of Savoy and Nice to France Letter to Count Cavour Speech in House 
 of Lords on Savoy Affairs in Syria Druses and Maronites Sunday Services in 
 Theatres The Victoria Theatre A Strange Scene Effective Reading Lord 
 Dungannon's Motion against Theatre Services A Graphic Speech Letter from 
 Lord Stanhope Christianity in India Testimonials Great Meeting in Free 
 Trade Hall, Manchester Presentation to Countess of Shaftesbury Social 
 Science Congress, Bradford Preparation of Speeches Nervous Susceptibility . 556 
 
 CHAPTER XXVL 1861-1863. 
 
 metropolitan Improvements Displacement of Labourers Criminal Lunatics 
 Appointment of Select Committee Lord Shaftesbury gives Evidence Proposed 
 Benevolent Asylum for Insane of Middle Classes Meeting at Freemasons' Hall 
 Speech Mr. Thomas Holloway Letter from Mr. Bowen May The Holloway 
 Sanatorium Headstrong Zeal Death of Count Cavqur Civil War in America 
 Indian Irrigation and Inland Navigation Famine in India Cotton Supply 
 Illness and Death of a Daughter A Mother's Devotion Letter from Lord Pal- 
 merston The Order of the Garter A Word of Warning A Generous Offer- 
 Illness of the Prince Consort His Death" Journal of Passing Events " Renewed 
 American War Obituary for 1861 Order of the Garter Accepted Lancashire 
 Cotton Famine Lancashire People Address to Cotton Operatives Pauper 
 Lunatics Insurrection in Poland Causes leading to the Insurrection Great 
 Meeting in Guildhall Speech in House of Lords on Poland Letter from Miss 
 Florence Nightingale Friendship with Lord Palmerston A Delicate Matter- 
 Letter from Lord Palmerston His Generous Nature Financial Difficulties A 
 Fraudulent Bailiff 570 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII 1864-1865. 
 
 Climbing Boys Cruelties Practised upon Them Their Work and Rest Slow Pro- 
 gress of Legislation The "Cant of Pseudo-Philanthropy" The Chimney- 
 sweepers Regulation Act Fails to Answer its Intended Purpose Ten Years 
 Later Suffocated in a Flue Manslaxighter The Chimney Sweepers' Emanci- 
 pation Day Forcible Language Rapid Speaking A Stern Rebuke Justifica- 
 tion of Strong Language Theological Discussions Neology " Essays and 
 Reviews" Colenso on the Pentateuch Renan's " Vie de Jesus" " Ecce Homo"
 
 CONTENTS. Xlll 
 
 The Creed of Neologiana The Worship of Intellect Correspondence with Dr. 
 Pusey Letter from Bishop Wilberforce Endowment of the Greek Chair, 
 Oxford Correspondence with Archdeacon Denison In the Orisons Letter to 
 Mr. Haldane Law Suits Position of Parties in Church and State English 
 Liberality With General Garibaldi Friendship Death of Rector of Wimborne 
 St. Giles Bishop of London's Fund Illness of Lord; Palmeraton The Political 
 Outlook Mr. John Stuart Mill The Malta Protestant College Death of 
 Dowager Countess of Shaftesbury Protestantism in Paris Close of American 
 War Cattle Plague Form of Prayer by Bishop of Oxford A Pending Calamity 53 
 
 CHAPTER XX VOL LORD PALMERSTON AND CHURCH APPOINTMENTS. 
 
 18551865. 
 
 Career of Lord Palmerston His Approaching End Letter to Mr. Haldane Closing 
 Scenes Death of Lord Palmeraton His Friends and Enemies Funeral in 
 Westminster Abbey Estimate of His Character Gaps in Many Lives The 
 Parties at Cambridge House Bounty Money Honours The Centre of all Action 
 In Politics Review of Church Appointments The " Shaftesbury Bishops " 
 Principle governing Lord Palmerston's Church Patronage List of Ecclesiastical 
 Preferments The Bishop Maker" His Advice to the Premier Care in Select- 
 Ing Practical Men Politics Disregarded in the Nominations Tribute to Mr. 
 Haldane Prospect of Vast and Irrevocable Changes C31 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX.-1866-1867. 
 
 A Gloomy Prospect Homeless Boys The Chichester and Arethusa Training- 
 ShipsLoss of Early Friends Dr. Pusey on the Prophet Daniel The Victoria 
 Institute The Reform Bill Correspondence with the Earl of Derby Office of 
 the Duchy of Lancaster Declined Controversy on Ritualism Visit to St. Alban's 
 Church, Holborn Social Science Congress, Manchester The Reform Bill in the 
 House of Lords A Remarkable Speech Tendencies towards Democracy 
 Socialism Conservative Working Men A Conservative Democracy Agricul- 
 tural Gangs Bill for Regulating the Labour of Juveniles in Workshops Clerical 
 Vestments Bill Proposed Abolition of the Fifty-eighth Canon Sacerdotal Do- 
 minionA Ritual Commission Appointed Letter from Right Hon. Spencer 
 Walpole In Paris Opening of the Salle Evangelique Theatre Services Sir 
 James South Deputation to Napoleon III 613 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 1868 1869. 
 
 The Opening of Parliament Urged to bring forward Ecclesiastical Courts Bill Mr. 
 Disraeli, Prime Minister Debate on Disestablishment of Irish Church May 
 Meetings Publication of "Speeches, 1838 1867" Report of Ritual Commission 
 Uniformity of Public Worship Bill Winthrop and Longfellow Statue to Lord 
 Palmereton Death of Duchess of Sutherland -Letter from Mr. Robert Lowe- 
 Letter to Mr. Gladstone Sir Moses Monteflore Special Diaries on Movements 
 of the Times Fear of Debt Self-imposed Tasks Ecclesiastical Courts Bill An 
 Old Friend in the Almswalk Uncovering Oastler's Statue Ovation at Bradford 
 Houses and Glebes to Roman Catholic Priests Debate on Irish Church Bill- 
 Death of Lady Palmeraton The Political Horizon Lord Ashley's Son and Heir 
 Professor Seeley Dr. Temple and the Bishopric of Exeter Intolerance of 
 Evangelicals Religious Controversy Report on St. Giles's Estate by Govern- 
 ment Commissioner 629 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 1870-1871. 
 
 Bible Revision Judge Payne Religious Education in Schools Demonstration in St. 
 James's Hall Letter from Mr. vV. E. Foreter Deputation to Mr. Gladstone 
 Letter from Mr. Gladstone Education Bill in House of Lords Mr. Orsman and 
 the Golden Lane Mission Cestennongers The Barrow and Donkey Club 
 "K.G. and Coster" Presentation of a Donkey Deceased Wife's Sister Bill 
 Greek Brigandage Church Congresses At Pegli Italian Honours Levees- 
 Female Sum-age Letter thereon Wedding Day Murder of Archbishop of Paris 
 Correspondence with Archbishop Manning Children Employed in Brickfields 
 Domestic Anxieties The Ballot -Daniel Webster's Opinion Speech in House 
 of Lords A Further Speech on the Ballot In Scotland Foreter's "Life of 
 Dickens "Self -Analysis Past, Present, and Future Gil 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIL THE SHADOW OF DEATH. 1872. 
 
 The Veiled Futuse An Annual Exile Sir Henry Holland Athanasian Creed- 
 Ecclesiastical Courts Bills Letters to Lady Shaftesbury Thanksgiving for 
 Recovery of Prince of Wales Religious Clauses of Education Bill Levee at 
 Buckingham Palace A Patriotic Meeting Social Reforms Conference on 
 Church Reform Foreshadowings of Evil At Panshanger Illness of Lady 
 Shaftesbury Costermongere' Prayers Death of Lady Shaftesbury Letter to 
 Lady Gainsborough At Mentone A Terrible Week Death of Lady Constance 
 Ashley A Gleam of Sunshine 660
 
 r:v CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIH. -1873-1875. PAQK 
 
 The Discipline of Suffering Watercress and Flower Girls' Mission" Emily" Loan 
 Fund Temperance Movement A Moderate Drinker A good old Custom Evils 
 of Intemperance Charity Organisation Society Mr. Plimsoll and British Seamen 
 A Scene in the House Letter to Mr. Plimsoll Dr. Mcllvaine, Bishop of Ohio 
 Church Reform Window Gardening and Flower Shows for the Poor Lines 
 by Dean Stanley Facilities of Worship Bill The Confessional in the Church 
 of England Great Meeting in Exeter Hall Death of Bishop Wilberforce 
 In the Twilight Scotland State of the Church Public Worship Regulation Bill 
 Strauss Among the Costers Return of Mr. Evelyn Ashley for Poole Church 
 Congress at Brighton Sanitary and Social Questions Weary of Controversy 
 Messrs. Moody and Sankey At the Agricultural Hall Shaftesbury Park Estate 
 Artisans' Dwellings Company Urged to Visit America Master and Servant 
 Factory System in India 670 
 
 CHAPTER XXXFV.-1876 1878. 
 
 John Forster The Royal Titles Bill Visit to Windsor Moves Amendment on 
 Royal Titles Bill A Brilliant House Vivisection Bill for Restricting Cruelty 
 to Animals The Bulgarian Atrocities Meeting at Willis's Rooms Official 
 Report on the Atrocities Indignation Meetings George Moore A Separation 
 Mr. Dillwyn and the Lunacy Laws Select Committee Appointed Portrait by 
 Sir John Millais The Hon. William Ashley Bosnian and Herzegovinian 
 Refugees Tribute by Lord Hartington "S.P.C.K. '' Controversy Isolation 
 Touching Memories Factory Consolidation Bill Freedom of the City of Edin- 
 burghDeath of Earl Russell A Meteoric Course Roseneath Sensitiveness- 
 Rev. Canon Reeve Rev. C. H. Spurgeon Correspondence with Mr. Spurgeon 
 Mr. George Holland Mr. Joseph Geiit Mr. T. B. Smithies" And many more" 693 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 1879 1882. 
 
 Bill for Regulation of Mills and Factories in] India An Old Theme Habitual 
 Drunkards Bill Vivisection Scenes of the Past Manor House, iChiswick 
 Wales A Congeries of Troubles Political Prospects Centenary of Sunday 
 Schools At Gloucester Coming Changes State of Ireland Letter to Mr. 
 Evelyn Ashley Diary of Political Events The Snapping of Old Ties Lord 
 Beaconsfleld 80th Birthday Celebration in Guildhall Letters Lines by Miss 
 F. P. Cobbe Open-Air Preaching In Whitechapel General Garfleld Corre- 
 spondence with Mr. Russell Lowell The Opium Trade Among the Costers 
 Reverence, the Basis of all True Religion- -The Salvation Army Letters to 
 Admiral Fishbourne Letter from Dean Law Persecution of Jews in Russia 
 The Oath of Allegiance Studying the Scriptures "One Tun" Ragged School 
 A Christmas Gathering Death of Mr. Haldane At Willesden Cemetery A 
 Thirty Years' Correspondence Some Gems of Thought and Expression . . 718 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI. WORD AND WORK. 1874-1884. 
 
 Speeches Church Pastoral Aid Society Church Reform Blue Books State of the 
 Pulpit Burial of Nonconformists Anecdotes of Contemporaries Evening Com- 
 munion Schism The Church not Apostate British and Foreign Bible Society 
 That Book Young Men's Christian Association Stimulating and Inspiring 
 Speeches Baron of Hyde Park (Ecumenical Council Temptation of Young 
 Men Amusements A Coincidence Gymnastic Exercises Ambition Religious 
 Tract Society Pernicious Juvenile Literature Reminiscences of Labour At 
 George Yard Two Portraits Dan Liddle Punch, the Casual Tribute to a 
 Woman's Influence Letters to Children Shoeblacks Among the Poor . . 740 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVH.-LAST YEARS. 18831885. 
 
 The Evening of Life Memory A Curious Study In a Dilemma Holland House 
 "Let me die in Harness" Summary of Labours Acrobats Luther Commemora- 
 tion Donkey Show The Housing of the Poor Articles thereon Royal Com- 
 missionLord Salisbury's Act Public Honours Banquet at Mansion House 
 Freedom of the City At Brighton A Goodly Record Letter from Rev. C. H. 
 Spurgeon Last Visit to Scotland Letter to Canon Wilberforce The House of 
 Lords Correspondence with Lord Rosebery Home Rule Public and Private 
 Moralitv Inquiry into Lunacy Laws Lord SeJborne's Lunacy Amendment, Bill 
 Miss Marsh- Mr. Wey Hand Gifts and Legacies Distribution of 60,000 in 
 Charities The Sunday Question Earl Cairns Eighty -fourth Birthday Failing 
 Strength -Last Visits Protection of Young Girls Last Entries in the Diary- 
 Folkestone A Sacred Chamber Into the Light Memorial Service in West- 
 minster Abbey In St. Giles's Church Conclusion 751 
 
 APPENDIX 77J 
 
 INDEX 786
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 \FTESBURY ....... FrO.Jia, 
 
 ST. GILES'S HOUSE .......... 16 
 
 UMI -!: \\" M.K. \\i CIH-KCII, ST. GILES'S, DORSET .... 18 
 
 V ClUItrn VM .S.-HOOL ROOM . . . . . . .22 
 
 i m in' Tin. < 'MAI. .Mi\K . .... 221 
 
 JACK CAIM-:'.- 1 \sruuKCTiON" ........ 298 
 
 MINSTER SCHOOL OF INDUSTRY, OLD PYE STREET . . .467 
 LORD SHAFTESIK-UY I.vdi'ECTixo THE COSTERS' DONKKYS . 647
 
 THE LIFE AND WORK 
 
 OF 
 
 THE EAEL OF SHAFTESBURY. 
 
 IN one of the most depraved quarters of London, not far northward from the 
 foot of Holborn Hill, in a neighbourhood with a network of disreputable 
 courts and alleys, the resort of notorious ill-doers, the dread of timid way- 
 farers, and the despair of the police, there sit, in an ili-furnished room, two or 
 three men, waiting anxiously. They are men belonging to humble but 
 respectable walks of life, and have, it would seem, nothing in common with 
 the people who pass along the uneven pavement of what is called by courtesy 
 the " street " the crop-headed jail-birds, the cunning-faced cadgers, the 
 sickly, ill-clad women hurrying away to creep into holes and corners for the 
 night. The wind is in the east, and, although the spring of the year is 
 approaching, it is as cold as in the depth of winter. 
 
 The street grows quieter; the great clock of St. Paul's has some time 
 since boomed out the hour of midnight, and there is silence, broken only by 
 snatches of discordant song from some straggling reveller. Presently there 
 is heard the firm, steady tread of one who walks as with a purpose. The step 
 is recognised ; the door is thrown open, and the watchers grasp the hand of 
 the stranger a tall, slight, pale-faced man, with a grave and thoughtful 
 expression of countenance. He returns the salutation cordially although it 
 is obvious that he belongs to a different rank from those with whom he is 
 associated and without delay proceeds to the business that has brought him 
 to this strange place at this strange hour. A hurried conference is held, cer- 
 tain plans are discussed, there is a still and solemn silence for a few minutes, 
 and then all the party rise, button up their stout overcoats, and sally forth, 
 one of the number bearing in his hand a small parcel of candles ! They 
 walk in silence until they reach their destination the Victoria Arches under 
 Hdll)oni Hill, known as the Vagrants' Hiding Place where they light their 
 caudles and enter the dark, dismal vaults. As they enter, a few poor, 
 miserable, hunted wretches brush hastily past and make their escape into the 
 street, or plunge into the recesses of the Hiding-Place, conscience making 
 cowards of them all. It is some time before the visitors can distinguish 
 objects distinctly the darkness is intense, and some of the arches are vast. 
 As their eyes become more accustomed to the gloom, they see sights whicb
 
 2 THE EAEL OF 8IIAFTESBURT. 
 
 eannot now. thank God, be seen, and will never more bo seen in the great 
 city where vice and misery are rampant still in the midst of luxury and 
 high civilisation. There, spread on the dank floor, on layers of rotten 
 straw filled with vermin of all kinds, lie wretched human beings whose 
 poverty, occasioned by the wrong-doing or misfortune of themselves or others, 
 has deprived them of every other resting-place. As the light falls upon their 
 faces some of them start up with the keen, cunning look of those who know 
 that they have broken the laws and must depend upon their wits to escape 
 the penalty ; others turn over with a sigh of weariness, and draw around them 
 the scanty garments that scarcely cover them ; while others break out into 
 foul imprecations upon the intruders. Everywhere, in holes and corners, 
 some almost burrowing into the soil, others lying closely side by side for the 
 sake of warmth, are to be seen these poor outcasts, sheltering in the only 
 place on earth where they can rest this hiding-place of sin and misery, 
 of filth and rags. Terrible are the faces that meet the gaze of the visitors, 
 faces that bear indelible marks made by vice, disease, or sorrow ; faces that 
 haunt the imagination long afterwards, and re-appear as spectres in the 
 visions of the night. 
 
 Not to gaze and moralise, but to work, is the object of the visitors ; 
 not to pity only, but to help ; and by two o'clock in the morning they 
 have taken thirty of these wretched outcasts, and have brought them 
 from the cold and darkness of the arches into the light and warmth of 
 a comparatively cheerful room used as a Ragged School. Among the 
 rescued are two boys mere skin and bone in bundles of rags whose 
 sunken jaws and sparkling eyes tell the story of their sickness, and want, and 
 premature decay. They are seated on either side of the tall, slight man, 
 whose sorrowful eyes have grown more sorrowful, as he looks upon them 
 through the mist of his tears. His heart has been torn by the revelation made 
 to him of the hapless lot of those beys. They are brothers in affliction, who 
 have been drawn together by mutual need, for both are orphans. One of 
 them has seen better days, and can remember a bright and cheerful home ; 
 but " when father died " and the home was broken up, he was left friendless 
 and destitute, and in his misery found a shelter in the dark arches, where his 
 companion had slept alone every night for a whole year, until this comrade in 
 misfortune came to share the straw and the rags that made his bed. But the 
 dawning of this day has brought with it the dawning of hope ; the " kind 
 gentleman," beside whom they sit, has spoken to them words of tenderness 
 and pity which seem like the echoes of words spoken in childhood, when 
 happiness had a meaning ; and when they learn from him that they need no 
 more go back to the arches, but may find comfort, and help, and home in a 
 Refuge for the Homeless, the floodgates of their tears, closed since their 
 young hearts had grown hard and cold with the world's neglect, are opened, 
 and they weep for very joy. 
 
 As their rescuer returned towards his home that morning, his head was 
 bowed, and hia heart was heavy. He knew that there were hundreds, and it
 
 IN THE HOUSE OF LOKD& 8 
 
 might be, thousands, of boys in the great city in as hopeless a case, who were 
 drifting from bad to worse until they should be past hope sunk into irre- 
 l>le depravity; and he knew not how they were to be reached. By day 
 ami night the wailing of the world's sorrow haunted him; the cry of the 
 children rang ceaselessly in his ears ; and it was no figure of speech he used 
 wli.-n those who saw his cheeks grow paler, and his face more sad, asked him 
 of the cause, and he answered with choking voice : " I have been in a perfect 
 agony of mind about my poor boys ! " 
 
 Turn now to another scene. It is the House of Lords. There is a 
 stillness approaching to solemnity, broken only by the voice of a noble lord 
 who is speaking, in a strain not often heard in that august Assembly, upon a 
 subject which has never been discussed there before. Every sentence he 
 utters increases the spell by which he holds the House, and every develop- 
 ment of his argument tends to move that stately assembly to a demonstration 
 of feeling it is not wont to exhibit. For more than thirty years the speaker 
 has been exposing the evils which beset operatives especially children, 
 young persons, and women engaged in the manufacturing industries. He 
 has carried measure after measure for their relief ; inhuman hours of labour 
 have been shortened ; excess of physical toil has been abridged ; oppression 
 and cruelty, resulting in premature death, have been checked ; and the means 
 of education and jnental improvement made possible. There are millions in 
 the land who thank God for the voice that is now ringing in that august 
 chamber ; for it is the voice of one who has pleaded the cause of the poor and 
 the oppressed as none other has done in the world's history. Rarely, how- 
 ever, has it been raised with greater effect than on this night, albeit his 
 speech consists mainly of extracts from a Bluebook. For years he has been 
 waiting until the set time should come when, strengthened by the success of 
 former efforts, he may introduce that part of the great question of Protection 
 which presented the gravest difficulties in the way of legislation; and now he 
 is informing the House that the evils which were supposed to be peculiar to 
 manufactures exist, even in a more aggravated form, in connection with the 
 cultivation of the soil. He speaks of organisations of rural labour in many 
 counties, known as " agricultural gangs," a system of revolting cruelty under 
 which the maximum of labour is obtained for the minimum of remuneration, 
 by extortionate gang-masters who monopolise all the children in a district, in 
 c.rdi-r that they may not be independently employed. The gangs are collected 
 in the morning, marshalled by the gangsmen, and driven off into the fields to 
 rli-ar them of weeds, to spread manure, to "thin" the turnips and mangel- 
 wurzel, to pick off stones from the land, or to gather in certain root crops. 
 At a rapid pace they are driven long distances to the scene of their labour ; 
 the little footsore and weary children, not more than six or seven years of age, 
 being dragged by their elders and goaded on by the brutal gangsmen. Tear 
 in, year out; in summer heat and winter cnld ; in sickness and in health; 
 with backs warped and aching from constant stooping ; with hands cracked 
 B 2
 
 4 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. 
 
 tod swollen at the back by the wind, and cold, and wet ; with palms blistered 
 from pulling turnips, and fingers lacerated from weeding among the stones ; 
 these English slaves, with education neglected, with morals corrupted, 
 degraded and brutalised, labour from early morning till late at night, and, by 
 the loss of all things, gain the miserable pittance that barely keeps them from 
 starvation. 
 
 The plain, unvarnished tale is told, and the sigh of relief is followed by a 
 burst of genuine and unusual applause. Then, when the outlines of a Bill to 
 remedy these frightful wrongs, and to affect the entire agricultural population 
 of every county, have been sketched, the speaker closes with this appeal : 
 
 My Lords, in attempting to grapple with this evil I hope your Lordships will 
 kindly aid me by your sympathy and support. In this way you will give the 
 crowning stroke to the various efforts made for many years past to bring all the 
 industrial occupations of the young and the defenceless under the protection of 
 the law ; and that, whether they are employed in trade, in manufactures, or in 
 any handicraft whatever, every child under a certain age may be subjected only 
 to a limited amount of labour, and be certain to receive an adequate amount of 
 education. All that remains for your lordships now to do, as representing the 
 landowners of the kingdom, is to embrace within the scope of your beneficent 
 legislation the whole mass of the agricultural population. Then, I believe, we 
 shall be able to say that no country upon the earth surpasses us in the care we 
 take of the physical, the moral, and the educational well-being of the myriads 
 of our humbler fellow-creatures. My Lords, the object you have in view is well 
 worthy of all the time, the anxiety, the zeal, and the talents which can be 
 bestowed upon it ; and I am satisfied that your lordships will earnestly desire to 
 see it accomplished. 
 
 The appeal was not in vain, the " crowning stroke " was given and there 
 was swept away from the face of the land the last of the long series of evils 
 which could be dealt with by industrial legislation. 
 
 Change the scene once more. It is the month of May. The busy Strand 
 is unusually crowded; men and boys are distributing handbills concerning 
 every philanthropic and Christian organisation under the sun. Multitudes 
 are pressing in at the open doors of Exeter Hall. A group of foreigners, on 
 the opposite pavement, are looking on in blank astonishment ; they are 
 gazing at a sight which is more characteristic of English life and feeling 
 than can be seen at any other place, or at any other season. It is the 
 Festival time of England's great Religious Societies. There are assembling, 
 from all parts of the earth, those who have been fighting throughout the year 
 a hard battle with the world's sin, and misery, and want, and who have come 
 to tell of their victories or defeats, to hear of the conquests of others, and to 
 gather up strength for further conflict. From this centre will issue forth 
 mighty waves of influence that will reach to the uttermost parts of the earth, 
 and affect the condition of the ignorant, the needy, and the oppressed, from 
 the rising to the going down of the sun,
 
 THE BIBLE EFFETE! 5 
 
 Enter the building. It is thronged in every part. The vast area of the 
 hall presents at the first glance a motley, indistinguishable mass ; examine 
 more closely, and there will be seen a larger proportion of earnest-looking 
 faces than is commonly met with in so great an audience. There is an air of 
 soberness and sedateness perhaps of demureness over the many, although 
 scattered here and there are groups of friends who are exchanging cordial 
 greetings. The vast orchestra, with the exception of the two front rows, is 
 packed, for the most part with men, many of whom are attired in clerical 
 garb. 
 
 Presently the organ ceases to play, and there is a stir and a flutter in the 
 audience, as divines, philanthropists, and social or religious leaders drop in by 
 twos or threes, and take up their position on the platform. But the signal 
 for a spontaneous burst of enthusiastic greeting is given when the secretary 
 precedes a tall, slender, pale-faced man, who gazes for a moment with cold, 
 passionless eyes upon the sea of heads and the waving handkerchiefs, as he 
 holds the rail of the platform nervously, and then, after a formal bow, buries 
 himself in the depths of a huge arm-chair. Every person in that hall has 
 recognised him ; every person claims to know and revere him, and every 
 person represents a constituency of some kind, each member of which would 
 greet him as heartily on the ground of knowing and revering him. 
 
 The preliminaries of the meeting over, the chairman rises to speak, and 
 again the hall rings with repeated cheers. He stands unmoved still as a 
 statue : there is a far-away look in his eyes ; he seems almost unconscious 
 that he is the object of attention. As the cheering continues, he seems almost 
 displeased at the demonstration, for no shadow of a smile passes over the 
 strongly-marked lines of his face. Then, when the echoes of the thunderings 
 have died away, he draws his slight, but graceful form to its full height, 
 grasps firmly the rail of the platform, and in a loud, but rather indistinct, 
 . commences his speech. 
 
 It proceeds on a somewhat dead level, although uttered with great dignity, 
 until he adverts to certain philosophical works that have recently issued from 
 the press, and have disturbed men's minds by their tendency to teach that the 
 Bible is nnsuited to the present times. Then the whole manner of the man 
 is changed ; the pale face kindles ; the voice becomes clear and ringing ; the 
 slender frame is all alive with strength and energy ; the whole man is traus- 
 fignired. 
 
 Good Heavens ! (he exclaims) were the truths of the Book prevalent in the 
 hearts of men, should we be disturbed and frightened, as we are day by day, by 
 those gigantic frauds that are bursting out in every community, and which lead 
 us to believe that all honesty in trade, all honesty in public life, all honesty in 
 private life, have left the world for ever ? Is it unsuited to the times in which 
 we live, when, if its holy precepts and its Divine commands had been listened 
 to, we should not have before us these gigantic evils. . . Ah 1 but now they 
 come and tell us that the Bible is effete ; that it is worn out ; that it can do 
 nothing ; and that we must now have some new influence, some new principle
 
 6 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. 
 
 by which to regenerate and guide man. Effete I Indeed, I should like to know 
 whether it is effete at this moment in India. Is it effete in the effect lately 
 begun to be produced in China ? Is it effete in the islands of the Pacific Ocean ? 
 Is it effete in Madagascar ? Is it effete in Italy ? You see what a country Italy 
 is now become ; you see how the Italians are now grasping at the Word of God ; 
 and, although they have not thrown off the trammels of the Church of Rome, 
 they have imbibed the first principles whereby their conduct in public and 
 private life should be guided. The Bible lies at the root of their freedom, and 
 they know it well enough to make it the basis of their hopes and fears. That is 
 the Book that will guide them. That Book, so far from being effete, possesses 
 at this moment a greater force a greater power of giving life, if I may so say 
 than in any antecedent period of its history. I should like to know who are 
 they who say it is effete ? Do the priests in Spain think it is effete 1 If they 
 think so, why do they prohibit it under such fearful penalties? Why do 
 they incarcerate, or confiscate the property of, or send into exile, those men who 
 devote their energy and their time to the study of God's Word ? Does his Holi- 
 ness the Pope of Rome think it effete ? Does he think it a harmless plaything, 
 that may lie upon the tables of his subjects 1 Do the Neologists themselves 
 think it effete ? If so, why do they pass their nights, why do they sweat and 
 toil over the midnight lamp, for the sole purpose of destroying a book that is so 
 effete that if left to itself, would soon die, or become an object of general con- 
 tempt ? They do not think it effete. They know its power upon the heart and 
 the conscience. They know that if left to itself, that good old Book must work 
 its own way, and what they deny with their lips they confess with their fears. 
 Effete ? It is effete as Abraham was effete when he became the father of many 
 nations, when there sprang of one, and him as good as dead, as many as the stars 
 for multitude and the sand upon the sea-shore innumerable. It is effete as 
 eternity, past, present, and future, is effete. It is effete and in no other sense- 
 as God Himself is effete, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. 
 
 Last scene of all. The bright autumn sunshine is streaming in through 
 the window-panes of a little village church, plain almost to meanness. Beside 
 the entrance to a vault, made beautiful by evergreens, stands a coffin, covered 
 and surrounded with floral tributes from princes and peasants, from nobles 
 and costennongers. An aged man, of over four-score years, is being laid to 
 rest in the burial-place of his fathers. Only his sons and daughters, his 
 relatives, friends, and tenants, stand around the bier, yet the whole nation 
 mourns. But yesterday that bier had rested, on its way to this simple 
 village church, in Westminster Abbey, and then all England stood around 
 and wept. Each man, woman, and child of the thousands who had gathered 
 there, felt that a personal loss had been sustained ; every class in society, 
 every section in the Church, every institution in the land, and been influenced 
 by him. For sixty years he had been the champion in every battle on behalf 
 of the poor and the oppressed ; the friend and helper of all who were afflicted 
 in mind, body, or estate ; and, especially, the leader in every movement 
 having relation to the claims and interests of the labouring classes. And 
 vrhile those who thronged the Abbey shed their tears, ten thousand times ten
 
 IN A VILLAGE CHURCH. 7 
 
 thousand of operatives whose labour he had lightened, of orphans he had 
 sheltered, of outcasts he had rescued, of the oppressed he had set free, of 
 ragged children he had clothed, of emigrants he had transplanted to new 
 spheres, of Christian labourers whose zeal he had fostered, of young men he 
 had warned of spiritual and fleshly dangers, paused in their daily tasks to 
 share in the expression of universal grief, and to pray that " though God 
 buries His workman He will yet carry on His work." 
 
 To tell the story of that life, in all its relations, religious, philanthropic, 
 political, social, and domestic, is the task before us in these pages.
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ANCESTRY AND HOME. 
 
 IN the reign of Jaines I., John Cooper, a descendant of an old and honoured 
 family, dwelt in the picturesque manor house in the village of Rockborne, 
 Hampshire, close to the borders of "Wiltshire and Dorsetshire. His father, 
 Sir John Cooper, had been member of Parliament for Whitchurch, in the 
 reign of Queen Elizabeth, and had inherited and amassed considerable wealth. 
 Dying in 1619, he was succeeded by his son, John Cooper, who has been 
 described as " very lovely and graceful both in face and person, of a moderate 
 stature, neither too high nor too low, of an easy and affable nature, fair and 
 just in all affairs." 
 
 At no great distance from Rockbome, there dwelt, at St. Giles's House, 
 Cranborne, in the county of Dorset, Sir Anthony Ashley, who was knighted 
 at the taking of Cadiz, in 1597, where he served as Secretary-at-War, and 
 was sent home to give to Queen Elizabeth an account of the battle. He was 
 a man who "had been for wisdom, courage, experience, skill in weapon, 
 agility and strength of body, scarce paralleled in his age ; of a large mind in 
 all his actions, his person of the lowest." The Ashleys were a younger 
 branch of an ancient family which came originally out of Wiltshire, where 
 they were lords of a manor named Ashley. They had been planted at Wiin- 
 borne St. Giles since the reign of Henry YI. ; and their ancestors, traced 
 through heirs female, had been lords of that manor from before the reign of 
 Edward I.* To Sir Anthony Ashley, the estate of Wimborne St. Giles 
 came, when he was advanced in life, by virtue of the entail in his grand- 
 father's will. He had an only child, a daughter, sole heiress. She was of 
 small stature, " a modest and virtuous woman, of a weaker mould and not so 
 stirring a mind as her father." 
 
 John Cooper, the Hampshire squire, married this daughter and heiress of 
 Sir Anthony Ashley, and the pair took up their residence at St. Giles's 
 House. 
 
 Their son was the first Earl of Shaftesbury. 
 
 In an autobiographical fragment he says : 
 
 " My birth was at Wimborn St. Gyles, in the county of Dorsett, on the 
 22nd day of July, 1621, early in the morning; my parents on both sides of a 
 noble stock, being of the first rank of gentry in those counties where they 
 lived. My mother's name was Anne, the sole daughter and heir of Sir Anthony 
 
 * Hutchin's "History of Dorsetshire."
 
 1080.] THE FIRST EARL. 9 
 
 Ashley, knight and baronet, lord of the manor and place where I was born ; 
 my father, Sir John Cooper, knight and baronet, son of Sir John Cooper, of 
 Rockborn, in the county Hamshyre. I was christened by the name of 
 Anthony Ashley, for, notwithstanding my grandfather had articled with my 
 father and his guardians that he should change his name to Ashley, yet, to 
 make all sure in the eldest, he resolved to add his name, so that it should not 
 be parted with." 
 
 In his ninth year he was left an orphan. He was precocious, however, 
 and was so well able to take care of himself, that at the age of thirteen he 
 undertook the management of his property, which had been allowed to get 
 into confusion, and successfully carried a law-suit against his grand-uncle, 
 Sir Francis Ashley, who had dealt unfairly by him. He was short in stature, 
 and weak in body, but he managed to distinguish himself at Exeter College, 
 Oxford, as the " leader of all the rough young men of that college, famous for 
 the courage and strength of tall, raw-boned Cornish and Devonshire gentle- 
 men, which in great numbers yearly came to that college, and did there 
 maintain in the schools coursing against Christ Church, the largest and most 
 numerous college in the University." " Coursing " was at one time a trial of 
 learning, but in Ashley's day it had degenerated into a trial of physical 
 strength and annoyance. He succeeded also in causing " that ill-custom of 
 tucking freshmen to be left off," a custom of great antiquity, but of great 
 unpleasantness. It was, it seems, the custom for the seniors to call up the 
 freshmen and make them hold out their chins, " and they (the seniors) with 
 the nail of the right thumb, left long for that purpose, grate off all the skin 
 from the lip to the chin, and then cause them to drink a beer-glass of water 
 and salt." 
 
 At the age of eighteen he married Margaret, a daughter of the Lord 
 Keeper Coventry, and in his nineteenth year he was elected Member of Par- 
 liament for Tewkesbury. 
 
 Henceforth his career was brilliant but erratic. During the great Rebel- 
 lion he was a Royalist and a Parliamentarian by turns; "a kind of half 
 Cromwellian, with monarchical leanings, under the Commonwealth ; a courtier, 
 a patriot, a member of the Cabal, and a fierce Exclnsionist under the Restora- 
 tion. He changed sides with an audacity, a rapidity, and an adroitness, that 
 made it difficult, almost impossible, to decide whether he was corrupt or in- 
 corrupt, whether he acted upon principle or no principle, whether he adopted 
 expediency, broad enlightened expediency, for the rule of his public conduct, 
 or, in each successive crisis, simply waited for the tide, which, taken at the 
 flood, leads on to fortune." * His biographer, who dedicates to the seventh 
 Earl of Shaftesbury the life " of his celebrated and much maligned ancestor," f 
 says that " he lived in times of violent party fury ; and calumny, which 
 
 * Quarterly Review, No. 2GO. 
 
 t "Life of 
 A.. Former 
 vols., 1871. 
 
 t " life of Anthony Ashley Cooper, First Earl of Shaftesbury. " By W. D. Christie, 
 M.A., Formerly her Majesty's Minister to the Argentine Confederation and to Brazil.
 
 10 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBUBT. [CHAP. I. 
 
 fiercely assailed him living, pursued him in his grave, and still darkens his 
 name. He lived in times when the public had little or no authentic inf orma- 
 tion about the proceedings of members of the Government or of Parliament, 
 when errors in judging public men were more easy than now, and when venal 
 pamphleteers, poets, and play-writers drove a profitable trade in libels on 
 public men." 
 
 He played a very prominent and important part in the age in which he 
 lived, and his vigilance in watching and taking advantage of every turn in 
 the progress of events materially assisted in bringing about the Restoration. 
 Honours were showered thick upon him ; he was made, soon after Charles had 
 come over, Governor of the Isle of Wight, Colonel of a regiment of horse, 
 Lord-Lieutenant of the county of Dorset, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and a 
 Privy Councillor. He was raised to the peerage under the title of Baron 
 Ashley of Wimborne St. Giles, in 1661 ; and in 1672 he was advanced to an 
 earldom by the titles of Baron Cooper of Paulett, in the county of Somerset, 
 and Earl of Shaftesbury. In the same year he was made Lord High Chan- 
 cellor ; and it was with reference to his integrity and ability as a judge that 
 Dryden, who elsewhere in his "Absalom and Achitophel" has scathed him 
 with severe and bitter satire, wrote : 
 
 " Yet fame deserved no enemy can grudge ; 
 The statesman we abhor, but praise the judge. 
 In Israel's courts ne'er sat an Abbethdin 
 With more discerning eyes, or hands more clean, 
 Unbribed, unsought, the wretched to redress ; 
 Swift of despatch, and easy of access." 
 
 Shaftesbury only retained the seals until November 1673, when, through 
 the influence of the Duke of York and the Romish party in the Cabinet, he 
 was required to relinquish them. Immediately on his dismissal from office 
 he openly joined the ranks of the opposition ; and by raising the cry of " No 
 Popery," soon regained his popularity among them. For declaring that a 
 Parliament which had been prorogued for a year and three months was tanta- 
 mount to a dissolution, and that there was no lawful Parliament in existence, 
 he was committed to the Tower, where he remained for twelve months, and 
 was only released upon submitting to the humiliation of begging pardon, on 
 his knees, of the House of Lords and the King. After this he stood forth as 
 the champion of Protestantism ; and took an eager part in maintaining the 
 truth of the story of Titus Gates and the alleged Popish Plot. 
 
 Among the many matters by which the first Earl of Shaftesbury has 
 made himself to be remembered are his opposition to the Corporation and 
 Uniformity Acts ; his denunciation of the transfer of Dunkirk to the French; 
 his counsel to Charles II. to suspend the execution of the penal laws against 
 the Nonconformists and Recusants ; and, especially, the introduction of the 
 Habeas Corpus Act, the keystone of British liberty. It was with great diffi- 
 culty he succeeded in passing the Bill ; and its third reading " is said to have
 
 188S.J CHARACTER OP THE FIRST EARL. 11 
 
 been carried by an accident, though strongly opposed by the Court of King 
 Charles and by the House of Lords. Bishop Burnet says Lords Grey and 
 Norris were named to be tellers. Lord Norris, being a man subject to 
 vapours, was not at all times attentive to what he was doing. So, a very fat 
 lord coming in, Lord Grey counted him for ten, as a jest, at first j but, seeing 
 Lord Norris had not observed it, he went on with his mis-reckoning of ten. 
 So it was reported to the House, and decided, that they who were for the Bill 
 were the majority, though it indeed went on the other side." * 
 
 Later on, Shaftesbnry took the hazardous step of appearing at Westmin- 
 ster Hall to present to the Grand Jury, then sitting in the Court of King's 
 Bench, an indictment of the Duke of York as a Popish Recusant. Shaftes- 
 bnry's action on this occasion, and his subsequent efforts to exclude the 
 Duke of York from the throne, resulted in his being seized on the 2nd of 
 July, 1681, at his residence, Thanet House, Aldersgate Street, and carried to 
 Whitehall, where he was brought before the King and Council, and com- 
 mitted to the Tower on a charge of high treason in conspiring for the death 
 of the King and the subversion of the Government. 
 
 When, however, the bill of indictment was preferred against him at 
 the Old Bailey on the 24th November, the Grand Jury ignored it, to the 
 great joy of the people, with whom he was highly popular, and who celebrated 
 his acquittal "by halloaing and shouting, by bell-ringing and bonfires, and 
 such public rejoicing in the city," that, as the Duke of York is reported to 
 have said, " never such an insolent defiance of authority before was seen." 
 
 After this Shaftesbnry contemplated an armed insurrection, but not 
 receiving the support he had anticipated, and feeling that there was no 
 longer safety for him in England, he determined, as he was broken in health, 
 and weary with incessant toil, to make his escape to Holland. Disguised as 
 a Presbyterian minister, he left Harwich on November 28th, 1682, and soon 
 after reached Amsterdam, where he took up his residence. But he had not 
 been there many weeks before he was taken ill with gout ; the malady flew 
 to his stomach, and he died on the 21st January, 1683. 
 
 There are many opinions as to the character of the first Earl of Shaftos- 
 bury ; there is only one opinion as to his genius and ability. 
 
 Hallain describes him as " a man destitute of all honest principle." f 
 Macaulay says of him that "he had served and betrayed a succession of 
 governments ; " J and, when speaking of his death in Holland, adds that " he 
 had escaped the fate which his manifold perfidy had deserved." Elsewhere 
 he says, with intense bitterness, " Every part of his life reflected infamy on 
 the other." 
 
 Hume recognises in him one of the most remarkable characters of his 
 age, and acknowledges that whatever party Shaftesbury joined, his great 
 capacity and singular talents soon gained him their confidence, and enabled 
 
 * "Lives of Lord Chancellors," voL iii., p. 276. 
 " Constitutional History of England, vol. ii. 
 " History of England," vol. L, 213.
 
 12 THE EARL OF 8HAFTESBUBY. fCHAP. I. 
 
 him to take the lead amongst them ; at the same time, he alleges that 
 Shaftesbury's " eminent abilities, by reason of his insatiable desires, were 
 equally dangerous to himself, to the prince, and to the people." 
 
 Much of the calumny that has lingered round the name of the first Earl 
 of Shaftesbury is due to inaccurate statements, that have been weighed in 
 the balances of more just criticism, and found to be wanting. 
 
 John Locke, who lived in confidential intimacy with Shaftesbury for 
 nearly twenty years, and left a memoir of him full of glowing praise, 
 admired in him " that penetration, that presence of mind, which always 
 prompted him with the best expedients in the most desperate cases ; that 
 noble boldness which appeared in all his public discourses, always guided by 
 a solid judgment, which, never allowing him to say anything but what was 
 proper, regulated his least word, and left no hold to the vigilance of his 
 enemies." * Even Dryden acknowledged him to be " incorruptible ; " and 
 Lady Russell bore witness to the perfect charity of " the great faulty human 
 being in whom the faults are indissolubly blended with the greatness." 
 
 His biographer says : " He was a man of eager temperament, great 
 ability, and high mental cultivation ; he was a man of the world, and free 
 from hypocrisy and cant ; he was outspoken, courageous, and honest. 
 Honesty is a bad card in public life, where tact is more valued than truth, 
 and servility than independence. Shaftesbury was fond of a simile from 
 Sir Walter Raleigh's writings, that ' whosoever shall follow truth too near 
 the heels it may haply strike out his teeth. ' f Raleigh had applied this to 
 the writing of contemporary history ; Shaftesbury transferred it to a 
 politician seeking truth and pursuing it, in opposition to power, and amid 
 the hypocrisies, self-seekings, meannesses, and falsehoods of public men." 
 
 He was throe times married, and, by his second wife, Frances, daughter 
 of David Cecil, third Earl of Exeter, left a son, who succeeded him. Lady 
 Frances Cecil was a direct descendant, through the Cecils, from Thomas of 
 Woodstock, fifth son of Edward III., while " on her maternal side she 
 was of kin, through the Egertons, the peerages of Derby and Cumberland, 
 and the ducal house of Suffolk, to John of Gaunt. So that the descendants 
 of the first Earl of Shaftesbury have Plantagenet blood in their veins, and 
 are of the lineage of William the Conqueror himself." 
 
 The second Earl appears not to have been strong either in body or in 
 mind. Although of singularly handsome features, his physical and mental 
 powers were below the average, and it was with reference to these infirmities 
 that Dryden wrote of the inheritance of the first Earl : 
 
 tt And all to leave what with his toil he won 
 To that unfeather'd two-legged thing, a son, 
 Got while his soul did huddled notions try, 
 And born a shapeless lump, like anarchy." 
 
 * Locke's Works, vol. x., p. 167. 
 
 t Jn tbe preface to Sir Walter Raleigh's " History of the World."
 
 1608.] TIIE THIRD EARL. 13 
 
 At the age of seventeen he married Dorothy, third daughter of John 
 Manners, first Duke of Rutland, the marriage negotiations having been 
 entrusted to John Locke. 
 
 " My father," says his son, the third Earl, " was an only child, and of 
 no firm health, which induced my grandfather, in concern for his family, to 
 think of marrying him as soon as possible. He was too young and inex- 
 perienced to choose a wife for himself, and my grandfather too much in 
 business to choose one for him. The affair was nice, for, though my grand- 
 father required not a great fortune, he insisted on good blood, good person 
 and constitution, and, above all, good education and a character as remote as 
 possible from that of Court, or town-bred lady. All this was thrown upon 
 Mr. Locke, who, being already so good a judge of men, my grandfather 
 doubted not of his equal judgment in women. He departed from him, 
 entrusted and sworn, as Abraham's head servant that ruled over all that he 
 had, and went into a far country (the North of England) to seek for his son a 
 wife, whom he as successfully found." * 
 
 There were seven children born of this marriage, and the eldest son, as 
 third Earl of Shaftesbury, was destined to exercise a considerable influence 
 in the world, and to hand down his name to posterity as the author of the 
 " Characteristics." He was a great favourite with his grandfather, to whose 
 guardianship he was formally made over when he was only three years old. 
 It was arranged that his education should be under the absolute direction of 
 John Locke ; and, although the actual instruction was given, in the first 
 instance, by a Mrs. Elizabeth Birch, a lady of great ability, Locke super- 
 intended everything. " To whom," his pupil confessed, " next my immediate 
 parents, as I must own the greatest obligation, so I have ever preserved the 
 highest gratitude and duty." Elsewhere he styles him his " friend and 
 foster-father." 
 
 In November 1683, at the age of thirteen, Shaftesbury was sent to Win- 
 chester ; but he did not remain there long, and completed his education by a 
 few years of foreign travel in company witli Sir John Cropley, to whom, 
 throughout his life, he was warmly attached. He entered Parliament in 1693 
 as one of the members for Poole ; but his political career was brief cut 
 short by serious ill-health consequent upon his assiduous attention to parlia- 
 mentary duties, in which he signally distinguished himself. Owing to the 
 failure of his health, he resigned his seat in 1698, and, assuming the character 
 of a medical student, settled for a time in Holland, where he fell into the 
 company of many distinguished literary men, and had a full opportunity of 
 developing his own taste for literature. 
 
 With the exception of a short period towards the close of the reign of 
 King William and the accession of Queen Anne, when he made himself con- 
 spicuous by his zeal in the House of Lords, he never again took any part in 
 public life, but devoted himself exclusively to literature. 
 
 Letter from the third Earl of Shuftesbury to Le Cler*
 
 1 4 THE EARL OP SIIAFTESBURY. [CHAP. I. 
 
 He published in quick succession for those times, his " Letter on Enthu- 
 siasm ; " " Moralists, a Philosophical Rhapsody ; " " Sensus Communis, or 
 Essay on Wit and Humour ; " " Soliloquy, or Advice to an Author," and 
 other works, all of which, with one exception, were republished, shortly after 
 his death at Naples in 1713, in three volumes, under the title of " Character- 
 istics of Men, Manners, Opinions, and Times." 
 
 His treatises created considerable public interest on their first appearance, 
 and won for him a large circle of enthusiastic admirers, notwithstanding the 
 fact that they were written in a pompous, pedantic, and affected style in- 
 tolerable to the taste of the present day. 
 
 The letter which provoked the greatest amount of controversy was his 
 " Sensus Communis," in which he promulgated his famous doctrine that 
 ridicule is the test of truth. 
 
 In Ethics he maintained that everything is for the best, and that man is 
 governed by a " moral-sense " a natural sense of right and wrong, " as 
 natural to us as natural affection itself, and a first principle in our constitution 
 and make." In Religion the articles of his creed were few and simple. They 
 may, says Mr. Fowler,* briefly be summed up as a belief in one God, whose 
 most characteristic attribute is universal benevolence in the moral government 
 of the universe, and in the future state of man making up for the imperfec- 
 tions, and repairing the inequalities of this present life. 
 
 The " Characteristics " provoked much controversy, and Shaftesbury's 
 " system " became the object of severe attacks from Bernard de Mandeville, 
 Butler, Berkeley, Warburton, and others. On the other hand, Pope borrowed 
 from him ; Leibnitz, Diderot, and Lessing acknowledged their indebtedness 
 to him, and Voltaire lauded him as " the boldest English Philosopher." 
 
 Blair, in his " Lectures on Rhetoric," considers the author of the " Cha- 
 racteristics " as worthy of admiration for the beauty of his language, for the 
 construction of his sentences, for cadence, for delicacy, and for refinement ; 
 while Warburton, who could not tolerate Shaftesbury's philosophy, bears this 
 testimony to the man and his works : " The noble author of the ' Character- 
 istics ' had many excellent qualities both as a man and a writer. He was 
 temperate, chaste, honest, and a lover of his country. In his writings he 
 has shown how much he has imbibed the deep sense, and how naturally ho 
 could copy the gracious manner of Plato." 
 
 His only son, the fourth Earl, took very little part in public life. His 
 delights were in literature, and art, and society. Handel was his intimate 
 friend ; and a complete set of the musician's oratorios in MS., bequeathed 
 to him by the great composer, is still preserved at St. Giles's. He was 
 married first to Susannah Noel, daughter of the Earl of Gainsborough, and, 
 on her decease, to Mary, daughter of Viscount Folkestone, by whom he 
 had two sons and one daughter. 
 
 Antony Ashley Cooper, the nfth Earl, succeeded to the title when he 
 
 ' Shaftesbury and Hutcheon." By Thomas Fowler, M.A., LL.D.
 
 1811.] CROPLET ASHLEY. 15 
 
 was ton years old. Ho does not appear to have made any mark in tho world, 
 and his name does not occur in Hansard, except as a signatory, with others, 
 to a protest in the House of Lords. Samuel Jackson Pratt, a voluminous 
 litterateur, dedicated to him " upon his return from a long residence in 
 France," a poem entitled " The Contrast," and the Gentleman's Magazine, 
 October 1808, in reviewing it, quotes, without giving the authority, a de- 
 scription of Lord Shaftesbury's seat, and of the " humble dwellings, whether 
 situated in the adjacent towns and villages, or embosomed in the shades 
 where the inhabitants are clothed, fed, or comforted by a benevolence that 
 is hereditary in the Shaftesburys, and which has lost nothing of its genial 
 glow by time or by descent." 
 
 The fifth Earl died without male issue on May 14, 1811, and the honours 
 of the family devolved upon his only brother, Cropley Ashley (of whom we 
 shall speak more hereafter), the father of the seventh Earl. He, for forty 
 years, was " Chairman of Committees " in the House of Lords ; and, during 
 the great railway mania, his authority and impartiality in handling Bills 
 which were brought before him were of great service to the State. 
 
 " After the third Earl," says a writer in the Quarterly E&view, " occurs a 
 long interval, during which no lineal descendant rose to celebrity. But let 
 not those who maintain the hereditary quality of genius or character despair ; 
 for in this instance we are reminded of the river which, after running many 
 miles underground, emerges clearer, purer, and less turbid than at its source. 
 Af tor a noiseless descent of nearly two centuries, the name and honours of the 
 Earls of Shaftesbury have devolved upon one who inherits all the domestic 
 virtues with much of the capacity, intellectual vigour, high courage, and eager, 
 animated eloquence of their founder one in whom ambition is chastened by 
 the pure aims which make ambition virtue who has uniformly employed 
 his advantages of rank, wealth, and station to alleviate human misery, to 
 improve the moral and material condition of the poor who stands pre- 
 eminent amongst British nobles for elevated, disinterested, untiring bene- 
 volence and philanthropy." * 
 
 Before proceeding to tell the story of the life of the seventh Earl it will 
 bo well, perhaps, having glanced at his ancestry, to introduce the reader to 
 tho ancestral home of tho Ashloys. 
 
 The hereditary seat of the Ashleys is St. Giles's House, near Wimborne, 
 in Dorsetshire, where, from tho reign of Henry VI. the family has been 
 ])l:uiti>d, their ancestors, the Plecys, having been lords of the manor from 
 before the reign of Edward I. 
 
 St. Giles is reached from London by the Exeter line of the South Western 
 Railway as far as Salisbury, and thence by the branch line to Verwood or 
 Wimborne. The village of St. Giles or Wimborne St. Giles is two miles 
 west of Cranborne, and nine miles north from Wimborne, or Wimborne Min- 
 ster, the market and union town and polling place for the county. 
 
 Quarterly Rtviev, No. 260, p. 327.
 
 16 THE EARL OF 8HAFTESBURT. [CHAP. L 
 
 St. Giles's House was once strongly fortified and surrounded by a moat, 
 but all traces of what it was in the troublous times of the Wars of the Roses 
 have long since disappeared, except the curious existence of a stream which 
 passes right under the building. This water, diverted from the neighbouring 
 river and returning to it again at a point lower down its course, served 
 evidently to fill the ancient moat. When the latter was disused and filled up, 
 the stream, instead of being cut off, was carelessly allowed to flow away by a 
 central channel which still remains. The house is now a handsome mansion, 
 approaching in form to a parallelogram, and built principally in the Eliza- 
 bethan style. The towers, in the Italian style, surmounted by Renaissance 
 turrets, were added by the seventh Earl. 
 
 The apartments are worthy of a great English nobleman's house. Their 
 contents are full of interest. We can only refer to them briefly in passing. 
 In the large entrance hall is the round table on which Thomson wrote his 
 " Seasons." The dining-room is admirably proportioned, at once so compact 
 and spacious, that forty guests will not crowd it, nor will half a dozen seem 
 lost in it. It was Lord Shaf tesbury's favourite room, of which he was espe- 
 cially proud, and, indeed, it would be difficult to find anywhere an apartment 
 in which comfort and beauty are better united, and in which every detail 
 combines to produce a more perfect harmony. The library, in which much of. 
 Lord Shaftesbury's time was spent, overlooks the park and garden, and is one 
 of the most cheerful and beautiful rooms in the house. It is between sixty 
 and seventy feet long, though low in height, like most ancient rooms, and the 
 bookshelves, rising from floor to ceiling on all sides, are filled with a choice 
 selection of ancient and modern works, many of them rare and valuable. 
 
 The most remarkable room in the house is the saloon or great hall. St. 
 Giles's House was originally quadrangular in shape, and the central part waa 
 open to the sky. Now it is covered over and lighted by an oval lantern, and 
 forms a large and splendid hall or saloon, with a gallery on three sides. The 
 walls are hung with family portraits, while antiques and works of art are 
 tastefully displayed on every hand. In this saloon there are an organ and a 
 grand piano, and it was here that on Sunday evenings the family, the visitors, 
 the servants, and many of the village folk assembled for a " service of song " 
 a pleasant homely service at which the Earl presided, and generally con- 
 cluded by reading a chapter from the Bible and offering up a simple prayer. 
 
 St. Giles's House stands in a beautifully wooded park of 423 acres. A 
 fine avenue of trees extends from the centre of the east front to one of the 
 entrance lodges, a distance of about a mile ; and another remarkably beautiful 
 avenue of beeches, locally known as Brockington, was once one of the main 
 approaches to the house. The clear sparkling stream, the Wim, or Allen, 
 runs through the park, and forms, on the south side of the house, a lake of 
 seven acres in extent, overlooking which is a summer-house, adorned with 
 memorials of the poet Thomson, who died in a house at Richmond afterwards 
 bought and inhabited by the sixth Earl. They were brought here when that 
 house was pulled down.
 
 IS85.) THE CHURCH OF WIMBORNE ST. GILES. 17 
 
 In the pleasure grounds on the south-east of the house is a remarkable 
 gro'.to, probably the finest in England. It consists of two parts, the inner- 
 most and largest being composed principally of Indian shells, and the outer 
 grotto of shells, ores, and minerals, collected from various parts of the world. 
 The collecting of shells and minerals -was a hobby of the fourth Earl, and 
 when he had amassed an enormous number of specimens he had them 
 arranged in their present form. The work was begun in 1757, and took two 
 years to complete. The cost of collecting, building, and arranging has been 
 variously estimated ; but it is believed that at least 10,000 was spent upon it. 
 
 There are many fine old trees in the park ; one, a magnificent yew, is said 
 to be over two thousand years old. 
 
 The parish church of Wimborne St. Giles is on the north side of the 
 village, close beside the gates of St. Giles's House. It is by no means a 
 picturesque church, and the interior, consisting of a chancel and nave, is ex- 
 tremely plain. It was rebuilt and enlarged in 1732 by the fourth Earl of 
 Shaf tesbury ; repaired and altered by his son about half a century later ; and 
 entirely remodelled and beautified by the seventh Earl in the year 1852. 
 
 Although the register dates only from 1652, the church is of much greater 
 antiquity, and was probably the burial-place of the Malmaynes, the Plecys, 
 and other lords of the manor, long before it became the family burial-place 
 of the Shaftesburys. In the chancel there is an effigy believed to represent 
 Sir John de Plecy, a Crusader, who died in 1313. 
 
 On the north side of the chancel there is a fine monument, with full-length 
 figures of Sir Anthony Ashley and his wife ; the former in armour and bare- 
 headed, the latter in her state gown ; and both have the starched ruff round 
 the neck. 
 
 At the side of this tomb is the monument of Anne Ashley, their daughter 
 and only child she who married Sir John Cooper of Rockborne (whence, as 
 already stated, the double name in the Shaf tesbury family of Ashley- Cooper 
 is derived). The body of their son, the first Earl of Shaf tesbury, who died in 
 Holland, was conveyed across the Channel in a vessel hung with black and 
 adorned with streamers and escutcheons. It was met at Poole by the prin- 
 cipal gentlemen of the county, who formed a guard of honour for the funeral, 
 which took place in this church. 
 
 There is a tablet on the north wall to the third Earl, who is described as 
 " a celebrated author ; " and on the south side is a beautiful marble monu- 
 ment to the fourth Earl, " who, from a consistency of virtuous conduct in 
 public and private, had as many friends and as few enemies as ever fell to 
 the lot of man." A simple slab of Caen stone to the memory of the father 
 of the seventh Earl bears the inscription, " Cropley, Earl of Shaftesbnry, 
 born Dec. 21, 1768 ; died June 2, 1851. His own recorded wishes demanded 
 the simplicity of this memorial." 
 
 In addition to these are many other memorials, to some of which 
 reference will be made later on, as they are more immediately connected with 
 the family of the seventh EarL 

 
 18 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CnAP. I. 
 
 Close to the church is a row of ten alinsliouses erected by Sir Anthouy 
 Ashley about the year 1624. A stone in the centre of the row bears the in- 
 scription, " Liberasti ine, Domine, in Maxima Tribulatione." While Ashley 
 was serving abroad in 1596 at the siege of Cadiz, he was accused of having, 
 previously to his departure, compassed the death of one of his dependants. 
 He was, on his return, tried but acquitted by the Star Chamber ; and this 
 building, thus inscribed as a mark of gratitude to God, and dedicated to the 
 poor, is supposed to have been meant by him to commemorate his deliver- 
 ance. 
 
 Opposite the almshouses, protected by an iron railing, is a poplar tree 
 which Lord Shaftesbury took pleasure in pointing out to his visitors, as it was 
 planted by Dr. Livingstone, the famous African explorer and missionary, 
 when on a visit at St. Giles's House in 1854. 
 
 The village is pleasantly situated, and has a population of about 500, an 
 increase of 150 from the year 1801, the year in which Lord Shaftesbury was 
 born, and in which the first census was taken. The cottages are mostly semi- 
 detached and surrounded by pleasant little gardens, neatly kept, and abound- 
 ing in fruit trees, vegetables, and flowers. These cottages, admirable in their 
 construction, and each consisting of five or six rooms, well planned for comfort, 
 for convenience, and for health, are let at the low rent of one shilling a week, 
 or one-sixteenth of the average wages of the labouring men who occupy 
 them. 
 
 The school-house stands in the middle of the village, and is the centre of 
 many activities. The average school attendance in 1880 was one in four of 
 the whole population. 
 
 Not only in this village, but in the villages round about, the care and 
 kindness of Lord Shaftesbury were manifested, and the charge which is often 
 brought against philanthropists, of caring for those afar off while neglecting 
 those close at hand, could never be brought against him by any one who had 
 paid a visit to Wimborne St. Giles, j
 
 CHAPTER H. 
 
 CHILDHOOD AND EARLY YEARS. 
 
 ANTONY ASHLEY-COOPER was born at 24, Grosvouor Square, on the 28th of 
 April, 1801. His mother was the daughter of George, fourth Duke of 
 Marlborough, and his father, as we have seen, was Cropley Ashley, who, in 
 1811, on the death of his brother, Antony Ashley, the fifth Earl of Shaftes- 
 bury, without male issue, succeeded to the title. The early home influences 
 surrounding young Ashley were not in themselves favourable to the develop- 
 ment of his character. His father was a man of considerable ability of 
 keen sense, and of quick discernment ; but he was engrossed in the cares and 
 duties of public life. His mother was a fascinating woman, attached, after a 
 certain manner, to her children ; but too much occupied with the claims of 
 fashion and of pleasure to be very mindful of their religious training or of 
 their general warfare. It followed that the tone, the conversation, the amuse- 
 ments, the opinions, the spirit of the home, were all opposed to the early bent 
 of his mind which, from his earliest years, was in the direction of the career he 
 ultimately made for himself. He received no help from his parents in his 
 religions life. His mother did not attempt to influence him in such matters ; 
 his father, on one or two occasions, asked him a question from the Catechism, 
 and the answer would meet with approval or displeasure, according to the 
 verbal accuracy witli which it was given. For the rest, the boy was left to 
 grow up in the old " high-and-dry school " in the cold, lifeless, formal 
 orthodoxy of the times. 
 
 But, although there was little in the home to foster, while there was much 
 to discourage, the growth of that piety which was to characterise so signally 
 his after-life, one source of helpful and tender influence was preserved 
 to him. 
 
 There was in the household a faithful old servant, Maria Millis, who had 
 been maid to young Ashley's mother, when she was a girl at Blenheim, and 
 who was now retained as housekeeper. She was a simple-hearted, loving, 
 Christian woman, faithful in her duties to her earthly master, and faithful in 
 her higher duties to her heavenly Master. She formed a strong attachment 
 to the gentle, serious child, and would take him on her knees and tell him 
 Bible stories, especially the sweet story of the Manger of Bethlehem and the 
 Cross of Calvary. It was her hand that touched the chords and awakened 
 the first music of his spiritual life. Although not yet seven years of age, 
 there was in his heart a distinct yearning for God ; and to her he was indebted 
 for the guidance and the training under which the longing of his heart was 
 ultimately developed into a settled and intelligent faith, 
 c 2
 
 20 THE EARL OP SIIAFTESBURY. [CnAp. II. 
 
 She taught him a prayer the first prayer he over learnt ; a prayer which 
 he never omitted to use through all the trying days that were soon to come 
 upon him. And in his old age, especially in times of sickness, he very 
 frequently found himself in his prayers repeating those simple words. 
 
 It would have been interesting to have read the words of that prayer ; it 
 would, perchance, have been helpful to those who have the care and oversight 
 of young lives, to know what simple words may be made instrumental in 
 leading a life towards its highest aims. Almost the last promise made to the 
 writer by Lord Shaftesbury prior to his fatal illness was that he would 
 endeavour to find time to put down the words of that prayer in writing, but 
 the intention was frustrated. 
 
 At the age of seven, young Ashley went to school. There were, at the 
 beginning of this century, certain schools to which children of the aristocracy 
 were sent, such as, happily, would not be tolerated now under any circum- 
 stances. They were hot-beds of every kind of evil and mischief, where 
 bullying, and many other forms of cruelty, were permitted, if not encouraged; 
 where might was right, and the lives of weak and timid boys were made 
 almost intolerable. 
 
 To such a school, at the Manor House, Chiswick, now an asylum for the 
 insane, young Ashley was sent. It had a reputation, and a good one in some 
 respects ; it was eminently respectable, and the sons of noble families were 
 sent to it. It was formerly a place of retirement for sick scholars from 
 Westminster School ; and in 1657 the famous Dr. Busby was living there 
 with some of his pupils ; but at the time of which we write it was in the 
 occupation of the Rev. Dr. Thomas Home. Dr. Home was a good classical 
 scholar, capable of imparting to his pupils plenty of Latin and Greek ; but 
 the art of education, in its wider sense, the training of character and dispo- 
 sition, the formation of principles, the cultivation of good habits these were 
 tilings neglected or ignored. Evil of every kind was rampant ; there was 
 neither proper supervision nor proper food ; cruel punishments were inflicted 
 for slight offences ; and great offences, such as bullying, foul language, or 
 blackguardism generally not coming within the range of school discipline 
 were left unchecked. 
 
 Says Crabbe, in his " Tales of the School " : 
 
 " Oh 1 there's a wicked little world in schools, 
 Where mischief's suffered and oppression rules ; 
 Where mild, quiescent children oft endure 
 What a long, placid life shall fail to cure." 
 
 It was so in young Ashley's case. He lived in a state of constant 
 terror from the cruelty of the elder boys, and suffered exquisite misery 
 for years through the neglect and inhumanity of the principal of the 
 school in failing to provide sufficiently even the necessaries of life. 
 
 The young days of his life, instead of being full of brightness and sun- 
 shine and merriment, were made utterly wretched. Even in old age he
 
 808.) MARIA MILLIS. 21 
 
 would say : " The memory of that place makes me shudder ; it is repul- 
 sive to me even now. I think there never was such a wicked school 
 before or since. The place was bad, wicked, filthy ; and the treatment was 
 starvation and cruelty." 
 
 Young Ashley had not been long at the Manor House School when a , 
 great trouble befell him. Maria Millis, the faithful servant and friend, 
 the one who alone in all the world had sympathised with his simple child- 
 faitli, and had been the means of giving it increased vitality, was called j 
 to her rest. 
 
 It was his first great grief, and it came at a time when he was least able 
 to bear it. Boyish sorrow, although often very real and passionate, is com- 
 monly resisted and overcome by a nature full of life and of life's fresh and 
 vivid interests. But Ashley was feeling deeply the loneliness of a school 
 life amidst uncongenial associates and under a system that offered no 
 alleviation to one so tender and sensitive. He clung to his old friend, 
 for she was the only grown-up person in the world he really loved; the 
 only one to whom he had dared to speak of the misery of his school life; 
 the only one with whom bright and beautiful memories of his earlier years 
 were associated. And now that she was gone, there was no one to whom 
 he could unbosom the great sorrow her loss had brought to him ; his parents 
 were not cast in a tender mould, they ruled by fear and not by love, and 
 his three sisters were too young, and lacked the opportunity, to give him 
 help. He felt that with his old nurse his last chance of happiness had 
 gone ; he mourned for her " with a grievous mourning," for she was more 
 to him than all the world beside, and he felt a terrible loneliness which 
 sent a chill through his life. Without a soul on earth to whom he could 
 go for comfort, he turned with a child's simple faith to the old Book that 
 she had loved, and spread his sorrows before the Heavenly Friend whom 
 she had taught him to regard as full of pity and tenderness. 
 
 In her will she left him 'her watch a handsome gold one and until 
 the day of his death he never wore any other. He was fond even to the 
 last of showing it, and would say, "That was given to me by the best] 
 friend I ever had in the world." 
 
 In one less earnest and resolute, the spiritual life, thus deprived of its 
 accustomed support, and left to be lived apart, might have been in danger 
 of decline. But, throughout the five years during which he remained at the 
 Manor House, ho persevered in his habit of praying and reading the Bible, 
 despite the sneers and opposition of his fellows; and he never forgot the 
 lessons he had learned from Maria Millis. 
 
 Of all the social changes of this century of change, perhaps there is none 
 more remarkable than that which has come over the relationship of parents 
 and children. It was once the almost universal practice for parents to 
 rule their children by severity and fear, now the opposite extreme prevails; 
 respect and reverence for parents have perhaps decreased, but affection has un- 
 doubtedly increased. In the case of many, the severity of home was bearable,
 
 22 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. II. 
 
 inasmuch as it was of short duration, and the return to school was hailed with 
 delight as a welcome relief. In young Ashley's case there was neither joy in 
 going back to school, nor joy in coming home. His parents had a mistaken 
 idea of education, of parental authority, rights, and obligations ; and the 
 fear with which Ashley regarded his schoolmaster and the bullies of the 
 school was less than the fear with which he regarded his parents. There 
 was no sympathy of any kind between them ; no exhibition, in any way. 
 of affection. His heart sank within him when the day came for him to 
 go home for the holidays, and it sank within him when he had to return 
 to school. Nor was it only the presence of his parents in the home that 
 made life oppressive ; their absence had exactly the same effect, for then 
 he was left with his sisters, to the tender mercies of the servants, and 
 he knew, times without number, what it was to be kept for days without 
 sufficient food until he was pinched with starvation ; and could recall many 
 weary nights in winter when he lay awake all through the long hours, 
 suffering from cold. 
 
 It is not well to dwell upon these details it may be considered unwise 
 to have referred to them at all. But they are necessary to the right 
 appreciation of his subsequent career. No one who knew Lord Shaftes- 
 bury could fail to observe in him an air of melancholy, a certain sombre- 
 ness and sadness, which habitually surrounded him like an atmosphere. 
 It was no doubt to be attributed, in great measure, to the scenes of suffer- 
 ing and sorrow which were continually before him ; but it was also largely 
 due to the fact that there had been no light-heartedness in his childhood, 
 and that the days to which most men look back with the keenest delight 
 were only recalled by him with a shrinking sense of horror. But it is 
 important to the understanding of his life in another aspect that this 
 record of his unhappy childhood should be given. Those early years of 
 sorrow were the years in which he was graduating for his great life-work. 
 He had suffered oppression ; henceforth his life would bo devoted to fight- 
 ing the battles of the oppressed. He had known loneliness, and cold, and 
 hunger; henceforth he would plead the cause of the poor, the lonely, the 
 suffering, and the hungry. He had known the loss of a happy childhood ; 
 henceforth he would labour, as long as life should last, to bring joy and 
 gladness to the hearts and homes of little children. 
 
 At the age of twelve there came a change, a welcome change, in the life of 
 young Ashley. He was removed from the Manor House School, sent straight 
 to Harrow, and placed under the care, and in the house, of Dr. Butler, the 
 Head Master. He soon found himself associated with a gentlemanly set of 
 fellows, among whom was Sir Harry Verney, who, as is well known, has 
 greatly distinguished himself by his large-hearted philanthropy. 
 
 No freed slave ever rejoiced in his emancipation, no over-worked factory 
 hand ever hailed his "protection," no rescued outcast ever delighted in a 
 newly-found " Home " more heartily than did young Ashley rejoice in his 
 transfer to Harrow. It was the beginning of a new life to him ; whatever
 
 lS.) AT HARROW. 23 
 
 might happen now in vacation-time he would at least be able to look forward 
 with pleasure to his return to school. 
 
 He was still, however, without those influences which are sometimes 
 thought to be of first importance in the formation of a religious character ; 
 his conduct was regulated by Christian instincts, but not by any settled prin- 
 ciples ; he had floating impressions of good, but no fixed and steadfast pur- 
 pose. Yet his eyes and his heart were opening gradually, and meanwhile he 
 could say, as regarded the letter of the moral law, " all these things have I 
 kept." 
 
 In speaking of these times to the present writer he said : " I distinctly 
 remember how often it was impressed upon my mind that the Bible Society, 
 which was founded when I was three years old, was an evil and a revolution- 
 ary institution, opposed alike to Church and State. I was brought up in the 
 old ' high-and-dry ' school, and believed it to be a meritorious thing to hate 
 Dissenters. As to their doing any good in the world, the very idea seemed to 
 be monstrous, if, indeed, it ever occurred to me. As to their having any views of 
 their own worthy of consideration, it never crossed my mind, until one day I 
 got hold of a copy of some Commentary, and after reading for a while with 
 great interest, it suddenly struck me, ' The writer must have been a rank Dis- 
 senter ! " and I instantly shut up the book, recoiling from it as I would from 
 poison. One of the first things that opened my eyes was reading of Dod- 
 dridge being condemned as a Dissenter, and I remember exclaiming, ' Good 
 heavens ! how will he stand in the judgment, at the bar of God, as compared 
 with Pope Alexander YI. ? ' It was not till I was twenty-five years old, or 
 thereabouts, that I got hold of ' Scott's Commentary on the Bible,' and, struck 
 with the enormous difference between his views and those to which I had been 
 accustomed, I began to think for myself." 
 
 Vast as was the improvement in his comfort at Harrow, the state of things 
 was not in those days to be compared with these. 
 
 " A strange reminiscence of Harrow in the first thirty years of the nine- 
 teenth century was recounted by Lord Shaftesbury, when presiding at the 
 Harrow Triennial Dinner, on June 18th, 1884. ' He recalled the case of a 
 master who, being himself a bad sleeper, frequently called up his form the 
 Shell at four o'clock on a winter's morning, and relieved the tedium of the 
 night by this very early first school.' The venerable philanthropist also spoke 
 with horror of the unpleasant state of Duck Puddle in his time, when it 
 swarmed with insects, reform having been brought about by the Earl's own 
 ingenuity in selecting the subject for Latin verse composition." * 
 
 Although his father had succeeded to the Shaftesbury title and estates in 
 1811, it was not until some few years after that young Ashley paid his first 
 visit to St. Giles's House. He went there from Harrow, to pass the summer 
 holidays, and singularly happy days they were for him in comparison with 
 those he had spent at the Richmond house, in summer, and the house in 
 
 " Harrow School and it* Surroundings," by Percy M. Thornton, p. 364.
 
 24 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBtJRlr. [CHAP. IL 
 
 Grosvenor Square, in winter, when lie had come home for his holidays from 
 the Manor House School. 
 
 Even as a boy he was always an ardent lover of the country ; and was 
 never so happy as when rambling in the midst of forest scenery, or in rural 
 haunts, where, to a contemplative mind, every sight and sound is full of sug- 
 gestion. | Harrow and its beautiful surroundings had done much to dissipate 
 the gloom which had gathered over his childhood ; and St. Giles's helped to 
 finish what Harrow had begun. His mind was braced up and invigorated ; 
 new hopes and aspirations were kindled, old perturbations of spirit were 
 allayed, and the, prospects of life looked brighter than they had ever done 
 before as he viewed them under the influence of these country scenes. 
 
 He was a great lover, too, of natural history and the various sciences which 
 reveal the wonders of the world around ; and his rambles brought him every 
 day in contact with these unwritten books of God, which he read with infinite 
 delight. He explored every nook and corner of Cranborne Chase, an immense 
 sylvan region, at one time comprising an area of eighteen square miles. As 
 late as 1828 it contained 12,000 deer and as many as six lodges, each of which 
 had its " walk " and was under the management of a ranger. " Nothing," 
 says the poet Bowles, " can be more wild than this leafy labyrinth, opening at 
 times and showing through the hollies, and thorns, and hazels some distant 
 wooded hamlet in sunshine. On the bordering downs no object meets the eye 
 except here and there, at a distance, a small round clump of trees on summits 
 called by the people of the country appropriately a hat of trees." It was in 
 Cranborne Chase that, after the battle of Sedgemoor, the Duke of Monmouth, 
 disguised in rustic attire, was taken prisoner under the ash tree which is still 
 pointed out. The tree stands on the Shaf tesbury estate. 
 
 Nor were the surroundings of St. Giles's deficient in objects of interest of 
 all kinds. There was the old town of Cranborne from which the Salis- 
 bury family take their second title witli its ancient church, one of the oldest 
 and largest in the county, near which Edward Stillingfleet, the famous Bishop 
 of Worcester, was born ; and its picturesque Manor House, belonging to the 
 Marquis of Salisbury, with interesting historical memorials of kings and 
 queens who used it as a hunting lodge when visiting the Chase. 
 
 A few miles further afield is the market town of Wimborne, or Wimborne 
 Minster, with its exquisite and venerable collegiate church, where lie the 
 remains of royal and noble personages. 
 
 Bnt dearer than all was the "great house" which was now his home, 
 with its treasures of art and literature, and its sumptuous and pleasant 
 apartments. And dear, too, was the little village just outside the gates, 
 where dwelt the simple country folk, in whose society, even as a boy, he 
 found gratification. 
 
 Throughout his life Lord Shaftesbury had never the least hesitation in 
 tracing the time when his spiritual history had a beginning. He unhesitat- 
 ingly affirmed that it was when he was seven years of age under the influence 
 of his nurse Maria Millis.
 
 1815.] A STRIKING INCIDENT. 25 
 
 In like manuer he used to say that he could remember the day and the 
 hour in which he made his first start in a philanthropic career. 
 
 It was while he was at Harrow, and when he was between fourteen and 
 fifteen years of age, that an incident occurred which, simple as it was in 
 itself, influenced his whole after-life. He was one day walking alone down 
 Harrow Hill when he was startled by hearing a great shouting and yelling in 
 a side street, and the singing of a low Bacchanalian song. Presently the 
 noisy party turned the corner of the street, and to his horror he saw that 
 four or five drunken men were carrying a roughly -made coflm, containing the 
 mortal remains of one of their fellows, for burial. Staggering as they turned 
 the corner, they let their burden fall, and then they broke out into foul and 
 horrible language. It was a sickening spectacle. No solitary soul was there 
 as a mourner. A fellow-creature was about to be consigned to the tomb with 
 indignities to which not even a dog should be subjected. Young Ashley was 
 horrified, and stood gazing on the scene spell-bound. Then he exclaimed, 
 " Good Heavens ! can this be permitted, simply because the man was poor 
 and friendless ? " 
 
 Before the sound of the drunken songs had died away in the distance he 
 had faced the future of his life, and had determined that, with the help 
 of God, he would from that time forth devote his life to pleading the cause 
 of the poor and friendless. 
 
 It is a curious circumstance, that nearly seventy years after that day, 
 Lord Shaftesbury was walking down Harrow Hill with Dr. Butler, the son 
 of his old master, at that time the head master of Harrow School, and subse- 
 quently Dean of Gloucester. 
 
 " Can your Lordship remember any particular incident or occasion which 
 induced yon to dedicate your life, as you have done, to the cause of the 
 poor and wretched ? " asked Dr. Butler, in total ignorance of the circum- 
 stances of the case. 
 
 " It is a most extraordinary coincidence that you should ask me that 
 question here," answered Lord Shaftesbury, "for it was within ten yards 
 of the spot where we are now standing that I first resolved to make the 
 cause of the poor my own," and he then told him the above recorded 
 incident. 
 
 In the beautiful park at Holwood, a few miles from Bromley, in Kent, 
 there is a solid stone seat beside an old tree, just above the steep descent into 
 the vale of Keston. It was on that spot that Wilberforce stood in earnest 
 conversation with Pitt, and determined, on the recommendation of his friend, 
 to give notice on a fit occasion in the House of Commons, of his intention to 
 bring forward the question of the Abolition of Slavery. . 
 
 It would bo well that some day there should be erected on Harrow Hill a 
 suitable monument perhaps a similar one to mark the spot where the 
 freedom of countless thousands of poor factory children, chimney sweeps, 
 agricultural labourers, and others, had its origin. ,^^- 
 
 But the work of life had not yet commenced he was still a mere boy,
 
 26 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. [OnAP. 1L 
 
 with a great many floating impressions, and only a few determinations. It is 
 no uncommon thing for earnest people to paint their own demerits in exceed- 
 ingly dark colours, and in looking back across the many years of his life to 
 this period, and on to the time when he took up the factory question, Lord 
 Shaftesbury was wont to charge himself with " the besetting sin of idle- 
 ness." 
 
 " Many excellent persons," says Lord Macaulay, " whose moral character 
 from boyhood to old age has been free from any stain discernible to their 
 fellow-creatures, hare, in their autobiographies and diaries, applied to them- 
 selves, and doubtless with sincerity, epithets as severe as could be applied to 
 Titus Gates or Mrs. Brownrigg." * 
 
 It is not difficult to understand why it was that Lord Ashley was wont to 
 charge himself with the sin of idleness, and bemoan, what he sometimes calls, 
 by a pardonable exaggeration, his misspent time. When once he was launched 
 out into the full stream of labour, and was carried away with it so that he 
 had to economise every moment of every day, he begrudged the years which 
 he might, as he thought, have given to the help of his fellow-creatures. 
 
 But those years were not really idle ; he was laying in a store of know- 
 ledge on which he could hereafter draw ; he was drinking in influences which 
 were to mould and discipline his future ; and his character was forming, not 
 by violent and abnormal means, but by the gradual, steady development which 
 culminates in true and abiding strength. 
 
 ,A fragment written by Lord Shaftesbury towards the close of his life, 
 and given to the writer merely as a memorandum, is partly an epitome of 
 what has been already told : f 
 
 Born 28th April, 1801, at 24, Q-rosvenor Square. Very little or no recollection 
 of my earliest years. Remember that I soon passed under the special care of the 
 housekeeper, who had been my mother's maid before her marriage. She was an 
 affectionate, pious woman. She taught me many things, directing my thoughts 
 to highest subjects ; and I can even now call to my mind many sentences of 
 prayer she made me repeat at her knees. To her I trace, under God, my first 
 impressions. 
 
 I and my sisters all three of them older than myself were brought up with 
 great severity, moral and physical, in respect both of mind and body, the 
 opinion of our parents being that, to render a child obedient, it should be in a 
 constant fear of its father and mother. 
 
 At seven went to school a very large one at Chiswick. Nothing could have 
 surpassed it for filth, bullying, neglect, and hard treatment of every sort ; nor 
 had it in any respect any one compensating advantage, except, perhaps, it may 
 have given me an early horror of oppression and cruelty. It was very similar to 
 Dotheboys Hall. 
 
 Remained for five years, and then sent to Harrow and became the pupil and 
 
 * Macaulay'a "Biographies." (John Bunyan.) 
 
 t This fragment Lord Shaftesbury took with him to Folkestone just before hia last 
 illness, intending to amplify the account of his early years.
 
 1801-19 A FRAGMENT OP AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 27 
 
 lived, with others, in the house of Dr. Butler, the Head Master of the school 
 Things were there on a very different footing compared with Chiswick. 
 
 Left Harrow soon after fifteen years of age. Had reached the Sixth Form 
 and had learned very little. But that was my own fault. Though I obtained 
 some prizes, I was, on the whole, idle and fond of amusements, and I neglected 
 most opportunities of acquiring knowledge. 
 
 At about sixteen I went to reside with a clergyman in Derbyshire who had 
 married my first cousin. I was sent there, in fact, to be got out of the way, 
 for the clergyman never professed that he was able to teach me anything, nor, 
 indeed, did my father require of him any such services. I had a horse, and 
 there were dogs belonging to the house that constituted my great amusement ; 
 and a family in the neighbourhood showed me abundant hospitality. 
 
 I remained there about two years, and perhaps no two years were ever so 
 misspent. I hardly ever opened a book, and seldom heard anything that was 
 worth hearing ; nevertheless, there were constantly floating in my mind all 
 sorts of aspirations, though I never took a step to make their fulfilment 
 possible. 
 
 My father had resolved to put me in the army, but he was dissuaded from 
 that purpose by the influence, I believe, of a friend, of whose kind act I shall 
 always think with the deepest gratitude. 
 
 My father then resolved to place me at Christ Church, Oxford, to which 
 place he took me in 1819. The Rev. T. V. Short, afterwards Bishop of St. 
 Asaph, was appointed to be my tutor : a kind man and a worthy, and a good one 
 taken altogether. I remember well his first question, " Do you intend to take a 
 degree 1 " This was a strong demand upon one who had lost so many years 
 in idleness and amusements, yet I answered at once, " I cannot say, but I will 
 try." 
 
 He did try, and the result was that in 1822 he took a first class in classics. 
 Referring to this in after-life, he said, modestly, " I have had a great many 
 surprises in my life, but I do not think I was ever more surprised than when 
 I took honours at Oxford." It was not a matter of surprise, however, to 
 others, for he had entered upon his studies with the determination to succeed, 
 and had worked with the vigour and concentration which characterised him 
 in many other efforts in which he was similarly resolved. 
 
 A year or two before his death he met, on the platform of the Victoria 
 Institute, Bishop Short, of Adelaide, who had not seen him since they were 
 students together sixty years before. There were cordial greetings, and in 
 his speech the Bishop referred to their college days. " I well remember," he 
 said, " watching Lord Ashley day after day walking up the great hall of that 
 ancient house on his way to lecture, assiduous in his duties, diligent in his 
 studies; and I remember thinking, 'If that is a specimen of the English 
 aristocracy, we have in the House of Lords an institution which has no rival 
 throughout the world.' " 
 
 What were the thoughts and hopes and purposes, the plans and aspira- 
 tions of Lord Ashley in this critical period between his college days and his 
 entry upon his political career, have been told, as no one else could tell thorn,
 
 28 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. TCHAP. II. 
 
 by himself in a Journal of what he terms " fugitive and desultory notes," 
 from which we make the following extracts : 
 
 Aug. 13th, 1825. First discourse of Chalmers in Tron Church. (The power 
 of man's reason and the bounty of God in the advance of his knowledge will 
 be manifested even in this world towards end of existence. Monarchy is the 
 great principle in physics ; close relation of physics to morality. Solar system 
 typical of government on earth. Argue that the circle or elliptic form is the 
 most complete (being the most celestial figure). Form of bodies, course of 
 bodies, &c., all round infer that morals will follow physics. Mankind began 
 with monarchy and simplicity. It will return to the point from whence it 
 started by a different route, which in morals is equivalent to a circle. Mon- 
 archy is the most perfect form, and will prevail again when man, as the planets, 
 can perform his functions as simply and as truly.) 
 
 Aug. 24th. Finished Chalmers ; " Bravo of Venice ; " " The Monk ; " " Lind- 
 ley Murray's Grammar." He seems in everything inclined to destroy peculi- 
 arities of English idiom. 
 
 Aug. 25th. Versified half of the 27th Psalm. 
 
 Aug. 31st. Read a French novel, " Baron de Felsheim." Walter Scott has 
 taken his Caleb from the Brandt of that book. I remember observing when I 
 read Fenelon's " Existence de Dieu " that he could claim the original conception 
 of the trope used by Canning, "The sea which divides other nations," &c., 
 &c., &c. 
 
 Sept. 8th. London. Talked about Woodstock with Forster. 
 
 To end of September at Stapleton and Chatsworth ; no thinking or reading. 
 
 Oct. 8th. Ossington. Macgregor comes from paKpTiyopftv, from some rascally 
 bore who talked at great length. 
 
 Oct. 10th, Sunday. Feelings of a warm and generous nature may be often- 
 times wounded on earth ; nay, they may appear a curse, but they are not so ; 
 these sentiments shall be purified in Heaven ; Divine intensity shall be added to 
 their virtue, and their Lord shall be God. God possessing all happiness Him- 
 self, has shown by His creation that it consists in the communication of 
 happiness to others. 
 
 Oct. 12th. It may be argued that, even by moral institutions, giving is 
 more noble than lending. To be sure one reasons upon the vices of one's 
 nature, but regard the effects of each : lend to a friend, and you lose both 
 friend and money ; is it so when you give 1 Sometimes (for one benefited is 
 occasionally humiliated), but not so frequently. 
 
 Oct. 13th. I have a great mind to found a policy upon the Bible ; in 
 public life observing the strictest justice, and not only cold justice, but active 
 benevolence. That is good towards individuals : is it so towards nations 1 It 
 is certainly less practicable. Generosity in private affairs is strength to the 
 giver with little hazard ; in empires it confers the discreditable charge of 
 imprudence with great danger, through the increased force of the rival nation, 
 and no gratitude. But justice raw justice is the Shckinah of governments. 
 
 Oct. 14th. People talk of being misunderstood, not known, little valued, or 
 rewarded according to their merits. Is not God in every one of the cases a 
 srreater sufferer, if one may say so? He is absolutely forgotten. This has
 
 18 if,.] BIRTHDAY THOUGHTS. 29 
 
 endured since the creation ; nay, even in His own family, the Jews, He waa 
 as nothing. Can we not hold up, then, for the short space of some forty 
 years.' 
 
 1826, April 5th. People talk of the divine right of kings. No man has 
 a divine right to anything except salvation, and that he may lose by his own 
 negligence. . 
 
 At the age of twenty-five Lord Ashley did what .at that time was con- j 
 sidered proper for a young man to do who had finished his college course, 
 obtained a good degree, and, as eldest son of a peer, was possessed of influence I 
 and position he entered Parliament. ( 
 
 On the day he attained his twenty-fifth year he wrote in his Diary : 
 
 1826, 28th April. My birthday, and now I am twenty-five years old a great 
 age for one who is neither wise, nor good, nor useful, nor endowed with 
 capability of becoming so. People would answer me, " Why, you have not lost 
 your time ; you have always been engaged ; " quite true, but always upon 
 trifles ; indeed, since my quitting Oxford, a space now of three years, I have 
 absolutely done harm to my intellects, by false reasoning which, however 
 rare it may have been, is the only exercise which has disturbed my mental 
 indolence. What might have been performed in three years ? but not a study 
 commenced, not an object pursued ; not a good deed done, not a good thought 
 generated ; for my thoughts are too unsteady for the honour of that title. 
 Visions without end, but, God be praised, all of a noble character. I fancy 
 myself in wealth and power, exerting my influence for the ends that I sought 
 it for, for the increase of religion and true happiness. No man had ever more 
 ambition, and probably my seeming earnestness for great and good purposes was 
 merely a proof of hotter ambition and deeper self-deception than exists in 
 others. That I am not completely in despair must come from God who knows, 
 " qu(B sint, qua fuerint, qua mox ventura trah-antur" and who, if He wanted 
 me, or knew that I could be useful, would doubtless call me forward. All that 
 I can remark then is, that I will entreat Him to raise up for Old Britain young 
 and aged saints and sinners, high and low, rich and poor, who may act as well 
 for her interests as I always fancied I wished to do ; but as I said before, that 
 was likely to be a self -error. Nor did I leave the world out of my calculations. 
 England was to have been the fountain, and our globe the soil to have been 
 watered by her ; may she do it yet, though I fear, unless God administer the 
 healing branch, the stream will be very corrupt ! But he has perhaps other 
 nations in view for the honour of vicegerency ; let us hope " not ; " nay, I may 
 say, " let us try not : " for His blessings are still here, and as God is never 
 capricious, He will not remove them without a cause. But, happen what may 
 between now and the fulfilment of all things, He will eventually restore happi- 
 ness to the world, and may He do it by the services of our country I Latterly I 
 have taken to hard study. It Amuses me and prevents mischief. Occasionally 
 the question " cut bono ? " sours my spirit of application ; but, generally speaking, 
 I have stilled the passions. An attachment during my residence at Vienna 
 commenced a. course of self-knowledge for me. Man never has loved more 
 furiously or more imprudently. The object was, and is, an angel, but she was 
 surrounded by, and would have brought with her, a halo of hell.
 
 30 THE KARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. II. 
 
 On the llth June, 1826, the excitement among the electors of Woodstock 
 the pocket borough of the house of Marlborough ran high. The candi- 
 dates were the Marquis of Blandford, Lord Ashley, Mr. J. H. Langstane, 
 and Mr. R. Me William. Lord Ashley put up for Woodstock for family 
 reasons, and to restore the family interests. He was the grandson of the 
 old Duke of Marlborough, and was put forward with Lord Blandford, the 
 son of the existing Duke. 
 
 John Bull, in reporting the state of the poll on that date, after comment- 
 ing on the excitement in the borough, owing to the " nearly equal strength 
 and high respectability of the candidates," said, " The several candidates 
 addressed the crowd, and the speech of Lord Ashley was distinguished by 
 eloquence and sound judgment, and breathed a spirit of regard for our 
 glorious Constitution which should animate the hearts of all electors and 
 elected at this crisis, when the demon of Popery is struggling to raise its 
 accursed head." 
 
 The election resulted in the triumphant return of Lord Ashley. 
 
 Nov. 16th. Took the oaths of Parliament with great good- will ; a slight 
 prayer for assistance in my thoughts and deeds. 
 
 When he entered Parliament his future had assumed no definite shape. 
 One thing, however, seemed to be clear to him, which was that, although he 
 had joined the Conservatives then led by Lord Liverpool and Mr. Canning 
 and was prepared as far as possible to support the King's Government, he 
 would not be the servile follower of a party. Thus we find him in 1828 
 voting with the Ministers against the repeal of the Test and Corporation 
 Acts, and in 1829 voting with them again for the Removal of Roman Catholic 
 Disabilities. At the same time he held an attitude of independence, and from 
 the first the support he gave to the Government was general, not constant. 
 One of his earliest speeches was delivered in connection with the proposed 
 provision for Canning's family, which he cordially supported, although he 
 was careful to put it on record that he did so on private grounds. 
 
 Of Canning's genius he had a high appreciation : 
 
 Dec. 12th. Canning's speech the finest historical recollection of my life. 
 Except the loftier flights of the Bible I have never heard nor read such rousing 
 eloquence, such sentiments, such language, such a moment ; they almost 
 maddened me with delight and enthusiasm could not sleep for agitation 
 feverishly and indistinctly recollecting what I had heard. 13th. Wrote to Mrs. 
 C., and received a most amiable answer. 
 
 Lord Ashley's letter to Mrs. Canning is not forthcoming, but the tenor of 
 it may be gathered from her reply : 
 
 Mrs. (afterwards Lady) Canning to Lord Ashley. 
 
 DOWNING STREET, Wednesday, Dec* 13th, 1826. 
 
 MY DEAR LORD ASHLEY, Next to the speech of last night your note is the 
 most eloquent and beautiful effusion of feeling I ever met with. It confirms
 
 182fl.] AT STRATHFIELDSATE. 31 
 
 my opinion of you and of the merits of the speech itself, which I feel so strongly 
 was calculated to be fully appreciated by a mind like yours, that the first question 
 I asked was whether Lord Ashley was in the House during the last speech. 
 
 The true test of the real merits of such a speech is the effect which it pro- 
 duces upon a strong', highly cultivated, classical, and youthful mind. Your 
 testimony is, therefore, doubly gratifying as a friend and as a judge. Perhaps 
 the most satisfactory proof that I can give you that the expression of such warm 
 and kind feelings is not thrown away upon ungrateful or uncongenial minds, is, 
 that on reading your note both Mr. C. and myself found our eyes in that state of 
 overflow which you describe your own to have nearly been on hearing the speech. 
 I long to see you and talk it over with you. 
 
 Ever yours most sincerely, 
 
 J. CANNING. 
 
 When Lord Ashley was a boy at Harrow, he, in common with every 
 thoughtful boy in the land, had shared the enthusiasm with which the bril- 
 liant exploits of the great Duke of Wellington were greeted. The daring deeds, 
 the grandeur and simplicity of the man who wrought them ; the perils to the 
 country that were averted ; the " special Providences," as it seemed, that gave 
 victory to our arms ; these, and other things, combined to make him the hero 
 of heroes in the eyes of young Ashley. To him the Iron Duke became the 
 Ideal Man. His bravery and gentleness, his honesty and consistency, his 
 career as a man, a soldier, and a statesman, all were admired. 
 
 The impressions thus formed in .boyhood were by no means lessened when 
 he came to years of manhood. 
 
 How it came about there is no record to show, but there sprang up be- 
 tween the veteran soldier and the young member of Parliament a strong 
 personal friendship, which grew as the years went on. Among the many 
 letters from the Duke of Wellington found among Lord Shaftesbury's papers, 
 there is one, in which the date of the year is not given, written in a cold and 
 formal way : " The Duke of Wellington presents his compliments to Lord 
 Ashley and hopes he will call at Apsley House to-morrow at eleven." 
 
 Whether in the interview that ensued, the friendship began, cannot now be 
 stated, but the following letter shows that as early as 1826 all coldness and 
 formality had passed : 
 
 The Duke of Wellington to Lord Ashley. 
 
 LONDON, October 20th, 1826. 
 
 MY DEAR LORD ASHLEY, Will you come and pass a few days at S. Saye on 
 the 8th of November 1 J hope you will meet some of your friends. 
 
 Ever yours most sincerely, 
 
 WELLINGTON. 
 
 After this date we find Lord Ashley frequently at Stratlifieldsaye, and the 
 recollections of those pleasant visits were fresh and green in his memory to 
 rVn Pn rt O f jjjg days.
 
 32 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. [CriAp. II. 
 
 Jan. 22nd, 1827. How we change 1 Now I think Canning's speech a little 
 imprudent. 
 
 Feb. 14th. In House of Commons. I am too bilious for public life. What 
 I suffer from the brazen faces and low insults of that Radical party 1 I am not 
 fit for their accursed effrontery, which sneers at every sentiment of a gentleman, 
 and is backed by the applause of those who pretend to education 1 
 
 Hume's conduct to-night was over-disgusting, and so was that of his civilised 
 friends. I should have stormed in madness had it been against myself. I am 
 not fit for the House of Commons. 
 
 Feb. 17th. 111 and worn by this Ilchester Election Committee displeased with 
 Fazakerley ; I don't like being so, but he talks too indifferently about Brogden's 
 behaviour. Angry with Wortley also ; however, my feelings are always over- 
 strong. Sorry that Sharpe is petitioned against, and I on the Committee ; he is 
 a good-natured, kind-hearted, and well-informed creature, but it can't be helped. 
 Got quieter in my political feelings. Lord Liverpool taken dangerously ill poor 
 man ! beloved, trusted, and looked up to by every mind in England 1 What has 
 he not done for the character of the Church ? God's ways are not our ways 
 may He give us another like unto him 1 Denison disappoints me ; neither sound 
 Ministerial nor true Whig, he rather cants for reputation. If Canning be present, 
 he is for Canning ; if not, he seems for Abercromby. Perhaps I am still weaker, 
 but as yet I have not found it out, lynx-eyed to another's faults I 
 
 Feb. 22nd. Voted for old Sharpe to be M.P. for Ilchester. He and his col- 
 league against me in politics, but I gave them the benefit of my doubts, accord- 
 ing to custom of Parliament. Had I, or had I not, any feeling of kindness 
 towards old Conversation 1 * I do business well and am attentive. Put on 
 Northampton Committee and Emigration ditto. What am I fit for? I want 
 nothing but usefulness to God and my country. 
 
 Feb. 2.~>th. I am certainly more for the Catholics than I was before, but 
 wholly as a matter of policy, because it does not seem that danger any longer 
 exists. This is the result of private reason, uninfluenced by speeches or con- 
 versation ; but as so little turns upon me I must and may conceal it ; my father 
 otherwise would go mad. I am inclined to believe that, were this Bill carried, 
 every man who has upheld its principle would prove an Argus of jealousy 
 towards those he had befriended ; the warmest supporters would be the keenest 
 spies. 
 
 April 1st. Lady Carlisle wrote me word the other day that Brougham had 
 been loud in my praises ; he has since set Warburton and John Smith to work, I 
 think, upon my vanity, and make me thereby a member of his " Useful Know- 
 ledge Club." Now I cannot feel indifferent to the encomiums of a man like 
 Brougham, but in bottoming this question I must consider whether they be real 
 or merely calculated to beguile a young man whose vote, or name, is far better 
 than his talents. He is afraid of my adopting illiberal principles, at least, he 
 says BO. I have often sneered at Normanby because he fell into the power of 
 these Whig sirens, who had charmed his ears with smooth and specious flattery. 
 But long before I knew that Brougham was even informed of my existence, I 
 had ceased to confine my views within the narrow circle of hand-to-mouth 
 politics. As for praises, they make me unhappy ; the time will come, and that 
 
 * Mr. Sharpe was called "Conversation " Sharpe.
 
 RELIGION TOE BASIS OP GOVERNMENT. 33 
 
 right soon, when I shall be found not only wanting, but contemptible in abilities. 
 I should be far happier if I were indifferent to knowledge ; the pursuit of it has 
 engrossed my whole mind and attention, and much have I thrown away of calm 
 ease and unruffled contentedness to arrive at that which, after a long chase, I find 
 to be more distant from me than it is from others who are mere dabblers or 
 beginners. Would to Heaven I could quit public life and sink down into an 
 ambition proportionate to my capacity ! But I am cursed with honourable 
 desires (they are so) and by predestined failure. This keeps spurring me on to 
 desperation. What a happy fate to lose all hope, all aspiring sentiment, all 
 nobleness of thought, all daring of mind, all wish for greater things ! I had 
 rather be creeping and contented than aspiring and inefficient. It is a curse of 
 tantalisation ; ride all my thoughts throughout this book. 
 
 April 8th, Sunday. Locke has been greatly extolled for his simile of a child's 
 mind to a sheet of paper ; it is not original ; vide Hooker's " Eccl. Pol.," Lib. I., 
 sec. 6. " The soul of man is like a book," &c., &c. 
 
 April 14th. What a job in all these resignations ! The whole run of Radicals, 
 Whigs, and Canning's Party, is at the Duke of Wellington. Will this political 
 intrigue triumph ? 
 
 April 1 7th. I care for Peel and Wellington : were they again in the Cabinet 
 I should be satisfied. What will become of the army ? But what of the navy, 
 with that Bedlamite Duke of Clarence at the head, and Canning to dispose of 
 Church Preferment I We shall see. I have decided in my own heart that no 
 one should be Prime Minister of this great country, unless deeply imbued with 
 religion ; a spirit which will reflect and weigh all propositions, examine each 
 duty, and decide upon the highest ; be content to do good in secret, and hold 
 display as a bauble compared with the true interests of God and the kingdom ; 
 have energy to withstand politic..! jobbing, and refuse what is holy as a sacrifice 
 to faction. He must calculate advantages to arise in a century, and not shows 
 to glitter at the moment ; he must appoint that which is best, and not that 
 which is most capable of appearing so. He must leaven every deed with the 
 feeling of religion. All things must be done to edifying, and if he do not call 
 in Scripture and holy aid to assist him in the discharge of each office, be it 
 important or be it trifling, he must do it in that frame of mind and heart which 
 is caused by long and genuine delight in the lessons derived from the truths of 
 wisdom and Christianity. Now Canning will do none of this, and, therefore, 
 I d re-ad his elevation. The Catholic affair is secondary ; we might live under that. 
 
 Saw Jephson, doctor, of Leamington. He assured me he had never met a 
 person with a more deranged system. Knew by my symptoms that my brain 
 must be sadly loaded ; enough to bring on any excess of bad spirits. I have 
 suffered dreadfully for many years with headaches, low spirits, and aost weari- 
 some sensations, attended by great weakness of limbs. Perhaps I shall improve 
 henceforward. 
 
 April 18th. Increasing in anger about the conduct of Canning's Party 
 towards Duke of Wellington. Entertained yesterday strong opinion that I 
 ought not to give up public business, or rather the endeavour to qualify myself 
 for it The State may want me, wretched ass as I am 1 
 
 Poor as Lord Ashley's opinion was of himself, there is abundant evidence 
 011 every hand that no one else entertained a similar opinion of him. It was 
 D
 
 34 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP II 
 
 curious that he should have closed his entry on that page of the Diary with 
 the words : " The State may want me," for the next entry shows that his ser- 
 vices were required in the government of the country. 
 
 This was a perilous time in the inner life of Lord Ashley. The habit 
 was growing 1 upon him, and, as a matter of fact, had already taken such a 
 hold that he never completely freed himself from it of analysing his own 
 motives, principles, and actions ; of indulging in morbid self-depreciation, 
 and of cherishing a nervous dread of failure. This was mischievous in itself, 
 and mischievous inasmuch as " happy occasions oft by self -distrust were 
 forfeited." 
 
 Many circumstances were combining, however, to check the growth of 
 the habit, and to show to him that there were wide spheres of usefulness lying 
 open to him. 
 
 On the 16th of February, the premier the Earl of Liverpool had been 
 stricken with a terrible illness, and, though he lingered nearly two years, he 
 never regained his full consciousness. On the 12th April, Mr. Canning was 
 appointed his successor, and a place was offered to Lord Ashley in the 
 Administration. 
 
 His father held at that time, and retained until just before his death, the 
 office of Chairman of Committees in the House of Lords. 
 
 Mrs. (afterwards Lady} Canning to Lord Ashley. 
 
 DOWNING STREET, April ISth, 1827. 
 
 DEAR LORD ASHLEY, The newspapers are full of your father's resignation, 
 of which, however, Mr. Canning has not heard anything in any other way. 
 Whether the report be true or not, it makes no difference in Mr. Canning's 
 feelings towards you, but if true, it would prevent him from making a direct 
 offer to you, at the risk of a direct refusal. 
 
 He has, therefore, desired me to ascertain, before he proceeds to his arrange- 
 ments, whether a seat at one of the Boards would be agreeable to you ? 
 
 Yours very sincerely, 
 
 J. CANNING. 
 
 Lord Ashley to Mrs. Canning. 
 
 Wednesday Evening, April 18th, 1827. 
 
 MY DEAR MRS. CANNING, My father has certainly not, as yet, resigned ; 
 nor, even supposing him to have such an intention, could he do it before the 
 meeting of Parliament, because the office is held of the House of Lords. 
 
 That Mr. Canning should think that I could either assist or grace his 
 Administration is, indeed, a very high compliment. Pray thank him warmly 
 for this mark of kindness and esteem, and although I decline the acceptance 
 of his nattering offer, do not believe yourself, and do not let him believe, that 
 I have any feelings of ill-will or opposition. You know how sincerely I admire 
 his policy in the late affairs upon the Continent, and I should have great
 
 1827.) CANNING AND WELLINGTON. 35 
 
 satisfaction in supporting, with my best endeavours, so enlarged and so national 
 a system. 
 
 But there is a concurrence of circumstances which will not allow me to 
 embrace his friendly proposal ; and, indeed, I feel so unqualified that I almost 
 rejoice in the difficulty. I must again entreat you to thank him for this 
 recollection of me, to assure him how ardently I hope that, whatever he shall 
 undertake, may prove as beneficial as his foreign scheme to the interests, and 
 honour of our country. 
 
 I am, dear Mrs. Canning, 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 ASHLEY. 
 
 April 18th (Diary continued). Found on my return after writing fore- 
 going a note from Mrs. Canning to make me, in Mr. Canning's name, the offer 
 of a place. It was delicately done. I declined in a letter as civil and as grateful 
 as I could compose. My own mind reasoned thus : 1st. Catholic question has 
 nothing to do with it. I should have just the same feelings were it already 
 carried. Political opinions neither, for I agree with Canning in nine-tenths of 
 his system. I distrust him somewhat. I think him dangerous at the head of 
 Government, injudicious, hasty, loving show more than substance, aspiring 
 anxious to keep his situation, and yet so weak that he will not be able to do so 
 unless he gratify the powerful by jobs and improprieties ; fiery and domineering, 
 with flippancy in foreign matters, he must place us oftentimes in ticklish 
 circumstances. 2nd. With all these dangers, Peel and the D. of W. have retired 
 from the Cabinet men who might have checked his extravagance and as they 
 are those with whom I feel and think, an immediate acceptance of office would 
 have seemed a declaration of contrary sentiments. 3rd. Canning is a friend, 
 and so is the D. of W., there has been a personal dispute between them, and, 
 if I went into place, I should apparently espouse the part of Canning, and 
 I am entirely in favour of the Duke. 4th. I have here and there made known 
 my sentiments, and it would be inconsistent to declaim against him und receive 
 his largesses. Now, time may effect alterations. I may gain more confidence 
 in Canning, there may be a reconciliation and a general amnesty. I am pledged 
 to nothing. This violent language of the papers, if not authorised by Canning, 
 remains unchecked by him, and I, a supporter of the Duke, hold him responsible. 
 But with me the D. is the chief consideration. As an underling in office, 
 I can labour for the country prospectively only ; were I a great man, the 
 granting or withholding of my personal services might be duly weighed, but 
 a place now would be simply a school of education for future services. It is 
 a great loss to me, but I have done rightly. We must not always sneer at 
 inferior persons having high notions. I do not pretend to any merit whatever, 
 nor can my name or services be considered as of a moment's value ; but every 
 one must have a principle of conduct, and my thoughts have run in this line. 
 I have no regrets except that of having given way to my feelings in speaking 
 with censure against Canning. Silence would have been better. I shall keep 
 all secret, and by no means take credit for my magnanimity. Many, I know, 
 would sneer at him because, unimportant as \ am in reality, I stood peculiar, 
 D 2
 
 36 THE EARL OP SHAFTESOURY. [CHAP. II. 
 
 owing to my father's opinions. My refusal, if known, might annoy him, and 
 the great must not be humiliated by the dignity of whipper-snappers like 
 myself. 
 
 April 19th. Leamington. Saw Jephson. How one improves by fancy even 1 
 I am better for having spoken to him. Sorry to have said so openly things 
 against Canning ; but, however, it was in defence of Dukey. I have towards 
 him a patriotic gratitude, as well as private respect. 
 
 April 22nd, Sunday. Time was when I could not sleep for ambition. I 
 thought of nothing but fame and immortality. I could not bear the idea of 
 dying and being forgotten. But now I am much changed. Immortality has 
 ceased to be a longing with me. I desire to be useful in my generation, and 
 die in the knowledge of having advanced happiness by having advanced true 
 religion. Massillon's " Petit Careme " is the best book for a young sovereign 
 it is truth so adorned by eloquence as to seem inspired. 
 
 The hostility shown to the new premier, Mr. Canning, was marked in a 
 very decided manner. No sooner was his appointment made known, than the 
 Lord Chancellor (Eldon), the Duke of Wellington, Earl Bathurst, the Earl 
 of Westmoreland, Viscount Melville, Lord Bexley, Mr. (afterwards Sir) 
 Robert Peel, and others, resigned. For support Mr. Canning had to turn to 
 the Whigs, some of whom took office with him ; and others, including Mr. 
 Brougham and Sir Francis Burdett, promised their co-operation. 
 
 April 23rd. The state of affairs distresses me. The Whigs will come down 
 on a divided party, and we shall be lost. 
 
 April 24th. True enough. The Philistines are to join the Cabinet is it pos- 
 sible that the Whigs can turn round and uphold the measures which, in this very 
 session, I have heard them denounce as flagitious ? Can they have agreed to lay 
 aside all their principles of reform, of. Catholic emancipation, of civil and reli- 
 gious liberty, and solely for place ? Oh, honesty, honesty, thou art indeed but a 
 name, if those who have so long worshipped thee be now degraded, if those who 
 have so long scorned thee be now exalted ! I am almost sorry not to have ac- 
 cepted office : I might have had the satisfaction of giving it up in honourable 
 disgust. 
 
 April 25th. At Guy's Cliff. Surely there is a natural feeling to be buried 
 with one's fathers ; yet yesterday I heard it termed contrary to the decrees of 
 Providence. It is one of those things that Providence cannot care about, unless 
 by so doing we show a kind of idolatry towards the deceased. How I revolt at 
 anything like religious sentiment merely to catch admiration ! It may be felt, 
 but the display infuses an alloy. Yesterday a man took the opportunity of my 
 presence to teach his child points of religious instruction, &c. He sought my 
 applause, I could perceive. No doubt he means well towards the child, but the 
 pretension displeased me. 
 
 April 26th. So at Brooks's the language is, " Get in, no matter how." Are 
 these principles to succeed ? If morality be real, certainly not. 
 
 April 28th. My birthday again ; and God be praised that I have arrived 
 at it without any intolerable calamity of mind or body. It has been a year of 
 .study and exertion, but I have neither learnt nor done anything. Yet look at the
 
 CANNING'S INTRIGUES. 37 
 
 history of all men who have obtained a degree of efficiency. They began much 
 earlier to signalise their merits. Cicero opened his Pleadings at twenty-six, my 
 age, (yet quantum distat) ; Scipio was consul at twenty-four ; Pitt Prime Minis- 
 ter at twenty-three. All the men i at the present day started while still of supple 
 years. Peel, Canning, Robinson, were all younger than I am now, who have not 
 done one thing, nor acquired the power of doing one thing, which might be ser- 
 viceable to my country or an honour to myself. And yet I cannot keep down an 
 aspiring sentiment a sentiment which, God knows, aims at all virtue, and 
 through that, aiming at all greatness. I cannot understand why my time is less 
 profitably employed than the time of others. I read, think, make every endea- 
 vour, but no good result comes of it, and this year has found me as unprepared as 
 the last, and the next year will find me no better than this has done. To be sure 
 my weak stomach has a sad effect upon the head, but this is not all, I must con- 
 fess painful deficiency, and in humbleness make the best of it. 
 
 May 3rd. Duke spoke last night. Whatever is open, manly, and noble in sim- 
 plicity, shone forth in the speech. Truth and honour were never more conspi- 
 cuous, and while the great hero was defending himself in the full assembly of the 
 British Peera> a halo of glory and merit seemed to enwrap his whole form and 
 visage. God be thanked, I had rather have heard him thus successful than have 
 made a thousand eloquent harangues to my own renown. How happy I am that 
 in feeling thus towards him I refused office I 
 
 An uncommon show of violence in House of Commons last night. Peel spoke 
 out about the Coalition, and I agree with him. Every one looked upon these 
 symptoms as prelude of good party fun. I cannot understand how the Whigs 
 have founded the principles of Coalition ; but they have a justification, and so it 
 ever is. Interest is far more eloquent and plausible than reason. They will end 
 by turning out Canning, and I shall rejoice in his downfall, because I hear each 
 day worse instances of his low political intrigue and treachery to the Duke of 
 Wellington. I deprecate this fierceness of party, but shall not shrink from the 
 struggle. It will be the cause of quarrel with all my friends, but I cannot help 
 that. 
 
 May 20th, Sunday. Dined yesterday and met Peel. He told me every 
 syllable relating* to Canning's intrigues. I had met him before at his town 
 house, where our talk was confidential. Read Canning's letter to the D. of W. ; 
 a mixture of apology and accusation, alternately fierceness and truckling, which 
 do no honour to his principles. I like Peel. I love honesty and truth. I hear 
 that he and Dukey speak most highly of me. I never shall want more than the 
 praises of true gentlemen. 
 
 Heathen morality did not enjoin great respect to the mother. She was merely 
 the &povpa, or soil of production, vide Eccles., chap. iiL, and 4th Comm., for dif- 
 ference between views of God and man. 
 
 May 27th. They seem desirous to humiliate the D. of W. as much as they 
 can, but no man is humiliated except by himself. Will God suffer this lying and 
 deceit to prosper ? Why am I so weak and useless 1 Why cannot I utter one 
 word of eloquence or manliness ? 
 
 July 19th. What a gap in one's notes. I am at Strathfieldsaye. Duke gone 
 to Windsor by special message of the King, brought yesterday by Lord Mary- 
 borough. 
 
 July 20th. It is a great study to be in the society of this wonderful man.
 
 S8 THfe EAfeL OF SHAFTESBtJRY. [CHAP. tl. 
 
 He seems to be thoroughly ignorant of his greatness, and has all the simplicity 
 of a good-natured man who has done nothing but the mere routine duty of 
 common life. How grateful I feel to God who guided my judgment when 
 decision was necessary I 
 
 July 27th. It is very odd. I have become a poet, and write verses just good 
 enough to show that I might have been a better rhymer were my latent genius 
 more cultivated. 
 
 August 7th. St. Giles's. Canning is fearfully ill. Now all my compassion 
 is roused. I feel keenly for him. ^ 
 
 Lord Ashley's brother was about to enter the army, and was iu need of 
 advice before proceeding to Gibraltar to spend some time in study. Lord 
 Ashley, always a believer in getting information from the fountain-head, 
 wrote to the Duke of "Wellington on the subject, and received the following 
 characteristic reply : 
 
 The Duke of Wellington to Lord Ashley. 
 
 STBATHFIELDSAYE, August 8th, 1827. 
 
 MY DEAR LOED ASHLEY, It is very difficult to answer your question re- 
 specting the best military work for your brother to study. 
 
 The answer would depend very much upon the previous education, habits, and 
 disposition of the reader. 
 
 Does he know anything of his profession ? If not, let him study Dundas, and 
 Torrens' alterations of Dundas' " Rules and Regulations." There is a work upon 
 the French Regulations by Macdonell or Macdonald, explaining the reasons of 
 each, which is a very useful one ; and the perusal of it might accustom the 
 reader to consider of our own, with a view to discover the reason for them. 
 
 In the first volume of the " Life of King James II.," by himself, there are 
 some admirable accounts of skirmishes, &c., which convey the truest notions of 
 the reality that I have seen yet. 
 
 The Histories of the Sieges of Gibraltar would be very interesting to anybody 
 on the spot, as he might examine the place to which every story related. If he 
 has not forgotten his Latin, let him never be without a Caesar. 
 
 I think I have given you enough for the present. 
 
 Mr. Canning died this morning at four o'clock. 
 
 Ever yours most sincerely, 
 
 WELLINGTON. 
 
 August 9th. Canning died yesterday morning at four o'clock. I am really quite 
 agitated, and can be alive to nothing but pity and almost horror. We can lament 
 his fate in charity. He has died before anything has been done which we might 
 regard as injurious to the country, and should execrate therefore, as the work of 
 a selfish, ambitious statesman. But such a lesson was never submitted to the 
 study of politicians. He had aspired exceedingly to the first post of honour ; he 
 gained it after years of toil God alone knows thoroughly how. But the posses- 
 sion was short, as pitiful, in its duration. For three months he lay on a burning
 
 18*7.1 THE "SUBLIME AKD BEAUTIFUL." 39 
 
 rack, and then died almost without having exercised one nerve of his power. I 
 do feel true compassion, and pray sincerely God rest his soul. 
 
 Offered a slight prayer for His support in case of trial convinced that unless 
 religion be our guide, religion our beginning, religion our end, there is neither 
 happiness in power, nor utility in its influence. 
 
 Aug. llth. Arrived in town yesterday. Felt sure that Peel would be- 
 Minister, but found that poor creature, Lord Goderich, at the head of affairs. 
 How the Whigs will bully and cajole 1 If they could manage Canning and all 
 his sharpness, what will they do with Goderich's whimpering docility 1 The 
 King is evidently averse to any trouble, and took this step as giving him the 
 least. There is defeat in store for them yet. 
 
 Aug. 13th. I have passed a pleasant time at Boyle Farm. It is great hum- 
 bug to be prating about intellects, yet there is a pleasure in finding persons 
 and women especially of cultivated minds and rational pursuits. Henrietta 
 and Olivia are good girls God bless them both, and shower down his choicest 
 happiness. It is very odd I can stand a compliment without growing 
 conceited. I have had a good many this year. Somehow or other I like them, 
 and so does every one. They call me and William * the sublime and beautiful 
 very nattering ! 
 
 Aug. 20th. Cirencester. D. Commander -in -Chief. There was no other 
 measure left for him. As I foresaw, the Whigs have, I think, begun their pranks, 
 else how interpret their anxiety to have Lord Palmerston instead of Herries, and 
 their frightening Robinson into it 1 This will soon break up. Yesterday (Sun- 
 day) read " Watson's Apology ; ". very glad to have done it ; think more highly of 
 the book than of most ; an everlasting composer for busy Deists and wounded 
 faith. 
 
 Aug. 23rd. Lost my pet terrier, Paste, by an inflammation in the head 
 almost ashamed to feel so touched could cry outright. We may draw a moral 
 lesson from everything. She was perfectly well five minutes before the attack, 
 but died in twenty-four hours. Not three weeks ago I was fancying she might 
 be my companion for some years. Whether a monarch dies or a puppy, there ia 
 almost the same uncertainty. Buried her in Lady Bathurst's garden, with an 
 epitaph. 
 
 Leaving Lord Batlmrst's, at Cirencester, Lord Ashley proceeded to 
 Strathfieldsaye, in response to the following invitation from the Duke of 
 Wellington : 
 
 The Duke of Wellington to Lord Ashley. 
 
 STBATHFIELDSAYE, Avguxt 12th, 1827. 
 
 MY DKAH LORD ASHLEY, I write one line to tell you that I am going to 
 Bankes' to-morrow for the Blandford races, where I shall be happy to meet you. 
 Lady Charlotte Greville and Lady Francis Leveson have promised \,J come here 
 on the 30th of August, and I shall be very happy if you will come and meet 
 
 them. 
 
 Ever yours most sincerely, 
 
 Bring your gun if you should like to shoot. WELLINGTON. 
 
 * Hia brother.
 
 40 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBUfcY. [CHAP. 1L 
 
 The work of his life came slowly to Lord Ashley. It was characteristic 
 of him to deal somewhat listlessly with any matter into which he could not 
 throw his whole heart. Parliament had not yet presented to him a prospect 
 which opened up the future ; and he had not yet settled down into his place 
 in life. Nevertheless, whenever he took up any subject which really interested 
 him, he brought to bear on it the same indomitable resolution and dogged 
 pertinacity that had marked his career at Oxford. 
 
 In September of this year his sister, Lady Charlotte, who had married 
 Mr. Henry Lyster, invited him to spend some time with them at their place 
 in Shropshire, Rowton Castle, close to the borders of North "Wales. One 
 day, while on this visit, he journeyed to Aberystwith, and there fell into the 
 company of a genial companion, a "Welsh clergyman. The conversation 
 turned upon the Welsh language, ivnd Lord Ashley determined then and 
 there to study it. He took up his quarters in Aberystwith and began at 
 once, and in a short time had sufficiently mastered it to enable him to read 
 with some degree of fluency. Any one who knows anything of the Welsh 
 language, its intricacies and permutations, will know that the task he 
 set himself was no easy one ; but he had determined to learn Welsh, and he 
 learnt it ! 
 
 The Welsh people never forget a compliment paid to them, and they 
 never forgot the fact that young Lord Ashley had studied their language. 
 He was ever afterwards their friend, and when, in 1851, he became President 
 of the Bible Society, he rose still higher in their estimation, for that Society 
 is the object of Welsh adoration. Nor did their regard for him ever decline. 
 Many years later he went on a visit to Carnarvon, where he was received 
 with a wonderful ovation ; deputations from all parts of Wales being sent to 
 welcome him. Frequently in after life he took pleasure in referring' to this 
 early experience. On one occasion, when addressing the Christian Vernacular 
 Education Society for India on the benefits of being able to hold intercourse 
 with the people in their own language, he said : 
 
 If people go among the Irish and the Welsh they will see how inherent the 
 love is of the mother tongue. When I was about twenty -five years of age I went 
 to stay in Wales for about two months. It became known that I was studying 
 the Welsh language, and the people regarded me with positive reverence. They 
 held a great gathering, and invited me to attend, and at that meeting I was, by 
 common consent, promoted to the dignity of a Druid, and then immediately 
 afterwards I was appointed a Bard. And at this present moment I have the 
 great honour of being both a Bard and a Druid. 
 
 Soon after his visit to Wales a project was set oil foot to establish a 
 Cambrian Quarterly, the first number of which was to be published in 
 January, 1829. The sympathy and assistance of Lord Ashley were enlisted 
 in starting the enterprise, and a deputation of Welshmen waited upon him to 
 request that he would write the prospectus for the new magazine. To this he 
 readily assented, and, writing as a Welshman, delighted all the Principality
 
 1827.) THE "QUARTERLY REVIEW." 41 
 
 by his efforts. It was written in haste, and with some bombast, but every 
 line exhibited the enthusiasm of his regard for the people and the land and 
 the language. " Inhabiting a land which came a virgin to the arms of our 
 ancestors, unmixed in our race, uucorrupted in our language, civilised, though 
 not adulterated by foreign intercourse .... we can vie with every nation in 
 examples of honour, courage, and dignified obedience." One of the main 
 objects of the Quarterly was to embalm in its pages the ancient writings in 
 prose and verse of the most learned veterans of the language, and thus " to 
 save our name from oblivion, our antiquities from dust and the worm, our 
 poets from night, our manuscripts from the flames, and our venerable tongue 
 from contempt." 
 
 Oct. 22nd. Aberystwith. Physics and metaphysics are indivisible from each 
 other. They are a body and soul which on this earth must be co-existent and 
 reciprocal. It is absurd, as the Abbe Condilac remarks, to judge them ssparable, 
 because we cannot see the place in which they are united into a whole. We 
 should always recollect that there is but one science the science of nature. 
 
 October 28th, Sunday. There is a text about lawful swearing. Isaiah Lxv. 16- 
 
 November 4th. Patriotism, the cause of so many actions, is but a secondary 
 virtue, though none seem more beautiful when we read of its doings. It could 
 not, therefore, be enjoined directly by the Gospel. It is allowed to the passions 
 and difficulties of our race. 
 
 Engaged in niy treatise on the Evidences of the Heart. How much is opened 
 by the least meditation of the Bible ! 
 
 Sunday. Finished introductory chapter to the Evidences of the Heart. It is 
 all very well by God's help. 
 
 November 1 2th. It seems to me that philosophers of all ages have been led 
 into their fanciful errors about God'a power and proceedings, by having taken for 
 granted that the Almighty had spent His utmost strength and wisdom in the 
 formation of man and the world we inhabit ; else why so limit His methods of 
 acting, and define modes by which He must have been governed 1 All these 
 reasonings are formed from the belief that we see all that He has done, and view 
 the laws as the full effort of His power. Why does Leibnitz otherwise talk such 
 trash as that " God must come into time and space " before He can perform a 
 miracle 1 Has He no means of suspending His laws but by becoming subject to 
 them ? 
 
 December 2nd, Sunday. I have spent some time with the Welsh clergy. 
 They are full of primitive hospitality and kindness. My week at Llaugynyw 
 with Mr. Richards was most profitable and happy. Oh, how accursed is a busy 
 life of politics and passions I Nothing has ever given me more delight and 
 satisfaction than my study of the Welsh language. 
 
 December 7th. St. Giles's. There is a gap here. I left Rowton in a hurry to 
 see Denison* before he departed for India. London all in an uproar about this 
 Navarino business shocking I 
 
 Lord Ashley received the following letter from the Duke of Wellington : 
 
 * Evelyn Denison, afterwards Speaker of the House of Commons, and created Lord 
 Ossinsrton.
 
 4 THfe EARL OP SHAFTESfctJRY. [CUAP. 11. 
 
 The Duke of Wellington to Lord Ashley. 
 
 WOOTTON, December 13iA, 1827. 
 
 MY DEAR LORD ASHLEY, I have observed that since I quitted the Govern- 
 ment in April last I have been the bete noire of Mr. Canning, his friends, the 
 existing Government, and their friends and adherents. At times I am deemed a 
 stupid fool ; and, moreover, everything that is bad. At other times when the 
 gentlemen find themselves in a scrape they discover that they have acted exactly 
 as I advised they should act, and therefore that they must be right ! ! ! This is the 
 case at present. My opinion is that neither Parliament nor the public will be 
 satisfied respecting that unfortunate affair, the Battle of Navarino* (as all now 
 agree that it is), till they will have examined all that preceded it and would 
 have occasioned it. The share which the late Government, and, above all, I, had 
 in these transactions, will then appear ; and till then I will not say a word. But 
 if any gentleman tells you that any private letter from me to Mr. Canning will 
 be produced, you may say that I have copies as well as Mr. Canning's friends ; 
 and that not one alone, but all must be produced if one is. 
 
 Believe me, ever yours most sincerely, 
 
 WELLINGTON. 
 
 December Hth. Late at night. I took leave of Denison. I was deeply af- 
 fected. God knows it is a heavy matter to separate one's self from an old and 
 tried friend, and that for so long a term of years. 
 
 From Lord and Lady Bathurst Lord Ashley had received many acts of 
 kindness which, in his Diary, he gratefully acknowledges. Ho was at homo 
 in their company, and felt sure at all times of their sympathy and considera- 
 tion. In writing to Lady Bathurst he had confided to her some of his hopes, 
 fears, and misgivings with regard to a public career generally, and speaking 
 in Parliament in particular. 
 
 To this letter Lord Bathurst replied as follows : 
 
 Earl Bathurst to Lord Ashley. 
 
 CIRENCESTER, December IWt, 1827. 
 
 MY DEAR LORD ASHLEY, My lady has shown me your letter in which you 
 express your alarm lest, in speaking in the House of Commons, you should 
 disappoint the expectations of the House, and injure the cause of your political 
 friends. Forgive me if I tell you that these apprehensions have been the bane 
 of many young men who would otherwise have distinguished themselves. If 
 nothing will satisfy you but attempting to make a speech of great display, on 
 
 * The Battle of Navarino was fought on the 20th Oct., 1827, between the French, 
 English, and Kussian fleets on the one side, and the Turco-Egyptian fleet on the other. 
 The Turco- Egyptians were signally defeated, and eventually Ibrahim Pasha evacuated 
 the Morea, and the battle decided the independence of Greece. At the time, however, 
 there was a great conflict of opinion with regard to the whole affair, which was the proxi- 
 mate cause of the break up of the Goderich Administration.
 
 18-27.] FACING THE FUTURE. 43 
 
 the first occasion you speak, it is not impossible that you may fail ; but even if 
 you did, that is no reason why you should not go on. Mr. Sheridan, Lord Gren- 
 ville (when Mr. Grenville), and Mr. Canning, failed at first ; but they none of 
 them injured their party by doing so, or gave up trying. Mr. Sheridan used to 
 say, " I am sure. I have it in me, and will not give in-" Mr. Fox used to say of 
 
 Mr. Grenville, " D the fellow, I see he will go on speaking until he will be a 
 
 great speaker ! " It certainly requires stout nerves to go on after a first failure, 
 and there are many (Lord Wellesley for example) who shrink at the idea of not 
 always succeeding, but it may be doubted whether it be not less a proof of 
 diffidence than of a love of distinction, to be thinking more of what others may 
 think of your speech, than of speaking what you think. 
 
 I am speaking of the possibility of your failing, if you attempt to make a 
 speech of display on the first day of your speaking. But if, on some day of no 
 great expectation (not on what is called a field-day), you satisfy yourself with 
 speaking without making, or intending to make, a speech, I am as satisfied as I 
 am that I am now hearing a novel read by my son Charles to his mother, that you 
 will speak well, and will go on improving. 
 
 Again I must beg you to excuse the liberty I am taking in writing this to 
 you ; but I cannot but be interested that one, who I know to have good abilities, 
 and what I value much more, who has sound principles and a high sense of 
 honour, should be building up a wall between himself and that political influence 
 which ought, in the process of time, to belong to him. 
 
 I am, iny dear Lord Ashley, 
 
 BATHUBST. 
 
 December 17th. Attended Parkes' funeral. The old man died very rich, and 
 left me nothing save one hundred as his executor. I never trusted to it, for not- 
 withstanding his hints to myself, and positive declarations to others of making 
 me a monied man, I did not rely upon him, and if I had what a fool I should 
 have looked now 1 Bat fearing that Denison might leave town, I wrote and 
 informed him of my expectations, as authorised by much testimony, and offered 
 him the cash without interest or security. He declined it and was very grateful. 
 Whether I shall ever be well off or not, God alone knows ; but this I pray, that 
 never asking for wealth, should it bo sent me, I may receive at the same time a 
 heart and spirit to lay it out for man's happiness and God's glory. But a serious 
 epoch is approaching, and I must deliberate thereon. First, I must now choose 
 my line of life, and stand to it manfully. After some thought, I see nothing but 
 a political career, for every one must take that in which his various circum- 
 stances will give him the best means of doing good. Where can I be so useful 
 as in the public service ? This question could be easily answered did it require 
 but zeal, patriotism, honesty ; but there is likewise a need of talent and know- 
 ledge. Yet, perhaps, my success in earlier life has made me a debtor, and I am 
 bound to try what God has put into me for the benefit of old England. My 
 second session is fast approaching, and an attempt must be made, now or never. 
 Each year passed over in silence will add to my difficulty, and increase the 
 demand for sense and ability which the House has a right to make from those 
 who address it. I did well in remaining quiet during the past session, but now
 
 44 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. [CiAP. II. 
 
 the Tories want young plants to shoot up and prepare their branches against the 
 day when death shall lop off the more ancient oaks. The country is in danger of 
 its existence. Its honour is already tarnished, and who shall defend her 1 He 
 whom God shall think fit, and, perhaps, I may be he. I have had much encourage- 
 ment from old and young ; but encouragement falls short of courage, and I 
 despair. But there is no just means of escape. I must make an essay, not 
 merely for party's sake and earthly power and place, but for the resuscitation of 
 honour and British principle, with their handmaids, dignity and virtue ; and if 
 I fall, I shall fall in no ignoble cause ; but may I, as I have ever endeavoured to 
 do, begin in God, and, having throughout desired nothing but His glory and the" 
 consummation of His word, conclude in the same, to the advancement of religion 
 and the increase of human happiness. 
 
 January 17th, Hatfield. What endless surmises Who will form the Ad- 
 ministration ? How I nutter here and there in sentiments. I am half anxious 
 for office half not. Half inclined to expect an Under-Secretaryship, and half 
 inclined to think myself too despicable. Private life is better for me. I hear 
 Lord Dudley will remain. Can the Great Duke sit in Cabinet with the man who 
 signed that prodigy of injustice, the Treaty? Must the whole question be 
 smothered ? What shall I do myself if they offer me a place 1 Can I submit ) 
 all insignificant as I am, to such a compromise ? Is it possible now to change our 
 policy ? Will Lord Dudley eat his own words, or must we go on in our wicked- 
 ness 1 Can the Government propose an indemnification now ? and yet ought we 
 not to wash out by apology so infamous a treachery ? I have no one with whom 
 I can consult, and my discomfort is at its height. What is it that passes in my 
 mind ? I cannot read it, so warm are my feelings. 
 
 1828, Jan. 24th. We have been growing quieter of late. Received note from 
 the Duke to-day desiring my attendance to-morrow morning. What can he want ? 
 To give me office then Heaven help me through it. Perhaps to move the Address. 
 Any fate would be preferable. 
 
 Jan. 25th. To put me in office ; how my impetuosity leads me away. A few 
 moments' reflection and I judge rightly. What a deal I learned between 17th 
 and 24th. I regret deeply the necessity of our re-union with the Canning party ; 
 but the Duke has, according to his usual style, done that which is the best. 
 Lord Dudley, I hear, is most repentant about the Navarino business. Can one be 
 too guarded in the expression of one's thoughts 1 At the first moment of sur- 
 prise, while yet in doubt as to the conditions granted to Mr. Canning's party, I 
 vented some indignation against the admitting of Lord Dudley. A few hours 
 convinced me of my error, but it was too late. I had vented it before Agar 
 Ellis, who yesterday threw it in my teeth. This silly, childish ebullition of 
 sentiment may give some one the power of calling me a dishonest man. How 
 unpleasant, but I must steel my heart against such trifles, and learn caution in 
 studying philosophy, not that of the schools, but the philosophy of men, and of 
 a life of passions. God protect me and encourage me in a career of honour and 
 right-mindedness, and may He give me also discretion and calmness to reflect , 
 and now that office can no longer be avoided, I pray the Heavenly Father to give 
 me the will to discharge my duty, and the strength to perform it ; to found all 
 in His glory, and by seeking the welfare of mankind to render my public and 
 my private thoughts a means of furthering the love of his Religion.
 
 1828.] IN OFFICE. 45 
 
 A few days after his interview with the Duke of Wellington, the head 
 of the new administration, Lord Ashley received the following letter -. 
 
 The Duke of Wellington to Lord Ashley. 
 
 LONDON, Jan. 29th, 1828. 
 
 MY DEAR LORD ASHLEY, I told you that I must make use of you for the 
 public service at one or other of the Boards I mentioned. Uncertainties in 
 another quarter prevent me from deciding at this moment at which of the 
 Boards I will employ your services. 
 
 You shall know the instant I can decide. 
 
 In the meantime, unless you should hear from me, and should have accepted 
 what I sliall offer, you may safely go into the House of Commons this day. 
 
 Ever youra most sincerely, 
 
 WELLINGTON. 
 
 The office to which Lord Ashley was appointed was that of a Com- 
 missioner of the India Board of Control, which office he held until Earl 
 Grey assumed the reins of Government, two years later. 
 
 Feb. 6th. Woodstock. All has been 'going well, too well ; my whole con- 
 dition is so bettered that I fear reverse of fortune. First, I must make the 
 needy taste of the wealth that God has showered upon me. I shall send a large 
 sum to Moore.* Last night I dined with Duke of Marlborough. Never did I 
 feel so touched as by the sight of his daughter, Susan his natural daughter. 
 She is Charlotte, our dear Charlotte, over again, in voice, in manner, in com- 
 plexion, in feature, in countenance. I could hardly refrain from calling hei 
 Sitter. Great God, have compassion upon her forlorn state 1 What will 
 become of this poor girl ? What danger is she beset with ? May I have the 
 means of doing her some real lasting service ! Father of mercies, grant Thy 
 protection and keep her from the awful perils which are on every side. 
 
 Feb. 15th. All is well over at Woodstock, and I am installed a man of office. 
 I dread my duty, not my work. So much is now crowding upon me, and my 
 difficulties appear so much greater, that I almost repent of the acceptance of 
 this charge. But God be with me if I am honest. 
 
 From the time of Ids appointment may be dated his interest in the 
 teeming myriads of our Indian fellow-subjects, and in general missionary 
 work. " Do right, whatever may come of it," was the principle which 
 governed all his life, and governed him, therefore, in relation to Indian 
 politics. He insisted at all times, and in the most unmistakable manner, that 
 it was the best policy of the English nation to declare emphatically that 
 its conduct was based upon Christian principles, that everything to be done 
 
 * Itev. Robert Moore, the Rector of St. Gileo's, Dorsetshire, who would distribute 
 the money among the poor of the parish.
 
 46 THE EARL OF SHAFTESCURY. [CHAP. II. 
 
 should be done in a Christian character to a Christian end, and that nothing 
 would be gained by a time-serving forbearance of this principle. 
 
 I recollect perfectly well, when I was at the India Board, in 1828, on the 
 question of Sutteeism (that is, the burning of widows on the death of their 
 husbands) coming- before us, thinking it a matter of the most outrageous 
 cruelty and wrong. On saying so I was put down at once as if I was a 
 madman ; I was wondered at for ever daring to mention such a thing. Well, 
 my Lord William Bentinck was appointed to the command in India. My Lord 
 William Bentinck thereupon, with a stroke of his pen, put the unnatural 
 practice down,* and the whole of India was satisfied that it was right, because 
 his Lordship appealed to those great principles of the human heart, which are 
 implanted by the hand of God, and which may be overcome by abominable 
 incrustations ; but conscience is still there, the mistress of truth, and does its 
 work ; and if you appeal to the conscience, depend upon it the millions will go 
 along with you.t 
 
 That Lord Ashley's impression was a true one, and his theory correct, was 
 proved by the events. As those who really understood the natives had pre- 
 dicted, there was neither riot nor disaffection. No Sepoy shot his colonel, 
 nowhere were magistrates or missionaries mobbed, treasuries plundered, or 
 bungalows fired. The good example long ago set, has been followed by the 
 tributary princes of India, moved by the influence of Residents and Agents, 
 and Suttee is now unknown in any part of the great peninsula. 
 
 Among the many schemes that Lord Ashley projected for the welfare of 
 India during his short term of office on the India Board, was one for the 
 establishment of Scientific Corporations for the institution and improvement 
 of Horticulture and Husbandry throughout the Provinces of India. The 
 draft memorandum to Mr. Lock, setting forth the principles, and demonstrat- 
 ing the utility, of the scheme, was found among Lord Shaftesbury's papers, 
 witk the following endorsement in his own hand: "Feb., 1880. Paper 
 written in 1829. Read it after an interval of fifty-one years. Thankful to 
 find that I had, then, begun to think of such things. Was at that time a 
 Commissioner of the India Board." 
 
 A Society was already in existence in Calcutta, and Lord Ashley's 
 memorandum to Mr. Lock was intended to show the value of that Society, 
 and to point out that, as Bengal was benefited by it, similar Societies should 
 be established in Madras and Bombay. His argument was based on the 
 defective state of agricultural knowledge among the natives of India, the 
 listlessness of the people, and the consequent duty of increasing their know- 
 ledge and stimulating their faculties by inciting and encouraging them to 
 endeavours which, in a free and civilised country, give birth to generous and 
 lucrative enterprise. The establishment of Agriciiltural Societies, the culti- 
 vation of choice vegetables and fancy fruits and flowers, were not unworthy 
 
 * Sutteeism was declared illegal, December 14th, 1829. 
 t Speech at Wiroborne, Oct. 30th, 1857.
 
 1628.) ROMAN CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION. 47 
 
 the care of Asiatic sovereigns. " Take the article, potato," says the memo- 
 randum ; "it will give to Hindostan a second article of food ; it will furnish 
 them with a cheap and agreeable sustenance to relieve the monotonous 
 insipidity of their rice (there is wisdom, I think, in creating a taste for 
 simple luxuries derived from increased labour), and it will become a resource 
 in calamitous times when the season may have proved unfavourable to the 
 staple subsistence of India." 
 
 But in this, as in all things, the moral results were the higher consideration 
 to Lord Ashley. " Among the various good results," he continues, in his 
 memorandum, " from a system like this, I think there will arise a more 
 friendly intercourse between the European and the native ; our kind inten- 
 tions will be perceived, and community of pursuits will soften the rigid 
 characteristics of English demeanour ; they will, perhaps, become more 
 sensible of our benevolent policy, and we more alive to their various 
 capabilities." 
 
 Lord Ashley did not, as we have seen, make his mark immediately on 
 entering Parliament ; in fact, it was nearly two years before he delivered his 
 first important speech. There were several measures under discussion during 
 this interval on which public opinion and party feeling ran high, and in 
 which he showed a considerable interest. The question of all others that 
 had the deepest hold on men's minds at that time was the question of Roman 
 Catholic Emancipation. For many Sessions the subject had been discussed, 
 the country had been agitated, and the fiery vehemence of the various parties 
 had been growing in intensity. 
 
 It was in March, 1827, that a motion was made by Sir Francis Burdett, 
 affirming the necessity for taking into immediate consideration the laws im- 
 posing civil disabilities on his Majesty's Roman Catholic subjects, with a 
 view to their relief ; and within a year of that date it was evident that the 
 settlement of those claims could no longer be delayed. Session after Session 
 the Government majorities on the question were lessoned, and on May 12, 
 1828, the House of Commons carried, by a majority of six, the resolution of 
 Sir Francis Burdett, affirming the expediency of " considering the state of the 
 laws affecting his Majesty's Roman Catholic subjects in Great Britain and 
 Ireland, with a view to such a final and conciliatory adjustment as may be 
 conducive to the peace and strength of the United Kingdom, to the stability 
 of the Protestant Establishment, and to the general satisfaction and concord 
 of all classes of his Majesty's subjects." 
 
 Another year passed, and still this was the unsettled but absorbing ques- 
 tion, when, on the 5th of March, 1829, Peel, in a four hours' speech, moved 
 " That the House do resolve itself into a Committee of the whole House, to 
 consider the laws " by which these disabilities were imposed. This motion 
 was carried, after two nights' debate, by a majority of 348 to 160, and shortly 
 afterwards the Committee of the whole House passed a resolution to the 
 effect that it was expedient to provide for the repeal of the disabling laws. 
 To that end a Bill was forthwith introduced for the purpose, which reached
 
 48 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. tCuAp. II 
 
 its third reading on the 30th March, when it was carried by a majority of 320 
 to 142. 
 
 Lord Ashley took no active part in this question, although he watched it 
 with great interest. 
 
 " I was very young in Parliament, and younger still in office," he said to 
 the writer, when referring to those days. " I only entered Parliament in 
 1826, and the Bill was passed in 1829. At first I voted against it, but when 
 Peel and Wellington took it up, and showed the necessity for it, I saw that 
 resistance was impossible. It was a subject that was always coming up, and 
 was always leading to endless machinations. If a Lor-d Lieutenant favoured 
 the Roman Catholics, a Secretary was put to counteract his influence ; if a 
 Roman Catholic was appointed to one place, a Protestant was appointed to 
 impede him. It stood in the way of everything. So, although I voted against 
 it at first, when Peel and Wellington changed, I changed, and recorded 
 my vote for Emancipation as a member of the Commons and of the Govern- 
 ment. But I thought then, and I have never had reason to alter my opinion, 
 that, good as the measure was, they were not the proper men to carry it. 
 They held office on it, instead of handing it over to those who had been its 
 advocates. They should have said boldly to the Crown : ' It is a measure 
 that must be passed, but it should be passed by those who agree with it. 
 We are not the men to do it.' And I have often thought, in subsequent 
 years, that their action inflicted such a deadly blow on confidence in public 
 men that there has never since been a complete recovery." 
 
 After completing his study of Welsh, Lord Ashley turned his attention to 
 Hebrew. The two languages are alike in many peculiarities of constniction, 
 in the paucity and confusion of tenses, in the conjugation of verbs, and in the 
 binding together in one word of some prepositions and pronouns. 
 
 It was not, however, on this ground that he took up the study. From 
 early childhood he had loved and reverenced the Holy Scriptures, and he was 
 ambitious to be able to read them in the Hebrew ; moreover, he loved and 
 venerated the Jews, and was interested in everything that concerned them, 
 and not least, therefore, in their language. But he was not destined to make 
 great progress in this new study other matters were ripening which were to 
 engage all his time and energy. 
 
 It is interesting to watch him at this period of his life, and to see his 
 mind stretching itself out towards objects which should satisfy him ; to 
 mark the aptitude and capacity of the man, and the pent-up energy which 
 must spend itself at times. No answer had come to the problem as to what 
 he was to do with his life ; he was sailing quietly on the current of the 
 stream, and it had not yet shown any indication of widening towards the 
 ocean. 
 
 It was about this time that there revived in him the desire to devote his 
 life to science. From an early age he had taken pleasure in chemistry and 
 botany, and allied sciences, and had always made scientific inquiries the 
 hobby of his leisure.' It was not, however, until the beginning of the year
 
 1859.1 CALLED TO ANOTHER CAREER. 49 
 
 1829 that he had ever seriously considered whether or not it would be worth 
 while to give himself up wholly to scientific pursuits. He had then become 
 acquainted with Sir James South, the eminent astronomer, whose indefatig- 
 able ardour in the cause of astronomy inspired Lord Ashley to diligence in 
 the same pursuits. For a time he was completely absorbed in this study, 
 spending day after day in close application to books and instruments, and 
 night after night in the observatory with Sir James South. It seemed that 
 at last his object in life had been found. 
 
 But at that same time he was just getting a hold of the Lunacy question ; 
 a little later, the Factory question was taking form ; and by degrees he found 
 that there were duties pressing upon him, which his conscience would not 
 allow him to shake off duties that could only be carried on effectually 
 by complete devotion to them. So it was that his visits to the observatory 
 became only occasional, then still less frequent, until at last they ceased 
 altogether. 
 
 Referring, in his old age, to this period, he said 
 
 In early life I was passionately devoted to science, so much so, that I was 
 almost disposed to pursue science to the exclusion of everything else. It passed 
 away and I betook myself to literature, hoping 1 that I should not only equal, 
 but that I should rival many in mental accomplishments. Other things were 
 before me, and other things passed away, because, do what I would, I was 
 called to another career, and now I find myself at the end of a long life, not a 
 philosopher, not an author, but simply an old man who has endeavoured to do 
 his duty in that state of life to which it has pleased God to call him. 
 
 The first of the " other things " before him was an inquiry into the Treat- 
 ment of Lunatics.
 
 CHAPTER HI. 
 
 18281833. 
 
 THE treatment, or rather the maltreatment of lunatics, was one of the pre- 
 eminently bad features of the bad times in the early part of the present 
 century. In the Middle Ages the insane had been canonised as saints, burnt 
 as heretics, or hanged as criminals, according to the particular bias of their 
 mental disorder. At a later date harmless madmen roamed the country and 
 made sport for the people ; but if only suspected of being dangerous, society, 
 in terror, took the most cruel precautions for its own safety, with an utter 
 disregard for the feelings of the unfortunates, or for their chances of 
 recovery. Londoners out for a holiday paid their twopences to stroll through 
 Bedlam and laugh at the poor lunatics; at another time the town was panic- 
 stricken because the Lord George Gordon rioters threatened to let the madmen 
 out of Bedlam.* 
 
 " In the early part of the present century," says one of the pioneers of 
 enlightened treatment, " lunatics were kept constantly chained to walls in 
 dark cells, and had nothing to lie upon but straw. The keepers visited them, 
 whip in hand, and lashed them into obedience ; they were also half-drowned 
 in ' baths of surprise,' and in some cases semi-strangulation was resorted to. 
 The ' baths of surprise ' were so constructed that the patients in passing over 
 a trap-door fell in ; some patients were chained in wells, and the water made 
 to rise until it reached their chins. One horrible contrivance was a rotatory 
 chair in which patients were made to sit and were revolved at a frightful 
 speed. The chair was in common use. Patients, women as well as men, were 
 flogged at particular periods, chained and fastened to iron bars, and even con- 
 fined in iron cages." f 
 
 Before describing the labours of Lord Ashley during a long series of 
 years on behalf of these poor creatures, it will be well to set forth, very 
 briefly, the state of the law at the time of his first connection with the 
 subject, and the main features of antecedent legislation. Prior to the year 
 1808 the only Act of Parliament providing for the care of pauper lunatics 
 was passed in 1744 ; it authorised any two Justices to apprehend them, and 
 nave them locked up and chained.^ To protect society was the only aim of 
 this Act ; it provided for those who " are so far disordered in their senses 
 that they may be too dangerous to be permitted to go abroad." In 1774, as the 
 result of a Committee of Inquiry upon which Pitt and Fox, Lord North and 
 
 * Letters of Horace Walnole. 
 
 t " Lunacy ; its Past and its Present," by Robert Gardiner Hill, F.S.A., p. 1_ 
 
 1 " HU. of Insane in the British Isles," by D. Hack Tuke, M.D., p. 98,
 
 1826 ] STATE OF LUKATIC ASYLUMS. 51 
 
 Wilkes, and others had sat ten years before, an Act was passed to regulate 
 private asylums, in which frightful abuses were prevalent. But this Act was 
 so framed that it could accomplish nothing. Any one who chose could get a 
 licence to keep an asylum, but though the College of. Physicians could 
 receive reports of abuses, they could do nothing further. In 1808, the 
 accommodation for pauper lunatics received some attention from Parliament, 
 and an Act was passed for the building of County Asylums, but during the 
 ensuing twenty years only nine English counties did thus provide them- 
 selves.* 
 
 Meanwhile circumstances had arisen leading to important changes, both 
 as regards public opinion and legislation. The Society of Friends had 
 started, and successfully carried on, a " Retreat " at York, on humane 
 principles, for insane members of their society.f Attention was drawn to this 
 enlightened experiment, and at the same time to the frightful abuses at a 
 large asylum in the same city.J These two antagonistic examples, thus 
 shown side by side, led to beneficial results. After one or two futile 
 attempts at legislation, the friends of reform procured a Committee of 
 Inquiry, which sat during 1814 and 1815, and placed before the public a vast 
 amount of information as to the course of practice in English madhouses. In 
 the review just referred to, the writer (Sydney Smith) apologises for the 
 disgust he must cause his readers by the horrible details he is compelled to 
 quote. The result of the investigation at York was, that every officer in the 
 place was dismissed, and a flood of light poured in upon the bars and chains 
 and handcuffs, the filth and nakedness and misery that seemed to be regarded 
 throughout the country as matters of course. The Committee reported 
 in July, 1815, and in the following year the Commons passed a Bill for 
 periodical inspections of asylums by magistrates, for the appointment of 
 eight Lunacy Commissioners by the Secretary of State, and for the establish- 
 ment of other safeguards against abuses. || This Bill the Lords saw fit to 
 throw out, only fourteen voting for it. In 1819 an Act was allowed to pass 
 " For the bettor care of Pauper Lunatics," but its best clauses were simply 
 permissive.^ A few scattered efforts were made in subsequent years to bring 
 the state of English madhouses which, through impunity, had again 
 developed many of their worst features under the notice of Parliament. 
 But nothing effectual was done until 1828, the year in which Lord Ashley 
 first took part in the movement, and when the inadequate Act of 1774 was 
 still on the Statute Book as the only English law relating to the regulation of 
 private madhouses. 
 
 The apathy with which our forefathers permitted proved abuses, of so 
 glaring a character, to flourish, is matter now for astonishment and indignation. 
 
 * " Hiit. of Insane in the British Lsles," by D. Hack Tuke, M.D., p. 165. 
 t See "Early Hist, of the Retreat." S. Tuke, 1846. 
 j " Hist, of York Lunatic Asylum." J. Gray. 
 *: Edinburgh Review, vol. xxviii., p. 433. 
 II Hansard, vol. xxxix., 1974. 
 ^[ Tuke'i "Hist, of Inane," p. 163. 
 2
 
 52 THE EAKL OP SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. IIL 
 
 But deeply -rooted evils die hard. The old idea that connected madness 
 with evil spirits, and made the safety of the community the first and almost 
 the only matter of consideration, was long in giving place to sounder 
 views. The unfortunate lunatic was treated as in a hopeless case, and beyond 
 the reach of mental influence. Keepers whose very appellation betrays the 
 prison notion that originated it never dreamt that it was any business of 
 theirs to " minister to a mind diseased," still less to elevate or restore the 
 troubled faculties. Their duty was to keep their charge secure with as little 
 trouble or danger to themselves as possible, and there the responsibility ended. 
 Such a system inevitably caused its wretched victims to sink into loathsome 
 brutality, and permitted ignorant and ferocious keepers " to indulge in almost 
 every species of cruelty, insult, and neglect." * 
 
 From the time of which we have just spoken (1828), men of science and 
 philanthropy, working hard to bring about a better state of tilings, found in 
 Lord Ashley an ardent sympathiser and an earnest co-worker. 
 
 The state of pauper lunatics in London was brought before the House of 
 Commons in June, 1827, by Mr. Robert Gordon, and a report was issued 
 by the Committee of Inquiry that had been appointed, revealing many 
 shocking defects and abuses. On the 19th February, 1828, Mr. Gordon 
 moved for leave to bring in " A Bill to Amend the Law for the Regulation of 
 Lunatic Asylums," and pointed out instances of illegal detention and coercion 
 of sane persons, and of gross neglect and cruelty to unfortunate lunatics. He 
 showed that the Commissioners of the College of Physicians had omitted to 
 carry out inspections as the law directed, on the ground that they had no 
 power to follow up their discoveries. 
 
 Lord Ashley seconded the motion, but Hansard asserts that " his Lordship 
 spoke in so low a tone that he was nearly inaudible in the gallery. He 
 alluded to the evidence given before the Committee to prove that it was 
 highly necessary that something should be done relative to the treatment of 
 pauper lunatics, and he cited several cases that had come within his own 
 knowledge which clearly proved that the existing system was greatly 
 defective." 
 
 This was his first important speech in Parliament, and it was on behalf of 
 the most unfortunate, the most wretched, and the most ill-treated of his 
 fellow-creatures. In it he sounded the key-note of his whole Parliamentary 
 career; he stood forth as the friend of the friend' ass, the helper of the 
 oppressed, and from that day forward his whole life was devoted to the great 
 interests of humanity. 
 
 In his Diary Lord Ashley briefly alludes to his first speech in these 
 terms : 
 
 Feb. 20th. Last night I ventured to speak, and, God be praised, I did not ut- 
 terly disgrace myself, though the exhibition was far from glorious; but the 
 subject was upon Lunatic Asylums, a mere matter of plain business and requiring 
 
 * Report of Parliamentary Committee.
 
 1828.1 FIRST SPEECH IV PARLIAMENT. 53 
 
 simplicity alone with common sense. Gordon had requested me to second his 
 motion ; having sat on the Committee and having felt unusual sympathy for 
 those whom the Bill is intended to protect, I did not decline, more especially as I 
 had heard that from certain circumstances my support in this affair would render 
 some small service to the cause. And so, by God's blessing, my first effort has 
 been for the advancement of human happiness. May I improve hourly I 
 
 Those who knew him best, knew how dependent lie was for a word 
 of encouragement from friends in whose judgment he had confidence ; and 
 Lord Bathurst, who had watched his progress with almost fatherly solicitude, 
 wrote to him as follows : 
 
 Earl BatJiwrst to Lord Ashley. 
 
 MANSFIELD STREET, Feb. 20th, 1828. 
 
 MY DEAR LORD ASHLEY, I am very glad to see that you have begun speak- 
 ing, and not at all sorry that you did not begin with a brilliant one, as that 
 might have sealed up your lips afterwards. By all the accounts I have heard, 
 there ia no doubt of your succeeding, by becoming more confident, which can 
 only be acquired by practice. Peel said that if your speech had been uttered 
 with as loud a voice as that of Lord Morpeth, everybody would have said it was 
 an excellent speech. It is now your own fault if you do not go on. You will 
 feel when next you speak that you are risking nothing, and this very feeling will 
 encourage you to speak with more confidence. 
 
 I could not help writing this, as I know you to be mighty sensitive, and may 
 therefore take it into your head that there had been a failure, which I can assure 
 you is not the case. 
 
 Yours very sincerely, 
 
 BATHURST. 
 
 The Bill, of which the principal features were the transfer of powers from 
 the College of Physicians to fifteen Metropolitan Commissioners appointed 
 by the Home Secretary, and the requirement of two medical certificates for 
 private patients, was passed on July 15, 1828. Of the new commissioners 
 Lord Ashley was one. In the following year he became chairman of the 
 Commission, and continued in that office till his death a period of fifty- 
 seven years his great interest in the welfare of the insane having bwn sus- 
 tained throughout that long period with unflagging energy. 
 
 The condition of the lunatic population still left very much to be desired, 
 and further efforts at improvement were made ; but nothing of striking 
 importance was accomplished for several years. During this period, how- 
 ever, Lord Ashley was not idle. He did not leave a stone unturned which 
 could be of assistance to the contemplated reform ; he visited the asylums in 
 many parts of London and the provinces, and saw the filthy condition, the 
 horrible attendant circumstances, the misery and degradation of the inmates. 
 He saw for himself that the lunatics were chained to their beds and left from 
 Saturday afternoon to Monday without attendance, and with only bread and
 
 54 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. III. 
 
 water within their reach; he saw the nature of the barbarities that were 
 committed upon the helpless sufferers ; he saw that the. violent and the quiet, 
 the clean and the uncleanly, were shut up together in foul and disgusting 
 cells, damp, dark, and unwholesome; but what astonished him more than 
 anything else was, that people knew and cared absolutely nothing about this 
 state of things ; and that it was with the greatest difficulty he could obtain 
 from any outside source an opinion or a fact. So shocked and horrified was 
 he with the revelation of misery and cruelty almost incredible in these days 
 when lunatic asylums are models of cleanliness and of wise and humane 
 treatment that he vowed he would never cease pleading the cause of these 
 poor creatures till either death silenced him, or the laws were amended. And, 
 as we shall see, he kept his vow. 
 
 Meanwhile, another and vaster subject was looming before him : the great 
 question of Factory Legislation. 
 
 But before we can be in a position to see the scope of his labours in that 
 gigantic movement which was to be for ever identified with his name and 
 influence, we must linger awhile over these earlier years, glancing first at a 
 few personal details, principally as narrated in his Diary, and then at the 
 state of the times and the events which immediately preceded his connection 
 with Factory Legislation : 
 
 April 13th. Read to-day " Lord Rochester's Conversion," by Bishop Burnet. 
 Surely it is the most delightful of books. I am determined to edit it alone in 
 an attainable size, should there be no such thing existing already. I am certain 
 that if this narrative were widely disseminated much good would arise from its 
 perusal. God assist me in the undertaking. 
 
 It was an ambition with Lord Ashley to distinguish himself in literature, 
 and his mental accomplishments were such that there is no doubt he would 
 have made his mark as a man of letters. But circumstances again and again 
 opposed him, until, as he said, do what he would, he could not resist the 
 influences which drew him to another career. In the present instance his 
 intention was frustrated in a different way, for, following the entry quoted 
 above as to editing " Lord Rochester's Conversion," there is a note added, 
 " Found that it was already done." 
 
 April 28th. My 27th birthday. Temporal advantages have increased upon 
 me. I hope that others have felt my bettered state. But I look around now 
 from a higher pinnacle and behold what mighty interests are entrusted to my 
 care : India, with her hundred millions, is the compass of my mind's survey, and 
 it is almost possible that some happiness or misery may depend upon my prin- 
 ciple and vigilance. Can God, in His store of worldly exaltations, confer a 
 greater than this sublime guardianship of countless myriads to advance their 
 temporal welfare, open their understandings, fire their souls, and, by leading them 
 prudently to a knowledge of religion, work out our own immortality by desiring 
 theirs? This is absurd, I fear. I am not the Principal, but, like Terentiua
 
 1828.) DO RIOIIT, AND TRUST TO PROVIDENCE. 55 
 
 Varro, let nations thank me because " I have not despaired of the Republic." 
 How one is led away. Visions of glory possess my brain by day and by night ; 
 but prudence, the sole guide of truth and lasting success, is cold and measured in 
 her views. God's will be done. Somehow or other I have gained credit as a man 
 of business. Never was man more friendly, more kind, than the Duke to me. 
 He has given me this situation as the most instructive and important. Next 
 year I must stand forward as the Oracle of India, the strength or weakness of the 
 Government in this division of its energies. I shall wake but in vain unless God 
 give me His aid. I have acquired, I think, some temper, some knowledge of 
 mankind, some true philosophy, and a more enlarged view of things, but cannot 
 withstand despondency. 1 cannot resolve to quit public life ; I may not. Surely 
 there is some vanity at the root of all this. Vanity, that bane of what is really 
 good. Wrote two prayers. Now let me consider awhile my future career. The 
 first principle, God's honour ; the second, man's happiness ; the means, prayer 
 and unremitting diligence ; all petty love of excellence must be put aside, the 
 matter must be studied, the motives refined, and one's best done for the remain- 
 der. No fretting of the mind. No conceited nervousness for fear some sentence 
 should fail in arrangement, some point in fitness, some attempt at display be 
 found presumption. I must not dread coming down to the level of others. If I 
 am already there the descent is nothing, and why be desirous of appearing greater 
 when that illusion can be maintained by silence alone and that silence I must 
 break ? This is the hardest scheme I ever devised, to come forward at once and 
 show myself no cleverer than others ; yet it is the wisest if I could but follow it 
 I must think of my duties and the subject I have to uphold. If I stop to compare 
 myself with others, either vanity overweening will rush in, or else a cruel des- 
 pondency, arising equally from conceit, but differing in its mode of influence. 
 Oh ! what wisdom and power in this saying, " Do what is right, and trust to 
 Providence for the rest." My charities are not sufficiently extended. I must 
 methodise them as soon as my debts shall be arranged and I have time to look 
 around. I will begin afresh. One good thing has been done in getting William 
 a dwelling-place in my house. He attends more to business, is far happier, and 
 will, I now hope, lay up a stock of real fruit for after years. 
 
 May 27th. Change again in the Ministry. It is well to be rid of such dis- 
 honest men. I have spoken several times, at no length certainly, but enough to 
 gain me credit and some confidence. I hope to advance in honour and uspful- 
 m-ss. 
 
 For Bishop Heber, whose brief but brilliant career in India was cut. 
 short in April, 1826, by his sndclon death in his bath, Lord Ashley had 
 a very profound admiration, and there are several references to him in 
 the Diary. Thus : 
 
 June 1st, Sunday. No man ever equalled Bishop Heber. His talents were of 
 the most exquisite character. If he were not as Socrates, able to knock down by 
 force of reasoning the most stubborn opposers, he was like Orpheus, who led even 
 tones and trees by the enchantment of his music. 
 
 June 5th. To Ascot races by command of his Majesty. As I travelled along 
 I remembered the line, " Impe.riwm Oceano, fam-am qui tcrminct astrig" but is 
 our empire bounded by the ocean, is our renown no higher than the stars? Op
 
 56 THE EAEL OP SHAFTESBURY [CHAP III. 
 
 earth we are lords of the sea, and should we as men, as Christians, regenerate 
 India, behold, the Heaven of heavens will be the archive of our fame. Pat rial 
 
 div&m domvi! 
 
 The Lunacy Bill was under discussion in the House of Commons, and 
 the following entry refers to the part he took in the debate : 
 
 June 18th. Windsor. Last night I made my first attempt to maintain a lonjr 
 and important speech. If there bo sensitiveness and timidity in man, doubt and 
 nervousness of heart, it was in me for a long time before the day arrived. I 
 prayed most earnestly, as I ever do, for aid and courage. Though I did not please 
 myself, I found that the House was delighted. Cheers and compliments were 
 abundant. I thanked God repeatedly ; hastened home to throw myself on my 
 knees in gratitude. May I ever enjoy this Holy Assistance ! 
 
 June 29th, Sunday. How I long to quit this hot and noisy town, that I 
 might roam in the valleys and plains meditating on things immortal. A London 
 Sunday neither peaceful nor retired. It is impossible to forget the world amid 
 this heat and bustle. I must devise some plan to rid me of this inconvenience. 
 
 July 25th. This frequent omission to put down my thoughts has become a 
 real loss. I find no history of my mind. I did well to give a hundred pounds 
 to King's College ; the sum, though large for me, is rightly laid out in erecting 
 an embankment against the overflow of irreligion. Gave twenty for the monu- 
 ment to Bishop Heber. This also was well done. Public honours, if deserved, 
 are sublime rewards ; and though I could not by any act of mine add anything 
 to his name when dead, or to his just pride when living, yet it is pleasant and 
 becoming to have displayed one's reverence of lofty worth ; and the mind having 
 yielded to such an impulse, feels the consolation of secret prayer, and rejoices in 
 the virtue of another's virtue. 
 
 Lord Ashley's Christianity was essentially practical, and entered into 
 every relation of life. With the memory of his early days always vividly 
 before him, and their effects exhibiting themselves in his mental and 
 bodily state, there is great beauty in the spirit of forgiveness breathed in 
 part of the following entry : 
 
 July 27th. At Sudbrook, where I have been the two last Sundays. It is 
 remarkable how riches have of late flowed in upon me. I have discharged two- 
 thirds of my debt, and have wherewithal to discharge the other, which shall 
 instantly be done. God be praised for this bounty. I shall extend my charities. 
 
 1 wish I could find some really deserving object. It is pleasant at last to be on 
 good terms with Lord S , and Charlotte is so, too. We forgive him all his un- 
 kindness. Memory is good to show a progress in virtue, not to furnish themes of 
 indignation. I am here with my dear, sweet friend, Lady Francis ;* yet we have 
 had no conversation as in olden time. I love her because I love the existence of 
 such willing virtue. Her faults are errors which when laid open she takes pride 
 in renouncing. It is well to contemplate a female mind rich in pureness and 
 anxious for truth. 
 
 * Lady Francis Egerton, afterwards Countess of Ellesmere
 
 IMS.) STUDIES ASTRONOMY. 57 
 
 August 3rd, Sunday. Another week gone by almost imperceptibly, and little 
 has been done. Am happy to hare had the means of spending 5 in a good 
 cause nothing less than a subscription to a fund which may educate a young 
 girl and save her perhaps from misery and prostitution. Taste and inborn vice 
 will take enough to that career without the number being swollen by the victims 
 of treachery and distress. I shall give any money that may be wanted. 
 
 August 6th. Dined with the Directors of the East India Company, and shall on 
 every occasion. It is good to cultivate friendliness and kind feeling among them. 
 That silly brag, Lord Wallace, whom I have found out from many circumstances 
 to be a blustering talker, would have me treat them like thieves and murderers, 
 " Keep them at a distance." " Do not let it be known that they have access to 
 you." Stuff ; if a man be honest I am proud of his acquaintance. His recom- 
 mendations would lead me to treat them with vulgar insolence. I shall not do 
 BO. India : what can I do for .your countless myriads ? There are two things 
 good government and Christianity. How shall I compass them? I have no 
 influence as yet. If God would tip my tongue with fire I might speak in a voice 
 which would be heard even at the ends of the earth ; but He knows best, and 
 will ever raise up His champions to fight the Battle of Immortality. 
 
 August 17th, Sunday. I cannot pet into any course of religious study. Pon- 
 dering much the necessity and mode of conversion in India. It is hard to "find 
 any documents which throw light on this most important matter. 
 
 August 18th. Is not this prophetic of the Duke? Seneca says that he is 
 happy, "eui non magix aurifulgor quam gladii perttringat oculot?" 
 
 Sept. 24th. Thinking and reading lately a good deal on India. I shall never 
 be able to do that Empire a service, but I shall nevertheless continue my en- 
 deavours. " The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availcth much," but 
 the difficulty is to be " righteous." In solitude very often of late I somehow 
 begin to feel how truly God pronounced, " It is not good for man to be alone " 
 
 The Bill to Amend the Law for the Regulation of Lunatic Asylums 
 had been passed on the 15th July, and Lord Ashley watched its first 
 operations with keen attention. The entry in the Diary continues : 
 
 From eleven o'clock till half -past six engaged in the good but wearisome 
 cause of Lunatic Asylums took Sunday, for it is the day on which the keepers 
 of old sought their own amusements and left the unhappy lunatics to pain and 
 filthiness. Did not wish for such an employment, but duty made it imperative. 
 Walked after dinner to Kensington and studied a little astronomy. Saw the 
 planet Saturn and hie ring ; it is a spectacle worthy of God alone. Man has not 
 beauty of soul sufficient to comprehend such majestic loveliness. I thanked God 
 that I had enjoyed so great a blessing. It came as a reward for obedience to my 
 painful duty. 
 
 There are many passages in the Diary at this period that show clearly 
 how earnest was the desire of Lord Ashley to devote himself exclusively 
 to scientific pursuits. For a month he had been spending all his leisure 
 in the study of astronomy, and it was witli no little regret he came to the 
 conclusion that henceforth he must continue it only as an occasional
 
 58 THE EARL OF 8HAFTESBURY. [CHAP. III. 
 
 recreation. " Every one chooses his career," he wrote, " and it is well if he 
 chooses that which is best suited to his talents. I have taken political 
 life because I have, by God's blessing, many advantages of birth and 
 situation which, although of trifling value if unsupported, are yet very 
 powerful aids if joined to zeal and honesty. It is here, therefore, that I 
 have the chief way of being useful to my generation." 
 
 October 26th, Sunday. Woodford. Came here last night.* There is cer- 
 tainly a great change in the world's mind. All civilised nations are set to 
 extend their knowledge, and the heathen seem less unwilling to receive it. I 
 do not perceive much irreligion ; there may be some, but lukewarmness is more 
 prevalent. 
 
 London, November 13th. On 10th dined at Lord Mayor's feast it was 
 heart-stirring. God be praised, who has made me citizen of this happy and 
 generous empire. Yesterday, at our Lunatic Commission ; there is nothing 
 poetical in this duty ; but every sigh prevented, and every pang subdued, is a 
 song of harmony to the heart. Dined with East India Company at Albion 
 Tavern. I felt happy. CertAlnty I begin to think that I am popular with all 
 classes ; not vulgarly popular, but esteemed. This is by God's blessing. I am 
 astonished at the wide dissimilarity of persons with whom I stand as a favourite. 
 Persons who, if they were themselves brought together, would feel mutual 
 dislike and aversion. The speaker last night said to me the kindest things. 
 All sides of politics, Radicals, Whigs, high Tory, and neutrals, give me praise. 
 Thank God I truckle for none ; I hold a straight course, and Providence blesses 
 me above my deserts. 
 
 The next two pages of the Diary contain remarks on the conduct of 
 Lord Ashley's father and mother. It is clear that Lord Ashley and his 
 brothers and sisters experienced unkindness almost amounting to cruelty 
 when they were young, from both parents, but especially from the mother, 
 and now that they were grown up, although, as we have recently seen, in 
 the spirit of Christian charity they had forgiven the wrong done to them, 
 there was evident aversion and a total absence of all those affectionate 
 and confidential relations which are the great happiness of life, and are 
 most to be looked for between parents and their children. The passage 
 concludes with these words : " The history of our father and mother would 
 be incredible to most men, and perhaps it would do no good if such facts 
 were recorded." 
 
 November 20th. Brighton. Had two or three walks on the cliff had an 
 opportunity of what I love a silent prayer in solitude and contemplation. On 
 my soul I believe that I desire the welfare of mankind! It strikes me that 
 although God has blessed others with gifts and advantages far beyond what I 
 enjoy, yet He has blessed me infinitely more than I deserve, so this consideration 
 is enough. I love the sea. I see the works of the Lord and His wonders in the 
 
 deep. 
 
 * To Mr. Arbuthnot's place.
 
 ll I THE ROMAN WORLD. 69 
 
 December 3rd. Strathfleldsaye. In the house of my friend and patron. God 
 bless him I What will be my future career ? I shall never be fit for a Cabinet, 
 and yet, if I quit the service of politics, where are my means of ntility? 
 Marriage, I have seen, corrects many and various errors in a man's character. 
 I know and feel the vices of my moral constitution, but I dread the chance of a 
 Jezebel, a Cleopatra, or that insupportable compound of folly and worldliness 
 which experience displays every day, but history has not yet recorded. Give me 
 the mother of the Gracchi, exalted by the Gospel ! 
 
 December 6th. The other day I wrote to Lock, Deputy Chairman (of East 
 India Company), touching the appointment of an astronomer for Bombay ; he 
 gave me a most liberal and honest answer. We shall, at last, get a useful 
 observer in that hemisphere, and advance science. It struck me this morning 
 that the astronomer would, of course, have one or two assistants. I shall 
 request him to take one native. This man, by contemplating the purity of 
 Almightiness, will soon learn to despise Brahma and Vishnu. Who knows but 
 what he might become an Orpheus to his compatriots? The idea is good, 
 bravo I Last night I harangued Shelley on various points. It so fell out 
 that I talked of the barbaric irruption into the Roman empire. Two ideas then 
 passed across my mind ; that it was necessary to cleanse and sweep away 
 that structure of corruption and beastliness which had wholly obscured the 
 real purpose and calling of mankind, and was rapidly spreading amongst all 
 other people contiguous to the Roman world. The imperial rule embraced the 
 entire compass of civilised existence, and both governors and governed stank 
 alike in the sight of morality. There remained, then, no polished nation 
 wherewith to dilute, by conquest, the quintessence of Roman profligacy. 
 Rebellion would have been useless, it would merely have transferred the helm 
 from the director to the agent of accursed Filthiness. God, therefore, summoned 
 to his aid the hardy and simple vices of barbarian minds ; they overran Europe, 
 and, during the night of literature, saved, by the grace of Heaven, the seeds 
 of morality. A second reason ; these rude, uncultivated hearts were better 
 qualified to imbibe the pure spirit of Revelation. This is substantiated by the 
 perusal of history. The pride, the licence, the illogicism of pagan belief (pagan 
 as existing in the laboured and attractive ritual of Italy), might to eternity 
 have withstood the Christian faith. The religion of Vandals, of Huns, of all 
 tribes such as these, had nothing to gratify their pride or advance their 
 pleasure*. They were, therefore, indifferent to ite perpetuation. A form of 
 worship was all they wanted, for man will worship. Settled in prosperity, they 
 became improved, and chose the most decent. It is not hard to justify the way* 
 of God towards man. 
 
 December 20th. After long and wearing toil, I completed my minute in the 
 Jury question. It was the effort of good intention and warm interest towards 
 the natives of India. I thanked God in prayer that I had been enabled to 
 conclude it. The execution will depend on His wisdom. I have real and 
 genuine comfort in thinking of the labour I have undergone. On this day 
 Lord Ellenborough, having perused my memorandum, rejected its proposals. 
 I never felt that success was probable. His vanity would not like to take 
 from an inferior the hint of so glorious a consummation. If I err, I err with 
 the greatest names of British India. What an easy question it is to oppose, and 
 how difficult to uphold ! But I have done my best.
 
 60 THE EARL OF 8HAPTESBUBT. [OHAP. III. 
 
 December 2Bth. St. Giles's, Christmas. Thank God that I am able to pass 
 this season at the ancient seat of my forefathers. Though alone and undiverted 
 by social abstractions, I rejoice in the fancy of patriarchal duties, and look 
 forward in the hope of better days. The village smiles, and the people flourish ; 
 but it will soon cease to smile and the people to flourish if the countenance of 
 the earthly lords be utterly withheld. What a purity of delight if God would 
 bestow on me the wife of my heart, and a place for the exercise of imagined 
 virtues I 
 
 January 18th, 1829, Sunday. London. I cannot account for the peculiar 
 vivacity of my heart to-day. There is no reason why I should be thus lively. I 
 shall repay it by a corresponding dejection. However, joy is pleasant when- 
 ever it comes. Began yesterday to read the Septuagint must some day learn 
 Hebrew. 
 
 February 5th. Parliament begins to-day, and with it comes the beginning 
 of sorrows. This evening I must speak. The Duke, to my great joy, has 
 resolved upon considering the expediency of removing all .Catholic disabilities, 
 and substituting in their stead other defences for Church and State. I have long 
 and deeply desired this policy. Who but he would have dared to conceive and 
 execute it persuade the king and overcome popular abhorrence? Peel has 
 resolved to aid him ; this is public virtue. I offered to say a few words expres- 
 sive of my hearty concurrence. Peel was delighted. I did not know that my 
 opinion was of such value ; and now, God, without whom there falleth not a 
 sparrow to the ground, neither can there pass from the mouth one word of 
 wisdom, give me Thy aid, save me from failure and disgrace. Half-past ten. I 
 have spoken ; I am but just saved from disgrace. I love the Duke, and will 
 serve the Government, and the best way of serving him is to say that my office 
 shall be resigned whenever he shall have found another man more able to aid 
 him in this and other departments. 
 
 February 7th. Arbuthnot would not take my offer to the Duke how odd I 
 Went on a visitation of madhouses. I can do good that way if in no other. 
 
 February llth. God is all-wise and all-good, and I am sure that He has made 
 me inferior to others for some kind purpose. I am, however, unpleasantly 
 situated ; in honour I must go on, yet only to exposure. I pray night and morn- 
 ing for His grace and assistance. 
 
 February 25th. The measures now in progress touching relief to the Papista 
 may have, by reflex, as it were, great influence on the question of Reform in 
 Parliament. If the Jesuits, who are both rich and enterprising, aided by the 
 Catholic gentry and noblesse, should possess themselves of many close boroughs, 
 and with the additional assistance of disaffected Whigs and atheistical malcon- 
 tents, command several votes in the Lower House, there would be an outcry for a 
 more extended interposition of a Protestant people, as an antidote to Papistical 
 ambition. Nevertheless the measure, although pregnant with danger, is one of 
 high expediency. I rejoice. 
 
 February 28th. The good laws enacted under Charles II. and his fierce 
 despotism immediately following them, the existence of the ancient laws and 
 institutions of Rome, and the servile obedience of the people to imperial govern- 
 ment, are a proof how ineffectual are all safeguards of liberty and high principle, 
 except the spirit of a nation. 
 
 March 24th. My feast hist night went off very well, though disappointed of
 
 1MM WITH THB KIKO. 81 
 
 an invited priest. Look told me that the despatch I so eagerly desire is ready. 
 God be praised. I ain just come from a party, where, as usual, I found myself 
 more ignorant and imbecile than any of the rest. What in Heaven's name has 
 befallen me ? I see that geology has become a favourite weapon to wield against 
 Revelation, by attacking the Mosaic history of the Deluge. At best it savours 
 of presumption. 
 
 It is curious to notice, in the entries in these early Journals, the same 
 processes of thought and the same plans of aciion which characterised the 
 whole life of the man. In the extracts we have given will be seen the germs 
 of many of the great enterprises that were to make his after-life so remark- 
 able, and to stamp him as the greatest philanthropist of his ago. The dis- 
 tribution of his money to rescue the tempted girl, the tribute to the memory 
 of Heber, the aid to King's College in rearing an embankment against 
 irreligion, the quiet observance of the Sabbath, the desire to give freer 
 circulation to religious literature, apprehensions of the spread of Popery, 
 the fear of geology as a weapon against Revelation all these and many 
 more show the beut of his thoughts and feelings, and foreshadow his future 
 labours. 
 
 March 27th. Last night I prevailed upon Aitch to promise me the despatch I 
 require. God Almighty be Thou praised ! We have at hist established a new 
 order of things for British India, and have dared to sow the seeds of freedom, of 
 virtue, and of Christianity. Am I too sanguine 1 But let me hope. 
 
 April 26th, Sunday. Last night dined at H.E.H. of Kent's. This morning 
 read all the Revelation continuously. This, or these readings of this kind, will 
 make the general scope more easy of comprehension. 
 
 April 28th. Yesterday I heard (at Hatfield) that I was considered A SAINT. 
 I do not regard it ; with all my faults, I fear that I shall never have the fault of 
 being too good. 
 
 April 30th. If any one were to read my book here, that person must inevit- 
 ably regard me as the quintessence of querulousness ; however, I keep it all to 
 myself. 
 
 June 1st, Monday. Last night I dined with South.* I really cannot but feel 
 grateful for his unceasing kindness and hospitality. I was soothed and elevated 
 by contemplation of the heavens, and acknowledged inwardly how unworthy all 
 matters on earth are of our anxious and heartrending consideration. But these 
 sublimities endure but for awhile, and we return to the sorrows and business of 
 mortality. 
 
 June 8th. In all enthusiasm there is an intermixture of vanity. 
 
 June 22nd. I have passed a moat happy time at the Lodge. Such a round of 
 laughing and pleasure I never enjoyed ; if there be a hospitable gentleman on 
 earth it is his Majesty. f I was so jovial that I almost forgot myself, but now I 
 say with Job, " it may fa that I have sinned and cursed God in my heart," but I 
 trust not I was harmless in my mirth. 
 
 * sir James South, the astronomer. He had an observatory at Campden HQL 
 t George the Fourth.
 
 62 THE EARL OF 8HAFTESBURT. [CHAP. III. 
 
 July 2nd. Again at the Royal Lodge. I like it. His Majesty is most hospit- 
 able and gracious ; his whole demeanour is that of a perfect gentleman. Would 
 to God he were always and innately so. No one has greater characteristics of 
 British Royalty when he chooses to display them. By principle I am a lover of 
 a constitutional monarchy. Lately reading " Southey's Colloquies ; " they are 
 replete with learning and thought. I wish I had time and method to become an 
 extensive reader. But I dp believe that if the mind be indelibly stamped with 
 the precepts and wisdom of the Bible, it will acquire a force of analysis and 
 judgment to extract from the labour of a day more than the scorner or neglect- 
 ful could attain by the watchings of a century. I have had my solitary walk, 
 and a short period of holy meditation. I prayed with all the fervour I could 
 command, but all prayer is infinitely cold to express what is felt, or rather what 
 one wishes to feel. 
 
 Throughout the Diary, at this time, there are frequent passages to show 
 that Lord Ashley, busy as he was, and happy as he was in his political 
 associations, was still restless and ill at ease. His heart was yearning for 
 a resting-place in wedded love, in a settled home, and in the joys of domestic 
 life. His soul was seeking for more definite and systematic labour in 
 distinctly religious spheres. His inind was craving for some absorbing 
 interest which should wean him from his " desperate fits of lounging." 
 Again and again he indulges in morbid self-analysis grieved that everybody 
 should be able, as he supposes, to do everything better than himself ; dread- 
 ing the chance of failure and consequent disgrace ; and constantly passing, 
 as he says, " from the wildest of spirits to cruel and overwhelming despon- 
 dency." There is, moreover, a certain unhealthiuess of sentiment in his tone, 
 quite foreign to his earlier views, and unrelated altogether to his later, as 
 for example when he says, " Surely there must arise happiness of soul, when 
 Time shall be no longer, either to annoy many by its duration, or some by the 
 rapidity of its flight." Again : " We should pray for the end of the world. 
 If it come soon, how much wretchedness would be spared." 
 
 But the time was rapidly drawing near when, in a new sphere of life, 
 with new hopes and plans and purposes, much of this restlessness and de- 
 spondency was to be dispelled, and meanwhile, his happiest moments were 
 those when he was most engrossed in labour for others. 
 
 July 20th, Monday. I held forth last night upon Astronomy a little ; it was 
 to persons who had not considered its glories ; I hope that the few remarks 
 I made will lead them to reflect more deeply on the immensity of power and 
 goodness in the Creator I 
 
 July 21st. I have taken up the Salt Monopoly of India ; this matter has 
 always interested me as one affecting most nearly the comforts of several 
 millions. May I, by the assistance of God, be able to do something for their 
 benefit herein. 
 
 July 22nd. Last night I spent at South's, in observation of the heavens. I 
 was enraptured. I may be a wicked man, and one regarded by God as " deceitful 
 upon the weight*," but still there is within me a spirit of love and adoration
 
 1SSG.] ROBERT 80UTHET. 63 
 
 which bursts forth at the eight of any of nature's glories. My soul is so filled 
 that it cannot find vent but in aspirations towards a higher being. Unless the 
 mind be turned to contemplate some vast, indivisible, everlasting, omnipotent 
 Superior, it wanders restless, unsatisfied, and ignorant, through the immensity 
 of imagination, and, having begun in conceit, ends in satiety or despair. But 
 as for myself, my heart is so touched when I view the sweet magnificence of the 
 Creator, that I could fall to weeping in tear* of gratitude and joy. Oh, Great 
 Parent, keep me ever in this frame of thought and feeling I I fear the advance 
 of age with its coldness, its abstractions, its worldly pursuits, its hard and worldly 
 common sense. 
 
 July 26th, Sunday. I wrote yesterday to Arbuthnot and declared my final 
 resolution not to sign that insulting despatch for transmission to Lord William 
 Bcntinck.* It may end in my dismissal from office, but I shall have acted in 
 alliance with a good conscience. Oh I how difficult it must be for a needy man to 
 be honest and independent ! Suppose now I were the father of a dozen children, 
 could I bring ^my mind to resolve thus greatly ? I know not ; I shall draw, 
 however, this conclusion to be sparing of animadversion on those whose needs 
 may cause a tenacity of office or other source of decent maintenance. 
 
 It was while .Lord Ashley was a Commissioner of the India Board of 
 Control that the first bit of " patronage " ever fell to his disposal. What use 
 he made of it is best told in the following correspondence : 
 
 Lord Ashley to Mr. Robert SoutJii'ij. 
 
 PANSHANGEH, Se-jrtember 12th, 1830. 
 
 MY DEAR SIB, I hope and believe that usage will justify me in the liberty I 
 have now taken of addressing you without the preliminaries of a formal intro- 
 duction. A man widely famed as yourself, by his publications, so abundant in 
 jihilosophy and instruction, is virtually presented to every one of his readers. I, 
 at least, cannot refrain from adapting my reasoning to my wishes, in this parti- 
 cular matter. 
 
 My business is shortly this. I have derived the greatest benefit from the 
 study of your works, and I think that the world also is largely indebted to your 
 genius and industry. I am anxious to testify, in any way that I can, my respect 
 and gratitude, and I see but one means of effecting my purpose. 
 
 My office has, I dare to believe, given me some weight and personal interest 
 with the Directors of the East India Company ; the Writerships of that Service 
 lead eventually to important trusts and lucrative emoluments ; if you have any 
 son or nephew whom you wish to advance in an honourable and advantageous 
 career, I shall be both proud and happy to obtain for him such a situation. I am 
 fully convinced that a young man imbued with your principles, and instructed 
 by your learning, will prove a public servant such as we need to superintend the 
 immediate comforts, and gradually to promote the civilisation of India. The 
 acceptance of my offer will not in the least place you under any obligation to me ; 
 
 Then Governor-General of India.
 
 64 THE EARL OP SHAFTB8BURY. [Cn*p. IIL 
 
 it is due to a man who has done so much by his writings to extend the knowledge 
 of true philosophy, and impress upon the world the consolation and practice of 
 Religion. 
 
 I remain, my dear Sir, your very obedient, humble servant, 
 
 ASHLET. 
 
 To this generous letter, in which the claims of India were considered, 
 no less than those of personal gratitude and esteem, Southey replied as 
 follows : 
 
 Robert Southey to Lord Ashley. 
 
 KESWICK, September 18th, 1830. 
 
 I know not, my Lord, how to express my sense of your kindness. Nothing 
 more utterly unexpected, or more gratifying, has ever occurred to me. 
 
 A like offer was made to me in the year 1816 by Lord Bathurst, to whom, 
 also, I am personally unknown. It was proposed through Mr. Grower, and upon 
 the supposition that I had a son for whom it might have been acceptable ; but 
 I had just before seen that son laid in the grave, and my dearest earthly hopes, 
 as I then thought, with him. There then appeared no likelihood that I should 
 ever have another child, but, after three years, it pleased God to give me a 
 second son, who is now just beyond the age at which his brother was removed. 
 My hope is that, if his life be spared, he may become a Minister in the Church of 
 England, which I believe to be the happiest station in which he could be 
 placed ; and with this hope I am educating him myself. 
 
 But I have a nephew, now eleven years old, for whom I should most thank- 
 fully and gratefully accept your Lordship's proffered kindness. This I could 
 not say till I had communicated with his father, Dr. Southey. He is a 
 promising boy, and has been well educated, thus far, in the usual course. 
 
 I have the honour to remain, my Lord, with sincere respect and gratitude, 
 
 Your Lordship's obliged and obedient servant, 
 
 ROBERT SOUTHEY. 
 
 That was the beginning of a friendship, maintained chiefly through 
 correspondence, which continued until the long illness that terminated in 
 Sonthey's death. 
 
 On the dissolution of Parliament, in 1830, Lord Ashley was elected to 
 represent Dorchester, for which borough his father had previously sat for 
 many years, the place having been represented by his ancestors from the 
 reign of Queen Elizabeth. The accession to power of Earl Grey relieved Lord 
 Ashley from his official duties. He devoted the leisure thus obtained to the 
 prosecution of his studies, and in 1832 ho took his M.A. degree at Oxford. 
 
 Important as were the events in the times of which wo have written, ono 
 event has now to be recorded of infinitely greater importance, relating to 
 Lord Ashley's private life. " If I could find the creature I have invented," 
 he wrote, while at Aberystwith, " I should love her with a tenderness and 
 truth unprecedented in the history of wedlock. I pray for her abundantly,
 
 I '".".I 
 
 MAKRTAGR. 6,1 
 
 God grant me this purest of blessings ! " That prayer had beon answered ; 
 his ideal had been found ; and on the 10th of June, 1830, he was married to 
 Emily, daughter of the fifth Earl Cowper he who at the beginning of the 
 present century erected the mansion at Panshangcr, in Hertfordshire. For 
 forty years she shared her husband's struggles, inspired his greater efforts, 
 and was, as he himself has described her, " a. wife as good, as true, and as 
 deeply beloved, as God ever gave to man." 
 
 One of the first to whom he communicated the intelligence of his 
 approaching marriage was the Duke of Wellington, who replied as 
 follows : 
 
 The Duke of Wellington to Lord Ashley. 
 
 LONDON, April 12th, 1830. 
 
 MY DEAB LOBD ASHLEY, I have received your letter, and I sincerely con- 
 gratulate y<Ju upon your expected marriage, and upon the hopes of happiness 
 which it affords. 
 
 I shall say nothing upon it to anybody. But I saw it announced in two or 
 three newspapers yesterday, as copied from another (the Court Journal), which, 
 although it has so fine a title, is, I believe, but a blackguard performance. 
 
 As you have desired me not to mention this circumstance, I will not write 
 even to Lady Cowper till I shall have your permission. But if she should know 
 that you have told me, I beg you to let her know the reason for which I do not 
 write to her immediately, and assure her that there is no person who rejoices 
 more sincerely than I do upon an event in which she must feel so much 
 interested. 
 
 I beg yon likewise to lay me at the feet of Lady Emily, and assure her that 
 she has no friend more sincerely anxious for her happiness than I am. 
 
 Believe me, ever yours most sincerely, 
 
 WELLINGTON. 
 
 Referring to this period of Lord Ashley's life, Lord Granville, who from 
 boyhood had known him, says : " He was then a singularly good-looking 
 man, with alwolutely nothing of effeminate beauty. He had those manly good 
 looks and that striking presence which, I believe thongh, of course, inferior 
 by hundreds of degrees to the graces of mind and of character help a man 
 more than we sometimes think, and they helped him when he endeavour, il to 
 inspire his humble fellow-countrymen with his noble and elevated nature. 
 Those good looks he retained to tin- end of his life. At the time I am speak- 
 ing of he was seeking to marry that bright and beautiful woman who after- 
 wards threw so much sunshine on his home. I riMiimiher, as if it were 
 yesterday, how a schoolfellow of mine, not knowing that ho was to lw the 
 future brother-in-law of Lord Shaftesbnry, told me several anecdotes of the 
 singular characteristic <>norgy, earnestness, and tenderness which Lord 
 Shaftosbury exhibited iu all the actions of his life." * 
 
 ' Earl Granville's ipeech at the Mansion House Memorial Meeting, October 16, 1885. 
 
 r
 
 06 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. III. 
 
 The rejection of the Reform Bill brought about another dissolution of 
 Parliament in 1831, and Lord Ashley was then chosen, on account of his 
 personal popularity and the local influence of his family, to contest the 
 County of Dorset in the Anti-Reform interest. He stood a fifteen days' con- 
 test for the representation against the Hon. William Francis Spencer 
 Ponsonby (afterwards Lord de Mauley), whom he ultimately defeated, after 
 an opposition of unexampled vigour, and almost unexampled duration. 
 
 An entry occurs in his Diary relating to this period the last entry that 
 was to be made for the space of three years. 
 
 1831. No man, I am sure, ever enjoyed more happiness in his married life. 
 God be everlastingly praised. 
 
 April 28th. Dorchester. Another birthday in the midst of an election and 
 a falling country. Were I not married to a woman whosa happiness, even for 
 an hour, I prefer to whole years of my own, I could wish to be away from the 
 scene of destruction and carried to an unearthly place, rather than see my 
 country crumble before my eyes. Whatever be the result of this General 
 Election relative to the Bill, the Ministers have succeeded in rendering some 
 reform inevitable. 
 
 It was at the urgent request of the Anti-Reform party that Lord Ashley 
 had consented to stand for Dorsetshire, and on the distinct understanding 
 that the expenses of the election which at that period were enormous 
 would be borne by them, as hejkad, from the first, frankly declared his inability 
 to defray them himself. By a aeries of misunderstandings, consequent upon 
 not having guarantees properly secured, the fund that had been raised was 
 altogether inadequate ; the burden of payment fell upon Lord Ashley, and he 
 became involved in harassing and distressing difficulties. 
 
 Read in the light of the Corrupt Practices Act of 1885, the following 
 memorandum of the expenses incurred in the election of Lord Ashley for 
 Dorset will point its own moral : 
 
 DOBCHESTEB. 
 
 King's Arms. 
 
 s. d. I s. '1. 
 
 House or Tavern Bill 1,9381511 
 
 Paid for Beds out of the House 38719 
 
 Hay and Corn 95 5 7 
 
 Coach Proprietors for Fares in Coaches 56 12 6 
 
 Post Horses 636 4 
 
 Hire of Carriages 95 
 
 Paid for a Horse Killed 20 
 
 Contingencies 26 12 6 
 
 3.256 9 6 
 Received 17 12 6 
 
 3.238 17 
 
 N.B. In the above the Hostler, Waiter. Chambermaid, and Porter, 
 are not inclulcd.
 
 1831.J ELECTION EXPENSES. 67 
 
 8. <L 
 
 Brought forward .., ... 3,238 17 
 
 Anchor 362 2 7 
 
 Chequers 512 8 4 
 
 Green Dragon 705 7 3 
 
 Greyhound 318 19 2 
 
 Mariners 840 19 1 
 
 New Crown 346 3 6 
 
 Old Crown 4321410 
 
 Phoenix 1,319 2 6 
 
 Plume of Feathers 832 811 
 
 Queen's Arms 140 1 
 
 Red Lion 56711 8 
 
 Ship 212 16 8 
 
 Wood and Stone 646 5 2 
 
 10,475 16 9 
 
 Public ffffHtet. 
 
 Dorchester 10,475 16 9 
 
 Weymouth 372 4 
 
 Portland 1,203 8 7 
 
 Maiden Newton. White Hart 21811 10 
 
 Winfrith. Red Lion ... 5119 2 
 
 Corfe Castle. Ship Inn 2411 6 
 
 Milborne St. Andrew's. Cardinal's Cap 177 510 
 
 Gillingham. Red Lion 203 
 
 12,525 17 11 
 
 Expenses of Freeholders for Carriages and Travelling 
 Charges to and from London and other places, paid s. d. 
 at Dorchester 361 10 6 
 
 Various payments to Messengers and persons attending 
 the Election 134 9 6 
 
 Other payments connected with the Election . , 268 1 2 
 
 7r,l 1 2 
 
 Other Bills delivered and not paid 2,310 6 6 
 
 3,074 7 8 
 Inns and Public-house Bills already received as above 12,525 17 11 
 
 15,600 5 7 
 
 After all the trouble, fatigue, ami appalling expense of tlio diTti-m. Mr. 
 Ponsonby declared his intention to present a petition against the return of life) 
 opponent. Lord Ashley at once announced the attitude he proposed to take 
 in t lie matter in the following letter : 
 
 Lord Aildcy to the Duke of Wellington. 
 
 PANSH ANGER, November 30//i, 1831. 
 
 Mr DEAR DUKE, I understand that it is the intention of Mr. Ponsonby to 
 present a petition against my return. His case I know to be an uncommonly 
 2
 
 68 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. III. 
 
 bad one ; but as he brings it forward at the cost of other persons, he has no 
 objection to spend money for my annoyance. 
 
 I think it my duty to inform you, not only as the head of the party to which 
 I belong, but also as having taken so great interest in the struggle for Dorset- 
 shire, that if Mr. Ponsonby should present the petition, I do not intend to 
 resist it, however feeble, nay, despicable, may be his claim, as indeed my 
 Counsel assert it to be. 
 
 My Election expenses are still unpaid ; indeed, even the amount nominally 
 subscribed has not as yet been placed in the Banker's hands. I have before me, 
 in consequence, the prospect of debts and incumbrances which no economy Or 
 exertions on my part will enable me to discharge. Under such circumstances it 
 would be dishonourable in me to incur any further expenses. 
 
 I am, my dear Duke, with great respect, yours very truly. 
 
 ASHLEY. 
 To this letter the Duke replied bluntly, as follows : 
 
 The Duke of Wellington to Lord Ashley. 
 
 LONDON, December 1st, 1831. 
 
 MY m: A u LORD ASHLEY, When you address m as a person greatly inte- 
 rested in your honour and success, and as one who felt a most anxious interest 
 for your success in Dorsetshire, I answer you. But when you address me as the 
 head of a party, I disclaim the title. I am the slave of the party. Whenever 
 any man wants anything, particularly anything to be said or done by one to 
 another which will be disagreeable to him, he comes to me to apply for my 
 assistance ; but if I presume to give my opinion upon any matter of general or 
 local interest, it is quite certain that each individual will take his own course. 
 I think it best, therefore, that I should take mine ; and I protest against being 
 supposed to be the head of any party, or responsible for anybody's acts excepting 
 my own. 
 
 I am very sorry that you should find yourself under the necessity of retiring 
 in case Mr. Ponsonby should petition. 1 did everything in my power to support 
 you. I did more even than I promised. 
 
 Believe me, ever yours most sincerely, 
 
 WELLINGTON. 
 
 A correspondence of some warmth ensued after this, which it is not neces- 
 sary to insert here. Lord Ashley had entertained the hope that when the 
 Duke saw the embarrassments in which the long protracted contest had left 
 him, he, in common with others of the party, would have taken some steps to 
 relieve him. But the Duke declined to interfere in the matter, and Lord 
 Ashley was left to his debts, and to his own devices to extricate himself from 
 them. 
 
 His first step was to announce to his friends, committees, and agents, Ids 
 eourse of action. It was done in these terms :
 
 1831.) EKNK.ST, DUKE OF CUUBKHLAND. 69 
 
 LONDON, December 20th, 1831. 
 
 Lest there should be any misunderstanding', I am desirous of stating, in a 
 very few words, my present but final determination. 
 
 If the party think the seat for Dorsetshire worth defending, they are at 
 perfect liberty to undertake the defence. I cannot give any attention to that 
 concern, until I shall be entirely relieved from all existing incumbrances. . 
 
 My whole endeavours will be directed towards the discharge of the election 
 debts ; this is the only course by which I can stand justified before the world, 
 the creditors, and my own conscience. I shall not thwart or limit in any way 
 the operations of the party, if they wish to resist Mr. Ponsonby's petition ; but 
 I myself will not expend one farthing thereon, nor (whatever the party may do 
 in their own name) can I permit that any charge, even the smallest, should 
 henceforward be incurred in mine. 
 
 The matter is in their hands to do exactly as they please. 
 
 ASH LET. 
 
 The unpleasant position in which Lord Ashley found himself placed, 
 brought him much sympathy and some help. Among those who expressed 
 themselves warmly on the subject was the Duke of Cumberland (afterwards 
 King of Hanover), to whom Lord Ashley wrote. 
 
 Lord Athley to ff.R.II. the Duke of Cumberland. 
 
 PANSHANGEB, December 26th, 1831. 
 
 SIB, I have taken the liberty of addressing a few lines to your Royal High- 
 ness, to thank you for the kind feeling you expressed on my behalf. 
 
 I am greatly honoured by your Royal Highness' friendship, and I can 
 sincerely assure you that, in this general desertion of my friendd, it is doubly 
 gratifying to me. 
 
 I am, Sir, 
 
 Your Royal Highness* 
 
 Most obedient, humble servant, 
 
 ABHLBY. 
 The Duke replied as follows : 
 
 H.R.H. th* Duke of Cumberland to Lord Athley. 
 
 T, December 30th, 1831. 
 
 DEAR SIB, Excuse my not having acknowledged sooner the receipt of your 
 letter, but I have been prevented doing it until now. I feel most happy if, by 
 my humble means, I have had it in -my power to be of any use to yon on a late 
 occasion. All I can and shall say is, that though I know I have many faults, 
 at least that of infidelity to my political principles never can, or shall, be 
 charged to me, and I must say that I look on your business as one in which the 
 honour and character of us Tories ia most entirely concerned, and that as you
 
 70 TIIK EAUL OP SIIAFTESBUUY. [CHAP. III. 
 
 did not enter upon the contest from any particular desire of your own, nay, I 
 may add rather against your own wishes, but at the express desire of the party, 
 they are bound to do their utmost to help you. Wishing 1 you every possible 
 success, believe me, 
 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 Yours very sincerely, 
 
 
 ERNEST. 
 
 The action of Mr. Ponsonby was stoutly resisted by the party, and the 
 result was a complete triumph for Lord Ashley. 
 
 As a matter of course, he voted against the Reform Bill, but he took no very 
 active part in the stirring controversies in relation to it, nor does he appear to 
 have spoken on the question in the House. He had pledged himself to stand 
 to " those great principles which inspirit and regulate our glorious Constitu- 
 tion in Church and State," and to "firmly, yet temperately, endeavour to 
 maintain the institutions of the country, and to prevent the collision of 
 interests apparently hostile, though in fact the same." Half a century later 
 on the 50th anniversary of the passing of the Bill a list of the survivors 
 of the Reform Parliament was given in the public press, and the question was 
 asked whether any of them would hold to the opinion then expressed that the 
 " sun of England had set for ever." Lord Shaftesbury replied 
 
 I am one of the survivors, but I do not recollect that I ever expressed that 
 opinion, nor was it the opinion of the great Statesmen who at that time resisted 
 the measure. They maintained that it would lead eventually to large and organic 
 changes ; that it would overthrow the Established Church, and destroy the 
 independence of the House of Lords, if not altogether annihilate its existence. 
 
 They never contemplated those issues as immediate ; they generally believed 
 that about thirty years would elapse before the full and permanent effects were 
 seen. In this they were right. The Household Suffrage Act of 1867, followed 
 by the introduction of the Ballot, gave the final stamp to the future character of 
 legislation. One enactment yet remains, the enactment of household suffrage for 
 the counties. This measure will affect the tenure and transmission of property 
 in every form, as the other measures have affected the principle and action of 
 political institutions.* 
 
 During the years 1831 32 Lord Ashley was in constant correspondence 
 with Southey, and, although many of the letters related chiefly to questions of 
 the day, the views expressed by Southey were stimulating to his friend. " For 
 myself," said Southey, " I take a hopeful view of tilings, not merely because 
 of that constitutional choerf ulness which never forsakes me by my own fire- 
 side, but because all things seem at this time to be working through evil to 
 good." This was an exactly opposite view to that entertained by Lord Ashley, 
 and the influence brought to bear upon him was beneficial. 
 
 Timet, June 6th, 1882.
 
 1BI] FRIENDSHIP WITH SOUTIIEY. 71 
 
 Many of Sontliey's letters relate to books and their authors, Lord Ashley's 
 literary taste and judgment being held in very high esteem by Southey. 
 Thus, on November 7th, Sonthey writes : 
 
 Lord Clarendon's " History " ought to be read in the Universities as carefully 
 as Thucydides. I have long considered it a great defect in our system of educa- 
 tion that some such means of training up men (politically speaking) in the way 
 they should go, and thus ariniqg them against the errors of the times, should be 
 so utterly neglected. 
 
 South's "Sermons" ought to follow Clarendon in a course of historical 
 reading. They constantly refer to the causes and consequences of the Rebellion 
 as connected with Puritanism ; and as no man ever possessed a cleverer head, no 
 man ever expressed sterling sense in a more vigorous style. Indeed, I look upon his 
 style as the perfection of English prose. His wit I can always admire ; and his 
 bitterness I can pardon, because it is never misapplied ; but there are one or two 
 passages of so dark a Calvinistic dye in his works that they make me shudder. 
 Of all our old divines, Jackson is the one who has most enlarged my views ; the 
 perusal of his works always elevates me, and leaves an abiding contentment. 
 Now and then a passage occurs which I wonder at meeting there, and wish it had 
 not been written ; but on the whole I know of no writer in whose words there is 
 so little alloy, in proportion to their extent. There are some remarkable instances 
 in this excellent man's writings of that foresight which is produced by a religious 
 consideration of the course of human affairs. 
 
 In only one of his letters does Sonthey refer to himself as the Poet- 
 laureate. It was when sending a selection from his poems, containing his 
 lyric pieces written in the days of Queen Caroline, and of the revolutionary 
 movements at Manchester. He says 
 
 I send them because of their present applicability ; and because they will 
 show you in what manner I am disposed to perform the duties of Poet-laureate. 
 
 Southey was justly indignant upon hearing how, in the matter of the 
 expenses connected with the Dorset election, Lord Ashley had been deserted 
 even by those who had pledged themselves to support him ; and wrote in 
 reply, while the validity of the election was still in question : 
 
 KESWICK, January Kith, 1832. 
 
 MY DEA.B LORD ASHLEY, Your letter gives me great concern as well as great 
 surprise. Dorsetshire offered the first ground on which a stand could be made, 
 and when you took your stand there every one knew that it was not for your 
 own sake, but for the common cause. I never doubted that coming forward aa 
 you did, you would be supported by the whole party. If they treat you thus, I 
 cannot but feel that they neither deserve to be served nor saved. 
 
 Such treatment might produce a most injurious effect upon any one whose 
 mind was not conformed to Christian principles and confirmed in them. For 
 nothing is more difficult than to think charitably of mankind, after we have been
 
 72 THE EARL OF 8HAFTESBUKY. (CHAP. III. 
 
 compelled to think ill of those in whom we have trusted. You are in no danger 
 of being thus morally injured. And should it be necessary for you to withdraw 
 for some j'ears into private life and comparative retirement, this may eventually 
 prove to be no misfortune. You will escape from feverish anxieties and from 
 fatigues which undermine the strongest constitutions ; and you will live to 
 yourself, in the enjoyment of leisure, which you will know how to improve. 
 Your evenings will be far more healthfully and happily and profitably passed 
 than they would have been in the House of Commons. 
 God bleas you, my dear Lord Ashley. 
 
 Yours with sincere regard, 
 
 ROBEBT SOTJTHET. 
 
 To Southey, Lord Ashley made known many of the projects which were 
 still floating in his mind and had not yot assuinod definite shape. In all those 
 Southey took a warm and sympathetic interest, as indicated in the following 
 extracts : 
 
 January 15th, 1832. 
 
 I agree with you that the state of the poor cannot be discussed too much, for 
 till it is improved physically and morally and religiously we shall be in more 
 danger from them than the West Indian planters are from their slaves. 
 
 December 1st, 1832. 
 
 If I had not been pressingly employed upon a volume which is announced for 
 the first of February I should have ere this thanked you for the two Reports upon 
 the Sabbath, and Cruelty to Animals. The first I have gone through carefully 
 and with great interest ; the first page of the latter made me sick at heart ; but I 
 shall go through that also, and, in due time, if it please God, make use of both. 
 No information can ever come amiss to me. Sooner or later I find application for 
 all that I can obtain ; and it not unfrequently happens that notes which I made 
 twenty or thirty years ago, come into use. The Sabbath report tends to confirm 
 tho encouraging opinion that in every measure of real reform, when it is once 
 fairly and honestly undertaken, the strength of the community will go with it. 
 Whatever is attempted in the fear of- God and in the love of our fellow creatures, 
 will have the heart of man with it. 
 
 One of the titles by which Lord Ashley soon became known throughout 
 the country was that of the " Working Man's Friend." The condition of tho 
 working classes about this time presents a very striking contrast to their con- 
 dition now. The term " working man " is to be understood as applying, not 
 to the agricultural labourer, who, as a rule, has very little to do witli politics, 
 takes reluctantly to new ideas, and is slow to be moved by agitation of any 
 kind, but to men employed in towns and cities, the great centres of industry ; 
 men of the Lancashire and Yorkshire type, who by their intelligence repre- 
 sent, and by their action influence and lead, the great working classes of the 
 country.
 
 1833 J CONDITION OF THE WORKING CLASSES. 73 
 
 It was when Lord Ashley was beginning his public career that the true 
 position uf the working man was becoming capable of definition. He had 
 groaned under heavy burdens, he had been stung by the reproach that he was 
 a mere part of the machinery of the country, he had been fettered by vexa- 
 ti'ius laws. The great fiscal reforms of Huskissou in 1824 5; the labours 
 of Joseph Hume ; the repeal of the Combination Laws, which rendered the 
 union of working men in self-defence no longer criminal ; the repeal of the 
 laws relating to artificers going to foreign parts', which made emigration 
 possible when the labour market was overstocked, and other measures of 
 relief, now paved the way for further reforms. 
 
 And truly Reform was urgently demanded in regard to the whole position 
 and privileges of the working classes. A spirit of turbulence and lawlessness 
 was manifesting itself everywhere. Their only resource in self-defence, and 
 perhaps the only argument they understood, was that of violence. When, for 
 instance, in 1829, during a period of stagnation in trade, employers proposed 
 a n-tl action of wages to the factory operatives, they assembled in riotous 
 mobs, broke the windows of the factories, smashed the machinery, destroyed 
 the looms, and in some instances set fire to the mills. Education was at a 
 deplorably low ebb. In the factory districts, even as late as 1843, when over- 
 work was to some extent stopped, Mr. Leonard Horner, one of the inspectors 
 of factories, reported that in an area of eight miles by four, comprising the 
 large boroughs of Oldham and Ashton, for a population of 105,000, there was 
 not, at the date of his last quarterly return, one public day school for poor 
 children. 
 
 The factory schools were a delusion and a snare. As late as 1839 an 
 inspector reported : " The engine-man, the slubber, the burler, the book* 
 keeper, the overlooker, the wife of any of these, the small shopkeeper, or the 
 next-door neighbour, with six or seven children on the floor and on her lap, 
 are by turns found teaching the young idea how to shoot, in and about their 
 several places of occupation, for the two hours required by law."* 
 
 Sunday-sdi. mis, although of incalculable value for their special ends, 
 could not, in the nature of things, effect much in the spread of education. 
 
 The amusements of the people were a fair index of their general condition 
 There was universal rioting and carousal at Easter and Whitsuntide. Fairs 
 and wakos were the popular resorts ; drunkenness was the great prevailing 
 vice ; uuchastity was fearfully prevalent; and low-class dancing saloons and 
 Mill lower-class cheap theatres were largely frequented. 
 
 The opportunities fur improving their mental and moral condition were 
 very limited. The factory system, as we shall presently see more particu- 
 larly, was cruel in its oppression. Mines and collieries were worked in great 
 measure by women and children. Bakers, sailors, and chimney-sweeps were 
 left unprotected by legislation. Friendly societies, many of them rotten to 
 the core, were the only legalised means for self-help. Post-office Savings 
 
 * Quoted in " 1'rogrvu of the Working Classes." By J. M. Ludlow.
 
 74 THE EARL OF STTAFTESBURY. [CHAP. III. 
 
 Banks wore not established, and the pawnbrokers, or private savings banks, 
 held the savings of the people. Sanitary science was practically unknown. 
 Education was not a right. Ragged schools, reformatory and industrial 
 schools, mechanics' institutes, and workmen's clubs had not begun to exist. 
 The newspaper press was not free ; on the contrary, it was fettered in many 
 ways. Taxation was oppressive and unjust. Postal communication was an 
 expensive luxury even to the well-to-do. Limited liability, enabling working 
 men to contribute their small capital to the increase of the productive power 
 of the country, was not so much as thought of. The poor laws were 
 pauperising and degrading; the stamp duties were an effectual bar to the 
 poor man enforcing his legal claims. The Compensation for Accidents Act 
 did not exist. The cheap literature of the day reflected the violent passions 
 which raged on every side ; and the Chxirch was in a state of lethargy from 
 which it was not effectually aroused for many years. 
 
 With crime rampant, and the machinery for the pursuit of offenders in an 
 inconceivably deficient state ; with mendicancy everywhere on the increase ; 
 with population increasing by gigantic strides (in Birmingham, for example, 
 the population in 1815 was 90,000 ; in 1832, 150,000), and no means for the 
 preservation of order in great thoroughfares ; with sanitation in a deplorable 
 state, and no proper provision for enforcing the local and general laws in 
 existence for the removal of obstructions and nuisances there was no 
 measnre enacted at this period that was of greater benefit than Sir Robert 
 Peel's Act which laid the foundation of our present police force. Before 
 1829 the public were dependent for their protection upon a staff of parochial 
 watchmen, who were muffled up in heavy cloaks, and beat a stick upon the 
 pavement to announce their approach, and allow evil-disposed persons to get 
 out of their way. At night they carried lanterns, which served, as the stick 
 by day, to announce their whereabouts, and after they had made their rounds 
 they retired to their watch-boxes. It was no wonder that plunder and 
 robbery of all kinds were committed with impunity, and that after sunset no 
 one considered it safe to venture out. But the inhabitants of the metropolis, 
 and in fact of all the large towns, were accustomed to the state of things, and 
 when Sir Robert Peel instituted, in 1829, the new police force in the metro- 
 polis, he was met on all hands with the fiercest opposition and invective. It 
 was considered that such an interference with the liberty of the subject as the 
 introduction of police supervision involved, would be disastrous in its conse- 
 quences. As a matter of fact it was found to be the best measure for con- 
 solidating peace and protecting life and property that could have been 
 devised ; and the popular prejudice, although hard to die, at length yielded. 
 It is unnecessary to state that the terms " Bobby " and " Peeler " wore 
 derived from Peel's name. 
 
 It was fortunate for Lord Ashley, of all men, that the police force should 
 have been instituted at this period. The times were ripening for the intro- 
 duction of measures which, before they could be carried, would necessitate his 
 becoming personally acquainted with every den of infamy, every sink off
 
 1833.] THE COTTON TRADE. 75 
 
 impurity, every abomination in the hovels of the lowest of the low not in 
 London only, Imt in all the great cities, and it would have been morally and 
 physically impossible for him to have accomplished his task without tho 
 nice of the police, a body of men to whom he always acknowledged his 
 indebtedness, and of whom he always spoke well. 
 
 In 1833. began the great work, in which, for twenty years, Lord Ashley I 
 was to take so prominent a part Factory Legislation. 
 
 Towards the close of the seventeenth century the value of the muslins 
 and calicoes which England annually received from India was about 160,000. 
 During the eighteenth century the importation of Indian piece-goods into 
 this country, despite legislative enactments intended to foster the home 
 manufacture of cotton fabrics, by prohibiting the weaving of Indian muslin 
 and calicoes, rose to the annual value of 1,250,000, and the acme of this 
 increasing trade was reached in 1806, when our importations from India 
 of such goods as are now the staple of the industry of Lancashire, amounted 
 to L'J,000,000. "From this date there is a decline, great and rapid, till 
 England becomes an exporter of what she had previously imported so 
 laryely, and is able, not only to furnish cotton goods of every variety and 
 quality for the supply of all her own wants, but also to carry tho pro- 
 duce of her looms ten thousand miles across tho seas, and 'placing them 
 at the doors of tho Indian consumer, undersell the goods made by his 
 own hands from cotton grown in his own garden.' " 
 
 It was to the inventions and improvements in machinery that this 
 wonderful change was due. Up to the year 1738 the English hand-loom 
 weaver was in no better case, as regarded his implements, than the " nide, 
 unlettered Indian;" but in 1738, John Kay, of Bury, substituted tho fly- 
 shuttle for the hand-shuttle, by which tho production of the hand-loom was 
 trebled. Other improvements followed ; and in 1767, Mr. James Hargreaves, 
 a hand-loom weaver of Blackburn, patented his "spinning jenny." So 
 great was the saving of labour effected by this machine that the spinners 
 wore np in arms ; they broke into his house, and destroyed tho machine. 
 When, however, its advantages became apparent, fresh machines were 
 brought into use, but these in like manner were destroyed, and Hargrcaves 
 quitted Lancashire in disgust, and settled in Nottingham, where he erected 
 a mill. 
 
 Following close upon the inventions of Hargreaves came those of 
 Richard Arkwright and Samuel Crompton, by whose genius the produc- 
 tion of yarn had increased three hundred-fold ; and to these again succeeded 
 the inventions of Dr. Cartwright, a clergyman of tho Church of England, 
 and of Mr. Robert Millar, a calico-printer of Glasgow, so that towards the 
 end of last century tho condition of the cotton manufacturing popula- 
 tion was completely changed. Instead of working in their homes they 
 were obliged to work in mills; and instead of being comparatively their 
 
 * " Cotton Weaving and Lancashire Loomi." Alacmillan't Magazine, vol. vi, p. 4-16.
 
 76 THE EARL OP SIIAFTESBURT. [CHAP. in. 
 
 own masters, working when they would, they were under masters who made 
 them work for what wages they chose to give, and during wliat hours 
 they chose to dictate. 
 
 Remonstrance was in vain ; "water could now be employed to do the 
 harder part of the work formerly done by the men, who, if they were re- 
 fractory, could be sent adrift ; and machinery was invented which children 
 could manage with almost as much success as adults. 
 
 In this way a demand for child-labour was created, and the supply was 
 not deficient. But it was effected in a manner which scarcely seems 
 credible to the humanity of to-day ; large bodies of children were drafted 
 from the workhouses of London, Edinburgh, and other great cities, and 
 placed in the mills as " apprentices," where, at the discretion of sordid 
 overseers, they were worked itninercifully, and treated with such brutality 
 that the recital is too sickening for narration. 
 
 As early as 1796 voices were raised in protest against the cruel wrongs 
 inflicted on these poor children, who were continually being sent down 
 to Lancashire by barge-loads from the London workhouses ; but in the 
 excitement of the stirring events that were then occurring at home .and 
 abroad, those voices were unheeded. Meantime, the condition of ihrso 
 unfortunate children was growing from bad to worse, until at last the 
 cruelty of the system under which they were held was hardly paralleled 
 by the abominations of negro slavery. A horrible traffic had sprung up ; 
 child- jobbers scoured the country for the purpose of purchasing children 
 to sell them again into the bondage of factory slaves. The waste of human 
 life in the manufactories to which the children were consigned was simply 
 frightful. Day and night the machinery was kept going; one gang of 
 children working it by day, and another set by night, while, in times of 
 pressure, the same children were kept working day and night by remorseless 
 task-masters. 
 
 The horrors of the Factory System are scarcely conceivable to this 
 generation ; and if a few details are given here, it is not to furnish a 
 " harrowing description," but to indicate what was the actual state of things 
 which cried aloud for the interference of the Legislature. 
 
 Under the "Apprentice System," bargains were made between the 
 churchwardens and overseers of parishes and the owners of factories, and f ho 
 pauper children some as young as five years old were bound to serve until 
 they were twenty-one. 
 
 In some cases alluring baits were held out to them ; they were told they 
 would be well clothed and fed, have plenty 'of money, and learn a tnuh-. 
 These deceptions were practised in order to make the children wish to go, 
 and thus give an opportunity to the traffickers to say that they went as 
 volunteers, and not under compulsion. Generally, the spell was broken 
 when, like live stock, these children were packed in waggons, and sent a four 
 days' journey to Nottingham, or wherever their destination might be. If the 
 illusion did not vanish then, it did when the gates of the 'Prentice House
 
 HORRORS OF THE FACTORY SYSTEM. 77 
 
 closed upon them, and they were checked off, according to invoice, and con- 
 ! to the sleeping berths allotted to them, reeking with the foul oil with 
 which the bedding of the older hands was saturated. 
 
 Their first labours generally consisted in picking up loose cotton from the 
 floor. This was done amidst the burring din of machinery, in an average 
 heat of 70 to 90 Fahrenheit, and in the fumes of the oil with which the 
 axles of twenty thousand wheels and spindles were bathed. 
 
 M For all day, the wheels are droning, turning ; 
 
 Their wind comes in our faces, 
 Till our nearta turn, our heads with pulses burning, 
 
 And the walls turn in their places : 
 Turns the sky in the high window blank and reeling, 
 
 Turns the long light that drops adown the wall, 
 Turn the black flies that crawl along the ceiling, 
 
 All are turning, all the day, and we with. all. 
 And all day, the iron wheels are droning, 
 
 And sometimes we could pray, 
 ' ye wheels ' (breaking out in a mad moaning) 
 
 ' Stop 1 be silent for to-day ! '" * 
 
 Sick, with aching backs and inflamed ankles from the constant stooping, 
 with fingers lacerated from scraping the floors ; parched and suffocated by 
 the dust and flue the little slaves toiled from morning till night. If they 
 paused, the brutal overlooker, who was responsible for a certain amount of 
 work being performed by each child under him, urged them on by kicks and 
 blows. 
 
 When tho dinner-time came, after six hours' labour, it was only to rest for 
 forty minutes, and to partake of black bread and porridge, or, occasionally, 
 some coarse Irish bacon. 
 
 In process of time more important employment was given to them, 
 in v< >lving longer hours -and harder work. Lost time had to be made up by 
 \ ork- they were required every other day to stop at the mill during tho 
 dinner-hour to clean the frames, and there was scarcely a moment of relaxa- 
 tion for them until Sunday came, when their one thought was to rest. Stage 
 age they sank into the profonndest depths of wretchedness. In weari- 
 ni"-, tin \ t.fteu fell njMin the machinery, and almost every factory child was 
 more or less injured; through hunger, neglect, over- fatigue, and poisonous 
 air. they <li- <! in terrible numbers, swept off by contagious fevers. 
 
 Thorp was no redress of any kind. Tho isolation of tho mills aided the 
 
 cnn-ltirs practised in them. The children could not escape, as rewards \vern 
 
 offered for their capture and were eagerly sought ; they could not complain 
 
 when the vi>iting magistrate came, for they were in abject fear of their task- 
 
 rs, and, moreover, on those days tho house was swept and garnished for 
 
 " The Cry of the Children," by Mrs. E. B. Browning.
 
 78 THE EARL Of StlAFTESBURY. [CHAP. III. 
 
 the anticipated visit, and appearances would have given the lie to complaints; 
 if they perished iu the machinery, it was a rare tiling for a coroner's inquest 
 to be held, and rarer still for it to issue in anything but a commonplace 
 verdict. And when the time came that their indentures expired, after years 
 of toil, averaging fourteen hours a day, with their bodies scarred with the 
 wounds inflicted by the overlookers with their minda. dwarfed and vacant, 
 with their constitutions, in many instances, hopelessly injured ; in profound 
 ignorance that there was even the semblance of law for their protection 
 these unfortunate apprentices, arrived at manhood, found that they had never 
 been taught the trade they should have learned, and that they had no resource 
 whatever but to enter again upon the hateful life from which they were 
 legally freed. Should it happen that they had become crippled or diseased 
 during their apprenticeship, their wages were fixed at the lowest possible sum, 
 and their future was a long lingering death, y 
 
 Such are some of the facts relating to the Apprentice System only one 
 phase of the great Factory Question. Where such abominations were 
 tolerated, the case of the other children and young persons, not apprentices, 
 could not be otherwise than almost as bad, and, in point of fact, there grew 
 up, as we shall see, consequent upon the rapid increase of trade, a system of 
 iniquity even greater than that we have described, when, instead of church- 
 wardens and overseers of parishes apprenticing the orphans and destitute of 
 their parishes, parents voluntarily placed their children in the factories to 
 do the same kind of work, during the same oppressive hours, and under many 
 of the same heartless conditions. 
 
 It is a curious fact that the first champion of these hapless apprentices 
 was one who was himself a manufacturer, and had had a long experience and 
 use of the system the first Sir Robert Peel, who in 1802 carried a measure 
 to provide for their care and education. As far as it went the legislation was 
 good ; it enjoined proper clothing, feeding, and instruction ; the limitation of 
 the hours to twelve, exclusive of meals ; the abolition of night-work, and the 
 appointment of visitors to inspect the factories. The effect of the Act was to 
 do away gradually with the " Apprentice System." 
 
 The mills at that time were placed where there was plenty of water tq 
 drive the machinery ; and as this was often in thinly-populated districts, the 
 employment of apprentices became a necessity. When, however, the steam- 
 engine was invented, mills could be planted anywhere ; and, as a matter of 
 fact, they were planted in densely populated neighbourhoods, in order that 
 the children of the inhabitants might be employed instead of the apprentices, 
 and so relieve the masters of the trouble of providing food, clothing, and 
 education. 
 
 This altered state of affairs introduced new evils, scarcely less formidable 
 than those that had preceded them ; and in 1815 Sir Robert Peel again came 
 to the relief of the oppressed children. After wearisome inquiries he suc- 
 ceeded in obtaining, in 1819, an Act by which no child under nine years of 
 age should be allowed to work in a cotton factory, and no young person under.
 
 1833.) RESTRICTION OP HOURS OF LABOUR. 79 
 
 sixteen to work more than twelve hours a day, exclusive of meals. Sir Robert! 
 Feel was greatly assisted by the untiring labours of Mr. Nathaniel Gould, al 
 large-hearted philanthropist who gave his time and wealth and influence toj 
 the cause unsparingly, and has left behind him a memory which will always] 
 be cherished with gratitude in the manufacturing districts. 
 
 While these evils existed in the cotton factories, evils every whit as great 
 were prevalent in the woollen, silk, linen, and other factories evils which the 
 legislation of Sir Robert Peel did not touch. 
 
 In 1825, Sir John Hobhouso (afterwards Lord Bronghton) passed a Bill 
 by whicli it became unlawful to employ any child in a cotton factory, who 
 should be under eighteen years of age, for more than sixty-nine hours a week ; 
 and which also prohibited night-work in specified departments. 
 
 The Bill of Sir John Hobhouse, like that of Sir Robert Peel, related only 
 to the cotton factories, and, as soon as it was passed, it was found that it was 
 very inadequate to meet the difficulties which were increasing with the increas- 
 ing trade, consequent upon the multiplication of inventions. Nevertheless its 
 provisions were higlily beneficial as far as they went ; the health and morals 
 of the factory-hands were undoubtedly improved, and an impetus was given 
 to the desire of both masters and men for further legislation. 
 
 It was not, however, till 1830 that the great and comprehensive movement 
 with which, later on, Lord Ashley was to be pre-eminently identified, com- 
 menced. In that year Mr. John Wood, of Bradford, Mr. Richard Oastler, of 
 Fixby Hall, Huddersfield, the Rev. G. S. Bull, Mr. Walker, Mr. Philip 
 Grant, and others, grasped the wider and more beneficent idea of seeking the 
 reduction of the hours of work, not for children in cotton factories only, but 
 for children employed in the manufacture of textile fabrics throughout the 
 kingdom. 
 
 Letters were written to the public journals, meetings were held, the on- 
 tliu-i:i>m of tlio working men was kindled, and the opposition of the great 
 body of the mill-owners was aroused. Petitions to both Houses of Parliament 
 were presented on both sides, and the whole of the manufacturing dlst riots 
 were kept in a state of increasing agitation. 
 
 Meanwhile a further Bill was being promoted by Sir John Hobhouse and 
 Lord Morpeth, which proposed to limit the hours of work to eleven and a 
 in any one day, and to eight and a half on Saturdays ; to prohibit child- 
 
 under nine years of age being employed in factories ; to exempt all y 'iimr 
 ons under twenty-one yearn of ago from night-work; and to extend the 
 operations of the Act to cotton, woollen, worsted, linen, and silk factories, 
 and also to power-looms. The opposition to the measure on the part of the 
 mill-owners was very strong, and the result was that the Bill which received 
 the Royal Assent in 1831 was too much mutilated to bo at all effective. 
 
 One of the most ardent supporters of Sir John Hobhouse at this time was 
 Mr. Michael Thomas Sadler, M.P. for Newark, and so conspicuous and un- 
 tiring were his labours, so wide his sympathies, and so powerful his influence, 
 that ho was, by common consent, chosen as the future loader of the movnuout
 
 80 THE EARL OP SIIAFTESBUHY. [CHAP. 111. 
 
 in the House of Commons. Sir John Hobhouse had over and over again ex- 
 pressed his conviction that nothing could be more idle than to talk of the pos- 
 sibility of limiting the hours of daily labour to ten, for five days, and to eig-lit 
 on the Saturday, and he was surprised to find that any one, who knew any- 
 thing of the real state of the question, could hold a view so extravagant. 
 
 Nevertheless, at the end of the Session of 1831, Mr. Sadler introduced his 
 famous " Ten Hours Bill " into the House of Commons, and on the 18th of 
 March, 1832, moved its second reading in a speech of extraordinary eloquence. 
 It was urged by the opponents of the measure that his statements were 
 exaggerated, one-sided, and inaccurate ; and such was the force of the opposi- 
 tion that he was obliged to yield to the appointment of a Select Committee. 
 
 It was while that Committee was carrying on its herculean labours, and 
 Mr. Sadler was working night find day in the cause, that the country was 
 agitated, as it had never been before, with the cry of Parliamentary Reform, 
 and in that year the first Reform Bill received the Royal Assent. 
 
 Mr. Sadler retired from the representation of Newark at the General 
 Election of May, 1831, on account of the uncertainty of the result of that 
 election and of his having been offered a safe seat for Aldborough. This 
 latter town was disfranchised by the Reform Act of 1832, and ho then stood 
 for Leeds and afterwards for Huddersfield, but, notwithstanding the support 
 he received from the working classes in both places, he was defeated. 
 
 The rejection of Mr. Sadler was a terrible blow to the operatives, and a 
 meeting of delegates from the Lancashire and Yorkshire committees was at 
 once held to consider what steps should be taken. At that meeting the Rev. 
 G. S. Bull, of Brierley, near Bradford, one of the leaders in the movemontj 
 was instructed to proceed to London to express their views and to confer 
 witli the friends of the movement there. 
 
 The result cannot be better told than in the words of the letter Mr. Bull 
 addressed to the various Short-Time Committees and others. 
 
 Rev. G. S. Bull to Short-Time Committeet. 
 
 LONDON, February Gth, 1833. 
 
 DEAR SIB, I have to inform you that in furtherance of the object of the 
 delegates' meeting, I have succeeded, under Mr. Sadler's sanction, in prevailing 
 upon Lord Ashley to move his (Mr. Sadler's) Bill. 
 
 Lord Ashley gave notice yesterday afternoon, at half-past two, of a motion 
 on the 5th of March, for leave " to renew the Bill brought in by Mr. Sadler last 
 Session, to regulate the labour of children in the mills and factories of the 
 United Kingdom, with such amendments and additions as appear necessary from 
 the evidence given before the Select Committee of this House." 
 
 This notice, I am very happy to say (for I was present), was received with 
 hearty and unusual cheers from all parts of a House of more than 300. No other 
 notice was so cheered ; and more than forty, some of them very popular, were 
 given at the same time.
 
 less.) MIL SADLER'S SUCCESSOR. 81 
 
 I am informed that Lord Ashley received many unexpected assurances of 
 support immediately after hia notice, and has had more since. 
 
 Pray call your Committee together directly, and read this to them. As to 
 Lonl A-ihk-y, he is noble, benevolent, and resolute in mind, as he is manly in 
 person. I have been favoured with several interviews, and all of the most 
 satisfactory kind On one occasion his Lordship said, " I have only zeal and good 
 intentions to bring to this work ; I can have no merit in it, that must all belong 
 to Mr. Sadler. It seems no one else will undertake it, so I will ; and, without 
 cant or hypocrisy, which I hate, I assure you I dare not refuse the request you 
 have so earnestly pressed. I believe it is my duty to God and to the poor, and I 
 trust He will support me. Talk of trouble I What do we come to Parliament 
 for ? " 
 
 In a letter he writes : " To me it appeared an affair less of policy than of 
 religion, and I determined, therefore, at all hazards to myself, to do what I could 
 in furtherance of the views of that virtuous and amiable man " (meaning Mr. 
 Sadler). 
 
 I have just left his Lordship, andjind him more determined than ever. He 
 says, it is your cause ; if you support him, he will never flinch. 
 
 Yours most faithfully, 
 To Mr. , GK S. BULL. 
 
 i ry of the Short-Time Committee, 
 
 A memorandum, written by Lord Ashley himself in 1838, and found 
 .tfil and incomplete among his papers, recounts the incident of his 
 
 ,\ : 
 
 In the autumn and winter of 1832, I read incidentally in the Times some 
 extracts from the evidence taken before Mr. Sadler's committee. I had heard 
 nothing of the question previously, nor was I even aware that an inquiry had 
 been instituted by the House of Commons. Either the question had made very 
 little stir, or I had been unusually negligent in Parliamentary business. I 
 suspect the first to be the true cause, for it had been an active Session, and j 
 had taken my share in the activity of it. I was astonished and disgusted ; and, 
 kuuwing Sadler to be out of Parliament (for he had been defeated at Leeds), I 
 wrote to him to offer my services in presenting petitions, or doing any other 
 small work that the cause might require. I received no answer, and forgot the 
 ubject. The Houses met in the month of February ; on the second or third day 
 ;uldr. sued by the Rev. G. S. Bull, whom till then I had never seen or heard 
 of. He was brought to me by Sir Andrew Agnew, and they both proposed to me 
 to take up the question that Sadler had necessarily dropped. I can perfectly 
 recollect my astonishment, and doubt, and terror at the proposition. I forget the 
 arguments for and against my intermeddling in the affair ; so far, I recollect, 
 that in vain I demanded time for consideration ; it was necessary, Bull replied, 
 to make an instant resolution, as Morpeth would otherwise give notice of a Bill 
 which would defraud the operatives of their ten hours measure, by proposing one 
 which should inflict eleven. 
 O
 
 82 THE EARL OP 8HAFTRSPURY. [CHAP. HI. 
 
 I obtained, however, a respite till the next morning, and I set myself to re- 
 flection and inquiry. Nevertheless the only persons I consulted were Peach and 
 Scarlett, the present Lord Abinger. They strongly urged me to adopt the 
 question, and I returned home armed with their opinions, to decide for myselfi 
 after meditation and prayer, and " divination " (as it were) by the word of God. 
 
 The resolution arrived at by Lord Ashley and announced in the hastily, 
 written but graphic letter of Mr. Bull, was not reached without a struggle. 
 He now stood at the parting of the ways. On the one hand lay ease, 
 influence, promotion, and troops of friends ; on the other an unpopular cause, 
 unceasing labour amidst every kind of opposition ; perpetual worry and 
 anxiety ; estrangement of friends ; annihilation of leisure ; and a life among 
 the poor. It was between these he had to choose. Had he been ambitious of 
 political distinction there can be no doubt that, with his abilities, his 
 popularity, and his great oratorical powers, he would have commanded a 
 prominent position in his party. Already he had held an appointment in the 
 Government under the Duke of Wellington, whose confidence he enjoyed, 
 and had shown sucli tact and ability, combined with so thorough a knowledge 
 of the matters he had to deal with relating principally to India that he 
 had made his mark. 
 
 The alternative before him was voluntarily to cut himself off from these 
 prospects, to associate himself with the most unpopular question of the day, 
 to become the victim of a virulent opposition from all parties, and even from 
 many able and enlightened men who were in thorough sympathy with every 
 movement which they believed to be for the improvement of the working 
 classes, but who looked upoii the restriction of the hours of labour as an 
 unjustifiable interference with the relations between employer and employed. 
 
 But Lord Ashley was not a man to allow considerations of the baser sort 
 bo weigh heavily with him. Already he had won the confidence of the poor 
 and the oppressed. Already he had passed through the strait gate of his 
 path in life, and had entered the narrow way. He would not look back now. 
 He remembered that day at Harrow, when he had vowed that he would fight 
 against the monstrous cruelty that allowed the weak and the unfriended to 
 suffer and be trampled upon simply because they were poor. But that vow 
 bad been made when he was a mere boy. Now he had a wife and a child, 
 a home and a position. To espouse the factory cause was to give up home- 
 comfort and domestic leisure ; to relinquish the scientific and literary pursuits 
 which had for him such an intense fascination. Was it right for him so to 
 disturb the natural course of his life, and to abandon the prospects it opened 
 up ? He laid the matter before his wife, painted in dark colours all the 
 sacrifice it meant ; weighed the burden it would place on her young 
 shoulders ; and waited for the verdict. 
 
 " It is your duty," she said, " and the consequences we must leave. Go 
 forward, and to Victory ! " 
 
 When Lord Ashley accepted the responsibility of taking up Mr. Sadler's
 
 ISM.) novorn TO WHOM HONOUR. 83 
 
 benevolent measures, he was only known in the factory districts as having 
 voted for those measures ; his special aptitude and general fitness for the task 
 had to be taken on trust. From all quarters, however, there came to him 
 pn.mises of support, and foremost among those who welcomed him as their 
 champion was Mr. Oastler, who had worked with unflagging zeal in the cause. 
 To him Lord Ashley replied as follows : 
 
 Lord Athley to Mr. Richard Oattler 
 
 16th Febrvary, 1833. 
 
 DEAR SIB, I am much obliged to you for your kind and energetic letter ; 
 much, very much, is owing to your humanity and zeal, and though I cannot 
 reckon deeply on the gratitude of multitudes, yet I will hope that your name 
 will, for years to come, be blessed by those children who have suffered, or would 
 have suffered, the tortures of a factory. It is very cruel upon Mr. Sadler that he 
 is debarred from the joy of putting the crown on his beloved measure ; however, 
 his mutt be the honour, though another may complete it ; and for my part I feel 
 that, if I were to believe that my exertions ought to detract the millionth part 
 from his merits, I should be one of the most unprincipled and contemptible of 
 mankind. Ask the question simply, Who has borne the real evil, who has encoun- 
 tered the real opposition, who roused the sluggish public to sentiments of honour 
 and pity ? Why, Mr. Sadler ; and I come in (supposing I succeed) to terminate 
 in the twelfth hour his labour of the eleven. I greatly fear my ability to carry 
 on this measure. I wish, most ardently I wish, that some other had been found 
 to undertake the cause ; nothing but the apprehension of its being lost induced 
 me to acquiesce in Mr. Bull's request. I entertain such strong opinions on the 
 matter that I did not dare, as a Christian, to let my diffidence, or love of ease, 
 prevail over the demands of morality and religion. 
 
 Yours, 
 
 ASHLEY. 
 
 It was consistent with the fairness of his dealings, then and always, to give 
 to Mr. Sadler, and to those who had laboured with him, the credit of their 
 labours; nor did he ever alter his tone. In 1868, when he published his 
 Speeches,* he stated in the preface " .... I desire to record the invaluable 
 
 a of the remarkable men who preceded me. Had they not gone before, 
 ami lx>rne such an amount of responsibility and toil, I do not believe that it 
 would have been in my power to have achieved anything at all." And to the 
 
 : his life he never ceased, when speaking on the Factory Question, to give 
 
 in the honour which was their due. 
 The spirit in which Lord Ashley took up this groat work is best told in 
 
 vn words. Soon after he had entered upon his labours, a meeting, under 
 the nusjiicos of the London Society for the Improvement of the Condition of 
 Factory Children, of which the Duke of Sussex was president, was held in the 
 London Tavern, and was attended by a large number of influential persons, 
 
 " Sj-cccho of the Earl of Shaftesburj, K.G., upon subjects having relation chiefly 
 to the clauim ud interest* of the Labouring Class. " London : 1868. 
 U 2
 
 84 THE EARL OF 8HAFTESBURY. fCHAr. III. 
 
 among whom was Daniel O'Connell. An enthusiastic reception was given to 
 Lord Ashley, as the new leader of the movement, and, in speaking to one of 
 the resolutions, lie said : 
 
 He could never be indifferent to the approbation of his fellow-countrymen ; if 
 he were so, he would distrust himself, feeling, as he did, that a disregard of honest 
 fame is almost invariably accompanied by a disregard of virtue ; but he did most 
 solemnly assure the meeting that he did not take up this affair from motives of 
 ambition. Strong and deep feelings impelled him to that course ; there were 
 some present who could testify to that ; for when he found (and he had but a 
 few hours to make up his mind) that upon him depended the furtherance or the 
 loss of Mr. Sadler's Bill, he did not (he used the word deliberately) d are to refuse- 
 . . . He most sincerely wished that some one of capacious mind and profound 
 knowledge, had undertaken this task ; so deep and so varied were the objects to 
 be considered. It was a great political, moral, and religious question ; it was 
 political because it would decide whether thousands should be left in discontent, 
 aye, and just discontent ; it was moral because it would decide whether the rising 
 generation should learn to distinguish between good and evil be raised above 
 the enjoyment of mere brutal sensualities, and be no longer, as they then were, 
 degraded from the dignity of thinking beings. It was a great religious question ; 
 for it involved the means to thousands and tens of thousands of being brought up 
 in the faith and fear of the God that created them. He had read of those who 
 had sacrificed their children to Moloch, but they were a merciful people compared 
 with Englishmen in the nineteenth century. He had heard of the infanticide of 
 the Indians, but they, too, were a merciful people compared with Englishmen in 
 the nineteenth century. For those nations destroyed at once their wretched off- 
 spring, and prevented a long career of suffering and crime ; but we, having 
 sucked out every energy of body and of soul, tossed them on the world a mass of 
 skin and bone, incapable of exertion, brutalised in their understandings, and dis- 
 qualified for immortality. He feared that in the House of Commons they would 
 have to encounter great and formidable opposition, but it was gratifying to think 
 that all the masters were not against them, neither were they without numerous 
 and cordial supporters in the House ; but it behoved those who were out of doors 
 to use their best and most strenuous exertions to guard against the possible failure 
 of the Bill. There was one consideration to which he particularly wished to call 
 their attention namely, that before the publication of the evidence, the people of 
 England had nothing like the responsibility which since rested upon their heads. 
 So long as these horrid facts remained unknown, the guilt attached to the perpe- 
 trators only ; but, if this terrible system were permitted to continue any longer, 
 the guilt would descend upon the whole nation. As for himself he assured them 
 that he would not give way a single moment on the question of the Ten Hours ; 
 he would persevere in the cause he had adopted. He had taken up the measure 
 as a matter of conscience, and as such he was determined to carry it through. If 
 the House would not adopt the Bill, they must drive him from it, as he would not 
 concede a single step. He most positively declared that as long as he had a seat 
 in that House ; as long as God gave him health and a sound mind, no efforts, no 
 exertions, should be wanted on his part to establish the success of the measure. 
 If defeated in the present Session, he would bring it forward in the next, and so 
 on in every succeeding Session till his success was complete.
 
 1833.) FRIENDLY CONGRATULATIONS. 85 
 
 Having thus, and in inaiiy other way 8, expressed his views and shown the 
 attitude which he intended to take up with reference to this question, he very 
 BOOH gained the implicit confidence of the operatives and of the principal sup- 
 jx>rtt>rs of the measure. It was necessary, however, that he should have a 
 (li-tinet understanding with the operatives as to the principles on which the 
 agitation was to be conducted ; and " they agreed from the outset that all 
 should be carried on in the most conciliatory manner ; that there should be a 
 careful abstinence from all approach to questions of wages and capital ; that 
 the labour of children and young persons should alone be touched ; that there 
 should be no strikes, no intimidation, and no strong language against their 
 employers, either within or without the walls of Parliament." * 
 
 The dauntless manner in which Lord Ashley had thrown himself into the 
 breach, and the vigour with which he commenced his labours, called forth the 
 warmest expressions of approval from all quarters, and many were the sug- 
 gestions, many the words of counsel and advice, which he received. Thus 
 Robert Southey wrote : 
 
 Robert Southey to Lord Ashley. 
 
 KESWICK, 7th February, 1833. 
 
 MY DEAR LORD ASHLEY, There is one thing connected with these accursed 
 factories which I have long intended to expose, and that is, the way in which 
 Sunday Schools have been subservient to the merciless love of gain. The manu- 
 facturers know that a cry would be raised against them if their little white 
 laves received no instruction ; and so they have converted Sunday into a school- 
 day, with what effect may be seen in the evidences ! 
 
 This is quite a distinct question from that of the good or evil to be expected 
 from Sunday Schools, as originally intended, and existing in most places. 
 Upon the latter subject I have something to say when opportunities will allow 
 me. But the Sunday School of the factories is an abomination ; it is an 
 additional cruelty* compromise between covetousness and hypocrisy. 
 
 Thousands of thousands will bless you for taking up the cause of these 
 poor children. I do not believe that anything more inhuman than the system 
 has ever disgraced human nature, in any age or country. Was I not right in 
 saying that Moloch is a more merciful fiend than Mammon? Death in the 
 brazen arms of the Carthaginian idol was mercy to the slow waste of life in the 
 factories. God bless you I R 
 
 Another of Lord Ashley's literary friends, on whose opinion he set great 
 value, was John Ramsay McCulloch, the eminent Political Economist, who 
 d the progress of the Factory Question with deep interest, and wrote 
 thus: 
 
 Mr. J. R. McCulloch to Lord Ashley. 
 
 SOUTHAMPTON STREET, FITZROY SQUARE, 
 
 28* A March, 1833. 
 
 MY DEAR LORD ASHLEY, I have the honour to acknowledge receipt of 
 your note. You are not owing me anything ; and you may be assured that 
 * Shafteabury Speeches, Preface, p. iv.
 
 86 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. fCHAP. III. 
 
 should you at any future period be inclined to approfondir any branch of 
 Political Economy, it will be a gratification to me to forward your views. I 
 hope your Factory Bill will prosper, and I am glad it is in such good hands. 
 Had I a seat in the House it should assuredly have my vote. A notion is 
 entertained that Political Economists are, in all cases, enemies to all sorts of 
 interference, but I assure you I am not one of those who entertain such an 
 opinion. I would not interfere between adults and masters ; but it is absurd to 
 contend that children have the power to judge for themselves as to such a 
 matter. I look upon the facts disclosed in the late Eeport as most disgraceful 
 to the nation ; and I confess that, until I read it, I could not have conceived it 
 possible that such enormities were committed. Perhaps you have seen the late 
 work of M. Courin, who was sent by the French Government to report on the 
 state of education in Germany. It is well worth your Lordship's attention. In 
 Prussia, and most other German States, all persons are obliged to send their 
 children to school from the age of seven to thirteen or fourteen years, and the 
 education given to them is excellent ; as much superior to anything to be had 
 in this country as it is possible to conceive. This is the sort of interference that 
 we ought gradually to adopt. If your Bill has any defect, it is not by the too 
 great limitation, but by the too great extension of the hours of labour. 
 
 With great respect and esteem, 
 
 Most faithfully yours, 
 
 J. R. McCtJLLOCH. 
 
 The activity of Lord Ashley, and those associated with him, aroused the 
 opponents of the measure to renewed determination to resist it, step by step, 
 with corresponding energy and firmness. On the 3rd April Mr. Wilson 
 Patten, acting on behalf of the Association of Master Manufacturers, moved, 
 in the House of Commons, " That an humble address be presented to his 
 Majesty, praying that he will be graciously pleased to appoint a Commission 
 to collect information in the manufacturing districts with respect to the em- 
 ployment of children in factories, and to devise the best means for the curtail- 
 ment of their labour." This motion was supported by Lord Morpeth and 
 other influential members, and was strongly opposed by Lord Ashley and his 
 friends. On a division the motion was carried by a majority of one, the 
 numbers being for, 74 ; against, 73. 
 
 This was regarded by the operatives as a mere stratagem to delay proceed- 
 ings. A. Royal Commission of Inquiry was, under the circumstances, most 
 repugnant to them, incontrovertible evidence as to the state of things being 
 already before the House and before the country. Moreover, power was given 
 to the Commission to examine witnesses in private and report thereon, thus, 
 as it was alleged by the working men, " giving them the option of selecting 
 the testimony tendered, precluding all cross-examination, and, if they were so 
 disposed, enabling them to smother, garble, or distort the evidence at plea- 
 sure." From all quarters strong and numerous protests were entered, and a
 
 ISM.J THE MILL-OWNERS' COMMISSION OF INQUIRY. 87 
 
 manifesto from the Lancashire Central Short-Time Committee was issued in 
 a forcible address to " all ranks and classes in the land," calling upon them 
 to " let Lord Ashley's name be dear to Britain's honest labourers and oppressed 
 factory children." 
 
 Let his Factory Bill have your support Our request is that you will use 
 every lawful and constitutional means to promote its legislative adoption this 
 Session. Give them no rest ; pour out your petitions for us and our children at 
 the foot of the Throne and into both Houses of Parliament. Protest, as we do, 
 against the mill-owners' Commission. We will not, except by legal obligation, 
 try our cause before it. We challenge such a jury, appointed as it is by those 
 who have been arraigned at the bar of their country, to try their own cause, or 
 rather to cover their guilt from public view. Our gracious Sovereign has been 
 imposed upon. We acknowledge and revere his Majesty's authority, but we 
 condemn immeasurably the act of his advisers. Is it thus that justice can be 
 attained when the cause of the poor is tried in open court and that of the rich in 
 the secret chambers of guilt ? We leave our cause in your hands, and implore 
 our fellow-countrymen of every rank to petition without delay for the Ten 
 Hours Bill, and that it may be passed without reference to a partial, unjust, 
 unnecessary, and delusive Parliamentary Commission, sent out on false pretences, 
 to the abuse of his Majesty's royal prerogative, and to the hurt and grief of his 
 loving and loyal subjects. 
 
 The Commissioners proceeded with their inquiry, but on every hand they 
 were met with the stoutest opposition. At Manchester the delegates assem- 
 bled and issued a protest against giving any further evidence before the 
 Commission, and at the same time arranged for fresh evidence of an un- 
 
 ! kind. They assembled the factory children, as they left the mills 
 on Saturday afternoon, the 4th May, and marched thousands of them, with 
 banners, through the streets, headed by a deputation from tho Central 
 Committee, who presented, on behalf of the children, an appeal to the 
 Commissioners. Not only in Manchester, but in every town where tho 
 Commissioners sat, there were similar demonstrations, and at Leeds they 
 were on a very extensive scale. The Short-Time Committee distributed slips 
 t" hind round the hats with tho words "Ten Hours Bill" printed on them. 
 Tin -so were eagerly sought after, and an immense multitude wearing them 
 
 : i -gated at the Free Market, and marched to tho hotel where the Com- 
 missioners sat. They delivered their protest, and " at this stage of the pro- 
 eeeiliugs," says an eye-witness, "never surely was so interesting an exhibition 
 witnessed; not less than 3,000 ragged, wretched little ones were there, 
 attended by at least 15,000 spectators. The Commissioners had a full oppor- 
 tunity afforded them of witnessing the disgusting effects of slavery in 
 f.-i-'ti.rif- --an unanswerable argument that employment, such as their dress 
 and dirt exhibited they had been engaged in, ought not to be prolonged to 
 
 r hours than tho felon is condemned or the black slave constrained to 
 labour."
 
 88 THK EARL OF SHAFPESBURY. [CHAP. III. 
 
 On the 13th July the Commissioners' report was laid on the table of the 
 House of Commons, and, notwithstanding the fact that the Commission was 
 appointed at the earnest solicitation of the mill-owners, some of the most 
 influential of whom, as well as members of the Master Cotton Spinners' 
 Association, were examined, the result was a corroboration of the evidence 
 taken before Mr. Sadler's committee, and was summed up thus : 
 
 From the whole of the evidence laid before us, of which we have thus 
 endeavoured to exhibit the material points, we find : 
 
 1. That the children employed in all the principal branches of manu- 
 facture throughout the kingdom work during the same number of hours as 
 the adults. 
 
 2. That the effects of labour during such hours are, in a great number of 
 cases, permanent deterioration of the physical constitution ; the production of 
 diseases wholly irremediable ; and the partial or entire seclusion (by reason 
 of excessive fatigue) from the means of obtaining adequate education, and 
 acquiring useful habits, or of profiting by those means when afforded. 
 
 3. That at the age when children suffer those injuries from the labour they 
 undergo, they are not free agents, but are let out on hire, the wages they earn 
 beinjr secured and appropriated by parents and guardians. 
 
 We are therefore of opinion that a case is made out for the interference of 
 the Legislature on behalf of the children employed in factories. 
 
 Meanwhile the work of Lord Ashley had been incessant. He had made it 
 a matter of principle at the outset of his career and he never wavered from 
 it to the close of his life not to take up any subject or advocate any cause 
 until, as far as it lay in his power, he had acquainted himself with all tlio 
 facts of the case, not at second-hand and from hearsay, but by close personal 
 investigation. From the hour he consented to take the leadership in this 
 movement, he was at work night and day in prosecuting inquiries, and in 
 making himself master of all its details. This involved endless visits and 
 conferences, innumerable letters, and an amount of toil which can scarcely be 
 over-estimated. 
 
 " I made it an invariable rule," he said on many occasions to the writer, 
 " to see everything with my own eyes, to take nothing on trust or hearsay. 
 lu factories, I examined the mills, the machinery, the homes, and saw the 
 workers and their work in all its details. In collieries, I went down into the 
 pits. In London, I went into lodging-houses and thieves' haunts, and every 
 filthy place. It gave me a power I could not otherwise have had. I could 
 speak of things from actual experience, and I used often to hear things from 
 the poor sufferers themselves, which were invaluable to me. I got to know 
 their habits of thought and action, and their actual wauts. I sat and had tea 
 and talk with tliom hundreds of times." 
 
 In due course lie introduced his Bill, and on the 17th of June it was read 
 a second time. It provided for the limitation of the hours of labour for 
 " women and young persons " to ten hours a day. , One clause in the Bill gave 
 
 r
 
 H'.-J.J THE TEK HOURS BILL REJECTED. 89 
 
 rise to much controversy, almost producing a split in the camp, as well as 
 grievously offending the mill-owners. The clause was to the effect that in 
 nny instance in which the provisions of the Act were infringed, on the third 
 offence personal punishment should be inflicted upon the mill-owner. Mr. 
 Oastler, Mr. Bull, and many others who had long been identified with the 
 movement, strongly upheld its insertion ; and the operatives in Yorkshire 
 were almost unanimously in its favour. They denounced those who were 
 against the clause in language so violent and threatening, that at one time a 
 rupture seemed inevitable. But Lord Ashley was master of the art of 
 managing men. He smoothed down the difficulties, and on the 18th July 
 proceeded with his Bill. 
 
 The Bill was opposed by Lord Althorp, who urged that it should be 
 rejected in favour of one founded on the report of the Commission. Not- 
 withstanding all the efforts made by Lord Ashley and his friends, the 
 Government Bill was carried, on a division, by an overwhelming majority. 
 
 It seemed that a death-blow to the Ten Hours Bill had been struck, so 
 disastrous was the defeat. The delegates and friends who had been working 
 so strenuously in the matter were discouraged and disheartened ; but they had 
 pledged themselves to go forward, and they were determined not to relax 
 their efforts. 
 
 Lord Ashley did not abandon hope, although at first sight everything 
 seemed against him. He rose, on the Speaker resuming the chair, and 
 said -. " Having taken up the subject fairly and conscientiously, he found 
 that the noble Lord (Althorp) had completely defeated him ; he would, there- 
 fore, surrender the Bill into the hands of the noble Lord ; but having taken it 
 up with a view to do good to the class intended, he would only say, into what- 
 ever 1 muds it passed, God prosper it." 
 
 Although the measure fell far short of what was desired, and would 
 take effect slowly, inasmuch as it would not come into full operation until 
 1836, " it contained, nevertheless, some humane and highly useful pro- 
 visions, and established, for the first time, the great principle that labour 
 and education should be combined."* 
 
 Before the delegates returned to their homes, Lord Ashley wrote to the 
 Chairman of the Manchester Short-Time Committee, to acknowledge his 
 indebtedness to their labours, and to explain that he alone was responsible 
 for the concessions that had been made, and for the obnoxious clauses 
 which had been expunged. "The late defeat," he said, "has proved the 
 feel ileness of our partisans even npon principles. What, then, would have 
 
 :he ivMilt upon detail*? But by withdrawing in time we have 
 frmii our opponents the means of cloaking their hostility to a remedial 
 measure under the pretence of resistance to an 'offensive and violent' inter- 
 ference (as they term it) with the disposal of capital." 
 
 Throughout the period during which Lord Ashley was engaged on the 
 
 fc>L:iftcsbury' Speeches, Preface, p. T.
 
 90 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. [HAP. Ill 
 
 Factory Question, his friend Southey, with almost parental solicitude, was 
 watching his progress, and urging him, in frequent letters, to take care of 
 himself. But the indomitable resolution that marked his career at Oxford, 
 that possessed him in Wales, and that governed his conduct while on the 
 India Board of Control, had, in even a more marked degree, urged him 
 on to ceaseless activity and self-sacrifice on behalf of the factory-folk. 
 Southey had advised him not to go to the manufacturing districts to see 
 the physical effects of the system he was exposing. "The distressful 
 recollections would be impressed upon you and burnt in" he wrote, " and 
 I should fear that the subject might take possession of you so fully that 
 it might affect your health, which always suffers when the mind is occu- 
 pied too intently upon one subject, and especially if that subject be one 
 with which strong feeling is necessarily connected." 
 
 He did not know that the whole pathway of his friend's life would 
 lie through impaired health, and suffering, and painfully-stirred feeling, 
 which need not have fallen to his lot had ho not dedicated himself, his 
 time, his talents, his all, to the cause of the poor and the friendless. 
 
 The following letter was written immediately after Lord Ashley had 
 resigned the Bill into the hands of the Ministry : 
 
 Robert Southey to Lord AMey. 
 
 KESWICK, July 21th, 1833. 
 
 MY DEAR LORD ASHLEY, . . . You have done well, and will always 
 look back with satisfaction on what you have done ; and others,. when they look 
 back upon it, will honour you as they ought. Whatever good is done, whatever 
 mitigation of evil is effected, will be through your means. The manufacturers 
 and the Ministers would have done nothing unless you had forced them to it. 
 
 On the whole, I am not sorry that it has now passed into their hands. They 
 have given to the younger children more than you could venture to ask ; and 
 they will, ere long, be compelled to give at least as much as you asked to the 
 adolescents (as they please to call them), unless the over-production, consequent 
 upon working two sets of children, should, in its seen consequences, bring this 
 system of insatiable avarice, or, rather, greediness of gain, to a crisis. . . 
 And now, the more you can direct your thoughts to other things, the better. It 
 has been my fortune to see what effects are produced upon the health and happi- 
 ness of those who suffer one great subject to take full possession of them. Turn 
 away from it now, and you will, be the better able to stir in it hereafter when 
 opportunity offers. . . . When you can run away from Pandemonium, I 
 hope you will come here, where you would find new scenes, and breathe an air 
 of quietness. You could not devise a more effectual diversion for your thoughts 
 and feelings, and I am sure that they must need it, God bless you. R. S. 
 
 The spirit of this advice was taken, and in the autumn of that eventful 
 year there came, as we shall see in the next chapter, the much-needed rest. . 
 
 V
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 ITALY 1833. 
 
 To know the character of a man, travel with him. See whether he takes his 
 cdii-i-ience abroad; see whether, when the restraints of daily occupation, 
 public opinion, or forces of habit are removed, his character remains the 
 same ; mark whether in varied and engrossing pleasure, and in exhilaration of 
 spirits, his principles shine out as lustrously as when at home. 
 
 On the 10th of October, Lord Ashley, in company with his wife and child 
 " Sir Babkins," as he called him and Lord and Lady Cowper, started off 
 on a six months' foreign tour. In a special book he wrote down day by day, 
 in a pleasant, easy fashion, his impressions of all he saw and heard and felt. 
 It was a task, sometimes irksome, but it was undertaken in order that, in 
 years to come, he might live the scenes over again by his own fireside with 
 the companion of his travels. The Journal is specially interesting as showing 
 the state of his mind, at that period, on many subjects which were afterwards 
 to engage his time and influence; how much broader were his views and 
 sympathies than many have supposed ; and as giving a graphic description of 
 travel more than half a century ago. 
 
 The journey from London to Dover, a distance of seventy-two miles, took 
 ten hours to perform, and the " excellent " passage from Dover to Calais was 
 arrumplished in two hours and forty minutes. The route lay by road, through 
 Altlx'ville and Beauvais, and then, he says, "we passed on to Melun, and 
 omitted Paris. I have no pleasure in that capital." Beyond Sens the 
 country became more interesting. 
 
 The surface is more undulating and varied, and the vines give a peculiar rich- 
 ness of colouring. These vast plains of Burgundy have a singular appearance, 
 not a single tree, hedge, hut, or sign of inhabitants except the cultivation. 
 <-e come the labourers, or where do they dwell ? If in the towns, they must 
 have leagues of journey to their daily work. 
 
 The Jura mountains were crossed in a violent snowstorm and amid other 
 circumstances of terror. 
 
 Notwithstanding the misery of the scene, the danger of the precipices, and 
 the chance of an obstruction to our further passage, it was impossible to over- 
 look the magnificence of such a spectacle. The dark colour of the pines behind 
 the streams of snow, the ruggednoss of the cliffs, and the fury of the storm, 
 combined to set before me the language of the Almighty : " Hast thou entered
 
 92 THE EARL OF 8HAFTESBURT. [OHAP. IV. 
 
 into the treasures of the snow, or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail, which 
 I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war 1 " 
 I thought, too, of the expedition to Russia, when He commanded the elements to 
 do Him service ; " wind and storm fulfilling His word." 
 
 After eight days of " wind and rain, and every discomfort," Geneva was 
 reached in safety. 
 
 Has nature, among all her riches, a nobler possession than this lake and its 
 mountains 1 What a profound and indescribable pleasure it is to look upon such 
 things I As to collecting one's thoughts or expressing one's feelings, it is neither 
 possible nor even desirable ; our safest eloquence concerning them is our silence, 
 and to confess, without confession, that His wisdom is inscrutable, His greatness 
 above our capacity and reach. 
 
 Quitting Geneva after a rest of six days ("it is a terrible place for 
 shopping "), visits were paid to Lausanne and Chillon, the road passing 
 through a series of gardens. 
 
 Every mile is a subject for the genius of a painter ; and to all this loveliness 
 is superadded the charm of various and careful cultivation ; order, neatness, 
 taste, and manifold industry give an appearance of beauty and comfort and 
 abundance which excite in one's mind a notion of virtue and happiness in the 
 people. 
 
 Everywhere he found in the changeless and everlasting hills, food for 
 contemplation, and everywhere the vastuess of nature excited religious senti- 
 ments : 
 
 Ten times a day do I repeat, 
 
 " These are Thy glorious works, Parent of Good, 
 Almighty ! Thine this universal frame ; 
 Thus wondrous fair "... 
 
 while the Book of Job and the Psalms furnished him with pregnant words to 
 Titter the thoughts that rose within him. But the glory of the scenery did 
 not so absorb him as to make him oblivious of other things. Wherever he 
 went he kept his eyes open to observe the ways and habits and wants of the 
 people. Thus we find him writing : 
 
 A Swiss in a town is very different from a Swiss in the country in the 
 country all is clean and neat and fresh ; in the town he is dirty and close. . . . 
 
 Their industry and enterprise are truly astonishing ; they have climbed to the 
 last point of vegetation in quest of soil and sunbeams ; the small hovels built on 
 the pinnacles, almost above an eagle's flight, reminded me of the Prophet's words 
 against Idumea, " Oh thou that buildest thy nest in a rock.'' . . . 
 
 We have now been for a day and a half in a Catholic portion of Switzerland 
 unhappily we may be assured of it by the slovenly and negligent habits of the people. 
 This contrast is very remarkable throughout the Confederacy j everywhere the
 
 IN MILAN. 93 
 
 Protestant cantons exhibit a picture of order, cleanliness, and taste. Dirt and 
 discomfort are the guardian spirits of the Catholic. Yet these Catholic districts 
 are not without a charm. The announcement and display of religion give a 
 grace to these solitudes ; while the ensign of the Cross, comely in its form and 
 adapted to the scenery, places the humiliation and the power of God in wondrous 
 juxtaposition. The use of the Cross has been superstitiously abused, and Pro- 
 : nations have therefore mostly abandoned it ; but we suffer by the change. 
 Such a memorial is necessary and ought to be pleasing. . . . 
 
 German is talked here (Brieg), and the people are far less cleanly. Walked 
 to-day to a neighbouring village Everywhere we may trace the influence of 
 Catholicism ; in a population of about 150 persons, I found churches and shrines, 
 crosses and saints, for three thousand. Whence, too, the wealth and furniture of 
 these places of worship each church must have absorbed the earnings of a 
 century ? Came suddenly upon a catacomb, where were heaped up some, thou- 
 sand skulls, the remains of many generations. " O Lord," thus said Ezekiel, 
 " shall these bones live 1 " " So teach us to number our days that we may apply 
 our hearts unto wisdom." In reminiscences such as these the Catholic religion 
 leads us to moments of piety. 
 
 After crossing the Simplou, through scenery of "terrible sublimity," 
 where, as Gray says, in one of his letters to West, " yon have death per- 
 pftually before your eyes, only so far removed as to compose the mind 
 without frightening it," they reached Arona. Of course, Isola Bella was 
 
 1 : 
 
 It is a complete embodying of every luxurious and Asiatic idea ; had I not 
 seen it I should have disbelieved the existence of such a spot ; but still I have no 
 wish to live there. Enclosed by water and mountains I should die of a suffoca- 
 tion of spirit it would be Rasselas in the Happy Valley. 
 
 At Milan, on Sunday morning : 
 
 Went with Minny to High Mass in the Cathedral ; there was no Protestant 
 place of worship ; but we preferred, to total omission, saying a few prayers in a 
 house dedicated to His honour and service. It is a tedious and unspiritual cere- 
 monial everlasting movement and gesture, with numberless repetitions of robing, 
 candles, incense, and drawling chants. The effect upon the eye, all things in- 
 cluded, is extremely grand ; nor can we fail to be struck by the motley, though 
 vast, assemblage, huddled together : of every rank, profession, age, and sex. The 
 
 rs are cold and short ; few can join and fewer can understand. . . . 
 People come in and go out during the performance ; to stay, as with us, from the 
 
 ling to the end, appears quite unnecessary. 
 
 Surely our simple and hearty service is equally beautiful and more edifying. 
 I contrast with all the gorgeous show of the Duomo at Milan, the Cathedral 
 
 > of an Abbey Church ; the liturgy, the chanting of the psalms, the singing 
 of the responses in the communion, all closed with a pious and learned sermon, 
 and I really think that the chastened splendour of this ceremonial leads us, as 
 near as ia possible on earth, to the heavenly pattern of the saints above. . . .
 
 94 THE EARL OF SHAFTF-SHUHY. fCHAp. TV. 
 
 On many subsequent occasions the Duomo was visited, and each time 
 some kindly entry is made in the Diary. 
 
 One great and honourable characteristic of this religion is, as Minny observed 
 to me, that no one is ashamed to exhibit devotion. . . . 
 
 The most zealous Protestant must applaud the Romish practice of leaving 
 open the churches for any casual worshippers. Oftentimes in the midst of daily 
 occupations the mind may desire the consolations of religion, and oftentimes it 
 may be led to think of them by the sight and opportunity of houses of prayer. 
 Much, however, as I approve the system, I doubt the possibility of it in our own 
 country. 
 
 It should be stated that, in this tour, Lord Ashley was taking his wife 
 over ground which he himself had traversed ten years before. The cir- 
 cumstances attending the journey were therefore doubly delightful to visit 
 these places again after so long an interval, and to visit them in company 
 with his young wife. 
 
 I have retraced, almost without variation, the journey that I made nearly ten 
 years ago. This is a long period in the life of man ; but I do not find that, 
 though it haa added to my years, it has taken from my happiness. I may have, 
 it is possible, less elasticity and imagination, but I have greatly increased my 
 power and means of solid enjoyment. To every age there are allotted its peculiar 
 pleasures ; and God, in His goodness, has so ordered my career that I have for 
 every time its proper comforts ; to youth may be permitted the mere pursuit of 
 pastime, but of riper years we must demand the pursuit of utility ; each one 
 should seek how he can best be serviceable. I believed myself fitted for domestic 
 life, and, God willing, I entered into that state. Little did I think, when pacing 
 these streets, that I should next visit them as paterfamilias ; but often have I 
 occasion to bless that Providence that put into my soul to desire a wife, and then 
 guided my choice to rest upon one who must, if I be capable of any goodness, 
 insure to me a perpetuity of earthly happiness. 
 
 Finding Milan to be dull, " and the cold piercing in the streets there 
 prevails a chill which ' divides asunder the bones and the marrow ' ' 
 Lord and Lady Ashley moved on towards the south for a six weeks' 
 absence, leaving their little child in the careful keeping of Lord and Lady 
 Cowper and other friends. 
 
 Passing through Brescia, Yerona, and Yicenza, they came to Venice, 
 where they made their head-quarters. 
 
 Lord Ashley notes on the way thither that : 
 
 The former division of Italy into so many independent and sovereign states, 
 whatever may have been its political and moral effects, was certainly favourable 
 to the Arts every town had its churches, its palaces, its pictures, and its statues ; 
 rivalry prevailed universally, and, combined with the influence of Religion, has 
 enriched every corner of Italy more than whole empires under a single capital.
 
 183S.J VENICE. 95 
 
 At tho end of three days at Venice, he writes : 
 
 have never yet beheld the sun, but perhaps that IB in keeping ; the sun of 
 Venice has set ; her own crimes and the powerful ambition of her neighbours 
 would have wrought their effects, had the Cape of Good Hope remained in 
 obscurity. The long continuance of her liberty is nearly as wonderful as the rise 
 and establishment of it ; but she fell in a day, nay, almost in an hour ; and not 
 one single life was offered in defence of the glory and freedom of fourteen 
 centuries. To me there is nothing so interesting and nothing so curious as the 
 history of Venice. To gaze upon her ruins, and to recollect her story, carries the 
 imagination beyond ordinary life, and imparts a most painful though most 
 salutary lesson of the uncertainty of freedom and empire. The whole I have 
 applied to my own country, and I cannot resist the deep and constant melancholy 
 which such reflections inspire. . . . Notwithstanding the loss of liberty, these 
 people seem gay and comfortable. Pleasure, it would appear, is the great object 
 of their lives. They laugh and sing, and lounge in groups, and look at Punch, 
 and go to the theatre. The quay and the piazza are thronged with idlers, and 
 nothing is heard but notes of merriment. Just now, while I am writing, the 
 whole town is resounding with music, and multitudes pace to and fro in search of 
 amusement. That they are not wretched is evident, but are they as happy as 
 they might be ? And this is always a question to be studied by any one who 
 wishes well to mankind. 
 
 Every day in Venice, notwithstanding the fact that the weather was 
 cold, was full of intense pleasure. "Truly Venice is a glory of human 
 skill," he exclaims at one time ; and, at another, " These gondolas are 
 an invention worthy of Capua or the ancient Sybarites. I can conceive no 
 luxury beyond a hot season and a lounging gondola." 
 
 At Padua, bought a small crucifix ; five centimes, or about one halfpenny, was 
 all they asked for it. The worship of the material or the mere representation, is 
 senseless, wicked, and idolatrous, but to bear about a memorial of what God Him- 
 self once exhibited to the world, does but simply recall His death and passion, 
 and forces us, as Scripture has foretold, " to look on Him whom we pierced." 
 
 A glance at Padua, and a run through Ferrara, and the travellers reached 
 Bologna. 
 
 Wont first to the Accademin. a small but very beautiful collection. Unfor- 
 tunately one must run through galleries and be content with little study, 
 " taking," as old Fuller says, " rather a snack than a full meal." Bologna alone 
 would occupy a month, and we can spare it a day ! However, if one may quote 
 without impropriety, " one day in thy court* is better than a thousand." In this 
 collection all are of merit ; but some are divine ; the Domenichinos, but especially 
 the St Agnes, are very great ; in the corner of the St. Agnes there is a group of 
 women, singularly happy. The Caraccis display abundant force, but they did not 
 excite in me the pleasure and emotion that I felt in contemplating the Guides. 
 The Samson and the Pieta overpowered me too much to allow a feeling for
 
 96 THE KARL OF SIIAFTESBURY. [CUAP IV. 
 
 criticism ; but hia Massacre of the Innocents has in it all that a mother can 
 imagine, and an angel can execute. Then came the St. Cecilia of Raffael, full of 
 dignity, elevation, and truth. In everything from this wonderful hand, we see 
 him exalted above nature, and yet true to it. 
 
 The ordinary sights seen by travellers, and the ordinary incidents con- 
 nected with the tedious mode of travelling 1 in former days, fill the records 
 of the Diary as regards Faenza, Ravenna, and Rimini; but a visit to the 
 little Republic of San Marino is described with enthusiasm. 
 
 On the road to Loretto an accident occurred, not important in itself, 
 but the narration of it will be interesting as exhibiting some of the cha- 
 racteristics of the future President of the Society for the Prevention of 
 Cruelty to A nimals : 
 
 On descending the hill a leader fell, and lay like one dead. Fortunately the 
 carriage escaped an overturn, although for a quarter of an hour there was 
 struggling and kicking to raise the poor animal, which seemed, I thought, 
 incapable of moving. Never did I see such a fiend as the postillion ; blood and 
 hell were in every line of his face, and, while he swore and blasphemed and 
 beat the miserable beast, the foam ran from his mouth like a panting dog. 
 With an iron heel he stamped upon its eye and mouth and sides ; in vain did I 
 call upon the monster to desist. At last it got up, and our postillion insisted 
 upon re-harnessing it to the carriage. This I opposed as extremely dangerous, 
 the poor horse being weak and apparently very ill. However, it was useless to 
 argue or to command ; to no purpose did I assert my right and property in my 
 own vehicle .... I continued to declare my intention of applying to the 
 police, telling the drivers that, whatever they did, they did at their peril. They 
 were arbitrary, however, harnessed the animal, and drove us on. Being arrived 
 at Loretto, I spoke instantly to the postmaster, who shrugged, admitted the 
 guilt, but expressed an unwillingness to interfere. Determined, therefore, to 
 see a commissary of police. It was necessary to curb the violence of these chaps, 
 and an hour of my trouble, I thought, might save some score of foreigners from 
 similar outrages. 
 
 At considerable trouble he went from secretary to president, and the 
 result was " three days' imprisonment for the rascally culprits." 
 
 The journey was then resumed : over the Apennines to Casa-Nuova, 
 Foligno, Terni, through a " country wanton with vegetation," to Narni, Cas- 
 tellana, and Rome. 
 
 Alpine scenery is sublime and soon fatigues, because it keeps the mind on a 
 perpetual stretch. The scenery of Italy is soft, flowing, and graceful. The 
 round swelling hills, clad with the richest underwood of every species ; the long 
 and retiring vistas ; mountains and yet distant prospects ; the exquisite con- 
 trasts of the olive and the cypress ; above all, the various outlines, far and near, 
 convey a charm and a delight that I never experience from any other con- 
 templation.
 
 1833] ROME. 97 
 
 At Rome, everything that was to be seen and done was seen and done, 
 and, in addition, " at a rough guess, one-fifth of our time was given to card- 
 leaving." Nevertheless, the Journal was scrupulously kept, and the records, 
 of which only a few specimens can be given here, are uniformly interesting, 
 and written with great freshness and enthusiasm. A spot twenty times 
 trodden at Rome is, as he writes, like a field twenty times manured it yields 
 more abundantly. 
 
 . . . St Peter's : apart from its beauty it is the liveliest church I have ever 
 seen. This is, perhaps, the effect of the abundant light admitted through the 
 many windows ; you may feel here a deep sensation of awe, but you cannot be 
 gloomy. . . . 
 
 Went to the Forum and Coliseum ; saw them with undiminished pleasure. 
 The Coliseum must ever be peculiarly interesting ; it has much in its history of 
 emperors, people, beasts, and gladiators, but its most solemn recollections bring 
 before us the sufferings of the early Christians, and the heroism of those faithful 
 ones whose blood, under Providence, has been " the seed of the Church." 
 Romanists have abused these feelings to superstition, but Protestants have 
 neglected them to ingratitude. They were great men, and their deeds should be 
 recorded for " example of life and instruction of manners." Ventured to utter a 
 prayer of thanksgiving to Gud for " all those who had departed this life in His 
 faith and fear." . . . 
 
 To St John Lateran ; the church is particularly handsome, and the ceiling 
 rich in gold and colour. The relics here seem unrivalled : the heads of St Peter 
 and St Paul ; the very table at which our Saviour held His last supper (and the 
 piece of silver, to mark the place where He sat, could never so wvid our hicqney 
 be torn off either by piety or sacrilege I) ; the altar through which the Host 
 dashed to convince an unbelieving priest of the Real Presence; the vase on which 
 the cock was perched when St Peter denied his Master ; and a measure of the 
 height of Christ But I am not sure that this last is a relic. It has, however, 
 according to the received belief, this peculiarity : that, among the many thou- 
 sands who have tried themselves by this standard, no one is of the precise height, 
 all being either too tall or too short ! 
 
 In making the tour of the picture galleries of Rome, he notes from time 
 to time those works which most impress him, and throughout the Diary there 
 are short graphic and pithy art-i-ritirisiua. Thus : 
 
 To the Rospiglioei, Guulo's Aurora : I can compare it to nothing that I know ; 
 i pointing what Milton's Allegro is in poetry : everything that is most cap- 
 ;. and original, and delicious. . . . 
 
 '.y to see the pictures at the Vatican. At hut they have been framed, 
 h meanly enough. The Transfiguration is ill-placed ; the light falls iin- 
 ly on it Surely each of these fine works is worthy of a separato room 
 constructed expressly to display its merits as the painter himself could have 
 I Whatever may be the condemnation of my judgment, I most boldly 
 my preference of the " Madonna di Foligno " to all the pictures of 
 world. What a group the Virgin and Child I'!... 
 U
 
 98 THE EARL OP 8HAFTESBURT. [CHAP. IV. 
 
 On the 8th December he attends the English service ; his critical remark 
 on the preacher's style is characteristic : 
 
 The chaplain is reckoned a fine preacher ; if it be true that " artis eat celare 
 artem " he is deficient, for never did I hear or see a more manifest effort ; the 
 whole thing would have been better suited to one of Mrs. Siddons' readings of 
 Shakespeare or Milton, and his style was so laboured and wrought into antithesis, 
 that each sentence might have danced a " vis a vis " to the other. 
 
 The 21st of December was, throughout his life, a day of rejoicing to Lord 
 Ashley. He was singularly sensitive to the influences of weather and of light, 
 and for this reason always welcomed the arrival of the shortest day. 
 
 Dec. 21. The shortest day. It may be called the midnight of the year, as 
 after this period the advance is to light and not to darkness. It is a s'ngnlar co- 
 incidence, and morally a most just one, that Christ, " The Light of the World," 
 " The Day-spring from on High," should have been born in the depth of winter, 
 the full period of human darkness ; and yet precisely at the commencement of 
 returning light, and warmth, and happiness 
 
 Dec. 24. ... This is Christmas Eve, a time of joyous celebration to all 
 mankind ; in every Christian country a season of festivity, and in many of them, 
 I hope, of love and prayer. Here, after a day of fasting, all families are prepar- 
 ing for a domestic banquet. It is a precious season, and no one has so beautifully 
 told it as our own Shakespeare : 
 
 " It faded on the crowing of the cock. 
 Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes, 
 Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated, 
 This bird of dawning singeth all night long ; 
 And then, they say, no spirit dares stir abroad ; 
 The nights are wholesome ; then no planets strike ; 
 No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm, 
 So hallow'd and so gracious is the time." 
 
 J In /it I it, act i., scene L 
 
 25th, Christmas Day. " It is a day to be much observed unto the Lord." 
 That it should be here celebrated as a high and sacred solemnity, here in the very 
 fountain and seat of persecution, is indeed the Lord's doing, and is marvellous in 
 our eyes. Went to see the ceremonies at St. Peter's, and grand indeed they were ; 
 but worship and love, and humility and gratitude, have as little share in them as 
 can well be bestowed. . . . 
 
 Went in evening to the Santa Maria Maggiore. The church lighted up and 
 decorated like a ball-room ; full of people, and a bishop with a stout train of 
 canons listening to the music, which was fine, but, as usual, precisely like an 
 opera. In such rites as these the soul has no share ; the Papists have re-imposed 
 upon themselves the Jewish burdens, and renew the painful and imperfect 
 worship of the Temple at Jerusalem. Walked home, read the Bible and all the 
 prayers for the day, with Massillou's noble discourse on the ' Jour de Noel."
 
 1834.) DR. PU8EY. 99 
 
 Dec. 27. In the evening to a ball at Mrs. Montague's lively and pleasant. 
 Miniiy looked heavenly ; and a foreigner requested to be introduced to " Made- 
 moiselle Ashley 1 " Is it wrong to be BO entirely proud of, and happy in, one's 
 wife's beauty ? But surely there is nothing so pretty and fascinating as my 
 Min. 
 
 31. To the Gesu. ATe Deum on the vigil of the New Year. Three organs 
 in three parts of the church gave us some hop, skip, and jump music, each in 
 succession. Never was I so little impressed ; it was a compound of Tancrcdi, 
 Semiramide, va& Robert le Didble quick, rapid chromatic passages, executed 
 with all the hurry and fervour of variations. Astonished the " foreign " audience, 
 as much as it did the organ, an instrument " non hosformatum in utus." Surely 
 the Italians must know but little of sacred music if they think such quirks and 
 jigs (however suitable and charming in a theatre) " can swell the soul to rage or 
 heavenly joys inspire." When the Te Deum at last began, and the auditors 
 joined, I came away in surprise at the dull ears and discordant voices of Italian 
 worshippers. 
 
 Jan. 8. Went with Minny, Fordwich, and William Cowper to the Church of St- 
 Agostino, to see the image of the Virgin, that has lately wrought such numerous 
 and mighty miracles. As the liberality of the faithful keeps pace with the 
 labours of the statue, it is not likely that her guardian priests will give her either 
 long or speedy repose. 
 
 A very fair estimate of the state of society here may be obtained by an 
 enumeration of the knives and daggers dedicated to the Virgin by those who 
 have escaped the arm of the assassin. They are hung up at one side, like an 
 armoury. " Arma tit fund unique hello hie jxirit-t habcbit." 
 
 Jan. 10. To the catacombs of St. Sebastian. Here were found bones, and 
 inscriptions, and coffins of stone, the remains of the early Christians. The 
 pcimgoa stretch out, it is said, for miles, far beyond what is either pleasant or 
 safe to explore. Low, wretched, and dismal as they are, we see in them the 
 nursery of the Christian faith ; and truly it is in keeping, for if the Founder of 
 our religion were born in a stable, we must not be surprised that His humble and 
 despised followers had no better shelter than the tombs. Now what a compass 
 your thoughts must embrace if yon stand in the narrow chapel of the catacombs 
 fleet on 8t Peter's, or in St. Peter's and reflect on the catacombs. . . . 
 
 Jan. 12, Sunday. The sunset glorious. Home and read Massillon's fine 
 discourse on the Passion. Gibbon and Massillou have been a great part of my 
 stui ly here. 
 
 Jan. 13. Out early to see Prince Altieri (late Senator of Rome) lie in state at 
 .iirch of Sopra Minerva. As Senator of Rome he was buried with honours, 
 ry unimpressive they were. A bier and some tall candles, with a few 
 troops and a screaming Mass, constituted the whole ceremony. I could not but 
 oinpare it with the funeral I had attended just previously to my departure from 
 Mr. Wilberforoe's, in Westminster Abbey. 
 
 One of the most interesting entries in the Diary at this tiino is that occur- 
 
 iinclrr tin- dato Jan. 15. "Dined with Puaey. . . ." 
 Dr. Pusey, who was one year older than Lord Ashley, had been a fellow- 
 dent at Christ Church, Oxford, and had taken a first-class in classics in 
 H 2
 
 100 THE EARL OP SHAFTKSBURY. [CHAP. IV. 
 
 1822, the year in which Lord Ashley achieved a similar distinction. In 1833, 
 while Lord Ashley was taking up the Factory Question, and becoming the 
 leader in one of the greatest social movements of the day, Pusey was joining 
 Dr. John Henry Newman in bringing out the celebrated "Tracts for the 
 Times," and was taking a leading part in the great ecclesiastical movement 
 with which, later on, his name became indissolubly connected, and which, for 
 good or for evil, has influenced so powerfully the future of the Church of 
 England. 
 
 One of Dr. Pusey's keenest opponents was to be the man who was his 
 guest that day. 
 
 Lord Ashley was the cousin of Dr. Pusey through the Bouveries (the 
 family of the Earls of Radnor), and was well known to him. But there was 
 sitting beside him at the table a man whom he now met for the first time, one 
 who was afterwards to be closely allied with him in important evangelical 
 work, and in opposition to Pusey. This was the celebrated M. Bunsen. He 
 was the son of a poor Dutch soldier, whose scanty living was furnished by a 
 small pension and the produce of a few acres of land in Corbach, a town in 
 the little German principality of Waldeck. From early childhood he had 
 endured the vigorous training that poverty imposes ; he had been compelled 
 to fight his own way through the world with nothing save his own " inward 
 consciousness and a determination to live for an ideal aim, disregarding all 
 else as insignificant,"* to support him. He studied at the University of 
 Gottingen ; distinguished himself there as a classical scholar ; went to Paris 
 to perfect himself in Oriental languages ; and then visited Italy, where he 
 was introduced to the learned Niebuhr, and became his private secretary. He 
 afterwards was made Secretary to the Prussian Embassy at Rome, then 
 Charge d' Affaires, and finally full Minister. At a future date he was sent as 
 a Special Envoy to England, to negotiate a matter that was destined to stir 
 every circle of religious society, and in carrying out which Lord Ashley was 
 to be one of his staunchest friends and fellow-workers. 
 
 Jan. 15. Dined with Pusey. Bunsen, the Prussian Minister, whom I sat 
 next to, is a most simple, unaffected, learned man. Jan. 17. Went in the 
 evening to M. Bunsen's. I was anxious to improve my acquaintance with that 
 excellent and enlightened man. Had some useful and pleasant conversation. 
 He informed me that the Prussian Government had determined to establish, for 
 the maintenance and advancement of the Protestant faith, bishops and cathedral 
 institutions. Jan. 18. Received a very kind invitation from M. Bunsen to take 
 an antiquarian trudge with him ; accepted it, and he came here to fetch me. 
 First saw the view from his house, and then we descended to the Forum. The 
 remains of the tabularium under the Capitol were quite new to me ; it is nearly 
 the finest relic of Republican Rome. ... I am really glad to have made the 
 acquaintance, and indeed almost the friendship, of this superior man ; his 
 learning and abilities are embellished by a sound and ardent piety. Such men 
 are an honour and comfort to their generation 1 
 
 * "Memoir of Baron Bunsen," by his Widow, Baroness Bunsen, vol. ii., p. 131.
 
 1884J FLORENCE. 101 
 
 St. Anthony's Day. Received various felicitations ! Breakfasted with Pnsey. 
 To the Coliseum, where a monk was preaching the Friday sermon. Such a 
 picturesque scene, and as interesting as picturesque ! Passed St. Anthony's 
 Chapel, where some horses were under the exorcising of the priests. Of this 
 ceremony, like many others in Rome, the principle is good but the practice 
 ridiculous. It has become a low, money-making craft on the part of the clergy, 
 and a base, fruitless superstition on the part of the laity. It is right and wise, 
 and merciful and pious, to recognise even animals as God's creatures, and believe 
 that they have a share in the consideration of an almighty and beneficent Maker, 
 but here they hold only to the charm of the benediction, a species of necro- 
 mancy. 
 
 Jan. 24. Viterbo. Rome is quitted, and we have now (perhaps for ever, 
 certainly for a long time) resigned the contemplation and enjoyment of the 
 most exciting and subduing (for the sentiments are here blended) spot in the 
 civilised world. I do entirely thank God that I have been once more allowed 
 to take such a pleasure. ... It was, however, pain and grief to leave it ; 
 and nothing but the prospect of speedily seeing that dear child could have 
 softened a feeling of sorrow which was going far beyond approvable 
 limits. . . . 
 
 Jan. 26. Siena is prettily situated amidst undulating hills. We arrived there 
 at the full hour of the Corso, when mankind, dense as cabbage plants, and 
 abundant carriages, were pacing up and down a long, narrow, crooked, cold, 
 lofty street. This is the Italian pleasure ; having outside their walls, and at a 
 distance of three minutes' walk, a fine view, a clean path, a fresh air, a bright 
 oun, they preferred the dark, sad, chilly passage of their living catacombs. How 
 different from the English ! All our amusements are in open spaces, with li<rht 
 and air ; even Italian " races " must be run in a street ; the fact is, an Italian 
 does not enjoy his climate : he boasts a good deal of his possession, but leaves 
 the enjoyment of it to foreigners. 
 
 Jan. 28. Florence. The Church of San Lorenzo. Was there ever such 
 magnificence to mark the deposit of mortality 1 The Capella di Medici and the 
 Capella dei Principi. Here Michael Angelo has shown all his power on the 
 tombs of Lorenzo and Julian, Dukes of the family of Medici (Urbino and 
 Nemours). The figure of "Night" almost makes one "hush;" it has a 
 character of tranquillity and grace very seldom seen in the works of Buonarotti ; 
 the hand, upon which the head inclines, casts a shade over the face ; and the 
 half -closed eyes in this partial obscurity express the soft approach of night ; 
 .rligent, abandoned position of the head is nature itself ; it falls forward 
 into the shadow like a star near the horizon, " tuadentque eadentia, tidera 
 tomnot" 
 
 Jan. 29. Dined with the Shclleys, and afterwards went to a ball given by 
 the Grand Duke at the Pitta Palace. The approach to the rooms was prettily 
 contrived through long avenues of myrtle and orange trees lining the passages ; 
 but the ball-room itself exceeded in brilliancy and liveliness any apartment I 
 have ever seen. Eight great trees of wax candles, attached to the walls, 
 decorated the sides of the saloon, and reached quite to the ceiling. Their Ducal 
 Majesties were civil and kind in the extreme. I was horridly fatigued with this 
 day's operations, and so was little Min.
 
 102 TIJR EARL OF SHAFTKSBURY. [CHAP. TV. 
 
 After leaving 1 Florence the journey was continued, and Pisa, Leghorn, 
 Lucca, and Sarzaiia, in the Sardinian territories, were visited. 
 
 Reflect on the thousands of great and patriotic Pisans who adorned the best 
 times of Liberty and the Republic. Unfortunately for mankind, nothing grows 
 old so soon as Freedom ; its prime is spent in a day and its course is chiefly run 
 in childhood and decline. . . . 
 
 .... The road throughout the Lucoese is perfectly charming ; having 
 surmounted the hills we descended upon the level between the sea and the 
 mountains. This district is Arcadia itself ; cultivated with all the care, 
 precision, and tidiness exhibited in the best parts about Geneva, it superadds the 
 most /agreeable and classic scenery that Virgil or Theocritus ever saw or 
 imagined. Here I remarked in wonderful abundance all the favourite beauties 
 of Salvator and Poussin, and we had absolute experience that the colouring of 
 Claude (however brilliant) is unequal to nature. Mountains high enough to be 
 grand, and yet not terrible ; olive forests, ruined castles, valleys, scattered 
 villages, herds of sheep and goats, everything usually met with apart, here 
 clustered together. The whole population appeared bursting with gaiety and 
 fine clothes ; hundreds, nay, thousands were swarming in the villages and along 
 the roads, all in costumes of the most bright and becoming character. The sight 
 was delightful, not only to a man of taste, but to any one who rejoices in the 
 happiness of his species. The race, too, is handsome, bellissimo gangue ; the 
 women especially carried an air of dignity and force which, upon reasoning 
 alone, one should conceive peculiar to hereditary wealth or station. Therefore I 
 say and feel, " God bless the Duke of Lucca." These small states of Tuscany and 
 Lucca are a model of what Italy should and could be, and an example for many 
 nations of Europe. And yet all Lucca, town and country, contains fifty thousand 
 inhabitants, about one-fourth of my constituents I 
 
 Feb. 7. San Ilemo. No monarch living, except the King of Sardinia, can 
 show in his dominions such a six days' journey. We have been greatly struck 
 by the remarkable beauty of the women and children all along this coast ; from 
 the town of Lucca to this point we have met handsome faces at every 
 step. . . . 
 
 Feb. 8. Nice. Arrived at four ; thanks be to God, found them all well, and 
 especially our darling child, who knew us again, and showed evident joy at our 
 return. . . . llth. Went to the Corso where the Nissards were celebrating 
 the last day of the Carnival ; they were amused, and so were we. As far as we 
 saw, there was nothing but innocence ; if it were not wise, it was not criminal. 
 Such festivities have an air of foolery, and yet it is unsafe to condemn, in one 
 sweeping term, the periodical recreations of a whole people. 
 
 When Lord Ashley started upon this tour he determined that it should be a 
 real holiday a time for rest with which he would not allow politics to inter- 
 fere. To this end he removed himself as far as possible from the temptation 
 to break his repose. He neither read newspapers, nor encouraged conversation 
 on political affairs. This, perhaps, was easier to do then than now ; but at 
 all events he held to his purpose, and acquired a power of abstracting his mind 
 from multitudinous interests, which stood him in good stead afterwards,
 
 l c "4 1 PARIS. 103 
 
 wheu labours devolved upon him which demanded his whole time and the con- 
 centration of all his energies. 
 
 Feb. 13. I am not at ease ; Parliament has assembled, and I am far from my 
 post and my duties, yet what can I do ? How leave Lady Cowper here alone ? 
 This is most distressing ; the Church is threatened, and I shall be unable to give 
 even my weak and single opposition to the measure. Hitherto I have enjoyed a 
 happy freedom from politics. Throughout my journey I have carefully avoided 
 both newspapers and conversations on that odious subject; but now I must 
 renew my intercourse with vice and misery ; and even the short residence we 
 can make at Nice will be tainted by the " necessary " study of letters and 
 
 . . . Feb. 22. I love the Italian people. We abuse them, we despise them, 
 we taunt them with cowardice and degeneracy ; and it may be deserved, and it 
 may be true ; but are they incorrigible, or what has made them such ? Have 
 they been well taught? Have they been well ruled? Scattered, at variance 
 with one another, and oppressed ; without place or nation, having little to love 
 and nothing to respect, without the means of patriotism and loyalty, what can 
 be demanded of them ? Yet consider their genius ; in art, in science, in trade, 
 in literature, in politics, the instructors of Europe I Among so many millions 
 cannot virtue and genius again take root 1 "I the Lord will accomplish it in 
 his time." . . . 27th. The millennium of European policy would be the 
 establishment of a " Kingdom of Italy ; " but this is a dream, and a dream that 
 must not be talked of, for bloodshed, violence, revolution, massacre, horror, and 
 failure at last, would be the inevitable consequences. Were success more 
 probable, still we must refrain ; good can be purchased at too dear a rate, and 
 two generations must not be sacrificed for the benefit of the third. Yet if it 
 pleased God to raise Italy from the dead, what a mass of materials for every 
 work of greatness ! She is indeed now despised, cast down, and perhaps 
 degenerate ; but such centuries of misgovernment and suffering would have 
 corrupted, to a fifty-fold degree, any other people. 
 
 March 14. To-day we crossed the Var and quitted Italy. "Peace be within 
 thy walls, and plenteousness within thy palaces." " I wish thee good luck." 
 
 Then to Cannes which is described only as " a pretty spot on' the sea- 
 shore with one small inn " through Provence ; to Air, Lyons, Chalons, and 
 Paris, and thence, on the 19th April, home, where the last entry in the Diary 
 was written : 
 
 Thus ends our tour. It has been very entertaining, and I hope instructive. 
 The least profitable portion of it was our stay in Paris, where everything 
 amused, dissipated, and corrupted the mind, without either giving cause, or 
 leaving time, for the slightest reflection. There is a spell of viciousness in that 
 city, and everyone who long resides there will more or less be influenced by it ; if 
 he be not led to act ill, he will be seduced to forget what is good, and he finds it 
 impossible eventually not to "tolerate," at least, that which all around him 
 admire. I was glad to quit the place, earnestly hoping that no child of mine 
 might ever pa!*s many days in that pavilion of TMial.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 18341838. 
 
 AFTER an interval of some weeks Lord Ashley resumed his Diary of 
 " fugitive and desultory " notes, and the first entry explains the motives he 
 had in continuing it : 
 
 May 3rd, 1834. Panshanger. I regret the long omission. Much might have 
 been inserted to improve or interest me. The cause or variety of one's feelings, 
 the hopes we have entertained, with their accomplishment or disappointment, our 
 distrust or reliance upon God, our often or seldom prayer, with their respective 
 effects upon thought and action ; all these things duly recorded would assail us, 
 as it were, with irresistible conviction. Let me henceforward be a little more 
 punctual. 
 
 In order to give the Factory Act of 1833 a fair trial, little was attempted 
 in Parliament for some years, beyond repeated remonstrances with the 
 Government and an anxious observation of the working of the Act. Outside 
 Parliament, however, there was continuous exertion. Public opinion waw 
 strongly roused, a new era in legislation had been inaugurated, and a new 
 chapter in the history of labour had been opened. 
 
 Every day found Lord Ashley devising some fresh plan, or listening to 
 some fresh suggestion ; and one of the schemes that lay very near to his heart 
 dealt with the question of the Education of Factory Children. A letter from 
 liis friend Southoy the last long letter he ever received from him touches 
 upon this : 
 
 Robert Southty to Lord Ashley. 
 
 KESWJCK, May 12th, 1834. 
 
 MY DEAB LORD ASHLEY, I am truly rejoiced to think there is a prospect of 
 Beeing you this summer. The country indeed will appear to great disadvantage 
 while you have the Alps and the charms of a southern climate fresh in re- 
 membrance, but there is no other part of England BO beautiful. . . . The 
 Factory Question is overlaid at present by the Unions ; but when the excitement 
 which their menacing attitude has caused throughout the manufacturing districts 
 subsides, the cry against that evil will again be heard. Unhappily some of the 
 best intended efforts for mitigating the wretched consequences of this system 
 have a sure tendency to deprave still further the very persons for whose relief 
 they are designed. I allude to Infant, and even to Sunday Schools. Teach a 
 mother to teach her children what all mothers used to teach theirs fifty years 
 ago, and the instruction is given in love and received in love, and is wholesome
 
 1834.1 THE KINO AND HIS MINISTERS. 105 
 
 for the whole family. The doty is undertaken for Tier now nay, it is even taken 
 from her, for the sake of making display, and the Sunday is made for the 
 children the longest school-day in the week 1 
 
 As for Infant Schools, they are only good when they are remedies for an 
 enormous evil : when you rescue infants from the filth and pollution of the 
 streets. But when infants are sent to them to be out of the mother's toay, the 
 mother goes oat to day-labour, and the husband gets his meals at the beershop, 
 and there is an end of all domestic affection. I have much to say upon these 
 subjects. The better parts of the old English character will never be restored 
 unless we can bring back something like the old habits of domestic teaching for 
 the rudiments of religion for all that is necessary to be believed and of 
 domestic industry. . . . 
 
 . . . God bless you, my dear Lord Ashley. 
 
 Yours with sincere regard, 
 
 ROBEBT SOUTHEY. 
 
 The political horizon in this year, and especially towards its close, was 
 stormy. The Parliament, elected soon after the passing of the Reform Bill, 
 was near its end ; a Conservative reaction was imminent, and the King, whose 
 tendencies had hitherto been liberal, gave unmistakable evidence that he was 
 now weary of his Ministers. They had occupied themselves much with 
 Irish Church questions. The Irish Bishops had, during their Administration, 
 been reduced from twenty-two to twelve, and the Irish Archbishops from four 
 to two ; while, by the appointment of the Irish Church Commission, the very 
 existence of the Church Establishment in Ireland had been threatened. On 
 the 28th May the Irish Bishop-, and Clergy presented an Address to the King, 
 a ml in liis reply he had expressed himself so strongly in sympathy with them, 
 and so strongly at variance with the opinions of his Ministers, that no doubt 
 n.uld remain of his antagonism to the Administration of Lord Melbourne. 
 To the state of public feeling then prevailing the Diary frequently refers : 
 
 May 27th. This evening his Majesty's Ministers are expected to exhibit a 
 public dissension ; they have now rendered order, government, and rule impos- 
 sible. Under them the semblance might endure for awhile ; should they be 
 changed it seems to me we must be prepared for chaos. Twelve o'clock at night. 
 Stanley has retired, and others with him, having yielded as many principles as 
 he could safely for himself. He approached the point of danger, and his sleeping 
 conscience awoke. He will not consent to establish Popery. Why did he not 
 long ago act upon his foresight of this inevitable conflict, and stand out while it 
 was yet time ? . . . There is no hope of Conservative Government Until 
 the Administration of this country can bo founded on truth, religion, the welfare 
 of man, and the honour of God (and this both actually and ostensibly), there will 
 be no return to our ancient dignity and happiness. Now to think even of such 
 principle* at this present, ia to look for the Garden of Eden in the purlieus of 
 ilce!
 
 106 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURT. [CHAP. V. 
 
 There had been a growing intensity in the religions life of Lord Ashley. 
 The habits of meditation and prayer had strengthened, the spirit of ardour, 
 confidence, and love had shone forth more conspicuously in public and in pri- 
 vate, and his studies had been more constant in religious literature, with a 
 view " to attain deeper acquaintance with critical theology." The following 
 entries show the course and current of his inner life : 
 
 June 9th. Oxford. Installation of the Duke of Wellington as Chancellor. 
 Fearful of being 1 thought guilty of disrespect did I stay away, down I came. . . . 
 For an hour (it is now eleven at night) I have lounged about the Quadrangle of 
 Christehurch every inch of it seems holy, Years have added solemnity either to 
 the walls or to my feelings, for I perceive in myself a sentiment of profound and 
 affectionate veneration. It is not that my love for Alma Mater is new. I always 
 admired her worth, as her child " rose up and called her blessed," but those were 
 the transports of enthusiasm, and partook of the warmth and capriciousness of 
 youth. My feelings are now become deep, tender, reverential, and, as time has 
 proved, steadfast. To her I must ascribe all that I have of learning, and much 
 that I may have of virtue. If she did not altogether uproot (as who or what 
 under Heaven can) every vice of my nature, she prepared at least the soil for the 
 cultivation of better things, and gave me moments of thought which may prove 
 the seeds of eternity. Shall I not then love her, pray for her, and, if possible, 
 befriend her ? Aye, by God's blessing, to my life's end, and I humbly thank Him 
 that He has once more permitted me to stand on this sacred ground, and while in 
 earnest gratitude for my own advantages of sound and religious learning, to im- 
 plore His Holy Spirit to make me both willing and able to confer upon others 
 some portion at least of the blessings that He has conferred upon me. 
 
 How much more I should enjoy this retirement were Minny with me. Why 
 is it that I cannot bear the shortest separation from her 1 In fact, nothing is so 
 delightful to the heart as the contemplation of innocence and purity, and hence 
 it is that I feel, in absence from her, the loss of an unearthly pleasure. 
 
 Eleven years and a half have elapsed since I quitted Oxford is it possible t 
 What is the comparative condition of my mind 1 Is it more powerful and better 
 instructed 1 Certainly, but not in the proportion of time, experience, and other 
 men. But I have, by God's grace, a deeper sense (and yet how shallow 1) of His 
 religion ; that is, however, the whole compass of intellect and knowledge : that 
 being obtained, all other things will be added thereunto. 
 
 Why was I reckoned here, and for some time afterwards, such a promising 
 yonng man ? Why ? 
 
 June llth. Yesterday was the anniversary of our wedding. Mark it with 
 the red letters of joy, hope, and gratitude. If men would all base their love upon 
 esteem, and their esteem upon religion, and their religion upon affectionate Chris- 
 tianity, marriage would prove a twenty-fold source of earthly happiness and 
 surety for Heaven. 
 
 The theatre presented a scene of beautiful dignity and splendour. It may 
 never be the lot of this generation to witness again such a display of persons, 
 dresses, and enthusiasm. How can it? for the combination of yesterday depended 
 not on the ceremony, but on the appointment of BO peculiar a man to so peculiar 
 a station at such a time and under such circumstances, personal and political. All,
 
 SELF ANALYSIS. 107 
 
 both young and old, were unanimous in ardent, deep-felt Toryism ; their eagernesa 
 was wonderful, and burst in ceaseless expressions and shouts of applause. Whether 
 intentionally or by mistake, I was much hissed in passing out ; and as I hare 
 done little to deserve their approbation, and nothing to deserve their censure, I 
 felt greatly astonished. However, as I am not a candidate for any of their 
 favours, I can abstain from tears, though I confess my vexation. Dinner in 
 Christchurch Hall equally with the theatre splendid and enthusiastic. 
 
 June 14th. It is singular how long I am in the execution of any work of 
 reading or composition. But a crab is not a race-horse, and has no right to 
 complain if he fails in doing what is inconsistent with his nature. I am too 
 much the victim of strong feelings. I am easily impressed even to weakness. 
 Oftentimes, in reading the Bible aloud to Minny, I all but burst into tears at 
 the mere dignity of the subject and language. 
 
 July 2nd. My temper is too impetuous, frequently am I led away to say 
 things in a manner that is as little proper as they are wise, and this is always 
 the result of heat. I must endeavour, by God's blessing, to correct myself. 
 Served to-day for the first time on the Committee of the National School 
 Society education and public worship may set us right, and they will do so, 
 unless "our iniquity be now full." 
 
 July 3rd. I have no one thing completely ; a smattering upon many ; this 
 is pleasant, but not serviceable. To all subjects I prefer theology. Finance, 
 corn laws, foreign policy, or poor laws would give me more public usefulness, 
 but they would not give me more private happiness. I shall be content hence- 
 forward to float down the stream of time, and put ashore at any point whither 
 the Almighty in His wisdom may command me. 
 
 July 12th. Humanly speaking, I can see nothing worse than that Peel 
 should be called to the helm of affairs ; but, nevertheless, he must, if invited, 
 accept the office. The time is such that all reasoning is nonplussed, and a 
 Minister must commit himself to Providence. The chances of failure and 
 success may not even be balanced ; in ordinary cases such a previous step would 
 not only be wise, but necessary ; here, however, is a peculiar attitude of affairs, and 
 patriotism, danger, and religion alike summon a Conservative to make the attempt. 
 
 July Hth. On Saturday at the Fish Dinner, dull had some conversation 
 with Peel he is civil, but cold. I doubt the formation of a really good Govern- 
 ment, for we are yet blind to the everlasting truth. We must, I fear, be tutored 
 by suffering, and then we may return to the old paths. Were Peel inclined to 
 build his Government on the basis of religion, could he now find materials for 
 the superstructure ? I think not, and hence I distrust the hopes of a permanent 
 and good Administration. I neither see nor hear of any symptom of awakened 
 nil -ion among those who aspire to be our rulers; and what security does any 
 other principle afford 1 
 
 Sept. 3rd. Returned from Hatfield. Minny gone on to Wrest* I to 
 Panshanger to wait for the Hertford Meeting of the Society for Promoting 
 Christian Knowledge. Old Sarnm f shakes and grows deaf ; her leaf ia 
 withering, but still she seems to entertain no thoughts of dying. I found both 
 the children quite well. 
 
 * In Bedfordshire, seat of Lord de Grey. 
 
 t Lady Salisbury, who afterwards, at an age over ninety, was burnt to death
 
 108 THE EARL OF SIIAFTESBURY. [CuAi>. V. 
 
 Sept. 7th. Spent two days at Wrest. Read the memoirs of Mrs. Hannah 
 Moie,* amiable, virtuous, and wonderful woman ! What a true, diligent, and 
 (humanly speaking 1 ) useful servant of Christ was she. Ah, let those who rely 
 on works for justification cease to hope until they shall at least have equalled 
 her, and then they will begin to despair ; for, finding no consolation in self- 
 meritoriousness, and neither foreseeing time nor feeling strength to renew their 
 efforts and supply the deficiency of them, they will look around for something 
 else to assuage their souls. 
 
 Oct. 17th. Received the news of the destruction by fire of the Houses of 
 Parliament. I own that I feel it as a national calamity it appears like an 
 omen of evil to our whole Constitution and Empire the scene and stage, as it 
 were, of English history lay there, and if there be any force in local associations, 
 we might have hoped, as long as the " genius loci " remained, for some (though 
 perhaps feeble) imitation of the generosity of our ancestors. Many fine monu- 
 ments of former days are now destroyed : Jerusalem Chamber, St. Stephen's 
 Chapel, the Painted Chamber, the House of Lords with its exciting tapestry, the 
 noble libraries with their invaluable contents many and various records trea- 
 sures that no money can replace. This is, indeed, a moral conflagration. It is 
 matter of thankfulness that the splendid Hall was rescued from the flames. 
 
 Political events had reached a crisis. On the 14th of November the 
 King 1 dismissed the Melbourne Ministry, and, on the advice of the Duke 
 of Wellington, sent for Sir Robert Peel, who was then at Rome, where 
 he had proposed to spend the winter. He did not arrive in England 
 till the 9th of December, and during the interval the Duke of Wellington 
 acted provisionally as Minister. During that interval Lord Ashley began 
 to write a " Note Book of Passing Events," and continued the entries 
 almost daily until April, 1842, when they were discontinued for twenty 
 years, to bo resumed during the disruption in the United. States. 
 
 In these records, from which we do not propose to qnote in this book, 
 there is little that is personal to himself. There are, as he describes them, 
 "minutes of proceedings," and "notes of Parliamentary campaigns, as 
 tedious to detail as they have been stirring to fight." They contain 
 digests of many debates, criticisms upon speeches, forecasts of political 
 movements, comments upon men and things, rumours, reports, speculations 
 and conjectures. Their chief interest now is that they clearly show how 
 identical were Lord Ashley's views then with those he hold in later years. 
 No matter whether the subject under consideration be changes of Ministry, 
 discussions on the ballot, French affairs, Irish troubles, or matters of the 
 most ephemeral nature, there is always Religion in the forefront, inquiries 
 first as to the principles involved, analyses of motives, complaints of trust- 
 ing in human wisdom, and all the characteristics of style that marked his 
 later years. 
 
 This singular identity in views, in principles, and in modes of enforcing 
 them, is very remarkable. Many passages upon many subjects might bo 
 
 Mn. Hannah More died on the 7th September in the previous year (1833).
 
 ivf) ] CORRESPONDENCE WITH SIR ROBERT PEEL. 109 
 
 extracted bodily from the Note Book of 183*, and inserted in the Diary of 
 1884 without any fear of detection. 
 
 We resume our extracts from Lord Ashley's private Diary : 
 
 NOT. 26th. Brighton. Dined last night with his Majesty. Amid all the 
 chops and changes, what will be my fate ? Office I regard with dismay, the very 
 thoughts of it are disagreeable to me. 
 
 Dec. 10th. How dead religion falls on hearts unused to it, even in a kind, 
 easy, and moral character. It seems like an acquaintance lately introduced whom 
 they treat with civility, but are rather pleased to get rid of. Many excellent and 
 exemplary persons in private life are satisfied with " going to church and doing 
 the whole thing ; " the hardest of all notions to expel is the notion of self- 
 righteousness ; men will measure themselves, not by the model of their Saviour, 
 but by that of their neighbours. " Be ye perfect even as your Father in Heaven 
 is perfect," is to them a superfluous command. " Be no worse than your neigh- 
 bours " seems far more easy and intelligible. 
 
 Dec. 15th, Yesterday I saw Peel, who sent for me in haste. I waited, for 
 two hours and a half, his return from the King. I saw him at six o'clock. His 
 object was to " invite me into the King's service." ... I yielded because I 
 had nothing to oppose to his wishes but my own feelings and disinclination. 
 
 Nothing definite was said at that interview as to the office Lord Ashley 
 was to fill, although the Admiralty and the Treasury were mentioned 
 Ixjth a descent from the higher station lie had occupied at the India Board, 
 and ho dreaded "being called away from real usefulness to do what liis 
 would probably do better." A few days Inter ho received the follow- 
 in- l.-tt.T from Sir Robert Peel: 
 
 Sir I!,,!-, ,-t l',,l > h>r,l .l.-7///-y. 
 
 WHITEHALL, Dte. 20th, 1834. 
 
 Mr DEAR ASHLEY, You know, 1 hupe, that in making my arrangements my 
 first wish is to do that which I think moot likely to be agreeable to you, and to 
 
 lie greater opportunity of useful exertion. 
 
 The Admiralty Board is so magnificently constituted that I cannot help 
 adding you to the number of Lords. There will be Earl de Grey, First Lord, Sir 
 George Cockburn, Kir John Beresford, Sir Charles Rowley, Right Hon. Maurice 
 
 erald, Right Hon. George Dawson, Secretary. 
 
 T'UTO will thus be only two Civil Lords at the Board in the House of 
 <'imn<>ns. ami it has occurred to mo that tho flnum- at the Admiralty may be 
 agreeable to you. 
 
 Ever most truly, 
 
 ROBERT PEEL. 
 
 Dec. 22nd. Yesterday I was obliged to answer Peel's letter, in which he 
 offered me a Lordship of the Admiralty. Had I not, by God's grace and the 
 study of religion, subdued the passicn of my youth, I should now have been
 
 110 THE EARL OP SSAFffiSBtm?. [CHAP. V. 
 
 heartbroken. Canning, eight years ago, offered me, as a neophyte, a seat at one 
 of the Boards, the first step in a young statesman's life. If I am not now 
 worthy of more, it ia surely better to cease to be a candidate for public honours. 
 Yet Peel's letter, so full of flummery, would lead any one to believe that I was a 
 host of excellence. The thing is a contradiction. 
 
 The following is the letter referred to in the entry given above : 
 
 Lord Ashley to Sir Robert Peel. 
 
 PANSH ANGER, Dec. 2lst, 1834. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR ROBERT, Being absent from London, I did not receive your 
 kind letter before this morning ; but I trust that no inconvenience will have 
 arisen from the delay in acknowledging it. 
 
 I feel very sensibly your friendly expressions, and the warm concern you 
 have shown in my welfare ; but as I was very explicit with you during our 
 interview, I may, I hope, be equally explicit in my answer to you now. 
 
 The offer of any situation in the Government is far more than I am entitled 
 to demand. I have said to you already, and I again repeat it, that neither my 
 character nor services can give me the smallest claim to a share in the 
 Administration, and still less to the considerate manner in which you have pro- 
 posed to me such agreeable colleagues. It would be both honourable and pleasant 
 to act with those gentlemen ; and if, therefore, I presume to raise any objection, 
 it will not be either to the dignity of the place, or the names of the Commis- 
 sioners. 
 
 Whatever be my own feelings or desires in respect of official life, I would 
 most willingly undertake to serve you in any capacity where I could really be 
 useful. I doubted, and I doubt still, my means of being so. Everything must 
 be calculated in reference to the course of Parliamentary debate ; in this I am 
 by no means practised, and I entertain a very strong desire, for your own sake, 
 that you should engage the co-operation of men who, either actually or pro- 
 spectively, may assist your Government in the House of Commons. 
 
 If I cannot aid you by speaking, how can I here do so by official ministra- 
 tion 1 The Board of Admiralty will afford me no opportunity of exercising (did 
 I even possess them) any of the qualifications of a public man. I must be, of 
 course, and every one else must know it, a subordinate agent amongst persons of 
 such experience and practice in their own peculiar profession. I could not pre- 
 sume to do more than consult their opinions, and acquiesce in their counsel ; 
 neither could I exert any individual action or responsibility, so as to render 
 myself in any wise personally useful in your service. Any man of common 
 sense would be quite as efficient ; and even the good character you were so kind 
 as to attribute to me, could add nothing of utility, as the whole world knows 
 that the inexperience of a Civil Lord must yield, and justly so, to the weight and 
 experience of his naval colleagues. 
 
 I will tell you candidly that I think my motives would be sadly misrepre- 
 sented in accepting a Lordship it is, I know, and heartily confess, quite as much 
 as I am worth but when I see that all my contemporaries have been promoted, 
 and many who have never served put over my head, I cannot but feel that,
 
 1834.] APPOINTED A LORD OP THE ADMIRALTY. Ill 
 
 having neither merit enough to advance, nor even to retain the scale of iny old 
 position, I had better give way to other men. I most solemnly assure yon that I 
 complain not of their appointments ; but the world, I think, would have reason 
 to aay that my readiness to accept any situation I could get, was less the result of 
 i;.y principles than of my necessities. Again, I say, did it present me even a 
 chance of being humbly serviceable, I would not object ; but here I should be 
 called upon to surrender many pursuits, and many (I hope) beneficial occupa- 
 tions, for a career which could not advantage you or any portion of your 
 Government. 
 
 Your brother, you said to me, entitled as he was to higher office, was con- 
 tented to serve you at the Treasury, but to compensate for that loss, he will 
 enjoy much personal intercourse with you, and, perhaps, your private con- 
 fidence. 
 
 I did not seek for office, believing, as I do, that there are many others far 
 more suited by inclination and ability to those duties ; but after my interview 
 with you, I was willing to undertake it in the hopes that I might have some 
 means of being in a slight degree personally useful to you. 
 
 Most heartily shall I act, and wish for your success, not only as an honest, 
 and wise, and able Minister, but also (I hope I may say) as my personal friend. 
 I shall be always at your command to undergo any labour, or any odium, in sup- 
 port of the sacred principles on which you stand. 
 
 To this letter a reply was received from Lord Granville Somerset, who 
 wrote at the request of Sir Robert Peel, to explain that the office was in 
 fact that of the Civil Representative of the Admiralty in the House of 
 Ci minions, the Member of that Board whoso business it was to move the 
 Intimates, and to be leading Member on all topics connected with the 
 Civil Service of the Admiralty. And, it was added, the motives of Sir 
 Robert Peel were of the kindest nature. In acknowledging this letter 
 Lord Ashley said, " My business and duty are to serve him in his way, 
 nut in my own; and since he is willing to bear the responsibility of having 
 appointed me to a prominent situation, and is kind enough to say that I 
 really can contribute somewhat to his aid, I am perfectly ready, however 
 I conscious of my own weakness, to undertake the charge he has liven pleased 
 to assign me." 
 
 Jan. 12th. Dorchester. To-morrow I shall be re-elected for the county. 
 
 [.I rejoice and thank God that I was bold enough to speak manfully 
 fence of the Church, and I pray He may give mo courage ever to persist and 
 ready to sacrifice all for the maintaining of His true religion. 
 
 During the short time Lord Ashley had held office under the Welling- 
 ton Administration he had worked persistently, and had spared no pains 
 to possess himself of all the information within his reach concerning Indian 
 affairs; and now, as a Lord of the Admiralty, when it fell to his lot to 
 answer from his place in the House of Commons a multitude of questions 
 011 the details of a variety of topics, he again distinguished himself fur
 
 112 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. V. 
 
 the accuracy of his information, and the painstaking diligence with which 
 he made himself familiar with every subject connected with the duties of 
 Ids office during the existence of that short-lived Administration. 
 
 The Peel Government was defeated on the 19th February, 1835. on the 
 Election of a Speaker, and again on the 25th, on a motion of Lord Morpeth 
 for an Amendment on the Address. In April, Lord John Russell, in a 
 series of motions on the Temporalities of the Irish Church, defeated the 
 Government by so large a majority that they resigned on the 8th April. 
 Lord Melbourne then commenced his second Administration, which lasted 
 throughout the rest of the reign of William IV., and during nearly four 
 years of the reign of Queen Victoria. 
 
 The events of 1835, in which Lord Ashley was most interested, are thus 
 described : 
 
 Jan. 1st. The Conservatives and the Radicals will be the two great parties in 
 the House of Commons ; between them will float a body of Whigs, bearing 
 alternately to one side or the other, and strong enough to give preponderance to 
 either. The feeling and temper of the country will ultimately decide the 
 character of their politics ; if it persist in Conservatism, they will gradually and 
 quietly range themselves with Peel ; if it renew its discontent and life of inno- 
 vation, they will be hand and glove with the Radicals for place and power. 
 
 Church Reform is proposed. 
 
 Jan. 25th. . . . . Church Reform (if any) must be extensive ; it may be so, 
 and yet be safe if rightly founded. I am prepared to go far, bub we shall do 
 very little unless laymen will make sacrifices in proportion to those they demand 
 from the clergy. 
 
 On the eve of the resignation of Peel, there is a curious, but character- 
 istic, entry : 
 
 April 8th. It is a sign, a fearful sign of retributive justice, that every great 
 question, every question involving the existence of principles, the safety of 
 institutions and the stability of Governments, has now for jive years been deter- 
 mined by majorities equal to, or less than, the numbers admitted from the ranks 
 of Popery to the privileges of Members of Parliament. The other night the 
 division was carried by thirty-three, the precise number of Papists in the House 
 of Commons 1 ... 
 
 We are out. Peel has resigned. It was evident that the Commons would not 
 accept any measures at his hands, and they prefer anarchy under themselves to 
 order under him. 
 
 Even at this period of his life, there was well developed in him that 
 peculiar capacity which distinguished his more public career the 
 ability to attend to an amazing number of subjects at the same time, 
 and to allow to each its proper place and proportion. Already he had 
 become identified with many and various philanthropic efforts, in addition
 
 CHURCH PASTORAL AID SOCIETY. 113 
 
 tu those connected with the interests of the labouring classes. His influence 
 had largely penetrated into religious circles, and he was now to take the 
 |.-.id in the important ecclesiastical movement, about to be described, with 
 which his name has ever since been closely associated. 
 
 On the 19th February, 1836, there was held in the Church Missionary 
 House, Salisbury Square, Fleet Street, a meeting of clergy and laity, with 
 Lord Ashley in the chair. It was convened to discuss the best method 
 of " Extending the means of grace in and to necessitous parishes, in 
 strict conformity with the spirit, constitution, and discipline of the Esta- 
 blished Church." It was not a large gathering, but it was thoroughly re- 
 presentative, about sixty persons being present, many of whom were earnest, 
 practical men. The result of the meeting was the establishment of the 
 Church Pastoral Aid Society " for the purpose of benefiting the popula- 
 tion of our own country by increasing the number of working clergymen 
 in the Church of England, and encouraging the appointment of pious and 
 -t laymen as helpers to the clergy in duties not ministerial." 
 
 It was inevitable that such a society, with such a programme, in such 
 time, should give rise to considerable opposition, criticism, and condemnation. 
 It was alleged that the Society was started without Episcopal sanction ; 
 that it infringed in a great degree on the discipline of the United Church; 
 it was assailed as if it were false to the principles of the Church, and 
 attempts were made to fasten upon it a sectarian and schismatical cha- 
 racti-r. 
 
 The rock of offence to the High Church Party was the nature of the lay 
 agency to be employed, and of the association to employ it. It was contended 
 by some tliat such agency, if used at all, should be limited to candidates for 
 holy orders who had completed their university course, before they were of 
 age for ordination. Others, and among them some of the Bishops, were 
 opposed, not to the efforts of laymen for the spiritual welfare of those around 
 tin -in, but to the introduction into the Church of a new and distinct order of 
 lay teachers, who, as stipendiaries of a voluntary society, would not, it was 
 alleged, be amenable to ecclesiastical authority. 
 
 At first the committee were unwilling to abandon or limit lay agency in 
 any degree whatever, but subsequently they became disposed to some modifi- 
 r.'itinns, and eventually it was decided that " The society will assist, as it may 
 be able, in the supply to destitute places of lay agents, whether candidates 
 for holy orders or others, or whether partially or wholly to be maintained; 
 which lay agents shall act under the direction of the incumbent, and be re- 
 movable at his pleasure." 
 
 The result of this decision was to estrange many who at first were in 
 faviuir of the society (among them Mr. W. E. Gladstone, then a young man 
 of twenty-six, who was one of the vice-presidents), and to lead to the estab- 
 lishment of a rival institution, the " Additional Curates Society." 
 
 The first years of the existence of the Pastoral Aid Society were years of 
 trial, difficulty, and ceaseless controversy, and entailed upon Lord Ashley, 
 l
 
 114 TIIK RAUL OF SHAFTF.SnUUY. [CHAP. V. 
 
 who took the lead on all occasions, an enormous amount of labour. His good 
 judgment and counsel, his tact in smoothing down differences, his experience 
 of the requirements of poor and neglected parishes, his patient attention 
 to the details of every fresh move in the organisation of the Society, 
 and the influence of his tongue and pen, were invaluable at this time. 
 Nor did his efforts cease with the initial difficulties of the enterprise ; on the 
 contrary, he continued to take the deepest interest in its progress and pros- 
 perity. For nearly fifty years he was hardly ever absent from the chair on 
 the occasion of the annual meeting, and always reserved for that meeting the 
 full expression of his opinion on the state of the Church and the signs of the 
 times. His speeches on behalf of the Pastoral Aid Society give the Religious 
 History of nearly half a century. 
 
 Lord Ashley was appalled to find, from reliable authority, the state of 
 spiritual destitution prevalent in many parts of the country. The path ho 
 had taken in public life led him to an intimate knowledge of the destitute 
 condition of some of the manufacturing districts with respect to religious 
 instruction, but he was surprised to learn from official documents that 100,000 
 souls were, in spite of every effort, national and voluntary, annually added to 
 those who, in Protestant England, and under the wing of an Established 
 Church, had neither pastors, sacraments, nor public worship ; but were left 
 unheeded, with no man to care for their souls. It was the sense of this 
 pressing and ever-increasing need, that urged him to strain every nerve to 
 make the Pastoral Aid Society the efficient institution it has become ; and 
 from first to last he claimed for it, in spite of all argument to the contrary, 
 full recognition as a Church of England Society, regarding the wants of the 
 Church on the one hand, and observing the order of the Church on the other. 
 
 Meanwhile, the Government Factory Act of 1833 was meeting with the 
 strongest condemnation from the supporters of the Ten Hours Movement. 
 Its details had been artfully arranged to make different clauses come into 
 operation at different dates, so as to delay the complete working of the Act 
 till 1836. When Lord Ashley threw the Bill into the hands of the Ministry 
 he retired for a time from the contest. Incomplete as the Bill was, it was 
 better than nothing, and he had said " God prosper it." 
 
 But he, and other friends of factory legislation, soon saw that the Act 
 was in many respects absurd in its details, and foredoomed to be ineffectual. 
 Practical men declared that it was never meant to be obeyed, and that those who 
 framed it only wished to disgust the people with all factory legislation. As 
 regarded the younger children, the Act was undoubtedly beneficial, inasmuch 
 as it shortened their hours ; but in nearly all other respects it seemed to pro- 
 duce vexation, disappointment, and confusion. In 1835 the new factory 
 inspectors reported 177 convictions under the Act, the number of mills at 
 work and reported upon being 1,948, so that one in every eleven mill-owners 
 had broken the law. The number of proved offences, however, would have 
 been far larger had it not been for the fact that the local magistrates them- 
 selves set the law at defiance.
 
 1 ":<.! AGITATION FOR A TEN HOURS BILL. 115 
 
 It will assist the reader to comprehend some of the difficulties with which 
 Lord Ashley had to contend, to bear in mind that, sorely as ho was tried by 
 I'nnents, he was scarcely less tried by his supporters; and that the 
 labour of urging on some was often less than the labour of restraining others. 
 One of the most irrepressible of the agitators was Mr. Richard Oastler a 
 worthy but eccentric man, wielding a large influence over the operatives 
 who kept up excitement to a white heat by counsels which, if followed, would 
 have had ruinous results. 
 
 Harassing as were the main issues of Factory Legislation, its side issues 
 were scarcely less perplexing. Letters innumerabble on every conceivable 
 branch of the subject poured in upon Lord Ashley. One correspondent com- 
 plained that the children were summoned to the mills by the discordant blasts 
 of a horn, and as it was " very disagreeable to have attention drawn to the 
 hardships of the factory children at three, four, five, and six in the morning,*' 
 he hoped a clause would bo inserted in the Act " to make the nuisance 
 punishable by penalty!" Another, who had held the office of Factory 
 Inspector, and had been summarily dismissed because " the faithful discharge 
 of his duties had drawn upon his head the unmitigated feelings of revenge of 
 some of the factory people," begged Lord Ashley to bring this " monstrous 
 outrage " before Parliament. And everybody who had any grievance, real or 
 fancied, or who wanted information, whether entitled to it or not, sent forth- 
 with his complaint or his application to Lord Ashley, who for many years 
 inserted in his Diary words which meant much to him " Harassed by fruit- 
 less correspondence." 
 
 During 1835 and 1836, under the conduct of Mr. Oastler, the Rev. Mr. 
 Bull, the Rev. J. R. Stephens, and other Great-hearts of the cause, the Ten 
 Hours Agitation in the North grew stronger and wider. Mr. Charles 
 Hindley, M.P. for Ashton-under-Lyne, an extensive mill-owner, pledged him- 
 Hrlf to bring in a Ten Hours Bill, and to renew his efforts, session after 
 session, till the victory was won. This Bill had been printed and widely 
 distributed, when it was made known that Mr. Poulett Thompson,* M.P. for 
 Manchester and Vice-President of the Board of Trade, was about to bring in 
 a Hill, on behalf of the Government, to repeal the " thirteen-years-of-age " 
 clause in Lord Althorpe's Act of 1833, and to exclude thereby all between 
 tw.-lvo and thirteen years of age from the shelter of its clauses. This was, in 
 effect, " to legalise the slavery of some forty thousand children, for the most 
 part females. A more faithless proposal was never made to the integrity and 
 -t;mdin-_r of a legislature; the pledges to the country that children 
 -honld be 'protected up to a certain point;' the compromise between the 
 ousters and the operatives guaranteed by the interposition of the Govern- 
 and thi> induct iin of common-sense, which required at least the fair 
 trial of so solemn an enactment, were all equally violated." f 
 
 Notice of the new Government measure was given in March, 1836, only 
 
 * Afterward* Lord Sydenbam. 
 
 t An article by Lord Ashley in the Quarterly Review, Ivii. 417. 
 I 2
 
 llfi TTTE EABT, OF RTTAFTESBURY. fCi.Ap. V. 
 
 nine days after the clause referred to came into operation. The factory 
 districts were at once the scene of intense excitement and anxiety. Great 
 meetings were held to uphold the " Bible, truth, and justice," against " Gold 
 and Poulett Thompson's Bill."* Petitions were sent up to the House 
 remonstrating against the attempt to repeal the " best part of the present 
 Act." 
 
 The second reading of the Government Bill was moved by Mr. Poulett 
 Thompson on May 9th. He declared that children between twelve and 
 thirteen should be allowed to decide for themselves, like their seniors, that 
 sixty-nine hours' work per week would do them no harm, and that the House 
 would throw 35,000 children out of work if it refused to pass the Bill. 
 
 Lord 'Ashley moved that the Bill be read a second time that day six 
 months. He showed that the threatened dismissal of the children was not 
 even possible ; quoted evidence to prove how severely the children suffered 
 from the long hours ; and met his opponents with a formidable, and, as 
 it proved, irresistible array of facts and figures. A long debate ensued, in 
 the course of which a vigorous opposition to the new measure was manifested, 
 but the Government, confiding in their strength, pressed the Bill to a division. 
 In a House of 354 members, however, they only secured a majority of two, 
 and accordingly thought it wisest to withdraw the Bill.f 
 
 Having thus defeated the attempt of the Government to gratify the mill- 
 owners by a retrograde movement, Lord Ashley and his coadjutors saw that 
 it was needful, not only to watch, with increased vigilance, the working of 
 the present Act, in order to get as much good out of it as possible, but, at the 
 same time, to press forward towards the passing of laws of a more decidedly 
 beneficial character. On June the 13th he called the attention of Govern- 
 ment to a flagrant breach of the Act, some boys having been made to work 
 for thirty-four hours successively in the foul cellar of a Yorkshire factory, 
 the air of which was so bad that workmen tied handkerchiefs round their 
 mouths before going into the place. Lord John Russell promised in- 
 vestigation. 
 
 On June 23rd Mr. Charles Hindley moved for leave to bring in a Bill " to 
 Amend the present Factory Acts." The House was surprised, and Lord 
 Ashley thought the time inopportune ; but said that, if the Bill were brought, 
 in, he should give it his cordial support. Mr. Hindley, after a short debate, 
 withdrew his motion, but not till it had " served the useful purpose of wring- 
 ing from an unwilling Government a direct and distinct pledge, given by Lord 
 John Russell, that the existing laws should be enforced with all the authority 
 at its command." J The enforcement of the law was difficult to accomplish 
 when the mill-owners and the magistrates were identical. Sometimes magis- 
 trates refused to hear factory complaints, and bade applicants go to Mr. 
 Oastler, for it was his law. Mr. Oastler replied by threatening to incite the 
 children to apply their grandmother's knitting-needles to the spindles, " in a 
 
 Mr. Oastler at Huddersfield. + Hansard, 3, a. xxkiii. 737, and xxxiv. 306. 
 J Hansard, 3, s. xxxiv. 489.
 
 I s 01 COBDE.V'S OPINION ON THE FACTORY QUESTION. 117 
 
 way which will teach these law-defying, mill-owner magistrates to have respect 
 pv.-n to 'Oastler's law,' as they have wrongfully designated it." * 
 
 Many such wild speeches were made in the course of the agitation, which 
 daily grew in volume and intensity. Reports of the meetings were published 
 as pamphlets, and everywhere circulated. Meanwhile Lord Ashley awaited 
 the opportunity to intervene with effect, doing good service from time to 
 time by pointing out evasions of the present Act. Thus, on July 18th, he 
 called the attention of the House to the fact that one of the factory inspectors 
 was permitting attendance at Sunday-school to be included in the twelve 
 Lours' education per week which the Act required. He also pointed out thi- 
 in-i'il for a large increase in the number of inspectors. 
 
 During 1837 Lord Ashley refrained from bringing the subject before the 
 House, except in connection with the erratic proceedings of one or two of the 
 inspectors, nor did he take any very prominent part in the agitation out of 
 doors. An immense meeting held at Leeds, to bring about an eleven hours' 
 compromise between masters and men, resulted in an all but unanimous reso- 
 lution to petition for a Ten Hours Bill. The people grew more enthusiastic; 
 the magistrates, on the other hand, compelled to act by Government super- 
 vi.-idii, used their power of imposing merely nominal penalties, and made 
 disol>edience to the law more profitable than its due observance. 
 
 Amongst those who, in the earlier days of the factory agitation, were 
 latterly hostile to legislative action, but afterwards modified their views, was 
 Ki-liard Cobden ; and as Lord Shaftesbury was specially mindful of his 
 opinion, it will be interesting to note what, at this stage of the question, 
 were Cobden's exact sentiments with regard to the movement as recorded by 
 liis 
 
 It is historically interesting to know what Liberal electors were thinking 
 about in these days (1839). We find that they asked their candidate his opinion 
 as to the property qualification for Members of Parliament, Primogeniture, the 
 Poor Law Amendment Act, and the Factory Question. The last of the list was 
 probably the most important, for Cobden had taken the trouble, many months 
 before, to set out his opinions on that subject in a letter to the chairman of his 
 committee. The matter remains of vital importance in our industrial system to 
 the present time, and is still, in the face of the competition of other nations, the 
 object of a controversy which is none the less alive in the region of theory 
 because the Legislature has decided it in one way in the i jgion of practice. As 
 that is so, it is interesting still to know Cobden's earliest opinions on the matter ; 
 and I have therefore printed at the end of the volume the letter that Cobden 
 wrote, in the autumn of 1836, on the restriction by Parliament of the hours of 
 labour in factories. 
 
 What he said comes to this : that, for plain physical reasons, no child ought 
 to be put to work in a cotton mill so early as the age of thirteen ; but whatever 
 restrictions on the hours of labour might be desirable, it was not for the Legisla- 
 ture to impose them ; it was for the workmen to insist upon them, relying not on 
 
 " HUtory of the Factory Movement," iL 104.
 
 118 THE EARL OP 8HAPTESBURT. [CnAP. V. 
 
 Parliament, but on their own action. A workman, by saving the twenty pounds 
 that would carry him across the Atlantic, could make himself as independent of 
 his employer as the employer is independent of him ; and in this independence he 
 would be free, without the emasculating interference of Parliament, to drive his 
 own bargain as to how many hours he would work. In meeting his committee 
 at Stockport, Cobden repeated his conviction that the factory operatives had it in 
 their power to shorten the hours of labour without the aid of Parliament ; but to 
 infant labour, as he had said before, he would afford the utmost possible pro- 
 tection. He laughed at the mock philanthropy of Tory landowners, who took so 
 lively an interest in the welfare of the factory population, and yet declined to 
 suffer the slightest relaxation of the Corn Laws, though these did more to degrade 
 and pauperise the labouring classes, by doubling the price of food and limiting 1 
 employment, than any other evil of which they had to complain.* 
 
 On June 22nd, 1838, Lord Ashley, at the request of the factory operatives, 
 moved, as an amendment on the order of the day, the second reading- of a 
 "Factories' Regulation Bill" that had been introduced and several times 
 deferred. Into this Bill it was his intention to have inserted a Ten Hours 
 Clanse on reaching the committee stage. Lord Ashley charged the Govern- 
 ment with having " deluded and mocked " him with false promises, with 
 having taken the matter out of his hands by their solemn pledges, and with 
 having failed to keep their promises. In the course of the debate that 
 followed, Sir Robert Peel said he was not prepared to support the Ten Hours 
 Clause of his noble friend Lord Ashley, but the subject demanded attention, 
 and he implored the House to come to a decision that night. On a division 
 the matter was again shelved by a majority of eight 119 voting for the 
 Government, and 111 for Lord Ashley .f 
 
 The public attention (said the Times) cannot be too forcibly directed to the 
 scandalous conduct of the Melbourne Government with regard to the Factory 
 Question as exposed by Lord Ashley on Friday evening in his most impressive 
 and striking speech. It was not merely that the noble Lord, to whom parents 
 and children, and the cause of humanity, are all alike and so deeply indebted it 
 is not, we say, that he has himself been " mocked and deluded " in the prosecution 
 of his benevolent schemes by the broken faith and callous feelings of this 
 mercenary and jobbing clique, but that laws of their own making have been left 
 unenforced, and the unfortunate children unprotected, and that " all the repre- 
 sentations and remonstrances made to the Ministers upon the subject had been 
 treated with total neglect and contempt."! 
 
 Lord Ashley's motion on the Factories' Regulation Bill did not by any 
 means involve an acceptance of the Government measure, which was a 
 remarkable Bill of fifty -nine clauses to amend the fifty clauses of the Act of 
 1833, and gave inspectors such dispensatory and licensing powers as would 
 have rendered its penal clauses worthless. Lord Ashley's object in dragging 
 
 * " Life of Richard Cobden," by John Morley, vol. i., pp. 115 16. 
 t Hansard. $ Times, June 25, 1838.
 
 1838.) CHILDREN' IK PACTORIKS. 119 
 
 
 
 it from its obscurity was of course only to keep the subject alive by bringing 
 it before the House. His defeat was, in some respects, a success : it was 
 now evident that the great question could not be evaded. 
 
 " The promptitude and activity of his Lordship," says the historian of the 
 movement, " were beyond all praise ; certainly, not any leader could have done 
 more for his clients. The respect and attention he commanded in the House 
 of Commons, were outward and visible signs too marked to be misunderstood 
 by Ministers." * Fortified by the evidence of widespread popular support, 
 Lord Ashley renewed the assault on July 20th. An attempt to bring 
 the question forward on July 12th had been frustrated by a " count out," 
 referring to which the Times next morning declared that there had been 
 " trickery of the grossest kind."f 
 
 On the 20th, Lord Ashley (on the question that the House do resolve itself 
 into a Committee of Supply) moved " That this House deeply regrets that the 
 law affecting the regulation of the children in factories, having been found 
 imperfect and ineffective to the purpose for which it was passed, has been 
 suffered to continue so long without any amendment." He supported this 
 resolution in one of the ablest speeches ever made on the Factory Question. 
 A great impression was produced on the House by the formidable array of 
 facts and arguments with which he set forth the deplorable condition of the 
 factory operatives, and by his extracts from public documents and reports of 
 inspectors, proving the inability or unwillingness of the Government to make 
 tlit-ir own Factory Act work efficiently. After denouncing the dilatory con- 
 duct of the Government, he said 
 
 Thus had a great Measure, closely affecting the temporal and eternal welfare 
 of so vast a portion of the population, been set aside and treated like a Turnpike 
 Bill. But the noble Lord might be assured that the people of this country hod 
 too much humanity, and that he (Lord Ashley) who had humbly undertaken the 
 subject, was too strongly determined to obtain justice, to allow the matter to rest 
 in its present state. Did he really think that he could stifle public sympathy or 
 silence him (Lord Ashley) by such devices ? " Though he should hold his peace, 
 the very stones would immediately cry out." The evil was daily on the increase, 
 and was yet unrcmedied, though one-fifth part of the time the House had given 
 to the settlement of the question of negro slavery would have been sufficient to 
 provide a remedy. When that House, in its wisdom and mercy, decided that 
 forty-five hours in a week was a term of labour long enough for an adult negro 
 he thought it would not have been unbecoming that spirit of lenity if they had 
 considered whether sixty-nine honra a week were not too many for the children 
 of the British Empire. In the appeal he had now mode he had asked nothing 
 mm ,-isonable ; he had merely asked for an affirmation of a principle they had 
 already recognised. He wanted them to decide whether they would amend, or 
 repeal, or enforce the Act now in existence. But if they would do none of those 
 
 History of the Factory Movement," ii., p. 124. 
 July 13, 1838.
 
 120 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. ICHAP. V. 
 
 thing-s, then he warned them that they must be prepared for the very worst 
 results that could befall an empire.* 
 
 A warm discussion followed, in the course of which Mr. Fox Maule (after- 
 wards Lord Panmure) denied the charges made against the Government, and 
 prophesied evil results from throwing children out of the labour market. 
 Daniel O'Connell turned against the clause, and flatly opposed all that he had 
 himself said at the London Tavern meeting in 1833. Lord John Russell said 
 restricted hours meant diminished wages and imminent starvation; while 
 Mr. Hume declared that the Factory movement was a mere party manoeuvre. 
 Several members spoke in support of the resolution, but it was lost on a 
 division 121 voting for Ministers, and 106 against. 
 
 Charles Dickens was always a warm admirer of Lord Ashley, and, as we 
 shall see in the course of this narrative, on several occasions aided materially 
 some of his great labours for the poor. It was towards the close of this year 
 that he became an ally on the Factory Question, and the following letter gives 
 a glimpse of his mind with reference to his future action in the matter: 
 
 Charles Dickens to Mr. Edward Fitzgerald. 
 
 48, DOUGHTY STREET, December 2Sth, 1838. 
 
 DEAR SIR, I went, some weeks ago, to Manchester, and saw the worst cotton 
 mill. And then I saw the best. Ex uno disce omncs. There was no great 
 difference between them. 
 
 I was obliged to come back suddenly, upon some matters connected with the 
 publication of "Oliver Twist," and saw no more. But on the llth of next 
 month I am going down again, only for three days, and then into the enemy's 
 camp, and the very head-quarters of the factory system advocates. I fear I shall 
 have little opportunity of looking about me, but I should be most happy to 
 avail myself of any introduction from Lord Ashley which, in the course of an 
 hour or so, would enable me to make any fresh observations. 
 
 With that nobleman's most benevolent and excellent exertions, and with the 
 evidence which he was the means of bringing forward, I am well acquainted. 
 So far as seeing goes, I have seen enough for my purpose, and what I have seen 
 has disgusted and astonished me beyond all measure. I mean to strike the heaviest 
 blow in my power for these unfortunate creatures, but whether I shall do so in 
 the " Nickleby," or wait some other opportunity, I have not yet determined. 
 
 Will you make known to Lord Ashley (confidentially) my intentions on this 
 subject, and my earnest desire to avail myself, either now or at some future time, 
 or both, of his kind assistance 1 Pray thank him warmly, from me, for tender- 
 ing it, and believe me, 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 CHARLES DICKENS. 
 
 It is always interesting to be able to picture a man in the mind's eye, as 
 ho stands, in the midst of his work, at certain periods of his career. The 
 
 * Shaftesbury'g " Speeches," p. 14.
 
 183S.J A "WORD- PORTRAIT." 121 
 
 following extracts from a " word-portrait," written in 1838, will assist the 
 reader in this respect : 
 
 Lord Ashley possesses, perhaps, the palest, purest, stateliest exterior of any 
 man you will see in a month's perambulation of Westminster ; indeed, it would 
 be difficult to imagine a more complete beau-ideal of aristocracy. 
 
 His Lordship looks about six-and-twenty, but is some ten years older. He is 
 above the medium height about five feet eleven, with a slender and extremely 
 graceful figure, which might almost pass for that of some classic statue attired in 
 a fashionable English costume ; and the similarity is not at all impaired by the 
 rigidity of his Lordship's muscles. 
 
 His forehead has also much of the marble about it ; his curling dark hair, in 
 ite thick masses, resembles that of a sculptured bust, and his fine brow and 
 features are distinctly, yet delicately cut ; the nose, perhaps, a trifle too prominent 
 to be handsome. He has light blue eyes, deeply set, and near each other, with 
 projecting white eyelids ; his mouth is small, retiring, and compressed. 
 
 The whole countenance has the coldness, as well as the grace, of a chiselled 
 one, and expresses precision, prudence, and determination in no common degree. 
 To judge from the set form of the lips, you would say not only that he never acts 
 from impulse, but that he seldom, if ever, acted from an impulse in his life. All 
 that Lord Ashley does seems to be done from conviction and principle, and not 
 even a muscle dares to move without an order from head-quarters. Every 
 separate lock of his hair appears to curl because it has a reason for so doing, and 
 knows that to be the right course of conduct. 
 
 I believe his character quite corresponds with his appearance ; he is said to 
 be long in determining on a line of proceeding ; but, when his mind is once 
 made up, nothing can turn him aside or alter his resolution ; he proceeds with 
 an indefatigable perseverance, and spares no effort to accomplish his pur- 
 pose. . . . 
 
 As pieces of composition his addresses are faultless ; every sentence is perfect 
 in its form and correct in its bearing. His delivery is fluent, but not rapid ; his 
 voice fine and rich in tone, but not sufficiently exerted to be generally audible ; 
 and his manner, though evidently he is quite in earnest, is animated but some- 
 what cold. . . . 
 
 When he addressee an audience he stands with his hand resting on the 
 platform rail, and as erect as such a position will possibly allow ; he looks his 
 hearers coolly in the face, and, with a very slight bowing movement, barely 
 sufficient to save him from the appearance of stiffness, he delivers, without a 
 moment's hesitation, and with great dignity of voice and manner, a short, calm, 
 serious address. The applause with which he is always heard (for he is very 
 popular in the Societies over which he presides) seems rather an interruption 
 than a pleasure to him, as it breaks into the mutual dependence of his sen- 
 tences. 
 
 I have understood that his Lordship is very nervous, and yet the most 
 striking feature of his public deportment is his apparently rigid self -possession, 
 which he never loses for a moment. ... V
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 18381839. 
 
 IN September, 1838, Lord Ashley, who had never completely overcome, as ho 
 thought, his tendency to allow time to pass unimproved, determined to com- 
 mence the systematic writing of a Diary. It was undertaken, in the first 
 place, to assist his " treacherous memory," and in the next to be a source of 
 amusement to him in his old age. But there was yet another reason : he had 
 an almost insuperable aversion to writing, and he determined to adopt this 
 expedient as a means to assist him in overcoming that aversion. There are in 
 the course of the Diaries occasional gaps and breaks, but tlie.se are easily 
 accounted for by the pressure of his enormous labours. It is marvellous that 
 with the amount of correspondence he carried on, the articles lie wrote, and 
 the speeches he prepared, he could ever find time for, or force himself to the 
 task of, posting up a record of past events, however brief. But his Diaries, 
 exclusive of four travel-diaries, occupy twelve quarto volumes, averaging 
 several hundred closely- written pages in a volume, -and were continued until 
 very nearly the close of his life. They are written with extreme care ; every 
 line is straight as an arrow, although on unruled paper, and there is scarcely a 
 blot or erasure on any of the pages. He had precisely the same gift in writ- 
 ing that he had in speech : his words and his thoughts came in right order 
 and sequence, and the most apt and expressive adjective that could adom a 
 sentence always fell into its proper place. He never, in his public speeches or in 
 conversation, had to hesitate or recall a word ; the exact word he wanted, and 
 generally the best word that could be used, was ready at the right moment. 
 This was also the case in his writing ; in the whole of his Diaries there are 
 probably not half a dozen words scored through in order to substitute others. 
 
 At the time the Diary commences, Lord Melbourne was First Minister of 
 the Crown, and had been the head of the Cabinet from 1834. He was the 
 son of Peniston Lamb, first Viscount Melbourne, of Brocket Hall, Herts ; his 
 wife, Lady Caroline Lamb, who died in 1828, wrote novels, and was notorious 
 for her admiration of Lord Byron. The sister of Lord Melbourne, the Hon. 
 Emily Lamb, was married in 1805 to the fifth Earl Cowper (who died June 
 27th, 1837), and her daughter Emily, it will bo remembered, became the wife 
 of Lord Ashley. Lady Cowper, the mother of Lady Ashley, was married a 
 second time, in 1839, to Viscount Palmerston, the famous Minister. 
 
 Such were the family relationships, to which frequent allusion is made in 
 the Diaries.
 
 18S8.1 JERUSALEM AND THE JEWISH PEOPLE. 123 
 
 Sept 28th. Every one who begins to keep a journal regrets that he did not do 
 so h fore. I follow the general example, and regret the many "fine and apt" 
 thin trs, both of fact and imagination, that are now irrecoverably lost. I had a 
 book, a few years ago, in which I made, from time to time, some short, desultory 
 entries, but the natural impatience of my disposition, and the mischievous and 
 indulged habit of doing nothing consecutively, broke the thread of my record, 
 tod I now resume a business which will conjoin a head and a tail by the 
 exclusion of all intermediate carcase. Yet an actual journal, a punctual narra- 
 tive, of every day's history would be an intolerable bore a bore when written 
 and a bore when remembered at least it would be so to me ; the probability is 
 that this book of memorandums will share the fate of all my other attempts, 
 and go into oblivion unsullied by ink or pencil ; but, should it be carried on, I 
 will make it a mere cage for light and grave thoughts (the paucity of them will 
 rer.der the task easy), which, unless they be caught as they arise, take wing like 
 larks and owls and are gone for ever. . . . 
 
 Just finished Lockhart's Life of Sir W. Scott. I knew the man. and to know 
 him was to love him. The two greatest characters of the last century and of 
 the present, perhaps of any one, are, in my mind, the Duke of Wellington and 
 Sir W. Scott, and they have many points of resemblance, none more striking 
 than their simplicity. . . . 
 
 Sept. 29th. Took leave this morning of Young, who has just been appointed 
 ; ijesty's Vice-Consul at Jerusalem ! He will sail in a day or two for the 
 Holy Land. If this is duly considered, what a wonderful event it is ! The 
 ancient city of the people of God is about to resume a place among the nations, 
 and England is the first of Gentile kingdoms that ceases "to tread her down." 
 If I had not an aversion to writing, almost insuperable, I would record here, for 
 the benefit of my very weak and treacherous memory, all the steps whereby this 
 good deed has been done, but the arrangement of the narrative, and the execu- 
 tion of it, would cost me too much penmanship ; I shall always, at any rate, 
 remember that God put it into my heart to conceive the plan for His honour, 
 gave me influence to prevail with Palmerston, and provided a man for the 
 situation who " can remember Jerusalem in his mirth." Wrote by him a few 
 lines to Pieritz, and sent him a very small sum of money for the Hebrew 
 converts there (I wish it were larger), that I might revive the practice of 
 apostolic times (Romans xv. 20), and " make a certain contribution for the poor 
 saints that are at Jerusalem " I 
 
 Oct. 3rd. Lord Lindsay's " Travels in Egypt and the Holy Land " are very 
 cmlitable to him, more so in the ff clings and sentiments they express than in 
 the originality and composition. But he saw and felt like a man who fattened 
 on the Word of God, and found it as delicious as it is wholesome and true. I 
 am convinced that Providence has laid up in store many riches of " testimony " 
 to the authenticity of the Bible, to be produced in these evil days of apostacy 
 and unbelief that will afflict the earth in the latter times. Egypt will yield 
 largely in confirmation of the Jewish records ; and Palestine, when dug and 
 harrowed by enterprising travellers, must exhibit the past with all the vividness 
 of the present. The very violences of Ibrahim Pasha (the Scourge of Syria) 
 have opened the first sources of its political regeneration by offering free access 
 to the stranger in the repression of native lawlessness ; hundreds now go in a 
 t\v. hemonth where one trod the way in a quarter of a ceutury, and the Bible
 
 124 THE EART, OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. vt. 
 
 is becoming a common road-book ! God give me, and mine, grace to help 
 forward this accumulation of testimony, that our lamps may be trimmed and 
 our loins girded, whenever we are called on, in the awful advance of saucy 
 rationalism or malignant infidelity, to " render a reason of the hope that is 
 in us." 
 
 I should like to see a good treatise, exhibiting 1 the successive developments of 
 evidence of the truth of God's Word, suited to the character and wants of each- 
 age successively. . . . 
 
 Gave a decision to-day, along with colleagues, in the Commission in Lunacy 
 (upon a division of 6 to 4, the first division that has taken place since the institu- 
 tion of the body, now ten years ago), that one, R. P., should be set at liberty. It 
 ia an unpleasant and responsible office either to detain or discharge a patient : in 
 the first case you hazard the commission of cruelty to the prisoner ; in the second, 
 to his friends or the public. We can lay down no fixed rules for decision ; we 
 must take our course, according to doctors' prescriptions, pro re nata. In the 
 instance before us, R. P. (as he is designated in the correspondence of his rela- 
 tives) had been seized only a few days when we proceeded to inquire into his 
 alleged insanity and the grounds of his detention ; a more heartless rufiian, one 
 more low in mind and coarse in language, though a man of talent and education, 
 never entered the walls of a prison or a madhouse. The opposite party, however, 
 could not prove against him one single act of personal violence ; his words, his 
 manner, his feelings, were awfully wicked ; but had never as yet (although their 
 charge extended over several years) broken out into action. In fact a decision on 
 our part, that he was rightfully detained, would have authorised the incarceration 
 in a Bedlam of seven-tenths of the human race who have ever been excited to 
 violence of speech and gesture. Three days' sitting, myself chairman, of five 
 hours each, and all " gratis 1 " 
 
 Oct. 4th. In the chair of the Pastoral Aid Society. Under God's good 
 providence, this Society has wrought wonders ; it has scarcely subsisted two 
 years and a half, and we can number thousands and tens of thousands who have 
 received, almost for the first time, through the channels our labour has opened 
 the knowledge and the practice of the Gospel of Christ. We pray that we may 
 see the fruit of our toil every time we meet in committee for despatch of busi- 
 ness ; no prayer was ever so largely or so speedily answered ; very little of our 
 seed has fallen by the wayside, or become the prey of obscaeni volucrcg. I never 
 was called by God's mercy to so happy and blessed a work as to labour on behalf 
 of this Society, and preside at its head ; the language of thankfulness and grati- 
 fied piety in the various letters from the clergy whom we have assisted is a fore- 
 taste (God grant that it be said with all abandonment of self-righteousness) of 
 the blessed words, " Well done, thou good and faithful servant 1 " 
 
 My youngest boy christened to-day at St. George's Church named Antony 
 Lionel George : George after his godmother, Lady Dover, with a reference also to 
 poor Dover. It is a lovely and solemn ceremony, heavenly in its purport and 
 almost so in its composition. May God in His mercy grant that as the child was 
 this day " signed with the sign of the Cross," so he may never be ashamed to 
 confess, and to fight for, a crucified Saviour ! The service abominably performed 
 by the curate, Mr. S . 
 
 Oct. 8th. Panshanger. Here again, after an interval of nearly two years. 
 Scarcely any change in men or things : a little in the feelings with which I visit
 
 ISM.J AT WIVDSOR CASTf.K. 125 
 
 it ; nor is this unnatural, for, notwithstanding the kindness of the present 
 owners, my position is necessarily altered. I had lived in this house for many 
 years as my home, as a man would live, bag and baggage, with his father ; now 
 we are guests where before we were inmates. At church yesterday ; had not 
 been there since I followed poor Lord Cowper's funeral. . . . 
 
 Could we not erect a Protestant Bishopric at Jerusalem, and give him juris* 
 diction over all the Levant, Malta, and whatever chaplaincies there might be on 
 the coast of Africa ? 
 
 llth. Windsor Castle. Here for a few days by desire of her Majesty un- 
 
 inably a great honour, which demand? all gratitude and loyalty from us. 
 
 We have the mornings to ourselves, and the beauty and magnificence of the place, 
 
 the fineness of the weather, and the comfort of the apartments, enable us to pass 
 
 the time very agreeably. . . . 
 
 1-th. A noble ride yesterday through the park with her Majesty and train. 
 The order of the ride, and the arrangements at dinner, the same as usual ; in fact 
 the same since her Majesty mounted the throne. No ride to-day ; the Queen had 
 a bad cold. 
 
 I should be most ungrateful did I not feel and speak of her condescension and 
 kindness with the warmest affection and loyalty ; from the hour she became 
 . to the present day, I and mine have received one invariable succession of 
 friendly and hospitable acts, bestowed with a degree of ease, good-humour, and 
 considerateness, that would be captivating in any private person. She manifests 
 a desire to make her favours as pleasant as they are honourable ; and in most 
 instances (strange to be said of a Court) she is successful. 
 
 15th. Weather has been very bod. Cold in the extreme. Yesterday (Sunday) 
 Queen did not attend chapel, nor walk on the terrace. The difference in the day 
 was marked in the evening by the absence of music at dinner and afterwards, 
 and no whist for the Duchess of Kent I am agreeably surprised here by the 
 civility of the servants, the ready attendance, the ease with which everything is 
 procured, above all, the comfort of the house : it has, conjoined with all its 
 magnificence, the arrangements and convenience of a private dwelling. Let me 
 see, the hours were ten o'clock for breakfast, unless it were preferred to breakfast 
 in one's own room ; two o'clock for luncheon ; a ride, or a drive, at three o'clock 
 for two hours or so ; dinner at half -past seven. A military band at dinner, and 
 the Queen's band after dinner, filled up, and very necessarily, the pauses of 
 conversation. We sat till half-past eleven at a round table, and then went 
 to bed. 
 
 The year 1838 was remarkable for the development of scientific wonders. 
 On September 17th the London and Birmingham Railway was opened 
 throughout its whole length; in the early part of the year steamships had 
 crossed the Atlantic between New York and this country ; the dream of 
 communication with India by steam was indulged in ; telegraphic messages 
 were beginning to he sent the first experiment, between Eustoii Square and 
 Camden Town Stations, was made in July of the previous year ; and the idea 
 of a Fenny Post was under consideration. To many of these events allusion 
 is made in the Diary and speeches of Lord Ashley : -
 
 120 THE EARL OF SIIAFTESr.UUY. [CHAP. VI. 
 
 Oct. 19th. Rowton. Came by the railroad to Birmingham; the speed is 
 sublime, but the amusement and interest of travelling are gone. We shoot like 
 an arrow through almost a dead solitude. We see, now and then, cattle and 
 sheep, but human beings are rare as jewels ; no carts, no carriages, no foot- 
 passengers, no towns, no villages. I believe it to be much safer than the road, 
 and incomparably more dull. 
 
 An article contributed by Lord Ashley to the December number of the 
 Quarterly Review was ostensibly a notice of Lord Lindsay's " Letters on 
 Egypt, Edom, and the Holy Land," but was really written to draw attention 
 to the state and prospects of the Jews. After speaking of Lord Lindsay's 
 labours, and following him in his travels, Lord Asliloy indulged in a little 
 light criticism on the style of the writer : 
 
 We cannot repress a gentle hint that he is vastly too fond of an attitude in 
 his writing ; frequently, when the time is come for a sentiment, he throws him- 
 self, like a dancing master, into the first position, and pours forth a passage, 
 excellent indeed in its spirit and observations, but florid and verbose enough for 
 an Irish reporter. There are " and oh's " in sufficient number to supply a six 
 months' correspondence to a whole boarding-school of young ladies. 
 
 Leaving Lord Lindsay's book, after the first ten pages, the remainder 
 of the article was devoted to a masterly sketch of the growing interest 
 manifested in regard to the Holy Land an interest not confined to 
 Christians, but shared in and avowed by the whole body of the Jews. It 
 was no new sentiment that animated the children of the dispersion as to 
 their return to their own land : the novelty was, the fearless avowal of the 
 hope ; it was no new thing that there should be a revival of religious feel- 
 ing among the Jewish people ; the novelty was that this was not only 
 not followed by Christian persecution, but that the Christians were manifest- 
 ing a new and tender interest in the Hebrew people, between whom inter- 
 course and reciprocal inquiry now became far more possible. He traced out 
 an existing feeling among the Jews of Poland and Russia, of India and else- 
 where, that the time for the turning of their captivity was nigh at hand ; 
 and he saw, at the root of this feeling, a growing approximation towards 
 Christianity, as shown by the records of many societies and the testimony 
 of many travellers. There was apparently an abatement of the old anti- 
 pathies and prejudices ; there was a desire to investigate the claims of Chris- 
 tianity; and recent conversions to the Faith had taken place to a great extent 
 among persons of cultivated understandings and literary attainments. There 
 was a demand for copies of the Word of God, a more kindly reception given 
 to missionaries, and everywhere indications appeared of a prodigious change, 
 not the least being that Hebrew disputants would now reason with the mis- 
 sionaries out of the Scriptures. 
 
 The main object of Lord Ashley in this article was to give publicity to 
 movements in which he took an intense personal interest, and which were to
 
 1839.) STATK \JfD mOSPF.CTS OF TTTK JEWS. 127 
 
 Income, chiefly through his instrumentality, subjects of tlio same absorbing 
 iutcn-st in the religious and political world. He wrote : 
 
 But a more important undertaking has already been begun by the zeal and 
 piety of those who entertain an interest for the Jewish nation. They have 
 designed the establishment of a church at Jerusalem, if possible on Mount Zion 
 itself, where the order of our service and the prayers of our Liturgy shall daily 
 be set before the faithful in the Hebrew language. A considerable sum has been 
 collected for this purpose ; the missionaries are already resident on the spot ; and 
 nothing is wanting but to complete the purchase of the ground on which to erect 
 the sacred edifice. Mr. Nicolayson, having received ordination at the hands of 
 the Bishop of London, has been appointed to the charge ; and Mr. Pieritz, a 
 Hebrew convert, is associated in the duty. The service meanwhile proceeds, 
 though " the ark of God is under curtains ; " and a small but faithful congregation 
 cf proselytes hear daily the Evangelical verities of our Church on the Mount of 
 the Holy City itself, in the language of the Prophets, and in the spirit of the 
 Apostles. To any one who reflects on this event, it must appear one of the most 
 striking that have occurred in modern days, perhaps in any days since the 
 corruptions began in the Church of Christ. It is well known that for centuries 
 the Greek, the Romanist, the Armenian, and the Turk have had their places of 
 worship in the city of Jerusalem, and the latitudinarianism of Ibrahim Pasha 
 had lately accorded that privilege to the Jews. The pure doctrines of the 
 Reformation, as embodied and professed in the Church of England, have alone 
 been unrepresented amidst all these corruptions ; and Christianity has been con- 
 templated, both by Mussulman and Jew, as a system most hateful to the creed of 
 each, a compound of mummery and image-worship. 
 
 This was an action on the part of the Church; another equally striking 
 a<-ti<>n on the part of the State was next recorded, to which allusion has 
 already been made in the quotation from the Diary, under date September 
 
 liyth: 
 
 The growing interest manifested for these regions, the larger investment of 
 British capital, and the confluence of British travellers and strangers from all 
 parts of the world, have recently induced the Secretary of State for Foreign 
 Affairs to station there a representative of our Sovereign in the person of a Vice- 
 Consul. This gentleman set sail for Alexandria at the end of last September ; 
 his residence will be fixed at Jerusalem, but his jurisdiction will extend to the 
 whole country within the ancient limits of the Holy Land ; he is thus accredited, 
 as it were, to the former kingdom of David and the Twelve Tribes. 
 
 The longest gap in Lord Ashley's early Diaries occurs between October 
 1838, and February, 1839. In the interval the threatened progress of Popery 
 had largely engaged his attention. 
 
 Feb. 2. This is a fair specimen of " gurnalising," as Walter Scott says, to have 
 paaaed three months without an entry. I have written an article on the Jews in 
 the Quarterly ; set agoing another on the Archbishop of Cologne, and 6tJrred up
 
 128 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CiiAi. VI. 
 
 the Times to warn the country to learn wisdom from the experience of the King 
 of Prussia, and prepare itself for resistance, or disgraceful and perilous sub- 
 mission, to the progress of Popery. Never did plan succeed better. The article 
 and the newspaper comments on it have produced all the effect that is possible in 
 the present day on the inert masses and ignorant or unthinking individuals o? 
 the richer classes. It is but small in comparison of the danger ; nevertheless, it 
 is a beginning full of hope ; it has run through the country in all directions, 
 opened many eyes, and convinced some few hearts ; and though bepraised, 
 trumpeted, used in menace by London and provincial press, no one has dared to 
 contravene its facts or reasonings. I think my friend the Rabbi McCaul * may well 
 rejoice and thank God for the fruit of his labours. As for my own work, I am 
 astonished when I reflect on it. At the time I undertook to write the article, I 
 knew nothing of the Jewish question save and except the appointment of a Vice- 
 Consul. 
 
 Not only did Lord Ashley " stir up the Times " with regard to Popery, 
 but he aroused activity in many other quarters. Among those to whom he 
 wrote on the subject was Sir Robert Peel, who replied thus : 
 
 Sir Robert Peel to Lord Ashley. 
 
 DRAYTON MANOR, January llth, 1839. 
 
 MY DEAR ASHLEY, I ought before this to have thanked you for having been 
 good enough to call my attention to the article in the last Quarterly Review on 
 the subject of Pa;>al Usurpations and the Spirit of Popery. I have long thought 
 that there were fearful indications of the approach of a great religious struggle, 
 which will probably be co-extensive with Popery and Protestantism in Europe. 
 
 There is probably an intimate union and combination among the professors of 
 the Roman Catholic faith. I fear the harmony is not so great among their oppo- 
 nents. I little thought that a torch of discord would be lighted up within the 
 walls of the University of Oxford. 
 
 Ever, my dear Ashley, 
 
 Most faithfully yours, 
 
 ROBERT PEEL. 
 
 The Ministry of 1 ord Melbourne was not popular, and in May (1839) a 
 proposition to set asid<5 for five years the constitution of Jamaica was fatal to 
 it. The measure was hotly opposed; a majority of only five in its favour 
 was a virtual defeat, and in consequence the Ministry resigned. 
 
 The Queen sent for the Duke of Wellington, and he advised her to apply 
 to Sir Robert Peel, on the ground that " the chief difficulties of a Conserva- 
 tive Government would be in the Hoxise of Commons." Up to a certain 
 point Sir Robert Peel was successful in his negotiations as regarded the new 
 
 * Rev. Alex. McCaul. He was playfully called " Rabbi " by Lord Ashley on account 
 of hia knowledge of Hebrew and his interest in the Jews.
 
 1839.) THB "BEDCHAMBER QUESTION." 129 
 
 appointments, and then a series of difficulties arose to which reference is 
 made in Lord Ashley's Diary. It was found that in the Royal Household 
 the ladies most closely in attendance upon the Queen were Lady Normanby 
 the wife of Lord Normanby, who had been Lord Lieutenant of Ireland 
 under the Whigs and the sister of Lord Morpeth, the Irish Secretary. It 
 became evident to Sir Robert Peel that he could not proceed with his 
 appointments unless there should be a readjustment of the Royal Household 
 as regarded the ladies in close attendance upon the Queen. If a new Irish 
 policy were to be worked and the policy of the Conservatives was in direct 
 opposition to that of the Whigs it could not be done satisfactorily if the 
 wife and the sister of the displaced statesmen remained the confidential 
 companions of the Queen. 
 
 It is probable that had this matter been made perfectly clear at the outset, 
 the difficulty, known as the " Bedchamber Question," would not have arisen. 
 As it was, there was a misunderstanding and a complication. While Peel 
 desired a readjustment only as regarded the higher offices, the impression 
 made upon the mind of the Queen was, that the composition of her whole 
 Household was to be changed. It was a saying of the Duke of Wellington, 
 when speaking of the ease and elegance of Lord Melbourne, and his gift of 
 doing things gracefully " I have no small talk, and Peel has no manners," 
 and it is probable that, in this instance, the mode in which the alterations 
 were proposed may have had some influence on the result. 
 
 The Queen wrote to Sir Robert Peel : 
 
 The Queen having considered the proposal mode to her yesterday by Sir 
 Robert Peel, to remove the Ladies of her Bedchamber, cannot consent to a course 
 which she considers to be contrary to usage, and is repugnant to her feelings. 
 
 To this communication Sir Robert Peel replied : 
 
 Having had the opportunity, through your Majesty's gracious consideration, 
 of reflecting upon this point, he humbly submits to your Majesty that he is com- 
 pelled, by a sense of public duty, and of the interests of your Majesty's service, to 
 adhere to the opinion which he ventured to address to your Majesty. He trusts 
 he may be permitted at the same time to express to your Majesty his grateful 
 acknowledgments for the distinction which your Majesty conferred upon him by 
 requiring his advice and assistance in the attempt to form an Administration ; 
 and his earnest prayer that whatever arrangements your Majesty may be enabled 
 to moke for that purpose, may be most conducive to your Majesty's personal 
 comfort and happiness, and to the promotion of the public welfare. 
 
 Thus ended Peel's attempt to form a Ministry, and Lord Melbourne was 
 recalled. He said : 
 
 I resume office unequivocally, and solely for this reason, that I will not desert 
 my Sovereign in a situation of difficulty and distress, especially when a demand 
 ia made upon her Majesty with which I think she ought not to comply ; a demand 
 
 I
 
 130 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. (CHAP. VI. 
 
 inconsistent with her personal honour, and which, if acquiesced in, would render 
 her reign liable to all the changes and variations of political parties, and make 
 her domestic life one constant scene of unhappiness and discomfort. 
 
 The matter created a great deal of public excitement at the time, but 
 eventually it cooled down, and in the end the question was settled in a 
 manner satisfactory to all, viz., that on a. change of Ministry " the Queen 
 would listen to any representation from the incoming Prime Minister as to 
 the composition of her household, and would arrange for the retirement, of 
 their own accord, of any ladies who were so closely related to the leaders of 
 Opposition as to render their presence inconvenient." 
 
 Incidentally the Bedchamber Question had an important bearing upon 
 Lord Ashley, whose relation to the affair is told in the following words : 
 
 May llth. Gaps of course. Up to the present day not an entry, and yet I have 
 seen, and heard, and done enough to fill volumes, that is with matter interesting 
 to myself. Peel in, and Peel out, to be uttered almost in the same breath. Both 
 steps became him. 
 
 On morning of 9th received letter from Peel desiring my instant attendance. 
 Went thither ; waited a short time ; he then joined me and opened conversation 
 by saying that the sense of his responsibility weighed him down. " Here am I, 1 ' 
 added he, "called on to consider the construction of the Queen's Household, and 
 I wish very much to have your free and confidential advice on the subject. I 
 remember that I am to provide the attendants and companions of t his young 
 woman, on whose moral and religious character depends the welfare of millions of 
 human beings. What shall I do ? I wish to have around her those who will be, 
 to the country and myself, a guarantee that the tone and temper of their char- 
 acter and conversation will tend to her moral improvement. The formation of a 
 Cabinet, the appointment to public offices, is easy enough ; it is a trifle compared 
 to the difficulties and necessities of this part of my business. Now," said he, 
 " will you assist me ; will you take a place in the Queen's Household 1 Your 
 character is such in the country ; you are so connected with the religious societies 
 and the religion of the country ; you are so well known and enjoy so high a repu- 
 tation, that you can do more than any man. Indeed, I said to Arbuthnot this 
 morning there were but two men who could render me essential service, and 
 they are the Duke of Wellington and Ashley. I am ashamed" he added with em- 
 phasis, " to ask such a thing of you. I know how unworthy any place about Court 
 is of you, but you see what my position is, the service you may render to the 
 Queen, and the satisfaction I may thereby give to the country and to myself." I 
 was thunderstruck. Everything rushed before my mind : the trivialities of a 
 Court life, the loss of time, the total surrender of my political occupations, and 
 of all that an honourable ambition had prompted me to hope for ; instead of 
 being a Minister, to become a mere puppet : to abandon every public employment 
 and all private and domestic comfort ; to submit, moreover, to the insults and 
 intrigues that every subaltern in a palace must be aware of, was too much to 
 bear. I felt my vanity not a little wounded then ; I felt it would be wounded 
 much more when people said that Peel had placed me according to his estimate
 
 1839.1 RESIGNATION OP SIR ROBERT PEEL. 131 
 
 of my abilities. I had not desired office ; I was anxious to avoid it ; bat a life at 
 Court I had ever contemplated with the utmost horror as the most disagreeable. 
 I was silent for some minutes, and then I told him that, while I felt the whole 
 force of his appeal, I could not but consider the absolute and painful sacrifice of 
 everything I valued in public and private life ; that I thought he had misjudged 
 my efficiency, as, being a Commoner, I could not hold any place which might 
 bring me at Court into contact with the Queen nevertheless, that, as I believed 
 the interests, temporal and eternal, of many millions to be wrapped up in the 
 success of his Administration, and no man should live for himself alone, but 
 should do his duty in that state of life to which it should please God to call him, 
 I would, if he really and truly thought I could serve his purpose, accept, if he 
 wished it, the office of Chief Scullion I I thought he would have burst into 
 tears. " You have given me," he said, " more relief than you are aware of." We 
 then proceeded to discuss appointments. . . . My impression was, throughout; 
 that never did I see a man in a higher frame of mind for the discharge of his 
 duties ; in a state of heart more solemn, more delicate, and more virtuous. I am 
 sure that no parent ever felt towards his own daughter a more deep sense of duty 
 and affectionate interest than he did then towards Queen Victoria. I added that 
 he must appoint, not only persons against whom nothing could be said, but those 
 of whom it would be at once remarked, " This is a good appointment" 
 
 Lord Ashley then drove with Sir x JRobert Peel to Buckingham Palace, but 
 did not go in himself. On the way thither, the conversation was resumed. 
 
 He asked me my opinion of .... I objected to him as no great thing in 
 himself, and as having a noisy wife, who would be distasteful to the Queen. 
 " My suggestion is," I said, " in respect of the ladies, that you do no more than is 
 absolutely necessary ; " he quite agreed ; he did not seem to anticipate any 
 difficulties whatsoever in anything respecting the Household. " There are the 
 maids of honour," he said ; " why should I remove Miss Rice, for instance f I 
 don't think it necessary." " Certainly not," I replied ; " it is more gracious to 
 the Queen, and more gracious to those whom you succeed, to leave as many as 
 you can without danger to yourself." He entirely concurred ; and I remarked 
 that the " Queen should be the Queen of the Kingdom, not of a party." He then 
 repeated his gratitude to me, and we separated. He had no view to patronage, 
 and was endeavouring simply to combine the public necessity with the Queen's 
 personal satisfaction. Now, whether I was right, or whether I was wrong, God 
 lone can know. I implored His grace, as I ever will do, before I went, and 
 prayed for "counsel, wisdom, and understanding." On reflection, I renew 
 my antipathies, but adhere to my decision. 
 
 May 14th. On Friday morning I went to him, and heard, to my astonish- 
 ment, of his resignation ; he gave me a clear and succinct narrative of the 
 whole, and his letter to read. I told him at the end he was a fine fellow, and 
 that I rejoiced both in his conduct and the step he had taken. I am now 
 writing on May 14th ; his explanation of last night tells a great deal, but not the 
 whole. " I remembered," said he to me, after he had done speaking, " that I 
 was talking of a Lady not present in this House ; " " and," I added, " that Lady 
 your Sovereign." " Precisely," he rejoined. He had, in his interview with the 
 i 2
 
 132 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. VI. 
 
 Queen, entreated her not to be precipitate, but calmly to consider his proposi- 
 tions ; three successive times did he see her ; and once, by her permission, he 
 fetched the Duke of Wellington, who urged the same things, and can tell the 
 same story ; the final decision was then deferred to the Friday morning, and was 
 as we all know. " Nothing can be more unjust than to charge me," he said, 
 " with an attempt to change all the ladies ; I should, for instance, have been 
 really sorry had Lady Lyttleton quitted her Majesty." 
 
 When Peel's Administration of three days " three glorious days " had 
 ended, he retired, satisfied with himself, and without a dissentient voice from 
 any one of his party. The Diary continues : 
 
 May 21st. Melbourne is back again. . . . Reports everywhere prevalent 
 that the Ministry, though formed, cannot be sustained. I am inclined to 
 believe, from Melbourne's language to Anson, that he is labouring to persuade 
 the Queen to revert to the Tories ; his own Government he feels to be 
 impossible without such concessions to Radicalism as will destroy both Whigs 
 and Tories together. If he is honourable, and in earnest, he will succeed. 
 
 Dined last night at the Palace. I cannot but love the Queen, she is so kind 
 and good to me and mine ; I do love her, and will serve her ; it is a duty and u 
 pleasure, a duty to her and to God 1 Poor soul 1 she was low-spirited ; I do 
 deeply feel for her. " Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown." Oh, that she 
 knew what alone makes a yoke easy, and a burden light ! This entire episode 
 has been painful ; it has shown me another proof of what I always assert, that 
 party feeling is superior to all passions ; no one seems to fall so soon before it as 
 your professors of principle. 
 
 Early in 1839 (February 12th) Lord John Russell had announced the in- 
 tention of Government to constitute a Board of Education, consisting of five 
 Privy Councillors, and to place at its disposal from 20,000 to 30,000 per 
 annum as a grant in aid of schools. Hitherto that is to say from 1834, when 
 the first grant of public money for the purposes of Elementary Education was 
 made by Parliament the distribution had been carried out by the Lords of 
 the Treasury through the National School Society and the British and 
 Foreign School Society. It was now proposed that the grant should be in- 
 creased by 10,000 ; that it should be distributed by a Committee of the 
 Privy Council, and that instead of the grants being confined to Church of 
 England or Protestant Schools, they should be extended to schools not neces- 
 sarily connected with the two great educational societies, even including those 
 in which the Roman Catholic version of the Bible was read. 
 
 The scheme met with fierce opposition, chiefly on the ground that public 
 money ought not to pass through the hands of the Committee of the Privy 
 Council, and that it ought not to be in any way diverted from schools in con- 
 nection with the Established Churcli. 
 
 The Duke of Wellington, whose opinion Lord Ashley was always glad to 
 have, held very decided views on the subject, to which he gave expression in 
 the following communication :
 
 |83.) THE COMMITTEE OP PRIVY COUNCIL. 133 
 
 Tiie Duke of Wellington to Lord Athlfy. 
 
 , May 20th, 1839. 
 
 MY DEAR LOBD ASHLEY, I have received your note, and I am much con- 
 oerned that I cannot attend the meeting to be presided over by the Archbishop of 
 Canterbury on the subject of Education. 
 
 I don't know what course our leaders in the House of Commons will take upon 
 the subject. 
 
 I could say nothing without running the risk of differing in opinion with 
 them. 
 
 I do entertain a very strong opinion upon it, and have written a memorandum 
 upon it, which I will send to you as soon as I can get it copied. 
 
 I will subscribe in every diocese with which I have any relation, provided it is 
 to establish schools really and bondjide under the exclusive superintendence and 
 >n of the clergy of the Church of England. 
 
 I must subscribe, if so required by law, and pay for the establishment of 
 schools, established on the principles of the Minutes and Orders of Council, under 
 the superintendence of the Committee of Council. 
 
 But I will not subscribe, or, unless compelled by law, pay one farthing towards 
 the establishment of such systems. 
 
 This is my opinion and resolution in few words. 
 
 Believe me, ever yours most sincerely, 
 
 WELLINGTON. 
 
 On the 14th June, Lord Stanley moved for "an humble address to Her 
 Majesty to revoke the Order in Council appointing a Committee of Council 
 to superintend the application of any sums voted by Parliament for the pur- 
 pose of promoting public education." 
 
 Lord Ashley supported the motion in a long and exhaustive speech, and by 
 
 arguments which, it must be confessed, are not in accordance with modern 
 
 -. He said that while he would not assert that the plan proposed by the 
 
 -Mini-lit was unconstitutional, he would assert that the measure would 
 nevertheless be adverse to the Constitution. The Committee were to deter- 
 mine tin- principle, mode, and measure of distribution; to introduce new 
 
 ns of education, to say what was to be taught, and what was to be with- 
 lirl'l ; what was the form of belief to be propagated ; to define the limits of 
 doctrine, and to declare what was to be common to all, and what was to be 
 
 i'-red as special to a few. He objected to the mode in which Lord 
 John Hussi-11 liail Miliinittcd the question ; it should not have been a motion 
 "That tin- Order of the Day for the Committee of Supply be now read," but a 
 Bill, inasmuch as it would then be sent up to the House of Lords, the only 
 Branch of the Legislature where the Church is represented. He said : 
 
 It is a mockery to require the assent of their Lordships to a turnpike or a road 
 Bill, and pass it by on the weighty topics of moral and religious education. It ia
 
 134 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. VI. 
 
 above all a matter of astonishment and regret that the Bishops of the land, the 
 parties most responsible for the good conduct and government of the people in 
 this country in spirituals, should be denied the liberty to express their opinions 
 on the tendency of the proposed system to promote the spiritual welfare of the 
 Church. Has the noble Lord assigned any public advantages to be derived from 
 such a course ? The party-advantages are evident enough ; the opposition to it 
 in another place might be inconvenient and fatal ; but we have a right to 
 demand some public grounds. Consider the evil nature of the precedent you are 
 laying down by converting measures of unspeakable interest into mere money- 
 votes, abating thereby the reverence due to the subject-matter, limiting the 
 means and opportunities of consideration to the House of Commons, and wholly 
 excluding the House of Lords. 
 
 Lord Ashley then attacked the measure itself in unsparing terms. He 
 regarded it as hostile to the Church, inasmuch as she would gradually be 
 deprived of all control and superintendence over her own schools, except those 
 that might be founded on the purely voluntary system. He foresaw that all the 
 new schools, and probably half the old ones, would require assistance, and that, 
 if they accepted a grant, they must submit to the sole, or at least the joint, 
 inspectorship of the State, and it was not difficult to see the degree of authority 
 that would fall to the lot of the weaker party. 
 
 Nothing less than the question who should command the whole mind of 
 the country was involved, and it was not fitting that merely political persons 
 should devise and control the proposed system. Not only did he regard it as 
 hostile to the Church, but as hostile to Revealed Religion itself. In the 
 Government plan, religion was to be divided into " general and special," and 
 that he considered to imply a disjunction of the most sacred truths, and the 
 opening of the door to every kind of heresy. He said, in conclusion : 
 
 You may call all this bigotry and fanaticism, but I maintain that it is the 
 solemn sentiment of a nation, and, as such, entitled to respect. Will the noble 
 Lord force his plan upon the country? This would be persecution ; and the more 
 ridiculous, as it would be undertaken to carry out principles which, as members 
 of the Established Church, the Ministers must conscientiously deny. I recollect 
 well the time when the Dissenters petitioned for the abolition of church-rates, on 
 the ground that it was unjust to summon them to support the fabric of a Church 
 whose doctrines they repudiated. On that occasion they pleaded conscience ; the 
 Ministers allowed the plea, and proposed a remedy. Though these Dissenters 
 were a minority a small minority of the whole country yet the Government 
 proposed to abolish, in their behalf, an impost which had subsisted for 800 years, 
 and under which all the property of the kingdom had been taken. They now 
 reverse the policy, and propose to force on the great majority a novel tax, for the 
 purpose of giving instruction in creeds which the majority declare to be 
 unscriptural and false, repugnant alike to their feelings and their religion. I 
 know that, in making these remarks, I expose myself to the charge of bigotry 
 and illiberality. I regret it ; but I cannot consent to abate the expression of any 
 sentiments I may have avowed this evening. I have no objection, nay, quite the
 
 l.Jy I COUNCIL ON EDUCATION CONSTITUTED. 135 
 
 reverse, to consider any plan that may tend to the moral advancement of the 
 people of England ; bat I will never consent to any plan that shall sever 
 religious from secular education ; and by religious education I mean the fall, 
 direct, and special teaching of all the great and distinctive doctrines of the 
 Christian faith. 
 
 The House divided on Thursday, June 20th. For Lord John Russell's 
 motion, 180 ; for Lord Stanley's amendment, 175. But the matter did not 
 rest here ; a fiercer struggle awaited it in the Upper House, to which it was 
 transferred, when the Archbishop of Canterbury moved and carried an 
 address to the Queen praying her to revoke the Order in Council. The 
 Qneen replied firmly, and at the same time gently rebuked the peers for 
 insinuating that she was inattentive to the interests of the Established 
 Church. " Of the proceedings of the Committee," she said, "annual reports 
 will be laid before Parliament, so that the House of Lords will be enabled to 
 exerrise its judgment upon them ; and I trust that the funds placed at my 
 disposal will be found to have been strictly applied to the objects for which 
 they were granted." 
 
 The Committee of Council on Education was therefore nominated the 
 institution by which our system of public instruction has been managed ever
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 SCOTLAND 1839. 
 
 ON the 9th August, Lord and Lady Ashley, accompanied by their eldest son, 
 set off for a tour in Scotland. Only once before in his Parliamentary life 
 had he quitted London while the Houses were sitting. There were urgent 
 reasons for his doing so now, or he would not have left when, as he says, 
 it " is the time for Parliamentary rogues and vagabonds ; " when " job may 
 follow job, and blacken the whole surface of the Lords and Commons." 
 A closely-written Diary of over a hundred quarto pages tells the story of 
 his travels, penned at odd moments and in divers places during the tour. 
 
 Aug. 9th, 1839. Left London by the 2 o'clock train for Birmingham. Found 
 Roebuck in the carriage : he was civil and by no means disagreeable. . . . 
 10th. Saw the Bull Ring, famous for mobs and conflagrations. These towns 
 always affect me the mass of human-kind, whom nothing restrains but force 
 or habit, uninfluenced, because unreached, by any moral or religious discipline ) 
 presents a standing miracle. We imagine a force and trust to a habit ; it ia 
 neither one nor the other. " Sceptra tencns mollitque animos et temperat iras. 
 Ni faciat ! " . . 
 
 Spanked along the road to Liverpool. It is quite a just remark that the 
 Devil, if he travelled, would go by the train. . . . Surveyed the town, admired 
 its buildings, commended its broad streets, and wondered at its wealth. Ships, 
 colonies, and commerce, with a vengeance, and yet (I thank God for it) there 
 seem to be more churches here than in any town I have seen. . . . Thousands 
 of the dirtiest, worst-clad children I ever saw, throng the streets, presenting a 
 strange inconsistency with the signs of luxury all around. You marvel whence 
 they come, till you get a peep into the side-alleys. We perceive at once the Irish 
 parentage of these cheerful, but unclean beings. But Liverpool is a town of 
 good repute ; though " her merchants are princes, and her traffickers the honour- 
 able of the earth," they serve God with a portion of their wealth, and raise 
 temples to His name and worship. . . . 
 
 Lord Ashley did not take any very prominent part in the great movement 
 for the abolition of the slave trade ; but his sympathies were warmly with 
 those who were bearing the brunt of the battle, and frequent references to 
 their labours, and to the horrors of the system, are to be found in his Journal. 
 Thus we find him, on his holiday tour, studying the latest information on the 
 subject, in the volume just ptiblished by Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, entitled 
 " The Slave Trade and its Remedy."
 
 1*39.1 ROBERT SOUTHEY. 137 
 
 Aajr. 13th. Have been reading, on the journey, Burton's account of the actual 
 state of the slave trade. It is enough to make a man miserable for life ; and, in 
 fact, were it not providentially ordained that we forget some things, and grow 
 dead to others, we should, had we a spark of sentiment, be unceasingly suffering. 
 But sympathy is useless, nay, contemptible, without corresponding action ; what 
 can we do to wipe out this " damned spot," and mitigate this horrid tyranny ? 
 The human arm has utterly failed ; treaties, force, persuasion, the march of 
 intellect, and the lessons of Christianity, all have stumbled like wretched infants 
 with rickety legs and idiotic apprehensions. Let those who believe in God, and 
 have faith in Him, cry day and night, and almost, like Jacob, wrestle, as it were, 
 for a blessing on those peoples and nations, black though they be. But will man 
 ever succeed ? It is our duty to persevere in the holy attempt, but the triumph, 
 I bslieve, is reserved for other hands and other days ; for that peculiar and 
 hallowed time when lie " shall undo the heavy burdens, and let the oppressed 
 go free." 
 
 We went to see the view from the Rayrigg ; delicious ; the lights varied it at 
 every moment, the whole lake seemed to sparkle, and every succeeding hour till 
 now, nine o'clock, has exhibited a new and peculiar beauty in the sky and in the 
 landscape. Arthur Kinnaird joined us to-day in our boat to the Rayrigg. He is 
 an agreeable, good-humoured man, with a sound honest conscience, as he has 
 proved by the resignation of his seat in Parliament. 
 
 The correspondence with Robert Southey, begun in 1829, continued with 
 great regularity and growing interest. Southey often repeated his invitation 
 to Lord Ashley to break away from his ever-increasing duties, and take some 
 recreation at the Lakes. He wrote : 
 
 . . . Few things would give me more pleasure than to row you and Lady 
 Ashley round this beautiful lake in a good old boat, called the Ark, for its form 
 and capacious size, and to go up Skiddaw with you, which is the easy work of 
 five hours ; and to show you my books (probably the best collection that ever was 
 possessed by one who had no other wealth), and to let you see my way of life, 
 than which a more tranquil or happier one could not be devised, if tranquillity 
 and happiness depended upon ourselves alone. 
 
 But this pleasure was not to be realised, as the following entry will 
 show : 
 
 Aug. 15th. Called at Southey's house, and found that he was absent. I had 
 been led to fear this ; but although a visit to him had been, for many years, a 
 great object with me, and a very principal motive of my journey this season, I 
 could not recall my plans and forego the gratification of seeing the Lakes. I may 
 neyer have another opportunity, perhaps, of seeing him in this world. Well, 
 may God bless him, and his, in this life and the next, for the mighty good his 
 works have done. I owe much, very much to them ; and I especially remember 
 his Book of the Church, his Colloquies, and Moral Essays. . . . 
 
 It was not only to the works of Southey that Lord Ashley was indebted ; 
 he had derived great benefit from his personal friendship. On one occasion,
 
 138 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. VII. 
 
 when they were talking together on methods of work, reference was made to 
 the strain laid on the mind by too continuous attention to one theme of study. 
 Sonthey narrated a plan he had adopted, by which he not only secured relaxa- 
 tion, but, by a frequent change of mental pursuits, was able to accomplish 
 almost any amount of work with vigour and freshness. " He told me," said 
 Lord Shaftesbury, in speaking to young men on the necessity of labour as an 
 element in all healthy recreation and rest, "that he had six or seven different 
 reading desks in his study, with a different book or theme on each ; on one, a 
 magazine article ; on another, a poem ; on another, a study in history ; on 
 another, a letter to a friend ; and so on. When he tired of the one he went 
 to the other, and found himself so refreshed by the change that he was able 
 to be in his study from early in the morning till late at night, going to each 
 subject with fresh zest and vigour." 
 
 It was singular that Lord Ashley should have written, " I may never have 
 another opportunity, perhaps, of seeing him in this world," for even 
 while he was writing it, the beginning of the cud had come and he never 
 saw his friend again. In June of the following year he received a letter 
 from Mrs. Southey (better known by her maiden name of Caroline Bowles), 
 who had only been married to the poet in June, 1839. The letter was as 
 follows : 
 
 Mrs. Southey to Lord Ashley. 
 
 GBETA HALL, 20th June, 1840. 
 
 MY LORD, The regard with which you have so long honoured my beloved 
 husband, together with my knowledge of his high consideration for your Lord- 
 ship, induces me to believe that I act consonantly with what would be his desire, 
 could he express it, in making you acquainted with the cause of his prolonged 
 silence ; one, if not two of your Lordship's letters having lain ten or twelve months 
 in his desk unanswered, although noted for immediate reply on our arrival at 
 Keswick. 
 
 It is more than probable that public rumour has conveyed to you something 
 of the sad truth that serious indisposition of the most afflicting nature has for 
 many months incapacitated Mr. Southey from all use of his pen, all literary ap- 
 plication, all continuance of his extensive correspondence. No specific disease of 
 any kind having manifested itself unequivocally, his brother and physician, Dr. 
 Henry Southey, encouraged me to hope that, as the debilitating effects of repeated 
 attacks of influenza wore off, his constitution would gradually right itself, and 
 the mind (then affected only by sympathetic languor) recover its healthful 
 tone. 
 
 On this hope I lived till within the last few months till the sad conviction 
 pressed itself upon me, that all rational ground for it was giving way. That 
 " the night when no man can work " was closing on my husband's life of moral 
 usefulness, and that though, with care, his existence may be many years pro- 
 longed in this state of being, I must look heavenward only, beyond " the pale 
 and grave of death," for the restoration which will then be perfect and in- 
 destructible.
 
 1830.] SOUTH K* 8 LAST TEARS. 139 
 
 In the meantime, God be thanked 1 there is no actual suffering, and in my 
 grievous trial I have the consolation of a humble hope that, in permitting our 
 late union, He has provided for my beloved husband, in his friend of two-and- 
 twenty years, a more fitting companion for the days of his decline, than any 
 other earthly friend could be. 
 
 The receipt of a third circular from the Incorporated National Society, of 
 which your Lordship is chairman, has decided me to make the foregoing com- 
 munication. I had for some time hesitated on the fitness of such an intrusion on 
 your Lordship from one personally unknown to you. 
 
 Had all been well with Mr. Sonthey, I am sure he would have joined " heart 
 and hand " in co-operation with your Lordship to the furtherance of an end so 
 important as that proposed by the National Society. 
 
 I beg to subscribe myself, 
 
 Your Lordship's obedient servant, 
 
 CAROLINE SOUTHET. 
 
 With unwearied devotion and tenderness this gifted woman whose 
 poems and other literary labours were very popular in her day, and still 
 have a charm for many ministered to her husband, who sank deeper and 
 deeper into unconsciousness, until in 1843 he passed away. Soon afterwards 
 Lord Ashley wrote in his Diary : 
 
 March 24th. After three years of mental eclipse Robert Southey has been 
 gathered to his fathers ; I loved and honoured him ; that man's noble writings 
 have, more than any other man's, advanced God's glory and the inalienable rights 
 of our race. He was essentially the friend of the poor, the young, and the 
 defenceless no one so true, so eloquent, and so powerful 
 
 The friend of his youth was never forgotten ; and among Lord Shaftes- 
 bury's papers was found a letter, dated 1864, thanking him in terms of 
 wannest gratitude, that through his influence with Lord Palmerston, " The 
 Queen had been pleased to confer a pension of 100 a year upon Mrs. Hill, 
 aa the daughter of Robert Southey." 
 
 The Diary continues : 
 
 Aug. 20th. Not had time till now to make any entnes. Saw the Cathedral 
 at Carlisle, old, and somewhat ungainly. There are points in it of beauty and 
 interest, but the charm (and that is an unfailing one to my mind) lies in its 
 
 antiquity Carlisle is a bad place, and always has been. Hand-loom 
 
 weavers here, as elsewhere, are the stock-in-trade for the agitators to work 
 
 with Sunday. Netherby. To church sermon good and pious. No 
 
 evening service ; this was a disappointment. I dearly love the afternoon service 
 of a rural parish. Its omission is a great error ; the service is good for all, and 
 necessary for many who cannot attend the earlier worship. It is the ordinance 
 of the Church, and the business of the day. The longer I live the more I 
 reverence and adore the benevolent wisdom of God, which has set apart one day
 
 140 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. VII. 
 
 in seven for His service and man's refreshment. It is the peculiar right, privi- 
 lege, and comfort of the poor. The established service in this diminutive parish, 
 struck me forcibly as a proof of the advantage and necessity of an Endowed 
 Church, and a composed Liturgy Tuesday. On the road to New- 
 battle. A glorious day though cold, but admirably adapted to distant views. 
 Passed the house of Sir Walter Scott. Nearly twenty years ago I spent some 
 days in the society and house of that great man, whose memory I hope will 
 ever be blessed. Since that day how many of those I met there have been 
 gathered to their fathers Sir Walter, his two daughters, neither of them, I 
 believe, older than myself ; I understand, too, Mrs. Maclean, and Thompson 
 the tutor. .... 
 
 Newbattle Abbey, the seat of the Marquis of Lothian, stands on the 
 site of an abbey founded by David I. for a community of Cistercian monks. 
 The last abbot was an ancestor of the noble Marquis. This was the next 
 halting-place of Lord Ashley on his tour: 
 
 Arrived after a long journey long in time, not so in distance. Found 
 Lothian away ; a letter despatched to warn us, and which we had missed. 
 
 Aug. 22nd. Lothian returned last night. Rode to see the ruins of Crichton 
 Castle, celebrated in " Marmion." Impressive, as ancient ruins always are, 
 but less splendid than the remains of English castles. ... I observe, in 
 many directions, a considerable change in the architecture of the kirks, indi- 
 cating, I hope, a certain change in the ecclesiastical feeling. You may see towers 
 and steeples and ornamented windows, but, above all, various parts of the edifice 
 surmounted by a cross ; it is especially so at Liberton and Dalkeith. May 
 this be taken as a proof of the abatement of the bigoted ignorance and furious 
 spirit of the Covenanters, and a practical advance towards the reasonable ser- 
 vice of the Church of Englarud ? 
 
 Aug. 23rd. To-day we must depart. They have been exceedingly kind to 
 us, and have made the house particularly agreeable. This is the great draw- 
 back in touring ; no sooner are you well shaken together, and become at ease, 
 than the tocsin sounds for separation. It is, however, a fac-simile of the 
 world itself, and as such should be improved into a moral lesson. . . . The 
 children that I have seen in these northern parts, beginning with Westmore- 
 land, are, in many instances, very pretty. They interest me exceedingly, and 
 I feel a sympathy and a love for the whole infantine world. 
 
 Aug. 24th. Walked to Rosslyn Castle and Chapel. The latter is a beautiful 
 specimen of the Gothic, and now carefully preserved by the owner. In these 
 days we have not the will, and, had we the will, we have not the taste and 
 the skill, to raise such edifices to the honour and worship of Almighty God. 
 We dole out our miserable subscriptions, and erect a building for God's House 
 which most of those who contribute would not think suitable for their stables ; 
 thus our nobles and merchants dwell in their palaces of vermilion, while 
 " the Ark of God is under curtains." It is a wonderful thing, and one which 
 ought to shame us, that seven-tenths of the churches where our countrymen 
 now worship the Lord, in spirit and in truth, raised their venerable heads in 
 the dark times of Popery and superstition 1 Where should we have been now 
 had they not preceded us ?
 
 18.) SCOTLAND AND THE SCOTS. 141 
 
 Aug. 2">th. To Kirk 1 absolutely the Presbyterian Kirk. What could we 
 do otherwise if we desired to go to any place of worship at all? But they 
 protest against Popery and preach the Atonement in faith and love, so I can, 
 under stress of weather, take shelter in one of their chapels. But their service 
 I cannot call worship ; it appeals neither to the senses, the feelings, nor the 
 reason ; the business of the congregation is to listen ; they have neither part 
 nor voice in the function. They cannot pray, for their thoughts are turned from 
 private supplication, but are not turned into a public channel, for they wait on 
 the minister and must follow him. You must listen first to catch what he says 
 and then to pass a hasty judgment on what he utters. Any one who is sincere 
 would wish to ponder the meditations of his heart before he makes them the 
 request of his lips. No responses, no Amens ; all is silent, save the minister, who 
 discharges the whole ceremony and labours under the weight of his own tauto- 
 logies. I complain not so much of what he says, as of what he omits. . . . 
 
 Aug. 26th. Edinburgh. Visited the Castle. It is hardly possible to imagine 
 anything more noble for the residence of man than the city as it lies at your 
 feet ; nature has lent considerable aid in her rocks, and hills, and waters, giving 
 thereby a magnificence to the scene, that even Babylon, the Lady of Kingdoms, 
 could not have boasted. Saw the Regalia with the deepest interest all 
 antiquity moves me but the antiquity of bygone rule, and empire fled, is 
 singularly impressive. The crown is a precious memorial of a noble and heart- 
 stirring deed in the history of Scotland. It is the crown of Robert Bruce, made 
 by his order, after the glorious victory of Bannockburn, to supply the place of 
 the jewels carried away to England by our brigand King Edward. I have 
 always sympathised with the Scottish people in their resistance to English 
 aggressions ; no Caledonian, kilted or unkilted, in this country, can more delight 
 in the triumphs of Wallace and Bruce. My patriotism, though by God's blessing 
 I believe it to be deep, fervent, and true, does not extend to exultation in 
 insolence, cruelty, and injustice. . . . The annals of Scotland are full of 
 events. So many have been transacted within so narrow a compass of territory, 
 that almost every square mile is dignified by some occurrence in the pages of 
 history. Wherever you go, the imagination and the memory are constantly at 
 work ; the contrast of things in the present day is infinitely pleasing to the 
 spirit of political economy ; but the poetry is gone ; yet, no doubt, to the advan- 
 tage of the human race ; those things that make the best figure in narrative and 
 verse are, for the most part, terrible in the reality. . . . 
 
 The enthusiasm of Lord Ashley for Scotland and the Scots was not a 
 passing emotion kindled by the pleasurable circumstances of his holiday. 
 Again and again he returned to Scotland, and, up to the close of his life, he 
 expressed the same sentiments of attachment to the country and its people 
 t he felt in these earlier years. In 1875, when he visited Glasgow to 
 ssist in the establishment of a Home for Incurables, he said, playfully, but 
 in good truth, " In the Home for Incurables I may almost claim a berth for 
 myself, for I plead guilty to an incurable love for the people of Scotland." 
 
 To Holyrood House on foot, down the High Street and Canongate, and thus 
 tli rough a great part of the old town. The whole thing is far more like a foreign
 
 142 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. VII. 
 
 city. Had I not heard the English language on all sides, I should have believed 
 myself to be in some Flemish town ; the buildings, the caps and bare feet, the 
 transaction of everything in the street, the dirt, the smell, the stir and general 
 appearance of life, made me think I had crossed the Channel. It would have 
 amused us to have perambulated the streets for hours. . . . 
 
 Linlithgow. The ruins of the palace, very fine indeed, and, of course, as all 
 ruins are, very interesting. These old Scotch females who act as Cicerones 
 amuse me much. They get their story well up, and clack away like a scarecrow 
 with clappers. 
 
 Aug. 29th. . . . Walked through the Trossachs to the head of the lake ; 
 most attractive and sublime scenery, alternately tender and grand, sometimes 
 both united, exciting in our minds the idea of that Great Being (if we may 
 venture to use such a similitude) who alone combines in Himself supreme love 
 and supreme power. The vegetation is wildly luxuriant ; dwarf oak, fern, 
 heather, furze, &c., all mingled together, which receives a softening delicate tint 
 from the lovely, graceful hues of the heather. Minny was melancholy in this 
 walk, and talked much of " olden time " and people long since dead, and living 
 ones growing old, the painful contemplation of years advancing without piety, 
 and sorrows without experience. The lovely evening, with, its calm and soothing 
 breezes, bestirred this in her heart ; and truly this is oftentimes the effect of fine 
 prospects and a setting sun. There is a melancholy without despondency ; ft 
 sober and pensive dejection which is infinitely healthy to the soul ; the glory 
 that God sheds over His works, even in their corrupted condition, revives the 
 hopes of man, and while he feels and bewails the height from which he has 
 fallen, he lifts his eyes and his heart to it in faith and fear ; yet, " in the sure 
 and certain hope of a happy resurrection through Him that hath redeemed us." 
 
 Aug. 30th. . . Walter Scott has contrived to throw an indescribable charm 
 over the whole region. People have absolutely talked themselves, and quoted 
 themselves, into a full belief of everything he imagined ; a sufficient proof of 
 the excellence of his genius ! But it is all melancholy to me ; I knew and loved 
 the master-mind which is now dead and gone ; and I cannot divest myself here 
 in Scotland of the recollection of him. 
 
 Aug. 31st. Found that our carriage had been robbed during the night of some 
 articles not very valuable. Regretted that anything of the kind should have 
 happened in the country of the Gael ; attributed it to some English servants who 
 were about, yet more through antiquarian sympathy for these Celtic tribes, than 
 any just evidence against the Saxon 1 .... 
 
 The travellers next proceeded to Rossie Priory, ihe beautiful mansion of 
 the Kinnaird family, in a charming situation, and overlooking the banks of 
 the Tay. 
 
 To Roeaie, Lord Kinnaird's . . . found here, besides the family, Lord 
 Kinnaird's sister Olivia, Mr. and Mrs. Ponsonby, their daughter, Lady Fitz- 
 harris, and a Captain Baker, also Lord Stormont. The usual preliminaries of 
 stiffness, dulness, and hesitation being past ; when we had, as dogs, sniffed every 
 corner and ascertained the whole lay of the place, we became very sociable and 
 were well amused. . . .
 
 139.) THE HANDIWORK OP THE REFORMERS. 143 
 
 Sept 2nd. The people here are very amiable and pleasant ; . . . nothing 
 can be kinder, nothing more hospitable. . . This is an excellent house ; large, 
 comfortable, and handsome, fall of articles of wealth and taste, pictures, statues 
 and china, infinite in extent and value. The place is gentlemanlike, and 
 highly agreeable, commanding fine views of the country and the course of the 
 river Tay. 
 
 Sept. 4th. A drive of singular beauty ; a series of the most delicious views 
 of the Carse of Gowrie bounded by the distant hills. No one, unless he see this 
 place on a really favourable day, can form a judgment of its fascinations the 
 intermixture of mountain and cultivated plains, the glow of the harvest, the 
 blue expanse of the Tay, the dark foliage of pines and wooded hills, are incon- 
 ceivably rich. The day, too, was in itself absolutely luscious. . . . 
 
 Sept. 5th. Dunkeld. Issued out to see the cathedral, very ancient and very 
 ruinous ; this is again the handiwork of the Reformers, " Quae regio non plena 
 laborii ! " Perhaps a certain degree of violence towards these splendid and eye- 
 striking edifices, which had so often and so long been abused to superstition, was 
 inevitable in the then state of men's minds ; perhaps it was not ; but in the 
 present day surely it would be an act of sacrilege to lay hands on these, or any 
 part whatever of these venerable churches. And yet there are men who even 
 now, at this hour, would revive the dormant feeling of fanaticism, and level the 
 glorious cathedrals of York, of Lincoln, and of Westminster, with the dust 
 around them. Dr. McCrie, in his Life of Enox, sternly exhorts the world to 
 imitate those times, and wipe out every trace of a temple which idolatry has 
 defiled. He is foolishly, criminally wrong. History and principle are both 
 against him. The early Christians converted to their use the heathen shrines ; 
 and why more destroy these buildings, whose purpose is changed, than a 
 proselyte heathen or a repentant sinner? Hezekiah broke up the brazen 
 Serpent and made it Nehushtan, because it was unavailable for good, and had 
 itself become an object of worship. Those cathedrals had become the receptacle* 
 of superstition, not the actual " lie " that was adored. . . . 
 
 In the evening, by Lord Glenlyon's invitation, went to see the Highlanders 
 dance their reels in costume. Very entertaining, perfectly national, and they 
 were happy as grigs. They worked like fellows whose lives depended on the 
 number of steps they could cut in each figure. 
 
 Sept. 7th. Started early for Inverness ; delighted with the scenery ; uncom- 
 monly wild and free, very unlike the other Highlands we had seen. Here we 
 beheld, for the first time, true Gaelic life, the real abodes of the Celtic popula- 
 tion ; every now and then a few black spots in the middle of the waste marked 
 a Highland hamlet At a distance it looked like a Hottentot kraal ; when near, 
 like a corporation of pijj-styes ; yet the people in them seem well-clothed, and 
 the children are stout and ruddy. This is the true taste of the Highlander ; we 
 cannot judge of their condition by the appearance of the frequented parts of 
 Perthshire. Landlords and landladies have learned the trick of setting up 
 " sweet cottages " by the roadside I .... 
 
 Wherever Lord Ashley went, he always had the welfare of the poor in | 
 his thoughts, and, whenever he wanted information as to their condition, he I 
 was not content to get it from any other source than direct from themselves. J
 
 144 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. VIL 
 
 It was natural for him to walk into the harvest field and talk to the reapers, 
 and it was equally natural for him to sympathise with them in their toils and 
 the lack of generosity which shut them out from the joys of harvest. He 
 always regarded liberality in employers as an essential part of practical 
 Christianity, and the privilege of gleaning in the corn-fields after the reapers 
 as the right of the poor, notwithstanding the fact that modern law has 
 decided to the contrary. 
 
 Sept. llth. I walked into the fields hard by to talk to the reapers. No 
 wonder the Scotch farmer can afford to give a better rent, when he gives so 
 much worse a wage as the remuneration of labour one shilling a day to the 
 women, and fif teenpence to the men, for twelve hours at harvest time, is con- 
 sidered sufficient 1 We saw standing in the field two buckets of water ; their 
 employer gives no other refreshment. Nor does Sawney recognise either the 
 practice, or the philanthropy, of the " system of gleaning." " We alwaynt take a 
 long rake," said the farmer to me, " and gather it up." To be sure he does, and 
 thus makes of none effect one of the most gracious and beautiful provisions of 
 the Levitical law : " And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not 
 wholly reap the corners of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of 
 thy harvest " (Lev. six. 9). Again : " When ye reap the harvest of your land, 
 thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field when thou reapest, 
 neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest ; thou shalt leave them 
 unto the poor and to the stranger. I am the Lord your God " (xxiii. 22). . . 
 
 Oban. Had a dressing-room with a window in the ceiling, so that when it was 
 opened the rain came in. This is perverse in Scotch architects ; it renders it im- 
 posoible to enjoy fresh air in a climate where the rain is so abundant that they 
 have a million spoute of water for one ray of sunshine. . . . My room so low 
 that, if I attempted to brush the crown of my head, I rapped my knuckles 
 against the ceiling ; and the bed so short that, if I stretched my legs, I drove my 
 head against the other walL I was like a basket of game covered in the 
 middle, with head and feet out. . . . 
 
 One of the visits on this journey, which appears to have given Lord 
 Ashley unusual pleasure, was paid to Mr. Alison, the historian, afterwards 
 Sir Archibald Alison. It was in this year that the first volume of his great 
 work, " The History of Europe," was published. 
 
 Sept. 21st. Early to Alison's ; kindly and sincerely received. To Glasgow 
 mth him ; Minny accompanied us. We saw first Mr. Monteith's calico printing 
 works. They have, in the dyeing department, all the effect of magical trick. . . . 
 Mr. Napier's ironworks, the factory of steam-engines, boilers, and the whole 
 apparatus of these scientific monsters of the deep these wonderful subjugators 
 of nature by science, permitted, by a bountiful Providence, for man's benefit, but 
 perverted to the glorifying of his own intellect. . . . Minny drove home ; 
 Alison and I walked. At dinner Colonel and Mrs. Kearney, Dr. Macleod, of the 
 Scotch Church, a man of great natural abilities, original, simple, full of zeal, 
 kind in his manner, and, I am told, infinitely kind in his heart. I had seen him 
 once before, but I have now made his acquaintance, and am delighted that I have
 
 1899.] SYMPATHY WITH THE BUND. 1*5 
 
 done so. Mr. Montgomery, the author of "The Omnipresence of the Deity," 
 &c. kc., lately ordained in the English Church, and appointed to an Episcopal 
 Church in Glasgow. Some good talk very good talk ; an hour of excellent 
 conversation with Alison after the company was gone ; and to bed. 
 
 Among those on whose behalf Lord Ashley felt the keenest sympathy 
 were the blind. He was wont to say that insanity and blindness were the 
 two direst afflictions that could befall mankind, and we have seen how 
 vigorously and successfully he had exerted himself on behalf of the 
 insane. Terrible as was their condition, that of the indigent blind of the 
 metropolis was scarcely less so ; but until the year 1834 no opportunity for 
 making any special effort for them had occurred. In that year a Mr. 
 Harman called .upon him, and representing that these poor creatures were 
 wholly uncared for, urged upon him that an institution should be founded 
 for the purpose of visiting them in the cellars and dark, damp slums where 
 they were hidden away. The result of that interview was the formation of 
 the "Indigent Blind Visiting Society." The object of this admirable insti- 
 tution was to seek the general improvement of the condition of the indigent 
 blind by systematic visitation in their own dwellings ; by providing them 
 with guides to take them to places of worship, and to classes for their 
 instruction in reading and writing, and in various branches of remunerative 
 employment, and by affording them pecuniary relief in times of great 
 necessity. For fifty years Lord Shaftesbury was President of the Society, 
 and took an unabated interest in its labours. It is not surprising, therefore, 
 to find in the Journals of his travels that he lost no opportunity of ascertain- 
 ing how the blind were being dealt with in the places he visited. 
 
 Sept 23rd. Glasgow. To the Blind School This is, indeed, a thing to 
 gladden man's heart when he observes the power and mercy of God, compensating 
 for the privation of one sense by the supernatural vivacity of another. It is 
 beautiful and consolatory to behold the peace of mind that these poor creatures 
 enjoy, through the instrumentality, under Providence, of these inventions ; they 
 are now become capable of every mental and spiritual gratification ; many 
 can exercise various trades and callings, and, instead of being a clog, prove 
 an assistance to their families. I could hardly refrain from tears when I saw 
 their easy and happy acquaintance with the art of reading Scripture, and heard 
 the pleasure they took in the pursuit Blindness is, next to insanity, the heaviest 
 of God's visitations ; bears with it something of mystery, inasmuch as God has 
 ever reserved to Himself personally, as it were, the power of restoring the 
 eyesight. No mere man has been permitted to wield this power. 
 
 Sept 24th. . . . Joined Alison at the Registration Court, and walked with 
 him through the "dreadful " parts of this amazing city ; it is a small square plot 
 intersected by small alleys, like gutters, crammed with houses, dunghills, and 
 human beings ; hence arise, he tells me, nine-tenths of the disease, and nine- 
 tenths of the crime in Glasgow ; and well it may. Health would be impossible 
 in such a climate ; the air tainted by perpetual exhalations from the most 
 itinking and stagnant sources, a pavement never dry, in lanes not broad enough 
 K
 
 146 THE EARL OP 8HAFTESBURT. [CHAP. VII. 
 
 to admit a wheel-barrow. And is moral propriety and moral cleanliness, so to 
 speak, more probable ? Quite the reverse. Discontent, malignity, filthy and 
 vicious habits, beastly thoughts and beastly actions must be, and are, the results 
 of such associations. Oh ! for a temporary but sharp despotism, which, founding 
 its exercise on an imitation of God, would pass beneficial laws, and compel men 
 against their wills to do wisely 1 There should be a law prohibiting the con- 
 struction of streets, except of a fixed, and that a very considerable, width. In 
 large open spaces there is more health, more air, more cleanliness, more observa- 
 tion ; and public opinion comes in along with light. Though you could not thus 
 exterminate what is bad, you would externally abate it, and, as Burke says, 
 " Vice itself would lose half its evil, by losing all its grossness." These are the 
 last abodes of many of the factory population ; broken in health and spirits, cor- 
 rupted in mind, and ignorant alike of what is useful and true, be it in temporal 
 or eternal things, they pass, after the days of their fitness for mill-labour, from 
 one point of degradation to another, till they sink down, as to a common centre, 
 in this dark pit of misery. The high-mettled racer is a type of them, as in his 
 life, so also in his death. " Who knoweth," said Solomon, " the spirit of a man 
 that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the 
 earth 1 " But do these differ from the beast ? I trow not. . . . 
 
 No one at dinner but ourselves much useful and pleasant conversation. 
 Alison is a man after my own heart ; we agree in our views of ancient and 
 modern history ; we hold the same opinions of the future, and we never tire of 
 discussing the same subjects. His reading is immense, his powers of reflection 
 commensurate ; his thoughts deep and just, founded on induction and corrected 
 by experience. I have derived immense benefit and great pleasure from my in- 
 tercourse with him. 
 
 Sept. 25th. . . . Went to see Cora Linn, the great fall ; day most favour- 
 able for it. Taken with all its accompaniments of scenery, it is the noblest 
 cascade, perhaps, in Europe. The perpetual flow, and deep, though soothing 
 sound, resembles immortal eloquence. Thought of St. John's description of our 
 Saviour, " And His voice was as the sound of many waters." 
 
 Lord and Lady Ashley next visited Chillingham Castle, the residence of 
 the Earl and Countess of Tankerville, celebrated for its herds of wild cattle. 
 
 Sept. 26th. To Chillingham. Found here no one but Henry Liddell, M.P. for 
 Northumberland, and his son. Glad of it. Sometimes pleasant to have but few 
 people. Nothing kinder than our reception. 
 
 Sept. 27th. This delicious old castle is ten times as agreeable as it would be, 
 fsjvere it transmogrified by modern staircases and new rooms, with nothing left of 
 a castle but the name. The very originality, to us at least, of this kind of domi- 
 cile, has a charm. The apartments are neither many nor large ; but the bedrooms 
 are abundant and comfortable. The gardens and grounds are very striking from 
 their harmony with the edifice ; all has an air of grandeur, less owing to the 
 splendour of the castle and its appurtenances than to the spacious, solitary region 
 which surrounds it, the herds of red deer and wild cattle, and the manifest anti- 
 quity impressed on every object. . . . Out walking with Minny and Accy,* 
 
 * His son Antony.
 
 1830.] VAN MILDEKT, BISHOP OF DURHAM. 147 
 
 and Lord and Lady Tankerville, and Mr. Cole the gamekeeper, to look for the 
 wild cattle. Had already seen them, through a telescope, lying in mass on the 
 hillside ; beautiful and interesting creatures, I have no doubt that they are the 
 pure descendants of the aboriginal cattle of the island, driven by degrees, like the 
 ancient Britons by their invaders, to the remote and wild fastnesses of Northum- 
 berland. . . . We came upon them in full view ; they rose immediately and re- 
 treated in order, the bulls closing the rear. The sight was worth a journey of 
 two hundred miles ; there is nothing like it in England nothing even in Europe. 
 Sandy the antlered despot of the park seems to be the lord and master of 
 Chillingham ; he is far more talked about than Lord Tankerville, and, in fact, 
 there is reason for it, as he puts every one's limbs in danger, and Lord Tanker- 
 ville threatens none. What with bulls, and what with stags, our lives here are 
 in a constant state of excitement, a pleasing sense of dignified peril. We discuss 
 them by day, and dream of them by night . . . 
 
 On leaving Ckillingham, the travellers proceeded to Alnwick Castle, the 
 princely abode of the Duke and Duchess of Northumberland, one of the 
 grandest specimens in the kingdom of an old baronial residence. Every 
 stone of the castle, and every acre of its grounds, which extend for miles, 
 bristles with legends of the times when its strength and situation rendered it 
 one of the most important defences against the invasions of the Scots. 
 
 Oot 1st Alnwick. Quitted Chillingham with regret ; had received much 
 kindness and hospitality, and very great amusement. Received, almost when on 
 the point of starting, an invitation from the Duchess of Northumberland. 
 Resolved to go on immediately. . . . 
 
 Had no idea of the splendour of the castle, nor that so much of what is ancient 
 remained. The towers, courts, and gateways are majestic. Though the interior 
 of the habitable part is new, the chief of the masonry throughout is of very early 
 date. In this respect it very often surpasses Windsor. 
 
 Oot 2nd. Breakfast at 9 o'clock, punctual as clockwork. This appears to be 
 a Northumbrian virtue it was so at Chillingham, and I infer from a letter of 
 Lady Ravensworth's that it is so likewise at her castle. Made the circuit of the 
 walls the precincts comprise five acres. 
 
 Oot 3rd. . . . Parted from her Grace, in high admiration of her character, 
 and great fondness for herself. To Ravensworth. 
 
 Oct 4th. This is a good house ; handsome rooms, and full of fine things. The 
 people are dear, kind, friendly people whom I have long known. " Peace be to 
 this house ! " 
 
 Oct 5th. To Durham and saw the cathedral. Stood on the tombstone of Van 
 Mildert, the last Bishop of Durham, and the last prince-bishop that ever will be 
 there. Church reforms have levelled all these dignities. Perhaps they were 
 ri^'lit, perhaps they were necessary, but one's antiquarian sympathies are keenly 
 excited. A better man, or a more munificent soul, never flourished in the whole 
 catalogue of our bishops a catalogue dignified by all that is great and good in 
 learning, wisdom, generosity, and religion. I knew him well, and most pro- 
 foundly esteemed him ; would that it pleased God to give us others such a* he to 
 adorn and sustain His Church. 
 K 2
 
 148 THE EARL OF 8HAFTESBURY. [CHAP. VII. 
 
 Newby, the residence of Mr. and Lady Mary Vyner, was next visited, and 
 an excursion was made to Studley Royal, the seat of the late Earl of Ripon, 
 father of the present Marquis. The magnificent ruin of Fountains Abbey 
 adjoins, and is part of the domain. 
 
 Oct. 7th. Drove to Studley Park and Fountains Abbey. The park abounds 
 with magnificent trees, tempting me, most terribly, to covet my neighbour's 
 goods. Fountains Abbey, by common consent the finest ruin in England, is 
 infinitely graceful, infinitely touching. Looking at these delicious relics we are 
 apt to think of nothing but the pomps and impressive ritual of the Romish 
 worship, their long vigils and devout superstition ; all that is captivating even in 
 error ; their piety ; their hymns and their prayers. All that could charm the 
 sense, overwhelmed the mind then, and the imagination subjugates it now. We 
 should not like to return to the coarse and filthy orgies of those dens of hypocrisy ; 
 the oppression, vice, and violence that reigned in their precincts, the degradation 
 of soul and body, for time and eternity I Yet, why could we not retain the 
 building, when we got rid of the inmates 1 . . . . 
 
 Oct. 9th. To Ripon to call on the Bishop and see the minster. Saw the Bishop 
 and his new palace, at least the skeleton of it ; a pretty thing and a comfortable. 
 I wish these bishoprics had larger revenues ; 4,500 a year are wholly inadequate 
 to the claims made on the diocesan by the wants of the W. Riding. The minster 
 a handsome and interesting church, now the cathedral. Many periods and many 
 styles of architecture ; much Saxon ; the chapter-house especially curious, 
 entirely of the ancient order. The crypt now turned into a species of catacomb, 
 and garnished with skulls and cross-bones. " Gracious God, what is man ? " said 
 Lord Bolingbroke, as he stood weeping and disbelieving over the death-bed of 
 Pope ; how much more true, how much more exalted, the exclamation of the 
 Psalmist, " Lord, what is man that Thou art mindful of him, or the son of man 
 that Thou regardest him 7 Thou madest him a little lower than the angels, to 
 crown him with glory and worship." I know not what scoffers and sceptics may 
 feel in the contemplation of these, and the like exhibitions of mortality ; had I 
 not, by God's blessing, "a sure and certain hope of a joyful resurrection," I should 
 lose my senses with disgust and terror. 
 
 Oct. llth. . . . Took a walk with Minny. Sun broiling. Much interesting 
 conversation with the darling. It is a wonderful accomplishment, and a most 
 bountiful answer to one's prayers, to have obtained a wife, in the highest matters 
 and the smallest details, after my imagination and my heart. Often do I recol- 
 lect the very words and sentiments of my entreaties to God, that He would give 
 me a wife for my comfort, improvement, and safety ; He has granted me to the 
 full all that I desired, and far more than I deserved. Praised be His holy 
 name. . . . 
 
 Oct. 14th. Very sorry to leave Newby. The people I have long, very long, 
 known. Many virtues and many attractions. To me and mine they have ever 
 been kind, friendly, and affectionate. I hardly know those from whose society I 
 derive more quiet satisfaction, or from whom I part with deeper regret. To 
 Bishopsthorpe. Found the Archbishop in high force dear friendly old man- 
 Prayers in the chapeL . . . 
 
 Oct. 15th. York. . . . Saw the minster ; the most lovely of all perishable
 
 1839.] CASTLE HOWARD. 149 
 
 buildings the most refined conceptions of the most refined ages of Greece 
 and Rome were poor in comparison of this ; the very aspect of the edifice 
 inspires a religious sentiment ; and a few moments' contemplation overwhelms 
 you with the awe that impressed and elevated the heart of Jacob : " How 
 dreadful is this place 1 this is none other but the home of God, and this is 
 the gate of Heaven." .... Saw, within the compass of the first edifice 
 an ancient altar of great size, the steps leading up to it still quite perfect 
 an early and glorious triumph of the Cross. Here then, as at St. Peter's, the 
 House of Christ rose and stood erect over the House of Baal. . . . 
 
 Heard part of the afternoon service. . . . And people would destroy 
 this service, and call it a vain ceremonial, an useless form I Cloaking their 
 real stinginess under utilitarian argumentation (a disgusting thing in itself), 
 they calculate pounds, shillings, and pence, and show that, for an organist and 
 a choir, they might have two curates. So they might, and they might have ten 
 times as many for the keep of a dozen gilded footmen, or a third of their 
 usual port wine, or, for any imperceptible abatement of luxury, be their rank 
 high, middling, or low. Why not have both ? Why not sustain this soul- 
 inspiring worship, for the honour of God and the comfort and elevation of 
 the human heart ; and then, if they so desire, devote the residue to their 
 palaces ? I hope and believe that a better feeling is arising ; the trains, I am 
 told, bring hundreds from Leeds to hear the anthem. The taste and the due 
 reverence will thus be diffused, and our cathedrals will thus again become 
 the boast and glory of our land. 
 
 To Castle Howard. Nearly nineteen years have elapsed since I was last 
 here. I came then with Morpeth (both of us just entered at Oxford) on our 
 return from a tour in Scotland. I come back now, advanced in life, married, 
 the father of six children ; our respective capacities and respective careers 
 (then in an obscurity full of hope) well known ; the past now left to me for 
 reflection, and, thank God, not altogether a painful one ; the future, for eternity 
 and my children. Found them all unchanged here, except in age and position. 
 Just as friendly, affectionate, and sincere as ever. Time has mellowed and 
 consolidated their feelings ; it has effaced none. ... I rejoiced to have 
 visited them once more, and to have renewed my intimacy and ancient habits. 
 This is the great advantage of periodical visits to country houses ; valuable 
 Nhips are made, sustained, or revived ; new acquaintances are formed to 
 fill the gaps that the course of nature has rent in your circle, and you gain 
 some little prospect that you will not be stranded by time on the bleak shore 
 of a forgotten or friendless old age. They enlarge, too, the mind and soften 
 the spirit ; the visitors and the visited summon up all that they have in them 
 of the most amiable ; many a sharp feeling is subdued and many a good one 
 begotten by this rural intercourse. . . . 
 
 Almost the last visit on the tour was paid to Chatsworth, the stately 
 idence of the Duke of Devonshire. From thence Lord Ashley proceeded 
 Rowton, the home of his brother-in-law and sister, Mr. and Lady Char- 
 tc Lyster. 
 
 To Chatsworth. ... An immense party to meet the Duke and Pucheat 
 Cambridge foreigner* " plenty as blackberries." . . .
 
 150 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. fCHAp. VIL 
 
 I can just conceive that some ancient Koman villa, the possession of somo 
 Emperor of taste and wealth, was the type of Chatsworth. They have many 
 things which bear resemblance. Splendid and unwieldy buildings, far too 
 large for use, and infinitely too extended for comfort. Grandeur which wearies 
 by its excess and its repeated calls for admiration. Everything magnificent, and 
 half of it unnecessary, even for the just display of the dignity suited to 
 the rank and fortune of the proprietor everything in the wildest abundance 
 that constitutes wealth. All ia vast, yet nothing clumsy ; magnificence and 
 refinement are combined. It is royal. His greenhouses, foreign plants, his 
 gardens and cottages, would alone ruin half the German potentates. It is a 
 curious thing to have seen ; it is probably the last great effort of hereditary 
 wealth, of aristocratical competition with the splendour of kings. Acquired 
 properties can never be so magnificent, either in extent or in display ; heredi- 
 tary properties are undergoing diminution, and the custom, moreover, of primo- 
 geniture (the sole means of retaining the unity of possessions) has reached the 
 full, and is now upon the wane. . . . 
 
 Nov. 1st to 8th. At Rowton. Residence there, as usual, happy, cheerful, and 
 refreshing. I love the people, I love the place ; it ever does me good, in body 
 and in mind : it soothes and pleases me. 
 
 8th. To Birmingham ; distance from Shrewsbury forty-three miles, six hours 
 performing it. 
 
 9th. To London. Thus are we all again, once more, together, preserved and 
 reunited, by God's kind Providence, under the same roof. We looked for health 
 and amusement, we found both ; we sought instruction, it has not been wanting ; 
 body and mind have been alike strengthened. 
 
 On the last page of the Diary written on this tour there is the following 
 note: 
 
 1880. . . . Believe have never read this since it was written. 
 " Nessun maggior dolore 
 Che ricordarsi del tempo felice 
 Nella miseria." * 
 
 Dante. 
 
 In the spring of this year Daniel Webster made his first and only visit to 
 Europe, and Lord Ashley was one of those in whose society he found much 
 pleasure. They corresponded for some time after Mr. "Webster returned to 
 America, and on the principle of mutual help, as indicated in the following 
 
 letter : 
 
 Daniel Webster to Lord Ashley. 
 
 LONDON, November 19th, 1839. 
 
 MY DEAR LORD ASHLEY, On my return from the Continent, I had the 
 pleasure to find here your letter from Bishopsthorpe. I "was quite in hopes of 
 falling in with you at the North, as I heard of you in several places ; but we 
 were, as you suggest, constantly on the wing, having much space to fly through 
 in a short time. 
 
 * " No greater pain than in time of sorrow to recall tunes of bliss."
 
 RECONCILIATION. 151 
 
 1 leave England, my dear Lord, much gratified, but with a good deal of 
 natural regret, that I cannot, for the present at least, farther cultivate the 
 agreeable acquaintances I have had the honour and good fortune to make. 
 
 I hope you will allow me to say that it will give me great pleasure to keep 
 myself in your remembrance by an occasional letter. I read the London papers, 
 and, of course, the debates of Parliament as there reported. If, on any of the 
 great questions likely to come before the House, your own speeches should be 
 published, corrected, in pamphlet form, I should be quite glad to receive a copy. 
 Whatever I may think you would like to receive, I shall have pleasure in sending 
 you in return. Perhaps yon would like an accurate account of the ballot gystem 
 as practised in the several States which use it. If so, I could easily obtain, at 
 Washington, exact statements from members of Congress from the several States. 
 I received the little volume containing your essays, for which I am quite obliged 
 to you, I pray you make my respects to Lady Ashley ; and when yon next have 
 intercourse with the Archbishop, do me the favour to remember me kindly to 
 him and his daughters. He is an admirable example of vigorous, cheerful, 
 respected old age. 
 
 With all good wishes for you and yours, 
 
 I am, my dear Lord, faithfully yours, 
 
 DANIEL WEBSTER. 
 
 There were two events, towards the close of the year 1839, which had a 
 marked influence on the private life of Lord Ashley. Through no fault of his 
 own his father had again become estranged from him. There had never been 
 much sympathy between them thoughts, habits, pursuits, ideals, were all far 
 as the poles asunder and the course that Lord Ashley had marked out for 
 himself had, from the first, met with the strong disapprobation of his father. 
 It was a source of anxiety and regret, but it was a matter for which there was 
 no help. Believing, as he did, that it was the voice of God which spoke to 
 him, and urged him to go forward in his labours on behalf of the poor and the 
 oppressed, he "conferred not with flesh and blood," and the consequence was 
 that the coldness of his father strengthened into an opposition very painful to 
 a nature so sensitive as Lord Ashley's. A reconciliation was brought about, 
 however, at this time, and the way in which it was regarded is very touchingly 
 recorded in the Journal. 
 
 Nov. 23rd. I can hardly believe myself or my senses ; here I am in St. Giles's, 
 reconciled to my father, and actually receiving from him ardent and sincere 
 marks of kindness and affection 1 Who would have thought, not I at least, when 
 I quitted this house ten (!) years ago, that I should never return to it, until I 
 came a married man with six children I But it is a blessed thing that it has 
 happened at last ; a thing good for him, and good for me, a thing for which I 
 ought, and for which I do, thank God most heartily. He is now an old man, and 
 it would have been a sad and a terrible matter had he died otherwise than in 
 peace with his children ; but, God be praised, we are reconciled, and his heart and 
 mine are lighter. His amiableness is wonderful ; he puts himself, as the phrase 
 is, to sixteens to find ways of giving us pleasure.
 
 152 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [Cnxp. VIL 
 
 Nov. 25th. Quite fidgety and unsettled, walking in fact, and wandering in 
 thought, through mere satisfaction. Just looked out of my window, and saw the 
 kids pacing the lawn, giving life, and health, and joy to the whole scene 
 blessed them, and blessed God, who is good to me and mine beyond all, even His, 
 goodness. 
 
 Dec. 3rd. It cannot be disguised, I do enjoy being here ; it is very natural, and 
 not criminal, to derive profound and sincere pleasure from a restoration of long- 
 omitted pursuits, long-denied affections, and long-desired scenes ; but experience 
 and mature life, and God's grace, teach me to "rejoice with trembling." These 
 things of this world, like Jonah's gourd, come up in a night, and may perish in a 
 night. I do most entirely thank God for His mercy in softening my father's heart, 
 and pouring therein the sympathies of charity and truth. Not only in great 
 things, but in the smallest, there is a wonderful and a complete change. . . . 
 
 The second important event to which we have referred is told in these 
 words : 
 
 Dec. 16th. This day my mother-in-law will be married to Palmerston. . . . 
 
 The marriage of Lady Cowper to Lord Palmerston was an event which 
 had an important bearing on the future of Lord Ashley. For many years we 
 shall find them associated in the closest intimacy, and the influence of their 
 lives acting, and re-acting, on one another. 
 
 Lady Cowper was a recognised Queen of Society. Twenty years before 
 her marriage with Lord Palmerston, she had ruled the world of fashion at 
 Almack's, when Palmerston, one of the greatest dandies of the day, was a 
 leading spirit in that gay circle. She was clever, brilliant, and witty ; and after 
 her marriage with Lord Palmerston " her assemblies neutral ground where 
 distinguished persons of all parties, whether foreign or domestic, met for 
 social intercourse, forgetting for the moment their political differences were 
 a powerful aid to him as head of a Government." Mr. Disraeli in a speech 
 at Glasgow, while alluding to it as a happy circumstance of public life in 
 England that we do not, as a rule, permit our political opinions to interfere 
 with our social relations, recalled, in the following words, one of his 
 reminiscences : " If you are on the Continent, and wish to pay your respects 
 to a minister, and go to his reception, you are invited by the minister. The 
 consequence is that you find no one there except those that follow him. It 
 is not so in England. I remember some years ago meeting, under the charm- 
 ing roof of one of the most accomplished women of the time, the most 
 celebrated diplomatist of nearly half a century, and he said to me, ' What a 
 wonderful system of society you hav in England ! I have not been on 
 speaking terms with Lord Palmerston for three weeks, and yet here I am ; 
 but yon see I am paying a visit to Lady Palmerston.' " * 
 
 There was much in the character of Lady Palmerston that was trub 
 estimable and lovable ; and a time was coming when Lord Ashley was to 
 
 "Life of Lord Pahneraton." By Hon. Evelyn Ashley, M.P.
 
 18.J CHRISTMAS AT ST. GILES'S. 153 
 
 find in her a staunch and valuable friend, in whose society he would take 
 ever-increasing delight, and whose large-hearted sympathies would bring him 
 much comfort and satisfaction. 
 
 Few years in Lord Ashley's history closed more happily than this. 
 Projects that he had long had very near at heart had taken definite shape ; 
 forces to assist in carrying them to completion were developing their 
 strength; and, in addition to all this, a great void in his life was filled. 
 The sense of estrangement between himself and his father had been an 
 oppressive weight for many years, and now the burden was removed. A 
 pleasant picture of his life at this time is given in the closing words of his 
 Diary for 1839 : 
 
 Dec. 25th. Christmas Day. St Giles's. A long -established festival for soul 
 and body, the date and centre of domestic " gatherings ; " a day blessed by every- 
 thing that is gracious in past, present, and future times. After a long period of 
 gloomy weather, the sun shone brightly. The church was alive with holly, and 
 thronged by a decent, well-behaved, well-dressed congregation. The sacrament 
 was administered to about one hundred communicants (an immense proportion 
 in BO small a parish), of whom I and my father formed a part, reconciled, God 
 be praised, and made one again after so large an interval of human life. Never 
 have I, by God's goodness, more enjoyed the public service of our blessed church, 
 felt more soothed and elevated, more warmed and strengthened to future efforts 
 under His guidance and rule, and in submission to His service. 
 
 Dec. 31st Much occupied of late in cutting down bushes and improving the 
 garden this is a healthy and innocent pleasure. " God Almighty," says Bacon, 
 "Jirtt planted a garden." So He did, and man was told "to dress it and keep 
 it" This is the thing I have ever desired, and now I have my own way, for 
 Lord S. is delighted to give it me, and is happy that I take so lively an interest 
 in it.
 
 CHAPTER VIIL 
 1840. 
 
 THE Parliament of 1840 was opened by the Queen in person, and the Speech 
 from the Throne announced her intention to marry her cousin, Prince Albert 
 of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, a step which she hoped would be " conducive to the 
 interests of her people as well as to her own domestic happiness." Sir 
 Robert Peel, in the course of the discussion that followed in the House of 
 Commons, observed that her Majesty " had the singular good fortune to be 
 able to gratify her private feelings while she performed her public duty, 
 and to obtain the best guarantee for happiness by contracting an alliance 
 founded on affection." 
 
 The early meeting of Parliament broke up the period of rest and satis- 
 faction that Lord Ashley was enjoying with his father at St. Giles's. 
 
 Jan. 6th. Although no chicken, I had never attended a Sessions before, 
 either as a spectator or a magistrate. I was interested and instructed, and I 
 endeavoured, by God's mercy, to do judgment and love mercy. Our residence 
 here is drawing to a close the early meeting of Parliament, Jan. 16th, for 
 the Queen's marriage, we suppose, will separate us very soon. It will be a Pro- 
 vidence, and almost a wonder, if we ever come together again, perfect in our 
 health, our happiness, and our numbers. 
 
 Jan. 9th. Acted as a magistrate in the local meeting at Cranborne. These 
 things are epochs in one's life, and I have run half my course before I attain 
 this one. It is easy now to understand, by experience, how difficult it is to 
 combine the due administration of justice with the love of mercy. Raise then 
 your eyes to the counsels of .Heaven, and survey but the millionth part of the 
 outmost verge of God's attributes and operations ; unsparing justice and un- 
 limited pardon at one and the same moment. 
 
 Jan. 12th. Sunday. The last we shall enjoy for the present in St. Giles's 
 Church. Were we under the caprices of a blind chance, I should quit this dear 
 place in fear and sorrow ; but, praised be God, we know in whom we trust, and 
 He will unite us again, or separate us for ever, as seemeth best to His merciful 
 wisdom. 
 
 Jan. 23rd. London. " Crambe repttita " the old story renewed. The 
 Carlton Club, the House of Commons, the turmoil and vicissitudes of politics, the 
 hopes and fears of party I But politics and party now are not what politics and 
 party were formerly ; the struggle is between antagonist principles, and the 
 issue is life or death to the Constitution in Church and State, under which the 
 mercy of God has hitherto appointed us to live. I can imagine a successful 
 resistance on our part, but I see eventual triumph for our enemies, because a
 
 1840. j THE QUEEN'S CORONATION. 155 
 
 mighty revolution is gradually taking place in the habits and character of 
 thinking among men. To oppose this is to oppose the flow of the river Amazon 
 steady, certain, and overwhelming. The only Conservative principle is the 
 Protestant religion as embodied in the doctrines and framework of the Church 
 of England. As a nation we have rejected it, and as individuals we neglect it ; 
 the few, compared with the numbers of "the great" in this realm, who have 
 brought oil in their lamps, will hardly form the proportion of the ten to the 
 population of Gomorrah. I am always cast down when I estimate by com- 
 parison with others my Parliamentary capacity of doing service. " Je manque de 
 profondtur et de suite." My memory is deficient, my knowledge scanty ; I have 
 no readiness for impromptu speaking ; all must be prepared, and the greater part 
 even to the language ; but nevertheless I most do my best, and commit the issue 
 to Him in whose service I am labouring. 
 
 During the comparatively short previous Parliamentary career of Lord 
 Ashley, the occupancy of the Throne had been marked by frequent changes. 
 The death of King George IY. in 1830, the accession of King William IV., 
 his decease in 1837, and the accession thereupon of Queen Victoria, are events 
 in history to which we need not refer particularly, although, as the entries in 
 the Diaries and note-books prove, they were matters of great personal interest 
 to Lord Ashley. An extract, written just when the excitement attendant 
 npon the Queen's coronation was subsiding, may be given here, as a specimen, 
 and as a prelude to the subsequent entry in his Diary referring to her 
 marriage: 
 
 July 2nd, 1838. It has been a wonderful period, one long and seriously to be 
 remembered by every Englishman. An idle pageant, forsooth? As idle as the 
 coronation of King Solomon, or the dedication of his temple. The service itself 
 refute* the notion ; so solemn, so deeply religious, so humbling, and yet so 
 sublime I Every word of it is invaluable ; throughout the Church is everything 
 ecular greatness nothing. She declares, in the name and by the authority of 
 God, and almost enforces, as a condition preliminary to her benediction, all that 
 can make princes wise to temporal and eternal glory. Many very many were 
 deeply impressed. The crowds immense ; perhaps half a million of people 
 assembled, in admiring affection and loyalty, to witness the Royal procession. 
 Both during the day and the night such order and good-humour observed as 
 would have done honour to a private family. Even the fair in Hyde Park has 
 been quiet, decent, respectful, and safe. What a nation this is ! What materials 
 for happiness and power ! What seeds of honour to God and service to man 1 May 
 He grant to us yet to be His humble, joyous, and effective instruments for His 
 great and gracious purposes ! 
 
 Feb. 10th, 1840. A day of events I The Queen was married. ... I and 
 Minny were present by invitation. A Coronation gains everything by splendour 
 and numbers ; it is a national act, and receives force and fire from national 
 demonstrations. But a Marriage is, in its essence, private and particular ; 
 although the marriage of a Queen, it is domestic : and the interest must be 
 drawn from the same sources as those which furnish interest to any other 
 marriage.
 
 156 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. VIII. 
 
 March 6th. Days fly swifter than a weaver's shuttle ; we number them, and 
 BO obtain the first part of the Psalmist's prayer ; but we do not apply our hearts 
 unto wisdom, and so lose the second. For my part, I am full of schemes and no 
 accomplishments of them, " Never ending, still beginning "devising under- 
 takings, worthy of all the statesmen, thrown into a mass, that ever existed, with 
 Parliamentary and oratorical abilities diametrically opposite. 
 
 A letter from Mr. Daniel Webster to Lord Ashley, written in May of this 
 year, when the election of General Harrison as President of the United States 
 was proceeding, and which was followed by the appointment of Mr. Webster 
 as Secretary of State, indicates the friendly feelings existing between the 
 great American statesman and the English philanthropist, to which we have 
 previously referred : 
 
 Daniel Webster to Lord Ashley. 
 
 WASHINGTON, May 27tk, 1840. 
 
 DEAB LORD ASHLEY, I owe you many thanks for a kind note which I 
 received at the moment of my departure from London last autumn, and for the 
 present of a copy of a very excellent edition of the Holy Bible. You could have 
 given me nothing more acceptable, and I shall keep it near me, as a valued token 
 of your regard. The older I grow, and the more I read the Holy Scriptures, the 
 more reverence I have for them, and the more convinced I am that they are not 
 only the best guide for the conduct of this life, but the foundation of all hope 
 respecting a future state of existence. 
 
 We have an edition of the New Testament which I am fond of using, and of 
 which I would send you a copy if I could lay my hand on one here. It is the 
 common and authorised text, without being broken into verses. 
 
 I send you an account of the canals and railroads in the United States, by 
 which you will see what progress we are making, especially in the latter kind of 
 communication. I suppose the lines of railroad now in operation in the United 
 States exceed, in aggregate length, by three or four times, that of all other rail- 
 roads in the world. This is not wonderful, considering the extent of the country, 
 and the cheapness and facility with which railroads are built in many parts 
 of it. 
 
 I send you also a little annual, called the Token, which I have not looked 
 over, but which I thought likely to be as good as any of these ephemeral things ; 
 and I send it because it is edited by Mr. Goodrich, the veritable Peter Parley, 
 who may have been heard of in Lady Ashley's nursery. 
 
 Our Congressional documents are barren of interest just now, and I think of 
 nothing worthy your attention. We are in the midst of a very warm political 
 election. Our President, as you know, is chosen for four years, and a choice is 
 to be made next November. Mr. Van Buren is candidate for re-election, and 
 General W. H. Harrison is the opposing candidate, and is supported by the party 
 now called Whigs. Party denominations have changed often with us, and 
 names do very little towards description. The Whigs are, in fact, the Conserva- 
 tive party. Their opponents call them Aristocrats, British Whigs, &c. &c. The 
 other party call themselves Democrats, and thoir opponents call them Radicals
 
 1840.] LETTER FROM DANIEL WEBSTER. 157 
 
 or Tories, or anything else opprobrious. Whig and Tory were the old party 
 names here in the time of the Revolution, and Whigs of the present generation 
 think it expedient to take the party denomination by which Washington and 
 others were distinguished. 
 
 General Harrison is an elderly man, of an old family in Virginia, bred to the 
 army, and at different times has occupied stations of considerable importance in 
 civil life. He has not been regarded as eminent for talents, but has read a good 
 deal, writes pretty well, is of good character, and amiable temper. His life has 
 been spent very much in our New World, in the West, in the forest, and in the 
 neighbourhood of the Indian tribes. 
 
 New settlers in that country build their houses of trunks of trees, and these 
 are called " log cabins." Some political opponent unluckily attempted to ridi- 
 cule the idea of making President one who had lived in a log cabin, and had 
 drunk "hard cider." This foolish sneer has very much influenced the whole 
 Western country. The people in that region are all alive for the " log cabin " 
 candidate, and will give him very great support. Representations of log cabins 
 are everywhere, on newspapers, on handkerchiefs, on buttons, on everything. 
 The result of the election is, of course, in some degree uncertain, but present 
 appearances indicate strongly that General Harrison will be elected. I have 
 known him long and well ; we have always been on quite friendly terms, and I 
 have hopes that his election may do something towards checking us in the 
 courses in which we have recently been running. 
 
 I read the English papers with new interest since I have seen England. 
 Among others, I take the Times, but the bitterness of that print towards me, and 
 the gross ignorance of those who write for it, on American subjects, render it 
 certainly less agreeable. It is strange that such a paper, so Conservative at 
 home, should publish and applaud everything written here by the lowest Radicals 
 and the followers of Fanny Wright. I cannot account for it. 
 
 Mrs. Webster is with me, and we both desire to be respectfully remembered 
 to Lady Ashley. I read your speech on introducing your Bill with great interest. 
 Indeed, I read all you say, and notice all you do, with interest Present me also to 
 Mr. Lockhart when you meet him. 
 
 I have the honour to be, 
 
 The Diary continues : 
 
 With faithful regard, yours, 
 
 DANIEL WEBSTER. 
 
 June 12th. The last month, filled with horrible events, tends much to recall 
 to our minds the natural sinf ulness of man and the uncertainty of all worldly 
 things. Lord William Russell murdered in his bed by an unknown hand, under 
 circumstances which superadd horror upon horror to the crime. On the 10th of 
 this month the Queen's life attempted on Constitution HilL By God's merciful 
 and gracious Providence she was delivered from the danger the same good 
 Providence which has so long and so undeservedly watched over this Empire. 
 What a state of things, had the King of Hanover come to the throne by such a 
 previous vacancy of it I God grant that we may, as individuals and as a nation, 
 lay these thing* seriously to heart, and give Him, in private and in public,
 
 1 58 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. LCnAP. VIII. 
 
 unceasing thanks and glory 1 I went down to the House of Commons to propose 
 a public thanksgiving, but was withheld by hearing a full and open recognition 
 of God's mercy in the Address ; and, moreover, I was sitting in the gangway, 
 and, while musing what I should do, I was anticipated by that good man, 
 Plumptre. So it has been proposed, and God be praised for it. 
 
 The attempt upon the life of the Queen was made by Edward Oxford, a 
 pot-boy of seventeen. There was no political significance in the crime, nor, 
 indeed, in any of the attempts on the life of her Majesty made by others in 
 the course of a few years f ollowing. In the case of Oxford the deed was the 
 result of a craving for notoriety, induced by his connection with a so-called 
 secret society named Young England, at which amateur highwaymen and 
 assassins young and foolish like himself met armed with swords and 
 loaded pistols, and with black crape caps to cover their faces. In certain 
 quarters there was an effort to make political capital out of the affair, but it 
 was clearly proved that there was no wide-spread disaffection. 
 
 July 1st. Last night Church Extension was launched by Sir H. Inglis I 
 could not speak ; there was no opportunity for it. The House was in such a state 
 that a speech, such as I must have made, would have been intolerable at 11 o'clock. 
 Having suffered cold and clammy sweats all the forepart of the evening, I was 
 disappointed, almost, not to answer Baines ; he would have "cut up " beautifully. 
 There was no debate ; in fact, no one of note, except Inglis, spoke at alL 
 Though defeated by nineteen we gained a victory ; the question will, under God, 
 be carried another year, notwithstanding the lukewarnmess of our friends. 
 
 My hands are too full : Jews, Chimney-sweeps, Factory Children, Education, 
 Church Extension, &c. &c. I shall succeed, I fear, partially in all and com- 
 pletely in none. Yet we must persevere ; there is hope. For years I laboured 
 in the Factory cause ; some few sympathised, more ridiculed, as many resisted, 
 and far more were indifferent ; but how stands the question now 1 many confess 
 the good that has been done, and no one ventures to deny it ; the refuted are 
 silent, and the mockers abashed ; a path is opened to future and wide exertions ; 
 the horizon brightens with the dawn of day, and hope is displayed for the things 
 of this world and the next. 
 
 As we turn to each fresh phase of philanthropic labour in which the 
 energies of Lord Ashley were successively, or, indeed, more often simul- 
 taneously engaged, we are constantly reminded of the hard battle that 
 always has to be fought whenever the dictates of humanity come into con- 
 flict with motives of self-interest. In the history of public opinion on great 
 moral questions, it is almost universally found that a long time elapses 
 before the conscience of a nation is distinctly awakened to any evil that 
 exists, and in which it takes a part. 
 
 It was so in the case of juvenile chimney-sweeps. For more than a 
 hundred years, the miseries of these poor little creatures were persistently 
 kept before the public by philanthropic individuals, and yet the iniquities 
 of the system were not abolished. Chiefly in order that owners of property
 
 1MO.) CLIMBING BOT8. 159 
 
 should be spared the expense of having to alter their chimneys, children 
 were permitted to lead lives of torture and degradation. 
 
 As early as 1760, a letter appeared in the Public Advertiser advocating 
 the cause of the little sweeps ; and. in particular, suggesting that masters 
 should be punished if they let their apprentices go about without proper 
 covering. Among the readers of that letter was Jonas Hanway, a fellow- 
 worker with Robert Raikes in founding Sunday schools. He co-operated 
 with several London merchants and others, who, in 1773, formed a com- 
 mittee, and wrote letters to master chimney-sweepers appealing to their 
 humanity on behalf of their apprentices. For a time some good was done 
 by these letters. In 1785, Hanway published his " Sentimental History 
 of Chimney-Sweepers in London and Westminster; showing the necessity 
 of putting them under regulation to prevent the grossest inhumanity to 
 the Climbing Boys," &c. Three years afterwards, Parliament was induced 
 to pass an Act forbidding master chimney-sweeps to have more than six 
 :i}>I>reutices, or to take them under eight years of age. And this was all 
 that could be wrung from Parliament for nearly fifty years. Early in the 
 present century we find the "Society for Bettering the Condition of the 
 Poor " taking up the subject of Climbing Boys, and influencing the masters 
 whore possible. Then came the " Society for Superseding the Necessity 
 of Climbing Boys," numbering among its supporters the Prince of Wales, 
 
 homas Baring, William Wilberforce, Stephen Lnshington, and others. 
 This Society encouraged the use of a machine to do the work hitherto 
 performed by boys, and presented it gratuitously to poor masters. 
 
 Attempts were vainly made in 1804, 1807, 1808, and 1809 to induce 
 Parliament to grant the little chimney-sweepers further protection. The 
 subject was referred, in 1817, to a Select Committee, and the printed report 
 is a record of sickening horrors. It reveals how children of a suitable size 
 were stolen for the purpose, sold by their parents, inveigled from workhouses, 
 or apprenticed by Poor Law Guardians, and forced up narrow chimneys by 
 
 Mows, by pricking the soles of the feet, or by applying wisps of lighted 
 fit raw. The food and lodging of these children (some of them little girls) ; 
 
 sores and bruises ; their peculiar diseases ; the occasional death of some 
 
 :M from suffocation, the physical and moral ruin for life of the survivors 
 all this waa set forth for the benefit of both Houses of Parliament, and 
 made known to the public in a harrowing article, by Sydney Smith, in the 
 Edinburgh Review. The Commons passed an " Amending Bill " to improve 
 1788, but it was thrown out on the third reading in the House of 
 Lords. In 1834, an Act was passed with stricter clauses for insuring that 
 no apprentice should be employed under ten years of age. It was also made 
 a misdemeanour to send a child up a chimney on fire, for the purpose of extin- 
 
 M_- it. Hitherto, this atrocity had been of frequent occurrence. For 
 tin- futur<>, apprentices were to go on trial, and not be bound if they objected. 
 The Act also imposed penalties for ill-treating apprentices, and made some 
 regulations as to the size of chimneys. Flues were not, in future, to measure
 
 160 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. (Cuxp. VIII 
 
 less than fourteen inches by nine, and all projecting angles were to be 
 rounded off. Parliament did not see its way to prohibit entirely the occa- 
 sional smothering of a child, but was desirous of making the scene of the 
 tragedy a little more comfortable than had hitherto been the case. Even 
 this moderate and compromising Bill was opposed by Lord Kenyon and 
 others, on the ground of its endangering the safety of the metropolis, and the 
 " Sun," the " Phoenix," and some other Insurance Companies petitioned 
 against it. 
 
 A new departure was taken in 1840, when an Act was passed, pxinishing, 
 with fine, all who should " compel, or knowingly allow, any one under the age 
 of twenty-one years to ascend or descend a chimney, or enter a flue, for the 
 purpose of sweeping or cleaning it."* No chimney-sweeper's apprentice was 
 to be under sixteen years of age. This Act, like the preceding one, also con- 
 tained regulations as to the future construction of chimneys. 
 
 In the passage of this Bill through the House of Commons, Lord Ashley 
 was warmly interested, and took part in the debates that ensued. On April 
 14th, when, in Committee of the whole House, a resolution was passed giving 
 leave for a Bill to be brought in for the regulation of chimney-sweepers and 
 chimneys, he expressed his gratitude to the Government for the manner in 
 which they had taken up this measure. The House had been very kind and 
 benevolent to the children employed in factories, he said, but from personal 
 inquiry into both cases, he could say that the condition of those children was 
 tenfold better than that of the chimney-sweepers. Every Fire Insurance 
 Company in London, except one, had adopted machines for sweeping chim- 
 neys, and recommended their adoption to others. He trusted that the system 
 of sweeping chimneys by children would shortly pass away, for it had led to 
 more misery and more degradation than had prevailed in any other Christian 
 country.f 
 
 When the Bill was in Committee, Lord Ashley aided the promoters by 
 making vigilant efforts to prevent it from being spoiled by amendments. In 
 the course of his remarks, he said that he had no notion that cruelties so 
 barbarous could be perpetrated in any civilised country, as had been recently 
 brought under his notice in connection with this subject. Children of seven, 
 six, and even five years were sent on this dangerous service. It was a fact, 
 within his own personal knowledge, that a child of four and a half years was 
 at the present moment employed in sweeping chimneys. The practice led to 
 extensive demoralisation, and to loathsome disease. The children were sent 
 up naked ; they often passed the night naked on the soot-heap, and the soot 
 produced a most noxious effect upon their flesh. As regards the demoralising 
 effect of the system, it was a fact that there were at that time twenty -three 
 climbing boys in Newgate for various offences. 
 
 In combating a strong effort to make the age for apprentices twelve 
 instead of sixteen, he said that, even as the clause stood, it would be difficult 
 
 3 & 4 Viet cap. 85. t Hansard, Debates, 3, s. liu. 1093
 
 1-0] CLIMBING BOYS. 161 
 
 . --lit children from being employed by chimney-sweepers at a very early 
 aije.* The Bill, after pa -ing the Commons, was carried successfully through 
 the Lords, in >pite of a strong opposition, and a formidable attempt to .shelve 
 it, by referring it to a Select Committee, aiul on Augu.st 7th it received the 
 Royal Assent. 
 
 The labours of Lord Ashley in Parliament were, as a rule, the least part of 
 his work on behalf of any cause he espoused ; and it was so in the present case. 
 He went to see the climbing boys at their work; he confronted the masters; 
 he ascertained the actual feeling of employers ; he took legal proceedings at 
 his own expense as " test " cases, and even made provision for life, in certain 
 instances, for the poor little sufferers whom he was able to rescue from their 
 living death. It would have been impossible, however, for him to have ac- 
 complished what he did, had he not been largely assisted by others, and ho 
 was never backward in acknowledging the help he received. In his efforts 
 on In-half of the climbing boys, at this time and biter on, he was greatly 
 indebted to the aid of Mr. Steven, the Secretary to the Hand-in-Hand Insur- 
 ance Office, a large-hearted, benevolent man, who laboured unweariedly in the 
 cause. It was he who really set on foot the present movement, and it was 
 he who eventually brought all the Insurance Offices to see that the old system 
 was as unnecessary as it was cruel. 
 
 July 4th. Anxious, very anxious, about my sweeps ; the Conservative (!) Peera 
 threaten a fierce opposition, and the Radical Ministers warmly support the Bill. 
 Normanby has been manly, open, kind-hearted, and firm. As I said to him in a 
 letter, so say I now, ' God help him with the Bill, and God lies* him for it ! " I 
 shall have no ease or pleasure in the recess, should these poor children be 
 despised by the Lords, and tossed to the mercy of their savage purchasers. I find 
 that Evangelical religionists are not those on whom I can rely. The Factory 
 Question, and every question for what is called " humanity," receive as much 
 support from the " men of the world " as from the men who say they will have 
 nothing to do with it ! 
 
 I do not wonder at the Duke of Wellington ; I have never expected from him 
 
 anything of the " soft and tender " kind let people say what they will, he it a 
 
 ban! man. Steven tells me he left the Oxford Petition at Apslcy House, thinking 
 
 that the Duke, as Chancellor, would present it ; he received this answer, " Sir. 
 
 : 't tit to leave some petitions at Apsley House ; tltnj trill Irfvunil 
 
 July L'lst. Much anxiety, hard labour, many hopes, and many fears, all 
 rendered useless by " counting out the House." The object of years within my 
 grasp, and put aside in a moment A notice to investigate the condition of all 
 the wretched and helpless children in pin works, needle works, collieries. &c. kc. 
 The necessary and beneficial consequence of the Factory Question 1 God known 
 I had felt for it, and prayed for it ; but the day arrived, everything seemed 
 advene, a morning sitting, a late period of the Session, and a wet afternoon ; 
 and. true enough, at five o'clock there were but thirty-seven members, and these 
 mostly Radicals or Whigs. Shall I have another opportunity? The inquiry, 
 
 Time*, June 26, 1&40, and Hansard, 3, a. Iv. 106. 
 L
 
 162 THE EARL OF SIIAFTESBUUY. [CHAP. VIII. 
 
 without a statement in Parliament, will be but half the battle, nay, not so much 
 I must have public knowledge and public opinion working with it. Well, it ia 
 God's cause, and I commit it altogether to Him. I am, however, sndly dis- 
 appointed, but how weak and short-sighted is man ! This temporary failure may 
 be the harbinger of success. 
 
 Aug. 24th. Succeeded in both my suits. I undertook them in a spirit of 
 justice. I constituted myself, no doubt, a defender of the poor, to see that the 
 poor and miserable had their rights ; but " I looked, and there was none to help. 
 I wondered that there was none to uphold, therefore God's arm, it brought 
 salvation to me, and His fury, it upheld me." I stood to lose several hundred 
 pounds, but I have not lost a farthing ; I have advanced the cause, done indi- 
 vidual justice, anticipated many calamities by this forced prevention, and soothed, 
 I hope, many angry, discontented Chartist spirits by showing them that men 
 of rank and property can, and do, care for the rights and feelings of all their 
 brethren. Let no one ever despair of a good cause for want of coadjutors ; let 
 him persevere, persevere, persevere, and God will raise him up friends and 
 assistants ! I have had, and still have, Jowett and Low ; they are matchless. 
 
 Sept. 16th. I hear encouraging things, both of my speech in the House of 
 Commons, and of my suit v. Stocks. The justice of the suit is so manifest that 
 even (so to speak) " my enemies are at peace with me." What man ever lost in 
 the long-run by seeking God's honour / 
 
 Sept. 19th. Steven wrote to me yesterday, and gave me information that he 
 had at last succeeded in negotiating the delivery of the wretched sweep behind 
 my house in London. I had begun to negotiate, but the master stood out for 
 more money than was fair, and we determined to seek the unnatural father of 
 the boy, and tempt him, by the offer of a gratuitous education. We have done 
 so, and have prospered ; and the child will this day be conveyed from his soot- 
 hole to the Union School on Norwood Hill, where, under God's blessing and 
 especial, merciful grace, he will be trained in the knowledge, and love, and faith 
 of our common Lord and only Saviour Jesus Christ. I entertain hopes of the 
 boy ; he is described as gentle, and of a sweet disposition ; we all know he has 
 suffered, and were eager to rescue him from his temporal and spiritual tyrant. 
 May God, in His unbounded goodness and mercy, accept and defend the child, and 
 train him up to His honour and service, now and for ever, through the mediation 
 and love of our dear and blessed Lord I 
 
 The month of August was memorable for the success of Lord Ashley's 
 labours on behalf of suffering children. Not only did he carry the day with 
 regard to the climbing boys, but he also won the battle on behalf of the 
 factory children. We must go back a little in the narrative, to trace the 
 progress of the movement. 
 
 The division taken on his Resolution in the House in July, 1838, was, as 
 we have seen, sufficiently close to force upon Government the conviction 
 that, unless they did something themselves, he would become supreme on this 
 question. Accordingly, on February 15, 1839, they brought forward a 
 Factory Act Amendment Bill. It provided that no child should work in 
 more than one factory on the same day, introduced certain safeguards as to 
 the granting 1 and checking of certificates of age, and required two hours'
 
 1840.1 FURTHER FACTORY LEGISLATION. 163 
 
 schooling each day. In the debate which followed, Lord Ashley welcomed 
 the Bill as an improvement, so far as it went ; and as a justification of his 
 own policy in so often calling the attention of the House to the subject.* 
 
 The House only got into Committee on the Bill on July 1st, having been 
 delayed and adjourned so frequently as to call forth from Lord Ashley 
 an indignant protest. It came out in debate that 8,300 had been received 
 in penalties during 1838, and that the inspectors found it impossible to keep 
 the law from being violated. A proposal to raise the limit of age for " young 
 persons " from eighteen to twenty-one, was defeated by 87 to 44. Lord 
 Ashley's attempt to get silk-milk included in the operation of the Bill, was 
 ; ved by 49 to 55. He made another effort to improve the Bill, by mov- 
 ing the reduction of the number of hours of weekly labour for "young 
 persons " from 69 to 58. Amongst those who opposed this proposition, was 
 Mr. J. Pease, of Darlington, who declared that " if the hours of labour were 
 abridged, he must, unless he submitted to torture and over-drive the children, 
 inevitably close his manufactory." By 94 to 62 the amendment was lost.f 
 
 When the Order of the Day for the further consideration of the Factories 
 Bill was reached, on July 26th, Lord John Russell informed the House, 
 "that inconsequence of Lord Ashley having declared his intention of op- 
 posing the Bill," if it were not extended to silk-mills, he (Lord John Russell) 
 had determined to withdraw the measure. A greater tribute to the strength 
 of Lord Ashley's position could not have been paid. It should be remem- 
 bered that just at this time there was rather a lull in the popular agitation on 
 the 1 1 nest ion. The Chartist movement was absorbing public interest, and 
 although its leaders sympathised with the Ten Hours Movement, yet, amidst 
 the din of j>.>litii-;d agitation, and the prevalent popular discontent, the need 
 for special social reforms was more or less lost sight of. In addition to this, 
 1 istler, who had hitherto kept the enthusiasm alive on public platforms, 
 was thrown into prison for debt by his former employer. He had been one 
 of tin- prime movers in the agitation, and his withdrawal was a severe loss to 
 the cause. He was detained in the Fleet Prison from August, 1838, to February, 
 \ ln-n his debt, amounting to over 3,000, was paid by public subscription. 
 
 On the 31st March, Lord Ashley's proposal for a Select Committee to 
 
 inquire into the operation of the "Act for the Regulation of .Mills and 
 
 ries," was agreed to without opposition.^ The investigations of this 
 
 Committee, over which he presided, were exceedingly comprehensive. The 
 
 first six reports (914 pages) contain the evidence of witnesses. The actual 
 
 . published in 1841, testified to the improvement that had taken place 
 
 in the condition of young factory-workers, and proposed various means for 
 
 :tintf the frequent infringements of the law. In the Factory Act of 
 
 1844, many of these proposals were, as we shall see, adopted. 
 
 Leaving the question of the improvement of the Factory Acts temporarily 
 in abeyance whilst the above-named Committee was engaged in its labours, 
 
 Hansard, 3, s. xlv. 886. * Hansard, 3, s. lii. 8S9. 
 
 t Hansard, 3, s. xlviii 1067, Ac. See ParL Papers, 1840, r., and 1841, ix. 
 
 i. 2
 
 164 THE EAUL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. VIII. 
 
 Lord Ashley, on August 4th, 1840, commenced a crusade on behalf of the 
 thousands of children and young 1 persons to whom these Acts as yet gave no 
 protection whatever. He moved, in the House-, " That an humble address be 
 presented to her Majesty, praying that her Majesty will be graciously pleased 
 to direct an inquiry to be made into the employment of the children of the 
 poorer classes in Mines and Collieries, and in the various branches of trade 
 and manufacture in which numbers of children work together, not being 
 included in the provisions of the Acts for regulating the employment of chil- 
 dren and young persons in Mills and Factories ; and to collect information as 
 to the ages at which they are employed, the number of hours they are engaged 
 in work, the time allowed each day for meals, and as to the actual state, con- 
 dition, and treatment of such children ; and as to the effects of such employ- 
 ment, both with regard to their morals and their bodily health. >v | He 
 explained his motives for introducing this fresh subject by saying : 
 
 I have long been taunted with narrow and exclusive attention to the children 
 in the factories alone ; I have been told, in language and writing, that there were 
 other cases fully as grievous, and not less numerous ; that I was unjust and 
 inconsiderate in my denouncement of the one, and my omission of the other. I 
 have, however, long contemplated this effort which I am now making ; I had 
 long resolved that, so soon as I could see the factory children, as it were, safe in 
 harbour, I would undertake a new task. The Committee of this Session on Mills 
 and Factories having fully substantiated the necessity, and rendered certain the 
 amendment of the law, I am now endeavouring to obtain an inquiry into the 
 actual circumstances and condition of another large part of our juvenile popu- 
 lation Now, whatever may be done or proposed in time to come, 
 
 we have, I think, a right to know the state of our juvenile population ; the House 
 has a right, the country has a right. How is it possible to address ourselves to 
 the remedy of evils which we all feel, unless we have previously ascertained both 
 the nature and the cause of them 1 The first step towards a cure is a knowledge 
 of the disorder. We have asserted these truths in our Factory Legislation ; and 
 I have on my side the authority of all civilised nations of modern times ; the 
 practice of this House ; the common-sense of the thing ; and the justice of the 
 principle. 
 
 He then proceeded to describe the unhealthy and oppressive character 
 of the legalised slavery to which the children were subjected, in connection 
 with employment in earthenware, porcelain, hosiery, pin and needle making, 
 manufacture of arms, iron works and forges, iron foundries, glass trade, 
 collieries, calico printing, tobacco manufacture, button factories, bleaching 
 and paper mills, and various other industries. 
 
 And now (he said in conclusion) my first grand object is to bring these 
 children within the reach of education ; it will then be time enough to fight 
 about the mode. Only let us exhibit these evils there is wit enough, experience 
 enough, activity enough, and principle enough in the country, to devise some 
 remedy. I am sure that the exhibition of the peril will terrify even the most 
 sluggish and the most reluctant into some attempt at amendment ; but I hope 
 for far better motives. For my own part I will say, though possibly I may be
 
 1*40.) THE SYRIAN QUESTION'. 165 
 
 charged with cant and hypocrisy, that I have been bold enough to undertake 
 this task because I must regard the objects of it as beings created, as our- 
 selves, by the same Maker, redeemed by the same Saviour, and destined to the 
 same immortality ; and it is, therefore, in this spirit, and with these sentiments, 
 which, I am sure, are participated in by all who hear me, that I now venture 
 to entreat the countenance of this House, and the co-operation of her Majesty's 
 Ministers, first to investigate, and ultimately to remove, these sad evils, which 
 press so deeply and so extensively on such a large and such an interesting portion 
 of the human race. 
 
 After a short discussion, the motion was agreed to and a Commission 
 granted, and this was as convincing a proof as could well be given that 
 Lord Ashley had attained a power and influence in the House of Commons, 
 as a Social Reformer, which it would be unsafe for any Government to 
 resist. To the report of the Commissioners, and the results that followed, 
 we shall have to refer later on. 
 
 Aug. 3rd. Shall I get my motion on to-morrow, or shall I not? I speak 
 to all my friends to insure a House. "Oh, you are sure of a House," they 
 ay ; " quite sure ; " " but I," adds every one, " am going away 1 " Thus it is : 
 for a party movement you may command numbers ; for one of principle, hardly 
 your own shadow. Twrlce o'clock, nigM. Successful beyond all expectations ; 
 watted in anxiety from twelve o'clock Every ten minutes seemed to open my 
 turn after the orders of the day. for so it was arranged for me by the Govern- 
 ment, to whom (could I choose otherwise with no more than six friends?) I 
 yielded everything ; the House was barely kept. At three minutes before four 
 the Black Bod summoned us to the House of Lords ; had he arrived three 
 minutes earlier or three minutes later the House would have been lost, for a 
 division was called for, with insufficient numbers. As it was. the Government 
 Bent for fresh men ; we increased our strength, and the interval of the Speaker's 
 absence gave a novelty and a spirit on his return. Thank God a thousand 
 times for His mercy and goodness ! I spoke my case, delivered my opinions, 
 made my motion, and was most attentively and kindly received. I do rejoice 
 in the flattering and civil things that were said to me ; nevertheless, I wind up 
 with the prayer : "To them be all the benefit, but to Tlice be all the glory in 
 Christ Jesus our Lord ! " Of Conservatives a very small sprinkling many, at 
 least enough, were in London, but three or four came ! Why was I left to the 
 s of Whigs and Radicals ? Yet so it was, and I will say always and 
 A here, that the behaviour of the Government towards me was most kind 
 and most gentlemanlike. 
 
 Towards the close of this year the " Syrian Question," regarded by the 
 public with but little interest at first, became, as it involved the prospect of 
 war with France, one of the burning topics of the day. 
 
 Mehemet Ali, Pasha of Egypt, after many victories gained by his adopted 
 s"ii. Ibrahim Pasha, over the armies of the Porte, had rendered himself 
 virtually supreme in Syria. In 1839, a long-determined effort was made 
 by tlio Sultan to subdue him, but his arms, under Ibrahim Pasha, were 
 again triumphant. Not long after this the Sultan died, and the Capitan
 
 166 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. VIII. 
 
 Pasha, or Lord High Admiral of the Ottoman fleet, went over to the 
 enemy, carrying his ships with him. The co-operation of England and 
 the other European Powers was now sought and obtained to support the 
 waning fortunes of Turkey. There were then, as always, many conflicting 
 interests among the Western Powers. England's traditional policy was to 
 preserve the Turkish Empire as a safeguard against Russia. Austria sided 
 with England, as also did Russia herself, from motives diametrically oppo- 
 site. Prussia was lukewarm in the matter, and France was jealous of any 
 influence that England might have in Egypt. 
 
 On the 15th July, 1840, a convention was signed in London, between 
 the Courts of Great Britain, Austria, Prussia, and Russia, on the one part, 
 and the Ottoman Porte one the other, for the pacification of the Levant. 
 France took no part in the alliance, and for some time it was an open 
 question whether she would not engage in actual hostility against it. M. 
 Thiers, the Prime Minister, did not disguise his opinion, that England 
 was seeking a pretext to drive out Mehernet Ali, not from Syria only, but 
 also from Egypt, in order that she might obtain possession. Louis Philippe, 
 on the other hand, was most anxious to avoid any quarrel with England; and, 
 on the resignation of M. Thiers, in consequence of an objection on the part 
 of the King to certain passages inserted in the Royal Speech, of a nature 
 likely to bring about a war, M. Guizot, who was strongly in favour of peace, 
 became Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the peace-party carried the day. 
 
 Meanwhile the terms of the July Convention were duly proposed to 
 Mehemet Ali, and were met with a point-blank rejection on the 5th September. 
 On the 7th of that month, Beyrout was bombarded by the allied fleet, and 
 on the 10th an engagement took place between the allied troops and 
 Ibrahim Pasha, which terminated in the complete defeat of the latter, and 
 his flight to the mountains. On the 3rd November, Acre was bombarded 
 and captured, and shortly afterwards Alexandria itself was blockaded. 
 
 Mehemet Ali was obliged to come to terms, and on July 18th, 1841, 
 the " Treaty of London for the Pacification of the Levant " was signed. 
 The claim of Mehemet Ali to Syria was abandoned, on condition of the 
 Pashalic of Egypt being made hereditary in his family, and certain other 
 stipulations were added which need not be specified here. 
 
 These events, apart from their own merits, were of intense interest to 
 Lord Ashley. He had long cherished the belief, founded upon an earnest 
 and diligent study of the prophecies contained in Holy Scripture, that the 
 Jews were to return to their inheritance in the Holy Land, and it appeared 
 to him that the time was ripe for the accomplishment of those prophecies. 
 Eventually the settlement of the Syrian Question assisted to make possible 
 a scheme upon which his heart was set the establishment of an Anglican 
 Bishopric in Jerusalem. 
 
 July 24th. It seems as though money were the only thing wanting to regene- 
 rate the world. Never was an age so fertile in good plans, or with apparently more
 
 1840] EFFORTS ON BEHALF OF THE JEWS. 107 
 
 and better men to execute them, but where are the means 1 Churches, mission- 
 aries, clergymen, all temporal and spiritual associations, what is required for 
 them ? Money I Why, money would almost restore the Jews to the Holy Land. 
 Certainly so far as Mehemet Ali is the arbiter of their destinies. . . . 
 
 Anxious about the hopes and prospects of the Jewish people. Everything 
 seems ripe for their return to Palestine ; " the way of the kings of the East is 
 prepared." Could the five Powers of the West be induced to guarantee the 
 security of life and possessions to the Hebrew race, they would now flow back in 
 rapidly augmenting numbers. Then by the blessing of God I will prepare a 
 document, fortify it by all the evidence I can accumulate, and, confiding to the 
 wisdom and mercy of the Almighty, lay it before the Secretary of State for 
 Foreign Affairs. . . . 
 
 Aug. 1st. Dined with Palmerston. After dinner left alone with him. Pro- 
 pounded my scheme, which seemed to strike his fancy ; he asked some questions, 
 and readily promised to consider it. How singular is the order of Providence 1 
 Singular, that is, if estimated by man's ways I Palmerston has already been 
 chosen by God to be an instrument of good to His ancient people ; to do homage 
 as it were to their inheritance, and to recognise their rights without believing 
 their destiny. And it seems he will yet do more. But though the motive be kind, 
 it is not sound. I am forced to argue politically, financially, commercially ; these 
 considerations strike him home ; he weeps not like his Master over Jerusalem, 
 nor prays that now, at last, she may put on her beautiful garments. . . . 
 
 Aug. 24th. Palmerston tells me that he has already written to Lord Pon- 
 sonby, to direct him to open an intercourse with Reschid Pasha at Constantinople 
 respecting protection and encouragement to the Jews. This is a prelude to the 
 Antitype of the decree of Cyrus, but, humanly speaking, we must pray for more 
 caution. Those gentlemen who have now got access to the columns of the Times 
 will, by over-zeal, bring a charge of fanaticism on the whole question. God, 
 from whom alone " cometh all counsel, wisdom, and understanding, be Thou our 
 Guide, our Instructor, and our Friend." 
 
 Aug. 29th. The newspapers teem with documents about the Jews. Many 
 assail, and many defend them. 
 
 Sept. 1st Broadlands. We have left Cowes, and I do not regret it. The air, 
 or some other cause, gave a perpetual languor ; one had neither elasticity of body, 
 nor liveliness of spirit. This is its general character ; but I am come to the sad 
 conclusion that the sea does not agree with me. 
 
 Sept. 5th. St. Giles's. " Dear earth, I do salute thee with my hand." Once 
 more settled here, bag and baggage, mother and kids, in the portion of my 
 fathers, under my own vine, and under my own fig-tree, and drinking waters out 
 of my own cistern. 
 
 Sept. IGth. Attended yesterday at Blandford to set on foot a branch associa- 
 tion to the Society for the Extinction of the Slave Trade. Having been instru- 
 mental in forming the parent,* I could not refuse, though I hate these meetings, 
 
 * The first public meeting of the Society for the Extinction of the Slave Trade was held 
 In Exeter Hall on June 1st in this ycar,pre8ided over by Prince Albert, who then mado 
 his first public address in England. (" He was very nervous," writes the Queen in " Early 
 Years," " before he went, and had repeated his speech to me in the morning by heart.' ) 
 Mr. Fowell Buxton, Sir Robert Peel, and Lord Ashley were the other principal speakers. 
 
 I
 
 168 THE EARL OP SHAPTESBURY. fdi.u>. VIII. 
 
 to patronise the child. I never spoke with less effect ; the audience were like so 
 many mummies, and the platform assigned to the orator put me in mind of 
 Jingles' stage at a fair. Quoad me, the thing was a failure ; quoad the branch, 
 it was tolerably well. Really these speeches at these meetings are so much alike 
 and in the same style, that I long to say, "Gentlemen and ladies, the mixture aa 
 before," and then close it. 
 
 Sept. 25th. Yesterday began my paper for Palmerston, containing, in full, 
 the propositions for the recall of the Jews to their ancient land. " Recall " is too 
 strong ; it is simply a " permission," should they think fit to avail themselves of 
 it. I wish to prepare a short document, which may refresh his memory, and 
 exist as a record both of the suggestion and the character of it. 
 
 The document, read in the light of the efforts that have been made in later 
 years by Englishmen, Americans, Germans, and Jews, in the Plain of 
 Sharon, the Yale of Urtas, and other spots in Palestine, and the wider efforts 
 in other parts of Syria, is interesting and curious. 
 
 Lord Ashley to Viscount Palmerston. 
 
 ST. GILES'S HOUSE, September 25th, 1840. 
 
 MY LORD, The Powers of Europe having determined that they will take into 
 their own hands the adjustment of the Syrian Question, I venture to suggest a 
 measure, which being adopted will, I hope, promote the development of the 
 immense fertility of all those countries that lie between the Euphrates and the 
 Mediterranean Sea. 
 
 The consideration of the person or the authority to whom these territories 
 may be assigned by the award of the contracting Powers is of no importance. 
 The plan presupposes simply the existence of a recognised and competent 
 Dominion ; the establishment and execution of Laws ; and a Government both 
 willing and able to maintain internal peace. 
 
 Those vast regions are now nearly desolate ; every year the produce of them 
 becomes less, because the hands that should till them become fewer. As a source 
 of revenue they are almost worthless, compared, at least, with the riches that 
 industry might force from them. They require both labour and capital. 
 
 Capital, however, is of too sensitive a nature to flow with readiness in any 
 country where neither property nor life can be regarded as secure ; but if this 
 indispensable assurance be first given, the avarice of man will be a sufficient 
 motive, and it will betake itself with alacrity to any spot where a speedy or an 
 ample return may be promised to the speculator. 
 
 An inducement such as this is sufficient to stimulate the mercantile zeal of 
 every money-maker under Heaven, and it would be advisable that the Power, 
 whoever he may be, to whom these provinces may fall, should issue and perform 
 u solemn engagement to establish, in his laws affecting property, the principles 
 and practices of European civilisation ; but, in respect of these regions now 
 under dispute, there are, BO far as a numerous, though scattered, people is 
 concerned, other inducements and other hopes, over and above those which in- 
 fluence the general mass of mankind. 
 
 Without enterinsr into the grounds of the desire and expectation entertained
 
 1840.) SCHEME FOR COLONISATION OF PALESTINE. 1G9 
 
 by the Hebrew race of their return ultimately to the land of their fathers, it 
 may be safely asserted that they contemplate a restoration to the soil of Pales- 
 tine. They believe, moreover, that the time is near at hand. Every recollection 
 of the past, and every prospect of the future, animates their hope ; and fear 
 alone for their persons and their estates represses their exertions. If the Govern* 
 ing Power of the Syrian provinces would promulgate equal laws and equal pro- 
 tection to Jew and Gentile, and confirm his decrees by accepting the four 
 Powers as guarantees of his engagement, to be set forth and ratified in an article 
 of the Treaty, the way would at once be opened, confidence would be revived, 
 and, prevailing throughout these regions, would bring with it some of the wealth 
 and enterprise of the world at large, and, by allaying their suspicions, call forth 
 to the full the hidden wealth and industry of the Jewish people. 
 
 There are many reasons why more is to be anticipated from them than from 
 any others who might settle there. They have ancient reminiscences and deep 
 affection for the land ; it is connected in their hearts with all that is bright in 
 times past, and with all that is bright in those which are to come ; their industry 
 and perseverance are prodigious ; they subsist, and cheerfully, on the smallest 
 pittance ; they are, almost everywhere, accustomed to arbitrary rule, and being 
 totally indifferent to political objecte, confine their hopes to the enjoyment of 
 what they can accumulate. Long ages of suffering have trained their people to 
 habits of endurance and self-denial ; they would joyfully exhibit them in the 
 settlement and .service of their ancient country. 
 
 If we consider their return in the light of a new establishment or colonisation 
 of Palestine, we shall find it to be the cheapsst and safest mode of supplying the 
 wastes of those depopulated regions. They will return at their own expense, 
 and with no hazard but to themselves ; they will submit to the existing form of 
 Government, having no preconceived theories to gratify, and having been almost 
 everywhere trained in implicit obedience to autocratic rule ; they will acknow- 
 ledge the present appropriation of the soil in the hands of its actual possessors, 
 being content to obtain an interest in its produce by the legitimate methods of 
 rent or purchase. Disconnected, as they are, from all the peoples of the earth, 
 they would appeal to no national or political sympathies for assistance in the 
 path of wrong ; and the guarantee which I propose, for insertion in the Treaty 
 to be carried out by the personal protection of the respective Consuls and Vice- 
 Consuls of the several nations, would be sufficient to protect them in the exercise 
 of their right .... 
 
 The plan here proposed may be recommended by the consideration that large 
 results are promised to the application of very small means ; that no pecuniary 
 outlay is demanded of the engaging parties; that while disappointment would 
 t'rinu' no ill-effects, except to those who declined the offer, the benefits to be 
 d- rived from it would belong impartially to the whole civilised world. . . . 
 
 I have the honour to be, my Lord, 
 
 Tour Lordship's most obedient, humble Bervant, 
 
 ASH LET. 
 Hie Viscount Palmerston, M.P., 
 
 Her Majesty's Secretary of State for Foreiim Affair*.
 
 170 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. VIIL 
 
 For seven or eight years of their early married life Lord and Lady 
 Ashley had lived constantly, while in the country, with Lord and Lady 
 Cowper, a period to which the later Journals refer as full of happiness. The 
 London house, 49, Brook Street, Grosvenor Square, is also often mentioned 
 as my " beloved home." Here we find him on November the 7th, the date of 
 the following entry : 
 
 Sunday, Nov. 7. Minny is gone to Panshanger, and I am all alone not a 
 bairn with me, and nothing but a housekeeper and three maids I Yet this is good 
 for me. I now taste, by separation, more truly the blessings of God's goodness ; 
 His manifold, gracious, and paternal bounty in the gifts He has bestowed upon 
 me of a wife and children and such a wife and such children ! But all things 
 must sit loosely on this earth. God has given, and God may take away. I now 
 can imagine what I should suffer if bereaved of these dear and darling creatures. 
 How great are the benefits we enjoy, and how poor and miserable are our thanks ! 
 .... Read, to-day, Burton's " Testimonies of the Ante-Xicene Fathers," an 
 invaluable book, full of everlasting and comfortable knowledge ; and more par- 
 ticularly was I instructed and consoled by his comment on Acts xx. 28 (in the 
 extracts from St. Ignatius), confirmatory of the reading, " the Church of GOD," 
 which " He purchased with His own blood." Also Matthew Henry's comment on 
 the first chapter of Genesis. What a mind ! Whatever part of Scripture he 
 handles, he presents it, so to speak, in a new light. ..." And now I go to 
 my rest in peace. Would to God it were the same with all the world ! 
 
 Nov. 9th. It is really heart-stirring to read of our successes in Syria, the 
 forward valour, the iron-steadfastness, of our countrymen ; wherever they go, 
 they impart life, and soul, and energy one midshipman does more than a 
 hundred Turks, though they be all Seraskiers every man is an army, every 
 sailor a fleet, and yet the whole fleet acts as one sailor. Marvellous the effects of 
 discipline, acting on the vigour of British character. What materials for great- 
 ness I What elements for service ! What instruments, should it so please God, 
 for the alliance and protection of His ancient people, and for His final purposes 
 on earth ! And yet there are men who would destroy all this ; our political 
 institutions, which have made us what we are, and our Church, which, under 
 God, has made our institutions. 
 
 Many, I understand, are angry that the Times upholds Palmerston's policy 
 they are losing, they think, an opportunity of attack so they are, and deeply 
 should they be obliged to us for saving them, first from the crime of openly 
 taking part against the interests of their country ; and, secondly, from the 
 disgrace of assailing the Minister, and then doing, should they obtain office, the 
 very thing for which they assailed him. But I hope and believe that the Leaders 
 of our party do not share these sentiments so far, however, as I myself am con- 
 cerned, I don't care a straw if they do. 
 
 Nov. 12th. Did ever country present such a spectacle in its Administration 1 
 Their differences and cabals are become notorious as the secrets of the town- 
 crier ; one-third is with Palmerston, one-third, it seems, against him, and one- 
 third do not know which way to go. The "Bear" Ellice,* they say (and it 
 
 This name was given to the Eight Hon. Edward Ellice in allusion to Stock Ex- 
 change transaction*, and with a side reference to his roughness of demea our.
 
 1840] SYRIAN AFFAIRS. 171 
 
 most have been a pore love of intrigue and mischief), nrged Thiero to resist the 
 policy of Palmerston, assuring him that the Cabinet would never meet any real 
 French resistance. 
 
 England and Europe may then thank this man for all their past alarms and 
 present expenses ! Lord Holland writes to Guizot, and tells him everything. 
 Clarendon talks to everybody, follows in the tail of Charles Greville, and throws 
 confusion into the Cabinet, which, said Lord Minto, was very unanimous and 
 reciprocal in confidence till Clarendon joined it. The Due de Broglie writes to 
 Lord Lansdowne, and Lord Lansdowne writes to Broglie ; can this be done with- 
 out communication, on my Lord's part, of his misgivings, waverings, &c. &c., and 
 all the mischievous puerilities of the English Cabinet ? Palmerston and his 
 friends in the Ministry are propped up by the Times and Standard against the 
 other portion, which is bepraised by the Examiner and the Morning Herald. 
 The fact is there has been a foul intrigue to displace Palmerston and get his 
 office ; the plotters designated Clarendon to the situation (did they think him 
 more docile to themselves personally ?) ; he, forsooth, saw the thing, and asked 
 no questions. Meanwhile, Melbourne, the Prime Minister, suffers all this, having 
 neither authority nor principle 1 A man of the slightest force of mind would 
 have stopped it in an instant. I confess I am disgusted at the unpatriotism and 
 pusillanimity of these fellows ; they sign the Treaty of the 15th of July, they 
 undertake to carry it out ; Thiers blasters, and they crouch ; Palmerston is firm, 
 thank God, Thiers is dismissed, Guizot appointed, and our success in Syria 
 complete. Guizot calls out, " Give me a concession, I want to make a flourish in 
 Paris ; surrender to Mehemet Ali the Pashalic of Acre as a boon to the French 
 people." Instantly although this surrender would be tantamount to a reversal 
 of everything we have done, tantamount to an investiture on him of the whole of 
 Palestine, and in fact the whole of everything that is contested ; although it 
 would be a treachery to our allies, and a stultification (to say no worse) of our- 
 selves ; instantly they catch up Guizot's note (who, by-the-by, is a thorough 
 Parisian, with Parisian feelings and Parisian views), and say, " Give it him ; 
 you will otherwise have a revolution in France, and where should we be then ? " 
 Why, where ? all would be lost, perhaps except our honour. 
 
 Nov. 16th. St. Giles's again. It is very curious to see me an ardent sup- 
 porter of Palmerston, using every endeavour to counteract Guizot and Clarendon 
 in their influence over the Time*, and fighting his battles against his own 
 friends 1 
 
 Dec. 8th. Affairs have wonderfully advanced in Syria. Acre has fallen 
 (the most impregnable city of the East) into our hands, after three hours' 
 bombardment I On our side scarcely any loss. 
 
 Thiers now avows himself the Apostle of Revolution. His speeches con- 
 tain all the principles, though they as yet avoid the language, of Danton and 
 Marat. What a hornet it is I "I was prepared," said he, " for a war in which 
 might be shed the blood of ten generations." And, clever as he is, he is 
 notwithstanding a fool ; he seeks to raise a feeling, even in England, against 
 Palmerston, and yet he adds (Globe, Nov. 30), "the views of France upon 
 Egypt are a profound and ancient French instinct" He affects hatred and 
 fear of Russia ; yet he instructs Walewski to urge Mehemet Ali to march to 
 Constantinople, the very course that would bring the Russians into Turki-y. 
 Palmerston should steadily refuse to make any speeches or give any explaua-
 
 172 THE EARL OP SIIAFTESBURY. [CHAP. VIII. 
 
 tions ; his defence would lie in extracts from the Debates of the Chamber, 
 and the orations of M. Thiers. 
 
 After Christmas-tide we find Lord Ashley again at Broadlands, and 
 the contagion of the- genial and cheerful society of Lord and Lady Palmer- 
 ston seems to have infected him, for he writes : " Here we are, a family 
 reunion, with the domestic adjuncts of two Foreign Ambassadors, two 
 Cabinet Ministers, and two friends." 
 
 There probably was never a statesman more social in disposition, or 
 more ready to throw himself heartily into everything that interested his 
 friends and guests than Lord Palmerston ; and while he brought the 
 shrewdest common-sense to bear practically upon every matter under dis- 
 cussion, he would brighten up every topic by his pleasant jokes, his irre- 
 sistible playfulness, and his unfailing good humour. In his society Lord 
 Ashley took ever-increasing pleasure, and the day was not far distant 
 when he was to find in him one of his truest and staunchest allies in many 
 of his most cherished plans. 
 
 It was at Broadlauds that the final entries for the year were written 
 in the Diary. 
 
 My article on " Infant Labour " has appeared in this Quarterly. Lockhart 
 pave me every assistance towards obtaining a place for it ; he bepraised it 
 much, but I have not heard a word from any one else. 
 
 France is discussing a Factory Bill in her Chamber of Deputies. There is 
 exhibited some sense and some principle there is also the reverse ; but we 
 have gained in that country, and in the whole civilised world, this mighty 
 admission that the evil does prevail, that it deeply and seriously affects the 
 bodily and mental condition of large masses of the human race, and that if a 
 safe remedy can be found (and " safe " means " inexpensive "), it should be 
 applied. 
 
 Lord Ashley's article on "Infant Labour," published in the December 
 number of the Quarterly Review, was, to some extent, a recapitulation of 
 the arguments he had used in his speech on the subject in the House of 
 Commons, and was written for the purpose of keeping alive the public 
 interest in " mercy by statute." It showed that the clamour, and the awful 
 predictions of ruined trade and a starving population, raised when the first 
 efforts were made some seven years previously, had failed to influence the 
 movers, who had throughout been guided by "one great and quickening 
 principle, comfortable and true as revelation itself (for it is deduced from 
 it), that nothing which is morally wrong can be politically right." 
 
 The class on whose behalf legislation was now sought, exceeded in a 
 tenfold degree the number of those who were engaged in the four great 
 departments of industry the cotton, the woollen, the worsted, and the 
 flax whose labours were regulated by the provisions of statute-law. 
 Numerous as they were, however, many causes combined to shut them out
 
 SOCIALISM AND CHARTISM. 173 
 
 from observation and sympathy. They were not concentrated in single 
 -CM!-, in large masses, and enormous buildings, but were >]>ivad over the 
 whole country, and attracted little attention, because it was no one's interest 
 to examine their wrongs and institute that wholesome agitation which, in 
 the case of their brotherhood in the factories, had acted first on the feel- 
 ings of the country, and, at last, on the decisions of Parliament. Notwith- 
 standing this, it had been found that thousands upon thousands of poor 
 children were engaged in trades, in many instances dangerous and hurt- 
 ful, in which they were employed through fifteen, sixteen, and seventeen 
 hours of daily relentless toil. Some of the lace-mills about Nottingham 
 were open all through the night, and the children were detained, in order 
 to be ready when wanted. It was in evidence that they were found lying 
 about on the floor, weary and exhausted, waiting for their turns to come. 
 Similar cruelties wore practised in other trades in the silk manufacture, 
 for example, little girls of tender years, of eight, of seven, and even of 
 six, were employed in arduous labour for ten hours a day. Some of the 
 children were so small that they had to be placed on stools before they could 
 reach their work. 
 
 A review of Continental and transatlantic legislation on Infantile Labour 
 showed that everywhere, in Europe and America, steps were being taken 
 to wipe out the old system of domestic slavery, and thus to follow the 
 example which Great Britain was setting. Much, however, remained to 
 be done in this country, and expectation was fixed upon the Report of the 
 Commissioners appointed to investigate the claims of the children not 
 included in the Factory Acts. Great issues were at stake. The minds of 
 Him were not as tranquil as they had been, and discontent could not be 
 frowned down, or rebellion checked with equal facility. 
 
 In course of his article Lord Ashley said : 
 
 The two great demons in morals and politics, Socialism and Chartism, are 
 talking 1 through the land ; yet they are but symptoms of an universal disease, 
 spread throughout vast masses of the people, who, so far from concurring in the 
 uttitiiK tfii/i, suppose that anything must be better than their present condition. 
 It is useless to reply to us, as our antagonists often do, that many of the prime 
 movers in these conspiracies against God and good order are men who have 
 never suffered any of the evil to which we ascribe so mighty an influence. \\'<- 
 know it well ; but we know also that our system begets the vast and inflam- 
 mable mass that lies waiting, day by da}', for the spark to explode it into 
 mischief. We cover the hind with spectacles of misery ; wealth is felt only by 
 its oppressions ; few, very few, remain in these trading districts to spend 
 liberally the riches they have acquired ; the successful leave the field to be 
 ploughed afresh by new aspirants after gain, who, in turn, count their periodical 
 profits and exact the maximum of toil for the minimum of wages. No wonder 
 that thousands of hearts should be against a system which establishes the rela- 
 tions, without calling forth the mutual sympathies of master and servant, land- 
 lord and tenant, employer and employed. We do not need to express our firm
 
 174 THE EARL OF SHAPTESBURY. [CHAP. VIII. 
 
 belief that there are beneficent and blessed exceptions ; but generally speaking, 
 in those districts and those departments of industry the rich and the poor are 
 antagonist parties, each watching an opportunity to gain an advantage over the 
 other. Sickness has no claim on the capitalist ; a day's absence, however neces- 
 sary, is a day's loss to the workman ; nor are the numerous and frightful 
 mutilations by neglected machinery (terminating as they do in the utter ruin 
 of the sufferer) regarded as conferring, either in principle or practice, the 
 smallest pretence to lasting compensation or even temporary relief. . . . 
 
 But here comes the worst of all those vast multitudes, ignorant and 
 excitable in themselves, and rendered still more so by oppression or neglect, 
 are surrendered, almost without a struggle, to the experimental philosophy of 
 infidels and democrats. When called upon to suggest our remedy of the evil, 
 we reply by an exhibition of the cause of it ; the very statement involves an 
 argument, and contains its own answer within itself. Let your laws, we say 
 to the Farliament, assume the proper functions of law, protect those for whom 
 neither wealth, nor station, nor age has raised a bulwark against tyranny ; but, 
 above all, open your treasury, erect churches, send forth the ministers of religion, 
 reverse the conduct of the enemy of mankind, and sow wheat among the tares 
 all hopes are groundless, all legislation weak, all conservatism nonsense, without 
 this alpha and omega of policy ; it will give content instead of bitterness, 
 engraft obedience on rebellion, raise purity from corruption, and " life from the 
 dead." 
 
 These were timely words at a period when there was universal anxiety, 
 and when forces were gathering which threatened revolution. 
 
 " I would give anything," said Dr. Arnold, about this time, " to be able to 
 organise a Society for drawing public attention to the state of the labouring 
 classes throughout the kingdom. Men do not think of the feai-ful state in 
 which we are living. If they could once be brought to notice and to appre- 
 ciate the evil, I should not even yet despair that the remedy may be found 
 and applied; even though it is the solution of the most difficult problem 
 ever yet proposed to man's wisdom, and the greatest triumph over selfishness 
 ever yet required of his virtue. A Society might give the alarm, and present 
 the facts to the notice of the public. It was thus that Clarkson overthrew 
 the slave-trade ; and it is thus, I hope, that the system of transportation has 
 received its death-blow." * 
 
 What Arnold, and many other good men and true, were sighing for, Lord 
 Ashley was doing, by striking blow after blow at oppression and injustice 
 and tyranny, the causes which had produced discontent and disaffection in 
 the labouring classes. 
 
 * Stanley's " Life of Arnold."
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 1841. 
 
 INDIFFERENCE to poverty and suffering, especially in those who professed 
 to be influenced by the Christian religion, was inexplicable to Lord Ashley. 
 He says : 
 
 Jan. 5th, 1841. No stir as yet in behalf of my " Children's Employment Com- 
 mission." I cannot discern how, humanly speaking, I have ever made any 
 progress at all. To whom should I have naturally looked for the chief aid ! 
 Why, undoubtedly, to the clergy, and especially those of the trading districta 
 Quite the reverse ; from them I have received no support, or next to none ; one 
 or two in their individual capacity have given me encouragement, and wished 
 me God speed ; but, as a body, or even numerously, though singly, they have 
 done, are doing, and will do, nothing. And this, throughout my whole career. 
 There are grand and blessed exceptions, thank God for them t Bickersteth is a 
 jewel, a jewel of the first water ; one of those that God will " make up," so we 
 read in Malachi, at the last day. The only public act in behalf of these wretched 
 infants was a petition signed by fifty of the clergy in the neighbourhood of 
 Bristol, got up by the amiable exertions of the Rev. Sir Henry Montagu ; and 
 yet we have in our Church, beside prelates, sixteen thousand ordained ministers 
 of Christ's Gospel. 
 
 The saying, " The poor ye have always with you," was literally true with 
 Lord Ashley, and it remained true to the end of his life. Only a few ex- 
 amples, to show how constantly the poor were in his thoughts, are given in 
 the quotations from the Diaries, although such entries abound throughout 
 those volumes. The state of the weather, depression in trade, illness, be- 
 reavement, separation from children or friends these and a hundred other 
 things suggested to him no extraordinary cause of complaint as they affected 
 himself personally, but they led him invariably to think how much more 
 terrible similar circumstances must be to the poor and friendless. 
 
 Nor did his sympathy exhaust itself in merely thinking about them. 
 During the pauses in the greater labours which absorbed so much of his 
 time, he would devise schemes for the relief of those within his reach, and 
 would make the help he gave a thousandfold more acceptable by the manner 
 in which he gave it. He was never too proud to grasp the hand of a poor 
 honest man, or take up a sickly little child in his arms, or sit in the loathsome 
 home of a poor starving needlewoman as she plied her needle. He never 
 spoke down to their level, but sought to raise them up to his, and his kindly 
 words were as helpful as his kindly deeds. The time had not yet come for
 
 176 THE EARL OF SIIAPTESBURY. [Caxr IX 
 
 that peculiar personal devotion to the welfare of the poor which distinguished 
 his later years; that was only at this period occasional which afterwards 
 became continual, but the principle that inspired it was the same ; it was de- 
 votion to Him who had said, " Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the 
 least of these, ye have done it unto Me." To Lord Ashley, Christianity was 
 nothing unless it was intensely practicap^On one occasionT^henaaarcssing 
 
 them to a life of usefulness, he said, 
 
 "Depend upon it, whatever you think when you are young and stirring, the 
 time will come when you will take counsel with your gTey hairs, and you will 
 bless God if your career has been one by which your fellows have been bene- 
 fited, and God honoured, and if you have endeavoured, as much as lay in your 
 power, to advance His Holy Name, and to do good to all that were within 
 the reach of your influence. Nothing is more likely to keep you from 
 mischief of all kinds, from mischief of action, of speculation from every 
 mischief that you can devise, than to be everlastingly engaged in some great 
 practical work of good. Christianity is not a state of opinion and specula- 
 tion. Christianity is essentially practical, and I will maintain this, that 
 practical Christianity is the greatest curer of corrupt speculative Christianity. 
 No man, depend upon it, can persist from the beginning of his life to the end 
 of it in a course of self-denial, in a course of generosity, in a course of 
 virtue, in a course of piety, and in a course of prayer, unless he draws from 
 his well-spring, unless he is drawing from the fountain of our Lord Himself. 
 Therefore, I say to you, again and again, let your Christianity be practical." * 
 In the following extracts allusions to the Free Trade agitation are inter- 
 woven with the subjects in which Lord Ashley was more immediately 
 concerned. 
 
 Jan. 7th. Under indisposition only does one rightly estimate God's bounties ; 
 how assuaging, how necessary are the many comforts and attentions, which, 
 particularly in winter, the poor cannot get ! Here have I been dreadfully vexed 
 by a cold in the throat, accompanied by a cough, hard as timber and dry as 
 gravel, which gives me no rest day nor night ! Now if I, with all the appliances 
 that money and kindness can give, suffer so much, what must be the endurance 
 of the destitute ! 
 
 Feb. 10th. We have now sat for some days in Committee to consider the 
 Report we shall make on the Act for regulating Mills and Factories. My success 
 has hitherto been greater than I dared to hope for. I have the Government with 
 me, and the mill-owners against me ; this is a curious revolution of parties. 
 The children in silk and lace mills are included in the draft report. I shall be 
 compelled to strike them out and fight their battles another way. The mill- 
 owners cannot beat me either in the Committee or the House ; they know it, and 
 they have made, therefore, like the thieves in Proverbs, "one purse," and intend 
 to raise opposition in the House of Lords, where, alas ! it is but too easy to 
 maintain the status quo, whatever be its offences against truth, justice, and 
 humanity. The benefits of the Second Chamber overbalance the evils ; and I 
 
 * Bristol Young Men's Christian Association, Jan., 18G1.
 
 1841.1 REGISTRATION BILL (iRELAXD). 177 
 
 must bepraise the hand that destroys my hopes. The very qualities that make 
 the Peers bulwarks against mischief render them also slow to impressions of 
 good. They have hard common-sense ; strong feelings of personal and political 
 interest, but few sparks of generosity, and no sentiment. Well, it is here that 
 the tyrants of silk and lace propose to obtain a Committee, and thus throw off 
 all legislation to another year ; and this they will compass, unless I can prevail 
 on Fox Maule to divide the Bill into two ; the Factory Bill for the four great 
 aepartments of industry will thus go forward with all its great and important 
 details ; it will establish a precedent, elevate a model, and present a contrast. 
 Perseverance and zeal will, by God's blessing, bring up all the rest to follow in 
 their train. But I must have more patience and more faith. 
 
 Feb. 13th. Ministers threaten a dissolution, which would undoubtedly be 
 followed by a change of Government. I don't much think they will accomplish 
 their threats ; I hope not, at least just yet, for I desire, above all things, to carry 
 my Factory Bill ; and sure I am (" tell it not in Gath ") that I have got more, 
 and may get more, from the Whigs than I shall ever get from my own " 
 friends. 
 
 Feb. 18th. Concluded our Report to-day on Mills and Factories, and presented 
 it to the House. To God above be all the glory ! Great and signal has been the 
 support I have received under great difficulties ; may He continue it in the final 
 difficulties of its passage through Parliament. Considering the nature of the 
 Committee, its objects and members, we have been wonderfully harmonious. 
 
 Feb. 26th. Sadly disappointed by the tame and empty tone of Sir Robert 
 Peel's speech on Morpeth's Registration Bill (Ireland). A fairer and fitter 
 opportunity was never offered to any man for a bold, striking, and solemn 
 address, based on the most sacred principles, and directed to the highest feelings ; 
 but he missed it, and allowed caution to prevail where the heart only should 
 have governed. I wrote to him and urged on his recollection the solemn com- 
 pact of 1829, the history of tho disfranchisement of the 40s. freeholders, and 
 the increase of the rate of voting to 10. This preliminary measure was the 
 I ft tutiinn-n of the Relief Bill, the indispensable security, the accorded and 
 witnessed price, solemnly and for ever, of our mighty concession. He quite 
 concurred with me. I sat in a fool's paradise, expecting an indignant, though 
 just and solemn, protest against so monstrous a breach of a compact, the more 
 binding because unwritten, and ratified upon honour. A fervent and im- 
 passioned address, so suited to the moment and the man, would have carried 
 conviction ; the House would have felt it, the country still more ; he would have 
 retained all that prudence requires, and yet have conciliated many distrustful 
 supporters, and softened many asperities that the Relief Bill has left, and will 
 leave, in the recollections of Protestants. 
 
 March 5th. On the first of the month is dated the beginning of Mr. 
 Poynter's engagement with me, as tutor to my boys. God grant he may be a 
 true Gamaliel 1 Am I then so old that I must have a grown man to instruct my 
 children ? 
 
 Everything relating to the welfare of the Jews had a special interest for 
 Lord Ashley, and the Bill for removing the test by which Jews were ex- 
 cluded from certain municipal offices was watched by him with close atten- 
 tion, although he took no part in the discussion. There were great anomalies 
 M t
 
 178 THE EARL OP RHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. IX, 
 
 in the case which called for remedy ; for example, it was possible for a Jew 
 to be high sheriff of a county, or Sheriff of London, but he could not become 
 a mayor or alderman, or even a member of the Common Council. It was 
 not until the end of 1847 that a Jew ever held the dignity of an alderman in 
 the City of London. The difficulty in the way was the oath, which had to be 
 laken " on the true faith of a Christian ; " and on this Lord Ashley held 
 very strong views, to which he gave full expression later on, when the ques- 
 tion of admitting Jews to Parliament was under discussion. 
 
 March 12th. On Wednesday last (10th) a discussion took place in the House 
 of Commons on the admissibility of Jews to municipal offices. Inglis opposed 
 the second reading of the Bill, but not in prudent style, bringing all his great 
 guns of argument, principle, and feeling to the skirmish, when he should have 
 reserved them for the battle. He talked as though the question were their 
 admissibility to Parliament. No doubt there is much wisdom in the saying, 
 " principiis obgta;" but we ought to adapt the quantity and quality of our 
 resistance to the nature of the attack, otherwise we should fire a broadside on a 
 pilot-boat, solely because it was to be followed eventually by the whole squadron. 
 This unnecessary force recoiled on itself ; none were convinced, some were 
 amused, and others offended. 
 
 Meanwhile, arguments forestalled are arguments evaporated; Fastidit cnimlir 
 repetita ; we can devise nothing new, and what is old will have become 
 ridiculous. I did not myself vote against the Bill, intending, as I do, to reserve 
 all my opposition to the claim for Parliament. The distinction between the two 
 claims is wide and palpable ; in neither is there danger to the State, but in the 
 last there is an insult to Christianity. Lord John Russell made a speech of 
 surpassing latitudinarianism. " Prophecy," said he " was of doubtful interpreta- 
 tion." " In our legislative deliberations," he added, " we were to take no cogni- 
 sance of the prophetic Scriptures." " God," he continued, " had no need of our 
 co-operation to carry out His wise purposes." Most true ; but has not the 
 Almighty been pleased to command that we shall do nothing to thwart 
 them? 
 
 It was the privilege of Lord Ashley, as we have seen, to enjoy the 
 personal friendship of the Duke of Wellington, and he was still a fre- 
 qupnt visitor at Strathfieldsaye, where nothing gave him more intense 
 pleasure than to wander in the grounds with his host and hear the old 
 warrior fight his battles o'er again. Memoranda of conversations, written 
 down hurriedly while the impressions were fresh in his mind, were 
 treasured by him to the end of his life, and incidents of battle told to him 
 by the Duke, were more often introduced into his speeches than any other 
 form of illustration. 
 
 It is easy to understand the fascination that this intercourse would have 
 for him. His mind was saturated with Scripture ; he looked upon life 
 as a long, hard battle, and every evil as a foe to be met and conquered; 
 and though the weapons of his warfare were not carnal, he saw in every 
 incident related to him an analogy to the spiritual warfare in which the
 
 1841.1 A POLITICAL CRISIS. 179 
 
 soldiers of the Cross were engaged. Thus we find him over and over 
 again, and all through his life, relating stories such as these : 
 
 " I remember the old Duke of Wellington talking to me one day, 
 after our arms had conquered the greater part of the Burman Empire. 
 The Duke said to me, ' I have been called upon to look for a good efficient 
 frontier to our territory in India. I have got it ; but I have gone upon 
 the rule that no frontier is good for defence unless it is equally good for 
 attack.'" 
 
 The application of the story was that Christian institutions must be 
 aggressive as well as defensive.* 
 
 Again, when the School Boards threatened the existence of Ragged 
 Schools, he said : 
 
 " I little thought we should be able to present such an appearance as we 
 do this evening. But we have acted upon the principle which the groat 
 Duke of Wellington acted upon, and of which he frequently spoke to me 
 with great satisfaction, as having crowned his military operations with 
 success. He said that in all the Continental armies if a point was carried 
 the Generals considered themselves beaten, 'But I never thought myself 
 beaten,' said he, ' so long as I could present a front to the enemy. If I 
 was beaten at one point I went to another, and in that way I won all my 
 victories.' "f 
 
 On another occasion Lord Shaftesbury remarked : 
 
 " I remember that the great Duke of Wellington said to me, in speaking 
 of the Battle of Waterloo, 'After a defeat sustained, the greatest sorrow is 
 a victory won.' "J 
 
 And again : 
 
 " Many years ago, in conversation with the old Duke of Wellington, 
 I said to him, ' Now, Duke, what is your opinion of that most distinguished 
 officer of the Emperor Napoleon, Marshal Massena?' He thought for a 
 moment, and said, '111 tell you what: I always found him in the place 
 where I did not wish him to be.' " The application of the story was this : 
 "I will reverse that saying," said Lord Shaftesbury, "in respect of the 
 City missionary, and say that I always find him in the place where I wish 
 him to be." 
 
 On the 3rd of May the Premier (Lord Melbourne) in the course of a 
 debate raised by the presentation of petitions against any alterations in tlio 
 Corn Laws, had expressed himself in favour of a change. In allusion to this 
 Lord Ashley writes : 
 
 May 4th. There cannot be a doubt, whatever be the final issue, the Ministers 
 are thinking of a dissolution, and apprehending compulsory retirement Succes- 
 sive defeats have loosened the cement, and a vigorous blow would batter down 
 the walL I believe they will " go," as the phrase is. I know not whether I ought 
 
 Speech at Olnsgow, Oct., 1874. J Ragged School Union, May, 1876. 
 
 t Ke lijiou* Tract Society, May, 1877. London City MUion, May, 1879. 
 
 II 2
 
 180 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. [CHAt. II. 
 
 to wish it. To be sure, their good deeds are very hollow in principle and truth ; 
 I would not give much for the chance of virtue and excellence and human 
 service in the face of political calculation. Horner writes me word that the 
 Factory Bill is suspended indefinitely ; the state of affairs is assigned as a plea ; it 
 may be so in some respects ; but I cannot altogether be blind to the fact that 
 the delay punishes me , and will embarrass Peel. Suspended, forsooth ! and thus 
 another year is added to the period over which wrong and violence are to reign 
 without control ! The whole of last Session and the best half of this utterly 
 lost ; all the evidence will be stale, facts without point, and cases out of date ; to 
 say nothing of other opinions and other conduct in a succeeding Government. 
 Nevertheless, " against hope I must believe in hope ; " as I began in faith, so must 
 I continue, regarding difficulties as so many trials, and delays as essential to 
 maturity " Without faith it is impossible to please Him." 
 
 May 13th. We are lost and bewildered in a labyrinth of speculation ; every 
 one knows the intentions of the Ministers, though, in fact they do not know 
 their own. I hear from Alava that the Queen takes it all very calmly, not liking 
 it but yielding to it. ... World busy in assigning offices to men, and men 
 to offices. 
 
 Lord Ashley's name was freely mentioned in connection with office ; and 
 commenting on the estimates made of him by others, he fell into a strain in 
 his Diary to which he was becoming accustomed a strain of self-deprecia- 
 tion and somewhat morbid self -analysis. 
 
 If speaking be required, ready off-hand statement or reply, there are few men 
 not equally competent with myself. I never hear a speech without feeling that, 
 inferior though it be, it is better than I could make. I begin to contrast the 
 powers exhibited with my own, and I remain overwhelmed by my own deficiency. 
 I do regret it, because I feel fully, deeply, unanswerably, that I am thus 
 limited, very limited, in my means of carrying out the tenth part of what I con- 
 ceive, and the half of what I propose, for the general welfare. It is marvellous 
 to observe how much might be effected in these days by a man who had right 
 notions and an effective tongue. 
 
 May 19th. A great victory, no doubt, last night ; * but will it be a fruit- 
 ful one? 
 
 May 20th. Not yet Ministers go on 1 ! 
 
 But the Melbourne Ministry was doomed. It would be foreign to our 
 purpose to attempt a history of the Free Trade movement, or to show the 
 successive stages of that great agitation, which Lord Melbourne affected to 
 regard with contempt, and which Lord John Russell condemned ; nor would 
 it be within our scope to trace the other causes which led to the fall of the 
 Ministry. 
 
 On the 24th of May, Sir Robert Peel gave notice of his intention to move 
 that " her Majesty's Ministers do not sufficiently possess the confidence of 
 
 * Government defeated on Lord Sandon's motion against reduction of duty on 
 foreign sugars.
 
 1841.) COMMEMORATION DAT AT OXFORD. 181 
 
 the House of Commons to enable them to carry through the House 
 measures which they deem of essential importance to the public welfare, and 
 that their continuance in office under such circumstances is at variance with 
 ihe spirit of the Constitution." The division was taken on the 4th of June, 
 with the result that Sir Robert Peel's "No confidence" motion was carried 
 by a majority of one. 
 
 May 25th. Received yesterday a most laudatory letter, sent in the name of 
 many Conservatives of Leeds, to request me to stand for that borough. Of course 
 I declined it, but the honour of the offer was great, and the grounds of it still 
 more so. 
 
 June 8th. Windsor Castle. Arrived here hist night ... I find we are 
 invited for the races at Ascot. I am sorry for it, but I cannot refuse to go there. 
 I am the Queen's guest, and I cannot think it right to put upon my Sovereign 
 Bur.h a rebuke as would be conveyed by my declining to accompany her. I wish 
 to avoid and discountenance races, and I do not like to add the value of my 
 example (such as it is) to aid the maintenance of the practice but the thing ia 
 not wrong in itself, simply in its consequences. I shall acquiesce, therefore, in 
 this instance, and pray God it may not be productive of any mischief to the 
 slight influence I may have in the world for carrying forward measures and 
 designs of good to mankind. 
 
 June 9th. It was a dull affair, and I hope harmless. It is a thing by itself 
 it is, in fact, an nnnnal exhibition of the Sovereign to the people, in great state 
 and circumstance. 
 
 June 15th, Commemoration day at Oxford ; went over from Nuneham, 
 whither I had been invited to meet the Queen ; received the degree of Doctor in 
 Laws ; it was my due so far as it is worth anything long ago, but I did not 
 like to refuse it now. The Prince must have seen Whiggery at a fearful discount ; 
 the undergraduates enjoyed their Saturnalia to excess, showing, however, great 
 respect to the Prince, and unbounded loyalty to the Queen. I was received with 
 courtesy, and nothing more ; my popularity, such as it is, lies with a portion of 
 the " great unwashed." 
 
 On June 22nd, Parliament was dissolved by the Queen in person. "I 
 entertain the hope," her Majesty said, " that the progress of public business 
 may be facilitated, and that divisions injurious to the cause of steady policy 
 and useful legislation may be removed by the authority of a new Parliament, 
 which I shall direct to be summoned without delay." 
 
 June 22nd. This day Parliament dissolved by the Queen in person. Thus do 
 the Ministers seek to identify her with what is odious and wicked, and hide their 
 own hoary profligacy under her young virtue.* It is a solemn day, the beginning 
 of the end, the final issue if beaten now, our account is settled, the sentence 
 will clearly have been passed, and the nation must await the execution. An 
 increase of power in the hands of these Ministers, frightened and stimulated, as 
 they are, by the prospective loss of it, will be followed by an increase of violent, 
 
 * A dissolution on the cry of " Cheap bread," Lord Ashley regarded "u the most 
 improper and moat mischievous that ever entered into the mind of a statesman."
 
 182 THE KARL OF SHAFTESI>rRY. [CHAP. IX. 
 
 infidel, Jacobinical, extirpating 1 measures, to cut up, root and branch, every hope, 
 nay, possibility, of our accession to office. This is the position to whom then 
 do we turn ? ... In some churches a call has been made to the whole nation 
 to " lift up their hearts " ; grave, solemn, wholesome, necessary counsel would 
 to God it were obeyed. . . . 
 
 We shall triumph in the elections, I verily believe. I have laboured hard for 
 Jocelyn* at Leeds ; he has been wonderfully received, I believe in great measure 
 through my influence this is greater than I thought it was ; but as I have ob- 
 tained it by the proposition and maintenance of certain measures, I must use it 
 for the advancement of those measures. I have no right to call on the operatives, 
 who confide in me, to support either me personally, or any party politically, 
 unless such a course be, in my honest belief, conducive to their success in the 
 matter they seek. I may be disappointed after all ; but at any rate they will be 
 in no worse condition, and we shall have made a great and legitimate experiment. 
 I have done much in hope to conciliate the landed gentry in their behalf, and ap- 
 proximate the parties who have common interests, and. " tell it not in Gath," a 
 common enemy, the mill-owner ; he is not necessarily, but optionally so he is 
 the Jacobin of commerce. 
 
 It astonishes me to see what I have done. The operatives have been enabled 
 in many places (and they were never so before) to tell their own story. This has 
 been sufficient to baffle the Corn-Law Leaguers. I cannot but admire and love 
 these poor fellows ; they have shown an ardour, a gratitude, and a sincerity that 
 would put to shame nine-tenths of the gentry. They promised me to give 
 Jocelyn a good reception, and they have done so. 
 
 It was not unnatural that, in the midst of the changes that wore going on 
 in the political world, some of the operatives should feel a little anxiety 
 whether their leader would stand steadfast, and whether his opinions on 
 certain details in connection with the limitation of the hours of labour would 
 remain unchanged. Mr. Mark Crabtreo was appointed spokesman on behalf 
 of the operatives of the West Riding, and, in fulfilling his mission, he added 
 the expression of a fear lest, in the event of Sir Robert Peel forming a 
 Ministry, Lord Ashley might accept some office which would embarrass him 
 in these matters. To this he replied : " Without speculating on the proba- 
 bility of a Cabinet to be formed by Sir Robert Peel, or on the probability 
 that I should be invited to take any subordinate station in his Govern- 
 ment, I will never place myself in any situation where I shall not be as free 
 as air to do everything that I may believe to be conducive to the happiness, 
 comfort, and welfare of that portion of the working classes who have so long 
 and confidingly entrusted to me the care of their hopes and interests." 
 
 June 29th. Down here (Salisbury) to aid John.f This week will be a stirring 
 one. God in His goodness give us the victory, but may He give us grace therewith 
 to use it aright 1 But all success (I speak as a man) seems to hang on the Lon- 
 don election, and the repulse of Lord John it is proceeding at this very hour 1 
 
 Lord Jocelyn, son of the Earl of Roden, had married Lady Ashley's sister 
 t TLe Hon. John Ashley, brother of Lord Ashley.
 
 1841.1 SPEECH TO THE ELECTORS OP DORSET. 183 
 
 July 1st. To London and back yesterday to vote for Rous,* who, though last 
 in the field, was first at the poll. Not so John, who was defeated to-day by 55. 
 This is a sad disappointment, but now it is' lost, let us act as though it were 
 bet :er for us not to have won. 
 
 July 3rd. Dorchester. I have just heard that Jocelyn has been defeated. 
 Thus fall my hopes and efforts. The Ten Hours Bill, if not retarded, has lost a 
 grand means of advance. Fresh toil, fresh obstacles, fresh anxieties await me. 
 " Ilri fffusut labor." 
 
 July 4th. Sunday. The book of Ruth is a beautiful picture of agricultural 
 life, a happy peasantry and a good landlord. There are passages in it of un- 
 rivalled sweetness and beauty, exhibiting a state of things, and a simplicity of 
 intercourse arising from and coloured by religion, such as this country now can 
 never enjoy 1 
 
 July 6th. St. Giles's Rectory. Elected this morning for the fourth time as 
 County Member without trouble and without expense. 
 
 In his speech to the electors of the county of Dorset, Lord Ashley reviewed 
 the political history of the last ten years ; the period since he first represented 
 them in Parliament. The Corn Laws naturally furnished him with his prin- 
 cipal subject. In the course of his remarks he said, " If the price of corn be 
 low it will pauperise the producer ; if the price of corn be high it will oppress 
 the consumer, and thus you will have this constant and happy alternation, at 
 one time stripping the fanner, at another time starving the people. I am 
 anxious for the due maintenance and proper remuneration of the 1mm --t 
 industry of this realm, and will never consent to any arrangement whatsoever 
 Dint will abate by one farthing the wages of labour either in the county of 
 Dorset, or in the town of Manchester. . . . This leads me to that which has 
 lii-cii held out as a groat boon the cry of "Cheap bread." I hold that that cry 
 is both absurd and wicked. It tells but half of the truth, and mystifies the 
 dt her. Many things may be exceedingly cheap, but at the same time wholly 
 uiiiittainable. Let them add the other half of the story, low wages, and then 
 you have the whole truth. And I beg you to recollect the budget of the 
 itinerant philosophical Irishman, who entered a shop in one of the streets of 
 London to inquire the price of eggs, and was informed " two for sixpence." 
 He replied that in the county of Mayo, whence ho had come, he could procure 
 a dozen for the same money. " Then why did you not stay in Mayo ? " was 
 the question then put to him. " Arrah ! " says he, " because I could not get 
 the sixpence to buy them with ! " 
 
 In the latter half of his speech he brought an exhaustive indictment 
 against the Government in a series of charges, launched with tremendous 
 vigour, and each justifying the vote of " No confidence." 
 
 July 12th. Sat next to Peel at dinner last Saturday. What possesses that 
 man? It was the neighbourhood of an iceberg with a slight thaw on the surface. 
 
 * Capt. Hon. Henry Rous, Member for Westminster, afterwards well known n* 
 Admiral Rous, the great authority and arbiter in all Turf matters, but always most dis- 
 tinguished for his integrity and honour amid somewhat doubtful surroundings.
 
 184 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. IX. 
 
 We have triumphed in the W. Riding ! This is indeed a marvellous work, and 
 calls loudly for our humblest and heartiest thanks. 
 
 July 13th.^Called on Oastler to-day in the Fleet Prison. I broke off from 
 him when he became ungovernably violent, and dealt in language and advice 
 which must have issued in fire and bloodshed. Years have now elapsed ; his fury 
 has subsided, and his services must not be forgotten. No man has finer talents 
 or a warmer heart ; his feelings are too powerful for control, and he has often 
 been outrageous, because he knew that his principles were just. The factory 
 children, and all the operatives, owe him an immense debt of gratitude. It is 
 difficult to assign him his due portion of all the service that was rendered in the 
 beginning of this mighty question. His employer, Mr. Thornhill, has used hiiu 
 infamously. I had intended to call on him a few weeks ago ; but, on reflection, 
 I delayed my visit until after the elections, lest I shoald be suspected of an 
 interested motive of a desire to obtain his influence in the W. Riding. . . . 
 
 The result of the General Election was a gain to the Tories greater than 
 the most sanguine had anticipated, the lists showing 368 Tories to 292 
 Liberals. 
 
 July 24th. Shortly will begin a new Administration, and God grant it may 
 open new hopes and new principles. . . . The country has no real confidence 
 in Peel ; they have attempted this great experiment under a sense of duty, and 
 many in a spirit of prayer ; but they do not disguise from themselves the awful 
 probability that it may not please God to render Peel an instrument of good to 
 this nation. 
 
 They fear his love of expediency, his perpetual egoistry, his dread of an im- 
 movable principle, his delight in the praise of men. I confess they have much 
 and sad truth on their side. I cannot see in him those great qualities which the 
 present times peculiarly require we need mighty virtues far more than mighty 
 talents. He has abundance of human honesty, and not much of Divine faith ; 
 he will never do a dishonourable thing, he will be ashamed of doing a religious 
 one ; he will tolerate no jobs to win votes, he will submit to no obloquy to please 
 God ; a well-turned phrase of compliment, and eulogy from John Russell or 
 Macaulay, will attract him more than " Hast thou considered my servant 
 Job?" . . . 
 
 Wrote to him urgently and solemnly on the future conduct of his Govern- 
 ment, and more especially on the danger of Puseyism. The more I reflect the 
 more I thank God that I have written. For the country's sake, and for his 
 own, I must ever feel the deepest interest in his public success and personal 
 welfare. 
 
 July 28th. London. Came up for a few hours from Panshanger. Her 
 Majesty was there. 
 
 The letter referred to above was as follows : 
 
 Lord Ashley to Sir Robert Peel. 
 
 BBOADSTAIBS, July 2ith, 1841. 
 
 Mr DEAR SIR ROBERT, I have ventured, during the last twelve months, 
 to write to you with intimacy and confidence on two or three subjects. J
 
 1S41.) LETTER TO SIR ROBERT PEEL. 185 
 
 shall do so once more, and only once more, because a limit most be pat to such 
 interferences ; nor would I have done BO now, had I not felt that immense 
 interests were involved in what, as it appears to me, is a right understanding 
 of certain questions which will shortly come before you. We have obtained, 
 by God's blessing, a most signal victory in the elections, the issue of which 
 will, to all human probability, be your elevation to the Government of these 
 kingdoms. I will not presume to talk of duties and responsibilities ; few men 
 can either know them or feel them more intensely than yourself ; but I will 
 tell you the very general language of many persons among the clergy, the 
 middle classes, and the operatives persons who may be fairly considered to 
 represent the opinions of a vast portion of those classes. 
 
 My habits and pursuits have, of late years, brought me much into contact 
 with a great variety of individuals and orders ; they speak to me without reserve, 
 and treat me with the intimacy of a friend. Now this is the sum and substance 
 of their statements to me, and almost the very form of words universally 
 adopted : " We have made immense efforts during the last few years to reject 
 the present Ministers, but Sir Robert Peel and the Conservatives must not 
 think that we have done so for him and their party we have no more pre- 
 ference for them than for Lord John Russell and the Whigs ; we look to the 
 assertion and execution of great principles, and the maintenance of great 
 interests ; should we be disappointed, we shall become as hostile as we have 
 hitherto been friendly." 
 
 But the Church will present more serious difficulties, and I fear more awful 
 dangers, than any other matter of Government. There are now, within its 
 bosom, two parties, divided against each other on principles irreconcilable, 
 heart-stirring, and vital. The party denominated the Puseyites are strong in 
 number, possess character and learning, but are confined chiefly to the clergy. 
 Their opponents are the majority, but do not enjoy the advantage of being 
 concentrated in an university ; they have more piety, and less reading, but carry 
 with them the great body of the laity. These parties regard one another with 
 the greatest dislike and suspicion. The Puseyites consider their opponents as 
 little better than Dissenters ; the others look upon the Puseyites as inchoate 
 Papists. You may estimate the feelings of each by the character of the 
 opinions he holds of his antagonists. The Puseyites assert that the Evangelicals 
 depreciate the authority of the Church and the Fathers ; the Evangelicals 
 maintain that the Puseyites prefer it to the Bible. My purpose, however, is 
 simply to point out to you (and I do it with the most conscious sense of the 
 perils to which the whole Church may be exposed) the consequences that must 
 flow from the elevation, to high ecclesiastical offices, of persons distinguished 
 for the new opinions. The Church will be shaken by violent commotions. 
 The Low Church, as they are called, will believe, and will preach too, that 
 Popery is encouraged and promoted. The prodigious zeal they have manifested 
 against the present Ministers will re-act upon you. I say not that your 
 Government can never withstand such an onset as that, but I do say that our 
 Establishment will be destroyed. 
 
 I will not disguise from you my own belief that many of that party are 
 actually Romanists in creed, and will declare themselves to be such when- 
 ever conscience gets the better of Jesuistry ; that they are enemies to the
 
 186 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [Cn.\r. IX. 
 
 Reformation (God's best gift to this country) is proved by their hostility to 
 its doctrines, and their reviling of its martyrs ; that they are half-hearted to 
 the Constitution is shown when they pervert into rebellion the Revolution of 
 1688, whitewashing James, and blackening King William. 
 
 Pray, during the short leisure you may enjoy before the meeting of Parlia- 
 ment, just look at the work I have sent you. It is by an impartial hand, a 
 good man, and a Bishop of the Protestant Church in the United States ; a 
 person, therefore, disconnected from our party -strifes and ecclesiastical divisions. 
 His treatise will show you how far the Oxford Theologians have departed 
 from the Anglican, and how closely they have approached to the Roman Church. 
 
 You are now about to be summoned to the highest and most responsible 
 of all earthly situations. No crowned head has a tenth part of the dignity 
 and moral power that accompany the Prime Minister of the Sovereign of these 
 realms ; it will place you at the head, if you choose to assume it, of the poli- 
 tical and religious movements of the whole world. No statesman will ever 
 have acceded to office with so many and so fervent prayers to the throne 
 of grace. My firm belief is that thousands and tens of thousands have daily 
 poured forth the most heartfelt devotions that you might become an instru- 
 ment in the hands of Almighty God, for the advancement and glory of His 
 Church, the welfare of this people, and of all mankind. In these days of 
 speciousness, of peril, and of perplexity, there is nothing to guide you through 
 the false shoals on every side of your course but a vigorous and dauntless 
 faith which, utterly disregarding the praise of men, and having a single eye 
 to the glory of God, shall seek none but that which comes from Him 
 only. . . . 
 
 Though your lot be cast in times of novel difficulties and unprecedented 
 dangers, in times to produce events which will throw all the past into a 
 shade, they believe that, while your conflict may be tremendous, your reward 
 will be ample. If the piety of your supporters can be of any avail (and we 
 know from Scripture that it is), you will be sustained by the prayers of a 
 noble company, many unknown to you and to me, and perhaps to any but 
 God and their own hearts, who will " wish you good luck in the name of the 
 Lord." And for myself, let me say that, whether you shall be destined, in 
 God's wisdom, to success or to defeat, to power or to retirement, I shall ever 
 desire your real honour and your- real happiness, both in time and in eternity. 
 
 Believe me, &c. &c., 
 P.S. Do not answer this letter. ASHLEY. 
 
 Having determined to watch the working of the Factory Act iu all 
 its bearings, and being especially anxious to elicit the opinion of the 
 operatives, and to observe the effect of the Act as regarded themselves, 
 Lord Ashley seized the first opportunity that presented itself, and set off 
 into Lancashire on a tour of inspection. 
 
 August 2nd. Manchester. Came here on a factory tour to see the latest 
 improvements (!) in machinery. Went to a meeting of operatives and talked 
 to them ; poor fellows, the times are heavy, and their position is most dis- 
 tressing, nor can I foresee any possibility of amendment for them ; the Teo
 
 1841.1 THE VALUE OF LAW. 187 
 
 Hours Bill would come too late for all the practical purposes we once pre- 
 dicted ; the evil unchecked has attained so fearful a height that human legis- 
 lation is more verbiage. The meeting went off very well. I expressed sympathy 
 and friendship it soothed their spirits, and somewhat lightened the burthen 
 by an apparent sharing of it. The clergy here, as usual, are cowed by capital 
 and power. I find none who " cry aloud and spare not ; " but so it IB every- 
 where. Two more clergy, I am happy to say, in other parts, have offered me 
 assistance, Mr. Sparks Byers and Archdeacon Wilberforce ; Mr. Byers has been 
 singularly active and friendly. 
 
 August 6th. Leeds. Convened meetings at Bolton, Ashton, Huddersfield. 
 and Leeds ; success went on increasing, and each reception was more hearty 
 and affectionate than the last. What a sin it is to be ignorant of the sterling 
 value and merit of these poor men I A few words of kindness are as effectual 
 with them as a force of fifty thousand soldiers on a French population. Never 
 have I met with such respect and affection as on this journey. I see and feel 
 the truth of Oastler's observation, " they are neither infidels nor Jacobins ; 
 they love the Monarchy and they love religion." It is most correct, though they 
 have been denied the blessings of the one, and excluded from the benefits of 
 the other. God, the God of all righteousness, mercy, and love, give us all 
 grace and strength to conceive and execute whatever may be for Thine honour 
 and their welfare, that we may become at the last, through the merits and 
 intercession of our common Redeemer, a great and a happy, because a wise 
 and understanding, people. 
 
 In a speech at Leeds, Lord Ashley instanced the case of a young woman 
 in a mill at Stockport, who had been caught by the machinery, whirled round, 
 and dashed to the ground, with limbs broken and body mutilated. Her 
 employers deducted eighteenpence from her w_ages for the uuexpired portion 
 of the week since the accident happened ! In illustration of the thoroughness 
 of the manner in which Lord Ashley worked on behalf of the operatives, the 
 sequel to the story may be told here. He prosecuted the mill-owners, with 
 the result that they had to pay 100 damages to the girl, and expenses on 
 both sides, amounting to 600. The expenditure of a few shillings in the 
 first instance, in properly boxing off the machinery, would have saved this 
 loss to the mill-owners and the more terrible loss to the injured girl. It was 
 thus that he impressed on the minds of the operatives the value of law, and 
 proved to them that it was not necessarily opposed to the interests of the 
 working classes. 
 
 August 16th. Broadstairs. Passed a few days happily with my wife and 
 kids. A letter from Peel in answer. He is civil and even kind, but says nothing 
 to inspire confidence, and he dislikes Puseyites because they have abused him in 
 the British Critic, not because of their political and religious opinions. 
 
 Sir Robert Peel to Lord Athley. 
 
 DRAYTOX MANOR, Avg. l*t, 1841. 
 
 MY DEAR ASHLEY, You never need make the slightest apology for communi- 
 cating to me, in the most frank and unreserved manner, your own opinions upon 
 public matters, or information you may receive aa to the opinions of other*
 
 188 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [Cn>r. TX. 
 
 The books you mentioned have safely reached me, and they have already 
 received some attention from me. If you will read a late article in the British 
 Critic, you will find that I do not stand very high in the estimation of the 
 Puseyites. I hope I am doing that party an injustice in supposing that they 
 would countenance such spiteful and malevolent feelings, concealed under the 
 thin garb of superior piety, as that article exhibits. Still, I suppose the British 
 Critic is a Puseyite organ. 
 
 I have no doubt you state correctly both the extent and the bitterness of the 
 feud which is raging in the Church. It is fit and right that men should adhere 
 steadfastly to sincere religious opinions, and should enforce and maintain them 
 with all the ability and strength of argument they can command ; but it fre- 
 quently happens that these zealous controversialists on religious matters leave, 
 on the mind of their readers, one conviction stronger than any other, namely, 
 that Christian charity is consumed in their burning zeal for their own opinions. 
 I have read some controversies of late which have made me rejoice that the 
 parties to them have no other power over their neighbour than to abuse and 
 defame him. 
 
 Ever most faithfully yours, 
 
 ROBERT PEEL. 
 
 August 27th. Fresh difficulties beset my path. The master-spinners have 
 held a meeting in Manchester, and have resolved to oppose any Bill that I can 
 bring in. This determines much of my course. I knew what / should do 
 before ; I now can guess what Peel will do : he will succumb to the capitalists 
 and reject my Factory Bill. No human power, therefore, shall induce me to 
 accept office. I am bound by every obligation, human and Divine, not to allow 
 myself to be placed in any situation where I may not be equally, if not better, 
 circumstanced to advance these great interests. My part is resolved. If Peel 
 oppose me, nay, even if he does not support me, I will surrender interest and 
 ambition to the cause ; I will persevere in it, God helping me, through storm and 
 sunshine ; I will commit all to Christ, and, trusting in Him, I shall never be 
 confounded. 
 
 An incident in connection with the appointments of the new Ministry will 
 be read with peculiar interest, told as it is, in the Diary, with vivid minute- 
 ness, and with all the warmth and fervour of the moment at which it 
 occurred. 
 
 In offering an appointment to Lord Ashley, it was evidently the desire of 
 Sir Robert Peel to place him in some sinecure office where he would be kept 
 quiet ; and his " high morality " was made the pretext for requiring his 
 services in the Royal Household. The Factory Question was now one of the 
 burning questions of the day. It had materially influenced the past elections, 
 and it was gathering around it forces which threatened to become increasingly 
 formidable. To silence the leader of the movement, by luring him to accept 
 an office in which it would be impossible for him to carry on a great political 
 agitation, was a stroke of policy worth any effort. It was a grave mistake, 
 however, to offer an inferior post. No doubt it was the intention of Sir 
 Robert Peel, in the event of the offer being declined, to press upon him a
 
 iwi.i PEEL'S APPOINTMENTS. 189 
 
 higher and more congenial appointment ; but that intention was frustrated by 
 the reception given to his first proposal. Lord Ashley's pride was naturally 
 wounded. He had a right to expect a more adequate appreciation of his 
 services to his country ; he could not regard the offer as other than an insult 
 to the position he had taken in great national questions, and to the causes lie 
 represented. 
 
 Sir Robert Peel did not know the man with whom he had to deal. He 
 was incapable of realising the high and generous motives of one who, for the 
 sake of the poor, and the wretched, and the oppressed, was ready to sacrifice 
 position and emolument, and close upon himself the gates leading to political 
 power through which the majority of men are only too eager to pass at all 
 hazards. 
 
 Lord Ashley, on the other hand, saw through the man with whom he had 
 to deal ; perceived the speciousness of his arguments, and the injury any 
 compliance with them would do to the cause he had so warmly at heart, and 
 at once resolved upon the course of action he would pursue. He determined 
 that he would not accept any office, of any kind, under any conditions which 
 would interfere witli his perfect freedom to act in the interests of the factory 
 operative. 
 
 To the resolution taken on this occasion he was faithful throughout his 
 life. In 1845 Sir Robert Peel urged him with great persistency to accept a 
 place in the Cabinet, but he again declined. Under different Administra- 
 tions, and from opposite sides, he was urged to take office ; but his resolution 
 was fixed and unalterable. "There are still 1,600,000 operatives," was his 
 reply to Lord Derby, as late as 1866, " excluded from the benefits of the 
 Factory Acts ; until they are brought under the protection of the law, I 
 cannot take office." 
 
 August 30th. Peel sent for me this morning ; and having put into my hands 
 an order from the Queen to attend her at Windsor, desired my advice, " Who 
 shall be Lord Steward, who Lord Chamberlain ? Shall I propose Lord Liverpool 
 for the Stewardship ? "... He then opened his budget, as I had anticipated, 
 and proposed that I should accept an office in the Household. He re-stated his 
 arguments of 1839. I told him the case was altered ; the Court was no longer 
 the same, the Queen was two years older, had a child, and a husband to take care 
 of her. I added, moreover, 'You misunderstand the Court ; a man, however high 
 his rank in social life, is placed according to his official position ; the Queen 
 cannot, consistently with etiquette, admit one in a subordinate station to inti- 
 macy and confidence ; she would speak to mo as Treasurer, only in the language 
 of authority.' ... He asked me " what he should say to the Queen if she 
 proposed my name ; " we agreed he should say, " he would confer with me on the 
 point." I then requested two minutes, in which I expressed to him most em- 
 />lxif //-ally all that I had put down in my entry of the 27th. I told him I had 
 intentionally compromised myself, and that while I was ready to serve him as 
 shoe-black for the interests of a Conservative Government, I would not abate my 
 principles by the breadth of a hair. This was indispensable even to the discussion 
 on taking office. He said he did cot know the jircu-nt position of the Factorj
 
 190 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. IX. 
 
 Question. I told him. " I can talk to you about it another time," he said, and 
 dismissed me coldly. There is not a shadow of reason for desiring- me to take an 
 appointment at the Court ; the truth is that he thinks me too full of my own 
 opinions and principles, too ready to act on my own judgment and conscience, 
 and likely, in consequence, to be independent, and therefore troublesome in office 
 thus he will not appoint me to a situation of power ; he can hardly replace me 
 in the Admiralty, because I have a right to promotion : he finds, therefore, a sort 
 of reason for putting me out of the way into the Palace. I was much struck that 
 he did not, as in 1839, apologise to me for making such an offer, nor did he say 
 anything about its being unworthy of me. 
 
 August 31st. The Queen at least has said nothing about me, for Peel has re- 
 turned from Windsor, and has not sent for me thus another excuse is cut 
 from him. . . . 
 
 This majority of ninety-one* has infused much confidence, more perhaps than 
 will prove advantageous. In 1834, when he proffered me an office, and I begged 
 him to think of men who would take offence if omitted, " My object," said he, 
 " is to win the confidence of the country by my appointments ; it is to persons of 
 your character that I look." When in 1839 I pleaded the Factory Question as a 
 bar to my acceptance of place, he absolutely (I now see his manner, and hear his 
 voice) " pooh-poohed " it as a thing as easy to be adopted by him as a breath .of 
 wind. In both these cases he had no majority, and was desirous of getting one. 
 He is now successful, and is proportionally indifferent and frigid. 
 
 Sept. 1st. We were encouraged to propound and maintain sturdy principles 
 in Opposition, whether aggressive or defensive. We are now told " not to be 
 extreme ; " " Every man must not run his own hare ; " " We must concede part of 
 our principles to preserve the remainder," and such-like time-serving balderdash. 
 Peel, to be sure, has always avoided any principles at all, he has thriven on the 
 generous " imprudence " of his supporters. Thus it is on all sides ; there are two 
 sorts of truth, both of them convenient, according to circumstances one for Oppo- 
 sition, one for Government ! I detest this " public morality." I cannot but feel 
 indignation when I remember the cool, careless way in which Peel endeavoured 
 to shelve me on the establishment of the Palace not an apology, not a regret, 
 not a civil word ! He said, to gild the pill, that he wanted my advice, and then 
 asked it on one point where, it was clear, he had already made up his mind. It 
 would have been far more becoming, and even more kind, to have left me un- 
 noticed altogether. 
 
 The period of suspense and anxiety was, happily, short. On the 2nd of 
 September, Lord Ashley called upon Sir Robert Peel at mid-day in com- 
 pliance with his request. 
 
 Sept. 3rd. ... I did not go without hearty prayer to God for a right 
 judgment in all things, and strength of mind to act in accordance with it ; 
 above all, that I might come to that decision which might most conduce to 
 the glory of God and the real welfa're of mankind. Saw him ; he renewed his 
 proposition, totally disregarding, and treating as unworthy of mention, my 
 
 * The majority against the Melbourne Ministry after three nights' debate on the 
 Address.
 
 1841.1 INTERVIEW WITH SIR ROBERT PEEL. 191 
 
 difficulties on the score of the Factory Bill. He urged the Queen's desires 
 and the Queen's wishes, &c., admitting', however, that his reception had been 
 gracious. I re-stated the obstacles : he observed that this limitation of the 
 hours of labour would require the deliberations of several Cabinets, as a great 
 Ministerial measure. I told him the question was not a novel one ; it had 
 been frequently discussed in the House of Commons during the last ten years ; 
 if further inquiry were necessary for others, it conld not be so for me ; it 
 had excited the sympathies and interests of many thousands in the country, 
 and had, in fact, carried the West Riding, and other places, at the General 
 Election. He was extremely urgent, seemed much distressed, talked of my 
 unblemished reputation, &c., the necessity of having such ones about the 
 Court. I said, " Consider my position ; I have, during ten years, enforced these 
 principles ; I have told the Government (being in strong Opposition) that they 
 did not know the rights and interests of the working classes, that they were 
 indifferent to their welfare, and were ignorant of the wants of human nature ; 
 that the question was vital, and concerned the permanency of the social edifice : 
 that I would never allow it to be tainted by party ; that I should push it 
 under all circumstances, whoever might be the Leader of the House of 
 Commons, and whichever the party in power. I have spoken and acted in 
 this spirit ; and can I now, because my friends hold office, either withdraw or 
 modify the principles I have declared to be sacred ? Did I do so, I should, 
 first, be deprived of all those requisites, moral character, &c., to which you 
 attach so high a value ; and, secondly, I should be rendered incapable of accom- 
 plishing the purpose for which alone you desire my adhesion." 
 
 He proposed various middle courses, all of which I rejected as useless to 
 him and injurious to myself. He thought I might take office, reserving to 
 myself the right, as he said, " of entering into some other arrangements with- 
 out any general disturbance," and thus resuming my power to urge the ques- 
 tinii. "It cannot," he observed, "become a subject of discussion before the 
 spring." " I should, by so doing," I replied, " convey an universal impression 
 'that you were favourable to my views ; and let me observe that it would be 
 far less injurious were I to decline office now, saying that your minds were 
 undetermined and I could not consent to shackle my free action by joining 
 a doubtful Government than to remain with you four months, and then 
 declare that, on experience, I found you so hostile to the working classes, that 
 I could not go on with you. A resignation demands stronger reasons than a 
 non-junction. Besides, to take office in the belief that I shall vacate it in 
 four months would be held puerile, and perhaps deceptive." I was bound, 
 moreover, by the words, the calculated words, of my letter to Crabtree, "not 
 to place myself in any situation where I should not be as free as air to 
 maintain and advance the interests of this great question." " During the 
 four months of interval, I must remain quiet ; I could not, as a member of 
 the Government, marshal forces, collect evidence, gather materials for an 
 explosion in the House of Commons." " You could not," he said, " have any 
 open agitation." All this I urged in reply to an argument that there 
 was a wide difference between an office in the Household and a political 
 appointment. Goulburn then came in, and Peel desired me to discuss the 
 question with him. I agreed to do so. . . . Peel then came back and
 
 192 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. CCHAP. ix. 
 
 begged me to speak to Graham, submit the matter to other men, &c., all of 
 which I promised, because, although I was resolved, it seemed delicate and 
 kind so to do. " Mark you," I said, " a change of conduct would involve a 
 total ruin of character this, perhaps, would hurt no one but myself with 
 reference to the individual, but it does so happen that I am, at this moment, 
 no doubt unworthily, the representative of the whole aristocracy in respect of 
 the operatives should I deceive them, they will never henceforward believe 
 that there exists a single man of station or fortune who is worthy to be 
 trusted." I retired, and stated the case to Henry Corry, Lincoln,* and Jowett 
 all declared the necessity of my alliance with the Government ; Lincoln 
 alone hoped that a middle course might be found, but he could not devise one. 
 I sent for Seeley, who was very decided. I shall ever keep his letter as full 
 and satisfactory. 
 
 Wrote a decided negative to Peel, and sent it at eight o'clock this morning 
 with Seeley's letter. 
 
 Notwithstanding this decided negative, Sir Robert Peel, within a few 
 hours, again sent for Lord Ashley, desiring his presence in Whitehall. 
 
 Went there, dreading a revival of the conflict and all the distressing circum- 
 stances of our late interview had been miserable for hours and continued so I 
 was somewhat angry too, recollecting how urgent he had been to overpower my 
 conscience by entreaty, and determined, if that were renewed, to cut the matter 
 short. Told me he had heard again from the Queen, who desired to know 
 whether I were to be about the Court ; I repeated my objections ; urged that I 
 could have no object in public life but to obtain a good Conservative Govern- 
 ment. . . . We were silent for a few minutes. I then said, " You will some 
 day see and confess the service I have been able to render ; the country has re- 
 sisted all agitation on the Corn Laws ; I had agents in Lancashire and Yorkshire 
 before the elections, and during the elections there was the greatest tranquillity : 
 depend upon it, I had a material influence over the return of the West Riding, 
 and I know that I have conciliated thousands of hearts to our blessed Constitu- 
 tion." " Oh 1 this I fully and freely admit," was the reply. " Well, then," he 
 continued, " I still hope some means may be found for bringing us together, and 
 that at no distant period, when we come to look into matters, and examine 
 individual cases (I hardly understood the expression), we may find a way." I 
 fully concurred, having concluded that he meant to investigate the question with 
 a strong bias to concede it. Be it so much, I fear, of the grace and popularity 
 will be gone. He then rose and said, " I suppose I must convey a negative to the 
 Queen." " A solemn principle," I answered, " and a deep feeling of conscience, 
 stand between me and my acceptance of office." He was very kind in his man- 
 ner, and, having shaken my hand very warmly, " I have never," he said, " in 
 the whole of my public life, experienced half so much pain as in your refusal 
 of office ; " he then left me. 
 
 I forgot to mention that on the second day, towards the close of the interview, 
 Peel said, " If I believed you preferred civil office; I should, of course, make 
 
 * Afterwards Duke of Newcastle.
 
 1841.] OFFER OF AN APPOINTMENT DECLINED. 193 
 
 arrangements to that end." This was very well after I had declared an objection 
 in principle to the acceptance of office at all I 
 
 Now it is clear that he wanted my narn/c, and nothing but my name. Had he 
 desired anything else, he would never have pressed on me a department in which 
 I could exhibit nothing good but my leg's in white shorts ; every day of such 
 tenure throwing me more and more out of the way of political occupation. So 
 long as he thought I was persuadable he stuck to the Treasurership ; when he 
 saw I was obstinate he purchased a little power of flourish, by appearing to pro- 
 pose what, it was evident, I could not accept 
 
 I have been fourteen years in Parliament, twice in office ; in both cases I have 
 won, thank God, esteem and honour ; I have taken part in many debates, I have 
 proposed great questions, I have been mixed up with the most important under- 
 takings of the day, and been prominent in all ; vast numbers are good enough to 
 have confidence in my principles and character ; no one questions the great 
 services I have rendered to the Conservative cause, and all this was to be hence- 
 forward employed in ordering dinners and carrying a white wand ! ! The thing 
 was a plain, cruel, unnecessary insult. Here is an additional proof. When I 
 urged, in the first interview, the needlessness of my appointment, the Queen 
 being now in the position of a matron, " Yes, but," said he, " it would be desirable 
 to exhibit a ' high morality ; ' still," he continued, " we should display a contrast 
 to the bad appointments of the kite Administration at Court" Now, what has 
 taken place 1 I was to be cajoled and persuaded to sacrifice my public honesty, 
 and lower myself by taking an inferior place, on the ground that my morality 
 was necessary to please the country and facilitate his Government 1 He had 
 already, I now hear, offered the situation of Vice-Chamberlain to Lord .... 
 (the hero of Madame Grisi), who had remarked himself, "Thank God my 
 character is too bad for a Household place I I " Morality, therefore, was not the 
 reason for putting me at Court .... 
 
 I hear now that I was discussed for a variety of offices Secretaryship for 
 Ireland, &c. but Peel thought me " impracticable," which means, in other 
 words, that I had an opinion and principles of my own. 
 
 This is a melancholy issue with which to begin a Government after ten 
 years of Opposition we break down in a day the favour and popularity we 
 have been slowly accumulating during many years, and it can never be fully 
 and freely recovered. Should Peel concede the question (a bold hypothesis), 
 the honour will come to me alone, and not, as I desire, to Conservative rule 
 and Conservative principle. My exertions must be directed now to retain and 
 increase the influence I possess, in the hope that I may be enabled to transfer it all, 
 tinder happier circumstances, to the cause of paternal and constitutional govern- 
 ment . . . Thus the decisive step is taken, and I have chosen that course 
 which will exclude me, perhaps for ever, from a share in the official government 
 of this kingdom. I foresaw and forechose this issue. But a man is not his 
 own ; he must do his duty and give his whole self to whatsoever it may please 
 God to assign him. There are paths of profit and honour ; there are paths of 
 "no gain" and humility that one alone must be followed where God is "a 
 light and a lantern unto our feet" In this spirit I addressed the operative* 
 before the dissolution, knowing that, while I warmed and encouraged their 
 hearts, and stirred them up to support the Conservative candidates (especially
 
 194 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. IX. 
 
 in the West Riding:), I was shutting the door of power against my own entrance. 
 Tn this spirit I made my tour in the Factory districts, and have exhibited thereby 
 the moral impossibility of a retreat from my opinions. I shall reap the fruit 
 of this decision. All who have any respect for principle will approve my 
 conduct ; and I shall be still able to bring- to the aid of the Conservative party, 
 all the weight and influence (perhaps greatly increased) that I ever possessed. 
 Alas, how men in general treat great principles as means, and not as ends. 
 They regard my Factory Question aa the road to notoriety and influence, but 
 the accomplishment of the mighty moral and social benefits it involves can 
 wait for " a more convenient season." Perish such time-serving 1 
 
 The step that Lord Ashley had taken met with the highest praise from 
 those who were most interested in his career. Commendations came in 
 from all quarters, and he says, " My pen would blush were I to detail the 
 lofty, glowing, grateful praises I have received." 
 
 Sept. 6th. Wrote on Saturday to Crabtree and Turner, stating the case for 
 the information of the Operatives. I must do all that I can, and have a right 
 to do, to mitigate the unpopularity. We must uphold the Conservative Govern- 
 ment, for, although it be not good, another would be terrible. 
 
 Lord Ashley's letter to Mr. Crabtree, the Secretary of the Yorkshire 
 Central Short-time Committee, was as follows : 
 
 LONDON, Sept. 4, 1841. 
 
 MR. CRABTREE, In answer to your inquiry, on behalf of the Operatives of 
 the West Riding of Yorkshire, I have to reply that an office was tendered to me 
 by Sir Robert Peel. Having, however, ascertained from him that his opinions 
 on the Factory Question were not matured, and that he required further time 
 for deliberation, I declined the acceptance of any place, under circumstances 
 v> Inch would impede, or even limit, my full and free action in the advancement 
 of that measure which I consider to be vital both to the welfare of the working 
 classes and the real interests of the country. 
 
 In taking this course, however, I neither express nor feel despair. It will be 
 your duty and mine, not only to persevere, but to redouble our efforts ; and I will 
 still entertain a hope that Her Majesty's advisers, after an investigation con- 
 ducted with sympathy and candour, will, under God's good Providence, give 
 to us all an answer of happiness and peace. 
 
 I remain, 
 
 Your most obedient, humble servant, 
 
 ASHT-EY. 
 Mr. MARK CRABTREE, 
 
 Bradford, Yorkshire. 
 
 In commenting upon this letter, Mr. Philip Grant, in his " History of 
 Factory Legislation," says : " The sacrifice thus made can only be appre- 
 ciated by those who best understood the pecuniary position of this noble- 
 minded man. He had at that lime a large and increasing family, with an
 
 1M1.1 TJTK PERL MINISTRY. 195 
 
 income not equal to many of our merchants' and bankers' servants, and 
 a position, as the future representative of an ancient and aristocratic 
 family, to maintain. By this step, political power, patronage, social ties, 
 family comforts, nay, everything that was calculated to forward the ease 
 aud comfort of himself, and in soino degree of his family, were laid down 
 at the feet of the Factory children of these districts, and freely given up 
 for the sake of the sacred cause of which he had become the leader." 
 
 Sept. 7th, Peel again desired to see me. It was to urge the acceptance of an 
 office in Prince Albert's Household. I declined it, as involving the same prin- 
 ciple as the other, yet without touching the question whether I would take any 
 "Household appointment" at all. Prince Albert had offered it himself as a 
 middle-term. 
 
 Sept 9th. Another interview with Peel. Albert desired a Peer for his House- 
 nold, but to " secure such a man as Lord Ashley " (these are his words) " he 
 would willingly take a Commoner." I felt the whole force of his kind expres- 
 sions, bat stuck to my decision. Peel admitted that in principle all these 
 appointments were the same. 
 
 Sept. llth. Broadlands. Arrived here yesterday by railway; very incon- 
 venient to come, but I could not refuse, lest a thought should cross Palmerston'a 
 mind that, had he still been in office, I should eagerly have visited him for the 
 news and gossip, or the Jewish business. My letter to the Operatives has been 
 very successful. It has had in Bradford a soothing effect ; it has abated the fall 
 without saving Peel's popularity he never will be a popular Minister. The 
 Ministry is now complete. On a revision of my course, I feel more and more 
 assured that I have been led to a right judgment. I feel a real solid peace 
 and internal satisfaction. God be praised, the good I have rendered to the 
 Conservative cause must be measured by the evil I thovld have done had I 
 abandoned my professions. ... I want not office. I will run, by God's 
 help, the course I have begun, steering clear between right-hand defections 
 and left-hand fallings off. My finances are low, very low, but I and mine have 
 yet, blessed be His name, the barrel of meal and the cruse of oil. 
 
 The Peel Ministry was apparently strong, and came into power with 
 every hopeful prospect. It included Lord Lyndhuret as Lord Chancellor; 
 Lord Wharncliffe, President of the Council; Sir Jaines Graham, Home 
 Secretary ; Lord Aberdeen at the Foreign Office ; Lord Stanley, Colonial 
 Secretary. The Duke of Wellington was Leader in the House of Lords, 
 wit In nit office. 
 
 Sept. 17th. ... A request from Peel, in a most complimentary letter, to 
 insert my name in the Ecclesiastical Commission. This, of course, I accede to, as 
 it brings no salary and no official restraint. 
 
 After these episodes we find Lord Ashley again in the midst of the work 
 nearest his heart. 
 
 Sept 27th. What a perambulation have I taken to-day in company with Dr. 
 Southwood Smith ! What scenes of filth, discomfort, disease I What scenes of 
 V 2
 
 196 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. IX 
 
 moral and mental ill I Perambulated many parts of Whitechapel and Bethnal 
 Green, to see, with my own eyes, the suffering and degradation which unwhole- 
 some residences inflict on the poorer classes. No pen nor paint-brush could 
 describe the thing as it is. One whiff of Cowyard, Blue Anchor, or Baker's 
 Court, outweighs ten pages of letterpress. 
 
 And yet the remedial Bills for ventilation, drainage, and future construction 
 of the houses of the poor, brought in carefully and anxiously by the late Govern- 
 ment, are not to be adopted by this / so I was informed this evening, and I 
 blessed God that I formed no part of it. 
 
 Sept. 28th. Windsor Castle. The Queen very kind and amiable. Evelyn 
 and Maurice with us Sir R. and Lady Peel, Lincoln, Lord Aberdeen, and St. 
 Aulaire. . . . 
 
 Oct. 5th. Sat to-day, for the first time, on the Ecclesiastical Commission. I 
 see clearly I shall not like it. ... I have just heard from Jowett that Bick- 
 ersteth has undergone a slight seizure of something akin to paralysis may God 
 in His goodness be pleased to spare and restore this " master in Israel." I know 
 nothing that would give me greater pain, scarcely anything that I should con- 
 sider a heavier loss to myself as a friend, to evangelical religion, and the Jews, 
 than his incapacity or removal the prayers of individuals and of the Church 
 should be offered up for him. Nevertheless if it be the will of our All- wise and 
 All-good Father to put out so great a light, we must submit in faith, and be 
 thankful that we have possessed him so long. 
 
 Oct. 7th. In yesterday's Chronicle, Normanby appears as having stated in the 
 House of Lords that he should consign the drainage and ventilation Bills to me 
 as " an independent member." Received a letter from him this morning to say 
 that he had presumed to do so on the strength of my interest in them, the 
 Government being unwilling to adopt the measures. I replied that " I would 
 readily undertake both labour and anxiety for so good a cause, and that I was, 
 moreover, bound to oblige him in return for his kindness in the Chimney 
 Sweepers' Bill, and the Infant Commission." Had a sad and shocking walk 
 yesterday in Bethnal Green. What are we made of in this world I A very 
 little trouble, and a very little money, would place thousands in health and 
 comfort. 
 
 Oct. 9th. Found a new ally in the Factory cause. The author of the " History 
 of the Peninsular War," Colonel Napier, has addressed to me some " observations." 
 I am happy to record the alliance of another clergyman the Rev. Henry 
 Christmas called on me to offer the free use of the CJiurch of England Magazine ; 
 he expressed great sympathy and interest. God be praised I I need every 
 help. The Duke of Buckingham friendly to the utmost extent. 
 
 Colonel Napier to Lord Ashley. 
 
 BATH, Oct. 9</t, 1841. 
 
 MY LORD, I had not desired Mr. Boone to send your Lordship one of my 
 pamphlets on the Corn Laws, nor was I aware that he had done so until I 
 received your letter. 
 
 Not having the honour of your acquaintance, I should not have presumed to 
 force upon your attention, privately, my opinions or compliments, but I felt
 
 1841] FREDERICK WILLIAM IV., KINO OF PRUSSIA. 197 
 
 bound, as a public man, to express my profound esteem for the only politician 
 known to me who looked upon the working classes and their sufferings with the 
 feelings of a man, and as something to be attended to without reference to their 
 value as a subject of partisan politics. I do not mean to say that I know of no 
 other public man who does not feel for them, but you are the only one who has 
 made that generous feeling paramount, and rendered your party views and 
 personal ambition subservient to your benevolence. 
 
 I feel very much obliged to you for your speech and for the narrative of 
 William Dodd. I am not much in the habit of reading these accounts of the 
 horrors of the factory system ; I know they must be great from reasoning, and 
 I have seen them also, and hence, having made up my mind as to the facts, I 
 have endeavoured to avoid the contemplation of them in detail, lest they should 
 drive me into extravagance of thought and language. 
 
 I am not, from ill-health and the cares of a very large family, able to 
 throw myself, as I could wish, into this struggle for a redress of these direful 
 ills ; but I will, as far as I can, be always ready to aid your Lordship with my 
 whole ability, in your efforts in such a cause as that of ameliorating the condition 
 of the working classes of England, and your Lordship may rest assured that you 
 will by your efforts do more than any other public man has done, or is likely to 
 do, in preventing the convulsion which must inevitably result from unendurable 
 sufferings uncared for and unattended to. 
 
 I remain, my Lord, with the utmost esteem, 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 W. NAPIER. 
 
 The year 1841 was memorable for an event which excited an intense 
 enthusiasm among all sections of religions society throughout the country, 
 and will always remain a subject of interest, inasmuch as it " brought to a 
 test the principles which determined the action of each of the several schools 
 of thought in the country" namely, the establishment of an Anglican 
 Bishopric in Jerusalem. 
 
 By the treaty of July 13th, 1841, signed in London, Palestine was 
 declared to be entirely and solely under the suzerainty of Turkey, and this 
 circumstance directed the attention of Christians in Europe to their fellow- 
 Christians in the Laud of Promise, especially at Jerusalem. No one felt a 
 keener interest in the situation than Frederick William IV., King of Prussia, 
 the brother of the present German Emperor. From childhood he had 
 cherished the idea of ameliorating the condition of Christian* in the Holy 
 Laud, and the fact of public concern in the question having been aroused, so 
 soon after his accession to the throne, on the 7th June, 1840, seemed to him 
 to be a " special providence." He determined, therefore, to take advantage 
 of the terms of the Treaty, to procure for the Evangelical Churches, for all 
 future time, the same legal recognition in Turkey which the Greek and Latin 
 Churches had long previously enjoyed. His design was to endeavour to raise 
 the position of Christians in the East, and otherwise to benefit the Holy 
 Land. This idea, he felt, was " capable of general extension, not merely as a 
 Prussian, but as a German question ; and again, not merely as a German, but
 
 1 98 TTIE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. IX. 
 
 n general Protestant question, when viewed in its connection with the entire 
 Protestant Church." 
 
 It was believed that as the most important political rights were connected 
 with such recognition of independent ecclesiastical existence, enormous bene- 
 fits would accrue, "particularly as, independently of the increased impulse 
 arising from scientific research and ecclesiastical interest, the growing inter- 
 course of the nations would necessarily, for the future, lead thither Protestant 
 Christians in greater number than hitherto, and possibly, on account of the 
 political rights acquired, give rise there to colonies of importance." 
 
 Having decided in his own mind that Jerusalem the historical centre of 
 Judaism and Christianity was the place to exhibit the true unity and 
 Catholicity of the Church of Christ, varying no doubt in form, but of one 
 common origin, the first steps of the King were directed to ascertain what 
 establishments were in existence there, in order that he might associate his 
 scheme with one of them. 
 
 Two influential societies of the Church of England were already doing 
 good work in Jerusalem, namely, the Church Missionary Society, and the 
 London Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews. The latter 
 Society had begun its labours in Palestine as early as 1820, and had carried 
 them on with considerable success. During the Egyptian rule, which was 
 favourable to European undertakings, they had acquired a valuable site on 
 Mount Zion for the erection of a church, and on February 10th, 1840, the 
 foundation-stone was laid. 
 
 Here was the desired opportunity for the co-operation of the King, who 
 sent forthwith for the Chevalier Bunsen, one of his Privy Councillors, then 
 in Berne, and requested him to proceed at once to England as a Special 
 Envoy to inquire 
 
 "In how far the English National Church, already in possession ol a 
 parsonage on Mount Zion, and having commenced there the building of a 
 church, would be inclined to accord to the Evangelical Church of Prussia 
 a sisterly position in the Holy Land." 
 
 It was deemed by his Majesty that the first condition and step towards 
 the proposed unity of action would be the institution by the Church of 
 England of a Bishopric at Jerusalem, to include all Protestant Churches in 
 the Holy Land within its pale, so far as they should be disposed to accept the 
 inclusion. To this end he was willing to devote, out of his own purse, the 
 sum of 15,000 towards the endowment of such Bishopric, the annual interest 
 of that sum, amounting to 600, to be paid yearly in advance, till the capital 
 gum together with that which should be raised by public subscription for 
 the purpose of completing the Bishop's annual income of 1,200 could bo 
 advantageously invested in land situated in P\ilestiue. It was proposed 
 that the Bishops of the United Church of England and Ireland at Jerusalem 
 should be nominated alternately by the Crowns of England and Prussia, the 
 Archbishop of Canterbury having the absolute right of veto with respect to 
 those nominated by the Prussian Crown. The Bishop should be subject to
 
 1WI.1 MISSION OP BUNSEN. 199 
 
 the Archbishop of Canterbury as his Metropolitan ; his spiritual jurisdiction 
 should extend over the English clergy and congregations in Palestine, and, 
 for the present, in the rest of Syria, Chaldea, Egypt, and Abyssinia, such 
 jurisdiction being exercised, as nearly as might be, according to the laws, 
 canons, and customs of the Church of England. Germans intended for the 
 charge of Protestant congregations were to be ordained according to the 
 ritual of the English Church, and to sign the Articles of that Church ; and, 
 in order that they might not be disqualified by the laws of Germany from 
 officiating to German congregations, they were, before they received ordina- 
 tion, to exhibit to the Bishop a certificate of their having subscribed, before 
 some competent authority, the Confession of Augsburg. 
 
 Chevalier Bunsen, the Special Envoy selected for this important and 
 delicate mission, was probably the very best man that could, under any cir- 
 cumstances, have been found for the task. He was a man " so thoroughly 
 friendly and genial, so ready to meet people of all kinds on their own ground, 
 so little affecting dignified reserve, so free from the airs of diplomacy," that 
 he at once gained the hearts of those with whom he came in contact. He 
 was a man of vast learning, and had been for some time Prussian Minister in 
 Rome, in succession to Niebuhr, whose private secretary he had been, and 
 whose f riendship he had enjoyed. Subsequently he was accredited to the 
 Swiss Confederacy, from whence he was recalled to undertake this special 
 mission. In the year 1834, as we have seen, Lord Ashley, who was one of 
 the prime movers in the negotiations for the establishment of the Bishopric 
 in Jerusalem, made acquaintance with Bnnsen in Rome, and formed a very 
 high estimate of the excellence of his character. 
 
 Bunsen arrived in London on the 19th of June, and, from this time forth, 
 the entries in the Journal of Lord Ashley are largely occupied with matters 
 relating to his mission. A few of them, for convenience, are grouped 
 together here. 
 
 June 24th. My friend Bunsen has just called, and has brought me a most 
 honourable and gratifying message from the King of Prussia. May the blessing 
 of God's saints of old, of David, and of Hezekiah, be on him and his for ever ! 
 But all things are now wonderful. The mission of Bunsen is a wonder ; God 
 grant that its issue may be a wonder I 
 
 July 12th. The negotiations on the part of his Prussian Majesty with the 
 English Cabinet and the English Church proceed well. I have arranged a meet- 
 ing between Peel and Bunsen. Now, has Peel a heart like Solomon's " large as 
 the sands of the sea " ? If he has, here is matter, political and religious, enough 
 to fill it a combination of Protestant thrones, bound by temporal interests and 
 eternal principles, to plant under the banner of the Cross, God's people on the 
 mountains of Jerusalem 1 These things are too hard for me. I have undertaken 
 more than I can discharge, nay, even more than I can express. 
 
 The designation of Dr. Alexander, a Hebrew convert to the Christian 
 fait h, to the Bishopric gave unqualified satisfaction to Lord Ashley. Although 
 in his Journal there is no reference to the selection of Dr. Alexander, and
 
 200 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBUKY. ICiiAr. IX. 
 
 many gaps occur which cause him to express regret that there has been no 
 opportunity to record continuously the stirring incidents of the times, we find 
 under the date of July 19th that Chevalier Bunsen recorded in his Diary : 
 " This is a great day. I am just returned from Lord Palmerston. The 
 principle is admitted, and orders are to be transmitted accordingly to Lord 
 Ponsonby at Constantinople to demand the acknowledgment required. The 
 successor of St. James will embark in October. He is by race an Israelite ; 
 born a Prussian in Breslau ; in confession belonging to the Church of Eng- 
 land ; ripened (by hard work) in Ireland ; twenty years Professor of Hebrew 
 and Arabic in England (in what is now King's College). So the beginning 
 is made, please God, for the restoration of Israel. When I read, with tlio 
 warm-hearted, clear-headed Lord Ashley, the translation of the Minute, lie 
 exclaimed, ' Since the days of David, no king has ever spoken such words ! ' 
 It was his fortunate idea that directed the choice of the future Bishop." 
 
 Aug. 16th. Two or three days ago wrote to that unequalled Sovereign the 
 King of Prussia. Bunsen told me it would be acceptable to him, and I rejoiced 
 in the opportunity of venting my feelings of gratitude and admiration. I must 
 honour him still more as an especial instrument of God's surprising wisdom and 
 mercy. 
 
 Sept. 23rd. The Bill for creating the Bishoprio of Jerusalem passed last 
 night 1 May the blessing of the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, the 
 Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, be with it now and for ever I I wish I had put 
 down in detail the whole progress of this wonderful measure, of all I have said, 
 felt, and done in it ; but time has failed me for half of the things I would per- 
 form or write. All that I can say is that, under God's especial blessing, part 
 m-agnafui. 
 
 Sept. 28th. ... A long letter from Bickersteth narrating the prodigious 
 sensation the Jewish Question is creating in Liverpool. Twenty-four sermons on 
 one Sunday in our behalf I 
 
 Oct. 12th. The Archbishop confesses that without the Jewish Society he can- 
 not proceed, and that the question is deeply rooted in the heart of England. He 
 is right, and I bless God. This incarnation of love for God's people is the truest 
 Conservative principle, and will save the country. Peel, too, feels it, for he 
 hastened to assure me that no obstacles should stand in the way of the consecra- 
 tion of a Bishop. I had written to him at Windsor, anticipating Aberdeen's 
 hostility, and stating that " the unprecedented assistance rendered to our cause by 
 Palmerston would form a most pernicious contrast with the opposition of a Con- 
 servative Government" Even Aberdeen has relaxed, and is, so Bunsen tells me, 
 less unfavourable. Would he have been so if I had not written and exhibited 
 the strong feeling of the country, and the consequences of obstruction ? Really 
 it is wonderful to trace the finger of God : let us call it the " leading" of Pro- 
 vidence in all this affair. Had Bunsen arrived a month later, we should not now 
 humanly speaking, have reached even the point of stating the case. Palmerston 
 went forward with the zeal of an apostle (" howbeit, I fear, he thinketh not so "), 
 did in three weeks what at another time, or, as it seems, under any influence but 
 mine, he would not have listened to in twelve months, fanned the weak embers 
 of willing but timid spirit in the Bishops, and made that to be necessary and
 
 1841.] TIIR DRUSES SEEK PROTECTION. 201 
 
 irrevocable which his successors would have thought the attribute of a maniac, 
 even in imagination. 
 
 But oh, the monstrosities of Puseyism I The Bishop of London is beset, and 
 half brow-beaten, by the clamorous and uncatholic race. He showed Bunsen 
 to-day a letter from Dr. Pusey beginning, " It is now for the first time that the 
 Church of England holds communication with those that are without the 
 Church ! " This is the holy, Christian, Catholic way in which he speaks of all 
 the congregations of Protestant Germany. Towards the end he adds : " The 
 Church of England will thus be declared protectress of all Protestant com- 
 munions." What can be so dreadful 1 
 
 The Puseyite object is this, " to effect a reconciliation with Rome ; " ours, 
 with Protestantism ; they wish to exalt Apostolical Succession so high as to 
 make it paramount to all moral purity and all doctrinal truth ; we, to respect it 
 BO as to shift it from Abiathar to Zadok. . . . 
 
 Events in the East, especially in Syria, tended in various ways to confirm 
 tli<> impression, which was borne into the heart of Lord Ashley, the King of 
 Prussia, and the principal leaders of the movement, that a "special pro- 
 vidence " was opening the way for an extraordinary evangelisation of the 
 peoples. The Druses " warders on the mount of the world's secret, since 
 the birth of time " * a fanatical sect worshipping a prophet of their own 
 and sworn to keep their system of religion a secret from every other sect, and 
 to persecute all who differed from them had echoed that ancient cry, " Come 
 over and help us ! " 
 
 The Druses have sought " religious protection " at our hands : teachers and 
 schoolmasters. Again was I consulted by Palmerston ; I advised the instant 
 mission, not of letters, but of living men, to make the promise. He did so. Have 
 since heard from Nicolayson, who was sent, that they received it joyfully. 
 Aberdeen, I fear, very shy of it. . . . 
 
 Oct. 16th. Dined yesterday at Richmond with Bunsen to celebrate the King 
 of Prussia's birthday ; a happy and a stirring meeting, only eleven present ; but 
 there was much feeling of loyalty, affection, reverence, and hope. I proposed his 
 health. May he revive, among us Gentiles, the glory and the faith of David 
 and of Hezekiah ! Gladstone, McCaul, and my brother William were present. 
 
 Gladstone stripped himself of a part of his Puseyite garments, spoke like a 
 pious man, rejoiced in the Bishopric of Jerusalem, and proposed the health of 
 Alexander. This is delightful ; for he is a good man, and a clever man, and an 
 industrious man. 
 
 Oct. 22nd. Saw Peel to-day by request never wish to have another interview. 
 He was an exaggeration and caricature of his habitual coldness. Wished to know 
 how far he would conform to the promises of his predecessors, and give the 
 Druses the means of instruction they asked for. It was manifest he disliked the 
 whole thing, and fully shared the opinions and feelings (if feelings they can be 
 called) of his friend Aberdeen. He was afraid of exciting the French, disbelieved 
 the religious stir in the East, thought it might be ascribed to English agency, 
 thought we might appear as making "a crusade against the Roman Catholics " 
 
 * Robert Browning.
 
 202 THE EARL OP SIIAFTESBURY. [Cn A p IX 
 
 of all people I wanted to know how much the Druses could contribute, and many 
 other unworthy excuses to get out of a difficulty. I urged the propriety of imi- 
 tating the late Government in their conduct towards the Ashantee princes, and 
 educating a young Druse, who was to be sent over. He admitted that no one had 
 a right to complain of our educating a Druse, and, though most reluctant, said 
 he should speak to Aberdeen. 
 
 I then proposed my main and most dear object, the grant of a steamboat by 
 the Government to carry out the Bishop to Jaffa. . . . 
 
 Thus ended a short interview, equally unpleasant and odious, I should think, 
 to both parties. 
 
 Oct. 25th. Wonderfully surprised received yesterday a short note from 
 Peel, stating that " orders would be given for an Admiralty steamboat to carry 
 out the Bishop to Syria " ! Had I not been almost accustomed, so to speak, to 
 God's mercies, I should have disbelieved it. " Surely the Isles shall wait for thee 
 and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring thy sons from afar and thy daughters 
 from the ends of the earth." 
 
 Oct. 26th. Very glad to have heard that many of the very High- Church are 
 warmly in favour of the Hebrew Bishopric, Archdeacons Samuel Wilberf orce and 
 Manning. Palmer, too, of Worcester, supposed to be among the most violent, 
 spoke to Bunsen in terms of the greatest delight. 
 
 Nov. 12th. Returned to St. Giles's. ' Glad of an hour to record, if possible, 
 what I have seen and felt during my short visit for the purpose of attending the 
 consecration of Mr. Alexander. Went up on the 7th with Moore* full of anxiety 
 lest the Queen should be taken ill on the very day, and so cause the absence of 
 the Archbishop ; but, God be praised, there was no impediment, and all went well. 
 
 The first official act of the Jewish Church was perfonned on the 18th of 
 November, when the new Bishop preached a sermon and gave " the first epis- 
 copal benediction that had fallen from Hebrew lips for seventeen hundred 
 years " that is to say, the first since Jude, the last of the sons of Abraham 
 mentioned by Eusebius, occupied the Episcopal See in the Holy City. 
 
 Nov. 18th. . . . This was, indeed, " a night to be much observed of the 
 Lord." I rejoice I had proposed this service in committee, and Alexander assented 
 to our resolution. The chapel at Bethnal Green was thronged, the congregation 
 were touchingly devout, visibly affected by the event and the thanksgiving. The 
 music went to one's very soul. The beautiful voices of the Hebrew children, 
 singing as they were praises to the Messiah, seemed like the song of the redeemed 
 in Heaven. " Many kings and prophets have desired to see the things that we 
 see, and have not seen them, and to hear the things that we hear, and have not 
 heard them." How is it that we have attained this result ? We have many 
 enemies, some of them the antipodes of each other. Pusey is at one end ; Baptist 
 Noel at the other, both followed by their several sections, doing us what mischief 
 they can. It is evident that not a little of the hostility, and not a little of the 
 hesitation, arise from a feeling which those who entertain it will scarcely admit 
 even to themselves. They cannot stomach the notion of a Jew elevated to the 
 Episcopate. Christianity has modified, without uprooting, their antipathies ; 
 
 * Rev. Robert Moore, Rector of Wimborne St. Giles's.
 
 i841.1 THE GODFATHER OP THE PRINCE OF WALES. 203 
 
 they remember that Moses says, " they shall be a byeword," and forget that Paul 
 declares them yet " beloved for the fathers' sakes." Bat no wonder. This 
 Bishopric strikes at many things, at Popery, at Puseyism, at over Church, at no 
 Church ; all writhe unrter it The order of Providence now seems to demand 
 that in proportion as we have abased the Jew, so shall we be compelled to abase 
 ourselves. His future dignity shall be commensurate with his past degradation. 
 Be it so ; I can rejoice in Zion for a capital, in Jerusalem for a church, and in a 
 Hebrew for a king-. Writing at this distance of time (13th), I have lost the 
 vividness of my impressions hurry and ceaseless occupation prevented an earlier 
 record yet for days I felt, without power of describing it, that the heart a 
 oftentimes alone, and that " a stranger intermeddleth not with its joy." 
 
 Two days after the Consecration of Bishop Alexander, Lord Ashley sent 
 his portrait to Chevalier Bnnsen, and a book (a collection of prayers out of 
 the writings of English Fathers) inscribed with these characteristic words : 
 " Nov. 9, 18-11. To my dear friend Bunsen, the worthy minister of the 
 best and greatest of the kings of this world, as a memorial of our solemn, 
 anxious, and by God's goodness, successful labours, which, under His grace, 
 we have sustained for the consolidation of Protestant truth, the welfare of 
 Israel, and the extension of the Kingdom of our blessed Lord. ASHLEY. 
 'We took sweet counsel together, and walked in the house of God as 
 friends.' " 
 
 Nov. 20th. My four blessed boys, Antony, Francis, Maurice, and Evelyn, 
 brought me to-day some money for the Bishopric at .Jerusalem. They offered 
 most willingly, nay, joyfully ; and, wonderful to say, the little ones did it without 
 a word on my part ; I had spoken to the elder boys, who cheerfully acquiesced ; 
 the little ones, hearing from them, burned to do likewise. 
 
 Nov. 26th. Two days ago received from Bunsen the most extraordinary 
 intelligence. He waited on Prince Albert (thank God I had obtained the inter- 
 view), when the Prince, after showing him the future heir to the throne, 
 announced that " the Queen was extremely desirous that the King of Prussia 
 should be godfather to the Royal child, and should, if possible, be present in 
 person to hold him at the font of baptism." Where are we ? What will happen 
 next ? There is no end to God's goodness. On my knees immediately to give 
 Him thanks. Such an event, at any time, satisfactory ; now, clearly provi- 
 dential ; the union of the Anglican and German Churches, followed by the most 
 intimate friendship of the two great Protestant Powers ; the open avowal of the 
 Royal attachment to the principles of the Reformation ; the testimony of respect 
 from our own Sovereign to that pious King ; the happy sympathy that it will 
 beget between the two nations ; the manifest advantage to the peace of Europe, 
 the cause of true civilisation, and the diffusion of the Gospel ; all this over a 
 combined effort for the welfare of God's ancient people, cannot but fill the heart 
 of every thinking man with gratitude and joy. But the King must come. 
 Wrote most emphatically to Bunsen he must come. He would lose half of 
 what he might accomplish for Europe, for himself, for Christianity, and for the 
 world. We must build a new and large ward for the Puseyites in Bedlam 1 
 
 Nov. 29th. Yesterday, the first Sunday in Advent; to-day, the Bishop of
 
 204 THE EARL OF SHAFTES15URY. [CHAP. IX. 
 
 Jerusalem sets out on his journey, the " one who telleth good tidings to Zion." 
 Surely the coincidence is striking ; I felt it so when the Collect was read. 
 
 In order that he might become thoroughly acquainted with the thoughts 
 and habits, the wants and wishes, of those on whose behalf he was labouring, 
 Lord Ashley gathered round him from the rank and file of his clientele, a few 
 persons from whom he could derive reliable information. " I should like to 
 know all," he was wont to say, " but, as this is impossible, I make friends 
 with a few." 
 
 It was a remarkable characteristic, this power of attaching men to himself, 
 and exerting so strong an influence over them that they in turn were able to 
 influence the large bodies they represented. But for their aid it would have 
 been utterly impossible for him to have carried on his ever- increasing labours. 
 As each succeeding enterprise developed, Lord Ashley's first step always was 
 to fix upon some man, or perhaps some group of men, in whose judgment and 
 zeal he could repose perfect confidence, and then set them to work. 
 
 One of the most surprising things in connection with the almost innumer- 
 able societies and institutions of which he was the head, was that so few of 
 them were " mistakes." He would not espouse the cause of any society unty 
 he had fully satisfied himself that its work was thoroughly sound in every 
 respect ; nor would he attach any new worker to himself until he had made 
 the most minute inquiries with regard to him. He had in a singular degree 
 the power of reading men's motives, and he was very rarely deceived in those 
 whom he selected to be his helpers.* 
 
 It is probably no exaggeration to say that the demands upon the judgment 
 and penetration of Lord Ashley were greater than upon those of any man of 
 his generation, and it is safe to add that few men were less often deceived. 
 The cripple Dodd, to whom he frequently refers in his Journals, was one of 
 the " working element " with whom Lord Ashley was in frequent communica- 
 tion at this time. 
 
 Deo. 3rd. Every day brings fresh stories of suffering and oppression from 
 the factory districts. My poor cripple Dodd is a jewel j his talent and skill are 
 unequalled ; he sends me invaluable evidence. But then " mine eyes do fail with 
 
 * Perhaps he derived this gift from his great ancestor the first Earl, of whom John 
 Locke says : " I never knew anyone penetrate so quickly into men's breasts, and, from 
 a small opening, survey that dark cabinet as he would. He would understand men's 
 true errand as soon as they had opened their mouths and begun their story, in ap- 
 pearance to another purpose." He instances a remarkable case. Shaftesbury and Sir 
 Richard Onslow dined by invitation with Sir John Denham, an elderly widower, who 
 before dinner told them that he wished to take their advice upon a subject of deep 
 import to his happiness, namely, whether he should, or should not, marry his house- 
 keeper, for whom he had long entertained affection and esteem. Sir Richard Onslow 
 was beginning a strong protest, when, looking their host steadfastly in the face, Shaftes- 
 bury asked, "Are you not married to her already?" And he confessed that he was. 
 " Well, then," said Shaftesbury, " there is nothing left but to send for her to join us at 
 dinner." On their leaving the house, Sir Richard Onslow asked what put him on the 
 scent. "The man and the manner," he replied, "gave me a suspicion that, having 
 dine a foolish thing, he was desirous to cure himself with the authority of our advice. 
 I thought it good tc be sure before you went any further, and you see what came of it."
 
 1M1.] CHRISTMAS AT ST. GILES'S. 205 
 
 tears. . . . for the destruction (I should say sin) of the daughter of my 
 people ; " it takes from me all enjoyment, present and prospective ; if such things 
 reach my ears, how many lie hidden, aye, and will do so until " the earth shall 
 disclose her blood." God give us faith and strength, and some success. Entire 
 success no man may or can attain, it is reserved for the Great Undoer of every 
 heavy burthen 1 
 
 Dec. 21st. Broadlands. Minny unwell ; came here yesterday to comfort her. 
 God be praised, she is better. I would rather be with her at the Saint,* when 
 "my children are about me ; " but her dear, smiling face makes everything 
 shine. Factory and Drainage concerns occupy my time and fill me with 
 correspondence. 
 
 Dec. 23rd. I have no time for reading and writing, for replenishing my 
 armoury, or exercising my guns. Dodd's letters infuse both information and 
 terror. " I increase knowledge, and increase sorrow." Nevertheless, I have put 
 my hand to the plough, and, God being my Helper, I will not look back. And 
 now I am involved in the Puseyite controversy. I did not seek it ; but the 
 occasion seemed to call for an avowal of sentiment ; and, not hesitating to 
 believe, I did not fear to speak. Letters of congratulation and gratitude without 
 number have reached me ; I rejoice in it for purposes of future good. . . . 
 But I have disturbed a hornets' nest ; they buzz about me in furious rage. The 
 Press, especially the Morning Pott, sweats with vituperation. But no matter. 
 " In Thee have I trusted, let me never be confounded." 
 
 Dec. 25th. Christmas Day. St. Giles's. My sweet Minny absent. Took the 
 sacrament ; peace, hope, and spiritual joy by God's blessed grace. It is an august 
 and holy day. Oh ! that I could, for a few hours, forget the turmoil and 
 anxieties of the world 1 Many communicants ; the proportion to the population, 
 immense clean, simple and devout ; not only shopkeepers and farmers, but 
 many of the working classes really a beautiful sight ; it is a true specimen of a 
 rural vicarage, a pastoral cure, a shepherd and his flock. May God in His good- 
 ness cherish this primitive simplicity 1 Yet it has not been quite the same 
 Christmas Day without a vacancy. Minny was away, who should always share 
 the communion with me. I left her ill at Broadlands to spend the day here in 
 the midst of the ancient families of the house, and be with my elder boys, who 
 must not be quite alone, especially at this festival. 
 
 * St. Giles's House.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 1842. 
 
 THE end of 1841 and the beginning of 1842 found Lord Ashley engaged 
 iu warm discussion with the leading members of tlio Tractarian party. On 
 the 15th of March, 1841, the Vice-Chancellor and the Heads of Houses 
 held a meeting at Oxford to pass censure on No. 90 of " Tracts for the 
 Times," in these words, " That modes of interpretation, such as are sug- 
 gested in the said Tract, evading rather than explaining the sense of the 
 Thirty-nine Articles, and reconciling subscription to them with the adop- 
 tion of errors which tLey were designed to counteract, defeat the object, and 
 are inconsistent with the dun observance of the statutes of the University." 
 On the following day Dr. John Henry Newman declared himself to be the 
 author of the Tract. 
 
 Although the centre of the Tractarian movement was the University 
 of Oxford, the whole country was shaken by it ; every section of the 
 Christian Church, and almost every leader of thought in the nation, felt 
 its influence. Arrayed on either side were the groat masters of argument. 
 The principal leaders of the Oxford School \vere the " seraphic Keble," 
 supported by Richard Froude who died early in the fight Dr. Pusey, 
 and John Henry Newman. Their claim was that Rome had not fulfilled 
 her high mission ; that the real Catholic Church was the Church of England ; 
 that the Successors of the Apostles were to be found in her; and their 
 efforts were directed to rouse the Church to what they considered to bo 
 her true mission. " There is something greater than the Established 
 Church," wrote Dr. Newman, " and that is the Church Catholic and Apos- 
 tolic set up from the beginning, of which she is but the local presence and 
 the organ." 
 
 The causes which lay at the root of the movement were numerous and 
 strong. It was a crisis in the history of religious thought. Rationalism, 
 imported from Germany, was making rapid advances; the Church of 
 England having been in a dull, cold, and apathetic state, was now threatened 
 with assault from the Reform Party in respect of her rights and property ; 
 and the leading motive at the outset was to revive and invigorate her. 
 
 What were some of the results of this movement are only too well 
 known. The battle of the Reformation had to be fought over again, and 
 Lord Ashley, for forty years, was one of the leaders in the fight. 
 
 It was at a time when the controversy was at its keenest that the 
 Jerusalem Bishopric was created. From first to last the Oxford School
 
 OXFORD PROFESSORSHIP OF POETRY. 207 
 
 were fierce in their denunciation of the whole scheme, while the Evangelicals 
 And mniiy leaders of the Broad Church were enthusiastic in its favour. 
 
 And it was at this time, too, that the incident now to be recorded 
 occurred. 
 
 Among the papers of Lord Shaftesbury there was found a large bundle of 
 letters and other documents endorsed : 
 
 March 5th, 1874. 
 
 These letters were written at the outbreak of the Tractarian movement in 
 1841-2. They arose out of my letter in the Standard to Roundell Palmer (Lord 
 Selborne) refusing to vote for Mr. Williams as Professor of Poetry at Oxford. 
 The interest may have indeed, it has passed away. But they are curious as 
 showing how zealous people were then, and how cold now. S. 
 
 The correspondence will speak for itself : 
 
 Lord Athley to Mr. Roundell Palmer. 
 
 ST. GILES'S Hoc<3E, Dee., 1841. 
 
 SIR, In a letter which I have had the honour of receiving from you " to 
 solicit my vote and interest in Mr. Williams' behalf," you desire also, on the 
 part of the committee, a reply to their communication. 
 
 I hasten to forward that reply. 
 
 The Rev. Isaac Williams has presented himself for the vacant chair of the 
 Professor of Poetry. I have no doubt whatever that he possesses all those 
 amiable qualities and high attainments which his supporters put forward as 
 the ground of his election, nor should I hesitate, as I replied to my friend Dr. 
 Pusey, to render him any private service that may lie within my power ; but 
 the reverend gentleman claims a public post, and seeks to be invested with 
 public authority, and it has become, therefore, the duty of every one who has 
 a voice in the decision, to consider the consequences of raising him to such an 
 office. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Williams aspires to be a moral teacher. The Professor of 
 Poetry, in a Christian university, must impart to his writings and his lectures, 
 frequently on secular, always on sacred subjects, those sentiments and principles 
 which he believes to be essential to the propagation of the truth. This we 
 should expect of a layman ; we should demand it of a minister. The late 
 accomplished and amiable professor* was animated by this spirit, and pub- 
 lished, with the attraction of his respected name, and the authority of his 
 official station, sundry poems of admitted talent and disputed theology. 
 
 I am now summoned to consider whether a similar appointment would not 
 confer a similar authority. 
 
 The venerable members of Trinity College have issued a disclaimer " for Mr. 
 Williams himself, and have deprecated, on the part of others, any attempt 
 whatever to introduce upon the occasion questions of theological controversy." 
 With all the deference that is due from a layman, I cannot believe myself at 
 liberty to set aside these important considerations. I acknowledge the latitude 
 of speculation that must be permitted to all the members of a common Church 
 
 The Rev. John Keble.
 
 208 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBUR*. tc^p. x 
 
 but there are limits, I maintain, which must not be overpassed, at least without 
 a solemn and indignant protest on the part of those who have an opportunity 
 and a right to give an opinion. 
 
 I have endeavoured, then, to ascertain the principles of Mr. Williams, and I 
 have found that he is the author of the Tract * entitled " Reserve in Preaching 
 the Doctrine of the Atonement." 
 
 There is no power on earth that shall induce me to assist in elevating the 
 writer of that paper to the station of a public teacher. I see very little 
 difference between a man who promulgates false doctrine and him who 
 suppresses the true. I cannot concur in the approval of a candidate whose 
 writings are in contravention of the inspired Apostle, and reverse his holy 
 exultation that " he had not shunned to declare to his hearers all the counsel of 
 God." I \vill not consent to give my support, however humble, towards the 
 existence of exoteric and esoteric doctrines in the Church of England, to obscure 
 the perspicuity of the Gospel by the philosophy of Paganism, and make the 
 places set apart for the ministrations of the preacher, whose duties must mainly 
 lie among the poor, the wayfaring, and the simple, as mystic and incompre- 
 hensible as the groves of Eleusis. 
 
 These, Sir, are my reasons for refusing my vote to Mr. Williams, and I hope 
 I have given my answer as candidly as you have required it. 
 
 I am, Sir, 
 
 Your very obedient servant, 
 
 ASHLEY. 
 
 Lord Ashley, at the request of Dr. Gilbert, Principal of Brasenose 
 College, consented to support the candidature of the Rev. James Garbett, 
 in opposition to that of the Rev. Isaac Williams; his next step was to 
 accept the chairmanship of Mr. Garbett's committee. A circular was drawn 
 up by Mr. Cardwell t (double-first of Balliol), but to this Lord Ashley took 
 exception on the ground that he did not rest his support of Mr. Garbett's 
 claims " on his poetical acquirements and critical acumen," as stated in the 
 circular, but upon his religious views. " I would vote," he said, " for Stern- 
 hold and Hopkins, Nicholas Brady or Nahuin Tate, against a whole host of 
 the mightiest geniuses in the art of verse, were they candidates, upon the 
 same principles, for the office to which Mr. Williams aspires." A modified 
 circular was, therefore, issued, and the canvass was vigorously prosecuted. 
 The battle was to be fought, and, if possible, won, as a matter of principle 
 and duty only. 
 
 Congratulations and offers of aid poured in from all quarters, and a 
 specimen of a few of them, showing the opinions held, and the fervour of 
 those who defended them, may be quoted here. 
 
 Lady Ashley was at Broadlands, in delicate health, but she wrote : 
 " Nothing but compliments about your letter. Spencer says he heard it 
 discussed at Lady Holland's by Macaulay and many savants, who all agreed 
 it was so well written. Dr. Badham said everybody was so much obliged to 
 
 Tract No. 80. t Afterwards Viscount CardwelL
 
 Hill OXFORD PROFESSORSHIP OF POETRY. 209 
 
 yon for it, so well done, and at such a moment when it was so much 
 wanted." 
 
 The Hon. Wm. Cowper* to Lord Ashley. 
 
 CASTLE HOWARD, Dec. 16th, 1841. 
 
 MY DEAR ASHLEY, Your letter on the Williams and Garbett affair will be 
 most useful ; it is admirable in laying open boldly and clearly the decisive point 
 of the question. I was delighted to see it. A neighbouring clergyman told me 
 that the clergy about here are rather unsettled, and that at the visitation at 
 Malton he heard some of them starting questions about the nature and origin of 
 their Orders, and hazarding opinions without being at all aware of the conclu- 
 sions to which they lead, or of their tendency towards Romanism ; and he thinks, 
 but I do not, that it would be better for the Church that all who are just now 
 Romanists at heart should break outward connection with her, but I think it's 
 better to give them time to come round, and wait for the reaction. 
 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 W. COWPER. 
 
 The Rev. E. Bickertteth to Lord Athley. 
 
 WATTON RECTORY, WARE, Dee. 14th, 1841. 
 
 MY DEAREST LORD ASHLEY, I cannot forbear to thank you for your most 
 seasonable and most forcible letter to Mr. R. Palmer. It was of vast importance, 
 just at this crisis, to make a stand against what I believe to be in this country 
 " the unclean spirit out of the month of the false prophet," which the word of 
 prophecy, at this precise time, so clearly leads us to expect, and which the affect- 
 ing state of our Church so clearly manifests. 
 
 I do most heartily unite, I doubt not with thousands of God's own children, in 
 earnest prayers that your Lordship may ever have a Scriptural judgment in all 
 things, and be strengthened greatly to honour God and bless our country, by a 
 wise, holy, and full use of all the talents which He has given yon. . . . 
 
 EDWD. BlCKERSTETH. 
 
 " Charlotte Elizabeth" (Mn. C. E. Tonna") to Lord Ashley. 
 
 BLACKHEATH, Dee. nth, 1841. 
 
 MY DEAR LORD, What a noble dash you have made at the Puseyites! I 
 to be so rejoiced when you got angry in the House about the factory child- 
 Yon know there is an anger not sinful, and I want you to bestow a little 
 ipowder on the Oxford gentry. I am editor of the Protettant Magazine since 
 fnne last, and lately, in my chief article, " The Watchman," I mentioned some- 
 ling that I know to be true about Jesuits in the Church. Forthwith the Christian 
 Hserct-r attacked the Protestant Association for this, and some of our gentlemen 
 rere much frightened, and some talked of forbidding any attack on Puseyism in 
 le magazine. On this I wrote to the committee a respectful letter rather in the 
 eborah-to-Barak style, and the result is that I am to have that dearest privilege 
 
 * Now Lord Mount Temple,
 
 210 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. {CHAP. X 
 
 of womankind my own \oay. So now, thanks to the Lord, I have two magazines 
 at command, and can fire two guns. . . . Meanwhile, fight the good fighti 
 be valiant, and do exploits. May the Lord of lords bless you and yours. 
 
 My dear Lord, 
 
 Yours very gratefully, 
 
 C. E. TONNA. 
 
 Among those who rallied round Lord Ashley and congratulated him 
 upon the bold stand he had made " against the influence and pretensions of 
 Puseyisin and Popery," were his brother John, Sir J. S. Pakington, J. C. 
 Colquhoun, Sir W. R. Farquhar, Hon. and Rev. Montagu Yilliers, Dean 
 Gamier, Dr. McCaul, Rev. Chas. Priest, Sir Andrew Agnew, and many 
 others whose names are still familiar. 
 
 Meanwhile angry letters from anonymous Puseyites to the press, and to 
 private individuals, were issued abundantly, and the excitement grew rapidly. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone wrote to Lord Sandon urging him to entreat Lord Ashley 
 to avoid, for the Church's sake, the scandal of a contest. Others, among 
 whom was Mr. C. Dodgson, wished to maintain a strict neutrality, partly on 
 the ground that they did not attach the same meaning to the doctrine of 
 " Reserve" that Lord Ashley had done, and would wish to vote for a third 
 candidate unconnected with either party and sufficiently qualified for the 
 office. 
 
 A scheme was set on foot by Mr. Gladstone to effect this compromise, but 
 the manoeuvre fell through, notwithstanding that the petition for Williams 
 and Garbett to withdraw was signed by 244 non-resident Members of Con- 
 vocation. 
 
 The contention of the advocates of Mr. "Williams's claims was, first, that 
 the candidate's success was not made to depend upon the possession of qualities 
 suited to the office ; and next, that electors were called upon to pledge them- 
 selves to opinions " perhaps only known to them through vague and imperfect 
 representations." 
 
 The position of the advocates of Mr. Garbett's claims was that, sooner or 
 later, a struggle upon the religious principle involved was inevitable, and that 
 it could not come at a more auspicious season, and they would not hear of any 
 compromise. 
 
 Many efforts in various forms were, of course, made to induce Lord Ashley 
 to desist from the course he was pursuing. The following letter from Dr. 
 Pusey is written in the vein which he found hardest to resist : 
 
 Tlie Rev. Dr. Putey to Lord Ashley. 
 
 Ember Week, Advent, 1841. 
 
 MY DEAB ASHLEY, You have not probably grey hairs, as I have, nor have 
 you had sorrows like me, and both ought to soften your mind ; yet I could wish 
 that, without them, your language could be a little softened. I often used to 
 think it stronger than you meant ; and yon are, doubtless, all the while milder
 
 1M2.) CORRESPONDENCE WITH DR. PU8ET. 211 
 
 and more loving than one's self. Ton speak of " abhorring our principles ; " are 
 yon quite sure that you know them ? It is some years now since I saw you at your 
 house, and yon talked over them, and then you seemed to think that in mnch we 
 agreed. No one objects to the Bishopric of Jerusalem for what I imagine yon 
 most value it the sake of the Jews but on account of the " experimental 
 Church " (as it has been called) which they are going to make of Prussians, one 
 knows not whom. Our Church never was brought into contact with the foreign 
 Reformation without suffering from it ; and certainly that Reformation is not 
 in a state now to do us less harm than heretofore ; besides the grave injury of 
 countenancing heresy. I fear very few reformed German teachers would be 
 found who would uno anima adopt all the truths of the Nicene and Athanasian 
 Creeds. 
 
 Try and think more mildly of us ; love us more ; perhaps yon will understand 
 us better ; pray for us, as I do daily for yon. 
 
 The enclosed * is not my selection. God be with yon. 
 
 Your affectionate Cousin, 
 
 E. B. PtJSET. 
 
 Lord Athley to the Rev. Dr. Putey. 
 
 ST. GILES'S HOUSE, January ISth, 1842. 
 
 MY DEAR PUSET, Your kind letter should have been answered a long time 
 ago, but I have been so very much engaged that I have been obliged to postpone 
 writing from day to day. It is true that I have not yet grey hairs, nor has it 
 pleased God to visit me with sorrows ; but though I have as yet been spared by 
 His rich and undeserved mercy, I have not a heart hardened against the woes of 
 others ; and much do I sympathise with all that you have suffered ; with all that 
 He has been pleased to impose upon you. God grant that it may be sanctified to 
 your immortal part, and that the griefs of a day may issue in the joys of 
 eternity I 
 
 You say to me, " Are yon quite sure that you know our principles, the princi- 
 ples that you talk of abhorring ? " I may reply, are yon quite sure that yon know 
 them yourself? I know what you have written. I know what your co-thinkers 
 have written. I find your principles (does any one deny them f) in your letter 
 to the Bishop of Oxford. I find them in " Fronde's Remains." I find them in 
 the " British Critic." I find them in Tract 75 Q^ -ytVoiro). I find them in 
 Tract 80, in Tract 87, in Tract 90. I find them in your opposition to the 
 Bishopric in Jerusalem. I find them in your Protest I find them in Mr. 
 Palmer's letter. I find them in the adhesion of our Presbyters to the Romish 
 Church ; and I find them in the very letter to which I am now replying. You 
 talk there, in allusion to the Bishopric, of " the grave injury of countenancing 
 heresy ; " this is the necessary language, the inevitable issue of your principles ; 
 thus yon class with the Gnostics, Corinthians, &c., of old, with the Mnnster 
 Anabaptists and Socinians of modern days, the whole mass of the Protestant 
 Churches of Europe, exoept England and Sweden. Every one, however deep hi* 
 
 * The enclosure was a selection of "Prayers for Unity and Guidance into the 
 Truth." 
 
 o 2
 
 21 THE EARL OP RHAFTESBURY. fCHAP. X. 
 
 piety, however holy his belief, however prostrate his heart in faith and fear 
 before God and his Saviour, however simple and perfect his reliance on the 
 merits of his Redeemer, is consigned by you, if he be not episcopally ruled, to the 
 outer darkness of the children of the Devil, while in the same breath you desig- 
 nate the Church of Rome as the sweet Spouse of Christ, and hide all her abomin- 
 able idolatries under the mantle of her Bishops. This is, to my mind, absolutely 
 dreadful ; and I say of your friends, as old Jacob said of Simeon and Levi, " Oh, 
 my soul, come not thou into their secret." 
 
 You say, too, that " some years ago I talked with you, and that I seemed to 
 think that in much we agreed ; " it is more than probable ; but had the Tracts 
 then appeared ? had Froude been published ? had you recalled your spirited and 
 unanswerable defence of Luther and the German Reformation ? I dare say we 
 then agreed ; but you have ebbed since that time, and have left me stranded. 
 
 " Pray for us," you add, " as I do daily for yon ; " to be sure I will' ; he must 
 have but a scanty feeling of the Gospel who does not ardently desire the repair 
 of the breaches in Christ's Church. The Unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace 
 is the main element of the blessings in the latter days ; let us endeavour, by God's 
 grace, to have a foretaste of that happy time ; but certain I am that it is attain- 
 able only by a heart that is truly Catholic, by the imbibing and exercise of an 
 immense philanthropy. 
 
 For yourself, I must ever entertain real kindness and esteem ; no one, amidst 
 11 this conflict of passion and principle, has, at any time, doubted your sincerity 
 and devotion. I wish we were one ; it is sad that we differ, but let not that 
 difference amount to enmity. I have enough of foes ; my public course has be- 
 gotten me many haters among the powerful and wealthy. You and I have now 
 lived more than half our time according to the language of the Psalmist. We 
 are hastening to the grand end of all things, and then may God lead you 
 unto living fountains of water, and in His mercy wipe away all tears from your 
 eyes I 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 ASHLEY. 
 
 Letters continued to pour in from men known and unknown. Among 
 them were several from members of the University of Oxford of long stand- 
 ing in some cases as many as thirty or forty years who had never voted, 
 but who now, impelled by a sense of duty, promised to come up and vote. 
 Others, and some of these ill able to afford the expense, expressed their 
 willingness, if additional votes were urgently needed, to come up to take their 
 M.A. degrees. Curiously enough, Archdeacon Samuel Wilberforce was 
 among those who warmly espoused the side of Lord Ashley in his efforts to 
 procure the election of Mr. Garbett, as will bo seen by the letter given 
 below : 
 
 Archdeacon Wilberforce to Lord Atkley. 
 
 ALVEESTOKE RECTORY, GOSPORT, Jan. 20th, 1842. 
 
 MY DEAR LORD, The Rev. , the minister of one of my district churches, 
 
 IB quite willing to accompany me to Oxford to vote for Mr. Garbett, but is not in 
 a situation to defray the expenses of the journey. There are, of course, no general
 
 1MM RESULTS OP THE CONTEST. 21 3 
 
 funds available for any such purpose, but I will gladly defray his expenses my- 
 self if there is the smallest reason for apprehending that the issue is doubtful. 
 ... I imagine our majority is certain. . . . 
 
 Believe me. my dear Lord, to be most truly yours, 
 
 SAMUEL WILBEBFOBCE. 
 
 An interchange of letters between Lord Ashley and the Rev. John Keble 
 author of the " Christian Tear " with reference to some of the contents of 
 the " Lyra Apostolica," which had apparently been wrongly attributed to Mr. 
 Keble, discloses the same courteous and kindly relations between the two men 
 as we have seen in a similar case of difference with Dr. Pusey, although in 
 this instance they were personally unacquainted. Lord Ashley concludes his 
 letter, written from St. Giles's House, Jan. 15th, 1842, by saying : 
 
 Perhaps yon have forgotten what I well recollect, that you were one of the 
 examining masters when I took my degree some eighteen or nineteen years ago. 
 Your amiable and gentlemanlike demeanour then made an impression on my 
 mind which has never been effaced. 
 
 Cum talis fit utinam noster esses. I cannot take leave of you without adding 
 that I shall always think of you with respect, not unmingled with affection. 
 
 The termination of the contest was thus announced by Mr. Gregson, the 
 zealous secretary of Mr. Garbott's committee : 
 
 Mr. W. Gregson to Lord Ashley. 
 
 B.N.C., OXFOBD, Jan. 20th, 1842 (noon). 
 
 DEAB LORD ASHLEY, The contest has just terminated by the withdrawal 
 of Williams, after a comparison of the promises churned by the respective 
 parties : 
 
 Garbett claimed 921 
 
 Williams ., 623 
 
 Majority 298 
 
 Our majority wat larger than our opponents reckoned on ; the utmost they gave 
 as credit for was 900. Still, their minority is large, but not larger than our 
 friends in Oxford anticipated. 
 
 Believe me, dear Lord Ashley, 
 
 Yours faithfully, 
 
 W. GBEGSON. 
 
 One significant result of the controversy was that Dr. Gilbert, the Prin- 
 cipal of Brasenose College, a strong anti-Puseyite, and one of the leaders of 
 the opposition to the candidature of Mr. Williams, was immediately appointed 
 to the Bishopric of Chichester, in succession to Dr. Shuttleworth. This was 
 regarded as a wise and courageous declaration of the Government against 
 PnseyLjiu.
 
 214 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. ICHAP. X. 
 
 On the 21st of January, the eve of the great Mohammedan festival of the 
 Co urban Bairam, Bishop Alexander made his public entry into Jerusalem; 
 and the day was dedicated by Frederick William IV. to prayer throughout 
 his kingdom for " the peace of Jerusalem." On the 22nd the King of Prussia 
 was received as the guest of the Queen of England, to stand at the baptismal 
 font, a few days later, as sponsor for the Prince of Wales ! 
 
 The King was welcomed with the greatest cordiality everywhere, and by 
 all classes, with the solitary exception of the Tractarians, who viewed un- 
 easily these friendly relations with a Monarch who was avowedly anxious to 
 bring about an alliance between his Protestant Church and the Church of 
 England. 
 
 The climax to the uneasiness, and to the period of protest, was reached 
 when the King of Prussia stood in the midst of the splendour at Windsor on 
 the day of the Christening. 
 
 Jan. 24th. The King of Prussia has come. May God bless him for it, sanctify 
 his journey to both kingdoms, and pour on the Church, and on him personally, 
 the richest mercies. Of all these things Peel will have the credit. And yet what 
 trouble had I to obtain even an interview for Bunsen when he first came over I 
 
 Jan. 25th. The King of Prussia's reception by the Queen and the people 
 has been truly cordial and magnificent. It is worthy of a great, glowing, open- 
 hearted Protestant nation. 
 
 Jan. 28th. London. Everything is bright on the royal visit ; its effects will, 
 I believe, long survive the hour that produced them. I should have been almost 
 broken-hearted had his reception been cold. 
 
 His visit to Eton is among the best fruits. The boys followed him with 
 cries of joy, even to the Castle. Many a young heart will have been impressed by 
 the visit of a great Protestant Sovereign, blessed be God. Surely the King will 
 confess that I spoke truly when I wrote to him that " the people of this country 
 loved Monarchy and loved Religion." 
 
 To-morrow I shall meet him at Bunsen's. I have asked leave to take Accy 
 and Francis there. They will long remember the sight of a "good King." 
 
 Jan. 31st. Many things in a few days. On Saturday went to Bunsen's to be 
 presented to the King of Prussia 150 at least present ; proposed his health at 
 Bunsen's request. Thence to Windsor. . . . While at luncheon at Bunsen's, 
 the King addressed to me a question which I shall record while fresh in my mind, 
 with the conversation that followed. He spoke across Lady Canning and Bunsen, 
 and in the hearing of others. " What hope," said he in French, " have you of 
 carrying your Factory Bill ? " " None at all, sir," I answered in English (as he 
 desired me), " none at all. The Prime Minister has written to me to-day to say 
 he shall oppose me." " Indeed," replied the King in English. He paused, 
 and then said, " We have done it for you in Prussia." " Yes, sir, I know you 
 have, and there are thousands and tens of thousands of hearts that bless your 
 Majesty for it." " I did not do it ; it was begun by our merchants and manufac- 
 turers, I did not do it." " No, sir ; but it was done by your Majesty's father." 
 "Yes, all great and good things in Prussia were done by my father." Here it 
 dropped.
 
 PEEL'S HOSTILITY TO TUE FACTORY BILL. 215 
 
 Feb. 3rd. Yesterday the "Jews' Society" went up in deputation to present 
 an address to his Majesty. 
 
 That day was one of the red-letter days in Lord Ashley's life. It 
 celebrated the completion of a scheme on which he had prayed,- written, 
 spoken, and laboured unceasingly, and in a cause which lay as near to his 
 heart as any in which he had ever been engaged. 
 
 But the day was not to be one of unclouded happiness few of the days 
 of his life ever were and immediately following the entry in his Journal, 
 of the presentation of the address and its gracious reception, these words 
 occur: 
 
 Came home, wrote and sent a letter to the Times containing the announce- 
 ment of Peel's hostility to the Factory Bill ; painful enough, but it cannot be 
 helped. 
 
 The steps which led to this decision may be briefly recounted here. On 
 the 24th of January, Lord Ashley had noted in his Diary : 
 
 Have written twice to Peel to obtain his final decision respecting the Factory 
 Bill. It is manifest how the tide is setting. I must persist, and we shall 
 break asunder. But it is a formidable step. God alone can strengthen me. 
 
 The first letter to Sir Robert was as follows : 
 
 Lord Ashley to Sir Robert Peel. 
 
 ST. GILES'S HOUSE, Jan. 2lt, 1842. 
 
 MY DEAR SIB ROBERT, Nearly five months have now elapsed since the 
 subject of the Factory Question was brought before you. I may, therefore, 
 safely and justly request, in accordance with the wishes of many parties in the 
 Northern Districts, that you will be kind enough to tell me whether you have 
 made up your mind to resist or concede the prayers of the operatives for the 
 further limitation of the hours of labour between the ages of thirteen and 
 twenty-one. My efforts have hitherto been confined to this point, and it is on 
 this only that an answer is required. 
 
 As the meeting of Parliament is close at hand, you will, perhaps, feel no 
 objection to remove the suspense in which so many thousands are at present 
 detained. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 ASHLEY. 
 To this letter Sir Robert Peel replied : 
 
 Sir Robert Peel to Lord Athby. 
 
 WHITEHALL, Jan. 22nd, 1842. 
 
 MY DEAR ASHLEY, In reply to your letter of the 21st, I beg leave to 
 acquaint yon that I am not prepared to pledge myself, or other members of the 
 Government, to the support of a Bill limiting the hours of labour to ten for all 
 persons between the age of thirteen and twenty-one. 
 
 Sir James Graham, as Secretary of State for the Home Department, has
 
 216 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP X 
 
 under his consideration a measure connected with the important question of 
 labour in factories, and the education of children employed in them, and I am 
 confident that he will, if you will allow him, be glad to have an opportunity of 
 conferring with you, who have given so much of your attention to these subjects, 
 if you will call upon him. 
 
 Very faithfully yours, 
 
 ROBERT PEEL. 
 
 The object of Lord Ashley's second letter on the subject was to obtain a 
 distinct understanding whether it would be the determination of the Govern- 
 ment to oppose a Bill if brought in from any other quarter ; but to this Sir 
 Robert replied that he considered his first letter was sufficiently explicit. 
 
 Thereupon, Lord Ashley wrote to the Short-Time Committees as 
 follows : 
 
 LONDON, Feb. 2, 1842. 
 
 TO THE SHOBT-TlME COMMITTEES OP CHESHIRE, LANCASHIRE, AND 
 YORKSHIRE. 
 
 GENTLEMEN, It is with the deepest regret that I am obliged to announce to 
 you that Sir Robert Peel has signified his opposition to the Ten Hours Bill ; and 
 I conclude, therefore, as you will conclude, that his reply must be taken as the 
 reply of the whole Government on this important question. 
 
 Though painfully disappointed, I am not disheartened, nor am I at a loss 
 either what course to take, or what advice to give. I shall persevere unto my 
 last hour, and so must you ; we must exhaust every legitimate means that the 
 Constitution affords, in petitions to Parliament, in public meetings, and in 
 friendly conferences with your employers ; but you must infringe no law, and 
 offend no proprieties ; we must all work together as responsible men, who will 
 one day give an account of their motives and actions ; if this course be approved, 
 no consideration shall detach me from your cause ; if not, you must elect another 
 advocate. 
 
 I know that, in resolving on this step, I exclude myself altogether from the 
 tenure of office : I rejoice in the sacrifice, happy to devote the remainder of my 
 days, be they many or be they few, as God in His wisdom shall determine, to an 
 effort, however laborious, to ameliorate your moral and social condition. 
 
 I am, Gentlemen, your faithful friend and servant, 
 
 ASHLEY. 
 
 The Diary continues ; still on the same day when this cloud had arisen, 
 namely, Feb. 3rd : 
 
 To Lambeth ; an admirable party of bishops and dignitaries ; no English 
 laymen but myself and Inglia. It was a striking and affecting thing to see 
 the King there, when I recollected the doubts and anxieties which attended 
 our discussions on " the Bishopric " in the same palace, only six months before. 
 '"This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes." 
 
 A day somewhat of trouble and rebuke, yet I should have been prepared 
 for it politicians are chameleons, and take the colour of the passing cloud. 
 My letter approves itself to their consciences, but obstructs their wishes ; they
 
 1843.) TRUE TO PRINCIPLE. 217 
 
 feel that I am in the right, and Peel in the Treasury ; so the House of Com- 
 mons will think with me, and act with him. I have had some cold praise, but 
 no promises of support. I am complimented with some formal regrets ; but 
 they all show me that the right hand of the chair presents objects in a dif- 
 ferent point of view from the left hand some have suddenly found out that " I 
 may be going too far ; " all seem secretly to wish that I would go no further. 
 " Peel has made a propitiatory sacrifice to Cobden and Co., and why should not 
 you to the whole party ? " These are their thoughts, though not, as yet, their 
 language. " Probitat landatur, et alget" 
 
 I confess I feel sadly alone ; I am like a pelican in the wilderness or a 
 sparrow on the house-tops. I have no one with whom I can take counsel, 
 no one to aid me, no one to cheer me. 
 
 Feb. 4th. By chance I lighted on the Morning Pott, and found there the 
 most violent and venomous article I ever read against any public man, directed 
 against myself. . . . This is only a sample of the things I shall have to 
 endure. Were I just coming into public life, fresh from school, and lessons 
 of morality, I should die outright of astonishment and disgust ; but though 
 affected, I am acclimated, and, having endured an attack, shall recover a part 
 of my health, but no more. Those who do not openly desert, discountenance 
 my progress ; some look black, all look cold ; the very men who patted me on 
 the back, praised my exertions, rebuked the apathy of the Government (while 
 100 were in Opposition) now reverse all three. Sandon talks of it as very 
 natural, if not very justifiable " To be ture, " he gays," when in Opposition your 
 friendi wished to annoy the existing Government; now, of course, they look more 
 carefully into the thing." This he did not condemn, but called it "human in- 
 firmity 1 " This was his tone throughout a long conversation, in which he 
 endeavoured to show that, as much evil would be left after all that I could do, 
 I might as well leave the whole. 
 
 When Lord Ashley was yet very young in Parliamentary life, he had 
 laid it down as a rule, to govern him in all future action, ever to be honest 
 and straightforward and true to principle, quite irrespective of party con- 
 siderations. As early as 1834 he had recorded in his note-book that on a 
 certain debate many Conservatives had stayed away on various pretexts, bnt 
 none admissible. " Our single rule," he adds, " should be, to do in Oppo- 
 sition precisely as we should do in Government, and not lose sight of prin- 
 eij>li\s in a burst of personal antipathy to the Minister." 
 
 It was as a matter of practical Christianity that Lord Ashley had, in 
 tlio first instance, taken up the Factory Question, and it was in the same 
 spirit that he dealt with every fresh phase of it. Nor did he ever lose a 
 chance of bringing the subject of personal religion before communities or 
 individuals, as he had opportunity. On the 8th of February he received a 
 letter from a man who bore the reputation of being an advanced and dan- 
 gerous Socialist, requesting an interview, as he had recently made an extensive 
 tour in England and Scotland to test popular opinion on various subjects, 
 but particularly on Factory Legislation. He concluded his letter thus : 
 "That your Lordship may long be spared to advocate the rights of the
 
 218 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBDRY. [CHAP. X. 
 
 poor, the oppressed, and him that hath none to help him, and that you may 
 continually enjoy that greatest of all rewards, the blessing of an approving 
 conscience, is the sincere prayer of your Lordship's admirer and humble 
 
 fellow-worker in the cause of the white slave, ." 
 
 To this letter Lord Ashley sent the following characteristic reply : 
 
 You have been represented to me as a Socialist and an advocate of prin- 
 ciples that I regard with terror and abhorrence ; and you will therefore 
 readily believe the pleasure with which I observed the spirit and language of 
 your letter. I could not but apply to you the words of that Book whose expres- 
 sions you have borrowed, and say, as was said to Ananias of Saul, " Behold, he 
 prayeth I " I deeply rejoice in this, because I respect your talents, I admire 
 your zeal, and I hope to find in you a true and faithful ally in these great 
 and final efforts for the moral, social, and religious welfare of the working 
 people. 
 
 The unfavourable attitude of Sir Robert Peel to the Factory Question was 
 A source of continuous anxiety to Lord Ashley. 
 
 Feb. 24th. . . . All Peel's affinities are towards wealth and capital. His 
 heart is manifestly towards the mill-owners ; his lips occasionally for the opera- 
 tives. What has he ever done or proposed for the working classes ? His speech 
 of last night was a signal instance of his tendencies. He suppressed all the 
 delinquencies of the manufacturers, bepraised machinery, and treated the distress 
 as severe but temporary. Now, he might have said that no small portion of the 
 suffering was caused by the forced immigration of families in 1836, reducing the 
 already low wages, and aggravating the misery, in the stagnation which followed. 
 He might have said, too, that, while we cannot interdict machinery, we ought not 
 to be blind to its effects : it may cheapen goods for the consumer, but it pauperises 
 irrevocably thousands of workpeople, who can never resume their position, what- 
 ever be the activity of trade. In short, his speech was a transcript of his mind : 
 cotton is everything, man nothing I 
 
 Feb. 25th. Time creeps on, years fly past, and the city of oppression and vice 
 has not capitulated ; the factory system stands erect ; millions of infants are con- 
 sumed in other departments ; and, in the course of nature, it seems probable that 
 before long I shall be removed to another scene of action to the House of Lords. 
 If I regard this event as a man only, I must see in it utter annihilation of all my 
 schemes for the benefit of the working classes, and a total retirement from public 
 life, because in that House, except for one who holds high official station, there 
 is little or no power of originating anything which may conduce to the welfare 
 of the poorer sort. The Peers act as breakwaters, and think as such ; this is their 
 office, and they never rise above it. The House of Commons is the depository of 
 Power ; any favour acquired there is more effective than ten times the amount in 
 the House of Lords ; they are won, besides, by different qualities, and the station 
 occupied by different men. I should be quite overwhelmed by such peers aa 
 Salisbury, Redesdale, and Wharncliffe. Character of all kinds is FAB LESS 
 required and appreciated among the Peers. Lord Lyndhurst. both in Opposition 
 and in Government, exercised an influence, and commanded an attention, which 
 would be utterly denied to him in the House of Commons. 
 
 March 3rd. Matters do not brighten. I see hardly a speck of day. There
 
 1341] HOSTILITY OP THB GOVERNMENT. 219 
 
 may be a ray of light to break forth in God's mercy, but it is not yet above the 
 horizon. It is manifest that this Government is ten times more hostile to my 
 views than the last, and they carry it oat in a manner far more severe and 
 embarrassing. I find that the inspectors are terrified by Sir J. Graham. Home 
 and Saonders are now warmly with me, but they do not dare to say so. Now I 
 fear delay ; the Minister knows my position, and can defy me, because he has 
 both power and specioosness on his side. Matters may be postponed to a late 
 period of the Session, when I shall be more than usually helpless through the 
 absence of many supporters. I am particularly dejected. I feel an unusual 
 conviction of incompetency ; every one seems more equal to the task, be it what 
 it may, than myself. I am become quite timid. I have undertaken things that 
 are too hard for me, and yet I have asked at least I thought so counsel of God 
 in everything ; but man oftentimes asks amiss. ... I might have suspected 
 what I now know, that I have raised ap a host of enemies by my letter to 
 Roundell Palmer. A body of them in the House have determined " to crush me," 
 and they are resolved to do so through the Factory Question, for which purpose 
 two went down in January hist to the manufacturing districts. They cannot 
 make any personal charge, but they may deeply and seriously wound me by 
 depriving me, even for a year, of my hard-earned fruit. They may, and will, 
 give me pain, but they cannot tarnish me. 
 
 March 5th. Fresh labour added to old sinews. I am like a factory spinner 
 more toil and less wages. The Committee of Elections has now put me on the 
 Chairman's panel (and I cannot decline it, for such is the law), and the panel 
 have put me in their own chair. This is burdensome, because I am already over- 
 occupied. . . . 
 
 News travelled leisurely in those days, and it was not till the end of 
 February that the papers published the account of the entry of Bishop 
 Alexander into Jerusalem, and his cordial reception by the authorities. 
 
 March 8th. There must be something more than ordinary in the Bishopric 
 of Jerusalem, else why this fury in England and on the Continent? British 
 Puseyites and French Papists against it I The Journal det Debatt contrasts the 
 entry of the Bishop with the humble ingress of oar Saviour ; but would our Lord 
 have refused the courtesy of the Governing Powers, had they proffered it to Him? 
 Lord Lyttleton stirs in the Lords, Dr. Bowring in the Commons, while all the 
 realms of Pusey are vomiting out essays. God will turn the wrath of man to His 
 own honour. 
 
 March 9th. Awoke in high spirits. There is a strong feeling " circum prtg- 
 cordia " that all will go well. 
 
 March llth. Peel has been eminently successful in his plans ; his Corn Bill 
 has been sharply debated, but, on the whole, favourably received. His new taxes 
 and new tariffs (to-night) almost gave satisfaction, a thing unheard of in the 
 history of the Exchequer 1 To be sure, he had an astounding case of necessity, 
 but that plea, even, has oftentimes failed. His success puzzles me ; I cannot 
 regard him in any light but as a mere seeker of human praise ; his moral phrase- 
 ology seems the result of calculation. His speech this evening was a chrf-d'cntvrf 
 of self-confidence. This is unquestionably the next best thing to a vigorous 
 faith ; it leads to victory. I begin to fear that I have as little of the one as of
 
 220 THE EARL OP 8HAFTESBURY. [CHAP. X. 
 
 the other. I am quite down again ; easily raised, easily depressed. I catch at a 
 straw, and writhe under disappointment. The fact is, I am almost tired. I have 
 laboured now for nearly ten years, and the haven recedes as I approach. . . . 
 Not a cheer is given to Peel in the House of Commons that does not retard my 
 success, multiply my toil, and add to my anxiety. This is a jovial prospect ! 
 
 March 18th. Spoke again last night on the Lunacy Bill. I seemed to myself 
 to do it without force or point, and with difficulty ; half left unsaid and the 
 other half said ill. This is humbling and despairing, because I plough not in 
 hope. How can I look to success in the great measures I propose, if I am so 
 weak in the smaller ? The House will despise schemes so brought forward. Am 
 I working in the truth and for the truth ? This doubt often arises now, and yet, 
 what is my guide if I am not? 
 
 March 29th. If things are not put down as they arise, they are either lost or 
 are recorded with their point blunted. A reconciliation with Peel. We shook 
 hands, and avoided all explanations. So much the better ; an explanation only 
 gets rid, for the moment, of the old quarrel, for the purpose of laying the grounds 
 of a new one. Facts may be set right ; but we should have had to deal with 
 opinions and expressions. He was very cordial, and clearly much pleased. 
 
 April 9th. This day is, perhaps, the last of leisure I shall have for a long 
 time. Gave it to the reading of the Colliery Report, that I may be thoroughly 
 furnished to the good work. I can never produce, in a speech, one-tenth part of 
 the truth, and yet, unless that be fully told, I shall not accomplish my purpose. 
 Great labour, great difficulty, first to read, and then to select and arrange the 
 matter. But the Longford Committee will, I fear, occupy an alarming amount 
 of time. " Why is sufficient for these things 1 " 
 
 April 26th. I see the setting of the wind. People are already beginning to 
 say, " You will do nothing this year with your Factory Bill ; the Government 
 w,ill have no time," &c. &c., and all these commonplaces. Meanwhile, wrong, 
 oppression, mutilation, death, with all the grim roll of physical and moral evils, 
 are in full liberty. 
 
 May 7th. Yesterday the Jewish anniversary. Never had we such a meeting, 
 never such sympathy, never such enthusiasm. Every one felt deeply moved, all 
 hearts were lifted up, to God give the glory. Heartily did I wish our venerable 
 President * many happy returns of such a day, in the Lord's name. A blessing 
 manifestly rested on it. All that we had done was approved, all that we sug- 
 gested was adopted, every one was pleased, and many were comforted. Everlast- 
 ing love and praise to the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob I 
 
 In August, 1840, Lord Ashley had moved for a Commission to inquire into 
 the employment of the children of the poorer classes in mines and collieries, 
 and in May, 1842, the first report was issued.f Few, if any, Blue Books of 
 the kind ever became so widely known. Continental as well as English 
 reformers and philanthropists studied its fearful disclosures with intense 
 interest. A mass of misery and depravity was unveiled of which even the 
 warmest friends of the labouring classes had hitherto but a faint conception. 
 
 It would be utterly incredible, were not the testimony overwhelming, that, 
 
 * Sir Thomas Baring, President of the Society for Conversion of the Jews, 
 t Parliamentary Papers, 1842, xv., xvi., xvii.
 
 HORROUS OF THE COAL MINES.
 
 1*41] CHILDREN IN MINES AND COLLIERIES. 221 
 
 in the most Christian and civilised country in the world, such enormities 
 could have been permitted ; and if we dwell briefly upon a few of the details, 
 it is only that this generation may be the better enabled to realise what was 
 the actual state of things in the " old time before them," and how great was 
 the deliverance that Lord Ashley was instrumental in effecting. 
 
 A very large proportion of the workers underground were less than 
 thirteen years of age ; some of them began to toil in the pits when only four 
 or five ; many when between six and seven, and the majority when not over 
 eight or nine, females as well as males. 
 
 A man must have strong nerves who, for the first time, descends a deep 
 shaft without some uncomfortable sensations. To a young, timid child, the 
 descent was a cruel terror, nor was the first impression of the mine less 
 horrible. It was damp, dark, and close ; with water trickling down its sides, 
 the floor ankle-deep in black mud ; and around, a labyrinth of dark, gruesome 
 passages. 
 
 The first employment of a very young child was that of a " trapper," and 
 any occupation more barbarous it is difficult to conceive. The ventilation of 
 a mine was a very complicated affair, and cannot be easily explained in a few 
 words. Suffice it to say that were a door or trap left open after the passage 
 of a coal-carriage through it, the consequences would be very serious, causing 
 great heat and closeness when the miners were at work, and perchance an 
 explosion. Behind each door, therefore, a little child, or trapper, was seated, 
 whose duty it was, on hearing the approach of a whirley, or coal-carriage, to 
 pull open the door, and shut it again immediately the wbirley had passed. 
 From the time the first coal was brought forward in the morning, until the last 
 whirley had passed at night, that is to say for twelve or fourteen hours a day, 
 the trapper was at his monotonous, deadening work. He had to sit alone in 
 the pitchy darkness and the horrible silence, exposed to damp, and unable to 
 stir for more than a dozen paces with' safety lest he should be found neglect, 
 ing his duty, and suffer accordingly. He dared not go to sleep the punish- 
 ment was the " strap," applied with brutal severity. Many of the mines were 
 infested with rats, mice, beetles, and other vermin, and stories are told of rats 
 so bold, that they would eat the horses' food in the presence of the miners, 
 and have been known to run off with the lighted candles in their month and 
 explode the gas. All the circumstances of a little trapper's life were full of 
 horror, and upon nervous, sensitive children the effect was terrible, producing 
 a state of imbecility, approaching almost to idiocy. Except on Sunday they 
 never saw the sun ; they had no hours of relaxation, their meals were mostly 
 eaten in the dark, and their " homes " were with parents who devoted them 
 to this kind of life. 
 
 The young Iambs are bleating in the meadows, 
 
 The young birds are chirping in the nest ; 
 The young fawns are playing with the shadows. 
 
 The young flowers are blowing toward the west.
 
 THE KARL OF SHAFTESBURT. [CHAP 1. 
 
 But the young, young children, my brothers, 
 
 They are weeping bitterly 1 
 They are weeping in the playtime of the others, 
 
 In the country of the free. 
 
 As they grew older, the trappers were passed on to other employments, 
 "hurrying," "filling," "riddling," "tipping," and occasionally "getting," and 
 in these labours no distinction whatever was made between boys and girls in 
 their mode of work, in the weights they carried, in the distances they travelled, 
 in the wages they received, or in their dress, which consisted of no other gar- 
 ment than a ragged shirt or shift, or a pair of tattered trousers. " Hurrying" 
 that is, loading small waggons, called corves, with coals, and pushing them 
 along a passage was an utterly barbarous labour performed by women as 
 well as by children. They had to crawl on hands and knees, and draw 
 enormous weights along shafts as narrow and as wet as common sewers, and 
 women remained at this work until the last hour of pregnancy. When the 
 passages were very narrow, and not more than eighteen to twenty-four inches in 
 height, boys and girls performed the work by " girdle and chain ; " that is to 
 say, a girdle was put round the naked waist, to which a chain from the car- 
 riage was hooked and passed between the legs, and, crawling on hands and 
 knees, they drew the carriages after them. It is not necessary to describe 
 how the sides of the hurriers were blistered, and their ankles strained, how 
 fheir backs were chafed by coming in contact with the roofs, or how they 
 stumbled in the darkness, and choked in the stifling atmosphere. It is 
 enough to say that they were obliged to do the work of horses, or other beasts 
 of burden, only because human flesh and blood was cheaper in some cases, and 
 horse-labour was impossible in others. 
 
 "Coal-bearing" carrying on their backs, on unrailed roads, burdens 
 varying from half a hundredweight to one hundredweight and a half was 
 almost always performed by girls and women, and it was a common occur- 
 rence for little children of the age of six or seven years to carry burdens of 
 coal of half a hundredweight up steps that, in the aggregate, equalled an 
 ascent, fourteen times a day, to the summit of St. Paul's Cathedral ! The 
 coal was carried in a creel, or basket, formed to the back, the tugs or straps 
 of which were placed over the forehead, and the body had to be bent almost 
 double to prevent the coals, which were piled high on to the neck, from fall- 
 ing. Sometimes these tugs would break in ascending the ladder, when the 
 consequences would always be serious, and sometimes fatal, to those who were 
 Immediately following. 
 
 Another form of severe labour to which children of eight years of age and 
 upwards were frequently put, was that of pumping water in the under-bottom 
 of the pits. The little workers stood, as a rule, ankle-deep in water, per- 
 forming their unceasing tasks during hours as long as those in the other 
 departments of labour. 
 
 It sometimes happened that the children employed in the mines were 
 required to work " double shifts," that is to say, thirty-six hours continuously,
 
 CHILDREN IH MIXES ATTO COLT.U: KIF3. 223 
 
 and the work thus cruelly protracted consisted, not in tending self-acting 
 machinery, but in the heaviest kind of bodily fatigue, such as pushing loaded 
 waggons, lifting heavy weights, or driving and constantly righting trains of 
 loaded corves. 
 
 In addition to the actual labour, the children, especially the apprentices, 
 Buffered terribly from the cruelty of the overlookers, who bargained for them, 
 dismissed them, and used them as they pleased. The revelation of the brutal 
 punishments inflicted for the most trifling offences, is too sickening to dwell 
 upon, nor will we advert to the fact that the food of the children was almost 
 invariably insufficient, was of the coarsest kind, and was eaten irregularly. 
 
 It is needless to say that the poor little creatures, who laboured thus like 
 beasts of burden, and who scarcely ever saw the sunshine more than once a 
 week, suffered terribly in health. The foundation of diseases of the heart and 
 lungs was laid in early life ; many died young, and at thirty years of age most 
 colliers became asthmatic, while rheumatism was almost universal. Every 
 person employed in a coal mine was, in addition, exposed to danger constant 
 and imminent, and it was a common saying that a collier was never safe after 
 he was " swung off to be let down the pit." The accidents, many of them pre- 
 ventable, to which persons were chiefly exposed, were falling down the shaft, 
 coal falling upon them, suffocation by carbonic acid gas, drowning from the 
 Budili-n breaking in of water, and other minor accidents, which better regula- 
 tions and machinery have now made impossible. 
 
 Education was totally neglected and the morals of the people were in the 
 lowest possible state. Nor can this be wondered at when it is remembered 
 that in a great number of the pits men worked in perfect nakedness, and in 
 this state were assisted in their labours by females of all ages, from girls of 
 six years old to women of twenty -one, these women being themselves quite 
 naked down to the waist, their only garment being trousers. 
 
 As a rule the wages paid to labourers in the mines, and especially to the I 
 women and children, were unreasonably low, and in some districts the I 
 ini'jiiitous " truck system" prevailed, that is to say, the people were not paid I 
 in money, but by advances of goods from a shop in the neighbourhood where I 
 the necessaries of life were dearer by 25 per cent, than in shops farther off. I 
 
 For all the revolting cruelty practised upon the poor children employed in 
 mines and collieries ; for all the dreadful sufferings to which they were 
 subjected in their premature and destructive labour; for all the horrible 
 
 ii.'l ucies daily passing before their eyes and inviting their imitation ; for 
 
 all tin- ignorance, licentious habits, and social disorganisation springing out 
 of this state of things, the main excuse given was, that without the employ- 
 ment of child-labour the pits could not possibly bo worked with a profit; 
 that after a certain age the vertebra of the back do not conform to the required 
 positions, and therefore the children must begin early, and that unless early 
 inured to the work and its terrors no child would ever make a good collier. 
 
 It was when the condition of things was in this state that Lord Ashley 
 had demanded a Commission of Inquiry.
 
 224 THE EARL OP SHAPTESBURT. [CHAP. X. 
 
 May 7th. The Report of the Commission is out a noble document. The Home 
 Office in vain endeavoured to hold it back ; it came by a most providential 
 mistake into the hands of members ; and, though the Secretary of State for a 
 long while prevented the sale of it, he could not prevent publicity, or any notice 
 of motion. 
 
 Perhaps even " Civilisation " itself never exhibited such a mass of sin and 
 cruelty. The disgust felt is very great, thank God ; but will it be reduced to 
 action when I call for a remedy 1 
 
 May 14th. The Government cannot, if they would, refuse the Bill of which I 
 have given notice, to exclude females and children from coal-pits the feeling in 
 my favour has become quite enthusiastic ; the Press on all sides is working most 
 vigorously. Wrote pointedly to thank the editor of the Morning Chronicle for 
 his support, which is most effective. 
 
 Concurrently with the Factory Question, Lord Ashley was continuing his 
 labours in other movements, and especially those on behalf of the Insane 
 Thus he writes : 
 
 May 17th. This day I have visited Han well, in company with Serjeant Adams, 
 and well may I, aye, and by His grace do I, heartily thank God for all that I 
 saw there. Could any man, who has the least regard for his fellow-man, as 
 created and redeemed by the same Blessed Lord, behold such a triumph of wisdom 
 and mercy over ignorance and ferocity and not rejoice, and give God the glory 1 
 These things cannot be expressed, no, nor felt, by any but the spirit of Christian 
 love, of the love of that dearest Lord, whose very essence is the indivisible, 
 necessary, and single principle of goodness itself. What sufferings mitigated, 
 what degradation spared, what vices restrained, what affections called forth ! 
 
 May 21st. The Government had well-nigh given away Thursday (my day 
 for the Colliery Bill) to C. Buller. It is clear that they desire to get rid of 
 the motion. This day I received a formal proposition from Freemantle to give 
 precedence to the Bridport case. No reason assigned why the Minister demanded 
 precedence ; there is quite as good reason why I should precede Buller, as he 
 precede me. I told him that such a request came with a very bad grace from a 
 Government which was hostile, not only to past measures of the kind, but, I 
 really believed, to this one in particular I I, of course, refused ; postponement 
 would be total surrender. 
 
 May 23rd. Peel, knowing my determination not to give way, advised Wynne 
 this evening (Wynne told me so himself) to take Thursday for a question of 
 privilege, thereby destroying me altogether. Never was there such treatment, 
 such abominable trickery. 
 
 May 24th. One would have thought that a " paternal " Government would 
 have hastened to originate, certainly to aid, any measures for the removal of this 
 foul and cruel stain ! No such thing, no assistance, no sympathy every obstacle 
 in my way, though I doubt whether they will dare openly to oppose me on the 
 Bill itself. Have no time for reflection, no time for an entry. I hear that no 
 such sensation has been caused since the first disclosures of the horrors of the 
 slave trade I God, go before us, as in Thy pillar of a cloud I 
 
 May 30th. 26th, day fixed ; persisted, having received an assurance from 
 Peel and Freemantle that the privilege question would not occupy two hours,
 
 1SI?) "THE GREATEST JACOBIN" 225 
 
 Poel bavin? engaged to give me a day if I were disappointed. So it turned out ; 
 Wynne was absent ; I was called ; the first sentence was all but begun, when 
 cries arose that Wynne was coming ; I gave way, and this famous " two hours " 
 debate occupied from five till twelve o'clock I Never did I pass such an evening ; 
 expecting, for six hours, without food or drink, to be called on at any moment 
 very unwell in consequence, and have been, in fact, ever since. Peel then gave 
 me Tuesday (to-morrow), and just now such is the apparent fate of the ques- 
 tion a horrid attempt to assassinate the Queen has caused an adjournment of 
 the House. 
 
 . ... A second attempt to murder our young Queen is really as shocking 
 individually as it is alarming publicly. May God hear the prayer of those who 
 faithfully adore Him, and shield her from every mischief ! 
 
 May 31st. This is the day; but I fear that all will be so engrossed by this 
 terrible affair, that there will be no hearing for us I Wrote to Peel, and offered 
 to release him from his engagement (which he was quite ready to hold to) seeing 
 his great anxiety to finish the Income Tax Bill. He had lost his day by so 
 terrible an event, that it would be kind and becoming on my part to anticipate 
 his wishes and postpone my own. He wrote a grateful acceptance of my offer, 
 and now I stand for Tuesday next, like the god Terminus on the Capitol, 
 resolved not to budge. 
 
 June 1st. I am glad I have done so. Peel has carried his Bill, and I am not 
 the worse for the 'delay at least, I hope so. I foresee a covert and spiteful 
 opposition ; the Great Northern coal-owners have produced a document of defence 
 of themselves, which throws the mantle of their comparative merit over the 
 enormities of the general practice. Here is party ! It is a vain, insolent, and 
 feeble paper, quite in the style of the old apologies of the Factory masters. 
 These repeated delays have tried my patience, and stumbled my faith God 
 forgive me. I shall yet see that the harvest is retarded, not denied. 
 
 "There, Madam, is i ho greatest Jacol>in in your Majesty's dominions." 
 Tims spoke Lord Melbourne, in his laughing way, addressing the Queen and 
 point ing to Lord Ashley, who was dining one day at Windsor during tlio 
 Factory Agitation. Lord Shaftesbtiry also used to laugh when narrating 
 tin- incident, but it is clear from the following entry that his sensitive natim> 
 smarted during this period under the badinage of men of that school : 
 
 Met Melbourne at dinner a good deal excited by his language and opinions, 
 and spoke strongly. I will never henceforward say anything to him, I have pro- 
 tested fully and finally, and there the matter shall end. There is a decided 
 change in feeling towards my measures even Howick declared last night to me, 
 that long as he had been opposed to interference, he was compelled to admit its 
 :it necessity. . . . 
 
 The Report of the Commission had aronsed the indignation of the whole 
 country. No one had the least conception of the enormity of the evil that 
 existed ; but it was reserved for Lord Ashley to expose the iniquity of the 
 system in a speech so powerful that it not only thrilled the House, but sent a 
 -liudder through the length and breadth of the land. 
 P
 
 22G THE EARL OP SIIAFTESRUUY. [CiMr X 
 
 Tune 9th. Ob, that I had the tongue of an angel to express what I ought to 
 feel I God grant that I may never forget it, for I cannot record it. On the 7th, 
 brought forward my motion the success has been wonderful, yes, really wonder- 
 ful for two hours the House listened so attentively that you might have heard 
 a pin drop, broken only by loud and repeated marks of approbation at the close 
 a dozen members at least followed in succession to give me praise, and express 
 their sense of the holy cause. . . . 
 
 As I stood at the table, and just before I opened my mouth, the words of God 
 came forcibly to my mind, " Only be strong and of a good courage " praised 
 be His Holy Name, I was as easy from that moment as though I had been 
 sitting in an arm-chair. Many men, I hear, shed tears Beckett ,Denison con- 
 fessed to me that he did, and that he left the House lest he should be scon. Sir 
 G. Grey told William Cowper that he "would rather have made that speech than 
 any he ever heard." Even Joseph Hume was touched. Members took me aside, 
 and spoke in a vary terioun tone of thanks and admiration. I must and Avill sing 
 an everlasting " non nobis." Grant, oh blessed God, that I may not be exsiltcd 
 above measure, but that I may ever creep close by the ground, knowing and joy- 
 fully confessing that I am Thy servant, that without Thee I. am nothing worth, 
 and that from Thee alone cometh all counsel, wisdom, and understanding, for the 
 sake of our most dear and only Saviour, God manifest in the flesh, our Lord Jesus 
 Christ I It has given me hopes for the Empire, hopes for its permanence, hopes 
 for its services in the purposes of the Messiah. God prosper the issue I ... 
 
 June llth. Has not this carried, in fact, the Ten Hours Bill? Yet two such 
 mercies in one year would exceed, not God's goodness, but man's capacity. 
 
 The masterly speech in which Lord Ashley introduced his Bill, gave 
 AH epitome of the Commissioners' Report, and set forth the whole question 
 in its physical, moral, social, and religious aspects. 
 
 "Is it not enough," he said, in conclusion, "to announce these tilings 
 to an assembly of Christian and British gentlemen P For twenty millions 
 of money you purchased the liberation of the negro; and it was a blessed 
 deed. You may, this night, by a cheap and harmless vote, invigorate the 
 hearts of thousands of your country people, enable them to walk erect in 
 newness of life, to enter on the enjoyment of their inherited freedom, and 
 avail themselves (if they will accept them) of the opportunities of virtue, 
 of morality, and religion. These, Sir, are the ends that I venture to pro- 
 pose ; this is the barbarism that I seek to restore." * 
 
 Lord Ashley's motion, " and the copious and judicious speech in which 
 ho introduced it, were received with an unanimity almost unexampled in 
 any political assembly. The noble Lord must have felt himself well re- 
 warded, for his exertions in the cause of humanity, by the remarkable 
 tribute of admiration and consent which he received from all parts of the 
 House." So spoke the leading journal, and Englishmen generally warmly 
 united in the tribute of admiration. In passing through Committee, and 
 at the third reading, there were innumerable difficulties to overcome, and 
 
 * A member, in a preceding discussion, had said that "this kind of legislation 
 would bring back the barbarism of the Middle Ages " (Hansard, 3, s. Ixii. 1320).
 
 1848.) RICHARD COBPF.W. 227 
 
 repeated attempts were made to modify and delay the measure. Bat, 
 backed by the great body of the House, Lord Ashley was able to triumph 
 over all obstacles. When, however, the Bill came down from the Lords 
 on August 6th, it was fonnd that its utility had been considerably impaired 
 by amendments, which, however, it was thought politic to accept, rather 
 than endanger the passing of the measure during the existing Session. 
 
 One of the most determined opponents to factory legislation, as proposed 
 by Lord Ashley, was Mr. Richard Cobden. He was not only opposed to the 
 luc.-isnrt's, but to the man; and his view of the character of Lord Ashley 
 was as ungenerous as it was unjust. 
 
 In one of his earliest speeches in Parliament, Cobden uttered his protest 
 -t, the " Philanthropists." In a letter to his brother Frederick ho says, 
 " The part of my last speech that struck home the most was at the close. I 
 had observed an evident disposition on the Tory side to set up as Philanthro- 
 pists. Old Sir Robert Inglis sat with his hands folded ready to sigh, and, if 
 needful, to weep over a case of Church destitution ; he delivered a flaming 
 I>;meyric upon Lord Ashley the other night, styling him the friend of the 
 unprotected, after he had been canting about the sufferings of lunatics. 
 Added to this, Peel has been professing the utmost anxiety for paupers, and 
 Sir Eardloy Wilmot is running after Sturge. When I told them at the close 
 of my speech, that I had been quietly observing all this, but it would not all 
 do unless they showed their consistency by nntaxing the poor man's loaf, there 
 was a stillness and attention on the other side, very much like the conduct 
 of men looking aghast at the first consciousness of being found out." 
 
 On another occasion, turning to a member who was a great friend of negro 
 slaves, and to another who favoured Church Establishments, and who had 
 lately complimented Lord Ashley as the great " friend of humanity generally, 
 and of factory children in particular," Cobdon said, " When I see a dispo- 
 fiition among you to trade in humanity, I will not question your motives, but 
 this I will toll you, that if yon would give force and grace to your professions 
 of humanity, it must not be confined to the negro at the Antipodes, nor to 
 the building of churches, nor to the extension of Church Establishments, 
 nor to occasional visits to factories to talk sentiment over factory children 
 yon must nntax the people's bread ! " 
 
 Although Cobdon had steadily opposed Lord Asliley, stop by step, both 
 publicly and privately, he raised no opposition whatever to the Minos and 
 Collieries Bill. On the contrary, when Lord Asliley had concluded his great 
 speerh a speech ho always considered one of the most successful he ever 
 -l"li vered Cobden came over to him, at its conclusion, and sitting down on the 
 hi-iu'h beside him, wrung his hand heartily and said, " Ton know how opposed 
 I have been to your views ; but I don't think I have ever been put into such 
 a frame of mind, in the whole course of my life, as I have been by your speech." 
 
 The impression produced upon the mind of Cobden was not evanescent. 
 " In 1842," says his biographer,* " Cobden took a more generous, or rather a 
 
 * " life of Richard Cobden." By John Morley. 
 p 2
 
 '228 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. X. 
 
 more just, view of Lord Ashley's character than he had been accustomed to 
 express in his letters and conversation. ' He would confess very frankly that, 
 before he had entered that House, he had entertained doubts, in common with 
 many of the employers in the North, whether those advocates of the Short 
 Hours Bill, who supported the Corn Law, were really sincere ; but, since he 
 had had an opportunity of a closer observation of the noble Lord, ho was 
 perfectly convinced of his genuine philanthropy.' " 
 
 There were occasions, in subsequent years, whon Cobden considered that 
 Lord Ashley's philanthropy was leading him astray, and he resisted him 
 accordingly ; but all personal animosity had ceased, and, in its place, a 
 friendship sprang up which bore fruit in later years, when mutual sympathy 
 helped them each to bear the sorrows of domestic bereavement that came 
 upon them. 
 
 June ICth. Accounts from all parts full of promise. The collier people 
 themselves are delighted ; the hand-loom weavers (poor people !) rejoice in the 
 exclusion of the females, as they themselves will go down and take their places. 
 Here is the first point of success. 
 
 June 23rd. . . . Last night pushed the Bill through Committee ; a feeble 
 and discreditable opposition 1 " Sinners " were with me, " saints " against me 
 strange the contradiction in human nature 1 ... Had I trusted in man, I 
 should have been lamentably forlorn : not a member of the Government, except 
 Manners Sntton, who was necessarily present. Graham, it is true, apologised, as 
 summoned to the Queen ; but where were the rest ? It is very curious (but so I 
 have invariably found it) that those who promised support failed, and those 
 who made no promises were present I must except a few. Bell and his 
 Northern gentry behaved admirably. Some who came down to support me 
 spoke against me 1 
 
 There was one in the House of Commons who, not for the first time, had 
 come forward to show his sympathy with the oppressed poor, and with tho 
 man who was so nobly fighting on their behalf. That helper was Lord 
 Palmerston, who pleaded that the measure might pass into law without any 
 alteration that would affect its principle, and he was convinced that it would 
 pass if it received the cordial and sincere support of the Government. 
 
 Nor did he leave the matter here. In its passage through the House he 
 continued to resist the amendments which tended to remove the security 
 against the employment of women. He " taunted Ministers with not having 
 given that cordial support which Sir James Graham had promised. . . . 
 He would not accuse them of backing out of their intentions, but their reluct- 
 ance to object to these amendments proved that there was a power greater 
 than their own which exercised a sort of coercion over them."* 
 
 June 24th. A notice given last night, by Mr. Ainsworth, to refer the Bill to 
 
 a Select Committee, to see whether it would not abate the wages of the working 
 
 classes ! This involves delay long and serious delay. I suffer much from 
 
 anxiety. George Anson gave me a kind message from Prince Albert, expressive 
 
 * " Life of Lord Palmerston." By Hon. Evelyn Ashley, M.P.
 
 IMS.] LETTER PROM THE PRINCE CONSORT. 229 
 
 of his sympathy and the Queen's, adding that he had read every syllable of it to 
 the Queen, who was particularly pleased with the message to herself from 
 Isabel Hogg.* I found on my return home a most excellent and amiable 
 letter from the Prince. May God bless him and prosper him ! 
 
 HM.H. the Prince Contort to Lord Athli y. 
 
 BUCKINGHAM PALACE, June 23rd, 1842. 
 
 MY DEAR LOBD ASHLEY, I have carefully perused your speech, which yon 
 were so good as to send me, and I have been highly gratified by your efforts, as 
 \\ 1 1 as horror-stricken by the statements which you have brought before the 
 country. I know you do not wish for praise, and I therefore withhold it, but 
 God's best blessing will rest with you and support you in your arduous but 
 glorious task. It is with real gratification I see in the papers the progresB 
 which you made last night. I have no doubt but that the whole country must 
 be with you at all events, I can assure you that the Queen is, whom your state* 
 mcnts have filled with the deepest sympathy. 
 
 1 1 would give me much pleasure to see you any day that you would call on me, 
 at twelve o'clock, and to converse with you on the subject. 
 Believe me, with my best wishes for your total success, 
 
 Ever yours truly, 
 
 ALBERT. 
 
 June 25th. Late last night, or rather at two o'clock in the morning, forced 
 my Bill through the Report, despite the resistance of Mr. Ainsworth. Thank 
 God ! but the day is not yet won. There may be difficulty on the third reading. 
 
 Waited on Prince Albert ; found him hearty, kind, sensible, and zealous. Ho 
 is an admirable man ! 
 
 June 28th. Deputation from South Staffordshire ; very positive, very un- 
 reasonable. But they have secured Hatherton's co-operation in the Lords ; and 
 I, meanwhile, have not found any one to take charge of the Bill. Buccleuch, 
 i-v.'ii, requires longer time for the exclusion of females. Locke, I hear (the 
 agent of Francis Egerton), is secretly setting men's minds against the " female 
 clause." The whole struggle is reserved for the Upper House. God be with us ! 
 
 June 29th. A day of expectation and hope. Disappointed at the last. The 
 House was counted out, and my Bill again delayed. The mercy of God is ever 
 qualifying evil. I have lost the day, but I have gained the Duke of Buccleuch. 
 He will undertake the charge of the Bill ; for him I will extend the time of 
 operation to 1st of March. 
 
 July 1st Last night the Duke of Buccleuch informed me that his colleagues 
 objected ; they refused him permission to undertake the Bill ; they would not 
 make it a Government measure. Surely, after such promises of support from 
 Graham, such unanimity in the House, and such feeling in the country, they 
 should have done so ; but they are hostile in their hearts. Hathcrton has notified 
 his opposition in the Lords. I have no one to take charge of the Bill. 
 
 "Another witness, a most excellent old Scotchwoman, Isabel Hogg, says: 
 ' Collier people suffer much more than others. You must just Ml the Queen 
 Victoria that we are quiet, loyal subjects. Women-people don't mind work here, but 
 they object to horse-work ; and thut she would have the blessings of all the Scotch 
 coal- women if she oould get them out of the pits and send them to other labour. ' " 
 Quoted by Lord Ashley in hi* speech, June 7th, 18 1J.
 
 230 TUB EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. X. 
 
 July 2nd. Resisted again last night Two divisions on the adjournment of 
 the debate late at night. Peel and Graham voted with me on the first, but went 
 away on the second. Neither of tfom said a word in my favour. Gladstone voted 
 against me, and Sir Edward Knatchbull ; Graham, the evening before, had 
 changed his tone, and began to express his doubts to Jocelyn. Here again is 
 "cordial support ! J> The Government will openly desert me in the House of 
 Lords. Wharncliffe attempted to break his engagement, by desiring me to postpone 
 all parts of the Bill except tJuit which related to females. I positively refused. 
 
 July 5th. On Saturday, Francis was respited ; on Sunday, the Queen's life 
 ag;iin attempted. Had the first miscreant suffered, we should not have had this 
 second 1 God be praised for her escape 1 I have great difficulty in finding a 
 patron for the Bill in the House of Lords ; I have tried the Dukes of Buccleuch, 
 Richmond, Sutherland, to no purpose. 
 
 July 6th. Ainsworth again resisted it as a " dropped order," fixed it, how- 
 ever, by right, for the later part of the evening. It came on about niue, and, God 
 be everlastingly praised, received, amid cheers, the fiat that " Lord Ashley do 
 carry the Bill to the Lords." 
 
 Palmerston told the Ministers that, " if they were sincere (and they would 
 soon be tested), the Bill must pass the House of Lords." 
 
 It is almost impossible to understand the prolonged trouble and anxiety 
 Lord Ashley had to encounter and endure, both before and after any groat 
 public effort. As an illustration, the following entries from the Diary are 
 quoted, even at the possible expense of weariness to the reader : 
 
 July 8th. Much, very much trouble to find a Peer who would take charge of 
 the Bill. It is " the admiration of everybody, but the choice of none." So often 
 refused, that I felt quite humbled ; I was a wearisome suitor for a moment's 
 countenance. All had some excuse or other ; praised it, but avoided it. Have 
 since tried Lord Abercorn, the Duke of Cleveland, Lord Dalhousie, Lord 
 Lansdowne, Lord Carnarvon, who has given me no answer, and Lord Stanhope, 
 who dissuaded me from urging my request by showing how his advocacy of the 
 Bill might ruin it in the estimation of their Lordships. He was truly zealous 
 and kind ; but his plea was a just one for " non-interference." 
 
 At last, this very evening, a debate still raging in the House of Lords, I 
 obtained Lord Devon, who spoke, with shame, of the indifference of the Peers to 
 such a measure. 
 
 Never did one body present such a contrast to another as the House of Lords 
 to the House of Commons the question seemed to have no friends ; even those who 
 said a sentence or two in ita favour, spoke coldly and with measure. Hatherton 
 gave notice of a Committee, and the Duke of Wellington approved it, and spoke 
 with contempt and suspicion of the Commissioners. I could not guess at his 
 motive, unless it were an attack on the late Government. And this, after he had 
 told me ten days ago at Buckingham Palace that he entirely approved my speech, 
 and that " the House of Lords would give us no trouble " I nay, more, in a letter 
 I received from him still later, he assured me that " he should take the same line 
 in the Lords as the Ministers had taken in the Commons " I 
 
 This is the accomplishment of "cordial and earnest support" I But God will 
 overrule, and turn all things to His glory at last. There is, I doubt not, and will
 
 1842.) SUCCESS OP TOE COLLIEET BILL. 231 
 
 be, more success than I now see, for disappointment and apprehension lie heavy 
 on me. I sent the Bill to the Lords with deep and fervent prayer, consecrating, 
 and committing it to God, as Hannah consigned her son Samuel, to His blessed 
 service. May He, in His mercy, have " respect unto me and my offering 1 " 
 
 July 13th. Last night fixed for debate in House of Lords, postponed to 
 Thursday. Lord Londonderry attacked me, Clanricarde defended me. Misery 
 makes one acquainted with strange bedfellows 1 He did it kindly and well. 
 Government at last declared, by the voice of Lord Wharncliffe, that it would " be 
 iijuice, it would give no support to the Sill" This, too, after having promised 
 groat things in the House of Commons ; and moreover, after having done the Bill 
 a dis-scrvice by recommending that it should be referred to a Select Committee. 
 
 Now then I am impotent nothing remains (humanly speaking) but public 
 
 opinion were it not for this I should not be able carry one particle of the Kill ; 
 
 but something, please God, I shall attain through that His instrument ; yet a 
 
 Miall portion of what I desired. It is impossible to keep terms with this 
 
 Ministry, their promises are worth nothing. 
 
 July 26th. Bill passed through Committee last night. In this work, which 
 -lould have occupied one hour, they spent nearly six, and left it far worse than 
 tlu-y found it; never have I seen such a display of selfishness, frigidity to every 
 human sentiment, such ready and happy self-delusion. Three bishops only pro 
 1 liiehester (Gilbert), Norwich (Stanley), Gloucester (Monk), who came late 
 but he intended well. The Bishop of London and the Archbishop of Canterbury 
 * ut away I It is my lot, should I, by God'a grace, live so long, to be here- 
 after among them ; but may He avert the day on which my means of utility 
 in I'uMiu life would be for ever concluded ! . . . 
 
 Aug. 1st. . . . Said Peel to me the other evening, "I shall be as great a 
 
 MiilVrer as most people by the Bill, but it was perfectly right ; the evidence coukl 
 
 not be resisted though I shall be so great a sufferer, I assure you / have not 
 
 I the tllghtett impediment" I told him " I believed his statement." J 
 
 ooiiM not, however, pay compliment*, for he ought to have done far more thai 
 
 his negative aid ; In- ouyht to hate co-operated vigorously. 
 
 \ ' o'rlnck, night. Redesdale moved the third reading. I was much buoyod uj 
 with the notion (which papers, bills, peers, and clerks confirmed) that the amend- 
 (!) admitting the women into pits "only not to work," had been omitted ; 
 full of excitement and thankfulness ; when I suddenly discovered that the words 
 were added on a ilip of paper. God forgive me for my bitter disappointment ; 
 God strengthen my faith and patience ! I am in a fix : shall I accept the word-, 
 or > mleavour to strike them out? If they remain, the Bill is neutralised; if 
 they be objected to, the Bill is lost. 
 
 The long period of anxiety and disappointment carao to an end at last. I 
 Tln< Hill one of the greatest boons ever granted to the working classes I 
 passed the House of Lords successfully, and the celebration of the victory u ' 
 thus recorded : 
 
 August 8th. Took the Sacrament en Sunday in joyful and humble thankful- 
 ness to Almighty God for the undeserved measure of success with which He has 
 blessed my effort for the glory of His name, and the welfare of His creatures 
 Oh that it may be the beginning of good to all m^nkin^ I jV'orK* t&clomm.
 
 232 THE EAUL OP SIIAFTESBURY. ICHAP. X. 
 
 nascitur ordo ? Whatever has been done, is but the millionth part of what there 
 is to do ; and even then, should such an end be accomplished, which man never 
 yet saw, we should still be " unprofitable servants." The more I labour, the more 
 I see of labour to be performed, and vain at the last will be the labour of us 
 &11. Our prayer must be for the Second Advent, our toil " that we be found 
 watching." 
 
 Owing to the depression in trade this year, there was a terrible amount of 
 distress in the manufacturing districts. In the neighbourhood of Stockport 
 the poor-rates had increased from 2,628 in 1836 7 to 7,120, and it was 
 stated, at a meeting to memorialise';the Queen on the subject of the distress, 
 that more than half the master-spinners had failed, and 3,000 dwelling-houses 
 were untenanted. At Leeds, one-fifth of the entire population were depen- 
 dent upon the poor-rates. At Manchester, shopkeepers and operatives held 
 almost daily meetings, to devise measures of relief. At Sheffield, 10,000 
 people were suffering the direst distress. Early in the year, bread riots of 
 a serious nature had taken place in Ireland and in Scotland, and in August 
 alarming disturbances broke out in the manufacturing districts of England, 
 chiefly at Manchester, Stalybridge, Stockport, Macclesfield, Dudley, Boston, 
 and Huddersfield, under the direction of Chartist demagogues. So serious 
 was the disorder that, after a special Cabinet Council had been held, troops 
 of Artillery and Grenadiers were despatched to Manchester, and special 
 instructions issued to magistrates. Eventually order was restored, but from 
 the 18th to the 25th of August there was a reign of terror. Excited mobs 
 clamoured in the streets by day, and night was made fearful by incendiary 
 fires, while seditious placards were issued by the Executive Committee of the 
 National Chartist Association to keep alive the agitation. Arrests were made 
 in great numbers ; iu one gaol alone there were 500 prisoners, who wore tried 
 by special commissioners sent down by the Government. They were troublous 
 times ; and those outbreaks were presages of the storm that was browing, not 
 in England only, but over tho whole Continent of Europe. 
 
 August 18th. Have visited St. Giles's with William ; found it in beauty and 
 peace. Oh, si sic oninia ! The country is distracted by lawless mobs and sudden 
 insurrections, throughout the trading districts, more general, prolonged, and 
 systematic than we have seen for years. It is singular that the commotion 
 began among the pitmen in Staffordshire, in those regions which, represented by 
 Lord Hatherton and the deputation, succeeded in mutilating the Colliery Bill, 
 asserting, as they did to me, that " any provision for time and education was 
 wholly unnecessary in those parts, the people being moral, religious, and fully 
 instructed." The resistance of the colliers to a reduction of wages found sympa- 
 thisers in all the manufacturing communities. The disaffection being set afloat, 
 ovcry department of industry produced its own grievances, and all are acting 
 together, not so much because they are carefully organised, as because they are 
 all ill at case. The affair, however, has now taken the colour of a political 
 movement ; and all minor objects (the Poor Law, Factory Bill, Truck System, 
 fcc. &c.) are subordinate to the grand and final remedy of the Charter I
 
 IN THE MANUFACTURING DISTRICTS. 233 
 
 For this we are as much indebted to Sir B. Peel as to Feargus O'Connor. 
 Peel's refusals create an appetite for O'Connor's offers. At the dissolution of 
 Parliament the mass of the working classes were with Peel, because they had 
 hopr ; they are now against him, because they have none. His course on the Ten 
 Hours Bill was taken as the test and measure of his sympathy for the operatives 
 of the kingdom; his perpetual talk of "imports and exports " (his mind and 
 heart never entertain higher projects in the responsibilities of Government) does 
 not deceive them, for they know full well that a brisk trade would not bring 
 to them a bettered condition. They see in their rulers no interest or care, and 
 they will, therefore, feel no confidence. " Had we," said the Chartists of Leeds 
 to me, " a few more to speak to us as you have done, we should never again think 
 of the Charter." 
 
 In September, Lord Ashley again made a tour through the manufacturing 
 districts, accompanied by Lady Ashley, and spent much time amongst the 
 operatives, both publicly and privately, to warn them against the prevailing 
 spirit of lawlessness, and to urge them to persevere in their efforts for 
 emancipation in a quiet and peaceable manner. Then, for relaxation, a few 
 days were occupied in a hasty journey to North Wales for the purpose of 
 visiting Llangollon, the Menai Bridge, and other places of interest. On their 
 homeward journey, the following entry was made at Cholmondeley Castle : 
 
 Sept 29th. Spent three days at Gawthorpe admirably well with Dr. Kay- 
 Shuttleworth (formerly my antagonist) and Mrs. Shuttleworth, visiting the 
 cottages, consulting colliers and hand-loom weavers, and conciliating mill- 
 owners. We conversed from morning till night, and scarcely ever touched a 
 subject unconnected with the moral and physical condition of the poor, and the 
 means of repairing it. The grace of God has done much for the man ; he always 
 had a kind heart, he has now a religious heart ; his whole pleasure is centred in 
 moral good, his whole life seems devoted to the essential welfare of the British 
 nation ; he gives daily manifest and undeniable proofs of his sincerity. 
 
 This is a mighty gain for me and my cause, and I heartily bless God, who 
 has raised up agents for Himself where, in my infirmity, I least looked for it 1 
 Thence to Worsley ; a happy visit. I enjoyed an opportunity of renewing my 
 habits of friendship and intimacy with that dear and excellent woman, Lady 
 Francis Egerton, one of the earliest, and certainly the truest friend I have in 
 the world. Never did there live a more simple-minded or pure-hearted person, 
 full of zeal for God's honour, and indefatigable in His service. Peace be to the 
 house 1 Had several interviews with Col. Shaw, of Manchester ; acquired most 
 extensive and important information respecting the working population ; he is a 
 jewel to me ; I bless God that I have found him. Perambulated the town on 
 Saturday night in company with two inspectors, and passed through cellars, 
 garrets, gin-palaces, beer-houses, brothels, gaming-houses, and every resort of 
 vice and violence. These things cannot go on for ten years longer, with a people 
 increased by three millions. Saw a darling little girl seven years old in the very 
 depth of dirt and uproar ; never did I witness such beauty of natural, untaught 
 affection, towards its rough and unkind mother. I determined, God willing, to 
 rescue it if possible. Descended a coal-pit 450 feet ; thought it a duty ; easier to 
 talk after you have seen ; so away I went, and had ever in my mind, "Under-
 
 234 T1IE EAIIL OF SUAFTESBURY. [CIIAP. X 
 
 neath are the everlasting arms " so I feared not. Passing through Manchester. 
 Monday, Sept. 26th, received and answered an address from the Central Short- 
 Time Committee. 
 
 While Lord Ashley had been giving his attention more especially to the 
 underground workers, the factory agitation for a Ten Hours Bill had, neces 
 sarily, although not for that reason, made very little material progress. It 
 was desirable, therefore, that the people should be stirred up, and ho " wrote 
 his Answer to the Address of the Central Short-Time Committee with groat 
 care, as he wished it to be a manifesto of opinions." He expressed his 
 thanks for their approval of his past services ; but did not disguise his firm 
 conviction that the measures hitherto either carried or suggested, were but 
 preliminaries in the great undertaking of domestic regeneration. 
 
 After alluding to the passing of the Collieries Bill, and the unexampled 
 assistance given by an unanimous press, which had awakened a healthy and 
 vigorous public opinion, ho called upon them to persevere in their just and 
 necessary demands for a reasonable Time Bill, for a measure which, by the 
 more equal distribution of labour, should save them from the alternation of 
 absolute idleness and intolerable toil. Ho continued : 
 
 Nor must we omit to press upon the attention of tho public the gradual dis- 
 placement of male by the substitution of female labour, in a large proportion of 
 the industrial occupations of the country an evil we have long observed with 
 fear and sorrow. This evil, as you well know, is not confined to the mills and 
 factories of the United Kingdom, but is spreading rapidly and extensively over 
 other departments, desolating, like a torrent, the peace, the economy, and the 
 virtue of the mighty mass of the manufacturing districts. Domestic life and 
 domestic discipline must soon be at an end ; society will consist of individuals no 
 longer grouped into families ; so early is the separation of husband and wife, of 
 parents and children. 
 
 Sept. 29th. To Cholmondcley Castle. Dear and friendly and agreeable 
 people the old Duchess,* God bless her, was there though deeply religious 
 they are cheerful, nay, joyous ; they think good, do good, and God gives thorn Ilia 
 grace and blessing. 
 
 Among Lord Shaftesbury's papers there wore fouud a number of lottera 
 from Sir Robert Peel, many of them undated. There is one which refers to 
 tho excellent Duchess of Beaufort, and justifies all that the foregomg extract 
 from the Journal states ; but whether the letter relates to this particular 
 time is doubtful ; it may have been written some few years earlier. 
 
 Sir Robert Peel to Lord Ashley. WHITEHALL. 
 
 MY DEAR ASHLEY, I shall be much obliged to you to convey to the Duchess 
 of Beaufort my sincere thanks for the kind consideration which induced Her 
 Grace to send to me, through you, the volume of sermons which accompanied 
 your note ; and to assure her that the occupations of public business, and 
 the contentions of political strife, do not so wholly absorb my thoughts as to 
 make me insensible to the full value of her favourable opinion and kind wishes. 
 
 * Duchess of Lcaufort, mother of the Marchioness of Cholmondeley.
 
 18*2.) WITH T11E QUKEH DOWACEK. 235 
 
 I would say more if I did not feel that, in serious matters like those forming 
 the subjects of your note, any approach to flattery would be misplaced, and give 
 pain rather than satisfaction to the sincerity and simplicity of a virtuous and 
 religious mind. 
 
 But I am truly grateful for being remembered in the prayers which such a 
 mind offers up for the spiritual welfare of those who, placed in such positions as 
 I am, are too apt to have their thoughts diverted from matters of the highest and 
 most Listing concern. 
 
 Ever, my dear Ashley, most faithfully yours, 
 
 ROBERT 1'i.i.r.. 
 
 October 5th. Rowton, Have been reading lately Sidney's Life of Rowland 
 Hill ; he was one of a race of martyrs, or rather of confessors, who maintained 
 their pious but painful ground in the face of a persecution which, to many minds, 
 would be more formidable than racks or gibbets. He and Simeon and all their 
 brethren withstood contempt, and ridicule, and desertion at a time when neither 
 in private nor in public was there any refuge or kindness for an evangelical man. 
 This was by God's grace, and we reap the fruits of it 
 
 Oct. 27th. Bournemouth. Melbourne has received the merciful warning of a 
 paralytic stroke, and poor Irby is dead at Newmarket, a kind-hearted amiable 
 man, who maintained amid the turfites (is it not well-nigh impossible?) a 
 generous, unselfish spirit towards his competitors in the game. 
 
 Oct. 29th. Went yesterday with the Queen Dowager to see the Stocphill 
 Nunnery, near Canford. No males admitted generally, and the Lady Abbess 
 made objection, but was overruled by the Priest, who declared that the invitation 
 of a Queen to her suite, masculine though it were, contained a dispensing power. 
 A Cistercian nunnery, a female La Trappe ; rules very rigorous, observance of 
 them much mitigated ; among others a rule prevails that no one speaks to her 
 follow; words are never exchanged except with the Superior or Chaplain. And 
 this, poor things, is to be their notion of Christianity, and of the requirements of 
 Scripture. " Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another, and the 
 Lord hearkened and heard it." 
 
 November Dth. Wilton.* Here for the first time in my life a most magni- 
 ficent dwelling-place it is " ceiled with cedar and painted with vermilion," yet 
 I rejoice to say that the occupier, though not the actual proprietor, Sidney 
 rt, has entered into and shared the spirit of David ; he has not been content 
 to " dwell in a house of cedar, while the Ark of God dwelleth within curtains ; " 
 the new and noble Church in the town attests his zeal for the "Temple of the 
 Lord." Quod fdix faustumque sit! 
 
 Have been to London to transact business in Lunacy. This is a mighty snb- 
 nd one on which authority and power could be extensively and beneficially 
 exercised. How often do I exclaim, for this and many other purposes 
 
 " O Thou, my thoughts inspire, 
 Who touched Isaiah's hallowed lips with fire." 
 
 But God's strength is " made perfect" in man's weakness. 
 
 * Wiltou, Salisbury the Earl of Pembroke's. Sidney Herbert, afterward* L 
 Herbert of Lea, was Lord Pembroke's younger brother.
 
 236 THE EARL OP SHAFTKSBURY. [Cmr. X. 
 
 The history of our arms in Afghanistan in the xinfortnnate expedition to 
 reorganise the internal condition of that region which has been called " the 
 laud of transition between Eastern and Western Asia," was studied very 
 attentively by Lord Ashley, and his Diaries contain a digest of all the 
 stirring events from the first visit of " Bokhara " Burnes, and through all the 
 series of disasters that followed, until, in 1842, the result was that " after 
 four years of unparalleled tidal and disaster, everything was restored to the 
 condition in which we found it; except that there were so many bravo 
 Englishmen sleeping in bloody graves." 
 
 It would be foreign to our purpose to quote at length from his Diaries on 
 subjects that were not personal to himself, but his views on the Campaign in 
 Afghanistan, as well as on the China War, may be given here briefly, as upon 
 both those subjects he was before long to take a public stand. 
 
 China and Afghanistan remit us by every mail fresh accounts of useless 
 successes and indelible disgraces. The wretched inhabitants and soldiery of that 
 unintelligible empire are mowed down, with as little resistance, as grass for 
 the oven ; the narratives of Captain Bingham's work are the records of an 
 abattoir. . . . 
 
 Nov. 15th. And t his is the way to recommend Christianity to the Orientals ? 
 Timour and Nadir Shah did more for Mahometanism. Have been studying, 
 every morning, St. Paul's epistles. Well may St. Peter say, "there are some 
 things hard to be understood " 1 
 
 Nov. 22nd. Intelligence of great successes in China, and consequent peace. I 
 rejoice in peace ; I rejoice that this cruel and debasing war * is terminated ; but 
 I cannot rejoice, it may be unpatriotic, it may be un-British, I cannot rejoice in 
 our successes ; we have triumphed in one of the most lawless, unnecessary, and 
 unfair struggles in the records of History; it was a war on which good men 
 could not invoke the favour of Heaven, and Christians have shed more Heathen 
 blood in two years than the Heathens have shed of Christian blood in two 
 centuries ! I tremble the more, because I feel assured that vengeance will come 
 in some terrible shape ; these sins will not remain unpunished ; failure might 
 have mitigated our retribution, but success will prove our ruin. 
 
 Nov. 24th. Intelligence yesterday of further success in Afghanistan. Capture 
 of Ghuznee and Cabul, and consequent peace. This is a blessing, and saves us 
 from further cruelty and sin ; but I tremble ; " Pride goeth before a fall." 
 
 Nov. 25th. The whole world is intoxicated with the prospect of Chinese 
 trade. Altars to Mammon are rising on every side, and thousands of cotton 
 children will be sacrificed to his honour. What can be more disgusting than the 
 total oblivion of all causes, modes, and results of these wars, in the foresight or 
 f orehopes of large profits 1 . . . The peace too is as wicked as the war 1 We 
 refuse, even now, to give the Emperor of China relief in the matter of the 
 opium trade. . . . 
 
 Dec. 16th. The Home Secretary has appointed one special Commissioner a 
 limb of the Poor Law to investigate the employment of women and children 
 in Agriculture. The motive is manifest, when you know the man ; it is calculated 
 first to delay, and then to oppose my efforts. He tvill allow me to do nothiag 
 
 * The reference is to the first Opium War.
 
 1WS.J THE SECOND ADVENT. 237 
 
 u-ntil the report be made, and then, beside, qualify my doings by arguing that 
 agriculturists are no better off. This would be inconceivably untrue, but quite 
 enough for a Parliamentary statement, backed by official authority. What are 
 the proportionate numbers of females, the intensity of their labour, the duration 
 of absence from homo, the hours of toil, the locality, and all the circumstances 7 
 As a million to zero. 
 
 Dec. 17th. Anxious all nig-ht, full of suspicions that a trick is intended. . . . 
 
 Dec. 22nd. The weather we have enjoyed throughout this whole year has 
 been the temperature and climate of Eden. God be praised I the poor find their 
 comfort in it. Yesterday was my father's birthday, on which he completed his 
 seventy-fourth year, a most green and vigorous old age God grant that he may 
 turn it to his everlasting account 1 
 
 Dec. 25th. Christmas Day. There is very little seeming, and no real, hope for 
 mankind but in the Second Advent ; all our efforts are weak and transitory, and 
 issue in works very little stronger or more lasting if we succeed in any project 
 having for its end the good of the human race ; first, we have to contend against 
 the various lets and hindrances which arise in the execution of every honest 
 purpose, the abatements, the diversions, the overthrows of our schemes ; next, we 
 must consider how small a portion of our fellow-creatures can receive benefit 
 from any policy of ours the widest plan and the fullest success of benevolence 
 never yet affected the twentieth part of mankind nothing can be universal but 
 the reign of our blessed Lord on the throne of David, when there shall be 
 "Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth, and goodwill towards men ; " " even 
 BO come, Lord Jesus ! " 
 
 Dec. 2fith. The collect for the third Sunday in Advent contains the whole 
 object and means of national and individual education. It exhibits (as is most 
 true) the affairs of this world as subservient to those of the next ; it shows the 
 object to be the preparation of man's heart for Christ's Second Coming ; the 
 means, to be the general diffusion and maintenance of the Gospel by the 
 " ministers and stewards " of God's holy mysteries. Here is wisdom 1 Now, had 
 I my own way, as absolute Prince, or Prime Minister, of these realms, I would 
 reduce these principles to action. I would recast the whole arrangement of 
 parishes, especially in towns. I would assign to every three thousand souls a 
 ri'-i'li-nt pastor, with a decent income and comfortable house ; and I would then 
 leave education to take care of itself, forbidding to the State any meddling, 
 suggesting, directing, planning, in matters wherein it can have no knowledge. 
 The State should insist and enforce that the duty be done, but not presume to 
 interfere with its own theories and doctrines. 
 
 Dec. 31st. It is manifest that my "public support " in the coming year will 
 undergo considerable abatement Publicity being one of my instruments, any 
 means towards it being abstracted, I shall find myself in greater labour and less 
 co-operation. Even the Dortet County Chronicle has imbibed the poison, and 
 seems shy of rendering me any service among my constituents. 
 
 A man having neither an official station nor a party to back him, cannot, 
 humanly speaking, afford to lose the assistance of newspapers. I am beginning 
 to be a little anxious ; I wonder now whether I am so for myxrJf, or in behalf of 
 "ttit- cause." I know full well that there is in all these things a leavon of 
 personality.
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 1843. 
 
 "I SAVE undertaken," wrote Lord Ashley in 1842, "more than I know how 
 to accomplish." Tet the year 1843 was destined to bring him an enormous 
 accession of labour. Three gigantic questions National Education, the 
 Opium Trade, and B agged Schools were to be added to those which already 
 occupied his attention. 
 
 Before proceeding to quote from his Journals on these subjects, or to 
 narrate the position of affairs in relation to them, wo must first glance at 
 other matters concerning his own personal history and the movements of the 
 time. 
 
 Jan. 1st. St. Giles's. Here I am in Quarter Sessions : the same vice, the 
 same misery population increasing, and crime also. The evil and the danger 
 growing hand in hand, and yet not an attempt at remedy ! . . . 
 
 Jan. 10th. Lord Londonderry has invited the formation of a league to 
 attain the repeal of my Colliery Bill. Sharp practice, seeing that it will not 
 come into full operation before next March ! I see that the proposal is received 
 with favour in Scotland. I can hardly believe that the Parliament will so 
 speedily reverse its decision, or the Government their " support." It is, however, 
 another element of anxiety, and another subject of prayer. 
 
 A grand oration by Gladstone at Liverpool in favour of Collegiate Institutions 
 and education of middle classes. The papers bepraise him, his eloquence, hig 
 principles, and his views. Well, be it so ; there is no lack of effort and declama- 
 tion in behalf of fine edifices and the wealthier classes ; but where is the zeal 
 for ragged pin-makers, brats in calico works, and dirty colliers ? Neither he nor 
 Sandon (how strange !) ever made or kept a house for me, ever gave me a vote, or 
 ever said a word in my support. 
 
 Jan. 12th. Yesterday's Times and Morning Post are dissatisfied with their 
 friend : he is but a hybrid in Puseyism for them. The Timax says something 
 that is true ; the Post is unjust. Here is the awkward and half-ridiculous posi- 
 tion of Gladstone : he has asserted principles in matters ecclesiastical that he 
 cannot reduce to practice in the present hour : and yet he has taken office with 
 a Ministry that neither can conform to them, nor even desires it. He is allied 
 with men, and must, to retain office, act with men who feel differently, think 
 differently, and speak differently from himself on questions of the highest 
 moment. His public life has long been an effort to retain his principles, and yet 
 not lose his position. He seems a kind of theological bat, partaking of two 
 natures. 
 
 Early in the year there is a significant entry in the Diary : " Peel will 
 yet find his difficulties to lie in Ireland." And the prophecy met with its
 
 AFGHANISTAN 239 
 
 fulfilment. We can only summarise, in this place, the conrse of events fully 
 detailed in the Diary. 
 
 Throughout the year 1843 Ireland was, apparently, on the very verge of 
 revolution. O'Connell had termed it " the Repeal year," and, by organising 
 enormous gatherings of the people, called " monster meetings," had hoped 
 to bring about a Repeal of the Union. At these meetings he exhorted his 
 countrymen " to die freemen rather than live as slaves ; " ho held out to them 
 tlio Impe that, before twelve months had passed, " an Irish Parliament should 
 sit at College Green," and vowed that, within that period, " he would himself 
 be f roe or in his grave ! " 
 
 Alarmists were astonished at the calm attitude in which these lawless 
 ]>r..<-iTiliii^s were viewed by Sir Robert Peel and his Cabinet, especially when 
 preparations were being made to hold a monster meeting of unusual import- 
 ;iiic-f on the 8th of October, at Cloutarf, near Dublin, a spot famous in the 
 war-annals of Ireland. 
 
 But, on the day before the intended meeting, a Proclamation was issued 
 by the Lord-Lieutenant and Council of Ireland, warning all well-disposed 
 persons from ai tending the meeting, organised by "factious and seditious 
 men." This Proclamation struck terror to the heart* of the " Repealers." 
 The meeting was countermanded. O'Conuell, forsaken by the bulk of his 
 former supporters, indulged in violent and ill-judged language, and on the 
 llth of October he, and eight of the most prominent leaders in the agitation, 
 wore arrested on the charges of conspiracy, unlawful assembling, and sedi- 
 tion. The result was that a fine of 2,000 and imprisonment for twelve 
 months were inflicted on O'Connell, and his companions wore also punished by 
 fines and imprisonment ; and thus a death-blow was struck to the agitntion. 
 
 O'Connell survived his defeat only three years. 
 
 As already stated, the terrible events that occurred in Afghanistan in 1842 
 had taon carefully studied by Lord Ashley, and every great episode noted 
 from time to time in his Diary. Especially did he watch the policy of Lord 
 Ellonborough (the Governor- General of India in succession to Lord Auck- 
 land), a man of brilliant talents, erratic genius, and overbearing temper, whoso 
 high-headed action and bombastic utterances reached their climax in the 
 extraordinary Proclamation issued by him on the restoration to India of the 
 gates of the Temple of Somnauth, carried off by his orders when Ghu/.noo 
 was retaken by the English. It ran thus : " To all the Princes and Chiefs 
 f nd People of India. My brothers and my friends, Our victorious army 
 bears the gates of the Temple of Somnauth in triumph from Afghanistan, 
 ami tin- despoiled tomb of Snllaii Muhuiond looks upon the ruins of Qhu/.nm 
 Tin- insult of 800 years is at last avenged. The gates of the Temple of Som- 
 nautli, so long the memorial of your humiliation, are become the proudest 
 record of your national glory ; the proof of your superiority in arms over the 
 nations beyond the Indus." . . . 
 
 Jan. 22nd. Is Ellenboron^h mad? Has any person, private or royal, ever 
 uttered such a speech, or sent such a circular, since the days of Herod I NM tot
 
 240 THE EARL OP 8HAFTESRURY. [CnAr XI. 
 
 homincm sonat. Ho is stately and oracular as a tutelary Apollo, a false and cox- 
 combical deity. But this folly is serious ; it vitally affects the honour and 
 service of Christianity ; the British Government is to conciliate the Hindoos by 
 the repair of their temples and by the adoration of their idols 1 The Mahometans 
 had been good enough to do, eight hundred years ago, what we could not think of 
 now, to destroy the house of a beastly image, and now we are set on the restora- 
 tion of it I . . . 
 
 Jan. 23rd. Just finished Lieutenant Eyre's narrative* of the affairs at Cabul 
 and the captivity in Afghanistan, deeply interesting, graphically yet simply told, 
 with the force and painting of Captain Head. Much as I hated and dreaded the 
 policy which prompted and executed the invasion of that country when it first 
 began, I hate and dread it more now. What a mass of needless sin and suffering ! 
 What a mighty waste of virtue, courage, heroism, fortitude I What energies 
 thrown away nay, more exerted in a wicked cause by noble and reluctant 
 parties I Here were minds and hearts destroyed in that wilderness of misery, 
 which might, in a day of necessity, have been, under God, the glory and strength 
 of Great Britain ! 
 
 This is bad enough in itself ; but there is something yet worse ; there ia an 
 immense national sin altogether unrepented of. People rejoice, and say, " they 
 are glad v/e are well rid of the matter ; " but are we so ? . . . 
 
 March 10th. Voted last night against the Government, to condemn Lord 
 Ellenborough's Proclamation. What have I to do with the party-motives of the 
 Whigs, who brought forward the resolution 1 Their motives may be vile, but 
 they do not alter the quality of the fact. It is on this that I had to pronounce, 
 irrespective of the sentiments of those who attacked and defended it. Talk of 
 party, indeed I The defence was as much the work of a faction as the assault. 
 Never was I more disgusted and depressed ; never did I feel less regard for public 
 men, or less pleasure in public life. The character of the Proclamation, its 
 effects on the native race, on Christians in India, on Christians in England, were 
 quite forgotten ; everything sacrificed to the defence of the Governor-General. 
 
 Any attempt to palliate slavery was abhorrent to Lord Ashley, ax the 
 following entry will show : "^ 
 
 Jan. 25th. Morpethf has written a letter to the female editor of the Liberty 
 Bell in America. . . . He shuna any part in the Slavery Question in the 
 U.S. ; but while his prudence may be applauded for abstaining from interposi- 
 tion in local disputes, his language seems somewhat to express a diminution of 
 feeling on this great human wrong. He states his discovery that many persons 
 of sense, refinement, and piety, defend and practise the institution of slavery. 
 This is the first step towards the justification of it perhaps by both parties. . . . 
 Piety forsooth ! I should much like to ascertain these points : do his pious 
 slaveholders discourage, in every way, and between all parties, illicit sexual con- 
 nection ? Do they encourage nay, compel among their slaves the institution of 
 marriage God's holy ordinance in the days of man's innocency and all the 
 consequent domestic relations 1 Do they spread among them the knowledge and 
 
 * *' Narrative of a Prisoner in Afghanistan." 
 
 t Afterwards Earl of Carlisle and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. He was travelling in 
 the States.
 
 1M3.) ASSASSINATION OP MR. DRUMMOXO. 241 
 
 oof Christianity? Do they provide for them the administration of the 
 Sarrainriits, tho fn-c use of the Bible, the regular attendance at public worship? 
 Or <k> they shut them out of such privileges as above the slavish station ? Uufil 
 he shall have priced these things, Lord Morpeth has no right to talk of PIOUS 
 slaveholders I ... 
 
 On the 20th of January, Mr. Edward Drummond, Private Secretary to Sir 
 Robert Peel, was shot when passing along Whitehall ; and there was little 
 dinilit that tin; assassin, Daniel McNaughten, intended the ball, not for him, 
 but for Sir Robert Peel Lord Ashley wrote a letter of condolence and 
 sympathy, as follows : 
 
 Lord Ashley to Sir Robert Peel. 
 
 ST. GILES'S HOUSE, January 30th, 1843. 
 
 MY DEAR SIB ROBEBT, Perhaps a few words from me of condolence and 
 sympathy with the great loss you have sustained in poor Edward Drnmmond 
 will not be considered out of season, or out of place. He was to you so true a 
 friend, and so valuable an assistant, that I may venture to rank him among 
 those whom you most loved and honoured. God knows the loss is not yours 
 alone ; every one who enjoyed the acquaintance of the poor dear fellow must 
 feel how ill society could afford the privation of so simple-hearted and so 
 English a gentleman. But his melancholy end fills me with horror ; it has 
 1 God in His wise and merciful, though unsearchable Providence, to per- 
 mit him to fall by the blow that was, no doubt, intended for another. I cannot 
 that it is a disconnected act; it is the beginning of sorrow. Sit mum 
 ; these events must prove to us of what slight avail are all human precau- 
 tions ; that in the everlasting arms is our oijly safety ; and that as we hope to 
 die, so must we learn to live, in His faith and fear. May God, of His mercy, 
 guide, protect, and cherish you 1 May He reserve you for His gracious purposes 
 towards this country and mankind, for His service in this world, and for Ilia 
 glory in the next 1 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 ASHLKY. 
 To thia letter Sir Robert replied : 
 
 Sir Robert Peel to Lord Ashlt y. 
 
 WHITEHALL January ."!.'/. 1*1:1. 
 
 MY M :\i: .\-:ii,i:v, If anything could administer consolation to me for the 
 
 ;il loss I have sustained, under circuin.sUiiK.vs of the most painful nature, 
 
 >ld be the letter which you have written to me, full of the kindest 
 
 of sympathy, and inculcating, with all the authority of a lofty and 
 
 \ rit, solemn truths too often iu'glcct<-d. What human precaution c;m 
 
 Ailing/ The assassin of my poor friend had no grievance that we ever 
 
 heard of. II. n. \ < r preferred a complaint Ho was ten times more affluent than 
 
 ust majority of his class in life. 
 
 1 must have passed within throe yards of him half an hour before the murder 
 w..s committed. 
 
 Ever, my dear Aahley, with sincere regard, 
 
 Host faithfully yours, 
 
 ROBERT PEEL.
 
 242 THE KARL OP 8IIAFTESBURY. [CnAp. XL 
 
 Feb. 22nd. Dined with Peel on 18 Lh ; had much conversation. He asked me 
 much about Pusayism. Ifo now seems to hold it in horror. 
 
 The Second Report of the Children's Employment Commission, having 
 reference to the condition of juvenile labourers in various branches of iiulust r y 
 not affected by the Factory Act, was published early in 1843.* In this 
 voluminous document and its appendices, it was proved that in many trades 
 children began to work at seven, six, five, and even four years of age. 
 Parents sent their children to work as early as possible ; in many cases to 
 pay off debts to the master by the children's labour. In other cases children 
 \vei-e apprenticed for long terms of years to receive food and clothing, but no 
 wages. The apprentices had no legal protection against unmerciful masters, 
 but convictions of apprentices for breaches of contract were very numerous. 
 Magistrates were opposed to cancelling contracts, even when neglect or cruelty 
 was evident, lest the apprentices should return to be a burden on the parish. 
 Bail treatment of the children by adult workmen was common. The average 
 day's work was from ten to twelve hours. Ignorance and moral depravity 
 were general ; the Sunday schools inefficient ; the evening schools of little 
 use for overworked children. With all this labour there were associated 
 great poverty and bad food, especially in the nail-making, needle, lace, 
 hosiery, and tobacco manufactories, in the potteries, and the calico-printing 
 works. The picture revealed by this investigation into the " free industries " 
 (as they wore termed), was much more melancholy than anything that had 
 been reported with reference to the great factories. And yet, in spite of 
 efforts by Lord Ashley, to whiclnwe shall have occasion presently to refer, 
 only in one or two directions was anything done to remedy these terrible 
 abuses, until the passing of the first Factory Extension Act in 1864. 
 
 The Factory Question, in consequence of the revelations made by the 
 Reports of the Children's Employment Commission, became so closely 
 associated with the subject of the Education of the Working Classes, that i* 
 was necessary to treat it in this connection, and on February 28th Lord 
 Ashley moved an Address to the Crown praying her Majesty " to take into 
 her instant and serious consideration the best means of diffusing the benefits 
 jind blessings of a moral and religious education amongst the working classes 
 of her people." In support of this proposition ho produced a mass of start !in;r 
 statistics, and unveiled a picture of widespread depravity. In concluding his 
 speech he said : 
 
 This, Sir, completes the picture I desired to lay before the House : it has been 
 imperfectly, and I fear tediously drawn. There is, however, less risk in taxing 
 the patience than in taxing the faith of indulgent hearers. I have not presumed 
 to propose a scheme, because I have ever thought that such a mighty undertaking 
 demands the collective deliberation and wisdom of the Executive, backed by the 
 authority and influence of the Crown. But what docs this picture exhibit? 
 Mark, Sir, first, the utter inefficiency of our penal code of our capital and 
 
 * 1'arl. I'u|cr8, 18-43, xiii., xiv.. x.
 
 1843.] EDUCATION OP THE WORKING CLASSES. 243 
 
 secondary punishments. The country is wearied with pamphlets and speeches on 
 gaol-discipline, model-prisons, and corrective processes ; meanwhile crime advances 
 at a rapid pace ; many are discharged because they cannot be punished, and many 
 become worse by the very punishment they undergo punishment is disarmed of 
 a !;ir_-e part of its terrors, because it no longer can appeal to any sense of shame ; 
 and all this because we will obstinately persist in setting our own wilfulness 
 against the experience of mankind and the wisdom of Revelation, and believe 
 that we can regenerate the hardened man while we utterly neglect his pliant 
 childhood. You are right to punish those awful miscreants who make a trade of 
 blasphemy, and pollute the very atmosphere by their foul exhibitions ; but you 
 will never subdue their disciples and admirers, except by the implements of 
 another armoury. You must draw from the great depository of truth, all that 
 can create and refine a sound public opinion all that can institute and diffuse 
 among the people the feelings and practices of morality. I hope I am not 
 dictatorial in repeating here that criminal tables and criminal statistics furnish 
 no estimate of a nation's disorder. Culprits, such as they exhibit, are but the 
 representatives of the mischief spawned by the filth and corruption of the times, 
 the crimes of these offenders the sum total of the crimes of England,, 
 although we should lament for the individuals, we might disregard the con- 
 sequences ; but the danger is wider, deeper, fiercer ; and no one who has heard 
 -tatemouta and believes them, can hope that twenty years more will pass 
 without some mighty convulsion, and displacement of the whole system of society. 
 
 Next, Sir, observe that our very multitude oppresses us ; and oppresses us, too, 
 \vith all the fearful weight of a blessing converted into a curse. The Bang's 
 h ought to be in the multitude of his people ; and so it is ; not, however, 
 such a people as we must shortly have ; but in a people happy, healthy, and 
 virtuous: "Sacra Denim, tanctique patret." Is that our condition of present 
 comfort or prospective safety ? You have seen in how many instances the intel- 
 lect is impaired, and even destroyed, by the opinions and practices of our moral 
 world ; honest industry will -decline, energy will be blunted, and whatever shall 
 remain of zeal be perverted to the worst and most perilous uses. An evil state of 
 morals engenders and diffuses a ferocious spirit; the mind of man is as much 
 affected by moral epidemics as his body by disorders; thence arise murders, 
 l)!;i-[ihemies, seditions, everything that can tear prosperity from nations, and 
 peace from individuals. See, Sir, the ferocity of disposition that your records 
 disclose : look at the savage treatment of children and apprentices ; and imagine 
 ful resulta, if such a spirit were let loose upon society. . . . 
 
 Nor let us put out of mind this great and stirring consideration, that the 
 moral condition of England seems destined by Providence to lead the moral con- 
 dition of the world. Year after year we are sending forth thousands and 
 hundreds of thousands of our citizens to people the vast solitudes and islands of 
 aimthrr hemisphere; the Anglo-Saxon race will shortly overspread half the 
 habitable globe. What a mighty and what a rapid addition to the happiness of 
 mankind, if these thousands should carry with them, and plant in those distant 
 regions, our freedom, our laws, our morality, and our religion ! 
 
 This, Sir, is the ground of my apial to this House ; the plan that I venture 
 to propose, and the argument by which I sustain it It is, I know, but a portion 
 of what the country requires ; and even here we shall have, no doubt, disappoint 
 toente to undergo, and failures to deplore; it will, nevertheless, bear for us 
 Q 2
 
 214 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. [Cu/.rXL 
 
 abundant fruit. We owe to the poor of our land a weighty debt. We call them 
 improvident and immoral, and many of them are so : but that improvidence 
 and that immorality are the results, in a great measure, of our neglect, and, in 
 not a little, of our example. We owe them, too, the debt of kinder language, and 
 more frequent intercourse. This is no fanciful obligation ; our people are mure 
 alive than any other to honest zeal for their cause, and sympathy with their 
 necessities, which, fall though it oftentimes may on unimpivssil>!n In arts, m-vrr 
 fails to find some that it comforts, and many that it softens. Only let us declare, 
 this night, that we will enter on a novel and a better course that \ve will seek 
 their temporal through their eternal welfare and the half of our work will then 
 have been achieved. There are many hearts to be won, many minds to be 
 instructed, and many souls to be saved; Oh Patria! oh D-iviim ilmin/x .' the 
 blessing of God will rest upon our endeavours ; and the oldest among us may 
 perhaps live to enjoy, for himself and for his children, the opening day of the 
 immortal, because the moral, glories of the British Empire. 
 
 This powerful speech met with the general applause of the House, and 
 the motion was agreed to. 
 
 March 1st. Last night brought forward my motion on " National Education." 
 Whatever I received from the goodness, grace, and mercy of God, when I intro- 
 duced my Colliery Bill, I received in a tenfold measure here. Hearts were 
 prepared, opportunities furnished, success vouchsafed. The unanimity was 
 wonderful ; the feeling in the House still more so ; it presented the spectacle of 
 a Christian assembly, invested with mighty power for Christian objects. Could 
 this have been effected a few years ago 1 Such a speech would have been heard 
 with cool indifference or shouts of derision ! novus sm-lorum nascitvr ordo ; if 
 we will but seize the blessing that God Almighty, who has long waited to be 
 gracious, now holds out in His lavish, inconceivable, and undeserved mercy, the 
 country will not only be saved, but rise to loftier degrees of dignity, usefulness, 
 and virtue ! 
 
 What lessons does such success as mine offer to the weak in faith 1 And what 
 a lesson to myself in all my doubts and misgivings and ungrateful perplex iti.s ! 
 But this comfort I have, that it is in the hope and strength of God's word that 
 I have laboured : the blessed words of our dear Lord have ever been before me, 
 " feed My Limbs." 
 
 5th. I am more and more astonished by the success of my motion, and by 
 the excitement of fervour and sympathy it has raised. It is wonderful how God 
 gives us more than wt- desire or deserve ; dcsvrte so much is wicked to think of ; 
 desire so much was beyond all conception. Graham behaved well, and rose 
 immediately after me to catch (as he said) the House in its warm and gmicruua 
 temper. I was much struck by the spirit and feeling of John Russell ; he spoke 
 like a man deeply impressed by some strong conviction. They tell me that on 
 Wednesday morning shops and public-houses were thronged by persons anxious 
 to read the papers. O God, in Thy mercy, grant that this be the grain of 
 mustard-seed in the heart of the nation, which shall grow into a tree like the 
 cedar of Lebanon, and stretch forth its branches unto the sea, and its boughs 
 onto the river 1 
 
 Why was it? About a quarter of an hour before I concluded, I stopped
 
 J8.] TIIK FACTORY EDUCATION BILL. 245 
 
 ;ly, lost the thread of my discourse, and nearly broke down 1 Was this the 
 
 :i in the flesh " lest I should be exalted beyond measure ? 
 
 Thu i volume (of the Diary) with a triumph in my public career. To 
 
 mercy be all the honour, and may I have strength, and wisdom, and 
 
 real, and power to persevere, and to see, and to do " yet greater things than these ! " 
 
 On the evening that Lord Ashley brought forward his motion, Sir James 
 Graham stated tliat a Factory Education Bill was in course of preparation. 
 On March sth tliis Hill was laid before tho House; it reduced the honrs of 
 lalxmr for children from eight to six and a half hours per day, tho whole of 
 which was to l)i- accomplished either in tho morning or in the afternoon. 
 (MuMmi wen- to bo allowed to begin working at eight instead of nino years 
 (if ago. " Young persons" between thirteen and eighteen were only to work 
 twelve hours, and females were to bo deemed "young persons " till twenty-one 
 of age. Tlioro wore some other protective clauses, and joined to tlies. 
 tl.ere was a scheme of education, to some extent compulsory. Tho schools to 
 bo provided wore each to bo under tho caro of a clergyman, two chu wh- 
 in, and fonr elective trustees. To this provision, which evidently gave 
 a preponderance to Church influence, tho Billowed its eventual detraction. 
 Tin* opposition of the Dissenters was roused, and soon Iwcamo formidable. 
 When the Bill was read pro forma on tho 1st of May, Sir Jamos Graham 
 said: "Tho petitions which have been presented against tho Educational 
 Clauses of the Factories Bill, to which I am about to advert, have been 
 numerous almost without precedent." Well might he say so, for up to that 
 late 11. till petitions, bearing 1,757,297 signal uros mainly thoso of Dis- 
 senters- had Keen given in. 
 
 May llth. . . . Education scheme seems to languish ; foes active, friends 
 supine; imlei-d, it has bat few zealous friend*. Many acquicsco under the 
 pressure of necessity ; doubtless it is pushed to tho very verge of principle ; a 
 hairVbreadth in addition would render my acceptance of it impossible 
 Oniham's interpretation of the teaching of tho Scriptures is an exaggeration of 
 .itiah and Foreign system; it would preclude any doctrinal explanation 
 whatever ; confine the child to grammar and syntax, and leave him in full pos- 
 session, humanly speaking, should he have them, of the grossest and most 
 perilous errors. Yet I will take the Bill, because the whole Word of God is put 
 into the hands of the scholar and is road by him. My poverty, but not my will, 
 consents. God, I hope and pray, in compassion to our infirmities, will bless the 
 ose of His Book, notwithstanding the denial of the oral teaching of His minister. 
 Three times a week, moreover, the child will bo trained in the tenets and dis- 
 cipline, the Creeds and Liturgy, of the Church. 
 
 To meet the views of the Nonconformists, tho Government introduced 
 some modifications into tho Bill, but it became increasingly evident that f he-i- 
 con cessions were of no avail. 
 
 In presenting th,> Amended Hill, Sir James Graham posed in the now 
 attitude of iv pence -maker, but not until ho had effectually used his arts of 
 irritation beforehand.
 
 246 THE EARL OF SIIAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XT. 
 
 " I am aware for the symptoms are too evident," he said, " that upon this 
 question the waters of strife have overflowed, and that they now cover tho 
 land ; this" (the modified Bill the Right Hon. Baronet then placed upon tho 
 table), " this is my olive-branch. I tender it in the hope that tho harbinger 
 of peace ere long may return, with the glad tidings that tho waters liavo 
 subsided. On tho part of tho Government, I tender this peace-offering in 
 tho spirit of concord and of Christian charity and goodwill." 
 
 But the waters of strife were not to be spoken down info calm by Sir 
 James Graham. By the 15th of Juno the petitions svgainst tho clause* in 
 their amended form were almost as numerous as those against the elan s. > in 
 their original form; in tho City of London alone, 55,000 persons signed a 
 protest against tho further progress of the Bill. On that date, therefore, 
 Sir James Graham gave notice of tho intention of tho Government to 
 abandon the Educational Clauses. 
 
 June ICtfh. Graham withdrew, last night, the Education Clauses of tho 
 Factory Bill. The Government are right, it could not have been carried in the 
 House except by forced and small majorities ; it could not have been reduced to 
 practice in tho country, without fierce and everlasting collisions as harmony 
 was the object, so harmony must have boon the means. The fierceness and 
 strength of opposition, however, were not the sole reasons of withdrawal ; at 
 least in my mind, the apathy of our own friends, lay and clerical, was a death- 
 blow to any hope of immediate or final success. No one liked the scheme, though 
 many acquiesced in it ; all desired that it should not pass, because one part 
 thought it would do real harm, and the other believed it would do no good. One 
 result has issued to my conviction, and I dare say to that of many others. 
 " Combined Education " must never again be attempted it is an impossibility, 
 and worthless if possible the plan is hopeless, the attempt full of hazard. So 
 I will never vote for combined education let us have our own schools, our 
 Catechism, our Liturgy, our Articles, our Homilies, our faith, our own teaching 
 of God's Word. 
 
 June 17th. Wrote on Wednesday to Peel, to relieve him from any obligation 
 he might conceive himself to be under to me, to persevere in the Educational 
 Clauses. I admitted his extraordinary and unprecedented difficulties. II o 
 returned a most thankful answer, and stated that, without my assent, he could 
 not have withdrawn the Bill. 
 
 Sir Robert Peel's reply was as follows : 
 
 Sir Robert Peel to Lord Ashley. 
 
 WHITEHALL, June 16th, 1843. 
 
 MY DEAB ASHLEY, Tour kind and considerate letter in respect to the 
 Educational Clauses in the Factory Bill relieved the Government from the great 
 embarrassment which they would have felt in abandoning those clauses, if, after 
 the part you have taken on the subject of Education, and the religious and social 
 welfare of the manufacturing classes, and considering your high authority on 
 any question relating to the improvement of their condition, your opinion had 
 been decidedly in favour of perseverance.
 
 1W3.J COVERVMF.XT FACTORY BILL. 247 
 
 My own opinion 5s, seeing what has passed, that there would be no advantage 
 to the cause of religious education in trusting to the co-operation of the Dissenting 
 body in the measure we proposed, and that the abandonment of it is preferable 
 to failure, after religious strife and contention. It is but a sorry and lamentable 
 triumph that Dissent has achieved. 
 
 Most truly yours, 
 
 ROBERT PEEL. 
 
 June Ifith. Wrote yesterday to urge perseverance in the remaining clauses. 
 Wrote most strongly, because I suspected Graham. I pointed out, in fact, that 
 the Government could not, with honour, retire. This evening received his reply 
 in the affirmative, yet I think that, without my letter, they would have surren- 
 dered the Bill 1 The clergy are not to be blamed ; they have agreed to con- 
 cessions never before heard of, but in the hope of conciliation and pence. . . . 
 I never thought that I could have accepted such a scheme, and yet it was wise 
 both to make it and receive it. Extreme necessity and extreme hope acted on 
 my judgment, and I did what I never did before and will never do again. All 
 was gulpable, but when called on to adopt " the teaching of the Bible," as pro- 
 posed by Sir James, the simple text without note or comment or word of inter- 
 pretation, the grammatical sense and nothing else, the actual leaving, ns t In- 
 case might be, of a Socinian in Socinian ignorance, of a Socialist in Socialist 
 impurities, except so far as the grace of God might bless even the " letter " of 
 His word I did fool a nausea, almost to faintness ; nevertheless, for the sake 
 of peace, I agreed to even that. 
 
 The letter referred to above was m these terms : 
 
 Lord AMey to Sir Robert TV/. June I5(h> Jm 
 
 MY DEAR SIR ROBERT, Sir James Graham asserted this evening that the 
 Factory Bill was so complicated with Education Clauses as to require very serious 
 deliberation whether it could be proceeded with this Session. 
 
 Sir James's statement is tolerably incorrect, nay, I think, unfair ; the Educa- 
 tion Clauses were engrafted on a Bill found in the Homo Office ; a Bill which had 
 been recommended by the Committee of 1841, of which I was Chairman, and 
 introduced by Mr. Fox Manle. 
 
 This Bill contained the Six-hour Clause, the limitation of time for children 
 under thirteen years of age, suggested and propounded some months before your 
 Government came into office. 
 
 The Bill, if shorn of its Educational Clauses, is a complete measure, and has 
 the sanction of a Committee appointed to investigate and improve the state of 
 the Factory Acts. 
 
 Surely you cannot withdraw the Bill now on the table ; such a step would bo 
 a departure from what is due to the House, to the operatives, and, I may say, to 
 myself. I urged the late Government for years, and at last persuaded them to 
 ]>;u-;i;il justice; their Bill was lost by the Dissolution. It can scarcely be neces- 
 sary that I should recall all the private and public communications I have had 
 with your Government on this subject. Nothing was done in 1S41 ; I expected 
 something, and was disappointed, in 1842, but excuses were assigned, and I lived 
 on the promise for 1843.
 
 248 THE EARL OP SnAFTESBURY. TCiiAr XI. 
 
 I must appeal from Sir James Graham to you. I cannot believe that you will 
 allow such a wanton abuse of power, for such it would be. I have no following 
 in the House, and no party to rest on ; I am therefore at the will of those who 
 have ; but I still trust that some consideration will be shown, not to myself, but 
 to these wretched people in whose cause I have now begun the eleventh year of 
 anxiety and toil. 
 
 I am, very truly yours, 
 
 ASHLEY. 
 
 On the 19th Sir James Graham declared that tho remainder of the Factory 
 Bill would be proceeded with, and moved that it he committed. Tho Bill 
 then passed throiigh Committee, and in the course of the discussion Lord 
 Ashley deplored the dissensions that had broken out. " Wherever tho fault 
 lay, one thing was quite clear that the really suffering parties were tho vast 
 body of neglected children, who, as present appearances wont, were now con- 
 signed to an eternity of ignorance." Ultimately, the Government saw fit to 
 abandon the measure altogether, promising, on July 31st, in reply to a 
 question from Lord Ashley, to bring in another Bill early in the ensuing 
 Session. 
 
 The introduction of Lord Ashley to tho Opium Question is told by him in 
 his Journal in those simple words : 
 
 Feb. 13th. On Saturday last Samuel Gurney and Mr. Fry called on me to lay 
 the state of the Opium Trade with China before me, and request that I would 
 submit it to Parliament, as a grand questjon of national morality and religion- 
 I agreed in all they said, for I had long thought and felt the same ; but doubted 
 my fitness and capacity to undertake such a task promised, however, to consider 
 the proposition. They told me, and gave most excellent proofs of their correct- 
 ness, that the Government were not averse to the abolition of the Opium 
 Monopoly, though fully aware of its extreme difficulty ; that the Board of Trade 
 were actually favourable, and that Peel positively condemned the contraband 
 trade. 
 
 This was tho commencement of an official alliance with a caxise which, for 
 more than forty years, was to receive his advocacy. There can be little doubt 
 that future generations of Englishmen will unhesitatingly condemn the 
 policy that has so long been pursued with regard to this iniquitous traffic, 
 and it will seem scarcely credible that in the nineteenth century, wliilo 
 British missionaries were preaching tho Gospel in every quarter of the globe, 
 and while British philanthropists were combating almost every known phase 
 of evil under the sun, British statesmen could be found capable of dof ending, 
 for the sake of the revenue, a system which has been again and again con- 
 clusively proved to bo fraught with misery and ruin to tens of thousands of 
 the Chinese people. Vainly have tho best and wisest of Chinese statesmen 
 opposed the introduction of the pernicious drug ; English Ministers wore 
 determined that the revenues of our Indian Empire should not bo curtailed, 
 and did not scruple to secure, by firo and sword, the maintenance of the 
 tjnholy traffic.
 
 1813.) TIIK OPIUM TRADE. 249 
 
 It may assist to a clearer understanding 1 of the issues involved in this 
 momentous question, if we very briefly state the salient facts in the previous 
 history of the exportation of opium to China from our Indian dependencies. 
 
 Prior to 1773, some of the Civil servants of the East India Company, in 
 defiance of the rules which were supposed to regulate their conduct, had been 
 enriching themselves by the cultivation of opium, and the sale of it to Dutch 
 merchants and others, who found a market for the produce. In that year the 
 Company took the monopoly into its own hands. Either directly, by the 
 Company's agents, or by those persons to whom they disposed of it, <ho 
 opium was elandeslinely sold to the Cliineso. Several of the wisest 
 Indian officials deprecated the raising of the revenue by a system of smug- 
 gling, and the Directors in London did not fail formally to prohibit the 
 importation of opium into China against the wishes of its rulers. Again and 
 .again they advised against all illicit trade, but they calmly pocketed the 
 proceeds, and spurred on their officials to increase the revenue. In one 
 li, after condemning " illicit trade," they suggested a means of opening 
 new markets for opium in the eastern ports of China. In 1796 fresh edicts 
 won- published by the Chinese authorities, enforcing severer penalties on the 
 importation of opium. The Company now forbade its servants to be con- 
 enied in the trade, but openly sold the drug in Calcutta to merchants who 
 shipped it off to China. Once, if not of tenor, the Company compensated mer- 
 chants who had suffered loss through Chinese interference with their traffic. 
 
 Notwithstanding Chinese expostulations and occasional active measures. 
 tin- trade wont on developing. Bribery and corruption were freely employed 
 to procure connivance on the part of Chinese seaport officials. The intelligent 
 nil ing class in China saw that the nation was becoming weakened and 
 enfeebled by the growing consumption of opium ; vigorous efforts wore made 
 to prevent its sale, and the Emperor determined on a bold stroke for the 
 suppression of its importation. Commissioner Lin came to Canton, sei/ed 
 20,000 chests of the smuggled opium (worth three millions sterling), and had 
 it all destroyed. England now declared war ; defeated the Chinese in spito 
 of their gallant resistance, and by the Treaty of Nankin, in 1842, five ports 
 wore thrown open to the British trade, twenty-one million dollars were paid 
 by China as a war indemnity and as compensation for the destroyed opium, 
 and Hong-Kong became a British possession. But in spite of all pressure 
 brought to bear upon them, the Chinese steadily refused to legalise the 
 opium traffic, although they saw that, for the present, it would bo utterly 
 
 less <,, attempt to enforce the numerous laws and edicts which had been, 
 from time to time, promxilgated against it. 
 
 Such then was the state of things when Lord Ashley, Mr. Gurney, and 
 Mr. Fry began the long crusade against the Opium Trade a crusade that is 
 far from having yet achieved its crowning victory. 
 
 March 15th. Gave notice last night of a motion on the Opium Monopoly 
 I did it with fear, anxiety, and trembling. I shrink from the task, I dread the
 
 250 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XI. 
 
 preparation, I quail before the execution of it. Yet it is the cause of Christianity 
 and of God. I have not sought it ; the thing has been forced on me, and I have 
 not dared to refuse my labour in the cause. A deputation from several mer- 
 chants made the request. Macgregor, a confidential officer of the Board of Trade, 
 assured me of his assistance, and of the desire of the Government (privately) to 
 receive an impulse. When I reflected on the enormous mischief and the enormous 
 sin, I could not say " no." 
 
 March 23rd. Prayer to begin, prayer to accompany, and prayer to close any 
 undertaking for His service is the secret of all " prospering in our ways." 
 
 March 28th. Have been in great anxiety business crowded too heavily on 
 me I had in prospect for one week Opium, Factory Bill, and the defence of the 
 Bishop of Jerusalem by God's blessing relieved Factory Bill postponed until 
 after Easter ; this I am glad of, as Sir J. Graham had determined to postpone 
 the Education Clauses. Alas ! what a weak faith I have 1 I have never yet 
 failed of God's aid and favour, and yet I am ever in doubt and difficulty. " Lord, 
 I believe, help Thou my unbelief." Oh, what a question is this Opium affair ! 
 Bad as I thought it, I find it a thousand times worse, more black, more cruel, 
 more Satanic than all the deeds of private sin in the records of prison history. 
 
 God, be Thou with me in the hour of trial, speak to me the words that Thou 
 spakest to Thy servant Joshua, and touch my lips, like Isaiah's, with fire of 
 the altar but take to Thyself all the glory ; blessed Lord in Jesus Christ our 
 Redeemer. . . . 
 
 March 31st. Escaped from a snare laid for me had I fallen into it, I should 
 really (however undeservedly) have " sustained," as Cobden said to me, " a moral 
 loss." Joseph Hume, for what purpose no one can say, has resolved to move 
 a vote of thanks to the Ministry on the Ashburton Treaty ; he cannot find an 
 open day, he called on the Government to give him an opportunity, he appealed 
 to me to surrender my precedence on Tuesday next both declined ; then Sir 
 James Graham, whether in concert with Joey or not is uncertain, writes to me 
 and urges my compliance. I reply to him that I do not dare to treat the Opium 
 Question as of a secondary character, one that may yield to the ordinary, or even 
 extraordinary, courtesies that I should wish to exhibit towards the Ministry. 
 My own zeal in the cause, humanly speaking, saved me from the precipice it 
 did not occur to me until I reached the lobby of the House of Commons, that, 
 had I surrendered my day to serve the mere partisan objects of the Government, 
 
 1 should in vain have protested my sincerity, in vain my separation in theso 
 things from all Whig or Tory feelings 1 I should have been told that party was 
 the first object, principle the second. . . . 
 
 As the day drew near for Lord Ashley to bring forward his motion on the 
 Opium Question, ho experienced what lie had so often felt before, and was 
 to feel so often again, in prospect of any great Parliamentary effort an 
 intense depression, resulting from nervous anxiety. Ho knew of only ono 
 way in which relief was to be obtained, and that is indicated in the following 
 entry : 
 
 April 2nd. Sunday. Lesson for the day at morning service, 3rd chap. 
 Exodus, " Come, now, therefore, and I will send thee." " Who am I that I should 
 go 1 " These words were not without their consolation.
 
 1S43.] MOTION ON TTTK OPIUM QUESTION. 251 
 
 On Tuesday, April 4th, 1843, Lord Ashley brought tho subject before the 
 House of Commons by moving " That it is tho opinion of this House that the 
 continuance of the trade in opium, and the monopoly of its growth in tho 
 territories of British India, are destructive of all relations of amity between 
 England and China, injurious to the manufacturing interests of the country, 
 by tho very serious diminution of legitimate commerce, and utterly incmi- 
 si-tent with the honour and duties of a Christian kingdom; and that .-feps 
 be taken, as soon as possible, with due regard to the rights of governments 
 and individuals, to abolish the evil." 
 
 After presenting petitions against the Opium Trade from tho Committees 
 of the Wesley an, Baptist, and London Missionary Societies, Lord Ashley 
 referred to tho war which had just come to an end, but with all its causes 
 more rife than ever. He had no hostile feeling towards the East India 
 Company, he entertained tho strongest esteem, privately, for the character of 
 several of that body, and publicly for many parts of their administration. 
 " I am convinced," said tho noble Lord, " that they have conferred very great 
 brill-fit* mi tln> Empire they are appointed to govern; and, if there be any 
 guilt in the system which I shall develop, tho guilt is not theirs exclusively: 
 it is shared by the Legislature and the whole nation; it is shared by the 
 members of this House, which, in tho year 1832, sanctioned by a law the 
 rev.-niie derived from the opium trade, commending the production of the 
 druir, and actually approving its destination." 
 
 He quoted various authorities to show that this system of smuggling led 
 to riot and disturbance, and that tho Chinese people were naturally indignant 
 when they saw native dealers in opinm severely punished, whilst the f< 
 importer prosecuted his business with impunity. From the testimony of 
 wit ii"--'"v he showed that all Chinese society, from the Imperial Family down 
 to the lowest ranks, suffered from the baneful effects of the drug, that 
 officials were corrupted and multitudes ruined, that with the traffic was 
 associated in the Chinese mind every sort of embarrassment and penal inflic- 
 tion, and that the trade was a source of danger, shame, and disgrace to all 
 concerned, and was a hinderance to legitimate commerce. Those were the 
 causes of the war, and they still remained in full activity. Tho vessels 
 engaged in tho opium trade had to bo armed ; those engaged in peaceful 
 traffic had no such need. 
 
 Such a state of things was not only inimical to peace and honourable 
 intercourse with China, but it had operated most injuriously on our trade by 
 substituting a pernicious drug for tho produce and manufactures of Great 
 Britain. " and this," he said, " had seemed to him a connecting link between 
 himself and tho question, because tho extension of commerce and opening <>f 
 new markets seemed akin to his previous efforts to promote the welfare of 
 the working classes." He showed that no progress had been mado in 
 commerce with China, bnt, on the contrary, that wo had gone back in our im- 
 portations into that country, whilst our manufactures and products had 
 neither deteriorated nor risen in price. It was not the faidt of the Chinese ;
 
 252 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBLmY. [OnAp. XI, 
 
 testimony was overwhelming that tho Chinese were anxious for trade, but the 
 opium traffic stopped the way. He then gave elaborate statistics showing 
 how all legitimate commerce was swayed by tho opium traffic, and stated his 
 conviction that, if the temptation were removed, the Chinese would readily 
 give their produce in exchange for our goods. He continued : 
 
 But, Sir, another, and by far the greatest, consideration remains behind ; that 
 for which kings reign and princes decree justice, the consideration of that which 
 affects the moral welfare of whole nations. For what purpose, I ask, is all 
 government instituted ? I speak not of the practice that is too often corrupt- but 
 of the principle of government. For what purpose are all rulers invested with 
 power, but to encourage religion and morality, to protect and advance the real 
 interests of those committed to their charge, and to hold forth to their subjects, 
 and to the world, the example of wisdom and virtue ? Has it been so here ? Has 
 such been our conduct in this particular ? Quite the reverse. I will venture to 
 assert that our encouragement to this nefarious traffic has retarded the progress 
 of Christianity, and impeded the civilisation of mankind. 
 
 Lord Ashley then proceeded to give a vivid description of tho general 
 effects upon its victims of indulgence in opium as a luxury their physical, 
 mental, and moral debility, their hideous disfigurement and premature decay 
 resulting in misery almost beyond belief, destroying myriads of individuals 
 annually, and casting its victims into a bondage with which no slavery on 
 earth could compare, and from which there was scarcely a known instance of 
 escape. 
 
 There was immorality involved even in the cultivation of the plant, for 
 such pressure was put upon the ryots that, in many cases, they were compelled 
 to accept the Government grant and supply tho needed quantity of poppy. 
 In fact at every step tho system was associated with evil, and only evil. 
 Splendid regions were laid waste to supply the commodity (for poppies 
 require a special soil) ; the trade was in the hands of desperate fellows who 
 carried it on by fraud, violence, and oppression. It was an intolerable outrage 
 to the feelings of the civilised and Christian nations of the world, that this 
 iniquitous trade should be part of tho fiscal arrangements of the Government 
 an important part of tho Imperial policy of India. The opium was grown 
 by advances from the Imperial Government ; carried down to Calcutta, and 
 put up for sale under Government authority ; shipped in opium clippers lying 
 in tho river, and the clippers supplied with arms from the arsenals of tho 
 Government. 
 
 Lord Ashley frankly admitted that, for the sake of the revenue, Parliament 
 in 1832 sanctioned tho opium monopoly. " I was in Parliament myself at 
 tho time," ho said, " and I share in tho responsibility ; but I had not, at that 
 time, the most remote idea of the enormities which the details of tho system 
 have since brought to light." Having now studied tho whole question, tho 
 revelation of tho facts of the case had filled him with horror. He saw that 
 it stood in the way of the progress of society, the civilisation of man, and the 
 advancement of the Gospel. It could never be that Opium and the Bible
 
 1843.) SPEECH ON T11E OPIUM QUESTION. 253 
 
 could enter China together ; ho was constrained to endorse the testimony of 
 missionary agents, who asserted that *' the proud escutcheon of the nation 
 which declares against the slave trade, is made to bear a blot broader and 
 darker than any other in the Christian world." 
 
 Lord Ashley enforced this conclusion as follows : 
 
 I am fully convinced that for the country to encourage this nefarious traffic 
 is bad, perhaps worse than encouraging the slave trade. That terrible system of 
 slavery does not necessarily destroy the physical and moral qualities of its victims. 
 It tortures and degrades the man, but it leaves him susceptible of regeneration. 
 But the opium trade destroys the man, both body and soul ; and carries a hideous 
 ruin over millions, which can never be repaired. You may abolish the evil this 
 night, but you cannot restore the millions who have been tempted, by the 
 proceedings of the Government of India, to indulge in the use of the pernicious 
 drug. 
 
 Now, a fact has just occurred, than which nothing, I am certain, can reflect 
 greater disgrace on all our conduct ; it occurred on Wednesday last. The Baptist 
 iM issiouary Society a Society which has done a great deal in effecting the spread 
 of the Gospel among heathen nations, and which has produced some most eminent 
 and pious men at a meeting last Wednesday, took into consideration the propriety 
 of sending out missionaries to China ; and it was decided to work through the 
 agency of the American missions, because the public feeling in China was so 
 strong against the English, that if the missionaries hoped to work at all, it must 
 be through America, which had kept aloof, in a great degree, from the disgraceful 
 traffic. And what was the result? Why, the Baptist Missionary Society of 
 England voted 500 to be put at the disposal of the American missionaries for 
 the propagation of the Gospel in China ! So, Sir, it has come to this, that 
 England, which professes to be at the head of Christian nations, is precluded by 
 her own immoral conduct from sending her own missionaries to that part of the 
 world which she herself has opened for the advancement of civilisation and the 
 enlightenment of Christianity. 
 
 Having set forth the evil, with its causes and results, Lord Ashley 
 demanded, in the first place, that Parliament should destroy the monopoly, 
 which the East India Company possessed, of the growth and manufacture of 
 opium in India, and thus abolish nine-tenths of the mischief; and in the next 
 place, in order to remove another feature of the evil, that the cultivation of 
 tln> drug in tho territories of tho East India Company should bo prohibited 
 i her. In a series of masterly arguments ho combated tho opposition 
 which would be raised to these proposals, and concluded in tin sr words: 
 
 This, Sir, is the statement on which 1 rely ; and while I most sincerely thank 
 tin- House for the kindness and indulgence with which they liavo listened to me, 
 I may be allowed, perhaps, to express a hope that those who reply will answer 
 me with facts and statements of equal authority. Now, Sir, let us make the c;tse 
 our own. What would be said, if any other nation were to treat us as w> 
 the Chinese I What would be said in this country, and what an amount of just 
 indignation there would be in this House, if we were told that French buccaneers 
 were ravaging our coasts, defying our laws, and murdering our fellow -subjects J
 
 254 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP XI. 
 
 Should we venture to act thus towards any other State that was bold enough, 
 and strong enough, to make reprisals upon us 1 Certainly not. And in admit- 
 ting this, we admit that our conduct towards the Chinese is governed by our 
 pride and our power, and not by our own estimate of justice. . . . Do you 
 know, or are you indifferent to, the opinions and language of foreign nations 1 
 Can you take up a single foreign journal without finding it full of sarcasm and 
 contempt of our conduct and policy ? Have you heard the honest, sober, and 
 conscientious opinions of foreign statesmen? Do you value the sentiments 
 of foreign historians ? Here is the language of Count Bjornsterna, in his 
 authentic work on the British Empire in the East, a work that is widely cir- 
 culated on the Continent. "Strictly speaking, the whole trade with India," says 
 the Count, " rests at present on a highly immoral basis ; on 15,000 or 20,000 chests 
 of opium, of the value of 2,000,000 or 3,000,000 sterling, with which the 
 Chinese are every year poisoned. Thus a country, which had for thousands of 
 years accumulated the gold of the world, which is destined by nature to bear the 
 finest fruits, and the dearest spices, which contribute to the enjoyment and 
 refreshment of man, has been compelled in our days to bear a noxious drug, 
 which spreads physical and moral debility among the millions of inhabitants 
 of the Celestial Empire." 
 
 If such accusations as these were unjust, I should altogether despise them ; 
 but, knowing that they were richly deserved, they are to my mind absolutely in- 
 tolerable. Sir, although I may be animadverted upon, and perhaps rebuked, for 
 having presumed to handle so important a matter, I shall ever be thankful that I 
 have acted as an instrument to lay this abominable evil before the eye of the 
 public. I shall deeply regret to have given offence to this House, or to any indi- 
 vidual ; nevertheless, I shall rejoice in the disclosure, and the possible removal, of 
 the mischief. Sir, the condition of this Empire does demand a most deep and 
 solemn consideration ; within and without, we are hollow and insecure. True it 
 is that we wear a certain appearance of power and majesty ; but, with one arm 
 resting on the East, and the other on the West, we are, in too many instances, 
 trampling under foot every moral and religious obligation. I confess I speak most 
 sincerely, though few, perhaps, will agree with me; but I do say it is in my heart, 
 and I will bring it out if this is to be the course of our future policy ; if thus 
 we are to exercise our arts and arms, our science, and our superiority of knowledge 
 over the world if all these are to be turned to the injury, and not to the ad- 
 vimtage, of mankind, I should much prefer that we shrink within the proportions 
 of our public virtue, and descend to the level of a third-rate Power. But a grout 
 and noble opportunity is now offered to us, of being just and generous in the 
 height of victory. In such a spirit, and with such an aim, there is hope that we 
 may yet be spared to run a blessed, a useful, and a glorious career ; directing all 
 our energies and all our vows all that we have, and all that we shall receive 
 to that one great end of human existence, "Glory to God in the highest; on earth 
 peace, goodwill towards men." 
 
 This important speech occupied seven closely-printed columns of The 
 Times on the following morning'. It was the first great indictment of the 
 Opium Trade uttered within the walls of Parliament, and it was felt to be 
 unanswerable, even by those who thought it inexpedient to meddle with the
 
 1&43.] COMMENTS ON THE OPIUM DEBATE, 255 
 
 question. A debate ensued. Mr. Brotherton, Sir R. Inglis, Captain Layard, 
 and others supported Lord Asl Jey. A few members argued that his proposals 
 were impracticable, and would not have the desired result. Sir Robert Peel, 
 on behalf of the Government, appealed to him to withdraw his motion, inas- 
 much as a vote upon it under existing circumstances would act prejudicially 
 to the negotiations then pending in China. At the same time he indulged in 
 a line of deprecatory argument, of which the gist seemed to be that, as we 
 could not put down gin at home, we need not concern ourselves about intro- 
 ducing 20,000 chests of opium into China every year. Lord Ashley, in his 
 reply, said that he woidd be the last man to act to the prejudice of negotia- 
 tions now being carried on, and therefore acceded to the Ministerial request.* 
 The Times, in commenting, a day or two af terwards, on the speech, said that 
 " it was grave, temperate, and practical, well stored with facts, authorities, 
 and arguments, and strictly confined to a consideration of those measures 
 which it might be possible and expedient to take, for the prevention of the 
 grow tli of opium within the British dominions in India, audits importation by 
 British subjects into China." It was added that Lord Ashley's speech was 
 "far more statesmanlike in its Tiltimate and general views than those by which 
 it was opposed," whoso arguments amounted to this : " That morality and 
 religion, and the happiness of mankind, and friendly relations with China, and 
 new markets for British manufactures, were all very fine things in their way; 
 but that the opium trade was worth to the Indian Government 1,200,000 a 
 year, and 1,200,000 was a large sum of money, which it would not be easy to 
 make up from any other source without offending somebody in India ; and, 
 upon the whole, that we could not afford to buy morality and religion, and 
 the happiness of mankind, and friendly relations with China, and new markets 
 for British manufactures, quite so dear." f 
 
 April 5th. Last night, Opium 1 Though I did not succeed in carrying my 
 motion, yet I made a sensible impression on the House, and through that, I hope, 
 on the country. I was, perhaps, more master of myself than on any former 
 occasion, yet down to the very moment of commencing my speech I was in 
 dejection and uncertainty. God, however, I see was with me, and I reached the 
 consciences, though I could not command the support, of several members. 
 S|,nku for nearly three hours, nevertheless the House listened to me throughout 
 with patience and sympathy. . . . 
 
 Ministers wished to avoid speaking, and called on me early to close the 
 . I refused to do so, not choosing that such a question should be lightly 
 treated, and dismissed without a word from a member of the Cabinet. They put 
 u ji I'lingham Baring to move "the previous question." He was feeble, though 
 some of his matter was not bad. He had one argument, touching British goods 
 exported to India, which was somewhat specious, but utterly unsound. Hogg 
 was clever, but audacious, affinnatory, and almost false. Peel was forced to rise 
 at last, and certainly took a line for which I was not prepared. I had expected a 
 fuller condemnation of the traffic, and a less positive and contented defence of 
 
 Hansard's Debates. + The Tiniet, Ayril titb, 1842.
 
 256 TITE EARL OP SIIAFTKSntTRY. [Ou.ip. XI. 
 
 the East India Monopoly. He sneered at our care for the health and morals of 
 the Chinese, and altogether assumed the tone of a low, mercantile, financial 
 soul, incapable of conceiving or urging a principle, which finally disgusted me, 
 and placed him in my mind much below the Christian level, and not any higher 
 than the heathen. But as he stated that the negotiations on foot by the Govern- 
 ment would be really impeded by such a motion as mine, I of course withdrew it. 
 His speech was shallow and feeble. . . . Very remarkable not one person 
 even attempted to touch the morality of the question ; that seemed to be tacitly 
 but universally surrendered. The prayer of the 28th was heard ; the hand of the 
 Almighty was with me. To Him, and to Him alone, be all the glory ! 
 
 April 7th. I have since heard spiteful comments on my determination not 
 to divide the House ; argued as a defect of principle in me ; a proof of insin- 
 cerity. Ah, well 1 I must submit to such things. How could I venture to throw 
 myself between the Executive Government and a just and profitable treaty? 
 Peel, it is true, hinted that legalisation of the traffic (which my enemies assume I 
 ought to condemn, and which I do) was within his view. I said in my reply 
 that, " probably, I should not concur in his conclusions." This, however, was 
 but a part, and the Minister moreover requested that the whole thing should be 
 left in the hands of the Government. The House, too, would not have tolerated 
 such a division ; had Peel said nothing of the sort, I should have been very 
 strong. After his declaration, my numbers would have been reduced so as to 
 become ridiculous. . . . 
 
 The tone now is, among my adversaries, 'JL well-meaning, amiable sort of 
 man, with no fragment of penetration." This is the second stage of my public 
 character 1 
 
 In many of Iris undertakings, and now more especially in those two great 
 movements National Education and the Opium Traffic Lord Ashley was 
 brought into close and frequent communication with Sir Robert Peel and 
 Lord John Russell, and the estimate he formed of their characters is given 
 in the following entry, written shortly after the withdrawal of the Educa- 
 tional Clauses from the proposed Factory Bill : 
 
 July 8th. They are invested with enormous powers of doing good to the 
 human race, and they utterly neglect them. How, and by what means, from 
 what cause, or what influence, have the Ministry so declined in public and 
 private " estimation " ? That it is so, is shown by the papers, by conversation, by 
 noise, by silence, by open attack and no defence, by the joy of the Opposition, by 
 the dejection of friends, by the looks, they say, and the language of the Govern- 
 ment themselves. Their numbers are undiminished, and yet they carry nothing ! 
 They have committed no leading and palpable folly, and yet no one confides i n 
 their wisdom ; no great and manifest crime, and yet who animates himself by 
 conviction of their honesty? All is doubt, uncertainty, vain wishes, and disap- 
 pointed hopes, much anger and discontent, personally and collectively, with p re- 
 sent men, and yet an unwillingness to change them. I speak of the Houses and 
 Clubs, for among the middling and other classes they seem irrecoverably ruined. 
 It would not be easy for them to assign a definite reason, but they all feel dis- 
 pleasure, which would neither use nor admit argument at a general election. 
 Compare the state of moral and political power they possessed in 1811 with
 
 1843.] SIR JAMES GRAHAM. 257 
 
 what they possess in 1843 ; and it is as Lord Bacon to a baby 1 Among secondary 
 causes a very principal one is the high expectations formed of the mighty con- 
 trast the Tories were to exhibit in comparison with the Whigs. Now, the contrast 
 they have exhibited, and it is a beneficial one, is far less in what they have done 
 than in what they have not done. They have produced and carried but few 
 things, but they have introduced no mis chievous legislation and made no wicked 
 appointments. This, however, is negative merit, which few can appreciate 
 their positive deserts are neither abundant nor showy. 
 
 The war in Afghanistan, which they denounced and terminated, has been suc- 
 ceeded by one quite as unjust, which they began and now sustain. Lord Ellen- 
 borough boasted of the pacification of India, and censured, in a proclamation, the 
 conduct of his predecessors ; he has become involved in a new and probably 
 longer strife, and committed the same criminal folly he imputed to Lord Auck- 
 land I The Cabinet, nevertheless, retain him 1 They are parties, therefore, to 
 his policy, and thus form the first equation with the expelled officials. Why di<l 
 they not recall him, when he showed his character by that absurd and almost 
 impious Proclamation about the old timbers of Somnauth ? Gladstone writes 
 free trade articles in the reviews, and makes close trade speeches in the House of 
 Commons I " Does Peel concur ? " asks every suspicious corn-grower. " Not 
 yet," it is replied, " but his mind is that way." Be it true or not, distrust, when 
 once excited, is not very easily allayed, and it always leaves, in some degree, a 
 sentiment of indifference. 
 
 I concurred in his Corn Bill, and even his Tariff, but I cannot overlook the 
 truth that it took many by surprise, and infused the thought into some mind- 
 that, had they been foreseen, Peel would never have obtained such a majority at 
 the elections. 
 
 Then comes a notion that they adopt the measures that they hotly and 
 " conscientiously " resisted, and withhold those that they proposed. Reasons may 
 be assigned, no doubt, but an explaining party has always a disadvantage I 
 
 Lord Ashley refers also, as follows, to Sir James Graham : 
 
 Graham is Home Secretary, and consequently more frequently and intimately 
 in communication with magistrates and members of Parliament than any other 
 official. He has contrived to render himself so thoroughly odious that I cannot 
 find one human being who will speak a word in his behalf. -He has done very 
 much to injure the Government ; for though he is clever, and discharges his 
 business well in the House of Commons, he cannot persuade a single soul, nor 
 produce the least effect by his most emphatic and solemn appeals. He is univer- 
 sally distrusted : and this by every one, from a prince to a beggar. Mainly by 
 his influence the Ten Hours Bill has been refused, and the amendment of the 
 Factory Act delayed. Nothing has had a more decided effect on the estimation 
 of the Government by the working classes ; the Ministers know it not, and would 
 be prepared to deny it Many, who would not have been benefited by the enact- 
 ment, regarded the conduct of Government in this particular as the measure of 
 their pood will towards the labouring people. They gained nothing by their 
 shuffling in the cause of the Colliery Bill ; and this year they lost something, in 
 the affections of a few, by their language on the Opium Traffic. The fact is, the 
 disappointment is general ; men looked for high sentiments, and heard small 
 opinions : for principles, and were put off with expediency ; the world may hav* 
 R
 
 258 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XL 
 
 been exacting and unjust, but you cannot reason with it. Peel has committed 
 great and grievous mistakes in omitting to call his friends frequently together, to 
 state his desires and rouse their zeal. A few minutes and a few words would 
 have sufficed ; energy and fellowship would have been infused : men would have 
 felt that they were companions in arms ; they have now the sentiment of being 
 followers in a drill. Half the mischief a Ministry sustains is from the dis- 
 satisfied tones, and dissatisfied looks, of their own supporters ; it spreads, like an 
 infection of the atmosphere, unseen and unfelt, except in the result, and no one 
 can say how. This half of the mischief, Peel, had he been less proud and less 
 frigid, might have converted into positive and effectual good. Extreme and 
 perpetual caution is not true and constant wisdom free men will not, and can- 
 not, be ruled by it ; nothing is given to generosity, nothing to faith, nothing to 
 the warm and self-denying impulses, which, even in our fallen state, lead often- 
 times to noble actions and discharge apparently, for the moment, the work of 
 religion. The Whig Government understood the value of popular feeling ; the 
 least difficulty was sufficient for them. They soon collected their troops, put the 
 Minister on the rostrum, and acquired strength from the confession of their weakness. 
 So much for human reasons ; but surely there are higher and more painful 
 causes. I have inquired in vain, and felt, as it were, the pulse of the Minister. 
 It seems to me that self-dependence and self -righteousness are his hope and joy. 
 I see nothing of faith, and a vast deal of policy ; much nice weighing of odds 
 and ends of conduct ; great reverence of capitalists ; a mighty desire to reverse 
 the rule of the Apostle, and be first peaceable and then pure ; nothing that indi- 
 cates a solemn and exalting belief of the text, " Seek ye first the kingdom of 
 God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." 
 Doubtless other Ministers have been actuated by sentiments as worldly, and yet 
 have prospered ; but times, I am sure, have changed, and God will demand a 
 more open and constant acknowledgment of His providence. 
 
 I The third great addition to the labours of Lord Ashley at this period was 
 the Ragged School Question.! For some years the condition of the waifs and 
 strays, the vagrants and outcasts of London, had been a source of consider- 
 able anxiety to him. It seemed as if they were utterly neglected, and were 
 left to perish, body and soul. He was completely at a loss to know how the 
 difficulty of reaching them, or, after reaching them, of retaining any hold 
 upon them, could be met. Meantime, he saw with daily increasing sorrow* 
 that there was growing up in London an enormous population of thieves and 
 vagabonds, and, as far as he could ascertain, no, effort of any kind was being 
 made to reclaim them. They lived in filthy dwellings or under arches ; they 
 begged or stole ; they grew up in horrible ignorance of everything that was 
 good, and with a horrible knowledge of everything that was evil ; and sooner 
 or later they became acquainted with the gaoler or the hangman. The sense 
 that something ought to be done, and must be done, to check this growing 
 mischief, was so borne in upon Lord Ashley's mind that it haunted him night 
 and day, but, in the midst of the pressure of other things, and in the absence 
 of any practical scheme to grapple with the difficulty, he was obliged to let 
 the matter rest.
 
 IMS.) RAGGED SCHOOLS. 259 
 
 One day, however, in February, 1843, when glancing over the pages of 
 The Times, his eye fell on the following advertisement : 
 
 RAGGED SCHOOLS. 
 Fii-lil L'lnr Sabbath School, 65, West Street, Saffron Hill. 
 
 The Teachers are desi ous of laying before the public a few facts connected 
 with this school, situated in this most wretched and demoralised locality. It was 
 opened in 1841 fo,- instructing (free of expense) those who, from their poverty or 
 ragged condition, are prevented attending any other place of religious instruc- 
 tion. The school is u:i(L-r the superintendence of the District Missionary of the 
 London City Mission, and is opened on Sunday and also on Thursday evening, 
 when the average attendance is seventy (adults and children). The teachers are 
 encouraged by the success which, under God, has attended their efforts, as mani- 
 fested by the increased numbers, and altered conduct of some of the scholars. 
 This appeal to the < .'hristian public is made to afford permanency to a work of 
 charity, commenced and supported by a few laymen, whose means are inadequate 
 to the expenses necessarily attendant upon the enlarged state of the school. Any 
 lady or gentleman willing to assist as teachers will be cordially welcomed. 
 
 Donations and subscriptions will be thankfully received by the Rev. P. 
 Lorimer, 12, Colebrooke Row, Islington ; W. D. Owen, Esq., 43, Great Coram 
 Street; Mr. S. U. Starey. Treasurer, 17, Ampton Street, Gray's Inn Road; or by 
 the Secretary, Mr. P. Ma -donald, 30, Great Sutton Street, Clerkenwell. Left-off 
 garments sent to the school will be carefully distributed. 
 
 " I never rend an advertisement with keener pleasure. It answered 
 exactly to what 1 had been looking and hoping for," said Lord Shaftesbury, 
 when narrating the circumstance to the writer. "I could not regard it as 
 other than a direct answer to my frequent prayer." 
 
 Lord Ashley did not lose any time in replying to the advertisement, and 
 his was one of the first, if not the very first, reply received. He was waited 
 upon forthwith, and the scope and objects of the Society, and the views and 
 hopes of the promoters, were fully explained to him. The scheme was 
 exactly what Lord Ashley had been long anxiously waiting to see originated, 
 and it seemed to him to be. the best possible means of helping the neglected 
 and destitute children of the metropolis. He threw heart and soul into the 
 movement, and from that time forward, to the close of his life, he was the 
 champion and lender of every effort in behalf of Ragged Schools. 
 
 It was not long before he made himself personally acquainted with the 
 work and the neighbourhood in which it was carried on. Field Lane was the 
 name of a district not far northward from the foot of Holborn Hill. It was 
 one of the most disreputable localities in London, and West Street, where the 
 Ragged School was situated, was in one of the most disreputable parts of 
 Fit-Id Lane. It was in the heart of what was known as "Jack Ketch's 
 Warren," so named from the fact that a great number of the persons who 
 were hanged fit Newgate came from the courts and alleys hereabouts. " The 
 disturbaucws which occurred here wore of so desperate a character, that from 
 forty to fifty constables would be marched down with cutlasses, it being 
 K 2
 
 200 THE EARL OF 8HAFTESBURY. (CHAP. XI. 
 
 frequently impossible for officers to act in fewer numbers, or unarmed." * For 
 a century previously, this district had been the resort of the most notorious 
 evil-doers. Some of the houses were close beside the Fleet Ditch, and were 
 fitted with dark closets, trap-doors, sliding panels, and other means of con- 
 cealment and escape, while extensive basements served for the purpose of 
 concealing stolen goods, and, in others, there were furnaces used by coiners, 
 and stills for the production of excisable spirits. On the north side of the 
 street were a number of tenements fearful to approach, called Black Boy 
 Alley, and these, in the reign of George II., were a terror to the whole city. 
 The method pursued by the inhabitants, who were called the " Black Boy 
 Alley Gang," was to entice the unwary by means of prostitutes ; then gag 
 them so that they should not give the alarm ; after, which it was the practice of 
 these nefarious wretches to drag their victims to one of their depositories, and, 
 having robbed and murdered them, to throw the dead bodies down into the 
 ditch. These atrocities, however, became so notorious that special steps were 
 taken by the Government to pursue the offenders, and no fewer than nineteen 
 were executed at one time.f 
 
 Such were the traditions of the place, and up to 1843 it had held its own 
 bad pre-eminence. It was exactly the kind of locality in which Lord Ashley 
 had wished to see religious and philanthropic efforts undertaken, and it was 
 not long before he became almost as familiar with the district of Field Lane 
 as with the neighbourhood of Grosvenor Square. If the outcasts were to be 
 gathered in, it could only be done by providing the means of rescue in tho 
 midst of their daily surroundings ; and if they were to be reached at all, it 
 could only be achieved by the self-denying labours of those who would close 
 their senses to the sickening sights and sounds and smells of these loathsome 
 haunts. 
 
 It is difficult to realise, in the present day, what self-denial was involved 
 in such an enterprise as the establishment of a Ragged School. Charles 
 Dickens has thus described his visit to the scene of Lord Ashley's early 
 labours in this field : 
 
 " I found my first Ragged School in an obscure place called West Street, 
 Saffron Hill, pitifully struggling for life under every disadvantage. It had no 
 means ; it had no suitable rooms ; it derived no power or protection from being 
 recognised by any authority ; it attracted within its walls a fluctuating swarm 
 of faces young in years, but youthful in nothing else that scowled Hope 
 out of countenance. It was held in a low-roofed den, in a sickening atmo- 
 sphere, in the midst of taint, and dirt, and pestilence ; with all the deadly 
 sins let loose, howling and shrieking at the doors. Zeal did not supply the 
 place of method and training ; the teachers knew little of their office ; the 
 pupils, with an evil sharpness, found them out, got the better of them, derided 
 them, made blasphemous answers to Scriptural questions, sang, fought, 
 danced, robbed each other seemed possessed by legions of devils. The place 
 
 " Notes and Narratives of a Six Years' Mission," by R. W. Vandcrkiste. 
 t " London," by David Hughson, LL.D.
 
 1843.] FIELD LANE RAGGED SCHOOL. 261 
 
 was stormed and carried, over and over again ; the lights were blown out, the 
 books strewn in the gutters, and the female scholars carried off triumphantly 
 to their old wickedness. With no strength in it but its purpose, the school 
 stood it all out, and made its way. Some two years since I found it quiet and 
 orderly, full, lighted with gas, well whitewashed, numerously attended, and 
 thorouglily established." 
 
 It would be out of place here to give a detailed history of the Field Lane 
 Ragged School. It will be enough to say that no sooner had Lord Ashley 
 takru it under his protection than it began to develop, and its usefulness to 
 increase, until within ten years the committee were able to report, " It has 
 established a free Day School for infants ; an Evening School for youths and 
 adults engaged in daily occupation ; a Women's Evening School for improving 
 character, and extending domestic usefulness, thereby making better mothers 
 and more comfortable homes: Industrial Classes, to teach youths tailoring 
 and shoemaking ; employment in the shape of wood-chopping, as an industrial 
 test for recommendation to situations ; a Home for boys, when first engaged 
 in places, apart from unwholesome contamination ; a Night Refuge for the 
 utterly destitute ; a clothing society for the naked ; a distribution of bread to 
 the starving ; baths for the filthy ; a room to dry clothes, worn in the rain 
 during the day ; Bible Classes, under voluntary teaching, through which 
 nearly 10,000 persons of all ages, but of 0110 class, all in a state of physical 
 and spiritual destitution, have heard set forth the glad tidings of salvation 
 during the past year ; a separate Bible Class for mothers and other women ; 
 a refuge prayer meeting ; a Teachers' prayer meeting ; quarterly conferences 
 for committee and teachers, for minute examination into the detailed working 
 of our institution ; a School Missionary, to supply the spiritual wants of the 
 sick, to scour the streets, to bring youthful wanderers to the school, and to 
 rescue fallen females from paths of sin; and a Ragged Church for the 
 proclamation of the Gospel and the worship of God ! " 
 
 To all of these progressive movements Lord Ashley lent important aid. 
 
 Having taken the matter in hand, ho at once proceeded to get a firm grip 
 f it by seeing for himself everything that was to be seen in connection with 
 tho work, and hearing for himself all that was to be heard. He went into the 
 vilest rookeries, and became acquainted with the most ignorant and depraved ; 
 he visited the few Ragged Schools that were in existence at that time, and 
 inspired hope and courage in the teachers by his presence ; he took his place 
 in the school beside them, and spoke kindly words to tho wondering listeners. 
 A strange sight was a Ragged School audience in those days. There were to 
 be seen " the cunning expression of the cadger ; tho sharp, acute face of the 
 street minstrel ; the costermonger out of work ; the cropped head of the felon 
 who had just left gaol ; the pallid and thinly-clad woman, weakened by long- 
 cunt iuued sickness and penury ; the spare form of him who, once in affluence, 
 Inn 1 ' wasted his substance in riotous living.' " And among this motley 
 assembly Lord Ashley would sit with his calm eyes gazing sorrowfully upon 
 them, and his pleasant voice trying to utter words of hope.
 
 262 fHE EARL OP SHAPTESBUKY. CHAP. XI. 
 
 It was obvious to him, however, that those who were under Ragged School 
 influence were but as a drop of the bucket in comparison with the vast 
 number in the metropolis, and other large cities, who wore totally uncaral 
 for, and his heart bled for them. Happily, not his lioart only; there were 
 other workers in the field; and, in the following year. tli<>se wore all drawn 
 together in one band of brotherhood, known as the Ragged School Union. 
 
 We have broken the continuous thread of the personal history in order 
 to give clearness to the action of Lord Ashley in the three great move- 
 ments which signalised this year. We must now go back to the Diary to 
 gather up some of the entries which have been omitted. 
 
 Good Friday. Ramsgate. With thousands and tens of thousands of people 
 in this Christian (!) land, this day will pass over without a notion that it is any- 
 thing different from other days. Factories will run; apprentices will groan; 
 coal mines explode ; gin shops absorb and vomit forth ; the labourers in absolute 
 ignorance, the masters in practical infidelity, of God's saving truths I 
 
 To the parish church ; heard a sermon from a gentleman of the new school 
 cold, declamatory, without unction or comfort. I find fault with him not for 
 what he did say, but for what he did not say,- it was a discourse of omissions. 
 He could not fail on this day to speak of our Lord ; but his whole sermon was 
 in the style of a French bloge ! 
 
 The reader bowed his head at every mention of the name of Jesus, whether it 
 were in the lesson, the epistle, the Gospel, the creeds, or the sermon. This is the 
 novel practice, and I think a very superstitious one. He took no notice of the 
 name " Christ," though perhaps the higher name of the two. This is an affected 
 obedience to the text in Philippians, "that at the name of Jrsus every knee should 
 bow," affected, I think, because if they really desired a li.tr ml obedience in the 
 belief of a literal command, they would resort to a genuflexion instead of a 
 reverence. But the text cannot be taken literally ; the whole context is adverse 
 to such an interpretation ; it is said " That at the name of Josus every knee should 
 bow, of things in heaven," &c. &c. Now what things in heaven have a knee to 
 bow with 1 They can and do offer spiritual homage and reverence, but they do 
 not, and cannot, offer any bodily worship. Neither do they listen to and adore "a 
 name " as pronounced by human lips, but they contemplate and revere and extol 
 the power, glory, and essence of the Saviour of mankind, and herein they set us 
 an example, and in this way alone can we on earth join in simultaneous worship 
 with the hosts of Heaven. The repeated bowings, where the name frequently 
 occurs, savours of idolatry, not unmixed with a spice of the ridiculous. Why 
 then bow at the name of .Ft-tuis in the creed? Because it is an old and long- 
 established practice, conformed to, and understood, by all members of the Church, 
 and one which it would be as unwise and unnecessary to change, as it is to intro- 
 duce the other. To bow, when making the confession, is a representative 
 homage of all that is due at all times and in all places to the authority, glory, 
 majesty, and dominion, temporal and eternal, of our blessed Lord, for this is the 
 true meaning of His " name " as is set forth in many passages of Scripture. 
 
 April. Easter Sunday. The parish church, where we attended divine service 
 on Good Friday, is infestxd with Puseyism, so to-day we went and took the sacra- 
 ment at St. Lawrence, a small village distant much less than a Sabbath day's
 
 IM3.) FAILURE AND SUCCESS. 263 
 
 journey. No show, " no form nor comeliness," but at least health in the service ! 
 The little church of St. Lawrence is crammed and choked with high gawky boxes 
 that they call pews ; the common people are fairly elbowed out ; the gentry aud 
 middle classes sit as if they were packed for security. I do dislike pews, they ore 
 always ungainly, and, in parish churches, vnjunt. The parishioners of the poorer 
 sort are altogether excluded from their rights, and if they go to church at all, go, 
 as it were, by sufferance, and for the chance of a sitting. Strangers, too, who 
 walk in, are not sure of an hospitable reception ; they must very often stand 
 up, or walk out. This is not the House of God. There may be something 
 to be said in respect of proprietary chapels, or other places of worship built, not 
 for the masses, but for private accommodation ; these are different from parochial 
 churches. We have, it is a very sad thing, rendered pews indispensable in many 
 places for the maintenance of the clergyman ; they are a vile and painful source 
 of revenue. 
 
 Minny and I, through God's mercy, took the sacrament together : had after- 
 wards, towards evening, a solitary walk on the seashore (while the blessed child- 
 ren ran about the sands), and recalled the past and anticipated the future, in 
 faith, and fear, and fervent prayer. 
 
 April 26th. The issue I have long foreseen is approaching ; a collision 
 between the Clergy and the mass of the People. The Church will destroy itself. 
 Undoubtedly a struggle of some sort is at hand. Sir George Grey expressed a 
 wish that these violences and consequences of Puseyism should be noticed in some 
 debate. He is right, and please God, I will do it 
 
 April 27th. The Popish aggressions in Tahiti have not contributed to render 
 Puseyism popular among us. What a scene of fraud and violence is that, and yet 
 can ice complain ? The same post brings us an account of our tyranny in Scinde. 
 Power guided by no principle, restrained by no apprehensions, but stimulated by 
 a sense of profit, influences and oppresses all mankind alike. . . . 
 
 April 28th. My birthday. I am this day forty-two years old, more than half 
 my course is run, even supposing that I fulfil the age assigned by the Psalmist 
 to fallen man. " A short life and a merry one," says the sensualist's proverb ; a 
 lo u' life and a useful one would be more noble and more Scriptural ; but it if 
 spoken to the praise of Solomon, and by God Himself, that he had not asked a 
 long life ; neither then will I ; but I do ask, for to this we have the warranty of 
 the Holy Word, that the residue of my years be given to the advancement of the 
 Lord's glory, and to the temporal and eternal welfare of the human race. Surely 
 I may also pray to see, and even to reap, some fruit of my labours, to discern at 
 least some probability of harvest, although to be gathered by other hands ! The 
 Factory Bill drags along ten years have \* itnessed no amelioration the plan 
 for Education is defeated ; the Opium effort is overthrown. On the Colliery 
 Question alone have I had partial success, and that even is menaced by evil and 
 selfish men. f 
 
 Early in January, Lord Londonderry had invited the formation of a 
 league to obtain the repeal of the Colliery Bill ; and by February there had 
 been a " mighty stir in Scotland " to effect this end ; while in Ireland there 
 hiul been organised hostility to the Chimney Sweepers Act. It seemed in 
 truth that there was a fatality attendant upon these measures, but as it proved 
 the Colliery Act was yet to be added permanently to the list of successes.
 
 264 THE EARL OF 8HAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XU 
 
 May 16th. Juat returned from House of Commons. Gumming Bruce at- 
 tempted a repeal of the Colliery Act. He called it a modification of a clause ; 
 Imt such tampering is suspicious and full of danger. I resisted his bringing in 
 the Bill, and beat him by 137 to 23. God be praised I No one was thoroughly 
 odious but Roebuck, who I thought was with me. He entered into a long and 
 laboured argument about the interference with the rights of labour ; and main- 
 tained all the positions that ignorance and heartlessness are so fond of taking 
 up. The Government was cordial. I had many cases of benefit to show ias 
 having occurred in England, and thus to infer that, were the law obeyed, similar 
 results would ensue in Scotland. 
 
 May 21st. Brocket.* Found Melbourne better than I had expected. He 
 looks older, and perhaps weaker ; nevertheless, his intellects are clear, though 
 his temperament almost seems subdued. With care he may yet do well. 
 
 The state of the Churches in the year 1843 was very remarkable. In 
 England the Tractarian movement was advancing rapidly ; in Ireland it wa 
 the " Repeal " year, and the Roman Catholics were making capital out of the 
 political agitation ; while in Scotland it was the year of the Disruption, and, 
 on May the 18th, some five hundred ministers of the Church of Scotland, 
 under the leadership of Dr. Chalmers and Dr. Candlish, seceded from the old 
 Kirk and initiated the Free Church. 
 
 May 30th. Dr. Pusey has preached a sermon at Oxford so strongly savouring 
 of Popery that the Vice-Chancellor demanded a copy, and submitted it to the 
 judgment of a Theological Board. The wisdom of this course will, in the 
 opinion of most people, be determined by the result. Had they seized on Tract 
 XC. and condemned it, the course would have been easier, clearer, safer. The 
 means of evasion, in a discourse on such a subject, are far greater than in a 
 treatise so bold, false, and unprincipled. Curious state the country is in Ire- 
 land rent by Popery, within a hair's-breadth of rebellion ; the Papists hearty, 
 united, furious the Protestants cold, discordant, indifferent their bishops, 
 clergy, and laity all as one man I ours as a multitude ; Scotland with her 
 Church torn asunder, urging religion, but really sowing democracy, and pre- 
 paring a forward movement England with Popery in her Universities ; her 
 uhapels, churches, societies rent in the midst; with nine-tenths of the people 
 arrayed against the Ecclesiastics if an aggressive movement be made by the 
 Dissenters (and what more likely ?) where is our power of resistance ? All is 
 gloomy, there is no dawn ; it seems like a preternatural darkness it fills me 
 with grief and anger to hear the language, and watch the supineness, of the 
 wealthy and great. " You have said the same thing for the last twenty years, 1 ' 
 "yon have got out of difficulties before, and you will do so again," "there is 
 nothing in it," " all flourish," " never mind," and so forth. Ah, well 1 a man 
 who has recovered from four attacks of fever might just as well conclude that 
 he shall certainly recover from the fifth ; every additional access of the disease 
 must find him weaker. But thus we shall go on chewing a moral opium, every 
 one seeking to delude himself, and enjoy the passing hour. The deluge came on 
 
 * Brocket belonged to Lord Melbourne, and came, after his death, to Lord and Lady 
 1'; Jmerston. Lord Lawrence at one time rented it. It now belongs to Lord Cowper, 
 I^stdy Palmerston's grandson.
 
 IMJ.J LETTER FROM ELIZABETH 1 KV. 265 
 
 the world in its momenta of feasting and thoughtlessness ; the world has not 
 changed, nor will it ... 
 
 June 3rd. Pusey's sermon condemned, and himself interdicted to preach for 
 two years ; this is good, simply as showing that we are not all of one com- 
 plexion ; but it will not operate as a check ; all is running into confusion, the 
 Low Church are becoming lower and talk of Dissent, the necessity of abolishing 
 the Catechism, the Prayer-book, the everything. Mother Church will soon be 
 eviscerated, 'Esau and Jacob are striving within her bowels, yet she consults not 
 the Lord I ... 
 
 June 6th. Grand battles by the Indian mail, grand victories, and still 
 arrander injustice I Wrong and robbery on a splendid and successful scale are 
 sure to bo hushed up, if not applauded. I shrink with a combined feeling of 
 rerror and nausea from our national sins. . . . Whither are we going ? Oh, 
 England I England I Magna lui* commigsa, yet there is no repentance, no shame, 
 no self-abasement ; in vain God's ancient people, by their history and by their 
 prophets, exhibit the peril and point out the refuge. " I have surely heard 
 Ephraim bemoaning himself thus : Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, 
 ;i.- a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke ; turn Thou me, and I shall be turned, for 
 Thou art the Lord my God." . . . 
 
 July 10th. Every day adds to my burthen. I have just received a long 
 treatise, by a medical man, written in defence of the Factory system. This will 
 have its weight, and, humanly speaking, add another obstruction to the enact- 
 ment of remedial measures. 
 
 Lord Ashley, it need hardly be said, had many friends, and, in the midst 
 of the anxieties which, rather than the work, made the burden of life, he 
 found help and encouragement in the counsel of those whose opinion he could 
 value at once for its wisdom and sincerity. Among those for whom he enter- 
 tained great esteem and affection was Mrs. Elizabeth Fry, who wrote to him 
 .it this time as follows : 
 
 Mrs. Elizabeth Fry to Lord Ashley. 
 
 UPTON, 7th Month 10th, 1843. 
 
 DEAR LORD ASHLEY, We were sorry not to see thee and thy dear children 
 on the 8th, as the weather cleared here, and we therefore expected yon, but we 
 hope it is only a pleasure delayed, and that I may now have the satisfaction of 
 eeing Lady Ashley also. My husband and myself are anxious for you to propose 
 an early day to bring your children to pay us your country quiet visit. I do not 
 know of our having any engagement this week of an evening except on the 12th 
 inst., therefore any day but this we should be glad to receive you to dinner, as 
 proposed, at half -past four o'clock. I felt thy observations, dear Lord Ashley, aa 
 to the little we appear to accomplish in our labours for the good of mankind. I 
 observe that we do not at once see what we desire, but I feel assured that if in 
 our labours we seek to do all unto the Lord, our labour will not be in vain in 
 Him. Remember there is a seed-time as well as a harvest, and sometimes the 
 need remains long in the earth before it appears above ground ; this I have found 
 the case frequently in works of charity. I observe what thon saidst upon our 
 remembering thee in our prayer ; I did do it yesterday particularly, and was 
 enabled earnestly and in faith to commend those who loved the Lord to Hia
 
 266 THE BART. OF SHAFTESBURY [CHAP. XL 
 
 holy keeping 1 , and to pray for their being firmly fixed and established on Christ 
 the Rock of Ages, and that they might be so strengthened to adorn His doctrine 
 and live to His praise, as to be instruments in drawing others who were far ott' 
 near unto Himself. 
 
 With kind regards to Lady Ashley, 
 
 I remain, with Christian esteem and love, thy friend, 
 
 ELIZABETH FRY. 
 
 July 15th. . . . Have sat for three days, now concluded, on the Durham 
 Election Committee ; in the chair ; unseated Lord Dungannon. * I am resolved, 
 whenever I have the opportunity, to run breast-high against all cases of bribery. 
 This is a perilous, a wicked system ; it is corrupting our people, and spreading 
 moral and political mischief in all directions I 
 
 Hurried beyond all precedent ; never a moment to myself ; just now got an 
 evening, and here I am alone, trying to think of past, present, and to come ; but 
 I have lost all power of consecutive meditation all must be like my daily life, 
 broken by interruptions. 
 
 Bead and said, God be blessed, some of old Bacon's godly prayers, beautiful 
 and comforting. 
 
 18th. Met to-day, at Freemasons' Tavern, to consider best mode of combining 
 the laity in one general movement against Puseyism ; it was an unanimous and 
 hearty assemblage. " Not many mighty, not many noble." We numbered but 
 myself, Sandon, and Grosvenor, among Lords ; Colquhoun, Sir G. Rose, among 
 the M.P.'s ; my brother William, and Frankland Lewis. This is a sad time ; 
 great dangers and no courage, much subtlety, and moderate penetration ; great 
 need, and very little activity ; vast public hazard, and abundant self-seeking. 
 Meroz would be a pattern of promptitude and self-denial to the religious and 
 political patriots of our day. They shun trouble, they fear responsibility ; they 
 cannot hazard rebuke, or comment, or even observation. They will give wishes 
 and praise, but no co-operation, at least, while the thing is uncertain " it ia 
 better not to be committed," " are you quite sure ? " " have you plenty of names ? " 
 Many rejoice that the thing should be done, but prefer that it should be done by 
 others. And yet in zeal, in faith, and fear, and full hope, we signed the Memorial 
 to the Powers of the University (I, leading as chairman), and consigned it for 
 execution to a committee. And now may the God of all truth and love bless it 
 and prosper it to His glory, and to the service of " the faith once delivered to the 
 saints." We several times nearly ran aground on the shoals of caution, expediency 
 and delay ; but we were saved from shipwreck. . . . 
 
 July 27th. All in a hurry ; about to start for Antwerp by the steamer. The 
 residence and regimen of Carlsbad is recommended for Minny. 
 
 Many things left undone. Cannot bear to leave the Session when I might be 
 useful ; but the season will not wait, we are already behind the proper time. 
 Parted from the younger children this is a sad and sickening drawback to any 
 pleasure. May God, in His mercy, goodness, and power, protect and bless them, 
 and restore us safe and happy to each other in Jesus Christ our Lord I Got in my 
 Agricultural Bill, God be praised. 
 
 * Lord Dungannon, Conservative, was returned at the election for the city of 
 Durham, by a majority of 101 over Mr. Bright, of the " League."
 
 1843.J ANTWERP. 267 
 
 Following the course he had pursued in his foreign tour, ten years pre- 
 viously, Lord Ashley took with him a book, in which he recorded, from day 
 to day, the principal incidents of the journey, and the impressions produced 
 upon his mind by what he saw and heard. Every page in the Journal is 
 -t ing ; but as it is only one of four such Journals, we most content our- 
 selves with giving brief extracts from it here. 
 
 Arrived at Antwerp, his first visit was 
 
 To the citadel to survey the scene of useless carnagre and unwarrantable 
 violence. Why did old Chass bombard a defenceless quarter, and destroy the 
 buildings, and ruin the inhabitants ? A mere spirit of revenge. Why did the 
 King of Holland cut open the dykes, and sluice a whole region of fertile lands ? 
 From the same motive. Why, above all, did he attempt a resistance to the com- 
 bined forces of England and France, and hope (or rather pretend to hope) to hold 
 the fortress in the face of such an army as never before laid siege to a place of 
 euch dimensions ? It was a proud, wanton, shameless waste of human life. 
 
 The cathedral is unimpressive. No monuments of ancient champions in sword 
 or spirit ; no dim religious light ; few recollections and few anticipations. The 
 perpetual succession of shrines to the Virgin and to the saints, glittering with 
 tinsel, and in a style of architecture altogether discordant with the architecture 
 of the edifice, is unfavourable to solemnity of feeling. One nauseates the rivalry 
 of these canonised sinners ; disgust is excited in the heart of true Protestants, 
 and unity of worship must be impossible to the devotion even of a Roman 
 Catholic. . . . 
 
 It was natural to him to look at cities, as at events, in the light of the 
 lessons they teach, and he adds : 
 
 Contrast the city with what it was once, and with what Napoleon intended that 
 it should be ; and see the vanity of human wishes. Let us Englishmen take warn- 
 ing, and, while we quote our imports and exports, the amount of our tonnage and 
 the number of our capitalists, call to mind that Antwerp, in her palmy days, 
 could boast of a trade with half the world ; count at one time two thousand five 
 hundred vessels in her harbours, and exhibit on her 'Change five thousand mer- 
 chants, whose business demanded their presence there no less than twice every 
 day 1 " O Lord," well may our nation sny, " make me to know the number of my 
 days, that I may be certified how long I have to live ! " 
 
 All went well with the travellers at Antwerp, Liege, and Verviers, but at 
 Aix-la-Chapelle they were for some days detained by the indisposition of 
 Lady Ashley, which gave Lord Ashley ample leisure to see the place, and also 
 for quiet reading and meditation. 
 
 Saw the cathedral ; parts of it ancient ; little, I think, to impress the mind. 
 The lon< high lancet windows are very grand ; but there is a sad medley of 
 architectures. Under the dome is the inscription, " Carolo Magno ; " there was 
 his body, and there is now his memory. Death brings th rich and the poor to 
 one level ; the resurrection will disturb that level, and raise many of the poor 
 above the rich. The widow and her mite may carry it over Charlemagne and his 
 churches. . . .
 
 268 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XL 
 
 Have been reading Seeley's abridgment of Wilberforce's Life. How many 
 things have we felt alike, what similar disappointments, misgivings, and dis- 
 gusts ! Pitt comes out to advantage as a patriot, a worldly man of high senti- 
 ments and high actions, with a full and rich amount of heathen virtues and 
 elevated philosophy ! but as a man of piety and religion, as a Christian man, he 
 is like an unbaptised person. Policy and expediency were " a lamp unto his feet, 
 and a light unto his path ; " he had no other, and they led him into many a 
 quagmire. 
 
 Aix has an air of comfort among the people that is highly agreeable. I walk 
 through all the streets and see no shoeless, shirtless paupers. The houses are 
 clean and well built, the streets sufficiently broad, and fountains in abundance. 
 The children look plump, and the natives easy and tranquil. Popery here does 
 not wear a very degrading and superstitious aspect ; it must always be in 
 unfavourable relief compared with Protestant countries, but these parts, if 
 estimated by the standard of Italy or of Ireland, enjoy a form of religious 
 freedom. 
 
 Wnen the health of Lady Ashley was sufficiently restored, the journey 
 was resumed in easy stages, and Cologne was the next resting-place. 
 
 August 4th. What a hotel the " Belle Vue " ! the rooms looking on the Rhine 
 and the City ; all is life and cheerfulness, and apparent friendliness. The 
 Germans always pleased me ; I like their origin, akin to ours ; I like their 
 history, their character, their social life. I like their patriotism, their depth of 
 intellect, their powers of perseverance and research ; I hope mighty things from 
 their fervour of spirit, their capacity for affection, their disposition to piety. 
 What an union for the honour of God, and the best interests of mankind, might 
 be formed between England and the German people I 
 
 Of the cathedral he says : 
 
 Interior very splendid, architecture of the choir equal in lightness and purity 
 to anything in the whole world gold and frescoes and painted windows without 
 stint ; the church, when completed, in all its similar details, will be perhaps, 
 excepting St. Peter's, the finest temple in the universe erected to the worship of 
 God ; but so long as it is disgraced and profaned by those intrusive Saints and 
 Madonnas, it will be little better than a Pantheon. It has gained exceedingly in 
 splendour by these renovations in gold and purple, but it has lost in venerableness. 
 The hand of time is effaced, and everything you see is from the hand of man. I 
 could not help thinking, as I walked out through the old grey pillars and dusky 
 aisles, that there was more to stir the heart and the imagination in these sober 
 and time-honoured solitudes, than in the gay and gorgeous surface of the youthful 
 ohoir " New lamps for old 1 "... 
 
 Such a night, and such a view along the river, the scene for hundreds, nay, 
 thousands almost, of years, of ambition and patriotism, of attack and defence, of 
 blood and violence, of public wars and private feuds, of untold sins and some 
 few rude virtues, now all still and abounding in peace. " Give peace in our 
 time, O Lord, because there is none other that fighteth for us, but only Thou, 
 O God." War is erected into a science, and its professors enjoy, and will continue 
 to enjoy, a prodigious share of the admiration and applause of mankind. It will
 
 1848.1 FKOM FRANKFORT TO BAMBEKO. 269 
 
 be carious (may we use such a term ?) to observe the estimate and measure of 
 uch heroes as Napoleon, &c. &c., when weighed, hereafter, in the balance of the 
 world to come. 
 
 From Frankfort, the travellers continued their journey, by road, in their 
 own carriage. 
 
 Much apparent change of character in people, after passing frontiers of 
 Bavaria. Good-humoured, but slovenly, and less clean. Country rural and 
 agreeable. Poplar-trees quite magnificent. More trouble in Bavaria with pass- 
 ports, &c., than elsewhere. 
 
 In those days steam was a novelty, and at Eselbach 
 
 They complained, as others do elsewhere, of railways and steam-boats, that 
 these conveyances had abstracted large bodies of travellers. Mr. Sigar, of the 
 Hotel de Bussie, said that they threw upon him such vast and sudden companies 
 that he could not entertain them. So it is everywhere ; all tends to ruin the 
 small and simple proprietor, and swell the already enormous possessions of the 
 great capitalist. 
 
 But whatever the drawbacks of steam might be, travelling by post was 
 certainly not free from difficulties. 
 
 At Hardtfeld detained by want of horses at inn (The Anchor), which is also 
 the Post. Manifestly a pre-determination on the part of the landlord to keep us 
 all night. As manifest a determination on our part not to be kept. Various 
 negotiations ; alternately dignity and coaxings. Kruse (the tutor) paid several 
 visits to shopkeepers and peasants. They promised frequently, and as frequently 
 started from their promises. Excuses plenty as blackberries. We asked for oxen ; 
 promised, of course, and then told it would be a disgrace to Bavaria. At last two 
 horses were procured. . . . 
 
 Bamberg is a handsome town, and so is Baireuth. Germany, like Italy, pre- 
 sents many specimens of ancient magnificence, formerly imperial, now provincial. 
 Divided, as these countries have been, into many separate and independent 
 governments, they offer, on the same extent of surface, a far greater amount of 
 the works of art than is found in countries long united under the same capital. 
 Bamberg possesses a noble cathedral, highly ancient and of a most dignified 
 simplicity. There are few buildings in Europe to compare with it for majesty 
 and reverence. The series of monumental brasses is unrivalled, and will repay a 
 whole day's study. There are fewer of those intrusive saints here than in Popish 
 churches generally ; that's a relief, and adds to its imposing and venerable 
 aspect. The prince-bishops all lie in the crypt, their resting-places marked by a 
 stone only. This is striking. A long line of eighty-two ecclesiastical sovereigns, 
 who were content to be " splendid in life " without being " pompous in the grave." 
 lu bed very lute at Bamberg. Scarcely slept a wink. As I lay awake, heard the 
 cock crow. I wonder how often that ordinary and rustic sound recalls to the 
 mind of the hearer St. Peter's presumption and his fall, It struck me forcibly 
 that all perhaps must say, with the cruel Bishop Gardiner, whenever they 
 to that note, " I have sinned with Peter, but I have not wept with him." 
 
 On the 1 2th August the party arrived at Carlsbad.
 
 270 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURT. [CHAP. XL 
 
 Aug. 14th. Dined at the Saxischer Saal. Drank coffee suit jove on the espla- 
 nade by the Wiese. Foreigners certainly surpass us in the nature and variety of 
 their social enjoyments. What could surpass the simple and cheap luxury of a 
 pretty scene, a splendid day, delicious air, well-dressed company, green trees, and 
 coffee and milk enough to satisfy five persons, for about a shilling ? Good, very 
 good, if that were all. But I myself could not stand it. Such a facility and 
 sach a character of amusement would prove my ruin ; I should fall like Hanni- 
 bal's soldiers at Capua, and surrender all sense of duty, all effort for mankind, to 
 the overwhelming fascinations of ease and selfishness. 
 
 There are many Jews here in their costume. They seem in comfortable 
 circumstances, but separated from the Gentiles. I have bowed to several to show 
 my respect for the nation. I shall next open a conversation with some of them. 
 They are not oppressed here, but manifestly avoided. The veil is upon the hearts 
 of the Gentiles in respect of that people nearly as much as it is on their hearts in 
 respect of the Gospel. Blessed will be the day when it shall be taken away from 
 both! 
 
 Aug. 17th. What heavenly weather ! Days of Paradise, and nights too ! It 
 sounds sometimes like freedom or affectation to say " God be praised for this," 
 and " Thank God for that," which men may consider a mere trifle ; yet I cannot 
 but feel it. And surely every moment of innocent pleasure, every moment of 
 averted mischief (His unltnoion mercies are endless), affords new cause of thank- 
 fulness, of joy. If, in addition to these delights, the soul be lifted up to com- 
 munion with the spirits above, there is the foretaste of another life, and, so far, 
 a preparation for it. I can never see a fine prospect, or a sun setting in glory, 
 without blessing God for the wonders and beauties of His creation. 
 
 At Carlsbad Lord Ashley, as well as Lady Ashley, drank the waters, and 
 he makes frequent allusion to them in his Journal. 
 
 Aug. 14th. Saw Dr. Hochberger. Agreeable man. Asked his advice about 
 drinking the waters. Sensible reply : " You need not have come here to drink 
 them, but, being here, you may do so, and you will, I think, derive benefit from 
 them." And so I shall begin my goblets and promenade to-morrow morning. 
 
 Aug. 16th. The waters again from goblets. Felt half ashamed to drink 
 them in my comparatively vigorous health, but really one need not entertain 
 such delicate conceptions. Saw robust and muscular men, in full swig, who 
 could sustain or undertake a siege, walk or eat for a wager. Took courage and 
 affected as much necessity as they did. Baths and springs exhibit very few 
 apparently sickly people. Seem bent on society and dissipation quite as much as 
 on cure. Aug. 21st. Advised by Dr. Hochberger to take seven goblets. It is 
 the life of a whale ! . . . Aug. 23rd. The waters seem to produce on me 
 neither good nor evil ; a hogshead of the Thames would be quite as effective. 
 
 Aug. 27th. Sunday. Psalms of the day contained that beautiful CXXII. 
 with its touching prayer and promise, " Oh, pray for the peace of Jerusalem ; 
 they shall prosper that love Thee ! " I rejoice that I bear this blessed inscription 
 on my right hand, in a ring carved at Jerusalem, and by the only Hebrew there 
 who possessed such skill. It is rudely done ; but that enhances the sentiment 
 which arises from the discovery of genuine, though perhaps uninstructed piety, 
 under a coarse and unpromising surface. I prize the ring ; it was sent me (that
 
 CARLSBAD. 271 
 
 is, the stone) by the Bishop of Jerusalem. I do not say that I wish it to be 
 buried with me, that would be ascribing to it a talismanic effect ; I would rather 
 wish it to be worn by generations of my descendants, like Urim and Thummim 
 on the breast of the High Priest, on which they might, hour by hour, cast their 
 eyes and read the mind of the Lord ! 
 
 Aug. 29th. . . . Walked to Freundschaf to Saal with Galitzin, and a Russian 
 colonel, a good-natured chap, but the veriest coxcomb I ever saw the victim of 
 his own charms, a martyr to the admiration and love his accomplishments had 
 begotten. The whole world, all the English lords, a Devonshire, a Bnccleuch, 
 Jersey, &c. &c., had all taken him by force and compelled him to stay either six 
 weeks at Chatsworth or two months at Middleton, or take a sail in a yacht ; 
 he could not resist, not he ; like Saturn he was eaten by his own children I 
 
 Sept. 1st. Walked up the hill to enjoy the view ; day beautiful. I love these 
 open prospects ; give me always an expanse of sky, I value not a handful of it. I 
 then can fancy the dawning glories of the Second Advent. " Behold He cometh 
 with cloutid 1 " Oh that it were so in the providence of God that the intervening 
 " days should be shortened " and a speedy and a closer limit be set to the sins, and 
 coming sufferings, of mankind ! 
 
 Sept. 5th. Saw the most perfect and beautiful rainbow I ever beheld ; so 
 thought Minny, who was with me. " Behold I do set my bow in the cloud ; " one 
 could almost, without either revelation or tradition, infer that so much loveliness 
 and grandeur were speaking truth and comfort to men. . . . Reading Jeremiah 
 with Minny, how forcibly was the 15th v. of Chap. VTIL applied in my heart to 
 the administration of Sir Robert ; " we looked for peace, but no good came ; 
 and for a time of health, and behold trouble ! " Never did Minister accede to 
 office with such a force of moral power ; never has Minister disappointed so many 
 hearts. 
 
 Sept. 7th. . . . One must buy presents for one's friends as reminiscences. 
 The occasion enhances the value ; you could not for thrice the money in England 
 do so civil a thing. Tet the choice, &c., takes as much time as though I were set 
 on a grand political movement. 
 
 There is much amiable simplicity and good humour about the people here of 
 all classes ; I am not disappointed in my expectations of finding the working 
 classes, here as elsewhere, alive to kind words and willing nay, anxious to be 
 obliging and courteous. They are very engaging, and the children are quite 
 darlings. 
 
 On Sept. 14th, after a pleasant visit of five weeks, during which Lord 
 Ashley had only seen two English newspapers (" never read one without 
 injurious consequences ; find in it a variety of things to excite imagination and 
 rtir bile "), he thus takes leave of Carlsbad : 
 
 . . . Walked up the hill with Minny to enjoy final look of the sweet scene 
 and offer up final prayer. The country has received me hospitably, treated me 
 kindly, and dismisses me in peace. We delight in the scenery, and love the 
 people, who are honest, civil, intelligent, and grateful. I can render them no 
 service, but I wish them well, and beseech God to give them peace on earth and 
 peace in henven. 
 
 The next halting-place was Prague
 
 272 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURT. [CHAP. XI. 
 
 Sept. 17th. . . . The Church of St. James, handsome and heavy. Prague 
 is full of Protestant recollections, l<sta tristia, ambigua manifesta. Here began 
 and here ended the terrible Thirty Years' War. Hardly a step can be taken, or a 
 wall inspected, or a stone turned, without some reminiscence of faith or violence. 
 Here have been piety, fanaticism, honour, fraud, valour, meanness, all that can 
 ennoble, all that can disgrace, human nature. Popery now sits enthroned, but 
 not triumphant ; it has expelled Protestantism, but it has not struck deep the 
 roots of the Papacy. Will no heaven-sent gust of wind soon arise to blow down 
 the lifeless plant in the city of John HUBS and Jerome of Prague ? 
 
 If the scenery through which Lord Ashley passed incited him to piety and 
 devotion, the haunts of men no less excited his benevolence and compassion. 
 He could not bear to pass a public institution for the benefit of the poor or 
 the sick, without looking in to see whether he could not gain some hint that 
 would be of benefit to the institutions in which he was personally interested, 
 or give some suggestions from his own experience that might be helpful to 
 them. Thus at Prague he visited the Hospital of the Elisabetiues, kept and 
 administered by an order of Sisters of Charity, and noted that in such an 
 institution were to be seen the good points of Popery, those excellent works 
 being done openly and in corporations, whereas in Protestant lands, and in 
 England especially, they are done privately and by individuals. 
 
 In the lunatic asylum at Prague he found in existence a system he had 
 long wished to introduce into England, namely, the reception of some 
 patients at the public expense, and others at their own, but all under public 
 inspection. 
 
 For the first time in the course of this travel-diary the events occurring in 
 the political world at home are referred to. 
 
 Sept. 2 1st, Vienna. Dined with Sir B. Gordon. Denison* sat with me for 
 an hour before bed-time. My letters give hopes that Address f " will not be a 
 failure." Already, they say, three thousand or four thousand signatures, but 
 that is nothing ; it must be multiplied by one hundred. So Mr. Maurice, of Guy'a 
 Hospital, has assailed me for my share in promoting the Address. I am neither 
 surprised nor displeased. He is one of those who must be ranked, according to 
 old Foxe's definition, as " neither sound Protestant nor true Papist." . . . He 
 once did excellent service in the cause of the Jerusalem Bishopric. This covers a 
 multitude of sins, and if it gives him pleasure or does him good to assail me, he 
 is welcome. 
 
 With Lady C., Denison, Minny, &c., to see the Jewel House. Splendid collection 
 of beautiful things and precious stones ; everything that can decorate and delude 
 and cover the nakedness of human life. All brilliant and interesting, but most of 
 all the Crown and Begalia taken from the tomb of Charlemagne, at Aix ; very 
 amusing for us, but very wrong in them. Who did it ? What right had any one 
 to plunder the receptacles of the dead ? None, I suppose, and yet we do it every 
 day. Our collections would be scanty enough were this scruple pushed very far. 
 At what period then, after burial, are the dead put beyond the pale of the l.rw I 
 
 * Afterwards Speaker. t Ox ford University.
 
 1843) VIENNA. 273 
 
 We should be commended for despoiling the tomb of Alexander, but the whole 
 world would cry out if we scattered and exhibited the bones and grave-f urnitnre 
 of Napoleon. However, be that as it may, these jewels belong to the German 
 nation, and not to the Emperor of Austria. They ought to be placed in the 
 keeping of the Diet, at Frankfort. 
 
 . . . Sir R. Gordon called, and Prince Esterhazy. Received a very kind 
 note from Metternich, desiring to see me at any convenient hour of the morninir. 
 Went to his villa ; very friendly reception and highly complimentary. He 
 retains his old habit of haranguing rather than conversing ; seems far better in 
 health than I had anticipated ; hair very white. Talked of A, B, and C ; the 
 only thing I remember as of political interest was " Moi je suis fort Anglais ; 
 mais il faut que je vous disc que 1'Angleterre a peu d'amis en Allemagne." Alas, 
 it is too true ; fools that we all are on both sides of the water. 
 
 Sept. 23rd. Wandered about alone to examine old haunts ; cannot decide in 
 which of two houses I lived eighteen years ago. So it is ; after an interval of 
 eighteen years I find myself once more at Vienna, a married man with seven 
 children 1 What a change since the time I first arrived here ; yet I do not mourn 
 over my past, but my misspent youth ! Ill-directed feelings and wasted hours 
 flit before me in long array ; nevertheless, they were not without fruit, and, by 
 God's blessing, good fruit ; experience of various kinds was purchased by folly, 
 though without criminality. . . . God in His mercy grant to me and mine 
 (we ask Him not " for long life ") that the years which He shall give may be 
 years of usefulness ; and that they present not, at the Great Account, a mere 
 record of things received, but of things hoped and done in His worship and 
 service. 
 
 Sept. 25th. Dined with Gordon. Drank tea with the Princess Schonbourp ; 
 necessarily silent and stiff. I have no doubt that these parties might become 
 very intimate and pleasant. To Princess Metternich. Nothing can be more 
 gracious or kind. Metternich complains of the weight of affairs ; unquestionably 
 they must be heavy, but I smiled to think of his burdens compared with those of 
 a House of Commons Minister in England. 
 
 Sept. 28th. ... I feel more and more like Ulysses : 
 
 " Towards his loved coasts he rolled his eyes in vain." 
 
 The heimweh is so strong upon me that I am in a fever to be off. I rejoice in this 
 as a healthy symptom, for the allurements of this place are such as would lead u, 
 man to a still, stagnant life of ease and sensuality, forgetf ulness of duty ai.d 
 honourable toil ; the more seductive and perilous because apparently permissible 
 and harmless. What an extraordinary population is this of Vienna 1 What u 
 power of enjoying existence ! Their digestions must be strong and their circula- 
 tions perfect. A placid, self-satisfied expression is diffused over all their feature* 
 and actions ; they sit together by hundreds like a warm statue-gallery. You may 
 hear a pin drop among them after the claims of the stomach are gratified for die 
 moment ; it is almost the effect of a contented conscience, a life well spent, " a 
 good man's latter days." Never have I seen, and never have I read of a placu 
 more fatal to religious activity ; it is Laodicean to the heart's core. ... To 
 Pottendorf, a villa of Prince Esterhazy's. Esterhazy very kind and hospitable. 
 Sept 30th. . . . Visited a cotton and flax mill near Pottendorf belonging 
 8
 
 274 THE EAKL OP SHAFTESBURY [CHAP. XI 
 
 to an Austrian company, and under an English director. Found the people as 
 everywhere, pale, yellow, and greatly fallen from their just position of strength 
 and vitality. Hours of labour for all ages from 5 in the morning till 9 at night > 
 no time allowed for breakfast, half an hour for dinner, and one hour for the 
 education of the children 1 Children to be educated in the midst of 14 hours' 
 dully labour. Oh, the pious humbug, the hypocritical spirituality ! Both the 
 directors, one who had been there forty -five years, and the other a young 
 Englishman, three years ago from Manchester, assured me that the labour was 
 far too long and oppressive. . . . The Austrian Government prides itself on 
 being " paternal," and yet it knows and permits these things ! 
 
 The mills on the whole not very bad ; I have seen far worse in England ; 
 some of the spinning rooms, however, very filthy and close. Children never 
 beaten. . . . All the dwellings of the work-people are on a fine dry soil, an 
 open plain, well ventilated, and in every respect most favourable. If such, then, 
 be the evil results in such a locality, what must they be in the crowded, un- 
 drained, filthy towns of Manchester, &c. ? 
 
 October 1st. Sunday. To cathedral to view the High Mass. What a sensual 
 and alas ! successful endeavour to stifle the heart by satiating the eye I Bells 
 ringing, priests dancing, incense rising, fiddles playing, nothing calm or sta- 
 tionary but the worshippers, who remain there like fellows looking at a balloon. 
 Half the world seems to think that to have seen the priest is an act of acceptable 
 deration. I cannot feel moved by this exhibition ; there is neither rational 
 devotion nor hot-headed enthusiasm ; nothing to satisfy your judgment nor stir 
 your sympathies. Great God, save Thy Church of England from such vain and 
 silly babblings, and grant her grace yet to speak forth the words of truth and 
 soberness ! 
 
 One of the greatest drawbacks to the pleasure of Lord Ashley in foreign 
 travel was the " Continental Sunday," especially in great cities. Vienna, 
 and all places like it, he found to be fatal to Sunday contemplations and 
 Sunday habits and feelings. 
 
 I could not bear to remain here. Give me my happy, precious, useful Sunday 
 evenings in Londonj when one can surrender one's whole time, mind, and heart 
 to thoughts of higher and better things. I wish increasing and unbounded 
 happiness to all the inhabitants of Vienna ; I pray, I would labour, for their 
 welfare ; I entertain a lively sense of their kindness, of the good-humoured 
 courtesy of all classes, but I do not desire to reside among them. A man's virtue 
 here would be no more proof against their seductive modes of thinking and 
 living than a hothouse against a battery. And yet, thank God, I begin to feel 
 " bored." 
 
 Oct. 3rd. Linz. . . . It is a very displeasing characteristic of these 
 countries, and principally in Bohemia, the general and abundant employment of 
 females in all departments of labour. I have seen them in the fields, on the 
 roads, and engaged in buildings, dividing, in their numbers and their exertions, 
 the toil with the men. We Englishmen have no right to comment on this mis- 
 usage of the female race ; the horrors of the mines and collieries have put us, 
 for a generation at least, out of court ; all that we can urge is that these things 
 were transacted in darkness, and hid from the public eye ; but such would not
 
 1843.1 KATISBON. 275 
 
 now be the truth, nor any excuse if it were so. The commercial spirit has gotten 
 hold of us, and had the remedial Bill stood over to another year the public would 
 have tolerated the degradation of the women. . . . 
 
 Oct. 6th. Ratisbon. Walked through the fair, interesting to see the humours 
 and products of the country. The town, nevertheless, is like a graveyard, full of 
 s ones and recollections, with a few people wandering through it, as the shorter 
 cut to some other point. Its solitude is overwhelming narrow streets, empt^ 
 squares, dark, silent, dismal, old houses, each bearing on its face the traces of a 
 fortress or a dungeon ; few or no vehicles of any kind ; a foot-passenger here 
 and there, no groups of talkers, no voices in the streets. A judgment seems to 
 rest on it ; it shall be more tolerable for Sidon in the Day of Judgment than for 
 a city that can produce, or rather that must face, such records of sin and cruelty 
 as are displayed in the prisons of the Council-House. My whole heart quailed, 
 and even my stomach sickened, at the sight of these enormous devices of human 
 nature against beings formed by the same God, and redeemed (for these wretches 
 pretended to talk of Redemption) by the same Saviour ! The darkness and 
 ferocity of the Middle Ages were concentrated for the antagonists of the Refor- 
 mation ; political and religious hatred have each had their day in these frightful 
 chambers. . . . These times may yet return ; the heart of man is not changed ; 
 it is, as it ever was, " deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." If 
 such be thy will, give us, blessed Lord, the spirit of ancient .days ; the glorious 
 aspiration and courage of those holy martyrs " of whom the world was not 
 worthy," who fought a good fight, who kept the faith, and who received a crown 
 of righteousness. . . . 
 
 . . . Drove to see the Valhalla. A strange name for the purpose. The 
 great of Germany are classed together in a heathen Paradise ; notoriety, not 
 virtue of any kind, is the sole requisite for a niche. Goethe, Schiller, Alario, 
 f the Goths (the scourge of God I), Genserio, King of the Vandals, Handel, 
 Odoacer, Hans Holbein, Frederick the Great, all cheek by jowl. Luther is ex. 
 eluded from this hodge-podge of merit, and the bigoted, ignorant Papist who 
 sits on the throne of Bavaria, and built this gorgeous stable of fat and lean 
 cattle, believes that he has degraded such a prodigious mind by refusing it a 
 place alongside the Huns and the Hernli of ancient barbarism I ... A tablet 
 in a Christian church, a bust in a great public institution, a periodical euloginm 
 at some University, any glorification of such a kind, might be complimentary, if 
 not a full satisfaction to ambitions hopes ; but to be thrust, head and shoulders, 
 into this receptacle of barbarian spirits ; to be enrolled among the furies who 
 placed all their bliss in swigging mead out of the skulls of their enemies ; to be 
 ranked with ignorance, not with civilisation ; with Odin and not with Christ, is 
 a singular reward, and founded on Satan's opinion that it is " better to reign in 
 hell than serve in Heaven." 
 
 Oct. 8th. Sunday. Nuremberg. Fallen from its high estate, and yet a 
 great city. Why has she thus fallen 7 She pays the penalty of cruelty and in- 
 justice, of violence and oppression towards God's ancient people, whom no one 
 has ever afflicted without smarting for the sin. She banished them from her 
 borders. She "left, too, her first love," and in the days of persecution and 
 savage ungodliness, refused to open her gates to the conscientious Protestants 
 fleeing from the revocation of the Edict of Nantes I May God, in His gooineffl, 
 give her space to repent !
 
 276 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBUR*. (CHAP. XI. 
 
 In Nuremberg all the churches were visited, and in them all, but espe- 
 cially in St. Lawrence's and St. Sebald's, Lord Ashley was chiefly struck by 
 the exterior signs of a Romanist establishment, in the midst of a Protestant 
 population. Referring to this he says : 
 
 The Reformation was introduced and confirmed here without noise or 
 violence ; no plunder, no destruction ; every image is erect, the Virgin presides 
 over every corner, the saints rejoice in their niches. Crucifixes in abundance. 
 This may be tolerated, but I am offended to see those intrusive demi-gods in 
 possession of their shrines and side-altars, though no longer worshipped. Why 
 were they not ordered to give place, and their pictures and decorations trans- 
 ferred to galleries ? . . . Was the Reformation at Nuremberg a sincere and 
 heartfelt movement ? Did the promoters and subjects of it clearly perceive, and 
 sensitively acknowledge, the errors and evils of Romish heresy ? I cannot com- 
 bine this belief with the fact of their extreme tolerance of the daily and visible 
 abuses of Popish superstition. Nothing has been removed and denounced as 
 " Nehushtan ; " the adored images of the Virgin crowd their churches, and still 
 represent her as " Queen of Heaven ; " the side-altars to saints require only the 
 priest, and all would be found ready to his hand ; the clean napkin is yet spread 
 every week on each table I Truly, the zeal of God's house has not eaten them 
 up ! ... 
 
 Oct. 10th. . . . Entered Wurtemberg. 
 
 The watchman here, as he goes his rounds, sings at each hour, some words of 
 moral or religious wisdom. The voice may be harsh, and the notes without 
 melody ; but the stillness of the night, the lateness of the hour, and the truth of 
 the counsel, give them grace and power. Many ears may be closed and hear 
 them not, but one or two, restlessly awake, in sickness or sorrow, may catch and 
 may apply the heaven-sent wisdom. " In a dream, in visions of the night when 
 deep sleep f alleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed, then He openeth the 
 ears of men, and sealeth their instruction ; that He may withdraw man from his 
 purpose and hide pride from man." At eleven o'clock the watchman sang, that 
 we should remember the parable of Our Blessed Lord, and, even at the eleventh 
 hour, enter with confidence into His vineyard. At twelve he announced the 
 close of the cycle of one day, and admonished all to bethink themselves "whether 
 they should live to see the close of another." Here is the sum and substance, the 
 beginning and the end, of all real wisdom ; all the rest is but vain jangling, not 
 to be carried out of this world, and utterly useless to disembodied spirits. Listen 
 to it, ye wiseacres, neologists, philosophers, savants, saints, and sinners, old men 
 and young, prince and peasant, and sit down in humility at the feet of such a 
 Gamaliel t 
 
 Oct. llth. Heidelberg. Went to see the palace. It is one of the many 
 standing monuments of the oppressions perpetrated by the French monarchy on 
 Germany and mankind. This gorgeous residence was first desolated when the 
 most polished villain that ever possessed and prostituted the gifts of God sent 
 forth an army to ravage the dominions of his enemy, the Palatine. Fire, the 
 sword, with their necessary results starvation and disease laid waste towns, 
 plains, and villages. Thousands of men, women, children, who had never 
 offended, even in thought, this unprecedented monster, experienced the most 
 horrid sufferings, and died by the most cruel deaths. Which is the more hateful
 
 RETUKN TO LONDON. 277 
 
 in the sight of God, the wretch who perpetrates these crimes, or the authors who 
 bepraise him ? The great day of judgment will exhibit some fearful reckonings. 
 If Herod be arraigned for his Massacre of the Innocents, so will King Louis the 
 Fourteenth, for the blood of the numberless children whose souls are still " under 
 the altar," crying for inevitable vengeance. 
 
 Oct. 12th. Frankfort. For the last few days I have been reading to Minny, 
 and Minny has been reading to me, "Russie en 1839, par le Marquis de Custine." 
 The condition of things in that vast edifice of power and ambition, if estimated 
 by our proportions of feelings and opinions, is one below the condition of shivery. 
 The picture of man, as there exhibited, is not the picture of a thinking being, but 
 of a machine, or of an animal purely sentient. He is prompted and limited, even 
 in his pleasures, by the rule of functionaries. " Amusez von*, met enfant" said 
 the affable Dey of Algiers, " et g'il y a quelqtfun qui ne s'amvse pas, il tera empale 
 de suite." The Russian people, prince and peasant, would obey and assume an 
 artificial satisfaction the only one possible to them. What a surprising, pro- 
 digious, and irritating description of a whole empire 1 Sixty millions of men 
 subjected to the caprice and the fancies of a single creature, and such a creature 
 as the heartless monster who now sits in the torture chamber of the ancient 
 Cz:irs 1 Civilisation and refinement add an extreme sensibility to the perceptions 
 of tyranny. The ferocity of the Shah of Persia is far less distasteful to the rude 
 and ignorant Asiatics, than the insolent prying, material, and mysterious oppres- 
 sions of the Emperor would be to us. 
 
 Oct. 19th. Ostend. A little woman has been singing under our windows on a 
 guitar, and very nicely. We gave her some francs. I love to encourage street 
 music ; it pleases the people and softens them ; indeed, unless they get it in the 
 street, they get it nowhere. To-morrow we embark for England. 
 
 Oct. 20th. London. Thus has terminated our tour of nearly three months' 
 duration, and, in all this time and all this movement, there has scarcely occurred 
 u single thing to cause even a momentary embarrassment. Minny was ill at 
 Aachen, and God's goodness restored her. Excepting that event, not one of us 
 h:is had a day's sickness, nor a bruise, nor a fright. The carriage even, faithful 
 after thirteen years of service, lost not a pin, nor required a smith. We have 
 eeen much, heard much, I hope, too, profited much, especially the boys. It haa 
 been amusement, but amusement, God grant, combined with instruction. Health 
 we have certainly attained, Minny particularly, for whose sake the journey was 
 undertaken. Now let us pray that all may be turned to greater, more zealous, 
 more fruitful service in the cause of our Lord and Redeemer. 
 
 On the last page of this Diary there is the following note, written in 
 characters as firm and flowing as in the preceding pages : 
 
 Angu*t, 1880. 
 
 Until this month have never, I believe, re-opened this book ; a space of 37 
 years t Since it was written, three of the blessed ones mentioned in it, and their 
 deeply, and still-beloved mother, gone to their rest. It recalls a hundred 
 memories, none more touching and consoling than the records of a profound, 
 constant, and ever-increasing solicitude for the welfare and safety of the children 
 in the Lord Jesus Christ 
 
 Immediately upon his return to London, Lord Ashley resumed the Jourual 
 of liis busy public and private life.
 
 278 THE EARL OF SHAPTESBURY. [CiiAP. XI. 
 
 Oct. 21st. Found irmense accumulation of letters and papers. Waded 
 through many before going to bed last night. Old story of postmen, knockers, 
 bells, visitors, business, questions, answers, hopes, fears, doubts, difficulties. Saw 
 Crabtree. Newspapers. Ministers have proceeded against O'Connell for sedition ! 
 Why, he has been guilty of sedition for twenty years. I cannot judge ; it seems 
 to me the energy of feebleness an acquittal on a trumpery charge will give him 
 power one on a serious and well-grounded charge could not entail contempt. 
 
 My heart sank within me as I walked to the Carlton. Keminiscences of toil, 
 vexation, and broken promises, hopes raised, and efforts disappointed. Saw 
 Bonham in the dumps Conservative candidate (an excellent one, by-the-bye) 
 Thomas Baring, defeated by 127. Triumph of the Anti-Corn-Law League ! . . . 
 
 Oct. 26th. St. Giles's. Arrived here yesterday with the whole cavalcade of 
 brats and nurses. . . . 
 
 Oct. 27th. Walked yesterday to my post on the Downs above Brockington 
 Avenue, and there thanked God, on the very spot where I had besought Him to 
 bless my thoughts and prosper my undertakings. As He prospered me according 
 to His wisdom and mercy in the last Session, so I again implored Him to prosper 
 me in the next one. As yet, though much seed has been sown, no harvest has 
 been reaped ; the tree, indeed, has scarcely put forth blossoms ; much less has it 
 borne fruit ; but let me confide in His blessed Provulence, and be content that I 
 am called even to the proposal of good things. 
 
 All the children with me, not without a tinge of melancholy. Probably, the 
 last family walk before Antony * goes to school, possibly (for who can foresee 
 all) the last that we may ever take together. 
 
 " Keep us, oh, keep us, King of kings, 
 Under TJiine own Almighty wings. "' 
 
 Oct. 28th. The Times of the 25th contains a good and t-ue article on our 
 Indian policy ! Eight follows might, ambition squared with principles, principles 
 being first contracted within the views of ambition. Afghanistan was a bad case, 
 but Scinde is worse. . . . 
 
 Oct. 30th. The last day that Antony will pass with his family before he 
 enters on his new state (for such it is) of life. During many years I have passed 
 every morning with him, hearing and reading the Word of God. I cannot bear 
 to part from him ; were I not deeply, entirely convinced, that the plan is for his 
 real welfare, I should be miserable ; " I commit him to God and to the word of 
 His grace." Eleven o'clock at night. It seems to me almost incredible that I am 
 about to surrender my Reuben to the care of a stranger. I have watched every 
 moment, weighed every expression, considered every thought, and seized every 
 opportunity to drop a word in season. All will now be left to an " hireling " ; 
 will he care for the sheep 1 God, be Thou to him a guide, an instructor, and :i 
 friend ! Probably, the course of his affections may be stopped, or made to run in 
 another channel ; they will not, at any rate, flow on in their clear and early 
 simplicity. Yet he must be gradually introduced to the world ; and tec gradually 
 severed from him. This is the order of Providence (and since it is His order, 
 wise and good), that the children shall imbibe new loves, and form new con- 
 nections, while the parents are left by the receding tide, stranded like sea-weed 
 
 * His eldest son.
 
 1843.] OPPOSITION OF M188 MART1XEAU. 279 
 
 on the shore, their time being come for decay and transmutation. This seems to 
 be painful, and probably is so, but here is not our permanent treasure, or our final 
 resting-place. If we have trained up a faithful servant of the Lord, to go forth 
 and fight His battles, vigorous and young, while we are nickering at home, " I 
 therein do rejoice, yea and will rejoice." . . . 
 
 Nov. 1st. Why was not a syllable uttered by our rulers in behalf of the 
 Chaldean Christians ? We have suffered them to be butchered without a voice in 
 their defence. Yet Palmerston spoke for the Jews at Damascus ! . . . 
 
 Nov. 22nd. Russia is the political Rome ; she is to the politics of nations 
 what Rome is to their spirituals, she seeks the same ends, and uses the sam< 
 means. The Jesuit works by all 'instruments, at all times, and on every feeling : 
 he is, according to his opportunity, an Absolutist, a Constitutionalist, a Democrat* 
 an Anglo-Catholic, a Dissenter, an Infidel so is the Russian Empire, having but 
 one object, and ten thousand means. Universal dominion I ... 
 
 Lord Ashley's philanthropic labours did not, as his Diaries abundantly in- 
 dicate, meet with unqualified and universal approval. On the contrary, he 
 was often attacked even by those upon whose support he had a right to count, 
 as well as by those who differed with him in principle and policy. 
 
 His chief opponents, however, belonged to that party which appeared to 
 look for a social millennium, to be brought about by the rigid application rf 
 the dogmas of political economy, and who considered that he was endeavouring 
 to limit freedom of contract, and in other ways unduly to interfere between 
 capital and labour. Miss Harriet Martiuoau may be quoted as the exponent 
 of the views of this party. They either knew nothing of the relations between 
 Lord Ashley and his father, which supplied the key to the whole situation, or 
 thought it best not to appear to do so, that they might be able to represent 
 the direction of Lord Ashley's philanthropy as strange and questionable. 
 " His residence," says Miss Martineau, " was in an agricultural county where 
 the labourers were reduced to the lowest condition then known to English- 
 in > MI. It was so on his father's estates ; on the estates to which in the course 
 of nature he was to succeed ; yet he did not take under his protection his 
 nearest neighbours, with whose needs he was, or ought to have been, beat 
 acquainted ; but constituted himself the champion of the Lancashire opera- 
 tives whose families had been earning 3 a week, while the peasant families, 
 liis nri'/lihours, were earning from eight to ten shillings per week, living on 
 food too mean and scanty to support strength, and sleeping under rotten 
 thatch which let in the rain. Lord Ashley was agitating for the personal 
 safety and for the education of the class, which was actually the most en- 
 li-litt.-nrd and the best able to take care of itself, of any working class in 
 Fnirloiid, while the agricultural labourers of his own county were in a stat 
 ]>erate ignorance and reckless despair, which demanded all his efforts to 
 redress. Knowing nothing of "the manufacturing system," as it was called, 
 he had to depend for information on persons from Lancashire and other mill 
 districts ; and it is notorious that his informants were not always respectable. 
 ;.!<! that he was largely tlnpod ; while he need but have gone into the horola
 
 980 THE EARL OF 8HAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XI. 
 
 of his father's peasantry to have seen misery and mental and moral destitu- 
 tion which could not be matched in the worst retreats of the manufacturing 
 population." * 
 
 The foregoing quotation is mild in comparison with a further statement 
 giving currency to malicious reports concerning "proofs that caine to light 
 with regard to the bad character and unjustifiable procedure" of Lord 
 Ashley's correspondents and visitors ; and referring especially to a certain 
 letter said to have been dropped by Lord Ashley at his Club, from a Lanca- 
 shire correspondent of his, who wrote, as it was asserted, that there was no 
 hope of carrying Lord Ashley's measure of that Session, but " by blackening 
 the character of four mill-owners of the very first order " " men," says Miss 
 Martineau, " who had provided schools for the children of their operatives, 
 who had built model houses for their people, opened lecture and reading 
 rooms, and baths, and places of recreation ; who had spontaneously spent 
 many thousands of pounds in the largest liberality towards their industrial 
 neighbours, and were ordinarily on terms of strong goodwill with them." 
 
 It is not intended here to " defend " Lord Ashley against attacks, which 
 Time, and his own bright deeds, have long since silenced. They are quoted 
 merely to give a specimen of the nature of the untruths that were freely cir- 
 culated, even by those who should have been more jealous over their own 
 reputations, than to endorse idle stories invented by political partisans to help 
 out weak arguments. It may be mentioned, however, that Lord Ashley was 
 by nature extremely sensitive, and that these repeated attacks caused him 
 much pain and vexation. 
 
 In November of this year took place the annual dinner of the Sturminster 
 Agricultural Society, in Dorsetshire, and, in reply to Lord Grosvenor (after- 
 wards Marquis of Westminster), who proposed his health, he made the 
 remarkable speech to which the following extract alludes : 
 
 Dec. 1st. Last night took chair of meeting at Sturminster. About one 
 hundred and eighty to dinner. Very friendly and even enthusiastic. Spoke in 
 {riving thanks for my health. Wonderfully well received, though I uttered some 
 strong truths respecting wages, dwellings, truck, delay of payment, and exclusion 
 from gleaning. 
 
 Unhappily, this speech brought him into collision with his father, who 
 only was responsible for any neglect of the peasantry on the family estate in 
 Dorsetshire. The speech dwelt upon "the obligations which alone can 
 sanctify the possession of property, and render its tenure a joy to all classes, 
 alike honourable, beneficial, and secure." In the course of it, Lord Ashley 
 drew attention to the stigma attaching to the county of Dorset. He said : 
 
 The county of Dorset is now in every man's mouth every paper, Metro- 
 1 politan and Provincial, teems with charges against us ; we are within an ace of 
 [becoming a byword for poverty and oppression. As Englishmen, as human 
 [beings, arid as Christians, we ought to examine these accusations, refute whatever 
 
 * Harriet Martineau's "Thirty Years' Peace," vol. ii., p. 553.
 
 A PERILOUS SPEECH. 281 
 
 is untrue, and remedy what cannot be donied. I do not think that your task will 
 be very difficult ; for these charges, though somewhat founded in truth, havo 
 been pushed, by other parties than those who first made them, with woeful exag. 
 iriTation ; that which is only partial is assumed to be universal ; all that is good 
 is suppressed ; all that is bad most zealously produced : and the owners and 
 occupiers of hind in this county are represented as guilty of much that they have 
 never done, and of much that they cannot control. . . . Gentlemen, are we 
 prepared to look these charges in the face, discuss their justice, repel what is false, 
 but correct what cannot be gainsaid ? Do we admit the assertion that the wages of 
 labour in these parts are scandalously low, painfully inadequate to the maint.-u- 
 ance of the husbandman and his family, and in no proportion to the profits of the 
 soil I If we are able to deny this statement, we shall also be able to disprove it 
 let us do so without delay ; but if the reverse, not an hour is to be lost in roll- 
 ing away the reproach. I do not pretend to give advice as to the precise mode of 
 doing these things, I am not sufficiently practical, or conversant with the hiring 
 or payment of labour ; but this I know, that? if a larger self-denial, an abatement 
 of luxuries, a curtailing even of what are called comforts, be necessary to this 
 end, let us begin at once with the higher and wealthier classes it must be done ; 
 there is neither honour, nor safety, nor joy (setting aside all higher considera- 
 tions), to dwell in a house, however fair the outside, which rests on such rotten 
 and crumbling foundations. . . . 
 
 And now, gentlemen, notwithstanding the openness with which I have spoken 
 to you, I hope, nay, I believe, I shall obtain your forgiveness ; it would have been 
 easy to take a safer course, hold a more flattering language, and, by suppressing 
 the reality, indulge the imagination ; but I should not then have done either my 
 duty to yon, or had respect to the consistency of my own principles. You ought 
 to know and reflect on these things ; and I ought not to be lynx-eyed to the mis- 
 conduct of manufacturers, and blind to the faults of landowners. . . . Set 
 yourselves to mitigate the severity of the poor-law ; its greatest supporters admit 
 that it is severe ; but that severity may be mitigated or increased by the mode of 
 its administration ; begin a more frequent and friendly intercourse with the 
 labouring man we have lost much in departing from the primitive simplicity of 
 our forefathers ; respect his feelings ; respect his rights ; pay him in solid money ; 
 I say it again, emphatically, pay him in solid money ; pay him in due time ; and 
 above all, avoid that monstrous abomination which disgraces some other coun- 
 ties, but from which, I believe, we are altogether free, of closing your fields in 
 the time of harvest ; give to the gleaner his ancient, his Scriptural right : throw 
 open your gates, throw them wide open, to the poor, the fatherless, and the widow. 
 
 The effect produced by this speech was considerable, and the consequences 
 to Lord Ashley were in the same proportion annoying. Frequent reference 
 to these are made in the Journals. 
 
 Dec. llth. St Giles's. Time* anxious to be malevolent, but unable to find 
 pretext against speech at Sturminster ; Herald very kind and contrasting itwith 
 Cobden's, who, at that very time, was sneering at me in Covent Garden Theatre, 
 declaring that, though he had always believed my honesty, he should cease to do 
 so, unless I (did that which no one could do) brought a motion before Parliament 
 to regulate wages for the county of Dorset !
 
 282 THE EARL OP SHAPTESBURT. [CHAP. XI. 
 
 Received yesterday letter from a Mr. Crofts to say that he and others (who 
 greatly admired me) were of tentimes perplexed to defend my consistency, &c., &o., 
 and then to qnote the state of the school-house at Woodlands, and certain other 
 cottages. Alas, too true 1 yet how can I prevent it? . . . God knows I have long 
 mourned over these things, and long resolved on every self-denial, rather than 
 not remove them. These unhappy facts will pass into hostile hands, and be used 
 against me. I appeal to a higher than Caesar ; I appeal unto God. Half -past 11 
 at night. I am awfully posted between two forces : the Anti-Corn-Law League 
 on one side ; my father on the other. He broke out to-night in severe reprehen- 
 sion of my speech ; abstained from violent language or violent manner, but told 
 me " I was exciting the people ; inducing them to make extortionate demands ; 
 they were not easily put down when once up," &c. ; " they got on very well, he 
 did not know how, with seven and even six shillings a week ; that their wages " 
 (and he then passed through all the arguments) " could not be raised ; that I wa= 
 inexperienced," &c. " As for their dwellings, it was very easy to point out the 
 evil : where was the remedy 1 He, t least, could not afford it " (my speech had 
 only dealt in generals) ; " had been engaged all his life in gradually abating the 
 mischief ; these things cost too much." 
 
 What can I do ? If I suppress the faults of landed proprietors, I rouse the 
 accusations of the League ; if I rebuke them, I stir the resentment of my father. 
 But God be with him open his eyes and touch his heart I ... 
 
 Dec. 14th. I think my long and violent attacks of illness are the accompani- 
 ments and consequences of a stirring question hotly opposed. 
 
 Dec. 19th. Memorial has been presented to Vice-Chancellor and well received. 
 It has now passed from my charge ; now begins the responsibility. I suppose I 
 shall be roasted ! Been unwell of late ; good deal of pain. To Salisbury to con- 
 sult Coates ; somewhat better to-day, thank God ! Cannot, however, take much 
 exercise ; sorry for it ; shall go to town unseasoned for the campaign. . . . 
 
 Dec. 24th. The Examiner observed, one day. in an article upon me, and not 
 ill-naturedly, that " this Lord must expect, if he go about telling every one the 
 plain truth, to become odious." I see the dawn of accomplishment. . . . 
 
 Christmas Day. " This is the day that the Lord hath made ; let us rejoice and 
 be glad in it." Rose before six to prayer and meditation. Ah, blessed God, how 
 many in the mills and factories have risen at four, on this day even, to toil and 
 suffering ! Equal laws and equal rights in this free country, or, at least, the 
 equal administration of those we possess ; yet what a shameful and cruel dis- 
 parity here ! There is the mockery of an enactment which we cannot enforce, 
 and which, year after year, we vainly endeavour to strengthen. . . . 
 
 Towards the end of the year the painful intelligence was received that 
 there had been a massacre of Nestorian Christians. To many the news caiue, 
 as much of the news from the East was wont to come, merely as an item to 
 excite momentary curiosity, and to be dismissed as one of the many matters 
 of difficulty always arising in the East among men of different nationalities 
 iind conflicting creeds. But to Lord Ashley, who was waiting anxiously day 
 by day to know what steps were being taken for the protection of the op- 
 pressed Nestorians, suspense became intolerable, and he wrote to Lord 
 Aberdeen, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, as follows :
 
 MU CORRESPONDENCE WITH LORD ABERDEEN. 283 
 
 Lord Ashley to the Earl of Aberdeen. 
 
 ST. GILES'S HOUSE, December 19th, 1843. 
 
 MY DEAR LORD, IB it not possible, nay more, is it not absolutely right, that 
 some effort should be made by the British Government on behalf of the Nestorian 
 Christians ? Lord Palmerston interposed in aid of the Jews at Damascus, and 
 won golden opinions by such a becoming and manly policy. Surely an Adminis- 
 tration, founded on such principles as those we profess, should be forward in the 
 assertion of every claim of justice and humanity. 
 
 Had these unhappy Christians been willing to acknowledge the supremacy of 
 Borne, they would have obtained (I cannot say enjoyed) the protection of France ; 
 is it to be endured that a power like Turkey (which in our folly we have saved 
 from the grasp of Russia), "the very form and pressure" of ignorance and 
 cruelty, should be allowed so to reward our exertions and uproot Christianity 
 from the soil of her dominions? For God's sake, my dear Lord, do something 
 before the meeting of Parliament. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 ASH LET. 
 To this letter Lord Aberdeen sent the following reply : 
 
 The Earl of Aberdeen to Lord Ashley. 
 
 FOREIGN OFFICE, December 21 tf. 1843. 
 
 DEAR ASHLEY, Sir Stratford Canning interfered on behalf of the Nestorian 
 Christians some time ago, with the best effect ; and he is now engaged, in con- 
 sequence of the recent excesses, in following up similar endeavours, I hope with 
 equal success. He has already received instructions on the subject ; and these 
 hall be repeated. You may be assured that all shall be done which can pro- 
 perly be attempted. 
 
 If the case were only between the Porte and its Christian subjects, their pro- 
 tection would be simple enough ; but you are to recollect that the rival Chris- 
 tian sects delight to torment each other, and are animated by a hatred more 
 intense than that which they entertain against the Turks themselves. It is 
 sometimes not very easy to tell who is the real oppressor. I do not mean that 
 this applies to the massacre of the Nestorians ; but it is too often the case in the 
 
 Ever most sincerely yours, 
 
 ABERDEEN. 
 
 A few days later a further communication was received from Lord Aber- 
 deen, enclosing despatches from Sir Stratford Canning to announce that the 
 Nestorian Christians were " being attended to," and that inquiry would be 
 made into the causes which had led to the disturbance, with a view to their 
 future protection. While thankful for what had been done, the warm heart 
 of Lord Ashley shrank from the negotiations of " a frigid diplomacy " in any 
 ease where suffering and oppressed fellow-Christians were concerned, and he 
 acknowledged Lord Aberdeen's letter in the following terms :
 
 284 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. fCHAp XI. 
 
 Lord Ashley to the Earl of Aberdeen. 
 
 ST. GILES'S HOUSE, December 2Stk, 1843. 
 
 MY DP. AR LORD. Many thanks for the information you have so kindly com- 
 municated to me. May God bless your efforts in this righteous cause ! 
 
 But, my dear Lord, are you tied, in such a matter as this, to all the tedious 
 :md hypocritical details of a frigid diplomacy ? Would Russia allow her Greeks, 
 or France her Papists, to be thus insulted and rooted out ? Surely there is such a 
 thing as an unjust and perilous discretion. 
 
 But God bless what you have done, and advance it still further. 
 
 Yours ever, 
 
 ASHLEY. 
 
 Dec. 27th. Wrote a few days ago to Lord Aberdeen in behalf of the Nes- 
 torian Christians. Received a kind answer. " He had interfered and would do 
 so again." He is a worthy man, but very timid and very slow. Why did he not 
 interfere before ? He might have averted the second massacre. So it was with 
 Tahiti ; a few words in the year preceding would have saved the island from the 
 French and upheld the Protestant religion. . . . Walked to-day to talk with 
 Friend, the farmer at Brockington ; a blessing to have such a man on the estate : 
 honest to his landlord, good to the labourer, a pions mar, a sensible man. a just 
 man !
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 1844. 
 
 LUKD ASHLKY was the sworn foe of oppression in whatever form it might bo 
 exercised. It mattered not to him whether the oppressed were nations or 
 individuals, his wnole nature rose against tyranny and injustice, and he 
 could not forbear to throw himself into the breach and assist the weak 
 against the strong. The year 1844 opened with heavy demands upon his 
 sympathies. At home his aid was claimed by oppressed needlewomen a 
 class for whom he was always a willing advocate ; and abroad by the ill-used 
 Ameers of Scinde, who were suffering imprisonment and deprivation of their 
 rights from no fault, as he conceived, of their own. As usual, he found himself 
 itlicr left almost alone to fight these battles, or else supported only by those 
 from whom he had the least reason to expect help; and he writes in his 
 Journal : 
 
 Jan. 5th. Prepared as I am, I am oftentimes distressed and puzzled by the 
 strange contrasts I find : support from infidels or non-professors ; opposition or 
 coldness from religionists or declaimers ! I sometimes pause to reflect whether I 
 can be right, whether I have followed the true course, whether when so many 
 "pious" people either thwart or discourage me I must not be altogether in 
 error. They read and study the Bible ; they pray for guidance and light ; they 
 ask, and surely obtain, God's grace to judge aright ; they surely, too, must make 
 (is it so in fact ?) their conduct the subject and consequence of fervent supplica- 
 tion before and after they have resolved to weaken my efforts ? What can / do 
 which they do not do ? If I say with fervour before I act, " Prevent us, O Lord, 
 in all our doings," &c., so do they, doubtless, when they prepare a resistance to 
 me. They implore Almighty God that all their " works may be begun, continued, 
 and ended in Him ! " Is it so ? If it be, I am indeed gravelled. 
 
 The efforts of Lord Ashley on behalf of the needlewomen arose out of 
 the following circumstances : 
 
 Jan. 13th. Mr. Pa-ret is to be indicted for defamation because he has published 
 a book called " The Pageant," in which he sets forth some of the Parliamentary 
 evidence about the wretched milliners. An admirable work, full of talent, zeal, 
 and truth. Is it come to this, that wicked abominations may not be proclaimed, 
 and redress sought for helpless and oppressed women, but at the hazard of a 
 prosecution at law ? How can I assist him ? He has applied through his solicitors 
 to the Society for the Protection of Milliners and Dressmakers to give him aid by 
 promising support to those young persons who shall offer their evidence. . . . 
 
 Jan. 17th. Wrote to Mr. Paget on Monday; said that cause was common,
 
 286 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XIL 
 
 defence ought to be so too ; requested leave to subscribe 25 towards his expenses. 
 Told that he is prepared to make a pitiful defence ; deny that the plaintiff was 
 the person intended, and then plead in mitigation of damages 1 
 
 Jan. 20th. Heard from Mr. Paget, civil and grateful, but he declines pecuniary 
 assistance. He is wrong in his opinion. His course is difficult, no doubt ; would 
 take a bold line could he secure his witnesses from ruin. Seeley has offered to 
 raise 100, and I the same, to indemnify any wretched girls who may, for that 
 reason, be driven from their situations. His letter shows him in a fairer light ; 
 think he will assent. Hope so for the cause ; and his friends should do so for his 
 character. 
 
 Although, as far as Mr. Paget was concerned, the matter rested here, the 
 cause of the needlewomen was not allowed to drop until its painful features 
 had been dragged into the full light, and the wrongs thus exposed redressed. 
 
 On the 8th of February, 1844, Lord Ashley brought forward his motion for 
 an address to the Crown praying that her Majesty will be " graciously pleased 
 to take into her consideration the situation and treatment of the Ameers of 
 Scinde ; and that she will direct their immediate restoration to liberty, and 
 the enjoyment of their estates, or make such provision for their future 
 maintenance as may be considered a just equivalent." These princes were a 
 fraternity of crowned heads, each having a separate and independent princi- 
 pality, but ruling conjointly and federally under the style and title of the 
 Ameers of Scinde. They inhabited a country which their ancestors had 
 acquired by conquest, and ruled over a people of different language and 
 religion from themselves ; but, if that were to be used as an argument 
 against them, it would recoil with tenfold force upon ourselves. The East 
 India Company had recognised the Ameers as governors of Scinde, had 
 entered into friendly relations with them, and had tried to prove to them that 
 nothing but benefit could accrue from an extended intercourse with the 
 British Empire. From 1768 to 1809 there was a period of varying favour 
 and disfavour, suspicion and fear, confidence and jealousy. A Treaty was 
 then made, declaring : "There shall be eternal friendship between the British 
 Government and that of Scinde ; " and again : " Enmity shall never more 
 appear between tho two States." Another Treaty in 1820 declared : " The 
 two contracting Powers mutually bind themselves, from generation to genera- 
 tion, never to look with the eye of covetousness on the possessions of each 
 other." The Ameers asserted that they had faithfully observed the conditions 
 and spirit of the Treaty. In 1832, 1834, and 1838, partial concessions were 
 obtained in our favour as to the navigation of the Indus, and the placing of a 
 British Resident at Hyderabad. Thenceforward there were suspicion and 
 fear, and a tendency to mutual distrust. In 1840, however, when the insurrec- 
 tion at Gwalior broke out, the Ameers permitted the transit of British 
 troops, when hostility on their part would have seriously injured us. Up 
 to 1842, though strongly tempted by the disaffected, the same peaceable 
 demeanour was manifested by them, with the exception of some petty 
 intrigues, inevitable to Eastern courts. In November, 1840, Lord Auckland
 
 184: ) THE AMEERS Of 8C1NDK. -'67 
 
 declared their conduct to be " most friendly ; " and in January, 1842, Lord 
 EUenborough expressed satisfaction at their friendly disposition. But on 
 tli> ;th of May, 1842, Lord Ellenborongh wrote to the Resident, Major 
 Ontrara : " The Governor- General is led to think that you may have seen 
 reason to donbt the fidelity of some one or more of the Ameers of Scindo." 
 
 Lord Ashley then traced the process of encroachment by the British 
 Government, and argued that when the Ameers might have crushed us, they 
 were prodigal in assistance, contributing, by every facility they could afford, 
 to the recovery of our position and honour. Notwithstanding this, it was 
 alleged that they had attempted our destruction when our troops, returning in 
 victory, had rendered success in such an effort impossible. This, Lord Ashley 
 ienied, but added that even if they were guilty, a sufficient penalty had been 
 exacted from them. " You have torn them from their thrones," he said, 
 " reduced them to the level of your meanest dependants, seized their dominions, 
 incarcerated their persons, plundered their houses, and exposed them to various 
 forms of privation and insult." In conclusion, Lord Ashley said : 
 
 Sir, we are often admonished, with oracular solemnity, that our empire in 
 Hindoetan is founded on opinion. Is it the opinion of our justice, our humanity, 
 or our power T A wise and patriotic Government would ardently pursue such a 
 noble combination ; and this House, by the fulness and* promptitude of its reply 
 to an injured sufferer, would compensate for the enormous, though inevitable, 
 concession of despotic authority to the rulers of those distant regions. Sir, the 
 generosity of absolute power is cheap and safe and honourable ; true principle 
 alone is of so attractive a nature as to lead many to believe that a really Christian 
 empire would soon acquire the sovereignty of the world by the voluntary and 
 eager resort of all nations under the shadow of its wings. Whether, by such 
 means as these, Great Britain shall accomplish the dominion of the East, remains 
 to be seen. We have not, I fear, made an auspicious beginning ; but if we are to 
 gain no more by virtue, let us not lose what we have by injustice. Let us hasten 
 to wipe out the awful rebuke passed by them on their Christian conquerors 
 
 " Hcupietat, heu pritra Jida / " 
 
 saying, as they were led away into captivity, " Now we perceive that there is no 
 hope for us of judgment or justice, until God Almighty shall sit in the last great 
 
 i 1 ."* 
 
 Of the long and forcible indictment thus brought by Lord Ashley against 
 the Indian Government, only a very brief summary has been given here. A 
 journal that did not share in his views said of it : " The splendid speech of 
 the noble mover was worthy of his humane and generous motive, and both 
 wore worthy of his high character." f Mr. Roebuck followed with a spiteful 
 harangue, as usual abusing everybody all round ; and, after the debate had 
 run its length, Sir Robert Feel (the Prime Minister) defended the Indian 
 Government, apparently basing his defence on the general principle that 
 uncivilised nations were made to be conquered. Ho certainly did say, " I am 
 
 * Hansard, Debate*, 3 ., Ixxii. 301. f St. Jama'i Chronicle, March 8, 1844.
 
 288 THE EARL OF SIIAITKSHURY. (CHAP. XII. 
 
 afraid there is some great principle at work wherever civilisation and refine- 
 ment come in contact with barbarism, which makes it impossible to apply the 
 rules observed amongst more advanced nations." He stated that the libera- 
 tion of the Ameers was incompatible with the peace of India, but that they 
 woidd be removed to a greater distance, where less restraint would be neces- 
 sary, and 24,000 a year would be devoted to their maintenance and service. 
 The result of the motion is thus told by Lord Ashley in his Diary : 
 
 Feb. 9th. Wonderful success last night personal success, I mean, alas 1 in 
 my motion respecting the Ameers of Scinde. But what is the use of making 
 speeches which are admired and extolled? I obtained but sixty-eight votes 
 against two hundred and two for the Government. Never did I see a more 
 convincing proof of the pernicious effect of party on the moral sense : most were 
 satisfied, indeed, some said so, and yet voted, because Peel did, point-blank against 
 me ! Peel, as usual, was narrow, and in a tone of morality lower, by far, than 
 the ordinary run of Ministers ; even John Russell rebuked him 1 
 
 Feb. 10th. I am certain that Palmerston and John Russell, influenced a little 
 by Peel's specious, though legitimate, policy, in declaring that he objected to 
 Roebuck's motion, voted against me, because, as they had not read the papers, it 
 was safer to vote with Government than in opposition to it ; Palmerston I found 
 really ignorant of everything. But how wisely and mercifully God overrules 
 all things 1 It had been suspected, and stated, that I had concocted this move- 
 ment with the Whigs ! Many Conservatives said to Jocelyn, " We never gave 
 such an immoral vote before." Public opinion strongly with me. . . . Campbell, 
 ex- Attorney-General, said to me, very kindly, " Any jury in England would have 
 given you a verdict." Charles Wood said " It was one of the best speeches I ever 
 heard in Parliament, and so was the reply." ... A Christian kingdom may 
 refuse all intercourse with its neighbours, but if it open an intercourse and 
 derive advantages, it cannot turn round when well satiated and exclaim, " By- 
 the-bye, a thought strikes me, you are so abominably wicked that really I must 
 exterminate you 1 " 
 
 The affairs of Scinde were not the only " foreign affairs " engaging the 
 attention of Lord Ashley. A dispute between England and France, witli 
 reference to Tahiti (Otaheite), threatened, at one time, to be attended with 
 disastrous consequences. Queen Pomare, the sovereign of the Island of 
 Tahiti, a convert of English missionaries, had placed herself by compulsion, 
 it was alleged under the protection of France, while her sympathies, and 
 those of her people, were with England. There arose, in consequence, a 
 coldness between the French residents and the islanders. 
 
 The French Admiral, who had beguiled or compelled the Queen into 
 placing herself under the protection of the French, arrived off the coast, 
 and demanded that the French flag should be hoisted above her own. Upon 
 her refusing to do this, he pulled down her flag, hoisted that of France in 
 its place, and proclaimed that Tahiti was henceforth French territory. 
 
 Pomare at once appealed to England ; but France, while disavowing the 
 act of the French Admiral, considered that there was some intrigue on the
 
 1844.] TAHITI. 289 
 
 part of England to obtain possession of Tahiti, and would not remove the 
 French flag or candel the proclamation claiming the island as French territory. 
 
 For some time affairs remained in this critical state, and then a further 
 complication arose. An English missionary, named Pritchard, had exercised 
 a very powerful influence in Tahiti, and had been successful in gaining many 
 converts to Christianity, among whom was the Queen herself. For some tiuio 
 prior to her deposition he had been acting as English consul in the island. 
 
 One day a French sentinel was attacked. In reprisal Pritchard was seized 
 as the mover and instigator of the disturbances by the natives, and D'Aubigny, 
 the commander of the French establishment, declared : " His property shall 
 be answerable for all damage occasioned to us by the insurgents; and if French 
 blood is spilt every drop shall recoil on his head." Pritchard was thrown 
 into prison, and upon his release was expelled the island. On his arrival in 
 England, the story of his wrongs produced a profound sensation, and stirred 
 public feeling into great excitement. Sir Robert Peel and Lord Aberdeen 
 both characterised his treatment as " a gross and intolerable outrage." 
 
 Satisfaction was demanded of the French Government, and M. Guizot- 
 who, in tho first instance, was loud in his condemnation of the French Govern- 
 ment, was now equally loud in the profession of his anxiety and that of tje 
 King, that justice should be done in Tahiti and a good understanding restored 
 with England. 
 
 For some months there was great excitement ; popular passion was hot on 
 both sides, and war between France and England at one time seemed inevit- 
 able. However, on September the 5th the hist day of the Session Sir 
 Robert Peel announced that " the outrage on Mr. Pritchard of Tahiti had 
 been arranged amicably." Substantial compensation was made to Pritchanl. 
 and Queen Poinaro was ostensibly restored to power. France would not 
 withdraw her "protection," however, and to all intents and purposes Tahiti 
 became, in time, completely subject to French rule. 
 
 The course of these events was followed very closely by Lord Ashley, 
 and there are many passages in his Diary relating to them, one of which only 
 we will quote here. 
 
 Oct. 4th. Grief and indignation cannot go beyond what I feel against the 
 French aggressions in Tahiti A peaceable and helpless people, a State present- 
 ing, as such, the only Christian model in the world, are subjugated by savagra 
 and powerful Europeans, and inundated with bloodshed, devastation, profligacy, 
 and crime. God gave the regeneration of this island to our people as a triumph 
 of the Cross ; and so it was a thing without parallel in the history of the Gospel. 
 The missionaries made it Christian ; they made it English in laws and Constitu- 
 tion. It had, by God's blessing, under their administration, everything but power 
 and commerce. But, failing these, it has obtained no sympathies, and in the 
 hour of danger, perhaps of extinction, finds not a single friend. Tho infidel and 
 lukewarm are indifferent ; the Tractarians are hostile ; the Evangelicals wary. 
 Public men estimate its value by political measurements and the probable effects 
 on their own ease and tenure of office. What a disgusting and cowardly attitude 
 T
 
 2!)0 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. (CHAP. XII. 
 
 for England, thus to stand by and raise not a hand in defence of this merciful 
 gift of Providence ! God grant that the Tahitian people may endure and triumph 
 over this fraud and violence. 
 
 Interest in affairs abroad did not distract Lord Ashley's attention from 
 the more pressing affairs at home. 
 
 The demand for further limitation in the hours of labour had been urged 
 by the working classes with increased vehemence, especially in Lancashire 
 aud Yorkshire, between the Session of 1843 and the opening of Parliament 
 in 1844. The reports of the Inspectors of Factories, issued from time to 
 time, had been eagerly read by those who were interested in the welfare of 
 the working classes ; and the agitation, headed by Lord Ashley, was daily 
 staining fresh sympathisers, and, in the same proportion, was concentrating 
 the enmity of those who were opposed to it. The time was ripening rapidly 
 for the great struggle which was to end in victory. 
 
 On the 5th of February, Sir James Graham introduced into the House 
 of Commons his promised Bill for the Regulation of Labour in Factories. 
 It contained no education clauses, but provided that children should be 
 allowed time in which to receive education. The further objects of the 
 Bill were to ensure that the working-time for children should be reduced 
 to eight hours, and for persons above the age of thirteen, to twelve 
 hours a day. The definition of a " child " was extended to mean children 
 between nine and thirteen ; that of " young persons " remained as heretofore, 
 namely, from thirteen to eighteen. 
 
 " I propose," he said, " that such young persons shall not be employed in 
 any silk, cotton, wool, or flax manufactory, for any portion of the twenty -four 
 hours longer than from half -past five o'clock in the morning till seven o'clock 
 in the evening in summer, and from half -past six o'clock in the morning, till 
 eight in the evening in winter, thus making thirteen and a half hours each 
 day, of which one hour and a half is to be set apart for meals and rest, so 
 lliat their actual labour will be limited to twelve hours." 
 
 This was exactly what Lord Ashley did not want. His contention was 
 that the hours should be limited to ten, and on that issue he would fight the 
 battle to the end. 
 
 On the 12th of February the Bill was read a second time, and ordered to 
 be committed. 
 
 Then went forth the rallying cry of " Ten Hours and No Surrender ! " 
 mid it echoed through the length and breadth of the land. The greatest 
 enthusiasm prevailed. Meetings were held, pamphlets were scattered broad- 
 cast, and all the paraphernalia of agitation was set in motion with a vigour 
 that had never been known before. Twelve delegates were despatched to 
 London to assist Lord Ashley in his labours, and nobly they worked. 
 London and Westminster were divided into districts, and every Member of 
 Parliament in these districts was canvassed, the working of the factory 
 system explained, and its evils exposed. 
 
 The course of events is thus noted in Lord Ashley's Diary :
 
 1M4.] A NOTABLE SPEECH. 291 
 
 Feb. 27th. Factory Bill postponed. Shall I ever prosper in this ? Will Goa 
 umile upon the endeavour ? Heard that Mr. Bright was waiting for his oppor- 
 tunity to make a most violent attack on me. I dare say. . . . 
 
 March 2nd. Unpleasant rumours that Government (is it possible?) will 
 exert their Parliamentary influence to defeat the Ten Hours ! 
 
 March 4th. Graham informed me this evening that " if I would not make an 
 adverse statement," so as to provoke debate and a reply from him, he would 
 grant the Committee. He clearly fears a full expose. 
 
 March 6th. Moved for Committee last night in half a dozen words. Graham 
 thanked me for my silence. 
 
 March 8th. Strange accusation that in the Times. Surely a man wholly 
 unconnected with the manufacturing districts was less likely to be influenced by 
 hopes and fears, either commercial or personal, than one whose interests lay in 
 the thick of them. I thought so myself when I undertook the charge. "It 
 would have been more graceful," it adds, "had I devoted my attention to 
 agricultural grievances." Why, that question was not uppermost, was barely 
 thought of, when I laid hold of the Factory wrongs in 1833 at that time the 
 prominent topic of conversation. 
 
 March 9th. The Times bepraises Sidney Osborne'a letter to me, and adds : 
 "These factory ten-hours men never dreamed of agricultural wrongs until 
 forced to it by their fears." Eight years' exclusion from the paternal house, and 
 three of utter impossibility to interfere while there, will answer any imputations. 
 
 March 12th. Had intended to take the chair at public dinner of Journeyman 
 Tailors' Society (euphonious and dignified name I), but told by Cobden, as I 
 entered the House, that he proposed to assail the county of Dorset. Obliged, of 
 course, to send excuse, and sit out his speech temperate and often true. Could 
 not reply, taken by surprise, had no paper with me. Thus was unfair on hia 
 part ; unwilling, too, to come into collision with Bankes ; an unseemly sight, 
 two county members sparring with each other ; unwilling besides, by a vote, to 
 come into collision with Lord S., who would assert that it was directed at him. 
 No disguise on Cobden's part that he wished to pay me off for exposing the 
 factory districts. Felt humbled, dejected, and incompetent. Had no heart 
 within me. O God, let not mine enemies triumph over me 1 . . . 
 
 On March the 15th the Bill went into Committee, and, in the discussion I 
 of the clauses fixing the limitation of the hoars of labour, Lord Ashley endea- I 
 voiired to obtain his purpose by moving that the word "night" should be I 
 taken to mean from six o'clock in the evening to six o'clock in the morning, I 
 thus practically limiting the factory day to ten hoars. 
 
 In support of his proposition, he made one of his most forcible, compre- 
 hensive, and interesting speeches a speech which took two hours and a 
 quarter in delivery, and occupies twenty-eight pages of Hansard.* 
 
 In his opening sentence, Lord Ashley gave utterance to that intense 
 anxiety which, as the Diaries clearly reveal, weighed down his spirit as he 
 approached the struggle. " Nearly eleven years have elapsed," he sai'l. 
 " since I first made the proposition to the House which I shall renew this 
 
 Hansard, S .. lu. 483. 
 T 2
 
 292 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XII. 
 
 night. Never at any time have I felt greater apprehension or even anxiety ; 
 not through any f oar of personal defeat, for disappointment is ' the badge of 
 all our tribe,' but because I know well the hostility I have aroused, and the 
 certain issues of indiscretion on my part, affecting the welfare of those who 
 have so long confided their hopes and interests to my charge." Disclaiming 
 the accusation that he was actuated by any peculiar hostility against factory 
 masters, he met them with the challenge, " Strike, but hear me." Taking for 
 his standpoint the proposition that the State has a right to watch over, and an 
 interest in providing for, the moral and physical well-being of her people, he 
 proceeded to show what foreign powers were doing to recognise and enforce 
 this principle. Then, expatiating upon the immediate application of this 
 theme, he described minutely the amount of toil and. exertion required in the 
 various departments of factory labour, and the physical evils proved' to have 
 resulted from it, when too long continued. He entered fully into the ques- 
 tion of the distances traversed daily by women and children, and gave evidence, 
 founded upon measurements and calculations made, at his request, by one of 
 the most distinguished mathematicians of the day, conclusively proving that 
 those distances varied from seventeen to thirty miles, and that the exertion 
 was materially increased by the strain of having continually to lean over the 
 machine and then return to an erect position a performance that had to be 
 undergone not less than from four to five thousand times a day. The physical 
 effects of this toil upon women was disastrous in the extreme, and he adduced 
 ample medical testimony in proof of his assertion, besides pointing to the 
 results shown in the bills of mortality and the statistics of pauperism and 
 disease. Nor were the moral effects less disastrous. Ho showed how impos- 
 sible it was that the obligations of domestic life could be performed by 
 women employed for long periods in factories. He demonstrated, by incon- 
 trovertible facts and arguments, that this unnatural toil engendered every 
 possible form of moral evil ; intemperance, impurity, demoralisation were the 
 inevitable consequences ; all the arrangements and provisions of domestic 
 economy were annihilated ; dirt, discomfort, ignorance, and recklessness, were 
 the portion of almost every household, when the time of the wife and mother 
 was wholly monopolised by factory labour. 
 
 Such a system, affecting the internal tranquillity of the land and all rela- 
 tions between employer and employed, was a perpetual grievance, and must 
 ever come uppermost in times of difficulty and discontent. It disturbed th" 
 order of Nature, and the rights of the labouring men, by ejecting males from 
 the workshop and filling their places by women ; it was destructive of the 
 health of females, the care of their families, their conjugal and parental 
 duties, the comfort of their homes, the decency of their lives, the peace of 
 society, and the laws of God. 
 
 In conclusion, he repudiated, in tones of righteous indignation, the charge 
 so often flung at him, that this contest was but a struggle between the country 
 gentleman and the manufacturers, and that he was actuated by a wish to 
 exalt the landed and humiliate the commercial, aristocracy. He said :
 
 i44.) MR jonx BRIGHT'S ATTACK. 293 
 
 Most solemnly do I deny the accusation. If you think me wicked enough, do 
 you think me fool enough for such a hateful policy ? Can any man in his senses 
 now hesitate to believe that the permanent prosperity of the manufacturing 
 body in all its several aspects, physical, moral, and commercial, is essential, not 
 only to the welfare, but absolutely to the existence, of the British Empire ? No, 
 we fear not the increase of your political power, nor envy your stupendous riches ; 
 " Peace be within your walls, and plenteousness within your palaces ! " We ask 
 bat a slight relaxation of toil, a time to live, and a time to die ; a time for those 
 comforts that sweeten life, and a time for those duties that adorn it ; and, there- 
 fore, with a fervent prayer to Almighty God that it may please Him to turn the 
 hearts of all who hear me, to thoughts of justice and of mercy, I now finally 
 commit the issue to the judgment aud humanity of Parliament * 
 
 At the close of this appeal, Sir James Graham rose, aud in a tone which 
 he knew only too well how to use, declared emphatically that her Majesty's 
 Government had determined to give the proposition of the noble Lord their 
 most decided opposition. The mill-owners found an advocate in Mr. John 
 Bright, who addressed the House at considerable length, and in a style 
 " perhaps the most vindictive towards the working classes ever used in the 
 British Parliament." f He ridiculed the notion that there was any need for 
 a new Factory Act; he contradicted Lord Ashley's statements as to the 
 unhealthiiifss and other miseries of the manufacturing districts ; ho violently 
 attacked the whole body of operatives who supported the Ten Hours Bill ; 
 ;iii<l h<> declared that high wages and general prosperity prevailed among the 
 manufacturing population. Then, taking up the old libel as to the condition 
 of the Dorsetshire labourers, he said Lord Ashley looked at Lancashire 
 through a telescope, but when he looked at his suffering neighbours he 
 reversed the glass. He reiterated the groundless charge that Lord Ashler's 
 information had been obtained in an improper way, and from a notorious 
 character, whose story was full of false statements and gross and malignant 
 exaggerations. 
 
 This was more than Lord Asliley could bear, or would have been justified 
 hi bearing. He rose to his feet, and, atiamo with impassioned earnestness, 
 rehemently demanded a full explanation of the insinuations of Mr. Bright. 
 The scene which ensued is still memorable in the annals of Parliament. 
 
 "I think," said Lord Ashley, "the House will fool that in smno mon-sure 
 I have a right to make one or two observations on the remarkable speech -if 
 the honourable gentleman. I will thank the honourable gentleman to explain 
 hargc against me which he has insinuated, and which he said he would 
 nut pursue. I will not allow it to pass. I therefore throw myself on tho 
 indulgence and on the protection of this House, and I do request all honour- 
 able gentlemen present to exert their influence, as members of this House, 
 and as gentlemen, to make the honourable member for Durham pursue his 
 charge, and state his case." 
 
 i-ecchea, p. 115. 
 t Delegates' report quoted in " History of Factory Legislation," p. 7&
 
 294 THE EARL OF 8HAFTESUURY. [CHAP. XH. 
 
 Loud cheers followed this challenge. Then, in evident confusion, and 
 amidst loud expressions of disapprobation from both sides of the House, 
 Mr. Bright at first attempted to deny that he had made any charge, and 
 eventually concluded with an apology in these words : " I regret if in stating 
 these things I have said a word that could be considered derogatory to the 
 character of the noble Lord. I know I have a warm temper, but I meant no 
 personal insult. I desired merely to state facts, and I readily withdraw any 
 offensive expression." 
 
 It was then two o'clock, and, on the motion of Mr. Warburton, the 
 debate was adjourned. 
 
 March 16th. Factory Bill last night in Committee. Spoke for two and a 
 quarter hours. What will be the issue ? Had we divided last night, we should. 
 I am told, have beaten the Government ! The interval will be favourable to them ; 
 official whips will produce official votes. 
 
 March 18th. Jocelyn came to me yesterday, after morning service, and said 
 that " he had something important to communicate." Stanley had taken him 
 aside on Saturday evening, and had urged upon him the mischiefs arising from 
 the amendment for " ten hours " that I had proposed. " Ashley," he added. 
 " does not know the condition in which he places the Government. If he carries 
 his point, as it seems probable he will, two courses remain ; we must either 
 throw up the Bill, for Graham is pledged to carry it as it is, or throw it into his 
 hands." He then said a great deal more about the effect such success would 
 have in aiding the repeal of the Corn Laws, and remarked : " If Ashley is strong 
 enough to beat the Government, he must take all responsibility : if he thinks 
 himself strong enough to defeat them here, perhaps he thinks himself strong 
 enough to take the Government." Jocelyn said : " What would you have 
 Ashley do ? He has given his life, you may say, to the question ; what 
 would you have him do 7 He could not surrender it." Stanley replied in a 
 drawling, uncertain tone : " I don't know ; I don't say what he could do." The 
 upshot was that Jocelyn, without delivering a direct message, was to inform me 
 of the Ministerial mind. He did so. I replied that " if my perseverance in- 
 volved the repeal of ten thousand Corn Laws, and the dissolution of as many 
 Governments, I would go on with all the vigour I could command ; that, were I 
 disposed to hold back, I could not do so in the smallest degree ; that even in a 
 mere question of politics, a man would be regarded as a sad specimen of faith- 
 lessness who retired simply to gratify the convenience of his Parliamentary 
 friends, but that in this case, when I had toiled for so many years, and placed 
 the whole matter on the basis of duty and religion, I should be considered, 
 and most justly, too, a hypocrite almost without parallel." We rang the changes 
 on all this, and Jocelyn went away. I saw him again in the street, just before I 
 entered the Chapel RoyaL " I have seen Stanley again," he said ; " he never 
 thought you could resign the question ; you were too deeply pledged." " It 
 would be a sad thing," continued Stanley, " for the Government to appear aa 
 alone resisting the wishes and feelings of the people ; it would look very ill to 
 the country if the question had a majority in the House, but was rejected solely 
 by the Government." Then Lord Stanley added (O tempora, mores!}, 
 *What I meant was that yon (Jocelyn) and your friends should not bestir
 
 1844.] A VICTORY. 295 
 
 yourselves so much to obtain votes, and Ashley might save his character by 
 maintaining his point, and yet allow himself to be beaten !" If ever insult wa* 
 pat on an individual, here it was with a vengeance I I told Jocelyn that " the 
 only difference was whether I should be an open or a secret sconndreL" I added 
 that "I would exhaust all legitimate means to obtain my end, and that if 
 defeated, I would never cease to work on the sympathies of the country." 
 
 On March the 15th the debate on the Ten Hours Bill was resumed. 
 The discussion was animated almost beyond precedent, and the excitement 
 grew to a point of intensity, when Sir Robert Peel, in a long and laboured 
 speech, pointed out that other branches of manufactures required restriction 
 more than the cotton, woollen, and silk factories, namely, the Sheffield and 
 Birmingham wares, glass, porcelain, earthenware, calico printing, and, above 
 all, dressmaking and needlework, and he maintained that by restricting 
 labour in cotton factories, a premium was being placed on the laborious and 
 cruel employment of women and children in these other manufactures. " In 
 the House prepared to legislate for all these people ? " asked the Premier. 
 
 A tremendous cheer, and a cry of " Yes," answered the demand of the 
 head of the Government. 
 
 Sir Robert Peel, evidently much astounded by this powerful and decisive 
 response, continued : " Then I see not why we should not extend the re- 
 striction to agriculture." Another ringing cheer, from the agricultural 
 members, again threw the Premier from his equilibrium, and Sir Robert. 
 Peel abruptly concluded his speech by declaring that he could not undertake 
 a task which would involve so difficult and perilous an enterprise, above all 
 human strength, and full of individual injustice. " I cannot, and I will not, 
 acquiesce in the proposal of the noble Lord ! " was the emphatic exclamation 
 with which he sat down.* 
 
 Far-seeing as Sir Robert was in many things, he little dreamt that he \>. \ 
 called forth a foreshadowing of Lord Ashley's future labours on behalf of the 
 working clnroea. 
 
 Lord John Russell followed, and did good service to the cause by drawing 
 attention to the fact that Lord Ashley's amendment introduced no no\r 
 principle into the Bill, and that he (Lord John Russell) could not see wli.-.t 
 tremendous consequences would follow the limitation of labour in factories to 
 ten hours when the Government themselves proposed a limitation, though to 
 a somewhat longer period. 
 
 The division resulted in 179 votes for Lord Ashley's amendment and 170 
 against it, thus giving a majority of 9 for the amendment ; but this vote tl..? 
 Government endeavoured, by a stratagem, to rescind, by going at once to a 
 division on the original question; calculating, in all probability, that, by 
 taking a second division immediately upon the other, the result would be 
 confusion, out of which they might make capital. The stratagem failed, Urn 
 result being : For Lord Ashley's proposition, 161 ; against it, 153. Majority 
 for Lord Ashley's proposition, 8. 
 
 * Morning Pott, March 16, 1U
 
 296 THE EARL OP 8HAFTESBUBY. [CHAP. XII. 
 
 In face of theso two divisions, Sir James Graham determined to make 
 another effort to rescind the votes. " Sir," he said, rising amid profound 
 silence, " the decision of the Committee is a virtual adoption of a Ten Hours 
 Bill without modification. To that decision, with the utmost respect for the 
 opinion of the Committee, I have an insuperable objection." Whereupon he 
 announced that he would not drop the Bill, but would proceed with it up to 
 the eighth clause, when Lord Ashley would move that the word " ten " should 
 be substituted for "twelve" hours. He therefore moved that "You now 
 report progress, and ask leave to sit again on Friday next." 
 
 March 19th. Last night "adjourned debate" on Factory Bill, and division. 
 Can I believe the result? " It is a night much to be observed of the Lord." Oh, 
 gracious God, keep me from unseemly exultation, that I may yet creep by the 
 ground to Thine honour, and to the recovery of the people from Egyptian 
 bondage ! The Red Sea is yet before me, the enemy are in pursuit, and the 
 wilderness has shut us in ; but we will, by His grace, " stand still and see the 
 salvation of the Lord." He will cleave a path for us through the mighty waters, 
 and ordain in our mouths a song of praise in the land of promise and of hope. 
 My supporters wonderfully firm ; had no whipper-in, yet they stuck to me 
 admirably. The Government that is, Peel and Graham evidently out of 
 temper. This seems as much the cause of their opposition as anything else. Their 
 speeches, ingenious in argument, but wretched in principle and feeling, purely 
 commercial : Peel urging a decay of trade ; Graham, an abatement of wages. 
 Neither touched my facts or arguments ; but most unfairly Graham spoke a 
 second time, and at great length, before others had spoken once. Peel argued, in 
 fact, against all interference, and then appealed to the House on the merits of his 
 Mil I denounced our legislation with factories as unjust, quoted the condition of 
 thousands of children who are as yet unprotected (passing, in truth, on me the 
 old sneer of the Millowners & Co., that I was one-sided), and speaking as Prime 
 Minister, in detail, of all these horrors, declared that he had no thought of 
 assuaging them.. In the sight of God and man he abdicated the functions of 
 Government. A curious division. My members included very many who repre- 
 sented the mightiest trading constituencies, and this on a commercial question ! 
 
 The Ministers have signified their intention to try over again the whole 
 question by a division on Friday next. The interval will be employed in every 
 Government method of influence and coercion. What engine can I employ to 
 counteract and extinguish their fire ? They are unjust, bitter, headstrong, but 
 powerful. I am alone, but I commit all to God, who will maintain his own 
 work. 
 
 It is a wonderful event, an especial Providence ; is there a precedent like it ? 
 A. single individual, unaided by a party, with scarcely a man whom he could 
 trust to second him, has been enabled to defeat the most powerful array of 
 capitalists, overcome the strongest domestic apprehensions, and the most powerful 
 Ministry of the last fifteen years ! Struggle as they will, the question is passed ; 
 >t may be delayed in its final accomplishment, but surely it cannot be reversed. 
 God give us faith, faith, faith I ... 
 
 March 21st. An oppressive weight appears to have been removed from my 
 shoulders, and yet I cannot recover my elasticity. I feel like a man that has
 
 1844.1 A GOVERNMENT STRATAGEM. 297 
 
 been stunned or bled. I am conscious of a change, but hardly of relief : partly 
 the effect of long: habit, partly the effect of the foreseen Government hostility 
 (and their power is great I). I find no real comfort but in beholding 1 God as the 
 author, and, I pray, as the finisher, of this work in His blessed Son Jesus Christ. 
 Ministers quite mad, using every exertion, no reasoning 1 , no misstatement, no 
 falsehood almost, spared ! Expresses sent off the whole of Sunday. I offered to 
 delay "Ten Hours "for two years and a half . Everyone satisfied except Peel 
 and Graham, who are furious in temper. 
 
 On March the 22nd the debate on the Ten Hours Bill was resumed, when 
 Lord Ashley moved that the blank in the eighth clause should be filled with 
 the word " ten." 
 
 At the close of the debate there was a majority of three (186 to 183) 
 asrainst adopting 1 the word "twelve" as proposed by the Government. Lord 
 Ashley's amendment that the word " ten " should be inserted in tho eighth 
 clause was then put, when all who had voted for " twelve " now voted " No ; " 
 but, inasmuch as five who had previously voted " No " again did the same, 
 rnnfnsion once more prevailed, and the result was that 188 voted against the 
 amendment, and 181 for it, and it was lost by a majority of 7 ! 
 
 The stratagem of the Government had succeeded. The question was 
 reduced to chaos. The Government proposal for a Twelve Hours Bill, and 
 Lord Ashley's proposal for a Ten Hours Bill, had both been negatived, and 
 the Bill was in extreme jeopardy. 
 
 In these circumstances, Sir James Graham postponed stating what the 
 Government would do, and moved that the Chairman should report pro- 
 
 Lord Ashloy bowed to the decision of the House, acknowledged that for the 
 present he was defeated, but declared that he " would persevere to tho last 
 hour of his existence, and he had not the slightest doubt that, at no very 
 
 mt time, he should, by God's blessing, have a complete victory." 
 
 March 23nL Last night victorious in rejecting Twelve Hours by 186 to 183 ; 
 defeated in attempting Ten Hours, by 181 to 188 1 Tet the cause is mightily 
 advanced. God, in His wisdom and goodness, demands a little longer trial of 
 faith and patience. The consummation will then arrive, and it will be the more 
 evidently seen to be His own work. The House of Commons never saw, before 
 these events, such an utter resignation of party feeling' on all sides to the asser- 
 tion of a great act of humanity. The influence of Ministers, used unscrupulously 
 and unsparingly, obtained at last but a majority of seven, and that not in 
 support of their original proposition. . . . 
 
 March 25th. fflobti of this afternoon contains a most direct attack on me 
 " ambition, love of office," &c., &c. " the Prince of Canters." What a scene in 
 the House hut night I The tiptoe of expectation, every one anticipating an 
 Eleven Hours BilL I was prepared to accept it, reserving to myself the power of 
 moving whenever I pleased. It would have settled the question for at least two 
 years. Graham, I am told, very hostile in Cabinet Peel for it; determined, 
 however, to resist Graham notified his opposition, and signified that all who
 
 298 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBUEY. [CHAP. XII. 
 
 supported me were entering on a course of "Jack Cade* legislation." Indecent, 
 foolish, and stupid ; but he did himself thereby irreparable mischief. Considera- 
 tion of Bill, or rather of withdrawal of it, deferred till Friday next. 
 
 March 26th. Consultations without end ; annoyances of all kinds ; unabated 
 anxiety. Prayed heartily for counsel, wisdom, and understanding. 
 
 March 27th. Resolved to act in conformity with my first impression, ni.il 
 allow withdrawal of Bill. . . . Did so, and Graham pledged himself to briiij.r 
 in a new Bill. I can, therefore, do on this what I could not have done on the 
 old Bill take a debate and division on the simple question of ten hours I 
 
 It was generally anticipated that the Government would endeavour to 
 effect a compromise by proposing an Eleven Hours Bill. When, however, it 
 became known tbat Sir James Graham proposed to bring in a new Bill, and 
 to stand doggedly to the Twelve Hours principle, and when, moreover, lie 
 expressed this in words and actions which were intolerable, the excitement, 
 especially among the operatives, became intense. The Committees united in 
 memorialising the Queen against " the ill-advised perseverance in a course f 
 cruelty and injustice of your Majesty's principal Secretary of State for the 
 Home Department, who has avowed his intention of withholding all relief from 
 oppressed women and children, and has sought to effect his object, by means 
 most insulting to the faithful representatives of your Majesty's loyal subjects 
 in Parliament, and tending to degrade the high office bestowed on him by 
 your Majesty." 
 
 At this period of his career, Sir James Graham was one of the most un- 
 popular men in the country. Except by a few personal friends, he was almost 
 universally disliked ; and it is not surprising to find in Lord Ashley's Journals 
 some strong comments upon his character and conduct. The " novel ami 
 somewhat questionable course " he had pursued in endeavouring, by stratagem, 
 to rescind the votes in favour of the Ten Hours Bill, had increased his un- 
 popularity generally, and in a marked degree among the friends of factory 
 legislation. But Sir James Graham had not yet shown the whole length to 
 which he could go, when his will was thwarted ; and in the near future he 
 was to make a display of some of those qualities which kept alive his unpopu- 
 larity. He had an overbearing manner, which in itself raised opposition; 
 and, once having become convinced on any snbject, his mind seemed to shut 
 its eyes, and he plunged deeper and deeper into partisanship. " He exulted, 
 as a strong man, in the power he possessed, and sometimes," says his bio- 
 grapher, " it must be owned, its exercise savoured of tyranny." f It did so 
 during this year, when the Factory Bill was the burning question in and out 
 of Parliament ; and the friends and foes of the movement were agreed in this 
 perhaps more than in anything else a common dislike to Sir James Graham. 
 
 In the interval afforded by the Easter holidays, between the withdrawal of 
 
 * " H. B." published a lively caricature on this. Lord Ashley as Jack Cade, followed 
 fey Lord John Manners, Sir R. Inglis, and Lord John Russell, advancing against Sir 
 Robert Peel and Sir J. Graham on the defensive. 
 
 t " Life of Sir James Graham," by T. M. Torrens, ii. 199.
 
 1844.) THE SIMPLICITY OP FAITH. 299 
 
 Sir James Graham's Bill and the introduction of a new one, Lord Ashley, 
 longing for a few days' repose, went on a short visit to Dover; but the 
 Diaries reveal how little real rest there was for him while the great question 
 ou which his heart was set was pending. 
 
 April 3rd. Dover. . . . Read the Bible with the boys ; a useful an 1 
 agreeable morning ; beautiful day ; walked to the top of Shakespeare's Cliff ; 
 enjoyed the scene, the refreshing air, the hope of renewed strength, and fuller 
 service. . . . Home at seven, very tired. I often think, when fatigued, how 
 much less my weariness must be than that of the wretched factory women. It 
 has, at any rate, this good result that I feel and make additional resolutions to 
 persevere in their behalf. 
 
 April 5th (Good Friday). Do what you will you cannot so entirely banish 
 the past and disregard the future as to make the mind rest solely, simply, exclu- 
 sively on the present hour. " This is the day that the Lord hath made ; let na 
 rejoice and be glad in it" Much do I desire it, but I am haunted, and I know 
 I shall be haunted by debates, divisions, spectres of attacks, defences, failure, 
 success. I am of a very nervous and excitable temperament; an impression 
 
 once made is not easily effaced ; it hangs to me like a conscience \- 
 
 I taught the little children to-day, it seemed to me wonderful in how small a 
 compass is contained the whole sum and substance of Christian religion. Volume* 
 without end, years of study, years of controversy, immense thought, immense 
 eloquence, all expended, and mostly wasted, to dilate or torture that which mar 
 be comprehended by the understanding, and relished by the soul, of a simple 
 child. What will all the learning in the world, all the meditation of the pro- 
 foundest spirits, add to the plain facts of the fall of man and hid salvation by 
 Christ 1 Little but perplexity and the embarrassment of that which is intrinsi- 
 cally simple I 
 
 April 6th. Mill-owners have got out a manifesto contradicting me on every 
 point, and specially on " the distances." I hold to my statements. If I be 
 refuted, my career as a public man is over ; I could never again make a speech 
 in the House of Commons or elsewhere. I should be proved to be as near to a 
 liar as a man can well be, short of the actual dealing in falsehoods. . . . 
 
 April 12th. Panshanger. Rode with William Cowper to Watton. Saw 
 Bickersteth. ' Rejoiced to have some conversation with him ; he is full of faith, 
 and truly and dearly loves our Lord and Master. But there are few, like him, 
 proof against temptation and expediency in the hour of trial. . . . 
 
 April 15th. Wrote a few days ago a challenge to Greg and Ash worth to meet 
 Fielden and Ken worthy and superintend the re-measurement of the distances. 
 Will they accept it or no ? I think not However, I shall, thank God, have a 
 triumph in either case. If they attend, I must prove my accuracy ; if they refuse, 
 I shall prove their dishonesty. . . . 
 
 There was a long paper warfare on this subject. The letters are still in 
 existence, but it would be needless to quote them here. Suffice it to say that 
 tin- challenge was evaded, and the accuracy of Lord Ashley's statement was 
 proved by incontestable evidence. 
 
 * Rev. E. Bi. kersU-th. Rector of Watton, Ht-ru.
 
 300 THE EARL OP 8HAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XII. 
 
 Sir Robert Peel saw, or thought he saw, a way out of the difficulty 
 connected with Lord Ashley's Factory measures. It is referred to in the 
 following entry : 
 
 April 17th. London. Well, what next? Can I believe my ears ? Old Bon- 
 ham* informed me (stating, while he did BO, that it was almost a breach of 
 confidence, inasmuch as no hint of any sort or kind was to be given) that Peel 
 had determined to offer me the Lord Lieutenancy of Ireland, with almost unlimited 
 powem, in respect especially of the Church. Peel, he said, had told him, and 
 Graham confirmed it, that no one in the kingdom could effect such good in 
 Ireland ; no one but myself could grapple with the landlords and the prelates, 
 and maintain, against influence, the rights of the working clergy. ... I listened 
 in silence and astonishment ; a little gratified, but not at all in, doubt. I quite 
 admitted that I could, probably, do more with the Irish clergy than most men at 
 present. . . . Silent, not offended, notpuffed-up, not\>egui\ed,fully resolve// /i/>, / 
 to do or accept anything, however pressed by the strong claims of public necessity 
 and public usefulness, which should, in the least degree, limit my opportunity or 
 control my free action in respect of the Ten Hours Bill. . . . God give me a 
 right judgment in all things ! God, grant that I may never be seduced by any 
 worldly motive to abandon truth and mercy and justice ! Keep me from all 
 specious patriotism, and alike from all fear of man's reproach ! . . . 
 
 April 22nd. One thing now perplexes and annoys me. I perceive, or fancy 
 that I perceive, within the last few months, a great diminution of intellectual 
 power. I have no energy, no command. If I attempt to speak, my utterance is 
 unsteady. I have no flow of ideas, and not much more of language. I feel no 
 confidence, no hope, no satisfaction. I positively dread the necessity of presenting 
 even a petition. I never open my lips without a prayer to God, and yet I tremble 
 at the duty. All this adds greatly to my sorrow. 
 
 April 23rd. Which is the more wicked, a covert or a barefaced ro^ue ? Peter 
 Borthwick went this evening to Henry Baring (who told me of it the instant 
 after the transaction) and made a proposal. "Would you like to hear," said 
 Baring to me, " a specimen of public virtue ? Peter Borthwick has just said to 
 me, ' I have a motion to-night ; pray keep me a House. You remember how I 
 voted on the Factory BilL I voted against the Government. Now, if you will 
 keep a House until I shall have made my speech I will vote for the Government.' 
 Do not show me up," said Baring. How can I march through Coventry with 
 such a tale as this ? 
 
 On the 3rd of May leave was obtained to bring in a new Bill, and the 
 occasion was utilised by Mr. "Ward (Sheffield), Mr. Roebuck, and Captain 
 Rons, to make a series of attacks upon Lord Ashley. The Bill was so 
 worded that it would not admit of any amendment being proposed on any of 
 its clauses, and it was therefore necessary for Lord Ashley to give notice that 
 he would move the introduction of a new clause to the effect that no young 
 person should be employed more than eleven hours a day, or sixty-four hours 
 a week, and that from October 1st, 1847, these numbers should be reduced 
 to ten hours and fifty-eight hours respectively. 
 
 It was a night, as he says, " of trouble and rebuke." 
 
 * Bonham was " whip."
 
 1844.) TEN HOCRS BILL VIEWED COMMERCIALLY. 301 
 
 May 4th. ... I was the direct and indirect target. They fired at me 
 without mercy, and left me, like a portrait of St. Sebastian, shot through and 
 through by their arrows. Had not intended to make any reply ; perhaps I felt 
 incompetent, as I always do now. Strong in my cause and conduct, weak in my 
 capacity. . . . 
 
 In moving the introduction of the new clause on the 10th of May, Lord 
 Ashley set himself to the task of meeting the objections that had been urged 
 against the Ten Hours Bill on commercial grounds namely, that it would 
 cause a diminution of produce ; that there would take place a reduction, in 
 the same proportion, of the value of the fixed capital employed in the trade ; 
 that a diminution of wages would ensue to the great injury of the workmen ; 
 and, lastly, that there would be a rise of price, and consequent peril of 
 foreign competition. Having examined and refuted these arguments, he 
 continued : 
 
 Sir, this House is now placed in a novel position ; it is summoned to rescind 
 its resolution, not because new facts or new conditions have appeared, but 
 because the Minister has declared his hostility. Nothing has been stated that 
 was not stated before no fresh knowledge communicated, no unseen dangers 
 discovered. The House is summoned to cancel its vote, not upon conviction, but 
 to save a Government. . . . Sir, the whole question of representative Govern- 
 ment is at stake ; votes have been rescinded before, but never such as this. Yon 
 are almost declaring, to those who are your ordinary friends, they shall never 
 exercise a vote but at the will of the Minister. This is a despotism under the 
 forms of the Constitution ; and all to no purpose ; for your resistance will be 
 eventually and speedily overcome, but your precedent will remain. 
 
 In concluding his vigorous denunciation, he uttered prophecies which, 
 singularly enough, were soon to be fulfilled to the very letter, although the 
 causes leading to those results were then entirely unknown. He said : 
 
 The feeling of the country is roused ; and so long as there shall be voices to com- 
 plain and hearts to sympathise, yon will have neither honour abroad nor peace at 
 home, neither comfort for the present nor security for the future. But I dare to 
 hope for far better things for restored affections, for renewed understanding 
 between master and man, for combined and general efforts, for large and mutual 
 concessions of all classes of the wealthy for the benefit of the common welfare, 
 and especially of the labouring people. Sir, it may not be given to me to pass 
 over this Jordan ; other and better men have preceded me, and I entered into 
 their labours ; other and better men will follow me, and enter into mine ; but 
 this consolation I shall ever continue to enjoy that, amidst much injustice, and 
 somewhat of calumny, we have at last lighted such a candle in England as. by 
 God's blessing, shall never be put out 
 
 As soon as the loud and continued cheering ceased, Sir James Graham 
 rose, and for once appeared to be unequal to the task of answering the 
 arguments arrayed against him, endorsed as they were by so many of his own 
 party and supporters. And it may be noted, in passing, that, although the
 
 302 THE EARL OF 8HAFTESBURY. (CHAP. XII. 
 
 debate lasted for two nights, there was no one in the House who even at- 
 tempted to overthrow the arguments adduced by Lord Ashley. It was evi- 
 dent to the Ministry that a crisis in its history had come, and Sir James 
 Graham declared it in these words : " Sir, I shall not be unjust towards the 
 noble Lord, whatever others may be ; and I am quite satisfied that the cause 
 which he has advocated this evening can never fall into the hands of a better 
 advocate. I am quite satisfied that his motives are of the highest and purest 
 nature, and he is no less an able and powerful advocate than I believe him to 
 be a sincere one. He has, however, said, that her Majesty's Government seek 
 to exercise a tyranny upon this occasion. Now, Sir, with humble submission, 
 1 say that I am quite prepared to bow to whatever decision this House may 
 come to upon this question, but I can conceive no tyranny greater ; none 
 greater upon the part of the Crown, and I should certainly say that it would 
 bo the extreme of tyranny on the part of a popular assembly, to expect that 
 any Minister should remain responsible for the conduct of public affairs when 
 the representative assembly of the nation, bearing so large a portion of the 
 whole power of the Government of the country, demands a course to be taken 
 which that Minister, in his judgment and in his conscience, believes to be 
 fatal to the best interests of the country. I must say, with perfect sub- 
 mission and perfect frankness that I leave this case to the decision of the 
 House ; but with equal firmness, and with equal frankness, I am bound to 
 *tate that, if the decision of the House should be that the proposition of the 
 noble Lord should prevail, it will be my duty to seek a private station, hoping 
 that the decision of the House may be conducive to the welfare of the 
 country." 
 
 The debate was continued with great animation, Lord Howick, Mr. Bernal, 
 Mr. C. Buller, Mr. Ferrand, Mr. Muntz, and others, supporting Lord Ashley; 
 and Mr. Liddel, Mr. G. Knight, Mr. Mark Philips, and Mr. Roebuck, op- 
 jKJsing him. Mr. Roebuck, who was always a strong enemy to Factory 
 Legislation, distinguished himself by giving utterance to one of the most 
 \iolent speeches ever heard in that House, even from him. 
 
 At one o'clock the debate was adjourned. 
 
 May 12th. Sunday. At last a day of repose 1 Have been in a whirl by night 
 and by day occupied and anxious all day ; sleepless, or if sleeping, like a 
 drunken man, all night ; my head quite giddy, and my heart absolutely fainting ; 
 too much to do, in quantity, in variety, and importance. Delivered at last, by 
 (cod's especial mercy, on Friday night of my burden, not only without failure, 
 as I felt at the time, but also with honour, as I learned afterwards. Oh, what 
 trouble, time, and perplexity removed ! 
 
 The adjourned debate was resumed on Monday, May 13th. It was 
 evident that the great Parliamentary struggle upon the subject was approach- 
 ing its end ; the fate of the Ministry was trembling in the balance. 
 
 Among the speakers was Mr. John Bright, who again gave the hottest 
 opposition, while Mr. Macaulay, who had hitherto voted against all legisla-
 
 1844.J A CRUSHING DEFEAT. 303 
 
 tion on the subject, now declared himself in favour of the Ten Hours Bill, and 
 supported it in one of his brilliant orations. But the case was doomed when 
 Sir Robert Peel, having addressed the House for upwards of two hours, con- 
 cluded by sayin-, " I know not what the result may be this night, but this I 
 do know that I shall, with a safe conscience, if the result be unfavourable 
 to my views, retire with perfect satisfaction into a private station, wishing 
 well to the result of your legislation." 
 
 This was decisive. In the face of such a contingency there were many 
 who felt they could not do otherwise than vote against the measure they 
 approved, in support of a Ministry whose malevolent action in threatening to 
 break up the Administration unless the House of Commons rescinded the 
 vote it had given in favour of the Ten Hours Bill, they disapproved. On 
 tlie question being put, the House divided. Ayes, 159 ; Noes, 297. Majority 
 against Lord Ashley's amendment, 138. 
 
 It was a crushing defeat, but it was evident to all the friends of the 
 movement that the future triumph could not much longer be delayed; and 
 Lord Ashley left the House reiterating his determination to renew the 
 subject at an early date. 
 
 May 14th. Last night defeated utterly, singularly, prodigiously defeated by 
 a majority of 138 1 ! The House seemed aghast, perplexed, astounded. No one 
 could say how, why, and almost when. It seemed that 35 or 40 was the highest 
 majority expected. Such is the power and such the exercise of Ministerial 
 influence ! ! . . . 
 
 May 15th. The majority was one to save the Government (even Whigs being 
 reluctant to turn them out just now), not against the question of Ten Hours. . . . 
 Freemantle went from one member to another assuring them of Ministerial 
 danger, and thus each man believed that his own vote was the salvation of the 
 Government. 
 
 May 16th. Dined last night at the Lord Mayor's feast. Found much sym- 
 pathy, as I do everywhere. This great majority far better for the question than 
 one of, say, 23. It proves that there was no division againxt the principle, but 
 one to save the Ministry ; it begets, too, a high reaction. 
 
 " Cast down, but not destroyed." I feel no abatement of faith, no sinking of 
 hope, no relaxation of perseverance. The stillest and darkest hour of the night 
 just precedes the dawn. " Though it tarry, wait for it," believing that God sends 
 you a trial, and yet bears you up with a corresponding courage ; .and, although 
 you may pass not the stream of Jordan, it is something that God has permitted 
 yon to wash your feet in the waters of the promised land. 
 
 It is interesting to learn from contemporary sources what was the impres- 
 sion left on various minds by these stirring incidents, especially when these 
 impressions were made on minds holding opposite views. 
 
 One specimen only can be given here. Mr. Charles Greville says : * 
 
 "1 never remember so much excitement as has been caused by 
 Ashley's Ten Hours Bill, nor a more curious political state of things, such 
 
 0. C. GreviUe'i "Journal of th Reign of CJueen Victoria, 1837-52," voL ii., p. 236.
 
 304 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XII. 
 
 intermingling of parties, such a confusion of opposition ; a question so much 
 more open than any question ever was before, and yet not made so or acknow- 
 ledged to be so with the Government ; so much zeal, asperity, and animosity ; 
 BO many reproaches hurled backwards and forwards. The Government have 
 brought forward their measure in a very positive way, and have clung to it 
 with great tenacity, rejecting all compromise ; they have been abandoned by 
 nearly half their supporters, and nothing can exceed their chagrin and sore- 
 ness at being so forsaken. Some of them attribute it to Graham's unpopu- 
 larity, and aver that if Peel had brought it forward, or if a meeting had Imeu 
 previously called, they would not have been defeated ; again, some declare 
 that Graham had said they were indifferent to the result, and that people 
 might vote as they pleased, which he stoutly denies. Then John Russell 
 voting for ' Ten Hours,' against all he professed last year, has filled tho 
 world with amazement, and many of his own friends with indignation. It 
 has, I think, not redounded to his credit, but, on the contrary, done him con- 
 siderable harm. The Opposition were divided Palmerston and Lord John 
 one way, Baring and Labouchere the other. It has been a very queer affair. 
 Some voted, not knowing how they ought to vote, and following those they 
 are accustomed to follow. Many who voted against Government, afterwards 
 said they believed they are wrong. Melbourne is all against Ashleyj all the 
 political economists, of course ; Lord Spencer strong against him. Then 
 Graham gave the greatest offence by taking up a word of the Examiner's last 
 Sunday, and calling it a ' Jack Cade legislation,' this stirring them to fury, 
 and they flew upon him like tigers. Ashley made a speech as violent and 
 factions as any of O'ConiielTs, and old Inglis was overflowing with wrath. 
 Nothing could be so foolish as Graham's taunt. He ought to have known 
 better how much mischief may be done by words, and how they stuck by men 
 for ever. Lyndhurst rubbed his hands with great glee, and said, ' Well, we shall 
 hear no more of " aliens " now ; people will only talk of " Jack Cade " for the 
 future,' too happy to shift the odium, if he could, from his own to his 
 colleague's back. The Ministers gave out, if they were beaten last Friday, 
 they would resign ; but they knew there was no chance of it. Some abused 
 Ashley for not going on and fighting again, but he knew well enough it 
 would be of no use. The House did certainly put itself in an odd predica- 
 ment, with its two votes directly opposed to each other. The whole thing is 
 difficult and 'unpleasant. Government will carry their Bill now, and Ashley 
 will be able to do nothing, but he will go on agitating Session after Session ; 
 and a philanthropic agitator is more dangerous than a repealer, either of the 
 Union or the Corn Laws. We are .just now overrun with philanthropy, and 
 God knows where it will stop, or whither it will lead us." 
 
 I The Bill passed to the House of Lords as a Government measure. It was 
 warmly opposed by Lord Brougham on the third reading, but it became lav.- 
 on the 6th of June, 1844. 
 
 During the time that this great and memorable struggle was proceeding 
 in Parliament, the whole country was in a state of great agitation. Friendu
 
 144.) RESCINDING VOTES. 305 
 
 of the cause held meetings in all the large towns to support the action of 
 Lord Ashley, whose movements the factory operatives and their friends 
 watched with intense interest and anxiety. Among those who greatly 
 assisted him in his labours were Mr. B. Jowett, Mr. W. B. Ferrand, Mr. 
 John Wood, and Mr. William Walker, of Bradford, while eminent clergymen, 
 dissenting ministers, medical men, tradesmen, and operatives, vied with one 
 another in placing at the disposal of Lord Ashley evidence to assist him in 
 his arguments, and sympathy to aid him in his toil. To the press he was 
 greatly indebted ; and Mr. Walter, in the columns of the Times, gave very 
 material aid to the cause. 
 
 The new law, although not giving all that was required, was yet a distinct 
 gain, as it acknowledged and established a new principle namely, that adult 
 female labour ought to be restricted. 
 
 Soon after these events, the political world was thrown into a state of 
 great excitement by the rumoured resignation of the Ministry. On the 14th 
 of June the Government were defeated in Committee on the Sugar Duties 
 Bill, by a majority of twenty ; and at a Cabinet Council, held two days later, 
 it was settled that Ministers would resign unless the House accepted the 
 Bill as originally framed. On the 17th, Sir Robert Peel held out the threat 
 of resignation unless the House of Commons rescinded its vote of the 14th, 
 a course which Mr. Disraeli described as " dragging his supporters unreason- 
 ably through the mire," and denounced as a species of slavery, inasmuch as, 
 at every crisis, he expected that his gang should appear, and the whip should 
 sound. " The Minister," he said, " deserved a better position than one that 
 could only be retained by menacing his friends and cringing to his opponents." 
 
 The result of the division was a majority of twenty-two (233 to 255) in 
 favour of the Ministry ! 
 
 Twice in one mouth had Sir Robert Peel summoned independent and 
 responsible men to rescind their votes, a course that Lord Ashley described 
 as " neither constitutional, loyal, politic, nor Christian-like." He wrote a 
 private letter to Peel on the subject, in which he said : 
 
 I think it unconstitutional and tending to dictatorship, under the form of 
 free government. I am unwilling to use the several terms my reflection suggests, 
 by which I should designate the policy in its aspects towards the country, your 
 supporters, and, above all. the Queen. I can think of it only with astonishment 
 and trrief. convinced that the mischief now done is irreparable, and destined to 
 hasten the evil day which, in God's just anger, has long impended over us, and 
 yet might have been averted. . . . 
 
 . . . The speech yon made, and the events which followed it, have rendered 
 it impossible that I should continue to entertain the hopes and feelings of 
 former days ; and duty, perhaps, demands that I should not conceal from yon my 
 opinions. 
 
 Referring to the correspondence, Lord Ashley noted in the Diary : 
 
 June 22nd. Peel wrote a kind reply, but assuming that I had totally with- 
 drawn all support. I replied that I should still vote for most of hu measure*, 
 u
 
 306 THE EARL OF SHAPTESBURY. [CHAP. XIL 
 
 but could repose no great confidence. That I should never seek a leader among 
 the Whigs. He rejoiced upon that, and expressed his great satisfaction. 
 
 But I have done good ; his tone is altered ; he has spoken in a conciliatory 
 manner, and, in fact, cried " peccavi." I cannot doubt that my letter has 
 materially contributed to it. He knows that though I have few followers in the 
 House, I have many who think with me in the country. I tremble for the issue 
 to the nation, and I cannot forget ancient friendships, ancient hopes, ancient 
 co-efforts with Sir R. Peel. ".. . 
 
 Among the measures of this Session was the Dissenters' Chapels Bill, 
 relating to the condition of property vested in Unitarian trustees for religious 
 and charitable uses. Soon after the Restoration, the Act of Uniformity had 
 rendered illegal any gift for such uses, except to the Church of England. 
 This restriction was removed by the Toleration Act of William III., as far 
 as Trinitarian Nonconformists were concerned; but Roman Catholics and 
 Unitarians were exempted from the benefit. They, however, were relieved 
 by statute in 1813. There was one exception to these acts of toleration still 
 outstanding. It was that which " left endowments under deeds of gift which 
 did not specify sectarian tests of application, to be interpreted by courts of 
 equity as they might deem fit, on the doubtful balance of proof as to the 
 opinions of the donor ; although the effect of such decision might be to divest 
 a congregation of the place of worship, the cemetery, and school-house, they 
 had uninterruptedly held for fifty years." 
 
 The Dissenters' Chapels Bill was designed to set at rest the doubts and 
 the ceaseless litigation occasioned by the anomalous state of the law ; and 
 although stoutly opposed by the Church and by evangelical Dissenters, it 
 was carried, and passed into law before the end of the Session. 
 
 In addition to this Bill, a lengthened debate on the condition of Ireland, 
 and, later, on the Irish Church, occupied much of the attention of Lord 
 Ashley during the Session, and frequent reference to these questions is made 
 in his Diaries. 
 
 Feb. 24th. Debate on Ireland closed this morning at a quarter past three, 
 after nine nights of discussion ; result favourable to the Government, unfavour- 
 able to Church. Peel and his colleagues amply justified their administration of 
 Ireland, and their conduct in respect of the repeal movement and O'Connell. 
 The Protestant Church was furiously and brilliantly attacked, and most feebly 
 defended. Every argument, ingenious and true, urged against it ; scarcely one 
 advanced in ite behalf. The Ministers declared their resolution to uphold it, 
 but assigned no reason which could conciliate any one affection or satisfy any 
 one doubt. John Russell said truly that " all their prospective difficulties were 
 but as feathers in the scale compared with the magnitude of the existing evil." 
 The Church, in fact, is assailable on twenty points, defensible only on one, 
 and that one is, that it testifies and teaches the truth. This ground the Peel 
 Ministry will never take, and therefore, say what they will, they will warm no 
 hearts, and appeal to no principles, and will have nothing but dry, shop-like 
 details of possible, or probable, inconveniences, to set against the stirring and 
 dazzling facts and sentiments of the complaining party. I, for one, could not
 
 1844.] PEEL ON THE IRISH CHURCH. 307 
 
 support the Church in Ireland, on the sole grounds taken by Sir Robert 
 Peel. . . . 
 
 Feb. 27th. Never did I hear such a speech from a Minister I never may I 
 hear such another, as that last night from Sir R. Peel on the Irish Church ! If 
 the Church is defensible on those grounds only, I, for one, will vote against it. 
 Half an hour of surprise that Roman Catholics did not act up to the engagement 
 of " acquiescing in the Church arrangements," and half an hour in ringing the 
 changes upon this : " I assume there must be an Established Church ; the Roman 
 Catholic offers me one set of terms, the Protestant another ; I prefer the Pro- 
 testant ; " and here was his conclusion : " I will not surrender the Irish Church 
 except " (with my life ?) " under some overwhelming necessity of public policy 1 " 
 What, thou Minister ! does the Church, then, rest on no principle ? The argu- 
 ments of the whole clique have a strong affinity in form and disposition on 
 every subject. Sir W. Follett said, on the Dissent Bill, that though a Trinitarian 
 might have founded a Chapel, we had no reason to believe that he wished those 
 who came after him to preach the same doctrine I and that inexplicable states- 
 man, Mr. Gladstone, intimated that all Dissent tended to Socinianism, and that 
 a vast portion of the founders were, in fact, Unitarians 1 
 
 June 28th. Dissenters' Chapels Bill read a third time and passed. Privately 
 objected to a division, but was overruled. 
 
 July 16th. Lords last night affirmed Dissenters' Chapels Bill by a majority 
 of 161 I I . . . A public man, holding my position and entertaining my 
 views, and bepraised (for I cannot say " supported ") by a certain portion of the 
 religious community, is oftentimes in serious embarrassments. Some plan is pro- 
 posed ; he is required to assist it ; he urges against the possibility, or expediency, 
 some deductions of his experience ; he is secretly suspected, or openly accused, 
 of want of faith, self-seeking, or relying on an arm of flesh ; he exercises no 
 judgment, and falls into the scheme ; he is baffled, and mischief ensues, both to 
 the cause and to himself in reputation for common-sense. Will these gentlemen 
 define the rules and the situations in which human judgment may be safely and 
 lawfully exercised 1 
 
 The condition of the lunatic population of the country, notwithstanding 1 
 the legislation of 1828, still left very much to be desired. In 1842 Lord 
 Granville Somerset had asked leave to bring in a Bill to extend the Metro- 
 politan system of inspection to the provinces, and to appoint barristers as 
 Inspecting Commissioners, who should devote themselves exclusively to the 
 service, it having been found that the supposed annual visits of magistrates 
 frequently never took place at all. Lord Ashley supported the Bill, which 
 passed into law in July of that year.* The Metropolitan Commissioners, 
 now invested with larger powers, thoroughly investigated the state of the 
 English and Welsh asylums, and presented to Parliament in 1844 a valuable 
 report, fitly called " the Doomsday Book of all that, up to that time, con- 
 cerned Institutions for the Insane." It rovealod a deplorable state of things, 
 however, in many asylums, notwithstanding the various Acts of Parliament 
 that had been passed ; but its publication laid the foundation for wiser and 
 
 * Haimard. 3 s. Ixi. 800.
 
 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XII. 
 
 more comprehensive enactments, in the passing of which Lord Ashley was to 
 take a leading part. 
 
 He notes in his Diary : 
 
 July 2nd. Finished, at last, Report of the Commission in Lunacy. Good 
 thing bver. Sat for many days in review. God prosper it ! It contains much 
 for the alleviation of physical and moral suffering. 
 
 It has been well said that the services which Lord Ashley rendered to 
 this cause alone, would have carried his name down to posterity in the front 
 rank of English philanthropists. His untiring labours in connection with it 
 ceased only 'with his life. 
 
 On the 23rd July he brought forward a motion for an address to the 
 Crown, praying her Majesty to take into her consideration the report of the 
 Metropolitan Commissioners of Lunacy, as, in the following Session, the 
 statute under which they acted would expire. He called upon the House to 
 consider in what form and to what extent power should be confided to an 
 administrative body for the government of lunatics throughout the kingdom, 
 and stated that " it was the duty of the House to prescribe the conditions 
 under which a man should be deprived of his liberty, and also those under 
 which he might be released ; it was their duty to take care that for those who 
 required restraint, there should be provided kind and competent keepers, and 
 that, while the patient received no injury, the public should be protected." 
 In commenting upon the immunity from visitation of houses for single 
 patients, he said : " A power of this kind ought to be confided to some hands 
 that would hunt out and expose the many horrible abuses that at present 
 prevailed. No doubt there were many worthy exceptions, but the House had 
 no notion of the abominations which prevailed in those asylums. It was the 
 concession of absolute, secret, and irresponsible power to the relatives i.l' 
 lunatics and the keepers of the asylums, and exposing them to temptations 
 which he believed human nature was too weak to resist." There was the 
 temptation to keep patients from recovery, because the allowance (often as 
 much as 500 per annum) would then cease. So strong was his opinion of 
 the bad effect of this, that, if Providence should afflict any near relative of 
 his with insanity, " he would consign him," he said, " to an aylum in which 
 there were other patients and which was subjected to official visitation." 
 The only control they had over single houses was, that if patients resided 
 more than twelve months in one of these, the owner of the house must com- 
 municate the name of the patient to the Clerk of the Commission. This rule 
 was either disregarded, or evaded by removing the patient every eleven 
 months. 
 
 The second class of houses to which he called attention was the county 
 asylums, and, after specifying certain of these that were admirably managed, 
 he pointed out that twenty-one counties in England and Walos had as yet no 
 asylum whatever. 
 
 Tn speaking of the private asylums, which, on the previous 1st of January,
 
 1844.) TREATMENT OF LUNATICS. 309 
 
 contained 4,072 patients, Lord Ashley referred to the evil of a system by 
 which a profit was realised by the superintendents on pauper patients, who 
 were taken in at rates as low as seven or eight shillings a week. It often 
 happened that an old mansion, transformed into an asylum, was the residence 
 of the superintendent and a few private patients, while the paupers were sent 
 into offices and out-buildings. 
 
 After pointing out some of the glaring cases of cruel neglect and ignorant 
 and brutal treatment, detailed in the Report, he adduced many facts and 
 statistics to show the importance of treating lunacy in its early stages, as, 
 where the practice had been adopted, the most, beneficial results had followed, 
 while an opposite policy led to confirmed madness, with little or no chance of 
 !<. ivery. 
 
 _ Turning to the question of restraint, he paid a high tribute to " those good 
 and able men, Mr. Tuke, Dr. Hitch, Dr. Corsellis, Dr. Conolly, Dr. Vitro, 
 Dr. Charlesworth, and many more, who had brought all their high moral and 
 intellectual qualities to bear on this topic, and had laboured to make the 
 rational and humane treatment to be the rule and principle of the government 
 of lunacy." 
 
 Lord Ashloy concluded his speech in these words : 
 
 These unhappy persons are outcasts from all the social and domestic affections 
 of private life nay, more, from all its cares and duties and have no refuge but 
 in the laws. Yon can prevent, by the agency you shall appoint, as you have in 
 many instances prevented, the recurrence of frightful cruelties ; you can soothe 
 the days of the incurable, and restore many sufferers to health and usefulness. 
 For we must not run away with the notion that even the hopelessly mad are dead 
 to all capacity of intellectual or moral exertion quite the reverse ; their feelings, 
 too, are painfully alive. I have seen them writhe under supposed contempt 
 while a word of kindness and respect would kindle their whole countenance into 
 an expression of joy. Their condition appeals to our highest sympathies, 
 
 " Majestic, though in ruin ; ' 
 
 for though there may be, in the order of a merciful Providence, some compensat- 
 ing dispensation which abates within, the horrors manifested without, we must 
 jud.ire alone by what we see ; and I trust, therefore, that I shall stand excused, 
 though I have consumed so much of your valuable time, when you call to mind 
 that the motion is made on behalf of the most helpless, if not the most afflicted, 
 portion of the human race.* 
 
 On the assurance of Sir James Graham, that the matter should receive 
 attention next Session, Lord Ashley, after a short debate, which served to 
 draw public attention to the subject, withdrew his motion. 
 
 Mr. Slid] spoke in the debate, on the condition of criminal and pauper 
 lunatic's in Ireland, and concluded with a eulogy upon Lord Ashley in these 
 words : " It is a saying that it does one's eyes good to see some people, and I 
 may observe that it does one's heart good to hear others ; one of those is the 
 
 * Hansard, 3 s., Ixvi. 1257. Shaftesbury's Speeches, p. 144.
 
 310 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XII. 
 
 noble lord. (Cheers.) There is something of a sursum corda in all that the 
 noble lord says. Whatever opinion we may entertain of some of his views, 
 however we may regard certain of his crotchets, there is one point in which 
 we all concur namely, that his conduct is worthy of the highest praise for 
 the motives by which he is actuated, and for the sentiments by which he is 
 inspired. (General cheers.) It is more than gratifying to see a man of his 
 high rank, not descending, but stooping from his exalted position, in order to 
 deal with such subjects not permitting himself to be allured by pleasure or 
 ambition, but impelled by the generous motive of doing good, and by the vir- 
 tuous celebrity by which his labours will be rewarded. It may be truly stated 
 that he has added nobility even to the name of Ashley, and that he has made 
 Humanity one of " Shaf tesbury's Characteristics."* (Much cheering from 
 all sides.) f 
 
 July 24th. Last night motion on Lunacy obtained indulgent hearing. The 
 speech did its work so far as to obtain a recognition from the Secretary of State 
 that legislation was necessary and should be taken up in my sense of it. Sheil 
 made a neat allusion, by way of compliment, to my great-grandfather's works. 
 He added, too, " the noble lord's speaking is a surgum corda kind of eloquence ; " 
 this is the most agreeable language of praise I have ever received ; it is the very 
 atyle I have aimed at. 
 
 July 25th. My friend, the Times, in character as' usual, charges me with 
 weakness. How can I be otherwise, not having in the House even a bulrush to 
 rest upon ? " No politician I no statesman ! " I never aspired to that character : 
 if I did, I should not be such a fool as to attack every interest and one half of 
 mankind, and only on behalf of classes whose united influences would not obtain 
 for me fifty votes in the county of Dorset or the borough of Manchester. " Rides 
 but one hobby at a time 1 " Of course ; a man who cannot afford to keep a groom, 
 if he be rich enough to have two horses, must ride them alternately. I have no 
 aid of any kind, no coadjutor, no secretary, no one to begin and leave me to finish, 
 or finish what I begin ; everything must be done by myself, or it will not be done 
 at all. 
 
 \ Exceptional as were the public demands, in variety and extent, upon the 
 nime of Lord Ashley, he did not allow the claims of private and social life to 
 pass unrecognised. | How he managed to get through his labours is a mystery 
 only to be understood by those who have made a study of the economy of 
 time. It was a mystery to himself, and he makes frequent entries in his 
 Diary like the following : 
 
 So grievously hurried that I have not time to record anything. Hurried in 
 body and mind ; longing for a few days of repose. ... In bed late ; up early. 
 
 There are scattered throughout the Diaries, however, very graphic indica- 
 tions of matters that were filling his mind with joy or sorrow ; of duties and 
 engagements accomplished, and of plans and projects for the future. In the 
 
 * It will be remembered that the third Earl of Shaftesbury was the author of the 
 well-known book called "Characteristics of Men and Manners." 
 t Times, July 24, 1&44.
 
 1M4J PLACING A SOX AT SCHOOL. 311 
 
 early part of this year he placed his eldest son at school in the Isle of 
 Wight; and a glimpse of his fatherly solicitude is given in the following 
 entries : 
 
 January 2nd. Dear Antony is about to start for school. I cannot bear to 
 part with him ; he is a joy to me. 
 
 March 4th. What a blessed letter Minny received from Antony this morning I 
 So simple, and yet so deep in its feeling and its truth. Oh, well can I under- 
 stand the gracious and precious wisdom, the more than manly intelligence, that 
 shone in the hearts of Josiah and King Edward 1 God, make him, like Samuel, 
 to walk before Thee, in youth and in age, with joyful obedience, unwearied 
 service, and ever-increasing love. 
 
 June 28th. Yesterday to Isle of Wight to fetch Antony, and to-day returned 
 with him. Praised be Thy holy name, O God, for all Thy mercies to us and to 
 him ! I found him well, happy, and full of gracious promise. Minny went 
 with me, and also Francis, Maurice, and Evelyn. Very expensive ; but we had 
 incautiously made the promise. Children hold much to such engagements ; and 
 the loss of money is of less account than the loss of confidence. Admirable 
 school ; all the care of solicitous parents, with the encouragement of every 
 manly thought and exercise. His master is watering the seed that, by God's 
 grace, I was permitted to plant ; He alone can, and will, give the increase. 
 
 The claims of friendship wero not lost sight of in the pressure of other 
 engagements. 
 
 March 17th. Minny and I saw Mrs. Fry yesterday on the bed of sickness. 
 Kissed her hand to show my respect and love. That woman has, assuredly, been 
 called to do God's work, and love her blessed Lord and Master. May He yet 
 spare her for further service, and then take her to Himself. 
 
 It was only when a demand was made upon his time that could do no 
 more than gratify his own personal pleasure, that he refused to comply 
 with it. 
 
 June 12th. The Emperor of Russia is here, and firing away in visits. . . . 
 Have never in my public life been more hurried than during last month ; not an 
 hour to do anything, not a minute to reflect God grant that my engagements be 
 good, for they are all-absorbing 1 Would have given a great deal, as the phrase 
 is, to talk to the Emperor ; did not succeed. 
 
 It was not until August that Lord. Ashley obtained the rest he had so 
 long desired ; and even then it was but partial repose. On the 3rd of 
 August he reached Ryde, in the Isle of Wight ; but the entry following this 
 VMM ml shows that on the 7th he " hurried up to town to be sworn in as Com- 
 missioner in Lunacy heard and resolved to expose some shocking Welsh 
 esses." Then back again to tho Isle of Wight ; bat it is clear that his mind 
 was otherwhere. 
 
 August 10th. Visited Parkhurst to-day with Jebb.* What a harvest of 
 misery and sin ; actual sin, prospective misery. Vain, very vain, these corrective 
 
 Colonel Jebb was head of the Convict Department.
 
 312 THE EAIU, OF SIIAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XIU 
 
 processes ; yet they must be attempted, and duty must lord it over hope. One 
 heart may be touched, and one soul may be saved ; and it is worth all the trouble 
 and all the expense, But how ignorant and how criminal is the nation quite 
 as ignorant, and far more criminal, than these wretched boys which permits, 
 by its neglect, these tares to be sown, and then tediously labours to uproot 
 them ! . . . . 
 
 August 17th. Long and solitary walk by sea-shore ; much and agreeable 
 meditation. Thought over the example and history of Daniel as a model and 
 guide for statesmen. The scantiness of his biography much to be regretted in this 
 sense his position and conduct as Minister of the Empire of Babylon, a beacon and 
 a pole-star for the helmsmen of modern kingdoms. He ruled a nation of religious 
 belief diametrically hostile to his own. What was his policy ? What his action ? 
 A right understanding of this great and good man's government would open the 
 eyes and smooth the path of a ruler in Ireland ! You would learn how Ministers 
 can deal with religionists of a different complexion, leave an established faith 
 untouched by power, and yet retain their own integrity. 
 
 A few days later he paid a visit to St. Giles's House. 
 
 August 23rd. St. Giles's. "Dear earth, I do salute thee with my hand." 
 Left all my kids, Antony excepted, at Eyde. My heart misgave me as I saw 
 baby straining her darling little face through the bars of the pier to get a last 
 sight of us. " I commit them unto God, and to the word of His grace." . . , 
 Here I am in perfect solitude, an immense house, a wide garden, hardly the step 
 of a human being, and no sound but that of a distant sheep-bell ; it i a moment 
 to reflect on God's prodigious and undeserved goodness to me and mine. " What 
 am I, and what is my house, that Thou hast brought me hitherto ? " 
 
 August 28th. Heard this morning of the death of W. Fry. * I am deeply 
 grieved ; a worthy man, a friend of the poor, and a devout believer. It is a most 
 serious loss to those who desire to see many and mighty improvements in public 
 and private conduct. I am indebted to him for requesting me to undertake the 
 Opium Question, and for immense aid in the execution of it. I had hoped for 
 till further aid in the next Session. 
 
 Sept. 2nd. Ryde. To Portsmouth to see the gun-practice of the Excellent, 
 commanded by my old friend Sir T. Hastings. ... If the Government and 
 nation would show half the zeal to defend themselves from the Devil that they 
 do from the French, we should speedily become a wise and an impregnable 
 people. . . . 
 
 Towards the end of September came the renewal of anxiety and work in 
 a journey through the factory districts. 
 
 Sept. 26th. May God turn the hearts of the mill-owners and give me grace 
 in their eyes 1 What a blessing were I quit of this undertaking, and able to 
 direct my efforts to other and untrodden fields ! Glad to be with my ancient and 
 well-beloved friend Lady Francis ; t I ever remember her in my prayers. They 
 have built a fine house here ; they have done well to plant themselves, despite of 
 
 * William Storrs Fry, son of Mrs. Elizabeth Fry. 
 
 t Lady Francis Egerton, afterwards Countess of Ellesmere. She was a sister of 
 Mr. Charles Grevillo. Lord Francis Egerton's place was Worsley, near Manchester.
 
 1*44.1 TOUR IN THE FACTORY DISTRICTS. 31$ 
 
 the unpleasant neighbourhood, in the midst of their duties and responsibilities. 
 Many people of wealth would hare fled to brighter spots ; may God bless them in 
 their dwelling with years of peace and usefulness ! 
 
 Sept. 27th. I see by the papers that Dunn, the proprietor of the Chinese 
 Collection, is just dead. Thus I have lost. in six weeks two men (him and Fry) 
 who moat ably assisted me in the Opium Question. How mysterious are the ways 
 of God ! Well did old Hooker say : " The little we perceive thereof we darkly 
 apprehend and admire ; the rest with religious ignorance we devoutly and meekly 
 adore 1 " 
 
 The campaign of Lord Ashley iu the manufacturing districts was very 
 arduous, but it was well worth all the toil He saw, as he had never done* 
 before, how many of the mill-owners, desperate in adversity and unthinking* 
 in prosperity, were playing with men as with ninepins. He saw, in other 
 cases, a growing readiness to accept a limitation of hours to eleven, if not to- 
 ten, on the ground that it would be physically and morally desirable. He- 
 went minutely into the question of " distances " travelled during the day by 
 the operatives, and found that, despite the contradictions, he had rather 
 understated than overstated them. He perambulated the towns to see for 
 himself the actual condition of the people, and the filth and pallidness of 
 house and person. 
 
 Lord Ashley met the Lancashire Central Short-Time Committee, and > 
 few of their friends, at the Brunswick Hotel, to receive an address. In 
 thanking them for it, and for their appreciation of his services, he paid an 
 eloquent tribnte to all the workers who had aided in the agitation, and par- 
 ticularly to Nathaniel Gould, of Manchester ; the late Michael Thomas 
 Sadler ; John Wood, of Bradford ; Mr. Brotherton, Mr. Fielden, Mr. Oastler, 
 and Mr. Bull, men who, " when the question was surrounded with greater 
 hazards than it is at present, did not fear to come forward and declare, in the 
 face of contempt, and prejudice, and power, that, by the aid of God's bless- 
 ing, they would strive against every difficulty, and persevere until they had 
 brought the struggle to a successful termination." 
 
 In reviewing the position of the question, and contrasting it with that of 
 sixteen years before, he enumerated some of their gains, which were : an 
 enactment limiting the labour of children to six hours a day ; protection 
 against accident, death, and mutilation, from the unguarded state of machinery ; 
 mid the important provision that no woman, of whatever age, should be em- 
 ployed in any mill or factory more than twelve hours a day. He explained 
 tn those who were not conversant with the forms of the House of Commons, 
 the difficulties that had beset the matter in the last Session of Parliament, 
 showing how the Bill was in constant jeopardy and how a false step would 
 have caused the loss of it, the object being to preserve the Bill, in order to 
 got what good they could from it, and at the same time to remain faithful to 
 the main principle of the Ten Hours. In concluding, he dcniod that ho was 
 the enemy of the factory masters, or of the factory system. " I am an enemy 
 of the abuses." he said, " but not of the system itself," and he exhorted them
 
 314 THK EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XII. 
 
 to go forward with strength and resolution, promising, on his own part, that 
 he would persevere with an unbroken and determined spirit until a happy 
 consummation of their united labours should be reached. 
 
 During this visit a deputation waited on Lady Ashley at the Albion 
 Hotel to present her with an address in which her self-sacrifice was recog- 
 nised, and the aid she had given to the cause, in consoling and sustaining 
 their leader in his arduous toil, was gratefully acknowledged. 
 
 Oct. 19th. London. Have called on many master-spinners. Hear that they 
 are gratified. Did so before I met operatives. Addressed a body last night. 
 Admirable meeting ; urged the most conciliatory sentiments towards employers ; 
 urged too the indispensable necessity of private and public prayer if they desire 
 to attain their end. Told what I felt, that unless religion had commanded my 
 service I would not have undertaken the task. It was to religion, therefore, and 
 not to me, that they were indebted for benefits received ! What a place is Man- 
 chester silent and solemn ; the rumble of carriages and groaning of mills, but 
 few voices, and no merriment. Sad in its very activity ; grave and silent in its 
 very agitation. Intensely occupied in the production of material wealth, it 
 regards that alone as the grand end of human existence. The operatives, poor 
 fellows, to a man, distrust this present prosperity. Have visited print-works. 
 Mr. Thomson's, Clitheroe ; Mr. Dugdale's, near Gawthorpe ; Mr. Field's, Man- 
 chester. Thirty-five thousand children, under 13 years of age, many not exceed- 
 ing 5 or 6, are worked, at times, for 14 or 15 hours a day, and also, but not in 
 these works, during the night 1 Oh, the abomination ! Now, therefore, God 
 helping me, I will arise and overthrow thia Philistine. Oh, blessed Lord and 
 Saviour of mankind, look down on the lambs of Thy fold, and strengthen me to 
 the work in faith and fear, in knowledge, opportunity, wisdom, and grace ! 
 
 Soon after his return to London, Lord Ashley began to revolve in his 
 mind the programme for the Session, and resolved that he would devote his 
 energies, in the first place, to the Ten Hours Bill for the Protection of 
 Children in Calico Print-works, to a Lunacy Bill, and, after that, to sucli 
 other matters as occasion offered. 
 
 His Diaries at this time are very full, and a few extracts will show the 
 current of his thoughts and the scope of his aspirations : 
 
 Jt. 26th. Everything now is rushing at the " landed proprietary ; " its over- 
 throw is aimed at, illuc cuncta vergerc. The comparative prosperity of other 
 branches of industry brings forward agriculture in invidious contrast, and this 
 feeling will continue, and perhaps increase, until the day of manufacturing con- 
 vulsion. Entails, primogeniture, large estates, &c. : all to be got rid of. Many 
 even of the Conservatives incline that way ; they perceive difficulties in our 
 social state, and catch at any solution. If so, the thing will be done,, and God 
 prosper the issue 1 But strange it is that all improvement and salvation should 
 be found in the overthrow of the "landocracy," while the enormous accumula- 
 tions of banking, trading, milling are to be petted and praised as the very foun- 
 tains of universal joy. . . . 
 
 Oct. 30th. London. Fogs, smoke, muffin bells. Much need of internal light
 
 IM4.] RUGBY AND ETON. 315 
 
 and joy ; very little external, yet promise myself occupation and amusement 
 even. Must look up Societies, Committees, &c., and attend Police Courts. 
 
 Nov. 3rd. Sunday. Windsor Castle. Arrived yesterday. Attended service 
 in St. George's Chapel ; exquisite chanting: ; cold and comfortless discourse, and 
 yet better than the one I heard some two or three years ago. Queen and Prince 
 Albert at private chapel in Castle. . . . 
 
 Nov. 9th. Good deal of business. No repose. Sittings renewed in Lunacy. 
 What a scene of horrors I If such be the condition of things under all our 
 inspection, law, public opinion, and the whole apparatus of "philanthropy" (what 
 a sad word ! ), what must it have been formerly, and what would it be again in 
 a state of pure principle of non-interference ? Long interview with Roper, 
 secretary to Society for Protection of Needlewomen. I find, as usual, the clergy 
 are, in many cases, frigid ; in some few, hostile. So it has ever been with me. 
 At first I could get none ; at last I have obtained a few, but how miserable a pro- 
 portion of the entire class ! The ecclesiastics, as a mass, are, perhaps, as good aa 
 they can be under any institution of things where human nature can have full 
 swing ; but they are timid, time-serving, and great worshippers of wealth and 
 power. I can scarcely remember an instance in which a clergyman has been 
 found to maintain the cause of labourers in the face of pew-holders. ... 
 
 Nov. 18th. Visited Peckham Asylum on Saturday last. Long affair six 
 hours. What a lesson ! How small the interval a hair's-breath between 
 reason and madness. A sight, too, to stir apprehension in one's own mind. I am 
 visiting in authority to-day. I may be visited by authority to-morrow. God be 
 praised that there are any visitations at all ; time was when such care was un- 
 known. What an awful condition that of a lunatic I His words are generally 
 disbelieved, and his most innocent peculiarities perverted ; it is natural it should 
 be so ; we know him to be insane ; at least, we are told that he is so ; and we 
 place ourselves on our guard that is, we give to every word, look, gesture a 
 value and meaning which oftentimes it cannot bear, and which it never would 
 bear in ordinary life. Thus we too readily get him in, and too sluggishly get him 
 out, and yet what a destiny ! 
 
 Nov. 21st. Went yesterday to Rugby to examine the physical and moral 
 aspect of the place and see whether it would be a good school for Antony. Hope 
 nay, think it will do ; universal testimony, so far as I hear, in its favour from 
 all who have sons there. Saw Dr. Tait. and Cotton, the tutor ; both advised the 
 age of fourteen as, on the whole, the best ; much, said they, will depend on the 
 position he takes when he enters the school ; " The great advantages we offer are 
 found in the higher grades ; every advance in rank is regarded by the boys as 
 involving an increase of responsibility." I fear Eton ; I dread the proximity of 
 Windsor, with all its means and allurements ; dread the tone and atmosphere of 
 the school ; it makes admirable gentlemen and finished scholars fits a man. 
 beyond all competition, for the drawing-room, the Club, St. James's Street, and 
 all the mysteries of social elegance ; but it does not make the man required for 
 the coming generation. We must have nobler, deeper, and sterner stuff ; less of 
 refinement and more of truth ; more of the inward, not so much of the outward, 
 gentleman ; a rigid sense of duty, not a " delicate sense of honour ; " a just 
 estimate of rank and property, not as matters of personal enjoyment and display, 
 but as gifts from God, bringing with them serious responsibilities, and involving 
 a fearful account ; a contempt of ridicule, not a dread of it ; a desire and a
 
 316 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XII. 
 
 courage to live for the service of God and the best interests of mankind, and by 
 His grace to accomplish the baptismal promise : " I do sign him with the sign of 
 the Cross, in token that hereafter he shall not be ashamed to confess the faith of 
 Christ crucified, and manfully to fight under His banner against sin, the world, 
 and the Devil, and to continue Christ's faithful soldier and servant unto his- 
 life's end." 
 
 Graham has asked me to undertake the Lunacy Bill, promising to treat it as a- 
 Government measure. Prodigious work ! but cannot refuse to lighten the burden 
 on a Minister's shoulders. Agreed on condition of full Government support in 
 every respect. Oh, that I might prosper and do something for those desolate and 
 oppressed creatures ! 
 
 Nov. 26th. Many starving people in the streets ; an alms here and an alms- 
 there very unsatisfactory ; no effectual or permanent good done ; a very small 
 iota of the mischief abated. It makes me miserable, never absent from my 
 thoughts, like having a bad taste always in one's mouth. Where is the root of 
 the evil 1 It cannot be inevitable to have so many poor. Poverty, of course, we 
 must have, but not, surely, deep and extensive destitution. It is wrong, awfully 
 wrong, that so many able-bodied and willing labourers should want employment 
 and bread. What can be done ? 
 
 Nov. 28th. Thoughts of a great scheme for relief of people pass through my 
 mind. Would it be a measure of relief, or an aggravation of distress 1 Repeal 
 duty on tea to one-sixth of present amount ; sugar the same ; repeal the malt tax 
 totally, and the Corn Laws at the end of five years ; keep on the income tax, 
 raised to five per cent, for ten years. I like the scheme very much. 
 
 Nov. 30th. A fellow has taken the trouble to sneer against me all across the 
 Atlantic. Received this morning a New York paper with a prodigiously long 
 account of a game-law case in England. On the margin, in manuscript : " A case 
 for Lord Ashley's philanthropy, from an American slave-holder." Untrue in 
 respect of me, for I hate, and have always hated, these excessive preservations of 
 birds and beasts ; illogical in respect of the analogy, for there is no similitude 
 between the trade in human flesh and the over-rigid custody of cock pheasants ! 
 
 Dec. 1st Sunday. To St. George's in afternoon. A melancholy sight : the 
 parish church, with a handful of " genteel folks," and not twenty square inches 
 of space for the vulgar fry, choked up by monopolising pews, excluding and 
 affronting the working man ! 
 
 Deo. 3rd. Yesterday took chair of meeting on behalf of wretched seam- 
 stresses. Good Heavens I that in such a cause there should have been so scanty 
 an assemblage 1 Happily, we had foreseen the event, and had proportioned our 
 room to our expectations. The place of meeting was small, but, being filled, 
 assumed a dignity it did not possess. No " quality," no wealth ; people very 
 highly respectable. My chief supporters, always zealous and kind, W. Cowper 
 and Redmayne, the wholesale dealer. . . . 
 
 It will be remembered that in 1839 the long estrangement between Lord 
 Ashley and his father was followed by a hearty reconciliation. Unhappily, 
 that reconciliation was not to remain unclouded. The career Lord Ashley 
 had adopted, and the causes he had espoused, were not such as met with the 
 sympathy of his father, and ever since the speech at Sturminster in 1843, in
 
 1844.) THE "8TURMIN8TER SPEECH." 317 
 
 which he had spoken plainly of the responsibilities of landed proprietors, there 
 liad been a growing coldness, which had resulted as shown in the following 
 
 'iitry : 
 
 Dec, 16th. St. Giles's. The Stunninster speech is not forgotten. It is one 
 of the ingredients of his hatred.* Curious occurrence ; the League are reviling 
 me for doing nothing, at the moment I am turned out of my father's house for 
 doing ton much. 
 
 Dec. 10th. League busy ; letter this morning to say that an attack was to be 
 made by Cobden on me, drawn from state of dwellings at Martin and Damerham.f 
 Duncombe tells me that a spy has been there for three days. God be with me ! 
 I am innocent as a child unborn, and yet it seems that they will strip me at last 
 of all power to effect anything in the House of Commons. I commit it all to 
 <3od. He will yet deliver me. 
 
 Dec. 24th. Christmas Eve. Broadlands. " Hallowed and gracious is the 
 time." What a season for united action, for mutual and reconciling prayer, for 
 s If -knowledge, for self-abasement, for inquiry who we are, what we are, whence 
 we are, why we are ! . . . 
 
 Dec. 28th. Private hints and my own suspicions have led me to believe that 
 my " favour " has been, for some time, on the decline in the county of Dorset. I 
 have said but little, excepting my speech at Stunninster ; but I am disliked, not 
 only for what I have said, but for what I have omitted to say. I cannot do as 
 George Bankes does attend the agricultural meetings and farmers' clubs, and 
 roar out about Protection, the superhuman excellence of landlords, the positively 
 divine character of tenants, tickle the ears with fulsome flattery, and rise in 
 popularity as you rise in declamation. The labourers are generally ill-treated in 
 houses and wages ; the gentry and farmers know the fact, and know, too, that I 
 think so ; hence their aversion ! The proceedings of the late agricultural 
 meeting at Blandford confirm my opinion. I was mentioned but once, and my 
 name amid cheers and three times three to many others attracted there but a 
 cold " Hear, hear." It was introduced by Bankes clearly not to honour me, but 
 to furnish an attack on the Anti-Corn-Law League. Well, let them do as they 
 like ; I know and God be praised for it that I am right ; and I will not abate 
 one breath of my lips to save the seat for the county. Nothing but bulls of 
 Bashan ; I am encompassed on every side. 
 
 * The allusion is to Lord Shaftcsbury. 
 
 t Martin and Danicrham were outlying gpote on hi* father'i ectata.
 
 CHAPTER Xin. 
 
 1845. 
 
 IN the Ten Hours movement there was little to be done during this year, 
 except to watch the working of the new Bill, and to keep the Committee 
 well together, especially now that those who were pledged to Ten Hours were 
 reinfoi'ced by such powerful allies as Lord Palmerston, Lord John Russell, 
 Lord Howick, and Mr. Macaulay. 
 
 The subject, however, was never out of Lord Ashley's mind, and in an 
 early entry in his Diary for the year we find him reviewing his position : 
 
 Jan. llth. It will be a singular thing if this great and much-agitated 
 question ends in a mere vapour ; if the labours of twelve years, and the anxiety 
 and notoriety of forty, commissions and committees, disclosures of sinfulness, 
 cruelty, and peril, that make one's head to be sick, and one's heart to be faint 
 terminate as tranquilly and entirely as though nothing had been known and 
 nothing attempted ; nevertheless (humanly speaking), such an issue appears to 
 be most probable ; I can hardly anticipate a longer period (if so much) for efforts 
 in the House of Commons than the duration of the coming Session. Should I be 
 removed to the House of Lords, I shall be taken to an assembly where it would 
 be vain to propose such measures, and I should leave the other without a suc- 
 cessor to my office. Is there any one who would undertake the career from 
 which I should have been removed ? I know not the man. It is possible that 
 the duty now would not be so burdensome and painful ; it is possible that, 
 Moses-like, I may have been a humble instrument to bring the people to the 
 borders of Jordan, while to some Joshua, at present unseen, may be given the 
 honour and delight of leading them into Canaan ; but if it be not so, and any 
 one be called to pass through what I have already passed through, he will not do 
 it willingly. Here are twelve years of labour, anxiety, and responsibility, 
 especially the first and the four last ; but every year since 1836 has been one of 
 toil and preparation, though nothing, by defect of opportunity, may have 
 appeared in public. Eight years of open support and of suppressed antipathy 
 from the Conservatives while in Opposition ; three years of coldness and one of 
 decided resistance from the same when in Government. . . . Except Fielden. 
 Brotherton, and Inglis,* I am certain of no one in public. I have borrowed and 
 spent, in reference to my income, enormous sums of money, and am shut out 
 from every hope of emolument and every path of honourable ambition. My own 
 near kinsfolk dislike my opinions, and some persecute me. I am now a sufferer 
 in domestic relations, and I am excluded from my father's house, in no slight 
 degree because I was known to have maintained the cause of the agricultural 
 labourer. No one but myself can estimate the amount of toil by day and by 
 
 * Sir Robert Inglis.
 
 1845.) THE IRISH SECRETARYSHIP. 319 
 
 night, of fears and disappointments, of prayers and tears, of repugnances con- 
 tended against and overcome, of long journeys, and unceasing' letters ; and will 
 all this have no greater result than the simple and resisted issue of the Colliery 
 Bill ? "I will stand on my watch-tower and will see." 
 
 Not once or twice in his career had Lord Ashley been agitated already 
 by the question of accepting or refusing office. Whenever that question 
 came to him, it filled his mind with conflict. He was patriotic to the core, 
 and the responsibility of declining to accept any position that would give 
 him larger means of benefiting the country, weighed heavily upon him. On 
 the other hand, the temptations to accept office were very great ; his name 
 was almost as familiar on the tongues of men as that of the Premier ; there 
 were large bodies of the people who looked upon him as the one npon whom 
 their hopes were fixed, as the leader in all great social and religious ques- 
 tions ; he was still young, with a young man's proper and laudable ambition ; 
 and, moreover, his private means were altogether inadequate to the demands 
 upon them. 
 
 Jan. 24th. Brighton. Colonel Wyndham has lent us his house, and here we 
 are ! Saw Bonham yesterday. Asked him who was to be successor to Lord Eliot 
 as Secretary for Ireland. " Why should not you take it ? " said he. " The 
 Factory Question," I replied, " stands in the way." " Oh no," he rejoined, in a 
 strain of droll logic, " that is an English question, and has nothing to do with 
 Ireland. There may be perhaps some difficulty on your part to accept Peel's 
 measures for Ireland, but I can see no other." He then showed me a letter 
 from Sir J. Graham which he had just received. " Is Ashley quite out of the 
 question for the Irish Secretaryship 2 The Factory Question is settled, and he 
 would find ample room for all his activity and for the exercise of all his warm 
 feelings in that career." . . . He closed by saying : " After all, you may never 
 hear of this again." 
 
 Feb. 1st. As Bonham said, " I have heard no more of it ; " it would have been 
 to no purpose, for nothing should have, or shall, induce me to surrender these 
 social and moral questions. Many changes ; Gladstone goes out, I know not why ; 
 Knatchbull, because Peel is sick of him ; Sir T. Freemantle to Ireland ; S. 
 Herbert and Lincoln to seats in the Cabinet. It will be a Cabinet of Peel's dolls. 
 Cunning fellow ! How adroitly he has tarnished and then dismissed the two 
 ' farmers' friends ; " thus he would dispose of every one either actually or pros- 
 pectively troublesome to him ; and so he would have done with me. 
 
 Feb. 5th. Peel expressed to Jocelyn his earnest, most earnest, wish that I could 
 be induced to take office very likely. Graham, too, said the same ; spoke of the 
 folly of my perseverance ; that the thing was hopeless ; and that I kept up bad 
 feelings ! Bad feelings ! Why, I never called any one Jack Cade 1 " But," 
 added Sir James (it is curious to discover their calculations), " he will soon be 
 removed to the House of Lords ; he can do nothiny u-ith kin J-artory Hill there" 
 (most true), " and then he will be sure to join us." So here is their device, to 
 run their opposition against my father's life in the sure and certain hope that an 
 elevation (!) to the House of Lords is a death-blow to my exertions ! Lord, I 
 beseech Thee again and again, for Christ's blessed sake, turn the counsel of 
 Aluthophel into foolishness !
 
 320 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CRAP. XIII. 
 
 Although, as we have said, there was little to be done for the present in 
 regard to the Ten Hours Bill, Lord Ashley's attention was much engaged 
 upon a kindred subject, the Report of the Children's Employment Commis- 
 sion, for which he had moved in the year 1840, and especially, on the state 
 of the Calico Print-works. The lives of the poor wretched children who 
 were engaged in this branch of industry were made miserable by reason of 
 their cruel bondage. Employment began generally at from seven to nine 
 years of age, although there were cases known of children beginning to work 
 .at three or four years old. The hours were always long ; lasting, for young 
 girls, as well as for adults, from sixteen to eighteen hours a day, amid cir- 
 cumstances and conditions that were fearfully injurious to health. The 
 rooms in which the work was carried on were hot and unhealthy, and in the 
 -" singeing room " the air was always full of small burnt particles, which 
 irritated the eyes intolerably, so that all the children were more or less 
 affected with inflammation and other diseases of the eyes. The nature of 
 their work was distressing, as it required unremitting attention ; their arms 
 they had to keep in a continual rotatory motion, and they were upon their 
 feet the whole time they were at work. The wages of these poor children 
 were extremely low ; their education was totally neglected ; and they were 
 being ruined in body and soul by their long hours of labour, often protracted 
 far into the night. Altogether, the young calico printers seemed to be about 
 the most miserable class of workers to be found in the industrial population. 
 
 On February the 4th Parliament was opened by the Queen in person, and 
 on the 5th, Lord Ashley gave his notices, and obtained, by ballot, precedence 
 for his motion respecting children occupied in Print-works. The interval, 
 as usual, was full of suspense, and every day his hopes and fears are recorded, 
 and all his thoughts run in the direction of his labours. Thus he writes : 
 
 February 7th. The progress of crime, both in amount and intensity, is 
 dreadful ! How mysterious are the ways of Providence ! Why is it that children 
 of the tenderest years are subjected to the fiercest tortures ? God give us Hia 
 Holy Spirit to amend our hearts aud lives, for we are desperately wicked they 
 who do such things, and we who do not prevent them. Shall I deliver my poor 
 children in the Print-works ? God be with me ! 
 
 February 9th. Brighton. For days, and almost for weeks, I have prayed, in 
 the words of Lot, " Give me this Zoar : behold, it is but a little one." This day 
 that chapter was read as the first lesson ; and then came the reply : " See I have 
 accepted tkee in this thing also." I felt it almost like an answer from Heaven 
 that I should rescue my children in the Print-works, and, like the Israelites, 
 " I bowed the head and worshipped." 
 
 On February the 18th Lord Ashley moved, in the House of Commons 
 " That leave be given to bring in a Bill to regulate the Labour of Children 
 in the Calico Print- Works of Great Britain and Ireland." Although the 
 subject was much akin to others lie had brought forward, and the nature of 
 the evidence was of necessity almost identical, he startled the House, and 
 eventually the country, by the revelations he made as to the condition of
 
 164i.j CHILDREN IN CALICO PRINT-WORKS. 321 
 
 these oppressed and almost forgotten children. In earnest and eloquent 
 language he pleaded their cause, dwelling upon every point that could touch 
 the heart of the House and draw forth sympathy to the sufferers, yet avoiding 
 any expression reflecting on the conduct and character of individual Print- 
 masters. 
 
 He was at a loss to conceive on what grounds an opposition would be 
 made to his proposal, the third in the series he had brought before that 
 House ; but he hinted at the possibility in these words : 
 
 Sir, in the various discussions on this and kindred subjects there has been a 
 perpetual endeavour to drive us, who seek the aid of the law, from the point 
 under debate, and taunt us with a narrow and one-sided humanity ; I was told 
 that there were far greater evils than those I had assailed that I had left 
 tm touched much worse things. It was in vain to reply that no one could grapple 
 with the whole at once. My opponents, on the first introduction of the Ten 
 Hours Bill, sent me to the collieries ; when I invaded the collieries, I was referred 
 to the Print-works ; from the Print-works I know not where I shall be sent, for 
 can anything be worse 1 . . . 
 
 Sir, it has been said to me, more than once, " Where will you stop 1 " I reply, 
 without hesitation, " Nowhere, so long as any portion of this mighty evil remains 
 to be removed." * 
 
 The Bill, which received some opposition, and was also subjected to some 
 mutilation in its passage through the House, became law on June 30th as 
 " The Print Works Act, 8 and 9 Yict. c. 29." Its provisions were akin to 
 those of the Factory Act of the previous year, and contained similar clauses 
 as to inspections and penalties. The Act was defective, however, in many of 
 its provisions, Lord Ashley's proposals having been modified on lines sug- 
 gested by Mr. Cobden. But, although it did not remove all the evils, it 
 mitigated many, and the condition of the children was greatly ameliorated 
 thereby.f 
 
 Feb. 2 1st. Time so occupied and harassed, no leisure for entry. Print-works 
 speech over on 18th. The House is weary of these narratives of suffering and 
 shame ; the novelty is past, and the difficulty, the apparent difficulty, of a remedy 
 remains ; it catches, therefore, at any excuse for inattention, and damns the 
 advocate for the toiling thousands, by courteous indifference. Civil and even 
 kind to myself personally, though manifestly tired of the subject and somewhat 
 of me. Here is another burden added to my shoulders, already bruised and 
 ;>eeled, to fight against an averted and reluctant audience. Sir James complimen- 
 tary, cold, hostile, subtle, admitted the Bill, and made preparations to throw it 
 out 1 Public opinion, too, either dead to the woe or preoccupied by trade ; not a 
 newspaper will give one syllable to the wrongs of these miserable whelps ; and 
 yet, how, without public opinion, can I make the least progress 1 However, be 
 this as it may, I will against hope believe in hope ; I will not throw up the 
 cause ; I will, God helping me, persevere ; I may have to mourn over the blighted 
 prospects of these children, but I shall find peace for myself. 
 
 March 26th. Panshanger. Up at 7. Bright and soft morning. Birds singing 
 
 Speeches, p. 165. t Von Plener's " Factory Legislation," p. 35.
 
 322 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XIII 
 
 in a variety of notes. It is inspiriting and beautiful a general and cheerful 
 prayer of all Nature to God, the Author and Preserver of all. " Let everything 
 that has breath praise the Lord." Ay, children in Print-works no less than 
 birds and beasts and creeping things ; but a fierce resistance is begun, fierce as 
 though their strongholds were assailed by a legion of angels. Alas 1 I stand 
 alone j not a " penny-a-liner " with me : all dark, dismal, silent ; but I shall yet 
 " expect." 
 
 March 31. Beautiful morning seems to tempt one from duty and business 
 and make one idle. I could live in the country with joy, but I must, God willing, 
 first accomplish my task in the active haunts of men. 
 
 Although there were so many questions pending, and under treatment, in 
 which Lord Ashley was personally engaged, he was not in any way indifferent 
 to the general drift of public affairs. On the contrary, his Diaries abound 
 in comments upon these, although it is beside our purpose to record them 
 here ; but the following passage, relating to the defenceless state of our 
 coasts in those days, will be read with interest : 
 
 March 31st. This evening Navy Estimates in House of Commons. Who will 
 ably and effectively exhibit the defenceless condition of our dockyards, and 
 the whole line of our shores ? Never was a great nation, humanly speaking, in 
 such a state of exposure. Now, here is the proof of it, and never has God in His 
 mercy, no, not even to Hezekiah as against Sennacherib, exhibited a more 
 singular and special providence. Sir Thomas Hastings told me that he had 
 received and reported officially to the Government the intelligence that during 
 the negotiations respecting Tahiti, the French had collected in the harbour of 
 Cherbourg eight steam-vessels equal to the Gomer, fully equipped for war, with 
 troops on board, and ready to start at a minute's notice the commander would 
 have learned, by telegraphic despatch, that the negotiations were at an end, and, 
 without declaration of war for such, says the Prince de Joinville, is now 
 unnecessary would, in sixteen hours, have reached both Portsmouth and 
 Plymouth 1 What was there to oppose them ? Absolutely nothing. Not a 
 steam-boat within a day's sail, not a gun-boat in the harbour, not a cannon 
 mounted on the batteries to fire even a salute ! All this was confirmed on the 
 visit of the King of the French to England the other day ; he spoke to John 
 Russell, who mentioned it to Palmerston, from whom I have it. "A war 
 between England and France," said he, " is much to be deprecated ; we should 
 gain some advantages at first, though we should, on the seas, be worsted in the 
 end. I am glad that our negotiations on Tahiti terminated favourably ; I should 
 have been grieved to do any injury to your capital, the seat of civilisation and 
 humanising commerce, but I was advised to make an attempt on London, and I 
 should have been successful." To be sure he would. Palmerston remarked that 
 this was somewhat of a threat. I take a very different view. The King knows 
 well that his dynasty depends on the position of England ; and he gave this as a 
 hint for our advantage, and not as an expression for insult ! Well, well may we 
 exclaim, "0 God, we have heard with our ears the noble works that Thou hast 
 done in our days ! " 
 
 In the ecclesiastical world the sky was thick with clouds and the air with 
 portents. It was in this year that the Tractarian Movement may be said to
 
 :845.j MR. WARD'S CENSITUE AND DEPRIVATION. 323 
 
 have reached its crisis. Although Lord Ashley had keenly watched every 
 fresh development of the controversy, he had not, hitherto, owing to the 
 pressure of other matters, taken much active public part in it. The stages 
 by which the present position had been reached may be briefly told in this 
 place. Early in 1844, Keble had written : " We go on working in the dark, 
 and in the dark it will be, until the rule of systematic confession is revived in 
 our Church." Later on he had complained that it was impossible to ascertain 
 the moral and religions condition of the people " for want of being able to use 
 the arm of confession." Towards the end of the year Dr. Pnsey had 
 declared that ho neither could nor would subscribe the Articles of the Church 
 in the sense in which they were propounded by those who framed them. 
 Many public meetings were held in various places, and it was the burden of 
 their protests that the High Church party was attempting to bring back into 
 the National Church usages which were associated in the minds of the people 
 with the superstitions and corruptions of Rome. Throughout the year 1845 
 excitement ran high, notwithstanding the address in the early part of that 
 year by the Archbishop of Canterbury, in which he recommended to the clergy 
 and laity mutual forbearance and concession on the points in dispute between 
 the Tractarian and the Anti-Tractarian parties 
 
 On February the 13th there was a meeting of Convocation at Orford, to 
 condemn a book written by the Rev. George Ward, M.A., entitled "The 
 Ideal of a Christian Church, Considered in Comparison with Existing Prac- 
 ti<-e." and to deprive the writer of his degree, on the ground that passages in 
 his book were utterly inconsistent with the Articles of Religion of the Church 
 of England, and with the declaration in respect of these Articles, made and 
 MiliM-ribed by Mr. Ward previously, and in order to his being admitted to the 
 es of B.A. and M.A. respectively. 
 
 On a division, the condemnation of the book was carried by 777 votes 
 against 386, giving a majority of 391 against Mr. Ward ; and the proposition 
 t.i <! prive him of his degree was carried by 569 to 511 votes. 
 
 February 13th. To Oxford to join in proceedings against Mr. Ward ; hia oen- 
 Bure and deprivation of degree most necessary, becoming, and just Theatre full ; 
 attention good. Mr. Ward, by permission, defended himself in English : not in- 
 solent or impetuous, but Jesuitical and shallow. Never did I think that, within 
 those walls, I should hear a clergyman of the Church of England use these expres- 
 sions : " With others who. like myself, go to the full extent of the Roman 
 Catholic doctrines ; " and, " I renounce no one doctrine of the Roman Catholic 
 Church, provided it be a Roman Catholic doctrine, and not one of corruption ; 
 provided it be a Roman Catholic doctrine / mt-ttn, ganrtifird by tfw Pnpf." Why, 
 these two sentences cancelled his whole defence, and proved the spirit in which 
 he hod subscribed the Articles in a " non-natural sense," and decried the Refor- 
 mation. Majority of 391 for the censure ; 58 for the deprivation ! 
 
 Among the non-placets were Mr. Gladstone, Dr. Hook, and Dr. Pnsey. 
 Scarcely had the excitement caused by this decision died away, than an- 
 other case, similar in many respects, came before the public. The Rev. F. 
 v 2
 
 324 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XIII. 
 
 Oakley, Incumbent of Margaret Street Chapel, and an intimate friend of Dr. 
 John Henry Newman, had written to the Bishop of London claiming to hold 
 the same principles as Mr. Ward, and challenging him to institute proceed- 
 ings. The challenge was accepted, and on June 30th Mr. Oakley was con- 
 demned by the Judges of the Arches Court, his licence revoked, and he him- 
 self prohibited from officiating in the Province of Canterbury until he retracted 
 his errors." 
 
 Events, soon after this, hastened to a climax. On October 8th, Dr. New- 
 man, in a letter to a friend, announced his intention to seek " admission to the 
 one Fold of Christ ; " and on November 1st, he, Mr. Oakley, Mr. St. John, 
 and Mr. Walker, all converts to Rome, received the sacrament of confirmation 
 in the chapel of Oscott College, at the hands of Dr. Wiseman, while within 
 the same month the Rev. F. W. Faber was also received into the Church of 
 Rome. 
 
 It is noteworthy that in the midst of this excitement Archdeacon Samuel 
 Wilberforce was called to the administration of the diocese of Oxford the 
 centre and focus of it all. 
 
 It was at a period such as this, when men's minds were greatly perplexed 
 on ecclesiastical questions in general, and in particular with regard to any 
 tendency towards Romanism, that the Prime Minister saw fit to bring for- 
 ward a measure which was to produce anxiety, amounting almost to terror, in 
 the ranks of Protestantism. 
 
 When Parliament met in February, it became known that Mr. Gladstone 
 had resigned his post 'in the Ministry the Vice-Presidency of the Board of 
 Trade and in the course of the debate on the Address, the reasons for this 
 step were fully announced. Sir Robert Peel had intimated that the Govern- 
 ment was about to take into consideration the existing Acts relating to the 
 College at Maynooth, with a view to the improvement of that institution 
 by further endowment, and the establishment of non-sectarian Collars. 
 These changes were at variance with Mr. Gladstone's written and spoken 
 views upon the relations of Church and State, and he at once severed him- 
 self from the Ministry, in which he had rapidly risen to influence and power. 
 
 In a very short time there was a general commotion. The spirit of 
 Protestantism was roused, public meetings and conferences were held, pam- 
 phlets were scattered, sermons were preached, the question was the main 
 topic of conversation in every circle of society, and the most strenuous 
 efforts were made to kindle religious feeling to a white heat, in order that 
 the threatened extension of Roman Catholic endowment might be resisted to 
 the death, f 
 
 The College of Maynooth, intended for the education of the Roman 
 Catholic priesthood and the laity, was not at that time in a position to supply 
 the wants of either. The building was incomplete, and what was finished 
 was falling into decay ; the library was wholly insufficient ; the funds were 
 inadequate to meet the salaries of the professors, and the accommodation was 
 nltogether unequal to the demands. The proposal of the Government was to
 
 THE MAYNOOTII GRANT. 325 
 
 place Maynooth <>n, at least, some approximate level with the other Collegiate 
 institutions of the Empire, without, it was alleged, in any way interfering 
 wit): its teaching or discipline. 
 
 The Maynooth Bill comprehended an increase in the salaries of the 
 president and professors, provision for sixty additional stndents making the 
 number 500 and an augmentation of the grant to each. The annual grant 
 of 9,000 hi;hcrto contributed towards the expenses of the College, was to be 
 increased to nearly 30,000, not subject to an annual vote, and the repairs of 
 the College were to be executed, as in other public buildings, by the Board 
 of Works. 
 
 The excitement in the House on the introduction of the Bill was pro- 
 digious, and the debate on the second reading lasted over six nights, in the 
 course of which Mr. Disraeli launched philippic after philippic against the 
 Premier. " Explain to us," he cried, " why, after having goaded Ireland to 
 madness for tho purpose of ingratiating yourself with the English, yon are 
 now setting England on fire for the purpose of ingratiating yourself with 
 tin- Iri>h." 
 
 It was in vain, however, for Mr. Disraeli to utter his philippics, or for 
 Colonel Sibthorp to say he would " submit to have his head shaved off, rather 
 than forget that lie was a Protestant ; " the second reading was carried in 
 the Commons by 323 against 176 ; majority for Ministers, 147. With the 
 exception of Lord Ashley, Mr. Fox Maule, and Mr. G. Bankes, no one who 
 had held political office voted in the minority. 
 
 The excitement in the ecclesiastical world was now intense ; never before 
 or Miice has there been such wild commotion. An nnceasing torrent of 
 I it-til ions against the measure rained in; angry denunciations were hurled 
 against the Government ; and every Evangelical pulpit and platform in the 
 land uttered its loudest protest. 
 
 Lord Asldey was a Protestant of the Protestants, and ho stood forth in 
 the name of the Evangelical body of the Church of England, both in and 
 out of Parliament, in the strongest opposition to the measure. He was not 
 s, nor at any, time " an apostle of mere blind, unreasoning fanaticism." 
 In 1829, as we have seen, he supported Catholic Emancipation by his vote, 
 and, as we shall see, he held sentiments with regard to Roman Catholics for 
 which few, who knew only one aspect of his character, would have given him 
 credit ; but he drew a strong distinction between the persecution and the 
 patronage of Roman Catholics. Of the latter, now and always, he was a 
 eonnstent and determined opponent. 
 
 In the great popular agitation he took an important part, and heavy 
 demands were made upon his time, already crowded with manifold labonrs of 
 other kinds. His speeches stand in striking contrast to those of some who 
 identified Sir Robert Peel as the veritable Antichrist of Dr. Croly, for 
 example, who said that George IV. came to a premature end, And the Houses 
 of Parliament were burnt down, because Catholic Emancipation "that un- 
 happy, harsh, ill-judged, fatal measure " was passed in 1829.
 
 326 TllE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. Xlll. 
 
 Throughout tins period Sir Robert Peel remained unmoved. Since lie 
 had overcome Mr. O'Connell, the bitterest of his enemies, he had become, as 
 he thought, master of Ireland ; and the panacea for soothing the irritation of 
 the conflict in which he had been victor, was to be the extension of education 
 in Ireland among the Roman Catholics as well as the Protestants. 
 
 He affected to regard the opposition to the Bill as " mainly the opposition 
 of Dissent in England partly fanatical, and partly religious mainly un- 
 willingness to sanction the germ of a second Establishment, and to 
 strengthen and confirm that of the Protestant Church." He was of opinion 
 that many of his opponents " merely yielded to the wishes of Dissenting 
 constituents. Tariff, drought, forty-six shillings a quarter for wheat," he 
 wrote to Mr. Croker, " quicken the religious impulses of some ; disappointed 
 ambition, and the rejection of applications for office, others." * 
 
 He looked upon the storm which the Bill had raised with indifference, 
 l>eing resolved to carry the measure, and he professed to be careless as to the 
 consequences which might follow, so far as they concerned him or his position. 
 
 The result was as he anticipated : the Maynooth Endowment Bill was 
 carried. Despite the repeated efforts that were made for its repeal, it con- 
 tinued in force until 1868. It was abolished by Mr. Gladstone's Govern- 
 ment when the State Church in Ireland was disestablished. 
 
 As, in the course of this volume, we shall see Lord Ashley standing forth 
 as the champion of Protestantism under circumstances in which his own 
 individuality will be more conspicuous, .we shall not quote from the many 
 speeches in which he refers to the Maynooth question. 
 
 There are many references in the Diary to the same subject, only a very 
 few of which we shall extract, as the interest in the matter has now, to a great 
 extent, died out. 
 
 April 4th. Last night Maynooth carried (first reading) by 216 to 114, the 
 whole thing almost a counterpart of 1829 ; the same changes of principle, and 
 by the same men. What a spectacle ! Why were the Whigs displaced ? These 
 measures go beyond anything they ever proposed, or even imagined ; and yet Peel 
 was brought in to correct their mischiefs. The main cause of Whig unpopularity 
 was their confederacy with the Romanism of Ireland, union with O'Connell, and 
 supposed desire to act for the advancement of the Papal Church. Peel was their 
 opponent, and led every one to believe that he was also their opposite, and 
 therefore to support him. His conduct, then, is considered to be treacherous. 
 And is it not so ? As for the measure, it is useless and foolish foolish because 
 it irritates and insults the opinions and feelings of a large body of people in 
 these realms ; and useless, because it will not conciliate a single heart in England 
 or Ireland. . . . 
 
 April 7th. Maynooth will prove a stumbling-block ; the House, as I foresaw, 
 would readily pass it, but the country is becoming furious. The Free Church of 
 Scotland, the " religious public " of England, Wesleyans, Dissenters, all alike are 
 protesting and petitioning, probably with little chance of success, but with fixed 
 
 " Croker ' Correspondence," vol. iii., p. 32.
 
 1845.] SPEECH ON MAYNOOTH. 327 
 
 resolution, so far as in them lies, to cashier their representatives at another 
 election. What a strange ignorance, or haughty contempt of the deep, solemn 
 Protestant feeling in the hearts of the British people 1 Can a statesman, ought 
 a statesman, to force a measure, by dint of a legislative majority, utterly hateful 
 to the great mass of the nation 7 . . . 
 
 April 8th. I am resolved to oppose it on this ground : I leave on one side 
 the question of the increased grant and its lawfulness ; because, upon that head, 
 you are all at variance. I proceed to the endowment of the College by Act of 
 Parliament, with a grant of large funds from the national purse you thus 
 make it one of the great institutions of the Empire, place it on a level in rank, 
 and on an eminence in favour, as compared with Oxford and Cambridge, and con- 
 firm it by more powerful securities. This endowment and elevation lead neces- 
 sarily to the endowment and elevation of the whole priesthood of Ireland you 
 must, having raised them to a certain level, keep them there, and this can be 
 effected by adequate endowment only. Thence the establishment by law of the 
 Roman Catholic Church, and the concurrent existence of two Established 
 Churches ! The thing is another term for ruin ! 
 
 It was not until April the 17th, on the second reading of tho Bill, that 
 Lord Ashley made his speech on the subject in the House of Commons, 
 although on one or two occasions he had gone there, during the long con- 
 tinuance of the debate, with the full intention of speaking. He felt con- 
 siderable hesitation as to the line he should adopt. To argue it on financial 
 grounds, would only be to give a handle to the supporters of the Bill ; to 
 argue it on Church of England grounds, would place him in the position of 
 only representing the opinions of a minority ; the theological objections were 
 worn threadbare, and had become unpalatable ; and the argument that there 
 was political danger in the progress of the Church of Rome, did not seem 
 likely to be effective. When he went down to the House he felt " dismayed 
 beyond all former fears," with not a thought in his mind, and his memory a 
 blank. It was with pardonable pride, therefore, that he was able to make 
 the following entry : 
 
 April 18th. I obtained hist night nothing but compliments from Whig, Tory, 
 Radical, and even Roman Catholics. I can hardly conceive why. I can only pray 
 God that all may be turned to His future service. . . . Did all that I could to 
 avoid harsh or personal expressions against Roman Catholics sitting in face of 
 me, and yet to assert my Protestant principles. Glory to God, I effected both. 
 Redington, a Roman Catholic, said, in reply (no paper has reported it), if all 
 Protestants would so speak, and choose me for their leader, it would raise a 
 more fearful enemy to Roman Catholicism than any other way. . . . This is 
 very remarkable, an effect quite amounting to a sensation produced by a single 
 speech from a man in a private station on a worn subject, and in the middle of a 
 prolonged and frequently adjourned debate; it passes my comprehension. D' Israeli 
 said to me last night : " I think it quite a duty to tell you what an effect your 
 speech has produced. I have spoken to-day to all kinds of persons, from Crock- 
 ford's up to the Bank, and have heard but one voice. Tou have hit out a line 
 of action and argument ; great conciliation with tteady and full attertion oj
 
 328 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XIII. 
 
 Protestantism. The very violent, the discreet, the lukewarm, have all concurred in 
 expressions of approval. The peroration was of especial value." I thanked him, 
 and replied that, " standing as I did so much alone, these things gave me hearty 
 encouragement." " Yes," he added, " I have long 1 observed your single efforts, 
 and I thought it a duty to break the ice, and Bay what I have heard." . . . 
 
 Although the second reading was carried by a majority for Ministers of 
 147, that majority was curiously composed viz., Conservatives in favour of 
 the Bill, 158; Liberals, 165. Against: Conservatives, 145; Liberals, 31. 
 Sixty-four Conservatives were absent from the division. 
 
 April 21st. It was a fearful minority ; 145 of Peel's friends voted against 
 him. He had a majority of Conservatives in opposition to his Bill. He lives, 
 therefore, moves, and has his being through John Russell. 
 
 The Bill was not read a third time until the 21st of May, but its eventual 
 success was regarded as certain. Lord Ashley speaks of it in the following 
 entry as if already achieved : 
 
 May 3rd. Ireland thankless, as I foresaw, for the boon. . . . Is it not to 
 weaken the religious argument when you protest against Maynooth, not because 
 of its purpose, but because of its effects ? The effects have nothing to do with 
 the arguments ; were they even good, humanly speaking, it would be equally a 
 duty to resist the national and permanent teaching of that religion which was 
 declared and established by the Council of Trent. . . . What a blessing to me 
 it is that I am not tied by the strings of a Party either indoors or out ! 
 
 The month of May brought Lord Ashley many pleasures and duties in 
 connection with the meetings of religious societies. Especially was his 
 interest excited, at this period, in the Jews' Society, which was enjoying its 
 l>:Jmy days. There had been everywhere a revival of zeal on behalf of 
 ' God's ancient people ; " good news was constantly arriving from Jerusalem 
 cf the labours of the Bishop and his noble band of workers, and certain 
 promises and prophecies of the Scriptures were regarded as about to be 
 speedily fulfilled. As a matter of fact their fulfilment was not accomplished, 
 hut the anticipation stimulated faith and hope in those who read, what they 
 thought to be, the " signs of the times." 
 
 It reminds one of the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, to read the muster-roll 
 of the " great cloud of witnesses " the Fathers of the Evangelical Church 
 v.-ho were on the platform at the " exciting meeting," as Lord Ashley calls it, 
 on the anniversary day in this year, most of whom have now gone to their 
 rest. There were Sir Thomas Baring, the Bishop of Chester (Stunner, after- 
 wards Archbishop of Canterbury), Lord Ashley ; the Revs. E. Bickersteth, 
 Hugh Stowell, T. S. Grimshawe, P. C. Ewald, W. R. Premantle ; Dr. Wolff 
 ( f Bokhara, Hugh McNeile, W. W. Pym, and Dr. Marsh, of the largo 
 majority of whom it may now be said, " These all died in faith, not having 
 received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of 
 them and embraced them." 
 
 Lord Ashley was singularly happy in his speech from the chair. He 
 eaid :
 
 DEATH OF THE BISHOP OF JERUSALEM. 329 
 
 Oar Church and our nation have been called to the glorious service of making 
 known the Gospel of Christ to the many thousands of Israel. Now, in whatever 
 liu'ht I view this great question, whether I regard it as purely secular, whether I 
 regard it as purely religious, or whether I regard it as partaking of both 
 characters, I see no subject which can surpass, or even approach it, in magnitude 
 and in all those attributes which feed the imagination and stir into life the 
 warmest energies of the heart. . . . We rejoice in the end and hopes of this 
 Society, as seeking the fulfilment of a long series of prophecies, and the 
 institution of unspeakable blessings, both in time and in eternity, for all the 
 nations of the world. We believe (and we act, too, as we believe) that, if the 
 casting away of the Jewish people be the reconciling of the world, what shall 
 the receiving of them be but life from the dead ; and turn where you will to 
 examine the operations of this and all kindred Societies, and of every people on 
 earth, and you will see in our tardy progress, and in our comparative unfruitful- 
 ness, the necessity of this revival. ... It is our duty, our most high and 
 joyous duty, that every effort be made, that no exertion be spared, that all our 
 toil be given, by day and by night, that into every prayer, with all our souls, this 
 special supplication should enter, for the revival and exaltation, be it figurative or 
 be it literal, of repentant and forgiven Jerusalem.* 
 
 It was little droamed by those who had taken part in the meeting', that 
 hofore the year closed they would have to mourn the death of Bishop 
 Alexander, the one, it was believed, who was to be the instrument for carrying 
 out many of the great schemes on which their hearts were set. The sad 
 -vent, and its effect on Lord Ashley's mind, are thus recorded : 
 
 Dec. 15th. Just received, in a letter from Veitch, the examining chaplain, 
 intelligence of the death of the Bishop of Jerusalem at Cairo. I would rather 
 have heard many fearful things than this sad event ; it buries at once half my 
 hopes for the speedy welfare of our Church, our nation, and the Children of 
 Israel t What an overthrow to our plans ! what a humbling to our foresight I 
 what a trial to our faith 1 Alas, this bright spot, on which my eyes, amidst all 
 the surrounding darkness, confusion, and terrors of England, have long been 
 reposing, is now apparently bedimmed. 
 
 But what is our condition ? Have we run counter to the will of God 1 Have 
 we conceived a merely human project, and then imagined it to be a decree of the 
 Almighty, when we erected a bishopric in Jerusalem, and appointed a Hebrew to 
 exercise the functions ? Have we vainly and presumptuously attempted to define 
 ' the times and seasons which the Father hath put in His own power / " God, 
 who knoweth our hearts, alone can telL It seemed to us that we acted in faith 
 for the honour of His name, and in the love of His ancient people ; but now it 
 would appear that the thing was amiss, and not according to God's wisdom and 
 pleasure. 
 
 And yet, short-sighted, feeble creatures a we are, all this may be merely a 
 means to a speedier and ampler glory ! 
 
 The year was memorable for a mania among speculators, as curious an that 
 of the South Sea Bubble. 
 
 Jaeuh Intelligencer, June, I84&
 
 330 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. Xtll 
 
 The railway system had been in partial operation for some years, but there 
 had not been any remarkably vigorous speculation in shares, due in great 
 measure to the languor and depression that had prevailed since 1839. In 
 1843 a few adventurers had succeeded in doing " a good thing " in railways ; 
 and the notion soon became prevalent that the best way to make money grow 
 was to invest it in railways. Speculative capitalists caught at the idea, and 
 resorted to every available means to create a demand for investment of the 
 money that had been lying idle for the past four years. 
 
 Success attended their labours ; a railway speculative fever set in, and 
 soon became an epidemic. Grave and sedate people, no less than the dreamers 
 of dreams, seemed suddenly to have lost their senses ; the old and the young, 
 the millionaire and the thrifty artisan, people of all ages, of both sexes, and 
 of every rank, were eager to risk all they possessed, so confident were they 
 that timely investment was the sure road to fortune. 
 
 Parliament was besieged by the promoters of Bills for new railways ; and 
 every fresh scheme proposed brought forward a host of enthusiasts, who, 
 despite the fact that the advantage to be gained from some of these wild and 
 ruinous propositions could only be the saving of a little time and a little 
 money to those who travelled or carried goods, were ready to back up the 
 designing and unscrupulous few who were making gigantic profits by their 
 frauds on the public. It was at this time that Lord Ashley's father, Lord 
 Shaftesbury, so greatly distinguished himself as Chairman of Committees in 
 the House of Lords. Much labour also devolved on Lord Ashley in connec- 
 tion with these railway matters in the House of Commons, and there are 
 many entries in his Diary to the following effect : 
 
 May 26th. In the chair of Railway Committee I Six days in the week. 
 Sharp work. . . . 
 
 June 7th. Still in chair of Railway Committee I 
 
 This was happening at a time when he was more than usually pressed 
 with Parliamentary duties. He had determined to bring forward further 
 measures with regard to Lunatics and Lunatic Asylums, but " had been let 
 hitherto." The subject was continually in his thoughts, and, at different 
 periods of the early part of the year he refers to it in his Diary. 
 
 It was not, however, until the 6th of June that Lord Ashley found his 
 opportunity, and then, at the request of the Government, who had pledged 
 themselves in the previous Session to support him, he brought forward, 
 simultaneously, two Bills : the first, " For the Regulation of Lunatic 
 Asylums," and the second, " For the Better Care and Treatment of Lunatics 
 in England and Wales." In reviewing the past history and present position 
 of the question, he described the lamentable state of the law prior to the Act 
 of 1828, and the partial benefits which that, and other Acts, had conferred ; 
 but pointed out that evasions of the law were frequent, and that horrors of 
 almost every kind were possible under the existing system. He proposed 
 now to establish a permanent Commission, and thereby secure the entire scr-
 
 1845.] BILL FOR REGULATION OP LUNATIC ASYLUMS. 331 
 
 vices of competent persons. The Bill would give the power of more detailed 
 and more frequent visitations, fix the limit of expenses, and place all asylums 
 or " hospitals " under proper regulations. 
 
 ' My Bill will also provide an additional security against the improper deten- 
 tion of pauper patients, by requiring that the persons signing the order for their 
 confinement shall personally examine them beforehand, and that the medical 
 officer who certifies as to their insanity shall see them within seven days previous 
 to their confinement. I may add that neither of these safeguards exists at present. 
 I propose, also, that my measure should compel every person receiving a patient 
 to state his condition, mental as well as bodily, when first admitted, and the 
 cause of his death when he dies. It will also direct that every injury and act of 
 violence happening to a patient shall be recorded, and will require a case-book to 
 be kept, thereby affording additional securities against mismanagement, and 
 showing how far the patients have the benefit of medical treatment. It will also 
 authorise the visitors to enforce a proper supply of food (in licensed houses) to 
 pauper patients, who are at present fed at the discretion of the proprietor. Fur- 
 ther, it will enable the visitor to order the admission of a patient's friends ; at 
 present they are admitted or excluded at tho caprice of the person who signs the 
 order for the patient's confinement. It likewise will enable the visitors to sanc- 
 tion the temporary removal of a patient in ill-health to the sea-side or elsewhere. 
 It, moreover, will enforce an immediate private return of all single patients 
 received for profit, and authorise the members of a small private Committee, 
 named by the Lord Chancellor, to visit them if necessary. This is the provision 
 of the law in France : in that country licences are prescribed for every house, and 
 certificates and visitors for every lunatic. The abuses and cruelties perpetrated 
 in these retreats for single patients would surpass the belief of the House. . . . 
 These returns are universally evaded at present, the law rendering it unnecessary 
 to make any return unless the patient has been confined for twelve months. The 
 Bill will give the Chancellor power to protect the property of lunatics against 
 whom a commission has not issued, by a summary and inexpensive process, and it 
 subjects all workhouses in which any lunatic is kept to regular visitation." 
 
 The purpose of the second Bill was to extend the system of county 
 asylums. It provided that the erection of county asylums should be com- 
 pulsory, the existing accommodation increased where necessary, and separate 
 buildings provided for chronic cases. The Bill further provided for the 
 prompt care and treatment of all classes of lunatics ; that those whose friends 
 could not pay for them should be placed in an asylum as paupers, and that all 
 limntics taken care of by their friends, instead of being placed in asylums 
 should be inspected quarterly by a medical man, and lists of them returned to 
 the Commissioners. 
 
 After giving details of the financial part of the question, and a charac- 
 teristically vivid description of the horrors still prevalent in certain quarters 
 under the existing system, Lord Ashley urged the necessity of utterly 
 abolishing the practice of making pauper lunatics the prey of speculators. 
 After appealing to the House " an assembly of educated, humane, and 
 Christian men " on behalf of this utterly helpless class, who " were under
 
 332 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURT. [CHAP. XIII. 
 
 the marked visitation of a wise, though inscrutable Providence a class who 
 could not make the least compensation for their disinterested zeal and 
 labours," he paid a high tribute to the wise and humane efforts of Pinel, to 
 the signal success of the Society of Friends, and that remarkable family of 
 the Tukes who founded the retreat at York, and concluded his speech 
 thus : 
 
 To secure not only the progress, but even the continuance of this improved 
 condition, we have need of a most active and constant supervision ; if this be 
 denied, or even abated, the whole system will relapse. There is the strongest 
 tendency, and it is not unnatural, amongst the subordinate officers of every 
 asylum, to resort to coercion ; it gratifies all the infirmities of pride, of temper, 
 and of insolence. . . . 
 
 It is our duty, and our interest too, when we have health and intellect 
 tnens gana in cor pore sano leisure and opportunity, to deliberate upon these 
 things before the evil days come, and the years of which we shall say \ve have 
 no pleasure in them. Here are we sitting in deliberation to-day ; to-morrow we 
 may be subjects of this fearful affliction. Causes, as slight apparently as they 
 are sudden, varying through every degree of intensity a fall, a fever, a reverse 
 of fortune, a domestic calamity will do the awful work, and then, " Farewell, 
 King I " The most exalted intellects, the noblest affections, are transformed into 
 fatuity and corruption, and leave nothing but the sad though salutary lesson 
 how frail is the tenure by which we hold all that is precious and dignified in 
 human nature." * 
 
 After a debate, in which there was no opposition, leave was given to 
 bring in the Bills, and Lord Ashley carefully guided their further course. 
 The two Bills became law in 1845, and have been not inaptly called " the 
 yL&gna, Charta of the liberties of the insane." 
 
 The permanent Lunacy Commission now introduced, whose functions 
 were greatly widened, comprised six paid Commissioners at salaries of 
 1,500 each. Lord Ashley, who since its foundation had always been a 
 member, became unpaid Chairman of the Commission, an office he retained 
 until the end of his life. 
 
 June 7th. I must enter an expression of humble, hearty, and unceasing 
 thanks to Almighty God for my great success in the introduction of the Lunacy 
 Bills yesterday evening. Sir J. Graham seconded the proposition in a very kind 
 and fervid speech, and announced the full support of the Government. Just as 
 I. had concluded my speech amid applause from the House, two Masters in 
 Chancery appeared from the Lords, and announced their acceptance of the Bill 
 for the protection of women and children in the Calico Print-works. What an 
 answer to my prayers ; on the same day, and at the same hour 1 
 
 June 30th. Never have I suffered more anxiety than on these Lunacy Bills. 
 I dream every night, and pass, in my visions, through every clause, and con f us 
 the whole in one great mass. It is very trying perpetual objections, perpetua 
 correspondence, perpetual doubt ; and yet there are good feelings exhibited. 
 
 July 30th. Both Bills passed Committee in the Lords, and they are now quite 
 
 * Hansard, 3 a. Ixxxi. 180.
 
 >.l COWPER'S INSANITY. 333 
 
 safe. Most humbly and heartily do I thank God for my success. Snch a thing 
 almost before unknown, that a man, without a party, unsupported by anything 
 private or public, but God and His Truth, should have overcome Mammon and 
 Moloch, and have carried, in one Session, three such measures as the Print-works 
 Regulation and the two Bills for the erection and government of Lunatic 
 Asylums. 
 
 Aug. 20th. Have been reading, in snatched momenta of leisure, "Life of 
 Cowper." What a wonderful story ! He was, when he attempted his life, 
 thoroughly mad ; he was never so at any other time. Yet his symptoms were 
 such as would have been sufficient for any " mad doctor " to shut him up, and far 
 too serious to permit any " Commissioner " to let him out, and, doubtless, both 
 would be justifiable. The experiment proved that Cowper might safely be 
 trusted ; but an experiment it was, the responsibility of which not one man in 
 three generations would consent, or ought, to incur. We should, however, take 
 warning by his example, and not let people be in such a hurry to set down all 
 delusions (especially religious delusions) as involving danger either to a man's 
 eelf , or to the public. There are, I suspect, not a few persons confined whom it 
 would be just as perplexing, and yet just as safe, to release as the poet Cowper. 
 
 Parliament was prorogued on the 9th of August, but there was little time 
 for Lord Ashley to rest. For him, repose consisted more in the change than 
 in the total absence of occupation ; and a mind like his, active and hungry, 
 needed something to feed upon more definite and practical than speculation. 
 It is not surprising, therefore, to find the lull in one kind of engagements 
 occupied busily in other directions. 
 
 Sept. 1st The Society of Friends watch me with unparalleled love or un- 
 paralleled malignity. Wherever I turn, I see, or hear, or read, some token of their 
 sleepless zeal. Mr. Bright gives me no rest in the House of Commons ; Ashworth 
 in Lancashire ; Pease has paused but for a time in the public press. There is a 
 Quaker, whose name I forget, but who keeps all alive at Fordingbridge ; and 
 now a Mr. Wright, of Pontefract, has written to denounce the oppression of the 
 peasantry, " thy tenantry near thy residence in Dorsetshire ! " as set forth in the 
 Tim ft of August 23rd. Replied to contradict his assertions, and express my sense 
 of the love the Quakers bear me and their zeal for my reformation. 
 
 Sept. 12th. Turning over in my mind some scheme of general education, 
 such, at least, as may bring the vast mass of the juvenile population within the 
 u reading of the Bible." It is sad to see, and quite awful to consider, the vast 
 multitude of immortal creatures who live and die without ever hearing, except 
 in an oath, the name of Christ. This every one admits, deplores, and leaves 
 unredressed. The more I think, the more I am embarrassed and perplexed ; the 
 Church on one side, which ought to be respected ; the Dissenters on the other, 
 who will make themselves heard, seem to present insurmountable difficulties, 
 and meanwhile the people perisheth I 
 
 In the early part of this year the Peel Administration was standing, 
 apparently, upon the firmest possible foundation, and when Parliament was 
 prorogued, on the 9th of August, there was not a cloud in the sky to give 
 warning of the coming storm.
 
 334 THE EABL OP SHAFTESBURY. ( CHAP. XIII 
 
 Only two days, however, passed, before Sir James Graham received a 
 letter from a potato dealer, informing him that, from some unaccountable 
 cause, a species of blight, or other form of disease, had fallen upon the potato 
 crop of the country, and that all the potatoes sent to the markets bore indica- 
 tion, more or less, of the disease. The 'news soon received confirmation. It 
 was found that throughout the whole of Kent and Sussex the disease was 
 prevalent ; and, later on, similar reports came from all quarters. In England, 
 where the people partly owing to the operation of the Poor Law had not 
 to depend upon the potato for subsistence, the threatened danger was not so 
 alarming as to suggest the idea of famine. But in Ireland, if the disease 
 should spread there there was no evidence at present that it had done so, 
 the crop being later in its yield there than elsewhere the result would be 
 disastrous in the extreme, as the vast majority of the working population 
 were entirely dependent upon the potato crop for their existence, and its 
 failure would mean nothing less to them than ruin and starvation. 
 
 The Government could not shut their eyes to this terrible contingency, 
 and frequent Cabinet Councils were held. People began to inquire what 
 these could mean, for, as yet, the public in general were ignorant of the 
 approaching danger, and rumours were current that there was a division 
 among the Ministers. 
 
 A few weeks sufficed to explain the mystery, and then there was a clamour 
 for the immediate calling together of Parliament, and, on the part of the 
 Anti-Corn-Law League, for the ports to be thrown open. 
 
 Sir Robert Peel had come into office in 1841 to maintain the Corn Laws, 
 but now, seeing the extent of the danger, his first consideration was the 
 necessity of throwing open the ports to the importation of provisions of every 
 kind. 
 
 This in itself would have been an easy matter, if it were only to meet the 
 present emergency ; the difficulty would be to re-impose restrictions after 
 they had been once relaxed. 
 
 Towards the end of October, the news arrived that the distemper was 
 spreading throughout Ireland with frightful rapidity, and on the last day of 
 the month a Cabinet Council was held at Sir Robert Peel's residence, to 
 deliberate on the alarming prospects of the country. On the following day, 
 he set before the Cabinet his opinion that the Corn Laws could no lone e r be 
 maintained, that the existing duties should be at once suspended, an. I the 
 ports thrown open. No definite action, however, was taken at that tiiae ; a 
 Commission, consisting of the heads of departments in Ireland, was appointed 
 to take steps to guard against the sudden inroad of famine, and the idea of 
 an autumnal Session was abandoned. Shortly after this there arose a great 
 cry in Ireland, and the Mansion House Relief Committee of Dublin inter- 
 preted it in a series of resolutions which stated that there was undoubtedly 
 approaching, throughout that land, calamitous famine and pestilence, and 
 which concluded by impeaching the conduct of the Ministry, for refusing to 
 open the ports or to call Parliament together earlier than usual.
 
 Ii5.1 ALTERED VIEWS UPON THE CORN LAWS. 335 
 
 In this position of affairs Lord Ashley addressed a lengthy letter to his 
 constituents setting forth his altered views upon the Corn Laws. This letter, 
 published in the Dorset County Chronicle, was copied into all the principal 
 journals. The Diary continues : 
 
 October 2oth. I cannot see my opinion on the Corn "Law question in a different 
 light I am sure it is safe, and even necessary, in the present position of affairs ; 
 and as for the insinuation that I am shifting or changing, I cannot treat regula- 
 tions as principles. I have written this in reply to Melbourne, and stated the 
 case fully. 
 
 October 27th. Violent articles in papers ; tent to me, of course. League 
 paper absolutely truculent ; every form of baseness ascribed to me. Surely this 
 extreme and ferocious bitterness from the two opposites is a tolerable proof that 
 I have hit the mean. This comes of speaking the truth. Good it is, no doubt, 
 that the truth should be told, and it will, no doubt equally, at last prevail ; but the 
 man who speaks it is oftentimes a martyr to his sincerity, and others are enlightened 
 to praise him when he is either dead or ruined. I fancy I see the motives of this 
 eruption of anger. The high Protection party conceive that my letter gives an 
 impulse to abolition, the very shadow of which is frightful to them ; the Free- 
 Traders conceive that it will aid to qualify their scheme of abolition by adding 
 time and modifications. Thus I have grievously offended both sides ; my strength, 
 if I have any, will be found among the reasonable, thinking men of the land. 
 
 I do not, cannot, repent of the step I have taken. But by adopting this line 
 I separated myself from many with whom I had hitherto acted. And I thus 
 invited the assaults, the combined assaults, of two parties, and, standing alone, 
 lost the countenance (such as it is) of the third 1 I had, in this way, nothing to 
 rest on but my general influence and character. It was impossible to be blind to 
 the ill-suppressed hatred of many individuals of all classes ; and the tone and 
 language of the public papers, metropolitan and provincial, develop the grounds 
 of the animosity il canting, saint, hypocrite, pretence of religion, &c." every- 
 thing, in short, that can pass a sneer on the principles I have ventured to 
 maintain. It has always been so, and will be so to the end of time. God help 
 me 1 .... 
 
 For my own satisfaction and conscience I could not endure the annual repeti- 
 tion of sham-fights, so to speak. We were summoned, every Session, to make a 
 plain, unconditional resistance to the repeal of the Corn Laws. I had long 
 suspected that it would be ultimately unavailing, that the agricultural interest 
 would some day be summoned, either by the presence of commercial difficulty, or 
 by the will of the Minister, to reverse, in some following Session, the decision of 
 the one that had preceded. The last debate confirmed both this opinion and that 
 of utter hopelessness of continued resistance. What, then, was to be done / 
 I could not think this without saying it. There are, no doubt, many occasions on 
 which it is wise to be silent ; but here I could not with propriety refrain from 
 speaking out. I could not deceive those whom I represented, by urging them on 
 to protracted resistance, by promising resulta which I was sure would never 
 arrive. I could not myself coldly persist in a line of conduct which was (I 
 thought at least) fatal to the interests of the landed gentry, and at variance 
 with my own judgment of what was required. I said it, therefore, and awaited, 
 sud do await, the personal consequences I ...
 
 336 THE EARL OF 8HAFTESBDRY. [CHAP. XIII. 
 
 Tlie action of Lord Ashley had raised a storm around him, such as was 
 novel even in his experience. Two years before, the Examiner had said, 
 " If this man goes on as he now does, telling the truth to every one, he will 
 soon become the most hated person in England." The prophecy now appeared 
 to be about to receive its fulfilment. 
 
 Nov. 3rd. At times I almost quail when I think of the concentrated hatred 
 against me. 
 
 Nov. 24th. After all, what have I done to provoke such constant, minute, 
 and pointed hatred ? The League hate me as an aristocrat ; the landowners, as a 
 Radical ; the wealthy of all opinions, as a mover of inconvenient principles. 
 The Tractarians loath me as an ultra-Protestant ; the Dissenters, as a Churchman ; 
 the High-Church think me abominably low ; the Low-Church some degrees too 
 high. I have no political party ; the Whigs, I know, regard me as leaning very 
 decidedly to the Conservatives ; the Conservatives declare that I have greatly 
 injured the Government of Sir R. Peel. I have, thus, the approval and support 
 of neither ; the floating men of all sides, opinions, ranks, and professions, who 
 dislike what they call a " saint," join in the hatred, and rejoice in it. Every 
 class is against me, and a host of partisans in every grade. The working people, 
 catching the infection, will go next, and then, " Farewell, King : " farewell any 
 hopes of further usefulness. 
 
 On the 22nd of November, a letter from Lord John Russell, written from 
 Edinburgh, and addressed to the electors of London, appeared in the daily 
 papers, announcing his unqualified conversion to the principles of the Anti- 
 Corn Law League, and expressing his surprise that, with calamity of an un- 
 precedented nature threatening, Ministers had separated, apparently, without 
 having taken any steps to meet the impending scarcity. It concluded in 
 these unmistakable words : " The Government appear to be waiting for some 
 excuse to give up the present Corn Laws. Let the people by petition, by 
 address, by remonstrance, afford them the excuse they seek. . . . Let the 
 removal of restrictions on the admission of the main articles of food and 
 clothing, used by the mass of the people, be required in plain terms, as useful 
 to all great interests and indispensable to the progress of the nation." 
 
 On the re-assembling of the Cabinet two days afterwards, it became 
 evident that Sir Robert Peel had resolved either to repeal the Com Laws or 
 to resign. On the 4th of December it was announced in the Times, with all 
 authority, though not using the word itself, that Parliament would meet at 
 an early date, and that the repeal of the Corn Laws would then be proposed 
 by the Ministers. 
 
 It is quite impossible now to realise the intensity of the excitement caused 
 by this announcement. How the information found its way into that paper, 
 remains to this day a mystery, and it was indignantly denied by the Minis- 
 terial press. 
 
 Lord Stanley and the Duke of Buccleuch intimated to the Premier that 
 they declined to be parties to any measure involving the ultimate repeal of 
 the Corn Laws, and refused further to retain office ; and a feeling having
 
 1345.) A CRITICAL QUESTION. 337 
 
 become prevalent that others would do the same, Sir Robert Peel, on the 
 5th of December, repaired to Osborne, and tendered his resignation to her 
 Majesty. 
 
 Lord John Russell was summoned to form a Government, but his ar- 
 rangements fell to the ground, and before the end of the year Sir Robert Peel 
 was again First Minister of the Crown. 
 
 Dec. 23rd. A question will shortly arise, which we, M.P.'s of a certain com- 
 plexion, shall be called on to answer " Do you intend to vote for the Bill of Sir 
 E. Peel, which will take away all protecting duties (though gradually, perhaps) 
 from British Agriculture ? " I will look to my own case ; I was elected by an 
 agricultural body, who expected, undoubtedly, that what they called " Protection," 
 should be maintained. I was not tied, by their language or by my own, either to 
 mode or to extent, to sliding scale or sixty-shillings ; it was not a matter on 
 which they could have demanded, or I would have given, a pledge but a new 
 case has arisen, one not then in the contemplation of either party, the case of 
 total abolition, one on which the electors would have had a right to ask, and 
 possibly I should have been ready to give, a decided engagement. It seems then 
 that, if I were to vote for abolition, I should vote in a sense diametrically opposite 
 to the sense of their hopes and views when they chose me as their representative, 
 and in a way which, had it been then foreseen, would have, in all likelihood, 
 prevented my election. 
 
 Now we must take heed what we do, and pray earnestly to God for a sound 
 judgment, for counsel, wisdom, and understanding, that those especially, who 
 make profession of religion, may bring no scandal on honesty and truth. 
 
 The last entry in the Diary for the year finds Lord Asliley face to face 
 witli this alternative : 
 
 Dec. 31st. If Peel's plan be for total abolition, and I be disposed to support 
 it, must I not previously resign my seat ? What a tremendous sacrifice ? The 
 Ten Hours Bill abandoned, and all my projects at once extinguished 1 God in 
 His mercy give me wisdom and prosper the issue. 
 
 w
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 1S46. 
 
 ON the 22nd of January Parliament re-assembled. For some weeks pre- 
 viously public feeling had been strained to the uttermost, and the announce- 
 ments to be made by the restored Minister were awaited with feverish 
 anxiety. But, although it was clear that Sir Robert Peel had become a 
 convert to the Manchester School, and that it was his intention to abandon 
 the Corn Laws he had come into office to maintain, he did not make any 
 definite statement : " I will reserve to myself the unfettered power of judging 
 what will be for the public interest," he said ; " I will hold office unshackled 
 by any other obligation than that of consulting the public interest, and 
 providing for the public safety." 
 
 A few days later, however (Jan. 27), he announced his policy, into the 
 details of which it is not necessary that we should enter here. The important 
 part of the explanation was, that he proclaimed himself " an absolute convert 
 to the Free-Trade principle, and that the introduction of the principle into all 
 departments of our commercial legislation was, according to his intention, to 
 be a mere question of time and convenience." 
 
 Throughout this period Lord Ashley was full of anxiety. He had ever 
 been an opponent of the Repeal of the Corn Laws ; he had been sent to Par- 
 liament to defend them, but now he felt that defence was no longer possible. 
 Staunch Protectionist as he had been, he could no longer conscientiously 
 retain his old opinions ; and he felt it to be his duty forthwith to avow 
 his conviction, and, as a consequence, to resign his seat in Parliament. That 
 this resolution was not arrived at without a struggle, the entries in the Diary 
 abundantly testify. He was supported in the step lie was about to take by 
 Lady Ashley, who went with him, heart and soul, wherever duty called. 
 
 Jan. 15th. Ought I not to be deeply thankful to Almighty God that He has 
 given me a wife capable of every generous self-denial, and prepared to rejoice in 
 it, if it be for the advancement of religion and the welfare of man ? Oh, that my 
 children may inherit, by God's grace, of their mother's spirit, and find their truest 
 pleasure in the virtue and happiness of others ! 
 
 Jan. 27th. Ten o'clock at night. He (Peel) has just made his statement, 
 and, to my mind, it is most satisfactory. The landed gentry ought to be content 
 \vith the proposed adjustment ; nay, thank God for it. If they do their duty by 
 their estates and the people on them, they will be richer and more powerful than 
 ever ; but I rejoice that this repeal of the Corn Laws will compel them to care, 
 and to some effort, at least, towards improvement. 
 
 If I remain an M.P. I shall vote for it in all its parts, and throughout all its 
 stages ; but can I remain so I Though no pledges were given or asked, was there
 
 M40.J RESOLVES TO RESIGN HIS SEAT. 3.39 
 
 not between the electors and myself an " honourable understanding " that " Pro- 
 t ction " of some kind should be maintained ? If this be the case, I may not 
 vote in direct contradiction of the principle ; neither will I vote for it. Public 
 necessity and public welfare both demand the repeal of the Corn Laws. I could 
 justify such a vote before God, because I am convinced that it would be for the 
 best for every material and moral interest ; but I have entered into relations with 
 men, and I must observe them, though it be to my own detriment. The slight 
 influence I possess is founded on an estimation of character ; if that be lost, I 
 shall have nothing left for a " stock-in-trade ; " besides, I must recollect the 
 principles I have maintained, the language I have held, the public professions I 
 have made ; and it will then appear far better that I should suffer any loss than 
 give " occasion to the enemies of God to blaspheme," and say that, " after all, 
 your religious men, when they come to be tried, are no better than any one else," 
 Many would say this ; many more would think it ; and I should thus, by a 
 deliberate act, have myself brought discredit on the public profession of religion ; 
 and, when I have endeavoured and prayed that all my conduct might be to the 
 honour of God, I should have done more, in a single hour, to cast a stain on 
 " pious statesmen," than I could render of service to His holy name in the labours 
 of twenty years. 
 
 I remember, therefore, those blessed texts : " Seek ye first the Kingdom of 
 God and His righteousness ; and all these things shall be added unto you." 
 " Commit thy ways unto the Lord ; and He will direct thy paths." In this hope 
 I will surrender all ; and maintain my integrity, while I lose my office. 
 
 I shall resign my seat, and throw up all my beloved projects ; all for which I 
 have sacrificed everything that a public man values ; all that I had begun, and 
 all that I have designed. Nearly my whole means of doing any good will cease 
 with my membership of Parliament. 
 
 But God's will be done : " Though he slay me," said Job, " yet will I trust 
 Him." 
 
 Notwithstanding the fact that the agitation for the repeal of the Corn 
 Laws was occupying the attention of the great bulk of the people, the Ten 
 Hours Bill was not allowed to languish. There was still strong opposition 
 in Parliament, but many of the supporters of the League had stated that if 
 the Corn Laws were repealed they would vote in favour of the Ten Hours 
 Bill, although many entertained the curious notion that the necessity for 
 f actory legislation would cease in that case. Mr. Cobdeu had said, " The 
 demand for labour will be so great that three masters will be looking after 
 one man." The stannchest opponents, however, were those who on principle 
 objected to State interference with private rights. Lord Ashley, knowing 
 that there was little time for him to act in the present crisis of affairs, 
 left no stone unturned to advance the cause he had so much at heart, and 
 his skill and judgment, his indomitable perseverance and importunity, were now 
 displayed in the midst of circumstances of a peculiarly embarrassing nature. 
 
 On the 31st of January he resigned his seat. Two days before taking 
 that step, he re-introduced into the House of Commons his Ten Hours Bill 
 with every prospect of success. In support of his views, he adduced a largo 
 w 2
 
 340 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURT. [Cnxp. XFV. 
 
 mass of important facts and information recently collected, including the 
 results of experiments tried in several of the leading factories, as to the 
 effects of shortened hours of labour. 
 
 From this testimony he deduced the strongest case for further restric- 
 tions, and argued that the present system gave to female children a certain 
 amount of teaching until the age of thirteen, and that then, at a period when 
 the acquisition and experience of whatever is practical should begin, they 
 were advanced to the full extent of adult labour, and debarred, by their 
 unceasing occupation, from the attainment of the knowledge, indispensable to- 
 their welfare in life. They became unsexed in nature and habits by such 
 constant abstraction from domestic duties, and all the community suffered in 
 consequence. " There was wisdom," he said, " concentrated wisdom, in the 
 saying of Madame de Stael, who, in answer to a question of the Emperor 
 Napoleon, ' What shall I do for the benefit of France ? ' replied without 
 hesitation, ' Give us, sire, a generation of mothers.' " 
 
 All the strength of his opponents was put forth in the debate that 
 followed, and Mr. John Bright was again conspicuous for the warmth of his 
 opposition. Lord Ashley was well supported by Lord John Manners, Mr. 
 Wakley, Mr. Fielden, and others, and the Bill was read a first time. 
 Everything was ready for a f urther, and, it was hoped, a successful campaign. 
 But its future conduct was reserved for other hands. 
 
 He probably little thought when, on the 10th of May, 1844, he had said : 
 " It may not be given me to pass over this Jordan ; other and better ineii 
 have preceded me, and I entered into their labours ; other and better men- 
 will follow me, and enter into mine," that his words were to be, in some 
 respects, so speedily fulfilled. 
 
 But, as we have seen, two days after he had re-introduced the Ten Hours 
 Bill, conscience demanded that he should resign his seat in Parliament, aud 
 the future charge of the Bill devolved on Mr. Fielden, the Member for 
 Oldham. 
 
 Jan. 30th. Last night Ten Hours Bill. Through it, God be praised, without 
 failure. Not in heart, not in vigour ; but again I say, God be praised I ... 
 Most awfully reviled by Messrs. Bright, Trelawney, Roebuck, and Escott, of 
 which I took no notice, except to clear away a misstatement by the belligerent 
 Quaker. . . . 
 
 Jan. 31st. Heard from Farquharson. He gave me his own opinion, and, 
 no doubt, the true one, that the yeomanry would consider me as "acting in 
 direct reversal of the principle," &c. &c. ; wrote, therefore, immediately for the 
 Chiltern Hundreds, and am now, for the first time in nearly twenty years, no 
 longer a member of Parliament ! Many will condemn me, some for doing that 
 which they ought to do ; some for appearing to sanction the principle of dele- 
 gation. Others will approve the course as wise and safe for public men. Much 
 touched by the honest and virtuous sincerity of Fielden, Wood, and Philip 
 Grant. They are, if any men be, deeply anxious and deeply interested that I 
 should remain a member of Parliament, yet they did not hesitate for an instant.
 
 1818.] A FACTORY VISITATION 341 
 
 Moved almost to tears they were, while they applauded my decision, and hoped 
 and believed that it would prove, eventually, the best. 
 
 Feb. 6th. Bonham very anxious to see me yesterday before the post went 
 out. It was to say that a few persons had contributed two thousand pounds 
 towards the expenses of a re-election. I found that Peel and Graham (is there 
 an end of wonders ?) were among them I Their language was generous and 
 delicate ; they instructed Bonham to say that they considered a great public 
 principle was involved in my re-election; that their assistance conferred no 
 personal obligation ; that if I were returned, and the next night moved the 
 Ten Hours Bill, and by success drove them from office, they should consider that 
 is was simply within the compass of my inevitable duty. I did not refuse at 
 once. Such a decisive course has always somewhat of harshness in it ; but 
 refuse I shall, because acceptance of aid of that kind, however guarded and deli- 
 cate the terms, limits independence of thought and action. The parties who 
 confer the favour may expect nothing, but the party who receives it has a sensa- 
 tion of being fettered. A requisition, I hear, to be got up on Protestant grounds. 
 <Jod grant that I may ever stand firm there ! 
 
 Feb. 9th. . . . Wrote to decline, very civilly, and even thankfully, offer 
 of two thousand pounds. . . . Times of yesterday contains address of the 
 Short Time Committee to electors of Dorset. It is excellent, and, to me, most 
 gratifying. . . . 
 
 Feb. 13th. Wrote yesterday address to announce that I could not fight the 
 purse of the County, and must, therefore, decline a poll. 
 
 On the nomination of a candidate to supply the vacancy caused by his 
 retirement, Lord Ashley took the opportunity to explain in person to the 
 electors of Dorset his altered views. 
 
 Feb. 19th. Dorchester. Non nobit Domine. I have never spoken so forcibly 
 in my life. It touched, I could see, and I have heard, half convinced, many of 
 my opponents. 
 
 Having taken so important a step, which seemed vitally to affect the Ten 
 Hours movement, and consequently the welfare of tens of thousands of 
 operatives, it was necessary that Lord Ashley should seize the earliest oppor- 
 tmiity to go again amongst the factory hands to explain to them his action, 
 and its bearings upon the great question in which their interests were so 
 deeply invol %><!. 
 
 March 2nd. Manchester. ... It was a mighty comfort to these excellent 
 operatives that I promised to visit them. Large and crowded meeting in Town 
 Hall. . . . Operatives in general feel that I have advanced the question by 
 the mode and subject of my retirement. I told them that I had nothing to serve 
 them with but my personal character; that had I continued in Parliament, 
 while I retained my seat, I should have lost my reputation ; holding the oppor- 
 tunity, but throwing away the means to do them service. . . . 
 
 March 4th. Preston. . . . This is hard work. Shall I accomplish itf 
 Would to Heaven I were home again ! Monday, from London to Manchester, 
 and meeting in the evening ; Tuesday, to Preston, and meeting ; Wednesday, to 
 dine with Thomas Fielden, and meeting at Ashton ; Thursday, to inspect larjfe
 
 342 THE EARL OF SIIAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XIV. 
 
 mad-house, and a meeting at Bolton ; Friday, Oldham ; Saturday, to Bradford, 
 and dinner with Walker. God grant that Sunday may be quiet ! Monday, meet- 
 ing- at Bradford ; Tuesday, Halifax ; Wednesday, Huddersfield ; Thursday, Leeds ; 
 Friday, homeward, God be praised. This is the pertinacious, unwearied revolution 
 of a steam-engine ! . . . 
 
 Not satisfied with myself. Monstrous difficult to find a fresh speech every 
 night, and more difficult, too, to make them run on the soft, conciliatory line ; to- 
 avoid all exciting topics, and, so that we may attain our end, to leave out, in fact, 
 all our reasons for it ! I want to propitiate the masters, and yet encourage the 
 workpeople. " Soft sawder " to the mill-owners (unless it be skilfully applied) 
 is a damper to the men ; and a stiwrer to the men is a damper to the mill-owners. 
 Nevertheless, by God's blessing, I have hitherto been passably successful. . . . 
 
 March 20th. London. Received two days ago an address, agreed to unani- 
 mously by the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland, and signed by 
 Dr. McFarlane, as Moderator. It spoke of my services and of the good that, 
 under God. I have been enabled to effect for the working people of the realm, 
 with many expressions of esteem, gratitude, and affection. Surely this is a re- 
 markable event ; that it it is a most gratifying one I can best decide. Its peculiar 
 value is well described in Seeley's * letter bo me on the subject. " I was much 
 struck with the movement of the Free Churchmen. ... It was such a spon- 
 taneous motion ; the people have so little connection with you. There is no- 
 party object concealed, all these things gave it value. Also, these are sour, hard 
 men, the Cameronians of our time. Also, they have raised, among the middle 
 classes and the poor of Scotland, nearly a million, sterling in the last three years- 
 a thing unprecedented. Therefore I hold that document to be of value to your 
 children. I hope, too, that it is a shadow cast before." 
 
 The second reading of the Ten Hours Bill, which Lord Ashley had intro- 
 duced, was moved by Mr. Fielden on the 29th April, and a debate, lasting 
 the whole day, ensued. At its close Sir James Graham announced the deter- 
 mination of the Government. " There ought to be no hesitation on the part 
 of the executive Government in a question of this kind," he said, " and I 
 announce our firm determination to resist the further progress of this Bill." 
 
 For days beforehand, Lord Ashley had been in a state of great anxiety and 
 suspense, and it must have been witli a heavy heart that he went to the House 
 on the night of the second reading; he refers to it in his Diary very briefly: 
 
 April 29th. Factory Bill in House of Commons. Waited in lobby. Had 
 not the spirit to attend under the gallery. Many things will be started in 
 debate which no one can refute but myself. Alas ! alas ! 
 
 April 30th. So Sir James Graham and his colleagues have declared them- 
 selves against the Factory Bill. Heartless and dishonest men ! The whole 
 debate proceeded, and will proceed, on a lie ; on the lie that the Bill is directed 
 to the control of the labour of grown men ! Alas ! alas ! I must have fallen 
 very low, or this proposal would not now be treated so contemptuously. 
 
 The debate was adjourned for a week. It was resumed on the 13th 
 May, and again on the 22nd, when Lord John Russell spoke warmly in its 
 
 Mr Seeley was the well-known publisher of that name.
 
 184.] FALL OF THE PEEL MINISTRY. 343 
 
 favour, and Mr. Macaulay supported the Bill in one of his brilliant 
 orations. When the House divided, however, the result was the loss of 
 the Bill by a majority of 10. For, 193 ; against, 203. 
 
 But influences were at work which were nevertheless greatly to expedite 
 the movement. 
 
 On the 26th of June, the same day that saw the Corn and Customs 
 Bill receive the Royal Assent, the Ministry of Sir Robert Peel was 
 defeated on the Irish Coercion Bill, by a majority of 73. The result was, 
 the resignation of Sir Robert Peel and the return to power of Lord John 
 Russell and the Whigs. It was now felt that new prospects of success 
 were opening up to the advocates of the Ten Hours Bill, as Lord John 
 Russell, and several of the members of his Government, were pledged to 
 the principle of that Bill. It was impossible to renew the question in the 
 House that Session, and therefore the whole energy of its supporters was 
 directed to keeping the interest in it alive in the country. 
 
 The fall of the Peel Ministry was a source of considerable satisfaction 
 to Lord Ashley. We append two extracts from his Diary, in which lie 
 gives, very clearly, his estimate of the character and career of the deposed 
 Minister : 
 
 May 18th. On Friday evening Corn- Law Repeal Bill passed third reading. I 
 Disraeli made one of his invectives against Peel very pointed and powerful.! 
 Though I should not have spoken it myself, I am forced to admit the truth of it ;| 
 though bitter in principle and motive, it is hardly exaggerated in imputation.! 
 This statesman's career is without precedent in the history of politicians : he has 
 begun by opposing, and ended by carrying (not simply supporting) almost every 
 great question of the day. He has availed himself of the virtues and vices, the 
 wisdom and the prejudices, the desires and fears, of his friends and adherents ; 
 for them or against them, as his purposes required. He denounced " party " 
 that he might set up " Peelism," led the Tories and followed the Whigs, holding 
 power by the first and seeking praise in the second. His opinions, I suspect, 
 have ever been discordant with his conduct. He thought with Canning on the 
 Roman Catholic question, but acquired consequence, distinction, power, and a 
 party, by heading the resistance to it. When resistance had become troublesome, 
 nnd raised impediments in his way, he changed his front, developed his opinions, 
 seduced some of his followers, and browbeat the others. 
 
 He is forced out of office. His whole life is bent to discredit the Whigs, and 
 weaken their hold on the helm of power. All the changes that could be rung 
 on the bells of Popery, O'Connell, Protestant Church, are performed by his 
 friends ; he stands by, and, though he guards himself against any precise and 
 indisputable statements, which may rise, ghost-like, out of Hansard, he leaves 
 every one to suppose that he shares the sentiments and approves the policy. Can 
 any one doubt that he saw and encouraged those notions in the public mind, 
 hoping and believing that they would restore him to power ? His language to 
 the Scotch deputation, as recorded by Fox Maule in the Maynooth debate, would 
 alone be sufficient to prove that assertion ; his language in private once to me, as 
 I rode with him in the Park, that the cry of " No Popery " had become necessary,
 
 344 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XIV. 
 
 plainly exhibited what was passing 1 through his imagination. I do riot doubt, 
 myself, that he had at that time resolved, should he arrive at office, to endow 
 Maynooth ! 
 
 Again, in 1841, had he not conceived nay, more, devised the plan which he 
 has since propounded ? Had he not long disliked the men by whom he was 
 supported ? and had he not determined to sacrifice them to the commendations of 
 his antagonists / 
 
 Cunning, I fear, has ever ruled him ; he has employed it ardently, though 
 awkwardly, in the Factory Question ; he will employ it, should he remain in 
 office, in the matter of the Protestant Church in Ireland ! . . . 
 
 June 26th. Government defeated by a majority of 73 ! Far larger than I had 
 expected. Peel must retire, having reduced Parliament, party, and men's minds, 
 to the original chaos. Will he learn from this result his own miserable want of 
 foresight and discrimination ? Not one of those whom he had hoped to conciliate, 
 not a Whig, or a " Leaguer," to whose principles, and for whose applause, he had 
 sacrificed his own consistency, voted in his behalf ! All the Whigs against him ! 
 Cobden against him 1 Bright against him ! Where are his hopes, and Graham's, 
 drawn from their resistance to the Ten Hours Bill ? 
 
 Before proceeding to describe Lord Ashley's manner of occupying the 
 time during which he was out of Parliament, a few extracts from his Diary, 
 which have been omitted in order not to break the thread of the narrative 
 relating to Factory Legislation, may be given here. 
 
 Referring to reverses in New Zealand, in 1845, when Colonel Despard 
 was defeated by the Maoris, with a loss of 500 killed and wounded, he 
 writes : 
 
 We cover the world with our colonies, and yet we have not, or practise not, 
 one single healthy principle of colonisation ! This last was the best imagined of 
 all. Religion went hand-in-hand with political government, and we have, never- 
 theless, fallen short of the mark. I should like to make each colony, so far as 
 possible, a transcript of the mother-country. I would protect and train it unto 
 its riper years, and then give it, like a full-grown son, free action and absolute 
 independence. Thus Old England would not be ashamed when she " spoke with 
 her enemies in the gate." . . . 
 
 In Indian affairs Lord Ashley always took a deep interest, and day by 
 day, as the news arrived, commented on the war in which our arms were 
 engaged. 
 
 February 24th. Details from India show a sad loss in officers and soldiers. 
 Sir Robert Sale killed I But we have gained a victory, and a just victory, with- 
 out rapacity or aggression. Yet. glorious as it is, I rejoice as much in the noble 
 proclamation of the Governor-General, as in the triumph itself. Here is, at last, 
 for the first time since the days of Nelson, a direct, open, and pious recognition 
 of God's goodness in giving success to our arms. The order is dated on Christmas 
 Day, and closes with these paragraphs : 
 
 " These grateful and heartfelt acknowledgments to the army for its services 
 cannot be closed without humbly remembering that our thanks are due to Him 
 who is the only Giver of all victory, and without whose aid the battle is not to 
 the strong.
 
 ! J .1 THE SIKH WAR. 345 
 
 " The Governor-General, therefore, invites every British subject at this 
 station, to return thanks to Almighty God, this day, at eleven o'clock, for the 
 mercies He has so recently vouchsafed us, by assembling 1 at the Governor- 
 General's tent, where prayers and thanksgivings will be read by the Governor- 
 General's chaplain. 
 
 " By order of the Right Hon. the Governor-General of India. 
 
 "F. CUBBIE, 
 
 " Secretary to the Government of India with the 
 Governor-General . ' ' 
 
 April 1st. A third great victory over the Sikhs in India. God has put 
 honour upon Hardinge, who humbly offered honour to Him. 
 
 April 2nd. I trust that Hardinge will not -fail through excess of magna- 
 nimity. His conditions must be severe ; he must demand, and see effected, the 
 total dispersion of the Sikh army. The interests of civilisation, the only object 
 which has reconciled us to this war, are involved in such a policy. . . . 
 
 April 3rd. Hardinge's despatch (Times, April 2nd) containing his ultimatum 
 to the Sikh Government is of the noblest order dignity, moderation, justice, 
 good feeling, and sound sense, appear in every expression. He has done inestim- 
 able service to the character of his country. ... I admire nothing more 
 than the unanimity and unselfish friendship of all the officers ; no jealousy, no 
 self -seeking ; the interests of the country predominant. What faithfulness in 
 the native troops 1 Surely, this speaks well for the equity of our Indian Govern- 
 ment. ... "I could have wept," says the gallant old Gough, " over the 
 carnage in the Sutlej, had I not remembered the deliberate cruelty those men 
 had exercised towards the wounded and dying." Never was Divine retribution 
 more manifest, never justice more signal 1 This army, stained with years of 
 profligacy and murder of kings and ryots, of friends and foes, wantonly invades 
 the British Empire, threatening fire, spoliation, and bloodshed, even to the walls 
 of Delhi ; and, almost in the twinkling of an eye, is " melted like snow in the 
 glance of the Lord." . . . These events have seized hold of my imagination ; 
 and, thank God, I do feel the sentiment of gratitude and glory very deep in 
 my heart. 
 
 April 5th. Sunday. A thanksgiving is to be appointed. Praised be God for 
 this 1 Heard yesterday from Peel. " We shall thus break through a bad 
 principle, which has hitherto prevailed, of not returning thanks to God for 
 Indian successes." These are his words ; I am grateful for them. 
 
 Towards Sir Henry Hardinge Lord Ashley entertained feelings of strong 
 personal friendship. A letter from Sir Henry, who was this year created 
 Viscount Hardinge, bearing upon the important events just recorded, will be 
 
 read with interest : 
 
 Sir Henry Hardinge to Lord Ashley. 
 
 SIMLA, May 20th, 1846. 
 
 MY DEAR ASHLET, I am very much obliged to you for your letter. There 
 is no man's approbation I value more than your own, proceeding from a friend 
 who has proved the sincerity of his principles by his actions. 
 
 Tt has been a source of great consolation to me, in the midst of the turmoil of
 
 346 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XIV. 
 
 the camp, that the war into which I was so reluctantly forced, is admitted by all 
 to have been a just war, and that no efforts were omitted to avert it. A righteous 
 cause is the best propitiation for the aid of the Great Disposer of all events. 
 
 This overgrown Empire requires consolidation and peace. We have the pro- 
 tection of the whole, as the paramount Power, with the resources of one-half 
 only of the soil ; and I should have been very glad indeed, as the most prudent 
 policy at the present time, to have kept the Sikh nation as the advanced guard 
 on our north-west frontier, opposing a Hindoo Government to the Mohammedans 
 and Afghans, on this the most vulnerable point of our Empire. 
 
 I have strengthened our own frontier by annexing a valuable portion of the 
 Punjab to the British Empire. I have established a Rajpoot Principality of the 
 Hills as a counterpoise to the Sikhs in the Plains. I have disbanded their 
 mutinous army and deprived it of 256 pieces of artillery ; one and a quarter 
 million has been exacted for the war expenses, and the Sikh power, curtailed of 
 more than one-third of its territories, now only exists by the aid of the British 
 garrison occupying Lahore. 
 
 I could not have annexed a very difficult country, larger than England in 
 extent, with 15,000 infantry, including 3,200 British infantry, in February last. 
 But if the experiment of re-establishing a Sikh Government should fail, we must 
 annex the whole, even vp to Peshawur. It is boo early to say whether the experi- 
 ment will fail or succeed. It was impossible to have done more for want of 
 means. What has been done has been accomplished in sixty days, and whilst it 
 lasted, I hardly ever recollect severer fighting. 
 
 Our countrymen are noble fellows, and these Sikhs, drilled by French officers, 
 are undoubtedly the most warlike race to which we have been opposed in the 
 East. 
 
 Jocelyn is a most satisfactory Secretary to have to deal with. He comes to 
 the point, and is very clear, and the Board of Control will suffer a severe loss 
 whenever he retires. 
 
 Conceive what an army this is to move. I had 15,000 infantry at Lahore, 
 and, in camp followers, c., 100,000 mouths to feed daily. The Sikh army, 
 having no difficulties of caste, are rough and ready, and I long to enlist 10,000, 
 but then, we shall not find them so docile and faithful as our Hindoostanees. 
 
 Ever, my dear Ashley, 
 
 Yours very sincerely, 
 
 H. HAEDINGE. 
 
 A charge, if charge it may be called, was brought against Lord Ashley 
 very frequently, and at various periods of his life, that lie took a gloomy view 
 of things, and was too apt to look upon the dark side of every prospect. He 
 refers to this in the following entry : 
 
 Jan. 19th. Yesterday Elliott * gave us, as he always does, blessed be the man, 
 a most pious and excellent sermon he touched the signs of the times, and took, 
 first, the good signs, reserving the bad ones for a second discourse. He spoke of 
 those who (and therein, probably, with a glance at me) ever saw what was dark, 
 and never what was bright on the far horizon. Well, it is true. Evil is more 
 powerful and lasting than good ; evil is natural, good is unnatural ; evil requires 
 Rev. H. V. Elliott, of St. Mary's, Brighton.
 
 1M; THE RAGGED SCHOOL MOVEMENT. 347 
 
 nothing but man as he is, good must find the soil prepared by the grace of God. 
 It is far more difficult, in a period of specious tranquillity, to alarm than to soothe, 
 to rouse than to lull, mankind. For one who is active to avert a distant peril. I 
 will find a hundred who repose in present security. The prayer is as needful for 
 nations as for men, " So teach us to number our days that we may apply our 
 hearts unto wisdom." 
 
 It was iiot always that he entertained these gloomy views, as an entry on 
 another page testifies : 
 
 Wilberforce was much harassed by letters and interviews on cases of con- 
 science ; he was selected as the spiritual adviser of many parties. No one holds 
 such a place in the present day ; and we may draw, from this fact, the pleasing 
 inference that the number of good, and pious, and qualified men is very greatly 
 increased. The revival of religion and activity among the clergy has furnished, 
 to nearly all who may desire it, the means of spiritual edification and support ; a 
 true counsellor may be found nigh at hand in a thousand localities. 
 
 No sooner was Lord Ashley " out of Parliament " than he entered on a 
 campaign to which he had long looked forward, whenever he should have the 
 Ifi-ure to undertake it. That campaign was a visitation of the slums of the 
 Metropolis, with a view to assist the work of the Ragged Schools, the London 
 City Mission, the Labourers' Friend Society, and other organisations for the 
 welfare of the poor, and also to institute a rigid examination into the dwell- 
 ing-houses of the humblest of the working classes. 
 
 Before we follow him in this crusade, we must go back a little in order to 
 see what progress had been made in the development of the Ragged School 
 system, and to speak of the history and operations of the London City Mission 
 and also of the Labourers' Friend Society. 
 
 Thankful as Lord Ashley had been to have his attention drawn, in 1843, 
 to the Field Lane Ragged School, and earnest as were his endeavours to 
 assist the labourers there, it was clear to him, and to everybody who had any. 
 tiling to do with the poor of London, that no isolated efforts could affect the 
 general condition of the waifs and strays of the Metropolis. There were 
 thousands of the children of the lowest and most ignorant classes springing 
 up, " sturdy of growth as weeds in a wheat field, and, like the latter, gaining 
 d;iily increase of strength, at the expense of the honest grain." They swarmed 
 the streets ; they gamboled in the gutters ; they haunted the markets hi 
 search of cast-away food ; they made playgrounds of the open spaces ; tln-y 
 lurked under porches of public buildings in hot and wet weather ; and they 
 crept into stables or under arches for their night's lodging. They lived as 
 the pariah dog lives, and were treated much in the same way ; everybody 
 exclaimed against the nuisance, but nobody felt it to be his business to 
 interfere. 
 
 The first practical effort to reach these outcast " city Arabs," as they were 
 called, was to lure them to the Ragged Schools. But these were few and far 
 between, and, each having an isolated and independent existence, was helpless 
 1 D grapple with the evil, in any degree commensurate with the net-d.
 
 348 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURT, [CHAP. XIV 
 
 It became evident, to some who were deeply interested in the matter, that 
 the strength of these organisations would be greatly increased by union, and 
 in April, 1844, the first steps were taken to institute a society which has done 
 an amount of good altogether incalculable the Ragged School Union with 
 which the name of Lord Shaftesbury will always be intimately associated. 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury was scrupulously exact in giving "honour to whom 
 honour was due," and would not allow himself to be styled the " Founder " of 
 & society when that honour was due to another. As we have seen, he was not 
 the founder of Bagged Schools, nor was he the founder of the Ragged School 
 Union. 
 
 On the llth April, 1844, Mr. S. R. Starey, at that time a solicitor's clerk, 
 invited a few Ragged School Teachers to meet him at his rooms, No. 17, 
 Ampton Street, Gray's Inn Road. Only three responded : Messrs. Locke, 
 woollen-draper, Moulton, dealer in second-hand tools, and Morrison, a City 
 missionary ; an uninfluential band to all appearance, and yet they discussed the 
 hardest problem of that day, and came very near to a solution when they 
 resolved, "That to give permanence, regularity, and vigour to existing 
 Ragged Schools, and to promote the formation of new ones throughout the 
 Metropolis, it is advisable to call a meeting of superintendents, teachers, and 
 others interested in these schools, for this purpose." That was the first 
 decided step towards the foundation of the Ragged School Union, and those 
 four uninfluential men were the founders. 
 
 On the 26th April forty superintendents and teachers responded to the 
 invitation and met at the St. Giles's Ragged School, held in the loft of a 
 cowshed in Streatham Street, Bloomsbnry a neighbourhood known as the 
 Rookery of St. Giles's ; notorious for its filth and fever, its riots and im- 
 moral revels, its rickety and dirty dwellings, and its teeming population of 
 the lowest of the low. Here this little band of Christian workers formed 
 themselves into a Central Committee, and on the 5th of Jiily they decided 
 ihat this association of teachers should be called " The Ragged School Union." 
 At first they were anxious to affiliate themselves to the London City Mission, 
 and a formal proposition to that effect was made, but it was wisely declined, 
 as the City Mission had, even then, more work in hand than it knew how to 
 manage. Messrs. Locke and Starey were appointed Honorary Secretaries, 
 and requested to draw up the rules for the regulation of the Union. It was 
 only for a comparatively short time, however, that Mr. Starey was able to act 
 AS Secretary, owing to business demanding his removal from London, when 
 Mr. J. G. Gent was appointed to fill the vacancy, an office he retained for 
 thirty-five years. He was succeeded by Mr. Kirk, who for twenty years had 
 been associated with Ragged School work, and who has for the past seven 
 years conducted the arduous duties of the Secretaryship with an unflagging zeal. 
 In November, six months after the Union was originated, Lord Ashley was 
 asked to give the weight and influence of his name and personal assistance to 
 this feeble and somewhat insignificant body of workers, by becoming Pre- 
 sident of the Union. He responded thus :
 
 A COINCIDENCE OF NAMES. 349 
 
 Lord Ashley to Mr. Wm. Locke. 
 
 November 21, 1844. 
 
 SIH, At the instant I had the pleasure of receiving your letter I was con- 
 templating' a walk to Field Lane, that I might hear what progress was Tnntring in 
 your admirable undertaking. 
 
 I shall be happy to aid you to the full extent of my power, but I am disposed 
 to advise a little deliberation before we set up a Society with all the apparatus of 
 a President and Patrons. I shall return to London, I hope, on Monday next ; it 
 will then give me pleasure to see you and hear your report. We may, I think, do 
 much for these poor children. 
 
 God be with us ! Yoor obedient servant, 
 
 ASHLEY. 
 
 MB. WILLIAM LOCKE. 
 
 From the time that Lord Ashley joined the movement, the Ragged School 
 Union grew in importance and usefulness, and for over forty years his love 
 for and zeal in the cause never knew abatement or change. For a great 
 portion of this time the Union was under the direction and responsibility of 
 a Committee elected at each anniversary, and of an Executive consisting of 
 Shaftesbury, President, Wm. Locke, Hon. Sec., Joseph G. Gent, Secretary, 
 whose names appeared in all public announcements, and on the certificates 
 obtained by deserving scholars. These are not very common names, and yet 
 we find them standing in similar relative positions 200 years ago. 
 
 Charleston and Carolina are names given in honour of our King Charles II. 
 The city of Charleston stands on a narrow slip of land, bounded on the north 
 side by the Cooper River, and on the south side by the Ashley River. The 
 names of these magnificent streams, which, at their junction, form tho 
 harbour of Charleston, were given in honour of the first Earl of Shaftesbury. 
 The greater part of America was at that time a wilderness, and at the disposal 
 of King Charles II. By means of a Royal Charter, the King gave to the 
 Earl of Shaftesbury and some others, the whole tract of country between tho 
 parallels of 29 deg. and 31 deg. 31 inin. N. latitude, and from the Atlantic 
 to the Pacific. This included an area of 500 miles from North to South, mid 
 of 2,500 miles from East to West. Now comes the remarkable coincidence 
 of names. Shaftesbury was the most active and able of the eight proprietors 
 and, by agreement, undertook to frame a constitution for the embryo colonies, 
 suitable to the period and the vastness of the territory. Assistance was 
 required by him, which he obtained from the illustrious Locke. The constitu- 
 tion drawn up contained 120 articles, and in its day was considered a grand 
 model ; but, in reducing the theory to practice, mighty difficulties intervened. 
 With a view to lessen these difficulties, and to facilitate the working of the 
 great scheme, the services of a Mr. T. A. Gent were secured. This gentleman 
 visited the country, and afterwards brought out a volume entitled "A 
 Complete Discovery of the State of South Carolina," which seems to have 
 been eagerly caught up by the public, as three ships were soon sent out filled 
 with emigrants. They settled at Oyster Point, as the neck of land was
 
 350 THE EARL OF SIIAFTESCURY. [CHAP. XIV. 
 
 called, at the junction of Ashley and Cooper Rivers. On this spot they built 
 a village which grew into a town, and, at length, developed into one of the 
 strongest cities so strong as to seem to be impregnable. 
 
 Such were the labours of Shaf tesbury, Locke, and Gent 200 years ago ; 
 and, in another sense, such were the labours of Shaftesbury, Locke, and Gent 
 in recent times ; but " the labours of the latter trio have been to reclaim the 
 moral wilderness, to purify and cultivate the moral wastes, and to set up 
 spiritual fortresses that shall be Tiuassailable by the great enemy." * The 
 services rendered by Messrs. Locke and Gent to the Ragged School cause 
 cannot be too highly estimated, and Lord Shaftesbury never lost an oppor- 
 tunity of acknowledging them,/ 
 
 The years 1844-6 wer^ nifeinorable in the life of Lord Ashley if only on 
 the ground that they saw him publicly espousing the cause of poor ragged 
 children and organising fresh efforts in their behalf. The years were 
 memorable in the history of the metropolis, for they saw the commencement 
 of a series of philanthropic labours which were, in some measure, to improve 
 the condition of the-entcast poor, to check the existing evils, and to avert the 
 calamities which iliaSy feared. 
 
 A few extracts from the Diary on the subject of Ragged Schools will 
 show the progress of his thought and action in their behalf: 
 
 Xov. 27th, 1845. Last night Broadwall Infant Ragged School ; very humble, 
 but very useful ; well received. . . . Many Dissenters ; but it is high time 
 to be thinking where we agree, not where we differ. Tens of thousands of 
 untaught heathens in the heart of a Christian Metropolis cry aloud to God for 
 vengeance. \ 
 
 Dec. llth. Just come back from a tea-meeting in Jurston Street Sunday 
 School, given to the ragged, half -starved, neglected children of the locality a 
 sight to thank God for ! a sight to pray Him to perpetuate and extend ! 
 
 I conceive I am acting in the spirit of the Bible and the spirit of the Church 
 of England. I conceive that I am proving myself a true son of the Church in 
 which I was baptised, and in which, by God's blessing, I will die. I am 
 violating none of her laws, precepts, principles, or prayers ; none. But, if the 
 conduct I pursue be at variance with the doctrines and requirements of the 
 Established Church, I shall prefer to renounce communion with the Church to 
 abandoning those wretched infants of oppression, infidelity, and crime. 
 
 March 19th, 1846. Last night tea party at Jurston Street Ragged School ; 
 in the Chair. A wondrous company on the platform ; these things are now 
 becoming "fashionable." Humanitywill soon be considered "elegant," "genteel," 
 &c. &c. Bishop of Norwich, came ; f a kind-hearted man, who goes, as he says, 
 wherever he sees my name. Strange as it was to see a Bishop in the middle of a 
 Dissenting school, surrounded by Dissenters, and supporting their efforts, yet it 
 was well and usefully done. 
 
 * Ragged School Union Magazine. 
 
 f Dr. Stanley, father of the Dean of "Westminster. He was the only Bishop who 
 was ever seen on Ragged School platforms. All the others were, at that time, afraid of 
 meeting Nonconformists.
 
 184.) THE LONDON CITY MISSION. 351 
 
 During the long period of Lord Shaftesbury's Presidency of the 
 K:iL r L'ed School Union he was always in the Chair at the annual meetings. 
 But this was the least part of his work. Much of the success of the 
 Ragged School movement was due to the public meetings which were held 
 in a great number of churches and chapels and halls in London and in 
 the large towns. At these meetings Lord Ashley took the Chair on in- 
 numerable occasions, and in short, pithy addresses set forth the claims of 
 the poor. More important still were the quarterly meetings of delegates 
 from the Metropolitan Ragged Schools, at which he always presided, 
 when every conceivable topic that could assist the teachers in practically 
 carrying on the work was discussed, new plans were formed, and progress 
 was reported. A merely cursory glance through the thirty volumes of the 
 Ragged School Union Magazine and Quarterly Records will give some 
 idea of the stupendous amount of work undertaken by him in this move- 
 ment, but even a close study of those volumes will not give a full con- 
 ception of what he wrought. For many years the ragged children of 
 London were rarely out of his thoughts waking or sleeping ; he visited 
 them in their wretched homes, he saw them at their daily work, he sat 
 beside them in their schools, he let them come to his house to tell him 
 their troubles ; ho pleaded for them in religions and political assemblies ; ho 
 carried their cause into the House of Commons and into the House of 
 Lords ; he interested the whole country in their welfare, and, as we shall 
 $!, lie achieved wonderful results in their behalf. 
 
 The London City Mission had been established by David Nasmith, who 
 had already set on foot similar institutions in Glasgow, Dublin, New York, 
 and elsewhere. It was in a room of his little house in Canning Terrace, 
 on the bank of the Regent's Canal, on May 16th, 1835, that he met two 
 of his friends by appointment, and the story of their interview is recorded 
 by him in these simple words : " After prayer we three founded the London 
 City Mission, adopted our constitution, assigned offices to each other, and 
 after laying the infant mission before the Lord, desiring that He would 
 nurse and bless it, and make it a blessing to tens of thousands, we adjourned." 
 
 Such was the origin of one of the most admirable and valuable institutions 
 of our time, and one that has been the means of conveying temporal and 
 spiritual good to untold myriads. 
 
 Although Lord Ashley's name appears for the first time on the records of 
 that Society towards the end of 1845, he had, immediately after his discovery 
 of the existence of Ragged Schools, been in communication with it, and 
 henceforth, in all his labours on behalf of the poor, he was to bo indebted 
 to the aid of the London City Mission, as it, in turn, was to to be indebted to 
 him. 
 
 How best to improve the condition of the labouring population of the 
 country, was a question which he had long been revolving in his mind and 
 which had demanded a large share of his energies. While recognising the 
 value of every agency for briTurin? abont the physical and moral elevation of
 
 352 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY [CHAP. XIV 
 
 the people, he was more and more convinced, as his knowledge and experience 
 of their actual state increased, that it was utterly futile to attempt to educate 
 and raise the masses unless at the same time they were provided with decent 
 homes. 
 
 Already he had stood forth as the pioneer of the great question which, in 
 after years, was to become so conspicuous a feature of his labours the 
 Housing of the Poor. 
 
 In 1842 he had assisted in founding what was then known as the 
 " Labourers' Friend Society," but was afterwards named the " Society for 
 Improving the Condition of the Labouring Classes," the object of which was, 
 not to accommodate the people on a large scale such an undertaking would 
 have been far beyond the power of a simple Committee but to ventilate the 
 whole question, and to keep in view the erection of Model Dwellings for all 
 the varieties and grades of industrial life, and to show, in the buildings it 
 would raise, what was necessary for the comfort and health and decency of 
 the inmates, and also the lowest cost at which the structures could be pro- 
 vided and the rents imposed, consistently with a moderate though fair return 
 of interest on the capital expended. It had also another object in view ; it 
 wished to prove that in such amelioration " the moral were almost equal to 
 the physical benefits ; and that, although numbers would decline or abuse the 
 boon extended to them, many would accept it joyfully and turn it to good 
 account." * 
 
 At first Lord Ashley met with scant success in his labours in this 
 direction, but once having put his hand to the plough, he was not the man to 
 look back. The time had not yet come for him to make any great public stir 
 in the matter, but meanwhile he never lost an opportunity of advocating the 
 need of better dwellings for the poor. 
 
 In 1844 the first public meeting of the Society for the Improvement of 
 the Labouring Classes was held at Willis's Rooms, and an influential company 
 supported Lord Ashley in the chair. He vigorously exposed the lamentable 
 state of affairs, in regard to the shameful dwellings in which the poor were 
 compelled to live, and urged that if the Society thus inaugurated only did 
 the work that lay before it, it might, by strong representations to the 
 Government, produce most beneficial results. " Unite all your efforts," he 
 said, " for this one great object ; give it a fair trial ; be not discouraged by 
 arguments, however specious, and failure is impossible. Soon you will see 
 dawn great moral, social, and political blessings for those who are the noblest 
 material God ever gave a nation the working classes of this country." 
 
 This appeal went far and wide, and one of the first to respond to it was 
 the Prince Consort, who, in the following July, was graciously pleased to 
 accept the office of President of the Society. 
 
 Now the time had come when, owing to the cessation of his Parliamentary 
 duties, Lord Ashley had that leisure for labour which he had long coveted, 
 and, as we have said, he determined to devote it to visiting the homes and 
 * Article by Lord Shaftesbury in Nineteenth Century, xiv., p. 931.
 
 1846.) SPEAKING TO CHILDREN. 353 
 
 haunts of the poor in the Metropolis. He chose for his companions a medical 
 man, and one of the missionaries of the London City Mission. 
 
 There were two objects he had specially in view in the perambulations he 
 was about to undertake ; first, to explore the unknown parts of London and 
 to see for himself the lanes and alleys, and more particularly the houses, iu 
 which the poorest of the poor and the lowest of the low dwelt ; and next, to 
 bring himself into personal contact with the people, so that he might bettei 
 understand their thoughts and habits, and qualify himself to grapple with 
 their need. 
 
 Such a mission needed no ordinary man, and Lord Ashley brought to it 
 no ordinary gifts. Let any one who thinks it an easy task to win the confi- 
 dence of the poor and the outcast ; to speak words to them that shall draw 
 out their real thoughts and feelings ; to seek to benefit without patronising ; 
 to give counsel without preaching ; to preserve his own dignity amid the 
 rough and lawless, without placing any barrier to mutual approach ; withal, 
 to enter the abodes of filth and wretchedness, where every sense sickens, and 
 yet to appear at home, and at ease ; let any one try the experiment, and then 
 and not till then the difficulty will be apparent. 
 
 Lord Ashley could do all this as few other men could. He saw in the 
 miserable creatures before him, not thieves and vagabonds and reprobates, but 
 men with immortal souls that might be saved, and with human lives that might 
 be redeemed from their corruption. In the woman with imkempt hair and 
 tattered garments, he saw, not the abandoned harlot, but the " woman that 
 was a sinner," who might yet be brought to the feet of Him who would say 
 to her, in the teuderest of all human accents, " Go, and sin no more." But 
 the whole heart of Lord Ashley went out to little children ; he grieved over 
 their past neglect, their present lack of opportunity ; and he yearned over 
 their future. It is no exaggeration to say that, in the whole course of his life, 
 
 he hardly ever passed a rafigecLgiuid. in the street without the desire to 
 /BHTlaTk io itj^SIorning, noon, and night, the welfare of the uncared-for and 
 the uuthought-of children weighed upon his heart, and he looked upon any 
 day as lost in which he did not do something, however little it might be, to 
 make the weariness of their lives less weary and their sadness less sad. The 
 words of the Master were ever ringing in his ears " Feed My lambs." 
 
 He possessed, in perfection, the art of speaking to children, and few men 
 ever spoke to them with greater effect ; not because he was a " lord," nor 
 because he brought sensible benefits wherever he went, but because he could 
 lay hold of the heart of a child, and soothe it with gentle words, and because 
 the accent, the tone, the smile, the whole bearing of the man, impressed even 
 littl> children witli the fact that he was intensely in earnest. No man ever 
 received greater encouragement from visible results. Tear after year he had 
 seen the law of kindness produce the most wonderful effects on the minds of 
 the wildest, the rawest, the most ungovernable children ; often he had seen 
 the heart melted, for the first time, by the language of sympathy and of love ; 
 often his voice had been like the voice of God speaking to the heart of a 
 z
 
 354 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XIV. 
 
 child. It was always through the children that he hoped to win the parents. 
 As the shepherd with refractory sheep will carry the lambs into the fold, 
 certain that eventually the sheep will follow, so his efforts were mainly 
 directed to reaching the children and to putting them in places of safety, as the 
 surest means of alluring their parents thither. Wherever Lord Ashley went 
 during these perambulations, the people clustered round him in groups, and 
 received him with respect. And it may be remarked here that, throughout 
 his life, although he went freely among vagi-ants, paupers, harlots, drunkards, 
 thieves, and criminals of all kinds, the refuse of society, he never, on any one 
 occasion, or in any circumstance, received an insult. Everywhere the people 
 were grateful to him for the interest he took in their condition, and, in the 
 large majority of cases, answered freely the questions he put to them. 
 
 Bad as he had expected to find certain quarters of the Metropolis, the 
 actual state of things was a thousandfold worse than he had conceived 
 possible. He found, in some cases, hundreds of human beings equal to the 
 population of a whole village compressed and hidden in a dozen small and 
 wretched houses packed in a court, the houses and court occupying less than 
 the area of a good-sized barn, or a village church, or a moderate-sized emi- 
 grant ship. He saw how the people became liable to disease ; why contagious 
 maladies were not only bred and extended, but likewise why they clung to 
 these places. He saw how utterly impossible it was for the physician to 
 minister in them with any degree of satisfaction or success, for everywhere 
 the drainage was bad, the ventilation worse, and the light of heaven almost 
 excluded. He saw, too, that Nature was attempting to do her part towards 
 that which sanitary reformers recommended : she was attempting to reduce 
 the number of inhabitants by commissioning fever, scrofula, and other 
 diseases, to slay them. 
 
 One of the things that appears to have struck him with great force, and to 
 have strongly laid hold of his imagination, was the terrible injustice involved 
 in the want of sufficient accommodation. He found that in a large number of 
 instances, it was not extreme poverty that had driven the inhabitants into 
 these dreadful dens as they were earning what, with proper management, 
 might be called a decent living but the exorbitant prices charged for 
 accommodation. There were few house-rents so extravagantly high as those 
 paid by the veriest outcasts of our streets. The tenant of a mansion paid a 
 lower nightly rent, in proportion to the space he occupied, and the cubic feet 
 of air he breathed, than did the miserable urchin who spent his two or three 
 pence for pel-mission to stow himself under a bed of a low lodging-house 
 filled to suffocation by the most abandoned of all ages one of the twenty or 
 thirty inmates of a space not large enough for the accommodation of more 
 than two or three. 
 
 It was necessary to the purpose Lord Ashley had in view that publicity 
 should ho given to this state of things ; and on the 22nd of May we find him 
 at a meeting of the " Society for Improving the Condition of the Working 
 Classes," held at the Hanover Square Rooms, bringing the subject before
 
 d4.J AMONG THE POOR. 355 
 
 an influential audience as vividly as it could be brought. " I do not." he 
 said, " speak merely from book ; I do not speak merely from the accounts 
 that have been given me ; because I have, not only in past years, but during 
 the present year (having, from certain circumstances, rather more leisure 
 than I formerly had), devoted a very considerable number of hours, day by 
 day, to going over some of the worst localities in various parts of this great 
 Metropolis." He startled his audience by some of the revelations he made, 
 of rooms " so foul and so dark that they were exposed to every physical 
 mischief that can beset the human frame " so foul that when a physician, 
 habituated to enter such places, visited them, he was obliged to write his 
 prescription outside the door ; of courts and alleys thronged with a dense 
 and most immoral population of every caste and grade of character, but 
 almost every one of them defiled by perpetual habits of intoxication, and 
 living amid riot and blasphemy, noise, tumult, and indecency. 
 
 It was not enough, however, to state the evil ; active practical steps must 
 be taken to meet it, and Lord Ashley announced that it was the intention of 
 the Society, if funds were forthcoming, to erect in the heart of the parish of 
 St. Giles's a Model Lodging-House a house where a young man coming up 
 from the country for the first time, or others who wished to live in a place 
 where some, at least, of the decencies of life were observed, might find a 
 place of retirement and shelter at a moderate rent. This was the germ of 
 that great Model Lodging-House system, which has now sprung up in the 
 neighbourhoods once occupied by reeking courts and alleys. 
 
 Not by lip only, but by pen also, Lord Ashley turned to good account the 
 results of his perambulations. In the Quarterly Review for December, there 
 appeared a startlingly graphic article from his pen, on " Ragged Schools," in 
 which he gave the results of his own observations of the habits of the 
 clientele of those schools, founded upon his recent visitations. 
 
 This admirable article was the means of giving a great impetus to 
 Ragged School work. It was the talk of the town; people ran wild about it ; 
 extracts were inserted in all the papers ; and innumerable people made appli- 
 cations to be taken to see the Ragged Schools. 
 
 Lord Ashley was greatly amused one day at hearing two men discussing 
 the article. " I believe it was written by Lord Ashley," said one. " I don't 
 think so, because his name isn't mentioned, and it isn't like his style." " Those 
 are the very reasons that make me think he wrote it," was the answer. A few 
 extracts from his Diary will show how completely absorbed Lord Ashley was 
 in the beneficent work in which he was engaged : 
 
 April 28th. St. Giles's. This is my birthday. I am this day 45 years old. 
 Praised be the Lord that hath fed me all my life long until this day. . . . 
 Starting for London, though day be tempting here, to take Chair at Ragged 
 School as a sort of thankful offering and appropriate duty. 
 
 May 29th. Dined yesterday with . . . The courtesies of life and ancient 
 friendship demanded it. A splendid display of luxury and grandeur, yet unsatis- 
 factory. The contrast so great to the places where I have passed so many hour* 
 x 2
 
 356 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBUEY. [CHAP. XIV. 
 
 lately, that I felt almost uneasy. The few pounds, too, that I want, and shall 
 not obtain, for the establishment of Ragged Schools, seemed wasted in every dish. 
 All this is very well, according to their wealth and station, now and then ; but 
 the crumbs which fall from their table are in scanty proportion to the number 
 and abundance of their feasts. A greater simplicity, however, even in permitted 
 things, would be more beneficial to the poor, to society, and to themselves. A 
 life so led rivets " the world in the heart ; " and all the externals of good humour, 
 pious language, and occasional charities, &c., &c., only contribute a hollow and 
 delusive sanction to that system of things which the individuals, and the world 
 at large, have pre-determined to be right, because they know it to be pleasant. . . , 
 
 May 31st. Whitsunday. Broadlands. . . . Day beautiful, rose early, antf 
 went out, like Wilberf orce, to make the field my oratory ; but the prayers of the 
 birds, and of all animated Nature, had more, no doubt, of sincerity and less of 
 murmuring than mine. We know well what we dislike and deplore ; but little 
 do we know or consider for what we ought to be thankful. I wish that every 
 one would daily and hourly set before his eyes, and confess his sin and the sin of 
 his people : what we have received and done as individuals and as a nation ; 
 what we have left undone ; what, in the despite of God's long-suffering, we per- 
 sist in leaving undone ; our hopes and fears ; our loves and hates ; our enormous 
 wealth, and still more enormous covetousness ; the cry of the poor, and the sen- 
 suality of the rich ; and then, if there be but the smallest spark of grace in the 
 soul, we shall, one and all, exclaim with Job, " Wherefore I abhor myself, and 
 repent in dust and ashes." 
 
 June 8th. Went to Lambeth on Ragged-School business ; called on a poor 
 Irishwoman whose husband had just committed suicide : bought, alas I a 
 " pledge medal " from the widow of a man who had hung himself in a fit of 
 intoxication ! Took a short walk afterwards in Park with my sweet Mary and 
 the baby ; dear Evelyn accompanied me. May God be praised. Oh, if some Dive* 
 would give me two or three hundred pounds, the price of a picture or a horse, I 
 could set up schools to educate six hundred wretched children ! . . . 
 
 June 12th. I am now begging for four objects circulars out upon each. 
 God give me, first wisdom, and then success I Busy in founding a Ragged School ; 
 peculiar evils require peculiar remedies. Alas ! alas ! I can set up a school which 
 shall give education every evening to 280 children for 58 a year hardly more 
 than it costs to prosecute one criminal and yet I can barely collect the sum ! 
 
 The laboiirs of Lord Ashley were all-consuming. His time was so broken 
 to pieces by small details, public and private, that if, perchance, he had a 
 quarter of an hour to spare, he hardly knew what to do with it ; so many 
 things offered themselves, that the period was exhausted in making the 
 selection. For a long time he was only able to get through one book, of 
 which he writes : 
 
 June 16th. Have crawled by degrees through a very entertaining Life, by 
 Tytler, of Sir W. Raleigh. Energy, genius, speculative and practical knowledge 
 of all kinds, unlimited courage and perseverance, promptitude at every moment, 
 and adaptation to every circumstance. What a chequered life 1 what an unhappy 
 close I Indignation and contempt towards that despicable reptile of the human 
 race, James I., are impotent ; but I feel them as though he stood before me. As
 
 1846.) A PLAN OF CAMPAIGN. 357 
 
 dreams may be urged as an argument in favour of the Immortality of the soul, 
 so may this sense of injustice, perpetrated whole centuries ago, be maintained as 
 A proof of final retribution ! 
 
 Lord Ashley could not but think with some anxiety of the future, and ask 
 himself the question, whether he should ever return to Parliament. Useful 
 AS his present labours were, he felt himself " like a man at sea without a 
 rudder." He was constantly moving on, but not to the point he desired. 
 He was collecting facts, examining evidence, and instituting inquiries, none 
 of which he could turn to account as he wished. He felt that there was 
 *' no attraction or compensation in the study of human misery and degrada- 
 tion, except in the prospect of abating them," and in order to do this he must 
 be back again in Parliament. 
 
 At length the future shaped itself to him with some distinctness, and he 
 wrote : 
 
 June 1st. I assume, if the Lord will, that I shall return very speedily to the 
 House of Commons. What, then, shall I do ? I must throw aside many ques- 
 tions in which I take a deep and glowing interest, because I have neither time 
 nor strength for them all Ireland, India, the Colonies. . . . 
 
 I will take, first, the long-agitated, much-desired, and most blessed Ten Hours 
 Bill ; this, with a Parliamentary effort in behalf of the " Ragged Children," will 
 constitute the work of next Session. I will then proceed with Church Reform, a 
 Tef orm that shall restore it to the scheme of Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer, and 
 revive, if possible, the primitive examples ; and the last that I dare to contem- 
 plate will open a series of exertions to aid spiritually and physically, the 
 oppressed, forsaken, and heathen children described and reported on by my Com- 
 mission of 1840 a vast and foul mass, which our avarice has engendered, and 
 our luxurious ignorance overlooks, and increases, and perpetuates. " Who is 
 sufficient for these things ? " Not I alone, but any one, if God be with him. 
 And, now, God, the Father of the forsaken, the help of the weak, the supplier 
 of the needy, who hast diffused and proportioned Thy gifts to body and soul, in 
 uch sort that all may acknowledge and perform the joyous duty of mutual 
 service ; who teachest us that love towards the race of man is the bond of 
 perfectness, and the imitation of Thy blessed self : open our eyes and touch our 
 hearts, that we may see and do, both for this world and for that which is to 
 come, the things which belong unto our peace. Strengthen me in the work that 
 I have now undertaken ; give me counsel and wisdom, perseverance, faith, and 
 zeal, and in Thine own good time, and according to Thy pleasure prosper the 
 issue. But, Lord, pour into me a spirit of humility and fear ; let nothing be 
 done in a vain and wicked notion of righteousness and merit, but in devout 
 obedience to Thy will, thankfulness for Thine unspeakable mercies, and love to 
 Thine adorable Son, Christ Jesus, with a constant and hearty confession of sin 
 and unworthiness, and everlasting hope through His merits alone, our only 
 Redeemer and Saviour. 
 
 June 3rd. Another object I have, but I can leave the special conduct of it to 
 others, because societies are formed and joint-stock companies on foot ; alow, it is 
 true, and not very sure, but nevertheless in action the health of towns and
 
 358 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBTJRY. [CHAP. XIV. 
 
 dwellings, of all physical questions the moat important by far, and exercising- a 
 terrible influence on things spiritual. 
 
 In religious circles there was an almost restless activity; many important 
 movements were beginning to strike root, and, to employ a Scriptural meta- 
 phor, often used by Lord Ashley to denote the early indications of new life in 
 religious work, there was " the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry 
 trees." 
 
 Never was there a time when religion was brought more prominently for- 
 ward, and public prayer more largely attended. To Lord Ashley this did not 
 suggest relaxation of effort ; on the contrary, he felt it was an hour in which 
 every one should be up and doing, and he himself came forward more than 
 ever into the forefront of the battle. It was in this year that he became 
 officially connected with the British and Foreign Bible Society as Vice-Pre- 
 sident that Society which, in his youth, he had been taught to regard as- 
 revolutionary, and as undermining the foundations of Church and State ! A 
 few years later he became its President, and, until the close of his life, he 
 never ceased to take the deepest interest in its operations. 
 
 Two other movements, of which more will have to be said hereafter, are 
 referred to for the first time in his Diaries, in this year. 
 
 Feb. 28th. Night before last took chair at " Young Men's Christian Associa- 
 tion." Four hundred persons to tea, a very striking scene young shopmen, with 
 their mothers and sisters, attending really in a religious spirit. Last night pre- 
 sided in Covent Garden Theatre at Anniversary of Metropolitan Drapers' Associa- 
 tion for early closing of shops. Both these Societies have their origin in the Ten 
 Hours movement. 
 
 The death of Bishop Alexander of Jerusalem had been a terrible blow to 
 the friends of the enterprise he inaugurated. He seemed to have been a man 
 with the special gifts and graces essential to the trust reposed in him. His 
 own zeal helped to keep alive the zeal of those who, full of hope for Israel, 
 lived in anticipation that the hour for their restoration to their own land would 
 speedily arrive. The death of the Bishop, cut off in the midst of his labours, 
 when engaged in his first episcopal visitation of the darkened kingdom of 
 Egypt, threw a gloom over these hopes, which, as the years rolled on, were 
 never again revived in the same intensity. 
 
 According to the terms of the arrangement made on the foundation of the 
 bishopric, it was now the turn of the King of Prussia to appoint a successor 
 to the see of Jerusalem. He selected Dr. Gobat, of the Church Missionary 
 Society, a German by nationality, who was duly appointed, and retained his 
 episcopate for thirty-three years. He was a man of high character and prin- 
 ciple an excellent man in every respect. Unfortunately, however, he was 
 not without enemies, and, prior to his consecration, Lord Ashley had to defend 
 him from some odium and calumny. He believed in the man thoroughly, 
 and, throughout his career, gave him hearty and persevering support in the 
 difficult position in which he was placed. Notwithstanding opposition.
 
 1840.] IN BELGIUM. 359 
 
 Dr. Gobat's influence was felt throughout the countries over which his 
 jurisdiction extended, and many abiding works have been left behind as 
 memorials of his labours. As the years went by, other difficulties and 
 dissensions arose; the bishopric did not answer the expectations formed of 
 it ; Jerusalem showed no signs of being " a city at unity with itself," and the 
 saying of Newman, " I have never heard of any good or harm that bishopric 
 has ever done," was bandied about until, at last, it was endorsed even by some 
 of those who in 1844 were most enthusiastic in its favour. 
 
 On the 7th of July Lord and Lady Ashley, accompanied by their four 
 sons, started on a tour in Switzerland in quest of health and repose. There 
 were important reasons why " at this season, in a time of great interest, of 
 changing government, of schemes of his own, of Commissions in Lunacy, 
 and sittings on the Malta College " Lord Ashley should leave London. It 
 was, however, contrary to his own wishes, and throughout the journey he was 
 depressed and harassed by the claims of his many conflicting duties. " I am 
 not very full of agreeable anticipations," he writes ; " a little low-spirited. 
 My heart returns to my objects in public life." 
 
 From his ample Diary we shall only quote very briefly. The first halting- 
 place on the journey was at Ghent. 
 
 . . . Went to see the Church of the Beguines. ... I cannot get over 
 these Beguines ; they seem to be the " ne plus ultra " of uselessness. What 
 purpose do they serve, 750 of them, beyond making a sight for curious foreigners, 
 materials for a handbook, and aids to a rhapsody ! Doubtless, the first view of 
 the church was singular and, to a certain extent, impressive, but only from its 
 novelty. The large white covering on the head of each gave an appearance as if 
 the church were studded with pigmy tents, but then the silence of the assembly, 
 and the attitude of prayer, struck the imagination, until the bursting of the 
 or^an into something like a jig, after a few notes of more reverential music, 
 raised the eyes to the figure of the Virgin, the great object of their adoration, 
 a doll of about two feet in height and figged out in a pink court-dress ! 
 
 There is evidence in the Diary that, to Lord Ashley, the first few days of 
 the tour were full of irritation and unrest. The cares and anxieties which 
 had thickened around him of late, had left their impression ; he was out of 
 health, and jaded in body and mind. 
 
 The first real relief came to him, as it came in old time to the Psalmist, 
 " in the sanctuary of God." 
 
 Sunday. Attended Service. An unknown man preached a sermon from the 
 text, " Cast thy bread upon the waters, and thou shalt find it after many days." 
 He proceeded to enlarge on the hopes and duties of perseverance never to be 
 weary in well-doing, to banish despair, or even despondency, in the pursuit of 
 things tending to the honour of God and the welfare of mankind. He directed 
 his discourse specially to ministers with cure of souls ; to philanthropists, and to 
 parents. His observations were just, true, and affectionate ; he dwelt more 
 particularly on the cares, anxieties, and disappointments of parents, and showed 
 that fhey were seldom, if ever, without their fruit at the last ; he considered
 
 360 THE EARL OP SHAPTESBURY. [CHAP. XIV. 
 
 their labours and their prayers as seed which might lie long before it sprang, and 
 still longer before the harvest, but he held it to be nearly sure, as the fulfilment 
 of a Divine promise. His entire discourse seemed a special message to my 
 doubts and apprehensions, a spur to my discouragements, a balm to my failures, 
 a word of exhortation to invigorate the mind into which I had fallen during 
 the last few days ! Blessed be His name ! 
 
 At Carlsruhe, (" built like a fan, of which the streets are the ribs, and the 
 tower from which you see it, the bulb,") he enjoyed the forest scenery, and 
 pronounced his rest there to be " good, very good." 
 
 July 16th. . . . Baden. Certainly, it is a lovely spot ; nothing is common, 
 nothing is without its point. The undulating hills all around, clad with the 
 deep, close velvet of the Black Forest, keep the place at all times in a dress of 
 state. But I am sure that it shares the climate of Aix and Carlsbad, and, down 
 in its luscious valleys, would suck out every energy of mind and body. Ascended 
 hill in a carriage to view Alte Schloss. . . . When one stands on the pinnacle 
 of these remnants of former days, and surveys, even to giddiness, the terrible 
 abyss below, the almost unassailable strength of the fortress, and endeavours to 
 estimate the vice and violence against which these preparations were made, and 
 the sorrows and fears their inmates must have often endured first one heartily, 
 ay most heartily, blesses God that our lot is cast in a milder and a better age ; 
 and then one proceeds to sympathise with those victims of robbery and murder, 
 who, to flee from power, had made their nest in a rock. All this sentiment con- 
 tinues in full force until you descend to the Neue Schloss below, and there inspect 
 the distressing dungeons and all the various inventions and appliances of incar- 
 ceration and torture. These scoundrels inflicted as much as they suffered ; it was 
 defect of means, not excess of compassion, that restrained their hands ; the 
 wretch that screamed on the rack, or pined in the oubliette, had forecast the 
 same for the monster that thrust him in. These things, although memorials of 
 events long past, turn me quite sick. I felt the same at Ratisbon three years 
 ago ; I felt it here. Ay, well may we say with David, " Let me fall into the 
 hands of God, and not into the hands of men I " 
 
 July 17th. Read one of the "Tales of the Genii" to the kids, making such 
 verbal alterations and omissions as propriety required. Works of fiction may be 
 read in moderation with considerable effect ; and specially such as these, where 
 there is always a high tone of morality and sentiment. The author, by a hazard- 
 ous attempt to render, by his descriptions, the indulgence of the passions odious, 
 has excited thoughts which should ever be suppressed. The best way to avoid 
 sin is not to know it ; the knowledge of evil brought in both the practice and the 
 love thereof. 
 
 July 18th. . . . These Germans lead an easy, sensual, sleepy life of placid 
 and noiseless current. It is wonderful that creatures of such a vegetative habit 
 should have produced, and should still be producing, men and things of so high 
 an order. Intellectually they are very great ; were they physically equal in their 
 energies to the British people there would be nothing on earth to compare with 
 them but it is not so. One Englishman will perform his work in half the time 
 that it takes two Germans to consider it, and whether it be the stoker of a steam-
 
 1846.] CHRISTIAN WORK ABROAD. 361 
 
 boat, a banker's clerk, or a commissioner of police, or a gentleman at dinner, the 
 British nation will save both time and trouble. Surely their mode of life in the 
 present day, their constant and friendly intercourse, their tranquil smoking, 
 their baths, their gardens, their naps, their mid-day retirement, are a wonderful 
 contrast to the savage conflict, the uproarious festivals, the dirt, the prisons, and 
 the everlasting watchfulness against danger, of the Middle Ages. 
 
 In Strasburg a visit was paid to the grand monument of Marshal Saxe. 
 
 The piece of sculpture has made a great noise in Europe.* I confess that, 
 greatly as I admired many parts of it, the figure of the Marshal made me laugh. 
 He looks like a principal singer coming forward to the lamps at the theatre to 
 give us a popular air ; all smiles and self-possession. The female figure is un- 
 equalled, and there is much original genius and execution in the figure of Death. 
 As for the British lion, the Dutch bear, and the sentimental Hercules, they are 
 good, but irresistibly comic ! 
 
 Much later in life Lord Shaf tesbnry took an active part in the movement I 
 in London for funeral reforms ; and was even an advocate of cremation. It 
 is interesting to catch a glimpse of his views on these subjects at this early 1 
 date. 
 
 . . . Taken to see a dried Count of Nassau and his dried daughter, all in 
 their fine clothing as they were embalmed and buried four hundred years ago. 
 What is this passion that people have had, and still have, to battle with Nature, 
 and resist, if they can, the decree, " Dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou 
 return ? " Do they believe in the resurrection of the body 1 If so, let them trust 
 the power and goodness of God. Do they disbelieve it ? What satisfaction to 
 prolong the existence of a shrivelled, sapless, disfigured, and disgusting car- 
 case ! . . . 
 
 Alsace suggests to him this query : 
 
 Why did the Allies in 1815, when they adjusted the kingdoms of Europe, 
 leave this German territory in the hands of France ? It was acquired by fraud 
 and violence, by the actions of war in a period of peace, under the authority of 
 that arch- villain and exceeding charlatan, Louis " le Grand." It is " as one of 
 the royal cities," and should be restored to the German Confederation. I believe, 
 however, that it is not ill-governed ; and had it been restored to Germany would 
 probably have been annexed to some second-rate Duchy. 
 
 In his journeys Lord Ashley always took care to try and find out what 
 signs of activity were being shown in Christian work, and at Basle, the 
 " Holy City " of Switzerland, he discovered more regard for religion than in 
 any other town of the Republic. There were missionary establishments and 
 Bible societies and Evangelical preachers and Sabbath observances. 
 
 Called on the Professor Hoffmann ; found him kind, intelligent, and pious. 
 He gave an encouraging account of the progress of Christian principle and 
 Christian action in Germany. He stated that, seven years ago, he knew but five 
 
 * It represents the Marshal as in the act of descending into the tomb, opened f or M 
 reception by Death, while a female figure, symbolising France, strives to detain Mm ; 
 and Hercules, in mournful attitude, leans upon his club.
 
 362 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XIV 
 
 persons of station who took any interest in missionary operations ; he now knows 
 fifty ; and that their meetings, which at one time were " well " attended by twenty 
 persons, numbered at present nearly four thousand. 
 
 As set against this, however, he found that the progress of systematic and 
 avowed " Freethinking " the foe he was hereafter to meet in constant battle 
 was increasing to an alarming degree, and spreading even among the poorer 
 sort. 
 
 Here is a peculiarity among the German literati ; professorial chairs are held, 
 and public lectures given, by men of open, acknowledged, and boastful Atheism ; 
 nor does opinion frown them down. We have bad people in England, but few 
 dare to parade their make-beliefs with ostentation and joy. 
 
 . . . Saw the cathedral curious, and worth the walk if it were only to pay 
 respect to the memory of Erasmus. I have always a sneaking sympathy with 
 that man ; he saw the truth, loved it, and yet he dared not to be a martyr in the 
 hour of trial. I fear I should have been a hare like him. 
 
 The fountains of the towns and villages, combining ornament and use in a 
 signal manner, were to Lord Ashley a most agreeable feature : 
 
 Had I a landed property I should erect them in every village for the con- 
 venience of the people. The resort to them in the evening recalls the primitive 
 times and the narratives of Scripture. Just now, under the window, there are 
 assembled at one fountain several women with their vessels, a number of naked- 
 legged children, and many cows and oxen drinking. " Our father Jacob gave us 
 this well and drank thereof himself, his children, and his cattle I " . . . The 
 sunset was lovely : and, as it lighted up the distant peaks of the snowy range of 
 the Alps with its parting rays, revived the consolatory words of our blessed Lord, 
 " I will not leave you comfortless ; I will come again unto you ! " 
 
 Even at such an early date as 1846, the hand of change was working 
 wonders in Switzerland : 
 
 Aug. 1st. Interlaken. ... I saw this place two-and- twenty years ago ; 
 it was then a beautifully rural spot, an Auburn to have delighted Goldsmith. 
 Cows, cottages, and peasants, everything in harmony with the scenery around, 
 and the few strangers who flitted past, or stationed themselves for a while in the 
 modest inn, had all the air of travellers, persons who had trodden, or were pre- 
 paring to tread, the mountains. This evening I drove along a miniature revival 
 of the Parisian boulevards shops, benches, groups of fashionables in suitable 
 conversation, hotels, casinos, and all that can banish the country and bring in the 
 town. The hills are still high, and the pastures green, but they are peopled by a 
 different race, and 
 
 " All, save the spirit of man, is divine ! " 
 
 At Grindelwald the freshness and vivacity of the air gave all the party 
 elasticity and spirit, " with a capacity," says Lord Ashley, " I, at least, 
 had not known since I left England, to enjoy life." His admiration of the 
 glacier was unbounded : 
 
 Never was a river born so suddenly and so magnificently. It does not come 
 creeping in a thread-like stream, from small and silent fountains, but gushes
 
 1846.) HOLLAND. 363 
 
 forth in full size, like Minerva from Jupiter's head, and rushing with thunder 
 into an amphitheatre of mountains, escapes through the windings of the valley. 
 On either side of these mighty pyramids of ice, stands an enormous mountain 
 of naked granite, and behind them rise the lofty and terrible peaks of the 
 Vischerhorn, covered with masses of everlasting snow. There they all stand in 
 the stillest and most awful majesty, engaged, as it were, to watch the only thing 
 that has sound and motion, the river, which issues forth from a beautiful arch- 
 way beautiful in the form and colour of the ice at the foot of the glacier. 
 
 The illness of his son Maurice, who was one of the party, had given cause 
 from time to time for great anxiety, and on the 4th of August, the following 
 entry appears in the Diary: 
 
 Maurice has become languid as a drooping flower ; the good effects of the 
 place are gone back ; we must return without delay to England. . . . 
 
 The determination was not altogether in opposition to Lord Ashley's 
 desires. 
 
 I felt wonderfully well, and gloriously enjoyed existence, when on the 
 Wengern Alp ; I know not that I have been really elastic at any other time 
 during this tour. 
 
 They returned at once to Interlaken, and from thence the travellers pro- 
 ceeded to Berne, en route for Rotterdam. 
 
 Aug. 19. Rotterdam. Went to see a Dutch Fair, amused beyond all pre- 
 cedent ; could have spent hours, had but minutes. We must, if it please God, 
 have at some future time a tour in Holland, and a leisurely one ; nothing could 
 be more interesting and instructive. . . . Why did we ever (God forbid that 
 we should repeat such a folly) go to war with the Dutch ? Our interests are- 
 alike ; one or two trifling questions of trade may, for a while, place us in oppo- 
 sition, though on false grounds, but our great political interests, all that concerns 
 our social and national positions, are the same. . . . 
 
 The passage from Rotterdam, occupying thirty-six hours, was accom- 
 plished in a dreadfully rolling sea, with an adverse wind, heavy rains, and: 
 an awful thunder-storm, but owing to a severe attack of mal de mer t Lord 
 Ashley says . 
 
 I regarded them with the indifference of a man who has more important 
 things to think of. 
 
 On the last page of the Diary there is the following note : 
 This journal, like the three of preceding dates, re-opened for the first time 
 (after having being written) in August, 1880. Never kept, afterwards, the 
 journal of a tour. The re-perusal of them is best described in Cowper's words : 
 
 " How soft the music of those village bells, 
 Falling at intervals upon the ear 
 In cadence sweet, now dying all away, 
 Now pealing loud again and louder still, 
 Clear and sonorous as the gale comes ont 
 With taty force it opens all the cellt 
 Where memory tlcpt."
 
 364 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. (Oiup. XIV. 
 
 And so here. What experience of life ! what tenderness of feeling, what truth 
 of heart ! what depth of simplicity in these lines 1 
 
 In all these journals, which I bequeath to my beloved daughter Victoria, 
 there may be seen consistency of the past with the present. May have been 
 right, may have been wrong, but at least do not contradict myself and make the 
 last half of my life antagonistic to the first. Great infirmity, much trace 
 throughout of original sin, and yet, though now, on a revision, could wish, were 
 it possible, to add much to what is gone by, see nothing to take away. Never 
 intended for the eyes of any one but of myself and of that beloved woman now 
 gone to her rest, they are the entries of one day after another ; and everything 
 may be said against them but the charge that they were not hearty and sincere. 
 Tictoria may find them interesting and, possibly, even profitable. 
 
 Almost immediately after his return to London, Lord Ashley received 
 "two important letters, one from Bath, and the other from Oxford, inviting 
 ihim to be the representative in Parliament of each of these constituencies. 
 He briefly records the fact in his Diary, and adds : 
 
 Nightmare ! and dreams all night. Went up, of course " for my degree." * 
 
 Later on he writes : 
 
 Oct. 3rd. Offers from Bath to represent that place at the next election 
 replied that I wished to have some assurances and guarantees as to support and 
 expense. Many, from the county, urge my reconsideration of Dorset ; but the 
 matter is very doubtful. The Protection party are determined to regain all that 
 they have lost, and will, therefore, oppose my at least quiet return. I am not 
 prepared with any seat, nor have I, except Bath, any prospect of one. 
 
 Dec. 26th. Many kind letters from Bath, still urging me to become a 
 candidate, and engaging to bear every expense. I am not anxious to accept the 
 offer ; I have, indeed, ceased to be anxious, at least I fancy so, to enter Parlia- 
 ment again ; but I must receive the deputation. I should prefer, no doubt 
 .an honourable return to my own county, but my enemies there are bitter 
 :and my friends are slow every word that I read from the county confirms me 
 in my judgment, that I ought not to place myself forward unless invited by a 
 requisition, which, in all likelihood, I shall never have. . . . 
 
 The month of October found Ireland on the brink of starvation. Lord 
 Ashley had maintained that every one ought, by private self-denial, to aid 
 the legislative effort for relief, and abridge his own consumption, that " all 
 might have a little." He never advised others to do what he was not pre- 
 pared to do himself, and it is not surprising therefore to meet with these 
 records : 
 
 Oct. 7th. Found all provisions rising in price. Gave orders that no more 
 potatoes should be bought for the house. We must not, by competing in the 
 market, raise the cost on the poor man. He has nothing after this to fall back 
 upon. . . . 
 
 Dec. 12th. Ireland is manifestly set for our punishment, the slow but just 
 
 * He used to say that, whenever he had a restless or disturbed night, his dreams 
 always recurred to the " going up " for his degree at O-xford,
 
 IM.) WITH LORD JOHN" RUSSELL. 365 
 
 punishment of a ruling 1 power that thrust upon it Popery, anarchy, and un- 
 sympathising proprietors. The nation is irreconcilable to the Saxon authority. 
 Our late repentance, and numerous benefits, are perverted to our injury. Famine 
 stalks through the land. We expend money for their maintenance at the rate of 
 127,000 a week ; and the starving' peasantry can save, from this effort of mercy 
 and munificence, enough to purchase arms to a greater extent than was ever 
 before known for the assault and overthrow of their benefactors I And yet BO 
 besotted are we, that all this is turned into an additional argument for the 
 endowment of the Irish priesthood 1 ... 
 
 December 29th. Ireland is terrible, terrible, terrible. And the year 1847 
 will be worse than 1846. Counsel has perished from among us. We are at our 
 wit's end. It is a just retribution for our sins towards that country. " Be sure 
 your sin will find you out." 
 
 A few extracts from the Diary, selected from many, will tell, in the 
 briefest way, what were the subjects pressing upon the thoughts of Lord 
 Ashley towards the end of this year of ceaseless activity : 
 
 Sept. 1st. A Pope called Pius IX. has mounted the Roman throne. He i 
 " like the Son of Nimshi," he ;< driveth furiously." He will soon be the most 
 popular, as he seems to be the most liberal, man of his day. Shouts attend him 
 wherever he goes. His plans for " reform " are more rapid and more extensive 
 than the capacity, at the moment, of the people to receive them 1 To what will 
 all this grow ? Most assuredly these political advances cannot co-exist with the 
 maintenance of ecclesiastical monarchy. 
 
 Sept. 16th. The "Evangelical Alliance" is, like the Anti-Corn-Law League, 
 a " great fact." It does not appear likely, however, to have practical results in 
 the same proportion its chief result, for the present, must be that such a 
 meeting could have been collected and conducted on such principles and in such 
 a manner. 
 
 Oct 25th. Dined hist night with Kingscote, to consider plan for larger admis- 
 sion of laity to services in the Church. To be submitted to the Bishop of London. 
 Our consultation seemed to prosper, and all present were of one mind. It is a 
 great undertaking, and involves, so far as our human eyes can see, the permanency 
 and efficiency of the Church of England. 
 
 Two days later Lord Ashley wrote to Lord John Russell to request an 
 interview, in order that he might talk to him on tin- state of the Church, and 
 on the 29th he called on him by appointment. The interview was a hurried 
 one, but the conversation then commenced was resumed at a further interview 
 on the 31st. 
 
 Oct. 31st. I have, thank God, done my duty ; I have " testified " to this Prime 
 Minister, as I did to the last ; the fruit from both may be about equal ; but I 
 prefer Russell as a man to Sir R. Peel. 
 
 Nov. 14th. Yesterday to Broad wall to meet Committee on Ragged School 
 established a class of industry for one evening in the week : tailoring and shoe- 
 making for the boys, needlework for the girls have undertaken to pay the 
 expense ; am in hopes of making nearly sufficient by one article in the Quarterly 
 Review on " Ragged Schools." . . .
 
 3G6 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. ICHAP. XIV. 
 
 Macaulay argues, and well, that the term " superficial " is relative, and can 
 seldom be applied accurately. That which is profound in one day becomes 
 shallow in another ; the utmost depths of Roger Bacon would be paddling-pools 
 for the schoolboys of our day. This is not the objection to be raised against 
 education altogether, or even the education of the present era. My objection is 
 that all are taught alike, whatever their stations, hopes, views, and necessities 
 there is little practical, little of use for future application, and boys are ill- 
 educated, not because their knowledge is acquired by rote and lies mainly on the 
 surface, but because they are lifted above their political and social station, filled 
 with personal conceits, and inflated with notions that they are fit to reform the 
 world, and then govern it. 
 
 Dec. 31st. Croesus would be pauperised if he were to meet half the demands 
 that are made upon me every month ! Alas, I must refuse the largest proportion, 
 and give very sparingly to the remainder. I say " alas," because the cases are 
 oftentimes meritorious, and I shall always be misrepresented, and frequently 
 misunderstood. Many people choose to believe that I am rich, and ask accord- 
 ingly ; yet more than half of my income is borrowed, to be repaid at some future 
 day, with heavy accumulations of interest ; eight children, the two eldest costing 
 me more than 200 a year each ; a ninth coming, and an allowance from my 
 father of only 100 annually more than I had as a Bachelor at Oxford! Are 
 these sources of wealth 1 . . .
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 1847 1850. THE TEN HOURS BILL. 
 
 THE great struggle for the Ten Hours Bill was drawing near its end, and, 
 by the irony of fate, the victory was to be achieved while Lord Ashley was 
 out of Parliament. The winter of 1846-7 had seen him in Lancashire, 
 attending meetings in every large town, and adopting all possible means to 
 support the efforts which Mr. Fielden was to resume in Parliament in the 
 ensuing Session. Everywhere Lord Ashley met with an enthusiastic recep- 
 tion. He reminded his hearers that his opponents used to taunt him about 
 the Corn Laws, and argue that there lay the obstacle which prevented the 
 passing of his Ten Hours Bill. " With respect to myself," he said, at a 
 public meeting at Manchester, " I know the arguments I used to encounter 
 while the Corn Law was yet in force how often it was said, ' You are the 
 cause of the long-time vexation ; it is you who are to blame, because, for your 
 own exclusive interest, you keep up the price of bread, and prevent ns from 
 entering into competition with foreign manufacturers.' I recollect perfectly 
 well one of your present members saying, ' If I vote for the noble lord on the 
 Ten Hours Bill, will he follow me into the lobby for a division on a motion 
 for the repeal of the Corn Laws ? ' " He went on to say that, now he had 
 voted for repeal, he asked for concession in return. 
 
 The object of Lord Ashley on all occasions, was to encourage and stimu- 
 late the friends of the movement to rally round Mr. Fielden with the same 
 enthusiasm with which they had rallied round him. Many, out of friendship 
 for himself, had said, " "We may as well relax our efforts, and wait until Lord 
 Ashley is again in Parliament," not realising that he was anxious, not for his 
 own honour, but that the measure might be launched on the crest of the 
 popular wave. 
 
 It must not be supposed that he alone was bearing the whole brunt of the 
 battle. In various parts of the country Mr. Oastler and others were 
 vigorously prosecuting similar labours, while a weekly periodical, The Ten 
 Hours Advocate, published by Mr. Philip Grant, an able and zealous colleague, 
 was, under the advice and guidance of Lord Ashley, doing good service to the 
 cause.* 
 
 On the 26th of January, Mr. Fielden moved for leave to bring in the Ten 
 Hours Bill; the motion was seconded by Mr. Ferrand, and leave was given. 
 On the second reading (Feb. 10) the subject was discussed for several hours, 
 
 Alfred's " History of the Factory Movement," p. 248.
 
 368 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XV. 
 
 Mr. Hume strenuously opposing the measure on grounds of political economy, 
 and Mr. Roebuck, who never lost an opportunity of attack, assailing it on aD 
 sides. 
 
 There is a natural and mournful ring in the following words from the 
 Diary : 
 
 Feb. 10th. Factory Billis under discussion in the House of Commons. I 
 lingered in the lobby ; had not spirit to enter the House ; should have been 
 nervously excited to reply, and grieved by inability to do so. 
 
 March 1st. Intense anxiety about Factory Bill. I dream of it by day and 
 by night, and work as though I had charge of the Bill. 
 
 March 12th. Lady De Grey observed to me, last night, that I was grown 
 silent, and had lost all my spirits. It is quite true. I have, during the last two 
 or three years, been growing more melancholy and even stupid. It is, perhaps, 
 because I have little or no play, and that makes Jack a dull boy. 
 
 March 17th. Long labour yesterday in furnishing John Russell, at his request, 
 with notes for a speech. 
 
 Notwithstanding all opposition, the second reading was eventually carried 
 by a majority of 108, and on the 3rd of May the third reading, after an 
 animated debate, was likewise carried by a majority of 63 ! 
 
 When, ten days later (May 13), the Bill was introduced into the House of 
 Lords, it was observed that the attendance of bishops was larger than had 
 ever been known on any previous occasion. 
 
 The Earl of Ellesmere (formerly Lord Francis Egerton), moved the second 
 reading, which Lord Faversham seconded. Lord Brougham then rose, and. 
 apologising for interrupting the unanimity which Lord Faversham had hoped 
 would characterise their proceedings, at once addressed himself to " the large 
 uumber of right reverend prelates whom he saw assembled opposite," and laid 
 before them his views of the question in its relation to the morals of the 
 people. The vote for the second reading was earned by a majority of forty- 
 two. 
 
 On the 17th of May the bishops again mustered in full force. The debate 
 was one of the most interesting ever listened to in the House of Lords, the 
 most remarkable speech being that of the Bishop of Oxford, who set himself 
 to the task of meeting the arguments used in opposition to the Bill, which 
 were grounded in great measure upon a number of untrue assertions, and 
 then, passing on to the discussion of the practical question at issue, he asked, 
 " Could their lordships believe, that upon the last two hours' labour of trembling 
 hands, tending upon that machinery, after long, unceasing, and heart-consum- 
 ing attention, when Nature almost refused to perform her functions could 
 their lordships believe that upon those two last hours depended all the profits 
 and accumulations of the manufacturers ? He believed that the work done in 
 those two last hours was infinitely inferior in quality to that which was done 
 in any other portion of the day ; it was demanding work when Nature refused 
 the power of working ! " 
 d The Bill was read a second time without a division, nearly every member
 
 M47.) VICTORY! 369 
 
 of the Bench of Bishops voting in its support, and on the 1st of June it I 
 passed its final 
 
 May 18th. The Bishops behaved gallantly 13 remained to vote ; three 
 spoke, and most effectively : London, Oxford, St. David's ; Clarendon (1) and 
 Brougham (! 1) in opposition. This will do very much to win the hearts of the 
 manufacturing people to Bishops and Lords it has already converted the hard 
 mind of a Chartist Delegate. 
 
 June 1st. Six o'clock. News that the Factory Bill has just passed the third 
 reading. I am humbled that my heart is not bursting with thankfulness to 
 Almighty God that I can find breath and sense to express my joy. What reward 
 shall we give unto the Lord for all the benefits He hath conferred upon us? 
 God, in His mercy, prosper the work, and grant that these operatives may receive 
 the cup of Salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord ! Praised be the Lord, 
 praised be the Lord, in Christ Jesus ! . . . 
 
 This great victory was received throughout the country with intense en- 
 thusiasm. The rejoicings in the manufacturing districts were such as had 
 never been seen before. Lord Ashley and Mr. Fielden were greeted with 
 ovations wherever they went ; many of the mill-owners welcomed the change, 
 and arranged for festivities in honour of the occasion. Medals were struck 
 in commemoration of the event, and the Queen was graciously pleased to 
 receive, at the hands of Lord Ashley, one of these medals sent to her by the 
 factory operatives. 
 
 The importance of the Act of 1847 becomes very apparent, when we 
 remember that out of 544,876 persons employed (according to the returns of 
 that year) in the textile industries, no less than 363,796 were young persons 
 and women, whom the Act directly affected ; the time of their labour being 
 limited, from the 1st of July, when the Act came into force, to eleven hours 
 a day or sixty-three hours weekly, and from May the 1st, 1848, to ten hours a 
 day or fifty-eight hours weekly. 
 
 For forty years the subject had been before the world, and for fourteen 
 years Lord Ashley had been working incessantly for the boon now granted. 
 He had, at the first, demanded that the agitation should be carried on in the 
 most conciliatory manner possible, and now that the great principle of the 
 Ten Hours' limit had been affirmed by the Legislature, he urged that there 
 should be no noisy or affronting exultation. Three days after the Bill had 
 passed its final stage, he addressed a letter to the Short- Time Committees as 
 follows : 
 
 MY GOOD FRIENDS, Although there is no longer any necessity to name you 
 collectively and as united together for the purpose of obtaining a reduction of 
 the hours of working in factories, I will address a few words to you, in your 
 capacity of representatives of the whole operative body, on questions of the 
 highest and dearest interest. 
 
 First, we must give most humble and hearty thanks to Almighty God for the 
 unexpected and wonderful success that has attended our efforts. We have won 
 the great object of all our labours the Ten Hours Bill has become the law of 
 
 Y
 
 370 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. fCHAP. XV. 
 
 the land ; and we may hope, nay, more, we believe that we shall find in its happy 
 results, a full compensation for all our toils. 
 
 But, with your success have commenced new duties. You are now in posses- 
 sion of those two hours which you have so long and so ardently desired ; you 
 must, therefore, turn them to the best account, to that account which was ever 
 in the minds of your friends and advocates when they appealed to the Legisla- 
 ture on behalf of your rights as immortal beings, as citizens and Christians. 
 
 You will remember the principal motive that stimulated your own activity, 
 and the energetic aid of your supporters in Parliament, was the use that might 
 be made of this leisure for the moral improvement of the factory people, and 
 especially the female workers, who will now enjoy far better opportunities both 
 of learning and practising those duties which must be known and discharged if 
 we would have a comfortable, decent, and happy population. 
 
 You will experience no difficulty, throughout your several districts, in obtain- 
 ing counsel or assistance on these subjects. The clergy, the various ministers, the 
 medical men all who have been so forward and earnest in your cause will, I 
 am sure, be really delighted to co-operate with your efforts. 
 
 I need not, I know, exhort you to an oblivion of past conflicts, and to hearty 
 endeavour for future harmony. I trust that there will be no language of 
 triumph, as though we had defeated an enemy. Let us be very thankful that the 
 struggle is over, and that we can once more combine, not only the interests, but 
 also the feelings, of employer and employed, in a mutual understanding for the 
 comfort and benefit of each other, and for the welfare of the whole community. 
 
 I cannot entertain a doubt that you will have anticipated me in this respect ; 
 it has been my endeavour from the beginning to seek and to advise all methods 
 of conciliation ; and I can safely declare, that in the periods of the greatest 
 ardour or disappointment, I never heard, either in meetings or from individuals, 
 a single vindictive expression. 
 
 Although the final completion of this great measure has been achieved by 
 another, I could not, after so many years of labour, take leave of it altogether 
 without a few words to you of advice and congratulation. To no one could the 
 lot have fallen so happily as to our friend Mr. Fielden. He joined me in 1833 in 
 the introduction of the first Bill, and has been ever since, as you well know, your 
 able, energetic, and unshrinking advocate. 
 
 In bidding you farewell, I do not retire ifrom your service. I shall, at all 
 times, hold myself in readiness to aid you in any measures that may conduce to 
 the moral and physical welfare of yourselves and of your children ; and I shall, 
 indeed, most heartily pray that it may please God to prosper this consummation 
 of our toils with every public and private blessing. 
 
 I remain, your very affectionate friend and servant, 
 
 ASHLEY. 
 
 It will be well in this place, perhaps, to glance at some of the subsequent 
 features in the history of the Ten Hours movement. 
 
 At the time of the passing of the Act a great commercial crisis caused 
 many factories to stop working, or at least to work only half time. There 
 was, therefore, at first, a reduction of wages, solely due, not to the Act, bat 
 to a concurrent stagnation of trade. When, however, in May, 1848, the Ten
 
 1849.) THE SYSTEM OF " RELAYS." 371 
 
 Hours Day came to be adopted, a revival of production had taken place. 
 The legal working day was reckoned to begin at 5.30 a.m. and to end at 
 8.30 p.m., and the manufacturers took advantage of this to work their young 
 persons by a system of " relays " and what was still worse of " shifts " of 
 hands, so as to keep the operatives employed, and the mills in action, the 
 whole of this time. The masters who kept the time prescribed by the Act, 
 were loud in their denunciations of the practice. There was a struggle 
 between the manufacturers and the Inspectors on this point ; and the country 
 justices, of the manufacturing class, assisted the mill-owners in thus evading 
 the purposes of the Act. Great alarm was created among the operatives, 
 and, in order to allay it, a test case was got up by the Lancashire Central 
 Short-Time Committee, and tried, when the bench decided that the law was 
 not explicit enough to enable them to convict, and an appeal was entered to 
 carry the case before a superior court. 
 
 Throughout the year 1849 there was intense anxiety amongst the friends 
 of the Ten Hours movement, who feared that the whole question would have 
 to be re-opened in Parliament. The old Committees were re-established, 
 tours of inspection were organised ; all the machinery of agitation had to be 
 called again into use, and it was found that the system of " relays " was 
 spreading in all directions. The Masters' Association, on the other hand, 
 was equally active, and petitions were drawn up against the Ten Hours Bill, 
 and circulated freely. 
 
 A few extracts from the Diary will show Lord Ashley's attitude towards 
 the question during this anxious time : 
 
 March 5th, 1849. The Ten Hours law is in jeopardy : God gave it us in His 
 mercy, and admirably has it worked, no reduction of wages, no flight of capital, 
 no misuse of vacant hours, nay, the reverse of all this. Some of the masters, 
 a small, thank God, though powerful minority, have discovered a means of 
 evasion. The Government say that they cannot prevent it, and they will, there- 
 fore, partially legalise it ! Here is fresh toil, fresh anxiety. Would to God it 
 were settled for ever I 
 
 June 8th. Old John Fielden is dead. . . . Poor old Fielden ; he had 
 many kind qualities, and was a true and energetic friend to the Ten Hours Bill : 
 greatly, indeed, am I, and the operatives also, indebted to him, and we shall misa 
 him very seriously now, when wealth and capital and avarice and power are 
 again in arms against weakness and poverty. The mighty boon of the Ten Hours 
 law is nullified by fraud and abused justice ; and they seek now to annihilate it 
 by open legislation ! 
 
 Oct. 4th. . . . The Ten Hours agitation still alive. Mr. Oastler and 
 Mr. Stephens have seized the opportunity to revile me and place themselves at 
 the head of the operatives ; but I rejoice to say that the operatives will neither 
 believe them nor accept them. This matter must be speedily determined by an 
 appeal to one of the Superior Courts : it is disgraceful that the Home Secretary 
 has so long neglected this pressing necessity. 
 
 Nov. 1st. Mr. Oastler and a crew of others (I can use no milder term), 
 including Sam Fielden (why he ?) are denouncing and reviling me in every 
 Y 2
 
 372 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XV. 
 
 society, by day and by night, in speech and on paper, as a traitor, and a thousand 
 other things, to the Ten Hours Bill. God knows my sincerity, my labours, 
 vexations, losses, injuries to health, fortune, comfort, position in that cause. It 
 is true I told the workpeople that I would assent (if they would assent, but not 
 without) to the concession of half an hour, provided they received in return the 
 immediate and final settlement of the question, and the limitation of the rang-e 
 from fifteen to twenty hours, a concession the masters alone could make. Here i 
 my offence, and I am too busy, and also too tired to beg-in a controversial defence. 
 Like Hezekiah, I " spread it before the Lord." ... I wish I could be cheerful, 
 but mirth hath perished. 
 
 It was not until the 8th of February, 1850, that the test case came on for 
 hearing in the Court of Exchequer. The decision was awaited with feverish 
 anxiety, as it seemed that the whole effect of the statute hinged upon it, and 
 the adverse judgment of Mr. Baron Parke, in which it was decided that the 
 system of " shifts " and " relays " was not contrary to the letter of the Act, 
 was received with dismay. 
 
 Feb. 1st, 1850. Judges will decide adversely on factory case submitted to 
 them, and thus legalise relays I The Attorney-General said to me this afternoon, 
 " They will give judgment, not according to law, but. on policy. Judge Parke,' r 
 he added, "observed to me, 'I have no doubt that the framers of the Act 
 intended that the labour should be continuous, but as it is a law to restrain the 
 exercise of capital and property, it must be construed stringently.' " Might not 
 this judge have said and thought, with equal justice and more feeling, " This is a 
 law to restrain oppression and cruelty, and alleviate an actual slavery under a 
 nominal freedom. I will, therefore, construe it liberally I " . . . 
 
 Feb. 15th. Adverse judgment in Court of Exchequer. Great remedial 
 measure, the Ten Hours Act, nullified. The work to be done all over again ; and 
 I seventeen years older than when I began ! But, as I did not commence, so 
 neither shall I renew it, in my own strength. My sufficiency, if there be any? 
 is of God. 
 
 It was now clear that the cruel system which had been declared legal, 
 would spread rapidly throughout the manufacturing districts. But Lord 
 Ashley was equal to the emergency, and, having in the interval taken his seat 
 for Bath, he, four days after the decision had been given, introduced the 
 question into the House of Commons, by calling the attention of the Govern- 
 ment to the necessity for " taking some steps to obviate the very evil con- 
 sequences of that decision ; " and on March 14, after a smart discussion, 
 obtained leave to bring in a Bill. He insisted upon immediate action, as, in 
 the then present state of things, with the mills going for fifteen hours, and 
 the actual labour of young persons restricted to ten, it resulted in their being 
 turned out into the streets at different intervals during the day, which was 
 not only an incentive to vice, but it made it impossible for Inspectors to 
 ascertain how many hours the hands really worked. Even Mr. John Bright 
 acknowledged the need for settling what was, he admitted in some degree, an 
 unsatisfactory state of the law ; but he took occasion to charge Lord Ashley 
 with posing at one time as the " hired advocate " of those who were anxious
 
 1850.) "RELAYS" AND "SHIFTS." 373 
 
 to paint in the blackest colours the condition of the manufacturing districts, 
 " ami at another time as if he were engaged, in consequence of the passing 
 of the Ten Hours Bill, to paint an entirely different people." 
 
 Throughout the Session the Ten Hours question was constantly before 
 the House, and every stage in its progress was guarded anxiously by Lord 
 Ashley. Sir George Grey, on behalf of the Government, proposed a plan to 
 which Lord Ashley had previously agreed namely, in return for the strict 
 limitation between six and six, to allow ten and a half hours labour per day, 
 and not more than sixty hours per week. The real compensation in this was 
 and it was worth all the rest that the time of labour was limited to a 
 range of twelve hours with a certain termination at six o'clock. There were 
 many amendments to this proposal, and endless discussions in and out of 
 Parliament. Lord John Manners moved that the factory day should be 
 limited to half past five in the afternoon. Mr. John Bright seconded a 
 proposal to legalise the hateful system of " shifts and relays," and to fix the 
 factory day from half -past five a.m. to half -past eight p.m. ! Both of these 
 motions were lost, as was also a motion by Lord Ashley, that children between 
 eight and thirteen years of age should be included in the six to six clause. 
 But although this was lost then, it was afterwards effected by Lord Palmer- 
 ston, when at the Home Office in 1853. 
 
 March llth, 1850. Saw Grey ; he proposes, in fact, an eleven hours' bill, and 
 admitted that it was so, offering at the same time advantages in the reduction of 
 the range from 15 to 12i hours ; all mills to close at six o'clock. He would not 
 interdict relays, and by permitting them, enable masters to work for eleven hours ; 
 why this ? All has prospered under the ten hours, why thus propitiate Bright 
 and Ashworth ? Evasions would be universal ; detection, impossible. 
 
 May 7th. Harassed day after day by this Factory Bill impossible to get a 
 stringent clause to prohibit relays ; tried many and failed have resolved then, 
 as only hope of getting anything good and secure for the operatives, to accept 
 Government Amendments. I am sure that they are the best terms that ever will 
 be offered, and probably that this is the last time of their being offered. I fear, 
 too, division among the operatives, for, if some reject, some will accept the 
 terms ; once divided they are lost, the masters will effect an Eleven Hours Bill ! 
 
 May 8th. Harassed exceedingly by Factory affair resolved to adopt clauses 
 of Government, and wrote letter to Timet announcing it. Expect from manu- 
 facturing districts a storm of violence and hatred. I might have taken a more 
 popular and belauded course, but I should have ruined the question ; one more 
 easy to myself, but far from true to the people. 
 
 May 9th. Two considerations have greatly determined me to take the resolute 
 course of accepting the Government proposals. First, I felt most distrustful of 
 the disposition of the House to support me in the full demand for the " ten 
 hours." The majority, that, in 1847, gave victory to the old supporters of the 
 Bill, were governed, not by love to the cause, but, by anger towards Peel and the 
 Anti-Corn Law League. Had not these passions interposed, there would have 
 been no unusual "humanity." Our position in this respect, is now altered. 
 Secondly, it is manifest that neither party (the employers, or the men) is striving
 
 374 THE EARL OF SHAPTESBURY. [CHAP. XV. 
 
 for what is considered to be really essential. The two additional hours could 
 give nothing of value to the amount of production ; the two hours spread over 
 the week, could take nothing of importance from the operatives, the rule being- 
 constant and rigid that the mills should be closed at six o'clock every day. They 
 are struggling merely for victory ; no side chooses to be beaten. This may be 
 natural, but I could not consent to be the tool. Doubtless it is a blow to my 
 reputation, because many will misunderstand, while many will misrepresent, my 
 position and conduct. 
 
 After a long and wearisome course, the Bill was passed, and received the 
 lloyal assent on July 26, 1850. It reduced the legal working day for all 
 young persons and women, to the time between six in the morning and six in 
 the evening, with one and a half hours for meals. This permitted ten and a half 
 hours work on five days in the week ; on Saturdays no protected person was- 
 to work after two. Such was the main feature of the Act 13 & 14 Vic. 
 cap. 54, which has, since 1850, regulated the normal day in English factories. 
 
 The principle established by the Ten Hours Bill has had an effect, the 
 importance of which it is difficult to over-estimate, and, owing to the perse- 
 verance of Lord Shaftesbury, that principle has been extended, until to-day 
 we have "a complete, minute, and voluminous code for the protection of 
 labour ; buildings must be kept pure of effluvia ; dangerous machinery must 
 be fenced ; children and young persons must not clean it while in motion ; 
 their hours are not only limited, but fixed ; continuous employment must not 
 exceed a given number of hours, varying with the trade, but prescribed by 
 the law in given cases ; a statutable number of holidays is imposed ; the 
 children must go to school, and the employer must every week have a certifi- 
 cate to that effect ; if an accident happens, notice must be sent to the proper 
 authorities ; special provisions are made for bake-houses, for lace-making, for 
 collieries, and for a whole schedule of other special callings ; for the due 
 enforcement and vigilant supervision of this immense host of minute pre- 
 scriptions there is an immense host of inspectors, certifying surgeons, and 
 other authorities, whose business it is 'to speed and post o'er land and ocean' 
 in restless guardianship of every kind of labour, from that of the woman who 
 plaits straw at her cottage door, to the miner who descends into the bowels 
 of the earth, and the seaman who conveys the fruits and materials of 
 universal industry to and fro between the remotest parts of the globe ! " * 
 
 One of the most interesting circumstances in connection with the later 
 labours of Lord Shaftesbury on behalf of factory operatives was, that his 
 steady perseverance, in the long mn, brought round to his side many of those 
 who had most stoutly opposed him. In 1860, Mr. Roebuck, who had for- 
 merly been bitterly hostile, stood forth in Parliament and made his public 
 recantation. The question before the House was the labour of children, 
 young persons, and women employed in Bleach-works. He said : " I am 
 about to speak on this question under somewhat peculiar circumstances. 
 Very early in my Parliamentary career Lord Ashley, now the Earl of 
 * Mr. John Morley's " Life of Cobden."
 
 i860.] MR. ROEBUCK'S RECANTATION. 375 
 
 Shaftesbury, introduced a Bill of this description. ... I opposed Lord 
 Ashley at that time, and was very much influenced in iny opposition by what 
 the gentlemen of Lancashire said. They declared then that it was the last 
 half hour of the work performed by their operatives which made all their 
 profits, and that if we took away that last half hour we should ruin the 
 manufacturers of England. I listened to that statement, and trembled for 
 the manufacturers of England but Lord Ashley persevered. Parliament 
 passed the Bill which he brought in. From that time down to the present 
 the factories of this country have been under State control, and I appeal to 
 this House whether the manufacturers of England have suffered by this 
 legislation ? " (Loud cheers.) * The burden of his speech throughout was, 
 that in his former tooth-aud-nail opposition, he had been wrong in almost 
 every particular. 
 
 No sooner had Mr. Roebuck concluded than Sir James Graham came up 
 to him, and, laying his hand on his shoulder, said, " I am glad that you have 
 read your recantation, and I will read mine to-morrow." Roebuck's recanta- 
 tion was more fully announced in the following letter, written a few days 
 after his speech in the House : 
 
 Mr. Roebuck, M.P. t to Lord Shaftesbury. 
 
 19, ASHLEY PLACE, S.W., March 24, 1360. 
 
 MY DEAR LORD SHAFTESBURY, I am much obliged by your kind expres- 
 sions and by your flattering appreciation of my labours on behalf of the women 
 and children working in Bleaching and Dye-works. The praise, however, if any 
 be due, belongs to yourself, for the evidence supplied by the enactments which 
 you promoted made a convert of me, and led me, as far as I was able, to imitate 
 your example and follow in your footsteps. That good will come of last 
 Wednesday's division I feel certain. The success of the measure is now assured, 
 and much misery, which has hitherto disgraced us, will now be prevented. The 
 present state, however, of these poor women and children is a serious lesson to 
 all legislators. It teaches us, in a way not to be mistaken, that we ought never 
 to trust to the justice and humanity of masses of men whose interests are fur- 
 thered by injustice and cruelty. The slave-owner in America, the manufacturer 
 in England, though they may be individually good men, will, nevertheless, as 
 slave-owners and masters, be guilty of atrocities at which humanity shudders ; 
 and will, before the world, with unblushing faces, defend cruelties from which 
 they would recoil with horror if their moral judgments were not perverted by 
 their self-interest. It is happy for us that we have an impartial public around 
 us, who, being unswayed by evil interests, can, without a sacrifice, give a iust 
 
 judgment. 
 
 Thanks again for your approval, 
 
 Believe me, very sincerely yours, 
 
 J. A. ROEBUCK. 
 
 True to his word, in a debate upon the same subject (the Bleaching and 
 Dye- Works Bill), Sir James Graham rose and said: "I have a confession to 
 Time*. March 22, 1860.
 
 376 THE KARL OP 8HAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XV. 
 
 make to the House. Experience has shown, to my satisfaction, that many of 
 the predictions formerly made against the Factory Bill have not been 
 verified by the result, as, on the whole, that great measure of relief for 
 women and children has contributed to the well-being and comfort of the 
 working classes, whilst it has not injured their masters. . . . By the 
 vote I shall give to-night I will endeavour to make some amends for the 
 course I pursued in earlier life in opposing the Factory Bill." * 
 
 In March, 1864, Mr. Gladstone, in a speech on interference by prohibition, 
 referred to the Factory Acts, and said, " It is an interference, as to which it 
 may be said that the Legislature is now almost unanimous with respect to 
 the necessity which existed for undertaking it, and with respect to the 
 beneficial effect it has produced both in mitigating human suffering, and in 
 attaching important classes of the community to Parliament and the Govern- 
 ment." In a note written by Lord Shaftesbury in the margin of Mr. Grant's 
 " History of Factory Legislation " are these words : " He does not retract 
 with the honesty of Roebuck and Graham." 
 
 In all quarters, testimony was borne to the beneficial effects produced by 
 the intervention of the Legislature in the employment of women and 
 children in factories. To quote such testimony would be an endless and 
 unnecessary labour. One extract only, as a sample, shall be given here. At 
 a meeting of the British Association in Mancl ester, in September, 1861, Pro- 
 fessor Newmarch, in his opening address as President of the Economic 
 Science Statistics Section, after referring to the progress of Factory Legis- 
 lation, and the " wholly successful " issue of the limitation of hours, said : 
 " It had consolidated society in this part of the island, swept away a great 
 mass of festering and growing discontent, placed the prosperity of the dis- 
 trict on a broad, solid, and safe basis ; on the orderly, educated, contented 
 labour of Lancashire, a security against foreign competition, a guarantee of 
 power, and fund of undivided profits. These results had followed from the 
 sagacious, persevering, and moral exertions of the advocates of the Ten 
 Hours Bill." 
 
 By far the most interesting summary and comment upon the great Factory 
 struggle, is supplied by Lord Shaftesbury in some manuscript notes appended 
 on fly-leaves to Mr. Philip Grant's " History of Factory Legislation." They 
 were written towards the end of his life, and are as follows : 
 
 My friend Grant has made some omissions, and especially in p. 145. He has left 
 out the whole history of what follows on my acceptance of Grey's offer of a 
 ' limitation of the hours between 6 and 6, with an hour and a half off for meals," 
 thus making the working day 10 J instead of 10 hours. 
 
 It led to a violent disruption. Oastler, Walker, and the Fielden family de- 
 nounced me as a traitor, and never ceased afterwards to hurt and slander me. 
 
 I assented on the ground that twenty years of well-balanced conflict showed 
 that neither party could gain its full purpose ; and that compromise was the only 
 solution. And the gain to the people was far beyond the concession to the 
 
 Times, May 9, 1860.
 
 1847 CO.) SUMMARY OF FACTORY LEGISLATION. 377 
 
 employers, who, for an additional half hour, surrendered their right to take the 
 hours of labour over an interval of 15 hours with all the means of evasion, and 
 agreed to close their works at 6 o'clock. 
 
 This was recognised, at the very first, by very many of the operatives, and< 
 eventually, by alL 
 
 It, moreover, prevented a " sore place " by giving neither party the absolute 
 victory. And in nothing have I seen more reason to admire and trust the factory- 
 workers, than in their readiness to conform to my advice (which I gave in abun- 
 dant letters and speeches) that, while there was much joy, there should be no 
 insolent exultation, no language of triumph, but expressions of gratitude, ad- 
 dresses of friendly sentiments, and desire for harmony and common action. 
 
 All this had the desired effect ; for the masters, instead of a sulky opposition, 
 were zealous to aid the operations of the measure, and hence, under God, ita 
 success. 
 
 From the first hour of my movement to the last, I had ever before me, and 
 never lost sight of it, the issue of a restoration of a good understanding between 
 employer and employed. 
 
 He has also omitted to note the completion of the Act by bringing, in 1853 
 (this we owe to Palmerston), the children between 8 and 13 under the 6 to 6 
 Clause. To this time, though the adults and young persons were liberated after 
 12 hours' detention on the premises, the children of tender years were detained 
 15 hours, many of them, in Yorkshire, coming 3 miles to their work. 
 
 These new measures (the Extension Acts) were mentioned in the Queen's 
 Speeches both at the opening and the closing of Parliament in 1867. 
 
 The next entry, on another fly-leaf, appears to have been written at a later 
 date: 
 
 Forster * suggested that, in the preface to my " published volume " (!) I should 
 set forth many of the obstacles that had beset my progress. This could not be 
 done by myself ; the narrative would savour of egoism. But for my children, 
 if this book survive me, I may say that they were many and severe. I had to 
 break every political connection, to encounter a most formidable array of capital- 
 ists, mill-owners, doctrinaires, and men, who, by natural impulse, hate all 
 "humanity-mongers." They easily influence the ignorant, the timid, and the 
 indifferent ; and my strength lay at first (" tell it not in Gath ! ") among the 
 Radicals, the Irishmen, and a few sincere Whigs and Conservatives. Peel was 
 hostile, though, in his cunning, he concealed the full extent of his hostility until 
 he took the reins of office, and then he opposed me, not with decision only but 
 malevolence, threatening, he and Graham, to break up his administration and 
 " retire into private life" unless the House of Commons rescinded the vote it had 
 given in favour of my Ten Hours Bill. The Tory country gentlemen reversed 
 their votes ; but, in 1847, indignant with Peel on the ground of Corn Law repeal, 
 they returned to the cause of the factory children. 
 
 Fielden and Brotherton were the only " practical " men. as the phrase then 
 went, who supported me, and to " practical " prophecies of overthrow of trade, of 
 ruin to the operatives themselves, I could only oppose " humanity " and general 
 
 Jchn Forster, author of "Life of Dickens," and many other work*.
 
 378 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. {CHAP. XV. 
 
 principles. The newspapers were, on the whole, friendly ; some very much so. 
 A few, especially the local journals, inconceivably bitter, though balanced by 
 local papers sound and hearty in their support. 
 
 Out of Parliament, there was in society every form of "good-natured ' and 
 compassionate contempt. In the provinces, the anger and irritation of the oppo- 
 nents were almost fearful ; and men among first classes of workpeople, over- 
 lookers and others, were afraid to avow their sentiments. It required, during 
 many years, repeated journeys to Lancashire and Yorkshire, no end of public 
 meetings in the large towns ; visits, committees, innumerable hours, intolerable 
 expense. In very few instances did any mill-owner appear on the platform with 
 me ; in still fewer the ministers of any religious denomination. At first not one, 
 except the Rev. Mr. Bull, of Brierley, near Bradford ; and even to the last, very 
 few, so cowed were they (or in themselves so indifferent) by the overwhelming 
 influence of the cotton lords. 
 
 I had more aid from the medical than the divine profession ; and ever must I 
 record the services and skill of Mr. Fletcher of Bury. 
 
 The demands upon time and strength were quite up to my powers, and, indeed, 
 much beyond them. I suffered a good deal. 
 
 The operatives themselves did their duty. Their delegates, whom they main- 
 tained at their own cost, were always active and trustworthy men : specially my 
 friend and fellow-labourer, Philip Grant, who was, in my support, as two right 
 hands. 
 
 Perhaps the various efforts made by Sir K. Peel to induce me to take office 
 were amongst the greatest of my difficulties. The attractions of office were not 
 weighty ; but Sir R. Peel wishing, not so much to have me as a member of his 
 Government as to withdraw me from the Factorj Bill, spared no entreaties, no 
 " flatteries," no almost falsehoods, to entice me. He shifted his ground in every 
 way, first one thing, then another. Among other things, the Lord- Lieutenancy 
 of Ireland, as " a man who would have great influence over the clergy to induce 
 them to accept reforms." 
 
 In the Times of Saturday, April llth, 1868, there is a review of the Life of 
 Wilberf orce ! There are many things said in it of him that might be said of me, 
 but they never will be. He started with a Committee and a Prime Minister to 
 back him. I started to assail home interests, with every one, save a few unim- 
 posing persons, against me. O'Connell was a sneering and bitter opponent ; 
 Gladstone ever voted in resistance to my efforts; and Brougham played the 
 doctrinaire in the House of Lords. 
 
 Bright was ever my most malignant opponent. Cobden, though bitterly 
 hostile, was better than Bright. He abstained from opposition on the Collieries 
 Bill, and gave positive support on the Calico Print-works Bill. 
 
 Gladstone is on a level with the rest ; he gave no support to the Ten Hours 
 Bill ; he voted with Sir R. Peel to rescind the famous division in favour of it. 
 He was the only m onber who endeavoured to delay the Bill which delivered 
 women and children from mines and pits ; and never did he say a word on behalf 
 of the factory children, until, when defending slavery in the West Indies, he 
 taunted Buxton with indifference to the slavery in England 1 
 
 Lord Brougham was among my most heated opponents. He spoke strongly 
 against the Bill in 1847. 
 
 Miss Martineau also gave her voice and strength in resistance to the measure.
 
 !847-O.J FRIENDS AND FOES. 379 
 
 By degrees some public men came round. Russell, then Lord John, did me 
 disservice while he was Minister ; he espoused the cause when turned into Oppo. 
 sition. Then Sir G. Grey adhered ; and, towards the end, Macaulay grave us one 
 of his brilliant and effective speeches. My latter years in the House of Commons 
 were dogged by Oastler and the Fieldens, who resented my policy in bringing all 
 things to a happy conclusion by making and accepting concessions to abate too 
 much exultation in the operatives, and too much soreness in the mill-owners. 
 
 The pressure upon purse and upon time was very great ; the pressure upon 
 strength was greater, but the pressure on the mind was greatest of all. I 
 endured terrible anxieties. 
 
 (I have omitted above that the famous O'Connell was, for a long time, very 
 bitter and hostile, and spoke of the " good-natured nonsense " I delivered. He 
 became, afterwards, much milder.) 
 
 What follows was written evidently after another long interval : 
 
 On May 15th, 1869, a great celebration at Bradford to uncover Oastler'e 
 statue. The reception the operatives gave me was wonderful. There must have 
 been one hundred thousand people present ; many had come from distant town* 
 in Yorkshire.
 
 CHAPTER XYI. 
 
 1847. 
 
 THERE were many who did not hesitate to declare that the scare produced by 
 the threatened failure of the potato crop in 1845, and the consequent famine, 
 was neither more nor less than a political coup. It was, nevertheless, a 
 terrible fact, and Ireland had been plunged into unprecedented distress. In 
 the autumn of 1846 the disease reappeared with greater virulence than ever ; 
 And in 1847 Ireland was in a state of absolute famine. It is impossible to 
 describe the terrible condition of that unhappy country ; tens of thousands 
 were threatened with actual starvation, and thousands more were suffering 
 iroin disease consequent upon insufficient food. Then it was seen that the 
 repeal of the Corn Laws was a stroke of the wisest policy ; the ports had not 
 been thrown open one day too soon, nor had the intimation to countries from 
 whence grain could be imported, been given an hour too early. The descrip- 
 tions in the daily press were of the most harrowing kind, and the whole 
 world was horrified by their shocking details, to which there is, happily, 
 nothing similar on record in the annals of this country. Despite all the 
 efforts that were made, " there was not a house where there was not one 
 dead." It was ascertained by the census of 1851 that a million and a half of 
 persons, of all ages, had disappeared either starved to death, destroyed by 
 pestilence, or fled the country. 
 
 In a great variety of ways the sympathies of Lord Ashley were called out 
 -towards the suffering people, to whom constant reference is made in the 
 Diary throughout these years of famine. 
 
 February 21st, Sunday. Sermon for relief of Irish ; held one of the plates in 
 Park Street. Largest collection ever known here, 192 14s. lid. f*ad to see 
 how many well-dressed people pass by and give not a brass farthing . . . 
 
 February 26th. Wrote to Bishop of London to urge day of humiliation. It 
 is something to reverence God as a nation, though it be only externally. 
 
 March 24th. The day appointed for fast and national humiliation. At ten 
 o'clock, prayers being ended, some bread and cocoa. The savings in the house- 
 books to go (it is the homage, not the sum) to some Irish fund. Were this done 
 in every family, thousands of pounds might be collected. It has been a comfort- 
 able day to me ; the service, the reading, the conversation, have all been con- 
 solatory and profitable. Seldom have I known my heart more touched, or my 
 eyes more fulL ... God, may this people stand before Thee in penitence, 
 in prayer, confession, and forgiveness ! May they yet be Thy instruments, for 
 honour to Thee and welfare to the human race, Thy chosen soldiers of the Croea 
 of Christ against sin and the devil I
 
 184T.J SPEECH AT BATH. 381 
 
 In the early part of the year Lord Ashley was engaged in rendering 
 important service to Lord John Russell, who was about to .submit to Parlia- 
 ment a scheme for the education of the people, based upon the grant of 
 100,000 to l)e asked for during the Session. He proposed to exclude 
 Roman Catholics from the benefit of the grant, and to take up their case in a 
 separate form. The details of his plan were submitted to the House on the 
 19th April, when he expressed his belief that any proposal for making State 
 education purely secular would be opposed to the opinion of Parliament. 
 
 April 1st. Much engaged in endeavouring to bring the Wesleyan body to 
 accept and support new scheme of education. 
 
 Lord J. Russell to Lord Ashley. 
 
 CHESHAM PLACE, April 7, 1847. 
 
 MY DEAB ASHLEY, Your exertions to induce the Wesleyans to accept our 
 Minutes will, I trust, be successful. 
 
 But at all events, I cannot refrain from expressing the obligations which I 
 feel to you for your very active and judicious endeavours to obtain the support 
 of that most valuable body to our Minutes. 
 
 I remain, ever yours faithfully, 
 
 J. RUSSELL. 
 
 April 15th. All is well 1 The Wesleyans have accepted the Minutes. May 
 God prosper the issue I Took chair in evening yesterday of great education 
 meeting in Freemasons' Hall. Very enthusiastic, very successful ; everything 
 prospered. 
 
 April 23rd. A majority last night on the Education Minutes of 345, forty- 
 seven only voting against it I I am truly thankful. May the measure be pros- 
 pered to the advancement of true religion 1 Now, where would the Government 
 have been bad the Wesleyans joined the Dissenters ? Their union would have 
 damped the ardour of the Church, and all would have been in confusion. 
 
 Lord Ashley had accepted the invitation of an influential deputation that 
 had waited upon him, urging him to stand for the representation of Bath, at 
 the forthcoming General Election, and offering to pay all his expenses ; and 
 on the 25th May he addressed the electors. In his opening remarks he gave 
 a graphic description of Parliamentary life. He said : 
 
 I was almost willing to retire from public life, and all its distracting voca- 
 tions ; for, however tempting to the young and inexperienced however full of 
 promise of usefulness and of honour to those who have never tried it the 
 House of Commons does not present, to its more practised members, such an 
 amount of unalloyed enjoyment as to render it, of all sublunary things, the 
 most to be desired. 
 
 The immense consumption of time, the constant demand on the moral and 
 physical energies, the enormous effort which is required to do the smallest good, 
 and the misunderstanding and abuse which constantly attend that attempt 
 these circumstances, when seen and felt, greatly diminish the attraction of Par- 
 liamentary honours. Add to these the state of public parties, the uncertainty of
 
 382 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XVL 
 
 the opinions of your own ordinary political friends, and the total impossibility 
 of reposing entire confidence in any public man consider all these things, and 
 you have but little left to inspire any inordinate desire of senatorial privileges. 
 
 The subjects he principally brought forward were those connected with 
 the social condition of the labouring classes, indicating principles rather than 
 precise measures, and holding himself free to decide the time and mode of 
 asserting them ; but, in all, he pledged himself to maintain the " great prin- 
 ciples of the Constitution in Church and State those great principles which, 
 ever since the Revolution of 1688, have been recognised and cherished by 
 the people of these realms the Crown, the Bishops, the Houses of Lords 
 and Commons, and every institution ecclesiastical and civil." 
 
 His opponent was Mr. Roebuck, then his bitterest antagonist in the 
 Factory agitation. Mr. Roebuck had arrayed on his side capital, as well as 
 considerable influence, the Jews alone subscribing 2,000 towards his 
 expenses, and he made, moreover, the usual extravagant display which pro- 
 duced no inconsiderable impression upon a certain class of electors in those 
 days. Lord Ashley, on the other hand, declined to allow banners, proces- 
 sions, or even ribands ; determined that if he triumphed, it should be a 
 triumph of principles. 
 
 July 24th. Bath. Arrived yesterday all seems quiet, and appearances are 
 not bad. It would require a world of argument to make me vote for the repeal 
 of the Septennial Bill ; a more frequent repetition of the toils, expenses, excite- 
 ment, and evil passions of a contested election would be awfully injurious to all 
 parties. 
 
 July 26th. Mobbed on Saturday, and struck in the evening by a man, who 
 was instantly seized, his blow having been broken yet I shall continue to walk 
 about. Violence is expected at the hustings ; I trust that the police will do their 
 duty. Attended several committees, very crowded and very hot all looks pretty 
 well, but " Dieu dispose" Mr. R. is determined, I hear, to wither me by sarcasms 
 doubtless he will have the opportunity to revile, and I shall have none to 
 answer ; but God judge between us 1 
 
 July 28th. The nomination has passed off quietly people noisy, but good- 
 humoured. An immense meeting ; Mr. Roebuck, piano in comparison of what I 
 expected, so much so that I could not produce the only part of my speech that I 
 had prepared in answer to his invectives ! 
 
 Perceived a change in the popular feeling towards end of my speech : cries 
 of " Ashley for ever ! " ten times more frequent all this evening than before. 
 
 July 31st. London. No time for entries till this morning many events ; 
 returned, however, thank God, at the head of the poll I * A., 1278 ; D., 1228 ; 
 R., 1093. 
 
 August 2nd. I am deeply sensible of the immense value of the mode in 
 which I have been returned, and of the principles asserted in it. I can never 
 sufficiently thank God for the whole event, and for the prospect it has opened to 
 me of restoration to public usefulness. I have been excluded from Parliament 
 
 * Lord Ashley, Lord Duncan, Mr. Roebuck. The latter was left at the foot of the 
 poll after a connection of fifteen years with the constituency.
 
 1847.] ROGER MILLER, CITY MISSIONARY. 383 
 
 for two Sessions, but the time has not been entirely lost ; and I am now replaced 
 in it in a way the most honourable, and the most pleasant on record in the 
 history of elections. I did not ask a single vote ; I appeared but once in Bath, 
 and made a single speech before the week of the dissolution ; I did not pay a 
 single farthing ; I had not an inch of ribbon, a banner, music, or a procession ; 
 not a penny during six months was expended on beer ; nor had I one paid agent ; 
 the tradesmen conducted the whole, and with singular judgment and concord. 
 This is indeed a model for elections, and heartily do I thank God that the 
 precedent has been set in my instance. We had no mob, no bludgeon-man, and 
 trusted entirely to the police and common sense. . . . 
 
 Aug. 7th. The unanimity of the London press, great and small, the blue- 
 bottles and the gnats, against me and for Roebuck, is very remarkable. Punch 
 of yesterday added his sting. Such perseverance cannot fail of some general 
 effect on the public mind ; for, as Mr. Hardwick, the architect, told us a few 
 days ago, the repeated jars of a train, passing over an iron bridge, were equal, in 
 the aggregate, to one mighty blow 1 
 
 The interest excited in Bagged Schools and the London City Mission 
 showed no sign of diminution. Many influential persons were eager to see 
 the strange sights which Lord Ashley so graphically described by pen and 
 speech. The newspaper press lent material aid in making the subject popu- 
 lar ; and the mustard seed was beginning to s] >read itself into the largest of 
 trees. Frequent notes similar to the following occur in the Diary : 
 
 March 27th. To Pye Street at 11 o'clock to show Ragged School to Fox Maulo 
 and Mr. Guthrie. Lord, how we ought to bless Thee for this measure of success I 
 
 May 1st. An article in the Edinburgh Review on " Ragged Schools," written, 
 evidently, by one who knows nothing of them. No mention of our Ragged 
 Union, no recognition of our labours and services. The spirit of it is good no 
 tendency to irreligion. Now, I discern the reason of their silence ; I see a 
 contemptuous allusion to factory legislators, and any praise of the Union would 
 involve a praise of myself. Such things are in themselves of no value ; the 
 result is the sum and substance, wherewith we should be content ; but to a public 
 man, the praise of successful efforts, especially if he be a " philanthropist," is 
 stock-in-trade for further enterprise ; to withhold it where it is due, is not BO 
 much to injure the man as to retard humanity. 
 
 The Broadwall Ragged School in South London owed its existence to the 
 indefatigable labours of Mr. Roger Miller, a City missionary, who had at first 
 gathered about 130 of the most destitute and forsaken children lie could find, 
 and, in a tumbledown building, had laboured, week-days and Sundays, to lead 
 them into better paths. Soon the crowds of applicants were too numerous 
 for the accommodation ; and Lord Ashley happening to hear of this, sent for 
 Mr. Miller, to see if something could not be done to assist him in his work. 
 
 Lord Ashley seemed to know instinctively the men he could trust, and 
 wii h whom he could work ; and once having taken kindly to a man he would 
 trust him implicitly, and work with him ungrudgingly. It was so in this 
 case ; and Mr. Miller was soon entered upon his list of friends. This was no 
 meaningless distinction implying mere patronage. He sought out in men
 
 384 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. fCHAp. XVI. 
 
 beauty of character and singleness of purpose, and it mattered not to him 
 whether they belonged to the humbler walks of life or to the higher : he gave 
 them his friendship in no ordinary sense of the term. He accepted the motto 
 of the poet Young : 
 
 " Judge before friendship, then confide till death." 
 
 Roger Miller was a man whom Lord Ashley highly esteemed. He was a 
 frequent, and always a welcome visitor, and his simple, earnest devotion to 
 the poor, his practical piety, and his cheerful, hopeful faith, were often help- 
 ful to the spiritual life of Lord Ashley. The death of this faithful mis- 
 sionary, just at a time when his labours were more than ever needed, was a 
 serious blow, which deeply affected Lord Ashley. 
 
 June 7th. This morning overwhelmed with grief ; but God give us faith and 
 obedience. Miller killed in the Birmingham train on Saturday night. I had 
 seen him in the morning, well and full of zeal. He was going to Manchester to 
 bury Ms mother. How inscrutable are Thy ways, Lord 1 Write this lesson on 
 our hearts. Here was a man rich in good works, piety, truth, service to God and 
 man, labouring by night and day for humanity and religion, and especially 
 amongst the poorest of o'ir race. He is suddenly cut off, his work unfinished, his 
 wife and children left destitute 1 And this, too, when so many profligate, idle, 
 mischievous, useless, survive. Let us rejoice that we know the issues of life and 
 death to be, not only in the power, but in the care, of our Father which is in 
 Heaven ! He is gone, I believe, to his rest ; and now, God, give us the will and 
 the means to aid his widow, who is a widow indeed, and the children, who are 
 orphans ! But where shall I find another such for the charge of our Ragged 
 School ? Where another so f ull,of love, piety, earnestness, discretion, and labour ? 
 Lord, Thou knowest. Blessed Saviour of mankind, remember Thine own words 
 " Feed my lambs." 
 
 June 9th. A far greater man might have gone out of the world with much 
 less effect. All was grief on Monday at Broadwall ; children and adults wept 
 alike, and blessed the memory of poor Miller. I have known men of a hundred 
 thousand a year depart this life, and every eye around dry as the pavement. Here 
 goes a City missionary at thirty shillings a week, and hundreds are in an agony 
 of sorrow. I have lost an intimate friend. We took, I may say, " sweet counsel 
 together." A gap has been made in my life and occupations which will not 
 easily be filled up. 
 
 Lord Ashley had in early life often wished to devote himself to science. 
 At this period in his career he seemed about to devote himself to literature. 
 Two articles from his pen appeared in the Quarterly Review for 1847. The 
 first was on Mrs. Elizabeth Fry, whose biography it reviews. 
 
 The second article was on " Lodging Houses," and was written to assist 
 the efforts being made by the Labourers' Friend Society, in the same way in 
 which the article on Ragged Schools had assisted the Ragged School Union. 
 
 It was successful, and paved the way for attempting greater things, not 
 only by the Labourers' Friend Society, but upon their model, and not in 
 London only but in many of the large provincial towns and cities.
 
 IN SCOTLAND. 385 
 
 In August Lord Ashley set off on a round of visits, to take a little 
 relaxation before the labours of the new Parliament should commence. 
 
 Aug. 12th. Broadlands. Went over yesterday to St. Giles's. Minny, and the 
 four boys ; no one there ; place solitary as the plains of Tartary, but, thank God, 
 it looked well and uninjured. A few years ago I could have adopted a rural life : 
 I could not, I think, now I My habits are formed on metropolitan activity, and 
 I must ever be groping where there is the most mischief. . . . 
 
 Aug. 23rd. William Cowper writes to Minny, " I hear Ashley sometimes 
 spoken of as the only man who is calculated to lead the majority of the Con- 
 servative party, and certainly if he were an ambitious man he might assume a 
 leadership with many followers next Session, particularly on subjects relating to 
 the Church, &c., &c." Well, this is a new view of my futurity ; what sport for 
 the newspapers ! If they shot at me while I was merely a cocksparrow, what 
 would they do when I had become a Popinjay 1 no, no, no ; I have opinions and 
 feelings, strong and deep ; they may be right or wrong ; but, right or wrong, 
 they can never lead a party, because no party would follow them. 
 
 Aug. 30th. Ryde. Beading " Missionary Enterprises " by Williams. It may 
 well make us all blush blush by contrast with the missionaries, blush by contrast 
 with the natives of the South Sea Islands. Zeal, devotion, joy, simplicity of 
 heart, faith and love ; and we, here, have barely affection enough to thank God 
 that such deeds have been done. Talk of "doing good "and "being useful in 
 one's generation," why, these admirable men performed more in one month than 
 I or many others shall perform in a whole life I God, bless our land to Thy 
 service, and make every ship an ark of Noah to bear the Church of Christ and 
 the tidings of salvation, over all the waters of the ocean. 
 
 Sept 17th. Galloway House. There cannot be a lovelier or more enjoyable 
 spot. The air is so elastic and bracing that it saves one from Sybaritish affec- 
 tions ; one feels up to doing something. God give me a stock of health to be 
 used in His service 1 
 
 Dear old Duchess of Beaufort here ; talked much with her on the Second 
 Advent ; we both agree and delight in the belief of the personal reign of our 
 blessed Lord on earth. I cannot understand the Scriptures in any other way ; it 
 is, however, a doctrine much abhorred by certain people, and greatly ridiculed 
 and persecuted in those who profess it ; the adversaries argue and revile as fiercely 
 as though they attacked or maintained the fundamentals of the Christian 
 religion, whereas the reception of this text, however comfortable, is no matter 
 of faith. 
 
 Sept. 25th. Wishaw, Lord Belhaven's. Arrived here yesterday, hospitably 
 received ; found Miss Strickland, authoress of " Lives of Queens of England " ; 
 put up my bristles in fear, and prepared for an onslaught of blue-stocking 
 Tractarianism ; agreeably disappointed ; a good-natured, kind-hearted woman. 
 She spoke gloriously of my public exploits, hence I suppose my becalmed 
 spirit, . . . 
 
 Sept. 30th. Achnacarry. Visit to Lord Malmesbury. Found here Ossulston, 
 the Castlereaghs, and a Mr. Giles, a skilful limner. Rose this morning at 6. 
 The purple hills were tipped with the rising sun, and all around is heathery 
 mountain. It is like living at the bottom of a teacup with lovely edges. 
 
 Oct. 2nd. Impossible to describe the fascinations of these Highland regions; 
 z
 
 386 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XVI 
 
 the hills must be seen, and the air must be breathed ; one's old limbs become 
 elastic, and we " leap exulting like the bounding- roe ; " it is a joy which fills the 
 heart with thankfulness. 
 
 The colours and tints of every kind and hue, in most abundant variety, 
 enliven the valleys and mountains with a brilliant glory. It looks as if some 
 mighty giant, intending to do a landscape, had used a whole district for his 
 palette, and spread it over with all the colours that singly or combined can exist 
 in Nature. And as for the whole effect, language is altogether impotent ; one's 
 vocabulary will supply no adequate terms, and must be content to admire in 
 silence or by short and emphatic ejaculations. . . . 
 
 Oct. 9th. Rossie Priory. Been here since Wednesday ; it is a fine posssession, 
 people hospitable and kind ; found here Sheriff Watson very glad indeed to 
 meet him a tutelar saint of Ragged Schools ; also Sir David Brewster, a dear 
 old man, combining beautifully science and religion. ... I have been in 
 good spirits since my arrival in Scotland, and have laughed a great deal, perhaps 
 too much. 
 
 Oct. 20th. Boiling Hall, near Bradford, in Yorkshire. Yesterday evening 
 the Short Time Commissioner of the West Riding presented to Minny a full- 
 length portrait of me, painted by Bird, and an excellent likeness, as a memorial 
 of gratitude for my services. Nothing could have been more acceptable in every 
 sense. * 
 
 On his return to London Lord Ashley found abundant labours awaiting 
 him. One matter in particular claimed his attention, and it was characteristic 
 of him that he would carry an urgent case to its final issue, however pressing 
 other claims might be. A lady, Mrs. H,, had been shut up as a lunatic, but, 
 as far as Lord Ashley and three other Commissioners could judge, she was 
 as sane as any woman in England ; and he was pained and alarmed to find 
 how, with all the safeguards of the law, there were still facilities for in- 
 carcerating a victim. He spared no pains in sifting the evidence on both 
 sides, and prosecuted the investigation day by day until he had proof 
 indispxitable that the lady was the victim of a cruel conspiracy, and was 
 perfectly sane. It need not be added that she was set at liberty with the 
 least possible delay. 
 
 The patience and skill and unwearying labour of Lord Ashley as a Com- 
 missioner in Lunacy can never be told. One story out of many, illustrating 
 the characteristic promptness with which, even late in life, he would examine 
 a case and take immediate action, may be cited here. 
 
 A lady, Mrs. A., residing in the West End, was on visiting terms with 
 Mrs. B., a woman of fashion and position. There was very little in common 
 between the two, and the visits of Mrs. A. would have been less frequent 
 than they were, had she not taken a more than passing interest in a young 
 lady, Miss C. who was staying, indefinitely as it seemed, in the house of 
 Mrs. B. There was a great charm in her conversation, and the visits of 
 Mrs. A. seemed to afford her considerable pleasure, although they were only 
 of an occasional and somewhat formal kind. One day when Mrs. A. called, 
 * It now hangs at St. Giles's House.
 
 1847.) THE OATH OP ALLEGIANCE. 387 
 
 Miss C. was not there, and on making very pointed inquiries, she was, after 
 some hesitation, informed that her young friend was out of her mind, and 
 was in an asylum fifty miles away from town, the name of the asylum being 
 mentioned. 
 
 That evening Mrs. A. felt troubled and distressed ; she had seen Miss C. 
 only a week or ten days previously, and perceived no indication of a dis- 
 ordered mind. It was true she had observed indications of sadness and 
 depression of spirits, and had feared that her young friend was not happy ; 
 but that she was out of her mind and fit to be in an asylum, she could not 
 and would not believe. She was greatly troubled, not knowing what to do f 
 or where to go. At length it occurred to her that the Earl of Shaf tesbury 
 was a Commissioner in Lunacy, and she went straight away to his house, 
 found him at home, and told him the whole story. It was evening when she 
 arrived in Grosvenor Square, and dinner was on the table, but within a 
 quarter of an hour Lord Shaftesbury was on his way to the railway station 
 to go down to the asylum and investigate the matter for himself. He did so, 
 and on the following day the young lady was released, it having been 
 authoritatively ascertained that she was not in a state to render it necessary 
 for her to be an inmate of an asylum. 
 
 The new Parliament was opened by the Queen in person on the 23rd 
 November, and her speech was, for the first time, transmitted to the chief 
 towns in the kingdom by the electric telegraph. 
 
 At the preceding General Election Baron Lionel Rothschild was returned 
 for the City of London the first Jew ever returned to the House of Com- 
 mons ; and, in order that he might be allowed to take his seat, the question of 
 the removal of Jewish Disabilities was revived. The subject had been 
 frequently under discussion since Mr. Robert Grant, in 1830, first brought 
 forward a Bill to enable Jews to sit in Parliament. At that time a Jew was 
 liable to every kind of humiliation: he could not vote unless he took the 
 prescribed oath ; he could not be an attorney, or practise at the bar, or be 
 employed in a school, and, in many other respects, was " conspicuous in a free 
 community as a man under a social and political ban." In the course of 
 years, however, various concessions had been made, until all the privileges of 
 citizenship were accorded to him, except the most coveted honour of all the 
 right to sit in Parliament. 
 
 Lord John Russell moved a resolution to enable Baron Rothschild to take 
 his seat, and, although it was strongly opposed by the Conservatives, the 
 resolution " for the admission of Jews into Parliament " was carried by 
 a majority of 253 to 186. The Bill was eventually thrown ont, however, in 
 the Lords. 
 
 Lord Ashley took part in the debate, and his speech told with consider- 
 able effect. His objection was not to admitting them as Jews, but that the 
 Oath of Allegiance should be altered to suit them. " What I said in effect 
 was this," said Lord Shaftesbury, whon telling the story of these times to 
 z 2
 
 388 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XVI 
 
 the writer : " You call on us to alter the oath by striking out the words ' on 
 the faith of a Christian,' and ask the Legislature to affirm that this is 
 unnecessary. I will not be a party to playing with the name of Christ, by 
 striking it out of an oath, to please any one. If you like to have no oath at 
 all, well and good, but I will have nothing to do with its alteration, which 
 is a practical denial of the faith." 
 
 The closing events of the year are thus recorded : 
 
 Nov. 15th. Dined with John Russell on Saturday last. I had some thought 
 of avoiding any "private" civilities; but I determined otherwise he made 
 a friendly advance and quasi-apology ; let us forget all in the common 
 necessity. . . . 
 
 Nov. 19th. Windsor Castle. Came here on Wednesday evening. Quen kind 
 and hospitable : may God shield her and hers from every mischief, and, above 
 all. incline her heart to thoughts of service and of love. My visits here mark 
 the lapse of time and the progress of things ; as such they have a tinge of melan- 
 choly in " looking after those things that are coming upon the earth." Sir G. 
 Grey here also ; he is " a good man and a just." . . . 
 
 Dec. 13th. A singular correspondence in the paper to-day. The Bishops 
 (twelve in number, Winchester and Ely surprise me) remonstrate with Lord J. 
 Russell for his appointment of Dr. Hampden 1 Their letter is weak, almost 
 foolish, his reply is clever and just. My opinion is quoted as having been given 
 to Russell in support of the appointment. He did not previously consult me on 
 it. He asked me subsequently what I thought. I replied, " I should not, had I 
 been Prime Minister, have made the appointment myself ; but now that it is 
 made, I venture to say that more good than evil will, I think, come out of it. 
 His appointment as Regius Professor was infamous, because his writings at 
 that time were Neological, of the school of Strauss ; but during the last four 
 or five years he has written and published very beautiful and orthodox dis- 
 courses." . . . 
 
 Dec. 15th. To-morrow Jew Bill in House of Commons. I must speak ; may 
 God give me a mouth and wisdom ; if I fail I shall be discouraged for any future 
 effort : my spirit is far from elastic, I was always easily depressed, I am more sc 
 now. . . . 
 
 Dec. 17th. Who ever trusted in God, and was disappointed 1 Spoke last 
 night, and obtained (I am full of wonder) astonishing success. How curious t 
 I was so frightened and dejected that I had almost determined not to rise. 
 A minute more of my predecessor's speech would have consigned me to 
 silence I ... 
 
 Dec. 20th. Now, is this result traceable, in His free mercy to past faith ? I 
 resigned my seat in Parliament, and all my public hopes and public career, that 
 I might not give " occasion to the enemies of God to blaspheme," and I sur~ 
 rendered everything to His keeping. Mark the issue : my Ten Hours Bill is 
 carried in my absence. I am returned to Parliament in a singularly and unusu- 
 ally honourable way, and within three weeks I begin to occupy a higher position 
 than at any antecedent period : surely it is a completion of the promise, " Them 
 that honour me, I will honour." . . .
 
 CHAPTER XVH. 
 
 1848. 
 
 THE year 1848 was ushered in amid distrust, perplexity, and doubt. Every- 
 where there was foreboding of some unseen and undefined misfortunes. 
 Men's souls were stirred by strange presentiments. 
 
 It was not long before the first rumblings were heard which presaged the 
 approaching storm. 
 
 "Events are coming to the surface," wrote Lord Ashley, early in the 
 year. " We see the stir on the waves, and we shall soon see the mass thrown 
 up by the volcanoes. Italy is in open revolution ; Austria is crumbling to 
 pieces; France internally is threatened by reform conflicts; England is 
 harassed by falling revenue, want of employment, republican principles, and 
 Church dissensions ; America is rushing to debt, foreign conquest, and 
 dissolution of States." 
 
 The great event which was to become the signal for the pent-up fires to 
 break forth all over Europe was not a surprise to some, although unexpected 
 by the majority a third revolution in France, the proclamationof a Republic, 
 the expulsion of the Orleans dynasty, and the election of a Provisional 
 Government and a National Assembly. 
 
 It is not necessary to trace here, however briefly, the causes which led to 
 the Revolution. The spark which caused the explosion was an arbitrary 
 attempt to stop a proposed Reform banquet. 
 
 Lord Ashley took an intense interest in watching the progress of events ; 
 and his Diary gives a complete epitome of the revolutionary epidemic, which 
 spread over nearly all the courts and capitals of the Continent. If we quote 
 from it only sparingly, it is because we wish to confine our extracts more 
 particularly to those passages which show the current of his own life. 
 
 Feb. 25th. Are we not in times of wonder, distress, and danger? To-day 
 the grass is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven. On Tuesday the King of the 
 French was in all the plenitude of his power, with an army of a hundred 
 thousand men in Paris alone ; and on Thursday he is an outcast from his 
 dominions, expelled with indignity from his capital, his palace plundered, and 
 himself cast down to a private station. Revolution and anarchy are in the 
 ascendant ; the whole royal family is exiled, a Republic proclaimed, and France, 
 apparently, on the eve of a democracy, a consulate, and an empire I " Woe, woe, 
 woe, to the inhabitants of the earth I " None of this surprises me, except the 
 electrical suddenness of the event. The King has, for seventeen years, been 
 combating the principles that placed him on the throne, resisting the national
 
 390 THE EARL OF SHAFTESEURY. [CHAP. XVII. 
 
 feelings that were evoked and cherished to prepare the Revolution of 1830, and 
 fighting the whirlwind that he himself sowed as a storm. How could he, and 
 his Minister Guizot, suppose that a nation of thirty-two millions would rest 
 content with an electoral system based on 240,000 voters, one-half of whom were 
 Government placemen ? One thing alone surprises me : that they should have 
 fallen into the same error as Charles X., and have been deceived in their estimate 
 of the fidelity of the soldiers ! This is really a judicial blindness, that with such 
 an example to guide them, they should have fallen into the same pit 1 
 
 Feb. 26th. A Republic is proclaimed, and anarchy reigns in Paris. Revolu- 
 tions, which in former days required years, are now perfected in days ; a week is 
 an age for these extraordinary events. " So great power in one hour is come to 
 nought ; " all his schemes about dynasties, his astute and false diplomacy for the 
 Spanish marriage, his rigorous and absolute laws for the foundation of despotism, 
 his terrible army schooled in Africa, his vast fortifications of the capital, his 
 mighty authority among crowned heads as the ruler of thirty-two millions of a 
 military nation, all blown away like a soap bubble ! " Afflavit Deus." . . . 
 We are not safe here ; a falling revenue in the face of a necessarily, I fear, 
 increasing expenditure, and a determination to admit no new taxes. Trade, too, 
 is fearfully stagnant, and distress prevails universally. In this state of things 
 comes a French Revolution I ... Now what sufficient ground is there for all 
 this rebellion 1 The sagacious Cobden said, a week ago, in taunting contrast with 
 the English system : " The French are most happy, they have no privileged 
 orders, no large properties, no established Church ; they have obtained all that 
 they want, another Revolution is impossible 1 " 
 
 With the flight of Louis Philippe from France the spirit of Revolution 
 was let loose in Europe. Every country suffered more or less, but those 
 countries which suffered least were England and Belgium. In England, 
 however, disaffection had, in a limited degree, been for some time growing, 
 and the events in France brought it to a head. The Chartists, led by mad 
 Feargus O'Connor, who had been returned for Nottingham at the General 
 Election of 1847, immediately commenced an agitation for " their rights." 
 Their programme included " Down with the Ministry," " Dissolve the 
 Parliament," " The People's Charter," and " No Surrender ; " and preparations 
 were made to hold a monster demonstration in April to demand these points. 
 
 The state of England was to some extent alarming. In the manufactur- 
 ing districts distress, almost unprecedented, prevailed, and a revolutionary 
 spirit was abroad ; nevertheless, the people remained tranquil thanks, in no 
 small measure, to the boon of the Ten Hours Bill and in Manchester alone, 
 some thousands of the operatives enrolled themselves as special constables. 
 In London there was a spirit of turbulence and lawlessness, excited partly by 
 Mr. Ernest Jones, and others like-minded, who urged the people not to fear 
 " the vile men of the law, the police, the troops, or the shop-keeping ' specials.' " 
 In Ireland the United Irishman was urging its readers " to sell all that they 
 had to buy a gun." In Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Liverpool, there was riot- 
 ing and loss of life among the starving and the unemployed. 
 
 Everywhere these symptoms caused a sense of uneasiness ; no one knew
 
 1848.] THE REVOLUTION IX FUAXCK. 391 
 
 what surprise and alarm the next hour might not bring forth. Meanwhile, 
 events in France were hurrying on. 
 
 March 2nd. If the King, instead of signing his abdication, had thrown him- 
 self among the troops which remained firm, he might have prolonged the mon- 
 archy of the barricades. But he has been " demented " for a long time past ; his 
 obstinate maintenance of all the corruptions of France, both in public men and 
 public things, because he chose to govern by them ; his eager pursuit of wealth 
 and place for his own children, the history of the Conde property, the appanages, 
 the Montpensier marriage, regarded simultaneously with his apparent indiffer- 
 ence to the social welfare of France, led the whole nation to believe that he was 
 Harpagon engrafted on Louis XIV. Like the present Bishop of Exeter, he over- 
 reached himself by his over-cleverness, and has now found that all the sagacity 
 and experience of the most tried of men are not necessarily " counsel, wisdom, and 
 understanding." . . . But we are in a social revolution ; the first was against 
 aristocracies and established Churches, the second against a particular dynasty, 
 the third against that which alone remains, the possession and rights of property I 
 The workpeople have thrust their special representatives, Blanc and Albert, into 
 the highest offices, and have propounded their own code of laws for the regula- 
 tion of labour. ... In England we have yet Conservative feeling enough to 
 resist a storm. Our peril will arise from a calm. A storm of violence we should 
 shrink from or withstand ; the calm of Republican success would inevitablj 
 breed a spirit of imitation. 
 
 March 4th. Louis Philippe is actually in England. He landed at Newhaven, 
 in Sussex, from an English steamer, on one of the points selected, by his son 
 Prince Joinville and others, as the fittest for a descent upon the British territory 1 
 He was kindly and hospitably received. God be praised, adversity covers a mul- 
 titude of sins. 
 
 March 8th. Noise and disturbance yesterday and to-day in Trafalgar Square ; 
 windows, lamps, and heads broken ; a mass of housebreakers and pickpockets, 
 swollen by idlers. In these days, however, everything must be noted. More 
 serious riots at Glasgow ; many shops of great value plundered. 
 
 March 10th. Breakfasted with Mahon, to meet Macaulay and Carl vie ; plea- 
 sant, but strange. 
 
 Provisional Government have fixed wages of cab-drivers at three francs and a 
 half a day ; and the Minister of Instruction has issued a circular to announce to 
 the electors that "education" and "fortune" "are not required for a Deputy." 
 An unlettered peasant " would be better for an agricultural district" Go it, my 
 hearty I 
 
 " France for the French." All English workmen have been expelled, and 
 with circumstances of great oppression and dishonour. They were driven out by 
 the bayonet ; not allowed to bring away even their property, nor to receive their 
 arrears of wages. Yet, without their aid, not a railway could have been con- 
 structed in France, and, I believe, hardly a factory carried on. 
 
 A general panic among the English residents in Paris ensued. They fled 
 in various directions, and abandoned the city. Those only were left behind 
 who had no means of flight artisans and domestics, dependent for employ- 
 ment upon the better classes of their countrymen. Nor was the situation of
 
 392 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XVII. 
 
 the English artisans in the provinces any safer. There were many thousands 
 scattered over France ; in the factories of Normandy alone there were no less 
 than 2,500 English workmen employed. There, and elsewhere, riots were of 
 frequent occurrence, all masters who gave employment to British artisans 
 being marked out for attack. At Boulogne, from one single factory, English 
 workmen, numbering, with their wives and families, 700 souls, were dismissed 
 in compliance with the demands of the rioters. 
 
 Turned out of their homes, denied employment or public relief, with rents 
 half a year in advance imposed upon them, involving them in losses ; met at 
 the savings bank, where their earnings had been deposited, with the answer 
 of " No funds," their case was desperate. They crowded the French out- 
 ports, and clamoured to be sent back to their own country. 
 
 With Lord Ashley originated the scheme for their relief. An influential 
 committee was called together, over which he presided ; funds were collected, 
 agencies were set to work, and Lord Palmerston and the authorities at the 
 Foreign Office gave effect to their aims in various instances in which it might 
 have been difficult for the committee to have realised them. 
 
 Among the results of their efforts, upwards of 6,000 refugees were brought 
 over, cared for on their arrival, and passed on to their respective destinations, 
 while special provision was made for the children of the British Orphan 
 School in connection with the Marbosuf Episcopal chapel in Paris, which had 
 been broken up during the general panic in that city. 
 
 In referring to these and kindred efforts, and also to a speech made by 
 Lord Ashley, on the 16th of March, on better " Medical Relief to the Sick 
 Poor," the Times said, " Political economists and men of the world vote Lord 
 Ashley a bore, but there is none of them who would not rather have twenty 
 speeches from him on matters of Humanity, than one circular from Ledru 
 Rollin ; " while the Morning Chronicle, treating him with contemptuous 
 kindness, said, " No thinking man concurs with Lord Ashley ; but it is a very 
 good thing, in these days, to have a nobleman who brings forward the dis- 
 tresses and needs of the people, and gives them assurances that their case will 
 be considered." 
 
 It was in allusion to these remarks that the following entry in the Diary 
 was made : 
 
 March 21sfc. Amidst all this contempt and desertion, I may rejoice and 
 heartily thank God that the operatives of Lancashire and Yorkshire, suffering 
 as they are, remain perfectly tranquil. Such, under God, is the fruit of many 
 years of sympathy and generous legislation. In Manchester several thousands 
 enrolled themselves as special constables. 
 
 While uneasiness was increasing at home, " men's hearts were failing them 
 for fear " on the Continent. 
 
 March 23rd. Insurrection at Berlin ! Insurrection at Vienna ! The Prince 
 Metternich deposed 1 It is astounding at first to see how these great monarchies 
 fall ! They seem as though they had no roots, nor ever had any. The truth is, 
 that for years their foundations have been undermined ; they were as rotten a
 
 IMS.) CHARTISM. 393 
 
 quarter of a century ago ; but either the gale of wind was not strong enough, 
 or it failed to hit them on the weak side, and at the right moment. The first 
 Revolution in France shook the whole system ; but war and terror diverted 
 men's minds. Peace brought reflection, comparison, anticipation. The second 
 Revolution gave a blow on the other side, and completely snapped the roots and 
 loosened the earth ; the third brought down the Cedar of Lebanon in a single 
 gust ! 
 
 March 25th. Revolutions go off like pop-guns ! Lombardy is in full revolt ; 
 it will doubtless be severed from the Austrian Empire. . . . 
 
 March 30th. . . . We have yet a tumult in store, English Chartists and 
 Irish Repealers are to have their day. " Count no man happy before he be dead," 
 count no event small until it shall have passed. 
 
 Happily, the event so much dreaded the great Chartist demonstration 
 collapsed in a most ignominious manner. But the alarm had been serious, and 
 the precautions unprecedented. The military defence of the metropolis was 
 under the care of the Duke of Wellington ; troops were ready everywhere ; a 
 quarter of a million citizens were enrolled as special constables ; Downmi,' 
 Street was barricaded. But on the day before the " Demonstration " tlie 
 Chartist leaders quarrelled amongst themselves ; on the morning of the day 
 < I Usimsions wore renewed; the police informed the rioters that they 
 would not be allowed to cross the Thames, and the whole affair ended in a 
 ridiculous fiasco. 
 
 April 10th. The threatened day has arrived. How will it end ? Referring 
 to all the circumstances, I think it will close peaceably, but who knows ? We 
 are in the hands of God. He has told us, and would that one and all recognised 
 from our hearts, " Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in 
 vain." 
 
 April 12th. It ended, how shall we sufficiently praise God, according to our 
 minutest prayers. All was peaceable. The meeting at no time exceeded thirteen 
 thousand. No more actual disturbance than on ordinary days. The procession 
 was abandoned, and the petition came down in a hack cab. Surely the glory 
 must be to Him " who stilleth the raging of the sea, and the madness of the 
 people." 
 
 April 13th. Nevertheless, I remain of the same mind. All things are 
 tending to a change. We are entering on a new political dispensation ; ai.d 
 many of us probably will outlive the integrity of our aristocratical institutions. 
 Men are talking, they know not why, and they do not reflect how, of thi* slight 
 concession and that ; of an " enlargement of the franchise," and other vagaries. 
 No one, except the Chartists, has asked for it, and they will rest satisfied with 
 nothing short of the whole. The middle classes are content, and so are nineteen- 
 twentieths of the working people ; but this will be of no avail against indistinct 
 terrors, ignorant uneasiness, and speculative, not social policy. A Sanitary Bill 
 would, in five years, confer more blessing and obliterate more Chartism than 
 universal suffrage in half a century ; but the world, when ill at ease, flies alway* 
 to politics, and omits the statistics of the chimney-corner, where all a man'i 
 comfort or discomfort lies. . . . 
 
 Tu the " Life of the Prince Consort," Sir Theodore Martin, after describing
 
 394 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBUKT. [CHAP. XVII. 
 
 the turbulent state of the country and the anxiety with which it was 
 regarded by the Queen and Prince, proceeds to say : " An opportunity arose 
 during this month (May) for the Prince to take the position before the world 
 which he afterwards occupied with so much honour, as the advocate of 
 measures for improving the condition of the labouring classes. Four years 
 previously he had testified his interest in the subject one that always lay 
 nearest to his heart by becoming the President of the Society which had 
 been established with this special object.* The Society, in the meanwhile, 
 had been making its way steadily, but slowly, for public attention had yet to 
 be awakened to the importance of the subject ; and it was considered by Lord 
 Ashley, and others of its active promoters, that the appearance of the Prince 
 in the chair at a public meeting to advocate its interests at this time might 
 be attended with excellent results. The Prince, ever ready to show his sym- 
 pathy and interest for that class of our community which has most of the 
 toil, and least of the enjoyments, of this world, f at once fell in with their 
 views."! 
 
 It is somewhat singular that Sir Theodore Martin, who elsewhere has 
 described so fully the circumstances leading up to any important event in 
 the life of the Prince Consort, should, in this instance, have omitted all 
 mention of them, and passed over in silence not only the action of Lord 
 Ashley in the matter, but also some interesting details as regards the action 
 of the Prince. These omissions we are fortunately able to supply. 
 
 Under the date of the 19th April, Lord Ashley entered in his Diary : 
 
 April 19th. Osborne, Isle of Wight. The Queen has sent for me to talk over 
 the condition of the working people ; and here I am. I was obliged to put off 
 Golden Lane Ragged School (W. Cowper took the chair for me). Her Majesty 
 very amiable and very considerate for the poor. God be praised, who has put 
 such thoughts into her heart ! May they bring forth fruit to His glory on earth, 
 and her own peace in time and eternity I ... 
 
 From a memorandum found among the papers of Lord Shaftesbury, and 
 from conversations with him upon the subject, noted down at the time, the 
 following particulars are obtained : 
 
 The Queen sent for me to Osborne ; the fairy was ready for me at Gosport, 
 and I went. The Queen was greatly alarmed, and so was the Prince, by the 
 Revolution in France and the exile of Louis Philippe. They feared the continuance 
 of commotions in England, and were desirous to know how they could exercise 
 their influence to soothe the people. The Queen, on my arrival, expressed this 
 sentiment very warmly, and added at dinner, " The Prince will talk to you to- 
 morrow. We have sent for you to have your opinion on what we should do in 
 view of the state of affairs to show our interest in the working classes, and you 
 are the only man who can advise us in the matter." 
 
 On the following morning, during a long walk in the gardens, lasting for 
 
 * The Labourers' Friend Society. 
 
 t His own words in his speech at the meeting of the Society, 18th May, 1848. 
 
 J "Life of the Prince Consort," vol. ii., p. 46.
 
 1848.J THE PRINCE CONSORT AND LORD JOHN RUSSELL. 395 
 
 over an hoar and a half, I discussed with the Prince the condition of affairs and 
 the state of the nation. He asked me my advice, and how he could best assist 
 towards the common weaL 
 
 " Xow, sir," I said to him, " I have to ask your Royal Highness whether I am 
 to speak out freely, or to observe Court form 1 " 
 
 " For God's sake," he answered, " speak out freely." 
 
 " Then, sir, I would say that at this juncture you hold a position in which you 
 oan render to the country far greater assistance than if you were ite king. You 
 can speak as a king, represent a king-, without the necessary and inevitable 
 restrictions of a king. Your presence, though formally different, is virtually the 
 presence of the Queen. My earnest advice to you is, that you should put yourself 
 at the head of all social movements in art and science, and especially of those 
 movements as they bear upon the poor, and thus show the interest felt by Royalty 
 in the happiness of the kingdom." 
 
 " What can I do 7 " the Prince asked, eagerly. 
 
 " On the 18th of May next, the anniversary of the Labourers' Friend Society 
 will be held, and if your Royal Highness will accompany me, first to see some of 
 the dwellings of the poor, and afterwards to preside at the meeting, I am satisfied 
 it will have a good effect. You should come in three carriages, and have the 
 footmen in red liveries even these things are not without their influence." 
 
 The Prince at once fell in with the suggestion, and arrangements for carrying 
 it out were discussed. But when Lord John Russell heard it he was frantic, and 
 brought to bear every possible opposition, as he often did with regard to other 
 schemes which he did not originate himself. 
 
 It was with no little regret that Lord Ashley received the following letter 
 from the Prince : 
 
 H.R.H. the Prince Contort to Lord Asldcy. 
 
 OSBOBNE, April 23rd, 1848. 
 
 Mr DEAR LORD ASHLEY, Lord John Russell did not like the idea of my 
 presiding at Exeter Hall on account of the risk of a disturbance. I begged him 
 to consider the question a little longer, and to consult Sir George Grey before 
 committing himself against it. I have received this morning the enclosed, which, 
 I am afraid, is decisive against the plan. Though I must admit that there is 
 strong reason against it, I sincerely regret it, as it will be difficult to find another 
 becoming opportunity for expressing the SINCERE interest which the Queen and 
 myself feel for the welfare and comfort of the working classes. You may have 
 opportunities for conveying our sentiments. At any rate, our Society ought to 
 be more prominently brought before them, and they ought to be invited to make 
 suggestions for the amelioration of their own condition, to have these gone into 
 by those who understand the matter, and to give, in this way, the means to the 
 
 higher classes to assist them in their work. 
 
 Ever yours truly, 
 
 ALBERT. 
 The enclosure referred to in the above letter was as follows : 
 
 Lord John Rustell to H.R.H. the Prinea Contort. 
 
 CUESHAJC PLACE, April 22nd, 1848. 
 
 SIR, On considering further Lord Ashley's proposal to your Royal Highness, 
 it soems to me that the risk is greater than the probable advantage. Any Chartist
 
 396 THE EARL OF SHAFTKSBURY. [CHAP. XVII. 
 
 might attend and attempt to speak ; such an attempt would be resisted by the 
 meeting, and much confusion might ensue. The triumphant reception of your 
 Royal Highness would not compensate for any disturbance of the meeting. Sir 
 George Grey, to whom I have spoken, concurs entirely in this opinion. The 
 Repealers in Dublin have become more violent since my declaration, but the 
 well-affected are confirmed in their loyalty. In England the Chartists seem to 
 be declining in numbers and mischief. 
 
 I have the honour to be 
 
 Your Royal Highness's 
 
 Faithful and obedient servant, 
 
 J. RUSSELL. 
 
 Soon after this Lord Ashley had another interview with the Prince at 
 Buckingham Palace and urged him to persevere in his intention. " This is 
 a matter," he said, " in which your Royal Highness is perfectly free to act as 
 you may please, and my advice is that you tell Lord John Russell that you 
 are as good a judge as he is." 
 
 On the 29th April the Prince wrote to Lord John Russell : 
 
 The book which you sent me certainly shows great disposition on the part of 
 some mischievous folks to attack the Royal family ; but this rather furnishes me 
 with one reason more for attending the meeting, and showing to those who are 
 thus to be misguided, that the Royal family are not merely living upon the 
 earnings of the people (as these publications try to represent), without caring 
 for the poor labourers, but that they are anxious about their welfare, and ready 
 to co-operate in any scheme for the amelioration of their condition. We may 
 possess these feelings, and yet the mass of the people may be ignorant of it, 
 because they have never heard it expressed to them, or seen any tangible proof 
 of it. 
 
 Eventually the advice of Lord Ashley prevailed, the opposition of Lord 
 John Russell was overruled, and the Prince wrote : 
 
 From H.R.H. the Prince Consort to Lord Ashley. 
 
 B.P., $, 1848. 
 
 MY DEAR LOBD ASHLEY, I am glad that all difficulties are removed with 
 respect to the meeting. Thursday, the 18th, at twelve o'clock, will suit me 
 perfectly. I must see you soon upon the subject ; perhaps you could call here 
 to-morrow at four o'clock. 
 
 Ever yours truly, 
 
 ALBEET. 
 
 On the appointed day the Prince arrived with a brilliant cortege, and, 
 accompanied by Lord Ashley, went to George Street, St. Giles's, and other 
 streets in that neighbourhood, entered house after house to examine the actual 
 state of affairs, and was received everywhere with the utmost enthusiasm.f 
 Later on the Prince took the chair at the public meeting, and, as Sir Theodore 
 
 * Quoted in "Life of Prince Consort," vol. ii., p. 47. 
 
 t " If the Prince goes on like this," said a Socialist to the Rev. Mr. Branch, a 
 zealous evangelist to the working classes, "why, he'll upset our apple-cart ! "
 
 1848.] STATE OF SANITARY SCIENCE. 397 
 
 Martin says truly, " made it the occasion for the speech which first fairly 
 showed to the country what he was." 
 
 Lord Ashley refers to it in his Diary thus : 
 
 May 19th. Yesterday, a glorious meeting of the Lab. Friend Soo. Prince 
 Albert in the chair Non nobis Domine, non nobis Domine ! but, God give us grace 
 to bless Thee ; no drawback at all, it is new life to our efforts. . . . 
 
 May 20th. Hear little but satisfaction at the success of the meeting, " So 
 wise, so opportune, so very happy," all this because it succeeded. What would 
 have been the indignation and contempt against me had it failed t But God was 
 my helper ; I may now, on this stock of reputation for good judgment, obtain 
 influence to do good in other things. " Put into my heart good desires, and 
 enable me to bring the same to good effect." Prince Albert did his part 
 admirably, with remarkable gra<je and modesty. His speech, too, was excellent 
 in itself ; and it was his own. The success has been hitherto complete ; almost 
 every paper bepraises the step, and writes upon it in an anti-revolutionary tone. 
 Ay, truly, this is the way to stifle Chartism. . . . Rank, leisure, station, are 
 gifts of God, for which men must give an account. Here is a full proof, a glowing 
 instance I The aristocracy, after a long separation, are re-approaching the people ; 
 and the people the aristocracy. 
 
 It was, however, a long time before any very sensible effects were to be 
 felt generally from these efforts. In proportion, however, as the mischief 
 became apparent, the labours of Lord Ashley increased, and we find in his 
 Diaries many entries with regard to the state of the people and their 
 needs. Thus : 
 
 May 25th. What will be the event in Ireland ? Everybody they say is armed 
 to the teeth against the Saxon. The Saxon meanwhile is giving from Saxon 
 funds nearly four hundred thousand meals everyday to his Celtic assailant. But 
 a moral poison pervades the whole European atmosphere, and we here in England 
 are beginning to be affected. It is painful to listen to the desperate weariness 
 with \vhich many declare that " Repeal " would be better than the present state 
 of things. . . . 
 
 Lord Ashley took a leading part in two great efforts in the summer of 
 this year, namely, the passing of the Public Health Act, and the ventilation 
 of the question of Emigration for the ragged population of London. 
 
 In the early half of the present century sanitary science may be said to have 
 had no existence. Until the visitation of cholera in London in 1831, no one 
 seemed to think that evil lurked in overflowing cesspools and contaminated 
 water, beyond the fact that the odour of the one and the taste of the other 
 were unpleasant. When, however, a terrible plague threatened the land, the 
 causes were investigated, and to the inroad of cholera we owe the first real 
 impetus given to sanitary research. 
 
 Progress, however, was very slow. When the calamity abated, people 
 returned to their old ways, and allowed the interest, which had been awakened 
 in a time of fear, to die out. But not so men of science, who patiently 
 investigated facts and traced out hidden sources of malaria; and not so
 
 398 THE EARL OF SHAFTKSBURY [CHAP. XVII 
 
 philanthropists, who continued to preach the good doctrine that cleanliness is 
 next to godliness. 
 
 In 1839 the first Report of the Registrar-General and the fourth Report 
 of the Poor Law Commission were published, and they made such a startling 
 revelation of the state of the public health, and of mortality, that general 
 attention was again directed to the subject of sanitation. Interest was sus- 
 tained by a further Report of the Poor Law Board in 1842, and culminated 
 in the first Report of the Health of Towns Commission in 1844. 
 
 From that time forth the necessity of sanitary reform was never lost sight 
 of, although practical steps were taken slowly. A series of " Nuisances 
 Removal Acts " was passed in Parliament ; the first Act by which summary 
 jurisdiction was given to justices of the peace to remove nuisances, proved to 
 be injurious to health, coming into operation in 1846. 
 
 By far the most important Bill introduced into Parliament on Sanitary 
 Reform was the comprehensive measure known as the Public Health Act, 
 presently to be referred to. 
 
 Lord Ashley spoke on the subject in the adjourned debate (8th May), 
 claiming that this was essentially a working man's question, as it affected 
 every phase of his life his home, his capacity to eat and drink in comfort, 
 and his ability to gain a livelihood and rear a family in decency and respect- 
 bility. He argued that the same condition of things, and habits of life, which 
 give rise to fever, also powerfully stimulated the action of immorality and 
 violence, and that the connection of misery with filth, and crime with both, 
 was inevitable. He was satisfied that no genuine or lasting good could result 
 from education, so long as Parliament left the people in their present physical 
 and domiciliary condition. He warmly supported the Bill, which became law 
 during this Session. 
 
 The Public Health Act of 1848 created a Central Board of Health, and, 
 as chairman of this Board, it was Lord Ashley's duty, in conjunction with 
 Dr. Southwood Smith and Mr. Edwin Chadwick, to initiate a series of 
 reforms, and to undertake labours almost unprecedented, especially in con- 
 nection with the visitation of cholera, which, in 1849, swept from London, in 
 the course of a few weeks, no fewer than 4,000 souls. 
 
 On the 26th September the following entry occurs in the Diary : 
 
 September 26th. ... I have accepted, at the urgent request of Morpeth, 
 and through him of John Russell, the office (unpaid) of Third Commissioner under 
 the Health of Towns Act. It will involve trouble, anxiety, reproach, abuse, un- 
 popularity. I shall become a target for private assault and the public press ; but 
 how could I refuse ? First, the urgency of the request on the part of the Govern- 
 ment ; second, the immense and unparalleled value I always attached, in public 
 and private movement, to the sanitary question, as second only to the religious, 
 and, in some respects, inseparable from it ; third, the public and private profes- 
 sions and declarations I had made ; fourth, the mode, extent, and principles on 
 which I had pressed the Government, at all times, as a real and solemn duty, to 
 undertake the measure, promising invariably the utmost aid in my power ; fifth,
 
 IMS.) EMIOKATIOX. 399 
 
 the Government accede to my request, and in the face of great unpopularity, 
 rebuke, toil, and vexation, introduce a measure ; sixth, they carry it, and then 
 turn to me and say, " Remember all that you have done, spoken, promised, and 
 give us aid we now require ; " seventh, can I forget their services on the Ten 
 Hours Bill ; eighth, I have many things to ask of them yet ; with what face can 
 I do it if I refuse them when they make a reasonable request to me ? May God 
 give me strength I ... 
 
 The second great practical question in which Lord Ashley took part this 
 jear was that of Emigration. 
 
 On the 6th June he brought forward in the House of Commons a motion : 
 "That it is expedient that means be annually provided for the voluntary 
 emigration to some one of her Majesty's colonies of a certain number of 
 young persons of both sexes, who have been educated in the schools ordinarily 
 called ' Ragged Schools ' in and about the metropolis." The speech was a 
 masterpiece of effective oratory, and although bristling with facts and figures 
 and details, it was so well relieved by vivid and picturesque descriptions and 
 telling anecdotes, that it created a profound impression. At the outset, he 
 announced that he was not introducing a controversial question, or assailing 
 any interest, and did not, therefore, anticipate any opposition, except from 
 those who believed they could suggest a better plan ; and that it was less 
 from any overweening confidence that he had hit the true method, than from 
 a desire to excite discussion and stimulate general effort, that he had pro- 
 pounded the matter for debate. He first gave the clue to the sources of his 
 information : 
 
 Till very recently the few children that came under our notice in the streets 
 and places of public traffic were considered to be chance vagrants, beggars, or 
 pilferers, who, by a little exercise of magisterial authority, might be either 
 extinguished or reformed. It has only of late been discovered that they consti- 
 tute a numerous class, having habits, pursuits, feelings, customs, and interests of 
 their own ; living as a class, though shifting as individuals, in the same resorte ; 
 perpetuating and multiplying their filthy numbers. For the knowledge of these 
 details we are mainly indebted to the London City Mission. It is owing to their deep, 
 aiixious, and constant research ; it is owing to the zeal with which their agents 
 have fathomed the recesses of human misery, and penetrated into places repulsive 
 to every sense, moral and physical ; it is owing to such exertions, aided by the 
 piety, self-denial, and devotion of Sunday-school teachers, that we have advanced 
 thus far. Certain excellent persons, who gave their energies to Sabbath training, 
 were the first to observe these miserable outcasts, and hoping, by the influence 
 of the Gospel, to effect some amendment, opened schools in destitute places, to 
 which the children were invited, not coerced. 
 
 He stated that the numbers of this particular class estimated at groat 
 trouble and on the best authority exceeded 30,000 naked, filthy, roaming, 
 lawless and deserted children, quite distinct from the ordinary poor. 
 
 He then described to the House the habits and dispositions of this wild 
 race, their pursuits, modes of livelihood, the character of their dwelling- 
 places, and the natural history, as it were, of the species. He explained how
 
 400 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XVII 
 
 1,600 of these street Arabs had been placed uuder examination, and of 
 these 
 
 162 confessed that they had been in prison not once nor twice many of them 
 several times ; 116 had run away from their homes, the result, in many instances, 
 of ill-treatment ; 170 slept in lodging-houses nests of every abomination that 
 the mind of man can conceive ; 253 confessed that they lived altogether by beg- 
 ging ; 216 had neither shoes nor stockings ; 280 had no caps, hats, bonnets, or 
 head covering ; 101 had no linen ; 219 never slept in beds many had no recol- 
 lection of having ever tasted that luxury ; 68 were the children of convicts ; 125 
 had step-mothers, to whom may be traced much of the misery that drives the 
 children of the poor to the commission of crime ; 306 had lost either one or both 
 parents, a large proportion having lost both. 
 
 Of the habits of these unfortunate children he gave some graphic details : 
 
 Many of them retire for the night, if they retire at all, to all manner of 
 places under dry arches of bridges and viaducts, under porticoes, sheds, and 
 carts ; to outhouses ; in sawpits ; on staircases ; in the open air, and some in 
 lodging-houses. Curious, indeed, is their mode of life. I recollect the case of a 
 boy who, during the inclement season of last winter, passed the greater part of 
 his nights in the iron roller of Regent's Park. "He climbed every evening over 
 the railings, and crept to his shelter, where he lay in comparative comfort. 
 Human sympathy, however, prevails even in the poorest condition ; he invited a 
 companion less fortunate than himself, promising to " let him into a good thing." 
 He did so, and it proved a more friendly act than many a similar undertaking in 
 railway shares. 
 
 In speaking of the mental, moral, and physical condition of the children, 
 he adduced the startling fact that, in the previous year, 62,181 persons were 
 taken into custody, of whom 22,075 could neither read nor write, and 28,118 
 had no trade, business, calling, or occupation whatever, and these figures only 
 approximated to the extent of the evil, as the records of the tribunals and 
 police courts, while they showed the numbers of those whom the constable 
 was quick enough to apprehend did not touch the vast amount of unseen and 
 undetected crime, breaches of public order, injuries to the peace, property, 
 and safety of individuals, nor yet the prevalence of that training which forms 
 those children to a character perilous to the well-being of society. 
 
 In describing the nature of the efforts which had been made to rescue 
 these children from their evil habits and associations, he pointed out that 
 there had been many plans proposed for dealing with them, such as the erec- 
 tion of schools (but this was not feasible, because there were no existing 
 agencies by which they could be superintended or controlled), or the adoption 
 of the " hospital system," and the erection of barracks for their reception ; 
 and the conclusion at which he had arrived was, that, in the present aspect of 
 affairs, there was nothing better than that the Ragged School system should 
 be extended as much as possible. 
 
 The system, however, must, as I have said, be stimulated ; and the proposition 
 which I make to the Government is this : that the Government should agree to
 
 1848.] FAREWELL ADDRESS TO EMIGRANT BOYS. 401 
 
 
 
 take every year from these schools a number of children say 1,000 500 boya 
 and the same number of girls and transplant them at the public expense to her 
 Majesty's colonies. . . . 
 
 If you will hold out to these children, as a reward of good conduct, that 
 which they desire a removal from scenes which it is painful to contemplate, to 
 others where they can enjoy their existence you will make the children eager 
 by pood conduct to obtain such a boon. There are, be assured, amongst the 
 children, guilty and disgusting as they are, many thousands who, if oppor- 
 tunities are given them, will walk in all the dignity of honest men and Christian 
 citizens. 
 
 After an animated and interesting discussion Lord Ashley observed in 
 reply that the reason why he only included the metropolis was through 
 extreme caution ; that his object was to make an experiment, and then extend 
 it if it were successful. After the generous manner in which his proposition 
 had been supported, he thought that if he attempted to divide the House, he 
 should only take a hostile course, and convert into enemies those who would 
 otherwise be coadjutors, and he would, therefore, withdraw his motion. 
 Subsequently, however, a grant of 1,500 was made by the Government for 
 the purpose of an experimental trial of the scheme. 
 
 This grant, and the contributions of friends, put Lord Ashley in a position 
 to set to work vigorously on the emigration scheme. Although he soon found 
 himself crippled for want of adequate funds, he went heart and soul into the 
 matter, and made the money go as far as possible. 
 
 There was never an effort attended with greater success, and we must 
 anticipate a little by looking at some of the results. The children were care- 
 fully selected and specially trained, and each was impressed with the idea 
 that ho was to go forth as the representative of a large reserve. Before each 
 detachment started, Lord Ashley visited them, and some of his farewell 
 addresses on the eve of their departure are worthy of being written in letters 
 of gold, so full are they of tender fatherliness and Christian love. Here is a 
 specimen : 
 
 I see you now, my boys, probably for the last time. You are going to enter 
 upon new connections. You are going to a land where much will depend upon 
 yourselves as regards your future prosperity and success in life. The whole 
 world is open to you. I believe you will be placed in circumstances where 
 honesty will not fail to meet with its reward. I hope when you are far away 
 you will not forget those friends who have taken care of you here, and the 
 instruction and advice you have received from time to time from those who have 
 felt an interest in you, and that you will not forget what has been said to you 
 to-night. I believe it will be a great help to remember, not only what has been 
 said, but the very countenances of those who have befriended you ; let their 
 presence be familiar to your recollection. Remember the faces of those who are 
 present here to-night. The remembrance may deter you in the time of tempta- 
 tion from doing that which would disgrace yourselves and bring discredit on 
 them. Especially let me tell you, working boys, that, however you may rise in 
 society and there is no reason in the world why you should not rise you muat 
 A A
 
 402 THE EARL OF 8HAFTESBURY. [CHAP. 
 
 
 
 e till be working men. Christianity is not a speculation, it is essentially practical. 
 It is the only thing for your soul's health to be always at work. Remember 
 this : you have something to do for others as well as for yourselves. You have a 
 character to get, and you have a character to lose. You must not by any mis- 
 conduct of yours, bring disgrace upon those who have gone out before you. If 
 you bring discredit upon them, you are injuring a whole class. Many of those 
 lads who are now roaming about the streets, houseless and friendless, may yet be 
 brought into this or similar institutions, may be helped or hindered in their 
 future course by your conduct. If that should be such as would bring discredit 
 upon yourselves and those who send you out, it may hinder their being sent as 
 you are. If there is any one single thing which more than another tends to 
 make a man feel great, it is that he is answerable for his own conduct to God 
 and to society at large. You are going across the water. I have no doubt but 
 we shall soon hear that you have got employment. Whatever your duty or 
 circumstances may be, never forget prayer. You may rise to high stations ; they 
 are open to you there as here. Whatever success you may meet with in this 
 world and we heartily wish you may meet with great success still, my lads, 
 never forget the greatest ambition of the Christian is to be a citizen of that city 
 whose builder and maker is God ; and though we may never meet together again 
 on earth, may we all at last meet together there. 
 
 Testimony was borne in many, and sometimes unexpected quarters, as to 
 the conduct and efficiency of the Ragged-School boys who were sent out to 
 the Colonies. The better they were known the more they were appreciated. 
 
 It was not all smooth sailing with Lord Ashley in his efforts to carry out 
 his emigration scheme, and there are, in the Diaries, many entries which 
 show that the disappointments were as numerous as the successes. 
 
 July 21st. So I am now to be disappointed, nay, deceived ! No emigration 
 for my ragged children, unless I raise a sum of money for that purpose. How 
 is that to be done ? Not a word was said on this subject when I consented to 
 withdraw my resolution. . . . 
 
 Two Chairs yesterday. Opened Westminster Reading-room for the dirty, 
 forgotten workpeople of Duck Lane and Pye Street. Very successful, God be 
 praised really affecting. Letters and Chairs eat me up ; I never refresh my 
 mind with new stores : always speaking, never reading or thinking. God in Hifl 
 mercy grant me a little repose this summer. I am thin as a wafer. . . . 
 
 . . . A great deal of melancholy over me, both to-day and yesterday and the 
 day before. Truth is, I am a little tired, and a little disheartened ; men are 
 untrue and lukewarm. I am endeavouring to pile Pelion on Ossa, the work of 
 the Titans, with the force just sufficient for an ant-hill. . . . Talk of the 
 dangerous classes, indeed 1 The dangerous classes in England are not the people I 
 The dangerous classes are the lazy ecclesiastics, of whom there are thousands, and 
 the rich who do no good with their money 1 I fear them more than whole 
 battalions of Chartists. ... I am as much fretted by anxiety as worn by 
 labour. I cannot feel by halves, nor only when the evil is present. I take it I 
 suffer very often much more than the people do themselves 1 ... 
 
 July 27th. An affecting evening yesterday, Gave a tea-party to take leave 
 of our " ragged " emigrants to Australia, ragged no longer, thank God I They
 
 1848.) YOUNG THIEVES. 403 
 
 go from private funds that I have collected from the excellent Miss Portal, 
 Mr. Farrer, Lord Wriothesley Russell, and my sister Charlotte. Many were 
 assembled ; we addressed them, and many were moved to tears. It was a deeply 
 religious meeting, and a feeling of piety and gratitude pervaded us all. And 
 now here, as then, I commit them, Lord ! to the word of Thy grace prosper 
 the work 1 bear them safely, happily, joyously, to their journey's end ! watch over 
 them in body and in soul ; make them Thy servants in this life, and Thy saints in 
 the next, in the mediation and everlasting love of Christ, our only Saviour and 
 Redeemer I 
 
 During his perambulations of the slums of London in 1846, by his 
 Ragged School investigations, and in other ways and places, Lord Ashley 
 made himself thoroughly acquainted with the haunts and habits of the young 
 thieves of the metropolis. Some of his descriptions of them are admirable, 
 and his anecdotes telling. 
 
 A large proportion do not recognise the distinctive rights of meum and tuum. 
 Property appears to them to be only the aggregate of plunder. They hold that 
 everything that is possessed is common stock ; that he who gets most is the 
 cleverest fellow, and that everyone has a right to abstract from that stock what 
 he can by his own ingenuity. * 
 
 They make little or no secret of their successful operations, cloaking them 
 only with euphemistic terms ; they " find " everything, they " take ^nothing ; no 
 matter the bulk or quality of the article, it was " found " sometimes nearly a 
 side of bacon, just at the convenient time and place ; and many are the loud and 
 bitter complaints that the " dealer in marine stores " is utterly dishonest, and has 
 given for the thing but half the price that could be got in the market. \ 
 
 These children are like tribes of lawless freebooters, bound by no obligations, 
 and utterly ignorant, or utterly regardless, of social duties. They trust to their 
 skill, not to their honesty ; gain their livelihood by theft, and consider the whole 
 world as their legitimate prey. With them there is no sense of shame ; nor is 
 imprisonment viewed as a disgrace. In many instances it has occurred that after 
 ft boy has been a short time at one of the Ragged Schools he suddenly disappears. 
 At the end of a few weeks he comes back to the very spot in the school where he 
 sat when he was last there. The master going up to him says, " My boy, where 
 have you been ? " The boy answers, " Very sorry, sir, I could not come before, 
 but I have had three weeks at Bridewell." Going to prison is with these children 
 the ordinary lot of humanity ; they look upon it as a grievous act of oppression, 
 and when they come to school they speak of it as one gentleman would tell his 
 wrongs to another. 
 
 As an illustration of their low state of morality and their utter shame- 
 lessness, he instanced what had passed one evening at a Ragged School : 
 
 Fourteen or fifteen of these boys presented themselves one Sunday evening 
 and sat down to the lessons, but, as the clock struck, they all rose and left, with 
 the exception of one who lagged behind. The master took him by the arm, and 
 said, " You must remain ; the lesson is not over." The reply was, " We must go 
 
 * House of Commons, July, 1849. t Quartcrty Renew, Dec., l&M. 
 
 A A 2
 
 404 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XVII. 
 
 to business." The master inquired, " What business ? " " Why, don't you see it's 
 eight o'clock ; we must go catch them as they come out of the chapels." 
 
 On another occasion he told a story of a City Missionary, a kind and 
 worthy man, who had endeared himself to the whole of a wretched district, 
 and especially to the younger population. 
 
 One evening, having put on a new coat, he went, about dusk, through a remote 
 street, and was instantly marked as a quarry by one of these rapacious vagabonds. 
 The urchin did not know him in his new attire therefore without hesitation 
 relieved his pockets of their contents. The Missionary did not discover his loss, 
 nor the boy his victim, until in his flight he had reached the end of the street. 
 He then looked round and recognised in the distance his old friend and teacher. 
 
 He ran back to him, breathless. ; ' Hallo," said he, " is it you, Mr. ? I didn't 
 
 know you in your new coat ; here's your handkerchief for you ! " 
 
 It was in consequence of his speech in the House of Commons on tho 
 subject of emigration that in July, 1848, Lord Asliley entered into one of 
 the strangest experiences, in connection with London thieves, that, up to that 
 time, ever fell to the lot of mortal man. A City Missionary, named Thomas 
 Jackson, a zealous, earnest, and in his way, gifted man, had been appointed 
 to the Bag Fair and Rosemary Lane district, where he was known as the 
 Thieves' Missionary. He was in their confidence ; his house was open at all 
 times to those who chose to visit him in search of advice and consolation ; he 
 was acquainted, far more intimately than the police, with the habits of pick- 
 pockets, burglars, and every class of convicted or unconvicted roguery ; he 
 had the entree into dens of infamy, and had familiarised himself with sin in 
 some of its most sickening aspects ; and yet he carried with him a quiet and a 
 prayerful spirit, and became to Lord Ashley not only a guide, but also a 
 philosopher and friend. 
 
 Soon after Lord Ashley had propounded his scheme in the House of Com- 
 nions, for the emigration of young criminals, it occurred to him to ask a 
 notorious adult thief whether he would like to avail himself of such a scheme. 
 " I should jump at it," was the reply. Thus encouraged, he determined to 
 have the same question propounded at one of Mr. Jackson's meetings, to 
 which discharged criminals only were to be admitted. " It would be a capital 
 thing for chaps like us," was their unanimous answer. Then one of them got 
 np and proposed that they should write Lord Ashley a letter on behalf of 
 themselves and all their tribe, inviting him to meet them, and give them his 
 opinion and advice as to how they could extricate themselves from their pre- 
 sent position. A round-robin was accordingly prepared, and was signed by 
 forty of the most notorious thieves and burglars in London, praying him to 
 meet them. A night was fixed, and on July the 27th, Lord Ashley, without 
 hesitation, and without fear, went to the meeting. Accustomed as he was to 
 strange sights and strange assemblies, he was not prepared for what was 
 awaiting him. There, in a large room, with Jackson in the midst, were close 
 upon four hundred men of every appearance, from the " swell-mob " in black
 
 W4S.J FALLEN AMOXU THIEVES. 405 
 
 coats and white neckcloths, to the most fierce-looking, rough, half-dressed 
 savages he had ever seen. 
 
 The City Mission Magazine for August, 1848, says : " Several of the l>est 
 known and most experienced thieves were stationed at the door to prevent the 
 admission of any but thieves. Some four or five individuals, who were not at 
 first known, were subjected to a more public examination, and only allowed 
 to remain on their stating who they were, and being recognised as member* 
 of the dishonest fraternity. The object of this care, as so many of them were 
 in danger of ' getting into trouble,' as they call it, was, to ascertain whether 
 any who should betray them were present." 
 
 Lord Ashley was received by them with genuine enthusiasm, and, after 
 taking the chair, the proceedings were opened by devotional exercises ! A 
 chairman, to be at ease, always likes to feel the pulse of his audience, in order 
 to know, as far as possible, what manner of men they be, and the method 
 adopted on the occasion of which we write was striking in the extreme : 
 
 I was anxious to know what was the character of these thieves ; some of them 
 pickpockets, some shoplifters, others of the swell-mob, and exceedingly well- 
 dressed some of them were. Many of them, however, had no stockings, and some 
 of them had no shirts. I wanted to know the great departments of roguery ; so 
 the missionary said : " His Lordship wants to know the particular character of 
 the men here. Yon who live by burglary and the more serious crimes will go to 
 the right, and the others will go to the left." About two hundred of the men at 
 once rose and went to the right, as confessed burglars and living by the greatest 
 crimes.* 
 
 Lord Ashley then addressed them kindly but firmly, expressing his will- 
 ingness to befriend them, not only as his duty but out of regard for them. In 
 the first place, however, he wished to hear them speak. 
 
 A number of the men then gave addresses, and anything more curious, more 
 graphic, more picturesque, and more touching, I never heard in my life ; they 
 told the whole truth, without the least difficulty, and, knowing that they were 
 there to reveal their condition, they disguised nothing. 
 
 Lord Ashley had recommended mutual aid, self-reliance, a relinquishing 
 of their old practices, and new resolves for the future. " But how," said one 
 of the men, " are we to live till our next meeting P "We must either steal or 
 die." It was an awkward question. Lord Ashley acknowledged that he 
 never felt so utterly impressed with the magnitude of the task, and the 
 feebleness of the power ; and confessed, that when Jackson urged them " to 
 pray, as God could help them," he felt a certain amount of sympathy when 
 one of the party rose and said, " My Lord and Gentlemen of the Jury, prayer 
 is very good, but it won't fill an empty stomach," whereupon there arose a 
 general response of " Hear, hear ! " 
 
 One point was made clear that night. It was, that the men were dis- 
 Batisfied with the life they led, and would do anything to break away from it 
 Speech, West Middlesex Auxiliary City Mission, June 23, 1878.
 
 406 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XVII. 
 
 if they only knew how. One and all they were eager for the emigration 
 scheme, and Lord Ashley promised to do all he could for them. Then 
 one man, on behalf of the rest, exclaimed, " But will you ever come 
 back to see us again P " " Yes," replied Lord Ashley, " at any time, and at 
 any place, whenever you shall send for me." " And," as he said when telling 
 the story, " the low, deep murmur of gratitude was very touching." The 
 result of that night's work, like so many in Lord Ashley's career, can never 
 be known. One outward and visible sign, however, was the fact that, within 
 three months from that date, thirteen of those who were present were starting 
 in life afresh in Canada, while, a little later on, nearly three hundred had 
 either emigrated, or had passed into different employments, and had no need 
 to return to their hateful occupation.* 
 
 In reviewing the public labours of Lord Ashley during this year, we have 
 almost lost sight of other matters scarcely less interesting. We must, there- 
 fore, go back in the narrative. 
 
 In the early part of the year, his eldest son, Antony, had entered the 
 Navy, and in March sailed for the Australian station in H.M.S. Havannah. 
 
 March 30th. Just returned from Portsmouth with Minny and the boys ; have 
 been to take leave of dear Accy for three years, and perhaps never to see him 
 again ; it may be so, but yet I hope nay, I believe that God will be with him, 
 and restore us safe and happy to each other. But it is a pang ; we feel it more 
 when we reflect than while we experience it. I see him now ; I shall see him 
 for ever till we meet again, standing at the ship-side, and watching us depart. 
 Oh, Christ, our only Saviour and Redeemer, have mercy on the lad in body and 
 in soul ! . . . 
 
 In August came the long-looked-for relaxation from the harassing cares 
 and anxieties of public business. There was no place in the world that did 
 him so much good as Scotland, and so to Scotland he went. 
 
 Aug. 12th. Galloway House. Galloway, in the height of friendliness and 
 amiable feeling, has lent us his beautiful cottage of Cumloden in the Wigtown 
 mountains ; and thus we are going to enjoy mountain breezes, Scotch scenery, 
 and romantic seclusion. 
 
 Aug. 16th. Cumloden. Everything conduces to enjoyment and comfort 
 here ; amusement for the eye, brisk air for the lungs, leisure and contemplation 
 for the mind. I seem in a week to have lost all power of business, as I certainly 
 have all taste for it ; dress in a shooting-coat, lounge about, read all sorts of books. 
 
 Oct. 4th. Inverary. Arrived here yesterday through very beautiful scenery, 
 on a very beautiful day. Duke and Duchess amiable in the extreme ; she is a 
 dear, sensible, lovable creature, whom I have known from a child. It is a 
 stately place ; trees, rocks, mountains, torrents, and lochs, all in the perfection 
 of the noble and fascinating. . . . 
 
 Oct. 7th. . . . Have been studying with more regularity and attention 
 
 * It was mainly through the generosity of Mr. R. C. L. Bevan, the banker, that the 
 emigration of the thieves was accomplished. Lord Shaftesbury was on several occa- 
 sions indebted to his munificence, and was wont to speak of him as " a prince in the 
 Israel of God."
 
 DEATH OF LORD MELBOURNE. 407 
 
 St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians ; it is a noble work of zeal, piety, and sound 
 argument. 
 
 Oct. 16th. Cumloden. I know not a better preacher than Mr. Johnstone, 
 our minister here at Minnigaff ; his matter is true, sound, and plainly evan- 
 gelical, argumentative, persuasive, touching, practical, and admirably, yet very 
 simply, delivered. He is worth a regiment of ecclesiastical " Pindars." . . . 
 
 Oct. 26th. Surely no sun ever rose more beautifully than this morning ; 
 viewed it with delight. Yet there was a coldness in my affection and a for- 
 mality in my prayer which seemed little to accord with such a display of God's 
 works. But we must be careful not to estimate the state of our hearts towards 
 God merely by the rapture we may feel at occasional periods : religion would 
 then be measured by enthusiasm ; it must be tested by its fruits, by our real and 
 inmost desires, by our daily walk, by our Scriptural belief, by our constant faith, 
 and by our practical life. . . . 
 
 On November the 8th the pleasant holiday in Scotland came to an end, 
 and shortly afterwards we find Lord Ashley again in the midst of his labours. 
 A few of the special events which marked the close of this memorable year 
 may be noted in this place. 
 
 Nov. 15th. Priory, Stanmore. Here by command of the Queen-Dowager to 
 meet the Queen Regnant. I have two rooms to myself and two fires. I deplore 
 the waste of fuel when there are so many who have none. This feeling is 
 growing upon me, and may degenerate into stinginess, or, at least, a parsimony in 
 the exercise of just hospitality. The amount of waste in all things is prodigious, in 
 some instances careless ; in some inevitable. Why, the very crumbs and scrapings 
 of finished dishes in a thousand well-fed families would, week by week, sustain a 
 hundred persons ! This, alas ! cannot be avoided, but a wanton or thoughtless 
 waste is sinful. " Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost." 
 
 Nov. 17th. Went yesterday to Harrow; accompanied her Majesty. Day 
 brilliant, boys and people enthusiastic, the whole successful. This is good. 
 Royalty had never shone upon Harrow, which has turned out some good men, 
 and seems likely, in God's providence oh, that it. may be so to turn out some 
 more 1 An early impression of respect to the Sovereign is wholesome ; it may, 
 in these days, become indispensable. Saw dear Francis, and heard his praises 
 from Dr. Yaughan and the tutors. 
 
 Nov. 25th. Poor Melbourne died yesterday, and to-day he is, of course, 
 gibbeted in the Times. This is " one of the new terrors of death." 
 
 Nov. 30th. Charles Buller, poor fellow, has been carried off by typhus fever, 
 following on an operation, in the prime of life. I regret his loss. He was a 
 much changed man. His pertness, his light and saucy opinions, had given way 
 to sobriety and kindness of heart ; and his humanised feelings had begun to 
 ornament and invigorate his great talents. Had ke lived he might have been (I 
 speak as a man) of real service in his generation. But God is wiser than us. 
 
 Dec. 1st This day Melbourne consigned to the grave. Attended the funeral 
 at Hatfield Church. May the Lord sanctify the event to those who survive, and 
 say, with resistless power, to us all, " Watch."
 
 CHAPTER XYIH. 
 
 1849. 
 
 ALTHOUGH in the early part of 1849 there was a lull in the excitement which 
 had made 1848 so memorable, there were forces at work in this country 
 which were to create general alarm and uneasiness. In Ireland the suspen- 
 sion of the Habeas Corpus Act was renewed in consequence of the critical 
 state of affairs, and a grant of 50,000 was made for the relief of Iiish 
 distress in certain Unions, where, owing to the severity of the distress, a 
 sufficient rate could not be collected. Referring to this, Lord Ashley 
 wrote : 
 
 Jan. 5th. . . . Ireland again distressed, and again to be relieved. All 
 admit the fact and the necessity, but wish to throw the necessity on every 
 shoulder but their own. Government propose a rate in aid, which may be 
 questionable as a principle of taxation, but is most just as applied specifically to 
 Ireland. Irish proprietors are, of course, furious, and, generally speaking, not 
 very honest in this respect. What is the remedy for this state of things ? What 
 is the cause of it 1 Is it the Celtic race 1 Yet we see many of this tribe in other 
 parts of the world frugal, industrious, orderly ; much may be recorded of the 
 economy, foresight, and affection of thousands. Is it the religion ? Yet I do not 
 find, however faulty, superstitious, idolatrous, may be their belief and practice, 
 that any physical incapacity is necessarily connected with it ; in many heathen 
 nations there may be found much temporal prosperity, and the Tuscan farmers 
 and peasantry show by their high cultivation and general comfort that indolence 
 and barbarism are not inevitably the consequence of Popery. Is it national 
 hatred to the Saxon, or pious hatred to the Protestant ? or is it both combined ? - 
 But if so, this would appear in Ulster, but hardly be known in Connaught, where 
 Saxons and Protestants are as rare as a meat dinner. Is it misgovernment ? 
 Why, every measure, however excellent, and by whomsoever brought in, fails at 
 once ? And why ? You can obtain no agency in Ireland ; no one is to be 
 trusted no public, no private functionaries ; all are of one complexion ; what- 
 ever enters Ireland is transmuted by the prevailing atmosphere ; everything 
 acquires an affinity to job, and to job it all. Whence is this 1 Magna luis com- 
 mwsa, England ! and thou hast not repented of them. But until that be 
 done, and we begin good things in a good spirit (here it is we fail) nothing will 
 prosper. 
 
 Among the schemes of labour that Lord Ashley set before himself for the 
 year was, first, the stirring-up of the Board of Health to more vigorous 
 efforts. One hundred and fifty wretched children had recently died of 
 proved neglect, and " They will be the martyrs of a cause of reformation," ha 
 wrote. " Their death will be the signal, and the compulsion, too, of an
 
 1849.) SUBDIVISION OF PARISHES. 409 
 
 improved and more merciful state of things." Next, a plan for the general 
 subdivision of all the larger parishes for ecclesiastical purposes, so that the 
 population of each parish should not exceed 4,000, a plan that he felt certain 
 would effect a greater amount of moral, social, and religious improvement 
 thaii a whole code of laws. Then, the completion of Ragged School projects, 
 especially in relation to Emigration ; and finally, " the invitation to the strag- 
 glers in the lanes and streets ; the evangelical coercion through the highways 
 and hedges, according to the commands of our blessed Redeemer. Add to this 
 (Ins ordinary and existing work, and there is my budget ! " 
 
 The spirit was willing, but the flesh was weak. Lord Ashley's health 
 began to fail, and this was to be one source of hindrance to his projects ; 
 while a cloud, which had not yet arisen, was to gather and overshadow him, 
 and make this year memorable for the bitterness of its sorrow. The following 
 is the beginning of a long series of entries extending through many years. 
 They will only be referred to occasionally in the course of this work, but to 
 ignore them altogether would be to detract from the heroism which, notwith- 
 standing, persisted in incessant labours. 
 
 Jan. 30th. Warned by six months of unpleasant symptoms, terrible noises in 
 my ears, sleeplessness at nights, or slumbers broken by strange sensations of 
 nervousness, my whole body appearing to vibrate like a Jew's harp, consulted 
 Dr. Latham. " Rest or decay," he replies. " Over-toil, over-anxiety, over-sensi- 
 tiveness to the subjects handled during many years, have shaken you in every 
 part ; you must be more moderate, or utterly disabled." I can well believe it 
 few can know ; nay, none know the full extent of my labours, and the full trial 
 of all my feelings. Thank God, I am warned in time, that I may, should it be 
 His pleasure to spare me, husband my strength for a few more years of service ; 
 I can do so with a clear and even happy conscience, for I know that I have given 
 to the public, and have not spent on myself, the best of my life and energies. But 
 yet I cannot contemplate even comparative inaction with joy ; but God's will be 
 done ! . . . 
 
 In his scheme for the subdivision of parishes Lord Ashley was threatened 
 in the first instance with the opposition of Lord John Russell, on the ground 
 that it was opposed by the Archbishop of Canterbury ; but an interview with 
 the Archbishop disposed of many difficulties, and Lord John withdrew his 
 opposition. On the 1st of March, therefore, the motion was brought forward, 
 although to the last moment there were strong misgivings as to the support it 
 would receive. 
 
 March 1st. My misgivings justified. John Russell writes to me to-day to put 
 off my motion, " as the Dissenters will oppose it" What shall I do ? If I post- 
 pone it I incur many hazards, such as ill-health, misrepresentation, no oppor- 
 tunity ; if I urge it, I avert the Government Good may, by God's blessing, be 
 brought out of evil. J. Russell hints at a Commission without a previous motion 
 in Parliament ; if so, thank God, I shall be spared a speech ; and sad, discredit- 
 able disclosures of the wrangles and anomalies of the Church will be avoided. 
 Ten o'clock. Just returned from the House a debate a division, headed by
 
 410 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XVIH. 
 
 Bright and Hume ; beat them, God be praised, by 111 to 18 1 Kept in uncertainty 
 until two minutes to five, when Johnny said he wished me to proceed. Debate 
 was most triumphant, and the issue all the better, because motion was opposed 
 without a shadow of reason by Dissenters ! The truth is, they see it is a heavy 
 blow and great discouragement to Dissent and popular discontent ; they see that, 
 by this means, the Church can and will, God blessing us, recover her just position 
 and " conservatise " the kingdom. 
 
 A Commission was appointed, and in the course of a week or two was 
 working harmoniously, with hearty zeal and a desire to see the facilities first, 
 and the difficulties afterwards. 
 
 Anything that would arouse the clergy to greater activity Lord Ashley 
 hailed with satisfaction ; his estimate of their zeal and of the religious state 
 of the times is given in the meditation entered in his Diary on Good 
 Friday : 
 
 April 6th. Good Friday. This is a serious contemplation. Is the world 
 better than the day that our blessed Lord died upon the Cross 1 Are men indi- 
 vidually better ? Is the world collectively better 1 That the externals of society 
 are more refined, that the surface is smoother, that more pious things are said, 
 and more pious actions tolerated, that civilisation has been advanced, and that 
 Christianity is the cause of it, few persons will deny. But how are the hearts of 
 men ? Are they cleaner, less averse from good, more given to God ? Is the 
 number of the faithful increased, diminished, or stationary ? Are we nearer to be 
 an acceptable people? Is there, as yet, any appearance of a Harvest? "Lord, 
 Thou knowest." I look around, myself, and am much discouraged. I see but 
 few who could stand a trial, few who love truth and God's will above all things, 
 few who are not ready to find ten thousand excuses for doing what they like, and 
 rejecting what they dislike. My experience may be very limited, and I may form 
 incorrect judgments, but I trace much of our evil to the moral condition of our 
 ecclesiastical rulers and ministers. It is possible that they may be improved in 
 comparison of former days ; they are wholly insufficient in reference to the 
 present. Look to the metropolis 1 Why so frightful a state of spiritual destitu- 
 tion ? Why so many wretched, forsaken, naked vagrants ? I have said this, and 
 received in reply, " The clergy are unequal to the task." Well, then, why do they 
 discountenance and almost insult (the exceptions are few but honourable) those 
 who toil to collect the outcasts in Ragged Schools and make them at least to hear 
 the name of Christ ? These men seem to think that of two evils, it is the less for 
 them to die in their sins, than to be brought to knowledge and repentance by the 
 co-operation of a Dissenter 1 If so, what was there worse in Jerusalem 1 . . . 
 
 Lord Ashley's presence at Court was very frequent, and his Diaries show 
 how constantly his sympathies were alternating between the highest and the 
 lowest in the land. A few extracts may be given here : 
 
 Feb. 8th. Here I am at Windsor Castle. Came yesterday ; sat next to the 
 Queen at dinner ; had some interesting conversation. May God, in His mercy 
 to the Realm, raise up for her some Joseph, Daniel, or Nehemiah, some one who, 
 in Christ's faith and fear, shall rule this people prudently and with all his 
 l>ower 1 ...
 
 1849.) ILLNESS OP HIS SON FRANCIS. 411 
 
 Feb. 12th. Newspapers of late very full of cases of cruelty to children in 
 schools, in private houses, on board ship. They come between me and my 
 rest, and to no purpose, for the evil is irremediable, except by the grace of 
 God. 
 
 May 1st. Sat in House of Commons to vote against E wart's motion for 
 abolishing punishment of death. I have a very strong feeling on the subject. 
 Wished publicly to record my opinion that the Word of God does not permit but 
 command* " He that sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed." . . . 
 
 May 10th. To the Queen's concert last night ; everything as brilliant and 
 cheerful as music and company could make it ; myself rather dismal. . . . 
 
 May 15th. Made a night visitation to Hoxton Lunatic Asylum, having sus- 
 picions of misconduct ; found, I rejoice to say, things far better than we expected ; 
 our system, therefore, of inspection may be considered successful, and our terrors 
 salutary. . . . 
 
 May 16th. Prince Albert took chair to-day at Hanover Square Rooms for 
 Servants' Provident Institution. He did his business admirably well, with good 
 taste, good feeling, and real ability. But, to be sure, if he liked flattery he had 
 full measure of it, and of the strongest quality pure rectified spirits 1 
 
 Moved a resolution, as I was desired, though hoarse with roaring yesterday to 
 four thousand people. Thank God that the Prince is what he is, and the Queen 
 too, with a moral Court, domestic virtues, aud some public activity in philan- 
 thropic things 1 
 
 May 19th. . . . Seven o'clock. Just heard that some one has fired at the 
 Queen 1 She is safe. God be a million times praised for His mercy to her and to 
 the country I The profligate George IV. passed through a life of selfishness and 
 sin without a single proved attempt to take it. This mild and virtuous young 
 woman has, four times already, been exposed to imminent peril 1 
 
 It was late in the evening of this day that Lord Ashley received a letter 
 from Harrow which filled him with the greatest alarm and anxiety. It was 
 to announce the serious illness of his second son, Francis. He had been at 
 Harrow since April, 1847, where he had taken and kept a distinguished 
 place in the school, and, at the time of which we write, was in the sixth 
 (highest) form. He was a singularly striking character ; old and thoughtful 
 for his years, deeply religious, and pure in heart and habit. The illness with 
 which he was seized was a severe attack of cold and inflammation, and the 
 remedy then applied was one which would not now be even thought of such 
 has been the rapid advance of medical science repeated bleedings. 
 
 The sorrowful narrative that follows must be told only in the words of his 
 father, and should it be thought that the incidents are too sacred for the 
 public eye, it may be stated that Lord Shaftesbury had often been urged to 
 preserve them in the form of a short biography, but was witliheld from doing 
 so, as he would have been obliged to say things which would relate to himself, 
 and his motive might possibly have been misconstrued. Almost the last 
 evening that the writer was permitted to spend with Lord Shaftesbnry, was 
 occupied in hearing the narrative of the incidents which follow, and it was 
 his earnest wish that they should be recorded. " It may be, nay, T feel sure
 
 412 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [Cnxp. XV11I. 
 
 it will be, useful to others let it be told," were his last instructions that 
 evening, as he wiped away the tears that had been flowing freely. 
 
 May 21st. Dearest Francis no better. . . . Saw him after he had slept : 
 very feverish, thirsty ; but calm, composed, and cheerful. Blessed be God, he ia 
 easy and peaceful I Asked me soon after my arrival to read the Bible. Did it 
 joyfully. Read the seventh of Revelation for the glories and bliss of the other 
 world, and the twenty-fourth of Matthew for the present duties and occupations 
 of this. Prepared thus for either alternative of God's will. Then we prayed, 
 and were, I think, comforted. What a darling, tender, true, zealous, and God- 
 serving boy it is I Oh, that he may be spared to us, not for our solace and enjoy- 
 ment only, but for the Lord's faith and fear I How often have I meditated on 
 his future aid and sympathy in all my thoughts and pursuits for the good of 
 mankind. But I must imitate the example of our dear Lord, and say, " If it be 
 possible : nevertheless, not my will, but Thine be done 1 "... 
 
 May 22nd. . . . He knows his danger, but he knows also his hope. Never 
 have I seen such a boy ; though so young, and as the world goes, so innocent, he 
 is filled with a sense of sin and unworthiness ; and his only fears are those which 
 spring from a sentiment that " the joys of heaven are too glorious for one like 
 him." Oh, what a mercy it is, and what a consolation to us, that he is as far 
 from self -righteousness as the east is from the west I Never have I known till 
 now what I am possibly to lose 1 " Read to me," he said, " about forgiveness of 
 sins." We then read and talked much of the free and full mercy of God in 
 Christ Jesus. Above all, I urged him, as a calmer to every apprehension, to bear 
 ever in mind that " God is Love," that human love is capable of great things ; 
 what, then, must be the depth and height and intensity of Divine love ! " Know 
 nothing," we said, " think of nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified." The 
 darling boy kissed me repeatedly, and blessed his parents that they had brought 
 him up in the faith and fear of the Lord. Oh, blessed Saviour, this is a won- 
 drous work of Thine ! it is the humbleness, the resignation, the piety, the 
 experience of an aged Christian 1 
 
 May 25th. Yesterday left dear Francis with great hopes of recovery. His 
 mother stays with him. The disorder has been dreadful ; not an ordinary attack 
 of fever, a positive conflagration. 
 
 May 28th. Harrow. Yesterday (Sunday) a day of fearful and agonising 
 anxiety ; a better account to-day, and various symptoms of permanent improve- 
 ment. Sat with him, read the Bible and prayed ; he desired specially some 
 prayers of thanksgiving. " Do you meditate, can you meditate," I said, " my dear 
 boy, as you lie here 1 " " Oh yes," he replied ; " but I have learned what a futile 
 thing must be a death-bed repentance. I feel that I have been reconciled to God, 
 but what could I have done, when lying on this bed, to make my peace with 
 Him, had I not before been brought to a knowledge of the Truth ! " We prayed 
 earnestly that, if he were raised up, it might be, by Divine Grace, to service in 
 this world and salvation in the next I 
 
 Yesterday attended school chapel, and took Sacrament ; 120 boys are com- 
 municants ! Can this be without its fruits 1 Blessed Lord, water it by Thy 
 Spirit 1 Why, in my day, not only no boys (and there were many of seventeen 
 and eighteen) took the Lord's Supper ; but no one dreamed of it. Surely a true 
 and well-earned consolation to Dr. Vaughan.
 
 1849.1 DEATH OF HIS SON FRANCIS. 413 
 
 June 1st. Yesterday, at eight o'clock in the evening, it pleased Almighty 
 God to take our blessed Francis. It was the work of a moment ; and we were 
 like amazed persons, so great had been the promise, not many seconds before, of 
 returning strength and vivacity. Yet we must not murmur or repine, for all is 
 wisdom, and mercy, and love, that cometh from Him. The child, we doubt not, 
 is with Christ, which is far better. 
 
 June 2nd. The loss to us is irreparable ; if we regard it only in reference to 
 ourselves, we can neither describe nor appreciate the calamity. What happiness 
 had we not promised our declining years, from his respect, his love, his sym- 
 pathy, his piety 1 No pen, no tongue, can set forth the charms and perfections of 
 that blessed boy. But this is a small fraction of the view. We must look at him 
 as emancipated from sin and danger, as received into the embrace of his precious 
 Lord and Saviour, as a dear spirit in the realms of bliss. Is it not that the fruit 
 was ripe, and that God, in His mercy, plucked it before it rotted on the tree 1 
 Yet every day and every hour bring his memory to our thoughts the books, the 
 chair, the things we so often talked about. . . . 
 
 I must gather up all that he said ; I cannot let any of his words fall to the 
 ground. During his suffering he had a dream. " I have had a dream," said he 
 to Mrs. Gay (the housekeeper, that dear, and kind, and religious woman, who 
 nursed him). " I dreamed that I was very ill, and that I died, and was buried at 
 Harrow." " Did he seem disturbed by it ? " I asked. " Not in the least ; he 
 took it with the utmost composure." Blessed be God, his heart was proof against 
 fear ; he had said in the early part of his illness, " Mamma, I fear that I shall be 
 numbered among the fearful ; " but God was pleased to reveal Himself more 
 clearly, and, as " perfect love casteth out fear," so was it with his dear soul. 
 
 June 3rd. Sunday. Sweet darling, he was unselfish to a singular degree 
 44 Oh, mamma," said the blessed boy, " I am so ashamed of myself, that through 
 my incaution and neglect I have exposed you to this heavy expense." Thus the 
 dear child, instead of dwelling on his own rightful comforts and remedies, was 
 thinking only of our pecuniary inconvenience. 
 
 On Tuesday, after he had first learned his extreme danger from the medical 
 attendants, he said to me, " Is it so ?" I replied " that it was." He then called 
 me, saying, " Come near to me, dear papa." I went and knelt down by his bed- 
 Bide ; he threw his blessed arms round my neck, and kissed me for a very long 
 time, and then said, " I want to thank you, dearest papa, for having brought me 
 up as you have done, for having brought me up religiously. I now feel all the 
 comfort of it ; it is to you I owe my salvation." " No, dearest boy," I replied, 
 " it is to the grace of God." " Yes, it is true," he said, " but you were made the 
 instrument of it." Is there not consolation, almost divine, in these precious 
 sentences ? His voice and manner throughout his whole illness were, so to speak, 
 sublime ; he retained his infantile simplicity, and ye"t he was above himself. Ilia 
 heart was unlocked, and all its treasures displayed. 
 
 June 4th. On that awful Tuesday, after we had read and prayed together, 
 the dear boy said, " Dear papa, give me your blessing." I might have replied, 
 like St. John the Baptist, and said, " I have need .... of thee, and comest 
 thou to me ? " but he asked it, and from my soul I gave it " If prayers will 
 avail you," I said, " you will have the prayers of hundreds of ragged children." 
 He seemed greatly pleased with the thought, and his face, as his mother now 
 remembers, quite brightened up. . . .
 
 41 I THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY [CHAP. XVIII. 
 
 Saw Hewlett, who told me, more in detail, about his announcement to Francis 
 ot his state of danger. The darling child, having ascertained it by inquiry from 
 him, " received the answer," says Hewlett, " with a smile on his countenance, and 
 simply added, 'Whatever is God's will is enough for me.'" This alone would 
 have been a real and deep consolation ; but, by God's mercy, it is only one of 
 many such sentences. 
 
 June 5th. " What I do, thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know here- 
 after." Yet I can see, even at present, many reasons, and we, as God's creatures, 
 must receive them as all-convincing. His death may be the instrumental cause 
 of seriousness and renovation to many, especially of his schoolfellows ; it may 
 strike an indelible impression on those of his family who survive ; it may exhibit 
 a beautiful specimen of early fitness, and remain as a monument of Divine 
 Grace ! It may chastise me, and yet so mildly, that while I bow the head in 
 (submission I am not prostrated by the blow. Oh ! what a strange chastisement I 
 My own dear, precious, darling son ia taken to everlasting glory, to the end and 
 object of all my labours and my prayers ' and this is the Lord's mode of afflicting 
 His people ! . . . 
 
 June 7th. Francis is dead and buried. It is difficult to realise the truth, but 
 so it is. We attended yesterday his funeral, which accomplished his dream that 
 he should be interred at Harrow. Minny and I greatly rejoice that we sur- 
 rendered our feelings of nature that his dear remains should lie, where, in the 
 course of things, God willing, we should pass many of our days and perform 
 many acts of worship, at St. Giles's in Dorsetshire. We consigned him to the 
 churchyard of the school which he had so loved and adorned, and where he 
 needed not preachers, or poets, or the tongue of friendship, or love, to make 
 known his admirable virtues. He was buried in the presence of all his school- 
 fellows and their several masters ; and though sermons and speeches may and 
 will be blessed to enforce his example on those who survive, no one yesterday, 
 among many hundreds, required the word to say who or what he was. " The evil 
 that men do lives after them, the good is oft interred with their bones." Not so 
 with him ; the record of his name will long be fragrant ; and I trust, nay, 
 believe (for God will give us this consolation over and above the other), that the 
 monument of stone will also present him to many hearts as a monument of 
 Divine Grace. . . . 
 
 June 12th. They ask me to write a short memoir of my darling boy. "It 
 will be useful," they say, " to many, and specially to other boys." If I do so, I 
 must record things in praise, as it were, of myself. 
 
 Harrow churchyard is classic ground, to which not old Harrovians alone 
 are wont to go on pilgrimage. Many are the visitors, even from beyond 
 the Atlantic, who, after feasting their eyes on the glorious panorama com- 
 manded by the fine elevation, seek out the modest stone which marks his 
 grave. 
 
 They were sad and solemn days, those thirteen days when his son lay on 
 his bed of sickness ; and sad and solemn were the days that followed. Were 
 it not that we want to see every aspect of the life of Lord Shaf tesbury, we 
 should have hesitated to have intruded even thus far into scenes so private. 
 But it opens up a beautiful page in a man's life, when it can be seen that
 
 1840.] BAGGED SCHOOLS EMIGRATION SCHEME. 415 
 
 there was, between himself and his children, snch absolute confidence and 
 affection, that they could speak unreservedly together on the subject of 
 personal religion. It sheds a lustre over every public effort for the good of 
 others, when it is known that this was but an extended phase of the work 
 that had been going on in his own home. 
 
 Lord Ashley's nervous and sensitive organism suffered much from the 
 shock of this event ; and months after (October 11) he writes : 
 
 " The thing that I greatly feared is come upon me ; " and remarkable it ia 
 that the very effect I ever anticipated from such an event as the death of one 
 of my children, has been produced. It has left me equal to business, with life 
 and energy and sympathy with important interests as warm as ever ; but it has 
 thrown an alloy into all enjoyment. I am grown much more nervous and appre- 
 hensive. Every trifle, if it be sudden, makes me expect some sad intelligence 
 a knock at the door, a footstep, a letter, an unusual expression of countenance. 
 The truth is, that the shock I experienced on being summoned in a moment to 
 attend his death-bed having left him not half an hour in, as we all believed, 
 returning vigour was far deeper than was then felt It was a blow of which 
 the internal mischiefs were not exhibited when it was struck. 
 
 For many months there is scarcely a page of the Diary that does not 
 record the name of " my blessed Francis." His portrait, ever after his death, 
 was on the mantelpiece in the study at St. Giles's ; and thirty-six years later 
 than the time of which we write, Lord Shaftesbury declared his belief that 
 not one day had passed without some conscious memory of his beloved son. I 
 
 Although it was the first time that death had entered in the family, and 
 Lord Ashley felt stunned by the blow, he did not " sorrow as those who have 
 no hope." Within a week of the funeral we find him busy on the Com- 
 mission for the Subdivision of Parishes, and busier still in Ragged School 
 work, for a new motive was now added. 
 
 Work of the " Ragged " kind recalls his image so vividly, and his dear words 
 of sympathy and approval, how could I please him more were he alive, or more, 
 if he be cognisant of what is passing, than by endeavouring to please God in 
 seeking the welfare of those forlorn lambs of our Master ? 
 
 There were two things for Lord Ashley to accomplish without delay- 
 the prosecution of the Bagged Schools Emigration scheme, and the Bill for 
 the Public Health Provisional Orders. 
 
 On July the 24th he again brought forward in the House of Commons his 
 motion for an annual grant of money to be provided for the emigration of a 
 certain number of Ragged School children of the metropolis to the Colonies. 
 
 If anything could have stimulated the Government to action in this 
 matter, it should have been the manner in which the 1,500 granted in the 
 previous Session had been expended, the amount of good it had already done, 
 and the permanent good it seemed likely to effect. Letters were read from 
 the boys who had been sent out to Australia touching letters, full of grati- 
 tude and hope, and, in concluding his speech, Lord Ashley said :
 
 416 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XVIII. 
 
 And now, Sir, revile the system and criticise it as they may, these Ragged 
 Schools have been, and are, the sole means whereby religious and secular know- 
 ledge is imparted to the thousands of a race sunk, whole fathoms deep in desti- 
 tution and suffering. You vote 100,000 a year for the purposes of education. 
 You might, as far as these miserables are concerned, vote one hundred pence ; 
 they cannot receive any portion of your bounty ; they cannot be accommodated 
 to the system of your National and Borough Road Schools. What other means 
 exist? We have now 82 schools, full 8,000 children, 12-t paid and 929 voluntary 
 teachers, of whose services I cannot speak with adequate gratitude and respect. 
 In weariness and painf ulness, and with every form of self-denial, they surrender 
 themselves, body and soul, to this noble cause, hoping to excite in others a 
 kindred sympathy. But they are not successful. The sympathy with the cause 
 is lamentably small, and especially from those who should be the very first in 
 every work of charity and religion. ... It is, then, to the House of 
 Commons that we direct our attention, in the hope that the Legislature will take 
 up the duty that individuals seem to reject. I can hardly appeal to your feelings, 
 because you appear to me to lie under an obligation to consider the case of these 
 desperate sufferers. " Their enemies drive them into the sea, and the sea throws 
 them back upon their enemies ; " and yet they are immortal spirits, as precious, 
 body and soul, in the sight of God, as the very best among us in this august 
 assembly. I commit, therefore, the issue to the representatives of the kingdom, 
 believing that they will not gainsay by their actions what so many of them 
 profess with their lips, when they pray " that it may please God to defend and 
 provide for the fatherless children, and all that are desolate and oppressed." 
 
 In the discussion which followed, as it was evident that there was a strong 
 feeling in the House against Lord Ashley's proposition, he felt it would 
 be indecorous in him to press it to a division, and the motion was therefore 
 withdrawn. The country was not ripe for the effort ; no second grant was 
 made, and henceforth the Emigration scheme, as regarded Ragged Schools, 
 had to be carried on from private sources. 
 
 But the ventilation of the subject in the public press gave an impetus to 
 Ragged School work generally. The subject became popular, and the fact 
 that the Government would not take up the matter, made the flow of contri- 
 butions from voluntary sources more abundant than ever. 
 
 The strong personal interest that Lord Ashley took in individuals on 
 whoso behalf he laboured can never be adequately told. An illustration only 
 can now and again be given. For example, a letter, written in 1849, was 
 found, thirty-six years after its date that is to say, shortly after his death 
 in the box which he always carried about with him, as containing the things 
 he most valued. It is written in a cramped, ill-formed hand, and is 
 addressed : " Lord Ashley, Exeter Hall, Westminster, London." On the 
 cover Lord Shaftesbury had written : " Very precious to me, this letter. S." 
 
 It ran as follows : 
 
 POET ADELAIDE SOUTH AUSTRALIA. 
 
 October 8th, '49. 
 
 MOST NOBLE LORD, I Arived at port Adelade on the 25th March after a 
 very plesant passage and am now in a very comfortable situtation and with verv
 
 1SW1 OUTBREAK OF CHOLERA. 417 
 
 pious people. I like Australia very well but the Weather is so very hot in the 
 summer it is now 6 mounths since I arived here and have need to thank you for 
 your kindness in sending me out I think with persevience I shall do much 
 Better here than in England. I do not think I shall ever forget the good Advice 
 i recived at palace yard Ragged School, and senserily thank them all for there 
 kindness. 
 
 Please to except the poor thanks of your obliged and thankful servant 
 
 CAROLINE WALKER. 
 
 On the back of the letter, written evidently many years later, although 
 there is no date affixed, is the following : " She went into service, behaved 
 so well that her master gave her in marriage to his son. She became a con- 
 .-i 'lc Table person in Australia, and afterwards went to India? Where is she 
 now ? God be for ever with this Ragged School girl ! S." 
 
 Throughout the year in fact, from October, in 1848 the country had 
 '"on in a state of growing alarm on account of the outbreaks of cholera; and 
 Lord Ashley, as Chairman of the Board of Health, was involved in the most 
 harassing and unceasing labours. In the early part of the year as we have 
 >.ii<l, one hundred and fifty children perished by the pestilence in an establish- 
 ment at Tooting, for the " care of the Infant Poor," and it was found that 
 they were attacked when suffering from insufficient food, defective clothing, 
 and impure air. Investigations into further outbreaks, at different times and 
 places, proved conclusively, that " wherever neglect, wherever depression, or 
 vice, or poverty, pressed down the population, there the pestilence raged with 
 ' ributive and warning arm ; the sins of omission and commission were 
 revolted on the lives of those who perpetrated or permitted them." It 
 was found that foul drains, overflowing cesspools, fetid waters, overcrowded 
 lodging-houses, damp cellars, and ill-ventilated rooms, attracted the pestilence, 
 which then spread to the houses of the better classes, and to the mansions of 
 the rich. 
 
 As the summer advanced the pestilence grew in virulence ; but while 
 everybody who could do so was running awny from London as fast as 
 possible, Lord Ashley, with his indefatigable colleagues, Dr. Soutliwood 
 Smith and Mr. Edwin Chad wick, was working night and day in the very 
 miilst df the plague. Reviled by the, newspapers, resisted by Boards of 
 ( iu.inlians, hampered by red-tape, he persevered in his labours; and, be it 
 remembered, that it was entirely unpaid service which lie rendered through* 
 out the whole of the difficult and dangerous time of the existence of the Board 
 of Health. 
 
 Sept. 7th. Labour and anxiety at Board of Health very great Wo aro 
 now in the City of the Plajrue, and still by God's love under His shield and 
 buckler. He hears our prayers, and defends against the " Pestilence that walketh 
 in darkness." Disorder increasing ; close of last week showed a mortality 
 trebling the average of London ; 1,881 victims of this awful scourge 1 Yesterday 
 showed, for the metropolis alone, a return of 345 in one day. God 1 Thou art 
 terrible and yet just in Thy decrees. 
 B B
 
 418 THE EARL OF SIIAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XVIII. 
 
 Sept. 9th. London is emptied. Cholera worse than ever ; returns of 
 yesterday quite appalling, and yet manifest that we do not receive more than 
 two-thirds of the truth. Have been mercifully preserved through this pestilence. 
 Have not, I thank God, shrunk from one hour of duty in the midst of this City of 
 the Plague, and yet it has not approached either me or my dwelling. 
 
 Sept. 17th. Times of this morning contains an extract from the Observer 
 which is gratifying. The Board of Health may hope little, and perhaps desire 
 little, for the applause of men ; but I do much deplore that our anxieties and 
 labours should be thrown away, and we be told that we have done nothing, 
 attempted nothing, imagined nothing, wished nothing. Our diligence and zeal 
 are mentioned in the article ; yet it is less than justice. We have indeed toiled 
 unceasingly, and not as mere officials, but with earnestness and feeling. Chad- 
 wick and Smith are men who may feel, but who know not fatigue or satiety in 
 business, when necessity urges, or duty calls. As for the staff of the Board, 
 miserably paid as they are, with scanty hopes of preferment, or even of continued 
 employment, I am unable to speak with adequate praise. They have laboured 
 even to sickness, and when struck down by the disease, have hastened back to 
 their work, not for emolument (for they receive fixed salaries) but for conscience 
 sake. And such are the men whose scanty recompense certain gentry would 
 reduce by 10 per cent. Out upon this disgusting economy I 
 
 The one great cause of surprise and anxiety to Lord Ashley throughout 
 this perilous time was, that although the disease was spreading, and terrible 
 alarm was prevalent, there was no apparent turning to prayer. Not an 
 ecclesiastic attempted to stir the Government to direct public supplication. 
 In vain he wrote to the Archbishop and the Bishop of London, and he says, 
 " Surely it is prodigious that the laity should always take the lead in these 
 things. The world will soon ask ' cui bono P ' our spiritual, or, rather, our 
 ecclesiastical rulers." 
 
 It was in vain also that he urged a fast-day ; and not until alarm was 
 approaching to panic was he able to obtain a special prayer. 
 
 Lord John Russell to Lord Aslilcy. 
 
 BALMOBAL, September 1, 1849. 
 
 DEAR ASHLEY, I have written to-day to the Archbishop, in answer to a 
 letter of his, to say that the Queen will direct a form of prayer to be prepared on 
 account of the cholera. 
 
 The visitation of this disease has indeed taken a very awful shape. 
 
 Now as to your own health. Carlisle writes me word that he is going to 
 London, and I think you owe it to your family that you should now take the 
 rest which is so necessary to you. Had I foreseen your duties would have been so 
 severe, I could hardly have proposed the office to you. But, though unpaid, 
 you will, I am sure, feel the satisfaction of having worked for the health and 
 life of your fellow-creatures in a way that hardly any other person would have 
 
 Ever, my dear Ashley, yours truly, 
 
 J. RUSSELL. 
 
 On Sunday, 16th September, the special prayer was read in the churches. 
 During the preceding week the nmnber of deaths from cholera raised the
 
 1849.) BUWDAY POSTAL LABOUR. 419 
 
 ordinary average of mortality from 1,008 to 3,183. By the 13th of the 
 following month cholera had disappeared, but not until 14,407 deaths from 
 this cause had been registered since the 1st October, 1848. Referring to 
 the special prayer the Diary continues : 
 
 Sept 17th, Yesterday, Sunday. The prayer for deliverance from the cholera. 
 A poor substitute for a day of repentance and humiliation ; but, thank God, 
 better than nothing. . . . Alas I alas ! who can trust our ecclesiastical rulers I 
 Does it not savour of a mockery? Was it so that Moses and Aaron stood 
 " between the living and the dead," when wrath had gone out from the Lord .' 
 What gibes, jokes, sneers, and doubts, we shall encounter 1 What varieties of 
 scoffing and bitterness ! a precious occasion for sceptics and worldlings ! . . . 
 
 It was not until a fairly clean bill of health could be returned that Lord 
 Ashley allowed himself the rest for which he had long been pining. 
 
 Sept 18th. Tun bridge Wells. Attended Board of Health on my way through 
 London. Pestilence on the decline. I can be spared from London, and I seek a 
 short repose. But I heartily thank God that I shrank not from the post of toil 
 and danger, but persisted from August 1st to September llth in the midst of the 
 pestilence, and stirred not till the plague was stayed. The Almighty bore me 
 through and covered me, for Christ's sake, with His shield and buckler. . . . 
 
 A few days later, and the following entry occurs : 
 
 Sept 29th. Yesterday to Lord Hardinge's with Minny to dine and sleep. He 
 is a good-hearted, simple-minded, generous soldier ; a noble fellow in his profes- 
 sion, and a real good man. I love and esteem him much, and God ever bless him 
 and his for his pious, manly, true, and thankful acknowledgment, in a public 
 order, of God's mercy to the armies in the battle of Sobraon ! . . . 
 
 In defence of the Christian Sabbath its claims, duties, and privileges 
 Lord Ashley was, throughout his life, always on the alert. Any encroach- 
 ment upon its sanctity, from whatever quarter, was sure to bring him to tlio 
 front ; and any effort to guard and honour it, was equally sure of hia co- 
 operation and support. 
 
 While he was resting at Tunbridge Wells, a rumour reached him that a 
 Government order had been issued for all clerks in the Post Office to attend 
 to their official duties on Sundays as on other days. Instantly lie wrote to 
 Sir George Grey, Lord John Russell, and Lord Clanricarde,* appealing to 
 them, as Christians and Statesmen, to interfere, and, in the course of a few 
 hours he had placed himself at the head of a movement, organised by tlio 
 employes of the Post Office to resist the demand. A few days later he came 
 up to town to preside at the Freemasons' Tavern over a full and enthusiastic 
 iii'-cting, to protest against the action of the Post Office authorities. 
 
 The protests were in vain ; and lie writes : 
 
 Nov. 20th, Sunday. On this day will begin the new ministerial scheme of 
 Sabbath labour at the P. 0. Should it succeed, should it increase revenue, and 
 gratify moneyed men, alas, humanly speaking, for the Sunday altogether 1 But 
 
 * The Postmaster-General. 
 B B 2
 
 420 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XVltl. 
 
 we pray and trust that God " will blow upon it," and bring to confusion the vile 
 attempt. The true remedy lies in closing 1 every P. 0., metropolitan and provin- 
 cial, from 12 o'clock on Saturday night till 2 o'clock on Monday morning. 
 
 For the present he was unsuccessful ; but within a short time he was to 
 return to the charge with resolution undaunted. 
 
 On May the 30th in the following year he moved, in the House of Com- 
 mons, that an address be presented to her Majesty, praying that she would bo 
 graciously pleased to direct that the collection and delivery of letters on Sunday 
 might, in future, entirely cease in all parts of the kingdom. A noisy debate 
 ensued, the Government strenuously resisting ; but Lord Ashley's motion 
 was carried by 93 to 68 ! 
 
 In reply to the Address, her Majesty adopted the resolution, and thus 
 confirmed the victory that Lord Ashley had won in the House. Lord John 
 Russell announced that it was the intention of the Government completely 
 to. carry out the vote, and that no exception would be made even in favour 
 of foreign correspondence. 
 
 For three weeks the Sunday post was stopped throughout the kingdom ; 
 and during that period, and for some time after, Lord Ashley occupied the 
 unenviable position of being the most unpopular and the most roundly-abused 
 man in the kingdom. He writes : 
 
 Mouths are yawning against me in anger and contempt. Not only the papers, 
 but all society, are furious, and all this because certain aristocratical people will 
 not have their gossip in the country every Sunday morning. ... It requires 
 cither strong shoulders, or an ass's skin, to bear the strokes. . . . The variety, 
 universality, and bitterness of attack are quite original. 
 
 Of course the newspapers teemed with letters, from irate correspondents, 
 descriptive of the inconvenience, and calling for immediate alteration. The 
 Government, after advising the Queen to adopt the resolution, returned to the 
 House, and, represented by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, set to work to 
 neutralise the effect of the vote by publicly inviting petitions to prove the 
 inconvenience and damage. 
 
 The press, and society still more, so they tell me, teem with vituperations and 
 hatred. Epithets and appellations are exhausted ; bigot, fool, fanatic, Puritan, 
 are the mildest terms. They seek to beat me with my own weapons, and lament 
 the " desecration of the Sabbath " of which I am the cause ! Truly " Satan is 
 transformed into an angel of light." . . . 
 
 On the other hand, Lord Ashley received letters " of deep, earnest, grateful 
 joy from postmasters and messengers, full of piety and prayer," and letters 
 of thankfulness and offers of aid from many unexpected quarters. 
 
 It was not for long, however, that the controversy was to last. An 
 inquiry was moved for, and entrusted to Lord Clanricarde, Mr. Labouchere, 
 and Sir G. Cornewall Lewis, the result being that the resolution, with the 
 order of the Postmaster- General under it, were rescinded, and the Sunday 
 deliver}- was replaced on its former footing.
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 isr>o ism. 
 
 " BY doing good with his money a man, as it were, stamps the image of God 
 upon it, and makes it pass current for the merchandise of heaven." In the 
 course of his life there were many who thought that the greatest good they 
 could do with their money was to place it in the care of Lord Shaftesbury. 
 He always had schemes on hand which needed help. Every one who knew 
 him, knew that, as a trustee of money, he was scrupulously exact, and that 
 not a penny entrusted to him would fail of accomplishing some direct end ; it 
 was known, too, that ho had special channels for circulating it where it would 
 be most useful. At various periods of his career large sums of money wro 
 placed at his disposal for charitable purposes, and the last months of his life 
 were much occupied in the disposal of a legacy of 50,000 left to him for 
 distribution among charities. 
 
 He was probably never more grateful for such aid to his schemes than at 
 the time when, the Government having failed to further his efforts to pro- 
 mote Emigration among Ragged Schools, the whole burden of supplying tlu> 
 iiH'.-ms for it fell upon the exertions of the benevolent. There was one lady, 
 Miss Portal, who was always ready to help in any work of mercy in which 
 Lord Ashley was specially interested, and many times in the course of the 
 Diaries there are entries like the following, relating to her Christian love and 
 munificence : 
 
 Jan. 6th. Received yesterday a draft for 1,000 from that dear woman, 
 Hiss Portal, to be laid out, at my discretion, on Ragged Schools, emigration, and 
 whatever can advance the temporal and spiritual well-being of the youthful 
 outcasts. This makes now 3,300 with which this pure-hearted and disinterested 
 daughter of Zion has supported my efforts. May God bless her basket and her 
 store, her body and her soul, her heart and her spirit, with fruitf ulness in faith, 
 Joy, peace, prayer, and everlasting life ! . . . 
 
 . . . She has been a real comfort to me ; her sympathy and co-operation, 
 her simple, humble-minded generosity, have given me great support. . . . 
 
 Money and help flowed in from many quarters in furtherance of the 
 Emigration scheme the Queen and Prince Consort sent 100 and, so long 
 as such resources lasted, the greatest success attended the labours of Lord 
 Ashley in this direction. 
 
 One friend who, more than any other, had been a constant sympathiser 
 and earnest coadjutor in Lord Ashley's labours the Eev. E. Bickerstoth 
 was, early in this year, called to his rest.. In his society Lord Ashley had 
 always found satisfaction ; on almost every subject their views were identical,
 
 422 THE EARL OP SIIAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XIX. 
 
 and many a solemn hour had they spent together in discussing the state of 
 the times in relation to Tractariauism ; in pondering over unfulfilled prophecies 
 the frequent subject of Mr. Bickersteth's pulpit discourses in talking 
 over the restoration of Israel to their promised land, and, dearer than all, in 
 hoping and praying for the Second Coming of the Son of Man. 
 On the 17th February he writes : 
 
 "Lord, lie whom Thou lovest is sick." Is this too much to say of Bickersteth ? 
 I trow not. This dearly-beloved friend and fellow-servant is grievously ill ; and 
 prayers, we bless God, are daily made for him throughout the Church. How little 
 can we afford to lose such a champion for the Truth. And yet I hardly dare to 
 ask that he be detained longer in this sinful and suffering world ; but we may 
 safely ask, and do ask, that he may enjoy consolation and assurance in the grace 
 and mercy of our blessed Redeemer. 
 
 On February the 28th Mr. Bickersteth died ; and it was long before there 
 was another to take his place in Lord Ashley's esteem and affection. Some 
 time after his death, when harassed with cares for the Church, lie wrote : 
 " How I miss, and shall continue to miss, the warmth, the joy in good, the 
 sympathy, of dear Bickersteth. How many times his words have encouraged 
 or consoled me." 
 
 Before proceeding to dwell upon the larger subjects that were specially to 
 engage the heart and brain of Lord Ashley, a few extracts upon general 
 matters may be given here from his Diary. 
 
 Feb. 8th. Windsor Castle. Came here yesterday. On Wednesday speech at 
 Sanitary Meeting. Walked through state rooms ; saw and loved a picture of 
 Edward VI. He and my blessed Francis were counterparts of each other in 
 thought, in heart, in service, in age, and in death. They are probably no\v 
 together humbly and joyously adoring their blessed Lord ; and as they sleep in 
 Him, so will they come with Him 1 " Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly." . . . 
 
 In the House of Commons a serious altercation had taken place, on the 
 7th of February, between Mr. Horsman and Lord John Russell, arising out 
 of charges made against the Government by the former in a letter to his con- 
 stituents. It is to this that the former part of the following entry relates : 
 
 Feb. 13th. On evening llth acted as mediator between J. Russell and 
 Horsman, without previous concert with either; was urged to it by Hume, 
 V. Smith, Inglis, &c. My bat-like position gave me facilities. Prayed to God, and 
 succeeded. Many spoke to me afterwards very kindly on the subject. Gorham 
 affair still unpronounced upon ; it is supposed that the Bishops of Oxford and 
 Salisbury, working on the duplicity of the Bishop of London and the simplicity 
 of the Archbishop of Canterbury, will retard the decision that the clergy may 
 have time to protest against the tribunal ; and they themselves, during the delay, 
 take the chapter of accidents 1 Wrote finally to Russell to urge despatch ; he 
 replied that "he viewed, with much suspicion, the conduct of the Bishop of 
 London." Singular it is, the state in which I am ; I am almost forced to have 
 "a finger in every pie." I verily believe that, humanly speaking, I was in- 
 strumentally the cause of the safer construction of the Gorham Committee.
 
 18M).1 REV. ADOLPH MOXOD. 423 
 
 Certainly Lord John had never dreamed of the Archbishops as assessors, before I 
 had suggested them. 
 
 Ash Wednesday, attended church ; afterwards the Board of Health, then pro- 
 ceeded to Pye Street. Had agreed to make one of a small family dinner-party 
 with my mother-in-law ; * but when she filled it with strangers and raised it to 
 titeteen, I declined. It is not that I attach any peculiar sanctity to the day ; but 
 it has been set apart by the Church for confession and meditation. Festivities, 
 therefore, are not in accordance with it, and would shock the feelings of many 
 conscientious members. . . . 
 
 Feb. 21st. By desire of Prince Albert attended meeting at Willis's Rooms, to 
 move resolution on behalf of the Industrial Exhibition of 1851. Though I am 
 disposed to regard the thing as having " more cry than wool," I went in obedience 
 to his wishes. Twenty-two speakers, some very long ; I, the twelfth, for four 
 minutes, and never did I dislike anything so much. . . . 
 
 In March Lord Ashley left London for a f ortnight's visit to Paris. 
 One of his first visits was to the Egliso Reformee, to hear the Rev. 
 Adolph Monod pi-each. 
 
 April 1st. . . . and right glad I am that I did so, for a better and more 
 touching sermon, more pointed and true, and effectively delivered, I never heard. 
 It was steeped in evangelism ; and the worthlessness of man's works and the 
 free grace of God, savoured every thought and expression. It did me and Minny 
 real good, and I felt truly comfortable. . . . The sun shines, the houses 
 sparkle, the shops abound ; all is bustle, felicity, bunting and gobble yet " all 
 faces gather blackness ; " not a cheering word drops from any one, no matter 
 what his station, politics, or education. The utmost of comfort is, " it will not 
 be just yet" That mysterious " it." The syllable contains the renewal of sixty 
 years of Revolution, of proscriptions, wars internal and external, fall of trade, 
 distress, men's hearts failing them for fear. By-the-bye, sat next to Guizot at 
 Monod's sermon. 
 
 In the following year, when Lord Ashley was again in Paris, he was less 
 successful in his visit to hear Monod. The church was the Temple de Sainte 
 Marie. It was crowded, the heat oppressive, and the people not over civil. 
 " I saw here," he said, " at least liberte, for the beadle slammed the door in 
 my face ; egalite, for no one was better treated by each other, or the officer, 
 than any one else ; but no fraternite, for they drove me from point to point, 
 until, having reached the bottom of the church, I could go no further." 
 
 The immediate object of Lord Ashley's visit to Paris was to examine the 
 homes and haunts of the poor, to see what practical hints could be gathered 
 in sanitary matters, and to contrast and compare methods of meeting the 
 evils incident to all great cities. Hence we find him visiting, " in the 
 way of trade," as he says, Montfau^on, the slaughter-house of horses ; the 
 Cite Ouvriere, " desolate, and without inhabitant ; " the Abattoir Moiit- 
 martro, " excellent, well-placed, no dirt, no cruelty; " the Salpetriere, where, 
 luring' the cholera, 1,600 out of 5,000 had died, the reason assigned being 
 
 * Lady Palmerston.
 
 424 THE EARL OF SIIAFTESBUHY. [Cnxp. XIX. 
 
 singularly confirmatory of experience in England "rooms over-crowded, 
 great faults of construction, exceedingly ill-ventilated." 
 
 Paris had a great charm for Lord Ashley its tints, its climate, its move- 
 ment, its life, the kindness and courtesy of the people and yet he looked 
 upon all with a feeling of sadness. " I cannot bear," he says, " to think of 
 the horrors that designing and self-seeking men men of low personal 
 interests and godless ambition are preparing for this generation. As I 
 walked through the gardens and through the streets, contemplating the 
 numbers of young, pretty, and playful children, I felt as Elisha, and wept to 
 think of the sorrows in store for them, the widowhood, the orphanage, the 
 desolation, and suffering." 
 
 This feeling was to a great extent shared in by the Parisians themselves, 
 as the following notes will show : 
 
 April 4th. It is strange the condition of mind of all in this city. Every 
 day, sometimes twice a day, rumours of a decree, a coup d'etat, a Bill which will 
 drive the Socialists to fury, then a struggle. Went to Madame de Lieven's yester- 
 day evening ; saw some notables, but heard the same as elsewhere ; the French 
 gentry are at their wit's ends. I remarked that the people were misled by evil 
 and designing leaders. Guizot maintained that the people were "utterly cor- 
 rupted from their very youth, having neither moral discipline nor religion ; they 
 would be quite as bad without them." Thence to Madame Pozzo's, the 
 Legitimist house. No difference of sentiment or expression : all gloomy, appre- 
 hensive, and life from hand to mouth. And yet they live in show and distraction 
 everywhere no end of play-going, balls, parties, receptions ; plenty of fear, and 
 no thought ; abundance of anticipations, and no preparation ; a dismal future, a 
 present gaiety " Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." ..." I have 
 not had," said Madame Pozzo to Minny, " a day of assurance for two years ; I 
 have had the actual day, but no security of the morrow ; " and yet these Legiti- 
 mists dream of " reaction," and, as M. Pozzo informed me, had already their plan 
 "pour modifier la ville" 
 
 Four o'clock. Very weary. Penetrated and perambulated Faubourg St. 
 Antoine, and the street behind the Hotel de Ville. Thence to the Chamber. It 
 has the look of a bad theatre, with uncomfortable boxes and ill-chosen decora- 
 tions. Stayed one hour and a half, during which time the Deputies threw pellets 
 and papers into urns, and did nothing else. Bored to death, so came away. 
 
 A scene in the Chamber, yesterday, which ended nearly in blows. Threats were 
 uttered, and fists shaken. These are but symptoms of internal fires. The 
 offending party was fined fifteen days' pay. Was there ever anything so vulgar / 
 
 April 5th. Last night to the President's reception, Elysee. The style simple, 
 without pretence. Amused in contemplating the various figures, and the various 
 parts they might play hereafter. Changarnier there in plain clothes, with white 
 moustaches and a black wig ; he looks like a Tartar cat. Certainly, for a Repub- 
 lic, there never were so many orders, ribbons, stars, and other decorations. We 
 know whence they came, but whither do they go ? The immorality of the nation 
 lies at the root of all the evil and all the danger ; it is not misgovernment, oppres- 
 sive taxation ; it is not religious persecution, nor denial of freedom ; it is not the 
 presence of a griping Church or a monopolising aristocracy; it is not any politicaj
 
 I860.] IN PARIS. 42. r i 
 
 defect, or any civil abuse or blunder ; it is the utter want of all religion, all sense 
 of God, all respect for man. The domestic system, the prime ordinance of God 
 for human society, is nearly extinct. " In thee and thy seed shall the families of 
 the earth be blessed." Mark the expression ; not the nations, not the people, not 
 the individuals, but the " families " of the earth. This, however, is cut up at the 
 very roots ; their mode of life, their dwellings, their amusements, their tastes, 
 their .passions, all are incompatible with the cares, the toils, the duties of domestic 
 existence. Hence, to save money and gratify their selfish and carnal desires, the 
 unnatural and disgusting conditions respecting children ; hence the total neglect 
 of thousands of their offspring, consigned from their birth to the charge of distant 
 and indifferent hirelings ; hence the annual exposure of 30,000 children in the 
 streets of Paris, many, too, they say, born in legitimate wedlock. I will rest (but 
 not unto us, Lord, not unto us) the superiority of England over France on this 
 alone : 30,000 infants abandoned every year in Paris on a population of 1,000,000, 
 not 300 in London on a population of 2,000,000 ! 
 
 April 6th. Dined with Lady Elgin last night, Rue de Varennes, to meet 
 Lamartine. He is over head and ears a poet, and looks like one ; he talks well, 
 and is highly interesting while he recounts his revolutionary experiences. But 
 I could not trust him ; he seems to take sober and practical views of nothing, all 
 is resolved into the fitness of the affair, or the moment, for a speech, or a stanza. 
 Doubtless his prodigious oratorical abilities are a great source of temptation to him. 
 He showed as much when he said yesterday, " If it were not bad for the country, 
 I should rejoice to live my period of power over again, it was so exciting." He 
 is the only one who speaks with assurance of the future, but, then, he is become 
 once more a candidate for office. His wishes are fathers to his thoughts. He 
 rendered great service, all must confess, in the first moments of the dreadful in- 
 surrection of 1848, but I cannot regard him as a disinterested man. 
 
 April 10th. Dined last night with Madame de Lieven, and met many French 
 gentlemen, Guizot, &c. &c. Sat next to me a " Legitimist." " You have been 
 saved," he said, " by the religion of your people." I observed that the " best and 
 only mode of humanising the working classes was to go amongst them and prove 
 that you studied their best interests." " This," he replied, " is now impossible 
 with us ; the masses are in so awful a condition, and every obstruction besets us ; 
 all our men of science, station, and note, are professed infidels." It is so, but what 
 a contrast to England I Vet we must not boast. Who made us to differ ? . . . 
 
 April llth. Dined last night with Monsieur and Madame Andre 1 . A party of 
 French Protestants desirous of listening to stories about Ragged Schools and 
 other modus of assisting society. Kind, hospitable, and friendly ; full of zeal 
 and piety. Deeply alarmed by the state of the Parisian people, and equally 
 anxious to devise some means of encountering it, but their difficulties, it cannot 
 be denied, are tremendous. . . . 
 
 To-day we start for England. . . . 
 
 Lord Asldey's views with regard to amusements will have been found, 
 from various extracts given in this book, to have boon much wider than those 
 of many witli whom he was associated, and whoso views in great measure lie 
 was supposed to represent. The principle which governed him was that laid 
 down by the Apostle, " All things arc lawful for me, but all tilings arc not
 
 426 THE EARL OP SIIAFTESBURY. (CHAP. XIX. 
 
 To oblige Minny went to Theatre Francais, not having entered a play- 
 house for very many years. I have abstained in deference to the opinions and 
 feelings of those with whom I have been associated in religious undertakings, 
 and I shall do so again, though I am disposed to believe that the theatre might 
 be made a " School of Virtue." Told, besides, that it was necessary to see Valeria, 
 in order to ascertain the public mind of Paris, its views and sentiments. Saw 
 nothing but a bad play, well acted. 
 
 One of Lord Ashley's first acts on his return from Paris was to send in 
 Ids resignation as Chairman of the Board of Health. We have seen how 
 arduous his labours had been during the year of cholera, and they had not 
 decreased. It was not, however, on the ground of the labour involved that 
 he wished to discontinue his services in connection with the Board. He had 
 seen the necessity of a change in the laws concerning the burial of the dead 
 in the metropolis, and had prepared a Bill for their amendment the " Extra- 
 mural Interment Bill." Early in January of this year he received a letter 
 from Lord Carlisle informing him that the Government proposed to take out 
 of his hands the future conduct of that Bill. This, however, was but one of 
 a series of disappointments which are alluded to in the Diary thus : 
 
 The Government throw on me the small, tedious, harassing details of the 
 Provisional Orders, but the measures of credit they reserve for themselves. This, 
 however, has altered and abated my duties for the Session, because I am now 
 detached from the special charge of the sanitary measures, Interment, Water, 
 Building. I cannot hide to myself my own disappointment ; partly, I had hoped 
 that my name (is this an illegitimate desire ?) would be inseparably connected with 
 these reforms ; and, partly, I hoped that intense labour and anxiety would not 
 be without their fruits. " He best can paint them, who can feel them most." 
 I tremble for the issue, in ignorant or unsympathising hands. . . . 
 
 Notwithstanding the disappointment, Lord Ashley considered that the 
 Interment plan was one of the best ever devised, and was likely to be produc- 
 tive of real moral effects on the poorer population, and lie continued to work 
 at it laboriously. The appointment, however, of Lord Seymour as President 
 of the Board, over the head of Lord Ashley, who had borne all the burden 
 and heat of the day, greatly changed his position and impeded his action. It 
 was this that led to his tendering his resignation. But Lord John Russell 
 would not hear of it, and, sinking his own preferences for the general good, 
 Lord Ashley continued, at great personal sacrifice, to retain his office. If he 
 could not keep the Interment Bill in his hands, he trusted, at least, that ho 
 should be able to carry through the Bill for the Metropolitan Water Supply, 
 and, in fact, he made this a condition of his remaining on the Board. 
 
 Throughout the year, and still later, the Diary contains many entries relat- 
 ing to these matters, of which the following may be taken as specimens to 
 show the nature of some of the difficulties that assailed him : 
 
 June 5th. Interment Bill. Passed but three clauses in nearly five hours. 
 Much attacked and reviled. . , . These are the sweets of unremuneratetl 
 public life !
 
 1850.] DEATH OF SIR ROBERT PEEL. 427 
 
 July 18th. Yesterday gave whole day to wander over the wild heaths of 
 Surrey, around Farnham, in quest of springs and getting grounds for Water 
 Supply of the Metropolis. Started at ten and returned at ten. Saw all that we 
 wanted, found rivers to break out in the desert, and confessed that God was 
 bountiful. But will man be so ? It is overwhelming, heart-breaking, awful to 
 reflect, how many thousands are deprived, in this Christian city, of the prime 
 requisite for health, comfort, decency, of an essential prop and handmaid to 
 morality 1 ... 
 
 Deo. 12th. The Water Supply, for which alone I remained at the B. of H., 
 will be set aside or emasculated by the Government ; and yet I made this measure 
 a condition of my stay there. The situation is painful, because it is become that 
 of a clerk, and I am made, by Seymour and Grey, to feel it hourly. The Board 
 has no free action, no power to effect any of its decisions, for the Treasury and 
 the Home Office refuse, or thwart, every proposition. 
 
 Jan. 31st, 1851. The labours and anxieties of the B. of H. have, I suspect, 
 contributed not a little to my disorders. I feel these subjects deeply ; they are 
 intimately connected with the physical and, to no small extent, with the moral 
 welfare of mankind. I am grieved, harassed, overwhelmed with variety of work, 
 a dull position, and a dismal horizon. I want neither honour, nor praise, nor 
 payment ; but I want some little fruit of protracted toil and expended health. 
 . . . But what shall I do ? Shall I persevere, or shall I retire ? I want the 
 time for the stirring and precious business of this Session. I want it for other 
 movements of service to God and man. I want it for moments of reflection and 
 repose ; but I must not seek my own, but Thy will, God. 
 
 The summer of this year saw the close of a very remarkable career, and 
 one with which Lord Ashley was, more particularly in his earlier life, closely 
 associated. 
 
 On the 24th of June there was a debate on the foreign policy of the 
 Government, introduced by Mr. Roebuck, and continued over four nights. 
 On the 28th Sir Robert Peel spoke, and his speech was generally admitted 
 " to be characterised by great kindliness of feeling and political foresight." 
 It was his last speech, his last appearance in that House, where, ever since 
 1809, he had been one of the most conspicuous members. On the following 
 day, as he was riding up Constitution Hill, after entering his name in the 
 Queen's visiting book at Buckingham Palace, his horse shied and threw him 
 over its head, and Sir Robert, still keeping hold of the reins, drew the animal 
 upon him with its knees between his shoulders. The injuries were not at 
 first considered likely to be fatal, but their extent was not really known. On 
 the 1st of July the symptoms grew more and more alarming, and on tlio 
 following night he expired. 
 
 June 30th. Sunday. Yesterday Peel was thrown from his horse, and injured 
 by the fall. God have mercy on him in mind and body 1 ... Called to in- 
 quire after Peel do not quite like the account, though I trust that all will 
 be well. 
 
 July 2nd. Peel still in great danger poor man. May God be gracious to 
 him I . . . 
 
 July 3rd. Peel is dead. He died last night, at eleven o'clock, in full
 
 428 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBXJRY. (CHAP. XTX 
 
 consciousness, having seen his family and friends, and taken the Lord's Supper at 
 the hands of the Bishop of Gibraltar. What an end ! What an event ! Are we 
 not all in the midst of death ? It has deeply afflicted me ; he was a great intel- 
 lect, and had some noble qualities. Lord, give us hope that he has found mercy 
 in Christ Jesus, and sanctify it to us all I . . . House this morning was ad- 
 journed in respect to poor Peel. This awful death has revived many recollec- 
 tions, and stirred many feelings of ancient days. . . . 
 
 July 5th. Yesterday J. Russell pronounced an eulogy oil Sir R. Peel, and 
 proposed a public funeral, which was declined, with gratitude, by Goulburn on 
 the part of the family, who urged a passage in his will expressive of a desire to 
 be interred in the vault at Dray ton. It was well and feelingly done on both 
 sides ; but, as it went on, I could not but estimate how worthless are these things. 
 How did they affect him ? how did they console his family ? And yet such have 
 been, in history, the springs of many brilliant actions, and, perhaps, will be so 
 again. The true value of it is nothing ; the same minds that have recorded their 
 panegyrics will, as soon as the peculiar shock is over, review his course with 
 critical "justice," and qualify the praise that .was uttered in the moment of sym- 
 pathy. Human applause is very tempting ; but woe to the man who confides in 
 it ; there is no secure and fruitful honour but that which cometh from God only. 
 As the shock subsides, reminiscences arise. This event, that was at first terrible, 
 is becoming sad. The man, his voice, his figure, all are before my eyes. It is truly 
 awful. May God in His mercy, bless the affliction to his wife and children ! 
 
 July 9th. This day Sir R. Peel will be interred at Drayton, and then speedily 
 forgotten. Such is human fame, and yet in many respects, one of the greatest 
 men of this generation I The Duke of Cambridge expired this day. I deeply 
 lament his loss. . . . He brought the branches of the Crown into frequent 
 contact with the charitable institutions of the metropolis and the comforts of 
 the people. 
 
 July 25th. Attended, on Tuesday, a meeting to do honour to Sir R. Peel, and 
 to second a resolution moved by the Duke of Wellington ! Had been requested 
 to do so by Goulburn and Graham, and of course complied. He had wonderful 
 qualities of various kinds, and his loss is great. 
 
 In August, Lord Ashley, who had not been in really good health since liis 
 severe attack of illness in 1848, left London for a tour in Scotland, in tho 
 hope that he might renew his strength and be braced up for the work which 
 lay before him in the winter. The Duke of Argyll had lent him Roseneath, 
 the Duke's place on the Clyde. Wo will not follow him through tho tour, 
 except to note one or two incidents. At Tarbert he met, by accident, Mr. 
 Locke, the Secretary of the Bagged School Union, and suddenly, vividly, 
 there came before him " the ragged race, and indeed, all the race of unhappy, 
 forgotten, ill-used children." In intervals of leisure he tried to read a few 
 books, and keep pace with the generation ; but lie found that " while ho 
 roamed over the older works he had missed, he let go the new, and so, like 
 panting Time, he toiled after them in vain." In one part of his journey lie 
 went seven miles in a spring cart, " rightly so named, for he was never made 
 to spring so high before." And in another he was " entrapped to ascend the 
 hills with a shooting-party, and found himself unintentionally converted into a
 
 1850.) A PAPAL BULL. 429 
 
 deer-stalker, although he neither fired a rifle nor saw a stag." At the little 
 town of Tain he records this surprising fact : " I was made ' free of the citj.' 
 The first public honour I have ever had. It was kindly proposed, and most 
 flatteringly conferred in the Town Hall, nor am I indifferent to the goodwill 
 and esteem of a body of citizens, though small and remote." 
 
 When the Session of Parliament was closed by the Queen in person in 
 August there was peace at home and abroad. But a new chapter in the 
 ecclesiastical history of the country was opening, and within a few weeks the 
 whole kingdom was to be agitated as it had rarely been before. One of the 
 most marked features of English history during the nineteenth century has 
 been the continuous growth of liberty of conscience. One by one, the dis- 
 abilities of Dissenters, Roman Catholics, and Jews, have been removed ; but, 
 with all this large-hearted tolerance for almost every form of faith and 
 practice, England never forgot that there was an ecclesiastical system which, 
 in its era of supremacy, wrote its history in characters of blood, and, while 
 yielding complete religious freedom, even though cautiously and tardily, to all 
 law-abiding Roman Catholic subjects, watched jealously for any manifesta- 
 tion on the part of the Church of Rome of a desire to re-assert her ancient 
 pretensions. 
 
 Thirty-six years ago the fear of Rome was much more dominant in 
 England than at the present day. Circumstances have altered, and a " No 
 Popery " agitation of national dimensions would require for its exciting cause 
 a high-handed policy such as no ecclesiastical body seems ever likely to venture 
 upon again in this country. Indeed, it is difficult to believe how thoroughly 
 the heart of England was stirred by the institution of certain titular dignities 
 which are still illegal, but are now accorded, as a matter of course, in our 
 ordinary conversation and in our literature. 
 
 In October, 1850, there was published a Papal Bull, abolishing the 
 Administration of Roman Catholics in England by Vicars Apostolic, and 
 appointing instead, two Archbishops and twelve Bishops, with territorial 
 districts distinctly marked out. Lord Ashley was in Scotland when the Bull 
 was published, and his first view of the matter, written at the moment, is 
 noteworthy. 
 
 Oct. 25th. Inverary. Events are beginning to be rife ; the Pope, by a Bull, 
 has divided England into dioceses with territorial titles, such as "Archbishop of 
 Westminster." We must be careful not to push this matter too far ; it is an act 
 of great annoyance and audacity, but not contrary to law, nor worth, in fact, a 
 new law. It must be used as a warning, as a stimulant, as a proof of Roman 
 ambition. 
 
 The aspect of affairs soon began to assume a more serious complexion. 
 Dr. Wiseman was appointed the first Archbishop of Westminster, and raised 
 to the dignity of a Cardinal, and, in this capacity, he sent to England the 
 notorious pastoral, dated " From out of the Flaininian Gate at Rome," a docu- 
 ment which inflamed the Protestant fervour of the country a hundredfold 
 more than the Papal Bull. Apparently ignoring the English Church and it*
 
 430 THE EARL OP 8HAFTESBURY. (CHAP. XIX. 
 
 episcopate, he spoke as if England had been restored to the Romish com- 
 munion, and would henceforth be ecclesiastically governed by the new 
 hierarchy. The following extract will serve as a sample of the arrogant as- 
 sumption that characterised this extraordinary document : 
 
 " The great work, then," wrote the Cardinal, " is complete ; what you have 
 long desired and prayed for is granted. Your beloved country has received a 
 place among the fair churches which normally constituted the splendid aggre- 
 gate of Catholic communion. Catholic England has been restored to its 
 orbit in the ecclesiastical firmament from which its light had long vanished, 
 and begins now anew its course of regularly-adjusted action round the centre 
 of unity, the source of jurisdiction, of light, and of vigour. How wonderfully 
 this has been brought about, how clearly the hand of God has been shown in 
 every step, we have not leisure to relate, but we may hope soon to recount to 
 you by word of mouth." 
 
 The recent proceedings of the Tractarians had prepared the people for a 
 unanimous cry of " No Popery," and all the Protestant sects and communions 
 united to resist these outrageous demands. Had Sir Robert Peel been 
 living, he might, perchance, have calmed the popular excitement, or, at least, 
 have directed and subdued it ; but Lord John Russell, who was now Premier, 
 saw an opportunity of dealing a blow at his Tractarian foes, and " raised a 
 tempest, from the effects of which his Government soon after suffered ship- 
 wreck." On November the 4th he wrote to the Bishop of Durham, what was 
 long after famous as " The Durham Letter." 
 
 After pointing to his own advocacy of the Catholic claims in past years, 
 he denounced the recent measures of the Pope as " a pretension of supremacy 
 over the realm of England, and a claim to sole and undivided sway, which is 
 inconsistent with the Queen's supremacy, with the rights of our Bishops and 
 Clergy, and with the spiritual independence of the nation, as asserted even in 
 Roman Catholic times." / 
 
 This letter won from Lord Ashley the strongest admiration, and roused 
 the whole country to a ferment. The course of events is noted, stage by 
 stage, in his Diary, from which we now qiiote : 
 
 Nov. 3rd. Edinburgh. People have often rebuked me as a croaker, as a bird of 
 evil augury ; but, as David says, " Is there not a cause ?" I never fear attacks, 
 but I tremble for the spirit that resists them. The Pope and his decrees are 
 nothing ; but the Puseyite Churchmen and the Laodicean nation are enough to 
 inspire terror. I am ready to conflict with Infidelity, and defy it ; but I sink 
 with dismay when I find the University rife with the German philosophy, and 
 ecclesiastical Judases, pretending belief in the Holy Scriptures, betraying the 
 Son of Man with a kiss ! 
 
 Nov. 5th. Gunpowder Plot day ! It was a mighty deliverance, for which we 
 of this generation are about as thankful as we are for the rescue of Daniel out 
 of the lions' den. And yet, when has God dealt more mercifully with any people 1 
 
 Public meetings denouncing the Papal Aggression were being held 
 throughout the country, and petitions were adopted calling upcn the Govern-
 
 1850.] LETTER FROM THE BISHOP OP OXFORD. 431 
 
 incut and Legislature to intervene. It was impossible that Lord Ashley 
 could remain away any longer from the scene of conflict, and OB. November 
 the llth we find him again in London and at the head of the Anti-Popery 
 movement. 
 
 Nov. llth. . . . Took chair at conference of clergy and laity to devise 
 mode of meeting present crisis ; sat for five hours ; fearful of disunion ; all 
 settled, by God's blessing, on a little management ; agreed to a committee to stir 
 country. How phall we " improve the shining hour ? " Such an occasion may 
 never return. 
 
 Nov. 21st. The Cardinal's manifesto is out ; bold, astute, unscrupulous ; but, 
 with all its cunning, more hurtful to the shooter than to the target. 
 
 Nov. 25th. What a surprising ferment ! It abates not a jot ; meeting after 
 meeting in every town and parish of the country. Vast meetings of counties, 
 specially of York. At concerts and theatres, I hear, " God save the Queen " is 
 demanded three times in succession. It resembles a storm over the whole ocean ; 
 it is a national sentiment, a rising of the land t All opinions seem for a while 
 merged in this one feeling. 
 
 An announcement having been made that a great meeting was to be held 
 to discuss the question, the Bishop of Oxford (Wilberforce), " striving," as 
 his biographer says, " to hold the balance between the two parties in the then 
 excited state of opinions," wrote to Lord Ashley a long letter, of which the 
 following is an extract : 
 
 You will be, more than any one, able to direct the current of Thursday's 
 meeting ; to settle whether it shall set against bond fide Romanising tendencies 
 in the Church (by which / mean the revival of a system of auricular confession, 
 sacramental absolution, the sacrificial character of the sacrament of the Lord's 
 Supper, the denial of Justification by Faith, &c., &c.), or whether it shall be a 
 mere attempt to brand as Romanisers all those in the Church who are of the 
 school of Andrews, Hooker, Beveridge, &c. Of this school I am a member. I make 
 no secret of it. I have, as I believe, dropped no one truth of my Evangelical 
 education, but I hold those truths in a more consistent and, therefore, a firmer 
 grasp. But the question I am anxious you should let me suggest for your 
 thought is this : Can it strengthen us as a Church against Rome, against Lati- 
 tudinarianism, against irreligion, againnt Socialism, and our frightful social evil, 
 to drive out, or render suspected, all the earnest-minded and, I will venture to 
 say, spiritually -minded men in this our day of exceeding need of every aid ? 
 
 " To this letter," says the biographer of Bishop Wilberforce,* " Lord 
 Aslilf\v replied, that at the meeting he was not only most anxious to avoid 
 personalities, but that he would do all in his power to prevent them. He 
 explained that the object of the meeting was to prevent Tractarian dogmas, 
 which, as he said, drove whole congregations to Dissenting chapels, and 
 which were rapidly turning the Church of England into a free Church." 
 There is no reference to this correspondence in Lord Ashley's Diary, nor 
 does a copy of his reply appear to have been kept. 
 
 " Life of Bishop Wilberforc*. By hia BOH. Reginald Q. Wilberforce," ToL iL, p. 60.
 
 432 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. (CrtAr. XIX. 
 
 On the 5th of December, the meeting a large and influential gathci-nii,' 
 of lay members of the Church of England was held at Freemasons' Hall, 
 " to protest against the insolent and insidious attempt of the Bishop of 
 Rome," and to invoke the Queen's aid for the suppression of Romish innova- 
 tion in the Church of England. Over this meeting Lord Ashley presided. 
 Addressing his Protestant brethren of the Church of England, with grief 
 that the exigency of the times required this distinctive epithet, he called 
 upon them to show, by their " vigorous, ready, and persevering antagonism, 
 that the ecclesiastical establishment of these realms is the right of the 
 people, and that the people will defend the right to the last extremity." He 
 continued : 
 
 A foreign priest and potentate, who misunderstands and misgoverns his OAvn 
 people, who is kept on his miserable throne, to the oppression of his own subjects 
 and all religious liberty, only by outlandish bayonets, to the everlasting dis- 
 honour, I must say, of the French people, has presumed to treat this realm of 
 England like " to a tenement or paltry farm," part its soil into provinces and 
 dioceses, invest his nominees with titles of episcopal and territorial jurisdiction, 
 and usurp the functions of our Royal Mistress. We protest against this as an 
 act of monstrous audacity. It ignores alike (such is the modern phrase) the 
 Church and the State, Her Majesty and the Bishops. We own, under God, no 
 rule in these kingdoms but that of our beloved Queen, and the laws and constitu- 
 tion of the realms ; and, God helping us, none other shall be planted here in 
 civil or ecclesiastical authority. It may be said that a title is of little import ; 
 yet, if any one hold the contrary, let him urge it on these intrusiA-e bishops, and 
 tell them that " a rose by any other name would smell as sweet," and see whether 
 they will yield to the argument. But the name is of mighty importance ; it ia 
 always of prodigious weight with those who do not reflect, and who, after all, 
 are the largest portion of mankind. Why, then, if it be so valueless, do the 
 Roman Catholics insist on its adoption ? Why, for a trifle, invoke a Papal Bull, 
 and disturb this country from John o'Groat's House to the Land's End. Mark 
 the true reason : the Romish Church claims sovereignty and jurisdiction over 
 every baptised soul ; those very people who denounce the Cardinal I have lately 
 read it in a Popish periodical are the Cardinal's spiritual subjects. To call 
 himself, as he is, Bishop of the Roman Catholics in the city of Westminster, 
 would be to forego that claim, and shrink within his rightful sphere ; to call 
 himself Archbishop of Westminster is to assert the whole spiritual sovereignty of 
 the district, and demand its subjection to the See of Rome. Can you doubt this 1 
 Read the manifesto : " Whether the Pope appoints a person vicar apostolic, or 
 bishop in ordinary, in either case he assigns him a territorial ecclesiastical juris- 
 diction and gives him no personal limitations." Why, here is the Avhole thing ; 
 and because we see that their hierarchy is incompatible with ours because, not 
 content with equality, they aspire to supremacy, we will resist them step by 
 step, inch by inch, nor yield them one hair's-breadth beyond that which we have 
 already ceded. 
 
 After quoting the statement of Dr. Wiseman that a hierarchy was needed 
 iu order to introduce the Canon Law, Lord Ashley proceeded to explain what
 
 1S-.O.J THE PAPAL AGQRESSIOX. 433 
 
 Canon Law was, and what the effect of it would be upon religious liberty. 
 Thru, turning from the ontside mischief to that within, he said: 
 
 Let us turn our eyes from Popery in flower to Popery in the bud ; from the 
 open enemy to the concealed traitor ; from the menace that is hurled at our 
 Church, to the doctrine that is preached from our pulpit; from the foreign 
 assailant, to the foes of our own household. What has invited this aggression 1 
 What has induced the Court of Rome, so wily, cautious, and penetrating, to throw 
 aside the sheath, and openly attack the Capitol ? . . . The manifest tendency 
 in many of our clergy, in faith and practice, to the faith and practice of the 
 Church of Rome, the numerous perversions of that unscriptural creed, the 
 adoption of rites, ceremonies, and languages fitted only to a Popish meridian. 
 Need I enumerate them 1 You know them well ; and when to this they add the 
 teaching of false and heretical doctrines ; when they add the practice of auricular 
 confession the most monstrous, perhaps, of all the monstrous practices of the 
 Romish system who can wonder that the appetite of the Pope was whetted, that 
 his eyes were blinded, and that he believed the time was come for once more sub- 
 jecting this Protestant land to his odious domination 1 Now, we insist on these 
 details, not only because they are " histrionic " arrangements, adapted only to the 
 theatre, and impeding all worship, in spirit and in truth, but because they are 
 the symptoms of a deep-seated corruption of faith and doctrine, enticing, and 
 intended to entice, the people from the simplicity of the Gospel, and to lead them 
 to submit to the sacerdotal forgery of a sacrificing priesthood, and the necessary 
 and inevitable train of abominable superstitions. Here is our daily, hourly, im- 
 minent peril. It is for the sons of the Church to protest against these enormities 
 in all their length and breadth. What else can be done 7 Do not some of the 
 bishops tell you that they are powerless ; that they speak, exhort, command, but 
 the rebellious Tractarians will not obey ? Have they not nearly all declared the 
 extent of this festering mischief ? What other course can we take to obtain a 
 general and united expression of feeling? The laity love their Church, its 
 decency, its simplicity of truth, its Gospel character, and they will maintain it 
 in all its efficiency ; but that Church must continue to be scriptural ; if it 
 change its character, and cease to be such, why then they will lie under the same 
 duties, and they will entertain the same feelings as their forefathers, when, dis- 
 regarding everything but the confession of the Truth, and the honour of 
 Almighty God, they broke, at all hazards, from the nnscriptural and unholy 
 Church of Rome. I speak here for myself. I doubt not I speak the sentiments 
 of thousands in this realm, that if we be driven to this necessity (which God in 
 His mercy avert !) I had rather worship with Lydia, on the bank, " by the river 
 side." than with a hundred surpliced priests in the temple of St Barnabas.* 
 
 [Here the whole assembly enthusiastically rose to their feet, and the ladies 
 joined in the vociferous cheering which succeeded.] 
 
 Referring to this meeting, Lord Ashley wrote in his Diary : 
 
 December 5th. Well, to be sure. I never saw such a thing ; the enthusiasm, 
 from the first moment to the last, was miraculous. The audience would have 
 remained and cheered till midnight ; time after time they rose from their seats, 
 
 * St. Barnabas, Pimlico, was notorious at this time for its ritualistic practice*. 
 
 c c
 
 434 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XIX. 
 
 and shook the room with thunders of applause. But the feeling was more than 
 boisterous it wac deep and sincere, and had all the character of being: permanent 
 and religious. The speaking excellent ; the laity shone in power and theology ; 
 many pulpits could not produce such solid stuff. 
 
 The Roman Catholics in England saw with regret the results of the 
 latest outcome of Ultramontane policy. On November 17th they sent up an 
 address of loyalty to the Queen, and asserted the purely spiritual character of 
 the new organisation. A few days afterwards Lord Beaumont, a Roman 
 Catholic peer, publicly regretted the ill-advised measure of the Roman 
 Pontiff, which had placed English Catholics in the position of having " either 
 to break with Rome, or violate their allegiance to the Queen." On Novem- 
 ber the 28th the Duke of Norfolk expressed his unity with the sentiments of 
 Lord Beaumont. 
 
 December 23rd. Windsor Castle. Prince sent for me after morning service, 
 and we spent an hour and a half on Church matters. I am delighted, and I bless 
 God for his zeal, judgment, perception, and vigour. 
 
 Some idea of the ferment of the times may be gathered from the fact that 
 between the 14th and the 30th November no fewer than seventy-eight works 
 on the Papal Aggression issued from the press.* ^/ 
 
 On the reassembling of Parliament the subject was alluded to in the 
 Queen's Speech by the announcement of "a measure calculated to maintain 
 the rights of the Crown and the independence of the nation against all en- 
 croachments ; " and on the 7th February the Premier introduced a Bill to 
 prevent the assumption of ecclesiastical titles in respect of places in the 
 United Kingdom, which was denounced by Roebuck, Bright, and others, but 
 strenuously supported by Lord Ashley. By a vote of 395 to 63 the House 
 permitted the Bill to be brought in, but its progress was delayed for a time 
 by a Ministerial crisis.f 
 
 March 1st. Who can now assert that the Pope has no power in England ? 
 He has put out one Administration, and now prevents the formation of another. 
 . . . Wrote yesterday to Prince Albert, and told him the feeling of the nation ; 
 it will reach him, I guess, inopportunely, but he desired me to tell him the truth, 
 and I have done so. God bless the endeavour 1 
 
 March 3rd. Seven o'clock. Government reinstated, every man of them, 
 according to the slang, " as you was." Russell announced that he should proceed 
 with the Anti-Papal Bill, having promised some amendments. 
 
 The Bill was re-introduced on the 7th March, but very much toned down 
 in its character. The opposition to the measure was still formidable, and 
 there was a seven nights' debate before the second reading was carried. On 
 the 18th March Lord Ashley again put the matter forcibly before the House, 
 from his own particular point of view. He asserted that, in the tone of 
 
 * PiMithert' Circular, December 2, 1850. 
 
 t The celebrated cartoon in Punch will be remembered. It represented Lord John as 
 naughty boy chalking up the words " No Popery," and then dodging round the corner.
 
 I8M.J TUB ECCLESIASTICAL TITLES BILL. 435 
 
 Napoleon in his most haughty and terrible days, the Pope had virtually 
 declared that the House of Hanover ceased to reign ; and discussed at length 
 the manner in which " such a Protean power, presenting alternately and con- 
 jointly every form of spiritual, temporal, and ecclesiastical policy," was to be 
 dealt with. " It pretends," he said, " to be spiritual in England, ecclesi- 
 astical in Spain ; it is temporal everywhere, though professing it nowhere ; it 
 is democratic in Ireland, and despotic in Austria ; it terrifies statesmen in 
 Sardinia by refusal of the sacraments, and the Government in France by a 
 refusal to support them at elections ; here it is, in England, appealing to the 
 rights of man and the liberty of conscience ; and there it is, in Italy, denounc- 
 ing them by the lips of Pope Gregory XVI., as ' that absurd and erroneous 
 maxim, or wild notion, that liberty of conscience ought to be assured and 
 guaranteed to every person.'" In conclusion, he declared his belief that 
 England " would not give way to Home by submission no, not for an hour," 
 and added, " What may be the issue to the nation, no man may foretell, but 
 for ourselves, happen what may, we will, by God's blessing, stand immovably 
 on our immortal Faith, which we have neither the right nor the disposition to 
 surrender." 
 
 One practical outcome of the agitation was, that on the following day a 
 great meeting was held, for private conference, of members of the Church cf 
 England, clerical and lay, and representatives from all the orthodox Noncon- 
 formists in London " all who held the Head the great truths of Christ's 
 gospel" 
 
 March 20th. ... It was to see whether we could not, under God's bless- 
 ing, lay aside our minor differences and make a common front against a common 
 enemy. Met at eleven o'clock at an hotel in the Adelphi everything prospered ; 
 the Divine Hand was manifest in the fervour, earnestness, self-control, and 
 mutual goodwill of the assembly. It was a noble and a Protestant sight, and 
 illustrated the Apostle's benediction, " Grace be with all those that love the Lord 
 Jesus Christ in sincerity." 
 
 A Committee was formed to consider modes of operation, and, at Lord 
 Ashley's suggestion, to endeavour to include the Protestants of every nation, 
 and the result was the formation of a vigorous Protestant association. 
 
 Another outcome of the agitation is thus referred to : 
 
 April 8th. Archdeacon Manning has joined the Church of Rome, and four 
 clergymen in Leeds have done the same. Lord, purge the Church of those men, 
 who, while their hearts are in the Vatican, still eat the bread of the Establish- 
 ment and undermine her I 
 
 The further story of the unfortunate " Ecclesiastical Titles Bill " may be 
 briefly told here. It was elaborately discussed in Committee, and then read 
 a third time on July the 3rd, after which the Lords dealt with it in due 
 course. But the later stages of the measure were not marked by any of tho 
 old enthusiasm. It became law, and then, curiously enough, " no one seemed 
 one penny the worse or better," and Englishmen freely used, as a matter of 
 eourse, the territorial titles which had put the nation into such a flutter only a 
 o c 2
 
 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURT. [CHAT. XIX. 
 
 few months before. Twenty years afterwards the Act was repealed, though 
 the illegality of the titles was again explicitly affirmed. 
 
 Before passsing away from this subject, it may be stated here, that, 
 throughout this controversy, and at all times, Lord Ashley was scrupulously 
 careful to maintain a wide distinction between the Roman Catholic priesthood 
 and laity, and any " violence " of language he ever used was directed against 
 the former, while to the latter he was invariably tolerant. Passages innunier- 
 mble from his public speeches and private writings could be quoted, were 
 proof necessary ; and as the charge of " never being able to see good in any 
 save those of his own way of thinking" was not ^infrequently brought against 
 him, it may be well to show that this was unfounded. He warmly supported 
 Mrs. Chisholm, and attended, from time to time, her " group meetings " of 
 emigrants. " This is a novel and most admirable scheme of colonisation," he 
 writes in his Diary, July 17th ; " but many people suspect that the Devil is in 
 it, and that Mrs. Chisholm, who is a Papist, has no views but the extension of 
 Romanism." Referring to the self-devotion of Roman Catholics to the 
 great works of charity and love, he said : " I can speak with no disparage- 
 ment of those sisters of charity and mercy who, in long black gowns, per- 
 ambulate our streets ; I speak of them with deep respect ; engaged, as they 
 are, in works of compassion, goodness, and tenderness ; but I maintain that 
 in our own Protestant faith we have sisters of mercy to vie with them." * In 
 a speech at St. James's Hall, in defence of voluntary schools, he said : " I con- 
 fess that I sympathise with the Roman Catholics in this matter ; it is natural 
 nnd just that they should insist on the full teaching of all the points essential 
 to their faith ; they must insist upon a distinctive teaching in religious mat- 
 ters." Again, in a speech protesting against the exclusion or discourage- 
 ment of religious teaching in schools aided by grants from the State, he 
 said : "I would rather have any form of religious teaching when there is some- 
 thing definite, though there may be only a particle of what is true. I would 
 much rather children went to almost any other kind of school than to one 
 where religious teaching was prohibited. I would mucli rather be a Papist 
 than a Positivist, and I, for one, will accept and believe the syllabus of Rome 
 in preference to the syllabus of Birmingham." And again on the same sub- 
 ject in another place : " Whatever I may think of their system in other 
 respects, the Roman Catholics have, I must say, always been true to the great 
 principle that religion should be the alpha and omega of education, and they 
 shrink with horror from the very notion of a place of education where religion 
 is not the primary consideration." 
 
 In things spiritual, however, it was utterly impossible that he could have 
 ny " fellowship " with Roman Catholics, and in his opening meditation in 
 the Diary for the year 1851 the year of Anti-Papal controversy he defines 
 the principle which governed him. He writes : 
 
 Jan. 6th. Broadlands. Sunday. "Grace be with all them that love the 
 * Ragged School Union, May llth, 1868.
 
 ISM.) THE SHOE-BLACK BRIGADE. 437 
 
 Lord Jems Christ in sincerity." This shows clearly not only what is permitted, 
 but what is enjoined, in the walk of Christian labour ; to wish " God speed " to 
 all such, and to give them the right hand of fellowship in all works of love and 
 charity. This overrides all ecclesiastical differences, all distinctions of form and 
 human arrangement, all the modes and varieties of non-essentials ; bnt it demands 
 the full belief of evangelical truth, the joyous reception of Christ's blessed 
 Atonement, His perfect work, His everlasting dominion, His faith, His fear, His 
 love. It binds us to the true believers of the Lutheran and Presbyterian 
 Churches ; it binds us to the pioua Nonconformists of England, to the Henrya 
 and Doddridgest wherever they be ; but it does not bind us it does not even 
 separate us from those who " hold not the Head " in obedience and childlike 
 humility. 
 
 The Great Exhibition, which was opened in Hyde Park on the 1st of 
 May in this year, and which brought so much pleasure to many, brought to 
 Lord Ashley a considerable amount of work. The religions societies desired 
 to make it the occasion, while so nrnny foreigners were in the land, of press- 
 ing the claims of the Gospel in various ways, and it had by this time come 
 to be recognised that, if anything good was to be done, Lord Ashley must 
 have a prominent share in the doing of it. 
 
 A great many new undertakings, and developments of old ones, marked 
 this period. For example : On November 28th, 1850, a meeting of delegates 
 of Ragged Schools was held in Field Lane Schoolroom, Lord Ashley in the 
 chair, to consider the means by which boys might get new employment when 
 the " Great Exhibition of 1851 " should bring thousands of foreigners to 
 London. 
 
 Three Ragged School teachers Messrs. John MacGregor (" Rob Roy "), 
 R. J. Snape, and J. R. F. Fowler, on their way home from that meeting, 
 crossed over Holborn, arm-in-arm, when a bright thought flashed into the 
 mind of Mr. McGregor, who said, " Why not make some of our boys into 
 sliochlacks for the foreigners, to employ in the streets P " 
 
 The thought at once ripened into action ; ten shillings were subscribed on 
 the spot; and the next day the plan was submitted to Lord Ashley, and 
 obtained his hearty approval and support. By the 1st May regular " stations " 
 were established, and, during the continuance of the Exhibition, twenty-five 
 boys cleaned 101,000 pairs of shoes, for which the public paid 500. 
 
 The success of the scheme was ensured ; from year to year improvements 
 and extensions were made, and to-day the Shoe Black Brigade is one of the 
 I>ormanent institutions of the land. From first to last Lord Shaftesbury 
 was a staunch friend to the Brigade, and although not the originator as we 
 have seen he was always regarded as one of the " Fathers " of the movement. 
 
 The story of Lord Ashley's efforts to obtain a place in the Great Exhibi- 
 tion for the display of the translations of the Bible made by the British and 
 Foreign Bible Society, may be told in his own words : 
 
 There was a great struggle to obtain a proper place for the great work* 
 achieved by the Bible Society. There was no difficulty whatever in obtaining
 
 438 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBUKY. [CHAP. XIX. 
 
 abundant space for all the implements of war and of human destruction that 
 the mind of man could imagine ; a large proportion of the Exhibition was 
 taken up with guns, cannons, torpedoes, everything that could annoy and 
 desolate mankind. It was suggested that we should erect for the Bible Society! 
 some place in the Great Exhibition where we could show proofs of all that we 
 had done to the praise of God, and all we were capable of doing ; some, however, 
 said we had no right to appear before the public in any form in the Exhibition. 
 I had a long interview with his Royal Highness the Prince Consort on the subject, 
 and he took the view that the Bible Society had no right to a position there. 
 I said, " Putting aside the religious aspect of the question, I will put it before 
 you from an intellectual point of view. I ask you whether it is not a wonderful 
 proof of intellectual power that the Word of God has been translated into 
 170 distinct languages, and into 230 dialects 1 Is it not proof of great intellectual 
 power that the agents of the Bible Society have given a written character to 
 upwards of thirty distinct languages, enabling all those people to read the Word 
 of God in their own tongue 1 " He said, " You have proved your right to appear ; 
 it is a great intellectual effort, and I will do my best to secure for the Society 
 such a position that their deeds shall be made known." * 
 
 The result was, that a position was eventually secured, although not a 
 good one. 
 
 In April, just as Lord Ashley was on the point of starting for a visit to 
 Paris, a deputation waited on him to offer him the Presidency of the British 
 and Foreign Bible Society. He urged some reasons that he thought might 
 disqualify him, but, eventually, on the 5th May, accepted the office. It is 
 thus referred to in his Diary : 
 
 May 5th. Received a deputation this morning from the Committee of the 
 British and Foreign Bible Society, to offer me the post of President, vacant by 
 the death of Lord Bexley. It was headed by Harrowby, who proposed the office 
 to me in an address of singular kindness. There were were also Inglis, Acland, 
 Lord Cholmondeley, Mr. Roberts, Mr. Foster, and the clerical Secretary, Mr. Browne. 
 I finally accepted the offer, having referred to the consideration of the Committee 
 the fact that I was already President of several important Societies, that I should 
 appear a monopolist of place and power, that I might not be able to give so 
 much time to it as could be wished. I left it, however, in their hands ; and, 
 imploring God to govern all to His will and honour, went to Paris. They main- 
 tained their invitation and waited on me to-day. I should have been grieved had 
 circumstances prevented my elevation to that high post ; it is the headship of 
 the greatest and noblest of the Societies ; and I am not indifferent either to the 
 honour or the utility of the position 1 Grant me, Lord, Thy grace, and uphold 
 me in the work. 
 
 On the 2nd of May Lord Ashley wrote in his Diary : " I have before me 
 those terrible ' May chairs ' always the most difficult of one's labours." The 
 meetings during this year were, however, exceptionally good, and, owing to 
 the Papal aggression, were of a staunchly Protestant character. One of the 
 most interesting was that of the Bible Society, when Lord Ashley took the 
 
 * Speech, Bible Society (Kensington Auxiliary), March 9th, 1877.
 
 1851.) MADE PRESIDENT OP THE BIBLE SOCIETY. 439 
 
 chair for the first time as President. In moving a resolution that the meeting 
 should unite in " expressing their best wishes that the blessing of God might 
 rest upon the new President and upon his efforts in connection with this 
 Society," the Earl of Harrowby, turning to Lord Ashley, said 
 
 I am sure, my Lord, that yon will not hold cheap the honour which has been 
 conferred upon you. I do conceive that it is the highest honour which could be 
 conferred on a Christian man. As it is accounted the highest honour to be an 
 Englishman amongst the nations of the earth, so I conceive that it is the highest 
 honour within the realm of England to be the representative of her religious 
 principles and feelings ; and I believe that there is not, within the realm of 
 England, a man who enjoys the general approbation of his fellow-citizens more 
 than your Lordship. In your Lordship are combined all the requisites for 
 advancing the social interests of your fellow-countrymen in their widest 
 ramifications ; and you have pursued your course undeterred by difficulties, by 
 opposition, by sneers ; uninjured by popularity, uninfluenced by the fear of un- 
 popularity ; and, throughout, your conduct has, I am convinced, been based on 
 the deepest personal religious convictions. 
 
 At the conclusion of the meeting Lord Ashley expressed his special plea- 
 sure in being identified wit) 1 the Bible Society, on the ground 
 
 That it is catholic in its character, catholic in all its operations ; that it 
 enables us to form in these realms, in times of singular distress and difficulty, a 
 solemn league and covenant of all those who " love the Lord Jesus Christ in 
 sincerity ; " that it shows how, suppressing all minor differences, or treating them 
 as secondary, members of the Church of England and Nonconformists may blend 
 together in one great effort. I do thank God that this Society brings us into 
 co-operation with our fellow-men of every nation and of every clime ; that it 
 binds us heart and soul to our American brethren those noble specimens of the 
 Anglo-Saxon race, in moral energy and in physical development ; nay, more, that 
 it binds together Protestants on the Continent and in the world ; all, in short, 
 who hold " one Lord, one faith, and one baptism," and who are prepared to main- 
 tain the great truth established at the Reformation that the Bible and the Bible 
 alone, is the religion of Protestants. 
 
 The office thus entered npon was retained to the end of Lord Shaftosbury's 
 life. In 1885 he spoke at the annual meeting for the last time, and through- 
 out that long poriod he never wavered or faltered in any step that might 
 promote its welfare. 
 
 There were several new measures which Lord Ashley was anxious to 
 introduce, and had for some time past been carefully preparing. It was only 
 by the most persistent economy of time, and the complete surrender of 
 himself to perpetual labour, that it was possible for him to do so, but he 
 persevered. It was not in the natr e of things that he could be much longer 
 in the House of Commons ; his father had entered upon his eighty-third year, 
 ami was showing signs of failing strength; and Lord Aslil.-y was anxious to 
 do as much as possible of the work he had set before himself, while his oppor- 
 tunity lasted, and before he nhould, to use his own words, be " consign**! tc 
 the helplessness and indolence of the House of Lords."
 
 440 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XIX 
 
 On April the 8th he introduced into the House of Commons a Bill to 
 " Encourage the Establishment of Lodging-Houses for the Working Classes." 
 In this Bill it was proposed that towns or parishes having a population of 
 10,000, or over, should be enabled to build Model Lodging-Houses, and raise 
 money and defray expenses from the rates. In moving for leave to bring 
 in the Bill Lord Ashley drew upon his long experience, and graphically 
 described the overcrowded state of lodging-houses both in London and in 
 certain other large towns. 
 
 To one phase of his subject he drew special attention, namely, the effect 
 produced by clearances and alterations, made with the view of beautifying 
 the metropolis, on the housing accommodation of the working classes. 
 
 Of the benefits of model lodging-houses he could also speak from 
 personal experience, and he told the House of the cheerful punctuality 
 with which the rents were paid ; the general freedom from disease ; the 
 accommodation that made it possible for men to enjoy staying at home 
 instead of passing their leisure hours in ^e beer-shops ; the ample space for 
 children to play, instead of running wilu in the streets ; the lower rents for 
 comfort and cleanliness, than had previously been paid for filth and wretched- 
 ness. It was impossible, however, that private speculation could ever effect 
 the end in view, as the temptation to make inordinate profits had always 
 proved irresistible. 
 
 In concluding his speech, he urged the House to take up this matter, 
 which had excited the interest of all civilised Europe, from parts of which, as 
 well as from America, letters had been received, asking for plans and reports 
 on the subject. He was certain that he spoke the truth and a truth which 
 would be confirmed by the testimony of all experienced persons, clergy, 
 medical men, all who were conversant with the working classes that, until 
 thoir domiciliary condition were Christianised (he could use no less forcible 
 a term), all hope of moral or social improvement was utterly vain.' 
 Though not the sole, it was one of the prime sources of the evils that 
 beset their condition; it generated disease, ruined whole families by tlm 
 intemperance it promoted, cut off, or crippled, thousands in the vigour of life, 
 and filled the workhouses with widows and orphans.* 
 
 A few days afterwards Lord Ashley introduced a Bill for the Regulation 
 and Inspection of Common Lodging-Houses houses where individuals, or 
 families, were received by the night. It was accepted without any prelimi- 
 nary remarks, it being generally known and acknowledged that the state of 
 thnii. both morally and physically, was most pernicious. 
 
 It was when these two Bills were passing the Commons that an event 
 occurred, not altogether unexpected, although it came suddenly at the last. 
 If. is referred to in the Diary thus : 
 
 June 1st, Sunday. Received at half -past five this morning' intelligence of my 
 father being dangerously ill. A train starts at nine, and I must go by it. 
 
 June 2nd. St. Giles's. My father died this morning, at seven o'clock, having 
 * Hansard, cxv. 1258.
 
 1861.] CROPLEY, SIXTH EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. 441 
 
 suffered no pain, but unconscious to the last. Harriet and her daughter, John, 
 and William were present. Now I enter on a new career, one to which I am 
 little adapted. Parliamentary business and city duties are my calling. How can 
 I. at fifty years of age, learn other things 1 Land, rent, &c. &c., are as Arabic to 
 me. But the issues of life and death are in the Lord's hand ; He, therefore, has 
 determined ; and my prayer now is that He will sanctify it to me, and that, 
 whether high or low, rich or poor, conspicuous or obscure, I may do His blessed 
 will, serve my generation, and then fall on sleep. 
 
 June 6th. St. Giles's. Ah, my poor father ! I bless Thee, Lord, that I was 
 here to say " Lord Jesus, receive his spirit," and close his eyes. (Kissed yesterday 
 the lips of darling Minny's bust, the bust of my precious wife in her youth 
 and beauty, but just as beautiful to me now, though twenty years have passed.) 
 
 June 10th. Yesterday, my poor father committed to the grave. .All was 
 simple, decent, impressive no show, no hearse, no horses, as he desired ; but 
 there was much respect and reverence. 
 
 Cropley Ashley Cooper, sixth Earl of Shaftesbury, was the second sou of 
 the fourth Earl, and was born December 21st, 1768. He was educated at 
 Winchester, from whence he passed to Christchurch, Oxford, where he took 
 his B.A. degree in 1787. At the general election of 1790, just after coming 
 of age, he was elected by the town of Dorchester to be its representative in 
 Parliament, and he held this position until his succession, in 1811, to the earl- 
 dom. Soon after taking his scat in the House of Lords he filled the office of 
 Chairman of Committees during the temporary illness of Lord "Walsingham ; 
 and he performed these duties with such marked ability, that, in November, 
 1814, he was permanently appointed to that office, and was sworn of the Privy 
 Council at Carltou House. 
 
 Hansard reports but few of his utterances in the House of Lords, and yet 
 for many years no peer's voice was heard so frequently. The duties of his 
 office as Chairman of Committees were very considerable. The functions 
 which, in the other House, were divided amongst the Chairman of Committees, 
 the Speaker's Council, and the two Examiners of Petitions, were for nearly 
 forty years ably fulfilled in the House of Lords by " old " Lord Shaftes- 
 bnry. as lie was generally known, although lie showed no signs of age in his 
 conduct of pressing business. His uncompromising impartiality, joined to 
 hi* strong common sense, and his thorough knowledge of the statute law, 
 made him completely absolute in his own department. When he had once 
 heard a case, and had deliberately given his judgment upon it, he expected, 
 and as a rule obtained, implicit submission from all concerned. Unfortu- 
 nately, as we have seen, he carried these autocratic habits into domestic life, 
 where he was more feared than loved. 
 
 During the later years of his life, and especially during tho prevalence of 
 the great railway mania of 1844 46, the labours of Lord Shaftesbury in 1-011- 
 iifctiiin with railways were enormous. He materially aided in reducing to * 
 system, the laws and regulations of the House of Lords on this important 
 subject. It was generally allowed that the speed with which ho passed
 
 442 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. XIX* 
 
 unopposed Bills through Committee was something marvellous. On ques- 
 tions of parliamentary law and usage his authority was unquestioned. 
 
 The Earl was nearly eighty-three years of age when, at the opening of the 
 Session of Parliament in February, 1851, the Marquis of Lansdowne informed 
 their Lordships that he had received a communication from their Chairman 
 of Committees stating that " from his age and infirmities he felt himself 
 unable to continue the duties of the office." Lord Stanley, the Duke of 
 Wellington, the Earl of Harrowby, and others, bore testimony to his ability 
 and unswerving integrity and firmness ; and the Duke of Richmond, in allud- 
 ing to his well-known characteristics, said : " I have seen attempts to influence 
 Lord Shaftesbury in matters relating to private Bills, and he invariably 
 followed what was a very good plan, for he answered, ' I shall do no such thing.' 
 He kept the attorneys and agents in very good order, for, when they once got 
 a good dressing from Lord Shaftesbury they never made any such attempts 
 again." * 
 
 " And now," wrote Lord Ashley, on the day of his father's funeral, "I bear 
 a new name, which I did not covet ; and enter on a new career, which may 
 God guide and sanctify. If I can by His grace make the new as favourably 
 known as the old name, And attain under it but to the fringes of His honour 
 and the welfare of mankind, I shall indeed have much to be thankful for." 
 
 What had been achieved under that old name cannot possibly be better 
 told than in his own words, written during the preceding Christmas-tide, and 
 certainly no more appropriate words could be found with which to close the 
 story of this part of his career : 
 
 Dec. 25th. Christmas Day. Broadlands. It would be curious to take an 
 impartial review, if I could, of what I have gained, by many years of toil, for 
 myself, for the public, and, may I say it 1 for the cause of our blessed Master. 
 
 I. What have I gained for the public? that is, according to my own estima- 
 tion, for many will say, in the language of Scripture, that my doings have only 
 " gained them a harm and loss." 
 
 1. Seventeen years of labour and anxiety obtained the Lunacy Bill in 1845, and 
 five years' increased labour since that tf-ne have carried it into operation. It has 
 effected, I know, prodigious relief. > d forced the construction of many public 
 asylums, and greatly multiplied :' . O pection and care. Much, alas 1 remains to be 
 done, and much will remain ; and that much will, in the estimation of the public, 
 who know little and inquire less, oyerwhelm the good, the mighty good that has 
 been the fruit. 
 
 2. Seventeen years, from 1833 to 1850, obtained the Factory Bill. The labour 
 of three hundred thousand persons, male and female, has been reduced within 
 reasonable limits, and full forty thousand children under 13 years of age, attend 
 school for three hours every day I Let the people themselves, let the reports of 
 the Inspectors, let the records of bygone days, be heard against the contempt, 
 the misrepresentation, the ignorance, the hatred of those who opposed or dis- 
 couraged me. 
 
 3. A Commission moved for in 1841 reported in 1842, and in 1843 passed a Bill 
 
 * Hansard, 3 a., cxiv. 47
 
 1851.] REVIEW OF PAST ACHIEVEMENTS. 443 
 
 to forbid labour of females in Mines and Collieries No one can deny the blessed 
 results of this measure ; my persecutors, therefore, admitting the good, attack the 
 principle, and question the wisdom of obtaining happy ends by such means. 
 
 4. In 1845 passed Bill to regulate and limit labour of children and women in 
 Print-works. Cobden even supported me here. Necessarily an imperfect measure, 
 but yet productive of some good. 
 
 5. Had main share (though the honour went to another) in preparation of 
 Interment Bill, and carrying it through the House. 
 
 6. Address and grant of Royal Commission for Subdivision of large Parishes. 
 Result yet to be tried. 
 
 7. Two years of intense labour, without pay, on Board of Health, specially in 
 season of cholera, and lately on Water-Supply to Metropolis. 
 
 8. Say nothing, perhaps of failures, though they were intended for public 
 service, and received some approbation : Motions on Opium Trade, Education. 
 Poor-laws, and Sunday Post-office ; nor of share taken in general debates on sub- 
 jects of vital interest. 
 
 9. This for Parliament. Out of it have spared no trouble nor expense (and 
 both have been excessive) for Ragged Schools, Model Lodging-houses, Malta 
 College, Emigration Committees, and meetings on every imaginable subject. 
 
 II. What gained for the cause of our blessed Master ? 
 
 Perhaps we may rejoice in an awakened attention, though but partially so, to 
 the wants and rights of the poor ; to the powers and duties of the rich ; perhaps, 
 both in Parliament and out of it, in a freer, safer use of religious sentiment and 
 expression ; perhaps in an increased effort for spiritual things, and in greatly 
 increased opportunities for doing and receiving good. This, alas ! is not the 
 thing itaelf but only the means to it. It is, nevertheless, all that we can boast of. 
 
 III. What gained for myself 1 
 
 1. Peace of mind, but nothing else. Four objects may be said to stir the 
 action of public men, singly or combined ; money, power, fame, desire to do 
 good. As for the first, I had, when young, three years of office from 1828 to 
 1830, and then three months, from January to April, in 1835 ; the rest of my time 
 has won me nothing, but has, rather, been sadly expensive to me, Declined, 
 in succession, several offices, that I might be free for Factory Bill. 
 
 2. Power and patronage. Confess I should have desired both, believing (but 
 how terrible and deep is self-deception !) that I should have, through faith and 
 prayer, exercised power well, and patronage to the welfare of important interests 
 and to the honour and comfort of good men. But have obtained neither ; hate 
 
 held any post in which I could act on my own authority ; nor ever have I 
 had the disposal of a single place, either ecclesiastical or civil. 
 
 .". Influence and fame. Is my influence with the Government? What do I 
 avail, and what is their treatment of me ? Is it with the Peel party ? I lost 
 my political connection with them when I refused office and urged the Factory 
 Bill. Is it with the Protectionists? I lost them when I supported the repeal of 
 the Corn Laws. Is it with the manufacturers? They hate me for the Ten 
 Hours Act Is it with the operatives ? They forget all my labour of love in the 
 middle course I took for their welfare. I \von for them aim out everything ; but 
 for the loss of that very little, they regard me as an enemy ! Is it with the Com- 
 mons House of Parliament ? Whatever I had is gone ; I had once the ear of
 
 444 THE EARL OP SHAFTKSBURY. [CHAP. XIX. 
 
 the assembly ; I have it no more. Is it with the bishops 1 the High Church, the 
 Tractarians ? Is it with the Low Church 1 So it is said, but I ask the proof of 
 it. Is it with the Press 1 Nearly every paper is hostile ; I have had my day of 
 favour ; now I suffer the reverse. Is it with my friends ? Alas, how few can be 
 trusted in the hour of trial 1 My curious career, too, makes me, every day, 
 new enemies, and oftentimes alters my old friends ! Is it with the rich ? God 
 knoweth. Is it with the poor ? Yes, so far as a few shouts go, but no further ! 
 This is my position after twenty years of labour ! I began in the hope that 
 many of the aristocracy would first follow and then succeed me. Not one is to 
 be found ; a few, at my request, put their hands to the plough, but they looked 
 back and returned not to the furrows. 
 
 Then how stands my fame ? Well, if I had rested on this, I should " have 
 been, indeed, unblessed." What I have is notoriety, not reputation. I have a 
 nane that everybody knows, " a household word," writes the American Minister, 
 Mr. Lawrence, to me, " from New York to the Rocky Mountains ; " but a name 
 that every one fires at 1 Some dispute my judgment, some my sincerity, some my 
 courage ; some think, or profess to think, me unworthy of their notice ; some call 
 me " well-intentioned but weak ; " others, " hypocritical and cantingf ; " some 
 hold me to be ruled entirely. by vanity, others consider me a mere tool. Now and 
 then I make a speech which produces an effect, and I get some praise ; but the 
 speech is soon forgotten, and the man only remembered to be treated as before. 
 A few, no doubt, think of me, and speak of me, kindly ; but they are rare and of 
 small influence in the stirring world. I have been oddly and antagonistically 
 viewed : Sir J. Graham, when Secretary of State, alluding to the Factory Bill, 
 said, " I was a man to make a Revolution " (this will be remembered). Sir G. 
 Grey, when Secretary of State, said to me in 1848, alluding also to the Factory 
 Bill, " I shall be ready to say, in my place in Parliament, or elsewhere, as Secre- 
 tary of State, that the passing of the Ten Hours Bill has kept those vast counties 
 at peace during this eventful period." (This will be forgotten ; nay, has, I 
 think, been already forgotten.) But notorious men are good for chairs of 
 dinners and meetings. People come, not through affection and respect, but to 
 see the notorious man ; and so I serve their purpose. 
 
 4. Desire to do good for good's sake. Whatever my weaknesses, whatever the 
 human admixture with my former hopes and fears, this must, henceforward, be 
 my sole sustaining motive. I am now nearly fifty years of age ; my physical 
 and moral powers have attained their summit. I cannot go higher, but I may 
 fall lower. And what is man's judgment 1 Does it not often determine that to 
 be " gold, silver, and precious stones," which God's judgment pronounces " wood, 
 hay, stubble " ? All see my infirmities ; all, knowing human corruption, infer 
 more than they see, and they are right. All use me, and all grow tired of me ; 
 but few can know the troubles I have endured the sorrow of mind, the weari- 
 ness of body ; the labour I have undergone by day and by night ; the public and 
 private conflicts ; the prayers I have offered, and the tears I have shed. Here, 
 however, is my consolation, that, amidst frailties and sins, trespasses and short- 
 comings, I have had one single object perpetually before me. It was God's grace 
 that gave me the thought ; God's grace that has sustained me hitherto, to have, 
 in truth, but one end, the advancement of His ever-blessed name, and the temporal 
 and eternal welfare of all mankind. So closes my review. Sursum corda !
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 1851 (JUNE) 1852. 
 
 SOME time before the death of his father Lord Shaftesbury had determined 
 not to take his seat in the House of Lords. But, to use his own expression, 
 " The leading of Providence was the other way." His two Lodging-House 
 Bills would soon pass the Commons, and it was urged upon him by many 
 frit-lids, and especially by Lord Harrowby, that there would be both grace 
 and right in his taking them up and piloting them through the House of 
 Lords. In view of it he wrote : 
 
 But what an operation to sit as a Peer ! The Chancellor demand? no end of 
 documents ; and, over and above (what folly when one's father had been recog- 
 nised for forty years), an extract from the Patent of Peerage ! Sutcliffe stands 
 for my place at Bath ; how I pray God that he may succeed ! 
 
 It is needless to say that there were expressions of sorrow from many 
 quarters that " Lord Ashley " had left the House of Commons ; and from 
 many, of belief that he would be equally useful in the House of Lords. 
 
 In moving the writ for Bath, Sir Robert Inglis took occasion to speak of 
 him in terms of respect and affection. " I believe that I speak the sentiments 
 of the House generally," he remarked, " when I say that Lord Ashley should 
 not be withdrawn from the first ranks of this assembly, the scene of his 
 labours and his triumphs, without some parting expression of respect and regret. 
 During the last fifteen years of Lord Ashley's Parliamentary life he has been 
 emphatically the friend of the friendless. Every form of human suffering he 
 lias, in his place in this House, and especially every suffering connected with 
 labour, sought to lighten, and in every way to ameliorate the moral, social, 
 and religions condition of our fellow-subjects; and out of this House his 
 exertions have been such as, at first sight, might have seemed incompatible 
 with his duties here. But he found time for all; and when al>seut from his 
 place on these benches, he was enjoying no luxurious ease, but was seated in 
 the chair of a Ragged-school meeting, of a Scripture-reader's Association, or 
 of a Tonng Man's Christian Institution. I will add no more than that the 
 life of Lord Ashley, in and o\it of this House, has been consecrated, in the 
 memorable inscription of the great Haller, ' Christo in pauperibus.'" 
 
 On the 23rd of June Lord Shaftesbury took his seat in the House of I 
 Lords, and on the evening of that day he wrote in his Diary : 
 
 It seems no place for me ; a " Statue-gallery," some say a " Dormitory." Futt 
 half-a-dozen Peers said to me, within as many minutes, " You'll find this very 
 different from the House of Commons," " we have no order," "no rules," "no
 
 446 THE EARL OF SHAPTESBUBY. [CHAP. XX. 
 
 sympathies to be stirred." Shall I ever be able to do anything ? They are cold, 
 short, and impatient. But God has willed it, and I must, and, by His grace, will; 
 do my duty. 
 
 The following day he made his first speech in the House of Lords on 
 moving the second reading of the Bill for the " Inspection and Registration 
 of Lodging-Houses." He spoke in a low tone of voice and with great 
 brevity, and took occasion to explain that it was the deep interest he felt in 
 the objects of this Bill, and the urgency there was for legislation on the 
 subject, " that had induced him to address their lordships so early after his 
 call to their lordships' House." In the course of the very brief debate that 
 ensued, the Marquis of Lansdowne, in supporting the motion, " complimented 
 the noble Earl upon the success of his exertions to ameliorate the condition of 
 the poor and destitute," * and expressed a hope that he might pursue in the 
 House of Lords the career he had followed in the House of Commons. 
 
 It was an almost if not an altogether unprecedented occurrence for one 
 member to carry a measure through all its stages in the House of Commons, 
 and for that same member to carry the same measure through all its stages in 
 the House of Lords. This was, however, accomplished by Lord Shaftesbury, 
 and his Bill became law. It has been acted upon throughout the kingdom, 
 and police authorities, magistrates, medical men, City missionaries, and all 
 whom it concerned, have been unanimous in their testimony as to its 
 beneficial results. " It is the best law," said Charles Dickens to Lord 
 Shaftesbury, some years afterwards, " that was ever passed by an English 
 Parliament." 
 
 The second measure the Bill for " Permitting the erection by local 
 authorities of Model- Lodging Houses " came before the Lords for the 
 second reading on July the 8th, when Lord Shaftesbury, in the course of his 
 speech, gave many details of a similar character to those he had given before 
 the other House.f 
 
 This Bill also became law, but from various causes, and principally 
 because it was much, mutilated in its passage through the House of Commons, 
 it was only to a very limited extent put into practice, and ultimately became 
 a dead letter. 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury has recorded, in full, his early impressions of the House 
 of Lords, some of which are given in the following extracts. Referring to 
 the much reiterated hope that he would continue in the Upper House the 
 course he had followed in the House of Commons he says : 
 
 June 25th. It is, however, a totally different thing far less stirring 1 , far less 
 gratifying. Success here, is but a shadow of success there ; little can be gained, 
 little attempted. . . . One of the most striking effects to me on removal from 
 the House of Commons is my absolute ignorance of the political movements, 
 thoughts, and facts of the day. Everything of importance revolves round the 
 centre of the Commons' House : unless you be there to see it, hear it, feel it, you 
 pet it at second hand, and then only half. 
 
 Hansard's Debates, cxvii. 1140. t Hansard's Debates, cxvii. 235.
 
 1851. J THE INHERITED ESTATES. 447 
 
 June 27th. The difficulties of the House of Lords seem to thicken as I survey 
 them. Everything must be done between five and half -past six, or you will have 
 no auditory ; consequently there is an unseemly scramble for the precedence, and 
 a terrible impatience after you have got it. Yet I have received many expres- 
 sions, and heard of more, that I " should rouse them," and " give them business 
 to do," and in some measure " popularise " the House ! . . . 
 
 June 30th. To House of Lords, where I broke cover in a bit of hnmanity- 
 mongering about Chimney-sweepers. Found my voice ; was well received ; 
 " thanked God, and took courage." 
 
 July 8th. Opened this afternoon, in House of Lords, second Lodging-House 
 Bill. Wonderfully well received ; their noble natures even cheered during the 
 speech and after it. Many congratulations and thanks. My surprise knew no 
 bounds. I had warmed " Nova Zembla." 
 
 Many times during his first Session the voice of Lord Shaftesbury was 
 heard in the House of Lords. On the 17th July he made an important 
 speech on the Bill for admitting Jews into Parliament, which Bill was 
 rejected by a majority of 36 ; and on three occasions he pleaded the cause of 
 the wretched Chimney-sweepers, whose condition was growing worse and 
 worse, but whose sufferings were regarded in almost all quarters with surpris- 
 ing indifference. 
 
 On the 8th of August Parliament was prorogued by the Queen in person. 
 
 August 8th. Day fine ; everything gay and good-humoured. Attended as a 
 peer, and enraptured the Chancellor and law lords by wearing the robes of the 
 first Lord Sbaf tesbury. 
 
 Having seen how Lord Shaftesbury entered upon his public duties on 
 succeeding to the peerage, we will now follow him into the privacy of his 
 inherited estates, to mark the spirit in which he faced the responsibilities of 
 his new position. 
 
 A few days after the burial of his father the following characteristic 
 entry occurs in the Diary : 
 
 June 16th. St Giles's. I am thankful, very thankful, that my two first acts 
 of power have been in the service of God. I have limited the disorders of the 
 tap-room here, by closing it at nine o'clock every night " hi* bretibv* jrrinci- 
 piii," fcc. and I have provided for the appointment of a Scripture-reader. 
 
 An examination into the state of affairs at St. Giles's soon convinced him 
 that there were many radical changes to make without delay. There had 
 been incredible waste : large sums of money had been ruthlessly lavished and 
 thrown away, to no purpose of either use or luxury, while many things really 
 necessary had been totally neglected. Without losing heart for a moment, 
 he resolutely set to work to face the difficulties that lay before him, deter- 
 mined to right all that had gone wrong, and to establish more firmly all that 
 was good. As will be seen in the course of the narrative, the circumstances 
 in which lie was placed were of no ordinary kind ; but, although the obstacles 
 to be overcome, and the difficulties to be vanquished, would have made any
 
 448 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. (CHAP. XX. 
 
 one less resolute qnail before them, by degrees he quietly and steadily accom- 
 plished the task he had set himself. 
 
 It is worthy of note that, full as the Diaries are of details of the actual posi- 
 tion of affairs, there is not one word that reflects in any way upon the memory of 
 his father. On the contrary, scattered throughout the pages, there are many 
 touching passages of which the following is an example to show that the 
 only thoughts of him were thoughts of tenderness and filial regard : 
 
 June 29th. Sunday. My poor father lay for six-and-thirty hours after his 
 attack, perfectly unconscious ; free from suffering, alive, but apparently, and T 
 doubt not, really, insensible to all around him. All these cases are mysterious. 
 What was the state of the soul during that period ? Was it asleep ? Was it be- 
 numbed like the body, or was it active and cognisant of eternal things ? Here 
 may have been God's chosen time for the infusion of His grace. Here may have 
 been the hour, so to speak, of regeneration. Prayer was permitted, and then, surely. 
 faith also in the results of prayer. " Lord Jesus, receive his spirit," was no idle 
 supplication, or tossed, of necessity, into empty air. 
 
 It is also worthy of note that the plans Lord Shaftesbnry now devised, 
 and the changes he intended to effect, were not for the adornment of his own 
 house, or for personal gratification of any kind, but on behalf of the labourers 
 on the estate and in the neighbourhood, and of those who hitherto had not 
 enjoyed the benefits which he considered they had a right to expect. 
 
 August 17th. Sunday. Week passed in depths of abundant, dusty, and use- 
 less papers. Gave three hours on Thursday to Commission in Lunacy. Every 
 other moment till seven o'clock, saving half an hour for a ride, to this wonderful 
 "digging" old newspapers, bills, formal letters from 1790, &c., &c., under a, 
 mass of dirt and dust deep enough for a crop of mustard and cress. When I lay 
 down at night, the tearing, reading, burning, came on me like the after-effects of 
 a sea- voyage, and made ma sleepless. 
 
 August 22nd. St. Giles's. Inspected a few cottages filthy, close, indecent, 
 unwholesome. But what can I do ? I am half pauperised : the debts are end- 
 less ; no money is payable for a whole year, and I am not a young man. Every 
 sixpence I expend and spend I must on many things i-s borrowed ! 
 
 August 25th. Car.* has offered to build me four cottages in the village. 
 Heartily do I give God thanks for this, who has put it into her heart. The world 
 will now, at least, see our good intentions ; and that is of high importance where. 
 like me, a party has been a great professor. 
 
 Sept. 5th. Have found, at last, a Scripture-reader for the forests and steppes 
 of Woodlands and Horton. 
 
 Sept 6th. Shocking state of cottages ; stuffed like figs in a drum. Were not 
 the people as cleanly as they can be, we should have had an epidemic. Must 
 build others, cost what it may. 
 
 Sept. 13th. Yesterday to Pentridge, Cobley, and Woodyates. No school of 
 any kind at Pentridge ; some forty or fifty children " unwept, unhonoured, and 
 unsung." I determined, under God, to build one, and may He prosper the work I 
 
 f His sister, Lady Caroline Neeld.
 
 1851.) ST. GILES'S. 449 
 
 To-day to Woodlands, Horton, and Verwood, to prepare the ground for Scripture- 
 reader, and secure his acceptance by the farmers. 
 
 Sept. 15th. To Hinton Martel. Rural and lovely scenery ; but what a cot- 
 tage what a domicile for men and Christians I found in that village 1 Yet, 
 what can I do 7 And the management of the estate, too, has in great measure 
 passed from me by the grants of these small life-holds. 
 
 Oct. 3rd. Visited some cottages thank God, not mine I What griping, grasp- 
 ing, avaricious cruelty. These petty proprietors exact a five-fold rent for a thing 
 in five-fold inferior condition I It is always so with these small holders. Every 
 thing even the misery of their fellows must be turned to profit. Oh, if instead 
 of one hundred thousand pounds to pay in debt, I had that sum to expend, what 
 good I might do ? But it has pleased God otherwise. 
 
 Having carefully examined into the state of things, and made himself 
 master of the facts, Lord Shaftesbury lost no time in inaugurating some 
 sweeping reforms. These were not easy to carry out, and were opposed in 
 some cases by deep-rooted prejudices. 
 
 He found that the truck-system, which he had condemned so unsparingly 
 in lii.s Factory legislation, was flourishing on his own estate, and he deter- 
 mined to put a stop to it forthwith. He knew of its existence ten years 
 before, but then he was tongue-tied ; now, he could denounce the abominable 
 n as he pleased. He discovered that certain fanners were grievously 
 defrauding the workpeople, paying them, in kind, at the rate of 10 a load 
 for wheat when the market price was only 8 ! To these men he said, " I am 
 master here ; I will not allow the poor to be oppressed. You shall pay in 
 money or quit your farm ! " It was a bold step, for, in the state of his 
 finance;: a vacant farm was an important consideration, and as a matter of 
 omo wore thrown on his hands; but he had counted the cost, and he 
 persevered until he had abolished the system. 
 
 Another mischief and one that confirmed him in the belief that fanners 
 of the old class were ignorant, selfish, and tyrannical, and that the repeal of 
 the Corn Laws was indispensably necessary to save the agriculture of the 
 realm was, that many of the farms were shamefully under-cultivated, and, 
 [Uently, not half the proper number of labourers wore employed. Yet 
 tin- tenants were well-to-do, for, inasmuch as the land was underlet in value, 
 they made a profit with little trouble. But they turned their men heartlessly 
 oat of work, and bade them " Go to the great house " (meaning his own) if 
 they wanted a job. 
 
 Nothing gave Lord Shaftesbury so much anxiety as the want of proper 
 cottage accommodation. " Surely I am the most perplexed of men," he wrote. 
 "I have passed my life in rating others for allowing rotten houses and im- 
 moral, unhealthy dwellings ; and now I come into an estate rife with abomi- 
 nations! Why, there are things here to make one's flesh creep; and I have 
 not a farthing to set them right." 
 
 On one thing lie was firmly resolved, namely, that he would not spend 
 any money upon his own house until he had effected some improvement in the
 
 450 THE EARL OF SUAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XX. 
 
 cottaires. nor uutil bo had cared for the village House of God, which had 
 suffered sadly from neglect. 
 
 Meantime, he was harassed by correspondents who assumed that he was 
 rich, and who " wrote in all the fervour of meritorious need as .to one blessed 
 by God with abundant wealth." It was painful to him to say " No " to their 
 appeals ; it was impossible that he could explain that fresh liabilities were, 
 arising on all sides, absorbing every farthing yielded by the estates, and that 
 expenses innumerable, taxes and labour, had to be met out of borrowed money. 
 There was only one course open to him, and that was to quit St. Giles's for 
 the present. 
 
 This step was taken towards the close of January in 1852, a little more 
 than six months after his father's death. But the improvements he had 
 effected during that time were a pledge and a prophecy of what would yet 
 be done, as he had opportunity. In that short period, in addition to the plans 
 he had proposed for cottage accommodation, he had appointed a Scripture- 
 reader for Horton, undertaken a school at Pentridge, projected one at Hinton 
 Martel, and one at Woodlands. The parish church at St. Giles's he thoroughly 
 restored and redecorated, and made it " look like a church, and cease to wear 
 the appearance of an old ball-room." In addition to these things, he had 
 inaugurated the system of giving the audit dinners to the tenants at his own 
 house, instead of at an inn, being convinced that it was " more hospitable and 
 friendly, and an excellent mode of preventing excess." He had, moreover, 
 planned a series of rewards for garden- allotments; a society to encourage 
 labourers on the estate ; evening classes for young men ; and cricket clubs, 
 for the summer, for all the cottagers, the matches to be played in the park. 
 
 Then came the day when, for the present, he must leave this new field of 
 activity, and he notes it in his Diary thus : 
 
 Jan. 27th, 1852. This day I prepare to leave " the Saint" * for a long time, 
 perhaps for ever ! The issue is the Lord's ; " let Him do," so said old Eli, "as it 
 seemeth Him good "1 I do love and cherish the spot, and pray that God will lift 
 np the light of His countenance upon it, and all its people ! . . . 
 
 Notwithstanding the heavy demands made upon his time throughout the 
 period to which we have been referring, the Diary was not allowed to suffer, 
 and a few extracts, upon general subjects, may be given here : 
 
 Sept. 19th, 1861. California has led the way ; Australia follows auri sacra 
 famft. What no motive, human or divine, could effect, springs into life at the 
 display of a few pellets of gold in the hand of a wanderer. . . . This may 
 be God's chosen way to force the world to fulfil his commandment and " replenish 
 the earth." It brought existence to California. 
 
 Oct. 29th. Windsor Castle. Kossuth, the Hungarian, has entered South- 
 ampton in triumph, proceeded to Winchester in glory, to the house of " Lord 
 Andrewes," the mayor, and is hanging on the skirte of London, ready for a descent. 
 This vagabond is treated as though he were the " Deus Optimus Maximus." Our 
 
 Lord Shaftcshury's familiar way of naming St. Giles's.
 
 THOMAS WRIGHT, PRISON PHILANTHROPIST. 451 
 
 Lord would have but a poor reception compared with his I Many who attend him 
 are designing persons, looking either to electioneering purposes or to revolution ; 
 many, in their simplicity, believe that they are upholding "constitutional" 
 government, and that " three times three " for Kossuth means " three times three" 
 for Queen, Lords, and Commons ! f 
 
 There was probably no man whose circle of friends and acquaintances was 
 wider than Lord Shaftesbury's, and .certainly none whose circle included 
 greater variety in social position, influence, and attainment than his. He was 
 intimate witli his fellow Peers and the highest in the land ; lie was intimate 
 with the humblest and lowliest of working men. It made no difference to 
 him what a man was in the eye of society or of the world, if lie saw in him 
 one who possessed those qualities upon which true friendships alone can rest. 
 He esteemed a man first for what he was in himself, and next, for what he 
 was doing for the world to make it brighter and happier and holier. Hence 
 it was that among those he loved and " delighted to honour " were men who 
 were engaged in every branch of Christian work, by whom he felt proud to 
 be known as a " fellow-labourer." 
 
 Among these was Thomas Wright, the prison philanthropist. How it 
 came to pass that the acquaintanceship, which ripened into friendship, began, 
 was told by Lord Shaftesbury to a gathering of young men, when warning 
 <li fin against false pride and exhorting them not to be ashamed of their 
 trades. He said : 
 
 Many of yon must have heard of a remarkable man of the name of Thomas 
 Wright of Manchester. He visited prisons. He was engaged all day long in a 
 small establishment acting as foreman, covered with oil and grease and everything 
 else. The first time I ever saw Thomas Wright was at Manchester, I was 
 staying with my friend, the great engineer, Mr. Fairbairn. He said to me : " You 
 have heard of Thomas Wright ; would you like to meet him ? " I said, " Of 
 course I should, beyond anything." " Well, then, we shall have him to dinner." 
 So we asked him to dinner ; we three together. In came Thomas Wright, and 
 had I not known who he was I should have said he was the most venerable 
 doctor of divinity I ever looked upon. His hair was white ; his expression was 
 fascinating ; he was dressed in black. We passed the evening and then we went 
 to church. Two or three days afterwards, we said we would go and see Thomas 
 \Vri -lit. We knocked at the office door, and a man, in a paper cap and an apron 
 and covered with grease, opened it. I passed in and I said, " I want to see 
 Thomas Wright" "I dare say you do," he said, "here I am." Then I said, 
 " Bless yon, my good fellow ; never was I so impressed in my life before, as I am 
 now with the true dignity of labour." There was that man, covered with grease 
 and wearing his paper cap. When his work was over, he doffed his cap, washed 
 his face, put on his black clothes and away he went to prison, to carry life and 
 li^ht and the Gospel of Christ to many broken and anxious hearts.* 
 
 The same interview is thus noted in the Diary : 
 
 Speech before Y. M. C. A., Glasgow, Oct., 1877. 
 D D2
 
 452 THE EARL OF 8HAFTESBT7KY. [CHAP. XX. 
 
 Nov. 24th. Manchester. Yesterday that good man Wright, of Chorlton-on- 
 Medlock, the visitor and comforter of prisoners in every gaol to which he has 
 access, dined with us alone, and we had some excellent talk. This man is a 
 marvel. What a standard for the great of this earth to measure themselves by ! 
 
 Some of the entries towards the close of the year are as follows : 
 
 Dec. 8th. Tlie Saint. I protest against universal suffrage on many grounds ; 
 on none more than this, that it has never been found consistent with general 
 freedom. Wherever it has prevailed it has established the freedom, nay, licence, 
 of the majority ; and the restraint, nay, thraldom, of the minority. Was social, 
 civil, and religious liberty, of the whole, known in the ancient Republic of 
 Greece ? Does not De Tocqueville show the tyranny of the people in the United 
 States ? Has universal suffrage emancipated four millions of negroes ? Has it 
 secured in France political independence and social peace ? 
 
 Christmas Day. Day sadly distracted by intelligence of yesterday. Palmer- 
 stoii has quitted office and Granville is appointed in his place. Palmerston, with 
 all his faults, was an English Minister, a man who desired civil and religious 
 liberty for others as for himself. 
 
 Parliament was opened on the 3rd of February following, when Lord 
 John Russell explained the circumstances connected with the resignation of 
 the Foreign Office by Lord Palmerston, in relation to the reception of 
 Kossuth, and the ex-Secretary defended his action in a vigorous speech. Into 
 the merits of the misunderstanding it is not necessary that we should enter. 
 
 Events in France were causing considerable uneasiness at this time, not 
 in England only, but throughout the Continent, and, in view of the unsettled 
 state of Europe, the country was thrown into agitation with regard to the 
 inadequacy of the national defences, and the Government resolved to bring 
 before Parliament a scheme for the re-establishment of the militia. On the 
 16th of February Lord John Russell explained the scope and purpose of the 
 Bill, and on the 26th, while it was yet in a preliminary stage, the Govern- 
 ment was defeated, as shown in the following entry. Lord Derby,* the 
 recognised leader of the Tory party, was called upon to form a Government : 
 
 Feb. 20th. Quarter-past eleven at night. Just heard that Government is 
 out ; beaten by a small majority on an amendment moved by Palmerston, to 
 convert he " local " into a " general " militia. It is strange to me to be shut out 
 of the medley. The House of Lords is a sad place for news of the events ; get 
 all at second-hand, and dealt out sparingly. Many things now occur, as old 
 Latimer says, " to cut off my comb." Palmerston had fallen ; every one had 
 deserted him ; he was left alone. He gains a victory over the Minister who 
 announces his resignation. Palmerston's house (I am just come from it, half- 
 paa'j eleven at night) is overwhelmed with company ; one would think that he 
 had saved an empire, or that he was mounting a throne I 
 
 A wonderful Nemesis I John kicks out Palmerston and Palmerston, after a 
 short interval, kicks out him. He rejoices, they say, in the result, though he was 
 furious and humbled at the mode, because he feared both the Caffre Debate and 
 the Reform Bill ! 
 
 * Lord Stanley succeeded to the title in June, 185J
 
 1862.1 ROUTINE WORK. 453 
 
 Feb. 28th. Called on Derby, and, afterwards, on Walpole, to urge them, aa 
 they valued the peace of the country, to a specific and open declaration, 
 immediately on the meeting of the Houses, of their intention to ask no more 
 than the necessary votes, and then forthwith to " dissolve " and appeal to the 
 electors for a final decision whether they will, or will not, accept in any form, or 
 for any purpose, a duty on the importation of food. 
 
 " I have not a majority," said Derby ; " but I have sufficient strength to with- 
 stand a factions opposition." " No," I replied, " I do not think yon have ; a 
 Minister may defy both Houses, if he have the country on his side, but, be 
 assured, the country is against you ; altogether against you, I believe, on Pro- 
 tection ; but most certainly on the obligation you lie under to tell them what 
 you mean ! " He was very civil, and thanked me. Walpole the same, and, he 
 added, in confidence, that he had urged, again and again, this very counsel. 
 
 The new Ministerial arrangements were completed by the 27th of 
 February. The Chancellorship of the Exchequer was offered to Lord 
 Pal*nerston, who declined to serve under Lord Derby ; -whereupon the office 
 was accepted by Mr. Disraeli, to whom was assigned the Leadership of the 
 House of Commons. 
 
 During the early part of this year Lord Shaftesbnry was unusually 
 harassed by "letters, interviews, chairs, boards, speeches." "I am worn, 
 worn, worn by them all," ho says, " surrendering all amusements and sooioly, 
 giving all the day and half of almost every night to business and meetings, 
 and all this in the face of weak health and tottering nerves." 
 
 In the midst of this work the time had come for him to leave his town- 
 house in Brook Street and to take up his residence in the old family house in 
 Grosvenor Square : 
 
 Feb. 6th. Tin's is the last evening I shall ever spend in this house ; it is sold, 
 and I must leave it to-morrow. I cannot leave it without regret. I have passed 
 here many happy and useful hours, praised be God ; certainly more happy, and 
 probably more useful, than I shall ever pass again. I have here prepared for 
 nearly all my public labours, in study, thought, and prayer ; I am now in the vale 
 of years, and, henceforward, shall feed on recollections. We had outgrown the 
 dwelling, it had become too strait for us. 
 
 No fresh accession of labour ever tempted him to set aside the duties to 
 which he had pledged himself. The "Exhibition year "had given an im- 
 petus to Ragged School work, and every fresh development of that heart- 
 Mirring movement brought a corresponding increase of toil to him. Tho 
 difficulties in connection with the Board of Health had multiplied, and, as wo 
 shall see later on, were bringing the existence of that Board to a close. The 
 May Meetings of this year laid heavier demands than ever upon Lord 
 Shaftesbnry, every Society being eager to secure the presence of the " new 
 Earl " amongst them. It was due to his marvellous art of economising time 
 that he was able to meet his engagements. The Lunacy Commission alone, 
 it would have seemed, might have been sufficient to have occupied all his 
 leisure, for he conducted his duties as Chief Commissioner with a care and
 
 454 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY, [CHAP. XX. 
 
 scrupulosity that are as admirable as they are unusual. It was his rule, after 
 visiting cases of special importance, to record the circumstances as an aid to 
 his memory, and this was done in the most thorough and exhaustive manner. 
 
 By June the burden of overwork and over-anxiety had become so heavily 
 oppressive that we find this significant entry : 
 
 June 19th. Dr. Ferguson orders me to Ems to drink the waters. 
 
 It was a favourite recreation of Lord Shaftesbury in vacation time to 
 write in his Diary what may almost be termed " essays " on the thoughts that 
 arose within him. Thus, while at Ems, we find the following : 
 
 July 20th. Humanly speaking, and on human grounds, what countries in the 
 world seem to enjoy the best and fairest prospects of greatness, security, and 
 wealth ? I should reply, France and the United States of America. The United 
 States are a young country ; and, so far as an analogy is good, have all the hopes 
 and prospects of healthy and vigorous youth. They contain within themselves 
 everything, however various, that Nature bestows, and in abundance inexhaus- 
 tible. In art and science they are equal to the best ; in energy of character, 
 almost superior. They have nothing to fear but from internal dissensions ; they 
 are beyond the power of foreign aggression. Their territory is nearly boundless, 
 and so close as to furnish a ready safety valve to all their discontented spirits ; 
 every year adds enormously to their numbers and resources, and wealth seems to 
 grow like the grass of the field. Their Government is essentially republican ; and 
 there is actually nothing left to contend for in the way of more liberal inxtitii- 
 tionx. They may, and will, have party strifes and struggles for the possession of 
 place and power ; but what social question remains ? There is no Church to be 
 invaded ; no aristocracy to be pulled down ; no king to be replaced by a pre- 
 sident ; efforts at organic changes would seem to be impossible, nor will the bane 
 of Europe, the Socialistic principle, become, for many generations at least, a 
 continuous and concentrated question. 
 
 " Slavery" will be a thorn in their side ; but its utmost consequence will be a 
 disruption of the Union, and the formation of two mighty and independent 
 States ; the North more powerful than the South. Then, probably, changes may 
 begin ; and, as Monarchy fades into Republics, so Republics rise into Monarchies. 
 
 July 22nd. France presents a spectacle such as the world never saw before. 
 Ransack history, and say whether, in any age, there has existed a nation, living 
 within a ring-fence, of high civilisation, advanced science, of military spirit and 
 prowess, almost unrivalled, and numbering more than six-and-thirty millions, all 
 speaking the same language, and, with the exception of a small fraction, all pro- 
 fessing the same religion. She rests on two seas to the north and to the south, 
 and possesses every requisite of a great maritime power ; her surface is extensive, 
 and her soil rich, producing, in wine especially, many things that other nations 
 demand. She, like the United States, can fear little or nothing from foreign 
 aggression ; she is more than a match for any two of the Continental kingdoms ; 
 and, in the way of defence, perhaps, a match for them all. But her means of 
 attack are very great ; and both her past history and her present vigour impress 
 a terror on every Government around her 1 
 
 Such enormous resources will extricate her speedily from financial difficulty ; 
 and. indeed, Mr. Bates (of the great firm of Baring and Co.) told me the other
 
 185ZI THR DUKE OF WELLINGTON. 4-35 
 
 day that he had more hopeful views of French finance than of any other country 
 on earth. She, too, like the United States, has little left to destroy. Her Church 
 ia despoiled, the Crown is taken away, the landed aristocracy are no more ; 
 nobility is forbidden, and equality instituted. Further organic change seems 
 impossible ; a despotism, it is true, temporarily exists, which, while it lasts, is 
 doing that form of good which liberty, I fear, will never effect ; and, when it is 
 overthrown, will leave the nation to its commonwealth again. 
 
 Her plague is that of Socialism, deep, rancorous, and widespread ; the national 
 character, nevertheless, counteracts it in some measure, and the personal interests 
 of the community effect the remainder. 
 
 Another recreation in which Lord Shaftesbnry indulged at Ems was one 
 which was almost always denied him in England the leisurely perusal of 
 books. 
 
 August 15th. Reading Birks on Daniel, clear, satisfactory, comfortable. The 
 mysterious resources of China, the progressive might of the United States, will 
 neither hasten nor retard the final development of man's destiny on earth ! 
 God's " tender mercies are over all His works ; " but prophecy is busy with those 
 empires only that affect His ancient people, and, therein, the issue of the Elect 
 Church, elect " from all kindreds and tongues and people." 
 
 August 23rd. Dover. During my vacation have read Milton again. Well did 
 Dryden say that " the force of Nature could no further go." I cannot but believe 
 that God, in His goodness, inspired the man not as He inspired Isaiah and Joel, 
 to foretell future events in strains of majestic grandeur, but to show, for the com- 
 fort and instruction of our race, that man's mouth and man's understanding are 
 His own divine workmanship. 
 
 Soon after his return from Ems, Lord Shaftesbury received the painful 
 i 11 td licence that the Duke of Wellington, the friend of his early manhood, 
 who had seen in him high principles and large capabilities, and had sought 
 his friendship and his aid, was numbered with the dead. On the 14th of 
 September, at Walmer Castle, the old hero breathed his last. 
 
 September IGth. The death of the Great Duke is an "event" Will the 
 world present other opportunities for other such heroes ? Such a life is hardly 
 on record ; everything, nearly, went well with him, and he " died full of riches 
 and honour." His dominant feeling was a sense of duty to the Crown and to the 
 country ; it was paramount to everything else. And now begins the ordinary 
 scramble ; he held many appointments, and many of his survivors will covet, and 
 unnc will deserve, them. 
 
 There were rumours that the Chancellorship of Oxford, vacant by the 
 (loath of the Duke of Wellington, would be offered to Lord Shaftesbury 
 The following entry refers to this : 
 
 September 24th. For myself it would add a burthen cf duty to the many 
 burthens I have already ; it would necessarily call me off from many I have 
 undertaken, and have hardly time and strength to discharge. Now, is there one 
 that I would surrender for this honour 1 Not one. It is an honour I do not covet, 
 duty I do not like an unprofitable field, a comfortless dignity. I hate all the
 
 456 THE EARL OF SHAFTESRORY. [CHAP. XX. 
 
 circumstances of it. Let those who are ambitious of it obtain and enjoy the post ; 
 there will be candidates enough. I had rather, by God's blessing and guidance, 
 retain those places for which there are no candidates the chairs of the Bagged 
 Union, the Colonial Dormitory, the Field Lane Refuge. . . . This is clearly 
 my province. I am called to this, and not to any political or social honours. I 
 am now fifty-two years of age ; I have laboured almost incessantly for four-and- 
 twenty years, and I have never received an honour, or notice of any sort or kind, 
 great or small, from the Crown, the Minister, or the public, except the citizenship 
 of the small borough of Tain, in Scotland. 
 
 Lord Shaftesbnry's ideas of burial were very pronounced. Any glorifica- 
 tion of the body from which the spirit had fled was repugnant to him. He 
 had no sympathy with the passion of some who would seek to battle with 
 nature, and resist, or attempt to resist, the decree, "Dust thou art, and unto 
 dust sluilt thou return." He disliked the gross, material idea of burial, as 
 unpoetical, unscriptural, and the result of materialism in theology; he looked 
 npon the corpses of the departed as no more than relinquished garments of 
 living men and women, " temples of God, in which divine service is over and 
 finished, the chanting hushed, the aisles deserted." This was no now i<l:>;t of 
 his. It was, like most that entered into matters of practical importnnco, 
 fixed and rooted. We have heard him express the same sentiment in his 
 journals of early Continental travels ; we shall hear him re-echo those words 
 with even greater force in the last year of his life, when supporting the 
 efforts of the Cremation Society. 
 
 Nov. 18th. Last night at half -past eight to " lying in state ! " What a 
 monstrous misuse of splendour ! here is the info'my, or the infamy, of our 
 nature. " Dust to dust, ashes to ashes : " here is the decree of God 1 Order upon 
 order, gold upon gold, troop upon troop : here is the decree of man I The decrees 
 seem to be in collision. It was fine, very fine, but hardly impressive ; signs of 
 mortality, but none of resurrection ; much of a great man in his generation, but 
 nothing of a great spirit in another ; not a trace of religion, not a shadow of 
 eternity. They would have made far other display in Romish countries : the 
 cross, a band of chanting monks, priests with censers a false religion, it is true, 
 but nevertheless something that would have shifted the thoughts from a mere 
 grovel on the earth. 
 
 To-day the procession ; saw it well, singularly well, from St. James's Palace. 
 Stupendously grand in troops and music. It was solemn, and even touching ; 
 but it was a show, an eye-tickler to 999 out of every thousand a mere amuse- 
 ment. The Duke himself would have permitted it, in a sense of duty ; he never 
 would have desired such a thing. 
 
 The Protestantism of five-and-thirty years ago was much more easily 
 stimulated to enthusiasm than it is now, and the story of the interest and 
 excitement aroused by the persecution of the Ma.diai in 1852 reads like a 
 chapter out of some old-world history. 
 
 In the city of Florence there dwelt two small shopkeepers, Francesco 
 and Rosa Madiai. They were simple folk, neither wealthy, great, nor
 
 1852.] PERSECUTION OP THE MADIAI. 457 
 
 powerful, Imt they were sincere. Under the influence of Protestant teaching, 
 they were led to regard the Church of Rome, in which they had been reared, 
 as in error, and, as they could not conscientiously remain in it, they deter- 
 iniiicil to come out and be separate. The Scriptures became their delight, 
 and, although warned that to read them in their own house, and to seek to 
 propagate them, or to spread the doctrines of Protestantism, would be to act 
 in hostility to the religion of the State, they felt it was their duty to persevere 
 and bear the consequences " they conld not but speak the things which they 
 had seen and heard." 
 
 They were, in consequence, subjected to severe persecution. But this 
 conld not turn them from their purpose ; the spirit of the old martyrs pos- 
 sessed them ; they would not obey man rather than God. The matter was 
 then referred to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, who condemned them to five 
 years' imprisonment with hard labour in the galleys. 
 
 When this sentence became known it produced throughout Protestant 
 Europe a sudden and simultaneous indignation. In England, by common 
 :t, Lord Shaftesbnry was looked to as the leader of the movement to 
 obtain a reversal of the cruel and tyrannical sentence. One of his first steps 
 was to lay the case before the Prince Consort, and acquaint him with the 
 actual state of public feeling upon the subject. 
 
 To this letter the Prince replied : 
 
 HM.H. the Prince Contort to Lord Shaftenbury. 
 
 BALMOEAL, September Zith, 1852. 
 
 MY DEAR LORD SHAFTESBUET, Many thanks for your letter respecting the 
 unfortunate Mudiais, which I received this morning. The cruel case had already 
 attracted the Queen's notice, and I attempted a personal appeal to the Grand 
 Duke, to which I have not yet received an answer. I tried particularly to 
 impress him (or rather his Confessor, who is the ruling power) that the case will 
 do irreparable mischief to the Roman Catholic cause in England, knowing that, 
 for the sake of Christian charity, not a finger will be moved. 
 
 This is the Church which calls v* intolerant, merely because we do not choose 
 to be governed by it 1 The King of Prussia has written to the Queen, asking her 
 to make joint representations with him at Florence. Her Majesty has. in h>-r 
 answer sent to-day, expressed her willingness so to do, and has instructed Lord 
 Mulmesbury accordingly. 
 
 Ever yours truly, 
 
 ALBERT. 
 
 It was decided by those who, under the leadership of Lord Shaftesbnry, 
 had so warmly espoused the cause of the Madiai, that a deputation should go 
 out from England to intercede with the Grand Duke (the Archbishop of 
 Dublin assuming the lead in Dublin). 
 
 The deputation, headed by Lord Roden, set forth on their mission on the 
 
 "f October. On the 26th Lord Roden wrote to Lord Shaftesbury, 
 
 informing him that he had received a reply from the Tuscan Minister of 
 
 Foreign Affairs, declining to receive a deputation on the subject of the
 
 458 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. [OIIAP. XX. 
 
 Madiai. " They are Tuscan subjects," wrote the Minister, " and have been 
 condemned to five years' imprisonment by the ordinary tribunals, for 
 propagating Protestantism, which is prescribed by our laws as an attack upon 
 the religion of the State." 
 
 The deputation went forward notwithstanding, and their return is thus 
 referred to in the Diary : 
 
 Nov. 12th. Yesterday to Protestant Alliance to receive deputation on their 
 return from Florence. Let us bless God ; He has really prospered us. . . . 
 Is it no remarkable sign, nay, proof of the latter days, that when two small 
 shopkeepers are persecuted by the hand of tyranny, for righteousness' sake, all 
 Europe is in commotion ; deputies start from England, France, Holland, Prussia, 
 Switzerland ; monarchs interfere with autograph letters, and the sanctity of 
 principle and truth is maintained in the cause, and in the persons, of social 
 inferiors ; social, I say, for, God knows, they may be as " Hyperion to a Satyr," 
 compared with grandees ? It revives the memory and practice of Apostolic 
 times ; it is the dawn of the day when the Churches that " hold the Head " shall 
 be as one 1 Ah, how dear Bickersteth would rejoice in such a daybreak, were he 
 on earth, but probably he is enjoying now a meridian display of God's full mercy 
 to this thankless world 1 There are hopes, too, even for Italy ; the populace 
 crowded around the deputation ; at Lucca, Lord Koden could scarcely prevent 
 their drawing his carriage in triumph ; at Genoa, the National Guard would have 
 turned out in military order. This is good ; the people will see that there is a 
 reality in Protestantism, a spirit of brotherhood, a unity of hearts under a 
 diversity of forma. 
 
 Successful as the deputation had been in stirring popular feeling, it had 
 failed to obtain any reversal or mitigation of the sentence on the Madiai, and 
 fresh steps had to be taken by the Protestants of Europe. Lord Shaftesbury, 
 early in December, headed a deputation to Mr. Walpole, to petition the Queen 
 on their behalf, a petition signed, " strange, but joyous to say, by one Arch- 
 bishop (Dublin) and eight Bishops ! " 
 
 In January, 1853, at the urgent request of the Protestant Alliance and 
 many influential persons, Lord Shaftesbury was on the point of starting off 
 for Florence " in search of the Madiai." Just when his preparations were made, 
 he received a letter from the Protestants of Geneva " urging caution, breath- 
 ing doubts, quenching spirits, and imposing wet blankets." But his ardour 
 was not damped, and he still purposed to go forward, when he received private 
 information that at the present juncture of affairs he would " complicate the 
 whole thing, worsen the condition of the Madiai, and do more harm than good." 
 The journey was therefore postponed. Meanwhile other and more effective 
 measures were in progress. Lord John Russell urged upon Sir Henry Bulwer, 
 Envoy Extraordinary to Tuscany, the necessity of remonstrating strongly 
 with the Tuscan Government on the subject. " As this is a matter affecting 
 a Tuscan subject," he said, " it may be argued that Her Majesty's Govern- 
 ment have no right to interfere. If this means that interference by force of 
 arms would not be justifiable, I confess at once that nothing but the most
 
 18M.1 THE AMERICAN 8HOWMAW. 459 
 
 extreme case would justify such an interference. But if it be meant that 
 Her Majesty has not the right to point ont to a friendly sovereign the argu- 
 ment* which have prevailed in the most civilised nations againut the use of 
 the civil sword to punish religious opinions, I entirely deny the truth of such 
 an allegation." 
 
 The Grand-Duke withstood, as long as he was able, the storm his tyranny 
 had provoked, but eventually he was obliged to yield, and on the 17th of 
 March the Madiai were liberated. 
 
 An amusing episode of this subject was the receipt of a letter from an 
 HL r ''iit of Mr. Barimm the American Showman a letter that greatly tickled 
 the humour of Lord Shaftesbury, who had a keen relish for a joke. 
 
 Mr. JSarntt HI'S Agent to Lord Shaftesbury. 
 
 MANCHESTER, March 2ith, 1853. 
 
 MY Loun, As I am aware your lordship is always actively engaged in a holy 
 warfare against the Roman Catholic religion, and the mainstay of the converts 
 from that faith, I calculate it is highly probable that Rosa and Francesco Madiai 
 are likely to come under your Lordship's patronage on their arrival in the old 
 country. As agent for Mr. Barnum, whose name, I presume, is not unknown to 
 your lordship, I respectfully beg to be informed whether it is possible to enter 
 into an engagement for these interesting people to exhibit themselves in our 
 United States after the London season, as I have no doubt they would draw fair 
 audiences in our northern States, where the Protestant feeling runs strong, and 
 we are pretty alive to proceedings in this country. 
 
 Mr. Barnum would act liberally by these good people, and great good may be 
 done. 
 
 I have the honour to be, my lord, 
 
 Your lordship's obedient servant, 
 
 JOHN HALL WILTON. 
 
 Unfortunately there is no record of the reply Lord Shaf tesbnry sent to 
 this communication. 
 
 It rarely happened that any one subject, however great its interest, was 
 allowed to absorb Lord Shaftesbury's attention, and while the case of the . 
 Madiai was proceeding, other and wider movements were claiming his aid. 
 
 In 1850 Mrs. Harriet Beccher Stowe wrote her celebrated tale, " Uncle 
 Tom's Cabin." It was first published in parts ; on its completion it was 
 re-issued ontiro, and it then commenced a career almost unparalleled in the 
 annals of literature. In the course of less than a year more than 200,000 
 copies were sold in the United States, and this was but a prelude to the still 
 more astonishing success awaiting it in this country. It ran like wild-fire 
 through the land, appealing to every class in cities, towns, and remotest vil- 
 lages, and affecting, as no other book, perhaps, had ever done, the imagination 
 of the people. 
 
 From extracts already given from his journals, it will easily bo seen how, 
 with his utter detestation of slavery of every kind, the enormities revealed in 
 this life-like fiction stirred the heart of Lord Shaftesbnry. For years he had
 
 460 THE EARL OP SHAFTESUURY. [CHAP. XX. 
 
 watched every movement in America bearing upon the subject ; and latterly 
 the operation of the Fugitive Slave Law, by which " a whole nation, blessed 
 by God with freedom, wealth, and the Holy Scriptures, declares it to be im- 
 possible to emancipate a slave, and penal to teach any one of them the first 
 principles of Christianity," had distressed him beyond measure. But hitherto 
 he had been unable to take any important active part against the cruel system. 
 As a matter of fact, there was at that time no action that could have been 
 taken. After reading Mrs. Stowe's book, however, and when public feeling 
 was stirred to its depths, he felt that it was impossible to remain quiet. 
 
 Nov. 6th. Long troubled in spirit, and touched to the heart's core by " Uncle 
 Tom's Cabin." Marvellous work ! What a power of Christian intellect ! What, 
 a concentration, so to speak, of natural simplicity ! One feels, as one reads it, 
 that it is heaven-sent. It has a destiny. Ah, Lord, grant it. and forgive, at last, 
 the descendants of Ham. 
 
 Determined to draw up aniAddress from the Women of England to the Women 
 of America, and try to stir their souls and sympathies. Did it, and sent it off to 
 the newspapers to-day. 
 
 The proposed address was to rouse public opinion, by an appeal to the 
 great sympathies of mankind, so much more powerful than laws or statutes ; 
 and it was hoped that if it were taken up by local committees, enriched by 
 many signatures, and then transmitted to America, it would not fail to pro- 
 duce a deep and fruitful impression. It was a call from the Women of 
 England to their sisters in America, to consider how far the system of slavery- 
 was in accordance with the Word of God, the inalienable rights of immortal 
 souls, and the pure and merciful spirit of the Christian religion. 
 
 Henceforward, for many years, events in America, especially as they boro 
 upon the question of slavery, were noted at considerable length in Lord 
 Shaftesbury's Diaries. 
 
 Nov. 12th. To the House of Lords to take the oath. What a mode of ad- 
 ministering a sacred office 1 What a " hideous gabble ! " Is there any can there 
 be any value in such a form ? A little encouragement to my slavery move- 
 _ ment, but very little. Kind letters from the editor of the Leeds Mercury, and 
 old Sam Rogers, the poet. It is refreshing to see a man so keen in his humani- 
 ties at ninety years of age. . . . 
 
 Nov. 20th. It is wonderful to contemplate the long-suffering of God towards 
 the American Republic. Their statute laws are in direct contradiction of the 
 statute laws (so to speak, the Ten Commandments) of God. Try them in succes- 
 sion, and it will be found that every decree is set at nought by the United States 
 law. The " fugitive " slave law was a compromise to maintain the Union at the 
 expense of mercy, truth, justice, God's gifts and word. The whole of their 
 domestic policy is governed, more or less, by " slavery." It is the beginning and 
 the end of their movements. They invade Mexico to find a market for their 
 breeding farms, seize on Texas, and re-establish that slavery which Mexico had 
 abolished I They are bound together by compacts of murder, rapine, adultery. 
 They say to three millions of God's immortal creatures, " Your bodies are ours 
 for lust, labour, for any amount or quality of suffering and degradation we
 
 FRIENDSHIP WITH BICKERSTETH. 461 
 
 choose to inflict, and your souls shall wallow in utter ignorance of the things of 
 eternity." And yet they prosper. Their dominion is mighty, their wealth 
 stupendous ; they seem to have nothing to fear from man, and every ambition is 
 gratified. They boast of their freedom, their republic, their "religion ; " and 
 the public press of England is silent on these things ! What a mystery is all this ! 
 What is there in former times to match the present 1 What nation before knew 
 Thy will, read it in Thy Book, professed to believe it, and then passed laws (the 
 work of the whole peojjle, not of a single despot) in flat, insolent contradiction of 
 Thy will and truth 1 Lord, " increase our faith," and speedily have mercy on 
 Thy oppressed creatures, for Christ's ever dear and precious sake I 
 
 Nov. 21st. Sunday. This United States slavery harasses my very soul; I 
 can think of nothing else ; breathe a prayer for them minute after minute. 
 
 Nov. 25th. Busy, very busy, about my " Address from the Women of England 
 to the Women of America " on negro slavery. Have met with more sympathy 
 and less ridicule than might have been expected ; thanks, under God, to " Uncle 
 Tom's Cabin." My dear and steady friend, the Duchess of Sutherland, has been 
 most zealous, serviceable, and high-minded. She has called a meeting of ladies 
 in her house to form a committee and adopt the memorial. 
 
 Nov. 27th. The Duchess did her part in the best manner. Ah, Lord, return 
 all into her own bosom, and bless the house, which, glorious in human trappings, 
 has been consecrated to the cause of Thy dear Son ! 
 
 Dec. 15th. Wrote yesterday to Mrs. Beecher Stowe to express my admiration 
 of her work, and my gratitude to God who had stimulated her heart to write it. 
 
 The death of the Rev. Edward Bickersteth in 1850 bad been a severe loss 
 to Lord SLaftesbury. He looked around and saw no one who could supply 
 his place ; no one who could give him just the help and sympathy he needed 
 in the anxieties of his ever-increasing 1 work, no one on whose judgment lie 
 could place implicit reliance. Frequently, in times of great perplexity, he 
 recorded in his journal (into which he poured every thought and feeling, 
 every aspiration and hope, as well as every fear and misgiving) the sense of 
 this great and growing want the friendship of one who should be able to 
 enter into his plans and purposes, and in whom he could confide in unre- 
 strained measure. There were many sorrows pressing upon him which few 
 -oulil understand ; his fellow-labourers did not know that the sufferings of 
 the poor haunted Lira night and day, and grieved Liin as though tliey were 
 personal to himself ; few ever realised that the records of slavery, persecution, 
 and cruelty in tLe daily papers, and mucL more those that came within the 
 scope of Lis own knowledge, would fill Lira with sucli burning indignation 
 that Le Lad difficulty in restraining Limself from becoming tLe champion of 
 every individual case of oppression. No one ever knew, until Lis Diaries 
 were seen, Low Le cLafed at delay in redressing wrong, Low Le literally 
 " agonised " over tLe misery and tlio despair of tLose wLose distresses were 
 capable of being made endurable, if not altogetLer relieved. Nor did he 
 stand in need of eucL a friend in tLe Lour of Lis sorrow, less tLan in tLe Lour 
 of Lis joy. He craved for some one wLo, Limsolf in tLe midst of similar 
 labour, would be able to sympathise witL Lira in Lis trinmpLs and successes.
 
 462 THE EARL OK 8HAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XX. 
 
 and be a sharer in the joy of harvest, no less thau in the tearful sowing of the 
 seed. It was this sense of want that made him write, in the midst of the 
 enthusiasm kindled among Protestants on behalf of the Madiai ; " It is the 
 dawn of the day when the Churches that ' hold the Head ' shall be as one. 
 AJi, how dear Bickersteth would rejoice in such a daybreak were he on 
 eartli ! " It was a cry for the touch of the vanished hand, and the sound of the 
 voice that was still ; it was an acknowledgment that there was no one else 
 who held in his heart the same position his departed friend had held. 
 
 But a friendship was ripening which ere long should supply the one he 
 had " lost awhile " that is, as far as one friendship ever can supply the place 
 of another. 
 
 In the prosecution of various good works, in committees and on platforms, 
 lie had been brought into contact with Mr. Alexander Haldane, a barrister- at- 
 law of the Inner Temple, the representative of an ancient Perthshire family, 
 celebrated in the annals of philanthropy and religion, and one of the proprie- 
 tors of the Record newspaper the organ of the Evangelical party. 
 
 Mr. Haldane, who was some months older than Lord Shaftesbury, was an 
 active, energetic man, strong in body and mind, of great intellectual force 
 and tenacity of purpose, and full of keen and warm-hearted sympathies. He 
 was lively in temperament, with a strong sense of humour and an inex- 
 haustible fund of anecdote. He possessed, as Lord Shaftesbury many years 
 afterwards recorded, a strong intellect, a cultivated mind, and wide know- 
 ledge, and he devoted them all to the furtherance of religion and morality, to 
 the honour of God, and the welfare of the human race. 
 
 He was for many years one of the principal writers for the Record. " At 
 every important crisis, political and religious, the other proprietors were long 
 accustomed to look to him to produce the appropriate leaders," and it was to 
 his labours that the paper owed much of its influence and value. In public 
 affairs he took a profound and absorbing interest. Politics at home and 
 abroad, society, literature, the condition of the masses, and, especially, the 
 great religious controversies of the times, were the subjects that chiefly 
 engrossed his thoughts and inspired his pen. 
 
 The first friendly letter from Mr. Haldane to Lord Shaftesbury was 
 written in 1849, on the occasion of the death of his son Francis. In 1850-1 
 there was frequent correspondence between them, and after that date, as 
 thrir intimacy increased, the letters became unceasing. 
 
 In course of time, whenever Lord Shaftesbury was in town, scarcely a 
 day passed when Mr. Haldane did not "drop in" to bring the news, to 
 report the progress of matters in which they were mutually interested, or to 
 cheer with friendly counsel and intercourse. When absent from town there 
 was an almost daily interchange of letters.* 
 
 Mr. Haldane's interest in the political events of his time brought him 
 
 * Lord Shaftesbury's letters were invariably preserved by Mr. Haldane, and some 
 hundreds of them have been kindly placed by his daughters in the hands of the writer 
 for the purposes of this Biography.
 
 1852.] MR. ALEXANDER D ALDAN E. 463 
 
 much into contact with prominent members of both Houses of Parliament, 
 and for many years he had been in t lie habit of being present on the occasion 
 of any important debate in either House.* 
 
 In the course of this narrative we shall quote at some length from the 
 
 iiuudence between Lord Shaft esbury and Mr. Haldane. A letter, 
 
 a abroad in this year, on paper illustrated with a view of Ems, may be 
 
 quoted in this place, as an example of the free and open confidence already 
 
 existing between them. 
 
 Lord Shaftetbury to Mr. Haldane. 
 
 EMS, July 27th, 1852. 
 
 DEAR MR. HALDANE, At the top of the note is the place where we drink the 
 waters, and into which the Tractarians would, no doubt, glady infuse a ' quietus '' 
 for me. My human security, however, is that I and the Cardinal Archbishop of 
 Cologne drink from the same spring and at the same time. 
 
 I have only just received your letter. I have no disposition to notice the 
 opprobrious fellows ; I care not what they say or what they do. If they can 
 write me down, I cannot write myself up ; and of this I feel deeply convinced 
 that if, after so many years of publicity, I have not character or favour enough 
 (with the only portion of the world to which I could appeal) to withstand the 
 attacks of Pusey, Sewell, Carlyle, and Co., my position is not worth preserving. 
 When I was younger I had some ambition for myself ; I have now no desire 
 except to possess so much influence as may enable me to do good. Should these 
 sons of Babylon prevail, it will be because they find a " predisposition," as we 
 said in cholera times, in the public mind to take the impression against me, and 
 thus my hope of a healthy influence would be beaten down. 
 
 And to tell you the truth, I have had many indications of such an issue. The 
 public grows weary of its servants ; it is tired of " humanity," and dead sick of 
 me ; whether by being out of sight for a time I shall come forth like an old coat 
 with a new fluff, is a matter of speculation ; I much fear that they will find mo 
 out, and as the Showman said to Lord Stowell, when he went to see the mermaid. 
 " You have been a customer to me, my Lord, and I'll not take you in ; it is only 
 the old monkey 1 " they will say, " Don't attend to that speech, or go to that 
 meeting, it's only the old monkey." 
 
 But many thanks for your letter. Pray collect materials ; we may yet oe 
 obliged to fight 
 
 The place, I think, is beginning to do me good. God be praised. I long, 
 however, to be home again. 
 
 Yours, 
 
 8. 
 
 Towards the close of the year events were ripening which were to plunge 
 Lord Shaftesbury into a sea of controversy and ceaseless activity. 
 
 It was announced that Lord Derby had advised the Crown to issue 
 
 i' to Convocation to resume its Synodical functions, and on the 5th of 
 
 November the two Houses of Convocation commenced a sitting of one week's 
 
 * From the time Lord Ashley became Earl of Shaftesbury Mr. Haldane was so con* 
 taut an attendant at the House of Lord.-*, that he acquired a i>rcscriptivc right to a 
 certain place which iras always reserved for him.
 
 464 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XX. 
 
 duration. Meanwhile public feeling had been stirred, and was growing in 
 intensity in many quarters, against the attempted introduction of auricular 
 confession into the Church. On the 22nd of September the Bishop of 
 Exeter had given judgment in favour of the Rev. G. R. Prynne, incumbent 
 of a church near Plymouth, who, it was alleged, had introduced the practice 
 of compulsory confession among the girls attending the Orphan Home in his 
 parish. 
 
 At the instigation of the Protestant Defence Committee, a meeting took 
 place on the 15th of November at the Freemasons' Hall, to protest against 
 this innovation, and against the revival of Convocation. 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury, in opening the business of the meeting, said : 
 
 We have been somewhat criticised for bringing into juxtaposition Convocation 
 and Confession. Now, it appears to rue that they are so much akiu, and so 
 necessarily inseparable, that I should just as soon think of separating, in Guild- 
 hall, Gog and Magog as separating these two things. The Convocation, and I 
 am speaking of the Convocation as extinguished in the year 1717, animated by 
 the worst sentiments and views of priestly despotism and priestly ambition, 
 would naturally, necessarily, and, to use a modern phrase, " normally " resort to 
 the Confessional as the best and most effective engine of priestly domination. 
 We are not here to denounce every form of Church synod or ecclesiastical 
 assembly. We are not here to deny the expediency, or, if you will, even the 
 right, of the Church to have some power and form or self -regulation. But we 
 are here to denounce the revival of the Convocation that was justly extinguished 
 in the last century. We are here to deny to that Convocation, if called together, 
 the right or the power of suggesting the plan and the limits of its own reforma- 
 tion ; and we are here to say that we will not submit to any clerical Parliament 
 that will make the laity of this Church and of these realms mere " hewers of 
 wood and drawers of water " to a select knot of sacerdotal dignitaries. A form 
 of Church government upon a reasonable and moderate basis, in which the laity 
 of the Church will have not only a great, but a dominant, share, is well worthy 
 of consideration ; but as for the other Convocation, that was extinguished in 
 1717. I can only express the hope that, should there be any attempted revival 
 thereof, her most gracious Majesty will follow the example of her illustrious 
 predecessor, and, to use the language of that great historian, Hallam, will 
 "sprinkle a little dust on the angry insects." 
 
 The remainder of the speech related entirely to the Confessional, a subject 
 to which we shall revert later on. 
 
 On the 3rd of December Mr. Disraeli introduced his Budget, in a remark- 
 ably effective speech of four hours and a quarter duration. The Budget was 
 unfavourably received by the Free Trade party ; the debate extended over 
 four nights, and on the 16th of December, the result of the vote placed the 
 Ministry in a minority of 19, in a House of 591 members. Lord Derby 
 immediately thereupon tendered to the Queen his resignation. 
 
 It was while Lord Shaftesbury was on the Continent, " combining busi- 
 ness with pleasure," that the Ministerial crisis arose.
 
 ABERDEEN, PRIME MINISTER, 465 
 
 Dec. 17th. Half -past six. Paris. It is strange to me to be absent from 
 u a i-r/sis;" but were I present, what could I do? My professed principles and 
 public course have shut me out from the power of serving 1 the Crown in office, 
 and, in fact, from the wish of any one, in either House of Parliament, to see 
 me there. 
 
 Derby ought not to resign ; and, indeed, no Minister ought, henceforward, to 
 resign on any single defeat. Repeated and rapid changes are becoming very 
 hazardous ; and as the House of Commons has undertaken to beat every Minister 
 two or three times every Session, and then again support him with little or 
 no principle, the Minister must refuse to retire, except before the real, unmistak- 
 able sense of the country. But all this verges on democracy. 
 
 Dec. 29th. Aberdeen, Prime Minister ; Lord J. Russell, Minister for Foreign 
 Affairs. Is it possible that this arrangement should prosper ? Can the Liberal 
 policy of Lord J. square with the restrictive policy of Lord Aberdeen 1 Supposing 
 that they tire true to their principles, how will they agree when Italy calls for 
 sympathy against Austria I John, if he have a spark of honesty, will stand for 
 Sardinia ; Aberdeen, if he have an atom of consistency, will stand for Austria. I 
 wish them joy, and a safe deliverance. 
 
 Graham, Newcastle, Gladstone, are again installed in power with much eclat 
 and high commendation. 
 
 Dec. 30th. Palmerston has accepted place under Aberdeen as Premier, and 
 subject to John Russell's leadership as Secretary for Foreign Affairs. . . . 
 His mortification will, I fear, be great almost daily. I regret it for his sake ; I 
 am fond of him ; he is kind-hearted and friendly ; he is getting on in life, and I 
 could have wished him some respect and affection from those who were associated 
 with him in hi later days. 
 
 E E
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 1853. 
 
 " THK poor shall never ' cease out of the land.' That we know," wrote Lord 
 Shaftesbnry, " for God has said it. But the poor of London are very far 
 different from the poor of Scripture. God has ordained that there should be 
 poor, but He has not ordained that, in a Christian land, there should be an 
 overwhelming mass of foul, helpless poverty." 
 
 To roll away, in some measure, that reproach from London, was the 
 gigantic task Lord Shaf tesbury felt he had " been called of God " to attempt, 
 and the machinery he regarded as best adapted to the accomplishment of that 
 end was the Bagged School system. 
 
 Since the Bagged School Union was founded there had been added to the 
 field of its operations, in the space of six or seven years, more than a hundred 
 new schools, attended by considerably over ten thousand children. Lord 
 Shaftesbury's labours multiplied in proportion to the multiplication of the 
 schools. Each had its opening ceremonies, or its anniversary, or its prize 
 distribution night, and each sent in its special claim to his assistance. It re- 
 quired almost superhuman strength to perform the duties devolving upon 
 him. Conferences with teachers, interviews, correspondence day after day : 
 and, in all parts of London, Chairs and the inevitable speeches night after 
 night. 
 
 His watchfulness was unceasing. There was not a detail of the system 
 that escaped his observation. For example : there was a tendency in some 
 schools, as order was established and decent rooms supplied, to admit children 
 of a class and condition for whom the schools were not intended ; and also, to 
 retain those who had mended their ways and had risen in the world, instead 
 of transplanting them to other schools. Against this tendency Lord Shaftes- 
 bury took a very decided stand. On one occasion he said : 
 
 You must keep your Ragged Schools down to one mark ; you must keep them, 
 as I have said a hundred times, and, until I carry my point, I shall say a hundred 
 times more, in the mire and the gutter, so long as the mire and the gutter exist. 
 So long as this class exists, you must keep the schools adapted to their wants, 
 their feelings, their tastes, and their level. I feel that my business lies in the 
 gutter, and I have not the least intention to get out of it. 
 
 He had a great dislike to making any unnecessary parade of the schools, 
 and a still greater dislike to the system of selecting special examples of 
 children for the purpose of winning applause. 
 
 His unfailing zeal as their leader inspired a kindred zeal in the teachers, 
 and his stirring words often put new life and energy into them, and therefore, 
 into their work. He would speak to them thus :
 
 1853.] STOPPING CRIME IX THE SEED. 467 
 
 I tell yon, my friends, that if. with all the success you have attained, with all 
 the knowledge you have acquired, with all the blessings you have received, yon 
 pause in your course any longer than is necessary to take breath, gather strength, 
 survey your position, and thank God why then I say, never again come into this 
 hall, for if you do. I will be the first to say to you, as Cromwell said to the House 
 of Commons, " Out upon yon ! begone ; give place to honester men." 
 
 Almost every year there bad been some important extension of the scope 
 of Ragged School work. The original idea was merely to provide day, 
 evening, and Sunday schools, for infants, juveniles, and adults of the lowest 
 order i f the destitute and outcast classes. To this, as we have seen, Lord 
 Shaftesbnry's emigration scheme had been added, and admirably had it 
 succeeded. But other organisations equally important had come into opera- 
 t ii'ii : the chiefest being Refuges and Industrial Classes. It was found that 
 the work in the schools lost much of its moral power, in consequence of the 
 constant and daily antagonism it encountered from the exposure of the 
 scholars, on retiring from the scene of instruction, to all that was con- 
 taminatin^ and vile in the wretched places they called their homes. Lessons 
 of virtue were nullified by examples of vice. And it was heartrending to 
 know that many a child had no choice but to go from school to the haunts of 
 vice and crime in order to obtain food for the day and shelter for the night. 
 
 The question of providing Refuges became a burning question with many, 
 and efforts were made to establish them, not only in the metropolis, but in t lie 
 large towns and cities of the kingdom. 
 
 The Refuges were at first of two classes. Night Refuges, for casual 
 vagrants, preference being given to children attending the Ragged School ; 
 and permanent Refuges, for the support and education, for a stated period, 
 of young persons between ten and sixteen years of age. 
 
 The object of the Industrial Classes was rather to assist in the formation 
 of tidy and useful habits, than to rear a race of regular artisans. In some 
 of the classes, making and mending their own clothes was the only tiling 
 taught to the children ; in others, making and printing paper bags, printing 
 liamlliills and circulars, making mats and church hassocks, and other simple 
 handicrafts. 
 
 Although there were, of necessity, many drawbacks to the Ragged School 
 movement ; although the work was greatly impeded by a periodical deluge 
 ff the miserable population of Ireland, flooding the districts that had been 
 and improved ; although success was, in a great measure, indirect and 
 nut IHJ shown by figures, the best results of the system being removed 
 from public view by emigration ; although no support was received from 
 Government or from legislation, and comparatively little from the wealthy 
 classes an enormous amount of good resulted, and, as early as the year 1851, 
 Lord Shaf tesbury had been able to say : 
 
 We have devised and organised a system of prevention by which to stop 
 crime while it is in the seed, and sin before it has broken into flower and desolated 
 society . Although other schools may have stood in the way of vice and crime, 
 K E 2
 
 468 THE EARL OF SIIAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXI. 
 
 no one could say of them, with certainty, that almost every oie trained in them 
 would, without their intervention, have been a vagabond or a thief ; domestic 
 discipline and other circumstances might have interposed to do their work. But 
 we do maintain that every one of those whom we have reclaimed would, from 
 the very necessity of his position, have been either a thief or a vagabond ; we do 
 maintain that, by the instrumentality of this institution, we have established 
 a preventive system which operates in anticipation of the gaoler, or even of the 
 hangman. We have, moreover, greatly abated the amount of juvenile delin- 
 quency, and have cleansed the metropolis, not by pouring out from it the filth of 
 our streets, but by passing these children through a cleansing and filtering 
 process, before we poured them forth in a rich and fertilising stream on the 
 colonies of our country. 
 
 One feature of the Ragged School system with which Lord Shaftesbury 
 was especially identified was the gift of a prize or certificate to each scholar 
 who had remained in one situation for twelve months with satisfaction to his 
 employer, and for general good conduct. 
 
 His addresses to the children on these occasions were models of their 
 kind, and overflowed with such intense " fatherliness," that they never failed 
 to touch their hearts and bring tears of pleasure to their eyes. 
 
 Every fresh phase in the progress of Ragged School and kindred work 
 Lord Shaftesbury noted in his Diary, as well as his hopes and fears, his 
 elation and depression, in connection with them. 
 
 The next entry, although written in the Royal Palace, shows that his 
 thoughts were still with the forsaken children of the London streets. 
 
 Jan. 20th. Windsor Castle. A play here last night. Wonderfully amused. 
 It is, doubtless, rather in the style of Louis XIV., but it is amusing, nevertheless. 
 
 Must insert, to aid my recollection (though, probably, shall never have leisure 
 or spirit to review my entries for many years), some preceding operations. On 
 Sunday, 15th, to Field Lane Ragged School in the evening. Never go there 
 without seeing something for which to bless God. 
 
 Five hundred persons, from five years old and under to fifty, engaged in 
 reading, hearing, learning the word of God 1 What singular and remarkable 
 instances of moral power 1 A dozen stout, full-grown, savage-looking men sitting 
 like lambs under the teaching of a young woman ! " It is marvellous in our eyes.'' 
 
 On llth, Chair at Dorchester to present Bankes with piece of plate testi- 
 monial for his twenty years' Chairmanship of Quarter Sessions. The invitation 
 to me was intended as a move towards reconciliation of the rupture between me 
 and him seven years ago. I accepted it as such ; peace, peace peace everywhere 
 " on earth as it is in Heaven." 
 
 March 24th. Some work since my return to London. Anxious labour for the 
 Reformatory, and speech in Willis's Rooms. This noble institution is dying for 
 want of funds, and the rich and easy of the land will sit by and see thousands be 
 rejected and perish, for the lack of a few pounds 1 Everybody bepraises our 
 exertions and success ; and the smallest fraction comes to our aid. If our asylum 
 contained dead Indians or tattooed Zealanders we should excite overwhelming 
 interest, but because it contains only live Penitents we have scarcely any. 
 
 March 25th (Good Friday). Surely God has heard our prayers to save the
 
 1858.] NEW ENTERPRISES. 469 
 
 Reformatory from extinction. Money has flowed in, ani this day I leceived one 
 hundred pounds for it from the Duke of Bedford. May God bless the deed to 
 his comfort and stir him (for his riches are immense) to other acts of lore and 
 mercy I 
 
 The year 1853 was marked by the introduction in the House of Lords and 
 to the public, of a number of new schemes for the benefit of the London poor. 
 
 In estimating- the labours of Lord Shaftesbury, it must never be forgotten 
 how much he had to overcome before he could throw himself into any fresh 
 sphere of action. His self -depreciation, nervous anxiety, ill-health, and con- 
 sequent low spirits, made him shrink from public labours, while his burning 
 zeal was ever urging him forward. It required not a little heroism persist- 
 ently to surrender himself to the good of others. 
 
 The first of the new enterprises of this year is thus referred to in the 
 Diary: 
 
 March 19th. Last night movement in House of Lords to obtain a " standing 
 order " for the protection of the multitudes to be displaced by " Improvement 
 Companies." Obtained a Committee of Inquiry. Felt dull, incompetent, and 
 confused in my speech. The locality and the audience are one cause, and my own 
 infirmity the other. It dispirits me, for, old as I am, I am full of projects. With 
 me " the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth." 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury's motion was to the effect that any Bill, sanctioning or 
 involving the pulling down of houses inhabited by the labouring classes, 
 should make provision for the erection, within a convenient distance, of 
 dwelling-houses sufficient for the accommodation of at least as many persons 
 as should be dispossessed. 
 
 The question was surrounded with difficulties, which were duly pointed 
 out in the debate that ensued. The matter was at length referred to a 
 Select Committee, who reported in the following May. It was then resolved 
 that, in future, the promoters of Improvement Bills should report the number 
 of houses inhabited by the labouring classes to be pulled down (if more than 
 thirty in number), and state whether any, and what, provision was made for 
 remedying the inconvenience likely to arise.* 
 
 Although this was only a step, it was a step in advance, and Lord 
 Shaftesbury was gratified, more especially, as from letters he received from 
 Mr. Cubitt, tin- large contractor, and others, lie felt satisfied that the rela- 
 tions between capital and labour would, by this resolution, be much improved. 
 
 His second great effort on behalf of the poor this year was taking charge, 
 in the House of Tjords, of another Common Lodging-Houses Bill. The 
 previous Act had been " the first successful effort that had been made to 
 reach the very dregs of society the first to penetrate to the deepest dens of 
 vice, filth, and misery." It was necessary, however, that further beneficial 
 provisions should be made, especially as regarded inspection, and that other 
 provisions, which had hitherto been optional, should be rendered compulsory. 
 
 * Hansard, cxxvi, 1291.
 
 470 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXI. 
 
 In moving the second reading of the now Bill, on May the 13th, Lord 
 SLaftosbury was able to report, iiofc only from the evidence of others, but 
 from his own personal inspection, that the previous Act was working well. 
 The houses had been cleaned, the walls and ceilings whitewashed, the venti- 
 lation improved, the bedding was better in quality, quantity, and cleanliness, 
 the number of persons to be admitted had been carefully regulated, and the 
 liability to fever and other contagious diseases considerably lessened. It 
 was shown, also, that in the common lodging-houses there were, according to 
 the latest returns, no fewer than 80,000 inhabitants who, as well as the keepers 
 of the houses, had materially benefited by the Act. The principal object of 
 the present Bill was to give fuller power to punish offences under the 
 previous Act, to abate certain nuisances not hitherto specified, to provide for 
 the removal of the sick to hospitals, and to arrange for reports as to the 
 lodging of beggars and vagrants.* 
 
 In advocating the Bill, Lord Shaftesbury urged, that if it were success- 
 fully carried into effect, many houses then beyond the reach of inspection 
 would be affected by it, together with a great mass of the population. If 
 these common lodging-houses were not brought under proper regulation, it 
 would be in vain to strive against juvenile delinquency, for it was in them 
 that nine-tenths of the crimes perpetrated were plotted.f 
 
 The Bill did not reach the Commons till the 6th of Juno ; it passed the 
 three readings, however, without debate, and received the Royal assent on 
 August the 4th. The advantages of the measure were so obvious, that a Bill 
 to extend its provisions to Ireland, introduced into Parliament in 1860, 
 passed through both Houses without debate, and received the Royal assent a 
 few weeks after its introduction. 
 
 In commenting upon the Act of 1853, the Times remarked : " To purify 
 the Inferno that reeks about us in this metropolis, to recover its inmates, and 
 to drive the incorrigible nucleus into more entire insulation, is one of the 
 labours to which Lord Shaftesbury has devoted his life ; and we can never be 
 sufficiently obliged to him for undertaking a task which, besides its immediate 
 disagreeableness, associates his name with so much that is shocking and repulsive. 
 
 " To Lord Shaftesbury's legislation we owe the gratifying fact that these 
 recesses are explored by authorised persons, that houses are no longer per- 
 mitted to take in more than as many as can breathe properly in them, that 
 lodging in cellars is prohibited, that the rooms are properly cleaned mid 
 whitewashed, that ventilation, lighting, and drainage are provided for, and 
 Ihe furniture of the houses sufficient for the authorised number of lodgers. 
 As far as the work has proceeded, we can hardly conceive a more mcritorioue 
 or more gratifying triumph. It is a great result out of the very worst 
 materials. To change a city from clay to marble is nothing compared wiih >\ 
 transformation from dirt, misery, and vice to cleanliness, comfort, and at least 
 a decent morality." 
 
 * Hansard, cxviii., 235. Hansard, clvii. and clviii. 
 
 t Hansard, cxxvii., 294. Tinics, May 1C, 1853.
 
 18&S.J JUVENILE MENDICANCY AMD CRIME. 471 
 
 Notwithstanding the success of Ragged Schools, Night Refuges, and 
 Reformatories, and the wider provisions of the Common Lodging Houses 
 Acts, juvenile mendicancy and crime, if not on the increase, certainly showed 
 no sign of abatement. It was said that more beggars were to be encountered 
 in a walk from Westminster Abbey to Oxford Street, than in a tour from 
 London to Switzerland, whether by Paris or the Rhine. 
 
 The third great effort of Lord Shaftesbnry for the removal of the vice, 
 degradation, and misery of the metropolis, was an onslaught on Juvenile 
 Mendicancy and Crime. He had been an attentive observer of the causes 
 that had conspired to hinder the success of Ragged Schools, and had arrived 
 at the conclusion that dissolute parents were undoing all the good that was 
 done, by sending out their children into the streets to beg, while they lived in 
 drunken depravity upon the proceeds thus obtained. He found that a vast 
 number of orphan children managed to remunerate the low lodging-house 
 keepers who sheltered them in a similar manner. It was notorious that this 
 great army of child-beggars was a nursery of theft and every form of evil. 
 To strike at the root of this mischief, he introduced into the House of Lords 
 a motion on the " Repression of Juvenile Mendicancy and Crime." 
 
 The speech in which he brought forward his motion was a remarkable one. 
 In addition to his own wide knowledge of the subject, he had fortified him- 
 self with communications from magistrates and reports of inspectors, and, 
 over and above these, with statements made by ninety thieves resident in one 
 institution ; the testimony of 100 City missionaries, the opinions of 100 
 gentlemen " particularly and practically conversant with that class," besides 
 the confessions of 100 " professional misdemeanants." Such a mass of curious, 
 but concurrent, evidence, was hardly ever presented on any subject before. 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury's proposition was, that the Vagrant Act should be so 
 extended as to empower the police to apprehend not for the purposes of 
 punishment but of protection all children found in a state of vagrancy in 
 the public streets, and bring them before the magistrates. The children were 
 then to be committed to the workhouse and educated, if possible at the charge 
 of the parents, or if not, at the charge of the State ; but in any case to remove 
 the children from the corrupting influence of the parents. 
 
 It cannot be denied that, good as the proposal was in many respects, it was 
 open to many objections, and it need hardly be said that serious obstacles had 
 to be encountered in the attempt to pass the Bill. It was argued that the 
 placing of young persons, who were criminal, or quasi-criminal, in the work- 
 houses would render those establishments " distasteful to the poor ; " that 
 it was contrary to the original design of the workhouses to make them 
 " Houses of Detention ; " that the accumulation of children 20,000 of whom 
 it was allopred were graduating in the school of vice would lead to intolerable 
 pressuro and expense; that the particular children or parents to be dealt with, 
 could not be clearly defined and other objections, to all of which Lord Shaf tes- 
 Vmry fully replied. 
 
 At the conclusion of the debate he said the passing of the Bill was an
 
 472 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXL 
 
 object very dear to his heart, and he was rejoiced to find that " the adverse 
 decree he had anticipated " on the part of the Lords was not realised. In a 
 subsequent stage the Earl of Aberdeen (Prime Minister), Lord Campbell, the 
 Duke of Argyll, and others, gave him hearty support. 
 
 June 24th. Labouring hard on two Bills ; one for the Suppression of Juvenile 
 Mendicancy, and thereby of juvenile delinquency, another for the abatement of 
 bribery, intimidation, and expense at elections. I should be certain to pass them, 
 humanly speaking 1 , were I in the House of Commons ; but I shall have great 
 difficulties in the Lords, and no hearty mouthpiece in the House of Commons. 
 The House of Lords is terrible ; there is a coldness, an inattention, and an impas- 
 sibility which are perfectly benumbing. 
 
 July 12th. After much anxiety and discussion, carried, with hearty approval, 
 Mendicancy Bill, with amendments, through the House of Lords. 
 
 A curious episode sprang out of Lord Shaftesbury's speech on moving 
 the second reading of this Bill. He had claimed for the poorer classes, that 
 jurisdiction which the Court of Chancery exercises over the rich namely, 
 that in case of a notorious violation of the parental trust, a magistrate should 
 be enabled to place the child in an asylum, where the State might perform for 
 it duties which its parents had omitted. To strengthen his argument, he 
 quoted the judgment of Lord Eldon, given some thirty years previously in tho 
 well-known case of Mr. Long Wellesley, afterwards the Earl of Mornington, 
 who was deprived of the care of his own children. The case was notorious, 
 and the judgment had been cited hundreds of times, as a leading authority 
 on the limits which public policy sets, to the right of a parent to abuse the 
 trust which Nature has confided to him, for the education and religious and 
 moral training of his children. There was, of course, nothing unusual in 
 citing such a case ; on the contrary, nothing could have been more natural. 
 It was an apt illustration of his argument, and was the more weighty as it 
 was a decision given by a high authority. It was, moreover, a quotation 
 from a well-known law book accessible to everybody. 
 
 Lord Mornington, however, was weak enough to allow himself to be greatly 
 perturbed in spirit, by the quotation of a decision, in the justice of which he 
 did not concur ; weaker still in writing to Lord Shaftesbury calling upon him 
 to retract, or failing in this, to meet him in " mortal combat ; " weakest of all 
 in sending the correspondence to the newspapers for publication. 
 
 The age of duelling had, even then, passed away in England, and Lord 
 Mornington's "challenge" is probably one of the last of the long series, 
 demanding " the satisfaction due to a gentleman." The following pass.-igo 
 may be regarded as among the curiosities of literature : 
 
 My lord, I have taken the trouble to give you this explanation of my life and 
 conduct prior to asking your Lordship to explain to me whether, in taking the 
 course you have done in slandering me, your fellow peer, during my absence from 
 the House of Lords, you have done this with the intent to offer me a personal 
 insult, and if such was your intention, whether I may hope that you are prepared 
 to meet the responsibility of such a course of proceeding ? This I trust you will
 
 1853.] CHALLENGED TO FIGHT A DUEL. 473 
 
 do, and I therefore beg leave to invite your lordship either to explain and retract 
 the offensive remarks with which you introduced my name in your speech of the 
 5th inst. in the House of Lords, and which have been reported in the Times news- 
 paper of the 6th inst, or to say whether you will give me that alternative that I 
 am entitled to, and which I trust that you will not refuse. 
 
 Lord Sliaftesbury to Lord Mornington. 
 
 July 11 th, 1853. 
 
 MY LORD, I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of a letter from 
 your lordship dated the 9th of this month. 
 
 In my speech in the House of Lords I simply quoted a judgment of Lord 
 Eldon's a law case, published in a law book. This I had a right to do whether 
 in Parliament or out of it ; and every one has the same right. 
 
 Your lordship is good enough to send me what is technically called " a chal- 
 lenge." I refer you for a reply to this, and any future communication, either to 
 the Police Magistrate in Bow Street, or to my solicitors, Messrs. Nichal, Smyth, 
 and Burnett, 18, Carey Street, Lincoln's Inn. 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 SHAFTESBURY. 
 
 In a " parting shot " the Earl of Mornington characterised this reply as 
 " very absurdly impertinent," and regretted that Lord Shaftesbury had not 
 " the spirit to meet what he had himself provoked, in the manner which 
 regulates the conduct of gentlemen ! " 
 
 The only allusion to this incident in the Diary is the following : 
 
 July 22nd. Ems. Have never recorded the august and valorous challenge I 
 received from Lord Mornington, because I quoted, in my speech on Mendicity, 
 the judgment of Lord Eldon in re Long Wellesley. This would have been foolish 
 had I been a fighting man ; but it was both foolish and cowardly, when he knew, 
 as well as I know it myself, that I neither send nor accept such things 1 
 
 It was late in the Session when the Mendicancy Bill was sent to the Com- 
 mons ; there was a pressure of other measures which the Government had 
 engaged to pass ; the Poor Law Commissioners and Metropolitan members 
 showed an active opposition that there was not time to counteract, and Lord 
 Shaftesbury \s Bill was lost for that Session. 
 
 An agitation was zealously carried on, public opinion was aroused, tho 
 newspaper press, ministers of the Gospel, magistrates and officials, were all 
 enlisted in favour of the Suppression of Juvenile Mendicancy and the Refor- 
 mation of Juvenile Criminals, and society was brought to recognise the truth 
 of the old motto, that prevention is better than cure, and that it is a far easier 
 process to train the child than to reform the man. 
 
 Eventually Lord Palmerston (then Home Secretary), who had the faculty 
 of seeing when the nation had made up its mind on any question, took the 
 matter in hand, endeavoured to reconcile the somowhat conflicting views of 
 various politw*o ami philanthropists, and produced, on June the 19th, 1854, 
 a " Youthful Offenders Bill," which, after passing successfully and rapidly 
 through both Houses, received the Royal assent on August the 10th. In the
 
 474 THE EARL OF 8HAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXI. 
 
 preparation and passage of that Bill Lord Shaftesbury lent invaluable aid, 
 w>d brought to bear all the resources of his long experience and practical 
 wisdom. 
 
 The preamble of the Bill set forth, " That whereas Reformatory Schools 
 have been, and may be, established by voluntary agency in various parts of 
 the country, it is expedient that more extensive use should be made of these 
 institutions." When a school was certified as fit for the purpose, the Act 
 provided that, on conviction, after a short imprisonment of a fortnight or less, 
 the child should enter the school and remain for a term of years under the 
 sole charge of the managers. 
 
 As a consequence of this Act the number of these schools went up to 34 
 in 1856, to 45 in 1857, and to 59 in 1860, and during that period there was a 
 marked decline in juvenile mendicancy and juvenile delinquency clearly 
 traceable to their operation, y 
 
 From the rush and whirl of ordinary life Lord Shaftesbury was in the 
 habit of taking occasional refuge abroad. The change to the Continent 
 presented great attractions to Lady Shaftesbury, and he was always anxious 
 to please her. Thus in January, 1853, we find him in Italy, and in September 
 of the same year in France and Switzerland. Unlike the majority of travel- 
 lers, however, each successive journey on the Continent introduced him to 
 fresh fields of labour and opened up fresh channels for practical sympathy. 
 
 Jan. 23rd. Sunday. Turin. Saw yesterday Pasteur Meille, of the Waldenses, 
 and that Christian soldier and confessor, Gen. Beckwith. Talk of self-devotion, 
 indeed, among- the Papists ! who has exhibited so much as this man in his pro- 
 longed life of thirty years among " the saints " of the valleys 1 Saw, too, the 
 church of the Waldenses rising in one of the finest positions in Turin ! 
 
 Jan. 24th. Genoa. Attended yesterday Italian service at two o'clock, and 
 heard the Waldensian Pasteur Meille. O Lord, that I should have lived to 
 witness and hear such a thing in such a place ! What would have been the 
 feelings of old Milton ? 
 
 " Avenge, O Lord, Thy slaughtered saints, whose bones 
 Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold ! " 
 
 They are avenged, and in the way that they themselves would have desired it, 
 by the word of God having " free course, and being glorified," in the very capital 
 of their fiercest persecutors 1 An overflowing congregation, a touching service, 
 a heart-inspiring hymn. 
 
 In the evening at eight o'clock, Desanctis (a Romish priest once, now a 
 Christian presbyter) preached to the people. He is a great man, a good man, a 
 Christian man. Well may we say, with devout and humble thankfulness, 
 " many kings and prophets have desired to see the things that ye see, and have 
 not seen them ! " 
 
 But all hangs on a thread ! Who shall catch it if it falls ? " fear not," 
 " underneath are the everlasting arms." " The event may be retarded," says the 
 excellent Meille ; " persecutions may arise, but the foundation of v>a Ohnrch is 
 laid." God will soon give us the top-stone, crying, " Grace, grace be unto it ! " 
 After morning service, met Desanctis and Malan, a Deputy to the Chamber, and
 
 1853.) THE WALDEXSIAXS. 475 
 
 a Waldensian. Much confidential and comfortable talk (it was at Meille's 
 lodgings). We agreed that we should now make a great effort for additional 
 circulation of the Scriptures, but avoid a very public statement, even in England, 
 of our hopes, our progress, our intentions. " The laws are still against us ; they 
 are still unrepealed ; they are the laws of the Middle Ages, and are not brought into 
 harmony with the Constitution. Hence our danger ; the judges, who are bigoted 
 adherents to the old system, try all religions causes with closed doors, and test 
 the case by the Code and not by the Constitution. There is a strong reactionary 
 party, who, were they in power, could, and would crush us by the existing laws 
 of the kingdom. We have, in fact, under Heaven, nothing but the good dis- 
 positions of the actual Ministry ! " It was agreed that I should call on Count 
 Cavour, the Prime Minister. I did so, and sought him everywhere, but in vain ; 
 BO I wrote him a letter which Perponcher, the Prussian Charge d'Affaires, under- 
 took to deliver to him. Stated that " I had been most anxious, as an Englishman, 
 to testify my gratitude, and that of my country, for his good- will to the Vaudoia 
 Church ; that we watched the progress of religious and constitutional liberty 
 with deep interest ; that England was alive to the welfare of Sardinia ; and that 
 if anything could rouse us, it would be any menace directed to its conduct and 
 independencies. I then expressed my desire to have learned from him how to 
 explain the long-continued discrepancy between the laws and the Constitution ; 
 how Mr. Mazzinglia could be sentenced (as he was a few days ago at Genoa) to 
 three years' imprisonment for having given a copy of St. Paul's Epistle to the 
 Ephesians ; that we in England could never understand which was to prevail, the 
 old law or the new Constitution." I then added my personal respect for hia 
 character, talents, &c. 
 
 Thus Mazzinglia is condemned, and can be set at liberty by the prerogative 
 only of the King by a pardon. Thus all is imperfect; nothing is secured ; the 
 whole edifice might to-morrow be thrown down ! and yet it will not fall ; " it is 
 founded on a rock." God has already blessed Sardinia for the Church's sake. Oh 
 that this people knew the secret of their strength I 
 
 Saw Perponcher much agreeable and useful conversation with him. I bless 
 God that I have been to Turin ; and I pray Him to render my visit fruitful to 
 His honour and the Church's service 7 
 
 Jan. 29th. Nice again. Last night to Hudson (Minister at Turin) at the 
 Feder. To meet Mammiani, for a short time the Pope's Prime Minister under the 
 Constitution at Rome, now a refugee. He seems a wise, intelligent man, and 
 anxious for the regeneration of Italy. 
 
 Feb. 2nd. Engaged for two days in devising schemes of Bible diffusion. 
 Struck out the plan of peripatetic schoolmasters, as in Ireland. God in His 
 moroy prosper it ! 
 
 Count Cavour's reply to Lord Shaftesbury's letter contained many expres- 
 sions of ceteem and personal regard, and explained the actual position of 
 affairs. He stated, that although In the political conditions of the country it 
 was unwise to make any sweeping reforms, Lord Shaftesbury might rest 
 assured that the cause of religious liberty was making steady progress. 
 
 The following extract was written in the autumn, during Lord Shafte*. 
 bnry's tour in France and Switzerland :
 
 476 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXI. 
 
 Sept. 5th. Every step that one takes on the Continent gives a fresh proof of 
 the vast superiority of the foreigner in all matters of taste and design (except 
 that of pardoning) to the English people. Not only their public buildings, but 
 their ordinary dwellings, ithe hotels, the shops, their minute ornaments, their 
 dress, all the things they make their railway carriages, their refreshment-rooms, 
 their stations name what you will, all exhibit a refinement and purity of con- 
 ception, generally diffused, which are not found even in our great architects and 
 modellers. Struck yesterday by the defective result of English preaching. The 
 sermon was good, and apparently sincere ; but it was delivered, like ninety-nine 
 sermons out of a hundred by English ministers, in a cold, monotonous, sing-song 
 uniformity. The preacher was stiff as a May-pole ; and his discourse flowed 
 clear, steady, unbroken and unvaried by voice or gesture, like the water from a 
 lion's mouth. Not so the foreigner ; he is fervent, imaginative, utters as much 
 by his gestures as by his tongue, and maintains attention by the variety of his 
 tones. He is an intermittent spring ; and his auditors wait with impatience for 
 the next gush of the lively stream. 
 
 Almost immediately upon his return to England Lord Shaftesbury 
 entered heart and soul into the anti-slavery agitation, whose centre was at 
 Stafford House, and, after himself, whose moving spirit was the Duchess of 
 Sutherland. 
 
 March 25th. Began a movement for the evangelisation of the fugitive 
 slaves settled in Canada. It is a natural, necessary, and becoming consequence of 
 our movement for emancipation. They are utterly friendless and forgotten. 
 
 May 7th. To-day Mrs. Stowe received at Stafford House by the Duchess of 
 Sutherland and the two committees ; it was a singular and most useful gathering. 
 We had every rank of life, every form of opinion, political and religious bishops, 
 dissenting ministers, tradespeople, peers, Quakers, and the wives of alL The 
 homage was general ; and every one seemed delighted with the soft, earnest, 
 simplicity of her manner and language. 
 
 May 13th. Mrs. Stowe dined with us here last night, and all her party ; very 
 successful. I rejoice, as a peacemaker, to have brought together the Archbishop 
 of Canterbury and the Rev. Thomas Binney, a flaming Dissenter. After dinner 
 we had many Dissenters, many clergy, the Editor of the Patriot newspaper, 
 Josiah Conder, shopkeepers, lawyers, peers, &c., &c., all with their ladies. It was 
 quite " a happy family ; " and every one seemed mightily pleased. 
 
 May 17th. St. Giles's. Last night overflowing meeting at Exeter Hall (I in 
 the chair) on Anti-Slavery. Zeal tremendous ; satisfied I was, for a wonder, with 
 my own speech, more so probably than anybody else. 
 
 June 22nd. My campaign for the niggers is both laborious and expensive. 
 We want more shoulders and more purses to the work. 
 
 In course of time the " Address " to the women of America went forth, 
 signed by tens of thousands of the women of England. It was replied to by 
 Mrs. Tyler, wife of the ex-President, who pointed out to the Duchess of 
 Sutherland and her co-signatories, where fitting objects for their sympathy 
 might be found. " Leave it," she said, " to the women of the South to 
 alleviate the sufferings of their dependents, while you take care of your own.
 
 1853.] CHINA. 477 
 
 The negro of the South lives sumptuously, in comparison with a hundred 
 thousand of your white population in London." 
 
 While Lord Shaftesbury was engaged in this Anti-Slavery campaign, 
 many of the American papers attacked him with great severity, and urged 
 him to " look at home " and consider the condition of the working classes of 
 his own country. The ire of an editor of one of the " religious " papers of the 
 South was greatly roused, and in an angry article he wrote : " And who is this 
 Earl of Shaftesbury ? Some unknown lordling ; one of your modern philan- 
 thropists suddenly started up to take part in a passing agitation. It is a pity 
 he does not look at home. Where was he when Lord Ashley was so nobly 
 fighting for the Factory Bill, and pleading the caiise of the English slave ? 
 We never even heard the name of this Lord Shaftesbury then" 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury loved a good joke, and he often related this story with 
 infinite merriment. 
 
 In religious circles, one of the most engrossing subjects of thought, and 
 fruitful fields for action, was China. A political and social revolution had 
 commenced in that country, which was regarded as an event more momentous 
 than any that had occurred previously in the history of Protestant Missions, 
 and the hope was entertained, that the downfall of idolatry and the establish- 
 ment of Christianity throughout the Chinese empire, would be ultimately 
 ensured. The leaders of the insurrection openly denounced the whole ancient 
 system of superstition ; a great change was being effected in the minds of 
 the people ; isolation and exclusiveness were no longer the national boast ; 
 goodwill and fraternity were being proclaimed to distant nations. " That 
 populous empire," Lord Shaftesbnry wrote in his Diary on July the 20th, 
 " hitherto hermetically sealed against intercourse, reciprocity, and civilisa- 
 tion, seems, like Jericho, to have been compassed about seven days, and awaits 
 only the final shout, when the walls shall fall down flat and the servants of 
 God take possession." 
 
 No one was readier than Lord Shaftesbury to see an opportunity, and 
 avail himself of it. Now was the time to send out additional missionaries ; 
 now was the time to circulate freely the Holy Scriptures. It was the jubilee 
 year of the Bible Society, and it was resolved by the Committee to give to 
 the people of China, in their own tongue, a million copies of the New Testa- 
 ment. To this and other plans for reaching the people Lord Shaftesbury 
 gave invaluable aid. The opening up of China opened up to him a boundless 
 vista " the beginning of the end." 
 
 Sept. 3rd. The Times is overflowing with surprise, and cannot account for it, 
 that the prodigious revolution in China has been effected in so short a time, and 
 by so easy means. No one who has studied the 2nd Book of Chronicles, studied, 
 I say, not simply read, can doubt that, when the end vastly exceeds the means, 
 and the work is strikingly disproportionate to the instrument, " the thing is of 
 God ; " it is the result of His own immediate and direct interposition. Was there 
 ever such a political event as the rebellion of the Ten Tribes 1 Was there ever 
 one so contrary to all human experience, all human reasoning, all human policy .'
 
 478 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. EHAP. XXT. 
 
 But " thi thing is done of me," said God by the prophet ; and BO He would say 
 now, did He vouchsafe to speak, as of old, to men upon earth. I see it, I see it, 
 surely I see it ; the Gospel will be offered where, in truth, it has never yet been 
 fairly offered, in China and Japan ; it will then have been " preached for a 
 witness to all nations," and then will " the end come ! " " Come, Lord Jesus, come 
 quickly." 
 
 The efforts being made by the Bible Society for the evangelisation of 
 China, were seconded by those of the London Missionary Society. They 
 called together a special meeting for the purpose of raising funds to send out 
 additional missionaries, and invited Lord Shaftesbury to take the chair. He 
 willingly responded, and commenced a vigorous speech by saying: "This 
 matter commends itself to the judgment and feeling of every man who 
 in the least degree, for the welfare of the human race. It requires neither 
 statement nor argumentation ; an actual reality is before us ; the old wall of 
 superstition is broken down ; the empire of China with its three hundred 
 millions, is opened to our efforts ; the breach, so to speak, is practicable ; the 
 citadel is to be stormed, not by the potentates and armies of Europe, but by 
 Protestant agents, by a noble rivalry of Protestant missions from every part 
 of the civilised globe, and of every evangelical denomination." 
 
 Dec. 1st. Yesterday chair of London Missionary Society in aid of their 
 Missions to China. Shall, I suppose, give great offence to my friends in the 
 Establishment ; sorry for it, but the cause is too holy, too catholic, too deeply 
 allied with the single name of Christ, for any considerations of Church system 
 and Episcopal rule. These things are, to my mind, good in their places, but 
 their places are bounded by time and space ; the Cause knows nothing but 
 universality and eternity. What is the meaning of " Grace be with all those 
 who love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity " 1 Did not Morrison, Milne, Med- 
 hurst, Moffat, Williams, love Him ? If grace, then, was with those men. shall I, 
 vile man, presume to say that / will not be with them also 1 
 
 Sanitary reform in the metropolis had become, in every sense of the term, 
 a vital question, and the years 1852 and 1853 were marked by several 
 measures of great utility. Among them were the " Metropolis Water Act," 
 by which it was provided that no water supplied for domestic use should be 
 taken from any part of the Thames below Teddington Lock ; the " Act to 
 amend the Laws concerning the Burial of the Dead in the Metropolis," giving 
 authority to the Secretary of State to order, for the protection of the public 
 health, that any particular burial-ground should be closed, and that any 
 parish should have power to take certain simple steps for procuring a new 
 cemetery ; the Compulsory Vaccination Act ; the Smoke Abatement Nuisance 
 Act ; and others. 
 
 Every fresh measure in the direction of sanitation brought, directly or 
 indirectly, fresh labour to the Board of Health, and every fresh burden laid 
 upon that Ul-nsed and long-suffering Board brought to Lord Shaftesbury, in 
 particular, anxiety, toil, and annoyance.
 
 1853.) TUB BOARD OF HEALTH. 479 
 
 April 29th, 1852. Great motion in House of Lords on sanitary state of the 
 metropolis. Carried the point, and had passable success. 
 
 May 14th. The Time* has taken op the note of the undertakers, the water 
 companies, the Parliamentary agents, and the whole tribe of jobbers who live on 
 the miseries of mankind, and are hunting the Board of Health through brake 
 and briar, and hope to be " in at the death ! " Be it so : if we fall, not a body 
 will be left to shout " unclean, unclean ! " and form, and guide, and impel, public 
 opinion. Matters will become worse and worse. I tremble ^for the issue. 
 Walked yesterday to review my old haunts in Westminster, and look at the 
 wretched children in Pye Street ; sick, sick, sick, to see how little years of labour 
 had done. 
 
 Nov. 1 7th. Grieved to learn that not only nothing is done by the Govern- 
 ment, but that the Ministers will take good care that nothing shall be done by 
 any one else : the Board of Health is to be destroyed ; its sin is its unpardonable 
 activity. 
 
 Dec. 31st. So Sir W. Molesworth is to be our new Master at the Board of 
 Health 1 What mortifications I have undergone in this service ! And will this 
 endurance be blessed at last, or will our enemies succeed in destroying the only 
 institution that stands for the physical and social improvement of the people 1 
 Our foes are numerous, and I dread their success ; it would vex me beyond 
 expression to see Chadwick and Southwood Smith sent to the right-about, and 
 the Board, which, under God, has done and has conceived so many good things, 
 broken up. 
 
 The "unpardonable activity" of the Board had, in fact, brought it into 
 unavoidable collision with every interest of magnitude. Referring to this, 
 Lord Shaftesbury says : 
 
 August 9th, 1853. It is not wonderful, though sad, when we remember the 
 interests that it has been our duty to approach and handle. We roused all the 
 Dissenters by our Burial Bill, which, after all, failed. 
 
 The parliamentary agents are our sworn enemies, because we have reduced 
 expenses, and, consequently, their fees, within reasonable limits. 
 
 The civil engineers also, because we have selected able men, who have carried 
 into effect new principles, and at a less salary. 
 
 The College of Physicians, and all its dependencies, because of our independent 
 action and singular success in dealing with the cholera, when we maintained and 
 proved that many a Poor Law medical officer knew more than all the Sash and 
 fashionable doctors of London. 
 
 All the Boards of Guardians: for we exposed their selfishness, their cruelty, 
 th> ir reluctance to meet and to relieve the suffering poor, in the days of the 
 epidemic. 
 
 The Treasury besides ; (for the subalterns there hated Chadwick ; it was aa 
 ancient grudge, and paid when occasion served). 
 
 Then come the water companies, whom we laid bare, and devised a method of 
 ripply, which altogether superseded them. 
 
 The Commissioners of Sewers, for our plans and principles were the reverse of 
 theirs ; they hated us with a perfect hatred. 
 
 Occasionally, hope revived that the Board of Health might yet be the
 
 480 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXI. 
 
 appointed means of further sanitary triumphs. With Palmerston for Home 
 Secretary, Lord Shaftesbury thought that not only would the Board be saved 
 from destruction, but that new life would be given to it. " I have never 
 known any Home Secretary," he wrote, " equal to Palmerston for readiness 
 to undertake every good work of kindness, humanity, and social good, 
 especially to the child and the working class. No fear of wealth, capital, or 
 election-terrors ; prepared at all times to run a-tilt if he could do good by it. 
 Has already done more than ten of his predecessors." But these anticipa- 
 tions were not destined to be very fully realised. 
 
 Aug. 19th. Palmerston has undertaken, and apparently with success, several 
 of our Board of Health measures. I rejoice in his efforts, but cannot give him, 
 except for good will, all the praise bestowed by the Times. We, unfortunate 
 people, having " borne the burthen and heat of the day," having collected all the 
 evidence, having stirred the public attention, having incurred all the odium, 
 receive no support from the Government, and consequently fail. He, having 
 borne and done nothing of the kind, but being the Secretary of State, succeeds ! 
 But observe how he ignores our considerations and difficulties, and cuts the 
 Gordian knot by enacting whatever is easy, and omitting whatever is the reverse ; 
 we laboured our hearts out to give compensation to the clergy ; he gives them 
 none. We devised a long and intricate scheme to lower, for the poorer sort, the 
 expense of interments ; he orders extramural burial, and leaves the artisan to 
 meet the increased cost as well as he can ! Alas ! alas 1 success is not what you 
 do, but what people say of it, and they are almost always too ignorant, or too 
 indifferent, to judge rightly. 
 
 Towards the end of the year it became manifest that the days of the 
 Board of Health were numbered, and that some " cold, idle, comfortless, do- 
 little office" would be set up in its stead. It was a positive grief to Lord 
 Shaftesbury, who, as he said, had given to it " five years of his life and 
 intense labour, and had not received even the wages of a pointer, with ' that's 
 a good dog.' " 
 
 It was not until the summer of 1854, however, that the crisis came, and it 
 Is referred to thus : 
 
 July 29th, 1854. Palmerston will not hear of my resigning ; nor will I of 
 remaining, unless on grounds very intelligible. This public service is a hard, 
 ungrateful thing. My remuneration has been that usually allotted to monkeys 
 more kicks than halfpence. 
 
 July 31st. No choice of resigning or remaining ; the House of Commons 
 threw out the Bill this day. . . . Thus after five years of intense and unre- 
 warded labour I am turned off like a piece of lumber ! Such is the public service. 
 Some years hence, if we are remembered, justice may be done to us ; but not in 
 our lifetimes. I have never known a wrong by the public redressed, so that the 
 sufferer could enjoy the reparation, for 
 
 " Nations slowly wise and meanly just, 
 To buried merit raise the tardy bust." 
 
 Aug. 5th. On Thursday last gave a dinner, by way of farewell, to the Board
 
 IKS.} REPUBLICANISM. 481 
 
 of Health, the commissioners, doctors, engineers, clerks, secretary, seventeen in all. 
 We part very good friends. 
 
 Aug. 12th. On Thursday last Board Bill received the Royal assent, and the 
 old Board was extinguished. We have left no arrears of business ; our successor 
 will have all before him ; he will not be required to give five minutes to arrears 
 on our period of office. Thus have closed six years of very hard and gratuitous 
 service. I may say, with old George III. on the admission of American Inde- 
 pendence, " It may possibly turn out well for the country, but as a gentleman I 
 run ni-rrr forget it" 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury wrote constantly in his Diary throughout the year 1853 
 on the progress of Democracy, Republicanism, and levelling opinions. He 
 traced it, not so much to the general desire of the people, or to the influence 
 of the press, but to the operation of commercial causes and money-making 1 
 ambition. Landed property was being regarded apart from all notions of 
 ancestral feeling, of attachment to hereditary estates, of long connections 
 between property and peasantry, and was looked upon merely as a negotiable 
 article of merchandise, to be sold and shifted with as little of affection and 
 difficulty as a five-pound note. 
 
 July 26th. This is the worst form of republican indifference to the generous 
 elements of antiquity. But more : younger children must no longer receive an- 
 nuities and portions, but must each have a slice of the landed estate. In two 
 generations, then, every property would be subdivided ; the landed interest, as a 
 distinct and powerful body, would be extinguished, and the House of Lords 
 rendeied impossible, for it can never subsist, except as an independent body 
 independent by the wealth of its individual members, having hereditary rights, 
 but also hereditary property. 
 
 August 22nd. The atmosphere of political principles and institutions is 
 decidedly democratic in the present day, and men are borne on against their 
 wishes to democratic results. What is it ? Is it by our own folly, or that of our 
 ancestors ? Is it the cycle of the principle of government, like the recurring 
 periods of drought, famine, plenty, health, and disorder 1 Or is it the will of 
 God that every form should have its day, and then perish 1 Aristocracy exists 
 on the Continent by the sword ; in England by sufferance. Which will have 
 the longer duration the obedience of the soldier, or the patience of the ten- 
 pound householder 1 
 
 It is observable that not an appreciable fraction of the people of England 
 desire the abolition of the King and the peerage ; and yet, by degrees, rapid 
 degrees, they will come to it, and be astonished beyond measure when the work 
 i- irremediable. So it appears ; but we may yet, in the mercy of God, be reserved, 
 institutions and all, for higher things. 
 
 Sept. 13th. The year 1848 was the climax of our odiousness to the foreigners. 
 They will never forgive us for the calm, the security, the assurance, with which 
 our monarchical and aristocratical institutions withstood the shock that affected, 
 in Europe, monarchies and republics alike. They praise us and abhor us. 
 
 Having glanced at some of the public events in which Lord Shaftesbnry 
 
 F F
 
 482 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXL 
 
 WM concerned during this year, we now turn to the Diary to extract some 
 passages relating more immediately to himself. 
 
 In reviewing the work in which his life was being spent, he says : 
 
 April 6th. Many Bills in hand. Times sneers at me, and speaks of my " rest- 
 less benevolence." But why am I restless ? Because others are restful. 
 
 April 7th. Engaged more than ever : small works compared with the political 
 and financial movements of the day a Lodging-House, a Ragged School, a Vagrant 
 Bill, a Thieves' Refuge I No wonder that people think me as small as my work ; 
 and yet I would not change it. Surely God has called me to the career. 
 
 June 12th, Sunday. "With all your experience" (I imagine some young man 
 saying to me), " would you counsel me to follow the career that you have chosen 
 and pursued ? " In the first place, I reply that, in spite of all vexations, disap- 
 pointments, rebuffs, insults, toil, self-denial, expense, weariness, sickness, ell loss 
 of political position, and considerable loss of personal estimation in spite of 
 being always secretly despised and often publicly ignored in spite of having 
 your "evil" most maliciously and ingeniously exaggerated, and your "good" 
 " evil spoken of " I would, for myself, say "Yes." 
 
 June 13th. But what would you counsel to another ? I should advise him 
 to consider maturely what he desired. If he desired to rise in the world, to have 
 a party, to be much thought of, to be a great man at Court or in politics, I should 
 say " No." If he desired internal satisfaction, that humble joy through Almighty 
 God (amidst ten thousand vexations) that attend you in retirement and in thought- 
 fulness, I say emphatically " Yes." 
 
 June 29th. Harassed by public and private business. My heart goes so com- 
 pletely into every question, that I fret like one possessed. Chimney-sweepers, 
 juvenile mendicants, " et hoc genus omne." Speeches and Chairs without end. 
 But all is not vain ; I am reaping a harvest. Is it because, in God's mercy, J 
 have not fainted ? The working of the Ten-Hours' Bill is peace, wealth, and 
 happiness, social order, and moral improvement. 
 
 An impression prevailed that, because Lord Shaftesbury had succeeded to 
 the earldom, and possessed large landed e'states, he must necessarily be a 
 very wealthy man. As a matter of fact, he was, as we have already hinted, 
 for the greater part of his life, in such circumstances, that only by exercising 
 the utmost care was he able to escape from distressing financial difficulties. 
 " Heroism " is not too large a word to employ with reference to the long, hard 
 ba'tiie he fought, in his endeavour to fulfil the apostolic injunction, to which 
 he often refers, and to " owe no man anything, but to serve him in the Lord." 
 Iz. estimating the extreme difficulty of his position, it must be remembered 
 that his whole life was spent under the eye of the public ; that an adverse 
 press was ever eager to find a ground of attack upon him ; that as a leader 
 in every charitable organisation of the day, he could not urge upon others to 
 be liberal and not give freely himself ; and that, identified as he was with 
 every movement on behalf of the poor, the demands upon his private charity 
 were almost incredible in number and extent. When Lord Shaftesbury put 
 down his name on a subscription list, he did not " offer to the Lord that whicli
 
 1853.) DEMANDS UPON PRIVATE CHARITY. 483 
 
 cost him nothing," he offered that which cost him self-denial, self-sacrifice, 
 and anxiety. 
 
 One of the greatest troubles that could befall him, was to find himself 
 unable to give pecuniary aid to a deserving cause. He was willing to make 
 any sacrifice, to leave himself almost entirely without resources, in order to 
 give to those who had need ; and if, on any occasion he was obliged to say 
 " no," it was a positive pain to him. A little incident in illustration may be 
 narrated here. A lady called upon him one day, and told him a piteous story 
 of a Polish refugee who was in a state of utter destitution. She had a dread 
 of asking Lord Shaftesbury for money, because she knew him well, and knew 
 how pressing were the demands made upon him from all quarters. She told 
 her story, however, and left the issue with him. 
 
 " Dear me ! " he said, " what is to be done ? I have not a farthing. But 
 the poor fellow must have something at once. What can I do ? " 
 
 He was as agitated and distressed as though some strong personal trouble 
 affected him. Then a bright idea flashed through his mind : he suddenly 
 remembered that in the library he had got a 5 note " in reserve as a nest 
 egg," and bringing it in, with an air of infinite delight, he begged bis visitor 
 not to delay a moment in conveying it to the man in need. 
 
 In quoting from Lord Shaftesbury's Diaries passages which, it must be 
 remembered, he never intended when writing them should come before the 
 public eye relating to his monetary affairs, we prefer to incur the censure of 
 any who may consider this beyond the province of the biographer, rather than 
 to lose the opportunity of showing him in the midst of circumstances in which 
 he was misjudged and misunderstood because his real financial position was 
 not known. 
 
 May 24th. Made up my mind ; must sell old family pictures, must sell old 
 family estates ; it is painful ; ancestral feelings are very strong 1 with me ; but it 
 is far better to have a well-inhabited, well-cottaged property, people in decency 
 and comfort, than well-hung walls which persons seldom see, and almost never 
 admire unless pressed to do so ; and as for estates, why, it is ruin to retain them 
 in the face of mortgage, debt, and the necessary provision for your children 1 
 
 May 28th. Sent to St. Giles's for two more pictures to be sold. The house is 
 falling, and must be repaired ; will not do it from any fund or revenue by which 
 moneys devoted to religion, charity, or cottage building, would be diverted. Must 
 therefore surrender more heirlooms, dismantle my walls, check ancestral feeling, 
 and thank God that it is no worse. . . . 
 
 June 29th. To build cottages is nearly as ruinous as to gild your saloons ; it 
 is an enormous expenditure, and no rent A pair of cottages cost me four 
 hundred pounds, and the rent I receive from them is 2 10s., or at most 3, for 
 each cottage, garden included. 
 
 The following entries, relating to a variety of subjects, are selected from 
 the Diary which, during this year, was singularly free from gaps : 
 
 April 14th. Took Lionel * to-day to Harrow ; saw him comfortably and 
 
 * His son. 
 F F 2
 
 484 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXI. 
 
 happily housed at Mr. Warner's. Ah, Lord, I commit him unto Thee in body 
 and soul ; preserve him, cherish him, make him and dearest Evelyn Thy servants, 
 that they may walk before Thee with a perfect heart in Christ Jesus our only 
 Saviour 1 Visited the grave of my blessed Francis ; there he was deposited four 
 years ago ; he neither sleeps nor is dead ; his body is there, but his soul is in 
 Paradise. I no more doubt it than I doubt my own existence, and " them which 
 sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him." What a wonderful thing is the 
 Christian religion 1 it makes us to see and to feel that a stroke of death is often- 
 times one of the tenderest of God's mercies ! 
 
 Saw, too, the " testimonial ; " the schools erected to his memory. Oh, may I 
 die the death of the righteous, and may my last end be like his I 
 
 May 3rd. The House of Commons is the depository of power, and it is vain 
 to hope to be an effective man out of it. You may experience much social 
 civility, but no one accords you a hair's-breadth of political influence. " Philan- 
 thropy," combined with a peerage, reduces a man to the lowest point. 
 
 June 13th. The fleet is gone to the Dardanelles ! God, protect my son* 
 in soul and body for Christ's sake ! 
 
 Aug. 10th. Unless something be done, and that speedily, to give activity and 
 vigour to the House of Lords, it will sink into a mere registration office for the 
 d.-crees of the House of Commons ; Bills come up in a cloud in the month of 
 August ; 70 or 80 to be discussed and passed in a week ! How can we do any- 
 tliing but simply inspect and register them? This must, God willing, be my 
 first effort next Session. But what hope have I of success? The past Session 
 has disheartened me. 
 
 Aug. 13th. When I went to the House of Lords I determined to show its 
 activity and power in the institution of social improvements. I did not seek my 
 own repute ; I knew I was injuring my own comfort, but I wished, so far as in 
 me lay, to rescue the House from the character of the " dormitory." God knows 
 it has been no " dormitory " to me. 
 
 The two next entries were made during his annual tour on the Continent. 
 
 Sept. 18th. Sunday. Geneva. A great steamboat, groaning with the number 
 of passengers, left the quay this morning I This in the city of Calvin ! I am not 
 opposed to innocent recreation on the Lord's day, but no one has a right to make 
 his own recreation on that day the burthen and affliction of another. That 
 thousands may disport themselves on Sunday, hundreds must surrender, not only 
 repose, but even, were they so minded, public worship 1 It cannot be just and 
 well-pleasing to God. 
 
 Sept. 22nd. Paris. Times of 1 7th declamatory, and justly, against rewards to 
 agricultural labourers, of ten shillings and a new coat, for twenty years of good 
 conduct. Made an attempt myself to introduce larger sums at the Blandford 
 Labourers' Friend Society, but, though I wrote a year ago, I have received no 
 answer. The agricultural labourer could greatly benefit his condition, were he 
 inclined to a little care and economy ; a young man, by the payment of sixpence 
 a week, might secure to himself an annuity of twenty pounds a year after sixty 
 years of age. 
 
 Oct. 6th. Progress fair at St. Giles's. All the men employed on the house 
 
 * His eldest son.
 
 1853.] PALMERSTOX'S REPLY TO SCOTCH MEMORIAL. 485 
 
 desired a holiday, and they had it with cricket, football, quoits, &c. I confess it 
 did my heart good to see them sharing with me, in due time and proportion, the 
 enjoyment of the old park of my ancestors. 
 
 In the early autumn of this year there was a severe visitation of cholera 
 throughout the country, and the Presbytery of Edinburgh wrote, through 
 their Moderator, to the Home Secretary (Lord Palmerston) asking whether, 
 in the circumstances, a national fast would be appointed by Royal authority. 
 The Home Secretary replied in a characteristic letter of such sterling common 
 sense, that a part of it may be quoted here, as it illustrates the manner in 
 which Lord Palmerston co-operated with Lord Shaftesbury, both working 
 towards the same end, but by different means. 
 
 " Lord Palmerston would suggest,[that the best course which the people 
 of this country can pursue to deserve that the further progress of the cholera 
 should be stayed, will be to employ the interval that will elapse between the 
 present time and the beginning of next spring, in planning and executing 
 measures by which those portions of their towns and cities which are 
 inhabited by the poorest classes, and which, from the nature of things, must 
 most need purification and improvement, may be freed from those causes and 
 sources of contagion, which, if allowed to remain, will infallibly breed pesti- 
 lence and be fruitful in death, in spite of all the prayers and fastings of a 
 united but inactive nation. When man has done his utmost for his own 
 safety, then is the time to invoke the blessing of Heaven to give effect to his 
 exertions." 
 
 Nov. 2nd. London. Palmerston has refused a fast day in his answer to the 
 Scotch Memorial, and, in such a style, that, though his letter contains abundant 
 good sense and much truth, he will be regarded by the religious world as little 
 better than an infidel. His notions and feelings theologically are feeble, r.o 
 doubt, and erroneous ; but he had no intention to be irreverent, though he has 
 stirred up a nest. 
 
 Dec. 21st. The "burking" system of the newspapers is more fatal and hostile 
 than their attack. At conference I made a longish speech on various points 
 which the Times reduces to this : " Lord S. said that the children ought to be 
 treated with justice and kindness ; " and, shortly after, Mr. Stnrge is made to any, 
 in the same amount of words, that " he could not agree with Lord S." ! !
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 18541855. 
 
 IN 1853 the cloud that had long hung over the East was gathering blackness, 
 and threatening to burst in storm. A dispute about the holy places in 
 Palestine was the pretext upon which the peace of forty years was to be 
 broken. Eight years previously, the Emperor of Russia had spoken of 
 Turkey as " a dying man whose dissolution was at hand." On the 9th of 
 January, 1853, the Emperor, in conversation with Sir G. Hamilton Seymour, 
 explained his views in unmistakable language. " Turkey is falling to pieces," 
 he said, " and it is important that England and Russia should come to a good 
 understanding, that neither should take any decisive step of which the other 
 is not apprised." A little later on, he declared: " I tell you, if your Govern- 
 ment has been led to believe that Turkey retains any element of existence, 
 your Government must have received incorrect information. I repeat to you 
 that the sick man is dying ; " and he urged that England should join with 
 Russia in making arrangements beforehand as to the inheritance of the 
 Ottoman in Europe. 
 
 A few months later came the dispute about the holy places; Turkey 
 claimed that the only Protectorate over the Christians of Turkey was the 
 Sultan's, and, although negotiations innumerable were undertaken to adjust 
 matters between the two Powers, the hope of maintaining peace grew fainter 
 and fainter, and on the 1st of November, 1853, Russia declared war against 
 Turkey. 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury's Diary follows the incidents of the war with great 
 minuteness. We shall only extract occasional passages to mark the progress 
 of events, and his opinions and actions with regard to them. 
 
 Sept. 17th, 1853. The Emperor of Russia has proudly and angrily rejected 
 the Note of the Four Powers as altered by the Porte. The Turk is insane, and 
 the Muscovite wicked, but lie is a fool into the bargain. He has thrown away his 
 character as the umpire of Europe ; he has been guilty of sad aggression, has 
 dealt in falsehoods, and, by commencing war, he will open up the means of 
 insurrection, revolution, and socialism (the very bugbears of his life) to Italy, 
 Poland, France, Hungary, and Germany. 
 
 Oct. 14th. Brighton. We are in war and not in war ; full of rumours, perils, 
 protocols, negotiations. Drummond has written a clever letter to the Peace 
 Society, in which he tells them that they desire peace, only that they may have 
 leisure to make money ; that if war would answer the purpose they would (he 
 implies) like it as well, that they denounce Mars and Moloch, but worship 
 Mammon, who, according to Milton, is the basest and meanest of them all !
 
 1854.) RUSSIA AND TURKEY. 487 
 
 Feb. 8th, 1854. All seems beating up for conflict. The Czar, if not the 
 wisest, must be the maddest of politicians. He is isolated in Europe ; Austria 
 and Prussia have refused their co-operation ; the whole of Germany is indignant 
 and ardent to get rid of Russian influence. I have always believed that the 
 Emperor lived under the delusion that his authority was dominant at Berlin and 
 Vienna. This rejection, therefore, will equally astound and exasperate him. 
 
 March 6th. The event of the day is, to my mind, the speech of the Emperor 
 of the French to the Legislative Chamber. He there declares that " the days of 
 conquest are passed," never to return. He shows that France has a deeper 
 interest than England in repressing the power of Russia, and that the intimate 
 alliance of these two countries, formerly such bitter rivals, is a noble impulse to 
 civilisation. He has acted wonderfully well throughout ; it would be wrong, nay, 
 unjust, to suspect him, to have even a misgiving ; and yet the change is so 
 immense, his policy so unexpected, that one ought, for some time at least, to be 
 upon one's guard. 
 
 In the Manifesto of the Emperor of Russia, dated February the 9th, 
 1854, in which he announced to his subjects the fact that England and 
 France had taken up the cause of Turkey, these words occurred : " And thus 
 England and France have ranged themselves by the side of the enemies of 
 Christianity, against Russia fighting for the Orthodox Faith." 
 
 To allow this reproach to remain unanswered was painful to many Chris- 
 tians in England, and, on March the 10th, Lord Shaftesbury, as their mouth- 
 piece-, took the opportunity of a formal motion for papers on Turkish affairs, 
 to address the House of Lords on the subject. On behalf of the friends of 
 missions, he directly contradicted the assertion of the Czar, and undertook to 
 prove that Turkey had, of late, done everything to advance, and Russia 
 everything to retard, the progress of Christianity. After pausing to 
 express his opinion that the negotiations had resulted in their only possible 
 issue, he defended the necessity of " making alliance with any power, heathen 
 though it may be, to maintain the cause of right, justice, and order, against 
 the aggressions even of professing Christians," and to declare, that the real 
 question at issue was, whether we should " assert the rights of a weaker 
 state, maintain the independence of nations, and endeavour to assign a limit 
 to the encroachments of a power that seemed bent upon darkening all that 
 was light, and subjugating all that was free, among the nations of mankind." 
 For himself he could wish that we were well rid of both the parties concerned 
 " that the Russians were driven to the North of Archangel, the Turks to 
 the East of the Euphrates," but, in the circumstances, it was "right to prefer 
 the autocrat who had granted such great facilities to the advancement of 
 Christianity and civilisation, to the autocrat who had denied them in his own 
 dominions, and who would deny them still more fiercely should he ever 
 become, by our neglect, the master of those noble provinces that he so ardently 
 coveted." 
 
 In tracing the gradual growth of wealth, intelligence, and civilisation 
 amongst the Christians of Turkey, Lord Shaftesbury stated that, owing to 
 the singular liberality of the Turkish system, there had been a large diffusion
 
 488 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXII. 
 
 of the Scriptures ; in fifty towns there wore distinct congregations of seceders 
 from the Greek Church ; Protestant teachers and schools had multiplied, 
 and, in capital and provinces, religious associations, printing presses, Bible 
 depots, colporteurs, and native teachers, were openly permitted. There had 
 been, it was true, outbreaks of Muslim bigotry, but these were local, and had 
 been controlled by the Government ; the chief persecutions of Christians had 
 been inflicted by other Christians, stimulated by their priests. He con- 
 tinued : 
 
 Now, contrast this with what is permitted or prohibited in Russia, and draw 
 your inference as to what we have to" expect should these awakening provinces 
 fall under the dark and drowsy rule of the Czar. No associations for religious 
 purposes are tolerated in Russia ; no printing presses are permitted for printing 
 the Bible in modern Russ, the only language understood by the people; no 
 versions of the Scriptures are allowed to cross the frontier except the German, 
 French, Italian, and English. Not a single copy, I repeat, of the Bible in the 
 modern Russ, in the vernacular tongue, can gain access into that vast empire ; 
 and it is believed, on the best evidence, that not a single copy has been printed, 
 even in Russia, since 1823, in the tongue spoken by the people 1 No colporteurs, 
 of course, nor native agents, to enlighten the gloomy provinces ; no depots for 
 the sale of the Scriptures, no possible access to the Word of God. 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury then pointed out the tyranny of Russia in siding with 
 the Greek priests ; in persecuting the seceders ; in endeavouring to hinder 
 Sir Stratford Canning and other Ministers, in their labours to procure justice 
 for the Protestants ; in forbidding Jewish subjects to possess the Hebrew 
 Scriptures, and in suppressing missionary efforts among heathen, or semi- 
 savage, tribes on the outskirts of her empire ; and contrasted the policy of 
 Turkey in permitting and protecting missionary agencies, which had brought 
 about a " great development of knowledge and liberal sentiment, enlarged 
 hopes and aspirations, of the Christian population." 
 
 After extolling the comparatively liberal sentiments and policy of the 
 preceding Czar, Alexander, Lord Shaftesbury concluded as follows : 
 
 He died ; and in 1826 the Emperor Nicholas ascended the throne. And what 
 did he then do ? He suppressed, by an ukase, the Russian Bible Society, with all 
 ite branches ; suppressed every privilege granted to religious societies, and 
 brought back that 'Cimmerian darkness of the human intellect and the human 
 heart, that he seems to prize so highly. 
 
 Has Turkey, I ask, done anything of the sort ? Has she not, my Lords, in the 
 last twenty years, allowed more to the progress of liberty and truth, than Russia 
 in the whole of the famous nine hundred years that the Emperor boasts as the 
 present age of the alliance between the Sclavonic nations and the Greek com- 
 munion ? Undoubtedly she has ; and this inference cannot be gainsaid that, 
 if the Sultan had been leas liberal towards freedom of religion, less considerate 
 of the rights of conscience, there would have been no MenschikofE note, aud no 
 invasion of the? Principalities. 
 
 But now, my Lords, though these are not the matters for which we undertake 
 the war, we may rejoice that we are not engaged in upholding a state of things
 
 18M.] RELIGIOUS LIBERTY IN FRANCE. 489 
 
 adverse to all amelioration, and subversive of all liberty and truth. And, seeing 
 that we have entered on this conflict in no spirit of ambition, covetousness, or 
 pride, but for our own defence, and in the maintenance of great principles, which 
 concern alike all the races of mankind, let us have no fear for the issue, but 
 offering a humble and hearty prayer to Almighty God, let us devoutly trust that 
 His aid will not be wanting to bless our arms with success, and a speedy peace, 
 in this just and inevitable quarrel. 
 
 The newspapers of March the llth, the day following the delivery of this 
 speech, contained this remarkable passage from the St. Petersburg Journal 
 of the 18th of February : 
 
 Since the year 1829 his Majesty has followed with earnest attention the 
 march of events in Turkey. 
 
 The Emperor could not close his eyes to the consequences of changes which, 
 one by one, have been introduced into that State. Old Turkey has disappeared 
 since the Turkish Government has sought to plant institutions diametrically 
 opposed to the genius of Islamism, and to the character and customs of Maho- 
 metans institution*, more or left copied from the type of modern Liberalism. 
 
 In reply to a letter from his son Evelyn, who had written to congratulate 
 him on the success of his speech, he says : 
 
 March llth, 1854. 
 
 God bless you, my darling boy, for your kind, sympathising letter. The success 
 was indeed icondi rful. 
 
 You ask me how I get through so much work ; why, as I hope that you wil\ 
 hereafter, by hearty prayer to Almighty God before I begin, by entering into it 
 with faith and zeal, and by making my end to be His glory and the good of man- 
 kind. " In hoc signo rinet-*.'' 
 
 Yours affectionately, S. 
 
 The " much work " alluded to in the foregoing letter, was not only the 
 routine duties inevitable to the position Lord Shaftesbury had taken in public 
 life ; on all hands new labours were pressing upon him. 
 
 It had been represented to Lord Shaftesbury and his wide acquaintance 
 witli foreign affairs and frequent visits to the Continent, confirmed the truth 
 of the statement that the cause of religions liberty in France needed to be 
 brought under the personal notice of the Emperor. The recent alliance- 
 presented, it was thought, a favourable opportunity for carrying this into 
 effect. 
 
 Lord Shaftetbury to the Ernperor of the Frnch. 
 
 LONDON, April 19th, 1854. 
 
 Si HE. The liberty that I have taken in addressipg your Majesty will, I feel 
 assured, be forgiven when your Majesty shall have considered the gravity and im- 
 portance of the subject that I have ventured to bring under your attention. 
 
 The position that your Majesty has given to France in the estimation of Europe ; 
 the happy and providential Alliance between the French and English nations, 
 Mid the great principles for which, in truth, both your Majesty and our beloved 
 Queen are contending, have led us not only to hope, but to believe, that we shall.
 
 490 THE EABL OF SIIAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXII. 
 
 all of as in both countries, obtain to the full the privileges and blessings that we 
 are seeing to obtain for others. 
 
 Your Majesty will be astonished and grieved to learn, by the document which 
 accompanies this letter (a document signed by some of the best names in England, 
 and to which hundreds, had time been allowed, wou'ld have attached their signa- 
 tures) that the Protestant Churches in the French Empire do not, at present, 
 enjoy the freedom, right, security of property and conscience that are enjoyed by 
 the Seceders from the Greek Church, or Protestants, as they are termed under 
 the Turkish dominions. They are, on the contrary, suffering many grievous 
 vexations, and they are apprehending many more, unless it shall please Almighty 
 God to move your Majesty's heart to show yourself their friend and protector in 
 all that they can claim as Christian men, and the citizens of a great Empire. It 
 would ill become me to press on your Majesty the effect that such a contrast 
 would produce, in present circumstances, on the minds of Europe and America 
 
 With a humble and hearty prayer to the Throne of Grace, that your Majesty 
 may receive this address in the spirit in which it is offered, and that your Majesty 
 may be disposed to accord us what we presume to ask, 
 
 I have the honour to be, with much respect, 
 
 Your Majesty's very obedient, humble servant, 
 
 SHAFTESBUBT. 
 
 The letter was forwarded by Count "Walewski, and in course of time a reply 
 was received, written by the Emperor himself, in which his Majesty some- 
 what warmly denied that the Protestant Churches were in the state repre- 
 sented. Not only had he taken the opinion of M. Guizot upon the general 
 question, but he had obtained exact information from the Departments referred 
 to, and was assured that therein was equal justice and protection for all. 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury was not easily silenced, when he had strong evidence on 
 his side, even by the voice of an Emperor. He had overwhelming testimony 
 that, not only had any mayor, or other magistrate, power to refuse Protes- 
 tants the privilege of meeting for public worship, and to shut up their chapels 
 by force, without assigning any reason, but that this was constantly being 
 done, and that the pastors of many churches, especially those in the Haute- 
 Vienne, were even then mourning their scattered flocks, their closed churches, 
 and their empty schools. It was the opinion of Lord Shaftesbury that the 
 Emperor was misinformed, or was blind to the power which the Ultramon- 
 tane party was exercising over the civil authorities, and, in the present temper 
 of affairs, he wanted to see him interpose his high authority, and maintain 
 before the world the principle which Napoleon I. set forth in these memor- 
 able words : " The dominion of the law ceases where the undefined domain of 
 Conscience begins, and neither the prince nor the law can do anything against 
 this liberty." Lord Shaftesbury, therefore, sent the following letter to the 
 Emperor : 
 
 Lord Shaftetbury to the Emperor Napoleon III. 
 
 LONDON, June 20th, 1854. 
 
 RlBE. I have to acknowledge, with sincere thankfulness, your Majesty's con- 
 descension in replying to my letter.
 
 1864.) THE ORDEU OF THE GARTER OFFERED. 491 
 
 I may not intrude on your Majesty's goodness, and presume to controvert any- 
 thing that has been stated by your Majesty. Yet I may, perhaps, venture so far 
 as to send a list of a few places of worship (by no means the whole) that have 
 been closed since the Presidential Decree of 1852, and to add that the interposi- 
 tion, which I was bold enough to undertake, was founded, not on any request or 
 communications to me from the Protestants in France, but on the reports of 
 English travellers who had visited the scenes, and on the narratives in religious 
 and authentic periodicals. 
 
 I will dare, sire, to go one step further, and say that your Majesty has not 
 received true intelligence from your functionaries. I take this freedom, and, at 
 the same time, entreat for it, your royal pardon. I would not write in this way 
 to the Emperor of Russia or any other Potentate ; but I cherish, from my heart, 
 the alliance with France, and I cannot endure the thought that the people of 
 England should connect your Majesty's name with the odious name of Persecution. 
 I am, sire, 
 
 With much respect, 
 
 Your Majesty's very obedient servant, 
 
 SHAFTESBURY. 
 
 There was further correspondence on the subject, and every step, that 
 could be taken with prudence, was taken to secure greater religious liberty to 
 French Protestants. 
 
 Worldly honours were not coveted by Lord Shaftesbury, but he was not 
 indifferent to them. The honours he had himself achieved, far exceeded any 
 tlint cuiilil be bestowed upon him. It is, however, remarkable that, up to 
 tlii- ]< lint in his career, no public honour had been accorded to him, save and 
 except the presentation of the freedom of the town of Tain in Scotland ! 
 
 It was when he was fighting a battle as hard as any that should be fought 
 in tin- Crimea; when he was distressed by failure in procuring just legisla* 
 tion for chimney sweepers, and " harassed by Quaker letters bepraising the 
 Czar " and denouncing him ; when " private affairs and public affairs, the 
 Danube and House-drainage, Bagged Schools and the Kings of the East, 
 Oniar Pasha and ' pure literature for the people,' the Turkish Exchequer and 
 his own " were dividing and confusing his mind, that he received the follow- 
 in ir letter from the Prime Minister: 
 
 Lord Aberdeen to Lord Shaftetbury. 
 
 ARGYLL HOUSE, May Wi, 18:. 4. 
 
 Mr DEAR SHAFTESBUBT, It would give me great pleasure if you would 
 permit me to submit your name to the Queen for the vacant Blue Ribbon. This 
 is not intended as a political appointment ; for, although I hope your general 
 feelings are not unfriendly to the Government, I make the proposal exclusively 
 from a desire to mark my admiration of your unwearied exertions in the cause of 
 humanity and of social improvement 
 
 I am aware that honours of this description are usually conferred from very 
 different motives ; but I feel certain that the distinction was never better
 
 492 THE EARL OP 8HAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXII. 
 
 deserved, and I doubt not that I shall myself receive credit for making such a 
 
 election. 
 
 Believe me, very truly yours, 
 
 ABERDEEN. 
 
 Almost every weighty question that came before Lord Shaftesbury he 
 discussed with himself in his Diary, and these are his thoughts and argu- 
 ments on receiving Lord Aberdeen's " friendly and gratifying letter " : 
 
 May 5th. . . . Though my immediate impulse was to decline it, prayed to 
 God for counsel and guidance. The point to be considered is " will it impede, or 
 will it promote, my means of doing good 1 " Minny wants me to accept it " as a 
 just acknowledgment," so she says, " of my deserts." I am unwilling to do so, 
 lest it should be considered a payment of them, and I be told, hereafter, either 
 that I was never disinterested in my labours, or, when I appeal to Government 
 for aid in my projects, that they have done enough to oblige me, and that they 
 can do no more ! 
 
 I do not, myself, care about the thing the least in the world ; and I do 
 not see that it would be advisable to take a step by which nothing can be gained 
 and something may be lost. 
 
 First, though I am really anxious to maintain this Government in office, I do 
 not wish to bind myself to it by any party ties ; and this would, in some degree, 
 lay me under an obligation to the Minister. 
 
 Secondly, it would preclude me, in some degree, from claim on any other 
 Minister, who might succeed Aberdeen, and I can prosper, in my various and 
 difficult undertakings, only by being on good and disinterested terms with all. 
 
 Thirdly, many ignorant and many malicious persons would decry all public 
 virtue, and say that " every public man had his price." 
 
 Fourthly, many censorious, spiteful, and wondering remarks, some in bitter- 
 ness, some in pleasantry, which I need not record, would be made on myself. 
 
 Fifthly, the novelty of this reward for such services as mine, would offend 
 many people, and lower the value of the decoration among those for whom it is 
 principally intended. 
 
 Sixthly, the fees would amount to more than one thousand pounds, a sum 
 which I have not and cannot command, and which, if I had, I must devote either 
 to my children or to duties towards my people. Those who are rich, or without 
 claims on them, may do these things ; but how can I, when, at this moment, 
 people are asking for payment of their debts, and I am unable to satisfy them ? 
 
 This is my mind ; but I must, in deference to the wishes of another, take one 
 day for thought and counsel. God give me a true judgment. 
 
 The result of the deliberation was that he declined to accept the honour, 
 and wrote to Lord Aberdeen to that effect. 
 
 May 10th. Wrote on Saturday to Aberdeen and declined the Garter ; but I 
 thanked him heartily and affectionately for his kindness, and for the estimate he 
 put on my public services. He understood and felt my difficulties, and sent, he 
 told me, my letter to the Queen. I regret the necessity of the determination, 
 for I am not indifferent to the honour ; but I am sure that I have done wisely, 
 God be praised ; and, so far as I can judge, people seem to think so.
 
 1864.J COLONISATION* OP SYRIA. 493 
 
 This position of affairs in tho East revived the hope that the time was at 
 hand whrn a way would be opened for the return of the Jews to their 
 inlii'i-itaiii-f in the Land of Promise. Whatever opinion others might hold 
 lou this subject, and whatever interpretation they might place upon tho 
 prophecies in tho Scriptures concerning it, Lord Shaftesbury never had a 
 shadow of doubt that the Jews were to return to their own land, that the 
 Scriptures were to be literally fulfilled, and that the time was at hand. It 
 was no commonplace belief he held ; no mere assent to a proposition. It was 
 his daily prayer, his daily hope, " Oh, pray for the peace of Jerusalem ! " 
 were the words engraven on the ring he always wore on his right hand the 
 words, too, that were engraven on his heart. His study of the prophetic 
 Scriptures led him to associate the return of the Jews with the Second 
 Advent of our Lord, and this was the hope that animated every other. 
 
 He believed in human instrumentality bringing about Divine purposes, 
 and, as we have seen, had laid a scheme for the Colonisation of Syria before 
 Lord Palmerston in 1840. Nothing practical having come of the negotiations, 
 he now brought the subject under the notice of Lord Clarendon. 
 
 May 17th. Wrote this day to Sir Moses Montefiore, to learn, if I could, the 
 sentiments of his nation respecting a plan I have already opened to Clarendon, 
 and Clarendon to Lord Stratford, that the Sultan should be moved to issue a 
 firman granting to the Jewish people power to hold land in Syria, or any part of 
 the Turkish dominions. This would be analogous to the Decree of Cyrus. Surely 
 no one can say, " you are precipitating events ; " they are rushing upon us ; we 
 desire simply to meet them. All the East is stirred ; the Turkish Empire is in 
 rapid decay ; every nation is restless ; all hearts expect some great thing ; all look 
 to wars, convulsions, changes, new and wonderful issues ; nothing, men fear, is 
 to remain as it is, yet no one can shadow even the outline of the events to come. 
 No one can say that we are anticipating prophecy ; the requirements of it seem 
 nearly fulfilled ; Syria " is wasted without an inhabitant ; " these vast and fertile 
 regions will soon be without a ruler, without a known and acknowledged power 
 to claim dominion. The territory must be assigned to some one or other ; can it 
 be given to any European potentate 1 to any American colony ? to any Asiatic 
 _'n or tribe ? Are there aspirants from Africa to fasten a demand on the 
 soil from Hamath to the river of Egypt ? No, no, no ! There is a country 
 without a nation ; and God now, in His wisdom and mercy, directs us to a n<iti<> 
 without a country. His own once loved, nay, still loved people, the sons of 
 Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob. 
 
 Among the labours that at this time made up the common round and daily 
 task of Lord Shaftesbury's life, was a renewed effort to better the condition 
 of Chimney Sweepers. It was not, however, until some years later that his 
 efforts were crowned with success. 
 
 May 2nd. Great anxiety about Bill for relief of Chimney Sweepers. Have 
 Buffered actual tortures through solicitude for prevention of these horrid 
 cruelties. What a mystery that our efforts have been so long unavailing. Th* 
 accursed system is, I fear, returning to London.
 
 494 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBTJRY. [CHAV. XXIL 
 
 May 20th. For three days have suffered much from giddiness, and to-day 
 suffer from grief. The Government in the House of Commons threw out the 
 Chimney-Sweepers Bill, and said not a word of sympathy for the wretched 
 children, nor of desire to amend the law. They stood on mere technicalities, 
 Fitzroy and Lord J. Russell giving the ministerial opposition. Walpole was as 
 hostile as any of them, sacrificing the bodies and souls of thousands to a mere 
 point of legal etiquette ! I have to thank Phillimore for bringing it in, and 
 Kinnaird and Acland for supporting it ; and again I must bow to this mysterious 
 Providence that leaves these outcasts to their horrible destiny, and nullifies, 
 apparently at least, all our efforts to rescue them in soul and body. 
 
 May 21st. Sunday. Very sad and low about the loss of the Sweeps Bill. , . . 
 The Collar of the Garter might have choked me ; I have not, at least, this or any 
 other Government favour against me, as a set-off to their insolence and oppres- 
 sion. I must persevere, and by God's help so I will ; for however dark the view, 
 however contrary to all argument the attempt, however painful and revolting 
 the labour, I see no Scripture reason for desisting ; and the issue of every toil is 
 in the hands of the Almighty. 
 
 May 22nd. Half-past ten. . . . Wrote to Aberdeen about the conduct of 
 the Government. I thank God that Palmerston was no party to the act, he 
 came to vote for me and found Fitzroy in the field against me ! * Am in many 
 minds what to do. Shall I move an address to the Crown, and state the whole 
 case ? Shall I let the matter rest to another Session ? . . . 
 
 The following extracts from the Diary relate principally to the private 
 joys and griefs of Lord Shaftesbury during this year : 
 
 May 15th. Very busy ; little time for thought, none for reading. Oftentimes 
 do I look at a book and wish for it, as a donkey for a carrot ; and I, like him, 
 am disappointed. 
 
 May 17th. Went to chair of mothers' meeting in Westminster ; a wonderful, 
 really a wonderful call it, in the language of theology, a miraculous spectacle, 
 It was a sight to bless God for, such a mighty reformation of drunken, idle, 
 profligate, dirty, and cruel parents. As usual, none of the clergy there. A work 
 of this kind, and of this high and spiritual character, effected by an unordained 
 person, a humble layman who, without the intervention of a bishop, or a college 
 education, had nothing but the grace of God and the Holy Scriptures, is too 
 powerful, too convincing, too irresistible. It overwhelms " Apostolical Succession " 
 by an avalanche of practical truth. 
 
 July 4th. To Harrow for the speeches. It pleased me. Dear Evelyn was 
 among the speakers ; and most admirably, most agreeably, did he execute his 
 task both in French and English. Every one was delighted with his manner, his 
 appearance, his manifest ability. Ah ! Lord, make him Thy true, constant, and 
 fruitful servant 1 
 
 July 22nd. . . . Threatened by loss of Seeley's aid in the various move- 
 ments and societies. This is heartrending. " I cannot," as Moses said, " bear all 
 this burden myself alone." Specially the Lab. Friend Soc. will suffer. It has 
 long depended, humanly speaking, on Gregson, Eoberts, and Seeley, the universal 
 and constant (with myself) sub-committee. But Gregson has ceased to attend ; 
 
 * Fitzroy was Under- Secretary at the time.
 
 1854.) BEREAVEMENTS. 495 
 
 Roberts is abroad for health ; and now Seeley most " give in ! " Lord, raise us 
 up fit men for this service 1 Lord, succour us ! It is surely a work for Thine 
 honour and man's real welfare ! 
 
 It was when en route to Ems to drink the waters, before proceeding on 
 his annual Continental tour, that he wrote : 
 
 Aug. 12th. Ems. Had heard, on road, at Bonn, report of death of poor 
 Jocelyn by cholera ; confirmed by a letter from Palmerston. Such is the will of 
 God ; and we must say of this, as of many other events, " What I do thou knowest 
 not now ; but thou shalt know hereafter." It is very sad, for he leaves behind 
 him a wife and four young children ; very awful, for he was cut off suddenly, 
 without notice or preparation. " In the midst of life we are in death." He was 
 in excellent health, all things considered, but a few hours before the pestilence 
 struck him " the arrow that flieth at noon-day." ... It has startled and 
 grieved me ; so good-natured, good-tempered, and good-hearted ; he was popular, 
 with much social merit. . . . God sanctify it to us all to his relatives and 
 acquaintances, to the circle of his associates, to high and low, rich and poor ! Let 
 it drive us more earnestly to prayer, for ourselves and for our children ! 
 
 Aug. 17th. . . . Jocelyn buried at Hyde Hall on Tuesday, the day after 
 we received the intelligence. Besides other reasons for remaining, it was thus 
 physically impossible to pay the last tribute of respect and affection. The feeling 
 is strong to pray for the departed, specially if your belief comes short of assur- 
 ance. But it must be resisted ; there is no warranty for it in Scripture. 
 
 Sept. 8th. The dear old Duchess of Beaufort has been gathered to her fathers, 
 full of years and God's grace. At eighty-four years of age, and with such hope 
 nay, assurance of a blessed eternity, who can weep for her departure ? She 
 has run a remarkable course ; she fought a good fight ; she kept the faith. Called 
 by God to be His instrument for the revival of the truth in the upper classes of 
 society, she became " a mother in Israel." I entertain for her the deepest rever- 
 ence and affection, and well may I add, gratitude, for her undeviating kindness 
 and love towards me, and hearty sympathy in all I undertook. Many and profit- 
 able have been the hours that I have passed in her company. Very kind letter 
 from her worthy daughter, Lady Georgiana Ryder. 
 
 Nov. 12th, Sunday. St. Giles's. To London a few days ago, to exhibit the 
 terrors of Wild Court to the editors of papers and others, that they might see the 
 present state of things, and judge by the inspection of a year hence (should God 
 so far spare us) of the improvements we propose to make, their cost, their com- 
 pleteness, and efficiency. It answered well. 
 
 The object of Lord Shaftesbury in inviting a number of noblemen, minis- 
 ters, representatives of the press, and others to a kind of " open-air meeting " 
 in Wild Court, Great Wild Street, Drury Lane, was that those who were 
 interested in the London poor might have an opportunity of knowing, from 
 personal inspection, the character of the dens in which too many of them 
 were obliged to herd together. This wretched Court was selected as a suit- 
 able locality for the extension of the experimental labours of the Society for 
 Improving the Condition of the Working Classes (the Labourers' Friend 
 Society) in introducing into London better house-accommodation for the poor.
 
 496 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXII. 
 
 The newspapers of the following day published graphic descriptions of the 
 place ; and it was stated, among other details, that the inadequacy of the 
 means supplied for sewage, drainage, and water supply were such, as, but for 
 ocular proof, could hardly have been believed to exist in any civilised country. 
 It was found, too, that in the fourteen houses of which Wild Court consisted, 
 nearly one thousand persons found shelter, and that the very staircases were 
 nightly covered with poor wretches to whom even the pestilential accommo- 
 dation of the rooms was an unattainable luxury. 
 
 Nov. 27th. Saw yesterday, in the paper, that Lockhart was dead. He had 
 long been in a declining state, and now he is gone ! His family anxieties had 
 been great, and his bodily sufferings too. I must ever remember him with grati- 
 tude, for the Quarterly Review has ever been open to the maintenance of mercy, 
 truth, and wisdom, in the cause of the labouring population. His kindness to 
 myself was unwearied. 
 
 Dec. 18th. London. . . . Chair in evening at Drury Lane, for an oration 
 of Gough's.* The man is a marvel a real marvel. He would be a marvel if 
 there were only his eloquence and flow ; but he is pious and modest withal, which 
 renders him a perfect prodigy. He acts as well as he speaks. 
 
 War in a Christian spirit presented no anomaly to the mind of Lord 
 Shaftesbury. He acknowledged the Hand of God in the unfolding of every 
 fresh page of History, and he saw, or thought he saw, in the events which 
 were happening in the East, the ripening of many purposes and the accom- 
 plishment of many ends, which he believed to be Divinely decreed. Thus ho 
 writes of the Czar : " He has aimed at universal empire, and is now under- 
 going the sentence that God ever inflicts on such fearful ambition." Again : 
 " He has greatly persecuted the Jews, of whom nearly two millions live and 
 smart under his warlike dominion. But he will learn, as all have learned 
 who have oppressed them, that they are ' a people terrible from their begin- 
 ning hitherto,' terrible in their possession of God's covenanted protection ; " 
 and so on throughout the Diaries. 
 
 What did present an anomaly to the mind of Lord Shaftesbury was, tli.it 
 any action could be taken by the leaders in the great movements connected 
 witli the war, except in a serious spirit, and, more than this, that any steps 
 should be taken by a Christian nation, without national prayer, or any signal 
 mercy be received, without national thanksgiving. It grieved him that 
 Imnquets given to military and naval heroes on their departure for the war 
 should be so " light and jocose." " Surely," he says, " wo should send them 
 forth with prayer, and hope, and confidence, not with wine and laughter." 
 It grieved him that the despatches of Lord Raglan made no acknowledg- 
 ment of the God of battles. "He falls sadly short of Hardinge, who, 
 announcing his great victory over the Sikhs, gave all the glory to God. 
 Forgive him, O Lord, and us too, for the nation must have a share in 
 the responsibility." 
 
 And again : " Why are Raglan's despatches so cold and thankless to 
 
 * The Temperance Lecturer.
 
 1854.) SPECIAL PRAYERS. 497 
 
 Almighty God ? Is it not grievous? Is it not awful, that, amid such plain 
 and unquestionable proofs of God's interposition, there should be no mention 
 of His name ? Is he ashamed to follow Lord Nelson and Lord Hardinge ? 
 Is ho thinking more of the clubs of St. James's Street, than the audience of 
 the Heavenly host ? I am deeply sorry, and tremble for him and for the 
 cause. It is a sad pity, a melancholy loss, for a nobler specimen of a soldier 
 and a gentleman has never existed in our land." 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury did not in these criticisms require from others what in 
 principle he did not give himself; nor did he preach and fail to practise. 
 The entries in his Diaries are full of devout acknowledgments of the good, 
 ness, mercy, and judgment of God, while on many occasions, and especially 
 on the eve of critical events, he recorded the particular subjects of his prayer. 
 Here is a specimen : " O Lord, Almighty God, protect those gallant men of 
 both nations by sea and by land, from the pestilence, the battle, and the 
 flood ; give them a speedy and a joyous victory ; a speedy and a lasting 
 peace ; restore them safe and happy to their land, and that right soon. We 
 pray not, O Lord, in malignity or revenge, but for the peace of nations, and 
 the security of freedom ; restrain the ambition of this man, stay his encroach- 
 ments, confound his devices, and turn his heart. Bend from him his ill- 
 gotten gains, the acquisitions of fraud and violence, confine him within his 
 own limits of race and language. Save a Protestant land from idolatrous 
 rule, and enable us to do some great work for Poland, of justice, mercy, and 
 retribution ; and thus, by Thy grace, both in the East and in the West, 
 Thy word shall have free course and be glorified through Jesus Christ our 
 Lord." 
 
 The following letter to Mr. Haldane relates to this subject : 
 
 Lord Shaftabury to Mr. Haldane. 
 
 Dec. 2ltt, 1854. 
 
 Mr DEAR MB. HALDAXE, A controversy will, I suppose, arise on the pro- 
 priety of the rwf usal of Lord Aberdeen to set apart a day for thanksgiving in 
 acknowledgment of the victories of Alma and Inkerman. 
 
 On a consideration of the whole matter, I think that he was right. 
 
 It would be a happy thing if the public and private prayers of the nation 
 Mcended, at every hour, to the Throne of Grace, but it is a serious question 
 whether the Queen shall frequently interpose, and, by authority, direct the devo- 
 tions of the people. 
 
 In the first place, the constant repetition of such an exercise of prerogative 
 has a tendency to bring their power into dispute, and it is, I understand, very 
 open to question. 
 
 Next, the frequency of the appeal diminishes and almost wears out the effect ; 
 and it should, therefore, be reserved for instances of a great crisis, such as the 
 commencement of a war, or the close of it, or some event having a decided 
 and marked issue. 
 
 This is the more requisite, as a day set apart involves a heavy fine on large 
 masses of the working community. Not one employer in a hundred will pay his 
 people for the day of suspended labour ; and thus, while easy people rejoice, Uut
 
 498 THE EARL OF SHAFFESBURY. [Ciup. XXII. 
 
 operative classes almost groan, and positively sustain a loss, while we experience 
 none. This breeds discontent, and takes greatly from the value of the authori- 
 tative observance. The people assent to it on great occasions ; but on an occasion 
 less marked, both they and the Dissenters, and even the Clergy, complain of the 
 decree. 
 
 Lord Aberdeen added an argument which I had never heard before, but it has 
 great force. " Take heed," he said, " how you get into the habit of superseding 
 the Liturgy by new prayers under the Royal order ; you may introduce prece- 
 dents fatal to the integrity of your Prayer Book." 
 
 We had. and most fitly, a prayer at the beginning of the war ; we should, I 
 hope, have one more if it please God to bless our arms with the capture of 
 Sebastopol. 
 
 If you concur with me, will you use your influence to turn the thoughts of 
 religious newspapers into the same channel 1 Yours very truly 
 
 The last paragraph in the letter quoted above is noteworthy. Mr. Hal- 
 dane had great influence with the Record newspaper, and it was through him 
 that, on all occasions and on every conceivable subject, Lord Shaftesbury was 
 able to communicate with the public. 
 
 The end of 1854 and the early part of 1855 was a period pregnant with 
 important events in the life of Lord Shaftesbury, as it was in the political 
 history of the country. The mismanagement of affairs in the Crimea, pr- 
 ticularly as regarded the Commissariat Department, had kindled a feeling of 
 distress and indignation such as had never been known before. 
 
 Dec. 21st, 1854. The mismanagement and stupidity, if not utter negligence, 
 at Balaklava, have caused a,great amount of loss of life, of property, and health. 
 This was excusable in the outset ; it is not excusable now, when the Government 
 know all these things. 
 
 Dec. 22nd. Much talk with Clarendon, Newcastle, and Lord Lansdowne; 
 they are downcast, and fear the consequences of the incapacity of their local 
 agents. The country has sent out stores of every kind, equal to five times the 
 demand ; and yet neither the sound nor the sick, the officer nor the private, can 
 obtain the twentieth part of what is wanted. 
 
 It would be beside our purpose to tell the story of the grievous calamities 
 that befell our countrymen in the Crimea in the terrible winter of this year. 
 " The noblest army England ever sent from these shores," said the Times, 
 "lias been sacrificed to the grossest mismanagement. Licoinpetency, 
 lethargy, aristocratic hauteur, official indifference, favour, routine, perverse- 
 ness, and stupidity, reign, revel, and riot, in the camp before Sebastopol, in 
 the harbour of Balaklava, in the hospitals of Scutari, and how much nearer 
 home we do not venture to say." Every day fresh tidings came of privation, 
 sickness, and death ; of. unspeakable suffering from neglect ; of medical 
 stores decaying at Varna that were intended for Scutari ; of tents standing 
 in pools of water for want of implements to dig trendies ; of consignments of 
 boots all for the left foot ; and so forth. One good came out of the evil, not 
 limited to the Crimea, but destined to affect every battle-field for all future
 
 18M.) MISMANAGEMENT IN THE CRIMEA. 499 
 
 timo, namely, the landing in Scutari of Miss Florence Nightingale and the 
 noble band of women who accompanied her, as nnrses to the sick and 
 wounded. Thus was inaugurated the Geneva Bed Cross Association which 
 has since done so much to mitigate the avoidable horrors of war. 
 
 When Parliament re-assembled after the Christmas recess (Jan. 23), 
 public indignation in England had reached its height. 
 
 Jan. 23th, 1855. London. Accounts from the Crimea wax worse and worse ; 
 our men are decimated by disease, cold, and hunger. The survivors are feeble and 
 demoralised. We have no commanders, no officers. "Counsel has perished." 
 Raglan's staff specially his Quarter-Master and Adjutant-General are incom- 
 petent, ignorant, obstinate, and preferring the observance of a red-tape regula- 
 tion to the comforts, nay, the lives of the soldiers. Newcastle, at home, seems 
 not more efficient ; he sees all the evil, and yet, through weakness or perverseness, 
 applies no remedy. Unless God in His wonderful mercy interpose, we shall have 
 a national disaster unprecedented in the annals of English history. God, give 
 us the spirit of penitence, confession, and prayer I Here is our only hope. Have 
 written to McCaul. Seeley, and Haldane, to stir up every one to earnest, hearty, 
 and constant supplication. 
 
 And J. Russell has chosen this time to send in his resignation, and break up 
 the Government 1 ! Can any one who knows the man and his antecedents, doubt 
 that self-seeking, place-loving ambition, aims at the Premiership, and jeopardises 
 everything for his own particular ? 
 
 Mr. Roebuck had given notice that he would move for a Select Committee 
 " to inquire into the condition of the army before Sebastopol, and into the 
 conduct of those Departments of the Government, whoso duty it has been to 
 minister to the wants of that army." As this involved "a censure upon the 
 War Department, with which some of his colleagues were connected," Lord 
 John Russell considered that his only course was to tender his resignation, 
 " probably," as Lord Shaftesbury said in a letter to Mr. Haldane, " with a 
 desire to flood the Government, in the hope of floating to the surface and 
 getting the best anchorage as the waters subside." 
 
 On January the 29th Mr. Roebuck's motion was carried by 305 to 148, 
 and on the following day the Coalition Government ceased to exist. 
 
 Feb. 1st. . . . Folly, rashness, self-conceit, and miscalculation, are at 
 their height. Affairs in the Crimea, and affairs at home, seem to prove that we 
 are anything but " a wise and understanding peoplo." All is in confusion . the 
 old Government is out; and there is no new one to come in. Meanwhile the 
 war proceeds, the army perishes, and judgments arise out of our own personal 
 childishness. We are silly beyond the silliness of a boarding-school. ... On 
 Monday night a majority of 150 destroyed the whole Administration, intending 
 to destroy only Newcastle and Aberdeen. The Government might have been 
 aved, would it have announced a change in the War Department, and a resolu- 
 tion to reform the Civil Departments of the army ; but the " mock heroics " got 
 hold of them, and they preferred defeat. These struttings of dignity are very 
 legitimate in ordinary times, but wholly misplaced in such a crisis of the nation 
 as this. 
 
 G G 2
 
 BOO THE EARL OP STTAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXII 
 
 'Derby proposed yesterday to Palmorston that he, Gladstone, and Sidney 
 Herbert, should join his administration. Palmerston replied that he would join 
 none which did not contain Clarendon at the Foreign Office. He subsequently 
 refused to join him at all. 
 
 Feb. 3rd. We are full of rumours ; and none are agreeable. It is certain 
 that Lord J. Russell (1 1 I) has been desired, this day, to form an Administration ; 
 and Palmerston has consented to take the lead of House of Commons, Lord John 
 poinp to the House of Lords. . . . Why is the House of Lords to be made the 
 London Reformatory, where convicted criminals are to have another chance ? Is 
 it pood that so tarnished a man should be in so brilliant a situation ? 
 
 Palmereton has many defects for a Premier ; but he is better than any com- 
 petitor. He has judged wrongly in aiding Her Majesty to inflict the Russell 
 incubus on the country. He urges in excuse that " he should have been charged 
 with personal views and a desire to get the thing into his own hands." 
 
 Feb. 5th. . . . Palmerston has received orders to construct an Adminis- 
 tration ! It was no slight affront to public morality that Lord J. was ever sum- 
 moned to do so. But "public morality " is a mediaeval thing ;' the 19th century 
 has outstripped it ! 
 
 Feb. 6th. The Peelites, it is said, refuse to join, though reluctantly ; but 
 Gladstone leads them, and they follow him. Various reasons are assigned, but 
 none of them sound, patriotic, wise, or true. I hear that Gladstone has long 
 exhibited a desire to return to Lord Derby, and I believe it. He would then be 
 Leader of the House of Commons, and be virtually Prime Minister. Then would 
 he work his will in the ecclesiastical appointments. People will begin to expect 
 that Palmerston's Church nominations will differ much from Aberdeen's, being 
 influenced by my opinion. There could not be a greater error. He has never in 
 his life, and never will, so lo^g as he has breath, consult me on anything. It is 
 not very likely that he will <?onsult anybody ; but, if he do, it will not be one 
 connected with the Evangelical party. 
 
 The day after the above entry was made in the Diary Lord Shaftesbnry 
 received the following letter : 
 
 Lord Palmerston to Lord Shaftcsbury. 
 
 PICCADILLY, 7th Feb., 1855. 
 
 MY DEAR SHAFTESBURY, Will you be Duke of Lancaster with a seat in the 
 Cabinet ? You would be useful to us in Council, and your being there would, -I 
 am sure, be gratifying to large bodies of the people. 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 Let me know as soon as you can. PALMERSTON. 
 
 Later on in the same day a further letter was sent. It ran thus : 
 
 Lord Palmerston to Lord Shafteslmry. 
 
 PICCADILLY, 7th Feb., 1855. 
 
 MY DEAR SHAFTESBURY, Unexpected difficulties have arisen which may 
 interfere with the offer which I made you this morning, and therefore I must ask 
 you to consider it as suspended till you hear from me again. 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 PALMERSTON. 
 The difficulties to which I allude do not relate to you but to others.
 
 1865.] OFFER OF THE DUCHY OF LANCASTER. 501 
 
 Although the receipt of the first letter could not be otherwise than 
 gratifying to Lord Shaftesbury, the "eceipt of the second brought him infinite 
 relief. His replies to both letters are given below : 
 
 Lord Shaftetbury to Lord Palmertton (No. L). 
 
 Feb. 1th, 1855. 
 
 DEAR PALMERSTON, I have received your letter, and consider, as you desire, 
 the offer suspended. 
 
 I have sent my letter, which was ready, that you may see that probably after 
 all, I may not be such a colleague as you wished for, at least not one worth 
 Btrugglin-j for against a difficulty. 
 
 Yodrs, 
 
 SHAFTESBUBY. 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury to Lord Palmergton (No. II.). 
 
 Feb. 7th, 1855. 
 
 MY DEAR PALMERSTON, You may be assured that I am much gratified by 
 your kind proposition, and I feel very sensibly both the honour and the friend- 
 ship of it. 
 
 But the acceptance of office involves so large a surrender of many important 
 occupations in which I am engaged, and have for a long time been engaged, 
 that I should make up my mind with great reluctance to enter on a new career. 
 
 The circumstances of the time, however, are such that no one may stand on 
 his own particular habits and tastes, if the surrender of them can be of advan- 
 tage to the public weal. Your letter states that I can be of such service, but 
 while I submit my judgment to yours, and prepare to undertake a charge to 
 which I am most repugnant, I may assert that I can be of service to your Admini- 
 stration only by adhering to the principles I have professed, and by which I have 
 obtained any small confidence I may have from the country. 
 
 Pray be assured that I am not presuming to make conditions. I simply desire 
 to state that there are certain opinions and principles, which I have always main* 
 tained, and which, wherever I be placed, I must continue to maintain. 
 
 Now, the only points on which you and I are likely to differ are : 
 
 1st. Questions such as Maynooth, and matters akin to it. I am not for tho 
 extinction of Maynooth, that cannot be now done, but I am strongly against the 
 extension of it, and very much in favour of its reformation and adjustment to 
 the necessities of Ireland. 
 
 2nd. Any measures for the encouragement of the Papal power, such as the 
 appointment of Roman Catholic chaplains to the several gaols. 
 
 3rd. The question of the Jewish Relief Bill. 
 
 4th. Measures affecting the vexata qvaitio of the Sabbath, such as the dis- 
 turbance of the Act, passed last session, for the closing of public-houses on that 
 day, which has worked so well, but to which there is a strong opposition. 
 
 Now, if with the hazard of these differences, and your knowledge of the several 
 positions I hold in the country, at the head of many Associations and Committees, 
 you are still of opinion that I can render a service in the present awful crisis (for 
 this ih my main consideration) I will surrender, to your judgment, my own very
 
 502 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. (CHAP. XXII. 
 
 strong antipathy to official life, and hold the situation until you shall have found 
 Borne other one equally to your mind. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 SHAFTESBUBT. 
 The incident is narrated in the Diary in these words : 
 
 Feb. 8th. And so I have hal the chance of being a Cabinet Minister ! 
 Palmerston proposed to me the Duchy of Lancaster with a seat in the Cabinet ! 
 .It is a crisis, a dreadful crisis a Government must be formed I Reserving all 
 principles, I accepted it in the sense shown in my letter, though I loathed it 
 beyond the power of expression. My first impulse to refuse, but overruled by the 
 importunities of Minny. Believed, and still believe, that I should have been 
 thwarted, defeated on everything, whether of movement or existence ; should 
 have been absolutely alone, defied in the Cabinet, and misunderstood out of it. 
 
 A few hours afterwards requested by P. to consider " the offer as suspended," 
 in consequence of unforeseen difficulties. 
 
 . . . This morning a letter from Lady Palmerston to say that the Whigs 
 were infuriated by their " small " share of power and place ; and that P. must 
 give the Duchy to one of that party. I acquiesced more cheerfully in the with- 
 drawal than in the proposition of the offer. Lord Lansdowne took the lead 
 against me. 
 
 The letter alluded to above, was as follows : 
 
 Lady Palmerston to Lord Shaftesbury. 
 
 Thursday morning, Feb. 8th. 
 
 MY DEABEST ASHLEY, Palmerston is distracted with all the worry he has to 
 go through, and he must go to Windsor at twelve, so he desired me to write to you. 
 
 He says that your high character and position in the country would, he feels 
 sure, have been of great use to the Government, but after he first wrote to you 
 ho found himself in a very unexpected difficulty. The Whigs at Brookes' were 
 all up in arms at the Government not being formed on more Liberal principles 
 or rather with " more of the Whig party." 
 
 They are disappointed at the Peelites joining, and at under people of that 
 party keeping their places, so that, in that manner, there are hardly any places to 
 fill up. They press, therefore, very much for a Whig in the Duchy of Lancaster, 
 so as to make the Peelite division in a greater minority. One part of our friends 
 strongly press for Lord Grey, and another put forward Lord Carlisle. I don't 
 think Palmerston will agree to either, but still he would give way to having a 
 Whig appointed, rather than to have all the party dissatisfied. 
 
 Nobody has made any personal objection to you, and Palmerston would 
 certainly have preferred you to any other person, both from opinion and affection ; 
 but as you did feel reluctant to accept the trammels of office, and felt that it 
 would be a sacrifice on your part to give up your independence, he will not urge 
 you any further ; but hopes you will give him your assistance and the benefit of 
 your advice. 
 
 Believe me, yours ever affectionately, 
 
 E. PALMERSTON. 
 
 P.S. It Is no pleasure to have to form a Government when there are so 
 many unreasonable people to please, and so many interested people pressing for
 
 1855.1 SANITARY COMMISSION TO THE CRIMEA. 503 
 
 their own gratification and vanity, without any regard to the public good or the 
 -ts of the Government and country. 
 
 For a time the anxiety and suspense which an offer of a place in the 
 Government always brought upon Lord Shaftesbury, were removed. But 
 only for a time. Lord Palmerston had too high an appreciation, from long 
 personal experience, of Lord Shaftesbury's qualifications for statesmanship, 
 to dispense with his immediate assistance without a struggle. 
 
 In the meanwhile, however, he was culled to a work of the gravest im- 
 puitauce, for which, as far as we are aware, he has never had the credit 
 which was justly Ids due, namely, the organisation of a Sanitary Commission, 
 with full powers to redress the grievances at Scutari and Balaklava, as far as 
 they were capable of redress, and thus to roll away, as far as possible, the 
 stigma that attached to the nation. 
 
 " That commission," Miss Nightingale wrote to Lord Shaftesbury, some 
 time afterwards, " saved the British army." 
 
 One day, when excitement and indignation were at their height, on 
 account of the mismanagement of affairs in the East, Dr. Hector Gavin, 
 who had been for three years Government Commissioner for the prevention 
 and cure of cholera in the West Indies, called upon Lord Shaftesbury, to 
 talk about his labours on the Board of Health in relation to the same 
 disease, and, as a matter of course, the conversation turned upon the ravages 
 made by cholera among our brave soldiers in the East. It was during that iuter- 
 virw that the scheme for a Sanitary Commission in the East was suggested 
 to the mind of Lord Shaftesbury. 
 
 The outline of the history of the movement is given briefly in the Diary. 
 The amount of labour involved can bo imagined. 
 
 Feb. 14th. . . . Have been running about to stir up Prelates and Ministers 
 to a day of prayer. Tried, unsuccessfully, to see Paumure * on sanitary arrange- 
 ments for Crimea Hospitals, but all in vain ; a " Philanthropist " is always a bore. 
 
 Feb. 15th. A day of success. May God be praised, and to Him be all the 
 glory ! First, efforts with the Bishop of London, Archbishop of Canterbury t 
 Gladstone, and Palmerston, for a day of humiliation, have prospered. Most 
 thankful was I to-day to find P. not only ready, but urging, that the day should 
 be a special day, and not a Sunday. This is very good ; it looks serious and reverent 
 
 Next, Paumure has listened to my scheme for a Sanitary Commission to pro- 
 ceed, with fall powers, to Scutari and Balaklava, there to purify the hospitals, 
 ventilate the ships, and exert all that science can do to save life where thousands 
 :nv dying, not of their wounds, but of dysentery and diarrhoea, the result of foul 
 air and preventible mischiefs. Again I bless Thee, Lord ; and bring the work, 
 we pray Thee, to a joyous issue I 
 
 The Commissioners, who were appointed without delay, were Dr. Suther- 
 land, of the General Board of Health ; Dr. Hector Gavin (who was afterwards 
 killed accidentally in the Crimea); Mr. Rawliuson, Civil Engineer; Mr. New- 
 lands, Chief Inspector ; three sub-inspectors, and one assistant engineer. 
 * Lord Paumure (formerly Mr. Fox Maule) wa* Secretary of State for Wax.
 
 604 THE EARL OF 8HAFTESBUKY. KHAP. XXII. 
 
 Lord Shafteslury to Lord Panmure. 
 
 Feb. 19th, 1855. 
 
 MY DEAR PANMURE, The Commissioners must proceed by Marseilles. No 
 time should be lost, and the screw steamer will not be ready for some days ; nor 
 is there any room left to receive new comers. 
 
 You will, I hope, be good enough to permit them to do so. . . . 
 
 [The question of stora to be taken, and remuneration to the Comnittionert 
 followed.} 
 
 The service will be laborious, and even perilous ; and these gentlemen have 
 cheerfully surrendered their personal comforts, and, in the case of Mr. Rawlinson, 
 professional emolument, to aid the public in this crisis. Mr. Newlands is the 
 chief officer of Liverpool, a person of great energy and experience ; the other 
 sub-inspectors are from the same place, and will be of infinite service to superin- 
 tend the cleansing of Scutari, Balaklava, and the camp. 
 
 We are greatly indebted to the Town Council of Liverpool for the liberal 
 manner in which they have placed their medical staff at the disposal of the 
 Commission ; we could not, otherwise, have obtained such excellent service at so 
 cheap a rate. It is to be considered as their contribution to the effort made for 
 the improvement of the health of the army. 
 
 We estimate that two months, or, at most, three months, will be sufficient for 
 the purpose in view. 
 
 It will be very desirable nay, almost indispensable that the Commissioners 
 should have the power of hiring, on their own account, such numbers of work- 
 men as they may find necessary. 
 
 The entire success of this undertaking will depend on the instructions given 
 to Lord Raglan, Lord W. Powlett, and other authorities, to carry into execution 
 without delay whatever the Commissioners may declare to be essential to health 
 and safety. 
 
 You may really repose confidence in them ; they are trustworthy men, and 
 they will advise nothing that is needless or extravagant. If, upon giving a plan, 
 they are met with any delays, however short ; sent from one department to 
 another ; their hands bound with red tape, and their shins broken by a succession 
 of official stumbling-blocks, they will be useless indeed, ridiculous ; and they 
 will, themselves, feel, as every one will say, that they might as well have remained 
 at home. We cannot, in these matters, trifle with time ; minutes here are as 
 valuable as years : and a pestilence might ravage the troops while a score of 
 functionaries were writing to each other to ascertain whose business it was to 
 attend to it But with vigour and dispatch, very little writing, very little talk- 
 ing, and very much action, I entertain, under God's blessing, the most sanguine 
 hopes. 
 
 It would be a great result. Yours very truly, 
 
 SHAFTESBURY. 
 
 In addition to the letters to Lords Raglan and W. Powlett, I would recom- 
 mend a strong letter to Lord Stratford de Redcliffe. 
 
 So completely were the arrangements, even to the minutest details, under 
 the personal direction of Lord Shaftssbury, that, at Lord Paumure's request,
 
 1&55.] DEATH OF THE CZAR. 505 
 
 the Instructions to the Commissioners were drawn up by him, and were even 
 writ tou by his own hand. 
 
 The instructions were clear, precise, and energetic, and were supplemented 
 by a dispatch from Lord Palmerston to Lord Raglan in terms no less vigor- 
 ous. After requesting that Lord Raglan would give the Commissioners every 
 possible assistance, he continued : " They will, of course, be opposed and 
 thwarted by the medical officers, by the men who have charge of the port 
 arrangements, and by those who have the cleaning of the camp. Their mission 
 will be ridiculed, and their recommendations and directions set aside, unless 
 enforced by the peremptory exercise of your authority. But that authority I 
 niu-t request you to exert in the most peremptory manner, for the immediate 
 and exact carrying into execution whatever changes of arrangement they may 
 recommend ; for these are matters on which depend the health and lives of 
 many hundreds of men, I may indeed say, of thousands." 
 
 The work of the Sanitary Commission is matter of history. Lord Shaftes- 
 bury having originated and efficiently organised it, retired, as was his habit, 
 into the background, while others enjoyed the credit. There were some, how- 
 ever, of whose good opinion he was very mindful, who did not deny him the 
 just recognition of his timely services. Among these were Lord Palmerston 
 and Miss Florence Nightingale. At the time, and ever afterwards, the latter, 
 in public and private, gave " honour where honour was due." 
 
 The following extract is from a letter written by her in 1858 : 
 
 Mitt Florence Nightingale to Lord Shaftetbury. 
 
 30, OLD BURLINGTON STBEET, Oct. 16th, 1858. 
 
 DKAH LOBD SHAFTESBUBT, I venture to send you with this a copy of my 
 Report to the War Office upon army sanitary matters. It is, as you will see, 
 strictly confidential, and has not been presented to the House of Commons. But 
 as Lord Shaf tesbury has, for so many years, been our leader in sanitary matters 
 (as in so many other wise and benevolent things), it seemed to me but right to 
 send him a Report which contains so much of what was done by himself, viz., 
 the work of the Sanitary Commission in the East, although I can scarcely expect 
 that he will read it. 
 
 I am, dear Lord Shaf tesbury, 
 
 Yours very faithfully, 
 
 F. NIGHTINGALE. 
 
 Two public events occurred about this time, to which reference is made in 
 the Diary. The following extracts relating to them may be quoted here, 
 before reverting to subjects which more immediately concerned Lord Shaftes- 
 l:iry. The events were, the death of the Czar of Russia, and the visit to 
 England of the Emperor of the French. 
 
 March 2nd. Intelligence by electric telegraph that the Emperor of Russia died 
 this morning between 12 and 1 o'clock. 
 
 I cannot but feel for the man, though I denounced the Czar. He died. I doubt 
 not in great measure, of a broken heart, and the fearful excitement of wounded
 
 506 THE EARL Of SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXll 
 
 pride and irrecoverable reputation. Mighty losses in men and money ; a declin- 
 ing population ; increasing European confederacies against him ; an exhausted 
 empire ; the certainty that he could gain nothing, the almost certainty that he 
 must loee a great deal ; all this, backed by the conviction that he himself was, in 
 fact, the cause of the war, snapped the springs of mental and physical life ; and 
 he died a greater slave to his ambition than many of the serfs to their tyrannical 
 owners. 
 
 March 19th. Last night to an evening party at Windsor Castle. Went by 
 train in full dress (a special one being provided), and returned by the same 
 after midnight Emperor had been installed a Knight of the Garter. A wonder- 
 ful change and elevation I In 1848, the last time he was in England, I mounted 
 guard with him as a special constable in Mount Street ; his next visit to this 
 country (such are the vicissitudes of French public men) may be like Louis 
 Philippe's, in flight, and as a refugee ! 
 
 Some people dislike the history of the man and some of his doings. It may be 
 BO ; but it is here an affair of nations, not of persons. His individual character 
 and conduct (supposing it to bo reprehensible) must be merged in his represen- 
 tation of the French people ; it is a question of London and Paris, not of Victoria 
 and Louis Napoleon. Nevertheless, his policy will admit of defence ; his coup 
 d'etat is not without its point of excuse and right. The stain on his actions and 
 it is a deep stain is the cruel, unjust, spiteful, vindictive, and base confiscation 
 of the Orleans property. This is indelible, and for ever deprives him of the 
 possibility of being called a high-minded man. 
 
 We, as Englishmen, have no right to find any fault. We must, on the contrary, 
 be full of his praise ; he has, up to the present time, been loyal and true. 
 
 April 23rd. It is a retributive justice that Palmerston is Prime Minister to 
 receive the Emperor. He was dismissed for speaking favourably of him. And 
 it is also a justice that John Russell is absent from the scene of hospitality and 
 splendour. He was the man who counselled the Queen to cashier Palmerston. 
 
 In a letter to his son Evelyn, who was studying in Geneva, Lord Shaftes- 
 bury gives a graphic, gossipy resume of public and private news : 
 
 Lord Slut/tesbury to the lion. Evelyn Ashley. 
 
 LONDON, Feb. 28, lb.">:.. 
 
 MY UKAUEST EVELYN, I have just received your letter of the 20th. It has 
 been very long upon the road, if your date be correct; and I avail myself of 
 " a sitting " in the House of Lords to hear appeals, to give you a few lines. 
 
 We have had much trouble ; we are again quiet for a while externally ; I fear 
 that, internally, our dangers and difficulties are no less than they were. When 
 Palmenton had formed his Government, it suddenly fell down with the dry-rot, 
 and he had to begin anew on old foundations and with old materials. The 
 motives of the Peelites for retirement are not clear. The arguments, no doubt, 
 against Roebuck's committee are unanswerable in the line of folly and peril ; but 
 they knew them when they accepted office, and they knew also that the question 
 was still pending, and likely to be enforced. It is matter for serious inquiry 
 whether, in such a crisis, men are justified in incurring a certain and immediate, 
 for a problematic and remote, danger. There were two evils to choose between 
 the evil of refusing the inquiry, and the evil of conceding it ; and, great as is
 
 1865.] 
 
 LETTER TO MR. EVELYN ASHLEY. 507 
 
 the evil of the concession, it was less, in my humble judgment, than the evil of 
 refusal. 
 
 As for the article in the Record, it stated very nearly the whole facts. Lord 
 Laiisdowne took the lead against me, stimulated, in part, by many of the Whig 
 party, who wanted the place for a Whig, and, in part, by the ladies of Sutherland 
 House, who wanted, the place for Carlisle. Palmerston was terrified, and gave 
 way. I do not blame him, because, in his predicament and ignorance of the 
 true state of things, it seemed, and perhaps was, wiser to take a colleague with a 
 party at his back before a colleague without one. He had to get the machine of 
 Government into motion, and he was anxious for anything that might grease the 
 wheels. He yielded, therefore, for a Whig. When Lord L. had brought him thus 
 far, he waited a bit, and then asked for Carlisle. Palmerston protested against 
 such an appointment as ridiculous, useless, enfeebling ; but, as usual, he gave 
 
 . and Brookes' prevailed. 
 
 He is much to be pitied ; he has not a single friend in public life who desires 
 to /ivo him honest, kind, and prudent counsel; he is not himself disposed to 
 ich counsel ; the consequence is that he is blown to and fro. and reverses 
 the apostolical precept : "Try all things, and hold fust that which U good" So 
 f;ir from being firm, he is beaten from everything ; and I much doubt whether 
 he has, since he became Premier, been able to do any one thing according to his 
 own judgment and preference. 
 
 But his difficulties, it must be admitted, are enormous. He has no party of 
 his own to rest upon ; he has not even two or three able and friendly adherents 
 to fight his battles. His choice is limited for office men ; he is limited to the 
 H. of Commons, and to such of the H. of C. as dare to vacate their seats. These 
 are few, and mostly unworthy ; and yet the public are roaring out for new men ; 
 but no new men of any value have been introduced through the Reform of 
 Parliament; and the Minister can no longer introduce new men through the 
 tli mnel of the rotten boroughs. 
 
 \Vcll, he has now formed a new Cabinet on the secession of the Peclites. It is, 
 to all intents and purposes, a purely Whig administration ; it will be shaky, 
 unpopular, and of short duration. God grant that it may last long enough to 
 carry us to a speedy peace ! 
 
 The selfishness, the meanness, the love of place tuid salary, the oblivion of the 
 y, of man's welfare, and God's honour, have never been more striking and 
 terrible than in this crisis. These, added to the singular conceit of all the candi- 
 dates for office (and all have aspired to the highest), have thrown stumbling- 
 blocks in his path at every step. The greediness and vanity of our place-hunters 
 have combined to make each one of them a union of the vulture and the peacock. 
 
 There is a blight, my dear boy, on all we say, think, or do. God is not with us. 
 
 I much fear that Palmerston 's ecclesiastical appointments will be detestable. 
 He does not know, in theology, Moses from Sydney Smith. The vicar of Rornsey, 
 where he goes to church, is the only clergyman he ever spoke to ; and, as for the 
 wants, the feelings, the views, the hopes and fears, of the country, and par- 
 ticularly the religious part of it, they are as strange to him as the interior of 
 Japan. Why, >t was only u short time ago that he heard, for the first time, of 
 the grand heresy of Puseyltes and Tractarians ! 
 
 Go on with Herschel. Stick to German, French, and mathematics, and keep 
 up your classics, so far as to be ready and able to start afresh on your return in
 
 008 THE EARL OF 8HAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXII. 
 
 preparation for Cambridge. Let all be " begun, continued, and ended " in Him, 
 " from whom alone cometh all counsel, wisdom, and understanding ! " 
 
 Well you may be struck that England is " in danger of losing her influence 
 abroad and her integrity at home." She is humbled. We hear the words of 
 Isaiah : " Come and sit down in the dust." Constitutional government is a 
 laughing-stock, and the progress of rational freedom on the Continent is checked 
 for half a century. War, as Demosthenes said, discovers ret o-aOpi, the rotten parts 
 of an Empire ; our sin has found us out ; America comes next ; and then the 
 liberty of great nations will either be extinguished or become anarchy. 
 
 The French alliance I have always sought and defended ; and I do so still. 
 But I have sought it negatively, not positively as an alliance not to do us any 
 good, but to save us and the world from much harm. But I have seen, from the 
 beginning, that " incedis per ignes suppositos cincri doloso " 
 
 Col. Tronchin is a noble fellow : " hold all such in reputation : " cultivate him 
 much, and all of that stamp in Geneva ; it is a fruitful soil. 
 
 The frost has ended with us, and the disemployed people, thank God, are 
 returning to work. It has been a hard time, and yet I have almost prayed for a 
 continuance of it, in the Crimea at least. I fear the return of spring and warm 
 weather ; the heat of the sun will draw out the pestilential exhalations of a soil 
 which has, for months, imbibed the filth and mortality of an enormous camp. 
 
 We have sent out a powerful Sanitary Commission. 
 
 May God bless you and preserve you, my dearest boy, in time and in eternity 
 through Christ Jesus. 
 
 Your affectionate father, 
 
 S. 
 
 The "escape from office" on which Lord Shaftesbury had congratulated 
 himself was not so complete as he had anticipated. Changes were made iu 
 the Cabinet owing to the resignation of Sir James Graham, Mr. Gladstone, 
 and Mr. Sidney Herbert ; and Lord Palinerstou determined, if possible, to 
 MTU iv the co-operation of his kinsman. Among the changes was the appoint- 
 ment of Lord Carlisle to the Lord Lieutenancy of Ireland, by which tlm 
 Duchy of Lancaster became again vacant ; and this office, with a seat in the 
 Cabinet, Palmerston once more offered to Lord Shaftesbury. 
 
 It was in vain for him to urge the old objections. Palinerstou was deter- 
 mined, and he used every exertion and influence, direct and indirect, to induce 
 Lord Shaftesbury to yield. " I can have no objection to your holding yourself 
 free to vote as you like," he wrote in reply to the reiterated objections. " It 
 will be as well, however, that you should not mention to others your reserva- 
 ti"ii-, because these things are exaggerated in passing from mouth to mouth, 
 and create discussions that become embarrassing to Government, and are 
 turned against it by opponents. I therefore accept your acceptance." 
 
 But Lord Shaftesbury had not accepted, and he immediately obtained an 
 interview with Lord Palmerston to plead for delay. 
 
 Meanwhile the position had become embarrassing. The newspapers had 
 announced" We believe the Earl of Shaftesbury will succeed the Earl of 
 Carlisle as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster ; "* and letters came pour- 
 Globe, March 10th, 1855, &c.
 
 1855.] IN PERPLEXITY. 509 
 
 ing in from all quarters, urging him to take the decisive step, or congratu- 
 lating him, as though it were already taken. Among the former was Mr. 
 John Delano, the editor of the Times, who said : " Your high estimation in 
 the country would be of great value to any Government." But the pressure 
 from without was of little weight, compared with that from within his own 
 immediate circle. 
 
 Lady Shaftesbury, who was absent from home at the time, wrote : 
 
 I do bcteeeh you not to refuse. Reflect how much more weight everything has, 
 coming from a Cabinet Minister. Think, for instance, of all yon have said to the 
 Emperor about the persecution of the Protestants ; it will have tenfold weight 
 when he knows that your position in England is such as to have a seat in the 
 Cabinet. 
 
 Lady Palmerstou was as persistent as the Prime Minister, using her 
 influence not oidy with Lord Shaftesbnry but with her daughter, Lord 
 Sliaftesbury's wife. " Palmerston is anxious for the Queen's sake that he 
 should be at once sworn in," she wrote to her, and followed this up with a 
 let ti-r, one of many upon the subject, to her son-in-law. 
 
 Lady Palmerxton to Lord Sliaflesbury. 
 
 PICCADILLY. Friday. 
 
 MY DEAR ASHLEY, I am quite affronted that you would not come and have 
 some tea with me to-night. I wanted to tell you several things. How many 
 letters pour down upon me from people you would not expect, all anxious to hear 
 of your taking the Duchy. 
 
 I have even one from Henry Stanley at Athens, expressing his hope that yon 
 would join the new Government. 
 
 Lady Molesworth also told me to-day of many who were anxious to hear of 
 your acceptance, and amongst these Charles Villiers which I hardly expected, as 
 he always finds fault with everybody. Sir William,* of course, wants you, and 
 Sir Benjamin Hall was so anxious to have you in the Government that he came 
 to talk to me about it yesterday ; and I suppose you know that Lord Carlisle is 
 rery anxiout for you. But now there is another consideration that I wanted to 
 mention. Yon refused to take a place in the Queen's Household, you have refused 
 the Garter (which she did not like), and now, if you refuse a third offer of belong- 
 ing to her Government, I am sure she will be quite offended ; for though Palmer- 
 ston had full permission to fill up the places as he thought most conducive to the 
 advantage of his Government, yet he did take her approbation before he offered 
 it to you. Therefore it is, in fact, her offer. 
 
 Good-night, my dear Ashley. I hope you will send a favourable answer. 
 
 Yours ever affectionately, 
 
 E. PALMEBSTON. 
 
 " I never was in such perplexity in my life," said Lord Shnftesbury to the 
 writer, when narrating these incidents. "I was at my wit's end. On one 
 sido was ranged wife, relations, friends, ambition, influence ; on the other, my 
 
 Molesworth.
 
 510 THE KARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP, XXII. 
 
 own objections, which seemed sometimes to weigh as nothing in comparison 
 with the arguments brought against them. I could not satisfy myself that to 
 accept office was a divine call ; I was satisfied that God had called me to 
 labour among the poor. There was no Urim and Thummim ; no open vision. 
 I could do nothing but postpone, and in doing this, I was placing Palmerston 
 in a most awkward position. But God interposed for me." 
 
 The " interposition " came in a curious way. When perplexity was at its 
 height he received the following letter from Lady Palmerston : 
 
 Lady Palmerston to Lord Sliaftcslury. 
 
 MY DEAR ASHLEY, Palmerston has three people waiting for him, and two 
 in his room, so that he could not write a line now, but he will satisfy you entirely 
 upon all the points you mention. 
 
 And he is very anxious now, that you should put on your undress uniform and 
 be at the Palace a quarter before three to be sworn in. 
 
 Pray do this, and I am sure you will not repent it. Palmerston is VEEY 
 anxious to have his Government complete, and, as there has been so much delay 
 in all these discussions, he would be very anxious that you could, for the Queen's 
 sake, appear at the Palace to be sworn in a quarter before three. 
 
 Yours ever affectionately, 
 
 E. PALMERSTON. 
 
 Lord Palmerston was in a dilemma. Up to that point he had been unable 
 to find anybody who would satisfactorily fill the vacancy, otherwise he would 
 have relieved his friend from the pressure that he knew was intolerable. 
 His own light and hopeful spirit made him believe that, once in office, all tho 
 objections would disappear and only good would ensue to all. But had lie 
 seen any loophole for his friend, he would not have continued his urgent 
 demands. 
 
 And Lord Shaftesbury was in a dilemma. There had been no answer 
 borne in upon his soul, no handwriting upon the wall, no voice that he could 
 interpret as the voice of God, to set the question at rest for him. To use his 
 own words : " I never felt so helpless. I seemed to be hurried along with- 
 out a will of my own ; without any power of resistance. I went and dressed. 
 and then, while I was waiting for the carriage, I went down on my knees and 
 prayed for counsel, wisdom, and understanding. Then, there was some ono 
 at the door, as I thought, to say that the carriage was ready. Instead of tha* 
 a note, hurriedly written in pencil, was put into my hands. It was from 
 Palmerston. " Don't go to the Palace." That was thirty years ago, but I 
 dance with joy at the remembrance of that interposition, as I did when it 
 happened. It was, to my mind, as distinctly an act of special providence as 
 when tho hand of Abraham was stayed and Isaac escaped." 
 
 The " ram caught in the thicket " was the Earl of Harrowby, and on 
 March the 31st he was sworn in as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. 
 
 In this day of religious liberty it may seem, to some, a curious fact that.
 
 1855.1 RELIGIOUS WORSHIP BILL. 511 
 
 np to the year 1855 there was an euactincut in force, prohibiting the teaching 
 of the Gospel and the worship of God in private houses, when more than 
 twenty persons beside the family were assembled. Against persons who 
 ;);< i r.bled in any numbers for secular or political purposes, for gain or merri- 
 ment, there was no legal prohibition; but, if a body of Christians met to 
 pray and to preach, they were liable to fine and imprisonment. When the 
 M.-uliai were imprisoned in the dungeons of Romish Tuscany, for having 
 faithfully discharged their duties as Christians in their own household, all 
 England was up in arms, and was furious in indignation, while, at the very 
 time, there was in this country a law in full force, which gave power to 
 restrain the Christian teacher, to persecute the little bands of praying folk 
 who met from house to house, and to place many of the religious organisations 
 whieh were leavening the mass of society at the mercy of any non-approving 
 neighbour. 
 
 It is true that the law was regarded in most cases as only a dead letter, 
 an obsolete thing, but, as the Times observed, it was " a rod in pickle, an 
 ecrlesiastieal engine to be called into operation when desired." If a staunch 
 Protestant Government were to be succeeded by one of a Pnseyite character, 
 ami that again by another leaning still more towards Romanism, the law, as 
 it stood, was ready to their hands, to shut up a vast number of Sunday and 
 Ragged Schools as well as every mission meeting and cottage lecture, 
 throughout the country. 
 
 In May Lord Shaftesbury gave notice of a motion to bring in a 
 repeal so much of the Act of 52 Goo. III. as prohibited the assembling 
 more than twenty persons above the members of a household for purposes of/ 
 r-Ti-ious worship in one house. 
 
 It seems at, first sight extraordinary that a matter apparently so simple 
 could have called forth any very strong feeling, or have encountered any 
 very serious opposition. It might reasonably have been thought that such 
 a measure would have commended itself to the approbation of all, as in 
 accordance with the general view of religious liberty, and a common regard 
 for the religious improvement of the people. Such, however, was not the 
 case. The Earl of Derby, the Bishop of Oxford, and others, threatened a 
 strenuous opposition, and therefore, on June the 12th, on the order of the 
 day for reporting 1 the Bill, Lord Shaftesbury, who at first had conceived that 
 his task would be merely a nominal one, found himself compelled to traverse 
 the whole length and breadth of the question. 
 
 His arguments wore to this effect. It was notorious that there were 
 ama/.ing numbers of persons who never went into any place of public worship 
 at all ; that the Established Church and Nonconformity combined, wero 
 inadequate to grapple with the infidelity of the times ; that, therefore, every 
 facility should be given to bring the masses within the reach of instruction 
 and the sound of the Gospel, and that no impediment whatever should be 
 jilaeeil in the way of those who sought to neutralise the poison of indifference 
 and infidelity by the antidote of religion. Owing, mainly, to the extreme 
 
 Bill to / 
 ling of/ 
 >oses of/
 
 512 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXII 
 
 difficulty of inducing the working classes to attend the ordinary religious 
 services in churches and chapels, there had been provided, to meet the wants 
 of the people, Missions, Cottage Lectures, Bible Classes, Sunday and Bagged 
 Schools, and other kindred institutions, by means of which hundreds of 
 thousands of persons had been evangelised, although in nine cases out of ten 
 these meetings had been positively illegal, as they almost invariably com- 
 menced and closed with singing and prayer, which constitute " Religious 
 Worship." During the year 1854, for example, the City Mission had held no 
 less than 25,318 meetings, of which 22,000 were in direct infringement of 
 the law. Were the law enforced, these, and all similar gatherings, must of 
 necessity be stopped. Lord Shaftesbury went on to say : 
 
 It might be contended, perhaps, that the law was obsolete. It might be 
 obsolete in one sense, but it had great power of revival, and might be enforced at 
 any moment. Indeed, at present it was constantly used for purposes of intimida- 
 tion, and he could quote instances in which it had been actually put in force. 
 In 1820 an information was laid against Lord Barham, the present Lord Gains- 
 borough, by Lord Romney, at West Mailing, near Maidstone, under the Act, 
 religious services having been held in Lord Barbara's house when he was unwell, 
 instead of in the village schoolroom. Lord Barham was fined 40 20 for each 
 meeting. . . . 
 
 A gentleman, a county magistrate in a northern county, early in 1854 came to 
 reside on his estate, and found the parish in a most neglected condition. At the 
 gates of his park was a large coal mine and a dense population around it. Finding 
 that nobody would do anything for them, he went one evening in every week, 
 and in the largest cottage read a chapter of the Bible and some religious tracts. 
 The meetings were numerously attended ; but, after a few months he was obliged 
 to drop it, and it ceased. And why ? It was hinted to him that persons were 
 about to lay an information against him for a breach of the Conventicle Act. 
 He, being an active county magistrate, felt that it was not right in him to set an 
 example of breaking the law, so he gave up his reading. . . . The gentleman 
 in question might have had a cock-fight, jumping in sacks, or any sort of amuse- 
 ment, and nobody could have objected to it, but the moment this gentleman, 
 commiserating the religious destitution of the people, went to their cottages, 
 read to them a chapter in the Bible, and joined with them in religious worship, 
 the law said " Mind what you are doing, for if you are caught at this again you 
 will be fined 20." 
 
 After citing another and very striking case, in which the law had been 
 put in force so recently as March, 1850, Lord Shaftesbury maintained that 
 unless some public end could be shown to be advanced by the present law, or 
 unless it could be shown that its repeal would be subversive of public morality, 
 it was not just or right to place a veto upon a man receiving any number of 
 persons into his house for purposes of religious worship ; and he appealed to 
 the right reverend prelates opposite, whether it was consistent with their 
 position or their Christian dignity, to deprive some of the most useful of their 
 own clergy, or of the Nonconformists, of the power of doing their best to 
 evangelise their flocks without breaking the law, or to consent to the present
 
 1855.) RELIGIOUS WORSHIP BILL. 513 
 
 system of wholesale connivance ? He appealed also to the Government, 
 whether the more wise and the more just plan would not be to repeal the law 
 altogether ; or else, if they would not consent to such a course, to enforce its 
 provisions strictly. 
 
 The result of the division is told in the following entry : 
 
 June 13th. Last night moved " Religious Worship Bill " in House of Lords. 
 Encountered by nine Bishops. Oxford and London leading a knot of Puseyite 
 Peers, and Lord Derby with as many of his followers as he could command. 
 Carried it, however, by 31 to 30, the Irish Bishop, Singer, giving me the 
 majority. One of the most, perhaps the most unpleasant evening I recollect in 
 public life. Derby and his friends behind me while I spoke, insolent, interrup- 
 tive, discouraging. He seemed like a man who felt a deep irritation at the 
 movement and a hatred for the mover. Faltered, at least to my own sensation, 
 Tery greatly ; was awfully depressed, unhappy, and diffident ; nothing without 
 in the House, and nothing within my own heart, to cheer me. 
 
 The antagonism of the Bishop of Oxford to the Bill was vehement and 
 persistent, and for a time it appeared to be in considerable jeopardy. 
 
 June 16th. Last night Derby moved that the Religious Worship Bill be sent 
 to a Select Committee, and carried it by 17. Eleven Bishops voting with him. 
 It is the height of folly in them to resist the measure ; the Bishops, especially, 
 had an opportunity of giving, with grace and favour, what they cannot retain. 
 They have exhibited, on the contrary, great ignorance, bigotry, and opposition to 
 evangelical life and action, and have seriously injured their character, influence, 
 and position. The feeling is universal and very strong. The Archbishop, I 
 rejoice to say, and the Bishop of Winchester, stayed away. Had, I bless the 
 Lord God, more comfort and strength last night than before. 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury was invited to join the Committee, but, as soon as he 
 saw the names of those composing it, he declined, feeling sure that in every 
 way he would be completely overpowered. The opinion of the Select Com- 
 mittee was, that the Bill should not be proceeded with, but that another 
 .should be substituted. This was accordingly done, and it was introduced to 
 the House by the Earl of Derby, who stated that the Bill he had brought up 
 from the Select Committee provided : 1. That no penalties should be incurred 
 by any religious worship conducted by the incumbent or licensed curate of a 
 parish, or by any clerk in holy orders acting on their behalf. 2. That no 
 penalties should, under any existing laws, be imposed for the use of prayer 
 in opening or closing of meetings held to promote any religious or charitable 
 object. 3. That no penal clause should attach to any layman holding any 
 meeting for religious purposes, provided he acts with the consent and con- 
 currence of the clergyman of the district. 4. That if such layman failed in 
 obtaining the clergyman's sanction, and could obtain the concurrence and 
 permission of the bishop of the diocese, he should be equally sanctioned in 
 that proceeding. 
 
 It was obvious that the new Bill did not touch the evil of which Lord 
 H H
 
 514 THE EARL OF 8HAFTESBUBY. {CHAP. XXII. 
 
 Shaftesbury complained, and which lie sought to remove. This was almost 
 acknowledged by Lord Derby when he said : " There were cases in which 
 some individuals, desirous of holding family worship and of admitting his 
 poorer neighbours to it, might be restricted by the existing law ; and he 
 should be inclined to consent to some relaxation in such cases, though he 
 could not frame any such clause." 
 
 That impediments should be placed in the way of religious worship by 
 dignitaries of the Church of England was intolerable to Lord Shaftesbury- 
 In attempting to legislate that meetings should be held only under the 
 direction of an " authorised " leader, in accordance with certain forms, and in 
 a licensed place, he saw clearly that, although their plea was ostensibly to 
 preserve order in the Church, the actual motive was to limit the work of 
 laymen, to arrest the progress of Dissent, and to prevent any innovations 
 which should disturb existing relations between the clergy and their 
 parishioners. 
 
 In moving the rejection of Lord Derby's Bill, he said that after the dis- 
 cussion that had taken place, it was impossible the law could remain obsolete, 
 in the large communities where it had hitherto been obsolete. If the Bill 
 proposed by Lord Derby became law, it must be enforced, and why revive 
 the old law or bring a new one into operation which must cause restrictions 
 in religious worship ? The principle involved in the question had gone deep 
 into the heart of the country, and whether his own Bill were rejected or not, 
 it was only for a time, for sure as was the setting of the rising sun, it would 
 be found that its principle would be asserted namely, "that every man 
 should have a perfect right to worship God when and how he pleased to 
 worship in his own house, with his neighbours, in any number, and at any 
 time ; that this should not be a mere privilege, but a right, unless it could 
 be shown that public morality or public safety would be endangered by it." 
 
 He objected to Lord Derby's Bill on the ground that, under the guise of 
 the Statute Law, it was an entirely new Ecclesiastical Discipline Bill, to 
 give greater power to the bishops over the clergy and laity. Its first clause 
 enacted that such worship should only be performed by " licensed " curates, 
 who, more than any others, were under the power of the bishops ; laymen 
 must go, as suppliants, to the incumbent or bishop, to ask leave to hold 
 service in their own houses, and take their chance of permission or refusal. 
 The second clause granted permission to offer prayer in opening or closing a 
 meeting, " certainly not in the middle. If prayers were offered up in the 
 midst of such a meeting a penalty of 20 would be incurred." But the bare 
 idea of " permission " to pray was intolerable to Lord Shaftesbury. " It may 
 as well be said," he exclaimed, indignantly, " that I am to have ' permission ' 
 to breathe the air ! " 
 
 In a series of vigorous and crushing arguments he attacked the Bill, point 
 by point, and concluded by moving that the Bill brought in by the Earl of 
 Derby be read a second time that day three months. 
 
 A spirited speech by Lord Brougham, immediately following that of Lord
 
 1855.] SUCCESS OF RELIGIOUS WORSHIP BILL. 515 
 
 Shaftesbury, produced a telling effect, and upon its conclusion the Earl of 
 Derby rose and withdrew his Bill. 
 
 A week later an important and influential meeting was held in Free- 
 masons' Hall to strengthen Lord Shaftesbury's efforts, when a petition was 
 adopted for presentation to the House of Lords. Within four days of the 
 presentation of this petition, Lord Shaftesbury again brought forward his 
 BUI, having revised it in some points, which rendered it less objectionable to 
 the Bench of Bishops, but without infringing upon its principle. The Bill 
 was recommitted to the Select Committee, and Lord Shaftesbury, with the 
 Archbishop of Canterbury, were appointed members of that Committee. 
 
 Late as it was, the Session did not pass before Lord Shaftesbury's Bill 
 stood part of the statute law of the land. It established the power of the 
 incumbent or curate, and the persons authorised by either of them, to conduct 
 religious worship in a schoolroom or any building, be it barn or palace, in any 
 part of his district, without in any way being molested by any power, judicial 
 or ecclesiastical. It enabled a householder to use his house for religious 
 worship, and to gather into it any number of persons without his being any 
 longer subject to pains and penalties of any kind whatever ; and it made the 
 meetings of missionaries, scripture readers, and religious teachers, whether 
 held from house to house or in some regular place, lawful assemblies. 
 
 We must now glance at some of the " miscellaneous " events of the year, 
 and go back to cull our extracts from the Diary, relating to matters of minor 
 public interest it may be, but which affected the private life of Lord Shaftes- 
 bury and were connected with the main current of his work. 
 
 March 28th. On Monday spoke three times in House of Lords on Sardinia. 
 Opportunity offered, and was prompted to seize it by hope of pleasing Sardinian 
 Government, and so increasing one's influence to aid Waldenses and the Bible 
 Society. Very fervent, and received, as I thought, in silence. Felt quite over, 
 whelmed. This is the painful character of the House of Lords. You seldom 
 know whether you are pleasing or displeasing your audience, so stiff is their phlegm I 
 
 May 3rd. I dread, sadly dread, these schemes of national education. Paking- 
 ton, who is a good man, and a sensible one, has taken the lead in a scheme for 
 local rates to maintain the education of the people. Such a plan is a death- 
 warrant to the teaching of evangelical religion. It had better be calif d " a water- 
 rate to extinguish religious fire among young people" Here, indeed, we must 
 betake ourselves to prayer, for the scheme (little does my honest and kind friend 
 Pakington perceive it) poisons the very root, and causes that "things, which 
 should have been for our peace, be unto us an occasion of falling." 
 
 May 8th. Inglis is numbered with the departed. He died the day before 
 yesterday. A man so single, so peculiar, has seldom existed in public life. Pure- 
 minded, affectionate, true, incorruptible, governing all his public actions, and, 
 I am sure, too, his private life, by the love . and fear of God, he maintained a 
 career which had no precedent, and, probably, will be no example. Everybody 
 was compelled (there is no other word) to respect him, and those who enjoyed hia 
 Intimacy, loved him. 
 
 During the month of June Lord Shaftesbury was busy with two Bills, 
 
 H H 2
 
 516 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBUKY. [CHAP. XXII, 
 
 one for farther legislation on behalf of Chimney Sweeps, whose wrongs were 
 still left unredressed (which Bill, chiefly in consequence of the active resis- 
 tance of Sir G. Grey, he was compelled to withdraw), and another, on behali' 
 of Milliners and Dressmakers. The question of their condition had been 
 frequently discussed, but nothing had been done until 1842, when the Report 
 of the Employment Commission was issued, and, even then, no direct legis- 
 lative results followed. In 1843 there were 1,500 young persons of 14 years 
 old and upwards employed in this business in the metropolis. Their hours 
 were from fifteen to eighteen a day, with only from two to six hours for rest. 
 The consequence was that consumption and impaired eyesight were terribly 
 prevalent amongst them. In 1844 a committee of benevolent ladies caused 
 Sunday work to be abandoned, and in 1853, the proprietors of many dress- 
 making establishments agreed to abide by rules, laid down by an association 
 formed to protect the interests of the needlewomen. Since that time, how- 
 ever, things had lapsed almost to their former worst condition, and Lord 
 Shaftesbury's Bill proposed that between !May the 1st and August the 1st, 
 which included the " London season," work should be prohibited between 
 10 p.m. and 8 a.m., and, for the remainder of the year, between 9 p.m. and 
 8 a.m. An hour and a half was to be allowed for meals ; all proceedings for 
 the enforcement of penalties under the Bill were to be taken at the police 
 courts, before magistrates to whom the jurisdiction in these matters was to 
 be exclusively committed. The principle of the Bill had already received 
 recognition in the three great measures, the Factory, the Mines and Collieries, 
 and the Ten Hours Bill. 
 
 June 6th. Have prepared Bills for the Chimney Sweepers and Milliners. 
 Sad, cruel, overwhelming their sufferings ; but how shall I prosper ? All is in 
 His hands, who cares as much for the smallest, sickliest sempstress as for all the 
 prand ladies of the land. But it is not the great who are alone chargeable with 
 connivance (to suit their own convenience) at these enormous abuses ; every 
 woman who is rich enough to have a fine gown is particeps criminis, and the 
 wealthy of Liverpool, Birmingham, Norwich, and all the large towns, perpetrate 
 the same abominations. 
 
 June 16th. On Thursday last introduced Bill for relief of "Milliners and 
 Dressmakers." Statement, though most distressing, received with little favour 
 indoors, and, so far as I can see, with none out of doors, not a paper, except the 
 Standard, has uttered a word in defence of those poor, helpless, oppressed girls. 
 Referred to a " Committee on Trade." 
 
 Immediately after the close of the Parliamentary Session Lord Shaftes- 
 bury started for his customary tour abroad. 
 
 Aug. 8th. Do not start on my journey with a light heart ; far rather remain 
 in England. . . . Am getting on in life, and must use, while it lasts, my 
 remnant of intellect ; powers, such as they were, weaken ; and no wonder, for it 
 is all expense and no income ; all labour and no rest ; all action and no study ; 
 all exhaustion and no supply. Not had time to read a single book, a single 
 review. ... It requires the skill of the most cunning practitioner to turn 
 to account time in Mosaic.
 
 1855.) DEATH OF A SON. 517 
 
 The journey which began 'without light-heartedness was to end in deep 
 gloom. His son, Maurice, had for many years been the victim of a sad 
 malady, and, while Lord Shaftesbury was on his travels, the news reached 
 him that he had passed away. 
 
 lord Shaftesbury to the Hon. Erelyn Ashley. 
 
 BASLE, Avg. 21, 1865. 
 
 MY DEAR EVELYN, Here, on our way to Lausanne as fast as we could go, we 
 received a telegraphic message to announce that dear Maurice had entered into 
 his rest. It has pleased God to take the afflicted child afflicted doubtless in His 
 infinite wisdom and receive him into Paradise. For that he is there, through 
 the boundless love and merits of our blessed Saviour, I am as certain as I am of 
 my own existence. His intellect, through a terrible succession of fits, had sunk 
 exceedingly ; yet his heart was erect ; he was heard to murmur " Christ's King- 
 dom, Christ's Kingdom," and endeavoured to recover many texts that he had 
 learned in earlier days. What a lesson is this for the teaching of youth 1 Here 
 is he consoled, and repeating, as it were, the password into Heaven by the 
 spiritual knowledge acquired in his merest childhood, the only remnant of mind 
 in an hour of darkness. 
 
 I have lost two precious sons for the short time of human life ; but I have, by 
 the love of Christ, housed them for ever in Heaven. May those who survive 
 walk worthy of their vocation, and, after a life of service and faith, be gathered 
 into a blissful eternity. I am going to travel all night, in the hope of reaching 
 Lausanne for the final work of respect and affection. 
 
 May God be with you. 
 
 Yours affectionately, S. 
 
 Lord Shaftetbury to the Han. Etelyn Ashley. 
 
 SCHWALBACH, Sept. 3rd, 1855. 
 
 Mr DRAB EDY, Your letter, addressed to Lausanne, followed me to Schwal- 
 bach, and found me recovering, thank God, from a singularly sharp attack of 
 bilious cholic. . . . Poor dear Maurice was interred in the cemetery of the 
 district (there being no English churchyard) attended by many kind and sympa- 
 thising people. Wonderful it is that this feeble boy had such a charm around 
 him, as to attract very many. His intellectual weakness and his spiritual 
 strength resulted in a very impressive combination. I have directed a tombstone 
 to his memory, on which will be engraved two texts which he cherished, and 
 often repeated, " The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want ; " " It is good for 
 me that I have been afflicted." How good he now knows in reality ; he knew it 
 before in faith. Frequently in speaking and in writing, I have been permitted 
 to comfort him by quoting the words of our blessed Lord, " What I do them 
 knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter." ... I have written 
 details to St. Leonards ; the children might send you the letters. ... I am 
 in perplexity about our fleets. What is that in the Euxine doing 1 Lyons seems 
 to have no more energy than Dundas. As for Sweaborg, the Russian account is 
 clearly a lying one ; it says that " we attempted to land troops, and were beaten 
 back with loss." Not a single man, thank God, was killed. . . . Can you
 
 618 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXII. 
 
 devise a little change for Lionel before he returns to Harrow ? He must, poor 
 boy, have been grievously dull all this time. 
 May God bless you. 
 
 Yours affectionately, 8. 
 
 The Diaries abound with fugitive thoughts put down at odd moments on 
 a wonderful variety of subjects. Here is one as an example : 
 
 Aug. 15th. Intellect is everything in this age, character nothing. Let a man 
 make a good speech, and he is a good man good enough, at least, for all prac- 
 tical purposes. " Illuc cuncta vergere ; " these public examinations for public 
 appointments are hastening the consummation. If a man can construe well a 
 passage in Tacitus, or solve a mathematical problem, it is enough ; no inquiry as 
 to the higher qualities, moral fitness, personal adaptation ; away he goes a writer 
 to India, having passed, in many instances, his pillars of Hercules, never to go 
 further possibly to retrograde. 
 
 The following are among the closing entries in the Diary for the year : 
 
 Dec. 8th. Woburn Abbey. Here last night. What a place ! It is not a 
 palace, a house ; it is a town, a municipal borough, a city. Why, with all its 
 appurtenances of stables, gardens, out-buildings, &c., there is more brick, stone, 
 and mortar than in a dozen streets of Dorchester or Blandf ord. It is a " Kirjath 
 Huzoth," " a conglomeration of streets " costly, astounding, wearisome. 
 
 Dec. 12th. St. Giles. Winter has set in early and vigorously. Sufferings of 
 the poor very great. The scenes, as recorded in the Police Reports, at the doors 
 of the workhouses, and all night long, are horrifying. Boards of Guardians, 
 Vestrymen, Relieving Officers, and the President of the P. L. Commission, are 
 alike, either brutal, ignorant, or foolish. These things morbidly affect me. They 
 are ever in my mind, and during the inclement season destroy all my comfort, 
 and abate the enjoyment of what, by God's mercy, I possess. All is remediable, 
 but not by one man. And now " philanthropy " is at a discount ; people are 
 nauseated with humanity and " humanity-mongers," and especially with myself. 
 
 Dec. 27th. Just heard that Palmerston designs to make some lawyers " Peers 
 for life" a step as pernicious as it is specious. It must eventually, and not 
 remotely, destroy the hereditary House of Lords. It will begin by making us the 
 " French Chamber," and end by making us the " American Senate." 
 
 Written to dissuade him ; but cui "bo no ? The day is come " Venit *umma diet 
 ft ineluctable tempus " and all these things will fall.
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 THE INNER LIFE. 
 
 " I HAVE no desire whatever to be recorded, but if, against my will, I mast, 
 sooner or later, appear before the public, I should like the reality to be told, 
 be it good or be it bad, and not a sham." So wrote Lord Shaftesbury to the 
 daughter of one of his oldest friends,* when the shadows of time were length- 
 ening. When, during the last year of his life, it was the privilege of the 
 writer to hear from his lips the story of many of the incidents recorded in 
 these volumes, it was liis frequently reiterated wish that no attempt should 
 be made to tone down, or explain away, his " unpopular religious views," as 
 he called them. This wish has, of course, been reverently respected ; and if 
 these views have not been made clear throughout the preceding chapters, the 
 writer lias failed to depict Lord Shaftesbury. 
 
 The narrative is now approaching a period in his career when he was more 
 than ever to stand in the forefront of religious movements, and to be the 
 Evangelical leader in religious controversy. Moreover, Lord Palmerston was 
 Prime Minister, and his Church appointments were in great measure to be 
 made under the guidance of Lord Shaftesbury. It will be appropriate in 
 this place, therefore, to pause in the narrative, and examine what were his 
 distinctive " unpopular religious views," and what was his position among 
 the Evangelical party. In doing so, we shall confine ourselves, as much as 
 possible, to his own spoken or written words ; and it may be remarked here, 
 that in quoting from them, the chronology has been to some extent dis- 
 regarded, as, from youth to old age, from the commencement of his steward- 
 ship until the time when he gave in his account of the same, his theological 
 opinions knew neither variableness nor shadow of turning. 
 
 " I am essentially and from deep-rooted conviction," he said to the writer 
 on one occasion, " an Evangelical of the Evangelicals. I have worked with 
 them constantly, and I am satisfied that most of the great philanthropic move- 
 ments of the century have sprung from them. I stand fast by the teachings 
 held by that party, but I am not, and never have been, a leader of that party." 
 
 That was said in 1884. In 1856 he wrote to Mr. Haldane as follows : 
 
 Lord Shaftegbnry to Mr. Haldane. 
 
 PAKIS, Sept. 9th, 1856. 
 
 DEAB MB. HALDANE. . . . You wrote to me the other day, and were 
 kind enough to address me as a " Leader of the Evangelical Party." This is a 
 position too perilous, too uncertain, and too useless for any one to accept. No 
 
 * Letter to Mrs. Corsbie, daughter of Mr. Alexander Haldane.
 
 520 THK EAUL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXIIL 
 
 one can be an effective leader unless those who follow him are prepared to repose 
 confidence in his judgment and guidance, not during smooth and easy times alone, 
 but in times of doubt and perplexity. No one in these days has such a sentiment. 
 All confidence has ceased ; and people, from a variety of causes, take up their 
 opinions, and let them fall, entirely in reference to themselves or their particular 
 sections. A man that aspires to be a leader, or rather to assume the importance 
 of one, must now either drive or be driven. The first is impossible in the state of 
 men's minds ; the second is disgraceful. 
 
 Besides, though there are very many points, indeed most points in which I 
 concur theologically with the Evangelical party, there are some in which, as 
 friends or counsellors, &c., &c.. I think several of them very far from charity or 
 justice. Let them catch me tripping (and who can always walk upright ? ), and 
 there would be as much real spite (though veiled under regret) and pleasure, as 
 among the editors of newspapers or the congregation of Puseyism. 
 
 I will do all that in me lies, under God's blessing, to aid their endeavours, 
 advance the good cause, and maintain the simplicity of " The Truth," but I will 
 not aspire to " lead " them, notwithstanding the band of worthy, noble, pure- 
 minded beings to be found in their ranks. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 S. 
 
 Lord Shaftesbnry belonged to the older order of Evangelicals fo the 
 Venns, Rouiaines, Topladys, Berridges, Simeons, Grimshaws, Horveys, 
 Scotts, and Newtons of a former day to the school represented by Hugh 
 Stowell, Haldane Stuart, Edward Bickersteth, Hugh McNeile, Henry Venn, 
 William Marsh, Alexander Haldane, in his own day. 
 
 He believed in the doctrine of the total depravity of the human heart by 
 nature ; in the necessity of a " new birth " through the " revelation to each 
 individual soul, by the agency of tho Holy Spirit and the "Word, of the great 
 saving truths of the Gospel of the grace of God, by which the understanding 
 is spiritually enlightened and the character transformed." He believed in 
 the Christian life as a humble, " continuous trust in the Atoning Blood," a 
 simple faith in Scripture, a constant prayerfulness, and a recognition of the 
 Hand of God in all the events of life. 
 
 He ever maintained that the Evangelicals of his day had deteriorated, on 
 the ground that they were not as clear in their views, as distinctive in their 
 principles, or as thorough in their dogmatic teaching, as of old. While 
 acknowledging that there was a great increase in zeal, he believed there was 
 a great decrease of spiritual teaching. " The old standard was lowered, tho 
 ]>uiv milk was mixed with water, if not with something more deleterious." 
 
 His Protestantism was not political. It was not asserted simply as the 
 source of freedom, the basis of civil and religious liberty ; it affected the 
 very springs of his spiritual life. 
 
 True Protestantism, in his view, " asserts the right of private judgment; 
 but it asserts, at the same time, the inspiration of the Scriptures ; it asserts 
 the all-sufficiency of the Scriptures for man's salvation; asserting, along with 
 it, that except in the belief of those Scriptures, there is no salvation at all ;
 
 INSPIRATION OP THE SCRIPTURES. 521 
 
 and it labonrs to effect the unity of the Churches by a unity in Christ, far 
 more than by assailing or defending establishments (mistaking externals for 
 internals), all the combatants getting thereby their share of the nutshell, but 
 losing the whole of the kernel." * 
 
 On the doctrine of Justification by Faith, his trumpet never gave any 
 uncertain sound. He speaks of it as " That grand doctrine, the very life of 
 the Bible and the Keystone of the Reformation," a doctrine which he felt 
 was rapidly on the decline among all classes and degrees of religionists. 
 " The prominence almost universally given to works apart from doctrine," he 
 says, " to deeds of charity and benevolence, to a good life, to philanthropy, so 
 called, to splendour and liberality in sacred things, to ' love of the brethren,' 
 to labour for others, to everything where the notion of merit of one form or 
 another, consciously or unconsciously, can enter in, marks the spirit of the 
 day, and we shall relapse into the civilisation of Athens and Rome, with 
 much brilliancy and softness of exterior, worshipping heroism, science, com- 
 ni'Tcc, wealth, art, and everything human and superhuman, but the One True 
 God."f 
 
 " I hold to the doctrine of Justification by Faith," he said on one occasion 
 to the writer, " and go not only the whole length of Luther, but farther still ; 
 I accept the axiom of Doddridge, ' The best act that the best man ever did, 
 contains in it that which is worthy of condemnation ' of course, that is, as 
 measured by the standard of God Himself." 
 
 His faith in the Scriptures, the whole Scriptures, and nothing but the 
 Scriptures, was as simple as it was sincere. 
 
 " My invariable and invaluable guide was this," he said, on the occasion 
 to which reference has already been made, " never to go in action or belief 
 where the Scriptures would not guide me. This never failed me ; and if at 
 any time it brought me where I might have had doubt, I gave the Scripture 
 the benefit of the doubt. For example, there is that question of the Eternity 
 of Punishment, so much discussed now. If I maintain it, I do not wish it. 
 I find it revealed, and must believe that, somehow, it is the just judgment of 
 God to be explained hereafter, if it cannot be understood now." 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury never questioned the inspiration of the Scriptures ; his 
 faith was never staggered by the difficulties involved in the acceptance of the 
 whole of the Bible, from the first chapter of Genesis to the last chapter of 
 Revelation. " What thou knowest not now, thou shalt know hereafter " was 
 a favourite text with him, and he applied it to questions upon which other 
 men's minds were perplexed. For himself, he was content to wait; con- 
 vinced that for all the tilings hard to be understood there was an explanation 
 forthcoming, even though it might not come to him. 
 
 Speaking at a meeting of the Church Pastoral Aid Society on one occa- 
 sion, lie said : 
 
 I have heard with mine own ears a master in Israel remark in a public 
 
 Lord Shaftenbury'i Preface to Life of Luther, by A. L. O. E. 
 t Ibid.
 
 522 THE EARL OF 8HAFTESBURY. lOnxp. XXI II. 
 
 assembly, that to say that the Book of Chronicles and the Gospel of St. Luke 
 stood on the same ground of inspiration was to utter an untenable proposition. 
 I say that to make such a declaration is to concede the whole question. More- 
 over, men contend that one part of the Bible is inspired, and that another is not, 
 or that there are differences in the degrees of inspiration. The whole authority 
 of the Bible is thus cut up from beginning to end. Depend upon it, my friends, 
 that there is no security whatever except in standing upon the faith of our 
 fathers, and saying with them that the blessed old Book is " God's Word 
 written," from the very first syllable down to the very last, and from the last 
 back to the first.* 
 
 Next to searching the Scriptures " experimentally, spiritually, dogmati- 
 cally, for the soul's own good, and as a matter of personal religion, with 
 much retirement and prayer," Lord Shaftesbury considered it was the duty 
 of every one to set forth before the world the one " clear, distinctive, experi- 
 mental, dogmatic truth, summed up in the word ' Gospel.' " It was his con- 
 stant lament that clergy and laity alike were engaged in caring about many 
 things, and forgetting the one thing needful " the Divinity of Christ, His 
 Atoning Sacrifice, and His Coming Kingdom." It was a frequent saying of 
 his that " the offence of the Cross has not ceased ; " and he urged at all times 
 in the midst of threatened dismemberments and disruptions, of disturb- 
 ances of heart and feeling, of strange and novel theories the great duty of 
 all to " know nothing among men save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified." 
 
 Thus, when speaking of the distracted state of the Church, he exhorts the 
 clergy to make these truths continually the burden of their preaching. 
 
 For my own part, I believe that the sole remedy is one of the simplest and 
 one of the oldest ; not amusements for the people, or a system of secular educa- 
 tion, or this thing and another, that are suggested ; the sole, the sovereign 
 remedy, in my opinion, is to do what we can to evangelise the people by preach- 
 ing on every occasion and in every place, in the grandest cathedral and at the 
 corner of the street, in the royal palace and in the back slums, preaching Christ 
 to the people, determined, like St. Paul, to "know nothing among men save 
 Jesus Christ, and Him crucified." I do believe that the preaching Christ is still 
 the power of God unto salvation. It may, indeed, have ceased to produce its 
 proper effect upon the generation in which we live ; but why 1 Because ir. 
 many of the pulpits not of the Church of England only, but of many Non- 
 conformists preaching gives so uncertain a sound ; preachers refrain so com- 
 pletely from dogmatic teaching. It is because so many of the sermons preached 
 in these days, instead of setting forth the Gospel in its simple yet majestic 
 power, are mere essays : milk-and-water dilutions of the saving truths, which 
 those who deliver them have undertaken to proclaim. It is because there is in 
 the pulpita to which I allude, no preaching to satisfy the heart, to meet the 
 affections, to purify the moral nature, that the power of preaching hrs lost so 
 much of its effect. I am not speaking now of fine folks who attend fashionable 
 places of worship, nor am I speaking of that large class called " skilled artisans,' 
 a very numerous and powerful body, who will, no doubt, in future, largely in- 
 
 * Church Pastoral Aid Society, May 8, 1862.
 
 PRACTICAL TRUTHS. 523 
 
 fluence the legislation and destinies of this country ; but I am speaking of the 
 great mass of the poorer sort of people whom we find in our large towns, and of 
 our agricultural labourers. To these people the power of preaching is just the 
 same as it ever was, provided it comes from a truly pious man, who appeals to 
 the heart and preaches the simple truths of the Gospel. I have been very much 
 among this class, and I know that they will either have religion of the best 
 quality or none at all. And the religion which is of the best quality, in their 
 estimation, is that which addresses itself to their inmost affections, softens all 
 their sorrows, and alleviates their miseries by showing them that they have the 
 sympathy of their fellow men and the still higher sympathy of the God who 
 created them.* 
 
 Again, when urging upon the clergy the necessity of being able to meet 
 every man with his own kind of weapons, he counselled them never to let 
 this be done at the expense of the great practical truths of Christianity : 
 
 Answer him by saying that he has a witness in his own heart, that he needs 
 a Saviour ; tell him not to trouble himself about these minute things, for which 
 he has little time or leisure, but to examine his own heart ; hold up before him 
 that truth which is most opposed by the natural heart of man he will admit 
 everything rather than that hold up clearly before him the great truth of a 
 crucified Saviour. This is the great crucial, the great testing point. That school 
 of objectors will give you every single thing but that. They will give you the 
 Incarnation, the Divinity of our Lord : they will give you almost every single 
 thing that an Evangelical heart can desire but that they will never give you. 
 That is the way in which they are now deceiving so many, and that is especially 
 the way I know it from practical experience in which they are getting hold 
 of so many highly-educated young women of this country ; speaking to them 
 about our Lord as if they loved Him more than any other class of men loved 
 Him, and considered Him the very height of human perfection ; and thus turning 
 them away from the great saving truth, without which no other truth in Scrip- 
 ture would be worth having salvation by a crucified Redeemer. I say, there- 
 fore, that though it is not necessary for you to deal with controversy, you should 
 be armed at all points and ready to give a reason for the hope that is in you.f 
 
 Of Lord Shaf tesbury's unfaltering belief in the special and particular 
 operation of Divine Providence, even in matters of comparatively minor im- 
 portance : of his childlike confidence in God as the " hearer and answerer of 
 prayer," we have already spoken in these pages. There is one other subject 
 to which, reference has also been made, but which should be mentioned more 
 particularly now his belief in the doctrine of the Second Coming of our 
 Lord. It entered into all his thoughts and feelings ; it stimulated him in the 
 midst of all his labours ; it gave tone and colour to all his hopes for the 
 future. The motto engraven upon the flaps of the envelopes he daily used, 
 bore the inscription, " Even so come, Lord Jesns," in the original Greek. 
 
 " I cannot tell you how it was that this subject first took hold upon me," 
 
 * Church Pastoral Aid Society, May 7, 1868. 
 t Church Pastoral Aid Society, May 5, 1864-
 
 524 THE EARL OP SHAPTESBUKY. [CHAP. XXIII. 
 
 said Lord Shaftesbury to the writer ; " it lias been, as far as I can remember, 
 a subject to which I have always held tenaciously. Belief in it has been a 
 moving principle in my life ; for I see everything going on in the world 
 subordinate to this one great event. It is not a popular doctrine ; it is not, 
 as it should be, the hope of the Church ; it is, as a rule, held only by the poor. 
 I have on several occasions taken upon me to point out to the clergy that it 
 should be one of the main subjects of preaching. I made a speech at Exeter 
 Hall, and said, ' Tou begin to see that the world cannot be saved by human 
 agency ; it must be by the coming again of Christ. As a Church, you are full 
 of self -righteousness. Tou think you can do all by yourselves, and do not 
 even hint at a Second Advent.' Things are better than they were, however. 
 I remember the time when it was the rarest thing possible to hear the subject 
 referred to. I know there are many difficulties connected with it, and that 
 different views are held. I, for example, concur in almost everything said by 
 Mr. Grattan Guinness,* except the astronomical part which I do not under- 
 stand. Of one thing I am satisfied : the great event is not far off. ' Behold, 
 I come quickly ' does not mean, ' Behold, I come in a hurry,' but ' when the 
 times are ripe.' Everything is ripening. God is doing His own work. 
 Preachers and missionaries see now that it cannot be done by them. Difficul- 
 ties are multiplying in every department of things. Only a few days ago 
 Gladstone said to a friend of mine, ' God help the man who has to govern 
 this country in twenty years' time.' " 
 
 In a letter to Mr. Hind Smith, the Secretary of the Young Men's Christian 
 Association, he wrote : 
 
 This dispensation seems to be drawing to a close, yet our Lord delayeth His 
 coming ; and why ? Perhaps He comes not, because so few people ask Him to 
 come. Were effectual fervent prayer of righteous men multiplied a hundredfold 
 the state of things might be changed, and many now alive might live to see the 
 fulfilment of the promise which, is the grand and only hope of all the ends of the 
 earth. Speak to the young men to lay this event deeply to heart. 
 
 Miss Marsh, one of his greatly valued friends, writing, after his decease, 
 an " In Memoriam " letter to the Record, remarks : " ' There is no real 
 remedy,' he often said, ' for all this mass of misery, but in the return of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ. "Why do we not plead for it every time we hear the 
 clock strike ? ' ' 
 
 Scattered throughout Lord Shaf tesbury's Diaries there are a great number 
 of passages, in which he expresses, very clearly, his views upon many vital 
 religious points. A few of them have been collected, and are given here. 
 They, better than any words of ours, will describe that phase of his life 
 which was the mainspring of the whole the life of quiet, joyful communion 
 with God and with his own heart. 
 
 Jan. 9th, 1852. Sunday. Is it not clearer every day to thinking minds, and 
 much more to influenced hearts, that it is a " little flock " to whom the Father 
 
 "The Approaching End of the Age."
 
 ON PRAYER. 525 
 
 will give the kingdom ? And yet it is wonderful to see the self-delusion of manj, 
 who confess that they are sinners, and hope, in that confession, to be secure, and 
 who yet do nothing to extricate themselves from the sin they acknowledge. The 
 great mass of conforming and confessing people have no zeal, no "charity" 
 I wish our translators had retained the true word " love " no burning love for 
 the honour of God, no burning love for the temporal and eternal welfare of 
 mankind ; and yet, without this, there is no true and vital religion in the heart. 
 
 Christmas Day, 1852. I am taught on this day that " Jesus Christ, being in 
 the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God," and yet He 
 " made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and 
 was made in the likeness of men ; and being found in fashion as a man, He 
 humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.'* 
 Do we believe this 1 can we believe this ? It would be difficult, nay, quite impos- 
 sible to do so on any grounds of experience or human reasoning. Nothing but 
 Scripture can interpret Scripture. I should reject it, if announced to me by 
 man. I accept it, believe it, bless it, as announced in Holy Writ. The text that 
 says " God is Love " the pure, perfect spirit of Love itself explains it all ; and, 
 like the Israelites, I bow the head and worship. 
 
 June 19th, 1853. Sunday. This is a passage from Bishop Stillingfleet : 
 " Prayer among men is supposed to be a means to change the person to whom we 
 pray ; but prayer to God doth not change Him, but fits us to receive the things 
 prayed for I " A great passage, and very explanatory of the difficulty oftentimes 
 started, that the will of the all-seeing, all-knowing, all-judging God is to be 
 diverted or nullified by the pertinacity of man ! The will of God is always, at 
 every moment, in every place, in all circumstances, and towards all persons, to be 
 gracious and merciful. Every bounty and goodness that the bodies and souls of 
 men can desire, are ever flowing from Him ; but we are not capable of receiving 
 them ; they are, therefore, for the time, lost, and man sinks in misery ; but 
 prayer, intense prayer, that spirit by which men " ought always to pray, and not 
 to faint," begets in us the aptitude, the capability, to apprehend that which God 
 is ever bestowing ; and we are changed while He continues " the same yesterday, 
 to-day, and for ever." 
 
 April 3rd, 1854. Reading 2nd Chronicles. The older I am, the more I love 
 that book. It should be studied, weighed, and prayed over, hour after hour, by 
 every man in public life. 
 
 Oct. llth, 1857. Read in afternoon Matt. xxv. What a revelation of the 
 future judgment on the largest portion of the human race ! Those on the left 
 hand are condemned, not for murder, robbery, debauchery, not for breaches of the 
 Decalogue, or for open blasphemy, not for sins they have committed, but for duties 
 that they have omitted. And is not this the state of the great mass of mankind / 
 The great mass do not commit great crimes ; did they so, society would fall to 
 pieces in the twinkling of an eye ; but they go on, day after day to their life's 
 end, thinking of themselves, very little of others, and nothing of God. Rich and 
 poor are alike ; the rich are absorbed by enjoyment, the poor by necessity, the
 
 526 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBUEY. [CHAP. XXIIL 
 
 intermediate class by the pursuit and manufacture of wealth. " I have done 
 no harm," " I am not worse than my neighbours," " I have merely used my 
 own " &c., &c. : all these are the pleas, the hopes, the justifications of the 
 "innocent" world. But while man takes one view, God takes another. "Have 
 you done good 1 " " Have you attempted it 1 " " Have you sought to advance 
 my Name 1 " " Have you laboured for the physical and spiritual welfare of your 
 fellow sinners 1 " St. James (iv. 17) condenses the spirit of our Lord's words, 
 " Therefore to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin." 
 
 March 30th, 1866. St. Giles's. Yesterday, again sawSturt.* He was full 
 of the same confidence, calm and resigned. " Christ died for every one," he said ; 
 " I, for one, among the rest." Here he realised the highest point of Christian 
 life, in appropriating to himself, in faith and love, the merits of our dear Lord 
 and Saviour. 
 
 March 18th, 1868. The larger portion of those who profess to believe, are 
 eagerly eliminating from their creed all dogma and doctrine. They accept the 
 Scriptures just as far as it suits their philosophy. Such will be the religion of 
 the future, in which Vishnu, Mahomet, Jupiter, and Jesus Christ will all be upon 
 a level ; with some, all equally good, with others, all equally bad. 
 
 August 25th. What is the ultimate good that these haughty sons of science 
 seek for themselves and for mankind? When Professor Godwin has brought 
 thousands to believe that we sprang from a mushroom ; when Professor Huxley 
 has taught as many that we sprang from a monkey ; when Professor Tyndall 
 has satisfied myriads that prayer is vain, useless, unphilosophical, ridiculous ; 
 when the seventh commandment is proved, " intellectually," as Pusey says, " to 
 be no longer necessary " ; when polygamy is permitted and divorce rendered ten 
 times more easy ; when, with Mr. Mill, it is agreed that there is much morality 
 in the Koran superior to that in the Gospels ; when Revelation is accepted only 
 as a myth ; and science acknowledged as the only source whence a man may 
 learn "whence he cometh and whither he goeth" ; how shall we be better, wiser, 
 happier ? What will it add to the joys of men of leisure, ease, and education ? 
 but, especially, what will it add to those of the poor, the sickly, the destitute, to 
 the peasant, the mechanic ? Ask not what it will add ; turn to the Book of God, 
 and see what it will take away. 
 
 Dec. 21st. Every one, regardless of all that he speaks, writes, or does in 
 respect of things religious, claims for himself and the easy world accords the 
 claim a share in the Christian name and Christian sentiment. They vary in 
 form, method, and degree. " Broad Church " for the members of the Establish- 
 ment (and, including the indifferent, they are the majority) and " Liberality " for 
 the Dissenters, are the euphonious expressions under which are entertained every 
 species and degree of unbelief , from a slight perplexity to unqualified materialism. 
 To accept or reject at pleasure ; to handle with freedom and levity what they do 
 
 * Mr. Henry Sturt, of Crichel, Dorsetshire. He was first cousin to Lord ShaftesLury, 
 his mother having been Lady Mary Ann Ashley. He died on the 15th April following"
 
 DEFENDERS OF RELIGION. 527 
 
 accept ; to make man's intellectual powers the rule and measure of God'a 
 Providence, and the limit to what has been revealed ; and with all this, as most 
 of them do, to assert externally that they have a sentiment of religion within 
 they do not explain what this is, in the pedantic slang of the day, " the School 
 of Thought 1 " Truly, it has the " form of godliness ; " but how manifestly it 
 "denies the power thereof." The power of godliness demands prostration of 
 heart, a deep sense and feeling of sinfulness, of wretched infirmity, of utter 
 unworthiness in the sight of God, of the necessity of forgiveness by the love and 
 through the strength of Another ! Do these thoughts accompany and influence 
 within, the outward profession of religion in the present day 1 In a few, no 
 doubt ; for God has His seven thousand, but the rest are under a strong delusion, 
 and they believe a lie. . . . 
 
 Jan. 25th, 1870. We are prolific just now in associations, unions, and leagues, 
 both offensive and defensive. We have a league for secular and compulsory 
 Education. We have another for the reverse. Unions to promote Ritualism, 
 unions to put it down, unions to make Sundays pleasurable, unions to make them 
 solemn, and now we have in prospect an " Evangelical Union," which cannot be, 
 in our present state, anything but a union of words and expressions, of wishes 
 and fears, of arguments and plans, without the possibility of union in any one 
 course of action, or, indeed, of any combined and concentrated declaration. 
 People are speaking glibly of Evangelical union, without knowing what an 
 Evangelical is. ... 
 
 Jan. 31st, 1871. Really I have more to fear from the defenders of religion 
 than I have from its assailants. More mischief seems to be done, in many 
 instances, by those who undertake the cause of the Bible, than by those who 
 would overthrow it. Let the Bible tell its own story, use its own language, make 
 ita own appeals. Enforce all these, but add nothing of your own. The " scientific 
 friends " are as dangerous as the " scientific enemies." Revelation is addressed to 
 the heart, and not to the intellect. God cares little, comparatively, for man's 
 intellect ; He cares greatly for man's heart. " Two mites " of faith and love, 
 are of infinitely higher value to Him than a " whole treasury " of thought and 
 knowledge. Satan reigns in the intellect ; God in the heart of man. Try the 
 Scriptures intellectually merely, and you will encounter no end of difficulties, 
 and these difficulties will agitate and darken your moral and spiritual perception 
 of the truth. Try them by the heart, and you will find such a flood of comfort, 
 conviction, and assurance, that all difficulties will vanish, and even those started 
 by science will fade away ; for faith and gratitude will set them down to 
 ignorance and incapacity, and revel in the whole force of the discovery that 
 knowledge, material and philosophical, is for time, but love for eternity. . . 
 
 April 28th. How, in logic or common sense, can a man have merit in the 
 sight of God ? To have merit, so as to constitute a claim, or the possibility of a 
 claim, on another, must rest on an independence between the parties : a power in 
 one to do something to which the other is not already entitled. God created 
 man, and gave him all his faculties of body, soul, and spirit. God has an unlimited 
 right to every act, word, and thought of the being He has formed. What can a 
 man offer to God that is not already God's own ? God gave the faculties, aud to
 
 528 THE KARL OP SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXIII. 
 
 Him mast return every operation of them. If man devoted to God, perfect 
 obedience, perfect love, from the beginning 1 of his life to the moment of hia 
 death, without a moment's suspension, or a particle even of infirmity, he would 
 simply have cleared himself of God's anger : he would have done nothing at all 
 to establish a right on God's favour. 
 
 Nov. 19th. Sunday. We must be very careful in our statements of what 
 God can do, and what He cannot do. " There is no limit," says that admirable 
 man, Boultbee, * " to His power, save that which involves a contradiction, physical, 
 rational, or moral." Now, what is a contradiction ? a contradiction iu reference 
 to the Almighty? Several things might be contradictions according to our 
 reason and intellect ; but our reason and intellect are created things, and formed 
 within certain limits, and for certain purposes. We are not so constructed as to 
 be able to fathom these things we ought not even to examine the surface, when 
 we know that we can never in this life reach the bottom. St. Paul has said that 
 ' God cannot lie." But is that said to declare an impossibility, a defect of power, 
 an utter incapability ? I trow not. It is a human expression, to express the 
 truth, unchangeableness, unbounded love, the wonderful character of God. As 
 we say in ordinary life, " a man could not do such and such thing," because we 
 firmly believe that he would not do it. 
 
 Jan. 30th, 1872. "Oh," says Froude, and others like him, "because we write 
 and speak thus, you charge us with hating God." " No, not in these terms," we 
 should reply. " We charge you with hating His Christ." . . . 
 
 April 14th, 1873. Have been reading Calvin's " Commentaries on the Scrip- 
 tures." They are singularly vigorous and convincing. They abound in piety, 
 learning, discernment, and power of fathoming and penetration. Everything 
 seems to have been written after long and deep deliberation ; and hence a 
 wonderful consistency with himself throughout. I can hardly conceive the 
 labour that he must have bestowed on his works. Such thoughts, refined, 
 b&lanced, compared, finished, and recorded, demand more toil and mind than are 
 given by a hundred critics. Yet I bless God that we are hereafter to be judged 
 by Christ, and not by Calvin. With all his piety, goodness, truth, he is awfully 
 severe, and does not seem to be, like our blessed Lord, " touched with a feeling of 
 our infirmities." 
 
 Yesterday, Easter Sunday, took Lord's Supper. God be praised. When reading 
 St. John, and the last words on the Cross, " It is finished," convinced that, if the 
 doctrine of transubstantiation be true, Christ would have said " It is begun." It 
 is begun, the series of sacrifices now commenced by my death, to be repeated to 
 the end of time. Again in Corinthians : " Ye show forth the Lord's death till He 
 come." On the Romish assumption, we do not show forth, or proclaim, or com* 
 mrmorate, the Lord's death each time we take the Holy Sacrament. We caute 
 Hia death, we renew it, we compost it. All alike foolish and blasphemous. 
 
 The late Rev. Dr. Boultbee, Principal of St. John 'a College of Divinity, Highbury.
 
 EASTER DAT. 529 
 
 April 15th. Doddridge, in hia paraphrase commenting in Sect. 170 on 
 Mark xiv. 72, calls the Authorised Version a " valuable translation." I wish that 
 in the two passages, John vi. 20, and xviii. 5, the Greek words, being the same, 
 had been rendered by the same in English. The result would be most striking. 
 The very same words operate two very opposite effects. " It is I ! " overwhelmed 
 and threw to the earth his furious adversaries. " It is 1 1 " gave at once security 
 and joy to his terrified friends. . . . 
 
 April 3rd, 1874. Good Friday. The events of this day are so astounding, so 
 infinitely beyond the comprehension, feeling, and even the imagination of man 
 so contrary to all our selfishness, so inconsistent with all our habits, so supremely 
 wonderful, inexplicable, jmd unparalleled, that did we not know God to be love, 
 and His blessed Son, therefore, the same pure, absolute, boundless love we 
 could hardly, I think, believe a word of such a plan and performance of redemp- 
 tion. It is only by seeing Him as the real, single, intense, eternal, and illimitable 
 principle of love, that we can bring our feeble minds, perverted judgments, and 
 corrupt hearts, to a conclusion even that the thing was possible. 
 
 May 14th, 1878. ... is falling rapidly into the errors of the day. He 
 preaches very smooth things. In a long sermon about forgiveness and God's 
 mercy, he only mentioned " sin " once. " It is not," he said, " that I intend to 
 suppress God's hatred of sin. God forbid." And there it ended. Then, at the 
 close of his sermon, in order to magnify the mercy of God, he exclaimed, " There 
 is no one in this congregation who, having come to the service an unbeliever, 
 may not leave it justified before God." That is true, no doubt, but is it truly 
 toted ? What is belief 1 What does it contain ? What does it demand 1 Does 
 it demand conviction of sin, confession of sin, repentance and faith 1 All these 
 things, except faith, are dropped now-a-days, and people are led to believe that to 
 accept Christ as a Saviour, and to wish for His salvation, is the sum and sub- 
 stance of a heart turned to God. It requires no self-abasement, no confession of 
 the justice of the Divine wrath, no acknowledgment of inherited corruption ; 
 and, disguise it as the preacher may, no sense of demerit, and no sense of deserved 
 condemnation. It is, in fact, reduced to an easy, agreeable acceptance of a 
 pleasant invitation, to be had at any time that is convenient to you. Herein lies 
 the seed of an incipient Antinomianism. 
 
 April 20th. Easter Sunday. The simple dignity of the narrative in the 
 Gospels of the resurrection of our blessed Lord, is, in itself an ample evidence of 
 its truth. An event so stupendous, the accomplishment of prophecy so clear, the 
 fulfilment of promise so true, and the manifestation of Almighty power so 
 irresistible, are recorded in a few colloquial words, without note or comment, 
 without effort to impress the reader or magnify the issue. Contrast this with 
 any merely human composition (real or imaginary) to set forth the life and 
 achievements of a hero, and mark the difference. The panegyrist cannot trust to 
 the facts alone, or to the deductions of his readers, he must amplify, place in 
 several lights, and stimulate the imagination. 
 I I
 
 530 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBUttY. [CHAP. XXIII. 
 
 Nov. 28th. Believers and unbelievers have, each of them, their fears, but how 
 different in intensity and duration ! The unbeliever, whenever he reflects, must 
 feel, " What if it all bo true ? " The believer, in a moment of depression, may 
 think, " What if none of it be true ? " The unbeliever dismisses reflection, and 
 goes on as before. The believer indulges it, and it issues in redoubled assurance 
 and joy. 
 
 Aug. 17th, 1880. Read this morning, the first thing, Psalms xc. and xci. 
 " The song of Moses, the Man of God." Blessed be the name and memory of 
 that true, noble, beloved servant of the Lord Jesus Christ, for doubtless our 
 Saviour would have said of him, as he said of Abraham, " .He rejoiced to see my 
 day, and he saw it, and was glad." 
 
 In what spirit and in what sense did the old believing Hebrews read those 
 two compositions ? Is it probable nay, is it possible that men, reading 1 and 
 hearing such things with humble understandings and devout hearts, should not 
 have felt and seen that there was in store for Gcd's real people, an eternity 
 of life, of happiness, and of truth 1
 
 CHAPTER XXIY. 
 
 18561858. 
 
 FROM 1855 to 1865 the years during which Lord Palmerston was Prime 
 Minister the Diary of Lord Sliaftesbury is scantier than at any other 
 period of his life, one volume containing the whole of the entries for the ten 
 years. They are sufficiently full, however, to give a clear account of the 
 labours in which he was engaged, as well as a succinct history of the times. 
 There are, throughout those years, many entries referring to Lord Palmerston's 
 Church appointments, but these we shall reserve until later, in order to jnark 
 the whole progress of Lord Shaftesbury's action in relation to them. 
 
 Against any encroachment upon the sanctity of the Christian Sabbath, 
 Lord Shaftesbury always came to the front with a vigorous opposition. He 
 had placed himself at the head of many societies for guarding it, and, at any 
 time, could put in motion a vast system of religious machinery to resist the 
 movements made by secularists, or others, for " violating the Lord's Day." 
 For over forty years, in Parliament, at public meetings, by appeals through 
 the press, and by every other means within his reach, he kept up an unceasing 
 warfare : sometimes to obtain restrictive legislation on the subject, but 
 always to advance the claims of the Day of Best on the conscience and 
 intelligence of the nation, and especially of the working classes. In his 
 speeches at the annual meetings of the Lord's Day Observance Society, and 
 the "Working Men's Lord's Day Rest Association, over both of which he 
 presided, he enforced what he regarded as the rights, duties, and privileges 
 of the Sabbath in relation to social, domestic, political, and religious life ; and 
 as, year by year, there were fresh attempts made in and out of Parliament to 
 procure the opening of museums and places of amusement on that day, so, 
 year after year, to the very close of his life, he was zealously at work 
 organising fresh efforts to resist the threatened encroachments. " Tour 
 political liberties," he said on one occasion to the members of the "Working 
 Men's Lord's Day Rest Association, " are more secure under the charter of 
 the Sabbath, than they can be under all the charters which were ever given 
 by any of our kings, including that of Runnymede itself. That charter is 
 greater than any other that God has ever given to man. It is as great as the 
 sanctity of His own Book." 
 
 We have seen his action in 1847 with regard to Sunday labour in the 
 
 Post-office, and, subsequently, in stopping the Sunday delivery of letters 
 
 throughout the kingdom. In 1854 he succeeded in passing a Sunday Closing 
 
 of Public Houses Act which, however, was repealed in the following year 
 
 I I 2
 
 632 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP XXIV. 
 
 by the Sale of Beer Act. And now we must look at some of his further 
 efforts in the same cause. 
 
 Any thing that would tend to make the English Sunday approximate to 
 that of the French was hateful to him. He had no sympathy with the 
 saying, " Ennui was born in London on a Sunday," as he shows in the follow- 
 ing note : 
 
 Sept. 23rd, 1855. The stir in Paris on the Lord's Day is like the breaking up 
 of a mill-dam. It is a rush, a torrent that carries all before it. Each one must 
 judge for himself, but, putting aside the religious considerations, I vastly prefer, 
 for a day of repose, the deadness of London. One's head whirls with the flow of 
 vehicles and the unceasing masses of human life, that make the streets and walks 
 almost groan with their weight. The people seem to delight in the impossibility 
 of moving backward and forward without jostling one another. But so far from 
 being enlivening, the spectacle is, to my mind, actually depressing. It is terrible, 
 painful, alarming to see so wholesale, resolute, national a desecration of the 
 Lord's Day. Whether it be disbelief or disobedience, the result is distressing, and 
 weigBs one down with the reflection that millions are set in open resistance to 
 "the Most High, and are bent on giving the victory to the flesh over the spirit, to 
 time over eternity, to the god of this world over the God of the other. " They 
 crown," as old Jeremy Taylor says, " their cups with roses and their heads with 
 folly and forgetfulness." 
 
 This excites one's sorrow, and, I trust, one's prayers. Another spectacle 
 excites my indignation. Every sense of humanity, kindness and justice, is 
 shocked by the perpetual unbroken labour of the working-man on the Sabbath 
 Day. Buildings proceed, and thousands toil as though they had no limbs to be 
 reposed, and no rights to be respected. Can we wonder at the sixty years of 
 revolution this country has undergone ? Shall we wonder if it enter soon on 
 another half century of woe and conflict 1 
 
 And yet there are many in England, some from ignorance, some from malignity, 
 who would reduce us, or, as they would say, elevate us to a Parisian level. 
 
 In 1856 there were two causes for grave apprehension that the Parisian 
 Snnday was to be introduced into England. Sunday bands were permitted 
 in the metropolitan parks, and strenuous efforts were being made to throw 
 open the Crystal Palace on that day, while the old attempt to legalise the 
 opening of the British Museum on Sundays was renewed with greatly 
 increased vigour. 
 
 As regards the Crystal Palace, Lord Shaftesbury had a personal 
 grievance. When the enterprise was taking shape, he, at a time when there 
 was considerable difficulty and some fear with regard to it, had come forward 
 to support the effort, and had presided at the enthusiastic meeting in which 
 its future was determined. "Having obtained a guarantee that it would t 
 under trustees, be turned to the best purposes, and that it would not be open 
 on Sundays," he noted in his Diary at the time, " I deemed it right to make 
 an effort for the safe and useful recreations of the people to please them, at 
 any rate, by making the attempt." 
 
 It was, therefore, with no little anxiety that he watched the movements
 
 IBM.) SABBATH DESECRATION. 533 
 
 of the Crystal Palace Company, and with no little fervonr that he addressed 
 an enormous gathering of Sunday-school teachers in Exeter Hall, met for the 
 purpose of protesting against the proposed opening of the Palace on Sunday. 
 
 His opposition to Sunday bands in the metropolitan parks was destined to 
 occasion him considerable inconvenience. Popular feeling was very strong 
 iu certain quarters upon any interference with the right of people to do as 
 they pleased on the Sunday. In the previous year Lord Robert Grosvenor 
 had introduced a Bill to prevent Sunday trading in the metropolis, and the 
 people, thinking that their liberty was being infringed, commenced a series 
 of Sunday riots in Hyde Park, and continued them for several Sundays until 
 they gained their end the withdrawal of the Bill. In the course of these 
 riots serious cases of personal violence had occurred, windows had been 
 broken, and attempts had been made to set fire to houses. 
 
 When, therefore, in 1856, Lord Shaftesbnry commenced a campaign 
 against Sabbath desecration with which, by the way, Lord Robert 
 Grosvenor's measure had nothing to do, as it had no reference whatever to 
 the " better observance of the Sabbath," but only to the pressure on certain 
 tradespeople who desired a full day of rest he did so at considerable peril. 
 In February he took the chair of the Working Men's Lord's Day Rest 
 Association, with the following result : 
 
 Feb. llth. The enemy had been beforehand, and packed the room very dex- 
 terously, by scattering, not concentrating, their numbers. The chairman, there- 
 fore, was not even master of the platform ; all w us noise and confusion ; all 
 threatened violence, if not of blows though that was very near yet of perilous 
 pressure. Seeing that order was impossible, because disorder was predetermined, 
 and that nothing but mischief could arise from a prolongation of the meeting, 
 I vacated the chair, and gave our friends an opportunity of closing the meeting, 
 without furnishing to their adversaries an apparent victory, no speeches having 
 been made and no resolution moved. 
 
 Later in the year a fresh effort on the part of Lord Shaftesbnry was 
 destined to be attended with more threatening hazards still. Sir Benjamin 
 Hall, the Chief Commissioner of Works, had, in the previous year, intro- 
 duced military bands into the metropolitan parks. Lord Shaftesbury ob- 
 jected strongly to this innovation, on religious grounds as well as on many 
 others such as the compulsion of the bandsmen to do anything but regi- 
 mental duties on the Sunday, the fear lest the popular notion that it was a 
 movement of Prince Albert's to Germanise the Sunday should render him 
 unpopular, and the offence to the religious feelings of hundreds of thousands 
 of the community. But it was simply on the ground of national responsi- 
 bility that he opposed it. His efforts were directed to induce the Govern- 
 ment to withdraw the appointment of the bands, when the national responsi- 
 bility would cease. As to the rest, he considered that only private efforts, by 
 teaching, preaching, or example, should be made to raise the standard of 
 Sunday observance, and under no circumstances would he aggressive
 
 634 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXIV. 
 
 policy, or invoke the aid of legislation or authority, except in matters under 
 law and police regulations. 
 
 The result of his endeavours to obtain the withdrawal of the sanction of 
 the Government, is told in the following extracts from the Diary : 
 
 May 17th. London. Violent and fearful struggles on Sabbath question, 
 Palmerston suffered himself to be dragged through, the dirt by Sir B. Hall, and 
 endorsed all the follies, insolences, outrages of that perilous fellow. Mighty 
 feeling against him in House of Commons his Government endangered. I had 
 forewarned him heartily, earnestly, but he rejected my advice. Matters, however, 
 had become serious, and I spoke then to Archbishop of Canterbury, and obtained 
 from him a letter to P. Went to P. late on Friday night, and persuaded him to 
 accept letter and discontinue bands ; announced it on Monday morning ; great 
 rejoicing, and addresses voted. 
 
 Vengeance, however, is announced. Sir B. and many in Brookes's ; choice 
 spirits from every class, high and low ; the Times and a whole swarm of penny 
 posters are frantic ; riots are threatened to-morrow ; furious placards all over 
 the streets, and my house, here accurately "numbered and denned," is marked out 
 for the special visit of the mob. To-morrow (Sunday) is fixed for the display of 
 " public rage ; " and, in fact, the police are somewhat alarmed. It is a frightful 
 thing that every fancy of the populace, if thwarted, is to be supported by tumul- 
 tuous gatherings, and yielded, as last year, by -timid Ministers I But will 
 Palmerston yield ? He is lost if he does. 
 
 May 18th. Sunday. The "Ides of March" are come, but not passed ; must 
 barricade my house and prepare for mischief. 
 
 Cannot but muse sometimes on the joy that will be felt by many in London, 
 especially in the clubs and drawing-rooms, when they hear of the "smash" in 
 Grosvenor Square. 
 
 The conclusion of the whole matter may be told in an extract from a letter 
 to his son Evelyn : 
 
 During two successive Sundays our house has been in a state of siege ; windows 
 closed, blinds down, and mobs expected 1 All, nevertheless, passed quietly ; the 
 people are utterly indifferent; though a few "roughs " will easily be found to 
 break windows and assault policemen. 
 
 The great band question, if left alone, will go out like a night lamp yet it is 
 the commencement -of a series of such things, attempts to lower all religious 
 observances, and secularise whatever is esteemed sacred. We are taught to expect 
 movements, and successful movements, like these in the " latter days." 
 
 There was nothing morose or ascetic about Lord Shaftesbury's views ; he 
 had no desire to curtail lawful recreations ; on the contrary, we find him, in a 
 variety of ways, labouring to bring an increase of healthful and innocent 
 recreations within the reach of all. In these years, therefore, when he was so 
 actively engaged in resisting encroachments on the sanctity of the Sabbath, 
 he was as ardently busy in seeking to obtain Early Closing in places of busi- 
 ness, and the inestimable boon of a Saturday half -holiday. 
 
 In an address to the members of the Young Men's Christian Association 
 at Manchester, on the 25th of March, he said :
 
 18M.J PEACE REJOICINGS. 535 
 
 There is no slight amount of mischief arising from the long detention of 
 young people of both sexes in shops and warehouses. I believe this practice to 
 be productive of the very greatest mischief ; it lowers the whole physical system 
 by over-toil, and it lowers, simultaneously, the moral taste and appetite, and 
 destroys in them every desire for what is wholesome, leaving only the desire for 
 what is most stimulating and sensual. The body is wearied and the spirit 
 deadened, which otherwise might have been employed in matters tending to 
 reform, elevate, and dignify the personal character ; and, therefore, I see the 
 immense value of what is called the Early Closing Movement. I believe it has 
 been to the young of immense value, and I should be very glad to know that 
 simultaneously with that we had, not only for young men, but also for the whole 
 operative class, the lassignment every week of a good half -holiday. I believe 
 there is no other way in which you can improve the observance of the Sabbath 
 BO effectually, as by giving a half-holiday on every Saturday afternoon. And 
 I must say that all those who have concurred with me in opposition to the 
 motion of Sir Joshua Walmsley, for opening places of amusement on the Lord's 
 Day, are bound to go along with those who entertain the opinion that I do that 
 if we refuse to give them that form of recreation on the Lord's Day, we are 
 bound to do what we can to give them some form of recreation on some other day. 
 
 Among the events noted in the Diary during the year 1856 are the 
 following : 
 
 Jan. 24th. (Windsor Castle). Sir E. Lyons here. Full of interesting and 
 instructive narrative. . . . His statements redeem the character of Lord Raglan 
 as a general, and show that in many, and those the most important instances, the 
 most necessary and promising enterprises were stopped by the refusal of the 
 French to co-operate, and in some, too, by their failure to act up to their engage- 
 ments. I never heard or read such a complication of errors or mishaps, growing, 
 in great measure, out of the evil of a divided command. A special Providence 
 must have watched over our armies, or we should have been, as Canrobert was 
 always fearing and saying, " thrown into the sea." 
 
 March 31st. Yesterday, Sunday. Peace was signed, and the intelligence sent 
 by electric telegraph. The guns announced it to the people. Let us bless the 
 Lord who has brought us out of so many and great dangers, who has shown us 
 such unspeakable and undeserved mercies, and who has taught us how and why 
 to thank Him I May it be a true peace, a lasting peace, a fruitful peace. May 
 it give double energy and double capacity to our thoughts, desires, and efforts. 
 
 Mivy 31st On Thursday metropolis equally distinguished by its numbers and 
 its discipline : self -discipline, self-control ; two millions of people must have 
 been in the streets during the fireworks and illuminations (500,000, it is said 
 I heard it from Palmerston had been added from the country), and yet all was 
 quiet, orderly, peaceable. I saw myself, from the window, myriads collected, and 
 only one mounted policeman to represent authority. The stream, the river, the 
 deluge of human beings that flowed by, the steady pace, the density of the mass, 
 the complete occupation of the whole width of the streets, the regularity of 
 movement, like an easy watercourse, no sound but that of slight conversation 
 and a few short laughs, and the time during which it lasted, as they quitted 
 Hyde Park, were unprecedented and indescribable.
 
 536 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXIV. 
 
 August 19th. Miss Nightingale is returned to England quietly, and neither 
 receiving nor, so far as we can see, wishing a triumphant entry. She ia worthy 
 of honour, and may she have it to her heart's content. 
 
 The question of the creation of life peerages, which was nnder discussion 
 during this year, was one on which Lord Shaftesbury held strong opinions. 
 It arose in consequence of the issue of letters patent purporting to create 
 Sir James Parko, Knight, a Baron of the United Kingdom for life. The 
 appointment was challenged by Lord Lyndhurst, who contended that there 
 wore certain limits to the power of the Crown in the creation of peers, and 
 11 1 at the House of Lords had a jurisdiction and a right to decide on the 
 validity of the patents by ^vhich commoners are admitted to the privilege of 
 peers. 
 
 " As for the Appellate Jurisdiction," Lord Shaftesbury wrote to a friend, 
 " I had rather lose it altogether than admit the creation of peers for life." 
 Referring to the debate, he says : 
 
 Feb. llth. We had a good debate on the 7th respecting peerages for life. 
 A majority referred the question to a Committee of Privileges. Derby never 
 spoke so well before. The discussion is injurious ; it brings under Republican 
 and hostile review, the whole principle of hereditary succession, and has roused 
 the Democrats to hope and action. 
 
 The scheme is not popular. Yet it may triumph, for the Government will 
 try to enforce the measure, though most of them dislike it. 
 
 While the question was ponding, he wrote to Mr. Haldaue : 
 
 February 20, 1856. 
 
 . . . The life peerage question might be met in a safe and useful way. 
 Doubtless, the Appellate Jurisdiction is very weak, and likely to become weaker 
 in the House of Lords. But an arrangement whereby we should annex a seat in 
 the Upper House to certain judicial functions, existing and to be created, would 
 take away the bald, crude creation of life peerages, prevent all possibility of 
 abuse, and give us the strength we desire. 
 
 The question was referred to a Committee of Privileges, and, in the end, 
 Baron Parke was created a peer, with title to issue. 
 
 The creation of peers from among the ranks of commercial men had 
 been advocated by Lord Shaftesbury as early as the year 1849. The result 
 of further efforts in this direction is given in the following entry : 
 
 Aug. 8th (Schwalbach). As I foresaw and foretold, so is the result of my 
 advice to Palmerston to raise a millowner to a peerage. The Manchester Timrx 
 (Bright's paper) rejoices in the proper appreciation of the merits and position of 
 manufacturers, and speaks the sentiments of the entire class. They consider, and 
 this I was convinced of, that a bar of exclusion is removed and their equality 
 recognised. 
 
 In the spring of this* year Lord Shaftesbury sustained ft loss in the 
 removal, by death, of his brother-in-law, Lord Cowper. 
 Referring in his Diary to his loss, he writes :
 
 18M.J THE I.ORCHA "ARROW." 637 
 
 April 17th. Poor dear Fordwich 1 Ho was with us well on Monday morning ; 
 he left London well on Tuesday morning for business at Maidstone ; at three 
 o'clock he was taken ill in court, and at half-past nine he was dead ! The sudden- 
 ness, the awfulness, of it, recalls forcibly the death of poor Jocelyn. Both 
 iny^U'rious, both inscrutable decrees of Providence ; we have only to do as the 
 children of Israel, " bow the head and worship." 
 
 A more lovable man never lived ; a good husband, and tenderly attached to 
 his children. 
 
 The celebration of Harvest Home at St. Giles's this year was attended I 
 witli special circumstances. On one day 250 labourers sat down to a feast;! 
 and 350 on the following day. On each occasion the festivities were preceded J 
 by Divine Service in the church. 
 
 Oct. 29th. Antony arrived safe and sound from Russia, and in time for this 
 festival. 
 
 House full (who would have thought it ?) of foreigners 1 Creptowitch (the 
 Russian Ambassador) and his wife, Azeglio, Messrs. Monico and Jaucourt, these 
 all present at the Harvest Home. The Persignys invited and most anxious to 
 come, but summoned suddenly to Windsor. Last night arrived the Portuguese 
 Minister, M. Lavradio, and his spouse. 
 
 All this to help my mother-in-law in her necessary duties, to propitiate the 
 " parlez-vous," and " make the thing go off." 
 
 Oct. 31st. Persignys came after all, and 'went away this morning. All were 
 good-humoured and agreeable. Creptowitch specially pleased me. 
 
 In the speech from the throne at the opening of Parliament on February 
 3rd, 1857, this ominous passage occurred: "Her Majesty commands us to 
 inform you that acts of violence, insults to the British flag, and infraction 
 of treaty rights committed by the local Chinese authorities at Canton, and 
 a pertinacious refusal of redress, have rendered it necessary for her Majesty's 
 officers in China to have recourse to measures of force to obtain satisfaction." 
 
 This state of things had arisen from the fact of a boat (lorcha), the Arrow, 
 having been boarded by Chinese, who carried off twelve men on a charge of 
 piracy. It was contended by the owners that the Arrow was a British 
 vessel, and by the Chinese that it was a Chinese vessel. The British 
 Consul demanded the release of the captured men, and his demand not 
 being complied with, war with China ensued. As a matter of fact, tlio 
 lorcha Arrow was not a British vessel at all, and complications of a most 
 serious nature arose in China, and reacted upon the Government at home. 
 
 Lord Derby brought forward in the House of Lords, on the 24th of 
 February, a motion censuring the Government, in sweeping terms, for their 
 proceedings in China. The debate continued over two nights, when the 
 division showed a majority of 146 to 110 against Lord Derby's motion. On 
 February 26th, Mr. Cobden, in the House of Commons, brought forward a 
 motion : " That this House has heard with concern of the conflicts which have 
 occurred between the British and Chinese authorities in the Canton river ; 
 and, without expressing an opinion as to the extent to which the Government
 
 538 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBUKY. [CHAP. XXIV. 
 
 of China may have afforded this country cause of complaint respecting the 
 lion-fulfilment of the Treaty of 1842, this House considers that the papers 
 which have been laid upon the table fail to establish satisfactory grounds for 
 the violent measures resorted to at Canton in the late affair of the Arrow, 
 and that a Select Committee be appointed to inquire into the state of our 
 commercial relations with China." 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury's views with reference to this question are given in the 
 following entries : 
 
 February 27th. China question uppermost in men's minds and on men's 
 tongues. Party spirit governs the whole, and the result is that there is more 
 falsehood, in its various phases and degrees, uttered and felt by every speaker, 
 and on both sides, than occurs in any six weeks of ordinary life ! The Chinese 
 are bepraised as innocents, as saints, as patterns of softness, purity, genius, 
 docility, honour as specimens of what men and nations should be. Does any 
 one being, in either House, believe a ten-millionth fraction of all this ? Does 
 any one believe that if J. Russell had been in government, he would not have 
 said the very reverse of what he did say last night ? Does any one doubt the 
 same of Derby ? And does any one believe that, if the members of the Govern- 
 ment (instead of being where they are) had been in Opposition, they would not 
 have done and said what has been said and done by Derby and J. Russell? 
 Public life is intolerable and disgusting (yet how much worse in America !). 
 " Truth and justice, religion and piety," for which we pray, have no more share 
 in these concerns than the mines of Golconda in the manufacture of green cheese. 
 
 It is a painful question. The Chinese are, doubtless, insolent, irritating, 
 aggressive, and false. We, on the other hand, give abundant provocation in the 
 pertinacity and outrage of our opium smuggling. In the present case (I voted 
 with Government in this sense) we had law and right on our side in the matter 
 of the lorcha ; and, even had the right been less clear, the vote proposed a vote 
 of censure was extreme. Derby did, so far, good service in bringing many 
 improprieties before the public view ; but he gave a signal proof how good things 
 may be done from wrong motives. A more self-seeking unreal partisan movement 
 was never made. 
 
 The debate proceeded for three nights, and on the fourth Lord Palmerston 
 defended the conduct of the Government, and avowed his intention to treat 
 the vote as one of " no confidence." 
 
 March 4th. Government defeated last night on China question by majority 
 of 16. A sad result. Right or wrong, the Government must be supported to 
 bring these matters to a satisfactory close ; but now they are crippled in the eyes 
 of the Chinese, and apparently detached from the basis of the country. Such a 
 coalition was, perhaps, never before seen or imagined. Cobden, D'Israeli, and 
 Gladstone, all combined to turn out Palmerston, and obtain office. J. Russell, 
 ever selfish, came as a unit to the confederacy. 
 
 I did not expect it Hoped and believed that God, having employed P. as 
 an instrument for good, would maintain him. But His ways are inscrutable. 
 To my own influence over future ecclesiastical appointments (should Palmerston 
 continue in power), I foresee the termination. They will say that my advice led
 
 1857.) THE OPIUM QUESTION. 539 
 
 him to the nomination of the several clergymen ; that this exasperated Glad- 
 stone, and gave rise to the effort and the coalition ; and that Derby's party, 
 many of whom had professed a resolution to keep Palmereton in office, had 
 deserted him and their promises ; that, in short, my counsel had done more harm 
 than pood. And yet, has he not prodigious strength in the country? Has he not 
 acquired, by this means, a popularity such as no minister has heretofore enjoyed ? 
 
 It will bo remembered that after the Opium War of 1840-2, Lord Ashley 
 brought before Parliament the whole question of the opium trade, with a view 
 to putting an end to the traffic in this drug as a means of revenue for our 
 Indian empire. Those efforts were not successful in attaining the desired 
 end, although they served to inaugurate a standing protest against the ini- 
 quity of the system. Meanwhile, the arrangements consequent upon the 
 Treaty of Nankin made smuggling easier than ever. The Chinese saw that 
 they dared not put in force the laws against the importation of opium. The 
 scum and refuse of Europe and Asia hovered about the Chinese waters, or 
 domiciled at Hong Kong as British citizens. Any lawless Chinese could 
 take up his residence there, and procure a colonial register, with liberty to 
 use the British Sag. 
 
 Long before the boarding of the pseudo-British, but in reality Chinese, 
 lorcha Arrow, by Commissioner Yeh, which brought about the war of 1856-7, 
 Lord Shaf tesbury had determined to again attack the Opium question by a 
 motion in the House of Lords for taking the opinion of the judges as to its 
 legality. He refers to the subject thus : 
 
 March 8th. Some time ago gave notice of Opium question ; delayed it, first, 
 to acquire information ; then, to obtain the legal questions as drawn up, for 
 submission to the judges, by Rochfort Clarke. Debate on China arose ; defeat of 
 ministers and public confusion. Derby, evidently hoping to catch me in a collu- 
 sion with the Government, asked me in the House whether I intended to proceed ; 
 I answered " Yes." explained the cause of delay, and promised to lay my questions 
 on the table, which I did hist Friday. 
 
 Granville on Thursday, after my statement, privately objected to my taking 
 my course in the matter, urging that I should embarrass the Government, raise 
 inconvenient debate, and do much mischief. I replied that the belief of " col- 
 lusion for electioneering purposes " would do ten times more harm, and that 
 withdrawal on my part was simply impossible. Having returned home, wrote 
 him a letter, saying that if he would, as Minister of the Crown, state in the 
 House of Lords that the discussion would be detrimental to affairs in China. I 
 would put it off. Saw him in evening at House of Lords ; he objected to make 
 such an appeal, but offered to grant my motion if, in making it, I would keep to 
 legal points. I agreed, and he pledged himself to that course. 
 
 On the Oth of March Lord Shaftesbury brought forward his motion. He 
 denounced the system as " one of the most flagitious instances of unscrupulous- 
 iiess in the pursuit of wealth that mankind had ever witnessed, . . . iu 
 every point of view scandalous and perilous." He set forth its evils from the 
 commercial, the financial, and the political point of view, and commented on
 
 540 THE EARL OF SIIAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXIV. 
 
 its immorality as disgraceful to the character, of England and inimical to the 
 spread of Christianity. Successive Governments and Parliaments had tolerated 
 these things, but " there was a growing sentiment in the country," he said, 
 " that the traffic was altogether illegal, and was not only inconsistent with 
 statute law, but was in direct contravention to the law of the realm." He 
 wished this point settled, therefore, because, if the judges declared it illegal, 
 it would be for Parliament to devise a remedy ; if they declared it legal, 
 " he should have an entirely new starting-point, and he could then appeal to 
 the people of England to consider this great national sin that had reduced 
 our character and restricted our operations, and brought the name of the 
 British people upon the south-east coast of China, to a level in morals and 
 conduct with the old detestable buccaneers of America." He moved that the 
 opinion of the judges be taken on the two points : first, whether it was lawful 
 for the East India Company to derive a revenue from the opium monopoly ; 
 and, secondly, whether it was lawful for them to sell the opium for the direct 
 purpose of being smuggled into a friendly country. 
 
 After some debate the motion was withdrawn on the understanding that 
 the Government would take the opinion of the law officers of the Crown on 
 the matter. 
 
 Meanwhile, Palmerston had advised her Majesty to dissolve Parliament 
 at the earliest period consistent with the due discharge of public business. 
 
 March 9th. Dissolution received with zeal and favour towards Palmerston, 
 such as no one ventured to anticipate. It is rather like an explosion, than an 
 exhibition, of feeling. P.'s popularity is wonderful strange to say, the whole 
 turns on his name. There seems to be no measure, no principle, no cry, to 
 influence men's minds and determine elections ; it is simply, " Were you, or were 
 you not ? are you, or are you not, for Palmerston 1 " This is not safe nor 
 trustworthy ; the sooner we come to a close the better. 
 
 Palmerston's health is not so vigorous as it was, and years aggravate the 
 disorder. At this moment he is suffering from gout, which he cannot shake off, 
 while the demands on his time and attention are severe. 
 
 In the General Election that ensued, Lord Shaftesbury's eldest son became 
 a candidate for the representation of Hull. The result of his candidature is 
 told as follows : 
 
 March 28th. Intelligence of Accy's election : Clay, 2,365 ; Accy, 2,353 ; 
 Compton, 1,392 ; Seymour, 434. 
 
 And all this without a bribe, treating, or any illicit inducement. His success 
 is wonderful, and is of God's goodness. May it be sanctified to him. May it be 
 the beginning of a career noble, patriotic, useful, religious, to his Master's honour 
 and Iran's welfare. Evelyn there ; of great service, a first-rate canvasser ; showed 
 every quality of a clever, energetic man of business. God protect him and all of 
 them. 
 
 At a public dinner given to Lord Ashley to celebrate his return as member 
 for Hidl, Lord Shaftesbury was present, and in reply to a vote of thanks for
 
 1857.J AN ITEM OF FAMILY HISTORY. 541 
 
 his attendance, he thanked the citizens for the generous kindness they had 
 exhibited to his son. 
 
 You have taken that youth by the hand and started him in the race of life 
 with every hope, I believe, of usefulness and honour. It cannot but be matter 
 of deep emotion that I should now see my son, in his earliest years, placed in 
 that position where many men have terminated their career ; that I see him com- 
 mencing life in the highest situation that British freemen can confer upon their 
 fellow-citizens ; that I see him, young and inexperienced, entrusted with mighty 
 interests ; that I see- him the member for the third sea-port in the kingdom. 
 
 Towards the close of his speech he took his audience into his confidence 
 in the following item of family history : 
 
 Now, gentlemen, I am going to take credit to myself and my boy that we are 
 Yorkshiremen. I was not born in Yorkshire, yet I rejoice to say thaj> I have a 
 small Yorkshire property, and that at no distance from here, but I claim the 
 right to be considered a Yorkshireman from this, that when my father married, 
 it ' was the only worldly possession he had of any sort or kind. By this he was 
 enabled to marry my mother, and hence the son who has now the honour of 
 addressing you. 
 
 The result of the General Election was a large Liberal majority, and the 
 triumphant return of Lord Palmerston as First Minister of the Crown. 
 
 On May the 14th, soon after the assembling of the new Parliament, Lord 
 Shaftesbury returned to the Opium Question. In reply to his question as to 
 the legality of the sale of opium in India, the Lord Chancellor said a case 
 had been drawn up by the legal advisers of the Board of Control, and was 
 about to be submitted to the law officers of the Crown. 
 
 It was not until the 24th of August that the opinion of the law officers 
 was presented. It was to the following effect : that there was no illegality in 
 the cultivation or sale of opium by the East India Company ; and that, as 
 regarded the trade, it was no violation of the Treaty, but, as some doubts 
 existed as to whether it was not contrary to the spirit of the Treaty, it would 
 be expedient to introduce some change, so as to avoid remonstrances that 
 might possibly be made.* 
 
 For the present nothing further could be done, but Lord Shaftesbury 
 resolved that in the following year he would again bring the whole question 
 of the opium trade before Parliament. India, however, came before the 
 House in connection with its transfer from the East India Company to the 
 Crown, and minor details of administration naturally fell into the back- 
 ground. When the Government of India Bill was passed, and Indian affairs 
 became administered directly by the Home Government, it was needful that 
 time should be given for the due adjustment of the altered relations, and the 
 opium trade, among other Parliamentary questions, was for a time kept in 
 abeyance. 
 
 That difficult question still remains unsettled. Lord Shaftesbury never 
 ceased to denounce the traffic as infamous, and never lost an opportunity to 
 
 * Hansard, 3 s., cxlv. 249, cxlvi. 107, cxlvii. 1884, 2003.
 
 542 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXIV. 
 
 call public attention to it as indefensible on political, moral, religious, and 
 social grounds. He remained President of the Anti-Opium League to the 
 end o/his life, and one of his last vigorous speeches was made when presiding 
 at its anniversary meeting. 
 
 Any effort that had for its object the preaching of the Gospel to ti 
 masses was sure to command the warmest sympathy of Lord Shaftesbury ; 
 and in the spring of 1857 we find him rejoicing over the commencement of a 
 series of Special Religious Services in Exeter Hall, on Sunday evenings. 
 
 May 31st. Sunday. One event I must recall, and a Sunday event, too. Last 
 Sunday a glorious triumph for religion and the Church of England. Ah, blessed 
 be God ! a splendid proof of the use and value of the Religious Worship Act 
 passed two years ago ! Under the powers of this Act in Exeter Hall, an evening 
 service wps conducted by the Bishop of Carlisle in full canonicals, for the benefit 
 of all comers, especially the working classes, who " were not habitual Church or 
 Chapel goers : " such was the advertisement. 
 
 An attendance of more than three thousand order, decency, attention, and 
 even devotion. They sang well and lustily, and repeated the responses to the 
 Litany (the only part of the Liturgy used) with regularity and earnestness. 
 Villiers preached the sermon, on " What saith the Scripture ? " practical, pious, 
 affectionate, true; .delivered with dignity and power, and deeply impressive. 
 During the service, and when we retired, we felt the presiding hand and goodness 
 of God, and openly and secretly gave Him thanks. 
 
 Many have been the proofs that we have had of happy fruits : of persona 
 attending who never in their lives before had been in any place of public 
 worship. 
 
 Another service this evening. Cadman officiating. Fuller than before ; 
 hundreds sent away. Equally prosperous. God is manifestly with us, and with 
 discourses such as these. Cadman preached like an Evangelist. 
 
 Abundant success attended these Services ; thousands were present every 
 Sunday evening, and testimony was borne from all quarters that a large class 
 of persons was being reached by this means, who were unaccustomed to be 
 present at any of the ordinary ministrations of the Church. It was a move- 
 ment that exactly met the need of the times ; it had the sanction of the 
 Bishop of London (Dr. Tait), and of the incumbent of the parish in which 
 Exeter Hall was situate, and it fulfilled, it was believed, all the requirements 
 of the Religious Worship Act of 1855 ; it was designed to bring the clergy 
 and the people more closely together, and to remove the impression that the 
 clergy were "only gentlemen who wore black coats and received large 
 salaries " ; it appealed especially to the working classes, and was adapted to 
 meet their prejudices by providing that there should be no distinction of 
 persons, no reserved seats, no collections, and, in short, that every one who 
 came, no matter how humble he might be, should be dealt with upon precisely 
 the same footing as if he were the first man in the land. 
 
 Twelve Services were held, and towards the end, notwithstanding the heat 
 of the weather, five thousand eager listeners thronged the Hall and half as 
 many more were sent away every week for want of room. The Services
 
 1857.] EXETER HALL SPECIAL SERVICES. 543 
 
 were then discontinued, and arrangements were made for their re-commence- 
 ment in the month of October. But, a short time before they were to be 
 re-commenced, an inhibition was issued by the incumbent of the parish to 
 the minister who was to have officiated at the re-opening. 
 
 That minister, fearing to commit a breach of the law, declined to hold the 
 Service ; the committee was called together, and, although Lord Shaftesbury, 
 doubting the legality of the inhibition, urged the continuation of the Special 
 Services, his judgment was overruled, and the Services were stopped. 
 
 Application was then made for the use of St. Martin's Hall, but the 
 incumbent of that parish, although approving the Services, announced his 
 intention to issue an inhibition against their being held within his parish. 
 
 In these circumstances, as the incumbent of the Strand district persevered 
 in his inhibition, the Nonconformists stepped in, and to the manner in which 
 they acted at this juncture Lord Shaftesbury bore high testimony. 
 
 To the members of the Nonconformist body we owe a debt of gratitude for 
 the manner in which our places have been supplied. They have, in this instance, 
 acted with a delicacy and a forbearance which redound infinitely to their credit. 
 They declined to engage Exeter Hall until they had ascertained that it would be 
 quite impossible for us to renew our Services, and, having taken the Hall, they 
 offered to give it up at any moment we might desire. They also, that they might 
 not seem to do anything by way of foil or contrast to us, adopted, most minutely 
 forms of the service which we had instituted. They selected the hymns which 
 we used to have sung, and the officiating minister read a lesson and a portion of 
 the Litany of the Church of England, while in his discourse he never, either 
 directly or indirectly, alluded to the difficulties under which the Church of 
 England was placed, or to the freedom of the party to which he belonged, or to 
 the manner in which that body had come forward to follow in our footsteps. * 
 
 Meanwhile a great stir had been created, and in the uncertain state of 
 the law on the subject, Lord Shaftesbury gave notice of a motion to amend 
 the Religious Worship Act of 1855, and adapt it to meet the exigencies, not 
 only of the present case, but of any similar case that might arise in the 
 future. The High Church party prepai'ed themselves for a strenuous opposi- 
 tion ; almost every other section of the Church was in sympathy with the 
 movement. It was curious to find how, with this one exception, all shades of 
 opinion were united in favour of an alteration of the law. 
 
 On the motion for the second reading of his Bill, entitled the " Religious 
 Worship Act Amendment Bill," Lord Shaftesbury went fully into the 
 history of the case, and having set forth its peculiar hardships and incon- 
 gruities, proposed that the power of inhibition should not extend to parishes 
 or districts, the population of which, by the last preceding census, exceeded 
 2,000, that such inhibition should not be valid unless it be sanctioned by the 
 Bishop of the diocese, and that the power of inhibition should be limited to 
 " any congregation or assembly occasionally meeting for religious worship in 
 
 * Speech in House of Lords, Dec. 8, 1857.
 
 544 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXIV. 
 
 any building or buildings not usually appropriated to purposes of religious 
 worship." 
 
 The proposed addition of a clause to the Religious Worship Act for 
 such was to all intents and purposes the scope of the new Bill met with very 
 strong opposition from Bishop Wilberforce and the section of the Church he 
 represented. It was in consequence of a statement made by him, to the 
 effect that a large majority of the bishops urged a postponement of the 
 second reading, that Lord Shaftesbury concluded by moving that the Bill be 
 read a second time on the 8th of February. 
 
 The measure, mild as it was, called forth "an immense amount of sacer- 
 dotalism, even among the Evangelical clergy." The laity went heartily with 
 Lord Shaftesbury ; the clergy, with few exceptions, were either openly or 
 secretly against him. In this state of affairs the Archbishop of Canterbury, 
 on the 5th of February, introduced a Bill for legalising Special Services in 
 unconsecrated buildings, in connection with the Church of England, the main 
 feature of which was to secure more power for the bishops than Lord Shaftes- 
 bury's Bill proposed, by making their sanction necessary. On the 9th of 
 February, as twenty-four bishops were reported to be unanimous against his 
 Bill, Lord Shaftesbury withdrew it in favour of the Bill introduced by the 
 Archbishop. 
 
 Referring to the meeting at which this unanimity was obtained, the 
 Bishop of Oxford wrote : " The bishops have been sitting in conclave for 
 hours, which certainly consumes much time our wild elephants seem every 
 now and then a little tamed, and if the " Bishop-Maker " were dethroned 
 by the fall of Pam might, I think, become manageable. At present it is 
 sad work. Such ignorance of first principles ! " * 
 
 In the summer of 1857 the serious intelligence was received from India 
 of a succession of mutinies issuing in the occupation of Delhi by the insurgent 
 regiments, and the wholesale massacre of Europeans. A thrill of horror ran 
 through the country as, day by day, and almost hour by hour, the particulars, 
 some of them grossly exaggerated, were made known. 
 
 On the day when the first startling intelligence of the outbreak was 
 received Lord Shaftesbury wrote in his Diary : 
 
 June 27th. What, whence, is it 1 1 regard it as the dying 1 effort of Brahminism, 
 which is visibly, palpably, declining ; all its remaining strength ia excited and 
 concentrated for one final struggle. 
 
 But God help us, and maintain His own work ! The events will be ascribed 
 to the evil effects of the Missions ; and, for a while, the conviction will prevail. 
 Sursvm corda, sursum corda, for " the cause " of God's truth and the safety of 
 the Empire ! 
 
 Throughout the duration of the mutiny Lord Shaftesbury, in a special 
 volume devoted to the subject, noted down from day to day his thoughts, 
 
 * Letter to the Hon. A. Gordon, quoted in " Life of Bishop Wilberforce," by his Son 
 Vol. ii.j p, 376.
 
 1867.) THE INDIAN MUTINY. 545 
 
 feelings, and opinions in relation to Indian affairs. From this volume we do 
 not propose to quote. That sad and awful chapter in history has been written 
 again and again. We shall confine our quotations, therefore, to the private 
 journal in which his own actions are referred to, and from this but briefly. 
 
 Aug. 22nd. Spoke last night, and denounced the idolatrous homage paid to 
 Brahminical caste by the system of Bengal levies. 
 
 Aug. 29th. Spa. Number and variety of things to be prayed for : that He 
 will quell the mutiny and give us a speedy victory ; that He will make this out- 
 break the commencement of a new order of things ; of a wiser and more vigorous 
 government ; of justice and judgment ; of greater knowledge and greater zeal 
 for man's real good ; of fresh openings for the advance of the Gospel ; of en- 
 larged missionary operations ; of increased opportunity to promote and invite 
 the Second Advent. 
 
 That He will protect, shelter, and deliver from their unspeakably ferocious 
 enemies, the helpless women and children outraged, tortured, murdered by the 
 incarnate fiends of Hindostan. 
 
 That He will abate the suffering of our troops already in the field, supply 
 their wants, give them repose, sustain their courage ; that He will hide, in the 
 hollow of His hand, those now going out to India, and console the wives, the 
 mothers, the children, that are left behind in sorrow and anxiety. 
 
 Ah God, it is heartrending to remember these things, and yet there is talk of 
 larger reinforcements from England. Wrote yesterday to Panmure, Palmerston, 
 V. Smith, and Mangles, to counsel the levy of African regiments. The Africans 
 are eager for employment, they make first-rate soldiers, would bear the Indian 
 climate, and have no fraternisation with the natives. Cheaper, too, by far. 
 Ardently do I pray that this plan may be adopted. What a lift also to the 
 nigger ! and what a blow to the slave trade ! 
 
 On the 30th October a meeting was held at Wimborne Minster, Dorset, 
 in aid of the fund being 1 raised for the relief of the sufferers by the mutinies 
 in India. Lord Shaf tesbury presided, and his speech on that occasion was 
 one of the most remarkable ever delivered by him. 
 
 After briefly, but vividly, describing the nature of the atrocities com- 
 mitted, he proceeded : 
 
 Well, now bear this in mind, the retribution that follows upon these crimes 
 most be equal to the nature and extent of the crimes themselves. I maintain 
 that justice, pure, simple justice, demands we should exact of these men that 
 compensation which is due to that crime unparalleled in the history of mankind. 
 We do not seek for revenge. God forbid that the word should be used in our 
 declamation ! And God forbid that the sentiment should enter into our hearts 1 
 But there is such a thing as justice, and there is such a thing as a sense of justice 
 imprinted upon the human heart by the hand of God Himself ; and, although no 
 private individual may take private justice into his hands, yet the sword is given 
 to the rulers of a State, and that sword is to be exercised to maintain order and 
 to execute the decrees of God against those who so wantonly have shed the 
 blood of their fellows. Justice, I hold, must be satisfied ; every principle of 
 policy and every principle of religion require it ; it is your polioy and the 
 J J
 
 546 THE EARL OF SHAPTESBUKY. [CHAP. XXIV. 
 
 greatest policy in the sense of humanity that justice should be fully exer- 
 cised. . . . Read the order of that noble soldier and gallant Christian, 
 Brig-adier-General Wilson, to whom has been confided the command of the 
 troops around Delhi, and to whom was entrusted the honour of conducting 
 the assault upon that devoted town. Mark the words of that brave man ! 
 Here is an extract from his general order : " He need hardly remind the 
 troops of the cruel murders committed on their officers and comrades, as well 
 as their wives and children, to move them in the deadly struggle. No 
 quarter should be given to the mutineers." Is there a man living who will 
 not assent to that proposition ? " At the same time, for the sake of humanity 
 and the honour of the country which they belong to, he calls upon them to spare 
 the women and children that may come in their way." I confess that when, 
 ladies and gentlemen, I read that general order I was almost moved to tears in 
 deep thankfulness to Almighty God that He had raised up such a man, and put 
 such a sentiment into his heart, upon such an occasion ; and I do also rejoice that 
 those noble fellows under his command, notwithstanding their exasperation, not- 
 withstanding the fury of the assault, listened to the request. 
 
 After combating the idea that the origin of the iusurrrection was due to 
 religious motives, or that the prestige of England had passed away, he 
 continued : 
 
 We must now enter upon a bolder, a truer, and more Christian course ; we 
 must come forward in the plainest, simplest, and most open manner, to declare 
 that the Government of India is a Christian Government, that it rests upon 
 Christian principles, that it has Christian views, and that it will go forward in 
 Christian action. Simultaneously with that, the Government must declare that 
 it will never, directly or indirectly either by itself or by others use force or 
 bribery, or any illicit mode whatsoever in order to turn the natives from their 
 faith. You must give to them precisely the same rights and liberties in matters 
 religious that you claim for yourselves. If you claim which you will claim, I 
 trust that the Government of India, declaring itself to be a Christian Govern- 
 ment, will also declare that it will give all due countenance and protection to its 
 co-religionists the Christian missionaries ; you will also declare, and call upon 
 the Government, to declare, that they will allow to the Hindoos and to the 
 Mahometans precisely the same liberty that they claim for themselves. Tour 
 conduct must be based upon Christian principles ; everything that you do must 
 be in Christian character to a Christian end. Are we to be scared from this great 
 duty that is confided to our charge ? Are we to be scared by a few bugbears that 
 are raised up, telling us that if we do this we shall disaffect the natives on one 
 side and disaffect the natives on the other side ? And what have we gained by a 
 time-serving forbearance? We began by every encouragement to their filthy 
 practices. Our police kept the ground at the horrid rites of the goddess Kali ; 
 our tax-gatherers collected the tolls of iniquity at the confluence of the Ganges 
 and the Jumna; Juggernaut, when it crushed its hundreds of victims, was 
 decked with flags and bunting from the warehouses of the East India Company. 
 This has ceased ; and we have tried the experiment of choking our faith ; with 
 what result ? Why, if we had ravaged the country with fire and sword to make 
 proselytes, if we had shed as much blood as Nadir Shah, could we have excited a
 
 1857.] A QUESTIONED STATEMENT. 547 
 
 more savage rebellion, a more awful insurrection, than this which has been 
 wrought by these fondled and ungrateful Sepoys ? 
 
 The Times, in an able article commenting upon the speech, said : " On a 
 subject like the Indian Mutiny, on which everybody has been expressing him- 
 self for months in almost the same words, genuine heart alone can speak with 
 freshness. In the hardening process of repetition we lose the edge of our 
 feeling; even the greatest horrors, by being perpetually brought before us, 
 become matters of course, and we find ourselves unable to recover our first 
 strong impressions, except somebody renews them for us by the force of a 
 more retentive, realising, sympathy. Lord Shaftesbury's speech reads as if 
 the news of the Indian outrages had only reached us yesterday, and he were 
 giving his very first impressions. Yet there is nothing extravagant or un- 
 guarded in his style. Nothing can be more just and moderate than what ho 
 says about punishment, and we are glad that he has called attention to that 
 part of General Wilson's address to the troops. How simple and just is 
 General Wilson's settlement of this question, ' No quarter to the mutineers ; 
 spare the women and children ! ' This is the proper, natural, combination of 
 justice and mercy." 
 
 A statement made by Lord Shaftesbury in the course of his speech, called 
 forth some months afterwards a sharp and bitter controversy. He refers to 
 it thus : 
 
 March 28th, 1858 (Sunday). An unhappy mention of the name of Lady Can- 
 ning, in a speech at Wimborne, had bi'ought upon me a world of troubles. They 
 were dormant until 3rd Feb., although the speech was delivered at the end of 
 October, but they have harassed me ever since, and they have this day (notwith- 
 standing it ought to be a day of comfort and repose) gained a head ; yesterday 
 opening one battery, and to-day, I am told, another in the Saturday lie view and 
 the Sunday Obtterrer. The parties who began, treated me as a wilful misrepre- 
 senter of Lady Canning ; the parties who continue it, endeavour to prove that I 
 am bloodthirsty and false, a savage and a liar. 
 
 "Evil reports die hard," as the following entry, written fifteen years 
 later, will show : 
 
 Nov. 6th, 1873. In See-Hire of last Saturday Professor Beesly has revived 
 the old story of the Indian mutilations, some fifteen years ago. I then admitted 
 an inaccuracy in the heat of speaking, which I corrected in the papers the 
 moment I saw it, and before. I was attacked. I now see where, in giving an 
 explanation, I made a mistake. I should have stated more than I did. I should 
 have stated the case thus : " A few days before I spoke, a lady whom I know very 
 well, said to me, ' I am just come from Eastnor, and I was present when the lady 
 of the house read a letter from Lady Canning, in which she spoke of the many 
 and fearful mutilations.' " So it was ; Miss Lindsay was my informant, Eastnor 
 Castle the place, and Lady Somers the person to whom the letter was written. 
 God deliver me from my enemies, for they are too strong for me ! 
 
 There was one result of the great revolt in India which made a strong 
 J J 2
 
 548 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBUKY. [CHAP. XXIV. 
 
 impression upon Lord Shaftesbury namely, that it opened up a wide and 
 noble field for Christian enterprise, on which all the great Evangelical 
 societies seemed to be eager to enter. Never before, perhaps, at any great 
 crisis had these Societies banded together, with minor differences forgotten, 
 all united in one great object, all animated by one great hope, all combined 
 iu one great and glorious work. Throughout this anxious period, when the 
 past and the future of English dominion in India were in question, he lost no 
 opportunity of urging upon these Societies, and upon individuals, the neces- 
 sity of sending forth missionaries, copies of the Bible, catechists, teachers, 
 and of having recourse to every form of effort and organisation available for 
 maintaining the strongholds in the possession of Christian agents in India, 
 aud of assailing the strongholds of the enemy. 
 
 Frequently, in the course of the many speeches he made at this crisis, he 
 paid glowing tributes to those Christian heroes who were performing such 
 noble deeds for God and country in India. Thus, at the Bible Society 
 meeting, in 1858, he referred to Sir Henry Lawrence and Sir Henry Have- 
 lock in these words : 
 
 Who were the men that first checked the awful career of mutiny and rebel- 
 lion ? Let us consider the character of these men, their habits, their expressions, 
 their bearing. Were they men of the ordinary stamp mere men of the world 
 men who were conversant only with the duties of their profession ? Who was 
 the man that first, by the vigour of his intellect, the force of his heart, the depth 
 of his principles, the extent of his knowledge, the resolution of his whole 
 character, gave a great and, as it turned out ultimately, effective check to the 
 rebellion ? Was it not that great man : the greatest perhaps that India has pro- 
 duced, the greatest, regarded as a compound of the Statesman and the Christian 
 a man as remarkable for vigour in action as for gentleness of soul was it not, 
 1 say, that great and good man, now gone to his rest, and whose name I can 
 never utter without the deepest emotion and reverence, Sir Henry Lawrence 1 
 
 Again, who was that man that, by deeds unparalleled in history, by a heroism 
 peculiarly his own a heroism which he was able to infuse into the handful of 
 men under his command, so that they stood undismayed in the presence of many 
 thousands of the enemy armed to the teeth ; who was it, I say, that put a final check 
 to the progress of those awful disorders, those terrible calamities in India ? Was 
 it not that preaching, praying, psalm-singing man. Sir Henry Havelock ? Well 
 did the Right Rev. Prelate, now on my right, the respected diocesan of this great 
 metropolis, liken that band of heroes to the Puritans of old, and draw the atten- 
 tion of those who heard him to the fact which is now so completely established, 
 that psalm-singing is not inconsistent with heroism, nor prayer incompatible 
 with the truest courage and the discharge of the highest duties. 
 
 The most conspicuous part taken by Lord Shaftesbury in Indian affairs 
 during this crisis, was in moving a vote of censure against the Government 
 for their Indian policy. Lord Canning, as Governor-General of India, issued 
 a proclamation to the chiefs and people of Oude, by which the property of 
 the Talookdars or native landed proprietors of Oude who had not made 
 their submission to the English authorities, was confiscated. This proclauia-
 
 1858.] INDIAN AFFAIRS. 549 
 
 tion was disapproved by the Government of Lord Derby. Lord Ellen- 
 borough, as President of the Board of Control, thereupon issued his famous 
 despatch, in which, although the strife in India was scarcely over, he cen- 
 sured the Governor-General in unmeasured terms for the harshness of his 
 repressive measures in Onde, condemned his proclamation in the strongest 
 language, and, as it was conceived, sought to pacify the natives by humilia- 
 ting the Executive. It was an attempt to weaken the hands of the Viceroy 
 at tin' moment when he required the fullest use of his powers : it would have 
 been a dictatorial proceeding had the whole of the facts that gave rise to the 
 proclamation, or the motives of the Governor-General, been fully known ; but 
 it was altogether unwarrantable in the present state of information ; it was, 
 moreover, couched in terms which no statesman should have used to another 
 at any time ; and it was doubly injudicious in the present crisis, as tending 
 to weaken the authority of the Governor- General and encourage the resist- 
 ance of those who were in arms against us. 
 
 There was great indignation throughout the country. The question was 
 taken up at once in both Houses of Parliament and votes of censure were moved. 
 
 In the Lords, the vote of censure was moved by Lord Shaftesbury. The 
 anticipated debate excited unusual interest. Long before admission to the 
 House could be gained, its approaches were thronged by " strangers " who 
 had obtained, or who hoped to obtain, the privilege of the cntrte. The space 
 in front of the Throne appropriated to the sons of peers and persons of 
 distinction, was fully occupied soon after the Lord Chancellor had taken his 
 seat, and the space below the bar was also crowded. " The scene," said the 
 Times, " was altogether one of the most brilliant and animated that has ever 
 been witnessed on the occasion of a debate." The scene in the House of 
 Commons has been brilliantly described by M. de Montalembert in his 
 celebrated pamphlet, "Un Debat sur 1'Inde au Parlemeut Anglais." 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury had been a Conservative upon principle and a member 
 of two Tory Governments, but he had never been a party man at any time of 
 his life, and was even less so now than ever. Although, on the occasion to 
 which we refer, he was speaking from the Opposition benches for he always 
 ocmpied the same place, and never crossed over on any change of Govern- 
 ment he began his speech with this apparent anomaly: " Whatever political 
 sympathies I possess, have ever been and still are, with that great party now 
 represented by Her Majesty's Government." 
 
 This position was perfectly understood by those who understood Lord 
 Shaftesbury. They knew that it was the outcome of the truest patriotism as 
 well as of the highest principle ; he could not subordinate to the exigencies 
 of political party what seemed to him for the public good ; and the indepen- 
 dent position that he assumed was not, as some supposed, from incapacity to 
 work in harness, but because he felt constrained to uphold and vindicate 
 i-iM -t.-iin principles, and principles were to him more than parties. 
 
 To the part Lord Shaftesbury took in this crisis of Indian affairs, lie 
 refers in the following entries in the Diary :
 
 550 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXIV. 
 
 May 15th, 1858. Last night (strange that I should be found to take such a 
 step) " exhibited articles of impeachment." Moved, in the House of Lords, a vote 
 of censure on the Government I Cannot record, having 1 lost the thread, day by 
 day, what led to it. But so it was ; and Government met it by " previous ques- 
 tion," yet they had but a majority of nine ! This was, in truth, a defeat to them. 
 
 Circumstances were administrative to the event. The character of the motion 
 (a vote of censure), the subject-matter (the Empire of India) ; the revival of 
 courage, union, and activity, among many dejected and divided ; the very large 
 attendance of peers ; the seats and places appropriated to the House of Commons 
 quite thronged, ladies filling the whole length of both galleries ; the steps of the 
 Throne, and adjacent spaces, choked up ; and the Strangers' Gallery crammed to 
 the last square inch made the entire thing very brilliant in case of success, but 
 equally dark in case of failure. 
 
 The attention was wonderful. After a few interruptions at the outset, 
 intended to put me down, a pin might have been heard to drop during an hour 
 and three quarters. 
 
 The arraignment of the Ministry was not successful. In the Peers, there 
 was a division, in which the Government obtained a small majority. In the 
 Commons, the motion was withdrawn, as news arrived from India which 
 greatly modified the impression of Lord Canning's action. Lord Ellen- 
 liorongh had the good sense to take upon himself the responsibility of what 
 he had done, and saved the formal condemnation of his acts by resigning his 
 office. 
 
 This was not the last occasion in which Lord Shaftesbury was to come 
 forward in Parliament this year on Indian topics. When the Government of 
 India Bill was under discussion, he declared " war to the knife " on one point 
 which he considered vital ; namely, that in the proclamation setting forth to 
 the natives the new relations between England and India, consequent upon 
 the abolition of the East India Company, there should be a distinct recogni- 
 tion of the claims of Christianity. He urged repeatedly that, instead of 
 " harping upon that odious word neutrality in religion, there should be a 
 distinct and manful acknowledgment of Christianity on the part of the 
 Government." When the proclamation left England, he was satisfied with 
 the terms in which it was couched, but it appears to have undergone some 
 alterations for the worse before it was published. 
 
 We must now revert to some of the less striking events of the years 1857-8, 
 which have been passed over hitherto. 
 
 At no time in his life did Lord Shaftesbury employ the services of a per- 
 manent secretary, and the pressure of correspondence was one of the burdens 
 lie felt constantly. Entries like the following are frequent : 
 
 March 28th, 1857. Sit down and weep over the sad, wearisome, useless ex- 
 penditure of time and strength on the letters I must read, and the letters I must 
 write. No one would believe (I can hardly believe it myself) the amount of 
 everything that is precious that is wasted in this way. Whole days and nights 
 are consumed in the merest trifles of correspondence, and, if I attempt to review
 
 1868.] MR. FRANK CR08SLET. 55] 
 
 what I have been enabled to do of a solid or permanent kind, what to refresh 
 my mind by the smallest supplies of knowledge, I find that a week, which has 
 been passed in acknowledging useless letters and answering frivolous questions 
 (not one letter in a hundred worthy of notice), has not furnished me with one 
 hour of comfort or information. 
 
 Wi re this burden less, I might do many things of more public benefit, at least 
 I mi^ht attempt it. But (it is no figure of speech) I am worn out by this dull 
 monotonous, fruitless occupation. Nervous fatigue is often the consequence of 
 unbroken application. Yet, what can I do ? If I go on, I must endure this loss 
 of health and time ; if I desist, and reply to no letters, the wrath I excite, the 
 abuse, the invective, the assertion that " I am no Christian," are terrible. For 
 myself I mind not ; but I do shrink from causing, by any self -care and self- 
 indulgence, evil speech and evil feelings towards my order or my profession. 
 
 Have now, at least, a hundred letters unanswered ; and, yet, have not had 
 leisure to do one stitch of private business, enjoy barely an hour of recreation, 
 nothing on public affairs, and two books I have desired to look at still unopened. 
 My mind is as dry as a gravel road, and my nerves are sensitive and h.wsh as 
 wires. 
 
 Tear by year Lord Shaftesbury's sympathy with every effort to spread 
 the Gospel was widening, and in May he took the chair at the annual meeting 
 of the Baptist Society for Foreign Missions. It was one of those occasions, 
 as he said, when one who " maintained, in all their integrity, his distinctive 
 opinions as to Church government and subordinate points of faith, might 
 find that there were truths common to the whole human race, of every creed, 
 language, generation, and age, paramount to every other consideration, in 
 furtherance of which he might join with all who held the faith and loved the 
 common Lord in sincerity, to make known those truths whereby men are 
 dignified and God is glorified." 
 
 Aug. 22nd. Went on 13th to Halifax to attend opening of "People's Park," 
 the munificent donation of Frank Crossley, a manufacturer with a princely, and 
 what is better, a Christian heart. He was kind enough to insist on my attend- 
 ance as " the best friend of the working classes." Speeches, of course, with- 
 out end. 
 
 In his speech, proposing as a toast " The wellbeing of the people," Lord 
 Shaf tesbury, referring to Mr. Frank Crossley's magnificent gift to the people 
 of Halifax, said : 
 
 We often read in the papers of " munificent bequests." To my mind it is a 
 phrase that has no meaning at all. I see no munificence in bequeathing your 
 property to charitable purposes, when you are going out of this world and havo 
 not the possibility of longer enjoying it. What I like are munificent donation* . 
 I like to see men antedating the pleasure of those upon whom they bestow their 
 bounty, antedating, I trust, their own pleasures, and enjoying, while yet alive, 
 all the reverence, homage, and affection that is showered upon their memories 
 after they are interred in the grave. 
 
 The elevation of Mr. Macaulay to the peerage an honour, as the Timet 
 aid, which belonged peculiarly to the man, and was a fitting, if not ;m
 
 f52 THE EARL OF SHAPTESBURY. [CHAP. XXIV. 
 
 adequate, return for a life spent in the public service and devoted to literary 
 labour of the most dignified order is thus referred to : 
 
 Sept. 4th. Macaulay is to be made a Peer. This is wise, politic, useful, con- 
 servative. Urged this on Palmerston a year and a half ago. It will be taken as 
 a compliment by literary men small and great. 
 
 Sept. 15th. Wrote to Macaulay to congratulate him and myself and the Lords 
 on his elevation. I can never forget his speech on behalf of the Ten Hours Bill. 
 
 Later in the year Lord Shaftesbury wrote to Lord Macaulay urging him 
 to speak in the House of Lords on the subject of General Havelock's services 
 in India, and the honours it was proposed to confer on him. To that letter 
 
 he replied : 
 
 Lord Macaulay to Lord Shaftesbury. 
 
 HOLLY LODGE, KENSINGTON, 
 
 Dec. 7th, 1857. 
 
 MY DEAR LORD, I am most deeply sensible of your kindness. But I think 
 it better not to make my first appearance as a speaker in the House of Lords on 
 an occasion on which there can be no difference of opinion, and on which there 
 would be no room for anything beyond mere rhetorical display. I shall be seldom 
 able to take any part in debate, for my chest suffers severely from continued 
 speaking, and I have been forced entirely to give up reading aloud, of which I 
 was very fond ; I therefore wish to reserve myself for occasions in which I have 
 what I think good advice and strong arguments to offer. 
 
 As to our officers and soldiers in India, there is no honour or reward which 
 they do not deserve. Thank God, our nation has not degenerated. 
 
 Ever, my dear Lord, 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 MACAULAY. 
 
 " I shall be seldom able to take any part in debate," was a mournfully 
 true prophecy. The voice that had rung out such words of burning eloquence 
 in the House of Commons was never heard in the Upper Chamber. There 
 was but a short term of life remaining to the new peer, and in his retirement 
 at Kensington he devoted himself to his History, " the pleasure and business 
 of his life." Almost suddenly, on the 28th December, 1859, he died, and on 
 the 9th January following was buried in Westminster Abbey. Referring to 
 these events are the following notes from the Diary : 
 
 Jan. 3rd, 1860. Dorchester. Here at Quarter Sessions. Heard on Saturday 
 of death of Lord Macaulay ! heard it with public and private sorrow. I liked 
 him, and. in many respects, admired him. Personally I mean, for his abilities 
 and acquirements commanded more than ordinary admiration. His sentiments 
 and expressions were always generous, his feelings noble ; he hated duplicity, 
 meanness, violence ; he never thought that brilliant exploits compensated for the 
 want of moral worth ; and he would call a man a villain, a rogue, or an oppressor, 
 whether he were arrayed like Solomon, or in tatters like Lazarus. 
 
 These super-eminent and mighty talents, though never openly and directly 
 employed for God's service, were, at least, never perverted to evil uses. Is there
 
 1858.] SOCIAL SCIENCE CONGRESS, LIVERPOOL. 553 
 
 a sentence in any of his writings to offend decency, morality, the Christian faith ? 
 not one. I did not know till now how much I was attached to him. May I 
 never forget his true and noble speech made, at my request, in the House of Com- 
 mons on behalf of the factory children ! Their prayers, I trust, ascended for 
 him to the Throne of Grace. 
 
 Urged Palmerston to write, as Prime Minister, to the family, and propose that 
 he should be interred in Westminster Abbey. He consented. 
 
 The question of the admission of Jews to Parliament, in which Lord 
 Shaf tesbury had for many years taken a prominent part, was again under 
 discussion in the summer of 1858, and he refers to the position he had deter- 
 mined henceforth to take up with regard to the question, thus : 
 
 July 1st. This evening Jew Bill in Lords. Had signified my intention, to 
 many, of offering no further resistance. It is in vain, and altogether useless, nor 
 is it wanting in a tinge of peril, to deny, pertinaciously and hopelessly (for the 
 country is, and ever has been, quite indifferent) the yearly demands of the 
 Commons. 
 
 I yield to force, not to reason. I think my responsibility satisfied on this 
 side ; and, by prolonged refusal, I should begin responsibility on the other. 
 
 See how the question stands. Commons, for many years, have sent up Bills 
 with vastly-increasing majorities. Country quite apathetic, though numerous 
 elections have occurred during that time. The Commons have decided that a 
 Jew can sit on their committees, manage a conference with the Lords, take part 
 in debate, and use every influence, but from the vote he is excluded. This, added 
 to the actual state of the question, leaves the House of Lords scarcely anything, 
 and certainly nothing of value, to refuse. More opposition is therefore futile. 
 
 The labours of Lord Shaftesbury in connection with the Social Science 
 Congress at Liverpool, in October, were manifold. An epitome of them is 
 given in the following entries : 
 
 Oct. 27th (St. Giles's). The longest gap in my whole book, I believe. . . . 
 Started for Liverpool on llth. Reached it too late for the service in church. 
 Dined with W. Cowper at a hotel, we two having rambled in search of a dinner. 
 At eight o'clock to St. George's Hall. Refused to move a vote of thanks to Lord 
 J. Russell because I could not honestly praise him (a political intriguer and the 
 unfeeling adversary of the wretched chimney-sweepers), but agreed to move one 
 to Lord Brougham. The sight of the Hall, studded with company, was brilliant 
 in the extreme. When I rose to speak, was enthusiastically received, and so when 
 I sat down. Short, but, by God's blessing, eminently successful. 
 
 Next day inaugural addresses of the Heads of Sections. Had written nothing 
 and wished to say nothing, except to my own Section (Sanitary Improvement), 
 but was overruled ; and happy am I that it was so, for never has any effort so 
 prospered I 
 
 Even at the moment before rising, the day being far advanced, resolved to 
 make an excuse, but was urged on. Spoke in haste, fearful of fatiguing audience, 
 and yet anxious, as I was embarked to " get out my say." Saw that they were 
 interested, and proceeded. Towards close resolved to cut peroration short, then 
 determined to continue. Suddenly forgot allusion I intended to make, but I
 
 554 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXIV. 
 
 paused not Suddenly remembered it, uttered it and finished to my heart's 
 desire. All this is to me miraculous ; the several steps of progress, all of which 
 I resolved not to make ; the loss and recovery of the allusion to St. Paul at the 
 end (which gained more success than anything I had ever said) were the result 
 of guidance from above, not of my own powers- 
 
 The effect of this speech was surprising. The Times was friendly and laudatory ; 
 the Daily News loud and lively in its approbation. " If," said the paper, ' the 
 Congress had produc3d nothing but that one speech, the labour of the whole and 
 the service of the country would have been well and amply met." 
 
 Well, then, to God be all the glory, and to me increased thankfulness and 
 increased confidence in Him only, and an increased sense of responsibility ! 
 
 On the Wednesday, chair of my Section. At half-past four dinner, six miles 
 off, with Mr. Brown, M.P., and then in haste to Philharmonic Hall to take chair 
 of Bible Society meeting. An immense gathering. 
 
 On Thursday, Sections. Then to meeting of working-men in Amphitheatre. 
 Here the reception, before and after speaking, that the working men gave me, 
 I shall never forget, nor will any one else who saw and heard it ! 
 
 On Friday, Sections. Dinner in St. George's Hall. Speech, of course. 
 
 On Saturday, presidents and officers met the public in the concert-room to take 
 leave. Suddenly ordered by John Russell to second a resolution of thanks to the 
 Press. Got through it. At three o'clock to Manchester. Met four hundred of 
 the operatives at the Cotton Tree. Took up my quarters with my hospitable 
 friend Barnes ; stayed there Sunday. Attended, with wonder and delight, after- 
 noon special service in Free Trade Hall, conducted by a young Baptist, full of 
 intellect and vigour, named Mursell. On Monday to Beckett's (Kirkstall Grange) 
 for Bible Society in Town Hall. On Tuesday to Bradford, having speechified 
 at Beckett's Schools for Young Men's Christian Association. Spent night at 
 Mr. Wickham's, M.P. for the town. Very hospitable. On Wednesday to London. 
 
 In the course of his address as President of the Health Section Lord 
 Shaftesbury controverted the argument, at that time very prevalent, that, in 
 order to cure or alleviate the evils of the social system all physical remedies 
 were almost worse than useless, and that moral remedies alone should be 
 applied. He alluded to the operations of the Public Health Act as evidence 
 that the reduction of mortality was possible, and cited authorities for the 
 statement that the preventible mortality of the country amounted annually to 
 90,000. 
 
 Now, we may be told by some that these things are but in the course of 
 Nature, and we ought not to interfere ; on such we will turn our backs ; we will 
 not listen to such a representation. We may be told that these things are costly, 
 and require financial effort, and the people are not ready to undertake the 
 expense ; but we may safely say that it is disease that is expensive, and it is 
 health that is cheap. There is nothing that is so economical as justice and mercy 
 towards all interests temporal and spiritual of all the human race. If we be 
 told that spiritual remedies are sufficient, and that we labour too much for the 
 perishable body, I reply that spiritual appliances, in the state of things to which 
 I allude, are altogether impossible. Make every effort push them forward
 
 1858.) SOUL AND BODY. 555 
 
 never desist lose not a moment but depend upon it that in such a state of 
 things you will in the end be utterly baffled. But when people say we should 
 think more of the soul and less of the body, my answer is, that the same God 
 who made the soul made the body also. It is an inferior work, perhaps, but 
 nevertheless it is His work, and it must be treated and cared for according to the 
 end for which it was formed fitness for His service. J maintain that God i 
 worshipped, not only by the spiritual, but by the material creation. You find it 
 in the Psalms : " Praise Him, sun and moon : praise Him, all ye stars of light." 
 And that worship is shown in the perfection and obedience of the thing made. 
 Our great object should be to do all we can to remove the obstructions which 
 stand in the way of such worship, and of the body s fitness for its great purpose. 
 If St. Paul, calling our bodies the temples of the Holy Ghost, said that they 
 ought not to be contaminated by sin, we also say that our bodies, the temples of 
 the Holy Ghost, ought not to be corrupted by preventable disease, degraded by 
 avoidable filth, and disabled for His service by unnecessary suffering.
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 18591860. 
 
 ON New Year's Day, 1859, the Emperor Napoleon, on receiving the usual 
 congratulations of the Diplomatic body, uttered some words to the Austrian 
 Ambassador at the Tuileries, which indicated that the relations between the 
 two Empires were unsettled. 
 
 The hour had come, and the men were ready, to commence the struggle 
 that was to end in the liberation of Italy, the expulsion of Austria from Lom- 
 bardy and Venetia, and the overthrow of the temporal power of the Papacy. 
 
 On one side was the young Emperor of Austria, trammelled by the tradi- 
 tions and follies of his predecessors, surrounded by counsellors unfit to deal 
 with free thought or free men, and with an army destitute of leaders ; the 
 Pope, with his first fresh Italian sympathies narrowed down by circumstances, 
 giving proof that the Papal Power inuet ever be the enemy of Italian free- 
 dom ; Ferdinand of Naples, treacherous, perjured, and oppressive. On the other 
 side France, panting for glory, eager to "go to war for an idea"; Italy 
 groaning for release from the tyranny of the petty governments that rent her 
 in pieces ; Sardinia, erect, alert, and strong in the strength of justice and of 
 truth. On this side was Cavour, embodying Italian shrewdness with English 
 steadfastness, whose "foresight and steadiness chained Fortune to his 
 chariot," to whom power was a necessity and failure an impossibility, whose 
 energy was dauntless, and who knew no fear, hesitancy, or scruple. And on 
 this side was Garibaldi. 
 
 It is impossible to summarise, in a page, the history of the causes leading 
 to the mighty struggle that was about to take place, and the events which 
 marked each stage of its progress. It may, however, assist the reader 
 to recall those incidents, if only an imperfect outline of some of them be 
 given him. 
 
 The marriage, in January, 1859, of the Princess Clotilde, daughter of the 
 King of Sardinia, to Prince Louis Napoleon, was interpreted as an intimation 
 that the champion of Italian liberty would be supported by the power of 
 France. Soon after this war seemed inevitable. Lord Cowley was sent by 
 England to Vienna on a confidential mission to offer mediation. Russia pro- 
 posed a congress to settle matters amicably. Austria insisted that, as a 
 preliminary, France and Sardinia should disarm. Meanwhile, Cavour visited 
 Paris and strengthened his position with the Emperor, securing the interests 
 of Italy, whether there should be peace or war with Austria. 
 
 The voting of large sums in the Sardinian Chamber, for the fortifications
 
 18M.] ITALIAN AFFAIRS. 557 
 
 of Alessandria, on the 12th of April, was regarded by Austria as a menace. 
 Klrvrn days afterwards (April 23rd) an insulting ultimatum from Count 
 Buol was presented at Turin, and this Count Cavour turned to account by 
 throwing upon Austria all the responsibility of war. 
 
 That same night 120,000 Austrians, under General Gyulai, crossed the 
 Ticino, and the day following, Victor Emmanuel published his proclamation : 
 " Let our war-cry be ' The Independence of Italy.' " 
 
 While these events were happening the British Parliament was in the 
 throes of a dissolution. 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury's Diary for 1859-60 contains fewer entries than at any 
 other period of his life. This is mainly to be accounted for by the fact tliat, 
 side by side with his Journal, but in separate volumes, he wrote, during a 
 part of these years, a running political comment on foreign affairs. 
 
 On the day before Good Friday the day before Baron de Kellersberg 
 delivered Count Buol's ultimatum England was startled by two telegrams, 
 one giving hopes of peace, the other declaring the imminence of war. On 
 that day Lord Shaf tesbury noted in his Diary : 
 
 April 22nd. Have agreed, this week, to do two things which, in ordinary 
 circumstances, I should have refused. I dine out to-night, the evening before Good 
 Friday, and I give a dinner on Saturday a small dinner the evening before 
 Easter Sunday. And why 1 The state of affairs is very serious ; it is of import- 
 ance that our Government be well affected to Sardinia. The Marquis Massimo 
 d'Azeglio is arrived on a special mission. Malmesbury, having but one day, 
 invites me to meet him at dinner. My known sentiments towards Sardinia are 
 thus recognised by the Minister as those he is not afraid to countenance ; and I 
 may, too, have an opportunity of dropping " a word in season." Why the other? 
 Because it is the sole occasion within reach of possibility, of bringing Azeglio 
 and Delane* into communication. Ten thousand misconceptions may be thus 
 removed, and ten thousand truths established, towards the defence of Sardinian 
 freedom and the maintenance of European peace. 
 
 The sympathies of Lord Shaf tesbury were keenly excited on behalf of 
 Sardinia, and lie wrote a letter to urge all who " took an interest in the 
 blessings of civil and religious liberty to come forward and express their 
 sympathy in this just and noble cause." That letter gave rise to a consider- 
 able . amount of adverse criticism, and brought to Lord Shaf tesbury a large 
 increase of public work. 
 
 It was when all Europe was agitated by the approach of this great con- 
 flict, that the Conservative Government thought fit to bring in a Reform Bill. 
 At the close of the debate on the second reading (March 31) the Ministry of 
 Lord Derby was defeated by a majority of thirty-nine and an appeal to the 
 country followed ; the elections taking place during the most critical period 
 of the war. The result of the elections was a gain to the Conservatives, 
 but so small that, at a meeting of the chiefs of the Liberal party, in 
 
 * Editor of the Timet-
 
 658 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXV. 
 
 Willis's Rooms, it wiis agreed to move a vote of " No confidence " in the 
 Ministry. This was done by the Marquis of Hartington, and after a long 
 and stormy debate, lasting for three nights, the division showed a majority 
 of thirteen in favour of his motion. 
 
 Lord Granville was sent for to form a Ministry, as the Queen felt it to 
 be " a very invidious and unwelcome task " to choose between " two states- 
 men so full of years and honours, and possessing so just a claim on her con- 
 sideration," as Lord Palmerston and Lord John Russell. Lord G-ranville, 
 however, was unsuccessful in his attempt. Lord John Rnssell would not 
 serve under him, but expressed his willingness to serve under his old rival, 
 Lord Palmerston ; and, eventually, Lord Palmerston again became Prime 
 Minister, and held that office to the end of his life. 
 
 These events are referred to in the Diary as follows : 
 
 May 31st. London. A struggle is at hand, and an issue to be tried on a vote 
 of want of confidence. I could vote it readily, cheerfully, conscientiously, as 
 against the present Cabinet ; and then I could do the same against those who 
 should have replaced them. Palmerston alone would inspire me with hope; 
 for I believe him to wish well, to desire to act well, and to be resolved to be well, 
 with the real and permanent interests of England. 
 
 I cannot feel the same of any other man in Parliament. He may not have 
 been always so ; but he is so now. He is far from young, he is satiated with 
 office, he is happy at home, and independent of all pecuniary and social necessities. 
 Hence Le can afford to be honest, unselfish, and patriotic. 
 
 June loth. Since this, a defeat of another kind. Derby, by the House of 
 Commons, and Palmerston, after a few hours' effort by Lord Granville, with, as he 
 said, the ardent desire of the Queen, appointed to form a Government. 
 
 June 21st. The Ministry is formed and on a very wide basis. To form a 
 Ministry in any other way would have been impossible ; it was a choice of evils, 
 a choice of dangers ; and Palmerston wisely took the lesser of the two. 
 
 He has Radicals, Tractarians, Whigs, and himself. There are elements of 
 discord, rivalry, intrigue, ambition ; but there is no apparent necessity why they 
 should break out. The " talking " power of the Cabinet, especially in the House 
 of Commons, is very great, perhaps too great for steady and easy deliberation when 
 in council, and for unity of action in public. 
 
 Yet, if Palmerston were removed, the whole thing would be an agglomeration 
 (and nothing more) of molecules floating in various, and ever opposite, directions. 
 
 The peculiar position Lord Shaftesbury maintained in the political world ; 
 his wide acquaintance with the state of feeling among all classes in the 
 country, and the transparency and integrity of his character, made him to be 
 sought by men of all nationalities and all shades of opinion, and his advice to 
 be held in high esteem. It was thus that, in the midst of the crisis in Italy, 
 Count de Persigny, the French Ambassador, and others, were anxious to have 
 the expression of his views, and this involved him in much interesting and 
 important correspondence. 
 
 In the autumn o this year, while the struggle for freedom was still pro-
 
 1859.1 ITALIAN LIBERTY. 559 
 
 greasing in Italy, and the final consummation was awaited with feverish 
 anxiety, it occurred to certain leading- Italians that it would be desirable to 
 concentrate and organise the sympathies of England in their cause, by the 
 formation of a Committee to be presided over by some leading Englishmen ; 
 a 1 i-t tor, signed by Messrs. Avesani, Rocca, and others, was sent to Lord 
 Shaftosbury, requesting him to take this position. 
 
 " It is generous " (they wrote) " for England to show so warm a 
 sympathy ; and it would bo of great service to the Italians that this great 
 nation, which has preceded every other in the path of all liberties, should 
 make it felt in an efficacious manner. We trust in you, my Lord ; allow us to 
 keep this trust." 
 
 In replying to this appeal Lord Shaftesbury expressed his sense of the 
 great honour done to him in soliciting his name for such a purpose, and 
 added: 
 
 If I could take the same view as you do of my position and influence, I should 
 not hesitate, even for a moment, to accept the post that your confidence has 
 offered to me. The claims, nay, more, the just demands of Italy on the sympathy 
 and co-operation of Englishmen, are such that it seems impossible for any one, be 
 he great or be he small, to hold back any support that it might be in his power 
 to bestow. Your case and our own are very similar : we long and ardently 
 desired the blessings of civil and religious liberty. To obtain them, we pot rid of 
 our obnoxious rulers, chose those who should succeed them, and established u. form 
 of government differing as little as possible from that to which we were habitu- 
 ated, and all this was done without bloodshed, without violence, without rapine, 
 without confusion, or even disturbance of the order of daily life, and simply by 
 the will of a united people determined to be free. 
 
 Your course has been the same. But great as was our conduct, yours has 
 hitherto been far greater. We had long enjoyed the form, and oftentimes the 
 exercise, of free institutions ; the principle and practice of them were familiar to 
 us. But liberty came upon you like a thunderclap, and yet she found you as 
 orderly, peaceable, ready, as alive to the blessings she gives, and the duties she 
 imposes, as though you had been trained to them from your very cradles. So 
 intense is the effect that simply the love of national freedom can produce on the 
 understandings and the hearts of men. 
 
 We were told that you did not care for liberty, and that you had not courage 
 to assert it. We were told that yon were unfit for self-government, and that 
 Austrian bayonets were necessary to save your beautiful land from bloodshed, 
 plunder, and anarchy, by your own people. We were told that your mutual 
 hatreds and jealousies were such that no one State, no one city, could be in har- 
 mony with another. What, in fact, were we not told to your detriment and 
 dishonour 1 Many believed what they heard. I did so at one time myself, but 
 who can wonder at it 1 What precedent -had history afforded of so apparently 
 sudden a fitness for the exercise of the greatest of human callings the exercise 
 of civil and religious freedom ? A nation seemed to be born in a day, born at 
 once, in its full moral stature, with all the powers of self-control, without which 
 there never was, and there never will be. any true or lasting liberty. 
 
 This letter a portion of which only is given above croated a groat
 
 560 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXV. 
 
 impression in Italy. Although the question of Chairmanship, and indeed of 
 the formation of the Committee, was waived until its functions should be 
 more clearly denned, Lord Shaftesbuiy's letter was copied into all the papers, 
 and the Times, in a leading article, gave currency to the idea that there was 
 " something about a committee and a subscription-list which does not quite 
 harmonise with a great national assertion of independence." The gentlemen 
 who had signed the appeal to Lord Shaftesbury lost no time in repudiating 
 the misconstruction that the Times had put upon their motives ; but it was 
 too late to eradicate the unfavourable impression that had been produced, and 
 in the end, as " these things, if not taken up at once and by acclamation," lose 
 their force, Lord Shaftesbury prevailed upon the memorialists to abandon the 
 project. 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury's sympathy was much appreciated by Garibaldi, who 
 wrote to him, in Italian, translated as follows : 
 
 General Garibaldi to Lord Shaftesbury. 
 
 December 12th, 1859. 
 
 MY LORD, You have, in two letters published in the journals, done justice to 
 the Italians, and have assumed the patronage of their noble cause, dear to the 
 English. I express to you, in the .aame of my country, the deepest sense of 
 gratitude. Don't desist, my Lord, from this patronage at the present moment. 
 I made an appeal to the Italians, and they worthily responded ; I know that the 
 English also want to respond. Shall I not see you at the head of this movement 
 of national sympathy ? I say of sympathy, because it would be indecorous for us 
 to demand from the English that grand material assistance that it is the duty of 
 the Italians only to give to their own cause. You will acquire the greatest title 
 to the eternal gratitude of this country. Accept, my Lord, that of a soldier and 
 your devoted 
 
 G. GARIBALDI. 
 
 Owing to a long pending discussion, with regard to a Peace Congress for 
 settling the affairs of Italy, it was not until January that Lord Shaftesbury 
 replied to Garibaldi's letter. 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury to General Garibaldi, 
 
 LONDON, Jan. 12th, 1860. 
 
 DEAR SIGNOR GARIBALDI, Your letter, dated 12th Dec., has hitherto 
 remained unanswered, because, so long as the Congress was in prospect, I was 
 unable to see clearly what course to pursue. 
 
 Now that the Congress is indefinitely postponed, I can more easily perceive 
 the way to obtain that expression of sympathy on the part of the British people 
 that you so reasonably and so earnestly desire. 
 
 Italy, we rejoice to hear from you, has nobly done her duty in the response she 
 has made to your appeal for material succour. I trust that England will not be 
 less ready to give what you ask of her, the moral support derived from the 
 manifestation of the hearty approbation and ardent prayers of a free people. 
 
 But to obtain this fully, authentically, unmistakably, you should come your- 
 Belf in person to receive it. My friends whom I have consulted, concur with me
 
 I860.] LKTTER TO COUNT CAVOUR. 561 
 
 in saying that your presence here, as the representative of a generous and 
 oppressed people struggling for civil and religious liberty, would call forth such 
 an expression of national feeling as would be, if possible, equal to the occasion, 
 and to your own merits, 
 
 Believe me to be 
 
 Your faithful friend and servant, 
 
 SHAFTESBCBY. 
 
 That invitation Garibaldi was not able, for the present, to accept. It was 
 not until April, 1864, that an opportunity presented itself for him to visit 
 this country, and when he did so, Lord Shaftesbury was among the first to 
 welcome him, and was his constant companion throughout the whole of his 
 vi-it. 
 
 Garibaldi was not the only leader who appreciated and acknowledged 
 Lord Shaftesbury's services on behalf of Italy. Cavour wrote also, and in 
 very similar terms, to thank him for what he had done, and to urge him to 
 still use his best endeavours to obtain for Italy the moral support of 
 England. 
 
 When, in July, 1869, the Peace of Villafraiica was suddenly concluded, 
 Cavour, disappointed, had retired from office ; but on the 21st January, 1860, 
 he was recalled, nominally by the King, but really by the people. This was 
 at the time that the annexation of Savoy and Nice to France was first 
 mooted. To these events the following letter refers : 
 
 Lord Shafteslury to Count Carour. 
 
 LONDOK, Feb. 3rd, 1860. 
 
 MY DEAB COUNT CAVOtra, The feeling in England among all classes who 
 desire the welfare of Italy, is one of joy and gratitude to God for your return to 
 office. 
 
 No one can entertain that feeling more strongly than I do. I congratulate 
 not you, but your country on this happy event ; and most heartily do I pray that 
 it may lead to the secure establishment of civil and religious liberty throughout 
 every portion of the land where the Italian tongue is spoken. 
 
 But may I add one word of entreaty (which word would be, not only mine, 
 but that of the great majority of my fellow-citizens), that you will never listen 
 to .any scheme for the separation of Nice and Savoy from the Crown of Sardinia. 
 We, here in Great Britain, loathe the very thought of it. We think that it would 
 tarni<h very much the motives and conduct of the Emperor of the French ; and, 
 not a little, the motives and conduct of the Sardinian Government. It would 
 throw a stain on the whole efforts for National Independence ; and entirely 
 alienate the affections of Englishmen. 
 
 We hate the traffic in the rights and freedom of peoples, as we hate the traffic 
 in slavery and human flesh. And we protest against anything that shall substi- 
 tute the influence of France for the influence of Austria, and jeopardise, in any 
 in. ;>~ure, the peace, comfort, and security of the Swiss Republic. 
 
 Pray excuse me for thus writing to you ; it is forced on me by the very deep 
 K K
 
 562 THE EAKL OF SHAFTKSBUKY. [CHAP. XXV 
 
 respect I have for yourself, and the intense interest I feel for the honour and 
 welfare of Italy. 
 
 Believe me, 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 SHAFTESBDRY. 
 
 A few days after this letter was written the Marquis of Normauby moved, 
 in the House of Lords, an address to the Queen, praying her to direct her 
 Government to use their best endeavours to prevent the transfer of Savoy and 
 Nice to France. Lord Shaftesbury supported that motion in a speech which 
 the newspapers characterised as " a noble burst of eloquent indignation." It 
 is thus referred to in his Diary : 
 
 Feb. 8th, 1860. Spoke last night in House of Lords on Normanby's motion 
 relative to annexation of Savoy. Felt deeply, spoke strongly, perhaps impru- 
 dently ; but my object was to state the truth, as felt by the people of England, 
 untrammelled by the legitimate caution of ministers and would-be ministers. 
 
 He brought a series of powerful arguments against the proposal, and in 
 concluding said : 
 
 To the latest hour of my life I will protest against handing over a nation that 
 enjoys free institutions to a government under a despotic dynasty ; and against 
 handing over a free people, bound hand and foot, to a country where they can 
 enjoy no free expression of opinion, or, if guaranteed that expression of opinion, 
 can exercise no power in giving it practical effect. I protest against a country 
 where religious liberty is proclaimed; being handed over to a nation where religious 
 liberty, if proclaimed, is often violated ; and I protest also, against the policy of 
 treating nations like flocks of sheep, and making them, regardless of their 
 consent, the subjects of barter and exchange. We in this country have long 
 protested against the traffic in human flesh ; I equally protest against any traffic 
 in human or national rights. 
 
 The motion was opposed by the Government, and withdrawn. The soquol 
 is matter of history. Oil the 23rd of April the voting in Savoy and Nice on 
 the question of annexation to Franco, closed. In Savoy, 130,533 voted in 
 favour, and 235 against ; iii Nice the votes were 25,743 for annexation, and 
 160 against it. 
 
 Before passing away from the subject of Italian affairs we must givo ;i 
 few extracts from the Diary, more especially those relating to Garibaldi, of 
 whom Lord Shaftesbury said, in a letter to a friend, " He seems to me to bo 
 one of the noblest fellows that ever lived ; just the sort of man that the 
 English people ought to reverence and support." 
 
 May 26th, IbGO. St. Giles's. How I wish that I could keep an account, for 
 refreshment of memory, of all that occurs ; of the rejection, by the House of 
 Lords, of the Paper Duty Bills ; of the wise contempt with which the House of 
 Commons treated all who endeavoured to stir it into fury ; of Garibaldi's heroic 
 effort to deliver Sicily ; of my equally heroic effort to save the Commission in
 
 1860.1 KKUCIOUS SERVICES IN THEATRES. 563 
 
 Lunacy, by once more thrusting my head into the lion's mouth and going to give 
 evidence before- the Committee. 
 
 June 7th. London. I had better give up my book can find no time to 
 record anything. 
 
 June 12th. Garibaldi has achieved wonderful results. It seems to me that 
 God's protecting and accompanying power has repeated for Mm the miracle of 
 Gideon and his three hundred. The greatness of his exploite is eclipsed by th 
 greatness of his character : truth, simplicity, disinterestedness, and humanity, 
 are stamped on every action. 
 
 My heart has been with him all along. It is now with him more than ever. 
 Legal reasons, political and politic reasons, have kept down open expression ; 
 but now, that he has wrought independence, has established a de facto govern- 
 ment, has made a treaty on equal terms with the King of Naples, who, thereby, 
 admits his position, we may, surely, signify our deep sympathy with the cause, 
 and our personal admiration for the man 1 
 
 Dec. 1st. Buusen is dead. I knew him well, and who could help loving 
 him? 
 
 Although the affairs of Italy occupied much of Lord Shaftesbury's time 
 during 1 1859-60, he was breaking fresh ground in many other directions. In 
 Syria the hostility of the Druses to the Marouites and the dispatch of forces 
 to maintain the peace there caused him much anxiety and labour, and, in 
 putting a question to the Foreign Secretary in the House of Lords, as to 
 wliflhrr I ho authorities of the force sent to Syria were to interfere directly 
 or indirectly with civil and religious affairs, affecting either Moslems or 
 Christians, he did not disguise in the course of a long and graphic speech 
 in which he set forth the whole position of Christians in Syria the fact, 
 that liis desire to obtain an answer arose " from the insuperable distrust he 
 felt towards his Majesty the Emperor of the French." 
 
 There "were matters nearer home, however, that called forth his energies. 
 The Special Sunday Evening Services, at Exeter Hall, inaugurated by Lord 
 Shai'tesbury and the "Palmerston Bishops" had proved successful beyond all 
 anticipation. The interest in the services, instead of flagging, grew greater 
 every Sunday, and it was now a question how to extend similar efforts, so 
 that, on the one hand, the lowest of the low the classes to whom the Gospel 
 was never, or very rarely preached, could be gathered together and, on the 
 other hand, how an interest in the Gospel could bo awakened in the middle 
 and upper classes who had "cared for none of these things." To reach the 
 latter, a series of Special Evening Services was held in Westminster Abbey 
 and St. Paul's Cathedral ; and for the former, Sunday Evening Services were 
 commenced in the theatres of the metropolis. Both of these movements 
 sprang directly from the Exeter Hall Services. 
 
 In the Theatre Services Lord SJiaftesbury took the greatest possible 
 interest. They were originated by Mr. Sawell of the London City Mission, 
 who was an energetic co-worker with Lord Shaftcsbury in religions and 
 philanthropic matters for some thirty years. Mr. Samuel Morley was also 
 one of those who gave invaluable assistance in the formation of the scheme. 
 
 K K 2
 
 564 THK EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXV. 
 
 Bui as soon as it was in working order, Lord Sliaftesbury stood ai the helm 
 to direct the progress of the whole movement ; he bore the brunt of the battle 
 in their defence, and lie reaped the harvest that was sown, inasmuch as the 
 good that was done, was done to those who belonged to himself the poor, 
 the wretched, and the abandoned. 
 
 In January, I860, five theatres were opened for religious worship. The 
 Victoria (in the New Cut), the Britannia (Hoxton), the Gcirrick (White- 
 rliapel), Sadler's Wells (Islington), and another. By the middle of February 
 seven theatres were opened, and the average attendance was 20,700 eacli 
 night. Allowing a deduction of ton per cent, for people coming from mere 
 curiosity, there were 18,630 persons listening to the Word of God who had 
 probably never frequented any place of public worship before. 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury frequently " assisted " in the services at the various 
 theatres, and especially at the Victoria Theatre. It was a strange sight that 
 met his gaze as he looked in at the theatre just before the first service that 
 ho attended there ; stranger still, as he stood upon the stage, facing the foot- 
 lights, Bible in hand, and read a chapter of the " sweet story of old." 
 From floor to ceiling the vast house was thronged ; in boxes, stalls, pit, ai_d 
 gallery, were costermongers, street cadgers and labourers ; women in flutter- 
 ing rags, many with babies in their arms ; boys in their shirt-sleeves and 
 corduroys ; young men and maidens in their gaudy " Sunday best ; " and horo 
 and there a few persons in attire denoting that they belonged to the " better " 
 classes. At the opening of the service there had been much confusion. No 
 shrill whistles, no slang cries or cat-calls, no roars of laughter, as on the 
 evenings when the audience waited for the curtain to rise on some bloodtlii rsf y 
 melodrama ; but conversation, interspersed with disputes about room, or 
 priority of claim. When the first hymn was sung there had again been some 
 little confusion ; it was a novelty to the people. The simple lively airs of tlie 
 American evangelists had not yet been heard. When, therefore, the first 
 verse of the Old Hundredth was attempted, it fell flat, and seemed to provoke 
 merriment. The words of the hymn were not known, a vast number of the 
 people could not read, many had no idea of tune, still more had no idea of 
 linn 1 . But, before the fourth verso had finished, many who had hitherto been 
 shy of lifting up their voices, or were unfamiliar with the tune, joined in, and 
 the fifth verso concluded with a triumphant roar! 
 
 When the opening prayer was offered, a few attempted to kneel, a largo 
 number buried their faces in their hands or their hats, or, in the front rows, 
 laid their heads on their sleeveless jackets some turned their backs to the 
 stage, and some to the gallery, but throughout the whole house the silence 
 was intense, solemn, and striking. 
 
 There was a buzz of approbation when Lord Shaftesbury rose to read the 
 lessons ; but there was good taste enough in the audience to confine itself to 
 that quiet demonstration of approval. 
 
 It is recorded in the book of Ezra that when, on a great historical occasion, 
 the people were gathered together to hear the Book of the Law, the priests
 
 BPKKCH OX TT1EATRK SERVICES. fiO?5 
 
 " read iii tho hook of the law of God iHstlm-fly, and gave the scnac, and caused 
 them to understand the rcadiny."* This is exactly what Lord Shaftesbury did, 
 ami what so very many ministers unhappily fail to do. He was an excellent 
 reader, and whether to tho little village congregation at St. Giles's, where he 
 invariably read the lessons when staying at his country seat, or in the vast 
 theatres of London, where for many years he frequently did the same, he 
 " caused the people to understand," and thereby touched their hearts and 
 ruiisi-ii'ucos. 
 
 The strangest sight of all that night, was seen when the preacher, having 
 given out a text, told the simple story of the Gospel of Christ. The people 
 listened with extraordinary attention, as if they had never heard of the subject 
 before ; and, as one of the preachers at these Theatre Services, describing a 
 similar occasion, said, " Down their pale cheeks, that had once blushed, and 
 from tlirir eyes still retaining their lustre, tears flow, and occasionally over 
 all the audience a stillness reigns, that proves reality to bo more effective 
 than fiction, and the story of a Cross erected on a Judean hill 1,800 years ago 
 to have lost none of its power." 
 
 It soon became apparent that these services were accomplishing a vast 
 amount of good. They attracted thousands of tho poor, whoso rags and 
 tattars prevented them, even if they had the desire, from attending the 
 regular places of worship. They stood in relation to churches as ragged 
 schools stood in relation to other places of education. Their scope is described 
 by Lord Shaf tesbury thus : 
 
 To aid the progress of the general improvement is the object of these Special 
 Srrvic.es. No one contemplates them as a permanent system : our desire is to 
 fell the trees, to clear the jungle, to remove impediments. We hope to bring: 
 thousands of our ignorant and neglected brethren to think about Christianity. 
 I Living learned it, they will, we trust, pursue it; and, rising above their attend- 
 ance at the theatre, attach themselves to the Church of England, or some one or 
 other of the recognised and established forms of worship. 
 
 It need hardly be said that those religious services in theatres did not 
 meet with universal approval. On February the 24th, in the House of Lords, 
 Lord Dunirannon rose "To call attention to the performance of Divino 
 Serviee at Sadler's Wells and other theatres by clergymen of the Church of 
 Knglnnd on Sunday evenings; and to move a resolution that such services, 
 being highly irregular and inconsistent with order, are calculated to injuro 
 rat tier than advance the progress of sound religious principles in tho metro- 
 polis and throughout the country." 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury, " the only culprit in the House, and one of the principal 
 movers in originating these services," replied. His speech wa.s tho most 
 novel and interesting of its kind ever heard in that august House. For two 
 fir three hours his audience were riveted as, in picturesque language, and with 
 unsurpassed earnestness, lie told the wholo story of the movement. He met 
 
 Ezra viii. a
 
 566 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. [CnAp. XXV. 
 
 the argument that between these services and the associations connected with 
 a theatre there was an utter incongruity, by explaining that the class of 
 oeoplo attending them had the greatest possible repugnance to either a church 
 or chapel: that everything had been done to procure other buildings, but 
 without success; and, although music-halls might have been hired, these 
 places were rejected because, in almost every instance, they were connected 
 with taverns. He denied that there had been any disorder of any kind at any 
 of the services, and quoted letters from Sir Richard Mayne, the chief of the 
 police, testifying that at every service the people had conducted themselves 
 with the greatest propriety. Lord Shaftesbury examined the argument of 
 opponents that these services tended to draw people from the churches and 
 chapels they ordinarily attended, and refuted it by abundant letters from 
 clergymen and ministers of churches in the neighbour! lood of the theatres. 
 
 In combating the assertion that these services were endangering the 
 Church, he produced ample testimony from clergymen who had pai-ticipated 
 in them, that the reverse appeared to be the case. 
 
 In concluding his remarks, he said : 
 
 My lords, you must perceive the rising 1 struggle to preach the Gospel among 
 this mighty mass of human beings. Can you be indifferent to it ? I ask whether 
 you are prepared, as members of the Church of England, to see the Church stand 
 aloof, and the whole of this movement given up exclusively to the Dissenters 1 
 Will you say to those destitute and hungering 1 men, " We can give you no sort of 
 food. Come, if you like, to episcopal churches and chapels, and there you shall 
 be preached to in stiff, steady, buckram style. We will have you within walls, 
 consecrated in due and official form ; otherwise you shall never hear, from us at 
 least, one word of Gospel truth." Are you prepared to admit that the Church of 
 England, despite the pressing and fearful necessity, is bound so tightly by rule 
 and rubric, and law and custom, that she can do none of the work ? Will you 
 say, " We have not a sufficient force of clergymen ; we have not churches or 
 chapels ; we have no money to ordain and support the ministers of religion ? " 
 In that case the people who are benefited by these services will reply, " Let the 
 Nonconformists, then, do the work, but let the Church of England take up her 
 real position as the Church of a sect, and not that of the nation ; she has been 
 applied to and found wanting, and let us follow those who have called us to the 
 knowledge of the truth." 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury was ably supported in the debate by Earl Granvillo mid 
 the Bishop of Llandaff, the burden of whose remarks was, "If this thing be 
 of God, who are we that we should withstand it ? and if it be of men, it will 
 surely come to nought;" and eventually Lord Dungannon withdrew his 
 motion. 
 
 Christianity in India was, as we have seen, at this time a subject impressed 
 on the heart of Lord Shaftesbury, and at many meetings he urged the neces- 
 sity of a constant and consistent acknowledgment of Christianity on the part 
 of the Government. 
 
 In March an important Conference on Missions was held in Liverpool,
 
 .am.) COXFKRKNCK ON MISSIONS. /G7 
 
 where Lord Slmftosbury was in tlie chair, and Sir Herbert Edwardes, Iresli 
 from India, a chief speaker. Many wore the lessons drawn on that occasion 
 fnnii the Mutiny, its causes and its suppression, bearing on the national 
 iv~ji,,Msibility to elevate aud Christianise the people of India. Lord Shaftes- 
 bury embraced the opportunity to deprecate the Government neutrality in 
 religion, which had already issued in such fatal results. He said : 
 
 Well do I remember the time when the Mutiny in India had carried terror to 
 every man's heart. Well do I recollect how many men, who cared no more for 
 Christianity than for the ground they walked on, said to me, " Clear it is that 
 nothing is left for the saving of the Empire but that the people should be 
 Christianised. We must introduce the Christian religion among them." The 
 Mutiny subsided, and so subsided their convictions, and a greater deadness 
 ensued after the Mutiny than existed before it ; and soon shall we lapse into 
 that nondescript, that inconceivable, that wild condition called "Government 
 neutrality." Recollect, my friends, that Government neutrality will shortly 
 become national neutrality ; that Government indifference will shortly become 
 national indifference ; ay, and that Government sin will shortly become national 
 sin. After all, what is neutrality ? Neutrality is a word you may read in the 
 dictionary, and neutrality is a thing you may find in the grammar ; but neutrality 
 in the moral life of a man is a thing that cannot have existence. Politicians 
 talk of neutrality because they delight in mutual mj-stifications. But neutrality 
 in religion is imponfille. A man must either believe or disl>elieve. If he dis- 
 believes, he is an infidel, and that is the end of the matter ; if he believes, he is 
 bound, by every consideration of heaven and earth, with all his soul, with all his 
 heart, with all his mind, to labour that the Word of the Lord may have free 
 coarse and lie glorified. . . . 
 
 In Jnne the Ragged School Teachers of London made a presentation to 
 Lord Shaftesliury at St. Martin's Hall, as a token of their affection and 
 gratitude, of an oil-painting illustrative of the benefits of the Shoe-Black 
 Movement. It was accompanied by an elegantly-bound volume, containing 
 an address beautifully engrossed, to which was appended tho signatures of no 
 less than 1,700 of tho subscribers. 
 
 The signatures were those of all sorts and conditions of men, showing 
 how widely tho Ragged School movement had extended its influence. They 
 im-liuled the names of clergymen, bankers, solicitors, merchants, and others 
 of a like station ; but a much larger proportion consisted of clerks and 
 agents, grocers and gardeners, cooks and cow-keepers, hosiers and hatters, 
 plasterers and polishers, and the like, no fewer than 120 honourable mechanical 
 employments being represented. 
 
 In replying to the address, Lord Shaftesbury said 
 
 I would rather be President of the Ragged School Union than have the 
 command of armies or wield the destiny of empires. That volume, with its 
 valuable collection of signatures, may go among ancient family records, and it 
 will show to our posterity that some have been good enough to say that I have 
 not been altogether useless in my generation.
 
 568 THE KARL OF SIIAFTKSBUnY. [Cii M-. XXV. 
 
 The painting 1 was honoured with a position over tho mantelpiece in the 
 dining-room at Grosvenor Square ; the volume was kept in a case in the 
 room, and both were shown with pride and pleasure to visitors to the very 
 close of his life. 
 
 On the 6th of August about 4,000 persons assembled in the Free Trade 
 [Hall, at Manchester, to witness the presentation to the Countess of Shaftes- 
 ' bnry of an address and a fine marble bust of the noble Earl, as a testimonial 
 of the gratitude of the Factory Operatives for Ms powerful advocacy of the 
 Ten Hours Bill. 
 
 The Countess, in acknowledging the presentation, said : " My good friends, 
 it will not require many words from me to express the deep and heartfelt, 
 gratitude with which I receive the testimonial of your respect and affection. 
 I prize it highly, as coming from a large body of my countrymen, whose 
 character for intelligence and morality qualifies them to estimate at their true 
 value any efforts made for the welfare of the community. You will believe, 
 I am sure, that, having watched the progress of your exertions with lively 
 interest, I warmly rejoiced in your success ; and it is my fervent prayer to 
 God that it may be blessed through many generations to you and to your 
 children." 
 
 The bust, by Mr. M. Noble, besides being au admirable likeness, was an 
 exquisite work of art, and it was gratifying to know that the cost of il \v;is 
 defrayed by a collection, almost entirely in pence, from the Operatives. 
 
 Sept. 17th. St. Giles's. I wish I had recorded, at the time, when both my 
 feelings and my memory were fresh, the presentation of the picture and address 
 by the Ragged School Teachers, in St. Martin's Hall ; and of the bust, by the 
 Northern Operatives, in the Free Trade Hall, Manchester. Striking, important, 
 affecting celebrations both of them ; perhaps without precedent in our own or 
 any other history. I give Thee thanks, Lord. 
 
 The bust was erected on Wednesday, the 14th, in Stone Hall, of St. Giles's 
 House, under the eye of Noble the sculptor. 
 
 Sept. 23rd. The Saint. Last season in London, my daughters, all four, with 
 Mile. Krause, their excellent governess, attended twice a week at the Orthopaedic 
 Hospital, to tend the young cripples, and read to them. It was signally successful, 
 and blessed, by God's grace, to the teachers and the taught. Never have I felt 
 more joy than to see, that the more wretched the object, the more degraded and 
 helpless the sufferer, the greater the sympathy of my children, and the greater 
 their devotion. " Every good and perfect gift cometh down from above " I 
 
 The Third Annual Social Science Congress was held at Bradford, on the 
 10th of October. Lord Shaftesbury was President of the Association, and 
 Lord Brougham President of the Council. For the first time in his life 
 Lord Shaftesbury read his speech, in which he commented upon the subject 
 matter to be dealt with in each department and section, with a view to show 
 that all the subjects ran into each other towards the one end the well-being 
 of mankind. The paper occupied an hour and a half in reading, and was 
 received with enthusiastic applause.
 
 IRfiO.) PREPARATION OP SPEECHES. 569 
 
 Of the hundreds and thousands of speeches that Lord Shaftesbnry had 
 maile upon every conceivable subject, he was always guided in their prepara- 
 tion by a few simple rules, to which he remained faithful to tho end of his 
 career. He did not write his speeches and never accustomed himself to 
 trust to notes. He got together all his evidence and everything he wished to 
 quote, and these he put in shape, but the connecting matter he never for- 
 mally prepared. He thought the subject well over, made himself master of 
 the facts, and trusted for the rest to the inspiration of the moment. In one 
 or two instances, when he had to speak in the House of Lords (where, less 
 than anywhere else, he felt the requisite inspiration), he committed his speech 
 to memory, nearly word for word, and then handed the MS., to which, how- 
 ever, he never referred, to tho reporters for publication, when he was specially 
 anxious for an accurate report. It was a saying of his, that, for an ordinary 
 speech, it was not of great consequence how it was commenced, but it was 
 ll-important how it ended, and he almost always, therefore, prepared his 
 peroration, sometimes committing it to memory. 
 
 As the years advanced, certain chai-acteristics which had been developed 
 in early life became more and more pronounced. " My temperament is pain- 
 fully susceptible," he wrote in the autumn of this year; "I am very soon 
 elated, and as rapidly depressed, both in extremes : at one moment in the 
 highest joy, then in the deepest despair." Towards <he close of the year he 
 wrote : 
 
 Dec. 20th. A man verging upon sixty must expect disappointments. And so 
 I do. Yet, nevertheless, I have many moments of aspiration and hope. Though 
 sometimes faint and feeble almost to inanition, I am, at other times, vigorous, 
 lively, and forward, as in the best days of my youth ; and I feel a singular 
 reluctance to withdraw from the field, dark and dismal though it be, while there 
 appears the smallest opening to do God's service. Man must not estimate what 
 good can be done by his own proportion of big and little. God called me to the 
 relief of the factory population, and gave me strength accordingly. The work 
 was great and conspicuous. He may call me to some obscure, inferior, and, 
 humanly speaking, paltry effort. The work may be short and without honour. 
 Yet, at the day of final account, the last may be more than the first ; ' the 
 gleanings of the grapes of Ephraim may be worth all the vintage of Abi-ezer." 
 
 This is why I cannot resolve to retire, though I see clouds gathering around, 
 and, within and without, am not what I was.
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 18611863. 
 
 ON the 28th of February, 1861, the Earl of Derby brought under the notice 
 of the House of Lords the subject of the displacement of labourers in conse- 
 quence of great metropolitan works and improvements. 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury welcomed the consideration of the subject, and referring 
 to his efforts in 1853, said, that the attempt to place the responsibility on the 
 parties undertaking these great works had failed, the more reports ordered 
 to be made having proved utterly useless. There were at that moment seven 
 bills before Parliament, which, if carried, would authorise 1,145 houses to bo 
 demolished, and this would displace 5,422 persons, while the 200 Improve- 
 ment Bills promised for this session would caiise ravages " as great as if a 
 foreign army had invaded the country, plundered the inhabitants, and dis- 
 persed them in all directions." He drew a lively picture of the panic result- 
 ing, in poor districts, from sudden notice to quit, of the loss of time in 
 seeking for new homes, and of the inevitable rush, at the last moment, into 
 already overcrowded localities. As to the proposal to establish suburban 
 villages for the poor, he contended that it was absolutely necessary that the 
 labouring man should be near the scene of his work, and the woman, too, who 
 earned small sums to supplement the husband's wages. 
 
 A short debate ensued, but no conclusion was arrived at, except that the 
 petitions referring to the matter should be ordered to lie on the table. On 
 March the 21st, however, Lord Shaftesbury returned to the charge, and 
 moved an addition to the Standing Orders, for the purpose of providing that 
 the report, made by the promoters of railway and other bills, of the number 
 of houses and inhabitants displaced, should be referred to the Select Com- 
 mittee on each Bill, who should inquire into, and report on, the same. In 
 supporting this proposal, he pointed out that, unless something was speedily 
 done, great moral, financial, and even political, mischief would ensue. From 
 personal inspection he could say, that the proposed improvements would 
 displace a quiet, orderly, decent population, and inflict absolute ruin on many. 
 To arrange for cheap trains for workmen was giving a stone when they asked 
 for bread. The proposed suburban villages did not meet the present imme- 
 diate need, however beneficial they might bo in the future. He believed good 
 was done by keeping the real state of things constantly before the country, 
 and if the story did not rouse the nation to something like a great and 
 magnanimous effort, " we have come," he said, " to the time when wo must 
 declare there is no foundation of truth whatever in the professing philanthropy 
 and self -glorifying language of the nineteenth century." * 
 * Haimrd'a Debates, 3 s., clxii. 145.
 
 1M1.J SKLKCT COMM[TTKE ON LUNACY. 571 
 
 After some discussion, Lord Shaftosbury's proposal was (with a slight 
 modification) adopted. A fortnight afterwards he addressed the House on 
 the subject of cheap trains for workmen, and advocated these, not as solving 
 tlio difficulty, but as landing to mitigate the evils caused by the demolition () f 
 labourers' homes in the metropolis. It was stated by Lord Redesdale in 
 reply, that, in consequence of the alteration in the Standing Orders on 
 .March tin- -Jl.-t. clauses arranging for such trains to be nm had been inserted 
 in the Railway Bills now before the House, and would serve as guides for the 
 future. 
 
 In Is.VJ Lord 8hafteslmry li:id brought before the House of Lords the 
 subject of erimiiial lunatics, and had urged that a state asylum should be 
 erected for this class, \slio proved a great hindrance to the effective working 
 of the asylums in which they were placed among other patients. Their 
 presence nullified, or at least impeded, the operation of the system of non- 
 reetraint " a system, the great and blessed glory of modern science, which. 
 by the blessing of God, had achieved miracles." * 
 
 On a promise being given by Lord Derby that the subject should not be 
 iirht of, Lord Shaftesbury withdrew his motion. It was not, however, 
 till 1860 that the Act was passed which resulted in the erection of the State 
 Criminal AM him at Broadnioor. 
 
 Meanwhile, in 1859, a panic on the subject of madhouses had arisen in 
 the public mind. A few distressing circumstances, which were made public, 
 were magnified by journalists and novelists to such an extent that an opinion 
 became prevalent that cruelty and injustice once more reigned supreme in 
 Mn^lish asylums. The House of Commons appointed a Select Committee, 
 which, after hearing a large amount of evidence, came to the conclusion that 
 the public asylums were well looked after and carefully attended to." They 
 
 r< iiuueuded, however, that better accommodation should be provided for a 
 
 large proportion of the 68,000 pauper lunatics still detained in the wards of 
 workhouses. 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury was naturally the principal witness examined by the 
 Select Committee, and his evidence gives a succinct history of the whole 
 ;.;/-/// of lunatic asylums from the year 1828, many features of which we 
 have glanced at in the course of this narrative. f 
 
 In 1861 an effort was made to establish a Benevolent Asylum for the 
 Insane of the Middle Classes, especially for those of limited means, and to 
 this movement Lord Shaftesbury gave his full sympathy and practical 
 support. There was a fear prevalent that insanity was on the increase in this 
 country, and the startling fact had become apparent that the lower classes, in 
 cases of mental affliction, were in a greatly better position than the middle 
 classes. The fees in the first-class establishments were prohibitive, and the 
 pauper asylums were already inadequate to meet the demands made upon 
 them. It thus happened that in the great majority of cases, the sufferer 
 
 Hansard, 3 . cxix. 1237. 
 
 t s-i- Mi mi t . - of Evidence of Select Committee of the House of Commons, 1859, p. 6Ti
 
 572 THE KARL OF SHAFTESnURY [CHAP XXVI. 
 
 received no proper treatment at all till the malady became chronic, which, if 
 properly treated at an earlier stage, might only have been temporary. 
 
 The public journals took up the question warmly, especially the Lancet 
 and the result was, that on the 19th of April a public meeting was held in 
 the Freemasons' Hall, under the presidency of Lord Shaftesbury, to discuss 
 the question, and, if possible, to found an asylum for the middle classes. In 
 the course of his speech he graphically pictured the effect of such a calamity 
 as insanity occurring in the families of poor clergymen, half -pay officers, 
 medical men, legal students, young men coming from a distance up to 
 London, with merely enough to sustain them during the period of their 
 studies, clerks in banking-houses, and all those who live by salaries and daily 
 exertions, like governesses and tutors. " What," he asked, " can be worse, or 
 more miserable, than the condition of thoee persons under the affliction of 
 insanity p " 
 
 The whole scope of the proposal was then fully discussed, and much 
 enthusiasm was shown by the audience. Over 760 was subscribed in tho 
 room towards the 5,000 reqtiired to make the first experiment, but, although 
 the whole matter was much applauded at the time, nothing came of it then, 
 and it was apparently allowed to drop. The effort., however, was not without 
 its immediate results, for it aroused public sympathy in the question, and 
 although the sympathy was not shown in the exact manner contemplated by 
 the promoters of the meeting, it gave a stimulus to exertion in other direc- 
 tions, tending to benefit the class for whom this special effort was designed. 
 
 Like much of the bread cast upon the waters by Lord Shaftesbury, it wns 
 " found after many days." Among the audience that day was Mr. Thomas 
 Holloway. The scheme, as unfolded by Lord Shaftesbury, deeply impressed 
 him, and harmonised so completely with his desire to benefit his fellow- 
 citizens without pauperising them, that he resolved, there and then, that, 
 should his prosperity continue, he would himself establish such an institution 
 as had been that day foreshadowed. A quarter of a century later, that is to 
 say, on June the 15th, 1885, the Holloway Sanatorium, in the midst of tho 
 beautiful heath and forest of the district of Virginia Water, was opened by 
 the Prince of Wales, the first of the completed institutions which will be ever 
 associated with Mr. Holloway 's name. Up to that date he had expend. <! 
 300,000 upon that magnificent institution. 
 
 An incident in connection with this matter may be narrated here. lu 
 1864 Lord Shaftesbury received the following letter : 
 
 Mr. J. Bowen May to Lord Shaftesbvry. 
 
 BOLTON HOUSE, RUSSELL SQUARE, 
 
 Uth April, 1864. 
 
 MY LORD, A gentleman, who is possessed of nearly a quarter of a million, is 
 about to make a settlement of it (after providing for his relatives) for charitable 
 uses. 
 
 Knowing your great philanthiopy and your experience in such matters, I
 
 188M CIVIL WAR IN AMEIUCA. 673 
 
 advised him to be guided by jour Lordship as to the disposal of this property, if 
 you would condescend to take an interest in the subject. 
 
 If your Lordship assent, might I ask the favour of an audience? 
 
 I hare the honour to be, 
 Your Lordship's very obedient servant, 
 
 J. BOWEN MAT. 
 
 On the 25th of May in that year Mr. Holloway called on Lord Shaftes- 
 bury. and the question was fully discussed. Mr. Holloway had, prior to that 
 \\^\\. determined to spend the whole of his money on one object, and on one 
 building; but from this course he was dissuaded by Lord Shaftesbury. 
 Mr. I In] lu way died in 1883, two years before the magnificent Sanatorium at 
 Virginia Water was opened, and three years before the opening of the still 
 more magnificent Ladies' College at Egham, founded at a cost of 450,000. 
 
 Whatever mistakes Lord Shaftesbury may have made from time to time 
 in the course of his long career and that he did make mistakes occasionally 
 no one will attempt to gainsay it was not from lack of caution that they, as 
 a rule, occurred. In nine cases out of ten they arose from the misleadings of 
 others. Tin- pitfalls he escaped were out of all proportion to those into which 
 lie f>ll. An illustration may be cited here. 
 
 Affairs in Italy aroused great religious fervour in EngLiud, and efforts 
 were made to spread the knowledge of the Gospel there, by establishing a 
 S..,-i(ty for the Evangelisation of Italy," as though the people were to be 
 treated as heathen-;. 
 
 ( >n the -Jnd of April he wrote to Mr. Haldane apropos to this: 
 
 I have had much conversation with Azeglio. He says to me, on the part of 
 
 ( 'avour, that the Italian Government is most friendly to the great and complete 
 
 circulation of the Scriptures, and to religious liberty ; but that the headstrong 
 
 . .1! <>f many English enthusiasts will compel him to become antagonistic. God 
 
 us true wisdom and true zeal ! 
 
 Only two months later and tho following entry occurs in the Diary : 
 
 June 6th. This day news of the death of Cavour. Victor Emmanuel is 
 loosed from his wi.sc, far-seeing bold, adviser. There will be joy in Vienna, joy 
 in Rome, joy in Berlin, joy in Russia, joy even in London among Derby's host, 
 but sorrow and fear in every heart that hates oppression, wishes well to mankind, 
 and prefers, to all his orical an 1 benumbing traditions of frontiers and monarchies, 
 " to do justice and love mercy." 
 
 I deplore his loss personally. He was ever kind and considerate to me. We 
 never appealed to him in vain to repress ecclesiastical tyranny. * 
 
 In the course of the summer of 1861 civil war broke out in America. It 
 was inevitable that the cotton Mipply. then almost exclusively American, must 
 fail, and India, which should have been able to take up the cultivation, was 
 being desolated by famine. On the .'.th of July, Lord Shaftesbury, in the 
 House of Lords, moved an address to the Crown to extend in India the best
 
 574 tHE EARL OP 8HAFTESBURY. (CHAP. XXVI. 
 
 systems of irrigation and iutomal navigation. His speech was a masterpiece 
 of painstaking research. Ho refers to it thus : 
 
 This evening, in House of Lords, motion on India. Perhaps few of my efforts 
 have cost me so much trouble, to select, cut down, prepare and arrange extracts, 
 statements, and facts. 
 
 Briefly, the case was this : The north-west of India had recently been 
 afflicted by a famine, for the relief of which the British public subscribed 
 more than a hundred thousand pounds; another such visitation was threaten- 
 ing the Madras Presidency. In both cases the result was to be attributed, in 
 great measure, to the fact that rivers, irrigation streams, and canals, had 
 become obstructed ; the tanks and watercourses the glory of native princes 
 had become the reproach of their successors. If the Government were as 
 prompt as the public were liberal, such calamities might be averted throughout 
 the whole empire, and the benefits tints conferred on India would bo abun- 
 dantly returned to England, in the shape of an exhaustloss field of cotton 
 supply, and a boundless market for our manufactures. 
 
 In his speech Lord Shaftesbury said : 
 
 The famine proves unmistakably the defect of irrigation ; and the revolution 
 shows the great hazard to which we are exposed, in depending almost entirely on 
 a single source for the supply of cotton. It is not my intention to put India in 
 the place of America, I indicate it only as one great source, and to say that we 
 might safety be dependent on India alone for our cotton supply ; but the snbjri I, 
 of our cotton supply is worthy of serious reflection, inasmuch as four or five 
 millions of mouths, in tho manufacturing districts, are dependent for their daily 
 bread upon a constant supply of that article. While recognising West African 
 and Australian sources for a portion of our supply, we may, for present purposes, 
 confine our consideration to what may be produced by the territory of India. It 
 is not necessary to enter upon the inquiry whether the famine might have been 
 prevented, or the short supply of cotton foreseen. The fact is, the evils are 
 before us, and we have to consider whether we can do anything to prevent the 
 recurrence of such formidable mischiefs. 
 
 They were timely words, but the House would not join in the Address to 
 the Crown. Nevertheless, Lord Shaftesbury was the first man in Parliament 
 to apprehend and demonstrate that the wealth of India depended upon its 
 waters, that its wealth was wasted by neglecting them, and that it might be 
 indefinitely augmented by utilising them. Ho was, moreover, the pioneer of 
 < hat policy, long since adopted, of not depending only on one source of cotton 
 supply. 
 
 A brief entry in the Diary indicates a wide field of labour, the results of 
 which wore to bo made known a few years later. 
 
 Aug. 15th. Brocket. Obtained, in House of Lords, a renewal of my inquiry 
 instituted twenty years ago, into the labour of children and young persona 
 No notice from many papers and only sneers from others. Yet it is a great ques- 
 tion, and involves much for the happiness, honour, and security of the kingdom. 
 
 While all the labours lef erred to in this and the preceding chapter were iu
 
 1861.) A GREAT SORKOW. 575 
 
 progress, a great sorrow had been gnawing tho heart of Lord Shaftesbury. 
 His beloved daughter, Mary, had been for a long time a great sufferer from 
 hi in,' disease, and was gradually fading out of life. A few of the touching 
 in.-i'Ii'iit s of that long and anxious period of painful suspense, we extract from 
 the Diary : 
 
 Feb. 3rd, 18fil. Torquay. Sunday. Took Lord's Supper with Minny. 
 Thankful, very thankful, to have this opportunity, as we are to be separated 
 to-morrow for a far longer time than has ever yet occurred in our married life. 
 She must remain here with poor dear Mary ; and I must go to re-oommence the 
 work of the Session. Such will be our separation until the month of May, 
 should God permit us to reach that period. To surrender public life, and all the 
 cares of the poor and destitute the ragged race and all the physical and moral 
 sufferings of London and mankind, merely to spare ourselves a little grief and a 
 little anxiety, would not be right, and certainly not satisfactory. I must con- 
 tinue my work so long as God gives me strength, while there is work to be done, 
 not only while it can be done in circumstances pleasant to myself. 
 
 The solitude of my once cheerful house in London will be very great. 
 
 Aug. 10th. A year and a half has Minny nursed this heartrending malady. 
 Her attentions, waitings, watchings, have been incessant. Wound up and let 
 down again ; in joy and despair ; without intermission, repose, change. During 
 the last few days, under singular intensity of doubt, distress, sympathy, terror, 
 she held on until the doctor, last night, declared that he saw and entertained no 
 hope. Then all gave way ; the stream broke its banks ; and power, endurance, 
 almost vitality, ran over, and left her stranded in exhaustion and weakness. Was 
 there ever such a nurse ? Were ever judgment, tact, skill, sympathy, affection, 
 love, so blended, and so administered, before ? 
 
 Aug. I'Oth. Torquay. Old Hooker, that blessed saint of God, lying on hia 
 diMtli-bed, prayed, "Since I owe Thee a death, Lord, let it not be terrible; but 
 Thy will, not mine, be done." And so now I pray on her behalf. 
 
 Aug. 31st. Minny can rest neither day nor night. Yesterday we may say 
 that for twenty hours she was not from her side more than twice ; and each time 
 not more than ten minutes. The mother's devotion to the child, and the child's 
 affection to the mother, are God's own gifts. 
 
 Two things have been, and are still, in my heart a prayer and a wish ; n 
 prayer for a comforting sign of her acceptance in Christ her Saviour ! a wish 
 that she may go out, like my blessed Francis, in the bright day, and not in the 
 darkness and solitude of the night ! 
 
 Sept. 1st. Sunday. Requested Mr. Faylo to move his congregation to pray 
 for Mary, and to name her. There is power, I doubt not, in the united prayer of 
 assembled worshippers ; and it is a good thing to show what a leveller death is, 
 and how much we all stand in need of each other. I am astonished at, and bless 
 God for, her gentleness, meekness, goodness ; such trials I have never seen or 
 heard of. 
 
 Sept. 3rd. At twenty minutes past three this morning, it pleased Almighty 
 God, by taking the soul of darling Mary to Himself, to close her indescribable 
 sufferings. 
 
 I submit to the Divine decree, I confess His wisdom and goodness ; and yet a 
 positive horror is upon me when I thiuk of her dreadful agonies. It will
 
 576 THE EARL OP SHAPTESBUEY. [OAr. XXVI. 
 
 never, it can never, be effaced ! How I wish that God would reveal to me, 
 before the time when all things will be known, His purpose, in such awful 
 severity ! 
 
 After these sad and sorrowful days, and as soon as circumstances would 
 permit. Lord and Lady Shaftesbury went abroad. Shortly after their return, 
 an honour, which had been offered to Lord Shaftesbury in 1854, and declined, 
 was renewed by Lord Palmerston, and accepted. The circumstances, to- 
 gether with other matters of interest, are narrated in the following corres- 
 pondence : 
 
 Lord Palnterston to Lord Shafteslury. 
 
 94, PICCADILLY, 10<A Dee., 18G1. 
 
 MY DEAR SHAFTESBURY, There is one of the vacant Garters which has not 
 yet been allotted. I very much wish you would take it ; I am sure that its being 
 given to you would gratify the whole country. You declined it, I know, upon a 
 former occasion, but that is no reason against your taking it now. . . . 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 PALMERSTON. 
 
 Lord Palmerston to Lord Shaftesbury. 
 
 94, PICCADILLY, llth Dee., 1861. 
 
 MY DEAR SHAFTESBURY, There is no hurry about your decision, as nothing 
 can be done in the matter for some little time to come ; but I hope you will 
 accept, as I think such an application of the Order would be creditable to the 
 Crown and gratifying to the country. You may possibly anticipate a difficulty 
 on the subject of the fees, but I think I can see my way to overcome that. It is, 
 in fact, a gross abuse that honours given by the Crown as marks of approbation 
 should have the operation of personal taxes. 
 
 The Prince, I regret to say, is seriously ill, though the Queen is anxious that 
 the country should not be alarmed about him. What he has, is one of those 
 intestinal fevers which last a given time, and require careful watching. Anxiety 
 about him will not cease for ten days to come, and I scarcely know how I can 
 go out of town during that time. There will be a bulletin in the papers to- 
 morrow. Do not state to any one, beyond Minny, your knowledge of anything 
 more than the bulletin may contain. 
 
 But the fact is. he is in great danger. Watson, who has been called in, is a 
 skilful man, and Jcnner, one of the Court physicians, is specially conversant with 
 fevers ; and the main thing to be done is to keep the animal functions going till 
 Nature can, by her own prowess, effect a cure. 
 
 I have seen Watson just now, who says there are at present no bad symptoms, 
 but that in some respects, such as pulse, the Prince is somewhat better. I cannot 
 calmly contemplate the extent of the calamity which an unfavourable issue 
 would produce. 
 
 Yours affectionately, 
 
 PALMERSTOK. 
 
 On the evening of the same day the following entry was made in the 
 Diary :
 
 Ittll.l DKATII OF THE PRTNPE COWSOIIT. 577 
 
 Deo. llth. St. Giles's. May God be gracious. The Prince Consort is danger- 
 ously ill. Raise him up, O Lord, from the bed of sickness, for Christ's sake. I 
 shrink from contemplating the calamity. I see and feel the shock to the Queen. 
 She has never known sorrow, and is unprepared for it. It will leave her melan- 
 choly, friendless, without a support, an adviser ; no one to aid her in public 
 affairs, no one in private. 
 
 For the Prince Consort Lord Sliaf tesbury had always felt the strongest 
 personal regard, amounting to affection. On that terrible Sunday when the 
 booming of the great bell of St. Paul's, and the flashing of telegrams, spread 
 the intelligence of the great calamity that had befallen the nation in his 
 untimely death, there were few, perhaps, outside the immediate circle of the 
 Royal Family, to whom the sad news brought with it a keener sorrow. He 
 wrote : 
 
 Deo. 16th. London. Heard at Ringwood this morning that the Prince was 
 dead ! Short of my own nearest and dearest, the shock could not have been 
 greater ! The desolation of the Queen's heart and life ! the deathblow to her 
 happiness on earth 1 God, in His mercy, sustain and comfort her 1 The disrup- 
 tion of domestic existence unprecedented in royal history, the painful with- 
 drawal of a prop, the removal of a counsellor, a friend in all public, all private 
 affairs, the sorrows she has, the troubles that await her all rend my heart as 
 though the suffering were my own. To me they, both of them, were ever kind, 
 and both expressed deep sympathy when it pleased the Lord to take my Francis 
 and Mary. 
 
 How we must pray that God's Holy Spirit be shed on her heart, and Christ 
 Himself be made manifest to her ! 
 
 I hear, too, that my valued friend and coadjutor in efforts for the sanitary 
 improvements of England is gone the learned, warm-hearted, highly-gifted 
 Soiithwood Smith. 
 
 As in the Diaries for 1859 and 1860 so in the Diary for 1862 there are but 
 few entries. Ho had, however, resumed, in 1861, after an interval of twenty 
 years, his " Journal of passing events," in which he recorded from day to day 
 a summary of principal occurrences, more especially with reference to the 
 A nuTicaji war. From this Journal, as there is little in it personal to himself, 
 further than the expression of his views on the events as they occurred (and 
 many of these views, written on the spur of the moment, were afterwards 
 modified or changed as further information was received), we do not propose 
 to quote. It is a valuable volume, however, breathing in every line the 
 intense and absorbing interest he took in the progress of those mighty move- 
 ments which were to issue in the liberation of the slaves, and indicating in 
 every page, as he pointed out in a letter to the Times at the commencement of 
 the war, that " the triumph of the South meant the consolidation of slavery, 
 and his sympathies were, therefore, wholly for the North." 
 
 Returning to his private Diary, we find the following as the first entry 
 for 1862 : 
 
 Jan. 2nd, 1862. The observations on a new year can have no novelty ; they 
 1. L
 
 578 THE EARL OF SIIAFTESnURY. (OnAP. XXVI 
 
 ore trite, invariably the same, and yet invariably touching 1 and full of interest. 
 It is like standing " in the old paths : " they are worn, but they lead to your 
 home the home of body, mind, soul, and spirit 
 
 What an obituary for the year which is gone ! . . . Cavour, the Bishop of 
 Durham, Lady Canning, the Prince Consort, all in the prime of life. 
 
 Add to the obituary the Duchess of Kent, Lord Aberdeen, the Lord Chancellor 
 Campbell, Sir James Graham, Lord Herbert. 
 
 Lord Palmerston's friendly and generous proposals with regard to Lord 
 Shaftesbury's acceptance of the signal honour of the Order of the Garter are 
 referred to thus : 
 
 May 19th. Strange to say I am become "a Knight of the Garter." I refus 1 
 it under Aberdeen and I accept it under Palmerston. I could not persist in 
 refusal, so great was his anxiety, and so many and so urgent his arguments. I 
 wished, on many grounds, to avoid tho honour ; but obstinacy in refusal would 
 have been almost personal to him, and misunderstood in myself. I do not despise, 
 nor would I publicly depreciate, such rewards. They have their real value. And 
 I felt bound to act against my own inclinations. It has, in some respects, been 
 very successful, and has been thankfully taken by many as a tribute to certain 
 opinions, and an acknowledgment of services hitherto considered to be of no 
 public value. So far I rejoice, and say " that, though it is nothing, it ia 
 something." 
 
 How my precious, precious Mary would have been pleased 1 But the darling 
 has better things to please her now. 
 
 June 29th. I resisted very specially on the ground of expense ; fees amounting 
 to something not far short of a thousand pounds. P. assured me that such 
 demands he considered to be a shameful impost on those whom the Crown wished 
 to honour, and that he would make an arrangement with the Treasury. I have 
 reason to believe that the arrangement he made was to pay the whole expenses 
 himself, but to keep it secret from me. This is, indeed, truly generous and 
 friendly. 
 
 It was in this year that the terrible cotton famine consequent upon tho 
 failure of the supplies of cotton from the Southern States of America caused 
 sncli wide-spread misery among the population of our great manufacturing 
 centres. In that crisis, party strife seemed to die away, and men of all 
 opinions were bent on co-operating in whatever policy and measures were 
 for the public good. Lord Shaftesbury loved the Lancashire people, with 
 whom the sympathies of all his life had been bound up, and in tho time of 
 their great trial he watched their attitude with the keenest interest. Speaking 
 of them at the annual meeting of the Pastoral Aid Society, he said : 
 
 There is nothing finer on earth than a Lancashire man or a Lancashire woman. 
 I have known these people now for a great number of years ; I have observed 
 the strength of their feelings, the ardour with which they pursue an object, the 
 deep and undying sense which they entertain of any act of kindness which has 
 been done to them. I really do not believe there is such another race of people 
 to be found on the face of the earth. . . . They are one of the most indepen- 
 dent people on earth ; they will bear no dictation, and will listen to no advice
 
 1< 2 ) INSURRECTION IN POLAND. 579 
 
 unless fully assured that it comes from a sincere heart. They are a people kind 
 and open-hearted, a people ready to receive instruction in religion, orderly and 
 loyal and they are, at the present time, exhibiting such an heroic, patient, and 
 Christian- like bearing, that I really believe it could scarcely be matched amongst 
 the most educated, enlightened, and Christian men in the land. I confess I am 
 moved to tears when I think of the endurance of those people and of the mag- 
 nanimous spirit in which their privations are borne. The letters which I r.-< . -i\e 
 would. I am sure, go to the heart of any one ; and yet there is no complaint, no 
 demand for assistance, no desire for the interposition of Government ; they only 
 hope that that relief which the law allows may be extended to them, and they 
 trust that a good time may soon come, when trade will again revive and they 
 will be able to subsist by their honest industry. 
 
 It required no little self-denial for Lord Shaf tesbnry to refrain from going 
 
 into Lancashire to visit the people in the time of their distress. Ho knew, 
 
 however, that if he did so, it would unsettle many of the movements which 
 
 working harmoniously ; and lie feared it would lay himself open to the 
 
 that In- was creating an independent movement for his own glory. 
 
 Tliis would operate, in the long run, prejudicially to the Operatives, for whom 
 
 lit- hail yet many schemes of amelioration in reserve. 
 
 On the first indication, however, of a turbulent spirit in Lancashire, he 
 wrote to counsel them and to remind them of promises made to him years 
 ago. That letter was distributed in every town and village in the county, 
 ami it hailan excellent effect. It is notorious that there was never a word 
 aLT.iin^t tin ruling powers of the day sent furth from Lancashire. 
 
 There was a lull in Loiil Shaft esbury's legislative efforts during 1S< 12. 
 With the exception <if an "Act to amend the Law relating to Lunatics," 
 which was passed this year, ho docs not appear to have brought forward any 
 new measure. This Act made pauper lunatics chargeable to the union instead 
 of to the parish, instituted various safeguards against the incarceration of 
 sane persons, and provided for increased visitation, and further protect inn 
 for single patients. 
 
 In the course of his speech Lord Shaftesbury narrated an anecdote to show 
 that eminent men sometimes formed their opinions as to the sanity of a patient 
 on very flimsy evidence. Once when ho was sitting on thu Commission as 
 Chairman the alleged insanity of a lady was under discussion, and ho took a 
 view of the case opposite to that of his colleagues. One of the medical men 
 who was there to give evidence, crept up to his chair, and, in a confidential 
 tone, said, " Are you aware, my lord, that she subscribes to the Society for 
 the Conversion of the Jews P " " Indeed ! " replied Lord Shaftesbury ; " and 
 are you aware that I am President of that Society ! " 
 
 In 18b':{, England, in common with all civilised nations, was thrilled with 
 horror at the cruel and ruthless manner in which Russia was engaged in 
 putting down an insurrection in Poland. The tyranny of the rulers of this 
 unhappy country had often provoked sanguinary struggles, and for years the 
 down-trodden people had waited for vengeance. In 1861 some 30,000 people 
 
 L L 2
 
 580 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURT. [CHAP. XXVI. 
 
 were assembled near the battle-field of Grochow; they were engaged in 
 singing requiems and in prayer for the souls of those who had fallen, when 
 the Russian cavalry charged in among them, slaughtered a number of persons, 
 and arrested many others. An intense national feeling was kindled through- 
 out the country. The indignant populace joined in other demonstrations of 
 a patriotic character, and the result was fresh massacres by the Russian 
 soldiery. A fierce hatred of everything Russian grew and spread, and most 
 of the Poles in the service of the Czar resigned or deserted. The authorities 
 retaliated with measures of a sternly repressive character. The Poles were 
 forbidden to meet together, even in the churches, and all who were mourning 
 for relatives killed in the massacres were severely punished. The excitement 
 was allayed for a time by the nominal introduction of some liberal reforms, 
 but the Poles knew too well that the Russian Government was not to be 
 trusted to carry them out, and in October of the same year fresh disturb- 
 ances took place. Poland was declared in a state of siege, and an era of 
 guerrilla warfare, without any decisive conflicts, commenced. Tn February, 
 1863, the Committee of the National Insurection issued its first proclamation, 
 and almost immediately afterwards the standard of revolt was raised by 
 Mieroslavski on the Posen frontier. District after district rose in insurrection, 
 and the proclamations of the Committee directed the action of the insurgents. 
 Britain remonstrated repeatedly (either separately or in conjunction with 
 other nations) on behalf of the Poles, and France, Spain, Austria, Sweden, 
 Italy, Portugal, Denmark, and the Netherlands, all intervened diplomati- 
 cally for the same object. But these remonstrances were utterly disregarded 
 by the C/ar and his Ministers. News of one horror after another con- 
 tinued to rouse the indignation of Europe. Everywhere in Poland blood 
 was flowing freely, and the midnight sky was red with the flames of burning 
 villages and homesteads. Fines and confiscations brought all the wealthier 
 inhabitants to the verge of ruin, and the whole population of suspected 
 villages was put to the sword. The National Committee were not slow in 
 making reprisals wherever possible, and the land was given up to a reign 
 of terror. 
 
 Such was the state of affairs in Poland when, on March the 17th, 1863, a 
 meeting, convened in the name of the Lord Mayor, was held in the Guild- 
 hall, to express English sympathy with the Poles. It was an enthusiastic 
 gathering, and Lord Shaftesbury, in response to repeated calls, came forward 
 to address the meeting. The speech he made on that occasion he was wont 
 to consider as the greatest he ever made ; referring to it twenty years after- 
 wards he said, " It tore me to pieces to deliver it." 
 
 Once committed to any subject, Lord Shaftesbury always followed it up 
 to practical issues. Again and again in the House of Lords, by questions 
 addressed to the Government, he called attention to the Polish cause. An 
 effort on the part of England, France, and Austria to induce the other signa- 
 tories of the Treaty of Vienna to move the Russian Government to concilia- 
 tion having been unsuccessful, Lord Shaftesbury, on the 8th of May, when
 
 I83.] LETTER FROM MISS FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE. 581 
 
 presenting, among others, the petition from the great meeting at. the Guild- 
 hall, and moving that these petitions do lie upon the table, took the oppor- 
 tunity to enter fully into the whole subject, and to express what was 
 undoubtedly the national sentiment. It was a speech which cost him much. 
 Apart from the labour in the compilation of his facts and arguments, it was 
 a subject which made a heavy demand upon his sympathies. There was a 
 passion and a pathos in his utterance which was never wrung from him more 
 forcibly than when pleading the cause of oppressed nationalities. As in his 
 memorable speech on the Ameers of Scinde, so now on behalf of the oppressed 
 Poles, he threw his whole mind and soul and strength into his pleading. 
 
 We cannot record the speech. It occupied between two and three hours in 
 delivery and was similar in character to the one made at the Mansion House. 
 
 The sequel is only too well known. It was in vain that Great Britain, 
 France, Austria, and other European Powers exerted their moral influence and 
 exhausted all the forms of diplomatic remonstrance. Russia and Prussia, in 
 close alliance, affected to see in the insurrection only a manifestation of the 
 revolutionary power in Europe. In 1864 the Czar's troops, officiously aided 
 by Prussia, and with the secret sympathy and support of Austria, succeeded 
 in trampling out the last sparks of resistance to the Russian authority. 
 Large numbers of men and women, and even children, who had been in some 
 way or other concerned in the revolt, or who were merely suspected of having 
 favoured it, were executed ; others were driven off in crowds to Siberia ; and 
 so, by perseverance in these ruthless measures, " tranquillity was restored." 
 Poland was deprived of the last remnant of administrative independence, and 
 placed under the care of eight military governors. 
 
 Miss Florence Nightingale was one of Lord Shaftesbury's correspondents, 
 and all her letters he carefully treasured. The following, written in the course 
 of this year, is characteristic of her style : 
 
 Mitt Florence Nightingale to Lord Shaftesbury. 
 
 HAMPSTEAD, N.W., Aug. 15th, 1863. 
 
 DEAB LORD SHAKTESBURY, Always remembering that to you first we owe 
 the giving of sanitary hope to our poor army, I should have ventured to solicit 
 your acceptance of a copy of the complete report and evidence of our " Indian 
 Army Sanitary Commission." It was, however, understood by us that it was to 
 be of course presented to Parliament. 
 
 " By mistake," Sir C. Wood presented (so he writes) a paltry 8vo containing 
 only the report and a precis of evidence, simply ludicrous from its incompleteness. 
 
 "By mistake," the type of the two folio Slue Hooks is broken up. 
 
 " By mistake," it is not to be sold at the Parliamentary depots. 
 
 " By mistake," it is not to be published not to be had not to be distributed 
 to Parliament. 
 
 A small number, however (50 only to the House of Lords, nnd 100 to the 
 House of Commons), have been sent to Parliament, to be given to those members 
 only who apply for them. 
 
 Would you apply for the two folio Slue Book* for a copy for yourself ?
 
 582 THE EARL OP 8HAPTESBURY. [OHAP. XXVI. 
 
 We want immediate pressure made to obtain the Working Commissions : 
 three in India, one for each Presidency, and one at home attached to the India 
 and War Offices (to advise), which have been recommended in the Report. 
 
 I should be proud indeed to be called upon at any time for information by you. 
 
 Your faithful servant, 
 
 FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE. 
 
 There was no man living for whom Lord Shaftesbury entertained a more 
 affectionate regard than for Lord Palmerston ; and, among all his friends, 
 advisers, and counsellors, there was no one on whom Lord Palmerston more 
 completely relied than on Lord Shaftesbury. In many respects nay, in 
 most the two men were the very opposite of each other, and yet, Iliey 
 constantly found themselves drawing nearer and nearer together in heart and 
 purpose. There is nothing extraordinary in this. The stories of jrn-nt 
 friendships furnish a thousand notable instances of the same thing. What 
 that friendship was to Lord Shaftosbury, we shall see more fully later oil ; 
 one phase of it finds illustration here. 
 
 Lord Palmerstou was a frank, outspoken man, and he ventured to speak 
 or write to Lord Shaftesbury on subjects that no one else dared to approach. 
 Thus, in 1861, he wrote to him on the delicate question of money matters : 
 
 Lord Palmerston to Lord Shaftesbttry. 
 
 94, PICCADILLY, 29th Nov., 1861. 
 
 MY DEAR SHAFTESBURY, Old Alava one day said to the Duke of Wellington 
 that he had heard that the Duke's affairs at Strathfieldsaye were not well 
 managed, and required more looking into; the Duke replied, "Mind your own 
 affairs, and do not meddle with mine ; " and he almost cut Alava for a couple of 
 years afterwards ; but at the end of that time he took him into favour again, and 
 said that if he had attended, at the time, to what Alava had said, he should have 
 saved a good deal of money. Now, I have a better excuse for mentioning your 
 affairs to you than Alava had with the Duke ; because, besides my great regard 
 and friendship for you, I have duties towards Emily's children and grandchildren. 
 Now I, like Alava, have heard people talk, and I am afraid that from your kind- 
 ness and generosity of feeling, and from your desire to improve every part of 
 your large estate, you have been led, by your local manager at St. Giles's, to 
 devote to local expenditure and improvements a much larger portion of your 
 income than would, in the usual course of things, be allotted to such purposes, 
 and that you have thus stinted yourself unnecessarily with regard to that part 
 of your income which is available for general objects. Everybody knows that 
 every servant and agent would, if they could, absorb the largest possible amount 
 of their employer's income in their own department, and that it requires a very 
 watchful hand to keep them within proportional bounds. I have myself been a 
 sufferer in this way, for some years ago, when I was at the Foreign Office and 
 unable to spare a moment to look into my accounts, I found on going out of 
 office that my land steward had made away with three thousand pounds of my 
 money, while he had been urging me to sell a farm to pay debts which the 
 money he had purloined would have fully satisfied.
 
 1883.] LETTER FROM LORD PALMER8TON. 583 
 
 You hsivo so much to do, with all the various occupations whioh absorb your 
 time, that it is not likely that you should have Ijisuro to go into a minute 
 examination of the expenditure on your estate. Your agent may be better than 
 mine was, and may be perfectly honest; though even honest agents sometimes 
 think themselves entitled to percentages upon their employer's expenditure, and 
 are tempted, therefore, to make it as large as they can. But, if report says true, 
 he at one time kept race-horses and brood mares, and was connected with racing 
 men, and, of course, was a betting man ; all these things, if they do not lead a 
 man astray, infuse into his mind habits of restlessness not very suitable to 
 accurate economy. 
 
 Well, now, what I would wish to submit for your consideration is, whether it 
 would not bo worth your while to follow the example of the late Duke of Rutland 
 and the present Emperor of the French. The Duke found his expenses at Belvoir 
 growing inconveniently high, and he asked Mr. Norman, his connection, to look 
 into them, and the result was great economy and regulated order. The Emperor 
 of the French has found that he was devoting to expenses in matters of great 
 interest to him more than ought properly to be allotted to them, and he has 
 called in Fould to look into his affairs and set them right. 
 
 I believe you employ Nichol and Burnett as your London solicitors ; they are 
 honest and honourable men, trustworthy, and men of business ; why should you 
 not employ one of them to go down to St. Giles's to examine, minutely, the 
 accounts of your local agent, and to make you a report upon them and upon the 
 state of your affairs, and to suggest, for your consideration, such arrangements as 
 might appear deserving of adoption ? 
 
 This is a measure which is often adopted, and I believe has generally been 
 found advantageous ; no local agent can reasonably object to such an investigation 
 unless there be something which he wishes to conceal. 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 PALMERSTON. 
 
 This advice was not given too soon. Lord Shaftesbury found himself 
 becoming involved in serious financial difficulties, which, before long, grew 
 critical. 
 
 Lord Palmerston's religion was essentially practical. We have given a 
 specimen of it in his reply to the Scotch Memorialists. He was not the man 
 to say, " Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled," and forget to " give 
 those things which are needful to the body." We are not surprised, therefore, 
 to find the following entry in the Diary : 
 
 July 19th, 1863. Sunday. Happy that I was enabled to come to bless our 
 dear Lord at His own table for deliverance, to a great extent, from apprehensions 
 and fears of financial difficulty and disgrace ; for disgrace it will be to be seen 
 as one irregular, embarrassed, half insolvent in money matters. Deep, bitter, 
 i -xhiiiisting, have been my efforts and anxieties for some time past. But God, in 
 \\\< mercy, has blunted the edge and averted the crisis. Matters were at the 
 worst when Palmerston, whose liberality and kindness* are not only MMNN , but 
 invariable, sent to Minny yesterday five thousand pounds, stating that ho must 
 bo allowed to pay his half " of her son's start in the world." O Lord, how <;an
 
 584 THE EAKL Of SHAPTESBURV. [CHAP. XXVI. 
 
 I thank him but by imploring Thee to bless him and my equally kind and liberal 
 mother-in-law, with all that is best in time and in eternity. 
 
 The catastrophe prognosticated by Lord Pabnerston was not long in 
 coming. 
 
 Aug. 20th. Spa. Have had various bothers of a grave kind. Have dismissed 
 Waters,* under pretence of allowing him to resign. Shall never discover my 
 whole loss by mismanagement, peculation, trickery, and direct fraud. It has 
 been a yearly and an occasional plunder. Twelve thousand pounds, during the 
 twelve years I have had him, is a very low estimate. It will, I fear, be much 
 higher. 
 
 The extent of Lord Shaftesbury's losses was never really known. They 
 were certainly much understated in his first calculation.f For many years 
 he was to have trouble and anxiety without ceasing lawsuits without 
 number, and vexatious endless. It was a b : ' ter ingredient in his cup, that, as 
 the years advanced, the effort to keep free irom debt became more and more 
 difficult. It will not be necessary to dwell upon ' this subject, although 
 throughout the Diaries for many years to come, there are touching passages 
 to show how keenly he felt the position in which he was placed, how heartily 
 ho loathed the necessity of legal processes, and how earnestly he prayed for 
 deliverance. With any man of less courage and determination, this additional 
 weight, added to the burden of life, would have impeded all further progress. 
 It was not so with Lord Shaftesbury, and, despite the accumulation of 
 anxieties, he set his face more steadfastly than ever towards the objects of 
 his life. 
 
 * His steward. t lu 18C8 he estimates them at 50,000.
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 18641865. 
 
 THE story of the sufferings of the " Climbiiig Boys " employed by chimney- 
 sweepers reads rather like a chapter from some terrible record of the Dark 
 Ages, than a veritable chapter from the history of this enlightened century. 
 
 Little children, from four to eight years of age, the majority of them 
 orphans, the rest bartered or sold by brutal parents, were trained to force 
 their way up the long, narrow, winding passages of chimneys to clear away 
 the soot. In order to do this, they had to move up and down by pressing 
 every joint in their bodies against the hard and often broken surface of the 
 chimneys ; and to prevent their hands and knees from streaming with blood, 
 the children were rubbed with brine before a hot fire to harden the flesh. 
 
 But the sufferings of the climbing boys did not end here. Their skin 
 being choked in every pore, they were liable to a frightful disorder, called 
 chimney sweeper's (or sooty) cancer, involving one of the most terrible forms 
 of physical suffering ; they began the day's work at four, three, or even two, 
 in the morning; they were half stifled by the hot sulphurous air in the flues; 
 often they would get stuck in a chimney, and faint from the effects of terror, 
 exhaustion, and foul air, and then, if the usual remedy of lighted straw failed 
 to " bring them round," they were often half -killed, and sometimes killed out- 
 right, by the very means used to extricate them. 
 
 Such was their work. For their " rest," they had low, ill-drained, ill- 
 ventilated, and noisome rooms or cellars, and oftentimes slept upon the soot- 
 heaps. For the whole week, perhaps for many weeks, they remained un- 
 washed, and on Sundays they were generally shut up together, so that the 
 neighbours might not see their miserable plight. 
 
 They were morally and intellectually degraded to the lowest possible 
 point. Out of 384 boys examined by order of a Commission of Inquiry, so 
 recently as 1864, only six could write and twenty-six could read, most of 
 them very imperfectly. 
 
 The saddest point of all, perhaps, was that these hapless little sufferers 
 were the victims of the fireside comforts of others ; the " scape-goats of civili- 
 sation," sacrifices to thoughtlessness or greed. 
 
 No one can have failed to be struck by Lord Shaf tesbury's dogged and 
 indomitable perseverance. When once he made a cause his own, whatever 
 ol>stacles might stand in his way, ho would not 
 
 " Bate a jot 
 
 Of heart or hope, but still bear up and steer 
 Right onward."
 
 THE EARL OP SHAFTK8BURY. [CriAr. XXVJl 
 
 Difficult an lie had found it, iu 1840, to procure an Act forbidding Hm 
 employment l>y eliimney sweepers of climbing boys, it was a far more formid- 
 able task to prevent its evasion. After the passing of the Act, it lay for somo 
 time dormant, and when attempts were made to enforce it, the most un- 
 scrupulous devices were resorted to, in order to nullify its operation. Efforts 
 were made from time to time to render the Act more efficacious, but without 
 success. In 1851 a Bill to amend the Chimney-Sweepers Regulation Act of 
 1840 passed the Lords and was read once in the Commons, but was then 
 allowed to drop; and so little interest was taken in it, that neither Hansard 
 nor the Times report a word concerning it, beyond the fact that it was read. 
 In 1853, when endeavouring to get a Bill passed to remedy the imperfections 
 of the existing Act, Lord Shaftesbury said, " he did not believe that all the 
 records of all the attrocities committed in this country or in any other, could 
 equal the records of cruelty, hardship, vice, and suffering, which, under the 
 sanction of the law, had been inflicted on this helpless an<l miserable race." * 
 
 Moderate as were the proposals made by Lord Shaftesbury, there was 
 considerable opposition to the Bill, chiefly on the ground of, what was alleged 
 to be, the absolute necessity, in some eases, of the employment of climbing 
 boys. 
 
 Lord Beaumont spoke of the Bill as " a pitiful cant of pseudo-philan- 
 tliropy ; " and said of the former Bill, " that its sole effect had been that a 
 few more houses had been burnt, and a few more persons endangered under 
 its operation, than would have been if it had never been passed." To this 
 Lord Shaftesbury replied that, " he could only say that he trusted in God he 
 should ever fall under his (Lord Beaumont's) censure, and under the censure 
 of all those who, with him, could apply to the course ho had taken, a charge 
 of ' cant ' and ' miserable legislation.' " 
 
 The Bill was \iltimately referred to a Select Committee, and thirteen wit- 
 nesses were examined ; but, although the cruelty of the system was fully set 
 forth, the Committee reported that it was inexpedient to proceed further. In 
 1854, therefore, Lord Shaftesbury again returned to the charge, and pleaded 
 for the " four thousand wretched children who were at that time engaged in 
 this disgusting and unnecessary employment." He stated that in Manchester, 
 sixty master chimney-sweepers had met, and testified to the degradation, 
 cruelty, ignorance, and vice, inseparable from the system, and to the readiness 
 with which the " machines " could be effectually used instead of climbing 
 boys. In London, " machines " were almost exclusively used. 
 
 The Bill passed the Lords, but was thrown out in the Commons, and in 
 the following year a similar Bill was read once in the Lords and then a!>an- 
 doned. It was clear the time was not ripe for legislation on the subject, 
 and for some years no bettor opportunity arrived, although, as occasion 
 offered, Lord Shaftesbury did not fail to utter a few forcible words upon it. 
 
 In 1861, when the Children's Employment Commission was appointed, 
 
 * I l.iii.,.u il, c.\\ vii. 198.
 
 1M4.] CLIMBING BOYS. 587 
 
 the climbing boys were included in the Inquiry. In due course evidence 
 was taken, blue books were published, and, in July, 1863, Lord Sliaftesbury 
 brought the whole matter before the House of Lords, to be renewed again 
 and again, and finally to result in the " Chimney -Sweepers Regulation Act, 
 1864," by which it was made unlawful for a chimney-sweeper to take into a 
 house with him any assistant under sixteen years of age, and, in cases wlim- 
 boys were sent up chimneys, it empowered magistrates to impose imprison- 
 ment with hard labour instead of a fine. In any question that might arise 
 as to the age of a child, the burden of proof was to lie on the employer. 
 
 It seemed that, at last, the system of cruelty and oppression was broken 
 up, and that the 1st of November, 1864, might be styled " The Chimney- 
 Sweepers' Emancipation Day." * 
 
 But the rejoicings were premature. In 1866 the Children's Employment 
 Commission, in presenting their Fiftli Report, gave evidence " of the failure 
 of the Amended Act to answer its intended purpose." 
 
 It was not until ten years later that the abominable system of cruelty was 
 utti-rly alxilished. 
 
 In order to make the story of the climbing boys complete, we shall antici- 
 pate events and finish the record here. Not until 1872 do we find a further 
 entry in the Diary on the subject ; it is as follows : 
 
 Oct. 9th, 1872. Yesterday stirred, after a long interval, by my poor climbling 
 boys. One suffocated in a flue in Staffordshire. The Act which forbids the 
 practice, intentionally made the evidence difficult. Years of oppression and 
 cruelty have rolled on, and now a death has given me the power of one more 
 appeal to the public through the Times. 
 
 The case was that of a boy, named Christopher Drumniond, who was sent 
 up tin* flue of a fernery, and after the lapse of fifteen minutes was taken out 
 dead. As nothing came of the letter to the Times, on the 19th i>f March 
 Lord Shaftesbury drew attention to the matter in the House of Lords, but 
 without success. A few months later the following entry occurs : 
 
 March 20th, 1873. Then to House of Lords to move for report of coroner's 
 inquest on a poor little chimney-sweeper, seven-and-a-half years old, killed in a 
 flue at Washington, in county of Durham. So much for my labour on behalf of 
 the climbing-boys I But, by God's mercy, good may come out of evil. 
 
 One death was insufficient to arouse public interest in the matter, and in 
 Ffl>ruary, 1875, Lord Shaftesbury called the attention of the Government to 
 another case it was not known how many children might not have been 
 sacrificed in the meantime that of George Brewster, a boy of fourteen, who 
 had been suffocated in a flue at Cambridge. 
 
 The press at last took up the question vigorously, and then came the 
 opportunity for which Lord Shaftesbnry had been waiting for years. For the 
 manslaughter of the boy at Cambridge the master sweep was sentenced to six 
 
 * Ragged School Union Mifjuzinc, 1864, p. 245.
 
 588 THE EARL OF 8HAFTE8BURV. [CHAP. XXVII. 
 
 months' hard labour. Commenting upon this, in a stirring article, the Times 
 said: 
 
 " The law mitigates the guilt of this monstrous crime by including it in 
 the category of manslaughter ; but we are bold to say that, at this stage 
 in the history of civilisation, it is only to be adequately characterised by that 
 name of far graver significance in relation to the culpable sacrifice of human 
 life, boyond which human censure cannot go. . . . Whoever deliberately 
 authorised and permitted the employment of this unfortunate boy, are morally 
 guilty of the crime of murder. . . . The time has come for a final review 
 of a system under which such an offence is visited with no heavier punish- 
 ment than six months' imprisonment." * 
 
 This article gave rise to a lengthy correspondence in the papers, in which 
 Lord Shaftesbury brought forward a number of cases to show how the 
 illegality of the cruel practice was winked at generally. 
 
 On the 20th of April, 1875, he gave notice of a new Bill on the subject, 
 and the announcement met with warm approval and the promise of cordial 
 support. He refers to the subject in his Diary thus : 
 
 April 28th, 1875. Again on the rescue of the climbing boys. One's soul is 
 torn by their misery and degradation. Have prepared a Bill ; the second reading 
 stands for May 1 1 th. God in His mercy, grace, and love, be with me. Shall I 
 have, after the manner of men, to contend with beasts ? One hundred and two 
 years have elapsed since the good Jonas Hanway brought the brutal iniquity 
 before the public, yet in many parts of England and Ireland it still prevails, with 
 the full knowledge and consent of thousands of all classes. 
 
 May 12th. Last night Chimney-Sweepers Bill in House of Lords. It was, 
 under God, a success in its issue, though I did not think it, or feel it, at the time. 
 Was much disheartened at outset. House very inattentive had twice to implore 
 their " condescension to hear me." At last they listened, and, so far as their 
 undemonstrative natures would allow, applauded me. . . . Yet by His grace 
 I have stirred the country. The Times, may the paper be blessed, has assisted me 
 gloriously. 
 
 June 4th. By God's blessing, Chimney-Sweepers Bill passed through Com- 
 mittee of House of Lords in the twinkling of an eye not a syllable uttered. 
 
 June 12th. Cross, Secretary of State for Home Department, has consented to 
 take up the Chimney-Sweepers Bill in House of Commons. 
 
 The Bill passed into law that session, and thus, after a century of inquiry 
 and legislation, there was rolled away one of the greatest reproaches to the 
 civilisation of this country. Lord Shaftesbury had broken the fetters of the 
 most oppressed, degraded, and tortured children on the face of the earth, and 
 had set them for ever free. 
 
 No one can have failed to perceive that Lord Shaftesbury was, from his 
 youth upwards, in the habit of using very strong and forcible language. 
 Sometimes this habit carried him too far, and when this was the case no one 
 regretted it more than himself ; sometimes (when cruelty, injustice, and 
 
 * Time*, March 25th, 1875.
 
 18. STRONG LANGUAGE. 589 
 
 ojipivssion wore his theme) lie regretted that language was inadequate tu 
 i-..iiv.-y the expression of his indignation and disgust; sometinies he used "a 
 Nasmyth hammer to crack a nut ; " and sometinies, in the heat and fervour 
 of debate, or under the excitement of great popular applause, he was led away, 
 as every orator more or less is led, into expressions which, had there been 
 time to consider the choice of words, lie would have modified or have left 
 unsaid. He was a very rapid speaker (he had the reputation of being the 
 most rapid speaker in the House of Lords), and the reporters were apt to 
 complain that they found some difficulty in following him. Moreover, as we 
 li;ur >;iiil, lie never, as a rule, prepared any part of an ordinary speech except 
 the peroration, and it was inevitable that, occasionally, he should be betrayed 
 into the use of expressions stronger than the occasion justified. The only 
 wonder is that these betrayals were not of far more frequent occurrence. 
 
 He could say severe and pungent things in a pleasant way. For example, 
 on one occasion a certain Nonconformist took upon himself to make an attack 
 in the name of Nonconformists generally although he was in no way their 
 representative on the faith and practice of the Evangelical clergy, charging 
 them with being guilty of perjury and subornation. Lord Shaftesbury took 
 up the matter on the ground that the clergy should not be left in the forepart 
 of the battle to be shot at, as the cause was that of the laity as much as of 
 the clergy, and said : 
 
 I, too, have signed the Articles. I, too, am a subscriber to what is contained 
 in the Prayer Book, just as much as the clergy are subscribers to it. I do, as a 
 layman, everything that the clergy do, with the exception of the administration 
 of the Sacraments, and I take my full share of responsibility along with them. 
 My notion is that the best way of dealing with these attacks would be not to 
 reply to them not to take any notice of them. I think that if what we have 
 heard of, ha&been addressed to me, in my capacity of a layman, I should have 
 taken no notice of it whatever ; or, if I had taken any notice of it, I should have 
 merely said to the accuser, " Sir, I believe you are very ignorant ; to say the 
 truth, you are a very saucy fellow, and if you think that you represent the great 
 ami u"<od Nonconformists of former days the Howes, the Bnnyans, the Flavels, 
 and Wattses or even that you have anything akin to the good, sound, and true 
 religious Nonconformists of the present day ; you are just as much mistaken as 
 you would be, if yon thought you were well versed in history, or had even been 
 initiated in the first elements of good breeding or Christian charity." * 
 
 On another occasion, when justifying the use of some strong language in 
 which he had been indulging, ho said : 
 
 I have not that faculty for mild speech which distinguishes some persons in 
 this country. A story was told me by the late Earl Grey relating to himself and 
 Mr. Burke. Lord Grey told me that on one occasion when in the House of Com- 
 mons, as Mr. Grey, be had been speaking with considerable force of language and 
 greater vehemence of tone than some persons might have thought seemly. On 
 r. -mniir/ his seat, he said to Mr. Burke, "I hope I have not shown much 
 
 * Church PMtornl Aid Society, May 8th, 1862.
 
 090 THE EARL OP 8HAFTESBURY. [CHAP XXVII 
 
 temper." " Temper ! " replied Mr. Burke, " temper, sir, is the state of mind 
 suited to the occasion I " 
 
 Towards Neology a term to which Lord Shaftesbiiry gave the most 
 extended meaning he felt that strong language indicated " the state of mind 
 suited to the occasion ; " and we find that, against its encroachments, which 
 at this period were rapid, various, and almost universal, his stoutest utter- 
 ances were directed. Hai-d as had been the battle he had fought with 
 Romanism in days gone by ; determined as his opposition was to be to 
 Ritualism in days to come, it was against Rationalism that the whole strength 
 of his armoury was directed. "Whatever touched, or seemed to touch, 
 irreverently, the Divinity of Christ, and His sacrificial atonement, or the 
 inspiration and authority of tho Sacred Scriptures, touched the apple of his 
 eye, and ho writhed under it. Those doctrines were not to him matters of 
 more theology ; they entered into every fibre of his being ; and to those who 
 would rob him or, rather, rob the Church of the rest, and comfort and 
 strength of them, he might have said, with the l>eggared Jew : 
 
 " Nay, take my life and all, pardon not that : 
 You take my house, when you do take the prop 
 That does sustain my house ; you take my life 
 When you do take the means whereby I live." 
 
 We do not propose to enter minutely into the various theological discus- 
 sions in which Lord Shaftesbury was engaged at this period of his life, 
 except in those instances in which legislation was involved, but the narrative 
 would be incomplete were they passed over altogether. For many years 
 and especially from 1860, the date of the publication of " Essays and Re- 
 views," to 1866, when Bishop Colenso's work on tho Pentateuch and Pro- 
 fessor Seeley's " Ecce Homo"" were given to the world there was scarcely a 
 day when, either by lip or pen, Lord Shaftesbury was not protesting against 
 attacks on the orthodox faith. 
 
 We shall cull, therefore, from the Diaries, from letters, and from speeches, 
 some of his views on the theology of those years and the men who promul- 
 gated it. 
 
 Thus, of " Essays and Reviews," lie says : 
 
 A company of seven gentlemen, conscientious, no doubt, in their own views, 
 but holding a belief and a faith antagonistic in the extreme from that which we 
 hold, have put out a volume with much pomp and circumstance. Now, I hold 
 that all the authors of that book are responsible for the whole and every part 
 United in a single publication, sharing alike the consequences, the profit, the 
 loss, the honour, or the disgrace, as it may be, of that publication, they are bound 
 together in a common effort to introduce a new Gospel, which is to be pro- 
 pounded and circulated for the general acceptance of the British public. 
 
 After maintaining, perhaps not very logically, that if that book were true, 
 the Bible must be false, and the Bible Society had, therefore, no business to
 
 I <?.-.. I COLENSO AND RENAN. f>91 
 
 .is it was circulating a great imposition, ho asked why the book had 
 received the attention it had commanded. 
 
 " For no other reason than this," he said, " that for the first time in our 
 history a plan of a new Gospel and a new system of interpretation of Scripture, 
 has been boldly put forward by men whose names are notorious, by men who 
 hold high offices in the Church, by beneficed clergymen, by dignitaries. The 
 value 5* not in the writings, but in the offices of the men ; the effect is not in the 
 force of the work, but in the names of the persons who have sent it forth." * 
 
 Of Bishop Colenso's book on the Pentateuch, and the ultimate effect of 
 the controversies created by its publication, he said : 
 
 I maintain that this puerile and ignorant attack on the sacred and unassail- 
 able Word of God has been of inestimable benefit to the Word of God in this 
 country. It has called forth a flood of learning and piety, vigour and truthful- 
 ness of explanation, and power of criticism, such as I did not know existed at 
 the present time in this realm of England. It has, if possible, made that blessed 
 old Book, which we circulate, to stand upon a stronger basis than ever ; and I 
 . i-f that the admirers of that book cannot, at all events, pronounce upon the 
 defenders of the Bible the curse of Meroz, that " they came not to the help of the 
 Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty." My friends, the greater the 
 number of attacks on the Bible, the more determined and the more zealous you 
 should be by redoubling ,the number of your issues ; the more frequent the 
 assaults, the more you should strive to increase the circulation, and for that pur- 
 pose to reduce the price of the sacred volume. The more your issues are multi- 
 pi if<l, the more the Book will be read ; the more the Book is read, the more it 
 will l>e b -lieved, the more it will be loved ; the more it is loved, the more it will 
 bo defended ; the more it is defended, the more it will fulfil the great and 
 blessed purpose for which God, in His Almighty goodness, gave it to a fallen 
 world, t 
 
 Of M. Kenan's " Vie de Jesus " he said : 
 
 You see how that book, which was written for the most iniquitous purposes, 
 tin- Life of our Lord, by Ernest Renan, has already set the Jewish mind upon 
 inquiry, and prompted the Jews to have recourse to the Scriptures themselves, 
 in order to see what kind of a person He is who has been HO caricatured by 
 Renan ; and I believe the result will le that many will go away believers in Mm 
 name of Him whom they had been taught to blaspheme, and will come to the 
 conclusion that they themselves are greater miracles than any miracle that they 
 venture to belie ve.f 
 
 To " Ecce Homo," and his never-to-be-forgotten phrase concerning it, the 
 following entries refer -. 
 
 May 12th, ISM. Speaking at meeting of Church Pastoral Aid Society, I 
 denounced " Eooe Homo " as a " most pestilential book." This expression I well 
 recollect The report adds " ever vomited from the jaws of helL" No doubt, 
 
 Bible Society, May 1st, ISiil. t I'.ible Society. 18KL 
 
 J Jews' Society, May,
 
 592 THIS EARL OF SHAFTESBURT. [CiiAr. XXVII. 
 
 tlu-n, I used the words. They have excited a good, deal of wrath. Be it so. 
 Tlii-v wore, perhaps, too strong for the world, but not too strong for the truth. 
 It escaped, in the heat of declamation, justifiable and yet injudicious. 
 
 The book is as much admired and bepraised in England as Ernest Kenan's in 
 France, except that the French have not, as far as I know, found a bishop to 
 endorse M. Renan ; while we have found one, so I hear, to become surety for 
 " Ecce Homo " I 
 
 May 26th. No end of denunciations, in every form, of my opinion of " Ecce 
 Homo " ! . . . The book can no longer be read by any one in ignorance that 
 its character is, at least, questioned by some. 
 
 A well-known Nonconformist minister put this question to Lord Shaftes- 
 bnry : " From which do you think there is the greater danger, the progress 
 of Ritualism, or the progress of Neology p " He replied : " To the Church 
 of England as an Established Church I apprehend there is the greater danger 
 from Ritualism, but as regards the Church of Christ and tho cause of religion 
 in tho Church of England, I apprehend there is the greater danger from 
 Neology." 
 
 Throughout these years wherever he went, in season and out of season, 
 Lord Shaf tesbnry was as " a voice crying in the wilderness," and tho burden 
 of his exhortations may be summed up in the words he addressed to the 
 members of the Young Men's Christian Association -. 
 
 In this day of unspeakable importance, will this Association continue firm to 
 the Truth ? Will it earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints 1 
 Will it resist all the various assaults, the dexterous attacks, the insidious 
 approaches of that empty, specious sentimentality which, hating the real truth 
 and endeavouring to subvert and set aside all specific and dogmatic teaching, 
 approaches you and deceives you by professions that they who indulge it are so 
 overwhelmed by the love of God that they can see nothing else, they can touch 
 you upon no other doctrine, they can handle no other subject, all is submerged in 
 that alone ; and so His other attributes are altogether set aside, altogether 
 ignored, as not worth a moment's consideration, and least of all, of the considera- 
 tion of strong-minded and intellectual men. ... If this is the way in which 
 strong-minded men are to be approached, it is not the way in which strong- 
 hearted men are to be approached. " With the heart man believeth," and not 
 with the intellect. The intellect is very well in its way, but the heart is God's 
 especial province ; it is with the heart that men believe ; it is with the heart 
 that men will defy all these attacks ; it is with the heart that man will rest 
 Becure in his convictions ; it is with the heart that men will aspire to immortality ; 
 it ia with the heart that by God's grace they will reach that to which they aspire. * 
 
 One episode of these controversies was, that the friendship between Lord 
 Shaftesbury and his cousin, Dr. Pusey, which had long lain cold, was warmed 
 into new life. When the judgment of the Judicial Committee of the Privy 
 Council was given in the " Essays and Reviews " case, and the charges made 
 against the writers broke down, Dr. Pusey wrote a letter to the Record. 
 
 " Exeter Hall Lectures," 1862-3, p. 396.
 
 1804.] CORRESPONDENCE WITH DR. PU8EY. 593 
 
 upon all Christians to forego minor differences in mutual resistance 
 of the great doctrinal errors of the day. 
 
 That letter gave rise to the following correspondence : 
 
 Lord Shaftetbury to Dr. PHXI //. 
 
 GHOSVENOR SQUARE, Feb. 26th, 1864. 
 
 MY DKAR PUSEY, You and I are fellow-collegians and old friends. 
 
 Time, space, and divergent opinions, have separated us for many years : but 
 circumstances have arisen which must, if we desire combined action in the cause 
 of our common Master, set at nought time, space, and divergent opinions. 
 
 We will fight about those another day ; in this we " must contend earnestly 
 for the faith once delivered to the saints ; " and it must be done together now. 
 Your letter to the Record shows (at least I think so) that you are of the same 
 mind as myself. 
 
 We have to struggle, not for Apostolical Succession or Baptismal Regeneration, 
 but for the very Atonement itself, for the sole hope of fallen man, the vicarious 
 sacrifice of the Cross. For God's sake let all who love our blessed Lord, and His 
 perfect word, be of one heart, one mind, one action on this great issue, and show 
 that, despite our wanderings, our doubts, our contentions, we yet may be one 
 in Him. 
 
 What say you ? Yours truly, 
 
 SHAFTESBUBY. 
 To this letter Dr. Pusey replied : 
 
 Dr. Pusey to Lord Shaftcxlury, 
 
 CHRISTCHUBCH, Feb. 28t7i, 1864. 
 
 MY DEAR SHAFTESBUHY, I thank you for your letter, and for the renewal of 
 old friendship. I always sought to live in friendly relations with those who love 
 our dear Lord and adore His redeeming mercy. Those few lines in the li>< -/,/ 
 express what has, for these thirty years, been the deep longing of my soul, that 
 we should understand one another, and strive together against the common enemy 
 of souls. This soul-destroying judgment may, with, I fear, its countless harms, 
 be overruled in God's mercy to good, if it binds as one man all who love our 
 blessed Lord, in contending for the faith assailed. 
 
 I have ever loved the (to use the term) Evangelical party (even while they 
 blamed me), because I believed that they loved our Redeeming Lord with their 
 whole hearts. So now I am one heart and one mind with those who will contend 
 for our common faith against this tide of unbelief. 
 
 Yours affectionately, 
 
 E. B. PUSEY. 
 
 r . < . I only read to-day your letter dated Feb. 26th. I had thought to write 
 to you the letter which I afterwards sent to the Record, but I thought it best, in 
 the end, not to ask you to own me again till you should be so minded. 
 
 It seemed as if the relations between the High and Low Church parties 
 were to be materially altered, for among those who pleaded for conciliation, 
 was Bishop Wilberforce, who wrote thus to Lord Shaftesbury : 
 
 M M
 
 594 THK EARL OP SHAFTESBURTf. [CHAP. XXVII. 
 
 T/tc JilsUop of Oxford to Lord Shaftesbury. 
 
 B ANBURY, Feb. 2Mh, 1864. 
 
 MT DEAR LORD SHAFTESBURY, It is my earnest desire that the terrible evil 
 of this " judgment " should become the means of healing the wound which the 
 separation of High 'and Low Church inflicts upon us, by bringing together all 
 who believe simply in the Bible and in the plain language of our Creeds. 
 
 I have no doubt that this is your wish, too. and I shall be heartily glad to 
 co-operate with you, so far as you will allow, in resisting the flood of Eationalistic 
 infidelity which is rising daily higher and higher. I am to be in London on 
 Wednesday, if you should wish to communicate with me. 
 
 I am, my dear Lord Shaftesbury, most sincerely yours, 
 
 S. OXON. 
 
 There is, unfortunately, no record of the reply that was sent to the above 
 letter, nor is there any reference to it in the Diary. 
 
 Decided and dogmatic as were Lord Shaftesbury's utterances on the 
 controversies of the times, he was not blinded by his zeal into lending support 
 to actions which were conceived in the spirit of persecution, or that, to effect 
 a present apparent good, would result in permanent harm. Thus, while (we 
 use his own strong expression) he " loathed with the utmost abhorrence " 
 Bishop Colenso's book, he protested against Bishop Gray's illegal mode of 
 dealing with the offending brother. In the same spirit he replied to Arch- 
 deacon Denison on the question of the Endowment of the Greek Chair at 
 Oxford in the person of Dr. Jowett, as shown in the following correspon- 
 dence : 
 
 The Ven. Archdeacon Denison to Lord Shaftesbury. 
 
 COMMITTEE ROOM, 3, ST. ALDATES, 
 
 OXFORD, Feb. 2mh, 1864. 
 
 MY LORD, The peril of the time is so great that I do not hesitate to write a 
 letter which may, perhaps, appear to you a strange one. But I think that, how- 
 ever great the difference between us on some points may be, you will give me 
 credit for having nothing nearer to my heart than to maintain the Scriptural 
 Faith of the Church of England. 
 
 On Tuesday, March 8th, it will be proposed to endow the Greek Professorship 
 in the person of Mr. Jowett ; that is to say, to establish the rule that there is no 
 necessary connection between Academic endowment and truth of teaching. 
 
 The " free handlers " of Holy Scripture regard the statute as ruling this point 
 so completely that they are willing to accept it in the form proposed, and Dr. 
 Stanley publicly thanked Dr. Pusey in the Congregation for having been instru- 
 mental in establishing the rule of neutrality in religion on the part of the 
 University. Pusey, I believe I may say, now regrets his move. 
 
 We are labouring to secure votes. Your Lordship will forgive me for asking 
 for your presence and vote. 
 
 Faithfully yours, 
 
 G. DENISON. 
 
 To this letter Lord Shaftesbury replied :
 
 1864.] AT ST. MORITZ. 595 
 
 Lord Shaftetbury to Archdeacon Deniton. 
 
 March ith, 1864. 
 
 DEAR MR. ARCHDEACON, Be assured that I am delighted to receive a letter 
 f rom you on these matters. In this case, I venture to differ from you. I feel 
 confident that the right course in the first instance ; and in the second, the wise 
 and politic course, is to endow the Professorship notwithstanding the Professor. 
 
 Heaven knows how I loathe the theology of Dr. Jowett, but we should not 
 put him down by dishonouring his chair. 
 
 A hearty combination of all those who hold the fundamental Truth will 
 have ten times more effect if it be separated altogether from movements of this 
 character. I speak particularly as to the effect upon the laity. 
 
 Very faithfully yours, 
 
 SHAFTESBURT. 
 
 In the summer of 1864 Lord Shaftesbury found refuge for a while from 
 controversies with Neologians, and from the Education Commissioners, who 
 had stated their opinion that, except in large cities, Ragged Schools were not 
 needed, as they tended to discourage the establishment of schools of a more 
 regular and systematic character, and it is refreshing to hear him dis- 
 coursing to his friend Mr. Haldane, on the glories of the Grisons : 
 
 Lord Shaftegbury to Mr. Haldane. 
 
 ST. MORITZ, CANTON DBS GRISONS, 
 
 August 2oth, 1864. 
 
 DEAR HALDAXE, Here is indeed a wonderful place ! I am astonished that 
 such a spot, so beautiful, so bright, and so healthy, should have remained, until 
 the last few years, unknown even to the Swiss. The savants of Geneva, Berne, 
 Lausanne, either did not know, or pretended not to know, of a district worth the 
 whole Federation put together. It is more than 6,000 feet above the level of the 
 sea, so high that no cereal crop can ever be raised ; and no plain of Italy can 
 boast so clear, so brilliant, and so blue a sky. I can count ten glaciers from the 
 grass-plat, and sit writing with the window open, enjoying a temperature like 
 the very finest October day in the county of Dorset. The air is as enlivening as 
 champagne and as strengthening as beef. Forests, mountains, lakes, make up 
 the scenery ; and we have as much as the imagination can wish. Add to this, 
 excellent accommodation (in the Eurhaus), capital food, and most obliging 
 people, and you will have the ne plus ultra of a watering-place. 
 
 Nature, however, imposes on every one certain custom dues as the price of 
 admission. You must be acclimated by certain small preliminary inflictions ; a 
 general feeling of discomfort, what school-boys call " being all no-how ; " or 
 a violent cold, cough, and sore throat, or some bad nights, or three or four stout 
 indigestions. I have had them all, but I am now promised that, in a very short 
 time, I shall become " young and lusty as an eagle." . . . 
 
 Yours, 
 
 S. 
 
 Resuming his Diary, in the winter of the year, we find him again in the 
 midst of old anxieties of all sorts : 
 M M 2
 
 696 THE EARL OP 8HAFTE8BURY. [CHAP. XXVII. 
 
 Dec. 12th. St. Giles's. Fresh annoyances in lawsuits instituted by my late 
 steward, and my tenant, Mr. Lewer. Both, for different objects, have put me in 
 Chancery ; and a pretty waste there will be of time, and spirits, and money. A 
 successful suitor in the Court of Chancery is nearly a ruined man, always a loser 
 even by a victory. 
 
 Dec. 22nd. What is there, in Church and State, actual or rising, of wisdom, 
 cr courage, or judgment, or constitutional knowledge, or high-mindedness, or 
 firmness, or patriotism ? Palmerston must soon be removed ; and his successor, 
 Gladstone, will bring with him the Manchester school for colleagues and sup- 
 porters, a hot Tractarian for Chancellor, and the Bishop of Oxford for an eccle- 
 siastical adviser. He will succumb to every pressure, except tlie pressure of a 
 Constitutional and Conservative Policy. 
 
 Reform may be postponed ; but it is inevitable. The next Session will be one 
 of turbulence and mischief, every scheme being propounded, and many a one 
 being carried, to please constituents on the eve of a general election ; Gladstone, 
 probably, taking the lead, nay, even breaking up the Ministry to secure his own 
 elevation. 
 
 Thus we have before us democracy, popery, infidelity, with no spirit of resist- 
 ance in the country, no strong feelings, no decided principles, a great love of ease, 
 and a great fear of anything that may disturb that ease ; and a willingness, nay, 
 a forwardness, to put every apprehension aside, and say, " What does it signify 1 " 
 
 One of the pleasantest occurrences to Lord Shaftesbury in this year was 
 the visit to England of General Garibaldi, for whom he had a profound 
 admiration and regard. Garibaldi arrived in England on the 3rd of April. 
 Lord Shaftesbury went to Southampton to meet him, accompanied him to tlio 
 Isle of Wight, where he remained the guest of Mr. Seely, M.P. for some 
 days, and became his constant companion the whole of the time he was in 
 London, never leaving him, in fact, except when Garibaldi " would go to the 
 Opera." 
 
 One of the subjects that particularly interested Garibaldi during his 
 risit was Lord Shaftesbury's work in relation to the housing of the poor ; 
 and he took away many notes, and obtained much information, with a view to 
 the constmction of better dwelling-houses for the working-classes in Italy. 
 In parting, Lord Shaftesbury presented him with a copy of the New Testa- 
 ment in Italian. It was a book with a story, for it was the only copy of the 
 Scriptures that was finished printing while Garibaldi was in Rome. In giving 
 it, Lord Shaftesbury begged him, as a personal favour, that lie would read it, 
 and this Garibaldi promised lie would do. On his departure he pressed into 
 Lord Shaftesbury's hand a little note which was intended as a farewell, in 
 case ho would not have the opportunity of speech. It ran thus : 
 
 General Garibaldi to Lord Sliaftcsbury . 
 
 CLIFDEN, 24 Avril, 1864. 
 
 MY LOBD, Je desire beaucoup en partant vous faire savoir que je suis bien 
 reconnaissant aux bonte"s dont vous m'avez comblc, et que je serai fier dans toute 
 circonstance, d'etre honore de voa ordres, et de votre amitie. 
 
 Votre devoue", G. GARIBALDI. 
 
 LOBD SHAFTESBCBY.
 
 1864.1 ENGLISH LIBERALITY. 597 
 
 " Of that name," said Lord Shaftesbury, referring to Garibaldi at a 
 banquet given to him at the Fishmongers' Hall, " no man can speak without 
 emotion. He is a man that represents, in himself, the best qualities that 
 adorn mankind." 
 
 His portrait hung, to the last, in a conspicuous place in Lord Shaftesbury's 
 library in Grosvenor Square. 
 
 In a separate manuscript book, Lord Shaftesbury commenced, in Novem- 
 ber of this year, a lengthy review of the various questions of the day as they 
 arose. It was an intellectual pastime with him, and it had its practical use 
 in being ready to hand for reference. We extract the following on English 
 liberality : 
 
 The newspapers are ever loud in their eulogies on English liberality ; that it 
 is ready, adequate, inexhaustible. They parade the subscriptions in answer to 
 sundry appeals, and ask whether any case ever is rejected without joyous and 
 abundant relief. It has never been so, and it is in the present day less so than 
 formerly, and, every year, the difficulty of raising money for charitable and 
 religious purposes will increase in proportion to the increase of the national 
 wealth. 
 
 My own experience as a great mendicant for such objects, is decidedly :w 
 stated ; but I do not quote it as authoritative, for people may be, as doubtless 
 they are, weary of me and my applications. But the facts admit of no evasion. 
 They show a vast change in the heart and spirit of the nation. 
 
 The Indian Mutiny was an event of a nature to stir the very depths of sympathy 
 and feeling. The sum collected for the sufferers was small in itself and inadequate 
 to the necessity. 
 
 The Famine in India was a special and undeniable appeal to luxury and wealth, 
 with less of patriotic claim than the other, but with more of human and Christian 
 obligation. The response was feeble. 
 
 The Crimean War might have roused (and would have roused in earlier days) 
 a tempest, as it were, of generosity. The effort, though greater than the two 
 former, was unequal to the occasion. The country could easily have spared ten 
 times as much ; but its private enjoyments had a stronger claim. 
 
 The Cotton Famine broke on the public like an earthquake or a thunder-bolt. 
 The character, circumstances, and probable issues of this calamity, were enough 
 to terrify the dull and the imaginative alike, the hard and the sympathetic. 
 About a million and a half were raised, by great exertions and unceasing appeals. 
 In reference to the overwhelming need, and the riches of England, it was a poor 
 turn. 
 
 A thrill of horror and commiseration ran through the empire on behalf of the 
 Poles. There was no end of meetings, none of speechifyings, no change of con- 
 versation. All ran on this line. Tet a few paltry sums, perhaps, in the aggregate, 
 not amounting to the cost of half-a-dozen equipages, were collected for the sick 
 and wounded, and this, too, while the Austrian Government was favourable, and 
 allowed the money to be received and expended in hospitals at Cracow. 
 
 On the Danish question, on the cruel invasion and plunder of that kingdom, 
 there was far more unanimity of feeling than in respect of Poland. Yet, after 
 discussions, in Parliament, sensation-meetings, and private meetings, a sum under
 
 598 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXVII. 
 
 twenty thousand pounds was the measure of our succour to the sick and wounded 
 of that gallant army. Not a syllable was urged, nay, not a syllable could be 
 urged, against the movement. All approved, and a miserable fraction contributed 
 to the effort. 
 
 Now, compare this bounty with the bounty of the country in 1813 in aid of 
 the Russians, whose land had been devastated by Napoleon. Above one hundred 
 thousand pounds were collected and remitted to St. Petersburg. But we must 
 observe that, in 1864 as compared with 1813, the national private income had 
 increased, perhaps, twenty-fold ; that the number of individual proprietors of 
 wealth had increased probably in the same proportion. 
 
 In 1813 we were plunged in a long and ruinous war, with war taxes, and no 
 hope of relaxation. We were found, nevertheless, full of fire and generosity to 
 any cry of distress. 
 
 Next came Garibaldi. His reception, on arrival in London, was such as no 
 man ever yet enjoyed, and such as, perhaps, no one will ever enjoy again. The 
 millions that shouted, had they given sixpence apiece, might have realised a 
 subsidy, which would have suited his Italian purposes, and which he would have 
 accepted. But the contributions were trifling, and raised with difficulty. 
 
 The project of a gift from the gentry of England was happily checked by himself, 
 in sufficient time to save his credit and ours. After many sittings of Committees, 
 myriads of letters, and private requests, we had, in two months, obtained pay- 
 ments and promises for a sum considerably under three thousand pounds ; and, 
 by his providential interference, we were spared the disgrace of announcing to 
 the world, that such was the maximum of the sympathy, or the munificence, of 
 the British gentry. 
 
 All these cases must be considered in reference to the wealth and capabilities 
 of the nation. Our means are multiplied twenty-fold ; our religious and charitable 
 expenditure barely two-fold ; the love of money, and its cohesive power, increase 
 with its bulk. A forty-fold advance will reduce the country to a one-fold 
 expenditure. 
 
 But then, say the eulogists of national philanthropy, " the applications are so 
 much increased." That is true, but so are the holders of property, both in 
 numbers and in amount of possession. 
 
 The truth is, that the givers are few, and those few are overtasked. The 
 ordinary and regular givers were always few ; they are becoming fewer every 
 day, as the ancient ones die off. The casual givers, those who give only in some 
 " very peculiar and startling " event, such as the Cotton Famine, might be counted 
 in a breath. Those who have given once, and who will never give again, may be 
 written at full length (" names, weights, and colours of the riders," as one used 
 to hear at a race-ground), on a small side of note-paper. Those who never give 
 at all, might properly call themselves, like the devils in the New Testament, 
 " Legion," for they are many. 
 
 In January, 1865, the death of his old " Christian pastor and friend," the 
 Rev. Robert Moore, Rector of St. Giles's, Dorset, who had held the benefice 
 for forty-two years, was a shock to Lord Shaftesbury. 
 
 Mr. Haldane was consulted as to the vacancy. 
 
 My sole desire is to give the living to a true, tried, and meritorious (humanly 
 speaking) servant of our blessed Lord.
 
 MALTA PROTESTANT COLLEGE. 599 
 
 I should desire the joint opinions of yourself, the good Dean.* and Lord 
 Midleton. A man endorsed by you three, would be an " epistle known and read 
 of all men." . . . Let Emilius Bayley be included in your deliberations. 
 
 The result was the appointment of Mr. Robert Harkness, who still held 
 the benefice at the time of Lord Shaftesbury's death. 
 
 The Diary for 1865 is much fuller than for many previous years, and a 
 few passages on miscellaneous subjects may be quoted. The following relate 
 to the illness of Lord Palmerston a sharp attack of gout which was a 
 cause of great anxiety to Lord Shaftesbury : 
 
 April 20th. Though somewhat abated, my uneasiness respecting Palmerston 
 is very great. O God, " spare him a little before he go hence and be no more seen." 
 
 May 1st. P. is better, God be blessed. Nevertheless, I am very anxious. He 
 may, and probably will, endure a little longer. I cannot, however, dare to hope 
 (and to pray would be to pray for a miracle) that he will encounter another Session. 
 
 In reviewing the political situation the following passage occurs : 
 
 July 10th. This is considered a calm. But it is in reality no such thing. It 
 is simply the peg driven through the Island of Delos ; unloose the peg, and all 
 will be adrift. 
 
 Palmerston is that peg. Let him be drawn out by defeat, by sickness, or by 
 retirement, and all will be in confusion. Gladstone and the Manchester party 
 will ensure that issue. 
 
 July llth. In fearful anxiety about Palmerston. He is, the Lord be praised, 
 better, but he has not recovered, nor will he ever recover, at eighty years of age, 
 his former strength. I have long thought that he will not meet another Parlia- 
 ment ; or, if he does, it will only be to take his leave. He is gone to Tiverton ; 
 his friends declared that such a step, however hazardous, was necessary to sustain 
 the public confidence. How ardently do I pray, day and night, that he may 
 return in safety. He is the only true Englishman left in public life. 
 
 One of Lord Shaftesbury's favourite schemes was the Evangelisation of 
 the East ; and one of the agencies intended to promote it was the Malta 
 Protestant College. The subject was first propounded to him in 1823, when 
 resident in Rome, by Lord Hastings, who had just returned from his 
 Governor-Generalship of India, and who, after a rest, was to assume the 
 Government of the Island of Malta. He proposed to found an institution 
 where the natives of the East should be taught gratuitously. Years passed 
 away, and no grand effort had been made to give effect to the conception of 
 Lord Hastings, although the subject had never escaped the attention of Lord 
 Shaftesbury. Eventually, Dr. Adair Crawford, who had also long pondered 
 the matter, consulted Lord Shaftesbury on the subject, and the result was a 
 meeting at the Thatched House Tavern, and, in 1846, the establishment of 
 the Malta Protestant College. Its object was the religious and social 
 improvement of the populations living under Turkish rule ; and, towards the 
 accomplishment of this end, a certain number of native Oriental pupils were 
 
 * The Dean of Gloucester, Dr. Law.
 
 COO THE EARL OF SIIAFTESBURY. CHAP. XXVII. 
 
 received free of expense, and educated as schoolmasters, interpreters, mis- 
 sionaries, physicians, and merchants, while Europeans and wealthy natives 
 were admitted on payment, and educated. 
 
 After years of up-hill work, it was found that the plan could not be made 
 successful, and the following entry records the end of its existence : 
 
 Aug. 3rd. The Malta College must, on the whole, be regarded as a complete 
 failure. It has been a work of much labour, much thought, much anxiety and 
 high anticipation, many appeals to the public, and many prayers to God. But it 
 has broken down ; and we must close it in debt ; and I, I fear, shall bear the 
 principal burthen. 
 
 For several years there are frequent records of visits to Richmond simi- 
 lar to the following, written in 1861 : 
 
 Went to Richmond to see my mother. She is far less suffering, thank God, 
 than when I last saw her, less cough, less deafness, less depression. Her eye is 
 not dim, she needs no glasses, nor the aid of a stick. What a marvel at eighty- 
 seven I 
 
 The last of this long series of entries is in August, 1865 : 
 
 Aug. 8th. Have just received intelligence from Dr. Julius of the death of my 
 poor mother. She died without pain, enfeebled by age, and quite in her second 
 childhood. 
 
 Aug. 13th. Sunday. Yesterday consigned her to the grave in the vault at 
 St. Giles's, " in the sure and certain hope of a joyful resurrection." In November 
 next she would have completed ninety-one years. Well does God say to Solomon 
 the word of praise, because he had " not desired long life." 
 
 In the autumn of this year the cattle plague was raging in England with 
 fearful violence. Of 80,000 cattle attacked by the disease, 40,000 had died ; 
 and in September, between 6,000 and 7,000 animals were dying each week, 
 while the sheep also were threatened. Pending the action of the Government 
 as to a special public prayer, the Bishop of Oxford wrote a prayer of great 
 beauty and practical force and circulated it in his own diocese. Lord 
 Shaftesbury obtained a copy, and pronounced it to "be one of the most ex- 
 quisitely pious prayers he ever read." The following entry will not surprise 
 any one who knew him well : 
 
 Oct. 10th. St. Giles's. Public prayer last Sunday. Have circulated a short 
 form, for private use, by Bishop of Oxford. Sent it to every farmer and cottager 
 on all my estates ; also some to London, and remitted a sum of money to Mr. 
 Baring Gould for the printing of it in Wolverhampton. 
 
 While this great calamity was hanging over the nation, a deeper and a 
 darker cloud was shadowing the household of Lord Shaftesbury. His friend, 
 Lord Palmerston, the man he trusted and loved, through whose influence he 
 had been able to effect so much, whose life seemed so essential to the nation, 
 was at the point of death.
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 LORD PALMER8TON AND CHURCH APPOINTMENTS. 
 185.', 1865. 
 
 THE record of Lord Palmerston's life has been fully given to the world. 
 Every one knows the main features of his wonderful career ; how, for sixty 
 years, he was a Member of Parliament, and nearly the whole of that time in 
 office ; how he was in the House of Commons for thirty years before the 
 Queen came to the throne, and how, from first to last, he was a man with the 
 capacity to live in the full enjoyment of life, and to work with a will for the 
 good of mankind and the welfare and glory of his country. There are aspects 
 of his life and character, however, which have not hitherto been made known ; 
 they relate to the inner circle and the hidden sphere, and few, if any, knew 
 them better than Lord Shaftesbury. 
 
 Until Lord Palmerston had entered his eighty -first year he showed none 
 of the ordinary signs of old age, nor any relaxing of that hold on life which 
 characterised his whole career. The attack of gout referred to in the pre- 
 ceding chapter was the first indication of his approaching end. 
 
 During the elections in July, 1865, he addressed the electors at Tiverton 
 and then went to Brocket, where the attack of illness occurred. Before he 
 was sufficiently recovered, he went for a ride, took a chill, and indiscreetly 
 refused the remedies proposed to him. 
 
 Oct. 16th. London. Game up with Minny to-day in consequence of a tele- 
 gram from Evelyn. Heard, on arrival, that P. was better. She is pone to 
 Brocket ; I remain here. She is enough at such times as these a multitude, 
 even of the dearest friends, is burdensome. 
 
 Will the Lord spare him tons a little space before the "go hence and be no 
 more seen ? " I believe that it will be so. 
 
 On the 18th, Lord Shaftesbury, who, as will be seen immediately, went at 
 once to Brocket Hall, wrote to Mr. Haldane : 
 
 BROCKET HALL, Oct. ISth, 1865. 
 
 DEAR HALDANE, Palmerston rallied wonderfully yesterday, but now he liee 
 on the very verge of the grave. A few hours, and he will be no more. 
 
 God have mercy on him for our Lord's sake ! I have hope, well-founded hope, 
 that he dies in peace. Three days ago he expressed his firm trust in Christ to 
 our invaluable friend and physician, Protheroe Smith ; and as we prayed over 
 him to-day I saw his eyes open, and heard low indistinct sounds of assent. God 
 is unspeakably good. " If Thou be extreme to mark what is done amiss, who can 
 abide Thee 1 "
 
 602 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXVIII. 
 
 Thus goes the " Ultimas Romanorum," and now begins, be assured of it, the 
 greatest social, political, and religious revolution that England has yet endured. 
 What an instrument he has been in the hands of the Almighty ! 
 
 Yours, 
 
 S. 
 The Diary continues : 
 
 Oct. 20th. Brocket. Till now, unable to record the death of my much-loved 
 friend. It pleased Almighty God to take his soul on Wednesday morning, 18th 
 at a quarter to eleven o'clock. 
 
 First, I thank God that I was present to watch and pray by his bedside. 
 Minny had, on Tuesday morning, sent me a telegram to say, " Much better " ; 
 and, on that word, I was preparing to return to my business in Dorsetshire ; but, 
 providentially, I read what she had, providentially, also added, " You were ex- 
 pected, you may as well come for one night at all events." I determined so to do, 
 merely to shake hands with him and wish him joy. And right glad am I that I 
 was moved to take this step ; for, on my arrival, I heard that he had suffered a 
 sudden relapse and that the physicians had abandoned all hope. Yet I could not 
 quite abandon prayer ; and I clung, without sanction, to the issue, as it were, of 
 a miracle. 
 
 Later in the night, about eleven o'clock, I went to his bed-room, and saw him 
 lying, apparent] y unconscious, and breathing hard. We all sat up the whole 
 night : Fanny and Minny with their mother, and I, W. Cowper, Georgiana, 
 Evelyn, and the doctors, occasionally in the bed-room, or the room adjoining. He 
 was sinking gradually, but without pain. 
 
 Some of the incidents of that anxious night are very graphically told : 
 
 About two o'clock it might be, the doctor, Protheroe Smith, thinking that his 
 end was very near, proposed that all should unite in prayer, and commend his 
 soul to the living God. We heartily concurred ; and I went into the next room 
 to arouse the good Dr. Watson, then asleep on a sofa, who had expressed an 
 earnest wish to join the family in any act of worship. 
 
 An hour or more after this, William leaned over the bed and began to recite 
 some passages of the Liturgy, the short and pithy supplications, one or two of 
 the Collects, and the Lord's Prayer. He was, I think, in this very judicious, as 
 using the words and petitions with which Palmerston might be familiar. It is 
 manifest to me that he was heard by Palmerston, who opened his eyes and 
 sjemed to give, by low but special sounds, expressions of assent. 
 
 William then asked me to pray over him, saying, " he knows your voice, and 
 he will be touched to find that you are so near him." Inwardly I implored God's 
 jrrace ; and then I did so. His eyes were opened widely, and he repeated, after 
 many of the petitions, the same sounds that had so comforted us all under 
 William's prayer. I spoke of sin, of forgiveness, and of sin being washed away 
 only by the blood of our crucified Saviour. There was no sign of repugnance, no 
 moving of the hand in token of denial (and he had strength to do so, for he had 
 moved his hands before, and he moved them afterwards), but the same soft and 
 peculiar sound, that seemed more like a breathing of the heart, than an effort 
 of the mouth. This done, he closed his eyes, and relapsed into his former 
 d rowainess.
 
 i85.) PALMERSTON'S ENEMIES. 603 
 
 A good deal later, and just before the last gasp (I forget the precise hour), 
 Protheroe Smith spoke to him, and said, " Are you in pain ? " " Oh no," he 
 replied. Somewhat after that Smith (Dr. Watson standing by) asked him. " Will 
 you take any refreshment 7 " " Oh no, no," he answered, in distinct tones. Both 
 the doctors remarked to me, " We are now certain that he heard your prayers and 
 that his consciousness remained with him." 
 
 If that be so, then am I equally certain that he acknowledged, accepted, and 
 embraced our petitions, joined in the confession of sins, and trusted in the merits 
 of the All-powerful Redeemer. Such was the character of the man that he never 
 would have passed in silence, still less have apparently admitted, anything that 
 his spirit rejected. We may joyously believe that, after a long life of absorption 
 in worldly affairs, God, of His free and unbounded mercy, revealed to him His 
 Son Jesus Christ, and has enabled all those who ?o truly and tenderly loved him, 
 to say with unhesitating confidence and joy, " We now commit our brother to the 
 grave, dust to dust, ashes to ashes, in the sure and certain hope of a glorious 
 resurrection." 
 
 I was not in the chamber at the very moment of dissolution ; but I came in 
 time to imprint a parting kiss on his forehead yet warm, and put my hand on his 
 closing eyes. 
 
 It was but natural that Lord Shaftesbury should scan the political horizon 
 with some anxiety, and he proceeds to record Lord Palmerston's estimate of 
 men who were to succeed him : 
 
 Oct. 25th. Palmerston had but two real enemies, Bright and Gladstone. 
 Gladstone's language, and specially his acts, will show that the master mind 
 which curbed him is gone; and his resentment will appear in the political 
 associations he will form, and in the violence and relish with which he will 
 overthrow every thought and deed of his great leader. 
 
 Palmerston knew all this, but never mentioned it with asperity. Once he 
 said to me, though he seldom dealt in predictions, " Gladstone will soon have it 
 p.U his own way ; and, whenever he gets my place we shall have strange doings." 
 
 He feared his character, his views, and his temperament, greatly. He rarely 
 spoke severely of any one. Bright and Gladstone were the only two of whom 
 he used strong language. Cobden he described as a man from whom he differed 
 in many respects, but he never, in my hearing, applied to him any forcible 
 epithets. Lord Russell, from whom he had received the greatest wrongs 
 personal and political was never alluded to but with a laugh, and in a good* 
 humoured way, " Oh, he's a foolish fellow, but we shall go on very well now." 
 And he was rijrht, for the later conduct of Lord Russell was antagonistic to his 
 first, and the six years of his tenure, under P., of the Foreign Secretaryship, were 
 years of confidence and esteem between them both. 
 
 He saw clearly, but without any strong sentiment, Gladstone's hostility. He 
 remarked to me one uay, when we were discussing some appointment : " Well, 
 Gladstone has never behaved to me as a colleague in such a way as to demand 
 from me any consideration." And this he said with the air and tone of a man 
 who perceived the enmity but did not care for it. Yet he always endeavoured to 
 keep him safe in Oxford. When Lord Derby dissolved the Parliament, P. requested 
 me to do all that lay in my power to secure Gladstone's seat for the University. 
 When Parliament was dissolved, in July of this year, P. again applied to me ;
 
 604 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXVIII. 
 
 and every effort was made. But the Conservatives and their adherents committed 
 the gross folly of ejecting him from Oxford, and thus sending him to Lancashire. 
 " He is a dangerous man," said P. ; " keep him in Oxford, and he is partially 
 muzzled ; but send him elsewhere, and he will run wild." 
 
 Oct. 29th. Yesterday Palmerston was committed to the grave in Westminster 
 Abbey. He had said, in his will, evidently never contemplating a public funeral, 
 that he " desired to be buried at Romsey." The universal wish that he should be 
 publicly interred prevailed with his family, and Lady Palmerston gave way 
 under our assurance that a place should be reserved for her at his side in the 
 Abbey as he had designed for her in the cemetery. 
 
 The crowds were immense, but in wonderful order ; silent, deeply reverential, 
 and apparently unwilling, even by signs, to disturb the solemnity of the proces- 
 sion. Such a scene has seldom been seen ; and long will it be ere such another 
 be \v itnessed. The people loved the man, his open simplicity, his imperturbable 
 good-humour, his incapability of resentment, his readiness to stand up, at all 
 times, for what he thought right ; they confided in his sagacity, his experience of 
 affairs, his preference of the public interests to nepotism or to self ; they saw in 
 him, in short, everything that they desired to see in a Ruler in one aspect, in a 
 servant in another. Everyman regarded him, as a personal friend ; and every 
 one, in his loss, seems subjected to a sense of personal insecurity. 
 
 While I deeply mourn him as my dear, true, and private friend, and while I 
 tremble for the destinies of England, I acknowledge with gratitude and joy the 
 special mercy of Almighty God towards him, and towards his relations. He 
 might have lived to a second childhood ; he might have lived to exhibit mental 
 decrepitude in the House of Commons, and give rise to wishes that he would 
 resign, and to complaints that his friends did not persuade him to resign. He 
 went down, on the contrary, in the height of his popularity, in the peace and 
 prosperity of the country, in the plenitude of the public confidence, in the full 
 enjoyment of his faculties, in the midst of social and domes'tic happiness, in the 
 possession of power, and with the daily prayers of thousands that he might long 
 be spared for the honour, the welfare, and security of the Empire. " His sun 
 went down while it was yet day ; " and the twilight will be, to the eye at least, 
 a? attractive and beautiful as his full blaze of splendour. 
 
 The intellect, too, left in its vigour, freshness, and elasticity, was becoming far 
 too active and vigorous for the body. He battled, hour by hour, with that sinking 
 frame, which, though still perfect in its organisation (for so the post-mortem 
 revealed) was qualified for long and peaceable existence, but not for rapid and 
 anxious exertion. His suffering, latterly, must have been extreme. With a 
 courage equal to his understanding, he continued to demand of his physical 
 system all the service it had rendered in his early days. A conscientious eager- 
 ness to fight for his country, while he had a leg to stand on, impelled him very 
 far, and temporarily sustained him. But eyes, and ears, and nerves, and muscles 
 were failing fast ; and one saw, with pain, the desperate efforts he made partly 
 to conceal and partly to overcome them. Hitherto this reflection has comforted, 
 and upheld my mother-in-law. She recognises the merciful hand of God towards 
 both herself and him, in the many years of happiness they were permitted to enjoy 
 together, and his eaay removal before any mental and further bodily visitations.
 
 1865.] A GAP IN MANY LIVES. 005 
 
 The death of our friend Palmerston has made a gap in many lives and in many 
 quarters. The first is in his wife's existence. It is a sudden change from excite- 
 ment and activity to utter silence and repose. She revolved round the centre of 
 all political movements, she is checked in her orbit, and is become stationary. 
 Her hopes and fears and affections, so keenly roused and so tenderly exercised, 
 towards him, whether in strength or weakness, in anxiety, or in joy, will be 
 wholly extinguished, or made to burn in a lower degree, towards other objects. 
 
 It is a change, and a gap, to Minny. He tenderly loved and admired her. and 
 said to her, as she entered his room, not many days before his death, " Minny, 
 come in, come in ; you always seem to me like a sunbeam." Such affections 
 withdrawn are not a slight abstraction of vital warmth. 
 
 I cannot but observe a considerate Providence in the removal of the husband 
 before the wife. She has many things to sustain and console her. He would have 
 had none. She has her children and her grandchildren about her ; he would 
 have been alone and helpless in the extreme, with all the bitterness and keenness 
 of sorrow which befalls one so entirely isolated and deprived irreparably of all 
 the supports, alleviations, and balms, that exist only in domestic life and the 
 ministrations of affectionate and unpaid service. 
 
 It is a change to Evelyn,* who is discharged from an office of moderate 
 emolument, but one of deep interest and instruction, and this, too, without a 
 profession to fall back upon. 
 
 Referring to the assemblies given by Lady Palmerston, to which allusion 
 has been made in an earlier part of this work, Lord Shaftesbury continues: 
 
 Oct. 30th. These parties at Cambridge House gave golden bridges of oppor- 
 tunities to all of different opinions, of attitudes mutually hostile, of warring 
 partisans, to members of the two Houses, to many of all degrees, professions, 
 occupations in the Commons ; to all these they furnished means of intercourse, 
 of social amenities, of acquaintances, and, perhaps, reciprocal satisfaction. Party 
 asperities were modified, and many personal errors mitigated or subdued. For 
 some time, at least, but possibly for ever, such gatherings will find neither place 
 nor patron. 
 
 The loss to Lord Shaftesbury, personally, in the death of his old and tried 
 friend was irreparable. He refers to it thus : 
 
 Ah, but to none will the loss be as it is to myself. I lose a man who, I knew, 
 esteemed and loved me far beyond every other man living. He showed it in every 
 action of his heart, in every expression of his lips, in private and in public as a 
 man, as a relative, and as a Minister. His society was infinitely agreeable to me ; 
 and I admired, every day more, his patriotism, his simplicity of purpose, his 
 indefatigable spirit of labour, his unfailing good-humour, his kindness of heart, 
 and his prompt, tender, and active considerateness for others, in the midst of his 
 heaviest toils and anxieties. A great and mighty door for good is now closed 
 upon me, so far as I can see, for ever. This I may lament, while I bless God for 
 such grand, such frequent, such prolonged opportunities of doing good service in 
 my generation. 
 
 I have kept no record I now regret the omission of the various cases I 
 
 * The Hon. Evelyn Ashley was Lord Palmerston's private secretary.
 
 606 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXVIII. 
 
 brought before him, and successfully, for aid from the " Bounty Money." The 
 applicants, in abundant instances, approached the Prime Minister through me as 
 their channel, and, as I never undertook any but deserving cases, so I never met 
 with anything but ready acquiescence. 
 
 So with honours to be bestowed. He listened at once to my earnest counsel 
 to give baronetcies to Baxter of Dundee, and Crossley of Halifax, in acknowledg- 
 ment of their princely generosity to the people. I persuaded him on behalf of 
 McClintock and Harry Parkes, overlooked and disregarded, despite his great 
 services, by Lord Russell. He was ever forward, nay, delighted, to recognise and 
 reward merit, wherever it was found. 
 
 It was no slight interest to be so near the centre of all action in politics, the 
 fountain-head of all information. He was very open and explicit with me at all 
 times. In conversation he withheld nothing but what he could not, in honour, 
 divulge, and though not given to voluntary communications, he imparted to me 
 almost everything, if it arose in the order of our discourse. 
 
 Lord Sliaftesbury next proceeds to review the whole history of Lord 
 Palmerston's Church appointments. It need hardly be said, that almost every 
 appointment gave great dissatisfaction to the High Church party, and that 
 every fresh appointment made to the Bench of Bishops especially excited 
 their auger and chagrin. The " Shaftesbury Bishops " were " as a stone of 
 stumbling and a rock of offence " to them, and especially to Bishop Wilber- 
 force, who, in a letter to Mr. Gladstone on the question of a Bill to abolish 
 the declaration made by Mayors, that they would not use their office against 
 the Established Church, wrote : " I shall be ready not to oppose the Bill if 
 I find it possible to bring the Church party, and especially the bishops, to act 
 together in that sense. I fear that this will not be easy. Lord Palmerston's 
 wicked appointments meet us here at every turn to yield everything to a 
 Ministry, which every sound Churchman feels insults the Church almost every 
 time it has to recommend to the Crown for a bishopric, is exceedingly hard." :;!= 
 In his biography of Lord Palmerston, Mr. Evelyn Ashley says : 
 " The Church patronage which Lord Palmerston administered during his 
 two Premierships was so large that the principle on which he declared him- 
 self to act, and on which, indeed, he consistently did act, is worth reading in 
 his own words. I can certainly of my own knowledge assert, that the one 
 way in which a clergyman could make it certain that he would not get prefer- 
 ment, was to commence his letter of application by a statement of his political 
 principles, thus making them a ground of claim. Lord Palmerston writes to 
 Lord Carlisle, then Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland : 
 
 1 ' I have never considered ecclesiastical appointments as patronage to be 
 given away for grace and favour, and for personal or political objects. The 
 choice to be made of persons to fill dignities in the Church must have a great 
 influence on many important matters ; and I have always endeavoured, in 
 making such appointments, to choose the best man I could find, without any 
 regard to the wishes of those who may have recommended candidates for 
 choice.'" 
 
 * "Life of Bishop Wilberforce," vol. iii., p. 84.
 
 1865.J 
 
 THE " 8HAFTESBURY BISHOPS.' 
 
 607 
 
 In the appendix to the work from which the above quotation is made 
 there is a remarkable letter from Lord Shaftesbury to the author, on the 
 public and private character of Lord Palmerston, in which the following 
 passage occurs : 
 
 " He had much solicitude for the honour and efficiency of the episcopal 
 office. He ever sought for good and proper men ; and he discarded, in the 
 search, all considerations of mere politics or attention to personal requests 
 ' If the man is a good man,' he often said, ' I don't care what his political 
 opinions are. Certainly I had rather not name a bishop who would make 
 party speeches and attacks on the Government in the House of Lords ; but, 
 short of that, let him do as he likes.' ' I am a very lucky man,' he remarked 
 to me ; ' luckier than most Ministers. I have no sons, grandsons, or nephews 
 to stuff into the Church ; and, so far as all that is concerned, I can do what 
 I think right.' An instance of his disinterestedness occurred to myself. I 
 had ventured to suggest to him the name of a very learned, but comparatively 
 unknown, man, for a high professorship. ' I must state,' I added, ' that he is 
 a person of no social account, and has no friends to endorse him.' ' What 
 does that signify ? ' he replied ; ' is he a proper man P ' ' Yes, a very proper 
 man.' ' Then he shall be appointed.' And he was so appointed. 
 
 " I must add here, that a part of his definition of a ' good and proper man ' 
 for the episcopal bench, was, one who would go on well with the Nonconfor- 
 mists. He had a very special dislike of every form of clerical assump- 
 tion." * 
 
 Without any consideration of the merit, or otherwise, of Lord Palmerston's 
 selections, the amount and variety of his cases of ecclesiastical preferment 
 are historically curious. Nothing has been seen like it, in the career of any 
 other Minister. It will be seen from the following listf that Lord Palmerston 
 had at his disposal twenty -five mitres and ten deaneries ; including three ap- 
 pointments to English and two to Irish archbishoprics, sixteen English and 
 four Irish bishoprics, and ten English deaneries : 
 
 ENGLISH ARCHBISHOPS. 
 
 Canterbury ... 1862 Dr. Longley. 
 
 York 1860 Dr. Longley. 
 
 . 1862 Dr. Thomson. 
 
 London ... 
 Durham... 
 
 ENGLISH BISHOPS. 
 
 1856 DeanTait. 
 
 1856 Bishop Longley. 
 
 1860 Bishop Villiers. 
 
 1861 Bishop Baring. 
 1856 Dr. Villiers. 
 
 Carlisle 
 
 1860 
 
 Canon Waldegrave. 
 
 Gloucester and 
 Bristol 
 
 J1856 
 
 Dr. Baring. 
 
 
 
 1861 
 
 Dr. Thomson. 
 
 > 
 
 1861 
 
 Dean Ellicott. 
 
 Ripon 
 
 1856 
 
 Dr. Bickersteth. 
 
 Norwich 
 
 1857 
 
 Dr. Pelham. 
 
 Rochester ... 
 
 1860 
 
 Dr. Wigram. 
 
 Worcester ... 
 
 1860 
 
 Dr. Philpott. 
 
 Ely 
 
 1864 1 
 
 Canon Harold 
 
 
 1 
 
 Browne. 
 
 Peterborough 
 
 1864 
 
 Dean Jeune. 
 
 Cheater 
 
 1865 
 
 Canon Jacobson. 
 
 * "Life of Lord Palmerston," by the Hon. Evelyn Ashley, M.P., vol. ii., p. 319. 
 t Extracted from the Record, Nov. 1st, 1865.
 
 608 
 
 THE EARL OP SHAFTESHURY. 
 
 [CHAP. XXVIII. 
 
 IRISH ARCHBISHOPS. 
 
 Westminster.. 
 
 1857 
 
 Dr. Trench. 
 
 Armagh 1862 Dr. Beresford. 
 
 
 
 1863 
 
 Dr. Stanley. 
 
 Dublin 1863 Dean Trench. 
 
 Canterbury ... 
 
 1857 
 
 Dr. Alford. 
 
 
 Carlisle ... 
 
 1856 
 
 Dr. Close. 
 
 IRISH BISHOPS. 
 
 Kipon 
 
 1859 
 
 Dr. Garnier. 
 
 Cork 1857 Dr. Fitzgerald. 
 
 M 
 
 1860 
 
 Dr. Goode. 
 
 1862 Dr. J. Gregg. 
 
 Lincoln 
 
 I860 
 
 Dr. Garnier. 
 
 Killaloe 1862 Dr. Fitzgerald. 
 
 
 1864 
 
 Dr. Jeune. 
 
 Kilmore ... 1862 Dr. Verschoyle. 
 
 ;J 
 
 1864 
 
 Dr. Jeremie. 
 
 ENGLISH DEANS. 
 
 Gloucester ... 
 
 1862 
 
 Dr. Henry Law. 
 
 ChristChurch, ) 1855 Dr . LiddelL 
 
 Exeter 
 
 1861 
 
 Professor Ellicott. 
 
 Oxford ... J 
 
 ,, 
 
 1862 
 
 Viscount Midleton. 
 
 In addition to the above Lord Palmerston made a considerable number of 
 appointments to important livings in the gift of the Crown, as well as the 
 appointment of Dr. Shirley to the Regius Professorship of Ecclesiastical His- 
 tory at Oxford, with a Canonry of Christchurch annexed, and of Dr. Payne 
 Smith to the Regius Professorship of Divinity at Oxford, also with a 
 Canonry of Christchurch. 
 
 We now turn to the Diary, for the statements of Lord Shaftesbury the 
 "Bishop-maker," as he was not unfrequently called with regard to these 
 ecclesiastical preferments. 
 
 Nov. 1st. In the matter of Church appointments Palmerston was con- 
 spicuous for justice, propriety, impartiality, and freedom from merely political 
 views. 
 
 He, at once, and from the very first, gave me his confidence on these matter.-!. 
 and I very early determined to look at every vacancy, not from my own, but from 
 his point of view. Many fit men passed before me whom I would, had I been 
 Prime Minister, have raised to high places in the Church ; and so I told him ; 
 but I added, " I do not advise you to do so, because you could not maintain them, 
 if questioned, on the same grounds as myself, nor allege the same reasons. I must 
 consider your position, the difficulties you have to contend against, the legitimate 
 objections, even in such matters, that beset the path of a public man, and one 
 from his special office and responsibility, by no means in the attitude and powers 
 of a private patron. I must propose what you and I can defend, not that which 
 could be defended by myself alone." 
 
 The first appointments were so successful that they influenced elections, 
 turned votes in the House of Commons, and raised around him a strong party 
 in the country. Some three years after the beginning of his career he visited 
 Lancashire and Yorkshire ; and he spoke to me, on his return, of the vast favour 
 he had met with ; and how he had been, everywhere, thanked for his nominations 
 in the Church. The effect was seen in the anger of Lord Derby, who openly 
 attacked them in the House of Lords, though with no response, either there or in 
 the kingdom ; impelled, no doubt, under the inspiration of the Bishop of Oxford, 
 to run amuck, in his High Church and Tractarian fury, against the Evangelical 
 character and truth of the earlier bishops. He was always anxious that they 
 should be good men, active, zealous, and sound members of the Church of 
 England. He regarded any approximation to Popery, Popish doctrines, and
 
 IMS.} THE "BISHOP-MAKER." 609 
 
 Popish practices, with special dislike and even fear. From the commencement, 
 I obtained his full assent that, on all occasions, men should be selected who 
 would be moderate and decent in their language towards Nonconformists, and 
 civil in their personal intercourse with them, He felt, as I did, the folly, nay, 
 the iniquity, of haughty sacerdotal bearing, of vituperative epithets, of clerical 
 despotism, towards the body of Dissenters ; he saw, too, and resolved, if he could, 
 to obviate the danger of such an ecclesiastical arrogance. 
 
 The Church gained, by this, an immense popularity and strength, which she 
 is beginning to lose from no other cause than the proud, domineering assump- 
 tions of Convocation and Church Congresses. 
 
 The lists will show the great number and variety of the several appointments. 
 Yet not one was even questioned, and Dr. Pusey himself, in supporting Glad- 
 stone's election against Qathorne Hardy, remarked that, " if all were not such 
 as he could have wished, all, at any rate, were in the interests of religion." . . . 
 
 He oftentimes thanked me, in the warmest language, for the advice I gave 
 him, and showed his appreciation of it by never making but one appointment, so 
 far as I can recollect (that of Blakesly, Canon of Canterbury), without con- 
 sulting me on the matter. 
 
 The first bishops were decidedly of the Evangelical School ; and my recom- 
 mendations were made with that intention. I could not foresee the duration of 
 his power, and I was resolved to put forward men who would preach the truth, 
 be active in their dioceses, be acceptable to the working people, and not offensive 
 to the Nonconformists. He accepted my suggestions on these very grounds, and 
 heartily approved them. 
 
 As his power was increased and prolonged, and a fair probability appeared of 
 a durable administration, I felt, and he felt, the expediency of somewhat enlarg- 
 ing the sphere of selection ; the First Minister of the Crown standing in a 
 position, as I have observed before, widely different from that of a private patron. 
 
 After his junction with the Peel party he observed to me, " I should like to 
 be a little cautious in the selection of bishops, so as not, unnecessarily to vex 
 my colleagues, some of whom are very high. It is a bore to see angry looks, and 
 have to answer questions of affected ignorance. This must not stand in the way 
 of fit men, but, if we can now and then combine the two, so much the better." 
 
 This expression of feeling altered, of course, in some measure, the external 
 appearance of the nominations. I say " external," because the principle remained 
 the same ; but it was difficult, henceforward, to select worthy, qualified nay, 
 even first-rate men, if they were altogether unknown, without a ready answer 
 attached to their names, should a question be asked. The range was limited. 
 Public opinion, represented by the public press, limited the range still more, by 
 perpetually calling for " learned men " to fill the sees. The Tractarians did so 
 in the hope of forcing the elevation of some of their medieval school ; the Neo- 
 logians, to push forward such as Colenso. 
 
 I saw this, and foresaw, also, that this new demand, sustained by almost 
 every paper, would eventually be serious, greatly embarrass him under the pres- 
 sure of the business of his office, and cause him disquietude, and so lead to a 
 change in his mode of action. 
 
 He never gave a hint, himself, of any altered views ; but I determined to 
 seek, from that time forward, the best men that could be found, possessing such 
 qualities and attainments aa might render them good though not the beet men. 
 N N
 
 610 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXVIII. 
 
 Professors, tutors, and dons of colleges are by no means, on an average, men 
 fitted for episcopal duty. The knowledge of mankind and experience of 
 parochial life are not acquired in musty libraries and easy-chairs. Practical 
 divinity is one thing, speculative divinity another, and the accomplishments that 
 make an active and useful bishop, are purchased at the cost of that learning 
 which would make him a theological champion, armed at all points, and ready 
 on all occasions. 
 
 The later appointments proceeded on this principle ; and, God be praised, 
 some adequate men were found. Position, however, satisfied the public ; a dean, 
 an archdeacon, a professor, or the head of a college, was assumed by them with- 
 out inquiry to be a " learned man." So intent were the malcontents on this point, 
 that when Conway, the vicar of Rochester, was appointed to the Canonry of 
 Westminster, he was pronounced, until it was known that he had been fifth 
 Wrangler at Cambridge, to be unfit to preach the Gospel to the poor of St. 
 Margaret's. 
 
 He was sensitive, from the very first, in respect of the " feelings at Cam- 
 bridge." After two Oxford men had been appointed to the Bench, he said to me, 
 " Pray look out for a Cambridge man ; they turned me out of Cambridge, and I 
 should not like to be thought resentful." To this end Bickersteth was appointed 
 Bishop of Ripon. 
 
 I suggested to him Dr. Tait for London, then Dean of Carlisle. I did so aa 
 believing that the " Broad Church " ought to be represented (I advised as though 
 Prime Minister), and selected Dr. Tait as the mildest among them. It is an 
 appointment in some respects to be regretted, in other respects to be commended, 
 for, undoubtedly, we have got from him, as Bishop of London, ten times as much 
 aa ever was obtained from one, or all, of his predecessors. 
 
 Dr. Ellicott's appointment will be good for the end to which it was made. 
 First, a Cambridge man was wanted ; secondly, some one in a high theological 
 position ; and thirdly, my own feeling that honour should be done to every 
 one (whenever occasion offered) connected with the answers to " Essays and 
 Reviews." 
 
 The original nomination of Dr. Trench to the Deanery of Westminster was 
 entirely his own. I found, when I asked it for Dr. McCaul, that he had made 
 up his mind for Dr. Trench. I do not know who advised him ; certainly, he 
 himself knew little or nothing of the Doctor. 
 
 But it was at my suggestion he made him Archbishop of Dublin. 
 
 Gamier also was his own. He was a worthy man, the son of his old friend 
 the Dean of Winchester ; but I suggested his two successors, Dr. Jeune and 
 Dr. Jeremie. 
 
 Twice under my advice he offered a bishopric to Dr. Vaughan, of Harrow, and 
 was, in each case, refused. 
 
 In reference to the Deanery of Ch. Ch., I had no share beyond that of joining, 
 with many others, to recommend Dr. Liddell. 
 
 Dr. Jaoobson was proposed for my consideration in the following way : The 
 ee of Chester being vacant, I had suggested, and Palmerston had accepted, the 
 name of Archdeacon Prest, of Durham. Shortly afterwards he wrote to me, and 
 enclosed a letter from Gladstone. In this a statement was made that Jacobson 
 was the chairman of his Election Committee ; that the nomination of this pro-
 
 18W.] PROSPECTIVE CHANGES. 611 
 
 fessor to the vacant Bee would be very encouraging, and greatly strengthen his 
 interests, the usual expressions being added of " fit man," " learned man," &.c., &c. 
 
 Palmerston asked my opinion very seriously. " I should be glad," he said 
 " to aid Gladstone to keep his seat for Oxford, because, small though it may be, 
 it tends a little to check him, and save him from running into wild courses. 
 But I will not do it unless you assure me that the Dr. is a proper man." . . . 
 
 Well, this is the only nomination that had a taint of politics in it ; and there 
 is much to be said on its behalf. But it is, so far as I know, the only one where 
 the bishop has openly and speedily given offence. Departing from the excellent 
 precedents set by his predecessors, Bishops Sumner and Graham, he has peremp- 
 torily refused, both to Chester and the great town of Liverpool, his sanction to 
 the Bible Society. 
 
 The anxiety and toil, the hopes and fears, the endless correspondence and 
 interviews, the care in the selection of the men to be suggested, the inquiries 
 into their antecedents, the perusal of their published sentiments, the sense of 
 responsibility, the prayers for " light and guidance," the reproaches of the 
 High Church Party these form the subject of innumerable entries in the 
 Diary during the years that Lord Palmerston was Premier and his Church 
 appointments were made under the advice of Lord Shaftesbnry. He was 
 greatly assisted in his labours by Mr. Haldane, to whom, when a history of 
 the appointments was published in the Record, he wrote : 
 
 ST. GILES'S, November llth, 1865. 
 
 DEAR HALDANE, The document you have sent me, exhibiting the ecclesias- 
 tical patronage bestowed by Lord Palmerston, is a document demanding gratitude 
 and prayer to Almighty God. 
 
 No three Prime Ministers together had attained the number ; and all in a 
 lump, since Prime Ministers began, cannot show the same quality of appoint- 
 ment, or the same disinterested spirit in the several nominations. . . . 
 
 You may take to yourself very large consolation. That list may be to you, by 
 God's mercy, one of the " pleasures of memory." Your wide experience, sound 
 judgment, and Christian heart, were of signal, nay, indispensable importance ; 
 and now that we, like all other " dogs, have had our day," and are shrunk again 
 to our former proportions, let us bless the Lord that, in His good pleasure, He 
 used us, and has done so much by small instruments. 
 
 Salutem multam in Jen Chritto. 
 
 Yours, 8. 
 
 In closing his review of Lord Palmerston'g life, and its influence on 
 Church and State, Lord Shaftesbury writes : 
 
 We must now be prepared for vast and irrevocable changes. Palmerston was 
 the grand pillar appointed, under God's Providence, to which all the vessels of 
 the State were linked, and so the fleet was held to ita moorings. It is now cast 
 down ; the ships are set afloat without rudder or compass, and will drift in every 
 direction over the broad sea. 
 
 We seem as though we were going to do everything that we most disliked. 
 No one wishes for reform, and yet every one will give it. The Parliament is 
 N N 2
 
 612 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURT. [CHAP. XXV [IL 
 
 called moderate, and even " liberally " Conservative ; but it will prove decidedly 
 revolutionary. The period is approaching when the real effects of the Reform 
 Bill will begin to be felt, for many of the calmest and most thinking men fore- 
 told, at that time, that, while many and great changes would take place (as they 
 have done), there would be no organic revolution till after the lapse of some 
 twenty or thirty years. 
 
 Two vast changes may be traced within the last few years, changes in the 
 mode of thinking, and of the estimate formerly attached to ideas and institutions. 
 The elective franchise is no longer considered as a means to good government, 
 but is, in itself, even where good government exists, a right and an enjoyment for 
 the people. It is treated as a principle of education, as a mode of elevating the 
 working classes, without any reflection how, unless properly used, it will depress 
 every other. 
 
 The position of the House of Lords is materially lowered ; and such must 
 necessarily be the issue of enlarged desires and powers in the House of Commons. 
 I remember that, when Lord Melbourne became Prime Minister, he lamented, and 
 his friends lamented also, that he had no majority in the House of Lords. It was 
 of importance then that the Minister should not be weak in the " Upper House," 
 as it is, at present, called. But what Minister, or what man, now thinks of the 
 House of Lords ? What voice, or even whisper, has it in the formation, or sup- 
 port, of an administration? None. It is allowed to debate, transact private 
 business, and reject a few unimportant Bills ; but its vital powers are gone, and 
 never will it dare to resist the House of Commons for two years on any point, as 
 it resisted them for twenty on the Roman Catholic question. 
 
 The long and short of our present position is, that the time has arrived 
 (novus sceclorwm nascitur ordo~) for the triumph of the Manchester School, of 
 which Gladstone is the disciple and the organ. And, for the nonce, they have a 
 great advantage ; for, though the majority of the country is against them, the 
 country has no leaders in or out of Parliament ; whereas they are well provided, 
 and are equally compact in purpose and action.
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 18661867. 
 
 THE year 1866 opened gloomily for Lord Shaftesbury. Many of the measures 
 on which his heart was set were exposed to peril; Lord Palmerston, the 
 " man in whom he trusted," was no more ; the law-suits in which he was 
 engaged with Waters, his late steward, and with Mr. Lewer, one of his 
 tenants, had taken an unfavourable turn he had never contemplated ; a full 
 investigation into his own financial circumstances caused him much uneasi- 
 ness. Ever since he began the Factory Question, he had laid out on that, 
 and kindred movements, large sums of money ; for charitable and religious 
 purposes he had been compelled to act in excess of what he was able to afford, 
 lest, by apparent parsimony, he should bring " outward profession " into con- 
 tempt ; and the cottage-building and drainage works at St. Giles's under- 
 taken to employ labour and to elevate the people and the whole farming 
 system had, by the mismanagement of his steward, proved ruinous. He had 
 dreamed a dream, and on awakening, he wrote : 
 
 . . . I acted upon feeling, and trusted to the conclusions of my imagina- 
 tion, not realising the fact that there is no promise of miracles to be wrought to 
 supply what might be done by common sense, and that mere warmth of heart is 
 a very deceptive guide in the details of life. 
 
 Notwithstanding these depressing circumstances, Lord Shaftesbury did 
 not for a moment relax his hold of the many things he had in progress, or of 
 others he had in contemplation. His only difficulty was that he could not 
 keep pace with his work ; to keep pace with the times he had long since 
 given up as a hopeless task. 
 
 A movement, which for many years had been contemplated by Lord 
 Shaftesbnry, was inaugurated in the early part of 1866. On Febniary the 
 14th, invitations were sent to the casual wards, and other similar places of 
 resort, inviting some of the homeless boys of London, under sixteen years of 
 age, to a supper at St. Giles's Refuge, Great Queen Street, Lincoln's Inn 
 Fields. 
 
 It was a cold, wet night, and when the 150 who had given in their names 
 made their appearance at seven o'clock an hour before the proper time 
 they presented a miserable spectacle, with garments tattered and torn, and 
 ratluT hanging about their limbs than covering them. The majority were 
 quite barefooted, and all of them belonged to the most forlorn and wretched 
 classes of society. On being questioned, they gave ready answers concerning 
 themselves and their miserable history ; how they sold fusees or begged for a
 
 614 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXIX. 
 
 /livelihood, and slept at night in casual wards or refuges, and for the most 
 I part, knew nothing whatever of their parents. 
 
 After a good supper, an adjournment was made to another room, when 
 addresses were delivered to them, or rather a kind of conference was held as 
 to any means that might be devised for rescuing boys of this class from the 
 career of crime and misery which awaited them, and, by the institution of 
 some scheme of employment, prevent them from, becoming tramps and 
 vagrants, and a pest to society. 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury addressed to the boys a series of direct questions, 
 having first enjoined a truthful and fearless response to his interrogatories. 
 The answers were given promptly and decisively. 
 
 " Let all those boys who have ever been in prison hold up their hands," he 
 said first, and immediately about twenty or thirty hands were held up. 
 
 " Let those who have been in prison twice, hold up their hands." About 
 ten were held up. 
 
 " How many in prison three times P " Five were held up. 
 
 " Is it the case that the greater part of you boys are running about town 
 all day, and sleeping where you can at night ? " A general response was 
 made to this query. 
 
 " How do you get your livelihood P " Some boys called out, " Holding 
 horses " " Begging " " Cleaning boots." 
 
 " Would you like to get out of your present line of life, and into one of 
 honest industry ? " A general and enthusiastic " Tes " was the reply. 
 
 " Supposing that there were, in the Thames, a big ship, large enough to 
 contain a thousand boys, would you like to be placed on board to be taught 
 trades, or trained for the navy and merchant service ? " 
 
 A forest of upraised hands settled these alternatives in the affirmative. 
 
 " Do you think that another 200 boys out of the streets would say the 
 same?" "We do." 
 
 With kindly words the boys were dismissed ; but a stone was set rolling 
 that day. The Times took up the movement warmly ; the matter was dis. 
 cussed by the Committee of the Boys' Refuge, and two projects were at once 
 under consideration : the first, to ascertain if the Lords of the Admiralty 
 would give one of the useless ships of war, then lying in Her Majesty's 
 dockyards, to be fitted up as a training ship for homeless boys who would 
 wish to follow a seafaring life ; and the second, to obtain, by hire or gift, an 
 old-fashioned house with about fifty acres of land, a few miles from London, 
 where those boys not fitted for sea, could be trained to agricultural pursuits, 
 so as to supply the labour market at home, or to qualify themselves for 
 colonial life. 
 
 The Government readily granted the Chichester, a fifty-gun fi-igate, 
 which had never been out of dock, and in November Lord Shaftesbury 
 noted in his Diary : 
 
 Nov. 6th. To-day to Poplar to see ship in preparation for our school. It haa 
 been a dream of fifteen years and more. We have dashed on and are ready for
 
 186.] MR. WILLIAM WILLIAMS. 615 
 
 action. If the means are supplied, the result is as certain as the movement of 
 the planets ; but I tremble lest the zeal of my friend Williams, and my own, may 
 not have plunged us into responsibilities beyond our strength. God alone can 
 give us of the nation's abundance, and make the rich pour their bounties into 
 the treasury. 
 
 The zeal of Lord Shaftesbury and his friend, Mr. William "Williams 
 who, for a quarter of a century, has been the life and soul of this great work 
 for " The Homeless and Destitute " was a " wise indiscretion." On the 
 20th of December, the inauguration of the Chichester took place, and Lord 
 Shaftesbury, in his opening speech, asked : 
 
 Was it not a scandal that this great country, whose sole defence, under God, 
 rested in her navy, could not man her ships, and had to depend, in a large degree, 
 upon foreigners ? It seemed absolutely necessary that everything possible should 
 be done to keep up the marine, and he believed, if the public supported the 
 present movement so that they might keep 400 boys on board, they might, from 
 year to year, send forth some 200 lads to the merchant service. 
 
 Success attended these efforts. In course of time the Arethuaa was 
 granted for the same purpose ; the Farm and Shaftesbury Schools, at Bisley, 
 and Fortescue House, at Twickenham, were opened for the training of boys 
 for colonial life ; Girls' Refuges were established at Sudbury and Baling ; 
 other organisations were set on foot, and " The National Refuges for Home- 
 less and Destitute Children " have been, throughout the years that hava 
 passed, a blessing and an honour to the country. 
 
 For Mr. William Williams Lord Shaftesbury always entertained feelings 
 of personal affection and profound respect, as one of the oldest of his veteran 
 comrades in all good work. For nearly fifty years Mr. Williams has stood in the 
 forefront of the battle on behalf of the neglected poor of London, and it is to 
 his zeal, to his singular powers of administration, and to his faith and sincerity, 
 as Lord Shaftesbury often testified, that the great successes enumerated above 
 were due. 
 
 "In the spring of this year Lord Shaftesbury was feeling the beginning of 
 the sorrows which advancing life inevitably brings the loss of early friends. 
 
 My old, dear, precious friend, whom I have known and loved for forty years, 
 Lady Ellesmere, is at the point of death. For herself I mourn not, for she loves, 
 and by God's grace has long loved, our blessed Lord. As far as any human being 
 can be fit, she is fit to die. 
 
 Many of my contemporaries are in sickness. Sturt is lying very ill at CritcheL 
 God comfort him, and sanctify this visitation to his inmost heart. The Speaker, 
 too, Denison, exhibits a feebleness which, at his age, is alarming. My friendship 
 with him began at college. 
 
 March 28th. St. Giles. On Tuesday early went over to CritcheL Sturt 
 desired to see me. Knelt at his bedside and talked of our blessed Lord. He ia 
 full of faith, hating all self -merits, and looking only to a crucified Saviour. In 
 the presence of death and separation from a very old ai.d true friend, this ia 
 unshakable consolation. Here you have, as I said to him, the realisation of the
 
 616 THE EARL OP 8HAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXIX. 
 
 ancient Christian motto, " Mors janua, vita" death the gate of life. To myself 
 he was tender in the extreme, said how he loved me, and desired, as we parted, 
 that I would kiss his forehead. It is a sad thing to lose any one that loves j ou. 
 I have lost many lately, but may I labour the more for the love of our blessed Lord ! 
 
 Every fresh year the busy month of May brought an accession of new 
 labours, and this year a speech delivered at the annual meeting of the Jews' 
 Society brought upon Lord Shaftesbury some sharp criticism from friends as 
 well as foes. After asking how the Society, as "the great preacher and 
 avower of simple, pure, unmixed, Evangelical truth," stood in the midst of 
 growing heresies, he directed attention to two works, which he advised each 
 member of the Society to procure : 
 
 The first of them is " Lectures on the Prophet Daniel," by the Rev. Dr. Pusey, 
 and the other is "Lectures on Isaiah," by the Rev. Dr. Payne Smith, Regius 
 Professor of Divinity. It may, perhaps, startle some of you, that I should recom- 
 mend a work written by Dr. Pusey. He may have some opinions from which we 
 differ with respect to our views of ecclesiastical points, but I believe that a man 
 of greater intellect, of more profound attainments, or of a more truly pious heart 
 than Dr. Pusey, it would be difficult to find in any Christian nation. These 
 volumes completely dispose of all the figments pretended to be drawn from 
 reason and argument, with respect to predictions concocted after the event, or 
 with regard to pseudo-Isaiahs. If you read these volumes, you will find that 
 they have not left a single scrap of reasoning, a single shred of fact, to bring to 
 bear against the volume of Revelation.* 
 
 The Victoria Institute, " for prosecuting researches into true Science, and 
 for antagonism to anti-Christian philosophy," was founded in this year. 
 Lord Shaftesbury was its president from the first, and took a deep interest in 
 its proceedings. 
 
 May 25th. Yesterday took chair of inaugural meeting of Victoria Institute. 
 I dare, as it were, to take Heaven by storm, and assume that God, for His blessed 
 ' Son's sake, will prosper and advance this institute, founded as it is, to show the 
 necessary, eternal, and Divine harmony between true Science and Revelation. 
 
 The great subject of political controversy in 1866 and 1867 was the Reform 
 Bill. We extract a few from many entries in the Diary relating to it. 
 
 March 12th, 1866. To-day, Reform is to be proposed in House of Commons- 
 some thirty years after first Bill ; the next will be ten years hence ; the next 
 eome two or three, and then ? 
 
 April 30th. Government have carried their Reform Bill by five, and intend to 
 remain in. They are right, and I rejoice in their decision. The debate has been 
 on the whole a very fine exhibition of intellectual power ; Lowe's speech was a 
 masterpiece of sustained and consecutive logic, and of well-chosen and adapted 
 eloquence, well chosen both in character and in place. His facts were singularly 
 illustrative, and stated with a brevity and precision of singular effect. I doubt 
 
 * Jewish, Intelligencer, June 1, 1866-
 
 *) T1IB DUCHY OF LANCASTER OFFERED. 617 
 
 whether a speech better adapted to place, persons, and circumstances was ever 
 delivered in any country, or in any age. 
 
 June 20th. A division on Tuesday, 18th, in which Government was beaten by 
 eleven. The Ministers yesterday announced that they had communicated with 
 Her Majesty (absent at Balmoral), and adjourned the Houses until Monday. 
 This threatens resignation. 
 
 June 28th. Derby called to make an Administration, 
 
 The next day Lord Shaftesbnry received the following letter : 
 
 The Earl of Derby to Lord Shaftetbury. 
 
 ST. JAMES'S SQUARE, June 29th, 1866. 
 
 DEAR SHAFTESBURY, Believing that you are not too well pleased with the 
 coarse pursued by the Government since they lost Palmerston's leadership, and 
 that you would not be unwilling 1 to aid the formation of such an Administration 
 as I have now received authority to construct, I should be very glad of a few 
 minutes' conversation with you if you can name, by the messenger who will wait 
 for your answer, any hour to-day at which you would oblige me by calling here. 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 DERBY. 
 
 In the interview which took place the same day, Lord Derby, in offering 
 to Lord Shaftesbnry the Duchy of Lancaster, said that he had been anxious 
 to obtain his co-operation in order that he might, thereby, refute the charge 
 that the Conservatives were " hostile to the working classes," and that, if he 
 took such an office, with a seat in the Cabinet, he might have leisure for some 
 of his ordinary engagements. Lord Derby added that the presence of Lord 
 Shaftesbury would, to no small extent, represent the opinions and policy of 
 Lord Palmerston. 
 
 Later in the day the following letter was written : 
 
 Lord Shaftetbury to the Earl of Derby. 
 
 June 29th, 1866. 
 
 DEAR DERBY, A sense of duty, and personal regard for yourself, have 
 induced me to consider your proposition with much anxiety. 
 
 Earnestly as I wish you success, I cannot believe that the addition of my name 
 alone, to the list of your former colleagues, would render you any effective ser- 
 vice. Yon have dona your best, I know, to enlarge the basis of your Adminis- 
 tration ; but the state of men's opinions, it seems, is not favourable to such an 
 issue. 
 
 While, however, I should bring but little aid to your Cabinet, I should, in 
 fact withdraw myself from the many and various pursuits which have occupied 
 a very large portion of my life ; and which, so far from abatement as I grow 
 older, appear to increase in number and force, there remaining yet fourteen 
 hundred thousand women, children, and young persons to be brought under the 
 protection of the Factory Acts. Nor is my presence in your Government in any 
 win necessary to refute the unjust remarks made by Earl Russell in the House 
 of Lords, which I, and every one, heard with regret, for I can assert that during
 
 618 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXIX. 
 
 my long career in the House of Commons, I received ample support, not only 
 from some of the Whigs and Radicals, but also from many members of the Con- 
 servative party. 
 
 If I believed that any permanent strength might be the result of my accept- 
 ance of the Duchy of Lancaster, which you have been so kind as to propose to me, 
 I should hesitate, even more than I now do, to venture on a refusal of it. But 
 as I foresee no benefit to you, and for myself simply a necessary retirement from 
 the work in which I am engaged, I cordially thank you for your remembrance of 
 me, and entreat you to allow me to decline your offer, which I shall ever regard 
 as a very high honour. 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 SHAFTESBURY. 
 
 Lord Derby was very loth to accept this refusal, and urged, through a 
 third party, its reconsideration suggesting, at the same time, the Home 
 Office, or the Presidentship of the Council, if preferred to the Duchy of 
 Lancaster. But Lord Shaftesbury remained firm. " It would have been a 
 self-sacrifice without any adequate result," he says in his Diary. 
 
 This was the last time that he was invited to take part in the councils of 
 any Government. It was clear to Ministers that the position he occupied in 
 politics and in social life was unique, and that any attempt to impose upon 
 him the restraints of office would be useless, and henceforth they ceased to 
 trouble him. 
 
 Towards the close of this year, Lord Shaftesbury, urged to the step by 
 many friends, took an active part in the great controversy concerning 
 Ritualism. Still true to the practice which had been useful to him all 
 through his life, he determined, first of all, to go and see for himself what 
 were actually the proceedings in the Ritualistic churches. The following is 
 a description of what he witnessed at St. Alban's, Holboru, the scene of the 
 ministrations of the Rev. A. H. Mackonochie. 
 
 July 23rd. On Sunday to St. Alban's Church, in Holborn, with Stephens and 
 Haldane. In outward form and ritual, it is the worship of Jupiter and Juno. 
 It may be Heaven itself in the inward sense, which none but God can penetrate. 
 A high altar reached by several steps, a cross over it no end of pictures. The 
 chancel very large, and separated from the body of the Church by a tall iron 
 grille. Abundance of servitors, &c., in Romish apparel. Service intoned and 
 sung, except the Lessons, by priests with white surplices and green stripes. 
 
 This being ended, a sudden clearance. All disappeared. In a few minutes, 
 the organ, the choristers, abundant officials, and three priests in green silk robes, 
 the middle priest having on his back a cross embroidered, as long as his body. 
 This was the beginning of the Sacramental service (quarter-past eleven), the 
 whole having begun at half -past ten. Then ensued such a scene of theatrical 
 gymnastics, of singing, screaming, genuflections, such a series of strange move- 
 ments of the priests, their backs almost always to the people, as I never saw 
 before even in a Romish Temple. Clouds upon clouds of incense, the censer 
 frequently refreshed by the High Priest, who kissed the spoon, as he dug out the 
 acred powder, and swung it about at the end of a silver chain. The priests in
 
 186*.] IN MANCHESTER. 619 
 
 the charicel, and the priest when he mounted the pulpit, crossing themselves, 
 each time, once on the forehead, and once on the right and left breast. A quarter 
 of an hour, or thereabouts, sufficed to administer to about seventy Communicants, 
 out of perhaps six hundred present An hour and three-quarters were given to 
 the histrionic part. The communicants went up to the tune of soft music, as 
 though it had been a melodrama, and one was astonished, at the close, that there 
 was no fall of the curtain. 
 
 " God is a Spirit ; and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit 
 and in truth." Is our blessed Lord obeyed in such observances and ceremonials I 
 Do we thus lead souls to Christ or to Baal ? 
 
 In August Lord Shaftesbury was unwell, not seriously, but sufficiently so 
 for him to procure the best medical advice. An exaggerated report found its 
 way to the newspapers ; the most alarming statements were circulated, and 
 leading articles kept in reserve in editorial lockers for obituaries were 
 taken out and adapted to the present circumstances. A denial from Lord 
 Shaftesbury of the truth of the rumours set the matter at rest. He refers to 
 it in the Diary thus : 
 
 Aug. 8th. On Wednesday, when such terrible rumours were abroad of my 
 illness, upwards of four hundred persons, a very large proportion of the poorer 
 class, called at my door. It touches me, and I bless God and pray for their 
 welfare. 
 
 Although Lord Shaftesbury declined to become the representative of the 
 working classes in the Cabinet, he lost no opportunity of furthering their 
 interests. This was especially needful at the time that the Reform League 
 was in full agitation, and when monster meetings were of frequent occurrence 
 in the public parks. It was on the 23rd of July that the riot took place on 
 the occasion of the " great " Reform League procession, when the railings in 
 Hyde Park were thrown down, and an encounter between the police and the 
 mob ensued. 
 
 Aug. 9th. Have laboured much to put the Government and Derby right with 
 the working classes. Effected for him several opportunities of saying conciliatory 
 words in House of Lords. Have spoken to D'Israeli, whom I found, as I always 
 found him in House of Commons, decided and true to the cause. 
 
 In October he had before him the presidency of the Social Science Con- 
 gress at Manchester, with an inaugural address and many other things. He 
 had not visited the people there since the Famine, and this was his chief 
 inducement to accept the invitation. 
 
 Oct. 2nd (Manchester). With my old friend in the Polygon, Fairbairn. 
 Immense meeting of Bible Society in evening, Free Trade Hall. 
 
 Oct. 4th. Inaugural address last night. Sharp work. Tuesday, journey 
 from London and Bible Society in evening. Wednesday, interviews, meeting of 
 Council, service in Cathedral, and address in evening. To-day, assize court, then 
 to Health Section, afterwards chair of Sunday School Union and speech. Then 
 to Reformatory Section at half-past eight, and speech. Then soirte and home. 
 
 Oct. 5th. Chair for Denman's address and Dudley Field's Section of Trade,
 
 620 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXIX. 
 
 &c., for discussion on labourers' dwellings. At four o'clock, chair of Women's 
 Employment Commission. At eight, chair of workmen's meeting in Free Trade 
 Hall. Seven thousand people : a glorious sight, and most successful. 
 
 Oct. 7th. Yesterday, chair for address by Bruce. Then Health Section, 
 speech on sanitary matters. Then two tedious sittings to photographers. First 
 Btone of Ragged School, open-air speech. Meeting at Town Hall of delegates 
 from cotton districts of Lancashire (very, very satisfactory). In evening, " Free 
 Libraries," and, as usual, " a few words." 
 
 Oct. 9th. Yesterday, attendance in Sections, chair and speeches of course. 
 In evening, chair of Co-operative Society. The zeal, enthusiasm, ardour of the 
 people is beyond expression. It is almost fabulous. Non notes, Domlne. Never 
 had such success in my life. Deeply regret that London papers have not noticed 
 the grand meeting of workmen. 
 
 Oct. 10th. Last night grand festival, myself in chair, with a frightful cold 
 and cough, caught in the abbey on Sunday. Speech of course, but cut short by 
 extinction de voix. 
 
 To-day, early council, and then chair to close Congress. The day was inter- 
 esting. Some kind words to myself, specially from Dudley Field, a very dis- 
 tinguished American lawyer. Afterwards to see some local abominations. 
 
 Have been hurried, occupied, beset, run up, run down without a moment of 
 repose, scarcely one to write to Minny, and yet I am strong, lively, unwearied, 
 with no malady but my cold. 
 
 Oct. 12th (London). Arrived here from Burnley, having visited Sir J. 
 Shuttleworth, at Gawthorpe, to distribute his prizes. 
 
 Must by-and-by make a short summary. Yet here at once record the wonder- 
 ful results, for mind and body, of the Ten Hours Bill. It is as manifest as the 
 curing of the leper. 
 
 My success in Manchester was miraculous. In London the report of it is 
 narrow and faint. The report of the address was alone printed. The pro- 
 digiously valuable and important meeting with the workpeople is not even men- 
 tioned. This I deeply regret, partly because the singular truth, fidelity, and 
 affection of the operatives ought to be known, and partly because my power to 
 do good, and to force the Government to do good, depends on the belief ithat 
 people entertain of my possessing the confidence and love of the masses. I con- 
 sider that, so far as London is concerned, the whole thing is a failure, and yet it 
 was mainly to affect the Ministers and the Legislature that I undertook the fear- 
 ful toiL 
 
 There were few of the busy years of Lord Shaftesbury's life more crowded 
 {with important occupation than the year 1867J " The work to be done," he 
 says, " is greater than ever : more zeal, more energy, more knowledge, more 
 patience, more activity, more strength, and last, though not least, more 
 money." " All this," he adds, elsewhere, " drains one's mind and exhausts 
 one's body, and the simple issue is that many think me a fool, and some regard 
 me as a hypocrite." That sentence was written in weariness and depression. 
 The inspiration and strength of his labours lay in the assurance to which he 
 frequently gives utterance, " But surely this career has been ordained to me 
 by God, and I therein rejoice, yea, and will rejoice."
 
 1867.1 THE REFORM BILL. 621 
 
 The three principal labours of the year, in addition to " the repetition of 
 daily and nightly chairs, of wearisome speeches, 'of interviews, committees, 
 and correspondence," were the Reform Bill, the completion of his legislation 
 on Factories, and the Ritualistic Controversy. 
 
 Of the progress of the Reform Bill he writes : 
 
 Feb. 25th. To-night D'Israeli will inaugurate Reform in great earnest. 
 Household suffrage is the end, as sure as destiny. It is worthy of consideration 
 whether it would not be better to concede it now, than have it torn from us then. 
 
 March 4th. It seems to me monstrous that a body of men who resisted 
 Mr. Gladstone's Bill as an extreme measure, with such great pertinacity, should 
 accept the power he retired from, and six months afterwards introduce a Bill 
 many degrees nearer than his to universal suffrage, and establishing, beyond all 
 contradiction, the principle they so fiercely combated of giving a predominant 
 interest to any class. Every period brings something to shake confidence in 
 public men, and weaken thereby all means of carrying on, under real and trying 
 difficulties, the National Government. 
 
 Lord Derby and his friends should have stated this to the Parliament, and 
 declared that, seeing the necessity, the inevitable necessity, of extreme legislation, 
 they, who had always opposed, surrendered their places to the men who had 
 always enforced Reform principles. 
 
 March 9th. It is in vain for Gladstone to protest his desire that the present 
 men should remain in office. Politic though such a forbearance would seem to 
 be, his language and his acts, his private statements inconsistent with, and 
 contradictory of, his public statements, all prove him to be governed by the 
 greed of place and salary and power. D'Israeli is no better. Here are two 
 tigers over a carcase ; and each one tries to drive the other away from the tit- 
 bits. " What was a conflict last year," said Lowe, " is a race now," a race not for 
 eternity of life to millions of souls, but for the pride and selfishness of a few to 
 issue in the destruction of an empire. I could forgive, and even admire, a 
 republican zeal, a democratic fury, however mistaken I might think it, founded 
 on firm, though erroneous, convictions of human advancement ; but this mockery 
 of patriotism and truth is beyond one's endurance, and we cry out, helpless as we 
 are and of no avail, " Unclean, unclean." . . . Derby told his friends that if 
 they passed his Bill, they would " be in office for many years." Thus it is ; all 
 alike all equally carnivorous. It ia not the welfare of the realm, the security 
 of our institutions, but the certainty of place. " Throw out the Bill," says 
 Gladstone, " and promise my friends the same." " Voila ce que nout tommeg," as 
 the chiffonier said over the dead cur. 
 
 On the 15th of July the Reform Bill passed through the third reading 
 in the House of Commons, " with vociferous cheering and clapping of hands." 
 Referring to this Lord Shaf tesbury says : 
 
 July 17th. The gross hypocrisy ; with the exception of a very few advanced 
 Democrats, they all detest and fear the measure. But it is a sensual and self- 
 seeking age ; they hate trouble, they hate responsibility, they hate to look an evil 
 (though certain) in the face. " They crown their cups with roses, and their heads 
 with folly and forgetfulness."
 
 622 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXIX. 
 
 On the 16th of July the Reform Bill was read a first time in the House 
 of Lords, and Lord Shaftesbury was urged by many to speak on the second 
 reading. He felt " timid, reluctant, full of doubt and misgiving," and yet he 
 could not resist the conviction that he must do it ; he would not assist to 
 discredit the House of Lords and add one more to the many who would shun 
 the task. He therefore, on the 22nd, moved the adjournment of the debate, 
 so as to speak the first on the following evening. " I tremble at what I have 
 done," he wrote that night in his Diary, " and, like Moses, do exceedingly fear 
 and quake." 
 
 The remarkable speech made by Lord Shaftesbury will never be forgotten 
 so long as this generation can remember that long period of controversy 
 when some of the finest speeches that were ever made in the Houses of 
 Parliament were uttered. His voice rang through the country like the voice 
 of John the Baptist in the palace halls of Herod ; he tore down the mask 
 that was hiding the real features of the Bill, and he exposed, with almost 
 prophetic wisdom, its true issues. 
 
 "It is somewhat difficult," he said, in his opening sentence, "to argue 
 against a Bill which we do not wish to reject, and which it seems next to 
 impossible that we can amend." But that difficulty was overcome, and he 
 proceeded to his task. 
 
 Now, my Lords, I do not entertain any hostility to reform very far from it. 
 I have long been of opinion that some reform, though not necessary for good 
 government, had become indispensable ; indeed, inevitable. It is not necessary to 
 enter into the various causes which have made it so ; but I readily admit that 
 some measure of reform could not much longer be postponed. I should have 
 wished, however, to proceed more carefully and gradually. I should have wished 
 to hold up the suffrage as a great object of ambition to the working man ; I should 
 have wished to hold it up as the reward of thrift, honesty, and industry. 
 
 He cited, in illustration of his meaning, that, in the Pottery districts, out 
 of 9,000 potters in receipt of good wages, 3,000 had purchased their own 
 freeholds and were living in their own houses. The addition of thousands of 
 such men, elevated by such means, would be an honour and a security to the 
 kingdom. 
 
 To proceed, as is done by this Bill, to lift by the sudden jerk of an Act of 
 Parliament, the whole residuum of society up to the level of the honest, thrifty 
 working man, is, I am sure, perilous to the State, and, I believe, distasteful to the 
 working men themselves. I am sure it dishonours the suffrage, and that you are 
 throwing the franchise broadcast over the heads of men who will accept it, but 
 who will misuse it 
 
 It had been stated that the present Bill was for the purpose of restoring 
 to the people their rights. This was a view Lord Shaftesbury strongly com- 
 bated the notion that the elective franchise was a right and not a trust. He 
 said: 
 
 I shrink from openly asserting to what an extent the issues of that notion 
 may be pushed. That the elective franchise was a trust, was a doctrine of an
 
 1867.] SPEECH ON THE REFORM BILL. 623 
 
 elevating' character ; now that you say it is a right of all, I cannot see how it is 
 possible for us to remain within the four corners of the Bill which you have now 
 propounded. . . . Well, my lords, having laid down this principle that the 
 suffrage is a right, and that universal satisfaction is your object, I hold that you 
 have also laid down the great principle of universal suffrage ; it is even clearer 
 when you come to the lodger franchise, for see how the enactment will work 
 upon the whole system. The lodger franchise assumes this principle : it con- 
 templates the voter simply as a man, and not as a man in connection with the 
 duties of a citizen. . . . He is not under the necessity of paying rates ; he 
 has not to serve as a juror, or discharge any of the functions which fall to the 
 lot of the householder or ratepayer. Just see how this will operate. Take it, in 
 the first place, in the capital and the great towns. You can, as yet, form no 
 notion whatever of the numbers that will be added to the register in London, and 
 the great towns, by the lodger clause. You are going to build in the dark ; you 
 are laying down a principle of the most expansive character, so expansive that 
 there is no human force that will be able to control it. 
 
 Warning the House that the career upon which it had entered in adopting 
 the lodger franchise and household suffrage was dangerous, Lord Shaftesbury 
 expressed his opinion that this inevitably tended to the establishment of 
 democracy. Direct democratic violence, he considered, was not to be feared. 
 The changes would be brought about by the " stealthy progress of legislation." 
 Among the evils he anticipated was the spread of Socialism 
 
 I am sure that a large proportion of the working classes have a deep and 
 solemn conviction and I have found it among working people of religious 
 views that property is not distributed as property ought to be ; that some 
 checks ought to be kept upon the accumulation of property in sicgle hands ; 
 that to take away, by a legislative enactment, that which is in excess, with a 
 view to bestow it on those who have insufficient means, is not a breach of 
 any law, human or Divine. It is certain that many entertain these opinions. 
 It is certain, also, that in times of distress and difficulty, these opinions 
 urged upon the people by any great demagogue, or by any person of power 
 or influence among them, would take possession of their minds and sink deeply 
 into their hearts ; and if they had power, through their representatives, to give 
 expression to those principles, they would do so speedily and emphatically. 
 
 Perhaps the most striking points in Lord Shaf tesbury's speech were those 
 in which he repudiated the notion that the Bill was a "Conservative" measure, 
 and gave his opinion of " Conservative working men." 
 
 I have heard it said that the middle classes are not Conservative, but that if 
 you go deeper, you get into a vein of gold, and encounter the presence of a 
 highly Conservative feeling. In the first place, I ask, Is that so ? And in the 
 second place, what do you mean by the term Conservative f Do you mean to say 
 that this large mass that they call the " residuum," of which, am I presumptuous 
 if I say that, from various circumstances, few men living have more knowledge 
 than I have, is conservative of your lordships' titles and estates? Not a bit; 
 they know little about them and care less. Will you venture to say that they 
 are conservative of the interests of the Established Church? Certainly they are
 
 624 THE EAEL OP SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXIX. 
 
 not. Thousands upon thousands living in this vast City of London do not know 
 the name of the parish in which they reside, nor the name of the minister in 
 charge of it. They are, however, very conservative indeed of their own sense of 
 right and wrong. They are living from hand to mouth, and. in consequence, they 
 are very conservative of what they consider to be their own interests. 
 
 The peroration was unlike any other in all Lord Shaftesbury's speeches. 
 It does not appear to have been prepared. He had pictured the future in 
 gloomy colours old England brought suddenly and roughly into collision 
 with young England ; ancient and venerable institutions to be tried, without 
 notice or preparation, by poverty, levity, and ignorance ; and by many who, 
 being neither poor, nor vain, nor ignorant, were yet too full of hot blood, 
 effervescing youth, and burning ambition, to be calm, dispassionate, and just. 
 And then, in laughing sadness and with serious jest, he concluded : 
 
 It is our duty to fight for our country into whatever hands the Government 
 may fall. Whether monarchical, republican, or democratic, she will be England 
 still ; and let us beguile our fears by indulging our imagination, and by picturing 
 to ourselves that which can never be realised that out of this hecatomb of 
 British traditions and British institutions there will arise the great and glorious 
 Phoenix of a Conservative Democracy 1 * 
 
 In 1861, in compliance with an Address to the Crown, moved by Lord 
 Shaftesbury, a second Children's Employment Commission was appointed, 
 and four voluminous reports were published, giving the result of an exhaus- 
 tive inquiry into the employment of children and young persons in trade and 
 manufactures not already regulated by law. 
 
 While that Commission was sitting Lord Shaftesbury (in 1863) moved an 
 Address to the Queen praying that the Commissioners should be directed to 
 inquire into the system of " organised labour," known by the name of " Agri- 
 cultural Gangs." The nature of that system we have already explained, f 
 
 He refers to his great triumph in obtaining " the first statutory recog- 
 nition of the rights of the rural children to have equal educational privileges 
 with the children of the towns," as follows : 
 
 Aug. 17th. By the two Bills about to receive the Royal assent shall have 
 closed thirty-four years of labour on behalf of the industrial classes of the 
 country. The Agricultural Bill alone remains ; and that one has received the 
 affirmation of House of Lords ; and so I may rejoice in the certainty of its becom- 
 ing law in the ensuing session. 
 
 One of the two Bills referred to above was " For regulating the labour of 
 juveniles in workshops," based on the Factory Act promoted by Lord 
 Shaftesbury thirty years before. By the new Act every branch of juvenile 
 labour was brought under Government supervision for the first time. 
 
 It was found that the early age at which the children of the poor entered 
 the labour-market, in London and other great cities, was a terrible and a 
 growing evil ; that they were required to do the work of men when their 
 
 * Hansard, clxxxviii., p. 1917. f See p. 3.
 
 1*37] THE ORNAMENTS RUBRIC. 625 
 
 physical strength was oiily a little above that of infants ; that in consequence 
 they were stunted in growth, and warped by ignorance. It was found, too, 
 that many of the workshops in which they wore employed were mere labora- 
 tories of poison, ill- ventilated, ill-lighted, and often rooking with abominable 
 odours ; and worst of all, that these workshops were, in many instances, hot- 
 beds of immorality. 
 
 The new Act forbade the hiring of children nnder eight years of age, and 
 regulated the hours of labour of all under thirteen ; it made provision for the 
 education of all children under thirteen employed in workshops, and placed 
 all workshops employing juvenile labour under the provisions of the Sanitary 
 Act of 1866. Thus the crowning stroke was given to the various efforts 
 made, for many years past, to bring all the industrial occupations of the 
 young and the defenceless under the protection of the law. 
 
 Towards the end of 1866 Lord Shaftesbury was beset by increasing 
 clamours for the laity to take some decisive action to check the progress of 
 Ultra- Ritualism, and for him to head them. He asks : 
 
 " But are they ready to be ' headed ' ? Are there any of zeal, truth, 
 conrage, consistency, in the cause P Are they not divided into partisans, 
 sympathisers, indifferents, and cowards? Let us first be assured that the 
 tide will not ebb more rapidly than it flowed, and leave us on the beach, like 
 stranded seaweed." 
 
 Later in the year, although, in a letter to Mr. Haldane, he said he " would 
 rather harangue a statue-gallery than speak on Protestantism to the British 
 public," he entered in his Diary : 
 
 Dec. 12th. Wrote to-day to Times in support of S. G. 0. * May God bless the 
 effort ! I shall, of course, call down storms of calumny and anathemas, but my 
 hope is in Thee. The laity are all but lost. Hopeless though it may be, some 
 one must endeavour to rouse them to a sense of the many perils that beset us. A 
 certain number of the laity desire a movement ; but they are divided among 
 themselves, and, in fact, have no strong feelings and no fixed principles. 
 
 In the mouth of March, 18(37, when, as yet, Ritual prosecutions were 
 almost unknown, and when no decision had been given, by the Courts, on 
 Clerical Vestments, Lord Shaftesbury brought forward in the House of 
 Lords a Bill in which he sought, by a plain, direct enactment, to settle at 
 h-.-i-t one portion of the wide question that of the Ornaments Rubric. 
 
 As a matter of course ho met with stout opposition. The Bishops took 
 in li.-iud a Bill of their own, and determined to submit a measure to Parlia- 
 ment for the repression of excessive Ritualism; and, later on, applied to rim 
 Government for a Royal Commission. All this, however, was subsequent to 
 the introduction of Lord Shaftesbury's Bill. 
 
 The legislation that he proposed was of a nature to whicli he could not 
 imagine that any objection could be raised by the members of the Episcopal 
 Bench, because it only proposed to make the 58th Canon of 1603 part of the 
 
 * Lord Sydney Codolphin Osborne. 
 
 o o
 
 626 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. rCiixr. XXIX. 
 
 statute-law of the land ; that Canoii having been approved by the Convoca- 
 tions of Canterbury and York, and ratified by the Crown a Canon that 
 only incorporated a usage that existed anterior to 1603, and, ever since that 
 period had been obeyed by the bulk of the clergy. 
 
 On the 14th of May, Lord Shaftesbury, in moving the second reading of 
 the Bill, traced the whole history of the Canon in question, and said that the 
 object of his measure was simply to give statutory effect to the principle of 
 that Canon which had had the effect of governing the system of the Es- 
 tablishment from 1604 to the present time, and of seeing peace and har- 
 mony in the Church of England. It was true the Bill only touched one 
 point, but that point was the only one upon which there was really any legal 
 doubt. " I am censured for proceeding by law," he said. " Why, my Lords, 
 law, or fancied law, is the cause of the whole mischief, and by law alone it 
 must be removed." 
 
 Having disposed of the legal aspects of the question, he inquired into the 
 whole system on the brink of accepting which the Church was standing, and 
 which, " if extended, might lead to the subversion of the Church of England 
 itself, and bear along with it political evils tending to shake the existence of 
 the empire." He quoted some startling extracts from " The Church and the 
 World, or Essays upon the Questions of the Day ; " " The Chronicle of Con- 
 vocation ; " and the " Directorium Anglicanum," to describe the various vest- 
 ments, and the times and seasons at which they were to be worn ; the ad- 
 vanced position of the Sacramental system ; and the tendency to " subjugate 
 all Christendom in body, soul, and spirit, to sacerdotal dominion." 
 
 He continued : 
 
 . . . My Lords, I hold that this is essentially a question for the laity. I 
 will never cease to proclaim that it is not for the bishop and the minister to 
 settle between themselves the order of the service, or what vestments are to be 
 worn, but that it is for the great mass of the congregation to determine whether 
 they will go on in those usages which their fathers have practised for 300 years. 
 It is not for the mere majority of the congregation to determine what changes 
 shall be made, but for ttie congregation at large ; and even then it must be done 
 consistently with the law of the land. 
 
 The Bill was thrown out by 61 votes against 46, a result not unexpected, 
 as the following extract from the Diary will show : 
 
 May 9th. Much time and trouble on Vestments Bill. It is right, and it is 
 hopeless, to undertake this cause. There are many open, and more secret, sym- 
 pathisers with the Ritualists ; defeat is certain ; success would not bring much, 
 for the abomination is but a symptom of a deep and incurable disease, a disease 
 quite unreachable by anything short of God's Spirit. . . . 
 
 May 15th. Last night motion for second reading of Vestments Bill, and 
 obtained, though defeated in the division, a wonderful success. It was a far 
 greater triumph than if I had carried it. ... 
 
 The BUI would certainly have been destroyed after a long, languid, and
 
 TUB RITUAL COMMISSION. 627 
 
 " lowering " struggle. Meanwhile, the country would have gone to sleep. The 
 very victory of the Government and the Archbishop, binds them to real and 
 immediate activity. 
 
 The persons who have given me commendation, and courage in consequence, 
 were those from whom I least expected it. Ellenborough, for instance, who is 
 critical in the extreme. 
 
 A Royal Coin mission, to inquire into the practices of Ritualism generally, 
 was appointed, and Lord Shaftesbury was invited to become one of the 
 members. His reply was as follows : 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury to the Right Hon. Spencer If. Walpole, M.P. 
 
 May 22nd, 1867. 
 
 MY DEAR MR. WALPOLE, Be assured that I am very sensible of the honour 
 you have done me in requesting me to become one of the members of the Ritual 
 Commission. 
 
 But I venture to decline the office, because I feel satisfied that my presence 
 in it would be most distasteful to the large body of men whose opinions and 
 practices I have presumed to condemn, and would deprive the Commission, in 
 their eyes at least, of the character of entire impartiality, should the decisions be 
 of an adverse nature. So strong are my sentiments, that I have a considerable 
 misgiving as to my own unbiassed judgment. I told Lord Derby, as I now ven- 
 ture to repeat to you, that persons so prominent and so fixed as myself and the 
 Bishop of Oxford must certainly fail to inspire confidence that there will be fair 
 play between the contending parties. 
 
 Very faithfully yours, 
 
 SHAFTESBURY. 
 
 The Bishop of Oxford did not regard the matter in the same light. He 
 " did not consider himself an extreme man," and he therefore not only went 
 on the Commission, but secured the services of others who, like himself, were 
 " not extreme men." There were nineteen Commissioners in all, and imme- 
 diately on their appointment a private Committee was formed from its mem- 
 bers, consisting of Lord Beanchamp, the Bishop of Ely, Canon Gregory, the 
 Right Hons. Sir R. Phillimore, J. G. Hubbard, A. J. Beresford-Hope, and 
 the Rev. T. W. Perry. 
 
 Their Report, it is hardly necessary to say, was not satisfactory to the 
 extreme Ritualists, and still less so to the Evangelicals ; and upon Lord 
 Shaftesbury devolved the task, as we shall see later on, of attempting further 
 legislation. 
 
 On the 1st of April, 1867, the Paris International Exhibition was opened, 
 and a few days later Lord Shaftesbury opened the Salle vangelique in that 
 city. M. Guizot was present, and in the course of his address said : " When 
 I entered the hall and saw the gathering, and remembered its purpose, I said 
 to myself, 'This is the greatest triumph of religious liberty in modern 
 times.'" 
 
 There was very little rest in Paris for Lord Shaftesbury, as his time was 
 taken up by " meetings, speeches, and ' a few words ' to encourage French
 
 628 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XX IX 
 
 Protestants and stimulate sympathy." But he looked forward to repose 
 abroad in the summer. 
 
 A change of scene, diet, life, tongue, and nature, is necessary to produce 
 repose. If in England, aiad specially if near London, there is, notwithstanding 
 vacation-time, a blind, dull propensity to think of business, of letters, of things 
 to be done, of preparations to be made, of gaps to be filled, and every occupation 
 of the sort. One almost fancies that duties are left unfinished, that one's leisure 
 is barely permissible. It is a fretting, uneasy state. Go abroad, and this ceases, 
 because all is impossible. 
 
 The usual " change abroad " was not to be enjoyed that summer, however, 
 the health of his daughter Constance rendering it impossible for him to leave 
 home. He remained in England till the winter, and the following are some 
 of the closing entries in the Diary for the year : 
 
 Oct. 22nd. St. Giles's. But some little good out of evil. Have been for three 
 consecutive Sundays to special services in Theatres : to Victoria Theatre, to the 
 St. George's in Langham Place, to the Pavilion. It is a great work, a good work, 
 a deeply needful work, a work, too, though in the ninth series, well sustained. 
 But what is it among so many 1 A. thousand come in, and fifty thousand remain 
 out, all seething with vice, profligacy, and violence. Yet we must persevere, and 
 throw the Name and Word of Christ broadcast among them. Maintain the Church 
 of England by all means. But we must not stand still in her buckram and coat 
 of mail, and fight only according to the rules of fence. We must strike when, 
 where, and how we can ; and look to the Gospel, and not to the method. The 
 masses will never be won by these imposing churches and coldly classical 
 preachers. . . . 
 
 Revolution is led on as much by Conservatives as Radicals ; they hope all 
 things, promise all things, are elated with " confidence in the people ; " and vow 
 that they never doubted the necessity, right, duty, and safety of an extreme 
 Reform. 
 
 Oct. 24th. London. Attended funeral, this morning, of my poor old friend, 
 Sir James South. Many the interesting and profitable hours I have passed in his 
 Observatory. He was well "stricken in years." There is another gone of the 
 few who, I believe, were sincerely and warmly attached to me. 
 
 Dec. 8th. Busy in founding Societj' for giving Dinners to Destitute Children. 
 Met at Canon Con way's. 
 
 Dec. 19th. Villa Lisei'b, Cimics, Nice. Passed one whole day in Paris that 
 Conty might have repose, and went at head of deputation to St. Cloud, to thank 
 the Emperor for his protection to the Bible Society and to religious liberty in 
 general at the Great Exhibition. Very well received, the Emperor having most 
 graciously advanced the day to suit my convenience.
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 1868 18C9. 
 
 WHEN Parliament reassembled on the 13th of February, Lord Shaftesbury 
 was still at Nice. This, over a course of Parliamentary life extending to 
 nearly forty years, was only the second instance in which he had not been 
 pirsi'ut at the opening; the first occasion being when he was detained in 
 Nice, in 1833, in consequence of the illness of a relative,* and this year, 
 when once more detained in the same place through the continued illness of 
 Iii.s daughter, and his own indisposition. " I should greatly prefer," he said, 
 " the gloom and cold of London, with my accustomed duties, to the brightness 
 and warmth of this place without them." 
 
 His heart was still in his work, and his thoughts were busy with new 
 schemes. His friend Mr. A. J. Stephens, the great ecclesiastical lawyer, with 
 Mr. Haldane's concurrence, had suggested to him the introduction of an 
 " Ecclesiastical Courts Bill," and he wrote to Mr. Haldane : 
 
 You must reflect again and again, you and Stephens, on the advice you give 
 me. Surely it would be impolitic, and almost impossible, for a private member 
 to introduce a Bill on so wide and deep a subject as the Ecclesiastical Courts. 
 
 Such measures as these must be put forward on the authority, and with the 
 responsibility, of a Government. ... I should be left at the mercy of law 
 lords, bishops, ritualistic peers, and a hostile Cabinet, to fight the battle alone. 
 
 The thing, if undertaken, must be preceded by a Commission. Such a motion 
 could hardly be denied ; certainly it could not be gainsaid. 
 
 Some weeks later he wrote : 
 
 I shall be ready to do all that in me lies to bring forward Ecclesiastical 
 matters not, however, in any spirit of hope that success will follow, nor in any 
 very fervent desire to prolong the existence of the Establishment as it now is. 
 
 On the 25th of February the Earl of Derby resigned the Premiership, 
 and Mr. Disraeli reigned in his stead. 
 
 March 5th. D'Israeli, Prime Minister ! He is a Hebrew ; this is a good thing. 
 He is a man sprung from an inferior station ; another good thing in these days, 
 as showing the liberality of our institutions. " But he is a leper," without prin- 
 ciple, without feeling, without regard to anything, human or divine, beyond his 
 own personal ambition. He has dragged, and he will continue to drag, every- 
 thing that is good, safe, venerable, and solid through the dust and dirt of his own 
 objects. 
 
 The debate on Mr. Maguire's motion for an inquiry into the condition of 
 Ti eland, and the debate introduced by Mr. Gladstone on the Disestablishment 
 
 * Lady Fanny Cowper, afterwards Lady Jocelyn.
 
 630 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. [CiiAP. XXX. 
 
 of the Irish Church, were followed by Lord Shaftesbury with painful 
 interest. 
 
 Referring to the former, in a letter to Mr. Haldane, he says : 
 
 NICE, March nth, 1868. 
 
 The Irish debate . . . seems to me the quintessence of sparkling feeble- 
 ness. It is a triumph of words and sentences over truthfulness and meaning. 
 Because things have been well said, they are assumed to have been well con- 
 ceived. Sound is taken for sense, and declamation for principle. 
 
 Cairns will become a regular boxer. The Lord Chancellor, stripped to the 
 middle, and squaring at everybody, will make the House of Lords a place of 
 public resort. He is too good a man for this department of political work. 
 I love to hear him standing up for great truths ; but I have no sympathy with 
 him as the apologist of Hainan the Agagite. 
 
 The following note on the Irish Church debate is taken from the 
 Diary: 
 
 March 30th. Yesterday evening Gladstone moved, in House of Commons, the 
 abolition of the Irish Church. It is for England the most serious day since the 
 Reformation. It is either the service of God, or the service of Satan. He may 
 be opening the way to such a revival of Papal power as may make the most 
 scoffing to tremble. He may be preparing such a career for the Protestant belief 
 as may make the Roman Catholics curse the day in which he was born. 
 
 However, Gladstone himself has none of these grandiose views for good or 
 for evil. 
 
 At the end of April Lord Shaftesbury was again in London, and in the 
 few brief intervals of the " May Meetings " was busy in preparing for publi- 
 cation the work to which we have been greatly indebted in these volumes : 
 " Speeches of the Earl of Shaftesbury (1838 1867) upon Subjects having 
 relation chiefly to the Claims and Interests of the Labouring Classes. With 
 a Preface." 
 
 He refers to it thus : 
 
 May 5th. Have I done wisely 1 I fear not. Have I consulted my own fame ? 
 I fear not. Have I regarded my own comfort ? I fear not. I have been induced 
 by Forster, to collect and publish a selection of my speeches, with a preface, on 
 subjects relating to Labour and large masses of people. I trust in God, who 
 knows the intention, to bless the work. I foresee and forebear the comments. 
 Then why did I do it ? because I was persuaded by the ardent kindness of Forster 
 and others. 
 
 The volume is remarkable for the variety of its subjects, the high and 
 holy principles enunciated, the abundance of interesting and varied informa- 
 tion, the chasteness of its literary style and the quality of its eloquence. 
 Lord Shaftesbury does not record his gratification on reading the reviews of 
 his book but that he must have felt gratified, no one will doubt. 
 
 Upon the report of the Ritual Commission being issued, Lord Shaftes- 
 bury, availing himself, in some measure, of its recommendations, prepared 
 and laid upon the table of the House of Lords the " Uniformity of Public
 
 THE DUCHESS HARRIET OF SUTHERLAND. 631 
 
 Worship Bill." It related to Ornaments as well as to Vestments, and met, 
 from the first, with strong opposition. 
 
 The second reading of the Bill was defeated in July without a division. 
 
 The following extracts from the Diary on various subjects will point the 
 current of events : 
 
 July 3rd. On Wednesday met Winthrop, once Speaker of Congress in U.S., 
 and the Poet Longfellow, at dinner in Forster's house. Amazingly pleased with 
 both of them. 
 
 July llth. The Waters affair at an end ; and let me bless God for it. And 
 well concluded, too, in one aspect, for Mr. W.'s counsel admitted in open court 
 that " Mr. Waters was deeply grateful to Lord Shaf tesbury " for what had been 
 done in the way of forbearance. 
 
 July 23rd. To Broadlands on 20th for inauguration of statue to Palmerston 
 on 21st. It went off well, both at the mansion and in the market-place. Gran- 
 villc did his work admirably ; and so did Lowe. The Bishop had a difficult task 
 in the sermon, but he made a masterly affair of it. There was afterwards a 
 " cold collation " and speechifying under a tent, where W. Cowper, Argyll, and 
 Cardwell, sustained the ceremony very efficiently. I was forced myself to utter a 
 few words ; I spoke what I felt, and felt what I spoke. 
 
 Aug. 20th. Homburg. His Majesty the King of Prussia called on us to-day. 
 He was singularly kind and civil, looked in strong health, and created a vivid 
 feeling in his behalf. The Government is a compound of timidity and reckless- 
 ness. D'Izzy is seeking everywhere for support. He is all things to all men and 
 nothing to any one. He cannot make up his mind whether to be Evangelical, 
 Neologian, or Ritualistic ; he is waiting for the highest bidder. 
 
 Oct. 28th. In the paper of this morning is announced the long-expected 
 death of my true, dear, and constant friend, Duchess Harriet of Sutherland. In 
 the year 1820 I first knew her ; and, ever since she has been to me in heart, in 
 temper, in demeanour, the most uniformly kind, considerate, and zealous ally and 
 co-operator that ever lived. Such unbroken, such invariable, such thoughtful 
 and sincere affection few have enjoyed. At the end of forty-seven years of 
 acquaintance she was the same as at the beginning. She was ever ready to give 
 her palaces, her presence, and her ardent efforts for the promotion of everything 
 that was generous and compassionate and good. There was no pride, no mean- 
 ness ; her courtesy was not conventional, it was courtesy of feeling, of innate 
 dignity, of a natural regard for the social and moral rights of others. I trust 
 that my beloved friend has gone to her rest, there to meet my other friend, so 
 precious to me, Harriet Ellesmere. 
 
 Archbishop Longley is also gone : a mild, amiable, and lovable man, but 
 unstable as water. What a space my knowledge of him covers ! He was a tutor 
 at Christ Church when I went up as a freshman. 
 
 Reviewing his own position in relation to tho changes being made in all 
 iliings around, Lord Shaftesbury wrote : 
 
 Nov. 7th. What is my position now 1 It is like an old tree in a forest, half- 
 submerged by a mighty flood : I remain where I was, while everything is passing 
 beyond me. New ideas, new thought*, new views and new feelings are flowing
 
 632 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBUHY. [CHAP. XXX. 
 
 rapidly by. I cannot go alone with the stream, and if I survive, one of two 
 issues awaits me : either I shall be overwhelmed and so utterly lost, or the 
 waters in their course will have rushed away and left me alone, stranded and 
 leafless, a venerable proof of consistency, as some would say, but of bigotry in 
 the estimation of others. 
 
 Dec. 5th. Government out. Gladstone sent for 1 " Le roi est mort, vive 
 le roi ! " 
 
 To Mr. Gladstone, the new Premier, Lord Shaftesbury preferred a similar 
 request to one that lie had made without effect to Mr. Disraeli when he was 
 Prime Minister. It was as follows : 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury to the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone. 
 
 Deo. 22>ul, 1868. 
 
 DEAR GLADSTONE, The new arrangements you have made in respect of 
 certain young Peers in the House of Lords will prove. I doubt not, very beneficial. 
 
 But I have an impulse, which I cannot restrain, an impulse both from 
 opinion and feeling, to suggest another movement ; and I make it far less in the 
 presumption of tendering advice, than of disburdening myself of a strong desire. 
 The Jewish question has now been settled. The Jews can sit in both Houses of 
 Parliament. I, myself, resisted their admission, not because I was adverse to the 
 descendants of Abraham, of whom our Blessed Lord came according to the flesh ; 
 very far from it, but because I objected to the mode in which that admission was 
 to be effected. 
 
 All that is passed away, and let us now avail ourselves of the opportunity 
 to show regard to God's ancient people. There is a noble member of the House 
 of Israel, Sir Moses Montefiore, a man dignified by patriotism, charity, and self- 
 sacrifice, on whom her Majesty might graciously bestow the honours of the 
 Peerage. 
 
 It would be a glorious day for the House of Lords when that grand old 
 Hebrew were enrolled on the lists of the hereditary legislators of England. 
 
 Truly yours, 
 
 SlIAFTESBUBY. 
 
 Mr. Disraeli had replied in a " gushing " letter, expressing his great 
 willingness to do anything', but staling that he was, for obvious reasons, less 
 than any other Prime Minister in a position to grant the request. Mr. Glad- 
 stone replied that the case should be " carefully considered," and made inquiry 
 as to what Sir Moses Montefioro's fortune was supposed to be, and whether 
 he had children, but there he allowed the matter to rest. It was a gn-at 
 disappointment to Lord Shaftesbury, who had the highest admiration of the 
 character of the great Hebrew philanthropist. The admiration was mutual, 
 and lasted to the end of their lives. On one occasion Sir Moses sent to Lord 
 Shaftesbury a cheque for 95, to be used for the Field Lane Ragged School, 
 or any other purpose he might think proper. It seems a curious amount. It 
 was scut on the day that his wife would, had she lived, have attained her 
 95th year.
 
 isr-s.) SIR MOSES MONTEFIORE. 633 
 
 The last letter he ever received from Sir Moses Moutefiore was written 
 with his own haiid iu his 100th year, and was as follows : 
 
 Sir Moset Montefiore to Lord Shaftcsbury. 
 
 EAST CLIFF LODGE, RAMSGATE, 
 
 July 9th, 1884. 
 
 MY DEAR LORD SHAFTESBURY, Your able appeal, in this day's Times, on 
 behalf of the fund to provide the means of giving the poor children of the 
 Ragged Schools a day's enjoyment in the country has this moment been read to 
 me, and, sympathising as I do with this desirable object, I enclose, with very 
 much pleasure, cheque for 15, with the hope that the appeal may be both 
 liberally and cheerfully responded to. 
 
 Believe me, my dear Lord Shaftesbury, that I am delighted with the oppor- 
 tunity thus afforded me of evincing my heartfelt appreciation of the noble and 
 benevolent works in which you have for a very long period taken so beneficent an 
 interest. May God bless you and prosper your labours I 
 Hoping you are in the enjoyment of good health, 
 
 I am, my dear Lord Shaftesbury, 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 MOSES MONTEFIORE. 
 
 Lord Shaftcsbury sent the letter and cheque to Mr. Kirk, the Secretary 
 of the Ragged School Union, with the following note : 
 
 July 12th, 1884. 
 
 DEAR KIRK, You may keep the letter as a record of a man in his 100th year 
 who can feel and write like one of five-and-twenty. Do not suppose that I have 
 omitted to thank him. That grand old Hebrew is better than many Christians. 
 
 Yours, 
 
 S. 
 
 In 1867, 1868, and 1869, Lord Shaftesbury wrote, in special Diaries, Ins 
 opinions on the movements of their times and their ultimate issues. They are 
 more in the form of essays than of diary notes, and appear to have been 
 written for the purpose of fixing his impressions at certain important periods 
 in the national history. 
 
 They are far too voluminous to quote from extensively, the subjects aro 
 wide and various, and isolated passages would give but a poor notion of them, 
 as they require to be read as a whole. In the volume for 1867, for example, 
 the topics discussed are : Church parties, Commerce, Trades Unions, Foreign 
 Affairs, Fenianism, Public Revenue, British Industries, the Navy, Law and 
 Justice, Mercantile Morality, Politicians, Democracy, the Social System, 
 Hereditary Honours, Religions Creeds. 
 
 In February, 1869, the continued illness of his daughter Constance ren- 
 dered it necessary that she should seek a warmer climate, and her departure 
 to Cannes, with Lady Shaftesbury, was a heavy trial. 
 
 Feb. llth. Minny and Con ty started to-day. Accompanied them to Dover. 
 Oh, that God, in His mercy and goodness, for Christ's dear sake, may protect and
 
 634 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. ICHAP. XXX. 
 
 bless them, bear them safely to their journey's end, prosper to them the sun and 
 the climate of Cannes, and restore us sound and happy to each other ! It is a sad, 
 sad, and anxious separation ; but the ways of the Almighty are wise, deep, and 
 inscrutable. . . . 
 
 In addition to the heavy losses Lord Shaftesbury had sustained from his 
 steward, lie had incurred enormous expenses amounting to some thousands 
 of pounds in inevitable law-suits, civil and criminal, and the combination of 
 circumstances against him produced so much anxiety that he felt incapable 
 of exercising any prolonged energy. The dread of debt was " a horror of 
 great darkness " before him. " If I appear to fail in life and vigour, it is 
 not for the want of zeal," he wrote to a friend, " but from that kind of Pro- 
 methean eagle that is ever gnawing my vitals. May God be with you, and 
 keep you out of debt." And in his Diary, among many expressions of sad- 
 ness and almost despair, he writes : " Our Blessed Lord endured all the 
 sorrows of humanity but that of debt. Perhaps it was to exemplify the truth, 
 uttered afterwards by St. Paul, ' Owe no man anything, but to serve him in 
 the Lord.' " 
 
 The subject was ever in his thoughts, it was "a dead weight on his back 
 which made him totter in every effort to go forward " ; it haunted him night 
 and day, and often, in his Diary, he breaks out into a wail of lamentation : 
 " My mind returns at every instant to the modus operandi. How meet the 
 demands that must speedily be made ? how satisfy the fair and righteous 
 claims of those who only ask for their dues ? How can I pursue the many 
 objects I have in view, with this anxiety at my heart? God alone can 
 deliver me." 
 
 Depressed and sorrowful as he was, he did not for an hour let the duties 
 of life, or any of his self-imposed tasks, pass unfulfilled, and the Diaries are 
 full of entries similar to the following : 
 
 Feb. 23rd. On Saturday to Lambeth Baths to distribute prizes to working 1 
 men. Sunday, to Britannia Theatre (Special Service), Hoxton. Excellent, satis- 
 factory, heart-stirring I receive perpetual testimony from the poorer classes of 
 the benefit conferred by them. It seems, occasionally, a wearisome journey to 
 undertake, on dark and rainy nights, to the East of London ; but I ever rejoice 
 when there all is earnest, pious, simple, and consolatory. The careworn faces, 
 especially of the women, become almost radiant with comfort. 
 
 March 6th. Debate in House of Lords on Criminal Bill. I met, as usual, 
 from the public, with a mixture of praise and contempt. A great majority of 
 mankind assume that if a man be stamped as a " Philanthropist " he cannot have 
 common sense. They hold that it betokens a softening of the brain 1 Alas, poor 
 Yorick ! 
 
 Last night, at Wellclose Square, went to a gathering of thirty thieves. What 
 a spectacle ! what misery 1 what degradation ! and, yet, I question whether we, 
 fine, easy, comfortable folks, are not greater sinners in the sight of God than 
 are these poor wretches. . . . 
 
 It was when domestic anxiety, financial difficulty, and failing health, were 
 oppressing him, that the time came for him to commence that herculean task
 
 1869.] ECCLESIASTICAL COURTS BILL. 635 
 
 he had, contrary to his own judgment, undertaken the attempted reform of 
 the procedure in the Ecclesiastical Courts. " I shrink, though I will not 
 recede, from it," he said ; and, accordingly, he made preparations for the 
 work which, happily for him, he could not at the moment foresee, was to 
 occupy years of ceaseless anxiety, vexation, and toil, and to end more in dis- 
 appointment than success. 
 
 March 17th. Oh, that I could either get rid of my Eeclesiastical Courts Bill 
 altogether, or be discharged of the Second Reading ! Never again will I inter- 
 fere in Church matters. All establishments are doomed, and perhaps wisely. 
 They have done good in their day, but the people will not consent any longer 
 to receive good after that fashion. Now, let us think of nothing but the pure 
 Church of Christ. Could I do any service by further persistence in anti-ritual- 
 istic legislation, I would endure any amount of toil and obloquy ; but why, for 
 no issue except abuse, vexation, and fruitless labour, renew a career of public 
 abomination and private contempt ? 
 
 April 3rd. This Ecclesiastical Courts Bill has excited more attention than 
 the subject ever did before and yet I wish I had never undertaken it. The 
 Bill is very long, somewhat intricate, and upon a subject with which I am not 
 at all conversant. I shall be opposed by all the bishops, who are masters of the 
 question, and who, secretly, abhor the measure as touching their dignity and 
 their patronage. The labour is very great, the anxiety also ; and, probably, the 
 fruit will be " nil," as the Bill will go to a Select Committee, where I, being 
 alone, without a single friend, shall find myself in the hands of bishops, lawyers, 
 and peers, who hate me and love the abuses. But, God helping me, I shall at 
 any rate exhibit the evils. Nevertheless, I wish it were over and settled, for 
 never again will I touch, so hopeless, so thankless, so fruitless a work, as the 
 reform of Church abominations. . . . 
 
 As the day approached for Lord Shaftesbury to bring forward his Bill in 
 the House of Lords, his anxiety which had produced perpetual headache 
 increased. It absorbed every moment of his leisure. " For months," he said, 
 " I have not been beyond the Duke of Wellington's statue." Up to the very 
 hour that he left his home to go the House of Lords he was full of mis- 
 giving, and the last entry in his book is, " Why have I been so foolish as to 
 undertake this Bill ? If I fail, I become ridiculous ; if I succeed, I shall 
 have done no good." 
 
 On the 15th of May he moved the Second Reading of the Bill before a 
 House, " cold, hostile, and resolved to maintain anything provided it were 
 Episcopal." He had to deal with a subject " inexpressibly dry and weari- 
 some " so repulsive that it had " occupied and thwarted many eminent men 
 during the course of more than three centuries." 
 
 The interest in this, and many kindred measures, has now to a very great 
 extent passed away, and it would only weary the reader to enter, at length, 
 into the whole question of the proposed reform of the Ecclesiastical Courts. 
 
 May 15th, 11 o'clock. The motion is over. ... I have now, thank God, 
 closed my Ecclesiastical career ; nothing shall again stir me to move Bills in
 
 636 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. TCHAP. XXX. 
 
 defence of the Establishment. The Bill was sent to a Select Committee, where I 
 shall not have a friend. It is, of course, according to the modern system, " a 
 private execution." . . . 
 
 It would have saved Lord Shaftesbury years of anxious and fruitless 
 toil if this decision had been adhered to. Unfortunately, he was over- 
 persuaded by friends to return to the charge, and, as we shall see, within a 
 twelvemonth he was again in the thick of the fight. 
 
 We shall now follow for a whilo the more quiet current of his routine and 
 private life. 
 
 April 27th. Such continued occupation, no time for entries. Minny and 
 Conty returned on Thursday, 22nd, quite safe. 
 
 Heard this morning 1 of the death of Mary Joy, my old dear friend,* in the 
 Almswalk at St. Giles's. This aged saint must have attained her ninety-second 
 year ; and was, by God's blessing, neither blind nor deaf, nor wandering. In 
 spirit she was like Anna, and " departed not from the Temple, but ever waited 
 for the consolation of Israel." She had it while living ; she has it in perfection, 
 now that she is dead, for she had realised the hopes of St. Paul, and knew 
 "nothing but Jesus Christ, and Him crucified." Shall I recognise St. Giles's 
 without her 1 I trow not. 
 
 July llth. No end of chairs, speeches, committees. I cannot number them ; 
 they are like the sands of the sea ; and shall I say equally incohesive and un- 
 profitable ? Be it so ; God give me the consolation to feel His words, " because it 
 was in thine heart, to build a temple unto the Lord ; thou didst well, that it was 
 in thine heart." . . . 
 
 May 15th. Bradford, Yorkshire. Here to uncover Oastler's monument. It 
 is a week of speeches, addresses, &c. 
 
 May 21st. St. Giles's. Hardly a second of time at command to make entries 
 while in Yorkshire ; can I now collect a Diary? On Friday, a large dinner of 
 Bradford notables at Mr. Semon's, very agreeable. On Saturday, an address to 
 me in Peel Park, and a procession of some 30,000 people. Reached the statue at 
 half -past three. The tin covering, and a short speech. The throng was immense ; 
 the estimate was of nearly 100,000 ; and I do not think that it was exaggerated. 
 Their enthusiasm knew no bounds. 
 
 Then a dinner at the Victoria Hotel, given by the Mayor, a most agreeable, 
 gentlemanlike man, Mr. West. Afterwards, at eight o'clock, a public meeting in 
 St. George's Hall, and speech, of course. On Sunday to parish church. Then at 
 three o'clock to Sunday School at Manningham to see large numbers of teachers 
 and factory children, and speak to them. On Monday, to inspect hospital 
 and charities, and at 12.40 to London, where I arrived by God's blessing safe 
 and sound. 
 
 During the debates in the House of Lords on the Irish Church Bill, Lord 
 Shaftesbury on several occasions was anxious fco take a part. He was suffer- 
 ing, however, from unusual depression, and other circumstances were against 
 him. 
 
 * She was a labourer's widow living in the Almshouses founded by Sir Anthony 
 Ashley.
 
 186'J.] DEATH OF LADY PALMERSTON. 637 
 
 June 24th. Hare given notice of an amendment to devote surplus (seculari- 
 sation having 1 been decided) to a fund for small loans at moderate interest to 
 labouring population of Ireland. It will be opposed by Popish hierarchy and 
 priesthood, because they want the whole surplus for themselves ; by the Con- 
 servatives (and probably by the Government for the same reason, though not 
 avowedly), because they want it for "levelling up," and by the landlords, because 
 they wish cheap labour yet it will be a blessing to the people. 
 
 I should like one of my last speeches (if it be not the last) to be in aid of that 
 wronged and insulted people wronged, I mean, by our ancestors. . . . 
 
 July bird Bill has been in Committee, on Tuesday, Thursday, Friday. Pre- 
 pared some thoughts on Duke of Cleveland's proposition to give houses and glebea 
 to Roman Catholic priests. Had, however, no good opportunity to come forward, 
 and doubt much whether I should have had courage enough to rise unpleasant 
 beyond description in the House of Lords, when rival speakers get up, and 
 struggle to be heard. No one, as in the House of Commons, has power to decide. 
 The matter is settled by roars of preference for one peer or the other. It was so 
 last night. I could not expose myself to it. Voted against the clause. . . . 
 
 July 5th. I am so nervous, distressed, and downcast, that I almost wish him 
 (Lord Cairns) success, that I may be spared the necessity of introducing my 
 clause. Never have I, in all my life, had a period of doubt, darkness, and dis- 
 couragement so long upon me. 
 
 July 7th. Lord Cairns, by a successful motion to postpone 68th Clause of the 
 Irish Bill, submerged my amendment. So much for all the trouble and anxiety 
 I have had on that matter. . . . 
 
 July 24th. Granville, throughout the whole Irish debates, has shown 
 remarkable judgment, ability, good temper, and good taste. Cairns, in this last 
 affair, has come out with singular claims to solid wisdom, penetration, and 
 deliberate courage. . . . 
 
 At the end of August Lord and Lady Shaftesbury and their three 
 laughters arrived at Homburg. They had not been there a fortnight, how- 
 ever, before a letter was received giving an unsatisfactory account of the 
 health of Lady Palmerston. Next day there followed an alarming telegram, 
 and preparations were made for Lady Shaftesbury to return immediately, and 
 Lord Shaftesbury to follow more slowly with his invalid daughter and the 
 rest of the party. On the eve of his departure he received a further tele- 
 gram : " Sinking; no hope," and he wrote in his Diary : 
 
 Poor, dear, kind Mum. How can I ever forget nay, how can I ever fully 
 remember all her unbroken, invariable, tender, considerate goodness towards 
 me ? Turn her very inmost heart unto Thyself, God, for Christ's blessed 
 sake ! . . . 
 
 There were delays in the journey. A fierce gale prevented them from 
 making the passage of the Channel. Meanwhile Lady Palmerston had 
 passed away, and the travellers only reached England in time to be present 
 at the funeral. 
 
 Sept. 22nd. The funeral was simple, but solemn, and very sad. The dear 
 woman was carried to Westminster Abbey, there to lie alongside her husband,
 
 638 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBUEY. [CHAP. XXX 
 
 whom she so truly and ardently loved, and whom she had so greatly aided in his 
 long career. Until I had lost her I hardly knew how much I loved her. To my 
 dying hour I shall remember her perpetual sunshine of expression and affec- 
 tionate grace, the outward sign of inward sincerity, of kindness, generosity, and 
 love. Her pleasure was to see others pleased, and without art, or effort, or even 
 intention, she fascinated every one who came within her influence. Forty years 
 have I been her son-in-law, and during all that long time she had been to me a 
 well-spring of tender friendship and affectionate service. 
 
 Sept. 24th. Few great men, and no women, except those who have sat on 
 thrones, have received, after death, such abundant and such sincere testimonies 
 of admiration, respect, and affection. The press has teemed with articles de- 
 scriptive of her life and character, all radiant with feeling, and expressive of real 
 sorrow ; none surpassed the Times in delineation and eul jgy. It was written by 
 Hayward, and it is a record worthy of her. 
 
 While Lord Shaftesbury was at Homburg enjoying " the wonderful air, 
 which seems to breathe strength and refreshment at every moment," he 
 indulged, in leisure moments, in his favourite recreation of fixing in writing 
 his impressions of the " times then present," and forecasts of political history. 
 We append one short quotation only, a very remarkable one when viewed in 
 the light of subsequent events : 
 
 . . . The people, as Bright remarked to me one evening, "have no reverence." 
 He is right : they had it once, but they have it no longer. They have no reverence 
 for men, or things, past or present. They estimate everything by its power of 
 instrumentality for their purposes. . . . 
 
 A vague, undefined sentiment exists that some kind of convulsion is at hand. 
 If asked to explain what is meant, a difficulty arises. Nevertheless, the instinct 
 of it remains, and people continue confused without being comforted. That Eng- 
 land has culminated, few can doubt who examine her internal condition and the 
 condition of the nations around her. as well as of the United States. Within, 
 she is shaken to her very foundations of moral, religious, and commercial power. 
 The political is no safer. Without, we must see countries extending in arts and 
 arms, in enterprise and wealth, in skill, industry, and freedom, which are rapidly 
 abating her pre-eminence and reducing her in the scale of nations. England 
 must either be very great or very small either so great as to defy the world, or 
 so small as not to excite its envy and hostility. 
 
 There are some, perhaps (and probably Gladstone and Bright are among 
 them), who would deny that any evil could arise from the severance of England 
 and Ireland. It is difficult to believe that any one could entertain such an 
 opinion, however he might assert it. We shall soon have the attempt, and 
 possibly not very remotely, the event ; and the experience will give us results 
 that cannot be gainsaid. 
 
 There was joy in St. Giles's House and in St. Giles's village in the 
 autumn of this year, in which no one shared more heartily than Lord Shaftes- 
 bury. He refers to it, in a letter to Mr. Haldane, thus : 
 
 My little village is all agog with the birth of a "son and heir" in the very 
 midst of them, the first, it is believed, since about 1600, when the first Lord
 
 1869.] DR. TEMPLE, BISHOP OP EXETER. 639 
 
 Shaftesbury was born. The christening yesterday was an ovation. Every 
 cottage had flags and flowers ; we had three triumphal arches, and all the people 
 were exulting. " He is one of us " "He is a fellow- villager " " We have now got 
 a lord of our own." The tenants, too, and clergy, have, in grand consultation, 
 resolved to present a piece of plate as an heirloom. 
 
 This is really gratifying ; I did not think that there remained so much of the 
 old respect and affection between peasant and proprietor, landlord and tenant, 
 But it is the last trace of that grand feeling. 
 
 The presentation was made shortly afterwards : 
 
 Nov. 29th. . . . The tenantry of this estate gave to Antony a piece of 
 plate, and a dinner (at which I attended, Nov. 25), in honour of his son and heir. 
 It was hearty, affectionate, and liberal ; I doubt whether, in many counties 
 there would now be found such a feeling between the owner and the occupiers of 
 the land. Much is due to Antony, who has lived among them, and made himself 
 deservedly popular. 
 
 The appointment of Professor Seeley, the author of "Ecce Homo," to 
 the Professorship of Modern History at Cambridge, and the elevation of 
 Dr. Temple, one of the writers of the " Essays and Reviews," to the See of 
 Exeter, were events that called forth a storm of indignation in certain 
 quarters. On the first issue of " Essays and Reviews," 12,000 of the clergy 
 uttered a protest. Not 1,200 were willing to come forward in 1869 to pro- 
 test against the appointment of Dr. Temple ; and if a work similar to " Essays 
 and Reviews " were to be published to-day, it is probable that not 120 would 
 be found to protest against it so rapid and so radical has been the change of 
 religious opinion. Nevertheless, there was a great stir over Dr. Temple's 
 appointment ; and as Lord Shaftesbury was looked to as the prime mover on 
 all such occasions, he was besieged by angry disputants, and as often happens 
 to acknowledged leaders of men, he held his position in the front simply 
 because there was no other position possible to him. Dr. Pusey urged him 
 to stand forth as the representative of religious opinion generally ; others of 
 the High Church party urged him to take joint action with them on a Com- 
 mittee ; and the result was his acceptance of the Presidency of the Committee, 
 with Dr. Pusey as Yice-President. The Evangelical party stood somewhat 
 aloof. Their attitude is thus described by Lord Shaftesbury : 
 
 Oct. 23. . . . This Temple affair has revealed many things. It has revealed 
 the utter indifference of the country at large ; the coldness and insincerity of 
 the bulk of the Evangelicals, their disunion, their (separation in place and action. 
 It has shown that they have much political, and personal, and very little spiritual 
 Protestantism. They dislike .the appointment because Gladstone made it, and 
 they would not oppose it lest they should be found in concurrence with Pusey. . . . 
 It has revealed, too, their utter intolerance. The words, the just, true words I 
 wrote in praise of Pusey for that marvellous essay on Daniel, which he could not 
 have composed but by the special Grace of God, have condemned me for ever in 
 their esteem ; and I doubt whether, were the vote taken by ballot, they would not 
 pronounce that I was by far the more detestable of the tw.o. . . .
 
 640 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXX. 
 
 The following letter, written when the controversy was at its height, will 
 show Lord Shaftesbury's own personal views with regard to the attack upon 
 Dr. Temple's appointment, and also why he had come to regard the Evangelical 
 party, as he says, as " simply a theological expression." At tho request of 
 the Church Association, although contrary to his own judgment, he had 
 presented to the Prime Minister a memorial remonstrating on the appoint- 
 ment. The first paragraph in the letter is in allusion to this : 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury to Mr. Haldane. 
 
 November 2nd, 1869. 
 
 DEAR HALDANE, I have not, as yet, had any. even official, acknowledgment 
 from Gladstone of the receipt of the memorial. I must wait a day or two longer. 
 
 The position of religious parties is original and distressing. The rash, 
 unsustained attack on -Dr. Temple, going so far beyond what could be proved 
 (though not beyond what might be believed), has given Gladstone a fund of 
 power to make what appointments he pleases ; and it has equally taken from the 
 Evangelicals a power of resistance. They stand simply naked, weak, and beneath 
 consideration. 
 
 Here, for instance, are three Deans, all eminent in the party ! The Dean of 
 Gloucester joins Pusey and protests against Temple. 
 
 The Dean of Eipon protests against Temple and Pusey ; and the Dean of 
 Exeter joins Temple, and protests against every one who differs from him. 
 
 Who is to lead a regiment like that 1 Even Falstaff would not march through 
 Coventry with them. . . . 
 
 They would soon throw me over, and " pity the sorrows of a poor old man." 
 
 The movement against Temple, so rash, violent, undignified, and abortive, has 
 done irreparable mischief to men and things. S. 
 
 One disappointment of the year that distressed Lord Shaftesbury is 
 
 I referred to in the entry given below. Ever since he succeeded to the title 
 
 I he had not spared time, trouble, or expense to improve the condition of tho 
 
 / labourers on his estate, by erecting suitable cottages, and by giving them 
 
 I continuous work and better wages. This had been done at great personal 
 
 I sacrifice ; but it was a principle with him to strive to roll away, at least as 
 
 I far as he was concerned, the reproach that had, not altogether unjustly, boon 
 
 [ brought against the Dorsetshire landlords : 
 
 November 29th. I am grieved by a disingenuous report on the state of this 
 property. I had hoped, nay, believed, that whenever a Government Commissioner 
 came down he would say at least that we were making progress, that our wages 
 were better than in former years, and our cottage accommodation vastly im- 
 proved. Not a syllable. He gives a picture of the county as though it were 
 the same as thirty years ago.
 
 CHAPTER XXXI 
 
 18701871. 
 
 LOED SHAFTESBURY was a stout opponent of the Revision of the Authorised 
 Version of the Bible, and although after that Revision had been published he 
 greatly modified his views, he was for many years distressed that such a pro- 
 ject " one of the most subtle dangers that beset true religion " as he then 
 regarded it should have been set on foot. 
 
 It was on the ground of the uncertainty which would be created in men's 
 minds as to which was, and which was not, a true and reliable version, that 
 he apprehended the greatest danger. The great majority of the world were, 
 and would be to the end of time, dependent altogether on versions and trans- 
 lations, and could never have even a moderate, and certainly not a critical, 
 knowledge of the original languages ; and their resource, in the perplexity 
 and confusion that a variety of versions would create, would be to go to some 
 learned pundit in whose judgment they reposed confidence, and ask him which of 
 the versions he would recommend ; and when he gave an opinion they would feel 
 obliged to abide by it, as they could not form an opinion of their own. The 
 result of this would be to destroy, not the right but the exercise of, private 
 judgment " that grand, sacred, solemn principle, which is the right of every 
 man, and the great security of churches and of nations, and of the life and 
 soul of individuals." 
 
 On the 10th of February, 1870, the Bishop of Winchester, in the Upper 
 House of Convocation, carried a resolution for the appointment of a Com- 
 mittee to report upon the desirableness of a Revision of the Authorised 
 Version of the Old and New Testaments. At once Lord Shaftesbury wrote 
 a letter to the Times stating the views we have given above. This originated 
 a correspondence with Professor Selwyn, which appeared in the Times, the 
 Record, and, subsequently, in the form of a pamphlet. One passage only 
 from that correspondence will we insert here. After anticipating the loss of 
 " the racy old language which is music to everybody's ears," he says : 
 
 One of the newspapers, in condemning my opinion, charged me with sheer 
 idolatry, as a bigoted worshipper of the mere words and syllables of our present 
 version. The editor, of course, is at liberty to use his own phraseology, and the 
 public to judge of it I admit that I love, intensely too, its rich, melodious, and 
 heart-moving language. It is like the music of Handel, and carries Divine truth 
 and comfort to the inmost souL This language has sunk deep into the moral 
 constitution of our people. No one who associates with them, can doubt it. It 
 is the staple of their domestic intercourse, the exponent of their joys and sorrows. 
 P P
 
 642 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURT. fCexp. XXXI. 
 
 And I will maintain that a rude and sudden descent from the majestic and 
 touching tones of our wonderful version, to the thin Freiichified and squeaking 
 sentences in modern use, would be an irreparable shock to every English-speaking 
 man who has drunk in the old and generous language almost with his mother's 
 milk. 
 
 Some time after the Revised Yersion had been published, Lord Shaftes- 
 bury acknowledged that his fears had not been realised, and it did not appear 
 probable that they would be. " I wrote and spoke against it at the time," he 
 said to the writer, " and the result shows clearly that it was not wanted, and 
 is not cared for. It is of no use to the unlearned masses ; to the learned few 
 it is insufficient. It goes too far in many places in meddling with the grand 
 and simple beaucy of the language in the Authorised Yersion ; it does not go 
 far enough in criticism to make it worth while giving up the other for. In 
 the old version I read that ' the Jews came to comfort Mary ; ' in the new, 
 that they came to ' console ' her ; that the disciples said, according to the old 
 version, ' Lord, is it I ? ' and in the new, ' Is it I, Lord ? ' But what good 
 can be effected by such alterations as these P As a whole, the version is less 
 objectionable than I ever thought it would be, but it is so stiff and stilted, 
 and full of stones that break your shins at every turn, that I do not for a 
 moment think it will ever displace the Authorised Yersion that precious, 
 inestimable, and holy gift to England ; that wondrous translation of His ever- 
 lasting and Divine Word." 
 
 A severe loss was sustained by Lord Shaf tesbury in the removal, by death, 
 of his old friend and associate, Joseph Payne, Deputy Assistant-Judge of 
 the Middlesex Sessions. For years Lord Shaf tesbury and he worked together 
 indefatigably, speaking and taking the chair at meetings innumerable, on 
 every scheme that had for its object the bettering of the condition of the 
 poorer classes Refuges, Bands of Hope, Sunday Rest Societies, Shoe-black 
 Brigades, and especially Ragged Schools. He made the first of many hundred 
 speeches in support of the movement at the first annual meeting of the 
 Ragged School Union, held in June, 1845, and the famous poetical " tail- 
 pieces " with which he concluded his speeches not rarely composed on the 
 platform and exceeding 2,400, show how untiringly he had been at work 
 during the twenty-five years of his platform life. Lord Shaftesbury and he 
 worked together as friends and brothers ; the very opposite to one another in 
 character, disposition, and expression, and yet agreeing on all points. Judge 
 Payne was essentially a merry man, who loved a joke above all things, and 
 kept his audience in a constant ripple of smiles, until they surged into tem- 
 pests of laughter, at his sallies of wit. But he possessed the neat and 
 dexterous faculty of bringing the most humorous of his anecdotes to an 
 instructive and moral issue. 
 
 " As he and I were constantly on the same platform," Lord Shaftesbury 
 said, " we had a mutual understanding ; I was to accept the reiteration of 
 his stories, he the reiteration of my speeches. I made, I think, the better 
 bargain ; for, to the last, his stories interested mj self and others, but I cannot
 
 1870.) JUDGE PAYNE. 643 
 
 think that he could have said, certainly he could not have thought, the same 
 of my speeches. He had no self-restraint in the devotion of his time, his 
 thoughts, his mind, his money, and everything that he possessed. Except 
 his conscience, there was no single thing which he considered to be his own." 
 The Diary records the following affectionate tribute to his memory : 
 
 March 30th. Last night, on return from Sunday-school meeting at Stepney, 
 read, in a letter to me from Miss Bodkin, that my dear, old, precious friend and 
 fellow-worker, Joseph Payne, was suddenly called to his rest ! Most assuredly 
 to his rest in Heaven, for no man ever more loved the Lord Jesus and more truly 
 and heartily fulfilled His words, " Feed my lambs." What shall I feel without 
 him ? Every meeting, every speech, every mention of Ragged School Affairs, 
 every movement or thought on behalf of sorrowing and destitute children will 
 recall his pious and pleasant memory. During five-and-twenty years we have 
 been associates in the happy toil of the poor innocents of London. . . . 
 
 The death of Judge Payne occurred at a time when Lord Shaftesbury 
 was in peculiar anxiety with regard to the future of Bagged Schools, owing 
 to the proposed establishment of Board Schools under the system of National 
 Education, introduced by Mr. "W. E. Forster, on behalf of Mr. Gladstone's 
 Government. On one aspect of that question he was busily engaged at the 
 time of his friend's death the exclusion or discouragement of religious 
 teaching in the case of schools aided by grants from the State. 
 
 Throughout the Session the debates upon the " Religious Question " were 
 continuous and heated, and Lord Shaftesbury, at public meetings and in 
 Parliament, was in the forefront of the battle. On the 8th of April a 
 " demonstration " of the National Education Union took place in St. James's 
 Hall, over which he presided, and in a vigorous speech, received with storms 
 of applause, vindicated the claims of the Bible and the right of the people 
 to religious teaching in their schools. He saw that, under this movement, 
 there lay " the great struggle between truth and falsehood, between belief and 
 infidelity," and he had determined to resist it to the death. 
 
 There were occasions when Lord Shaftesbury's speeches were brilliant 
 " orations," when the whole man flashed fire, and his words flowed in a rapid 
 torrent of eloquence ; when he felt that, as such mighty issues were at stake, 
 unless he threw all his heart and soul and strength into his subject with 
 passionate earnestness, the whole cause would be lost. " I am under a great 
 infirmity," he once wrote to Mr. Haldane, " an insuperable infirmity to public 
 life, that I cannot even speak unless on conviction. Now, I know that it is 
 as just as it is necessary that, in the long range of policy, weak points must 
 be defended, and, oftentimes, very questionable doings may be made to ap- 
 pear good. But such oratory is beyond me. 1 can say nothing but what I 
 feel, and my feelings frequently get the better of me. So I should have 
 proved an awkward and not seldom a dangerous Minister." 
 
 On the occasion to which we now refer Lord Shaftesbury spoke " with an 
 eloquence," as the Marquis of Salisbury, who was on the platform, said, " he 
 had never heard rivalled." He said : 
 p p 2
 
 644 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. [CHAi> XXXL 
 
 What we ask is simply this, that the Bible, and the teaching of the Bible to 
 the children of this vast Empire, shall be an essential and not an extra. That 
 religious teaching shall be carried on within school hoars, not without school hours. 
 Take conscience clauses and time tables enough to satisfy the greatest cormorant 
 for things of that kind, but they will, in my opinion, be all useless, for I am 
 satisfied that the people of England will never require them. What ! Exclude by 
 Act of Parliament religious teaching from schools founded, supported, by public 
 rates I Declare that the revealed Word of God and religious teaching shall be 
 exiled to the odds and ends of time, and that only at such periods shall any efforts 
 be devoted to the most important part of the education of the youth of this 
 Empire 1 It is an outrage upon the national feelings, and, more than this, it is, 
 without exception, the grossest violation of the rights of religious liberty that 
 was ever perpetrated, or even imagined, in the worst times by the bigotry of any 
 Government whatever, foreign or domestic. 
 
 He made a strong point of the fact that in the Index Expurgatorius of 
 the promoters of this part of the educational scheme, the Bible was the only 
 proscribed book, and he continued : 
 
 We have now come to a period in the history of our country when there has 
 just been granted to the people almost universal suffrage. Is this a time to take 
 from the mass of the population, in whom all power will henceforward reside, 
 that principle of internal self-control, without which there can be no freedom, 
 social or political that principle of self-restraint which makes a man respect 
 himself and respect his neighbour that principle which alone can constitute the 
 honour and stability and promote the dignity of democracy ? Is this a time to 
 take from the mass of the people the checks and restraints of religion 1 Is this a 
 time to harden their hearts by the mere secularity of knowledge, or to withhold 
 from them the cultivation of all those noble and divine influences which touch 
 the soul ? 
 
 In conclusion, he appealed to the men and women of England to rise with 
 one heart and soul and say : 
 
 (By all our hopes and by all our fears, by the honour of the nation, by the 
 safety of the people, by all that is holy and all that is true, by everything 
 I in time and everything in eternity, the children of Great Britain shall be brought 
 I up in the faith and fear and nurture of the Lord. 
 
 In Parliament Lord Shaftesbury reiterated the sentiments he expressed 
 upon the platform, and was instrumental in contributing largely to the 
 defeat of the Secularists. There are frequent references to the subject 
 in the Diary. 
 
 May 26th. Deputation to Gladstone about Education. The unanimity of the 
 Churchmen and Dissenters, that is, the vast majority of them, is striking and 
 consolatory. Gladstone could now settle the question by a single word. But he 
 will not. He would rather, it is manifest, exclude the Bible altogether, than 
 have it admitted and taught without the intervention and agency of catechisms 
 and formularies,
 
 1870.] COSTERMOXGERS. 645 
 
 Among the working classes there were none in whom Lord Shaftesbury 
 was more deeply interested than the costermongers of London. 
 
 " The pursuit of knowledge under difficulties," he wrote in the preface to 
 a work entitled " Byeways of Two Cities," * " has always been bepraised, and 
 justly so : but why should not the pursuit of an honest livelihood amid great 
 temptations be alike admired ? Both are great moral efforts, but I am 
 inclined to think that the poor painstaking costermonger, proof against 
 enticements to fraud and falsehood, is, on the whole, the better citizen of the 
 two. Literature may adorn a nation, but the uprightness of its citizens is 
 its bulwark." 
 
 In 1861, Mr. W. J. Orsman, a Civil servant, determined to devote his 
 leisure time, after office hours, to the hard task of Evangelising the benighted 
 costermongers, itinerant street-traders and others, who herd together by 
 thousands, in the area circumscribed by Goswell Street, Old Street, Bunhill 
 Row, and Chiswell Street. 
 
 Golden Lane, in the heart of this district, was selected by Mr. Orsman as 
 the place to establish a mission, and, in a short time, it was placed upon a 
 permanent and efficient basis. 
 
 The natural history of the costermonger has been well given by Mr. 
 Holden Pike, who is one of the best authorities on life and work among the 
 poor. 
 
 " These costers," he says, " are a hard-working, patient, enduring class, 
 accustomed to making many shifts when times are ' quiet,' or when the com- 
 modities they deal in command prices in the open market which suit neither 
 the coster's capital nor the pockets of "his humble customers. Dr. Johnson 
 defined ' costermonger ' as ' a person who sells apples.' A more trust- 
 worthy authority a citizen of Mr. Orsman's territory summarily sets aside 
 the lexicographer's interpretation as a popular error of the Georgian era. In 
 fact, he declares that ' a person who sells apples ' is ' all gammon,' and then 
 considerately explains that a coster is ' a cove wot works werry 'ard for a 
 werry poor livin', and is always a-bein' hinterfered with, and bio wed up, and 
 moved hon, and fined, and sent to quod by the beaks and bobbies.' " 
 
 The costers are careless and 'improvident, merry and thoughtless, with 
 little religion and less politeness. 
 
 At night the donkey, the children, the mothers and fathers for not un- 
 commonly there are several families in one hovel all huddle together in the 
 same rooms. The stock-in-trade fish, fruit, or vegetables is stored, amidst 
 miscellaneous filth, under the press bedsteads, to be hawked afresh the next 
 day. They go to market very early in summer, and as soon as it is light in 
 winter, purchasing the cheapest stock when there is a glut, or a better com- 
 modity when the price is reduced by its remaining on hand. They sell their 
 bargains in the poorer streets, at a small profit, and some make their chief 
 advantage by using false weights and measures. 
 
 These people are useful in their way, for it is chiefly through their agency 
 * " Byeways of Two Cities." By G. Holden Pike.
 
 646 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. {CHAP. XXXI, 
 
 that cheap fruit, fish, and vegetables, are brought to the doors of the working 
 classes, who in their absence would seldom be able to benefit by the bounty of 
 Nature in abundant seasons. 
 
 The parents of Bagged School scholars are mostly described in the lists 
 giving their occupations as " costerniongers." As a body, the costermongers 
 are remarkably hard-working, if a somewhat loud-voiced and hard-mouthed 
 class. Street life almost necessarily generates coarseness of manners and 
 vehemence in dialect, whether in gamin or adult. Their calling is very pre- 
 carious ; for, depending as it does so much on the state of the weather, they 
 sometimes readily realise 2 profit in one week, whilst during the next they 
 do not earn five shillings. Like all classes whose income is uncertain, they 
 are mostly improvident and reckless, and, in moments of success, indulge in 
 stimulants or gluttony to a fearful extent. Some, of course, are thrifty and 
 lay up against rainy days, as well as against those stern winter months, when 
 both money and vegetables are scarce. 
 
 The capital of most costennongers is very limited ; yet, small as it is, it 
 is not rarely borrowed at an exorbitant rate of interest. The great object of 
 their ambition, especially as it is an external sign of their success in life, is 
 the possession of a donkey and a shambling truck in which to hawk their 
 fruit, fish, and vegetables, in the bye-ways of London. The bulk, however, 
 being too poor or too improvident to manage this, they hire donkey and truck 
 of men who live by letting them out by the day or week. 
 
 It was a great day in the history of the Golden Lane Mission to Coster- 
 mongers when Mr. Orsman, whose labours had been unremitting, and whose 
 success was already assured, received the following letter from Lord Shaftes- 
 bury: 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury to Mr. W. J. Orsman. 
 
 BOURNEMOUTH, Nov. 18th, 1868. 
 
 DEAR SIR, You seem to be engaged in a grand work for the benefit of the 
 poorest classes of the metropolis. Mr. Gent, my friend, the secretary of the 
 Ragged School Union, called it a " noble work." 
 
 I shall be very happy to aid, so far as I can, such admirable efforts ; and, if it 
 can be of any use, to accept the office of President. 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 SHAFTESBURY. 
 
 ' From the day of Lord Shaftesbury's first acquaintance with the costers, 
 to the end of his career, there was hardly any society in which he took a 
 deeper interest than in Mr. Orsman's Golden Lane Mission. He always 
 delighted to call himself a " coster," and nothing would induce him to lose 
 an opportunity of spending a social evening with his "brethren." One 
 feature of the work was a Barrow and Donkey Club ; and the Earl immedi- 
 ately enrolled himself as a member, and subscribed for a barrow and a donkey. 
 The barrow was a handsome one and bore upon it the Shaftesbury arms and 
 motto. It was in constant use by men who were steadily saving to buy 
 barrows of their own, and was always a great attraction in the streets.
 
 1870.] E.G. AND COSTER. 647 
 
 In a very remarkable manner Lord Shaftesbury threw himself into the 
 work among these strange people, and very speedily gained their entire con- 
 fidence, and his speeches to them were marvellously adapted to their appreci- 
 ation and capacity. 
 
 He was able to render them important services. In 1872, for example, 
 the vestry of St. Lnke's issued an order forbidding costermongers any longer 
 to trade in Whitecross Street. The vestry would, undoubtedly, have carried 
 out its intention, had not Lord Shaftesbury interposed on behalf of the 
 costers : the joy of the people, when it became known that the parish magis- 
 trates had relented, was unbounded. 
 
 One result of the excitement of that time was the establishment of " The 
 London Union of General Dealers." The meetings are held in the Golden 
 Lane Mission Room, and everything touching the general welfare of the 
 costermonger fraternity is there discussed. 
 
 At one of the meetings, when the threatened evil was under discussion 
 Lord Shaftesbury told the men that at any time, when they had grievances 
 which he could assist them to get redressed, they. should write to him, and 
 he would not fail to respond. 
 
 " But where shall we write to ? " asked one of them. 
 
 " Address your letter to me at Grosvenor Square, and it will, probably, 
 reach me," he replied; "but if after my name you put 'K.G. and Coster,' 
 there will be no doubt that I shall get it." 
 
 One of the strangest ceremonials that ever took place at a public meeting 
 occurred in 1875 in connection with this society. Lord Shaftesbury, who 
 was president of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, had 
 taken a deep interest in the costermongers' donkeys. It was proverbial, at one 
 time, that both the donkeys and ponies were shamefully ill-used; but by 
 education, and exhortation, by the institution of donkey shows and prizes, and 
 a variety of other means, the men of Golden Lane had come to take a pride 
 in their animals, and had found that kind and just treatment was the wisest 
 policy. With twenty-four hours' rest on Sunday, they would do thirty miles 
 a day without exhaustion ; whereas, without it, they did not do an average of 
 more than fifteen. 
 
 In recognition of his kind services the costers invited Lord Shaftesbury to 
 meet them in their Hall to receive a presentation. Over a thousand costers, 
 with their friends, were there, and the platform was graced by many ladies 
 and gentlemen, when a handsome donkey, profusely decorated with ribbons, 
 was led on to the platform and presented as a token of esteem to the chair- 
 man. Lord Shaftesbury good-humouredly vacated the chair and made way 
 for the new arrival, and then, putting his arm round the animal's neck, 
 returned thanks in a short speech, in which, however, there was a ring of 
 pathos, as he said, " When I have passed away from this life I desire to have 
 no more said of me than that I have done my duty, as the poor donkey has 
 done his, with patience and unmurmuring resignation." The donkey was 
 then led down the steps of the platform, and Lord Shaftesbury remarked, " I
 
 648 THE EARL OP SHAPTESBURY. [CHAP. XXXI. 
 
 hope the reporters of the press will state that, the donkey having vacated the 
 chair, the place was taken by Lord Shaftesbury." 
 
 The donkey was sent to St. Giles's, where he was made much of, and lived 
 I for some years. His end is thus recorded : 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury to Mr. Onsman. 
 
 CASTLE WEMYSS, WEMTSS BAY, N.B., 
 
 Sept. 26th, 1878. 
 
 DEAR OESM AN, I am grieved to tell you that Coster is no more. He broke away 
 one day from the stable and made a dash for the paddock. In so doing he fell 
 and smashed his thigh. The veterinary surgeon was sent for, who pronounced 
 him incurable, and advised that he should be put out of his pain. 
 
 The friendly and useful creature was buried, with all honours, in a place I 
 have within a thick plantation, where the pet dogs, horses, etc., that have served 
 the family, and deserved our gratitude, are gathered together. 
 
 Remember me very warmly to my brother costermongers, their wives, and 
 their children. Yours 
 
 S. 
 The costers, however, soon sent another to supply his place. 
 
 Oct. 13th, 1882. 
 
 DEAB OESMAN, It will not be in my power, I regret to say, to attend the 
 anniversary. I cannot be in London at that time. Give my love to the costers, 
 and say how happy I should have been to meet them again. 
 
 The brown donkey has won the affection of every one. My grandchildren 
 were in Dorset this summer ; they had it always with them ; and they declare it 
 is the most attractive, amiable creature they ever knew. It followed them like a 
 spaniel. . . . 
 
 What day will suit my brother costers for the show 1 
 
 Yours, 
 
 S. 
 
 Throughout the Diaries there are frequent references to life and work 
 among the costers. 
 
 May 18th. A wonderful meeting in Golden Lane last night. A spectacle to 
 gladden angels comfort, decency, education, and spiritual life, in the midst of 
 filth, destitution, vice, and misery. This, the work of the Gospel, administered 
 by a clerk in the Post Office, who gives all his spare time and the most of his 
 money, to advance the knowledge of Christ, and the earthly and heavenly 
 interests of man. It was enough to humble me. God be blessed, there are two 
 or three men like him ; and few things are more marvellous than to see what 
 can be done by one man, whatever his social position, if he have but the love of 
 Christ in his heart, and the Grace of our Lord to lead him on. 
 
 After twenty years' controversy, and numerous and decisive divisions in 
 favour of the Bill to Legalise Marriage with a Deceased Wife's Sister, in the 
 Lower House, it this year passed the three readings without a division. 
 
 Two days afterwards, Mr. Thomas Chambers, whose Bill it was, wrote to
 
 1870.] GREEK BRIGANDS. 649 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury to endeavour " to secure neutrality, if lie could not win his 
 approval," in face of "such indubitable and emphatic expression of the popular 
 will in a matter not political but social." Lord Shaftesbury replied that he 
 should oppose the second reading in this instance, but on no future occasion, 
 and concluded, " The people can have what they wish, and they, probably, 
 will have it. I, for one, shall henceforward think it my duty to accept the 
 measure and submit to the deliberate decision of the country." 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury's persistently strong personal feeling against the Bill 
 never became, in the least degree, modified. Although his public action had 
 changed, he wrote to a friend, as late as June 28th, 1883, that his sentiment 
 had " remained the same ever since 1842, when he spoke against it in the 
 House of Commons." 
 
 The following extracts relate to a variety of subjects engaging the 
 thought of Lord Shaftesbury during this year : 
 
 April 25th. Three English gentlemen, among whom was Fred. Vyner, the 
 son of my old friend, Lady Mary, have been captured and slain by brigands near 
 Athens. Cecil had intended to join the party to Marathon. A special providence. 
 God's interposing mercy, saved him from it. Had not the steamer to Italy been 
 ordered to sail the next day, he would have gone with the rest, and have shared 
 their fate. 
 
 April 27th. This very dreadful event has seized hold of my imagination, and 
 haunts me day and night. "0 God, to whom vengeance belongeth, show Thyself." 
 The cruelty, the cowardice, the bloodthirstiness of the deed ! Poor boy, poor 
 dear boy, Fred. Vyner, so young, so gentle, and so handsome ! . . . 
 
 June llth. Had tea with dear, good, old Mrs. Smithies, the mother of the 
 admirable, unrivalled servant of our Lord.* Chunder Sen there had some 
 interesting conversation with him. 
 
 June 27th. Clarendon died this morning. He was a kind and true friend to 
 me on all occasions. . . . 
 
 July 16th. France has declared war against Prussia ; the Papal champion 
 against the Protestant in Continental Europe. 
 
 July 23rd. On 21st, forced Ecclesiastical Courts Bill to a second reading ; 
 aided strongly Married Women's Property Bill ; and to-day went to Baling to 
 open Girls' Industrial Kef uge. The " speaking " part of all these duties detestable, 
 and, I fear, inefficient. . . . Anxious about these Refuges for training deserted 
 and destitute girls for domestic life, servants, wives, and mothers. Humanly 
 speaking, we have no hope for the country but in the improvement of our 
 women. My old and admirable coadjutor, Williams, a very choice servant indeed 
 of our blessed Lord, as usual, the principal mover. . . . 
 
 We do not propose to quote from the voluminous notes of Lord Shaftes- 
 bury on the Franco-Prussian war further than to show how it brought to him 
 an increase of labour and anxiety. On the 5th of August a meeting was 
 held in Willis's Rooms for the purpose of aiding the sick and wounded in 
 the war. Lord Shaftesbury moved the first resolution, and in words " wary 
 
 * Mr. T. B. Smithies, who originated the British Workman.
 
 650 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXXI. 
 
 and few " set forth the duty of Christian people to endeavour to alleviate the 
 horrors of the fearful conflict by relieving the pressure of suffering, by dis- 
 tributing their contributions equally between Germans and French. The 
 result of the meeting was the establishment of the " National Society for 
 Aiding the Sick and Wounded in time of War," of which Lord Shaftesbury 
 became President, and took a very active part and much interest in its opera- 
 tions. 
 
 A Church Congress was to be held in Southampton in October, and Lord 
 Shaftesbury was urgently entreated to attend. He persistently refused, 
 however, and his reasons were given to Mr. Haldane thus : 
 
 Could I go to a meeting called by a Congress on Church principles, and omit 
 to say a single syllable on Church matters ? And could I, in sense and principle, 
 omit to point out the great dangers of the Church : and first and foremost among 
 them, the apathy or connivance of our Bishops ? 
 
 I have, besides, a strong conviction that among the working men themselves 
 must be found the grand agency, in their vigorous, but ecclesiastically abnormal, 
 action. To tell them this, and enlist their sympathies, and summon the clergy to 
 command them, would raise a storm of discord and hatred. 
 
 To leave out this point would be to leave the Hamlet out of my speech. 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury never overcame his objections to Church Congresses, 
 and never attended one, although frequently urged to do so. 
 
 Oct. 16th. The Church Congress at Southampton is over. So far as can be 
 judged by the reports of it in the papers, it came to no conclusions, made no 
 suggestions, promised no action, and exhibited no unanimity. The clergy, as 
 usual, expressed the warmest desire for the co-operation of the laity, and a wish 
 that they should share in the government of the Church. But one and all of 
 them seemed to maintain that to " Convocation " their admission was impossible. 
 I heartily rejoice that I did not attend it. ... 
 
 Nov. 9th. Professor Huxley, in a correspondence with the Rev. W. Freemantle 
 on School Boards, has this definition of morality and religion : " Teach a child 
 what is wise, that is morality. Teach him what is wise and beautiful, that is 
 religion ! " Let no one henceforward despair of making things clear, and of 
 giving explanations I ... 
 
 Nov. 21st. I have one ambition left, a strong ambition the ambition to make 
 a powerful speech against the Ballot. Hopeless, I know, to turn the hateful 
 system aside ; but I wish to denounce it, as everything that is dangerous in 
 politics, mean in morals, and cowardly in the discharge of duty. 
 
 The state of his daughter Constance's health made wintering abroad a 
 necessity. The resting-places were Heidelberg, Innspruck, Milan, Genoa, 
 and then came a long and enforced detention at Pegli, a little shipbuilding 
 town, held, however, in great esteem by the Italians for its sea-bathing, and 
 a further detention at Finale, a small, uninteresting sea- port. 
 
 Dec. 21st. Pegli. Came here yesterday ; glad to leave Genoa, for the air, so 
 close to the port, is not refreshing, nor, indeed, healthy. This is a pretty place,
 
 i87i.] WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE. 651 
 
 a lively, dirty, and dilapidated fishing village. There seems to be no privacy, 
 no cleanliness, no decency ; and yet all is cheerful, well fed, and well 
 clad. . . . 
 
 " To me," says Mackonochie (in his letter to the Record of Dec. 12th, 1870), 
 " the Chnrch of England is, in God's providence, the only channel ordained of 
 Him, through which His grace can reach my soul." That is his plea for not 
 leaving it. The decisions of the Judicial Committee of Privy Council are his plea 
 for not obeying it. It is lamentable to see a high, self-denying, and self-sacrificing 
 spirit in such a quandary of conflicting duties. But he could leave the Establish- 
 ment without leaving the Church of England. Unless civil laws and temporalities- 
 are essential to his notion of a Church, the channel of grace would be as open to 
 him after, as before, his severance from the external fabric. . . . 
 
 Almost the only diversion for Lord Shaftesbury during this wearisome- 
 time was the reception of a deputation to offer him the post of " Honorary 
 Member of the Operative Mutual Aid Society of Finale," an offer he 
 accepted " at a cost of fifty francs and a quantity of bad Italian." On the 
 14th of January the health of Lady Constance was restored sufficiently 
 to allow her removal by easy stages to San Remo. There were pressing 
 duties awaiting Lord Shaftesbury in England, and therefore, as soon as his 
 daughter was convalescent, he left her with Lady Shaftesbury at St. Reino, 
 and set his face homewards. 
 
 March 18th. London. Chair of Workmen's meeting, Lambeth Baths. I 
 feel no energy now in these gatherings. The very thought of any public effort 
 distresses me. Afterwards to Speaker's Levee. The peers have given up the 
 wholesome and politic practice of attending these Levies, and I cannot persuade 
 a single one of them to go. They dislike the trouble ; and prefer to throw away 
 an opportunity of doing service. It was, as it would be again, pleasing to the 
 Democracy of the House of Commons ; it brought the two Houses into contact, 
 and induced a reciprocity of courteous feeling and courteous action. 
 
 On night of 16th opened a Lodging House for Newsboys in Gray's Inn Road. 
 What a rough, unwashed, uncombed lot 1 But there is good material in them ; 
 and, by God's blessing, we can work it into shape. 
 
 May 1st. Last night to Westminster Abbey (Sunday) to sermon by Bishop 
 Ryan in aid of Bible Society. It was a grand sermon, and singularly adapted to 
 its purpose. How glorious and impressive, the ancient edifice, with light in its 
 centre, and darkness all around ; typical of God's Truth amidst iniquity and 
 unbelief 1 ... 
 
 May 6th. Last year Mr. Gladstone, speaking on Female Suffrage, said : " This. 
 Bill will disturb, nay, uproot, the very foundations of social life ! " This year he 
 says : " We had better defer it until we shall have got the Ballot, then it will be 
 quite safe." A man has a right to either opinion, but not to both within so short 
 a time. . . . 
 
 Upon the question of Female Suffrage Lord Shaftesbiiry held a decided 
 opinion. That opinion was often asked, and it was generally given 
 guardedly, as in the following letter
 
 652 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXXI. 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury to Mrs. . 
 
 Dec. 28th, 1871. 
 
 MADAM, The question of Women's Suffrage, on which you do me the honour 
 to ask my opinion, is one, I take it, already decided either by consideration or 
 indifference, in the public mind. It is manifestly a question which requires only 
 perseverance on the part of its promoters, and that not a long perseverance, to 
 attain success. 
 
 In the days in which we live there is little use in any sustained opposition to 
 the popular will. The masses of the people hold the power, and they are, more- 
 over, considered to be the best judges of social and political proprieties ; and, 
 except in cases where the principle of a change might be so strong as deeply to 
 affect the conscience, their fiat must be obeyed. 
 
 The grant of Women's Suffrage cannot be confined to spinsters. In the alter- 
 ations at hand in respect to women's property, it must be extended to wives ; and 
 this, conjoined with certain changes in the laws of marriage, now apparently 
 inevitable, will remodel, as it were, the entire system of domestic life. 
 
 It is possible that good may come out of the whole process ; but it is equally 
 possible that evil may be the result. The matter, however, rests with the holders 
 of the suffrage, from whose repeated determination there is no appeal. 
 
 You have, no doubt, on your side a concession, to a great extent, of the 
 principle, in the grant already made to women, of the municipal and other suf- 
 frages. You have it also in the right that women enjoy to sit and speechify on 
 School Boards. Here we may see an easy transition to the House of Commons. 
 
 I shall feel myself bound to conform to the national will. But I am not 
 prepared to stimulate it. It is fast enough and strong enough already ; and I 
 must, therefore, with all respect, decline to be enrolled on the list of honourable 
 persons you have been so good as to send me. 
 
 I am, Madam, 
 
 Your obedient Servant, 
 
 SHAFTESBURY. 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury entered upon his May Meeting work this year with a 
 sorrowful spirit. The anniversary of his seventieth birthday had passed ; 
 he had begun to feel the weight of years, and the question had arisen in his 
 mind whether he should persevere or forbear in his " platform career." It 
 was immediately after he had been discussing this question with himself in 
 the Diary that he made the following entry : 
 
 May 10th. To-day, Willis's Rooms, to move a resolution in aid of St. George's 
 Hospital. The first thing that struck my ears in the Committee room was " a 
 regular damper." "What," said Lord Penrhyn, "are we not to have any new 
 speakers, none but the old ones ? " He blurted out, not at all in an intentionally 
 offensive spirit, a great fact, a sad truth. The guilt and punishment of thirty 
 years of platform work rushed upon my conscience. But was obliged to pro- 
 ceed. . . . 
 
 Towards the end of May the members of his family who had been sojourn- 
 ing in the Riviera returned safely ; and once more united under the family 
 roof at " The Saint," hope revived, and he wrote :
 
 1871.) MURDER OF ARCHBISHOP OF PARIS. 653 
 
 June 8th. God grant that I may have strength and leisure to do a few things 
 this Session. There are the wretched Sweeps of Nottingham, the Brickfields, the 
 Truck System, and "Juvenile Literature." Much occupied by this hopeless Bill 
 to amend the Ecclesiastical Courts. A vain effort 1 What would it then be to 
 "amend" the Church? . . . 
 
 June 10th. To-day my wedding day, now thirty-nine years ago. Blessed be 
 God for His precious gift in my dear, true, and affectionate wife. What a term 
 of life to have enjoyed, by His mercy, such unalloyed happiness, so far, at least, 
 as our union is concerned. May the rest of our lives be devoted to thankfulness 
 and service 1 Would not her children say the same and abound in gratitude for 
 so tender and so good a mother 1 . . . 
 
 The atrocious murder of the Archbishop of Paris by the Communists, 
 during their horrible reign of terror, gave occasion to Lord Shaftesbury to 
 write to Archbishop Manning. For some time there had been very friendly 
 relations between them. In the previous year, for example, the Archbishop 
 having quoted Lord Shaftesbury freely in a sermon on the poor of London, 
 sent him a copy, and at the same time requested an interview to " converse 
 freely on this matter, which is of life and death." In acknowledging the 
 letter and sermon, Lord Shaftesbury believed they had " a common desire to 
 keep the name of our Blessed Lord afloat upon the waters ; " and expressed 
 the wish to discuss with the Archbishop " very many social questions of high 
 interest." A strong mutual regard sprung up between them, and in many 
 important works we shall find them working side by side with zeal and 
 fervour. 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury to Archbishop Manning. 
 
 May Slst, 1871. 
 
 MY DEAR ABCHBISHOP, One line to express my deep sympathy with you, 
 and my intense horror in respect of the murder of that good, excellent, and pious 
 prelate, the Archbishop of Paris. I know well, from the best sources, the purity 
 of his love and his zeal and Christian love for all the people of his diocese. 
 
 But it is of no use to dwell just now on this satanical event. Hell is let 
 loose. Can there be no combination among those who differ on many, and, 
 indeed, important points, to withstand the torrent of blasphemy and crime ? You 
 and I have oftentimes discussed these things. Can we not go thus far together, 
 to press, by every legitimate means, on the minds of all our people in London 
 that there is a Creator, a Redeemer, and a judgment to come 1 
 
 Truly yours, 
 
 SHAFTESBUBY. 
 
 Archbishop Manning to Lord Shaftesbury. 
 
 8, YORK PLACE, W., 
 
 June 2nd, 1871. 
 
 MY DEAR LORD, I thank you very sincerely for your letter of generous 
 sympathy. You have truly appreciated the character of the Archbishop of Paris, 
 who has died nobly, as a pastor ought, in the midst of his nock.
 
 654 THE EAKL OP SHAFTESBURY. ICHAP. XXXL 
 
 With all my heart I respond to the appeal of your letter. There is a broad, 
 deep, and solid foundation on which we all rest, and we are all alike bound to 
 stand together in its defence. The belief in God, and in our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 in Christianity as a Divine Revelation, and in Holy Scripture as the Written 
 Word of God, are four first principles and Divine truths which we all are ready 
 to die for. Let us live for them, and endeavour to sustain them where they yet 
 exist, and to revive them where they are declining 1 . In this endeavour I shall, 
 with all joy, work with you in every way possible to us respectively. I feel that 
 we are all bound for our Master's sake, for the Truth's sake, and for the sake of 
 our people, to make this common effort. 
 
 What I would propose is that we should consider of the possibility of holding 
 a conference of a few men on whom responsibility rests, to ascertain what can be 
 done. I shall be glad to come to you, or to see you here on the subject, whenso- 
 ever it may be convenient. 
 
 Believe me, always, 
 
 Faithfully yours, 
 
 HENBY E. 
 
 The month of July brought with it little of summer gladness. The 
 physicians had pronounced that a sojourn in the Riviera for the winter was 
 absolutely necessary to the health of Lady Constance ; it was, in fact, her 
 only human chance of life. This dashed to the ground all the plans that Lord 
 Shaftesbury had made " to organise a general Christian movement," and to 
 make up for the inactivity of the previous winter. But this was not all. 
 His youngest son, Cecil, was seized with an alarming illness, and for many 
 days and nights lay hovering between life and death ; and, from constant 
 watching and intense anxiety, Lady Shaftesbury also fell ill. On the day 
 when two physicians had given the first decided words of encouragement, the 
 following characteristic entry occurs in his Diary : 
 
 July 28th. Ran to Whitechapel to-day to see the little piece of stranded sea- 
 weed a small, poor, parentless girl of eight years old, whom God, in His good- 
 ness, has manifestly entrusted to my care. Sent her in emigration to Canada 
 with a religious family. May the Lord preserve her, and bless her in body and in 
 
 soul I 
 
 As the result of the inquiries instituted by the Children's Employment 
 Commission, remedial measures were passed to benefit children and young 
 persons in various departments of trade ; but, by a technical difficulty, 
 children employed in brickfields were excluded from the protection of these 
 measures, while those employed in pottery and porcelain works were included. 
 
 Of course Lord Shaftesbury could not rest until this manifest injustice 
 was set right, and on the llth of July he moved an Address on the subject in 
 the House of Lords. He stated that there were about 3,000 brickyards in 
 this country, and that the number of children and young persons employed in 
 them amounted to nearly 30,000, their ages varying from 3| to 17. A large 
 proportion of these were females, and the hours during which they were kept 
 to their monstrous toil were from fourteen to sixteen per day.
 
 1871.1 THE BALLOT. 655 
 
 His efforts were successful, and children in brickfields at length came 
 under the beneficent protection of the law. 
 
 There was probably no subject that had engaged the attention of Parlia- 
 mentary leaders more frequently than the Ballot. Radicals had persistently 
 put it forward as an imperatively-needed reform ; Conservatives had as 
 strenuously opposed it as unconstitutional and un-English. In a letter dated 
 February 2, 1708, Addison states that the House of Commons were then 
 engaged over a proposal to decide elections by the Ballot. It was not, how- 
 ever, till 1832, the era of the first Reform Bill, that vote by Ballot came 
 much into favour with the general public. In the first Session of the 
 Reformed Parliament, Mr. Grote, the historian of Greece, who was one of 
 the members for the City of London, brought in a Bill to provide for secret 
 voting at Parliamentary elections ; but the measure was rejected by 211 
 votes to 106, and thirty-nine years elapsed before the question was settled. 
 Mr. Grote espoused it as his peculiar charge, and brought it, again and 
 again, before the House. He was succeeded, as the annual mover of the 
 Ballot resolution, by Mr. Henry Berkeley, who, in 1851, by a majority of 37, 
 carried his motion, in spite of the opposition of Lord John Russell and the 
 Government. Influenced by the continued recurrence of electoral corruption, 
 Lord J. Russell was gradually induced to avow himself as almost a convert 
 to the expediency of adopting secret voting. Another great opponent, who 
 saw reason to alter his views, was Mr. Gladstone. In 1868, a Committee of 
 the House of Commons, presided over by Lord Hartington, elicited such 
 startling evidence of widespread corruption, that Mr. Gladstone, like many 
 others, conceived that the time had arrived when practical legislation on this 
 subject was absolutely necessary. 
 
 In July, 1869, the Select Committee on Electoral Practices reported in 
 favour of the Ballot as a measure likely to put an end to many gross evils, 
 and to mitigate others. The Queen's Speech of 1871 called the attention of 
 Parliament to the subject of secret voting, and accordingly a measure was 
 introduced by Mr. Forster, and passed by the Commons. It was, however, 
 late in the Session, thrown out by the Lords. The Bill made its appearance 
 in the Upper House on August the 8th, and was read a first time, whereupon 
 Lord Shaftesbury gave notice that, on the motion for the second reading of 
 the Bill, he should move that it be read a second time that day six months. 
 For many years his mind had been made up on the subject. In 1839, 
 Daniel Webster, on the evening of the day before he quitted England, 
 called on him in his London house, and had a long talk with him in the 
 library. He expressed his deep sympathy with the honour and happiness of 
 this country, and the satisfaction his visit to it had given him. And then 
 with a warmth and earnestness which so startled his hearer, that forty-five 
 years afterwards, when recounting to the writer the circumstances, he depicted 
 the manner and gestures, and recalled the actual words spoken on that 
 occasion " Above all things," said Daniel Webster, " resist to the very last 
 the introduction of the Ballot ; for as a republican I tell you that the Ballot
 
 656 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXXI. 
 
 can never co-exist with monarchical institutions. You have a monarchy," he 
 continued, " and we a republic, both good in their way, if adapted to the 
 genius and feelings of the people. America has the deepest interest in the 
 welfare of England ; and I tell you that it would be the greatest blow to 
 real freedom were anything done to degrade your ancient monarchy from its 
 present position." 
 
 These words were never forgotten ; and it had long been the ambition of 
 Lord Shaftesbury to speak on the subject in the House of Lords. 
 
 On the 18th of August the second reading of the Bill was moved by the 
 Marquis of Bipon, and Lord Shaftesbury rose to make the motion of which 
 he had given notice. He protested against a subject of such magnitude 
 being brought before them at that advanced period of the Session. It had 
 been said that no discussion was necessary in the House of Lords that it 
 was purely a House of Commons' question. To this Lord Shaftesbury 
 replied : 
 
 I know of no question in the whole history of legislation which is so com- 
 pletely an imperial one. Almost any question hitherto submitted to your House 
 would sink in comparison with it. If carried, it may be for good or for evil, but 
 it will, at all events, produce serious and permanent effects on the constitutional 
 habits, on the minds, thoughts, and feelings of the people of this country.* 
 
 After pointing out a series of defects in the measure, and denouncing it 
 as unworkable with its " incoherent, confused, and contradictory details," he 
 appealed to the House to set it aside until the next Session, simply and solely 
 on the ground that it might then have full, free, fair, and deliberate discussion- 
 
 A debate followed, and in the end 97 supported Lord Shaftesbury's amend- 
 ment, and 48 voted for the second reading, and so the Ballot was staved off 
 for another year. 
 
 On the reintroduction of the Bill in June, 1872, Lord Shaftesbury spoke 
 in the debate on the second reading, and clearly set forth the position he had 
 taken up, which was, briefly, as follows : The Bill was thrown out in the 
 previous year on account of its novelty and its great danger, and in order 
 that the country might have time to fully consider it. Now that the House 
 had expressed its views, and those views expressed the feeling of the country, 
 he did not feel at liberty to offer further opposition to the Bill. 
 
 There was no reason, however, why the attention of the country should 
 not be called to the principles involved in the Bill, and Lord Shaftesbury 
 proceeded to adduce a formidable array of arguments against the present 
 expediency of those principles. We will only give one quotation, to show 
 the tenor of the speech : 
 
 My lords, I object to the Ballot, because it gives absolute and irresponsible 
 power into the hands of those who, as yet at least, are most unfitted to use it. If 
 given at all, it should be confided only to the highest order of political virtue. 
 Again, I object to it because you are taking away from the great mass of the 
 
 * Hansard's Debates, ccviii. 1264.
 
 1871.) THE BALLOT. 657 
 
 voters, and all the working people, the noble sentiment of public responsibility. 
 I have gone among the working people for some forty years ; and the sentiment 
 which I always found most elevating, and to which they responded most heartily 
 was when I told them that they were responsible beings responsible to God and 
 man, and that they ought to be proud to discharge that responsibility in the eye 
 of day and in the face of the whole community. That generous sense of responsi- 
 bility you are now going to take away you are going to do that which will 
 enable a man, and indeed, by your compulsory system, force a man, to slink away 
 like a creeping animal ; and just at a time when men are rising to a sense of 
 their dignity, you are going to insist that they shall not dare to declare their 
 sentiments, nor discharge their duty in the face of their fellow-citizens. I object 
 to the Bill, again, because many people are not aware that there is no middle 
 place in England between Monarchy and a Republic. There are many men who 
 by a Republic mean a Government consisting of the best men known, and of all 
 that is great and good. But under the Ballot you will have nothing of the kind. 
 When you go away from Monarchy and from Monarchy you must go away 
 under the Ballot it is not to a Republic of that kind you will come, but to a 
 Democracy, and that too when you will have upset the moral sense of half your 
 people by your system of secrecy. Then the social objections to the Ballot are 
 very great. Many men will pass their lives under suspicion, for the honestest 
 can never prove that he has acted up to his declaration and you will thus keep 
 back from the poll the best of the electors, who will rather lose their vote than 
 be subject to doubt and misrepresentation. 
 
 Eventually, when the Bill was in Committee, and it was useless for Lord 
 Shaftesbury to protest further against its principle, he devoted himself 
 arduously to the work of improving it. He met with considerable opposition, 
 and the debate became so personal that the Order of the House as to 
 " Asperity of Speech " had to be read. One proposal of his that the hours 
 of polling should be extended to 8 p.m. instead of 4 p.m. was carried; 
 another, that all public-houses should be closed during polling hours, was 
 rejected.* 
 
 The Bill ultimately became law, and thus " a great constitutional change 
 was completed, after a controversy of forty years." f 
 
 Returning now to the Diary for 1871, we find the following entries 
 shortly after the record of the debate on the Ballot : 
 
 Aug. 15th. A great many abusive anonymous letters. The Daily News of 
 Saturday last calls me "an obtrusive professor of street-corner piety," and adds 
 that " the Pharisaism of Lord S. is unimpeached and unimpeachable ! " " Such 
 honours Ilion to her hero paid ! " 
 
 . . . The few papers that attack me strike all of them on the same key, 
 " his Pharisaism " ! Be it so. I appeal unto Caesar, the Great Caesar of alL 
 
 At the end of August, health having been partially re-established in his 
 household, Lord Shaftesbury started for Scotland. His headquarters were, 
 as usual, with his friends at Castle Weinyss, but some time was spent in 
 
 * Hansard, ccxi. 1822, 1831, 1843 ; ccxii. 16, 18. t Annual Register, 1872. 
 
 Q Q
 
 658 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CnAP. XXXI. 
 
 Glasgow, where a series of events occurred, which are summarised in three 
 or four lines in the Diary. They form, however, the subject of a little book 
 of 111 pages, published in Glasgow, and include the presentation of the 
 Freedom of the city to Lord Shaf tesbury ; the laying by him of the founda- 
 tion-stones of the Convalescent Home and Stonefield Church ; a " demonstra- 
 tion " in favour of Sabbath observance, meetings, conferences, conversaziones, 
 and distribution of prizes (by the Princess Louise) on H.M.S. Cumberland. 
 
 On returning from Scotland, a few days were spent at St. Giles's and in 
 London, in making preparations prior to departure from the Continent ; and, 
 soon after, the entries in the Diary were made at Cannes : 
 
 Nov. 6th. To-day Minny's birthday. May God bless her in body and in 
 soul, and yet give her many anniversaries ! She has been, and is, a most 
 precious wife to me. 
 
 Dec. 20th. Forster has sent me his "Life of Dickens." The man was a 
 phenomenon, an exception, a special production. Nothing like him ever pre- 
 ceded. Nature isn't such a tautologist as to make another to follow him. He 
 was set, I doubt not, to rouse attention to many evils and many woes ; and 
 though not putting it on Christian principle (which would have rendered it 
 unacceptable), he may have been, in God's singular and unfathomable goodness 
 as much a servant of the Most High as the pagan Naaman, " by whom the Lord 
 had given deliverance to Syria " 1 God gave him, as I wrote to Forster, a general 
 retainer against all suffering and oppression. . . . 
 
 The old habit of self-analysis a habit injurious to some but helpful to 
 others was never abandoned by Lord Shaftesbury, and at seventy, as at 
 twenty-seven, we find him closing the year with a remarkable review of his 
 past life, and an examination into his present state. 
 
 Dec. 22nd. I am seventy years of age and six months. My eyesight is very 
 good, requiring glasses only for reading ; I am somewhat deaf. I sleep well, 
 walk easily, though not very far without fatigue. Am tolerably erect, and have 
 very few grey hairs. Whatever mind I ever had, I think that I retain. Memory 
 may be I am not quite sure a little weakened. Doubtless it is so in respect of 
 getting things by heart. Am generally calm and collected, though oftentimes 
 in high spirits, and oftentimes exceedingly low. Yet in neither extreme do I 
 alter the opinions I have formed. I do not. of course, as I used to do, look for- 
 ward constantly to some fresh thing to be achieved. I estimate obstacles more 
 accurately, and confess the very short time at command. I have nevertheless 
 projects, and it is pleasant to indulge them, though I may never be able to 
 execute them. My feelings are as vivid and as keen as in my youth on all 
 subjects, I may say, except in cases of neglect or affront. Here, of course, I am 
 not pleased ; but I accept the matter, as the French say, a " fait accompli," and 
 there the question ends. . . . 
 
 Dec. 31st. Have been thinking lately of past career and present position ; and 
 am astonished how I went through one, and now stand in the other. In know- 
 ledge of all kinds behind my chief cotemporaries, without pretence to' literary 
 attainmente (though with an immense fondness for them) intellectually, not
 
 1871J THOUGHTS AT SEVENTY. 659 
 
 strong ; over-anxious for success, over-fearful of failure, easily exalted, aa easily 
 depressed ; with a good deal of ambition, and. no real self-confidence. Weak in 
 debate, and incapable of any effort, without some preparation ; a poor and 
 ineffective orator, though foolishly desirous of being a great one. Yet I have 
 had successes great successes successes for a time, the memory of which has 
 passed away. How were they attained ? I know not. The only qualities I can 
 claim for myself are feeling, perseverance, and conviction. These, I suppose, 
 have, under God, brought me to the position I now hold a position of notoriety 
 and even of reputation. I am greatly indebted, generally speaking, to the Press. 
 Throughout my career much assailed, reviled, calumniated by every one without 
 exception at times ; but the great preponderance is on the side of support, 
 specially the 7'imex, to whose aid I attribute many a prosperous issue. . . . 
 But feeling, perseverance, and conviction, which would be very useful to a young 
 man at the outset of his career, would be of small avail to an old one at the close 
 of it. What, then, is my stock-in-trade for the duties of the next Session, which 
 is nearly as much as I dare hope for I must not say " calculate " on ? Well, so 
 far as I can estimate, they are remnants of intellectual power, remnants of 
 influence, remnants of doings considered as past services, remnant* of zeal, all 
 backed by a certain amount of public forbearance. . . .
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 1872. 
 THE SHADOW OF DEATH. 
 
 IT is a commonplace saying that the veil which covers the face of Futurity is 
 woven by the hand of Mercy. But the saying is true universally, and it was 
 specially true in the case of Lord Shaftesbury as ho entered vigorously upon 
 a new year in a foreign land little dreaming that it was to be the saddest 
 year of his long, eventful life. In his exile his heart was in his old haunts, 
 and we find him laying his plans for abundant work whenever he should be 
 able to return and take it up again. Thus he writes : 
 
 Jan. 6th. Mentone. The Ragged Schools are sinking rapidly. To attempt 
 their prolonged existence will be a waste of time, health, and strength. Must 
 labour, with a few chosen friends, to catch the waifs and strays, and bring them 
 to Christ. Must do all that I can and how little that is ! for the several 
 missions in the most desperate of London localities. Must take, for the 
 last time, chairs of certain societies, and concentrate my powers for a few 
 things. . . . 
 
 Jan. 28th. How sad, how painfully sad, this annual exile from home 1 What 
 duties are neglected what opportunities lost ! The return to Parliament is 
 equally sad, for I leave many behind me ; but I lie under obligations to give 
 some portion of my time to God and man. No part of the Session may be lost. 
 It is the time for activity. The Session ended, all is broken up, and with the 
 return of autumn, when useful service would recommence, I renew my exile. 
 God, have mercy upon me 1 I am wrenched to the very core. 
 
 Jan. 30th. Yesterday Lome and Princess Louise came here to luncheon. . . . 
 
 Feb. 1st. Must, and will, do much under God's blessing, to resist disestablish- 
 ment, and secure the parochial system. Would admit any wide reforms, certainly 
 to the extent of excluding the Bishops from the House of Lords. 
 
 Feb. 7th. Parliament met yesterday. It will be a Session of results, far more 
 than either the Government or the Opposition desire. . . . 
 
 The next entry in the Diary was written in London, where he arrived on 
 the 17th of February. Two days later he once more introduced into the 
 House of Lords his Ecclesiastical Courts Bill, and an Ecclesiastical Courts 
 Bill No. 2, or Procedure Bill. The second reading of the former was 
 carried without a division, and passed successfully through all its stages in 
 the Hoiise of Lords, but was thrown out in the Commons. The fate of the 
 latter is told in the following entry : 
 
 Feb 20th. Beaten in House of Lords last night, by 24 to 14, on Bill 2, 
 Ecclesiastical Courts, for admitting laity to prosecute without intervention of
 
 1872.] THANKSGIVING DAY. 661 
 
 the Bishop. Every one, except the Archbishop of Canterbury, deserted me. The 
 Bill was the enactment of one clause, moved in Committee by Lord Cairns, and 
 supported by Lord Westbury ; neither of these was there to vote. Romilly, 
 Master of the Rolls, a great " professor of aid," went away ; and every Bishop 
 saving the Primate, was in the majority. 
 
 Feb. 24th. Romilly has written me a kind explanation. Bishop of Peter- 
 borough, who moved the rejection of the Bill, had a great victory. . . . Matter 
 was pre-arranged as a party move between the Conservatives and Bishop of 
 Winchester. 
 
 The 27th of February was memorable. It was the day of National 
 Thanksgiving 1 for the recovery of the Prince of Wales from the illness which 
 had seriously threatened his life. 
 
 On the morning of the day Lord Shaftesbury wrote to the Countess as 
 follows : 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury to Lady Shaftegbury. 
 
 February 27th, 1872. 
 Half -past seven. 
 
 DEAREST MIN, The day has opened well, blessed be God. No rain, no special 
 fog-, and even a faint burst of blue in the sky. If we have a dry day let us be 
 thankful. 
 
 I shall start from here at half-past nine, as the steamboat will leave the 
 Stairs at half -past ten. The Peers and House of Commons may go in "plain 
 clothes " like detectives. We shall have to walk from St. Paul's Wharf to the 
 Cathedral, and back again ; but it will be short, easy, and safe. 
 
 Sydney gave me a ticket for Vea.* She was indisposed to go. But she might 
 have accompanied me by water and back again. 
 
 Tell Sissey f that her brougham has been of mighty use to me. I have 
 not yet been able to hire horses ; and when I sent to Jay's yesterday, for a 
 carriage to take me this morning, I learned, to my horror, that every vehicle had 
 been pre-engaged for some weeks. Providentially old Edy ^ dined here ; and 
 with all the grace of condescension, and the due sense of the oligation that 
 property confers, offered his conveyance. He himself, like St. Paul, " is minded 
 to go afoot." And he is right, for woe to the " riders in carriages " who do not 
 start at least four or five hours before the procession. Why, even yesterday I 
 was kept a long while in St. James's Street, though pressed to get to the House 
 of Lords. " What's all this ? " I said to the cab-driver. " Oh ! it's to see them 
 preparations." 
 
 I rejoice in this manifestation of feeling. It is something gathered out of 
 the wreck of all hereditary attachments ; and, may-be (God may be merciful to 
 us !) the seed-plot of better things in this ancient kingdom. 
 
 There is something, too, in the spectacle of a whole nation not ashamed, in 
 these days, to join in a great national act of religion. In the vast majority there 
 may be no sentiment of the kind, but, at any rate, there is a willing acceptance 
 of it, and not, as there would be in Paris, a satanical rejection of it. 
 
 But I must be off. God, in His goodness, protect you all I S. 
 
 * His -eldest daughter, Lady Templemore. 
 
 t His daughter-in-law, wife of the Hon. Evelyn Ashley. 
 
 J His son, the Hon. Evelyn Ashley.
 
 THE EARL OP SHAPTESBURY. [CHAP. XXXII. 
 
 The " religious clauses " of the Education Bill brought Lord Shaftes- 
 bury an enormous amount of work in the spring of this year. On the 1st 
 of March he presided over an enthusiastic meeting in St. James's Hall, to 
 protest against the proposed exclusion of the Bible from schools. At the 
 May meetings the Education Act formed the principal topic of his addresses, 
 some of which, from their vehemence, and the divided opinions on the sub- 
 ject, brought him into conflict with friends almost as much as with foes. 
 The effect of the Act on the operations of the Ragged Schools was the 
 special " sore point." 
 
 It was his natural temperament to take a dark view of things, and, as we 
 shall see by-and-by, the fears he entertained were, to a certain extent, ground- 
 less. The old system, to which he was attached, was materially altered, but 
 new developments of the same work took place, and the operations of the 
 Bagged School Union were as successful in the future, although in different 
 ways, as they had been heretofore. 
 
 Despite his gloomy apprehensions, he had, even then, many cheering 
 hopes, and we find him writing: 
 
 March 14th. Ragged School prizes last night. . . . Talk of the "Real 
 Presence " 1 Our Lord was as much there last night as at any time or any 
 place. . . . 
 
 On the day the entry quoted above was written, he sent the following 
 letter to Lady Shaftesbury : 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury to Lady Shaftesbury. 
 
 March Uth, 1872. 
 
 DEAREST Mm, I have just had time to dine on my return from the House 
 of Lords, where I enjoyed four hours on the Ecclesiastical Courts Bill, and I try 
 to write you a short note for to-morrow's post. 
 
 Vea has gone to dine with Anne. I, myself, went to the Levee at Buckingham 
 Palace. The Queen received us in person, and was gracious. She asked afte r 
 you, and then I passed on. It was very full, very uninteresting, and the rooms 
 contrasted unfavourably with the Palace at St. James's. 
 
 Gigas * was delightful. He came rushing into my room : " Gran'pa, I want 
 to see you dressed." " Very well, so you shall, when my fine things are on." 
 " Why do you dress so early 1 " " Because the Queen tells us to come early." Then 
 a thousand questions. 
 
 The Dwarf * was very gracious when I went up-stairs to see her, and allowed 
 me to kiss both cheeks. You perceive that I have got into the fogrammic period 
 and am passing rapidly into the regions of twaddle. 
 
 It is sadly correct : " Many a true word is spoken in jest." However, people 
 cannot abuse me much more in my old age than they did in my youth. I am 
 making enemies on all sides ; and God, as ever, is my only Friend. Nevertheless, 
 I have the prayers of all the children of poverty and sorrow, and I value them, 
 I cannot find language to say how much, beyond the opinion of all the literary, 
 scientific, political, and social magnates that the world possesses. Love to all 
 Ood be with you. S. 
 
 * Nicknames he gave to two of his grandchildren, aged five and three respectively.
 
 1878.1 LETTERS TO LADY SHAFTESBURT. 663 
 
 Nearly every day Lord Shaftesbury wrote to the Countess, and, as the 
 Diary suffered in consequence, we insert a few of the letters here : 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury to Lady Shaftesbury. 
 
 March 19th, 1872. 
 
 DEAREST Miy, Your letter filled me with terror. God be praised for the 
 better intelligence you have sent to-day. 
 
 Sir H. Holland has just been to see me, and ask a question, lie is an astounding 
 man for eighty-four years of age. Northbrook called on me to take leave. He 
 had mentioned many Indian subjects a few days ago. He resumed them to-day, 
 and seemed deeply impressed with the weight and greatness of the duties he was 
 about to discharge. 
 
 People began their calls, this morning, at ten o'clock. At half-past one I had 
 not had time to shave. I write this hurried note and must go off to Chancery 
 Lane. May God be with you. S. 
 
 Lord Shafteslury to Lady Shaftesbury. 
 
 March 21st, 1872. 
 
 DEAREST MIN. . . . God be praised that Conty is better, as you tell me 
 in your letter of 19th. I entirely approve your precautions, though I trust that 
 they were not quite necessary. Never mind causing me any distress. Tell me 
 the whole truth, and leave me to supplicate Almighty God. 
 
 It is now beginning to snow very hard. I am writing, at one o'clock, by the 
 light of a candle, grateful that I have a roof over my head and a fire to sit by. 
 
 I had a very favourable meeting last night at the Artisans' Dwellings Company. 
 There was neither unbelief nor disloyalty manifested ; but the reverse. We 
 began with " Bless the Prince of Wales," and ended with " God save the Queen." 
 
 But we had such a piece of music a sonata, a capriccio, a wild dream on 
 the pianoforte, by a young lady 1 I thought that it would never end ; so great 
 was its variety of roaring and mewing, enormous thumps on the keys, and then 
 almost silence, that we applauded in joy, several times before it was over. 
 
 Gigas would insist on seeing my hair cut to-day ; but he would not allow his 
 own to be touched. He is wonderfully systematic, and hates change. At break- 
 fast, I gave Sybil her sugar on my right hand, and offered some to Gigas on my 
 left. " No," he said, " on the other side." He was accustomed to the right ; he 
 would not alter, and so round he went. 
 
 I am going to have here, to-morrow, a regular tea-fight. I have invited sixty 
 heads of missions, in the lower parts of London, to come and give me information 
 respecting the progress of Christianity under those forms. Lots of sandwiches, 
 tea, coffee, cakes, bread-and-butter, and plenty of speeches. The " Invites " have 
 made quite a stir : and Spnrgeon has written for cards to be sent to two of his 
 friends. 
 
 " All seek their own, not the things that are Jesus Christ's." We are getting 
 worse and worse. It is hazardous to mention the Bible on a platform, lest we 
 should be suspected of aiming at the School-question. I, at least, do not mince 
 matters ; and I stand up for God's Word, as the basis of education, wherever I go 
 I shall soon be " burked." Meanwhile, God bless you all. 8.
 
 664 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXXII. 
 
 There were more than ordinary applications to Lord Shaftesbury for 
 " chairs and donations " this year, and people seemed to think he was " the 
 least occupied and the richest man in London." The Factory Acts, the 
 Workshop Acts, the Brickfield Acts, were all being violated. Evidence 
 could only be obtained by agency, and agency required time and money. 
 Ecclesiastical questions were growing in number and importance, and in 
 each fresh controversy he was called upon to take a leading part. To some 
 of these things reference is made in the following extracts from the Diary : 
 
 May 4th. To-day, meeting at my house, of clergy and one or two laity, to 
 consider Church Reform. Some thirty present, and the whole was in a wi.se, 
 pious, Christian spirit. Struck amazingly by the testimony of the vicars of 
 great parishes to the aversion of the laity to the public recital of the Creed of 
 St. Athanasius. . . . All, indeed, gave evidence alike. Convocation, however, 
 representing, in fact, neither clergy nor laity, has decided the other way. 
 
 May 17th. St. Giles. . . . Deep in Church Reform ; deep in an endea- 
 vour to make the Athanasian Creed no longer an offence. The world is rising 
 against it. And, doubtless, many desire a change in our service because they 
 hate the Creed itself. But a document, however sublime and true, yet human, 
 must not be forced on unwilling ears. Our Lord Himself gives us a rule, " I 
 have many things to tell you of, but you cannot bear them now." So it is with 
 Hia servants. I have undertaken a daring scheme. Delane has promised me 
 full support. I shall be fiercely assailed. 
 
 May 25th. To-day will appear in Times my letter on the Athanasian Creed. 
 I shall need a skin like a rhinoceros to withstand the fury of my enemies, and the 
 " candour " of my friends. . . . 
 
 Among the miscellaneous efforts of the Session were the seconding of an 
 address of sympathy and condolence to Lady Mayo, in which he paid a grace- 
 ful tribute to the memory of the Governor-General of India, who was cruelly 
 assassinated on the 6th of February; an able speech in support of Lord 
 Buckhurst's Bill for the Protection of Acrobats and Small Children from the 
 cruelties practised upon them by their employers ; as well as incessant work 
 on the Ecclesiastical Courts Bill and the Ballot Bill, to which we have 
 already referred. 
 
 Some of the pleasant incidents of the year are thus referred to : 
 
 Aug. 26th. The autumn manoeuvres in Dorset very successful. Went on 
 Friday to Portman's, who took me to headquarters and the camp. Saw fifteen 
 thousand men in line on Blandford Downs ; and heard from Quirk, the rector, 
 that their conduct in a moral point of view had been most excellent. On Satur- 
 day, a division nearly ten thousand strong took possession of Bottle-Bush, close 
 by the Saint : everything was order, discipline, and good-humour. 
 
 27th. Troops move from St. Giles's to-day. Another corps takes their place. 
 I managed to meet them. Had my poor dear wife been well, we might have 
 shown the officers hospitality. As for the men, I have done my best, giving 
 them the free use of the woods for shelter, the gardens for amusement, and the 
 whole river for bathing. I must run down directly to give them greeting. 
 
 31st. Saw the second army, under Gen. Brownrigg, encamped on my downs ;
 
 1872.1 FORESHADOWING OP EVIL. 665 
 
 every one in raptures with the country for all purposes. Took the General and 
 his Staff a long ride over Pentridge HilL He gave me afterwards a parade, sham 
 fight, and march past. Truly magnificent. The second army as noble in every 
 respect as the first. 
 
 Sept. 2nd. Went over to sham fight at Blandford, and other manoeuvres 
 the Duke of Cambridge and Prince of Wales being present. The scene was very 
 grand. . . . Letter that I had written to the Times, and which appeared on 
 Saturday, seems to have given great satisfaction. 
 
 Although in some respects Lord Shaftesbury was a proud man, in other 
 respects he had not a particle of pride in him. On the grand occasion of the 
 army encamping on his estate, he set forth in his little open carriage to meet 
 the General and his Staff. On the road he met an old woman hobbling 
 along ; he at once stopped, gave her his place in the carriage, and himself 
 mounted the box ! In this way he drove up to the spot where he was to be 
 received with all military honours, as Lord-Lieutenant of the county, in 
 absolute unconsciousness that there was anything singular in the manner of 
 his arrival ! 
 
 There is evidence in the Diary that a great weight was upon the spirit of 
 Lord Shaftesbury. He was depressed and dejected ; an undefined fore- 
 shadowing of evil rose " vaporous, like the night mist over meadow lands." 
 He gives no expression to any presentiment ; he utters no word of foreboding; 
 and yet, for many months, there are traces of a shrinking from some unknown 
 cup of sorrow awaiting him. 
 
 As the sun, 
 
 Ere it is arisen, sometimes paints its image 
 In the atmosphere, so, often, do the spirits 
 Of great events, stride on before the events, 
 And in to-day already walks to-morrow. 
 
 It was so in Lord Shaftesbury's case, and in nothing was it more plainly 
 expressed than in the exquisite tenderness with which he clung to the warm 
 glowing love of the one who had made his home bright and beautiful for so 
 many years, who had entered with affectionate zeal into all his plans and 
 purposes, and especially those which lay nearest his own heart for the welfare 
 of neglected and desolate little ones ; who had stimulated his faith by her own 
 piety ; who had smoothed the ruggedness of his path by her own self-sacrifice 
 and self -devotion ; and who had been, as he often said, " God's best gift to 
 him." Thus, when he visits Paushanger, her early home, he writes : 
 
 May 28th. Panshanger. The place is beautiful, but it makes me very 
 melancholy. What changes ! how many have passed from the face of the earth 1 
 Not only those who were dear to me, but so many notorious in politics, literature, 
 society. Forty years have passed since I first knew it. The seven first, I lived 
 here, when in the country, almost exclusively. They were happy years, and God 
 knows that my dear and precious wife has done her best to make the end aa 
 joyous as the beginning.
 
 666 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXXII. 
 
 On the anniversary of his wedding-day his whole heart is poured out in 
 tender affection, in the following passage : 
 
 June 10th. To-day my wedding-day I Forty-one years ago was I united to 
 that dear, beautiful, true, and affectionate darling, my blessed Minny. What a 
 faithful, devoted, simple-hearted, and captivating wife she has been, and is, to 
 me ! And what a mother ! Ah, Lord, give me grace to thank Thee evermore, 
 and rejoice in Thy goodness. Send forth Thy Holy Spirit on us, and lead us yet 
 in the way of service, obedience, and of love ! But she is still absent ! God, in 
 Thy mercy, bring her home speedily and safely, and with her, my poor, precious, 
 suffering Conty ! . . . 
 
 That prayer was answered. The mother and daughter returned speedily 
 and safely, but in the face of the invalid the sentence of death was written- 
 It was necessary for her to go almost immediately to Malvern. While there, 
 overstrung by excessive watchfulness and nursing, the health of Lady 
 Shaftesbury gave way. As soon as she was able to bear the journey, she 
 returned to London, where, with her constitutional strength and the change 
 of air, it was thought she would soon be restored to health. 
 
 The progress, however, was very slow, and it was advisable that the best 
 medical skill should be sought : 
 
 Sept. 30th. London. Arrived on Saturday night. To-day Gull has spoken 
 ominously, and talks of hers as a " grave case." I am terrified ; and yet I think 
 he has spoken beyond his knowledge. Our only hope now, as ever, is in God. 
 He can bless the art of the physician. 
 
 On the 1st of October Dr. Andrew Clarke was called in, and on the 
 following day Sir Spencer Wells. 
 
 Sometimes a man's character is best revealed by what he says and does in 
 the midst of great crises which touch the very centre of his life. Lord 
 Shaftesbury believed in the power of prayer, and in the affectionate sympathy 
 of the poor ; and in the hour of his crushing anxiety he wrote to Mr. Orsman, 
 of the Golden Lane Costers' Mission, thus : 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury to Mr. W. J. Orsman. 
 
 September 50tft, 1872. 
 
 DEAR OBSMAN, I am writing to you with the very pen my costermonger 
 friends gave me ; it has been, and it will be, I doubt not, of great use to me on 
 many occasions. But now I must ask my excellent brothers and sisters in Golden 
 Lane to aid me by their prayers. My wife and daughter have been very ill ; and 
 there is still danger. 
 
 I believe much in the prayers of Christian people ; and I know that there are 
 many among you so do not forget me. Our Lord teaches us that there is mighty 
 power in the fervent supplications of the poor. The children, too, must remember 
 me, aa I have often remembered them. 
 
 May God be with you. SHAFTESBURY.
 
 1871) DEATH OP LADY SHAPTESBUBY. 667 
 
 For some days after this Lady Shaftesbury appeared to be rapidly 
 regaining health, and on the 14th of October she was able to take the air in 
 a short carriage drive. But in the evening there was a serious relapse, and 
 on the following day while his heart was breaking Lord Shaftesbury 
 turned to his Diary, with that strange instinct which had, all his life, made it 
 to him as a safety-valve for pouring out the pent-up fires of his soul, and 
 wrote : 
 
 Oct. 15th. Minny, my own Minny, is gone. God took her soul to Himself at 
 about twelve o'clock this morning. She has entered into her rest, and has left us 
 to feel the loss of the purest, gentlest, kindest, sweetest, and most confiding spirit 
 that ever lived. Oh, my God, what a blow ! But we bow before Thee in resig- 
 nation and sorrow. Almost her last words were, "None but Christ, none but 
 Christ." . . . What a placable spirit I what a power to forgive ! and what a 
 sublime power to forget 1 Somehow or other her heart could not retain the 
 impression of an affront or a harshness. What do I not owe to her, and to Thee, 
 O God, for the gift of her ? But now to-night will be a terrible event. For the 
 first time I must omit in my prayers the name of my precious Minny. 
 
 On the 19th of October the remains of Lady Shaftesbury were committed I 
 to the grave in the little village church of Wimborne St. Giles. A simple! 
 tablet near the family pew bears a tribute " To the Memory of a wife, as I 
 good, as true, and as deeply beloved, as God, in His undeserved mercy, ever| 
 gave to man." 
 
 From Her Majesty the Queen, who wrote a most kind and touching 
 autograph letter, to the humble Ragged School teacher and the illiterate 
 coster, expressions of sympathy poured in npon Lord Shaftesbury. 
 
 When the devoted mother, who had watched her suffering child with 
 unwearying solicitude, was called away, it seemed impossible that Lady 
 Constance Ashley could survive the shock. But she rallied, and then her 
 only hope of recovery, the physicians said, was on the shores of tho Mediter- 
 ranean, beneath the shelter of those rocks that shut out the northern blasts, 
 and where, on former occasions, she had found the bright sunshine of summer 
 in the time of winter. 
 
 It would bo irreverent to add a single word to the simple and touching 
 beauty of the following narrative : 
 
 Oct. 26th. Mentone, Mentone, say the doctors ; but how get her there ? How 
 find her strength for the long and fatiguing journey .' How get her across the 
 water in wind and rain 1 We are painfully harassed. God be gracious to us, 
 and shine upon us, and open a way for our escape. O Christ, hear me ! . . . . 
 
 Nov. 1st. To St. Giles on 1st for business, sad, solitary, and silent. . . . 
 When dark, crept into the church, and prayed to God in peace, though not in 
 happiness, near her dear resting place. . . . 
 
 Nov. 13th. Mentone. Journey very tedious and very sorrowful. Arrived 
 here still more sorrowful. I could admire nothing, enjoy nothing, for she was 
 not here to share it with me. Conty well, and not tired. If the Lord will, I 
 must live for her sake. How sad, how forlorn, how isolated, in her sick
 
 668 THK EARL OP SHAPTESBURY. ICHAf. XXXIL 
 
 state I No attention, no kindness, no sympathy of any relative can approach 
 that of a mother and such a mother. But let us give God true and everlasting 
 praise that He has so touched her heart by His holy spirit as to make her 
 resigned, meek, patient in tribulation, rejoicing in hope, and full of faith. She 
 looks to heaven and sees her blessed mother there, and not in the cold and silent 
 grave. 
 
 Dec. 1st. Sunday. More than a week to-day of deep anxiety. Conty, my 
 blessed Conty, attacked by inflammation of the liver. The fever now gone, by 
 God's mercy, but the weakness is terrible. The precious child is ripe for heaven 
 resigned, meek, patient, loving, and full of faith in her adorable Saviour. And 
 yet my flesh cries, Stay, stay, stay. Not so she ; she is ready, nay almost 
 desirous to be gone. 
 
 Dec. 6th. At no time so deep the sensation of being left alone as at sunset. 
 But the promise of our Lord, and the enjoined prayer, "Come, Lord Jesus, 
 come quickly," reunite us. How do I bless His holy name that He had put it 
 into her dear heart thus to pray ! 
 
 Dec. 12th. How wonderful, and how solitary, as I look at the setting sun, 
 and remember that my Min, my precious Min, has gone from me never to 
 return 1 But may I not say, and hope, with David, " I shall go to her, though 
 she will not return to me " ? Blessed, dearest, truest, tenderest of women ! 
 God's precious and most merciful gift to me. 
 
 Dec. 16th. At half -past one this day God took the soul of my blessed Conty 
 to Himself. Never was a death so joyous, so peaceful. Heaven itself seemed 
 opened before her eyes. " Christ is very near me," she said, and when I reminded 
 her of her mother's favourite line, " Simply to Thy Cross I cling," she expanded 
 her hands, her whole face beamed with the liveliest, happiest smile I ever saw, 
 and she inclined her head towards me in assent quite exulting. What an end ! 
 How certain her eternal bliss. How certain the wish of her heart to join her 
 precious mother 1 It is almost impossible to weep even for ourselves, when we 
 think of it ; so truly blessed is her state, so wonderful her departure from this 
 world. But, God, to us, what a loss ! and specially to Hilda and Cecil ; what 
 a loss ! my God, have mercy upon them ! They are young, and I am old. 
 
 Dec. 18th. Preparing for departure as soon as possible. God grant to-morrow. 
 It is a beautiful place, and I wish the people every blessing. But I return with 
 joy. And yet it is endeared to me because Minny and Conty loved it. ... 
 
 Half an hour or more before her death, she became suddenly quite herself, as 
 in days of strength and of joy. She sat up in bed, her face was radiant with 
 inward pleasure, she spoke to every one around. "Dearest papa," said the 
 blessed child, " do not give way." " I want to bless you now for all that you 
 have taught me." Darling girl, she taught me, in one half -hour, more than I had 
 imparted in her whole life. Cecil, not knowing it to be a text of special charm to 
 her, said, " To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." " Oh yes, oh yes," she re- 
 plied, all beaming with delight, " thank you, thank you." Then it was that I quoted 
 her mother's song, "Simply to Thy Cross I cling," and then it was that she seemed 
 to be already an angel. Soon after she exclaimed, " I know that I am going to die, 
 for I feel so happy." With these words she fell into a soft sleep. In a short time 
 she was gone ; and no one could mark the moment of departure. " I have seen 
 many death-beds of holy Christian people." said the nurse ; " but I have never
 
 1872.] DEATH OF LADY CONSTANCE ASHLEY. 669 
 
 seen anything approaching to this. I can only call it angelic." And so it was. 
 And were there not angels present ? Might they not have waited to carry her, as 
 they carried Lazarus ? Was her blessed mother there ? Was our own most dear 
 Lord far off ? She said " Christ is very near ; " she must, I think, have perceived 
 something that we did not. 
 
 I will ever maintain that this was a striking and special mercy vouchsafed by 
 Almighty God, not only to mitigate our sorrow, but positively to raise us into 
 joy. Neither speech nor writing can adequately describe what it was. The 
 sudden change was like a resurrection ; she seemed, as it were, inspired, and it is 
 no exaggeration to say that, with the calmness of Heaven around her, her face 
 actually shone. merciful and Heavenly Father, may our souls, washed and 
 purified by the all-atoning blood of Thy dear Son our Saviour, myself and my 
 children who yet survive, be found at last in Thy adorable presence with my 
 beloved wife and beloved daughter, Thine own inestimable gifts, to dwell with 
 Thee in safety and in peace for ever and for ever. And, God, may I pray that 
 our other blessed and pious children, gone before us, Francis, Maurice, and Mary, 
 may be with us, for truly did they love Thee and Thy blessed Son. 
 
 Dec. 28th. London. Yesterday consigned to the grave, in the vault at St. 
 Giles, the remains of my precious beloved angelic daughter. The day dark and 
 gloomy ; but as we started on the procession the sun came out, like a smile from 
 Heaven, and retired again when all was over. Whether special or not, 1 bless 
 God for the cheerful sign.
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII 
 
 18731875. 
 
 " NOTHING can happen to a man no loss, no tribulation which may not 
 leave him stronger, better, more full of spiritual resources than it found him, 
 if only he has made sure of God, and of the perfect ends towards which, alone 
 and for ever, God conducts His own." * Such was the effect of the discipline 
 of suffering on Lord Shaftesbury. He was cast down, but not destroyed; 
 and within three months of the time when the grave closed over his beloved 
 ones he was again in the midst of his old work, toiling with a vigour that had 
 never been surpassed. " Tribulation worketh experience," and to the poor, 
 the suffering, and the sad, he went forth from his own grief with a heart 
 overflowing with sympathy, and powers wakened into fresh activity, conse- 
 crated afresh by sorrow. For the next few years his energy was little short 
 of marvellous ; there seemed to be no limit to his endurance ; every hour of 
 every day, and almost every minute of every hour, had its pre-arranged duty. 
 The sense that the night was coming, when no man can work, made vivid to 
 him constantly by the memory of his bereavements, spurred him on to new 
 endeavours. The mere bodily fatigue involved in constant journeyings, in 
 monotonous " chairs " for three, five, or six hours a day ; the perambulations 
 among the dwellings of the poor ; the consequent irregularity in his hours for 
 meals and rest ; the early mornings and late nights ; all these things would have 
 taxed the vigour of a young man in the early prime of life, but in a man who 
 had passed the allotted threescore years and ten, whose health was shattered, 
 and whose nervous system was overstrained, such labours were truly 
 
 L marvellous. 
 If we only glance at some of them in passing, it is because they were 
 continuations and extensions of earlier efforts, or new schemes closely allied 
 to old ones. It will only be to those which broke up fresh ground that we 
 shall particularly refer. 
 
 One of his first efforts, after his bereavement, was to establish in con- 
 nection with the " Watercress and Flower Girls Mission " a fund, named, in 
 memory of his wife, the " Emily Loan Fund," to enable this strange race of 
 beings, of whose existence every one is aware, but of whose hard battle with 
 life very few know anything, to earn their living when watercress and flowers 
 are out of season. | No description can convey an idea of the dire distress 
 experienced by these poor creatures when the cold weather sets in and the 
 sources of their incomes fail. The question how to help them in their 
 
 * " The Discipline of Suffering." Rev. Jas. Durran, M.A.
 
 1873.) WATERCRESS AND FLOWER GIRLS. 671 
 
 necessity was decided by this Fund. Lord Shaftesbury placed in the hands 
 of the Committee of the Mission a sum of money from which deserving 
 applicants might draw, to enable them to purchase stock-in-trade for the 
 winter. Thus, one poor woman would make application for the loan of a 
 baked-potato oven, a coffee-stall, a barrow and board for the sale of whelks, 
 or any other article by which she might see a reasonable prospect of earning 
 a living. The condition upon which the loans were granted was, that 
 borrowers must find security for the full value of the article borrowed, 
 thereby protecting the Fund from loss, and giving the best guarantee of the 
 honesty and industry of the borrower. When the actual value of the article 
 was repaid it became the property of the hirer. During the period this fund 
 has been in operation the rule as to security has been strictly enforced, and 
 ' it has not debarred half-a-dozen deserving cases from the advantage of the 
 Fund." It has been of constant occurrence that ladies and gentlemen of good 
 position, who have observed the industry and perseverance of the deserving 
 poor for many years in the same locality, and who would not have hesitated 
 to have lent the money themselves, have preferred to let it come through the 
 Society, and have stood security for the sums required. 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury took a deep interest in the working of this scheme, and 
 many a touching story he could tell of the lives of the poor creatures it had 
 benefited. This is how he spoke of the Mission and the "Emily Loan Fund" 
 to the writer : 
 
 " I believe that among these watercress girls there are many as honest and 
 as pure as are to be found in all London. Those who are successful go into 
 business ; often buy a coffee-stall, the outfit for which costs as much as 10. 
 
 " I was one day at the office with Groom.* A nice-looking girl came in. 
 1 1 want a loan, please, of a very large sum.' ' What for, my dear P ' 
 ' For flowers and basket.' ' Have you anything in the world ? ' ' Not a 
 sixpence.' ' Can you give security ? ' ' Oh yes ! the shoemaker's wife 
 will go bail forme.' 'How much do you want?' ' Well, I don't think I 
 can do with a penny less than 1.' It was given, and every farthing repaid. 
 Of all the movements I have ever been connected with, I look upon this 
 Watercress Girl Movement as the most successful. The girls appear in 
 different forms at different seasons. Fruit girls in summer, flower girls in 
 spring, coffee-sfall keepers in winter. The whole is established on a system 
 of loans, and is the most successful system I have ever known. It was 
 begun in 1872, and we have had out 800 to 1,000 loans, and have not lost 50 
 during the whole period. Not in one solitary instance have we had to recover 
 by legal means. Amounts are lent, up to 2, generally about 1, and they 
 repay weekly, from 6d. to Is. a week, and most precise and punctual are they 
 in their repayments. What has been lost, and it has been very little in the 
 circumstances, has been by reason of death or sickness, and not by fraud." 
 
 The first public labours referred to in the Diary for this year are the 
 following : 
 
 * Mr. J. A. Groom, the Honorary Superintendent of the Mission.
 
 672 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. (CHAP. XXXI. 
 
 March 4th. Went on Feb. 14th to Stepney, for great meeting of working men, 
 and opening of a temperance public-house. And also, at earnest request of the 
 Lord Mayor, to move Resolution at Mansion House fixing day of Hospital Sunday. 
 On 28th, went with Orsman, through Golden Lane, to visit my costermongers. 
 Well do these poor people put us all to shame. Piety, resignation, faith, in the 
 depths of penury, and seemingly without hope. 
 
 In the extract given above Lord Shaf tesbury refers to his first direct effort 
 oil behalf of the Teetotal movement, if taking the chair at one of Mr. J. B. 
 Gough's orations in 1860 be excepted. Although he never lost an opportunity 
 of enforcing temperance, and spoke strongly upon the effects of drunkenness, 
 he was not himself, at any period of his life, a total abstainer. " I am worse 
 than a drunkard," he would say, playfully, " I am a moderate drinker." On 
 one occasion, speaking at a banquet, he said : 
 
 I have seen much of these public festivals, and I know the unanimity and 
 good feeling which they create ; I know the harmony they produce ; I know 
 how many prejudices have been removed, and how many quarrels and animosities 
 have been made up by meeting at the convivial dinner-table. And I know a very 
 old custom, which seems to have been going out of late, but which I am glad to 
 see is being revived the custom of drinking a glass of wine with your fellow- 
 man. It is one of the wisest institutions which appears to have been framed for 
 conviviality, and for promoting good feeling one towards another ; it is framed 
 in the highest system of policy. I have known many a quarrel made up between 
 men who had not exchanged words for years, but who, meeting at the dinner- 
 table, and one asking the other to take a glass of wine with him, they had become 
 friends to the hour of their death. Therefore, I say, never give up this convivial 
 system, only take it, like you should every other means of enjoyment, in mode- 
 ration.* 
 
 On the other hand, he often spoke emphatically on the evils of intemper- 
 ance. Thus he says : 
 
 I remember being examined before a Committee of the House of Commons, 
 as chairman of the Lunacy Commissioners, as to the progress or non-progress of 
 insanity in these realms. I told them that I believed that seven-tenths of the 
 insanity that prevails in this country, that seven-tenths of the insanity that 
 prevails in the United States of America, and no doubt also in other countries, 
 are attributable, either in the persons themselves or in their parents, to habits 
 of intoxication. If the Temperance Associations had not arisen some years since, 
 I believe the amount of insanity in this country would be five-fold greater than 
 it is. 
 
 On the 20th of March there is an entry in the Diary, " Moved first 
 resolution at Anniversary of the Charity Organisation Society." This waa 
 another " first work " on behalf of a Society which Lord Shaf tesbury assisted 
 in many ways in subsequent years, and with which, although not agreeing 
 with some of its operations, he was never in any way brought into conilict 
 or antagonism at any time. He admired the vigilance with which they 
 
 * Dorset County Friendly Society, June llth, 1868.
 
 1873.) MR. PLIMSOLL. 673 
 
 prosecuted inquiries and " ferreted out " fraud and imposture ; their success 
 in abolishing abuses, and in setting up useful institutions; but he feared 
 that the Society would never be popular, inasmuch as it acted, in his opinion, 
 with too great severity, and arrogated to itself the function of being able to 
 do everything. He had taken a deep interest in the old Mendicity Society, 
 and was wont to say that the success of the Charity Organisation Society 
 would be greater than it has been, if, with its vaster machinery, it would 
 work more upon the basis of its predecessor. 
 
 Public feeling was much agitated in the early part of this year by the 
 revelations made by Mr. Plimsoll, M.P. for Derby, as to the perils of British 
 seamen, consequent upon the overloading of ships and the use of unseaworthy 
 vessels. It was a cause which at once enlisted the sympathies of Lord 
 Shaftesbury, who was desirous to extend to seamen the protection enjoyed 
 by miners, colliers, factory children, and emigrants. He became Chairman 
 of the Committee for supporting Mr. Plimsoll to obtain, at once, a Protection 
 Act, pending the Inquiry of the Royal Commission, and presided at a great 
 public meeting held at Exeter Hall, on March 22nd, to protest against the 
 iniquitous system Mr. Plimsoll had exposed. Referring to it he says : 
 
 March 24th. On Saturday evening, meeting in Exeter Hall, of London work- 
 men to support Plimsoll in his glorious defence of the wretched, oppressed sea- 
 men of the Mercantile Marine. Very full, singularly enthusiastic, and yet prudent 
 and judicious. Myself in chair. . . . 
 
 Like other men smarting under a burning sense of cruelty and injustice 
 nnredressed, Mr. Plimsoll was hurried into saying injudicious things, and 
 doing injudicious acts. As chairman of his Committee, Lord Shaftesbury 
 found himself involved in many difficulties, but in the midst of good and evil 
 report, he stood by him to the end. Thus he writes : 
 
 April 22nd. I find him bold, earnest, and rash. He will ruin himself and the 
 cause by his violence. He says what he believes, and believes what he says, and 
 he will take no man's advice. He is proud of his own impetuosity, and seems to 
 think that no one can be weary of it His great and true facts will all be 
 neutralised by his small and inaccurate statements. . . . 
 
 April 25th. Plimsoll, worthy man, is growing wiser but it is too late. The 
 explanation that would have satisfied Norwood, the prosecutor, before the matter 
 went into Court, must now be a public retractation, and, probably, with payment 
 of costs. This is very sad. . . . 
 
 Eventually the Merchant Shipping Bill was brought forward, but, on July 
 22nd, 1875, Mr. Disraeli intimated that it was not the intention of tho 
 Government to proceed further with the measure that year. This was more 
 than Mr. Plimsoll, whose whole heart and soul were in the movement he had 
 so enthusiastically espoused, could bear. Addressing the Prime Minister, lie 
 implored him not to send thousands of men to certain death by withdrawing 
 the measure. Then, carried away by excitement, he walked up the floor to 
 the table of the House, and, pointing to the Opposition lynches, cried, "Twill 
 B R
 
 674 THE EARL OP SIIAFTESBURY. [CuAP. XXXIII. 
 
 unmask tlio villains who have sent brave men to death." A week was given 
 to Mr. Plimsoll to express his regret for " having transgressed the orders of 
 the House." 
 
 On the following day Lord Shaftesbury wrote to him as follows : 
 
 Lord Sliaftesbury to Mr. S. Plimsoll, M.P. 
 
 July 23rd, 1875. 
 
 MY DEAR MR. PiJMSOLTj, As Chairman of your Committee from the com 
 mencement, I may express my deep and heartfelt sympathy with you. I can 
 enter into all your indignation and your fears. Language would fail me to 
 describe the wickedness and folly of giving preference to the Agricultural 
 Holdings Bill over yours for yours it is that affects the lives of so many men 
 and the happiness of so many families. But, as you have often listened to me 
 before, pray listen to me now. 
 
 I earnestly counsel you to appeal in the presence of the House and maintain 
 your statements to the full, but express regret that, under the great excitement 
 into which you fell, you offended against the rules and orders laid down for the 
 government of debate. Such a course will prove a real benefit to yourself and to 
 the cause you have in hand. You know how truly I share all your hopes and 
 fears in this matter, and how earnestly I pray God to bless and sustain one who 
 has urged it with so much nobleness and sincerity. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 SHAFTESBURY. 
 
 Mr. Plimsoll accepted the advice, and, at the expiration of a week, appeared 
 in the House, and in " no grudging spirit, but frankly and sincerely," apolo- 
 gised to the Speaker and the House. 
 
 In 1876, the Merchant Shipping Bill, designed "to mitigate avoidable 
 dangers without unnecessarily hampering commercial enterprise," passed into 
 law. 
 
 Death was busy among Lord Shaftesbury's friends in the spring of this 
 year, and we find him on a day in April acting as pall-bearer, at the pre- 
 funeral service, in Westminster Abbey, of his invaluable and sympathetic 
 friend of over thirty years' standing, Dr. Mcllvaine, Bishop of Ohio, one of 
 the pillars of the American Episcopal Church ; and, on a day in May, at a 
 funeral service at St. Jude's, Islington, of the Rev. W. Pennefather, " one of 
 the best men God ever sent on earth." 
 
 As the May Meetings approached, there was none to which Lord Shaftes- 
 bury looked forward with greater anxiety this year than that of the Church 
 Pastoral Aid Society. In a letter to Mr. Haldane, he says : 
 
 Previously to passing into the regions of twaddle not far distant, I long to 
 deliver my soul on Church Reform. 
 
 But my views are very broad, very unpalatable, and without support from 
 any one. 
 
 They will give great offence. Yet I cannot remain at the head of Church 
 Societies, and conceal them. I propose to speak out openly at the P.A.S., and 
 then retire from the Presidentship, saying- that, with such opinions, I ought not
 
 1873.] CHURCH REFORM. 675 
 
 to occupy a post which ought to be filled by a person in harmony with those he 
 represents. 
 
 The important speech of Lord Shaftesbury at the meeting of the Pastoral 
 Aid Society was exactly what he had intended it to be, a plain statement of 
 the Church Reforms he considered indispensable. It provoked much contro- 
 versy, as he anticipated. The following is an extract from his speech : 
 
 It would, I believe, be very difficult to bring any three persons to agree as to 
 the expediency of Church Reform ; and still more difficult to get them to agree 
 as to what that Reform should be. And yet nothing can be more necessary. If 
 the Church is to be saved, she must be adapted to the temper and wants of the 
 people. And this must be done in a very effectual way it must be done in 
 accordance with what Lord Strafford said to Archbishop Laud, when he wrote, 
 " My Lord, it must be thorough." . . . 
 
 We must contend for a careful, but efficient, reform of the Liturgy of the 
 Prayer Book. There are many things in the Liturgy which seem almost inspired. 
 The Liturgy breathes, in the main, something Divine ; it goes to the very hearts 
 of the people ; a very few eliminations would remove what is objectionable, and, 
 if these were made, there would not be a religious man in the country who, 
 whatever might be his denomination, could not take the Prayer Book to his 
 inmost heart. 
 
 The patronage of livings. A reform, or an attempt at reform, of that, must 
 likewise follow. That system is faulty, no doubt, nevertheless I am quite sure 
 that any attempt to substitute some other system for that which exists, would 
 only tend to make matters worse. Yet it must not be passed over. For my own 
 part I am prepared to go into the whole question, and, having a certain number 
 of livings at my disposal, I am prepared to submit them to any arrangement 
 that might be likely to do good ; but there are two changes to which I should 
 strongly object first, that appointments to livings should be made a matter for 
 popular election ; and secondly tell it not in Gath I that they should be given 
 to the bishops. 
 
 The next thing which I would say is I hope the clergy present will not take 
 alarm, as I have on my side the authority of Archbishop Usher and Archbishop 
 Leighton* that I am satisfied that if you desire to accommodate your action to 
 the feelings and wants of the country, you must alter the basis of Ordination, 
 the system of administering Ordination, and admitting men to Holy Orders : in 
 other words, you must take this power away from the bishops exclusively, and 
 call in the co-operation of the presbytery. Such a course was recommended by 
 Archbishops Usher and Leighton, and, I am sure, nothing would tend more tc 
 induce great numbers of people to join our Church than the putting an end 
 to a state of things under which Ordination is left in the hands of a single 
 individual. . . . 
 
 Then there is another question the increase of the Episcopate. Now I, once 
 for all, protest against the increase of the Episcopate without some other and 
 very material changes. I am not such a lover of Episcopacy as to think it 
 necessary to salvation. If, however, people desire an increase of the Episcopate, 
 
 * See also the Rubric on "The Form and Manner of Ordering Priests," where "(A* 
 priests present " are associated with the Bishop in the imposition of hands. 
 R B 2
 
 676 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CnAP. XXXIII. 
 
 it is to be had by the sub-division of dioceses and the revenues into two, so that 
 there would be forty-eight bishops instead of twenty-four. The carrying such a 
 proposal into effect might involve I will not deny it a great and mighty 
 change ; it might involve as much as the removal of the bishops from the House 
 of Lords, a respect being had, of course, to life interests. I know perfectly well 
 the danger that would attend such a movement as that ; I know perfectly well 
 the danger to which the House of Lords itself would be exposed. You cannot 
 attempt to repair an old edifice without endangering the whole fabric, and 
 therefore this is, of course, a matter which requires to be contemplated very 
 seriously. But our duty at the present moment is to consider the safety of the 
 Church of England, and not how to perpetuate the House of Lords. The House 
 may not stand ; but if it does stand, it will stand on its own merits, and not 
 necessarily through its connection with the Episcopal Bench. 
 
 There are many other reforms. I have indicated only a few, but I have said 
 enough to show my great object, that the Church should be made acceptable to 
 the great body of the people. I have no doubt that many of you will look upon 
 me as a most revolutionary man ; but such changes as I have suggested are 
 things which prevent revolutions, and learned writers maintain that half the 
 revolutions which have occurred in the world, have occurred / because those who 
 foresaw them could not make up their minds to meet them by necessary changes. 
 
 Referring in his Diary to this speech, Lord Shaftesbury says : 
 
 May 9th. Such expressions from the President of a Society tend to compro- 
 mise that Society and make it incur the peril of a great loss of moral and 
 financial succour. Wrote, therefore, instantly, and gave in my resignation of the 
 office, thus sparing the Committee a thousand disagreeables of various kinds. 
 
 It is hardly necessary to say that the Committee of the Society did not 
 accept the resignation. 
 
 One of the most pleasing of the many side-efforts of the Bagged School 
 movement was the cultivation of plants and flowers, under given regulations, 
 by the scholars ; and, at a fixed time, the whole being gathered into a Show, 
 tested, and prizes awarded. 
 
 The advantages of these Flower Shows in a social aspect were many. 
 They provided a source of simple recreation, and gave a new interest in 
 home, by adding unwonted cheerfulness to the comfortless rooms of the poor. 
 They became the means of drawing attention to some of the social wants of 
 the working classes, such as the need of fresh air and ventilation and more 
 space. They taught them simple habits of forethought and prudence, for if 
 they would win the prizes, they must purchase their plants long beforehand, 
 and expend money and time on what might only bo a probability of success. 
 Their chief good was, that in watching the growth and progress of the 
 flowers under their care, the children and their parents were brought into 
 close contact with something pure and innocent and beautiful, something 
 that should speak to the better part of their natures, and tell them of Him 
 who has made the earth beautiful and fair. 
 
 It seemed almost incredible that many of the plants and flowers exhibited
 
 1873.) DEAN'S YARD FLOWER SHOW. , 677 
 
 at these Shows were reared and watched and tended in some close garret) or 
 cellar, by the little ragged urchins who, a short time before, were whining in 
 the streets for alms. 
 
 From the first Lord Shaftesbury took the warmest interest in this branch 
 of work. " I believe there is nothing among the secondary means of instruc- 
 tion," he said, " to surpass window gardening and flower culture. It has 
 called out all the various qualities of attention and care, and it has improved 
 their knowledge of sacred and holy things." 
 
 For many years Lord Shaftesbury had given away the prizes at the annual 
 Flower Show in Dean's Yard, Westminster, under the auspices of the Society 
 for Promoting Window Gardening, of which Dean Stanley was President. 
 The flowers, humble and simple enough, breathed whispers of strange his- 
 tories. Some were reared, in furtive hours, in crowded slums ; some were 
 tended by the poor sufferers in Westminster Hospital ; some came from the 
 workhouse, and many from the parochial, national, infant, Sunday, and ragged 
 schools ; some from the kitchens of domestic servants and the quiet homes 
 of working people. 
 
 Those Flower Show days in Dean's Yard were always happy days to 
 Lord Shaftesbury, who entered into the spirit of the festival just as heartily 
 as did his good friend Dean Stanley. 
 
 Another of the great benefits of these Shows was, that they brought 
 together those who, from social distinction, rarely met, and so knew little of 
 each other, and the sympathy thus shown by the rich to the poor evoked a very 
 kindly spirit. Lord Shaftesbury frequently related, with infinite pleasure, a 
 little incident that occurred on one occasion at the distribution of prizes in 
 Dean's Yard, illustrating the love and confidence thus generated. " As I 
 was mixing among the people, I felt a little hand playing with mine, and 
 a little girl looked up in my face and said, ' Please, sir, may I give you a 
 kiss ? ' I said, ' I am sure you may, my dear, and I'll give you one too.' Do 
 you think then I did not say, ' What would London be without her child- 
 ren?'" 
 
 This sorrowful year, Lord Shaftesbury wrote to Canon Conway, with 
 whom the arrangements rested, saying that he had better find some new and 
 younger Chairman for the Annual Flower Show in Dean's Yard, and adding 
 that he was in the condition of a tree which, as Lucan says, " casts a shadow, 
 no longer with its leaves, but only by its stem." He sent the note to Dean 
 Stanley, who returned it with the^following verses : 
 
 "TBUNCO, NON FBONDIBUS, EFFICIT UMBBAM." 
 
 Well said old Lucan Often have I seen 
 
 A stripling tree, all foliage and all green ; 
 
 But not a hope of grateful, soothing shade, 
 
 Its empty strength in fluttering leaves displayed. 
 
 Give me the solid trunk, the aged stem, 
 
 That rears its scant, but glorious, diadem ; 
 
 That thro' long years of battle or of storm,
 
 678 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBUKY. [CHAP. XXXIII 
 
 t 
 
 Has striven whole forests round it to reform : 
 That plants its roots too deep for man to shake ; 
 That lifts its head too high for grief to break ; 
 That still, thro' lightning-flash and thunder-stroke, 
 Retains its vital sap and heart of oak ; 
 Such gallant tree for me shall ever stand, 
 A great rock's shadow in a weary land. 
 May, 1873. A. P. S. 
 
 Against the original Lord Shaftesbury wrote, "I knew that the Dean 
 was very kindly disposed towards me. But I did not know how kindly. S." 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury withdrew his appeal, and attended the Show. In con- 
 cluding his speech, he made use of the beautiful expression that " The great 
 and final Garden of Paradise was only to be approached through the Garden 
 of Gethsemane." 
 
 When he had uttered these words, a voice cried out from the crowd, 
 " That is the best thing you have said." Whose voice it was, or what 
 influence the words spoken had upon the man, we do not know, but there 
 was probably a story attaching to the utterance, for Lord Shaftesbury pasted 
 the report of the affair in a book, and against the words, in his own hand- 
 writing, is this note : " I thank God that He permitted me to say it." 
 
 " The Facilities of Worship Bill," promoted by Mr. Thomas Salt, proposed 
 in the House of Lords by Lord Carnarvon, and supported by the Episcopal 
 vote, was defeated by Lord Shaftesbury. It proposed that a bishop, on the 
 request of twenty-five parishioners, was to have authority to license buildings 
 for public worship without the consent of the rector. Lord Shaftesbury's 
 objection was, that this was placing too much power in the hands of the bishops. 
 
 27th. Last night a great success in House of Lords ; God gave it to feeble 
 efforts praised be His holy name in answer to prayer. Defeated Lord 
 Carnarvon on second reading of Facilities of Worship Bill. Twelve bishops 
 voted with him. . . . 
 
 This was Lord Shaftesbury's principal movement in Ecclesiastical matters 
 in Parliament this year. Out of doors, however, there were many allied 
 subjects pressing upon his attention, and especially that of the Confessional. 
 
 A petition, signed by 400 clergymen, had been presented to the Upper 
 House of Convocation, praying 
 
 " That in view of the wide-spreading and increasing use of sacramental 
 confession, your Venerable House may consider the advisability of providing 
 for the education, selection, and licensing of duly qualified confessors, in 
 accordance with the provisions of canon law." 
 
 The matter was discussed, and referred to a Committee. 
 
 But the fact of the presentation of such a petition roused the indignation 
 of all good Protestants, and, of course, an appeal was made to Lord Shaftes- 
 bury to take the lead in the agitation. He wrote to the Archbishop of 
 Canterbury saying that the laity were in great alarm ; that they turned in
 
 1873.1 THE CONFESSIONAL. 679 
 
 the first instance to their natural protectors, the Bishops of the Established 
 Church ; aud requested His Grace to be good enough to tell him what was 
 the intention of the Episcopal Bench before taking any forward step. The 
 Archbishop replied courteously that the matter had been considered by the 
 bishops, who had since gone to their dioceses, and would not meet again until 
 early in the month of July. To this Lord Shaftesbury rejoined that it was 
 Uot for him to canvass the conduct of the bishops, who had doubtless excellent 
 reasons for deferring the question till July, but that the laity and the clergy 
 could not accept that as a comfortable assurance, and he must not consider 
 them precipitate if they proceeded at once to action, and took the matter into 
 their own hands. 
 
 Accordingly a " public meeting of Churchmen, loyal to the principles of 
 the Reformation," was called for the 30th of June, at which Lord Shaftes- 
 bury presided. It was a crowded and enthusiastic meeting, and he spoke 
 with a warmth and energy which aroused a pjrfect/ttrore, and was interrupted 
 from time to time by loud and ringing cheers. 
 
 He condemned, in no measured terms, the Upper House of Convocation, 
 a professedly Protestant body of bishops, for ever receiving such a petition 
 it should have been sent back as an insult to God's Holy Word and the 
 truth of the Divine sacraments ; instead of which, it was read and discussed 
 in " soft, delicate, and apathetic language." He then proceeded to show the 
 nature of the Confessional, and to give some startling descriptions of the 
 system, as narrated by M. Michelet in a work entitled " Priests, Women, and 
 Families." 
 
 It was one of the strongest speeches Lord Shaftesbury ever uttered, and 
 it was received with extraordinary enthusiasm, the whole audience rising and 
 cheering vociferously for a prolonged period as he concluded his peroration 
 with the words, " Perish all things, so that Christ be magnified." 
 
 The sad and sudden death of Samuel Wilberforce, Bishop of Winchester, 
 with whom for many years Lord Shaftesbury had been brought, in a variety 
 of ways, into opposition, is thus referred to in the Diary : 
 
 July 20th. Sunday. Just received intelligence of the death of the Bishop 
 of Winchester ; absolutely thunder-struck with amazement and terror. " So 
 teach us, Lord, to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom." 
 Thrown from his horse yesterday, he broke his neck. God be with us. "We 
 know not what an hour may bring forth." 
 
 " JV-twixt the stirrup and the ground, 
 He mercy asked, he mercy found." 
 
 In a letter to Mr. Haldane, written on the same day, he says : 
 " This event came on me like an earthquake. I was all but horror-struck. 
 Every kind feeling I ever had towards the Bishop is again alive. He was 
 neither covetous nor hard, aud he oftentimes stood forward in the defence of 
 the oppressed." 
 
 Throughout the year and for many years cifterwards there aw>, in the
 
 680 THE EARL OF SHAPTESBUEY. [CHAP. XXXTH. 
 
 midst of the record of ceaseless activities, some very touching passages, 
 which show how keen was the struggle against abandoning himself to his 
 sorrows, and how vividly, at all times and in every place, he was alive to the 
 tremendous loss he had sustained. 
 
 April 1st. They are never out of my mind, hardly out of sight ; as the days 
 lengthen the solitude seems to increase. Even in my youth, a fine summer's 
 evening had ever the effect of melancholy over my heart. It has continued 
 through manhood, but not a sorrowful melancholy, rather the occasion to a 
 prayer for the Second Advent. But now the setting sun and the long twilight 
 will make me feel their absence still more. Quicken it, Lord, into a warmer 
 supplication for Thy blessed Coming ! . . . 
 
 April 10th. St. Giles's. The place is solitary and sad ; the charm of one to 
 share it with me is gone. But God is wise and good. . . . Blessed, precious 
 wife, some of thy last words, spoken in health and happiness, while the shadow 
 of death was not even before thine eyes, spoken in sorrow of some infidel and 
 cruel expressions, " And this, too, when He died for us 1 " They rejoiced me then 
 they now ring like music in my ears. " The name of Jesus," said old Leighton, 
 " is fragrant." 
 
 April 14th. Her loss is more and more keen every day. God alone knows 
 what I feel and suffer. May He watch over and subdue me. 
 
 Oct. 12th. Sunday. . . . Shall I never see her again, Lord, that 
 sweetest, dearest, most precious of women ? Surely there will be recognition ; 
 surely a reunion of love. God knows, and He is both wise and good, and tenderly 
 considerate. Perhaps she and my darling Conty are much nearer than I suppose- 
 Perhaps they see me, watch over me, and pray for me. We cannot pray to saints in 
 heaven. Both Scripture and reason forbid it. But neither one nor the other forbids 
 me to believe that the blessed in heaven may pray for the struggling on earth 
 nay, they rather bid us to do so. The highest duty and the richest enjoyment is 
 in the imitation of our Lord. He is ever interceding for those that He loves ; 
 and why not, in a far lower degree, the departed spirits for those they have left 
 on earth ? . . . 
 
 May 25th. Sunday. Last night, as I went to bed, the recollection of my 
 precious Minny's words rose in my mind : " Lamb of God, I come " and then, 
 like lightning, the words of our Blessed Lord : " Him that cometh to Me I will in 
 no wise cast out." The joy and comfort unspeakable. I thank Thee, Lord. . . . 
 
 In August a tour in Scotland was most beneficial to the health and spirits 
 of Lord Shaftesbury. He visited lona and Staffa; landed in the Isle of 
 Rum, and from thence proceeded to Stornoway, along the whole eastern side 
 of Lewis and Harris, " wild and inhospitable, and without a trace of life ; " 
 then driven by wind and rain to Portree, and when fine weather came, along 
 the coasts of Skye, Inverness, and Argyleshire, back to his favourite head- 
 quarters, Wemyss Castle, the home of his old friends, Mr. and Mrs. Burns' 
 with whom so many happy days of his life were associated. " May every 
 blessing of time and of eternity descend on this family, on them, on theirs, on 
 old Abraham and Sarah,* and on all they love in Christ Jesus." 
 
 * Familiar names given to the father and mother of Mr. John Burns, both of them 
 patriarchal in age.
 
 1874.] LEGISLATION ON RITUALISM. 681 
 
 From Weinyss Castle he proceeded to Belfast, making his first sojourn iu 
 Ireland, and, after a few brief visits, went on to Dunbrody, the home of his 
 daughter and Lord Templeinore. " It is a comfort to be here, and talk over 
 ' the blessed ones ' now gone to their rest." On the 19th of September ho 
 left Dublin " Of all the uninteresting places in the world, Dublin is to me 
 the most so ; there is nothing in it " and arrived in London with health and 
 vigour renewed for the work that stood before him in the ensuing winter. 
 
 Instinctively he turned, in these dark days, to the loving sympathy of his 
 children. With his eldest daughter, Lady Templemore, he corresponded 
 more intimately than with any one, and very touching are some of the 
 references in his letters to their mutual loss. 
 
 The great subject that now, more than ever, was pressing upon the 
 thought of Lord Shaftesbury was the state of the Church. A long and 
 persistent warfare against Ritualistic and Romanising practices had been 
 carried on by him. For nearly seven years he had continued the contest, 
 almost without intermission, but in none of his Parliamentary efforts had he 
 met with great success. In 1867 his Clerical Vestments Bill was set aside 
 by the appointment of the Ritual Commission ; his further Bill, founded on 
 the recommendations of that Commission, was arrested on the ground that it 
 exceeded the recommendations ; for four Sessions he had persistently laboured 
 on his Ecclesiastical Courts Reform Bills, which he had been unable to 
 carry. Success, however, is not always to be reckoned by results that can be 
 tabulated, and his success lay rather in this that he had dragged abuses into 
 the light, had sown broadcast the seeds of principles which were to take root 
 and check the overwhelming spread of error ; had provoked discussion, and 
 had broken up the soil in which others were to sow and reap. 
 
 He was one of the first to discern, with a prophetic eye, the evils that 
 were coming upon the Church ; he was one of the first to draw public 
 attention to the fact that reform in the constitution and procedure of the 
 Ecclesiastical Courts was a pressing necessity. He saw that the times were 
 pregnant with mighty issues, and in the early part of the year 1874 it seemed 
 that the crisis of the times had come. Referring to that period, a writer in 
 the Quarterly Review* in an article on "The State of the Church" observed, 
 when speaking of the Ecclesiastical Courts Hills : 
 
 " We are not using stilted language, or falling into the error of magnifying 
 contemporary events, when we say that the action now going forward claims 
 our best attention, because it is of the last importance. It is a turning-point 
 in the fortunes of the Church in England ; it is a turning-point in the history 
 of the Church of England that Church which has maintained relations with 
 the realm of England through every change of dynasty and fortune, and been 
 faithful to the realm through all. It is the turning-point in the history of a 
 Church whose sees are older than the Monarchy ; whose charters were 
 confirmed by Knut , the Dane ; thousands of whoso parishes are still as they 
 
 * Quarterly Review, July, 1874, No. 273, p. 247.
 
 682 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXXJII. 
 
 were settled under the Norman kings ; and whose fabrics are the handiwork 
 of more than twenty generations of Englishmen. It is a turning-point, too, 
 in the history of a Church whose bishops have been an integral part of the 
 national legislature, and whose courts and convocations have formed part of 
 the national constitution through all the changes and revolutions of which our 
 history has to tell. To a man who can look before and after, who can see in a 
 given crisis the many forces of which it is the single resultant, and who can 
 also forecast the diverse issues which must follow according as it is wisely 
 dealt with, or the reverse the situation is full of the deepest interest." 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury was " a man who could look before and after," and he 
 watched the progress of the Public Worship Bill, introduced into the House 
 of Lords by the Archbishop of Canterbury on the 28th of April, with the 
 most profound interest. The design of Archbishop Tait's Bill was in 
 fact to do, though not so effectually, what had been proposed by Lord 
 Shaftesbury's Ecclesiastical Courts Bills, upon which he had expended the 
 labour of four years. In those labours he had received very little encourage- 
 ment from the Right Reverend Prelates ; but now, the Church Establishment 
 was threatened by so many perils that the Archbishops of York and Canter- 
 bury took the lead in proposing remedial measures, and thus the bishops were 
 roused to attempt the removal of the wrongs and the abuses which were 
 admitted on all hands to exist. 
 
 It would be tedious, as well as foreign to our purpose, to give the whole 
 history of the measure or to analyse its provisions. Initiated at Addington, 
 it was submitted by the Primate at large meetings of the bishops at Lambeth, 
 where it was twice changed and modified. It still had many faults, which 
 Lord Shaftesbury exposed when the Bill was introduced, and yet more 
 forcibly on the Second Reading on the llth of May. One of his principal 
 objections was that, according to the new measure, the proposed Court was to 
 consist of ecclesiastics, with one exception nominated by the bishop, and all 
 subject to his authority. The Bishop's discretion was to be paramount, and, 
 as if to exclude the control of public opinion, they were to be empowered to 
 sit in camera. In pointing out the perils of this proposal, Lord Shaftesbury 
 quoted the words of Lord Chancellor Camden as to " judicial discretion." 
 " The discretion of a judge," said the famous Chancellor, " is the law of 
 tyrants. It is different in different men ; it is always unknown ; it is 
 casual, and depends upon constitution, temper, and passion. In the best, it 
 is oftentimes caprice; in the worst, it is every vice and passion to which 
 human nature is liable." 
 
 The following extracts are from the Diary : 
 
 May 26th, 1874. St. Giles's. . . . Shall not have much repose here had 
 resolved to abandon Bishop's Bill altogether. But Cairns besought me pro- 
 mising me, privately, the whole support of the Government to bring forward, 
 as an amendment, a large portion of my former Eccles. Courts Bill. Agreed, as 
 he wished it ; but, I fear, to my vast trouble and even confusion, for Lord Selborne,
 
 1874.] PUBLIC WORSHIP BILL. 683 
 
 the ex-Chancellor, has taken the lead in a volume of amendments ; and I cannot 
 comprehend that he and I should ever be of one mind. . . . 
 
 June 13th. Long and anxious nights on the Public Worship Bill 1 Carried 
 my amendments, by God's blessing. Majority 113 to 12, and after much abuse 
 from the papers, a vast amount of praise ! . . . But the circumstances of the 
 whole affair have been very peculiar. I was forced, in conscience, to expose, 
 though I did not oppose, the Bishop's Bill. I was reviled by them and by others. 
 Nevertheless they amended their Bill, and left out much to which I had objected. 
 I had made up my mind to do no more after my speech. But Cairns (Lord 
 Chancellor) called me to him on the woolsack, and urged me to reproduce the 
 clauses of my Eccles. Bill of 1869-71-72, relating to the institution of a provincial 
 judge. " We shall make a good bill," said he, " and the amendments, as coming 
 from you, will have great weight." . . . 
 
 The Bill left the House of Lords on the 26th of June. During the 
 month of July, " through a road encumbered with lagging Bills, amongst 
 which the ablest charioteer might find the measure he was guiding clogged 
 and overthrown, an independent member of the House undertook the task of 
 directing to a successful issue a Bill that must excite, at every step as it 
 passed along, passions and animosities of every kind, a Bill that would find 
 its wheels spoked with ' amendments ' intended to be fatal." 
 
 The subsequent history of the Bill is told concisely in the Diary : 
 
 July 18th. Have had no time to record some marvels of God's Providence 
 and care, for so they are, in the matter of the Public Worship Bill. The Recorder 
 of London, Russell Gurney, took the Bill in charge : D'Israeli had the foresight 
 and wisdom to give him a day Thursday, 9th. The debate was adjourned, 
 apparently a delay, really an advance. The following Wednesday was assigned, 
 the debate to begin at twelve. The standing orders to be suspended so that it 
 might go on, if necessary, for twelve consecutive hours. 
 
 In this way, by degrees, the favour of the Government came out, overruling 
 manifestly two of their colleagues, Cardinal Hardy and Monsignor Salisbury. 
 
 Gladstone, in a florid and fallacious speech, had prepared the way for D'Izzy's 
 strategy. He concluded his ultramontane address by six resolutions, so Romish, 
 revolutionary, and yet feeble, that D'Izzy, who was seeking a ground on which to 
 grant a day for the Committee, saw his opportunity, and seized it. " The right 
 hon. gentleman," said he, "has propounded resolutions so subversive of the 
 religious system under which we have lived for 300 years, and so revolutionary 
 in every aspect, that I cannot allow the Houses to separate without obtaining 
 from them a declaration of opinion." The day was won. The second reading 
 nearly six hundred members being present was carried without a division. 
 Gladstone himself having slunk out of the House, not daring to have, according 
 to his own favourite phrase, " the courage of his opinions," and he told Lord 
 Ernest Bruce, from whom I heard it, as he went down the stairs, that hs did not 
 intend to vote. 
 
 Last night Bill got through in several clauses, especially the crux, the appoint- 
 ment of the judge. Sorry that it did not get through the whole : fixed for 
 Tuesday. The finger of God has been manifest all through. It struck even
 
 684 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXXIII. 
 
 common minds. Of all the clever men I know, or ever have known, D'Izzy is 
 the chief. What a head he has for policy and practice ! Yet the battle is not 
 yet won. As at the first, so now, God, watch over us 1 
 
 Aug. 5th. Was to have left early for Chillingham this morning. Put off 
 journey to negotiate with M.P.'s, so Cairns wished, and see whether Bill could be 
 saved. It would have been comparatively easy had not Salisbury, by his violent 
 language, exasperated the Commons. Yet there are hopes of safety, debate is 
 going on. Shall go again to House of Lords at five o'clock to receive answer. 
 Seven o'clock. The Bill is safe. I bless Thee, Lord. The Commons gave way, 
 and all is peace and harmony. 
 
 The Bill received the Royal Assent on the 7th of August. It has been 
 justly said that Lord Shaftesbury " is but very partially responsible for the 
 faults of its construction, and not at all responsible for the errors of its 
 administration. The latter have had at least as much to do with its failure 
 as the former." * 
 
 We now turn to the Diary, to gather extracts indicating the drift of 
 Lord Shaftesbury's thought and speech and action during this year. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone had appealed to the country, and was unsuccessful. The 
 Conservatives triumphed, and Mr. Disraeli resumed office. 
 
 Feb. llth. . . . It is observable that each Minister has fallen under his 
 own Frankenstein. D'Izzy brought in Household Suffrage, dissolved the Parlia- 
 ment, and was demolished by his own constituencies. Gladstone carried the 
 Ballot a year ago ; dissolved, and is sent to the right about. However clear the 
 proofs of what the Ballot can and will do, however formidable its working to the 
 morality of the country, neither party dares to say a word on the subject. The 
 Liberals cannot revile their favourite measure. The Conservatives cannot praise, 
 however hollow that praise might be, what they so furiously denounced. But 
 the pendulum will soon swing the other way ; and the Conservatives will curse 
 it, while the Liberals will not bless it, when they see the uncertainty, the 
 constant change, the instability of everything, moral, social, and political, that it 
 will introduce -into our system. D'Izzy and it is justifiable, though fearfully 
 fallacious boasts of his measure of Household Suffrage, and says, " Did not I 
 assert that the people of England are attached to all our institutions ? " He did, 
 and he is in error. The present vote is no more a proof that the people are 
 attached to things as they are, than that the present fashion of chignons will be 
 the head-dress of the women of England for several generations. It is a caprice, 
 a fancy, a taste, a burst of individualism as against the old habits and bonds 
 perhaps of party, employment, private obligations, and what not. A weariness, 
 a fickleness, a love of change without any reason for it. The dissolution takes 
 place at a time of vast prosperity, of high wages, of conflicts won by the holders 
 of suffrage, and of consequent good-humour. Reverse all this. Let Parliament 
 be dissolved on a " special cry " by some reckless and designing Minister, or in 
 some period of deep distress, or of furious conflict between labour and capital 
 assume it to occur during heated and active notions of the acquisition and tenure 
 of property of every kind assume it to occur in a time when the people are 
 
 * Supplement to the Record, Oct. 2, 18S5.
 
 1874.) COSTERMONGER8. 685 
 
 thinking of a " free breakfast," of the freedom of toil from any taxation what- 
 ever, and the imposition of it on "realised" property alone. Contemplate it 
 under the suffrage of the peasantry, concealed by the Ballot. Let the cry be 
 Disestablishment of the Church, or division of the land, provisions being dear, 
 labour scanty, and wages very low. All these conditions are not only probable, 
 but certain. Add, what is equally probable and equally certain, that the revolu- 
 tionary leaders not taken by surprise, as now, but practised in the manipulations 
 and facilities of the Ballot, and furnished alike with measures and with candi- 
 dates, compete for the representation 1 Can any one doubt the issue ? Imagine, 
 moreover, a time, a time certainly not far distant, when the men now advanced 
 in years, bordering on the " threescore and ten," the men bred up in the ancient 
 traditions of the Realm, having a smack, however weak, of the " old flavour," 
 are either dead or incapacitated ! Who is to succeed Gladstone among the 
 Liberals ? Who, D'Izzy amongst the Conservatives 1 There may be men whom 
 we do not now see. 
 
 Feb. 16th. London. ... In the Times of three days ago I saw an- 
 nounced the death of Strauss ! " We shall soon know the grand secret," said the 
 murderer Thistlewood, of Cato Street so the chaplain of Newgate, who was 
 near him, told me just before he was executed. Strauss knows it now. The 
 thought is awful beyond expression. . . . 
 
 Feb. 28th. Last night Haydn's " Creation " at Exeter Hall had never heard 
 it before, but in piecemeal. Delighted delighted. Such music leads to religion, 
 as, in truth, coming from it. Haydn and Handel both gave thanks to God as 
 the source of their inspirations. 
 
 March 3rd. Yesterday to Clapton to attend the funeral of Dr. Binney, the 
 well-known Congregationalist minister. It was a "grievous mourning," as 
 was said of old Jacob, for there were some three or four hundred in procession, 
 besides the multitudes who thronged to see the ceremony. Doubtless, he was a 
 " master in Israel," and was " gathered to his fathers " in a good old age, three- 
 score years and sixteen 1 
 
 In the time of his great trouble a bond of union was established between 
 Lord Shaftesbury and the costermongers, which was never to be broken. 
 His first visit after his bereavement had been to them. 
 
 We have said elsewhere that Lord Shaftesbury was no ordinary visitor to 
 the poor. A few extracts from some of the letters he was constantly sending 
 to Mr. Orsman, will give illustrations of the truth of the assertion. 
 
 Feb. 26th, 1873. Do you ever perambulate your district "by day?" If so, I 
 should like to accompany you. 
 
 March 3rd. Do not forget the woman who made the braces. We promised 
 her something. I have sent two copies of the " Faithful Promiser " for the two 
 wives of the cabinet-maker and the old paralysed man. 
 
 March 7th. Your missionaries must talk to the poor cabinet-maker, and 
 pray with him. He is not hardened. Let him have what he wants in his 
 necessity. 
 
 March 8th. I have sent you a book for the two sons of the woman 
 (spectacles) and the paralytic husband. Also picture cards, as I promised,
 
 686 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXXIIL 
 
 to the little girl, daughter of the shoemaker's wife who was " the 
 
 Security." * 
 
 He frequently refers to his " brother costers " in his Diary. They were 
 rarely out of his thoughts for long'. 
 
 March 7th, 1874. On 5th to Orsman's tea-party of aged costers in Golden 
 Lane poor old dears had to give them a " Hortation," as Hobbes translates 
 Thucydides. 
 
 The next quotations are characteristic : 
 
 March llth, 1874. On Monday a prayer meeting in the Chapel.f Many of 
 the congregation called on "to lead." Extempore prayer, except for special 
 occasions, seems more adapted to the closet than to public worship. Very few, 
 indeed, have the gift ; I could find fifty men to make a good speech, for one who 
 could deliver an extempore prayer. . . . 
 
 March 20th. Attended House of Lords, that " vast aquarium," full of cold- 
 blooded life, before going to Whitechapel. . . 
 
 The most important of the religious meetings attended by Lord Shaftes- 
 bury in the May of this year was held in connection with the opening of the 
 new London City Mission house. He spoke on " Mission Work in London." 
 His speech, subsequently issued in pamphlet form, gave an interesting 
 account of the state of spiritual destitution and neglect in the early days of 
 his career, and traced the progress made in the cause of evangelisation. 
 
 May 2nd. Yesterday, Chair of opening of new house for London City Mission. 
 It was an interesting affair this silent, useful Christian Association, rising out 
 of its obscurity and narrow bounds, to take its place among the best, in fruitful- 
 ness though not in splendour, of the institutions of the metropolis ! God grant 
 it humility in proportion to its success ; and the mighty grace of trembling 
 while it rejoices. Did my best on its behalf, but what was that 1 Why, just so 
 much as God gave me to speak, and no more. . . . 
 
 May 27th. St. Giles's. . . . Evelyn is come here safe and sound. The 
 bells are ringing joyfully,^ but she, my beloved one, who lies beneath them, 
 hears them not. How glad would her dear heart have been in the success of her 
 sympathising son ! But she is listening to other sounds, the sounds of ever- 
 lasting praise and love to her precious Lord and Saviour. 
 
 Sept. 18th. . . . Northampton is vacant ; Bradlaugh is a candidate ; will 
 he be returned ? Such an issue would be nearly impossible under open voting. 
 It is, I suspect, nearly certain under the ballot. 
 
 Sometimes, in the pauses of his busy life, Lord Shaftesbury asked him- 
 self whether it was worth while to persevere in his labours. He was begin- 
 
 * It was impossible for Lord Shaftesbury to remember the names of the many 
 people he visited. He was in the habit, therefore, of describing them in some way by 
 which they would be easily recognised. Thus the shoemaker's wife was one who had 
 stood "security " for a water-cress girl when borrowing money from the " Emily Loan 
 Fund." 
 
 t Portman Chapel (Rev. Canon Reeve), where Lord Shaftesbury, for many years, 
 attended public worship. 
 
 X To celebrate the return of the Hon. Evelyn Ashley as M.P. for Poole.
 
 1875. J " THE GREAT PIS-ALLER." 687 
 
 ning to be sensible of the weight of years ; and, more than this, he was made 
 to feel that the generation to which he belonged was passing away, that he 
 was no longer required, and that he should make room, therefore, for other 
 and younger men. These were but the casual thoughts and feelings of tired 
 hours, but they pressed upon him occasionally with great force. There is a 
 ring of melancholy in the following entry : 
 
 Jan. llth, 1875. Sanitary questions, of which I saw the dawn, and had all 
 the early labours, are passed into " Imperial " subjects. Boards are everywhere, 
 laws have been enacted, public attention roused, and Ministers have declared 
 themselves willing to bring to bear on them the whole force of Government. 
 Not only am I not wanted, but my interference would be superfluous and an in- 
 cumbrance. 
 
 Social questions are in the same position. They have advanced into the 
 regions of " Imperialism." All questions of labour are :decided by combinations 
 or by statute. The working classes have become patrons instead of clients ; and 
 they both can and do fight their own battles. It was not so forty years ago, 
 when I began the struggle. The matter of their dwellings is still one of interest, 
 but here, again, the movement has passed from individuals to companies, specu- 
 lators, Acts of Parliament, and now at last, so Mr. Cross has promised, to the 
 hands of the Secretary of State. How completely my aid is of little esteem at 
 present may be seen in the fact that neither on the Factory Bill nor on the 
 forthcoming measure for Industrial Dwellings have I been consulted to the 
 extent of a single inquiry. Have often called myself " The Great Pis-Aller" 
 and so events have proved it. People took me because they could get no other. 
 There is nothing to complain of. I saw it all along, and I conformed, because I 
 saw a duty in submission. 
 
 Time had not laid his hand upon Lord Shaf tesbury's heart 
 
 as a harper lays his open palm 
 
 Upon his harp, to deaden its vibrations. 
 
 He still had his aspirations and his hopes ; there still uprose in him that 
 strong, proud, resolute will that, in days long past, had made him persevere 
 in schemes which to the eyes of others seemed predestined to end in failure ; 
 it was only occasionally that he " stood beside the stream of Time to gaze 
 upon its waters rushing past him ; " only in hours of depression that lie 
 felt he must " unbuckle the armour and retire from the fight." And it is 
 curious that whenever, in the Diaries, we meet with such an entry as we 
 have quoted above, we find that it is followed by passage after passage, 
 showing that, although by the relentless law of change old things were 
 passing away, yet by another law, as inevitable, all tilings were becoming 
 new, and the aged man's sigh of regret over the past gives place to the 
 strong man's fervour as he launches himself out into the resistless stream of 
 practical effort. 
 
 Thus, in the extract last given, ho sighs that the matter of the dwellings 
 of the working classes had passed from individuals to companies, and 
 that even his opinion, much more his aid, is disregarded. A page or two
 
 688 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [Ciur. XXXIII. 
 
 further on in the Diary we find him working with all his old vigour in the 
 cause, fostering old schemes and planning fresh ones. One day he writes : 
 
 I am weary of controversy, of perpetual dispute, of assault and defence on the 
 question of Romanism ; of assault and defence on the score of Neology. My 
 head swims with the unceasing variety of charges, of refutations, of sermons, 
 books, articles, pamphlets ; I cannot embrace them, follow them, comprehend 
 them. Life, in body and mind, is a whirlpool, and I, for one, feel perpetually 
 giddy. I feel incompetent to give a reason " of the hopes that are in me," and yet, 
 by the blessing of Almighty God, I have them. I cannot answer any one, " one 
 of a thousand," and yet, through the grace of Christ, I have the satisfactory 
 answer within my own heart. I see all the dangers that beset us, but I cannot 
 find any who regard my opinions. . . . 
 
 Almost the next entry finds him hotly battling in a paper war in 
 defence of the truth in the early part of the day, and in the evening " At 
 Birkbeck Institution. Had opportunity of maintaining and well received 
 that, the farther science advanced, the greater was its harmony with 
 revealed religion." 
 
 It was his frequent prayer that it would please God to give him a sign 
 when he must desist from work and no longer endeavour to make himself 
 heard on platform or in Parliament : " Tes, a sign or a sound that 
 shall make known, as in Num. xiv. 42, ' Go not up, for the Lord is not with 
 you.' " Patiently he waited for the sign, but it did not come, and meanwhile 
 he laboured on. 
 
 Feb. 16th. On 9th to Cripples' Home at Kensington. Called on Forster and 
 found him better, thank God. Froude, the historian, was there, llth. Dipso- 
 maniacs' chair, Willis's Rooms. 12th. Mansion House, for London City Mission. 
 13th. In evening, Bethnal Green, for my brother William, whose mission is, 
 under God, doing a great work in these solitary parts. 15th. Commission in 
 Lunacy. Omitted on Friday, 12th, to Ragged School Union, to arrange plans 
 for a fresh aggression, nay, a new form of one, on the very lowest of London ; 
 be we driven by the School Board from our present ground, we must seek another 
 standpoint. God be with us. " Christo in pauperibus." 
 
 On the 9th of March, Messrs. Moody and Sankey, the American Evan- 
 gelists, commenced a series of " Revival Gatherings " in the Agricultural 
 Hall at Islington. From the first their success seemed guaranteed, but Lord 
 Shaftesbury, although he contributed to the funds, did not co-operate in the 
 work. He regarded the arrival of Mr. Moody as that of " the right man at 
 the right hour," " at a time when the masses are lying in indifference, and are 
 nevertheless impressible." On the first opportunity he paid a visit to the 
 Agricultural Hall, and his description, written while the impressions were all 
 fresh in his mind, is as follows : 
 
 March 31st. On Good Friday to hear Moody and Sankey ; deeply impressed. 
 and the more impressed because of the imperfection of the whole thing. " Imper- 
 fect," I speak as a man. " The things that are highly esteemed among men are
 
 1875.] MESSRS. MOODY AND SANKBT. 689 
 
 abomination in the sight of God 1 " The music was the voice of one singer ; the 
 air, the simplest possible ; the words adapted to the poorest and least taught 
 mind. And yet it went to the inmost soul, and seemed to empty it of everything 
 but the thought of the good, tender, and lowly Shepherd. The instrument was 
 no more than an accordion, and the singer and the performer were the same. 
 The preacher was clad in ordinary dress ; his language was colloquial, free, easy, 
 and like common talk. The voice is bad and ill-managed ; he abounds in illustra- 
 tions, and most effective ones ; in stories, anecdotes, very appropriate, oftentimes 
 bordering on the " humorous," almost to the extent of provoking a laugh ! 
 There is volubility, but no eloquence. There is nothing, in short,, to win, 
 externally at least ; perhaps something to repel, even those who might not be 
 unfavourably disposed. And yet the result is striking, effective, touching, and 
 leading to much thought. St. Paul said of himself as a preacher, " his bodily 
 presence is weak and his speech contemptible." It was the statement, at least, 
 of his enemies. Nevertheless, the 17th and the 20th of Acts show what issues 
 the Holy Spirit can work out of feeble materials. Is it not so here ? We are 
 just at this time founding associations to teach the " art of preaching." Bishops 
 and others are lecturing right and left upon Homiletics. Here come two simple, 
 unlettered men from the other side of the Atlantic. They have had no theological 
 training, and never read the Fathers ; they refuse to belong to any denomination ; 
 they are totally without skill in delivery, and have no pretensions to the highest 
 order of rhetoric. They are calm, without an approach to the fanatical or oven 
 the enthusiastic. They seek neither to terrify nor to puff up ; eschew contro- 
 versy, and flatter no passions. So it is, nevertheless, thousands of all degrees in 
 station and mental culture bow before them. Are we not right in believing 
 time will show that God has chosen the " foolish things of the world to confound 
 the wise " ? Moody will do more in an hour than Canon Liddon in a century. 
 
 Of secondary causes, cannot but attribute a vast deal to his manifest convic- 
 tion : it impresses the auditory. In his intense earnestness they go along with 
 him : the simplicity of his message Christ crucified the evident fact that he 
 has no special Church purposes, nor, on the surface at least, any interested 
 considerations. All seems natural, easy, almost necessary to him. It appears 
 the dictate of the moment, without previous thought, or any form of preparation ! 
 Yet how account for the effect on every station and degree ? Workpeople, shop- 
 keepers, merchants, lawyers, clergy and laity, alike, confess the power and cannot 
 explain it. 
 
 I agree with Gamaliel ; " If this thing be of men, it will soon come to 
 nought ; but if it be of God, ye cannot fight against it." To my own mind there 
 is something in it superhuman. In what mode, to what extent, for how long, 
 and with what issue, our Lord alone knows. If it be His work, may He 
 prosper it ! . . . 
 
 The important questions of the Housing of the Poor, and the Improve- 
 ment of Artisans' Dwellings, on which Lord Shaftesbury had been engaged 
 ever since 1843, were growing in urgency every year. Metropolitan improve- 
 ments were being made in all directions ; the poor were being displaced in 
 greater numbers than ever ; population was increasing with gigantic strides ; 
 and little or no provision was being made for the reasonable accommodation 
 of the labouring classes. 
 8 8
 
 THE EARL OF SHAPTESBURY. [CHAP. XXXIII. 
 
 In 1872 he had laid the first memorial stone of a workman's city, called 
 by his own name, the " Shaftesbury Park," and situated at Lavender Hill, in 
 the Wandsworth Road. It introduced a new era in the progress of working 
 men. It was a town, on all the modern principles of sanitary arrangements, 
 with recreation grounds, clubs, schools, libraries, baths, and no public-houses. 
 Shops, too, were to be ignored, and the whole to proceed on the co-operative 
 system. His comment, in the Diary, on the day he laid the stone, was this : 
 
 Aug. 5th, 1872. It is a great experiment, and a doubtful one. Yet, after 
 thirty years of thought and trial, see no other mode of improving, on a large 
 scale, the domiciliary condition of the people. Charity cannot do it. The 
 capitalists will not do it. The people themselves must do it and here, they have 
 attempted it. ... 
 
 The scheme was undertaken by the Artisans', Labourers', and General 
 Dwellings Company (Limited) an organisation which took its rise in 1867 
 in consequence of the extensive demolition of houses caused by various 
 metropolitan improvements. Although Lord Shaftesbury was only nominally 
 associated with the scheme, he took a deep interest in its working, and lent 
 what aid was in his power to advance its prosperity. 
 
 On the llth of May, 1875, when the Government brought in the Artisans' 
 Dwellings Bill, Lord Shaftesbury supported it in an able speech, in which he 
 pointed out the overwhelming difficulties to be overcome in finding suitable 
 accommodation for populations displaced by improvements. In his opening 
 sentence he said : " The Government have done their best to master the 
 difficulty ; but they have not mastered it, nor will they do so, until after wide 
 and protracted experience." The prophecy was true, and it was not until ten 
 years later, when the Royal Commission, with the Prince of Wales as its 
 most active member, was appointed, that the problem drew near its solution. 
 
 Returning again to the Diary we select the following miscellaneous 
 passages : 
 
 Jan. 6th, 1875. Mr. Auberon Herbert has blessed the world with his notions 
 of prayer ; he has set this forth in a letter to the Times of the 4th. The conclu- 
 sion, so far as I can understand it, is that, " There is a certain sort of God, to 
 whom may be offered a certain kind of prayer." The definitions are not yet 
 vouchsafed. . . . 
 
 Jan. 8th. . . . One thing remains a Bill for the Relief of the Clergy 
 in the matter of Fees an Augean stable of singular filth. Have moved for the 
 returns, but will not undertake a Bill. God helping me, I may state the case ; 
 but the remedy of such an extensive abuse is the duty of Government. . . . 
 
 April 22nd. On Saturday, 17th, dined with D'Israeli. I admire the abilities 
 of the man, but not his use of them. There is nothing really to admire in him, 
 beyond the possession of talents. . . . 
 
 At an evening party, given by Sir Henry Rawlinson to the members of 
 the Arctic Expedition under Captain Nares, at which Lord Shaftesbury was 
 present, Sir Bartle Frere took the opportunity to urge upon him, on nmuy
 
 1875.]' HOUSEHOLD SERVANTS. 691 
 
 grounds, that he should pay a visit to the United States. Referring to this 
 he says : 
 
 April 30th. It is what I had long and often wished, but, as St. Paul says 
 "Was let hitherto." Now I am too near the sensible decay of physical and 
 mental power for such an effort as that would be. The demands on my strength, 
 in every form, would far surpass what I could have endured, even in my younger 
 days. Besides, for an enterprise like that, I must have very clear indications 
 indeed that it is not only permitted, but commanded, by God ; otherwise I could 
 not go, even in possible comfort I should doubt and tremble. 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury was the patron of many institutions for the welfare of 
 domestic servants, and he never lost an opportunity of saying a good word for 
 that, oftentimes, long- suffering and ill-rewarded class. As he never preached 
 what he did not practise, he revived in his own household 
 
 Those times 
 
 When lords were styled fathers of families, 
 And not imperious masters ! when they numbered 
 Their servants almost equal with their sons, 
 Or one degree beneath them 1 When their labours 
 Were cherished and rewarded, and a period 
 Set to their sufferings ! When they did not press 
 Their duties or their wills beyond the power 
 And strength of their performance ; all things ordered 
 With such decorum, as wise law-makers. 
 
 Thus in 1883, when speaking on behalf of an admirable institution in 
 which he took a great interest the Aged Pilgrim's Friend Society he was 
 able to refer to the fact that his housekeeper had been fifty -two years in his 
 service ; that, as nurse, she had brought up all his children ; that not one of 
 them would ever think of retiring to rest in his house without bidding good- 
 night to that " female patriarch ! " and that she was held in reverence by 
 all the household. He did not, of course, say what was, nevertheless, the 
 fact, that every morning after prayers it was his habit to shake hands with 
 the aged housekeeper, and inquire after her health and of things that were of 
 interest in her little world. He had exemplified the saying of old Philip 
 Quarles, "If thou wouldst have a good servant, let the servant find a 
 good master." To another old friend and servant the following entry 
 relates : 
 
 July 9th. . . . Yesterday poor King died, the attached and faithful 
 maid of my most blessed wife. She joined my precious Minny when that 
 beloved woman was only ten years old, and, fifty -three years afterwards, was still 
 in the family, and died among us. True, kind, honest, affectionate, and having 
 no hope but in Christ, she is gone to her rest, and so breaks another worldly link 
 between me and the parted ones. . . . 
 
 The well-being of Factory Operatives, wherever they might be, was 
 always near to the heart of Lord Shaftesbury. It was a grief to him to find 
 882
 
 692 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXXIII. 
 
 that there existed in India many of the evils that had once attended the 
 Factory system at home ; and on the publication of the Report of the 
 Inspector of Factories as to the regulation of labour in the cotton mills in 
 the Presidency of Bengal, he drew the attention of the Secretary of State for 
 India to the proved evils of many parts of the system, and pleaded that there 
 might be given to the natives the boon of healthy work, reasonable hours, 
 wholesome homes, and good education. 
 
 July 30th. Statement in House of Lords respecting progress of the Factory 
 system in India, with all its accompanying cruelties, when unrestricted. Salis- 
 bury, in reply, was civil, kind, and encouraging. I myself felt, more than 
 ever, the atmosphere of that House ; although on my old and my own question, I 
 was oblivious, unsteady, downcast. But God be praised for the little I was 
 enabled to do do. 
 
 The year that had opened with the regret that he was stranded while the 
 stream of life rushed past, found him towards its close in the full rush and 
 roar of the torrent. " Intense correspondence of all sorts, on every subject 
 under the sun : " on Church matters ; on the revival of Rubrics ; on Ragged 
 Schools ; by a public correspondence in the Times with the chairman of the 
 Metropolitan School Board ; on trade ; the adulteration of British goods for 
 the Colonial markets ; and on dwellings for the poor. In addition to which 
 he was "much harassed by letters and business on Artisans' Dwellings 
 Company." 
 
 There were yet many more years before the labourer's task should end.
 
 CHAPTER XXXTV. 
 
 18761878. 
 
 FOE many years the Diary had been occasionally noted: "Dined with 
 Forster." " Some excellent talk to-day with Forster." " Forster has been 
 of great assistance to me." 
 
 John Forster, the historian, essayist, and journalist, the biographer of 
 Charles Dickens, Sir John Eliot, Goldsmith, and Landor, had hardly a friend 
 for whom he entertained a more reverential regard than for Lord Shaftesbury. 
 What Lord Shaf tesbury's feelings were towards him, are shown in the follow- 
 ing extract from the Diary : 
 
 Feb. 1st, seven o'clock. Have, this instant, received a telegram from Cleator 
 to say that Forster died this morning at eleven o'clock. Much shocked and 
 surprised ; for, though he had long been ill, no one apprehended danger. God's 
 will be done I I have lost now almost the last friend I had, on whose heart and 
 affection I could rely. He was, I believe, sincerely and truly attached to me. 
 Little did I think that he would be the next to fall out of the list of those for 
 whom I pray day and night. Many social hours of friendship, amusement, and 
 literary instruction, have I passed in his company. Only three days ago he wrote 
 in warm kindness to hail my return to London. . . . 
 
 The loss was keenly felt, and long afterwards, when perplexed and anxious 
 about some pending question, he would write, " Forster often gave me a kind, 
 encouraging word, but he is gone, and I miss my ' tonic.' " 
 
 The next entry records a circumstance which had a material influence 
 upon Lord Shaf tesbury's happiness : 
 
 Feb. 18th. By hook and by crook, by dodges and devices, by small sales of 
 outlying property, and disposal of tithes to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, 
 paid off, at last, the ruinous mortgage on the St. Giles's estate. Heartily do I 
 thank God for this deliverance. 
 
 On the 17th of February Mr. Disraeli obtained leave to bring in a Bill 
 enabling Her Majesty to make an addition to her style and title, but without 
 stating the exact form of the addition proposed. Mr. Lowe, assuming that 
 the contemplated title would be that of " Empress," objected emphatically to 
 the proposal. On the 9th of March, Mr. Disraeli, in moving the second 
 reading of the Royal Titles Bill, announced that the title Her Majesty would 
 assume, if the Bill were passed, would be that of " Empress," and that the 
 style of the new title would run thus : " Victoria, by the grace of God, of
 
 694 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXXIV. 
 
 the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Queen, Defender of the 
 Faith, and Empress of India." 
 
 Two days later (March llth) Lord Shaftesbury received a telegram, com- 
 manding him to attend at Windsor Castle on the following Monday, and to 
 remain until the next day. 
 
 It was twenty years since he had been the guest of Her Majesty, and it 
 was with no little surprise that he received the command. He was satisfied 
 that it must be for some special object, and he had little doubt that it related 
 to the question then uppermost in men's minds, the Royal Titles Bill. 
 
 Although the weather was inclement, Lord Shaftesbury went to "Windsor. 
 " I dread it," he wrote on the previous day, " the cold, the evening dress, the 
 solitude, for I am old, and dislike being far away from assistance should I be 
 ill at night. . . . She sent for me in 1848 to consult me on a very impor- 
 tant matter. Can it be so now ? " 
 
 March 14th. Returned from Windsor. I am sure it was so, though not 
 distinctly avowed. Her Majesty personally said nothing. . . . 
 
 The views that Lord Shaftesbury had expressed at "Windsor he was 
 requested by the Lord-in-"Waiting to communicate to Mr. Disraeli, and this 
 was accordingly done. 
 
 Those views were in every way opposed to the proposed title. To the 
 style " Queen of England and India " he had no objection, but from every 
 point of view, and especially from the Indian, he regarded the title of 
 " Empress " as objectionable. He felt satisfied that the chiefs of India, when 
 the matter was explained to them, would prefer to be governed by the same 
 name as are the people of England, and that the distinction would be offensive, 
 rather than pleasing. These views were soon to take more definite shape and 
 expression. 
 
 March 29th. Took a bold step the other day, and gave notice of address to 
 the Crown, praying Her Majesty not to take the title of " Empress." It seemed 
 almost a duty, as no one in the House of Lords, but myself, stood quite alone and 
 apart from every political connection. Two or three in the House thanked me 
 for it ; many more in the House of Commons. I shall be left with, perhaps, 
 twenty votes, or perhaps alone. 
 
 On the 3rd of April, in the presence of an audience unusually brilliant 
 and crowded, Lord Shaftesbury moved his amendment on the Royal Titles 
 Bill, to the effect that an Address should be presented to the Queen, praying 
 that Her Majesty might be pleased to assume " a title more in accordance 
 than the title of 'Empress' with the history of the nation, and with the 
 loyalty and feelings of Her Majesty's most faithful subjects." 
 
 In his opening words he said that it was " with the greatest grief, and yet 
 with the deepest conviction, he brought forward his resolution," but that as, 
 in " another place," it had been asserted that the resistance to the measure 
 proceeded from factions, from political and not from constitutional motives,
 
 1878.] THE ROYAL TITLES BILL. 695 
 
 he felt that " the first note of resistance in this House should be sounded by 
 some one wholly disconnected from either of the two great divisions that 
 agitate and adorn it." Throughout his speech he made use of the word 
 " Emperor," and he did so intentionally, " because," he said, " we shall in the 
 course of time have many more sovereign Emperors than sovereign Empresses. 
 It would be held first by an illustrious Lady, who has reigned for nearly 
 forty years, known and beloved: it bears, too, an impression of feminine 
 softness ; but as soon as it shall have assumed the masculine gender, and have 
 become an Emperor, the whole aspect will be changed. It will have an air 
 military, despotic, offensive, and intolerable, alike in the East and West of 
 the dominions of England." 
 
 In the course of his speech Lord Shaftesbury made one of his strongest 
 points when giving his opinion with regard to the feeling of the people, 
 especially of the working classes, on the subject. He had taken pains to 
 obtain information, and was prepared to assert that from the small tradesman 
 upwards, the universal feeling was one of repugnance. He was not fearful 
 of the result in happy and prosperous times, but he foresaw evil consequences 
 in days of distress, low wages, high prices, and general discontent. When 
 the traditions, and almost the compacts, of a thousand years were broken, it 
 would not be surprising if these people should turn round and say, " You are 
 trying to turn your King into an Emperor ; we also rshall make an effort to 
 turn him into a President." 
 
 Referring to the assertion of the Prime Minister that the repugnance, 
 wherever it existed among the people, was " a mere sentiment," Lord Shaftes- 
 bury said : 
 
 Sentiment, my Lords, to be sure it is, and a sentiment of the kind that ought 
 fco be cherished, and not to be despised. Now that the principle of Divine right 
 to the Throne has departed from the people now that they are in possession of 
 almost universal suffrage your Lordships' House and the Throne itself are 
 upheld by sentiment alone, and not by force or superstition. Loyalty is a senti- 
 ment, and the same sentiment that attaches the people to the word " Queen," 
 averts them from that of " Empress." 
 
 He concluded his speech thus : ^ 
 
 A time may come when, after a long course of happy rule, we may surrender 
 India to natives, grown into a capability of self-government. Our posterity may 
 then see an enlargement of the glorious spectacle we now witness, when India 
 shall be added to the roll of free and independent Powers that wait on the Mother 
 Country, and daily rise up and call her blessed. But, to attain this end, we must 
 train them to British sentiments, infuse into them British principles, imbue them 
 with British feeling, and rising from the vulgar notion of an Emperor, teach 
 them that the deepest thought and the noblest expression of a genuine Briton is 
 to fear God and honour the King. 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury's prognostication that on a division he should be 
 " left with perhaps twenty votes, or perhaps alone," was not realised. After
 
 696 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBUEY. fCHAP. XXXIV. 
 
 considerable discussion the proposal was, of course, rejected, but, as the Satur- 
 day Review observed, " the division on Lord Shaf tesbury's motion was more 
 significant than the debate. Eight dukes and many habitual courtiers voted 
 in the minority of 91, which protested against the vulgar and impolitic inno- 
 vation supported by 137." 
 
 Although the fears and forebodings of Lord Shaftesbury, and those who 
 thought with him, may appear now to have been groundless, or at least exag- 
 gerated, it must be borne in mind that most probably the protest entered by 
 those who loved the simple title of " Queen," contributed largely to the result 
 of " Empress " remaining a mere official and exotic addition to the ancient 
 title. There was, at the moment, great danger, which would have been f at 
 greater had no protest been made, of " Empress Yictoria " taking the place 
 of " Queen Yictoria " in daily conversation and use. 
 
 The first references in the Diary to a subject in which he was to take au 
 absorbing interest are these : 
 
 Jan. 18th, 1876. Times has an article, ingenious, hollow, and cruel, in favour 
 of Vivisection. It is the worship of science, and science must have its victims, 
 like Moloch or Chemosh. The system, it is manifest, will be legitimised by 
 statute, actually, and restricted by the same, apparently. It is a fearful issue 
 before us. The animals have no hope. Against them stand science and logic ; 
 in their favour impulse, under the influence of morbid tenderness and morbid 
 morality, so the Times says. . . . 
 
 Feb. 16th. Thinking of Vivisection, on which I can abundantly feel, but how 
 shall I be able to speak ? Here, too, I seek, where alone it can be found, " counsel, 
 wisdom, and understanding." 
 
 Although these are the first entries in the Diary on the subject of Vivisec- 
 tion, Lord Shaftesbury had for some time past revolved it in his mind, 
 Thoughts and actions were inseparable with him, and he had already assisted 
 in the formation of the "Yictoria Street Society for the Protection of 
 Animals from Vivisection," of which Society the accomplished Miss Frances 
 Power Cobbe was the honorary secretary. " Lord Shaftesbury never joined 
 the Yictoria Street Society," she says ; * " it was the Society which joined 
 Lord Shaftesbury. There was a day in November, 1875, when, having 
 telegraphed his readiness to support the project of Dr. Hoggan and Miss 
 Cobbe, he, in fact, founded the Society. It was around him, and attracted in 
 great part by his name, that the whole body eventually gathered." 
 
 He presided at a meeting of the Executive Committee on the 18th of 
 February, 1876, and thenceforth he practically directed all the public action 
 of the Society. His first important speech in behalf of the cause was made 
 in the House of Lords on the 22nd of May, in support of Lord Carnarvon's 
 Bill for Restricting Cruelty to Animals. The speech was published by the 
 Victoria Street Society, and it occupied twenty-two pages of a large-sized 
 pamphlet. 
 
 It was hoped that Lord Carnarvon's Bill would be passed by the House of 
 
 * The Zoophilist, Nov. 5th, 1882, p. 114.
 
 187.] VIVISECTION BILL. 697 
 
 Commons, practically unaltered from the shape in which it left the House of 
 Lords. But, in July, an important medical deputation waited upon the Home 
 Secretary (Mr. Cross), and put such pressure upon him " as to cause him to 
 eviscerate the Bill (then in his hands for presentation to the House of 
 Commons), and leave it the mangled and illogical measure which became, on 
 the 15th of August, by royal signature, the Vivisection Act, 39 & 40 Viet. 
 c. 77."* 
 
 The following extracts refer to Lord Shaftesbury's labours in the 
 matter : 
 
 May 23rd. Last night Vivisection debate. I spoke. I "went up like a 
 rocket, and came down like a stick." The House received me with favour, and 
 then grew weary of my details. . . . 
 
 June 3rd. . . . Huxley, the Professor, has written me a very civil, nay 
 kind, letter. I replied in the same spirit. Nevertheless, two of the three black 
 Graces, Law, Physic, and Divinity, are furious with me, because I have fought 
 for these unhappy animals. . . . 
 
 June 10th. ... It will either be "burked" under pretence of want of 
 time, or, which is more probable, made a Bill for general deception, and, under 
 the cloak of " restriction," be a measure to legalise and protect vivisectors, 
 without a particle of law or protection for the vivisected. Foresee much 
 trouble, and, what is worse, the necessity of many speeches. . . . 
 
 June 16th. ..." Endeavouring to keep up feeling on vivisection by circu- 
 lating speech, printed with corrections. . . . 
 
 June 21st. . . . Last night got the Vivisection Bill in Committee. No 
 division, and no changes, but those which I had previously concurred in with 
 Carnarvon and Cardwell. Seven bishops appeared ; one of them, Peterborough, 
 made a single observation ; but all the seven went away at dinner-time, leaving 
 undefended, so far as they were concerned, the most important clauses of the 
 Bill, which were in jeopardy through the hostility of several peers. The Arch- 
 bishop of York, the most noisy of all the Bench in favour of the Bill, had gone 
 abroad. Gloucester and Bristol, more pretentious even than York, could not stay. 
 Canterbury the same. Winchester the same. Of what use are the Bishops in 
 the House of Lords ? . . . 
 
 Aug. 12th. Cross called me to Council on Vivisection Bill. He is earnest, 
 true, anxious ; but he is beset by endless difficulties, and, principally, by lack of 
 time. Reverted to my old position that something was better than nothing, 
 specially if that something gives a foundation on which amendments may 
 hereafter be built. The thought of this diabolical system disturbs me night and 
 day. God, remember Thy poor, humble, useful creatures. . . . 
 
 The Eastern Question assumed a new phase in 1876, when some of the 
 provinces of Turkey rose in revolt against the tyranny under which they had 
 long groaned. The ruthless manner in which the Ottoman authorities strove 
 to suppress the rebellion more especially in Bulgaria alienated from 
 Turkey a large number of those who had hitherto stood by her, and looked 
 forward to her ultimate regeneration. 
 
 * The ZoophilitL
 
 698 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXXIV. 
 
 The horrible story of the " Bulgarian Atrocities " roused an intense 
 excitement in this country. On the 27th of July an influential meeting, 
 including a large number of Members of Parliament, was held at Willis's 
 Rooms, under the presidency of Lord Shaftesbury, to take steps towards 
 giving due expression to the national sentiment ; to declare that no moral or 
 material support ought to be given to the Turkish Government as against the 
 insurgent provinces; to express its deep abhorrence of the cruelties com- 
 mitted by the Turkish irregular troops upon the women and children and 
 unarmed inhabitants of Bulgaria, and to " record its opinion that the 
 notorious abuses of the Turkish rule in Europe, and the repeated failures of 
 the Sublime Porte to fulfil its solemn obligations, render it hopeless to expect 
 that any settlement of the Eastern Question will prove permanent which 
 does not confer upon the inhabitants of the insurgent provinces the full 
 rights of self-government." 
 
 When, in September, the official Report of the Atrocities committed on 
 the Christians in Bulgaria was published, it roused to intensity the wide- 
 spread feeling of abhorrence. "The month of September, 1876," says a 
 writer in the Quarterly Review, " will long be remembered in our history for 
 an outburst of righteous indignation, for a parallel to which we must look 
 back over the range of a long life to September, 1792."* It is thus referred 
 to in the Diary : 
 
 Sept. 6th. The anger I rejoice in it against the Turks is a universal fever 
 at blood-heat 1 Meetings everywhere. " Gladstone's vehemence," such is Delane'a 
 private language to me, " is even greater than yours." . . . 
 
 Sept. 18th. . . . Urged, pressed, almost commanded, by Mansion House 
 Committee, to attend meeting in London. In vain I urged 400 miles of distance, 
 the hour of two, to be followed by a journey the same night (making 800 miles) 
 to keep an engagement at Glasgow the next evening. . . . 
 
 Sept. 20th. Last night meeting at Glasgow to protest against the Turkish 
 Atrocities immense gathering closely, uncomfortably packed ; yet their furious 
 enthusiasm kept them patient and attentive. Duke of Argyll opened, in a 
 speech of an hour and three-quarters, a strong and vigorous indictment against 
 Lord Derby. . . . 
 
 In a letter to Mr. Haldane, Lord Shaftesbury says, " I little thought when 
 I tapped the Turkish question in Willis's Rooms the cask would run so 
 freely." It brought him an enormous amount of work, and a corresponding 
 amount of anxiety, for popular feeling, which at one time was at fever heat, 
 soon cooled down, and eventually opinion turned round altogether. 
 
 It was from no party spirit or interested motive of any kind that Lord 
 Shaftesbury took so prominent a part in rousing the indignation of England, 
 but simply from his love of humanity and hatred of oppression. Two years 
 later, when atrocities in Bulgaria were committed upon the Turks by the 
 Christian conquerors, he protested with equal indignation against "the 
 inhuman conduct of the conquerors and those who were benefiting by the 
 
 conquest." 
 
 * Quarterly Review, October, 1876.
 
 1877.] MR. GEORGE MOORE. 699 
 
 One of the losses of the year is thus referred to : 
 
 Nov. 22nd. If wealth and liberality constitute a great man, a great one has 
 fallen in our Israel. Two runaway horses dashed George Moore to the ground 
 in the streets of Carlisle, and death has ensued. Our loss is very severe. He 
 loved and maintained Christian men and Christian doings. Learn from this 
 that " one event happeneth to them all." The good and the bad suffer alike. 
 It is in the kingdom of our Lord alone that the difference will be manifested 
 and felt. . . . Cannot but think much of George Moore, he was ever so kind 
 to me in manner and language. 
 
 That George Moore thought much of Lord Shaftesbury is clear from his 
 own words : " Experiencee has convinced me," he says, " that Lord Shaftes- 
 bury is the most zealous and persevering philanthropist of the day. He is 
 always ready for every good work, and I never knew any man who could get 
 through so much. He never tires of doing good. He has extraordinary tact 
 and ability as a chairman ; and he has, perhaps, had more experience in 
 that position than any living man. His kind and courteous manner, his 
 large-heartedness, and his zeal in every good movement, will give him an 
 imperishable renown, and an everlasting inheritance with his Heavenly 
 Master."* 
 
 An amusing incident, a propos of Mr. Moore's tribute to the good chair- 
 manship of Lord Shaftesbury, may be related here. At a hospital dinner, 
 when time was very precious, a prosy speaker, when replying to a toast, 
 would continue talking, in spite of the growing impatience of the audience, 
 of which he was quite unconscious. In the midst of a long and uninteresting 
 speech he chanced, when alluding to the hospital staff, to fall into the inter- 
 rogative form, and after asking, "But what shall we say of Dr. M ?" 
 
 paused for a moment. In an instant Lord Shaftesbury, seizing the oppor- 
 tunity, rose and called for " Three times three for Dr. M ." The audi- 
 ence saw the drift, rose, and cheered to the echo. Overwhelmed with the 
 unexpected interruption, the orator resumed his seat, unable, in fact, to con- 
 tinue. " It was very kind of you." he said afterwards to Lord Shaftesbury, 
 " very kind, but it was really a pity, for I was just coming to the best part 
 of my speech ! " 
 
 From the year 1828 Lord Shaftesbury had continued to fulfil his duties 
 as a Commissioner in Lunacy, and the reports, issued from year to year, had 
 testified to the persistent and thorough services of the Board, in all of which 
 he zealously and actively co-operated. 
 
 There had recently arisen in the public mind a fear that patients were 
 placed in asylums too readily, and that the task of obtaining their discharge 
 was too difficult. On the 12th of February Mr. Dillwyn moved, " That a 
 Select Committee be appointed to inquire into the operation of the Lunacy 
 Laws so far as regards the security afforded by it against violation of per- 
 sonal liberty." 
 
 The Select Committee was duly appointed, and proceeded to institute a 
 
 " George Moore, Merchant and Philanthropist." By Samuel Smiles, LL.D.
 
 700 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXXIV. 
 
 general inquiry into the alleged abuses. It was to some extent an attack on 
 the Commissioners, whose office Mr. Dillwyn sought to abolish. 
 
 Feb. 13th. Mr. Dillwyn has obtained a Committee of Inquiry into the 
 operation of the Lunacy Laws. As in 1859, so now, I shall be summoned, as 
 chairman, to give evidence. 
 
 March llth. My hour of trial is near; cannot, I should think, be delayed 
 beyond the coming week. Half a century, all but one year, has been devoted to 
 this cause of the lunatics ; and through the wonderful mercy and power of God, 
 the state now, as compared with the state then, would baffle, if description were 
 attempted, any voice and any pen that were ever employed in spoken or written 
 eloquence. Non nobis Domine. 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury was, at this time, in a very nervous, sensitive, and de- 
 pressed state, and it is no exaggeration to say that his health was materially 
 injured by anxiety as to whether, in his examination upon Mr. Dillwyn's 
 Committee, he could fully justify the acts of the Lunacy Commission extend- 
 ing over many years, and support their procedure throughout. The worn 
 look of Sir John Millais' portrait of him, painted about this time, sufficiently 
 attests the state of his nerves.* The following year his countenance wore 
 quite another expression, by the testimony of Sir John Millais himself. 
 
 July 22nd. Sunday. Appeared again on Tuesday, 17th, before the Com- 
 mittee. . . . Beyond the circle of my own Commissioners and the lunatics 
 that I visit, not a soul, in great or small life, not even my associates in my works 
 of philanthropy, as the expression is, had any notion of the years of toil and care 
 that, under God, I have bestowed on this melancholy and awful question. . . . 
 
 Mr. Dillwyn's Select Committee arrived at the conclusion that, " although 
 the present system was not free from risks, which might be lessened, though 
 not wholly removed, by amendments in the existing law and practice, yet, 
 assuming that the strongest cases against the present system were brought 
 before them, allegations of mala fides or of serious abuses were not substan- 
 tiated." In his evidence before the Committee, Lord Shaftesbury said, with 
 respect to illegal detention, " I am ready enough to believe that when tempta- 
 tion gets hold of a man's heart, he is capable of doing anything. But I am 
 happy to say Providence throws so many difficulties in the way of these con- 
 spiracies, that I believe conspiracies, in ninety -nine cases out of a hundred, 
 to be altogether impossible." 
 
 So remarkable and so excellent was the evidence given by Lord Shaftes- 
 bury, that it was commented upon as something unique, regarded merely as 
 an effort of memory. We quote from one source only, The Journal of 
 Mental Science : " We must heartily congratulate his lordship on the way in 
 which the Act of 1845, his own handiwork, has passed through this examina- 
 tion. His lordship spoke with such a thorough mastery of every lunacy 
 question about which he was asked, that his replies are the admiration of all 
 
 * The Times in its art critique said, " These lines in the face of the great philan- 
 thropist would be painful were they not pathetic."
 
 1877.1 THE HON. ANTONY WILLIAM ASHLEY. 701 
 
 his younger fellow-countrymen who are in any way interested in the welfare 
 of the insane." 
 
 When Lord Shaftesbury was in the greatest anxiety with regard to the 
 inquiry of the Select Committee, he received intelligence of the death of his 
 only surviving brother, the Hon. Antony "William Ashley, Master of St. 
 Catherine's Hospital, to whom he had always been tenderly attached. He 
 died at Mentone, but was buried at Kensal Green, where, among the chief 
 mourners, were many of the poor of Bethnal Green, who belonged to a 
 mission which he had successfully carried on for many years, and in con- 
 nection with which he had himself conducted a class for working men. 
 
 July 22nd, Sunday. On night of 18th he entered into his rest, full of peace, 
 BO the letters say, in our Blessed Lord : there is the consolation, there can be 
 none without it. Every one who knew him has a kind word for him, and many 
 a strong feeling of affection. One more is now gone who loved me tenderly and 
 truly. It is a sad loss : but God's will be done. I do not suppose that a day 
 will henceforward pass in which I shall not think of him. 
 
 July 26th. This day he was consigned to the grave in the cemetery at 
 Kensal Green. It was no mere form to say, " In the sure and certain hope of a 
 joyful resurrection." Maria* was there. She told me again and again of his 
 last words, that he died in the " unbounded assurance of his Blessed Lord." Such 
 words as these are enough ; they are messages from Heaven, like my precious 
 wife's not many seconds before her final gasp : " None but Christ." " My poor, 
 dear old brother," said he, " will miss me, for he knows how truly and tenderly I 
 loved him." I do know it, dear William ; and I returned it. " We took sweet 
 counsel together, and we walked in the House of God as friends." 
 
 Among the "miscellaneous " labours of Lord Shaftesbury in this year was 
 an appeal on behalf of the suffering Bosnian and Herzegovinian refugees in 
 Austria. On the 17th of July he presided at a meeting in Willis's Rooms to 
 discuss the case, " not for controversy, but for compassion and generosity." 
 Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Shaw Lefevre eloquently supported Lord Shaftes- 
 bury's appeal, and the immediate result of the meeting was an addition of 
 900 to the funds. 
 
 The following extracts relate to divers matters : 
 
 Feb. 6th, 1877. Vaccinated, for at least the fifth time, a few days ago. The 
 doctor, after due inspection, pronounced that, without this last vaccination, 
 should not have been safe 
 
 May 5th. . . . This evening the great treat of the year to me, the dinner 
 at the Eoyal Academy, but I do not go. 
 
 July 27th. . . . Dined on 25th at Fishmongers' Hall. There was one 
 little episode which greatly pleased me. It came from Lord Hartington, the hero 
 of the evening, as we had met to honour his admission to the freedom of the 
 Company. I did not expect it, I did not know that he cared anything for me 
 personally, or had watched my career. 
 
 The part of the speech of Lord Hartington that had so " greatly pleased " 
 * The widow of the Hon. Antony William Ashley.
 
 702 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY, [CHAP. XXXIV. 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury was as follows : " I find upon the roll the names of Lord 
 Grey, Lord Holland, Lord Lansdowne, Lord Brougham, Lord John Russell, 
 Lord Althorp, and Mr. Hume ; and, coming down a little further, I find the 
 names of Lord Palmerston, Lord Clarendon, and of Mr. Cobden; and 
 descending to our own time, I find the name of Mr. Gladstone ; and last, but 
 not least, upon the roll, I find the name of one who has been admitted, not for 
 political services, but for services purer, nobler, and more illustrious than any 
 which we politicians can hope to render ; I mean that of my noble friend who 
 sits beside me Lord Shaftesbury." 
 
 Oct. 30th. Urged, some time ago, by editor of the Nineteenth Century, to 
 write an article on the Progress of Remedial Science and Remedial Action during 
 last Forty Years ; after mature reflection, declined, because I found that I must 
 be perpetually talking of myself. Engaged to-day in writing a preface for Miss 
 Cotton's " Our Coffee-Room." 
 
 . . . . I pass my time in writing " Prefaces " by request Thomas Wright's 
 "Life of Luther ; " " Uncle Tom's Biography" and to what purpose 1 Is it of 
 any service ? I know not. God prosper what I have done. 
 
 Dec. 8th. . . . Wrote to the Archbishop of Canterbury to denounce the 
 book just published by the S. P. C. K., "Arguments from Prophecy," and to 
 withdraw my name from the Society. Wrote also to Canon G-arbett, who, as a 
 member of the Special Committee, is responsible for the issue of the work. All 
 zeal for Christ seems to have passed away. 
 
 Into the merits of this, and similar controversies, we do not propose to 
 enter. At no period in the history of the world have there been such 
 marked, rapid, and almost universal changes in religious beliefs as in the past 
 quarter of a century. In the midst of them all Lord Shaftesbury " stood in 
 the old paths." The progress of Biblical criticism, the revelations of science, 
 the march of intellect, the growth of new and original theories never for a 
 moment altered his view of any doctrine of Scripture by one hair's-breadth. 
 Despite all the changes of religious beliefs in others, he, in 1878, not only 
 stood fast to every opinion he held in 1838, but he held every shade or phase 
 of those opinions. It is obvious, therefore, that there would be very few who 
 would endorse his advocacy of any vexed question in theology or modern 
 Christian philosophy, seeing that he regarded such questions from a stand- 
 point which, it is his constant lament, even the Evangelical party had 
 abandoned. 
 
 Two books were published by the Society for Promoting Christian 
 Knowledge, to both of which Lord Shaftesbury took exception. One was a 
 " Manual of Geology," by the Rev. T. G. Bonney ; the other, referred to in 
 the extract quoted above, was " The Argument from Prophecy," by the 
 Rev. Brownlow Maitland. A long paper warfare ensued, which was pub- 
 lished at length in the Record and other religious journals. 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury was keenly alive to the estimate that would be formed 
 of him from the attitude he had taken in this controversy. He knew that the 
 authors of the books would, in most of the journals, " appear as men of true
 
 1878.] ISOLATION. 703 
 
 science, who had been assailed by Ignorance and Bigotry ; " he knew that, 
 except in one or two quarters, he would be denounced as "narrow and 
 prejudiced," and that neither in public nor in private could he expect effecttial 
 support. It was, however, with him a matter of conscience, and, whether 
 right or wrong as regards the position he had taken up, as it was a position 
 in which he was placed by his conscience, he could not do otherwise than 
 defend it. 
 
 " The slightest concession in respect of the Revealed Word," he said, 
 " opens a door which can never be shut, and through which everything may 
 pass." 
 
 Referring, in his Diary, to the isolation in which this controversy placed 
 him, he wrote : 
 
 Feb. 16th, 1878. Who is with me? Who? Positively, I know not. Here 
 and there an individual, perhaps ; but nothing of note nothing of moral 
 courage among those who secretly believe (if there are any), has appeared on 
 my side. 
 
 According to all human estimate, all human judgment, all human calculation, 
 I must be wrong. I must be wilful, self-sufficient, ignorant, and stubborn. 
 
 I should, I suspect, say it of another in a similar position and why, then, not 
 of myself ? 
 
 Simply because I cannot. God, in the good pleasure of His will (so I dare to 
 think), has impressed the conviction, and the belief, irrevocably on my soul. It 
 would be easier for me to give up Revelation altogether, and reject the whole 
 Scriptures, than accept it on the terms, with the conditions, and the immediate 
 and future limitations of it, imposed and exercised by " high criticism." 
 
 It was when this sense of isolation pressed heavily upon him, that the loss 
 of his wife whose life had been so bound up with his, and whose wealth of 
 affection had made " rough places plain " was realised in all its crushing 
 weight. Yery touching and tender are the " strong cryings " of his soul, as 
 he dwells on the memory of the past. 
 
 March 2nd. The day before her death, even in her old age, she seemed to me 
 as beautiful as the day on which I married her ; and to that beauty was added 
 the intense love of her affectionate heart and her pious spirit. Such as I had 
 entreated of God, such had He given her to me. 
 
 Why was she taken away ? God, in His wisdom, alone can know. The loss 
 (I speak as a man) is beyond all power of language to express. God ! Thou 
 only knowest the severity of the stroke ; and how she was to me a security and 
 a refuge. Oftentimes had we formed plans of life and happiness for our 
 declining years. We imagined that our children might be, all of them, settled 
 in marriage or the engagements of duty ; and that we might retire to a small 
 house, and pass the remainder of our time in serving our most blessed Lord, and 
 comforting each other. 
 
 But His wisdom and His mercy decreed otherwise. 
 
 The year 1878 was memorable for seeing the completion of Lord Shaftes- 
 bnry s life-long battle on behalf of factory operatives. In 1874, when the 

 
 704 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBUKT. rCHAp. XXXIV. 
 
 Factories Bill (Health of Women) was brought in, he was able to state that 
 " the Protective Acts in the statute-book now cover a population of nearly 
 2,500,000 persons." Little remained, then, to be done, except in the way cf 
 consolidation, and this was effected by the legislation of 1878. 
 
 April 10th. Last night Factory Consolidation Bill in House of Lords. 
 Beauchamp spoke for nearly an hour ; I, perhaps, for twenty-five minutes ; the 
 report of the whole in the Times would be read in five. Nothing could exceed 
 Beauchamp's kind and laudatory language of the measure, and of myself in the 
 long course of forty-five years. He said everything that could please both 
 principle and vanity. 
 
 The final sanction of Parliament to these measures for consolidation was 
 given in the Factories and "Workshops Act of Sir Richard Cross, the Home 
 Secretary, who had to deal with forty -five Acts extending over a period of 
 fifty years, and by his Bill 'succeeded in bringing the scattered legislation 
 into one lucid and harmonious whole. On the Second Reading of this Bill 
 in the House of Lords, Lord Shaf tesbury said : 
 
 I presume to thank Her Majesty's Government (Lord Beaconsfield's) for the 
 bold and manly way in which they have come forward and settled a dispute 
 which might have become serious. It has been reserved for the present Govern- 
 ment to give a reduction of the number of hours, and we find ourselves at last, 
 after forty-one years of exertion, in possession of what we prayed for at the first 
 a Ten Hours Bill. 
 
 Many were the glowing tributes paid in both Houses of Parliament to 
 Lord Shaftesbury as the chief and most indefatigable promoter of Factory 
 Legislation from its struggling origin to its successful triumph. He was 
 congratulated on his having survived, after nearly half a century of conflict, 
 to see at last the topstone placed on the great work to which, " from his youth 
 up he had devoted so much personal sacrifice, so much patient toil, and so 
 much well-directed energy." 
 
 In the spring of this year Loi'd Shaftesbnry's course was very meteoric. 
 On the 13th of April we find him in the midst of a brilliant gathering in the 
 Free Church Assembly Hall, Edinburgh, receiving the freedom of that 
 ancient city. In the early part of May he was in Paris, opening the Salle 
 Evangelique at the Exhibition, and Miss Leigh's House of Refuge and 
 Instruction for young English women, and then back again to London and its 
 never-ceasing work. 
 
 May 19th, Sunday. London. May I, by His grace, die in harness ; and may 
 I, before I die, know when to desist from active share in public talking ! 
 
 "From Marlborough's eyes the streams of dotage flow ; 
 And Swift expires a driveller and a show ! " 
 
 May 24th. To-day to open a Congregational Chapel at Willesden, supposing, 
 until yesterday morning (when too late to recede), that I was going to open a 
 Workman's Hall. But it ended well. A stupendous sermon, for power and appeal 
 on the Bible, by Dr. Parker of the City Temple.
 
 I3T8.] ROSENEATH. 705 
 
 The deatli of Eai-1 Russell could not but affect Lord Shaftcsbury, whose 
 public life had been, in many ways, so closely associated with his. He refers 
 to it thus : 
 
 May 30th. The night before last Lord Russell departed this life at the age of 
 eighty -six. Though removed from the public gaze for the last few years, he has 
 been, it may be said, a conspicuous person for more than half a century. The 
 Time* has six columns of history and eulogy of his character and career. It 
 seems to me just and discriminating. Those who knew him well will hardly 
 think that it places him too low, though he himself (for doubtless he was 
 ambitious) might think that he was not placed sufficiently high. But to have 
 begun with disapprobation, to have fought through many difficulties, to have 
 announced, and acted on, principles new to the day in which he lived ; to have 
 filled many important offices, to have made many speeches, and written many 
 books ; and in his whole course to have done much with credit, and nothing 
 with dishonour, and so to have sustained and advanced his reputation to the very 
 end, is a mighty commendation. 
 
 During the Session there were many diverse subjects taken up by Lord 
 Shaftesbury, among them the welfare of the Christians of Armenia formed 
 the subject of a question, a speech in the House of Lords, and a letter to the 
 Times; while the charge of a ?oor Law Amendment Bill involved him in 
 another long speech in the House, and " heavy anxious work in various places 
 and ways." 
 
 There were frequent relaxations, however, and in July we find him again 
 on the Continent. From Cologne he wrote to Lord Granville, to " unburden 
 his spirit on Foreign affairs," and to the Times to " express his horror of 
 Russian and Bulgarian atrocities on Mussulmans and Christians." 
 
 In his Diary he notes : 
 
 Aug. 8th. Homburg. Two days ago luncheon at the Schloss with the 
 Crown Prince and Princess. They are truly amiable, simple, and full of good 
 sense, and very right feeling. Sat next to her, and had much conversation on all 
 subjects civil and religious. She pleased me mightily. 
 
 At the end of August Lord Shaf tesbury was again in Scotland, " received, 
 as ever, with hearty, true, and unaffected kindness" at Castle Wemyss. 
 After a visit of a fortnight, he proceeded to Roseneath, the Duke of Argyll's 
 place, at that time a house of mourning. In May Lord Shaftesbury had 
 written in his Diary : 
 
 May 25th. And now my dear friend, Elizabeth Argyll, one of the dearesi' 
 truest, steadiest of all those who loved me, is gone to her rest. She has for three 
 or four years been a sufferer. I loved her, treated her, regarded her, as my 
 daughter ; and she was indeed an affectionate one to me. 
 
 Lord God, comfort the Duke. He tenderly loved her. I know well how to 
 mourn with him. Turn his heart more and more to Christ, and that blessed 
 atonement in the precious blood shed for us upon the Cross. 
 
 Evory public discussion in which Lord Shaftesbury engaged cost him a 
 T T
 
 706 THE EARL OP 8HAPTESBURY. [CHAP. XXXIV. 
 
 world of suffering. His sensitiveness was extreme, and now there was added 
 to it the fears that come with old age. He thought that when he caine 
 forward to vindicate great principles there were fewer to support him, and, 
 when attacked, fewer to defend. 
 
 Dec. 18th. St. Giles's. The moment a man is said to be " a fine man for liis 
 age " he is simply enjoying an euphonious term for a demi-twaddler. If he does 
 anything well, people admire with a species of patronising compassion ; if he 
 does it ill, they ascribe it to actual, or approaching, imbecility. 
 
 After a sorrowful reference to his general isolation, the Diary thus pro- 
 ceeds : 
 
 In religious matters I know but Eeeve and Spurgeon, and they are seldom 
 or never within reach. In politics not a soul. In social matters, for the tem- 
 poral and eternal welfare of the weak and needy, I have, by the love, mercy, and 
 tenderness of our most dear Lord, a host of noble, ardent, trustworthy, precious, 
 inestimable friends George Holland, Gent, Smithies, Williams, Weylland, Miss 
 Rye, Mrs. Ranyard, and many more. Here I can disburden my heart ; but no- 
 where else. Well, I can to dear Lionel,* that staff of my old age. I bless thee, 
 Lord. 
 
 For those whose names are " entered on this list of friends," Lord Shafted- 
 bury had a deep and tender regard. Over and over again he refers to them 
 in his Diaries and correspondence. " Nature and Religion are the bands of 
 friendship," says old Jeremy Taylor ; " excellency and usefulness are its 
 great endearments." Lord Shaftesbuvy had proved the saying, and might 
 have echoed it in the words of Ben Jonson : 
 
 True happiness 
 
 Consists not in the multitude of friends, 
 But in their worth and choice. Nor would I have 
 Virtue a popular regard pursue ; 
 Let them be good that love me, though but few. 
 
 Let us see Lord Shaftesbury, for a while, in the midst of these "noble, 
 ardent, trustworthy, precious, inestimable friends." 
 
 The Rev. J. W. Reeve was the Incumbent of Portman Chapel, Baker 
 Street. In 1876 he accepted a Cauonry at Bristol offered him by his friend, 
 Lord Cairns, who was a member of his congregation. For many years Lord 
 Shaftesbury, when in town, attended his church, and enjoyed his ministry 
 with a keen relish which increased, rather than diminished, as the years went 
 on. 
 
 In September, 1882, Canon Reeve was " gathered to his fathers," and 
 Lord Shaftesbury paid a glowing tribute to his memory in these words : 
 
 Sept. 29th. A dear, good man is gone to his rest, having, by his life and 
 preaching during some forty years, taught thousands the way to heaven. The 
 
 * He lived hi the house with him.
 
 1878.) THE REV. 0. H. SPURGEON. 707 
 
 splendid sunset under which I am writing these few words is a sign and emblem 
 of his departure. To listen to, week by week, he was the most instructive and 
 comforting (healthy comforting) of all preachers. I rejoice that I told him the 
 truth when he retired from Portman Chapel, and said, " You have ever preached 
 Christ in His glorious simplicity." 
 
 Perhaps no one watched and prayed over the early career of Mr. Spur- 
 geon, the well-known Baptist minister of the Metropolitan Tabernacle, more 
 constantly than Lord Shaftesbury. He saw, from the first, that there was a 
 mighty mission in life before the young preacher, and despite certain eccen- 
 tricities which characterised his early days and alarmed not a few, Lord 
 Shaftesbury, looking below the surface, was satisfied that his great gifts 
 would become the inheritance of the whole Church of Christ. As the years 
 passed by, these two hearts were drawn very closely together. It was signi- 
 ficant that in 1872, when the Angel of Death was overshadowing his house- 
 hold, Lord Shaftesbury stole an hour or two one Sunday, when his heart was 
 torn with sorrow, to hear that "blessed servant of God," and be comforted. 
 In the Riviera, whither Mr. Spurgeon went from year to year, Lord Shaftes- 
 bury found his society wonderfully " stimulating and refreshing." Speaking 
 of him one day at a meeting of .the Church Pastoral Aid Society, he said, 
 " He is a truly good man, and all must acknowledge that he is a wonderful 
 preacher ; and I will further say, that he has trained a body of men who 
 manifest in their preaching that they possess, to a great extent, his great 
 secret of going right to the hearts of his audience. And what is his great 
 secret ? It is simply and solely that he preaches from the heart ' Jesus 
 Christ, and Him crucified.' " 
 
 On another occasion, when Lord Shaftesbury was prevented by illness 
 from being present at a Ragged School meeting, at which Mr. Spurgeon was 
 to give a special address, he wrote to the Secretary of the Ragged School 
 Union : 
 
 DEAR KIRK, I am much grieved that I am unable to be present. I am 
 grieved because there is no man in the country whose opinion and support in 
 such matters I prize more highly than those of my friend, Mr. Spurgeon. It 
 \\-oulil give me singular pleasure, after nearly forty years of work in the Bagged 
 School cause, to hear the testimony and counsel of so valuable a man. Few men 
 have preached so much and so well, and few men have combined so practically 
 tlirir words and their actions. I deeply admire and love him, because I do not 
 believe that there lives anywhere a more sincere and simple servant of our 
 blessed Lord. Great talenta have been rightly used, and, under God's grace, 
 have led to great issues. 
 
 Yours, 
 
 SHAFTESBURY. 
 
 The Diaries abound with references to Mr. Spurgeon, similar to the 
 following : 
 
 June 12th, 1875. At eleven o'clock yesterday to Spurgeon's Tabernacle, to go 
 with him over all his various institutions, School, College, Almshouae, Orphanage. 
 X T 2
 
 708 THB EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. Ar XXXtV. 
 
 All sound, good, true, Christianlike. He is a wonderful man, full of zeal, affection, 
 faith, abounding in reputation and authority, and yet perfectly humble, with the 
 openness and simplicity of a child. 
 
 July 10th, 1881. Drove to Norwood to see my friend Spurgeon. He is well, 
 thank God, and admirably lodged. His place is lovely. His wife's health, too, is 
 improved by change of residence. Pleasant and encouraging to visit such men 
 and find them still full of perseverance, faith, and joy, in the service of our 
 blessed Lord. 
 
 Friends are not always seen to the best advantage when they are in the 
 most perfect accord. It is when a difference of opinion arises and they are 
 obliged to take opposite courses, and yet do not waver by a Lair's-breadth in 
 their love and confidence, that their friendship shines with the strongest 
 lustre. It was so here. At one time there was a book published which 
 Mr. Spurgeon approved, but Lord Shaftesbury condemned. Each maintained 
 his own position, and, in doing so, each increased his love and esteem for the 
 other. 
 
 The Rev. C. H. Spurgeon to Lord Shaftesbury. 
 
 WESTWOOD, BEULAH HILL, UPPER NORWOOD. 
 
 MY DEAR FRIEND, I agree with you in heart and soul and faith, and so also 
 
 does . His expressions may not be clear, but his meaning is identical with 
 
 oui % own. There is, however, little hope of my leading you to think so, now that 
 
 Mr. has cast his lurid light upon the words ; and therefore I will not enter 
 
 into a discussion. Your action is wise, namely, to refrain from endorsing that 
 which you do not approve of. But, I pray you, believe that, as I know 
 and am as sure of his orthodoxy as I am of my own, I cannot desert him, or 
 retract the commendations which I am sure that he deserves ; but I am none the 
 
 less one with you. If you would only see , you would form a different 
 
 estimate of him ; but anyhow, I shall not love or admire you one atom the lesa 
 whatever you do. I am, perhaps, more lenient than you are, because I never was 
 able to be quite so guarded a speaker as you are. I think no man speaks so much 
 as you do with so few blunders ; but impetuous people get into muddles. I quite 
 agree with Mr. Forster's estimate of you as certain to have been Premier had you 
 been ambitious in that direction, for you very seldom allow your speech to get 
 cloudy or to run over to the other side when emphasising this ; but pray do not 
 expect such accuracy of us all. Here is a man who, with tears, denies the slightest 
 complicity with heterodoxy, and says that he lives and feeds on the old-fashioned 
 truth so dear to us well I believe what he says, and wish that half the orthodox 
 were as orthodox as he. The Lord ever bless and sustain you, my dear friend, 
 and spare you to us for many years to come. 
 
 I wish, when these meetings are over, you would come and see 
 
 Your Lordship's most hearty friend, 
 0. H. SPURGEON. 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury to the Rev. C. H. Spurgeon. 
 
 MY DEAR FRIEND, If stands high in your esteem, it is, I am confident, 
 
 because you decidedly and conscientiously believe that he holds, in all truth and 
 earnestness, the grand vital doctrines of the Christian faith, those doctrine*
 
 1878.) MB. GEORGE HOLLAND. 709 
 
 indispensably necessary to salvation, and which have been the life and rule of 
 your ministerial services. 
 
 In these have been your joy and your strength. Signal as are the talents that 
 God has bestowed upon you, they would, without preaching Christ in all Hia 
 majestic simplicity, have availed yon nothing to comfort and instruct the hearts 
 of thousands. Such being the case, who would expect you to recede, by one 
 hair's-breadth, unless you carried your convictions with you ? 
 
 Certainly not I. 
 
 Do not suppose that Mr. has formed my opinions for me. The book had 
 
 fallen into my hands long before I had read Mr. 's treatise. 
 
 I am deeply gratified by your kind letter, and all its candid and friendly 
 expressions. You must not admit any abatement of your regard and love for me. 
 Mine towards you can never be lessened while you stand up so vigorously, so 
 devotedly, so exclusively, for our blessed Lord. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 SHAFTESBUBY. 
 I will pay you a visit as soon as possible. 
 
 " George Yard, Whitechapel," does not sound attractive, but it was a 
 place to which Lord Shaftesbury was drawn by many enduring ties; for 
 there lived and laboured his friend, George Holland, one of the great fathers 
 of mission work amongst the poorest and most degraded. For many years 
 Lord Shaftesbury was a frequent visitor to the Mission, and what he did and 
 said there will be told hereafter. Here we must briefly record the grounds 
 of the friendship referred to, and we cannot do so better than in one or two 
 extracts from the Diary : 
 
 May 31st, 1878. Went in evening to Whitechapel. Anniversary of George 
 Holland's work in the locality. What a miracle of labour and God's goodness in 
 that terrible district, which, nevertheless, terrible as it is, produces many instances 
 of truth and virtue. 
 
 In August, 1878, when recording in his Diary the return of Lord Beacons- 
 field from the Conference at Berlin, and the ovation given to him at the 
 Mansion House, Lord Shaftesbury says : 
 
 The steps of this mighty man, to glory and greatness, are strides as rapid as 
 they are broad. And yet I had rather, by far, be George Holland, of White- 
 chapel, than Benjamin D'Israeli, Earl of Beaconsfiold. 
 
 Nov. 5th, 1880. St. Giles's. Went on Wednesday evening to Whitechapel for 
 Service for Ragged Children. Deeply touched. Blessed God for the sight, and 
 that He has raised up and sustained such a genuine, ardent, lovable, and Christ- 
 hearted man as that dear and beloved George Holland. 
 
 March 14th, 1881. This afternoon to George Yard Ragged School. It is 
 touching to see the smile of those small outcasts when one pats their cheeks, 
 with words of praise and affection. It does one good, heart and mind. And so 
 it does to see that inestimable man, George Holland, and converse with him. I 
 had rather be George than ninety -nine-lumdredths of the great living and dead. 
 What a servant of our beloved and precious Lord 1
 
 710 THE EARL OP SHAPTESBURY. [CHAP. XXXIV. 
 
 March 17th, 1882. Hear that George Holland is not well What shall I do if 
 the dear, blessed man be taken away, or incapacitated ? God, in Thy goodness, 
 forbid it I 
 
 One day, when speaking to the writer of Mr. George Holland, Lord 
 Shaftesbury said : " I know of nothing like his zeal ; he has laboured for tho 
 last twenty years night and day ; he has given all his time, all his talents, all 
 his life, to his work ; and ho is just as fresh, as earnest, and as enthusiastic 
 as lie was twenty years ago. I never saw his like. He seems to live in the 
 full light of God. And did you ever see such a face as his ? It is always 
 radiant. It does me as much good to see George Holland's face as to hear a 
 sermon." 
 
 To Mr. Gent and his life-long services in the cause of Ragged Schools we 
 have already referred. Lord Shaftesbury said on one occasion, when pre- 
 senting him with a testimonial from the ragged scholars and teachers : 
 
 No man living, my friends, has a greater right to speak of Joseph Gent than 
 I have. I have been associated with him for nearly forty years. We have not 
 been on ordinary terms. I have known him intimately ; I have acted with him 
 frequently by day and by night ; I have visited with him the dens of human 
 misery and wickedness ; and I have ever found him active, zealous, intelligent, 
 honourable, and sympathetic. He feared no responsibility. Having one object 
 before him, which was so great and so good, he felt that to be quite sufficient. 
 He was always ready to devote his time, his talents, and everything he possessed 
 to the accomplishment of the immediate object before him, though it may, 
 perhaps, have been no more than the rescue of the most wretched creature to be 
 found in this vast metropolis. 
 
 On a wall in Lord Shaftesbury's library in Grosvenor Square there hung 
 two portraits one, that of a motherly lady surrounded by her dogs ; tho 
 other, that of an earnest-looking man wearing a skull-cap. He always spoke 
 of them as " Eunice " and " Timothy." They were portraits of Mrs. Smithies 
 and her son, Mr. T. B. Smithies, the Editor of the British Workman, and the 
 originator of innumerable good things for the welfare of men and tho 
 " inferior animals." For him Lord Shaftesbury had a profound regard, and 
 went heart and soul with him in his labours not only to prevent cruelty to 
 animals, but to encourage kindness and affection for them. 
 
 Those were sad days to Lord Shaftesbury in which he made the following 
 entries in his Diary : 
 
 July 20th, 1883. Six o'clock. Just heard by telegram from Miss Smithies 
 that her brother is at the point of death. God in His mercy has seldom given a 
 better man to refresh and comfort this earth ; and he is now taking him to 
 Heaven. I loved the man ; I highly esteemed him. He has been invaluable in 
 his generation. I know that I enjoyed his respect and love ; and now another of 
 my dear and precious friends will be gathered to his rest in the arms of that 
 blessed and only Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, whom he so faithfully served, and 
 so humbly and tenderly adored. His sister, dear woman, ia worthy of him. 
 
 July 27th. Went yesterday to Abney Park Cemetery, to attend the funeral of
 
 1878.) A HOST OF FRIENDS. 711 
 
 that dear and true saint of our blessed Lord, T. B. Smithies. To whom, better 
 than to him, can the text be applied, "Blessed are the dead that die in the 
 Lord"? 
 
 Time would fail to tell of Mr. William Williams, of the Refuges and 
 Training Ships; of Mr. Weylland, of the London City Mission; of Miss 
 Rye and her Canadian Emigration schemes; of Mrs. Ranyard, her Bible 
 Women and Bible Houses, and " her directing and controlling administrative 
 powers, such as few statesmen have possessed ; " and the " many more " who 
 mado up Lord Shaftesbury's list of friends. To these all he gave no mean 
 gift when, as to the others we have mentioned more particularly, he gave 
 ungrudgingly las confidence and affection ; from these ho received not a little 
 when they supported him, as they did, loyally and nobly in his great work, 
 upbearing him in their prayers, and stimulating him by their zeal. 
 
 When, in the far-off times, " an host compassed the city both with horses 
 and chariots," in a fit of despondency the servant of Elisha cried, "Alas, 
 master, how shall we do ? Then his eyes were opened ; and he saw ; and 
 behold the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about 
 Elisha." 
 
 It was only when Lord Shaftesbury was compassed about witli labours 
 cin'ii^li to tax the strength of half a dozen men that he grew depressed, and 
 nervous, and morbidly sensitive, and exclaimed, " I have not a friend to whom 
 I ran open my heart and hope for sympathy." But "when his eyes were 
 opened," and he sought to name the host of " noble, ardent, trustworthy, 
 precious, inestimable friends," he was not equal to the task. He names but 
 half a dozen, and adds " and many more." The " mountain was full " of 
 noble men and honourable women of every rank, of every sphere of labour, of 
 almost even' land and clime, who loved him and whom he loved.
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 18791882. 
 
 THE first important work to which Lord Shaftesbury turned his attention 
 this year related to a field on which he had expended his earliest public 
 labours the welfare of India. 
 
 A year had scarcely elapsed since the passing of the Act to amend and 
 consolidate ttie law relating to Factories and Workshops, when a cry from 
 India compelled him to " resume the weapons he had long ceased to handle," 
 and stand forth as the champion of the women and children of India, who 
 were suffering under a grinding oppression, even worse than that from which 
 the women and children of England had been delivered. Under successive 
 Governments Lord Shaftesbury called attention to the cruel system in 
 operation in the Bombay factories, but without effect a system as barbarous 
 as that which once existed in this country, but aggravated, in a fourfold 
 degree, by the heat of an Indian climate, and the disregard of a weekly day 
 of rest. 
 
 The time had come when he must make one final effort on their behalf. 
 
 March 29th. Heavily pressed and heavily oppressed. Have lost all my 
 former buoyancy, and contemplate effort with something akin to terror. Lie 
 down very much for short intervals ; and so get strength and a whiff of 
 courage. Heartily pray to God, hour by hour, that I may have power to 
 discharge the " few things that remain ; " but feel, in some measure, like Saul. 
 Surely, as of old, the doubt and sorrow will pass away on the day of trial. Indian 
 children must be pleaded for before a hostile Ministry and an unsympathising 
 House. 
 
 On the 4th of April lie moved that an address be presented to Her 
 Majesty, " praying that Her Majesty will be graciously pleased to instruct 
 the Viceroy of India to take into immediate consideration the necessity of 
 passing a law for regulating the labour of women and children in the mills 
 and factories throughout her dominions in India." 
 
 In a speech of commanding eloquence, which occupied an hour in delivery, 
 he set forth a mass of evidence and a series of convincing arguments founded 
 upon it ; and then the old Lancashire days of half a century ago flashed 
 across his memory, and he exclaimed : 
 
 Why, my lords, what more do you require ? The whole evidence of 1833 rises 
 up as a witness against them. Creed and colour, latitude and longitude, make no 
 difference in the essential nature of man. No climate can enable infants to 
 do the work of adults, or turn suffering women into mere steam-engines.
 
 1879.J MILLS AND FACTORIES IN INDIA. 713 
 
 In meeting the argument, if argument it might be called, urged in pallia- 
 tion of the labour, that it was light, he said no doubt much of it was light if 
 measured by the endurance of throe or four minutes : 
 
 But what say you, my lords, to a continuity of toil, in a standing posture, in 
 a poisonous atmosphere, during thirteen hours, with fifteen minutes of rest? 
 Why, the stoutest man in England, were he made, in such a condition of things, 
 to do nothing during the whole of that time but be erect on his feet and stick 
 pins in a pincushion, would sink under the burden. What say you, then, of 
 children children of the tenderest years ? Why, they become stunted, crippled, 
 deformed, useless. I speak what I know ; I state what I have seen. 
 
 Again there arose the vision of the past. He was living once more amid 
 the old horrors of earlier years ; and there passed before his eyes a scene at 
 Bradford in 1838, when Mr. Jolm Hardy, " the worthy father of the noble 
 Secretary of State for India, was Member for that borough, and one of his 
 most hearty supporters." He thus recalled it : 
 
 I asked for a collection of cripples and deformities. In a short time more 
 than eighty were gathered in a large courtyard. They were mere samples of the 
 entire mass. I assert without exaggeration that no power of language could 
 describe the varieties, and I may say the cruelties, in all these degradations of 
 the human form. They stood or squatted before me in the shapes of the letters 
 of the alphabet. This was the effect of prolonged toil on the tender frames of 
 children at early ages. When I visited Bradford under the limitation of hours, 
 some years afterwaids, I called for a similar exhibition of cripples ; but, God be 
 praised, there was not one to be found in that vast city. Yet the work of these 
 poor sufferers had been light, if measured by minutes, but terrific when measured 
 by hours. 
 
 It was a remarkable speech. The old theme brought back the youthful 
 energy, and it was impossible to realise that the speaker was fast approaching 
 his fourscore years. 
 
 The movement was a success as far as Lord Shaftesbury was concerned. 
 A Bill on the subject was passed in India for the regulation of labour in the 
 factories. In many respects, however, it has failed to accomplish the purpose 
 it was designed to effect, as there is no public opinion in India to demand 
 that its provisions shall bo strictly enforced. 
 
 More successful, in some respects, was another measure, which, in tlio 
 same Session, Lord Shaftesbnry carried through the House of Lords The 
 Habitual Drunkards Bill. It had come up from the House of Commons, 
 wln-rti Mr. Dalrymple, "a gentleman, of whose labours, intelligence, and zeal, 
 it was impossible to speak too highly," had watched over it with infinite 
 pains. It passed into law, and Lord Shaftesbury became the President of 
 the Society for the Establishment of the Dalrymple Homes or Retreats for 
 Im-briates. 
 
 < >:i the 16th of July ho delivered his second important speech, in the 
 House of Lords, against Vivisection, when supporting Lord Truro's Bill for 
 its total abolition. His argument was to the effect that whether Vivisection
 
 714 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [Cnxp. XXXV. 
 
 were conducive to the advance of science, or the reverse, there was one great 
 preliminary consideration : on what authority of Scripture, or any other form 
 of Revelation, did his opponents rest their right to subject God's creatures 
 to unspeakable sufferings ? The animals were His creatures, as we were His 
 creatures, and " His tender mercies," we are told in the Bible, " are over all 
 His works." 
 
 Excellent as was the pleading, it was unavailing, and the Bill was lost. 
 
 The shadows of evening were lengthening, and, in the pauses of his still 
 busy life, we find Lord Shaftesbury looking back on the long journey he had 
 travelled, and dwelling in memory amidst the scenes in which his youth had 
 been passed. But the ruling passion of turning thought into action was as 
 strong within him as ever, and we find him not only reviewing the past, but 
 visiting the places with which its memories were connected. Thus he seeks 
 out the old school-house at Chiswick, where his early childhood was embittered, 
 but where he first learnt to sympathise with the sorrowful and the oppressed ; 
 and he visits Wales, where the " floating impressions of a life of service " 
 became fixed and rooted. 
 
 July 31st. Went yesterday to Chiswick to see the place where I was at school 
 now sixty-seven years ago. It was a horrible time I spent there the Manor 
 House, and now a Lunatic Asylum. The two fronts almost unchanged ; every- 
 thing else completely transformed. 
 
 Oct. 16th. Carnarvon. Ran down here to take chair of Anniversary of Bible 
 Society. Had never before visited the Principality as President and yet well 
 do they deserve such a mark of respect, for their zeal in love of the Bible is 
 unbounded ; and their liberality vast, according to their means. It was a d.uty ; 
 and it became a pleasure. These Welsh people are lively, ardent, earnest, 
 exuberant, and yet honest, in feeling. A magnificent meeting at least five 
 thousand persons, and all of one mind. God Almighty, for Christ's sake, look 
 down on this " small and feeble folk " struggling to serve Thee, and advance Thy 
 precious Name in this world of iniquity. As for myself, it was an " ovation," 
 not a reception. The children of the Sunday Schools first came to meet me ; 
 God and His Christ bless their souls throughout the ages of eternity. 
 
 Referring to this ovation, which gave him unqualified pleasure, he says in 
 a note, written to Mr. Haldane on the f ollowing day : 
 
 I have seldom seen such sustained and real enthusiasm. It is wonderful that 
 God so supported me that my voice never faltered, and I was heard (so I was 
 informed by persons at the very end of the hall) to the extent of every syllable. 
 Strange to say (I thank God for it), I never was less fatigued in my life ; and I 
 rejoice, beyond measure, that I undertook the duty and discharged it. 
 
 In the early part of this year Mr. Fetter (of the firm of Cassell, Fetter, 
 and Galpin) began to urge Lord Shaftesbury to allow his biography to bo 
 written during his lifetime and with his co-operation. Although Mr. Fetter 
 used every argument that he thought would have weight, he was unable at 
 that time to induce Lord Shaftesbury to entertain the proposition. Owing
 
 1879.] CORRESPONDENCE WITH MR. FETTER. 715 
 
 to his state of health, the matter was allowed to drop for a while, but towards 
 the close of the year Mr. Fetter returned to the charge, fortifying himself 
 with fresh arguments, haying enlisted on his side the assistance of Mr. Hal- 
 dane and Mr. Stevenson A. Blackwood. To the former he wrote : " It (the 
 biography) would, in my judgment, be a starting-point for the re-awakening 
 of sound religious effort." 
 
 In a lengthy letter to Mr. Fetter, Lord Shaftesbury set forth his views 
 on the subject. " I feel very deeply the honour of the proposition," he wrote, 
 " and I am much gratified that it should have come from the representative 
 of the distinguished firm which still bears, among others, the name of my 
 valued friend, the late Mr. Cassell." After examining the difficulties 
 attending the "writing of a biography folly and impartially during the 
 lifetime of the subject of it," he proceeded to consider the various classes 
 of the world of readers who, with his characteristic self -depreciation, he 
 thought unlikely to take any interest in a memoir of himself. In the event, 
 however, of a demand, for a memoir, he said : " I am quite content to rest 
 on things as they are, and leave to posterity to judge me according to the 
 information they may have, or forget mo altogether ; but if a life is to be 
 written, and in great measure under my correction, I should strongly urge 
 the introduction of much to show the principles on which I acted, the diffi- 
 culties I had to contend with, the motives which prompted me, the multi- 
 farious labours I undertook, and the success or failure which attended them. 
 The whole of that, so far as my notoriety is concerned, may go to ' the tomb 
 of all the Capulets,' but if I am to be shown up alive or dead, I should desire 
 to be shown up as I am, or as I was, and not in a picture drawn by well- 
 disposed or ill-disposed ignorance." 
 
 At that time Lord Shaftesbury had in his mind the fixed intention of 
 destroying his journals and other documents ; and as it seemed to him im- 
 possible that the conditions indicated in the foregoing passage could be ful- 
 filled, he concludes : " Is it not better to leave the world to judge me as I 
 stand before them ? What they see they believe ; what they do not see they 
 would not believe, though I assured them of it. If their judgment bo 
 favourable, it will be pleasant to my family ; if it be the reverse, it would do 
 no harm to myself whether I be dead or among the living." 
 
 Mr. Fetter felt impelled to urge Lord Shaftesbury to reconsider the ques- 
 tion, and a voluminous correspondence ensued. At length, as shown in tlio 
 preface, Lord Shaftosbury felt that a biography was " inevitable," and he 
 made arrangements for the preparation of the present work. 
 
 The close of 1879 and the beginning of 1880 found him in the midst of a 
 congeries of troubles a long and painful illness, which at length reached an 
 alarming crisis; serious financial difficulties, arising from failure of trado 
 and harvest ; and a second dangerous illness of his son Cecil. Notwith- 
 standing these things, with the first return of comparatively good health he 
 was again at work on things new and old. Among them was an effort in aid 
 of the Armenian Church, within whose borders a remarkable movement
 
 716 THE EARL OF 8HAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXXV. 
 
 towards Protestant Reformation was taking place. It was their desire to 
 establish in Armenia a form of Church government similar to that of the 
 Church of England. Archbishop Migherditch came to this country to obtain 
 assistance in the movement, and a meeting was held at Lambeth Palace on 
 behalf of the cause, at which Lord Shaftesbury was the principal speaker. 
 
 It was not possible for him to take any more active part than this, for, 
 as he noted in his Diary : 
 
 Personally now I must shape my action according to my power of mind and 
 body. Though strong physically, all things considered, for one at my time of 
 life, I must moderate exertion and keep within due limits. Suffer frequently a 
 great deal of discomfort, but not much from sheer weakness, though certainly 
 could not stand any very prolonged effort of voice or body. Seek, far more than 
 formerly, the relief of a sofa or an arm-chair. Mentally, reluctant to exertion ; 
 shrink from any thought when making a speech ; and when driven to it, find 
 that the imagination is not lively ; and whatever is produced less easily clothed 
 in words than in former days. Shall give up all thought of anything in House 
 of Lords or on eminent platforms. . . . Can take, then, no part in the 
 coming struggles, brief and useless, between the Radicalism of the Commons 
 and the Conservatism of the Lords, but still shall have strength, by God's mercy, 
 to look after Ragged Schools, and rescue a few poor creatures from misery and 
 sin. 
 
 For his invalid daughter-in-law, the Hon. Mrs. Evelyn Ashley, Lord 
 Shaftesbury had the most tender affection, and during her enforced residence 
 abroad, in search of health, lie was wont to send her frequent long and 
 cheery letters, full of the details which he knew would please and interest 
 her. 
 
 Lord Sliaftcsbury to the Hon. Mrs. Evelyn Ashley. 
 
 THE SAINT, Jan. 1880. 
 
 DEAREST SISSET, Not one happy New Year, but many, to you all, Edy, 
 Lilian, Dovey, Wilfrid, not forgetting Sandy,* and say the same to my old and 
 dear friend, Lady Mary, to Charlotte, Blanche, to Minnie when she arrives, and 
 any one I may have left out. 
 
 I had a letter from you dated the 27th of December, and I can assure you 
 that my anxieties for Sandy were equal to your own ; and as Solomon, the 
 fruiterer, could not sleep because of thinking how in the world he should supply 
 Palmerston with oranges, so I had restless nights in turning over schemes for 
 the cure- and treatment of that precious animal. . . . 
 
 I have just received Edy's letter. I am so glad that he has given up his 
 pilgrimage to Crete and Algeria. He will be wanted in Ireland ; and the time 
 now is very short before we recommence our tedious and necessary nonsense in 
 Parliamentary things. . . . 
 
 Now, how are you, my dear ? Better, I trust, and full of hope. You must 
 not answer my letters ; a message through Hilda, to whom you disburden your 
 mind, will be enough. . . . 
 
 I have had the agitators here ; they came to stir the people to a sense of 
 their wrongs and an assertion of their rights. They earnestly requested the use 
 
 * A favourite dog.
 
 1T.) CENTENARY Of SUNDAY SCHOOLS. 717 
 
 of the schoolroom, which I gave them, and, " to do the thing handsome," paid for 
 the lights. The Chairman, Mr. Chadwick, of Manchester, G.P.L.U., and a 
 hundred other letters, desired that I should be informed that he had frequently 
 sat near me in the factory districts when I was fighting the battle of the women 
 and children 1 I dare say in his " hortation " to the labourers he " served me out " 
 famously. Nevertheless, it is right to treat these chaps with courtesy, and 
 " snooks," as the phrase is, what they say or do. 
 
 Now, Sissey, mind that you take proper care of yourself. Dr. Edy in his 
 letter to me has well described the climate. It is fine, but treacherous, and will 
 play you ten times more tricks than Old England in twenty years. Do not be 
 over-hasty to take drives ; and if yon take one, let it be before two o'clock, that 
 is for the present and the next month. . . . 
 
 God bless you, my dear. We think of you at the rising and setting of the 
 sun, by day and by night. " Heaviness may endure for a night, but joy cometh 
 in the morning." So will it be, by God's grace, with you. 
 
 Yours affectionately, 
 
 S. 
 
 The General Election in the spring of 1880 had excited his apprehensions, 
 and the result filled him with anxiety. 
 
 May 19th. The issue of the present state of things as clear as though it were 
 the past. Should this Government continue to hold power, the changes towards 
 Democracy, or what is equivalent thereto, American institutions, will be sharp, 
 rapid, and many. 
 
 Indeed, so qualified and diluted are the sentiments and feelings of the country, 
 that a strong Conservative Government could now only retard the fulfilment of 
 the hopes and efforts of the Schools of Birmingham and Manchester. 
 
 In 1880 the Centenary of Sunday Schools was celebrated ; nowhere with 
 greater enthusiasm than in the ancient city of Gloucester, where Robert 
 Raikes was born, whore ho founded the noble institution which has been a 
 blessing throughout Christendom, and where he died and was buried. To 
 commemorate the Centenary, it was decided to raise a monument in the 
 cathedral church to its famous citizen, and on a certain day to unveil the 
 model of the statue in tho Shire Hall. By universal consent, Lord Shaftes- 
 bary was the only man who should perform that duty. 
 
 With crowds lining the streets, flags and banners flying, church bells 
 ] aling, and lusty voices shouting, it was little thought, as the venerable peer 
 passed through the town, accompanied by his old friend, Mr. Haldane, thnt 
 liis heart was sinking within him in a very paroxysm of nervous anxiety the 
 state of mind aptly described, as he says, by the familiar saying, " not know- 
 ing what may happen next.'* 
 
 June 27th. Sunday. Day opens brightly. To-morrow must start for 
 Gloucester to celebration of Centenary of Raikes and Sunday Schools ; and 
 returning on Wednesday, with a pause of only two hours, go to Isle of Wight for 
 same purpose. 
 
 June 28th. About to start for Gloucester ; heavily oppressed by a cold, and 
 in low spirits. Anything but fit for this work. God be with ma
 
 718 
 
 THE EARL OP SHAFTE8&URY. [CHAP. XXXV. 
 
 The prayer was answered. He received the Mayor and Corporation, the 
 Centenary Committee, the inevitable " address," and he successfully accom- 
 plished the speeches in reply, the " great " speech at the unveiling, and 
 another in the Shire Hall in the evening. 
 
 Two hours after his return from Gloucester he was on his way to the 
 Isle of "Wight, whither he went at the request of his son Evelyn, who was 
 member for the island. The Centenary took place in the open air within the 
 picturesque enclosure of the ruins of Carisbrooke Castle. 
 
 July 1st, 1880. Landguard Manor, the residence of the very kind and hospit- 
 able Col. and Lady Isabel Atherley. Returned from Carisbrooke ; meeting very 
 good ; many clergy ; the principal Wesleyan Minister and an army of teachers ; 
 did my best ; not wearied. 
 
 On his return he took part in a monster celebration in London, at the 
 unveiling of the statue of Raikes on the Thames Embankment. 
 
 Very little was done by Lord Shaftesbury in the House of Lords this 
 year. He spoke, however, on the Employers' Liability Bill, the Hares and 
 Rabbits Bill, and the Irish Registration Bill. But although he took a less 
 active part than usual, his interest in politics was even more keenly alive, and 
 he recommenced his " Diary of Political Observations," after an interval of 
 nearly twenty years. The events referred to are of too recent occurrence to 
 be dwelt upon here. To him they were full of significance : the return of 
 Mr. Bradlaugh for Northampton ; the democratic spirit in the Cabinet ; the 
 agitated state of Ireland ; the vehemence of the demand for Home Rule ; 
 these and many other " signs of the times " convinced him that a conflict was 
 approaching " speedy, clear, and sharp." The spirit of change was every- 
 where at work, and it seemed to him as though the decree had gone forth, 
 " Overturn, overturn, overturn ! " The thought of this " democratic, socialistic, 
 revolutionary" principle, working and spreading, filled him with the gloomiest 
 apprehensions. Thus, when at St. Giles's among his tenantry, he writes : 
 
 Oct. 20th. We may benefit a little the rising generation, but we can do 
 nothing for posterity, as the whole system of things is about to be broken up. 
 The relations between the peasantry and the proprietor, the tenant and the land- 
 lord, have already a new complexion. The commercial principle has taken the 
 place, to a vast extent, of the mitigated feudal principle ; and the forthcoming 
 Land Laws will speedily demolish the great estates, and scatter the old families 
 to the winds, with all the traditions, feelings, habits, and affections of many 
 generations. 
 
 There will be no inheritance among his people to a man's prayers and 
 labours on their behalf. There will be no more a farmer to say, " I have lived 
 for 200 years on the same farm under the same family," as the Shepards here can 
 say ; no more a cottager, as at Purton, " I, and mine, have lived in this cottage, 
 under you and yours, for 250 years." 
 
 Such are the changes in social life, decided, remorseless, inevitable. May the 
 Isaac be for the general benefit of the human race.
 
 1879.1 HOME RULK. 719 
 
 The state of Ireland was so constantly in the thoughts of Lord Shaf tea- 
 bury that, for some time, it formed the principal subject of the entries in the 
 Diaries as well as of his correspondence. Thus he notes : " Have written to 
 Gladstone and Duke of Argyll to mark that a social revolution is begun, for, 
 whatever they do in respect of Land Laws in Ireland they must do in Great 
 Britain." It was the burden of his daily prayer, " Raise us some true men, 
 and come among us. ' Prevent us, Lord, in all our doings with Thy most 
 gracious favour.' May our rulers be taught what is Thy will in the matter of 
 
 Iivhllld." 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury to the Hon. Ecelyn Ashley. 
 
 ST. GILES'S, Dec. 28th, 1880. 
 
 DEAR EVELYN, Your letter arrived yesterday. The state of things in Ireland 
 is altogether anti-social. It is no longer a question of politics, religion, or 
 remediable grievance. It strikes at the very foundation of property, morals, and 
 all the habits and laws that govern and maintain the existence of civilised life. 
 No land scheme to be proposed by the Government can have even a temporary 
 effect ; and Separation, with a Local Parliament, the real object they have in 
 view, will be the utter ruin of Ireland, and an immense danger to Great Britain. 
 
 No doubt we have entered on an era in the history of mankind when changes 
 in the order of things are inevitable. But the policy of such men as Beaconsfield 
 and Gladstone turn these movements, which should, and which might, be gra- 
 dual, into sudden and violent Revolutions. The Act of 1867 tore up our political 
 system, and Gladstone's rule, at the present day, is uprooting, and irrevocably, our 
 social system. 
 
 Albert Grey writes word, " There will be a very angry meeting of the House 
 ol Commons." Possibly ; but to what use ? 
 
 The Ministers have lost, it is true,' the confidence of the several classes above 
 that which holds the bulk of the suffrage. Among these they are as powerful as 
 ever ; not because the voters admire them as men ; but because they look to them 
 as their allies and leaders in a new and better arrangement and distribution of 
 property. 
 
 Love to dear Sissey, with endless prayers for her health and her return 
 here. Our Christmas was very meagre compared with the gatherings I have 
 enjoyed. But God's will be done. 
 
 Affectionately yours, 
 
 8. 
 
 In his " Diary of Political Events," which he still occasionally used, he 
 '|>ii"inises the progress of the discussion on Mr. Gladstone's Irish Bills, and 
 prophesies the issue thus : 
 
 January 18th, 1881. The report of debates in this morning's papers, specially 
 . discloses, at onoe and unmistakably, the intentions of the Home Rulers, as 
 explained by Messrs. Parnell and Dillon. It is separation and dismemberment of 
 the Empire, as soon as the Irish are strong enough to " fight for it." Well did 
 Sir Stafford Northcote observe that it was a " defiant " speech, in which he placed 
 himself as alone equal to the whole House of Commons, both willing and able to 
 treat it as co-ordinate power.
 
 720 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXX7 
 
 One of the saddest things in connection with old age is the constant 
 snapping of the ties that bind a man to his generation. The wide social 
 circle that once surrounded Lord Shaftesbury was narrowing daily ; one after 
 another of his contemporaries was passing away, and he was almost able to 
 count upon his fingers the remaining friends of his early life who were left. 
 
 For some years past the entries of deaths in the Diary had become very 
 numerous, and strangely felicitous were the epitaphs he wrote. Thus in 
 1879 he mourns the death of Lord Lawrence : " Gentle as a woman in 
 sentiment and action, he was harder than iron under a sense of duty ; he was 
 never so happy as when exercising power in love." Of Lady Charlotte 
 Sturt, lie says : " My dear, ancient, and aged friend, another of my true, 
 long-tried, and beloved friends, is gone. She rejoiced in works of mercy, 
 piety, and love." In 1880 Dean Hugh McNeile died : " He was more than a 
 star when in his prime. He was a burning and a shining light, bold, true, 
 unflinching a magnificent specimen of eloquence, feeling, and argumen- 
 tation ; a grand, true, and blessed servant of our Lord." Of Lady Jocelyn : 
 " Another link is severed. She was the only sister of my beloved wife." Of 
 Miss Waldegrave : " Dear old Harriet Waldegrave is gone, aged eighty- 
 seven, A better woman, more sensible, more true, more pious, has seldom 
 lived." 
 
 The deaths of public men, whether personal friends or not, are also 
 frequently recorded. Thus : 
 
 April 19th, 1881. Beaconsfield departed this life at five o'clock this morning. 
 Few careers have been so remarkable, exhibiting such power of perseverance, such 
 a singleness of purpose from the very commencement, such daring ambition at 
 the outset, and such complete success at the end. Vast abilities, great penetra- 
 tion and self-command, made every one subservient to him. He was aided, no 
 doubt, by the total want of men to compete with him on the Conservative side. 
 But, making every allowance, weighing every peculiar advantage, he was a 
 wonderful man in his generation ! But was he a useful one ? 
 
 Lord Beaconsfield had a high appreciation of Lord Shaftesbury, and, 
 under his banner, contributed to the success of the later Factory Legislation. 
 He paid a noble tribute to Lord Shaftesbury in 1877 : "All the honour and 
 the glory belong to him. . . . The name of Lord Shaftesbury will descend 
 to posterity as one who has, in his generation, worked moro than any other 
 individual to elevate the condition and to raise the character of his 
 countrymen." 
 
 On the 28th of April, 1881, Lord Shaftesbury attained his eightieth 
 year. It was celebrated as a national event. Under the auspices of the Lord 
 Mayor (The Right Hon. William McArthur, M.P.), the committee of the 
 Ragged School Union took the initiative to do honour to their President, and 
 a great meeting in the Guildhall was arranged to celebrate the day, to do 
 honour to his lifelong work, and to present him with a portrait of himself, 
 painted by Mr. B. S. Marks. 
 
 Rarely, if ever, was there such a meeting held in that historic Hall.
 
 1881.) EIGHTIETH BIRTHDAY. 721 
 
 Every part of the great building was crowded long before the commencement 
 of the proceedings, while on the platform was assembled a distinguished 
 company, including members of both Houses of Parliament, ministers of the 
 Gospel, notable merchants, ladies and gentlemen of all shades of opinion and 
 of all stations, representing every estimable phase of political, religions, and 
 social life, all with one common object in view, to do honour to the man who 
 had proved himself the greatest benefactor of his generation. It was a 
 singularly impressive scene, that vast and brilliant assembly. But not one whit 
 less impressive, iiay, it may be said that far more impressive, was the scene 
 outside the building, where flower-girls with their well-filled baskets of 
 spring flowers, costermongers with their gaily-dressed donkeys and barrows, 
 and Bagged School children, thronged around the hero of the day, scattering 
 flowers in his path, and pouring upon him " the blessing of the poor and of 
 him that was ready to perish." 
 
 The Earl of Aberdeen, Mr. W. E. Forster, Mr. H. B. Williams, and the 
 Lord Mayor, were the principal speakers, and singularly appropriate and 
 admirable were the addresses delivered. When Lord Shaftesbury rose to 
 reply to the address and to acknowledge the presentation, he was greeted 
 with an overwhelming ovation a perfect tempest of applause. Lord 
 Shaftesbury was calm, self-possessed, and thoughtful, and in his speech, amid 
 all the excitement and fatigue, he did not omit one essential point, one 
 tribute of gratitude to the many who had supported him in his lifelong 
 labours, one point of interest in the review of that part of his career on which 
 he touched. 
 
 There were many incidents in this magnificent celebration which deeply 
 affected him ; but nothing did so more than the manly and generous speech 
 of Mr. W. E. Forster. He valued it, not becanse Mr. Forstor was a member 
 of the Government, nor because of his high official position and personal 
 character, but because he was himself a millowner in Yorkshire, who knew 
 the evils which had existed in the factory districts, and who had been one of 
 the first to speak a kind word to him on his earliest visit to the town of 
 Bradford. Mr. Forster's personal reminiscences went back for half a century 
 to the time when, as a boy, he saw Lord Ashley on horseback " coming to 
 contest a Dorsetshire constituency in the Tory interest, followed by a Tory 
 mob." We cannot quote the speech, but there was one expression in it 
 relating to Lord Shaftesbnry's conduct of the Factory Movement, which 
 particularly gratified him, inasmuch that over and over again his injunctions 
 were : " If anything is told of my life after I am gone, let those words of 
 Forster's be recorded I don't think, in the whole course of my life any 
 words ever gratified me more." The words were these : " The good conduct 
 on the part of the population was in a great measure due to the moderating 
 influences which were brought to bear on them by Lord Ashley. How I 
 do wish that all agitators, when they are advocating the removal of great and 
 real grievances, would take an example from the way in which Lord Ashley 
 conducted that agitation, and remember with what care they should consider 
 a u
 
 722 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXXV. 
 
 both the immediate and the ultimate effect of what they say upon those who 
 are suffering." 
 
 A record of the proceedings at the Guildhall, and of the speeches that 
 were delivered, was issued in book form, and presented, by the committee of 
 the Bagged School Union and the children and teachers of the Bagged 
 Schools, to Lord Shaftesbury. In the fly-leaf of his special copy he wrote : 
 " Deep and lively is my gratitude to the men who conceived, organised, and 
 executed this celebration, and much do I feel the sympathy of those who 
 honoured it by their presence." 
 
 Gratifying as the public recognition of the day was, the private cele- 
 bration of it was not less so. Letters of congratulation poured in from high 
 and low, rich and poor ; addresses from corporate bodies were sent, telegrams 
 were flashed from different places, and presents were lavished, none of them 
 more highly prized than some paper flowers made and presented by the little 
 children of the One Tun Bagged School. 
 
 The letters received that day lie on the table before the writer. Never 
 was there stronger testimony to a man's worth ; never better proof of the 
 affectionate regard in which he was held by old and young, and by men and 
 women of all shades of opinion. It is impossible to enumerate them. But 
 there were letters from the Archbishop of Canterbury, Cardinal Manning, 
 Dean Stanley, the Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol, Lord Carnarvon, Lord 
 Lytton, Lord Portmau, Lord Badstock, Lady Elcho, Lady Portsmouth, 
 Lady Stratford de Bedcliffe, Miss F. P. Cobbe, Mr. W. E. Forster, Mr. 
 Braithwaite, Mr. Alexander Bedgrave, Mr. H. B. Williams, a " Converted 
 Infidel," Sunday and Bagged School Teachers and Scholars, a Bagged 
 School Prize- Winner, Tenants on the St. Giles's estates, and Working Men. 
 Among them all, perhaps, none is more touchingly beautiful than the 
 following simple lines from his aged sister, Lady Charlotte Lyster : 
 
 TUNBRIDGE WELLS, April 28th. 
 
 I have thought much of you to-day, you dear, blessed darling. May God 
 continue to watch over your most precious life. 
 
 Your devoted sister, 
 
 CHAR. 
 The f oDowing lines were written by Miss F. P. Cobbe : 
 
 A BIRTHDAY ADDRESS TO ANTONY ASHLEY COOPER, ?TH EARL OP 
 SHAFTESBURY, KG., APRIL 28TH, 1881. 
 
 For eighty years ! Many will count them over, 
 But none save He who knoweth all may guess 
 
 What those long years have held of high endeavour, 
 Of world-wide blessing and of blessedness. 
 
 For eighty years the champion of the right ; 
 
 Of hapless child neglected and forlorn ; 
 Of maniac dungeoned in his double night ; 
 
 Of woman overtasked and labour-worn :
 
 1881.] LINES BY MISS V. P. COBBR. 723 
 
 Of homeless boy in streets with peril rife ; 
 
 Of workmen sickening in his airless den ; 
 Of Indian parching for the streams of life ; 
 
 Of Negro slave in bonds of cruel men. 
 
 Friend of all the friendless 'neath the sun, 
 Whose hand hath wiped away a thousand tears, 
 
 Whose fervent lips and clear strong brain have done 
 God's holy service, lo ! these eighty years 
 
 How meet it seems thy grand and vigorous age 
 
 Should find, beyond man's race, fresh pangs to spare. 
 
 And for the wronged and tortured brutes engage 
 Iii yet fresh labours and ungrudging care 1 
 
 Oh, tarry long amongst us 1 Live, we pray ; 
 
 Hasten not yet to hear thy Lord's " Well done 1 " 
 Let this world still seem better, while it may 
 
 Contain one soul like thine amid its throng. 
 
 Whilst thou art here our inmost hearts confess, 
 Truth spake the kingly Seer of old who said 
 
 " Found in the way of God and righteousness, 
 A crown of glory is the hoary head." 
 
 During this year the " chairs " were " exceptionally heavy," and, although 
 in almost constant suffering, Lord Shaftesbury succeeded in fulfilling nearly 
 every engagement, and continuing the same amount of arduous labour which 
 had taxed his strength even when a much younger mail. 
 
 May 26th. Several chairs and several speeches. In very bad heart. Feel no 
 elasticity ; see no light. Must make speeches, but, strange to say, hate it more 
 and more every day, for every day it becomes more difficult. 
 
 July 1st. At Harrow,* heard one of the boys recite the peroration of a 
 speech I delivered in the House of Commons on loth March, 1844, in propounding 
 a Factory Bill. I wonder what people thought of it. In my own reflections I 
 said, " Age has effaced a great deal of what I once was. I could not make such 
 a speech now." 
 
 July 2nd. Went to Mile End, beyond Whitechapel, to see the crowds of those 
 swarming districts on Fairlop Fair Day. Met the whole band of open-air 
 preachers, who go out to " speak the word in season." The harvest is scanty, but 
 some are rescued ! and who can tell the value of those few in the sight of God ? 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury was a warm advocate of open-air preaching, and, on the 
 occasion referred to above, was himself an Open- Air Preacher, for when lie 
 was asked to say a few words to the assembly on the Mile End Waste he 
 immediately responded. Two years later, at the annual meeting of the 
 Open-Air Mission, held in the Mansion House, he said : 
 
 * At the annual speech-day, the head-maater, Dr. Butler, had arranged that Hood's 
 "Song of the Shirt should on the programme immediately precede Lord Ashley's 
 Factory Speech. The " surprise " was very effective. 
 
 u u 2
 
 724 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAT-. XXXV. 
 
 I look upon these open-air services as perfectly normal ; they are certainly 
 primitive ; the very earliest preaching of the Gospel was in the open air, on the 
 shores of the Lake of Galilee, by our blessed Lord Himself. And they are 
 unquestionably ecclesiastical. In the earliest times of the Reformation there 
 was open-air preaching at Paul's Cross.! All the worthiest of the bishops 
 preached there ; there, too, the bishop of glorious memory, Bishop Latimer, 
 preached the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, and hundreds heard those words of 
 truth which went right home to their hearts, and brought forth good fruit in 
 after-days. 
 
 The Diary continues : 
 
 July 19th. Dean Stanley died last night. I deeply regret him. He was 
 kind, friendly, genial, affectionate. He was full of love and interest for the 
 poor, and rejoiced in every thought and act of generosity. His abilities and 
 acquirements were brilliant. I trembled at the contemplation of his theology ; 
 but I loved the man. Another who showed me attachment, and who always did 
 me more than justice, is now gone I 
 
 July 27th. To Shaftesbury training-ship, under the Metropolitan School 
 Board. Distributed the prizes. The ship is a success a great success. The 
 hymns and songs had much of religion in them ; and what I ventured to say in 
 my "few words " was well received. 
 
 In the late summer, while staying at Castle Wemyss, Lord Shaftesbury 
 heard of the death of General G-arfield. " Excepting Palmerston," he says, 
 " I have never so felt the death of any public man." His first impulse was 
 to write and express his heartfelt sympathy with the widow. Later he wrote, 
 " Were it not presumptuous I would telegraph to her and say what I feel." 
 Finally, he sent the following letter to the American Minister : 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury to the Hon. Russell Lowell. 
 
 CASTLE WEMYSS, WEMYSS BAY, N.B., Sept. 26^, 1881. 
 
 SIB, I cannot refrain from taking the liberty to address you on the subject 
 of General Garfield. 
 
 I deeply longed to send a telegram of respect, I might almost say of affection, 
 to his admirable widow, but I feared, and indeed felt, that it would be pre- 
 sumptuous. 
 
 I desire simply to express (you will, I doubt not, pardon it) my profound 
 sorrow for the loss of that noble-minded and able-hearted man. 
 
 It is a loss to all the human race, not only to America and to the British 
 Empire. 
 
 It is a sad thing that, in our fallen state, such men are meteoric ; they are 
 bright, glorious, astounding ; but they appear and disappear rapidly. 
 
 All my life long I have wished and prayed for peace and friendship with the 
 United States. 
 
 All seemed to be concentrated in this man of singular gifts. God grant that 
 some one may be raised up in his stead. " Liberam animam meam" 
 
 Any other mode than the one I have adopted that of privately speaking to
 
 1881.] THE OPIUM TRADE. 725 
 
 you my heartfelt sentiments would have been impertinent and egotistical ; 
 perhaps you will say that, even thus, I have gone too far. 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 SHAPTESBUBY. 
 
 The lion. Rutgell Lowell to Lord Shaftesbury. 
 LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, LONDON, 3rd Oct^ 1881. 
 MY LORD, I beg you to accept my most sincere thanks for your in every way 
 excellent letter. Coming 1 from anybody such an expression of sympathy would 
 be welcome, but from you, who by a long life of good works have added lustre to 
 a name already famous, it will be doubly precious. 
 
 I shall have great pleasure in forwarding your letter to Mrs. Garfield, who, I 
 am sure, will set great store by it. 
 
 I remain, your obedient servant, 
 
 J. R. LOWELL. 
 
 In 1874 a Committee was formed, which developed into the Anglo- 
 Orieutal Society for the Suppression of the Opium Trade, and in 1880 Lord 
 Shaftesbury became its president. Both in and out of Parliament lie used 
 every endeavour to influence public opinion on the question, and to this end 
 he spoke at a great meeting at the Mansion House on the 21st of October, 
 1881, under the presidency of the Lord Mayor, and it was lamentable that, in 
 1881, he had to use the same arguments he had brought forward in 1843. 
 He did not live to see the evil abated ; but to the end of his life he did not 
 cease to declare that it was " the duty of all religions societies, and the duty 
 of every missionary society, the duty of every man who cares for the faith of 
 Christianity, and the duty of every one who cares for the honour of his 
 country, to combine in protesting, in memorialising, in giving no rest to the 
 authorities of this country, until such time as they shall have wiped out this 
 foul reproach from the forehead of the British Empire." 
 
 In October Mr. Orsman wrote to Lord Shaftesbury to ask him to preside 
 at the opening of the Costers' Hall, in connection with the Golden Lane 
 Mission. To this he replied : 
 
 October nth, 1881. 
 
 DEAR ORSMAN, Three cheers, and one cheer more, for the costers ! My best 
 love to them at your next meeting. I cannot fix a day just now. I must learn 
 on what days there will be Board meetings of my Commission. Pray write to 
 me again. 
 
 Tours truly, 
 
 S. 
 
 In the closing entries in the Diary for the year the following passages 
 occur: 
 
 Nov. 28th. 8t Giles's. Wonderfully well this morning, God be praised a 
 providence as I am going on a journey to London for three days and nights of 
 work for costers and Ragged Schools. Grant, Lord, that I may accomplish my 
 work and return in peace 1
 
 726 THE EARL OP 8HAFTESBUHY. [CHAP. XXXV. 
 
 Nov. 30th. K. Edward's Ragged School on Monday was a blessed sight. Our 
 Lord is manifestly with them. And so was, last night, the Costers' Hall. They 
 met me with flags and a fine band of music about a mile from the Hall ; the inhabi- 
 tants, many of them, joined the procession ; and we went, perhaps 20,000 people, 
 " in state " to the meeting. Speeches of course, but no doubt the speeches of an 
 old man ; yet they were such as God enabled me to deliver for His service. I 
 am not exempt from the natural and necessary decline in power which attends 
 old age. 
 
 On the following day Lord Shaftesbury's health rendered it necessary that 
 he should consult Sir William Gull, who peremptorily forbade him to attend 
 a meeting for distribution of prizes at Stoke Newington. A telegram to 
 his friend Mr. H. B. Williams was sent accordingly, and an exaggerated 
 report as to the state of his health created great alarm among his friends. 
 
 Dec. 3rd. Very kind inquiries by Edwin Arnold, Editor of Daily Telegraph, 
 and a most kind article in his paper. 
 
 Dec. 5th. That grand old Hebrew patriarch, Moses Montefiore, aged ninety- 
 eight, sent his card, with earnest inquiries after my health. He is worthy of 
 the best days of. the Jewish polity ; a noble and fit representative, also, of that 
 illustrious patriarch, Judas Maccabeus. 
 
 Dec. 26th. Catherine Marsh is ill. Let every one who cares for Christ's 
 kingdom over the hearts of the human race pray that she may be restored, and 
 speedily, to her career and power of love and service I She has comforted the 
 souls of many in the name of our Saviour and Redeemer. 
 
 Wide as were Lord Shaftesbury's sympathies with the many efforts made 
 for the spread of the Gospel, and active as were his labours to promote the 
 circulation of the Truth among the poor and neglected, he never would, or 
 could, countenance any movement dealing with the awful verities of religion, 
 unless such movement were founded on a sense of the reverence due to 
 sacred things. Religion in an irreligious spirit was hateful to him ; there 
 must be, as the Alpha and Omega of every endeavour, a spirit of reverence. 
 Wherever the eternal truths of revelation were to be proclaimed ; wherever 
 the minds of men were to be turned to thoughts of God, the first essential, 
 in his mind, was that " reverence and godly fear " should have their proper 
 place. It did not matter where the place of assembly might be whether 
 the barn or the cottage, the theatre or the open air the injunction, " Take 
 off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy 
 ground," was a binding obligation. An awe unspeakable must rest upon the 
 souls of men who would bo " co-workers with God," or that work is un- 
 intelligible. 
 
 In the autumn of 1881, Lord Shaftesbury received a long letter from 
 Admiral Fishbourne, inviting him to join the so-called " Salvation Army," 
 and to give to that movement his countenance and support. Without a 
 moment's hesitation he stoutly refused, and, as unhesitatingly, gave his 
 reasons for doing so. This involved him in a long paper controversy with 
 Admiral Fishbourne and Mr. (or " General ") and Mrs. Booth, some portions
 
 1881.) THE "SALVATION AUMY." 727 
 
 of which we will presently quote. The correspondence was not published, 
 although Lord Shaftesbury was anxious that it should have been, and the 
 matter was allowed to drop. In the summer of 1882, however, the following 
 passage occurs in the Diary : 
 
 June 25th. Sunday. For the first time publicly broke out against the 
 " Army " of Mr. Booth,* Could not resist it, hearing the eulogy of it pronounced 
 by a clergyman, and a good clergyman too, of the Church of England, the 
 Rev. Burraan Cassin. In the Times of yesterday the Archbishop of Canterbury 
 appears as a patron of Mr. and Mrs. Booth, and as a donor of five pounds to 
 their funds. 
 
 These, then, are our pastors, who are to feed us " in green pastures, and lead 
 us beside still waters." 
 
 In the speech referred to above, Lord Shaftesbury, in expressing his 
 surprise that so many were found to encourage Mr. Booth and his 
 ' myrmidons," protested against the haughty title, " The Salvation Army," 
 and that the only plea urged in their behoof was that they were in earnest. 
 
 " In earnest ! " he exclaimed, " was not Mr. Bradlaugh in earnest ? Were not 
 the Nihilists and the Fenians in earnest ? Was not the Devil himself in earnest ? 
 And, if they supported all that was in earnest, to what extremes would they not 
 be driven ? The excesses of the " Army " were producing great irreverence of 
 thought, of expression, of action, turning religion into a play, aad making it 
 grotesque and familiar. 
 
 Now, if religion was made easy and jocular, hundreds would join it, and 
 swell the number of conversions, but that was not the way to carry on the work 
 of the Gospel. There was no need of gymnastics to enforce Christianity. It 
 must be preached with simplicity and fervour to reach the hearts of the people, 
 and if they departed from that, they would see a decline of all religion in the 
 country, and the excesses of one body, like the " Army " under the orders of 
 " General " and Mrs. Booth, would terminate in the distrust and annihilation of 
 all the humble and holy missions now so rife, and so fruitful in the instruction 
 and comfort of the masses of the people. 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury felt it to be a duty to speak out thus, and he never 
 shrank from duty ; it was a grief to him, however, to do so, for it brought 
 him into opposition with friends whose opinions, on most points, he honoured. 
 and whose religious zeal, in many respects, he admired. Nevertheless, he 
 had his reward, for he had expressed what large numbers were waiting to 
 hear expressed, and many letters of gratitude for what he had said were sent 
 to him. 
 
 The following extracts from Lord Shaftesbury 's letters to Admiral Fbh- 
 bonrne fully set forth his views on the " Salvation Army." 
 
 Lord Sfut/letbury to Admiral F'uhbournf. 
 
 ST. GILES'S HOUSE, Nov. 7th, 1881. 
 
 DEAR ADMIRAL FISHBOURNE, .... I was requested, nearly a year 
 ago, to give what support I could to the Salvation Army. I have not, at hand, 
 
 At a meeting on behalf of Special Religious Services in Theatres, held at 
 
 Blackheath.
 
 728 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXXV. 
 
 the letter I wrote in reply, so I cannot send you a copy, but I retain all the 
 feelings I then expressed feelings of deep and sincere objection. 
 
 It is not that I have any repugnance to novel and abnormal modes of proceed- 
 ing. My whole life has been spent in breaking down barriers and prejudices ; and, in 
 efforts to reach, religiously, the vast masses of the people, I have for years 
 disregarded every mere form of external Church government, and have laboured 
 to bring into action all the hearts and minds of the high and low, rich and 
 poor, among the laity, for ardent and vigorous ministerial services. 
 
 But I endeavoured, and I hope that I have succeeded, to keep within the 
 limits of the New Testament and primitive Christianity. When, however, I look 
 at the constitution, framework, and organisation of the Salvation Army, its 
 military arrangements, its Hallelujah Lasses, its banners, their mottoes, and a 
 thousand other original accompaniments, I ask what authority we have in 
 Scripture for such a system and such a discipline ! Can any man conscien- 
 tiously believe, after due reflection, that things like these would have 
 been formerly, or that they can be now, in accordance with the mind of our 
 Lord and His apostles ? Have we any trace that afterwards, when abuses crept 
 in, the primitive Christians resorted to such sensational practices, even in secret 1 
 There is none whatever. 
 
 The earliest authority for the Salvation Army is Mr. Booth himself, and it 
 dates from only a year or so ago. 
 
 But matters do not improve when we pass from the organisation to the 
 language and conduct of the members of the body. I have before me, at this 
 moment, a long list of doings which (so far from being " decent and in order ") 
 are in action as extravagant, and in expression as offensive, as any that ever 
 disgraced the wildest fanaticism. I will not give any details, because you and 
 Mr. Booth must, frequently, have heard the various charges. 
 
 Now you may, perhaps, reply that, while Mr. Booth regrets these things, he 
 cannot control them. To that I must rejoin that, in such a case, he is bound to 
 surrender his post, and separate himself from adherents whose excesses and 
 violence he is unable to restrain. 
 
 I cannot but regret the sad and perilous step Mr. Booth has taken, because it 
 has greatly abated the benefit that might have been derived from a religious 
 movement, headed and expanded by Mrs. Booth. That lady, with profound 
 earnestness and great intellectual gifts, has also vast powers of persuasion, which 
 might have operated, not only on the classes already addressed, but on many who 
 are now, both from feeling and principle, very antagonistic to the name and 
 achievements of the Army. 
 
 You will tell me, no doubt, that the work has prospered, and that happy 
 results have ensued. 
 
 Assuming, though by no means admitting, that you are right, I cannot accept 
 the argument. I must consider, and weigh solemnly, the mode, manner, and 
 character of the proceedings whereby you seek to reach your object. If they are 
 founded on Scripture, I will go along with you ; if they are not so, I must do 
 just the reverse. I cannot consent " to do evil that good may come." It is a 
 rule, I know, much bepraised, often quoted, and perpetually violated ; but, in 
 matters of this kind, it is too serious to be trifled with. 
 
 You have sent me a paper containing articles of approval from various 
 newspapers. Strange to say, they have given me more distrust of the movement
 
 1881.) THK "SALVATION ARMY." 729 
 
 than I had before. They rejoice, and fairly enough, in the Army's exercise of 
 religious liberty ; but there is perceptible, also, a certain satisfaction in the 
 proof, as they think, to their minds, that religion to be effective must be more or 
 less fanatical. 
 
 I cannot refrain from calling your attention to a passage in a pastoral charge 
 by that wise and blessed man, the late Bishop Mcllvaine. You will find it in 
 page 82 of his life by Canon Carus. 
 
 What says the Bishop? "Remember that the time of revival, however 
 genuine the work, is especially the time for watchfulness . . . beware of all 
 efforts to kindle excitement. Be animated, be diligent, be filled with the spirit 
 of prayer, but be sober-minded. Let all noise, and all endeavours to promote 
 mere animal feeling, be shunned. You can no more advance the growth of 
 religion in the soul by excitement than you can promote health in the body by 
 throwing it into fever." 
 
 These are the sentiments of a profound and pious man, who, as an American 
 clergyman, had seen the rise and fall of many revivals. 
 
 Now, without reference to the particular objections to the methods adopted by 
 Mr. Booth, the system itself cannot be justified by the plea of necessity for the 
 introduction of anything new, special, and distinctive, in ithe mode of addressing 
 the people. We have, at least, one hundred lay missions in London ; and there 
 are many elsewhere I wish that they were tenfold in number which conduct 
 their operations with abundant zeal, and yet with modesty and sobriety. Not a 
 few consist of working-people, who become missionaries to their own class just 
 as it should be and no one. who is at all acquainted with the moral state of our 
 large cities, can hesitate to affirm that these energetic but unpretending efforts 
 have been singularly blessed in the diffusion of revealed truth. . . . 
 
 It is the multiplication of such agencies as these, and their wider extension, 
 that we now stand in need of ; and, while I acknowledge the good intentions of 
 Mr. Booth, and agree with him that special efforts must be made, I cannot 
 applaud his judgment, nor can I, in any way, share with him the responsibility 
 of maintaining and extending the movement called the Salvation Army. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 SHAFTESBURT. 
 
 Lord Shaftetbury to Admiral FitJibowrne. 
 
 ST. GILES'S HOUSE, Nov. 22nd, 188L 
 
 DEAR ADMIRAL FISHBOURNE, Allow me to thank you for your reply to my 
 letter. 
 
 It does not, however, meet the grounds of my objections. You merely repeat 
 that great good has been done by the Salvation Army ; but you do not adduce an 
 argument to remove my repugnance to the mode and character of your proceed- 
 ings, which I venture to regard as being wholly unwarranted by Scripture. 
 
 I cannot enter into a controversy with you about the doctrine you inculcate, 
 on its peculiar acceptability with the masses, and its wide distinction from 
 general evangelical preaching. Seriously as I question some of the views you 
 nave stated in your letter, I will not attempt to controvert them. They were not 
 the point at issue in my first reply, nor shall they be BO now. I will only remark
 
 730 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXXV. 
 
 that your comparison of the members of the Salvation Army, " with the disciples 
 at the day of Pentecost," is alike original and untrue. The Salvation Army you 
 say " is doubtless noisy and irregular " (an important admission), " and this," you 
 add, " was the condition of Pentecost, as they were charged with being drunk 
 with new wine." 
 
 Whenever you and Mr. Booth can give to the charge against his followers as 
 stout and clear a reply as St. Peter gave on that eventful day, I will lay aside all 
 my objections, and join your ranks with the utmost cordiality. 
 
 But Mrs. Booth takes a very bold line, and broadly maintains, as I read in her 
 letter to you, and which you have enclosed to me, " that, in bringing the Gospel 
 to bear on men, there is no law laid down in the Scriptures, except the law of 
 adaptation." Nay, but there is a law, I reply, and that law is, " Let all things be 
 done decently and in order." 
 
 The texts she adduces are nothing to the point they tonch in no way the 
 discipline, the apparatus, the military titles, the regimental action of young 
 women, towards which such repugnance is felt. And, as for the remainder of 
 the illustrations drawn from the Old Testament, I must first say that to put the 
 inventions of man on the same footing with the directions of the Almighty 
 Himself, shows an audacity which makes me tremble ; and the more so when the 
 whole is summed up with a passage unprecedented, I think, in the writings of 
 any believer : " We have never," so states Mrs. Booth, " done anything half as 
 outrageous and extravagant as God set His prophets to do at that time." 
 
 Was there ever such language applied before to the commands of God 1 Does 
 not the tendency of the movement break out in all this unhallowed freedom 
 of speech and action ? But let Mrs. Booth remember that when she handles, 
 after this fashion, the mysterious injunctions of the Almighty, she endorses the 
 language of every infidel who has presumed to measure, by his own weak and 
 corrupt judgment, the inscrutable decrees of Heavenly Wisdom. 
 
 As for her further observations, that St. Paul was " always in a row," and that 
 an " aggressive Christianity must, of necessity, be a rowdy Christianity," I deeply 
 regret that a lady of her intelligence and piety should have allowed herself to 
 indulge in such childish and irreverent expressions, which show, I must be 
 excused for saying it, as much unacquaintance with human nature as with the 
 Bible itself. 
 
 Mrs. Booth asserts, and conscientiously believes, that the whole is marked by 
 " the finger of God." I will not presume to give to that good and sincere lady a 
 flat contradiction. 
 
 If Mrs. Booth, when citing the examples of Ezekiel and Jeremiah, claims to 
 be like those prophets, and to act under the dictates of Inspiration, I cannot of 
 course continue to argue with her, and I must stop, and so must every one, to ask 
 convincing proofs of that asserted Inspiration. 
 
 But if she does not assert the enjoyment of such an influence, she must call 
 to mind that Jeremiah and Ezekiel did so ; and so did every servant of God 
 throughout the Old Testament, when ordered to perform some striking and 
 abnormal work. For men to proceed on any other basis, and to assume that 
 everything in the Old Testament is a precedent to be followed, at will, by each 
 one according to his own judgment or impulse, would throw all religious and 
 social life into utter confusion. The Anabaptists of Munster and Leyden, and
 
 1881.1 PERSECUTION OF JEWS IN RUSSIA. 731 
 
 all the enormities of the wildest fanaticism, would be revived and, as it were, 
 justified by such a principle. 
 
 Mrs. Booth's plain and unhesitating assertion, that such stimulating appliances 
 are necessary to render the Gospel acceptable to the masses, is simply to declare 
 that the Gospel, in itself, is weak and spiritless, unless presented to them with 
 the grotesque and heathenish accompaniments of man's invention an assertion 
 in direct contravention of Scripture itself, and refuted, moreover, by the results 
 of the numerous Lay Missions that so providentially and happily are moving, 
 day and night, with silent, though sure, effect, in London and all our great cities. 
 
 Strong and deep as my impressions are, I am prepared to wait for further and 
 unmistakable proof, obeying, meanwhile, with all my heart, the exhortation of 
 Gamaliel, " If this counsel or this work be of man it will come to nought ; but 
 if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it, lest, haply, ye be found to fight even 
 against God." 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 SHAFTESBUBY. 
 
 The views expressed in the foregoing letters Lord Shaftesbury never saw 
 occasion to abandon or modify. In conversation with the writer in 1885 he 
 said, " I have no sympathy with that movement in the remotest degree ; not 
 so much as I have with that other extreme, Ritualism. Extremes meet, and 
 I am disposed to think that, eventually, there will be an open alliance between 
 the Ritualists and the Salvation Army. Both delight in show, both are 
 dependent upon their leaders, both are busy with externals. Take away 
 Mr. Booth and the movement collapses ; take away the priests and Ritualism 
 falls. The only strong point of the Salvation Army is the Temperance 
 movement allied to it ; not in its travesty of religion." 
 
 The number and variety of subjects that Lord Shaftesbury undertook in 
 1882, the firmness of his grasp, and the energy with which he dealt with 
 them, was "as a marvel unto many." Thus his old friend Dean Law, 
 writing to his still older friend Mr. Haldane, said : " January 28th, 1882. 
 Yesterday I was honoured and gladdened by a visit from our beloved Earl. 
 To my extreme delight he appeared as if no interval of time had done 
 weakening work since last we met. The figure was erect, the gait vigorous, 
 and the mind as powerful as in former times. He conversed on all the 
 matters which now engross attention with a power of conception and expres- 
 sion quite unimpaired by his many years. Perhaps his view of matters 
 might betray a little too much of his characteristic gloom in foreboding. 
 But his fears were all brightened by the richness of heavenly hope. As a 
 statesman, as a patriot, as a philanthropist, as a Christian, he still appeared 
 as &va iySpuiy, wearing an unrivalled crown." 
 
 A case may be cited here to illustrate Lord Shaftesbury's power of dealing 
 with a question at this advanced period of his life. Early in 1882 intelligence 
 was received in this country of cruel persecutions of the Jews in Russia. 
 Strong articles appeared in the newspapers on the subject, bnt no action 
 was taken, until a body of Hebrews in London addressed a letter to Lord
 
 732 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXXV. 
 
 Shaf tesbury, urging him to intercede on behalf of their suffering brethren, and 
 wondering that " no Christian had come forward to assert the principle and 
 practice of true Christianity." The appeal was irresistible ; instantly he 
 wrote a vigorous letter to the Times, and " sent it " (from St. Giles's) " by 
 special hand to avoid delay." His letter was at once responded to, and a 
 meeting called forthwith at the Mansion House to take action in the matter. 
 It followed naturally that Lord Shaftesbury, having taken the initiative, 
 should move the first resolution. 
 
 Jan. 30th. Hence falls on me the weight, the duty, the responsibility of 
 stating the case and giving the tone to the audience. It is full of difficulty and 
 danger ; for if I say very little, I should " show cause ; " if I state a great deal, I 
 may go too far. My memory, my judgment, my courage, may, all of them, fail, 
 and not only I, but the question itself, may suffer. 
 
 Jan. 31st. Well or ill, sad or rejoicing, must start for London to attend, God 
 willing, the meeting to-morrow. Never did I go anywhere with a heavier heart. 
 Mr. Serjeant Simon can get no speakers, certainly none of weight, to support the 
 Jewish cause on the cause of justice and humanity Possibly there will be 
 scarcely an audience. 
 
 It turned out to be " a grand meeting, full, hearty, and enthusiastic," and 
 although "suffering much from moral and physical depression," Lord 
 Shaftesbury got through his task. 
 
 Feb. 2nd. Ah, Lord, prosper it all to the honour of Thine ancient people ; 
 but specially to the honour of Thy dear Son Jesus Christ, whose professing 
 followers have come forward to pray and fight for those who crucified Him J 
 And did He not teach us to do this in his own words upon the Cross, " Father, 
 forgive them, for they know not what they do " 1 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury was not content to allow the matter to rest here. On 
 the 9th of February the question was discussed in the House of Lords, in 
 which, it is needless to say, he took a principal part. " We had," he says in 
 a note to Mr. Haldane, " a very short, but very satisfactory, flare up on the 
 Jews in the House of Lords. The Hebrews were in ecstasies." At many 
 other meetings he brought the matter forward in the month of May, nor did 
 he " cease from his intercession till the plague was stayed." 
 
 The " scenes " in the House of Commons, consequent upon the refusal to 
 allow Mr. Bradlaugh, one of the members for Northampton, to take his seat, 
 were important features of the session. In 1882 the controversy on the 
 question of the Oath was still in progress, when Lord Redesdale, in the 
 House of Lords, made a proposal to add " stringency to the Oath of 
 Allegiance by adding to it a categorical statement of belief in the Deity." 
 Lord Shaftesbury " moved the previous question," was successful in checking 
 the Bill, and " rescued the peers from a position of no little embarrassment." 
 
 A characteristic passage in the Diary refers to the attendance of the 
 bishops on the discussion of this important question : 
 
 April 8th. Last year, when movement was made in Lords for Opening of
 
 1882.] BIBLICAL STUDIES. 733 
 
 Museums only eight bishops were present. This year, when Redesdale's Bill was 
 propounded to which they all objected only two. Of what use are they there 
 on truly serious matters ? 
 
 The study of the sacred Scriptures was always a delight to Lord Shaftes- 
 bury, and never more so than in these last years of his life. A Bible was 
 always at hand in his library, and nothing more remarkably exemplified tho 
 retention of his faculties than the manner in which, whenever a reference to 
 the Scriptures was necessary, he could, in a moment, turn to chapter and 
 verse. On one occasion, when speaking to the writer about the Revised 
 Version of the New Testament, and the rumours as to alterations in the- text 
 of the Revised Yersion of the Old Testament, in the course of a few minutes 
 he turned to from fifteen to twenty passages as if by magic ; it seemed as if 
 he had every syllable of the inspired volume at his fingers' ends. 
 
 There are many references in the Diary to his Biblical studies at this 
 period, a few of which we quote : 
 
 April 1st. Good Friday. Let our first thought be that of St. Paul : " I 
 determined to know nothing but Jesus Christ, and Him crucified." It is very 
 remarkable ; he says not " no one," but " no thing." He excludes thus every 
 possible adjunct of man's hope or invention ; every shadow of good deeds and 
 self -righteousness ; every notion, however small, of something besides Christ. 
 
 Aug. 27th. Sunday. Reading " Romans." There are certain passages in 
 that wonderful and glorious epistle which will divide, in translation and inter- 
 pretation, critics and commentators to the end of time. Be it so ; however 
 desirable to know the exact meaning of every word and every expression, such a 
 minute acquaintance with his writings is not necessary to salvation, or even to a 
 clear, bright, and full understanding of his Divinely -inspired letter. If there 
 are half a dozen passages obscure, there are thousands as brilliant as day ; and 
 let us rest satisfied, as St. Peter was satisfied, though there are some things 
 " hard to be understood." 
 
 Aug. 31st. Day opens beautifully ; rose at half -past five, with every promise 
 of comfort for the day. Psalms and Proverbs. How deeply evangelical is that 
 Book of Proverbs ! How plainly one may see and feel Christ speaking under the 
 Old as under the New Testament ! 
 
 In the following extracts from the Diary, Lord Shaftesbury describes 
 some of the events in which he was most interested during the year : 
 
 3Iay 7th, 1882. News arrived heard it as going to early sacrament of 
 assassination of Fred. Cavendish in Dublin within a few hours of his reaching 
 it. The crime is shocking and cruel beyond all power of expression. He had 
 never said a word, or done a deed, in reference to Ireland ; he had gone, more- 
 over, " ostensibly," on a mission of concession. Is not Hell let loose in that 
 country ? What ought we not to feel for his father, his brother, but specially 
 his widow I Gracious God, have compassion on them 1 Any one who knew the 
 wife must admire and love her. He was gentle, true, pious, and singularly 
 attractive. Their mutual attachment to each other was, I am told, very touching
 
 734 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXXV. 
 
 and very deep. Here is a trial of faith. Why one so good, so affectionate, 
 so zealous for her Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, should be thus afflicted ! 
 
 June 14th. Last night to Anniversary of One Tun Ragged School. The 
 spectacle is deeply touching ; the mass of little things go there from the recesse? 
 of vice, misery, and filth, physically and morally cleansed, in order, discipline, 
 true knowledge (the knowledge of Christ), and joy joy so long as their child- 
 hood lasts. It makes me reflect and feel and bless God for a pause, if no more, 
 in the activity of human suffering and degradation. What will befall it if the 
 income fails it has often been that issue or when Mrs. Barker Harrison, that 
 inestimable woman, be taken to Heaven / Let us pray that He will raise up a 
 due succession of such agents for His own glory and the comfort of these poor 
 children. 
 
 June 29th. Accomplished almost a prodigy in the business of the day. 
 Early to Greenhithe for Chichester and Arethusa ; returned in haste for meeting 
 of Cairns, Beauchamp, Coleridge, and others, in G-rosvenor Square, to decide how 
 best to oppose, in next Session, Deceased Wife's Sister Bill. Then to public 
 dinner in honour of Sir Ashley Eden, my godson ; and afterwards, in a hurry, 
 in obedience to Her Majesty's commands, to a concert at Buckingham Palace. 
 Swift says of a poor curate 
 
 " All this was done by Thomas Hewett ; 
 What other mortal could go through it ? " 
 
 July 6th. Much rain yesterday ; some fine intervals ; but my poor little 
 children of the One Tun Ragged School must have been sadly disappointed ; they 
 could not roll on the wet grass. Poor little things ; no doubt they bore it well 
 better than we higher folks should have done. 
 
 July 30th. Yesterday to Margate, to preside at Dedication (for such it is) 
 of George Williams' House of Health and Repose for Young Men, a Bethesda, a 
 House of Mercy. . . - He is a dear, noble, and generous man ; and in the 
 whole range of all whom I know, whether relatives or friends, the only one from 
 whom I could with comfort, or even with hope, request a great kindness. 
 
 Dec. 26th. Returned to Saint on 22nd. Christmas Day, very damp and 
 gloomy. Nevertheless, a day of rejoicing ; first, because Christmas Day ; 
 secondly, because for first time during many years, and probably for the last 
 time, nearly all the family were assembled together. I had around me at the 
 Lord's Table, and at home, Evelyn, Lionel, Cecil, Vea, Hilda ; Antony absent, but 
 represented by Margaret ; dear Sissey away at Davos. In the house, Wilfrid, 
 little Hilda, and Maria, William's widow ; Pinkie, as almost one of the family, 
 and Augusta Chichester. 
 
 Death was busy among the friends of Lord Shaftesbury in this year and 
 those that followed. Dean Law, the Dean of Gloucester, of whom he always 
 spoke as " The Good Dean," was " gathered like a shock of splendid corn in 
 full season into the Heavenly Garner, there to remain among God's precious 
 stores for ever and ever." His " dear old friend, Harrowby, a good man both 
 towards God and towards His house," was another to " drop from his 
 morning and evening prayers." Of Dr. Pusey, who closed his long life in 
 this year (1882), he writes :
 
 1882.] Mil. II ALDAN T.. 735 
 
 Sept. 23rd. My friend, Pusey, dead and buried. Intensely and fearfully as I 
 differed from him in many points of unspeakable importance, I could not but 
 love the man. Had known him for sixty years ! Was at college with him. We 
 read Aristotle to each other ; but while I formed a correct opinion of his diligence, 
 I had not formed, at that time, a correct one of his powers. He has had a 
 prodigious effect on his generation. I greatly admired his talents, fully 
 acknowledged and wondered at his immense learning, and reverenced his 
 profound piety. His work on Daniel exhibits all the three ; and surely he was 
 called and supported by our Lord in that illustrious effort of wisdom, labour, and 
 courage. 
 
 But the "great loss" of all was the removal by death of his old and 
 valued friend, Mr. Haldane the man on whom he had. depended more than 
 on any one else, with whom his intercourse had been almost unbroken for 
 more than thirty years, and to whom he had opened his heart at all times and 
 under all circumstances. The friendship between them had been fostered by 
 the strongest mutual attraction and sympathy on almost every point. 
 
 July 9th. Called on Haldane yesterday. Saw him in bed, but only for two 
 minutes ; he is ill. I am in anxiety about him. His daughter, Mrs. Corsbie, 
 pronounces him much improved ; but attacks at eighty-one years of age are very 
 alarming. God, in His mercy, raise him up from the couch of sickness and give 
 him yet a few years of service 1 I, myself, should deeply feel his loss ; he is the 
 only one left to whom I can speak of many things. 
 
 July 18th. Haldane is fearfully ill. God, in His mercy and goodness, spare 
 him yet a little while ? 
 
 Half -past twelve. Have been to see him ; he was fast asleep, but surely the 
 sentence of Death was on his face. He may yet recover, but it would be almost a 
 miracle. It would be a real comfort to myself, but would it be so to him ? God 
 only knows. And when we pray, as in this case, we must remember that there 
 are two parties to the question. We pray for ourselves, but we do not sufficiently 
 consider that we may not be praying for the true welfare of the patient. Our 
 blessed Lord is wise and good. 
 
 July 20th. My old, long-proved, and trusty friend, Haldane, having been 
 unconscious for two days, died yesterday evening at half-past six, evidently 
 without suffering. Sat by his bedside for an hour, and, along with his son and 
 daughters, joined in prayer. We cannot but have full assurance of his salvation. 
 He believed intensely in the Lord Jesus, His power, His office, His work. He 
 intensely loved Him, and ever talked with a holy relish and a full desire for the 
 Second Advent. A long life, one less of personal activity than of religious 
 intellectualism, was devoted to the advancement of Christ's Kingdom and to the 
 temporal and eternal welfare of the human race. His sole hope was in the 
 all-atoning blood of our blessed Saviour ; any approach to a doctrine of works 
 was his abhorrence, and once he quoted to me, with approval and favour, the 
 saying of Dr. Doddridge, " The very best thing that man ever did is worthy of 
 condemnation." 
 
 To me, it is for the remainder of my days, whatever that be, a complete 
 blank. We have lived in friendship for five-and-thirty years ; and in intimacy 
 for at least twenty 1 When in London scarcely a day passed that I did not see 
 h.'m ; and when absent, I heard from him oftentimes in the week.
 
 736 THE EABL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXXV. 
 
 On the 24th of July Lord Shaftesbury followed the remains of his 
 beloved friend to their last resting-place in Willesden Cemetery. It was a 
 wet and stormy day, and thunder was pealing heavily, but Lord Shaftesbury 
 would remain uncovered, and almost impatiently resisted the efforts of Mr. 
 Haldane's son to protect him from the weather, saying, in the bitterness of 
 his grief, " it did not matter what happened to him now." 
 
 Sir William Herschel, who was one of the friends assembled at the grave, 
 gives the following graphic picture of the scene in a letter to Mrs. Corsbie, 
 the eldest daughter of Mr. Haldane : " I had never seen Lord Shaftesbury, 
 but knowing his unremitting intercourse with your father, I was prepared 
 to see strong traces of grief on a face which I knew showed habitual melan- 
 choly. But when I raised my eyes across the open grave, and for the first 
 time saw the thin figure opposite me, I was startled by the picture of 
 misery that met my sight. I could look at nothing but the living face of 
 sorrow for the dead, the deep down- cut lines, the hair blowing about the bare 
 broad head, and the eyes hard closed at times. The meaning of it, more than 
 the features which conveyed the meaning, was what startled me so ; to see 
 such sharp pain for a personal loss in spite of such mature faith. I never 
 saw anything like it in any human face. What a contrast to the genial 
 smile of which he was thinking ! " 
 
 Had not Lord Shaftesbury left such copious Diaries, his letters to Mr. 
 Haldane would have been invaluable, as, from them, a biography of thirty 
 years of his life could, in some measure, have been constructed. As it is, 
 those letters have only been occasionally quoted when they supplied informa- 
 tion not to be found in the Diaries. 
 
 Although dealing principally with current topics of the day, they contain, 
 scattered throughout the series, many gems of thought and expression, a few 
 of which, without reference to the occasions that called them forth, may be 
 given here. They are selected to show, in Lord Shaftesbury's correspond- 
 ence, his versatility of style, his flashes of humour, his sympathies and 
 antipathies, and his Christian philosophy. 
 
 I want to pin every discussion down to the one thing needful the one perfect 
 and sufficient sacrifice. 
 
 The verifying faculty is simply a clumsy makeshift to get rid of the Holy 
 Spirit. 
 
 Scientific despotism exceeds sacerdotal tyranny. 
 
 When Gladstone runs down a steep place, his immense majority, like the pigs 
 in Scripture, but hoping for a better issue, will go with him, roaring in grunts 
 of exultation. 
 
 The story of the effort as a sturdy beggar was this. Rambling in the lowest 
 part? of Westminster, I found a Ragged School, held in a deserted stable, cold,
 
 1882.] GEMS OF THOUGHT AND EXPRESSION. 737 
 
 ruinous, and stinking. I went back to the House of Commons, stood at the 
 entrance into the House, and asked of every one whom I thought well disposed 
 to the cause to give me a sovereign. Having got 28, I went back and ordered 
 the place to be put into repair. I was very proud of the act then, and I am 
 proud of it now. 
 
 D'Israeli is a Hebrew, and that to my mind always imparts a certain sense of 
 reverence. I can never forget that of this race our blessed Lord came according 
 to the flesh. . . . D'Izzy's ambition to be the first Hebrew Peer is quite con- 
 sistent with his pride just pride in the pedigree in Nehemiah. His desire has 
 been to show that the Jews are becoming the dominant race, and that they can, 
 by force of character, command, however inferior they may think them, every- 
 thing in the possession of the Gentiles. 
 
 Ritualism is the Colorado beetle of ecclesiasticism you cannot keep it out. 
 
 Fine writing is the pest of all true theology. People will be brilliant 
 startling, original ; and, in that spirit, they sacrifice everything to a " pregnant 
 expression." 
 
 God will work out His own purpose according to His own wisdom. God will 
 not prevent my being called a fool, but He will prevent my being one. 
 
 I would rather deny Revelation than . . . eliminate Christ 
 
 Retrospect must be fearful to every reflecting soul. All time past is filled 
 with negligences, lost or spoiled opportunities, shortcomings, and abundant sins. 
 Retrospects ought to bring nothing but confession and repentance ; and then the 
 prospect the only thing to be cared for will be peace and joy. 
 
 Doctrine is everywhere set aside. It is like silver in the days of Solomon, 
 it is " nothing accounted of." 
 
 Inspiration is no more to be understood than the secret of life. It exists, and 
 let believers be satisfied ; and, certainly, one thing is true that, if Inspiration 
 does not exist and prevail, the Bible is not worth a straw. . . . Newman's 
 words speak the truth of our version : It is " interwoven with the moral com- 
 position of our people." 
 
 Education may be, instead of a great blessing, a great curse. We are training 
 boys and girls too rapidly. We have a thousand candidates for one place. The 
 999 live, then, by their wits, and the wits are turned to fraud and sensationalism. 
 This is not an argument against education, but a warning. " Make it healthy 
 and safe." 
 V T
 
 738 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXXV. 
 
 Practically, and in the sight of God, there is no real difference between 
 denying and ignoring Him. 
 
 I was reading this morning Mark xii. 1 8. Surely our Lord must have been 
 foretelling an Irish estate ! We are far nearer to the end of the British Empire 
 than we thought six months ago. Three years (or six ?) hence will see, after 
 Household Suffrage in the Counties, and Redistribution of Seats, the coarsest, 
 vulgarest House of Commons that England can produce. I consider the extinc- 
 tion of the House of Lords in fact, if not in terms, a foregone conclusion now. 
 The thing was settled in the short conflict on the Registration Bill. We then 
 learned publicly, what privately every thinking man has long known, that we 
 are living on " sufferance." And what kind of sufferance ? Why, that of the 
 boa constrictor in the Zoological Gardens, who has his rabbit in the cage, but is 
 not quite ready for it. 
 
 I see that the revision of the Scriptures is to impoverish our language. We 
 ought, instead of driving out words by the substitution of modern ones, to force 
 the older ones into more common use. We shall lose the pure Saxon for terms 
 drawn from the French or lower Latin. Pray remember Hudibras, describing 
 the innovations of his day 
 
 " 'Twas English, cut on Greek or Latin 
 Like fustian, heretofore on satin." 
 
 All is in keeping. These fellows are enfeebling our doctrine ; and it is quite in 
 harmony to enfeeble the language in which it is expressed. 
 
 The had a notice which was amusing beyond most farces ! Fearful of 
 
 allowing me the possession of understanding, the Editor spoke of nothing, in 
 three several passages, but my " instincts," as though I were a St. Bernard's dog 
 or a tabby cat. 
 
 If, for political and public purposes, there can be in the Bible one book more 
 valuable than another, to throw light on the days in which we live, it is 
 Jeremiah. He was not always " looking to the sun," but he was looking to the 
 earth, entreating, preaching, warning, threatening, promising ; and he was, in 
 consequence, regarded as a bore, a blockhead, and a blunderer. Yet if he had 
 been attended to, Jerusalem might have survived for many centuries ; and 
 certainly she would have been spared the indescribable sufferings of soul and 
 body that followed her destruction by Nebuchadnezzar. 
 
 To the question, " What have the Evangelicals to fear ? " I reply, " Themselves." 
 
 I know what constituted an Evangelical in former times ; I have no clear 
 notion what constitutes one now. 
 
 Jan. 2nd, 1882. " I will never leave thee nor forsake thee." Let me reburn 
 you, and " with usury," all your kind expressions and prayers for my temporal 
 and eternal welfare.
 
 A NEW YEAR'S TEXT. 739 
 
 That text is a marvellous text (Deut. xxxi. 6), and has long been a banner to 
 me in the house of my pilgrimage. 
 
 Observe the frequent repetition of it. We read it first in Deuteronomy 
 (xxxi. 6), just before Moses departed this life. Then it appears in Joshua (i. 5), 
 just as he begins his independent career. David, dying (1 Chronicles xxviii. 20), 
 passes it on to his son Solomon ; and St. Paul winds it up, as a /rrfj/xa th TO* alwva, 
 a possession for ever, to every generation of mankind. 
 
 No text is so frequently repeated in Scripture ; and it has, moreover, a singular 
 significance. Moses, the type of our Lord, utters it as he quits this earth. Our 
 Lord says, almost as He was ascending to Heaven, " Lo, I am with you alway 
 even to the end of the world." 
 
 The words are marvellously akin. JT 
 
 v v 2
 
 CHAPTER XXXYI. 
 
 WOED AND WOEK. 1874 1884. 
 
 BETWEEN the years 1874 and 1884 Lord Shaftesbury's attendance at public 
 meetings knew no cessation. There was scarcely a social, political, or 
 religious movement set on foot in which his co-operation was not solicited, 
 and, if practicable, obtained. The effect was not in the least degree to 
 diminish his affection for the old societies ; on the contrary, his love for 
 them, instead of waxing colder, increased as the years went on. 
 
 The mere physical strain in attending these ever-increasing meetings was 
 very great. " This is the ninth hour I have been in the chair to-day," he 
 said, at one of the meetings of the Bagged School Union.* " Moreover, 
 having taken the chair for two-and-thirty years consecutively, and having 
 made two-and-thirty speeches, I hardly know in what form to address you." 
 
 It is to be regretted that so many of Lord Shaftesbury's speeches were 
 merely delivered and done with, and that they take no permanent place in the 
 literature of the country. They are interesting, if regarded merely as the 
 utterances of a man intensely in earnest, but they are interesting, also, on 
 account of their literary value, and of the thorough and practical mastery of 
 every subject discussed upon. 
 
 We propose to group together in this place a few selected passages from 
 some of his speeches on behalf of the Societies with which he was most 
 closely identified. 
 
 In the Church Pastoral Aid Society he took a profound interest. Year 
 by year, since its formation in 1836, he made the anniversary meeting the 
 occasion of a speech, in which he sought to give a survey of the state of the 
 Church, the bearings of religious controversy, and the dangers that were 
 threatening, in consequence of the growth of new doctrines and new eccle- 
 siastical practices. Many of these speeches, it must be confessed, were 
 gloomy in the extreme. " I know I am apt to croak," he said, on one 
 occasion, " and I know I am regarded as one who takes a dark view of the 
 future. But is there not a cause ? " It will not be with those gloomy views 
 that we shall concern ourselves in the following quotations : our object is 
 rather to reproduce Lord Shaftesbury's style as a speaker, and his sentiments 
 on various siibjects. 
 
 On one occasion, speaking of Church reform, he said : 
 
 I have talked a great deal, always with a view to the safety of the Establish- 
 ment, about Ecclesiastical Reforms. Ecclesiastical Reforms seem just as remote 
 
 * May 12th, 1876.
 
 1874-84.] EXTRACTS FROM SPEECHES. 741 
 
 as they were before anything: was said on the subject. I am not going to speak 
 about such thing's any more, and I will tell you why. Two hundred years ago, 
 an ancestor of mine, the Lord Shaf tesbury of that day, was one day making a 
 speech in the House of Lords. Behind him sat the Bishops, and one of them, 
 whose name I find recorded in history, and who disliked the Lord Shaf tesbury 
 of that day, perhaps nearly as much as the Bishops now dislike the Lord 
 Shaftesbury of the present day, exclaimed, " When will that Lord have done 
 preaching ? " My ancestor turned round to him, and said, " Whenever your 
 Lordships begin." Well, I will not go on preaching any more about Ecclesiastical 
 Reform, because it would be utterly useless, because I know their Lordships the 
 Bishops will never begin. 
 
 Although he had to listen to endless reports of Societies, he never grew 
 weary of them. They were not dry figures to him, but startling facts ; he 
 saw, beyond the mere tabulated statements, harvest-fields of Christian 
 labour, and listened eagerly when the majority of hearers were listless. He 
 said, playfully : 
 
 I think it would be of the greatest value if the reports of the various 
 Religious and Charitable Societies were at once, by Act of Parliament, elevated 
 into the dignity of Blue Books. If every Member of Parliament, under the 
 most severe penalty and more particularly the Ministers of the day were com- 
 pelled to study them accurately, and then undergo a competitive examination, I 
 am satisfied that great good would accrue to themselves and benefit to their 
 country ; their enlarged notions, and probably improved hearts, would be ielt in 
 the legislation of the country. 
 
 A good deal of controversy had arisen as to the state of the pulpit in the 
 Church of England, and strong assertions had been made that the style and 
 manner of preaching were not adapted to the exigencies of the people. 
 Referring to this controversy, Lord Shaftesbury said : 
 
 We want a plainer style of speaking, but not plain in the sense of vapid, 
 unmeaning words. It is a great mistake to talk of coming down to the level of 
 the people. I recollect a great demagogue once saying in the House of Commons, 
 " I have had much experience in haranguing the people, and always made it a 
 rule, whatever audience I addressed, to speak my very best, and then I found I 
 was always best understood." Use plain language, not vapid, thin, unmeaning 
 language, but use language directed to their apprehensions, being drawn from 
 thoughts and circumstances with which they are conversant ; the deeper your 
 thoughts, and the more metaphorical your language, the more easily you will 
 convey your meaning to the people. 
 
 Deploring the falling away of some from the steadfastness of the faith, 
 he says : 
 
 When I turn to the right and to the left to seek for sympathy and help in 
 these circumstances, I am met by language of this kind. " Did you ever 
 know a time when there was so much building of new churches? or, did 
 you ever know a time when there was so much done for the restoration of old
 
 742 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXXVI. 
 
 churches ? " I answer. " I never knew such a time." I admit that the contri- 
 butions for the building of new churches appear almost unbounded, and that 
 the prevalent disposition to restore old churches seems almost equally remark- 
 able. I wish I could see the same desire for the restoration of the old 
 doctrine. 
 
 Speaking with reference to the question of religious services at the burial 
 of Nonconformists, he says : 
 
 I determined to make an effort to effect a compromise. I did devise a com- 
 promise. Of course I entered upon the inheritance that usually falls to the lot 
 of those who mediate. I became obnoxious to both sides. I know it is said in 
 Scripture, " Blessed are the peacemakers." Spiritually, that is no doubt true, 
 but terrestrially, it is the very reverse. I have generally found that those who 
 interpose in such cases, though they do so with the best intentions, come off very 
 badly in the effort which they make. 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury had the happy art of enlivening his speeches with 
 anecdotes of his contemporaries. Thus, when a speaker had expressed some- 
 thing like contempt for those who desired to see Convocation abolished, and 
 remarked that they did not know what Convocation really was, because they 
 were never there, Lord Shaftesbury replied : 
 
 It may be perfectly true that we have not been in Convocation, but there is 
 an old saying, " By their fruits ye shall know them." During my early life, I 
 happened one day to be sitting in a Committee of the House of Commons by the 
 side of the late Alderman Waithman. He was a man who had a rough kind of 
 eloquence, in which he was very fond of indulging, and which certainly did not 
 charm the Members of that House as much as it charmed people elsewhere. 
 The preceding evening he had made a speech in the House. He said to me, 
 " Did you hear me make my speech ? " I replied that I did. " What did you 
 think of it ? " he said. " Well," I replied, " I thought it was a speech." " Ah ! " 
 he rejoined, " if you want to hear me well, you must go to the Common Council." 
 I did not see the necessity in that case, nor do I in this. It has been remarked 
 that Convocation is a somnolent body. It may be so, but it is a somnolent body 
 that talks in its sleep. It talks, too, to the great disturbance of people who desire 
 repose while lying on their beds. 
 
 On another occasion he said : 
 
 I well recollect that after Sir Francis Burdett had changed his political 
 opinions, and gone over to the Conservative side of the House of Commons, he 
 made a speech, in which he said, " I hate the cant of patriotism ; " and on the 
 same occasion Lord John Russell, who was then the leader of the Whig party, 
 with great readiness and wit, remarked, " The cant of patriotism is, no doubt, a 
 bad thing, but what I hate more is the re-cant of patriotism." I may apply thia 
 to dignitaries who go across the water commissioned to represent evangelical 
 religion, and, as soon as they have come back, publish a paper with a view to 
 upset a great part of the Book of Genesis, and a great part of the Book of 
 Exodus, and I know not what. I tell such men that, while our enemies hate the
 
 1874-84.) EVENING COMMUNION. 743 
 
 cant, as they call it, of evangelical religion, I hate, quite as much, the recanting 
 of evangelical truth. 
 
 It was a habit of Lord Shaftesbury's mind to look at almost every ques- 
 tion from the standpoint of the poor. Thus, when the question of Evening 
 Communion was under the consideration of the Evangelical clergy, he said : 
 
 We must consider what has long been the condition of these people, and have 
 some regard to their wants, habits, customs, and feelings, and we must remember 
 that vast numbers of them, especially the women, have not a moment's leisure 
 from domestic duties till the evening, and the rectors and vicars of large parishes 
 tell me that, for one poor man or woman who has attended morning Communion, 
 fourteen or fifteen have attended evening Communion ; and it is the testimony of 
 those who have witnessed such scenes, that it is quite refreshing to observe the 
 earnest, humble, and devout manner in which these poor creatures assemble round 
 the table of their blessed Lord. 
 
 Again, on the same subject : 
 
 The people are calling out for the Lord's Supper in the Mission Rooms. Now, 
 if it were given out by a large body of the ministers of the Church that they 
 would administer the Communion in the evening, many of the poor with whom 
 we have to deal would be likely to attend ; but if it is to be given out that the 
 ministers of the Church of England will never consider their convenience and 
 necessities, they will certainly stay away from the churches altogether. 
 
 And how, I ask you, in such a refusal, can the Church of England call herself 
 the " Church of the people"? 
 
 In protesting against the use which certain Bishops and leading High 
 Churchmen were making of the word " Schism," he said : 
 
 A schismatic, with them, is any person who differs ecclesiastically from the 
 externals of the Established Church ; a schismatic, according to the Bible and 
 Gospel, is a heretic, one who denies all, or any, of the doctrines which Christ 
 taught. But to use the word to any one because he differs from the framework 
 of the Establishment, because he cannot conform to all the decrees of the bishops 
 and every form of priestly assumption, is, I hold it, a great profanation of the 
 word, and a want of principle in the man who dares so to use it. That word haa 
 been applied so often to me that if I had really been guilty of schism I should 
 have been in limbo long ago. They call me a Dissenter and the greatest 
 schismatic who was ever produced. I am no schismatic. So long as a man 
 holds to the Church of Christ he is not guilty, in a Scriptural sense, of any 
 schism whatever. 
 
 During a period of great conflict in Ecclesiastical matters, some of the 
 combatants were wont to apply to the Church of England the term " Apos- 
 tate." This term Lord Shaftesbury indignantly repudiated. 
 
 This dear old Mother Church is vexed on all sides by her recreant sons. Here 
 she is torn by heresies and schisms ; she is vexed by new projects which are sug- 
 gested every day, wild and crude ; without are fightings, within are fears ; she 
 is denounced by her enemies and harassed by her children ; and yet she is crying
 
 744- THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXXVI. 
 
 with the loudest and tenderest voice to all her children, ".I am no apostate 
 Church ; as yet I have done nothing to betray my trust ; hundreds and thousands 
 of my children are apostate, but I myself am not an apostate Church." So long 
 as the Church of England stands firmly by her Formularies, her Articles, and her 
 Homilies, and so long as she crowns all by declaring that the Bible is the sole 
 ground of her faith, rejecting tradition and every argument of human invention, 
 so long may she confidently assert that she is a true Church in the sight of God. 
 It is on account of some of these excrescences, some of these follies, some of these 
 abominations, that we are called upon to leave the embrace of our dear old 
 mother. Leave her 1 Who has a right to probe my conscience and tell me what 
 I ought to do here 1 Leave her 1 Why, I should just as soon have expected that 
 Paul would call upon Timothy to renounce his grandmother Lois and his mother 
 Eunice ! 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury's speeches at the Annual Meetings of the British and 
 Foreign Bible Society were, as a rule, very brief, and related, in a great 
 measure, to the business of the meeting. For many years his speeches con- 
 sisted in an acknowledgment of his cordial reception (it was always enthusi- 
 astic), and an intimation that as the platform was full of notable speakers, he 
 would not stand between them and the audience. Occasionally, however, and 
 especially when any remarkable attacks had been made upon the Bible, he 
 would utter one of his most rousing appeals of which the following may be 
 taken as a characteristic specimen. To his view there was one, and only one, 
 way out of every difficulty the spread of that Book in which he believed a 
 solution was to be found to every problem in life : 
 
 The Bible, God's holy Word, will do its own work, and therefore it is that I 
 urge the Bible Society to put forth its best energies ; to relax no effort in carrying 
 on the work they have undertaken. Our strength lies in that old, effete Book 
 that Book so full of " old wives' fables " that Book which they say is so unsuited 
 to the present generation that Book which is not equal to the present intelli- 
 gence of man. Ay, that old Book, THAT shall be the source of r our safety and of 
 our greatness. Amid all the conflicts of the nations that are coming upon the 
 earth, that Book shall be our life, our light, our security, our joy, our pillar of 
 cloud by day, our pillar of fire by night, our guide through all our perils ; and it 
 will be found in that great day that none but those who are engaged in this work, 
 none but those who have the Bible in their hands and in their hearts, will be able 
 to meet the great conflict, and stand in their lot at the end of the days. 
 
 For the Young Men's Christian Association Lord Shaftesbury entertained 
 an almost parental affection, and was wont to speak of its members as his 
 " sons." " 1 have always looked upon this association," he said, " and all 
 kindred associations in all parts of the United Kingdom and in America, as 
 grand cities of refuge from the commercial life, individually and collectively, 
 of the several nations places where young men, coming from a distance, and 
 removed from all parental influence, and all the influence of domestic life, 
 may find shelter, and where they may learn the way of Salvation, and obtain 
 courage and confidence to walk in it."
 
 1374-84.] YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION. 745 
 
 In giving 1 a few illustrations of his stimulating and inspiring speeches, it 
 is hardly necessary to point out the facility with which he adapted himself to 
 tin- t astes and feelings of young men ; garnishing his remarks with an occa- 
 sional dash of politics, or humorous anecdote, or touch of personal history. 
 Thus, speaking of the prospects open to young men, he said : 
 
 We see before us many, I have no doubt, who may shine in the House of 
 Commons ; I do not think we shall see many of you shine in the House of Lords, 
 for I fear that venerable assembly will hardly be allowed to subsist much longer. 
 But, if it does, I think I shall move an address to the Queen as there is now a 
 question of having 1 life peers that two of the most prominent gentlemen in the 
 discussion of this point shall be created Earl of Trafalgar Square and Baron of 
 Hyde Park ! 
 
 In addressing a meeting of the delegates from Foreign Associations in 
 connection with the Young Men's Christian Association at the Mansion 
 House, he said he regarded this large assembly of representatives from the 
 various nationalities of the earth as a great (Ecumenical Council convened to 
 consider the highest welfare of the human race. He hoped and believed 
 that the present (Ecumenical Council would not resemble those of which 
 Fuller in his " Ecclesiastical History " had written, " When I come to think 
 of thero Councils, I am constrained to say, ' There is none that doeth good 
 no, not one.' " 
 
 His happy method of drawing lessons from the current topics of the day 
 is illustrated in the following quotation from a speech made during the 
 Franco-Prussian war. He had been pointing out that temptations and 
 dangers surrounded young men in this metropolis on every hand ; that they 
 could not turn to the right or the left without being exposed to seductions 
 and perils that did not beset their forefathers. 
 
 Now, the delusions are tenfold more attractive, and the amusements infinitely 
 more deceptive ; and hundreds and thousands of young men and women enter 
 into a career of vice in utter ignorance of the nature and end of such a career. 
 Not till they have drunk in the poison that has been instilled by small doses, 
 not till they feel it rankling in their veins, do they see and feel that career to be 
 one which it is difficult to retire from. One of the greatest difficulties to be 
 considered in the present day is the recreation and amusements that are fit for 
 young men and adapted to them. I must admit that some recreation is neces- 
 sary ; that some diversion of spirit is requisite, and that there must be some 
 relief to anxiety and change from the dulness and regularity of business. How, 
 and what is this to be ? Observe the peculiar character of a nation that has 
 lately come before us in so prominent a manner. Take the German people. Look 
 at the moral character of the men taking a serious view of everything, and 
 finding in their hours of recreation the opportunity of advancing their intel- 
 lectual knowledge and moral character. Mark the invincible power of their 
 arms, being thoroughly united. Contrast them with the leaders of the French 
 armies ; they seemed to care for nothing but amusements, and never heartily 
 associated with their troops, consequently never were sustained by their troops
 
 746 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. fCriAi-. XXXVI. 
 
 in the hour of danger. Now I have never been amongst those who object to 
 recreation. I thoroughly admit of its necessity, but then, I say, take care of the 
 character of the recreation. Even in your amusements there may be something 
 tending to your moral improvement, and you should enter upon nothing which 
 does not tend to this. By your moral, determined character and self-control, it 
 is in your power to add dignity and force to your characters. Look again at 
 that nation of France resolved into its original element, without any principle of 
 cohesion. If our people approximate, in any degree whatever, to the condition 
 of things at present existing in unhappy France, all honour, peace, and security 
 will be gone from this now happy and richly-blessed island. . . The French, 
 who have devoted themselves to amusements, have been found in the hour of 
 trial to have no mutual sympathy, no steady pursuits, no definite aims, and have 
 now fallen into the most complete disorganisation, having previously as the 
 Military Envoy to the Court at Berlin declared "long lost the faculty of 
 respecting anything in heaven or earth." If you would add dignity and force and 
 security to the times in which you live, you will remember this, politically, 
 socially, morally, and religiously : that those three words which seem to exercise 
 so mighty a charm on the other side of the water, but which, as applied by them, 
 have no meaning whatever, will have very much meaning with you when under- 
 stood in this sense, that there is no Liberty but in the Gospel, no Equality but in 
 the Truth, and no Fraternity but in Jesus Christ. 
 
 On the transfer of the headquarters of the Association to Exeter Hall, 
 an impetus was given to all its operations, and Lord Shaftesbury became 
 more intimately associated than ever with this admirable institution. 
 
 It is somewhat a curious coincidence, that Exeter Hall stands almost 
 close to the site of Exeter House, where dwelt, in troublous times, Anthony 
 Ashley, the first Earl of Shaftesbury ; and that the City branch of the 
 Young Men's Christian Association in Aldersgate Street stands opposite 
 '' Shaftesbury Hall," once Thanet House, the residence of the first Earl at 
 the time of his arrest and committal to the Tower. 
 
 In Lord Shaftesbury's addresses to the members of the Young Men's 
 Christian Association he frequently gave them little snatches of auto- 
 biography. Thus, when referring to the gymnasium, he said : 
 
 When I see the vast number of young men before me who are engaged the 
 whole day long in heated rooms, some never sitting down, some never standing 
 up, occupied in businesses which are not conducive to physical health, I feel 
 that it is absolutely necessary that the body should be regarded ; that you should 
 be able to develop your muscular and physical faculties, and get them into 
 order and shape ; and that the body should be cherished in an honourable, 
 noble, and becoming way, and made more adapted and suitable to the great 
 intellectual purposes of which it is only the depository. I hope you will use the 
 gymnasium well. I speak as an old practitioner, for though, when I was a young 
 man, we had no gymnastics of this sort, we learned the noble art of self- 
 defence, which is called boxing. And I can tell you I was a very good boxer. I 
 never fought with anybody, but I found it developed the strength, gave play to 
 the respiratory organs, and that I was a better man for all the other purposes 
 before me.
 
 1S74-84.J REMINISCENCES. 747 
 
 In the following year, when distributing the prizes after a gymnastic 
 display, he stated that, during the past fifty years of his life he had scarcely 
 let a morning pass without indulging in a little of the fine exercises which 
 they had witnessed that evening, and to this fact he attributed, in no small 
 degree, his present enjoyment of health, 
 
 One of the subjects on which Lord Shaftesbury was wont to speak with 
 great force and earnestness, when advocating the claims of pure literature, 
 was the pernicious, impure, and sensational works for the young constantly 
 issuing from the press. He regarded it as an abominable and fearful plague 
 that was ravaging the whole of our juvenile population. He said : 
 
 Some time ago I was led to look into works like those to which I allude, very 
 seriously, and I was struck by the beauty of the composition, and by the artful 
 way in which the most wicked and foul ideas were conveyed. I observed, 
 particularly, the manner in which they were especially addressed to the minds of 
 young men and young women ; how the most pure-minded young man, or the 
 most modest young woman, might read one of these works twice or thrice 
 without discerning the object of the composition, and perhaps would never 
 discern it until the poison had entered the soul. 
 
 In fact, these things had been written with so much astuteness and with so 
 much care, that I would defy any writer that ever was, or any writer that ever 
 will be, to draw an Act of Parliament containing clauses that would suffice to 
 put down such literature as that. 
 
 Exhaustless as are the speeches of Lord Shaftesbury, his reminiscences of 
 scenes and incidents in connection with his philanthropic labours are not less 
 so. It was very pleasant to listen to him, as in the last few years of his life he 
 loved to dwell on the memories of the past, and fight his battles o'er again. 
 Excellent as he was on the platform, he was inimitable by the fireside, where, 
 as he recounted his experiences, he would suit the action to the word much 
 more than in his public addresses. 
 
 Few things delighted him more than to tell the story of Ragged School 
 work and Ragged School workers. Some of his reminiscences, narrated to 
 the writer, who jotted them down as they were spoken, will be read with 
 interest. 
 
 I could tell you some wonderful tales about these rescued lives. The story of 
 the Ragged School is the story of the greatest triumph of modern times. I have 
 seen the most startling development of heroic virtue, the most cheering evidences 
 of the grace of God, in these poor creatures struggling into the light. They make 
 the best of all converts, and it seems to me the Lord interposes with more grace 
 in behalf of the utterly destitute and hopeless than He does with any others. 
 
 I remember one night at the George Yard Ragged School. A magio lantern 
 had been purchased to interest the poor things, and I went down to have a talk 
 with them, as a series of slides, representing the Crucifixion of our Lord and the 
 attendant circumstances, was to be exhibited. There were about four hundred 
 people in the room, and the police told me that between four and five hundred 
 were turned away. The interest in the pictures was intense, and I shall never 
 forget their earnest, excited facet, as the scenes in the sacred drama passed before
 
 748 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXXVI. 
 
 them. The last picture represented our Lord standing beside a closed door, and 
 the text at the foot of the picture was, " Behold I stand at the door and knock.'' 
 The effect was startling- it seemed to bring the story home to every heart, and 
 when I said, " What you see there, is going on at the door of every house in 
 Whitechapel," they were moved to tears (and the eyes of the old Earl filled and 
 his voice faltered as the scene came back to him again). It was a revelation to 
 them, and when I told them that, if they would throw open the door, He would 
 "come and sup with them," there was something so cosy and comfortable to 
 them in the idea of it that they came pouring round me and thanking me. Poor 
 dear souls ! they do not care much for churches and chapels and the outward 
 forms ; they like their religion to be cosy ; it fills them with hope of what may 
 some day be their lot, for now they have no comforts in their lives. I wonder 
 how it is they do not die of despair ! 
 
 On another occasion he was sitting in the library at Grosvenor Square, 
 with two portraits before him. One was that of a poor, puny, destitute child 
 in rags and tatters ; the other of a handsome woman in fashionable attire. He 
 said : 
 
 Just look at these portraits they have rejoiced my heart more than I can 
 ever tell. I am more delighted than if I had become possessed of half the 
 kingdom. There is a strange story connected with these portraits. Years 
 ago, late at night, there was a knock at the door. There was nothing very 
 unusual about that, but, somehow, it attracted my attention more than usual, and 
 I remember wondering who it could be, and what the business could be about. 
 Presently, I heard the loud and angry voice of a man in altercation with my 
 servant. I felt then and I recall the feeling vividly at this moment a strange 
 inward prompting that it was my duty to go and see what was the matter. There 
 was a man with a little child in his arms which he was endeavouring to thrust 
 into the arms of my servant, who of course would not take it. " What is this all 
 about ? " I asked. The man turned to me and said, " Lord Shaf tesbury, I have 
 brought this child to you I don't know what else to do with it. I cannot trust 
 myself to be its father, and I cannot abandon it altogether." 
 
 The man's importunity would brook no denial ; his appeal was very touching, 
 and I felt I could not dismiss the case. I let the man come in, and took down 
 from him all particulars, and the end of it was that the child was left with me. I 
 did not know very well what to do with the poor little thing, so I had her sent 
 to an inn close by for the night, and the next day, when the landlady of the inn 
 brought her back, Miss Rye happened to be here. She undertook to find a home 
 for the child, and, sure enough, before very long, a lady, who visited the Home 
 in which she was, took such a fancy to her that she adopted her. And that 
 portrait of the fine lady is the portrait of what that little ragged destitute child 
 has developed into. I shall never forget that night when she was left at this 
 house. I feel as convinced that I was moved to do what I did by our blessed 
 Lord as if I had seen Him in person and heard His voice. 
 
 Few things irritated Lord Shaftesbury more than to hear the poor spoken 
 of as " outcasts," or work for the poor as " hopeless " work. 
 
 Hopeless, indeed I Why, look at my friend " Punch " as we called him. 
 Punch had been a source of annoyance to almost the whole of the workhouses of
 
 1874-84] A WOMAN'S INFLUENCE. 749 
 
 the metropolis. He went from casual ward to casual ward, " prigging " the 
 clothes that is the right word and showing himself altogether one of the most 
 abandoned scamps in London. At hist he came to the Refuge in Great Queen 
 Street. Seeing him there, I said to him, " Punch, how can you go on in such a 
 way as this ? You have got some good about you ; you have good abilities and 
 you have strength ; shall we make a man of you, Punch ? " Punch replied : 
 " Well, I don't mind if you do." Well, we set about trying, and, by God's 
 blessing, we did make a man of him. Having been made a first-rate shoemaker, 
 he went out to Natal, to carry on business there, and he is, I hope, carrying on 
 business successfully, and maintaining the honourable character which he had 
 when he left the Refuge. 
 
 For Ragged School teachers Lord Shaftesbury never lost an opportunity 
 of saying a kind and encouraging word. He admired their self-denying zeal 
 and Christian courage and many a time he thrilled his audiences at public 
 meetings by narrating incidents in connection with their work. Speaking, in 
 the country, of the Field Lane School, which afforded the most extraordinary 
 exhibitions of human nature that the world ever saw, he paid the following 
 tribute to a woman's influence : 
 
 I have there seen men of forty years of age and children of three in the same 
 room men the wildest and most uncouth, whom it was considered dangerous to 
 meet, and perhaps it would be dangerous to meet them in the dark alone, but in 
 that room they were perfectly safe. I saw there thirty or forty men, none of 
 them with shoes or stockings on, and some without shirts the wildest and most 
 awful looking men you can imagine. They all sat in a ring, and the only other 
 human being in the room was a young woman of twenty-six or twenty-seven 
 years of age, and, allow me to add. one of the prettiest women I ever saw. She 
 was teaching all these wild, rough, uncouth creatures, who never bowed the head 
 to any constable or any form of civil authority, yet they looked on her with a 
 degree of reverence and affection that amounted almost to adoration. I was 
 greatly alarmed, and, going down-stairs and meeting the superintendent, I said, 
 " My good fellow, I don't like this ; there she is among all those roughs. I am 
 very much alarmed." " So am I," he said. " Then why do you leave her there ? " 
 I asked. He replied : " I am not alarmed from the same reason that you are. 
 You are alarmed lest they should offer some insult to her, but what I am afraid 
 of is this, that some day a man might drop in who, not knowing the habits of 
 the place, might lift a finger against her, and if he did so, he would never leave 
 the room alive ; he would be torn limb from limb." So great was the reverence 
 that these lawless and apparently ungovernable creatures paid to the grace and 
 modesty of that young woman. 
 
 Stories of Lord Shaftesbury's affection for little children and the more 
 ragged and helpless and hopeless they were, the greater seemed to be his love 
 for them could be multiplied without end. 
 
 .A little child, rejoicing in the name of " Tiny," hearing that in the Refuge 
 where her lot was cast there was to be a new dormitory, to be furnished by 
 subscriptions, took upan herself to write to him and ask him for a subscription
 
 750 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXXVL 
 
 THE GIRLS' REFUGE, ANDREW'S ROAD, 
 
 CAMBRIDGE HEATH, Feb. 7th, 1876. 
 
 DEAR LORD SHAFTESBURY, You will see by the address that I have changed 
 my home from Albert Street, where, I remember, you spoke to me, and told me 
 about your dog. I am still called " Tiny," although there is a little girl less 
 than I am. 
 
 If you please, Lord Shaftesbury, I want to ask you if you will give a bed to 
 our new home. Fifty of the girls of the highest division have been sent from 
 Albert Street here, and we have contributed the cost of one (2 14s. 4d.) ourselves 
 out of our little store. You will come, I hope, and see our new home. Mr. Gent 
 will tell you where it is. I am sure you will like it, for I do, and my sister is 
 with me. Please come and see us and the pictures a gentleman gave us. 
 
 I remain, yours respectfully, 
 
 "TINT." 
 
 His considerate and characteristic reply gives a glimpse of that wealth 
 of tenderness which won the hearts of all, but especially of the young, and 
 made them think of him more as a father than a friend, and speak of him as 
 " our Earl." 
 
 Feb. llth, 1876. 
 
 MY DEAR SMALL TINY, I must thank you for your nice letter, and say that, 
 God willing, I will certainly call and see your new home, and you too, little woman. 
 You ask me to give " a bed " to the new home. To be sure I will. I will give 
 two, if you wish it, and they shall be called " Tiny's petitions." 
 
 I am glad to see how well you write ; and I shall be more glad to hear from 
 Gent, and your other friends, that you are a good girl, that you read your Bible, 
 say your prayers, and love the blessed Lord Jesus Christ. May He ever be with 
 youl 
 
 Your affectionate friend, 
 
 SHAFTESBURY. 
 To Tiny, at King Edward's School. 
 
 The London shoeblacks, to a boy, knew Lord Shaftesbury, and felt that 
 he was a personal friend. One day a friend of his Lordship's was having his 
 boots cleaned, and he said to the lad, " I've seen Lord Shaftesbury." " Have 
 you, indeed p I shall see him myself on Friday." (That was the day for the 
 annual meeting at Exeter Hall.) 
 
 A student, anxious to test what was the real feeling of these Ragged 
 School shoeblacks for their patron, spoke disparagingly of Lord Shaftesbury 
 to one of them, and denounced him for assisting juvenile thieves and roughs, 
 all of whom, he said, ought to be in prison, rather than at school. The poor 
 boy fired up at this, and said, " Don't you speak against Lord Shaftesbury, 
 sir ; if you do, God Almighty will never bless you." 
 
 " What the poor want is not patronage, but sympathy," was his own 
 axiom, and when the poor saw him driving into their " slums " with his car- 
 riage full of toys for the neglected little ones ; when, on the great day of the 
 year "the day in the country" they saw him moving about among them,
 
 1874-84.1 KNOWN BY THE POOR. 751 
 
 with a kind word here, and a little pleasantry there, and a smile for all ; 
 when, in their times of sickness, he sat by their bedsides, and read to them 
 from the Scriptures ; when he promised to see them again, or send them 
 books, or interest himself in other ways for them, and, notwithstanding the 
 many promises of this kind he made, was never known to leave one unfulfilled; 
 when they found that he conld trust them, finding tools for one to get employ- 
 ment ; advancing money to another till his first wages fell due ; when they were 
 confident that if a poor flower-girl, or little children in distress, called at 
 Grosvenor Square to tell their troubles to " the good Earl," they would never 
 be turned away ; when they knew that, by day and by night, he went to the 
 common lodging-houses, and sought out men and women, tenderly reared, 
 who were hiding away from family and friends, and would not give up a 
 case until he had seen them reconciled, and, perchance, brought home again ; 
 when the bare walls of those miserable lodging-houses, on the day after his 
 visit, were made gay with bright pictures to produce the semblance of a 
 home-like look ; when, as some of them told him of cruel wrong or heart- 
 breaking sorrow, they saw the tears pour down his face, and heard his falter- 
 ing exclamation, " God help you, poor dear ! " it is no wonder that they 
 almost worshipped the ground upon which he trod, and that his name was 
 held in veneration in every hovel of Whitechapel and Westminster. 
 
 How widely that name was known among the poorest of the poor few 
 ever imagined. 
 
 At a large gathering of costermongers, labourers, tramps, and others, held 
 in Westminster, a gentleman was anxious to test what knowledge people of 
 this class had of great public men. He referred to one who, though well 
 advanced in life, and pressed with a thousand engagements, could yet find 
 time to write hymns in Latin and translate them into Italian ; but there was 
 no recognition of the person from the description ; nor again when half a 
 dozen of the leading men of the day were referred to in a similar manner ; 
 but when the speaker only hinted at " the labours of one whose name is 
 revered in the factory districts as the friend of the poor and the oppressed, 5 ' 
 there was immediately a loud clapping of hands ; and when the speaker, to 
 make sure that they understood, asked them, " I suppose, by that applause, 
 you know to whom I refer ? " there was a ready response " Lord Shaftesbury." 
 
 Another gentleman, in another place, having indirectly referred to the 
 work of Lord Shaftesbury without mentioning his name, was surprised to 
 find himself interrupted by a storm of applause. It was clear the applause 
 was not for what he had said, but for the man of whom he had spoken. 
 Pausing in his address, he said, " And what do you know of Lord Shaftes- 
 bury?" 
 
 " Know of him ! " answered a man standing up in the audience ; " why, 
 sir, I'm a sweep, and what did he do for me? Didn't he pass the Bill? 
 Why, when I was a little 'un, I had to go up the chimbleys, and many a time 
 I've come down with bleeding feet and knees, and a'most choking. And he 
 passed the Bill as saved us from all that. That's what 1 know of him."
 
 752 THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXXVI 
 
 But what could the poor, generally, know of him ? it may be asked. Let 
 one illustration, from a hupdred that might be quoted, suffice to answer. 
 " When visiting the Day School, which he frequently did," says Mr. George 
 Holland, of the George Yard Ragged School, Whitechapel, in a letter to the 
 writer, " he would go the round of each section, would notice the lessons the 
 children were learning, and kindly encourage them to persevere. He fre- 
 quently noticed the pallid faces of many of the scholars. Speaking to a poor 
 boy one winter's day, he asked, ' My man, what is the matter with you ? '' 
 The boy replied, ' I have had no food for some time.' ' How long have you 
 been without P ' ' About twenty-six hours.' ' Twenty-six hours ! ' said the 
 Earl, ' why, you must be fainting ; no wonder you look ill.' ' Oh, that's 
 nothing,' said the boy ; ' I have gone without two days afore now.' That day 
 the Earl spoke to all the children, and many were without necessary food. 
 Going to a little girl, he asked, ' And are you not well, my dear ? ' ' Ise 
 hungry Ise cold,' she replied. ' And when you have food, what does mother 
 give you ? ' ' We has the same as mother ; we has bread and water, and 
 sometimes a little tea ; but mother can't always afford that.' ' Poor child,' 
 said the Earl, ' why, you have hardly any clothing to cover you.' He left 
 the schoolroom and entered into one of the small rooms. Presently I 
 followed. I observed tears trickling down his face. ' My Lord,' I said, 
 ' what is the matter P ' ' George, those poor children. Poor dear children, 
 how will you get on with them ? ' I replied, ' My God shall supply all their 
 need.' ' Yes,' he said, ' He will ; they must have some food directly.' He 
 left the building, and, entering his brougham, ordered the coachman to drive 
 home. A few hours after two large churns of soup were sent down, enough 
 to feed four hundred. This continued, and that winter 10,000 basins of soup 
 and bread were distributed to hungry children and their parents soup made 
 in his own mansion in Grosveuor Square." 
 
 If the poor had many memorials of Lord Shaftesbury, he certainly had 
 many of them. Over his bed, in Grosvenor Square, hung a handsome " sam- 
 pler " worked by factory girls, the first-fruits of their leisure hours ; the 
 clock in his dining-room was presented to him by flower and watercress 
 girls ; his bed coverlet under which at St. Giles's he always slept was made 
 out of little bits of material, with a figure in the middle, and a large 
 letter " S," the work of a number of ragged children. Speaking, one day, 
 at the Annual Meeting of the Reformatory and Refuge Union, he tried 
 to tell how much he was indebted to these children, and said : 
 
 I believe I have been pretty well clothed by day and by night by them. I 
 have had all sorts of things made and given to me ; I have had slippers and 
 stockings ; I have had shoes and waistcoats, and bed linen too ; coverlets, coun- 
 terpanes well, everything but a coat ; I have had desks, I have had arm-chairs, 
 and they gave me such a quantity of writing paper, all well stamped, that I 
 assure you it was enough for all my own correspondence for six months. I love 
 it, however, because it has been all called forth from their dear little hearts, 
 and I prize it all far more than the noblest present that could be given me.
 
 1874-84.] RAGGED SCHOOL WORK. 75S 
 
 They were words of truth and soberness he spoke when he said : 
 
 I thank God for the day when I was called, by His grace, to participate IE 
 this holy work. Of all the things to which I have been called by His good and 
 all-wise Providence, there is not one like it, not one that has brought me so 
 much comfort, not one that I can look back upon with so much consolation, that 
 rests with so much joy upon my heart, and there is not one I look forward to 
 with so much hope. 
 
 Not less true and not less sober were these words, spoken in 1880 : 
 
 If my life should be prolonged for another year, and if, during that year, the 
 Ragged School system were to fall, I should not die in the course of nature, I 
 should die of a broken heart. 
 
 W W
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII. 
 
 18831885. LAST YEAES. 
 
 
 THE evening of life takes its character from the day which has preceded it, 
 and Lord Shaftesbury, in the closing years of his long career, exemplified all 
 those excellences of character which had marked his prime, and enjoyed tboso 
 comforts of religious hope which result from communion with God and ser- 
 vice to man. As the outward man began to perish, the inward man was 
 renewed day by day, and though the suppleness and strength and activity cf 
 the body began to fail, the well- exercised soul grew stronger, its vision was 
 wider, its rest more perfect. Beautiful it is, on a calm summer's evening, 
 when the work of the day is nearly done, to watch the sun lingering in the 
 heavens and transf orming everything by its golden rays, and not less beauti- 
 ful is it to gaze upon a saintly life when " at evening-tide it is light." 
 
 It had long been his prayer that he " might die in harness," and at his 
 advanced age it could not be but that every act should be clothed with an 
 air of safjedness it might be his last. And still he laboured on, his facul- 
 ties keenly alive, his heart tender as ever, his sympathies just as fresh, and 
 his plans as numerous as at any period of his life. 
 
 There is nothing more curious, in the whole of the Diaries of Lord 
 Shaftesbury, than the record of his old age. He contemplates it in a hun- 
 dred unexpected ways, and from very original standpoints; he speculates 
 upon it, as if he were a disinterested person ; he naively describes and dis- 
 cusses feelings and sensations common to old age, but as if he had not the 
 least conception that they proceeded from that cause. Thus, in 1883, when 
 visiting his friends at Castle "Weinyss, where his health hitherto had always 
 been benefited, he begins to think " the air is relaxing. Soon get tired. I 
 should like to try a very bracing climate." It does not seem to occur to him 
 that the difference in feeling is due to age. But he has frequent reminders, 
 for, although he would not let go one of the occupations or amusements of 
 former days, he finds that they are not to him what they were. Tachting 
 and voyaging were once his delight. He still seeks enjoyment from them, 
 but adds : 
 
 Sept. 18th, 1883. Living on board, and sleeping on board, to me very un- 
 pleasant. The day-time is tolerable, the night-time horrible. The cribs the 
 places intended as places of repose, but, as such, utter failures may suit young 
 ones, but they are cramps, fetters, leg-racks, body-racks, existence-racks, to old 
 ones. Perhaps strong, elastic, bounding health might gi^e other views and 
 Bensations ; but in my present state I wish, so far as I am concerned, my yacht at 
 the bottom of the Red Sea.
 
 1888.] A CURIOUS STUDY. 755 
 
 Although, to the very last his memory was remarkably clear, it was but 
 natural that there should, at his great age, be occasional failures, especially in 
 respect of passing things. If there was one thing that he prided himself 
 upon, it was the exact and literal accuracy of his public statements, and it is 
 remarkable hpw few errors in this respect he made in the course of his long 
 life, and of the unprecedented number of speeches which he made. The 
 following entries furnish curious material for a study of the peculiarities of 
 old age, besides giving an illustration of Lord Shaftesbury's painstaking 
 diligence even in minute things : 
 
 March 9th, 1881. On Tuesday, 7th, went in evening with Lionel to Bethnal 
 Green " Ashley Mission." There recited a story by way of illustration of benefit 
 of Bands of Mercy ; told them that I had, that very morning, received a letter 
 from a gentleman, who informed me that he was one of the boys whom I had, 
 some years before, given a prize at a great school in Lancashire, for an essay on 
 "Humanity to Animals." I quoted this as an instance of a boy "reformed" 
 from cruelty to kindness. 
 
 The detail was clear, minute, personal, specific ; had I been called on to make 
 an oath, I should have sworn readily to the very words. When I returned I 
 looked at the letter for confirmation of what I had said. I found nothing of the 
 kind 1 How was this 1 Was it a delusion ? If so, never was one so pointed, 
 systematic, so like reality before. It fills me with terror. What might I not 
 have said or done under such deep convictions in more serious matters 1 God, in 
 His mercy, preserve me I If true, where is the document 1 Had I a second 
 letter, and did I confound it with the first ? If so, the second is lost I could 
 not swear that the thing was as I stated, for I find the evidence to be defective ; 
 but most conscientiously could I swear that I fully believed it. God alone in 
 His goodness and compassion can relieve my mind. Heartily do I beseech Him. 
 
 July 26th, 1882. In a terrible dilemma I Quoted, in a speech I made in the 
 House of Lords in 1876, a passage from Letters of Sir C. Bell, in which he 
 expresses his doubt " whether Vivisection is permitted by God's law." Referred 
 to it again, in a speech in 1879. . It has never been challenged. Two days ago, 
 wishing to verify quotation with a view to a letter to Professor Owen, could not 
 find anywhere the book from which I made it. Searched through and through, 
 backwards and forwards, a copy of the Letters, dated 1870, the year of publication. 
 Could find it nowhere. Showed the quotation to Miss Cobbe and Miss Coleridge, 
 who, both of them, attested its veracity, though neither could furnish me with 
 the volume. I could swear, was I called upon to do so, that the extract was word 
 for word as I stated it in speech and in print How came the book into my 
 hands ? Was it lent to me 1 Or was it hired from a circulating library ? Have 
 a recollection that 1 sent it back to some one, and purchased a copy for myself, 
 but one of a later edition (though not so stated on the title-page), with the 
 passage struck out It is a terrible grief to me ; for, if summoned to give the 
 evidence on which I founded my assertion, I could not do it Yet I am as 
 certain of my truth in the matter as I am of my own existence. 
 
 A miracle was wrought by Elisha to recover the axe-head of a poor labourer. 
 So do I pray that one, by God's mercy, may be wrought for me, and that I may 
 discover, to my justification and comfort, the proof of my accuracy and sincerity 
 w w 2
 
 756 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXXVII. 
 
 July 27th. No discovery as yet ; tried the publisher Murray, and Sharpe the 
 bookseller. 
 
 Sometimes he was painfully conscious of declining physical strength, and 
 he describes his feelings with singular minuteness. Thus : 
 
 August 24th, 1881. Wonderfully well, thank God, for my time of life. Yet 
 full of distressing sensations ; but how much worse, were it not for His mercy, 
 would all things be. Oftentimes feel as though my heart would never have 
 another pulsation. Nerves of the head seem to be made of leather, with 
 occasional tendencies of giddiness. When I speak, my voice appears to me but 
 not, so they say, to others as though I were speaking through all the cotton in 
 Lancashire. Never quite free from pain. Sometimes very severe in the region 
 of the stomach. I eat very little, quite enough, I think, for support, but in most 
 instances without relish. These things come upon me, now singly now all at 
 once. God's will be done. This state, modified more or less, has been my state 
 for the last two years. 
 
 At other times the advance of old age was borne in upon him by the 
 memory of what he had survived. Thus, when visiting Holland House in 
 the summer of 1883, he felt " like a mere cypher to the society around him. 
 There was not one in five hundred of the guests" he could " put a name to." 
 
 What a grand, memorable, and beautiful place it is I It recalls to my 
 memory the society, political, intellectual, convivial, and genial, of sixty years 
 ago. It recalls the memory of some estimable and some non-estimable persons 
 all dead and gone ; perhaps at the grand garden-party of yesterday not one 
 besides myself had ever seen, this Palace in its prime, under the famous 
 proprietors, Lord and Lady Holland ; and soon, no doubt, the glorious mansion 
 itself, and the noble, ancient park around it, will be consigned to the erection of 
 some thousand edifices ; to the domain of brick and mortar. The price it would 
 fetch for building purposes, perhaps half-a-million, will overcome reverence for 
 antiquity, sense of beauty, and all ennobling contemplations. It brought a 
 feeling of sadness over me. But such is progress I And, perhaps, the Prose of 
 the Future may be equal, if not superior, to the -Poetry of the Past. 
 
 It is the spirit in which he resolutely set his face to arduous and grinding 
 duty that shows the lustre of Lord Shaftesbury's latter days in their full 
 brightness. The night was coming when he could no longer work. And 
 under fits of unspeakable depression, in states of health in which other men 
 would never have dreamed of facing any exhausting labour, he persevered iu 
 his old career. " While I have a little strength, and a little time," he wrote, 
 " I cannot, though I shrink from exertion, endure to bo idle or silent." And 
 then, to fortify himself for the task from which he shrank, he breathes the 
 prayer, " O Lord, let me die ' in harness,' as it were, with a true heart and 
 adequate faculties about me." 
 
 We can but summarise a few of the many public labours in which he was 
 engaged during the year 1883. In January, he presided at a meeting at the 
 Mansion House, to do honour to the memory of Archbishop Tait " a good 
 mail," as he says, " worthy of all honour." |In March he spoke in the House
 
 1888,] ACROBAT CHILDREN. 757 
 
 of Lords in defence of Lord Stanhope's Bill for Prohibition of Payment of 
 Wages in Public-Houses, and attended a conference of working men on the 
 closing of public-houses on Sunday.^ Ir April he gave notice of opposition to 
 Lord Dunraven's motion " to desecrate and vulgarise the Lord's Day," a 
 motion that was defeated, in May, by a majority of twenty-four. In June he 
 presided at public meetings one a combined meeting of Church of England, 
 1'n -Ityterians, Roman Catholics, and others, convened by the English Church 
 Union (the High Ritualistic Society) against the Deceased Wife's Sister 
 Bill. In July he went to Manchester, accompanied by his friend Mr. Hind 
 Smith, to lay the corner-stone of a Refuge for Boys and Girls, and to receive 
 an ovation from all classes of the community, but especially from his old 
 clients, th<* operatives. It had been a cherished hope that he might " be able 
 to do a little good, and have a real and touching farewell in that city, the 
 scene of so many successful labours." And his expectations were more than 
 realised, it was " a miracle of God's mercy, love, and goodness." 
 
 In July Lord Shaf tesbury received a letter which distressed him greatly. 
 It was from a man who had been for more than twenty years connected with 
 gymnasts, acrobats, circus-riders, and the like, giving a harrowing description 
 of the, tortures to which children were subjected in the " education for their 
 professional career." Although the Parliamentary Session was drawing to a 
 close, Lord Shaftesbury would not let it pass without an effort on behalf of 
 the " hundreds, nay, thousands, of children who are constantly being immo- 
 lated on the altar of public amusement." It was not the first time that he 
 had called the attention of the legislature to " exhibitions disgusting to every 
 of humanity," but this did not prevent him from a further effort. On 
 the 1th of August, therefore, he brought the matter forward again, in order 
 to show that the Children's Dangerous Performance Act of 1879 was almost 
 futile in its operation, and that barbarities were still committed which were a 
 ico to a Christian nation. "If your lordships," he said, "had seen and 
 knew, as I have seen and know, during an experience of twenty years, the 
 UHL'L: ings and cruelties practised in the so-called tuition of those little ones, 
 and the hardships they have to endure, I am sure your lordships would not 
 lose an instant in trying to stop those cruelties at once and for ever." 
 
 He pointed out how School Board Inspectors might intervene, as schooling 
 and gymnast training could never go together, and how magistrates might 
 institute inquiries. But laws, though good and necessary, were ineffective, 
 unless backed up by public opinion, and one of his ends was gained by the 
 publicity iiiven to the question and a correspondence that arose thereon in the, 
 puMic press. A year later, in the preface to a little book on the subject,* 
 he set forth his views on tho whole matter, and spoke in no measured terms 
 of those who " have almost fainted under a sensation novel, and will pass tho 
 same evening to witness the torture and danger of infantine gymnasts and 
 acrobats." His only hope from legislation was, that some day an enactment, 
 strictly enforced, should prohibit any one to appear in these exhibitions until 
 * "Pauton ! ?ne Waifs ; or, a Plea for our City Children." IJy Miss Barlce.
 
 758 THE EARL OP 8HAFTESBCET. [CHAP. XXXVII. 
 
 he, or she, had attained the age of seventeen years. The long delay before 
 profits could be realised would then cut off the hope of repayment for the 
 cost of training and maintenance. 
 
 In August there came a pause, and he once more paid his annual visit to 
 Scotland, to the hospitable home of Mr. J. Burns, at Castle Wemyss. Bat 
 in November the round of labour was recommenced, of which the following 
 extract gives a specimen : 
 
 Nov. llth, Sunday. London. To be sure, a day of rest is a blessing. God 
 grant that while I have life and strength, I may labour more and more to secure 
 it for others 1 Yesterday, a day of singular activity. Interviews in the morning, 
 and letters ; at 2.30, Inaugural Meeting, in Largo Room, Exeter Hall, of Luther 
 Commemoration ; at 3.30, to Whitechapel. to lay foundation-stone of Charring- 
 ton's new place of worship, for such it is return home ; and then again to 
 Whitechapel, at seven o'clock, for great meeting in the evening. All got through 
 without let or hindrance, without pain or fatigue, I bless Thee, Lord ! Speeches, 
 of course, at each. He can, and He does, oftentimes, make an iron pillar out of 
 a bulrush. 
 
 None of the thousands who heard Lord Shaftesbury's remarkable speech 
 at the Luther Commemoration will ever forget it. It was a supreme effort 
 for an octogenarian. In a letter to a friend, referring to the admirable 
 report of his speech in the Times, he said, "I was convinced that the move- 
 ment was religious or nothing. I spent two days in thinking, not what I 
 should say, but what I should not say." 
 
 In this speech he set forth vividly the state of things from which Luther 
 delivered the Church, the manner in which he did it, and the great issues 
 and results enjoyed in consequence. It was a magnificent eulogium of " one 
 of the most signal servants of Almighty God the man, chosen by God 
 Himself, to deliver us from the most terrible and degrading thraldom of 
 mind and spirit that ever fell upon the human race." 
 
 The following passages from the Diary relate to a variety of subjects : 
 
 April 7th. Last night to King Edward's School to present testimonial to 
 Charles Montague, formerly a Ragged School boy, now a well-conditioned and 
 respectable tradesman, and superintendent also of the very school where he was 
 trained a noble example. God give us many such. 
 
 April 23rd. On Friday, received, at the public meeting of the Young 
 Women's Christian Association, a silver inkstand and pencil-case from the penny 
 contributions of many of the girls. It was gracious and pleasing. I hardly 
 deserve the acknowledgment, for though I have secretly and silently, and for 
 very long, earnestly prayed for their temporal and eternal welfare (this they will 
 not know), I have done but little outwardly, having had but limited time and no 
 appreciable money to use on their behalf. 
 
 June 27th. Went last night to meeting of Flower and Watercress Girls. It 
 is deeply touching and interesting. They gave me, as a token of their grati- 
 tude for the institution of the " Emily Loan Fund " (founded in honour of my 
 blessed wife in 1872), a clock. May God in His mercy be with them all I
 
 18SS.J THB HOUSING OF THE POOR. 759 
 
 July 3rd. To Costermongers' Donkey and Pony Show in evening, and after- 
 wards Anniversary Meeting. It is one of the happiest successes in all oar 
 London movements. Forgot (and I deeply regret it), when I spoke, two main 
 points : one, to exhibit Orsman's merits, as giving, and as having given for 
 twenty years, all his time to this grand work after the weariness of his office 
 hoars ; the other, that the example of the Costers of " Golden Lane " (their 
 original designation) in their treatment of the animals that belonged to them, 
 had led to a universal improvement all over London. 
 
 Sept. 2nd. Sunday. Evelyn and Sissey sailed last night to the Mediterranean 
 Sea in search of health. May God preserve them in the hollow of His hand, 
 give them what is sought on her behalf, and bring them back in safety ! May 
 this be their last exile I Gracious Lord, after this present trial, in Thy mercy 
 restore to them their home, and all the domestic duties and joys, of whioh they 
 have been so long deprived I 
 
 Sept. 10th. Gladstone has been hammering at his trees, as, during the 
 Session, he hammers at the Constitution, and with the same effect in both 
 instances. 
 
 Towards the close of 1883 the subject of the Housing of the Poor became 
 the question of the hour. Lord Shaftesbury was urged to take part in the 
 discussion, his wide experience, ranging over upvards of forty years, placing 
 him as one of the first authorities on the subject. He contributed an article 
 to the Pall Mall Gazette and another to the Nineteenth Century. 
 
 Nov. 5th. A few days after my promise to do so, a letter from my old friend, 
 Edwin Arnold, editor of the Daily Telegraph, to same effect ; sorry to be obliged 
 to answer that " I was engaged." Forty-one years ago I started the question, 
 and my small Society built my model houses ; but all that is now forgotten. 
 Others have come forward and have effaced the memory of the first movers. 
 
 But this is the natural and necessary issue of all such efforts ; the last who 
 come are the first served. 
 
 We do not quote from these articles, because we have already given, at 
 some length, Lord Shaftesbury's views on the Housing of the Poor. In 
 reviewing what bad been done in the past, and the difficulties that beset the 
 question in the present, he expressed his hope of a satisfactory issue, and his 
 belief that it was a question capable of solution. He strongly deprecated any 
 effort, Governmental or otherwise, that should destroy the moral energy of 
 the people by pauperising them. He held that the State was bound to give 
 every facility by law and by enabling statutes, but that the enterprise should 
 be founded on voluntary effort, for which there was in the country abundant 
 wealth, zeal, and intelligence. He suggested that the work should be accom- 
 pli-li.-d by a Central Committee in London, with Branch Committees in 
 different districts ; that a public appeal should bo made for funds ; that 
 fresh legislation should be obtained if necessary ; that the powers already 
 provided by existing statutes should be put into full force ; and that all 
 tenements should be under police inspection. Should A low class still remain 
 unprovided for, the State might step in and supply houses at eleemosynary 
 rates.
 
 760 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. fCHAP. XXXVII 
 
 In the following year the Housing of the Poor was still the leading social 
 subject, and a Royal Commission was appointed, on which the Prince of 
 Wales was one of the most active members. The investigations of tlin 
 Commissioners culminated in Lord Salisbury's Act of 1885 the Housing of 
 the Working Classes Act. 
 
 When Lord Salisbury brought forward his motion, on the 22nd of Fob- 
 ruary, 1885, for the appointment of a Commission, Lord Shaftcsbury sup- 
 ported it in an able speech, which, as he records, was " received with singular 
 attention, much cheering, and abundant congratulations." When the Com- 
 mission sat, he was the first witness examined, and although at his time of 
 life, and in his state of health, he " dreaded being summoned before such a 
 tribunal," lest his memory should fail in points of detail, and he should bo 
 unable to do justice to the cause he had so much at heart, his evidence was a 
 masterpiece of exhaustive argument, enriched by the experience of sixty 
 years' earnest consideration of the subject. It was invaluable to the Com- 
 missioners to have, at the outset of their inquiry, the aid of " the first living 
 authority on the Housing of the Poor." 
 
 In due course the Report of the Commissioners was published ; and 
 therein (for we cannot refer further to the subject) the reader may find, in 
 the evidence of Lord Shaftosbury, a concise description of the state of the 
 dwellings of the poor more than half a century ago, and the various steps 
 that had been taken, chiefly at his instigation, to roll away the reproach 
 caused by the existence of such hotbeds of vice and disease in the heart of 
 the most civilised city in the world. And that Report also furnishes a full 
 insight into the estimation in which Lord Shaftesbnry's labours were held. 
 
 It was a cause of no little rejoicing to him that at last the problem 
 involved in this great question was approaching its solution ; that Lord 
 Salisbury's Act was founded in groat measure upon his own " Labouriiig 
 Classes Tenements Houses Act," and that his labours, as the pioneer and 
 chief mover in every effort up to that time, were cordially and gratefully 
 recognised. 
 
 Many honours were publicly accorded to Lord Shaf tesbury in these closing 
 years of his life. On the 5th of March a banquet was given at the Mansion 
 House, at which he was the guest of the evening. It was a splendid ovation, 
 300 persons, representing all the great social, religious, and political interests, 
 responding to the invitation. On the 15th of May a banquet was given to 
 him in Salters' Hall, on the occasion of his being admitted to the Company, 
 and on the 26th of June, amid much pomp and circumstance, he received, 
 somewhat tardily, the Freedom of the City of London. In acknowledging 
 the honour, he said, that if he could not add any lustre to the citizenship, the 
 time for him was so short that there would be little opportunity for him to 
 tarnish it, and added that, if any one should ever undertake the task of 
 writing his biography, he begged him to " have the goodness to record that 
 he died a citizen of London." 
 
 To many who read these pages there will be a special interest attaching
 
 1884.] ABUNDANT LABOURS. 761 
 
 to the utterances of Lord Shaftesbury at the public gatherings of this aud 
 tln> following year. If reference is only made to a few of the more conspi- 
 cuous ones, it is because they were almost innumerable. 
 
 April 1st. Journey to Brighton to-morrow, and a speech at opening of tho 
 Young Hen's Christian Association. 
 
 April 3rd. Returned last night. Went in company with that dear man 
 George Williams, and came back with him. He insisted on my accepting a 
 saloon carriage. A day of pressure, but, I hope nay, I believe of success. 
 Arrived at one. Necessary gossip till 2.30. Then a luncheon in state at the 
 Pavilion. Two hundred guests and speeches. Then a pause, without repose, till 
 five, at which hour ceremonial of declaring house open ; hymn, prayer, Bible 
 reading, and a few oratorical sentences from myself. At quarter to six to Mr. 
 Barclay's for dinner at half -past six. Half-an-hour's repose. Then to grand 
 meeting under the dome at eight o'clock, where, being under the necessity of 
 catching train at 8.40, I began without the ordinary preliminaries. Even then 
 was stopped in midst by announcement, " Time is up ; you must go." So I left 
 out much that was individual and important and dashed to the conclusion ! 
 . . . This valuable institution^ set for the glory of God and the good of man, 
 has been opened with many signs of grace and acceptance. 
 
 April 28th. My birthday, and I have now struck the figure of eig7tty-t7i rcc. 
 It is wonderful, it is miraculous, with my infirmities, and even sufferings, of 
 body, with sensible decline of mental application and vigour, I yet retain, by 
 God's mercy, some power to think and to act. May He grant, for Christ's sake, 
 that, to my last hour, I may be engaged in His service, and in the full know- 
 ledge of all that is around and before me 1 Cobden used to say of D'Israeli I 
 have heard him more than once " What a retrospect that man will have 1 " 
 Retrospects must be terrible to every one who measures and estimates his hopes 
 by the discharge of his duties here on earth. Unless he be overwhelmed with 
 self- righteousness, he must see that, when weighed in the balance he will IK>, 
 found wanting. But what are the prospects ? They may be bright, joyous 
 certain, in the faith and fear of the Lord Jesus. 
 
 May 3rd. Yesterday headed a deputation to the magnates of the Great 
 Northern Railway to beseech them so to arrange their trains and the third-class 
 :i tickets that the working people might go easily and cheaply to the 
 Hiilmrltnn villii'/cs prepared for them I 
 
 May 8th. Yesterday chair of Bible Society. Then uncovering of Tyndale's 
 
 statue on Embankment, and dinner with Mr. Alcroft, to meet the speakers at the 
 
 i<* and committee. Grand announcement at the meeting that a penny 
 
 edition of the New Testament, in a legible type and a double form, was to be 
 
 forthwith issued. What a work 1 What an enterprise I What, a prospect! 
 
 nd shall be filled with the knowledge of the Word of God as tho waters 
 
 the sea I 
 
 May 10th. Yesterday chair of Jews' Society. Then to Mansion House in aid 
 <if Mrs. Maredlth's Home, and afterwards to House of Lords to support Bill for 
 prohibition of the pigeon abomination beaten by 78 to 48 I 
 
 May 17th. Another burden off my mind. Jubilee London City Mission 
 meeting over. Made the opening speech, twenty minutes long I 
 
 May 22nd. It is over. The Wycliffe Commemoration is over, God be praised.
 
 762 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXXVII. 
 
 The meeting in the large room of Exeter Hall was small, but cordial. The 
 speeches were good, but confined a great mistake to clergy or dissenting 
 ministers. On all such occasions the laity should predominate 1 
 
 So the record continues ; day by day full of arduous and exciting work, 
 and, in the intervals, of nervous depression and great physical suffering. 
 Nothing grieved him more than having to break an engagement, and many 
 times, in direct opposition to the advice of his medical men, he preferred to 
 take the chance of breaking down than of disappointing his friends. He was 
 specially anxious to keep " body and mind from falling to pieces " as the 19th 
 of June drew near, it having been a long-standing promise to his friend Mr. 
 Spurgeon, whose fiftieth birthday was to be celebrated on that day, to be 
 present if possible. 
 
 Many a man, and many a minister, will remember the words of counsel 
 and wisdom spoken by the aged peer on that occasion. Strange to say, his 
 speech almost gave satisfaction to himself. 
 
 June 20th. Yesterday to Metropolitan Tabernacle, to preside over grand 
 meeting in honour of Spurgeon's fiftieth birthday. A wonderful sight ; nearly, if 
 not quite, seven thousand adult, enthusiastic souls, crammed even to suffocation 
 by way of audience. Felt, at first, quite appalled. Had to make opening speech- 
 Here, again, a " non nobis " must be " said or sung." By the blessing of our Lord, 
 I was, as every one said, equal to the occasion. 
 
 Canon Wilberforce observed, " You ought to bless God for having enabled you 
 to make such a speech." And so I did, and so I do, and so I will. 
 
 In August Lord Shaftesbury paid his final visit to Scotland, in full hope 
 that he might recover " some, if not all, his strength." But it was a season 
 of great weariness and depression. He succeeded in reaching Edinburgh, 
 proceeded to North Berwick, and afterwards paid another visit to his old 
 Scotch " home at Castle Wemyss." In some respects the change did him 
 good, but it was manifest that the strength he hoped to regain could last but 
 a little while,. " I cannot fix my mind steadfastly on anything," he writes, 
 " but I feel improvement, and wait God's goodness in faith and fear." 
 Towards the end of September he was once more a guest at Inverary. 
 " Found the people, as ever, true, kind, amiable, loving, and beloved." But it 
 was a time of great trial a time, as he says, of " pain, depression, faintness, 
 and feeling as if I were falling to pieces. Scarcely strong enough to write a 
 letter. Great exertion to make this entry." 
 
 There is no further entry in the Diary until the end of October, when lie 
 was again in London. 
 
 The following characteristic letter, written after the commencement of 
 what proved to be his last illness, refers, in the first instance, to a tract 
 forwarded to him by Canon Wilberforce. The second portion of the letter 
 refers to a public meeting on behalf of the Young Men's Christian Associa- 
 tion at Southampton, over which Lord Shaftesbury had promised to preside, 
 his place upon the occasion being filled by Lord Mount-Temple. Canon
 
 1884 1 LETTER TO CANON WILBERFORCE. 763 
 
 Wilberforce, tn the course of his speech at this meeting, pointed out that 
 Lord Shaftesbnry had solved, by his life of devotion to the interests of 
 others, a problem, somewhat freely discussed at the time, namely, " "What 
 was the value to the nation of an hereditary aristocracy?" Manifestly, it 
 was of the greatest advantage that there should be a class of men in the 
 nation, lifted, by virtue of their birth and position, above the fear, favour, or 
 prejudice of their fellows, who should be ever ready to take their places by 
 the side of the working classes in all times of oppression, tyranny, and 
 wrong. Such a life, pre-eminently, had Lord Shaftesbury's been ; throughout 
 it he had realised that his position was a talent entrusted to him for the 
 advantage of others, and wherever men, women, or children of the working 
 classes were suffering wrong, they had found in him a courageous, determined 
 
 champion : 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury to Canon Basil Wilberforce. 
 
 ST. GILES'S HOUSE, 
 
 Nov. 10th, 1884. 
 
 DEAR CANON WILBERFOBCE, Your little tract is the very thing for my 
 small, sorrowing, abject children in the Ragged Schools. I shall sow it broadcast. 
 What is wanted, and, when obtained, relished by all that class, and especially 
 these poor dear creatures, is the notion and feeling of a personal Saviour, of one 
 who can understand them, enter into all their sorrows, be, as it were, near them, 
 almost sensible, almost visible. Make religion cosy and comfortable to them, 
 and thousands will accept and embrace it. 
 
 I am deeply obliged by your kind and most friendly mention of me at the 
 Southampton meeting. I intensely regretted, and I continue to regret, the 
 necessity of my absence. I could not have attended it I had not then, nor 
 have I now, physical and moral power for such a duty. I am somewhat better, 
 no doubt, God be praised, as to pain ; but as to lassitude and nervous affection of 
 the head, I am reduced nearly to incapacity. 
 
 In your speech you seem to have fathomed my very thoughts and known my 
 intentions. I undertook the movements of my public life on this ground, and 
 such was my belief then, now confirmed, though fifty years ago, of the highest 
 duty ; but I had, I confess it, a secondary object ; a desire to show that indepen- 
 dence in position and fortune, possessing, as they do, social privileges, bring with 
 them corresponding Christian obligations. And I remember saying, at a very 
 early period, to my bitter opponents, " I am not much more than thirty years of 
 age ; I may, by God's blessing, live to seventy, but of this you may be sure, that 
 under His mercy, I will not desist from my efforts until they shall be closed either 
 by death or by success." Of course I had much to go through in private and in 
 public. Not at my own domestic hearth, for I had, as you have, a blessed wife, 
 who exhorted me to the work ; and as for successive Governments, there was 
 not one, excepting Lord J. Russell's, which did not endeavour, by every form of 
 argument, to entrap me into office. 
 
 Here is a short notice of myself, which I refer to only as exhibiting, to my 
 great comfort, your true and sagacious judgment. 
 
 My life is now drawing to a close. My days may be, perhaps, somewhat 
 prolonged, but my working days, J fear, are over. Take no notice of this letter.
 
 764 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXXVII. 
 
 You have other things to do. If we ever meet again we will discuss all such 
 matters, but not on paper. May I say to you, as a spiritual friend, that I very 
 sincerely and conscientiously declare that in my long career my highest conso- 
 lation has been to know that I was the servant of our Lord, and my highest 
 honour that I was believed to be such. 
 
 May He prosper you in all your efforts for His kingdom and glory. 
 
 Yours most truly, 
 
 SHAFTESBURY. 
 
 It was not unusual for Lord Shaftesbury, when forecasting events, to go 
 so far as to fix a probable date for their accomplishment. The last entry in 
 his Diary for 1884, relating to political events, is an illustration : 
 
 Nov. 24th. In a year or so we shall have " Home Rule " disposed of (at all 
 hazards), to save us from daily and hourly bores. 
 
 In 1885 the political references are few, but they are as keen, sharp, and 
 incisive as in the days of his youth. 
 
 Feb. 25th. Can never understand " Conservative Policy." Sir S. Northcote 
 moved a vote of censure in House of Commons, which is milk and water. Simul- 
 taneously, Lord Salisbury moves one in House of Lords, which is all of it "gin 
 and titters." 
 
 Feb. 28th. Government, last night, defeated vote of censure by a majority of 
 fourteen only ! Will Gladstone resign ? If so, who will come in 1 Salisbury 
 has openly announced that he is ready to assume the duties and responsibilities of 
 administration ! - Well, how long would he hold them ? Ay, and how would he 
 use them ? I have heard it said that the Conservatives are prepared to go beyond 
 Gladstone in Radicalism, and ruin the country themselves, rather than let it be 
 ruined by Gladstone. But the Conservatives have carried the position by storm, 
 it was not forced upon them ; they have assaulted and taken it ! It is an evil 
 state of things. The Conservatives will come into power, not because the country 
 at large has the smallest respect for them, morally or politically, but because, for 
 the moment, their adversaries stand a little lower in those aspects than they do. 
 
 The last reference in the Diary to politics is on the 9th of June, but a few 
 weeks before he left London, never to return. It is a remarkable passage, 
 inasmuch as there is in it the spirit that characterised all his public career 
 a spirit directly in antagonism to that which, to his grief, he saw was making 
 fearful encroachments on public morality. 
 
 June 9th. Have just seen defeat of Government on the Budget by Conserva- 
 tives and Parnellites united ; an act of folly amounting to wickedness. God is 
 not in all their thoughts, nor the country either. All seek their own, and their 
 own is party-spirit, momentary triumph, political hatred, and the indulgence of 
 low, personal, and unpatriotic passion. 
 
 With the particular event to which the foregoing extract refers we have 
 nothing to do here. But we cannot proceed without calling attention to this 
 fact, namely, that from the year 1826 when, as Lord Ashley, he entered
 
 1886.1 PUBLIC AND PRIVATE MORALITY. 765 
 
 Parliament, until these last days of his long career, he never ceased to 
 protest against the evils of political party-spirit; of being one thing in 
 Government and another in Opposition; of sacrificing personal truth and 
 righteousness for political triumphs. He never ceased to inculcate this great 
 moral lesson never more needed than in the present day that public life 
 should be not less based on principle than private life. If he had taught the 
 world no other lesson, his life would not have been lived in vain. 
 
 It has been said, in the course of this narrative, that one of the most 
 striking characteristics of Lord Shaftesbury was the unchangeableness of his 
 opinions, and that a page might be taken from any of his Diaries, at any 
 time, to illustrate any principle he advocated. As an example, we quote in 
 this place an extract from a manuscript book written in 1847, from which it 
 will be seen that on this question of public and private morality there had, in 
 the space of forty years, been no shadow of turning in his views : 
 
 The world has drawn a distinction (though I know not by what right or on 
 what ground) between the principles which regulate our public, and those which 
 regulate our private, life. A man, it seems, by their admissions, may be 
 treacherous politically, and yet faithful socially ; selfish, ambitious, and dis- 
 honest towards the State, and yet disinterested, ^moderate, and upright towards 
 his friends. Undoubtedly for this there is no sanction in the Divine law ; and 
 it is difficult to ascertain the precise fallacy by which it is permitted in the 
 human. 
 
 Assuredly the Almighty gave us a different rule when he said (Gen. xviii. 17, 
 &c.), " Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do ? for I know him, that 
 he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep 
 the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment ; that the Lord may bring upon 
 Abraham that which He hath spoken of him." Here the private excellence of 
 the Patriarch is taken by the Almighty as the ground of a public trust, of the 
 revelation of the future, the skilful conjecture of which is regarded among men 
 as political wisdom. The good rule of a family is held to be an earnest of the 
 good rule of a State ; and God then invested him with power and wealth and 
 command, and great responsibility. 
 
 We, however, while we affix a stain to moral turpitude, only censure or rebuke 
 political dishonour (and it is a great thing if we do even that). The most fiery 
 votaries of the " code of honour," however jealous and ready and sensitive on all 
 occasions, are amply satisfied when, after some charge or reflection on their charac- 
 ters, they receive an assurance that the remark was not jiersonal. "I spoke 
 2>t>litically," says the explainant, and then all goes well ! Now wherefore ? no, 
 I see the wherefore, but by what authority do they make such distinctions 1 Do 
 selfishness, truth, honour, ambition, pride, and disinterestedness, change their 
 nature ; or do we change our language on them ? Are the vices and the virtues 
 of the human mind less so when they concern the universal interests of a people 
 than when applied to aifairs of a family or a circle ? Do the principles of 
 morality in a public business flow from a different source and into another 
 receptacle ? Were the law of Mount Sinai and the sermons of our Saviour for 
 tho instruction of householders and private persons only, the rule of public life 
 being left to arbitrary deduction and single interpretation .' No, as surely as
 
 766 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXXVII. 
 
 there is but " one Lord, one faith, one baptism," so is there for the government of 
 our actions but one truth, one law, and one responsibility. 
 
 In April, 1884, chiefly in consequence of certain notorious trials, in which 
 it was alleged that there were still defects and abuses in the administration 
 of the Lunacy Laws, a motion was made in the House of Lords by Lord 
 Milltown for an inquiry into the whole question. This was a source of great 
 anxiety to Lord Shaftesbury. Although " he had everything on his side but 
 self-confidence in his own power to meet the charge," and was satisfied that 
 "the defence would be perfect in any other hands," he dreaded, naturally 
 enoiigh, his ability to vindicate the Commissioners in Lunacy, fearing lest his 
 memory and strength should fail him. Very pathetic are the outpourings of 
 his heart as he contemplates the possibility of " the labour, the toils, the 
 anxieties, the prayers of more than fifty years being in one moment brought 
 to nought," and cries, " Cast me not off in the time of old age ; forsake me 
 not, O Lord, when my strength faileth." He felt that God had " manifestly 
 blessed the efforts of this Commission," and it was a grievous disappoint- 
 ment to him when Lord Milltown's motion was carried. 
 
 This led to the introduction, in 1885, of the Lord Chancellor's (Selborne) 
 Lunacy Amendment Bill, and from the moment when, in the midst of great 
 bodily and mental suffering, Lord Shaftesbury was summoned to London tc 
 consider it, until the last day of his life, it was the source of almost constant 
 anxiety. It involved a long correspondence with the Lord Chancellor on certain 
 provisions of the Bill, which Lord Shaftesbury so strongly disapproved that 
 he felt compelled to tender his resignation of the office of Chairman of the 
 Board of Commissioners in Lunacy. His reasons were these : 
 
 May 5th. My conclusions were I could not go down to the Lords and 
 sit through the passing of such a measure, and be thus a party to its enactment ; 
 I could not, while holding an office under the Chancellor, oppose him by speech 
 and division. He offered me permission to do so, but he knew, as well as I did, 
 the indecency of such a course. 
 
 The anxiety and suspense, the regret and disappointment, experienced by 
 Lord Shaftesbury while the Lord Chancellor persevered with his Bill, in 
 spite of the remonstrances based upon an experience of nearly sixty years, 
 greatly embittered his last days. In June, however, the Bill was shelved ; 
 Lord Shaftesbury consented to resume his office, and so it came to pass that his 
 connection with the Lunacy Commission, from its foundation, was practically 
 unbroken. 
 
 It is seldom that an evil is unmitigated, and it was not so in this case. 
 The anxieties with which he was surrounded called forth, in even larger 
 measure, the support of his friends. Among those whose cordial sympathy 
 on this and similar occasions, the Diaries recognise, was Miss Marsh, the 
 biographer of her revered father the Rev. Dr. Marsh, of Captain Hedley 
 Vicars, and others, but even better known, perhaps, in connection with early 
 pioneer work among the navvies who built the Crystal Palace, as the author
 
 1885.] FRIENDS. 767 
 
 of " English Hearts and English Hands." Frequently in the Diaries there 
 are records of this friendship such as these : 
 
 Aug. 20th, 1880. On the 18th ran down for the day to Feltwell Rectory in 
 Norfolk to see Miss Marsh and the O'Rorkes. A pleasant time ; had, what I 
 ever desire but seldom get, some sympathetic talk some talk of this world, some 
 of the next. 
 
 Feb. 2nd, 1884. St. Giles's. Miss Marsh and the O'Rorkes gone to-day. It is 
 a comfort to have such true and profound sympathisers with me in so many 
 good things. 
 
 For Mr. Weylland, of the London City Mission,* Lord Shaftesbury enter- 
 tained no ordinary regard. The following note the first in the Diary for 
 the year tells its own story : 
 
 Jan. 2nd, 1885. A letter yesterday from Weylland. It filled me at the 
 moment with terror and gratitude ; terror, that he had been so ill, and gratitude 
 to God, who had given him good hopes of recovery. No language of mine 
 could convey a notion of the loss to myself and (more than that) to the 
 Christian community, that would result from his removal. Lord, forbid it ! 
 
 Happily Mr. Weylland's life was spared, and it was his privilege to give 
 important assistance to Lord Shaftesbury in a labour that occupied much of 
 his last working days. For many years he had been made the recipient of 
 large sums of money, to be devoted in whatever manner he pleased for the 
 welfare of the poor. One lady, Miss Portal, had given him year after year a 
 cheque for a thousand pounds to be thus applied ; frequently large sums were 
 sent to him anonymously. On one occasion a gentleman who was just 
 leaving the country, probably never to return, called at his house and placed 
 in his hands a note for 500, begging him to use it for " Bagged Schools and 
 other things," his only other request being that nothing save the initials 
 " T. H." should appear in connection with the gift. In April, 1885, a lady, 
 Mrs. Douglas, died ; but it was not until the 9th of June that Lord Shaftes- 
 bury received the astounding intelligence that in her will she had left to him, 
 for distribution among the charities of London, the sum of 60,000 ! The toil 
 and anxiety entailed by this bequest can only be understood by those who 
 knew how scrupulously conscientious and exact Lord Shaftesbury was in 
 dealing with every farthing of money of which he was the trustee. In this 
 distribution Mr. Weylland gave invaluable assistance, and made possible a 
 task which Lord Shaftesbury could not have performed alone, while Mr. 
 Bevan, the banker, guaranteed him against all law expenses that might arise. 
 From a special note-book written in a firm, bold, clear hand, although his 
 eighty-fifth year had begun the following passages will be read with 
 interest : 
 
 July 4th. First I determined to keep the distribution of the fund or residue 
 within London and the immediate vicinity. To go beyond that limit would have 
 
 * Author of " These Fifty Years," and many other works, to most, if not to all of 
 which, Lord Shaftesbury wrote the preface.
 
 768 THE EARL OP SHAFTESBURY. [CHAP. XXXVII. 
 
 involved me in grants to every town in England ; if to Birmingham, for instance, 
 why not to Manchester, &c., &o. ? 
 
 Next, to receive all applications, but to answer none of them. The labour 
 would be intolerable ; resolved to take, privately, the best advice and act for 
 myself. 
 
 Next, to make no grants purely religious. It would not be right to make it a 
 Church affair alone ; and to assign portions to the various denominations of 
 Dissenters, whose name is legion, would be impossible. 
 
 To be more precise and careful in the distribution of entrusted money (for 
 such is this) than I would be in my own. I have (though absolute power is 
 given me) to bear and exercise a certain responsibility. The public will certainly, 
 without any right, criticise severely all my decisions. 
 
 In the midst of London misery and want a demand is made for assistance to 
 the Young Men's Christian Associations and similar institutions. Grants to them 
 would take about half the residue, and leave many, though small, yet most 
 valuable institutions, hampered and nearly without any aid whatever. Have 
 power to assist such, no doubt, but their admission would involve the admission 
 of many more, such as the Victoria Institute and the like, and the poor would 
 be left out in the cold. 
 
 To avoid all controversial matter, send no grants to Anti- Vivisection Societies 
 and Homoeopathic Hospitals and Working Men's Lord's Day Association. I have 
 no notion of the lady's opinion on these subjects, and I desire to avoid, as well as 
 I can, doing anything that she might not have approved. 
 
 To keep as closely as possible to those associations connected with charity. 
 
 To omit all the Missionary Societies they are able to take care of themselves : 
 to include them would take up nearly one-half of the legacy, and very little would 
 be left for the English poor. 
 
 One last effort for securing inviolate the sanctity of the Sabbath Day 
 Lord Shaftesbury determined he would make, if it came within the range of 
 possibility ; and when Lord Thurlow gave notice, in March, of a motion in 
 favour of opening the Natural History Museum at South Kensington on 
 Sunday afternoons, Lord Shaftesbury at once made Up his mind to move an 
 amendment. But, as the time drew near his health was in such a state that 
 he was "nervous, depressed, distrustful of the possession of power enough to 
 encounter him," and, with great reluctance, he was obliged to abandon the 
 hope of moving the amendment. Earl Cairns, however, came to the rescue, 
 and, in an able and eloquent speech, performed the duty for him. It was the 
 last speech that eminent politician, and still more eminent lawyer, ever made 
 in the House of Lords. A few weeks later he was numbered with the dead, 
 while Lord Shaftesbury, more than twenty years his senior, survived to do 
 honour to the " great man " departed, holding up his Christian character for 
 the imitation of all young men at the opening of a Memorial Institute at 
 Bournemouth, at which Lord Shaftesbury presided. 
 
 Among the many engagements which he had to forego during this year 
 was the occupancy of the chair at the Parkes Museum of Hygiene, on the 
 occasion of an address by Sir Spencer Wells on Cremation. In a letter
 
 1885.] EIGHTY-FOURTH BIRTHDAY. 769 
 
 expressing regret at bsing unable to attend, the following passage 
 occurs : 
 
 There is another argument, urged on religious grounds, that it (cremation) 
 will annihilate all hope of a resurrection. I have never heard the question dis- 
 cussed theologically, but surely it may be met by the interrogation, What, then, 
 will become of the thousands of blessed martyrs who have died at the stake in 
 ancient and modern persecutions 1 
 
 On the 28th of April Lord Shaftesbury celebrated his eighty-fourth 
 birthday. Two pleasant episodes marked the season ; they are thus referred 
 to in the Diary : 
 
 April 24th. On Monday evening, 20th, received a letter from Joseph Hoare 
 (not the banker), enclosing a draft for 4,500, the contributions of himself and 
 eleven others for the honour of my approaching birthday, and praying me to 
 accept it for the relief of my pressing necessities in any way I thought best. The 
 letter was a model of kindness, good feeling, and good taste. 
 
 April 28th. My birthday this day I am eighty-four I God be merciful to 
 me a sinner. A most terrible day to me for pain and irritation. But got, the 
 Lord be praised, a birthday present. Some ladies, knowing how this Jewish 
 affair * pressed upon my mind, collected 640 to clear off the incumbrances and 
 difficulties that arose from our Cyprus colonisation, and presented it to me at 
 Lady Eastlake's, whither I had strength to go to receive it. The Lord be praised, 
 and may His blessing descend on the contributors. 
 
 The month of May was at hand, the month during which Lord Shaftes- 
 bury, more often than any man in England, or any dozen men put together, 
 had stood in the forefront of every religious and philanthropic movement. 
 But his strength was failing, and though he had a spirit as willing to take 
 up the work as in days of old, and speak on behalf of every Society, the flesh 
 was weak, and it became daily more imperative that he should husband the 
 little strength that remained. 
 
 A painful interest attaches to the visits made by him in this year to his 
 old haunts and his old friends. Mr. George Holland writes : 
 
 " J shall never forget his last visit ; he went the round of the rooms, 
 intereirted in the poor children and people as much as ever, speaking tenderly 
 and sympathisingly to sorrowing ones, and telling them of Jesus, an un- 
 changing friend, an ever-present Saviour. . . . Then he said, ' I don't 
 think I shall ever see you in the flesh again in this place. I am ill, and at my 
 time of life I cannot expect to be long here.' Pulling his coat-sleeve tightly 
 over his arm, he said, ' Look how I have fallen away. If I should be laid 
 quite aside, if I send to you, you will come to me ? ' I replied, ' I- will come 
 at any hour, whenever you may send for me.' Then he said, ' What a comfort 
 
 * After the persecutions of the Jews in Russia, many fled to England. Lord Shaftes- 
 bury joined with others in helping them in their destitution by trying to found a colony 
 in Palestine. When that failed, they obtained permission to land and settle them in 
 Cyprus. But their maintenance cost a good deal of money and much anxiety to the 
 promoters, of whom Lord Shaftesbury, as President, had tliu most responsibility. 
 X X
 
 770 THE EARL OF SIIAFTESBURY. FCnxp. XXXVII. 
 
 it is to know Christ as a personal Saviour ; ' and after a pause he added, 
 ' My Saviour.' " 
 
 It was his very earnest desire that he might be able to preside at one or 
 two of the great representative meetings, and ^especially that of the Bible 
 Society. " I am living and praying in hopes of being able to take the chair 
 of the Bible Society," he wrote on the day before the meeting. " Were I as 
 well to-day as yesterday, could have done it comfortably, but to-day is very 
 trying, very doubtful, and the like to-morrow would make the moments very 
 hazardous." How hazardous may be gathered from the fact that, though 
 late in the afternoon of that day, when the writer called upon him and asked 
 how he felt, he answered briskly, drawing himself up and throwing open his 
 chest, " Feel ? I feel at the present moment as if I could fight the Devil and 
 all his angels ! " yet, half an hour afterwards, the old haggard look had re- 
 turned, the form was bent, and it was with difficulty he could retire to his 
 couch. It seemed utterly impossible that ho could brave the fatigue and ex- 
 citement of such an ovation as awaited him on the following day : nevertheless, 
 he was there. 
 
 May 6th. Well, positively, though thing's were menacing 1 , dared to go to 
 Exeter Hall, at eleven o'clock, and take chair of Bible Society. Quite safe ; no 
 mischief ; stayed there till half -past one, and came away rejoicing. I bless thee, 
 Lord, I bless thee. 
 
 May 7th. This morning suddenly struck down by return of malady of two 
 months ago. Can see no cause, no reason whatever. It is heart-breaking, sad, 
 but God's will be done I 
 
 May 13th. Got to Miss Haldanc's Drawing-room Meeting for Eastern 
 Female Education,* spent an hour and a half ; none the worse, perhaps the 
 better. Thank God, I say, that I got there delighted, nay, more than delighted, 
 to be in the house of my departed and valued friend, and testify to the enormous 
 importance to me of his counsel, wisdom, and understanding, and friendship of 
 thirty years. 
 
 May 19th. Ragged School Union to do nie honour to-night ! Shall I be able 
 to go for an hour only ? God in His mercy grant it I 
 
 May 20th. " Bless the Lord, my soul, and all that is within me, bless His 
 holy name." Got through it, well, happily, easily, not tired, not agitated, not 
 alarmed. And to-day, so far from being worse, am certainly the better for the 
 exertion. 
 
 Four o'clock. Another mercy : have been able to go to Grosvenor House, and 
 speak on behalf of Ragged Schools. 
 
 On the 22nd of May he reached St. Giles's, and on the following Sunday 
 attended the little church he loved so well, read the lessons, and received the 
 Communiou there for the last time. On the 4th of June he returned to 
 London in an invalid carriage, and on the following evening, " took chair in 
 Exeter Hall of Williams' Refuge, quite safe and happy." A few days later, 
 " essayed to go to Grosvenor House, but turned back (feeling so ill) when 
 
 * The Society for Promoting Female Education in the East.
 
 1885.] PROTECTION OF YOUNO GIRLS. 771 
 
 near the door." It was a groat joy to him that, on the 24th of June, he wns 
 able to get to the tea and meeting of the Flower Girls' Mission without 
 harm ; " deep, deep disappointment had I not gone there, for my interest 
 in their welfare is very warm." One cause of deep regret was : " obliged 
 to send excuse to my costermongers was very severely depressed." 
 
 July 10th. On Wednesday to Joseph Hoare's at Hampstead, to meet London 
 City Missionaries : thankful, very thankful, that I was able to go. On Thursday, 
 to Dean's Yard, Westminster, to distribute flower prizes ; and to-day to Mansion 
 House, for first Anniversary of a Society for protection of children against 
 cruelty. What a succession of mercies ! 
 
 The last working days of Lord Shaftesbury were spent in labour and 
 prayer for young children. In a London evening paper there had appeared 
 a series of terrible articles, purporting to give an exact account of horrible 
 cruelties and shameful wrongs perpetrated on young and innocent girls- 
 For years past the subject, in one form and another, had been laid upon his 
 heart, and had cost him many days and nights of anxious thought. Thus on 
 July the 30th, 1880, he had supported " a strong Bill, almost a fearful Bill, 
 and capable, no doubt, of enormous abuse," to prohibit little girls under 
 fourteen from living in houses of ill-fame. In 1881 lie was actively engaged 
 in dealing with "an abomination, one beyond the power of description for 
 atrocity, or of sentiment to feel it the trade with Brussels in English and 
 Irish girls." In 1883 he spoke in the House of Lords on the Bill for 
 Protection of Young Girls, " from the organised habitual conspiracy, so to 
 spcuk, against thorn by the men who nightly watch the factories and work- 
 shops, and lay their snares for the poor young things as they return home 
 long after dark." Later in the same year he was " defeated upon an amend- 
 ment to protect helpless women and defenceless girls from insults and 
 dangers in the streets." Again, in 1884 ho made a speech at the Mansion 
 House " in aid of a new society for protection of children against cruelty." 
 
 When the latest phase of the subject was revealed, ho was almost heart- 
 broken that he had not strength to stand forth as the champion of these poor 
 children. It was not long before that, in conversation with a friend, he had 
 said : " When I feel age creeping on mo and know I must soon die I hope it 
 is not wrong to say it but I cannot bear to leave the world with all the 
 misery in it." 
 
 But the set time had come. A troublesome complaint, which had pro- 
 duced great weakness, made rest and change of air indispensable, and towards 
 the end of July ho left London for ever. 
 
 The following are the final entries in the Diary : 
 
 July 25th. No entries great anxiety of state of health. In some instances 
 
 dejection terrible, overwhelmed by anxiety and labour on the matter of this 
 
 Lunacy business, which, coming on me in midst of this horrible depression, was 
 
 almost too much for me. Got through it at last, by God'a mercy and goodness. 
 
 x x 2
 
 772 THE EARL OF STTAFTESBUrY. FCHAP. XXXVII. 
 
 Went to Home Office to see Cross on those fearful revelations in Pall Mall 
 Gazette ; out last night to House of Lords, for half an hour, to see Salisbury on 
 the same subject. Last night very good, and this morning things look well. 
 We propose, God willing, to go to Folkestone to-day. Oh, may the air of the 
 place be blessed to my recovery 1 
 
 July 28th. Folkestone, 12, Clifton Gardens. Arrived here on Saturday, 25th. 
 Most favourable journey, God be praised. Sunday : the heat excessive, strong 
 wind from east ; suffered terribly the whole day ; depression extreme. To-day 
 somewhat better. I am very thankful for it. Now I suffer from cold, so 
 changeable is the weather / 
 
 At first it seemed as if a reasonable hope might be entertained that his 
 life would be spared for some years to come. For a fortnight after his 
 arrival he was able to get out in a Bath chair, but his increasing weakness, 
 first of all evidenced by a heavy fall in his room while crossing it, compelled 
 him to remain much indoors. With the least sign, however, of returning 
 health came returning energy, and he had been so long accustomed to running 
 risks from exposure that he did not pay sufficient heed to the changes of the 
 weather which, in the autumn of this year, were sudden and treacherous. 
 He took a chill, which brought on inflammation of the k left lung. Then it 
 became morally certain that the end was not far off. 
 
 Free from groat distressing pain; with consciousness perfectly clear, 
 surrounded by his sons and daughters, whom he loved with an untold and 
 untellable love ; undisturbed by any fear of death, unshaken in faith, and in 
 full assurance of hope, he calmly waited the end. 
 
 In a cheerful room on the ground floor, looking out on a pleasant lawn 
 shaded with trees, and with the great wide sea beyond it, the small bed he 
 had brought with him was placed, and here his last days were spent. He 
 could step from his room to the balcony and drink in the life-giving air 
 which he so much enjoyed, and on bright days could look across the sea to 
 the white cliffs of sunny France. Very solemn and very beautiful was the 
 calm of the evening tide, and very sacred was that chamber, in which the 
 prayer was constantly breathed, " Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly." 
 
 During the interval which elapsed, he used to ask his daughters and his 
 valet whichever happened to be present to read to him portions of the 
 Bible he named to them. Every morning he begged that the twenty-third 
 Psalm that short cry of hope, beginning, " The Lord is my Shepherd : I 
 shall not want " might be read to him. 
 
 He was to the last very anxious that the letters which still came to him 
 should be answered, and he used to dictate to his daughter, Lady Templemore, 
 the replies he wished to be sent. 
 
 The very last matter of actual business which he attended to, was the 
 filling up of the living of Shaftesbury (of which he was patron), and much 
 care and thought were bestowed by him on the appointment. 
 
 One natural source of regret, and the only earthly matter which seemed 
 to trouble him, was that he should die away from home: "in a lodging-
 
 1885.) THE BENEDICTIONS OF THE POOR. 773 
 
 house," as he termed it. Had it been possible, he would have cheerfully 
 borne the discomfort of removal, in order that he might pass away in the 
 midst of his own people in the ancestral home he loved so well, made sacred 
 by so many associations. But this wish could not be gratified ; the sickness 
 had taken too strong a hold upon him. It was, however, a source of gratifica- 
 tion for him to know that his last wishes would be faithfully respected, and 
 that his remains would rest at St. Giles's beside those of his beloved wife 
 and daughters, in the burial-place of his fathers. 
 
 "When a letter from the Dean of Westminster was read to him, in which 
 a resting-place in Westminster Abbey was proposed, he said, in a low but 
 firm voice, " No St. Giles's St. Giles's ! " 
 
 In the sacred chamber where he lay, fully conscious that the end was 
 near, one of his sons, come from Switzerland, where he was tending a loved 
 one in her sickness to whom he had to return, knelt before him at his 
 bidding, and received his parting blessing, as the old patriarch laid his hand 
 upon his head, bade him " good-bye," and breathed a prayer ; there other of 
 his sons and daughters saw, day by day, the beauty of holiness, the grandeur 
 of the triumph of faith. There one who came [to bid him farewell, heard 
 words like these : " I am in the hands of God ; the ever-blessed Jehovah ; in 
 His hands alone. Yes, in His keeping, with Him alone." 
 
 Then came a day, the first day of October, when the sun was shining in 
 meridian splendour, flooding his chamber with the light he loved so well. 
 His faithful valet, Goldsmith, handed him something, which he received 
 <vith the words, " Thank you." These were his last words. And then a few 
 minutes later, fully conscious to the last moment, he passed, without pain or 
 sigh or struggle, into the ineffable light. 
 
 A week later a plain, closed hearse, devoid of all the shows of grief, 
 moved away from the door of his house in Grosvenor Square, followed by five 
 mourning coaches and a few private carriages and hack cabs as simple a 
 funeral procession as ever marked the public obsequies of a great man. It 
 needed not the pomp of any earthly pageant to do him honour. Flowers 
 sent by poor and rich alike, completely filling the large room from which the 
 body had been removed formed the only and the most fitting display. 
 There were thousands assembled in Grosvenor Square, whoso hearts wore 
 heavy, and whose eyes were red with weeping for the best friend the poor 
 ever had, and thousands more were lining the streets through which the 
 procession was to pass. It was touching to see the blinds drawn close in the 
 club-houses and mansions of St. James's Street and Pall Mall, but it was far 
 more touching to see groups upon groups of artisans, sempstresses, labourers, 
 factory hands, flower girls the poor and the destitute from all quarters of 
 London gathered there to pay their last mark of respect and affection. It 
 was no crowding together of sight-seers. Even the poorest of the poor had 
 managed to procure some little fragment of black to woar upon the coat- 
 sleeve or in the bonnet ; the stillness was solemn and impressive ; and as the 
 simple procession passed, every head was uncovered, and bowed as with a
 
 774 THE EARL OF SIIAFTESBURY. [CilAP. XXXVII 
 
 personal sorrow. He had " clothed a people with spontaneous mourning 
 and was going down to the grave amid the benedictions of the poor." 
 
 As the funeral cortege passed into Parliament Street a sight was seen 
 which will never be forgotten while this generation lasts. Grouped on the 
 east, or river side of the street, were deputations from the Homes and 
 Refuges and Training-ships, from the Costennongers' Society, from Missions 
 and Charities, each with their craped banners emblazoned with such words 
 as these : " Naked and ye clothed Me," " A stranger and ye took Me in." 
 Bands of music, playing " The Dead March " in Saul, were ranged at 
 intervals, and as the procession passed, these, heading the deputations, fell 
 in and marched towards the Abbey. 
 
 Rarely, if ever, had there been such a company assembled in Westminster 
 Abbey as on that day. Royalty was represented ; the Church, both Houses 
 of Parliament, diplomacy, municipal power, society, were represented; but 
 the real significance of that enormous gathering, filling every inch of space 
 lay in the spontaneous homage of the thousands of men and women repre- 
 senting all that was powerful for good in the whole land. The Abbey was 
 full of mourners. Never before, in the memory of living men, had there 
 been brought together, at one time, in one place, and with one accord, so 
 many workers for the common good, impelled by a deep and tender sympathy 
 in a common loss. For no other man in England, or in the world, could such 
 an assembly have been gathered together. 
 
 "While the coffin stood under the lantern of the church, buried beneath 
 masses of exquisite wreaths the offering of the Crown Princess of Germany 
 resting beside the "Loving tribute from the Flower Girls of London," strong 
 men wept, as they gazed on the sea of upturned faces, and every face bearing 
 traces of sorrow. 
 
 At no moment was the solemnity deeper than when, after the grand old 
 music of Purcell and Croft had ceased, and the sweet words of Christian 
 joy and the strong words of Christian confidence in the Burial Service had 
 been uttered, that vast congregation joined in singing Charles Wesley's 
 hymn 
 
 " Let all the saints terrestrial sing 
 
 With those to glory gone, 
 For all the servants of our King 
 In earth and heaven are one." 
 
 Tears were in the trembling voices; and the faltering notes told how 
 profound was the sorrow. 
 
 Then, when the Dean had pronounced the Benediction, the coffin was 
 slowly borne away, to be taken to its final resting-place in St. Giles's Church. 
 
 As the hearse moved from the Abbey, the band of the Costeruiongers' 
 Temperance Society playing the hymn, " Safe in the arms of Jesus," a poor 
 labouring man with tattered garments, but with a piece of crape sewed on 
 to his sleeve, turned to one who stood beside him, and with a choking voice
 
 1885.] CONCLUSION. 775 
 
 said, " Our Earl's gone ! God A'mighty knows he loved us, and we loved 
 him. We shan't see his likes again ! " 
 
 It was but one tribute of ten thousand paid that day to the friend of the 
 poor. 
 
 Next day in the little church of St. Giles's, in the presence of sons and 
 daughters and personal friends, the Dorset and Wiltshire tenantry, and the 
 servants of the household, the " good Earl " was laid to rest in the ancestral 
 burying-place, beside the faithful and loving wife and the gentle daughters 
 he loved so tenderly. 
 
 Very touching and impressive w&s the singing of the final hymn that 
 closed the simple service : 
 
 " Now the labourer's task is o'er, 
 Now the battle-day is past ; 
 Now upon the farther shore 
 Lands the voyager at last. 
 Father, in Thy gracious keeping 
 Leave we now Thy servant sleeping." 
 
 Tin 1 plain tablet, as delineated at the end of this book, has since been 
 plai-i'd in the village church where he sleeps. The shape, the inscription, and 
 tin- texts, all comply with directions which he left behind him in a private 
 note. 
 
 " My Lords," said the Duke of Argyll in a memorable speech in 1885 
 upon the political situation, " the social reforms of the last century have not 
 lirrn mainly due to the Liberal party. They have been due mainly to the 
 influence, character, and perseverance of one man Lord Shaftesbury." 
 
 " That," said Lord Salisbury, in endorsing this eloquent tribute, " is, I 
 lidicvo, a very true representation of the facts." How true, this story of 
 Lord Shaftesbury's life, as told in his Diaries, will to some extent prove. 
 
 It was a life for which the nation must ever remain grateful a life which 
 has left an indelible mark on the history of the country. He was the founder 
 of a new order of men who, inspired by his example, and infected by his 
 enthusiasm, followed and still follow in his footsteps. His life moved 
 steadily along in one undeviating course, everything being brought into sub- 
 jection to the self-imposed work he had undertaken, and nothing attempted 
 but in an earnest and religious spirit. There was never any halting or 
 hesitation in his opinions or purposes. Once satisfied that a cause needed 
 help and that it filled a place unoccupied, he went " straight onward " with 
 ii. m-ver turning to the right hand or the left. He was intensely practical f 
 and, above all things, an honest worker and a setter of others to work ; he 
 did not say to them " Go," but " Come witli me," laying it down as a priueijilo 
 that abundant mutual intercourse is the very life of practical unity. Thus ho 
 became the ordained counsellor of others, the inspirer of their activity, their
 
 776 THE EARL OF SIIAFTESDURY. [CHAV. XXXVII 
 
 referee in every difficulty, the suggestor of new movements. He never stood 
 aloof from any good work, by whomsoever proposed, nor from any fellow- 
 worker, however humble ; and he was as ready to lead an unpopular as a 
 popular cause. A man of singular unselfishness, of rare determination, per- 
 severance, and courage, with an unfailing perception of right and wrong, and 
 a wise and far-reaching sagacity, he had one single aim and purpose to do 
 good. That undaunted courage, that burning zeal, that tender sympathy, all 
 sprang from deep-rooted convictions of the duties and responsibilities of life 
 as revealed in the Holy Scriptures. His name was the password of a cause 
 among all the Christians of Europe ; he inspired universal confidence by the 
 purity of his personal character, the dignity of his bearing, the accuracy and 
 accumulation of his knowledge ; and he won affection everywhere by tones, 
 by looks, by gestures ; by little acts of kindness recurring daily and hourly. 
 From first to last he was a reliable man ; it was known where he was to be 
 found on every moral, social, and religious question, and that he could never 
 be entrapped into the advocacy of anything that was not good, to gratify the 
 claims of friends or the interests of party. His whole life was a call to 
 others to stand fast, to quit themselves like men, and to be strong. He 
 laid his hand on the heart of his country and caused it to beat with reviving 
 life. " When the ear heard him it blessed him, and when the eye saw him it 
 gave witness to him, because he delivered the poor that cried, and the father- 
 less and him that had none to help him. The blessing of him that was ready 
 to perish came upon him, and he caused the widow's heart to sing for joy. He 
 was eyes to the blind and feet was he to the lame. He was a father to the 
 poor." 
 
 His work lives on in its fruits, and it will live for ever, and he, being 
 dead, yet speaks in lives inspired by his example, and made bright and 
 beautiful and useful and happy by his toil. A whole generation of children 
 has risen up to call him blessed, and a generation is rising, among whom, 
 influenced by his life, will be found many to adopt, as the motto of theii 
 lives, the motto of his family 
 
 LOVE, SERVE.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 THE following is a list of Religious and Philanthropic Institutions represented 
 by Deputations at the Memorial Service, in Westminster Abbey, on Thursday, 
 October 8th, 1885, with all of which Lord Sliaftesbury was more or less 
 directly connected. 
 
 PALL BEAEEES. 
 
 JOHN MACGBEGOB, 
 
 British and Foreign Bible Society. 
 
 Shoeblacks Brigades. 
 H. R. WILLIAMS, 
 
 Religious Tract Society. 
 
 King Edward Industrial Schools. 
 GEORGE WILLIAMS, 
 
 Young Hen's Christian Associations. 
 W. J. OBSMAN, 
 
 Costermongers' Mission. 
 
 JOSEPH G. GENT, 
 
 Ragged School Union. 
 WILLIAM WILLIAMS, 
 
 National Refuges and Training 
 
 Ships. 
 GEORGE HOLLAND, 
 
 George Yard Ragged School. 
 J. M. WETLLAND, 
 
 London City Mission. 
 
 MB. GEOBGE WILLIAMS, Cltairman. 
 
 BARONESS BUBDETT-COUTTS. 
 
 MR. JOSEPH G. GENT. 
 
 MR. H. R. WILLIAMS. 
 
 MR. WM. WILLIAMS. 
 
 MR. E. J. KENNEDY. 
 
 MB. J. P. GENT. 
 
 REPEESENTATFVE COMMITTEE. 
 
 GENERAL DAVIDSON. 
 
 REV. JOHN SHARP, M.A 
 
 ME. W. J. ORSMAN. 
 
 MB. J. M. WEYLLAND. 
 
 REV. PEEBENDABY BILLING, B.A. 
 
 MB. RlCHABD TCBNEB. 
 
 MR. R. J. CURTIS. 
 
 MB. JOHN KIBK, Hon. Secretary. 
 
 British and Foreign Bible Society. 
 Ragged School Union. 
 London City Mission. 
 Religious Tract Society. 
 National Refuges and Training Ships. 
 Young Men's Christian Association. 
 Church Missionary Society. 
 Church Pastoral Aid Society. 
 London Missionary Society. 
 Baptist Missionary Society. 
 
 yan Missionary Society. 
 Reformatory and Refuge Union. 
 Field Lane Ragged Schools and Refuges. 
 Dr. Bernardo's Homes. 
 Sunday School Union. 
 Church of England Sunday School In- 
 stitute. 
 
 Hoxton Costers' Mission. 
 
 Factory Workers of Bradford. 
 
 Manchester City Mission and Ragged 
 Schools. 
 
 Colonial and Continental Church 
 Society. 
 
 London Society for .Promoting Chris- 
 tianity amongst the Jews. 
 
 Society for the Propagation of the 
 Gospel in Foreign Parts. 
 
 Society for Promoting Christian Know- 
 ledge. 
 
 Band of Hope Union. 
 
 Theatre and Special Services Committee. 
 
 Pure Literature Society. 
 
 Society for the Prevention of Cruelty 
 to Children.
 
 778 
 
 THE EARL OF SHAtTESBURY. 
 
 Army Scripture Readers' Society. 
 
 Ragged Church and Chapel Union. 
 
 Open- Air Mission. 
 
 Christian Vernacular Society for India. 
 
 King Edward Ragged School, 
 
 Indigent Blind Visiting Society. 
 
 St. Giles's Prison Mission. 
 
 One Tun Ragged School. 
 
 Monthly Tract Society. 
 
 Female Preventive Institution. 
 
 Gravcsend Ragged School. 
 
 Cab Drivers' Benevolent Association. 
 
 Tower Hamlets Mission. 
 
 Church of England Young Men's 
 
 Society. 
 
 Mildmay Missions. 
 Cabmen's Shelter Fund. 
 Dove Row Ragged School. 
 Waldensian Missions. 
 George Yard Ragged School. 
 Saffron Hill Italian Missions. 
 Gifford Hall Mission. 
 St. James's Home for Female Inebriates. 
 Christian Community. 
 Exeter Buildings Ragged School. 
 Rescue Society. 
 Society for Suppression of the Opium 
 
 Trade. 
 Royal Hospital for Diseases of the 
 
 Chest. 
 
 Surgical Aid Society. 
 Thames Church Mission. 
 Holloway Ragged School. 
 London Anti-Vivisection Society. 
 Shoeblack Societies and Brigades. 
 Miss Rye's Homes. 
 Miss Macphcrson's Refuges. 
 Aged Pilgrims' Friend Society. 
 British Orphan Asylum. 
 Young Men's Christian Association, 
 
 Aldersgate Street. 
 Homes for Working Boys. 
 Mrs. Meredith's Institutions. 
 Destitute Children's Dinner Society. 
 Lambeth Ragged School. 
 China Inland Mission. 
 Richmond Street Mission and Ragged 
 
 Schools. 
 
 Fox Court Ragged School. 
 Home for Little Boys. 
 London Bible Women's Mission. 
 Lamb and Flag Ragged School. 
 Lord's Day Observance Society. 
 Protestant Alliance. 
 Church of England Scripture Readers' 
 
 Association. 
 Church of England Young Men's 
 
 Society. 
 
 Young Men's Christian Association. 
 Priory, Islington. 
 
 Christian Evidence Society. 
 
 Society for the Improvement of the 
 Condition of the Labouring Classes. 
 
 Working Men's Lord's Day Rest Asso- 
 ciation. 
 
 Flower Girls' Mission. 
 
 United Kingdom Alliance. 
 
 Hospital Sunday Fund. 
 
 Hospital Saturday Fund. 
 
 Columbia Market and other Costers' 
 Clubs. 
 
 Hospital for Women. 
 
 Samaritan Hospital for Women. 
 
 Anti-Slavery Society. 
 
 Evangelisation Society. 
 
 Social Science Association. 
 
 Horsef erry Road Ragged School. 
 
 Orphan Working School. 
 
 Boys' Home, Wandsworth. 
 
 London Aged Christians' Society. 
 
 Webber Row Ragged School. 
 
 East London Protestant Defence Asso- 
 ciation. 
 
 Homes for Inebriates. 
 
 Curates' Augmentation Fund. 
 
 Latymer Road Mission. 
 
 Stephen the Yeoman Ragged School. 
 
 Rosemary Hall Mission. 
 
 Polytechnic Institution. 
 
 Richmond Street Refuge, Netting 
 Hill. 
 
 Nichol Street Ragged School. 
 
 Indian Female Normal School Society. 
 
 Turkish Missions' Aid Society. 
 
 North London Home for Blind Christian 
 Women. 
 
 Church Association. 
 
 Nelson Street Ragged School and 
 Mission. 
 
 Cripples' Home. 
 
 Children's Special Service Mission. 
 
 Copenhagen Street Industrial School. 
 
 Infant Orphan Asylum. 
 
 Royal Hospital for Incurables. 
 
 Reedham Asylum. 
 
 Young Men's Christian Association, 
 Burlington Hall. 
 
 Watford Orphan Asylum. 
 
 London Female Penitentiary. 
 
 Normal College for the Blind. 
 
 Royal National Life-Boat Institution. 
 
 Dreadnought Hospital for Seamen. 
 
 Missions to Seamen. 
 
 Soldiers' Daughters' Home. 
 
 Book Society. 
 
 Evangelistic Mission,
 
 APPKXDIX. 
 
 779 
 
 International Peace Association. 
 
 Sfc. George the Martyr Mission. 
 
 Kin? Edward Industrial Schools. 
 
 Mr. Peache's Church Training College, 
 Highbury. 
 
 Paris City Mission. 
 
 Tonic Sol-Fa College. 
 
 Dean Close's Memorial School, Chel- 
 tenham. 
 
 South London Association for Assist- 
 ing the Blind. 
 
 London Presbytery Church of Eng- 
 land. 
 
 Earlswood Asylum. 
 
 Friend of Clergy Corporation. 
 
 Corporation of Sons of Clergy. 
 
 Young Men's Christian Association, 
 Stafford Rooms. 
 
 Congregational School at Caterham. 
 
 Stockwell Orphanage. 
 
 British Asylum for Deaf and Dumb. 
 
 Royal Association in Aid of Deaf and 
 Dumb. 
 
 Female Orphan Home. 
 
 Society for Widows of Medical Men. 
 
 Discharged Prisoners' Aid Society. 
 
 Sailors' Welcome Home. 
 
 Provident Surgical Appliance Society. 
 
 National Cripple Boys' Home. 
 
 Boys' Industrial Home, Forest Hill. 
 
 Home for Consumptive Girls. 
 
 Ashley Mission, Bethnal Green. 
 
 Newport Market Industrial School. 
 
 Gordon Memorial Fund for the Benefit 
 of Poor Children. 
 
 The Gordon Boys' Home. 
 
 Missions to French in London. 
 
 Metropolitan Drinking Fountain Asso- 
 ciation. 
 
 Royal Society for the Prevention of 
 Cruelty to Animals. 
 
 Westminster Flower Show, 
 
 Gray's Yard Ragged SchooL 
 
 Ogle Mews Ragged School. 
 
 National Temperance League. 
 
 Irish Church Missions. 
 
 Irish Scripture Readers' Society. 
 
 Irish Society. 
 
 Railway Mission. 
 
 Blue Ribbon Gospel Temperance Move- 
 ment. 
 
 Freedmen's Missions Aid Society. 
 
 Birmingham Town Mission. 
 
 Victoria Street Society for the Sup- 
 pression of Vivisection. 
 
 Wesleyan Methodist Lord's Day Ob- 
 servance Society. 
 
 Female Mission to the Fallen. 
 
 Artisans, Labourers, and General 
 Dwellings Company. 
 
 Society for Promoting Female Educa- 
 tion in the East. 
 
 Young Women's Christian Association. 
 
 South American Missionary Society. 
 
 Early Closing Association. 
 
 Saturday Half -Holiday Movement. 
 
 The Needle- Women's Society. 
 
 Society for Promoting the Employment 
 of Women. 
 
 Romsey Corporation Charity. 
 
 Society for the Relief of Persecuted 
 Jews. 
 
 Home Teaching Society for the Blind. 
 
 Railway Officers' and Servants' Asso- 
 ciation. 
 
 " Bruey " Association of " Irish So- 
 ciety." 
 
 Juvenile Sunday Union. 
 
 Young Men's Christian Association, 
 Gracechurch Street. 
 
 &c. &c. &c. 
 
 DEPUTATIONS OF CHILDREN AND YOUNG PERSONS REPRESENTING 
 THE FOLLOWING INSTITUTIONS : 
 
 Flower Girls' Mission. 
 Cripples' Home. 
 Home for Little Boys. 
 George Yard Ragged Schools. 
 King Edward Ragged Schools. 
 One Tun Ragged School. 
 Coatermongers' Societies and Clubs. 
 
 and Arethuta Training 
 
 Ships. 
 Girls' Home ; Baling and Sudbury 
 
 National Homes. 
 Shoeblacks : Central Reds. 
 Kin^r K<l\vard Industrial Schools. 
 Field Lane Industrial Schools.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Aberdeen, Lord, 201 ; on Nestorians, 283; ap- 
 pealed to by Queen of Tahiti, 2s9 ; Premier, 
 465 ; offers Blue Kibbon, 491, 492 ; death 
 of, 578 
 
 Abolition of Protection, 337 
 
 Achnacarry and its fascinations, 385 
 
 Acre, Capture of, 166 
 
 Acrobats and Small Children, Bill for the 
 Protection of, 757 
 
 Additional Curates Society, 113 
 
 Advice to teachers, 467 
 
 Affairs in the East, 493 
 
 A fghanistau and its aif airs, 236 
 
 Agar-Ellis, Mr., 44 
 
 Aged Pilgrims' Friend Society, 691 
 
 Agricultural gangs, 3, 624 
 
 Agricultural knowledge in India, 46 
 
 Agricultural labourers, Defence of, 280 ; in 
 Dorsetshire, 293 ; rewards to, 484 
 
 Agriculture and women and children, 236 
 
 Aix-la-Chapelle, 267 
 
 Alexander, Dr., first Bishop of Jerusalem, 109 ; 
 consecration of, 202 ; first benediction of, 
 202; sails for Jaffa, 203; entry into Jeru- 
 salem, 219 ; sends a ring to Lord Ashley, 
 270 ; death of, 329, 358 
 
 Alison, Sir Archibald, 144 
 
 Aluishouses at Wirnborne St. Giles, IS 
 
 Alnwick Castle, 147 
 
 Alpine and Italian scenery, 96 
 
 Alsace, 361 
 
 Althorp, Lord, 89 
 
 Ameers of Scinde, The, 285, 286 
 
 America and Slavery, 460 ; future of the Status, 
 451 
 
 American Civil War, The, 573, 577 
 
 American Evangelists, The, 688 
 
 Amusements of the people, 73 
 
 Ancestry and home, 8 18 
 
 Anglican Bishopric of Jerusalem, 166, 197, 198 
 
 Anti-Coru-Law League, 304, 334; Lord John 
 Russell a convert to, 336 
 
 Antinomianisui, 529 
 
 Anti-Papal agitation, 434 
 
 Anti-Slavery agitation, 476 ; meeting at Exeter 
 Hall, 476; Mrs. Beecher-Stowe in Eng- 
 land, 476; address to the women of 
 America, 476 
 
 Antwerp, 267 
 
 Appendix, 777 
 
 Apprentice system, The, 7680 
 
 Archbishop of Paris, Murder of, 653 
 
 Arethusa training-ship, Tt e, 615 
 
 Arguments of prophecy, The, 702 
 
 Argyll, The Duke of, 705, 719, 775 
 
 Aristocracy in Europe, Life of the, 48] 
 
 Armenian Church, The, 716 
 
 Arnold, Dr. 174 
 
 Arnold, Mr. Edwin, 726, 759 
 
 Art of speaking to children, 353 
 
 Artizans' and Labourers' Dwellings Company, 
 690 
 
 Ascot races, 55, 181 
 
 Ashley, Lord (see Shaftesbury.Seventh Earl of) 
 
 Ashley Mission, 755 
 
 Ashley, Sir Anthony, 8 ; daughter of, 8 ; he* 
 
 marriage, 8 
 Ashley, The Hon. Evelyn, 498, 506, 507, 534, 
 
 600604, 605, 686, 716", 718, 719 
 Ashleys and Coopers, 8, 17 
 Assassination of Mr. E. Drummond, 241 ; of 
 
 Lord Frederick Cavendish, 733 
 Astronomy as a study, 49, 62 
 Asylums (see Lunacy) 
 Athanasian Creed, The, 664 
 Attempts on the Queen's life, 157, 411 
 Auberon Herbert, The Hon., on prayer, 690 
 Audit dinners at St. Giles's, 450 
 Auricular confession, 464 
 Austro-Sardinian War, 557 
 Autumn manoeuvres in Dorset, 664 
 Avenue of beeches at Brockington, 16 
 
 Baden, 360 
 
 Balaklava and official stupidity, 498 
 
 Kallot, The, 70 ; in America, 151, 655657 
 
 Bankes, Mr. Geo., 39, 317, 468 
 
 Baptist Missionary Society, The, 253 
 
 Baptist Society for Foreign Missions, TliH, 551 
 
 Barnum, Mr., the American showman, 459 
 
 Barrow and Donkey Club, The, 646 
 
 Bartle Frere, Sir, 690 
 
 Basle, 361 
 
 Bates, Mr., and French finance, 454 
 
 Baths of surprise, 50 
 
 Bathurst, Lord and Lady, 42 ; letter frou. 
 Lord Bathurst, 53 
 
 Beaconsfield, Lord (see Disraeli) 
 
 Beaufort, Duchess of, 234, 385 
 
 Bedchamber question, The, 129, 130 
 
 Bedlam, 50 ; horrors of, 50, 52 
 
 Beecher-Stowe, Mrs., 476 
 
 Belhaven, Lord, at Wishaw, 385 
 
 Bentinck, Lord Wm., 63 
 
 Bible, Revision of, 640, 733, 738 ; study of, 733 ; 
 defence of, 744 
 
 Bible Society, Translations of, at the Great 
 Exhibition of 1851, 437; agents of, in 
 China, 477, 478 
 
 Bickersteth, Eev. E., 209, 421, 422, 461 
 
 Binney, Dr. Thomas, 685 
 
 Birmingham and London Railway, 125 
 
 " Bishop Maker," The, on his defence, 606 -612 
 
 Bishopric of Jerusalem, The, 198 
 
 Bishops, Opposition of, to the Religious Wor- 
 ship Bill, 513, 514 
 
 Black Boy Alley, 260 
 
 Bleaching and Dye- Works Bill, 375 
 
 Blind, Indigent. 145 
 
 Blue Books, Value of, 741 
 
 Board of Education, 132, 135 
 
 Board of Health, 417; its work, 417^419; 
 Lord Ashley resigns Chairmanship of, 
 426 ; sanitation, 478 ; antagonism to, 479 ; 
 a new master, 479 ; old Board extinguished, 
 480
 
 INDKX. 
 
 781 
 
 Board Schools, 64.3, 644 
 
 " Bobby," Derivation of, 74 
 
 " Bokhara " Bnrnes, 236 
 
 Bologna, 95 
 
 Books for students, 71 
 
 Booth, Mr. and Mrs., 726 
 
 Bosnian refugees, 701 
 
 Buwli's' "pinion of Cranborne, 24 
 
 Bradlaugh, Mr., at Northampton, 686, 718, 
 
 Br.ihminism, A dying effort of, 544 
 
 Brewster, Sir David, 386 
 
 Bribery at elections, 472 
 
 Brickfield children, 654 
 
 Brieg, Switzerland, 93 
 
 Bright, Right Hon. John, 265 ; opposes Ten 
 Hours Bill, 291 ; millowners' advocate, 293 ; 
 apology of, 294; factory legislation, 302, 
 333, 378 ; relays and shifts, 372, 373 ; 
 mills at Rochdale, 340 342 ; subdivision 
 of parishes, 409 ; Ecclesiastical Titles Bill, 
 434 ; India Bill, 550 ; Palmerston's esti- 
 mate of. 603 
 
 British and Foreign Bible Society, 358, 437 
 439 
 
 British Orphan School in Paris, 392 
 
 Broadlauds, 172 
 
 Broadmoor Asylum, 571 
 
 Broadwall Infant Ragged School, 350; its 
 f. milder, 383 
 
 Brockington Avenue, 16 
 
 Brousham, Lord, 32, 36, 304, 368, 378, 514 
 
 Bronghton, Lord, 79 
 
 Bulgarian atrocities, The, 698, 705 
 
 Bull Ring, Birmingham, 136 
 
 Buller, Charles, Death of, 407 
 
 Bunsen, Baron, and his mission, 198, 199, 203, 
 563 
 
 Burdett, Sir Francis, 47, 742 
 
 Burglars and emigration, 405 
 
 Burgundy, Plains of, 91 
 
 Burial of Nonconformists, 742 
 
 " Burking " system of the newspapers, 485 
 
 Burnes, " Bokhara," 236 
 
 Burning questions of the day, 188 
 
 H:iO,v, Dr., _>! 
 
 Butler, Dr., at Harrow, 22, 25 
 
 Cabal, Sir A. Ashley and the, 9 
 
 Ciibnl, Affairs at, 240 
 
 Calico print-works, Children in, 320 ; Bill in- 
 troduced, 320, 332 
 
 California and the gold diggings, 450 
 
 Calvin's Commentaries, 528 
 
 Cambrian Quarterly, 40 
 
 Cambridge House parties, 605 
 
 Cannes, 103 
 
 Canning, Lord, Indian Proclamation of, 548 
 550 
 
 Canning, Mr., 30, 32, 33: provision for his 
 family, 30 ; illness and death of, 39 
 
 Canon Law, 4>')2 
 
 Capital punishment, 411 
 
 Cardinal Wiseman, 429 ; his manifesto, 430 
 
 Cjirdwell, Mr. (Viscount Cardwell), 208 
 
 Carisbrooke Castle, 718 
 
 I, Visit to, 20(3,269 
 
 Carlsruhe, 360 
 
 Carl.vl.-, Thomas, 391 
 
 Carnival of Nice, The, 102 
 
 Carolina, 319 
 
 Cane of Gowrio, The, 143 
 
 Castle Howanl, 1 19 
 
 Catacombs at Rome, The, 99 
 
 Catholic Church in England, The, 206 
 
 Catholic emancipation, 47, 60, 325 
 
 Catholic Switzerland, 92 
 
 Catholics, A friend of the, 30, 32 
 
 Cattle plague in Britain, The, 600 
 
 Cattle, Wild white, 146 
 
 Cavour, Connt, 475 ; on Italian freedom, 556, 
 
 561 
 
 Centenary of Sunday Schools, 415 
 Central Board of Health, 398 
 Chalmers (Dr.), in Tron Church, 28 
 Chambers, Mr. Thomas, 648 
 Chancellorship of Oxford University, 455 
 Cbangarnier, General, 424 
 " Characteristics," The, 14 ; the controversy 
 
 it occasioned, 14 
 
 Charity Organisation Society, The, 672 
 Charleston, 319 
 Chartist movement, The, 162, 163, 173, 232, 
 
 390,393 
 
 Chatsworth, 149 
 Cheap bread, 181 
 Cheap trains for workmen, 571 
 Chichester training-ship, The, 614 
 Child labour in 1833, 76, 77 ; in mines and 
 
 collieries, 164, 221224; in calico print- 
 
 works, 320; half-time, 339, 340, 654 
 Children, Cruelty to, 223, 242 
 Children in slavery, 164 
 Children's Dangerous Performances Act, 757 
 Children's Employment Commission, 175, 242, 
 
 32) 322, 586, 624, 654 
 Chillingham Castle, 146 
 Chimney-Sweepers' Bill, Hostility to, 158; 
 
 apprentices, 160, 494, 516, 585-588 
 China and Christianity, 477 ; mission to, 478 
 China War, The, 236 
 Chinese difficulties, 537540 
 Chisholm, Mrs., and colonisation, 436 
 Cholera, Outbreak of, 417, 418, 485 ; Scotch 
 
 memorialists, 485 
 Cholmondeley Castle, 234 
 Christ, Second Coming of, 237, 271, 385, 422, 
 
 523.529 
 
 Christian heroes in India, 548549 
 Christian Sabbath, Defence of, 419 et passim 
 Christianity in Russia, 487 ; in India, 566 
 
 567 
 
 Christians in Turkey, 486, 487 
 Christmas at St. Giles's, 205 
 Church appointments, 606-^612 
 Church Congresses, Objections to, 650 
 Church extension, 158 
 Church Missionary Society, 198 
 Church nominations, 500 
 Church of St. Agostino, 99 
 Church Pastoral Aid Society, 113, 114, 124, 
 
 522, 578, 674, 740 
 Church patronage under Lord Palmerston, 
 
 606-612 
 
 Church reforms, 112, 664, 674676, 740 
 Cistercian Nunnery, 235 
 Citizenship of Tain, 429 
 City Arabs, 347 
 City of the Plague, The, 417 
 Civil War in America, The, 573 
 Clanricarde, Lord, and Sunday postal labour, 
 
 419 
 Clarendon, Lord, on the return of the Jews, 
 
 403 ; death of, 649 
 Clergy and people, 263 
 Clergy. The, and spiritual destitution, 410 
 Clerical vestments, 625 
 
 Climbing boys, 583 588 ; death of a boy, 587 
 Clouds in the East, 486 
 '
 
 782 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Cobbe, Miss F. P., Birthday address of, 722 
 
 Cobden, Mr. Richard, 117, 227 ; Factory BUI, 
 227 ; exposure of factory districts, 291 ; 
 children iu print-works, 321 ; reduction of 
 hours of labour, 339, 378; the Chinese 
 difficulty, 537; Palmerston's opinion of, 
 603 
 
 Coercion Bill, Irish, of Sir Robert Peel, 343 
 
 Coincidence of names, A, 349 
 
 Colenso, Dr., 591 
 
 Coliseum at Rome, 97 
 
 Collieries and female labour, 443 
 
 Colliery Bill, The, 224; opposed by Cobden, 
 227 ; supported by Palmerston, 230 ; be- 
 comes law, 231 ; the Press on the, 234 ; 
 repeal of, 238, 263 
 
 Cologne Cathedral, 268 
 
 Colonisation of Palestine, 168 
 
 Combination Laws repealed, 73 
 
 Commemoration Day at Oxford, 181 
 
 Common Lodging Houses Bill, 469 
 
 Confessional in the Church of England, The, 
 464, 678,679 
 
 Conservative working men, 623 
 
 Continental Sunday, A, 274 
 
 "Conversation " Sbarpe, 32 
 
 Converts to Rome, 324 
 
 Convocation, Revival of, 463 
 
 Cooper, John, 8 ; marriage of, 9 ; son of, 9 
 
 Cora Linn, 146 
 
 Corn-Law agitation, 179 183; Col. Napier on, 
 196; Sir R. Peel, 220, 318 ; George Bankes, 
 317; change of opinion t-onceniinc?, Sit; 
 Lord Ashley on, 335, 338, 039 ; Melbourne 
 on, 335 ; Free-traders and protection, 335 ; 
 a prophecy, 335 ; Peel's conversion to Free- 
 trade, 338 ; Royal assent to Corn and Cus- 
 toms Bill, 343 ; repeal of Com Laws, 3feO 
 
 Corporation and Test Acts, Repeal of, .'!0 
 
 Costermongers' movement, History of, 645 
 648, 666, 672, 65 
 
 Costers' Hall, Opening of, 725 
 
 Cottage accommodation, 448, 4J9, G40 
 
 Cotton famine in England, 578 
 
 Cotton mill near Pottendorf, 273 
 
 Cotton supply, 573, 574 
 
 Cotton trade, The, 75 
 
 Council on Education constituted, :35 
 
 County Lunatic Asylums, 308 
 
 Coursing at Oxford, 9 
 
 Cowper, fifth Earl, 65, 91 ; death of, 53S, 537 
 
 Cowper, Lady (see Palmerston, Lady) 
 
 Cowper, Mr. W., 299, 316, 385, 602 
 
 Cowper, the poet, 333 
 
 Coventry, Lord Keeper, 9 
 
 Crabtree, Mr. Mark, 182, 191, 194 
 
 Cranborne Chase, 24 
 
 Cremation, 361, 456, 768 
 
 Crichton Castle, 140 
 
 Cricket Clubs for Cottagers, 450 
 
 Crimean War, 486489 ; mismanagement in 
 the commissariat department, 498 ; the 
 Coalition Government resign, 499; Sani- 
 tary Commission, 503, 505 ; death of the 
 Czar, 505 ; peace declared, 535 
 
 Criminal Lunatics, 571, 572 
 
 Crippled children, 568 
 
 Croi'ley Ashley, sixth Earl of Shaftesbury, 
 14,15 
 
 Cropley, Sir John, 13 
 
 Cruelty in asylums, 53 
 
 Cruelty to animals, 72, 96 
 
 Cruelty to children in schools, 411 
 
 " Cry of the children," The, 77 
 
 Crystal Palace on Sundays, The, 532 
 
 Cumberland, Duke of, f 9 
 Cumloden, 406, 407 
 Curious episode, A, 472 
 Customs at Oxford, 9 
 
 Danish question, 597 
 
 Day of humiliation, 503 
 
 Dean Law. 731, 73 1 
 
 Dean Stanley, 677 ; death of, 724 
 
 Dean's Yard flowor show, 677 
 
 Debt, Fear of, 634 
 
 Deceased Wife's Sister Bill, 618, 757 
 
 Deer at Cranborne, 24 
 
 Defenders of Religion and its enemies, 527 
 
 Democracy, Progress of, 481 
 
 Denison, Archdeacon, 594, 595 
 
 Denison, Mr. Evelyn, 41, 272 
 
 Depression in trade, 232 
 
 Derby, Lord, Ministry of, 452, 453 ; on Convo- 
 cation, 463 ; defeat of, 465 
 
 Desanctis, a presbyter, 474 
 
 Devonshire, Duke of, 149 
 
 Dickens, Charles, Letter from, 120 ; on Ragged 
 Schools, 260, 658 
 
 Dillwyu, Mr., Lunacy Commission of, 700 
 
 Discipline of suffering, 670 
 
 Disraeli, The Right Hon. Benjamin, 152, 325 ; 
 (Lord Beaconslield) 453. 461, 619, 621, 627, 
 631, 673, 690, 691, 709, 720 
 
 Disruption in Scotland, 264 
 
 Dissenters' Chapels Bill, 30ti 
 
 Distress iu Ireland, 409 
 
 Divided parties, 36 
 
 Divine authorship of the Bible, 521, 522, 52fl, 
 527 
 
 Divine Providence, Operations of, 523 
 
 Dog, Death of a favourite, 39 
 
 Dogmatic truth, 522 
 
 Donkey, Presentation of a, 647 
 
 Donkeys and ponies of costers, 647, 759 
 Drainage Bill, 196 
 Dressmakers and milliners, 285, 516 
 Drummond, Mr., Assassination of, 241 
 
 Drunkards Bill, 713 
 
 Druses and Maronites in Syria, 5S.'5 
 
 Dryden on the first Earl, 10; on the second 
 
 Earl, 12 
 
 Dublin Mansion House Relief Committee, 331 
 Duchy of Lancaster, 500 
 " Duck puddle " at Harrow, 23 
 Dudley, Lord, 44 
 Duel, Challenge to a, 472, 473 
 Dugdale's mill, 313 
 Dmikeld, 143 
 
 Durham Letter, The famous, 430 
 Dutch fair, A, 363 
 Duty on imported food, 453 
 Dwelling-houses of the poor, 347, 352, 353, 354, 
 
 687 
 Dying gift, A, 21 
 
 Early closing movement, 534 
 
 Early factory legislation, 78 
 
 Early reformers, Fanaticism of, 143 
 
 East India Company, 57, 248 ; opiup 6rafHi 
 encouraged by, 249; opium monopoly 
 questioned, 250; debate in Parliament, 
 253 ; the Ameers of Scinde a>P<l the, 286 ; 
 indictment of the, 287, 549 
 
 " Ecce Homo," 591 
 
 Ecclesiastical appointments, 538, 544. 105 
 
 Ecclesiastical Courts Bill, 628, 660. 681 682 
 
 Ecclesiastical Titles Bill, 435 
 
 Edinburgh, 141 
 
 Education and Bible readinjr, "J
 
 INDEX. 
 
 783 
 
 Education and ignorance in England, 71, 73, 
 
 Education :m.l !i.:-:il rates, 515 
 
 Edu. at .on Bill, The, 643, 6J4, 662 
 !i 1830, 66, 67 
 n, l:!2, i;Ci 
 . Lady, Gt>3 
 
 rough, Lord, 239; on Scinde, 286, 549, 
 530 
 
 El'ice, Rt, Hon. Edward, 170, 171 
 
 Emigration of ranged scholars, 399 401 ; grant 
 made, *)1 ; farewell address, 401; scheme 
 before Parliament, 415 ; grant wirhilr.i-.-. n, 
 416; a letter on the, 416, 417; Miss Por- 
 tal's bequest, 4il ; donation from, the 
 Queen, 421, 4_' ; progress of, 468 
 
 Emperor of Franco, o06 
 
 Emperor of Russia in England, 311 
 
 Employment Commission, 516 
 
 England and Russia, 486, 487 
 
 English influence abroad, 507 
 
 English liberality, 597 
 
 English workmen in France, Flight of, 391 
 
 Eselbach, Steamboats at, 269 
 
 " Essays and Reviews," 590, 639, 686 
 
 Esterhazy, Prince, 273 
 
 Evangelical Alliance, The, 365 
 
 Evangelical party, 519 et passim 
 
 Evangelisation of Italy, The, 573 
 
 Evangelisation of the East, The, 599 
 
 Evening classes for young men, 450 
 
 Evening communion, 743 
 
 Exeter Hall Special Services, 542 ; inhibition 
 issued, 5)3 ; action of the Nonconformists, 
 543; of the Bishops, 543; the Services 
 legalised. 51-1 
 
 Exhibition of IsM, 437 
 
 Extra-mural Interment Bill, 426, 478 
 
 Facilities of Worship Bill, 678 
 
 Factories and mills in India, 692, 712 
 
 Factories, Mr. Grant on, 194 ; Col. Napier on, 
 196 ; Education Bill, 245; debate on regu- 
 lation of labour in, 290298 ; reports of 
 inspectors of, 290 
 
 Factory Bills, 194, 196, 215, 219, 226, 228; Pal- 
 merston's support, 228 ; approved by 
 Queen and Prince Albert, 229 ; the Ten 
 Hours Bill passes, 368 : its advantages, 371 
 
 Factory labour. Evils of, 292 
 
 Factory legislation, 49, 54, 75, 7680, 163; 
 opening of schools, 73, 84; apprentice 
 system, 76; white slaves, 78 ; Mr. Sadler's 
 Bill, 80, 3; a Royal Commissi- 
 report issued, 88 ; education of children, 
 104; Act of 1833, 104; found inoperative, 
 114; amendment thereof, 116; 0<>l den's 
 opinion, 117 ; Regulation Act, 118; inquiry 
 into Mills and Factories Act, 163 ; report 
 of Commission, 177 ; Lord Ashley's Bill, 
 215 ; opposed by Peel, 215 ; approved by 
 Queen, 229; Extension Act of 1864, 242; 
 Education Bill, 245; progress of legisla- 
 tion, 313, 367369; retrospect, 378; 
 friends and foes, 378, 370 ; the Bill of 1874, 
 Factory Consolidation Bill, 704; 
 Factories and Workshops Act, 704 
 
 Factory operatives and the Countess of 
 Shaftesbury, 568 
 
 Factory tour in Lancashire and Yorkshire. 
 
 Fairbairn, Mr., the engineer, 451 
 Fallen among thieves, 405 
 Famine in England, Threatened, 334 in Ire- 
 land, 380 
 
 Fanaticism of early reformers, 143 
 
 Farm schools, 615 
 
 Feargus O'Connor, 233, 390 
 
 Female education in the East, 770 
 
 Female suffrage, 651 
 
 Field Lane Ragged School, 259, 261, 437, 468 
 
 Fielden, Mr. John, M.P., 367-369. 371 
 
 Fighting men in the House of Lords, 47 J, 17.: 
 
 Fire insurance offices and climbing boys, 162 
 
 Fishbourne, Admirul, 726, 727731 
 
 Flax mill at Pottendorf , 273 
 
 Fleet ditch, 260 
 
 Flower Girls' Mission, 670, 758, 774 
 
 Flower shows, 677 
 
 Foreign taste, 476 
 
 Forster, Mr. John, 693 
 
 Forster, Mr. W. E.. Education scheme of, 
 
 643, 644, 721 
 
 Forum at Rome, The, 97 
 Fountains in Swiss villages, 362 
 Fox Maule, Mr. (Lord Panmure), 120 
 France and her resources, 454 
 France, England, and Russia, 486, 487 
 Franco- Prussian War, (>19 
 Frankfort, Free city of, 26 \ 277 
 Fraudulent bailiff, A, 581 
 Frederick William of Prussia, 197; godfather 
 
 to the Prince of Wales, !i03; in England, 
 
 211 
 
 Free industries, 2t2 
 Freethinking Germans, 361 
 Free-trade (xee Coru-I^iw agitation) 
 French aggressions in Tahiti, 289 
 French and English Sundays, 532 
 French Emperor visits England, 506 
 Frere, Sir Hurtle, 690 
 Freshmen at Oxford, 9 
 Friend jThe) of the friendless, 58 
 Friendly Societies, 73 
 Friends and foes, 336 
 Fry, Mr., 248, 249 
 Fry, Mr. Wm. Storra, 312 
 Fry, Mrs. Elizabeth, Illness of, 311, 384 
 Fugitive notes, 28, 101 
 Fugitive slave law, 459 
 Funeral reform, 361 
 Future judgment, 525 
 
 Gaelic life, 143 
 
 Galloway House, 385, 406 
 
 Garbett, Rev. James, 208 213 
 
 Garden allotments, 450 
 
 Garfleld, General, Death of, 72-1 
 
 Garibaldi, Goneral, and Italian freedom, 556, 
 
 560; invited to visit England, til ; iu 
 
 England, 59(5 
 Garter, Order of the, declined, 492; accepted 
 
 576578 
 
 Gates of Somnanth, 239 
 Geneva Red Cross Association, 499 
 Geneva, Visit to, 92, 484 
 Genoa, 474 
 
 Gent, Mr. Joseph, 319, 350, 706, 710, 750 
 George IV., 155 
 George Yard, Whiteclmpel, 709, 747 
 German life, 360 
 German philosophy, 361 
 Ghent, City .;. 
 Gift* and Legacies, 769 
 Girls' refuges, 615, 649, 704 
 Gladstone, The Right Hon. Wm. Ewart, 113, 
 
 201; favours Pngeyisni,210; Colliery r,il! 
 
 230; Collegiate instil 
 
 sent, 307; iw>n-plact at Oxford, 323; Vico- 
 
 President of the Board of Trado, 324;
 
 784 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Maynooth grant, 326; Ten Hours Bill, 
 376379; Ministerial aspirations, 500; 
 resigns office, 508 ; the Manchester school, 
 S96, 599 ; . Palmerston's estimate of, 603, 
 612 ; love of power, 621 ; Irish Church, 
 627 ; Premier, 632 ; Dr. Temple's appoint- 
 ment, 639 ; Education scheme, 644 ; female 
 suffrage, 651; Public Worship Bill, 683, 
 684 ; on " the stump," 684, 736 ; Bulgarian 
 atrocities, 698, 705 ; Irish Land Laws, 719 ; 
 Home Rule, 764 
 
 Glasgow Blind School, 145 
 
 Glasgow, freedom of the city, 658 
 
 Glasgow Home for Incurables, 141 
 
 Glasgow Registration Court, 145 
 
 Glasgow riots in 1848, 390 
 
 Gleaning in tbe cornfields, 144 
 
 Gobat, Dr., Bishop of Jerusalem, 358 
 
 Goderich, Lord, as Premier, 39 
 
 Golden Lane Mission, 645648 
 
 Gordon, Mr. Robert, 52 
 
 Gough, Mr. J. B., 496, 672 
 
 Gould, Mr. Nathaniel, 79 
 
 Graham, Sir James, 245 ; Education Bill, 245 ; 
 as a peacemaker, 245 ; on teaching of Scrip- 
 ture, 245, 247 ; the opium monopoly, 250, 
 257 ; Twelve Hours Bill, 290 ; advice to 
 Lord Ashley, 291296 ; unpopular, 298 ; 
 character, 257, 298; Vice-royalty of Ire- 
 land, 300 ; Lunacy Laws, 309, 316 ; Irish 
 Secretaryship, 319 ; supports Lunacy Bills, 
 332 ; resigns office, 508 ; death of, 578 
 
 Grant, Mr. Philip, 194, 367, 378 
 
 Grant, Mr. R., on the Jews' Disabilities, 387 
 
 Granville, Lord, 65 
 
 Great Exhibition of 1851, The, 437 
 
 " Great Unwashed," The, 181 et passim 
 
 Greek brigandage, 649 
 
 Greek chair at Oxford and Dr. Jowett, 594 
 
 Greville, Mr. Charles, 303, 304 
 
 Grey, Sir George, 373, 379, 388, 395, 441 
 
 Grindelwald glacier, 362 
 
 Grotto of shells at Cranborne, 17 
 
 Guildhall meeting of Ragged School Union, 
 720-722 
 
 Guizot, M., 166, 170; on the appeal of the 
 Queen of Tahiti, 289 
 
 Gurney, Mr. Samuel, 249 
 
 Gathrie, Dr., 383 
 
 Gutter children, 466 
 
 Habeas Corpus Act, Introduction of, 10 ; sus- 
 pended in Ireland, 408 
 
 Habitual Drunkards Bill, 713 
 
 Haldane, Mr. Alexander, 462, 497, 499, 517, 
 5S6, 573, 595, 598, 611, 638, 643, 650, 674. 679, 
 698, 714, 731 ; death of, 735 
 
 Hampden, Rev. Dr., 388 
 
 Handel, the composer, 14 
 
 Hanway, Jonas, 159 
 
 Hardinge, Lord, 315, 346, 419 
 
 Hargreaves, Mr. J., and the spinning jenny, 75 
 
 Harrow and its associations, 22, 25 
 
 Harrow Churchyard, 414 
 
 Harrow Hill and philanthropy, 25 
 
 Hartington, Marquis of, 558, 701 
 
 Harvest home at St. Giles, 537 
 
 Havelock, Sir Henry, 548, 552 
 
 Health of Towns Act, 398 
 
 Heber, Bisl op, Death of, 55, 61 
 
 Heidelberg, Palace of, 276 
 
 Herbert, Mr. Sidney, 508 
 
 Uerschel, Sir Wm., 736 
 
 High Church party, The, 113 
 
 " High morality' at Court, 193 
 
 Highland hamlets and Hottentot kraals, 1 13 
 
 Hindley's Factory Bill, 116 
 
 Hoore, Mr. Joseph, 769 
 
 Hobhouse, Sir Johu, 79 
 
 Hoffman, Prof., 361 
 
 Holborn Hill and its alleys, 1 
 
 Holland House, 756 
 
 Holland, Mr. George, 709, 769 
 
 Holloway, Mr. Thomas, 572, 573 
 
 Holloway Sanatorium, The, 572 
 
 Holy Land, Interest in the, 126, 197 
 
 Holy places in Palestine, 486 
 
 Holyrood House, 141 
 
 Homhurg, Visit to, 638 
 
 Home of the Ashlei'S, 15 
 
 Home Rule, 764 
 
 Homeless boys, 613 
 
 Homes for the insane, 308 
 
 Honours to worthy men, 606 
 
 Home, the Rev. Dr., 20 
 
 Horner, Mr. Leonard, 73 
 
 Horrors of Bedlam, 50 52; of the factory 
 
 system, 76 
 
 Horticulture in India, 46 
 Hours of labour, Restriction of, in factories, 79 
 House of Lords a Register Office, 484 
 Household Suffrage Act of 1867, The, 70, 623 
 Houses of Detention, 471 
 Housing the poor, 352, 440, 759 
 Hudson, Mr., at Turin, 475 
 Hume, Mr. Joseph, 32, 250, 368, 410 
 Humanising the working classes, 421 
 Humanity and the name of Ashley, 310 
 Husbandry in India, 46 
 Huxley, Prof., on religion, 650 
 Hyde Park riot, 619 
 
 Ibraham Pasha, 165 
 
 Idle ecclesiastics, 410 
 
 Immorality in France, 424 
 
 Improvement Building Companies, Metro- 
 politan, 469 
 
 Impure literature, 747 
 
 Incarnation, The, 525 
 
 Indigent Blind Visiting Society, The, 145 
 
 Industrial classesand emigration, 415; refuges, 
 467 
 
 Industrial Exhibition of 1851, The, 437 
 
 Industrial legislation, Necessity for, 3, 4 
 
 Industrial schools in counties, 473 
 
 Inglis, Sir Robert, 227, 318, 445, 515 
 
 Inherited estates and new difficulties, 448, 449 
 
 India, 45, 54 ; work for, 54 ; conversion of, 57 ; 
 agriculture in, 46 ; mills and factories in, 
 712 
 
 India Bill, 550 
 
 Indian cotton, 573, 574 
 
 Indian famine, 574 
 
 Indian Mutiny, The, 544 550; subject of 
 special prayer, 545 ; fund for relief of tiio 
 sufferers, 545 ; origin of the insurrection, 
 546, 547 ; Lady Canning on the mutila- 
 tions, 547 
 
 Insane, The (see Lunacy) 
 
 Insanity of the poet Cowper, 333 
 
 Inspiration of the Scriptures, 521, 522, 526, 
 527, 744 
 
 Insurance Offices and climbing hoys, 158 103 
 
 Insurrections at Berlin and Vienna, 393 
 
 Intemperance, Evils of, 672 
 
 Interlakeu, 363 
 
 luterment Bill, 426 
 
 Inventions, Progress of, 75 
 
 Inverary Castle, 406 
 
 Inverness, 143
 
 INDEX. 
 
 785 
 
 lona and Staffa, 680 
 
 Ireland and England, Severance of, 638 
 
 Ireland and famine, 36t ; in distress, 408 
 
 Ireland and the Irish, 326 
 
 Irish Church, The, 105 ; temporalities of, 112. 
 306, 630637 
 
 Irish Coercion Bill, The, 3 13 
 
 Irish Registration Bill, The, 177 
 
 Italian freedom and the Papacy, 556 ; events 
 leading to war, 556 ; war declared, 557 ; 
 opinions of Persigny, Cavour, and Gari- 
 baldi, 558561 ; annexation of Savoy and 
 Nice, 561 
 
 Italian honour, 651 
 
 Italian scenery, 96 
 
 Italy, 91, 573 
 
 "Jack Cade" legislation, 298, 304 
 " Jack Ketch's " warren, 259 
 Jackson, T., City missionary, 404 
 Jerusalem and Jewish people, 123. 167 
 Jerusalem Bishopric, 198, 200; first Bishop, 
 
 199 ; his death, 329 ; second Bishop, 358 
 Jews at Carlsbad, 270 
 Jews in Parliament, 126, 167, 170, 177, 200, 388, 
 
 447, 501, 553 
 Jews in Eussia, 731 
 Jews, Return of the, 48, 328, 493 
 Jews' Society, The, 215, 328, 616, 761 
 Jocelyn, Lord, 182, 495, 537 
 John Bull and Lord Ashley, 30 
 Jones, Mr. Ernest, 390 
 Jowett, Dr., and Greek chair, 594 
 Joy, Mary, Death of, 636 
 Jubilee of London City Mission, 761 
 Jura Mountains, The, 91 
 Jurston Street Ragged School, 350 
 Jury question in India, The, 59 
 Justification by faith, 521 
 Juvenile delinquency, 471 
 Juvenile mendicancy and crime, 471 
 Juveniles in workshops, 624, 625 
 
 Kay, Mr. J., and the fly shuttle, 75 
 
 Keble, Bev. John, 206, 207, 213, 323 
 
 Kiugdoin of Italy, 103 
 
 King's College, 56 
 
 Kiiiimird family, The, 142 
 
 Kossutb in England, 450 ; reception, 450 
 
 Labourers' Friend Society, 347, 384, 394 
 Labourers' holiday at St. Giles, 484 
 Labouring classes, 174, 393, 570, 630 
 Labouring Classes' Tenements Houses Act, 
 
 760 
 
 Laity and the Churcli, The, 365 
 Larnartine, M., 425 
 Lancashire Cotton Famine, The, 578 
 Lancashire operatives, Condition of, 75 77 
 Land of Promise and the Jews, 493 
 Landed proprietary, Opposition to the, 814 
 Lansdowne, Lord, 507 
 Law, Dean, 677 
 Law, Value of, 187 
 Lawrence, Sir Henry, 548 
 Lawsuits, 596, 631 
 Lawyers and their practices, 483 
 Leigh, Miss, House of Refuge of, in Paris, 704 
 Letters to Lord Ashley from Lord Aberdeen, 
 283, 491 ; Mr. Barnum's agent, 459 ; Lord 
 Bathnrst, 43, 53: Kev. E. Bickersteth, 
 209 j Mrs. Canning, 30, 31; Charlotte 
 Elizabeth, 209; Hon. William Cowper, 
 209; H.R.H. the Duke of Cumberland. 
 69; Archdeacon Doiiison, 594; Earl of 
 Y Y 
 
 Derby, 617; Mrs. Fry, 265; General Gari- 
 baldi, 560, 596 ; Mr. W. Gregson, 213 ; Sir 
 Henry Hardinge, 345 ; Hon. Russell 
 Lowell, 724 ; Lady Charlotte Lyster, 722 ; 
 Lord Macaulay, 552 ; Mr. J. Bowen May, 
 572; J. R. McCulloch,85; Lord Morning- 
 ton, 473 ; Sir Moses Monteflore, 633 ; Col. 
 Napier, 196 ; Miss Nightingale, 505, 581 ; 
 Bishop of Oxford, 594 ; Lady Palmerston, 
 502, 509, 510 ; Lord Palmerston, 500, 576, 
 582 ; Sir B. Peel, 109, 128, 187, 215, 238, 241, 
 246 ; H.R.H. Prince Consort, 229, 395, 396, 
 457 ; Dr. Pusey, 593 ; Mr. Roebuck, 375 ; 
 Lord J. Russell, 381, 418 ; Mrs. Southey, 
 139 ; Mr. Robert Southey, 64, 85, 90 ; Rev. 
 C. H. Spurgeon, 708 ; " Tiny," 750 ; Caro- 
 line Walker, 416; Daniel Webster, 151, 
 156 ; Duke of Wellington, 31, 38, 39, 42, 
 45, 65, 68, 133 ; Archdeacon Wilberf orco, 
 212 
 
 Letters from Lord Ashley to Lord Aberdeen, 
 283 ; Hon. Evelyn Ashley, 489, 506, 517, 
 
 518, 719 ; Hon. Mrs. Evelyn Ashley, 716 ; 
 Mrs. Canning, 35 ; Count Cavour, 561 ; 
 Mr. Crabtree, 194 ; H.R.H. the Duke of 
 Cumberland, 69 ; Archdeacon Denison, 
 595; Earl of Derby, 617; Admiral Fish- 
 bourne, 729 ; General Garibaldi, 560 ; Mr. 
 Gladstone, 632; Mr. Haldane, 463, 497, 
 
 519, 595, 601, 611, 640; Mr. Kirk, 633; Mr. 
 Win. Locke, 349; Hon. Russell Lowell, 
 724 ; Archbishop Manning, 653 ; Lord 
 Mornington, 473 ; Emperor Napoleon III., 
 489, 490 ; Mr. Richard Oastler, 83 ; Mr. W. 
 J. Orsman, 646, 648, 666, 725 ; Mr. Bonn- 
 dell Palmer, 207 ; Lord Palmerston, 163, 
 489, 490 ; Lord Panrnure, 504 ; Sir Robert 
 Peel, 110, 184, 215, 241, 247 ; Mr. S. Plim- 
 soll, M.P., 674 ; Dr. Pnsey, 211, 593 ; Lord 
 John Russell, 418 ; Lady Shaftesbury, 661, 
 662, 663 ; Short-Time Committee, 216, 369, 
 370; Mr. Robert Southey, 63 ; Rev. C. H. 
 Spurgeon. 709; "Tiny," 750; Rt. Hon. S. 
 K Walpole, 627 ; Duke of Wellington, t>7 ; 
 Canon Wilberforce, 763 
 
 Levies of Mr. Speaker, 651 
 
 Library at St. Giles's House, The, 16 
 
 Life peerages, 518, 536 
 
 Lindsay, Lord, Travels of, 123 
 
 Linlithgow, 142 
 
 Literature, Efforts in, 54 
 
 Liverpool, 138 
 
 Liverpool, Lord, 32, 34 
 
 Livingstone, Dr., at Wimborne St. Giles, 18 
 
 Local rates for the education of the poor, 515 
 
 Lock, Mr., Memorandum to, 46, 59 
 
 Locke, John, and the Shaftrsbury family, 12 ; 
 as tutor of the third Earl, 13 ; choosing a 
 wife for his master, 13; the Earl's friend- 
 ship for, 13 
 
 Locke, Mr. Wm., 349. 428 
 
 Lockhart, " Life of Scott," 123 
 
 Lodger franchise, The, 623 
 
 Lodging-house for newsboys, 651 
 
 Lodging-houses for the working classes, 384, 
 440; inspection of, 440, 446; Charles 
 Dickens on, 446 ; the new Bill on, 469 
 
 London City Mission, 348, 351 et passim 
 
 London Missionary Society, 478 
 
 London poor. The, 466 
 
 London Society for the Improvement of Fac- 
 . tory Children, 83 
 
 London Thieves, 401 
 
 Londonderry, Lord, 23S, 233 
 
 Longford Election Coinuii tee, 220
 
 786 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Lord's Supper in mission rooms, 743 
 
 Loretto, An incident at, 96 
 
 Louis Napoleon (see Napoleon III.) 
 
 Louis Philippe, 166, 389391 
 
 Lowe, the Eight Hon. Robert (Lord Sher- 
 brooke), 616, 621 
 
 Lucca, Duke of, 102 
 
 Lunacy Question, 49; treatment of lunatics, 
 50, 309, 310 ; the asylums, 51 ; retreat at 
 York, 51 ; Lunacy Board, 52 ; neglect of 
 lunatics, 52; Gordon's report, 52; Lord 
 Ashley's speech, 52; Lunacy Act, 56, 57 ; 
 Commission in Lunacy, 124, 220 ; working 
 of the, 235; report of, 307310; Irish 
 criminal and pauper lunatics, 309; new 
 Government Bill, 316 ; regulation of asy- 
 lums, 330, 331 ; better treatment of the 
 insane, 331 ; efforts of Pinel, Tuke, and 
 the Society of Friends, 332 ; a lunacy case, 
 386; Hoxton Asylum, 411; a work of 
 seventeen years, 442; criminal lunatics, 
 571 ; asylum for middle classes, 571, 572 ; 
 an Amendment Act, 579; Mr. Dillwyn's 
 Committee, 700; alleged abuses of the 
 law, 765, 766 
 T Commemoration, 758 
 
 Luthc 
 
 ... , . , 
 
 Macaulay, I'r. T. B. (Lord Macaulay), 302, 
 
 379, 391, 551, 552 
 Macgregor, Mr. John, 437 
 Macgregor, The, 28 
 Mackonochie, Rev. A. H., 618, 651 
 Macleod, Dr., 144 
 Madhouses (see Lunacy) 
 Madiai, Persecution of, 457; mission from 
 
 England, 457 
 
 Malmaynes, Burial-place of the, 17 
 Malta College, 443, 599, 600 
 Mammiani, M., 475 
 Manifesto of the Czar, 487 
 Manning, Archdeacon, joins the Roman 
 
 Church, 435 
 
 Manor House at Cranborne, 24 
 Manual of Geology, The, 702 
 Maoris, The, 344 
 
 Maria Millis, a faithful nurse, 20, 24, 26 
 Marlborough, Duke of, 45 
 Maronites and Druses, The, 563 
 Marriage with a Deceased Wife's Sister, 648 
 Marsh, Miss Catherine, 524, 726, 767 
 Martineau, Miss Harriett, 279, 378 
 Maule, Mr. Fox, 120 
 Maurice, Mr. F. D., and the Oxford Address, 
 
 272 
 
 " May Chairs," 438 et passim 
 May Meetings, 453 et passim 
 May, Mr. J. Bowen, 572 
 Maynooth College, 324; Endowments Bill, 
 
 325; the Grant, 825, 501 
 Mayo, Lady, 664 
 Mazzinglta, Mr., pardoned, 475 
 M'Caul, Rev. Alex., 128, 499 
 M'Culloch, John Ramsay, 85 
 Mcllvaine, Dr., 674 
 M'Naughten, Daniel, 241 
 Medici, Grand Duke of, 101 
 Mehemet Ali, 165170 
 Melbourne, Lord, 105, 103, 112, 123, 128, 235, 
 
 264, 335, 407 
 
 Memorials of the Ashley-Coopers, 17 
 Mendicancy Bill, The, 473 
 Merchant Shipping Bill, The, 673 
 Metropolitan Drapers' Association for Early 
 
 Closing, 358 
 
 Metropolitan Improvement Building Com- 
 panies, 469 
 
 Metropolitan Improvements, 570 
 
 Metropolitan Police Force, The, 74 
 
 Metropolitan Ragged Schools, 351 et passim 
 
 Metternich, Prince and Princess, 273, 392 
 
 Middle-class patients at private esylums, 309 
 
 Milan Cathedral, 93 
 
 Military bands in the parks on Sundays, 533 
 
 Militia Bill, The, 452 
 
 Miller, Roger, of Broadwall, 383, 384 
 
 Millhand injured at Stockport, 187 
 
 Milliners' and dressmakers' hours, 516 
 
 Milliners, Protection of, 1 
 
 Millowners' Commission of Inquiry, 87 : report 
 of, 88 
 
 Millowners' Manifesto, 299 
 
 Mills and factories in India, 712 
 
 Milton, Genius of, 455 
 
 Mines, Children in, 76, 77, 78, 164 ; report of 
 Commission, 221; disclosures, 221242; 
 repeal of Colliery Bill, 238, 263 ; " trap- 
 pers " in, 221 ; female and child labour in, 
 443 ; Consolidation Act, 704 
 
 Mismanagement in the Crimea, 498 
 
 Mission to China, 477, 478 
 
 Mission work in London, 686 
 
 Model lodging-houses, 355, 440, 446, 469 
 
 Moderate drinking, 672 
 
 Monmouth, Duke of, taken at Cranborne, 24 
 
 Monod, Rev. A. , in Paris, 423 
 
 Montefiore, Sir Moses, 493, 632, 633, 726 
 
 Montgomery, Rev. Robert, 145 
 
 Moody and Sankey, Messrs., in London, 688 
 
 Moore, Mr. George, 699 
 
 Moore, Rev. R., 45, 202, 598 
 
 Morality, Political, 36 
 
 More, Mrs. Hannah, 108 
 
 Mornington, Lord, and the care of children, 
 472; challenges Lord Shaftesbury to a 
 duel, 472, 473 
 
 Morpeth, Lord, 79, 112, 240 
 
 Moses, Song of, 530 
 
 Mothers' meetings, 494 
 
 Napier, Col. W., 196 
 
 Napier, Sir Charles, 286 : Ameers of Scinde, 
 
 287 
 
 Napoleon III., 489, 508, 628 
 Nasmith, David, and the City Mission, 351 
 National Defences Bill, 452 
 National education, Scheme of, 242 
 National prayer and national thanksgiving, 
 
 497, 661 
 
 National School Society, 107 
 Navarino, Battle of, 42 
 Needlewomen, Distressed, 285, 315, 316 
 Negro slavery, 460; proposed address to the 
 
 women or America, 460 
 Neology, 590, 688 ; its creed, 592 
 Nestorian Christians, Massacre of, 283284 
 New Zealand, Reverses in, 3-14 
 Newbattle Abbey, 140 
 Newby, 148 
 Newcastle, Duke of, and the Crimean fiasco, 
 
 499 
 
 Newman, Dr. J. H., 100, 207 
 Newspapers, " Burking " system of, 485 
 Nice, Carnival at, 102 
 Night Refuge tor the Destitute, 261, 467 
 Nightingale, Miss Florence, and her nurses, 
 
 in the Crimea, 503 ; return of, 536 ; the 
 
 Sanitary Commission, 503505; the In 
 
 di.in Commission, 581 
 Nissards, The, 102
 
 787 
 
 Normanby, Lord, 196 
 
 Northumberland, Duke and Duchess of, 147 
 
 Novel practice, A, 262 
 
 Nuisances Eemoval Act, The, 398 
 
 Nuremberg, 275 
 
 Oastler, Mr. R., 115, 163, 367, 379, 636 
 
 Oath of allegiance, 387, 732 
 
 Oban, 14 i 
 
 O'Connell, Daniel, 84, 120, 239, 326, 378, 379 
 
 O'Connor, Feargus, 233, 390 
 
 (Ecumenical Council, 745 
 
 Ohio, Bishop of, 674 
 
 " Oliver Twist," 120 
 
 Open-air preaching', 723 
 
 Opening of Museums on Sundays, 732, 768 
 
 Operatives of England, Address to the, 87, 
 194 ; presentation to the Countess of 
 Shaftesbury, 568 
 
 "Operatives of Lancashire, 186, 333 
 
 Opium trade, The, 238 ; with China, 248 ; as a 
 revenue for India, 249 ; debate in Parlia- 
 ment, 251 ; and the Bible, 252 ; effect on 
 the Chinese, 255 ; death of an able ally, 
 312 ; further debates in Parliament on, 
 538540, 541, 725 
 
 Orsman, Mr. W. J., 645, 666, 685, 686, 725 
 
 Ostend, Port of, 277 
 
 Outcasts' resting-place, 2 
 
 Overloaded ships, 673, 674 
 
 Oxford and the Tractarians, 206 
 
 Oxford, his attempted murder of the Queen, 
 158 
 
 Paget, Mr., defends needlewomen, 285 
 
 Pakington, Sir John, 515 
 
 Palestine, Colonisation of, 168, 197 
 
 Palmerston, Lady, 152, 502, 509, 605, 637 
 
 Palmerston, Lord, 122, 139, 152, 167, 171 ; de- 
 fends the Jews, 279 ; opposes the Ameers, 
 288 ; defences of the coast, 322 ; resigns, 
 452 ; Board of Health, 480 ; famous reply 
 to Scotch memorialists, 485 ; Sweeps Bill, 
 494; forms a Cabinet, 500, 531, 558; offers 
 Shaftesbury a seat, 500; Sanitary Com- 
 mission, 505; Church appointments, 507, 
 606612; life peerages, 518; popularity 
 of, 540; offers the Garter, 576; illness 
 of Prince Consort, 577 ; friendship for 
 Shaf tesbnry, 582 ; illness, 699 ; career, 
 600 ; closing scenes and death, 602604 ; 
 enemies, 603; funeral at Westminster, 
 604 ; reflections, 605 ; statue to, 631 
 
 Panmure, Lord, 120, 503 50i 
 
 Papal aggression, Feeling against, 430, 435 ; 
 action of Catholics and Pnseyites, 432 
 435 
 
 Papal Bull, A, 429 
 
 Paper Duty Bills, 562 
 
 Papists and Positivists. 436 
 
 Paris International Exhibition, 627 
 
 Parish church of Wimborne St. Giles, 17 ; 
 register of, 17 
 
 Parishes, Sub-division of, 409 
 
 Parisian Sundays, 532 
 
 Parke's funeral, 43 
 
 Parley, Peter, 156 
 
 Pastoral Aid Society (see Church Pastoral Aid 
 Society) 
 
 Patriotism and the Gospel, 41 
 
 Patronage, First bit of, 63 
 
 Pauper lunatics, 5154, 579 
 
 Payne, Mr., Assistant .Judge, 642, 643 
 
 Peace of Villafranca, 561 
 
 Peace rejoicings in 1S56, 535 
 
 Peckham Asylum, 315 
 
 Peel, Sir Robert, 35; forms a Cabinet, 108; 
 resignation, 112; again Premier, 128 131; 
 a misunderstanding, 189 ; appointments, 
 189-191; the new Cabinet, 195; Irish 
 difficulty, 239, 306, 307, 343; attempted 
 assassination of, 241 ; a Cabinet of dolls, 
 319 ; Corn Laws, 334 ; resignation, 337 ; 
 abolition or protection, 337 ; a convert to 
 Free-trade, 338; defence of the change, 
 342 ; accident to and death of, 427 ; eulogy 
 on, 428 ; funeral of, 428 
 
 " Peeler," Derivation of, 74 
 
 Peerages to mercantile men, 536 
 
 Peers for life, 507, 536 
 
 People's Park at Halifax, 551 
 
 Peripatetic schoolmasters, 475 
 
 Permanent refuges, 467 
 
 Perponcher, M , 475 
 
 Persecution of Jews in Russia, 731 
 
 Persecution of the Madiai, 457 ; mission from 
 England, 457 
 
 Persigny, Count, on Italian unity, 558 
 
 Peter Parley, 156 
 
 Fetter, Mr. G. W., 714, 715 
 
 Philanthropy and Harrow Hill, 25 
 
 Philistines in the Cabinet, 36 
 
 Philosophy, Fanciful errors of, 41 
 
 Piracy in Chinese waters, Alleged, 537 
 
 Pisa, 102 
 
 Place-hunters, Political, 507 
 
 Plains of Sharon, 168 
 
 Plecys, Burial-place of the, 17 
 
 Plimsoll, Mr. Samuel, and British seamen, 
 673,674 
 
 Police Acts, The, 73 
 
 Polish insurrection, The, 579 581 
 
 Polish refugee, A, 483 
 
 Ponsonby, Lord, 200 
 
 Poor Laws, 74 
 
 Poor man's friend, The, 26 
 
 Poor, The, 347; their sufferings, 454; dis- 
 placement of, by building improvements, 
 469 ; in Paris, 423, 424 ; in London, 466 
 
 Pope Pins IX. and the Papacy, 365 
 
 Popery, Progress of, 127 
 
 Poppy, Cultivation of, 252 
 
 Popularity of Ragged Schools, 355 
 
 Portal, Miss, and Ragged Schools, 421, 767 
 
 Portrait by Sir John Millais, 700 
 
 Portraits and their story, 748 
 
 Potato blight, 334, 380 
 
 Poulet-Thompson, Mr. (Lord Sydenham), 
 115, 116 
 
 Ponlett, Lord W., 504 
 
 Practical Christianity, 174 ' 
 
 Prague, 271 
 
 Prayer, 418; its efficacy, 525; for the dead, 
 495 
 
 Preaching, English, 476 ; in simplicity, 522 ; 
 manner and style of, 741 
 
 Preaching smooth things, 529 
 
 Precious letter, A, 416 ; a comment thereon, 
 417 
 
 Press, " Burking " system of the, 485 
 
 Prince Consort, 154 ; Collieries Bill, 229 ; the 
 poor, 352, 394; Labourers' Friend Society, 
 391397, 411; Industrial Exhibition of 
 1851, 423, 437; the Madiai, 457; illness 
 and death. 576 578 
 
 Prince of Wales, 208 ; national thanksgiving 
 for recovery 'i 661 
 
 Print- Works Bill and women and children, 
 420 
 
 Private lunatic asylums (stt Lunacy)
 
 788 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Privy Council, Committee of, 132 
 
 Progress of inventions, 75 
 
 Prophecies of the Bible, 178, 328, 455 
 
 Protect ion in 1851, 453 
 
 Protection of the poor, 3 ; of girls, 771 
 
 Protestant Alliance, 458 
 
 Protestant Defence Committee and its work, 
 
 464 
 
 Protestantism and Religious Liberty, 520 
 Protestantism, in Turkey, 198 ; in Switzer- 
 land, 93 ; on the Continent, 476 ; in France, 
 489-491 
 
 Protheroe Smith, Dr., 602,~603 
 Public Health Act, 397 ; benefits of, 554 
 Public Worship Bill, Uniformity of, 630, 631, 
 
 681684 
 
 Punch, Ridicule of, 383 ; " No Popery," 434 
 Pusey, Dr., 99 ; doctrines, 201, 206 ; corre- 
 spondence, 210, 211, 242; the Thirty-nine 
 Articles, 323 ; non-placet at Oxford, 323 ; 
 supporters of, 324 ; reconciliation with, 
 592, 593 ; in harness, 639, 640 ; death, 735 
 
 Quaker letters, 491 
 
 Quakers. The, and Lord Ashley, 333 
 
 Queen of Society, The, 152 
 
 Queen Pomare, of Tahiti, 288, 289 
 
 Queen Victoria, Her Majesty, 125; bedchamber 
 question, 129 ; the household, 130 ; coro- 
 nation, 154, 155 ; marriage, 155; attempts 
 upon her life, 158, 230, 411 ; visits to, 125, 
 130, 315, 394, 407 ; death of the Prince 
 Consort, 576578 ; death of Lady Shaftes- 
 bury, 667 
 
 Radicalism in England, 32, 112, 156 
 
 Ragged Schools, 259 ; Charles Dickens on, 
 1UO, 260 ; the Union, 261, 347 ; Mr. S. R. 
 Starey, its founder, 348 ; first President, 
 349 ; Mr. Locke, Hon. Secretary, 349 ; 
 school meetings, 350, 351 ; additional 
 schools, 356 ; Roger Miller at Broadwall, 
 383, 384 ; voluntary emigration, 397, 415 ; 
 hospital system, 399 ; Government grant, 
 401, 415 ; address to emigrants, 401 ; boys 
 in the colonies, 402 ; young thieves, 403 ; 
 anecdotes of the boys, 403; a precious 
 letter, 416 ; bequests, 419 ; donation from 
 the Queen, 419 ; French Protestants, 424 ; 
 Great Exhibition and the, 437 ; progress 
 of the, 466 ; gutter children, 466 ; zeal of 
 teachers, 466 ; a presentation, 567 ; Sir 
 Moses Montefiore and the, 633; Board 
 Schools and, 643 ; death of an old friend 
 of, 642, 643 ; comment on the, 660 ; flower 
 shows in connection with the, 676, 677 ; 
 Rev. C. H. Spurgeon and the, 707709 ; 
 George Yard, 709 ; presentation to the 
 President, 720 ; the One Tun School, 734 ; 
 school workers, 747, 749 ; girls and their 
 patron, 752 
 
 Radian, Lord, 496, 499, 501-, 535 
 
 Raikes, Robert, 159 ; statue of, 718 
 
 Railway mania in England, 15, 330 
 
 Railway, Opening of London and Birming- 
 ham, 125 
 
 Raleigh, Sir Walter, 356 
 
 Ranyard, Mrs., 711 
 
 Rationalism in England, 206 
 
 Ratisbon, Visit to, 275 
 
 Ravenswortb Castle, 147 
 
 Red deer, 146 
 
 Reeve, Canon J. W., 706 
 
 Reform BUI, The, 66, 70, 80, 557, 616618, 
 621 
 
 Reform League procession, 619 
 
 Reformation, the battle of, 206 
 
 Reformatory and Refuge Union, 752 
 
 Reformatory work in London, 469 
 
 Reforms at Wimborne St. Giles, 448450 
 
 Refuge for the Homeless, 2, 615 
 
 Refuses and industrial classes, 467 
 
 Regulation of mills and factories in India, 712 
 
 Relief of the Clergy BUI, 690 
 
 Religion the basis of Government, 33 j in prac- 
 tice, 39, 56 ; in China, 477, 478 ; of the 
 future, 526 
 
 Religious activity in 1846, 358 
 
 Religious and Philanthropic Societies repre- 
 sented at Westminster, 777780 
 
 Religious liberty in France, 489 ; in England, 
 510 
 
 Religious question in schools, 644, 662 
 
 Religious Services in theatres, 563 566 
 
 Religious views, Unpopular, 519 520 
 
 Religious Worship Bill, 511, 512 ; opposed by 
 the Bishops, 512 515, 544 j Archbishop 
 Tait's Bill, 544 
 
 Reminiscences of Harrow, 22, 25 
 
 Renau's " Vie de J(Ssus," 591 
 
 Repeal of the Corn Laws, 335 
 
 " Repeal Year," The, 239, 264 
 
 Republic of San Marino, 96 
 
 Republicanism, Progress of, 481 
 
 Reschid Pasha, 167 
 
 Rescuers at work, 2 
 
 Reverence and true religion, 726 
 
 Revised Version of the Bible, 641, 642, 733 
 
 Revival gatherings, 688 
 
 Revival of Convocation, 463 
 
 Revolution in France, 389 : in China, 477 
 
 Rewards to agricultural labourers, 484 
 
 Riots in 1829, 73 
 
 Ripon Cathedral, 148 
 
 Ritualism, and its votaries, 618 619 ; clerical 
 vestments, 625, 626 ; Royal Commission 
 appointed, 627 
 
 " Rob Roy " and the Shoeblacks, 437 
 
 Rockborne, Village of, 8 
 
 Roebuck, Mr. , on affairs of Scinde, 287 ; Ten 
 Hours Bill, 300, 340, 367 ; violent speech, 
 302 ; an apology, 374 ; defeated at Bath, 
 382 ; foreign policy, 427; Anti-papal Titles 
 Bill, 434 ; Crimean War motion, 499 
 
 Roman Catholicism, 30, 47, 60, 428430, 434, 
 501 
 
 Roman profligacy, 59 
 
 Rome, a visit to, 9699 
 
 Rookery of St. Giles, 348 
 
 Roseneath, on the Clyde, 428, 705 
 
 Rossie Priory, 266, 386 
 
 Rosslyn Castle, 140 
 
 Round table at St. Giles's House, 16 
 
 Roundell Palmer, Mr., 207 
 
 Rous, Admiral, 183, 300 
 
 Rotatory chair in asylums, 50 
 
 Rotterdam and its fair, 363 
 
 Rowland Hill, the Rev., 235 
 
 Rowton Castle, 40, 126 
 
 Royal Titles Bill, The, 693 
 
 Rugby and Eton, 315 
 
 Russell, Lord John (Earl Russell), 112, 116; 
 opium trade, 256; theAmeersof Scinde, 288, 
 379 ; Irish Church, 306 ; defenceless state 
 of the coast, 322 ; a convert to abolition 
 of Corn Laws, 335 ; supports the Ten 
 Hours Bill, 295, 340-342, 378 ; laity and 
 Church, 365; education, 381; the Prince 
 and the poor, 395 ; subdivision of parishes, 
 409; Sunday labour, 419; Board of Health,
 
 INDEX 
 
 789 
 
 436 ; enlogy on Sir Robert Peel, 428 ; the 
 Durham letter, 430 ; Minister for Foreign 
 Affairs, 465 ; resignation, 499 ; at Social 
 Science Congress, 553 ; Polmerston's opin- 
 ion of, 603 ; death, 705 
 
 Russell, Lord Win., 156 
 
 Russia and Turkey, 486 
 
 I:u>~i.iu t vr.;i;uv, 1~7 
 
 Eye, Miss, 711 
 
 Byots and opium, The, 252 
 
 Sabbath, The, 72 ; defence of, 419 ; labour in 
 Government offices, 420 ; observance of, 
 531534. (See also Sunday) 
 
 Sadler, Mr. M. T., MLP. for Newark, 79 ; loses 
 his seat, 80 ; his Factory Bill, 80 
 
 Saffron Hill Bagged School, 260 
 
 St. Alban's. Holborn, 618 
 
 St.Giles's House, Cranborne.8,15; architecture 
 of, 16 ; library, 16 ; great hall, 16 ; an his- 
 toric round table, 16 ; avenue of beeches, 
 16 ; remarkable grotto, 17 ; yew-trees, 17 ; 
 parish church, 17 ; monuments, 17; regis- 
 try, 17 ; mortgage paid off, 693 
 
 St. Giles's Befuge, 613 
 
 St. Peter's at Rome, 97 
 
 Salisbury, Lord, Act of, for dwellings of the 
 poor, 760 
 
 Salt monopoly of India. 62 
 
 Salvation Army, The, 726731 
 
 San Lorenzo, Church of, 101 
 
 8am Marino, the Republic of, 96 
 
 San Bemo, 102 
 
 Sanitary Commission for the Crimea, 503, 
 504 ; instructions to the, 505 
 
 Sanitary reform in London, 478 
 
 Sardinia and English sympathy, 557 
 
 Savings Banks, 73 
 
 Savoy and Nice, 561563 
 
 Soze, Marshal. Tomb of, 361 
 
 Scenes in the House of Commons, 293, 673 
 
 Seamstresses, Distressing condition of, 316 
 
 Second Advent, 237, 271, 385, 422, 493, 523, 524, 
 545,680,735 
 
 Secularists, Defeat of, 644 
 
 Seeley, Mr., M.P., 286, 494, 499, 596 
 
 Sieley, Mr., the publisher, 342 
 
 Seeley, Professor, 639 
 
 Sfn*u* Communu, 14 
 
 Servants' Provident Institution, 411 
 
 Schism in England, 743 
 
 School Board and Ragged Schools, 179 
 
 Schools of thought, 526 
 
 Science and Revelation. 526 
 
 Scientific studies, 48 
 
 Scinde, Affairs in, 286; treatment of the 
 Ameers of, 286; East India Company, 
 286 ; motion concerning, 288 
 
 Scotch memorialists and cholera, 485 
 
 Scotland and the Scots, 141 
 
 Scott, Sir Walter, 142 
 
 Scouring the lanes and alleys, 353 
 
 Scutari. Hospitals of, 496 ; Kiss F. Nightin- 
 gale at, 499 
 
 Shaftesbury, First Earl of :-Birth, 9 ; parent- 
 age. 9 ; boyhood, 9 ; lawsuit bv a boy, 9 ; 
 Oxford, 9; physical strength, 9; mar- 
 riage, 9 ; M.P. for Tewkesbnry, 9 ; many- 
 sidedness, 9; the Cabal. 9; raised to the 
 peerage, 10; Lord High Chancellor, 10; 
 Dryden's opinion of, 10; committed to 
 the Tower, 10 ; Habeas Corpus Act, 10 ; 
 indicts the Duke of York, 11 ; charge of 
 high treason, and result, 11 ; flight to 
 Holland, 11 ; death, 11 ; estimates of his 
 
 character by HoUain, Macaiilay, and 
 Hume, 11 ; John Locke's opinion of, 12 ; 
 anecdote of, 204 
 
 Shaftesbury, Second Earl of. Early mar- 
 riage, 12 ; tutor, 13 ; a wife chosen for 
 him, 13 ; Dryden's Hues, 12 ; family, 13 
 
 Shaftesbury, Third Earl of : Author of the 
 " Characteristics," 13 ; nnture of his 
 philosophy, 13, 14; M.P. for Poole, 13; 
 visits Holland, 13 ; as an author, 14 ; con- 
 troversial works, 14 ; style, 14 ; ethics, 
 14 ; articles of religion, 14 ; critics, 14 ; 
 Voltaire and the " bold philosopher," 14 
 
 Shaftesbury, Fourth Earl of: Taste for lite- 
 rature, 14 ; his marriage, 14 
 
 Shaftesbury, Fifth Earl of : Succeeded by his 
 brother, 15 ; his life and work, 15 
 
 Shaftesbury, Sixth Earl of : Cropley Ashley, 
 brother of the Fifth Earl, 15: M.P. for 
 Dorchester, 441; Chairman of Commit- 
 tees, 15, 441 ; character, 15, 441 ; manner 
 and habits, 441 ; railway mania, 441 ; 
 Chairmanship of Committees, 441 ; death 
 of, 440 442 
 
 Shafteabury, Seventh Earl of: His birth, 
 
 19 ; home influence, 19 ; Maria Millis, the 
 housekeeper, 19 ; first prayer, 20 ; reli- 
 gious training, 20 ; school at Chiswick, 
 
 20 ; harsh treatment, 20, 714 ; young life 
 crushed, 20 ; death of Maria Millis, 21 
 26 ; mistaken ideas of education, 21 ; 
 graduating for work, 22 ; Harrow, 22, 27 ; 
 new influences, 22 ; religious questions, 
 23 ; St. Giles's House, 23 ; natural history 
 and science, 24 ; a young philanthropist, 
 25 ; drunken undertakers, 25 : fragments 
 of autobiography, 26 ; Oxford, 27 ; flrst- 
 class in classics, 27; an old student 
 friend, 27; an early Diary, 28; birthday 
 thoughts, 29; a jotting, 28; M.P. for 
 Woodstock, 30; refuses office, 34; at 
 Boyle Farm, 39 ; at Lord Bathurst's, 39 ; 
 in Wales, 40 ; studies Welsh, 40 ; facing 
 the future. 43 ; Commissioner of the India 
 Board of Control, 45 ; schemes for India, 
 45 ; Catholic Emancipation, 47, 48 ; studies 
 Hebrew, 48; affection for the Jews, 48; 
 science, 48, 61 ; treatment of lunatics, 50 ; 
 Committee of Inquiry, 50 ; first speech in 
 Parliament, 52 ; Commissioner in Lunacy, 
 53; literary aspirations, 54; factory legis- 
 lation, 54, 77 ; his motto, 55 ; debate on 
 lunacy, 56 ; early friendship, 56 ; chooses 
 politics, 58 ; pecuniary affairs, 58, 68, 366, 
 482, 483, 582, 583, 596, 631, 634; restless- 
 ness and despondency, 62 ; M.P. for Dor- 
 chester, 64 ; marriage. 65 ; returned for 
 Dorset. 66 ; Reform Bill, 70 ; books for 
 the people, 71 ; the working man's friend, 
 7274; education of factory children, 
 104; love for Alma Mater, 106; 1oin 
 National School Society, 107; note-book 
 of passing events, 106108; a Lord of 
 Admiralty, 109 ; a letter of sympathy, 
 120; word-portrait, 121; begins a Diary. 
 122 ; declines a good post, 131 ; Board of 
 Education, 132; visits Scotland, 136- 
 with the blind, 145 ; estranged from and 
 reconciled to his father, 151 ; a magistrate, 
 154 ; rescues a climbing boy, 162 ; a social 
 reformer, 165, 182; Oastler in Fleet 
 Prison, 184 ; tour in Lancashire, 186 ; 
 post in Royal Household declined, 192, 
 193; address to the Short-Time Committee, 
 194; office in Prince Albert's Household
 
 790 
 
 INDEX 
 
 declined, 195; an ecclesiastical commis- 
 sioner, 195; a new ally, 196; the King 
 of Prust ia, 197, 199, 200, 214 ; Chevalier 
 Bunsen, 198, 201 ; power of reading men, 
 204 ; Cripple Dodd, 204 -, Tractarians, 206, 
 207 ; correspondence with Pusey, Keble, 
 Wilberforce, 210213; a Socialist ally, 
 18 ; the great Jacobin, 225 ; the Afghan 
 speech, 235 ; assassination of Mr. Drum- 
 mond, 241 ; condoles with Peel on his 
 escape, 241; "pious" slaveholders, 241; 
 education of the working classes, 242 ; 
 opium trade in Parliament, 248257; 
 Bagged School Question, 258 ; Dickens on 
 his labours, 260 ; a novel practice, 262 ; 
 Continental tour, 267 278 : present from 
 Jerusalem, 271 ; perilous speech at Stur- 
 minster, 280, 317; affairs in Scinde, 286, 
 288; Queen Pomare of Tahiti, 288290; 
 Government . Factory Bill, 290298 ; a 
 notable speech, 292, 293 ; a remarkable 
 scene, 294 ; attacks on Lord Ashley, 301 ; 
 places Antony at School, 311 ; visits Park- 
 hurst, 311 ; tour in factory districts, 313 ; 
 an address to Lady Ashley, 314; visits 
 Kugby, 315 ; bulls of Bashan, 317 ; Irish 
 Secretaryship, 319; Print- Works Act, 
 821 ; defenceless state of the coast, 322, 
 323 ; Tractarian movement, 323 ; May- 
 nooth, 326328; May meetings, 328; 
 railway mania, 330: the Lunacy Bills car- 
 ried, 330332; Chairman of the per- 
 manent commission, 332 ; overcoming 
 Moloch and Mammon, 333; Society of 
 Friends, 333 ; resigns his seat on the 
 Corn Law Question, 338 340; "slum- 
 ming" in London, 347; Ragged School 
 Union, 347; becomes President, 348; a 
 coincidence, 349, 350 ; London City Mis- 
 sion, 351 ; housing the poor, 352; Society 
 for the Improvement of the Labouring 
 Classes, 352; Prince Consort, first Pre- 
 sident, 352 ; the art of speaking to child- 
 ren, 353 ; an amusing colloquy, 355 ; beg- 
 ging circulars, 356 ; Switzerland, 359 
 361 ; German philosophy, 361 ; illness of 
 his son Maurice, 363 ; agitation to repeal 
 Ten Hours Bill, 371 ; vilified by former 
 friends, 371 ; accepts Government pro- 
 posal, 372374 ; effects of the Bill, 374 ; 
 friends and foes, 378, 379 ; famine in Ire- 
 land, 380; day of humiliation, 380; sup- 
 ports Lord John Russell's education 
 scheme, 381 ; contests Bath, 381 ; opposed 
 by Mr. Roebuck, 382; returned as M.P. 
 for Bath, 382 ; lodging-houses, 384 ; 
 Sheriff Watson and Ragged Schools, 386 ; 
 portrait presented by Short-Time Com- 
 mittee, 386 ; a lunacy case, 386 ; oath of 
 allegiance, 387; French Revolution, 389 
 391 ; revolutions and pop-guns, 393 ; 
 Sanitary Bill, 393; Prince Consort pre- 
 sides at Labourers' Friend Society, 396, 
 397 ; Board of Health, 397 ; accepts chair- 
 manship, 398; emigration scheme, 394 
 404; lazy ecclesiastics, 402; a strange 
 experience, 403 404 ; fallen among thieves, 
 405; his son Antony enters the navy, 
 406 ; schemes of labour, 408 ; sickness and 
 overwork, 409 ; in palaces and hovels, 
 411 ; illness and death of his son Francis, 
 411, 412 ; grant for emigration, 415 ; out- 
 break of cholera, 417, 418 ; the citizenship 
 of Tain, 429; replies to Dr. Wiseman, 
 432 ; Popery in England, 433 ; supports 
 
 the Government Bill against titles of 
 Roman Catholics, 435 ; secession of Arch- 
 deacon Manning, 435; Mrs. Chisholm's 
 colonisation scheme, 436 ; voluntary 
 schools, 436 ; "no fellowship with Roman 
 Catholics," 436 ; origin of the Shoeblack 
 Brigade. 437 ; President of the British 
 and Foreign Bible Society, 438 439 ; 
 death of his father, 440 ; new career, 442 ; 
 review of past achievements, 442444; 
 farewell to the House of Commons, 445 ; 
 takes his seat in the Lords, 445 ; inspec- 
 tion of lodging-houses, 446; warming 
 "Nova Zembla,"447; at St. Giles's, 447; 
 sweeping reforms, 448 450 ; leaves Brook 
 Street for Grosvenor Square, 453; the 
 American showman, 459; visits the 
 Madiai, 459 ; negro slavery, 459 461 ; a 
 new ally, 462 ; poor of London, 466 ; stop- 
 ping crime in the seed, 467, 468 ; new 
 enterprises, 469 472 ; challenged to fight 
 a duel, 472 ; declines the invitation, 473 ; 
 Youthful Offenders Bill, 473 ; on a Con- 
 tinental tour, 474 ; with the Waldenses, 
 474 ; Count Cavour, 475 ; Foreign and 
 English preaching, 476 ; Anti - Slavery 
 agitation, 476 ; reply from the women of 
 America, 476 ; Mrs. Beecher - Stowe, 
 476 ; an address to the women of 
 America, 476 ; a good joke, 477 ; sanitary 
 reform, 478; Board of Health extin- 
 guished, 481 ; upon private charity, 482 ; 
 touching incident, 483; among lawyers 
 483 ; register office, 484 ; rewards to agri- 
 cultural labourers, 484 ; religious liberty 
 hi France, 489; freedom of Tain, 491; 
 Order of the Garter declined, 492; ac- 
 cepted, 576 578 ; bereavements, 494 
 499; war in a Christian spirit, 498; 
 offered a seat in the Cabinet, 500; de- 
 clines, 502; mismanagement in the 
 Crimea, 503 ; organises a Sanitary Com- 
 mission, 503; members of the Commis- 
 sion, 503 ; instructions, 505 ; offered a 
 seat in the Cabinet, 508, 510, 617; Reli- 
 gious Worship Bill, 510, 543, 544 ; death 
 of his son Maurice, 517 ; religious views, 
 519, 520 ; religious themes, 523530 ; moves 
 a vote of censure on the Indian Govern- 
 ment, 544 550 ; presentation to, 567 ; pre- 
 paration of speeches, 569; death of his 
 daughter, Lady Mary, 571 ; Church and 
 State, 596 ; with Garibaldi, 596 ; death of 
 Dowager Lady Shaftesbury, 600; death 
 of Lord Palmerston, 602604; career, 
 604 612 ; furnishing training-ships, 613 
 615; on the loss of early friends, 615, 
 616 ; Reform Bill, 616621 ; speech there- 
 on, 622-624 ; Ritualism, 618, 625, 627, 
 630; Paris Exhibition, 627; received by 
 Napoleon, 628 ; Ecclesiastical Courts Bill, 
 629, 635, 636; Irish Church, 630; Public 
 Worship Bill, 631, 681684; peerage for 
 Sir M. Monteflore, 632 ; state of society, 
 633; rejoicings on the birth of Lord 
 Ashley's son and heir, 638 ; Bible revision, 
 641642; Board Schools, 643644; cos- 
 termongers, 645648; Deceased Wife's 
 Sister Bill, 648; Italian honours, 651; 
 female suffrage, 651 ; wedding day, 653 ; 
 self -analysis, 658 ; illness and death of the 
 Countess, 666, 667; death of Lady Con 
 stance, 668; the "Emily" Loan Fund, 
 670 ; temperance, 672 ; flower shows, 676, 
 677; mission work in London, 686;
 
 INDEX. 
 
 791 
 
 Shaftesbnry Park Estate, 090; urged to 
 yisit America, 691 ; Royal Tides Bill, 692 ; 
 sent for by the Queen, 694 ; Mr. Dillwyn's 
 Lunacy Commission, 699, 700; death of 
 his brother, 701 ; Factory Consolidation 
 Bill, 704 ; his friends, 706711 ; Mr. O. 
 W. Fetter's proposal, 714, 715 ; Sunday 
 School Centenary, 717, 718 ; snapping of 
 old. ties, 720, 731 ; his eightieth birthday, 
 720 ; a bitter trial, 734736 j anecdotes of 
 contemporaries, 742 ; defence of the Bible, 
 743, 744; Young Men's Christian Asso- 
 ciation, 744 746 ; reminiscences, 747 
 753; summary of labours, 751 760; free- 
 dom of the City of London, 760; Home 
 Rule, 764; inflexibility, 765; closing 
 scenes, 771773; his death, 773; his 
 funeral, 773; service at Westminster 
 Abbey, 774; interred at St. Giles's, 775; 
 conclusion, 776 
 
 "Shaftesbury Bishops," The, 606 
 
 Shaftesbury Park Dwellings, 690 
 
 Shaflesburu training-ship, 724 
 
 Sharon, Plain of, 168 
 
 Sharpe, Mr., M.P. for Dchester, 32 
 
 Shekinah of Governments, The, 28 
 
 Shelleys at Florence, 101 
 
 Shoeblack Brigade, Origin of, 437; a presen- 
 tation, 567 
 
 Short, Bishop, of Adelaide, 27 
 
 Short-Time Committees, 80, 87, 89, 194, 313, 
 
 Siena, 101 
 
 " Sir Babkins," 91 
 
 Slave Trade, 25, 136, 167, 240 ;" pious " dealers, 
 
 241 ; in America, 454. 460, 461; Stafford 
 
 House meeting, 476; Exeter Hall, 476; 
 
 address to American women, 460, 476 
 Smith, Dr. South wood, 195, 577 
 Smithies, Mr. T. B. 649, 706, 710 
 Smoke Abatement Act, 478 
 Social Science Congress at Liverpool, 5.53 555 ; 
 
 at Bradford, 568; at Manchester, 619 
 Socialism in England, 173, 623 ; in France, 455 
 Socialist doctrines in 1351, 454 
 Socialistic ally, A, 218 
 Society for Improving the Condition of the 
 
 Labouring Classes, 352 ; Prince Consort as 
 
 first President, 352, 394 
 Society for Promoting Christianity among 
 
 the Jews, 198 
 
 Society of Friends, opposition of, 333 
 " Soliloquy, or Advice to an Author," li 
 Song of Hoses, The, 530 
 South, Sir James, 48, 62, 628 
 Southey, Eobert, 63, 64, 71, 85, 90, 105, 137, 
 
 138,139 
 
 South wood Smith, Dr., 195, 577 
 S; ..... :.il JTIMTS \'.'7 
 Speech, First, in Parliament, 52 
 Speeches. Preparation of. 569 
 Spurgeon, Rev. C. H., 707709, 762 
 Stagnation of trade in 1829, 73 
 Stanley, Dean. 677, 678, 724 
 Stanmore Priory, 407 
 Starey, Mr. 8. H., 348 
 Steamships on the Atlantic, 125 
 Steephili Nunnery, Camford, 235 
 Stilhngfleet, Bishop, 24 
 Stowe. Mrs. Belcher-, 459161, 476 
 Strand, The, and Exeter Hall, 4 
 Strange scene at Harrow, 25 
 Strasbnrg. 361 
 
 Stratford de Bedcliffe, Lord. 501 
 Strathfieldsaye and it* recollections, 37, 39 
 
 Strauss, Death of, 685 
 
 Street Arabs under examination, 399 ; habits, 
 400 ; emigration, 400 ; benefits of the 
 scheme, 402 
 
 Strickland, Miss, 385 
 
 Striking incident. A, 25 
 
 Studley Royal, 148 
 
 Studying the Scriptures, 733 
 
 Sturminster speech, The, 280 ; effect at home, 
 317 
 
 Stnrt, Mr. H., 526 
 
 Sub-division of Parishes Bill, 409 
 
 Sugar Duties Bill, 305 
 
 Sunday, Postal deliveries on, 420 ; closing of 
 public-houses on, 531 bands in the parks 
 on, 533 ; trading on, 533 : services in thea- 
 tres on, 563566, 628 (See also Sabbath) 
 
 Sunday Schools, 73, 85, 159 ; centenary of, 717 
 
 Sutherland, Duchess of, 461, 476, 631 
 
 Sutteeism in India, 46 
 
 Sweeping chimneys, 158, 160 
 
 Sweeps Act, 493, 494, 585588 
 
 Swiss Catholics and Protestants, 92 
 
 Syria, Christians in, 563 ; successes in, 165, 171 
 
 Tahiti, Island of, 288 ; Queen Pomare appeals 
 for English aid, 288; imprisonment of 
 the missionary Pritchard, 289 
 
 Talookdars of Onde, 548 
 
 Tankerville, Earl and Countess of, 146 
 
 Teetotal movement, The, 672 
 
 Telegraph messages, First experiment with, 
 125 
 
 Temple, Dr., 639 
 
 Templemore, Lord, 681 
 
 Ten Hours struggle, 7990, 115 ; Government 
 Bill, 290 ; opposition of Cobden, 291 ; 
 Mr. Bright, 293 ; Graham, 293 ; a scene in 
 the House, 293, 294 ; Peel's famous query 
 and popular answer, 295;' tactics of the 
 Ministry, 296 ; millowners' manifesto, 299 ; 
 Bill viewed commercially, 301 ; Macaulay 
 in favour, 302, 343 ; opposed by Peel, hous, 
 and Roebuck, 302, 343 ; amendment de- 
 feated, 302, 343 ; female labour restricted, 
 805: operatives of Lancashire. 333; free- 
 traders, 339 ; Bill reintroduced, 339 ; feel- 
 ing in factory districts, 341343, 366 ; Mr. 
 Fielden, 366 ; assistance of the Ten Hour* 
 Advocate, 366 ; BUI becomes law, 369 ; 
 benefits of the Act of 1847, 369 ; system of 
 " relays," 371 ; petitions to abolish the 
 Act, 371 ; test case, 372 ; summary of 
 legislation, 376379 ; sowing BU<! ro.ipiuK. 
 888, 620; operatives and the Count-.ss of 
 Shaftesbury, 568 
 
 Terrier " Paste," The. 39 
 
 Test and Corporation Acts, 30 
 
 Testimonial to FrancU, 414, 48 1 ; to Lord and 
 Lady Shaftesbury, 567 
 
 Theatres and religious service*, 563 ; Lord 
 Dnnganuon's opposition, 565, 566 
 
 Theological themes, 590595 
 
 Thiers, M., 166 
 
 Thieves' missionary, 404 
 
 Thomson's " Seasons," and where written. 16 
 
 Tractarian movement, 206 J08, 264, 322, 323, 
 429-435,463 
 
 Trade depression and riots, 238 
 
 Traffic in children of the poor, 76 
 
 Training-ships for boys, 614, 615 
 
 Trees (Old) at St. Giles's House, 17 
 
 Tronchin, Col., at Geneva, 508 
 
 Trossachs, Visit to the. 1 u 
 
 Troubled state of the country, 211
 
 792 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Truck system at Wimborne St. Giles, 449 
 
 True religion, 525, 527 
 
 Trusteeship, 421 
 
 Tuies, Family of, 332 ; build retreat at York 
 
 for lunatics, 332 
 Turin, City of, 474 
 Turkey, A defence of, 487, 489 
 Tuscany, Grand Duke of, 457 
 Tyndale's statue, 761 
 
 Ultramontane policy in England, 432 134 
 " Uncle Tom's Cabin," 459, 460 
 Underground workers, 220 
 Undertakers, The, and The Times, 479 
 United States of America, 454 
 Universal suffrage in Prance, 452 
 Unseaworthy vessels, 673, 674 
 Useful Knowledge Club, 32 
 
 Vagrant Act, 471 
 
 Vagrant's hidiug-place, 1 
 
 Valhalla, The, 275 
 
 Van Mildert, Bishop, 147 
 
 Varna, Stores at, 498 
 
 Vaudois Church, The, 475 
 
 Vaughan, Dr., 412 
 
 Venice, and its gondolas, 95 
 
 Ventilation Bill, 196 
 
 Verney, Sir Henry, at Harrow, 22 
 
 Verwood. near Wimborne, 15 
 
 Vestments BUI, 628 
 
 Vice-Royalty of Ireland, 300 
 
 Victoria (see Queen) 
 
 Victoria arches in Holborn, 1 
 
 Victoria Institute, 616 
 
 Vienna, 272 
 
 Villdfranca, Peace of, 561 
 
 Village of Wiinborne St. Giles, 17 
 
 Vischerhorn, eaks of, 863 
 
 Viterbo, 101 
 
 Vivisection and cruelty to animals, 696, 713, 
 
 755 
 
 Voluntary Schools, Defence of, 436 
 Vyner, Mr. and Lady Mary, 148 
 Vyner, Death of Mr. F., 619 
 
 Wages in public-houses, 757 
 
 Waldenses, Visit to the, 474. 475 ; and Sardinia, 
 515 
 
 War in a Christian spirit. 496 
 
 Water supply for the metropolis, 426, 478 
 
 Watercress and Flower Girls' Mission, 670, 
 671, 753 
 
 Watson, Sheriff, of Edinburgh, 387 
 
 Webster, Daniel, 150, 151 
 
 Wellington, Duke of, 31, 36, 45, 178 ; recollec- 
 tious of, 31, 86 : advice, 38; a minister, 44 ; 
 Chancellor of Oxford University, 106 ; an- 
 ecdotes of, 179 ; in clmrKe of London, 393 : 
 the death of Sir E. Peel, 428 ; death and 
 funeral of the, 455, 456 
 
 Welsh language and people, 40 
 
 Wemyss Castle, 680, 705, 75 i, 753, 762 
 
 Wengern Alp, 363 
 
 Westminster Reading-Room, 402 
 
 Weylland, Mr., 711, 767 
 
 Whig opposition, 502 
 
 Whigs, and Canning, 36 ; and Prince Albert, 
 
 181 ; motions of, 240 
 White slaves, 217 
 Wilberforce, Archdeacon, 213 
 Wilberforce, Bishop, 431 ; High Church party, 
 
 544 ; conciliation, 593 ; death, 679 
 Wilberforce, Canon Basil, 762764 
 Wilberforce, Wm., 25, 378 
 Wild white cattle, 146 
 William IV., 155 
 
 Williams, "Missionary Enterprises," 385 
 Williams, Mr. George, 761 
 Williams, Mr. H. B., 706, 726 
 Williams, Mr. Wm., 615, 711 
 Williams, Rev. Isaac, 207, 
 Wilton, Salisbury, 235 
 Wimborne Minster, 545 
 Wimborne St. Giles, 8, 1518 ; its church, 
 
 17 ; its register, 17 ; its monuments, 17 ; 
 
 its almhouses, 18 ; the village of, 18 ; the 
 
 schoolhouse, 18 
 
 Window Gardening Society, 677 
 Windsor Castle, 125, 181 
 Wiseman, Dr., and the perverts, 324 ; made a 
 
 Cardinal, 429 
 Woburn Abbey, 518 
 Woman's influence, A, 749 
 Women in Factories, Protection of, 89 
 Women's suffrage, 651 
 Word-portrait of Lord Ashley in 1838, 121 
 Working-classes, Condition of, 72; interests 
 
 of, 182 ; education of, 242 ; hours of labour, 
 
 290, 296 ; and Bible reading, 333 ; lodging- 
 houses for, 440 
 
 " Working-man's friend," The, 72 
 Worldly honours, 491 
 Worship of intellect, 592 
 Wright, Mr. Thos.,tho prison philanthropist, 
 
 451,452 
 
 Wurtemburg, 276 
 Wycliffe Commemoration, 761 
 
 Tew Trees at St. Giles's House, 17 
 
 York Minster, 148 
 
 Yorkshire Central Short -Time Committee, 
 
 194 
 Young Men's Christian Association, 358, 744 ; 
 
 benefits of, 745 ; address to the, 7-45 ; the 
 
 gymnasium, 746, 747 
 Young thieves in the slums, 403 
 Young Women's Christian Association, 758 
 Youthful Offenders' Bill, 473 
 
 Zion, Site on Mount, 193 
 
 THE END. 
 
 PRINTED BY CA8SELL * COMPANY, LIMITED, LA BELLE SAOVAOE, LON1X>!, E.C.
 
 A SELECTED LIST 
 
 OF 
 
 CASSELL & COMPANY'S 
 
 PUBLICATIONS.
 
 Selections from Cassell $ Company's Publications. 
 
 Illustrate, 3fit Jlrt, anfc otfar 
 
 Abbeys and Churches of England and Wales, The: Descriptive, Historical, 
 
 Pictorial. Series I. and II. 2is. each. 
 
 A Blot of Ink. Translated by Q and PAUL FRANCKE. 55. 
 Adventure, The World of. Fully Illustrated. Complete in Three Vols. gs. each. 
 Africa and its Explorers, The Story of. By Dr. ROBERT BROWN, M.A., 
 
 F.L.S., F.R.G.S., &c. With numerous Original Illustrations. Vol.1. 75. 6d. 
 
 Agrarian Tenures. By the Rt. Hon. G. SHAW LEFEVRE, M.P. Demy 8vo. 
 
 Cloth, ios. 6d. 
 
 American Life. By PAUL DE ROUSIERS. 125. 6d. 
 
 Animal Painting in Water Colours. With Coloured Plates. 55. 
 
 Anthea. By CiciLE CASSAVETTI (a Russian). A Sensational Story, based on 
 
 authentic facts of the time of the Greek War of Independence, ios. 6d. 
 Arabian Nights Entertainments (Cassell's). With about 400 Illustrations, ios. 6d. 
 Architectural Drawing. By R. PHEN SPIERS. Illustrated, ios. 6d. 
 Army, Our Home. Being a Reprint of Letters published in the Times in 
 
 November and December, 1891. By H. O. ARNOLD- FORSTER, M.P. is. 
 Art, The Magazine of. Yearly Volume. With about 400 Illustrations, and 
 
 Twelve Etchings, Photogravures, &c. i6s. 
 
 Artistic Anatomy. By Prof. M. DUVAL. Cheap Edition, 35. 6d. 
 Atlas, The Universal. A New and Complete General Atlas of the World, with 
 
 117 Pages of Maps, handsomely produced in Colours, and a Complete Index to 
 
 125.000 Names. Complete in One Volume, cloth, 305. net ; or half-morocco, 355. nett. 
 BashMrtseff, Marie, The Journal of. Translated from the French by MATHILDK 
 
 BLIND. With Portraits and an Autograph Letter. Cheap Edition, 75. 6d. 
 Bashkirtseff, Marie, The Letters of. Translated by MARY J. SERRANO. 75. 6d. 
 Beetles, Butterflies, Moths, and other Insects. With 12 Coloured Plates 
 
 from " Der Insekten Sammler." 35. 6d. 
 
 Biographical Dictionary, Cassell's New. Containing Memoirs of the Most 
 
 Eminent Men and Women of all Ages and Countries. 75. 6d. 
 
 Birds' Nests, Eggs, and Egg-Collecting. By R. KEARTON. Illustrated with 
 
 16 Coloured Plates of Eggs. 55. 
 
 Blue Pavilions, The. By Q, Author of "Dead Man's Rock," &c. 6s. 
 Breechloader, The, and How to Use It. By W. W. GREENER. 25. 
 British Ballads. 275 Original Illustrations. Two Vols. Cloth, 155. 
 British Battles on Land and Sea. By JAMES GRANT. With about 600 
 
 Illustrations. Three Vols., 410, i 73. ; Library Edition, t ios. 
 British Battles, Recent. Illustrated. 93. Library Edition, ios. 
 Browning, An Introduction to the Study of. By ARTHUR SYMONS. 2s. 6d. 
 Butterflies and Moths, European. By W. F. KIR BY. With 61 Coloured 
 
 Plates. 355. 
 
 Canaries and Cage-Birds, The Illustrated Book of. By W. A. BLAKSTON, 
 
 W. SWAYSLAND, and A. F. WIENER. With 56 Fac-simile Coloured Plates. 355 
 Carnation Manual, The. Edited and Issued by The National Carnation and 
 
 Picotee Society 'Southern Section). 35. 6d. 
 
 CasselTs Family Magazine. Yearly Volume. Illustrated. 95. 
 Cathedrals, Abbeys, and Churches of England and Wales. Descriptive, 
 
 Historical, Pictorial. Edited by Prof. T. G. BONNEY, D.Sc., LL.D., F.R.S. With 
 
 nearly 500 Original Illustrations. Popular Edition. Two Vols. 255. 
 Celebrities of the Century. Being a Dictionary of the Men and Women of the 
 
 Nineteenth Ceh<ury. Cheap Edition, ios. 6d. 
 China Painting. By FLORENCE LEWIS. With Sixteen Coloured Plates, and a 
 
 selection ot Wood Engravings. With full Instructions. 55. 
 
 Choice Dishes at Small Cost By A. G. PAYNE. Cheap Edition, is. 
 Christianity and Socialism, Lectures on. By BISHOP BARRY. 35. 6d. 
 Cities of the World. Four Vols. Illustrated. 75. 6d. each. 
 Civil Service, Guide to Employment in the. New and Enlarged Edition, 35. 6d. 
 Climate and Health Resorts. By Dr. BURNEY YEO. 75. 6d.
 
 Selections from Cassell <k Company's Publications. 
 Clinical Manuals for Practitioners and Students of Medicine. (A List of 
 
 Volumes Jonvarded post free on application to the Publishers.) 
 
 Cobden Club, Works published for the. (A Complete List on application.") 
 Colonist's Medical Handbook, The. By E. ALFRED BARTON, M.R.C.S. as. 6d. 
 Colour. By Prof. A. H. CHURCH. New and Enlarged Edition, 35. 6d. 
 Columbus, The Career of. By CHARLES ELTON, F.S.A. ios. 6d. 
 Commercial Botany of the Nineteenth Century. ByJ. R. JACKSON, A.L.S. 
 
 Cloth gilt, 35. 6d. 
 
 Conning Tower, In a. By H. O. ARNOLD-FORSTER, M. P., Author of " The Citizen 
 Reader," &c. With Original Illustrations by W. H. OVEREND. is. 
 
 Conquests of the Cross. Edited by EDWIN HODDER. With numerous Original 
 Illustrations. Complete in Three Vols. gs. each. 
 
 Cookery, A Year's. By PHYLLIS BROWNE. New and Enlarged Edition, 35. 6d. 
 
 Cookery, CasselTs Popular. With Four Coloured Plates. Cloth gilt, as. 
 
 Cookery, Cassell's Shilling. g$th Thousand, is. 
 
 Cookery, Vegetarian. By A. G. PAYNE, is. 6d. 
 
 Cooking by Gas, The Art of. By MARIE J. SUGG. Illustrated. Cloth, 33. 6d. 
 
 Countries of the World, The. By ROBERT BROWN, M.A., Ph.D., &c. Com- 
 plete in Six Vols., with about 750 Illustrations. 410, 75. 66. each. 
 
 Cremation and Urn-Burial; or, The Cemeteries of the Future. By W. 
 ROBINSON. With Plates and Illustrations, is. 
 
 Cyclopaedia, Cassell's Concise. Brought down to the latest date. With about 
 
 600 Illustrations. Xew and Cheap Edition, 75. 6d. 
 
 Cyclopaedia, Cassell's Miniature. Containing 30,000 Subjects. Cloth, as. 6d; 
 
 half roxburgh, 45. 
 
 Daughter of the South, A ; and Shorter Stories. By Mrs. BURTON 
 
 HARRISON. 45. 
 
 Dickens, Character Sketches from. FIRST, SECOND, and THIRD SERIES. 
 
 With Six Original Drawings in each, by FREDERICK BARNARD. In Portfolio, ais. each. 
 Dick Whittington, A Modern. By JAMES PA YN. Cheap Edition in one Vol., 6s. 
 Dictionaries. (For description see alphabetical letter. ) Religion, Biographical 
 
 Celebrities, Encyclopaedic, Mechanical, Phrase and Fable, English, English 
 
 History, English Literature, Domestic, Cookery. (French, German, and Latin, 
 
 see with Educational Works.) 
 
 Disraeli, Benjamin, Personal Reminiscences of. By HENRY LAKE. 35. 6d. 
 Dog, Illustrated Book of the. By VERO SHAW, B.A, With 28 Coloured 
 
 Plates. Cloth bevelled, 355. ; half-morocco, 45$. 
 Dog, The. By IDSTONE. Illustrated, as. 6d. 
 
 Domestic Dictionary, The. An Encyclopaedia for the Household. Cloth, 75. 6d. 
 Dor Gallery, The. With 350 Illustrations by GUSTAVE DORE". 410, 435. 
 
 Dore s Dante's Inferno. Illustrated by GUSTAVE DORE. Popular Edition. 
 
 With Preface by A. J. BUTLER. Cloth gilt or buckram, 75. 6d. 
 Dore's Milton's Paradise Lost. Illustrated by GUSTAVE DORE. 410, 2is. 
 Dr. Dumany's Wife. A Novel. By MAURUS J6KAI. Cheap Edition, 6s. 
 
 Earth, Our, and Its Story. Edited by Dr. ROBERT BROWN, F.L.S. With 
 
 36 Coloured Plates and 740 Wood Engravings. Complete in Three Vols. os. each. 
 Edinburgh, Old and New, Cassell's. With 600 Illustrations. Three Vols. 
 
 QS. each ; library binding, i ios. the set. 
 Egypt: Descriptive, Historical, and Picturesque. By Prof. G. EBERS. 
 
 Translated by CLARA BELL, with Notes by SAMUEL BIRCH, LL.D., &c. Two Vols. 421. 
 Electricity, Practical By Prof. W. E. AYRTON. Illustrated. 75. 6d. 
 Electricity in the Service of Man. A Popular and Practical Treatise. With 
 
 nearly 850 Illustrations. Cheap Edition, os. 
 
 "Ell Perkins." Thirty Years of Wit. By MELVILLE D. LANDON ("Eli 
 
 Perkins"). 45. 
 
 Employment for Boys on Leaving School, Guide to. By W. S. BEARD, 
 F.R.G.S. is. 6d.
 
 Selections from Cassell <k Company's Publications. 
 Encyclopaedic Dictionary, The. Complete in Fourteen Divisional Vols., los. 6d. 
 
 each ; or Seven Vols., half-morocco, 2is. each ; half-russia, 255. each. 
 
 England, CasselTs Illustrated History ot With 2,000 Illustrations. Ten 
 Vols., 410, 95. each. New and Revised Edition. Vols. I. to VI., QS. each. 
 
 English Dictionary, Cassell's. Containing Definitions of upwards of 100,000 
 Words aud Phrases. Demy 8vo, 1,100 pages, cloth gilt, 75. 6d. Cheap Edition, 35. 6d. 
 
 English History, The Dictionary ot Cheap Edition, IDS. 6d.; roxburgh, 155. 
 English Literature, Library ot By Prof. HENRY MORLEY. Complete in Five 
 Vols. 75. 6d. each. 
 
 English Literature, Morley's First Sketch ot Revised Edition, 75. 6d. 
 English Literature, The Dictionary ot By W. DAVENPORT ADAMS. Cheap 
 
 Edition, 73. 6d. ; roxburgh, IDS. 6d. 
 
 English Literature, The Story ot By ANNA BUCKLAND. 35. 6d. 
 English Writers. By HENRY MORLEY. Vols. I. to IX. 55. each, 
 .ff sop's Fables. Illustrated by ERNEST GRISET. Cheap Edition. Cloth, 33. 6d. ; 
 bevelled boards, gilt edges, 55. 
 
 Etiquette of Good Society, is. ; cloth, is. 6d. 
 
 Fairway Island. By HORACE HUTCHINSON. With Four Full-page Plates. 53. 
 Faith Doctor, The. A Novel. By Dr. EDWARD EGGLESTON. Cheap Edition, 6s. 
 Family Physician. By Eminent PHYSICIANS and SURGEONS. New and 
 Revised Edition. Cloth, 2is. ; roxburgh, 255. 
 
 Father Mathew: His Life and Times. By FRANK J. MATHEW. as. 6d. 
 Father Stafford. A Novel By ANTHONY HOPE, Author of "A Man of Mark." 6s. 
 
 Fenn, G. Manville, Works by. Boards, as. each ; or cloth, as. 6d. 
 The Parson o" Dumford. \ , i__- -.-__, I Poverty Corner. In boards only. 
 
 The Vicar's People. J In boards only. | My p a & e nt8. In cloth only. 
 
 Field Naturalist's Handbook, The. By Revs. J. G. WOOD and THEODORE 
 
 WOOD. Cheap Edition. 25. 6d. 
 Figuier's Popular Scientific Works. With Several Hundred Illustrations in 
 
 each. 35. 6d. each. 
 
 The Insect World, Reptiles and Birds. The Vegetable World. 
 
 The Human Race. Mammalia. Ocean world. 
 
 The World before the Deluge. 
 
 Figure Painting in Water Colours. With 16 Coloured Plates. 73. 6d. 
 Flora's Feast. A Masque of Flowers. Penned and Pictured by WALTER 
 
 CRANE. With 40 pages in Colours. 55. 
 
 Flower Painting, Elementary. With Eight Coloured Plates. 33. 
 Flower Painting in Water Colours. With Coloured Plates. 53. 
 Flowers, and How to Paint Them. By MAUD NAFTEL. Wiih Coloured Plates. 55. 
 Football : the Eugby Union Game. Edited by Rev. F. MARSHALL. Illustrated. 
 
 73. 6d. 
 
 Fossil Reptiles, A History of British. By Sir RICHARD OWEN, F.R.S., &c. 
 
 With 268 Plates. In Four Vols. iz 128. 
 
 France as It Is. By ANDRE LEBON and PAUL PELET. With Maps. 73. 6d. 
 Garden Flowers, Familiar. By SHIRLEY HIBBEKD. With Coloured Plates by 
 
 F. E. HULME, F.L.S. Complete in Five Series. Cloth gilt, 125. 6d. each. 
 Gardening, Cassell's Popular. Illustrated. Complete in Four Vols. 53. each. 
 Geometrical Drawing for Army Candidates. By H. T. LILLEY, M.A. as. 6d. 
 Geometry, First Elements of Experimental. By PAUL BERT. is. 6d. 
 Geometry, Practical Solid. By Major Ross. as. 
 George Saxon, The Reputation of. By MORLEY ROBERTS. 55. 
 Gilbert, Elizabeth, and her Work for the Blind. By FRANCES MARTIN, as. 6d. 
 Gleanings from Popular Authors. Two Vols. With Original Illustrations. 
 
 4to, 95. each. Two Vols. in One, 155. 
 
 Gulliver's Travels. With 88 Engravings. Cloth, 35. 6d. ; cloth gilt, 53. 
 Gun and its Development, The. By W. W. GREENER. Illustrated. IDS. 6d. 
 Guns, Modern Shot. By W. W. GREENER. Illustrated. 55. 
 Health at School By CLEMENT DUKES, M.D., B.S. 73. 6d. 
 Health, The Book ot By Eminent Physicians and Surgeons. Cloth, 215. 
 Heavens, The Story of the. By Sir ROBERT STAWELL BALL, LL.D., F.R.S. 
 
 With Coloured Plates and Wood Engravings. Popular Edition, 125. 6d.
 
 Selections from Cassett & Company's Publications. 
 
 Heroes of Britain in Peace and War. With 300 Original Illustrations. Cheap 
 Edition, Two Vols. 35. fid. each, or two vols. in one, cioth gilt, 75. fid. 
 
 Historic Houses of the United Kingdom. With Contributions by the Rev. Pro- 
 fessor BONNEY, F.R.S., and others. Profusely Illustrated. los. 6d. 
 
 History, A Footnote to. Eight Years of Trouble in Samoa. By ROBERT Louis 
 STEVENSON. 6s. 
 
 Hors de Combat ; or, Three Weeks in a Hospital Founded on Facts. By 
 GEKTRUDB and ETHEL ARMITAGE SOUTHAM. Illustrated, crown 410, 55. 
 
 Horse, The Book of the. By SAMUEL SIDNEY. With 28 Fac-simile Coloured 
 Plates. Demy 410, 35$. ; half-morocco, 2 55. 
 
 Houghton, Lord : The Life, Letters, and Friendships of Richard Monckton 
 Milnes. First Lord Houghton. By T. WEMVSS RHID. Two Vols. 325. 
 
 Household, CasselTs Book ol the. Illustrated. Complete in Four Vols. 55. each; 
 or Four Vols. in two, half-morocco, 255. 
 
 Hygiene and Public Health. By B. ARTHUR WHITELEGGE, M.D. Illustrated. 
 
 AVa/ and Revised Rdition. 75. 6d. 
 
 India, Cassell's History of. By JAMES GRANT. With 400 Illustrations. Two 
 
 Vols., 9$. each, or On Vol., 155. 
 In-door Amusements, Card Games, and Fireside Fun, Cassell's Book ot 
 
 With numerous Illustrations. Cheap Edition. Cloth, as. 
 
 Into the Unknown : a Romance of South Africa. By LAWRENCE FLETCHER. 45. 
 " I Saw Three Ships," and other Winter's Tales. By Q. Buckram, 6s. 
 Island Nights' Entertainments. By R. L. STEVENSON. 6s. 
 Italy from the Fall of Napoleon I. in 1815 to 1890. By J. W. PROBYN. 35. 6d. 
 "Japanese" Library, Cassell's. Consisting of 12 Popular Works bound in 
 
 Japanese style. Covers in water-colour pictures, is. 3d. each, net. 
 
 Handy Andy. Oliver Twist. Ivanhoe. Ingoldsby Legends. The Last of the 
 Mohicans. The Last Days of Pompeii. The Yellowplush Papers. The Last Days of 
 Palmyra. Jack Htnton the Guardsman. Selections from the Works of Thomas 
 Hood. American Humour. Tower of London. 
 
 Joy and Health. By MARTELLIUS. Illustrated, cloth, 35. 6d. (Edition de 
 Luxe, 75. 6d.) 
 
 Kennel Guide, Practical By Dr. GORDON STABLES. Illustrated. Cheap Edition, is. 
 
 "La Bella," and Others. By EGERTON CASTLE. Buckram, 6s. 
 
 Ladies' Physician, The. By a London Physician. 6s. 
 
 Lady's Dressing Room, The. Translated from the French of BARONESS STAFFS 
 by LAI.Y COLIN CAMPBELL. 35. fid. 
 
 Lake Dwellings of Europe. By ROBERT MUNRO, M.D., M.A. Cloth, 315. 6d 
 
 Leona. By Mrs. MOLESWORTH. 6s. 
 
 Letters, The Highway of. By THOMAS ARCHER. Illustrated, IDS. 6d. 
 
 Letts's Diaries and other Time-saving Publications are now published exclu- 
 sively by CASSBLL & COMPANY. (A List sent post fret on application.) 
 
 Life in Our Villages. Paper, is. ; cloth boards, 2S. 
 
 Little Minister. The. By J. M. BARRIE. Cheap Edition, 6s. 
 
 Local Option in Norway. By THOMAS M. WILSON, C.E. is. 
 
 Locomotive Engine, The Biography of a. By HENRY FRITH. 55. 
 
 Loftus, Lord Augustus, P.C., G.C.B., The Diplomatic Reminiscences of (1837 - 
 
 1862). With Portrait. Two Vols. Demy 8vo, 325. 
 
 London, Greater. By EDWARD WALFORD. Two Vols. With about 400 
 
 Illustrations. 95. each. Library Edition. Two Vols. i the set. 
 
 London, Old and New. By WALTER THORNBURY and EDWARD WALFORD. 
 
 Six Vols., with about 1,200 Illustrations. Cloth, os. each. Library Edition, 3. 
 
 London Street Arabs. By MRS. H. M. STANLEY. Illustrated. 55. 
 
 Medical Handbook of Life Assurance. By JAMES EDWARD POLLOCK, M.D., 
 
 F. R.C. P. .and JAMES CHISHOI.M, Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries, London. 75. 6d. 
 Medicine Lady, The, By L. T. MEADE. Three Vols. 315. 6d. 
 Medicine, Manuals for Students of. (A List forwarded post free on application.) 
 Modern Europe, A History ot By C A. FYFFE, M.A. Complete in Three Vols., 
 
 with full-page Illustrations. TS. 6d. each. 
 
 Mount Desolation. An Australian Romance. By W. CARLTON DA WE. 53. 
 Musical and Dramatic Copyright, The Law of. By EDWARD CUTLER, 
 
 THOMAS EUSTACE SMITH, and FREDERIC E. WEATHERLV. 35. 6d. 
 Music, Illustrated History of. By EMIL NAUMANN. Edited by the Rev. 
 
 Sir F. A. GORE OUSHLEY, Bart Illustrated. Two Vols. 311. 6d.
 
 Selections from Cassell <fc Company's Publications. 
 Napier, The Life and Letters of the Rt. Hon. Sir Joseph, Bart., LL.D., D.C.L., 
 
 M.R.I.A. By ALBX. C. EWALD, F.S.A. Neva and Revised Edition, 75. 6d. 
 National Library, Cassell's. In Volumes. Paper covers, 3d. ; cloth, 6cL 
 
 (A Compute List of the Volumes post free on application!) 
 Natural History, Cassell's Concise. By E. PERCEVAL WRIGHT, M.A., M.D., 
 
 F.L.S. With several Hundred Illustrations. 75. 6d. ; also kept half-bound. 
 
 Natural History, Cassell's New. Edited by P. MARTIN DUNCAN, M.R, F.R.S.. 
 
 F.G.S. Complete in Six Vols. With about 2,000 Illustrations. Cloth, gs. each. 
 
 Nature's Wonder Workers. By KATE R. LOVELL. Illustrated. 35. 6d. 
 
 Naval War, The Last Great. By A. NELSON SEAFORTH. With Maps. 25. 
 
 Nelson, The Life of. By ROBERT SOUTHEY. Illustrated with Eight Plates. 35. 6d. 
 
 Nursing for the Home and for the Hospital, A Handbook of. By CATHE- 
 RINE I. WOOD. Cheap Edition, is. 6d. ; cloth, as. 
 
 Nursing of Sick Children, A Handbook for the. By CATHERINE J. WOOD. 23. 6d. 
 
 O'Driscoll's Weird, and Other Stories. By A. WERNER. Cloth, 53. 
 
 Odyssey, The Modern. By WYNDHAM F. TUFNELL. Illustrated. IDS. 6d. 
 
 Ohio, The New. A Story of East and West. By EDWARD EVERETT HALE. 6s. 
 
 Our Own Country. Six Vols. With 1,200 Illustrations. Cloth, 73. 6d. each. 
 
 Out of the Jaws of Death. By FRANK BARRETT. Three Vols. 315. 6d. 
 
 Fainting, The English School of. By ERNEST CHESNEAU. Cheap Edition, 35. 6d. 
 
 Peoples of the World, The. By Dr. ROBERT BROWN. Complete in Six Volumes. 
 With Illustrations. ?s. 6d. each. 
 
 Perfect Gentleman, The. By the Rev. A. SMYTHE-PALMER, D.D. 35. 6d. 
 
 Phillips, Watts. Artist and Playwright. By Miss E. WATTS PHILLIPS. With 
 
 32 Plates. TOS. 6d. 
 
 Photography for Amateurs. By T. C. HEPWORTH. Enlarged and Revised 
 Edition. Illustrated, is. ; or cloth, is. 6d. 
 
 Phrase and Fable, Dictionary ot By the Rev. Dr. BREWER. Cheap Edition, 
 Enlarged, cloth, 35. 6d. ; or with leather back, 45. 6d. 
 
 Physiology for Students, Elementary. By A. T. SCHOFIELD, M.D., 
 M.R.C.S., &c. Illustrated. 75. 6d. 
 
 Picturesque America. Complete in Four Vols. , with 48 Exquisite Steel Plates, 
 and about 800 Original Wood Engravings. 3 as. each. 
 
 Picturesque Australasia, Cassell's; With upwards of i.ooo Illustrations. Com- 
 plete in Four Vols. 75. 6d. each. 
 
 Picturesque Canada. With about 600 Original Illustrations. Two Vols. 
 6 6s. the set. 
 
 Picturesque Europe. Complete in Five Vols. Each containing 13 Exquisite Steel 
 Plates, from Original Drawings, and nearly aoo Original Illustrations. 21 ; half- 
 morocco, 31 IDS. ; morocco gilt, .52 IDS. Popular Edition. In Five Vols. i8s. each. 
 
 Picturesque Mediterranean, The. With a Series of Magnificent Illustrations 
 from Original Designs by leading Artists of the day. Two Vols. Cloth, 1 as. each. 
 
 Pigeon Keeper, The Practical. By LEWIS WRIGHT. Illustrated. 35. 6d. 
 
 Pigeons, The Book of. By ROBERT FULTON. Edited by LEWIS WRIGHT. With 
 50 Coloured Plates and numerous Wood Engravings. 315. 6d. ; half-morocco, v 25. 
 
 Pity and of Death, The Book of. By PIERRE LOTI, Member of the French 
 Academy. Translated by T. P. O'CONNOR, M. P. Antique paper, cloth gilt, 5*. 
 
 Playthings and Parodies. Short Stories by BARRY PAIN. 55. 
 
 Poems, Aubrey de Vere's. A Selection. Edited by JOHN DENNIS. 35. 6d. 
 
 Poetry, The Nature and Elements of. By E. C. STEDMAN. 6s. 
 
 Poets, Cassell's Miniature Library of the. Price is. each Vol. 
 
 Political Questions of the Day, A Manual of. By SYDNEY BUXTON, M.P. 
 
 New and Enlarged Edition. Paper Covers, is. ; or cloth, is. 6d. 
 
 Polytechnic Series, The. Practical Illustrated Manuals specially prepared for 
 Students of the Polytechnic Institute, and suitable for the Use of all Students. (A 
 List will be sent on application.) 
 
 Portrait Gallery, The Cabinet First, Second, and Third Series, each con- 
 taining 36 Cabinet Photographs of Eminent Men and Women of the day. With 
 Biographical Sketches. 15$. each. 
 
 Poultry Keeper, The Practical By LEWIS WRIGHT. Illustrated. 33. 6d. 
 
 Poultry, The Book of. By LEWIS WRIGHT. Popular Edition. Illustrated. ios. 6d.
 
 Selections from Cassell <fc Compan^s Publications. 
 Poultry, The Illustrated Book of. Bv LEWIS WRIGHT. With Fifty Exquisite 
 
 Coloured Plates, and numerous Wood Engravings. Rei'iitd Edition. Cloth, 314. 6d- 
 Public Libraries, Pre. New and Enlarged Edition. By THOMAS GREEN- 
 WOOD, Author of "Museums and Art Galleries." Illustrated, is. 6d. 
 Queen Summer ; or, The Tourney of the Lily and the Rose. Penned and 
 
 Portrayed by WALTER CRANE. With 40 pages in Colours. 6s. 
 Queeu Victoria, The Life and Times of. By ROBERT WILSON. Complete in 
 
 2 Vols. With numerous Illustrations. 9*. each. 
 
 Rabbit Keeper, The Practical By CUNICULUS. Illustrated. 35. 6d. 
 
 Raffles Haw, The Doings of. By A. CON AN DOYLE, Author of " Micah 
 
 Clarke," &c. Antique paper, cloth gilt, . 
 Railway Guides, Official Illustrated. With. Illustrations on nearly every page. 
 
 Maps, &c. Paper covers, is. : cloth, 2$. 
 
 Great Eastern Railway. 
 
 Orest Northern Railway. 
 
 Great Western Bailway. 
 
 London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway. 
 
 London and Nonh Western Bailway. 
 London and Sout'i Wemtern Bailway. 
 Midland Bailway. 
 South Eastern Railway. 
 
 Railway Library, CasselTs. Crown 8vo, boards, as. each. 
 
 "leteerott. Shoemaker. By Katharine P. The Phantom Cityi By w. WestalL 
 
 Jack Gordon, Knight Errant. ly W. C 
 
 Woods. 
 
 David Todd. By Darid Maclure. 
 The Astonishing History ol Troy Town. 
 
 The Admirable Lady Biddy Fane. By 
 
 Frank Barrett. 
 
 Commodore Junk. By C. Manville Fenn. 
 at Cuthbert's Tower. By Florence War- 
 
 The Mn with a Thumb. By W. C. Hud- 
 son ( Barclay North). 
 Bight Not Law. ByR. Sherard. 
 thin Sound of the weir. By Thomas 
 St. E. Hake. 
 
 Under a Strange Mask. By Frank Barrett. 
 
 The Coombsberrow Mystery. ByJ.CclwalL 
 
 Dead Kan's Book. By Q. 
 
 A Queer Race. By W. WestaU. 
 
 By Bis;] 
 Within 
 
 Hudson (Barclay North). 
 The Diamond Button : Whose Wa Itf 
 
 By W. C. Hudson (Barclay North). 
 Anotner's Crime. Byjuiian Hawthorne. 
 The Yoke of the Thorah. By Sidney 
 
 Luska. 
 
 Who is John Noman P By C. Henry Beckett. 
 The Tragedy of Brinkwater. By Martha 
 
 L. Moodey. 
 An American Penman. By Julian Haw. 
 
 thorn*. 
 Section 668 ; or. The Fatal Letter. By 
 
 Julian Hawthorne. 
 
 The Brown Stone Boy. By W. H. Bishop. 
 A Tratric Mystery. By Julian Hawthorne. 
 The Great Bank Bobbery. By Julian 
 
 Hawthorne. 
 
 Captain Trafalgar. By WestaU and Laurie. 
 
 Redgrave, Richard, C.B.. R.A. Memoir. By F. M. REDGRAVE. los. 6d. 
 Rivers of Great Britain : Descriptive, Historical, Pictorial. 
 
 The Royal River : The Thames from Source to Sea, PtptUar Edition, ife. 
 
 Rivers of the East Coast. With highly finished Engraving*. Popular Edition, KSs. 
 
 Robinson Crusoe. Cassetfs New Fine-Art Edition. With upwards of 100 
 
 Original Illustrations. 7*. 6d. 
 Romance, The World of. With New and Original Illustrations. Complete ih 
 
 One Volume, cloth, os. 
 Ronner, Henriette, The Painter of Cat Life and Cat Character. Containing 
 
 a Series of beautiful Phototype Illustrations. The Text by M. H. SPIELMANN. 
 
 Popular Edition, 410, 12*. 
 
 Rovlngi of a Restless Boy, The. By KATHARINE B. FOOT. Illustrated. 55. 
 Ruiso-Turklsh War, Cassell s History ot With about 500 Illustrations. Two 
 
 Vols., os, each ; library binding, One Vol., 151. 
 
 Salisbury Parliament. A Diary of the. By H. W. LUCY. Illustrated by 
 
 HANKY FCRNISS. Cloth, 211. 
 
 Saturday Journal, Caasell's. Illustrated throughout. Yearly Volume, 75. 6d. 
 ScaratMBUs. The Story of an African Beetle By THE MARQUISE CLARA 
 
 LANZA and JAMES CLARENCE HARVEY. 5$. 
 Science for AIL Edited by Dr. ROBERT BROWN, M.A.. F.L.S.. ftc. Revised 
 
 Edition. With 1,500 Illustrations. Five Vols. os. each. 
 Science, Tear Book of, The. Edited by Rev. Prof. BOXNKY. Second Year of 
 
 Issue. 7*. 6d. 
 
 Sea, The: Its Stirring Story of Adventure, Peril, and Heroism. By 
 
 K WHYMi'ER. With 400 Illustration*. Four Vols. 7*. 6d. each. 
 Shadow of a Song, The. A Novel. By CECIL HARI.EY. 53. 
 Shaftesbury, The Seventh Earl of. K.O.. The Life and Work ot. By EDWIN 
 
 HODDRR. Illustrated. Cktap Edition, y,. 6d. 
 
 Shakespeare, Cassell's Quarto Edition. Edited by CHARLES and MART COWDK.N 
 
 CLARKE, and containing about 600 Illustrations by H. C. Ssxous. Complete in 
 Three Vols. cloth gilt, 3 3*. Also published in Three separate Volumes, in cloth, 
 TU. : The COMBOIBS, Jis. ; The HISTORICAL PLAYS, iBs. 60. ; The TRAGEDIES, tjs.
 
 Selections from C as sell <& Company 1 s Publications. 
 
 Shakespeare, Miniature. Illustrated. In Twelve Vols., in box, 125. ; or in 
 Red Paste Grain (box to match), with spring catch, lettered in gold, 215. 
 
 Shakespeare, The Plays of. Edited by Prof. HENRY MOKLEY. Complete in 
 
 Thirteen Vols. Cloth, in box, 2is. ; half-morocco, cloth sides, 425. 
 
 Shakespeare, The England of. By,E. GOADBY. Illustrated. New Edition, as. 6d. 
 Shakspere, The International. Edition de luxe. 
 
 ' King Henry VIII." By Sir JAMES LINTON, P.R.I. (Price on application). 
 
 'Othello." Illustrated by FRANK DICKSEE, R.A. 3 los. 
 
 'King Henry IV." Illustrated by Herr EDUARD GKI)TZNKR. -3 IDS. 
 
 'As You Like It." Illustrated by the late Mons. EMILE BAYARD. 3 los. 
 
 'Romeo and Juliet." Illustrated by FRANK DICKSEE, K.A. Is now out of print. 
 Shakspere, The Leopold. With 400 Illustrations, and an Introduction by F. J. 
 
 FURNIVALL. Cheap Edition, 35. 6d. Cloth gilt, gilt edges, 55. ; roxburgh, 75. 6d. 
 Shakspere, The EoyaL With Exquisite Steel Plates and Wood Engravings. 
 
 Three Vols. 155. each. 
 Sketches, The Art of Making and Using. From the French of G. FRAIPONT. 
 
 By CLARA BELL. With Fifty Illustrations, as. 6d. 
 
 Smuggling Days and Smuggling Ways ; or, The Story of a Lost Art. By 
 
 Commander the Hon. HENRY N. SHORE, R.N. Illustrated. Cloth, 75. 6d. 
 Snare of the Fowler, The. By Mrs. ' ' ALEXANDER. " Cheap Edition in one Vol. , 6s. 
 Social Welfare, Subjects of. By the Rt. Hon. SIR LYON PLAYFAIR, M. P. 75. 6d. 
 Sports and Pastimes, Cassell's Complete Book of. With more than 900 
 
 Illustrations. Cheap Edition, 35. 6d. 
 
 Squire, The. By MRS. PARR. Popular Edition in one Vol., 6s. 
 Standard Library, Cassell's. Cloth, 25. each. 
 
 Sliirley. 
 Coningsby. 
 
 Adventures of Mr. Ledbury. 
 Ivanhoe. 
 
 Old Mortality. 
 The Hour and the Man. 
 
 Mary Barton. 
 
 Oliver Twist. 
 
 Washington Irving's Sketch. 
 
 The Antiquary. 
 Nicholas Nickleby. Two 
 Vols. 
 
 Selections from Hood's 
 Worts. 
 Longfellow's Prose Works. 
 
 Book. 
 Last Days of Palmyra. 
 Tales of the Borders. 
 
 Jane Byre. 
 
 Sense and Sensibility. 
 
 Pride and Prejudice. 
 
 Wuthering Heights. 
 The Prairie. 
 
 Lytton's Plays. 
 Tales, Poems, and Sketches 
 
 Last of the Mohicans. 
 Heart of Midlothian. 
 
 Dombey and Son. Two Vols. 
 Night and Morning. 
 
 (Bret Harte). 
 The Prince of the House of 
 
 Last Days of Pompeii. 
 Yellowplush Papers. 
 
 Kenilworth. 
 
 David. 
 
 Handy Andy. 
 
 The Ingoldsby Legends. 
 Tower of London. 
 
 Sheridan's Plays. 
 Uncle Tom's Cabin. 
 
 Selected Plays. 
 American Humour. 
 
 The Pioneers. 
 
 Deerslayer. 
 
 Sketches by Boz. 
 
 Charles O'Malley. 
 
 Eugene Aram. 
 
 Macaulay's Lays and Selec- 
 
 Barnaby Budge. 
 
 Jack Hinton, the Guards- 
 
 ted Essays. 
 
 Cakes and Ale. 
 
 man. 
 
 Harry Lorrequer. 
 
 The King's Own. 
 
 Borne and the Early Chris- 
 
 Old Curiosity Shop. 
 
 People I have Met. 
 
 tians. 
 
 Bienzi. 
 
 The Pathfinder. 
 
 The Trials of Margaret 
 
 The Talisman. 
 
 Evelina. 
 
 Lyn'dsay. 
 
 Pickwick. Two Vols. 
 
 Scott's Poems. , 
 
 Edgar Allan Poe. Prose and 
 
 Scarlet Letter. 
 
 Last of the Barons. 
 
 Poetry, Selections from. 
 
 Martin Chuzzlewit. Two Vols. 
 
 Star-Land. By Sir ROBERT STAWELL BALL, LL.D., &c. Illustrated. 6s. 
 Storehouse of General Information, Cassell's. Fully Illustrated with High- 
 Class Wood Engravings, and with Maps and Coloured Plates. In Vols. 55. each. 
 
 Story of Francis Cludde, The. A Novel. By STANLEY J. WEYMAN. 6s. 
 
 Successful Life, The. By AN ELDER BROTHER. 35. 6d. 
 
 Sybil Enoz ; or, Home Again. A Story of To-day. By EDWARD E. HALE, 
 
 Author of " East and West," &c. Cheap Edition, 6s. 
 Teaching in Three Continents. Personal Notes on the Educational Systems of 
 
 the World. By W. C. GRASBY. 6s. 
 Thackeray, Character Sketches from. Six New and Original Drawings by 
 
 FREDERICK BARNARD, reproduced in Photogravure, zis. 
 
 The Short Story Library. 
 
 Noughts and Crosses. By Q. 55. 
 
 Otto the Knight, &o. By OCTAVE THANHT. $s. 
 
 Fourteen to One, &o. By ELIZABETH STUART PHBLPS. 6s. 
 
 Eleven Possible Cases. By various Authors. 55. 
 
 A Singer's Wife. By Miss FANNY MURFREE. 53. 
 
 The Poet's Audience, and Delilah. By CLARA SAVILH CLARKE. 5*. 
 
 Tiny Luttrell. By E. W. HORNUNG. Cloth gilt, 2 Vols. 2>s. 
 
 "Treasure Island " Series, The. Cheap Illustrated Edition. Cloth, 35. 6d. each. 
 
 King Solomon's Mines. By H. RIDER HAGGARD. 
 
 Kidnapped. By ROBERT LOUIS STBVBNSOV. 
 
 Treasure Island. By ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON. 
 
 The Splendid Spur. By Q. 
 
 The Master of BaUautrae. By ROBERT Louis STEVENSON. 
 
 The Black Arrow: A Tale of the Two Kosei. By ROBBRT Louis STEVENSON.
 
 Selections from Cassell <& Company's Publications. 
 
 Treatment, The Year-Book of, for 1893. A Critical Review for Practitioners of 
 Medicine and Surgery. Ninth Year of Issue. Greatly Enlarged. oi paijes. 75. 6d. 
 
 Tree Painting in Water Colours. By W. H. ). BOOT. "With Eighteen 
 Coloured Plates, and valuable instructions by the Artist. 55. 
 
 Trees, Familiar. By Prof. G. S. BOULGER, F.L.S., F.G.S. Two Series. With 
 Forty full-pace Coloured Plates by W. H. }. BOOT. izs. 6d. each. 
 
 "Unicode": The Universal Telegraphic Phrase Book. Pocket or Desk 
 
 Edition, as. 6d. each. 
 
 United States, Cassell's History of the. By EDMUND OLLIER. With 600 Illus- 
 trations. Three Vols. os. each. 
 
 Universal History, Cassell's Illustrated. With nearly ONE THOUSAND 
 ILLUSTRATIONS. Vol. I. Early and Greek History. Vol. II. The Roman Period. 
 Vol. III. The Middle Ages. Vol. IV. Modern History. 95. each. 
 
 Vaccination Vindicated. By JOHN C. McVAiL. M.D.. D.P.H. Camb. 55. 
 
 Verses Grave and Gay. By ELLEN THORNEYCROFT FOWLER. 35. 6d. 
 
 Vicar of Wakefleld and other Worka, by OLIVER GOLDSMITH. Illustrated. 
 35. 6d. ; cloth, gilt edges, 55. 
 
 Vision of Saints, A. By LEWIS MORRIS. Edition de luxe. With 20 Full-page 
 Illustrations. Crown 4to, extra cloth, gilt edges. 2is. 
 
 Water-Colour Painting, A Course of. With Twenty-four Coloured Plates by 
 R. P. LEITCH, and lull Instructions to the Pupil. 53. 
 
 Waterloo Letters. Edited by MAJOR-GENERAL H. T. SIBORNE, Late Colonel 
 R.E. With Numerous Maps and Plans of the Battlefield, 2is. 
 
 Wedlock, Lawful : or, How Shall I Make Sure of a Legal Marriage. By 
 Two BARRISTERS, is. 
 
 Wild Birds, Familiar. By W. SWAYSLAND. Four Series. With 40 Coloured 
 
 Plates in each. 125. 6d. each. 
 
 Wild Flowers, Familiar. By F. E. HULME, F.L.S., F.S.A. Five Series. With 
 
 40 Coloured Plates in each. 125. 6d. each. 
 
 Wood, The Life of the Rev. J. G. By his Son, the Rev. THEODORE WOOD. 
 
 With Portrait. Extra crown 8vo, cloth. Cheap Edition. 5*. 
 Work. The Illustrated Journal for Mechanics. Yearly Volume, cloth, 75. 6d. 
 
 Vol. IV. for 1802-3. 6s. 6d. 
 
 World of Wit and Humour, The. With 400 Illustrations. Cloth, 75. 6d. 
 World of Wonders, The. With 400 Illustrations. Two Vols. 75. 6d. each. 
 Wrecker, The. By R. L. STEVENSON and LLOYD OSBOURNE. Illustrated. 6s. 
 Yule Tide. CASSELL'S CHRISTMAS ANNUAL, is. 
 Zero the Slaver. A Romance of Equatorial Africa. By LAWRENCE 
 
 FLETCHER. 4*. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED MAGAZINES. 
 The Quiver, for Sunday and General Reading. Monthly, 6d. 
 
 CasseWs Family Magazine. Monthly, yd. 
 
 " Little Folks " Magazine. Monthly, 6d. 
 
 The Magazine of Art. Monthly, is. 
 
 Chums. The Illustrated Paper for Boys. Weekly, id.; Monthly, 6d. 
 
 CasseWa Saturday Journal. Weekly, id. ; Monthly, 6d. 
 
 Work. The Illustrated Journal for Mechanics. Weekly, id. ; 
 
 Monthly, 6d. 
 Cottage Gardening. Illustrated. Weekly, $d. ; Monthly, 3d. 
 
 - Full p*riic*Un of CASSELL & COMPANY'S Monthly Serial Publication! 
 will tx found in CASSELL & COMPANY'S COMPLETE CATALOGUE. 
 
 Catalogues of CASSELL & COMPANY'S PUBLICATIONS, which may be had at all 
 
 Booksellers', or will be sent post free on application to the Publishers : 
 CASSELL'S COMPLETE CATALOGUE, containing particulars of upwards of One 
 
 Thousand Volumes. 
 CASSHLL'S CLASSIFIED CATALOGUE, in which their Works re arranged according 
 
 to price, from Thrttfienc* to Fifty Guitutu. 
 CASSELL'S EDUCATIONAL CATALOGUE, containing particulars of CASSBU. ft 
 
 COMPANY'S Educational Works and Students' Manuals. 
 
 CASSELL & COMPANY, LIMITED, Lu4 e att Hill, London.
 
 Selections from Cassell <(' Company's Publications. 
 
 Bible, Cassell's Illustrated Family. With 900 Illustrations. Leather, gilt 
 edges, 2 los. ; full morocco, ,->, los. 
 
 Bible Educator, The. Edited by E. H. PLUMPTRE, D.D. With Illustrations, 
 Maps, &c. Four Vols. , cloth, 6s. each. 
 
 Bible Student In the British Museum, The. By the Rev. J. G. KITCHIN, 
 
 M. A. Entirely New and Revised Edition, is. 4<i. 
 Biblewomen and Nurses. Yearly Volume, 35. 
 
 Banyan's Pilgrim's Progress (Cassell's Illustrated). 410. Cheap Edition, 33. 6d. 
 Banyan's Pilgrim's Progress. With Illustrations. Cheap Edition, 25. 6d. 
 
 Child's Bible, The. With 200 Illustrations. Demy 410, 830 pp. 150^ Thousand. 
 Cheap Edition, 75. fid. Superior Edition, with 6 Coloured Plates, gilt edges, IDS. fid. 
 
 Child's Life of Christ, The. Complete in One Handsome Volume, with about 
 200 Original Illustrations. Cheap Edition, cloth, 75. 6d. ; or with 6 Coloured Plates, 
 cloth, gilt edges, IDS. fid. Demy 410, gilt edges, 2is. 
 
 "Come, ye Children." By the Rev. BENJAMIN WAUGH. Illustrated. 55. 
 Commentary, The New Testament, for English Readers. Edited by the 
 
 Rt. Rev. C. J. ELLICOTT, D.D., Lord Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol. In Three 
 
 Volumes. 2 is. each. 
 
 VoL 1. The Four Gospels. 
 
 VoL II. The Acts, Romans. Corinthians, G-alatians. 
 
 Vol. III. The remaining Books of the New Testament. 
 
 Commentary, The Old Testament, for English Readers. Edited by the Rt 
 Rev. C. J. ELLICOTT, D.D., Lord Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol. Complete in 
 5 Vols. a is. each. 
 
 VoL I. Genesis to Numbers. I Vol. III. Kings I. to Esther. 
 
 VoL II. Deuteronomy to Samuel II. Vol. IV. Job to Isaiah. 
 
 Vol. V. Jeremiah to Malaohi. 
 
 Commentary, The New Testament. Edited by Bishop ELLICOTT. Handy 
 
 Volume Edition. Suitable for School and general use. 
 
 Bt. Matthew. 35- 6d- 
 Bt. Mark. 35. 
 Bt. Luke. 35. fid. 
 Bt. John. 35. fid. 
 The Acts of the Apostles. 
 31. fid. 
 
 Romans, as. fid. 
 Corinthians I. and II. 3$. 
 
 Galatians, Epliesians, and 
 
 PhilippiaiiB. 35. 
 Coloasians, Thessalonians, 
 
 and Timothy. 35. 
 
 Titus, Philemon, Hebrews, 
 
 and James. 3$. 
 Peter, Jude, and John. 35. 
 
 The Revelation. 35. 
 An Introduction to the New 
 Testament, zs. 6d. 
 
 Commentary, The Old Testament Edited by Bishop ELLICOTT. Handy Volume 
 
 Edition. Suitable for School and general use. 
 
 Genesis. 35. 6A I Leviticus. 35. I Deuteronomy. 25. 6d. 
 
 Exodus. 35. I Numbers, as. fid. 
 
 Dictionary of Religion, The. An Encyclopaedia of Christian and other 
 Religious Doctrines, Denominations, Sects, Heresies, Ecclesiastical Terms, History, 
 Biography, &c. &C. By the Rev. WILLIAM BENHAM. B.D. Cheap Edition, IDS. 6d. 
 
 Dore Bible. With 230 Illustrations by GUSTAVE DOR*. Original Edition. 
 Two Vols., best morocco, gilt edges, .15. Popular Edition. With Full-page Illus- 
 trations. In One Vol. 155. Also in leather binding. (Price on application?) 
 
 Early Days of Christianity, The. By the Ven. Archdeacon FARRAR, D.D., F.R.S. 
 LIBRARY EDITION. Two Vols., 245. ; morocco, x as. 
 
 POPULAR EDITION. Complete in One Volume, cloth, 6s. ; cloth, gilt edges, 
 75. 6d. ; Persian morocco, los. fid. ; tree-calf, i$s. 
 
 Family Prayer-Book, The. Edited by the Rev. Can en GARBETT, M.A., and 
 the Rev. S. MARTIN. Extra crown 410, cloth, 55. ; morocco, i8s. 
 
 CBeanings after Harvest. Studies and Sketches. By the Rev. JOHN R. VERNON, 
 M.A. Illustrated. 6s. 
 
 Gospel of Qrace, The. By a LINDESIE. Cloth. 23. 6d. 
 
 "Graven in the Rock ;" or, the Historical Accuracy of the Bible confirmed by 
 reference to the Assyrian and Egyptian Sculptures in the British Museum and else- 
 where. By the Rev. Dr. SAMUEL KINNS, F.R.A.S., &c. &c. Illustrated. 12$. fid.
 
 Selections from Casstll & Company's Publications. 
 
 'Heart Chords." A Series of Works by Eminent Divines. Bound in cloth, red 
 edges, is. each. 
 
 My Father. By the Right Rer. Ashton Oxenden, 
 
 late Bishop of Montreal 
 My Bible. By the Rt. key. W. Boyd Carpenter, 
 
 Bishop of Kipon. 
 My Work for God. By the Right Rev. Bishop 
 
 Cotterill. 
 My Object in Life. By the Yen. Archdeacon 
 
 Farrax, D.D. 
 
 My Aspirations. By the Rer. C. Matheson, D.D. 
 My Emotional Life. By Preb. Chadwick, D.D. 
 My Body. By the Rer. Prof. W. G. Blaikie. D.D. 
 
 My SouL By the Rev. P. B. Power, M.A. 
 
 My Orowth in Divine Life. By the Rer. 
 
 Prebendary Reynolds, M.A. 
 My Hereafter. By the Very Rev. Dean Bicker- 
 
 My Walls with God. By the Very Rer. Dean 
 
 Montgomery. 
 My Aids to the Divine Life. By the Very 
 
 Rer. Dean Boyle. 
 My Sources of Strength. By the Rev. E. E, 
 
 Jenkins, M.A. 
 
 Helps to Belief. A Series of Helpful Manuals on the Religious Difficulties of the 
 Day. Edited by the Rev. TEIGNMOUTH SHORE, M.A., Canon of Worcester, and 
 Chaplain-in-Ordinary to the Queen. Cloth, is. each. 
 
 CR EATION. By the late Lord Bishop of Carlisle. 
 
 MIRACLES. By the Kev. Browiilow Mait 
 
 land, M.A. 
 PRAYER. By the Kev. T. Teigiimouth Shore, 
 
 THE MORALITY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. By 
 the Kev. Newman Smyth, D.D. 
 
 THE DIVINITY OF OUR LORD. By the Lord 
 
 Bishop of Derry. 
 
 THE ATONEMENT. By William Connor Magee, D.D., Late Archbishop of York. 
 Hid Treasure. By RICHARD HARRIS HILL. is. 
 
 Holy Land and the Bible, The. A Book of Scripture Illustrations gathered 
 in Palestine. By the Rev. CUNNINGHAM GEIKIB, D.D., LL.D. (Edin.). With Map. 
 Two Vols. 745. Illustrated Edition. One Vol. 2 is. 
 
 Life Of Christ, The. By the Yen. Archdeacon FARRAR, D.D., F.R.S., Chaplain - 
 in-Ordinary to the Queen. 
 CHEAP ILLUSTRATED EDITION. Large 410, cloth, ?s. 6d. Cloth, full gilt, gilt 
 
 edges, IDS. 6d. 
 
 LIBRARY EDITION. Two Vols. Cloth, 245. ; morocco, 425. 
 POPULAR EDITION, in One Vol. 8vo, cloth, 6s.; cloth, gilt edges, 75. 6d. ; Persian 
 
 morocco, gilt edges, los. 6d. ; tree<alf, i$s. 
 
 Marriage Ring, The. By WILLIAM LANDELS, D.D. Bound in white 
 leatherette. New and Chtafier Edition, 35. 6d. 
 
 Morning and Evening Prayers for Workhouses and other Institutions. 
 
 Selected by LOUISA TWINING. 25. 
 
 Moses and Geology ; or, the Harmony of the Bible with Science. By 
 
 the Rev. SAMUEL KINNS, Ph.D., F.R.A.S. Illustrated. Demy 8vo, 8s. 6d. 
 My Comfort in Sorrow. By HUGH MACMILLAN, D.D., LL.D., &c., Author of 
 
 " Bible Teachings in Nature," &c. Cloth, is. 
 
 New Light on the Bible and the Holy Land. By BASIL T. A. EVETTS, M.A. 
 
 Illustrated. Cloth, 2is. 
 Protestantism, The History of. By the Rev. J. A. WYLIE, LL.D. Containing 
 
 upwards of 600 Original Illustrations. Three Vols., 275. ; Library Edition, 308. 
 "Quiver" Yearly Volume, The. With about 600 Original Illustrations and 
 
 Coloured Frontispiece. 7*. 6d. Also Monthly, 6d. 
 St. George for England ; and other iSermons preached to Children. Fifth 
 
 Edition. By the Rev. T. TEIGNMOUTH SHORE, M.A., Canon of Worcester. 55. 
 8t Paul, The Life and Work of. By the Ven. Archdeacon FARRAR, D.D., 
 
 F.R.S., Chaplain-in-Ordin.iry to the Queen. 
 LIBRARY EDITION. Two Vols., cloth. 245. ; calf, 425. 
 ILLUSTRATED EDITION, complete in One Volume, with about 300 Illustrations, 
 
 ji is. ; morocco, x as. 
 
 POPULAR EDITION. One Volume, 8vo, cloth, 6s. ; cloth, gilt edges, ;s. 6d. ; 
 Persian morocco, IDS. 6d. ; tree-calf, i$s. 
 
 Shall We Know One Another in Heaven ? By the Rt. Rev. J. C. RYLK, D.D., 
 
 Bishop of Liverpool. New and Enlarged Edition. Paper Covers, 6d. 
 Shortened Church Services and Hymns, suitable for use at Children's Services. 
 
 Compiled by the Rev. T. TEIGNMOUTH SHORE, M.A., Canon of Worcester. 
 
 Enlarged Edition, is. 
 Signa Christ! : Evidences of Christianity set forth in the Person and Work of 
 
 Christ. By the Rev. JAMES AITCHISON. $s. 
 
 "Sunday:" Its Origin, History, and Present Obligation. By the Ven. Arch- 
 deacon HESSEY, D.C.L. Fifth Edition, 75. 6d. 
 
 Twilight of Life, The: Words of Counsel and Comfort for the Aged, By 
 JOHN ELLERTON, M.A. is. il.
 
 Selections from Cassell & Company's Publications. 
 
 (Educational Marks anft Hiutents r JHamtais. 
 
 Agricultural Text-Books, Cassell's. (The " Downton" Series.) Fully Illustrated. 
 Edited by JOHN WRIGHTSON, Professor of Agriculture. 
 
 Soils and Manure*. By J. M. H. Munro. D.Sc. (London), F.I.C.. F.C.S. as. 6d. 
 Farm Crops. Hy Professor Wrightson. as. 6d. 
 Live Stock. By Professor Wrightson. as. 6d. 
 
 Alphabet, Cassell's Pictorial Size, 35 inches by 42$ inches. Mounted on 
 
 Linen, with rollers. 35. 6d. 
 
 Arithmetic : Howard's Anglo-American Art of Reckoning. The Standard 
 
 Teacher and Referee of Shorthand Business Arithmetic. By C. F. HOWARD. 
 Paper, is. ; cloth. 25. Neiv Enlarged Edition, 55. 
 
 Arithmetics, The Modern School By GEORGE RICKS, B.Sc. Lond. With Test 
 
 Cards. (List en application.) 
 
 Atlas, Cassell's Popular. Containing 24 Coloured Maps. 2s. 6d. 
 Book-Keeping. By THEODORE JONES. FOR SCHOOLS, as. ; or cloth, 33. FOR 
 
 THE MILLION, 25. ; or cloth, 35. Books for Jones's System, Ruled Sets of, as. 
 Chemistry, The Public School By J. H. ANDERSON, M.A. zs. 6d. 
 Classical Texts for Schools, Cassell's. (A list sent post free on application.) 
 Cookery lor Schools. By LIZZIE HERITAGE. 6d. 
 Copy-Books, Cassell's Graduated. Complete in 18 Books. 2d. each. 
 Copy-Books, The Modern School. Complete in 12 Books. 2d. each. 
 Drawing Copies, Cassell's "New Standard." Complete in 14 Books, ad., 3d., 
 
 and 4d. each. 
 
 Drawing Copies, Cassell's Modern School Freehand. First Grade, is. Second 
 
 Electricity) Practical By Prof. W. E. AYRTON. 75. 6d. 
 
 Energy and Motion : A Text-Book of Elementary Mechanics. By WILLIAM 
 
 PAICE, M.A. Illustrated, is. 6d. 
 English Literature, A First Sketch of, from the Earliest Period to the Present 
 
 Time. By Prof. HENRY MORLEY. 75. 6d. 
 Euclid, Cassell's. Edited by Prof. WALLACE. M.A. is. 
 Euclid, The First Four Books of. New Edition. In paper, 6d. ; cloth, gd. 
 French, Cassell's Lessons in. New and Revised Edition. Parts I. and II., each, 
 
 as. 6d. ; complete, 45. 6d. Key, is. 6d. 
 French-English and English-French Dictionary. Entirely New and Enlarged 
 
 Edition. 1,150 pages, 8vo, cloth, 3$. 6d. 
 
 French Reader, Cassell's Public School. By GUILLAUME S. CONRAD, as. 6d. 
 Oalbraith and Haughton'a Scientific Manuals. 
 
 Plane Trigonometry, zs. 6d. Ikiclid. Books I.. II.. III. as. fid. Books IV., V., VI. H. 6d. 
 Mathematical Tables. 35. 6d. Mechanics, js. 6d. Natural Philosophy. 31. 6d. Optics. 
 as. 6d. Hydrostatics. . 6d. Steam Enfine. 33. 6d. Algebra. Part 1., cloth, at. id. Com- 
 plete, 75. 6d. Tides and Tidal Currents, with Tidal Cards, 3*. 
 
 Qaudeamua. Songs for Colleges and Schools. Edited by JOHN FARMER. 53. 
 
 Words only, paper, 6d. ; cloth, pd. 
 
 Geometry, First Elements of Experimental. By PAUL BERT. Illustrated, is. 6d. 
 Geometry, Practical Solid. By Major Ross, R.E. 25. 
 German Dictionary, Cassell's New. German-English, English-German. Cheap 
 
 Edition, cloth, js. 6d. ; half-roan, 45. 6d. 
 
 German Reading, First Lessons in. By A. JAGST. Illustrated, is. 
 Hand-and Eye Training. By G. RICKS, B.Sc. Two Vols., with 16 Coloured 
 
 Plates in each Vol. Crown 410, 6s. each. 
 
 "Hand-and-Eye Training" Cards for Class Work. Five sets in case is. each. 
 Historical Cartoons, Cassell's Coloured. Size 45 in. x 35 in. 25. each. Mounted 
 
 on canvas and varnished, with rollers, 55. each. (Descriptive pamphlet, 16 pp., id.) 
 Historical Course (or Schools, Cassell's. Illustrated throughout. I. Stories 
 
 from English History, is. II. The Simple Outline of English History, is. 3d. 
 
 III. The Class History of England, as. 6d. 
 Latin Dictionary, CasselTs New. (Latin-English and English-Latin). Revised 
 
 by J. R. V. MARCHANT, M.A., and J. F. CHARLES, B.A. 35. 6d. 
 Latin Primer, The New. By Prof. J. P. POSTGATE. as. 6d. 
 Latin Primer, The First By Prof. POSTGATE. is. 
 Latin Prose for Lower Forms. By M. A. BAYFIELD, M.A. as. 6d 
 Laundry Work (How to Teach It). By Mrs. E. LORD. 6d.
 
 Selections from Cassell A Company's Publication!. 
 
 Laws' of Every-Day Life. For the Use of Schools. By H. O. ARNOLD-FOKSTER. 
 
 M.P. is. 6d. Special Edition on green paper for those with weak eyesight, as. 
 Little Folks' History ol England. By ISA CRAiG-Ksox. Illustrated, is. 6d. 
 Making of the Home, The. By Mrs. SAMUEL A. BARNETT. is. 6d. 
 Map Building Series, CusselTs. Outline Maps prepared by H. O. ARNOLD- 
 
 FORSTEK, M.P. Per set of 12, is. 
 MarlborOUgh Books: Arithmetic Examples. 3$. Arithmetic Rule*, is. 6d. French 
 
 Exerciae*. js. fid. French Orammar. is. 6d. (iennau Grammar, js. 6d. 
 
 Mechanics for Young Beginners, A First Book of. By the Rev. J. G. EASTON, 
 
 M.A. 45. 6d. 
 
 Mechanics and Machine Design, Numerical Examples In Practical By 
 
 R. G. ELAINE, M.E. With Diagrams. Cloth, zs. 6d. 
 "Model Joint" Wall Sheets, for Instruction in Manual Training. By S. 
 
 BARTBK. Eight Sheets, as. 6d. each. 
 Natural History Coloured Wall Sheets, CasselTs New. Consisting of 18 
 
 subjects. Size, 39 by 31 in. Mounted on rollers and varnished. 35. each. 
 
 Object Lessons from Nature. By Prof. L. C. Mi ALL, F.L.S.. F.G.S. Fully 
 
 Illustrated. Nnu ami Enlarged Edition. Two Vols. is. 6d. each. 
 
 Physiology lor Schools. By ALFRED T. SCHOFIELD, M.D., M.R.C.S., &c. 
 
 With Wood Engravings and Coloured Plates, is. od. Three Parts, paper cover*, 
 
 5d. each ; or cloth limp, 6d. each. 
 
 Poetry Readers, Cassell's New. Illustrated. 12 Books, id. each. Cloth, is. 6d. 
 Popular Educator, Cassell's New. With Revised Text, New Maps, New Coloured 
 
 Plates, New Type, &c. Complete in Eight Vols. 55. each ; or Eight Volumes in 
 
 Four, half-morocco, 505. 
 
 Reader, The Citizen. By H. O. ARNOLD- FORSTER, M.P. Cloth, is. 6dL ; also a 
 
 Scottish Edition, Cloth, is. 6d. 
 
 Reader, The Temperance. By Rev. J. DENNIS HIRD. is. 6d. 
 Readers, Cassells "Higher Class. " (List on application.) 
 Readers, Cassell's Readable. Illustrated. (List on application.) 
 Readers for Infant Schools, Coloured. Three Books. 4d. each. 
 Readers, The Modern Geographical Illustrated throughout. (List on application.) 
 Readers, The Modern School Illustrated. (Lift on application.) 
 Reading and Spelling Book, Cassell's Illustrated, is. 
 Round the Empire. By G. R. PARKIN. With a Preface by the Rt. Hon. the 
 
 Earl of Rosebery, K.G. Fully Illustrated, is. 6d. 
 
 School Certificates, Cassell's. Three Colours, 6^x4^ in., id. ; Five Colours, 
 
 11} * 9l >". 3 d - ' Seven Colours and Gold, 9) x 624 in., 3d. 
 Science Applied to Work. By J. A. BOWKR. Illustrated, is. 
 Science of Every Day Life. By J. A. BOWER. Illustrated, is. 
 Sculpture. A Primer of. By E. ROSCOE MULLINS. Illustrated, as. 6d. 
 Shade from Models, Common Objects, and Casts ol Ornament, How to. By 
 
 W. E. SFAKKBS. With 2$ Plates by the Author. 3*. 
 Shakspere's Plays for School Use. Illustrated. 5 Books. 6d. each. 
 Spelling. A Complete Manual of. By J. D. MORELL, LL. D. is. 
 Technical Educator, Cassell's. Illustrated throughout. New and Revised 
 
 Edition. Four Vols. 5*. each. 
 Technical Manuals, Cassell's. Illustrated throughout. 16 Vols., from 25. to 45. 6d. 
 
 (Littfrtt en application.) 
 
 Technology, Manuals of. Edited by Prof. AYRTON, F.R.S.. and RICHARD 
 WOKMU.L, D.Sc., M.A. Illustrated throughout. 
 
 Th* Dyrin of Textile Fabric*. By Prof. Dei*n In Textile Fabric*. By T. R. A*ha- 
 
 Jloolt It EjTlTlir By D Cluffow 
 teat a( the British Horologkal 
 
 SM 
 
 and Iron. Br Prof. W. H. CrMowood. 
 
 By Prof. Perry, M.E. 
 
 CuulnK TooU Worked by Hand and Ma- 
 
 F.CS-, M.I.C.E., Ac. sv chine. By Proe. binita. js. 60. 
 
 New and Old ; or, Stories from English History. By H. O. ARNOLD* 
 FORSTIB, M.P. Fully Illustrated. Strongly bound in Cloth. Standard* I. and II., 
 od. each ; Standard ill., is. ; Standard IV., is. jd. ; Standards V., VI., and VII , 
 is. 6d. each. 
 World of Ours, This. By H. O. ARNOLD- FORSTER, M.P. Fully Illustrated. 35. 6d.
 
 Selections from Cassell & Company's Publications. 
 
 Uoohs for 
 
 " Little Folks " Half-Yearly Volume. Containing 432 pages of Letterpress, with 
 Hii tures on nearly every page, together with Two Full-page Plates printed in Colours 
 and Four Tinted Plates. Coloured boards, 35. 6d. ; or cloth gilt, gilt edges, 55. 
 
 Bo-Peep. A Book for the Little Ones. With Original Stories and Verses. 
 Illustrated with beautiful Pictures on nearly every page, and Coloured Frontispiece. 
 Yearly Volume. Elegant picture boards, 2S. 6d. ; cloth, 3*. 6d. 
 
 Bashlul Fifteen. By L. 1. MEADK. Illustrated. Cloth gilt 35. 6d., or extra 
 cloth gilt, gilt edges, 55. 
 
 Peep of Day. Cassell's Illustrated Edition. 25. 6d. 
 
 Maggie Steele's Diary. By E. A. DILLWYN. 25. 6d. 
 
 A Bundle of Tales. By MAGGIE BROWNE, SAM BROWNE, & AUNT ETHEL. 3s.6d. 
 
 Fairy Tales in Other Lands. By JULIA GODDARD. Illustrated. 35. 6d. 
 
 Story Poems for Young and Old. By E. DAVENPORT. 35. 6d. 
 
 Pleasant Work for Busy Fingers. By MAGGIE BROWNE. Illustrated. 55. 
 
 Born a King. By FRANCES and MARY ARNOLD-FORSTER. Illustrated, is. 
 
 Magic at Home. By Prof. HOFFMAN. Fully Illustrated. A Series of easy 
 and startling Conjuring Tricks for Beginners. Cloth gilt, 55. 
 
 Schoolroom and Home Theatricals. By ARTHUR WAUGH. With Illustra- 
 tions by H. A. J. MILES. Cloth, 2s. 6d. 
 
 Llttla Mother Bunch. By Mrs. MOLESWORTH. Illustrated. Cloth, 35. 6d. 
 Heroes of Every-Day Life. By LAURA LANE. With about 20 Full-page 
 
 Illustrations. 256 pages, crown 8vo, cloth, as. 6d. 
 
 Ships, Sailors, and the Sea. By R. J. CORNEWALL-JONES. Illustrated 
 
 throughout, and containing a Coloured Plate of Naval Flags. Cheap Edition, 2S. 6d. 
 Gift Books for Young People. By Popular Authors. With Four Original 
 Illustrations in each. Cloth gilt, is. 6d. each. 
 
 The Boy Hunters of Kentucky. By 
 
 Edward S. Ellis. 
 Red Feather: a Tale of the American 
 
 Frontier. By Edward S. Ellis. 
 Fritters ; or, " It's a Long Lane that has 
 
 no Turnini 
 
 nine." 
 , "The 
 
 Trixy; or, "Those who Live in Glass 
 
 Houses shouldn't throw Stones." 
 The Two Hardcastles. 
 Seeking a City. 
 Rhoda's He ward. 
 
 Jack Marston's Anchor. 
 
 Frank's Life-Battle. 
 
 Major Monk's Motto; or, "Look Before 
 
 you Leap." 
 Tim Thomson's Trial; or, " All is not Oold 
 
 that G-litters." 
 Ursula's Stumbling-Block. 
 Ruth's Life- Work; or,"No Pains, no Gains." 
 Rags and Rainbows. 
 Uncle William's Charge. 
 Pretty Pink's Purpose. 
 
 'Golden Mottoes" Series, The. Each Book containing 208 pages, with Four 
 full-page Original Illustrations. Crown Svo, cloth gilt, 25. each. 
 
 " Honour is m 
 
 " Nil Desperandum." By the Rev. F. Lang- 
 bridge, M. A. 
 
 "Bear and Forbear." By Sarah Pitt. "He Conquers who Endures." By the Autho, 
 
 "Foremost if I Can." By Helen Atteridge. 
 
 " Cross and Crown" Series, The. With Four Illustrations in each Book. Crown 
 8vo, 256 pages, 25. 6d. each. 
 
 Diiour is my Guide." By Jeanie Heriiw 
 Mrs. Adams-Acton). 
 " Aim at a Sure End." By Emily Scarchfield. 
 " He Conquers who Endures." By the Authoi 
 I of " May Cunningham's Trial," &c. 
 
 Heroes of the Indian Empire ; or. Stories of 
 Valour and Victory. By Ernest Foster. 
 
 Through Trial to Triumph; or, "The 
 Hoyal Way." By Madeline Bonavia Hunt. 
 
 In Letters of Flame ; A Story of the 
 Waldenses. By C. L. Mateaux. 
 
 Strong to Suffer; A Story of the Jews. By 
 EVWynne. 
 
 By Fire and Sword; a Story of the Hugue- 
 nots. By Thomas Archer. 
 
 Adam Hepburn's Vow ; A Tale of Kirk and 
 Covenant. By Annie S. Swan. 
 
 No. XIII.; or, the Story of the Lost Vestal. 
 A Tale of Early Christian Days. By Emma 
 Marshall 
 
 Freedom's Sword; A Story of the Days of 
 Wallace and Bruce. By Annie S. Swan. 
 
 Five Shilling Books for Young People. With Original Illustrations. Cloth 
 
 gilt, 5s. each. 
 
 Under Bayard's Banner. By Henry Frith. i 
 
 The Champion of Odin ; or, Viking Life Bound by a Spell; or, the Hunted Witch 
 in the Days of Old. By J. Fred. Hodgetts. I t the Forest. By the Hon. Mrs. Greene. 
 
 Albums for Children. Price 35. 6d. each. 
 
 The Chit-Chat Album. Illustrated. I M _ rtom Album nf Anim.t. Tii,, t ,r,..H 
 
 Tue Album for Home. School, and Play. y ra A "> um f Animals. Illustrated. 
 
 Set in bold type, and illustrated throughout. | Picture Album of All Sort*. Illustrated. 
 
 "Wanted a King " Series. Illustrated. 33. 6d. each. 
 
 Robin's Hide. By Ellinor Davenport Adam?. i Wanted a King; or, How Merle set the 
 Great - Grandmamma. By (.eor^ina M. Nursery Rhymes to Rights. By Maggie 
 
 Synge. I Browne.
 
 Selections from Cassell <t Company's Publications. 
 
 Crown 8vo Library. Cheap Editions. 
 
 Rambles Bound London. By C. L. 
 Mateaux. Illustrated. 
 
 Around and About Old England. By C 
 L. MitiMux. Illustrated. 
 
 Paws and Claws. By one of the Authors of 
 " Poems Written for a Child." Illustrated. 
 
 Decisive Events in History. By Thomas 
 Archer. Witli Original Illustrations. 
 
 The True Robinson Crusoes. Cloth gilt. 
 
 Peep* Abroad for Folks at Home. Illus- 
 trated throughout. 
 
 s. 6d. each. 
 
 Wild Adventures in Wild Places. By Dr. 
 Gordon Stables. R.N. Illustrated. 
 
 Modern Explorers. By Thomas Frost. Illus- 
 trated. jVnr and duaftr Edititm. 
 
 Early Explorers. By Thomas Frost. 
 
 Home Chat witn our Young Folks, illus- 
 trated throughout. 
 
 Jungle, Peak, and Plain. Illustrated 
 throughout. 
 
 The England of Shakespeare. By E. 
 Goadby. With Full-page Illustrations. 
 
 Three and Sixpenny Books for Young People. 
 
 Cloth gilt, 35. 6d. each. 
 
 t The King's Command. A Story for Girls. 
 
 By Maggie Symington. 
 
 t A Sweet Girl Graduate. By I,. T. Meade. 
 t The White House at Inch Gow. By Sarah 
 
 With Original Illustrations. 
 
 Pitt. 
 
 Lout in Samoa. A Tale of Adventure in the 
 Narigator Islands. By E. S. fcllis. 
 
 Tad: or, " Getting Even " with Him. By 
 E. S. Ellis. 
 
 t Polly. By L. T. Meade. 
 
 < The Palace Beautiful. By L. T. Meade. 
 
 " Follow my Leader." 
 
 For Fortune and Glory. 
 
 The Cost of a Mistake. By Sarah Pit! 
 
 Lost among White Africans. 
 
 A World of Girls. By L. T. Meade. 
 
 Books marked thus \ can also be had in extra cloth gilt, gilt edges, 55. each. 
 Books by Edward 8. Ellis. Illustrated. Cloth, as. 6d. each. 
 
 The Hunters of the Ozark. 
 Tee Camp in the Moun 
 
 Ned in the Woods. A Tale 
 of Early Days in the West. 
 Down thu Mississippi. 
 
 Sixpenny Story Books. 
 
 The Smuggler's Cave. 
 Little Lime. 
 The Boat Club. 
 Luke Barnicott. 
 
 The Last War Trail. 
 Ned on the River. A Tale 
 
 of Indian River Warfare. 
 Footprint* in the Forest. 
 Up the Tapajos. 
 
 Ned in the Block House. 
 
 A Story of Pioneer Life in 
 
 Kentucky. 
 The Lost Trail. 
 Camp-Fire and Wigwam. 
 Lost in the Wilds. 
 
 By well-known Writers. All Illustrated. 
 
 My First Cruise. 
 
 The Little Peacemaker. 
 
 Little Bird. 
 Little Pickles. 
 The Elchester College 
 Boys. 
 
 The Delft Jug. 
 
 Cassell's Picture Story Books. Each containing 60 pages. 6d. each. 
 
 Little Talks. 
 Bright Stars. 
 Nursery Joys. 
 Pet's Posy. 
 Tiny Tales. 
 
 Daisy's Story Book. 
 Dot's Story Book. 
 A Nest of Stories. 
 Good Night Stories. 
 Chats for Small Chatterers. 
 
 Auntie's Stories. 
 Birdie's Story Book. 
 Little Chimes. 
 A Sheaf of Tales. 
 Dewdrop Stones. 
 
 Illustrated Books for the Little Ones. Containing interesting Stories. All 
 Illustrated, is. each; or cloth gilt, is. 6d. 
 Dumb Friends. 
 Indoors and Out. 
 Some Farm Friends. 
 Those Golden Sands. 
 Little Mothers and their 
 
 Firelight Stories. 
 Sunlight and Shade. 
 Rub a-dub Tales. 
 Fine Feathers and FlulTy 
 
 Fur. 
 
 Scrambles and Scrapes. 
 Tittle Tattle Tales. 
 
 Children. 
 Our Pretty PeU. 
 Wandering Ways. 
 
 Our Schoolday Hours. 
 Creatures Tame. 
 Creatures Wild. 
 
 . 
 
 Up and Down the Garden. 
 H 
 
 Sort* of Adventure*. 
 Our Sunday Stones. 
 Our Holiday Hours. 
 
 Shilling Story Books. All Illustrated, and containing Interesting Stories. 
 Seventeen Cats. The Cuckoo in the Robin's 
 
 Bunty and the Boys. John's Mistake. [Nest. 
 
 The Heir of Elmdale. Diamonds in the Sand. 
 
 The Mystery at Shonoliff Surly Bob. [ Clever FrankT 
 
 School. The History of Five Little ! Among the Redskins. 
 
 The Ferryman of BrilL 
 
 . 
 
 Claimed at Last, and Roy's 
 Reward. 
 
 Thorns and Tangles. 
 
 Aunt Lucia's Locket. 
 The Magic Mirror. 
 
 The Giant's Cradle. 
 Shag and DoU. 
 
 . 
 
 A Banished Monarch 
 
 Elghteenpenny Story Books. All Illustrated throughout. 
 
 M Willie Winkle. 
 Up and Downs of a Don- 
 key's Life. 
 
 Three Wee Ulster Laaaies. 
 Up the Ladder. 
 Dick's Hero ; * other Stones. 
 The Chip Boy. 
 
 Raggles, Baggies, and the 
 
 Emperor. 
 
 Roees from Thorns. 
 Faith's Father. 
 By Land and Sea. 
 The Young Berrmgtons. 
 Jeff and Leff. 
 
 Tom Morris's Brror. 
 Worth more than Gold. 
 
 Through Flood-Through 
 
 Kin*." 
 The Girl with the Golden 
 
 Looks. 
 Stories of the Olden Time.
 
 Selections from CasseU <t Company's Publications. 
 
 "Little Folks" Painting Books. With Text, and Outline Illustrations for 
 
 Water-Colour Painting, is. each. 
 Fruits and Blossoms for " Little Folks " 
 to Faint. 
 
 The "Little Polks' 
 
 I The "Little Folks" 
 Book. Cloth only, as. 
 Illuminating Book. 
 
 Proverb Painting 
 
 Library of Wonders. Illustrated Gift-books for Boys. Cloth, is. 6d. 
 
 Wonderful Adventures. I Wonders of Bodily Strength and Skill. 
 I Wonderful Escapes. 
 
 The " World in Pictures " Series. Illustrated throughout. 25. 6d. each. 
 
 A Ramble Round France. 
 
 All the Russias. 
 
 Chats about Germany. 
 
 The Land of the Pyramids (Egypt). 
 
 Peeps into China. 
 
 The Eastern Wonderland (Japan). 
 Glimpses of South America. 
 Bound Africa. 
 
 The Land of Temples (India). 
 The Isles of the Pacific. 
 
 Cheap Editions of Popular Volumes for Young People. Illustrated. 2s. 6d. 
 
 each. 
 In Quest of Gold: or, TJnder 
 
 the Whanea Falls. 
 On Board the Esmeralfta ; or, 
 
 Martin Leigh's Log. 
 
 The Romance of Invention : 
 Vignettes from the Annals of 
 Industry and Science. 
 
 Esther West 
 
 Threo Homes 
 
 For Queen and King. 
 Working to Win. 
 Perils Afloat and Brigands 
 Ashore. 
 
 Two-Shilling Story Books. All Illustrated. 
 
 Stories of the Tower. 
 Mr. Burke's Nieces. 
 May Cunningham's TriaL 
 The Top of the Ladder : 
 
 How to Reach it. 
 Little Flotsam. 
 Madge and her Friends. 
 
 Half-crown Story Books. 
 
 The Children of the Court. 
 A Moonbeam Tangle. 
 Maid Marjory. 
 The Four Cats of the Tip- 
 
 pertons. 
 
 Marion's Two Homes. 
 Little Folks' Sunday Book. 
 
 Two Fourpenny Bits. 
 
 Poor Nelly. 
 
 Tom Heriot. 
 
 Aunt Tabitha's Waifs. 
 
 In Mischief Again. 
 
 Through Peril to Fortune. 
 
 Peggy, and other Tales. 
 
 Margaret's Enemy. 
 
 Pen's Perplexities. 
 
 Notable Shipwrecks. 
 
 Golden Days. 
 
 Wonders of Common Things. 
 
 At the South Pole. 
 
 Truth will Out. 
 
 Pictures of School Life and Boyhood. 
 
 The Young Man in the Battle of Life. By 
 
 the Rer. Dr. Landels. 
 Soldier and Patriot (George Washington). 
 
 CasseU's Pictorial Scrap Book. 
 
 cloth back, 35. 6d. per Vol. 
 Our Scrap Book. 
 The Seaside Scrap Book. 
 The Little Folks' Scrap Book. 
 
 Books for the Little Ones. Fully Illustrated. 
 
 In Six Sectional Volumes. Paper boards, 
 
 I The Magpie Scrap Book. 
 The Lion Scrap Book. 
 Ihe Elephant Scrap Book. 
 
 Khymes for the Young Folk. By William 
 
 Allingham. Beautifully Illustrated. 35. 6d. 
 The Sunday Scrap Book. With Sereral 
 
 Hundred Illustrations. Boards, 33. 6d. ; cloth, 
 
 gilt edges, 5*. 
 The History Scrap Book. With nearly 
 
 1,000 Engravings. Cloth, 75. 6d. 
 CaseeU's Robinson Crusoe. With 100 
 
 Illustrations. Cfoth, 35. 6d. ; gilt edges, 55. 
 
 The Old Fairy Tales. With Original Illus- 
 trations. Boards, is. ; cloth, is. 6d. 
 
 My Diary. With Twelve Coloured Plates and 
 366 Woodcuts, is. 
 
 The Pilgrim's Progress. With Coloured 
 Illustrations, is. 6d. 
 
 Cassell's Swiss Family Robinson. Illus- 
 trated. Cloth, 35. 6d. ; gilt edges, 55. 
 
 The World's Workers. A Series of New and Original Volumes by Popular 
 Authors. With Portraits printed on a tint as Frontispiece, is. each. 
 
 Charles Haddon Spurgeon. By G. Holden 
 
 Pika. 
 
 Dr. Arnold of Rugby. By Rose E. Selfe, 
 The Earl of Shaftesbury. 
 Sarah Robinson, Agnes Weston, and Mrs. 
 
 Meredith. 
 Thomas A. Edison and Samuel F. B. 
 
 Morse. 
 
 Mrs. Somerville and Mary Carpenter. 
 Oeneral Gordon. 
 Charles Dickens. 
 i'iorence Nightingale, Catherine Marsh. 
 
 Frances Ridley Havergal, Mrs. Rau- 
 
 yard ("L. N. R."). 
 
 Dr. Quthrie, Father Mathew, Elihu Bur- 
 
 ritt, Joseph Livesey. 
 Sir Henry Havelock and Colin Campbell 
 
 Lord Clyde. 
 Abraham Lincoln. 
 David Livingstone. 
 George Muller and Andrew Rood. 
 Richard Cobden. 
 Benjamin Franklin. 
 HandeL 
 
 Turner the Artist. 
 George and Robert Stephenson. 
 Sir Titus Salt and George Moore. 
 
 7Vi< abm Works (txclHdine Richard Cobden and C. H. Spurgeon) can 
 On* yl., fifth, fUt ta ts, 31. 
 
 alto In had Thru in 
 
 CASSELL & COMPANY, Limitea, Ludgatc Hill, London; 
 Paris <k Melbourne.
 
 CENTRAL UNIVERSITY LIBRA 
 University of California, San D 
 
 DATE DUE 
 
 FEB 101977 
 
 000713055 2